Conditions looked bad in Montana 38 years ago as the self-proclaimed Eclipse Capital of the World braced for two-and-a-half minutes of mid-day darkness.

The weather forecast called for clouds up to 15,000 feet across much of the state on Feb. 26, 1979, especially in the path of the moons shadow. A caravan of buses hauling 500 well-heeled eclipse watchers was roaming around Big Sky, trying to find the sky. National news crews were buying parkas to endure the 10-degree chill in Lewistown, where town boosters were tussling with Helenas over the capital claim. At Snowbowl Ski Area, watchers chanted "Clear skies, clear skies."

Recently elected Missoula County Justice of the Peace Janet Jensen (now Donohue) was going to start her day with a courthouse lawn wedding.

I was fairly new at the time, and I didnt have the vows memorized, Donohue said. As Roger Holt and Kathrine Roach pledged their troth at 9:22 a.m., the totality hit its peak and the JP pulled a flashlight out of her robe sleeve to read the script.

It was an eerie sensation to have that happen, Donohue recalled. Then I told them it was time for the exchange of rings, and they said, Theyre in our ears already. That kind of completed the strangeness.

Meanwhile, a team of ambitious teen reporters from the Hellgate Lance student newspaper had their own plan for beating the cloud cover. Katie Richards was one.

That year I was writing a column for the Lance about the eclipse, Richards recounted from her present home in Maryland. We rented a four-person airplane out of Hamilton. It cost each of us $17  $51 to rent a pilot for an hour. It was simultaneously very cool and very terrifying.

Weather forecasters declared it would take a jet to get above the haze, betting on a 10 percent chance of getting a good view. But then western Montana caught a break. The cloud front thinned out just as it crossed the Idaho border. That didnt make Richards' flight any easier. The wings on her plane shook, and the altitude made her ears stuff up painfully.

The pilot gave me a stick of gum to pop my ears, but it didnt work, Richards said. So he just did a nosedive and my ears popped. I was so scared. But he got us above the clouds. We looked at it with four layers of film negatives, like they told you not to do. Then we all went off for pancakes.

Hellgate High School science teacher Norm Jacobson borrowed several sets of welding goggles from a shop class for his students on eclipse morning.

I was teaching earth science at the time, and this fit right in, Jacobson recalled. We did a lesson on how the paths of the earth and moon revolving around the sun are not perfectly level. They revolve at angles and when the angles are just right between the sun, moon and earth, we get the shadows of the eclipse. My class was out on Eddy Street. The big thing I remember was the lights on the street on Eddy went on.

But Jacobsons class was an anomaly. The Friday before, school principals across Missoula made it clear that all students were to remain indoors during the eclipse unless part of a planned science class, to avoid eye damage. But one big wrinkle developed in the policy.

That year, Missoulas high school district was using the partially completed Big Sky High School to relieve crowding at Hellgate and Sentinel by holding freshman math and English classes there. That meant shuttle buses were running back and forth between the campuses all morning. The eclipse started just as a load of Hellgate freshmen arrived in the Big Sky parking lot.

Teachers stood in doorways, urging the students to hurry inside. But as the dusky shadow raced across the ground, all semblance of command and control collapsed. Everyone milled around, watching the moon slide over the disc of the sun.

The foggy haze was just thick enough to allow looking at the sun with the naked eye  too dense for anyone whod brought their over-exposed X-ray film or other improvised eye protection to see anything. While staring at the sun is NOT recommended or excused, thats what everyone in the parking lot did.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Missoulas 1979 eclipse was the sound. There wasnt any. Cars stopped. Birds ceased singing. The crowd of students and teachers shouted, then muttered, and then fell silent as the darkness intensified.
LOLO  Bob, Matt and Baby piled out of the truck as soon as it stopped. Bob and Matt moved with urgency to unhitch the light flatbed trailer and Baby, their dog, sprinted around sniffing and rolling in the dirt.

Bob and Matt were up in the Lolo Creek area moving Bobs mother Judy out of her rented home.

We were just gonna get out the shed today, Bob said as he and Matt shifted and lifted dressers, mattresses and an entire metal shed, and tomorrow we were gonna move.

But we had to move everything out today.

The Lolo Peak fire, moved by an aggressive thunder cell late Saturday night, expanded to threaten 160 homes in the Lolo Creek area. Bob and Matt are just a few of the many people who were making their way in and out of the area as family and friends helped residents evacuate.

Sheriff's deputies and Forest Service firefighters were knocking on doors as well after the evacuation order went out Sunday morning for residents of the Highway corridor from mile marker 20 at Bear Creek to Fort Fizzle on both sides of the highway. The 160 homes threatened by the fire in the morning had grown to 300 in some level of danger by Sunday afternoon.

The evacuation order requested that those evacuating place their names on a list, checking in at Ropers Lounge on Highway 12. People were flowing in and out of the store all day, speaking with yellow-shirted public information officers as trailers and trucks drove in and out of the roadblock the Sheriffs Office had placed right by Travelers Rest.

Judy Oliver was one of the residents who came through Travelers Rest Sunday, evacuating for the second time in five years from her home in the area.

We got the pre-evacuation notice two weeks ago, so this wasnt a surprise, Oliver said. Its not the first time weve done this.

Oliver got the evacuation call at 11 a.m., so Brandon Norton, Kristi Norton and Kimberly Thunstrom made their way up to Lolo Creek to help her move some of the important sentimental items she still had in the house.

Brandon Norton said that the creek looked like a war zone with all of the firefighting equipment around.

We got everything with family value that was not replaceable, Oliver said. Brandon chimed in with a laugh, We grabbed all the beer in the fridge too.

***

The Red Cross has opened a shelter at the Florence-Carlton Community Church at 20075 old U.S. Highway 93. For animal sheltering, call Animal Control at 541-7387 and leave a message.

A community fire information briefing is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. in the Lolo School's upper gym. Fire managers will provide an update about fire operations and predicted weather.

Later Sunday, an evacuation warning was issued for Fort Fizzle to Balsam Root Road on both sides of Highway 12, as well as portions of Morman Creek Road past and including Vann Drive. Residents in this area may be required to immediately evacuate in the future.

***

Rice Ridge fire: Even with a red flag warning in place, fire activity on the Rice Ridge fire near Seeley Lake was slower than expected during the first half of the weekend. Crews are working to complete fire lines on the southeast and west parts of the fire, and wrapped up fuel mitigation efforts along Cottonwood Lakes Road.

Firefighters are planning to take advantage of the lower fire activity to use heavy equipment to reinforce indirect fire lines. One of the engines working on the fire was involved in a single-vehicle rollover accident on Sunday morning where one person had to be transported to the hospital.

A community meeting about the fire will be held Monday at 6 p.m. at Seeley Lake Elementary. The meeting will also be streamed live on the Lolo National Forest Facebook page.

Liberty fire: An infrared flyover Saturday night put the Liberty fire southeast of Arlee at just under 5,000 acres. Crews have finished 90 percent of the fire line around the blaze, controlling the spread on Saturday with helicopter water drops. The fire is expected to grow toward existing confinement lines where firefighters believe it can be held, adding that smoke from increased fire lines will likely be visible to the surrounding area.

Sunrise fire: Crews are patrolling for new spot fires, monitoring the fires south edge as it advances near Quartz Creek Road and securing fire perimeter around Sunrise, Quartz Flats, Cougar Flats and the Verde Creek areas. Verde Creek will be downgraded to Stage I evacuation restrictions on Monday.

Meyers fire: At 13,700 acres by Sunday morning, the fire had limited activity, primarily to the north and west on Saturday, and has a new Type 2 incident management team in place. Growth potential for the blaze remains high, but firefighters have identified places to control it with aerial drops and burnouts should the fire start to spread rapidly, and have already finished three-quarters of the control line around the fire.

There were no significant changes to the Sapphire Complex fires. There is a public meeting scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m. at Lincoln County High School in Eureka concerning the Gibralter Ridge fire.

Dillon Kato contributed to this story.
Its hard to believe that, given majority control of both chambers of Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court  and all the statewide offices in Montana except two  the Republican Party still cant enact its agenda. But the reality is theyre in total chaos characterized by savage in-fighting, crazy decisions, and being so distracted they appear incapable of even maintaining the state and nation, let alone making us great again.

President Trump is rattling the world with his threats of unleashing fire and fury on North Korea  a move that would result in the deaths of millions of people throughout the region and radioactive poisoning of the air and water for the rest of the planet.

Apparently our science-challenged president cant comprehend that we all share and breathe the same atmosphere and there is no border wall that will keep radiation released by destroying North Koreas nuclear facilities from American shores and skies. Perhaps, cossetted in one of his towers, he never heard of the radiation that has already traveled to West Coast from Japans Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown. And that was just one reactor. If our unhinged president actually launches his threatened attack on North Korea, it will release so much radiation from destroyed nuclear reactors, bombs and stockpiles, it will dwarf the damage done by Fukushima.

Of course his locked and loaded military threats serve to provide a dramatic diversion from the ongoing Russia investigations of Trump, his family, friends and political appointees. But diversions are merely sideshows to the very real and serious business of running a nation with more than 325 million people, meeting their most pressing needs, and assuring a brighter future for them, their children and grandchildren.

But the Republicans will have their backs against the wall when Congress returns from its August recess, since it will face a daunting series of challenges including raising the debt ceiling and hammering out a budget in about two weeks before the nation risks default. If that wasnt bad enough, the U.S. Postal Service announced late last week it would not be able to come up with $6.9 billion  less than four days worth of military spending  by October to pay for future retiree health and pension benefits as required by law and may have to disrupt day-to-day mail delivery. But apparently while Trump is busy whacking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about the head and shoulders and suggesting he retire, issues like delivering the mail take a back seat to the ever more heated rhetoric pouring out of the White House these days.

Closer to home, Montana has its own unhinged Republican in Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, who continues to insist theres massive voter fraud here. Meanwhile, hes also claiming theres some threatening connection between states that have legalized recreational marijuana and mail-in ballots, saying in February: If you look at the three states that have done it, you can see that populism and direct democracy at its best, all three states, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, they do all mail-in ballots and theyre all-marijuana-all-the-time states too. Is that what you want? Because thats what youre going to get. Really? And here we thought we were just mailing in our votes.

If this is the best Republicans can do, theyre going to have a very tough time come mid-term elections next year. Reckless threats, fantasy voter fraud and a complete lack of achievement isnt governance  its incompetence, plain and simple, and to their peril a majority of Americans now recognize it for exactly that.
I started my military career shortly after President Obama made the long overdue decision to repeal the militarys "Dont ask, dont tell" policy.

In training, I stood alongside gay peers serving openly for the first time in United States history.

Kicking "Dont ask, dont tell" to the curb didnt hurt the military  it made it a hell of a lot better.

Some of the sharpest judge advocates I trained and served with were gay. I worked alongside top-notch first sergeants who were gay. I served under a commander in Afghanistan who was gay.

It was mind boggling to look at the yet-to-be-updated Manual for Courts-Martial hard copy and be reminded that just a few short years ago, those peers could be prosecuted just for being who they were.

It was long overdue, but the change happened  and it went off without a hitch.

Fast forward four years: Progress continued right through to the conclusion of my military service this summer, when one of the final trainings I sat through as an officer was transgender awareness training.

The training was professional, succinct and well organized  the product of thoughtful research and planning.

In my final days of active duty service, I realized the military was actually out front  laying progressive groundwork for other sectors of society to follow.

I couldnt have been more proud to be a part of it.

But that feeling came crashing down two weeks ago, in just one tweet:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. 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."

Shaking, I re-read President Trumps tweet, and in that moment, I was transported to my life one year before.

I remembered how I felt when I stepped into the TSA line at the Atlanta airport. I remembered my spouse holding our 6-month-old baby girl, and my naive, cheesy little 2-year-old boy standing at her side at the terminal with a beaming smile shouting and waving, Bye, bye daddy! over, and over, and over again.

It was the lowest moment of my life.

Afghanistan deployment was hard, but tolerable  and a big reason it was tolerable was I never doubted my support down range or back home  from my family, my friends, my peers, my co-workers, my leadership and my country.

The support is what made the misery tolerable  which is why I started shaking when I read the presidents tweet two weeks ago.

I simply could not imagine sitting in my Afghanistan dorm room, alone in a combat zone, half a world away from everyone I love, checking my Twitter feed, and reading that I have been banned from the military.

No justification given, no citation of what I did wrong  just banned, by my commander-in-chief.

But thats exactly what thousands of my brothers and sisters in the service went through two weeks ago.

What exactly their future holds, we dont know.

But heres the thing about LGBTQ military members: For decades, theyve been disparaged, theyve been forced in the closet, and theyve been prosecuted, but none of that stopped them.

They serve anyway.

Just think about that for a moment. The organization they serve has at times been openly hostile toward them  and they serve anyway.

Talk about commitment to country, to the Constitution.

A morning tantrum tweet wont change that.
If youre looking for a place where you can study, work or have a conversation with friends while sipping a cappuccino or a good ol fashioned cup of joe, Matthew Haynes of Oro Fino Coffee says hes got you covered.

Recently the Butte native opened the Uptown coffee shop on the first floor of the Phoenix Building, 68 W. Park, home of the arts organization Imagine Butte Resource Center and its Foreground art gallery, among other organizations.

Haynes is serving java from Revel Coffee Billings, which he said he chose because the company doesnt over roast the beans and offers a complexity of flavor.

It seems fitting that Haynes decided to open his business in what some would call a hub of cultural activity in Butte.

With a bachelors in English, a masters in fiction writing and masters of fine arts in creative non-fiction, Haynes himself is an artist.

Despite an impressive resume, the Butte native said he comes from a humble background.

We were a large family, working class, said Haynes, describing his childhood. My dad was employed at the Pit, through the Anaconda Company, and when he was laid off that was kind of it ... We werent raised necessarily thinking about higher education.

Despite having an affinity for Montana, after high school Haynes found himself wanting something more. He wanted new experiences and to live in a place where he could take part in the arts. He applied for and was awarded a full-ride scholarship, which took him to Boise State University for his undergraduate degree.

Haynes said it was an essay about his mother, a Hawaiian native, that landed him the scholarship.

(The essay) was just about the racism (in Hawaii) at the time and how no one in my family had really gone to school, said Haynes. It became important to me to have this education and to see what I could with myself."

Haynes  who went on to teach at Boise State, the College of Western Idaho and Montana Tech  said working and studying at coffee shops is part of the inspiration behind Oro Fino.

He described coffee shops as a place where you read, you highlighted, a social centerpiece where people make connections, have conversations and generate ideas.

It's just building community, say Haynes, adding that he hopes Oro Fino will introduce people to the IBRC  where now, thanks to the coffee shop, passersby can come in off the street and drink coffee as they look at art.

The Montana Standard pointed out that coffee shops have a long history of functioning as social spaces. Incidentally some of the first recorded mentions of coffee houses go back to the 1400s in Turkey.

Haynes agreed.

Conversation promotes thought  its what we do in classrooms, the Butte native said. Coffee furthers that. It becomes conversation.
DEER LODGE  A Deer Lodge man pleaded guilty in district court this week to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent.

Anthony Rowe, 20, admitted that in 2014-15, he had sex with a 15-year-old girl, acknowledging that at the time he was aware of her age and knew she was too young to give consent. A child was born as a result of his actions, according to court documents.

Judge Ray Dayton ordered a pre-sentence investigation and psycho-sexual evaluation.

According to the court records, between November 2014 and January 2015, Rowe and the victim would hang out in her home when her parents were not there.

Rowe was incarcerated in a sexual treatment facility in Idaho in 2016 for sexual assault of a 13-year-old. Last year, the State of Montana received reports that he was failing treatment because he was not engaged in and was deceitful during treatment.

He is in jail pending sentencing.
Some fishing restrictions lifted on rivers

With nights getting longer and cooler, a couple of sections of rivers in southwest Montana have met the criteria for lifting fishing restrictions.

Effective immediately, the following sections of rivers (previously under "hoot owl restrictions") are open to fishing daily:

 Big Hole River from Saginaw Bridge on Skinner Meadows Road to the mouth of the North Fork Big Hole River

 Lower Beaverhead River from Anderson Lane to confluence with Big Hole River

For up-to-date information on restrictions related to drought, visit fwp.mt.gov/news/restrictions.

Dinner for veterans Wednesday

American Legion Post #1 and auxiliary will have their monthly dinner Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the Legion Hall on Motor View Road. A summer picnic dinner is planned, serving hamburgers, hot dogs, and the fixings. The auxiliary will prepare desserts.

The cost is $6. Hall opens at 6 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6:30. A short meeting will be held after the dinner.

'17 Voices' honors centennial of 1917

The Ballroom Players will present "17 Voices," a theatrical and musical collaboration of some of Montana's finest writers and local Butte performers, honoring the centennial of 1917.

There will be two performances  at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, and a matinee performance at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Clark Chateau, 321 W. Broadway St. Suggested donation is $10.

The event features original monologues and songs written by David Abrams, Anastasia Bartsch, Cassidy Duddy, Susan Dunlap, Fred Giacomino, Rebecca Gonshak, Sid Gustafson, Matthew Haynes, Al James, Adrian Kien, Milana Marsenich, Megan McNamer, Virginia Reeves, Russell Rowland, and Callison Stratton.

"17 Voices" explores 1917 through the lens of the people on the outside of history: the mothers and daughters, the unnamed miners and soldiers, even the horses in the mines. Local actors bring these voices to life in this special commemorative event, sponsored by a SARTA grant. An accompanying book will also be for sale, including literary versions of each monologue.

Ladies AOH picnic Aug. 21

ANACONDA  Due to the forest fire smoke, the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians will have their picnic indoors at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21, at the AOH hall.

Members are asked to bring an entree to cook and utensils for dinner. The cost is $5. Hostesses are Rona McOmber, Linda Corcoran, Trudy Sturm, Kathy Swanson, and Ann Caulfield.

Old Time Fiddlers play Sunday

VIRGINIA CITY  The Montana Old Time Fiddlers will be jammin' in their debut performance from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, at the Bale of Hay Saloon in Virginia City. The program is free, and dancing is encouraged. Guitar, mandolin, and banjo players are also welcome to participate in the jam.

The Montana Old Time Fiddlers are dedicated to the preservation of old time fiddle music in Montana's cultural environment and providing educational and performance opportunities for all. Details: Dave, 406-685-3481.

Animal Control impounds listed

These animals have been picked up by Butte Animal Control. If you think one of the following animals is yours, please call Chelsea Bailey Butte-Silver Bow Animal Shelter at 406-497-6528 or stop by between 1 and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Dog:

 One-year-old male husky, black and white, picked up Sunday on Coyote Lane

Chicken:

 Adult Americana hen, picked up Thursday on the 2500 block of South Main

Cat:

 One-year-old female gray and white tabby, shorthaired, extra toes, picked up Aug. 8 on 100 block of Hobson
LOLO  The large plume and torching trees are readily visible from Highway 12 up the Mill Creek drainage, but while the Lolo Peak fires movement triggered evacuations Sunday, it didnt blow up as expected Sunday night.

Still, after a two-mile run in about an hour Saturday night, fire managers remain concerned about possible unexpected moves and kept the evacuation order in place Monday for about 165 residences, with another 140 homes on an evacuation warning.

At a 6 a.m. fire briefing on Monday, Incident Manager Noel Livingston compared the Lolo Peak fire to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, and urged firefighters to be quick, adaptable and flexible like the boxer.

Yesterday, we figured a big change was coming and  we got in place expecting wind, Livingston told about 100 firefighters gathered in a Florence school gymnasium Monday morning. It sat there, due to the weather. I suspect today this will do something we dont expect it will do, so we have to think, How will I adapt? How will I adjust?

At a community meeting Monday night, Livingston apologized to those forced out of their homes, saying they understand the difficulties in being displaced and thanking them for their patience.

We are thinking about you, and trying to get you back in your homes, he said.

Homemade signs line Highway 12 and in Lolo, lauding the firefighting efforts and thanking them for their work.

But not everyone left. Dave Swartz and neighbors Mark, Kim and Jake Marr stood in the shade of a ponderosa pine Monday afternoon off of Mill Creek Road, watching the plume rise to the south of their homes. Theyve worked on creating defensible space around their structures, and have sprinklers and a flatbed truck with a tank on it to pump water if the flames should reach their homes.

They appreciate the firefighters efforts. But theyre dubious about the top fire officials management efforts of the Lolo Peak fire, and questioned Public Information Officer Bill Queen as to why the fire wasnt put out when it was first discovered July 15 after a lightning storm.

They pulled the gloves off before they even got in the ring, Swartz said. The fire lines are clear down to houses, and theyre not good fire lines. The wind was blowing back on the fire for 11 days, and they had a lot of opportunity to put it out.

What is their logic? Theyre going to let it all burn, everything burn right to their containment line.

Queen noted that since the Lolo Peak fire began, fire managers said they couldnt do a direct attack because it was in steep, rugged terrain that was difficult to reach and too dangerous for firefighters. The hazards of firefighting were underscored when California Hotshot Brent Witham died on Aug. 2 when felling a tree to prepare a fire line for burnout operations.

Fire managers are using bulldozers and other heavy machinery to either widen existing old dirt roads or create new firebreaks. Theyve had underbrush cleared even farther from the upper sides of the firebreaks. Hose lines with sprinklers every 100 feet or so lie alongside them.

Along with the day shifts, night crews are patrolling the area, and are working with state and local firefighting agencies, as well as private contractors, to ensure the safety of structures.

Theyve also burned off fuels in areas where they expect the fire to make a run, in order to lessen the intensity when it does come off the mountainside.

But Swartz and the Marr family are still frustrated with the waiting game.

They didnt put any dozer lines on the ridges  as you know, thats the best place to stop this fire, Swartz said. I understand firefighter safety, but you have to put people on the fire.

Im tired of the smoke and Im tired of the fire. I think there needs to be more accountability.

Like an unwanted summer guest, however, the smoke and the fire probably are sticking around for the rest of the summer, Livingston told the crowd Monday night. He said theyve been flying the heck out of the helicopters in the past few weeks to drop water and retardant on the fire lines to slow down or direct the flames movements  about 690,000 gallons of retardant and 90,000 to 100,000 gallons of water, with 370 hours of flight time.

And he told the crowd that while the fire was sitting relatively quietly Monday, compared to the big run Saturday night, that they arent out of the woods by any means. It currently sits at 10,147 acres, with about 500 personnel working on it.

The potential for this to run east toward the valley remains high. We will do everything we can to stop it, but the potential remains, he said. Unless this fire decides to park it on a hillside, we will be living with this through August and probably September."

The Red Cross has opened a shelter at the Florence-Carlton Community Church at 20075 Old U.S. Highway 93 for evacuees. People who leave their homes are allowed to return for necessities like medications, but Brian Watson, a public safety liaison with Livingstons team, said he cant guarantee once people leave their homes in the area under evacuation orders that theyll be allowed to return.

Were trying to accommodate people when it is a legitimate reason, but we still need to maintain some control over who gets in and out, Watson said, adding that they want to ensure that no one is breaking into the evacuees homes. In many cases we are escorting people in and out for the security of those we did evacuate.

The Montana Department of Transportation temporarily closed Highway 12, but now is using pilot cars to allow people to travel between Idaho and Montana.
When a drug-sniffing dog found marijuana in a high school student's car in southwestern Montana, it started a statewide discussion on how much power school districts have to conduct random drug sweeps.

Still, Helena Public Schools has no plans to back away from its policy calling for widespread searches, even though their legality may be in question.

During a random search at Florence Carlton in December 2015, a drug dog alerted to a students car. The student consented to a vehicle search that revealed approximately five grams of marijuana and two pipes. Although precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court says students have a reduced expectation of privacy when theyre at school, the Ravalli County judge said schools need to have information that a particular student is in possession of drugs or the school has to have a significant drug problem to warrant the search. Haynes ruled the school did not have sufficient evidence to believe either was true.

The order only applies to Ravalli County, but the case could have statewide implications if considered by the Montana Supreme Court. The attorney generals office originally appealed the ruling, but withdrew it voluntarily. Instead, the office issued an advisory letter to Elizabeth Kaleva, an attorney representing several area school districts, saying every high school could have a significant drug problem. The letter cites a 2012 survey by the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse that says 44 percent of students know someone who sold drugs at their school.

Our dismissal of the states appeal does not imply or suggest the Ravalli County District Court opinion can or should have any lasting consequences to future random drug dog sweeps in public schools in Ravalli County or in any other county in Montana, the letter says.

Helena is in the process of making its policy more detailed and thorough, but will continue conducting widespread searches. After a July board meeting, a representative of the ACLU gave recommendations during the public comment section, and the policy was sent back to a committee for further consideration.

The board will take a final vote on Tuesday, but its unclear if the district is likely to face a lawsuit for continuing widespread searches and not including language the ACLU says would help avoid Fourth Amendment violations. Kaleva, who also represents Helena Public Schools, said she thought a smaller school could have trouble providing evidence of a widespread drug problem, but didnt think the high schools in Helena would have the same issue if challenged.

To comply with guidelines issued by the Attorney Generals Office, the Helena school districts policy is specific on what can be searched, and includes a definition of reasonable suspicion and how searches are conducted.

The district will still perform random drugs searches with canines using a company called Interquest Canines.

SK Rossi, director of advocacy and policy at ACLU Montana, recommended that the board discontinue policies that allow for searches without reasonable suspicion.

I think it is very irresponsible and unsafe and an invasion of privacy for an administration to just assume there is always a drug problem on their campus, Rossi said.

During the July board meeting, the principals from both high schools spoke about performing canine searches in their schools. Capital High School has had no citations in the past four years, while Helena High School has had a handful.

We havent really found anything, which could tell you two things, Upham said. One, students know that, and they dont bring them, or they keep them on their person.

While school officials say the searches are deterrents and the attorney general says all schools have reason to believe theres a drug problem, Rossi doesnt think a court would agree those arguments are sufficient reasons to limit student privacy.

We disagree with the AG on their assessment for when its appropriate to do widespread searches, Rossi said. School districts would be wise to pay attention to that Ravalli County decision. Schools shouldnt be allowed to do drug sweeps of parking lots for no other reason than this is routine. Something being routine does not give you reasonable suspicion. I think most courts would agree if it were challenged.

Rossi said schools are less likely to face a lawsuit if they include both reasonable suspicion and individualized suspicion in their policies. Reasonable suspicion, for example, would require the school to have some sort of evidence that theres drug activity in school before conducting a search. Individualized suspicion requires the school to have information that a particular student or particular group of students are in possession of drugs. If someone told a school official another student has beer in their car, its both reasonable and individualized suspicion. But Rossi said a widespread situation doesnt qualify.

Saying, I smelled marijuana in the parking lot so Im going to search the entire school, is what I view as a Fourth Amendment violation, Rossi said.

Only one board member, Sanjay Talwani, took issue with the ethics of conducting searches at school based on a presumption that all schools have widespread drug problems.

You just have to say theres a big drug problem, Talwani said. I still see a problem and its possibly not very effective either.

But administrators say the searches are intended to keep schools safe and dont have a goal to violate student privacy. Upham said schools are up-front with students about the possibility of searches and dont view the search as a success if a dog alerts on multiple cars and students are issued citations as punishment.

Upham said the goal is to build a culture of trust where students feel comfortable reporting illegal behavior to school officials and officials prioritize student safety instead of targeting students or looking for citations to give. For example, possession of tobacco on school property is a handbook violation, regardless of whether the student is of legal age. Instead of punishing a student, administrators will throw away the tobacco product and generally notify a parent.

Were not dealing with a gotcha attitude. Its unhealthy, Upham said. These are deterrents.

Upham said contraband in schools is mostly from students who come to school or school-sponsored events after drinking or are in possession of marijuana. When medical marijuana was first legalized, Upham said high schools saw use at least double. He expects a similar jump as new medical marijuana laws go into effect.

Its changing norm lines, he said. Its dangerously close to being normal."

With the updated policy, students will remain subject to canine searches unless they park off school property. The policy also informs students that all school property, such as desks and lockers, are subject to be searched at any time. School officials must have reasonable suspicion to search personal items such as backpacks and purses, although those searches could get thrown out if the official doesn't have individualized suspicion.

The entire policy will be discussed by the board with option for public comment on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 5:30 p.m. at the Ray Bjork Learning Center.
The book pulls no punches.

It sharply condemns conservatism for its role in a "culture of vicious dehumanization," not to mention its sins of incoherence, rejection of empirical fact and plain hypocrisy. Writing of the rush by the conservative party, i.e., the GOP, to embrace the regrettable Donald Trump during the last election, the author is blunt and unsparing. "Never has a party so quickly or easily abandoned its core principles ..."

No, these are not new complaints; they have been made repeatedly in recent years. But what makes this particular bill of charges against conservatism and the Republican Party noteworthy is not the substance, but the source.

Meaning, a self-described "proud conservative and a lifelong Republican"  Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Flake's new book, "Conscience of a Conservative"  the title is an ode to Barry Goldwater's 1960 tome of the same name  takes conservatism and the GOP to task in no uncertain terms. It's being called an act of moral courage. It might even be one.

At the very least, the book is timely, particularly in its lamentation of the hatefulness  the word is not too strong  of the nation's political divide. Flake captures this starkly in one painful anecdote:

January of 2012, President Obama's State of the Union address. Flake is sitting next to a friend, Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is still recovering after being shot in the head the year before. "During President Obama's applause lines, Gabby wanted to stand up but was unable to do so on her own, so I helped her. That often left me standing, a lone Republican among cheering Democrats."

He stood, he writes, not to support the president, but to help "a cherished and brave colleague." Which should have been patently obvious to anyone with eyes and a functioning conscience, but it apparently made little difference to those who sent him "furious text messages and emails" during and after the speech, taking him to task for this act of political apostasy.

As noted, Flake's "Conscience" is being widely lauded. The Washington Post called it "brave." USA Today dubbed it "courageous." Columnist Michael Gerson said it was "the single largest act of political bravery of the Trump era."

You'll get no argument here. But you will find an observation: this courage would be more impressive had it shown itself sooner. The GOP, after all, didn't lose its mind when Trump came to town. Rather, it was the loss of its mind that made Trump possible. And that loss predates his presidency by a good two decades.

How much of the dysfunction of those years  the baseless 24/7 investigations, the birther idiocy, the Islamophobia, the death panels, the obstructionism  might have been ameliorated by a little in-the-moment conservative courage? Republicans are not asked to abandon their low taxes, small government orthodoxy. No ideology, after all, has a monopoly on good ideas.

But this is not about ideology. Rather, it's about the GOP's en masse retreat from reason, responsibility, statesmanship and simple decency.

This retreat has been objectively obvious for years, but the list of Republicans willing to stand up and concede the objectively obvious has been pathetically small. Now Flake adds his name, making it ... slightly less small.

Brave? OK. But that bravery is irrelevant until and unless his conservative conscience touches someone else's. His party, his people, need to acknowledge their dysfunction, need to own it  and fix it.

Otherwise, he's still standing alone while the wrong people applaud.

-- Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald.
Delaware, OH  A Columbus man allegedly harassed and stalked the current Delaware County Sheriff for more than 17 years.

A federal grand jury indicted William E. Young, 54, of Columbus on one count of cyberstalking. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Young was arrested in 1999 for menacing by stalking a female.

Current Sheriff Russell Martin was one of the arresting officers. The Department of Justice describes how Young allegedly threatened Martin online and through threatening letters:

The affidavit details that over the course of more than 17 years, Young created four webpages and sent multiple letters claiming Martin is a pedophile and corrupt cop. Young allegedly mailed letters on numerous occasions to Martins wife and family, neighbors, physician, barber, church and church pastor and pastors wife, as well as to Ohio Wesleyan College, Delaware City Hall, the Delaware Chamber of Commerce, the Delaware City Mayor, Delaware City Council members, the Delaware Police Department, the Delaware County Sheriffs Office, the Delaware County Jail, the Arapahoe County Prosecutors Office and other local community businesses.

Letters varied in length from three to 92 pages, and often included court records related to the 1999 conviction and documents related to civil lawsuits that Young filed against the victim and a fellow officer, U.S. Attorney Glassman said.

In a May 2010 interview with agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), Young stated he wanted Martin fired and wanted him to eat his gun.

In September 2015, Young allegedly mailed a 62-page letter to the Martins spouse which stated: Ill force his hand if the powers that be make the mistake of coming after me again. Then Ill take everyone down who had a hand in what was done to me one by one.

Over the last decade, Young has filed multiple state and federal civil lawsuits against the victim and another arresting officer from Youngs 1999 arrest, and the Delaware Police Department, alleging various claims of corruption and fraud.

FBI agents arrested Young on Tuesday. Cyberstalking is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Martin released a statement Saturday:

Over the last three decades in law enforcement, Ive arrested or investigated thousands of criminals, many of them violent and extremely dangerous. The man the FBI arrested has threatened and harassed me and my family for years, and while I signed up for this job, my family didnt. We deserve to be safeguarded from dangerjust as any other citizen. Im appreciative that the FBI and the United States Attorneys Office took action to arrest and charge this suspect. Ill cooperate with prosecutors and continue to work hard as Sheriff, protecting the people of Delaware County.
MUSCATINE  Around a dozen residents held a candlelight vigil in front of the Muscatine City Hall Sunday night, in solidarity for victims of Saturday's white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including Heather Heyer, who died protesting the event.

Heyer, 32, was killed when a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters. The driver, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, allegedly sped into the crowd  some of whom carried signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and LGBQT flags. At least 19 others were injured, and two state troopers were killed in a helicopter crash while patrolling the rally.

Demonstrations in support of Charlottesville were held across the country Sunday. Muscatine resident Eva McBride, who writes for the blog "Progressive Voices of Iowa," organized the vigil here.

Its something I do all the time, and it seems natural when something like this happens, to show solidarity all across the United States, she said. I wanted to do something peaceful, thats about love, to counteract the hate.

Attendees held candles and shared their experiences witnessing or being targets of racism. One couple, who recently moved from Tennessee, said they had wanted to speak out, but hadnt felt comfortable where they previously lived. Others talked about their experiences watching family members or friends deal with racial inequality on a daily basis in Muscatine.

I have to speak out against racism when I see it, resident Jean Clark said.

Clark said she became aware of racism for the first time when she was 8 years old and the first African-American man was hired by her towns school board. She said recent acts of violence toward people of color are not new, and there is still work to be done.

Its been a long journey, and its still not better, she said.

After creating the Facebook event for the vigil, McBride said, she began receiving hateful comments, including some from people who attacked her when she protested a Donald Trump rally before the presidential election.

Theres a huge elephant in the room right now, she said. People are getting more and more open, just about being overtly hateful. Im not going to necessarily blame that on Trump, but hes made people comfortable and theyve come out of the woodwork.

Trump has been criticized, by Republicans and others, for his statement following the attack. Detractors said his remarks did not go far enough in condemning white nationalists.

McBride said holding the vigil was one way to make a difference following the violence in Virginia. She criticized media outlets for referring to Black Lives Matter protesters as thugs in recent years, and talked about the importance of being an ally, while not appropriating another persons culture.

People dont always think of protesting as something good, but activism is always important, McBride said.

No counter-protesters appeared at the gathering Sunday night.
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
It is said there is no fool like an old fool.

Kenya has just witnessed its most transparent election in history. Every single observer called if free and credible, and for the first time ever, the election results are verifiable.

After a lot of pressure from Raila and the civil society, IEBC was forced to put in place an electronic system to identify voters and transmit results. This was after claims that in 2013, 2 million dead people rose from the dead and voted only for the president.

The real-time transmission was supposed to bring transparency to the process.

According to most people, the system worked almost perfectly. Results started coming in on the same night of voting, and within a few hours after close of the polls, we already knew who was to be president. Anyone who thought the trend on their screen would change was simply in denial.

And then Raila came with a surprise the next day. That the transmission system had been hacked.

Some people gave him the benefit of the doubt, until he released a 52 page log files documenting the hack. After quick analysis by IT experts, it was clear the logs were cooked, most likely on a mid-priced laptop. The statements on the file further did not reveal any hacking. In any case, they showed no hacking happened, since all login attempts failed. And then IEBC came out to reveal that the log files belonged to a different database type from what they used. Railas cooked files were of an MsSQL database while IEBC uses Oracle.

Read: We Got You: IEBC Proves Raila Faked Hacking Claims, Forged Log Files and Falsified Numbers

After the first lie failed to convince anyone, Raila returned with another allegation. That they had obtained the real results from a whistle blower which showed Raila ahead. The arithmetic they provided was dismissed right away. For instance, the number of votes cast in Siaya exceeded registered voters. Nyamira and Nairobi had the same exact amount of cast votes. And that Raila obtained over 90% of the votes cast in Kirinyaga county (an undisputed Uhuru stronghold).

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Raila and his Nasa entourage were shifting goal posts on an hourly basis, and on Friday they demanded that the announcement of the winner be delayed. They only managed to push the inevitable by a few hours, and on Friday night Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner.

On the election results being verifiable, all you need to do is download the publicly provided Form 34As and 34Bs and compare with what was transmitted.

If after this you believe Jubilee doctored 40,000+ forms, plus the over 200,000 for all other positions, all in a matter of 3 days, go ahead and call the agents whose signatures and phone numbers are indicated on the forms. Most polling stations had agents from different parties.

At this point if you believe Jubilee bribed nearly 100,000 agents, you need help.

But it was clear from the word go that Raila was not going to accept the results of the election, no matter how credible it was. I am inclined to believe that is his nature.

In 1997, 2007, 2013 and now 2017, Raila has claimed that the election was rigged. In short, the only time Raila saw a free, fair and credible exercise was in 2002 when he was on the winning side.

Right now, only the most brainwashed of his supporters believe anything he is saying. And there are signs that he is being isolated by the political class. His running mate Kalonzo Musyoka has stopped being vocal. Mombasa governor Hassan Joho has returned to Mombasa and pleaded for calm. Kisumu governor Anyang Nyongo has told his people to return to work.

The only politicians standing with Baba are Luo politicians eyeing his position as the undisputed Luo King. The likes of James Orengo, Millie Odhiambo and Babu Owino.

At this point, you dont need to be very sharp to know that Raila wont be declared winner. No amount of demonstrations or looting will propel Baba to State House. Which is why all signs point to Raila trying to force a nusu mkate government. It was predicted, and UhuRuto repeated many times during the campaigns that it wont happen.

But Railas obsession with power has blinded him to think nusu mkate is on the table.

Right now, even if Raila were to concede, he has already lost a lot of respect, locally and internationally. But he is not even stopping there. He has gone on overdrive to pee on the remaining pieces of his legacy.

Who will save this old man from himself?
Ian Munene, best known as Almasi from his role on Machachari, has been a hot topic in the internet circles for weeks now.

The actor and model has been receiving stick for his unconventional fashion sense leading to speculation about his sexuality.

Munene, who is a marketing student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, has fired back at his critics and trolls.

He defended his controversial pictures saying: My photos have meanings.

I feel like with every picture I post on social media, I want to create an emotion and I have my own reasons for it regardless. Me putting on a flower is like its like a liberation of art. We are getting to a place where expressions vary and you can use any form of expression that you want as an individual. So that was just me and I worked with really good photographers to see the different aesthetics I can do, Munene told Word Is.

He added: People are quick to judge and the fact that I dont respond, they will say anything. I dont feel like I am entitled to talk about my personal life with anyone, so whatever people say, I just allow it. Because at the end of the day, they will judge me regardless. Even if I correct them and tell them who I am, its not going to change anything. People I work with know who I am. I dont care what the rest say.

Munene also explained that the photos of him allegedly smoking marijuana were from a photo shoot.

We were invited to an event to make it have a particular look. People were quick to judge, thinking thats my lifestyle. Thats not my lifestyle, I do my own things the way I like. What people said or saw doesnt define my life!
Abel Mutua, one of the first cast members of high school comedy drama Tahidi High, has risen the ranks to become a producer and director.

He is behind the hit local shows The Real Househelps of Kawangware and Sue na Jonnie.

The actor is an alumnus of the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication. He spoke to Standard about life in campus.

Which is your alma mater?

I attended Kenya Institute of Mass Communication and pursued a film production course majoring in camera techniques.

Did you ever skip classes?

I skipped classes so much that at some point one of my lecturers asked me who I was. The guy had never seen me before.

The worst lecturer was

My worst lecturer was definitely a Mr Manyara who punished us for skipping class while attending a video shoot. We took offence because we were after all training to be film makers.

The toughest unit was?

Toughest unit was definitely Sound (Theory). The math and physics were overwhelming.

Passing exams meant?

Passing exams meant acing the projects. If your projects were top notch then you were safe since the course is very technical. Theory accounted for a very small percentage.

Your best campus experience was?

My best campus experience was definitely the drama festivals. I was best performing artist nationwide in second year and best actor nationwide in my third year.

Dating experience?

I never dated in college until the last semester of my final year. And guess what, that girl I met two months before I left college ended up being my wife.

What did you hate most about campus?

I totally hated morning lessons. Most were the times when my day would start at 10(am).

If you could change something about your campus experience what would it be?

Id probably attend class more but nothing more. My campus experience was just epic.

Making some extra cash in campus meant.

Making extra cash in campus meant shooting funerals for people. It was the easiest way to make a quick buck.

Are you still in contact with your campus friends

As a matter of fact yes. I met my best friend, Phil_direct, who also happens to be my business partner in campus.
A group of pastors based in Mombasa County have moved to court seeking to stop Baraka FM from broadcasting secular content.

The clerics, under the auspices of Mombasa Pastors Fellowship Association, have accused the directors of the gospel radio station of converting it into a secular station.

Through Marende Necheza & Co Advocates, the pastors want the stations broadcast of non-religious content declared a violation of Christian rights.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) and the Attorney-General have been listed as second and third respondents.

The petitioner, being stakeholders, sought the broadcast licence of Baraka FM for the principal purpose of broadcasting the Gospel of our Lord within Coast region, reads the petition.

Justice Eric Ogola directed parties to file their responses or grounds of opposition to the suit within the next 14 days.
The National Police Service has rubbished statements made by Nasa politicians, among them Raila Odinga that they have been shooting demonstrators and hiding the bodies.

There have been lots of reports of police using live bullets in Kibera, Mathare and Kisumu. If you were to believe social media, you would get the impression that there is a genocide taking place.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has on the other hand put the number of those killed by police at 24.

The official Nasa figure is over 100.

The police have now released a statement stating that they are only responsible for 6 fatalities.

Read the full statement below.

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CLARIFICATION ON FALSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST POLICE.

The National Police Service takes great exception to untruthful allegations made by some NASA politicians to the effect that the Police are responsible for killing 100 persons and hiding the corpses in body bags.

Equally, lacking in truth is the allegation made by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights that we are responsible for 24 deaths.

These allegations are unfounded and have no basis in fact and are clearly aimed at escalating tensions in the Country.

In the past 2 days, we are aware of six (6) fatalities, in which criminals armed and acting with deadly intent attacked Police officers attempting to effect arrest, resulting in fatal neutralisation of the attackers.

In Nairobis, Ruaraka, two (2) criminals were shot dead while breaking into a supermarket at Kasabuni. When challenged to surrender, they attacked the law enforcement officers with machetes with an intent to harm them.

The third one was in Starehe, Nairobi where there was a group of 25 people armed with assorted crude weapons breaking into private houses and who menacingly challenged and charged at Police officers.

The fourth and fifth (2) criminals were fatally neutralised after a gang of six broke into a shop in Kariobangi, Nairobi. As Police pursued them, they fired at the Police officers who fired back in defense.

The sixth fatality occurred in Kisumu when a criminal was shot after a large riotous mob blocked Dago  Kiboswa road and barricaded it with bonfires and stones and attacked motorists and pedestrians. The Police Officers attempting to effect arrest were also attacked.

We are also aware of a very sad and unfortunate incident in which a 9 year old girl was shot dead while in their house in Mathare Area 2, Nairobi by unknown persons.

The other incident brought to our attention is of a dead body found alongside a road with fresh wounds in Nairobis Korogocho area.The circumstances of the killing remain unknown.

In the last two incidences, we have instituted investigations with a view to establishing authors of the crimes.

We also inform the public that we are investigating a number of individuals suspected of incitement to violence, either directly or through intemperate social media postings with a view of effecting arrest for prosecution before the courts of law.

Meanwhile, as we continue with our investigations of these individuals, we emphasise the fact that we are open to oversight and we shall hold to account any Police officer found to have breached the law. Needless to restate that we are all equal under the Law.

We warn members of the public that there are photos of dead bodies being attributed to Police action that are fake.

We urge all Kenyans to avoid re-circulating photos that are not verified as real. They are being used to incite & undermine our security.

The police are prepared professionally to protect lives and property from violent rioters. We will keep doing our duty.

We urge members of the public to stand for peace, our work is to serve and defend but all Kenyans have a duty to report the presence of any Police officer who may have breached the law in any way.

Finally, as we stated before the elections, we wish to remind all that we continue to act in strict fidelity to the law,in an impartial and responsive manner and these principles remain valid including post election period.

GEORGE KINOTI (AIG)

For: INSPECTOR GENERAL

NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE

13th August 2017
Nairobis first socialite couple of Prezzo and Michelle Yola are still embroiled in public drama and it needs to end already. We are getting tired.

Last week, Yola took to social media claiming Prezzo was bitter about the breakup and has been threatening to release her explicit pictures.

If anything happens to me, just know its Prezzo whos behind it, from threatening texts talking about releasing our explicit pictures and videos to stealing all my documents and on top of that, he even took my phone because I told him our relationship wont work, she wrote.

Prezzo hit back claiming Yola has been telling lies.

The rapper has spoken up once again claiming Yola is just needy because he blocked her.

Michelle still has feelings for me. She is the one who has been blowing up my phone trying to reach out to me but I have ignored her.

The reason why she is mad is that I blocked her on my phone, WhatsApp, and all social media pages and she got mad. She wants to tarnish my name, he said adding that, We broke up over three months ago and she moved on with a white guy.

I wished her all the best. If I had sent Michelle threatening messages, she would not hesitate to post them on social media. I am not interested in her. In fact, I am doing much better after we broke up.

When we were in a relationship, I lost a lot of weight because I was stressed. She is also mad because people dont care about her anymore, he said.

RELATED: PHOTO  Prezzo Covers Up Yolas Name Tattoo Amid Social Media War
Following a series of violent protests witnessed in Nairobi slums and luoland, Kenyans demanded that Raila comes out and talks to his people.

Yesterday, he heeded this call and led a delegation of Luo politicians to Kibera and Mathare slums. It was thought that he might finally make his concession speech, but he stuck to his character.

A defiant Raila succeeded in adding fuel to the fire, telling his supporters not to relent and await further instructions on Tuesday. He also condemned the police for using live bullets on demonstrators.

Together with James Orengo, Raila repeated the rigging claims and said they will overturn Uhurus sham victory.

It did not end there. The opposition leader declared Monday (today) a day of national mourning, and urged Kenyans not to report to work. There were loud cheers from crowd when he mentioned this.

When Orengo took the mic and told the crowd to boycott Nation Media products for bias. He said that only the international media was giving them the coverage they deserve and that Kenyans should immediately cease buying Daily Nation and Sunday Nation.

Orengo had seemingly forgotten that NMG has a TV station, and at this point Raila whispered to his ear to remind him. The Nasa leader then gave an angry look at the NTV microphone right below him.

All the while, NTV was one of only two TV stations covering the event live.

Watch Raila and Orengos entire speech below.
Democracy, the Olympic Games, and thick and creamy yogurt are among Greeces greatest contributions to humanity. And when it comes to the latter, the Greek Ministry of Agriculture is sick of impostors. The country wants people to know that true Greek yogurt is made in Greece and prevent anyone making it elsewherein Europe, at leastfrom calling it Greek.

The Ministry of Agriculture has assembled a group that plans to apply to register Greek yogurt in the European Union Register as a term with a protected geographical indication (PGI) or protected designation of origin (PDO), according to DairyReporter.com. If accepted, it would prohibit companies in other countries from calling their yogurts Greek. The initial process for making Greek yogurt and regular yogurt is the same, but the difference lies in the texture: Greek yogurt is strained to remove liquid, making it thicker and creamier, and giving it more protein and fewer carbohydrates per serving. But some brands dont follow this technique, and take shortcuts by adding thickeners and protein. Last year, a dispute between Greece and the Czech Republic over the latters Greek-style yogurt resulted in a scolding from the European Commission. Using the term Greek yoghurt for products produced outside Greece would deceive consumers and would create unfair competition in the E.U. market, one E.U. official noted to Euractiv.

But those rules wont apply in the United States, where makers are free to label their yogurt as Greek (and where the distance from Greece makes consumer confusion less likely). There are dozens of Greek yogurts in grocery stores, from popular brands like Chobani, Yoplait, Dannon and Fage (a Greek company). Greek yogurt became a huge hit in the United States 10 years ago, when consumers gravitated toward it for its protein, probiotics and good fat. Its rise to prominence in American grocery stores was meteoric: Chobani saw its sales go from just over $3 million to more than $1.1 billion in its first five years. The brand overtook Yoplait, which is owned by General Mills, last year to become the countrys biggest yogurt brand. The yogurt category is worth $84 billion globally.

But the U.S. market for yogurt has been waning recently. General Mills reported a 20 percent drop in yogurt sales in March. Millennials are gravitating toward convenience yogurt drinks, rather than spoonable yogurt, according to consumer research firm Mintel. And Greek yogurt is being challenged by other, more exotic yogurts: Havent you heard that Icelandic yogurt (fun fact: technically, its cheese!) is the hot new thing? No, actually, were all about French yogurt now. What is French yogurt? Its a yogurt that comes in a cute glass pot, with a cute brand nameOuimade by Yoplait.

According to the Associated Press, The company says there is no official definition for French yogurt, though one thing that distinguishes Oui is that it is cultured in its own glass pot rather than in large batches. The story is enough to hook yogurt-weary consumers. Because thats the key to winning the yogurt wars, as Charles Duhigg wrote in the New York Times: Yoplait has finally figured out how to look beyond the data and embrace the narrative. Yoplait may have figured out how to fake authenticity as craftily as everyone else.

And that narrative is why its important to Greece that everyone knows: Greek yogurt is made in Greece.
There have been a couple of big changes in the world of veterans.

Until recently, VA health care was not available to most veterans who were discharged under other than honorable conditions.

Effective July 5, the VA will offer emergency stabilization care for former service members who present at the facility with an emergent mental health need. Under this initiative, former service members with an Other Than Honorable discharge may receive care for their mental health emergency for an initial period of up to 90 days, which can include inpatient, residential or outpatient care.

During this time, the VA will work to determine if the mental health condition is a result of a service-related injury, making the service member eligible for ongoing coverage for that condition.

Veterans in this category should go to the closest VA Health Care facility. There are VA clinics in Santa Rosa, Vallejo (Mare Island), Fairfield or Martinez. There is a VA Medical Center in San Francisco.

This is the first time a VA secretary has implemented an initiative specifically focused on this group of former service members who are in mental health distress.

Suicide prevention is my top clinical priority, said Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who is also a physician. We want these former service members to know there is someplace they can turn if they are facing a mental health emergency  whether it means urgent care at a VA emergency department, a Vet Center or through the Veterans Crisis Line.

The Veterans Crisis Line, 800-273-8255 operates 24 hours for veterans who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

The other recent change is far less urgent, but very exciting nonetheless.

Beginning November 2017, all honorably discharged veterans may be eligible to shop at online military exchanges.

A Defense Department retail board in 2014, gave the go-ahead to a plan to open online exchange shopping to all honorably discharged veterans, with hopes of starting the program on Veterans Day in 2017. It seems that plan is coming to fruition.

The move, originally proposed by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in 2014, was approved by the Executive Resale Board and is currently undergoing beta-testing.

Opening the Exchange to the about 20 million honorably discharged U.S. veterans comes with a strong business case, Exchange officials have said. By early July, 90,000 veterans had attempted to register to exchange shop online starting Nov. 11

Army & Air Force Exchange Service estimated its annual sales would climb by $185 million to $525 million and earnings would increase by $18 million to $72 million. It could bring as much as $108 million annually in support for Morale Welfare and Recreation programs, which rely on Exchange dividends for the bulk of their funding across the services.

All veterans are being encouraged to take the first step in this process by confirming veteran eligibility status at www.vetverify.org. It might be a multi-step process, if the Defense Manpower Data Center lacks information to verify a veteran served and received an honorable discharge.

Military Exchanges are well known for having excellent prices, top quality goods and no sales taxes or shipping charges.

The Napa County Veterans Service Office provides an orientation to veterans benefits on the second Tuesday of each month, and also host the popular Vet Connect program on the second Thursday of each month, both at 650 Imperial Way in Napa, home to the Napa County Veterans Service Office.

We are also available by appointment to meet with veterans in Calistoga or St. Helena.

Please call 707-253-4558 to make an appointment to attend the orientation, or to make an appointment to discuss veterans benefits, programs and resources.
The Gasser Foundation has submitted a preliminary application with the city to build 77 new housing units at a former Sunrise assisted living facility on Valle Verde Drive in north Napa.

Affordable housing is the biggest need in the community, said Joe Peatman, Sr., Gasser Foundation president.

Divided into two parts, the project, at 3700 Valle Verde Drive, would include a variety of housing types.

The first section is called Heritage House. It would include 18 one-bedroom units and 35 single-room occupancy units (SROs) with on-site supportive housing for Napas most vulnerable residents.

The second section features a total of 24 affordable multi-family apartments divided into 16 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units.

The Gasser Foundation aims to be a partner with the city and county to help find housing for the homeless, said the project description.

The project seeks to provide stable affordable housing for vulnerable individuals and families and services on site will help people keep those homes, improve their health and allow them to live and work in the community.

Kathleen Dreessen, executive director at Napa Valley Community Housing, said the 77 new units will be a welcome addition in Napa.

There is a need for every kind of housing in Napa, from low-income earners to the middle class, she said. Theres just not a lot.

Every single type of housing deserves its place in the sun here, Dreessen said.

Dreessen applauded the plan to pair supportive services with on-site housing. I know there are people who need supportive services and I think thats a big need in our county. Its great to see somebody addressing that.

The Gasser Foundation bought the former Sunrise Assisted Living of Napa property in 2016 from former owner Bridge Housing Corp. of San Francisco for more than $5 million.

Bridge had worked for several years with the city of Napa in a failed attempt to create the 57-unit Napa Creekside Apartments on the acreage east of Queen of the Valley Medical Center.

It pulled out in 2016 after a lawsuit by neighbors caused delays, and changes to state affordable housing funding policies hurt the financial plan.

The project would also include a parcel currently occupied by a vacant single-family house and outbuildings.

To create the complex, the existing single family-home and outbuildings would be removed. The former Sunrise building and parking lot would be retained.

A total of 92 parking spaces will be created. That includes one space for each one-bedroom unit, two spaces for each two- or three-bedroom unit and 0.3 spaces for each SRO unit.

The SRO units at Heritage House would range from 150 to 450 square feet.

Among other requests, the Gasser Foundation is asking for a conditional use permit to allow housing with supportive units. Its also asking the city to start the process of preparing an environmental impact report and a design review of the layout.

In total, the complex would be more than two and half acres in size.

All of the housing in the multi-family apartment building will be leased with rents affordable to lower income households that do not exceed 80 percent of the area median income, said the application. The Gasser Foundation said housing funding and assistance would help subsidize the affordable housing complex. The rental arrangement for the SRO rooms has yet to be announced.

Before it closed in 2004 due to water pipe breaks, an on-going under-capacity census and other challenges, the Sunrise assisted living facility housed 74 residents and support staff.

The new housing at the property will include 24/7 on-site property management and include offices and meeting rooms for supportive and health services.

Those services would include mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, independent living skills, health and medical, peer support and employment. Families would also have access to NEWS, which offers domestic violence and sexual abuse services, and the COPE Family Center.

The plans that were submitted were very conceptual and more detailed plans are required to better understand the applicants objectives, said Karlo Felix, senior planner for the city of Napa.

Over the next few weeks, reviewing departments and agencies will be evaluating the application to identify what additional information is needed, he said.

The project will eventually go to the Planning Commission for consideration.
CONCORD -- A Concord woman died in a hit-and-run collision Sunday afternoon in Laytonville in unincorporated Mendocino County, California Highway Patrol officials said.

The 54-year-old woman was in a 1965 Ford Falcon traveling south on U.S. Highway 101 at 12:28 p.m. when a 2011 Ford Explorer Sport Trac traveling north veered into the southbound lanes, according to the CHP.

CHP officials said the front of the Ford Falcon collided with the right side of the Ford Explorer, killing the Concord woman.

The driver of the Ford Falcon, a 46-year-old Concord man, suffered major injuries and was taken first to Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits and then flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

According to the CHP, the driver of the Ford Explorer fled from the scene and is still at large. He is described as a Hispanic man in his 30s who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and 215 pounds with a stocky build and short black hair and brown eyes.

He was wearing a dark-colored shirt and camouflage shorts. CHP officials said that right after the collision, he was last seen walking north on Highway 101.

The collision remains under investigation. The name of the woman who died was not immediately available from the Mendocino County coroner's office.

Anyone with information about the driver or his whereabouts is asked to call the CHP 24 hours a day at (707) 268-2000 or during business hours at (707) 923-2155.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A man was taken into custody by San Francisco police Sunday in the city's Bayview District after he reportedly set himself on fire using a flammable liquid and advanced on officers.

Officers with the San Francisco Police Department responded Sunday at 9:40 p.m. to the 2100 block of Jennings Street on a report a man was making threats to use a gasoline bomb or Molotov cocktail, police said.

There were also reports the man may have been in possession of a pipe bomb.

Responding officers located the man, identified as a 30-year-old San Francisco resident, and he spoke with officers briefly before walking away, police said.

One of the officers noted a clear bottle containing a liquid in the man's rear pocket.

The man removed the bottle from his pocket, poured the contents over himself and began walking toward officers, police said.

When he was about 90 feet away from officers, he made remarks about officers not turning their backs on him and he referenced police shootings.

Police said he walked to about 50 feet away from officers, pulled out a lighter and set himself on fire.

The man then approached several officers at a fast pace, police said.

The officers attempted to create distance between themselves and the man, and after about 10 seconds, the man stopped and started to take off his clothing, police said.

The man was then taken into custody and provided treatment by responding San Francisco Fire Department medics.

During an investigation into the incident, officers discovered that prior to their arrival, the man had reportedly chased a woman while holding something in his hand and threatened to set her on fire.

The man was transported to the hospital for treatment and will likely be arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and possession of an incendiary device, according to police.
NOVATO -- Novato police arrested a Novato man Sunday on suspicion of committing a hate crime battery of a Hispanic man.

Police responded around 8:15 a.m. to an argument that escalated to a fight in the area of Sunset Parkway and Leafwood Drive.

Officers contacted Griffin Drago, 40, of Novato, and a Hispanic male. Drago told police he believed the Hispanic male was stealing property from his vehicle nearby.

The Hispanic male said Drago spit in his face, struck his vehicle with his hands and used racial and derogatory language about his Hispanic ethnicity, according to police.

Drago was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of battery and a hate crime, police said.
The most depressing aspect of the current North Korean crisis is that even if Donald Trump wins, he loses.

Despite doubling down on his rhetoric of "fire and fury" and deriding his predecessors for failed negotiations, Trump looks as if he wants to eventually strike a deal with the nation's tyrant, Kim Jong Un. Just look at what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is doing. Trump threatens war and Tillerson promises no regime change. Remember it was only a few months ago that Trump said he would be honored to meet with Kim. The president's recent bellicosity aims for deterrence and leverage.

In substance, if not style, this is very similar to how past administrations have approached the Hermit Kingdom: threaten, cajole and bargain. "This is Obama plus," Michael Auslin, a Korea expert at the Hoover Institution, told me. "It's the same path of enhanced sanctions with the potential carrot of direct negotiations and trying to reassure our allies. There is not much different here."

And it's easy to understand why talks are better than war. The prospect of a military confrontation is too horrific. North Korea effectively holds its neighbor to the south as a hostage because of its conventional military capabilities. This says nothing of allies like Japan, or U.S. forces stationed on the peninsula.

And the critics of war are correct. A pre-emptive strike is not worth the risk. But neither is another deal.

There are a few reasons for this. First, the North Koreans don't keep their promises. Nearly every commitment the regime has made to the U.S., its allies and China, it has violated.

It's no mystery why North Korea continues to negotiate. The nation needs help from the outside to survive. The regime has pursued nuclear weapons as an insurance policy to stay in power, and since the 1990s U.S. administrations have enticed Pyongyang with fuel shipments, removing sanctions and promises to leave it alone. In exchange, Pyongyang makes empty promises about nuclear weapons. An agreement with North Korea makes America and its allies a partner in the regime's oppression of its own people.

And this repression is beyond the pale. A U.N. report from 2014 estimated there are 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners who are slowly starved, tortured and subjected to forced labor in four prison camps so large you can see them in satellite images taken in space. This says nothing of the public and private executions in the state or the forced disappearances, or the punishment of whole families for the alleged crimes of individuals. Americans should rightfully want their government to undermine this gulag state, not help preserve it with another negotiated compromise.

Then there is the tyrant himself, Kim Jong Un. He is in every respect a rogue. It's not just his threats, or his assassination of his relatives. Kim's regime detained an American student, Otto Warmbier, and sent him back to the U.S. this year only when he was in a coma. He died soon after returning home. Negotiating with such a man presents a moral hazard. If Kim gets more inducements to negotiate, what's to stop him from conducting more abductions or assassinations on foreign soil in the future?

All of this is to say that Trump is posturing in pursuit of a deal, and even if he reached one, he would fail to address the cause of the North Korean crisis: the regime itself.

There are no easy answers here. Invading North Korea would risk a major war with China, not to mention commit the U.S. to keeping the peace on the peninsula at a time when most Americans are rightly weary of military adventurism.

While it would be nice to think our intelligence agencies could foment a coup, this too is more spy fiction than a realistic foreign policy. CIA Director Mike Pompeo has created a new intelligence center to focus on North Korea, but the U.S. has notoriously had little success in recruiting agents inside the country. U.S. intervention would also deprive Koreans themselves of authoring their own liberation.

So traditional "regime change" should be off the table. But this should not stop the U.S. and its allies from helping to create conditions for the day when Koreans can take their country back. This requires some patience and imagination.

The patient part of the policy should be a combination of sabotage and deterrence. North Korea should understand their provocations bring consequences. Those consequences though should be tailored to target the leaders of North Korea and not its broader economy. This means making it harder for Kim and his henchmen to spend and keep their fortunes. It also means accelerating intelligence operations aimed at gumming up the regime's illicit supply chain for its missiles and nuclear facilities. The next time the regime tests a missile, let's hope it blows up on the runway.

The imaginative part is to continue to give North Koreans a glimpse of a better future. Tom Malinowski, who served as President Barack Obama's assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, wrote in Politico in June that the U.S. should continue to flood North Korea with information. This may sound strange. But in recent years, the state's ability to control information has waned. More and more Koreans living there have access to portable DVD players and cell phones, which are tools to break the state's control over the minds of their citizens.

One organization, known as No Chain, is run by North Korean defector and former dissident Jung Gwang-Il. No Chain sends helicopter drones with the portable players, along with content like South Korean soap operas, over the border into the country.

Malinowski told me that when he was at the State Department the U.S. government spent around $3 million a year to support similar kinds of organizations. The budget for these programs in the next year will be around $5 million. The U.S. should be spending at least 10 times as much on this. This effort should also include workshops for North Korean defectors on nonviolent conflict, similar to the training the U.S. State Department provided to Serbs before their citizens organized the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

To be sure, feeding information into North Korea is not a silver bullet. It's impossible to predict the timing of popular revolutions. But it is possible to predict the outcome: a revolution would prevent a catastrophic war.

"Just as with the Cold War, the only sustainable solution is when the North Korean people will be able to take matters into their own hands," Malinowski told me. "We can't make that happen. We have to be very careful with the 'regime change' rhetoric. But we can help to accelerate the process that is already under way, namely the process of raising consciousness inside the country."

That may sound like a long shot. It is one. But consider the alternative. For nearly 25 years the U.S. and its allies have threatened North Korea, cajoled North Korea and "won" by reaching deals with North Korea. And yet the regime continues to build nuclear weapons and blackmail the rest of the world. It's time for a change in Washington as well as Pyongyang.
Posted by Mark Williams | August 14, 2017

By Mark Williams

Any truckmaker worth a hoot understands that most buyers in the heavy-duty pickup truck class have a reason for purchasing a heavy-hauling one-ton diesel. And in some cases, they own several types of trailers used to haul a variety of loads and/or important work or play toys.

2017 One-Ton Heavy-Duty Pickup Challenge

Overview | Track | Towing | Daily Driving | Dynamometer | Results

If you talk to Ford and GM representatives, they'll tell you their towing strategies are the best, but that's not good enough for us. We needed to see how the 2017 Ford Super Duty F-350 Lariat and 2017 GMC Sierra 3500 Denali work in the real world. So for our 2017 One-Ton Heavy-Duty Pickup Challenge, we took the competitors to the Davis Dam grade in Nevada with a 50-foot 19,500-pound Big Tex car carrier gooseneck trailer attached to the back end to see how they handled the grade in both directions  up and down. Here's what we found.

Davis Dam Hill Climbs

We did flat-out, wide-open throttle runs near the base of the Davis Dam grade, a 12-mile run on state Route 68 from Bullhead City, Ariz., at an elevation of nearly 500 feet to the Union Pass summit at 3,500 feet. At the end of each run, we found our trucks were separated by mere seconds. The GMC ran the route in 10 minutes, 28 seconds, with a top speed of 66 mph, a minimum speed of 52 mph and a speed at the Union Pass finish line of 62 mph. The Ford did it 6 seconds slower (a separation of less than 6/100ths of 1 percent) with identical  according to the vehicle's readout  top, minimum and finish-line speeds. In this hill-climb trailer test, these two trucks were equal to the task but our hat tip goes to the GMC because how they handled the load and informed the driver with towing-related data was not identical.

Both trucks had all the right technology and impressive torque ratings to make them strong performers: more than 900 pounds-feet of torque, strong turbos, integrated trailer brake controllers, towing mirrors, etc. But when it came to pulling up the hill, it was the little things that seemed to separate them.

For instance, the Ford offered more readout information than the GMC to help the driver monitor the vehicle and engine. In fact, the GMC did not allow the driver to see what the tire pressures were or the performance level of the turbo, and there wasn't a camera to monitor what was happening in the bed of the truck. However, it did offer the brake-controller switch in an easy-to-reach-and-see location, unlike the Ford, and the GMC's variable-vane turbo was a mighty strong puller off the line and pulling up the steepest parts of the grade. There is a wireless camera option that can tie into the GMC's backup camera system.

Braking

More importantly, we found GM's new exhaust brake  which offers on or off choices  was exceptionally well-integrated into the Allison 1000 transmission's aggressive grade-braking software, the dramatically effective Tow/Haul mode and even the cruise control. We got the most control from the GMC truck-and-trailer combination by using the cruise control, having the exhaust brake and Tow/Haul mode on, and adjusting speeds up and down from the steering wheel as the terrain or hills changed. It took some practice to dial in this driving strategy, but the new turbo was plenty quick and effective at slowing the weight and speeding up the truck as needed.

On our steeper descents with the Ford, we found the new multisetting exhaust brake (Full, Auto and Off) capable of handling the heavy loads, and we liked being able to always see what gear the transmission was in (not available on GM's HD trucks) when considering when or if we needed to grab a lower or higher gear. We experienced a slightly rougher ride from the Ford's big, heavy live front axle, but it had none of the wander we remember from the previous generation.

Other Towing Features

We really liked the thought and towing details included in the new Ford to make the experience just a tad simpler, more comfortable and better informed. We know it's a small thing, but being able to fold, extend and adjust the towing mirrors from the driver's seat should be a safety measure that all heavy-duty trucks offer. Also, Ford included different settings to allow drivers to keep track of the mileage on different trailers, which is a nice feature to have. It shows that Ford is thinking about those select heavy towers who have more than one type of trailer.

Likewise, the Ford's 360-degree camera and active steering technology made maneuvering both truck and trailer  both in tight spaces and at high speed (we like that you can monitor the bed while driving)  an infinitely safer and more well-informed experience. We also have to give the Ford the nod when it comes to providing vehicle data and information to the driver, including exact diesel exhaust fluid levels, how hard the turbo is working and even what the exact tire pressures are in each of the six tires. This new system will also invisibly check all the light connections on your trailer and let you know if any of the bulbs are out.

Both heavy haulers offered options and features that will benefit owners who tow, but after towing with both it was obvious that the Ford had the advantage of having more of the good stuff inside and underneath. That's not to say the GMC wasn't a comfortable, confident tow rig  it was especially nice on rough and twisty roads with the HD independent front suspension  but when put side by side, our judges favored the heavier and stronger Ford. We'll share what our judges thought in a separate story soon.

Squats at Bumper

Finally, we wanted to add one last piece to our towing discussion: squats. When it comes to handling a payload, how much suspension sag or deflection there is when the bed of the truck is loaded near its maximum capacity is good to know.

We found that the GMC squatted a touch more than the Ford. This might not be surprising given that the Ford's gross vehicle weight rating is almost 1,000 pounds more than the GMC's and its calculated payload capacity exceeds the GMC's by more than 700 pounds.

With 4,200 pounds of bagged construction gravel in the bed, the Ford's rear end lowered by just more than 2 inches. The GMC, with the same amount of weight, squatted almost 4 inches. We should note that the GMC was at 91 percent of its calculated payload capacity, while the Ford was at 79 percent.

Cars.com photos by Evan Sears
12:01

Three days after a Supreme Court directive, the Bombay High Court on Monday put up the beleaguered Sahara Groups prestigious 'Aamby Valley city in Lonavala for a public auction.



The Official Liquidator for the Aamby Valley city -- considered the jewel in the crown of the Sahara Group -- has put up a reserve price of Rs 37,392 crore. The Sahara group pegs the market valuation of this project at over Rs 1 lakh crore.



The Supreme Court on Thursday had rejected the Sahara Group's proposal to repay the investors till July 2019 terming the proposed plan of payment too long.



The apex court told Roy that his proposal of paying Rs 1,500 crore, if the auction process was halted or postponed, was unbelievable.



"Your proposal is making us to make a statement that it is willing suspension of belief," a bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, said.



It said the auction process will go on according to the schedule and if Rs 1,500 crore is paid by the contemnor (Roy) into the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-Sahara refund account by September 7, then it may pass an appropriate order.



"We are not inclined to entertain the prayer of the contemnor. The prayer is hereby rejected. If any agreement is reached by the group to raise money, then appropriate orders will be passed," a bench also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri said.



During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that the auction process of Aamby Valley which would start with the publication of a notice on August 14, should be postponed at least till September 16 to enable Roy arrange the money.



He said that hotels in New York have been sold and soon money would be coming into the Sahara account after which Rs 1,500 crore would be deposited into the SEBI-SAHARA refund account by September 7, as had been directed by the court.



"Our request is that the auction process for Aamby Valley, which will be initiated by way of publication of a notice should be postponed till September 16, as the value of property will fall drastically once it is put on sale in public domain," Sibal said.



He said that Sahara has been on verge of entering an agreement with a Mauritius-based company to raise money, but for that purpose, the auction process has to be postponed for the time being.



"We are negotiating a deal of subscription agreement whereby an investor will invest 1.67 billion dollars in Aamby Valley out of which around Rs 5000 crore will given to the SEBI-Sahara refund account," he said.



Senior advocate Arvind Datar, representing the SEBI, opposed the proposal of the Sahara chief saying that every time a process starts, the group came up with some objection in order to delay the process.



He said that it was a global auction and interested parties from across the world would participate and Rs 4.4 crore hasd already been spent in initiating the process.



"It will not be appropriate, if the auction process is stalled," he said and added that according to SEBI's research, the said Mauritius-based company, named by Sahara, did not exist. -- PTI


Comic Con adds to weekends eclipse festivities

by Andrea Hahn

They may be famous for poor aim, but even Imperial Stormtroopers cant miss the eclipse festivities at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Thats right, stormtroopers. The 501st Stormtrooper Legion, to be exact. The Southern Illinois Jedi Order will be there, too. But dont worry about a fight breaking out. Eclipse Comic Con rules forbid bringing operable weapons.

The Eclipse Comic Con is part of eclipse weekend at SIU. Events are set for Aug. 19-20 starting both days at 10 a.m. A full but still developing schedule is available online.

A comic con is a celebration of all things related to comics -- particularly superhero comics -- graphic novels, video gaming and science fiction.

Costuming, known as cosplay, is an important feature for many participants. While some prize authenticity, others feel free to improvise, creating their own versions of characters who might inhabit sci-fi, superhero or video game adventure worlds. More recently, steampunk aficionados have joined, bringing their deliberately anachronistic version of the Victorian era to gear-and-gadgetry life. A costume contest rewards those who come in character; it takes place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 20.

Comic cons typically include informative panels led by guest stars, and the Eclipse Comic Con is no exception. Special guests include artists, writers and film animators who have worked on everything from the Justice League Unlimited, Star Trek and the Transformers to Scooby Doo and independent comics.

This comic con blends the fantastic and sci-fi with science education. Planetary Radios Mat Kaplan will talk about the The Science of Star Trek at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19. After the convention closes on Sunday, hell host an event from Shryock Auditorium with the help of WSIU Radio. Other educational features include the documentary Countdown to the Eclipse and a Crossroads Eclipse 2017 research workshop, both set for Saturday.

Visitors can stroll the convention floor and visit vendors, including 4th Moon Collectibles, Brainstorms Laboratory, Cakes Reanimated, Castle Perilous, several independent comic publishers and more. And of course there are gaming opportunities for players of Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Dungeons and Dragons and other games.

Tickets are available as day passes, two-day passes and VIP passes. Get them in advance or at the door. SIU students with valid ID enter the convention free.

The Eclipse Comic Con is just one feature of eclipse weekend at SIU. Visit eclipse.siu.edu to learn about all the SIU eclipse events and for important features on safety, volunteering opportunities and official SIU eclipse merchandise.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 01:27:50|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian transport minister accepted on Sunday the resignation of the country's railway authority over the recent deadly train crash that killed at least 49, the Egyptian state TV reported.

The resignation comes two days after two trains crashed on Friday afternoon, leaving at least 49 passengers dead and over 130 wounded in the coastal city of Alexandria north of the capital Cairo.

Following a meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail in Cairo on Sunday, Transport Minister Hesham Arafat also announced a deal to buy 1,000 trains from Italian international companies to upgrade the railway services and infrastructure.

On Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi urged in a meeting with Arafat to accelerate the development process of the country's railway network to avoid deadly train crashes.

Earlier in mid June, Egypt signed on Saturday a 575-million-U.S. dollar agreement with U.S. giant company General Electric (GE) to provide the country with 100 multi-use locomotives.

According to the deal, GE will also provide 15 years of technical support and spare parts for the new locomotives as well as 81 other present trains. It will also offer a training program for more than 275 Egyptian engineers and technicians from the railway authority.

The first shipment of 25 locomotives is expected to arrive in Egypt in 2018.

Railway accidents killed and wounded hundreds in Egypt over the past few years, the deadliest was in 2002 when 350 passengers were killed after fire broke out in a train coming from Upper Egypt.

Another train tragedy hit the country in November 2012, when a train hit a school bus at a crossing barrier area in Upper Egypt's Assiut province, killing over 50 children.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 04:18:58|Editor: yan

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AMMAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- All is set to conduct the municipal and governorate council elections in all the Kingdom's constituencies on August 15, Independent Election Commission's President Khaled Kalaldeh said Sunday.

At the opening of a media centre allocated for the coverage of the elections, Kalaldeh urged all eligible voters to take part in the elections.

He told reporters that all preparations were completed for the polls during the opening of the centre.

Also Sunday, the Public Security Department said it will implement a security plan on the day of the elections to ensure a smooth electoral process.

Kalaldeh added that several awareness campaigns were held over the past few months.

Under the Municipal Elections Law, each eligible voter will vote on two separate ballots: one for the mayor and another for one local council member.

There are 100 municipalities excluding the Greater Amman Municipality(GAM), and in each a 25 percent quota is also set for women who do not make it through direct election.

Regarding governorate council elections, Kalaldeh said there are 158 districts, with 304 seats, 85 percent of which will be filled through citizens' vote and 15 percent appointed by the Cabinet. There is an additional 10 percent quota for women.

The law stipulates that 75 percent of GAM's council members are to be elected, while the remaining 25 percent will be appointed by the Cabinet.

Under the Decentralisation Law, the municipal polls will be held alongside the governorate councils', and each governorate council will be tasked with overseeing development projects and services on the local level.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 04:29:05|Editor: yan

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AMMAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Jordan has demanded a delay for the return of Israeli embassy delegation to Amman, after an Israeli embassy guard shot dead two Jordanians last month, a government official said Sunday.

Jordan asked Israel not to immediately send the mission back to Jordan, said the official, adding that the move slammed the "hero welcome" given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the guard upon his return to Tel Aviv.

The welcome by Netanyahu enraged millions of Jordanians and caused an outrage across the country.

Jordan insisted on receiving assurance from Israel that the guard would be investigated and stand on trial, said the official.

In July, an Israeli embassy guard killed a young Jordanian and injured another Jordanian doctor who later died from wounds. Israeli Foreign Ministry later claimed that the guard had been attacked by the two victims before he fought back.

The incident led to a standoff between Jordan and Israel, however, Jordan allowed the Israeli guard and other embassy staff to leave for Tel Aviv later.

Jordanian authorities said that they would take all legal measures to send the Israeli guard to court.

Jordan was the second Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1994 after Egypt.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 04:34:08|Editor: yan

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DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Sunday pledged to support the government of Tanzania in ending teenage pregnancies that resulted in the increasing tidal wave of girls' dropouts from schools.

"Teenage pregnancies is a major roadblock towards Tanzania's socio-economic development,"said Hashina Begum, an official from the UNFPA speaking in the political capital Dodoma during the commemoration of International Youth Day.

"We are very determined to continue cooperating with the government and other relevant stakeholders in controlling causes that lead to teenage pregnancies in Tanzania," she said.

Statistics from the Tanzania Bureau of Statistics showed that about 21 percent of Tanzanian girls aged between 15 and 19 have given birth.

Begum said teenage pregnancies could be curbed by imparting the young generation with sound sexual and reproductive education as well as providing them with better health services.

"Teen pregnancies stand tall among major challenges that derail socio-economic development in many African countries, including Tanzania," she said.

Begum said it was prudent for the government of Tanzania to focus more attention in the fight against teenage pregnancies.

She underscored the need for the government to ensure young people took part in political, economic and social issues in their communities and the country in general.

"This will enable them make informed choices regarding their bodies, sexuality and reproduction without discrimination, violence or coercion," said the UNFPA official.

Begum said the UNFPA will continue cooperating with the government to empower young people in the country by giving them tools to become even more influential and productive actors in the society.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 05:14:33|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah assured the Lebanese on Sunday that the battles would be victorious against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Hezbollah celebrated on Sunday in the southern town of Khiyam the 11th anniversary of its victory over Israel following the 33-day war in 2006 with Nasrallah delivering a speech broadcasting through giant TV screens.

Nasrallah's remarks referred to the expected offensive the Lebanese army was to launch against the IS. He also voiced his readiness to help Lebanese army in any future operations to drive out IS militants from the outskirts of east Lebanon's Ras Baalbeck and al-Qaeda.

"We are waiting for the Lebanese Army command decision, and it is his decision to announce the start of the battle to liberate the rest of the lands occupied by IS," he said.

Assuring that the Lebanese will once again be victorious, he concluded "we are going to achieve a sound and decisive victory. It's just a matter of time and we should be unified as a nation."

He also warned Israel in his speech that his party was more prepared than ever before for any future encounters.

"The Israelis are still studying the lessons of their war on Lebanon and they are still endeavoring to restore trust that was destroyed during the war of 2006 between the Israelis and their leadership," Nasrallah said.

"After 11 years they are still admitting the failure in their main objective of defeating Hezbollah in 2006 and the degree of danger that the 'resistance' in Lebanon represents to them," he added.

Following a 33-day aggression by Israel against Hezbollah in July 2006, the United Nations Security Council issued resolution 1701 which "halted all military operations between Hezbollah and Israel," a decision that was viewed by the Lebanese as a victory against Israel.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 05:19:34|Editor: ying

Smoke rises from a roof of a house after a wildfire broke out in a forest area in the northern Athenian suburb of Kalamos on Aug. 13, 2017. A major forest fire broke out in the suburbs of Athens on Sunday causing extensive damages, according to Athens News Agency. (Xinhua/Christos Bonis)

ATHENS, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- A major forest fire broke out in the suburbs of Athens on Sunday causing extensive damages, according to Athens News Agency.

Dozens of firemen were deployed in the northern suburb of Kalamos, trying to put out the blaze which broke out early afternoon, according to the local Fire Service.

They were assisted by fire engines, water dropping helicopters and Canadair aircrafts.

Due to the strong winds blowing in the area, the flames spread quickly posing threat to the inhabited area. The fires damaged several houses, local media reported.

Authorities said two camp areas near Kalamos have been evacuated but no people were in danger.

Firefighters struggle to manage the wildfire as the direction of the winds threaten to carry the fire front towards Kapandriti region.

Three other wildfires were reported in the suburbs of Athens on Sunday, but the firefighters managed to get the fire under control within a few hours.

Meanwhile, wildfires continue to burn forest area in the Ionian island of Zakynthos.

Authorities suspect the wave of wildfires raging since Friday noon to be the result of arson, according to a statement released by the Greek Fire Service.

Arson investigators have been dispatched to the island in the wake of eleven fires reported in the last 72 hours around various parts of the isle.

Greece suffers from scores of destructive wildfires each summer linked to high temperatures and arson in many cases.
Hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets in downtown Los Angeles on August 13, 2017, protesting white supremacists violence in Charlottesville of Virginia the day before. (Xinhua Photo)

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, protesting white supremacists violence in Charlottesville of Virginia the day before.

Holding black placards with words such as "White Silence = White Consent" and "No! Drive out Trump/Pence regime!," the demonstrators gathered outside of city hall to condemn racism and violent incidents occurred in Charlottesville Saturday, in which 3 people were killed and about twenty injured.

The rally was launched by Refuse Fascism Organization, a New York based activist group who has dozens offices all around the country.

Michael, a young African-American girl of the organization, delivered a speech on stairs to the front door of city hall, calling on people to take action fighting against KKK and fascism in the United States.

"We are standing against fascism, we are standing with people all of the world, we should give our hands to ourselves." her words were echoed by applauds.

"I am here today to stand solidarity with peace movement and everyone who opposes racism, white supremacy and all the thing that is not neither KKK or our president stand for." Jeff Share, a middle age demonstrator told Xinhua.

He said things happened in Charlottesville was ridiculous as a peaceful demonstration turned to be a violent and fatal attack, so that American people should speak out against violence and white supremacy.

"Some people there voiced hatred, it's not ok." he said, "we have a raw problem in the country with people supporting and promoting violence and discrimination racism, it's not ok."

Saturday night, hundreds of people chanting against white supremacists gathered in front of Los Angeles Police Department, and blocked traffic in downtown LA for about half an hour.

On Saturday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a statement condemning the events in Charlottesville, where a state of emergency has been declared.

"We are saddened by the ongoing events in Charlottesville, and our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Virginia," Emanuel said. "As Americans our greatest strength is our diversity, and that is just as true in Chicago as it is across the country. Violence rooted in racism, bigotry and prejudice has no place in our society and must be condemned at every turn. As one of our nation's greatest voices for justice and peace, Martin Luther King Jr., reminded us all, 'we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.' "

Hundreds of Chicagoans on Sunday gathered Downtown to condemn racism and bigotry.

About 400 people gathered at Millennium Park, then marched north to Trump Tower, carrying signs with slogans and images excoriating President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

More than 700 people led by a group called Refuse Fascism also planned to gather at Millennium Park and march to Trump Tower for a "Chicago Stands With Charlottesville" rally.

"We must mourn and we also must organize," organizers wrote on Facebook. "We must show that right wing hate, racism, and violence will not be tolerated. Solidarity is needed."

Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Sunday condemned the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as "an act of domestic terrorism."

"It shouldn't be hard to say-what happened in Charlottesville was an act of domestic terrorism. Period," de Blasio tweeted.

"This white supremacy movement is a danger to us all, including our law enforcement officers who often engage with these hate groups," he said.

"New Yorkers know who we are-we are a city for everyone. We are particularly pained when we see violence carried out in the name of hate," he added.

A rally staged by white nationalists in Charlottesville turned violent Saturday. After hours brawls between the pro-rally far-right figures and anti-racism protesters, a sport car ploughed into crowd against the rally, killing a 32-year-old local woman and injuring 19.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 07:45:22|Editor: Yang Yi

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HOUSTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of China's Weiqi Association (CWA) said on Sunday that it' s lucky for both AlphaGo and Weiqi when they met, which brought the best in each other.

Hua Yigang, deputy chairman of CWA, told Xinhua in Houston that riding over human player demonstrates the AlphaGo, or the Artificial Intelligent (AI), has upgraded the capability to a new level. Meanwhile, AlphaGo helps human players explore new ways of gaming.

Hua visited Houston for an event of amateur Weiqi (or Go) tournament, which lasted two days during Aug. 12 and 13, attracting more than 20 players with ages range from 7 to 74.

AlphaGo is a narrow AI computer program that plays the board game Go. It was developed by Alphabet Inc.'s Google DeepMind in London in October 2015.

It became the first Computer Go program to beat a human professional Go player without handicaps on a full-sized 19 * 19 board. In March 2016, it beat Lee Sedol in a five-game match, the first time a computer Go program has beaten a 9-dan professional without handicaps.

In the 2017 Future of Go Summit which was held in China, AlphaGo beat Ke Jie, the world No.1 ranked player at the time, in a three-game match.

Hua said he is glad that Weiqi is getting popular in the United States as well as in the European countries, especially in the wake of the very first appearance of the AlphaGo. He believes the Internet and the computer programs would be useful platform and tool and players across the world can take advantage of them to improve their ability.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 10:57:01|Editor: Yang Yi

A boy prepares to participate in the Youth Artificial Intelligence Design Contest at the Youth Activity Center in Suzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 13, 2017. The 2017 Youth Artificial Intelligence Design Contest kicked off Sunday in Suzhou. Over 100 students across China attended the event. (Xinhua/Wang Jianzhong)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 12:40:01|Editor: Song Lifang

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Nepal's monsoon disasters triggered by incessant rainfall over past three days has risen to 64, the Home Ministry said.

Issuing a statement on Sunday night, the ministry said at least 53 people have gone missing in various districts in the low-lying areas known as Terai region.

Floods and landslides have created havoc in Terai with thousands of families displaced and huge loss of properties, livestock and crops.

The Home Ministry said over a dozen plain districts have been highly affected, including Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Dang and Banke.

According to the ministry, over 35,000 houses have been inundated while 1,000 houses have been damaged.

Meanehilw, the government has announced a relief package for the victims on Sunday, as per which it will provide 200,000 repees (1,949 U.S. dollars) to the families of those killed in the recent floods and landslides.

An emergency cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister's Official also decided to provide daily essentials including food, temporary shelter and clothes to the victims in worst-hit areas.

Security agencies, including Nepal Police, Nepal Army and Armed Police force, have been active in Terai districts for the relief operation since Saturday. A central command post has been formed for intensifying rescue operations.

Government officials say that disruption in transportation due to cut off of bridges and road sections and loss of communication networks has obstructed the relief efforts.

Continuous rainfall has further challenged the search, rescue and relief operation. The Meteorological Forecasting Division forecast monsoon would remain active in the central and western region till Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 13:15:11|Editor: ying

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HOUSTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- A Texan white nationalist said he would hold a white supremacist rally in September at Texas A&M University in southern United States and sparked plans for a counter rally, local media reported Sunday.

Preston Wiginton was quoted by the Texas Tribune as saying that Richard Spencer, a white supremacist and president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank, will take part in the "White Lives Matter" rally on Sept. 11 on the campus of the university.

At the top of a Saturday press release announcing the event, Wiginton declared "TODAY CHARLOTTESVILLE TOMORROW TEXAS A&M," referring to the violence in Virginia.

Thousands of white nationalists, neo-Confederates and right-wing protesters, as well as groups that oppose them, clashed during the "Unite the Right" demonstrations Saturday in Charlottesville, a historic college town in the state of Virginia bordering U.S. capital Washington D.C.

At least three people linked to the confrontation were killed.

Wiginton's plan immediately sparked outrage among university students and a counter protest has been planned following his announcement.

The counter protest organizer said the event aimed to demonstrate that the college community does "not support the hateful bigotry espoused by Wiginton and the planned speakers."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 13:20:14|Editor: ying

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NEW DELHI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Indian capital has been put on high alert ahead of the Independence Day on Aug. 15, officials said Monday.

Officials said that security has been tightened in various areas of the city, particularly in the iconic Red Fort area from where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation Tuesday.

"Bus terminals, railway stations and the Indira Gandhi International Airport are on high alert, following inputs by the intelligence agencies in the wake of terror threats. In fact, the city has been turned into a fortress," a senior Delhi Police official said.

"Apart from local police personnel, troopers of the elite National Security Guard or black cat commandos have also been deployed in the city. Snipers have also been placed at various vulnerable spots and closed-circuit TV cameras installed across the city," he added.

Indian Air Force has also been put on high alert. "Fighter jets will be on highest alert to take off at short notice of just two to three minutes in case of any untoward incident," a senior defence official said.

India gained independence from Britain on Aug. 15, 1947.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 14:30:32|Editor: ying

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HOUSTON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A few hundred people stood on Sunday evening in front of Houston City Hall to mourn Charlottesville victims of violence.

The vigil was held to show love and support for those who fell victim to the violence earlier in the day in Charlottesville of Virginia, in eastern United States, and to denounce the hatred expressed during the rally near the University of Virginia.

Many carried signs, with a few reading "Houston loves diversity," "love unites" and "Stop racism now."

The organizers handed out red roses and miniature U.S. flags. The crowd was emotional, with many tearing up.

The gathering comes a day after a car plowed into a crowd of counter protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia, leaving one woman killed.

Two troopers were killed after a police helicopter crashed 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Charlottesville.

The Black Lives Matter Houston movement also threw its weight behind gatherings opposing white nationalism.

"We support the efforts of those who are gathering to denounce the white supremacist that are terrorizing the citizens of Charlottesville," the group wrote on Facebook.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 14:40:35|Editor: ying

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SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of 19 militants have been confirmed dead and eight others injured as government forces aircrafts targeted Taliban hideouts in Aqcha district of Jawzjan district with Shiberghan as its capital over the past two days, an army spokesman Nasratullah Jamshidi said Monday.

The aircrafts, according to the official, attacked Taliban positions in Beshpak area and besides inflicting casualties also destroyed their weapon caches.

Without mentioning the possible casualties of the security forces, the official noted that the security forces would continue to target militants elsewhere in the country.

Taliban militants who have intensified activities and gained grounds in Jawzjan and neighboring Faryab and Saripul provinces recently, are yet to make comments on the situation in Aqcha district.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 14:50:46|Editor: ying

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CANBERRA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has referred himself to the High Court over fears he could be ineligible to sit in the nation's parliament.

Barnaby Joyce, leader of the Nationals' party, on Monday told the lower house of the Australian parliament that he may be a citizen of New Zealand (NZ).

"Needless to say, I was shocked about this. I've always been an Australian citizen born in Tamworth. Neither my parents nor I have ever applied to register me as a New Zealand citizen, the New Zealand Government has no register recognising me as an New Zealand citizen," Joyce said on Monday.

"I was born in Australia in 1967 to an Australian mother and I think I'm the fifth generation. My father was born in New Zealand, came to Australia in 1947 as a British subject. In fact, we were all British subjects at this time."

Under New Zealand law, anyone with one parent born in New Zealand (NZ) automatically qualifies for NZ citizenship which has to be activated by that person.

Section 44(i) of the Australian Constitution declared that any person who is a citizen of another country is ineligible to be elected to parliament.

Joyce said that Australia's Solicitor-General had advised he would not be disqualified from sitting in parliament under section 44(i) but he asked the High Court to provide a formal ruling.

He will continue to serve in parliament while the case is before the court.

The Deputy PM's revelation is the latest in a string of dual-citizenship controversies to rock Australian politics after Greens' Members of Parliament (MP) Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam resigned after finding they held citizenships in the Canada and NZ respectively.

One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts referred to the High Court over concerns that he could be a citizen of Britain in August while Matt Canavan, a Senator for Joyce's Nationals' party, was referred over Italian citizenship concerns.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 15:51:22|Editor: Liangyu

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HOUSTON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Sunday that it is the time to draw a red line to keep the city from being divided by hate groups and anti-minority groups.

"Now is the time more than ever, now is the time, especially as leaders at our level to draw a red line," the mayor said in a TV speech.

"When it comes to Nazi groups, when it comes to the KKK, when it comes to the white supremacists and white nationalism ... we cannot be ambiguous," Turner said.

His remarks came a day after a 20-year-old man killed a woman and hurt 19 others as he rammed his car into counter protesters at a white nationalist rally near the University of Virginia.

On Sunday evening, hundreds of people attended a vigil in the Houston City Hall to support Virginia victims and to denounce the hatred expressed during the rally in the State of Virginia.

Thousands of white nationalists, neo-Confederates and right-wing protesters, as well as groups that oppose them, clashed on Sunday during the "Unite the Right" demonstrations that took place in Charlottesville, a historic college town in the state of Virginia bordering U.S. capital Washington D.C. .
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:01:27|Editor: Liangyu

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JERUSALEM, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox patriarch has denounced an Israeli court ruling to allow a pro-settlement group to take control of church land in a mainly Palestinian area of occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, local sources said Monday.

A Jerusalem court upheld controversial real estate deals involving Israeli pro-settlement organisation Ateret Cohanim and the church for two hotel properties near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City, finding no evidence of the deals resulting from fraud or bribery.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem on Saturday criticised what he called an "unjust" and "politically motivated" ruling and said the church would appeal to Israel's supreme court.

"This decade-long legal battle has resulted in an unjust decision which disregarded all of the patriarchate's clear and concrete legal evidence proving bad faith, bribery and conspiracy," Theophilos said.

"Such a decision in favour of the settler group Ateret Cohanim can only be interpreted as politically motivated."

Israel's Maariv daily newspaper reported that foreign Jewish investors had paid millions of dollars to buy two large properties just inside Jaffa Gate through a secret deal with the Greek Orthodox church.

According to Israeli media, the agreements, which were initially signed in 2004, were for 99-year leases on hotel properties near Jaffa Gate.

The church went to court against Ateret Cohanim, claiming the deals were inked illegally and without its authorisation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:06:29|Editor: Mengjie

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HAIKOU, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Four key members of Shanxinhui, a company suspected of organizing and leading a pyramid scheme, have been detained by police in south China's Hainan Province.

According to Hainan police on Monday, Shanxinhui allegedly manipulated and talked people into taking part in pyramid selling and cheated them out of huge amounts of property under the guise of helping the poor.

Several suspects including Zhang Tianming, the mastermind of Shanxinhui, have already been put under coercive measures, which may include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention or arrest.

Zhang, 42, founded Shenzhen Shanxinhui Culture Communication Co. Ltd in south China's Shenzhen City in May 2013, and Hainan Shanxinhui in May 2016.

In July, Guangdong police seized 230 members of Shanxinhui. Beijing police also arrested 63 after members of the pyramid scheme gathered in the capital city.

Pyramid schemes have been expanding widely in China through social networks in recent years.

Police investigated 2,826 pyramid scheme cases in 2016, 19.1 percent more than that in 2015, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

From 2005 to 2015, 21,904 pyramid schemes were investigated and 990 million yuan (140 million U.S. dollars) confiscated.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:26:39|Editor: Liangyu

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TOKYO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A light aircraft crashed in a mountainous region of Nara Prefecture in western Japan on Monday, killing its two occupants, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said, quoting local firefighters.

The aircraft took off from Yao Airport in Osaka Prefecture at just before noon and was headed to Fukushima Prefecture, a person with knowledge of the plane's flight route said, adding that the plane had returned to Osaka for an unknown reason.

The flight plan submitted before the plane took off said that there were two people including the pilot aboard the small aircraft, and the flight time was likely to be 2 hours 45 minutes.

After the plane had taken off, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, there was no further communication from the plane until a call came in from the pilot, telling the air traffic controller the plane was going to "return to Yao."

Local police in Nara Prefecture were contacted at 12:15 p.m. and told that a light aircraft may have crashed in the village of Yamazoe, local firefighters said.

The vicinity of the crash site was subsequently found to be covered in burning debris, said the firefighters.

Local firefighters and investigators are looking into the cause of the crash.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:31:41|Editor: Liangyu

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CAIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and China recorded 5.178 billion dollars from January to June 2017, state news agency MENA reported on Monday.

China's exports to Egypt decreased by 20.79 percent on a year-on-year basis to 4.518 billion dollars, MENA cited the latest statistics released by the Chinese General Administration of Customs as saying.

While Chinese imports from Egypt increased by 298.37 percent to reach 660 million dollars, it added.

In June, the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and China amounted to 928 million dollars.

Chinese imports from Egypt upped by 181.69 percent on annual basis to 80.58 million dollars, while exports dropped by 17.83 percent to reach 847 million dollars.

Egypt ranked 52nd in list of China's largest trading partners.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:52:43|Editor: Liangyu

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SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Five South Korean busses began Monday to take on the statue of a young girl each with other passengers to remind people of the severe pains suffered by Korean women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese military brothels before and during World War II.

It was the project, titled "Dream Lost by Girls," to mark the fifth anniversary of the International Memorial Day for "Comfort Women", a euphemism for the sex enslavement victims.

The project was funded by a civilian, Rim Jinwook who leads a bus company Dong-A Traffic Service.

The statue of a young girl, which symbolizes the comfort women victims, sat on a chair inside the buses traveling around the central Seoul that includes the Japanese embassy, several universities and middle and high schools.

"I wanted to help students be reminded of our painful history and establish a right perception of history," Rim said in a telephone interview.

"As today marks the fifth anniversary of the world's comfort women memorial day, I wanted to help busy people in Seoul be reminded of the meaning of a girl statue," said Rim.

On Aug. 14, 1991, late Kim Hak Soon gave the first testimony about her horrible memory when she worked as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers as a young girl, making public to the world the lies of the Japanese government.

Her courageous testimony was followed by vivid memories of other surviving victims. Historians estimate that the number of comfort women victims, mostly women of the Korean Peninsula suffering the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule, is 200,000 or so.

The first statue of a girl was erected opposite the Japanese embassy in Seoul in December 2011 to mark the 1, 000th anniversary of the so-called "Wednesday demonstration," the weekly protest rally outside the Japanese embassy to demand Japan's official acknowledgement of its involvement in the wartime crime against humanity.

The Japanese government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reached a "final and irreversible" agreement on the issue with the previous South Korean government in exchange for offering 1 billion yen (8.6 million U.S. dollars) to a fund that helps the comfort women victims.

The South Korean victims demanded the nullification of the December 2015 agreement as the Abe cabinet had yet to acknowledge the government responsibility for the WW II sex enslavement program.

Japan recalled its top two diplomats in South Korea earlier this year to protest against the erection last December of a girl statue outside the Japanese consulate in Busan, the southeastern port city of South Korea.

The girl statues, carried by the five buses, are identical with other bronze ones, placed at over 70 areas across the country, except for material. The five statues are made from fiber-reinforced plastics for the safety of passengers.

They sat on a bus chair, with their fists clenched in the lap to express their resolve to tell the truth. The girls looked impassive but determined, with a bird sitting on their shoulders to symbolize peace and freedom. Their heels were unattached to the ground to represent their painful lives.

The girl statue buses would run in Seoul for 45 days. During the traditional Chuseok holiday in October, the statues would be moved to five major cities across the country.

"The statues will be placed beside other (bronze) statues in the cities. It will become a homecoming of the statues on behalf of the (deceased) victims," said Rim.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:57:49|Editor: Liangyu

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SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday placed his emphasis on peace on the Korean Peninsula amid the rhetoric war between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Moon said at a regular meeting with his senior secretaries that the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsular must be resolved peacefully against all meanderings, according to the presidential Blue House.

On this point, he noted that South Korea and the United States were on the same page though security situations got significantly grave on the peninsula and in its surrounding regions.

Pyongyang warned Washington last week that it could strike the waters 30 to 40 km off the coast of the U.S. island of Guam in the Pacific by the use of its intermediate-range ballistic missile Hwasong-12.

Hours before the warning, U.S. President Donald Trump said that if the DPRK continues threats against his country, Pyongyang would be met with "fire and fury."

The DPRK test-fired what it called an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) twice in July, lofting the Hwasong-14 as high as over 3,700 km and flying it as far as about 1,000 km in the latest test-launch.

Amid the exchange of belligerent rhetoric between the United States and the DPRK, tensions ran high on the peninsula.

Moon stressed that a war must never break out again on the peninsula, reiterating his government's basic position that peace and stability should be maintained on the peninsula and that all-out efforts would be made to prevent the current situation from developing into a serious crisis.

He said the South Korea-U.S. alliance was an alliance to maintain peace, adding that peace would not be brought to the peninsula by exercising military might.

The president noted that though negotiations would be hard to achieve and take time, peace should be achieved through negotiations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 16:57:50|Editor: Liangyu

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MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Aerospace Forces acquired "new methods of striking ground targets" due to the experience gained in Syria, local media quoted the forces' chief commander as saying on Sunday.

"This is an invaluable experience, we cherish (it) and will apply it in the future," said Viktor Bondarev, commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Taking into account the experience gained by the Russian military in Syria, the Russian military has adjusted the combat training of Russian pilots and the system designed to train cadets, Russian news agency RIA Novosti further quoted Bondarev to report.

The Russian Aerospace Forces started airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria from Sept. 30, 2015.

Bondarev also noted that the modernization of the military reconnaissance system continues, adding that the Russian Aerospace Forces recently received more than 100 aircraft and about 300 helicopters.

Bondarev highly praised Russian pilots, saying "they make history with their military work and dedication."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 17:23:00|Editor: Lu Hui

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By Will Koulouris

SYDNEY, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Quantum mechanics met rock and roll at an event in Sydney on Monday, as a rockstar scientist - and quantum physicist - explained the link between the rapidly emerging science and music.

As a physicist who is also a musician, David Reilly of the University of Sydney is a rockstar scientist, who used music to demonstrate the way in which quantum physics works to an enthralled crowd at the Sydney Recital Hall.

The physicist explained the process in an interview with Xinhua after the half-concert, half-lesson event, and said that the way in which a guitar produces sound can be applied to quantum physics.

"Guitars involve vibrations of strings, as those strings vibrate, you'll see the vibration is made up of lots of different notes. There's a vibrational mode associated with the length of the guitar string but there's also modes that are associated with half the length, a quarter of the length, an eighth ... and all those modes are happening at the same time," Reilly said.

"That's how we think about the wavelike nature in objects of quantum physics, like electrons and atoms, they also have vibrational modes and you can switch between those different modes, just like you can on a guitar."

The scientist, who spends his downtime laying down tracks on his five guitars that he has at home, said that his current projects in the laboratory are aimed at taking the waves that exist in all matter, including musical notes, and finding real world applications.

"Right now we are trying to understand how to use these vibrational modes, just like a guitar string, to do new computing, encoding information using the waves of not strings, but of electrons," Reilly said.

"Waves that exist at a nanoscale level, one billionth of a metre."

In the laboratory at the moment, Reilly said that his team is currently attempting to build tiny devices - ones that exist at a level the size of singular molecules - in order to help "fully understand" the fundamental aspects of quantum physics.

But, the rockstar scientist is adamant that taking complex science and making it simple and accessible through music - or other means - is crucial, especially with his own chosen field, quantum physics.

"Quantum mechanics is the most successful theory we have, in anything. It's given us all our technology, from the transistor to the laser, you name it, the microphones and cameras we use, everything owes its existence to quantum physics." Reilly said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 17:43:09|Editor: Lu Hui

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban key commander Fazal Subhan known as Kaka Ji was among five killed after one of his bodyguards opened fire on friends in Khogiani district of the eastern Nangarhar province early Monday, provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal told Xinhua.

No independent sources including the Taliban militants have so far commented on the incident.

In a similar incident which occurred last week in the southern Helmand province, an Afghan policeman reportedly returned to his barrack after joining the Taliban militants and murdering 18 of them.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 17:48:12|Editor: Lu Hui

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HOHHOT, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed after a series of rainstorms swept north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region over the weekend, the local government reported Monday.

Torrential rain began falling in northeastern Inner Mongolia Friday, bringing in hail and a sudden cyclone. The storms had caused seven fatalities as of 9 a.m. Monday in six cities, including Hohhot, Chifeng and Tongliao.

More than 2,000 residents were evacuated, and over 1,600 houses collapsed or were damaged.

The rainstorms also damaged 26,300 hectares of crops, 5,000 hectares of which are expect to produce no harvest.

The direct economic loss from the rainstorm has hit 97 million yuan (about 14.5 million U.S. dollars).
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 18:18:30|Editor: Liangyu

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BERLIN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- German legal system is struggling under a wave of asylum cases and deportation appeals, Robert Seegmuelller, director of the Federal Association of German Administrative Judges, warned on Monday.

"One can rightfully say: The situation is dramatic ... is creaking," Seegmueller said in a statement.

More than a million refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have arrived in Germany since 2015. The circumstance has placed unusually heavy pressure on German courts which are now tasked with ruling on asylum and deportation cases.

According to the association, the annual figure of the related cases will double for the second year in a row in 2017 and rise to a total of 200,000.

Seegmueller identified two root causes responsible for the current situation. Firstly, more refugees have begun launching appeals against the Federal Office for Migration and Refugee's rejection notice for their asylum applications.

Secondly, judicial authorities were still severely short of staff although the number of judges has risen significantly in the past 18 months to a total of 2,000.

The courts could not find enough suitable applicants, Seegmueller complained, adding "the situation is just very, very burdensome."

Seegmueller further noted that some courts were lack of facilities as well as "non-judicial staff", adding the only viable solution now was to recruit as many people as possible, as well as facilities and financial resources.

In the long term, however, he said, legislative changes would also be necessary to alleviate the pressure of refugees on the German judiciary.

As German law currently often prevented swift court proceedings, "similarly-structured legal and factual questions" were urged to be processed more rapidly, for example, by the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

At the moment, 15 higher administrative courts and 51 administrative courts work in parallel on similar cases, creating an unnecessarily inflated workload, said Seegmueller, who is also an acting judge at the Federal Administrative Court.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 18:23:32|Editor: Liangyu

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two civilians were injured in a grenade attack Saturday night in Bahir Dar city, capital city of Amhara regional state in northern Ethiopia, police said Monday.

Police are on the manhunt for the suspects of the grenade attack, and has already managed to apprehend 5 suspects on another grenade attack that occurred in the city early this month, said Walelign Dagnew, Head of Bahir Dar city Police Department.

Four other suspects who are suspected of planning bomb attacks in the city have also been apprehended, according to Bahir Dar Police Department.

The spate of grenade attacks comes in the tense first anniversary of clashes between Ethiopian security forces and protesters that left several people dead.

On August 7, 2016 protesters from the Amhara ethnic group amassed in the streets of Bahir Dar. The protesters who were venting anger at perceived political and economic disfranchisement engaged in deadly clashes with security forces that left several people dead.

Since then, a series of bomb attacks which Ethiopian government blames on "terrorists" and several strike actions have hit business hard in the normally busy streets of Bahir Dar city.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 18:28:37|Editor: Liangyu

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SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Monday with visiting top U.S. general Joseph Dunford to discuss issues on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun told a press briefing that Moon met at the Blue House for about 50 minutes with the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) who arrived here late Sunday.

Dunford met with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo before visiting the presidential office.

During the meeting, Moon said security situations on the Korean Peninsula got graver than ever due to the advanced nuclear and missile capability of the DPRK that became a serious and real threat.

The DPRK test-fired what it called an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) twice in July, lofting the Hwasong-14 as high as over 3,700 km and flying it as far as about 1,000 km in the latest test-launch.

Moon said Pyongyang should stop provocation and rapidly come to the dialogue table to defuse tensions on the peninsula, and shared the view that any more DPRK provocation should be strongly addressed based on the firm South Korea-U.S. alliance.

Dunford agreed that the recent series of missile provocations by the DPRK led to grave security situations on the peninsula, saying no change was made in the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea.

He said the U.S. forces' priority was to support the U.S. government's diplomatic and economic pressure efforts for the denuclearized Korean Peninsula, noting that military options were being prepared for the failed efforts.

The top U.S. general said the U.S. response and measures would be taken in close cooperation with South Korea, adding that everybody wanted this situation resolved without a war.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 18:38:40|Editor: Mengjie

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MINSK, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative will bring broad opportunities to the economic growth of Belarus, a Belarusian economist has said.

The Belt and Road Initiative will benefit Belarus in many ways, including promoting its economic upgrading and high-tech manufacturing, expanding the country's exports and improving the efficiency of its transportation and logistics, Valery Belski, head of the Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Science of Belarus, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The China-Belarus Great Stone Industrial Park is a key project on innovation cooperation between Belarus and China under the framework of the initiative, the expert noted, adding that the industrial park will become an important platform for the two sides to carry out technological cooperation.

In May, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko issued a decree to expand benefits for resident companies of the industrial park, in a bid to attract more high-tech enterprises from around the world, including those from China.

According to the decree, resident companies of the industrial park will be exempted from the profit tax for 10 years after the first fiscal period when the resident company generates profits by selling goods or services.

The resident companies and the joint managing company will also be exempted from the land tax for the period of the special legal regime, in other words, till June 14, 2062.

"It is expected that the industrial park's export value could reach 1.5 billion to 5.2 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020," Belski said.

The expert said the industrial parks in Belarus, through actively participating in various investment projects, will also enjoy great development thanks to the joint efforts of the two countries in promoting the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Under the initiative, Belarus and China will work together to carry out some large-scale infrastructure projects, which will help promote the economic growth of Belarus, Belski added.

Meanwhile, the cooperation projects on the electric upgrading of Belarus' transportation system will not only improve the country's transport capacity but also promote the development of its electric power system, increase the level of safety of its railway system and lower the operation costs, said the expert.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 18:48:47|Editor: Liangyu

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TOKYO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- 100-year-old Mitsushige Maeda, the first Japanese man who joined the Chinese Eighth Route Army during the World War II, told Xinhua recently about his story before the 72nd anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender in the war and called for reflection upon the history.

Maeda was born in 1916 in Kyoto. Coming from a family of scanty means, he worked as an apprentice at a store after graduating from a primary school. In June 1937, he went to the city of Shenyang in northeastern China, then under colonial rule of Japan, to work for the Southern Manchuria Railways Co..

The Southern Manchuria Railways Co., or Mantetsu for short, was a company founded by the Japanese in 1906. The company was not only in charge of the railways, but also involved in intelligence collecting and colonial activities in northeastern China.

Maeda was taken captive by the Chinese Eighth Route Army in 1938, and during the several months as a "prisoner of war," he gradually learned about the injustice of Japan's invasion of China and the truth about this war.

One incident that shocked him particularly was that he witnessed a village plundered by the Japanese army, with villagers cruelly killed and houses burnt to the ground there.

"As a Japanese citizen, I felt ashamed and angry (when I saw what Japan had done)," he said.

The incident precipitated Maeda's awakening, and in January 1939, he volunteered to join the Chinese Eighth Route Army, an army under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to fight against Japan's invasion of China.

"The Chinese Eighth Route Army is a great army with strict disciplines," Maeda recalled, adding that he felt honored to be a member of the army.

His role in the army was to preach peace to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and tell them the truth about the invasion war Japan had launched against China. In November 1939, he and seven other Japanese soldiers founded the "Alliance of the Awakened Japanese Soldiers," which was the first anti-war group formed by Japanese citizens in the Eighth Route Army.

After Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945, Maeda worked in an aviation school in northeastern China for several years and returned to Japan in 1958.

But due to his experiences in China, Maeda was considered pro-communist and could not find a proper job back in Japan. He had to do part-time jobs to support his family.

Despite the hardship, Maeda continued to tell people about his experiences in China and the atrocities that Japan had committed in China, and published articles in newspapers.

In 1984, he and another Japanese veteran Takashi Kagawa coauthored and published the book titled "Japanese Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army."

Now aged 100, Maeda lives in a nursing home. A couple of years ago, he donated over 10 boxes of books and materials about the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japan to a civil group formed by Japanese veterans of China's Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.

"I hope these historical materials will be well preserved and could help the younger generations in Japan to know more about the history," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 18:53:50|Editor: Xiang Bo

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COLOMBO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lanka Navy on Monday said it had arrested 4 Indian fishermen for poaching illegally in Sri Lanka's northern waters, 18 nautical miles north of Point Pedro.

The navy media unit said in a statement that one fishing trawler was also taken into custody.

"The arrested fishermen, trawler and fishing gear were brought to the naval base SLNS Uththara in Kankesanthurai. They are due to be handed over to the Assistant Fisheries Director of Jaffna for legal action," the navy said.

More than 60 Indian fishermen were arrested last week for poaching in Sri Lankan waters off the northern seas. 15 bottom trawlers belonging to the Indian fishermen were also seized.

The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly warned that Indian fishermen trespassing into Sri Lankan waters to fish illegally will continue to be arrested and their boats will be taken into custody.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 19:04:00|Editor: Xiang Bo

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JAKARTA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian counter-terrorism agency BNPT and police will interrogate 18 citizens who escaped from the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, a national police spokesman said here Monday.

The 18 people, including teenagers, women and infants, arrived in Jakarta over the weekend and they were handed over to the agency and the anti-terror squad of the national police, spokesman Brigadier General Rikwanto said.

"The people were brought directly to Sentul of Bogor town, they were handed to the BNPT," Rikwanto said in a statement.

The people escaped from the IS terrorist group in the Syrian city of Raqqa after the terrorist group placed them in a detention center as they rejected to fight for the IS group, according to the Indonesian foreign ministry.

Previously it was reported that the number of the escaping persons was 17, but the spokesman revised it to 18.

The 18 people left Indonesia in August 2015 and stayed in an IS camp in the Syrian city of Raqqa about 40 days, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director for the protection of Indonesian national and entities abroad said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 19:04:03|Editor: Xiang Bo

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SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's economy posted 10.3 billion U.S. dollars in trade surplus last month thanks to a double-digit increase in exports, customs data showed Monday.

Revised figure for exports, which account for about half of the economy, advanced 19.5 percent over the year to 48.8 billion dollars in July, according to the Korea Customs Service.

Imports gained 15.5 percent to 38.6 billion dollars in the same period.

The double-digit expansion in exports was led by solid demand for semiconductors, of which exports jumped 60.9 percent.

Ship exports more than tripled last month, but those for telecommunication devices, including smartphones, posted a double-digit decline on rising production in overseas factories.

Exports to China and the United States, South Korea's top two trading partners, increased 6.6 percent and 7 percent each, with those to the European Union and Vietnam logging a double-digit growth.

Raw material imports advanced 10.7 percent on higher commodity prices, while imports for consumer and capital goods jumped 21.8 percent and 19.3 percent each last month.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 19:49:20|Editor: Liangyu

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TEHRAN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's supreme leader has appointed a conservative cleric to head a council tasked with mediating disputes between government bodies, Iran's state TV reported Monday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as the new chief of the arbitration body, known as the Expediency Council, for the next five years.

Shahroudi replaces former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the moderated cleric, who passed away in January after heading the council for more than 27 years.

Shahroudi served as the chief of the Iranian Judiciary for 10 years, from 1999 to 2009.

Changes are essential in the "structure" and "content" of the Expediency Council, Khamenei said Monday, calling for a revision of the body's general policies, and the way they are implemented.

Some other members of the council were also appointed.

The council was created in 1988 and its main responsibility is to resolve differences or conflicts between the country's parliament and Iran's constitutional watchdog.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 19:54:23|Editor: Liangyu

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KAMPALA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan military has said it will not deploy in neighboring Kenya despite reports by local media that the troops are on standby to enter the east African country.

Brig. Richard Karemire, the Ugandan military spokesperson said in a statement late on Sunday that Uganda had not received any requests on deployment and that the situation in Kenya does not warrant it.

"The Republic of Kenya is a sovereign country and as such, its security and that of its people are exclusively within their domain. The Kenyan people have spoken about their choice of government through their recently concluded elections," Karemire said.

He however said that Uganda will work with its neighbors within the existing frameworks such as the East African Community, East African Standby Force, among others.

Under these frameworks, a country may ask for assistance from her neighbors, for instance in 2013, South Sudan asked for military assistance from Uganda.

Karemire urged the public to ignore reports in local media that the military is on standby and that a team of officers has been sent out to Kenya in preparation for such.

Kenya last week concluded a hotly contested presidential election in which the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner.

The opposition protested the results arguing that the election was fraudulent. This sparked off violence in some part of the east African country.

The region fears a repeat of the 2007 election violence which left over 1,300 people dead and over 600,000 others left homeless. Regional trade was interrupted.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 19:59:27|Editor: Liangyu

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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Monday that dozens of Lao troops had pulled out of disputed border areas in northern Cambodia's Stung Treng province after a deal struck between him and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith.

"They began to pull back at 12 p.m. and totally withdrew at 4 p.m. on Saturday," Hun Sen said during a university graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh.

He praised Sisoulith's decision to pull back troops from Cambodian territory, saying that the decision had ended tensions between troops of the two countries.

"I thank His Excellency Thongloun Sisoulith for meeting me (in Vientiane on Saturday) and deciding to withdraw troops before the ultimatum of Aug. 17," Hun Sen said.

The Cambodian leader said he also ordered his troops whom he sent to the disputed border areas on Friday to return to their barracks on Saturday.

The dispute began in April when about 30 of Laotian soldiers had encroached on Cambodian territory in the areas of O Alay and O Ta Ngav in Stung Treng province bordering Laos' Attapu province. On Friday, Hun Sen set a deadline of Aug. 17 for Lao troops to pull back and sent his troops to the contested areas before flying to Vientiane for negotiations with Sisoulith.

On Monday, Hun Sen said the authorities arrested Sourn Serey Ratha, president of minor opposition Khmer People Power, on Sunday for criticizing his deployment of troops to the Laos border, saying that Ratha was insulting the army.

National Police spokesman Gen. Kirt Chantharith said Sunday that Ratha was inciting soldiers not to abide by the order that could affect the affairs of national defense.

According to the National Police's website, Ratha could face the charges of "inciting military personnel to be disobedient" and "demoralization of military personnel" that shall be punishable by a combined imprisonment from four years to 10 years if convicted.

Ratha, 45, returned to Cambodia from self-imposed exile in the United States after receiving a royal pardon in July 2015 for terrorism conviction.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 20:19:33|Editor: Liangyu

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OSLO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- An electric power industry organization believes Norway has an opportunity to become the first fully electrified society in the world by 2050, public broadcaster NRK reported Monday.

Energy Norway, a non-profit organization representing about 270 companies involved in the production, distribution and trading of electricity in the country, is to meet Minister of Climate and Environment Vidar Helgesen on Monday and deliver 24 concrete policy proposals for green growth.

"Climate change and lost jobs in the oil sector are two of Norway's biggest challenges today. We believe that the renewable energy industry has a great potential to contribute to both of these areas," said Oluf Ulseth, director of Energy Norway.

"Our goal is that Norway, based on hydro power and better interaction between industry and authorities, shall become the world's first fully electrified society by 2050. In this way, we can take a stronger leadership role in climate change, as our competitiveness strengthens," he said.

In Norway, 96 percent of electricity production comes from hydropower. In addition, Norway has a well-developed energy system, high electrification rate in the household sector and the world's highest electric vehicle density.

This, according to Ulseth, provides "a unique starting point for electrifying other sectors of society and thereby cutting greenhouse gas emissions."

However, it will require considerable efforts, especially in the transport sector and oil and gas industry.

According to the report, electricity is, along with biofuels, the key to making the transport sector emission-free, whether it concerns storage in batteries or in the form of hydrogen.

The full electrification of society is not only good for the climate, but also for the development of new industry and new technology jobs, NRK reported.

"We believe that value creation in the renewable energy industry can be doubled by 2050," Ulseth said.
Source:Xinhua| 2017-08-14 20:54:02|Editor: Mengjie

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang delivered a speech here on Monday at the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Independence of Pakistan.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Address by H.E. Wang Yang

Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

At the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary

Of the Independence of Pakistan

Islamabad, 14 August 2017

Your Excellency President Mamnoon Hussain,

Your Excellency Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today is a day of jubilation and celebration for Pakistan. It is my great pleasure and honor to be invited by the Government of Pakistan and entrusted by President Xi Jinping to lead the Chinese delegation to the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Independence of Pakistan and share the joy with the 200 million brotherly Pakistani people. First of all, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, I wish to extend my best regards and warmest congratulations to the people of Pakistan on this special day.

Seventy years ago, under the leadership of Muhammad Jinnah, Baba-e-Qaum of Pakistan, the Pakistani people realized national independence through an arduous struggle, putting an end to their suffering under imperialist and colonial aggression and oppression. This victory completely changed the destiny of the country, giving birth to a brand new Pakistan that stands firm in the East.

Over the past seven decades, the courageous and unyielding Pakistani people have resolutely defended their national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity against hegemony, power politics and external interference, achieving one heroic success after another in safeguarding the country's core interests and national dignity.

Over the past seven decades, the hard-working and talented Pakistani people have made self-reliant and painstaking efforts to develop their country despite enormous difficulties. The country has taken on a new look, with much improved infrastructure, leapfrog advances in science and technology and notably enhanced comprehensive national strength. With its GDP soaring from some two billion US dollars to more that 300 billion US dollars, Pakistan has joined the ranks of the top 50 economies in the world, and its people have made great leaps from poverty to subsistence and to initial prosperity.

Over the past seven decades, Pakistan has been committed to the path of peaceful development and to pursuing external relations on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Actively participating in international and regional affairs, it has played an important role in multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, serving as an important force in the international arena. In recent years in particular, Pakistan has been actively involved in the international fight against terrorism and UN peacekeeping operations, and made enormous sacrifice for and great contribution to world peace and regional stability.

The peace-loving people of Pakistan, having endured many hardships, are now making big strides on the path towards a bright future of development and prosperity. Though there will be twists and turns down the road, the resilient and perseverant people of Pakistan will prevail over any difficulty, and create new miracles and glories in the great cause of national prosperity, unity and people's well-being.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As close neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, China and Pakistan have a lips-and-teeth relationship. The Chinese and Pakistani peoples have maintained friendly exchanges since the dawn of human history. In the modern times, similar historical experiences and common struggles have brought our peoples closer together.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, thanks to the concerted efforts of people from all sectors in both countries, the China-Pakistan relationship has withstood the test of changes both in the international landscape and our respective countries. We have forged an all-weather friendship that is higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey, and engaged in all-round cooperation, setting a shining example of friendly state-to-state relations. We will not forget that it was Pakistan who spoke up for China and offered unconditional support at the crucial moment when New China was striving to break the external blockade and restore its lawful seat in the United Nations. We will not forget that back in the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese and Pakistani engineers and technicians, defying the harsh conditions on the snow-capped cliffs of the Karakoram mountain range, built the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway with their sweat and blood. We will not forget that it was Pakistan that offered immediate assistance to China in the wake of the massive earthquake in Wenchuan and sent all its tents in reserve to the affected areas with all its military transport aircraft.

Today, both China and Pakistan shoulder the historical mission of national rejuvenation. We are both pursuing the great dream of national prosperity and people's well-being. We need close cooperation now more than ever. During President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in 2015, our bilateral relationship was upgraded to an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, opening a new page in the history of China-Pakistan friendship and cooperation.

-- China is ready to strengthen all-round strategic cooperation with Pakistan. We need to keep the tradition of close high-level exchanges, extend firm mutual support on issues concerning each other's major interests, and strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs. China firmly supports the efforts of the Pakistani government and people to uphold independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly supports Pakistan in developing and implementing counter-terrorism policies in light of its own national conditions, improving its external environment and expanding external exchanges and cooperation.

-- China is ready to strengthen all-round economic cooperation with Pakistan. China sees Pakistan as an important partner in the Belt and Road Initiative. Following the "1+4" cooperation plan agreed by President Xi Jinping and the Pakistani leaders, we will take forward the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in line with the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and launch more early harvest projects to enhance Pakistan's capacity for independent development and deliver tangible benefits to the people along the route and all the people in Pakistan.

--China is ready to strengthen all-round people-to-people exchanges with Pakistan. We will expand cooperation in areas including education, science and technology, culture, health and sports, and encourage exchanges between youth, think-tanks, media, universities, non-governmental organizations and at the local level to enhance public support for China-Pakistan friendship and cooperation and promote closer heart-to-heart communication between our people.

As an old Chinese saying goes, "Friendship between chess playmates lasts less than a day; Friendship between diners lasts less than a month; Friendship based on power and influence lasts less than a year; Only friendship based on shared principles lasts a lifetime." What we have between China and Pakistan is a friendship based on shared aspirations and tested in adversity. It will not only last a lifetime, but also be passed on from generation to generation. No matter how the international environment may evolve and how China may grow, we will always be a good neighbor, a close friend, a trusted partner and a true brother for Pakistan.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Islamabad today is a city of fluttering national flags. On this sacred flag, the white and green colors symbolize peace and prosperity, and the star and the crescent represent light and progress. On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, I sincerely hope this great vision will guide Pakistan towards enduring peace and a bright future of prosperity and progress.

May the people of Pakistan enjoy happiness and well-being!

May the China-Pakistan friendship be everlasting!

Thank you.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 20:44:52|Editor: Liangyu

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DOHA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Qatar has launched a new direct route between Hamad Port and Pakistan's port of Karachi, Qatar's state news agency (QNA) reported Monday.

The new route, launched on Sunday, will boost trade between the two countries, and offer "fast and secure" corridor for importers and exporters, with transit time of six days from Qatar to Karachi and eight days back, the report said.

"The new shipping line provides more options for customers, exporters and importers from both countries, covering new important ports from around the world, which will play an important role in supporting trade between Qatar and its partners of the world," said Captain Abdul Aziz al Yafei, Director of Hamad Port.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt imposed land, air and sea blockade on Qatar since June 5, accusing it of financing extremist groups and allying with the Gulf Arab state's arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies the allegations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 20:44:54|Editor: Liangyu

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PARIS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Monday the terrorist attack that hit a restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso.

A group of armed men attacked a Turkish restaurant Sunday evening in downtown Ouagadougou, the capital of the Western African country, killing at least 18 and wounding many.

The French president hailed in a statement the effective mobilization of the Burkinabe authorities to put an end to the attack. The French and Burkinabe authorities remained in close contact during the night.

The French president "will meet during the day with its counterpart, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, to assess the situation," said Elysee, adding Macron "expresses his sympathy and solidarity with families of the victims."

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked French residents in Burkina Faso and French who pass by the country to avoid the region. According to French media, one French man was killed in the attack.

"The President of the Republic said that France will remain engaged with the countries of the region to continue the fight against terrorist groups and speed up the establishment of the force of the G5 Sahel," underlined the statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 21:05:21|Editor: Liangyu

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NAIROBI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's tourism stakeholders on Monday called for an end to the political tension that has persisted since the Aug. 8 polls so that the industry can continue on its recovery path.

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Najib Balala told journalists in Nairobi that Kenyans should now reconcile all political players and rebuild the country by pulling together in one direction.

"Our tourism sector is very sensitive to any instability or insecurity. We therefore urge our political leaders to guard against any remarks or actions that may jeopardize the gains made in this industry," Balala said.

"Currently our main concern is that high political temperatures will lead to the loss of all gains we have achieved in the tourism sector in the past two years," he added.

Political clashes broke out in the East African nation after the announcement of presidential results on Friday night.

The opposition coalition has claimed that over 100 people had been killed by police responding to the protests while state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the fatalities at 24.

Balala noted that perception of insecurity and political protests shows Kenya as a tourist destination which is insecure and thus scaring away visitors.

"We urge both local and international media to portray the true picture of Kenya which is that only a few pockets of protests have been witnessed and the country is not on fire," he added.

Balala thanked the Kenyan people for peacefully voting during the just concluded general elections which the international community has observed were conducted in a credible, free, fair and transparent manner.

According to Balala, Kenya is now in the high tourism season, when the country receives high numbers of international visitors.

He noted that hotels in parts of coastal areas as well as the urban centers have been affected by low occupancy due to the uncertainty around the elections.

Balala said that every Kenyan has an obligation to keep and ensure a welcoming environment for visitors, in order to grow the economy and create jobs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 21:15:24|Editor: Liangyu

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RIYADH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia has banned 95,400 individuals and 47,700 vehicles from entering Mecca for not having Hajj permits, Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.

The commander of Hajj Security Forces, Khalid Al Harbi, said that all those who want to perform Hajj are welcomed only after obtaining the required permits.

He warned violators of legal actions, saying that the police will chase them inside the ritual sites in the city and monitor them through CCTVs and police aviation.

He assured that the concerned authorities are fully ready to ensure secure Hajj for all pilgrims.

Meanwhile, the passport department highlighted on Monday that until Sunday night, a total of 675,000 foreign pilgrims arrived in the kingdom.

The country is expecting that this Hajj season will attract more than two million domestic and foreign pilgrims.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 21:30:32|Editor: Liangyu

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JUBA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Monday said the recent election outcome in Kenya that renewed President Uhuru Kenyatta's term in office remains strategic to the political and economic survival of the world's youngest nation.

President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Xinhua in Juba that Kiir has already conveyed his congratulatory message to Kenyatta and looks forward to strengthening already existing bilateral relations with the region's economic powerhouse.

"Kenya is a strategic neighbor to South Sudan and therefore its election is strategic. We congratulate whoever has won and this should not be taken as political," Ateny disclosed.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mawien Makol lauded Kenya as partner in the regional group Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) that helped broker the shaky 2015 peace agreement to end more than four years of fighting.

"Kenya is a strong partner in the IGAD and East African Community (EAC). Our relationship will stay the same and we will still pursue our relation like we used to," he said.

Oil rich and yet impoverished South Sudan became last year the sixth member of the regional trade bloc EAC that includes Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi which it hopes to benefit from in terms of trade, education, health and infrastructure services.

Kenya's port of Mombasa remains the largest transport corridor for most of the countries in the region, including land locked South Sudan that relies heavily on fuel and food imports from the region.

The war-torn country is also part of the Northern Corridor project on infrastructure in the region that is pursuing ambitious joint infrastructure projects like oil pipeline, roads and rail projects.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Kiir and his former deputy Machar led to fighting that pitied mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital forcing Machar to flee into exile.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions that have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 21:35:34|Editor: Liangyu

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ACCRA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's central bank announced here early Monday it had revoked the operating licenses of two local commercial banks, the UT Bank, a publicly listed bank, and the Capital Bank.

Its decision, according to a press release, is due to the extreme insolvency of the two banks which are not able to meet their obligations to customers.

"UT Bank and Capital Bank were deeply insolvent, meaning that their liabilities exceeded their assets, putting them in a position not to be able to meet their obligations as and when they fell due," the statement read.

Despite repeated agreements between the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and UT Bank and Capital Bank to implement an action plan to address these significant shortfalls, the statement noted that the owners and managers of UT Bank and Capital Bank had not been able to increase the capital of the banks to address the insolvency.

"Consequently, to protect customers, the BoG has decided to revoke the licenses of UT Bank and Capital Bank under a Purchase and Assumption transaction," it added.

The terms of the Purchase and Assumption transaction allows the largest state bank, GCB Bank (formerly Ghana Commercial Bank) to take over all deposit liabilities and selected assets of both UT Bank and Capital Bank.

The statement explained that these actions which were in line with the provisions of section 123 of the Banks and Specialized Deposit Taking Institutions (SDIs) Act, 2016 (Act 930) were taken in order to protect depositors funds.

"GCB will take over all the depositors' funds and will continue to provide normal banking services to customers. Depositors of these two banks will now become customers of GCB Bank. Customers may continue banking at the UT Bank and Capital Bank branch locations (which have now become branches of GCB Bank); and ATMs will continue to be available," Bank of Ghana assured the public.

While all depositors will have access to the full amount of their deposit accounts, and will be able to access their accounts and all their normal banking transactions in the GCB Bank Ltd, the central bank urged borrowers to comply with all the terms of their legally enforceable loan agreements including all conditions associated therewith, especially with regard to repayment terms.

UT bank, a medium-sized financial services provider was converted from UT Financial Services (UTFS), formerly Unique Trust Financial Services, into a full universal bank status in 2011. Capital Bank, previously First Capital Plus Bank, was also converted from First Capital Plus Saving and Loans Company to a commercial bank in December 2013.

The two were among nine banks which had been suffering insolvency leading to a request by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for steps to be taken to shore up the Capital Adequacy Ratio of such banks or have them dissolved.

The seven others, according to the Bank of Ghana, had met the capital adequacy requirements as of July 2017, leaving only UT Bank and Capital Bank.

When contacted by Xinhua, Stephen Asimeng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UT Bank confirmed knowledge of the decision but declined any further comments.

Until the collapse of the two banks the West African country had 36 commercial banks with three more licenses waiting to be issued, as market analysts argue for merges among some of the smaller banks to create enough capital space for them to be able to compete in the ever growing industry.
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 21:45:39|Editor: Liangyu

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WINDHOEK, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A delegation from the Malawi education ministry is in Namibia to consult about best education practices.

The objective of the visit is to learn best practices from Namibia that would be instrumental in the crafting of Malawi's harmonized teacher management strategy geared towards improved education provision and service delivery at schools, said Ellen Simango, head of delegation and Deputy Director of Basic Education at the Malawian Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

According to Simango, Malawi faces various challenges and is grappling with education provision, particularly teacher management and recruitment, given that Malawi has no coordinated and harmonized teacher management policies in place.

Enrolment in primary phase in Malawi increased to 4.9 million and 3.8 million respectively after the implementation of free education in 1994, from 1.3 million before 1994.

"This has also put pressure of the demand for teachers, and thus our learners/teacher ratio in urban areas stands at 78:1 in urban areas and 100: 1 in rural areas," said Simango.

Malawian Economist, Evance Kazembe, who is also part of the Malawian delegation, added that the policies and regulations in place at the moment vary from place to place, which is making it difficult to address the various challenges the country faces, especially teacher management.

"It has been a challenge to retain teachers especially in rural areas and overall management of teachers as Malawi does not have a harmonized policy in this regard." Simango said.

Veno Kauaria, acting Permanent Secretary in Namibia's Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, said that the delegation will also visit schools and key programs.

The delegation will conduct the study tour from Aug. 14th to 18th in Windhoek. Thereafter, the delegation will proceed to Botswana to further explore and tap on the country's best practices in education.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 21:50:45|Editor: Liangyu

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BRUSSELS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission seeks to present measures to closer scrutinize foreign investment in September, a move widely reported by media to target at countries including China as the bloc sees increasing presence of Chinese companies.

"We are working on this and plan to present concrete initiatives in Autumn," Annika Breidthardt, spokesperson of the executive arm, told a press briefing.

Breidthardt said concerns on foreign funds had been raised and seen in public but declined to mention specific cases the Commission was screening. She asked reporters to wait for more information till September.

The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has laid out his policy agenda to protect the bloc's trade in September last year and work has been done regarding trade defense instruments, said Breidthardt.

A document adopted by the Commission in May cautioned that foreign companies, notably some state-owned enterprises, took over European companies in key industries. The European Council in June asked the Commission to screen foreign inputs in those "strategic sector."

Media reported that Juncker would announce measures in September to tackle perceived gaps in the EU's armoury compared with the United States and other major economies in vetting foreign takeovers in strategic sectors.

The move reportedly emerged as Europe worried that China may gain a technological edge by buying European know-how.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:05:51|Editor: An

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Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain (R) meets with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (L) in Islamabad, Pakistan, Aug. 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain met with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang here on Monday on consolidating friendly ties between the two countries.

Hussain extended gratitude to China for sending a delegation to attend the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan.

Pakistan and China are "iron friends," he said, noting that Pakistan's friendship with China forms the foundation of Pakistan's foreign policy.

He said Pakistan will continue to firmly support China on issues concerning China's core interests, and enhance cooperation with China on international and regional affairs.

The Pakistani president also pledged that Pakistan will actively join the Belt and Road Initiative and promote the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Wang, for his part, said the relationship between China and Pakistan has maintained sound and stable development and become a model of country-to-country relations since they forged diplomatic ties 66 years ago.

China is ready to make joint efforts with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, continue to deepen strategic mutual trust, and understand and support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, Wang said.

The Chinese vice premier also mentioned boosting cooperation with Pakistan on counter-terrorism, security, and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

He said the two sides should further enrich the connotation of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and pass the friendship from generation to generation.

On Sunday, Wang met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on deepening pragmatic cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:05:53|Editor: Liangyu

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ANKARA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and 18 others wounded early Monday in a bus crash in the Turkish capital Ankara, local media reported.

The accident occurred on the Konya-Ankara highway as the bus was heading to the southern coastal province of Hatay from northeastern Balikesir province, according to Daily Sabah.

The bus carrying 49 people reportedly lost control and rolled off the highway.

Ambulances have been dispatched to the scene of the accident and officials feared the death toll may rise.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:15:56|Editor: Liangyu

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LAMU, Kenya, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's rescuers have retrieved six bodies from the boat which capsized following heavy tides in the Indian Ocean on Monday.

Coast regional police commander Larry Kieng said two people including a local politician and a captain of the boat were rescued alive, noting that the boat was carrying 11 family members from Kizingiti to Lamu County when it capsized.

"The search and rescue operation has so far retrieved six bodies including three children. It seems the politician survived the tragedy but lost his entire family," Kieng said.

Lamu's Operation Linda Boni Director Joseph Kanyiri said the boat was carrying 11 family members when it capsized due to heavy tides.

He said a team of Kenya Navy and Marine police are currently conducting search and rescue operations in the Indian Ocean.

"We were alerted of the incident and dispatched marine patrol boats for rescue and search. The politician was rescued alive and is in stable condition," said Kanyiri.

He said a search for other family members including his wife and children is ongoing.

Kanyiri also said search efforts were being hindered by high tides at the ocean.

In June, nine people were killed when a passenger boat capsized in the Indian Ocean in Lamu.

The boat was on its way from Lamu Island to Ndau village in Lamu East when it encountered rough tides at the Mkanda channel. About 30 passengers were on board.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:15:58|Editor: Liangyu

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BERLIN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Eric Schweitzer, president of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), urged politicians on Monday to do more to resolve the skills shortage faced by businesses in Germany.

Speaking on German radio "SWR" on Monday, Schweitzer said that the difficulty firms experienced when trying to find qualified staff was their single biggest challenge. In contrast, other international risks including the Britain's exit from the European Union were merely secondary.

The DIHK chief voiced concerns that there were too many individuals in Germany who either had no jobs training and education, or had been unemployed for long stretches of time.

Schweitzer was sceptical that the mass arrival of refugees would do more than partially alleviate the situation however.

Migration only supported the economy when people were recruited abroad for specific vacancies, he argued.

German policymakers should therefore invest a greater effort in persuading older people to retire later.

Schweitzer also called on more women to join the full-time labor force, but said this requires improved public infrastructure, such as day-care centers, to enable individuals to combine careers with family life.

The number of vacancies in Germany has reached a new record high in the second quarter 2017. According to figures released by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB), there were nearly 1.1 million unfilled positions between April and June, a growth of about 35,000 positions over the first quarter.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:21:02|Editor: Liangyu

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KIEV, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The German Investment and Development Corporation allocated 10 million U.S. dollars for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ukraine, the press service of the German Embassy in Ukraine said Monday in a statement.

The fund, which was earmarked on the behalf of the German federal government, would help Ukrainian SMEs gain access to long-term financing, the statement said.

The investment is designed to spur the growth of Ukrainian enterprises, improve the quality of their business management, create new jobs and stimulate other private and institutional investments, it said.

The lion's share of the investment will be directed to support export-oriented industries, such as information technology, light manufacturing and food-related businesses.

Another part of the fund will go to companies in the e-commerce, health care and other sectors that are geared towards the domestic market.

About 2 million small- and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine are considered the backbone of the country's economy, forming 59 percent of the gross domestic product.

Lack of resources and inappropriate management are among the main challenges for Ukrainian SMEs' development, according to local experts.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:31:05|Editor: Mengjie

Huang Youliang, a former "comfort woman", stays at home in Yidui Village of Lingshui County, south China's Hainan Province, Aug. 2, 2017. Huang died at the age of 90 on Aug. 12. A total of 24 Chinese comfort women, including Huang, have attempted to sue the Japanese government in four cases since 1995, all have failed. Old age is taking the lives of "comfort women," a euphemism for girls and women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese during WWII. Across the Chinese mainland, only 14 comfort women are still alive, according to the Research Center for Comfort Women at Shanghai Normal University. And, some 400,000 women across Asia were forced to be "comfort women" for the Japanese army during WWII, and nearly half of them were Chinese, according to the Research Center for Comfort Women. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

HAIKOU, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Huang Youliang died before release of a documentary about her story, without receiving the justice and apology she had longed for for most of her lifetime.

As the documentary "Twenty-Two" featuring Chinese "comfort women" during the Second World War drew tears at cinemas on Monday, 90-year-old Huang lay in a wooden coffin in her son's living room.

Her funeral was held on Monday. On the table in Yidui Village, south China's Hainan Province, sat five bowls and a bottle of locally-made sweet potato wine, while her relatives and neighbors wept as they said goodbye.

Old age is taking the lives of "comfort women," a euphemism for girls and women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese during WWII.

Among the 22 women featured in the documentary, 14 have passed away since 2014. Across the Chinese mainland, only 14 comfort women are still alive, according to the Research Center for Comfort Women at Shanghai Normal University.

A week prior to Huang's death, Xinhua reporters visited her at her home to record the painful and unforgotten wartime history.

INCURABLE WAR SCARS

Huang lived in a small house. A wooden table, three plastic basins, a bowl, a pair of chopsticks, and a wheelchair covered with dust were among her few possessions. Weighing less than 40 kilograms, she was unable to get out of bed.

A three-month-old kitten given to her by a neighbor seemed to be the only sign of vitality in her room.

"I'm old and waiting for death. Death is inevitable," she said.

The ravages of WWII spread across the globe. Although the war ended more than 70 years ago, its ghosts linger on for some of its oldest, almost forgotten victims.

When Japanese troops invaded Huang's hometown in Hainan in 1941, the then 15-year-old girl was harvesting rice. The soldiers chased her back to her home, where they raped her.

They returned to her home every day. The scared girl hid at a neighbor's house. But when the soldiers beat and threatened her parents, Huang had no choice but come out of hiding.

Her nightmare did not end. She was later taken to a brothel where she forced to be a sex slave for Japanese soldiers for two years. Many women in her circumstances died of disease, abuse or suicide.

A villager lied to Japanese soldiers that Huang's father had died and request she be allowed to attend the funeral. Huang's family then set up two fake tombs, claiming that the girl had killed herself. They escaped and dared not return until the war ended.

Being forced to be comfort women was an unspeakable shame for many women. Huang married a leprosy patient who knew of her past but it was not a happy marriage.

UNFORGOTTEN HISTORY

Some 400,000 women across Asia were forced to be comfort women for the Japanese army during WWII, and nearly half of them were Chinese, according to the Research Center for Comfort Women.

Su Zhiliang, director of the center, said besides repeated sexual assaults, they were also forced to undertake manual labor.

The tragic chapter of Chen Liancun's life unfolded when her village were forced to mend roads by the Japanese army. Chen, a good-looking 13-year-old girl, was raped by soldiers most nights.

Chen, now 91, is still scared of Japanese, even those shown on TV dramas. Her son has had to move the television from her room.

The tragedies experienced by the comfort women are some of the worst crimes committed by Japanese military, Su said, "It was heinous and such crimes were rarely seen in human history."

When another surviving comfort woman, Wang Zhifeng, 92, was asked if she would accept an apology from descendants of those Japanese soldiers who hurt her, she said "I will. But I must tell them what their grandfathers or fathers have done."

However, even after 70 years, they have still not received one word of apology from the Japanese government for the massive violation of human rights.

A total of 24 Chinese comfort women, including Huang, have attempted to sue the Japanese government in four cases since 1995, all have failed.

Time is degrading the visible reminders of the atrocities. At the site of a "comfort station," one of the two rooms has collapsed, and walls of the other have been stripped. A three-meter-long crack extends from the foot of the wall to the second floor.

More than 20 kilometers away from this comfort station, Huang was buried in an open area near her home. The painful history will not disappear with her.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:31:08|Editor: yan

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NAIROBI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to target Chinese tourists in order to boost the resilience of the tourism sector, officials said on Monday.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) chairman Jimi Kariuki told Xinhua in Nairobi that for Kenya, China is one of that nations that have posted double digit growth of tourists in the past three years.

"We are therefore going to enhance our marketing activities in China, in order to cushion the tourism sector from fluctuations in tourist arrivals from our traditional source markets in the west," Kariuki said on the sidelines of a tourism stakeholders forum.

He noted that China is one of the key markets that Kenya will continue to focus in future.

Government data indicates out of the 874,385 international visitors in Kenya in 2016, about 69,000 were Chinese nationals. The number of Chinese tourists increased by 35 percent in 2016.

"According to our projections, we also expect to experience a 35 percent increase or more of Chinese tourists in 2017," Kariuki said.

He said that Kenya and other African countries are still not familiar to Chinese tourists and most Chinese prefer to visit cities in Europe and North America.

"However, over time we are seeing increased interest in the African continent primarily due to its abundant wildlife resources," he added.

KTB said that most Chinese visitors come to Kenya to visit the world famous Masai Mara National Reserve that is home to the annual wildebeest migration.

The tourism agency noted that the presence of direct flights between the Kenya and China has also helped to increase the number of Chinese tourists coming to the east African country.
A man demonstrates along the streets of Garissa, Kenya, Aug. 10, 2017. Kenyan police used teargas canisters to break up violent demonstrations in the northeast border town of Garissa on Thursday following clashes between rival political supporters. (Xinhua/Fred Mutune)

NAIROBI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday called on police officers to exercise restraint and provide protection during peaceful and lawful post-election protests in accordance with the law.

Speaking for the first time since his re-election on Friday, Kenyatta called on those not happy with the outcome of the Aug. 8 polls to pursue constitutional means to address their grievances and urged Kenyans to resume work as they maintain peace and unity.

"We don't need to fight one another, destroy property and lose lives because of an election. We continue to appeal to those who are not satisfied to use the legal mechanism which has been created by our wonderful constitution," he told journalists in Nairobi.

He was speaking after holding his first security meetings since the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) declared him winner of the presidential elections held last week.

Kenyatta who met security chiefs in Nairobi to assess the security situation in the country, thanked the police for a sterling job in keeping law and order throughout the electioneering period, but urged them to exercise the greatest of restraint when dealing with any protesters.

The Kenyan leader thanked millions of Kenyans who have returned to work, saying their engagements were key to moving the levers of the nation's economy.

He called on those not satisfied with the election outcome to tackle their grievances by following the laid down legal mechanisms as outlined in the Kenyan constitution.

Kenyatta said Kenyans don't need to fight over an election outcome, and said police stood ready to facilitate peaceful demonstrations for those aggrieved by the outcome.

He reiterated that all Kenyans have a constitutional right to express themselves in a peaceful manner, but the government would not allow the disruption of other people's lives and property in that process.

Kenyatta was declared winner in the Aug. 8 presidential elections after he garnered 8.20 million votes or 54.27 per cent of the votes cast while his main rival, Raila Odinga garnered 6.76 million votes.

Odinga has since rejected the outcome, saying the election was not fair and credible despite international observers giving it a clean bill of health.

Kenyatta's swearing-in of second five-year term would be held on Aug. 29, barring an election petition in the Supreme Court. If such a petition was filed, then an alternative date of Sept. 12 would also be in play.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:51:20|Editor: yan

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BUDAPEST, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Hungary on Monday sent back its answers to the European Commission (EC) regarding the infraction procedures against the laws regulating Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) and the Central European University (CEU), Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice Pal Volner said here on Monday.

"In these letters Hungary has shown that the restrictions in question were both necessary and proportionate," Volner said, adding that "It is not our fault if these restrictions violate the interests of George Soros."

A Hungarian law hastily approved in April threatens to shut down the Soros-founded Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.

The CEU argues that the law is specifically against itself, because the Hungarian-born American billionaire George Soros is seen as meddling in the internal affairs of Hungary.

However, the accusation was rejected by the Hungarian government, who says the new regulation only removes advantages that 28 foreign-registered universities enjoy over local institutions like offering degrees accredited in two countries.

The CEU gives both Hungarian and American diplomas, yet has campus only in Hungary.

"But George Soros cannot stand above the law in Hungary, and we hope that the European Commission will get back to the rule of law," Volner explained.

If treaties are not signed between Hungary and both the U.S. federal and New York State governments, CEU could lose its operating licence for the 2018-19 academic year. Hungary and New York State are currently in talks.

Volner pointed that the dispute going on between Hungary and the EU was "rather of political than legal nature."

He also deplored that the European Commission has only given one month to Hungary to answer, versus earlier, when they had two months to present its standpoint.

"They systematically and arbitrarily undermine our right to protection, they want to make a decision on these matters as soon as possible," he added.

Volner also said that since the education matters are under national jurisdiction, the authority of the European Commission in this question was questionable.

Citing examples of similar laws in Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic, he said if Hungary's regulation was not good, procedures should be launched against these countries as well.

He further said "Both the United States and Israel have similar regulations, furthermore, even the EU is preparing a similar set of rules."

Hungary's parliament approved in June a law on foreign-backed civil society groups despite international concern, in a move seen as targeting U.S. billionaire George Soros.

The new regulation stipulates that groups receiving more than 7.2 million forints (about 25,000 U.S. dollars) annually in overseas funding must register as a "foreign-supported organization", or risk closure for non-compliance. They also have to use the label "foreign-supported organization" on their websites, press releases and other publications.

The Hungarian government says the measures are aimed at improving transparency as well as fighting money laundering and terrorism funding.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 22:56:22|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The possible deployment of the THAAD missile shield in Japan will strengthen the U.S. global missile defense system, much to Moscow's displeasure, a Russian expert told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Russia is worried about the deployment of THAAD in Japan because the entire Far East will be covered by powerful U.S. radars," said Valery Kistanov, head of the Japanese Studies Center at the Far Eastern Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

THAAD, the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile interception system, can peer deeply into the territories of China and Russia with its AN/TPY-2 radar, breaking the strategic balance in the region and boosting an arms race.

While part of the THAAD system has been installed in South Korea despite strong protests by local residents, Japanese officials have expressed an interest in introducing the missile shield.

The United States is strengthening its missile defense in Europe west of Russia and in South Korea and Japan to the east, encircling Russia like pincers, Kistanov told Xinhua.

"In this case, Russia will opt for an even closer partnership with China in terms of countering Japanese-U.S. cooperation in the field of missile defense," he said.

Russia and Japan both claim a group of islands off Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

The decades-old territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered their diplomatic and trade relations.

Amid rising tensions in Northeast Asia, Russia is beefing up its military hardware on the disputed islands, but Japan opposes the strengthening of the Russian presence.

Japan's recently published white paper on defense reiterated that these islands are "illegally occupied," but Kistanov said Russia's sovereignty is ensured by a number of international legal documents and without doubt.

"The United States shares the responsibility for creating this territorial problem ... It is not interested in signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan," said the Russian expert.

Washington has always acted in accordance with the "divide and rule" principle, and the absence of a peace treaty and the existence of a territorial dispute make Japan a more manageable country, he said.

"The United States will continue to insist that the peace treaty be signed only after Russia gives all the four islands to Japan. But this is unrealistic," said Kistanov.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:11:29|Editor: yan

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HONG KONG, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Food safety authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) decided on Monday to further enhance checks on eggs at import level and expand the measure to poultry eggs from all countries of the European Union (EU).

Since two egg samples imported from the Netherlands were found to contain excessive fipronil, a pesticide, earlier this month, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the HKSAR's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has stepped up holding poultry eggs from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France for testing at import level.

"For the sake of prudence, the arrangement has been extended to cover other EU countries," a spokesman for the CFS said Monday. "The CFS will also hold poultry eggs from EU countries for testing at import level and they will only be released to the market for sale upon satisfactory test results."

The spokesman added that the CFS has also enhanced surveillance in the local market on eggs from EU countries.

Other than the unsatisfactory Dutch egg samples announced earlier this month, the CFS has not found any other unsatisfactory samples, it said, adding that based on the levels of the pesticide detected in the egg samples, adverse health effects will not be caused under usual consumption.

As for the affected batch of the Dutch eggs, the importer has recalled the eggs in accordance with the instructions of the CFS.

The CFS "has maintained liaison with the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Commission, the Dutch and Belgian authorities over the incident, and will continue to take appropriate follow-up action with regard to the information provided by the authorities concerned and latest developments of the incident," the spokesman said.

In the first six months of this year, poultry eggs imported from the EU countries were less than 2 percent of the total volume of poultry eggs imported to Hong Kong, according to the CFS.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:16:31|Editor: yan

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BRUSSELS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, or Frontex, said on Monday that the number of migrants who illegally entered the European Union (EU) in July was fewer than half of the number registered last month.

According to a statement of the agency, 15,400 migrants illegally entered the EU in July, making the total number of illegal border crossings by migrants in the first seven months fell by two-thirds from the same period of last year to 127,100.

Italy continued to face high migratory pressure on main migratory routes into the EU, the Central Mediterranean, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Western Mediterranean and the Western Balkans.

In July, the number of migrants arriving in Italy through the Central Mediterranean route fell 57 percent compared to the previous month to 10,160, the lowest level for the month of July since 2014.

Worse sea conditions and increased presence of the Libyan Coast Guard contributed to the significant drop in activity on the Central Mediterranean route in recent weeks, said the statement.

However, Spain was under the heaviest migratory pressure since 2009 as the migrants crossed the Western Mediterranean in July reached 2,300, more than four times the figure from a year ago.

Most migrants on this route have come from the Cote d'Ivoire, Morocco, Gambia and Guinea.

On the Eastern Balkans route, the number of migrants coming to the Greek islands dropped to 2,300 in July, down a quarter from the previous month.

In the first seven months of this year, roughly 15,750 migrants reached Greece, 90 percent fewer than in the same period of 2016.

Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans accounted for the majority of migrants on the Eastern Mediterranean route in July.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:21:32|Editor: yan

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LUSAKA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's leading opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema on Monday denied treason charge slapped on him when he appeared in court for the start of the trial.

Hakainde Hichilema, leader of the opposition United Party for National Development and five others were arrested in April this year and charged with treason. They have been in prison since then because treason is not bailable in Zambia.

Hichilema, 55, pleaded not guilty to the charge when he appeared in the High Court to take plea.

"I strongly deny the charge," the opposition leader said when he was asked to take plea by High Court Judge Charles Chanda.

The judge has since adjourned the matter to August 16, 2017 for the commencement of trial.

According to the charge sheet, the opposition leader and his co-accused conspired to usurp state power by according him a status of the country's president and that he allegedly blocked President Edgar Lungu's motorcade on a road in western Zambia, a move that would have endangered the Zambian leader's life.

There was tight security at the court with police in riot gear surrounding the court premises. The matter has received world attention and stoked political tension in the southern African nation.

His supporters sang solidarity songs outside the court premises.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:26:36|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan has failed and Washington should withdraw its troops from the country, Special Representative of the Russian President for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said Monday.

"Since the U.S. Army is unable to do anything serious, let it leave Afghanistan," Kabulov was quoted by the Russian newspaper Izvestia as saying.

He said that, in spite of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, the country is becoming a "global incubator of international terrorism."

Kabulov said Moscow also opposes the idea of replacing the regular U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan with mercenaries, which has been increasingly discussed in the military circle in Washington.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama planned to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 9,800 to some 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when his presidency came to an end.

However, given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Obama administration repeatedly postponed the withdrawal.

Currently, there are about 8,400 U.S. troops and 5,000 forces from other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the ground in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan forces against the Taliban and conduct counter-terrorism missions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:36:41|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A judge on Monday denied bail to a man accused of ramming a car into a group of protesters in Charlottesville in the U.S. state of Virginia, killing one and injuring 19 others.

Twenty-year-old James Fields of Ohio was denied bail and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run, according a district court in Charlottesville.

The next hearing for Fields is set for Aug. 25, according to the court.

Fields rammed his Dodge Challenger into a group of protesters demonstrating against White supremacist groups in Charlottesville Saturday, killing a 32-year-old woman. He was arrested by police after attempting to flee from the scene.

A teacher who taught Fields said the young man had revealed radical thoughts and was fascinated with Nazism, U.S. media reported.

Thousands of white nationalists, neo-Confederates and right-wing protesters, as well as groups that oppose them, clashed Saturday in Charlottesville, resulting in three deaths.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:41:50|Editor: yan

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By Stefania Fumo

ROME, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Italy may call on the EU to help save migrants off vessels in distress in the Mediterranean after three humanitarian NGOs suspended operations there, Italian media reported Monday.

The Italian government may request search-and-rescue assistance from EU Operation Triton, a border control mission, and EU Operation Sophia, an anti-human trafficker mission, Italy's public broadcaster RAI reported.

This comes after aid groups Doctors without Borders (MSF), Save the Children, and Sea Eye announced at the weekend they were suspending rescue operations, following a security warning issued by Italy.

"Libyan authorities have threatened all NGO units operating in the Sea Rescue Region Libya," read a memo from the Rome-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) tweeted by the Huffington Post UK and titled "possible security risks".

The memo is addressed to the Vos Prudence and the Vos Hestia, two rescue ships manned by MSF and Save the Children, respectively.

MSF specified that it is suspending operations because it will not cooperate with Libya, a country it says cannot guarantee the human rights of rescued migrants and refugees.

Another NGO, Germany's Jugend Rettet, has had its vessel seized by Italy as part of an investigation into alleged contacts between aid workers and human traffickers.

However on Monday, the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) tweeted it was setting sail for the Search-and-Rescue (SAR) area in international waters off Libya.

The humanitarian NGOs launched their vessels beginning in 2015, in response to mass drownings in the Mediterranean.

Since then, they have been working under coordination by the Italian Coast Guard to rescue tens of thousands of people fleeing war and destitution in North Africa and the Middle East.

The migrants and refugees pay hefty sums to human traffickers, who pack them onto unseaworthy boats with the promise of taking them to Italy, the first European landfall on the so-called Central Mediterranean route. Also on Monday, the UN-affiliated International Organization on Migration (IOM) said the central Mediterranean is "the deadliest migration route in the world, with more than 14,500 deaths recorded in this area since 2014."

So far in 2017 there have been 2,224 migrant fatalities on the so-called Central Mediterranean route, meaning that 1 in 36 people perished, up from 1 in 88 reported missing or dead in 2016, the IOM tweeted.

The rise was due to "increasingly dangerous smuggling practices" such as using increasingly flimsy vessels, according to IOM staff in Libya and Italy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:46:53|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Monday opened the Rafah border crossing to allow Gaza Strip's pilgrims to leave the blockaded coastal enclave to travel to Saudi Arabia, local media reported.

The first group of about 800 pilgrims crossed the Rafah crossing on Monday to go to the Cairo International Airport, from where they will fly to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

A total of 2,508 Muslim pilgrims from the Gaza Strip will travel to Saudi to attend the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage for Muslims from across the world, the report said.

Gaza has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt since 2007 after the Hamas movement took over the enclave from the rule by the Palestinian National Authority.

Egypt opens Rafah crossing and the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing with Israel, only when need arises for humanitarian reasons, the report said.

Meanwhile, EgyptAir announced Monday that it will start transporting Palestinian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia as of Tuesday via three flights that will take off from the Cairo International Airport to Jeddah, the Egyptian official news agency MENA reported.

The Egyptian national carrier said in a statement that it will fly 21 flights, including 11 flights to Jeddah and 10 lights to al Madina al Monawara, to transport about 4,530 Hajj pilgrims.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:46:59|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the latest developments in Syria on the phone on Monday.

Rouhani and Putin urged coordinated efforts to put an end to the six-year conflict in the Arab stat, Press TV reported. No details were revealed about the conversation.

Both presidents also discussed the latest mutual, regional and international issues.

Russia and Iran have emerged as the stunt regional allies to the Syrian government in its struggle against the militants in the seven year conflict.

Last week, representatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey held an expert-level meeting in the capital Tehran on Syria.

The meeting aimed to set the agenda of imminent Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana at the end of this month.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:52:01|Editor: yan

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ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 Yemeni civilians were killed and seven others injured in a roadside bomb blast in the country's southern province of al-Dhalea on Monday, a police official told Xinhua.

According to the police source, the blast occurred in Qatabah district of al-Dhalea province when civilian vehicles running along a main road touched off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by terrorists.

Local medical sources confirmed that the violent explosion resulted in the killing of 17 civilians.

A local government official blamed the al-Qaida militant group for planting the IED in the district of Qatabah in an obvious attempt to blow up military vehicles passing through the area.

"The al-Qaida terrorists apparently planned to target the pro-government forces by IED but they failed and killed innocent civilians," the government source said.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

Yemen's government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.

UN statistics showed that more than 8,000 people have been killed in Yemen's conflict, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in 2015.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera outbreak, where about 5,000 cases are reported every day.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:57:03|Editor: yan

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SANAA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A man convicted for raping and murdering a five-year-old girl was executed in a public square in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday morning, and his body then was hung by a crane in front of thousands of onlookers.

This is the second execution in the street in front of thousands of people in Sanaa against convicts of raping and murdering children in exactly two weeks.

The man, 22-year-old Hussein Abdullah al-Sakit, was brought in a heavy guarded police vehicle to Tahrir Square in downtown Sanaa in the morning.

Handcuffed, facedown, he was put down to the ground in the middle of the square and a soldier fired around seven shots from his AK-47 from a very close distance.

Overwhelming with tears, the father and family members of the victim five-year-old Safa Mohammed Tahir thanked the justice.

A big crane then pulled the body of al-Sakit and raised it about 30 meters up in the air for about half an hour amid a large-scale approval from thousands of the onlookers.

"God is the greatest... thanks for the justice," the crowd loudly shouted.

Judicial authorities, senior officials and media outlets attended the event.

On July 31, the judicial authorities executed Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, in the same square for raping and murdering three-year-old girl Rana al-Matary.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:57:04|Editor: Yamei

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying (Photo source: fmprc.gov.cn)

BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- China said Monday that a China-U.S. trade war would lead nowhere, as President Donald Trump is poised to begin a trade investigation into China.

Trump is reportedly expected to sign an executive order Monday asking his trade office to consider an investigation into China over alleged theft of American technology and intellectual property.

"With the increasingly interwoven interests between China and the United States, a trade war will lead nowhere and neither side will win," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing.

The China-U.S. trade relationship is win-win in nature. The two sides should resolve their concerns through dialogue and protect the healthy development of economic relations, Hua said.

China has always attached importance to protecting intellectual property rights by formulating laws and regulations, cracking down on violations and raising public awareness of intellectual property rights protection, she said.

The United States should objectively evaluate China's progress in this regard and China's economic achievement through homegrown innovation, Hua said.

She refuted any intention by the United States to use the trade issue in exchange for Chinese pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, saying "the Korean Peninsula issue and trade fall into different spheres."

China and the United States should respect and cooperate with each other on the two separate issues, Hua said. "It would not be proper to use one as a tool to exert pressure on the other."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-14 23:57:05|Editor: yan

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WARSAW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Poland's government has clashed with EU institutions several times recently, notably on the issues of judiciary system's reform, the logging of Bialowieza forest, migration crisis and the EC's reform proposals on the posted workers directive.

The judiciary system's reform, launched by the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), has drawn criticism from the European Union, which has sent Warsaw several warnings, and finally ended up with the infringement procedure against Poland, launched by the European Commission on July 29th.

The European Commission frowned on the power invested in Polish justice minister to dismiss and appoint court presidents and accused it of undermining judicial independence. The Law on the Ordinary Courts Organization and the Law on the National School of Judiciary have finally entered in force.

Polish President, Andrzej Duda, however, decided to veto two of the three judicial bills aimed at reorganizing the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), which were also subject to the European Union's criticism. The Polish government said the infringement procedure was "unjustified".

The EU also accused the reform of falling foul of gender equality in employment, as the law introduced a different retirement age for female and male judges. Same problem concerns the rest of society, after the government's decision to reintroduce a varied retirement age. Top EU officials for justice and gender equality reminded Poland that equal treatment was a key pillar of the EU.

Another source of conflict is the cutting in Bialowieza, ancient forest listed as the UNESCO heritage site. Located on Poland's eastern border with Belarus, it boasts unique plant and animal life. Large-scale logging authorized by the Polish government began in May 2016, allegedly to cease damage caused by a spruce bark beetle infestation.

On July 28, the EU top court ordered an immediate halt to logging in this place, except in situations threatening public safety. Earlier same month, the World Heritage Committee also strongly urged Poland to stop logging and wood extraction of the older parts of the forest.

Responding to this order, Polish Ministry of the Environment informed that the measures taken in Bialowieza Forest were in accordance with the Court's decision and only intended to ensure public safety.

The Polish government and the EU's attitudes vary also on the refugee issue. On July 26, the European Commission pressed ahead to the second stage of legal actions against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland over refugee sharing for "non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation". This move came a month and a half after the Commission launched infringement procedures by sending "letters of formal notice".

According to the Commission, Poland and Hungary haven't taken in any refugees since September 2015, when EU member states pledged to relocate a total of 160,000 migrants within two years. If the counties still refuse to comply, they might face a financial penalty.

Poland did not agree with this decision. Polish foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski said that forced resettlement cannot be associated with any kind of European policy and receiving migrants cannot be imposed by any European institution.

The country, on the other hand, has also criticized the EC for the reform proposals related to the posted workers directive, which, according to Polish deputy prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, could undermine the competitiveness of the European economy

In 2016, the European Commission presented a draft amendment to posted workers directive, including the principle of equal pay for the same work in the same place. This means that an employee sent to work temporarily in another EU country would have to earn the same wage as the local worker doing the same tasks and obtain local benefits.

Poland claims these rules extremely unfavorable for Polish firms which delegate nearly half a million workers to western Europe. It would increase costs for companies sending employees to a country with higher labor costs, for example, Polish firms dispatching workers to Germany.

Criticizing the amendment, Morawiecki underlined that free movement of goods, capital, services and labor were the key elements of the EU's single market.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 00:07:10|Editor: yan

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DHAKA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Troops have been deployed in at least seven northern Bangladesh districts as flood water pouring down hills engulfed almost the entire region.

Officials in Dinajpur district, some 338 km northwest of capital Dhaka, said flood situation in the district deteriorated drastically since early Sunday, with major protection embankments developing massive cracks.

The situation in adjacent Lalmonirhat and Kurigram was also described by officials as critical, with hundreds of thousands of people marooned by on- rushing water.

As flood ravages continued in about one-third of Bangladesh, 14 more people died Monday, raising the death toll to 32 since Sunday, local sources said.

Members of the Bangladesh Army have been mobilized to support the local government to tackle flood, Dinajpur district administration chief Mir Khairul Alam told journalists Monday.

Hundreds of Army troops have already been deployed so far in seven northern Bangladesh districts to repair embankments and conduct rescue operations.

Flood- protection embankments in the districts continued to get battering from rapid flooding waters, rushing downhill in the Indian states, neighboring the north and northwestern bulge of Bangladesh.

Rail links between the region and the rest of Bangladesh snapped Monday when miles of stretch of the railway track running through the region went under water.

Road links also broke down. According to officials at the Flood Warning and Forecasting Center in Dhaka, all the major rivers in the districts and elsewhere in the country continued to rise through Monday.

The collapse of communications systems has hampered emergency relief operations in places of the flood-hit areas.

Floods have so far reportedly hit 20 districts, mostly in the country's north.

The country's Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said more areas are likely to be inundated as water continued to rise amid monsoon rains and onrush of water from the upstream.

Sazzad Hossain of the flood forecasting agency said rising water-level was recorded at 69 out of the 90 monitoring points of the rivers across the country Monday.

According to flood forecasting agency, the entire flood situation will aggravate over the next few days as the water-level on the the major Jamuna River was at a record 126 cm above the danger level on Monday, breaking the previous record of 121 cm last year.

Bangladesh's Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya Monday said some 600,000 people across Bangladesh have been affected by the flash floods, with about 368,586 people taking refuge in shelters.

He said the government is well prepared to face any situation and ease people's suffering with adequate food stock.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 00:17:15|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese army on Monday has received the first batch of the weapon and ammunition assistance provided by the United States.

The delivery ceremony took place at Beirut port in the presence of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun's Representative Brigadier General Jean Farah, and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard in addition to other Lebanese and U.S. army officials.

The military aid delivered included eight M2A2 Bradley fighting vehicles and 10 armored field artillery ammunition supply vehicles.

Another 24 Bradley fighting vehicles will be delivered to Lebanese army in the coming months, with a total value of over 100 million U.S. dollars.

Richard said that the delivery hopefully would provide the Lebanese forces with new capabilities to protect Lebanese borders and to fight terrorists.

She pointed that "over the next several months, the army will undergo intensive training on how to operate and maintain this new, very sophisticated combat system."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 00:17:18|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Monday held talks with a Hamas delegation to discuss ways to end rift and enhance Palestinian unity.

During the meeting, Hamdallah urged the Hamas movement, that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, to accept the initiative of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for achieving Palestinian unity, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Abbas' initiative includes a call on Hamas to end the division, dissolve the Hamas administrative committee that is ruling the Gaza Strip, and enable the national consensus government to freely work in Gaza to relieve the suffering of Gaza residents.

These measures will lead to holding presidential and legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamdallah said the Palestinian people "should be united in facing the Israeli aggression against them and their holy places."

Since the renewed violence between Palestinians and Israel in mid-July over Israel's moves to impose stricter control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, there have been calls for Palestinian unity to deal with Israel's challenges.

The Hamas movement has been ruling the Gaza Strip as its de facto government since its takeover of the coastal enclave in 2007 from the rule of Palestinian National Authority.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas already met with a Hamas delegation in Ramallah on Aug. 1 to discuss ways to achieve Palestinian unity in the wake of violent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians over the dispute on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 00:22:20|Editor: ying

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NEW DELHI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 41 people have died in floods in the eastern Indian state of Bihar in the past three days, a top government official said Monday.

More than 6 million people have been affected in 12 districts of Bihar in the floods triggered by heavy rains that hit the state as well as the neighboring country of Nepal since Friday. Out of these, some two million have also been displaced in the floods.

"So far, 41 people have died in floods. These deaths have occurred mainly in some seven districts of the state," principal secretary of the disaster management department Pratyay Amrit told the media.

"Some 20 people have died in Araria district, six in Sitamarhi, five in Kisanganj and three each in East Champaran, West Champaran and Darbhanga districts, and one in Madhubani district. An estimated six million population of 12 districts are also affected by floods," he added.

Local TV channels showed footage of Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar carrying out an aerial survey of the worst-hit districts.

The Indian Army has been called in to assist the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel in rescuing people from the flood-hit districts.

"Besides, Army column sent to Purnea, four teams of NDRF have arrived in Bihar Sunday and six more NDRF teams landed Monday to assist state to take up relief work on a war footing," the chief minister said.
A protester holds placards during a rally against the deployment of THAAD, a U.S. missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula, in front of the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, April 10, 2015. (Xinhua/Seongbin Kang)

MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The possible deployment of the THAAD missile shield in Japan will strengthen the U.S. global missile defense system, much to Moscow's displeasure, a Russian expert told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Russia is worried about the deployment of THAAD in Japan because the entire Far East will be covered by powerful U.S. radars," said Valery Kistanov, head of the Japanese Studies Center at the Far Eastern Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

THAAD, the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile interception system, can peer deeply into the territories of China and Russia with its AN/TPY-2 radar, breaking the strategic balance in the region and boosting an arms race.

While part of the THAAD system has been installed in South Korea despite strong protests by local residents, Japanese officials have expressed an interest in introducing the missile shield.

The United States is strengthening its missile defense in Europe west of Russia and in South Korea and Japan to the east, encircling Russia like pincers, Kistanov told Xinhua.

"In this case, Russia will opt for an even closer partnership with China in terms of countering Japanese-U.S. cooperation in the field of missile defense," he said.

Russia and Japan both claim a group of islands off Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

The decades-old territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered their diplomatic and trade relations.

Amid rising tensions in Northeast Asia, Russia is beefing up its military hardware on the disputed islands, but Japan opposes the strengthening of the Russian presence.

Japan's recently published white paper on defense reiterated that these islands are "illegally occupied," but Kistanov said Russia's sovereignty is ensured by a number of international legal documents and without doubt.

"The United States shares the responsibility for creating this territorial problem ... It is not interested in signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan," said the Russian expert.

Washington has always acted in accordance with the "divide and rule" principle, and the absence of a peace treaty and the existence of a territorial dispute make Japan a more manageable country, he said.

"The United States will continue to insist that the peace treaty be signed only after Russia gives all the four islands to Japan. But this is unrealistic," said Kistanov.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 00:37:38|Editor: yan

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JUBA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan has developed a one-year investment plan that seeks to boost cattle, poultry and fish production, a senior government official said Monday.

James Janga Duku, Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Resources said the plan involves development of 15 livestock laws, construction of abattoirs in all major towns and setting up poultry farms across the country, with each farm expected to produce 3,000 eggs per week.

He added that the government also seeks to increase commercial fish production by investing in modern fishing technologies, processing and value addition.

"We are grappling left and right to see that we raise the money in order to invest for the production in this (livestock) sector which is very lucrative to our economy. We must secure this within a period of one year and I hope it will be possible," Duku said.

"We need modern abattoirs that can enable us to trade in healthy meat products and also be able to give us the gateway for meat exports. I appeal to the government to give my ministry something that I'm able to point to the investors from abroad," Duku added.

According to Duku, South Sudan is home to 12 million cattle, over 28 million goats and sheep and large quantities of different fish species in swamps and the River Nile, which largely remain untapped.

He said the government has embarked on registering all practicing veterinary doctors in South Sudan to assess their qualifications and training needs in a bid to address the problem of animal health.

Duku added that a developed livestock industry would help reduce food insecurity and also diversify the economy of the oil-dependent East African nation.

"Livestock and fisheries can be tapped in the various food chains to address the food insecurity situation which is evident in our nation and also address the nutrition concerns especially for the children and the elderly," Duku said.

Moses Hassan, Minister of Trade and Industry said the government of South Sudan has identified Asia as potential market for its meat products, adding that South Sudan is eyeing closer cooperation with leading meat producers there.

"If the Asian meat market is opening up like it is happening now, we should also eye at it by putting our house in order, educating a lot of young people so that they can work in that area and also improve on our products," Hassan said.
Police stand guard near the rally site in Charlottesville, Virginia, the United States, Aug. 12, 2017. At least one person was killed in a multiple car crash following a violent white nationalist rally on Saturday in Charlottesville in Virginia, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BERLIN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday reacted with dismay to weekend far-right violence and racism in the U.S.

The event stood "in complete contrast to everything which the chancellor and the entire (German) Federal government are working towards", Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin.

"Those were absolutely repulsive scenes which were witnessed during this far-right march," he added.

By voicing such outspoken concern through her speaker, the German chancellor has gone far beyond U.S. President Donald Trump, who has so far failed to directly criticize far-right violence.

Trump came under attack, including within his own Republican party, for only making a curt statement against hatred and fanaticism "from many sides" in response to the Charlottesville incident.

A rally staged by white nationalists in Charlottesville turned violent Saturday. After hours brawls between the pro-rally far-right figures and anti-racism protesters, a sport car ploughed into crowd against the rally, killing a 32-year-old local woman and injuring 19 others.

As pressure grew from senior Republican politicians including Hispanic Senator Marco Rubio to describe the murder as an act of terrorism, the White House later added that Trump's original comments were meant to include the White Supremacist Movement, The Ku-Klux-Klan and Neonazi groups.

Merkel's dismay with the status of U.S. race relations was shared by her ruling party colleague and vice deputy leader Armin Laschet, who described the alleged murder as far-right terrorism.

Laschet said that former Republican presidents such as Ronald Reagan had taken a clear stance against racism and that he hoped that the current office holder would do the same.

The far-right rally was organized to oppose the removal of statues of Confederate leaders who fought in the U.S. civil war, amongst others to defend the widespread practice of black slavery in Southern states.

According to Seibert, Merkel felt deep regret for the death of a young woman who had joined in demonstrations against the controversial march.

"We stand in solidarity with those who peacefully oppose such aggressive, extreme right-wing opinions," Seibert described Merkel's sentiments.
U.S. soldiers guard at the site of a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 26, 2015. (Xinhua/Ahmad Massoud)

MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan has failed and Washington should withdraw its troops from the country, Special Representative of the Russian President for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said Monday.

"Since the U.S. Army is unable to do anything serious, let it leave Afghanistan," Kabulov was quoted by the Russian newspaper Izvestia as saying.

He said that, in spite of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, the country is becoming a "global incubator of international terrorism."

Kabulov said Moscow also opposes the idea of replacing the regular U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan with mercenaries, which has been increasingly discussed in the military circle in Washington.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama planned to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 9,800 to some 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when his presidency came to an end.

However, given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Obama administration repeatedly postponed the withdrawal.

Currently, there are about 8,400 U.S. troops and 5,000 forces from other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the ground in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan forces against the Taliban and conduct counter-terrorism missions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 02:33:19|Editor: yan

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GATUMBA, Burundi, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) Monday handed over to Burundi 70 Burundian refugees who voluntarily accepted to be repatriated and who had fled the country's 2015 crisis.

Those 70 Burundian refugees -- making up 24 households -- came from the Lusenda refugee camp in South Kivu province in the eastern DR Congo and were welcomed by Burundian authorities at Gatumba border post, 15 kilometers west of the Burundian capital Bujumbura.

"I respond to the call by the Burundian president who said that peace and security have now been restored to the country. The president invited us to return home," said one of the returnees who requested anonymity.

Assistant to Minister of Home Affairs and Civic Education of Burundi Terence Ntahiraja who welcomed those returnees blamed "false" news found on internet as the reason behind the refugees' refusal to return home.

"Over 70 refugees could have decided to return home, but they fear about their security in their home country after reading false news on internet. We hope that those who are still in refugee camps will know the reality via these returnees," said Ntahiraja.

Ntahiraja indicated that a tripartite meeting due in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on August 31 this year, that will bring together officials from Burundi, Tanzania and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will analyze "modalities" of repatriating Burundian refugees from all refugee camps.

Returnees were each given food and non-food assistance and 60 U.S. dollars for their integration on the community.

Burundi plunged into a crisis since April 2015 when Burundian President Nkurunziza decided to run his controversial third term in violation of the national constitution and the 2000 Arusha Agreement.

His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup on May 13, 2015.

Over 410,000 people fled to other countries mostly Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda since the outbreak of the crisis.
Visitors look at models of high-speed trains made by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) during an exhibition on China's science and technology achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) in Beijing, capital of China, June 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

LONDON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The climate for innovation in China would have been beyond the expectation of Joseph Needham, the late British scientist and sinologist known for his research on the history of Chinese science, a leading scholar has told Xinhua.

Mei Jianjun, director of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, said in an interview with Xinhua that thanks to China's strong investment in innovations and research, the country has made significant achievements in science and technology.

"These innovations have brought dramatic change to the way many Chinese people live their lives," said the professor.

"China's economy and science and technology underwent fast development in the past two decades, and some notable innovations can be seen in the transport and tech sectors such as high speed railway, WeChat (a popular instant messaging mobile application software), bike sharing services and online shopping," Mei said. "Technology and innovation have played an important role in local people's lives."

"It is simply faster in development and bigger in scale in China, thanks to the country's policy that gives great support to scientific and technological development," Mei said.

Such innovation has driven China's companies to the forefront of some pioneering tech sectors. Financial technology, or FinTech has been used to enhance financial services like mobile payment, which nowadays is being widely used in China.

As a scholar, Mei has spent his academic career in both China and Britain before joining the Needham Research Institute as its director. The Institute is named after Joseph Needham, who, over half a century ago, embarked on a long-term project to investigate the scientific and technical contribution that the Chinese people have made to human culture.

Needham's work Science and Civilization in China has helped the West recognize some of the Chinese inventions, including the Four Great Inventions, most of which were thought at the time to be Western inventions.

China has long been a place for innovation, with its "Four Great Inventions" -- Compass, Gunpowder, Papermaking, Printing -- having a large impact on the development of civilization throughout the world.

China has a cultural environment for invention and innovation in science and technology, said Mei.

Such environment has led to the strong growth in not just the tech sector but in basic and applied scientific research, the bedrock of our technological advancement.

Mei believed that when Needham went to China in the 1940s and witnessed the country's struggling scientific and technological development at that time, he would not have imagined that in such a short period of time the country could achieve so much.

"I think if he can live to see China's development at this stage, he will probably be very pleased," the professor said.

China's overall research output has grown significantly in recent years. Globally, the country's share of research papers increased in 14 fields tracked by the Web of Science (WoS) between 2005 and 2015. More importantly, China's share of highly-cited research papers has grown faster than its share of total articles indexed in the WoS.

But to Mei, the country still needs more time to push its scientific and technological development to a higher level.

While China has poured many resources into science and technology, resulting in a dramatic increase in research output, China still lags behind Western countries in some key areas, he said.

"Both China's academia and policy makers may need to strengthen communication, collaboration and work with their counterparts in the West, so that greater progress can be made while consolidating what we have achieved," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 05:14:47|Editor: Yamei

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This image taken on Aug. 14, 2017 shows mud and water flow in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Mudslides after heavy rains and flooding killed more than 200 people in Sierra Leone. (Xinhua/Kerefala Janneh)

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "saddened" on Monday by the mudslide and flooding in and near Freetown, Sierra Leone, where officials say at least 300 people have died and at least 2,000 people left homeless.

"The Secretary-General is saddened by the deaths and devastation caused by the mudslide and flooding in the town of Regent, Sierra Leone, and throughout Freetown," the capital, said Farhan Haq, Guterres' deputy spokesman. "The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the people and Government of Sierra Leone for the loss of life and destruction caused by this natural disaster."

The spokesman added, "The Secretary-General reiterates to the government and people of Sierra Leone the full solidarity of the United Nations with the ongoing rescue efforts."

The side of a hill gave way in heavy rains in the early hours of Monday and trapped hundreds of people in the town of Regent, just outside Freetown, according to published reports.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 05:19:52|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Italy will send a new ambassador to Cairo after recalling its former envoy more than a year ago following the death of an Italian student found in Egypt's capital, spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry said on Monday.

In a phone call, the Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano told his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry that Italy was willing to send Ambassador Giampaolo Cantini to Cairo, Ahmed Abu Zaid, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.

Alfano told Shoukry that Italy hoped the upcoming period would see a push in the Italian-Egyptian relations in all fields, Abu Zaid added.

Alfano said earlier in a brief statement that in light of the recent developments in the investigation on the student's death achieved by a cooperation between Egypt and Italy, the Italian government had decided to send ambassador to Cairo.

He referred to a joint statement issued by the Egyptian prosecutor-general and his Italian counterpart released Monday on the developments in the murder case of the Italian national.

"The Italian government is still committed to finding the truth in regards to the murder of Giulio Regeni," he said in the statement.

28-year-old Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni was found dead on a roadside nine days after his disappearance on Jan. 25, 2016, with his body tortured and half-naked.

The murder has cast a shadow on the diplomatic relations between the two countries, after which Italy decided to call back its then ambassador from Egypt.

A few weeks later, the Egyptian police said they found Regeni's handbag with his passport and student ID card during an operation to bust a Cairo-based gang of five people.

Regeni's disappearance came amid intensive security in Cairo and other major cities in Egypt ahead of the anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising that toppled long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 05:39:58|Editor: ying

Image provided by Venezuela's Presidency shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) reacting during a march in Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 14, 2017. Supporters of Venezuela's government on Monday rallied in the capital Caracas and other cities to protest the threat of a military intervention by the United States. (Xinhua/Venezuela's Presidency)

CARACAS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Supporters of Venezuela's socialist government on Monday rallied in the capital Caracas and other cities to protest the threat of a military intervention by the United States.

At the same time, in neighboring Colombia, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence underscored his country's opposition to the Venezuelan government by meeting with disaffected Venezuelans who have fled across the border.

At a rally in the western state of Portuguesa, Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami rejected Washington's position and called on Pence to leave the region.

"We say to him: Mike Pence, get out of Latin America!" El Aissami told the crowd.

"Instead of attempting to give us lessons on democracy, Mr. Vice President Pence, solve the major problems that are cropping up in the United States," added El Aissami.

Over the weekend, white supremacist groups in the southern U.S. city of Charlottesville, clashed with counter protesters, leaving at least one person dead and scores injured.

Pence on Sunday embarked on a Latin America tour to drum up support in the region for a tougher stance against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Washington has slapped economic sanctions against Maduro and his closest aides, but last week U.S. President Donald Trump raised the possibility of invading the South American country, saying he did not rule out a "military option" to oust the ruling PSUV from power.

Pence, accompanied by his wife and top Colombian officials, met with Venezuelan refugees in Cartagena, and pledged his government's support should the situation worsen.

Thousands of refugees are arriving in Colombia every day, and the United States will be there to help the country if there is a crisis, said Pence.

According to Pence, the U.S. "will not stand by while Venezuela collapses into dictatorship. A failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of our entire hemisphere and the people of the United States."

However, even Latin American countries closely allied with Washington have rejected invading Venezuela as an option.

At a joint press conference in Cartagena late Sunday, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos rejected using military force, and called for a negotiated solution.

Not taking any chances, Maduro on Monday called for a civic-military drill to take place from Aug. 26 to 27.

"I have instructed the Chief of Staff of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) to begin the preparations for a national civic-military drill of armed comprehensive defense," Maduro told supporters at the rally in Caracas on Monday.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez called on Venezuelan society and the international community to close ranks in the face of a possible military intervention.

"We call on men and women, national and foreign, who love this land, to put aside their differences and unite as brothers, to confront this unfortunate threat," Padrino said in a statement.

Padrino also called on the right-wing opposition to take a stand in regard to the U.S. threat of a military option, saying: "It's no time for ambiguities, ones is either a patriot or pro Yankee."

The defense minister was accompanied by the commanders of the army, navy and air force, as well as the National Guard and People's Militia.

Pence's Latin America tour next takes him to Argentina, Chile and Panama.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 05:45:00|Editor: yan

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HOUSTON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A microplate discovered off the west coast of Ecuador adds another piece to Earth's tectonic puzzle, U.S. Rice University researchers said.

According to a news release on Monday by the Rice University, Texas State, researchers led by Rice geophysicist Richard Gordon discovered the microplate, which they have named "Malpelo," while analyzing the junction of three other plates in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Malpelo Plate, named for an island and an underwater ridge it contains, is the 57th plate to be discovered and the first in nearly a decade, they said. They are sure there are more to be found.

The research by Gordon, lead author Tuo Zhang and co-authors Jay Mishra and Chengzu Wang appears in Geophysical Research Letters.

The Pacific lithospheric plate that roughly defines the volcanic Ring of Fire is one of about 10 major rigid tectonic plates that float and move atop Earth's mantle, which behaves like a fluid over geologic time. Interactions at the edges of the moving plates account for most earthquakes experienced on the planet.

There are many small plates that fill the gaps between the big ones, and the Pacific Plate meets two of those smaller plates, the Cocos and Nazca, west of the Galapagos Islands.

One way to judge how plates move is to study plate-motion circuits, which quantify how the rotation speed of each object in a group (its angular velocity) affects all the others.

"When you add up the angular velocities of these three plates, they ought to sum to zero," Gordon said. "In this case, the velocity doesn't sum to zero at all. It sums to 15 millimeters a year, which is huge."

That made the Pacific-Cocos-Nazca circuit a misfit, which meant at least one other plate in the vicinity had to make up the difference. Misfits are a cause for concern - and a clue.

Evidence for the Malpelo plate came with the researchers' identification of a diffuse plate boundary that runs from the Panama Transform Fault eastward to where the diffuse plate boundary intersects a deep oceanic trench just offshore of Ecuador and Colombia.

"With the Malpelo accounted for, the new circuit still doesn't close to zero and the shrinking Pacific Plate isn't enough to account for the difference either," Zhang said, adding "since we're trying to understand global deformation, we need to understand where the rest of that velocity is going. So we think there's another plate we're missing."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 05:55:02|Editor: ying

Security forces stand guard near the site where a car crashed into the outdoor terrace of a pizzeria at Sept-Sorts, northeast of Paris, France, on Aug. 14, 2017. A car crashed into the outdoor terrace of a pizzeria at Sept-Sorts, 60 km northeast of Paris, on Monday evening, killing a 13-year-girl and injuring at least 12 others, a spokesperson of France's Ministry of Interior told local media. (Xinhua/Thel Duval)

PARIS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A car crashed into the outdoor terrace of a pizzeria at Sept-Sorts, 60 km northeast of Paris, on Monday evening, killing a 13-year-girl and injuring at least 12 others, a spokesperson of France's Ministry of Interior told local media.

Among the injured, four were in serious condition, reports said. Also an earlier report said the girl killed was eight years old.

The driver of the BMW was arrested soon after the incident by French police. He was believed to have acted intentionally and psychologically unstable, France's BFM television reported.

Born in 1985, the man was believed to have tried to commit suicide last week, said BFM television, citing French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry.

The spokesman said the tragedy was apparently suicidal and there is no direct evidence pointing to terror attack.

Police authorities said investigations are not searching for accomplices.

France has seen several attacks since last year. An Algerian man drove his car into a group of French soldiers last week. A little over a year ago, a truck steered into a celebrating crowd in the French city of Nice, leaving 86 people dead.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 06:05:06|Editor: yan

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LONDON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Protesters have picketed the annual meeting of the international mining group Vedanta Resources, accusing the company of damaging the environment.

"Vedanta has a pattern of operation which is the same everywhere it operates and we have been tracking this company since it listed in 2003 on the FTSE 100, it's now on the FTSE 250," campaigner Miriam Rose told Xinhua exclusively on Thursday outside the Vedanta annual meeting.

"They are very high risk company, very low human rights standards and environment standards," said Rose, who is spokesperson for activist group Foil Vedanta.

"Because of that a number of agencies have pulled out of their shareholding including the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, which had quite a large share in Vedanta. And a number of other agencies over the years have pulled out their shareholding -- Church of England (COE), Martin Currie Investment Pensions and so on," she added.

The COE sold its multi-million pound stake in Vedanta in 2010, at the same time as Martin Currie Investment Pensions sold its multi-million pound stake.

The COE said in a statement at the time: "We are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect of companies in whom the Church investing bodies hold shares."

Vedanta Resources is a London-listed company, having started on the FTSE 100 of the largest companies in 2003.

With a global squeeze on resources companies, Vedanta dropped to the FTSE 250 on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

All its operations are outside the UK, but it maintains a headquarters in London, which is staffed part time.

Rose said that Vedanta took over the Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia in 2004, since then there "have been major polluting incidents. The first one was in 2006 when the whole river Kafue, the main river in Zambia, was turned blue."

"For 48 hours they released pollution and they didn't tell anyone. 40,000 people were affected by that. It went all the way to the town of Kitwe," she said.

People had stomach cramps, diarrhoea. Those closer to the plant had more extreme effects on their digestive system, claimed Rose.

"That was a big incident. The pollution is also continual," she said.

Farming communities downstream affected won a court victory in 2011 and were awarded 2 million U.S. dollars through the Zambian High Court.

"Vedanta never paid and it was appealed to the Supreme Court who upheld the guilty verdict but took away the award," said Rose.

"This failure to get justice and the daily pollution means they have now taken the case to London. So 2,000 of the villagers are now represented by a legal firm suing the parent company and their subsidiary for the ongoing pollution," said Rose.

Rose also said that in India the firm had planned to mine a mountain in the Niyamgiri hills in the state of Orissa, sacred to the Dongria Kondh tribe.

"The tribe fought for 11 years to stop Vedanta mining their mountain and won. The company is now trying to get the state mining company to mine the mountain on their behalf," said Rose.

Rose said Vedanta used its London listing on the LSE as a "cloak of respectability".

Anit Agarwal the executive chairman and his family owns 69.9 percent of the company, according to Rose.

"So no other shareholder can vote against him. So in effect it is private controlled which is a corporate governance issue. This is shame on LSE, they are complicit," They should do due diligence on these companies before they are listed. And they should delist them if they are not complying with London listing rules," said Rose.

LSE was contacted for comment on its listings rules but had not replied by the time of going to press.

VEDANTA REPLIES

Tom Albanese, chief executive officer for Vedanta Resources, told Xinhua that the annual meeting saw a "fruitful discussion" between the shareholders, board and some activists who joined the meeting.

"Activists will raise a number of issues. There are two sides to every story. There is generally documentation by the company and is required under India, UK and U.S. legislation to be accurate in disclosures."

Albanese confirmed there were a number of separate cases in Zambia and there "is a bit of mixing and matching and I cannot comment further."

But he confirmed the facts about the spill in 2006 were in the public domain and litigation found against Vedanta, a judgment respected by Vedanta.

Bauxite deposit was the subject of controversy 10 years ago and the company had withdrawn about four or five years ago and "we have had nothing to do it" and was looking for bauxite in other locations.

Albanese denied Vedanta was using the state of Orissa as a proxy to mine the mountain.

On the issue of LSE listing, Albanese said: "It's fair to say that Vedanta is in full compliance with all the UK's listing compliance."

ANNUAL MEETING SPEECH

Executive chairman Anit Agarwal told the Vedanta annual meeting in central London Monday afternoon that the prospects were bright for the company he founded in 1979 with commodity markets turning positive.

"India and Africa, our key markets, present an exceptional potential for further growth," he said.

"We also have a long-standing presence in Africa, where we have invested approximately 4 billion U.S. dollars since 2004."

Agarwal touched on the attack on his company's reputation.

"Safety and sustainability continue to be a personal priority, as they are across the Group. We are making good progress in our journey towards Zero Harm, Zero Waste and Zero Discharge.

"We have not yet achieved 'zero harm' but we will continue pushing and we will not be satisfied until we attain it. We will continue working with the same spirit and enthusiasm to realise our ultimate goal," said Agarwal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 06:10:09|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Amir Hatami announced Monday that Iran has formed 10 quick-reaction brigades to intensify its fight against terror groups.

Hatami, who is President Hassan Rouhani's pick for defense minister, said that five quick-reaction brigades have been formed by Iranian Army and another five have been formed by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the FARS news agency reported.

Warning of enemies' attempts to slow down Iran's progress in the missile industry, Hatami also said the defense ministry's priority is strengthening the missile and naval industries, air force, air defense and ground force.

Iranian Deputy Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Mostafa Izadi said Monday that Iran will continue to fight the Islamic State (IS) terrorists in all fields.

The most important issue is to cleanse the region from the terrorists who have been "nurtured by the world's arrogance, including the U.S. and Israel," Izadi told reporters in Tehran on Monday.

Also, IRGC Ground Force Commander Mohammad Pakpour said Iran's military presence in Iraq and Syria is aimed at providing their militaries with advisory assistance.

"We entered Iraq and Syria when the terrorists had approached our redlines," he was quoted as saying.

Pakpour said that had Iran not sent military advisors to Iraq and Syria, the security there would have been compromised given the presence of "Saudi spy agencies and terrorists."
Police block a road near the site where a man smashed a car into a pizza restaurant in Sept-Sorts, 55km east of Paris, on August 14, 2017, killing a 13-year-old girl and seriously injuring four. (AFP PHOTO / Thomas Samson)

PARIS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A car crashed into the outdoor terrace of a pizzeria at Sept-Sorts, 60 km northeast of Paris, on Monday evening, killing a 13-year-girl and injuring at least 12 others, a spokesperson of France's Ministry of Interior told local media.

Among the injured, four were in serious condition, reports said. Also an earlier report said the girl killed was eight years old.

The driver of the BMW was arrested soon after the incident by French police. He was believed to have acted intentionally and psychologically unstable, France's BFM television reported.

Born in 1985, the man was believed to have tried to commit suicide last week, said BFM television, citing French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry.

The spokesman said the tragedy was apparently suicidal and there is no direct evidence pointing to terror attack.

Police authorities said investigations are not searching for accomplices.

France has seen several attacks since last year. An Algerian man drove his car into a group of French soldiers last week. A little over a year ago, a truck steered into a celebrating crowd in the French city of Nice, leaving 86 people dead.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 06:25:20|Editor: yan

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14, (Xinhua) -- California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit Monday morning against the Trump Administration over its threats to withhold public safety funds from so-called "sanctuary" cities.

This suit answered U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session's threat to withhold appropriated 28.3 million U.S. dollars in law enforcement funding grants to California unless the Golden State police grant the federal government full access to their stations and arrest records.

Trump Administration took an "unconstitutional attempt to force California law enforcement officials to engage in federal immigration enforcement, rather than allow them to use their discretion to determine how best to keep their communities safe," a press release issued by California Attorney General Office read.

"By placing unconstitutional immigration enforcement conditions on public safety grants, the Trump Administration is threatening to harm a range of law enforcement initiatives across California" the press release cited Recerra's words, "We will fight these unlawful federal actions that would make California less safe."

"Sanctuary" is used for cities that do not permit police or municipal employees to inquire about one's immigration status, or for funds to be applied to enforce federal immigration laws.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on Jan. 25 seeking to withhold federal funding for so-called "sanctuary jurisdictions". U.S. Department of Justice issued a directive last month warning nine local governments may lose federal funding because of their "sanctuary" policies.

The nine governments on the blacklist includes Chicago, the state of California, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Clark County of Nevada, Cook County of Illinois, Miami-Dade County of Florida, and Milwaukee County of Wisconsin.

Both Trump' s Executive Order and Session's threat have been the subject of legal challenges. Chicago launched a suit over this issue last Monday, California and San Francisco followed the step.

Becerra and San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who filed a parallel lawsuit Monday on behalf of the city, announced the suits at a press conference together, arguing that "It's our right and it's our duty to fight to protect our law enforcement officers...and to protect the resources that they rely upon."

"We're in the public safety business," Becerra added, "We're not in the deportation business."

Political experts pointed out one of the reasons that these states and city governments being targeted by Trump administration because they are all Democratic stronghold places.

"Sanctuary cities are located in traditionally blue states," Californian Blogger Rick Gage told Xinhua earlier, "Maybe it is time for these blue states to start withholding tax dollars from a federal government which only seems to spend, foolishly, on walls and wars that guard against imaginary enemies."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 06:30:23|Editor: yan

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- German automaker Volkswagen announced Monday it will invest 2.6 billion reais (812 million U.S. dollars) at its plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo.

According to the statement, the investment will go toward modernizing the plant's assembly lines, where the company's Polo model is already being produced with the Virtus sedan to begin production in 2018.

The investment, announced in celebration of the plant's 60th birthday, is part of a 7 billion reais (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) investment plan Volkswagen is carrying across Brazil between 2016 and 2020.

"This investment...embraces the work of our engineers and the preparation of the Anchieta assembly line to receive various models," explained David Powels, Volkswagen's president for Brazil and South America.

Despite this investment, Volkswagen is not planning to bring on any new workers, with Powels stating that the Brazilian market's contraction in the last three years did not make this possible.

Volkswagen is seeking to gain more ground in Brazil, where it finished in third place for total sales in the first quarter of 2017, with a market share of 12.6 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 07:00:32|Editor: ying

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By Christopher Guly

OTTAWA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Canada will press the United States to retain a dispute-resolution mechanism and protect Canada's supply-management system in the upcoming redrafting talks of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said here Monday.

"Canada will uphold and preserve the elements in NAFTA that Canadians deem key to our national interest, including a process to ensure anti-dumping and countervailing duties are only applied fairly when truly warranted," she said in a speech at the University of Ottawa's Centre for International Policy Studies.

A dispute-resolution mechanism under Chapter 19 of NAFTA allows Canada and Mexico to appeal countervailing and anti-dumping duties imposed by the U.S. through independent tribunals that have often ruled against the U.S. rather than through judicial reviews in U.S. courts.

The Americans want to eliminate Chapter 19. But Freeland warned that Canada has walked out of talks before on the issue, such as in 1987 when then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration initially refused to agree to a binding binational review of anti-dumping and countervailing duties during negotiations between Canada and the U.S. over the bilateral trade deal that preceded NAFTA.

"Our government will be equally resolute," said the Foreign Affairs Minister. "Just as good fences make good neighbors, strong dispute settlement systems make good trading partners."

She explained that as part of Canada's commitment to reaching a "good deal," Canadian negotiators hope to preserve the exception in NAFTA to protect the country' s supply-management system, under which Canada imposes high duties to restrict imports of milks, cheese, eggs and poultry and that the U.S. believes is protectionist and unfairly favors Canadian farmers.

Freeland told reporters here following her speech and appearance before the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade that the U.S. sells Canada "far more than we sell them" in dairy products, "at a rate of roughly five-to-one" and noted that the U.S. also subsidizes its dairy industry.

In her university address, the minister said that Canada aims to "modernize" 23-year-old NAFTA and make it a "fair trade deal' and "more progressive" in such ways as by introducing strong labor safeguards; integrating enhanced environmental provisions "to ensure no NAFTA country weakens environmental protection to attract investment; and adding chapters on gender rights and Indigenous rights.

There is some common ground between Canada and the U.S., such as the "desire to liberate our companies from needless bureaucracy," according to Freeland, who said that Canada will rely on some of the issues covered in its deal with the European Union - which will be provisionally applied on Sept. 21 pending full ratification by all EU member states - and will seek a freer market for government procurement.

"Local-content provisions for major government contracts are political junk food - superficially appetizing, but unhealthy in the long run," Freeland said. "Procurement liberalization can go hand-in-hand with further regulatory harmonization."

She added that Canada also wants to make it easier for the cross-border movement of professionals by expanding NAFTA Chapter 16 that deals with the temporary entry of businesspeople.

On Tuesday, Freeland will have dinner with her U.S. and Mexican counterparts in Washington, D.C. the night before the first round of formal negotiations for NAFTA 2.0 begins in the U.S. capital.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 07:10:22|Editor: An



Photo taken on Aug. 14, 2017 shows the China-Africa Media Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Chinese and African media houses on Monday agreed to deepen cooperation in information sharing, best practice and training to improve the dissemination of information about Sino-Africa relations. (Xinhua/Li Baishun)

by Ndumiso Mlilo

JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese and African media houses on Monday agreed to deepen cooperation in information sharing, best practice and training to improve the dissemination of information about Sino-Africa relations.

At the China-Africa Media Forum held Monday in Johannesburg, over 40 media delegates from China and 11 African countries gathered to explore new areas of cooperation.

Guo Weimin, deputy director of the State Council Information Office of China, said the media should complement the political, economic and people friendships which are existing. Chinese and African media should counter the Western media which tend to portray the continent as that characterized by wars, diseases and poverty.

"The Chinese and the African media should counter the Western media stereotype. You should report truthfully about the Sino-Africa relations. The Chinese and African media should walk hand in hand and strengthen reporting in international affairs and make our voices heard on issues of fairness and rationality," said Guo.

Guo called on Chinese and African media to forge new structures on cooperation in the media and challenge the monopoly of the western media.

Lin Songtian, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa said the media should articulate success stories of both partners. He said China is in Africa for a win win situation to help build infrastructure, transfer skills and create jobs, and the media should work towards strengthening the Sino-Africa relations.

"African and Chinese media should work towards common development. We have to build the positive image of our relations, share our common values, friendship and common interest. Both sides should stand up and loudly tell people of the world who their true and reliable friend is," said Lin.

Lin challenged the Western media to visit the quality infrastructural projects in Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia and other African countries so as to report factually.

Tendai Manzvanzvike, Zimbabwe's Herald chief editor said Sino-Africa cooperation is required to break the Western media monopoly which is meant to suit a particular agenda.

"No African country is in a win-win situation with the West, but they have with China. Opportunities abound for media cooperation, opportunities that can be vehicles for development and prosperity. One of the issues that the African media has to learn from its Chinese counterparts is reporting on developmental issues, reports that would enable development-oriented policy making by governments," she added.

She hailed China for improving the information technology infrastructure thereby benefiting the African media. The Zimbabwean praised China for offering African media practitioners training and refresher courses. Manzvanzvike suggested that resources should be availed to enable more Chinese media practitioners reporting the African story from African media houses, and vice versa.

"Instead of having a few media personnel trained in Mandarin, it should be a major requirement that schools that offer journalism and media studies include foreign languages, and one of the key languages should be Mandarin," she said.

Kevin Ritchie, regional executive editor of Independent Media, said South Africa's BRICS membership has enabled the country an opportunity to harness with a different part of the world particularly nations with very similar backgrounds and challenges.

"BRICS not only offers us a very real opportunity to mitigate these risks both economically and socially, but in particular by being able to provide and contribute to a different narrative, which is precisely where we come in as the media. There are many outside of the BRICS arc, particularly in the traditional poles of power, who have a vested interest in seeing BRICS fail or ignoring it altogether," he added.

Ritchie said media organizations within BRICS are duty bound to place the bloc story on the agenda. They (BRICS media) have a duty to report about economic opportunities and other success stories.

"As media from China and South Africa, we can use this opportunity to forge bonds, to learn from one another, to discuss the shortcomings we might have and find solutions to problems that are actually common to both of us, reflecting the needs of our realities, " said Ritchie.

Andrew Kagwa Gathaara, chief editor of Kenya's Standard said Chinese media practitioners are currently on attachment in African media houses, and they have employed Africans to tell their own story.

With the theme of Win-win Cooperation for Common Progress, the China-Africa Media Forum was hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, and co-organized by China's Xinhua News Agency and South Africa's Independent Media.
2 held for robbing Chinese businessman

Police reported that shortly after 2 pm, two gunmen stormed Sammys Bar located at Mt Pleasant Road in Springvale and announced a robbery.

The gunmen ordered the Chinese national who at the time was operating a roulette machine, to hand over the money.

After the man handed over close to $20,000, the bandits ran out of the bar and escaped in a car.

Residents contacted Couva CID and Sgt Ali together with PCs Ramoutar, Balkissoon and Girwar responded.

After receiving information, they went to a house at St Margarets Village, Claxton Bay and arrested two men, aged 20 and 30.

They also recovered the firearm and ammunition which they believe was used in the robbery.

They remained in police custody up yesterday. In an unrelated incident, police arrested a man at Railway Road in Dow Village, California after he was seem holding a gun. Sgt Ali is investigating.
Hinds: Govt has not abandoned youth, black people

He was speaking at the graduation ceremony for participants of the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-Operative Studies Empowering Communities through Education - The Laventille Project held on Saturday at the Laventille Community Centre.

Hinds said he was hearing complaints that Government was not doing anything for young people and black people but pointed out that graduates of the project are, only youth. He also said such a programme would require Government support.

Hinds said they were living in extremely seriously dangerously economic stringency and Government was struggling on a monthly basis to meet national commitments to you. He said young people and black people are benefiting from the programme.

So you see why I have to reject the suggestion that the Government has done nothing for young people and eh (sic) doing nothing for black people. He said that regardless of what is happening their priority is to meet the needs of those who want to educate themselves and people would not be denied education and training for want of money.

He said the second priority, even if they cannot pay public servants salaries, is to provide benefits to those in need like senior citizens through the Social Development Ministry. That is the best evidence of a Government that is determined to look after those who have needs in the society. Hinds said the programme will bring the graduates personal benefit and their families, the community and the country will also benefit.

Good things do happen in Laventille and you need not be afraid (to come here). The programme is the first outreach problem by Cipriani Labour College to Laventille. For ten Saturdays, participants - 50 at the start and 41 at the end - received foundation teaching in the area of occupational safety and health and also an opportunity to move forward to the next level of certification with the college.

College chairman Dr Roosevelt Williams congratulated the participants on staying the course and noted that some of the participants had signed up for programmes at the college.

He said that it did not matter what qualifications one came with but what matters is what they leave with.
 

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  ,         ,       .
Caricom must help Venezuela

The United States recently sanctioned President Nicolas Maduro and other Venezuelan officials on July 31 after Maduro established a constituent assembly and cracked down on opposition figures. According to a Reuters report, Trump reportedly said the Venezuelan people were suffering and dying under the Maduro administration.

Rambachan on Saturday said the regions close proximity to Venezuela should generate more than just a passing concern in the affairs of the south American country.

Well I think anything happening in Venezuela has to be of concern to us, we are already seeing, whether we like it or not, we are already seeing the influx of people into Trinidad and I think there are more Venezuelans here than meets the eyes, Rambachan said.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley together with Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses, held discussions with Caricom head and Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell and other Caricom members during an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Venezuela.

A brief statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the leaders, who had participated in the video conference call, had engaged in varied and robust views, adding that the meeting centred on promoting dialogue among stakeholders within Venezuela geared towards resolution of the political and social challenges in that country.
Pan on dAvenue no Pan Trinbago event

The residents of Woodbrook and long standing members of some steelbands will be awarded at the event, that will be held on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, from Taylor Street to Colville Street on August 26, from 6.30 pm. As usual the annual event is done in celebration of the anniversary of our Independence and in recognition of our national musical instrument the steel pan.

But Allima Garcia, Corporate Secretary of the Association was a bit peeved yesterday when Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz stated in a television interview last week that Pan on dAvenue event is part of Pan Trinbagos calender of events for steelband month.

Garcia told Newsday: Pan Trinbago have no involvement with Pan on dAvenue.

It is a Woodbrook/St.

James Community Association event and we have been doing it for the past five years. She said the members felt that their hard work to bring this event to the success that it has grown into, was undermined by Diaz statement.

The Woodbrook/ St. James Community Association (Association), is a non-profit Community Based Organisation that was formed in 2011 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Woodbrook.

Garcia said: Over the years and with the Governments assistance, we have held several successful events annually such as the celebrations of Eid, Divali and Christmas, inclusive of a Christmas Toy distribution drive amongst others. Last year we had our very first Christmas Pan Parade and it was a huge success.

In celebration of the Anniversary of our Independence and in recognition of our National Instrument, the Steel Pan, our Association has successfully staged five Steel Band parades in Woodbrook, from 2012 to 2016. She added that the event is being dubbed the Borough Day event of Woodbrook and is geared towards bringing out the residents on the sidewalks with a picnic like atmosphere, to enjoy the National instrument.

In the past the Association honoured unsung heroes including the first carnival king and queen Colin Edghill and Kay Christopher (2012), Steel Bands (2013), Steel Band Arrangers (2014), Steel Pan Tuners (2015) and Steel Pan Percussionists (the Engine Room) (2016).

List of Steelbands for Pan on dAvenue VI.

South/Central

1. Pan Elders

2. NGC Couva Joylanders

3. Southern Marines

4. Tropical Angel Harps

5. Skiffle Steel

East

6. Super Novas

7. Republic Bank Exodus

8. Arima Angel Harps

9. Harmonites

10. Sangre Grande Cordettes

11. Curepe Scherzando

North/West

12. Phase II in Collaboration with Hadco

13. Bp Renegades

14. Witco Desperadoes

15. Massy Trinidad All Stars

16. PCS Nitrogen Silver Stars

17. Caribbean Airlines Invaders

18. MHTL Starlift

19. Laventille Serenaders

20. Brimblers

21. Harvard Harps

22. Defence Force Steel Ensemble

23. Fire Services Steel Ensemble

24. Newtown Playboys

25. Western Stars Philharmonic

26. Pandemonium Steel Orchestra

27. Blue Diamonds

28. St. James Tripolians

29. Laventille Road Police Youth Club
Radioactive material reported stolen in Mexico; are terrorists creating a dirty bomb?

An unknown amount of radioactive material has been reported stolen in Northern Mexico, prompting a massive search that spans across the Mexican states of Leon, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas and Coahuila, according to a recent announcement from the head of national emergency services.

Mexicos National Coordinator of Civil Protection, Luis Felipe Puente, encouraged anyone with information about the theft to immediately contact authorities, but also warned people not to handle the radioactive material if it is found. According to local media, the material was taken from an engineering school in the state of Nuevo Leon.

As serious as this particular situation is, it is hardly the first time that radioactive material has been reported stolen in Mexico. Back in April, Fox News reported that a pickup truck carrying industrial x-ray equipment that uses radioactive material was stolen, prompting an alert and search in the states of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacan, San Luis Potosi, Durango and Zacatecas.

This was industrial equipment that included Iridium-192 which can be dangerous for people if it is taken out of its container, the Interior Department said in a statement. The radioactive material stolen back in April marked the seventh known case of radioactive material theft in Mexico since 2013, according to the AFP.

Anytime radioactive material is stolen, it should be taken seriously. However, what makes the thefts in Mexico particularly concerning is the growing threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of people determined to take millions of innocent lives. We already know that the Islamic State has been plotting to infiltrate the southern border, and if radioactive material has been stolen on numerous occasions in that same area, its a recipe for disaster. Indeed, its not a stretch to say that ISIS could be responsible for some or even most of the thefts, and are currently using the radioactive material to build a nuclear weapon.

In 2015, an article in an online magazine produced by the Islamic State outlined an elaborate plan to purchase a nuclear device from Pakistan, ship it across a drug trafficking route between West Africa and South America, and then smuggle it up across the United States-Mexico border. From there its just a quick hop through a smuggling tunnel and presto, theyre mingling with another 12 million illegal aliens in America with a nuclear bomb in the trunk of their car, the 2015 ISIS article says.

The idea of a nuclear weapon being developed just south of the border has in the past prompted responses from several Republican members of Congress, such as Representative Michael McCaul of Texas. Thats them in their own words, Representative McCaul said of the 2015 ISIS article. I have to take that seriously.

Another conservative who has made public comments on the potential for a nuclear weapon being smuggled into the United States from Mexico is Kevin McAleenan, the acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Weve seen aspirational discussions, McAleenan said, acknowledging the threats made in the ISIS magazine. However, McAleenan added that U.S. officials were not seeing a ton of credible, validated intelligence that suggests that ISIS is trying to exploit specific routes [into the U.S.].

Regardless of whether or not the Islamic State really is behind the recent thefts of radioactive material in Northern Mexico, Americans should find solace in the fact that we finally have a commander-in-chief that is serious about securing the border and making sure we know who is coming into our country. Had Hillary Clinton won last November instead of President Trump, chances are the southern border would remain wide open, giving not just illegal aliens but violent terrorists easy access into the United States.

Sources include:

News.Trust.org

CSMonitor.com

FoxNews.com

Investors.com

Submit a correction >>
Algeria continues to struggle with its residual terrorism as numerous militant groups have emerged since the 1990s and evolved according to geopolitical trends with the Islamic State being the latest group to gain presence in the country, said the London-based risk analysis publication, the Global Risk Insight.

The publication points out in an article entitled, Algerias Battle against Terror, to the recurrent attacks on Algerian law enforcement officials by armed men affiliated to terrorist groups with the latest taking place last June in the capital Algiers.

Other high profile attacks claimed by the (Islamic State) include a thwarted suicide attack by two men in the city of Constantine in April, and two months before this, a jihadist tried to enter a police station in the centre of the city. On this occasion, a policeman on duty succeeded to disarm the bombers suicide device by firing on it and the perpetrator was shot, said Emily Boutler the author of the article.

Boutler explains that the terrorist groups operating todate in Algeria include notably: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM); the Mali-based organization Movement for United and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO); al-Murabitoun, which was responsible for the 2013 attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria and Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), which has declared its allegiance to ISIS.

She added that in Algeria, those who have chosen to align themselves with ISIS have often spent years in the field fighting.

Dampening the desire for young Algerian men to take up radical causes can be difficult given the high rate of unemployment and social inequity that has beset the country for decades coupled with dwindling oil revenues and an impending social implosion, the author of the article said.

In her analysis, she downplayed the effort of the government in curbing terrorism given the porous borders with sub-Saharan countries and the difficulty of monitoring the mountainous terrain in the north east.
Protests against Googles diversity policies were scheduled before last weekends violence in Charlottesville, and will inevitably produce some comparisons and contrasts. Photo: George Rose/Getty Images

****

Update: Alt-Right Organizers Cancel the March on Google, Citing Terrorist Threats

****

We, the organizers of the March on Google, join the President in condemning the actions in Charlottesville on August 12th. Despite many false rumors from those seeking to discredit us we are in no way associated with any group who organized there.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms any display of hatred and bigotry from any side. It has no place in America. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society.

But inevitably, given the timing, what looks and feels like a proliferation of far-right public events is going to attract attention, and probably counter-demonstrators. The march will be directed at Google facilities in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., in addition to the companys headquarters, GooglePlex, in Mountain View, California.

The protests, of course, were spurred by the now-infamous memo on Googles hiring practices that made its author, Google engineer James Damore, a conservative hero, particularly after he was fired over it. As Madison Malone Kircher notes, Damore chose to show some solidarity with the alt-right.

Since confirming his firing, Damore has done very little press, but his first public interview, posted online Tuesday evening, is with alt-right YouTuber Stefan Molyneux.

Damore doesnt express any beyond-the-pale views in the interview, but Molyneux  a mens-rights blogger and accused cult leader with, uh, unorthodox views on race  is, well, a pointed choice for a first-interview host.

The alt-right  not those prone to cavorting in sheets or goose-stepping, but the kind of people who view Breitbart News as their daily bread and mobilized for Trumps presidential candidacy  has reciprocated this embrace avidly. And that has led to next weekends march, as the San Jose Mercury News reports:

We are going to raise awareness about Googles one-sided bias and campaign against dissenting opinions and voices, activist and protest march organizer Jack Posobiec, a self-identified member of the new right that seeks to distance itself from the white-power politics of the alt-right, told this news organization via Twitter.

Googles firing of James Damore is the flashpoint here, said the pro-Trump Posobiec, known for peddling conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate.

Posobiec was also special projects director for Citizens for Trump, a leading outside pro-Trump group during the 2016 presidential campaign. One problem for him in distinguishing the March on Google from Unite the Right is that he was accused by his own former employer, The Rebel, earlier this year of plagiarizing a video script from Jason Kessler, the white supremacist who organized Unite the Right. Oops.

Its likely next weekends protests will mark a point either of convergence or divergence for the alt-right and white-supremacist groups.

As J.M. Berger observes at The Atlantic, the events in Charlottesville represent an existential challenge to the idea of the alt-right as a playful and essentially harmless online phenomenon:

Charlottesville put to rest the idea that the alt-right can be primarily defined as fun-loving transgressive hipsters or an elaborate practical joke (if anyone still really believed that). Even before the culminating act of terrorism, the rally in Charlottesville illustrated that the umbrella of the alt-right is an effective means to mobilize a highly visible mix of old-school white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Offline, at least, this isnt the new white nationalism; its the old white nationalism as the primary beneficiary of the activity generated by a looser collection of people online.

How the March on Google turns out could have significant implications for the alt-right and for their daddy Donald Trump. Charlottesville was a turning point.
Supporters of Die Rechte, a far-right party in Germany, march in Leipzig on March 18, 2017. Photo: Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

The white supremacists who terrorized Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend were in one sense a manifestation of the ghosts of the Confederacy, but they also borrowed heavily from another, more recent philosophy of racial superiority: national socialism. In its blending of neo-Confederate and Nazi rhetoric and ideology, our contemporary white-nationalist movement is both distinctly American and part of a frightening international phenomenon.

In its neo-Confederate garb, the alt-right reflects the specific history of racism in the U.S., steeped in the history of slavery, the Civil War, the failure of Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement and the reaction thereto. In other words, it is a direct consequence of long-simmering tensions in American race relations and our national unwillingness to state unequivocally that the Confederacy was the villain of the Civil War, enabling revisionist histories that cast it as the victim. For all our protestations that this is not the America we know, this brand of racism and white supremacism is in our countrys very DNA.

The alt-rights Nazi imagery, rhetoric, and ideology, by comparison, are anything but American (though Hitler drew inspiration for his model of race-based lawmaking from Jim Crow). Indeed, Nazism is so un-American that, as Senator Orrin Hatch and others pointedly recalled, hundreds of thousands of young American lives were sacrificed within living memory in a war to eradicate it. To understand the neo-Nazi tendency in alt-right politics, one must look beyond the U.S. It turns out that the nationalism of the alt-right has an unmistakably international flavor.

Currently, Europe is also seeing an uptick in right-wing extremist activity, driven mainly by a backlash against the influx of migrants from Syria and other Middle Eastern conflict zones. Some of this activity ranges from the pointless to the silly: In July, thousands of literal Nazi punks descended on the tiny German town of Themar for a concert called Rock Against Foreign Domination, and this month, a group calling itself Defend Europe, made up of young right-wingers from Austria, France, Germany, and Italy, took to the Mediterranean Sea on a mission to block refugees and migrants from invading Europe with the help of humanitarian organizations that rescue them when their rickety crafts sink or they are set adrift by smugglers. In the end, the immigration vigilantes boat had engine trouble and they had to be rescued by one of those very same organizations.

Right-wing violence, however, is also on the rise. Germany recorded 3,500 attacks on asylum seekers and the places that house them last year, while in the U.K., the number of far-right and neo-Nazi extremists arrested for plotting acts of domestic terrorism doubled from 2015 to 2016. In Sweden, three members of that countrys neo-Nazi movement were recently jailed for a series of bombings targeting a left-wing bookstore and two asylum centers. Two of the perpetrators had previously traveled to Russia for paramilitary training with an ultranationalist organization that prepares civilians to fight in the all-consuming civilizational conflict they believe may be just around the corner.

The Russia connection is salient for the American far right as well. Russian President Vladimir Putin  who styles himself as a defender of Christendom and traditional values against globalism, secularism, feminism, gay rights, and Islam  has won as many fans among the alt-right as he has among their European counterparts. Steve Bannon, the chief ideologue of the Trump administration and a hero of the alt-right, has expressed sympathy for Putins national-hegemonic ideology of Eurasianism, and Alexander Dugin, the intellectual godfather of that philosophy, says the feeling is mutual. Alt-righters have also become fans of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whom they see as a nationalist icon defending his country to the death against Islamism and Zionism.

This new wave of right-wing nationalism is definitely gaining strength, but so far, Western Europe has proven reassuringly resistant to backsliding into racism and xenophobia. Far-right candidates were defeated this year in national elections in France and the Netherlands, and the Euroskeptic, anti-refugee Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is pulling just 8 percent in the latest polls for Germanys upcoming vote on September 24.

A vivid memory of the original catastrophe of Nazism helps keep its 21st-century imitators at bay, particularly in Germany, where every schoolchild is required to visit a concentration camp, Nazi symbols are outlawed, and even vague, implicit valorization of the Third Reich or Holocaust revisionism is met with swift and universal condemnation. The AfDs inability to gain traction in national politics has much to do with it stepping too close to the red lines Germany has drawn around ideologies it never wishes to see in its political mainstream again.

In the U.S., however, we have no such red lines. As Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out at The Atlantic earlier this month, whereas the ringleaders of Nazi Germany were put on trial, their crimes documented and adjudged in a public hearing, and most were jailed or executed, not one author of the Confederacy was convicted of treason. This weekends atrocious gathering in Charlottesville was billed as a coming-together not of the fringes of the American right, but of a movement so mainstream that its intellectual leaders work in the White House, where they have not only the ear of the president, but also the ability to put words in his mouth. Little wonder, then, that Donald Trump has had so much trouble uttering the words radical white-supremacist terrorism.
White-nationalist demonstrators marching in Charlottesville on Saturday. Photo: Steve Helber/AP

On Saturday, white supremacists marched on Charlottesville to defend the honor of men who fought for their right to keep dark-skinned people as chattel. That same day, in the same city, socialists, anarchists, and Nazi-hating normies marched to defend the fundamental dignity of all human beings. One member of the first group sped his car through the latter one, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others.

Hours later, the president of the United States condemned the hatred, bigotry, and violence  on many sides.

Donald Trump went on to say that Americans must cherish our history, a phrase that, in context, could be understood only as an expression of support for the preservation of Confederate monuments  which is to say, for the cause that had brought Nazis and blood to the streets of Charlottesville. Trump then congratulated himself for bringing new jobs to the United States and touted his plans for veterans health care. He did not utter a single unkind word about the alt-right or neo-Nazis. As he walked away from the podium, a reporter asked if he welcomed the support of white nationalists. The president kept walking.

To their credit, a number of prominent Republicans rushed to answer the reporters question in the negative. Senators Chuck Grassley and Jeff Flake decried the evil of white supremacy. Orrin Hatch said his brother didnt die fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. Ted Cruz declared that every American has a moral obligation to speak out against the lies and bigotry of the KKK, and called on the Justice Department to investigate Saturdays act of domestic terror. Marco Rubio subtly criticized the president for failing to address the evildoers by name.

That such statements were the bare minimum dictated by decency does not make them any less important. These days, we cant take decency for granted. On Saturday, America needed its elected officials to know an act of racist terrorism when they saw it. Many GOP leaders did.

For the Republican Party to truly distance itself from the cause of white supremacy, however, it is going to have to do a lot more than that. Trumps failure to describe the events in Charlottesville for what they were was a moral abomination. But so is congressional Republicans daily failure to describe Trump for who he is  or the party of Lincoln, for what it has become.

For half-a-century, the GOP has deliberately exploited  and inflamed  white racial animus, as a means of obtaining political power. That isnt partisan hyperbole; its historical fact. In 1964, the Democratic Partys embrace of civil rights left most of the white South (and hefty portions of the white North) without a political home. This development provided Republicans with a great opportunity, so long as they were sufficiently cynical  or reactionary  to exploit it.

Richard Nixon was both. Well go after the racists, Nixons special counsel John Ehrlichman wrote, summarizing the spirit of his bosss 1968 campaign. The subliminal appeal to the anti-black voter was always present in Nixons statements and speeches.

After the election, Nixons chief of staff H.R. Haldeman wrote in his diary that the president had told him, [Y]ou have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognized this while not appearing to. The system they settled on became known as the Southern Strategy. Its core premise was that the GOP had everything to gain from polarizing the electorate along racial lines, and that this could be done through the deployment of coded appeals to white racists  dog whistles that right-thinking fiscal conservatives could effortlessly ignore.

Republican consultants made no secret of this strategy. Some wrote best-selling books about it.

Over the ensuing decades, the gambit was updated but never abandoned. As the legendary GOP strategist Lee Atwater infamously observed:

You start out in 1954 by saying, Nigger, nigger, nigger. By 1968 you cant say nigger  that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states rights, and all that stuff, and youre getting so abstract. Now, youre talking about cutting taxes, and all these things youre talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites  We want to cut this, is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than Nigger, nigger.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan launched his presidential campaign by extolling the virtues of states rights in Neshoba County, Mississippi  a place where that phrase was synonymous with the defense of white supremacy, and where the defenders of white supremacy had infamously lynched three civil-rights activists. In 1988, George H.W. Bushs campaign worked tirelessly to portray Michael Dukakis as soft on black criminality  or, as Bushs campaign manager Lee Atwater put it, to make Willie Horton his running mate. Twelve years later, Bushs son would secure the GOP nomination with the help of a whisper campaign that painted his chief Republican rival as the father of an African-American child.

Barack Obamas election did not deliver us into a post-racial society. If anything, it did the very opposite. The reality of a dark-skinned president threatened a vital source of many a white Americans fragile sense of self-respect. And just as the backlash to civil rights had done decades earlier, the ensuing explosion of white racial animus provided the right with a fulsome opportunity. Fox News seized it with both hands  and, thus, so did Donald Trump.

Establishment Republicans may have had little taste for birtherism but they took great pains to ensure that birthers felt welcome in the GOP tent. In 2012, Mitt Romney flew to Las Vegas to accept the honor of Trumps endorsement.

Marco Rubio has, on occasion, sought to distance himself from Trump, and the racist paranoia that the mogul stands for. But when the Florida senator was trying to salvage his presidential bid in New Hampshire last year, he endorsed the core premise of birtherism  that Barack Obama isnt a real American, but rather, a covert enemy of all that real Americans hold dear  over, and over again:

Lets dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesnt know what hes doing. He knows exactly what hes doing. He is trying to change this country. He wants America to become more like the rest of the world []

We are not facing a president that doesnt know what hes doing. He knows what he is doing. Thats why hes done the things hes done. Thats why we have a president that passed Obamacare and the stimulus. All this damage that hes done to America is deliberate. This is a president thats trying to redefine this country. Thats why this election is truly a referendum on our identity as a nation, as a people. Our future is at stake.

Marco Rubio knew exactly what he was doing.

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz felt no moral obligation to condemn bigotry during the 2016 campaign, but saw great political expedience in praising Trumps bold insights into the threat of illegal immigration, and, later, in calling for law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods.

Like the vast majority of their colleagues, both men went on to endorse the presidential campaign of a man who had repeteadly refused to condemn the KKK; encouraged political violence against his African-American protestors; and praised the mass-murder of Muslim prisoners of war with bullets dripped in pigs blood.

If Rubio and Cruz genuinely wish to combat the political mobilization of racists, they might start by renouncing the role that they  and their co-partisans  have played in encouraging it.

Doing this would require them to disavow much more than rhetoric. It would be comforting to think that the GOP was pulling one over on bigots  flattering their prejudices to get elected, then ignoring their wishes when sitting down to make policy. But in many cases, the opposite is true: There are plenty of Republican lawmakers who campaign with utmost civility, and then push legislation that objectively advances racial inequity.

In states all across the country, Republicans have made suppressing the political participation of nonwhite voters a top legislative priority. Granted, GOP lawmakers only cop to this fact every once in a while. But the scrim of election integrity is a thin one, as federal courts keep finding.

There is no evidence that American elections are plagued by voter fraud, despite the second Bush administrations strenuous efforts to generate some. But there is copious evidence that the Republican Partys preferred means of combating voter fraud just so happen to make voting more difficult for nonwhite people.

In the allocation of electoral resources, GOP state governments dont even bother with pretenses: After Obama won Indiana in 2008, state and local Republicans expanded early voting in GOP-dominated areas and restricted it in Democratic areas, thereby producing a significant change in Central Indiana voting patterns, the Indianapolis Star reported last week. (Specifically, the reforms saw a dramatic reduction in the number of absentee ballots cast in racially diverse Marion County, and a dramatic increase in such voter participation in lily-white Hamilton County).

No Republican senator expressed outrage over this news. And yet, state lawmakers working to deliberately reduce the influence of their black constituents (by making it more difficult for them to vote) does far more to advance the political domination of African-Americans by whites than a bunch of prep-school Nazis with tiki torches ever could.

To be sure, most GOP legislators who back voting restrictions dont do so with the aim of bolstering white supremacy, but merely their own political fortunes. If African-American communities voted Republican  which is to say, if they could repress their urge for free stuff long enough to wander off the Democratic plantation  then surely the GOP would work to expand their access to the franchise, just as Democrats do now.

In 1957, the conservative movements flagship publication wrote the following of the civil-rights movement:

The central question that emerges  and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by merely consulting a catalog of the rights of American citizens, born Equal  is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes  the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.

Is the logic of the Republican lawmaker who pushes legislation that depresses turnout in black communities  not because he disapproves of their skin tone, but merely because he fears that they havent yet learned to see the public good as he does  really so different?

In that same 1957 editorial, the still-revered William F. Buckley continued:

It is more important for any community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority. Sometimes it becomes impossible to assert the will of a minority, in which case it must give way; and the society will regress; sometimes the numerical minority cannot prevail except by violence: then it must determine whether the prevalence of its will is worth the terrible price of violence.

The fear of an ascendent, nonwhite majority  and the social regression that it will inevitably induce  is one of the modern GOPs animating anxieties. Republicans in the Trump administration and Congress have voiced this fear, explicitly. During the 2016 election, senior White House national security staffer Michael Anton wrote that a Clinton victory would mark the death of the United States, because it would lead to the ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty, thereby rendering the electorate more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle.

I want my party to live, Anton continued. I want my country to live. I want my people to live.

Anton invoked the existential threat that Third World foreigners posed to his people to justify voting for Donald Trump. But as William F. Buckley knew 60 years ago, and as Richard Spencer knows today, the threat of civilizational decline can justify most any countermeasure  even driving ones car through a crowd of cultural Marxists.

The GOPs gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, Ed Gillespie, said Saturday that displays of vile hate have no place in our commonwealth. Weeks earlier, he promised to oppose all efforts to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from Charlottesvilles Emancipation Park.

The neo-Nazis understand what that statue represents better than mainstream Republicans do. And until the latter call on their party to stop blowing dog whistles for white racists; passing discriminatory voting laws; and supporting the Trump presidency, the white supremacists will have a better sense of what  and whom  the American right stands for, too.
Jerry Drake Varnell.

A 23-year-old man was arrested Saturday for trying to blow up a downtown Oklahoma City bank with a 1,000-pound bomb, the FBI said in a complaint filed Sunday.

Jerry Drake Varnell was taken into custody around 1 a.m. on Saturday after driving a van loaded with fake explosives to a branch of BancFirst in Oklahomas capital city. Varnell, who helped undercover agents load the van with explosives and drove it to an alley next to the bank, dialed a number on a cell phone that he thought would detonate the bomb. When there was no explosion, he dialed it again. And again. Thats when the FBI arrived.

Inspired by Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist who killed 168 people at Oklahoma Citys Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, Varnell was also a follower of the Three Percenters movement. The anti-government group is dedicated to gun rights and is named for the contested statistic that only 3 percent of people took up arms against the British during the American revolution. The group was present at this weekends rally in Virginia, where it served as armed guards for white-supremacist leaders, BuzzFeed reports.

Varnell told an FBI informant that he wanted to start the next revolution.

Im out for blood, he said, according to court documents. When militias start getting formed Im going after government officials when I have a team.

Before settling on the Oklahoma City bank, Varnell debated possible targets for his bombing, including the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., an IRS building in Texas, and Facebook data servers. The FBI complaint says Varnell was given multiple chances to cancel the planned attack, but he insisted on moving forward.

As the time for the attack approached, Varnell gave the informant a note he wanted posted to Facebook after the bombing.

What happened in Oklahoma city was not an attack on America, it was retaliation. Retaliation against the freedoms that have been taken away from the American people. It was a wake up call to both the government and the people. An act done to show the government what the people thinks of its actions. It is also a call to arms, to show people that there are still fighters among the American people. The time for revolution is now.

The Facebook message was an important part of the bombing, Varnell allegedly said. The last thing he wanted was to pull off a terror attack in the name of antigovernment extremism and have ISIS take credit.
Merck CEO Kenneth C. Frazier with Donald Trump in January. Photo: Ron Sachs - Pool/Getty Images

Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck, resigned on Monday from President Trumps manufacturing council because of Trumps refusal to explicitly condemn white supremacists after the weekends events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Americas leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, Frazier said in a statement.

Less than an hour later, Trump reacted with a tweet of his own, condemning Frazier for ripping off Americans with high drug prices.

Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017

Trumps tweet, sent 54 minutes after Fraziers statement, is a clear reminder of how forceful and direct Trump is when hes really angry about something. It stands in stark contrast to the statement condemning many sides that he gave Saturday as Charlottesville descended into chaos.

Frazier is one of only a few black CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, and hes been a frequent guest at the White House in recent months, joining other business leaders there at least three times since Trumps inauguration. He now becomes the fourth CEO to resign from one of Trumps business panels. Disneys Bob Iger and Teslas Elon Musk both quit a business advisory panel over Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and Ubers Travis Kalanick quit after Trumps travel ban.
Demonstrators gather in Chicago to celebrate the initial defeat of the House Obamacare repeal bill on March 24, 2017. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

At the end of July, Obamacare as we know it was saved when Democrats and three Republican defectors voted against a Senate bill that would have taken health coverage from millions if enacted. Then lawmakers went home for a long recess, drastically increasing the chances that those buying insurance on the individual market will face huge premium increases in 2018.

Multiple experts have confirmed that despite what President Trump says, Obamacare isnt actually imploding. But Obamacare enrollees may see their premiums increase by double digits next year, largely due to the uncertainly caused by the GOPs effort to gut the law. With Republican lawmakers still teasing that theyre looking for ways to repeal Obamacare and Trump toying with the idea of cutting off cost-sharing reductions  the payments that offset the cost for low-income enrollees  insurers still dont know how to price their plans for next year. Some insurers offered two rate requests  one if CSR payments continue, and a higher rate if theyre cut off  but the 29 states that use the federal exchange are supposed to submit their final rates on August 16.

With the fate of the U.S. health-care system still up in the air, on Friday the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services informed insurers that theyre giving them a three-week extension  which probably wont do anything to prevent massive rate hikes.

Insurers now have until September 5 to file their final rate requests, the same day Congress returns from recess. Theres been talk of a bipartisan Obamacare bill that would remove Trumps ability to take away CSR payments, but even if it has enough support, its not going to sail through the Republican-controlled Congress on their first day back.

It is possible that the extra three weeks will tell insurers they should be jacking up rates. In May, the Trump administration was granted a 90-day delay in the lawsuit over whether it will continue making the payments. On August 20, the White House could ask for another extension, or it could drop the appeal, ending the payments. The next round of CSR payments are due the next day, and regardless of the deadlines in the suit, Trump could announce hell drop the appeal and refuse to make the payments at any time.

Teresa Miller, Pennsylvanias insurance commissioner, said that in her state Obamacare is stabilizing, not failing, and the new deadline will give us more time to lobby the federal government to give the market certainty. A little more time will give us time to explain further how critical it is to get assistance to get the market to stabilize. States and insurers have been saying that all along, so its hard to see what difference another three weeks will make.

By simply announcing their intentions, Republican lawmakers could save Americans from the skyrocketing 2018 premiums theyre ostensibly so worried about, but instead theyre giving Obamacare a few jabs after the clock runs out.
James Alex Fields Jr.s mug shot. Photo: Handout/Getty Images

A gray Dodge Challenger rammed into a crowd of people protesting a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, and injuring 19 others. On Sunday afternoon, UVA Health System said ten of the victims remain hospitalized in good condition, and nine others have been released.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, has been charged with the crime. Reports suggest hes been fascinated by white supremacy and Nazism for several years, and traveled from Ohio to Virginia to attend the Unite the Right rally of white nationalists and other hate groups. Heres what we know about him so far:

 Fields was raised in Northern Kentucky by a single mother, Samantha Bloom, who is paraplegic. His uncle told the Washington Post that Fields never knew his father because he was killed by a drunk driver five months before his birth.

 The uncle said he mainly saw Fields at family gatherings, and found him not really friendly, more subdued. He said Fieldss father left him money in a trust kept by his uncle. When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him, the uncle said.

 Blooms parents (Fieldss maternal grandparents) died in a murder-suicide in 1984. The Post reports: After an argument, Marvin Bloom, a self-employed contractor, killed his ex-wife, Judy, with a 12-gauge shotgun, then put the gun to his head. He was 42, and she was 37. Their daughter, Samantha, was 16.

The gray Dodge Charger allegedly driven by Fields, moments after the attack. Photo: Getty Images/Getty Images

 Fieldss former teacher, Derek Weimer, told the Associated Press that by the time Fields was in the ninth grade, school officials had taken note of his deeply held, radical beliefs about race and Nazism. Weimer taught Fields in his junior and senior years at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky.

Weimer says he tried to use facts and academic reasoning to steer Fields away from his infatuation with Nazis. This was something that was growing in him, the teacher said. I admit I failed. I tried my best. But this is definitely a teachable moment and something we need to be vigilant about, because this stuff is tearing up our country.

 During his senior year, Fields supported Trump, expressing enthusiasm for the border wall and what he believed were Trumps views on race. Hes a registered Republican and voted in Ohios primary and the general election.

 Fields wanted to join the Army and Weimer helped him with the application process, believing that working with a diverse group of people would help cure him of his white-supremacist views. Fields was initially turned down, but he enlisted in the late summer of 2015. The Defense Department said he was only on active duty for four months and was let go due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015.

 Weimer said that Fields told him he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and prescribed antipsychotic medication.

 Fields and Bloom moved from Kentucky to Ohio about a year ago due to her job. About five or six months ago, he moved into his own apartment in Maumee, Ohio.

 Bloom apparently learned of the allegations against her son from reporters. She said Fields told her he was going to a rally and asked her to watch his cat. Bloom said he said something about the alt-right but she doesnt get into his political views. I didnt know it was white supremacists, she said. I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trumps not a supremacist.

 BuzzFeed reports that Fieldss Facebook page, which was deactivated on Saturday night, was filled with pro-Trump and alt-right memes. There were also overt references to white supremacy and Nazism, like a photo of Adolf Hitler as a baby and another of soldiers holding American flags and swastikas.

A picture posted on the Facebook page of James Fields who ran his car through the crowd in Virginia today. pic.twitter.com/xGB4vclsFG  Yashar Ali  (@yashar) August 13, 2017

 Photographs appear to show Fields at the rally hours before Saturdays attack, wearing the symbols of Vanguard America, which calls itself the Face of American Fascism. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group is particularly focused on recruiting young men and has engaged in unprecedented outreach efforts to attract students on American college campuses.

In a statement on Twitter, Vanguard denied that Fields was a member, saying it handed out shields to anyone in attendance who wanted them, and All our members are safe an (sic) accounted for, with no arrests or charges.

James Alex Fields was w/ the Vanguard America folks in #Charlottesville. Learn more about the group > https://t.co/HNloF8Btnf @ADL_National pic.twitter.com/TmJLi0kfZo  Oren Segal (@orensegal) August 13, 2017

Video taken at the Unite the Right rally appears to show Fields in the crowd chanting, Fags go home. You have no testosterone.

 According to Charlottesville police, Fields was arrested shortly after fleeing the scene of the crash. Hes been charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and hit and run.

UPDATE: Arrest made in Saturday fatality at 4th and Water streets. #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/SKLHnfNGvg  Charlottesville City (@CvilleCityHall) August 13, 2017

 The Justice Department said on Saturday night that it would open a civil-rights investigation into the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident, which means federal hate-crime charges could be added.

The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.
A Charlottesville memorial for the young woman killed in the city on Saturday. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

One day after President Trump conspicuously claimed that many sides were to blame for the violence that occurred at a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, White House officials have been trying to clarify or expand on the meaning of his remarks. A 32-year-old woman was killed on Saturday when a white nationalist drove his car into a group of protestors in what many are now calling a domestic terror attack. That driver now faces a second-degree murder charge over the hit-and-run.

In response to these events, the bipartisan denunciation of white supremacists has become all-the-justified-rage among American politicians, and even Republicans are taking the opportunity to rebuke the presidents ambiguity.

Inundated with media requests to explain what Trump meant when he attributed the violence to many sides, an unnamed White House spokesperson released the following statement on Sunday morning:

The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.

If that statement seems like it stops short of Trump specifically and directly condemning white supremacists, thats because he hasnt. The president had the opportunity to do that on Saturday, and again on Sunday, but did not. The only peep he made on Sunday was to retweet an Axios article reporting that the Department of Justice was opening a civil-rights investigation into the hit-and-run in Charlottesville, which is a retweet Trump presumably meant as an endorsement.

And so, with Trump silently standing by his original statement, it was thus left to others  like anonymous White House spokespeople  to try to shift the meaning of the presidents remarks on Saturday. A few of Trumps cabinet members tried their best on the Sunday shows, as well, but the results werent pretty.

Tom Bossert, the presidents Homeland Security advisor, offered up the weakest defense of the three Trump administration officials who hit the airwaves on Sunday. In an interview with Jake Tapper on CNNs State of the Union, Bossert essentially repeated what the president said, and added that he was proud of Trump for saying it. For instance, Bossert blamed both the protestors and counterprotestors that showed up on Saturday, noting that:

These were people who showed up intentionally looking for trouble. These werent people that showed up to protest a statue. Im sure there were good people in the group that had various opinions on the removal or  or maintenance of the statue. But what they found when they showed up were groups from outside that showed up on both sides looking for trouble, dressed in riot gear, prepared for violence.

Bossert then tried to elevate Trump above the other politicians who actually did denounce the white supremacists at the rally, asserting that, I think you saw the president stand up very clearly, and not only denounce it, but rise to a presidential level of calling for a countermessage of love and dignity and respect for fellow human beings.

Of course, in addition to his countermessage of love, the other presidential level that Trump rose to on Saturday was to call, in a response to white supremacists rallying against white genocide and the removal of a Confederate generals statue, for Americans to cherish our history.

Bossert also worked to shift the blame to Fields, the accused murderer, adding that, I dont assign blame or assuage blame or try to press blame to different groups.

I believe that the subset of all the groups and all the people who might justify their insanity or violence are covered by the presidents clear denunciation yesterday, he said. And I think declaring racial bigotry unacceptable was a very smart and calming thing for the president to do. It was a leadership decision that he took.

The Homeland Security advisor also praised local authorities for their efforts to prepare for the rally, repeatedly singling out the work of the mayor of Charlottesville, Michael Signer. But Signer, a Democrat, blamed President Trump on Sunday  directly  for the atmosphere in the country which led to Saturdays violence. Trump made a choice in his presidential campaign and the folks around with him to go right to the gutter, to play on our worst prejudices, and I think youre seeing a direct line from what happened here this weekend to those choices, Signer said, and indicated that he hoped Fields would be prosecuted as a terrorist.

In an appearance on ABCs This Week, White House national security advisor H.R. McMaster agreed  speaking for himself  that Fieldss hit-and-run should be considered a terrorist attack. He also claimed, like Bossert, the president was very clear in his remarks about Charlottesville:

[T]he presidents been very clear. We cannot tolerate this kind of bigotry, this kind of hatred. And what he did is he called on all Americans to take a firm stand against it [] What the president did is he called out anyone, anyone who is responsible for fomenting this kind of bigotry, hatred, racism, and violence. And I think the president was very clear on that.

And CIA director Mike Pompeo offered an unshockingly similar framing in an appearance on CBSs Face the Nation:

I think the president was, frankly, pretty unambiguous about what his Justice Department is going to do, the way he views how utterly inappropriate it is for this hatred and bigotry. I think the presidents remarks were very clear  [W]hen someone marches with a Nazi flag, that is unacceptable. And I think thats what the president said yesterday. I think he was speaking very directly to the incident there. Weve all seen the videotape. And I think he was speaking directly to that and condemning the hatred and the bigotry that was on display yesterday.

Of course, when numerous people have to come out and talk about how unambiguous or very clear something is, that is typically pretty definitive proof that clarity has been hard to find. We already expect this White House to have mysterious answers for how they plan to pay for massive tax cuts or end the war in Afghanistan, but when it comes to something as painfully obvious and easy like, Nazis are bad, the lack of clarity, especially from the president himself, is all the more revealing.
Photo: Archivio J. Lange/Getty Images/DeAgostini

In the U.S. and plenty of other places around the world, atheism is on the rise. In just under half of the worlds countries, according to Pew Research Center, the second-largest religious group is people who claim no religion at all. In the United States, while recent research has shown an uptick in the number of people who identify as atheist, definitive numbers are hard to come by; one survey last year put it around 10 percent, while a more recent study argued that it was as high as 26 percent.

Whatever the true number is, though, there remains a disconnect between atheisms popularity and its reputation: According to a new study published last week in Nature, people all over the world connect immorality with atheism. In fact, the moral prejudice against atheists is so strong that it holds even in countries like the Netherlands, where most people arent religious. Even atheists themselves, according to the study, are inclined to see nonbelievers as more wicked than the faithful.

Entrenched moral suspicion of atheists suggests that religions powerful influence on moral judgements persists, even among non-believers in secular societies, the authors wrote.

The study, led by University of Kentucky psychology professor Will Gervais, surveyed more than 3,000 people in 13 countries, including nations with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and non-religious majorities: Australia, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Mauritius, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Participants read a description of a man who tortured animals as a child and became even more sadistically violent as he grew up, eventually murdering five homeless people and hiding their dismembered bodies in his basement. The survey then asked some participants if they thought the man was more likely a teacher or religious teacher. Other participants were asked if they though the man was more likely a teacher or an atheist teacher. This setup meant that no one was directly asked if they thought the man was or was not an atheist, but researchers could draw conclusions by comparing how many participants said the man would be an atheist teacher versus how many said he would be a religious teacher.

As they had hypothesized, the researchers found a universal suspicion of atheist morality across all 13 countries. People overall are roughly twice as likely to view extreme immorality as representative of atheists, relative to believers, they wrote. Consistent with predictions, extreme intuitive moral distrust of atheists is both globally evident and variable in its magnitude across countries.

The association was somewhat stronger in more religious countries, but even in very secular countries in the study  Australia, China, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom  people were more likely to associate serial killing with atheism, although the gap was narrower. The survey also asked participants to describe their religious beliefs, which allowed the research team to determine that even atheists connected immoral acts to atheism more often than to religious belief.

The authors concluded that people around the world see religion as a necessary restraint on depraved and dangerous behavior. In other words, despite the fact that we live in an increasingly secular world, people still fear those who arent God-fearing.

That finding didnt surprise Joseph Baker, author of American Secularism and a professor in the East Tennessee State University sociology department. An anti-atheist bias is really common and really well established, he said. In the United States, atheists used to be the most disliked among a number of unpopular groups, but are now tied at the top with Muslims, he said; what this new study adds is good data showing that the feeling is international.

Louise Antony, a philosophy professor at UMass Amherst who has written about atheism and morality, also found the study results unsurprising. I could predict it just from what I know about the stereotypes that people hold of atheists, she said.

But Antony also cautioned against drawing too much significance from experiments that may reveal only implicit bias, but not accurately portray peoples more holistic feelings about atheists. For example, Antony said, she has a terrible fear of spiders, the result of some deep-seated association that she wishes she didnt have, since she knows that spiders are almost entirely harmless and kill pests like mosquitoes. Likewise, people  even avowed atheists  may be handicapped by an implicit connection between atheism and immorality, despite a genuine belief that they themselves are as moral as believers.

The study might also be picking up on a fairly superficial response, Antony said: It wouldnt be surprising that atheists who grow up in cultures disparaging atheists have the same associations.

But even superficial biases can have very real effects, she added. Thats especially true in moments of hot cognition, when people dont have time to stop and reason out their beliefs before taking action, Baker noted. This latest study is more evidence that atheists are still mistrusted in contemporary society, he said. It means that people who are secular still have a long way to go in terms of getting equal footing in civil discourse. Theres still a lot of prejudice they have to overcome.
Photo: Twitter

Over the weekend, the alt-right descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia, in full force: The bearded militiamen, the shield-toting National Vanguard, and of course, the oddly coiffed representatives of the irony wing of the far-right movement. People like Tim Gionet, known under the nom de troll Baked Alaska, and Millennial Matt.

Millennial Matt, who frequently tweets ironic jokes about the Holocaust, and Gionet, who is similarly fond of jokes like Photoshopping peoples faces into cartoons of concentration-camp ovens, were among the most prominent faces at this weekends Unite the Right event. Matt was featured prominently in photographs of Friday nights terrifying torchlit march; Gionet was so excited that he created hyperstylized meme renditions of the infamous 14 words of white nationalists (We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children).

By Sunday, after the gathering was shut down by police and a fellow white nationalist careened through a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one person and injuring many more, both Gionet and Matt had adjusted their tone considerably. Gionet, who was maced by unknown assailants, tweeted, We must come together as a country and try to understand each other peacefully. We cant continue to scream nazi or sjw back & forth. Matt, whose account was suspended, posted a video of himself talking to the camera, his voice shaking: Im usually a jokester; I do a lot of comedy, but theres nothing funny about threatening peoples lives, threatening peoples families.

Over the last few years, the world of the internet and the world outside of it have been slowly merging, especially as media institutions like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook have become the primary method of communication and organization for most people. Its hard not to see this in many ways as a disaster, watching the rise of organized white nationalists and the election of a president whose sole talent is demanding attention. But this weekend was also a reminder that the ongoing interconnection of the internet and meatspace (as the physical world is known in online vernacular; Im sorry) doesnt mean that the offline world has to play by the same rules as the online. It also means that the rules of the real world will increasingly influence the space of the internet.

The early decades of the internet made it easy to separate ones online personality from ones offline personality by way of pseudonymity and limited functionality. It used to be that on the internet, nobody knew you were a dog, in part because there just wasnt a whole lot to do on the internet. But as the networks function has ballooned to encompass a dominant part of modern society, more attention is being paid to how what happens online affects what happens offline. People arent simply chatting behind screen names, theyre organizing and fighting and blurring the line between aspects of life that used to be kept separate. Theres a reason why the Klan wears hoods.

But the shield of online anonymity is still being wielded widely, perhaps no more aggressively than on right-wing gathering spaces online, like 4chans /pol/ board and the murkiest corners of Twitter. 4chan is where the concept of the ironic Nazi and white nationalist was born  the racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic users who say the awful things they say not necessarily because they believe them, but because it makes other people angry or scared. Thats textbook trolling: saying stuff that is first and foremost intended to get a rise out of other people. This is the discursive tradition that produced Gionet and Millennial Matt.

The Ironic Nazi exists in part because the internet minimizes friction. Friction includes anything that might stop someone from using a particular service; things like having to create a user account, tying that account to an email address, filling out a CAPTCHA, filters that prevent obscene messages from being sent or published, or even long load times. By reducing the mental overhead required for publishing, it becomes easier to act without thinking. Online platforms benefit significantly from this approach, meant to lower inhibitions. Making it easier for people to share and post means making it easier for people to share and post heinous things. Its why 4chan, which does not require an account, and Twitter, which limits the verbosity of what people say, are thought of as potent breeding grounds for the Ironic Nazi.

The rise of frictionless, anonymous spaces has been an important test for the strength of free speech, because they remove the friction that the real world insists upon  anything from the difficulty of finding a wide audience for your racist pamphlet to the social consequences of spouting hate speech. White nationalists hiding behind the label of troll  like Weev, Baked Alaska, Millennial Matt, and their thousands of anonymous comrades  can spout shit online with no work or investment, and when called on it, dance away with more jokes or claims that its all just talk. Its why horrible stances are framed as satire or social experiments when the blowback happens. After all, you cant definitively prove the intentions of an anonymous online comment, and there are a lot of bored teenagers (and adults) operating with impunity.

What happens when that modus operandi translates into the physical world, as it did in Charlottesville, when torch-bearing, flag-waving Nazis and white supremacists turned the city into a violent arena? Its far easier to write Hitler did nothing wrong online and send it to nobody in particular than it is to approach someone on the street and say it to their face. The meatspace is all friction. And I dont mean conflict here; I mean that there are constant barriers of entry. The Ironic Nazi is framed as a product of how easy platforms make it to be an asshole online. The ones who came to Charlottesville were the exact opposite: focused, methodical, and intentional in their efforts. For Gionet, it meant coordinating travel, lodging, and times to meet up with other demonstrators. It meant going out of his way to stand with literal white supremacists, and investing time, money, and possible bodily harm to do so.

Consider the words of college student Peter Cvjetanovic, a picture of whom, mid-shout while holding a tiki torch, circulated widely on social media this weekend. I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo, he told news station KTVN, despite having traveled to Charlottesville specifically to protect the legacy of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. In the real world, its not just talk anymore.

When you break it down, the only thing people can do on the internet  contained entirely to the internet  is talk. It is all discourse, and hypotheticals, and bluster, and trolling. But it can do real harm, because as soon as that conversation spills into tangible space, the hypothetical vanishes. Even without overt violence, swarming a public space is an act intended to show force and to intimidate. Men carrying guns, wearing swastikas, and performing a Nazi salute isnt physical violence, but it isnt peace, either. The physical world is not a Boolean. The rules of online discourse do not translate to the meatspace, despite what trolls (an ill-fitting title for this type of public spectacle) might think. When you stand with white supremacists on the street, you are literally standing with white supremacists. There is nothing ironic about that.

Correction: Due to an editing error, Millennial Matt was identified as a member of Gavin McInness Proud Boys organization. He is not.
One of the most significant changes in financial services over the past few decades has been the growth and adoption of bancassurance.

The sale and distribution of insurance products through banks is becoming prevalent across the world.

Commercial banks are adopting it because selling insurance products gives them a new and lucrative revenue stream without high new setup costs. Besides, this fee-based income is essentially risk-free since the bank simply plays the role of intermediary.

Insurance companies on the other hand see bancassurance as a way for increasing their market penetration and premium turnover at near zero cost. In turn, the customer enjoys the benefits of reduced prices and a wider range of products conveniently.

The Financial Institutions Amendment Act, 2016 provides for the introduction of bancassurance in Uganda.

Bank of Uganda was charged with the formulation of the enabling regulations to guide the smooth operationalization of the law.

These regulations have since been approved by the ministry of Finance and gazetted, meaning Ugandan commercial banks are now in a position to offer bancassurance to complement their existing bouquets of products.

It is important to note, however, that bancassurance is not a one-size-fits-all model that will be rolled out the same way by all financial institutions.

The choice of business model for the bank is dependent on a number of factors such as: the nature of the bank, the size of the market, the regulatory environment as well as customer preferences. Some of these models include:

Pure distributor: Here, the bank acts as an intermediary, offering products of more than one insurance company. The insurance company usually pays distribution commissions to the bank, which are in turn offset by entry and management fees charged to the policy holders.

The relationship between the bank and insurer will also be complemented by a more or less significant cross-shareholding.

Strategic alliance: In this case, the bank sells the products of only this particular insurance company. The main advantage for the bank being that it is able to select the best provider in terms of its customer profile, quality of products and brand image.

At the same time, the insurance company gains access to the banks customer base without having to make a major financial investment. However, a potential disadvantage is that low levels of integration between the bank and the insurer remain as the two companies continue to operate as completely separate entities.

Joint venture: Under this model, the bank and the insurance company (through shareholding), create a new entity. The joint venture distributes its products only through the network of its banking parent.

Financial holding company: Here a holding company owns both the insurer and the bank, often referred to as a financial conglomerate. Potential advantages of this model are that operations and systems can be fully integrated.

Whatever model the banks decide to adopt, for any bancassurance strategy to succeed, there is need for an immediate and sustained focus on keeping operational costs to a minimum while steadily growing sales commissions through targeted promotional activity.

A rapid growth in revenues should not be driven through a high pricing policy, but by steadily growing sales volumes.

Thus, a key to success when entering the insurance segment will be to establish a substantial market share as early as possible through cross-selling.

Banks that cross-sell financial products can easily leverage their distribution and processing capabilities for profitable operating expense ratios.

Most financial experts anticipate that the adoption of bancassurance in Uganda will initially be slow but quickly gain traction as the financial markets and Ugandans start to grasp the full implications of the new value proposition.

This is a welcome development for the banking industry.

The insurance industry is also set to gain and get the much-needed shot in the arm to increase penetration of their products, which currently stands at less than two percent.



The author is head of bancassurance, Stanbic Bank Uganda.
Nominations for candidates vying for the presidency of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party start today. Among those who have declared interest in the seat is MOSES LUKUBIRA.

In an interview with Baker Batte Lule last week, Lukubira said he is vying for the opposition party's top seat because the incumbent, Maj Gen (rtd) Mugisha Muntu, does not have the kind of aggressiveness that FDC needs to take power.



Who is Moses Lukubira?

I was born on November 17, 1981 in Mukono district where both my dad and mum live even now. I am also a resident of Mukono municipality. I am married with four children.

Moses Lukubira

I am a member of the FDC, which I joined in 2005 when I was a student at Kyambogo University pursuing a degree in computer engineering. In the general elections of 2006, I stood as a councillor in Nama sub-county to represent it at Mukono district but I didnt go through.



Since then, what other positions have you held?

I have been a leader of FDC and currently I am the chairperson of the party in the municipality. I am a member of the district executive and a delegate of FDC.

I have also stood as a member of parliament on the FDC ticket twice. In 2011, I stood as a member of parliament for Mukono North and in 2016 I stood as MP for Mukono municipality.



What motivates you to join the race for the FDC presidency?

Among all the candidates, its me who is not in any fight with anybody. As we speak now, we have one side led by Muntu, the conformists, and the other of the activists led by Dr Kizza Besigye.

So, for the last five years, we have had problems in FDC where the activists battled it out with the conformists. So, there is a division in FDC and if we dont look for means of solving these divisions now, this may bring us problems in the future.

So, I decided to come in this race as a neutral candidate to bring both sides together to take FDC forward. The party was founded on an activism background but ever since Besigyes term ended, the party has been sleeping because Gen Muntu is a bit soft.

This has led to people starting losing trust in the party. With me, a young and energetic person, as FDC president, I will breathe the much-needed life in the party, especially by bringing in the youth.

Many people in Buganda have always felt that FDC is a party of the west. They say there is no big difference between FDC and NRM. So, I want to bring another view to show the country that the party is for all of us. Im not only a candidate of myself but I represent change.



How do you reconcile your claim that defiance is one of the problems killing FDC with the accusation that Gen Muntu is sucking activism out of party?

FDC needs the defiance-kind-of-politics but also compliance. But what is happening now there is war between the two ideologies, if you may. Some say we must be for defiance alone; others say they want to be for compliance alone.

So, they have failed to agree on how both of them can come and work for the good of the party.



Some FDC members I have spoken to dont think you are serious. How do you respond?

I dont know how ones seriousness should be known. I have picked nomination papers and I can assure you, I will be nominated on Monday at 2pm. For those who think Im not serous, let them wait for Monday.



What is it that Gen Muntu has not handled that you think you can handle better?

Gen Muntu is so soft yet we are fighting with a mafia regime which doesnt need nice people. Muntu has failed to change his tactics.

You cannot use the politics of compliance to fight an entrenched dictatorship like we have in Uganda today. We need a more active leadership that will confront this dictatorship and frankly that is not the kind of politics Gen Muntu practices.



Is there anything you would point at and say yes this has been Gen Muntus biggest contribution to FDC?

Gen Muntu loves his party. On many occasions, he has tried to promote it, unlike Dr Besigye, who although he is FDC, has sacrificed his candidates many times at different levels in favour of independents or DP.

For example, when I stood as a parliamentary candidate for Mukono municipality, he tried to kick me out of the race in favour of Betty Nambooze who is not an FDC candidate.

In Butambala, Dr Besigye also tried to withdraw an FDC candidate, the late Moses Kasule, and decided to support Muwanga Kivumbi who is not FDC. He has done this in many other constituencies. But for Muntu, he has always stood with his FDC candidates.

With that, I give it to him. He has always tried to build party structures, although he has not done it to his best because of the fights within the party. But I dont think he is currently the right person to take us to the next level.



What is your strategy of winning?

We as FDC want to see the NRM and dictator Museveni out. The current party leadership has tried but has failed. Most of the time, when we go into an election, the party has only looked at the presidency and has given other elective posts lip service.

Besides the presidency, I will go around the country looking for candidates at all levels and, most especially, parliament. I will look for funds to enable us have candidates in all the constituencies so that at the end of the election, even if the dictator steals our votes, we shall have big numbers in parliament which we can use to have a vote of no confidence in the regime of President Museveni.



Are you prepared for the race?

Im so much prepared for the race; Im in the final stages of my nomination. The task force is already doing their work. An office is already open in Mukono and is working. I stand over 60 per cent chance of winning.



bakerbatte@gmail.com
Former Kumi MP PATRICK AMURIAT OBOI is one of the six contenders for the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidency who are due for nomination today and tomorrow (Tuesday).

In an interview with Sadab Kitatta Kaaya, Amuriat explained why he thinks he is the best choice for the presidency of Uganda's leading opposition party.



What motivated you to join the race for FDC presidency?

First of all, I am a long [-serving] leader within the FDC. I have been in FDC from its inception. Before that, I was in the Reform Agenda, and, before that, I was involved in opposition politics. I was in the IPFC [Inter-party forces cooperation] during Dr [Paul Kawanga] Ssemogereres 1996 presidential campaigns.

Patrick Amuriat Oboi

I have observed the events that are [happening] within the party and my assessment is that the party is in a decline.

There are glaring cases of not so much unity in the part and, as a result, we are actually losing members, some of them out of frustration.

So, I would like to bring new energy to the party, bring back the unity [and] take back the party to the owners, who are at the grassroots, revitalise our structures and make them active.

But my decision to get into this thing was informed by last years events. I believe that we ran a good campaign for Dr Kizza Besigye [in the presidential elections].

I was at the centre of this campaign. I was the coordinator for eastern Uganda and we happily returned a good result. But after, our president [Besigye] was arrested and incarcerated in different places, including his home.

In all this, the party was incapable of reclaiming its victory. This showed that there was something lacking within the party infrastructure, within the fabric of the party that made it certainly difficult for us to be announced winners, and for us to show that we were unhappy  with our own actions.

Dr Besigye, with a group of individuals formed the peoples government that I belong to, [and we] have continued to struggle to reclaim our victory. It looks to me like the party leadership is aloof as far as this is concerned.

This pushes me to believe we can be able to reclaim our victory and make FDC a better party once we are united as a team.



You talk of the party lacking cohesion yet you, according to some party members, are part of the informal structures that are working parallel to the formal structure led by Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu. How do you intend to keep the party together when youre part of the group tearing it apart?

First of all, it has to be understood that every party member has a responsibility to mobilise for the party. Everyone! When you go to the marketplace as an ordinary member who loves your party, you are courting someone to join the party; at the bar, at the well, during funerals, etc.

We have that responsibility. And people have got different approaches of persuading people to join the party. If I can develop a team in my little village to canvass votes; to [reach out] to members of other political parties and persuade them to join FDC, then I am doing my party a service.

But to talk about what people call groups, it is true, I belong to the peoples government, and we are actually mobilising.

We are mobilising in the countryside, in urban centres [and] wherever we go, talking to people, urging them to rise up and defy the establishment in Kampala.

We are also mobilising people of all walks of life to participate in this activity regardless of whether they are FDC or belong to other parties or without any party affiliations.

What some people call informal structures that are claimed to be tearing the party apart is said out of lack of information.

The peoples government is an endorsement of the partys working committee and the National Executive Committee (NEC), which, after recognising that we won, declared that we actually won, and implored every party member to do whatever it takes to reclaim this victory.

We have a NEC resolution, and so, for me, those statements are merely diversionary and being made by people who think that the peoples government has performed beyond expectation, and is actually now the face of the party.

Even with that prevailing, there is no single time that Dr Besigye or any other member of the defiance government has claimed a place in Najjanankumbi. There is no rivalry between us and them  those who hold formal party positions.

Many of us [in the defiance cabinet] dont hold formal party leadership positions at the national level but we think we are workers, we have accepted to fold our sleeves, make our hands dirty for the sake of this country, for the sake of FDC.



You talk so much about the peoples government and Dr Besigye. Is this, therefore, to confirm a rumour that you are being fronted by him?

In the many years I have been in the FDC, I have worked with everybody who accepts to work with me. I should also say that I am a seasoned politician.

Anybody who has gone through parliament, 15 years in succession, has the requisite experience and capacity to mobilise. You could fluke becoming a Member of Parliament for the first time but not for the second and third time.

I would like to inform whoever would like to know that over the years, I have generated political strength and I continue to dissipate political energy. I really dont need to be told what to do politically.

I have stood six times in national politics since the CA [Constituent Assembly] and never have I been pushed by anybody to contest.

I am contesting out of my own volition, out of my own desire to represent people, out of a commitment I have to serve this country.

Having said that, the campaign that we are going into is a campaign of reaching out to everybody. So, if I reached out to Dr Kizza Besigye, and you know that Dr Besigye is one of our big drums in the party, and he said, yes I will give you a vote, should I reject that vote? No.



You represented Kumi county in parliament for three consecutive terms until the last elections when voters rejected you. One would, therefore, wonder how a person rejected by his own constituency can be able to marshal support for the party nationally.

When you look at all the political party leaders we have; the DP president [Norbert Mao] doesnt represent any constituency, the current FDC president does not represent a constituency, and even if one did, like UPCs Jimmy Akena, he just represents Lira municipality.

A party is a national arrangement; its leadership is not confined to leadership in a constituency or in a district. Far from it; you represent the country in entirety.

You have membership across the country and it is not going to be in just a constituency. But with that said, I still enjoy a lot of respect in Kumi because the people of Kumi know the circumstances under which I lost.

You might want to know that some of the constituencies in this country were targeted. Museveni in his agenda wanted us out, and it happened everywhere  Rukiga [Jack Sabiiti], Terego [Kassiano Wadri], Serere [Alice Alaso], in Bukooli Central [Wafula Oguttu], Tororo North [Geoffrey Ekanya], Busia Municipality [Kevin Taaka], and Jinja Municipality East [Paul Mwiru]

Those were targeted constituencies where the military and crime preventers were deployed and huge sums of money spent. In fact, in the case of Kumi, the [then] deputy [Chief of Defence Forces Lt Gen Charles Angina] came to Kanyum constituency.

You might also be aware that there was political gerrymandering where out of one constituency, three constituencies were created. They tried in 2006 but the constituency was big and they couldnt manage. The same thing happened again in 2011; the military came but they couldnt manage.

This time, they decided to break up the constituency into three to make it easy for them. But I am not complaining; this too has given me enough time to deploy my energy in activism. It is something that I have enjoyed doing in the last one year.

So, I am not looking for a constituency in contesting for the FDC presidency. Neither am I looking for money because this is a voluntary job. It is something for which you are not paid. I still think that what I set out to do for my country Uganda, we have not yet concluded, and we will conclude it the moment we have a free society in this country.



You seem to look at Gen Muntu as an ineffective party president. What makes you think that you are better than him?

There are certain things he has done but I think he has reached his optimum. In my opinion, his graph is beginning to fall; he has reached the peak and he is now coming down in terms of being able to run the party.

I have talked about the disunity in FDC that has made it impossible or difficult for him to successfully run the party. A good leader given five years should have united the party by now.

For any leader, there comes time when it is not the number of years that you are given that will improve any situation. When that time comes, then you have reached your maximum state of performance and the only thing that comes to you is for you to come down.

He also finds himself in an unfortunate situation because he replaced a very strong leader; our founding father Besigye who left prematurely. So, there is a tendency to compare the two and their styles of leadership.



What has Muntu failed to do that youll do to stop party members from comparing your presidency with Besigyes?

You cant wish Dr Besigye away just like that. It is going to be very difficult. People will always [make the comparisons]. Even when I get to that position, they will want to compare me with Dr Besigye.

What a leader would need to do is to work not only with Dr Besigye but also call back people who have been resourceful in this party. We have resourceful elders and founder members. The remaining energy of those people needs to be redeployed in stabilising our party.



Are you suggesting Muntu has no working relations with some FDC founder members?

Well, today, Dr Besigye runs the peoples government that as I have said, has reinvigorated the party. It is actually why the party is visible at the moment and all that anybody who wishes this party well will be for that person to accept to work for the peoples government.

Today, the key leaders of the party have shunned the peoples government. Gen Muntu and one or two of his deputies dont belong to it, a number of deputy chairpersons also dont belong to the peoples government.

But if NEC is saying we won the 2016 elections, and yet the leadership doesnt want to join forces with the peoples government, where do they want to take us?

One thing I want to see happening at Najjanankumbi is an honest fusion between the party and that institution [which] we think represents our victory.



So, you think Muntu is keeping the party away from the people?

Many of our branches are non-functional; this needs to be [addressed]. It is only then that you can have a party that is well grounded to mobilise the grassroots.

So, in taking the party back to the people, I mean that these party branches are going to be functional and functioning efficiently. We will also give these party branches the opportunity to speak to us. We are going to devise mechanisms that will ensure constant interaction between the leadership at Najjanankumbi and the leadership on ground.

We dont have to wait for an election to remember that we have people on the ground; an election shouldnt be an event that wakes up people to the need to strengthen the party at the grassroots. I am not going to be an armchair party president. I am going to be a field president.



Resource mobilisation is one of the key challenges Muntu has grappled with, which probably explains his inability to execute certain party activities. How do you intend to deal with this?

That would be a secret of the party; you know we are competing with NRM. If we do our work with their knowledge, that resources will be mobilise here, they will try to block our opportunities.

But certainly, one way that I intend to use is to develop our party headquarters as a business hub. Well call in the experts to advise us and we will rebuild the party headquarters. I know, the three years that I want may not be sufficient for us to do that, but we will commence work there certainly.

That will be one of the projects that the party will use to generate funds. We can also enter business ventures as a party. It is not illegal for the party to do business. So, we are going to enter into profitable business.

We are also going to organise our branches in such a manner that they can carry out activities that would generate income for the running of the party at the lower levels. That is my vision for the lower-level structures; and to do this, I am going to offer myself to run the party not for a term of five years but I will cut down my term to three years.



Why?

The reason is that today we run two delegates conferences specifically for election of party leaders. Five years ago in 2012, there was a delegates conference to elect [the party president].

A few years down the road, we called another delegates conference to elect other party leaders. We are now spending about Shs 400 million for a delegates conference specifically for the election of a party president. I would like these programs to be harmonised.

The next election of all party office bearers will be in 2020 and it is my desire that an election involving even the election of a party president be done at the same time the other officers are being elected.

That way, we will avoid a delegates conference in 2022 which will specifically be to elect a party president. I will, therefore, cut short my term.

If by then I will have performed well, fulfilled my promises, then, I will seek for a five-year term. For now, I think the party is bigger than I am and anybody else; it is my wish that once I am elected, I will serve for three years.

The money saved by not holding an extra delegates conference in 2022 shall be sent to the branches to run simple projects that can generate funds.



sadabkk@observer.ug
The leadership of the Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) has threatened to take disciplinary action against the opposition partys president, Beti Kamya, who currently serves President Musevenis government as minister for Kampala.

UFA accuses Kamya, the partys founding president, of neglecting her presidential duties in the party, making public utterances different from what the party believes in and acting in contempt of its organs.

Minister for Kampala Beti Kamya

Addressing the media in Kampala on Friday, UFAs acting secretary general, Kennedy Oluma, said they will convene a national delegates conference in 30 days to determine Kamyas fate. UFA will also use the conference to draft plans to push for the attainment of federalism in Uganda.

We have no powers to dismiss anybody. We have to go through the delegates conference and what the delegates conference decides, we shall tell you, Oluma said.

According to the UFA constitution, the delegates conference, working on the recommendations of the disciplinary committee, which registers complaints from the party members, can then suspend a member or revoke their membership.

Party officials pointed out that the move was not to condemn an individual but to enable them to run the party efficiently.

Since her appointment to cabinet as minister for Kampala by Museveni, Kamya has given less time to UFA, a party she founded and has made statements in support of President Museveni, changing from her earlier critical stance.

Oluma called Kamyas appointment a means to cripple the party, which we detest.

We do not want to make an alliance with the ruling National Resistance Movement [led by President Museveni]. Any notion that we are in alliance with NRM is extremely against our party, he said.

In August last year, Kamya promised Museveni that she would deliver to him 80 per cent of the votes in the capital Kampala, an opposition stronghold, should he stand in 2021.

According to the constitution, 73-year-old Museveni will not be eligible to stand for president since he will have surpassed the 75-year cap.

Kamya also weighed in on the debate that government plans to change the constitution and remove the age limit clause, saying that the president should rule as long as he wants.

The party, however, distances itself from their presidents remarks.

That is not the party position. That is just her opinion and she has the freedom to say whatever she likes but she is not the official party spokesperson, Jimmy Mayanja, the partys vice chairperson, Buganda region, said.

Kamyas deputy and head of the partys disciplinary committee, Bonifance Oniba, said efforts to bring their president to the committee over her statements have been futile since she has snubbed several of our sermons.

This, Oniba said, is the reason they have resolved to hold a national delegates conference to determine Kamyas fate.

Efforts to reach Kamya for a comment were futile by press time; however, in recent media utterances, she has affirmed that her appointment as minister doesnt mean she left UFA.



kamogajonathan50@gmail.com
President Museveni has banned all daily levies charged on informal business groups such as market vendors, gonja (roasted plantain) sellers, and maize sellers as well as taxis.

In a July 22, 2017 letter to the prime minister copied to the Kampala, Local Government and Finance ministers, Museveni says these groups should only pay annual licenses and operate without daily hindrances.

these operators buy an annual license of, may be, Shs 50,000. That should be all. Nobody should charge them daily fees of, for instance, Shs 1,000. There should be no fees for Kampala and fees for the up-country vendors. It should be one consolidated fee, wrote the president.

This comes as a relief to taxi operators and vendors who have consistently complained about multiple taxation, especially in Kampala and Wakiso.

Mustapha Mayambala, the head of the Drivers and Conductors Central Association (DACCA), said on Saturday he had heard rumors of this letter but no official communication had been made.

It is good if the president has written again because he had earlier informed the ministry of local government to do the same and they did not implement that directive, Mayambala said.

Mayambala said the directive had probably started taking effect since daily charges at various stages in most parts of Kampala, Wakiso and Entebbe had stopped.

But we still have problems with Luweero, Masaka, Kyotera, Kayunga and some parts of Wakiso who still ask for daily payments, he said.

On average, a taxi is charged Shs 5,000 at every stage in respective local government jurisdictions. This means that a taxi can pay up to Shs 30,000 if it were to move through six districts on a given route.

According to Mayambala, this is illegal money since it does not go into government coffers but is only shared among local government officials.

In December last year, President Museveni directed the local government ministry to harmonise these fees. In a February 2017 memo, minister Tom Butime announced the introduction of monthly parking fees of not more than Shs 80, 000 for every taxi with effect from July 1, 2017.

This prompted taxi operators plying the eastern Ugandan route  Kampala-Jinja-Iganga-Mbale  to go on strike at the start of this month (August).

Butimes directive meant that taxis would pay Shs 80,000 in every district of operation on top of the Shs 120,000 charged by KCCA.

This confusion is what the president wants to stop, proposing a standard fee. In his letter, the president reasoned that if the owner of a taxi or his employees made profits, they would, in turn, be charged income tax.

These excessive direct taxes for these or any other groups are not correct. Once these groups get some income, they will start spending; that is how the government will get income through consumption taxes, Museveni concluded.
The government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on female prophylactics, reports Samuel Okiror, but poor take-up is sparking concerns of a rise in HIV infections.



Uganda has been left with a mountain of unused female condoms after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars buying in more than a million of the unpopular contraceptives.

The low take-up, particularly among sex workers, is sparking concern that it could lead to a rise in HIV infections.

Last year, the Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG), which distributes contraceptives on behalf of the government, said 1.2m condoms were procured at a cost of $600,000 (460,000), and it expects 3m to be sourced this year. The contraceptives are funded through grants from the UN population fund (UNFPA).

Students of Kitante secondary school demonstrate how to use a female condom

But campaigners say the majority of the condoms are left unused, adding that action needs to be taken to promote greater awareness of the benefits or to find new designs.

The findings come as New Vision newspaper reports that Uganda is facing a shortage of 150m male condoms this year.

Dinah Apio, HIV programme officer at Action Group for Health Human Rights and HIV/Aids (Agha), said money was being spent on sourcing the condoms at the expense of other essential supplies such as drugs to treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Unfortunately, uptake of female condoms remains low among women in the general and most at-risk populations, Apio said. This directly compromises efforts towards HIV prevention among key populations.

One would rightly consider it a waste given other unfunded priorities in HIV response such as co-morbidities [additional diseases] and opportunistic infections like STI.

Rogers Sebukyu, warehouse and operations manager at UHMG, defended the decision to buy female condoms, saying their improved design and awareness campaigns had generated more demand.

With the proposed improvements, branding and different flavours to address the challenges that users expressed in surveys regarding the low uptake, the product should be able to do better, he said.

Female condoms offer women protection against HIV and other STIs, as well as pregnancy. They are one method among a range of contraceptives available in Uganda, the most popular of which are long-term injectables and implants.

Women who have used condoms complain they are hard to use and uncomfortable. They can also be expensive if bought privately.

Research conducted between January and March on the use of female condoms in districts including the capital, Kampala, found only a two per cent demand for them, compared with 98 per cent for male condoms. The groups most at risk are female sex workers, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users.

If not addressed, the issue of low utilisation of female condoms is likely to contribute to new HIV infections among young women in Uganda, more cases of other STIs among female sex workers and unwanted pregnancies, said Apio.

Vastha Kibirige, from the ministry of Health, said: Its a new method and people have a negative attitude about the product. We need to do a lot of education and promotion for female condoms.

It takes time and money to create uptake and use. Its not something that you can broadcast on radio and TV. We need to train health workers and educate people  But we dont have money to do it.

According to baseline research by UNFPA and UHMG in 2011, lack of information was the biggest hindrance to female condom take-up, with only a small minority of those interviewed having seen or used one.

Myths and misconceptions are still rife among sex workers, with concerns around the time it takes to insert the female condom and fear of alienating or angering sexual partners, said Sarah Nakku Kibuuka, country community mobilisation and networking adviser at the UN programme on HIV and Aids (UNAids).

Shifa Nalubega, a sex worker in Kampala, is not a fan: Its uncomfortable, stressful, disgusting and not user-friendly. It requires a lot of monitoring during sex. You have to hold the condom throughout the sex until the client finishes.

Another sex worker, Sophie, said its about business. The more clients you serve, the more money you make. Who would want to waste time to go the whole process of opening and inserting Femidom?

Angella Ankunda, a sex worker in Wakiso, about 10km from Kampala, said at 17cm long with two flexible rings, the condom was too big and scary.

The female condom was introduced in Uganda in 1998, but was never popular. In 2007, the government was forced to stop importing the original brand because women complained it was noisy during sex. Barely two years later, the government introduced a new variety through a pilot initiative in four districts and rolled it out nationally in 2012.

We have tried to promote the use of female condoms among sex workers, but demand and uptake has remained low, said Daisy Nakato, executive director at Wonetha, an organisation that promotes sex workers rights in Uganda. Few sex workers use them. There was not enough promotion of female condoms like the male ones. So many people dont even know what it looks like, and men dont trust [it].

Some of those interviewed in Kampala opt for unprotected sex, for which they can earn around 30,000 Ugandan shillings (6.40) compared with 5,000 shillings with a condom.

Poverty and the struggle to pay school fees, treatment, buy food and provide basic necessities, and pressures from landlords over rent, forces many to have live [unprotected] sex. It pays more, said Nakato.

Anthony, a sex worker, said: Ladies no longer want to use condoms. Many of them prefer pills to stop unwanted pregnancies. The ladies say theyd rather have HIV and Aids than pregnancy, which is visible, hence killing or tarnishing their market.

According to the national HIV strategic plan 2015-20, HIV prevalence among sex workers is 37 per cent, and among gay men 13 per cent, and as high as 40 per cent among fishing communities, compared with the national prevalence of 7.3 per cent.



Source: Guardian.
In May 2013, Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga announced that parliament would start its own radio and television stations to educate the public on the role of the legislative body.

With guaranteed funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Kadaga had hoped to have the project ready by the end of the 2013/2014 financial year.

However, the long wait could be coming to an end as the outlets are expected to go on air next month. But an internal fight over control of the multi-million shilling project threatens to derail it.

It is understood that the fight is mainly among three top parliament officials; Chris Obore (Communication and Public Affairs), Dison Okumu (Planning) and the deputy editor of The Hansard, Esther Mwambu.

Okumu is said to have taken the lead in the procurement of services and equipment related to the project, which has left other officials feeling sidelined.

For instance, he contracted WBT Consortium to offer consultancy services for the radio and TV studio designs.

According to documents seen by this writer, the consultancy firm, which was paid Shs 80 million for the job, is owned by Vision Group employees Mark Walungama and Bill Tibingana, and one John Bwirehi. Some sources have linked radio personality Joel Isabirye to the group.

According to our source, the consultancy services were privately sourced as opposed to public bidding. Such a procurement activity would be sanctioned by the Parliamentary Commission, the administrative arm of Parliament, the source said.

However, according to a member of the Parliamentary Commission who spoke to The Observer on Monday, such a decision has never been taken.

I dont remember [the commission] procuring any consultant. In fact, as far as we are concerned no consultant has ever been engaged, the commissioner said.

The consultant nonetheless concluded the job and submitted a report at the end of June.

FREQUENCY STRUGGLE

Last week, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) placed an advert in the press seeking the publics views on an application by parliament for a television broadcast licence.

Securing the license was part of the tasks that had been given to the consultant but it took the intervention of the Kakumiro Woman MP Robinah Nabbanja, a parliament commissioner, to obtain it.

It was the decision of the commission that she heads a sub-committee to fast-track the implementation of the project, said commissioner Peter Ogwang (MP Usuk).

UCC had reportedly refused to allocate a frequency to parliament, having taken a decision years ago to suspend issuance of licences for Kampala on account of being crowded. Parliamentarians had to exert pressure on UCC Executive Director, Geoffrey Mutabaazi, to get an exception.

After passing [the resolution] that we set up a parliament radio and TV, we then got information that they were denying us the frequency because UCC was not issuing any more frequencies for Kampala because it is crowded, Arinaitwe Rwakajara (Workers) said.

Parliament came up with the idea of setting up its own broadcast houses based on the experiences of legislative bodies in Zambia and South Africa.

We have been using UBC but it has too many programmes yet elsewhere in the world, parliaments have their own media that specifically talk about what really parliament is as an arm of government, Ogwang said.

He added that parliament is in advanced stages of procurement and its TV and radio are expected to hit the airwaves by September, giving regular information about parliamentary activities.

However, some parliamentary commissioners said they were not privy to details of the projects total cost, which some officials have put at approximately $350,000 (Shs 1.26bn). Asked to reveal the total cost, Okumu, the director of planning, said he too doesnt know.

I also dont know; it is not a parliament project but a UNDP project. They are the ones doing all the procurements, the advertising, and all the consultants are being paid by UNDP, Okumu said.

He added that the donor is expected to place newspaper adverts by next week calling for bids to construct the studios and other related activities.

Asked to comment on the alleged fight between him and other directors for control of the project, Okumu described it as complete nonsense.

He said: There is a project team headed by commissioner Nabbanja. Whoever is saying [that] is confused, doesnt know what he is talking about, should not associate with it [the project] and should not talk about it.

Okumu added: I am only chairing a technical team of 11 people and that team has some other directors like those of ICT, Communications and Research.

Obore, the director of communication, also denied knowledge of any fight for control of the project. He instead told this writer that Speaker Kadaga is upbeat about its near implementation.

She is happy that donors have the willingness to fund the project, Obore said.

sadabkk@observer.ug
Justice Anthony Oyuko Ojok

The Fort Portal High court resident judge, Anthony Oyuko Ojok has been discharged and his health declared 'out of danger following a morning accident near Mubende town today.

According to a statement from the Judiciary, the accident occurred at about 6am, today Monday.

The judge was reportedly travelling back to his station in his official vehicle to, among other things, attend the Justice, Law and Order Sector open day at Booma grounds in Fort Portal presided over by the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe.

The statement says that judge's driver reportedly lost control after a tyre burst, causing the vehicle to roll several times.

The judge, his driver and police bodyguard, sustained minor injuries before they were evacuated to True Vine hospital in Mubende for first aid.

They were later transferred to Mulago national referral hospital in Kampala, where they were examined and declared stable and out of danger. The trio has since been discharged from the hospital.
Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu and two others have today been nominated to run for the FDC presidency.

Muntu arrived at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi this afternoon accompanied by several party bigwigs including the leader of opposition in parliament Winnie Kiiza.

Gen Mugisha Muntu supporters

After nomination, Muntu promised to continue with his mission of building grassroots capacity for the 12-year-old party to enable it take national leadership.

It is gratifying that today I have been nominated to run for the second and last term as FDC president, Muntu said.

It has been a very hostile environment visited upon us by the regime. Even when we met a lot of resistance, both internal and external, my purpose has been to overcome it and build a strong party.

He noted that Uganda is facing a lot of challenges which only a focused political party leader can surmount.

Fdc party presidential candidate @mugishamuntu arrives for nominations at Fdc party offices @observerug pic.twitter.com/vwAbmQz9NY  nicholas Bamulanzeki (@bamulanzeki) August 14, 2017

Before Muntu, Dan Malcom Matsiko and Moses Byamugisha were also nominated.

Matsiko promised to help the party mobilize funds to run its numerous activities while Byamugisha promised to rally the youth to reclaim the 2016 election victory which he said was snatched by the NRM government.

Moses Byamugisha (L) being nominated. Photo and videos: Nicholas Bamulanzeki

The three-month campaigns kick off on Thursday with candidates expected to crisscross the country trying to convince the electorate that they are the best to lead the party.

Tomorrow, Moses Bakubi Lukubira, Kawempe South MP Mubarak Munyagwa and former Kumi MP Patrick Amuriat Oboi are expected to go for nomination.

#FDCNomination: Moses Byamugisha to rally FDC youth to reclaim the 2016 victory 'stolen Mr Museveni' via @bamulanzeki pic.twitter.com/yEVHSz2QS2  The Observer (@observerug) August 14, 2017

FDC party president nominations: Gen Mugisha Muntu wants to change the political culture of fighting individuals via @bamulanzeki pic.twitter.com/gAbqW6cyo0  The Observer (@observerug) August 14, 2017

bakerbatte@observer.ug
Several weeks later, there is still controversy over the exact number of Ugandan soldiers killed in Somalia by the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants during a July 30 attack.



The Ugandan soldiers were killed in an ambush by the insurgents during an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) patrol. The ambush spot is reported as Gorowen, an area between the townships of Bulumaler and Beladamini in Lower Shabelle region, 140 kilometres southwest of the capital Mogadishu.



The al-Shabaab claimed that they killed 39 out of the 59 Ugandan soldiers who were in the patrol, but the Ugandan army insists 12 soldiers died in the attack with seven others injured, some seriously.



Despite the UPDF claim of 12 dead, the number could be higher than is being officially claimed. The Somali government put the number of the dead at 23.

Caskets containing the remains of UPDF soldiers on arrival at Entebbe

Sources in Somalia, international agencies and sources within the UPDF told URN off the record that 21 UPDF soldiers died in that attack while nine others were injured. The sources further reveal that by late evening on July 30, at least 19 bodies were kept at the Level 2 hospital in Mogadishu.



The attack has reignited the discussion on how the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) manages its casualty numbers.



On Wednesday, August 2, caskets the army said contained the remains of the 12 soldiers were brought back to Uganda.



Speaking at a ceremony of receiving the bodies at the UPDF Airforce base in Entebbe, army spokesman, Brig Richard Karemire, said the soldiers "died a dignified death", adding that "that is how men and women should die".



Brig Karemire also vehemently refuted the claim of higher casualty numbers than what the army stated officially, dismissing it as al-Shabaab propaganda.



"I will really not go into your speculations. I have already told you. Whom do you believe? Do you believe al-Shabaab? Do you know what al-Shabaab is saying? Theyre are saying; we have killed one million Ugandans. Do we have one million soldiers in Somalia? Do we have them here in Uganda?", he angrily said.



The soldiers numbering 59 were reportedly under the command of one Lt Baraza who was due to retire from the army. He is said to have survived the ambush.



Sources also say during the ambush, 25 soldiers escaped and ran back to their base located four kilometres from the ambush scene.



Brig Karemire dismisses this claim too saying the ambush took place far away from the base.

"Go on the map and look for Gorowen and then you will get to know the distance of Gorowen from Mogadishu



Sources say the patrol was simply outnumbered and outgunned, as the ambush was laid by over 200 heavily armed al-Shabaab fighters. The sources say "there was nothing like fighting back".



Sources also say on the day of the ambush, four UPDF soldiers were missing from the base, but the following day, two reported at the AMISOM base with their guns. The remaining two, according to the sources, were hanged by the al-Shabaab in the town of Gorowen.



More reports also say during the ambush, the al-Shabaab fighters undressed and disarmed their victims, taking away uniforms and guns and equipment.



Sources say the al-Shabaab fighters took 21 sub-machine guns, five PK machine guns, a 60-milimeter mortar, and five tetra radios.



Repeat of September 2015



Brigadier Karemire appears to be reading from the same script-book used in 2015 by his predecessor, Lt Col Paddy Ankunda.



Karemire took over from Ankunda in January this year. But four months earlier, Lt Col Ankunda was at the centre of shaky information management following yet another deadly al-shabaab attack on the AMISOM forces.



On September 1, al-Shabaab militants carried out a suicide car bomb attack on the AMISOM base in Janaale district in the Lower Shabelle region, some 80 kilometres southwest of Mogadishu. Initial sources reported that up to 50 Amisom soldiers had died while the Somali military sources said 37.



Two days later, however, Lt Col Ankunda tweeted that the estimates of more than 50 deaths was a fabrication, insisting later that only 10 Ugandan soldiers had been killed in Somalia.

Luggage of the fallen soldiers returned home

Numbers puzzle



On the same day, September 3, 2015, General Jeje Odongo, then minister for Defense told the parliament that indeed 10 soldiers had died, but added that 46 al-Shabaab fighters had also been killed in action. He further told parliament that the UPDF had captured "some militants".



This was after Ankunda had tweeted on the same day, at 9:28am: "Amisom has accounted for all its soldiers. No Missing in action from Janaale attack."



Ankunda further dismissed as propaganda, messages attributed to al-Shabaab that the terrorist group had also captured UPDF soldiers. Tweeting on September 9, 2015 at 4:44pm, Ankunda insisted: "al-Shabaab can't claim to have any of our soldiers, pure lie. Amisom has reliably briefed us that they can account for all the soldiers."



Three days later, on September 12, President Yoweri Museveni added yet another piece to the puzzle of numbers, telling the media while on visit to Japan, that 19 Ugandan soldiers had been killed in the Janaale attack. The president further revealed that six soldiers were still missing. He blamed his commanders for being "asleep" something he said enabled the militants to carry out the attack on the Amisom base.



Sounding tough, President Museveni further told the media in Japan that the commanders had been suspended.

"It was the mistake of our own soldiers. Our commanders were asleep, not alert. And we have suspended those commanders. They will face a court martial."



It emerged later that at least one UPDF soldier, Private Masasa, was indeed in the hands of al-Shabaab. A video recording of his purported execution emerged in January this year.



Statements



On the evening of July 30, 2017, hours after the al-Shabaab attack, Brigadier Karemire issued a statement which was in many ways similar to the ones Lt Col Ankunda issued in 2015.



In the first press statement Brig. Karemire said al-Shabaab attacked a joint patrol of Amisom and the Somali National Army (SNA) forces and that lot of damage was inflicted on the enemy. "our troops took fatalities whose number is yet to be ascertained and will be made known as the situation evolves. We salute the gallant officers and men who have made sacrifices to ensure that peace is restored in Somalia," Karemire said.



It was on Monday, July 31 that Brig Karemire released another statement quoting the figure of 12 deaths and seven injuries.



Karemire said the UPDF would set up an inquiry "to establish circumstances leading to this fateful incident."



Just like in 2015, however, the army released no names of the dead insisting that they had to inform their relatives first. Even on August 2 when the 12 bodies were brought home, no names were released, at least not officially.



"The UPDF office of Chief of Personnel and Administration is contacting the next of kin of the deceased and injured to inform them of the developments while arrangements are being made to transport deceased comrades to their homes of origin for descent burial," he said.



Last week, a list containing 21 names, purported to be those of the victims of the July 30 attack, was circulating on social media. When contacted, Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki, the deputy UPDF spokesperson insisted it was "fake. "We are not going to keep reacting to fake lists on social media. Our position still stands; that we lost 12 combatants and seven others were injured," he said.



According to the source in the UPDF, so scant has the information about the July 30 attack been that it took a military officer based in Northern Uganda days to know that his relative was among the dead.
Uganda's external and domestic debt has hit $11.2 billion according to the latest Bank of Uganda State of the Economy report.



The report says provisional total public debt stock (at nominal value) as at the end May 2017 stood at Shs 34 trillion, an increase of 14.1 per cent relative to June 2016 and 16.7 per cent in the same period a year ago.



It comprises of Shs 21.1 trillion or $5.7 billion in external debt, commanding a dominant share of 62.4 per cent of the total public debt, and Shs 12.7 trillion in domestic debt.



The external public debt at the end of May 2017 stood at $11.2 billion dollars. Undisbursed external debt stood at 5.3 billion dollars, down from 5.5 billion dollars as at end June 2016.

The debt burden has been exacerbated by infrastructure projects

The former Finance minister, Maria Kiwanuka in 2013 introduced a Public Debt Medium Framework (PDMF) in an effort make Uganda's public debts sustainable.



But the Bank of Uganda says latest figures indicate that most of the domestic debt cost and risk indicators were outside the Public Debt Medium Framework (PDMF) benchmarks and domestic debt stock continues to exhibit roll over risk.



The rate of public domestic and external debt has been worrying though finance Minister Matia Kasaijja in June insisted that it was sustainable.



President Museveni in July declared that he must personally approve all loan applications requested by the government before they can be put to a vote in Parliament.



The president's decision was aimed at reducing what he called wasteful spending while the country navigates its way out of choppy economic waters. Museveni also halted the approval of 11 loans worth $914.79 million.



The current high public debt has been attributed to ongoing infrastructure developments in the road sector, oil and gas and hydro power projects.



Uganda's public debt burden has risen by 12.7 percentage points to 38.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016/17 from 25.9 per cent of GDP in 2012/13 and is projected to continue rising towards 45% of GDP by 2020.



Debt as a percentage of revenues has risen by 54 per cent since 2012 and is expected to exceed 250 per cent by 2018.



The debt burden, which is more than this year's budget of Shs 29 trillion, accounts for 33.8% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).



The preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis shows that Uganda is likely to face moderately high risk.



There is also a risk of a further increase in the already high interest costs in the budget, which currently account for more than 10 per cent of government expenditure.



Debt Sustainability Analysis is a tool developed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help donors in mobilizing critical financing for low-income countries, while reducing the chances of an excessive build-up of debt.



Uganda's debt had peaked to unsustainable levels nearly two decades ago, such that the economy did not have the capacity to meet its debt obligations.



The situation was only turned around when Uganda qualified for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative in 1998 and subsequently under the Enhanced HIPC in 2000.



Uganda also benefited from another form of debt relief under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) in 2006.



These eased Uganda's debt service obligations but Bank of Uganda is concerned that government borrowing is exceeding Public Debt Medium Framework (PDMF) 2013.
how unprofessional

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Right!? I mean, it would definitely be humiliating playing to a half (or more) empty venue, but I can't imagine how it would feel if my fave cancelled my show but kept others.

I mean, her team definitely didn't test the waters on this one. They just went for huge venues out the gate assuming she'd have the same pull as previous tours. God Forbid she just move the show to a smaller venue and reschedule for a different date. =/



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lol what is tht gif!

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honestly, the best gif of this summer

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Katy clearing chairs at the Met Gala

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bad timing kety

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Sis did you see gaga or your date is Montreal?

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toronto!! on sept 7 i'm so fucking excited tbh



i've been trying not to spoil myself but what i've seen is iconic



have you gone/are you going sis?

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2 more weeks for me vagina!!! YAS

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I'm seeing ha at Citifield!

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that font is terrible

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just the font?

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lol you got me there

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The grammar too.. she misspelled Whiteness.

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"Long standing obligation"



K well why did you schedule a show that day honey

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Artists don't schedule shows.

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They get final approval.

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Right? She's going to look stupid when she's on snap doing nothing or being pap with Orlando again. I can't wait for that post.

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exactly. this excuse is so dumb. be more creative katherine

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Is it being rescheduled?

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full refunds



which is to say... the "family event" likely was planned after the tickets went on sale. No clue why that would happen!

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I don't understand the visual aesthetic of this era.

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It's not cohesive and an utter mess. Props to her for keeping that hair blond tho. Lol.

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x2

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no one does.

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Neither does she

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I feel like the whole theme is searching for connection in the digital era where everyone connects via phones, social media, apps. Someone else said it in a previous post but she should've gone neon hippie (ala Feels music video) to fit the era. Hate to say it but that haircut played a huge role in how this era flopped.

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Ngl I've pulled that excuse multiple times to get out of stuff. But I'm also not Katy Perry soooo lol

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lol the statement reads like a carefully crafted 1-line email i'd send to my boss when trying to skip out on a shitty work event.

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This is why I don't do last minute things. It doesn't give me enough time to make an excuse for why I can't attend.

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= I didn't sell well...so i'm not going

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Mmhmm

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Chained to the rhythm came on at my gym and I've realized that it's actually a pretty good bop.

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I quite like it too, I saw her SNL performance and thought the title song for her album was really forgettable.

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chained to the rhythm is fantastic idc

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It's a good album I honestly don't get the hate.

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It seriously is.

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I like it too, I wish she released it in a less pretentious way. I'd probably would've had a better first impression. That's basically the only song I like from her album though.

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i always liked it. i stan bon appetit too lol

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I love it, it's really cute.

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It's good. Witness goes off. Honestly, I find it much more listenable than Prism or even Teenage Dream tbh (fight me). But that could also be because I like house music and Witness is heavily inspired by house loops.

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Tragique

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I think she has a lot of dates that are selling even worse than that one. My guess is they screwed up the scheduling around American Idol auditions.

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The digital-watch font lol

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lol @ your icon, the 'butt statue'

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family comes first

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That gif 

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Can I get a Waitress

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Screaming

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nnnnnnnnnnnnn

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lawd

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Noooooooo

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this looks really cute.



I still need to see Tangerine.



if anyone has seen it, just so you know Donut Time is gone :( It's a Danny Trejo Donut place now.

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that is the most 2017 sounding thing ever

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yay? :D



I saw clips

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This was shot in my hometown and looks dumb as hell. Insulting bull shit

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why is it insulting?

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Oooo I just Googled and it takes place in/was filmed near Orlando, yas, I live in Orlando! And apparently the little girl is from Winter Springs which is 5 minutes from me. That's awesome.



I disagree with the rest of your comment.



Edited at 2017-08-14 10:57 pm (UTC)

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Good for you? This movie wasn't even filmed in Orlando let alone Winter Springs

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They loved it at Cannes, it has a 96 on RT, and they're positioning Willem Dafoe as a best supporting actor nominee.



What's the issue?

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um a) thank you for reminding me greg the bunny was a show i was once into

and b) omg the dude that did greg the bunny did tangerine????

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yay another precocious child movie



there aren't enough, really

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this looks cute

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Looks like another cliche, boring Oscar bait movie that the critics will go crazy over for nothing. I'll pass.

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at least is not another biopic of a white dude

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lol @ the idea sean baker does oscar bait

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ikr, he is very much anti-sentimental.

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Based on the title I thought this would be about Disney World. Disappointed.

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I really haven't liked anything Sean Baker has done, so I'm whatever about this.

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I liked Starlet and loved Tangerine so I'll deffinitely check this out.

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i've heard amazing things about tangerine and i really love willem dafeo so i'm gonna have to watch both clearly

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I really liked tangerine so Ill give this a try

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I really like the colors in this film; would watch!

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China's Ministry of Commerce said that Beijing will halt imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood from North Korea starting on Tuesday, cutting an important economic lifeline for the Pyongyang regime, as it implemented a package of sanctions passed by the United Nations Security Council on August 6.

China accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade but moved earlier in February to suspend North Koreas coal imports until the end of the year. Coal normally accounts for about half of North Koreas exports, but despite the coal ban, overall trade between the two countries remained healthy according to WaPo.

Last month, China announced that imports from North Korea fell to $880 million in the six months that ended in June, down 13 percent from a year earlier. Notably, Chinas coal imports from North Korea dropped precipitously, with only 2.7 million tons being shipped in the first half of 2017, down 75 percent from 2016. But a 29 percent spike in Chinese exports to North Korea  North Korea bought $1.67 billion worth of Chinese products in the first six months of the year  helped push total trade between the two countries up 10 percent between January and June, compared with the same period last year.

While the latest move to halt imports of iron, iron ore, lead and lead ore, and seafood products will put significantly more pressure on Pyongyang, it is unlikely to be enough to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, which it sees as essential to its own survival, experts say.

The announcement comes after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which however appears to have moderated somewhat in the past 48 hours when contrary to some expectations, there were no escalations - and no missile or nuclear tests by North Korea - over the weekend. Last weekend, the UN Security Council approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang with analysts estimating that the action could cost North Korea US$1 billion in foreign revenue a year. The sanctions were in response to North Koreas two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, which Kim boasted could now strike any part of the United States. Related: Shell Posts 700% Rise In Earnings, Prepares For Lower Forever Oil Prices

Indicating China's reluctance to implement the sanctions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a regional forum last week that his country would pay a price for implementing the sanctions, given Chinas traditional economic ties with North Korea.

On Monday, Beijing also warned the Trump administration not to split the international coalition over North Korea by provoking a trade war between China and the United States. The warning comes as President Trump is expected to sign an executive memorandum Monday afternoon instructing his top trade negotiator to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property violations, a move that could eventually result in severe trade penalties. In China, these proposed measures were seen as an attempt to put pressure on Beijing to act more strongly against North Korea, and at the same time an attempt to shift the blame for the worlds failure to rein in Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs onto China alone.

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The U.S. has stepped up sanctions against Venezuelan individuals in the wake of the July vote in Venezuela aimed at rewriting the constitution, which is further eroding democracy in the country with the worlds largest proved oil reserves. Further sanctions namely against Venezuelas oil industry by imposing a ban on U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude are not off the table either, as the U.S. contemplates additional measures to stymie the progress of Nicolas Maduros authoritarian regime.

The possibility of Venezuelan oil import restrictions has divided White House advisors, and now is pitting Harold Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources and energy advisor during President Trumps campaign, against U.S. refiners that import Venezuelan crude to process at their refineries.

Hamm favors the approach of cutting off Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S., as well as stopping U.S. light sweet crude exports to Venezuela, which uses that type of crude to blend it with its heavy crude oil before shipping it to international markets.

If the president wants to make an immediate impact on Venezuela to stop these human rights abuses and restore the situation, hes got the ability to, Hamm told Bloomberg in an interview in his capacity as head of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance.

The U.S. refiners, howevermany of whom import Venezuelan oil for their Gulf Coast facilities adapted to process the heavy crudeare railing against any oil-related sanctions on Venezuela. They argue that possible sanctions on the Venezuelan energy sector would harm the U.S. industry, and cause it to scramble for heavy crude supplies from elsewhere, which would result in higher fuel prices for consumers. Related: Saudi Oil Minister Just Did Something He Has Never Done Before

According to the latest available EIA data on U.S. crude imports, Venezuela was the third biggest provider of crude oil to the United States in May this year, with 708,000 bpd of imports and behind only Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum, as well as Valero, Phillips 66, Chevron, and PBF Energy Inc, are most dependent on Venezuelan supplies. Those companies are also the ones most actively lobbying in Washington against potential sanctions on Venezuelan oil, Bloomberg reports, citing four people in the know.

According to U.S. Customs data compiled by Bloomberg, Venezuelan crude represented 43 percent of the refinery capacity at Chevrons Pascagoula refinery in July, as well as 62 percent of Valeros St. Charles refinery capacity.

Prices for the heavy sour crude grades like the one Venezuela is supplying to the U.S. would increase in case of energy sanctions, Valero Energy Corps Vice President Gary Simmons said last month, adding that a ban would send Venezuelan cargoes to markets other than the U.S. Gulf Coast.

And while Hamm is supporting oil-related sanctions on Venezuela, U.S. refiners and Republican Senators from Gulf Coast states are actively lobbying against potential bans.

Last month, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), which represents more than 95 percent of the U.S. refining sector, sent a letter to President Trump, in which it argued that refineries along the Gulf Coast have made substantial investments to process heavy crude, particularly of the Venezuelan variety. Sanctions would destabilize crude markets, it claims, as U.S. refiners would have to source supplies from other markets, which do not offer suitable alternative sources of supply, the AFPM said.

In short, sanctions on Venezuelas energy sector will likely harm U.S. businesses and consumers, while failing to address the very real issues in Venezuela, the refiners said.

Last week, Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) sent a letter to President Trump, urging the administration to protect Gulf refiners from indirect harm caused by potential Venezuelan energy sanctions. Related: U.S. Oil Sanctions Could Push Venezuela To The Brink

While deliberating the spectrum of potential responses, we believe it is critical to consider the role that the U.S. energy industry and refining sector play in our economic and national security interest. Oil refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast that process the heavier grades of Venezuelan crude represent a significant portion, nearly 10 percent, of U.S. imports. Blockading imports could inflict great harm on this industry and burden U.S. taxpayers with the cost, the letter co-authored by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), reads.

While oil tycoon Hamm supports the U.S. response that would hurt Venezuelas oil and thus its only foreign reserve income, U.S. refiners argue that sanctioning Venezuelas energy sector would have wide-ranging impacts on the U.S. industry and fuel market, and on global heavy crude flows.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Saudi Finance Minister has announced an annual decline in the budget deficit for the first half of the year thanks to higher oil prices in the period. At US$19.39 billion (72.728 billion riyals), the first-half deficit was 51 percent lower than what the government had projected, the ministry also said. Total budget revenues in the period rose by 29 percent on an annual basis while expenditures fell by 2 percent.

Over the second quarter, the deficit fell on an annual basis but rose on a quarterly basis, Reuters noted in a report of the ministrys announcement, recalling that the Kingdom had projected a full-year deficit of US$52.80 billion (198 billion riyals), or 8 percent of GDP, compared with US$79.2 billion (297 billion riyals).

Oil revenues rose by 28 percent over the second quarter, while overall revenues were up by a more moderate 6 percent on an annual basis.

Saudi Arabia has been relentless in its attempts to prop up international oil prices more consistently, while at the same time publicizing its progress in diversifying away from oil and into other industries, including renewable energy. Recently, the Kingdom launched a tender for the construction of a 400-MW wind farm as part of an initiative to build 9.5 GW of renewable capacity by 2023. Related: Automotive Giants Are Betting Big On Ride Sharing Tech

Meanwhile, Riyadh has been trying to rein in its OPEC co-members that are falling short of their production targets set out in the November deal, and pledging to cut its own exports to compensate for increases from other members of the cartel.

At a St. Petersburg meeting of oil ministers last month, Saudi Arabia said it would cut its exports to 6.6 million barrels from August but TankerTrackers data for the first week of the month revealed no cuts have been made, except to China.

Last week, reports emerged that Saudi Arabia would cut its crude oil exports to Asian clients by as much as 1 million bpd. That smacks of desperation as the Asian market is key for every crude oil exporter, and market share there is precious. Yet, the Kingdom seems to be willing to risk more of its market share to keep prices where they are or, hopefully, push them higher.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Zueitina oil terminal in Libya has ceased loading cargos as port workers protest, demanding better working conditions, Bloomberg quoted the head of the workers union Merhi Abridan as saying. This means that oil coming from the fields around Zueitina will be stored at the port for the duration of the protest, and a spike in exports will likely follow.

Zueitina is managed by a joint venture between the National Oil Corporation, Occidental Petroleum, and Austrias OMV. The port exports an average of six 600,000 to 630,000-barrel cargoes a month, Abridan told Bloomberg. The workers at the port are demanding to be paid 20 months worth of delayed salaries, as well as health insurance, annual leave, payments for overtime work, and more time for maintenance work.

At the same time, however, Libyas overall crude output has been reduced by a decline in the production from its biggest field, Sharara. According to sources who spoke to Bloomberg, Shararas output has fallen by 100,000 bpd over the last week, to 200,000 bpd at the moment. There has been an incident involving the theft of two vehicles property of Repsol, the company operating the field, at gunpoint. Following the event, the company has advised workers to stay away from certain areas. Related: Oil Rig Count Rises Despite Ballooning Shale Debt

Earlier this month, a militant attack on a control room at the port of Zawiya caused the gradual shutdown of Sharara, as the crude from the field flows along pipelines to Zawiya. This was the latest in a string of attacks on infrastructure that saw output from the countrys largest field suspended this year. It is possible that the 30-percent output reduction at the field now is a result of that last incident.

Libya is pumping around 1 million barrels daily, after militant activity receded and the rival political factions moved closer to an agreement on how to use the countrys oil wealth.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Jack Thompson and Oliver Thranert argue that President Trumps administration is laying the groundwork for the U.S. to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. However, they suggest that if the U.S. were to end its participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Irans nuclear program, it would severely damage transatlantic relations and the nuclear non-proliferation regime. As a result, Thompson and Thranert urge European governments to talk with Trumps most influential advisers and convince them that a unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA will leave the U.S. isolated.

U.S. President Trump seems determined to kill the nuclear deal with Iran. European leaders should strive to prevent this, as it would severely damage transatlantic relations and the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Key Points

 The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015, which would have been impossible without close transatlantic cooperation, brought Iran back into compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

 U.S. President Trump and some of his political advisors are preparing to end participation in the JCPOA, possibly as early as October 2017. Iran is gaining ever more influence in the Middle East, they contend, which is why sanctions need to be reinforced, not lifted

 If the U.S. were to withdraw from the JCPOA, it would deal another blow to U.S.-European ties and could weaken the NPT

 Hence, European governments need to talk to Trumps most influential advisers and convince them that withdrawal from the JCPOA would leave the U.S. isolated

One of the most successful examples of transatlantic cooperation in recent years was the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was finalized in July 2015. The deal imposes strict constraints on Irans nuclear program, and provides for enhanced transparency, in return for relief from international sanctions.

However, that deal is now under threat. U.S. President Donald Trump, who as a candidate called the JCPOA the stupidest deal of all time, is convinced that it does little to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Therefore, the White House is laying the groundwork for withdrawal, possibly as early as October 2017.1 If the U.S. were to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA, this would antagonize the European signatories who, through their early and intense diplomatic engagement, made the JCPOA possible in the first place. With transatlantic relations already under strain, mostly as a result of the Trump administrations ambivalence about NATO and, more broadly, the liberal world order, the termination of the JCPOA would constitute yet another significant blow to U.S.-European relations. Furthermore, ending the deal would lift the present limitations on Irans nuclear program and weaken the entire nuclear non-proliferation regime. Therefore, decisive European action is required to stop the Trump administration from abandoning the JCPOA. Related: Oil Futures Point To Higher Oil Prices

Divisions in the Trump Administration

Two factors are likely influencing the thinking of Trump and other hardliners. Partisanship is one. For many conservatives, the Iran deal was emblematic of what they viewed as Barack Obamas feckless foreign policy, and Trump has been adept at channeling conservative anger at the former president. Second, Trump and other critics emphasize Tehrans extensive involvement in Syria and Iraq and its support for Hamas and Hezbollah. As a result, they argue, Iran is gaining ever more influence in the Middle East. To stop Iran, goes the argument, sanctions have to be reinforced, not lifted. Intense lobbying by the Saudi and Israeli governments has reinforced the administrations anti-Iran tendencies.

Key political advisors in the administration, such as Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, have played a role in convincing the president to put more pressure on Tehran, to end the JCPOA, and to enforce sanctions. At the same time, most of the presidents principal national security advisors  with the notable exception of CIA Director Mike Pompeo  oppose leaving the JCPOA. Though some of them are critical of the agreement, unilateral withdrawal would leave the U.S. isolated, they believe, and would remove any ability it would have to influence the development of Irans nuclear program. This group includes Secretary of Defense James Mattis, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But this faction appears to be losing the battle on the Iran deal. Instead, ideologues such as Bannon, Gorka, and Stephen Miller, a Senior Advisor to the president, appear to have scored an important victory. These aides are skeptical of the national security establishment, which they view as the embodiment of the corrupt Washington swamp that is in need of draining, and as hostile to Trumps presidency.

Even though the president has openly stated that he advocates direct abrogation of the deal, some of his advisors reportedly favor a subtler approach. They believe that it would be preferable to find a way to goad Tehran into withdrawing from the agreement or, alternatively, into taking steps that could be portrayed as being in violation of the JCPOA. The most likely option at present is that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is responsible for conducting inspections under the JCPOA, would be convinced to request unrestricted access to all of Tehrans military sites. This thinking reflects a complete misunderstanding of international organizations, such as the IAEA, on the part of Trump and his followers: Their purpose is not to serve narrowly defined U.S. national interests, but to implement provisions agreed to by all parties. Furthermore, the IAEA would be well advised to ask for access to particular sites only if it has information that hint at anomalies not compatible with the JCPOA. The U.S. is in the process of attempting to gather intelligence that would convince its allies and the IAEA of the need to inspect these sites. In any event, to gain access to additional military sites, a step that Tehran would likely resist, the U.S. would need the support of a majority of the other JCPOA signatories.

Iranian-made Emad missile is displayed during a ceremony marking the 37th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran February 11, 2016. Raheb Homavandi / Reuters.

The JCPOA and its Implementation

To be sure, the JCPOA is imperfect. Particularly controversial is the fact that it allows Iran to maintain its entire nuclear infrastructure, and to continue conducting research. Moreover, the deal is of limited duration. Iran can return to full-scale uranium enrichment  a dual-use technology that can be used for the production of bomb-grade fissile material  once special restrictions in the JCPOA are removed, beginning about eight years from now. Because Tehran probably knows how to build nuclear explosive devices, it is what nuclear proliferation experts call a threshold state: A country that has the knowledge and the infrastructure available to become a nuclear state in a short period of time. Moreover, the JCPOA does not limit Irans right to develop and test ever more sophisticated missiles. It is therefore free to perfect its delivery systems, which could be fitted with nuclear weapons.

In spite of such flaws, the JCPOA is a remarkable achievement. It is the only example of a determined violator of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) having been brought back into full compliance without using military force. This was made possible by the creation of an international coalition, which was initiated by the three main European powers  France, United Kingdom and Germany  in October 2003. In an intense diplomatic effort, this troika and the EU joined forces with an initially hesitant George W. Bush administration, as well as with Russia and China. The E3/EU plus 3, or P-5 plus 1, orchestrated, beginning in July 2006, the adoption of a series of UN Security Council resolutions directed against the Iranian nuclear program, including sanctions. When Barack Obama became president, the US immediately took the lead in these diplomatic efforts, which eventually led to the JCPOA.

Unsurprisingly, Iran has tested the limits of the agreement. For instance, its heavy water production exceeded the cap defined by the JCPOA. But this issue has been addressed through the Joint Commission that was set up as a negotiating channel between the E-3/EU plus 3 and Iran. So far, the IAEA apparently has not inspected Iranian military sites, because it did not feel this to be necessary, given that Irans plutonium reactor at Arak remains filled with concrete; 15,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment remain locked under IAEA supervision; and Tehran continues to provide inspectors with timely access across the entire uranium chain. At this point, in contrast to Trump and the hawks in his administration, representatives of the E-3/EU plus 3 and the IAEA believe that the JCPOA is working.2

The Threat of Nuclear Proliferation

The cornerstone of international efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has been under stress for some time. Many non-nuclear weapons states contend that the disarmament pace prescribed by this treaty is too slow. The recent adoption in the UN of a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons will further complicate matters. All nuclear weapon states, and those that shelter under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, have boycotted this agreement  a split which is heightening divisions within the NPT community.3Furthermore, one of the few things that NPT members agree upon is continued implementation of the JCPOA, which many see as essential. Related: Aggressive U.S. Oil Sanctions Could Bankrupt Venezuela

Hence, if the Trump administration were to abandon the JCPOA, this would weaken the nuclear nonproliferation norm. Irans nuclear program would be freed from the special JCPOA constraints. Moreover, more states may consider the nuclear option. For instance, Irans archrival Saudi Arabia might seek to develop a nuclear capability, which would further destabilize the Middle East. In addition, at a time when North Korea is in the process of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that it could fit with nuclear warheads, Japan and South Korea have already begun to question U.S. security guarantees. They note that, in the event of a military confrontation with Pyongyang, Washington would have to reckon with the possibility of a nuclear strike on its west coast. This has bolstered those in both countries, especially in South Korea, who wish to establish an independent nuclear deterrent. Until now, the very existence of the NPT has served as a check on these arguments. But within the context of a weakened NPT, South Korea  and other states such as Japan  going nuclear could become more likely.4

Europe: Time for Action

In the upcoming months, European governments should do their utmost to convince the Trump administration to not abolish the JCPOA. This will require intensive dialogue with the right people in Washington. These are no longer representatives of the State Department, who seem to have entirely lost their influence. Rather, European officials need to approach national security professionals that value transatlantic cooperation, such as Secretary Mattis. However, if possible, a dialogue with Trump advisers such as Bannon and Gorka might also be useful. Furthermore, Congress needs to be brought into the loop. Influential figures such as Republican Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seem to be more flexible than the hardliners.

European officials should emphasize four points. First, they should reassure their counterparts that they would continue to support Washington in any meaningful effort to ensure that Iran implements all of the JCPOA provisions, including verification, but that the respective regulations should not be abused. Second, the Europeans need to make it clear that they continue to support U.S. sanctions that are directed against human rights abuses and the Iranian missile program. Such was the case in August 2017, when the U.S., joined by the UK, France and Germany, sent a joint letter to the UN Security Council and the Secretary General. Irans launch of a missile that carried a satellite into orbit, the letter noted, was inconsistent with UNSCR 2231, which codified the JCPOA.5 Third, European policymakers should seek to convince the White House that they would not allow Tehran to withdraw from the JCPOA, and thereby win the blame game, by arguing that sanctions directed against the Iranian missile program contradict the JCPOA. Fourth, however, Europe must leave no room for doubt: unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA, let alone military action against Iran, would leave the U.S. isolated.

This CSS Policy Perspectives (Vol. 5/4) was published in June 2017 by the Center for Security Studies (CSS)

By ETH Zurich

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An oil spill into Kuwaiti waters prompted an emergency cleanup over the weekend, with media reports saying it all will be over this week. While some sources attributed the spill to a pipeline leak, estimating the amount that spilled into the Persian Gulf at 35,000 barrels, there has been no official confirmation on the size or cause of the accident.

The spill occurred near Ras al-Zour, in southern Kuwait, Reuters reports, where Kuwait National Petroleum Company is currently building the biggest oil refinery in the Middle East, capable of handling 615,000 barrels of crude daily and with US$11.5 billion in contracts. The project is worth US$30 billion.

The spill is also near an offshore field that is developed jointly by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, in their neutral zone. The field, Al Khafji, has a 50-km pipeline running to the coast and it was this pipeline that some industry experts said was the culprit for the spill.

According to TankerTrackers, the free cargo-tracking website, visual data from Planet Labs shows that most of the spill has already been cleaned up as of Monday morning, GMT. Just a day ago, streaks of oil could be seen well into the Persian Gulf and had affected beaches frequented by many Kuwaitis during the summer months.



Related: Automotive Giants Are Betting Big On Ride Sharing Tech

The head of the Kuwaiti Environment Public Authority, Sheikh Abdullah al-Sabah, told the Associated Press, "There will be severe consequences to those responsible for this incident, and we will prosecute them."

The cleanup measures prioritized nearby waterways, water facilities, and power plants, according to reports by Kuwaits state news agency KUNA. Chevron, which operates fields in both Kuwaiti and Saudi waters, along with specialist firm Oil Spill Response Limited, are helping the Environment Public Authority in the cleanup.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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While most international analysts have already said that the value of Saudi Aramco in next years IPO would not be close to the Saudi target and claim of US$2 trillion, an environmental campaign group said on Sunday that the value of the Saudi state oil giant could be greatly reduced due to climate policies that are set to fight global warming.

According to a report by Oil Change International, most analysesvaluing Aramco at between US$1 trillion and US$1.5 trillionfail to acknowledge the impact that climate change policies could have on the valuation of the Saudi firm.

Compared to a base-case estimate of around US$1.5 trillion, Aramcos value could be 25 percent to 40 percent lower in the safer-climate scenarios of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the report says. In the case of oil prices remaining at a constant US$50 in real terms, the valuation of the Saudi firm could turn out to be less than US$700 billion, which is 55 percent below the base case, according to Oil Change International.

Earlier this year, most fund managers were evaluating Aramco at below US$1.5 trillion. That was just before Saudi Arabia cut the tax rate on Aramco to 50 percent from 85 percent, which caused some analysts, including Rystad Energy, to raise their valuation of the Saudi companys upstream portfolio.

According to Oil Change Internationals report, if Aramcos IPO realizes a valuation of above US$1 trillion, the companys investors could face significant risk from climate policy. On the other hand, if the valuation is lower, this could raise a debate over whether international oil companies (IOCs) are overvalued.

If IOCs continue to add new oil and gas, Aramcos reserves stand to push the world beyond climate limits: after carbon budgets are exhausted, there will still be strong economic incentives to extract them due to their low cost, said the report.

Related: How Will The EU Respond To Fresh US Sanctions On Russia?

New York and London have been competing hard to get the Aramco listing, but I dont think they have been paying enough attention to how much it would increase oil price risk and climate risk for investors, Greg Muttitt of Oil Change told the Financial Times.

Even though Saudi Arabias advisors are said to be favoring London over New York for the foreign venue to list Aramco shares, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and the Saudi government are said to be more inclined to favor New York for the worlds largest IPO next year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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At 10.71 million bpd, Chinas crude refineries saw in July their lowest daily throughput rate since September last year as state firms and independent refineries, both swimming in inventory, continue to duke it out with price as their weapon.

According to data released by Chinas National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, reported by Reuters, China processed 10.71 million bpd of crude in July500,000 bpd lower than the throughput in June.

But between January and July, Chinese refinery production increased by 2.9 percent annually to 320.7 million tons, equal to a rate of 11.04 million bpd, Reuters reports, as per official statistics data.

In June, Chinese refineries had processed 11.21 million bpd of crude oil, up by 2.3 percent on the year and the second-highest daily processing rate on record. The highest daily rate was hit last December, when refineries processed 11.26 million bpd.

However, state refiners have been facing competition from the independent refiners, the so-called teapots, which were allowed in June a second batch of crude oil import quotas for this year, adding to the oversupply of refined products on the domestic Chinese market.

Now the lowest refinery runs in 10 months, at a peak demand season, is creating some concern about Chinese oil demand growth.

Runs were slightly below our expectation, as fuel demand growth remained tepid and stocks were brimming, Harry Liu, a downstream consultant at IHS Markit, told Reuters.



Related: Brazils Pre-Salt Extraction Costs Fall To $8 Per Barrel

At the beginning of the summer, Chinas refineries were expected to shut nearly 10 percent of the countrys 15.1-million-bpd refinery capacity in the third quarterthe peak demand season. Grappling with domestic surplus of gasoline and diesel, some Chinese refineriesincluding such owned by giants like Sinopec and PetroChinawere said to be cutting refinery runs in the third quarter, while others planned to shut for maintenance.

According to IHS Markits Liu, who spoke to Reuters, Sinopec has also started cutting third-party purchases from the teapots from June, which in turn caused the independents to reduce their production as well.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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SOUTH GLENS FALLS  The pain is still very raw for Gladys Frasier, who lost her daughter Kimberly Heald Hotaling to ovarian cancer on Christmas Day.

The mother and daughter spent their last summer together taking car rides, seeing the mountains and visiting Huddle Bay in Bolton Landing.

Battling ovarian cancer since 2012, Hotaling wanted to spend her time left in peaceful settings.

She would say, Mom, lets go to your house and do some front porch sittin. Some days, thats what we did, Frasier said. Front porch sittin and ate Chinese.

Hotalings death is a fresh wound for Frasier, who tries to stay busy and spends her winters in Florida, far away from the memories of her daughter. The hardest part of watching your child battle cancer, she said, is knowing you cant fix it.

You cant give them an aspirin, she complained. You cant take them to the doctors. You cant do nothin. You have to just watch them die.

The grieving mother cupped her hands in front of her mouth and fought back tears Tuesday at the Moreau Community Center, where she sat with eight volunteers who cut, curled and hot glued teal-colored ribbons.

With Frasier as their leader, the volunteers are preparing to Turn the Towns Teal.

And not just one town.

Frasier is taking her grief-inspired activism to six different municipalities  South Glens Falls, Glens Falls, Moreau, Ballston Spa, Malta and Kingsbury  who have given her and her minions permission to display the teal ribbons around town in September.

Turn the Towns Teal is a national nonprofit campaign to promote awareness of ovarian cancer and its symptoms. Every woman is at risk for ovarian cancer, and each year one out of 70 women is diagnosed with the disease.

When she approached South Glens Falls Mayor Harry Gutheil, he suggested getting his wife, Jeanne, and the women at the Moreau Community Center involved.

We have such dedicated volunteers here and once we told the story, that was it, were hooked, said Jeanne Gutheil, senior program director.

Gutheil and other volunteers will be out around South Glens Falls and Moreau on Sept. 1, asking businesses to display the teal ribbons to bring more awareness to ovarian cancer.

For a mother to have to go through this, said Gutheil, who cried when she heard Frasiers story. This is her purpose now.

Her purpose, indeed, until the day she draws her last breath, Frasier said.

So far, anybody Ive talked to is willing to help and do anything they could, Frasier said, because everybody has a story.

She hopes to turn even more communities teal next year and get some children involved in the process as well.

If the wound wasnt so fresh and still bleeding, Frasier said, I would probably be a lot happier doing it and I would assume that next year will be better.
QUEENSBURY  A Vermont woman who was arrested earlier this year with a large quantity of heroin after a traffic stop on the Northway has been sentenced to jail and probation.

Karyn M. Lefebvre, 31, of Winooski, Vermont, was arrested in May along with two other people after the vehicle they were in was stopped near Exit 19 as it headed north.

Lefebvre and a New York City man were charged with possessing nearly an ounce of heroin with intent to distribute it, and a third suspect was charged with a misdemeanor. Charges are pending against him.

Warren County Judge John Hall sentenced Lefebvre to 6 months in Warren County Jail and 5 years on probation.
GLENS FALLS  Glens Falls Hospital is currently reviewing a number of options for future ownership and operation of the hospitals renal dialysis center on Broad Street, said Tracy Mills, the hospitals vice president of planning.

But the hospital has made no decision at this time about selling the 16-year-old center, and continuing as is remains a possibility, Mills said in an e-mailed statement responding to an inquiry from The Post-Star.

Mills said evaluation of options for the renal dialysis center is part of a larger plan the hospital is developing for specialty services.

Glens Falls Hospital is developing exciting plans to improve accessibility and quality of care through a major expansion of specialty services and new locations across our region, and we look forward to sharing details when they are finalized, she wrote.

Dialysis patients and their families are concerned about the possible sale of the center.

Honestly, its like a well-oiled machine at the dialysis center, said Jane Meneely, the wife of a patient, who contacted The Post-Star about a petition she is circulating to urge hospital officials not to sell the center or turn over its operation to another entity.

Meneely said a nurse at the dialysis center recently told patients the center is set to be sold.

This is unknown and it just came up. So Ive got fears, she said.

Mills said hospital officials have not decided whether to sell the center.

As part of this plan to improve accessibility and quality of care and ensure the continuing availability of essential health care services, we are looking closely at existing services and evaluating whether they are being delivered in the best way possible for the people who rely on them, Mills said. Renal dialysis is one of those services.

Mills would not disclose a time-frame for hospital officials to decide on the future of the dialysis center and would not say if the hospital has submitted a plan to the state Health Department to review.

At this point, there is no further information I can provide, she said.

Meneely said patients are particularly worried the dialysis center might be sold to a for-profit company.

Ive never heard good stories about the profit ones, she said.

Glens Falls Hospital paid $2.6 million to construct and equip the dialysis center on Broad Street, which opened in 2001.

The center had 18 treatment stations in 2001, and the hospital expanded that to 24 treatment stations a few years later.

The center replaced a previous dialysis center with eight treatment stations that the hospital had operated at a different location since 1980.

In 2009, the center provided 20,000 treatments to about 100 patients from the Glens Falls area and from as far away as Schroon Lake, Albany and Vermont, and to tourists that needed dialysis treatments while on vacation locally.

Hospital officials have said on several occasions previously the dialysis center loses money, but the hospital operates it because the service is needed in the community.

The hospitals plan for specialty services comes as Saratoga Hospital is looking to expand its specialty services into the Glens Falls area.

Last week, Saratoga Hospital announced it had bought the former Carl Rs restaurant property on Main Street, off Northway Exit 18 in Queensbury, for an expansion of its medical specialty practices.

Glens Falls Hospital recently announced it will receive nearly $20 million in state funding to expand its main campus on Hudson Avenue in Glens Falls, including a new emergency department, an urgent and primary care center, and possibly other new services.
QUEENSBURY  The former Westmount Health Facility was downgraded from four stars to one star because patients are getting better care, the homes new owners argued Monday.

At a meeting with The Post-Star editorial board, the CEO and vice president of Centers Health Care took turns explaining how care could be actually improving at Warren Center, despite a federal quality rating of one star, issued last month.

First, they explained, new patients are sicker. Centers will accept patients with tracheotomies, severe bed sores and other complex problems who would have been denied a bed at the nursing home when it was run by Warren County, said Mordy Eisenberg, vice president of strategic initiatives and value-based care.

Secondly, the for-profit company has a by the book approach that trains workers to properly identify illnesses, from pain and depression to proper measuring of bedsores, its officials said. They have found many problems among longtime residents that werent noticed before, said CEO Kenny Rozenberg.

They found that workers simply werent running screenings for depression and pain, among other issues. Reporting that they have a patient who is in pain hurts the homes rating. It goes down when the illness is resolved.

And yet the care is excellent, said Rozenberg.

Eisenberg added that some patients were depressed and in pain before Centers Health Care took over, but no one asked the question. They have found that the number of patients with depression, for example, always goes up when they take over a facility.

It doesnt mean our patients are more depressed. It means we treat it, he said.

He vowed that the facilitys rating would improve as workers treat patients for those illnesses. But the company owns many homes in the area, some of which it has owned for three years or more, and all of them now have one star.

The company has been dogged with poor inspections. In 2015, at the homes in Washington and Essex counties owned by the same company, the state said health and safety violations put residents in immediate jeopardy.

A recent inspection at the Warren County facility cited less serious violations. Among them were problems with serving food  one worker was going back and forth between two tables to feed two residents at once, while other residents waited a half hour or more to be served.

But officials insisted there were no problems with staffing.

More is not better. More is just more, Rozenberg said.

The company staffs six to eight CNAs on the day and evening shifts, with four at night at Warren Center, said Director of Nursing Jennifer Burnham.

Thats enough to take care of the daily needs of the 80 residents because they are well-trained and dedicated, she said.

I can have eight people do the job wonderfully where 15 people couldnt do it, she said.

There have been times when there werent enough people, though. She acknowledged that a field trip was canceled because there werent enough CNAs to staff it.

Getting enough people on staff, including LPNs and RNs, has been difficult. The company often buys a house for new workers to share, or puts them up in a hotel, until they can find places of their own. The company doesnt charge workers for their lodgings, Rozenberg said.

The houses help them recruit from elsewhere, including other states. Generally, the recruits live in shared company housing for three to six months, Regional Administrator Aharon Lantzitsky said.

Rozenberg noted that the workers in temporary housing are full-time employees who end up living here.

We have uprooted them from other parts of the state and relocated them to Warren County, he said, adding with a laugh, Warren County should thank us!
QUEENSBURY  A Fort Ann man and two juveniles are facing multiple charges following an incident early Saturday morning.

Caleb S. Rich, 20, was charged with reckless endangerment following a personal injury accident involving another driver that happened just after 3 a.m. in Queensbury in the vicinity of Exit 19, according to the New York State Police public information website. Also charged in the incident were a 17-year-old male from South Glens Falls and a 15-year-old from Queensbury, whose names are not identified.

Only one vehicle was involved in the accident, so it is unclear what role the three men played in its cause.

All three suspects are also facing a misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance charge for an incident that occurred later that morning in Glens Falls. The 17-year-old is facing two additional felony counts for criminal possession of a loaded weapon and criminal possession of stolen property.

No further information could be obtained from police on Sunday.
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To meet the changing needs of its patients, Mississippi Valley Surgery Center began construction Monday on an $8 million modernization project at its longtime Davenport facility.

Nearly a dozen employees  many dressed in scrubs and all with the distinction of working there since the facility opened 21 years ago  were joined by the center's doctors for a ceremonial ground-breaking. Although the start of a rainstorm rushed the festivities, the audience marked celebrated the kick-off of a 16,000-square-foot addition and a related renovation of the facility at 3400 Dexter Court.

"After 21 years of providing health care and innovative surgical care, we are focused on continuing that legacy," said Michael Patterson, the surgery center's president and CEO. The gathering of about 70 included doctors, nurses and staff as well as city representatives, Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce representatives and the project development team.

The project, approved by the Iowa Department of Public Health State Health Facilities Council, will include an addition to accommodate a redesign and modernization as well as added room to increase the number of overnight patient rooms from six to 14.

"We've redesigned it so every patient has a private room," Patterson said after the ceremony. The project is focused on pre-operation and post-operation areas and needs, and does not alter the actual surgical facilities. The expansion and renovation, which will be done in four phases, "still allows us to serve all our patients and surgeons' needs," he said.

Opened in 1996, Mississippi Valley Surgery Center is one of a handful of U.S. surgery centers performing minimally invasive outpatient total joint replacement and spine surgeries since the mid 1990s.

"Patient demands have changed," he said. "They want patient-friendly, family-friendly rooms and private spaces."

About 175,000 patients have been served since the center's inception. Patterson said only about 10 percent of the surgical patients require an overnight stay. But with additional inpatient rooms, the center expects between 3-10 percent growth in patients.

The project is part of the surgery center's strategic plan, which it recently completed in partnership with UnityPoint Health Trinity and Surgical Care Affiliates.

In addition to joint replacement and spine surgery, the center has the newest technology for laser cataract surgery, retinal surgery, balloon sinuplasty for ENT, carpal tunnel and other advanced specialties.

According to Patterson, the second president/CEO to lead the center, "There has been a national trend of shifting from inpatient to outpatient care and it continues to grow. We want to be ready for the next several decades."

The development team includes Bush Construction, BLDD Architects and IMEG.

During the brief ceremony, Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch applauded the investment in Davenport and thanked the center "ultimately for the many, many people you will serve."

The center employs 110 people including between 40 and 50 surgeons and anesthesiologists. Patterson said the expansion will only add a few new positions and will not involve any new medical services. But as demand for outpatient surgery grows and technology improves, it will allow for more complex procedures to be performed outpatient.

The work is expected to be completed by fall of 2018 and open by Nov. 1, 2018. Ongoing updates will be posted at facebook.com/MississippiValleySurgeryCenter.
The death of a male inmate in Clinton County Jail early Sunday remains under investigation, according to Clinton County Sheriff Rick Lincoln.

At 2:43 a.m., a correctional officer discovered an unresponsive inmate. The correctional officer called for medical assistance and began CPR with assistance from other correctional officers.

Clinton Fire Department paramedics who responded to the jail were unable to revive the man. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation also responded to investigate the incident along with Clinton County deputies.

The Clinton County medical examiners office pronounced the man dead at the jail.

The mans' name is being withheld pending notification of family members.

-- Linda Cook
CLINTON  A Clinton County Jail inmate who deputies say was found hanging by a bed sheet Sunday morning has been identified as Gavin Vaughn William Glasz, a rural DeWitt, Iowa, man accused in the June deaths of his parents.

Sheriff Rick Lincoln said in a news release Monday morning that an investigation into the death of the 18-year-old is being conducted by the Sheriffs Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

There is no suspicion of foul play due to a note that was written by Gavin prior to his death, Lincoln said in the release.

The cause and manner of death will be determined by the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner following an autopsy.

At 2:43 a.m. Sunday, a correctional officer was making his regular jail rounds when he found Glasz hanging by a bed sheet tied to the cell bars, according to the release.

Clinton Fire Department paramedics attempted to revive him but were unsuccessful, according to the release.

Glasz was being held in the jail on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Brian Paul Glasz, 51, and Michelle Renee Glasz, 54.

Clinton County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched around 9:30 a.m. June 13 to the Glasz home in the 3700 block of U.S. 30 in rural DeWitt for a welfare check after Brian Glasz had failed to arrive at work.

Inside the home, deputies saw what looked like a body wrapped in blankets or comforters. They discovered Brian Glasz, whose throat appeared to be cut, according to an arrest affidavit. The body was found in the laundry room on the main level of the house, according to the affidavit.

Michelle Glasz also had been wrapped in blankets and was found in a room in the basement. She was cold to the touch and had blood on her, according to the affidavit.

A friend told deputies that Gavin Glasz had commented about "stabbing people" the day before the bodies of his parents were discovered and that "my mom and dad need to be with my grandpa ... off this earth," according to the affidavit.

Deputies say they also found evidence at the scene, including bloody clothing, that they say linked Gavin Glasz to the death of his parents.

He was arrested the same day.

Clinton County Attorney Mike Wolf said Monday that the charges against Glasz have been dismissed because of his death.

Lincoln said that Glasz was not on suicide watch at the time of his death and was in a cell block with six other inmates.

Our staff attended training on this topic within the past few months, he said in an email. We have a list of medical questions that are asked at the time of book-in and some are questions to determine if the arrestee is suicidal.

Lincoln added that the jail also employs Advanced Correctional Healthcare, which supplies a nurse, mental health social worker and a doctor to the facility on a set number of hours per months.

He said they are contacted if we have concerns about an inmate that staff determines may be suicidal.

Lincoln said that state jail standards require hourly checks and that Glasz was observed at 1:58 a.m. and again at the time he was found by the correctional officer.
Here's how popular Popeyes is: As a "preventive measure" Monday morning, police officers positioned themselves near the drive-thru of the new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Moline.

The fried chicken chain opened at 10 a.m. in a strip center just south of John Deere Road at 3925 38th St., across 40th Avenue from the Regal Moline Stadium 14 movie complex. It's the second location in the Quad-Cities.
The Illinois Small Business Development Center will offer an event to help small businesses get started in the Hispanic/Latino community from 6-7:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at the Esperanza Center, 335 5th Ave., Moline. A Spanish-language interpreter will be in attendance. Registration is due by Tuesday, Aug. 22.

Speakers for the event will include Robert Ontiveros, Group O founder and chairman; Alvaro Macias, Ascentra Credit Union; Christian Guiterrez, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Office of Minority Economic Empowerment; Carolyn OConnor, Esperanza Legal Assistance Center, Department of Justice -accredited immigration legal specialist; and Rock Island native David Johnson of ACCION.

In addition to the speakers, representatives from Quad-Cities Service Corps of Retired Executives, which helps mentor new business start-ups, will discuss grant money available for small-business accounting workshops and consultations.

To register, visit wiusbdc.org and sign up under upcoming events, or use the Spanish-language option at iira.org/event-registration/?ee. For assistance, leave a message at 309-298-3036.

The Illinois SBDC and International Trade Center at Western Illinois University-Quad Cities, provides free confidential advising and training to help entrepreneurs and businesses start, grow and sustain their businesses. For more information, visit wiusbdc.org or call 309-762-3999, extension 62243.
More than 100 people stood in Solidarity with Charlottesville Sunday evening on the east side of the Talbot Memorial Bridge, formerly known as the Centennial Bridge.

Some carried posters that said Love trumps hate and Hate is not a family value. Others simply stood and waved to passing drivers, many of whom honked and waved back.

They were there because three people are dead and at least 33 injured after violence broke out at a white-nationalist rally and protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. James Fields, a 20-year-old from Ohio, faces a second-degree murder charge after allegedly driving his car into a group of counter-protestors and killing Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, and injuring 19. Two state troopers died when their helicopter, which was assisting with police response to the rally, crashed outside the city. The white nationalists chose Charlottesville as a site to protest because the Charlottesville City Council had recently voted to remove a statue of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee.

The solidarity gathering, hosted by Cedar Memorial Christian Church, drew supporters from throughout the Quad-City region. Kelly Shonts of Matherville, Illinois, and her son, Colton Smith, who will be a senior at Sherrard High School, carried signs.

I just think its needed, Shonts said. I think it affects everyone. We need to push the agenda of supporting everyone as Americans.

Janice Williams of Davenport said she had been talking about how much of a shame it is that an innocent, peaceful person had to lose their life when she found out about the rally. She felt encouraged by the large, diverse crowd of supporters.

I feel validated as an important person in Americas system, she said, noting that the assembly was People working together for the common good.

We all want the same thing: Peace, she said. To try and divide is to try and make us weaker, but united we stand.

Different views

People in the Quad-Cities see the incident in varying ways.

Phil Yerington was a Davenport police lieutenant and served as mayor of Davenport from 1998-2002.

First of all I think its really, really sad, he said. I cant figure out why 150 years after the (Civil War) is over, the Confederate flag and the statue of Robert E. Lee are offensive to people.

This is our history. You cant erase this now not to hurt peoples feelings," Yerington said. "I know what slavery did to America ... How come all of a sudden this is an issue that is dividing this country even further than it was under the Obama years?

The counter-protesters, whom he called "disrupters," are more un-American than the protestors, he said.

When youre paying people to go to a community thats not even theirs and cause civic unrest and disruption, these people are not fighting for the history of America, Yerington said. Theyre there for greed, and to stir up the masses.

Yerington predicted the civil unrest will get uglier before it gets better, and that The liberal-biased media is just killing us. We get this shoved at us 24 hours a day, even if the protests are done and over.

In a press conference Saturday, President Donald Trump said, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," and urged people to love one another.

It was good to see Trump say Im blaming everyone here, Yerington said. At least Trump said Knock this off. Stop fighting with each other. This is not getting us anywhere.

While were fighting and slapping each other around, we have no idea what our enemies are doing, Yerington said. The media needs to back off this stuff. If the media would agree to begin the healing process in America by reporting the news  put the facts out there. Start the healing of this country before we turn around and find the enemy knocking on our doors.

Ill give you the Confederate flag, if thats what it takes to appease. Then we will not fly it on public property, Yerington said. But youre not going to start tearing down your monuments. Thats what ISIS is doing in the Middle East. Theyre tearing down and destroying everything that has to do with Christianity. Theyre trying to wipe out your past, which is where your backbone is at.

If America doesnt become the United States again, I fear for what this country could become, Yerington said.

Others see it another way.

Rabbi Henry Jay Karp, a member of One Human Family QCA, said Charlottesville needs to be a cautionary tale for us.

This is what can happen if you let it go too far. If you just close your eyes and turn your head and think its all going to go away, Karp said.

Karp said he is overwhelmed by the violence that erupted, calling it horrible, horrible and very frightening.

Its all the more horrible, all the more frightening, because this is the direction in which our country has been moving for over the last year, Karp said. Its become more open, more acceptable, that those who are purveyors of hate no longer feel the need to operate under rocks or in secret. They feel they have been empowered to step forward and to pursue their message with words and deeds.

He is deeply disturbed by Trumps remarks. He presented a moral equivalency between those white supremacists that were demonstrating and those that were demonstrating against hate (with the phrase on many sides).

When the president equivocates like that, thats the type of thing that empowers the white supremacists, Karp said. Whether or not they actually do have the endorsement of the president, they feel they have the endorsement of the president.

Karp is among the organizers of a rally to be held Wednesday in response to National Alliance fliers that appeared in the community. National Alliance is a white nationalist organization. We have to take them seriously. They have a serious history. Theyre the real deal.

We have to stand up now, Karp said. This is not what the Quad-Cities is about. This is not what the people in the Quad-Cities want. This is not how we envision our community.

I believe it is right we should take these statues down, said the Rev. Jay Wolin of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad-Cities. These are statues of people who were traitors to our country and supported slavery. These are things we as a country have rejected.

We do have the right to free assembly in this country, Wolin continued. But these individuals who are carrying Nazi flags and were spewing hatred in their speech against African-Americans and against Jewish people surrounded counter-protestors in a very threatening way. And they instigated much of the violence.

Its important that we as a society stand up and say we do not agree with this, Wolin said. We fought for freedom in this county and in the world for freedom against this type of harassment and discrimination. We need to talk about values of inclusion, not exclusion -- our values of loving our neighbor and not hating and discriminating against our neighbors.
IOWA CITY  University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld made a pitch Monday to raise resident undergraduate tuition 41 percent over the next five years, but students and lawmakers pushed back, calling the plan a failure and urging the university to go back to the drawing board.

It makes my heart beat a little too fast, Sen. Tod Bowman, D-Maquoketa, told an Iowa Board of Regents tuition task force meeting on the Iowa campus. Its irresponsible to ask that much of hardworking parents supporting their children.

The university's tuition proposal  the last of five-year pitches from Iowas three public universities  would increase resident undergrad rates 7.08 percent each year through 2022, raising rates from $7,486 this fall to $10,537.

The five-year plan also includes an annual 2.08 percent bump for non-resident undergrads, increasing this years $29,130 to $32,288 by 2022.

The proposed Iowa tuition increases also would extend to graduate students and those in costlier programs such as medicine, engineering, dentistry and business.

Last week, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University presented their plans to the task force. Iowa State pitched a similar rate plan, and Northern Iowa proposed a smaller 2.5 annualized bump for resident undergrads, provided the Legislature also appropriated enough money.

The regents would have to approve any tuition increases annually, making the university plans only suggestions. But if regents approve the proposed increases, they would usher in the first significant split in basic resident undergrad rates between the three public universities.

While the Iowa and Iowa State plans would push resident undergrad costs to around $10,500, Northern Iowas comparable rate would rise more slowly to $8,237 by 2022.

Harreld said Monday he agreed with comments made last week by Northern Iowa President Mark Nook that the three institutions have different missions and needs.

Weve been slipping

If the board approves the proposed increases, Harreld said, his university would use the estimated net $12 million in annual additional revenue to pursue its strategic plan. That plan, which is expected to cost $154.5 million to $164.5 million in all, includes improving faculty pay and hiring more professors and research scientists.

Specifically, the university hopes to use the additional revenue to hire 100 new faculty in the next five years, along with 25 research scientists.

The consequences of not doing so could be dire, according to Harreld, who cited mounting losses in top faculty and sliding national rankings. Over the past decade, Iowa has dropped 18 places in U.S. News & World Report rankings to No. 82 among public and private colleges, near the bottom of what it considers its peers.

Additionally, Iowas four-year graduation rate at 51 percent is below its peer average.

Weve been slipping, Harreld said. Its time to put a stop to that and actually deliver. If you graduate from here, it needs to be world-class without any questions, not eroding in U.S. News & World Report and other rankings. We owe that to the citizens of Iowa.

The board created its tuition task force and charged the universities with creating five-year plans after the state clawed back more than $20 million in base funding for the regent universities in the past budget year. The Legislature further cut its support by nearly $10 million in the current budget year.

Harreld said the proposed rates are based on seeing similar state appropriations over the next five years. But if the appropriations fall more, his institution would take another look.

Depending on any changes at the state level, Harreld acknowledged the university could even request a midyear tuition increase.

Regents President Mike Richards said last week he wants to stick with the tuition rates board members already have approved this year.

After hearing students and lawmakers criticize the Iowa proposal and urge the board and its universities to push harder for more legislative support, Richards said he and his colleagues will look at the whole picture, including the criticism, in deciding on rates.

7 percent is too high

With years of frozen tuition, the University of Iowa sits at the bottom of its peer group in residential undergrad tuition and fees and near the bottom in non-resident undergraduate tuition and fees.

But those who spoke suggested thats not necessarily a bad thing.

State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said Harreld made a rational argument for more resources.

But I have to say I strongly oppose the rate of increase, Bolkcom said. I recognize tuition is going up. I think 7 percent is too high.

The spike, he said, would increase student debt and decrease accessibility to higher education.

This proposal throws in the towel on the people of Iowa who have helped build these institutions, and I think it throws in the towel on the governor and Legislatures responsibility to support our public universities, Bolkcom said.

Of the seven lawmakers who attended the meeting Monday, none was a Republican although the GOP controls both chambers of the Legislature and the governors office.

University Student Government President Jacob Simpson applauded the narrative of excellence Harreld has ushered in since arriving two years ago. But, he said, I believe this proposal is not one of excellence.

He, like some others, encouraged more fundraising, more penny-pinching and more advocacy for state funding.
There are regions where economic stress coexists with a beloved way of life. It can be hard to make a living in parts of the rural West, northern New England and the South. But people stay put in these places for reasons other than the almighty dollar. They include community, tradition and quality of life.

The prospect of losing a way of life is the source of anger in eastern Wyoming over the Trump administration's opening of more public lands in the Powder River Basin to coal mining. It is also behind the continuing resistance in Nebraska to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

But the issues go beyond the matter of souls vs. fossil fuels. They involve conflicts between one source of income and other sources. Both projects threaten the water supply in places where water is extremely valuable. That, in turn, threatens the farm and ranching economies on which these regions depend.

A clean environment is also essential for the recreation industry, a major employer in the rural West. Without clean water and air, hunters, anglers and hikers would have no reason to be there  nor would the outfitters whose businesses depend on them.

Ranchers can't ranch if the water supply is fouled. Mining operations throw dust in the air that chokes the animals. They also scrape away the grasslands on which cattle feed. The U.S. Forest Service puts pasture near the mines off-limits to ranchers. Small wonder ranchers are among the most potent opponents to expanded mining on public land.

The fight is about more than environmentalism vs. fossil fuels. It's about money vs. money. And if that's the case, why would fossil fuel interests win over ranching, farming and recreation interests? The answer is that fossil fuels have more money and more of it goes into politicians' pockets.

Trump's secretary of the interior is Ryan Zinke. As a Republican rep from Montana, Zinke took campaign money from several major coal companies and the railroad that transports the coal. In June, he attended a meeting of Western governors, where he blew a lot of smoke about finding a balance between resource extraction on public lands and protecting them. Right before, he had a cozy one-on-one with a petroleum CEO.

U.S. taxpayers, meanwhile, extend billions of dollars in corporate welfare to the mining companies. The welfare comes in the form of below-market rates for the right to mine on public lands. The Obama administration took action to reduce the abuses. Trump reversed it.

So, we subsidize mining companies to sell cheap coal to China, after ravaging land belonging to the American people. The locals are left with gouged-out canyon walls, polluted strip mines and poisoned water. And for what, a few jobs in a rapidly automating industry? No, to enrich a handful of fossil fuel executives.

Ranching is not an easy livelihood. But it's a way of life for families who do it generation after generation. Joining them in opposition are the Cheyenne. "We are wealthy in life here," a member of the tribe told a reporter. "We don't have money. But we have land, water and air. Snuff that out and we are gone."

In Nebraska, TransCanada wants to take private land to build the Keystone XL pipeline. In effect, a foreign company would be using eminent domain to seize land that the farmers' ancestors homesteaded. All with Donald Trump's blessing.

It's fairly easy to preserve a house that George Washington slept in. It's hard to preserve a way of life, especially when the side that would end it can buy the politicians. But it's sure worth trying.
Chicago has vast property wealth and the largest population by far in Illinois. But it also has a large amount of that property wealth locked up in Tax Increment Financing districts.

According to figures released last week by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, Chicago has over half of the $12.4 billion in statewide equalized assessed valuation locked up in TIF districts. About 8.6 percent of the city's total EAV is in a TIF district, well above the statewide average of 3.95 percent, but only the seventh-highest percentage in the state (29 percent of Clinton County's EAV is in TIF districts, making it the leader going away).

And partly because Chicago is by far the largest city covered under state tax cap laws, the city's public schools were able to claim $125 million in state adjustment benefits in Fiscal Year 2016 for districts with property tax caps, according to numbers crunched by the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois. But the way the laws are written, that $125 million was most of the $141 million claimed by all school districts in Illinois. The total amount was expected to drop by more than half during Fiscal Year 2017.

When valuations go up, so does the subsidy. In 2010, CPS' subsidy was almost $444 million to account for "lost" revenue due to the tax caps. Elgin's school district was second that year, at $18.3 million, but it wasn't even in the top 15 last year.

The governor's amendatory veto of SB1, the school funding reform bill, would slash state funding to school districts that are within TIF districts and covered under property tax caps. That seems counter-intuitive for this governor, who has railed against high local property taxes since first announcing for office. While he denied it last week, it's clear he wants to force local school districts to raise their property taxes to avoid state funding cuts.

Why would he do that? Chicago Public Schools funding, obviously. The governor has often put CPS in the middle of his Statehouse wars. One of the events that motivated him to run for higher office was the successful Chicago Teachers Union strike, which angered him to no end. And he's clearly looking for leverage in the wake of the budget and tax hike veto overrides.

That's not to say the Democrats aren't playing the same sort of game. They added even more money to SB1 for CPS when the bill finally reached the House and then jammed it through on a mostly partisan roll call.

The Illinois State Board of Education said it had finished its numbers crunching of Rauner's amendatory veto last week, but then found some data mistakes, so as of this writing we dont know what the numbers are, but you can bet that CPS will take a big hit.

The bigger question is how many suburban and Downstate districts will be slammed by this amendatory veto. Ford County, which is within Sen. Jason Barickman's district, has the second highest percentage of assessed valuation in a TIF district in the state, over 10 percent of its EAV. Barickman (R-Bloomington) is the lead Senate Republican negotiator on education funding reform. Politically, this could be quite problematic.

These sorts of negotiations take years to complete. First, you have to convince people to open a nasty can of worms - which isn't easy because so many folks have vested interests in the status quo and have cut little deals over the years to sweeten their own pots. Then you have to convince everybody to create a whole new can of worms. And then you have to actually do it. It isn't easy.

Education funding reform has taken at least four years to get this far. Barickman has suggested that perhaps TIF districts created in the future could trigger a change to state aid. But even that could be a heavy lift at this late stage, with schools about to open.

Fiddling now with TIF and property tax caps could require a rewrite of the whole bill to achieve the bipartisan goals that were laid down at the outset of this monstrous task.

A last-minute amendatory veto isn't the right way to go. If the governor wanted this stuff, he had over two years to bring it to the bargaining table. And the same goes for the House's last-minute add-ons from the end of May.

What they should probably do is back up and run a bill that's as close to the Senate-approved version as possible.
A Custer City man is headed to trial in October on charges he ran over a man while boating drunk on Angostura Reservoir two summers ago.

Cory Schmitz, 41, is facing charges of aggravated assault and vehicular battery in an incident in which 31-year-old Michael Lemley, who was wakeboarding in the reservoir, was struck and seriously injured in 2015. Schmitz is charged in Seventh Circuit Court also with boating under the influence of alcohol. Schmitz has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Lemley, of Rapid City, suffered head trauma and several lacerations to his upper back and shoulders, according to an investigator with the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department. He was airlifted to Rapid City Regional Hospital for treatment.

He was in the water around 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 15, 2015, when Schmitzs speedboat struck him, according to a law enforcement report filed at the Fall River County courthouse.

The boat just ran over him and kept going, the victims wife, Melena Lemley, told D.J. Schroeder, an officer with GF&P, according to the report. She had been waving her arms, yelling at the speedboat driver to stop and pointing at her husband in the water, but the driver reportedly flipped her off.

Michael Lemley had been sitting in the water, his board strapped to his feet. Only his head and the top part of his body were above water when the boat went right over the top of him, the report reads.

The vessel was described as a 33-foot Profile cigarette boat.

Schmitz told Schroeder he didnt see anyone in the water as he was heading back to shore from a cove party that evening. A boat ahead of him had made a hard left turn, Schmitz said, and he believed someone waved at him, which was a common occurrence whenever he was on his speedboat.

Schmitz said he had consumed about 12 cans of beer that day. He was arrested and detained at the Fall River County Jail after a preliminary breath test showed his blood alcohol content at .079 percent, says the report. The legal limit for driving is .08 percent.

Pieces of Lemleys wakeboard were later found by the shore. Lab testing of Schmitzs port-side propeller showed traces similar to the material of Lemleys wakeboard, according to court records.

Schmitz was charged on the various counts in 2016 and this year.

Two of several people aboard the speedboat with Schmitz that night told another investigator he had been driving 80 mph. The group had apparently been leaving the Lake-a-Palooza event held at Angostura Reservoir that day.

The two passengers said they heard a thud while the boat was moving across the water. One of them said he saw something black fly in the air, which he thought was a wakeboard.

In a separate incident a day earlier on Pactola Reservoir, an intoxicated man caused a boating accident that killed a 33-year-old Rapid City woman.

Last year, Jody Kreycik, 30, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter and boating under the influence in the death of Gabrielle Fisher. Kreycik was driving a personal watercraft and jumped a wave before crashing into a boat carrying Fisher. She was thrown overboard; her body was recovered three days later.

Schmitzs most serious charge, aggravated assault, is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Vehicular battery carries a maximum of 10 years, and boating under the influence, a year in jail.

He is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 2-6 at the Fall River County Courthouse.

Schroeder declined to discuss details of the incident with the Journal, citing the ongoing court case.

Lemley, who has recovered and is back at work, declined to answer questions on the case. Schmitzs lawyer, Randy Connelly, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Court records show Schmitz has been previously convicted on a dozen misdemeanor charges that include reckless driving, careless driving or speeding in Custer, Lawrence and Pennington counties between 1994 and 2015.
Fourteen-year-old Mary Francis Witte waited an entire year for Aug. 13  the day when she would once again ride in the Tucker Day Rodeo at Hill Citys Double Diamond Ranch.

Ask the Rapid City teen what events she is competing in and she shrugs. Same when you ask her the name of the horse she will ride.

She wont know what horse has been selected for her until she throws her leg over the saddle.

But the one thing she does know:

I love it all, Mary Francis said with an ear-to-ear grin. I like barrels. I like going fast.

And soon, she will ride without a side walker, a spotter who walks beside the horse to ensure this tall drink of water of a girl who just happens to have special needs is safe in the saddle.

Tucker Day Rodeo is named for Tucker Blain, who was just 7 when he competed in the 2008 Western Heritage Festival ranch horse competition. The soft-spoken Hermosa lad with Downs Syndrome left an indelible impression on Double Diamond owners Rich and Lee Ann Jensen.

My husband fell in love with him, Lee Ann Jensen said recalling the day they met Tucker.

Not long after, Rich Jensen had an idea  a rodeo for people with special needs. A rodeo where these kids and adults could shine and earn medals for their horsemanship.

He picked the final Sunday of the Sturgis motorcycle rally as Tucker Day because the traffic was clearing and the port-a-potties from the rally were still onsite.

The Jensens collaborated with Rapid Citys Suncatcher Therapeutic Riding Academy, which offers equine-assisted activities and therapy programs for people with special needs, all of it free of charge.

In the eight years since the first Tucker Day Rodeo, the festival has grown by leaps and bounds, attracting as many as 89 participants from surrounding states and even foreign countries, Lee Ann Jensen said.

Rodeo namesake Tucker Blain, now 15, kicks off the day with arrival by helicopter. He not only competes but works serving food at the free barbecue. Hes a busy guy and takes his role seriously.

Rodeo festivities include face painting, rodeo clowns, panning for gold and more. Its a Hill City community effort, with businesses donating goods and citizens volunteering their time, Jensen said. Everything, including the food, is free for families.

And it truly is a family event said Theresa Witte, Mary Francis mother.

Its an awesome event, Witte said. We look forward to it every year.

Plus, Tucker Day Rodeo raises awareness that people with special needs are so much more than their disabilities.

One of the days youngest competitors was 2-1/2-year-old RubyJene Lehman of Custer. The toddler, who has grown up around her parents horses, sat tall in the saddle.

Mom Shannon Lehman admitted she didnt quite know what to expect at the rodeo.

But we thought wed give it a shot, she said.

Sunday was Ariana Sharps fifth time on a horse. But the 6-year-old handled herself like a pro, smiling as she rode around the poles, lassoed sawhorse steers with hula hoop rings and raced in the baton relay.

Proudly holding up her medal at the end of her run, Ariana knew exactly what she was going to do when she got home  show it to her big sister, Abby, who is an accomplished equestrian, said Abby's mom, Sarah Sharp of Rapid City.

Thanks to Sun Catcher Therapeutic Riding Academy, 13-year-old Nevaeh Smith has been riding horses for as long as she can remember.

She likes to tell her horse whoa and slow down, said her mom, Kia Smith of Piedmont. In fact, Nevaeh likes to tell her mother the same thing when Smith drives down the road.

Smith said the riding has been good for her daughter.

Its so calming and soothing. It relaxes her and brings her back to center, Smith said.

But for a mom of a child with special needs, the rodeo does all that and more.

This is a chance for her to shine. It makes her feel important. All eyes are on her.  It makes me teary-eyed. And it makes me think about what is important in life.

Gary Alickson echoed that sentiment. His 30-year-old son Garet has special needs but enjoys the thrill of riding, the responsibility of loving and caring for an animal and the excitement of rodeo competition just like anyone else.

Most of these kids want to be treated as equals. They are just like any other person, but they have a little harder time.

But as Mary Francis demonstrates, with practice and determination, you can achieve your goals.

And when she got home Sunday night, one of the first things she planned to do was put next years Tucker Day Rodeo on the 2018 calendar.
A cult is a group of people that shuts out conflicting information and rejects facts in favor of an alternative reality.

Its time to call todays Republican Party what it is: a cult. The Republican Party hasnt always been a cult, but you can trace its conversion to one to the late 1980s and the rise of hate-based AM talk radio shows. Commentators such as Rush Limbaugh not only supplied the venom, they also delivered it with a hypnotic cadence that deep-seated their message. Fox News followed, claiming to be fair and balanced, while doing the opposite.

To facilitate the conversion, the GOP targeted people who were already controlled by the church and were therefore more susceptible to manipulation than those who were free thinkers. Issues used to gain and maintain followers included opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. It didnt matter that Jesus was never quoted in the Bible as opposing either issue, or that the Bible actually contradicts the Republican definition of life at conception (Genesis 2:7 and Job 33:4); stoking such beliefs garnered unquestioned loyalty and allowed for the manipulation to commence.

In reality, the men behind the curtain couldnt have cared less about abortion, same-sex marriage, or the additional issue of guns. Instead, what they were really after was increasing their wealth via massive tax cuts and the freedom to cheat and pollute. Their manufactured moral issues were merely a brilliantly evil way to get cult members to vote against themselves.

For those who dont believe me, I present global warming as Exhibit No. 1:

That global warming is real, human-caused, and deadly is not in dispute in the real world. NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Military, peer-reviewed climate scientists and college science departments all agree on this. The only large organization in the world that disputes anthropogenic global warming is the Republican Party. And they do so not with scientists, but with devious misinformation that cult members lap up without question. Hence children will suffer so CEOs can get richer.

Still not convinced? Lets look at Exhibit No. 2:

The men behind the curtain had their biggest challenge when it came to getting Donald Trump elected. Although money was their personal lord and savior, what if their followers believed differently? Jesus preached in favor of kindness and turning the other cheek. He also preached against braggarts and the rich. Essentially, Donald Trump is the antithesis of everything Jesus stood for. Therefore, anyone voting for Trump would have to cast their Christianity aside.

A tough task? Apparently not. The Cult of Republicanism turned out to be stronger than the religious beliefs of roughly 62 million people. In fact, multitudes of Republicans wrote their local newspapers and posted on social media that Trump had actually been chosen by Jesus! Think about that for a minute. If Jesus existed as depicted in the Bible, why would he choose a man like Trump to be Americas president? The only thing more ridiculous would be choosing Dr. Hannibal Lecter to perform your liver transplant surgery.

Although there is no simple solution for deprogramming a cult, we can look behind the curtain for guidance. While influential Republicans rarely admit to being anti-education, their actions say otherwise: the right-wing comic strip Mallard Fillmore frequently rails against schools, conservative talk show hosts rant about intellectual elites, and Republican politicians slash education funding every chance they get.

Trump correctly bragged he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. He also deftly proclaimed his love for the poorly educated. Cults dont question, and education is a cults greatest enemy. Therefore, for the rest of us, vigorously supporting education is our best hope for eventually returning the GOP to sanity.
Guwahati : Flood situation in Assam has turned more critical after flood waters of Brahmaputra and its tributaries had submerged more areas and affecting over 23 lakh people of 21 districts in the state.

The current wave flood claimed 20 persons as the death toll in the state mounted to 104 this year so far.

Following torrential rains in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Bhutan, the water level of Brahmaputra flowing above danger level marks at Nematighat in Jorhat district, Tezpur in Sonitpur district, Guwahati in Kamrup (Metro) district, Goalpara and Dhubri.

A top official of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that, the water level of the tributaries of Brahmaputra river and Barak river also flowing above danger level marks in various places in Upper Assam, Middle Assam, Northern Assam, Lower Assam and Barak valley.

'The flood situation turned more worsen in middle Assam's district Nagaon after the flood water breached the Hatimura embankment at Jakhalabandha area under Kaliabor sub-division last night. The flood waters inundated more than 50 villages in the area and crossed NH-37 at several places,'A the top official said.

Meanwhile, the Nagaon district administration had sounded high alert and closed all vehicles movement at NH-37.

The flood waters also submerged over 90 forest camp inside the Kaziranga National Park.

'Following the second wave flood, most of wild animals including one horned rhinos of the park had moved to nearby Karbi Anglong hill areas by crossing NH-37 and few animals taken shelter at higher lands inside the park,' a forest official said.

According to the reports of ASDMA, over 2800 villages of 21 districts are affected in the current wave flood and the flood waters submerged more than 1.35 lakh crop areas.

'Over 3.98 lakh people are affected alone in Dhubri district, while 3.14 lakh affected in Morigaon, 2.36 lakh in Kokrajhar, 2.07 lakh in Bongaigaon, 1.84 lakh in Barpeta, 1.63 lakh in South Salmara, 1.44 lakh in Dhemaji, 1.14 lakh in Golaghat,' the top ASDMA official said.

Over 1.83 lakh people were forced to take shelter at 678 relief camps set up by the district administration in 15 districts.

Meanwhile, Assam revenue and Disaster management minister Pallab Lochan Das and Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia in a Video Conference held on Sunday directed the Deputy Commissioners of the flood affected districts to gear up relief and rescue of the affected people on a war footing.

They also directed DCs to keep vigil on relief and rescue works upto the grass-root level by smoothly co-ordinating in all sphere.

During the video conferencing the minister also directed the DCs to distribute GRs door to door if situation arises.

It may be mentioned that NDRF and SDRF teams have already been deployed in fourteen and thirty locations respectively.

Moreover, army and air force teams have also been kept on the high alert.

Army has already been deployed in Kokrajhar, Nagaon (Kaliabor Sub-division) and Morigaon districts.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday talked over phone with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and enquired about the scale of devastation caused by the current wave of flood in the state.

Sonowal apprised the Prime Minister about the various measures taken by the government for providing relief to the flood affected people and also informed that the administrations of all flood hit districts have been directed to ensure speedy relief distribution to the victims.

During the course of the telephonic conversation, the Prime Minister assured all cooperation from the central government in overcoming the havoc caused by flood and informed that all necessary steps would be taken for helping the state government to mitigate the problem.

Notably, Principal Secretary of Prime Minister's Office Nripendra Mishra directed Assam Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia to submit a report to the PMO detailing the damage and devastation caused by the current wave of floods in the state.

On the other hand, Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday visited flood relief camp at Bhismak LP School at Panchmile, Sadiya and took stock of the arrangements for the inmates at the camp.

He also visited Kundil riverside over Kundil Bridge and directed Water Resource Department to take immediate measures to stop erosion.

It is to be mentioned that continuous erosion by Kundil river has been causing serious threat to Panchmile, Lakhimi Gaon, Bogoribari apart from threatening Kundil Bridge.

The Assam CM also talked to the media persons and informed that dredging of the river Kundil during winter season will be taken up so that the change of river course which has taken place due to persistent erosion can be tackled.

Sonowal further informed that that state government is taking serious steps for solving the problems of Amarpur area including improvement of surface communication.

In this regard he informed that a proposal for constructions of two bridges connecting Amarpur has been submitted to central government and the Ministry of Roads and Highways will conduct a survey for further necessary action.

Sonowal also visited Aithan Ring Bund at Bogibeel, Dibrugarh and took stock of the condition of the flood affected people there.

He assured the flood affected people of adequate relief measures and said that district administration has already been pressed into the service to meet the requirement of flood victims.

Saying that once flood is over the government would take up rehabilitation measures and strengthening of the embankments would be done on war footing, Sonowal stated the government is serious in its pursuit of a permanent solution to the recurring floods.

He also sat for a discussion with the Indian Railway authorities and discussed with them the expeditious construction of road cum rail bridge at Bogibeel.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Flood victims stands near a house at the flood affected area in Saptari District, Nepal August 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters

KUNAULI: Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh.

Officials said Monday that they were still trying to determine the scale of the disaster, as weather forecasters predicted more rain for some areas and casualties were reported in multiple locations across the Himalayan foothills of South Asia.

Nepalese police were searching Monday for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to police spokesman Pushkar Karki.

The death toll may go up further as reports come in from remote areas, Karki said.

Many of those killed had drowned or been caught in collapsed houses or under toppled trees.

The floods destroyed key rice crops in Nepal and drove thousands of farmers and their families to take refuge in schools or tents on higher ground, as water submerged roads and cut transport to affected areas.

Near the Nepalese village of Kunauli, on the border with India, people were sheltering in tents pitched along the main highway after the land on both sides became inundated. Cows and buffalo meandered between the tents, and poisonous snakes slithered through the water.

Electricity and cellular phone services were cut off. Soldiers passed out clean water, grain and rice, which people were cooking on small, kerosene-fueled stoves. But aid workers said some did not have enough food or water.

The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop, Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for the US-based anti-poverty charity Heifer International, said in a statement. Making matters worse, large numbers of livestock have been swept away in the flash flooding.

Across Nepals southern border, flooding swamped seven districts in the Indian state of Bihar and left more than half a million people homeless. Officials said two people had also died.

Landslides and flooding are common across South Asia during the summer monsoon season, and have become more dangerous thanks to widespread deforestation and poor urban planning that makes it harder for the land to absorb rainfall.

Bangladesh was bracing for worse flooding Monday, as weather forecasters predicted more rain. At least 18 major rivers were flowing at dangerously high levels, according to the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Center.

Twenty-seven people have been killed over the last few days in the low-lying delta nation, while another 600,000 are marooned, Bangladeshs disaster management minister, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury, said Monday. Around 368,000 people have taken refuge in more than 970 makeshift government shelters, he said.

Bangladeshi soldiers were working to evacuate those who were stranded on rooftops or in trees, after floodwaters inundated hundreds of northern villages.

In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes. Officials said that at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps, and that 18 people had been killed.

With railway lines inundated, the remote region was largely cut off from the rest of the country. Indian air force helicopters were dropping food and drinking water packets in the worst-hit districts, said Assams chief secretary, V. K. Pipersenia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was in contact with Assams authorities. All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state, Modi said on Twitter.

Most of Assams Kaziranga National Park was also under water, forcing many of the wildlife reserves endangered rhinos and deer to move to higher ground. Dozens of deer were killed by cars after they leapt onto a nearby highway to escape the floods.

Farther to the west, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, soldiers recovered the bodies of 46 people who had been traveling in two buses that were buried in a massive landslide of rocks and mud on Sunday.
The Independent (UK) - 14 August 2017

Millions of young Indians and Pakistanis know little about one of the 20th centurys worst manslaughters in which their near and dear ones died

by Hasan Suroor

On Wednesday, India will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its independence from British colonial rule. Over in Pakistan, they will get into party mood a day earlier to mark the birth of a new Muslim nation carved out of Indiaas Muslim-majority states.

British diplomats in Delhi and Islamabad will duly line up to greet the natives. But amid the toasts, the fireworks and the pomp and ceremony, the ghost at the top of the table will be studiously avoided by all. Nobody will mention the P word: the bloody Partition of India and its lingering corrosive legacy which continues to poison Hindu-Muslim and India-Pakistan relations to this day.

It was a cataclysmic event in modern South Asian history in which up to two million people were killed in sectarian Hindu-Muslim riots, and some 12 million were displaced in the biggest mass migration in recorded history. But it remains shrouded in an official veil of silence both in India and Pakistan. Theres a collective amnesia about Partition: its not taught in schools, theres no memorial to its victims, no state-funded museum either side of the border, and no public debate.

Millions of young Indians and Pakistanis know little about one of the 20th centurys worst manslaughters in which their near and dear ones died. Their knowledge of it comes from the biased accounts in which the one side portrays the other as villains. Indian and Pakistani perception of each other is still heavily coloured by their selective interpretation of what happened during partition.

"To countless Pakistanis, India is totally Hindu with all the abominable and derogatory characteristics, whereas to their Indian counterparts, Pakistan is a fundamentalist Muslim threat and a vivisection of a once united India," wrote Pakistani academic Dr Iftikhar Malik back in 2002 on the 55th anniversary of independence. Fifteen years later, nothing has changed. If anything the mutual prejudices have become more deeply entrenched, particularly in my own country, India, under a right-wing Hindu nationalist government.

Theres something uniquely South Asian about the silence around partition: our indifference to history, particularly when it shines light on our own darker recesses. The argument is that "what happened, happened; lets draw a line under it and move on".

Pakistan still hasnat been able to separate itself from India

In more historically aware societies, a tragedy of such magnitude would be constantly remembered, debated, taught to schoolchildren, and lessons sought to be learnt from it. Europe is dotted with memorials to historical events; theres even a memorial to the East Germans who died while attempting to scale the Berlin Wall. In Britain, reminders of its past are everywhere.

In South Asia, and especially on the subcontinent, thereas an extraordinary lack of historical awareness. We do nostalgia rather well clinging to the idea of a mythical golden age, but contemporary history? Whats that? Maybe it has got something to do with the fact that much of contemporary history of the region is so bleak. Whatever the excuse, a lack of debate and an unwillingness to confront the past has meant that we are condemned to repeating history. It has meant dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, the 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujarat, the persecution of minorities in Pakistan, and an ugly resurgence of Hindu and Muslim nationalism: all a result of failing to learn from the horrors of partition.

Pakistan keeps truckin on

Theres a glimmer of hope, though: liberal voices in both countries are becoming more vocal in arguing for an end to the "conspiracy of silence" around partition. And, over the past year leading up to the anniversary celebrations, several private initiatives have been launched to create awareness about partition. Indias first Partition Museum, a project set up by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, a non-profit group, in partnership with the LSE South Asia Centre, will open in Amritsar next week. Similar projects are underway in Pakistan, including a high-profile Citizens Archives of Pakistan and The Oral History Project.

Laudable though these initiatives are, theyre no substitute for a collective national reckoning with this dark chapter in the subcontinents post-independence history. Seventy years after the event, itas time to start talking about it, and the next weekas Independence Day bash offers an opportunity to set the ball rolling with baby steps like declaring a public commemoration Day of Partition on the lines of Holocaust Day (it was our equivalent of Holocaust, dammit) and raising a suitable national memorial to its victims.

Next, it should be made a compulsory subject of study in schools, and state funding should be made available for research to challenge biased and divisive narratives around partition. Thereas a need for catharsis if Hindu, Muslims a and India and Pakistan a are serious about normalising relations. And though itas 70 years too late, better late than never.
sacw.net - 14 August 2017

Historically, the Partition of 1947 fragmented the writing community by redistributing its members into two separate territorial nations. One of the significant consequences of the Partition was the migration of Urdu writers of Muslim origin to Pakistan. So the chime of Independence was, as Aijaz Ahmad observes, aexperienced the whole range of Urdu literature of the period not in the celebratory mode but as a defeat, a disorientation, a diasporaa (Lineages 118). This is one of the calamities of Indiaas historical past whose religio-cultural tensions continue today to sharpen divisions along communal lines in the country.

For instance, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, an illustrious Urdu poet, writes his account of the fear, sense of loss, bewilderment that followed in the wake of aThe Dawn of Freedom (August 1947).a In this rendition, Faizas arduous endeavor to articulate his outrage at athe terrible rampant liea and the audacious attempt of the nationalist leadership to provide a rationalization for it is well grounded:

Now listen to the terrible rampant lie: Light has forever been severed from the Dark; our feet, it is heard, are now one with their goal. See our leaders polish their manner clean of our suffering: Indeed we must confess only to bliss; we must surrender any utterance for the Beloved---all yearning is outlawed. (II. 16-21)

In this pain-filled account of the emotional depletion and psychological decrepitude that were the acollateral damagesa of the decolonization of India and its subsequent geographical division, Faiz makes an attempt to expose, and thus reject, the nationalist panacea. This panacea, which was designed to lead the physically defaced and psychically mangled communities to resign themselves to an incomprehensible transformation, is deconstructed by the poet.

Beyond the rifts that were first brought to the surface in the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the forces of communal violence and fundamentalism continue to wield their power with unabated vigor. In the context of these historical ruptures, poems such as the one by Faiz and similar narratives describe the experience of disenfranchised Muslims and Hindus, who were uprooted during the Partition.

The insistence on a nationalist rhetoric that prevents a nation from critically examining its culture, social customs, and gender divisions is rendered more urgent by such narratives.

In independent India and Pakistan, the violent backlash after the Partition and the exploitation of divided communal sentiments by political and religious leaders has evoked divisive militancy in the garb of patriotism.

Despite the encouragement of womenas education in post-Partition India and Pakistan, the womanly virtues of devotion, submission, chastity, and patience are still viewed as the social forms that tradition inculcated in women. Nationalist discourse creates a framework that confers upon women the pre-lapsarian mythological status of a selfless, asexual, benevolent, and maternal entity. Because the edifice of national culture was propped up by the ideals of purity, selfless love, and sacrifice, the decapacitation of women was the result.

Nationalist discourse creates the dichotomy of the inner/ outer in order to make the sanctity of the inviolable inner domain look traditional. Nationalist writers assert that as long as the inner or spiritual distinctiveness of the culture is retained, a postcolonial nation can make the required adjustments to cope with a modern material world without losing its essential identity. The result, however, is not the orderly process of modernization but rather the continued immiseration of women.

The nation and nationalism that were defined by the politics of the Partition need to be analyzed in order to account for the volcanic eruptions caused by this event.

Dr. Nyla Ali Khan
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William Byron Hillman's little known thriller, Double Exposure, is the kind of film that takes the viewer by surprise in the best way possible. Made in 1982, the film plays like a cross between a daytime soap-opera, a standard serial killer thriller, and an Italian giallo film. While it does take it's time to settle on a dominant tone, Double Exposure absolutely nails it in the final reel, giving the viewer plenty to chew on as the picture fades.

Adrian Wilde is a professional photographer who specializes in shooting lovely ladies in the buff for men's magazines. He shares a special bond with his brother, a double amputee - one arm and one leg - who works as a stunt driver in the movie business. One day Adrian begins to have violent nightmares about murdering his models in increasingly brutal and gruesome ways. The scary thing about these nightmares is that they seem to comes true shortly after he wakes up. Adrian begins to wonder what is going on, is he the one behind these murders and he can't remember, or is there something more sinister and supernatural going on? Plenty of scantily clad women fall prey to the menacing black-gloved killer throughout the run time of Double Exposure, but can Adrian figure it all out before they get to the woman he really loves?

While I enjoyed Double Exposure as it found its groove toward the end, there's no denying that the tone is really uneven in the first half of the film. The above-mentioned soap opera sensibility persists for a good forty minutes, meaning that it's a bit slower paced than a film like this should be. However, when the film kicks into high gear, it really starts to click. I have to admit, I didn't see the end coming, and I would love to be that surprised by every film. This one is definitely worth checking out.

The Disc:

I'm going to say some version of this for every Vinegar Syndrome release today, but Double Exposure looks fantastic in a newly scanned 2K restoration from the original camera negative. Fine detail and contrast are gorgeous, and the film looks beautiful. The original mono audio does its job well presenting the dialogue and effects clearly and without major defects.

Vinegar Syndrome have included a full length director commentary with Hillman on the disc that is very informative, but it is a pair of interviews with cinematographer R. Michael Stringer and script supervisor Sally Stringer that were most engaging for me. The former talks a lot about how he came to the project (late), and a lot of the techniques he used to make Double Exposure stand out. Stringer talks a lot about his work as a camera operator on several projects with John Cassavetes before coming to Double Exposure and it's a fascinating talk all around.
Can math determine who'll commit a crime while out on bail and who won't?

In an experiment that's been underway since May 2016, San Francisco has adopted an algorithm designed by a Texas-based judicial reform non-profit to help determine if a suspect can be released on their own recognizance or should be kept in jail while awaiting trial. One of those suspects recently released by the algorithm is now implicated in the murder of 71-year-old Edward French last month.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 19-year-old Lamonte Mims was arrested on charges of possessing a gun while on probation. When determining whether or not Mims should be released before his trial, the courts factored his results in the algorithm  which said Mims was a medium public safety and flight risk. Judge Sharon Reardon decided to release Mims provided he checked in regularly with the city's pretrial diversion unit.

(In San Francisco, the defendant's results in the algorithm are used as a tool to help the judge make a final decision on whether or not to release him or her.)

Five days later, Mims and 20-year-old Fantasy Decuir allegedly shot French. They were caught in connection with another crime, in which Mims and Decuir reportedly robbed a pair of victims near St. Mary's Cathedral at gunpoint. According to San Francisco prosecutors, it was Decuir who was the shooter in French's murder.





"This guy had been given one chance and put on probation, and then another chance and put on probation, and now he's caught in possession of a firearm? Why would he even be considered for release?" asked Bill Fazio, a former prosecutor and candidate for District Attorney.

The algorithm is currently in use in San Francisco, New Jersey, and New Mexico. It was created by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to mathematically predict which defendants might re-offend once released. Basically the algorithm aims to be more fair than the current bail system, which requires the accused to have access to a lot of money. The foundation won't reveal exactly how they came up with the algorithm, but it apparently involved studying 1.5 million criminal cases and how those suspects behaved upon release.

It's important to note that John Arnold, one of the founders of the foundation, was a hedge fund manager. Eric Siddall, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, told the Chron that hedge fund math shouldn't be used in criminal cases. "We're trying to use a method that hedge funds use to make money to make a determination of whether someone should be in custody or not," said Biddall. "The problem is if a hedge fund makes a mistake, they lose money. If we make a mistake, someone dies."

A lawsuit has been filed in New Jersey over a case similar to that of Mims and French. A suspect released based on his algorithm results allegedly killed an innocent victim.

"Our country's pretrial justice system relies on judges to determine who stays in jail pending trial and who is released. There is no perfect, foolproof way to make this determination. But we believe that as a society we can adopt practices that provide better information for judges to make more informed decisions  decisions that are likely to reduce the risk to our communities," said foundation spokesperson David Herbert in a statement reported by the Chronicle.

San Francisco officials don't think major changes should be made to the court's use of the algorithm over one tragic case. "If we are trying to enhance public safety and want to do so in an equitable way, then custody decisions based on risk are going to be better than those based on financial means," San Francisco District Attorney spokesperson Alex Bastian said. "However, it is vital that risk is calculated as accurately as possible. That is why the system needs to constantly push itself to do the best it can in taking on the difficult task of predicting human behavior."

Public Defender Jeff Adachi agreed, saying "I've been around a long time and there are cases where people had been released and something happened that nobody anticipated. While it's certainly tragic, we shouldn't make any assumptions here."

Edward French was a longtime photographer and film location scout. He was reportedly being robbed of his camera when he was shot on July 16.

Related: Prosecutors Say SF Woman Pulled Trigger In Twin Peaks Slaying
Frank Micelotta/FOXIt was a big night Sunday for Fifth Harmony at the 2017 Teen Choice awards. The group took home surfboards in the categories of Choice Music Group and Choice Summer Group. Their latest single, "Down" with Gucci Mane, was awarded Choice Song: Group; and their fans, the Harmonizers, were honored as choice fandom.

Speaking to the crowd at the University of Southern California's Galen Center, group member Lauren Jauregui evoked the violent clashes with white supremacists in Charlottesville, North Carolina that left three dead over the weekend. "In light of recent events we just wanted to say to all of the young ones at home watching: no matter who you are, where you come from or what you look like, you are beautiful and you are important, so keep spreading love and positivity, all right?" she said.

Bruno Mars received the Visionary Award. Bruno, who is on tour, sent a video acceptance message, but used the occasion to announce the release of a new video for his song "Versace on the Floor," featuring Zendaya. The video was immediately made available on Bruno's YouTube channel.

Members of Maroon 5 were on hand to accept the Decade Award. Adam Levine joked about receiving a Teen Choice Award despite being 38, though he noted that he and guitarist James Valentine looked pretty good for 38. He also teased the crowd announcing, "Our sixth and final album is coming out in November," adding, "I'm just kidding, just kidding. Man, I'm joking. We are never gonna go away."

Non-musical award winner, Zendaya, also got political during her acceptance speech for Choice Summer Movie Actress for her performance in Spider-Man: Homecoming. " With all the injustice and the hatred and everything that's happening not only in the world, but in our country, right now I need for you young people to be educated, I need you to listen, I need you to pay attention," Zendaya said. "You're the future presidents. The future senators. And you guys are the ones who are going to make this world better, so I'm just letting you know, right now, that you are the future, OK?"

Louis Tomlinson delivered the evening's final performance, delivering a smooth rendition of his single "Back to You" with Bebe Rexha.

Here are the Teen Choice 2017 winners in the music categories:

Choice Male Artist (#ChoiceMaleArtist)

Harry Styles



Choice Female Artist (#ChoiceFemaleArtist)

Ariana Grande



Choice Music Group (#ChoiceMusicGroup)

Fifth Harmony



Choice Country Artist (#ChoiceCountryArtist)

Carrie Underwood



Choice Electronic/Dance Artist (#ChoiceElectronicDanceArtist)

Calvin Harris



Choice Latin Artist (#ChoiceLatinArtist)

CNCO



Choice R&B/Hip-Hop Artist (#ChoiceRBHipHopArtist)

Beyonce



Choice Rock Artist (#ChoiceRockArtist)

Harry Styles



Choice Song: Female Artist (#ChoiceSongFemaleArtist)

Camila Cabello  Crying in the Club



Choice Song: Male Artist (#ChoiceSongMaleArtist)

Niall Horan  Slow Hands



Choice Song: Group (#ChoiceSongGroup)

Fifth Harmony (feat. Gucci Mane)  Down



Choice Collaboration (#ChoiceCollaboration)

Steve Aoki & Louis Tomlinson  Just Hold On



Choice Summer Song (#ChoiceSummerSong)

Despacito  Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee (feat. Justin Bieber)



Choice Summer Female Artist (#ChoiceSummerFemaleArtist)

Camila Cabello



Choice Summer Male Artist (#ChoiceSummerMaleArtist)

Shawn Mendes



Choice Summer Group (#ChoiceSummerGroup)

Fifth Harmony



Choice Summer Tour (#ChoiceSummerTour)

Ariana Grande  Dangerous Woman Tour

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
You might recall New Orleans jazz musician Donald Harrison from his prominent role in Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke, or from his role in David Simon's HBO series Treme. But now one area resident has even more of a connection with Harrison, as they are in possession of his custom-made saxophone after the musician left it in a San Francisco taxi cab.

So reports KTVU, saying that Harrison "was performing at the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco Saturday night when he left his instrument in a taxi."

Harrison, who according to his website " created 'Nouveau Swing,' a style off jazz that merges it with modern dance music like R&B, Hip-Hop, Soul and Rock," says that the instrument "was one of the only things he saved when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans," KTVU reports.

Harrison was "an actual evacuee/survivor of Hurricane Katrina," his website says. Speaking with KTVU, he says that in the disaster, "The only thing I took with me was my computer and my saxophone."

Posting to Facebook, Harrison wrote on Saturday that "I just left my saxophone in a flywheel taxi in San Francisco. I was riding with an African driver and payed with cash so they can't track him down."

"I know it is a shot in the dark but if anyone has any ideas let me know. I usually ride with uber but my phone was dead so I could not get a uber," he wrote.

In another post, Harrison says "The brand of my sax that is missing in San francisco is International Woodwind and is made in Los Angeles by a manufacturer named Laksar. There are not many of them around so if you see an International Woodwind alto sax it is probably mine."

"The case has a couple of New Orleans Saints season ticket holders stickers and a Playboy Jazz Festival sticker on it with a TUMI leather sholder strap. It has a vandoren 45 alto sax mouthpiece and a vandoren neck strap that takes the pressure off the spine inside."

KTVU reports that the sax "was made especially for him by International Woodwind Company. He says it is the horn he can express himself the best on." Nicknamed "Lady M." by Harrison, the gold alto horn has its model number, IW 601 ADL engraved on its body. It was inside a case "in the shape of a sax," KTVU says.

Harrison says that he expects to be back in the Bay Area on August 30, when he has a performance scheduled at Yoshi's in Oakland.

"I hope a miracle occurs," Harrison says, "and I will be united with my saxophone in time to play Yoshi's."

If you have any information on the missing instrument, you can contact Harrison via his Facebook page or by a slew of other methods via his contact page.
Benevolent and wealthy musical sensation Lady Gaga apparently handed out money to homeless people after performing to a sold-out crowd at AT&T Park on Sunday night.

According to Twitter user @dinogaga16 - in a tweet that has since been deleted!  Gaga herself handed cash to several homeless folks, presumably around AT&T Park after the show.

ABC 7 reports that the original tweet contained a video of Gaga passing out money and proclaimed, "@ladygaga Giving money to the homeless in San Fransisco Tonight. Her heart is so big! I love you!  #JoanneWorldTour #ladygaga - xoxo, Danny." It's unclear what street she's on, but it appears to be somewhere in SoMa where some people were in sleeping bags or blankets along the sidewalk.

Don't worry. There are more tweets of this, although they might be using "Danny's" video.

Lady Gaga gave money to a homeless person after the #JoanneWorldTour in San Francisco! She is an angel  pic.twitter.com/hvNPokf97O  Dominik | Lady Gaga (@austriamonster) August 14, 2017

But wait. There is more Gaga giving.

Meanwhile, KRON 4 has the news that Lady Gaga's mom, Cynthia Germanotta joined forces with United Way San Francisco and Gaga's Born This Way Foundation to pack and distribute over 400 backpacks to local elementary, high school, and college students. Handwritten notes and hygiene kits were included in the packs.

This follows on a story last week in which Staples teamed with Gaga's foundation to give over $100,000 to Bay Area schools.

Related: Lady Gaga's Foundation Gave Over $100K To SF Charities
Top Dog, a Berkeley-based hot dog chain whose owner has always promoted Libertarian views, has fired an employee who was identified on social media as one of the attendees of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville over the weekend. As Berkeleyside reports, Cole White was immediately fired from the restaurant where he worked, and in response to a flood of phone calls and Yelp postings, the ownership posted a sign on the door of their Durant Avenue location saying "Effective Saturday, August 12, Cole White no longer works at top dog. The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by top dog. We believe in individual freedom and voluntary association for everyone."



Update: Amid threats from the alt-right and potential legal issues, Top Dog has clarified that

On Saturday, the Twitter account @YesYoureRacist went about doxxing (exposing) a number of young men who were pictured in attendance at the white nationalist torch-lit rally Friday night in Charlottesville. The account appears to have successfully identified at least ten men, starting with White, though some of them have tried to deny that they are the ones pictured at the rally.

The Chronicle confirmed that White was a cook at Top Dog, but could not confirm with White whether he was actually in Charlottesville, though the firing would appear to be a tacit confirmation of that fact.

White had previously appeared on a poster of Bay Area alt-right activists who were part of a demonstration in Oakland in May, outside a court arraignment of an antifa protester who was charged with assault. (The Chronicle says he was also identified as having attended a hearing for Nathan Damigo, a white nationalist who was seen punching a female counter-protester at an April riot in Berkeley in a video that went nationally viral.)

UC Berkeley student Ansel Deng tells ABC 7, "I feel that it's good that Top Dog is taking a stand against this kind of stuff."

Top Dog, which has three locations in Berkeley and Oakland, was founded in 1966 by Richard Reimann, who is now 83, and who has always promoted libertarian thought via posters in the restaurant and on the company's website. (He and the restaurant were profiled by SF Weekly back in 1996.) Posters under the auspices of the "Ludwig von Mises Institute" have responded to the incidents in Charlottesville on the "Propergander" section of the restaurant's website, including a lengthy essay this morning on "World War I and the Triumph of Illiberal Ideology" that contains the phrase, "Aggressive nationalism is the necessary derivative of the policies of interventionism and national planning." There is also a direct response to the Charlottesville violence that calls it "as predictable as it was futile." The essay goes on to condemn the politicization of the events by Democrats and Republicans saying, "Theirs is a turf battle, nothing more. In a winner takes all political world, elections are weapons. Unless and until we learn to reject politics as the overarching method for organizing society, hatred and fear of 'the other' will remain pervasive."

Related: Protest In Oakland Over Charlottesville Shuts Down 580
Informed a news that a Chinese national would carry a big sum of money into Vietnam, police in Lang Son Province stopped a car in the checking-point Doc Quyt and discovered twenty-six man, Ly Gia Ky, a resident of Guangdong, China who was transporting $930,000 in his backpack into Vietnam illegally.



The Chinese man said that he travelled through Van Lang District in Lang Son and then he planned to hire a car to go to the northern province of Quang Ninh.

All money was verified to be authentic.

At present, police continues the probe of the case.





By MINH KHANG  Translated by UYEN PHUONG
 Expand Thinkstock

It sounds insane but it is true: almost 10 percent of Wisconsin's registered voters cannot exercise their right to vote, for lack of a valid ID. For those 10 percent of disenfranchised citizens, it is necessary to start getting ready to vote as soon as possible. With Wisconsin's Spring Primary quickly coming up on February 20, 2018, the next opportunity to cast a ballot is not too far off.

Official photo identification is required to vote in Wisconsin since the passing of a strict photo ID law by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Legislature in 2011. Although U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman struck down the law in 2014, because 300,000 registered voters in Wisconsin lacked proper identification needed for voting, it was reinstated in 2015.

"It is likely that a substantial number of the 300,000 plus voters who lack a qualifying ID will be deterred from voting," Adelman wrote to justify the decision to strike down the law. This was a prophecy that proved itself true during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump's victory (by less than 30,000 votes) could have been overturned, had the strict ID law not been in effect.

How to Vote in Wisconsin

Any registered voter can use a Wisconsin driver license, state-issued ID card, passport, veterans or military ID card, tribal ID card or certificate of naturalization to vote. Any registered voter can obtain a free state-ID card by bringing a certified birth certificate, a Social Security card and a utility bill or cell phone bill to a DMV office.

Student IDs are a bit trickier: "The standard student ID at only three of the University of Wisconsin's 13 four-year schools and at seven of the state's 23 private colleges can be used as a voter photo ID," the nonprofit Common Cause in Wisconsin writes in an article urging Wisconsin students to register to vote. In the same article, they give students access to resources to check if their school ID is an acceptable form of ID for voting.

University of Wisconsin 4-Year Schools

University of Wisconsin 2-Year Schools

Wisconsin Private Universities & Colleges

Wisconsin Technical Colleges

Once you got your hands on an officially recognized ID, make sure you are registered to vote at the right place, through MyVote.wi.gov or by bringing a proof of residence document on Election Day.

Finally, uphold our democracy by showing up on Election Day and casting a ballotand do not forget your photo ID!

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

For more information about Wisconsin's Voter Photo ID law, visit www.bringitwisconsin.com or www.commoncausewisconsin.org.
 Expand A Milwaukee horse-drawn streetcar in 1872

As work progresses on the new Milwaukee streetcar, it is worth remembering that Milwaukees very first streetcar began shuttling people around the city some 157 years ago. The very first lines were drawn by horses and, given the various reminiscences about the citys horsecars printed in the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel in the years since, few city dwellers were sad to see the old horses put out to pasture.

The common council granted the first streetcar franchise in 1859. For those without a horse or carriage in these days, the only option beyond walking was to a hail a horse-drawn taxi  known then as hacks. The franchise was given to the River and Lake Shore Railway Company and was seen as a major step forward for the growing city. Over the next year, the small grid of lines were drawn up and constructed, with the R & LS having exclusive rights to the area east of the river. The very first run was made on May 30, 1860, as two 16-passenger cars were pulled from what it is now the Water Street Bridge to Juneau Avenue. Crowds stood along the line and cheered as the cars, filled with city officials, passed by.

The streetcar business proved to be a good one. In 1865, another franchise was granted, for lines running west of the river. The Milwaukee City Railway Company won the rights, an enterprise backed by such local business titans as John Plankinton, Frederick Layton, and Samuel Marshall and Charles Ilsley. A third franchise was granted by the city in 1880s, with each controlling their own part of the city.

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These exclusive franchises made for a system that was ripe for mismanagement and graft and that often left city travelers wondering if theyd be better off walking. Fare for the streetcar was capped at a nickel but, with the three companies running in three distinct parts of the city, it did not include a transfer. Any cross-town trip usually had riders jumping from one companys car to anothers, and trying to match up competing schedules that were hardly reliable. A journey from one end of the city to the other  four to five miles as the crow flies  could often end up taking two to three hours. In the wintertime, with the horses struggling through snow and ice, it could take even longer.

During this era, there were likely no harder working animals in the city than the horses (and the occasional red mules) that powered the streetcar system. By the early 1880s, the city had 38 miles of streetcar track (in actuality, wooden beams covered with metal sheeting) and the three firms owned over 600 horses. A single horse could only work about three hours before needing a rest, so a line needed 10 horses or more to keep it functional in a given day.

The conditions of the city streets and the rustic tracks, as well as the nature and temperament of the over-worked horses made for a very bumpy ride. There was little in the way of shock absorption and the cars closely situated front and rear axles caused an on-going sway throughout the trip. This odd set-up also drew the attention of troublemaking boys who learned that leaping onto the rear bumper of a stopped car would cause the front end to jump the track. It took several stout men to reset the car in such situations, one of who was usually tasked with chasing after the guilty children.

In 1890, the citys first electric streetcar line went active and the days of the horsecar were numbered. A few stray horse lines lingered on until 1894 when the grid finally went all-electric. The electric line was retired in 1958.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Monday weighed in on the controversial weekend events in Charlottesville, Virginia, which involved race-fueled violence that followed protests by white nationalists who didn't want a Confederate statue from the Civil War era taken down.

King said he agreed with a column in which former congressman Allen West said important pieces of American history should remain as learning lessons and that the political left was using the incident as a way to boost their progressive agenda.

Less than a year ago, King had a Confederate flag on his congressional desk.

On Monday, President Donald Trump held a press conference to further air his views on what happened in Charlottesville, after some criticized the president's original remarks on Saturday that there had been violence on "many sides." In those remarks, Trump did not single out white supremacists or any other hate group, even as Republican lawmakers and others in his White House did condemn them by name.

Trump on Monday condemned the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as "criminals and thugs."

"Unite the Right" was the name given to the Virginia rally that ended in bloodshed, when a car plowed into a crowd of demonstrators, killing a 32-year-old woman. King ended a long break of inactivity (17 days) on his official Twitter account Monday, to give his apparent first public comments about Charlottesville.

King tweeted, "I agree w\Lt. Col. Allen West's Charlottesville article. American history is to be learned & understood not erased."

King then shared a column by Allen West from Sunday, titled, "Ok folks, heres what REALLY happened in Charlottesville  and what everyone is missing."

Here are some points made by West:

-- "What I have witnessed post the events of Saturday 12 August is the typical Rahm Emanuel mentality and political posturing: 'never let a good crisis go to waste.'"

-- "I fully support seeking the death penalty for 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio who committed this horrific act of violence. But, how did we get to this place? This all began because someone decided, as other elected officials have across the country, to cave in to partisan political pressures and seek to erase American history."

-- "The statues of long since deceased leaders of the Confederate Army do not stand to remind anyone of oppression. And if a statue can oppress you, then I submit that you have greater issues."

-- West noted the group had a legal permit to protest, writing, "What should have happened is that these two groups should have been kept miles apart. I do not understand why any local law enforcement agency would allow these two groups close proximityfirst lesson learned. And we must also ascertain, did the counter-protest group seek permit or did they just 'show up' in order to provoke, and elicit a response they could use 'politically?'"

--"I find it rather odd that so many are seeking to lay blame on President Trump for what happened in Charlottesville. And there are some voices out there who want to blame all white people, and all Republicans. How odd that when it was the New Black Panther Party outside a voting precinct in Philadelphia in black fatigues and with clubs, nothing was said."

-- "And when it was the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore fueled by media false narratives and a presidential administrations rhetoric, there was no blame laid on Barack Obama."

King represents the Iowa 4th Congressional District. In a Journal interview in March, King said he removed a Confederate flag from the desk in his Capitol Hill office in the aftermath of the fall 2016 shooting deaths of two Des Moines area police officers by a man with ties to the controversial banner.

King pointed out he voluntarily removed the flag "not because anyone demanded or requested that it come down."

In a July 9, 2015, speech on the House floor, King argued the flag, a symbol of heroism and pride for many Southerners, shouldn't be pulled down.
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LE MARS, Iowa | The Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce Main Street Program and the City of Le Mars Historic Preservation Commission will be giving tours of second-floor spaces of several downtown businesses.

The tour -- which will include rehabilitation projects at Claussen's, The Browns Century Theater, and Illumination Photography as well as vacant spaces in the Royal Theater, American Legion Wasmer Post 241 and Central Event Center -- will begin at 5 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Le Mars City Council chambers at 40 Central Ave. S.E.

The tour is designed to explore the challenges and opportunities of developing upper floor spaces into living and work spaces. There will be a discussion of how to analyze a vacant area, what use options and design criteria should be considered and some things to avoid.

Tim Reynders, design specialist with the State of Iowa's Main Street program, will lead the discussion.

Participants in the tour will include property owners, real estate agents, bankers, investors and contractors.

Those wishing to attend should RSVP before Aug. 25 by calling the Chamber of Commerce office at 712-546-8821.
LE MARS, Iowa | The Plymouth County Sheriff's Office will be hosting statewide training for the Iowa State Sheriffs' and Deputies' Association (ISSDA) honor guard this week.

The ISSDA honor guard is made up of deputies from across the state. They provide honors for the opening of all ISDDA formal events, like the Iowa Peace Officers memorial, Iowa Law Enforcement graduations and the Iowa State Fair parade.

In addition, the ISSDA honor guard provides funeral honors for retired deputies and sheriffs in Iowa. They also represent the state during high-profile line of duty deaths across the United States.
MARCUS, Iowa | When Mavis Diment died on July 18, 2015, the longtime Marcus resident was remembered as a woman who had an infectious smile, a whimsical sense of humor and a love of animals that extended far beyond her three cats, Callie, Dusty and Sunny.

More than two years after cancer claimed her life at age 68, she is also now being remembered as a humanitarian.

In her will, Diment bequeathed more than $340,000 to two local nonprofit groups.

She left Floyd Valley Healthcare, in Le Mars, Iowa, more than $200,000 for upgrades in the hospital's emergency department.

"We had $500,000 budgeted for the project," Hospital Administrator Michael Donlin said. "Mavis' unexpected gift couldn't have come at a more fortuitous time. We were able to complete the renovations on time and on budget."

Diment also bequeathed more than $140,000 to the Siouxland Humane Society as part of the animal shelter's general operating fund.

"It's not unusual for the Humane Society to receive such gifts," executive director Jerry Dominicak said. "Still, it is very much appreciated."

Such random acts of generosity were common for Diment, according to Connie Hindman Johnson, Diment's cousin and one of the executors of her estate.

"Mavis lived modestly, but she was generous when it came to others," Hindman Johnson said.

This sense of charity came to Diment from her parents. Robert and Avis Diment taught their only child how important community was.

It was Diment's wonderful sense of humor that Hindman Johnson remembered most of all.

"She was witty," Hindman Johnson said. "Plus she had a good head on her shoulders."

Diment was born in Cherokee but spent part of her childhood in Sioux City, recalled Hindman Johnson, a former Sioux Cityan who is now living in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

"Even though I was three years younger than Mavis, we were always together."

The cousins remained close even after Diment's family moved to an acreage in Anthon, Iowa.

"Mavis loved farm life," Hindman Johnson said. "In the city, she had cats. In the country, she got to have ducks, geese, pigs, you name it."

Animals became an increasingly important aspect of Diment's life, especially after her parents died, less than a year apart, in the early 1970s.

"For Mavis, family meant everything," Hindman Johnson said. "Her family consisted mainly of her mom and dad. When they passed, she had no more immediate relatives."

However, Diment had at least a couple of generations of kids she considered close to being family.

"Mavis taught English and speech (for the Marcus-Meridan-Cleghorn School District)," Hindman Johnson said. "If you had freshman English, you had Mavis as your teacher."

After earning a master's degree in library science degree from Emporia State University, in Emporia, Kan., in 1991, Diment became a school librarian.

"That was Mavis' dream job," Hindman Johnson said. "She loved reading and she loved talking about books."

Indeed, Diment's home had shelves and shelves of her cherished books.

"Mavis had bookshelves devoted to all of her history books and all of her books of fiction," Hindman Johnson said.

Next to her kitchen, Diment kept all of her cookbooks.

"Mavis loved to cook and people loved her food," Hindman Johnson said, remembering that baked goods and French onion soup were among her cousin's specialties.

When Diment was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, it wasn't her first bout with the disease.

"Mavis battled cancer back in the 1980s and it made her more appreciative of life," Hindman Johnson said. "Mavis regarded each day to be a gift and was proud to have beat cancer for a second time."

Sadly, the cancer returned in 2014.

"I used to kid Mavis because she was always stopped in the street by a banker who had been a former student of hers or by an insurance agent who was a former student of hers," Hindman Johnson said. "I'd say, 'You've probably taught everybody in Marcus, haven't you?'"

Diment would just smile back.

"Mavis kept up a correspondence with her former students long after they graduated and long after she had retired," Hindman Johnson said. "Her students were like family to her."

So were the furry, four-legged animals that Diment kept company at home.

"Mavis had a weakness for older cats," Hindman Johnson said. "That's why supporting (organizations like) the Siouxland Humane Society became so important."

Throughout her illness, Diment also appreciated the care she received at Floyd Valley.

"Mavis loved that a few of our nurses had been her former students," Floyd Valley Foundation Manager Amy Harnack said. "No matter where she went, Mavis was always bumping into students of hers."

Hindman Johnson still loves reminiscing about her cousin.

"Mavis lived her life the way she wanted," Hindman Johnson said. "Mavis made a lot of friends along the way and she tried to make a difference in everything that she did."

The Siouxland Humane Society's Dominicak knows Diment's generosity will help his facilities immensely.

"There are a lot of nonprofits competing for the same dollar," he said. "I know we wouldn't be around if it wasn't for the generosity of people like Mavis."

Floyd Valley Healthcare's Donlin said the hospital's emergency department can easily see more than 7,000 patients over the course of a year.

"That's a big number for a rural hospital our size," he said.

Looking over the three new exam rooms and a more functional waiting room, Donlin said that Diment's gift -- as well as the gift of other individual benefactors -- will provide dividends for more years to come.

Which is music to Hindman Johnson's ears.

"I think we wish our lives will have impact after we're gone," she said. "Mavis got her wish."
SIOUX CITY | The Sioux City Police Department on Monday arrested a woman on a felony charge related to stabbing a man in the 1300 block of Pierce Street.

Police in a release cited the arrest of Brittany Lapora, 24, of Sioux City, on the charge of willful injury. Police said the stabbing occurred just after 3 p.m.

The release said William Bauerly, 75, of Sioux City, was sitting in a vehicle, and passenger Lapora stabbed him in the side. Lapora reportedly fled and was apprehended a short while later in close proximity to where the assault occurred. The incident occurred near a Kum & Go convenience store.

Bauerly was taken to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City, and police said his injuries are not expected to be life threatening.
Family Nature Night

Free Lunch to Deployed Troops

Texas Roadhouse, 5130 Sergeant Road, will provide a free lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for all Siouxland service members who have been or will be deployed this year. Family, friends and the community are also welcome to attend and Texas Roadhouse will donate 10% of their total bill to Support Siouxland Soldiers. Shirts and patriotic items will also be available with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Support Siouxland Soldiers. Call 712-274-7427 for more information.
SIOUX CITY  The dimly lit sanctuary of First Unitarian Church of Sioux City provided the perfect place for Siouxlanders to vent and help each other heal after the weekends deadly protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A group of white supremacists were in the Virginia college town to protest the planned removal of a statue dedicated to Confederate General Robert E. Lee when they began violently clashing with counter-protesters.

In all, three people died and dozens were injured, according to reports from The Associated Press.

In response to the violence in Virginia and the message behind it, the Siouxland Pride Alliance and Sioux City Area NOW organized Sundays vigil at the Unitarian Church.

More than 60 people filled the quaint sanctuary to capacity, including several known community activists, Unity in the Community founder Monique Scarlett and Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young and Captain Rex Mueller.

There also was a similar vigil on the campus of Morningside College that attracted dozens.

Karen Mackey, who planned Sundays vigil at the Unitarian Church, said she was on Facebook when another community activist asked her if anyone was going to do something locally. She knew that Siouxland Pride Alliance was having its monthly potluck at the church Sunday and thought the vigil was a timely follow-up.

A little more than a year ago, Siouxland Pride Alliance held a vigil at the church in response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting to date in the United States.

Anything like this is frightening, Mackey said of Charlottesville. When one person or one group is hurt, we are all hurt. In this country, we should all be working together to make life better for everyone, but the white supremacists dont want that to happen.

They dont want other people to band together and they want to break us into smaller groups hoping that well be weaker.

The Rev. Richard Moore, pastor of Evangelical Covenant Church in Sloan, Iowa, told the crowd he threw out his sermon for the first time in his 26-year career and preached from his heart Sunday.

Before he delivered his improvised sermon, he led his congregation in a rendition of This Little Light of Mine  an act he repeated at the Unitarian Church  and his message to both churches was that the time to be silent about hate and intolerance has passed.

I refuse to be silent, Moore said. I refuse to stand here and not tell my congregation that I am proud to be a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

I am not going to hold back when I stand and say that I love and I will support my brothers and sisters no matter what race, color, ethnicity, sexual orientation  Im not going to back down.

Moore said someone asked him if he was worried his views would cost him his job and he told the crowd he had greater concerns.

Big deal. Im not worried about that, he said. What Im worried about is our country.
(WB) A group of 16 transgender and gay migrants from Central America on Thursday sought asylum in the U.S.

The migrants  who are from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico  called themselves the first Trans Gay Migrant Caravan of 2017. They left Mexico City and walked and used buses and other forms of transportation to travel to Nogales, Mexico, which is on the Arizona-Mexico border.

The Nogales International, a newspaper that is based in Nogales, Ariz., reported the migrants arrived in Nogales, Mexico, on July 25.

A Facebook Live video the Transgender Law Center recorded shows the migrants carrying signs and chanting, What do we want? Freedom and other slogans as they marched along the border wall that separates the two cities.

A group of 16 transgender and gay migrants from Central America on Thursday sought asylum in the U.S.

The migrants  who are from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico  called themselves the first Trans Gay Migrant Caravan of 2017. They left Mexico City and walked and used buses and other forms of transportation to travel to Nogales, Mexico, which is on the Arizona-Mexico border.

The Nogales International, a newspaper that is based in Nogales, Ariz., reported the migrants arrived in Nogales, Mexico, on July 25.

A Facebook Live video the Transgender Law Center recorded shows the migrants carrying signs and chanting, What do we want? Freedom and other slogans as they marched along the border wall that separates the two cities.

What is happening in Central America is what happening globally: The lack of protections, the lack of understanding of who we are as trans people, as queer people, Isa Noyola of the Transgender Law Center told the Washington Blade on Friday during a telephone interview. That translates into violence and discrimination and stigmas that are harmful. We are left in these really vulnerable situations.

The Phoenix-based Puente Human Rights Movement, the National Immigrant Justice Center and Somos Un Pueblo Unido in Santa Fe, N.M., also provided support to the migrants.

Migrants entering into another phase of their journey

Violence associated with gangs and drug trafficking in Central America have prompted LGBT migrants to flee the region. A lack of access to education, employment and health care have made trans women particularly susceptible to discrimination and exploitation.

We have a forced migration, a trans activist in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula told the Blade in February during an interview at their office. They dont do it because they want to. They are doing it because the situation in which we are living in our country is very difficult.

Noyola told the Blade the migrants who entered the U.S. on Thursday requested asylum based on a well-founded fear of persecution on account of . . . membership in a particular social group under the Immigration and Nationality Act as Immigration Equality notes on its website.

She said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is currently processing the migrants. Noyola told the Blade she hopes they will soon have their credible fear interview and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will allow them to remain in the U.S. as their cases proceed.

Now they are entering into another phase of their journey, she said.

The migrants applied for asylum nine days after President Trump endorsed a bill that would, among other things, reduce the number of people who the U.S. will allow to legally immigrate to the U.S. each year.

Trump in January signed two executive orders spurring construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and paving the way for cuts in federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities that protect undocumented immigrants. Immigrant rights advocates and their supporters have sharply criticized both mandates.

 Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 11 August 2017 - SPHERES ZR Challenge Competition Support. NASA

Today  Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Zero Robotics (ZR): The crew provided support for a SPHERES ZR Challenge competition between students from middle schools in the United States and Russia.

As part of a competition, students write algorithms for the SPHERES satellites to accomplish tasks relevant to future space missions. The algorithms were tested by the SPHERES team and the best designs were selected for the competition today to operate the SPHERES satellites on board the ISS.

Space Headaches: The 51 Soyuz (51S) USOS crewmembers completed weekly questionnaires for the ESA Space Headaches investigation. The Space Headaches investigation collects information that may help in the development of methods to alleviate associated symptoms and improvement in the well-being and performance of crewmembers in space. Headaches during space flight can negatively affect mental and physical capacities of crewmembers that can influence performance during a space mission.

Rodent Research-5 (RR-5) Systemic Therapy of NELL-1 for Osteoporosis: The Crew performed a final inventory audit for RR-5 and stowed or trashed applicable RR-5 items.

Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Last evening, Robotics Ground Controllers powered up the MSS and walked the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) off Mobile Base System (MBS) Power Data Grapple Fixture 1 (PDGF1) and onto the Node2 PDGF. They then maneuvered the SSRMS into position and powered up the MSS in the Hot Backup Configuration in preparation for todays SpaceX-12 Offset Grapples Practice. Finally the ROBOs translated the Mobile Transporter (MT) from Worksite 3 (WS3) to WS4.

On-Board Training (OBT) Dragon Offset Grapple: In preparation for SpaceX-12 capture scheduled for August 16, the crew practiced Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) grapple approaches. They maneuvered the SSRMS over the pin and practiced pulling the trigger once they were in the grapple envelope. During the session the crew paid particular attention on how to best manage the volumetric constraints in the Cupola as well as how lighting conditions vary inside.

Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) P12B_B Status: Ground teams successfully reclosed Remote Power Controller (RPC) 10 of RPCM P12B_B and the RPC remains closed as of this writing. The RPC originally tripped on Wednesday and the trip signature indicates a Field Effect Transistor (FET) Hybrid failure. This RPC powers the S-Band transponder for String 2 and is an external RPCM that can be removed and Replaced (R&R) by the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM). Planning is underway to perform this R&R no earlier than August 18th.

Command and Control (C&C)-3 Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) Transition: The primary C&C-3 MDM unexpectedly transitioned to Diagnostics mode. C&C-1 successfully transitioned to Primary with C&C-2 as the Backup. C&C-3 has been power-cycled and restarted nominally with no health flags. During the transition to C&C-1, there was a 40 minute loss of Ku-band including Space to Ground 3 and 4 as well as real-time payload science data downlink.

Todays Planned Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

Video recording for KOROLYOV TV channel

INTERACTION-2. Experiment Ops

Test video recording for RT channel

Preparation of Reports for Roscosmos web site and social media

URAGAN. Observation and Photography

ECON-M. Observation and photography

CMS Max CEVIS with PPFS Power Up

Combustion Integrated Rack Alignment Guide Install

MOBIPV SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Max Cycle Ergometer w/Vibration Isolation & Stabilization (CEVIS) Portable PFS Subject

Water Recovery System Waste Water Tank Drain Init

Handover of Increment 52 Crew

Study of cardiovascular system under graded physical CYCLE load

Assist in study of cardiovascular system under graded physical CYCLE load

Water Recovery System Waste Water Tank Drain Termination

On-board Training (OBT) Dragon Offset Grapple

Preparation for pressurized Orlan suits transfer from DC1 to ??? Training

PIM Locker Insert Remove

Transfer of two Pressurized Orlan Suits to ???. Evaluation of working with a cone cover in ???.

UPA Brine Filter Gather

UPA Brine Filter Changeout

Long Duration Sorbent Testbed Status Check.

On-board Training (OBT) Dragon Offset Grapple

Configuring ??? to initial state after pressurized Orlan suits transfer training

Onboard Training (OBT) SSRMS Debrief Conference

Specific EVA Procedures Study

Max Cycle Ergometer w/Vibration Isolation & Stabilization (CEVIS) Portable PFS Partial Stow

Double Coldbag Cleanup and Prep

SPHERES Zero Robotics Setup and Checkout

MOBIPV SETUP [Deferred]

MOBIPV CHECKOUT [Deferred]

Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Downlink

Rodent Research Inventory Audit

SPHERES Zero Robotics Run

Installation of USOS EMU Lights, Video Camera, and REBA on Orlan #4 and #6.

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill

MOBIPV TEAR DOWN AND STOWAGE [Deferred]

Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) or ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT)

HRM Transmitter Battery Replacement

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill

Light and video camera ORLAN suits verifying

ISS Crew Orientation

Dose Tracker Data Entry Subject

Space Headaches  Weekly Questionnaire

SPHERES Zero Robotics Shutdown

EXPRESS Rack 6 Locker Removal

Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Deactivation

Space Headaches  Weekly Questionnaire

Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA) Fill

Completed Task List Items

Miniature Exercise Device Exercise Evaluation

Mouse Habitat Unit Cage Removal

WHC KTO Replacement

Lab MCA Mass Spectrometer R&R  Part A

Ground Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

Dragon Grapple OBT

Spheres ZR Run

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Saturday, 08/12: Crew off duty, housekeeping

Sunday, 08/13: Crew off duty

Monday, 08/14: Sprint Ultrasound 2, Mouse Habitat, Dragon OBT, ExpressRack Relocation

QUICK ISS Status  Environmental Control Group:

Component  Status

Elektron  On

Vozdukh  Manual

[???] 1  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV1)  Off

[???] 2  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV2)  Off

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab  Operate

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3  Operate

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab  Idle

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3  Operate

Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA)  Process

Urine Processing Assembly (UPA)  Process

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab  Full up

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3  Off
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Rock N Roll Legacy earned his third straight victory and a new lifetime mark with a late charge in the $11,000 Preferred 2 Pace featured on Sunday's (August 13) harness racing card at Georgian Downs.

Race favourite Company Man (Travis Cullen) led the field through solid opening fractions of :26, :54.4 and 1:23.3 before throwing in the towel when Sabine Pass (Paul Davies) confronted him. But Sabine Pass also faded as No Bu (Scott Young) charged three-wide to take over at the top of the stretch. After following in fifth for most of the mile, Rock N Roll Legacy kicked into action and sprinted home in :27.3 to go by with Colin Kelly catch-driving. The Rocknroll Hanover-Shanias Legacy gelding won by three lengths in 1:51.4. No Bu stayed for second and Rise Up Now (Alfie Carroll) came on for third.

Rock N Roll Legacy paid $10.50 to win as the 4-1 third choice on the toteboard. Owned by Michael Beaver of Waterloo, Ont., he has won four of his last six starts since joining the Duane Marfisi stable in June.

Lifetime, the six-year-old pacer has won 16 races and $121,201 in purses.

A trio of $7,500 Preferred 3s were won by Hutt Racing Stable's pacing mare Amazing Control in 1:54.3 for driver Anthony Haughan and trainer Meg Crone, Anatolia Farm's pacing gelding Mr Censi in 1:52.1 over stablemate Bugatti for trainer Richard Moreau with Phil Hudon in the sulky; and the Victor Puddy-trained trotter Star Photo in 1:56 in rein to Alfie Carroll for owners Keith Cassell and Limco Inc.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Georgian Downs.
Although it may come off as being a tad hyperbolic, dreams are realized on the racetrack  especially on the course at Mohawk Racetrack, where the best in harness racing come to play. Although, on a special Wednesday earlier this month, dreams of another nature were realized at the famed Campbellville, Ontario oval.



An image from the RCMP Musical Ride stop at Mohawk Racetrack in early August 2017 (Nikki Wesley / Metroland)

On two dates in early August, Mohawk Racetrack played host to the RCMP Musical Ride, whose 32 equine and riders put on dazzling displays for robust crowds at the picturesque raceway.

As part of the festivities on Wednesday, August 2, thirty-one new Canadians took part in a citizenship ceremony. They were sworn in by presiding official Howard Dyck and were soon greeted by RCMP Constable Terry Russel. The group eventually made its way onto the track and received a salute from the Musical Ride.



An image from the RCMP Musical Ride stop at Mohawk Racetrack in early August 2017 (Nikki Wesley / Metroland)

As an article by insidehalton.com explains, Constable Russel encouraged the 31 new Canadians to adopt the traits that Canadians closely identify with  kindness, generosity and love, to name just a few.

If we all did these ordinary things, we will be reinforcing the traits and characteristics that Canadians are known for  decency, kindness, inclusiveness, Constable Russel said.



An image from the RCMP Musical Ride stop at Mohawk Racetrack in early August 2017 (Nikki Wesley / Metroland)

The new Canadians, who come from more than a half-dozen countries, held Canadian flags while they took the oath of citizenship and sang the Canadian national anthem for the first time as citizens.

Milton MP Lisa Raitt praised the group, saying, Were so grateful you decided to choose Canada as your place, as your home. Mayor Gord Krantz, a longtime supporter of Mohawk Racetrack, also encouraged the new citizens to consider running for office.

Raitt continued, saying that new citizens come to Canada because it, is a place where people from every background have bonded together and weve created an incredibly diverse, harmonious and very successful place to live. We are known around the world for our generosity and our kindness, and you carry that label going forward.



An image from the RCMP Musical Ride stop at Mohawk Racetrack in early August 2017 (Nikki Wesley / Metroland)

For Dayani Karunaratne, one of the new Canadians that grew up in war-torn Sri Lanka, the day was a dream come true.

We wanted our children to come to the best country where there would be peace, she said, emotionally. Were very happy we made that decision. I really appreciate that we (Canadians) actually celebrate our differences, rather than look at differences as a way of dividing each other.

(With files from insidehalton.com)
Evangelist Alveda King: Racism Must Die So That America Can Thrive

Contact: Leslie Palma, 347-286-7277

ATLANTA, Aug. 14, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Evangelist Alveda King (photo) releases the following and is available for comment:

We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters], or perish together as fools. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

We should be grateful that POTUS is calling for a cease fire on the violence. My King Family Legacy foundations have taught me that nonviolent conflict reconciliation is the key to ending these race wars.

"Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13

As one of God's microphones, I'm often required to say what people don't want to hear. Abortion is racism , in that abortion takes away the civil rights and lives of our weakest and most vulnerable members of the human race, unborn babies.

Here's an encapsulation of The King Family Legacy's approach to nonviolent conflict resolution which is introduced here briefly:





SIX STEPS AND PRINCIPLES FOR NONVIOLENT SOCIAL CHANGE - A sequential journey to victory

Principle 1: Nonviolence is not passive, but requires courage.





Principle 2: Nonviolence seeks reconciliation, not defeat of an adversary.





Principle 3: Nonviolent action is directed at eliminating evil, not destroying an evildoer.





Principle 4: A willingness to accept suffering for the cause, if necessary, but never to inflict it.





Principle 5: A rejection of hatred, animosity or violence of the spirit, as well as refusal to commit physical violence.





Principle 6: Faith that justice will prevail.

Six Steps of nonviolent conflict resolution:

(1.) Prayerfully gather facts.

(2.) Prayerfully educate adversaries and the public about the facts of the dispute.

(3.) Prayerfully commit yourself to live and manifest a nonviolent attitude and actions.

(4.) Prayerfully mediate and negotiate with adversaries in a spirit of goodwill to correct injustice.

(5.) Prayerfully apply nonviolent direct action, such as prayer vigils, marches, boycotts, mass demonstrations, picketing, sit-ins etc., to help persuade or compel adversary to work toward dispute-resolution.

(6.) Prayerfully anticipate reconciliation among adversaries in a win-win outcome in establishing a sense of community which should now be achievable.
Organization Representing Thousands of Churches Responds to Charlottesville

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Presiding Prelate of the Church of God in Christ, Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr., releases the following:

On the Violence in Charlottesville, Virginia

A Statement from Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr.

Presiding Prelate of the Church of God in Christ

The violence, hatred and white supremacy on display in Charlottesville, Virginia, must be condemned by all people of faith and goodwill. The injuries and death suffered by those supporting an end to the commemoration of the Confederacy are deeply saddening. We also regret any harm to their opponents. Our hearts go out to all who were hurt and we call for an end to the violence.

What transpired in Charlottesville, with a vehicle charging a group of protesters, leaving one dead and nineteen injured, is an act of domestic terrorism. On this point, one must be perfectly clear. Had the driver been identified as an Arab or a Muslim, is there any question that such an act of violence would have been identified as a case of terrorism? Just as white supremacist Dylan Roofs assault on Mother Emmanuel AME Church was an act of domestic terrorism so too is the incident in Charlottesville. The political goal in both instances was the intimidation of black people and the violent denial of their rights as citizens. But it is essential to note that the black community must oppose terrorism in all its forms, even when it is self-inflicted.

This brings to mind the Reverend Martin Luther King Jrs challenge to the nation during a period of even more intense racial unrest. Dr. King argued that we as a society must learn to disagree without being disagreeable. In the Spirit of Jesus and of Dr. King I call upon my Protestant and Roman Catholic brothers and sisters to come together to exemplify Kings vision of the Beloved Community as a moral witness to the world. There is a particular need for black men to rise to this challenge. We in the church must provide moral leadership to show how we vigorously pursue justice while maintaining a compassionate tone in discourse with those with whom we disagree.
A blog published by Susan Eisen that has columns on all the latest jewelry fashions, news, and store information.
PRESIDENT of the Labour Tribunal, Arthur Forbes has been slapped with three charges of rape and placed on $10,000 bail.





The 61-year-old was taken to court recently (date undisclosed) and was not allowed to enter a plea to the charges.





He is set to appear in the Supreme Court sometime next month for a sufficiency hearing, which will determine whether the case against him has enough evidence to go to trial.





Detectives attached to the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Unit of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force have been conducting investigations in to the allegations made against Forbes, since they received the report on March 16 this year.




By Delana Isles

THE TOURISM ministry has announced that the way is being cleared for imminent construction of the Ritz Carlton branded hotel.





The announcement comes when the Government has yet to make an official statement on the dismissal of further appeals of a judicial review against the construction of the hotel and other developments that are seeking to construct 12 storey resorts in the Turks and Caicos Islands.





"The sustained commitment of the Ritz Carlton to become a stakeholder of Brand TCI demonstrates unwavering confidence in the destinations appeal to their luxury cliental, and the way is being cleared for imminent construction, a tourism ministry communique stated this past week.





The ministry also announced that many other global brands including Six Senses, have formally expressed interest or have submitted proposals to the Turks and Caicos Islands Government for consideration.





Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas operates 11 resorts and 31 spas in 20 countries under the brand names Six Senses, Evason and Six Senses Spas.





Listed on its website, it states that Six Senses resorts are set in locations of incredible natural beauty with an uncompromising level of service.





Each property has a distinctive personality, but shares a commitment to community, sustainability, wellness and design, the website says.





This award-winning approach extends to new openings, including the urban concept premiering in New York in 2019.





"On completion of successful negotiations and introduction of these global players to our destination, the Turks and Caicos Islands will become an even more admired regional and international player in the tourism sector, minister of tourism, Ralph Higgs stated.





He noted that these recent expressions of interest are cause for much optimism for the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Ministry of Tourism and the Government as a whole is working tirelessly to bring these proposals to fruition.





He added: "We are confident that the goodwill we have built with our many stakeholders and visitors in providing a safe and welcoming environment, as well as exceptional experiences, will assure our continued popularity and success.





He further listed the famous 12-mile Grace Bay beach still being a huge draw for tourists and developers alike.





The minister further assured that the TCI tourism industry and the spirit of its people remains resilient and strong despite recent challenges.




By Daisy Handfield

FORMER Minister of Education Akierra Missick said she is worried that Government school works will not be completed in time for the new academic year.





She expressed these sentiments during a television interview with a local news station late last week.





"The tenders closed for upgrading works at various schools. We know that they take some time and it does not seem like the schools will be ready for September, she said.





The Government has invested $1million upgrading various schools throughout the Turks and Caicos Islands, which was approved by the PNP administration.





Long Bay High School, which was built in phases as an extension of the Clement Howell High School, has still not been completed and is on its third phase.





Missick said that she was really concerned about students at Clement Howell High School and Long Bay High School, especially since the new academic school year is quickly approaching.





"What are we going to do with those students who would have had to use those classrooms now that they are no longer available and what is to happen with the students who are going into third form at the Long Bay High School.





"Where are they going? Because again, the third phase of the Long Bay High School is underway and the decision needs to be made or communicated, if it hasnt been yet.





"I have not seen it in the paper, but maybe it was communicated to the parents individually what is to happen to their children, she said.





The former Minister of Education issued some advice for the new Minister of Education, Karen Malcolm, stating that there are already plans implemented in that ministry, so all she has to do is follow those plans.





"There is no need to recreate the wheel because they were developed through technical assistance in the Department of Education, and international technical assistance, she said.





"Now it is about building on them and developing them fully, so that we can have a robust educational system for the 21st century learners.




By Olivia Rose

A STRATEGIC plan to address serious concerns facing Her Majestys Prison (HMP) and to upgrade the Grand Turk facility is currently being drafted.





This was disclosed at the National Security Council (NSC) meeting last week when Superintendent of HM Prison Steven Barrett updated members on continuing problems at the prison and measures taken to address them.





According to the press statement, at the request of the Premier the Superintendent presented an overview of a strategic plan which he had drawn up to highlight areas of concern, associated risks and mitigations needed to address them.





The NSC called for the strategic plan to be circulated to all members for detailed discussion and assessment at its next meeting on August 14.





Back in January this year following a visit to HMP, Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson committed to resolving problems facing the facility.





She expressed her grave dissatisfaction at the conditions of the countrys sole penal facility.





And she said that the Government is looking now at the security concerns as well as areas where they can make the jail more habitable with a number of upgrades.





"We are committed to restructuring the programmes at the prison and even looking at the physical presence there, she said.





"I am disheartened every time I go there because I do believe the United Nations would have some concerns at the way we keep our prisoners.





She also recalled that the HMP has already been highlighted and the Government is looking to bring the facility up to acceptable standards.





"We want to ensure that we treat our prisoners as they should be treated so that they will feel that it is somewhere that they are being rehabilitated and not somewhere where they are just punished, and that they are able to return to society and become productive citizens.





The Government is making notable moves to temporarily relocate 18 low risk prisoners to the Green Door facility in Grand Turk until security work is completed at the prison.





Explaining the Governments rationale, Cartwright Robinson said the relocation is imperative to alleviate overcrowding at the prison.





She said: "What has happened is that the prison is bursting at the seams.





"Theres urgent work that has to be done at the prison and there is need to identify somewhere for 18 low risk prisoners to be housed.





She emphasised that urgent remedial work needs to be undertaken.





"There are two major blocks and I really dont want to get in to what is happening at the prison because it would be irresponsible, but there are works urgently need to be done at the prison, she said.





"Persons will know that we had a break out a couple months ago and were spending half a million dollars to reinforce the wall to prevent that again.





"And there are others works that we have to do to ensure that the prison is secure and to make sure that those who are in the prison are actually not treated as animals.





"So we have to make sure that they have amenities as well, but the bottom line, it has to be done for security reasons and its not permanent at all.





She noted that the urgent repairs were identified under the former administration and they must be implemented in order to ensure the publics safety.




By Olivia Rose

MORE staff will be recruited to the Immigration Task Force to improve the TCIs interception and enforcement capability.





This was revealed at the National Security Councils (NSC) recently held meeting on July 28.





Coupled with these measures, technical upgrades are also being introduced to improve the capability of the Coastal Radar Station in South Dock to detect illegal sloops.





Although specifics on the recruitment of staff were not divulged in the NSCs press release it was noted that the joint operations with the Marine Branch of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and the Immigration Task Force are working well.





Meanwhile Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson has reiterated her Governments stern position on imposing stiffer penalties on anyone caught supporting human trafficking and illegal trade.





Commenting on how her administration intends to grapple with the issue, she revealed that the Government is making every effort to combat the problem with a holistic approach.





She said: "I met with Baroness Analey and I did make representation in February to the UK asking for assistance not just in policing our borders but also in providing assistance to the police.





"We had the benefit of the security assessment team here that was appointed.





"They came into the Turks and Caicos, they met with Government, they met with members of the private sector and a case was made on our behalf that was contained in a report at the end of March.





"We do expect to get benefit; we understand that this is difficult for the people of the Turks and Caicos as it is difficult for us as a Government.





"The sad thing about it is that there are people in the Turks and Caicos who are Islanders who are actually benefitting from this trade and its not just about human trafficking.





Harkening back to revelations made by former Premier Rufus Ewing, who disclosed in 2015 that guns and illegal drugs are also coming in on sloops to the TCI, she said: "At the end of the day, no matter what, we need the additional assistance, we need the help.





"We are able to bring in more boats that will be here in short order for the policing of our borders, were able to increase the manpower, and we are going to move ahead on our border patrol unit.





"There is greater coordination between the different bodies and I do know that the Ministry of Border Control and Labour is going to have a full sit down with the Marine Branch and see what else can be done with the resources that we have.





"But yes I am still hopefully looking forward for the assistance from the UK in terms of policing our borders.





"Now let me say, no matter how much the Bahamas has pumped into boats and their defence force and even the United States there will always be landings.





"But this level that were seeing is unsustainable and its something that were not going to sit down on.





She said that anyone caught harbouring illegal migrants could face a hefty fine of $20,000.





Cartwright Robinson added that the summary conviction or term of imprisonment for the offence is four years, while those acquiring status other than by birth convicted of the offence could face their status in the Islands being revoked.





She noted that it is a vexing experience as each time the countrys purse is taxed, monies that can be used elsewhere for developmental needs are directed towards detention and repatriation.




By Daisy Handfield

FIFTY-three illegal Haitian migrants on board a wooden sloop were captured near West Caicos on Tuesday, August 5.





The vessel, detained at about 2.30am, contained 16 women and 37 men.





Prior to this, a sloop containing 99 illegal Haitian migrants was intercepted in the vicinity of the Bluff in Providenciales on July 31, making it the second arrival in a little over a week.





Three people from the boat were charged and detained while the others were repatriated.





An unknown number of illegal migrants who arrived in TCI waters on a sloop on July 24 escaped local authorities and entered the territory.





The new vessel, a 35-foot wooden boat was captured due to the collaboration between United States Coast Guard, TCIs Coastal Radar Station, the Marine Branch of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police and private citizens.





At about 4.11am the sloop arrived in Providenciales where it was met by immigration officials.





The boat passengers have been detained and are being processed for repatriation and entry of the Immigration Stop List.





Migrant workers whose work permits and or visas have expired have until August 15 to leave the Turks and Caicos Islands or be prosecuted and deported.





The announcement came from the Deputy Premier and Border Control Minister, Sean Astwood, last week during a sitting of the House of Assembly.





He said that illegal migration threats the lives and livelihood of the TCIs people and those found to be engaged in the smuggling of humans will be prosecuted under the law.





Astwood advised everyone to observe the immigration laws of the TCI and said that anyone found in breach of them will be dealt with accordingly.





Commissioner of Police James Smith warned residents about harbouring illegal immigrants during a recent television interview with a local news station.





He said: "People here know some of these people who are carrying out these operations and they need to come forward.





"We are receiving intelligence, but we need much more community information to help us bring these people to justice.





"For those people who are allowing illegal migrants to live in unstructured dwellings and who are not turning them in, you need to stop what you are doing and help the nation.
By Delana Isles





CAICOS Express Airways is expected to resume flights in and out of Salt Cay Airport soon.





The restriction placed on the companys Air Operators Certificate (AOC) which prohibited commercial flights into Salt Cay has been lifted, the Government revealed on Thursday (August 10).





A TCI Civil Aviation Authority (TCIAA) team, representatives from the Airports Authority and Caicos Express Airways made a follow-up visit to Salt Cay on Monday (August 7) for the purpose of verifying the additional maintenance work that was done by the Airports Authority.





The TCIAA team is said to be satisfied with the work, leading to the decision to lift the restriction placed on Caicos Express Airways.





Acting Premier Sean Astwood told the press on Thursday that the speedy action taken is part of the Governments commitment to ensuring that the Turks and Caicos Islands remains accessible.





"The suspension of flights into and out of Salt Cay has caused the public on the island, most particularly the aged persons and the already challenged businesses, much inconvenience and my Government made a commitment to ensure that this matter was rectified expeditiously.





"Turks and Caicos Islanders deserve nothing less than a transportation system that is safe, reliable and facilitates trade and the movement of people and goods, Astwood said.





He gave further assurance that the Government will stand firm on its commitment to strive for a reliable and accessible transport system and barrier free infrastructure for the Islands, and will continue to back up this commitment with action.





Late last month, a risk assessment study was carried out on the airport following its closure on Friday, July 7.





The closure was due to the expiration of the June 26 Salt Key Aerodrome certificate without renewal by the Turks and Caicos Islands Airport Authority (TCIAA).





As indicted by the TCIAA, the decision not to renew the certificate was due to long term safety concerns relating to the runway surface and associated areas.




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The Florida Man will never leave you wondering just how crazy he can get. The latest Florida Man story from this weekend witnessed a man do severe damage to a liquor store, but he had quite the explanation for why he did what he did.

Matthew Jones, 32, broke into a construction site and went for a demolition joy rid on a forklift. As you can imagine where this story is going, he did a number on the construction site for a liquor store at a local Walmart. Jones destroyed the site with the use of the forklift, racking up $128,000 in damages.

According to a report from WEAR;

A press release from the CPD said the suspects rampage damaged scaffolding and materials, block and mortar, the forklift itself, a fire hydrant and water meter that belong to the city, and more.

And that was just the beginning. As officers began to respond to the scene, Jones reportedly aimed the forklift at officers. Officers pulled their guns and managed to detain Jones, who identified himself to authorities as Alice in Wonderland. In that same vein, Jones reportedly explained his behavior by claiming he was only taking instructions from a hookah-smoking caterpillar. Yeah, thats a doozy.

Jones was charged with grand theft, use of motor vehicle to damage property in excess of $1,000, criminal mischief with damage greater than $1,000 and violation of felony probation.

Judging by his actions, it sounds like he could have been charged for some sort of drug or alcohol offense, but there is no report of such charges or any use of some sort of drug use or alcohol consumption.

That may be the most shocking development in this story.

[WEAR]
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Helen Boast/RedfernsNile Rodgers was hospitalized with an unidentified health issue over the weekend, forcing him to miss a concert Sunday in Toronto with his band Chic, Billboard reports.

Rodgers, who's 64, tweeted thanks Sunday to fans who sent him get-well wishes.

"Thank you all so much," he wrote. "I love @EarthWindFire @CHICorg all the #fans and my doctors who are taking great care of me. See you all very soon."

Chic is currently on a joint North American trek with Earth, Wind & Fire called 2054: The Tour. It winds down next week.

In addition, Rodgers tweeted a message to Chic sound engineer John Ryan, revealing, "I've never missed one gig in my life... well, it's been that way till now. The Dr. caught me trying to sneak out." T

Chic's next concert with Earth, Wind & Fire is scheduled for this Tuesday in Indianapolis. No word if Rodgers will be joining his band at the show.

Nile, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April while receiving the Award for Musical Excellence, was diagnosed with an "extremely aggressive" form of prostate cancer in 2010, although he announced in 2014 that he was cancer-free.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 51F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 32F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Social conservativism can only have a political rebirth in Ireland if the clergy take the lead and enter politics  thats the controversial recommendation commentator Dr John Coulter makes in the latest edition of his Fearless Flying Column.

Belfasts recent Pride parade stressed how powerless evangelical Christian Churches are at preventing around 10,000 people from the LGBTQ community and their supporters from marching through the streets of the Norths capital.



The Churches could not stop civil partnerships, combat abortion, halt the spiralling divorce rate, and worse still, stamp out perverts in the priesthood. And if devolution is eventually restored to Stormont, the numbers of MLAs supporting the implementation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland looks like defeating those who hold a traditional Biblical view of the institution of marriage.



The traditional Irish street preachers days are also numbered, and if Churches are not careful, laws could be passed banning certain topics from being lambasted from the pulpit.



The power of the Irish Catholic bishops has been all but obliterated by the child sex abuse scandals.



The vast array of Protestant churches are so disillusioned with Unionist infighting, they have forsaken the ballot box in tens of thousands compared to the 1970s at the height of the Troubles. There is much talk that young Protestants are totally turned off by the Unionist parties so-called traditional social conservativism.



But when you travel around many of the evangelical denominations in Northern Ireland, you find that the vast majority of them have thriving youth sections, so could it be that young Christians are turned off political parties because those parties have become too liberal in their approach to social issues?



Ireland urgently needs to put the Bible back into the ballot box. But how will Christians achieve this if they wont even come out to vote?



Ironically, I came across a quote from seven years ago from the hardline fundamentalist Evangelical Protestant Society which, in my opinion, had a relevant ecumenical message for all Irish Christians.



The EPS is better known for branding the Pope as the Biblical Anti Christ, and spearheading any campaign against Papal visits to Britain.



The 2010 summer edition of the EPS mouthpiece, Ulster Bulwark, carried an article entitled Christians should be in politics. It quoted a little known fundamentalist  the Rev Tim McGlynn of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).



Claiming this cleric is from a Roman Catholic background, the article quoted Rev Tim as stating:





We need a generation of godly men and women who will bring the convictions of a Biblical and Reformed faith back into the councils, institutions and parliament of the nation once again.



That was 2010  but Rev Tim, wherever he is today, should take comfort from my opinion that his message is as relevant in 2017 as it was when he first penned it at the start of the decade. So how could this social conservativism work in practice?



The Catholic Church should lift any ban on ordained clerics becoming councillors, MLAs, TDs, MEPs and MPs. They should not have to leave the priesthood or holy orders before standing for election.



As a weekly newspaper deputy editor in the late 1980s, I recall the many contributions which the controversial cleric, Father Pat Buckley, now Bishop Buckley, made when he was elected as an Independent to Larne Borough Council.



Week after week, he sat in the Unionist-controlled Council chamber in his clerical suit. He may still be regarded as a maverick by the Catholic hierarchy, but he broke the mould that only Protestant clerics could get themselves elected.



Love him or loathe him, Ian Paisley senior  the late Lord Bannside  slowly nudged his DUP into power-sharing with republicans. He was greatly assisted in this process by other Free Presbyterian clerics, including the Gospel-singing former South Antrim and Mid Ulster MP Willie McCrea.



Many Protestant churches have to exorcise the taboo of allowing women ministers into the pulpits as a first step to getting female Protestant clerics elected.



The Catholic Church will have to make celibacy optional for priests, nuns and members of its holy orders as a first step to allowing its clergy get elected, too.



Irish Christians and Biblical standards are being steadily marginalised across the island. For too long, Christian Churches have basked in the luxury of trivial theological debates about what type of head-gear women should wear at church; how loud mens ties should be during a religious service; what type of music should be sung; what kind of musical instruments should be used during the praise time; where non-members of the church should sit during worship; should men be allowed to remove their jackets during a warm summer service  and the list goes on!



Some churches in Ireland insist that a person has a formal interview with church leaders before they are deemed suitable to join, giving rise to the stereotype that it is harder to get into some so-called Christian churches in Ireland that to enter Heaven itself! Perhaps the key question which should be asked is  What Would Jesus Do?



Roll on the day when a Christian coalition of married Catholic priests and ordained Protestant clerics holds the balance of power at Stormont and the Dail.



The Bible has often been blamed for sparking the Troubles with For God and Ulster on one side, versus Holy Mother Ireland on the other.



But the splits and scandals which have bedevilled the Christian churches in Ireland can only be truly healed when the Bible is restored to its once influential position in politics.



No doubt the supposedly increasingly vocal band of secularists, humanists, atheists, agnostics, and militant liberalists will be calling for me to be burnt at the stake as a heretic for daring to suggest there is still a role for Biblical Christianity in Irish politics.



I wonder, too, how many thousands of people would turn up to attend a Biblical Christian Pride March through Belfast. The LGBTQ community campaigned consistently over the decades for equality and the right to be recognised as a significant minority on this island. I wonder how long it will be before Biblical Christianity is reduced to the status of minority in Ireland?



Ive had my knuckles rapped in the past for daring to suggest that a time may come in Irish politics where Biblical Christians form their own Irish Christian Party because existing movements have become too liberal in their policies. Maybe the day of the so-called ICP is now about to dawn?




A 21-year-old from Arkansas was arrested last week after he pretended to be a security guard and gained access to a Carbondale apartment.

According to a news release from the Carbondale Police Department, Jordan Isaiah Everett Kelderman, 21, of Lewisville, Arkansas, claimed to be a security guard and entered an occupied apartment in the 900 block of East Park Street.

Police said Kelderman was arrested for criminal trespass to residence, assault, disorderly conduct, stalking and false "personation." There were no injuries. The investigation continues.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Carbondale Police Department at 618-457-3200 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at 618-549-2677.

 The Southern
In trapshooting terms, attendance at this years Grand American could probably be scored a 95 or higher.

Lynn Gipson, executive director of the Amateur Trapshooting Association and tournament director for The Grand American, said all the numbers arent in, but attendance appears to be on par with last year.

About 4,600 shooters were classified in the 23 events leading to Saturdays Grand American Handicap.

Most of our events were flat with last year, Gipson said. Thursday, we had a nice increase, we had 106 more shooters than last year. Thats about a five percent increase from last year.

On the other hand, participation in AIM (Academics, Integrity, Marksmanship) the ATAs youth program, was up significantly this year. AIM serves as the Grand Americans warm-up act, running five days prior to the beginning of the Grand American.

Skeet and sporting clays on AIM were up about 20-30 percent, Gipson said. We just started that last year, Thats been very well received. The trap shooting was probably up 3-4 percent.

Although the ATA hasnt had an opportunity to crunch all the numbers yet, it appears as if more of the AIM shooters are staying in Sparta to shoot at least some of the early Grand American events.

Anecdotally, Gipson noted that participation in ancillary events was up this year.

Our evening events have been very well attended, he said. Were seeing about a 10 percent bump in the number of plates we hand out for free food.

In addition, it appears as if more spectators are being drawn to the event.

I think were getting non-participants coming to the shoot, Gipson said Thats good for the sponsors, thats good for the vendors. They like the traffic. Thats a good thing. Not everybody sells guns here, they sell other items too. It helps the local economy too.

Moderate weather undoubtedly attributed to the overall success of the event.

I think this is the fifth year weve had some moderation in the weather, Gipson said. Last year it was humid, but it wasnt real hot. This year it wasnt hot or humid. Its been very pleasant. Thats part of the reason people stick around for the evening events.

The Grand American draws shooters from throughout the United States. In addition, this year there were competitors from Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, England, Costa Rica and Australia.

The ATAs board of directors recognized Australia as a sanctioned member this year. Gipson said he expects to see more competitors from Australia in the next few years.

Finally, Gipson said there no complications arose from the State of Illinois budget crisis that was finally resolved earlier this summer.

The state has been wonderful to work with, he said. The facility is in as good or better shape than its ever been in. The change in staff had no negative effect on the Grand.

Overall, Gipson said it was a good year.

We can live with that, he said. We can make that work.
Alexander Kemp McLeod of McBee is a hard-working farmer who raises 22 peach varieties, strawberries, pumpkins and row crops.

He operates a successful roadside store along a busy four-lane highway where he sells his fruit and where visitors enjoy an outstanding agritourism experience.

A farmer for 44 years, his farm encompasses 7,500 acres, 2,500 acres of rented land and 5,000 acres of owned land.

As a result of his success as a peach and crop farmer, McLeod has been selected as the state winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. He joins nine other individuals as finalists for the overall award that will be announced Oct. 17 at the Sunbelt Expo farm show in Moultrie, Ga.

He also grows seed crops, including rye, browntop millet and sericea lespedeza. In past years, he grew bicolor lespedeza seed.

McLeods peaches on 1,000 acres yield 500 bushels per acre. Strawberries from 50 acres yield 30,000 pounds per acre. His dryland corn on 600 acres yields about 100 bushel per acre while irrigated corn on 500 acres yields about 180 bushels per acre. His soybeans on 2,000 acres produce about 40 bushels per acre and his wheat on 1,200 acres produces about 80 bushels per acre. He estimates his rye seed yields from 1,000 acres at 30 bushels per acre.

He also grows about 15 acres of blackberries. McLeod has added 500 acres of irrigation for his row crops since 2015.

His peaches produce high yields. He pioneered in drip irrigation of peaches. He has 45 wind machines he operates when there is a freeze threat. Air circulation can reduce freeze damage to young peach fruit. Row covers help prevent strawberry freeze damage, while improving early maturity, yields and quality.

He also uses New Zealand-developed hail cannons that send sonic waves into low hanging clouds to disrupt hail development. McLeod cant prove the hail cannons work, but uses them because he suffered severe fruit losses from hail in the past.

One of the peach varieties McLeod grows is named Cary Mac and it was developed on his farm. Cary Mac is a mutation of the Loring variety and is about a week earlier and has more color than the yellow Loring peach.

McLeod packs his peaches, strawberries and blackberries and ships them to grocery chains and produce terminals throughout the East Coast. He markets these crops through Richter and Company, a brokerage firm based in Charlotte, N.C.

At his roadside store south of McBee on State Highway 151, McLeod also offers a museum featuring old cars, antique tractors and home appliances. Visitors can view these antiques free of charge. The site also features Bigs restaurant operated by McLeods sister, Beth Watford. She named Bigs after one of her cats.

McLeod Farms is highly involved in agritourism, McLeod says. We have festivals each year surrounding the strawberry, peach and pumpkin seasons. Over 5,000 school children visit the farm throughout the year for field trips. During the fall, our McLeod Farms corn maze attracts more than 8,000 visitors. Visitors can also go to the field and pick their own strawberries and pumpkins.

McLeod actually sells from three locations, the roadside market south of McBee, a packinghouse north of McBee and at the Farmers Market in Florence.

During the 1990s, he launched an online gift pack business for shipping peaches directly to customers. The third party Primus organization verifies the safety of his peach and strawberry fruit crops.

He graduated from Clemson University in 1976 with a degree in agronomy, and returned to the farm to join his father and expand their operation.

McLeod was a commissioner of the Chesterfield County Conservation District and was named Outstanding Conservation Farmer in the county. He is a member of the McBee Town Council and has been on the Chesterfield County Economic Development Board.

On the state level, he has been a member of the S.C. Farm Bureaus Fruit and Vegetable Committee. He received the John W. Parris Agriculture Leadership Award. He served as president of the S.C. Peach Council. He received the honorary state FFA degree in 2004. His farm was recognized as a Century Farm for operating more than 100 years. He also received the Order of Palmetto honoring his contributions to the state of South Carolina.

He is a contributor to the Harvest Hope organization that collects food for the needy. Hes also an alumnus of the Alpha Gamma Rho agricultural college fraternity.

Nationally, he received an honorary American Farmer FFA degree and has been a member of the National Peach Council.

His wife Gaie helps to supervise field trips to the farm by school groups. She helped to welcome about 3,400 students to the farm during this years strawberry season, and says that 5,000 to 6,000 students visit the farm each year. She is also busy in the late summer and early fall when she welcomes school children to the farm during pumpkin season.

McLeod Farms also helps to sponsor the popular Making it Grow television program that airs weekly on S.C. Public Television stations.

Their son Spencer, who earned a degree in ag mechanization from Clemson and later earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from Clemson, is back working full time on the farm.

Kemp is a member of the fourth generation of his family to farm in this location, and son Spencer is the fifth generation to farm.
COLUMBIA -- The South Carolina Advocates for Agriculture held its 10th annual Advocates of the Year Recognition Reception on Aug. 3 to honor two individuals who have shown outstanding commitment to supporting and promoting the states agriculture industry.

Rep. Davey Hiott and Jim Roquemore each received the 2017 Advocate of the Year award.

The public service recipient, Rep. Davey Hiott from Pickens, serves as the chairman of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives. Hiott has served the people of Dacusville, Liberty and Pickens in the House since 2005 and has been a great friend to agriculture. He has sponsored legislation that allowed the S.C. Department of Agriculture to be the regulatory authority for the new Produce Safety Rule and has worked tirelessly to pass legislation to update regulations in the poultry industry.

Jim Roquemore, CEO and chairman of the board of Patten Seed Co., also known by trade name Super-Sod, received the private sector award. His business dates back to 1894 and has grown from a small-town general store in Lakeland, Georgia, to a cooperation having a number of sod and seed farms located throughout South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Among numerous other roles, Roquemore currently serves as chairman of the S.C. Conservation Bank and has been a past chairman of Palmetto Agribusiness Council, as well as served on the board of visitors and advisory council of Clemson University. Jim and his wife Karen give their time and energy to many worthwhile community causes.

Branchville native Ronnie Summers, the S.C. Advocates for Agriculture President said, These two state leaders have consistently been advocates for our states agribusiness interest, and this special recognition is well deserved.

Summers is AgSouth Farm Credits South Carolina regional president.

South Carolina Advocates for Agriculture was created in 2005 to assist in marketing and promotion of the states agriculture products and the overall agriculture industry. For more information regarding S.C. Advocates for Agriculture, visit scadvocates4ag.org.
WASHINGTON -- You will be forgiven for confessing that you are confused about where we are going in Afghanistan. You might also add that you still are not sure why we are there.

On top of that, you could admit to not knowing who -- from the White House to the Pentagon to the denizens of that mysterious country so far away -- to believe.

The Afghan War will be 16 years old in the fall. That is a special age when teenagers begin to approach their majority and even (God save us!) start acting a little like adults. Yet we see precious little evidence that our most recent disastrous war is approaching adulthood at all.

Rather, we see such a mixed bag of conflicting "answers" to the problem and confusing messages to the American people that I wonder if it is not time to ask: Is Afghanistan becoming our newest Vietnam?

Before he became president, Donald J. Trump was almost unrelievedly critical of American interventions. But since then, the administration's "strategies" for military action in both Iraq and Afghanistan have changed by the hour.

One day, a plan worked out by the commanding general in Kabul and the Afghan president called for doubling the size of the U.S./Afghan commitment. The next day, an impatient President Trump wanted to fire the American commander.

A new Afghan policy was to have been hammered out by May, then July, then ... when? Talks to supposedly compel the Afghan Taliban to negotiate with the U.S. went nowhere; instead, articles now reveal in disturbing detail not only Pakistan's support for the medieval-minded Taliban, but also Russia's and Iran's support, which is in large part revenge against the U.S. for previous supposed or real slights.

Perhaps the most amazing element to suddenly insert itself into the Afghan mix is Erik Prince, the famous, controversial and often reviled military contractor, who has now formally put forth a two-year plan to hire about 5,000 "global guns-for-hire." He has officially proposed putting the Afghan war through a restructuring "similar to a bankruptcy reorganization" and appointing a "trustee" to oversee it.

Yes, you are right. Our "Hessians"!

The kindest analysis of the Afghan situation I have been able to find comes from a high-level Brookings Institution panel that concluded, "The U.S.-Afghan partnership should be recognized as generational in duration."

The most unkind analysis in my search came from a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James Jeffrey, who is quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying we have to deal with Afghanistan "like a chronic illness."

Meanwhile, in excess of 8,000 American soldiers remain in Afghanistan, almost as hostages to our lack of strategy for the region. Additionally, 2,300 Americans have died in the conflict, and 17,000 have been wounded in this land of warlords and opium fields that no foreign invader in history has mastered.

Is there anything left to say? Yes, this: It is far past time to go back to First Principles and define what is crucially important to America and what is mere destructive gamesmanship in war and peace. Let us look again at American thinking and action in both Vietnam and Afghanistan.

First, there is a dangerous comparable overreaching of power. Neither in Vietnam nor in Afghanistan was America endangered. They were/are wars of choice, what I call "hypothetical wars" (If this happens, then this will happen).

They were/are both wars pushed in Washington by (mostly) men with outsized ambitions to be great political figures on the world stage.

Second, in both Vietnam and Afghanistan, the interests of the local people are infinite, while ours are finite; theirs are eternal, while ours are seasonal. A prolonged war in their country will strengthen them against foreign invaders, and disarm and destroy us unless we destroy them completely, which we will not do.

Third, the U.S., for all its brilliance in so many areas, has shown a repeated incapacity for governing in Third World countries.

There may be no immediate answers to the Afghan quandary, but there is nothing to stop us from analyzing where we are -- and why -- and what can be done about it on a deeper level.

Chronic illness has never been something I went out of my way to seek, and neither should we as a country.
WASHINGTON -- This is what we dreaded. Some international crisis was bound to flare up, and President Donald Trump would make it worse. Now we can only hope that the mature adults surrounding him are able to cool things down.

Trump probably thought it was oh-so-clever to answer North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear provocations with a taste of the dictator's own apocalyptic language, threatening "fire and fury like the world has never seen." It sounded like a playground taunt, reflecting the president's emotional immaturity. On Thursday, Trump said that maybe those words weren't "tough enough." Soon these two nuclear-armed leaders may be trading insults about the size of each other's hands.

The "fire and fury" line was "improvised," meaning Trump failed to warn anyone about it beforehand -- not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, not Defense Secretary James Mattis, not chief of staff John Kelly, not national security adviser H.R. McMaster, not U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Wish these five officials well, because they stand between us and unthinkable disaster.

It is possible that "fire and fury" was, in Trump's mind, a bit of strategy. Perhaps he wanted to come across as a dangerous madman. If so, he succeeded in unnerving Americans and our allies -- but not, apparently, the North Koreans.

Ironies abound. Before Trump's intervention, his administration was actually doing pretty well in orchestrating a global response to North Korea's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. Haley managed to get the U.N. Security Council to approve tough new sanctions, which meant she had to win cooperation from China and Russia -- a real diplomatic achievement.

Moreover, Trump's bombast may even have occasioned high-fives in Kim's inner circle. Kim has long sought direct talks with the United States as a way of showing the North Korean people his exalted status among world leaders. A back-and-forth exchange of rhetoric fills the bill.

Dealing with this crisis will require patience and realism, both of which Trump totally lacks.

There is no quick solution. If there were, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama would have implemented it long ago. A U.S. military strike could cost millions of lives in South Korea and perhaps many thousands in Japan. Our nation, under Trump, would become an international pariah. We would have the blood of many innocents on our hands.

The reality is that Kim doesn't want to conquer the world -- or provoke a U.S. attack that could end his regime. He wants to remain in power. He also dreams of someday reuniting the Korean Peninsula under his own leadership, but that is a much longer-range goal. Right now, his imperative is survival.

By developing nuclear weapons and advanced missile technology, Kim sought to ensure that he never faces the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Having gone to extraordinary lengths to obtain this insurance policy, he is not likely to give it up. Ever.

The Trump administration believes the Chinese government could do more to pressure Kim. It is true that China has the power to destroy the fragile North Korean economy, but Chinese leaders are not willing to confront the consequences of provoking a collapse of central authority in Pyongyang. And the Kim dynasty has shown a willingness to force the North Korean people to endure unspeakable hardship in the pursuit of national goals.

I see no way that Kim is ever going to be persuaded or coerced into giving up his nukes. Maybe he would do so under imminent threat of being deposed. But in any scenario I can imagine, he has more leverage with nuclear weapons than without them. I don't want to live in a world in which a nuclear-tipped North Korean missile can hit Guam or Hawaii or Los Angeles or Chicago, but we may not have a choice.

Deterrence does work, though. It worked throughout the Cold War. It worked during Mao's Cultural Revolution, when China was at least as unhinged as North Korea is today. It works between India and Pakistan.

Trump once said he would be willing to meet with Kim. If the president can be kept from making further threats and the present crisis allowed to subside, perhaps we can eventually offer direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang -- something Kim dearly wants -- with the subject being a verifiable freeze on the North Korean nuclear program. After a freeze is in place for a while, it might be possible to negotiate reductions.

As I said, we need to be patient and realistic. Someone please distract the president with a shiny object for the next few years.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

I was deeply saddened by heavy casualties caused by a collision involving two passenger trains near the city of Alexandria, Ilham Aliyev said in his condolence letter.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died, and wish those injured the soonest possible recovery. May Allah rest the souls of the dead in peace!
Holborn Assets, an international financial advice firm head quartered in Dubai, UAE has announced a brand new internship opportunity for six ambitious, driven students and graduates.



Successful candidates will work closely with senior figures in different departments at the company to build an array of skills in finance, management and communication. New interns will also have the choice to work in Holborn's offices in Dubai or Colombo, Sri Lanka or even split time between both offices as part of a dedicated, cross-cultural experience placement.



The generous package will include return flights, accommodation and a monthly salary equating to 1,200 ($1,560). As a financial services firm, Holborn aims to provide candidates with ample opportunity to save a substantial sum at the very start of their careers.



Not limited to specific degree backgrounds, the organisation is actively seeking candidates studying a range of business subjects. Those studying or graduating in digital marketing, events management, customer service, operations, administration, finance and human resources are especially encouraged to apply to the firm.



As part of their internship, the six candidates will be offered the opportunity to involve themselves in a charitable endeavour either with one of the business's existing community partnerships in Malawi, Sri Lanka or South Africa.



However, the company encourages future employees to propose and present a social enterprise they are passionate about to its Community Support Committee for consideration. This initiative follows the success of last year's interns who, after completing six months work each in Dubai and Colombo, successfully petitioned their cause to raise funds for environmental charity Cool Earth by taking part in the Mongol Rally.



The Rally, taking place in July, requires participants to purchase a vehicle for less than GBP500 and to map a full route to drive a whopping 10,000+ miles across Europe and Asia. Ambitious adventurers will navigate their way through the mountains, deserts and wilderness of various countries including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia before finishing in Siberia's Ulan-Ude, close to Lake Baikal.



"We want to offer something unique to the brightest and most innovative students in the country. Not only does this include providing a great, international business experience, but also a highly competitive salary and accommodation at no additional cost to our new recruits, said Simon Parker, chief operations officer at Holborn Assets.



We're looking to invest in future talent for the company, so those who deliver excellent performance during their internship are likely to receive a full-time employment as Holborn continues to expand worldwide.



"Having had great success with Charles Leahy and Adam Holland, our interns for the 2016 - 2017 academic year, the team here are excited to offer the same opportunity to triple the number of young people to learn, grow and develop with us both professionally and personally, he added.



"Our programme of training will offer rich learnings in international business management across several locations with the aim of developing skills, experience and thorough financial support as part of, what we feel is, an opportunity of a lifetime.



"There are six placements up for grabs - and we very much look forward to meeting the new members of our team, Parker said.



To apply, prospective candidates should email a full CV, cover letter detailing why you should be considered and what you can bring to the company in addition to two references (including referee contact details) by October 1.



To be considered, fluency in English (as a native speaker) is essential. Candidate must have a valid passport which permits entry to the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka. Applicants must be available for a minimum of six months with internships to be arranged for a maximum of 12 months. Holborn Assets can recruit current university students as part of sandwich courses.  TradeArabia News Service
Foursan Group, a leading Mena private equity investor, has enlisted Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) for reviewing, certifying and supervising its private equity Islamic Fund with a multi-country, multi-sector Middle East focus.



The assignment will help deliver significant operating cost savings to Foursans Islamic Fund with a transformed Sharia supervisory screening architecture on which to build value added equity investments, targeted to generate attractive returns for investors.



The Islamic Fund will invest in emerging companies in a range of sectors to enhance their operations and provide them with new avenues for expansion.



Nashat T Masri, founding partner of Foursan Group, stated: This is an ambitious equity acquisition program, one that is expected to achieve above market financial returns for our Sharia-compliant investors.



Our investment selection proposition for the Fund demonstrates the potential for innovative financial and equity structures in light of Sharia with new sources of opportunities for Sharia-compliant investments.



Were delighted to welcome SRB as our independent Sharia Advisor. Their extensive experience in the Islamic industry and global footprint will help us ensure Sharia compliance in our private equity transactions, and will be a significant benefit to investors looking for Sharia assurances. Their regional track record as an outsourcing Sharia Advisory partner and deep expertise in managing complex private equity contracts are key factors in our decision to assign them, he added.





SRB will assume responsibility for reviewing, certifying and conducting periodical Sharia audits on the fund and its executed transactions. A central part of SRBs commitment will be the ongoing delivery of a converged screening of private equity acquisitions in light of Sharia.



Yasser S Dahlawi, CEO and founder of SRB, said: This assignment marks our ability to meet the needs of leading regional players like Foursan Group. Ambitious clients are increasingly looking to us to manage Sharia certification and ongoing Sharia supervisory processes of their investments.



We see greater indications of the Islamic private equity market growing in size, scale and sophistication, which we hope will encourage more investments and attract new opportunities to the Sharia compliant market, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading national entity for development aid, has till date supported Pakistan with grants and concessionary loans valued at Dh1.5 billion ($408 million) across nine sustainable projects.



The projects spanned diverse sectors, most notably transport, water and agriculture, healthcare, and education.



ADFDs country report issued to mark Pakistans Independence Day on August 14 highlighted that the nine development projects have significantly contributed to improving socio-economic conditions in the country.



On the milestone occasion of the 70th anniversary of its independence, Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of ADFD, extended his sincerest congratulations to the Pakistani government and people, and wished them continued prosperity.



Al Suwaidi said: ADFDs role in financing these sustainable development projects across Pakistan underscores the fraternal relations and strong bilateral ties that the UAE and Pakistan share.



The comprehensive and wide spanning portfolio of development projects supported by ADFD in Pakistan can certainly be attributed to the strong relations between our countries as well as the wise directives, guidance and support of the Abu Dhabi government.



At ADFD, we believe in assisting beneficiary governments in achieving their economic, sustainable and development schemes and goals. We are pleased that our support to the Pakistani government has elevated living standards and boosted strategic growth in that country, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Ebrahim K Kanoo, sole distributor of Toyota vehicles in Bahrain, has opened the second Toyota Technical Education Programme (TTEP) at a ceremony held at Al-Jabriya Secondary Technical Boys School in the kingdom.



The event also saw training materials and equipment donated to the school.



Held under the patronage of Minister of Education, Dr Majid bin Ali Al-Noaimi, the event is part of a global Toyota Motor Company (TMC) initiative aimed at recruiting young local talent from vocational schools and educational outlets worldwide and inducting them into the Toyota network.



The donation included textbooks, car panels and bumpers, spray guns and a Lexus IS250 training vehicle, all of which will be used to provide hands-on skills training for students looking to pursue a career in the automotive industry. The activity falls in line with Ebrahim K Kanoos Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, which focuses on education and youth development. The company has employed a large number of talented students over the years through similar initiatives.

Ebrahim K Kanoo director of Corporate Services, Talal Kanoo said: It is part of Toyotas mandate to encourage local talent and give back to communities. T-TEP aims to create long-term change by improving local skill sets and providing a platform for future generations to improve their abilities. We strive to build an educated, more effective workforce that will elevate the automotive industry locally and globally.



The ceremony was attended by Dr Al-Noaimi, Ministry of Education, Undersecretary for Curriculum, Dr Fawzi Aljowder, assistant undersecretary for General Education, Latifa Al-Bonoutha, director of Technical and Vocational Education, Dr Mohammed Abdul-Razzaq Al-Siddiqi, Toyota Motor Corporation  Bahrain Representative Office (TMCBRO) general manager, Yoshiyuki Koike, Ebrahim K. Kanoo board members, school headmaster Sayed Redha Alawi, and other school staff members.



Al-Jabirya Technical School Body & Paint Section is the second registered T-TEP School in Bahrain, with Bahrain Training Institute (BTI) officially registered since 1998 as the first institute to implement Toyotas global initiative.  TradeArabia News Service
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the Bahrain-based international aluminium smelter, recently welcomed the South Korean Ambassador Koo Hyun-mo to the kingdom, as part of its endeavours to strengthen commercial ties with the Korean Republic.



The ambassador was accompanied by the deputy head of mission, Yung Young Ki, said a statement from the company.



Albas chief executive officer Tim Murray received the Korean Ambassador, in the presence of Albas executive management team and key officials, it said.



During the visit, the Korean delegation was briefed on Line 6 Expansion Project recent updates, and opportunities for cooperation with the leading Korean industries were discussed, it added.



Following the visit, the ambassador was accompanied in a tour around the different facilities within Albas smelter.



Murray said: It gave us much pleasure to welcome the Korean Ambassador and the head of mission to share our recent developments on our landmark project - Line 6 Expansion Project.



We are confident that such high-level meetings will contribute to further develop new commercial relationships between both countries, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Lockheed Martin, a leading security and aerospace company, has revealed that a team of its engineers and technicians have completed the integration of the company's first modernised A2100 satellite.



The spacecraft, known as Hellas-Sat-4/SaudiGeoSat-1, now moves into final assembly and testing, on track for launch in the second quarter of 2018, said a statement from the company.



Built for Arabsat and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, the satellite will provide advanced telecommunications capabilities, including television, internet, telephone and secure mode communications, to customers in the Middle East, Africa and Europe (MEA), it said.



Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said: We've modelled this activity in our virtual reality lab hundreds of times, but this is the first time we've performed the integration activity of our modernized A2100 satellite in a clean room.



Mating the scalable modules together in a precise method was a critical step for the program, and the team did an exceptional job, he said.



This milestone on a modernised A2100 satellite sees the hybrid propulsion integrated with the payload module and transponder panels.



Using a combination of electrical Hall current thrusters and liquid apogee engine, the propulsion subsystem serves as the structural backbone of the satellite and is essential for manoeuvring it into its final orbit as well as keeping it on station throughout its mission.



The modernised A2100 builds on a flight-proven bus that is the foundation for more than 40 satellites in orbit today. Through an internally-funded, multi-year modernisation effort, Lockheed Martin has enhanced the spacecraft's power, propulsion and electronics, while also adopting the latest advanced engineering and manufacturing techniques to decrease production costs and timelines.



There are five modernised A2100 satellites currently under contract to Lockheed Martin. They are designed for a host of missions and customers around the globe, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Port, located in King Abdullah Economic City on the Red Sea coast, was named by far the fastest growing port among a global list of top 120 ports in 2016 by a leading industry magazine.



The Container Management magazine also ranked King Abdullah Port at 98th on a list of 100 largest ports worldwide in 2017, after only three years of operation.



King Abdullah Port is considered the latest infrastructure megaproject in the Middle East. It was built according to state-of-the-art specifications and world-class standards to cope with the kingdoms economic and commercial growth in the coming decades.



The port was able to achieve rapid success and incredible progress in its operations in just a few years. Its success was based on several elements, the most important of which was the establishment of the Specialised Marine Services (SMS), a joint venture company established in 2013 between the Ports Development Company (PDC), which is the private sector owner and developer of King Abdullah Port, and the National Port Services Company Ltd.



SMS is the primary supplier of marine services, such as marine guidance, in King Abdullah Port. Its team includes highly qualified and skilled maritime guides with vast experience in dealing with the largest international vessels, most of which have visited the King Abdullah Port.



All guides hired to work in the marine services department are ambitious Saudi youth who undergo periodic training in accordance with the highest international standards. In addition to their continual professional development on the job, they also proudly hold a record that is 100 per cent accident free.



In the field of towage services, SMS offers its services to all vessels in King Abdullah Port, while the multi-purpose fleet of tugboats provides the necessary around-the-clock support for vessel movement within the port.



In addition, the company provides various services to Red Sea coast marine operations that work on maintaining the status of this sea corridor, which is classified as one of the most important corridors worldwide, according to experts.



In addition to port operations, tugboats offer rescue and firefighting services to vessels both by the coast or sailing across the Red Sea. In 2016, the company provided handling and towage services to 1,460 vessels, and this number is expected to rise by 30 per cent by the end of 2017.



SMS is managed by a team of qualified Saudi officials and features the most advanced capabilities and technologies in the region. The company houses a fleet of four ASD tugboats with a towing capacity ranging from 47 to 85 tonnes (Dolphin-1, Dolphin-2, Wahoo-1 and Marlin-1), as well as a pilot boat (Barracuda-1). The fleet is one of the best in the region, and all units are registered in the Ministry of Transport and hold the Saudi flag.



A team of trained and qualified individuals carries out underwater inspection using the latest equipment to provide inspection and diagnostic services, as well as maintenance and consulting services. The latter is in addition to the refuelling services that will be made available in the near future.



A vitally important part of King Abdullah Economic City and its Industrial Valley, King Abdullah Port is a key contributor to the national development plan and Vision 2030, a road map for Saudi Arabia to go far beyond oil dependency through diverse catalyst projects deemed to advance the Kingdoms financial position and economic status.



Strategically located on the Red Sea coast, King Abdullah Port contributes to enhancing the commercial status of the region, as it is located directly on the maritime shipping route linking Asia and Europe. Thus, the port is able to decrease east-to-west shipping times by five to seven days, which is a strategic advantage in light of the increasing economic importance of both China and India.



In addition, the port is in close proximity to the Kingdoms industrial and residential centres, and continues its development operations in order to increase and accelerate shipping efficiency, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Majority of the regions leading maritime companies and organisations will discuss the latest developments in the maritime industry at the 3rd Maritime Conference & Expo (Maracad 2017), to be held later this year, in Dubai, UAE.



Under the patronage of Dr Abdullah Bin Mohammed Balheif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Chairman of the Federal Transport Authority for Land and Maritime, the event will take place on October 30 and 31, at the Dubai International Trade Centre.



Maracad will be held during the peak period supporting the UAE's international campaign for its nomination for the membership of the executive council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).



The conference will also be attended by a high-level delegation from IMO headed by Dr Dorota Lost-Sieminska, head of legal affairs office at IMO. This underlines Maracads position as an internationally-recognised forum that receives the attention of the international maritime organisations, companies, think-tanks and centres for strategic studies.



Dr Al Nuaimi emphasised: The Federal Transport Authority for Land and Maritime is the strategic partner of Maracad Conference and Expo as it supports our strategic objectives in terms of highlighting the UAEs unique assets in infrastructure and maritime investments.



We highly value the organisers for hosting a high-level delegation from IMO. This is especially important to closely see the development of our maritime system and realise why the UAE is interested in joining the IMO Executive Office, he said.



The UAE is an international maritime hub and has a wide range of organisations and companies that want to reach out to international maritime decision-makers, he added.



"I really cherish Cham Events team, the organisers of Maracad, who have clearly demonstrated their professional expertise and high level of strategic relations. This makes this event one of the key strategic events in the region's maritime sector, as the shipping sector witnessed great progress on a global level. Today, the shipping sector forms two thirds of the maritime transportation in the Gulf region, this proves UAEs capabilities and leading position as one of the largest big players in the maritime sector, added Al Nuaimi.



Capt Hussam Suyyagh, conference director, said: We are proud that the event will witness and encourage the UAEs membership at IMO executive office that will further diversify the maritime sector and enrich the mechanisms of the maritime decision-making.



Today, we have a new player in the international maritime arena, and certainly will add value to IMO work mechanism. Therefore, we aimed at this years event to create a great interactive platform that will bring together the leaders of the private and public maritime industry, the prestigious maritime academies, maritime experts, non-governmental organisations, marine technology developers, shipping companies, maritime law firms, ship owners and port operators, he said.



Alia Al Hussein, general manager of the conference, said: Since the conference was launched, we have been listening to participants to get their feedback and ideas for developing the conference, improving its activities, and maximising the benefits for both participants and sponsors.



The first step we have done was to expand the conferences topics to include all areas of the maritime sector and not only the academic field. We also focus on introducing various white papers that cover the latest smart technologies in the maritime sector and their impact on the operational and commercial activities of maritime companies, she said.



However, the most important value that we provide to the strategic sponsors and participants is launching the Maritime Business Leaders Forum which transforms the conference into a networking platform for trade relations and sharing opportunities among decision makers and maritime entrepreneurs, she added.



The impact of the conference will extend throughout the year, and Maracad will become more like an annual maritime flagship event that helps partners expand their client bases and enhance their marketing opportunities, stated Al Hussein.



In addition to the significant participation of the leading maritime entities in the region, the conference will be greatly supported by a high level delegation from the Saudi Ports Authority, Emirates Classification Society (Tasneef), Abu Dhabi Ports, DP World-UAE, Emirates Maritime Arbitration Center and The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport due to the events prominent role in providing the maritime sector with qualified professional calibre and tackling the latest technological innovation in the industry.  TradeArabia News Service
Camtek Ltd, a provider of automated and technologically advanced solutions, has established a strategic cooperation with Sun Chemical, a leading producer of printing inks, coatings and supplies, pigments, polymers, liquid compounds, solid compounds, and application materials.



As per this agreement, Sun will develop liquid solder mask ink to be used in Camtek's inkjet system for PCB applications, said a statement.



The resulting ink may also target all other end user markets for PCB manufacturing, including the high-end automotive sector, with soldermask technology capable of meeting the most stringent OEM specifications, and the parties will share profits derived from the ink developed, it said.



Tony Searle, Circuits Business Manager, Sun Chemical, said: This is a great opportunity for us to work with an established advanced equipment manufacturer like Camtek.



The agreement brings our wealth of experience with inkjet technologies and applies it to the PCB industry, he said.



Rafi Amit, CEO, Camtek, said: We are very pleased to form this strategic cooperation with Sun Chemical, bringing to the table very significant experience with chemicals and inks for electronic manufacturing, especially soldermask.



Our two companies have highly complementary expertise and working together will be highly synergistic. As an addition to our own ink-development capabilities - this presents a significant stride forward in our efforts to commercialize the inkjet technology for PCBs, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), a top telecom provider in Saudi Arabia, has signed an agreement worth SR2.4 billion ($640 million) to develop its mobile network with three international telecom and IT suppliers: Nokia, Huawei, Ericsson.



Ahmed Aboudoma, Mobily chief executive officer, said: This agreement comes in line with 2030 Kingdom Vision and its objectives that focus on developing Telecom & IT sector. Moreover, it will allow Mobily to provide the best services to its customers that comply with its new strategy RISE in which its objectives revolve around boosting up the level of provided services by using the latest Telecom technologies.



Mobilys current network has a competitive performance among the sector, whereas; the new agreement will contribute in raising network performance significantly to allow Mobily customers enjoy unprecedented services. The agreement discussions lasted more than 6 months to ensure adding plans comply with Telecom technology rapid developments, in addition to adapting future technologies within an efficient contractual framework, Aboudoma added.



This agreement will have a positive impact on the companys financial statements, as will contribute in enhancing the companys future capital efficiency and network-related operational expenses.  TradeArabia News Service
Baker McKenzie, a leading global law firm, has announced record revenues of $2.67 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017 (FY17), up 5 per cent compared to the previous year.



The company also announced the promotion of 80 new partners globally, including in the Middle East.



Baker McKenzie has announced revenues spread by regions as follows: EMEA 37 per cent, Americas 37 per cent and Asia Pacific 26 per cent. All regions' revenues grew in FY17 by 4 per cent or more, it said.



In the UAE, the firm's strong performance was reflected in the promotion of Dispute Resolution counsel Tarek Saad to the partnership. Admitted in Egypt, he has over 20 years' experience in civil and commercial litigation in the Middle East, including more than 10 years in the UAE.

A seasoned litigator, Saad focuses on maritime and IP litigation, heading up Baker McKenzie Habib Al Mulla's Maritime practice in the UAE and leading the team advising the UAE's Federal Transport Authority on the draft of a new UAE maritime law. This brings the number of partners based in the UAE to 16.



"The promotion of Tarek Saad to our partnership is another significant milestone in the growth of Baker McKenzie Habib Al Mulla in the UAE as we advise and support our clients wherever they are in the world and whatever the volatility of the macroeconomic environment," said Dr Habib Al Mulla, chairman of Baker McKenzie Habib Al Mulla. "We are delighted to welcome Tarek to the partnership."



In addition to 80 partner promotions globally, nearly 40 per cent of whom are women, Baker McKenzie also hired 59 lateral partners, taking the number of partners worldwide to nearly 1,600 as of July 1.  TradeArabia News Service


Delegates at this years Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) will have more opportunities than ever to hear some of the oil and gas industrys most powerful executives speak in open-invite conference sessions, after organisers confirmed they will increase the number of Global Business Leader panels for 2017.



Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), and organised by the Global Energy division of dmg events, Adipec has a successful history of attracting the industrys top CEOs as speakers.



Adipec will be held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from November 13 to 16.



The separate Global Business Leader panels were launched in 2015 with two sessions. The positive response saw a third session added in 2016, and organisers will include a fourth panel discussion for 2017. With this year seeing Adipec expand to include downstream industries for the first time, an additional programme will include three Downstream Global Business Leader panels.



Adipec is unique for its ability to attract such a broad group of industry seniors to an annual event, driven by the market power of the regions NOCs and their IOC partners, said Ali Khalifa Al Shamsi, CEO, Al Yasat Petroleum Operations Co and Adipec 2017 chairman. Nowhere else will industry professionals get such an insight into the strategic thinking guiding the industry forward, from individuals whose decisions are critical to the future of oil and gas businesses.



With planning for Adipec entering its final weeks, organisers have confirmed the involvement of 13 CEOs for the Global Business Leader panels and are in talks with many more across the global industry. A further nine CEOs have been confirmed for the Downstream Global Business Leader programme.



Beyond the conference programme, CEOs convene at Adipec to do business and sign deals, offering conference delegates an opportunity not only to learn from the best, but also to grow their business and find new opportunities.



The confirmed CEO speakers include Bob Dudley, group chief executive at BP; Datuk Zulkiflee W Ariffin, president and group CEO of Petronas; Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of Total; Vagit Alekperov, president, member of the board of directors, and chairman of the management committee, Lukoil; Musabbeh Al Kaabi, CEO, petroleum and petrochemicals, Mubadala Investment Company; Mario Mehren, chairman of the board of executive directors, Wintershall; Toshiaki Kitamura, president and CEO at Inpex Corporation; and Claudio Descalzi, CEO at Eni.



Their individual perspectives include experience at some of the worlds largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies, including two of the industry supermajors, operating across a diverse range of international markets, both in terms of exploration and production, and in terms of sales, said the statement.



They will be joined by the heads of three of the biggest international suppliers of oilfield services: David Dickson, president and chief executive officer at McDermott; Mark McCollum, CEO at Weatherford, and Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO at Baker Hughes, a GE company.



Offering a regional perspective on oil and gas investment will be Mansour Al Mulla, chief financial officer, petroleum and petrochemicals, Mubadala Investment Company, while Brian Gilvary, group chief financial officer at BP, will offer an international view.



Adipec is the leading event for the global oil and gas industry, and that is reflected in the status of speakers we consistently attract for our conference programme, said Christopher Hudson, president  Global Energy at dmg events. The executives who have agreed to be part of our Global Business Leader panels are among those whose decisions shape the future of the industry, and who are most qualified to discuss the path forward for oil and gas in the coming years.



With Adipec 2017 to be held under the theme Forging Ties, Driving Growth, the four Global Business Leader panels will focus on strategies that can deliver continuing business success, with discussion of the most pressing topics facing the sector today. There will also be a highly focused session on energy finance, investment, consolidation and diversification.



The oil and gas industry continues to be a key driver for the global economy, but the market is changing, and industry leaders must respond, said Hudson. Adipec is a platform where businesses can share ideas that will help them evolve with the commercial environment. With our invited CEO speakers for 2017, we are placing greater emphasis on leaders with a truly global footprint. Their decisions will define the future for oil and gas: pioneering new ideas and breaking boundaries, fostering relationships, and building on momentum.



More than 10,000 delegates, 2,200 exhibiting companies, 900 speakers, and in excess of 100,000 visitors, from 135 countries, are projected to gather in Abu Dhabi for Adipec 2017.



In its 20th edition, Adipec is firmly established as the worlds most influential oil and gas industry event, and the Adipec Conference Programme sets the standard for the exchange of best practice and operational excellence. Dedicated 2017 conference sessions include offshore and marine, women in energy and security in energy, along with global downstream technical sessions. The downstream sessions are new for this year, emphasising downstream expansion, diversification, integration, and technology innovation and R&D.



Other features include the Adipec Awards, which celebrate excellence in energy; Young Adipec, designed to encourage students to choose a career in energy; and the exclusive VIP programme briefings for members of the Middle East Petroleum Club. - TradeArabia News Service


Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company, today celebrated the commissioning of the last of its 26 plants  an isocyanates section currently producing crude quantities of toluene di isocyanate (TDI) and other specialty chemicals.

The landmark commissioning milestone was celebrated in the presence of Saudi Arabias Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources and Saudi Aramco chairman, Khalid A. Al-Falih; Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris; and Ahmad Saadi, chairman of Sadara and Saudi Aramco senior vice president of technical services, at the Sadara complex in Jubail Industrial City II.

A first for the Gulf region, the TDI section is mainly used in the production of flexible polyurethane foam for furniture, mattresses, cushioning and car seats. TDI also has a variety of industrial uses, such as coatings, adhesives, sealants, specialty foams and other products.

The TDI section consists of three integrated units producing di nitro toluene (DNT), toluene di amine (TDA), and toluene di isocyanate (TDI). The DNT and TDA units started operations in April, and the TDI unit began crude production this week.

The isocyanates envelope also includes an unprecedented integrated facility producing PMDI or polymeric methylene di phenyl di isocyanate. The PMDI Plant began producing commercial quantities in early June.

Additionally, Sadara is producing another important polyurethane precursor  polyether polyols. The companys polyols plant came on-stream in late July, the company said.

The worlds largest integrated chemicals complex ever built in a single phase, and established by the largest foreign direct investment in the Saudi petrochemicals industry, Sadara has been bringing its chemical plants on-stream in a carefully planned sequence and will produce more than three million tons of high-value performance plastics and specialty chemical products annually.

Sadaras mixed feed cracker, the heart of Sadaras operations, started up in August 2016, cracking ethane gas and naphtha liquid feedstock to produce chemicals for the sites other facilities. Sadaras four polyethylene production units came on-line between late 2015 and early 2017.

Thirty-two polyethylene products have been qualified to-date, serving more than 600 customers in 70 countries. An additional four new polyethylene products will be added to Sadaras capabilities by year-end.

Sadaras specialty chemicals portfolio includes facilities that manufacture propylene oxide, propylene glycol, ethylene oxide, glycol ethers, amines, isocyanates and polyether polyols.

Al-Falih said: Sadaras commissioning positions the company to fully deliver its promise as a major catalyst for Saudi Arabias economic future  a promise that will be felt in human terms.

Sadaras slate of high-value chemicals, including many firsts for the Kingdom and the region, will create the quality performance, value-added and plastics products that support a higher living standard around the world, especially in the emerging Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern markets that will drive two-thirds of global petrochemical demand over the next decade.

In addition to transforming the Kingdom from a consumer and importer to a global exporter, Sadara will create new value chains and technologies that will attract foreign and domestic investment, spurring new sectors and entrepreneurial business, and creating thousands of manufacturing jobs for Saudis. In this way, Sadara is perfectly aligned with the Kingdoms national transformation goals as expressed in Vision 2030. By driving non-oil sector growth, innovation and better-life opportunities, Sadara will deliver progress and prosperity now, and for generations to come.

Liveris said: Today marks a pivotal moment for this game-changing joint venture  for Dow, our partners at Saudi Aramco and for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia  delivering market-driven solutions that have never before been manufactured in the Kingdom and supporting the diversification of its economy in line with Vision 2030. Dow has been a strategic partner in Saudi Arabia for more than four decades and is the Kingdoms largest foreign investor. Commissioning of Sadaras final plant marks a pivotal moment in the history of this landmark public and private partnership that advances Dows growth strategy and will help transform the Kingdoms rich resources into solutions for the world through a thriving manufacturing sector.

Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin H Nasser called Sadara a major milestone in Saudi Aramcos strategic intent to become the worlds foremost integrated energy and chemicals company.

Sadara is a flagship chemicals project that significantly advances our ability to derive the maximum value from every hydrocarbon molecule, and to participate more broadly across the petroleum value chain, Nasser said.

The closer integration of Saudi Aramcos refining networks with chemical production brings greater resilience and robustness to our portfolio. Using raw materials provided by Sabic, Satorp and Sadara itself, the complex will transform raw materials and feedstocks into high-value products  a position of strength that drives business growth. Our strategy to make chemicals a top-tier global business will have a multiplier effect on jobs, industries and technologies, especially through industrial parks as a base for conversion industries making plastics and plastic products from petrochemicals. As a creator of entirely new products and industries, Sadara is a transformational company that will benefit all stakeholders.

Sadara chairman Ahmad Saadi said: Sadara has come a long way from the shareholder agreement signing six years ago, to the official inauguration in November. Yet the commissioning of all our plants is not the finish-line, but Sadaras start in meeting rising demand for high-quality chemicals, plastics and performance products, especially in emerging markets, and stimulating Saudi Arabias industrial growth across the automotive, construction, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods sectors.

Strategically located to benefit from competitive feedstocks, Sadara will serve the needs of Dow customers across the Asia Pacific, India, the Middle East, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.

To date, Sadara has more than 4,100 employees, the majority of whom are Saudis. Almost 2,000 of these employees have completed intensive, technology-centric, on-the-job training (OJT) programs at various Saudi Aramco and Dow sites in Saudi Arabia and around the world for advanced chemicals production technologies knowledge. The Sadara OJT program is one of the largest and most sophisticated technological training programs ever undertaken by any company in Saudi Arabia.

In addition, the PlasChem Park, a world-class industrial park for chemical and conversion industries created by a collaboration between Sadara and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, is expected to attract quality investments valued at SR20 billion, and to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs.  TradeArabia News Service
Omans Mars Hypermarket, one of the GCCs largest hypermarket chains, has signed a digital transformation partnership with SAP, the German enterprise solutions provider.



Omans customers expect a personalized and seamless shopping experience from their mobile devices. With real-time technology, Mars Hypermarket can deliver innovative digital business models with better product decisions, convenient omni-channel shopping experiences, and customer loyalty programs, said V T Vinodan, managing director, Mars Hypermarket Oman and UAE.



As part of the partnership, Mars Hypermarket will deploy a wide range of digital business solutions running on the in-memory SAP HANA platform to enhance the customer experience, supply chain of thousands of products, and employee engagement.



Mars Hypermarket is exploring SAP S/4HANA real-time business suite solutions, mobile apps, and augmented and virtual reality innovations.



Mars Hypermarket is showing best practices in how to harness the power of digital technology to enhance the complex retail experience. SAP is exchanging global best practices in retail to support Omans digital transformation and economic growth in line with Oman Vision 2020, said Tayfun Topkoc, managing director, SAP Oman and UAE.



Omans hypermarkets, such as Mars Hypermarket, are the main driver for food sales, delivering70 percent of total grocery store sales in Oman, according to Alpen Capital.



As a result, Omani supermarket and hypermarket sales are set to grow by 15 per cent from $3.4 billion in 2016 to $3.9 billion by 2018, according to food and agriculture research firm Farrelly& Mitchell. GCC supermarket and hypermarket sales will grow 19 percent to $49 billion by 2018.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubais Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is looking into the concept of Dubai Air Taxi  a driverless flying car' or Autonomous Unmanned Air System Taxi.



In technical terms, the taxi would fly passengers from one place to another without needing any pilot.



Dubai Air Taxi would become part of Dubais Smart Autonomous Mobility Strategy, bringing eco-friendly and faster modes of transportation to the UAE. As expressed in the UAE newspapers in June 2017, RTA is hoping to start the trial flying by the end of this year.



Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, director general of the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), said: With the help of the adaptable and dynamic regulations, innovative mechanisms and systems from the GCAA that it provides to support its stakeholders, the UAE will not only be the first country to allow operation of flying pilotless taxis, it also will be a hub where such taxis are the safest.



In order to help RTA achieve this vision, the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) took initiative and formed a team of specialists that are being led by Ismaeil Mohammed Al Blooshi, assistant director general aviation safety affairs and the director of airworthiness Aqeel Al Zarouni.



Ismaeil Mohammed Al Blooshi, assistant director general aviation safety affairs, said: At the GCAA, initial suite of regulations for experimental operations have been drafted and study of the most suitable support system is underway. The GCAA is reviewing the requirements, researching on the results of studies and tests, looking into availability of support systems like emergency equipment and infrastructure and the efficacy of the operators and exploring the impact of the new mobility system on the safety of air navigation.



The GCAA is also in contact with overseas National Aviation Authorities in this regards. A comprehensive approach addressing all relevant factors is the only way forward. The GCAA will allow operation of air taxis only when it is sure that all elements required for their safe operation are in place, it said in a statement. - TradeArabia News Service


The General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates has denied allowing aircraft registered in Qatar to cross the sovereign airspace of the state.



In a statement, the authority added that those aircraft are only allowed to use the airspace managed by the UAE above international waters. - TradeArabia News Service
Coral Beach Resort Sharjah, managed by HMH, has got some cool dining offers lined up all through these sweltering summer weeks that are bound to refresh and entice you.



Starting from an awesome Eid Al Adha brunch for families at its brand new international restaurant Cote Jardin to an indulgent Business lunch at the Al Dente restaurant there is something to suit every taste, mood and occasion. Heres what is on offer:



Eid Al Adha Family Brunch

Get together with family and friends for a sumptuous brunch at the newly-opened Cote Jardin restaurant in Coral Beach Resort Sharjah. Feast on a wide selection of traditional and international specialties as well as an assortment of gourmet sweets.



Venue: Cote Jardin Restaurant

Price: Dh125 ($34) per person inclusive of drinks

Child Policy: Complimentary for children under 6 years, max two kids per family. 50 per cent discount for children from 6 to 12 years

Date & Time: On first and second day of Eid Al Adha from 12:00 pm to 16:00 PM



Terms & Conditions apply

 All prices are inclusive of 10 per cent municipality fee & 10 per cent service charge

 The above rates are not subject to discounts and not valid in conjunction with any other offers.



Business Lunch

Al Dente, Sharjahs most popular Italian restaurant located at Coral Beach Resort Sharjah, invites guests to break away from the usual routine and enjoy a delicious Business Lunch. Guests have a choice of both two course and three course menus.



Venue: Al Dente Restaurant

Offer: choice of two course and three course menu

Price: Dh75 ($20.4) for two course and Dh85 ($23) for three courses

Date & Time: Weekdays from 12pm to 3pm except weekends and public holidays



Terms & Conditions apply

 All prices are inclusive of 10 per cent municipality fee & 10 per cent service charge

 The above rates are not subject to discounts and not valid in conjunction with any other offers.



Happy Hours

Beat the heat with our refreshing beverages at amazing prices during the Happy Hours at the pool-side snack bar Waves in Coral Beach Resort Sharjah.



Venue: Waves Restaurant

Offer: Selected beverage at Dh15

Date & Time: Weekdays from 12pm to 6pm except weekends and public holidays



Terms & Conditions apply

 All prices are inclusive of 10 per cent municipality fee & 10 per cetnt service charge

 The above rates are not subject to discounts and not valid in conjunction with any other offers. - TradeArabia News Service
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Rocco Forte Hotels, the Forte family have curated an extraordinary package to take guests on the trip of a lifetime.



A selection of the familys most treasured places in six cities across Europe, the extraordinary journey offers guests unprecedented access to exclusive experiences and some of the most famous museums, palaces and art galleries, whilst staying in a luxurious suite in each of the magnificent properties.



The 100,000 ($118,215) tour combines culture and flair offering guests a unique and unparalleled experience of each city.



Sir Rocco Forte, chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels, and his sister Olga Polizzi, director of Design for the group, have created the exclusive 12 day tour, carefully selecting their most revered and cherished places in each city to share with guests.



Harking back to the Grand Tours of the 19th and 20th centuries, the trip highlights the very best of culture in the city, bringing it into the current day with delicious restaurants and exclusive shopping experiences in the most fashionable boutiques. Be it the artistic delights of Rome, Florence and Berlin, or the traditions of London, Edinburgh and St Petersburg, the tour showcases the six cities through the eyes of the Forte family - a personal and unique journey getting to the heart and soul of the city, exploring some of the most exceptional places they have to offer.



Browns Hotel, London

Welcomed with a bottle of Champagne on ice in the Hellenic Suite, guests will be measured for a bespoke suit from distinguished Savile Row tailors and Browns Hotels Tailor-In-Residence, Huntsman, before taking an exclusive after-hours tour of Buckingham Palaces State Rooms. The Creative Director of House of Garrards will work with guests to create a design for their own tiara, and then leave them to enjoy an indulgent and restorative spa treatment in the Browns Spa.



Hotel Savoy, Florence

Guests will be given the chance to experience a unique, private after-hours guided tour of the world-famous Uffizi Gallerys Renaissance masterpieces when visiting Florence. The journey includes a two-night stay in the distinguished Repubblica Suite, with spectacular views over its eponymous piazza, and an exquisite dinner at the acclaimed restaurant Irene, famed in Florence for its flawless Tuscan cooking.



Hotel de Russie, Rome

Guests will spend two nights in the elegant Popolo suite, designed and newly renovated by Olga Polizzi with views over one of the most beautiful squares in Rome, Piazza Popolo. They can enjoy exclusive, private access whilst discovering the secrets of the Castel SantAngelo with an expert guide before indulging in a wonderfully romantic dinner at Le Jardin de Russie  the Roman favourite by maestro Fulvio Pierangelini.



The Balmoral, Edinburgh

Guests will see Scotland through the eyes of The Queen in a private tour of the Royal Yacht, Britannia and step behind-the-scenes at Holyrood Palace on an out-of-hours tour. Spending two nights in The Balmorals wonderfully comfortable Scone & Crombie Suite, guests will enjoy a Scottish feast at the hotels Michelin-starred restaurant, Number One, and will receive an exquisite gift from Scottish jeweller and Royal Warrant holder, Hamilton & Inches.



Hotel Astoria, St Petersburg

Guests will be able to discover the treasures of the Hermitage and Faberge Museums on an exclusive private tour and have backstage access to the iconic Mariinsky Theatre after enjoying a dazzling ballet performance. Guests will witness St Petersburgs beautiful sights by air and river and live the high-life with a makeover and limo tour of St Petersburg with a personal photographer to capture the memories of the city. Staying in the hotels magnificent Tchaikovsky Suite, guests have the chance to enjoy a delightful dinner for two in the Astoria Cafe, in addition to the indulgence of caviar tasting in the Rotonda Lounge.



Hotel de Rome, Berlin

Thomas Olbricht, founder of the me Collectors Room gallery will educate guests on the German capitals pioneering art scene with a private tour with his gallery. Guests will then have the chance to see the city sights on a personal river cruise along the Spree, complete with Champagne picnic and shop in private for stylish homeware and clothing at the chic Andreas Murkudis concept store, before returning to Hotel de Romes magnificent Bebel Suite. Guests can indulge in a 10-course tasting dinner at the hotels La Banca restaurant, and work it off with a morning rooftop yoga session before being pampered with a 24-carat gold leaf treatment at the De Rome Spa. - TradeArabia News Service
An Emirates A380 aircraft landed at Bandaranaike International Airport Katunayake today, helping Sri Lanka and the airport achieve an aviation milestone.



Sri Lankas minister of Transport & Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva M.P. was at the airport to greet Abdul Hameed Abdul Fattah Kazhim Al-Mulla, UAE Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Emirates' senior vice president commercial (West Asia & Indian Ocean) Ahmed Khoory who were among the VIPs on the flight - the first A380 commercial flight to the country.



Arranged to celebrate the airport's recently resurfaced and upgraded runway, the special one-off A380 flight operated as EK654 from Dubai, replacing the B777 aircraft usually deployed by Emirates on flights to Sri Lanka. The iconic aircraft was on ground for more than six hours to enable airport executives, VIPs, trade partners and media to enjoy guided static tours of its cabins and unique amenities like the First Class Suites, Shower Spas and the On-board lounge.



Welcoming guests on behalf of Emirates at a reception at Gate 8 of the Bandaranaike International Airport, Khoory said: This one-off flight reflects the strong relationship we have with the market and our commitment to the destination. It signifies that, when demand for the destination grows, as it definitely will, to the point that scheduled A380 flights are feasible, Emirates will be ready to operate one.



For the Bandaranaike International Airport, this event signals that it is A380 ready, and that the worlds largest A380 operator  Emirates  has already operated a commercial flight. Given the Sri Lanka governments focus on developing tourism, this is an important development. For local aviation enthusiasts it is a matter of pride that their airport has joined the ranks of leading international airports in the A380 league, he added.



Emirates is the worlds largest A380 operator with 96 aircraft already in its fleet and a further 46 on order. The award-winning airline currently operates A380 flights to 48 destinations, almost a third of its global network. Since 2008, Emirates has flown over 80 million passengers on its A380 fleet.



On the Emirates A380, First Class passengers can relax in one of 14 flat-bed, massage-equipped Private Suites; the cabin also has two exquisitely designed onboard Shower Spas, ensuring a revitalised and refreshed arrival. For First and Business Class passengers the on-board lounge is the social highlight, featuring a fully-stocked bar and a selection of hot and cold canapes. Business Class passengers can relax in seats that convert to flat beds up to 87 inches (two metres) long, whilst those travelling in Economy Class can stretch out in seats with a pitch of up to 33 inches.



Customers in Sri Lanka can experience Emirates double-decker aircraft by connecting through the airlines Dubai hub when they travel to A380 destinations in North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, Russia, and the Far East.



Emirates commenced operations to Sri Lanka in April 1986 and operates a total of 34 flights a week from Colombo -- 27 flights westward to Male and Dubai and seven eastward to Singapore connecting onwards to Melbourne, Australia. - TradeArabia News Service
Ultra Petroleum is digging deep in Western Wyoming. The Houston-based company, which emerged from bankruptcy in April, announced a net income of nearly $500 million from April to June this year. Revenue was up 45 percent during the second quarter compared to 2016.

Ultra is the largest producer of gas in the Upper Green River Basin for 2017, according to state records. It declared bankruptcy last spring, $3.9 billion in debt, during a slate or Chapter 11 filings and layoffs.

Executives were optimistic for the latter half of the year.

Were a Western basin natural gas company, serving a Western market that has seen little to no gas supply growth, said CEO Mike Watford, in a call with investors Wednesday. We have a very real opportunity of significant resource expansion with the horizontal program we have planned.

The firms Wyoming production is up 8 percent since the last quarter and is expected to increase another 13 percent by the end of the year, its CFO Garland Shaw said on the call.

The company has brought nearly 70 net wells online in Pinedale since the start of the year. For the second half of 2017, Ultra will scale back on its development drilling to focus on three exploratory wells in western Wyoming.

For the last 18 months during restructuring, we have not been able to work on resource expansion. Now we can, said CEO Mike Watford in a press release. Weve added over 9,000 net acres, or 13 percent, to our core southwest Wyoming (Pinedale) acreage position, with much of it providing exploratory, horizontal development opportunity.

Theres been significant movement in the western gas fields in recent months. Jonah Energy, the third-largest gas operator in the western basin by production this year, bought Linn Energys assets in the Jonah field for around $580 million in May.

QEP Resources has stepped out of the gas fields. The Denver-based company sold its Pinedale Anticline assets for $740 million to Pinedale Energy Partners in July, to focus on its work in West Texas.

We have received a lot of questions about QEPs sale of their Pinedale acreage, and what we think that means relative to our valuation, said Shaw from Ultra. Overall, we think that the value that QEP received for their Pinedale assets is a positive marker for how our assets should be valued, if one considers that we have significantly more undeveloped reserves and much lower cost structure and no minimum volume requirements in our midstream contracts.

Denbury Resources also reported its earnings last week of $14 million. The Plano, Texas-based company picked up Linn Energys 23 percent stake in the Salt Creek Oil field during the second quarter. The acquisition cost the company over $70 million but is expected to provide a boost to its average daily production.

Id say the Salt Creek acquisition is going to provide in excess of 2,000 barrels a day for the year, said COO Christian S. Kendall in a call with investors last week. We dont have that dialed in just yet but somewhere in that neighborhood.
Have an event, trend or general energy happening youd like to see in the Energy Journal newsletter? Send it to Star-Tribune energy reporter Heather Richards at heather.richards@trib.com. Sign up for the newsletter at www.trib.com/energyjournal.

This week in numbers

Friday oil prices: West Texas Intermediate (WTI) $49.52, Brent (ICE) $52.38

Natural gas weekly averages: Henry Hub $2.82, Wyoming Pool $2.56, Opal $2.61

Baker Hughes rig count: U.S. 954, Wyoming 26

Preserving the grouse

Gov. Matt Mead approved of many parts of a report released Monday by the Department of the Interior on federal sage grouse management, but adding population targets was not one of them.

Oil and gas companies are pleased by the direction, which some say will provide a better balance of industry and conservation. Those in the conservation field, however, were troubled by the department's report.

Population targets, which biologists say are a slippery slope for conservation, have been mentioned by the secretary a number of times in recent months.

Coal and taxes

Coal companies received good news last week that the federal government was rescinding an Obama-era rule on royalties. Companies say they pay their fair share in taxes for federal coal leases, but others criticize what they call loop holes in the current rules.

Last year, a number of changes were made to how coal is valued, and thus how much it is taxed. Companies say the changes were detrimental to their industries. Environmental advocates said they were long overdue.

Now the changes have been undone.

Uranium hopes

It could take three years. It could take five, but uranium producers in Wyoming are hoping the price will soon rise.

Until then, companies are hunkered down with a lighter staff and bare minimum production.

Quote of the week

"Weve got to have good science lead the way, and that trumps politics."

--Gov. Matt Mead on sage grouse management in the West.

In other news

The Clean Power Plan is on hold for another 60 days. A central regulation from the Obama years, the CPP would put tremendous pressure on Wyoming's coal industry. President Donald Trump has promised to get rid of the plan, but the courts will have a say first.
Mainstay Suites in Casper sold out of rooms for eclipse weekend about a year ago. But the hotel is still receiving calls each day asking about availability.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing, said general manager LeAnn Miller. We get really busy during the high school tournaments, but nothing quite like this.

Mainstays experience is not unique. Hotels across Casper have been sold out well ahead of the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, which is expected to attract 35,000 visitors. And its not just hotels that are already full.

Brad Williams, the manager of Hertz Car Rental at the Casper/Natrona County International Airport, said the agencys fleet is booked that weekend.

Weve been sold out for three months, he added.

Despite the demand, there are still options for people looking to book a last-minute trip to see the eclipse in Casper, which is directly in the path of totality.

About 100 to 150 hotel rooms are available in Casper, according to Anna Wilcox, the executive director of the Wyoming Eclipse Festival.

A handful of those rooms are at the Sterling Hotel, which started accepting reservations only a few weeks ago, said the hotels manager Jason Laird. The establishment was shut down shortly after it was struck by lightning on June 13, 2016, and was not expected to reopen.

My family was pretty devastated, he recalled, adding that they struggled to pay their bills and had to go to the food bank for Christmas dinner.

Although the buildings owner decided to sell the facility, Laird said he and his wife noticed it was still sitting empty this June, and approached the owner about reopening the hotel for the week of the eclipse.

The owner agreed, but Laird said he was worried there might not be any people left who needed reservations.

I didnt know if we had missed the boat or not, he said.

Laird quickly received his answer.

As of Friday, 8 of the hotels 67 rooms were still available, and theyre selling for $900 to $1300 a night, he said.

The hotels former rates were $65 to $195, he recalled.

Laird credits the eclipse for helping his family get back on their feet.

I tell my wife every day Im happier than Ive been in a year, he said, adding that the facility might remain open permanently as an apartment complex.

Laird added that he has guests coming from all over the world.

A lady called me today from France, and shes bringing a group of six people, he said. Its kind of exciting.

Tarandeep Kaur, the owner of 1st Interstate Motel, said shes also expecting international guests, some from as far as Australia and Japan. The motel has a few rooms left, and theyre selling for $1,500 a night, she said.

This year [business] was pretty slow, so this is a big help to the community and the businesses, she said.

Although Wilcox said most visitors will be coming to Casper by car, the airport is also expecting a surge.

Glenn Januska, the director of Casper/Natrona County International Airport, said that some commercial airlines have added a few extra flights to Casper for the eclipse. She also confirmed that 157 private airplanes  half of which are jets  are scheduled to fly into the airport on the morning of Aug. 21.

The airport, which started holding eclipse preparation meetings in 2014, is ready for the crowds, said Januska.

The director said that the airports procedures and security policies will not significantly change during the eclipse but will simply be done on a larger scale.

Although not everyone is enthused about the influx of visitors, Wilcox said she thinks the eclipse will be an amazing experience.

I am feeling very excited, she said. I know a number of people who say oh, you must be ready for all this to be over, and its the exact opposite.
If you have visitors coming for the eclipse who might use medical marijuana, you might want to remind them its not legal in Wyoming.

The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police raised the issue in an eclipse-related press release last week.

Even if you have a card from another state, it is still illegal to possess marijuana in Wyoming, Natrona County Sheriff Gus Holbrook said in the release. If you are caught with any controlled substance you will be charged with a misdemeanor or felony drug offense.

Theres precedent for people bringing medical marijuana into a state while on vacation, only to get in trouble after they arrive.

At my previous reporting job in the Virgin Islands, a tourist from California who used medical marijuana to treat severe anxiety was arrested when police found it in her possession.

She spent the night in jail, faced a large fine and her vacation was completely ruined.

***

On a lighter note ... animal-loving Casperites who are proud of their furry or feathered companions should mark their calendar for Pet Fest at Washington Park on Aug. 26.

The event, which is organized by the Casper Recreation Division and the Community Recreation Foundation, is free. Prizes will be awarded to the pets with the best costumes and tricks, and vendors will be selling pet-related products.

Dont forget to bring along a leash or carrier, as animals are not allowed to be loose.

If you go, look for me and my three foster kittens. As the kittens were previously feral, they will not be winning any Miss Congeniality awards, but they are quite cute. Ive named them after the dragons on Game of Thrones, so if anyone has any mini-dragon costumes lying around, let me know.

***

Gov. Matt Mead will be in Casper this week and hell be answering questions from Star-Tribune reporters. Im currently preparing my questions, but Id like our readers to have some input, too. If readers have any particular concerns they would like the governor to address, please send them to my email for consideration.
Casper College cut its honors program scholarships by 35 percent in recent months and will stop offering two of its four classes, officials said.

Dave Zoby, the director of the program who was on sabbatical during the spring semester, said he found out about the cuts earlier this week and is still trying to understand the full depth of the changes. He knows the available scholarships have been cut from $40,000 to $25,000 and that his own honors class was canceled.

History instructor Erich Frankland confirmed via email Friday that his honors class will be relisted as a regular course because of low enrollment.

In the past, the programs classes have had as many as 50 students and have been filled with both honors and non-honors students, Zoby and Vice President for Academic Affairs Shawn Powell said. For fall 2017, that number is around 25.

Zoby said the cuts to scholarships will have a direct effect on students.

This is student money. This is not faculty junket, or faculty privileges. This is money that went to the students that live in Casper, he said. You had to be full time and you took in-person classes (to qualify for the program). These are people who live here in our community. And I wont be able to get the scholarship to that many people.

This is the administration not wanting to use this money for honors students, he said later.

Powell said Thursday that the scholarship reduction was caused by both the budget situation and that students werent using the entire $40,000 available. He said that Zoby and the directors of three other programs on campus had also previously been given half-course loads to manage their other duties. Those faculty members had been informed that theyll be expected to teach full course loads now, Powell said.

He added that, typically, honors students are also usually capable of affording school without scholarships.

Though he said he understood budget constraints, Zoby pushed back on the suggestion that any of the scholarship money was left idle.

We still used it all. If we ever didnt fill them, we used them in the summer for students going on alternative spring breaks, he said.

The cuts, while on the one hand emblematic of the budget crisis facing education across the state of Wyoming, also resurfaced complaints among faculty about high-level decision making at the college and the apparent exclusion of instructors from those conversations.

As he noticed low enrollment in honors classes, Zoby said he had spent the summer trying to obtain a list of potential honors students to recruit and fill the classes. He had learned that he wouldnt receive a stipend  which he typically receives every summer, along with the list  to recruit on his own time. Still, he said he was willing to do the work for free.

It was my favorite part of the job, he said. It was really a lot of fun to call somebody with good news and try to recruit some of these great high school students to come here instead of going to UW or Nebraska or (the University of Colorado).

He finally received a list of 460 students eligible for the program on Tuesday, the day after he found out about the cuts to the scholarship pool and just over three weeks before classes were set to begin. Franklands class had already been reclassified, and Zobys class had been canceled.

I could spend weeks on the thing, but scholarship numbers are so low, he said, adding that available aid had been cut by 10 percent before the 2016-17 school year.

Like every public school from kindergarten to the University of Wyoming, Casper College has been no stranger to cuts. College president Darren Divine said late last year that the school has lost as much as 10 percent of its funding since 2016.

Scott Meisenburg, a former Casper College student who was a member of the honors program, lamented the cuts and said students will miss out on what the program has to offer.

I thought that the honors program was fantastic, he said. I was at the business school, so my academics were all geared toward that. It was pretty narrow and focused, but being part of the honors program allowed me to experience other areas of academia that allowed me to think outside of what I was doing and to learn things that I probably would never have pursued had I not had that scholarship to do it.

Zoby lamented that faculty didnt appear to be involved in the decision to cut honors scholarship funding. Its a familiar complaint from Casper College faculty of late: In late March, the schools faculty senate presented a resolution to the board of trustees that, among other things, charged president Divine with limited use of shared governance in decision making.

Powell said there were currently no plans to eliminate the honors program, but Zoby worried about its future all the same. He pointed out that the University of Wyoming and its Casper satellite were both expanding their honors offerings.

If we take another 35 percent cut, which is totally possible, you can say you have an honors program, but if youre not doing anything or offering classes is it really an honors program?
As President Donald Trump took recent criticism for equivocal statements condemning violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia over the weekend, members of Wyomings congressional delegation took a variety of approaches in their own public comments about the event.

Wyomings U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the first member of the delegation to comment, was forceful in her word choice.

Vile white supremacist/neo-Nazi hatred has no place in America, she wrote on Twitter Sunday.

Those comments came after her personal Twitter account retweeted several denunciations of white supremacism, including a quote from Ronald Reagan and a photo of American soldiers during World War II with a captured Nazi flag.

She also retweeted a comment from her father Dick Cheneys cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, who co-wrote a book with the former vice president.

Lets see if any of these a------- will say Jew will not Cath me when they have their heart attack, Reiner wrote in reference to chants of Jew will not replace us during the rally.

In a statement on social media Monday morning, Wyomings senior U.S. senator, Mike Enzi, also condemned bigotry expressed at the rally.

White supremacist notions, hate & violence have no place in our society, Enzi wrote on Twitter. We should condemn those who use violence to propagate hatred, racism, or anti-Semitism in our country.

Sen. John Barrasso released a relatively tepid statement on Twitter on Saturday evening, several hours after one woman was killed, and many others injured, when someone drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters. Police arrested and charged a participant in the white supremacist rally with the car ramming.

Saddened by the events in #Charlottesville. Violence and hatred are not the American way. Prayers for the victims, Barrasso wrote.

He elaborated on his tweet in a statement sent to the Star-Tribune on Monday.

Im extremely saddened by what happened in Charlottesville. These acts of violence and bigotry, fueled by this white supremacist group, are completely unacceptable. Our prayers are with the victims and their families, he said.

Trump received bipartisan criticism after condemning both sides for violence at the rally. Trump declined to answer questions from reporters over the weekend about whether he specifically condemned the white supremacists and neo-Nazis at the rally, many of whom have expressed support for the president.

On Monday afternoon, Trump strengthened his comments by condemning the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as criminals and thugs and said racism is evil.

Critics noted that Trump has more quickly denounced cable news hosts, department stores and other relatively minor entities over perceived slights.

Cheneys representative, Kara Ahern, affirmed Trumps statement Monday.

Congressman Cheney welcomes President Trumps comments at the White House this morning, and his determination to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice, she wrote in an email to the Star-Tribune.

Enzi elaborated on his social media comments in an email.

White supremacist notions, hate and violence have no place in our society, Enzi wrote. They run counter to our values that we all share as Americans. We as a nation have come so far, fighting wars at home and abroad, to protect the idea that all individuals are created equal.

Trumps attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said earlier Monday that the violence in which a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters, killing one person, does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute.

The Unite the Right event in Charlottesville was billed as a bridging of several alt-right groups, though it ended up taking a decidedly white supremacist turn as participants marched to a Confederate monument on Friday night in a torchlight parade and rallied on Saturday while waving Confederate and Nazi flags.

There were several violent clashes between the white supremacists and counter-protesters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
They have Ernest Hemingways shotgun, and William Codys Medal of Honor. And, theres a custom rifle built for Abraham Lincoln with the presidents head for a hammer.

All that can be seen daily at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

But some of the most interesting and bizarre items at the Center rarely make a public appearance.

The Center of the West is home to five world-class museums devoted to chronicling the history of the Western United States. The Buffalo Bill Museum opened in 1927 and over the last 90 years the Center has grown to include the Whitney Western Art Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Cody Firearms Museum and the Draper Natural History Museum. Each of the museums have collections with thousands of items, but space constraints, delicate materials and sometimes cultural sensitivities force the museums to keep a majority of their treasures hidden from visitors in climate-controlled vaults.

Buffalo Bill Codys Wild West show toured in 47 states and throughout Europe over the course of three decades. Cody, the citys namesake, hosted hundreds of exhibitions every year and hobnobbed with royalty and the days newsmakers across the globe.

The cowboy back in 1883, when Buffalo Bill started the Wild West show, was seen as a thug, basically a Hells Angel on horseback. By the time (Cody) was done, the cowboy was an American hero, said Jeremy Johnston, executive curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum.

When Cody died in 1917 he left behind an outsized legend and thousands of historically significant items related to his life as a frontiersman and performer. Thanks to the efforts of Mary Jester Allen, Bill Codys niece, the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association was formed to connect Codys descendants in the name of preserving the mans legacy.

According to Johnston, the Buffalo Bill museum now claims more than 10,000 items. But, only about 10 percent of the artifacts are on display at any given time. Key items in the collection are always on display, while many others are rotated between exhibits, several vaults beneath the museum and offsite storage facilities.

Some of the items like a carriage used in the Wild West show are kept off site because theyre too large to keep on the main campus. Others are loaned to museums across the country, and some items, like a collection of 200 promotional posters from performances as far away as Ukraine, are stored in controlled environments to facilitate preservation. The posters were meant to be temporary objects, so keeping them in tact takes calculated handling.

You can imagine these were used once and then scraped off the wall or painted over, Johnston said while pulling out a blood red poster promoting a tour through France.

He said museum curators have two main duties, to share history and artifacts with the public but also to ensure the items are around for thousands of years in the future.

The museum displays 20 of the promotional posters at any given time and circulates them every six months. If the museum displayed the posters full time, UV rays would damage the materials and rob the images of their brilliant color.

Other items reside in the museum vault because similar items are already on display in exhibits like a few examples of Codys over-the-top buckskins or the dozens of saddles kept by the museum. Some artifacts are just too bizarre to fit into an exhibition.

The Buffalo Bill Museum vault contains a wig worn by Annie Oakley in her later years with the Wild West show. Johnston said Oakley went grey prematurely. The official story blamed her loss of color on stress created by a train crash she experienced, but in reality she went grey after soaking too long in a spa containing potent chemicals. Her vanity prompted her to wear a wig during remaining performances.

The odd objects arent limited to the vaults of the Buffalo Bill Museum. The Cody Firearms Museum has about 35,000 items in its collection but only 7,000 of those are guns. Many of the objects are tools, gun parts, ammunition, or items otherwise connected to firearms. At any time, about three fourths of the collection is in storage.

Since 1998, the firearms museum vault has contained large milk chocolate plates bearing depictions of bison, geese and other western imagery. While edible at one time, the chocolate is actually an artifact telling a piece of American firearms history.

Danny Michael, Cody Firearms Museum curatorial assistant, said the chocolate moldings were created by an engraving company and depict images etched into the firearms the firm worked on. The museum maintains few records concerning the candy so little else is known about them.

Other items in the vault are as unusual though their connection to the museums mission is easier to see. The museum is home to a prototype shotgun known as the liberator. This unusual firearm was designed in 1964 at the height of tensions with the Soviet Union as a cheap gun that could be dropped to resistance fighters in enemy territory.

Michael said the four-barrel 12 gauge has a single firing pin that rotated to fire a shell in one barrel at a time. The shotgun was designed to be cheap with mostly cast parts and a folding wire stock. The idea was for a fighter to use the gun to obtain better weapons from their enemies. Not all the items in the vault are so utilitarian.

A gold-plated revolver once belonging to Cody madam Cassie Waters is often on display, but not currently. The .32-caliber Hopkins and Allen has mother of pearl grips with a personal inlaid message: To My Friend Cassie, Every Inch a Lady.

Its gold plating is kind of ironic because Hopkins and Allen are kind of known for their inexpensive handguns, Michael said with a smile. Notice theres no description who its from, only whos getting it.

Almost all the vaults and behind-the-scenes areas are inaccessible to Center of the West visitors, but there is a notable exception. The Draper Natural History Museum encourages guests to gaze through large windows into the lab where their wildlife specimens are processed by researchers and volunteers.

The Natural History Museum opened in 2002 and is the newest of the five institutions at the Center. Charles Preston, Drapers Willis Mcdonald IV Senior Curator of Natural Science, said the museum operates a little differently than the others in Cody.

Much of the museums mission lies in research. Biological specimens are constantly brought into the lab where they are processed for scientific study. Folks walking through the public sections of the museum will enjoy taxidermied wolves, bears and other animals native to the area, although Preston said this type of preservation has little value for researchers because the dimensions change during the taxidermy process.

Instead, volunteers in the lab routinely preserve specimens by carefully skinning the animal and collecting the bones. The skins are pressed flat and the bones cleaned and organized into a representative skeleton. The method has an added benefit with smaller species in the ability to be stored flat in file cabinets.

Thats not to say the only specimens chronicled in the museums vaults are small birds or mammals. The Draper has about 1,000 specimens including the complete skeleton of a bison that once lived and died in the Big Horn Basin.

The collection grows every day and sometimes in surprising ways. Preston said a volunteer once chanced upon a young male mountain lion that died in Yellowstone National Park. The level of decomposition prevented easy identification of the cause of death so the cat was taken to the lab in Cody for investigation. Researchers discovered punctures in the animals skull from the canine teeth of adult mountain lion. The deceased lions skull is now part of the Draper collection.

Its in good company. The museum is a repository for skulls belonging to wolves killed in Yellowstone National Park since their reintroduction in 1995. There are now about 150 wolf skulls in the collection.

You get a series as big as this you can tell how the wolves are getting injured, if they were kicked in the head while hunting or something, Preston said.

Researchers are also finishing a comparison between the skeletal records of the reintroduced wolves and wolf specimens that lived in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem 100 years ago. Preston said some of the people opposed to the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone have claimed the gray wolves brought in from Canada are larger than the original population. The study has not yet been completed but preliminary results indicate the reintroduced packs do not differ in size to the animals that preceded them.

The skulls and other specimens are kept away from public view like the vaults of the other four museums at the Center. But visitors with an appetite for a look behind the scenes can catch a glimpse of front-line research at the Draper.
JACKSON  Summer business is down in Jackson Hole  but town promoters are hoping that visitors for the solar eclipse will reverse the summer slowdown.

Jacksons lodging occupancy was down an average of 5 percent from last year this May, June and July.

The shortfall should be made up during the week of Aug. 21, when upwards of 100,000 people are expected to descend upon Jackson to view the total solar eclipse.

August numbers are going to be skewed enormously, said Anna Olson, the new president and CEO of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.

Sales tax income returned to Teton County from the state was down 22 percent for the month of June, which comes out to more than $1 million, according to the Wyoming Department of Revenue. Year-to-date, sales tax collections are down just 0.28 percent from last year.

The decline comes despite the fact that lodging tax income for May through July 2017 was up 9 percent compared with the same period in 2016 and up 22 percent compared with 2015.

Unemployment has also declined 0.3 percent as the national economy continues to thrive.

Part of the discrepancy may be explained by a 16 percent increase in average daily rate for a room  from $343 to $393  collecting a larger portion of taxes despite hosting fewer people.

Olson noted that the increase in average daily rate does not seem to have scared people away or caused them to spend less on goods and services. This year has simply marked a return to normal following the busiest summer in Jackson history in 2016.

But the eclipse could bring this year close to 2016 levels.

From Aug. 19 to Aug. 26, eclipse week, occupancy in Jackson is up an average of 22 percent compared with last summer. For the nights of Aug. 20 and 21, occupancy is at 97 and 96 percent. That week alone could more than make up the $1 million lost in June.

I think from a business aspect people will be watching this summer with interest, Olson said. Well see how the fall plays out and continue to monitor the situation.
A North Carolina man walks into a popular Washington, D.C., pizzeria and opens fire, telling police upon his inevitable arrest that he came to self-investigate a widely debunked conspiracy theory involving former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In Hollywood, actress and model Jenny McCarthy and others wage a campaign against mandatory vaccinations for children, despite mountains of evidence showing theyre the key to preventing debilitating childhood diseases.

At the dinner table, your loudmouthed uncle holds forth on the events of the day, insisting hes right and refusing to accept counter-arguments, even as he mangles facts and disregards clear truths.

Separately, these are amusing  and maybe a little disturbing, anecdotes.

But taken together, theyre part of the death of expertise, a stubborn insistence by the ignoramuses in our midst that everyone is as smart as everyone else; that expert opinion is meaningless and that any attempt to dismiss such claims is just elitism.

Tom Nichols, a former staffer to the late Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. John Heinz, and a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, stirred the pot of debate this summer with his new book, sensibly titled, The Death of Expertise: The campaign against established knowledge and why it matters.

Despite having access to more information than ever before, Americans are not only getting dumber, theyre also proud of their ignorance and cant be moved off their opinions  no matter how effective the counterargument.

The bigger problem is were proud of not knowing things, Nichols writes. Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of any public policy issue, is an actual virtue.

He lays blame for this phenomenon in a couple of places.

Among them, the fever swamp of the Internet where confirmation bias reigns supreme, the galaxy of news sources that exist to reaffirm and stoke those prejudices, and on college and university campuses, where students become clients to be coddled rather than challenged.

Of course, theres always been a strain of know-nothingism, in our politics. The difference now is that when presented with facts proving him wrong, your drunk Uncle Harry will dismiss contradictory evidence as fake news and alternative facts and go blithely on his way.

But its not that people dont trust experts or eggheads, Nichols said in an interview.

Nope, its worse than that: Its that they have actually come to believe that theyre smarter than those experts.

Increasingly, laypeople challenge experts by trying to explain their own subject back to them, he continued. Oh, youre an expert on Russia? Well, let me explain Russia back to you. This is not skepticism, it is narcissism.

And in case youre inclined to dismiss that argument, think for a moment how many times youve self-diagnosed a malady on WebMD and then quibbled with your family doctor over what actually ails you.

Thats the kind of narcissism that Nichols describes.

The death of expertise trend reached its apogee in 2016 when billionaire Donald Trump, who pushed the debunked birther conspiracy involving President Barack Obama, won the White House.

Trump, who has been caught in seemingly countless fibs and fabrications since, screams fake news at the slightest criticism.

And he undercuts the credibility of government institutions, as in the case of his ongoing fight with the intelligence community over Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trumps bleating about fake news is dangerous because it makes news the vessel for partisan politics rather than a presentation of ideas or facts. We now distrust the politicians, and the sources that check on the politicians, Nichols says.

So where does that leave us? Are we just doomed to get dumber and dumber until the flow chart of human intelligence looks like the Ascent of Man drawn in reverse?

Unfortunately, according to Nichols, the answer is Probably, yeah (and Im paraphrasing here).

My concern is that this wont end until a populist fad like anti-vaccines cause a disaster. Diplomacy will come back as a skill when we face war  or are in one, he said. We might start consulting economists during the next depression. Populism always drives itself into the ditch, and experts always have to fix it. Its one of the reasons people resent experts; were the people who generally have to repair the damage on the morning after.

Note to self: Stock up on both canned goods and economists in the event of the apocalypse.
CARTAGENA, Colombia  Vice President Mike Pences visit to Latin America comes amid unrest in Venezuela and concern by its neighbors about a possible American military role.

Pence greeted Colombias president, Juan Manuel Santos, at the presidents guest house in advance of talks planned later Sunday as he began a weeklong trip likely to be dominated by conversations about the crisis in Venezuela. The United States accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region.

President Trump said Friday he would not rule out a military option in response to Maduros moves.

That statement drew quick condemnation, including from the Colombian Foreign Ministry, which said it opposes any military measures and the use of force, and said efforts to resolve Venezuelas breakdown in democracy should be peaceful and respect its sovereignty.

Pence and his wife, Karen, were greeted by a military honor guard on the tarmac at Rafael Nunez International Airport, where they were greeted by the Colombian minister of foreign affairs, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia and the Colombian ambassador to the U.S., among other officials. Afterward, Pence met briefly with Santos at Casa de Huespedes Ilustres, telling him that Trump sends greetings and thanks for Santos hospitality.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump, by raising the prospect of possible military action, was trying to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored. Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that Venezuela could very much become a risk to the U.S. if it descended into further chaos.

Yet a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself a pretty hawkish guy expressed skepticism about the idea of American troops in Caracas.

I have no idea why we would use military force in Venezuela. Im open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when theres a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people, South Carolinas Lindsey Graham told Fox News Sunday, adding: I dont see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force.

H. R. McMaster, Trumps national security adviser, said the administration wants to get a handle on the current situation under Maduros government and understand better how this crisis might evolve.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some Aug. 14 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
Hours after a white nationalist rally and violence that rocked Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller posted from her personal Facebook account that she is sick and tired of being hit for being white.

It is all about making us feel like we need to apologize. I am WHITE  and proud of it! No apologies necessary, the 6:19 p.m. post went on to say.

Miller was responding to a Politico article shared by former Tucson mayoral candidate Shaun McClusky that detailed President Trumps response to the violence, in which he said that we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides  on many sides. Those comments were criticized for not specifically calling out white supremacists and other groups involved in the Unite the Right rally.

Miller did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Star.

On the James T. Harris radio show on 104.1 KQTH Monday afternoon, Miller said her post was meant to criticize the simple-minded identity politics that defines us based on nothing more than the color of our skin. And I was expressing my frustration with the identity politics. And I think the American people are rejecting those politics, and I certainly will not be ashamed for the color of my skin.

She agreed with Harris that the reaction to her comments was an example of gotcha politics, and added later: I hope everyone is proud of their race.

Why is that a bad thing to say? And why do they extrapolate? Its pretty clear they extrapolated my comment into their narrative and assumed that because I say Im proud of being white that means I hate everybody.

Miller also condemned white supremacists and hate speech, and said it was unfair to attribute any responsibility for the violence in Charlottesville to President Donald Trump.

Miller's three Democratic colleagues on the board have asked for her to apologize for the post. Her fellow Republican Supervisor Steve Christy denounced the Charlottesville violence, and the white supremacists behind it, as deplorable and shocking, but did not call for an apology from Miller, in a written statement Monday. Rather, he said Millers post unfortunately gave her detractors the fodder they have been waiting for  an opportunity to pounce and to denounce her.
The Tucson City Council wants more information about what the UA plans to do with several city streets the school has asked to acquire before signing off on the ownership transfer request.

While University of Arizona officials said the transfer is routine, some council members opted to hold off on the request as the city and university deal with the issue of a 1,000-bed dorm the UA wants to build just north of the campus. Several of the streets the UA wants the city to relinquish control over run through the area where the Honors dorm is expected to be built. Some of the streets are on the south end of the campus.

So last week, the council put on hold a request from the UA to transfer more than a dozen streets from the citys control to the universitys. Several council members said they were concerned about handing over city streets before learning whether the university would adhere to city zoning codes when it comes to building the Honors dorm.

Chris Sigurdson, a university spokesman, said the request is largely routine; the school regularly asks the city to hand over streets, alleys and easements inside of the universitys planning boundaries.

Control over the streets and alleys, Sigurdson says, is related to maintenance issues.

He said the request was not tied directly to the dorm proposal, but conceded that several streets the university is asking for direct control over go through the three city blocks where the dorm would be built.

Councilman Steve Kozachik, whose ward surrounds the UA campus, was skeptical of why the university would want to take control of the maintenance of the streets unless it had plans for the property.

It allows the Board of Regents to assemble properties in that entire -of-a-square mile area without going through any city process, he said. If the goal by ABOR is anything other than easing the ability to assemble parcels for development, then why would they be taking that obligation on?

Neither city nor university officials could answer questions on what the university wanted to do with each street it asked the city to convey. The biggest unanswered question is whether the school would close those streets to public access if acquired by the university.

At least one  North Fremont Avenue between East Mabel and Helen streets  was identified by university officials as likely to be closed to traffic if the dorm project moves forward.

Councilman Paul Cunningham asked the council to delay the vote for a month, primarily to better understand what the UA planned to do with each section of road. I am sure they have good intentions, but lets make sure, he said.

City Manager Mike Ortega said the city would get assurances from the university that private property owners will not be affected by a change in ownership.

We can reach out to the university and find out exactly their intent on this, Ortega said.

The council is expected to revisit the issue next month.
Gov. Doug Ducey is heading to Tucson and Southern Arizona as part of his back to school tour in which he plans to visit six of the states top performing schools.

Chosen for their demonstrated academic excellence, innovative programs and exemplary teachers and school leadership, each school visit will focus on a different topic, ranging from early literacy, special education programs, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, career and technical education, college and career preparedness and postsecondary attainment.

Duceys first stop will be Tucsons Sonoran Science Academy, on Monday, Aug. 21, at 9 a.m., and will focus on the importance of STEM education. He will also visit Safford High School on Monday, Aug. 28.

Im looking forward to visiting these schools and seeing firsthand the incredible work taking place in classrooms statewide, Ducey said in a press release announcing the tour.

Survey: Ariz. teachers want more money

A new survey of teachers in Arizona and nationally found that instructors in the Grand Canyon State have fewer books in the classroom, are more likely to spend their own money on classroom supplies and are far more likely than their peers in other states to name higher salaries as their top funding priority.

The study, which was sponsored by Scholastic and conducted by YouGov via email in 2016, surveyed 4,721 public school educators, including 77 teachers and 24 principals in Arizona.

The poll found that on average, Arizona teachers have 14 percent fewer books per classroom than their peers nationwide  an average of 219 in Arizona classrooms versus an average of 254 nationwide.

It also found that 65 percent of Arizona teachers have used their own money in the past year to purchase books for their classrooms, compared to 56 percent nationally.

Teachers in Arizona, which has some of the lowest teacher pay in the U.S., were also far more likely than their peers to say salary increases were a top priority. Seventy-nine percent of teachers in Arizona said higher salaries was their top funding priority, compared to 47 percent of teachers nationwide.

Additionally, 64 percent of Arizona educators said retaining high-quality teachers is a challenge in their schools, compared to 49 percent nationwide.

Salpointe welcomes new freshmen, faculty

Salpointe Catholic High School welcomed 320 new freshmen this school year, bringing the student population count to 1,200.

To accommodate the increasing size of the student population, Salpointe Catholic welcomed several new faculty and staff members, including two new Carmelite brothers who will be on campus for the next two years.

Brothers Michael Joyce, and Kevin Keller, joined Salpointe Catholic after having recently started their Masters studies in Divinity at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and they continue their studies with online classes.

Continental district gets new member

Stephen Oesterle has been appointed to the Continental Elementary School District Governing Board.

Oesterle will replace Sharon Niehaus, who resigned in June. State law requires that the Pima County School Superintendent, Dustin Williams, fill any vacancy on a school district governing board.

Oesterle is an active community member in the Continental Elementary School District. He has served on the Continental School District Educational Foundation board for the past 10 years and currently has children in the district. Upon taking his oath, Mr. Oesterle will serve through December 31, 2018.
It has been an eventful week for Arizonas first-ever Rainbow Crosswalks, which now span the North Fourth Avenue-East Sixth Street intersection.

Before the dedication ceremony last week, a Styrofoam cup filled with white paint marred the eastern span across Sixth, though whether it was an act of vandalism is still under investigation by the Tucson Police Department, a spokesman said.

While those involved with the project say the balance of public opinion has been positive, social media has lit up with criticism that ranges from measured and taxpayer-focused to shrill and homophobic.

There have been a lot of questions about how much the project cost, and how much public money went into it. Those seemed like sensible questions for the Road Runner to dive into.

After putting in a handful of public records requests and speaking with a number of officials involved, $10,400 of Councilwoman Karin Uhlichs unexpended office funds appears to be the publics share. In May, the City Council approved spending up to $12,500 from those funds for the materials needed to complete the Rainbow Crosswalk project. Another $377.01 went into labor and materials to fix the damage caused by the dropped or tossed white paint, according to information provided by a city spokesman.

An invoice obtained by the Star  the only one officials expect to be covered by city dollars  says the 10 grand went toward the rainbow aggregate sidewalk, layout, surface preparation and installation of the materials.

In a statement, the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association, one of the project sponsors, said the cost was around $68,000. However, that calculation includes the estimated value of donated staff time, labor and additional materials beyond those covered by Uhlichs office.

Its all in-kind, said Fred Ronstadt, the associations executive director.

Much of that came from Tucson-based Speedy Striping, which provided the labor and some of the materials free of charge, according to founder Lucas Boring.

Every day were serving the public, he said. We just saw this as another opportunity to serve more of the public, a great community project.

Adam Ragan, associate director of LGBTQ initiatives with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, which first started promoting the idea of the crosswalks several years ago, described Boring as an ally who has put in blood, sweat and tears to support our community, so therefore I consider that man family.

The foundation, which also dedicated staff time to the crosswalks, was responsible for scheduling and administering the project, while the merchants association agreed to take on the responsibility of ongoing maintenance, according to two city documents.

On Friday morning, the Road Runner spoke with a number of pedestrians at the vibrant crossings, and the comments were almost exclusively positive.

Two teenage college students, home for the summer, said the public art project was a welcome change.

I love it. I think its cool, said University of California-Berkeley student Kat McLaughlin. Where we go to college its the norm, and its nice its in our hometown.  Its letting people know were an accepting community.

Its a nice, progressive change for Tucson, her friend, University of Washington student Aaliyah Ismail, said.

Avenue merchant Tank Ojha said the crosswalks add a little flavor on Fourth, and Tucsonan Hal von Bohnhoff took a smiling selfie in front of them after speaking with the Road Runner. Von Bohnhoff did note the crosswalks were looking a little shabby after less than a week of traffic.

Ricky Hart said he took no issue with the design or message of the project, but did raise a concern echoed numerous times on social media over the last week.

To me theres a lot of other things they could have done with the money, he said. That kind of money, they could have fixed the potholes with it.

Uhlich concedes the money could have gone toward a couple traffic bumps in a neighborhood, or a handful of bollards at the end of an alley somewhere, but argued that the Rainbow Crosswalks are very much in keeping with how unspent ward office funds have been used historically: funding public art, community projects and neighborhood traffic mitigation.

In the case of crosswalks, Uhlich said they were both traffic safety measures and public art, which would have also cost significantly more if the city had undertaken them on its own.

Any time we allocate public funds, we have to weigh what will have the greatest impact for limited dollars, she added.

DOWN THE ROAD

Not much new road work to report, but there will be a meeting of the Pima County Transportation Advisory Committee on Monday afternoon, Aug. 14.

Among other things, that board is tasked with deciding what local road repair projects to prioritize with the proceeds of a recently approved $19.5 million road property tax.

Mondays noon to 4 p.m. meeting at the Abrams Public Health Center will focus on projects proposed by Oro Valley. The address is 3950 S. Country Club Road.
When Islamic terrorists used vehicles to injure and kill in England, our president condemned the attacks and labeled the perpetrators as terrorists. Curiously, when a nazi sympathizer plowed his vehicle into a Charlottesville crowd, killing one and injuring 19, a tepid response blaming both sides was initially forthcoming from the same president. The word terrorist was never associated with this attack.
Ruth Seawolf had millions in her hands and let it slip away.

It started with a phone call the Silver City, New Mexico, real estate agent received a few months back.

The gentleman on the other end said his aunt  her name has not been disclosed  had died and he wanted to sell her house. But first, it was loaded down with her possessions.

Ruthie, Seawolf recalled him saying to her, go through the house and take what you want.

The first thing she noticed when she opened the door was the artwork.

There were hundreds of paintings in the home, said Seawolf.

One of the paintings she picked up and looked at was Woman-Ochre, a Willem de Kooning piece stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985. The museum wont say what its worth is, but it was valued at $400,000 when it was stolen, and when the UA tried to revive interest on the thefts 30th anniversary, a news release said the piece was worth up to $160 million. A little more than a decade ago, another de Kooning painting in the Woman series sold for $137.5 million.

Seawolf did not know that, of course. And she wasnt interested in taking the piece by one of the giants in the 20th century abstract expressionism movement.

Did I like it? Honestly, no, she said in a phone interview Friday. It was kind of funky.

She connected the seller to David Van Auker, owner of Silver Citys Manzanita Ridge Furniture and Antiques, who arranged to purchase some of the homes contents.

Among those was the de Kooning oil.

And the painting began its journey back to where it belonged.

It really is thanks to a good citizen, David, said Meg Hagyard, the interim director of the UA Museum of Art.

We owe him such a huge debt of gratitude.

A few people pointed out to Van Auker that the painting looked like an original, so he began to research the piece, coming across articles about the theft.

By Thursday, Aug. 3, he was pretty sure he had the real deal and called the UA museum.

It didnt waste any time. Hagyard and a few other museum employees were in Silver City the following Monday.

And they were inclined to agree with him: This was the de Kooning that was stolen the day after Thanksgiving 1985.

Weve done preliminary authentication, but we feel very, very confident, said Hagyard. We are taking further steps to authenticate it, but we are confident.

There is restoration that needs to be done on the painting, as well. Hagyard said they do not know yet when they will be able to put the piece back on display.

Artist Josh Goldberg remembers well the morning the art was stolen.

He was the museums director of education. He had the day off, but the mother of a young student called. She had an art project. Could he help?

Goldberg arranged to meet the two before the museum opened.

As he walked up to the main entrance, he noticed a man and woman sitting on the bench, waiting for the doors to open to the public.

I looked over at them and I thought there was something odd about them, Goldberg recalled.

Something struck me as kind of funny. The man was very slim and had his hair slicked back and a moustache. The guy looked too effeminate, and the woman just the opposite, kind of masculine.

After he helped the student, he stepped into the washroom before he left.

Thats when I heard the guard screaming, said Goldberg. I thought he had fallen down the stairs or had a heart attack.

Goldberg ran out.

Its gone, the paintings gone, said the panicked guard.

They both ran out the front entrance, the guard going one way, Goldberg the other. But it was too late; they, and the de Kooning, were gone.

It was a sickening feeling, he said about looking at the place where the painting once was, sloppily cut away from the frame.

But then it made me really angry. I would often teach from the museums collection, and thats one of the ones I would teach from. It really bothered me that people could no longer learn from it.

Lee Karpisack, the curator of the museum at the time, recalls how devastating the theft was.

It was so difficult to go upstairs and know youd see the painting gone, she said. It was so sad.

UA Chief of Police Brian Seastone was a corporal with the campus police at the time, and was assigned to the case.

It was a Friday morning right after the museum opened up, he recalled.

Two individuals  a man and a woman  walked in right at the opening. The woman was talking to one of the office staff there while the gentleman went upstairs. He came down very quickly and they both left. The staff thought it was strange  why would they come and leave so quickly?

Campus police called the FBI for help, but with no clues to go on, it seemed pretty hopeless. The investigation into the theft continues, and the FBI declined an interview request.

I asked the FBI agent who would do such a thing, said Goldberg. He said something like, Theres always a buyer for art. He said it was probably already out of the country and it would never again see the light of day.

That morning was an emotional one for the staff, Seastone recalled.

Thirty years ago, I saw the tears of disappointment. There was despair from everyone involved.

Monday, when the piece returned to the museum, there were tears again, he said.

A lot of tears of happiness and joy. I felt the same emotion. It was so wonderful to have this home where it should be, Seastone said.

This is one of the most extraordinary pieces in the collection, Karpisack said about the de Kooning. It completes the collection again.

Stolen artwork worth as much as $160 million recovered for University of Arizona Willem de Kooning "Woman-Ochre" Returned to UA Museum of Art Stolen painting Stolen painting Stolen painting Painting recovered Suspects in art theft Missing de Kooning painting
Here are the news stories you should not miss today, August 14:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is scheduled to pay an official visit to Thailand from August 17 to 19 at the invitation of his Thai counterpart Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Society

-- Ho Chi Minh City is facing immense pressure from wastewater produced by people living in the metropolis as well as in neighboring Binh Duong Province.

-- Heavy rain is expected in northern Vietnam in the first half of this week, followed by potential flood and landslides, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

-- A five-year-old girl was killed after a landslide struck her house in the northern province of Bac Kan on Sunday. Her parents survived the disaster with several injuries.

-- A Chinese man has been arrested for illegally transporting US$1 million from China into Vietnam via the Coc Nam trail, police in the northern province of Lang Son affirmed on Sunday.

-- Police officers in Bien Hoa City, located in the southern province of Dong Nai, are hunting for several suspects from two gangs for attacking each other with machetes over a conflict on Saturday night.

Business

-- Nearly 3,700 new businesses were established in Ho Chi Minh City in the first seven months of this year, according to the municipal Department of Taxation.

-- The booming of condotels across Vietnam has sparked concern over infrastructure overload and other potential risks despite their original goal to boost local tourism.

-- The price of Java rambutans in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre has dropped to the lowest in five years, selling at only VND5,000 ($0.22) per kilogram.

Education

-- Many provinces and cities across Vietnam have picked today, August 14, as the starting date of the new school year.

-- The Vietnamese team was honored with two silver medals and seven bronze medals at the 2017 World Mathematical Olympiad, which took place on August 11 and 12 in Tianjin, China.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Ho Chi Minh City is under immense pressure to deal with wastewater produced by people living in the metropolis as well as in neighboring Binh Duong Province.

The sheer volume of household and industrial wastewater is challenging the capacity of the southern citys major treatment plants, posing a high risk of pollution.

The wastewater is transported from its sources to treatment facilities via artificial canals, including the Ba Bo Canal crossing Thu Duc District, before being released into the Saigon River.

Stretching over 1,700 meters, Ba Bo Canal receives more than 25,000 cubic meters of wastewater every day.

Over the past decade, the canal has faced the threat of serious pollution, with the potential to adversely affect the lives of nearby residents.

The waterway gives off an unpleasant odor during the dry season, and the wastewater often mixes with rain to cause flooding in the area.

A section of the Ba Bo Canal in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

In 2007, the municipal Peoples Committee approved multiple projects to upgrade the channel, including dredging and expanding, with expenditure topping VND300 billion (US$13.1 million).

While the original measures were successful in preventing flooding, extra expenditure was then required to pay for biological treatment technology.

Authorities in Binh Duong Province have also invested in a system to collect and treat liquid waste that they then dump into the Ba Bo Canal.

The two localities have spent approximately VND1.3 trillion ($57.1 million) renovating the waterway.

During a meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Council in early July, Nguyen Toan Thang, director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, confirmed that the pollution problem had not been solved.

Speaking at the gathering, several experts said that the biological treatment is only effective on household wastewater, and that industrial wastewater needs to be closely monitored.

The coordination between Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong has not been efficient, they added.

A biological treatment lake, aimed at alleviating pollution along the Ba Bo Canal, during a test run. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The citys administration submitted a request to the prime minister last month, proposing the construction of the Suoi Nhum treatment plant, which would be tasked with treating liquid waste from Binh Duong before it is discharged into any Ho Chi Minh City canal.

The facility is expected to be built on an area of four hectares in Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, with a capacity of 65,000 cubic meters per day.

The total capital investment is estimated at VND523 billion ($23 million).

The project will be carried out under a BOT (build-operate-transfer) and BT (build-transfer) contracts.

Once the proposal is approved, the project will not take long to finish as the location is already available, Nguyen Ngoc Cong, director of the Steering Center of the Urban Flood Control Program, said, adding that the construction would take approximately one and a half years.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities will also ask their counterparts in Binh Duong to tighten management of industrial waste released from local factories.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Help India!

Lucknow, (IANS): Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the deaths of over 65 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur over the past few days.

Blaming the deaths on negligence of doctors, the administration and the state BJP government, the former Urban Development Minister said that this was a case of murder and that guilty should be brought to book.

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He also extended his condolences and sympathies to the families who lost their children in the tragedy.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and SP President Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to be in Gorakhpur later on Monday where he will visit the BRD Medical College and meet the bereaved families.
Help India!

Yavatmal (Maharashtra), (IANS): More than 160 tribal panchayats from different districts in the state passed resolutions demanding that MPs and MLAs look after the welfare of families of tribal farmers who commit suicide, an official said here on Monday.

The resolution is considered significant as the children and widows of farmers who ended their lives due to the agrarian crises face a bleak future with no help from any quarter.

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Now, the local legislators and parliamentarians shall be approached to provide for the survivors of the farmers who commit suicide in their constituencies and release money from their annual MP-MLA funds, tribal leaders said.

The tribal panchayats  under the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, are sore that the constitutional rights granted to them under various laws have not been properly implemented by the government in the past three years, said their leader Tulsiram Kumare.

Under these Acts, the importance of Gram Sabhas in decision-making needs to be restored. They must be given a say in matters of mining activity, infrastructure projects, education and public health facilities, Kumare said.

The tribal panchayats have also resolved to enforce complete prohibition in all tribal villages under PESA, food security for all tribal families, digital links, electrification and road and drinking water connections to all these villages.

They also demanded a ban on all types of forest cutting which poses environmental hazards and affects the life of the tribals.

They demanded full rights on all local water bodies restored to the tribals; land ownership to landless tribal farmers; compulsory education in local tribal lingo to tribal students in PESA schools and returning land taken over by non-tribals in the PESA areas.

All the resolutions passed are being forwarded to President (Ram Nath Kovind) and Maharashtra Governor (C.V. Rao) under whose ambit the implementation of the PESA falls, said Vasantrao Naik Swavalambi Shetkari Mission chairman Kishore Tiwari.

Another tribal leader, Santosh Naitam said there have been discrepancies in the survey of forest lands in the possession of the tribals and the government must order a fresh time-bound survey by specialised teams for the rights of the forest people.

At a workshop for tribals held on Saturday, the participants were informed that under PESA the law gives powers to tribal panchayats to impose prohibition and take other public and welfare measures deemed fit for the tribals.

Tiwari said the law also gives direct ownership of non-mineral and forest resources to the local tribals, providing them with gainful employment opportunities within the village economy.
Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

Hyderabad: In March 2015, Satya Chakra, a 44-year-old documentary filmmaker from Hyderabad, conceived an idea of making a short documentary on problems faced by students in Hyderabad University. During his research, he met Rohith Vemula on the university campus, where they discussed the idea the whole night sipping cups of tea.

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When I told him my idea, Rohith readily agreed to help me and I remember how promptly he said sure Anna when I asked him for his cooperation, recalls Satya.

But just as Satya was yet to start the work on the documentary, the news of Rohiths suicide on January 17, 2016, shattered him.

I knew him personally and how strong a person he was. But I was completely numb when I came to know how authorities had moved him to the verge of suicide,  he said.

Immediately after Rohiths suicide, Satya decided to tell his story; the story of Rohith Vemula.

I think Rohiths story should be in our minds forever and we should seek an end to the issues addressed by him. Dalit, Muslims and other marginalised communities are suffering since ages at the hands of the majority communities and castes. Rohith death was continuity of it, says Satya.

Satya stayed on the Hyderabad university campus for around two months to gain the first-hand knowledge of student activism.

Generally, nightlife is an essential part of the universities and to gain the overall understanding of the issues which started coming to fore post-Rohiths suicide, I spent nights with the students and gained insights of Dalit politics and people who were involved in that.

The documentary was mostly shot in and around Hyderabad and many places in Delhi as well as in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The documentary revolves around the Rohith Vemula suicide, caste discrimination, Dalit-Muslim solidarity and the Hindu fascism.

When you talk about these issues you are actually talking about the Ambedkarite movement. The Manu view of society i.e. Brahmanism is a very dangerous idea of India and the documentary tries to bring out a picture how it is becoming an increasingly dangerous trend.

He further said, The mass media is playing in the hands of the RSS/BJP combine. In such a scenario, we need to come forward and tell our stories by our self. This is the reason why making a documentary on Rohith Vemula was the need of the hour.

Satya says that his documentary tries to deliver the message of the need for social justice in India for the marginalised and minority communities, besides keeping alive the crusade started by Rohith.

Every sentence of his last letter haunts me every day. Even one and half years after his death, I cry whenever I read his letter. But he has set a task for us and we should take it forward. Mass media is most powerful nowadays. It helps a lot to manufacture consent. We need to use it extensively for the same reason through collective narrative, he said.

He is looking forward to coming up with the similar documentaries, feature and animation films addressing the issues and life of Dalit-Bahujans and Minorities.

The trailer of the documentary named A journey to the stars was released on the YouTube on August 8 last week.

The 100-minute documentary is due for its release in October 2017 and is sponsored by Helpdesk, a charitable trust and US-based advocacy group, Indian American Muslim Council.
Charlottesville, Virginia became the tragic new chapter under the presidency of Donald Trump as violence engulfed the city on Saturday. Hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members gathered under the banner of 'Unite the right' and 'Take America back'. Clashes soon erupted with counter-protesters and police leaving three dead, including two police officers who died as a result of a helicopter crash while assisting police on the ground. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio was charged with second-degree murder as the driver of the car which ran over people resulting in the death of one and causing injuries to more than 20.

Removal of Confederate statues

The extreme-right gathering has been a long time in the making ever since the government decided to remove the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, a decision which has been met by protests since May this year. These incidents were followed by a chain reaction of debates questioning the existence of more than 1000 Confederate monuments across 31 states of the United States. The violence in Charlottesville resulted in the announcement of an acceleration to the plans to remove Confederate statues by Jim Gray the Democrat mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, who communicated the message on twitter.

Response from politicians

Donald Trump came out and condemned the violence on Saturday, stating the need to be an American first, ahead of colour, creed, religion or political stance.

However, his failure to condemn white nationalists directly and rather choosing to attach the blame with "many sides" was met with nationwide dissent. Senator Bernie Sanders voiced his opinion against the President's subtle choice of words by posting; "No, Mr. President. This is a provocative effort by Neo-Nazis to foment racism and hatred and create violence.

Call it out for what it is." Republican Senator Ted Cruz came out and called the attack as an act of domestic terrorism.

The tragedy of Charlottesville followed a tumultuous week for the United States which saw tensions rise with North Korea. While the president and senators have been united in condemning the attack, what political reaction ensues will mark Donald Trump's standing with the extreme-right. The history of violence in American streets is tragic and the subtle political reactions are crying out to be dealt in 'right or wrong' instead of 'right or left'.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has stepped into the crisis between North Korea and the United States. Urging Theresa May to keep the UK out of military adventurism in any attack by the US on North Korea. Echoing Angela Merkel's warning about ending the war of words between Washington and Pyong yang Corbyn said Trump and Kim should "wind down the war of rhetoric".

Trump threatened to pour down "fire and fury" on North Korea should the reclusive regime attack the US or it Allies in the region. North Korea has stated it is "Carefully examining" a plan to attack the American island of Guam with missiles.

The war of words between Trump and Kim has been ramping up like a macho stand-off between two silver back gorillas. Trump's cabinet ministers on the other hand like Foreign Minister Rex Tillerson have been using more usual diplomatic language.

Certainly the language Trump is using has not been heard from an American President for a very long time against an enemy nation.

Guam: Another Pearl Harbour?

The attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, is what brought the US officially into World War Ii. The US had an idea something was going on as they had broken the Japanese naval codes but the attack came as a surprise - when the Imperial Japanese aircraft were flying in over Hawaii many thought it was just American planes on operations.

The target of the Japanese planes launched from carriers was to hit the US carriers but they were out of port at the time. Nonetheless, what followed was the utter devastation of the American Pacific Fleet with hundreds of men being killed and injured.

Pearl Harbour is still visited today by survivors of World War II paying their respects to their fallen comrades.

Even now oil from the sunken ships still seeps to the surface and many of the ships have become war graves.

With Guam now being in the firing line of North Korea could this be a modern day Pearl Harbour which if the missiles did any damage would bring the US for certain into conflict with the North Koreans. Guam like Pearl Harbour back then was a military base for the American armed forces so let us hope history does not repeat itself.

Any war that would follow such a North Korean attack would be devastating and might drag others in thus widening the conflict.

Corbyn Naive?

It has been the stated the aim of Jeremy Corbyn if he becomes Prime Minister is to rid the world of nuclear weapons through diplomacy. A fact he reiterated at Glastonbury this year talking to Michael Eavis veteran organiser of the music event.

Is Corbyn naive or could his dream of ridding the world of these terrible weapons be achievable? Those young people and others who voted for him during the last general election are certainly not naive and indeed are very intelligent people. After all, when we are long gone the world we bequeath to them is the one they will have to deal with.

I don't doubt for a second that Corbyn if he becomes Prime Minister would push for a nuke free world and keep the UK largely out of a foreign conflict. That is not to say Corbyn would never order military action but he would perhaps not be as trigger happy as other Prime Ministers. Being friendly with the likes of Trump, yes, but also making it clear that the UK would not follow the US blindly into some military attack which could lead to wider conflict.

Meanwhile, Trump and Kim continue squaring off against each other and who knows where it will lead.
The FBI team, led by special counsel Robert Meuller, first discovered about the meeting of Donald Trump Jr. with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya through Paul Manafort, the chairman of Trumps 2016 campaign. The June 9 meeting at Trump Tower was included in the 300 documents that Manafort provided the FBI, The New York Daily News reported.

Despite the documents that Manafort handed over, FBI agents nevertheless raided his house in Virginia two weeks ago, likely because investigators feel he did not turn over everything. It means the FBI knew of the Donald Jr., meeting with the Russians as early as early as May, which the presidents namesake admitted to only July.

Manafort and Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law, were also at the same meeting.

Hot on their trail

Bloomberg, which was the first to report on the Russian meeting information coming from Manafort, said that Muellers team sent subpoenas to global banks to acquire the account information and transaction records of Manafort and some of his companies. The probe includes Rick Gates, a long-time business partner of Manafort, and Jeffrey Yohai, the son-in-law of Manafort. Like Manafort, Yohai provided the FBI documents two months ago regarding the real estate deals with his father-in-law.

Jason Maloni, the spokesperson for Manafort, confirmed the FBI raid on the Virginia residence of the ex-chairman of Trumps campaign.

Maloni also issued a statement on Thursday saying that Manafort -- who is not a cooperating witness in the Russian probe  replaced the law firm WilmerHale with a new one, Miller & Chevalier. Based in DC, Miller & Chevalier is focused on tax law and complicated financial crimes, according to Politico. Manaforts decision to drop WilmerHale was because Mueller used to be connected with that law firm.

Maloni disclosed in the statement that Miller & Chevalier was Manaforts former counsel. Part of the team that will provide Manafort legal advice is Kevin Downing, a former senior official at the Department of Justice, who as a member of the boutique law firm, had represented clients and companies that faced complex financial cases.

CMZ Ventures

It was not only Manaforts legal team that were caught unaware by the FBI raid on his house but also President Donald Trump. Ive always found Manafort to be a very decent man, Trump was quoted as saying. Manhattan federal prosecutors, however, think otherwise because they have probed allegations that Manafort allegedly was engaged in the laundering of money into New York properties from Eastern Europe.

The probe was into CMZ Ventures, a business backed by Manafort that planned to develop a luxury tower on Park Avenue in 2008. Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman, was supposed to invest $25 million in the project, but he never did and the venture closed the following year. The real purpose of the venture, according to the plaintiffs, was to launder money that Firtash obtained illegally by skimming natural gas sales to Ukraine.
Ever since finding herself in the national spotlight just over a year ago, Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway has made a name for herself by routinely clashing with members of the mainstream media. On Friday night, Conway decided to take a shot at the entire Democratic Party during her latest tweet, but it didn't get the best response.

Conway on Twitter

During the summer of 2016, Donald Trump was forced to make a major move with his campaign. Paul Manafort, then Trump's campaign manager, was exposed for having financial ties to Russia and resigned not long after the news was made public.

In Manafort's place, Trump brought on board Kellyanne Conway who had previously been known as a veteran Republican pollster. In the months that followed, Conway helped guide the former host of "The Apprentice" to his upset election victory. Despite this, Conway found herself arguing Trump's agenda on an almost daily basis with various cable news hosts, which has only escalated since Inauguration Day. Earlier this year, Conway came under fire for using the term "alternative facts" to excuse Trump after he was caught in multiple lies. On August 11, Conway ripped into the Democratic Party during her most recent tweet.

Brutally honest takedown of a Democrat Party at sea from an unlikely source. https://t.co/csN7sSfIuZ  Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) August 12, 2017

Following in the footsteps of her boss Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway took to Twitter on Friday in an attempt to throw shade at the Democrats.

Conway shared an article that was critical of the Democratic Party, while also giving her thoughts in the process. "Brutally honest takedown of a Democrat Party at sea from an unlikely source," Conway tweeted out.

Twitter reacts

Not long after Kellyanne Conway tweeted out in opposition to the Democrats, social media critics of the president were quick to fire back.

"Still struggling to remain relevant and employed? Don't you have kids you should be enjoying on a Friday evening?" one Twitter user rhetorically asked.

Still struggling to remain relevant and employed? Don't you have kids you should be enjoying on a Friday evening?  Don Rainwater (@skyagua) August 12, 2017

Hey @KellyannePolls , Do you eat garbage and then regurgitate it? Or does your mouth produce it on its own?  Daniel Danger Marin (@dangermarin) August 12, 2017

"Hey @KellyannePolls, Do you eat garbage and then regurgitate it?

Or does your mouth produce it on its own?" another social media user pointed out. "If Propaganda Barbie endorses it......the rubes will eat it up. The 1% of their base that can read anyway," an additional tweet stated.

If Propaganda Barbie endorses it......the rubes will eat it up. The 1% of their base that can read anyway  P.T (@ptiff68) August 12, 2017

Terribly brutal that this deplorable Drumpf dividers extend so much energy at breaking up America. You are Dorian Gray's Painting.  Artfull Duderino (@dodgr007) August 12, 2017

Awww how cute. Whenever unstable Trump starts acting more crazier than usual, you start hating on the Dems to distract. Nice try though.  Sulie (@ThatsJustBogus) August 12, 2017

"Terribly brutal that this deplorable Drumpf dividers extend so much energy at breaking up America. You are Dorian Gray's Painting," another Twitter user added. As the backlash continued, it was made clear that the rift between the political left and right was not going to end anytime soon.
The US base at Guam is 2,100 km away from North Korea and is the nearest American base that is not in a foreign country. This base is the key to one of the plans prepared by the Pentagon for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea's missile sites and launch pads, should President trump order such an attack.

Information was disseminated by two senior military officers and two senior retired officials to NBC News that the key ingredient of the plan would be a B-1 heavy bomber attack, originating from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. This has become more logical after Trump said that any threat from North Korea would be met with fire and fury.

This statement was criticized by Senator John McCain who said that such statements were not the hallmark of great leaders who never say anything they cannot do.

Trump may be incensed by such comments and he may well launch a strike against North Korea, CNN International reported.

Getting the B-1 ready

The USAF has positioned six B-1 bombers at Guam. These supersonic bombers have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan and could be the main option in case Trump gives the go-ahead for a strike. The bombers have been making practice runs, and they were refueled in midair by the KC 135 tankers. In an actual mission, they would be assisted by satellite communications and fighters, and there is very little chance that the North Koreans would be able to shoot down any B-1 bomber.

The Pentagon has prepared a number of options, but the use of B-1 bombers from Guam looks the least risky.

Some strategists are hoping that once a strike is launched, Kim will not retaliate as the planes are non-nuclear and operating away from Korea and Japan.

Opinion of experts

The experts who are suggesting that Kim may not retaliate have an opponent. He is Admiral Stavaridis, who has opined that any attack in which North Koreans are killed and their sites damaged will definitely invite retaliation.

North Korea has been saying this for a long time and threatening that its response would be merciless.

Kim Jong-Un and destruction

There is no doubt that a B-1 strike could take out sensitive targets like missile sites and launch pads which have already been identified. What is worrisome is the response of Kim Jong-Un. He is a dictator in the classical mold who is also a megalomaniac like Hitler and Tojo, and there is a chance that he will order a strike.

Considering that most of the population of South Korea and its capital Seoul are within 40 km of the DMZ, there is a chance that Kim Jonng-Un wreak terrible vengeance on the South. There are thus no good options for Trump, and any option he chooses could lead to many deaths as well as put the lives of 28,000 US troops on the border at great risk.
The so called #UniteTheRight rally in Charlottesville has grabbed headlines. The scars of racist periods of the past still haunt the United States, racism itself still alive and well today, and race remains a controversial issue. With this in mind, it is no surprise that a white supremacist demonstration would be divisive and frightening.

Violence in Charlottesville

But what made this rally particularly noteworthy was the violence that broke out. Three people were killed, three suspects were arrested, and as police broke up the rally a car plowed into a crowd killing a woman walking across the street.

For those witnessing these events, it shows how dangerous racial tensions can be, how quickly they can lead to violence. Some fear that if nothing changes this may only be the beginning of what becomes a violent and dystopian future for the United States. Luckily, many who have observed these events have spoken out to try to calm a volatile situation.

Prominent figures speak out

In Response to the tragic events that took place, as well as the hateful message demonstrators were spreading, several prominent figures, including LeBron James, and the Governor of Virginia have spoken out against bigotry and have called on the American people to unite against it. Former President Barack Obama expressed the importance of tolerance and mutual respect, tweeting "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion".

Of course, President Obama is not known for tweeting. But someone who is, the current president Donald Trump, was notably absent from the discussion, at least initially. While the White House eventually released statements, many felt that the response was underwhelming and that President Trump didnt reject racism strongly enough.

President Trump blamed for rise in racial tensions

For many of President Trumps political opponents, current events confirm the fears that they have had of a Trump presidency since he first ran. During his divisive campaign, he blamed minorities for many of Americas problems and seems to have inspired and emboldened white supremacist groups.

Charlottesvilles Mayor Michael Signer said that he placed blame for these events right at the doorstep of the Whitehouse due to the prejudice rhetoric and policies that the president has become known for. When questioned about the statement on CNN, Mayor Signer stated bluntly Look at the campaign he ran.

While Trumps most die-hard supporters have been reluctant to blame him, the message spread by white supremacists in Charlottesville seemed to back up accusations that Trump is at least partially responsible for current hostilities. Many white supremacist demonstrators used the slogan Heil Trump, and former KKK imperial wizard David Duke claimed they were fulfilling Trumps 2016 campaign promises.

Trumps reluctance to disavow these groups in the past has already caused concerns about his motives and the movement his campaign seems to have started is looking more and more threatening.

The radical right and domestic terrorism, national security meets discussions about race

While it is true that partisan politics and political polarization certainly have a role in this, with many liberal Democrats seeing recent events as an opportunity to delegitimize the president, accusations of Trump having racist motives are based on cold hard security realities about the nature of white supremacist organizations and the radical right movement as a whole. National security advisor H.R. McMaster called the attack where a car plowed into a crowd an act of domestic terrorism, which considering this terms definition it almost certainly is.

An FBI probe is even slated to look into the violence.

Yet President Trump, who has been quick to cry terrorism whenever an attack was perpetrated by radical Islamic terror organizations in the middle east, has not been so eager to call the attack in Charlottesville terrorism, despite the fact that it was very similar to several terrorist incidents that have occurred in the past. White supremacists have proven themselves as much of a threat as ISIS or Al Qaeda, but Trumps prejudices seem to be clouding his vision and distorting his view of the terror threat.

Americas history with race continues to cast a shadow over society, and this is the latest example

The strong condemnation that white supremacists have received demonstrates the resolve of the American people to protect both freedom and national security from the threats posed by violent intolerance.

But the progress that has been made can be erased if the right sequence of events unfolds. The implications of the rise in white supremacist activities are dangerous, and without leadership, unity, and mutual respect, it is easy for Americans to be divided and conquered by fear. US history is stained with the atrocities of slavery, segregation, and other policies based on racism and bigotry. The struggle continues today. Things may be better than they once were, but the fight for racial equality is not over. If it was, this would not be happening.
"Days Of Our Lives" comings and goings reveal that two big characters will be returning to Salem this week, and one "DOOL" fan favorite will be pulling double duty by portraying two separate characters yet again. Fans are in for a wild ride this week as spoilers reveal that the drama continues to heat up with Deimos Kiriakis' murder investigation. Sonny has confessed to the crime, and even has a surprising witness to back up his claims. While it looks like Sonny may be going down for the crime, there will be many twists and turns along the way.

He's back!

Soap Hub reports that Xander Cook will show his face yet again. Actor Paul Telfer will return to the NBC soap opera this week as Victor's villainous nephew, and he'll reportedly play a big part in the "Days of our Lives" murder mystery. Xander was considered to be a suspect at one time, but records claim that he was behind bars in Greece at the time of Deimos' murder.

Crazy Hattie also returns

Meanwhile, "DOOL" fans will also see Deidre Hall portray crazy criminal Hattie Adams as well as her usual role of Dr. Marlena Evans. Hattie was last seen in prison with Hope Brady when she was incarcerated for the murder of Stefano DiMera. Hattie became a friend to Hope and even helped keep her safe and get her out of jail before a couple of prison thugs could kill her.

However, Hattie may be keeping a few secrets of her own as she's reportedly conspiring with another "Days of our Lives" villain.

More twists and turns on the way

As previously reported by Blasting News, "Days of our Lives" fans should expect some major twists and turns when it comes to finding out who the real killer is. Although JJ Deveraux, Xander Cook, and Sonny Kiriakis have all been suspects, it seems that the real murderer is still at large.

This week, when Abigail confronts Dario about his dirty business dealings, he'll drop a huge bombshell on her. Dario will show Abigail a photograph that he claims proves her ex-husband, Chad DiMera, is the person who murdered Deimos Kiriakis. Dario will then blackmail his new wife, revealing that if she goes to the police that he'll share the photo with everyone, and Chad will be arrested for murder.

Who's the real killer?

However, many "Days of our Lives" fans believe that Dario himself could be the real killer. He's hated Deimos from the moment he came to Salem, and he has more than enough motive to want him dead. Other "DOOL" viewers think that it's a possibility that Abigail or Gabi may also be the true killer of Deimos, but it looks like we'll all just have to wait to find out the truth.
You can take the "Alaskan Bush People" family out of the wild, but you can't take the wild out of them. This certainly proved to be true as seen on last Wednesday's episode (Aug. 9), when Billy and Ami Brown's eldest son Matt played around with another dangerous DIY experiment.

Fans may recall that Matt has just escaped a near-death injury in May after his gunpowder experiment exploded earlier than he expected. As reported by TMZ, the 33-year-old reality star had to get nine staples in his head as a result of his injury. The "Alaskan Bush People" film crew also captured the moment when a visibly bleeding Matt was being flown in an emergency chopper.

This scene was aired in a previous episode of the reality documentary show.

Matt Brown plays with another DIY invention

Wednesday night, "Alaskan Bush People" fans saw Matt and Billy discuss the aftermath of his injury. Billy told his son that he was lucky to come out of it alive.

"The good Lord really knows what He's doing," Matt later said while pondering on his life's purpose.

However, it seems that Matt couldn't shake off the daredevil inside him. Once he settled in their temporary L.A. home, he began another DIY experiment waiting to go bad.

This time, Matt picked up an electric motor, cell phone battery, plastic disc, a needle, and some other knickknacks. He wanted to make a homemade tattoo gun and ink himself.

His haphazard invention somewhat worked, and he managed to tattoo a tiny dots on his torso.

Ouch! What do you think Matt's homemade tattoo will be? #AlaskanBushPeople pic.twitter.com/25GPpmZ6MK  Alaskan Bush People (@AlaskanBushPPL) August 10, 2017

Matt Brown's behavior worries fans

Matt said that this little home project of his was his attempt to cheer up his mom Ami, who was about to begin her radiation treatment for her stage 3b lung cancer.

Ami had to undergo a CT scan so oncologists could locate her cancer cells. Doctors will then put tattoo markings on those parts of Ami's body to help them identify where to focus her radiation treatments.

So, Matt's DIY tattoo was a show of support for his beloved mother. However, "Alaskan Bush People" viewers were not happy with what they saw.

Many were alarmed to see how Matt was behaving, especially after his recent near-death experience.

Many fans took to Twitter to voice out their concern for the eldest Brown sibling. They noted that inking oneself is an infection waiting to happen. Some also aired their disappointment with the show and Discovery for airing this scene, which other viewers may copy at home.

No, dude. Just... no. They have tattoo shops with safe ink and sanitary conditions for a reason.  Maggie Durkin (@wiccania) August 10, 2017

Meanwhile, other fans noticed that Matt was acting hyper in the episode and questioned if he was on some drugs or painkillers.

"He might be drinking again or on pain meds from his head injury?" one fan left a comment on the "Alaskan Bush People" Twitter account.

"Alaskan Bush People" airs every Wednesday, 9 p.m. on Discovery.
It's no secret that comedian Bill Maher is not a fan of Donald Trump. While Maher often gives his thoughts on the president during his HBO show, he decided to appear on CNN to elaborate further in a more serious manner.

Maher on Trump

When Donald Trump first kicked off his campaign for president back in June 2015, he instantly attracted negative attention with his controversial comments about illegal immigrants from Mexico being "murderers" and "rapists." As the months rolled on, Trump went on to be accused of racism and other forms of prejudice in response to his rhetoric and policy proposals that many believe were targeted towards minorities.

Since his election, Trump has put forward policies that have created tension and controversy around the country, ranging from his travel ban, to his immigration and health care bills, in addition to his questionable decisions on foreign policy, which include his recent threat against North Korea. These issues and more were discussed when Bill Maher joined CNN host Fareed Zakaria on August 13.

(Maher's dictator comments start at 4:10 in the above video.)

Sitting down with Fareed Zakaria over the weekend for a two-part interview was Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." The comedian and noted atheist has long been opposed to Donald Trump, which he makes a point to cover on a weekly basis.

During his interview with Zakaria, Maher explained that the billionaire real estate mogul wants to become an actual dictator.

"He totally wants to be a dictator," Bill Maher said, before adding, "it's so obvious." "The people he admires in the world, Putin, even Kim Jong-Un he said is a smart cookie," Maher continued.

Bill Maher then went on to explain that Donald Trump was all about making excuses, first claiming the system was rigged when he thought he would lose the election, to changing his tune after he became the president.

"Once somebody like that gets power, I don't know if you get them to give it up, Maher went on to say. "Nor do I trust voting next time," the "Real Time" host continued. "This is an ongoing problem. this isnt something that happened once," he said, before predicting, "they're going the do it again."

Next up

While Bill Maher and others continue to rip into Donald Trump, often fact-checking and debunking many of his questionable statements, the president still has over three years left in the White House. While it's unknown how the rest of his time in office will play out, Trump is currently sitting on an approval ratting of just 35 percent, according to the most recent round of polling.
The biggest star of American talk shows will debut a new show in 2018. Netflix announced #David Letterman will host a new yet to be named talk show on the streaming platform. Letterman was the host of NBCs "Late Night" and CBS "#Late Show" for 33 years, a record that still stands.

According to a company press statement, the new series will feature six one-hour episodes that will include one in-depth studio interview and segments produced on the street. The 70-year old host and comedian is very excited about his new venture. He also seems to have kept the same sharp humor that made him a success on TV.

"If you retire to spend more time with your family, check with your family first, he quipped in an interview with #Netflix press staff.

Netflixs executives are celebrating the incoming talent. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandon seemed to have been influenced by Lettermans sense of humor "Well have to see if he keeps the beard, he joked. The new show will be produced by Radical Media, that has in its portfolio award-winning productions, such as Netflixs "What Happened, Miss Simone?" and Abstract: the Art of Design," as well as Lettermans Worldwide Pants.

Remarkable numbers

David Letterman spent 33 years hosting talk shows on major TV networks. During his time on NBCs "Late Night" and CBSs "Late Show," he hosted 6,028 episodes.

That is a record almost unbeatable in the history of American late-night shows. He has also astonishing numbers in the Emmy Awards, having received 52 nominations, and 10 prizes.

A benchmark on politics

David Letterman hosted his last Late Show on May 20, 2015, one year after announcing his intentions to retire. He was replaced by Stephen Colbert.

As the host of one of the most watched shows in America (his last episode stood an audience of 13.76 million people in the country), Letterman became a benchmark on American politics. According to a profile released by Netflix, he has interviewed nearly all presidential candidates in the last 20 years.

Stephen Colbert is doing well on 'Late Show'

Chosen to replace David Letterman in 2015, Stephen Colbert seems to be finally on track. According to Vulture, during his first two years hosting CBS' 'Late Show', the shows audience ratings were way behind from the main rival NBC's 'Tonight Show' with Jimmy Fallon. However, since the inauguration of Donald Trump as President, Colbert has consistently beaten his competitor.
Xiamen, a coastal city in East China's Fujian province, is China's most popular destination for graduates to visit in 2017, according to a ranking list released by biaozhun007.com, an evaluation institute, and travel platform Mafengwo.com.

Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, and Sanya, South China's Hainan province, ranked at second and third respectively.

The list is based on popularity for graduates, number of hostels and scenic spots. The top 10 tourist destinations are as follows:

No 10 Dunhuang
iStock/Thinkstock(UNION GROVE, Wisc.) -- A suspect is at large after three men were shot and killed Sunday at a car racing track in Wisconsin.



Here's what we know about the investigation:



The shooting



The deadly shooting was reported at the Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove at 6:59 p.m.



No additional injuries were reported beyond the three people shot and killed, Sergeant Mark Malecki of the Kenosha Sheriffs Department told ABC News.



Kenosha Sheriffs Department said it was estimated that over 5,000 people were at the Great Lakes Dragaway event "known as 'Larrys Fun Fest' which in the past has attracted persons from Milwaukee, Chicago and other surrounding areas."



The motive



Malecki told ABC News on Monday the shooter remains at large and that the motive is believed to be gang-related.



Malecki said all indications are that the victims were targeted and this was not a random act of violence.



The victims



The victims were all men from Illinois, Malecki said: two 30-year-old men and one 26-year-old man.



The sheriff is expected to release the victims' names at a news conference this afternoon, Malecki said.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Chinese tourists spent more in the United States in 2016 than tourists from other countries, according to a report from the US Commerce Department on Friday.

Tourists take pictures of themselves as construction cranes are set up while US President Donald Trump is away on vacation from the White House in Washington, US, August 9, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

The report shows that 2.97 million Chinese tourists traveled to the US in 2016, spending a total of $33 billion. The figures are up 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively, from 2015

The 2.97 million Chinese tourists to the US in 2016 was described in the report as "nothing short of explosive". The US has enjoyed 13 consecutive years of growth in arrivals from China, 12 of which exhibited double-digit growth rates.

While the number of Chinese tourists increased, overall visitor arrivals in the US decreased 2 percent in 2016 from 2015 and visitor spending dropped by 1 percent. The report described it as the first decline in visitors since 2009 and said preliminary data for 2017 indicate an uptick in visitors.

The report put China on top of visitor spending, followed by Canada, Mexico, Japan, the UK, India, Brazil, Australia, South Korea and Germany. But Chinese visitor arrivals ranked fifth, trailing Canada, Mexico, UK and Japan.

China only ranked seventh in terms of total tourism-related spending in the US. After nearly a decade of double-digit growth, averaging 24 percent a year since 2004, China dominates the rankings as the No. 1 market for US tourism exports, injecting more than $90 million a day into the US economy.

Travel and tourism exports account for 61 percent of all US services exports to China, according to the report, compiled by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) under the International Trade Administration of the Commerce department.

Travel and tourism was the largest services export for the US in 2016, accounting for 33 percent of services exports and 11 percent of exports overall.

In all, 75.6 million international visitors came to the US in 2016 for business, medical, education and leisure purposes, spending a collective $244.7 billion across the US.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Chinese tourists spent more in the United States in 2016 than tourists from other countries, according to a report from the US Commerce Department on Friday.

The report shows that 2.97 million Chinese tourists traveled to the US in 2016, spending a total of $33 billion. The figures are up 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively, from 2015

The 2.97 million Chinese tourists to the US in 2016 was described in the report as "nothing short of explosive". The US has enjoyed 13 consecutive years of growth in arrivals from China, 12 of which exhibited double-digit growth rates.

While the number of Chinese tourists increased, overall visitor arrivals in the US decreased 2 percent in 2016 from 2015 and visitor spending dropped by 1 percent. The report described it as the first decline in visitors since 2009 and said preliminary data for 2017 indicate an uptick in visitors.

The report put China on top of visitor spending, followed by Canada, Mexico, Japan, the UK, India, Brazil, Australia, South Korea and Germany. But Chinese visitor arrivals ranked fifth, trailing Canada, Mexico, UK and Japan.

China only ranked seventh in terms of total tourism-related spending in the US. After nearly a decade of double-digit growth, averaging 24 percent a year since 2004, China dominates the rankings as the No. 1 market for US tourism exports, injecting more than $90 million a day into the US economy.

Travel and tourism exports account for 61 percent of all US services exports to China, according to the report, compiled by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) under the International Trade Administration of the Commerce department.

Travel and tourism was the largest services export for the US in 2016, accounting for 33 percent of services exports and 11 percent of exports overall.

In all, 75.6 million international visitors came to the US in 2016 for business, medical, education and leisure purposes, spending a collective $244.7 billion across the US.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
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HA NOI  Agricultural products exported to China now account for 50 per cent of total border trade flow between the two countries, signifying greater approval from Chinese consumers, officials say.

The surge in cross-border trade of agricultural produce was highlighted last Friday at a forum jointly held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Lang Son Peoples Committee.

The forum discussed ways to further increase the flow of Vietnamese fruit and vegetables into Chinese markets via official border trade.

The Agriculture Ministrys Plants Protection Department (PPD) announced that in total, Viet Nam exported over two million tonnes of fruits and vegetables worth US$1.6 billion to China last year. Corresponding figures for the first seven months of this year are 1.2 million tonnes and $1.3 billion.

Key exports are fresh fruits and vegetables, with strong growth seen in rubber-based products, tapioca, coffee and tea.

The Ministry of Industry and Trades (MoIT) Mountainous and Frontier Trade Department (MFTD) said the bilateral agricultural trade surplus is financial boost for Vietnamese farmers, merchants and people living within the border region.

They said the produce being exported to China enjoyed the advantage of having more favourable cultivation conditions, and as such were always welcomed by Chinese buyers.

The MFTD said they have been working tirelessly with their Chinese counterparts to implement enabling policies and regulations to shape the trade flow between the two countries.

These include stricter customs checks, better quality control, transportation and storage infrastructure before clearance, as well as the opening of auxiliary border gates.

As a result, exports of fresh fruits and vegetables to China has been increasing rapidly in quantity and quality, with around 478,514 tonnes of dragon fruit, 223,455 tonnes of watermelon, 240,345 tonnes of longan and 81,198 tonnes of lychee going through border gates in Lang Son Province alone last year.

Corresponding figures so far this year are 273,154 tonnes of dragon fruits, 167,035 tonnes of watermelon and 19,505 tonnes of lychee, worth of $203 million, $75 million and $9.3 million, respectively.

Similar tastes

Huang Tan Mei, Vice Mayor of Chongzuo City in Guangxi Province, said at the forum that thanks to many similarities in tastes and demands between people on both sides of the Vietnamese- Chinese border, trade volume should increase steadily in the years to come.

The annual average agricultural export turnover from Viet Nam to Chongzou is now 1.86 million tonnes through Lang Son border gates alone, Huang said.

She also believed that with the leadership of both countries maintaining tight co-operation through information exchanges and encouraging agricultural production, there was always room for growth as more and more Vietnamese products were gaining Chinese consumers trust.

Ly Vinh Quang, Vice Chairman of Lang Son Provincial Peoples Committee, said that authorities are committed to supporting businesses and creating favourable conditions for export growth through more transparent rules and procedures.

According to the Tan Thanh Customs Branch under the Lang Son Customs Department, around 250 to 280 truckloads of fresh fruits with cold storage facilities go through the border gates everyday, averaging 2,600 tonnes to 3,200 tonnes.

Each day, across all border gates in Lang Son Province, at least 1,500 trucks carrying Vietnamese agricultural products head for China.

Customs officers have been instructed to give clearance and transit priority to agricultural products, and online customs procedures that can be completed in three to five minutes have helped. Coupled with a newly upgraded parking lots system, storage spaces and customs office sin Lang Son Province, the transport of fruits and vegetables to China has become much easier.

Productivity boost

At a recent, regular meeting of the ministry, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said over the past seven months, the sector has seen growth in both productivity and export turnover.

Cuong said in the the first seven months of 2017, Viet Nam had successfully exported $10.89 billion worth of agricultural products, a year on year increase of 18 per cent. Export of fresh fruits and vegetables fetched $2.03 billion, a year on year increase of 48.9 per cent.

According to a report from the MARDs Department of Crop Production (DCP), the output of vegetables and fruits has increased and domestic prices have been stable this year. The prices of some fruits have even doubled from last year, like lychee at $1.69 per kilogramme or cashew at $2.2 per kilogramme.

Aquaculture has overcome harsh weather conditions to reach a production of 4 million tonnes in the first seven months, a year on year increase of 5 per cent, accounting for 57.4 per cent of the annual goal.

In the livestock sector, despite earlier pork price fluctuations, output has stabilised since July, with exports to China increasing slightly. Prices of eggs have almost doubled, mostly due to a rising demand for baking in preparation for the upcoming Mid-Autumn festival.

On average, as of July 2017, the number of pigs had dropped by 3.3 per cent, cows increased 2.2 per cent, and that of poultry increased by five per cent from the same period in 2016, on par with the sectors annual growth rate of 3 per cent.

Agricultural exports have risen and the DCP estimates; market is also on the rise, with the DCP guaranteeing 2017s annual growth up to 2.05 per cent.

Nonetheless, Cuong asked all departments and agencies under the MARD work together on helping solve remaining problems in the sector.

For instance, they should co-operate with the Water Resources Department in fighting floods and landslides, or the Department of Livestock in stabilising domestic meat prices and export meat quality control.

The Minister also stressed that comprehensive steps should taken from the policy level onwards to guarantee stable exports outflows, ensuring quality of produce, product diversification and application of technological advances in both cultivation and post-harvest preservation.  VNS
HCM CITY  The current technology era is creating both opportunities and challenges for businesses in the process of enhancing and managing resources, delegates told a seminar in HCM City on Friday.

When technology supports organisational operations, it consequently begins replacing people in organisation. As a result, the importance of human resources management will be the top priority in any business strategy for companies worldwide, they said.

Not only does it help increase efficiency, simplify and automate processes, technology also helps to gather necessary data in assessment and analyses, from which better decisions are drawn. Therefore, the HR management is considered vital to a business, and technology helps support management talent and leadership development.

But retaining talent in technology has become more challenging.

Nguyen Thi Bich Van, chairwoman of Unilever Vietnam, said that with so many changes brought about by technology, such as the open opportunity for work and personal development in a flat world, businesses are facing many difficulties in retaining talent.

Creating an attractive environment to make employees think that "going to work" is less stressful has become one of the main focuses that enterprises need to implement, she said.

Van said when applying technology, businesses need to consider cultural factors.

Derek Goldberg, managing director, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong at Aetna International, emphasized that many companies fall easily into technology traps" rather than defining their own roadmap.

Enterprises, when deciding to put technology into their resource development strategy, need to think of their desired results, then indentify which divisions need to apply technology, he said.

In addition, businesses need to understand clearly their internal strengths and business strategies when applying technology in human resource management, and be more skillful and strategic in the course of applying technology so as to enhance working efficiency, process standardisation and internal communication while ensuring talent retention, delegates said.

They need to prepare infrastructure that serves for assessing and analyzing the workforce more accurately and coherently while maintaining a collaborative, sharing environment, they said.

Tieu Yen Trinh, CEO of Talentnet Corporation, "Technology improvement requires an increasing demand for a creative workforce with high EQ (Emotional Quotient), strategic thinking and analytical acumen.

The expectations of employers regarding the required skills a potential talent and leader needs are entirely different from those of previous years, together with the pressure of owning a workforce management strategy to keep up with a global labour workforce.

Hosted by Talentnet Corporation in association with the Labour and Social Affairs Newspaper, the seminar themed Agile talent  Disruptive technology for growth attracted more than 400 CEOs, business leaders and HR experts.

At the event, Talentnet Corporation and Singapore Management University (SMU Academy) announced an official strategic partnership.

Under the agreement, Talentnet will be the local host of seminars and workshops for leaders about the People Management Strategy with the support from SMU Academy on programme content.  VNS
CAN THO  Chairman of the Peoples Committee of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho Vo Thanh Thong on Sunday had a working session with a Japanese delegation to discuss co-operation opportunities in agriculture and personnel training in this sector.

The Japanese delegation includes Hitoshi Kinouchi, a professor of Tokai University; Susumu Ishihara, an advisor of Japanese language training; and Masayuki Abe, director of the Human Resource Research Institute and director of the Vietnam Agricultural Information Centre (VAIC).

According to Hitoshi, the Mekong Delta is like Japan in the past as it has small-scale agriculture with production mainly conducted by households, thus hindering product processing and distribution to companies.

Japanese farming households have grouped into co-operatives to tackle the problem and also sell agricultural products with high prices, he said.

Hitoshi suggested Japan and Can Tho partner with each other in the farming sector, saying the most important issue is how to improve agricultural quality and technology.

For his part, Thong said Can Tho is interested in partners and investors from Japan and wishes to co-operate with the Japanese side in personnel training, especially the farming sector.

He called on Japan to provide technical support for Can Tho and consider dispatching volunteers to Can Tho to take part in high-tech agriculture research programmes, while helping local farmers access the market and apply high and bio-technologies in the sector.

The official also highlighted Can Thos call for investments into high-tech agriculture parks in Thoi Lai and Co o districts.

Thong suggested the Japanese side assist the city to build a website in Japanese language to facilitate the sharing of market information between the two sides.

Can Tho is now home to 13 projects invested by Japanese firms with a total investment of US$10.5 million.  VNS
HCM CITY  The Peoples Committee of ong Thap Province has directed relevant agencies and district authorities to ensure farming of white-leg shrimp in freshwater zones is not expanded since the saltwater discharged by these farms affect water bodies and crops.

White leg shrimp was traditionally farmed in the sea, but in the last three years many inland farmers, seeing the crustacean offers good profits, have exploited groundwater and added salt to it to farm it.

Some households earn a profit of VN50,000-80,000 per kilogramme, persuading many others to follow suit.

But the farms discharge their salinised water into the environment, causing authorities to worry about its effect on rice cultivation and farming of freshwater species.

Besides, white-leg shrimps are vulnerable to diseases, and the larger the area in which they are farmed, the higher the risk of disease outbreaks.

According to the Governments master plan for the fisheries industry until 2020, ong Thap is not in the list of localities zoned for white-leg shrimp breeding.

Though authorities have urged farmers not to breed white-leg shrimp in freshwater areas, the creatures are being farmed on around 150ha in Tam Nong District.

Chau Hong Phuc, deputy chairman of the province Peoples Committee, said his administration has instructed the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and other agencies to intensify checks and get tough on violations related to exploiting groundwater to farm the shrimp and instruct breeders to only discharge treated wastewater into the environment.

It has also assigned them to analyse and assess production and profit, and the impacts on the environment and other agricultural production in Tam Nong District.

The local Department of Science and Technology will study the breeding of white-leg shrimp in freshwater areas to assess the adaptability and short- and long-term impacts on agricultural production, the eco-system and bio-diversity.

The administration has also ordered relevant agencies to step up inspection to prevent farmers from expanding the farming areas and urge them to stop farming the shrimp by educating them on the adverse effects.  VNS
HA NOI  The Vietnamese feature film ao Cua Dan Ngu Cu (The Way Station), directed by established actress Pham Hong Anh, was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) last Friday, for its contribution to the development of awareness over issues regarding young Vietnamese people.

The screening was organised by the Viet Nam Ministry of Home Affairs and displayed by UNFPA at French Culture Centre LEspace to celebrate International Youth Day 2017.

Director Anh, who received the certificate, expressed her joy, On behalf of the cast and crew, I sincerely give my deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Home Affairs Department of Youth Affairs, especially to Mr Vu ang Minh, director of the department, and Mrs Astrid Bant, representative of UNFPA in Viet Nam for this extraordinary honour. I also would like to thank honoured visitors, international guests who are representatives of embassies in Viet Nam, and the young audience who have come and watched The Way Station, as well as discussed and expressed so much affection for it, said Anh.

She also emphasises that the discussions by young people in the seminar after watching the movie has highlighted some of the themes  only by knowing young people can we understand the challenges we see everyday; they have to confront troubles from the past, discrimination, cultural difference, and pressure, prejudice and expectation of their loved ones and society.

Please do treasure and be supportive of the aspirations of young people, their pursuits of freedom and happiness. In the meantime, we also need to assist, give strength, believe and empower them so they have the opportunities to demonstrate their role in building a better, more liberal and happier society and country, she added.

The movie has been selected to be presented at the Brisbane International Film Festival in Australia from August 17 to September 3. Representatives of the movie will attend the premiere on the evening of August 30 and three other premieres on August 31, September 1 and 2.  VNS
HA NOI  Pham Thi Huong (not her real name) from the Mekong Delta Province of Kien Giang decided to take her four-year-old son to a hospital in HCM City after she noticed him blinking all the time, displaying facial twitching and experiencing occasional nausea.

At the hospital, Huong was shocked to hear that her son had been diagnosed with a tic disorder, defined as having uncontrolled sudden, repetitive movements difficult to control.

There are two types of tics  motor and vocal. Motor tics are sudden short movements, such as twitching, grimaces, or squints. A vocal tic might be repetitive sniffling, throat clearing or coughing, clicking of the tongue or humming.

According to Dr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, Head of the Department of Neurology of the HCM City Childrens Hospital 1, gaming, playing with smart phones or watching TV in long hours are among the main cause of tic disorder in children.

"When children play games, use the phone or watch TV too much, the eyes and nerves are always in a state of high concentration leading to stress, not only increasing refactrive errors but also causing the onset of tic disorder, " he told the Bnews online newspaper. Some other factors can also lead to tic disdorder, such as academic stress, or being scolded.

Huong said since her son was two years old, he had been hyperactive and she let him watch videos and play games on mobile phones so that he could sit quietly. Huongs son is not alone.

On average, about five to seven children are taken to the hospital every day with tic disorder, Vinh says.

Doctor Vinh warned that in the summer, the number of tic cases grows because children are not at school and they use smart phones more often.

A social survey by the Research Centre of Culture, Education and Social Life under the HCMC Ethnology and Anthropology Association in 2014 found that up to 78 per cent of kids under six years old use digital devices.

Conducted in four major cities - Ha Noi, a Nang, HCMC and Can Tho - the survey gathered replies from 1,051 respondents, who are parents of 1,802 kids from three to 12 years old.

The survey also found the children were using their devices for an average of 30-60 minutes a day.

Tic syndrome is more common at the ages of four to 10. Although not dangerous, it can lead to social and physical problems, Vinh said.

Doctors usually prescribe medication to relieve the nervous system of the child, and in some cases suggest psychological treatment.

According to Vinh, the possibility of tics recurring is high so parents need to limit childrens use of mobile phones and TV watching. Children should go out to exercise and participate in other activities to release energy, he said.  VNS
HCM CITY  HCM Citys Department of Tourism has proposed the Government extend its visa exemption policy for international tourists from nine countries to 30 days from 15 days to promote tourism development to help reach the citys target of 10-11 million international tourists in 2020.

The countries are Sweden, Denmark, Russia, South Korea, England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Accordingly, people from the above-mentioned countries would not have to apply for a visa if their stay in Viet Nam does not exceed 30 days, instead of the 15 days of the current policy.

The department said the Government should extend the policy for people from these countries so that they may stay a longer time in a more convenient and less expensive way.

Last year, about 5.2 million international tourists came to the city, an increase of 10 per cent compared to 2015.

During the last two years, the number of tourists from the Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain increased by 14 per cent each year, thanks in part to the latest visa exemption policy.

The department said the visa exemption policy should be for five years.

Travel expert Huynh Van Son said: "It will be hard for Viet Nams tourism growth to catch up with other countries in the region if the Government and relevant agencies do not seek solutions to improve standards and streamline procedures for visa requirements".

Research by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) showed that based on the visa-free policy, the number of international tourists that come to ASEAN countries increased by 3-5 per cent per year, bringing significant economic benefits with them.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Viet Nams tourism ranked 22nd in terms of Price Competitiveness of 141 countries, but 119th in terms of visa requirements.

Only visitors from 22 countries are granted visas exemptions in Viet Nam while Indonesia is exempting visas for visitors from 169 countries and territories, Philippines 165, Singapore 158, Malaysia 155, Thailand 61, Laos 40 and Cambodia 25.

Earlier, the citys Tourism Association urged the Government to extend the visa waiver for tourists from the 12 countries and territories, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Spain, Brazil, India, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia.  VNS
HCM CITY  The HCM City Border Guard Forces Headquarters and the HCM City Department of Customs have worked together to uncover 48 cases and 104 people suspected of smuggling illegal goods via border lines, confiscating over VN50 billion (US$2.2 million) worth of items since 2012.

This information was revealed at a preliminary conference held on Friday (August 11) to review the results of the five years co-operation between the two forces from 2012  2017, during which many organisations and individuals of the customs department received awards from the Border Guard Force for their contributions to the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeits at the citys border areas.

Notably, they have discovered seven cases of smuggled elephant ivory (6 tonnes in total) from Africa, trafficking of 31.6 kg of cocaine from South America and a case of around 100 hunting rifles smuggled from Indonesia.

HCM City with 46 ports is one of the countrys crucial locations for the countrys trading activities nationwide. In particular it annually receives and delivers over 65 per cent of the total import/export goods so they have to face many challenges with trade fraud and smuggling.

Those two law enforcement agencies will continue to work together to tackle this issue, by organizing investigations, raids, training for officers and other activities.

Many ports have yet installed scanners, but rely on declaration through border and custom officials checking by themselves. On this occasion the City Border Guard Force has requested the installation of these devices.  VNS
Thousands of volunteers marched in HCM City yesterday to mark the 11th Volunteers Day, calling for more funding from the community to support poor students in the city.  Photo tinhnguyenhetphcm.vn

HCM CITY  Thousands of volunteers marched in HCM City yesterday to mark the 11th Volunteers Day, calling for more funding from the community to support poor students in the city.

The event, which took place at the Phu My Hung urban complex in District 7, was jointly organised by the citys Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Students Union and the HCM City Youth Union.

The organisers awarded 130 scholarships worth VN480 million (US$21,300) to poor students living in HCM City.

The event was also a wrap-up to volunteering activities across the city this summer, which helped fix 42km of roads and 17 bridges in the countryside, provided health checks to more than 43,000 poor residents and helped in building and repair of 119 charity houses.  VNS
Chuck Searcy, Vice President of Project RENEW and Co-chair of the Agent Orange Working Group.  Photo pbs.org Viet Nam News reporter Hoang Anh talks to Chuck Searcy, Vice President of Project RENEW and Co-chair of the Agent Orange Working Group. When did you come to Viet Nam and what motivated your decision?

The first time I came to Viet Nam was in 1967, as a 20-year-old soldier in the US Army. The year I spent in the war had a profound impact on me. That experience made me hate war. I saw the lies used by the US government to win support from the American people to continue the war, and I saw the death and destruction, the pain and the sorrow being caused to American families, but especially the terrible and tragic costs to the Vietnamese people. When I left the war zone in 1968, I knew that someday I would return - and I hoped it would be in a time of peace and recovery for Viet Nam.

What was your impression when you first returned to the country?

When I first came back to Viet Nam in 1992 as a tourist, with an old friend from army days, I found a country still suffering from the war, still struggling to recover from the devastation of years of ground fighting, artillery shelling, thousands of bombing runs by American airplanes which had caused countless deaths and massive destruction. In 1992 Viet Nams infrastructure was in terrible shape; roads and bridges were still being repaired; electricity was not yet available everywhere; communications were unreliable. Every aspect of Vietnamese life was still recovering, and people were working very hard to get by from day to day.

But I could see the determination in the faces of everyone, the commitment to rebuilding and creating a better future for their families and a new generation of young people with new hope. There was a joy and a resilience among the people of Viet Nam that I found inspiring.

Could you tell us about the core values of project Renew and Orange Agent Working Group and the impact for which it aims?

Project RENEW was created as a partnership between the government of Quang Tri Province and an American veterans organization, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), to focus mainly on one tragic legacy of the war that was still killing and injuring people every week: bombs and mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from the war. We agreed to work together to try to develop a new model of action to end this problem, which had killed or injured more than 100,000 Vietnamese children and adults since the war ended in 1975.

Quang Tri Province was the worst affected area in Viet Nam, so we understood that if we could find a way to manage the situation there, to reduce the threat to innocent people and to keep Quang Tri Province safe, we could do the same thing everywhere in Viet Nam, in every province. Along the way the US government agreed to accept responsibility to help deal with the problem, and now the US government is the single largest donor in Viet Nam funding this effort.

I am very pleased to report that my Vietnamese colleagues at RENEW, along with our main partner today, Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), and other NGOs, the Vietnamese military, government authorities and local citizens, are achieving that goal. From 70 or 80 accidents a year between 1975 to 2001 when Project RENEW was launched, the number of casualties has been steadily reduced each year. In 2016, there was just one accident with two casualties. We are hoping that this year, 2017, will be the first since 1975 with no accidents in Quang Tri Province.

Project RENEW combines UXO clearance and survey work -- trained, professional teams cleaning up bombs and mines every day - with risk education, teaching children and adults how to be safe, how to avoid accident and injury, how to report dangerous ordnance immediately when they find it so our teams can come and safely dispose of it. We can say that the effort is successful, although the problem will have to be managed for many years to come.

One of Project RENEWs missions is to help victims who have already been injured by accidents caused by bombs and mines. We provide medical care and rehabilitation, prosthetic limbs and other orthopedic devices to assist amputees to walk again, vocational training and job creation for people with disabilities.

That effort has led the RENEW staff to expand assistance efforts into support for families suffering terrible problems related to Agent Orange. So far those efforts have been limited, but we are hoping to convince the US government to provide greater funding to help reduce the burden with which these families are living.

As a veteran of the war, what would you like to say to young people from both nations regarding our past conflict?

To young people in both countries I would say: learn from, and pay attention to, history. The stories and experiences that your older family members share with you are important, yes; they help you to understand the sacrifices of the past, the tragedies of war, and the urgency and absolute necessity of preventing war at almost any cost.

But in addition to what you learn from others, it is also important to study objective facts, documents, broken agreements that sometimes led to war, so that we can distinguish between lies and truths and understand how to avoid such misrepresentations as occurred in the past. If we learn the lessons of the past, hopefully we can avoid those same mistakes in the future. That applies to both nations, but that responsibility is especially important to young Americans since our country continues to be in military conflicts year after year since our involvement in the war in Viet Nam ended in 1975.

What are your impressions of Viet Nam as a modern nation in development?

Viet Nam faces many problems of geography, a large population, resources and climate in stress, an economic system still struggling to find balance, to create a more equitable sharing of the basic needs of life among all its citizens. The government has tried to provide good planning and guidance, but sometimes greed has allowed corruption to enter and a few people benefit while many are unfairly denied access and opportunity.

The younger generation of Vietnamese citizens is well educated, knowledgeable, eager to learn and work and invest in a better future for all. They should be encouraged to become much more involved at an earlier age in community and national affairs, in government, in leadership, teaching, research, innovation. We older people can offer advice and wisdom, but we should not get in the way of new and fresh ideas from young people who have much to offer the nation.  VNS
OUAGADOUGOU  Seventeen people have been killed and eight injured in a "terrorist attack" on a restaurant in Burkina Fasos capital, the government said on Monday.

Witnesses said three gunmen arrived at a Turkish restaurant in a pickup truck on Sunday evening and opened fire on customers seated outside.

The government then launched a counter-assault, with gunfire heard into the night.

"A terrorist attack at Istanbul restaurant on Ouagadougous Kwame Nkrumah Avenue claimed 17 victims, their nationalities are yet to be confirmed, and eight people are injured," a government statement said.

Communication minister Remis Dandjinou said it was not known how many assailants were involved.

"They are confined to one part of the building they attacked. Security and elite forces are conducting an operation," he said on television.

A paramedic told AFP that one of the victims was a Turkish national.

"We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at hospital," the paramedic said, declining to be named.

Police evacuated civilians from the area before launching the counter-assault, with the heavy exchange of fire becoming more sporadic as the operation went on.

One soldier had said there were hostages on the first and second floor of the two-storey building housing the Turkish restaurant.

The mayor of Ouagadougou and government ministers were on the scene, he added.

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

In December 2016 a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

The worst attack was an assault on a hotel and cafe in central Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people including several foreigners.

Gunmen from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners, sparking a protracted standoff with security forces.

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people.  AFP
ROME  The Italian government on Sunday welcomed Libyas decision to bar foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast, a move that has prompted almost all international charities to halt migrant search and rescue operations in the area.

The comments from Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano came as Save the Children and Sea Eye announced they were suspending operations in the area in response to the Libyan move.

Libyas navy last week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe, saying the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations it accuses of facilitating illegal migration.

The Libyan government "is ready to put in place a search and rescue zone in its waters, work with Europe and invest in its coastguards," Alfano told La Stampa daily on Sunday.

"This sends a signal that the balance is being restored in the Mediterranean."

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats, and charities have dispatched ships to rescue them from drowning.

But by Sunday the Aquarius, operated by the SOS Mediterranee, was the only humanitarian vessel conducting search and rescue work off Libya.

And only Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms has said it is willing to keep operations going from Monday. Its two vessels were docked in Malta on Sunday.

Significant investment

Libya and Italy - where the vast majority of migrants land - have worked together to stem the flow, with Italy also moving to rein in NGOs helping the multinational rescue operations by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

"We need a significant, I repeat a significant European economic investment in Libya and in Africa," Alfano said.

"Europe has to decide if the theme of migration flows is an absolute priority on the same scale as the economy. For us, it is".

The Libyan measure prompted Save the Children to suspend search and rescue work in the area and send its ship Vos Hestia to port in Malta, saying it could not resume without "vital safety and security assurances".

"We have a duty to ensure the safety of our team and the viability of the rescue mission. We need to have these assurances in place, before we can continue with the rescue mission as intended," Save the Childrens Operation Director Rob MacGillivray said in a statement.

The announcement from Save the Children followed a similar move by German aid group Sea Eye, which also cited security concerns.

Sea Eye said in a statement that it was with "a heavy heart" that it made its decision, after the Libyan governments "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

A day earlier, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting rescue operations.

Sea Eye said it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016, and cautioned on Sunday that the retreat of aid groups from Libyas coast was putting lives at risk.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Buschheuer warned.

The number of migrant arrivals in Italy in July was down dramatically on the same month last year, suggesting efforts to train up and better equip Libyas coastguard could already be having an impact.

The interior ministry said 11,193 new arrivals had been registered in July, compared with 23,552 in July 2016.

Arrivals for the first seven months of this year were 95,214, up 0.78 per cent on the same period last year.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014.  AFP
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump will have the chance to turn a key campaign promise into reality with this weeks start of official talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

After threatening during the campaign to rip up the agreement, Trump has softened his stance a bit and spoken more recently of renegotiating the agreement as the most efficient course for the US, Canada and Mexico.

But talks to redo the controversial 1994 agreement, which eliminated trade barriers among the three countries, are expected to be thorny. The first round takes place from Wednesday to Sunday in the US capital.

Trump made NAFTA a defining issue of his campaign, frequently lambasting the deal as a "disaster" that sold out US workers and dismissing supporters who touted the deals benefits.

"For Donald Trump this was so central in his campaign that he felt he has no choice but proceed," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, a leading think tank.

"I think at some point the President Trump has to walk away with something that he can call victory. I dont think he could just walk away."

Trumps biggest gripe with NAFTA has been the dramatic shift in the US commercial balance with Mexico, which since the treatys inception has gone from a surplus of US$1.3 billion to a deficit of $64 billion.

NAFTA has been a bedrock of the Mexican economy, with 80 per cent of that countrys exports going to its Northern neighbor, an especially impactful relationship for Mexican manufacturers and farmers.

The agreement has significantly boosted Mexicos auto sector, which has grown because of its supply of cheap labor as US automakers have shuttered some factories in their home country.

"Too many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said last month.

The US trade balance with Canada is more even, but that trade relationship also has points of tension in some sectors, including dairy, wine and grains.

Long road ahead

While the US under Trump has been the party to force NAFTA back onto the agenda, all three countries agree there will be benefits to revisiting an agreement nearly a quarter of a century old that was crafted prior to the internet era.

"Each country feels they have a lot to gain from pursuing these negotiations," said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank.

Trump administration officials have said they want a swift outcome to the talks, but experts think a speedy deal is unlikely. Next weeks opening salvo will be followed by a second round of talks beginning on September 5 in Mexico.

"The first round is basically to put forward some initial ideas and to explain them and probably the negotiators wont cover the most controversial issues in the first round," said Schott, who warned a strident "America first" push by the Trump team could cause problems.

"All three countries are committed to successful negotiations that revise and improve the NAFTA, but there is a risk that if US is pushing the controversial ideas too hard that the talks could run off," Schott said.

A consideration from the Mexican side will be the 2018 presidential election. But Alden, who predicts the talks will require about two years, noted it also has an experienced negotiating team, as well as a strong consumer market for some US sectors, such as agriculture.

"Mexico has a lot of leverage too," Alden said.  AFP
CEDAR FALLS  A rousing, inspiring, musically and theatrically exciting new musical, Just Ann, opened to a standing ovation at its world premier Thursday at the Cedar Falls Community Theatre.

Subtitled The Life and Times of Texas Governor Ann Richards, this new musical celebrates the feisty, funny, grassroots Richards who burst on the national scene at the 1988 Democratic National Convention when she quipped that George Bush was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

This is the second musical written by University of Northern Iowa professors Rebecca Burkhardt and Cynthia Goatley, and I predict it will go far. They began work on the show in 2007, the year after Richards death; however, opening now, in todays highly-charged, beyond-dramatic political scene, it feels powerfully relevant: a rallying cry for public service for the people.

One feels the artful care in every facet of this premier production. The music, composed by Burkhardt, ranges from waltz, to polka, to country, to ballad and blues  and more. All is wonderfully arranged, with trios, quartets and complex ensemble tunes. Texas Leg[islature] Blues, sung by the pitch-perfect Kristin Teig Torres (as Ann) and a female quartet, earned shouts as well as applause from Thursdays crowd.

The male quartet, singing Frost Brothers, evoked similar applause  as did Politics Polka, sung by Ann and the whole company.

Just as popular song styles weave through the show, Cynthia Goatley unfolds Richards life through a series of revealing vignettes that move about in time. Teig Torres is on stage through the whole show as the adult Ann, yet the show has a populist, ensemble feel  for others play Ann at different ages, and adult Ann stands to the side looking on. The shows title, Just Ann, is both apt and ironic  for the show has the feel of Just Us.

Burkhardt, Goatley, and UNIs Director of Opera Mitra M. Sadeghpour, who directs Just Ann, make suggestive use of all facets of the theater. The 14-member company sings among us in the aisles. Key themes recur through the sound system  reminding us of past, but now relevant, words. At one moment, a strolling guitar-player is part of a scene; another time Christopher Phalen (as Anns husband) plays the trombone.

Scenic designer Katrina Sandvik has created a striking and brilliantly useful set. Conductor Burkhardt and her five-piece combo are elevated at the back of the stage in what looks like a Texas roadhouse in front of which are five playing areas made of trunks of varying heights and lengths. The players open the trunks during the show to put on different costumes. They move furniture and props on and off the stage  again contributing to the communal, we-do-it all, feel.

Kristin Teig Torres has wowed us in the past  as Dolly, as Maria, as Marian the Librarian, and (most recently) in Guys and Dolls. I doubt, however, that she has had a better role than Ann Richards and, as she says as Ann: Roosters crow  hens deliver. Teig Torres looks like Richards in her stunning white wig and pearl necklace, but most of all she makes us care for Richards in both the highs and lows of her life. I learned long ago that if you make people laugh, they will like you, Richards confides in us early on. Teig Torres makes us laugh and care.

Metro singing talent is on display in the 13 actors that surround Ann. Each plays multiple roles and has moments to shine. Lovely and beautiful-voiced MaKayla M. McDonald plays young Ann. Aaron DeSantiago makes an auspicious CFCT debut, first creating indelible characters; then through his acrobatics and dance moves.

Brian Langr registers (as always) with his powerful voice, and Stephanie Althof brings her rich voice to the roll of Anns hairdresser, singing In My Chair. William G. Dawsons gentle duet with Ann, So Far, So Bueno, was one of my favorite moments in the show.

All the actors merit mention: Katie Albright, Jordyn Beranek, Christine Dornbusch, Jeffrey Hansen, Marcus Jackson Jr., Hannah Sealock and Ava Torres.

Ditto the fine musicians: Hannah Howland on violin, Bob Dunn on guitar, Clayton Ryan on bass, Christopher Jensen on drums, and Mabel Tempe on piano.

When a new show appears, its authors are eager to learn what works with the audience and any obstacles that rear. Burkhardt and Goatley already plan to take Just Ann to regional theaters, especially in the southwest. I can imagine many famous Broadway and singing stars who would want to take the roll of Ann.

I was a bit confused by the shift from the Harry Porko to the Mad Dogs scene  and perhaps that can be clarified. The long length of the show two hours and 40 minutes  is the only drawback that make brake Just Anns success. The first act lasts two hours  and this at time that even major movies are starting to run under two hours.

The wish to trace Richards life from start to end is certainly admirable. However, it seems to me that if Act I could end following Richards rehab with simply her vow to run for office, that would shorten Act I. Then Act II could give her first big Treasurer race, the Governor win and loss, and close with Ann at the Walk for Womens Lives rally & the rousing finale A-Men, A-Women, A-Ann.

Richards illness and death are movingly done  but the real story is political Ann.

A huge Texas salute to Burkhardt and Goatley for giving us this inspiring show.
WAVERLY  You will look around and say, The eclipse is everywhere! Wartburg College professor Charles Figura enthused.

He was telling the crowd gathered for a pre-solar eclipse educational presentation at the Waverly Library about the unique phenomenon of being able to see eclipse crescents through trees and reflected on the sidewalk.

But he could just as easily have been talking about his event, and several others in the region, gearing up for the astronomical occurrence.

Eclipse fever has taken over the Cedar Valley. The eclipse is everywhere these days.

Astronomers have been readying for the Aug. 21 eclipse for decades. Stargazers interested in being in the path of totality, where the moon will fully blot out the sun for a few precious minutes, have been planning trips for more than a year. Even last-minute planners are heading to events like Figuras to learn more.

The eclipse can be seen in Northeast Iowa starting about noon Aug. 21. Northeast Iowa is not in the path of totality, so the sun will not be fully covered. But peak coverage, about 90 percent, will be about 1:10 p.m., and the eclipse will end by about 2 p.m.

A big deal

Siobahn Morgan, University of Northern Iowa professor of astronomy and head of the Earth and environmental sciences department, said its been 99 years since the United States has seen a coast-to-coast eclipse like this and in a roughly similar path.

David Voigts, of the Black Hawk Astronomy Club, added a total eclipse hasnt been seen in the United States since 1979. That one, though, passed through only a handful of states out west.

If youre on the center line, its spectacular, many people say the most amazing thing theyve seen their whole lives, Voigts said. Its something youll never ever ever forget.

He encourages people to notice not just the sun and moon but also the way the environment changes  how the sun is still visible in the distance, the chilling of the air, and for those in totality, even the visibility of stars during the day.

Because of its rarity, most people aiming to be in the center path have been planning for some time where theyll be to ensure they have a good viewing spot. Even at the center of the path of totality, the sun will be covered for just 2 1/2 minutes.

Ive been talking about this eclipse since 1999, and itll be kind of sad to see it go since Ive been harping on this for so many years. But you get used to talking about these things, then you have to change. Youll have a memory of the event, and then you go on and look forward to the next major astronomical event thats in your neighborhood, Morgan said.

The next solar eclipse visible in the continental United States will stretch from roughly Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024. And on Aug. 12, 2045, a total eclipse will be seen from California to Florida.

Watch safely

One of the first things youll hear from the experts is to never look directly at the sun, even if its mostly covered. It came up repeatedly as Figura told the crowd safe ways to watch the eclipse.

Those who attend public events will likely have access to glasses or solar viewers to safely look at the sun.

Though several outlets had glasses for sale, many places are out or running short.

But glasses and other solar viewers arent the only option.

Pinhole projectors, made by puncturing a hole in paper, project the image of the crescent sun onto the ground or another sheet of paper. Figura demonstrated ways projectors can be made with cereal boxes, with larger boxes or a poster tube. Directions are easily accessible online.

Voigts encouraged people to be prepared because of how quickly, particularly in the path of totality, the event passes. But he also said he had nearly forgotten a safe viewing option when witnessing a 2006 eclipse in Libya, so in a pinch he made a projector with a brochure and a pencil.

Figura said even those who dont plan in advance can make several options for optimal viewing in less than 10 minutes.

Local events

The Fontana Nature Center, 11501 Cypress Ave. E., will hold an event where people can make their own viewing device by bringing in a cereal box or similar-sized box. The event starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the nature center basement.

On the day of the eclipse, there are three public viewing options in the Cedar Valley. All will have access to solar viewing glasses and an option to watch the National Aeronautics and Space Administration broadcast of the eclipse.

The Waverly Library, 1500 W. Bremer Ave., will start its viewing party at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 21. People are encouraged to bring blankets or lawn chairs. There will be activities for kids and light refreshments.

The Cedar Falls Library, 524 Main St., will start its viewing party at 11:30 a.m. Aug. 21. It held several pre-eclipse events through July.

UNI also will host a viewing party from noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 21 at Rod Librarys Room 287 with viewing south of the Campanile. Parking may be difficult, and its the first day of classes, but there will be a chance to view the eclipse through a telescope and other educational opportunities.
Waterloo police arrested Korey James Benson, 17, of Waterloo, for second-degree robbery on Friday. Benson was charged as an adult.

Police said three assailants approached a 49-year-old man in the area of West Second Street and Sullivan Avenue and began striking him. The victim gave them $5 in cash to stop, and the suspects fled.
MARSHALLTOWN  Two Conrad residents were arrested on marijuana charges following a search in rural Marshalltown on Thursday.

Hardin County and Grundy County sheriffs deputies assisted the Mid Iowa Drug Task Force with the search on Vance Avenue in Marshalltown.

Michael Weatherly, 57 of Conrad, was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, violation of the drug tax stamp act and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Hardin County Sheriffs office. Melissa Weatherly, 42, of Conrad, was arrested for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Roger Waltemeyer, 56, of Marshalltown, was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, violation of the drug tax stamp act and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hardin Countys K-9 Ogon was involved in the operation.
WESTGATE  A Westgate man has been arrested for allegedly abusing a 15-year-old girl.

Fayette County sheriffs deputies arrested Justin Thomas Cavnar, 34, on Monday for third-degree sexual abuse, false imprisonment and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. His bond was set at $10,000.

Other charges may be filed in this case, and the Iowa Department of Human Services were also called in to find placement for the victim, according to the sheriffs office.

Deputies allege Cavnar sexually abused the 15-year-old female in June and during the assault held her against her will. A week later he allegedly attempted to assault the juvenile again, deputies said.
CEDAR RAPIDS  As court officials debate where to put a 16-year-old Johnson County girl who slashed a treatment center employee, Iowas new Department of Human Services director said a training school for girl delinquents like her will not be built in the state.

There are not enough delinquent girls to fill even a 12-bed facility recommended by a task force, said DHS Director Jerry Foxhoven.

It doesnt make sense, he said in a phone interview. Its not just a cost issue but also quality of education for these girls.

He noted the few girls destined for such a facility would likely be spread out over three or four grade levels.

It wouldnt be fair to them or cost-effective for the state, he said.

The issue of what do with girl offenders arose last week when a 6th Judicial Associate District Court judge ordered juvenile court officers to find a secure, restrictive facility  like a training school  to place the 16-year-old, who was convicted in juvenile court of slicing the neck of a Four Oaks employee.

Iowa no longer has a state facility for girl delinquents. The Iowa Juvenile Home and State Training School for Girls in Toledo was closed in 2014 following accusations of unlawful restraining methods and of keeping girls in long-term isolation.

Then-Gov. Terry Branstad appointed a committee to study the facility before deciding to close it. As a result, the 10 girls living there were transferred to out-of-state facilities, detention centers or to adult court.

Foxhoven said the violent Johnson County girl is likely to be placed in an out-of-state facility if the judge finds she needs to be in a training school or group care setting.

Foxhoven acknowledged the Johnson County girl and any others like her requiring a state training school are under the guardianship of his department. But, he said, juvenile court officers are more familiar with the girls and better able to investigate possible placement for them.

The reality is theres no place in Iowa for girls ordered to a locked, training school institution. And, Foxhoven said, We cant build it for one girl.

A review hearing for the Johnson County girl is set for Wednesday. Juvenile court officers will update the judge at that time on their progress of finding a placement for the girl in or out of state.

Equitable services

The Iowa Girls Justice Initiative report, compiled by a 28-member group spearheaded by the Iowa Task Force for Young Women, issued a 34-page report in February, saying the state should have equitable services for deep-end girls  serious, violent and chronic offenders.

It recommended a secure or staff-secure facility for about 12 girls. The report suggested a residential setting similar to the enhanced residential treatment facilities for boys provided by public treatment centers or private agencies that contract with the state.

Foxhoven said its a different situation at the State Training School for Boys in Eldora. The number of delinquent boys there  94, as of Friday  is much larger.

But if there werent enough boys at the Eldora facility, it, too, would be closed, he added.

As of Thursday, no Iowa girls are placed in out-of-state training schools or in group care settings, said Amy McCoy, DHS spokeswoman.

DHS will continue to add community-based services, as it has done after the girls school closed, Foxhoven said.

Lawsuit

Two Iowa girls who had been placed at the Copper Lake School in Irma, Wis., assert in a federal lawsuit they were physically abused and held in long-term isolation there in 2015.

DHS contracted with the Wisconsin facility to take the delinquent girls after the Toledo facility closed in 2014.

In the suit, one of the girls, 16 at the time, said she tried to commit suicide with her nightgown while in isolation for 17 days. She was found unresponsive and, after being revived, was sent back to her cell and sentenced to more isolation.

The girl said in the lawsuit she repeatedly hurt herself by putting her head under a metal cot frame, and a staff supervisor stood on the cot to increase pressure.

Foxhoven wouldnt comment on the pending suit, except to say if the allegations are true, he hopes those responsible will be held accountable.

It can happen in-state, too  look at what happened at Toledo, Foxhoven added.

Alternate study

An alternative report also was filed in February after the Girls Justice Initiative report was issued. The alternative report opposes building a training school or secure facility for girls.

The authors were Foxhoven, before he was appointed DHS director in June; Jim Chesnik, also with DHS; Nathan Kirstein, director of Disability Rights of Iowa; and Brett Pattison, director of the Joan and Lyle Middleton Center for Childrens Rights at Drake Law School.

They instead recommended moving away from locked facilities for juveniles, as many states are doing, and using community-based services to alter behavior, educate and address mental health needs.

Community-based services are far less expensive and more effective, Kirstein said last week.

During the first decade the Iowa Juvenile Home and girls school operated, the bed count went from 89 to 51, more than a 40 percent reduction, but the costs during that time went up 37 percent, according to the report.

The current cost of locked facilities in Iowa  juvenile detention and the training school for boys  is more than $300 per day, the report said.

What is magic about locked doors? Kirstein asked. How does that stop assaults? There are assaults at the boys training school.

Disability Rights Iowa, a nonprofit law center that advocates for the rights of Iowans with disabilities and mental illness, uncovered the Toledo homes placement of girls in long-term isolation cells that led to its closure.

Disability Rights Iowa also issued a report last week after a yearlong study of the boys school, citing the Eldora school isnt providing evidence-based mental health services, besides medication management, and staff is relying too much on the use of restraint and seclusion. The report also says independent oversight is also needed.

Jennifer Tibbetts, chair of the Iowa Task Force for Young Women that gave rise to the report calling for a small facility for girls, said secure doesnt necessarily mean locks or a fence.

These girls need secure residential placement whether that means a locked facility or one with staff trained to handle issues unique to such girls, she said.

The girls deserve a stable environment and equitable services for rehabilitation, Tibbetts said, which the state now only provides to boys.

I dont want any of these girls to think theres no hope for them because there is, Tibbetts said. With the right level of services to support these girls, they can become better adults and have better lives.

Tibbetts said its also an expense to the state when these girls are placed outside of Iowa.

She and other group members hope to start talking to legislators about their report to gain support for a facility.
DES MOINES  A nationwide shortage of psychiatrists has created a similar shortage in the U.S. Veterans Affairs department, which can amplify the departments challenge in having sufficient staff to provide mental health care to veterans.

A 2015 report showed the VA was critically short on psychiatrists. The report, published by the VA inspector general, said more than two-thirds of VA health care facilities studied  94 of 140  needed more psychiatrists on staff to meet demand.

To fill those gaps, VA hospitals often contract with private practice psychiatrists.

But the problem is the private sector also is woefully short on psychiatrists.

The shortage is being felt across the country. Dr. Atul Grover, executive vice president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, recently told Forbes that expanded access to health care under federal reforms has led to more people seeking mental health care and thus put a strain on the availability of mental health professionals.

A 2017 report said psychiatrists have become the second-most highly recruited physicians, trailing only family physicians. The report was published by Merritt Hawkins, a national physician search and consulting firm.

Iowa has not been immune. The state has been dealing with a psychiatrist shortage for years; 89 of the states 99 counties have a mental health professional shortage, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.

Iowas shortage of psychiatrists unfortunately exacerbates the VAs shortage of psychiatrists. Our mental health professionals are being stretched too thin, said U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a veteran and member of the Senates armed services committee. Its critical that the VA look to strengthen recruiting and retention of health professionals so our veterans have access to quality, timely mental health care.

Neither the federal Veterans Affairs media office nor the VA Central Iowa Health Care System returned messages seeking more information.

In 2014, an average of 20 veterans per day died from suicide, according to a 2016 VA report. Of those 20 deaths, an average of six used the VA for health care services, the report said.

Legislators have attempted to address the VA psychiatrist shortage. For example, one bill in the U.S. House would allow the VA to fill positions that have been vacant for more than 35 years by appointing psychiatrists immediately upon completion of their residencies regardless of civil service or classification laws.

In Iowa, the state in 2016 issued a $4 million grant to create psychiatry residency programs at three Des Moines hospitals.

From my experience as the former president of Des Moines University, I know that specialized physicians are more likely to remain in Iowa if they do their residency here, then-Gov. Terry Branstad said when the program was announced. Iowa is taking steps to ensure that these health care professionals remain an important fabric of our communities, both urban and rural.
WATERLOO  The city is launching a public awareness campaign to educate bicyclists and motorists on proper use of the new Park Avenue bicycle lanes.

The Bike Friendly Waterloo campaign, tied to a Thursday ribbon-cutting for the project, will include demonstrations, educational videos, a digital media strategy, including Facebook and a website, and print pieces outlining detailed instructions for motorists and cyclists.

The city has installed protected bike lanes on Park Avenue from South Street to Walnut Street through the downtown area to improve safety and link other trail systems.

The project reduced Park Avenue from four to two lanes of traffic, installed the bike lanes next to the curb and pushed the parking areas into the once-traveled portion of the street to create a protected area for cyclists.

There will be several demonstrations in August, led by Cedar Valley cyclists, which will include a booth where residents can review materials and ask questions. The demonstrations will be bicyclist-focused, with information provided for drivers as well.

Some of the topics to be addressed include: understanding symbols and signs, following pavement markings, proper parking procedures and intersection interaction.

The first demonstration will at 5:15 p.m. Thursday at the downtown Riverloop Expo Plaza, at Park and Jefferson Street. It will be followed by the weekly rider from Waterloo Bicycle Works to Cedar Falls and back to SingleSpeed Brewing Co., Waterloo, where educational materials also will be distributed. The public is invited to attend.

Other scheduled demonstration events include:

Friday, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Lincoln Park.

Saturday, from 8 to 10 a.m. at the Waterloo Downtown Farmers Market in the Riverloop Expo Plaza.

Aug. 25, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Riverloop Amphitheater for the first hour of the Riverloop Rhythms event.

Aug. 27, from 10 a.m. to noon at SingleSpeed Brewing Co., 325 Commercial St., Waterloo.

Those who cannot participate in the scheduled events and would like a private demonstration may send a request to trafficstaff@waterloo-ia.org or call the Traffic Operations Department at 291-4440 for scheduling with volunteers. Office hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Educational pieces and videos, and more information about the Bike Friendly Waterloo Park Avenue Corridor project can be found www.cityofwaterlooiowa.com/bikefriendlywaterloo.
WATERLOO -- The Iowa Department of Corrections says authorities are looking for a man who failed to report back to the Waterloo residential correctional facility from work release.

Malik De'Sean Richard, convicted of domestic abuse assault- third or subsequent offense in Black Hawk County, failed to report back to Waterloo residential facility on East Sixth Street as required Sunday night.

He is a 25-year-old Black male, height 5'7 and weighing 140 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on May, 23.

Persons with information on Richard's whereabouts should contact police.
Q: Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Trump/Russian investigation; what is he doing now to honor his pay and make his time worthwhile?

A: The U.S. Attorney General is the head of the U.S. Department of Justice and the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government, so Sessions keeps busy. Attorneys general also represent the United States in legal matters and will offer legal advice and opinions to the president and heads of executive when requested. In the last week or so, the office has released press releases on everything from a task force Sessions formed on crime reduction and public safety to immigration compliance for certain grants to outlining policies on sanctuary cities for law enforcement to announcing the shut down of an online drug market to reversing previous federal policy on civil asset forfeiture.

Q: We live in Southview Estates trailer court. There is a notice up about water needing to be boiled. Arent they required to send out individual letters?

A: The Waterloo Water Works is replacing a hydrant valve in that area, which requires depressurizing the line to Southview Estates. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources does not require boil order advisories for this type of controlled repair, but the Water Works issued a public notice to Southview Estates customers as a precautionary measure. At the time this question was received, the notice had been posted but individual notification to customers was not complete. Water service will not return until all have been notified. Customers will also be notified when the boil advisory is lifted after water has been tested and verified to be bacterially safe. Contact the Water Works with additional questions at 232-6280.

Q: With the upcoming eclipse, where in the Cedar Valley can we go around 11 a.m. to see it the best?

A: It wont have begun at 11 a.m. A partial eclipse will be visible beginning at 11:45 a.m., with the maximum (about 92 percent covered) at 1:10 p.m. and finishing at 2:34 p.m. Aug. 21.

Q: Has the city changed Kingsley to commercial zoning or is it still residential?

A: Kingsley Elementary School has not been rezoned commercial. It is zoned R-1 one- and two-family residence district.

Q: With a need for affordable housing, a developer wanted to build a cluster of houses with a laundromat in the center. What became of that?

A: We reached out to the planning and development offices in both Waterloo and Cedar Falls, and no one was familiar with such a project. Perhaps if you had a specific location we might be able to track something down.
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Import Duty, if the wine comes from outside Europe

Value-Added Tax, which applies to all goods and services, and which goes by many names throughout the world (eg. VAT, TVA, IVA, GST, MwSt, Moms)

Excise Tax, which applies to specific products, such as alcohol or tobacco (and, in the dim past, also things like salt and sugar).

Almost all countries have some sort of tax on wine. Some places have a uniform tax throughout the country; and some countries have taxes that vary between their states (eg. the USA  see State and Local Alcohol Tax Revenue, 2014 ). The countries of the European Union (EU) may have many common economic policies, but uniform taxes is certainly not one of them. Therefore, the tax on wine varies considerably between the countries of Europe.There are three possible taxes that might apply to wine:Here, we will concern ourselves only with the latter two taxes, on the assumption that the wine has originated in Europe or has already been imported there.Recently, the Facebook page of the American Association of Wine Economists has considered this issue in one of their posts: Excise Taxes and VAT on Still Wine in the EU 2017 . I have used these data as my basis; but I have modified them to account for the fact that in Europe the Value-Added Tax is charged on the total bottle price, including the Excise Tax (and also the Import Duty, for that matter). I have also added the data for Norway and Switzerland, which are currently not in the EU.This graph shows the full data for 29 European countries, with the combined taxes on the wine expressed as a percentage of the final bottle price paid by the consumer.Note that the EU countries are neatly bracketed by the two non-EU countries, with Swiss alcohol being dramatically cheaper than the Norwegian stuff. Also, note that the six "top" countries stand out from the rest  there is not a great difference between Estonia (23%) and Germany (16%), but the denizens of Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Finland, Ireland and Norway pay notably more tax for their wine than do other Europeans.Needless to say, the residents of these six countries do not take this situation lying down. Something must be done!And the thing to do is to take advantage of the fact that there is free trade throughout the EU. That is, if you are a resident of a country with a sales tax that you don't like, then you can simply purchase your goods in another country, with a tax more to your liking. [*]So, the British go to France, this being their closest country with lower alcohol taxes. These days there are large shopping complexes at the appropriate entry points into France (or exit points if you are going the other way). These are often owned and run by British companies. You simply order your goods online before you leave Britain, travel to France for the day (or a few days, if you want a proper holiday), and pick up your pre-packed goods on the way home. It is as simple as that.I have no idea what the wine drinkers plan to do if Brexit is implemented.Similarly, the Swedes and Danes go to Germany. Once again, there are large shopping complexes just where the main roads cross the Danish border, or near the boats too / from Sweden. These are usually run by Germans, and you don't order your goods ahead of time; but Scandinavians do commonly stop at them on their drive home at the end of any trip down south.The Finns go to Sweden, on boats. There are a couple of large cruise liners that go back and forth between Stockholm and Helsinki every evening. Each trip runs overnight, and you spend the following day in the destination city, returning home that evening (ie. the entire trip, there and back, takes 40 hours). These boats are nominally run to transport trucked goods to Finland, which would otherwise need to be accessed via a long land detour through Russia  the boat is officially part of European road number E18. But, in reality, these are duty-free party boats, with a casino, nightclub, movie theater, duty-free shops, etc. Both Swedes and Finns are observed to depart from these boats with shopping carts loaded with duty-free alcohol.Finally, the Norwegians go to Sweden for their alcohol. This might seem odd, since Norway is not in the EU and Sweden is, so that the goods are technically being imported into Norway (and should therefore attract Import Duty). However, there is unrestricted land movement of people between these two countries (see Nordic Passport Union ), and only large trucks are stopped at the customs points. It has always been like this, even though the two countries parted company over a century ago.So, if you drive south from, say, Oslo (the largest city in Norway), then just after you cross the Swedish border (about 90 minutes from Oslo) you will encounter two large shopping complexes, labeled Nordby and Svinesund in the satellite photo above. These are in the middle of a forest, with no nearby Swedish town  the Swedes have constructed them solely for the Norwegians. If you visit these shops, you will see lots of people packing their station wagons with goods that attract much lower taxes in Sweden than they do in Norway. Indeed, Nordby actually has the liquor store with the biggest annual turnover in Sweden!Such is life in modern Europe.[*] In this sense, the European Union is more united than is the United States, where free trade in alcohol is still not widespread (see Consumers short-changed again on shipping ), in spite of the fact that Prohibition was repealed eight decades ago.If you happen to be traveling along the coast of Croatia, then you may be familiar with the small part of Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) that interrupts the mainland coastline of Croatia for 20 km or so. Since alcohol is cheaper in BiH than in Croatia, there are large shops along the main highway that cater for Croatians who are passing through  these are very busy shops!
Political parties within the ruling Broad Front have rejected the country's decision to suspend Venezuela from Mercosur.

Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez has received harsh criticism from his ruling coalition since the decision Saturday to suspend Venezuela from the Common Market of the South, with the majority of Broad Front party members rejecting the attack against the Bolivarian nation.

"We call for joining the efforts of social and political organizations, so that the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is not left alone, offering solidarity to a people and a government that has given so much for the integration and construction of the Great Homeland," National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros, a group within Uruguays Popular Participation Movement, stated.

Former President Jose Pepe Mujica stated that in the case of Venezuelas Constituent Assembly, Mercosur can not be neutral, declaring that the international group should support the institution.

"We do not understand or accept the position of our government," he said, opposing Uruguay's decision to side with Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay against Venezuela.

Vice President Raul Sendics sector Compromiso Frenteamplista-Lista 711, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uruguay, and the Casa Grande, a group headed by Senator Constanza Moreira.

Moreira also publicly urged the government, particularly the Foreign Ministry to reconsider their decision to suspend Venezuela.

Mercosur announced their decision Saturday to apply the democratic clause, established by the groups Protocol of Ushuaia, suspending Venezuela from the regional bloc.

The bloc claimed that the government of President Nicolas Maduro was suspended for breaking the democratic order after it moved forward with its National Constituent Assembly.

In response, Venezuela said the ongoing reckless use of a body for integration as a means of political hostility against the government and people of Venezuela is alarming," adding that the regional trade group has shown a bias against the country.
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.


Allu Arjun teamed up with writer Vakkantham Vamsi for the latters directorial debut movie. Titled Naa Peru Surya with the tagline Naa Illu India, the films regular shooting began earlier this month. NPS is a high-voltage action drama, and Bunny will be seen as a military man in the movie.

As per the latest updates, Allu Arjun will be joining the films second schedule which will kick-start from August 18th. Anu Emmanuel is the films leading lady. Senior stars Arjun and Sarathkumar will be seen in important roles. Bollywood duo Vishal-Shekhar are composing the music. Lagadapati Sridhar is producing the movie, while Naga Babu is presenting it.

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Three years ago Michelle Pattee was looking at the property tax documents for her four-acre spread in Sebastopol.

She and her husband, Bill Albright, had put a lot of sweat equity into the 1904 farmhouse, and as she scanned the bills spread across her desk, she thought, "How are we going to pull this off this year?" Just then the phone rang, and that call provided the answer. A creative director from Pottery Barn Kids was on the line; he wanted to book her house for a weeks-long photo shootand the rate he offered was enough to take care of that year's taxes.



Pattee (a high-end event photographer and co-owner of Archival Decor) and Albright (principal of West County Wood) didn't intend to create the perfect backdrop for companies like Pottery Barn, Serena & Lily, Pendleton and QVC; their goal was to make a forever home for their family. It just so happens their home tells a story we all want to buy.

Houzz at a Glance

Location: Sebastopol, CA

Who lives here: Michelle Pattee, husband Bill Albright and kids Eli and Kansas

Size: 1,880 square feet (175 square meters); 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom

(Michelle Pattee, original photo on Houzz In keeping with her "simple is best" philosophy, Pattee chose two white slipcovered sofas (they can be stripped, laundered and back in place quickly). The black and blue rug came predistressed, an attractive feature to Pattee because, as she points out, they live in the country and distress would happen anyway. Wall paint: Bright White, Kelly Moore; sofas: Nantuckit Furniture Company.





Old farmhouses have always appealed to Pattee. "I'm drawn to the architecture of the style," she says. "There's something authentic about them." Perhaps that's why she and Albright decided to buy this house seven years ago, even though they weren't looking for a project.



The entire family gravitates to the huge walnut tree in the yard. "It's kind of a touchstone," says Pattee. "It's poetic and statuesque." The house, with its graceful gable structure, is visible in the background. "It needed a lot of love when we first saw it," says Pattee. "The second story was accessible only by a steep ladder."

They removed the walls that enclosed the kitchen, using reclaimed wood for the support beams, ceiling and floor. "I'm a minimalist," Pattee says, explaining the open shelves and sparse furniture arrangements. "I prefer to have open space in my homeit also comes in handy for photo shoots."

Because the kitchen faces north and is at the center of the house, it is the darkest room. The couple installed simple bulbs on the tops of the rafters to cast more illumination. "Not only does it throw light up there; it really highlights the beauty of the wood," says Pattee.

The island used to be twice as wide, but when the family decided it was too large to comfortably reach across, Albright cut it in half and used the excess wood to make a table. In the newly empty space, the couple put in a comfortably worn leather sofa, which instantly became a favorite gathering spot for family and guests.

In contrast to the kitchen, the living room is painted a bright white. "I do all the painting myself," says Pattee. "So I chose one simple color in a semigloss finish. Between the photo shoots, kids and life, I need something that's easy to wipe down or touch up."

The fireplace was originally raw fieldstone, but Pattee didn't like the color of it, so she painted it  and then painted it again, and then again. "It's been two shades of white and now black, and I'm planning to give it a gray coat," says Pattee. "It's an easy and contained surface to paint, and it can change the look of the room instantly."

The chandelier has been with Pattee since she was single and living in San Francisco. "I tend to find things I love and then carry them with me for a long time," she says. "This is the light fixture's fourth home."

The master bedroom is large and also serves as Pattee's office. The visible pine knots are unintentional. Since the couple wanted the look of painted boards, Albright installed knotty pine, the least expensive material they could find. Pattee, weary of painting, hired a professional to apply the same white used everywhere else. He used the wrong primer, and after a few weeks the knots began to show through. "We love the way it looks," says Pattee. "We consider it a happy accident."

A mix of found tables, dressers and a chest take care of the couple's storage needs. "I really don't like symmetry," says Pattee. An enormous fan, another roadside find, fits in perfectly with the family's neoindustrial farmhouse style. Pattee says although it looks almost like an art piece, it's completely functional. "It sounds like an airplane taking off, but it does it's job," she says.

"By now we've had more than 40 photo shoots in the house," says Pattee. "As a photographer myself, I understand what is needed. The house is a popular choice because of its style and surroundingsbut also because we are cooperative and relaxed."

She describes some days when the children have stepped off their school bus and onto a photo seteven occasionally serving as models. "We live here through it all," she says, laughing. "During the shoots it can feel like camping in a catalog."

// This story was written by Mary Jo Bowling, and originally published on Houzz.

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Jefferson cruises to 11AAA state title over Harrisburg in 2nd year

Head coach Vince Benedetto asks his team the same question after every game: "Can we play better?" But Saturday, "it doesn't matter because we're champions."
In May, Minnesota reached an unfortunate milestone: The state had seen more measles cases in the first five months of 2017 than the entire country had experienced in all of 2016. The number of cases was, at recent count, 79. Most of those diagnosed with measles have been children, and more than a quarter of them have required hospitalization. While no one has died during the outbreak, some children may face long-term complications that include neurological damage and a greater susceptibility to future diseases. (Bold is our emphasis.) "While no one has died..." (Thank God.) "...long term complications that include neurological damage..." And yet look at he side effects of the MMR vaccine:

Note: Can you imagine a doctor, whom you are supposed to trust, turning you into Child Protective Services, because you delayed a flu shot? Or because you said "No" to an MMR vaccine? Educated parents who feed their children organic food, breastfeed for a year, purchase safe, quality products for their infants, and yet choose to alter the CDC vaccine schedule could be branded as neglectful, and their custody threatened. WHERE THE HELL IS HIPAA when it comes to vaccination status? We've gone from doctors who make house calls to doctors instigating home invasions by CPS - THIS is the state of American medicine right now. Pediatricians are debating whether refusing to vaccinate a child can be construed as 'medical neglect'

If you had an STD, you would have more rights than a perfectly healthy child who does not have a full vaccination status. Think about it. Here is the Planned Parenthood info on what happens if you have a transmissible STD like HIV or chlamydia.



Which STDs are Reportable? Check out the line about public health departments knowing they need your trust. This is an astounding contradiction to how families are treated when they make vaccine choices for their own children.

Does the fact that all these diseases are tracked and reported mean the government keeps a list of everyone with a reportable disease? No! Lets say youre diagnosed with chlamydia. Dont worry, your identity and confidentiality are safe. What might happen is your tribal or county health department will be notified that there has been a new diagnosis of chlamydia. This local health department, in turn, will tally up all new diagnoses of chlamydia and forward them to the state health department, which will combine chlamydia stats to come up with the number of new chlamydia cases in the state. Then theyll send their numbers  no names  to the CDC, which will pool them with the stats from the rest of the health departments in the nation to determine how many chlamydia diagnoses were made in the entire country.

Typically, health officials from a county or state will try to track down the sexual contacts of people diagnosed with reportable STDs. This practice is called partner notification, and it allows health workers not only to notify people of possible exposure to an STD, but to help them access testing, treatment, and counseling about preventive behaviors. The partner-notification process is confidential and follows HIPAA regulations. So, if a public health worker calls your ex to relay the news that he or she might have been exposed to chlamydia, your name will never be revealed. In fact, health departments know that maintaining confidentiality is essential to their work  if they lose the publics trust, they wont be able to reach their goal, which is to reduce the incidence of STD transmission.

We all want healthy kids. We want disease free kids. We also want chronic-illness free kids. And we want choice.
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'The heart of the nation is good': Aiken group holds solidarity rally after Charlottesville
Construction has halted at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Facility in Fairfield County. The project's owners  South Carolina Electric & Gas and state-owned Santee Cooper decided Monday to halt construction following years of delays and cost overruns and the bankruptcy of its main contractor.
STR/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Ukraines government has denied a report that one of its state-owned factories may have supplied the rocket engines North Korea is using in its quest to create a missile capable of hitting the continental United States.



The successful test launches North Korea has carried out in recent months that have prompted fiery rhetoric from President Donald Trump have also surprised experts. The country has been making rapid progress in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Now, a new analysis by an American missile expert, first reported by The New York Times on Monday, says it has identified the engines that are powering these recent missile tests as a type produced by a factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.



Michael Elleman, a senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The New York Times he believed that the engines had likely been acquired illegally from workers from Yuzhmash, a Ukrainian factory that has been suffering severe financial difficulties recently. Elleman said he did not believe Yuzhmash's executives or the Ukrainian government were involved in the deal, but that Ukraine was the most likely source of engines. Elleman told the Times he feared that Yuzhmash technicians might be aiding the North Koreans.



Its likely that these engines came from Ukraine - probably illicitly, Elleman told the Times. The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. Im very worried.



The head of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, Oleg Turchynov, flatly rejected Elleman's report in a statement. Turchynov said the claims were unfounded and suggested Russian intelligence officials were behind the allegations.



"This information is not based on any grounds, provocative by its content, and most likely provoked by Russian secret services to cover their own crimes, Turchynov said. Ukraine has always adhered to all its international commitments, therefore, Ukrainian defense and aerospace complex did not supply weapons and military technology to North Korea.



A spokesperson for the factory, Yuzhmash, also denied the report, telling ABC News it was "false information."



Ellemans analysis, published in full on the International Institute for Strategic Studies' website, sought to answer a question that has puzzled experts. Many analysts have wondered how North Korea could have so rapidly produced an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, given that even a year ago its efforts had appeared mired in technical failures.



On May 14, North Korea test launched a new intermediate missile capable of striking Guam. Two months later, on July 4, it launched a more powerful missile that the U.S. military estimates reached an altitude of more than 1,700 miles, making it officially an intercontinental ballistic missile. That launch was met with strong international condemnation and provoked an intense war of words between Trump and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un.



The successful launches abruptly ended a long string of failures during which North Korean rockets often blew up shortly after ignition. North Korea's efforts to build an ICBM seemed to stall until September last year, after which the country moved swiftly from a ground-launch test through to a full successful ICBM launch. Such progress through design stages normally take years, experts have said.



In his analysis, Elleman suggested that North Koreas rapid progress was due to the fact that it had imported a new foreign-made engine, adapted with foreign expertise. Based on analyzing video of the launches, Elleman said he had narrowed down the recent missiles engine type. Elleman said it appeared to be a modified version of a Russian-designed liquid fuel engine, called an RD-250, that was originally mass produced for use in the Soviet Unions nuclear arsenal.



During the Soviet Union and up until 2006, Elleman wrote, the engines were produced by Yuzhmash in conjunction with a Russian company, Energomash. But in recent years, Yuzhmash has suffered severe financial problems, recently exacerbated by the economic crisis in Ukraine following the 2014 revolution there and the country's conflict with Russia.



Elleman noted that hundreds of the rocket engines may be stored in Russia in Energomash warehouses as well, but suggested that Yuzhmashs financial troubles mean that it was the prime suspect as the supplier to North Korea. He wrote he believed criminal networks operating in Ukraine may have collaborated with workers from the plant to acquire some of the spare engines.



Yuzhmash rejected that information in a statement on its website, writing that the claims in The New York Times article "do not correspond to reality" and are based on an incompetent 'expert' opinion.



The company said that it had not produced any military-use missile technology since Ukraines independence in 1991 and that it complied with an international treaty intended to prevent the spread of ballistic missile technology for armed purposes.



Reached by phone later on Monday, Elleman reiterated that he did not believe either the Ukrainian government or Yuzhmash executives had been involved in supplying the engines but stood by his claim that Ukraine remained the most likely source.



I think its more likely it came from Ukraine, but I cant be certain, he said. "We don't have proof that it came from Yuzhmash or any other specific firm."



Elleman added that both Yuzhmash and Energomash were the most likely sources. It would not be the first time North Korea has sought Ukrainian rocket technology. In 2012, Ukraine jailed two North Koreans on espionage charges for attempting to acquire classified technology relating to rocket engines from a Yuzhmash researcher, Yonhap News Agency reported at the time.



Elleman said one of his primary reasons for looking to Yuzhmash was the nature of the modification made by the North Koreans, condensing the engine to a single chamber instead of the usual two. Elleman said two sources had seen an engine with such a modification on display at Dnipro National University, which is closely connected with Yuzhmash.



It doesnt mean that Yuzhnoi actually did it, Elleman said using part of the company's name. But, he said, "that's what leads me to think it's the most likely source."



Yuri A. Mitikov, head of the university's engine design department who has worked with Yuzhmash, told ABC News that it was impossible that the factory had supplied the engine.



Yuzhmash is a forgotten factory, Mitikov said of the company's rocket engineering section. It simply isnt working.



Mitikov said that for the past five years, the rocket construction department has only been working one day a week and that most of the rocket engines had been stored in Russia.



He argued U.S. arms control specialists had helped dismantled much of the factories' equipment used for military-use missile construction when Ukraine handed over its nuclear arsenal after 1991.



As for the modified RD-250 engine at the university, Mitikov said there was indeed one in a department lab, but that it was a mock-up for students.



Theres nothing inside, he said.



Yuzhmash is currently contracted to produce 12 Zenit-class rockets for the Russian-owned commercial space company, S7 Sea Launch, according to a statement in June announcing the project.



But otherwise, Yuzhmash largely produces trolleybuses and tractors now.



Elleman said the key point he had been trying to make was that North Korea had not produced the engine that it was using and that it must have been smuggled into the country from Russia or Ukraine.



He praised Ukraine's government for its previous work on arms control and said he believed they needed to investigate whether the engine could have come from its territory.



The Ukrainian government should investigate, and if they exonerate themselves, then great," he said. "But there is definitely a source somewhere.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
August 14, 2017

TEHRAN, Iran  Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his inner circle have been at the center of a storm on the Iranian political stage in recent weeks, with senior aide Hamid Baghaei hurling brazen accusations of rights abuses at the judiciary.

Baghaei, a former vice president for executive affairs, made the accusations on July 26 after being released from 18 days in detention, his second imprisonment without any charge. Law enforcement officers first arrested him in June 2015, only freeing him after seven months.

Soon after Baghaeis latest detention, Ahmadinejad slammed the move as a grave injustice and called for his immediate release. In an open letter on July 9, the former president openly accused political rivals of deliberately targeting him and his aides, writing, They attack us when they quarrel with each other or make peace with each other  even if they cant settle their scores, again they come to settle their scores with us. In a second letter, Ahmadinejad wrote that Baghaei had gone on a hunger strike and warned that he would hold the judiciary responsible for any harm to his health.

Reacting on July 16, judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, without naming Baghaei, threatened that Ahmadinejad could be charged for his letters. He also vaguely spoke of another defendant in a separate case who had confessed to giving 2 million euros [$2.3 million] to that person [Baghaei]. Without further elaboration, Ejei added, [Baghaei] is held in proper conditions. He signed a paper, admitting that he prefers to remain alone rather than going to the communal ward.

When Baghaei was hospitalized on July 25, Dolat-e Bahar, Ahmadinejads unofficial website, released footage of the ex-president and his inner circle standing behind the hospital gates, being denied a visit. In one video, Ahmadinejad complained, Who are the people who give these orders? In another video, he said, We couldnt see him and couldnt make a phone call to him. Nonetheless, we can stay in the hospitals yard until morning.

Baghaei was released on a bail of 200 billion rials ($6.1 million), which is said to have been raised by Ahmadinejad supporters. Immediately after his release, in a public gathering, he bluntly condemned the judiciary, accusing it of unlawful imprisonments.

Please go and see what is going on inside our prisons, Baghaei charged, saying, There was a guy in our cell who had been there for 13 months without any charge or trial, and he hadnt contacted even his family; he had a kid.  Lets assume that he is a criminal. Then you have to take him to court and punish him. Hed gone crazy, losing his mind.  Why? What for? When you then tell [the responsible official] that what he is doing is against the law, he says: Its my decision.  Did we have a revolution for this? Did our youth make sacrifices in the shahs jails and during the revolution to see a bunch of corrupt people come to power?

Baghaei also cited his interrogator, named Ghassemzadeh, as having told him, President [Hassan] Rouhani's brother Hossein Fereydoun had accepted a 600 billion rial [$18.3 million] bribe to find a position for an individual on Bank Mellats board of directors, and we will summon him soon. Of note, Fereydoun was arrested July 16 on financial crime charges and released a day later after posting 350 billion rials ($10.7 million) for bail amid hospitalization for high blood pressure.

Baghaei further rejected any financial misconduct among Ahmadinejad aides and directly denounced Ejei for stating that he didnt want to enter Evin prisons communal ward. He said, When did I say that? Why are you lying? He is a liar! Mr. Ejei is lying now, just as he used to lie when he was at the Intelligence Ministry.  Tell him to bring that paper [he claims I signed]. Ejei notably served as intelligence minister under Ahmadinejads first term (2005-2009) before being dismissed.

Within a day of Baghaeis remarks, Tehrans prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, announced the filing of another complaint against him. Interrogator Bijan Ghassemzadeh also denied Baghaeis claims regarding Fereydoun.

Al-Monitor spoke with conservative political strategist Amir Mohebbian about what may be behind the public clash between Baghaei and the judiciary. He said, Although they [Ahmadinejads circle] act based on very complicated cult-like mechanisms and have their own view about political events, the current circumstances, particularly after their [Ahmadinejad and Baghaei's] failed presidential bid and the way they are treated [on the Iranian political stage], have forced them to react in this manner.

He added, Therefore, the judiciarys quick reaction raises eyebrows about the politicization of Baghaei's case. And it is what Ahmadinejad wants. When asked about the possible ramifications of Baghaeis accusations, Mohebbian told Al-Monitor, Baghaeis comments add pressures, as all political factions are unanimous when it comes to complaining about the judiciary.

Given Ahmadinejads strident anti-establishment rhetoric, Al-Monitor asked Mohebbian whether he thinks the former president is capable of capitalizing on dissenting voices to gradually become a new opposition leader. In Mohebbians view, that is an unlikely prospect. He said, Neither the Reformists nor the conservatives trust him, so he has very slim chances to become a new opposition pole.

Prominent Reformist politician Mohammad Ali Abtahi agrees, telling Al-Monitor, Mr. Ahmadinejad cannot stand as an opposition leader because he has lost all his social and human capital. I dont see any future for him. Abtahi, who served as vice president under Reformist Mohammad Khatami, elaborated, Mr. Ahmadinejad really wants to be seen as the leader of an alternative movement, but he has been unable to draw supporters. And by the way, I dont think our people and the entire leadership have forgotten his presidency and [will] allow his return [on the political stage].

Remaining silent for two weeks, Ejei on July 30 dismissed Baghaeis criticisms, saying, Those remarks are not true.  They see themselves as important people, but we shouldnt pay attention to them. I personally dont want to file a complaint against them. Yet he ominously added, Anyone from Ahmadinejads clan who acts against the law will be prosecuted.

In the view of Abtahi, who was imprisoned in connection with the unrest in the aftermath of Ahmadinejads disputed re-election in 2009, the judiciary has been tolerant toward the former president. He told Al-Monitor, The judiciary would have acted differently had Reformists behaved similarly. Mohebbian takes Ejeis warning more seriously, concluding, The Islamic Republic has proved time and again that it doesnt hesitate to confront political figures who go way beyond its security red lines.
August 14, 2017

Imagery of the decapitated body of Mohsen Hojjaji, a fighter from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was dispatched to Syria, surfaced on Iranian social media Aug. 9. Earlier, the Islamic State (IS) had shared video of Hojjaji's capture on the Syrian-Iraqi border during a surprise attack that left a number of people dead. Iranian officials and social media users immediately sent their condolences to his parents and wife and vowed to cleanse the region of IS.

While it is often the more gruesome IS videos that go viral, it was Hojjajis picture the moment he was captured that took off. The picture is particularly haunting and looks like something out of a film. Hojjaji, dressed in military fatigues, is held by an IS fighter with a knife in his hand. In the background, black smoke rises from the overtaken camp.

Many who saw it drew comparisons between the expressions of Hojjaji and his captor. Hojjaji, who likely knew his death was imminent, seems resigned to his fate. The IS fighter, with blood running down his cheeks, appears almost anxious. Zahra Abbasi, Hojjajis wife, told the Iranian press, Look into my husbands eyes. There is no fear in these eyes. It is all bravery, courage. He is like a mountain.

The picture has been shared accompanied by religious interpretations. One of the most popular came from graphic artist Hassan Rouholamini. His version suggested that Hojjaji would be welcomed by the third Shiite saint, Imam Hussein, who was also beheaded in the seventh century. Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a hard-line Iranian cleric, shared another artistically altered image of Hojjaji.

A wide range of Iranian politicians made statements on Hojjajis death. President Hassan Rouhanis vice president said that his innocent blood will expedite the demise of the terror group. Some of Irans top commanders personally visited the home of Hojjajis parents to pay their respects, including IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari and the head of the IRGC ground forces, Mohammad Pakpour.

During an Aug. 13 ceremony for Hojjaji, Jafari tied domestic political issues into the matter. Commenting on the Iranian Reformist parliamentarians who had enthusiastically lined up to take pictures with the European Unions Federica Mogherini during Rouhanis second inauguration in Tehran, Jafari noted that Hojjaji's death took place around the same time. He suggested that Hojjaji's "martyrdom" answered the "call for national dignity" after Iran's parliamentarians took part in the "cheap act" of taking selfies with Mogherini.

In a message to Hojjajis parents, wife and son, Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani vowed revenge until the terrorists are eliminated from the Islamic world. Soleimani promised that Iran was more determined than ever to fight IS and rid the region of the group.

Combating IS will certainly be among the topics to be discussed by Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Irans armed forces, who left Tehran for a three-day trip to Turkey. According to media reports, Bagheri was invited by his Turkish counterpart to discuss terrorism, regional developments, defense ties and border cooperation.
August 11, 2017

BAGHDAD  Models dressed in clothes reminiscent of Iraqs multicultural past walked among the imposing statues at the Iraqi Museum in an impressive show in July that celebrated the liberation of Mosul, as the Iraqi House of Fashion bolstered its cultural presence and shrugged off the low profile it has held since 2003.

Founded in 1970 with the aim of conserving ancient Iraqi culture, the Iraqi House of Fashion started as a financially independent legal entity. However, the Iraqi House of Fashion Law was passed in 1985 with the help of the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Media to help the fashion organization receive governmental support. This support resulted in the building of a luxurious palace, considered to be one of the country's most beautiful architectural monuments, on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad.

But the good times for the fashion house came to an end in 2003 due to the US invasion of Iraq and the lack of security that swept through the country. The house was looted, its founder and manager had to retire and leave the country and the splendid palace was abandoned and slowly fell into ruin. Although the Iraqi House of Fashion has made a comeback in the last few years, the present conservative environment makes it difficult for the organization to return to its days of glory.

In a country still suffering from war and terrorism, organizers of fashion shows remain fearful. For instance, Karar Nushy, a fashion designer whose work is well-known in the industry, was murdered July 4. The case remains unsolved.

Organizers of such cultural events are still being threatened by those who consider it a Western tradition that could corrupt society, Saif al-Obeidi, designer and technical manager for Iraqi House of Fashion, told Al-Monitor.

One of the biggest challenges in launching fashion shows is the lack of fashion models, Obeidi said. The models keep receiving threats from conservative groups, clans and families that consider fashion shows a disgrace, and most just give up.

Other difficulties include a lack of government subsidies, raw materials and the absence of new technologies, not to mention the low salaries in the fashion industry that drive many people away. "Consequently, there are only a few fashion shows, either by the Iraqi House of Fashion or a few personal efforts by individual designers, Obeidi added.

But the difficulties did not stop him from using his own means to participate in a fashion show for children with cancer held July 10 in the United Nations building in Baghdad, where he displayed 28 fashion pieces that reflect the history, folklore and heritage of Iraq.

Obeidi said that many of the costumes were inspired by the different epochs of Iraqi history. Our last production featured dresses inspired by the Assyrian deity Lamassu, statues of which [the Islamic State] destroyed in Mosul, the dress of [Sumerian] Queen Puabi, a dress from the Sumerian War and Peace mosaic" and a long robe inspired by the apparel of Assyrian women. Obeidi said the house also made a "historical royal suit, the design of which dates back to Sumerian civilization."

Obeidi noted, The next project is to create a Sumerian guitar outfit. This would be inspired by the decorations and structured shape of the ancient Sumerian guitar in the warm tones of brown and gold.

Regardless of how little governmental support the fashion show received, Sinan Kamel, an Iraqi designer, still succeeded in organizing Baghdad Fashion Week for the third year in a row on March 20. Baghdad Fashion Week hosted local designers and models in the Babylon Hotel in downtown Baghdad. It is so difficult to find models who consent to get on the catwalk, as they fear [the reactions of] their families and clans and are apprehensive about the security situation, Kamel told Al-Monitor.

Melad Hamid, a fashion designer known for his participation in international fashion shows, told Al-Monitor that the fashion industry in Iraq needs to further develop and focus more on design than commerce.

Hamid suggested founding an Iraqi fashion academy as well as university fine arts departments and art institutes inside and outside Baghdad to teach fashion. He also recommended taking advantage of Western expertise through inviting professors to Iraq to educate a new generation of diploma-holding designers who would enrich the Iraqi arts and fashion scene.

There should be a government-sponsored mechanism that would bolster joint projects between clothing factories and traders, to create financial resources for designers with limited income who are unable to carry out their designs, Hamid added.

Haider al-Mowla, a lawmaker and member of the parliaments Cultural Committee, told Al-Monitor, The committee knows well the reasons behind the deterioration of the cultural industry and the lack of a sufficient support. He said the main reasons were Iraqs being busy with the war on terrorism and the financial crisis.

Mowla said the committee is working on a project that would develop the fashion art/industry, ease financial difficulties and bring better conditions for the people who work in the fashion industry, such as designers, organizers and those working for the Iraqi House of Fashion. This includes establishing a union for those working in the fashion sector such as the House of Fashion employees, or designers in the private sector. The union would defend their rights, find them work opportunities and defend their intellectual rights concerning design and production, Mowla said.

Mowla noted the union would also create momentum for Iraqs fashion culture, help the media value fashion and advocate the sense of style and aesthetics that are often rejected by conservative forces and clans.

The committee is going to enforce the existing laws and legislate new ones to provide financial support for those who work in this sector, encourage them to find profitable investments and protect their production and designs from intellectual theft, especially among a rising phenomenon of intellectual and cultural rights being violated, Mowla said.
August 14, 2017

RAMALLAH, West Bank  On Aug. 3, Palestinian Minister of Health Jawad Awad authorized the installation of solar panels in public hospitals in the Gaza Strip, financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Awad, Takeshi Okubo, the Japanese representative to Palestine, and JICA officials met in Ramallah to discuss the deal. The solar panels are scheduled to be installed in early September.

The project aims to secure a power supply to vital units in government-run hospitals in Gaza hit by the electricity crisis that started in 2007 in tandem with the Israeli blockade imposed on the enclave. Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health Asad Ramlawi told Al-Monitor that the project aims to provide government-run hospitals with electricity through the installation of solar panels.

The Minister of Health gave his approval to start the first phase of the project at a cost of $1 million, which will begin within weeks after the completion of the technical studies by JICA, Ramlawi said.

He explained that Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, will be the first to benefit from the project. He noted that JICA Vice President Tomiyoshi Kenichi had visited Al-Shifa Hospital on May 17 to inspect its conditions and evaluate the technical studies related to equipping some units of the hospital with solar panels. The second stage, which has not been discussed in detail, should be initiated after the completion of the first phase, Ramlawi added.

Since the beginning of the Israeli blockade in 2007, the Gaza Strip has been suffering from a severe electricity crisis. But recently, Gazans have been receiving only 3-4 hours of power supply a day, after the sole power station in Gaza ran out of fuel and stopped working following the decision April 27 by the government in Ramallah to halt payment to Israel for supplying electricity. This has adversely affected the work of hospitals across Gaza.

In a May 15 report, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that a systemic collapse of an already battered infrastructure and economy is impending in Gaza due to the severe power crisis and noted that the crisis has affected the treatment of Gazans in hospitals.

The report continued, On normal days, the operation room at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza conducts close to seven cardiac catheterizations per day. Due to power shortage, however, the number of daily operations has been reduced to fit the electricity timetable.  Due to lengthy power cuts, hospital units have to operate various equipment with the support of generators. With operating times being reduced, patients needing dialysis are affected.

The director general of governmental hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Abdullatif al-Haj, told Al-Monitor, Hospitals are currently running on in-house emergency generators, which are the main source of electricity supply. Hospital officials are trying to allocate this supply only to vital units such as the intensive care units, mechanical ventilator rooms and neonatal units.

He added, Hospital private generators are overused for 20 hours a day. They also consume large quantities of the $12 million worth of fuel supplies granted in January by Qatar to offset Gazas power shortage. If the current consumption rate continues, this fuel grant may be depleted within two months.

Although solar systems  consisting of panels that absorb the sunlight as a source of energy to generate electricity  produce a substantial amount of electricity supply, this, however, is still not enough to meet the hospitals power supply needs.

Haj explained, Solar panels provide only alternative energy sufficient to supply vital units in hospitals such as intensive care units and operating rooms, but they are not enough to operate the rest of the hospital or the central air conditioning, which is necessary for the operating rooms and patient rooms.

He noted that solar panels provide an electricity supply merely sufficient to keep life support machines operating and to prevent sudden power failures from affecting vital devices.

Saher Younis, the director of JICA in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that the idea of the project in collaboration with the Japanese government and JICA stemmed from the suffering of Gaza's residents under the continued blackout, mainly affecting hospitals and endangering the lives of patients.

He said the solar panels that will be installed will not supply all of the facilities of the hospital with electricity, but only the vital units that need an uninterrupted electricity supply to guarantee the safe treatment of patients.

JICA will begin preparation for the first execution stage within days after receiving the green light from the Palestinian minister of health and after collecting all information and specifications related to the units to be supplied with electricity generated by the solar panels. The installation of the solar panels is expected to start in early September, he said.

Younis added, The installation stage will take two months and it is expected that all works will be completed by the end of this year, given the large quantity of solar panels to be installed in hospitals and the needed technical staff.

Commenting on the technical staff that will be responsible for the design and implementation of the project, Younis said that a Palestinian technical team from the Palestinian Energy Authority has received training courses in Japan in 2014-16 on design and implementation and will be fully in charge of the execution of this project.

Although the agreement on the implementation of the project was reached between the Japanese government, JICA and Awad, officials in charge of managing the health sector in the Gaza Strip welcomed the project and facilitated its execution.

Haj said he welcomes any project that will help citizens and the health sector in Gaza; Younis confirmed that a JICA team inspected Al-Shifa Hospital a few weeks ago.

The health sector in Gaza reels under several crises that need radical solutions, so the installation of solar panels in Gaza's public hospitals is welcomed in order to alleviate some of the suffering of patients in the Gaza Strip.
August 14, 2017

As the Islamic State (IS) has been in steady retreat, Iran and Russia are facing real difficulties sustaining their partnership. Each took advantage of the fight against IS to further its military campaign in Syria.

Both sides avoid discussing their differences, keeping their critics from making the most of the situation, but both fail to completely conceal the friction. In 2016, Moscow and Tehran jointly shielded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime from the opposition and sought to preserve the remaining state institutions. In an attempt to freeze the six-year-long civil war, Russia is currently opting for agreements beyond the peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan  that is, behind Irans back. Examples include the de-escalation zone in southwest Syria that Russia negotiated with the United States in Amman, Jordan, as well as de-escalation zones in eastern Ghouta and northern Homs, both of which were negotiated in Cairo.

In July, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg to establish a cease-fire in southwestern Syria, in the Daraa, Quneitra and Suwayda provinces, which virtually annulled the terms established at Astana of creating a southern de-escalation zone. The latter included Suwayda rather than Daraa and Quneitra. According to some sources, the US-Russia deal demands that pro-Iranian forces pull back at least 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Israeli-Jordanian border, with Russias military police deployed on the ground. In the region, Moscow seeks to garner the support of the local population, even seeking to form loyal militias.

The separate agreement signed in Cairo between Russia and Islamist opposition faction Jaish al-Islam made it possible for Russian troops to run checkpoints in eastern Ghouta  an interesting development given that Turkey had officially stated in June that Russia and Iran would deploy forces to the Damascus area to monitor the cease-fire. It is hard to discern whether Russia has unilaterally revised the scenario developed by the Moscow, Tehran and Ankara working groups. However, a revision is definitely implied by Russias efforts to gain control of the situation in the Damascus region, where Assads forces and Iran-backed militias have tried different strategies to recapture opposition-held territories.

To be clear, conceptually, the zones were negotiated in Astana with Russia, Iran and Turkey as the main mediators. However, subsequent talks about the zones details have often altered or annulled those agreements.

Such steps raise Tehrans fears that informal negotiating platforms are gradually replacing the Astana process. Therefore, Syria and Iran have been trying to reset at the very least the Cairo agreement inked beyond the Astana format. For instance, the Syrian Arab Army's elite 42nd Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division has been deployed to the Jobar region, which Russia had included in the de-escalation zone. Moreover, both Damascus and Tehran are compelling Faylaq al-Rahman to leave the area along with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Presumably, Syria and Iran aim to exclude Faylaq al-Rahmans several thousand militiamen from the above-mentioned deal, likening them to al-Qaeda-affiliated HTS extremists and undermining the oppositions military capabilities in eastern Ghouta.

Since the start of the political and diplomatic conflict over Syrias future, the Russian-Iranian partnership has been deteriorating into a rivalry, with Tehran impeding the creation of conditions for conflict resolution. At the same time, Moscows strategy directly depends on the permanent presence of numerous pro-Iranian forces controlling different parts of the front line.

Since Russia launched military operations in Syria in 2015, marking its comeback in the Middle East, Moscow has regarded Iran as a reliable partner. However, the Russian leadership, whether deliberately or not, has found counterbalances to distance itself from Shiite-led Iran. An Israeli-Russian accord allowing the Israeli air force considerable latitude in targeting Hezbollah in Syria emerged as the first counterbalance, which undoubtedly raised Tehrans ire. The second counterbalance was probably Moscow's attempt to cultivate relations with the Gulfs Arab monarchies through a set of stick-and-carrot policies as it sought to take advantage of the indecisiveness of the administration of former US President Barack Obama, especially during the lame-duck period. The third counterbalance emerged when Trump made his way to the White House and declared his willingness to restrain Iran and his commitment to backing the allied Sunni monarchies.

Hence, Russia should preserve and maintain communication channels with the United States on Syria. Unlike the earlier period, when the interaction aimed to ensure Russian troops' security, todays task is to constrain Damascus and Tehrans desire for reprisals and find a political solution to the Syrian conflict. Russia has taken several steps toward decreasing Irans influence: deploying military police in eastern Aleppo, establishing the de-escalation zone, and supplying weapons and equipment to prop up forces and increase the effectiveness of the 5th Assault Corps under Russian Lt. Gen. Sergey Sevryukov.

A Russian military intelligence source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that since eastern Aleppo was recaptured by Assad's troops, Russia and Iran have been fiercely vying for regional dominance.

Prior to the military operation, Moscow tried to establish relations with local elders through the mediation of Russian officers, natives of the North Caucasus region. But the ties were later severed, and as a result, Russian bombs rained down on eastern Aleppo. Then these contacts had to be re-established. At present, the work that Russian officers from the North Caucasus have done in east Aleppo has been considered fruitful, as it allows at least limiting Iranian regional influence.

Since eastern Aleppo was seized, Russia has definitely increased its sway over the region. Russia turned the tide of war and helped the regime survive. However, over the war years, Tehran has gained momentum and built up a multi-layer presence in Syria that includes local Shiite militants.

These groups include Syrian units, offshoots of the Lebanese National Ideological Resistance in Syria and Syrian Islamic Resistance groups (sometimes called Iraqi Hezbollah), the units of the Local Defense Forces in Aleppo and the National Defense Forces, comprising Alawites, Sunnis and other Syrians backed by Iranian military advisers and partially or fully funded by Iran. New Iranian cultural centers and Shiite propaganda among the locals are Tehrans soft-power instruments. This strategy heightens ethnic and sectarian tensions in the region, which helps spread IS and HTS propaganda.

The rise of HTS in rebel-controlled Idlib province and the use of delaying tactics in the negotiations play into the hands of Damascus and Tehran, which need a protracted military campaign to regain losses. They blame opposition groups for their ostensible loyalty to al-Qaeda. The Syrian governments offensive to retake Idlib is a negative scenario for Russia and Turkey. Rebel forces will apparently rally to fight the common enemy. New coalitions will emerge among the moderate and radical opposition. Ultimately, the process will strengthen al-Qaeda's position in Syria and trigger a new humanitarian and refugee crisis. Obviously, under such circumstances, the advancing troops will also suffer heavy casualties. That's why Damascus and Iran will try to drag Russia into this new round of war.

Should the situation escalate, the Kremlin would tolerate the deployment of Turkish troops.

If the United States is genuinely intent on destroying the Iranian corridor  a piece of land carved through Syria that ultimately links Tehran through Iraq with the Mediterranean coast  Moscow and Washington will probably have something to talk about, albeit unofficially.
August 14, 2017

Alistair Burt, the British minister of state for the Middle East and North Africa, announced July 26 that his country is no longer advising its citizens against flying to Tunisia, including the capital and most resorts. In June 2015, Britain warned its nationals against traveling to Tunisia following the terrorist attack on a beach resort in Sousse, east of Tunis. British travel companies resumed their flights to Tunisia July 28.

On June 26, 2015, Tunisian national and Islamic State member Seifeddine Rezgui attacked a hotel on the beach in Sousse, killing 38 people, including 30 British tourists.

The attack dealt a heavy blow to Tunisias tourism sector, as several European nations warned their citizens not to travel to Tunisia over fears of being targeted by other terrorist operations. Britain considered the security measures the Tunisian government adopted not strong enough to protect tourists. Since then, Tunisia has been trying to convince the British government to cancel its warning.

Independent journalist Sharif Zaytouni told Al-Monitor, In reality, the British decision came a little late as the security situation in Tunisia had improved more than a year ago, one year after the Sousse terror attack. Although Tunisian authorities declared that it would protect all foreign visitors, Britain was reluctant to lift its warning. Tourism agencies took this British advisory into consideration, and British travel giant the Thomas Cook Group canceled all its flights to Tunisia since the advisory was issued in July 2015. But only two days after Britain announced lifting the warning, the group resumed all its flights to Tunisia on July 28.

Abdel Salam al-Harshi, a journalist specializing in economic affairs, told Al-Monitor, The British decision will leave a positive impact on the economic level and will directly affect the tourism sector. Hotels consider British tourists their biggest [market], as they spend a lot of money and reserve hotel rooms for several nights. Room occupancy at Tunisian hotels had decreased to 17 million in 2016 compared to 29 million nights in 2014, he said, citing statistics by the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism.

Harshi added, The decision will also lead to increased revenues in the tourism sector, which had decreased by 35% following the 2015 Sousse attack compared to 2014. In the summer of 2017, the number of British tourists to Tunisia reached 8,900 compared to only 7,000 last summer.

Harshi pointed to some indirect positive effects of the British decision, given the political [importance] Britain enjoys in the world and Europe. He said, "By lifting its advisory, Britain acknowledges that Tunisia is a safe country for its nationals, which will encourage other foreigners to visit Tunisia. This decision has thus put back Tunisia on the world tourism map.

The British decision clearly indicates that the security situation in Tunisia has improved after years of confrontations against jihadi groups. The year 2015 witnessed major blows against the tourism sector. The March attack against the Bardo National Museum in the capital left 23 people, 20 of them tourists, dead. The Sousse attack followed, and on Nov. 2, a bus carrying Tunisian presidential guards exploded in the center of the capital, killing at least 14 people.

In February this year, the British authorities criticized Tunisia for a lack of security protection for tourists. A British judicial inquiry found on Feb. 28 that the Tunisian polices reaction to the Sousse attack was shambolic and cowardly, clearly accusing the Tunisian security forces of neglect. The Tunisian trial of 51 suspects in the Sousse attack, including six police officers, started May 26 and is still ongoing.

The British ambassador to Tunisia, Louise De Sousa, said on the local radio station Jawhara FM on Aug. 11, The British decision came as a result of the improving security situation, the protection of touristic destinations and the successful security operations by Tunisian [forces].

The end of Britain's warning against travel to Tunisia will not only affect the economy and the vital tourism sector, but will also have an indirect impact on the political sector as Britain regains its trust in Tunisia and its security agencies. However, although the move reflects an improvement in Tunisias security situation and offers new opportunities to the tourism sector, it remains a small step toward solving the economic and security crises the country is currently suffering. Successive governments have so far failed to solve the crisis that has also had social repercussions that have affected the middle and lower classes the worst.

Harshi said, The British decision will not magically change the situation of the tourism sector. Even if tourism in Tunisia overcomes the terrorist blows, it cant overcome the structural crisis it is suffering from. Tourism had started to decline in the late 1990s as it relied heavily on archaic elements, like beaches and traditional industries. We should follow the example of Morocco, which developed its tourism sector by restructuring its official airline and introducing a new element: cultural tourism. Millions of foreigners are pouring into Morocco each year to attend the Mawazine [music] festival.

Britain itself will also benefit from the change, and not just its travel companies. On Aug. 9, the Tunisian Ministry of Energy received an official request from the Nur Energie Company to build a solar power plant in the south of the country. The plant is expected to be the largest in the world, built on an area of about 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) at a cost of more than 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion).
August 14, 2017

Turkey has been working to rebuild the 772-square-mile (2,000-square-kilometer) Jarablus/al-Rai/al-Bab triangle in northern Syria, dedicating funds for post-conflict reconstruction and humanitarian aid. The Islamic State (IS) was driven out of the area's 250 settlements during Operation Euphrates Shield (August 2016-March 2017).

Since March, about 70,000 Syrians have returned to the triangle from Turkey. About 100,000 more are expected to be repatriated by the end of 2017. About 45,000 of the returnees have settled in Jarablus, where Turkeys ambitious post-conflict reconstruction efforts fall into two groups: physical construction work and society-building. Ankara has decided to make Jarablus a center of attraction in the post-IS setting and use it as a model for the rest of the region. That's why Turkey assigned experienced administrators, police chiefs and muftis (religious officials) as consultants to the Syrian decision-makers of Jarablus.

The most notable activity is the ongoing construction of more than 100 buildings in the town center, including hospitals, orphanages, police stations and childrens parks. Men working in these projects earn enough money to sustain their families. With the equipment and supplies obtained from Turkey, the town now has electricity and running water, though problems persist with sewage infrastructure. Most of the roads in the town and around it have been repaired and paved. Some 80 mosques in the triangle are under construction, 10 of them in Jarablus.

Ankaras society-building projects at Jarablus are just as ambitious, emphasizing law and order, religious affairs and education.

Obviously, the security situation in Jarablus is much better than five or six months ago, but there are still problems. In May, armed clashes broke out between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Sultan Murad Brigade and Faylaq al-Sham militants over sharing smuggling revenues.

Following these clashes, a local police force trained in Turkey took over security duties, supported by Turkish gendarmerie special operations teams. As of July, carrying weapons in the town center was prohibited. At the end of July, entire security functions were handed over to the Free Syrian Police Force. Militants of pro-Turkey armed groups such as Al-Hamza Brigade and Sultan Murad Brigade are recruited after they are demobilized and trained in keeping order, combating terrorism and traffic management.

Currently, female applicants are being screened for a new unit to be made up entirely of women to serve in the Jarablus police force, entirely outfitted with armed vehicles, weapons, equipment and uniforms supplied by Turkey.

The latest major delivery to Jarablus in July was equipment and supplies for the fire brigade.

With the health services it has been providing, Turkey has made great strides in establishing friendly relations with the local residents. Doctors sent from Turkey are serving at the Jarablus hospital, and a mobile medical emergency service is already operating in the town center.

The Directorate of Religious Affairs, Turkeys official and influential religious body, along with several prominent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), are active in Jarablus. About 10 local NGOs identified as conservative Islamist groups are coordinating relief activities with Turkish security and intelligence services. Jarablus figures highly in Turkish-run campaigns to raise donations for the approaching Eid al-Adha holidays.

According to a local security source, in the areas where the Turkish army supports FSA groups, oil exploration work has gained momentum. There is now a plan to build a refinery for high-quality oil and diesel production in the triangle.

Meanwhile, work is progressing to construct permanent, battalion-capacity military bases for the Turkish army in the Aqil Mountain area of al-Bab, as well as south of Jarablus and at Azaz. The goal is to train local military groups at these bases and consolidate them into a standing military force.

Another field receiving sizable assistance from Turkey is education. Turkish Ministry of Education officials who studied the needs of the triangle somehow decided that the model of religious high schools of Turkey was the best solution for the people and children of Jarablus. These officials advised their ministry to mobilize all of its facilities to appoint qualified personnel, find buildings, prepare hostels and provide equipment, supplies, housing, food and books for religious education in the region.

It's been noted that the Education Ministry maintains close relations with Turkeys prominent religious NGOs that are active in Jarablus.

The Jarablus project has received its share of criticism.

Many foreign and Turkish NGOs are waiting for permission from Turkish authorities to provide aid to Jarablus," said an NGO official working in Gaziantep who didn't want to be identified. "Foreign NGOs especially are not given permits to work in the region. They are not openly turned down but are simply kept waiting indefinitely. Also, only the pro-government media and official Anatolian Agency are allowed access to the region. We know what they are going to write. This cloaks Turkeys humanitarian assistance efforts in unnecessary secrecy and raises questions about its transparency.

Another foreign NGO worker who didn't want to be identified told Al-Monitor, From a humanitarian perspective, Ankara seeks to exercise total control over the triangle for logical reasons such as security. [However,] the extensive use of [Turkey's] Gaziantep metropolitan municipality, Gaziantep province, etc., in the role of post-conflict stabilization is unusual.

He added, But I largely think that we do not know enough about what is happening on the ground, how the local people feel about the aid provided and whether there is any monitoring and supervision."

A UN official who coordinates aid activities in the area who also didn't want to be identified said, The Red Crescent of Turkey and the governmental assistance body AFAD do amazing, great work. But the Syrian NGOs they work with dont want to talk to us and to the media. This, unfortunately, clouds the transparency of Turkeys humanitarian aid efforts.

Also, despite all the efforts to improve security and law and order in the area, there is a perceptible increase in polygamy, child marriages, sexual harassment, smuggling and organized crime.

Yet reconstruction work at Jarablus still deserves high praise, especially compared with the situation under IS control. But there are two risky areas that could cast shadows on Ankaras efforts.

The first is the ideological struggle between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham  the radical Salafi-jihadi organization that currently controls Idlib  and moderate groups in the triangle. Can Hayat Tahrir al-Sham hijack Ankaras success story in Jarablus, or can Ankara-backed moderation in Jarablus tame the Salafi/jihadi sentiments still observed in the triangle?

A social media message by a pro-Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Turkish Salafi-jihadi said, Life in Jarablus cannot be hidden. Under the guise of democracy and freedoms, adultery and immorality have peaked there. Jarablus is becoming a corrupted town distant from an Islamic environment.

Clearly, extreme Salafi-jihadi groups inside the triangle are not happy with Turkeys efforts.

The other risk involves Ankara's intent: What is its political goal in the triangle? Will Ankara one day hand over the area to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad? Given Ankara's disdain for Assad and the amount of money Turkey is investing in the reconstruction, that's unlikely. Perhaps Turkey's long-term aim is to impose its de facto influence on the region? These questions need to be answered before Turkey's approach can be seen as a whole.
August 14, 2017

Turkey has renewed a warning to the European Union about a new surge of migrants as its impatience grows over foot-dragging on visa-free travel, exposing the divide between Ankara and the bloc it says it still wants to join.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also complained in an interview published by the Turkiye newspaper on Aug. 11 that the EUs refusal to open new chapters in membership talks was entirely political and Western allies had failed to sufficiently support President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he faced down a military coup last year.

Under a 6 billion euro deal agreed last year, EU money has been coming in, giving Turkeys sluggish economy a boost and helping it manage the worlds largest population of refugees.

But Brussels has not delivered on pledges to allow Turks to travel to most EU countries without a visa and to accelerate membership talks. Instead, it has heaped criticism on Turkey for human rights abuses in the crackdown that followed the failed coup and persisted through a constitutional referendum in April that gave Erdogan sweeping new powers.

Were our law enforcement to quit all of its efforts tomorrow, the Aegean Sea would become a route for irregular migration and a serious crisis would emerge. We expect the EU to keep this in mind and immediately fulfill its obligations under the agreement, Cavusoglu told the newspaper.

He stopped short of saying Turkey would tear up the deal, and it is not the first time Turkey has threatened to set off a humanitarian crisis if the EU fails to meet its demands. Erdogan told the EU in March it could forget about Ankaras promise to readmit asylum seekers.

But it clashes with a Turkish push in recent weeks to repair frayed ties with Europe, especially Germany, that have undermined Ankaras decadeslong quest to become an EU member.

Leveraging the plight of refugees in exchange for cash and visas dents the credit Turkey is rightly due for sheltering more than 3 million people fleeing the six-year war in Syria and even offering them a path to citizenship.

Cavusoglus rhetoric aims to stir memories of 2015, the peak of the migration crisis, when a record 1.05 million people reached Europe, nearly 90% of them from Turkey across the Aegean, where 279 people died trying, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Images of lifeless bodies washing up on Greek and Turkish beaches and hundreds of thousands of people trudging on foot in freezing weather through the Balkans still haunt Europeans.

Turkey has proven it can control the flow. In the first six months of this year, 12,191 people used the eastern route to reach Greece from Turkey, and 45 people died on the way.

A year and a half ago, EU leaders were all lining up to deal with the refugee crisis. We ended this drama in the Aegean Sea. Its as though they have forgotten our efforts, Cavusoglu said.

Just two weeks ago, the EU said it had no concerns about the migration agreement and that it was working well.

And relations with Germany show glimmers of a recovery. Last week, NATO brokered a deal to allow German lawmakers to visit their troops at a base in central Turkey after Germany threatened Turkey with economic sanctions and said the country was not safe for its businesses and tourists. Berlin is also outraged by the detention of two German journalists and a rights activist in the post-coup clampdown that has jailed 50,000 people.

For his part, Erdogan said Aug. 12 that German criticism was motivated by electioneering and relations would normalize after Germanys Sept. 24 Bundestag poll.

Despite Cavusoglus salvo, the migrant deal is largely sticking because both sides have benefited from it, experts say. But Ankara may have less sway in other matters. It has lobbied for an expansion of a 20-year-old Customs Union to include more Turkish exports to its biggest trading partner.

The European Commission in December proposed negotiations on upgrading the trade pact. But late last month Germany reportedly asked the European Commission to suspend the talks with Turkey and to consider withholding financial aid to compel it to respect the rule of law.
The U.S. Department of Labor is asking contractors how much they're paying their workers.

The department's Wage and Hour Division is conducting a statewide survey of wages paid to workers in Alabama on all active highway construction projects. It's going to be used to establish prevailing wage rates, a requirement under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts.

The agency wants data from employers statewide paid to workers from Aug. 1, 2016 until Jan. 31, 2017 on all highway projects, not just federally funded ones.

Notification letters and data collection forms are being sent to employers and contractors known to the division by mid-August. Data must be postmarked by Dec. 15.

"An accurate and complete wage determination that reflects the wages and fringe benefits being paid to construction workers where the work is performed helps ensure workers receive the proper wages and benefits," Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Wayne Kotowski said in a press release. "We can only accomplish this with full participation of employers in the Alabama construction industry."

There are several highway construction projects currently underway in Alabama, including the I-59/20 Central Business District (CBD) Interchange and Bridge Replacement Project in Birmingham and the Martin Road overpass project in Huntsville. Huntsville has a road project wishlist with a combined price tag of $1 billion.
With the Great American Eclipse fast approaching on Aug. 21, people are going into high gear in search of optimal places and proper gear for viewing. Experts are warning people not to watch the event without wearing glasses especially made for eclipse-watching because serious eye damage can occur. Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

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(AP File Photo of eclipse watchers in 1932/AL.com File)

The eclipse can only be viewed with uncovered eyes during its totality. Dr. B. Ralph Chou, a retired professor of optometry at the University of Waterloo in Ontario who is also an astronomer, told the Press Herald in Portland, Maine, that "totality" means the sun is 100 percent covered.

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(US Postal Service stamps)

The eclipse can only be viewed with uncovered eyes during its totality. Dr. B. Ralph Chou, a retired professor of optometry at the University of Waterloo in Ontario who is also an astronomer, told the Press Herald in Portland, Maine, that "totality" means the sun is 100 percent covered. "Unfortunately, when it comes to safety with a solar eclipse, 99.9 percent coverage means a 0.1 percent area of the sun that is still uncovered and is every bit as dangerous," Chou said. He said some places in the eclipse viewing path will not be able to see totality, such as Boise, Idaho, which will only see 99 percent sun coverage; Savannah, Georgia, with 97 percent; and Memphis, Tennessee, with 94 percent.

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(Source: Kelly and Phil Easterbrook)

Those without proper eye protection risk permanent damage to their eyesight. LiveScience.com said uncovered viewing can lead to solar retinopathy, and while some victims recover from the damage within weeks or months, others will have their vision effected by spots or blurriness for the rest of their lives. "This damage is often painless, so people don't realize what they're doing to their vision," the article said. Some veterinarians even recommend viewing glasses for your dog or cat, saying eclipses may damage pets' eyes. Others, however, say pets are no more likely to look at a solar eclipse than they are the sun. Click here to read more about pet eye safety. This photo shows the dog of Kelly and Phil Easterbrook of Huntsville wearing sun goggles.

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(This AP file photo shows people in Jakarta, Indonesia, watching an eclipse in 2016)

1. Members of sun-worshipping sect damaged their eyes.

Sun-gazing at any time can cause damage but most people don't try to stare directly at the sun on a daily basis, LiveScience.com said. "Solar retinopathy can be caused by staring at the sun (regardless of its phase), but few people can stand to look directly at our nearest star for very long without pain." For example, ophthalmologists treated 66 members of an Italian sun-worshipping religious sect for damage in 1988 after a staring ritual.

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(Galileo Galilei in 1636, portrait by Justus Sustermans via Wikimedia Commons)

2. Early astronomers damaged their eyes in pursuit of science.

Although the idea that Galileo went blind from watching an eclipse or the sun is now considered to be myth, some people still believe that over time sun-gazing damaged his eyes and contributed to the onset of Galileo's blindness at the age of 72. Read this 2011 paper "Blind Astronomers," from the American Astronomical Society for detailed information.

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(Isaac Newton in 1689, portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller/Thomas Harriot, artist unknown via Wikimedia Commons)

According to LiveScience.com, at least three other early observers of the skies wrote of eye damage.

In 1610, Thomas Harriot watched sunspots and later wrote that after viewing the sun his "sight was dim for an hour."

Following his sun observations, Oxford astronomer John Greaves said he saw "afterimages that looked like a flock of crows in his vision."

Isaac Newton once attempted to look at the sun in a mirror. He lost his sight for three days and experienced "afterimages for months."

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(Source: Exploratorium via NASA, 2008)

3. In 1999, 45 people showed up at a British eye clinic following an eclipse.

When 45 people came to an eye clinic after a 1999 eclipse viewed in England, opthamologists took the opportunity to conduct a study on the effects. The results?

Doctors confirmed retinal damage in 40 of the patients;

Twenty patients reported eye pain, while another 20 reported vision problems;

Twelve people reported their sight had returned to normal after seven months but four "could still see the ghosts of the damage in their visual field, such as a crescent-shaped spot visible in dim light," the study said.

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(AL.com File Photo)

4. These uninformed friends still suffer effects of 1962 eclipse.

In 1962, two young men from Portland, Oregon, went to a local high school baseball field to watch a partial solar eclipse. The men, Lou Tomososki and Roger Duvall, had never heard any warnings of dangers of eclipse viewing, they told the local news station, KOIN.

We took it all in, not realizing that there were some hazards involved, Duvall told the station Afterward, both men experienced blurry vision in one eye. Doctors informed them they had permanently damaged their eyes and there was no treatment. Today, they still suffer the effects of the bare-eye viewing.

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(Source: Sarah Kaplan The Washington Post/AL.com File)

5. Teen thought stained glass would prevent damage from a 1966 eclipse.

During a 1966 solar eclipse, an 18-year-old male "looked directly at the eclipse with both eyes intermittently through stained glass for about one minute," according to a 1969 report from a London eye hospital.

After the initial glare had worn off he noticed difficulty in reading car number plates and was referred to hospital because an optician could not improve his vision with lenses. Doctors discovered he had lesions on his retinas.

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(AL.com File Photo)

6. Fourteen-year-old girl learned film negatives won't prevent damage.

During a 1966 eclipse in London, A 14-year-old girl observed the eclipse through dark glasses and an old film negative for about three minutes, according to a 1969 report from a London eye hospital. Her left eye recovered after six months but the right eye sustained a small macular hole.

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Read more about the Great American Eclipse 2017

Solar eclipse 2017: What schools are closing for the Aug. 21 eclipse?

How to photograph the solar eclipse: NASA tips for taking pictures of Aug. 21 event

Solar eclipse 2017: What time will eclipse start? How long will it last?

Solar eclipse 2017: When was the last solar eclipse? When is the next one?
The city of Birmingham on Monday filed a federal lawsuit against three of the country's largest wholesale drug distributors - Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson - in an effort to fight the prescription opioid epidemic.

Mayor William Bell said these three companies are responsible for the proliferation of prescription drugs in the city's neighborhoods. He said the drug wholesalers are refusing to fulfill their obligations to monitor, identify, report and halt suspicious shipments of opioids.

"As in other cities across the state, the opioid epidemic has been taking the lives of our young people and destroying families throughout our communities," Bell said in a statement. "When it comes to helping all that are affected by this devastating problem, providing solutions must be our top priority."

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Birmingham.

"We've got to cut off the ability that makes it so easy to get access to opioids," Bell said at a Monday morning press conference.

According to the city, Congress put Wholesale Distributors in a position of trust as gatekeepers responsible for halting suspicious orders and controlling against the diversion of the drugs to illegitimate uses.

The companies have failed in to their duties, though and have profited from a flood of pills into our community, the mayor said.

According to a release from the city, the companies control 85 percent of the market for prescription opioids and are profiting from the opioid epidemic. And in the last few years, the big three wholesale distributors have paid over $200 million in fines for the same conduct covered in the complaint.

A 2012 study showed Alabama had the highest level of prescription opioid use in the nation.

Doctors in the state wrote 5.8 million prescriptions for pain pills in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That amounts to about 1.2 prescriptions per person (compared to the national average of 0.71).

According to the city, the opioid epidemic is creating pressure on health care facilities, municipal courts, fire departments and law enforcement agencies, resulting in rising costs, a strain on resources, and concerns about public safety.

"It has only grown worse as people who were addicted to prescription pills have, thanks to heightened enforcement efforts, found them harder to come by," Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper said in a statement. "The residents of Birmingham and the city's infrastructure bear the burden of the cost of the epidemic, as the costs of treatment for addiction, education and law enforcement have continued to rise and opioid addicts have turned to street drugs like heroin and fentanyl."

Opioid abuse is now the leading cause of death for those under 50. In Jefferson County alone, more than 200 people died from overdoses of heroin or fentanyl in 2016, according to the coroner's office, more than double the previous year. In addition to the cost in human life, researchers estimate the total economic burden of the prescription opioid epidemic at $78.5 billion.

Birmingham Opioid Lawsuit by KentFaulk on Scribd

This report will be updated when more information becomes available.
The closure of the 11th Avenue North/Civic Center exit ramp from Interstate 59/20 southbound has been postponed due to the chance of rain and thunderstorms on Monday evening.

The 11th Avenue North ramp, which is part of Exit 126A at Carraway Boulevard, was originally set to close permanently on Monday, Aug 14, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation.

The closure will be postponed until further notice, ALDOT said on Monday afternoon.

Exit 126A at Carraway Boulevard splits three ways: to Red Mountain Expressway to the left, Carraway Boulevard in the center lane and 11th Avenue North to the right.

The closure is part of the preparations for the closure and replacement of the I-59/20 Central Business District bridges. Those bridges are slated for demolition in fall or early winter 2018, ALDOT said. Rebuilding the bridges is expected to take about 14 months.

When the closure occurs, motorists are advised to take the center lane at the Carraway Boulevard and continue onto 6th Avenue North. In conjunction with this closure, 25th Street North between 11th Avenue North and Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard North will close.

Message boards and all necessary traffic controls will be in place when the closure occurs, according to ALDOT.
Gov. Kay Ivey, whose tour of Alabama cities was in Montgomery today, again declined to say whether she would seek a full term.

"I'm strongly considering that," Ivey said. "We'll make a decision sooner than later."

Ivey took questions from the press this morning after touring Valiant Cross Academy in Montgomery, a Christian school on Dexter Avenue. Earlier today she toured the new Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School in Montgomery.

Since Ivey became governor on April 10, she has been asked repeatedly whether she planned to run next year. At a press conference in July marking her first 100 days in office, she pledged to "lead the charge in the years ahead to be faithful to our past with innovation and progress and proudly embrace the future."

Eight Republicans and two Democrats have reported raising money to run for governor in next June's primary.

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, who said he considered running for governor, announced last week that he would run for reelection to the Senate instead. Marsh had previously said he would not run for governor if Ivey was running.

Ivey was asked today whether Marsh talked to her about her plans before announcing his. She declined to say, instead repeating that she would make her own announcement soon.

Ivey was in her second term as lieutenant governor when she replaced Gov. Robert Bentley, who resigned and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations after allegations that he used state resources to try to conceal an alleged affair with former adviser Rebekah Mason.

Ivey's tour moves to Huntsville on Wednesday.
The body of a missing Helena man was recovered Monday morning.

The search for the man, Maxie Pernell Blalock, III, 41, began about 11 a.m. Sunday. Senior Trooper Chuck Daniel said the search Lay Lake centered on an area near Waxahatchee Creek.

Marine police from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency searched all day before calling off the search for the night late Sunday. The search resumed at daylight Monday, and the man's body was recovered shortly before 9 a.m.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Updated at 1:31 p.m. to include name and age of the man.
Daniel Lee Jelks is charged with murder in the death of Ralph Woodfin III.

The fatal shooting of a Tarrant teen was not self-defense, police said, and a 25-year-old rapper with a history of drug arrests is now charged with murder.

Tarrant police on Sunday charged Daniel Lee Jelks, aka Two Gunz Vito, with murder in the Friday slaying of 17-year-old Ralph 'Li Ralph' Woodfin III, the nephew of Birmingham mayoral candidate Randall Woodfin. The teen's father, Ralph Woodfin Jr., was shot to death in 2012 in Birmingham's Southtown public housing community.

Friday's shooting happened around 2:30 p.m. at 1434 Thomason Avenue, an address well-known to law enforcement. When they arrived on the scene, the teen was dead on the back porch of the home. A weapon was found next to his body, said Tarrant Police Chief Dennis Reno.

Jelks told police the teen was trying to rob him at gunpoint and that's when he fired on him through the closed back door. The weapon police say was used by Jelks in Friday's fatal shooting was on the front porch, marked as evidence while police investigated.

Reno said Woodfin arrived at the scene in a Jeep reported stolen out of Mountain Brook, and said the keys to the stolen Jeep were still in Woodfin's pocket. That jeep had been stolen on Thursday.

Shortly before his death, Woodfin posted a Facebook Live video in which he was brandishing a firearm. Investigators say that video was determined to have been filmed inside Jelks' house, and was among evidence they considered when seeking charges.

The shooting happened, police said, during a dispute between Woodfin and Jelks over guns and a stolen vehicle, but said there was no robbery happening at the time. Jelks remained in Tarrant police custody over the weekend pending the investigation. Detectives were back out at Jelks' home Sunday afternoon after a new piece of potential evidence was found next door to the house where the shooting happened.

Reno said Tarrant officers have been called to the home where Friday's shooting happened multiple times on reports of gunfire, and pointed out old bullet holes in the siding from previous incidents. In fact, he said, they just recently sent a letter of abatement to the owner of the home because of all of the problems police have experienced there.

Court records show Jelks is currently awaiting trial in a 2015 arrest by Vestavia Hills police. In that case, authorities say Jelks the previous year had illegally sold heroin, and did so within three miles of a school or public housing community. They charged him with two counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance. Jelks' lawyer last month withdrew from the case, records show.

Jelks was arrested in 2012 on first-degree robbery charges, but that case was dismissed. He was arrested earlier this year by Tarrant police - in January - on a charge of trafficking morphine while in possession of a firearm but that case was dismissed in May 2017.

Jelks was transferred to the Jefferson County Jail just before 8 p.m. Sunday. He is being held on the $250,000 bond.

Randall Woodfin has not public discussed his nephew's killing except for in a prepared statement he released Saturday which read: "My heart is heavy with the loss of my nephew Ralph Woodfin, III," Woodfin said in a prepared statement sent to AL.com on Saturday. "My family would greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers, and respectfully ask for privacy during this difficult time."
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey visited schools in Montgomery as part of an ongoing "listen and learn" tour of the state, then fielded questions on several topics, including the violence in Charlottesville, Va.

On Saturday, white supremacist groups marched and clashed with counter-protesters in Charlottesville. An Ohio man is charged with murder for allegedly driving his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring others.

"My thoughts and prayers are definitely with the families of the victims, those who were killed and those who were injured," Ivey said. "There is simply no place for violence and hatred and this just makes no sense. So we've just got to focus on what makes America great and not on hatred and violence and racism."

Ivey said she would reveal soon whether she will run for a full term next year. She plans to appear in Huntsville on Wednesday as part of her tour of the state.

Ivey, who replaced Robert Bentley as governor on April 10, was asked about Alabama's prospects for recruiting a new auto assembly plant. Toyota and Mazda have announced a joint venture to build an assembly plant in the United States but have not named a location. Alabama, which already has a Toyota engine plant and auto assembly plants for Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz, is one of 11 states under consideration, according to one report.

"Alabama certainly has a wonderful track record in the automotive industry and with our work force that's here," Ivey said. "I'm proud that Alabama is being considered. We would love to have that company. I know they would find a good home here in Alabama. So we look forward to continuing to work the project."

Ivey was asked about another competition, an effort to convince the Pentagon to place the home base for the F-35 fighter jets here. Alabama is one of five finalists, with a proposed site at the 187th Fighter Wing at Dannelly Field Air Guard Station in Montgomery. Todd Stacy, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, said today a decision has been delayed but could come in a couple of weeks or in September.

"That would be a huge victory for the great state and for the national defense," Ivey said. "Most importantly is the fact that our folks are equipped and have a proven record of providing extraordinary defense service in our Air Force. The head of the F-35 here would also strengthen our relationships and perpetuate the Tuskegee Airmen, that history and that heritage. The economic impact of the F35s would be impressive.

"So it's something we're all very hopeful comes to fruition. We're in the running. We're just hoping they're going to make the right decision."

Ivey was asked if she is concerned about the status of state School Superintendent Michael Sentance. The state Board of Education gave Sentance low evaluation scores in July. Sentance, who has been superintendent for 11 months, said he wants to keep his job and follow through on changes he said will improve Alabama schools.

Ivey is president of the state board but has not attended most of the meetings since she became governor and did not take part in Sentance's evaluation. She did issue a statement in support of Sentance last week and said essentially the same today.

"For right now, he hasn't been there a year yet, and he does have some good ideas for reform," Ivey said today. "And I just hope they will give him time to implement some of those needed reforms in our public schools because they need first-class attention and I believe he can give it to us if we give him some time."

Asked if that means she fully supports Sentance as of today, Ivey said:

"I'm proud that they haven't let him go yet because he hasn't had time to get implementation of some of the reforms that he's mentioned he'd like to make. And I think we all agree that those reforms are needed."

Ivey said she hopes to be more involved in the state board of education's work.

"I certainly hope to be more active, yes I do," she said. "We're working on the calendar now."
On the eve of the Republican Senate primary, frontrunner Roy Moore announced more than 50 endorsements from religious leaders.

Of the 56 clergy listed in the press release from the Moore campaign, 50 are from Alabama churches.

"We have the opportunity this Tuesday, August 15, to send a man to Washington who shares our convictions, will fight for morality, and will restore integrity in the halls of Congress," the leaders wrote in a commentary posted on Moore's campaign website. "That man is Judge Roy Moore."

Moore has consistently been atop polls in the GOP primary race, though polling indicates he will not surpass the 50 percent threshold to win the Republican nomination without a runoff.

U.S. Sen. Luther Strange and U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks are locked in a tight battle for second place, with Strange steadily holding a slight advantage.

The Moore campaign has released a wave of endorsements over the past week - ranging from TV stars Chuck Norris and Phil Robertson to evangelist James Dobson to former Gov. Fob James.

Moore has twice been elected to the Alabama Supreme Court, then twice removed from the court for failing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Supreme Court building and for his stance opposing same-sex marriage.

"Genuine change in America does not happen in the Senate; it happens in churches across this land and I am deeply honored to receive the support and endorsement of this group of pastors," Moore said of the endorsements in a statement.

"They understand that it is acknowledgement of God and the morality of the people that will ultimately make America great again. I am committed to restoring character, courage, and integrity to our nation's capital and look forward to being your next United States senator."

The list of religious leaders endorsing Moore:
With hundreds of activists facing felony charges, critics say Trump has emboldened authorities across the United States.

After being hit in the head and stabbed in the arm during clashes with white supremacists at the California State Capitol in Sacramento last June, Yvette Felarca was defiant in an interview with local television news.

Everyone who came here today  came here united with one goal, and thats to shut down the Nazi scum. And we did that, said Felarca, a 47-year-old anti-fascist activist, with a bloodied bandage plastered to the side of her head.





They are not nonviolent. They are organising to attack and kill us, she said of the white supremacists. So, we have a right to self-defence  that is why we have to shut them down by any means necessary.

The brawls that took place on June 26, 2016, had erupted as more than 300 activists protested against a white supremacist rally organised by the Traditionalist Worker Party and the Golden State Skinheads, both labelled as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Last month, Felarca, a middle school teacher whose legal name is Yvonne, became one of hundreds of anti-fascists, leftists and anarchists currently facing felony charges across the country when police arrested her after she exited a flight in Los Angeles.

More than a year after the Sacramento violence, she has been charged with felony assault likely to inflict bodily damage and a pair of misdemeanour charges related to rioting. Altogether, she could face up to six years behind bars and $12,000 in fines.

Felarca is an organiser with By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a militant left-wing civil rights group that called for that counterprotest along with other anti-fascist groups in northern California.

Policy of targeting anti-fascists

Although anti-fascists accounted for six of the seven people who were stabbed in last summers free-for-all at the capitol, only one of the four people arrested in relation to the incident was a white supremacist, court documents show.

Felony charges were also issued to counterprotesters Michael Williams of the Brown Berets, a pro-Chicano group, and Porfirio Paz and to white supremacist William Scott Daley, who was detained in Colorado Springs after putting an anti-Semitic sticker on a local synagogue.

Shanta Driver, BAMNs national organiser and Felarcas lawyer, said the arrests were politically motivated, arguing that there is a policy of targeting anti-fascists across the country.

READ MORE: US anti-fascists  We can make racists afraid again

In Sacramento, the police allowed knife-wielding fascists on the grounds of the State Capitol and stood by doing nothing when the fascists stabbed Yvette and other anti-fascist protesters, she told Al Jazeera by email.

In a statement, the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office said it had considered issuing arrest warrants for 101 individuals believed to have been involved in the riots, but that it could only charge individuals whose conduct represented the most egregious offences due to a lack of evidence.

After the four arrests were made, there were no more outstanding warrants, the statement said, explaining that the office was unable to successfully link anyone to the stabbings. Contacted by Al Jazeera, the office declined to provide further comment.

A giant message

In nearby Berkeley, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is investigating violent protests that led to the cancellation of a speech at the University of California  Berkeley by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in February.

Writing on Twitter at the time, US President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funds to the university if action wasnt taken.

Kim Kelly, a journalist and a member of the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council (MACC) press collective, said that police, district attorneys and other authorities have been emboldened to stifle anti-Trump protest movements since the presidents election.

Meanwhile, Kelly argues, the government has not carried out a similar campaign against those on the far right or the alt-right, a loosely knit coalition that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Itd be an insult to Janus to refer to the situation as two-faced; rather, lets call it what it is, state-sanctioned repression tactics, she told Al Jazeera.

Since Trumps election, dozens of anti-protest bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country, many of which seek to introduce harsher penalties for actions such as blocking traffic or to make it illegal to wear a mask in public.

That ensuing wave of anti-protest legislation that broke across the country was another harbinger of what was to come, as were the continued arrests of anti-fascist protesters at political demonstrations and the administrations own threatening postures towards free speech, free assembly, and dissent in general, Kelly added.

In Washington, DC, nearly 200 people  among them activists, legal observers, medics and a pair of reporters  are facing upwards of 70 years in prison after being issued a slew of felony charges related to their presence at an anti-fascist march against Trumps inauguration on January 20.

You can basically have your future seriously compromised by felony convictions. by Alexander Reid Ross, author of Against the Fascist Creep

On June 7, a group of 16 defendants appeared before a judge in New Orleans, Louisiana, over their alleged involvement in riots on the night of Trumps inauguration.

Described by the local police superintendent as anarchists, the defendants are each facing at least one felony charge and misdemeanour counts of inciting a riot and wearing masks in public, according to local media reports.

Alexander Reid Ross, author of Against the Fascist Creep, said the Inauguration Day arrestees  known as the J20 defendants  represent a concerted government crackdown on anti-fascist and anti-Trump activists.

That case sends a giant message to anti-fascist and anti-Trump activists that if you participate in a protest you can be held responsible for anything that might occur and subjected to some 75 years in prison, he told Al Jazeera. You can basically have your future seriously compromised by felony convictions.

And last month, activists in Virginia delivered a complaint to the Charlottesville Police Department accusing officers of surveilling and arresting left-wing activists in advance of far-right rallies.

Trifecta of repression

Referring to the definite surge in anti-fascist activism taking place in the United States right now, Ross said that activists face a trifecta of repression from the far rightists fighting them in the streets, the police and the government.

I think that its a testament to peoples bravery that, after the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements, theyre so willing to stand up again to the violence of fascism that has emerged, he said.

Ross argued that the far right understands the US government has not identified it as a threat in the same way it has anti-fascists.

Mike Peinovich, an alt-right activist who also goes by the name Mike Enoch and founded The Right Stuff podcast network, recently praised Trump for giving us the space to destroy.

We have to use these four years to grow into something that cant be defeated, Peinovich said on the Fash the Nation podcast programme, referring to the increasingly vocal and violent far-right movement.

READ MORE: Threats and attacks as white supremacists target campuses

He went on to laud Steven Bannon, a top Trump strategist who used to be the executive director of Breitbart News, who he said wants us (the alt-right) to be able to operate in that space.

Back in Sacramento, the local Antifa (anti-fascist) group condemned the arrest of Felarca, Williams and Paz. This persecution is an attempt by the state to silence our movement, to silence dissent against the fascist creep, the statement reads.

BAMNs Driver insisted that measures to crack down on anti-Trump dissent will only serve to galvanise activists. The movement against Trump and the fascists has shown a lot of strength and will continue to grow, she said.

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_
I saw the bodies of my fellow protesters  the brave, smiling, resolute comradesfly through the air like shrapnel.

Charlottesville, VA, USA  Overwhelmed by the moment, I had to share that joy. This is so beautiful! I yelled to one of my friends, slinging an arm around their shoulders as we walked. They yelled back happily: I know! as we rounded the corner onto 4th Street.

I looked behind me to find another friend, and threw her a grin as I caught her eye.

A moment later, we were leaping out of the way of a charcoal grey Dodge Challenger as it sped at full throttle down the street and plowed directly into the march.

We were marching through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, a few hours after we had watched the army clear Emancipation Park of the white supremacist gathering  a gaggle of white nationalists, KKK members, armed far-right militia groups, Trump supporters, and Nazis (yes, literal, in-the-flesh Nazis replete with Third Reich insignia and sieg heil salutes).

Our anarchist group, MACC, had travelled down from New York City to lend our voices to the strident chorus gathering in Charlottesville to protest against the so-called Unite the Right neo-Nazi rally being held that weekend.

On Saturday morning, we had joined the vast crowd of counter-protesters who had gathered outside Emancipation Park to demonstrate against the Confederate flag-waving extremists. The Nazis were outnumbered, and, soon enough, were kicked out of their permitted safe space to cheers from locals and out-of-towners alike.

As the days events continued to unfold, we got word that armed far-right forces were heading to a nearby housing project, Friendship Court, to threaten its residents (the majority of whom are people of colour). We rallied, and a large contingent of us  anarchists, anti-fascists, communists, Industrial Workers of the World union members, socialists, and maybe even a few liberals  took to the streets and headed towards Friendship Court to lend our support to the community.

Read this explainer to find out the what, where and who of the events in Charlottesville

Flying bodies of my fellow protesters

Along the way, we merged with another leftist march, doubling our number and adding to the festive atmosphere. Our purpose there in Charlottesville could not have been more serious, but we still managed to have some fun. It was deeply inspiring to be surrounded by people and organisations from across the leftist spectrum who were all so passionate and so invested in the cause  defending Charlottesville, smashing white supremacy, preventing the cancerous spread of fascism and standing in solidarity with oppressed, marginalised communities.

As we went along, we raised our voices and sang out our demands: Black liberation. Brown liberation. Indigenous liberation. Queer liberation. Womens liberation. Workers liberation. Liberation for all, not the privileged few.

He hit more people as he retreated, his windshield now half-shattered with spiderwebs of cracks from the impact of protesters' bodies. by

Id scarcely registered what had happened as I leapt out of the way of the vehicle that rammed into the protesters ahead. But the car growled back to life and slammed into reverse, tyres screeching and hunks of twisted metal dangling off the now-battered hood.

He hit more people as he retreated, his windshield now half-shattered with spiderwebs of cracks from the impact of protesters bodies.

I can still smell the burning rubber that filled the air as he ran away.

In the silence of the moment immediately following the crash, time really did feel like it had stopped. Those flying bodies seemed suspended in the air like so many dandelion seeds, each one full of energy and promise  each one unimaginably precious.

I didnt see his face then. My eyes were on the street, frantically scanning the asphalt for familiar faces. What I did see was so much worse than the wan, pasty countenance of 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. I saw the bodies of my fellow protesters  the brave, smiling, resolute comrades with whom Id marched and sung and shared candy  fly through the air like shrapnel.





I saw his car smash directly into a woman in a blue and green striped top, with blonde curls the same colour as my own; her body flew upwards against the windshield before sliding off.

Directly below her, between the murderers car and the plum-coloured vehicle it rear-ended, another woman struggled to free herself, her small body contorted. The humid air that had only moments before crackled with energy and solidarity was now filled with screams.

As our street medics rushed to aid the wounded and a team of ambulances veered down Water Street, a dazed fog settled over those who had survived.

Huddled in small groups on the pavements, we searched for our people. Every few seconds a cry would pierce the air  Michelle! Wheres Michelle? Have you seen Tom? Where is Riley? I felt my chest seize up as I realised that I had no idea where some of my closest buddies were. Theyd been right behind me, and I knew well how close to the car Id been. What if 

I eventually found everyone I had been searching for, and we as a group were fortunate enough to have all made it out alive without any life-threatening injuries. A wave of grief and horror washed over us as we tried to catch our breath and figure out what to do next. All around us, scores of people did the same. Some wept, alone or clenched into tight embraces with their friends. Some sat quietly, their eyes blank. I crouched down with a friend whod been hit by and nearly dragged under the car, stroking her hair, my face hardened and wet with tears.

Read this opinion article discussing how in the US, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis are no longer afraid of showing their faces because they face no repercussions.

Heather Heyer will not be forgotten

Once everyone in my immediate group was accounted for, we made the decision to head to a nearby sanctuary church for safety. In my dazed state, all I could think about was charging my dead phone so that I could call my partner and tell him that I was still alive.

As we picked our way towards the church, doing our best to avoid the roving gangs of heavily armed far-right militias that prowled the streets, we came upon a line of police blocking a road. They stared back at us impassively as we passed. Some of our number hollered at them in grief and frustration. Unable to muster the energy, I just looked back at them and said, quietly, sadly: You let them kill us. I wonder if they heard me.

I was extraordinarily lucky. Had I been walking a little faster, or if I hadnt looked back to check on my friend, it could have been my name on the news yesterday morning. My luck stretched further, too, in that I didnt lose a close friend in the Charlottesville Nazi terrorist attack  but I did lose a comrade.

Her name was Heather Heyer, and she was 32. While the two of us had never met, we shared the same ideals and the same struggle. She was one of us, and she was murdered by a Nazi while peacefully protesting against white supremacist hatred, in broad daylight, on the streets of an American city, in 2017.

Remember her name.

As I sat in the church later that day, face still wet, I realised why the attack had hit me so hard, harder than I could have anticipated. It was because, while I know full well that that kind of virulent, murderous hatred has always been a part of human nature and I have seen plenty of tragedies play out on the news and between the pages of history books, Id never seen it manifest in such a monstrous way.

Id never stared death in the face before. James Alex Fields Jr rammed his car into a crowd of people. He killed Heather Heyer, injured 19 other people, and headed for the highway, presumably back to his mothers house in Ohio. How do you process seeing that kind of mindless evil explode four feet from your face?

I dont know what it is like to feel that kind of hate, or why the police allowed violent far-right extremists to roam the city virtually unchecked, or what it will take for the United States to finally, genuinely, take some sort of stand against the twin poisons of white supremacy and fascism.

Heather Heyers bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten. This hateful far-right extremist movement stole an innocent life that day, but they will never steal our joy  or our determination to fight back.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Seventy years after the partition of India and Pakistan, survivors from both sides recount stories of horror.

When you see your own mother drenched in blood and stomach opened, intestines coming up, how would you feel?

Salahuddin Khalid was a young boy living in New Delhi when life as he knew it erupted in a cataclysm of violence and bloodshed.

It was 1947, and the border between the new nations of India and Pakistan had just been created.

Salahuddin and his family found themselves on the Indian side of the border.

They were Muslims in a land dominated by Hindus and Sikhs.

I heard a shriek. I turned and I saw a Sikh with a sword in hand and my sister was running, he recalls.

First, they entered the room of my mother, killed her, then they ran towards us.

Salahuddin fled in fear. When he returned, his mother lay mutilated.

It was just like  a slaughterhouse, he says.

Back then, Salahuddin knew little of the political events that foreshadowed the deaths of his mother and at least a million more people across the Indian subcontinent.

But it was people like him who endured the deadly aftermath of Britains historic decision to relinquish its Indian empire and carve it into two new nations along religious lines.

Now, 70 years later, memories of the horrors that unfolded as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs turned on each other, remain raw in the minds of those who survived.





When I remember all those things, I feel so much pain and my heart shrinks, says Salahuddin.

The creation of India and Pakistan prompted the biggest mass migration in human history, as Muslims who were scattered across India and Hindus and Sikhs who were in Pakistan desperately tried to make it to the other side of the border.

As people fled their homes, a wave of violence was unleashed with neighbours turning on each other.

People who a year before wouldve attended each others wedding parties  are murdering each other, raping each others daughters, roasting each others babies on spits, says historian William Dalrymple.

He describes how train stations in cities like Lahore, in the new nation of Pakistan, morphed into scenes of mass death.

The platforms are literally awash with blood because a load of Hindus waiting on the platform to travel to India have been massacred, and another platform was covered with blood because a train had just arrived from India full of dead Muslims. Total chaos, says Dalyrymple.

READ MORE: One man remembers the poison that took over during partition

Amid this chaos, women were singled out for especially horrific treatment. Many lived in fear of being raped.

Amolak Swani was a 17-year-old Hindu girl living with her parents in Peshawar, Pakistan, when she heard that a Muslim mob was approaching their home.

Her father told her and her mother that the attackers were setting homes on fire and taking women away.

He was very frightened and he quickly gave my mother a bottle of petrol and some matches and told her  If we dont survive downstairs, then dont give up your honour. Pour the petrol on yourself and our daughter and dont let yourself be taken into the hands of those people, she says.

The attackers eventually passed by their house, and Amolak and her family fled to the Indian city of Amritsar.

But other women didnt escape.

Sardar Joginder Singh Kholi, a Sikh teenager at the time of partition, recalls a woman named Veerawaali who lived in his village in Pakistans Punjab province.

She was a very beautiful woman. But during the unrest  Muslims were chasing after her, he says.

There was a Sikh temple in our village, so she ran inside the temple to take refuge. She paid her respects to the holy book  doused her body in kerosene and set herself on fire.

She wasnt the only one of Sardars neighbours who died. He recalls what happened to the men of the village when the attackers arrived.

Out of the 25 men who were there, they murdered 18, says Sardar, now 86.

I cried a lot. Now I think of it, I feel that something happened to all of us. Its as if humanity had died. Everybody became a devil.

READ MORE: Partition riots were a grave attack on all of humanity

The atrocities have spawned decades of hostility between Pakistan and India, but on both sides of the border, there are efforts to chip away at the hatred that remains.

In the Indian city of Amritsar, a new museum is helping keep alive the memories of that era.

With survivors ageing, curator Mallika Ahluwalia says it was crucial that the Partition Museum be established while there is still a living connection to the personal stories of that era.





Its about the impact on each person who went through it. And what it would have felt like for them to leave behind their homes, to leave behind their friends, to leave behind the lives theyve known and to move to a new land, Ahluwalia says.

It was less migration of people or partition of assets  it was this collective migration of sorrow.

But Mallika wants the museum to be more than just a place of sad reflection. She wants to commemorate the acts of kindness that crossed religious divides and saw Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus protect each other from violence.

I think its really important that we highlight those stories of humanity, that we highlight those stories of friend helping friend, neighbour helping neighbour  stranger helping stranger, she says. Those narratives shouldnt get lost.

On the other side of the border, the Citizens Archive of Pakistan has recorded the stories of more than 2,200 survivors in the last decade.

Aaliyah Tayyebi, a senior project manager for the non-profit organisations oral history project, says hearing the perspectives of ordinary citizens who lived through partition is vital.

I feel if narratives of people who have suffered from both sides, whether that be a Hindu, a Muslim or a Sikh, come to the forefront and people get to hear it, then it will make them realise the horrors of war, she says. It would make them understand that killing one another does not solve anything.





Aaliyah believes todays generation needs to learn from Pakistans history.

We can use it as a tool to make us better people or we can just run from it and never look back and pretend it never happened, but then we will just be foolish, she says.

Creating a better understanding of what went on when the country was created would help foster better relations with India, Aaliyah believes.

We are neighbours. We need to understand that for the greater good of both countries, it would benefit us to respect one another, tolerate one another, understand from our past and come to a better future.

But some survivors, like Salahuddin Khalid, say theres no way they can forgive the brutality they endured.

How can I? he asks. You can give me tonnes of gold, tonnes of money, can you give me my mother?
Recently released Palestinian prisoner and mother of six says she is finding it hard to reintegrate into her family.

Dalal Abu al-Hawas 22-month-old son does not recognise her.

Hamza was just 10 months old when his mother was imprisoned for a year by an Israeli court for charges she vehemently denies.

Abu al-Hawa, who was released on August 7, is having trouble sleeping, is considering seeing a psychiatrist and is finding it hard to reintegrate into her family. My youngest son [Hamza] refuses to come close to me.

I wanted to put him on my lap, but he hit my hand and ran away, Abu al-Hawa tells Al Jazeera.

READ MORE: How Israel occupied the rest of Palestine

The mother of six was imprisoned on August 28, 2016, on allegations that she gave Hamas-affiliated prisoners cash inside Israeli detention centres. During her time in prison, her husband, Abu Omar, and children were denied the right to visit her.

Her eldest son, Omar, was also handed a two-and-a-half-year sentence at around the same time, for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli occupation forces. Omar continues to languish in the Megiddo prison, north of the occupied West Bank.

She recalls the pain she experienced last October when both their trials were set on the same day. I got out of the bus and Omar was in the [military] jeep behind us.

I wanted to embrace him and when I did, the police forces took me away from him, and kept kicking him in his stomach. It was a hard thing to witness as a mother. Then they threatened to beat him if we tried to talk to each other, even from a distance, she explains.

Like other prisoners, Abu al-Hawa endured humiliating conditions during her 23-day-long interrogation period and detention centre in occupied East Jerusalem. She remembers them with anxiety.

I did not know day from night, she said. They never turned off the lights, even at night, and they left the air conditioner on at a very low temperature  I was freezing.

I found a soft drink bottle and I used it as a pillow to sleep. As soon as I would fall asleep, there would be loud bangs on the door. I had three cameras watching me. They [prison guards] brought me a blanket that smelled foul. And even when I went to the bathroom, I had to wear handcuffs.

READ MORE: What it means to be a Palestinian prisoner in Israel

Abu al-Hawa says she was psychologically abused during the interrogation, where she endured long hours of questioning. She recalls how at some points during the interrogation, more than one officer would ask her questions simultaneously to try to confuse and pressure her.

She described a new interrogation tactic, where the interrogators would put a chair very close to a wall that displayed what she described as a nauseating painting. They would make you sit there for hours under an air conditioner in freezing temperatures, she said.

Her ordeal did not end there. Upon being freed, she was handed an Israeli order banning her from returning to Jerusalem, where she resided with her family prior to being incarcerated.The ban order meant that she must live on the West Bank side of Israels illegal Separation Wall, which divides the West Bank from Jerusalem.

When I left the court, they gave my husband an [order] that said I am not allowed to return to Jerusalem. My husband rented a house in July, and prepared it for me, and when I was released from prison, I came here to Ezariyeh.

Her family will now have to cross an Israeli military checkpoint to attend school, go to a hospital, or visit family.

Unlike the rest of her family, who hold Jerusalem IDs, Abu al-Hawa has a West Bank ID, which, due to Israels occupation, does not allow her to live in Jerusalem. However, she managed to obtain a family reunification permit, renewed on a yearly basis, from Israel to live in Jerusalem with her family, but she says it has been constantly revoked.

Sahar Francis, a lawyer at the Addameer prisoner rights association, says that Israel can ban an individual with a valid permit to live in Jerusalem based on security claims  and they can cancel the whole process for family unification, Francis told Al Jazeera.

In a recent report, New York-based Human Rights Watch, affirmed that such orders could amount to war crimes. Deportation or forced transfers of any part of the population of an occupied territory could amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the report reads.

The prohibition on forcible transfer extends beyond cases in which a military force directly relocates a population under its control, to cases in which the military force makes life so difficult that people are essentially forced to leave. Human rights law also protects the right to freely leave and return to ones own country.

Now that Abu al-Hawa is not allowed to return to her home in the al-Tur neighbourhood in Jerusalem, she is worried about the difficulties ahead.

My six children have Jerusalem IDs and they go to school in Jerusalem, so I dont know how Im going to handle this if I am living in the West Bank. If one of my kids is sick, how can I take him to get treatment in Jerusalem? Only their dad can take them.

The same goes for schools as well. There is a wall between where I live now and my home in al-Tur [a town in Jerusalem], so I do not know how I am going to deal with this. I do not know how my kids are going to cross the checkpoint every day, because they are still young, says Abu al-Hawa.

Israeli checkpoints between the West Bank and Jerusalem are arduous at best and can transform a 20-minute car ride into hours of waiting in line and humiliation.

Her husband says he feels an incomplete joy because his wife cannot go back to her home in Jerusalem. We had to rent a home in the West Bank and our eldest son is in prison. All praise to God  happiness is never complete, he tells Al Jazeera.

Abu Omar says living without his wife was very hard.

It is hard to understand until you live through it. I had to take care of five kids alone.

I did not know how to change my sons diaper or make him milk, and my daughter was still young. When one of my kids would get sick, we would have to rush them to the doctor. Things like this were hard for me. Our son, who was four years old, used to always ask for his mom and say When is she coming home? He broke my heart.

Until now, Hamza, our youngest, does not go near his mom. While she was in jail, I kept two large pictures of her in the house, and would tell him This is Mama so he would not forget her. However, when she got out of prison, he would not go near her at all.

Though it has been a week since her release, Hamza still has no idea that she is his mother. He does not remember me. If I want to kiss or hug him, I have to do it when he is asleep.
The Indian government is using the veneer of gender justice and anti-discrimination to change Kashmirs status.

In 1989, Indian-administered Kashmir broke out into an armed revolt for self-determination and independence from India. Since 2008 a civilian resistance, known widely as the Kashmiri intifada, is resurging. To date, more than 70,000 Kashmiris, both combatants and non-combatants, have been killed in Indian counter-militancy actions.

Now, there are renewed fears that Kashmir is going to lose the last vestiges of its autonomy through the removal of an article of the Indian constitution.





In 2015, the ideologue of Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hindu fundamentalist Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), backed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking to repeal Article 35A of the Constitution. The court is expected to make a final decision on the issue in six weeks.

This article restricts non-natives of Jammu and Kashmir state from having immovable property or political franchise there. On the surface, the article seems preferential but it has an important historical context. Article 35A is key to Article 370, which is the original provision that established the quasi-autonomous relationship Kashmir has with India.

The BJP is historically belligerent to Kashmirs autonomous status and the RSS openly claims that Kashmirs Muslim majority is oppressive and a headache for the country. The removal of 35A can facilitate a demographic change which BJP considers prescriptive for controlling the territory. Kashmiris fear what they call the BJPs Israeli model to establish settlers that will favour Indian rule in the region.

Kashmir is in uproar.

The victim of Partition

The region of Kashmir is a festering wound since the partition of India by the British in 1947. Hari Singh, the Hindu Maharaja of the dominantly Muslim territory of Kashmir, which extended from Jammu province in South to Gilgit Baltistan in the northwest, initially remained undecided about acceding to either India or Pakistan. Even though there was an antimonarchy movement going on against him, the Maharaja hoped to stay independent. While the majority of Kashmiris wanted an independent state, the partition logic deemed they either join India or Pakistan. As the Maharajas indecision continued, partition violence engulfed the region and he was forced to flee and declare the accession of Kashmir to India. But this accession was fraught, conditional and temporary until a plebiscite was to be held.

OPINION: The partition  the British game of divide and rule

After a brief Indo-Pakistan war over the future of the region, the United Nations brokered a peace splitting Kashmir temporarily into two. What is now called Azad Kashmir became a semi-autonomous entity under Pakistan, and the Kashmir Valley and the provinces of Jammu and Ladakh ended up under Indian control. The UN promised a plebiscite to decide the final fate of the people.

A year earlier, all princely states including Kashmir were invited to send representatives to Indias Constituent Assembly, which was formulating a constitution for the whole of India. In a counter move to the Maharajas declaration of accession, Kashmirs representatives in the assembly negotiated with the government of India the inclusion of Article 370 in the new constitution.

The fear of an Indian settler influx that would alter the demography of the region in India's favour is real for Kashmiris. by

Article 370 allowed Kashmir to retain autonomy in all matters, except defence, currency, and foreign affairs. It established a separate constitution and a separate flag. As a result of this article, all the provisions of the Indian constitution are not applicable in Kashmir and need the concurrence of the local government. Yet many Kashmiris saw this as a weak and unjust replacement for the plebiscite and one of the first sly moves by India to usurp the territory.

Unlike Article 370, Article 35A of the Indian constitution has a history prior to 1947.

Prior to 1947, Kashmir was a princely state under the British Paramountcy and the people living there were state subjects, not British colonial subjects.

The Maharaja of Kashmir had proclaimed the Hereditary State Subject Order in 1927, granting the state subjects the right to government office and the right to land use and ownership, which were not available to non-state subjects. The law was constructed to protect the interests of the native ruling elites, mostly Kashmiri Pandit Hindus, from non-natives dominating the administration and buying or selling land in Kashmir.

The continuity of the state subject law had been a core condition in the autonomy negotiations with India. In 1954, a Presidential Order granted the Kashmiri legislature the right to define permanent residents and safeguard their privileges through Article 35A. For most Kashmiris, who abhorred the increasing Indian hegemony, the law meant at least their rights and resources would be relatively protected.

Fear of land grab

Since 1991, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has become pivotal in controlling the region with 700,000 Indian troops. Today, the soldier civilian ratio of 1:8 makes Kashmir one of the most militarised zones in the world.

And if Article 35A is repealed, things can get even worse for Kashmiris.





The fear of an Indian settler influx that would alter the demography of the region in Indias favour is real for Kashmiris. Recently, in the election manifesto for the Kashmirs state assembly, the BJP has promised to provide land at cheap rates for the establishment of colonies for retired soldiers. In July, the Goods and Services Tax, which is a single tax system across India, was finally imposed on Kashmir, much to the fear and resistance of people and constitutional experts who say that states fiscal autonomy has essentially ended.

The renewed Kashmiri intifada in 2008 was triggered by the fear of land grab and what a Kashmiri political analyst Shiekh Showkat Hussain has called demographic terrorism. That year, the Kashmir government agreed to transfer 40 hectares of forestland to the Amarnath shrine, a Hindu pilgrimage site in the Himalayas. The proposal included setting up new housing facilities for the pilgrims. Kashmiris took to streets fearing establishment of separate settlements. The resistance leaders called the move establishing a state within a state. Parallels were drawn with the Israel Land Authoritys new constructions in Har Homa, East Jerusalem in 2005.

OPINION: Kashmir  the communalisation of a political dispute

Hindu fundamentalist parties continue to fan nationalistic flames to this day, heavily infusing politics with religion. Hindu pilgrims are mobilised to visit Hindu holy sites in Kashmir more as a patriotic duty than spiritual salvation. In 1963, about 4,000 pilgrims visited Amarnath; in 2015, the number has grown to about 200,000.

In 2015, the High Court in Kashmir passed a historic judgment stating the Article 370 was permanent and the Indian Supreme Court declared that only the parliament could remove the article.

Nevertheless, the BJP has always vowed to abrogate the Article 370 once they have the required majority. With their current strength in India, and dominance in Kashmirs coalition government, the push for repealing Kashmirs autonomy is increasing and 35A is first in the line.

The gender justice argument

A lot of misinformation around these two articles is being disseminated to make a case for removal. The BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, often invoke gender justice as an argument, which constitutional experts say is erroneous and misleading.

Recently, a case was filed in the India Supreme Court by a Kashmiri-Hindu woman, claiming Article 35A disenfranchises women, especially if they marry a non-resident man. In 2002, a High Court ruling in Kashmir made it clear that Kashmiri women would not lose their residency under any condition. Also, in the monarchial law or the new state subject law, there has never been any gender discrimination. But these facts are being sidelined in politically motivated cases for the removal of article 35A.

It is true that, in the 1960s, Kashmirs Revenue Ministry began issuing residency certificates to women that were valid only until marriage. The ministry refused to renew the residency status of Kashmiri women who had married non-residents. But legal experts say this unjust proclamation has no basis in the Constitution and should not be upheld.

Also, the 2002 verdict made Kashmiri womens residency rights clear. The only lacunae in the High Court judgment concern the rights of children born to Kashmiri women who are married to non-resident men. But, these rights are also being adjudicated at the moment. Despite this, the issue of gender discrimination continues to be used to rouse passions against Kashmirs autonomy.

As the deadline for the Supreme Court decision on the petition for the removal of Article 35A approaches, the issue is snowballing into a nightmare for constitutional experts on both sides. Some legal experts say that 35A is beyond removal, while others disagree. Many believe that any tampering with Kashmirs autonomy will revert the situation to its 1947 status and even make a plebiscite inevitable.

On the other hand, the Kashmiri masses have a do or die stance against the Indian rule and their movement stands strong, not just in demanding self-determination but azadi (independence).

Having faced Indias unjust political and brutal militaristic policies for decades Kashmiris have lost all fear. And even though the UN resolutions and constitutional law are on their side, they are preparing for the worst.

Ather Zia is a poet and a political anthropologist who teaches Anthropology and Gender Studies at University of Northern Colorado Greeley. She is the founder editor of Kashmir Lit.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
There are very few firsts when it comes to the ways in which Israel has selectively and disproportionately singled out Palestinians for differential justice. In early August, the Haifa district court ruled to strip Palestinian Alaa Zayoud of his Israeli citizenship after he was convicted of four counts of attempted murder. This ruling was a first even for Israel.





The stripping of Zayouds citizenship is based on Israels 2008 Nationality Law, which gives the court the right to revoke citizenship in cases of breach[ing] of loyalty to the State of Israel including, for example, terrorist acts. That Israel will selectively apply the law is not surprising. As the organisation, Adalah, noted, there has never been a request to revoke the citizenship of a Jewish citizen, even when Jewish citizens were involved in serious and grave crimes. This includes the case of Yigal Amir who assassinated former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are 20 percent of Israels population. They are what remains of the Palestinian population within todays Israeli borders after expulsion, displacement and killing, which Palestinians refer to as al-Nakba. Israeli citizenship for this group of Palestinians is far from inclusive and has often been used as a tool through which the state can further promote Jewish supremacy, acting on its fears of the demographic growth of the Palestinian population.

READ MORE: Israeli citizenship law tears Palestinian families apart

Israels Nationality Law is one way of reconfiguring  albeit slowly  the Israeli population. It could be used in the future in systematic campaigns to keep the Palestinian minoritys numbers low and unthreatening to the Jewish majority.

The Israeli state perceives and treats its Palestinian citizens as a security threat, not as individuals who hold full citizenship rights. by

Israel was generous enough to add a stipulation in the law providing permanent residency to any citizen who becomes stateless after being stripped of their citizenship. But Palestinians know all too well how easily Israel revokes permanent residency; case in point  the nearly 15,000 Jerusalemites, who since 1967 have had their residency permits cancelled and who cannot stay in their city of birth.

The ruling of the Haifa court on Zayouds case also comes on the heels of the killing in al-Aqsa Mosque compound of two Israeli policemen by three Palestinians from Umm al-Fahm  the same city which Zayoud is from. Um al-Fahm is also part of the triangle of Palestinian towns and villages, which Israel has contemplated transferring to a future Palestinian state in exchange for illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

This proposal met anger by Israeli Palestinians, not only because of its clear intent of stripping their citizenship, but also because it signals that ultimately only Jews will be allowed to remain within Israeli borders, not Palestinians.

Judge Avraham Elyakim of the Haifa court, who ruled on Zayouds case, stated that: for every citizen, alongside his rights, there are commitments. But why are commitments demanded when rights are not really fully extended to the Palestinians in Israel? What has the Israeli state done for them? It has required their strict loyalty in exchange for a second-class citizenship, the guarantee of which is now proven to be arbitrary.

READ MORE: Israel to revoke Jerusalem residency of Palestinians

Judge Elyakim went on to say: We cannot allow an Israeli citizen to impact the lives and dignity of other Israeli citizens, and whoever decides to do so in acts of terror removes himself from the general society of the country. What he should have added is that this is applicable only if the person in question is a Palestinian citizen of Israel  because this is what this law and its application to Zayouds case is really about.





Responding to the revocation of Zayouds citizenship, Interior Minister Arie Deri who initially filed the request to strip him of citizenship stated: the court decision strengthens the deterrent and strengthens our campaign to protect the security of the country. And this is exactly how the Israeli state perceives and treats its Palestinian citizens  as a security threat, not as individuals who hold full citizenship rights.

Zayoud is entitled to an appeal of the decision to revoke his citizenship, but it does not matter whether he wins it or not. The precedent has already been set and the disloyalty argument has been validated in court. This ruling is one of the starkest examples of the deeply embedded and systemic anti-Palestinian sentiment in the laws, policies, and politics of Israel.

This case gives us a glimpse of what is yet to come in terms of Israels delayed but persistent attempts to finish the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The stripping of citizenship will be one more way for Israel to exercise collective punishment on Palestinians and to normalise and legalise it.

Maha Hilal is the inaugural Michael Ratner Middle East fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and a co-principal investigator of Tulane Universitys Torture Trauma Initiative.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
In July, the Ugandan government released a circular from the Ministry of Public Service that imposed a stricter dress code for male and female public servants.

Under these guidelines, men may not wear tight trousers, must wear a jacket and tie and keep their hair short and well-groomed. The dress code for women is much more detailed.





According to the circular, women should not dress in a short skirt that is above the knees and should wear a smart long-sleeved or short-sleeved blouse. Cleavage, navel, knees, and back must be covered at all times. The circular also provides guidance on hair, make-up, and nails for Ugandan women: Bright-coloured hair, braids or hair extensions, long nails, or bright or multicoloured nail polish are proscribed.

Violators of the code will receive warnings and women who violate the code are already being sent home from work. Repeat offenders could face disciplinary action.

The dress code guidelines are couched in the language of decency, the idea of dressing decently or smartly  language that is often used in the postcolonial British English of former British colonies.

A colonial remnant

Decency campaigns, and the institutionalisation of dress codes, are not new to the East African and broader African postcolonial context. Historically, colonial civilising missions sought to instill European Victorian norms of decency and respectability within African indigenous societies, often seeking to modernise the minds, bodies, and psyches of African men and women.

One core arena of these practices was dress: nakedness or other forms of indigenous dress were viewed as backwards, primitive and traditional in the worldview of the Western coloniser.

OPINION: Why is Tajikistan imposing a dress code on its people?

An example of the colonial legacy of respectable dress is what I call the British civil servant aesthetic in places such as Kampala and Nairobi: the requisite suit and tie, with dust-free, black leather shoes. Shiny, polished shoes are important for the making of respectable, urban masculinity among a generation of East African men.

Ugandan activists should not see the latest dress code as an isolated issue, or simply about the liberal, individual freedom to wear the miniskirt. Rather, I suggest that activists work to understand the context of gender and sexuality relations in the nation in a broader, global and political-economic context. by

Debates about dress codes and what counts as respectable in broader society often peak during times of significant political, economic and cultural transformation. In the independence period, for example, new African nations formulated their own, distinctive national culture, a culture that was dependent upon colonialism but also highlighted pre-colonial, indigenous African societies. The resulting cultural nationalism incorporated elements of pan-Africanism, Afro-centrism, and nativist nationalistic projects.

The 1960s and 1970s in East Africa was a key period in which the politics of dress emerged. Nation-state building often relied on both indigenous and colonial hetero-patriarchal projects (a system based on the supremacy of biological males gendered as men over females gendered as women, and the primacy of heterosexuality).

Women were often marked as the traditional preservers of native culture; their bodies were seen to reproduce the nation and to symbolically represent the new African national culture. As inter-generational and gender tensions heightened in new East African nations, the old guard tried to preserve African culture from Western, neo-imperialist influences.

In 1968, for example, Julius Nyerere criminalised miniskirts for women and tight trousers for men in Tanzania. The Kenyan Parliament considered banning the miniskirt in 1969. In Uganda, many kinds of decency campaigns reached their height under Idi Amin, where the president banned miniskirts, hot pants, and wigs (weaves or extensions) among Ugandan women.

Why the new dress code?

In Kampala, the miniskirt became a popular discussion topic as a result of the latest dress code guidelines for public servants. But this is not a new discussion for the country. Previously, I have written about the 2014 Anti-Pornography Bill (the so-called anti-miniskirt bill) that sought to criminalise women who dressed indecently in public and incited the desires of men to rape. This bill caused Ugandan women who chose to wear miniskirts to become the target of street harassment and even mob attacks. The bill was revised after widespread protests, and it is now a law that is designed to curb pornographic media from entering Uganda  media that the state links to the decline in Ugandan urban morality and cultural values.

The new dress code should be understood, just like the previous anti-miniskirt bill, in the context of economic liberalisation (neoliberal transformation), rising urban inequality, shifting gender and sexuality roles and identities, and the rise of militarised masculinities in the nation.

OPINION: Knesset staff denied entry over mini skirts

The states right to control the bodies and sexualities of Ugandan men and women is meant to be a meaningful performance of national, cultural, and political autonomy from the West  in a context where Uganda is relatively powerless in the global hierarchy of nation-states.

Controlling womens bodies





What does the dress code mean for Ugandans today? First, the dress code, and its rationale (that womens indecently dressed bodies can incite sexual desires among men), exceeds the norms of professional workplace dress codes. Instead, it reveals the states efforts to control the comportment of womens bodies at the expense of reforming mens sexual attitudes towards women. It is thus a further step in the institutionalisation of hetero-patriarchal norms in Ugandan society by the state.

Second, the dress code reveals efforts by the state to re-make gender roles in urban Uganda: the decently dressed versus the indecent Ugandan women. This is especially the case as many young women are excluded from educational access, job opportunities, and social and geographical mobility. At the same time they have more access to the idea of the global: through mass media, through sharing knowledge of fashion and beauty trends, access to cheap commodities (including hair extensions), and ideas about youth style and self-expression. And in urban Uganda, one of the few routes to economic mobility for young women is through their intimate relationships with men, relations which often rely on the physical attractiveness and the objectification and commodification of their bodies under the male gaze.

Thus far, Ugandan women activists have openly condemned the dress code as an expression of authoritarianism by the central government.

In my previous analysis on the 2014 attacks on women in miniskirts, I situated the moral panic about womens dress in relation to the resurgence of anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda, urging activists and commentators to link gender and sexuality struggles together while contesting hetero-patriarchal nation-state building in a global context, rather than a fight for individual rights and freedoms.

READ MORE: Miniskirt assault protest draws thousands in Kenya

In this case, Ugandan activists should also not see the latest dress code as an isolated issue, or simply about the liberal, individual freedom to wear the miniskirt. Rather, activists should work to understand the context of gender and sexuality relations in the nation in a broader, global and political-economic context.

In doing so, activists can challenge the broader hetero-patriarchal spaces from which the dress code arose  by understanding the condition of possibility for the dress code, they may be more successful in unearthing alternative, home-grown possibilities for healthy gender relations in Ugandan society today. This remains a major task for todays feminist-oriented and progressive youth in Uganda.

Dr Anneeth Kaur Hundle is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Barnaby Joyces New Zealand citizenship could force him out of job and cost coalition government its majority of one.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyces political future has been called into question after it emerged he was a dual citizen, placing the conservative governments slim parliamentary majority at risk.

Australia does not allow dual citizens to sit in parliament, with New Zealand confirming Monday its citizenship was automatically granted to Joyce through his father.

The revelation has major implications for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls Liberal-National coalition government, which won national elections last year with 76 seats in the House of Representatives with a narrow one-seat majority.

Joyce has refused to step aside, instead referring the case to the High Court, saying that the solicitor-general was confident he would not be disqualified.

The obscure rule was little known until recently but several legislators have fallen victim to it in recent months, leaving parliamentarians scrambling to clarify their ancestral ties.

Needless to say, I was shocked to receive this information, Joyce told parliament after hearing he may be a dual citizen.

Ive always been an Australian citizen born in Tamworth. Neither me or my parents had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country.

Previous resignations

The dual citizenship crisis kicked off in July when the minor Australian Greens partys co-deputy leader Scott Ludlam resigned after revealing he had dual Australian-New Zealand citizenship.

The crisis soon claimed other victims, including Canadian-born Greens senator Larissa Waters and Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who left cabinet after finding his mother signed him up to Italian citizenship in his 20s.

Joyce said Monday that he had been contacted by the New Zealand High Commission last week to advise him that he could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent.

While Joyce, the leader of the Nationals party, was born in Australia, he told parliament his father was born in neighbouring New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1947.

A spokesman for New Zealand Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne that there was no doubt about Joyces status, telling AFP that as far as New Zealand law goes, he is a New Zealand citizen under the Citizenship Act.

Mr Joyce was born to a New Zealand citizen father and even though (the father) migrated to Australia in the 1940s that citizenship remained and he passed on the right of citizenship to his children.

He said citizenship was automatically granted and did not need an application.

High Court case

Turnbull on Monday wrote to Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten to ask if his party wanted to refer any MPs over their citizenship status to the High Court so all the cases could be considered as a bloc, The Australian newspaper reported.

Canavan and minor party One Nations Indian-born Malcolm Roberts have already had their elections referred to the court, which will decide if they had taken reasonable steps to renounce their foreign allegiances.

Almost half of Australias 24-million population was born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas, according to last years census.

Indigenous people account for about three percent of the population.
James Fields faces murder charge and other charges for car-ramming incident which killed a woman and injured 19 others.

A judge has denied bail for the man accused of ploughing his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white supremacist rally in the US city of Charlottesville.

Judge Robert Downer said during a bail hearing on Monday that he would appoint a lawyer for James Alex Fields Jr. In the meantime, he has been ordered to stay in jail.

Hours later, US President Donald Trump said those who commit violence in the name of bigotry would be held accountable.

Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans, Trump said from the White House.

Fields, who appeared in court through a closed-circuit television, is charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities said he drove into the crowd, killing a woman and injuring 19 others.

The judge said the public defenders office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturdays protest.

Downer said a local attorney will be appointed to represent the 20-year-old suspect.

READ MORE: Witnessing the monstrous attack in Charlottesville

The next scheduled court hearing is on August 25, though Fields attorney could request a bond hearing before then.

Al Jazeeras Heidi Zhou-Castro, reporting from Charlottesville, said security concerns prevented the suspect from appearing in person before the court.

Wearing a black and white striped uniform, Fields answered questions from the judge with simple responses of Yes, sir when asked if he understood the judge.

He told the judge, No, sir when asked if he had ties to the community of Charlottesville.

Fields allegedly slammed his car at the crowd of people protesting against the white nationalist rally on Saturday, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer, 32, a resident of Charlottesville.

Fields was arrested shortly after and has been in custody ever since.

Before the attack, Fields had been photographed carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that organised the Take America back campaign in protest at the removal of a statue of a general who supported slavery in the US.

The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect, even as a separate hate group that organised Saturdays rally pledged on social media to organise future events that would be bigger than Charlottesville.





Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolised Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his deeply held, radical convictions on race, a former high school teacher said on Sunday.

He also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer, the teacher, said in an interview with AP news agency.

In high school, Fields was an average student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Weimer, who said he was Fields social studies teacher in his junior and senior years at Randall K Cooper high school in the US state of Kentucky.

Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy towards Nazism, that idolisation of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy, Weimer said. It would start to creep out.

The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders of all political stripes, and activists and community organisers around the country planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups.

They also urged President Trump to forcefully denounce the organisations, some of which specifically cited Trumps election after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation of their beliefs.
Central Bank head says ban on flights bringing in newly printed currency notes from Russia strangling the economy.

Yemens Central Bank has said the Saudi-led coalition is strangling the economy by preventing planes from flying in newly printed cash.

Since April, the alliance has banned 13 flights carrying money printed in Russia to the southern city of Aden, said Monasser al-Quaiti, Central Bank governor, in a statement issued on Sunday.

He accused the coalition of strangling the Yemeni economy and denying it needed liquidity, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The remark reflects a rift between the Aden-confined government of Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, a key member of the military coalition.





Both are at war with the Shia Houthi fighters, who control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

But the UAE is believed to be at odds with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi over his embrace of the Islah Party, a local affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood group which the UAE views as a threat, and fighters loyal to the two sides have clashed in recent months.

The wrangling began when Hadi removed his onetime vice president and prime minister, Khaled Bahah, who was seen as an advocate of reconciliation with the Houthis and who was backed by UAE.

Hadi replaced him with Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful military commander who is closely linked to Islah.

At a recent meeting with Yemeni tribal leaders in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Hadi accused the Emiratis of dictating candidates for security and military posts, according to two tribal leaders and a security official who attended the gathering.

Hadi said he used to comply with UAE wishes, but began to oppose them after their meddling crossed all lines, including attempts to remove Islah figures from the government and military, the attendees said.

Hadi said he complained to the Saudis, who have led the intervention on behalf of his government, but received no response, according to the attendees, who agreed to discuss the closed-door meeting on condition of anonymity.

INFOGRAPHIC  Yemen conflict: Who controls what

Incidentally, according to leaked emails published by Middle East Eye on Monday, Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabias crown prince, has told two former American officials that he wants out of the Yemen war.

At least 94 UAE soldiers have died in the conflict since it began two and a half years ago.

The World Health Organization said on Monday that cholera has killed 2,000 people and infected an estimated 500,000 people in Yemen.

Half the countrys health facilities are out of service, including many that were bombed by the coalition.

Government workers, including medics and rubbish collectors, have not received their salaries in nearly a year, further hindering efforts to combat the cholera outbreak.
Detention of Al Jazeera journalist renewed for seventh time since he was arrested on December 20.

A court in Egypt has extended the detention, without charge, of Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein for another 45 days.

Egyptian authorities announced the seventh extension on Thursday since Hussein was arrested in December last year.

Hussein, an Egyptian national based in Qatar, was stopped, questioned and arrested by authorities on December 20, after travelling to Cairo for a holiday.

Five days after his initial arrest, Egypts interior ministry accused him of disseminating false news and receiving monetary funds from foreign authorities in order to defame the states reputation.

READ MORE: Zahra Hussein: My father is afraid of being forgotten

Since then, he has been detained for 237 days, suffering mistreatment and being denied his legal rights.

Al Jazeera has rejected the allegations against him and urges his unconditional release.

Al Jazeera Media Network rejects all the baseless allegations against Hussein, and condemns the unfair detention, in addition to obtaining false confessions by force. Furthermore, the network holds the Egyptian authorities responsible for Husseins safety and well-being, the network had said in a previous statement.

A US-based advocacy group Robert F Kennedy Human Rights filed a petition with the United Nations in April demanding that Hussein be set free.

Human rights and media organisations have denounced Husseins detention and called for his immediate release.

Husseins daughter, Zahra, told Al Jazeera in March that he suffers from harsh and inhumane conditions that have led to a deterioration in his health and caused him shortness of breath.

Media crackdown

Over the past few years, Egyptian authorities have arrested several Al Jazeera employees, raising concerns over media freedom in the country.

In May 2016, a Cairo court sentenced a former editor-in-chief of Al Jazeera Arabic, Ibrahim Helal, to death, charging him in absentia with endangering national security.

Al Jazeeras Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste  along with seven colleagues outside the country  were accused of spreading false news during their coverage of the aftermath of the military overthrow of then-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the year they were taken into custody.

Mohamed and Fahmy spent 437 days in jail before being released. Greste spent more than a year in prison.

The judge who sentenced the journalists said they were brought together by the devil to destabilise the country.
Opposition figures party says it expects treason charges to be dropped and for him to walk free on Monday.

Zambias detained opposition leader is due to appear in court on treason charges, four months after his arrest for failing to make way for President Edgar Lungus motorcade.

Hakainde Hichilema, who narrowly lost last years presidential elections, was charged with treason for allegedly putting Lungus life in danger.

The case has stoked political tensions in Zambia.

A lawyer from Hichilemas United Party for National Development (UPND) told the AFP news agency that the party expected the charges to be dropped and for Hichilema to walk free.

They dont have a case against him. We are certain that he will come out tomorrow, the party lawyer, who declined to be named, told AFP on Sunday.

READ MORE: Neoliberalism, big capital and the Zambian crisis

Reuters, citing government and legal sources, said Hichilema is to be freed under a deal brokered by the Commonwealth secretary-general.

Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary-general, visited Lusaka last week and told reporters she had met Lungu and Hichilema separately and that the two leaders had agreed to a process of dialogue facilitated by her office.

Public interest

A government source told Reuters that the state would quash the case in the public interest.





Hichilema and Lungu are committed to burying their past and starting dialogue envisaged to help address some of the issues the opposition raised after the 2016 elections, the source said.

Political tension has been on the rise in Zambia, seen as one of Africas more stable and functional democracies since Lungus Patriotic Front (PF) beat the UPND in a presidential election marred by violence.

Hichilema, 55, says the election was rigged and has refused to recognise the president.

In July, Lungu invoked emergency powers, increasing police powers of arrest and detention after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks.

He has denied allegations of growing authoritarianism and has accused his rivals of trying to overturn the election result.

Lee Habasonda, a political science lecturer at the University of Zambia, said Hichilemas release would end mounting international pressure on Lungus government.

In the face of Zambia seeking international assistance, it is time to make such a move because the state does not lose anything by releasing the opposition leader and dealing with him in other ways, Habasonda told Reuters.

Police on Thursday freed another opposition leader, United Progressive Party leader Saviour Chishimba, after holding him in detention for a week on accusations of defaming Lungu, an offence that carries a maximum five-year prison term.

Chishimba hit the headlines in July after criticising Lungus decision to impose emergency powers and suggesting the president should go to hospital for mental tests.
Hakainde Hichilema  arrested for failing to make way for President Edgar Lungus motorcade  remains in custody.

Zambias opposition leader has pleaded not guilty to treason charges four months after his arrest for failing to make way for President Edgar Lungus motorcade.

Hakainde Hichilema, who was first charged with treason for allegedly putting Lungus life in danger and later accused of plotting to overthrow the government, appeared in a Lusaka court on Monday.

The case stoked political tensions in Zambia after Hichilema and five others were arrested in April.

All six denied the charge of treason and the state has decided to take the matter to Wednesday for trial, said Charles Kakoma, the spokesman for Hichilemas United Party for National Development (UPND).

He also said that Hichilema, who remained in custody, appeared in good health at the brief hearing.

Police officers in riot gear sealed off the court precinct as scores of UPND supporters waited outside.

Amnesty International has said the treason charges are trumped up and called for his release, as have local church leaders.

A lawyer from UPND earlier told the AFP news agency that the party expected the charges to be dropped and for Hichilema to walk free.

They dont have a case against him. We are certain that he will come out tomorrow, the party lawyer, who declined to be named, told AFP on Sunday.

READ MORE: Neoliberalism, big capital and the Zambian crisis

Reuters, citing government and legal sources, said Hichilema is to be freed under a deal brokered by the Commonwealth secretary-general.

Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary-general, visited Lusaka last week and told reporters she had met Lungu and Hichilema separately and that the two leaders had agreed to a process of dialogue facilitated by her office.

Public interest

A government source told Reuters that the state would quash the case in the public interest.





Hichilema and Lungu are committed to burying their past and starting dialogue envisaged to help address some of the issues the opposition raised after the 2016 elections, the source said.

Political tension has been on the rise in Zambia, seen as one of Africas more stable and functional democracies since Lungus Patriotic Front (PF) beat the UPND in a presidential election marred by violence.

Hichilema, 55, says the election was rigged and has refused to recognise the president.

In July, Lungu invoked emergency powers, increasing police powers of arrest and detention after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks.

He has denied allegations of growing authoritarianism and has accused his rivals of trying to overturn the election result.

Police on Thursday freed another opposition leader, United Progressive Party leader Saviour Chishimba, after holding him in detention for a week on accusations of defaming Lungu, an offence that carries a maximum five-year prison term.

Chishimba hit the headlines in July after criticising Lungus decision to impose emergency powers and suggesting the president should go to hospital for mental tests.
HRW South Asia chief criticises the government plan to send back an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar.

Indias government is looking to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar, including those registered with the UN refugee agency, a senior official has said.

Deputy Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told Reuters news agency over the weekend that the Rohingya living in India were illegal immigrants and must be deported.

As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants, Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist government, said.  They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported.

Their registration with the UN refugee agency was irrelevant, he said.

READ MORE: Jammu  Right-wing groups try to evict Rohingya refugees

We cant stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees, he said.

Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watchs South Asia director, slammed the plan, noting that India as a member of the UN Human Rights Council was aware of the risks Rohingya refugees faced if deported.

India was part of the council that authorised a fact-finding mission after tens of thousands of Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh from Mynamar, following a security operation in which hundreds were killed and raped, she told Al Jazeera.

So India is aware of the risks of abuse, and India has an international obligation to protect them.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India, which it says helps prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation of refugees.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled their homes since the first bout of violence was sparked in 2012. Since then they have live in despicable conditions in camps that The New York Times dubbed 21st-century concentration camps.

Thousands of Rohingyas were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh after Myanmar security forces launched a crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack late last year. Many of them crossed the border into India. Others have also fled to southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs

Rijiju told parliament last week that the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingya.

HRWs Ganguly said she was worried that Rijijus comments could encourage vigilante violence against the Rohingya community in India.

She also questioned the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.





India is aware of abuse risks

The UNHCRs India office said it has not received an official word about a plan to deport Rohingyas, and had not received any reports of deportations taking place.

It said the principle of non-refoulement  or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger  was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

OPINION: Myanmar needs to get serious about peace

India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan.

Rijiju, however, declined to comment on the deportation process.

We cant throw them out just like that, he said. We cant dump them in the Bay of Bengal.

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests.

Right-wing groups in Indian-administered Kashmir have also been running a campaign against the Rohingya refugees.

The rumblings began last year, when Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which runs a coalition government in Kashmir with the regional Peoples Democratic Party, began to raise the issue.
The murder of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni led the Italian government to recall its envoy in April 2016.

Italy said on Monday it would return its ambassador to Cairo more than a year after the murder of an Italian graduate student led the Rome government to recall its previous envoy.

Giulio Regeni was 28 years old when he vanished from the streets of Cairo in January 2016. His body was discovered in a ditch on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital on February 3, showing signs of extensive torture.

Italy recalled its ambassador in April 2016 as it sought to obtain evidence from Egypt to solve the murder.

READ MORE: Giulio Regeni murder: Its not yet the time to grieve

Magistrates in Rome and Cairo have met a half-dozen times over the past year, but no one has been charged.

The Italian governments commitment remains to clarify the tragic disappearance of Giulio, Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said in a statement.





Sending an authoritative liaison (ambassador) will help, through contacts with the Egyptian authorities, reinforce judicial cooperation and as a consequence the search for the truth, Alfano said.

Regeni, who had been looking into Egypts independent unions for his doctorate thesis at Cambridge, attracted the suspicion of the Cairo government before his disappearance, sources told Reuters last year.

Security and intelligence sources told Reuters that Regeni had been arrested in Cairo on January 25, 2016, and taken into custody. Egyptian officials have denied any involvement in Regenis death.

Regeni disappeared on a day Cairo police were on a tense watch for protests on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 popular uprising.

After his body was discovered, Egyptian authorities offered various explanations, including an assertion that Regeni had been hit by a vehicle. Later, they said he was a victim of a robbery.

An Italian autopsy showed that Regenis body was covered with cuts and his bones were broken, indicating he had been hit with fists, batons and hammers.

Regenis parents condemn the move

Regenis parents have strongly opposed Italy re-normalising relations, saying this would remove pressure on Egypt to hold someone accountable for the murder. After the announcement, Regenis mother and father condemned the move.

Only when we will have the truth about why and who killed Giulio, when we are given, alive, his torturers and all their accomplices, only then can the ambassador return to Cairo without trampling on our dignity, the family said in a statement, according to Ansa news agency.

Romes chief prosecutor said he spoke to his Egyptian counterpart earlier on Monday and the two agreed to meet again later this year after they recovered closed-circuit TV footage from the metro station near where Regeni had lived.

READ MORE: Giulio Regeni  Why Europe is bowing to Sisi

Both sides agreed that the investigative activity and collaboration will continue until the truth about all of the circumstances that led to the kidnapping and death of Giulio Regeni is discovered, Giuseppe Pignatone said in a statement.

The murder has strained ties between Italy and Egypt, traditional Mediterranean allies with strong economic ties.

Italians flock to Egypts beaches and ancient monuments every year, and in 2015 Italys state-owned oil giant Eni discovered the biggest natural gas field ever found off the Egyptian coast.

Alfano did not say exactly when Giampaolo Cantini, its new ambassador to Egypt, would return to Cairo.
UN food agencies say number of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance surged by 30 percent in a year in DRC.

About 7.7 million people are on the verge of starvation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a 30 percent increase since last year, according to UN food agencies.

The number of people on pre-famine levels of food insecurity and requiring urgent humanitarian assistance rose from 5.9 million to 7.7 million between June 2016 and June 2017, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday.





One in 10 people living in rural areas suffers from acute hunger, while chronic malnutrition affects 43 per cent of children under five years, the FAO report said.

Claude Jibidar, director of WFPs operations in DRC, said on Monday that the situation was especially dire in the diamond-rich central Kasai region where a revolt has been raging for the past year, with both government and fighters accused of atrocities.

Food security and nutrition  are deteriorating in many parts of DRC, but nowhere is the situation more alarming than in Kasai, he said.

According to the FAO report, farmers have been unable to plant their crops in Kasai for the past two seasons because of fighting that has seen their villages and fields pillaged.

An estimated 1.4 million people in Kasai and in the eastern province of Tanganyika had been forced to flee their homes this year, it said.

A steady flow of refugees from neighbouring countries and a spread of fall armyworm infestations are also putting a strain on resources, according to the report.

The situation is set to get worse if urgent support does not come in time, said Alexis Bonte, the FAOs representative in the DRC.

Farmers, especially those displaced  majority women and children  desperately need urgent food aid but also means to sustain themselves, such as tools and seeds so that they can resume farming.

Conflicts have displaced about 3.7 million people within the country, according to FAO.
Protesters converged around the US after a white supremacist rally spiralled into deadly violence in Charlottesville.

Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the United States on Sunday, saying they felt compelled to counteract the white supremacist rally that spiralled into deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A Moment of Unity was held in Charlottesville, giving citizens a chance to offer prayers and support for the victims. Bouquets were laid on the street where 32-year-old Heather Heyer died when she and other victims were mowed down as a car rammed a group of anti-racism and anti-fascist protesters.

The man suspected of driving the car, James Alex Fields Jr of Ohio, 20, was charged with second-degree murder and other crimes and is expected to appear in court on Monday.

Charlottesville attack: What, where and who?

Other gatherings spanned from a planned march to US President Donald Trumps home in New York to a candlelight vigil in Florida. In Seattle, police made arrests and confiscated weapons as Trump supporters and counter-protesters converged downtown.

Some focused on showing support for the people whom white supremacists condemn. Other demonstrations were pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments, the issue that initially prompted white supremacists to gather in anger this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Other gatherings aimed to denounce fascism and a presidential administration that organisers feel has let white supremacists feel empowered.





People need to wake up, recognise that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done, said Carl Dix, a leader of the Refuse Fascism group organising demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and other cities.

This cant be allowed to fester and to grow because weve seen what happened in the past when that was allowed.

It has to be confronted, said Dix, a New Yorker who spoke to The Associated Press news agency by phone from Charlottesville on Sunday afternoon. Hed gone there to witness and deplore the white supremacist rally on a Saturday that spiralled into bloodshed.

Charlottesville descended into violence on Saturday after neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacists gathered to take America back and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia college town, and hundreds of other people came to protest their rally. The groups clashed in street brawls, with hundreds of people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and beating each other with sticks and shields.

Later in the day, a car rammed into a peaceful crowd of anti-white supremacist protesters, killing a woman.

Charlottesvilles residents are struggling to come to terms with Saturdays violence, many leaving flowers and tributes at the scene of the car ramming.

I am thinking about the people in our community, the children who had to witness so much hatred, Charlottesville resident Rene Balfour told Al Jazeera.

I am also thinking about the people who came out to stand up against the hate, and I am thinking about the angry faces and hate I saw on so many people who came from out of town to spread hatred and anger. And its frightening, she added.

OPINION: Charlottesville is America everywhere

Al Jazeeras Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from Charlottesville, said that it seemed the vast majority of the far-right protesters had left the city by Sunday, and many residents were left questioning why the police were not able to control the violence.

The city wanted a peaceful protest, but hate got in the way. And now a street is turned into a memorial site, said Elizondo.

In addition to the car ramming, a state police helicopter monitoring the events crashed into the woods, killing two troopers. In all, dozens of people were injured. The cause of the crash is under investigation.





Organiser Jason Kessler, identified by civil rights groups as a white supremacist blogger, attempted to hold a press conference outside city hall in Charlottesville on Sunday but was quickly shouted down by counter-protesters. They then approached Kessler, who was whisked away by state police.

Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer, who attended the rally, denied all responsibility for the violence. He blamed the counter-protesters and police.

Trump condemned what he called an egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, a statement that Democrats and some of the presidents fellow Republicans saw as equivocating about who was to blame.

The White House later added that the condemnation includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

Some of the white nationalists at Saturdays rally cited Trumps victory, after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric, as a validation of their beliefs. Some of the people protesting on Sunday also point to the president and his campaign, saying they gave licence to racist hatred that built into what happened in Charlottesville.

For those who questioned whether oh, dont call it fascism  this should resolve those issues, Reiko Redmonde, an organiser of a Refuse Fascism protest planned in San Francisco, told AP by phone.

People need to get out in the streets to protest, in a determined way.

Protests across the US

In Seattle, hundreds of demonstrators and counterprotesters converged downtown. Police say they have made arrests and confiscated weapons. Police also ordered crowds at one downtown intersection to disperse.

Blocks away, a conservative pro-Trump group was rallying at Westlake Park downtown. The rally organised by the conservative pro-Trump group known as Patriot Prayer  and a counterprotest aimed at standing against hate  were previously planned for Sunday. Patriot Prayer has held similar events throughout the Pacific Northwest, and they have been met by counterprotests.

A barricade separated the groups of protesters as police officers stood by dressed in black riot gear. At one intersection, police ordered crowds to disperse.

The Seattle Times reported that officers used pepper spray on some marchers. It wasnt immediately clear how many people had been arrested.

In Denver, several hundred demonstrators gathered beneath a statue of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in City Park and marched about three kilometres to the state Capitol. In Fort Collins, Colorado, marchers chanted Everyone is welcome here. No hate, no fear. One demonstrators sign said, Make racists ashamed again.

Other protests were planned later in the day in other places, including candlelight vigils in Winter Haven, Florida, and near the New Hampshire Statehouse. Other demonstrations centred on Confederate statues on the state Capitol grounds in West Virginia and Tampa, Florida; officials in Tampa have voted to relocate theirs.
Buses carrying thousands of Syrian refugees and rebel fighters have begun leaving the Lebanese territory of Arsal for Syria, according to the Hezbollah-owned al-Manar TV station.

The evacuation on Monday is part of a deal between rebels and Hezbollah, which ensures the safe passage of refugees and the fighters themselves.

Previous deals have seen refugees head to rebel held territory but on Friday, the Lebanese security official overseeing the arrangements, General Abbas Ibrahim, said that a group of civilians would go to Assal al-Ward, an area just across the border from Arsal and held by the Syrian government.





The fighters and their families will go to another part of Syria which he did not identify. A military media unit run by Hezbollah last week said they would go to the rebel-held town of al-Ruhaiba in the Eastern Qalamoun region, the Reuters news agency reported.

Some 300 rebels from a group called Saraya Ahl al-Sham  which is loyal to the Free Syrian Army  as well as about 3,000 refugees are included in the deal that followed an assault by the Lebanese Shia group on rebel positions in Arsal, last month.

Hezbollah began its operation to retake parts of Arsal from Syrian rebels groups late in July with help from Syrian government warplanes.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group still holds an enclave straddling the border near the town of Arsal.

Hezbollah and the Lebanese army are set to launch an offensive to expel ISIL from the area, but no date has been set so far.

Nearly 1.5 million refugees have poured into Lebanon, and they now make up around a quarter of the countrys population. Most languish in severe poverty, and several thousand live in makeshift camps east of Arsal.

The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven at least 11 million from their homes  about half of Syrias prewar population.
Three attackers are shot dead at Turkish restaurant in the capital Ouagadougou, says communications minister.

An attack by gunmen on a Turkish restaurant that began late on Sunday left at least 18 people dead and eight wounded in the capital of Burkina Faso, a West African country that has seen a surge in violence by armed groups over the past few years.

The figure was released early on Monday by Burkina Fasos communications minister Remi Dandjinou.

Canadas Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland later said two Canadians were among the dead and French Foreign Affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said a French citizen was killed.

Lebanons interior ministry said three Lebananese died, including one who was also a Canadian national.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into early Monday.

Earlier, authorities and witnesses suggested that three assailants had been killed by security forces, but Dandjinou revised the figure down to two, and said the security operation has ended.

Security forces were at the scene with armoured vehicles, as shots were reported near an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou.

Police spokesman Guy Ye told AP that the target of the attack was a Turkish restaurant known as Aziz Istanbul.

Witnesses told AFP news agency that three armed men arrived in a 44 at around 9:30pm (21:00 GMT) and opened fire on customers seated outside the restaurant.

At least one of those killed was a Turkish national, according to Turkeys foreign ministry, and another person killed was French.

OPINION: Reviving Thomas Sankaras spirit

The French President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he described as a terrorist attack.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled armed groups.

A January 2016 attack at a cafe left 30 people dead.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the armed group known as Al Mourabitoun.

But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalised and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Fasos government.
Leaked emails show Mohammed bin Salman expressing desire to end conflict during talks with former US officials.

Saudi Arabias crown prince has told two former US officials that he wants out of the two-year war he started in Yemen, and that he is not against US rapprochement with Iran, according to leaked emails published by Middle East Eye.

The revelation sheds light on the thinking of Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the 31-year-old heir to the Saudi throne, also known as MBS.

The leaks pertain to discussions he held on the Middle East with Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, and Steven Hadley, who served as US national security adviser during George W Bushs presidency.

The conversation took place at least one month before Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, accusing it of trying to undermine their war in Yemen and for having friendly relations with Iran.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia seeks Iraqs help to mend ties with Iran

The details of the meeting between MBS and the former American officials were revealed in an email exchange between Indyk and Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAEs ambassador in Washington, DC.

The email exchange was obtained by the GlobalLeaks campaign group, according to Middle East Eye.

MBSs doubts about Decisive Storm further undermine the position of the Yemeni president in exile, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in whose name the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis and their allies was launched.

In one email, Otaiba and Indyk can be seen discussing the difference between the young MBS and the elder leadership of Saudi Arabia, with the former describing him as a pragmatic leader.

The emails also paint a picture of how Otaiba and the UAE leadership view the future Saudi Arabia.

Emirati imperialism

The emails further reveal conversations between Otaiba and Elliott Abrams, former Bush administration official and pro-Israel hawk, who describes the UAEs objectives in the region as the new hegemon and Emirati imperialism.

The conflict in Yemen has escalated dramatically since March 2015, when Saudi-led forces launched a military operation against the Iran-allied Houthi fighters.

Since the conflict began, more than 10,000 people have been killed, and millions have been driven from their homes.





The Saudi-led operation has been blamed for the spread of cholera in Yemen, where an estimated 500,000 have reportedly been afflicted.

In the exchange, Indyk was quoted as telling Otaiba that MBS made it quite clear to him and Hadley that he is OK with the US engaging Iran as long as it is co-ordinated [sic] in advance and the objectives are clear.

Indyk was contacted by Middle East Eye and presented with the substance of his email exchange with Otaiba. He refused to comment.

Otaiba did not reply to Middle East Eyes request for comment.

Hadley said: I cannot comment on what was a private conversation.

The revelations come a day after Qasim al-Araji, Iraqs interior minister, reportedly said that both Saudi Arabias King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and MBS had asked Baghdad to act as an intermediary and help mend relations between Riyadh and Tehran.

On July 30, MBS met Muqtada al-Sadr during the influential Iraqi Shia leaders rare visit to Saudi Arabia.

Separately, Sadr visited the UAE on Sunday and met Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of UAE, and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Sadrs diplomacy

Sadr, an anti-American figure, commands a large following among the urban poor of Baghdad and the southern cities, including Saraya al-Salam, or the Peace Brigades armed group.

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.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, Saad Jawad, a political science professor at the London School of Economics, termed the Saudi-Iraqi diplomatic moves odd.

If Saudi Arabia is [in a dispute] with Qatar about Qatars relationship with Iran  how could they ask the Iraqis to amend their relations with Iran?

The Saudis know very well that Iraq is a little bit biased in [its] relations with the Iranians, and they are under the influence of the Iranians.

Jawad said Saudi Arabia could have asked a more neutral broker such as Kuwait or Oman, both of whom have good relations with Iran.
Armed assailants killed seven people and injured seven others in an attack on UN peacekeeping headquarters in Timbuktu.

The United Nations says unidentified gunmen attacked the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu, killing seven people and injuring seven others.

The UN peacekeeping mission says six assailants also were killed by UN peacekeepers in the attack on Monday afternoon.

The mission says five Malian security guards and a Malian contractor working for the mission were killed along with a member of the Malian gendarmerie.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said earlier on Monday that unidentified gunmen attacked two neighbouring UN camps in Douentza in the Mopti region of central Mali, killing one Malian soldier and one UN peacekeeper. Two assailants also died in those attacks.

The mission, known as MINUSMA, said it dispatched a quick reaction force and attack helicopters to secure the Timbuktu headquarters

READ MORE: On the road with Nigers peacekeepers in Mali

I do not have enough words to condemn this cowardly and despicable act which takes place a few hours after the terrorist attack in Douentza, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, head of MINUSMA, said in a statement.

Antonio Guterres, UN secretary general, condemned the attack and stressed that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law, a spokesman said.

The peacekeeping mission in Mali is the deadliest of the UNs 16 global peacekeeping operations, and this was one of the worst losses of mission staff.

Following a 2012 military coup in the West African country, an armed rebellion took control of Malis north.

The conflict prompted French military intervention in January 2013 and the deployment of a 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping operation, known as MINUSMA, several months later.

Since the mission began, there have been at least 128 fatalities of MINUSMA staff.

Armed fighters killed three UN peacekeepers in an attack outside their base in Kidal in northern Mali in June.
US president signs presidential memo directing an investigation into Chinas alleged theft of US intellectual property.

US President Donald Trump has signed a presidential memorandum authorising an investigation into Chinas alleged theft of American intellectual property, declaring it one big move.

The order directs Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force US companies operating in China to turn over intellectual property in order to gain access to the worlds second-largest economy.

Ambassador Lighthizer you are empowered to consider all available options at your disposal, Trump said before he signed the memo on Monday.

This is just the beginning.

Trump had been expected to seek a so-called Section 301 investigation earlier this month, but an announcement was postponed as the White House sought help from China to curb North Koreas development of nuclear weapons.

OPINION: Manufacturing the China Dream

Although Trump constantly criticised Chinas trade practices on the campaign trail, his administration has not taken direct action against the country.

It declined to name China a currency manipulator and has delayed broader national security probes into imports of foreign steel and aluminium that could indirectly affect China.

Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said that Mondays move to investigate China was significant because it indicates Trumps disappointment with China and its perceived failure to use its leverage with North Korea.

As a result, now we see the president delivering on that campaign promise to target China, and those trade practices that he says are hurting the American worker, she said.





Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a popular trade tool in the 1980s that has rarely been used in the past decade, allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect US industries from unfair trade practices of foreign countries.

The investigation could take up to a year, according to administration officials, opening the door to a settlement before a possible investigation is launched.

Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett said that Trumps move was not getting the big headlines it would on any other day, coming in the middle of the fallout over violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia at the weekend.

Trump has come under criticism for his response to the violence, including his failure to swiftly condemn racism and white supremacy.

Given the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, that is what is dominating the conversation, our correspondent said.

While the president has tried to come out and perhaps even divert attention to a major campaign promise that he is delivering on, the fact of the matter is what people are really talking about right now is the division that exists in the US over race.

Chinese warning

China has given warning that both sides would lose out if Trump begins a trade war between the worlds two largest economies.

In an editorial on Monday, the state-run newspaper China Daily said the investigation would poison relations and warned the Trump administration not to make a rash decision it could regret.

READ MORE: Wukan  The end of a democratic uprising in China

Matthew Goodman, a senior adviser for Asian economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters news agency that Beijing would likely resist negotiating under the threat of trade sanctions but could be amenable to a backdoor deal.

Im sure they will formally reject this if an investigation is launched and there is an implication this is going to require negotiation to resolve it, Goodman said. But will they quietly be willing to talk about some of the underlying concerns?

Jonathan Fenby, an analyst at the TS Lombard consultancy, told Reuters that China was not interested in a short-term trade fix with the US and will resist attempts to tie it down.
US president says racism is evil in more forceful statement while man accused of car-ramming attack is denied bail.

US President Donald Trump has belatedly condemned as repugnant the white supremacist groups involved in the violence in the US city of Charlottesville, declaring that racism is evil.

Trump made an unannounced national address on Monday discussing the deadly weekend incident after he was criticised by both Republicans and Democrats for not being forceful enough in condemning racism.

Those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans, he said.

Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.

OPINION: Charlottesville is America everywhere

He also announced that the justice department had opened a civil rights investigation into the car-ramming incident that killed one woman and wounded dozens of others.

To anyone who acted criminally in this weekends racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered, he said.

Trump made the statement just hours after a judge in Charlottesville, Virginia, denied bail for the man accused of ploughing his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at the Charlottesville rally.

Judge Robert Downer said during a bail hearing on Monday that he would appoint a lawyer for James Alex Fields Jr. In the meantime, he has been ordered to stay in jail.

Fields, who appeared in court through closed-circuit television, is charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities said he drove into the crowd, killing a woman and injuring 19 others.

The judge said the public defenders office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturdays protest.

Downer said a local lawyer would be appointed to represent the 20-year-old suspect.

The next scheduled court hearing is on August 25, although Fields lawyer could request a bond hearing before then.

Al Jazeeras Heidi Zhou-Castro, reporting from Charlottesville, said security concerns prevented the suspect from appearing in person before the court.

Wearing a black and white striped uniform, Fields answered questions from the judge with simple responses of Yes, sir. when asked if he understood the judge.

READ MORE: Witnessing the monstrous attack in Charlottesville

He told the judge, No, sir. when asked if he had ties to the community of Charlottesville.

Fields allegedly slammed his car into the crowd of people protesting against the white nationalist rally on Saturday, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer, a resident of Charlottesville.

On Monday, Trump called Heyers death as tragic, while also paying tribute to two law-enforcement officers killed in an accident related to Saturdays rally.

These three fallen American embody the goodness and decency of our nation.

Fields, the suspect in Saturdays attack, was arrested shortly after and has been in custody ever since.

Fields had been photographed carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that organised the Take America back campaign in protest at the removal of a statue of a general who supported slavery in the US.

The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect, even as a separate hate group that organised Saturdays rally pledged on social media to organise future events that would be bigger than Charlottesville.





Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolised Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his deeply held, radical convictions on race, a former high school teacher said on Sunday.

He also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer, the teacher, said in an interview with AP news agency.

In high school, Fields was an average student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany said Weimer, who said he was Fields social studies teacher in his junior and senior years at Randall K Cooper High School in the US state of Kentucky.

Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy towards Nazism, that idolisation of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy, Weimer said.

It would start to creep out.

The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders of all political stripes, and activists and community organisers around the country planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups.
Is Kim Jong-un's level of rhetoric indicative of madness or a death wish? Though it is impossible to know the mind of such a protected figure, I would argue that his behavior is merely the reasonable result of lessons he has learned from past responses to his and his father's aggression, which makes the current situation far more complicated than it needed to be.

Part of the problem is that the world is still treating Kim as a man who is pushing his luck on bluffing and provocation. The truth is, the North Korean regime, including Jong-un's iteration of it, has been far beyond the bluffing and provocation stage for many years, but has breached that line so many times with impunity that they now feel almost impervious to retaliation.

Over the years, they have fired missiles directly over Japan. They have shelled an inhabited South Korean island, killing several people. They have torpedoed a South Korean navy ship, killing 46 seamen. In each case, apart from a brief exchange of fire when Yeonpyeong Island was attacked in 2010, the response from South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. has been little more than stern rhetoric and dire warnings, rather than serious military retaliation to demonstrate that under no circumstances will lethal attacks and overt violations of sovereign territory be treated as mere "provocations" or "escalations of tension." These allies have never taken decisive action to show the Dear Leaders Kim that an attack is an attack, and will be dealt with as such.

The result is what we see now. Kim Jong-un has been conditioned by past leniency -- by always getting away with it -- to regard his current behavior as safely within the bounds of flexing his muscles for his indoctrinated people, or of begging for attention from the North's stoic older brother, China.

He's acting like those idiots who get out of their cars at safari parks and dance around to tease the lions, imagining that those lions are so lazy and drugged up they could never really spring into action.

Or like a kid who shoots his mouth off in the schoolyard because he always assumes his older brother is nearby, ready to defend him against anyone who might try to shut him up.

However, he feels so sure of himself partly because these particular lions have never shown any serious signs of life before, and also because his older brother always has been standing nearby up to now.

What about this time? President Trump has somewhat carelessly moved his own "red line," now claiming that even an uttered threat from Kim will be met with military action. But such utterances are Kim's whole game, and everyone knows it. This either paints Trump into a corner in which he must now pull the trigger merely to avoid handing Kim yet another psychological and optics victory -- "Once again, they backed down in fear of our dear leader" -- or else it tips Trump's hand unnecessarily by revealing that a first strike is already planned. In either case, it was a sloppy move, it seems to me, and unhelpful, as it actually complicates the situation by effectively sweeping a lot of useful uncertainty and strategic options off the table.

If you want to interrupt Kim's breakfast, then do it -- don't suggestively ask, "Hey, Jong-un, what are you planning for breakfast tomorrow?"

And if you intend to do it, then take a long, hard look in the mirror and make sure your soul is prepared, and that your allies are prepared, for South Korean and possibly Japanese civilians to pay a terrible price -- and for Older Brother to get involved. You didn't expect him to get involved back in 1950. To belittle that possibility this time would be the heights of folly.

Whatever the Chinese say now, they will intervene at some point, as the DPRK is a geographical buffer against South Korean democracy that they will not willingly relinquish. They don't care about the Kim dynasty itself, but they do care about the territory and ideology. And they should be expected to defend these as they deem necessary. Anyone wishing to take action against North Korea must be prepared to deal with that eventuality, given the tendency of military engagements to spray off in unanticipated directions.

So Kim Jong-un may be somewhat delusional, but his delusions are born of historical precedent.

His enemies have shown absurd levels of forbearance in the face of outright aggression from his nation before, in effect responding to artillery fire as though it were only fiery rhetoric. They have emboldened him like adults whose response to a child's repeated violent outbursts is merely to say, "Now cut that out!" The lions have been consistently sleepy up to now.

And China really has played phoney arbiter in the DPRK's defense for ages, claiming, for example, that they would join the world in condemning their satellite state if evidence were to prove them responsible for sinking the ROK navy ship in 2010 -- but then conveniently rejecting the rest of the world's evidence as inconclusive.

The Chinese now claim they will not intervene in North Korea's defense if the latter initiates a war with the U.S. But, given their history, one would be wise to assume they would simply deny the North's culpability in almost any case -- a denial that would necessarily imply that the U.S. was the instigator, a condition in which the Chinese have suggested they would intervene in Kim's defense. In other words, barring an extreme act of carelessness by the Kim regime, it is almost certain that China will intervene on their behalf. The Older Brother is nearby, as usual.

Thus, there are no neat and clean military options here, and anyone who fantasizes that there are is still playing Cowboys and Indians in his imagination. This does not mean a military solution may not be required at some point. But the men who would choose and undertake that solution would have to be men of great moral gravity, nerves of steel, and principled statesmanship, a la Churchill or Reagan, who understand the full significance of what they may be leading the world into, are prepared in their souls to accept full responsibility for it, and are able to make the principled case to their citizens and allies for taking such an enormous risk.

Pray 'em if you got 'em.

Daren Jonescu lives in Korea and writes about politics, philosophy, education, and the decline of civilization at http://darenjonescu.com/.
The so-called Statue of Liberty is, properly, the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. The New Colossus, a sonnet scribbled by Emma Lazarus (18491887) in 1883, is one of the many horrors of high-school social studies classes. The gist of the sonnet is its advocacy of unlimited immigration to the United States.

Sonnet

1 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

2 With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

3 Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

4 A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

5 Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

6 Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

7 Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

8 The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

9 Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she

10 With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,

11 Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

12 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

13 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

14 I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Analysis

1 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

2 With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

The giant of Greek fame was the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue which stood at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes, the chief town on the Greek island of Rhodes. Helios, the sun god of Greek mythology, was represented.

The statue was erected around 280 b.C.e., and was destroyed, around 220 b.C.e., in an earthquake. What the statue looked like is unknown. The dimensions of the statue are unknown.

Why brazen? Why conquering?

Demetrios Poliorcetes, king of Macedon (337283 b.C.e.; ruled 294288 b.C.e.) besieged Rhodes in 305304 b.C.e., and was defeated. His army abandoned its siege machinery. In gratitude for the victory, Rhodes used the siege machinery to build an outsized statue of a triumphant  not brazen; not conquering  Helios.

With conquering limbs astride from land to land invokes fanciful medieval drawings which depicted the statue as standing with one leg on one side of the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes, and with the other leg on the other side of the entrance. The architectural banality of that posture and its engineering impossibility are obvious.

3 Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

The possessive adjective our does not have an antecedent.

There is no Atlantic Sea. New York Harbor includes Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay. At the eastern side of Lower New York Bay, between Rockaway, New York, and Sandy Hook, New Jersey, there is the connection of the harbor to the Atlantic Ocean.

Geography necessitates oceaned, not sea-washed.

The connection of the harbor to the Atlantic Ocean is the Rockaway Point - Sandy Hook transect.

The statue faces southeast. The Sun rises in the east.

Perhaps, in a sonnet, a transect can be equated to a gate. If so, the transect is a sunrise gate.

The metamorphosis of the single transect into gates (plural) is unexplained.

4 A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

5 Is the imprisoned lightning,

A definition of torch is a length of wood, one end of which is covered in tallow, and the other end of which is not. For illumination, the tallow is ignited, and the torch is carried.

The flame of a torch is free, not imprisoned.

Lightning is a high-voltage discharge which produces a short-life flash of light.

A torch provides long-life, not short-life, illumination, and continuous illumination, not a flash of light.

The flame of the torch of the mighty woman is the imprisoned lightning (emphasis added).

Lightning is generic. One bolt of lighting is indistinguishable from any other bolt. There is no way in which the lightning of the mighty womans torch is  the . . . lightning  (emphasis added).

5 and her name

6 Mother of Exiles.

One definition of exile is a person whose circumstance is forced residence in a foreign country.

Ovid was exiled to Tomis (in present-day Romania) in 8 C.e. Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302. Napoleon was exiled to Elba in 1814, and to Saint Helena in 1815.

An American citizen is in the United States, of right. When he is abroad for business or pleasure, he is not an exile. He undertook voluntary, not forced, residence in a foreign country. When his business is over, or when his vacation ends, he returns to the United States of right, and he resumes residence there.

An alien has no right to be in the United States, because he is an alien. His residence abroad, in the foreign country of which he is a citizen, is not, for him, residence in a foreign country, and it is not forced.

6 From her beacon-hand

7 Glows world-wide welcome;

Line 6 has her beacon-hand. In line 4, there is A mighty woman with a torch. The terms beacon and torch are not interchangeable. Beacon refers to the function of a bright illumination, and torch refers to an item used for illumination.

7 her mild eyes command

8 The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

What is an air bridge?

New York Harbor was not spanned by a bridge in the 1880s, and is not now spanned by a bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge, designed by John A. Roebling (18061869), was opened to traffic in 1883. It spans the East River, not New York Harbor.

1883 was the year in which Miss Lazarus scribbled her sonnet. She knew that New York Harbor was not bridged, and that the East River was bridged.

The so-called twin cities were the City of New York and the City of Brooklyn, both of which were in New York State. They did not frame New York Harbor. One side of New York Harbor is in New York, and the other side is in New Jersey.

In 1883, the City of New York was in New York County, on Manhattan Island; and in Westchester County (as it then was), through the annexation, in 1874, of three towns in Westchester County.

Also in 1883, the City of Brooklyn was in Kings County, on Long Island. Kings County included the City of Brooklyn, and five towns: Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Lots, and New Utrecht.

The East River was between Manhattan Island and Long Island. It was the East River which the City of New York and the City of Brooklyn framed.

The two cities were not twin cities. The southern part and the central part of the City of New York were urban. The City of Brooklyn was urban along its East River waterfront, which faced the southern part of the City of New York. Elsewhere, the City of Brooklyn was suburban. The five towns were rural.

9 Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she

10 With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,

11 Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

12 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

13 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

Line 9 has pomp. In lines 10-13, there are references to people of various lower classes and lowest classes.

Pomp and people are not contrasting terms. Pomp is splendid ceremony and people are human beings.

A workable contrast is the uppermost class (people) on the one hand, and the various lower classes and lowest classes (also people) on the other hand.

However, uppermost class cannot be used as a substitute for storied pomp. There are four syllables in uppermost class and three syllables in storied pomp.

Royalty is not a substitute storied pomp. In equal measure, nobility is not a substitute (aside from its four syllables).

The uppermost class consists of royalty and nobility. Each of royalty and nobility is a subset of uppermost class.

The deluded perception, in the sonnet, of Liberty Enlightening the World as a mighty woman (line 4), who offers world-wide welcome (line 7) to all tired persons, poor persons, huddled masses, wretched refuse, homeless persons, and tempest-tost persons (lines 10-13), makes clear that Miss Lazarus rejected the entire uppermost-class set, not only its royalty subset, alternatively, not only its nobility subset, as desirable immigrants.

Another failed substitute for storied pomp is blue-blood twits. The number of syllables in blue-blood twits (three) matches the number of syllables in storied pomp (three). It is unfortunate that twits is out of place in a late-nineteenth-century sonnet.

So, storied pomp has to go, but there is no substitute for it.

A traditional taking leave of an insoluble difficulty is, We look the problem straight in the eyes, and move on.

The preference of Miss Lazarus for your tired, your poor, et cetera, notwithstanding, the United States has no obligation to take in anyone, and certainly does not have an obligation to take in someone whose personal attributes (e.g., criminality; illness), culture, language, religion, or national traits indicate a less-than-90% chance of socialization as an American.

14 I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Line 14 has my lamp. In line 6, there is her beacon-hand. For line 4, it is A might woman with a torch. Does Liberty Enlightening the World hold a lamp, a beacon, or a torch?

Line 14 has the golden door. In line 3, there is sea-washed, sunset gates, which, as explained above, should be oceaned, sunrise gate. Is the entrance to the United States, in New York Harbor, delineated metaphorically by a door, or by a gate, or by gates?

Conclusion

Immigrants are to be admitted to the United States, if at all, pursuant to, and in accordance with, United States immigration law (Title 8 of the United States Code). Not in accordance with a sophomoric, sentimental product of the Progressive Era.
There was a time when America wasnt quite so evil; a time when very few people would boldly lie or sabotage someone elses work or destroy a career. Now it seems commonplacefrom the living room, to the boardroom, to the courtroom to the highest office in the land.

My particular story happened many years ago. My company had hired a new boss for my department about a year after I was hired. She worked in software development, but held a degree in psychology  which she used to psychoanalyze underlings and coworkers. On two occasions, boss lady called me into a conference room to tell me that my facial expressions revealed that I did not understand what was happening at our teams morning meetings. I thought she was a complete loon, but spent the remainder of my career there distracted by consciously employing eyebrow-arching, affirmative looks, chin-rubbing and nodding in agreement.

I was already walking a thin line trying to keep my boss entertained  trying to bond with her or act the part of medieval minstrel or court jester so she wouldnt fire me on a whim.

Even that backfired. She called me into the conference room to tell me, in her Freudian manner, that she perceived I was working too hard to get people to like me. I yearned to tell her that I spent most of my time trying not to tick her off so she wouldnt fire me in fit of misguided psychoanalysis; but I didnt. I took the petty, acrimonious speech on the chin like Id taken all the others. Nearly six years passed this way, and though I had wonderful reviews from my colleagues and accompanying pay raises, boss lady was gnawing on my last nerve. I held out hope that the imminent hiring of a new person in our small group would distract her from making me the scapegoat for her psychobabble venting.

She finally hired a new girl. She seemed friendly enough, but dressed oddly and confided strange things in me. From the beginning, she seemed to purposely work late when I did in order to tell me disturbing personal information  always unsolicited -- which made me uncomfortable. She had dated an indigenous Canadian man whom she claimed had hit and verbally abused her. She said she didnt feel pretty anymore. She needed therapy and I didnt know what to do. I assured her -- in an older sister kind of way -- that she was a beautiful young woman who should have more confidence in herself. I tried to wrap up the mostly one-sided conversations as diplomatically as possible. No one else knew of the troubled tales she was telling me, and I was hesitant to tell anyone due to the personal nature of what she was sharing. Things went along like this for a while -- until boss ladys husband got cancer.

Boss lady was gone most of the time for nearly a year. When she did come to work she was (understandably) hard to get along with  either crying or angry or experiencing some roller-coaster emotion. I began to resent her for being abusive toward me when she did come in. For an entire year, my work life was in crisis because hers was in crisis. This affected my home life as well. I was worn out, working extra hours with no pay because I thought it was the right thing to do. Who is so low to complain about extra work when someone else has a family member dying of cancer? I was verbally commended by family and coworkers for my work ethic and lack of complaining. I was, however, on a collision course with the new girl who was angling for more power and saw me as a threat.

The new girl, it turned out, was Wiccan. She had begun an affair with a guy in the IT department, and theyd married in a circle of humans, rocks, incense and various other oddities in the middle of a forest. The bride wore a heavy dark velvet dress on a hot summer day. When she told everyone they wanted a private ceremony -- nobody questioned why she hadnt invited anyone from work. My coworkers never figured out she was Wiccan and thought the marriage ceremony was a back to nature kind of thing.

Eventually I became Wiccan girls target of hate. The Bible on my desk, Bible verses pinned to my cubicle, the cross I wore; they irritated Wiccan girl to no end, though Id never proselytized to her. With boss lady largely out of the way, Wiccan girls loathing of me continued unchecked.

Thats when I stumbled across a shocking truth: If someone is truly a bad seed and truly wants to sabotage your worktheres likely no way to stop them. Spreadsheets were changed, burned PROMs were damaged, tapes were tampered with, and my fate was sealed.

When boss lady returned after the death of her husband, Wiccan girl took advantage of her vulnerability to become her dearest friend -- a shoulder to cry on. They became thick as thieves, and it proved a deadly duo for me. Eventually Wiccan girl became Salome to boss ladys Herod Antipas. When Wiccan girl told boss lady, Bring me the head of John the Baptist, it was me who was about to have her head on a platter.

Before I knew it I was being hauled into Human Resources and questioned about why I couldnt get along with Wiccan girl. I wanted to scream. Wiccan girl was on a lynch the Christian vendetta and had the full backing of boss lady -- who was already tired of her self-induced burden of psychoanalyzing how many times I blinked.

Whats important about this whole story is what came next. It wasnt reality; it was all about perception. Wiccan girl was always around corners, whispering to my coworkers. They began to see me as a problem, though in what way Ill never know. I was urged to be nicer, to treat Wiccan girl differently, to work harder and be a better person. I became part of a play I hadnt even auditioned for; I was being forced to resolve a problem I didnt have. Someone was hell-bent on destroying me and I kept being told the problem was me!

It was, until the death of my father, the worst time of my life. I regularly vomited before work each morning.

Eventually the company put me on a three month notice to be a better team player with Wiccan girl or I would be fired. There was nothing to do. I had done nothing wrong so there was nothing to improve. I spent every free minute in the bathroom with my Bible, begging God to intercede on my behalf.

I will never understand why it had to happen, but when I was finally fired it was a gut-wrenching relief. I was never given a clear reason. My mother assured me that someday I would find out what happened. It was the only time in my life she would be wrong. I never found out what lies were whispered about me; what grievances were launched against me. I had even feared for my physical safety; my view of the workplace would never be the same.

I learned something important however, and that was that if someone really wants to destroy you, they can drag you into a pit where everything is only about you and them.

Its a form of bullying and were watching it happen to the president of the United States. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un makes his demands, his threatsbut President Trump is the one blamed for stirring up trouble. NPR and other liberal news outlets keep assuring people that despite the U.S. presidents threats, we might be able to avoid nuclear war. The casual listener might think Trump was threatening to nuke Kansas.

Its Trump who is seen as the aggressor; Trump who doesnt type the right tweets; Trump being forced to run defense because an evil, crazy man has threatened to destroy everyone around him. Its Trump who is escalating the rhetoric when poor Kim Jong Un hasnt even taken part in these exchanges.

Sure its a bit of a stretch to compare my experiences to the leader of the free world, but one has to wonder  just like with boss lady and Wiccan girl -- how far will the regressive left go with their lies and bullying? I never thought I would see the day when it could happen on such a large scale...the world stage.

As the president tries to govern, Kim Jong Un keeps trying to pull Trump into a pit where everything is only about North Korea. Meanwhile, liberals are salivating for the president to make one wrong move. (I remember what that feels like too.)

One almost wonders if Kim Jong Un is being bankrolled by Organizing for Action. I never discovered all of the dark forces behind my abusive work experience. I can only pray that our president can rout out the dark forces trying to distract and destroy him before its too late.

Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com
On the protest in Charlottesville this past weekend, Pajama Medias Roger Simon, a self-described Jewish fella, put it well:

[T]he types who surfaced in Charlottesville on Saturday are certainly human beings of the most repellent and disgusting sort, murderous too -- pretty much violent, evil sociopaths. I wouldnt mind if they were all rounded up, put in a space ship, and sent on a one-way trip to Alpha Centauri.

Offering some perspective, Mr. Simon continues,

[F]or the sake of argument, let's say there are as many as 100,000 white supremacists in America today. (This is undoubtedly a vast exaggeration, but let's use it, as I said, for the sake of argument.) Meanwhile, since the 1920s, our population has more than tripled to some 325 million. Using the figure of 100,000 white supremacists (not many of whom made it to Charlottesville fortunately), this puts the percentage of white supremacists in the U.S. at a puny 0.03%. Terrible people, yes, but no epidemic by any stretch of the imagination More to the point, are there more of these white supremacists than members of the equally violent and disgusting Antifa movement? Again statistics are hard to come by. (Both sides like to wear masks.) But I tend to doubt it. If anything, Antifa has been far more active, until Saturday. Obviously, none of this is to exonerate in the slightest the human excrement that descended on Charlottesville. It's just to put them in perspective.

I hope that President Trump has more to say on this matter, but then again, U.S. Presidents have often disappointed when it comes to matters involving the hate-filled violence and rhetoric of a small number of their supporters. Take the last President, for example. Whether Ferguson, Missouri (more than once), Baltimore, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Dallas, Oakland, and so on, time and again, President Obama refused to condemn the violent racists of Black Lives Matter (BLM). On the contrary, Obama and the Democrat Party regularly encouraged the perverse cause of BLM and gave them political cover.

In spite of their regular use of violence, destruction, and racist rhetoric, in August of 2015, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution affirming BLM. In July of 2016, at the funeral of five Dallas police officers murdered by a BLM-inspired racist, President Obama continued to defend the BLM movement. After the Dallas shootings, law enforcement leaders accused President Obama of helping to encourage a war on cops. Politico reported,

I think [the Obama administration] continued appeasements at the federal level with the Department of Justice, their appeasement of violent criminals, their refusal to condemn movements like Black Lives Matter, actively calling for the death of police officers, that type of thing, all the while blaming police for the problems in this country has led directly to the climate that has made Dallas possible, William Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said in an interview with Fox on Friday morning.

Additionally, BLM has long made it clear what they were all about. As Katie Pavlich noted in 2015,

It's time to expose the Black Lives Matter [BLM] movement for what it is: a racist, violent hate group that promotes the execution of police officers. The evidence is in their rhetoric and written on their shirts.

Miss Pavlich goes on to chronicle how BLM has elevated individuals like Assata Shakur, otherwise known as Joanne Chesimard, who shot and killed a New Jersey State Trooper back in 1973. Last year National Reviews David French highlighted a sickening essay by BLM that expressed support and admiration for -- in addition to Fidel Castro -- Michael Finney, Ralph Goodwin, Charles Hill, and Huey Newton. All were cop killers.

French rightly asks, How many despots and murderers must Black Lives Matter praise before its consigned to the fringe of American life? How many riots and murders must it incite -- often through lies and hoaxes? Not yet enough, it seems.

In spite of all of this, a single incident by White Nationalists in Virginia -- with not a hint of support from President Trump or his administration -- and all of a sudden the Charlottesville racists are Trumps people. Of course, eager to paint anyone on the right as a racist, describing the Virginia fools as Trumps people has been a regular refrain from pundits on the left. In spite of all of the evidence linking Obama, the democrats, and BLM, as far as I can recall, the liberal mainstream media never sought to label black racists as Obamas people.

This should surprise no one, and I expect the double standard in this matter (and many others) to continue. Instead of proving Trump a racist, more than anything else, the events in Charlottesville again reveal the depths of corruption of the left-wing media.

Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.

www.trevorgrantthomas.com

Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America

tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com
Both protesters and the press are commenting on what appeared to be a failure of the Charlottesville police to adequately respond to the violence in Emancipation Park that left 14 white racists and counter-demonstrators injured.

Charlottesville authorities dispute that claim.

Guardian:

"Law Enforcement did respond to and break up various fights in and around Emancipation Park prior to the unlawful assembly declaration," Al Thomas, Charlottesville's police chief, said in statement on Sunday. Thomas claimed that "once the unlawful assembly was declared, we gave people sufficient opportunity to disperse. When circumstances warranted, our officers moved back into the park to address those who had not complied." His comments were backed by Michael Signer, Charlottesville's mayor who rejected claims on CBS's Face the Nation that the police response had been ineffective. Signer said: "That's totally mistaken ... We had the single largest assembly of law enforcement officers since 9/11, almost 1,000 law enforcement personnel," he added. "I regret that that happened. But we had ... a very strong security plan in place with a lot of folks, to allow people to express their ... views."

But videos show several violent melees taking place between the two sides as Charlottesville police stood passively by. In this Washington Post video, police are nowhere to be seen.

Some experts dispute the claim that police were on top of the situation.

Washington Post:

"The worst part is that people got hurt, and the police stood by and didn't do a g------- thing," David Copper, 70, of Staunton, Va., said after an initial morning melee at a park that went unchecked by police for several minutes. Fourteen people were injured in clashes, and 19 others were hurt in the car crash. Later, two Virginia State Police troopers died when their helicopter smashed into trees at the edge of town and burst into flames. The loss of the police officers only compounded the calamity on a day that pushed police, city officials and residents to their limits. Cable news replayed a seemingly endless loop of the early violence at Emancipation Park, which police in riot gear had surrounded on three sides, although they seemed to watch as groups beat each other with sticks and bludgeoned one another with shields. Many on both sides came dressed for battle, with helmets and chemical irritants. At one point, police appeared to retreat and then watch the beatings before eventually moving in to end the free-for-all, make arrests and tend to the injured. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) declared a state of emergency about 11 a.m. and activated the Virginia National Guard. "The whole point is to have overwhelming force so that people don't get the idea they can do these kinds of things and get away with it," said Charles H. Ramsey, who headed both the District and Philadelphia police departments. Demonstrators and counterdemonstrators "need to be in sight and sound of each other, but somebody has to be in between," he said. "That's usually the police." Complicating the dynamics was the fact that several dozen groups of armed militias  men in full camouflage toting assault-style weapons  were in the middle of the crowds. Some claimed that they were there to keep the peace, although none appeared to try to stop the skirmishes.

That last statement isn't true. ProPublica reports that a New York state militia, armed with assault rifles, tried to break up some fights.

The police did little to stop the bloodshed. Several times, a group of assault-rifle-toting militia members from New York State, wearing body armor and desert camo, played a more active role in breaking up fights.

One assault on counter-protesters appeared planned, and the police did not interfere:

There was nothing haphazard about the violence that erupted today in this bucolic town in Virginia's heartland. At about 10 a.m. today, at one of countless such confrontations, an angry mob of white supremacists formed a battle line across from a group of counter-protesters, many of them older and gray-haired, who had gathered near a church parking lot. On command from their leader, the young men charged and pummeled their ideological foes with abandon. One woman was hurled to the pavement, and the blood from her bruised head was instantly visible. Standing nearby, an assortment of Virginia State Police troopers and Charlottesville police wearing protective gear watched silently from behind an array of metal barricades  and did nothing. It was a scene that played out over and over in Charlottesville as law enforcement confronted the largest public gathering of white supremacists in decades. We walked the streets beginning in the early morning hours and repeatedly witnessed instances in which authorities took a largely laissez faire approach, allowing white supremacists and counter-protesters to physically battle.

It's hard to criticize police in any instance where a riot breaks out. This is especially true when officers have not been trained in how to break up violent street demonstrations, as the Charlottesville police apparently weren't.

But surely the violence came as no surprise to local and state authorities. That the authorities were not prepared or too timid to use the police to keep the peace cost the city dearly.
Did French President Emmanuel Macron "astroturf" his way to power?

Members of Macron's own party are alleging that the French president duped his own supporters while paying people to show up at his rallies.

His party, En Marche, is a "giant swindle," according to one supporter.

Daily Express:

EMMANUEL MACRON duped supporters to get to the top and his En Marche! movement will fail to live up to expectations, his own party members have blasted. The damning verdict will come as a blow to the French President whose reputation has been left battered after poll results revealed his popularity has plunged after just 100 days in office. President Emmanuel Macron promised to reform labour laws in the lead up to his election victory as he planned to kick start the revitalisation of the French economy. But members of the En Marche! party say it was a giant swindle and claimed people were even paid to take part in rallies supporting President Macron. Tiphaine Beaulieu, a French teacher who joined the party earlier this year, said: In the eyes of activists and elected officials who support them, En Marche is starting to look like a masquerade, a giant swindle based on praiseworthy values that only serve marketing purposes. She told politics news site Politico.co.uk supporters were duped by a startup culture. The French president's honeymoon is over as his centrist leaning administration attempts to steer through a series of unfortunate gaffes and stumbling blocks that have damaged his reputation and called his credibility into question. It is believed policy mistakes and communications blunders will be placed under review as he seeks to regain his popularity in France. Warning of tough times ahead for the 39-year-old president, Ms Beaulieu added: A lot of local elected officials are not going to want to work with En Marche for the senatorial and municipal elections. Ahead of his stunning election victory, Ms Beaulieu claimed Macrons movement abandoned democratic processes for nominating candidates, disbanded internal committees without warning and blacklisted rebellion members by deactivating their accounts. An official for President Macron strongly denied the claims, saying: Were not sure whats really motivating her here. A spokesman defended En Marche! movement, adding: After a campaign, there is always a period of reckoning.

Macron appears to be turning out to be the Obama of France. Obama's soothing, uplifting rhetoric during the campaign did not match his radical agenda once he got into office. This kind of bait and switch is what Macron has been doing.

Macron doesn't appear to have much of an agenda at all  at least, one that's achievable. His labor reforms have already met with stiff opposition from government workers, and he still has no idea how he's going to trim 4 billion euros to meet E.U. target deficits. He cut 900 million euros from the defense budget, angering the military and defense industries. And it doesn't appear that members of his party are all on the same page.

The French president's approval rating is at a dismal 36%, lower than his predecessor's rating at the same point in his term. Former president Hollande also ran into difficulties trying to reform the socialist labor laws that have led to a stubborn 10% unemployment rate. Macron doesn't look as though he's going to have any more luck with the workers than Hollande had, which will almost certainly drive his approval numbers lower.
There was plenty of reason to get the creeps from a new report from the Miami Herald suggesting that Venezuela's Chavista thugs are targeting Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for a death-squad hit. According to the Herald:

One of Venezuela's most powerful leaders may have put out an order to kill Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a fervent critic of the South American country's government, according to intelligence obtained by the U.S. last month. Though federal authorities couldn't be sure at the time if the uncorroborated threat was real, they took it seriously enough that Rubio has been guarded by a security detail for several weeks in both Washington and Miami. Believed to be behind the order: Diosdado Cabello, the influential former military chief and lawmaker from the ruling socialist party who has publicly feuded with Rubio.

My top Venezuelan source doesn't think it's true, sending me the message:

Diosdado is a thug BUT not the most stupid of thugs. Doubt this story very very much.

After all, an assassination of a U.S. senator would almost certainly guarantee a U.S. invasion of that communist hellhole run by Cuba. And President Trump brought up that distinct possibility last week. All the same, absent any new information, I am going to disagree.

Marco Rubio, as I have noted several times at American Thinker, has done a bang-up job hitting Chavista elites where it hurts. He and his associates have targeted Chavista money through sanctions and shut down their access to trips to Disney World through pulled visas. The Chavistas, for all their hatred of America and its currency, have screamed bloody murder at losing this particular rice bowl. Diosdado Cabello, the Venezuelan official behind the supposed threat, is probably the most corrupt of all of them, outside Maduro himself and the surviving family of the late Hugo Chavez. The hand of Rubio has been obvious in all of President Trump's moves to shut down the Chavista gravy train in the states. Rubio himself has stood by Trump's side as Trump has met with top dissidents such as Liliana Lopez, the wife of imprisoned dissident opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, sending a message to Caracas.

The Herald also reports that Rubio has drawn extra security. The Capitol Police and other police agencies have sent extra security detail in the wake of the threat, reported by U.S. intelligence to protect Rubio from the Chavista thugs in this age of violence on dissent. After all, a U.S. member of Congress has already been targeted for assassination by a crazed lunatic. Such lowerings of the bar give Chavistas ideas.

Third, the Chavistas have gone way over the line already overseas. Back in 2014, Chavista thugs broke into the apartment of Venezuelan dissident Alek Boyd and left threatening notes to him and his family. They also engaged in a smear campaign to discredit him and sent him a horrible letter postmarked from Tbilisi, Georgia. It was freakish and creepy stuff, and it was likely related to his attempt to expose the corruption of Derwick Associates, which he alleges handed bribes to Cabello and which hired Fusion GPS to do "opposition research." The point here is that they have already slid deep into the realm of the sub-legal and illegal overseas. What's an attack on Rubio after such practice? Read Boyd's disturbing account of the matter here.

That brings up the big question mark: who is Diosdado Cabello?

Wikipedia has a decent summary of the Chavista socialist leader's history, and it's not attractive. I will sum up the salient points:

When we say "Chavista thug," the name "Diosdado Cabello" easily comes to mind. He's an early associate of Chavez, who drove tanks in support of Chavez during his 1992 military coup d'etat attempt, something that got him thrown into prison for a couple of years alongside Chavez, although he escaped charges.

He's held every major job it's possible to hold in the Chavista empire, from governor to vice president to Assembly speaker to running the electricity company and much more. Each stepping stone was an opportunity to line his pockets. He's also a drug dealer who has been sanctioned for his role in the drug trade; reputedly, he's the chief of the Sun Cartel of Venezuelan generals who run drugs in the country. He's corrupt beyond belief, with the CIA calling him one of the worst ones.

He's also a sleazy practitioner of bugging political opponents and playing his tapes (no doubt provided by the Cubans) on his state television show, called the "sledgehammer."

He presided over the National Assembly when opposition lawmakers were literally beaten.

He was the founder of the Bolivarian Circles, which have since degenerated into the "Colectivos"  the filthy street thugs on motorcycles who randomly shoot into opposition rallies.

That's who he is.

Did he order a hit on Rubio? Based on what we know, and based on this being the Gotterdammerung of the Chavista regime, the threat is believable. Cornered rats sometimes take desperate acts, and Cabello is a cornered rat.

The implications of this, if true, are serious. It would be interference with our democracy unlike any other. It would be perfectly good grounds for an invasion as well, but we all know how dictatorships since the Obama years have operated reasonably confidently in the belief that they can get away with anything. In that case, it may well be that the threat is real. If the CIA has more information on this, this is a case for making it public so America can operate with as free a hand as is needed under these dire circumstances.
President Trump clearly condemned all hate groups, including the white supremacist groups in Virginia, as he should have, but that wasn't good enough for the media, Democrats, and many Republicans. The race card has again been pulled out, as it always is, to imply that somehow Trump is a racist.

It reminds me of what Democrats, via the NAACP, did to George W. Bush right before the 2000 election. They put out an ad that was meant to show that Bush somehow supported or was sympathetic to lynching because he didn't support hate crime legislation. John M. Broder described it in the New York Times:

The N.A.A.C.P. began a $2 million advertising campaign last week featuring Renee Mullins, the daughter of James Byrd Jr. of Texas, who was chained to a truck and dragged to his death in 1998. This television commercial briefly recounts the story of his killing and urges viewers to vote on Nov. 7. An earlier advertisement asked viewers to call Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and demand that he support hate crimes legislation. The 30-second advertisements are being shown in 10 contested states with large numbers of African-American residents. PRODUCER  Carol Williams Agency ON THE SCREEN  The spot combines colorful abstract backgrounds with stark lettering echoing the narration by Ms. Mullins. The letters change in size and location like an MTV video. The final message, over the logo of the N.A.A.C.P. National Voter Fund, is ''Vote on November 7.'' THE SCRIPT  ''On June 7 1998, James Byrd Jr. was beaten, chained and then dragged behind a pickup truck three miles to his death simply because he was black. Even after such a brutal act as this, hate crimes legislation in many states still remains nonexistent. I'm Renee Mullins. James Byrd was my father. On Nov. 7, let it be known we will not be dragged away from our future. Vote on Nov. 7. Please.'' ACCURACY  The advertisement's appeal is emotional, recalling the killing of Mr. Byrd. But it subtly reminds viewers that Governor Bush did not support Texas legislation that would have imposed stiffer sentences for people convicted of crimes motivated by sexual, racial or religious bias. Mr. Bush has said that Texas law already imposes harsh sentences for violent crimes.

What happened in Charlottesville is terrible, and we need to get to the bottom of how it happened and what happened. But take all the media tricks designed to impugn President Trump as a Nazi as more fake news.
In the written Chinese language, the ideogram character for "crisis" is made up of two Chinese words that are "danger" and "opportunity." When dealing with Asian counties, it is wise to remember that small but important detail to gain insight into the thought processes of the leadership.

The current escalating crisis surrounding Kim Jong-un and his attempt to extort from the international community a carte blanche to build a stockpile of nuclear warheads and develop the missile technology to deliver them actually provides for a good opportunity to re-examine our own nuclear policy.

Many years ago, during the Cold War, we developed a nuclear policy of Mutual Assured Destruction or MAD. This policy was essentially the same policy that two scorpions in a bottle will agree to in order to survive. The USA and the USSR were exactly that: two deadly adversaries facing off with no avenue of escape, and so an arms race ensued, and ultimately, the USA outspent the Soviets, and the latter collapsed under the weight of the guns versus butter equation.

We were magnanimous in our victory and signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). In that treaty, we agreed to do away with the neutron warhead and Advanced Cruise Missile technology along with the Peacekeeper missile, which could carry ten warheads; the list goes on.

We did not agree to stop developing the Strategic Defense Imitative (SDI) or, as the media called it, "Star Wars." The SDI plan involved multiple facets of anti-missile technology, from space-based and airborne directed energy weapons to anti-missile missiles like the Patriot missile and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. The criticisms against SDI were that it was destabilizing or that it could be overwhelmed by a massive missile launch. But it turns out that it is not destabilizing, and this technology is perfect for preventing small rough nations from threatening the interests of the USA.

Now we find ourselves in a scenario that has been "war-gamed" numerous times by our strategic planners. Although these scenarios have multiple and flexible options, war-game scenarios always involve war.

In these war-game scenarios, either our adversaries back down, as in the Cuban Missile Crisis, or things escalate to bloody conflict. But this is not a binary equation; there is, as the teachers of Taoist philosophy would say, a third way.

There are two other players who do indeed have a stake in this very dangerous game. China and Russia have vested interests in the stability of the Korean Peninsula. Both China and Russia share a border with North Korea, and neither wants to deal with a refugee problem of millions of people should armed conflict begin. So what is the third way?

The third way is that if China and Russia continue their policies of tacit encouragement of the little fat man in North Korea, then the USA should pull out of the START and begin strongly advocating for a nuclear-armed Japan and provide technical assistance to that end. Russia does not want another arms race; it simply cannot afford it. China does not want a nuclear-armed Japan.

The lessons from the Cold War are that an arms race can deliver peace without conflict. If the Russians and the Chinese agree to become involved to de-escalate the crisis, then we win, and stability returns to the world stage. If they do not pressure North Korea to end this madness, then we will win via an arms race.
Bill Baxley shames Trump: Alabama Attorney General tells the KKK to kiss my ass

President Donald Trumps reaction to the death of Heather Heyer, 32, was lamentable, and to his many detractors illuminating. Heather Heyer, 32, from Charlottesville, was killed as Nazis, the KKK and other white supremacists clashed with counter-protestors in the city. Heyer was allegedly mowed down by a car driven by James Alex Fields Jr, 20, who has been charged with her murder. Nineteen other people were injured, some seriously, as the vehicle ploughed into anti-fascists.

Trump blamed many sides for the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence in Charlottesville. Its been going on for a long time in our country, said Trump. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.

Trump did not condemn what was obviously a fascist gathering. Its easy  and right  to bash Trump over his reluctance to call out racists. (Its less simple to bash the liberal society which has wallowed in identity politics for so long, encouraging everyone to view life through the prism of racial and gender identity.)

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who ran against Mr Trump for the partys presidential nomination, winces. He reasons that Trump missed an opportunity to be very explicit here These groups seem to think they have a friend in Donald Trump. Hes not wrong. David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, chimes: Were going to fulfil the promises of Donald Trump [to] take our country back.

As Trump forgets to mention white supremacists at the white supremacists rally  whoops!  we hark back to one man who never forgot.

Trumps no Bill Baxley.

On February 28 1976, Bill Baxley (born June 27, 1941), Attorney General of Alabama (1971  1979), replied to a letter from white supremacist Edward R. Fields  founder of the National States Rights Party and Grand Dragon of the New Order Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1971 Baxley had ordered the law to look again at the bombing of 16th Street Church  on Sunday September 15 1963 at 10:22 am four African-American girls (Addie Mae Collins, 14, Carol Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14) were murdered in a racially motivated attack. In 1968, the FBI had closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry. The files were sealed by order of J. Edgar Hoover. Baxley had been a student at the University of Alabama when he heard about the bombing in 1963, and in 1977 recollected: I wanted to do something, but I didnt know what. When Baxley took office he wrote the names of those girls on a small telephone calling card. In 2014, he told NPR why: I want to be reminded that before my term was over, I wanted to try to solve that case and do something about the people who killed the little girls. It took us a couple of years to really get on the trail of the right people. And when we finally got on the right group  Robert Chambliss and his group. He was the ringleader. He was responsible for 30 or 40 bombings over a two or three-decade period in Birmingham. His nickname was Dynamite Bob and he was very proud of it. So then around about 76, it got public that we were for the first time looking at that case and making some real progress. Thats when Edward R. Fields put pen to paper. Well, I took it as a threat, said Baxley. He called me a traitor to my race and how dare I prosecute or investigate these white Christian patriots and blah, blah, blah, blah. And so they demanded a response. So I sat down and wrote them a response.

In 1977, Robert Chambliss was tried and convicted of the first degree murder of Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 and 2002 respectively, whereas Herman Cash, who died in 1994, was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing.

PS: Where were the police? An eyewitness recalls:

There was no police presence. We were watching people punch each other; people were bleeding all the while police were inside of barricades at the park watching Ive seen how the police have managed crowds here in Madison, Wisconsin  huge rallies with opposing sides. Id like to know how the police in Virginia could be so impotent. Are they so afraid of being accused of doing something wrong that they protect themselves by doing nothing?

Spotter: Flashbak

Anorak

Posted: 14th, August 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Rome, August 14 - A 22-year-old Italian man died in a fight in a Spanish disco at the weekend.

Niccolo Ciatti from Scandicci near Florence was allegedly attacked by three Russian men who are now under investigation on suspicion of murder.

The incident took place in the Costa Brava resort of Lloret de Mar.

A video of the fight is being examined by police, sources said Monday.

The three Russians are said to be from Chechnya.

The fatal blow is believed to have been a drop kick to the head.

"He was my gentle giant," said Ciatti's girlfriend Ilaria on Instagram.

"For me Niccolo was like oxygen, and without him I feel I'm choking. He gave me his soul. Not the heart, or love: a whole lot more. Everyone must know how much we loved each other. Know what he meant to me and I to him".

His father, Luigi, said "my son was killed by beasts".

"He was killed like a bag of potatoes, I can't even say like a dog because not even a dog deserves to die like that," said Luigi Ciatti.

"And they all just stood by and watched it happen," he said.

Scandicci Mayor Sandro Fallani said the government was following the case.


(ANSA) - Moscow, August 14 - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia believes that all mediation efforts for a solution to the conflict in Libya must be under the UN and "contribute to dialogue" within the country. The comment was made during a meeting with Libya army commander Khalifa Haftar, reports Interfax. 'It is very important now to concentrate all mediation ideas under the UN, in a political sense," Lavrov said. "To this end, we believe that these activities must not be finalized towards the development of political prescriptions and that they should instead contribute to creating more favorable conditions for dialogue between the key figures in Libya so that they can negotiate the future of their country." Haftar, who controls Libya's eastern coastal region of Cyrenaica, said that "we are counting on continuing even in the future the fight against terrorist groups until the Libyan national army has control over all the Libyan territory in order to ensure stability and security." In recent days, Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni has called for a strong initiative by the UN for Libya stability.


(di Mohammed Ben Hussein)

AMMAN - Jordan said Sunday it will not tolerate the presence of Shiite militia on its borders, just days after pro-Iran militias took a stretch of land near the country's borders.



During a press conference late Sunday, government spokesman Mohammad al Moumani said having the militia on its borders was "unacceptable and rejected".



"We consider this a strategic threat. We will take measures necessary to ensure the stability and security of our borders," said Moumani.



The Jordanian official also hinted that the US and Israel, strong allies of the kingdom, would not accept the presence of these groups near the kingdom's northern border, but fell short of directly naming Washington and Tel Aviv.



Rebel sources told ANSA that Jordan-backed rebels evacuated about 30 km of border land with Syria, leading Iran-backed militia to capture the land.



Rebels have exchanged accusations of shirking responsibility in protecting the border area, which fell into the hands of rebels in 2011.



The US has stopped providing rebels with weapons and other types of support, which is believed to have contributed to the advancement of militias.



Jordan, a Sunni nation, considers Iran and its Shiite groups a major threat to its borders, but unofficially supports the capture of borders by Syrian authorities in order to reopen trade exchange with Damascus.



Moumani told journalists that Amman was keen on resuming trade cooperation with Syria, but declined to give further details on plans regarding reopening borders with Syria.






New Regeni documents sent from Egypt 'Step forward' say prosecutors

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 14 - Cairo prosecutors have sent Italian prosecutors transcripts of fresh questioning of the police who carried out a probe into Giulio Regeni's death, sources said Monday.



Rome and Cairo chief prosecutors said the handing over of the documents, which had been sought by Rome, was a "step forward" in cooperation over the torture and murder of the 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral researcher. Last month Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stressed to a delegation led by Senate defence committee chair Nicola Latorre Egypt's "full commitment" to finding Regeni's killers and underscored the "importance of continuing cooperation" between Egyptian and Italian prosecutors on the case. Sisi and the delegation discussed "means to reactivate political relations between the two States", referring to the current absence of an Italian ambassador in Cairo because of the Regeni case. The parties reviewed "developments" in the Regeni case and Sisi reaffirmed the importance of continuing "close and continuous" cooperation between Italian and Egyptian investigators. He underscored Egypt's "full commitment to work to uncover the circumstances of this incident, and the truth, to catch its authors and hand them over to justice". (ANSAmed).




AMMAN - An animal welfare group has relocated thirteen animals from a Syrian zoo to a shelter north Jordan as part of rescue efforts to save vulnerable beasts in the war zone. International organization Four Paws concluded the mission to place five lions, two tigers, two bears, two dogs and two hyenas at Jerash's Al Mawa for Nature and Wildlife, which is believed to be owned by members of Jordan royal family.



The zoo where the animals used to stay in the northeast of Aleppo is called Magic World, where the owner fled the country to seek refugee outside Syria. The 1,400-dunum shelter is said to be the "first of its kind" in the Middle East and North African region. It also receives animals that have been confiscated following people's violation of law.



A lioness rescued from a zoo in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo has given birth just hours after arriving at a wildlife park in Jordan, Bbc reports today.
Haftar spoke with Lavrov on military assistance 'Topic in the hands of Libyans. Any role for Moscow welcome'

(ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, AUGUST 14 - Libyan National Army commander General Khalifa Haftar told journalists he welcomes any role for Russia in peace talks for the country, and said he has spoken about military assistance with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to Russian news agency Interfax.



"However, this topic is in the hands of the Libyans," he said.



"We believe that Russia remains our close friend and we won't refuse assistance".



Regarding a ceasefire between opposing factions in Libya, Haftar said, "We would be very pleased if Russia would facilitate it in some way".



"We haven't negotiated a particular role for Russia, but we will accept any role for Russia in this process," he said.




Jordan: Iran backed militia near border is major threat

(di Mohammed Ben Hussein) (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, AUGUST 13 - Jordan said Sunday it will not tolerate the presence of Shiite militia on its borders, just days after pro-Iran militias took a stretch of land near the country's borders.



During a press conference late Sunday, government spokesman Mohammad al Moumani said having the militia on its borders was "unacceptable and rejected".



"We consider this a strategic threat. We will take measures necessary to ensure the stability and security of our borders," said Moumani.



The Jordanian official also hinted that the US and Israel, strong allies of the kingdom, would not accept the presence of these groups near the kingdom's northern border, but fell short of directly naming Washington and Tel Aviv.



Rebel sources told ANSA that Jordan-backed rebels evacuated about 30 km of border land with Syria, leading Iran-backed militia to capture the land.



Rebels have exchanged accusations of shirking responsibility in protecting the border area, which fell into the hands of rebels in 2011.



The US has stopped providing rebels with weapons and other types of support, which is believed to have contributed to the advancement of militias.



Jordan, a Sunni nation, considers Iran and its Shiite groups a major threat to its borders, but unofficially supports the capture of borders by Syrian authorities in order to reopen trade exchange with Damascus.



Moumani told journalists that Amman was keen on resuming trade cooperation with Syria, but declined to give further details on plans regarding reopening borders with Syria.



(ANSAmed).




ROME - The Catholic priest Rev. Mussie Zerai, founder of an organization that helps migrants, has called the ban on NGO rescue ships operating closer than 97 miles from the African coast part of ''what appears almost a war against migrants in the Mediterranean''. The ban was ordered by the government in Tripoli ''with the approval and praise of Italy and the European Union'', he said. Agenzia Habeshia, the charitable trust Zerai set up in 2006 to campaign for refugee rights in North Africa and to help others in Italy get asylum, has helped save thousands of migrants.



Zerai has recently been put under investigation by the Trapani prosecutor's office as part of an inquiry into aiding and abetting illegal immigration. Noting that ''the International Criminal Court has opened an inquiry into what is happening to migrants in Libya in so-called 'reception centers' and into certain incidents concerning the coastguard itself, and has spoken of the possibility of 'war crimes' having been committed, Zerai stressed that ''anyone who is behind these refoulement policies and total closure and anyone who supports them - ignoring, among other things, that Libya has always refused to sign the Geneva Conventions on Refugee Rights - is an accomplice of these horrors and sooner or later will be called to account for them''.

Migrants: Zerai probed in Trapani has 'always respected law'

ROME, August 10 - Prosecutors in Trapani are officially investigating Father Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean priest who has been working for years with his Habeshia Agency to rescue migrants who cross the Strait of Sicily and has been a candidate for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

The probe was opened on November 24 and he is charged with favoring illegal immigration. Father Zerai expressed surprise in an interview with the magazine Africa that he just learned about the investigation.

''The curious thing is that, although investigations started over eight months ago, I learned about them yesterday (Tuedasy, Ed). I want to delve into this story, which is one of the reasons why I travelled back to Rome from Ethiopia, where I was visiting. I want to be here to understand in person what is going on and why''.

The priest said he is serene and has always acted to save as many human lives as possible. ''I used to receive many phone calls a day in the past'', he said. ''Today I get significantly fewer'' calls, he noted, adding he doesn't know why. ''I only know that I have always acted in good faith to help those in danger. The objective has always been humanitarian - nothing more''.

Prosecutors in Trapani are also investigating German NGO Jugend Rettet and seized their vessel Juventa but Father Zerai said he was never in contact with the organization.

'Minniti must take responsibility on abuse in Libya'

Italian Interior minister Marco Minniti "knows very well what the situation in Libya is like today, thus he must take responsibility, together with Libyan authorities, of everything that is going on in detention centers in Libya - abuse, mistreatment and torture'', Zerai told the program Agora Estate of State broadcaster third channel Rai3.

''I have repeatedly spoken about the smugglers' abuse against migrants in the warehouses on Libya's coasts. Those people are only interested in making money and then get rid of those people so they have room for others. I fear I have been exploited but I can't do anything but try to save the lives of those who call me'', said the activist.

''Solidarity is not a crime''

In a statement with the headline ''Solidarity is not a crime'' issued recently, in which he said he was still waiting to know from Sicilian prosecutors whether he had been officially placed under investigation, the priest denounced the ''lies'' and the ''denigrating campaign'' against him in the press, saying he might take legal action.

He added that he had nothing to hide and had always acted according to the law. ''I confirm that, as part of this activity'' to rescue migrants '' which I have been conducting for years together with my team, I have reported rescue requests to UNHCR and NGOs like Doctors Without Border, Sea Watch, MOAS and Watch the Med. Each time, before alerting the NGOs, I informed the operations center of the Italian coast guard and Maltese authorities'', he explained.

I received requests for help from boats long at sea

The priest said he reported the cases based on ''requests for help not addressed from vessels leaving Libya - he added - but from boats in difficulty off the African coasts, out of Libyan territorial waters and after hours of precarious and dangerous navigation''.

''When I received a request for help, I also specified the more or less precise position of the boat at sea. The same goes for the number of migrants on board and other specific details: sick or wounded people, pregnant women, particular risks, etcetera'', he noted.

Father Zerai said he tries to get ''each time the information requested by the Italian coast guard''. He denied writing messages, ''as reported'', ''in favor of an invasion of migrants'', stressing his interventions were aimed at ''saving human lives'' and were made ''in the same spirit, for example, as operation Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - approved in November 2013 by the Italian government and unfortunately revoked after a year''.
TUNIS - As part of a ceremony marking national Women's Day, Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi said that the country would be able to ensure equal rights for men and women in inheritance law. The day commemorates the entering into force of the Personal Status Code in 1956 and has long been used as a chance to take stock of the condition of women in the country.

Sharia law generally gives women half of what it gives men in inheritance, while making men financially responsible for women.



However, the exact circumstances and the degree of kinship also play a role. And, though the Tunisian upper-middle class has thus far circumvented the laws through donations or property sales, those who live in rural, conservative areas and who are less well educated tend to suffer a great deal from the current regulations. The president also said that he had contacted the justice ministry to revise a November 5, 1973 circular that prohibits marriage between a non-Muslim foreigner and a Tunisian woman.

Essebsi also announced that a commission would be set up for individual freedoms and equality under the presidency that will be tasked with drawing up a report on reforms concerning gender-equality issues in line with the 2014 constitution and international human rights laws.

The president's statements sparked a variety of reactions from politicians and citizens alike, as is usually the case whenever issues pertaining to religion are touched upon. The regulations for inheritance issues in the country are derived directly from the Quran, as is the prohibition for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man. Essebsi's critics have called his proposals ''blasphemous'', while supporters instead say they are ''historic''. Aware of the potential impact of these proposals, Essebsi noted in his speech that he trusted in Tunisians' intelligence to deal with them. In recent weeks, the Tunisian parliament unanimously passed a law against violence against women that did away with the practice allowing men who rape underage girls to avoid punishment by marrying their victims.
UN must lead Libya talks, Russia tells Haftar (2) General vows to 'fight terrorists out of territory'

(ANSA) - Moscow, August 14 - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia believes that all mediation efforts for a solution to the conflict in Libya must be under the UN and "contribute to dialogue" within the country. The comment was made during a meeting with Libya army commander Khalifa Haftar, reports Interfax. 'It is very important now to concentrate all mediation ideas under the UN, in a political sense," Lavrov said. "To this end, we believe that these activities must not be finalized towards the development of political prescriptions and that they should instead contribute to creating more favorable conditions for dialogue between the key figures in Libya so that they can negotiate the future of their country." Haftar, who controls Libya's eastern coastal region of Cyrenaica, said that "we are counting on continuing even in the future the fight against terrorist groups until the Libyan national army has control over all the Libyan territory in order to ensure stability and security."
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BarcelonaPDECat

The Democratic Party fired the starting shot of their Yes campaign on March 26 with an event held in Barcelonas Teatre Nacional de Catalunya that was meant to pay tribute to the Catalan political leaders convicted over the non-binding independence vote of 2014. With the slogan Yes to the best country, the PDECat wants to know if Catalonia could become the best country in southern Europe in fields such as innovation, business, the environment and culture. Campaign coordinator Montserrat Candini (MP) explained that they have drawn inspiration from JFK and Gandhi, and their campaigns website is headed with the following Kennedy quote: Political freedom is a necessary condition for economic development and social change.

ERC

Esquerra Republicana had no plans to launch a Yes campaign of their own and intended to join the unitary campaign, which was originally slated for April 23 but was postponed several times until September 15. The party led by Oriol Junqueras set aside 1m of its 2017 budget to fund the campaign, which kicked off on March 4 with a massive rally (5,000 people) held in Barcelona citys Auditori del Forum with the slogan The Republic that we want. The campaign includes posters bearing a number of statements to which one may respond with a Yes or No: Timely public transport, A government that supports culture, Quality jobs with decent wages and An environmentally-friendly economy.

CUP

Yesterday the CUP unveiled a bolshevik campaign jointly devised with the pro-independence anti-capitalist left which aims to lure voters within their ideological spectrum. Prior to that, the coalition had already rolled out its very own campaign at a rally on June 23 in Barcelonas Sant Andreu borough. Their campaign slogan is Yes, living means taking sides and it is primarily aimed at Catalunya en Comus electorate, which sits next to the CUPs in the Catalan political spectrum. At the event, the CUP MPs asked governing coalition Junts Pel Si to split the law of legal transitoriness and pass the referendum bill separately in parliament. The government was unsure about it at the time, but that is precisely what it has done eventually.

Democrates

Unios pro-independence splinter group was the early bird and launched its Yes campaign before anyone else. On December 15 they hosted an event at Barcelonas Collegi de Periodistes featuring a number of well-known names in the secessionist camp, such as Bernat Dedeu, Jordi Graupera, Uriel Bertran and Elisenda Paluzie, among others. Democrates have held several rallies and events in 2017. Their latest initiative consists of a series of short, ironic videos where they review everything that Catalans wont have to do anymore, in the event of a Yes win: funding the Francisco Franco Foundation, paying for the Madridterranean railway corridor and being the subjects of a king.

Catalan National Assembly (ANC)

The Assemblys Yes campaign kicked off on April 19, shortly before Sant Jordis Day. With the slogan You are the change, they have pledged to fill Catalonias streets and balconies with Yes banners. Large displays featuring cartoon speech bubbles with the word Yes had cropped up in various places across Catalonia only a few days earlier, but nobody knew who was behind the action. In the last few months, the ANCs efforts have focused on devising the joint Yes campaign and securing a massive turnout on September 11, Catalonias National Day. This year they intend to draw a gigantic plus sign by filling carrer Arago and Passeig de Gracia with pro-independence demonstrators.

Omnium Cultural

The other main grassroots group, Omnium, has reserved for itself the job of persuading Catalans to turn out to vote on October 1. As part of its Crida per la democracia (A Call for Democracy) effort, on July 30 Omnium unveiled a campaign entitled Omplim el pais de democracia (Lets fill the nation with democracy) which involves graffiti and mural painting, as well as hanging out posters and banners with the word democracy printed on them. A few days ago they announced that a crop duster will fly up and down the Catalan coastline towing a Democracy banner and, only yesterday, banners encouraging Catalans to vote without endorsing either option appeared in several Catalan cities. One of Omniums targets is the electorate that identifies with Catalunya en Comu, the new Catalan left that remains lukewarm about independence.
"These additional orders reflect ALC's highly successful placements to date of our MAX and 787 order book and the need to fulfill the incremental demand we are experiencing for these aircraft across both existing and new customers for ALC," said John L. Plueger, Chief Executive Officer and President of Air Lease Corporation.

The deal includes five 737 MAX 7s and seven 737 MAX 8s, bringing ALC's total MAX orders to 130. The leasing company has now ordered a total of 49 Dreamliners.

"ALC understands the value and flexibility these airplanes will bring to their customers all over the world," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Kevin McAllister. "We're excited to grow ALC's order book and look forward to continuing our strong partnership.

The 737 MAX is the fastest selling airplane in Boeing history. The MAX family incorporates the latest technology CFM International LEAP-1B engines, Advanced Technology winglets and other improvements to deliver the highest efficiency, reliability and passenger comfort in the single-aisle market.

The 787-9 will provide ALC's airline customers with long-range performance capabilities and excellent operating economics.
Sri Lankas Minister of Transport & Aviation Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva M.P. was at the airport to greet H.E. Abdul Hameed Abdul Fattah Kazhim Al-Mulla, UAE Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Emirates' Senior Vice President Commercial (West Asia & Indian Ocean) Ahmed Khoory who were among the VIPs on the flight, the first A380 commercial flight to the country.



Arranged to celebrate the BIAs recently resurfaced and upgraded runway, the special one-off A380 flight operated as EK654 from Dubai, replacing the B777 aircraft usually deployed by Emirates on flights to Sri Lanka. The iconic aircraft was on ground for more than six hours to enable airport executives, VIPs, trade partners and media to enjoy guided static tours of its cabins and unique amenities like the First Class Suites, Shower Spas and the On-board lounge.



Welcoming guests on behalf of Emirates at a reception at Gate 8 of the BIA, Ahmed Khoory said: This one-off flight reflects the strong relationship we have with the market and our commitment to the destination. It signifies that, when demand for the destination grows, as it definitely will, to the point that scheduled A380 flights are feasible, Emirates will be ready to operate one.

For the BIA, this event signals that it is A380 ready, and that the worlds largest A380 operator  Emirates  has already operated a commercial flight. Given the Sri Lanka governments focus on developing tourism, this is an important development. For local aviation enthusiasts it is a matter of pride that their airport has joined the ranks of leading international airports in the A380 league, he added.
The airline  which is dedicated to supporting the Sultanates youth - is an official partner of the Forum.

Now in its 59th year, the annual student event brings together 500 of the worlds leading young scientists from more than 70 participating countries to London.

Running from 26 July to 9 August, the two-week residential event is held at the Imperial College London and The Royal Geographical Society with day visits to other leading UK research centres and universities, including Oxford and Cambridge. The theme for this years event is Science to Make Life Better.

The Omani students - who received a special invitation from the Forum  will live together with the other young scientists as part of an international community, allowing them to exchange their ideas and experiences of the world to develop a greater insight into science and its application.

Attending lectures, seminars, demonstrations and debates led by world-renowned scientists, they will also have the opportunity to go out on field visits to industrial sites, research facilities and museums including the Science Museum and Natural History Museum.

Dr. Khalid bin Abdulwahab Al Balushi, Senior Manager of Government Affairs at Oman Air, said: "Oman Air recognizes the vital importance of high quality education and we are proud to be supporting this important Forum, alongside the Scientific Research Council. Backing such initiatives is an integral part of our Corporate Social Responsibility Programme and we are truly delighted to be able to offer these gifted Omani students the opportunity to build on their education to benefit the Omani economy and society. This Forum provides students with the required skills to articulate their ideas in an effective manner and progress in the international scientific community.
Supported by the World Bank, the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGIDER) has the purpose to put an end to gender discrimination in business life.

TAV Airports successfully completed the independent auditing processes and received Equal Opportunities Model (FEM) certification.

TAV Airports VP  Human Resources Hakan Oker said: TAV believes that increased participation of women in labor force is of significant importance for development and social progress. Accordingly, we strive to provide equal opportunities for all employees in all the countries that we operate at. We offer equal opportunities during all work processes such as recruitment and selection, personal and professional development, performance evaluation, promotion processes etc. In order to increase the participation of women at every level, we have a made a commitment to increase the number of women at the board to 25 percent in the following five years. TAV is committed to the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and became a corporate member of Professional Womens Network (PWN) Turkey. We are delighted to be certified by an independent audit company for our efforts to fulfill Equal Opportunities Model practices. We hope to set a motivating example to the companies that plan to carry out similar works.
Two museums whose patronage is supermajority white in a city thats 80 percent African American combine with a museum that has more appeal to the citys Black residents in a bid to get Millennials interested in what did happen  and what can happen again. One curator said, This occurred, and pay attention, because it can happen again.
Observers were surprised as to why Roy languished in jail for two years as he could have easily got bail by paying dues.

Mumbai: Sahara group founder Subrata Roy had to spent two years in prison after he was arrested on February 26, 2014 in a case that involved non-payment of investors' money. Roy was granted bail by the Supreme Court in early 2016. In March, 2014 he along with two other directors of Sahara group was shifted to the high-security Tihar jail.

Industry watchers were surprised as to why Subrata Roy languished in jail for two long years despite the fact that he could have easily jumped bail by paying the dues to the investors. As, they say, there is huge gap between Roy's personal wealth and dues to the investors.

Based on media reports, Sahara group owes Rs 36,000 crore to investors that he needs to pay back to them. The case was brought to court as, according to media reports, Sahara did not stick to industry rules and flouted market regulations.

Back in 2016, Sahra counsel Kapil Sibal while arguing in favour of Roy's bail plea in the Supreme Court had told the bench hearing the case that Sahara boss would not run away as he holds ample assets and properties. Sibal had also revealed in the same hearing that Roy has already deposited Rs 12,000 crore with Sebi.

The case is related to Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures which Sahara group issued only "after taking permission from the Registrar of Companies at Ministry of Corporate Affairs". The OFCD is a fund-raising instrument that companies use to collect money from markets.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India regulates India's capital market and acts as a nodal agency for any fund-raising activity at the stock market or from the public. Sebi objected that Sahara violated market rules, as it did not file with Sebi the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for raising funds. For companies who want to raise funds, it is necessary to submit a DRHP with Sebi and also seek its permission, which Sahara did not do.

While Sebi raised some 'valid' objections, Sahara group defended its action of seeking permission from the Registrar of Companies at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Sahara in its defence had argued that OFCD was a 'hybrid product' that does not come under the jurisdiction of market regulator Sebi.

The Supreme Court back in early 2016 while scanning the documents detailing Roy's personal wealth raised serious questions, as according to the bench Roy's personal wealth seemed to be much higher considering the total dues to investors.

On Monday, the Bombay High Court asked its official liquidator to trigger the process of auction of Aamby Valley, Sahara group's hill-station city near Pune. The City is valued at Rs 37,392 crore reserve price. Roy had requested the Supreme Court to stay the auction in a plea he filed last week, which the SC had rejected.
Bombay HC liquidator triggers auction process as part of recovery of dues that Sahara owes to investors.

Mumbai: Four days after the Supreme Court rejected Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea seeking a stay on auction of Aamby Valley City, the Bombay High Court on Monday accelerated the sale of the township in Lonavala near Pune. The development comes in the backdrop of an ongoing court-directed dues recovery process against Sahara.

The official liquidator appointed by the Bombay HC has fixed a reserve price of Rs 37,392 crore for the formal sale to start, according to a report on the IANS. Earlier, the value of the City was calculated anywhere between Rs 39,000 crore to Rs 44,000. The Bombay HC official liquidator Vinod Sharma issued auction notices to media houses on Monday.

Last week, Sahara chief Subrata Roy had told the apex court that it expected a positive development over the issue of refund to markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The Sahara group was instructed by the court to deposit Rs 1,500 crore with Sebi by September 7.

The Aamby Valley property is spread over an area of 6,761.64 acres. The hill-station township has an Aamby Valley City Development body, a first of its kind Megalopolis. The area has a land parcel measuring 1,409.87 acres surrounding this project and another 321.66 acres within adjoining Satara district, the IANS report added.

In 2014, the apex court on February 26 had issued an order for Subrata Roy's arrest, as Roy had failed to appear before it in a case related to default of Rs 24,000 crore worth deposits. Based on the ongoing litigation, Roy's Sahara group had failed to refund its investors.
Cumulative export during April-July of 2017-18 rose by 8.91 per cent to USD 94.75 billion.

Oil import was valued at USD 7.84 billion in July, an increase of 15 per cent over the same month in 2016. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: India's export grew by 3.94 percent on a yearly basis to USD 22.54 billion in July on account of rise in shipments of petroleum, chemicals and marine products, official data released on Monday showed. Import too rose by 15.42 per cent to USD 34 billion in July from USD 29.45 billion in the year-ago month due to rise in inward shipments of crude oil and gold.

A rise in gold import shot up the country's trade deficit to USD 11.44 billion in the month under review from USD 7.76 billion in July 2016, the data released by the commerce ministry showed. Gold import increased by 95 per cent to USD 2.10 billion in July against USD 1.07 billion in the same month last year.

Oil import was valued at USD 7.84 billion in July, an increase of 15 per cent over the same month in 2016. Cumulative export during April-July of 2017-18 rose by 8.91 per cent to USD 94.75 billion while import increased by 28.30 per cent to USD 146.25 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 51.5 billion.
Aadar Jain, who is Raj Kapoors daughters son, feels lucky to be launched by Aditya Chopra and Yash Raj Films.

The Kapoor name sits lightly on this new kid on the block. Aadar Jain, who is Raj Kapoors daughters son, feels lucky to be launched by Aditya Chopra and Yash Raj Films.

I have a three-film deal with Yash Raj  I bagged it on my own. Only my parents, my elder brother Armaan and my naani (maternal grandmother Krishna Raj Kapoor) knew that I was auditioning for the role. When I was zeroed in on, I broke the news to the rest of the family, divulges Aadar.

The youngster, who has been gearing up for the release of his debut film this month, was shocked when on the morning after the launch event where he and his co-star Anya Singh were introduced, reports of nepotism broke out all over the internet.

The affable Aadar takes a deep breath, First of all, I didnt know what nepotism meant. I had to look it up. But how was I a product of nepotism? I was not being launched by my family. I was being launched by Yash Raj Films and Aditya Chopra. I am not related to them. I guess Ive learned early in my career that I will be mercilessly trolled for no fault of mine. I might as well be prepared for it from now.

Nepotism isnt the only controversy that Aadar finds himself in. Its being said that Qaidi Band bears an uncanny resemblance to another upcoming film Lucknow Central. Not one to mince words, Aadar explains, I had no clue about any other film being made. I have been consumed by my own film that I couldnt think of anything else. But then eventually I saw the trailer of Lucknow Central and noticed that the film too is about a musical band in jail and a jailbreak. I dont know how or where the similarity came from! he justifies, adding, But I will say this  no two films can be the same even if they are based on the same plot. Its like my favourite dish Junglee Mutton. All of us Kapoors love it. But everyone makes it differently although the ingredients used are the same.

As Aadar awaits his first films release, he is aware that films are not doing well. But I also know that content is king. We have a strong story to narrate in Qaidi Band. We cant go wrong.can we?
The 55-year-old landed short and crashed hard into the side of the building during the filming of the scene.

Washington D.C: Tom Cruise, who has a history of doing his own stunts, has been left injured while performing a stunt for the newest addition to the 'Mission Impossible' franchise in London.

In a video obtained by TMZ, the 55-year-old is attached to a harness while making the leap.

However, he landed short and crashed hard into the side of the building. He is able to hoist himself up, but walks with a visible limp before collapsing next to crew members, reports People Magazine.

Over the years, he has taken part in many dramatic scenes, including submerging himself in water for six minutes to film an underwater scene of him breaking into a vault for 'Mission Impossible: Rogue National', being flung around an airplane cabin in zero-gravity for 'The Mummy' and many high-speed car chases.

'Mission: Impossible 6' also stars 'Life' actress Rebecca Ferguson and 'Man of Steel' star Henry Cavill. The movie is slated to hit theaters next year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Assam to take stock of the flood situation.

Guwahati: Because of incessant rains in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Bhutan, the water-level of the Brahmaputra and several of its tributaries have once again crossed the red mark causing fresh floods that have affected over 65,000 people in eight district of Assam.

According to the flood bulletin released by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Chirang and Kokrajhar districts were affected by floods in the past 24 hours.

The situation in Chirang district of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTAD) has turned worse because of flood caused due to heavy rainfall in neighbouring Bhutan.

The state government has opened 15 relief camps in Lakhimpur, Chirang, Kokrajhar and Golaghat districts to help those whose homes have either been damaged or washed away in floods.

More than 1,222 people are taking shelter in these relief camps. The flood victims in Upper Assams Tinsukia district accused that flood was caused after NEEPCO released water from its dam in neighbouring state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Assam is reeling under floods since June. From June to July, a total of 84 people lost their lives due to floods. More than 25 lakh people in 29 districts of the state had already been affected by the floods.

Informing that floodwater had receded, sources in the administration said that fresh wave of flood has also inundated Majuli and vast area of Kaziranga National Park once again.

The Assam State Disaster Management Authority has warned that the situation might turn worse as the Brahmaputra and its tributaries were flowing above the danger level at several places. The reason behind the rise in the water-level in the Brahmaputra and its tributaries is due to the heavy rains in catchment areas of neighbouring hilly states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Assam to take stock of the flood situation. Mr Modi met chief ministers of several northeastern states where floods and landslides created havoc.

He also announced a package of Rs 2,000 crore for the flood and landslide-affected states of the region.
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Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal regarding the incessant rains that have flooded the state.

The Army has already been pressed into relief and rescue operations in different districts of Assam. (Photo: DC/Manoj Anand)

Guwahati: Assam continues to struggle with devastating floods unleashed by unprecedented rains in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Bhutan.

The flood situation is likely to worsen further with the Met department forecasting heavy to very heavy rains in neighbouring West Bengal, Meghalaya and parts of Assam till Wednesday.

The rail link to northeast India from the rest of the country has also been snapped with hundreds of passengers stranded at various railway stations. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday called up deputy chief minister of Bihar Mr Sushil Kumar Modi seeking his help for passengers from Assam stranded at Kishanganj railway station.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) was compelled to cancel 20 long-distance trains, including the Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express. The NFR headquarters in Guwahati said that two other trains - the Dibrugarh-Chandigarh Express and Guwahati-Okha Express - scheduled to depart on Monday have also been cancelled. As many as 14 up and down trains have been stranded at different locations.

The Army has already been pressed into relief and rescue operations in different districts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday again spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal regarding the incessant rains that have flooded the state.

Prime Minister in his tweet said, Central Government has been closely and constantly monitoring the situation and that all possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state.

Prime Minister also enquired about relief measures initiated by the state government.

It is significant that more than 22 lakh people have been affected in the second wave of flood, which has inundated a vast area of 21 districts since Friday.

More than 1.83 lakh people have been displaced and have taken shelter in 439 camps set up by the government. Six people have been reported dead in Kokrajhar, three in Bongaigaon and one in Biswanath district.

Assam State Disaster Management Authority said, "With ten more deaths on Sunday, the overall death toll in this year's flood-related incidents has gone up to 99.

Defence PRO Lt Col S Newton said, Red Horns Division, under the aegis of the Gajraj Corps, has moved swiftly to the aid of people of lower Assam affected by floods amidst a heavy deluge and pouring waters of overflowing rivers. About 3,000 people trapped in their villages were rescued amidst fast currents and taken to relief camps. The Army deployed its boats to reach the marooned people and made a number of trips against the swift current to save people. He said that Army was also ready to rush their soldiers for any emergency situation.
UP Director General of Police (DGP) has forwarded the chief minister's order to all police officers in different districts of the state.

Yogi asked the police department to follow the traditions in the celebration of the festival. (Photo: PTI/File)

Lucknow: Just a handful of days after a deadly tragedy in a Gorakhpur hospital, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the state police to celebrate Janmashtami in a grand way.

As many as 72 children, including several newborns, have died in Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College Hospital since August 7 due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen. The state government has, however, denied that the children died due to shortage of oxygen.

Bhavvyata aur shaleenta se is baar manayen Janmashtami, Bhartiya sanskriti ke anusaar ho is varsh ka aayojan. (Celebrate Janmashtami in a grand and decent manner, and follow the Indian tradition), ANI quoted Adityanath as saying on Monday.

He asked the police department to follow the traditions in the celebration of the festival.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) has forwarded the chief minister's order to all police officers in different districts of the state.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has refused to take suo motu cognisance of deaths of children. Hearing a petition, which sought a probe into the incident by a Special Investigation Team, the bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

While the reports suggested that the children died due to oxygen shortage, the Adityanath-government has claimed that the deaths occurred due to acute encephalitis, rampant in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The media was creating false propaganda as not a single death had taken place due to oxygen shortage, Adityanath had said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Ministers of Bihar and Assam to take stock of flood situation in both the states.

New Delhi: With the flood situation turning worrisome in Assam and Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the situation in the state and assured him of all support from the Centre to mitigate the situation.

The situation is being monitored closely, Modi said.

"My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar," the PM said.

My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

"Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work," the PMO tweeted.

Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work: PM  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also conducted aerial survey of flood affected areas.

The chief minister had demanded an additional deployment of 10 companies of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in the state, besides deployment of the Indian Air Force's helicopters to carry out relief-and-rescue operations.

Due to rains in the catchment areas of Nepal and Seemanchal district, rivers like Mahananda and Kankai in Bihar have swelled leading to floods in four districts.

Modi also said all possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state.

"Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely and constantly monitoring the situation," the PMO tweeted.

Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely & constantly monitoring the situation: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

The PM also spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonwal on Sunday and Monday regarding the flood situation in the state.

The flood situation in Assam has deteriorated in Assam, with at least 99 people dying and 22.5 lakh being affected in 21 districts, according to officials.

The Army has been called out for rescue operations in the state.

Assam Chief Minister on Sunday informed the Prime Minister about the devastation caused by the flood in middle and upper Assam and the disruption to vehicular movement on National Highway 37, the lifeline between the two areas, a state government spokesman had said.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Nripendra Mishra has asked Assam Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia to submit a report detailing the damage and devastation caused by the current wave of floods in the state.
A Pakistani woman named Faiza Tanveer had requested Swaraj to grant her a medical visa on Indian Independence Day.

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has assured of granting a visa to a Pakistani woman - who is suffering from cancer - for her treatment in India.

A Pakistani woman named Faiza Tanveer had requested Swaraj to grant her a medical visa by saying that she should be given help as India is about to celebrate its 70th Independence Day.

"Ma'am you are mother for me. Please grant me visa on the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day. Please help me thankyou," Faiza Tanveer said in a tweet.

@SushmaSwaraj mam qp mery lie maa he hain plz mam mujhu medical visa dy dain es 70win azadi k sall ki khushi main meri maddad kr dain dhnywd pic.twitter.com/SMBhfo2cOT  Faiza Tanveer (@FaizaTanveer8) August 13, 2017

The External Affairs Minister conveyed the decision of granting the medical visa to her on Sunday and tweeted, "Thanks for your greetings on India's Independence day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India."

Thanks for your greetings on India's Independence day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India. https://t.co/jThT2KayoZ  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 13, 2017

It is reported that Faiza is affected with Ameloblastoma, an oral tumour which is aggressive in nature, and want treatment from India.
The GJM leader further added that the home minister had appealed to them to lift the agitation.

GJM supporters burn an effigy of west Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as they demand a separate state of Gorkhaland on Sunday in New Delhi. (Photo: Asian Age)

New Delhi: As the ongoing agitation in Darjeeling entered its 60th day, home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday held discussions with members of the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) which primarily comprises of three main outfits  Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Gorkha National Liberation Front and the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist to resolve the issue.

Leaders from the three outfits were invited for a meeting by the home minister to find a solution to the prevailing situation which has paralysed life in the hill district for nearly two months now. During the meeting which lasted for about two hours, the home minister appealed to the West Bengal government to start talks with the agitating Gorkha leaders requesting them to withdraw their agitation and hunger strike. The GMCC also submitted a detailed memorandum to the home minister.

BJPs Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia was also present during the meeting where the home minister said he was mindful of the suffering of the people in Darjeeling. We urged him to start the process for a separate state. The state is suppressing our democratic movement. We will decide the course of action for the future soon, GJM leader Swaraj Thapa said. The GJM leader further added that the home minister had appealed to them to lift the agitation.

GMCC is the main body of different political groupings which is leading the agitation in the Darjeeling region demanding a separate state and had sought the Centres intervention in the contentious issue. Interestingly, two top leaders of the GJM, Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri, did not attend Sundays meeting. The GJM has been in power in the autonomous council for almost two decades.

The supply of essential commodities has been adversely hit in the entire Darjeeling area due to the agitation taking place since June 18 which was triggered by the West Bengal governments decision to introduce Bengali as one of the subjects in the hill districts.

Barring medicine shops, all business establishments, schools and colleges remained closed in the region since the agitation started. The state police and central para-military forces are closely monitoring the situation and keeping a close watch on all the entry and exit points to Darjeeling and adjoining areas.
The security forces have launched Operation All-out against militants across the Kashmir Valley.

Army soldiers in action during an encounter outside a house where militants were hiding in Shopian district of south Kashmir. (Photo: PTI)

Srinagar: In a major jolt to Hizbul Mujahideen, three of its militants, including self-styled chief operations commander Yasin Itoo alias Gaznavi, as well as two Army jawans were killed in a fierce gunbattle in a remote village of southern Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir overnight, officials said here Sunday. Four Army jawans were injured in the clash.

In a separate incident reported from Hajin area, two J&K policemen and an Army jawan were injured in militant firing on Sunday.

The security forces have launched Operation All-out against militants across the Kashmir Valley and, so far, this year as many as 136 militants, including six commanders, have been neutralised. However, two dozen security personnel too have laid down their lives fighting militancy.

J&K director-general of police Shesh Paul Vaid has said there will be no let-up in the tough campaign and reiterated that those who have taken up the gun are now left with only two options  either return to their homes or get killed in the counter-insurgency operations.

The officials said the J&K polices counter-insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) with the Armys 3 Rashtriya Rifles and the 177 Battalion of the CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation at Awneera village of Zainapora area of Shopian, 55 km south of here, on Saturday night on specific information about the presence of militants. It said: During the search operation, militants hiding in the area fired on the joint search party. The fire was retaliated, triggering an encounter.

The militants killed in the clash were identified as Muhammad Yasin Itoo alias Gaznavi, Irfan-ul-Haq and Umar Majeed Mir, all belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen. The police said the trio was involved in a number of militancy-related and anti-national activities. Gaznavi was one of the longest-surviving militants and was seen as the Hizbs top commander in south Kashmir, police sources said.

Two soldiers who laid down their lives are Sepoy Gawai Sumedh Waman and Sepoy Ilayaraja P, both 25. The former was a resident of village Lonagra in Akola, Maharashtra, and is survived by his parents, a brother and a sister, and the latter that of village Kandani of Sivagangai district in Tamil Nadu, and is survived by his parents, wife and sister, defence spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia said.

During the encounter and after the killing of the militants, irate crowds clashed with the security forces at several places in the area. Over a dozen civilians were injured as the security forces fired live ammunition to quell the stone-pelting mobs. Groups of people had earlier relocated to the encounter site and made repeated attempts to help the holed-up militants escape from the security dragnet, witnesses and officials said.

Meanwhile, two J&K policemen, Mukhtar Ahmed and Muhammad Ashraf, and an Army jawan, Raj Kumar, were injured as militants fired at a joint search party when it entered Wahab, Parray Mohalla, in the Hajin area of northern Bandipore district on Sunday, officials said.
It is the petitioners case that two provisions are violative of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday indicated that a five-judge Constitution bench will hear petitions challenging the legality and validity of Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A.M. Kanwilkar gave this indication to the counsel for petitioner, Charu Wali Khanna, a Kashmiri Pandit woman, challenging the Article as unconstitutional.

Counsel Bimal Roy had argued the petitioner who married outside her caste and settled outside J&K was not entitled to property and even her children cant get the property. Giving examples of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, the counsel said though they married from outside J&K, they are entitled to have property but only women are denied this privilege. Gender bias is writ large on this provision, which is also violative of the Article 14. She challenged the notification dated April 20, 1927, issued by Maharaja Bahadur of Kashmir, which takes away the right of a wife or widow otherwise available to them as state subject unless she resides in that state and does not leave it for permanent residence. The same was given the Constitutional sanction by Article 35A of the Constitution of India read with Section 6 of the Constitution of J&K.

It is the petitioners case that two provisions are violative of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution.

When additional solicitor general P.S. Narasimha, appearing for the Centre, pointed out a similar petition filed in 2014 by NGO We the Citizens has been referred to three judges Bench, Justice Misra observed ultimately it will have to go before a five-judge Constitution bench to decide whether the Article violates basic structure or there is procedural violation.

The bench directed the matter to be tagged with this petition and listed for hearing on August 29.

The petitioner said: Despite being a Kashmiri Pandit by origin, the state does not recognise me as its citizen. I desired to build a home in J&K, but I could not do so. Article 35A allows the J&K legislature to define the list of permanent residents, who are eligible to vote, work for the state, own land, secure, public employment and college admissions etc. Non-permanent residents are denied these rights.

In July, attorney general K.K. Venugopal told a bench of CJI J.S. Khehar that it was a very sensitive matter and that this would require a larger debate. The PIL has sought Article 35A in the Constitution to be declared unconstitutional, contending that the President could not have amended the Constitution by the 1954-order and it was supposed to be a temporary provision. Challenging the addition of new

The petitioner contended that the J&K government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.
Mr Kumar said that in view of the deteriorating situation in Bihar, the Army and teams of NDRF have been deployed in the flood-affected zone.

Patna: At least 41 people have lost their lives due to flood is Bihar, with reports suggesting that more than 2 lakh people have migrated to safer places after water gushed into villages.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas, claimed that heavy rains in parts of Nepal and Bihar were responsible for the situation which led to flash flood in various parts of the state.

The state government will take all measures to compensate losses occurred due to flood, the chief minister said.

With flood water gushing into several parts of the state, especially in Seemanchal region, officials claimed that Araria was worst hit with major part of the town completely submerged.

According to reports, flood water has entered areas in Kishanganj district, three blocks in Purnea and one block in Katihar.

Besides Seemanchal zone, millions were also affected as the water level rose in North Bihar. According to state government reports, West Champaran, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and Madhubani were badly hit due to flood.

Officials have been asked to take adequate measures and rescue people from the flood affected areas, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said.

Mr Kumar said that in view of the deteriorating situation in Bihar, the Army and teams of NDRF have been deployed in the flood-affected zone.
Kovind said this spirit of empathy and of social service and volunteerism was very much alive in India.

New Delhi: In his maiden address to the nation, President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday called for a partnership between citizens and the government to create a New India by 2022 that is a compassionate society and includes the humanist component integral to the nations DNA.

Addressing the nation on the eve of its 71st Independence Day, Mr Kovind remembered the role of leaders of the freedom struggle, including Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and asked the people to draw inspiration from freedom fighters. The President said there was a need to invoke the same spirit today for nation-building.

He said the generation that had brought us freedom was diverse, which included men and women from all parts of the country and a variety of political and social thought.

The stress on the moral basis of policy and action, belief in unity and discipline, faith in a synthesis of heritage and science, and promotion of the rule of law and of education  all of it is located in a partnership between citizens and the government, Mr Kovind said.

The new President said that is how India has been built  by a partnership between citizens and the government, between individuals and society, between a family and the wider community.

Today, in big cities, we may not even know our neighbours. Whether in cities or villages, it is important to renew that sense of caring and sharing. This will make us a gentler and happier society and help us understand each other with greater empathy, he said. Mr Kovind said this spirit of empathy and of social service and volunteerism was very much alive in India.

There are so many people and organisations that work quietly and diligently for the poor and the disadvantaged. We should also work with unity and purpose to ensure that the benefits of government policies reach all sections of society, he said.

He said partnership between citizens with government remains crucial to the success of several flagship announcements of the Narendra Modi government like voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy, demonetisation, the introduction of GST, besides schemes like Beti bacaho, beti padhao, Swachchh Bharat, among others.

I am happy that the transition to the GST system has been smooth. It should be a matter of pride for all of us that the taxes we pay are used for nation-building  to help the poor and marginalised, to build rural and urban infrastructure, and to strengthen our border defences, he said.

The President said in 2022, the country will complete 75 years of Independence and it is our national resolve to attain certain desired milestones for a New India by then.
The apex court had further asked the Madras high court to decide on his plea, seeking to quash the FIR in consonance with law.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed an order of the Madras high court allowing Karti Chidambaram, the son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, to go abroad on August 16, and made it clear that he will have to appear before the CBI for an investigation.

A Bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud told senior counsel Gopal Subramanium appearing for Mr Karti Chidambaram, We will not allow you to travel abroad till you cooperate in the investigation.

The counsel said he was prepared to give an undertaking that Mr Karti Chidambaram would appear before the CBI, and that he may be permitted to travel on August 16. He requested the court not to stay the HC order.

However, the CJI said, We have to stay this order. We have had the bitter experience of allowing people to go abroad and they never come back. You (Karti) first show us your bonafide by going to the investigating officer. The CJI said: Our business is only one. You must go for the investigation. How will it be if people of this country do not respond to investigations against them? It is up to Mr Karti Chidambaram to decide whether he wanted to appear now in two or days or wait for the Madras HCs decision on his pending petition for quashing of the investigation. But our little thing is that you cant, as of now, leave the country till you participate in the investigation.

The CBI registered an FIR against Mr Karti and others on May 15, 2017, for alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to INX Media for receiving overseas funds in 2007 when Mr Karti Chidambarams father was Union finance minister. He did not appear before the CBI in response to summons issued on June 15 and July 4, but instead moved the Madras HC to quash the FIR. On June 16, the CBI issued look-out circular to prevent him from leaving India.

On August 10, the high court, stayed the LOC and allowed him to go abroad on and asked to return on August 31. The CBI filed the appeal against the order to prevent Mr Karti Chidambaram from going abroad as scheduled.

The apex court had further asked the Madras high court to decide on his plea, seeking to quash the FIR in consonance with law.

The CJI told Mr Subramanium that Mr Karti Chidambaram would have to appear before the CBI for an interrogation.

The Madras high court on August 10 stayed the lookout circulars issued against Mr Karti Chidambaram and four others by the Centre, holding that they were prima facie unwarranted. Besides Mr Karti Chidambaram, his associates CBN Reddy, Ravi Viswanathan, Mohanan Rajesh and S. Bhaskararaman had also got the interim relief.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for CBI, said the intent and language of the LOC was not to detain or arrest Mr. Karti as it was only a measure to ensure that he did not leave the country when the investigation into a case involving serious offences was going on.

Mr. Subramanium said The question you have to consider here is when do you really interfere with the right of a citizen to travel. It is only when somebody is a fugitive. My client was sitting in the same courtroom on July 21 as the investigating officer during the case hearing. He has his father here. He has a daughter. His family is here.

The CJI told the counsel We are not on the issue whether he is guilty or not. We are on a very small issue. Have you participated and co-operated with the investigating officer? The answer is no. And what is wrong with an LOC on the next day? The CBI is conducting an investigation. They do not want to take the chances of a man becoming a fugitive. The LOC does not say they will arrest you. They just do not want you to travel out of the country. The Bench issued notice to Mr. Karti Chidambaram on CBIs appeal against the HC order and sought his response by Friday, August 18 sand adjourned the case till then.
Former Deoband MLA and Samajwadi leader Maviya Ali also said in Saharanpur that madrasas would not hoist the tricolour.

Lucknow: Some Muslims in Uttar Pradesh are likely to defy the Yogi Adityanath governments directive to madrasas in the state to videograph and photograph the hoisting of the national flag and signing of the national anthem on Independence Day on Tuesday.

Maulana Asjad Miyan, a prominent cleric of the Barelvi sect, has asked Muslims to defy the Yogi governments order to record the Independence Day celebrations. Maulana Asjad Miyan has advised all madarsas to celebrate Independence Day by hoisting the national flag and singing Sare Jahan Se Achcha instead of Jana Gana Mana or Vande Mataram, said Nasir Qureshi, the clerics spokesman.

He said the national anthem and national song contain certain phrases that are not fit to be sung by one who believes in one God.

Explaining further, the spokesman said chanting Jai ho, Jai ho, Jai ho, which comes at the end of the national anthem, was like hailing somebody other than Allah, which is contrary to our belief. He said Sare Jahan se Achcha was a patriotic song in Urdu written by eminent poet Muhammad Iqbal.

He claimed over 1,000 madrasas located in Bareilly, Kanpur, Jhansi and other parts of Uttar Pradesh will go with the advice of the cleric, who is a direct descendant of Ahmed Raza Khan, head of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. The dargah of Ahmed Raza is taken care of by his descendant and is one of the most revered sites for followers of the Barelvi sect. It runs around 300 madrasas in Bareilly and also in the nearby districts through its various social outfits.

Former Deoband MLA and Samajwadi leader Maviya Ali also said in Saharanpur that madrasas would not hoist the tricolour. We are Muslims before we are Indians and we are not going to follow the Yogi governments order, he told reporters.
These horses were being used by senior members of outlawed CPI (Maoist) in the hilly areas of Abujhmad, the police officer said.

Bhopal: The reports that Naxals have employed a new guerrilla warfare tactic of attacking security forces mounting on horses in difficult terrains in their areas of influence have been reinforced with the seizure of half-a-dozen such domestic animals in a Naxal camp busted by cops in Abujhmad area in Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border, police said on Monday.

The counterinsurgency forces of Gadchhiroli in Maharashtra raided a Naxal camp at a place in Abujhmad area, a hilly region extending from Bastar in Chhattisgarh to Gadchhiroli in Maharashtra, late on Saturday evening and seized six horses apparently kept ready to ensure that the Naxal leaders who had gathered there escaped smoothly in the event of being surrounded by security forces, a senior police officer posted in Bastar division told this newspaper.

The Gadchhiroli police raided the Naxal camp acting on a tip off on presence of Naxal leaders Mallojula Venugopal aka Bhupati and Kadari Satyanarayan Reddy aka Kosa in the camp, the police officer posted in south Bastar district of Narayanpur, part of which falls under Abujhmad area, said.

These horses were being used by senior members of outlawed CPI (Maoist) in the hilly areas of Abujhmad, the police officer said.

Earlier, two jawans of Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) reported for the first time on use of horses by Maoists to attack security forces in hilly and difficult terrains following an encounter between the rebels and troopers at Chareli under Mirtur police station in south Bastar district of Bijapur on March 3 this year.

The two jawans, Buddharam and Gabbaram, reported that the insurgents were seen opening fire on a search party of security personnel, mounting on horses.
Two Armymen, among the five awardees, sacrificed their lives during anti-terror operations in Kashmir and Nagaland.

New Delhi: Three Army and two CRPF men were awarded the Kirti Chakra, the countrys second highest peacetime gallantry honours, on the eve of Indias 71st Independence Day celebrations for displaying rare courage with selfless zeal.

Two Armymen, among the five awardees, sacrificed their lives during anti-terror operations in Kashmir and Nagaland.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday approved a total of 112 gallantry awards for defence and paramilitary personnel for their sacrifices to the nation. The awards declared by the President, who is also the supreme commander of the armed forces, include, besides the five Kirti Chakras, 17 Shaurya Chakras, 85 Sena Medals (gallantry), three Nao Sena Medals and two Vayu Sena Medals.

Kirti Chakra awardee Havildar Giris Gurung, born in Nepal, was destined to lay down his life for India, when at 38 years, he succumbed to his grievous injuries sustained in a firefight with militants in Kashmirs Kupwara on June 6. But that was not before he gunned down two militants.

While Major David Manlun, 32, lost his life in Nagalands Mon district after gunning down three militants, Major Preetam Singh Kunwar, 35, single handedly killed three militants along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Kirti Chakra awardee CRPF commandant Pramod Kumar, 44, was killed in an encounter with militants in Srinagar soon after he unfurled the national flag at his camp on August 15 last year. The other Kirti Chakra awardee force are commandant Chetan Cheeta who survived miraculously after being shot nine times during an operation against militants in the Hajin area of Kashmir Valley on February 14.
The NHRC, in a suo motu cognisance of the incident, has issued a notice to the chief secretary of UP, seeking the govts response in 4 weeks.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL for a probe into the death of over 60 children at the BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur due to lack of oxygen supply.

However, the National Human Rights Commission, in a suo motu cognisance of the incident, issued notice to the chief secretary of UP, seeking the governments response in four weeks.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, declining the plea of a lawyer who mentioned the issue before it for a SIT probe, asked him to approach the Allahabad high court with his grievances. The CJI told the counsel the authorities are handling the situation, and grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned.

The NHRC, however, described the incident as a serious case of the violation of the right to life of the patients, and sought a detailed report from the government, including steps taken for the relief of the victims families and action against officials responsible.

Around 60 children admitted to the intensive care unit of the government-run facility died in a span of few days, reportedly due to the oxygen supply being stopped due to pending payments to the supplier. Thirty deaths took place in over 48 hours on August 10 and 11.

The NHRC said the incidents pointed towards gross callousness on part of the hospital administration and the medical education and health department of UP.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, refused to give any relief to Sahara.

New Delhi: The Bombay High Court's Office of Official Liquidator on Monday puts up Sahara Group's Aamby Valley city project in Pune for public auction for a reserve price of Rs. 37,392 Crore, four days after the Supreme Court declined Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to put the auction on hold.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, refused to give any relief to Sahara.

However, Kapil Sibal, lawyer appearing for Sahara, pleaded to the apex court for giving an extension, but was rejected by the top court.

Earlier, the apex court had directed Roy to deposit Rs. 1,500 crore in the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-Sahara account by September 7.

The SEBI had alleged that the company's chairman, Roy, had failed to comply with the 2012 apex court order directing him to return investors more than Rs. 20,000 crore with 15 percent interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.

The Sahara group vehemently denied the allegations of the SEBI and claimed to pay more than 80 percent of the dues to the bondholders, but the market regulator, SEBI, disputed that and said they have not paid more than Rs. 9,000 crore dues.
Cong Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, whom people thought to be the next president of the party, skipped the CWC meeting due to viral fever.

The name of Priyanka Gandhi as Congress president has garnered strong support from the party members. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: There are talks that the main Opposition in the Centre will choose a successor for Sonia Gandhi soon. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) which met on August 8 to discuss the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, possibly held a discussion on the change of guard of the party.

According to DNA India, at the culmination of the meeting, Sonia Gandhi quietly raised the topic of a change in leadership of the party with some senior leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - wondering aloud if Priyanka Gandhi should be made Working President of the party.

This, however, has been dismissed by Priyankas personal assistant P Sahay as complete fabrication. No such discussion took place whatsoever! he added.

The DNA report quotes a CWC member: "It wasn't a casual question. She clearly had something on her mind. There is a lot of merit in this move if it happens."

Sources present at the meeting shared with DNA that Sonia told the select few that if the party wants to put up a credible show in the next Lok Sabha elections, a young face would have to assume control and manage the affairs of the party, including strategising with senior leaders.

The name of Priyanka Gandhi as Congress president has garnered strong support from the party members.

While there have been demands in the past that Priyanka should be given some formal role in Congress, the family has repeatedly sidestepped the issue. On her part, Priyanka has restricted herself, politically that is, to the Gandhi family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli.

The final decision on the future president of Congress is expected to be taken in the next one month.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, whom people were thinking to be the next president of the party, skipped the CWC meeting due to viral fever.

Rahul's elevation as the party president has been a subject of intense speculation for a few years now. Many feel that Priyanka being the face of Congress in the run up to the 2019 general elections could give a chance to the dwindling party a chance to spur and compete shoulder to shoulder with BJP.

"Whether we want to admit it or not, the truth is that the Gandhi family is the glue that binds this party. Even when a member of the family wasn't at the forefront, like when PV Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister or when Sitaram Kesari was party president, the shadow of the family always loomed largely. Despite attempts to malign the name of the family, there is little doubt that the Gandhis have a connection with voters in large parts of the country," observed a senior Congress MP and a former minister.

Since 2014, when Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power with a thumping majority in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has witnessed a dwindling graph, losing its sheen in the states which it was leading.

Many in the party also suggest that the reason for the absence of an effective game-plan to counter the Modi juggernaut is the sharp divide between the thought process of Team Rahul and the Old Guard represented by the likes of Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and many state satraps.

While some who don't enjoy much support within the party or even among common voters have talked of looking beyond the Nehru-Gandhi family to revive the party, this line of thinking has not found any traction within the Congress.
He cited implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a latest example of the BJPs design to attack the special status of J&K.

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Opposition National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah on Monday accused the BJP of stirring up regional passions over Article 35A of the Constitution in the state.

The BJP is trying to engineer a regional divide in Jammu and Kashmir over Article 35A of the Constitution, he alleged. He said if the reported assurance of PM Narendra Modi to CM Mehbooba Mufti, that there would be no fiddling with the special status was true, then why a counter affidavit has not been filed before the SC to defend Article 35A?

Article 35A empowers the J&K Legislature to define permanent residents of the state and provide a special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.

Mr Abdullah who was speaking at a daylong convention of the NCs functionaries in Jammu said, Instead of defending it, the attorney general pitched for a larger debate on Article 35A. He asked, Why isnt the Centre formally defending Article 35A in the SC as per the wishes of the people of J&K as a custodian of the Constitution?

He also questioned the professionalism and seriousness of the response of the PDP-BJP to this sensitive issue and said the states counter affidavit has been condensed to just eleven pages, which speaks of the seriousness accorded to it.

The affidavit, he said, for some odd reasons are reported to be without any substance or any depth and worryingly the state government is putting up a weak case, perhaps intentionally so.

He said the preliminary affidavit actually contained nearly 70 pages but the state government didnt allow this to be filed in the apex court and instead preferred a brief, token counter response, which was worrisome and raised a red flag on the role being played by the PDP-BJP government. He alleged, All this is being done under an elaborate conspiracy to rob J&K of its special status and rights. He urged the people to unite in fighting this conspiracy and foil the attempts being made to trample the Constitutional guarantees available to the state.

He also questioned the intention of the BJP and said whenever the situation turns against its anti-J&K strategies, it comes up with sinister new agendas. He expressed surprise over singling out of Jammu and Kashmir in respect of the special provisions related to State Subject Laws notwithstanding the fact that several other states like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States, Lakshadweep, etc. were having almost similar laws regarding ownership of land and definition of domicile regulations, etc.

He alleged, The BJP has been hell-bent to trample the special status of Jammu and Kashmir for a long time, which was incidentally their election plank in 2014. But once they came to power, BJP realized that their designs cannot be achieved politically and therefore a short cut of proxy judicial activism through various affiliated NGOs has been initiated by clandestinely challenging the Article 35A through a Mukhota.

He cited implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a latest example of the BJPs design to attack the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and said that act too had deprived the State of its right to impose taxes. We have now seen with distress our Chief Minister rushing to the Centre to seek tax concessions for various crucial sectors for the State such as horticulture and tourism with the GST Council in turn paying little attention, he added.

Cautioning the people about the consequences of repealing Article 35A, Mr. Abdullah said Jammu will be worst hit before such repercussions are felt in the Valley. Not only will jobs squeeze for local youth but our business sector too shall suffer tremors with influx of traders from outside the State. The local land owners will be deprived of their holdings, he cautioned. He further said, Whosoever intends to turn up in Jammu and Kashmir and push local businesses out of competition will find the Jammu region feasible because of its close proximity to the neighbouring states apart from the relatively more conducive security scenario, he said and urged the people of Jammu to guard the State and their own interests against these sinister machinations of abrogating this Article.

He said, If Article 35A is repealed, we will traverse back to the unfortunate era of indignity, deprivation and oppression where Sheikh Mohammed Abdulah had steered out the people of the State. He lauded the farsightedness of Maharaja Hari Singh, the last Dogra ruler, in bringing the State Subject Laws into effect in 1927. He said the Maharaja had brought these laws into effect to save the interests of those locals holding land and finding representation in the state administration as there were apprehensions of non-state subjects usurping the locals. He said the laws enacted 90 years ago have withstood the test of time in preserving the identity of the people of Jammu, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh besides preserving their legitimate rights.

In case the Article 35A is scrapped, it will cause enormous and irrevocable damage to the interests of the people of the three regions, irrespective of their caste and religion, he said and urged the NC cadre to generate awareness among the people about the adverse consequences of the abrogation of Article 35A.
Sharad Yadav is unlikely to form a new party now, may set up a platform at August 17 Oppn meet.

New Delhi/Patna: Belligerent senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is unlikely to float a new party as of now and may instead set up a platform called Sanhja Virasat Bachao Manch (Save the Composite Culture Forum). Sources said the forums formation is likely to be announced at the August 17 conference of Opposition parties and civil society called by Mr Yadav. Bihar CM and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, on Monday suspended 21 JD(U) leaders for opposing his decision to tie up with the BJP in Bihar.

Mr Yadav, who has raised the banner of revolt against Mr Kumars decision of leaving the Grand Secular Alliance in the state, that included the RJD and Congress besides the JD(U), told this newspaper that he had got an overwhelming response during his three-day Bihar tour and that he was determined to bring together all forces who are important in saving the composite heritage and culture of the country.

Sources said the decision to float a platform and not a political outfit now was taken after discussions between Mr Yadav and several senior political leaders like the Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

A concerted decision was also taken to avoid the word secular while naming the platform to avoid any attempt by the BJP to polarise voters in the name of religion. Also, it was decided to avoid any names of sociliast leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia so that no Opposition party has problems in joining the forum.

Sources said Mr Yadav would be coordinating among all major Opposition leaders and the forum would also be a platform for farmers, tribal and dalit rights bodies. The representatives of many such outfits are expected to be at the August 17 convention to be held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi.

Among the leaders expected to attend the August 17 convention are Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, dalit rights leader and B.R. Ambedkars grandson Prakash Ambedkar and Maharashtra farmers leader Raju Shetti.

In Bihar, meanwhile, JD(U) state chief Basisth Narayan Singh ordered the suspension of 21 partymen, including former MLA Ramai Ram, former MP Arjun Rai and several others for indulging in anti-party activities. Some senior leaders in Bihar said the move is also an indication that no one, including Sharad Yadav, will be spared for going against the party line. All 21 members are considered loyalists of Sharad Yadav.

However, in New Delhi, JD(U) general secretary K.C. Tyagi said the party was in no mood to take any action against Mr Yadav, who was its tallest leader, but added Mr Yadav had decided to leave the party of his own free will. However, Mr Yadav has not resigned from any of his party posts.

Mr Tyagi said out of the support of 14 state units being claimed by Mr Yadav, only five were recognised by the Election Commission. If the Grand Alliance were to fight an election now without Nitish Kumar, it will get only 15 seats in Bihar, he claimed.

Mr Kumar has already removed Sharad Yadav as JD(U) leader in the Rajya Sabha and Ali Anwar Ansari as a member of the party in the Upper House. He has also suspended Ali Anwar from the parliamentary party after he attended a meeting of Opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

JD(U) insiders told this newspaper the party president is expected to expel Mr. Yadav at the national executive meeting due to be held later this week on August 19.

Mr Yadav had opposed Nitish Kumars move to pull out of the Mahagathbandhan, calling it a betrayal of the mandate. The JD(U), which was reduced to two MPs in the 2014 general election, had formed an alliance with the RJD and the Congress for the 2015 Assembly polls in Bihar. The formation of the Mahagathbandhan helped Nitish Kumar to return as Bihar chief minister for a third consecutive term.
The RLD will also join the August 27 rally being organised by Lalu Prasad Yadav in Patna.

Lucknow: The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) will now be a part of the campaign to unite the Opposition at the national level. The party is all set to assert its political identity that has been decimated in the recent Assembly elections, where the party could win only one seat.

Chaudhary Ajit Singh, who has elevated his son Jayant Chaudhary to the post of vice-president in the party, will now play an advisory role, while Jayant Chaudhary will play a more proactive role.

According to party sources, the RLD will first participate in the Sanjhi Virasat Bachao Sammelan being organised by Sharad Yadav in Delhi. Intellectuals, political leaders, farmers, dalits and youth will participate in the programme that is being seen as a warm-up exercise to a larger political unity.

The RLD will also join the August 27 rally being organised by Lalu Prasad Yadav in Patna. RLD state president Masood Ahmad said, We are all set to play an active role in the opposition and will continue our fight for farmers and the youth who are facing increasing unemployment.

The RLD is keen to be a part of Opposition unity that includes Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Congress.

The party is not too inclined towards the Samajwadi Party led by Mr Akhilesh Yadav.

A senior RLD leader said, More than us, I think it is Akhilesh Yadav who is not interested in taking us on board. He probably is confident of returning to power on his own and feels he is capable of challenging the BJP single handedly. However, we feel that a coalition or alliance would be better equipped to challenge the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The partys mood is also upbeat following the elevation of Mr Jayant Chaudhary to the post of vice-president. Mr Jayant Chaudhary, last month, had proved his mettle when he led a crowd of over 10,000 farmers to gherao the UP Vidhan Sabha.

This was one of the biggest RLD show in recent years and the young leader led from the front, braving water cannons and police action along with his supporters. The RLD, according to sources, also plans to braodbase its organisation instead of just concentrating on western UP.

The problems of thefarmers are similar whether it is western or eastern or central UP. The BJP has perpetuated the biggest fraud on the farmers with the loan waiver scheme. At the ground level farmers continue to be mired in despair, said Anil Dubey, RLD spokesman in Lucknow.
The combined strength of around 5,600 buses manage to cover 75 per cent of the city routes.

According to official figures, there was a need for around 11,000 buses to cover all the areas in Delhi that has a total of 865 bus routes.

New Delhi: With the process of purchasing 1,000 new buses expected to hit city roads in the next nine to 10 months, the Delhi government still faces a shortage of nearly 3,700 more to cover all routes.

According to official figures, there was a need for around 11,000 buses to cover all the areas in Delhi that has a total of 865 bus routes. The city needs 11,000 buses in a bid to cover all areas. We have initiated the process to acquire 1,000 more. It will take around nine to 10 months for them to land on city roads, Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot said.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has a fleet of 3,944 buses. The Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS) also runs 1,634 buses under the cluster scheme. The combined strength of around 5,600 buses manages to cover nearly 75 per cent of the identified routes in the city.

Furthermore, a total of 799 mini stage carriage buses ply on 124 routes, as per the Transport department figures. The State Transport Authority has identified 657 routes while the corporation has earmarked 208 more for bus operations. The cluster buses run on 124 of these routes and the corporation operates on 465.

The total numbers of buses, including those run by the DTC, cluster ones and mini stage carriers come to around 6,300. The proposed purchase of 1,000 buses will take the number to 7,300 leaving the bus fleet short of 3,700 buses to reach the required 11,000 figures.

The government has identified a total of 865 routes for operation of buses and the department has been able to ply buses on 714 of these routes, with many stretches having fewer than required number of buses serving them, officials said.

Last-mile connectivity is another area the Delhi government is focusing on, the transport minister informed in the recently held session of the Delhi Assembly. The department is seeking to connect the bus routes of RTVs, e-rickshaws and Gramin Sewa vehicles in the future in a bid to boost the last- mile connectivity, he had said.


This ambitious project will see NHS standards of care supporting the health care needs of the people of Maharashtra.

Nagpur: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday unveiled the first Indo-UK Institute of Health (IUIH) in the city in a foundation stone-laying ceremony.

The IUIH Medicity programme was included as a commercial announcement in the joint statement during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the United Kingdom in November 2015.

The announcement included the proposal for 11 new IUIHs in India which, when fully implemented, would amount to investment in the region of `17,600 crore into Indias health care system, accompanied by strategic clinical and training partnerships with the UKs finest NHS organisations, universities and private sector companies.

The IUIH programme, led by Dr Ajay Rajan Gupta, group MD and CEO, aims to deliver this vision by developing IUIH medicities and IUIH clinics across India. Each medicity is planned to include a 1,000-bed hospital in close partnership with one of the UKs leading NHS hospitals. Stating that the IUIH has a vision to provide integrated healthcare across India by partnering with global leaders in research, education, technology, manufacturing and healthcare delivery, Dr Gupta said, One of the first IUIH medicities here in Nagpur, is being developed in association with Kings College Hospital, London, with an investment outlay of `1,600 crore.

Jane Grady, deputy director, trade, economics & prosperity, British high commission, India, said at the event, The NHS is considered to be the best integrated health care system in the world. Through IUIH we are excited to bring to India the UKs expertise in training, innovation and clinical delivery that make the NHS one of the worlds very best health care systems. This ambitious project will see NHS standards of care supporting the health care needs of the people of Maharashtra. We hope that this collaboration will lead to closer working between our two countries in the health care sector.

The project is supported by ministry of health & family welfare, government of India, and Invest India, which is the national investment promotion and facilitation agency for India promoted by department of industrial policy and promotion, ministry of commerce and industry, government of India.
Move could hinder supply of essentials to city.

In a first for the agitation, sources said that it would see the participation of students as well.

Mumbai: Farmers across the state will enforce road blockades on Monday to protest against the governments alleged failure to fulfil their demands related to unconditional farm loan waiver and remunerative prices for agriculture produce, among other things. This will be the second state-level agitation by farmers since their week-long violent stir in June. In a first for the agitation, sources said that it would see the participation of students as well.

Confirming the plan, Dr Ajit Nawale, general secretary of Shetkari Sukanu Samiti (Farmers steering committee) said that farmers throughout Maharashtra would stage spontaneous road blockades in their respective areas. The agitation will begin at 11 am and will be for one day only. If the government does not relent, we will have to consider further agitations, Dr Nawale told The Asian Age on Sunday.

The agitation is likely to affect the supply of essential commodities like milk and bread in Mumbai and other metro places though the Maharashtra Truck Owners Association said that it would see the situation and decide on plying of trucks.

Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) throughout the state would open for business on Monday, APMC sources said but added that they could not say whether farmers would bring their produce for sale. Dr Nawale said that about 89,00,000 farmers in Maharashtra have taken various loans and hope to benefit by the loan waiver. The Vidyarthi Yuvak Sanghatana Sukanu Samiti (VYSSS), a state-level body, had thrown its weight behind the agitation. The education institutions where VYSSS has members will remain closed on Monday, he said.

The Sukanu Samiti has demanded that the loan waiver include all farm loans like crop loan, medium term loan, microfinance, credit societies, financial institutions, private money lenders, loans on drip irrigation, minimum remunerative rate of farm produce which should include the production cost along with the addition of 50 per cent and implementation of the Swaminathan Committee recommendations, among other demands.

Opposition to scheme

Shetkari Sanghatana (SS) president Anil Ghanwat said that they were opposed to the loan waiver scheme and preferred that the government should not meddle in farm produce prices. We want the farmers to become capable. The government may waive loans worth Rs 1,27,000 crore, but will also decide prices. After two years, farmers will again be obliged to demand another loan waiver because their prices have been set by the government, and they will not be able to make any profit. Secondly, the implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations are not practical, Mr Ghanwat told The Asian Age.
Varsity to miss third results deadline, 1.5 lakh papers yet to be assessed.

Mumbai: The Mumbai University (MU) is all set to miss its third deadline for declaration of the results of final year examinations on Tuesday. The deadline was given by MU vice chancellor Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, who went on an indefinite leave on August 5. The results have been delayed for over three months. Out of the 477 examinations conducted by the varsity, 331 have been declared, and 146 are yet to be announced. The exams were conducted by the varsity in the month of April and May for the final year degree college students.

1,69,996 answer papers are yet to be assessed. An insider confirmed that it would take 15 more days in order to declare all the pending results.

Out of 1,699,96 pending answer sheets, 76,856 answer sheets are of the commerce department. Apart from regular commerce department, 10,828 papers of law department have not been assessed. Departments such as technology, management, and arts have completed 99.67 percent, 98.89 percent and 98.62 percent assessment of papers respectively. According to varsity officials, department of science has completed the assessment of papers and would the results be announced anytime soon.

Talking about the next deadline, the university said that now it doesnt believe in the concept of a deadline, as it wants to focus on quality. MUs acting V-C Dr Devanand Shinde said, Our focus now is the quality of the assessment. Thus, we wont have a deadline or timeline pattern. Maintaining the quality is the key, and the rest is primary.

In order to speed up the process, Mr Shinde also met the makers of the On-Screen Marking system, MeritTrac on Sunday to discuss the glitches. The meeting was held to discuss a solution for all the technical problems.
Seven months into his tenure, Trump is yet to announce his policy on ending the longest war in US history.

Republican Senator John McCain has delivered a stinging rebuke to US President Donald Trump by unveiling his own strategy for Americas military success in Afghanistan. The former presidential candidates avowal that America is adrift in Afghanistan cannot be faulted.

Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump have all contributed to making a mess of the conflict in Afghanistan  largely because of their inaction, miscalculations and shifting strategies. For reasons best known to him, Bush fell for the murky advice that the mission would be accomplished within weeks.

Under his watch, the CIA dished out bags of dollars to anti-Taliban commanders and political figures, but their fickle loyalties did not help the US military in any perceptible manner. His muddled approach saw American soldiers perilously slide into mission creep and take unexpectedly high casualties.

After his inauguration in January 2009, president Obama repeatedly pledged a responsible end to the military campaign that he billed as a good war. During his two terms in office, incremental progress was achieved in raising and training the Afghan National Army (ANA) and police.

He pushed 30,000 troops into Afghanistan by mid-2010 and began to pull them out by July 2011. The withdrawal time frame was announced despite Pentagons reservations. To allay concerns, he agreed that the pace and endpoint of the pullout would be determined by the ground conditions. While exploring ways of getting out of the Afghan quagmire, Obama grudgingly gave his commanders the resources they required to avoid an outright failure. Many Afghanistan watchers were stunned when he announced ending US involvement in active combat by 2014.

In the twilight of his second term, Obama sensed the inefficacy of his shifting timelines. He had to lift restrictions on air support and halt further withdrawals. Promises apart, the then president could not wind down the war, much less sow the seeds of peace, before he left the White House.

Seven months into his tenure, Trump is yet to announce his policy on ending the longest war in US history. In an effort to escape blame for Americas apparent defeat, he has authorised Defence Secretary James Mattis to set troop levels in Afghanistan.

US Commander Gen John Nicholson, who Trump wants to sack, has demanded up to 5,000 additional troops to train Afghan military and police personnel. His proposal, however, is being resisted  tooth and nail  by some presidential aides, who see no point in sending more troops into an intractable war.

Spurred on by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, the Trump White House is reportedly weighing a plan to privatise the war. Prince has suggested sending 5,500 private mercenaries to Afghanistan to advise the ANA and deploying a private air force to conduct a bombing blitz against insurgents.

Escalating attacks by Taliban, Al Qaeda and militant Islamic State group fighters have led Trump to acknowledge the unpalatable reality that the US is losing the war. A more accurate assessment is that Washington has already been beaten, as the insurgents have captured more territory and the US-trained Afghan forces have yet to make their presence felt.

Perturbed by Trumps dithering, McCain declared on Thursdaythat America is adrift in Afghanistan. The word adrift is perhaps not an apt choice, as far as the sorry state of affairs in the conflict-devastated country is concerned.

Also the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Arizona senator has reason to stress on stringent conditions for continued assistance to Afghanistan. Indubitably, Kabul needs to demonstrate measurable progress in curbing corruption, strengthening the rule of law and improving financial transparency. The thousands of Americans putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan deserve better from their commander-in-chief, remarked McCain, who will seek a Senate vote on his strategy for success in Afghanistan next month.

The crux of the influential lawmakers strategy is a long-term, open-ended Afghan-US partnership that includes an enduring American counterterrorism presence and expanding training assistance to the local security forces. The proposed measures can be helpful to some extent, but there is no guarantee they will turn the tide.

However, his call for stepping up diplomatic efforts to expedite a negotiated peace process in Afghanistan in cooperation with regional partners is welcome. Pleas for mounting pressure on Pakistan to stop providing safe havens to the Taliban and Haqqani Network are eerily familiar.

Pakistan, China, Russia, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran have already offered to promote political reconciliation in Afghanistan. Ironically, Washington itself has been opaque on the role of some nations in stabilising Afghanistan.

Americas failure should come as no surprise if the commander-in-chief spurns the well-intentioned peace efforts by Afghanistans neighbours. Trump can learn a lot from his predecessors fumbles to sort out the mess.

By arrangement with Dawn
India remained an optimists country despite widespread poverty and illiteracy.

Neither a country nor an individual can turn 70 overnight. You traverse territory that exists in many dimensions, including that of time. 2017 make sense when you look back and see the milestones of 1957, 1967, 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007. By 1957, India has passed the exultation of becoming a free, democratic multi-lingual, multi-religious country of 1947 despite the trauma and nightmare, of massacres and mass migrations.

It seems India has lived through three revolutions in 1947, compared to the Americans, whose revolutions spread from 1776 to 1865. In 1776, American declared its independence, in 1787 it gave itself a Constitution, and through 1861-65, it settled the issue of racial equality in the bloodiest ever Civil War, which ended with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, who stood for the unity of America. For India, independence, making of the Constitution and civil war on the issue of religion all came together, followed by the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in January 1948. India had both won and lost the civil war that was Partition. The country split into Pakistan, a Muslim-majority state which had no option but to be a Muslim state despite Mohammed Ali Jinnahs refusal to do so, and India, a Hindu-majority country which remained defiantly multi-religious and refused to be a Hindu rashtra or state.

In 1957, as India celebrated its first 10 years as an independent country, Jawaharlal Nehru remained the Prime Minister. He was 67 and into his second term, as Narendra Modi is a month shy of turning 67 and in his first term. India remained an optimists country despite widespread poverty and illiteracy. There was both hope and innocence though there was impatience over the slow economic progress. People were not yet angry. They believed that they would become a modern industrial power. But Nehru is under fire from old friends who had left the Congress that he was turning into a dictator. There was plenty of advice suggesting that he should make way for a successor. Nehru remained a popular leader but he was roundly criticised from all quarters.

In 1967, the mood was different. Indian democracy takes a dramatic turn. The Congress monopoly over political power in the country was broken with many states voting in non-Congress governments, and it had lost its unassailable position it had held from 1947 to 1967 in Parliament. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister, and she was 49. It was not a walkover for her. After being chosen Prime Minister in January 1966 following the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent. Morarji Desai challenged her again in 1967. There was a truce and Desai became deputy prime minister. India at 20 was poised at the edge of political equilibrium, which broke soon after. India lived through the humiliation of defeat in the 1962 war against China, and regained its military honour in the 1965 war against Pakistan. And the country lived through the economic crisis of drought and famine of 1966.

In 1977, Indira Gandhi lost the Lok Sabha election after she lifted the 19-month state of Emergency, and the anti-Congress formation forged by Jayaprakash Narayan, the Janata Party, came to power, with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister. The fall of Indira Gandhi came despite the triumph of India in the 1971 war against Pakistan, and the country emerged a regional power which helped the emergence of a new state in the subcontinent, Bangladesh. In 1974, India carried out its peaceful nuclear test.

In 1987, as independent India turned 40, Rajiv Gandhi, who became Prime Minister after the assassination of his mother, Indira, on October 31, 1984, and won a landslide victory in the December 1984 elections, was in trouble on the political front because of allegations of corruption in the Bofors gun deal. But the country was looking towards the 21st century, the telecom revolution had begun with Sam Pitroda facilitating the spread of public telephone booths across the country, a prelude to the mobile telephone revolution of the 1990s. India emerged from terrorism in Punjab and the breakdown of the political system in the Assam agitation.

In 1997, when India turned 50, the political situation was glum and depressing with a frail coalition government in power, and with antiquated socialists and communists in the saddle. But the economy could not be bridled any longer. The opening up of the Indian economy which the minority Congress government of P.V. Narasimha Rao had rolled out in 1991 continued unabated. At 50, independent India did not much care who was Prime Minister. The people were revelling in the new openness of the economy.

In 2007, when India turned 60, the Congress was leading a coalition government under a self-effacing Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, but there was spurt in Indias economic growth despite the Great Recession which still haunts Europe and North America, had burst on the scene. The mobile revolution had spread far and wide and at 60 the country was riding the economic crest.

In 2017, as India turns 70, the countrys economic growth has plateaued. There is anxiety over jobs among the youth. Political power is in the hands of the right-wing BJP, which brings with it its nationalist fervour, which is a symptom of economic uneasiness. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017 is in the same position that Nehru was in 1957, Indira Gandhi was in 1967 and in 1977, and Rajiv Gandhi n 1987  in a troubled spot. People are not any more charmed by his rustic rhetoric. They are looking at the economy that refuses to grow. Mr Modi has only rhetoric and hardly any solutions to offer. India is passing through an economic trough accompanied by political volatility. India at 70 is young and restless.
Mayawatis BSP has a crucial role in UP, whose electoral dynamics also tends to have a spillover effect.

From the meeting of the Opposition parties called by the Congress on Friday, it is evident that their unity remains a work in progress. Its also evident  based on how far the process has got in the past month or so since it was initiated  that the participants are watching the state of play in relation to their own respective state politics as all are state-level parties, barring the Congress. The Communists too are now essentially confined to Kerala, where their electoral clash is with the Congress.

On Friday, the NCP stayed away, miffed that the Congress suspected it of not voting in favour of Ahmed Patel in the high-voltage dramatic Gujarat Rajya Sabha vote last week. But the NCP protests too much. The chances are it didnt want to fall foul of the BJP, given the allegations of high-level corruption against its ministers in Maharashtra and at the Centre when it was in government, which the BJP may try to exploit. Nitish Kumars JD(U) has already jumped ship and moved to the NDA.

From the perspective of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the key states will be Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in electoral arithmetic and prospects of anti-BJP parties cooperating. If the index of Opposition unity is high, there will be a fight against the ruling party. Mayawatis BSP has a crucial role in UP, whose electoral dynamics also tends to have a spillover effect. However, while aiming for Opposition unity, the Congress must be much better prepared in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Samsung is expected to introduce its next super-sized smartphone, Galaxy Note at its Unpacked event held on August 23rd. A new report now suggests that the company might launch a new fitness tracker, believed to be the Gear Fit Pro 2 along with its flagship device as well. The smart wearable has made an appearance on Samsungs website, as spotted by SamMobile. The report also indicates that the device might be launched at the IFA event, or towards the beginning of September this year.

Since its called Gear Fit Pro 2, it is believed that the device will be a minor upgrade rather than a major overhaul, in comparison to last years Gear Fit 2. Several reports in the recent past even suggested that Samsung might be working on introducing a Gear S3 as well, as the device was recently spotted online.

The company reportedly registered the Gear Fit Pro trademark towards the beginning of this year. Following which rumours regarding Samsung planning to infuse a smartwatch and fitness tracker together, have been floating on the internet.
Earlier in June this year, at least two people were killed in a terror attack at a luxurious resort frequented by tourists in Mali.

Three foreigners, a Malian civilian and a Malian soldier were killed in the latest high-profile assault in north and west Africa targeting locals and tourists, including in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. (Photo: AP)

Mumbai/ Ouagadougou: The death of 18 people, mostly foreign nationals, dinning at an upscale restaurant in Africa, has again made terrorists successful in their attempt to target tourists.

On Sunday, terrorists cold-bloodedly gunned down people at Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso. The place has Muslim population. This incident once again brings to fore how foreigners touring in parts of Africa are being targeted by terror outfits.

Surprisingly, ISIS and al-Qaeda have claimed the responsibility of the bloodbath.

A French national and a Turkish citizen were among those killed in Burkina Faso attack.

The Burkina Faso terror attack comes almost after a year. In June last year, over 20 people, mostly foreign nationals, were killed by three unidentified gunmen, who crashed into plush hotel in Burkina Fasos capital and held more than 126 people hostages.

29 people from 18 countries, including Canada, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the US were killed in the strike. An Islamist extremists group, AQIM, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sunday's terror strike is the fourth such attack this year in African countries luxurious hotels or restaurants where foreign nationals were targeted with the same modus-operandi.

Apart from eateries, shopping malls and tourist hubs have also been targeted by terrorists. This gives them more opportunity to accomplish their mission of teaching lesson to western countries.

Earlier in June this year, at least two people were killed in a terror attack at a luxurious resort frequented by tourists in Mali. The authorities identified one dead person as a French-Gabonese citizen, but could not identify the other foreign national.

The June incident was the second such attack in Mali. In November 2015, heavily armed gunmen, shouting Allahu Akbar, stormed into the luxurious Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako and killed at least 21 people and took more than 175 people hostage.

Mali, also Muslim-majority underdeveloped country in Central Africa, was the easy target for Islamist extremists to target citizens of western countries.

Similar attacks took place in Somalia and Indonesia, with same modus-operandi.

In June this year, gunmen clad in military uniform stormed into a Somalia restaurant killing at least 31 people.

For Islamist extremists, entering a Muslim-majority country is a cakewalk compared to western countries, Europe and the United States. With an upsurge in terrorist attacks, western countries have made stringent norms for entry into these countries.

In this regard, the newly elected US President Donald Trump, in May, had put a travel ban on six Muslim countries. Britain and France, the most attacked countries since 2016, have also made necessary amendments in their immigration process.

The recent terror attacks are largely weighing on tourism in poor African nations, which are one of the economical options for foreign nationals for refreshment. The African nations also largely rely on tourism as their main source of revenue.
India is looking at the US for latest military hardware including fighter jets, latest unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft carriers.

Washington: A top American commander has offered the US' help to India to modernise its military, saying that together they can improve India's military capabilities in significant and meaningful ways.

Over the past decade, the defence trade between the US and India has touched nearly $15 billion and is expected to gallop in the next few years, as India is looking at the US for some of the latest military hardware including fighter jets, latest unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft carriers.

"I believe that the US is ready to help India modernise its military. India has been designated a major defence partner of the US. This is a strategic declaration that's unique to India and the US. It places India on the same level that we have many of our treaty allies," Commander of the US Pacific Command or PACOM Admiral Harry Harris told PTI.

"This is important, and I believe that together we will be able to improve India's military capabilities in significant and meaningful ways," said Mr Harris, who has been personally pushing for a strong India-US defence relationship.

The Admiral said he is fairly happy with the level of defence cooperation that exists today between the two sides.

"We have been partners with India in the Malabar exercise series, the maritime exercise, for a number of years. I participated in one of the very first... one of the early Malabars, in 1995," he recollected, reflecting on the decades old association with India.

Noting that the exercise, and the complexity of it, has improved steadily over the years, he said he is very pleased that Japan is part of Malabar.

"I think the trilateral relationship between India and Japan and the US, that relationship is very important," he said as he advocated for Australia joining this group too.

"We could explore together bringing Australia into the exercise. That has merit. There's a lot of common interests in the Indian Ocean, between Australia and India. But that's really a decision for India to make, and then a decision for Australia to participate, if so invited. I'll leave that to those two countries," Mr Harris said in response to a question.

According to Mr Harris, there is a lot that India and the US can do together.

"I'm pleased that India is a participant in Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the Pacific exercise that's hosted every other year in Hawaii. I'm pleased in general with where the relationship is going, and I look forward to more as the years progress," he said.

Responding to a question on India's decision against the American move to have a joint India-US naval patrol in the Indian Ocean, Harris said the US is not disappointed at all.

"I'm not disappointed. This is on the patrols... I'm not disappointed at all, I'm encouraged that we were able to have a discussion about it, and I hope that that discussion remains open," he said.

"We stand ready to participate at whatever level India wants us to participate," Mr Harris said.

Admiral Harris refrained from giving any answer on India and the United States starting to share information about Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean region.

"I don't want to answer the question, because I don't want to imply that I'm sharing intelligence, or anything like that. I'll just simply say that a close relationship between US and India is clearly helpful to the United States, and I believe helpful to India as well," he said in response.

Mr Harris reiterated that he believes that the deepening US-India relationship is the defining strategic partnership for the 21st century.

"I'm very interested, and very supportive, of what's happening in India. The Indian armed forces, and that whole piece...I think that the opportunities for our two countries are simply great. It's fantastic," Mr Harris said.

Noting that India remains an important line of effort at the Pacific Command, Mr Harris said America's national leadership is working closely with India's to grow the partnership between the two countries.
US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday condemned far-right groups that staged a rally in Virginia that descended into deadly violence.

Bedminster: President Donald Trump is blaming "many sides" for the violent clashes between protesters and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump also contends that the "hatred and bigotry" broadcast across the country had taken root long before his political ascendancy. Trump's comments are drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats who say he should be denouncing hate groups by name.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, a Democrat, says that he blames Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, says that the president "must call evil by its name."

A neo-Nazi website is praising the president for not condemning white nationalist groups for the demonstration that turned violent. The Daily Stormer says that Trump's comments are "good" and amount to "no condemnation at all."

US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday condemned far-right groups that staged a rally in Virginia that descended into deadly violence, saying there is no tolerance for hate and violence.

We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK, Pence said in response to a question at a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia, where he was on the first leg of a Latin American tour.

These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.

Pences comments were in contrast to those of President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the violence Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he failed to explicitly condemn white supremacists.
Trump is travelling back to White House to sign an executive order at the White House.

US President Donald Trump waves as he walks from Marine One to board Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport, in Morristown, New Jersey. (Photo: AP)

Washington: Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republics conflict.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the state department, reflects his administrations growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in US-Russian ties.

Awaiting US President Donald Trump and his closest advisers is an authorisation to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to US officials familiar with the plan.

Its not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of US weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers. Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict.

While Mr Obama was still in office, Mr Trumps campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine preventing it from being included in the Republican platform.

Now, however, its under discussion by Trumps senior national security aides, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as US and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine, secretary of state Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.
Earlier, Nawaz Sharifs wife Kalsoom Nawaz filed her nomination papers for NA-120 seat.

Islamabad: Hafiz Mohammed Saeed-led Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) has fielded its candidate for the upcoming by-election in a Lahore constituency for the National Assembly vacated by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was disqualified last month.

The JuD candidate filed nomination papers for NA-120 under the banner of Milli Muslim League (MML) which is yet to be registered as a political party.

Officially however, Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh has filed his nomination papers with the Election Commission of Pakistan as an independent candidate as the MML awaits registration as a recognized party. At a news conference in Lahore, MML President Saifullah Khalid said, We would fully support Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh in the by-poll.

He said further explained that MML is still under the process of registration in the ECP, so Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh would officially contest the election as an independent candidate.

MML spokesperson Tabish Qayum said the party held its first public meeting at Istanbul Chowk at The Mall.

Earlier, Nawaz Sharifs wife Kalsoom Nawaz filed her nomination papers for NA-120 seat. Her most powerful rival for the September 17 by-election in this Lahore constituency, Dr Yasmin Rashid of the opposition Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf also filed her nomination papers the same day.

The nomination papers of Kalsoom Nawaz were filed before the Returning Officer by her son-in-law Muhammad Safdar and ruling party Senator Asif Saeed Kirmani.

This marked the formal entry of the former First Lady to the politics of the country. Hafiz Nauman has been named her covering candidate in this key election. PTIs Dr Yasmin Rashid had contested the May 2013 election for the PTI from the same constituency but she lost the polls to Nawaz Sharif with a margin of around 40,000 votes.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has nominated Faisal Mir for the by-election. The real contest however is between the women candidates of ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) the PTI.

A pitched electoral battle is expected as this by-election, just months ahead of the next general elections, will have a large bearing on the future political standing of both the rivals parties.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban and Islamic State militants have attacked Quetta city in the past.

Quetta, Pakistan: A powerful blast targeting a military truck on Saturday killed at least 15 people, including eight soldiers, and injured over two dozen others in Pakistans southwestern restive province of Balochistan.

The high intensity blast occurred in a parking lot near Pishin bus stop which is in a high security area in the provincial capital Quetta.

According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, the army truck which was patrolling the area had been targeted and eight soldiers were killed in the attack.

Pakistan army chief General Javed Qamar Bajwa has condemned the cowardly attack meant to disrupt Independence day celebrations, the statement said, adding the attack would not deter the determination of the army to fight terrorism.

Our resolve wont succumb to any challenge, Bajwa was quoted as saying. The injured also included around 10 soldiers who were in the truck. Pakistan army has now taken control of the affected area, it said.

Balochistans Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said there were seven civilians among those killed in the blast.

The bomb disposal squad has reached the spot and we will be able to confirm soon whether it was a suicide attack or a planted bomb, he said.

Bugti said around 30 injured persons were shifted to the Civil hospital for treatment and admitted that the condition of six to seven people was critical.

A suicide motorbike bomber was behind the blast, the statement said.

Earlier, several television channels had reported that around 17 dead bodies were brought to the hospital and most of them were badly charred and burnt.

The blast was so loud that it was heard in far off areas and caused a huge fire in which some vehicles and auto rickshaws were also damaged.

An official of the Edhi trust in Quetta said around 15 bodies were shifted before adding that the death toll could be much higher.

The explosion was very powerful and loud. Its intensity was severe. Several car and auto rickshaws have been burnt or damaged after the blast as they caught fire due to the intensity of the blast, the official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban and Islamic State militants have attacked Quetta city in the past. Quetta is the capital city of the restive Balochistan province.
In a session on Sunday, 240 lawmakers voted for the bill, with only one abstention.

The bill calls for the Defence Ministry and the Guard to increase spending, without elaborating. (Photo: AP)

Tehran: Iran's parliament overwhelmingly has voted to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in response to recent new American sanctions.

In a session on Sunday, 240 lawmakers voted for the bill, with only one abstention. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency says 247 lawmakers were on hand in the session.

The bill calls for the Defence Ministry and the Guard to increase spending, without elaborating.

The back-and-forth sanctions come as US President Donald Trump has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers in 2015. That deal saw economic sanctions against Iran lifted in exchange for the Islamic Republic limiting its enrichment of uranium.

Iran meanwhile has launched ballistic missiles in tests, something it is allowed to do under the deal, despite American criticism.
4 rubber rafts have been sought from neighbouring Devghat district to carry out relief operations.

Kathmandu: Nearly 700 tourists, including 200 Indians, have been stranded in central Nepals popular tourist district Chitwan due to flooding triggered by heavy rains that have claimed 49 lives, officials said on Sunday.

Heavy rains have lashed Nepal for the past three days causing flooding and landslides at several places in the Himalayan country. The swollen Rapti river flooded several hotels in the Chitwan Valley, where the countrys first national park is located.

Chief district officer Narayan Prasad Bhatta said four rubber rafts have been sought from neighbouring Devghat to carry out relief operations. Suman Ghimire, chairman of the Regional Hotel Association, said the trapped tourists were being rescued with the help of elephants. The home ministry has been approached for help, said a hotelier.

The meteorological department forecast that central and western plains were likely to receive heavy rainfall from this evening. The monsoon, it added, was gradually getting weaker in the eastern region and moving towards the western region. The death toll due to flooding and landslides across Nepal since Friday reached 55, officials said.

Thirty six people have been reported missing, they added. Twenty one districts have been badly hit by flooding and landslides, The Himalayan Times reported, citing the latest data released by the home ministry.

Of the 700 tourists stranded in the Chitwan Valley, nearly 200 were from India and about the same number from other countries. More than 35,000 houses have been partially sumberged, about 1,000 damaged and close to 400 livestock have died due to the flooding, the ministry data showed.

Transportation via the East West Highway, one of the longest in the Himalayan country, has been suspended after a pillar at a connecting bridge was washed away in the flooding.
The flag is reported to be the highest one in South Asia and the 8th highest in the world.

The flag is reported to be the highest one in South Asia and the 8th highest in the world.

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday hoisted the largest flag in its history at Attari-Wagah border near Lahore to mark the countrys 70th Independence Day.

Pakistan army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted the flag at the border at 12 in the midnight, kicking off the festivities of across the country.

The flag is reported to be the highest one in South Asia and the 8th highest in the world.

Made in Pakistan, it is 400-feet high and 120 feet by 80 feet in size.

Speaking on the occasion, General Bajwa said: Some 77 years ago, Pakistan resolution was passed in the same city (Lahore). Pakistan came into being on the night of 27th Ramadan - it was a blessed night.

Today, the country is progressing on the path of the law and the constitution. All institutions are working properly. We will make Pakistan the country of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal.

Bajwa further said, We have rendered many sacrifices - we will never forget our martyrs. We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan. I want to tell our enemies, whether they are in the east or in the west, that your bullets will end but not the chests of our jawans [soldiers].

Acknowledging Pakistans internal and external challenges General Bajwa said, I assure you that we will never let you down. Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts.

Other speakers also paid rich tributes to those killed during migration to Pakistan.
Abbasi's remarks hold importance as India-Pakistan tensions are running high amid a spree of ceasefire violations.

The situation between both nations further deteriorated after a Pakistan military court announced a death sentence to former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav. (Photo: AFP)

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Islamabad wants positive and constructive relations with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality.

"Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all the countries of the world, especially with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality," Abbasi said in his address to the nation on the occasion of Pakistan's 70th Independence Day.

"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably, the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he added.

Read: Media initiatives can better India-Pak ties

Abbasi's remarks hold importance as tensions between India and Pakistan are running high amid a spree of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration from Islamabad's side.

Relations between India and Pakistan worsened after several terror attacks including one on an Indian military base in Uri and also on an Indian air force base in Pathankot.

Read: India-Pakistan relations set to hit a new low

The situation between both nations further deteriorated after a Pakistan military court announced a death sentence to former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Relations between the two nations have been particularly worsened after the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan based terrorists.
While the commentary didn't say how Beijing might respond, Chinese law gives regulators discretion over what foreign firms can do in China.

Previous US actions directed at China under the 1974 law had little effect, said the China Daily. (Photo: AP)

Beijing: A Chinese state newspaper warned on Monday that President Donald Trump "could trigger a trade war" if he goes ahead with plans to launch an investigation of whether China is stealing US technology.

In a commentary by a researcher at a Commerce Ministry think tank, the China Daily said Trump's possible decision to launch an investigation, which an official says he will announce on Monday, could "intensify tensions," especially over intellectual property.

The official told reporters on Saturday the president would order his trade office to look into whether to launch an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 of possible Chinese theft of US technology and intellectual property.

The Chinese government has yet to comment on the announcement. A decision to use the Trade Act to rebalance trade with China "could trigger a trade war," said the commentary under the name of researcher Mei Xinyu of the ministry's International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute.

"And the inquiry the US administration has ordered into China's trade policies, if carried out, could intensify tensions, especially on intellectual property rights."

Read: Nikki Haley warns China on trade with North Korea if it wants US trade

The commentary gave no indication of how Beijing might respond but Chinese law gives regulators broad discretion over what foreign companies can do in China.

If an investigation begins, Washington could seek remedies either through the World Trade Organization or outside of it.

Previous US actions directed at China under the 1974 law had little effect, said the China Daily. It noted China has grown to become the biggest exporter and has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves.

"The use of Section 301 by the US will not have much impact on China's progress toward stronger economic development and a better future," said the newspaper.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The toll climbs to 79 victims. The tragedy caused by lack of oxygen in neonatal pediatric and neurology wards . Gorakhpur hospital had failed to pay debt with the supplying company. Political repercussions on newly elected chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - "The Church in India mourns for the loss of innocent lives, that of our children [died] in the tragedy of the Gorakhpur Hospital." With these words Card. Baselios Cleemis, president of the Indian Bishops' Conference (Cbci), expresses the condolences of the entire Indian Catholic community to the families affected by this "immense loss that afflicts the whole nation."

The cardinal was commenting on the deaths of dozens of children and infants in one of the largest hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, because of the lack of oxygen supplies. According to some local newspapers, the death toll has risen to 79. The president of the bishops conference reaffirms that "the loss of valuable lives is a problem for the entire country. The government should have provided adequate care, and now it must take the right actions. "

The tragedy occurred in recent days in neonatal and neurological pediatric wards. According to investigators, the liquid oxygen supplier discontinued distribution due to unpaid debts. The executives of the company justified their actions by claiming to have repeatedly warned the hospital administration, but it was not able to settle the debt.

From a political point of view, the death of children is a heavy cloud over the new government of Yogi Adityanath, the chief state minister, elected only a few months ago [and whose resignation opposition members are demanding]. The politician visited the relatives of the victims, accompanied by the Minister of Health, and assured them he will open an investigation.

The death of children shines a spotlight on the serious shortcomings of India's public health system. Local experts argue that the revolving door of governments has done nothing but worsen the difficulties in staffing and supply. "At this moment of great pain - concludes Card. Cleemis - The Church offers its support to the families of the victims. Let us pray that the Lord will give them His consolation. "
by Christopher Sharma

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - There are at least one hundred victims and thousands displaced by monsoon rains and landslides that have battered southern Nepal for days.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than a hundred are missing and rescue operations are slowed by bad weather. Secretary of the Ministry, Lokdarshan Regmi reports that "the rains this year were beyond our expectations, we were not adequately prepared. We are aware of the suffering and pain of the affected people but we are doing their best to help them. " The government also declared the state of emergency and appealed to humanitarian organizations to intervene.

The most hit district is 21 in the south of the country, where the rivers are overflowing and water stagnates without being absorbed by the ground. More than 8500 security officers from the various agencies are involved in rescue operations.

Netra Kc, local BBC correspondent who traveled to the site, comments: "People ask for help. Almost everyone is lacking food and clothing. All their food, clothes and belongings were swept away. Pregnant children and women are at risk and there is no clean drinking water. " Doctors warn of the risk of epidemics: thousands of livestock carcasses and animals are scattered across the territory.

Police report that more than 500 tourists from different sources, visiting Chitwan National Park, are trapped by flooding. Evacuation operations are in progress with the use of boats and elephants.

Yesterday, the government held an extraordinary meeting appealing to local and international communities. At the same meeting 200,000 Nepalese rupees were reserved for each victim or dispersed.

Christian organizations, including Caritas, have intervened in affected areas bringing relief, including food, clothing, and temporary shelter. Shilas Bogati, the director of Caritas Nepal, assured the organization's commitment to the needy, reiterating that due to the relief provided to the victims of the earthquake, they have limited resources and limited workforce: "We are trying to do our best to help, with immediate relief material for primary needs. " The Catholic Church is praying for the victims.
The accused were arrested in 2012 during the Arab Spring. Activists and civil society groups warn that the execution is imminent. Pleaders ask Salman to show a merciful face and correct a great injustice. The ultraconservative kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution.

Riyadh (AsiaNews)  Ten Nobel laureates have written an open letter calling on Saudi authorities to hold off the execution of 14 Shias convicted of crimes committed during street protests in 2012, including rioting, theft, armed robbery, and armed rebellion.

Activists and civil society groups fear their imminent mass execution. In the past, human rights groups accused Saudi authorities of coercing confessions, which were later retracted in court, and failing to grant fair trials to defendants, including juveniles.

Anti-Apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi and former East Timor president and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta are among the people who signed the letter addressed to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his son, asking them to stay the executioners hands, refrain from ratifying the death sentences, and correct a great injustice.

Among the 14, all minority Shia Muslims, is Mujtaba al-Sweikat, who was detained at a Saudi airport on his way to the United States to attend Western Michigan University.

Al-Sweikat was 18 when he was arrested and his shoulder was broken as he was being coerced into confession.

The American Federation of Teachers has called on US President Donald Trump to demand that Saudi Arabia halt the execution of al-Sweikat and the 13 others.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest rates of execution. This year alone, it has executed 75 people so far.

In July, the supreme court upheld the death penalty for the 14 men, all Saudi citizens. The sentences must be ratified by the king or the crown prince for the executions to go ahead.

A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Justice, Mansour al-Qafari, said in a statement that all defendants in Saudi Arabia receive due process.

The defendants all come from the eastern province of Qatif, where most of the Shia community lives. For many Sunnis, Shias are apostates and allied with the kingdoms rival, Iran.

For their part, Saudi Shia leaders have repeatedly accused the authorities of persecution and marginalisation. The eastern part of Saudi Arabia is also where most of Saudi oil fields are located. (DS)
In 2004, the previous patriarch sold Church property in the Old City to an organisation of Jewish settlers. The current patriarch opposed the authorised sale, starting a legal battle. On 1 August, the Israeli court confirmed the sale agreement. Theophilos III will appeal to the Supreme Court against the politically motivated ruling, which will have the most negative effect on the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Amman (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Today, it is our call of duty and our commitment, entrusted to us by the lord, that lead us to break our silence and say: enough is enough, said Theophilos III Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, following a decision by the Jerusalem District Court to confirm the sale of some properties owned by the Greek Orthodox Church to a group of Jewish settlers.

The patriarch's harsh words came at an unprecedented press conference on Saturday in Amman, where he announced that he would take the issue to the Israeli Supreme Court.

The case dates back to 2004, when three companies associated with the Jewish organization Ateret Cohanim obtained three buildings belonging the Greek Orthodox Church  the Petra Hotel, the Imperial Hotel and a residential property in City of Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate  on the basis of a emphyteutic (long-term) lease.

The transfer outraged Palestinian and led to the removal of Theophilos IIIs predecessor, Patriarch Irenaios.

The Greek Orthodox Church opposed the agreement calling it "illegal" and "unauthorised", launching a legal battle that led to the verdict of 1st August, in which the court dismissed the Patriarchates position.

We [. . .] reject publicly and clearly the unfair ruling of the Israeli district court in the Jaffa Gate case, Theophilos said reading his statement.

This decade-long legal battle has resulted in an unjust decision which disregarded all of Patriarchate's clear and concrete legal evidence proving bad faith, bribery and conspiracy. Such a decision, in favour of the settler group, Ateret Cohanim, can only be interpreted as politically motivated.

The prelate noted that the decision strikes at the very heart of the Christian Quarter of the Old City, comes at an extremely delicate and sensitive time and will certainly have the most negative effect on the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

For years, Israeli groups have tried to grab properties within the city, putting economic and political pressures on Christian and Muslim Arab residents, buying land, or expropriating it. For Palestinians, residence in Jerusalem is required to get papers that allow them to work and travel.

The patriarch ended his appeal to all the Churches of the Holy Land by calling for an "urgent meeting" among their leaders, and reiterating his own pastoral and spiritual mission.

The appeal was also addressed to world leaders to ensure that justice and freedom prevail in these matters to benefit peace and all the citizens of the Holy Land.
by Victoria Ma

Both spent scores of years in forced labour camps. Bishop Li devoted his life to the renaissance of the Diocese of Taiyuan as well as its clergy and nuns. Bishop Xie was an underground bishop, recognized by the Holy See, but not by the government. He chose to serve as a bishop in the same place where he was imprisoned for 20 years.

Taiyuan (AsiaNews)  Two elderly Chinese bishops, one from Taiyuan (Shanxi) and the other from Urumqi in Xinjiang, passed away on Aug. 13 and 14 respectively. Both were recognized by the Holy See. Both spent much of their younger years in forced labour camps.

Li Jiantang, Bishop Emeritus of Taiyuan

On Aug. 13 at about 6 pm, Bishop Emeritus Sylvester Li Jiantang of Taiyuan passed away, at the age of 93.

A requiem Mass for Bishop Li will take place on Aug. 17 at 9:30 am at the Cathedral of Taiyuan. His body will be transferred to his native village of Gongergou.

The funeral Mass will be held on Aug. 19 at Gongergou church, and his body will be buried in the dioceses clergy graveyard. Priests and the faithful are called to offer Masses and prayers for Bishop Li.

Born in 1925, Bishop Li was ordained a priest in 1956 by Bishop Han Tingbi of Hongtong (Shanxi). In 1966-1980, he was kept at a reform-through-labor camp. In 1980, Li returned to serve in the parishes.

In 1994, he was ordained as the ordinary of the diocese. He was on the board of governors of Shanxi Seminary between 1996-2008. He was the rector of the Seminary from 2000 to 2001. The seminary was closed in 2012.

Bishop Li also founded the minor seminary of the Taiyuan and the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady Convent of the diocese.

In 2010, he ordained Father Meng Ningyou as coadjutor bishop of Taiyuan. In 2013, he officially retired.

The Diocese of Taiyuan has about 80,000 members.

Bishop Paul Xie Tingzhe of Urumqi

Clandestinely ordained Bishop Paul Xie Tingzhe (picture 3) of Urumqi (Xinjiang) passed away at 8:25 am on Aug. 14 at the age of 86. He was recognized by the Chinese government as a priest in Urumqi.

Bishop Xie grew up in Lanzhou, Gansu province. He entered the minor seminary in Lanzhou in 1945. In the late 1950s, Xie, as a seminarian, was detained for refusing to join the government-sanctioned Catholic Patriotic Association. He was kept at a reform-through-labor farm in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, between 1961-1980.

Upon his release in 1980, he was ordained a priest the same year. He chose to serve the Catholics in Xinjiang, a place where he had spent his youth in detention for 20 years.

In 1991, he was clandestinely ordained as the Bishop of Urumqi. Until today, the Chinese government only recognized him as a priest. In 1994, during a trip abroad, he secretly met with Pope John Paul Ii.

He was an active Internet user and used his blog to spread the Gospel. Sometimes, he sang Latin hymns with the young folks in his chat group.

His diocese has about 9,000 members in a Muslim-majority region.
Hong Kong to taste Western Australian apples



Southern Forests apple grower Nick Markovski

Hong Kong consumers will soon be tasting Western Australian grown Granny Smith apples thanks to a WA food group.

The apples were sent upon request with WAs Southern Forests Food Council (SFFC) fulfilling the order. SFFC was established in 2012 to promote the Southern Forests region in WA as a future Australian food bowl and culinary destination. Southern Forests currently supply 50 per cent of WAs apples.

Executive Chairman of Southern Forests Food Council, Bevan Eatts, said the Council worked hard with its members to meet the order.

We have been undertaking export development discussions for the past couple of years and through our export partnership with Allstates Farms coming to fruition, the Food Council now has the ability to export a variety of Southern Forests produce, including these apples, to international markets, Eatts said.

Exporting relieves pressure of poor apple prices

Eatts said with domestic apple pricing currently at an unsustainable price point for growers the Hong Kong shipment is a significant achievement for the region.

This order should give growers confidence in the fact that export opportunities do exist, he said.

The Food Council is in the unique position to have the ability to work with buyer requests as they are presented, and our partnership with Allstates Farms provides the avenue to supply these requests.

Over 50 different types of fruit and vegetables are grown by members of the Southern Forests Food Council. Producers of other foods, such as honey, wine, green tea and sparkling juices are also members of the council.

Related articles
KPMG Australia sees fit with Israelis AgTech & innovation culture





Whilst Australia is in the middle of an ideas boom, there is one country that is being turned to as a major focus for leading agriculture technology and global food innovation inspiration.

Ben van Delden, Head of Markets and AgTech Sector Leader at KPMG Australia recently visited Israel as part of the Agri-Food Trade Mission, and came back to Australia with many ideas for Australia to learn from Israel.

Lesson one: Familiarise ourselves with the term Chutzpah

For those unfamiliar with the word Chutzpah, Mr van Delden explains it as roughly translating to mean self-confidence and audacity, a point of national pride in Israel. It equates to a culture where individuals are less afraid of failure, something Australians struggle with, perhaps to our detriment when it comes to innovation.

Its basically the audacity to think definitely and do something that most others would think is ridiculous, Mr van Delden told Australian Food News.

Its not reckless abandon to logic by any stretch, but its really lifting the lid on the scale and potential of a solution.

Lesson two: Familiarise ourselves with the term Yalla

Yalla is the second term used in Israel Mr van Delden says Australia could learn from, with the word meaning lets go!.

What yalla is all about is not putting off until tomorrow what can be done today, Mr van Delden explains. Investment is part of that.

But actually before there is investment, there is connection and thinking together, and one of the lessons I saw for Australia out of Israel was we need to create the environment and culture where, to some extent, we are less caught up in our own protectionism mindset of securing intellectual property.

Mr van Delden says in many cases, Australians are trying to protect an idea before they are even intellectual property.

I think the difference is in an ecosystem like Israel is youve got this sense, because people are firing rockets at you from over the border, that tomorrow might not ever come, so if you have an idea you better well jolly get on with it today.

Lesson Three: Australian universities need to commercialise ideas

Whilst visiting Israel, Mr van Delden realised some key differences between Australian and Israeli universities when it comes to innovation.

For one, Israeli universities are not afraid to focus on commercialising research, something Australian universities do not do as often.

I think we are in a period of change for the way the scientific research community is motivated to engage with industry, Mr van Delden says.

Not that industry doesnt have to change and work with the scientific community.

It is really important, we have got to be clear that for this engagement model to evolve to where it needs to be, requires both industry and the scientific communities to come to the table and work out a better way of connecting.

Lesson Four: It is ok to share failed ideas

A last point Australia could learn from Israels start-up culture is not being afraid to come together and share failed business ventures and research.

The whole logic of having a platform for doing that is not necessarily to be proud of your failures because thats kind of counter-intuitive of the Australian psyche, but when you think about it, as an investor in a start-up, what you are really looking for is not someone who is fresh out of school, Mr van Delden says.

You dont want someone who doesnt have any history of trying something and failing, because what you dont want is their first failure to be with your money.

So the whole business of building street-cred by speaking about what you have tried and what you have failed at makes you more investable because youll never do the same mistake again.



Related articles
Oprah ventures into supermarket foods with Kraft Heinz





Oprah Winfrey is making her first foray into supermarket foods with help from Kraft Heinz.

Oprahs food range will be called O, Thats Good! and includes four refrigerated pre-made soups and four refrigerated pre-made savoury sides.

Oprah established a new company named Mealtime Stories to enter into a joint venture with Kraft Heinz to create O, Thats Good! The range will start appearing in American supermarkets in October 2017. There is no announced plan to start selling the range in Australia. .

O, Thats Good! has a a focus on producing comfort food with a health twist. One of the side dishes, mashed potatoes, will replace some potatoes with cauliflower, whilst the ranges Broccoli Cheddar soup will use butternut squash to replace some cheese.

In announcing O, Thats Good! Oprah said she was approached by Kraft Heinz to create the range.

This product line is real, delicious food with a twist, Oprah said.

Youll feel good about serving it for your family.

Oprah has committed 10 per cent of all Mealtime Stories profits to charitable organisations; Rise Against Hunger and Feeding America. The Kraft Heinz Company Foundation intends to make annual donations on behalf of Mealtime Stories to these charities until the joint venture becomes profitable.

Senior Vice President of Marketing, Innovation and Research and Development at Kraft Heinz US, Nina Barton, said Kraft Heinz is thrilled to bring a collective vision to life.

With Oprahs partnership, were delivering unbeatable taste and quality that is sure to please everyone at the table, Barton said.

Is Oprah the next food industry giant?

Although this is Oprahs first attempt at supermarket food, she has previously involved herself in the outskirts of the food industry, acquiring a 10 per cent stake in weight loss program, Weight Watchers, in 2015. Oprah is currently an American spokesperson for Weight Watchers, but its branding will not appear on O, Thats Good!

Related articles
Unilever acquires iconic business Weis





Unilever has acquired Queenslands Weis ice cream business and brands.

The acquisition price has not been revealed however Unilever says Weis will continue to be manufactured in Toowoomba in regional Queensland.

The origins of Weis go back to 1957 when Les Weis started selling the now iconic Fruito Bar. Weis later went on to produce a large range of sorbets, ice creams and frozen yoghurts that are sold in most Australian supermarkets and convenience stores.

Managing Director of Weis, Julie Weis, said her family decided to sell the business to Unilever as they demonstrated an understanding of the brand, its products and how important their team and the Toowoomba manufacturing site are to ensuring a successful future for Weis.

In addition Unilevers scale will enable greater market access and growth that will provide opportunities for our extended Weis family of staff, suppliers, customers and of course our wonderful consumers, Julie said.

Business Founder, Les Weis, said Unilever will give Weis the push it needs.

Learning about the many Founders involved in Unilevers business right from its original founder William Lever through to Australias Edwin Street has greatly encouraged my wife Val and I, and the family, that Weis will be in good company and under long-term care with Unilever, Les said.

Val has always said to me Business is like a wheelbarrow, it doesnt go anywhere unless someone pushes it and I think Unilever will give Weis just the push it needs.

Chief Executive Officer, Unilever Australia and New Zealand, Clive Stiff, said Unilever is committed to producing the same quality Weis products the Weis family has been producing for years.

This acquisition will bring Weis the benefits of scale, strong market access and ice cream category expertise to help take the business to the next level in its growth, Stiff said.

Related articles
By Melissa Castan, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Law Faculty, Monash University

Soze Soze/Shutterstock

Australians are often surprised to learn that their Constitution contains no right to free speech. Even the right to political speech, which is constitutionally implied, is increasingly complicated by new online platforms where people can express their views.

The Australian Public Service Commissions (APSC) recent guidance for public servants shone a spotlight on the issue. It advises employees they could be in breach of their code of conduct for liking or sharing posts on Facebook that are critical of the government.

So are Facebook or Twitter posts protected political speech? It depends. There are tensions in the law, including the extent to which employers can control the expressions of their employees.

Read More: More than slacktivism: we dismiss the power of politics online at our peril

Former Australian Defence Force reservist and conservative Catholic Bernard Gaynor is testing these limits. He is challenging his dismissal from the Army Reserves, which came after he breached its online commentary rules by posting anti-LGBTQ statements.

The High Court will decide whether to take up his case later this week. If it does, the scope of Australias freedom of political communication could be clarified.

Australias limited protections for political speech

For more than 20 years, there has been a constitutional doctrine in Australia that free communication on matters of government and politics is an indispensable part of the countrys system of government  one that is chosen by the people.

This was explained by a unanimous High Court in Langes case in 1997.

The Court said a guarantee of freedom of expression in relation to public and political affairs must necessarily be implied from the constitutional principle of representative government.

In Langes case, the Court set out a two stage test for the validity of laws thought to interfere with the freedom:

Whether the law burdens freedom of communication about government or political matters either in its terms, operation or effect. If it does so, whether the law is reasonably appropriate and adapted to serve a legitimate end in a way that is compatible with the maintenance of the constitutionally prescribed system of representative and responsible government.

The second part of the test allows governments to regulate political speech provided it is proportionate. Attempts to completely prohibit political speech outright would fail.









OZinOH/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA





What is political speech?

The concept of political covers a variety of issues, but it does not cover all public affairs.

In Langes case, the High Court stated

the Constitution requires the people to at least be able to communicate with each other with respect to matters that could affect their choice in federal elections or constitutional referenda or that could throw light on the performance of Ministers of State and the conduct of the executive branch of government.

The High Court has not finished its exploration of how and where the implied freedom of political communication arises.

Not all communication of public affairs, or matters in the public interest, will be protected. Discussion of government policies on welfare benefits, foreign affairs or climate change science could readily be political discussion.

Equally, critique of the performance of parliamentarians, the local council or the police force can be protected speech if the commentary or critique is reasonable and not made dishonestly or with malice.

When are you at work?

Its increasingly apparent that social media use muddies the line between work life and home life.

It used to be, according to the courts, that it is only in exceptional circumstances that an employer has a right to extend any supervision over the private activities of employees. There usually had to be some relevant connection between the employees misconduct and the employment relationship.

However, the context for these principles has shifted dramatically over the past two decades.

Old employment law decisions found social media activity to be an essentially private exercise, however commentators have noted that more recent decisions find employers rights of control have increased.

The rules for public servants

Public servants are uniquely restricted when it comes to political speech.

They are banned from standing for election by the Constitution and there are fair arguments that they need to be cautious in expressing, or being seen to express, political opinion.

The guiding rule is that the Australian Public Service (APS) is apolitical.

This raises a tension between competing values: the government has a legitimate interest in maintaining an impartial workforce, but public servants must have private views and be allowed some room to express their political opinions.

Using the High Courts two-stage test, it is probably a proportionate limitation for the APSC Code to specify that political expression be curtailed in an appropriate manner.

Other limits that are too strict, unreasonable or disproportionate could be struck down by the Court. Restrictions on electoral advertising and electoral donations have been struck out on these grounds.

Still, the law remains largely unclear for public servants who wish to express political views without fear of reprisal.

Bernard Gaynors High Court fight

The case of Bernard Gaynor, who was kicked out of the Army Reserve for his anti-homosexual comments on Facebook, could provide some much-needed clarification on these issues.

In 2015, Gaynor successfully argued before a single Federal Court Justice that his termination infringed the freedom of political communication implied in the constitution.

The Chief of the Defence Force appealed that decision, claiming that freedom of political speech principles did not overrule regulations that allow an officer to be dismissed if his service is not in the interest of the Defence Force.

Earlier this year, the Federal Court agreed with the Defence Forces arguments and found that the termination of Gaynors commission was not a breach of the Lange principles.

They noted that implied freedom does not involve, nor does it recognise or confer, any personal rights on individuals. Rather it is a freedom from government action or laws that constrain political expression.

Read More: Our healthcare records outlive us - Its time to decide what happens to the data once were gone

The correct approach, the Federal Court justices said, was to consider whether the authorising regulation itself was invalid because it disproportionately burdened the implied freedom.

In Gaynors case, the regulation that governed dismissals was suitable, necessary, and adequate in balance with respect to any burden it imposes on political communication, so Gaynors termination was found to be valid.

Gaynor is appealing, and the High Court will have to assess whether his case merits reconsideration of the Full Federal Courts ruling.

Freedom to discuss political matters is one of the few constitutional guarantees we have. Given growing questions over political speech on social media platforms, we will be looking to the High Court to clear up the scope of this protection.

In the past Melissa Castan received funding from the Australian Research Council and other research funders.

Originally published in The Conversation.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
President Donald Trump is saying that "racism is evil" as he condemns the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as "criminals and thugs."

President Trump condemns KKK, neo-Nazis as 'thugs'

Trump spoke Tuesday afternoon from the White House

James Alex Fields Jr. is charged with second-degree murder in weekend Virginia violence

RELATED: Bond denied for suspect in Virginia rally death

President Trump spoke from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House after meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI director Christopher Wray about the race-fueled violence Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

President Donald Trump on Monday named and condemned hate groups as "repugnant" and declared "racism is evil" in an updated, more forceful statement on the deadly, race-fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump had been under increasing pressure to call out the groups by name after his previous remarks bemoaning violence on "many sides" prompted criticism from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats. The president described members of the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as "criminals and thugs" in a prepared statement from the White House.

In his remarks he also called for unity.

"We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans," he said.

His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said earlier Monday that the violence in which a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters, killing one person, "does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute."

He told ABC's "Good Morning America": "You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America."

Sessions said he expects to hear more from Trump on the matter after meeting with him Monday, as well as officials from the FBI. The president added a late-morning meeting with Sessions and FBI director Christopher Wray to his Monday schedule.

"We will not allow these extremist groups to obtain credibility," Sessions told "CBS This Morning."

In the hours after the incident on Saturday, Trump addressed the violence in broad strokes, saying that he condemns "in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Everyday Hero host Bill Murphy got schooled in the art of couponing by one of the best in Floral City.

Woman helps others through couponing

Lori Kline uses couponing to donate food to local food bank

Kline awarded the hospital's first humanitarian award

Lori Kline is a mom, a wife, and a phlebotomist--a person who draws blood at Citrus Memorial Hospital. She is also someone who knows how to stretch a dollar.

"I made one trip, a $250 shopping trip, and I paid $100," Kline said. "But then, another time, I had a $75 shopping trip and I paid five dollars."

Kline's talent isn't just for her and her family, she's also paying it forward by regularly donating food and other items to a local food bank. She also made a similar donation to veterans.

"I went through everything that I had and I brought three large boxes full of food and I have it to the Veterans Coalition--all with coupons," she said.

Kline was awarded with the hospital's first humanitarian award, named for Dr. Thomas First, recognizing the highest achievements in serving others.

Along with her couponing skills, Kline is an advocate for unemployed single parents--providing them with food and shelter.
Here are seven things ASC leaders should know for Aug. 14, 2017.

ASRA names Dr. Michael Stanton-Hicks its 2017 John Bonica Lecture Award winner

The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine selected Michael Stanton-Hicks, MD, as its 2017 John J. Bonica Lecture Award winner. Dr. Stanton-Hicks is a former ASRA president and distinguished service award recipient.

7 die from intragastric balloon complications

Seven people died because of complications with intragastric balloon systems. The FDA recommends providers monitor patients for complications and report any adverse events to the FDA.

https://www.beckersasc.com/gastroenterology-and-endoscopy/7-die-because-of-intragastric-balloon-complications-7-key-notes.html

Digestive Medicine Associates opens fourth facility

Coral Gables, Fla.-based Digestive Medicine Associates is opening its fourth facility in Kendall, Fla.

Geneva Surgical Suites opens with SurgCenter partnership

The 7,086-square-foot Genoa City, Wis.-based Geneva Surgical Suites opened on July 24. Geneva Surgical Suites features two operating rooms and one minor procedure room.

78% of US public want Congress to make the ACA work

Most Americans view Congress' inability to pass healthcare reform bill as positive, according to the August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Sixty percent said the Senate's failure to pass an ACA reform bill was a "good thing."

Creator of fentanyl lollipop, anesthesiologist Dr. Ted Standley dies

Anesthesiologist and entrepreneur Ted Stanley, MD, 77, died from prostate cancer complications on July 13. Dr. Stanley most notably helped create the fentanyl lollipop. The lollipop delivers drugs to cancer patients in a palatable fashion.

Audubon Surgery Center now AAAHC accredited

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care accredited Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Audubon Surgery Center. The center is a joint venture between Colorado Springs-based Penrose St. Francis Health Services and local physicians.

More articles on improving health:

More physicians on board with single-payer healthcare system: 4 key points

How Surgery Partners is faring after suffering hefty Q2 losses: 6 things to know

Griffin Eye Center among first to use ZEPTO Capsulotomy System: 4 points




Merritt Hawkins released the 2017 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives, outlining trends for physician recruitment across the country.

Here are seven key takeaways from the report:

1. Solo practitioners may find their best opportunity for survival in concierge or direct pay practice models in the future. The Merritt Hawkins searches for solo practice settings dropped from 22 percent in 2001 to 1 percent in 2017, but 8.8 percent of physicians plan to practice in concierge or direct pay models within the next three years.

2. Most organizations are currently recruiting employed physicians. Merritt Hawkins predicts more than 90 percent of physicians accepting new positions today will be employees instead of independent practice owners or partners; this is up from 40 percent in 2001.

3. Physician recruitment challenges "become more intense" for healthcare organizations that don't offer physician employment contracts, according to the report.

4. Larger communities now experience physician shortage challenges that small and mid-sized communities traditionally faced. Merritt Hawkins reported around 55 percent of search assignments were for communities of 100,000 people or more in 2017. Urban areas are also beginning to offer higher physician salaries and loan forgiveness, which rural hospitals traditionally used to attract physicians.

5. The average salary for primary care physicians continues to increase, reaching $231,000 in 2017, especially as primary care physicians play an integral role in population health management and establishing patient-centered models of care.

6. Specialists also see their compensation rising, with specialties like neurology, orthopedic surgery and OB/GYN reporting salary increases based on a higher demand for their specialties. Orthopedic surgeon salary increased 11 percent from 2016 to 2017, reaching $597,000, while OB/GYN salary increased 3.3 percent and neurologist salary increased 7 percent.

7. Specialists are still high revenue generators for hospitals, and Merritt Hawkins expects salary increases to continue despite a focus on prevention and reducing medical testing.
The following organizations announced they hired individuals with revenue cycle management experience, or for a RCM-related role, so far in August.

1. Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's revenue cycle subsidiary, Frisco, Texas-based Conifer Health Solutions, named James "Jim" Logsdon president of its hospital revenue cycle management business unit.

2. Chicago-based R1 RCM, a provider of revenue cycle management and physician advisory services, named Gary Long executive vice president and chief commercial officer.

3. Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health named Jon Vanator CFO of its East Central Region, which includes Muncie, Ind.-based IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital and Hartford City, Ind.-based IU Health Blackford Hospital. Mr. Vanator previously served IU Health as vice president for systemwide revenue cycle services.

4. Kensington, Calif.-based consulting firm Freed Associates hired Shirley Kwok as a healthcare consultant. Ms. Kwok, who has significant population health knowledge as well as experience with areas such as value-based payment and revenue cycle management, will join the Northern California team, according to Freed.

5. Alpharetta, Ga.-based revenue cycle management company nThrive named Carl Couch, MD, CMO.

More articles on healthcare finance:

How CHS, Tenet, UHS, LifePoint and HCA fared in Q2

Auditor: 15-bed Missouri hospital at heart of $90M billing fraud scheme

Quorum Health sees net loss narrow to $30.6M, plans more hospital sales
Becker's Hospital Review reported on the following latest hospital and health system executive resignations. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.

1. Dionne Wong, senior vice president for human resources at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health, and Mark Sprada, interim chief executive of Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, resigned.

2. Doctors Hospital of Manteca (Calif.) CEO Ikenna Mmeje is departing for a new job opportunity.

3. Doris Peek resigned as senior vice president of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health after a law firm hired by the health system released a report accusing her of improperly steering nearly $1.7 million to a marketing firm.

4. Michael Kerner, CEO of Bon Secours Hampton Roads (Va.) health system, is stepping down.

5. Hancock, Mich.-based Upper Peninsula Health System-Portage CEO Jeff Lang is leaving his position "to take on a new position with a different organization."

6. Todd Ostendorf, CFO of Minneapolis-based Children's Minnesota, resigned in the wake of a public showdown between the hospital and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.
Doctors Hospital of Manteca (Calif.) CEO Ikenna Mmeje is departing for a new job opportunity, according to a Manteca Bulletin report.

Here are three notes:

1. Mr. Mmeje served as the hospital's CEO since February 2015.

2. During his tenure, the hospital opened the new Manteca Surgery Center, expanded the emergency department and achieved certified primary stroke center status, according to Jeff Koury, CEO of Dallas-based Tenet's western region, the parent company of the hospital.

3. Mr. Koury also noted Mr. Mmeje is leaving Doctors Hospital "to be closer to his extended family," according to the report.
Columbus, Ga.-based St. Francis Hospital selected Dan Jones to serve as interim CEO, according to a Ledger-Enquirer report.

Here are five things to know:

1. Mr. Jones most recently served as CEO of Abrazo Community Health Network in Phoenix.

2. He has more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience.

3. He succeeds David Koontz, who announced his resignation late last month.

4. Mr. Jones will lead the hospital, while its parent, Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Health searches for a permanent successor.

5. St. Francis Hospital has faced financial difficulties in recent years. Early in July, Mr. Koontz had announced that the hospital would lay off 55 people and reduce hours for an undetermined number of employees, the report notes.
Start your week off right by taking a look at some of Becker's Hospital Review's top stories from last week.

1. Quorum Health sees net loss narrow to $30.6M, plans more hospital sales

Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health ended the second quarter of 2017 with a net loss, but the company hopes to improve its financial picture by continuing to restructure its portfolio.

2. Auditor: 15-bed Missouri hospital at heart of $90M billing fraud scheme

Putnam County Memorial Hospital, a 15-bed hospital in Unionville, Mo., received $90 million in insurance payments in less than a year for lab services that were performed at other facilities across the country.

3. Bon Secours Richmond CEO orders managers, others to take paid leave to reduce expenses

Bon Secours Richmond (Va.) Health System CEO Toni Ardabell, BSN, issued an order July 19 mandating select salaried workers at the health system take five paid days off to reduce the health system's expenses by the end of its fiscal year Aug. 31.

4. US News releases 2017-18 Best Hospital rankings

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic earned the top spot on U.S. News & World Report's 2017-18 Best Hospitals rankings for the second year in a row.

5. 10 best and worst states for healthcare

Hawaii is the best state for healthcare.

6. How CHS, Tenet, UHS, LifePoint and HCA fared in Q2

Major for-profit hospital operators produced mixed financial results in the second quarter of 2017.\

7. 5 things to learn about dealing with a divided office from Google's CEO

A controversial memo circulating around Google's Mountain View, Calif., office caused uproar at the company and beyond, but CEO Sundar Pichai's response is a prime example of how executives can swiftly and decisively react to divided opinions at their office.

8. Broward executive resigns amid accusations she improperly steered $1.7M to marketing firm

Doris Peek resigned July 20 as senior vice president of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health after a law firm hired by the health system released a report accusing her of improperly steering nearly $1.7 million to a marketing firm
Despite being stripped of his clinical privileges at Lexington-based University of Kentucky in 2015, colleagues elected Paul Kearney, MD, to the 12-member UK College of Medicine faculty council last week, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Dr. Kearney will serve a three-year term on the council, which acts as a liaison between the medical faculty and the administration and also approves educational and policy matters for the medical school. He was previously elected to serve on the University Senate shortly after his clinical privileges were revoked, the report states.

Though the university barred Dr. Kearney from practicing medicine at the institution, he remains a tenured member of the medical school faculty.

The institution stripped Dr. Kearney of his clinical privileges after he allegedly verbally abused a patient in fall 2014. University officials said the incident followed "two decades of abusive behavior to colleagues, staff and students," according to a Lexington Herald-Leader report published in August 2015. It was the first time officials elected to revoke a physician's clinical privileges during the medical school's 50-year history.

"I am honored that I was elected by my faculty colleagues to represent their interests on the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Faculty Council, Dr. Kearney said in a statement shortly after his election to the faculty council. "The faculty are well aware of my litigation with the university. They also know that I am a staunch supporter of the faculty and will speak freely and forcefully on their behalf."
The following healthcare mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and general transactions took place or were announced during the past week.

1. UCLA Health, AccentCare form joint home health venture

UCLA Health in Los Angeles and Dallas-based AccentCare inked an agreement Aug. 7 to form a jointly owned home health services agency.

2. Cincinnati Children's, UK HealthCare revive pediatric heart surgery program after 5 years

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and UK HealthCare's Kentucky Children's Hospital in Lexington resumed their joint cardiothoracic care services program after a five year suspension.

3. Fresenius Medical to acquire NxStage Medical for $2B

Fresenius Medical Care, a German medical supply producer, inked an agreement to acquire Lawrence, Mass.-based NxStage Medical, a producer of medical products for dialysis patients.

4. OSF HealthCare signs LOI to take over ownership of 2 Presence Health hospitals

Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare signed a letter of intent with Chicago-based Presence Health to assume ownership of two Illinois hospitals  Presence Covenant Medical Center in Urbana and Presence United Samaritans Medical Center in Danville.

5. Envision sells ambulance business for $2.4B

Nashville, Tenn.-based Envision Healthcare, the product of the 2016 AmSurg and Envision Healthcare Holdings merger, sold its ambulance business to global investment firm KKR for $2.4 billion in cash.

6. CHI Memorial inks management agreement with Georgia hospital

CHI Memorial Hospital Chattanooga (Tenn.), part of Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives, signed an agreement Aug. 7 to assume management operations at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.-based Cornerstone Medical Center.

7. Norton Healthcare, Kentucky Primary Care Association ink collaboration agreement

Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Healthcare and Frankfort-based Kentucky Primary Care Association entered into an agreement Aug. 7 to improve care for residents across the state.

8. Dignity Health, UCSF partner to expand care in northern California

San Francisco-based Dignity Health and UC San Francisco Medical Center formalized an affiliation agreement Aug. 8 to expand and improve care for residents in the San Francisco Bay Area.

9. Piedmont Healthcare opens 27 retail clinics in Atlanta Walgreens stores

Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare will open retail clinics in 27 Walgreens stores across the Atlanta metro area with an aim of improving access to healthcare services.
Exeter (N.H.) Hospital reopened its emergency department Saturday, one day after at least 19 staff members reported becoming ill and the facility was partially evacuated.

EH said the ED "is now open, fully staffed and we are no longer on divert status."

On its Facebook page, the hospital noted the reopening follows "an extensive contracted professional cleaning of both the emergency department and the inpatient" operating room. EH aims to open the OR Monday morning.

EH evacuated its inpatient operating room and emergency room Friday after staff members reported symptoms of dizziness and nausea. Overall, 19 staff members reported symptoms, and "all symptoms have now resolved" after staff members received care, EH said in an update Friday night.

Exeter Assistant Fire Chief Eric Wilking told New Hampshire Union Leader the exact cause of Friday's event was still unclear, but those investigating looked at various possible causes.

"We sampled air. We sampled  everything normal. Filtration, everything in the OR and the ED and found nothing that would've caused this," he told the publication Saturday.



He added, "It could be outside air coming in as a contaminant. We're looking at cleaning fluids that could have been used in the hospital. Obviously the rumor got out that it was anesthesia gas, but we don't know that."

Mr. Wilking also said in the report no carbon monoxide problems or liquid spills were detected.
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Northern Ireland came out worst for shopping footfall after 5pm

Northern Ireland's high streets and retail parks have taken a battering, with footfall down by 2% in July.

That comes after another fall, a month earlier, according to the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (NIRC) with Springboard.

Retail parks and the high street saw the biggest slump - falling by 2.3%, while shopping centres witnessed a 1% decline.

Footfall across the UK as a whole fell by 1.7%.

And Northern Ireland came out worst for shopping footfall after 5pm. Numbers dropped by 6.2% in July - a significantly larger fall than the UK average, which those behind the report say is "clear evidence of a tightening of purse strings on casual dining and leisure trips".

"This is a rather cheerless set of figures, heralding a second successive monthly dip in shopper footfall numbers and with the quarterly shop vacancy rate remaining high," Aodhan Connolly, director of the NIRC, said.

"Indeed, shopper footfall fell last month at a more pronounced rate of decline than witnessed over the past three-month period as a whole.

"One out of every seven retail premises in Northern Ireland now sits empty. Encouraging shoppers back is crucial to reducing the number of vacant premises, and retailers and shopping destinations are clearly going to have to work harder to attract custom through a blend of improvements including service, ranges, pricing and promotions.

"However, a more concerted effort is required from public policy to reduce the cost of doing business."

The number of empty shops in towns across Northern Ireland is down slightly, falling to 14.3%. But it remains higher than the UK average of 9.6%.

"Restoring devolved government in Northern Ireland would mean we could crack on with recasting business rates for the decade ahead, in order to deliver a reformed system and lower tax burden which would increase retailers' confidence about investing in new and refurbished shop premises, create jobs and help revive high streets and town centres," Mr Connolly said.

The East Midlands region showed the fastest decline on the high street, of all regions, dropping by 4.7%.

And Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, said that July's results "might well mark a sea change in consumers' willingness to spend, as it was the first time since January that footfall dropped during both retail trading hours and into the evening across the UK".

"Declining footfall demonstrates the drop in non-food sales is due to a reduced number of shoppers, so retailers that maintain their in-store footfall are at a clear advantage," she added.

"Despite a contraction in fashion sales, consumers increased their spending on products for the home, and out of town locations across the UK benefitted, with a 1.7% increase in footfall. In contrast footfall in Northern Ireland's high streets dropped by 2.3% and by 1% in shopping centres.

"While Northern Ireland's vacancy rate improved slightly in July to 14.4% from 14.3% in April it remains the highest across the UK.

"These results, together with the high level of consumer borrowing, suggest that trading conditions could be reaching a tipping point into a period of restraint."
Cornish Lithium director Jeremy Wrathall as Cornwall looks set for a mining revival amid plans to tap into huge reserves of precious metal lithium (Cornish Lithium/PA)

Cornwall's mining revival received a boost on Monday after the firm behind plans to tap into huge reserves of lithium in the county raised 1 million in funding.

Mining company Cornish Lithium, headed up by Jeremy Wrathall, said the cash injection will allow it to explore the coastal region as the demand for the precious metal soars.

Lithium - dubbed "white petroleum" - is used in the rapidly growing market for electric cars and rechargeable batteries in everything from mobile phones to cordless vacuums.

It is estimated that the global market for lithium stands at a potential 70 billion.

Cornish Lithium said: "The funds raised will enable the company to commence exploration activities on the ground in Cornwall.

"The initial focus will be to collate all relevant data on lithium occurrences in Cornwall and to assemble this in digital format.

"The company intends to integrate surface and underground data in order to prioritise the best locations for subsequent drilling and sampling."

Mr Wrathall, 53, who owns Cornish Lithium with his wife, is hoping to raise 5 million to fund exploration tests, with around four or five well drills expected to be set up, which covers a large area centred around Camborne, Redruth and St Day in Cornwall.

The incoming shareholders include Keith Liddell, the former chief executive of Aquarius Platinum and investment house Mineral Securities.

Chris von Christierson, director at Southern Prospecting, and natural resources investor Peter Smedvig also join the shareholder register.

Mr Liddell said: "Given the extensive historic readings of lithium in geothermal brines as well as the recent advances in technology, we see a real potential for lithium production in Cornwall.

"Combined with the global shift in focus towards electric vehicles and battery energy storage we believe that Cornish Lithium could potentially become a very significant player in the lithium industry in the UK and Europe."

If successful in extracting lithium from hot spring brines in granite, it would make the county the UK and Europe's only major source of the valuable metal.

The firm announced earlier this year that it had secured a mineral rights agreement with Canada's Strongbow Exploration and Mineral Exploration and has also reached agreement with significant landowner Tregothnan Estates to carry out exploration across Cornwall.

Most lithium is produced in South America, Australia and China, but the UK Government has earmarked lithium as a metal of strategic importance to the country.
A smartphone app dubbed The Killing Fields is being launched to pinpoint the scenes of more than 100 of the Troubles' most vicious terror outrages.

It is being developed by victims organisation the South East Fermanagh Foundation, whose motto is: "I'll never forget."

Head of the SEFF Kenny Donaldson said the app is not only being developed as a reference for tourists and locals.

It will supplement the experience of those taking the SEFF Border Trail tour, which visits the sites of some of Co Fermanagh's most horrific paramilitary murders.

Mr Donaldson said: "Our Border Trail tour has been running for some time and we thought it was time to augment the experience with an app. Across Co Fermanagh, 112 people were killed as a result of terrorism in the Troubles. The Border Trail tour in conjunction with the app will bring these attacks vividly to life and show the deep hurts inflicted on communities by telling people exactly what happened, where and why.

"It will also show there are still generations of victims of terrorism who need help and support."

SEFF say their Border Trail walk highlights how Fermanagh was a 'killing field' area during the Troubles. One of the most notorious attacks was the IRA's 1987 Enniskillen Remembrance Day bomb, which killed 11 and injured 63 others.

The Border Trail tour and its upcoming app includes a forensic history of more than 100 other attacks in the area, including shootings of police officers and families.

Mr Donaldson's SEFF group says in a promotion for its Border Trail tour: "This allows you to pay tribute to the memory and walk respectfully in the footsteps of some of those individuals, who perished at the hands of terrorists during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

"Mapping incidents in this border location of south-east Fermanagh helps to paint a graphically visual and educational interpretation of recent past events, embedding each memory of loss and trauma into the rural landscape.

"These atrocities and the fear of further attacks forced an exodus of Protestant farmers from the border area."
A taxi driver has been given a warning after being caught with six blocks of cocaine

A Belfast taxi driver caught with six blocks of cocaine claimed he had purchased it for a stag party, a court has heard.

Paul McManus was given 100 hours community service and probation for having the Class A drug with intent to supply.

A judge also warned the 38-year-old that the conviction could put his employment at risk.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard McManus, of Almond Heights in Dunmurry, was stopped in his car by police on January 20 this year.

Searches of the vehicle uncovered a bag containing the cocaine blocks, along with a further quantity on the defendant.

A prosecution representative said McManus admitted the consignment belonged to him.

"He said his friends had all chipped in, and (they) intended to use it when going on a stag party the next weekend," the lawyer added.

Defence counsel Sean O'Hare insisted his client was not planning to deal.

"It was a luxurious amount for one person, but not a commercial quantity," he said.

Mr O'Hare argued that McManus had acted under stress due to his previous taxi being burnt out following an altercation.

"He doesn't want to carry on with this type of risky behaviour," the barrister added.

District Judge Peter King told McManus he would give him the benefit of the doubt over his stag party claims.

Imposing community service and one year's probation, Mr King warned of other consequences for the defendant's taxi-driving job.

He said: "It's quite clear that this is going to cause you difficulty with your employment, I suspect that's going to cause more difficulty than any sentence of this court."
New orders and employment within the construction industry fell in July

Private sector growth within Northern Ireland is lagging behind the rest of the UK, a new financial report has claimed.

The region's private sector firms recorded the weakest performance in business activity after the North East of England where output fell, according to the July study for Ulster Bank.

However, the report also indicated success in securing new work from the Republic of Ireland amid sterling weakness, helping to boost total new business.

And according to the bank's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which is a detailed monthly survey of companies, job creation was sustained at a moderate pace.

Richard Ramsey, chief economist for Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland, said the private sector notched up another month of growth in output, orders and employment.

He warned however: "Whilst growth is to be welcomed, we can't escape the fact that rates of expansion lag behind the UK averages for all of these indicators. Indeed, Northern Ireland's private sector firms recorded the weakest performance in business activity, after the North East of England where output fell."

Mr Ramsey said the overall tone of the latest survey is characterised by slower rates of growth.

While the private sector has been increasing its staffing levels for the last two-and-a-half years, last month the pace of job creation slipped to a six-month low.

Manufacturing output growth eased to a 14-month low, while employment fell for the first time in six months, the data found.

However, Mr Ramsey said with manufacturing firms experiencing a period of rapid expansion over the last six to nine months a slowdown is relative to these strong rates of growth.

Within the construction industry output, new orders and employment all fell in July and retailers have been reporting a weakening in demand in recent months.

But Mr Ramsey said that despite the ongoing political and Brexit related uncertainty, Northern Ireland's private sector "remains relatively upbeat."

"Almost one-third of firms expect to have more work in 12 months' time than they do currently. Indeed, optimists currently outnumber pessimists by more than two to one on this front," he said.
MLA Gordon Lyons has hit out at comments made during hunger strike commemoration speech by Gerry Kelly, claiming that they reinforce the DUP's claims that Sinn Fein has "no interest in devolution".

Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly appeared on Sunday at a commemoration event in Co Mayo to mark the 1981 hunger strikes.

During his speech North Belfast representative called upon the leaders of the SDLP, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to put aside "narrow party political interests" and to work together for Irish unity.

In a statement on Monday DUP representative Mr Lyons said that the speech was "an insight into the priorities of Sinn Fein" and that the republican party's focus was on "building a coalition with nationalists to 'discuss unity' rather than working with unionists to govern Northern Ireland".

"[Mr Kelly's comments] also reinforce the assessment from my party leader that Sinn Fein appear to have no interest in devolution," he said.

"With every day that Sinn Fein refuse to restore devolution in Northern Ireland the people of Northern Ireland are being punished. New issues are continually arising which cannot be dealt with because there is no Executive in place to take action."

During his speech Mr Kelly said that the Northern Ireland Executive should be restored, saying: "We want the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement re-instated but on the basis of equality, mutual respect and integrity.

"The present talks, now stalled, are about implementing agreements already made. That is basic to a power-sharing Executive and Assembly."

Sinn Fein's conditions for returning to a power-sharing agreement include an Irish Language Act, a Marriage Equality Act, a Bill of Rights, and other measures taken to deal with legacy issues.

Mr Kelly also made reference to a new united Ireland "upholding, protecting and respecting the rights of all citizens. That entails upholding the rights of citizens to be British and Unionist".

Responding to the comments by Mr Lyons, Sinn Fein MLA Alex Maskey said that the DUP were in "denial" about its role in bringing about the collapse of the Executive.

In a statement, the West Belfast MLA said: "It will surprise no one that Sinn Fein as an Irish republican party is calling on the leadership of Irish nationalism across this island to come together to plan for Irish unity.

The DUPs faux outrage at this fact demonstrates that the DUP remains in denial about its arrogance and disrespect which led to the collapse of the political institutions in the north.

"Sinn Fein is committed to getting the political institutions in the north back up and running on the basis of implementing previous agreements, an end to the series of financial scandals associated with the DUP in government and equality and respect for all."
Quad bikes were the most targeted item by thieves

Rural crime claims have risen by more than a fifth in the first half of the year, a new report has suggested.

Despite a slight drop in the cost of such crime to just under 40 million last year, early claims statistics show a sharp increase in the first half of 2017, NFU Mutual said.

Releasing its annual report on rural crime across the four regions of the UK for last year, the insurer described farmyards being turned into fortresses to ward off "brazen" thieves.

It said farmers have taken high-tech steps including using infra-red surveillance and installing tracking devices on their tractors.

The apparent rise in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year is "deeply worrying", Tim Price of NFU Mutual said.

England bore the brunt of the 2016 crime cost at just under 34 million, while the cost to Northern Ireland was 2.5 million, Scotland 1.6m, and Wales 1.3m.

The north east of England was the worst affected area last year, the report said, with such crime costing more than 7 million, an increase of almost 9% on 2015.

Lincolnshire came top for the worst affected county at 2,499,521, while Lancashire experienced a 40% drop in theft costs since 2015.

Tools and quads were the most targeted items, with the cost of thefts of the latter rising to 2 million last year, the report said.

Livestock theft cost an estimated 2.2 million last year, falling everywhere apart from Wales, it added.

Mr Price, NFU Mutual Rural Affairs Specialist, said: "While the fall in rural theft in 2016 is welcome news, the sharp rise in the first half of 2017 is deeply worrying.

"Countryside criminals are becoming more brazen and farmers are now having to continually increase security and adopt new ways of protecting their equipment.

"In some parts of the country, farmers are having to turn their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from repeated thieves who are targeting quads, tractors and power tools."

He added that partnerships between police, farmers and rural organisations had helped tackle rural crime.
A man arrested in connection with an IRA bomb attack that killed a Catholic nun and three police officers in Northern Ireland has been released pending a report to prosecutors.

The 54-year-old suspect was detained at Belfast International Airport on Monday morning.

He was the second man questioned in relation to the 1990 attack in Co Armagh in less than a week.

A 55-year-old man arrested last Thursday was also released pending a police file being submitted to Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service.

Sister Catherine Dunne, Constable William Hanson, Reserve Constable Joshua Willis and Reserve Constable David Sterritt were killed when a landmine exploded on the Killylea Road, Armagh, on July 24 1990.

Another woman was seriously injured in the blast.

The arrests have been carried out by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's legacy investigation branch.
A mother-of-two was jailed on Monday for three years for what a senior judge described as the "horrific'' killing of pensioner Eddie Girvan in Co Antrim last year.

Margaret Henderson-McCarroll (31), formerly of Verner Street, Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the 67-year-old retired plumber who was stabbed, gagged and bound at his Greenisland home on January 18, 2017.

Dressed in denim jeans, black jacket and white top and with her red hair now dyed blonde, Henderson-McCarroll acknowledged family and friends in the public gallery as she was brought into court in handcuffs by prison staff.

Passing sentence on Monday at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice Treacy said the defendant would serve a further three years on licence as part of the six-year determinant custodial sentence he was imposing.

He said that he agreed with two consultant forensic psychologists that Henderson-McCarroll did not meet the dangerous provisions and that she did not pose a "significant risk of serious harm to the public in the future''.

This was an horrific crime and the deceased must have suffered terribly. Judge Justice Treacy

The prosecution accepted her guilty plea to the manslaughter of the Mr Girvan on the grounds of "diminished responsibility''.

Her defence had argued that at the time of the killing Henderson-McCarroll was high on a cocktail of heroin and crystal drugs.

A defence QC had told a plea and sentence hearing in June this year that at the time of the manslaughter her life had descended into a "heroin hell'' following the cot death of her infant daughter.

Summarising the background to the case, Mr Justice Treacy told the court that Henderson-McCarroll had known Mr Girvan for a number of years and she received "money for sex with him''.

He went on: "Police received a report of a road traffic accident in Belfast on the morning of January 18, 2016, involving a Hyundai car which was registered to the deceased, Mr Girvan.

"To progress their inquires, police called at his home at about 8.45am to speak to him but got no answer. They returned to his home again at 3pm but there was still no sign of Mr Girvan.

"Separately, at around 10.45am on the same date in the Lisburn Road area, police arrested you (Henderson-McCarroll) over an unrelated matter.

"You were eventually taken to Musgrave police station. At the same a number of items were discovered in your possession which included a satellite navigation system and a key belonging to a Hyundai car. When police checked the sat nav system it showed the home address of 162 Station Road, which was Mr Girvan's home.''

The court heard that because police could not make contact with Mr Girvan, officers were concerned for his safety and went back to his house for a third time and forced entry.

There they found the dead body of Mr Girvan bound, gagged and seated in a room on the ground floor. Photographs taken at the time showed clearly where he was and the state he was in. Mr Justice Treacy

Mr Justice Treacy said that Mr Girvan had sustained two stab wounds to his body - one wound was to upper right chest area measuring 10 centimetres in depth which had "punctured his lung causing high bleeding into the lung'' and which alone "could have resulted in death''.

The second stab injury was to the lower right part of his chest, three-and-a-half centimetres in depth, which penetrated the skin and soft tissue but "caused no vital damage''.

"Neither stab would have required any great force. The deceased had a large wad of kitchen roll stuffed into his mouth and he had been gagged with a tie. This too, of itself, could have resulted in death.''

The judge said that during police interviews, Henderson-McCarroll spoke about her life, about her relationship with Mr Girvan which involved "sex for money''.

"You told police that you had been at the deceased's home on Saturday, January 16, you told police about the drink and drugs you had taken there, and how you had stayed over in Greenisland that weekend.

"On the morning of Monday, January 18, 2016, you told police there was an argument in relation to money you alleged that Mr Girvan owed you for sex.

"During the argument, you allege that you were pushed against the mantelpiece, that the deceased pulled out a stick sword that had been down the side of the chair, that you grabbed the end of it, that there was a struggle, that there was a knife at hand to cut cake, that you lifted it and poked him, to use your words, in the chest, and he fell on the chair.

"You said that you panicked, that Mr Girvan was shouting at you, and so you put a tie on his mouth to quieten him. You then left his house, took his Hyundai car, drove to Belfast, were involved in a hit and run and had taken more heroin before the journey to calm your nerves.''

Mr Justice Treacy said that Henderson-McCarroll had 100 previous criminal convictions which included offences of robbery, theft and assault.

In a number of these attacks, she had bitten, punched and head butted some of her victims who included children, elderly men, young women and adult men.

A consultant forensic psychiatrist, who had examined the defendant, said in a report to the court that she had an addiction history to opiates and stimulants which had led to a "chaotic life''.

"It is evident from her abuse of illicit drugs intensified following the death of her infant daughter which led to a subsequent significant deterioration in her mental health and social functioning,'' the report stated.

"She also exhibits traits of an emotionally unstable personality disorder due to the background of violence and sexual abuse at the hands of a number of male partners.''

The report's author added that the defendant should receive access in prison to addiction services for her drug and alcohol abuse which could help to reduce the risk of her lapsing back into "high risk behaviours such as prostitution, self harm and violence in the future''.

Mr Justice Treacy also handed down concurrent prison sentences ranging from one month to a year after Henderson-McCarroll pleaded guilty to charges of theft, attempted theft, aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving, driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs, no insurance, failing to report and failing to stop at an accident.

She was also banned from driving for one year and the judge said any conditions to her release licence would be attached at the appropriate time by the relevant authorities.
MI5 are recruiting a finance officer in Belfast - a job which they describe as a "career like no other".

The successful applicant will earn 46,860 annually for the role which has been advertised online.

Applicants must be "born or naturalised British citizen" and you are not allowed to talk about your application with many people.

The job description reads: Its our mission to keep the country and its people safe. Not only does it make working here rewarding, it also provides a variety unlike anywhere else."

It continues: Combined with our supportive and flexible working environment, its the reason most of our people stay for a substantial part of their careers.

This is an opportunity to work within a unique finance community, providing dedicated support and ensuring we make the most of our resources.

The organisation also offers hopefuls the chance develop their skills and climb the ladder within.

We will help develop your personal, professional and technical skills, through both internal training and external courses.

Embedded within our finance community, you will help make sure money is managed effectively. It will also be your responsibility to support colleagues and managers through the monthly finance cycle, ensuring financial data is complete and accurate. You will meet with cost centre managers to determine and challenge future financial forecasts and provide accounting advice to customers.

So what are the requirements for the job?

To apply, a finance qualification (or willingness to work towards one) would be an advantage, although not essential if you have relevant experience or an aptitude for financial management.

"However, its vital you enjoy building strong relationships with partners and customers, sharing advice to inform spending decisions and manage financial risks."
Tractors have tracking devices to protect sheep from rustlers, NFU Mutual's regional manager for Northern Ireland

Farmers across Northern Ireland are being forced to turn their properties into fortresses to protect themselves from serial thieves, it has been claimed.

And fear of having their farms staked out by criminals is causing major anxiety for people living in rural areas.

The warnings come as a new report shows that rural crime cost 2.5m in Northern Ireland last year.

While this is a 15% reduction from 3m in 2015, the report authors, NFU Mutual, said countryside criminals continue to become more brazen and farmers are now having to continually increase security and adopt new ways of protecting their equipment.

"In some parts of the region, farmers are having to turn their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from repeated thieves who are targeting quads, tractors and power tools.

"They are using tracking devices on tractors, video and infra-red surveillance in their farm yards and even DNA markers to protect sheep from rustlers," said Martin Malone, NFU Mutual regional manager for Northern Ireland.

The items most commonly targeted by thieves across Northern Ireland over the last 12 months were ATV (All Terrain Vehicles) and quad bikes, livestock and tools.

The report reveals that being "staked out" is the biggest worry for country people, followed closely by longer police response times in rural areas.

"The threat of becoming a victim of rural crime, and regular reports of suspicious characters watching farms is causing high levels of anxiety amongst farmers who know their rural location makes them vulnerable to attacks," said Mr Malone.

He added: "Our advice to people living and working in the countryside is to regularly evaluate your current security measures, making improvements where necessary, remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the local police and local farm watch schemes."

The PSNI said agriculture crime represented 1.8% of all burglary, robbery and theft offences last year.

Superintendent Brian Kee, the PSNI's lead for rural and wildlife crime, said police understand the impact crime against the farming community has on farmers, their families, farm workers, businesses and the wider rural community.

"We are committed to working with partner agencies and voluntary groups to ensure a high standard of prevention and detection of criminal activity in rural areas," he added.
A popular Belfast restaurant is opening a second eatery at a new city centre building which will also play host to one of Northern Ireland's leading technology firms, it can be revealed.

The Barking Dog on the Malone Road will open a new restaurant at the newly refurbished Weaving Works, a former linen warehouse, on Ormeau Avenue.

And Newry financial software giant First Derivatives will become the anchor tenant in the office development.

The listed company employs around 1,300 staff across its sites.

The Weaving Works building will also play host to another Caffe Nero outlet on the ground floor.

The building has been developed by the Karl group.

The Barking Dog is now led by chef Michael O'Connor and manager Michael Fletcher. In a review of the top south Belfast spot last year, Belfast Telegraph food critic Joris Minne heaped praise on the bistro's food, including its 'astonishingly good' steak tartare.

Simon Moon, commercial manager at Karl, said: "It is brilliant to see exciting companies like First Derivatives, Caffe Nero and the Barking Dog expanding in Belfast.

"It is our mission to create places that enhance the lives of people and we believe that in bringing this historic building back to life, with touches of modern architecture from our architects RMI, we will do just that."

Plans for the redevelopment of the former Armagh House building were first revealed by the Belfast Telegraph in February 2016.

It is now due to be completed in December this year and, as a result of the new tenants, is now fully let.

"The Weaving Works represents the only office building to have achieved a 100% pre-letting for many years in Belfast city centre, underscoring what is a very well-conceived and executed development," Jago Bret, director of property firm GVA NI, said.

And Adrian Toner, chief operating officer of First Derivatives plc, said it is "another exciting milestone" for the business.

"It represents a significant investment for the firm in the city of Belfast, which mirrors similar investments being made in Newry, Dublin, London, Toronto and Singapore," he said.

"This building with its impressive history and stunning architecture will provide our present and future staff with a fantastic facility right in the heart of Belfast".

Danske Bank provided a "significant package of support to help fund the development", developers have said.

Paul Currid from the bank said "it is clear from the early letting that there was huge demand for a space of this quality".
Christopher Ward died after being struck by a vehicle last Friday

The family of a toddler who died hours after being struck by a truck have called him their "baby angel" and said they were praying he was "flying high".

Christopher Ward was knocked down on Friday morning at Dobson's Way in Bessbrook, Co Armagh.

He was rushed by relatives, who are settled Travellers, to Daisy Hill hospital in Newry.

Around 200 members of the Travelling community descended on the hospital desperately hoping for good news about the three-year-old, and were said to be "totally distraught" when they were told Christopher had died at around 1pm on Friday. One of Christopher's cousins, Chloe Maughan, posted photographs online of the little boy alongside tributes including: "RIP Christopher fly high angel."

She also posted a collage of pictures of Christopher on Facebook showing him playing on a swing and wearing a flat cap with the message: "Rest in eternal paradise in heaven above baby angel."

Her posts prompted tributes from friends including: "Can't get over it, poor infant, really is heartbroken" and "RIP angel".

Chloe wrote on Facebook while Christopher was in hospital: "Can everyone please pray for my baby cousin Christopher. Got kicked down there about half an hour ago. Please, please pray for him to be okay."

Local Sinn Fein councillor Roisin Mulgrew said the community sympathised with the Ward family.

She added: "It's just an absolute tragedy when a very young child loses his life in such a terrible accident.

"Irrespective of how long you have lived in an area, the entire community absolutely sympathises with you and offers up their thoughts and prayers.

"It's a horrific situation and one that no family should ever have to face."

SDLP MLA Justin McNulty said the entire area had been left stung by the news.

He said: "The community are in shock, I'm in shock. It is something that would be any family's, any parents', any community's worst nightmare.

"It's a really heartbreaking incident.

"It's a three-year-old boy and what can you say in such a situation, it's just dreadful.

"My thoughts and sympathies are with the family and obviously with the deceased. Rest in peace."

Ulster Unionist councillor David Taylor offered his condolences to Christopher's family, saying: "My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very sad time and I hope and trust they will find the necessary strength to cope with their grief over the difficult days which lie ahead."

Anyone who witnessed the collision is asked to contact police in Newry by calling 101, quoting reference 399.
Calls being taken at The University of Sheffield's clearing call centre

Last-minute places are set to be available at some of the UK's top universities this week, with some actively recruiting students.

Figures show that as of today, two thirds of Russell Group universities, considered among the best in the UK, were advertising courses on the Ucas clearing website.

In total, the site shows that there were around 4,700 undergraduates courses at these institutions with available places for English students.

A number of leading universities are encouraging students to consider studying with them, and even pre-register ahead of A-level results day on Thursday, when sixth-formers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive their grades and learn if they have secured a hoped-for spot on their chosen degree course.

Many are aiming to recruit students who perform better than expected in their exams and want to "trade" to a different university through the annual process known as adjustment, or those who simply want to change their course or university.

Ucas figures show that overall, around 890 applicants found places through adjustment last year, while around 50,000 were placed through the main clearing scheme.

Clearing is the annual process that matches students without places, for example those that did not meet their required grades, with available courses.

Sheffield University is running a campaign this summer which it said aims to " challenging the old perceptions around clearing" and tell high-performing students that if they do better than expected that they can switch to study at the institution.

Liz Hunt, Sheffield's head of admissions said: " The University of Sheffield is looking to recruit high quality students through adjustment and clearing this year and wants to ensure that students who achieve better grades than expected, students who applied late, and students who may have changed their mind about the course they wish to study, are aware that Sheffield is an option for them."

She added that students can register in advance of A-level results day to express their interest in courses, and those that do so, and achieve the required grades will be given priority consideration if places are available.

Cardiff University has been using Twitter to promote its places, using the social media site to encourage students to plan ahead for results day, view its vacancies and register for update.

According to the Ucas clearing site, Sheffield currently has available places for students in England on 381 undergraduate courses, and Cardiff has 366.

The 16 Russell Group universities showing undergraduate courses with availability for English students are Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, King's College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Queen Mary (University of London), Queen's University Belfast, Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick and York.

There is now no cap on student numbers which makes it easier for institutions to recruit more applicants if they want to.

The number of would-be students applying to university this autumn has fallen, according to Ucas statistics.

Overall, 649,700 people had applied by June 30, the last deadline for applications, down around 4% (down 25,190) compared with this point last year.

Those applying after the end of June do so through clearing.

A breakdown shows a 4% decrease in UK applicants, while the number of EU students planning to study at a UK university or college has fallen by 5%.

There has been a 2% rise in international students from countries outside the EU.

The statistics do show that the proportion of 18-year-olds in England applying to universities has reached a new high, with 37.9% planning to study for a degree, up from 37.2% in 2016.
Steve Gourley took this image of the shower lighting up the sky near Magherafelt

These were the spectacular scenes in the sky over Northern Ireland as the Earth flew through a cloud of cometary dust, producing a dazzling display of celestial fireworks.

The Perseid meteors, shed by comet Swift-Tuttle, stage their show every August and are among the brightest of all shooting stars.

A clear sky gave most parts of the UK an opportunity to spot the meteors, said Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna.

He said: "There were some good cloud breaks, so many areas would have had a good chance to see them during the early hours. It would have been pretty good viewing."

Photos posted online show the meteor shower lighting up the sky over Magherafelt and parts of Co Antrim.

Streaking flashes of light were also captured above Co Waterford, while Professor Richard Betts, from the Met Office Hadley Centre, tweeted late on Saturday night: "(East Devon, UK) 4 in space of 15 minutes, sadly clouding over now!"

The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 58 kilometres (36 miles) per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.

Seen from the Earth, the Perseids appear to originate from one place in the north-east known as the "radiant", which happens to be near the constellation Perseus. Because the density of the dust cloud varies, the meteors are not evenly spaced out. At certain times they can be close together and at others seem to disappear.

The Perseids were the first meteor shower to be linked to a comet when astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli spotted their association with Swift-Tuttle in 1862.

The comet orbits the sun every 135 years. As the Earth crosses its orbit, it ploughs through some of the debris left by the icy object on previous visits.
A march to commemorate the Ballymurphy massacre takes place on the Springfield Road

A senior Sinn Fein MLA has called on all the nationalist parties on the island to work together to deliver a united Ireland.

Delivering a speech in Co Mayo to commemorate the 1981 hunger strikes, Gerry Kelly also paid tribute to the late Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and said the political institutions at Stormont should be re-established.

"I challenge the leaders of the SDLP, Fine Gael, and Fianna Fail to stop hiding behind the mantra of now is not the time to discuss unity. One hundred years on since 1916, as we face into Brexit, now is the time not only to discuss unity, but to plan and deliver Irish unity," he said.

He added: "Sinn Fein wants an Ireland that is defined by hope, prosperity and opportunity for all citizens irrespective of their age, gender, religious persuasion, cultural identity, political affiliation, ethnic origin or sexual orientation."

He paid tribute to the former Deputy First Minister and the 1981 hunger strikers, 10 of whom died during the protest.

The North Belfast MLA also insisted that Sinn Fein wanted Stormont back up and running.

"We want the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement reinstated but on the basis of equality, mutual respect and integrity," he told the audience.

"The present talks, now stalled, are about implementing agreements already made. That is basic to a power-sharing Executive and Assembly."

Sinn Fein demands in the talks process include an Irish Language Act, a Marriage Equality Act, a Bill of Rights and measures to deal with legacy issues.

Mr Kelly said these were not unreasonable asks for people living in the north, "especially when they are rights everywhere else in Ireland and Britain".

Meanwhile, West Belfast MP Paul Maskey told the March for Truth rally organised by the relatives of the victims of the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre that Sinn Fein will continue to stand by the families and all victims of State violence who are campaigning for truth.

"Despite numerous reports highlighting the extent of collusion between British State forces and loyalist murder gangs, the British are attempting to deny the truth that everyone knows," he said.

"The frustration at continued cover-up by the British State recently found expression in the High Courts.

"Justice Stephens called on the PSNI to provide information to the courts in compliance with court orders after years of delaying tactics.

"And Justice Treacy recently called for an overarching inquiry into the activities of the infamous Glenanne Gang, which included members of the UDR and RUC and which murdered around 130 people, including the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, which claimed 33 lives in 1974."

The Sinn Fein representative added: "The British Government has abjectly failed to deal with the legacy of the past and the role of its forces and agents in numerous murders of citizens.

"Time and again we have seen this from Ballymurphy to Loughinisland to Springhill.

"But we will not let them rewrite history.

"Sinn Fein is committed to standing by relatives of victims of State violence and ensuring the mechanisms on dealing with the past in the Stormont House and other agreements are implemented fully."
Britain could keep the same customs arrangements with the European Union for an interim period in order to avoid "unnecessary disruption" for UK businesses, David Davis has said.

The Brexit Secretary will publish a paper on Tuesday outlining proposals for a time-limited transition, meaning businesses on both sides of the Channel only have to adapt once to rule changes.

Temporary arrangements could allow trade deals to be negotiated with other countries while governments and businesses adjust to new arrangements.

However, reports suggested this would have to be negotiated during Brexit talks, with members of the EU's customs union barred from striking their own trade deals outside the bloc.

Critics dubbed the proposals "a fantasy" and said they did little to provide the certainty businesses have called for.

Mr Davis, writing for the City AM newspaper, said the UK's new customs arrangements "will need to facilitate the freest and most frictionless possible trade in goods between Britain and the EU".

He said the Government would seek to negotiate an interim period with the EU in order to avoid "unnecessary disruption".

"That would be a strong indicator to all our businesses and citizens that politicians on both sides are serious about finding a constructive outcome that works for all involved. Doing so is our shared duty," he said.

"The united desire to avoid unnecessary disruption or a disorderly exit for the United Kingdom from the European Union is a strong foundation for the negotiations."

Ministers have been warned about the strain ports could be put under if they face a big increase in bureaucracy for dealing with goods entering and leaving the country.

The proposals for new customs arrangements to allow trade with the EU are being outlined in the first of a series of "future partnership papers" being released by the Government.

Although negotiations on a new system are not scheduled to start for some time, the Government said setting out its aims showed the UK's "desire to ensure our exit from the EU is smooth, orderly and successful".

One option being put forward by Mr Davis for new arrangements would see the UK manage a new customs border with administration streamlined to the "fullest extent possible".

The Brexit Secretary will also float plans for a customs partnership with the EU that would negate the need for a customs border between the UK and the rest of the bloc.

A position paper on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic will be published on Wednesday, ahead of the third round of Brexit negotiations in Brussels at the end of the month.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, called the proposals "incoherent and inadequate" in response to pleas for certainty from British businesses.

"Instead, the Cabinet remain split on key issues and cannot decide between two very different but equally unachievable options," he said.

"The first proposal suggests 'a new customs border with the EU' could be introduced without disrupting trade; the second suggests a new borderless customs partnership could somehow be agreed while Britain also signs external trade deals.

"These fantastical and contradictory proposals provide no guidance for negotiators or certainty for businesses.

"The proposals also make it less likely that necessary transitional arrangements will be in place by March 2019."

It comes after Chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said the UK would pull out of both the single market and the customs union in 2019.

Labour former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, a leading supporter of the Open Britain campaign group, said: "It looks like the new unified position in the Cabinet is to return the Government to the territory of wanting to have their cake and eat it.

"Ministers claim we can leave the customs union and yet still achieve 'the most frictionless customs agreement anywhere in the world' but with absolutely no detail about how such a miraculous new system will be achieved.

"It is a fantasy to pretend we can have the freest and most frictionless trade possible with our largest partner when the Government remain intent on pulling Britain out of the customs union."

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats Brexit spokesman, said the Government's "extreme Brexit will end up leaving Britain poorer".

He added: "Even if they were agreed to by the EU, these proposals will only delay the economic pain caused by leaving the customs union.

"We still face the prospect of more red tape for businesses, longer queues at our borders and higher prices for consumers once the transition comes to an end."
The scene of yesterdays attack in Portadown

Politicians have condemned a "vicious" attack on two men who were beaten by a gang armed with claw hammers in Co Armagh yesterday.

The victims, aged 22 and 25, sustained head injuries in the attack in Portadown.

A man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

One victim is being treated at Craigavon Area Hospital and the other was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Both were in a stable condition last night.

One man is understood to have a head injury while the other has broken bones.

The attack happened on the Garvaghy Road when a group of men exited a vehicle, understood to be a people carrier, brandishing weapons shortly before 4.30am yesterday.

A car, which police believe may be connected to the incident, was later found burned out on Drumnagoon Road.

Police conducted searches of the area yesterday and arrested a 50-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder.

Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly condemned the "extremely violent" attack which has "shocked the entire community".

"This was dangerous, if you go out with weapons like that and take them to human beings, it can only really end one way," she told the Belfast Telegraph.

"This was a brutal attack, which is unheard of in this community, and people are unsettled - there can be no justification for this."

The SDLP politician called for no retaliation.

"This was certainly not a random attack, it took planning and I encourage anyone with information to take it to the police," she added.

"You can't have gangs of violent people roaming the streets and taking the law into their own hands.

"I would warn against any kind of retaliation, which would only serve to make things worse."

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley condemned those responsible and warned there can be "no place for such violence".

"This was a very serious attack carried out by dangerous individuals prepared to inflict such violence upon other people," he said.

"I would encourage anyone with information to pass it on so those responsible can be brought to justice."

DUP councillor Darryn Causby expressed concerns over the "appalling" attack.

"It's a strange set of circumstances and the apparent element of premeditation is very alarming," he said.

"I hope that is not indicative of something more sinister.

"There can be no excuse for anyone to take the law into their own hands, regardless of any possible motivation."

Mr Causby said his thoughts were with the two victims.

"I hope they make a full recovery and are out of hospital soon," he added.

Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact detectives at Lurgan on 101.
A 100,000 euro reward is still being offered for information that would solve the case of Trevor Deely

Detailed searches are continuing on cleared woodland for the body of missing bank worker Trevor Deely.

The 22-year-old vanished in south Dublin after calling to his office in the then Bank of Ireland Asset Management building on Wilton Terrace in the early hours of December 8, 2000, following a work Christmas party.

On Saturday gardai confirmed the search site off the Old Lucan Road in Chapelizod in the west of the city - several miles from where Mr Deely was last seen on CCTV.

A large digger and industrial waste bins were on the land after initial clearance and geophysical analysis took place.

The three acre patch of overgrown scrubland and woodland, surrounded by eight feet high walls, remained cordoned off. Gates at one entrance have been covered with black plastic sheets and a fence is being erected inside the search site.

CCTV cameras have also been installed around the perimeter.

A 100,000 euro reward was offered earlier this year for information that could solve the case.

The renewed public appeal coincided with cold case detectives revealing that enhanced CCTV footage had been secured showing a man in black clothing acting suspiciously at the rear entrance to Mr Deely's office block between 3am and 3.34am on December 8, 2000, just before Mr Deely arrived.

It shows the man dressed in black step out onto the footpath outside the offices on Wilton Terrace, a short distance from Baggot Street bridge, at 3.34am.

Moments later, Mr Deely can be seen arriving at the rear gates of the bank offices followed by the man and the two of them have a brief conversation.

The man is later seen walking in the same direction as Mr Deely a few seconds after he passes a Bank of Ireland ATM machine on Haddington Road at approximately 4.14am.

Gardai discovered an old VHS recording which was digitally enhanced by experts in the UK.
A Eurostar passenger reportedly sparked a bomb scare at a French station after trying to board the train to London with a military relic.

The cross-border operator said Gare du Nord station in Paris was evacuated after a suspect package was discovered on Saturday afternoon.

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Witnesses reported scenes of confusion at the transport hub, with several saying on social media that they heard a controlled explosion.

One person wrote on Twitter: No information on whats going on at gare du Nord!?! Massive queues, delays , explosion Any update for your passengers?

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Eurostar replied to another person online, writing: Somebody tried to take through a military relic so its just being checked and check in should be open very shortly.

The high-speed service provider reassured passengers that services had not been cancelled but interrupted until further notice.

One tweet read: Check-in was interrupted due to the presence of a suspect package which caused the evacuation. Were sorry for the inconvenience.

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Businessman Martin Adams was on his way to get the 4.13pm service to London when police cordoned off half of the station.

The 31-year-old, who had been returning from a weekend in the French capital with friends, told the Press Association: The police told us that there would be a controlled explosion and about 10 minutes later there was, nobody panicked and everybody just got about lining up for their trains.

A lot of people missed the 4.13pm as a result but Eurostar placed people on later trains.

My wife heard someone say in the security line that it was a tourist trying to bring a part of an old WWII bomb back through customs.

This wasnt confirmed to us by Eurostar or security who just referred to security issues when announcing delays.
Dalian Atkinson's family are still reeling from loss a year after his Taser death (PA Wire)

The family of Dalian Atkinson have said they are still reeling from our loss, a year after the ex-Aston Villa striker died after being shot with a police Taser.

The 48-year-old was fatally shot in the street where he grew up in Telford, Shropshire, after West Mercia Police were called to an incident on August 15 last year.

Mr Atkinsons family said: A year has gone by and were still reeling from our loss. Dalian was our baby brother.

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Our determination to get to the facts and to see that appropriate action is taken will not be weakened by the passing of time. Were buckled in for the long haul.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) earlier revealed that three West Mercia Police officers have been interviewed under criminal caution and served with gross misconduct notices relating to his death.

The watchdog said it has has been looking into the level and type of force used during the incident, and considering evidence from 15 other police officers and more than 15 members of the public.

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Paramedics and doctors were unable to revive Atkinson, despite administering CPR on him for more than an hour after he was taken to hospital.

His funeral was attended by hundreds of mourners, including former Aston Villa stars Ian Taylor and Tommy Johnson and scores of fans, at Telford crematorium last November.

Mondays statement, issued by the team leading the inquest into his death, renews the familys previous demands for answers over the use of force during the former players confrontation with police.
Children are still penalised for being left-handed with ministers lacking the information to understand the scale of the problem, education campaigners have warned.

It is also feared a disproportionate number of prisoners are left-handed, with calls to research whether classroom struggles trigger a downward spiral in which pupils get low marks, their self-esteem drops and their future opportunities are damaged.

The Government has stood firm on the national curriculum despite campaigners asking for it to include a legal duty for left-handed pupils to receive specific teaching to meet their needs  something which is currently non-statutory guidance.

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Education minister Nick Gibb, in a letter responding to concerns, said teachers need to ensure all pupils  including left-handers  receive whatever specific support they require to make progress and recognise which youngsters need extra help.

But handwriting experts and politicians believe there is a failure to recognise the difficulties encountered by left-handed youngsters which can hamper their development.

They believe many teachers are unaware about how to spot the signs while improvements to training would enable them to make simple but effective adjustments, such as a how a pupil holds a pen.

A Worcester-based alliance which has campaigned for more than 20 years and has involved  among others  MPs and Mark Stewart, who specialises in helping left-handed children improve their handwriting and offers training to teachers, has been left frustrated by a lack of progress in developing Government data and teacher training.

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Former Conservative minister Sir Peter Luff, who is left-handed and was MP for Mid Worcestershire until 2015, told the Press Association: This should be so easy to sort. Its of extreme importance and will cost nothing to address  not a penny.

It takes a few strokes of the pen, a modest change to the teacher training syllabus and you are away.

Its bizarre kids in our schools are penalised because they happen to be left-handed. Its bewildering successive governments have failed to act on this. Its so easy to do.

Mr Stewart, who runs Worcester-based Left n Write with his wife Heather, told the Press Association: In many cases theres no active help, theres a lack of teaching training.

The Department for Education cannot speak with authority  it has no numbers on how many children are left-handed, no way of knowing if it has any impact on likely educational attainment.

The Department for Education does not record how many children are left-handed in the countrys primary and secondary schools, stating this is because it is not considered a disability.

A Department for Education spokesman said: We trust teachers to provide support to children who are struggling for any reason.

The Ministry of Justice said it does not record how many prisoners are left-handed.
In a effort to prevent boozed-up passengers becoming a nuisance for their fellow flyers, Ryanair has called for measures to be put in place to curtail airport drinking.

The Irish airline says that it would like to see the banning of all alcohol sales in bars and restaurants before 10am, the introduction of the mandatory use of boarding cards when purchasing alcoholic drinks in bars and restaurants, and limiting the number of drinks per passenger to a maximum of two.

Ryanair has also said that it would also like to see the sale of additional alcohol during flight delays limited to a maximum of two.

This comes after the Civil Aviation Authority reported a 600% increase in the number of disruptive passenger incidents in the UK between 2012 and 2016.

Speaking about the proposed clampdown, Ryanair's chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: "Its completely unfair that airports can profit from the unlimited sale of alcohol to passengers and leave the airlines to deal with the safety consequences.

"This is a particular problem during flight delays when airports apply no limit to the sale of alcohol in airside bars and restaurants. This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed."

Ryanair has already taken a number of measures to curtail disruptive behaviour onboard its UK flights, including preventing customers from consuming their own duty-free purchases, and barring passengers on flights from Glasgow Prestwick and Manchester to Alicante and Ibiza from bringing their duty free purchases on board.

Passengers on these flights are asked to put their alcohol in the hold or to leave it behind them.

Ryanair currently flies from Belfast International Airport to destinations in Germany, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

This comes ahead of the broadcast of a BBC Panorama programme that reveals that in one year there was a 50% increase in the number of passengers suspected of being drunk arrested on board and in airports around the UK.

In a survey of Unite union's cabin crew members carried out by the programme, one in five said that they had suffered physical abuse on board a flight.
Theresa May is expected to arrive back in Downing Street on Thursday as ministers spend the week fleshing out details of their hopes for Britains future with the EU after Brexit.

The Government will spell out its aims for new customs arrangements after the UK has quit the bloc in documents released by Brexit Secretary David Davis.

A position paper on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is also due to be published later this week.

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It comes as Mrs May is expected to be back at her desk on Thursday after holidays in Europe totalling around three weeks.

The Prime Minister enjoyed a break in Italy lasting nearly a week at the end of July and is now away with husband Philip in Switzerland.

The Government has faced complaints from Brussels over a lack of clarity on the British negotiating position on Brexit.

Downing Street said it was clear the talks had shown that the divorce could only be settled with in light of the future relationship with the EU.

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The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: We had the first rounds of the negotiation and those talks have shown that many of the withdrawal questions can only be settled in light of the future partnership, so now is the time to set out our approach to that partnership to inform the upcoming negotiations and to provide citizens and businesses at home and across Europe with a deeper understanding of our thinking.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reported to have warned his first two rounds of talks with Mr Davis, covering the opening issues of the Irish border, the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britains divorce bill, had made limited progress.

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Meanwhile, The Times said the slow progress so far had led to complaints in Whitehall that senior officials were now trying to rush through decisions in an attempt to break the policy logjam.

There were said to be concerns that Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU were railroading issues through at a time when many ministers were away, leading to poor decision-making.

But following a summer marked by speculation over a possible leadership challenge and jostling for position among senior ministers over Brexit, there was some respite for the Prime Minister with an apparent truce between two of the leading protagonists.

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Chancellor Philip Hammond, who favours a soft, pro-business Brexit, and the Brexiteer International Development Secretary Liam Fox signed up to a joint statement at the weekend agreeing that there would have to be a transition period after Britain has left the EU.

They agreed that while the measure was necessary to ensure there was no cliff-edge break for businesses, it would be time-limited and that Britain would leave the EU single market and the customs union when it left the bloc.

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Senior Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin welcomed unity in the Cabinet and questioned why the EU would not treat the UK the same as other countries who have no free trade deal with the bloc but have agreements over aviation services, customs facilitation and product recognition.

Mr Jenkin, chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Why wouldnt they afford us the same kind of reasonable arrangements unless they want to punish us?

And if they want to punish us, should we be intimidated by their determination to punish us? Are they such a dysfunctional and destructive organisation that they would punish themselves as well as us by imposing such a ridiculous scenario  and of course they wont.
A US-based doctor has received messages of support after taking to Twitter to speak about the racism she confronts at her hospital.

Esther Choo, from Oregon, shared her experience about white nationalists visiting her hospital and refusing to accept her care.

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In a 10-tweet thread, Choo wrote: Weve got a lot of white nationalists in Oregon. So a few times a year, a patient in the ER refuses treatment from me because of my race.

I dont get angry or upset, just incredulous over the psychology of it. The conversation usually goes like this Me: I understand your viewpoint. I trained at elite institutions & have been practising for 15 years. You are welcome to refuse care under my hands, but I feel confident that I am the most qualified to care for you. Especially since the alternative is an intern.

Choo goes on to say that they usually end up going for the white intern.

Breathtaking, isnt it? she continued. To be so wedded to your theory of white superiority, that you will bet your life on it, even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary?

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Sometimes I just look at them, my kin in 99.9% of our genetic code, and fail to believe they dont see our shared humanity.

But Choo adds that she doesnt let the hate get to her any more, saying: I used to cycle through disbelief, shame, anger.

Now I just show compassion and move on. I figure the best thing I can do is make sure their hate finds no purchase here.

Her message her received a lot of support on Twitter and many praised her for her compassion and being an inspiration.

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The latest attack brings back painful memories of a January 2016 attack at another cafe that killed 30 people

An attack by suspected Islamic extremists on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou has left 18 people dead and several others injured.

The dead are "mainly children and women", and it is feared the toll could rise after several people were wounded by gunfire, a government spokesman said.

Two terrorists were "neutralised" following the incident, which was stopped by Burkina Faso's special forces after a seven-hour battle.

At least three members of the security forces were wounded during the assault, according to security forces spokesman Captain Guy Ye.

Assailants arrived at the restaurant on motorcycles and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining on Sunday evening, reports said.

Security forces arrived at the scene in armoured vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul.

This is the second such attack on the popular restaurant in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence.

Among the 18 dead is at least one French person and a Turkish person.

French president Emmanuel Macron has condemned the attack, and promised France's continued support to countries in West Africa against terror groups.

Mr Macron said he will speak to Burkina Faso's president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, following the incident.

Mr Macron also praised the "effective mobilisation" of Burkina Faso's security forces at the scene and expressed solidarity with the attack victims' families.

In addition to those killed, eight others were wounded, communications minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said.

The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world.

It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

In the 2016 attack the attackers were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for those killings along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun.

However, the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local radical preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians.

His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.

AP
Maggie Taylor constructs photomontages to create a dreamlike world inhabited by everyday objects. Runs through 9/9.

Opening & Artist Reception

Friday July 7, 57pm

On View: July 7  September 9, 2017

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

photo-eye Gallery is thrilled to announce Maggie Taylor: A tale begun in other days an exhibition of color photomontages from our newest represented artist Maggie Taylor opening Friday July 7th and continuing through September 2nd, 2017. An Opening and Artist Reception will take place on Friday, July 7th from 5  7 PM.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Maggie Taylor constructs what she terms dreamlike worlds inhabited by everyday objects. An early adopter, Maggie Taylor has been utilizing digital technology to build her evocative and elaborate photomontages for more than 20 years. These whimsical narratives often begin as pastel background drawings with additional components such as 19th Century photographs, drawings, vintage toys, seashells, feathers, and taxidermy scanned and meticulously arranged over time to complete the scene. Working instinctively, Taylor crafts a surreal alternate reality rife with curious peculiarities and rich in symbolism.

"I work very spontaneously and intuitively, trying to come up with images that have a resonance and a somewhat mysterious narrative content. There is no one meaning for any of the images, rather they exist as a kind of visual riddle or open-ended poem, meant to be both playful and provocative. "  Maggie Taylor

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Maggie Taylor is an artist who lives amid the Spanish moss and live oaks at the edge of a small swamp on the outskirts of Gainesville, Florida. Taylors photomontages have been widely exhibited and have been collected by many museums including the following: The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; The George Eastman House, Rochester; Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; The Art Museum, Princeton University; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; and The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University among others. Maggie Taylor's work is also featured in the following publications: Adobe Photoshop Master Class: Maggie Taylor's Landscape of Dreams, Peachpit Press; Solutions Beginning with A, Modernbook Editions; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Modernbook Editions; Album, Edizioni Si; and No Ordinary Days, University Press of Florida.

For more information please contact Anne Kelly - anne@photoeye.com | 505-988-5152 x202
The elephant is said to have charged a group of hunters

An elephant has trampled and killed an Argentinian hunter who was among a group tracking a herd in Namibia.

Local media reported that 46-year-old Jose Monzalvez was killed on Saturday afternoon in a private wildlife area 43 miles north-west of the small town of Kalkfeld.

Mr Monzalvez, who worked for an oil company, was with another Argentinian and three Namibians when he was killed.

One of the elephants is reported to have charged before the group was able to shoot.

Relatives have been informed of Mr Monzalvez's death.
Demonstrators take part in a protest against large-scale government logging in the Bialowieza Forest, Poland (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)

Hundreds of people have gathered in an ancient forest in Poland to protest against widespread logging the government has ordered in the area.

The Bialowieza Forest, one of Europe's last primeval woodlands and a Unesco World Heritage Site, is the subject of heated political dispute over the logging ordered by Poland's conservative ruling Law and Justice party.

Environmentalists and the European Union oppose the logging, while the government argues it is necessary to fight a bark beetle infestation.

Environmentalists from Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe joined Polish activists on Sunday to oppose what they see as destruction of the natural site.

The government has defied a July order by the EU's Court of Justice to immediately stop the cutting.

AP
Warner Bros.

Can a spirit enter an inanimate object? According to demonology books, demonic activity involving a doll was despoiling a Connecticut home. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were involved in examining in what is considered the "Devil Doll'" when a mother innocently acquired an antique Raggedy Ann doll in 1970. The doll was a birthday present for her daughter, Donna, who placed the new toy on the bed. However, there was something unsettling about the red headed friend which would move into strange positions on its own. One day the arms would be folded and another day the doll was found standing on its feet without human manipulation.

Dark and mysterious, the film, "Annabelle: Creation," is based on this disturbing story and is a spin-off to "The Conjuring." This time audiences will be taken through the infamous dolls very beginningsfrom her first home in a little girls room to her first ownership of her soul. After a chilling cameo in The Conjuring, the fictional part of this story is about toy maker Sam Mullins and his wife Esther who welcomed a nun and orphaned girls into their home. Tragedy then strikes and the couple loses their 7-year-old daughter Annabelle in a car accident. Suddenly, terror torments the home and the family through a doll. Anthony LaPaglia takes on the role of Samuel Mullins. "It's not my genre particularly in life, horror films," the actor admitted. "I never did a straight-up horror genre before so that was interesting. I am always up to a new challenge." When asked if he believed in paranormal activity, he said: "There was not enough science to back it up."

Most Americans might disagree. About 3 in 4 Americans profess at least one paranormal belief, according to a Gallup survey. The most popular is an extrasensory perception with 41 percent, followed closely by those believing in haunted houses (37 percent). In the U.S., 18 percent say theyve seen or been in the presence of a ghost, People admitted demons could inhabit your body and they existed. Specifically, 56 percent of men said they believed in demons who could do this and 59 percent women said the same. However, among people between the ages of 18-29, that number was even higher. About 63 percent of people in that age group stated that they believed that it was possible for people to be possessed by demons.

It's no surprise movie-goers enjoy the clash between good and evil and they will get there chance in the movie. Miranda Otto (Esther Mullins), who is the wife to Mr. Mullins, fights to destroy the demon's dangerous agenda. Mullins was on the fence regarding paranormal activity, but "I do get premonitions of things that are going to happen. I dream about things and then they happen." LaPaglia added, "What am I doing tomorrow?" They laughed, but many people like Otto do have premonitions through dreams or through a feeling. The Virgin Mary experienced premonitions in visions and in visitations. They may alert us to problems and help others as well. We don't know if the characters in the film had premonitions regarding what was ready to befall them, but according to the former owner of the real Annabelle doll, there was a peculiar sensation about the toy.



During LaPaglia's crucifixion scene, there's an eeriness in taking on the devil head-on. Although this is Hollywood, in reality, there are real exorcists who operate without a script. Fr. Francisco Lopez Sedano conducted over 5,000 exorcisms. He shared about how a typical session would begin. I am nobody, but I come from Christ, your Lord, and God and you leave right now  I command you in His name that you go. Out! Fr. Lopez explained to Los Angeles Today, the devil enters into a person because they allow him to do so. He cant enter us if we do not open doors, the priest added. Because of this, God prohibits the practice of magic, superstition, witchcraft, sorcery, divination, consulting the dead and spirits and astrology.

Corine Gatti-Santillo is a freelance digital journalist, editor, and content producer. She is also the The Christian Post Voices Editor. She is also a former editor at Beliefnet.com.

A doll is a perfect conduit to be used. Stephanie Sigman, who plays Sister Charlotte, was so disturbed by the dolls and according to a rumor, she asked a priest to come in and bless the dolls on the set. LaPaglia told dreadcentral.com since he was a Lapsed Catholic. "Im not big on the supernatural. Im pretty much a science guy. I need scientific proof myself. Otherwise, its totally open, its not objective at all, but I also respect that people do have those feelings."No matter where you stand on the paranormal, "Annabelle: Creation," is expected to be filled with twists and turns. You don't have to believe in the real Annabelle, possessions, exorcisms or ghosts, to enter an alien world of wickedness to be entertained. But when you're at the movies, remember that Raggedy Ann is sitting in a special case built for the Occult Museum in Connecticut. She was exorcised by a priest several times and it's believed that some energy remains attached to this doll. If thoughts of the real doll is scary, stick with the film, it's much safer.
A United Nations aid worker gathers information about Rohingya refugees at a makeshift camp in the outskirts of Jammu, June 20, 2017.

India is considering deporting about 40,000 Rohingya refugees living in the country illegally and is in talks with Myanmar and Bangladesh to come up with a feasible solution, a government official confirmed Monday.

Diplomatic talks are [being] organized by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) regarding this issue. An advisory to the states has already been issued, K.S. Dhatwalia, spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs, told BenarNews.

The Home Ministry last week wrote to the governments of all Indian states and union territories directing them to identify and monitor all Rohingya living in their territories illegally.

These illegal migrants not only infringe on the rights of Indian citizens but some also pose grave security challenges. Illegal migrants are more vulnerable for getting recruited by terrorist organizations. Infiltration from Rakhine State of Myanmar into Indian Territory, especially in recent years, besides being [a] burden on the limited resources of the country, also aggravates the security challenges posed to the country, the advisory said.

All States/UT administrations are, therefore, advised to sensitize all the law enforcement and intelligence agencies for taking prompt steps in identifying the illegal migrants and initiate the deportation processes expeditiously and without delay, it added.

Meanwhile, an official at the home ministry told BenarNews on condition of anonymity that talks with the neighboring nations were already under way.

A military crackdown in Rakhine in October caused an estimated 75,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to southeastern Bangladesh. Newly arrived refugees reported witnessing killings, rapes and acts of arson carried out by government forces against their people  allegations Myanmar has denied.

The government of Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya, considered one of the most persecuted communities in the world, as citizens, and officials in that country often refer to them as Bengalis.

No protection

Rohingya are among more than 200,000 foreigners who have fled to India from conflicts in other countries. However, India has no legal framework that recognizes or protects them as refugees.

During bilateral meetings with the concerned countries all issues of mutual interest and concerns are discussed, Abu Mathen George, spokesman for the MEA, told BenarNews without going into the details.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque denied knowledge of any such discussion between India and Bangladesh.

[We] have received a proposal from Myanmar on the repatriation of all Rohingya from Bangladesh. But I do not know whether India is associated with it. We have not got any proposal from India to discuss the issue, Haque told BenarNews.

Asif Munier, a Dhaka-based analyst on Rohingya issues, said a three-way meeting among Bangladesh, India and Myanmar was the only way to find a reasonable solution.

A huge number of Rohingya have been living in Bangladesh. So India and Bangladesh should come together to put diplomatic pressure on Myanmar, Munier told BenarNews.

There should be a tripartite meeting and such a meeting can bring out a solution to the problem, he said.

16,500 registered with UN

About 16,500 Rohingya refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India.

The UNHCR has not received any official communication with regard to [the] deportation of Rohingya refugees, the UNHCRs New Delhi office said in an email to BenarNews.

The principle of non-refoulement, or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger, is considered part of customary international law and therefore binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not, it said.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the UNHCR registration of illegal immigrants is irrelevant.

They are doing it; we cant stop them from registering. But we are not [a] signatory to the accord on refugees. As far as we are concerned, they are illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal immigrant will be deported, Rijiju told Reuters.

Rohingya who settled in India said they feared being deported.

In Myanmar, the current situation for us is still very bad and we fear going back at this moment, Mohammad Salim of the Delhi-based Rohingya Refugee Association told BenarNews.

Bangladesh, too, is a major problem for us as more than 400,000 Rohingya are already living there since the 1980s. And because it is a small country, the Rohingya population often have conflicts with the locals there, said Salim, who fled to India from Rakhine in 2012.

The Rohingya community will seek a meeting with the chief of the U.N. mission in India this week to urge the Indian government to reconsider its decision, Salim said.

If we are deported, we will ask the Indian government to ensure our security, he said.

Jesmin Papri in Dhaka contributed to this report.
Worshippers attend a prayers for peace rally in Hagatna, the capital of Guam, Aug. 13, 2017.

Philippine officials on Monday called on the United States and North Korean leaders to calm themselves and start diplomatic talks amid threats of a possible missile strike from Pyongyang targeting Guam, a tiny American territory in the Pacific that hosts tens of thousands of Filipinos.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella called on both parties to desist from threats and military action and to avoid sabre-rattling to ease the tension.

And we enjoin all sides to start talks, which should be greatly facilitated by an end to missile test and attack threats, Abella said.

Earlier, North Korea announced it was considering firing missiles at Guam following criticism from Washington, which has challenged its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The escalation of the threat occurred just days after the U.S. and North Korea attended a top-level security forum in Manila where the Philippines as this years chairman of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed concern over Pyongyangs recent weapons tests.

The Philippines and the nine other ASEAN nations have diplomatic ties with North Korea. Five maintain embassies there.

The U.S. has led calls for Pyongyang to be isolated and called on the hermit kingdom to be suspended from the ASEAN Regional Forum, a group of 27 nations including the 10 ASEAN members and North Korea.

North Koreas top diplomat Ri Yong Ho responded that he was not prepared to talk with his South Korean counterpart and accused the U.S. of bullying, saying his country was ready to retaliate.

Abella said the Philippine embassy in Guam has instituted a contingency plan should the security situation deteriorate beyond rhetoric and erupt into a full-blown military conflict. No details were released about the plan.

We ask all Filipinos in Guam and Korea and their families here to inform (the foreign office) or our consular officials of their whereabouts, Abella said.

Guam, more than 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) from the Philippines, is home to about 42,000 Filipinos. Another 65,000 are in South Korea.

The Philippines top diplomats in Seoul and in Guam have given their assurances that their respective contingency plans have been set in motion, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Philippine troops move to the main battle zone in the war-torn southern city of Marawi, where gunmen from the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups are locked in vicious gun battles with security forces, Aug. 1, 2017.

Philippine troops killed a ranking leader of the Abu Sayyaf group who was behind high-profile abductions including the 2013 kidnapping of a Taiwanese tourist in Malaysia, the military said Monday.

Abu Sayyaf subleader Salvador Muktadil was confirmed killed before dawn Sunday in a gun battle off the southern Philippine island of Sulu, near the town of Parang, about 1,000 km (625 miles) south of Manila, the military said.

His death is considered a big blow to the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), which is locked in vicious fighting with the military on several fronts in the south, including in Marawi, a city overrun by another rebel faction led by Isnilon Hapilon.

Hapilon, considered the leader of the so-called Islamic State group in the Philippines, has been entrenched in Marawi since May 23. He is backed by fighters from the local Maute gang and an undetermined number of fighters from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Suppressed

Muktadil, (alias Badong), was wanted for the kidnapping of Taiwanese national Evelyn Chang from Malaysia's Sabah state in 2013, and the abductions of Chinese-Filipina Yahong Lim in 2014 and local mayor Gemma Adana in 2015, both from southern Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Chang was kept in captivity for more than a month, Lim was freed after two years and Adana was held for six months. All three were released after alleged payments of ransom.

Badong is well-experienced in operating speedboats utilized by the Abu Sayyaf as getaway vehicles in executing kidnapping ploys," said Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of a military task force in Sulu.

"His death rendered high-seas kidnappings, particularly in Tawi-Tawi and Sabah, suppressed," Sobejana said, referring to the Philippines southernmost province that shares a sea border with the Malaysian state of Sabah and North Kalimantan in Indonesia.

With armed membership numbering in the low-hundreds, the Abu Sayyaf, or Bearers of the Sword, was founded in the early 1990s to fight for an Islamic state in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

However, the group burst onto the international scene in the late 1990s after carrying out random attacks, including bombings, abductions and beheadings. During the last decade, they successfully kidnapped and ransomed off a string of American and European hostages.

Military successes on the field decimated its core leadership, but new leaders have emerged. The group is believed to be still holding at least 13 foreign hostages.

In July, two Vietnamese hostages were found decapitated after troops clashed with the ASG in Sulu. The gunmen also beheaded a German captive earlier this year and two Canadians last year after their governments rejected ransom demands.

Human shield slow militarys advance in Marawi

Isnilon led a contingent in attacking Marawi, a city of 200,000 in the main southern island of Mindanao. His forces burned structures and kidnapped dozens of locals, many of whom were being used as human shields, officials said.

The military has poured hundreds of troops in the area in a bid to retake the city, and dropped bombs into rebel strongholds, transforming the once picturesque city into a desolate, pockmarked landscape.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has placed the entire south under military control, has also sought the help of longtime allies the United States and Australia, which are both providing logistical support, including intelligence gathering.

Neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have also offered greater anti-terrorism cooperation in a bid to stem the flow of militants across borders.

Military: leaders preparing fatwa

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla told reporters in Manila that 41 local executives composed of mayors and governors and local religious leaders were set to declare a fatwa or religious edict against the Abu Sayyaf and Maute fighters in Marawi.

The fatwa would denounce violent extremism and would target potential efforts by those fighting in Marawi to rebuild their ranks, Padilla said.

He said the fatwa would likely be issued this week, and could help the military retake Marawi.

Local military officials estimate that from a high of more than 600 rebel fighters, there are just about 20 to 40 fighters left, with the fighting confined to just two villages, Padilla said.

But the key extremist leaders are still alive and are believed well-armed and with a sufficient supply of food, making it difficult for the military to quickly advance, he said.

The extremists were believed to be holding some 300 hostages, including women and several church workers led by a Catholic priest, officials said.

So the (enemy) force is getting smaller. And their capacity to inflict harm, by the way, is still there because they still have arms, they still have adequate ammunition and  they still continue to hold hostages, Padilla said.

So thats the compounding factor, he said.
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For Immediate Release, August 14, 2017 Contact: Haley McKey, (202) 772-0247, hmckey@defenders.org

Ron Sutherland, (919) 641-0060, ron@wildlandsnetwork.org

Kim Wheeler, (252) 796-5600, kwheeler@redwolves.com

Collette Adkins, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org

Maggie Howell, Wolf Conservation Center, (914) 763-2373, maggie@nywolf.org Public Overwhelmingly Supports Protecting Wild Red Wolves Americans Want to Preserve North Carolina's Endangered Species WASHINGTON Nearly all public comments submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about red wolves support recovering the wild population in the southeastern United States, according to an analysis announced today by a coalition of conservation groups. This tremendous public support should prompt the feds to finally commit to working toward red wolf recovery, said Collette Adkins, a biologist and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. The science shows that red wolves can be saved, but with fewer than 50 left in the wild, now is the time to act. Of all public comments about red wolves, 54,992 of those  99.8 percent  supported recovering the red wolf in the wild in North Carolina. Just 25 of the comments the Fish and Wildlife Service has received opposed wild red wolf recovery, with just 10 comments supporting the agency's proposed plan to remove most red wolves from the wild and place them in captivity. Statements from North Carolina residents similarly support recovering the red wolf. Fully 98.6 percent of comments from North Carolinians encouraged the Service to do more to save the critically imperiled species, one of the most endangered carnivores in the world. At the local level, more than two-thirds, or 68.4 percent, of the comments from the current five-county red wolf recovery area in North Carolina supported the red wolf program, debunking the myth that red wolves lack local support. This overwhelmingly positive response sends a crystal clear message: Americans support red wolf conservation and want the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do the right thing and restore this species throughout its native range in the southeastern United States, said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife. The Service needs to roll up its sleeves and put in the time and effort needed to bring this species back from the brink of extinction. Many of the comments showed a profound appreciation for the ecological importance of returning the red wolf to southeastern landscapes, said Dr. Ron Sutherland, conservation scientist for the Wildlands Network. People drew frequent comparisons to the better-known situation at Yellowstone National Park, where the reintroduced gray wolves have been shown to be essential to the health of the park's ecosystems. Conservation groups and a team of scientists also submitted detailed comments. These letters cite evidence that the agency's plan to pull back on red wolf conservation actions would drive the species extinct in the wild a second time and offer proactive suggestions for recovering the species across the southeastern United States. The statements posted during the required public comment period demonstrate the overwhelming support for red wolf conservation, said Kim Wheeler, executive director of the Red Wolf Coalition, Inc. The Red Wolf Coalition encourages the USFWS to use the comments provided by the American public in developing the new rules that will govern the management of the critically endangered red wolf. Every voice raised in support of wildlife can make a difference and Americans overwhelmingly support red wolf recovery, said Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center. We're counting on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take notice and follow the best available science to ensure that the world's most endangered wolves remain a living, breathing part of the southeastern landscape.



Background

The red wolf is one of the world's most endangered species and can only be found in the wild in North Carolina. From an initial reintroduced population of 14 wolves in 1987, the population grew to 130 individuals by 2006. But now, only a reported 45 red wolves are left in the wild. Shootings and nonlethal removals threaten the wolves by disturbing pack dynamics and promoting hybridization with coyotes. The best available science demonstrates that red wolves are still recoverable. A 2014 report written by the Wildlife Management Institute concluded that recovery would require reintroduction of two additional wild populations and an investment of additional resources to build local support for red wolf recovery. Yet the Service has proposed confining red wolf recovery to federal public lands, shrinking the animals' recovery area from five counties in North Carolina to just one bombing range and one wildlife refuge in a single county.


For Immediate Release, August 14, 2017 Contact: Camilla Fox, Project Coyote, (415) 690-0338, cfox@projectcoyote.org

Collette Adkins, Center for Biological Diversity, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org

Amey Owen, Animal Welfare Institute, (202) 446-2128, amey@awionline.org

Natalia Lima, Animal Legal Defense Fund, (201) 679-7088, nlima@aldf.org Court Rules Monterey County's Federal Animal-killing Contract Violates Law Decision Likely Halts Program That Kills Coyotes, Bobcats, Mountain Lions SALINAS, Calif. The California Superior Court has ruled that Monterey County's contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program to kill predators and other native wildlife violates state law. The decision responds to a lawsuit filed by animal protection and conservation organizations. The court concluded that Monterey County violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to analyze the environmental impacts before renewing the controversial program, which has shot, trapped and snared thousands of animals in the county in recent years. This is a decisive victory for California's wildlife and for science as it sends a clear message to USDA Wildlife Services and to entities contracting with them that they must look at the impacts of killing thousands of animals to both target and non-target animals as well as to the environment, said Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Project Coyote. The court's ruling finds that Monterey County's contract renewal with Wildlife Services violates CEQA because the county wrongfully claimed an exemption from the Act. The court found no evidence to support the county's claim that its contract for predator control could not result in significant environmental change, so the county must now analyze the environmental impacts of the program. This decision is a major victory for Monterey County's coyotes, foxes and other wildlife, said Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity. All the latest science shows predator control is expensive, ineffective and inhumane. We hope the court's decision spurs the county to realize that business-as-usual wildlife killing is no longer acceptable. Monterey County's previous contract authorized Wildlife Services to kill hundreds of coyotes, as well as bobcats, mountain lions and other animals every year without fully assessing the ecological damage or considering alternatives. For example, from June 2014 to June 2015, Wildlife Services killed 105 coyotes, three mountain lions and two bobcats in the county. Over the past six years, Wildlife Services has killed more than 3,500 animals in Monterey County using traps, snares and firearms. It is appalling that Wildlife Services, a little known federal program, uses taxpayer dollars to slaughter millions of wild animals annually, explained Tara Zuardo, a wildlife attorney with the Animal Welfare Institute. We applaud the court in this case for calling out Monterey County for violating state law and recognizing the significant environmental impact of Wildlife Service's unnecessary and inhumane slaughter of wildlife in the county. We are pleased with the court's decision and willingness to enforce this important environmental statute, said Katherine Henderson, the lead attorney representing the conservation organizations. Wildlife Services should be under close scrutiny for its track record of indiscriminate killing and subjecting countless animals to painful deaths, says Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. The individual coyotes, foxes, bobcats and others killed annually by Wildlife Services are integral components of the environment, and the government cannot recklessly kill these species without carefully assessing the potential ecological consequences of their deaths. A Monterey County resident joined with Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Project Coyote and the Mountain Lion Foundation to file the lawsuit that led to this victory. The conservationists were represented by Katherine Henderson, Christopher Mays and Mary Procaccio-Flowers of the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Background

Last year, Wildlife Services reported that it killed 1.6 million native animals nationwide, including 3,893 coyotes,142 foxes, 83 black bears, 18 bobcats and thousands of other creatures in California. Nontarget animals  including family dogs and protected wildlife like wolves, Pacific fishers and eagles  are also at risk from Wildlife Services' indiscriminate methods. Peer-reviewed research shows that such reckless slaughter of animals  particularly predators  results in broad ecological destruction and loss of biodiversity. The program's controversial and indiscriminate killing methods have come under increased scrutiny from scientists, the public and government officials.
Ghanaian tech startup, OMG Digital has been called the Buzzfeed of Africa, creating multi-media content aimed at Africa's 250 million millennials. It already has monthly aggregated content views of over 90 million on social media and 4.5 million website readers since its launch in 2016.

OMG Digital, Ghana, co-founders: Dominic Mensah, Prince Boakye Boampong and Jesse Arhin Ghansah.

OMG Digital, which currently operates across Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, was recently awarded seed funding of $1.1 million from international investors Kima Ventures, Soma Capital, Comcast Ventures Catalyst Fund, Social Capital, M&Y Growth Partners, and Macro Ventures, with participation from a number of Angel Investors including Josh Buckley of Mino Games, and Founder of Off-Grid Electric, Francis Xavier Helgesen.

We speak to co-founder Jesse Arhin Ghansah about his further plans to expand his brand across the African continent.

What will you do with the seed funding you have been awarded?

The $1.1m weve received in seed funding will go a long way to help support the growth of our engineering team, elevate our video creation capacity as well as eventually branch out into a couple more countries. Were really excited about our growth potential across Africa.

How are you differentiating yourself from other media in Ghana and in Africa?

We stand out primarily by our content and distribution strategy. We were one of the first digital media companies that right from the on-set focused purely on the millennial audience in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya where we also operate. We set out to create specific local African content, built around our varied interests and cultures that was also genuine, relatable and exciting for millennials; as this has been lacking in traditional mainstream media for a while.

What is your main challenge in rolling out the business across the continent?

Due to the continents super-diverse nature, the challenge for us is mainly figuring out the type of content that resonates locally with a specific region, and also determining the most efficient distribution strategy for that said market. Trying to juggle this, alongside other regional operational hurdles at scale is extremely challenging.

Who is your audience in Africa and how do they differ from other global markets?

Our main audience is the African millennial (like us). One of our unique selling points is our understanding that were not catering to a homogenous African. There is no such thing. We realise that our audience in Ghana will not react to the same news and information as someone their age who lives in Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa, for example. We all have different culturally significant messages and this factors into how we engage with and consume content.

What is your core media strategy?

It is fairly simple. We focus on creating content millennials want and try to seamlessly deliver it to whichever mobile platform they presently engage with.

The biggest trend to note in your industry?

Digital media is being consumed primarily on social media in Africa. At OMG for example, our articles and stories are mostly viewed and shared through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Twitter and Instagram. Thus, media companies and content creators must build a strong content distribution strategy that is centered around social and messaging apps.

Where do you draw your creative inspiration?

We draw a lot of inspiration from other African content creators and storytellers. By also imbibing ourselves with the local pop-culture and social media scene, we are easily able to create content that resonates and hits home with our users.

How do you make an impact in the industry?

OMG is a defining company in the digital age in Africa. We have embraced the internet as a tool for sharing stories and perspectives. Not only do we produce shareable content for our audience, we have created a platform for global brands to connect with their target consumers through hyperlocal articles, videos, quizzes and other content. We are also making an impact by providing a voice for African youth - speaking to them and representing them in terms they understand and are comfortable with.

How do you inspire others?

By being open, vulnerable and willing to share our failures as well as successes. By being relatable to others, theyll understand that they are not the only ones with challenges and hurdles.

Your life philosophy?

Learn as much as you can and be a decent human being.
The South African Medical Association (Sama), and its Eastern Cape branch, has condemned the lack of proper security at public hospitals in the province after a doctor was assaulted by a patient.

Cecilia Makhiwane Hospital. Picture: Daily Dispatch

Dr Archie Solombela sustained a fracture to his right arm and a general worker was also hurt during the attack by a psyciatric patient at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in East London. According to a report in the Daily Dispatch, suspected mentally ill patients are being admitted to general wards for observation, and because resources are so thinly stretched at government hospitals in the province this takes much longer than the standard 72 hours.

This is an unacceptable situation which requires urgent attention, Sama said in a statement. Of concern now is why no precautionary measures were put in place, considering the patient has a known violent history. This indicates either a lack of proper planning and coordination, or a lack of will to ensure the safety of healthcare professionals in the province.

Drug abuse to blame

This is not the first incident involving psychiatric patients at the hospital. In June, a fight broke out among 24 mentally ill patients, which left six of them injured. In addition, a ward was damaged, prompting doctors to close it down. Police and security guards had to be called to calm the fighting patients.

In another incident, guard died of head injuries when he was attacked by a psychiatric patient at Nompumelelo Hospital in Peddie last year.

The Eastern Cape Department of Health blames a sharp rise in drug abuse in the province for the influx of mentally ill patient, particularly teenagers and young men, with which it is battling to cope.

As a first step in dealing with this problem, Sama met the management of the hospital with a view to resolving issues going forward. During this meeting we stressed that a violent patient is a danger, not only to healthcare workers, but also other patients, and that patient safety is one of the six priorities of healthcare in South Africa. As an association, we are convinced the incident could have been avoided, and we urge authorities to do everything they can to protect our members and our patients in hospitals.
#WomensMonth: Four decades of formidable fashion with Marianne Fassler

With an illustrious career spanning 40 years, designer, icon, businesswoman, mentor and all-around creative Marianne Fassler remains a formidable force in South Africa's fashion industry.

The award-winning garments created by Fassler and team at her Leopard Frock studio in Saxonworld are uniquely African, inspired by the colours, textures and cultures of the continent. Her designs are diverse, creative, eclectic, and because it doesn't rest heavily on short-lived trends, they're also timeless. For Fassler, her work transcends the boundaries of fashion, and instead, she chooses to see it as her chosen "art form". Her creations will once again be gracing the catwalk at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, taking place later this week at the Mall of Africa. The traces of a recent trip to Morocco by Leopard Frock creative director Lezanne Viviers provides the leitmotiv for the SS17 collection, reflecting the craft, the colours and the connectedness of everything on the African continent. Expect originated prints that tell a story and a colour palette of poppy red, turmeric yellow, rose pink, terracotta and Majorelle blue that evokes Africa from north to south. This Women's Month, the fashion doyenne shares her thoughts on the evolution of SA's fashion industry and the valuable lessons she's learnt as an integral part of it. As somewhat of an industry veteran, how has South Africas fashion industry evolved in the last four decades? As somewhat of an industry veteran, how has South Africas fashion industry evolved in the last four decades?

They say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. There has been an increased visibility of the designer due to the establishment of Fashion Week as a platform.

Social media such as Facebook and Instagram have also brought fashion to the consumer instantly. The fashion industry as such has been through various cycles, but it is clear to me that South African design has matured and the demand for South African designed goods in general, has increased.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the manufacturing sector. I have seen it shrink over many years and we find it very difficult to manufacture high-end product on a larger scale. The sophistication and depth of product is just not catered for. With the rise of online platforms for retail, it has also become evident that we can serve a limited audience here in ZA, but I am finding it very difficult, logistically, to serve global customers.

We are far from the marketplace with expensive shipping costs and long turnaround times. I do however think that the local market is hungry for interesting new choices and we often hear from tourists that they battle to find South African fashion readily available in shops.

In line with this, would you say the Marianne Fassler aesthetic has evolved as well? In line with this, would you say the Marianne Fassler aesthetic has evolved as well?

I should hope that the Marianne Fassler aesthetic has evolved. Surely a brand should evolve to reflect new trends and to remain relevant to a new client base. As a creative person, I also constantly search for fresh inspiration and new frontiershence the relevance of this brand 40 years later.

How do you think our local fashion industry compares globally? How do you think our local fashion industry compares globally?

This is a very broad question. Lezanne and I have just returned from an intense six days in New York. This is a really grown-up fashion and retail space and I find it really difficult to compare our fashion industry to global locations.

I believe that the local industry lacks depth and most designers cannot afford to employ another layer of expertise to enable them to become exporters. There is a naive assumption that export is easy and the world is just waiting for your product. The feedback I get is that a lot of South African products are very expensive, and not really up to standard. This comment is based on the goods available at the most recent exhibition Le BHV/Marais in Paris.

We still think small and believe that our exchange rate will save us from most of the impediments of supply chain markups. But, having said that, there are success stories and we remain focused on the brands that will give ZA credibility. I believe the South African Department of Trade and Industry should be playing a part here.

Your designs will once again be gracing the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg 2017. What goes into preparing for an event of this magnitude? Your designs will once again be gracing the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg 2017. What goes into preparing for an event of this magnitude?

We bring our everything to the ramp. It is a very important showcase to keep orders pouring in throughout summer. We always re-invent old favourites because our clients look out for them, but in the retelling of our story, we add newer twists and turns. We continue to develop new prints and silhouettes. This new collection is both fresh and sophisticatedand definitely turned heads on the streets of NY.

How do you think the public could be encouraged to purchase more locally-made fashion? How do you think the public could be encouraged to purchase more locally-made fashion?

The public will buy what it likes at the right price. Service and quality also play a huge part. I believe the consumer should always buy with a conscience, i.e. not buy imported flowers, foods or consumables without considering the local options. To be a conscious consumer is a global trend, but alas, here in ZA there isnt always the luxury of buying with a conscience. Often Chinese knockoffs are just cheaper in this instant fashion environment.

What is the most valuable lesson youve learnt on your career journey? What is the most valuable lesson youve learnt on your career journey?

I always put the client first. The client is at the top of my pyramid and I, as a designer, am at the base of the pyramid. I celebrate the person who pays good money to enable me to be in business. I have also learnt that the best advertisement is always a happy client. The layers of referral are very valuable. I have generations of clients and friends of clients who spread the good word. No amount of social media exposure makes up for that good old fashioned word of mouth exposure.

What is your message for Womens Month? What is your message for Womens Month?

Always be the best possible version of yourself. Learn to understand the power of being comfortable in your own skin. Wear what you love and what you intuitively know, expresses the person you are.

Visit Marianne Fassler's website for more info and connect with the brand on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
A major global initiative has been launched by the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and other industry bodies to eradicate the use of Advertising Value Equivalents (or AVEs) in modern public relations.

Used since the 1940s by public relations practitioners to calculate the value of their communication, many professionals have considered this flawed metric to undermine and discredit the communication industry. AVEs have long been the subject of intense criticism but because they claim to put a financial value equivalency on PR and communication work, and are easy to produce, there is still a lingering demand from some quarters of the communication profession.

Richard Bagnall, AMEC Chairman, said AMECs annual Global Summit on Measurement, held for the first time in Asia in May 2017, had ignited the need to take decisive action to eradicate AVEs. Bagnall is delighted that industry research showed client demand for AVEs had dropped from 80% in 2010 to just 18% in 2017. He added: Now is the time to kill it off completely once and for all.

The PRCA (Public Relations and Communications Association) and ICCO (The International Communications Consultancy Organisation), representing public relations agencies and institutions across the globe, have now joined this initiative and will be working with AMEC to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of effective and best practices for measurement and evaluation methods

AVEs are a wonderfully deceptive metric to reassure yourself how famous you were last week, while dodging accountability for actual business KPIs. Their continued use reflects a misunderstanding of the role of earned versus paid media, says Marion McDonald, Chief Strategy Officer for Ogilvy Public Relations in the Asia Pacific Region.

Francis Ingham, ICCO Chief Executive, believes that embedding meaningful evaluation methods in the PR practice requires encouragement, praise, and education  not naming and shaming those who havent yet progressed on their measurement journey. He believes educating the industry is key to driving it forward.

The AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework, launched in 2016, allows users to be guided through the best measurement practices process and is already available in 15 languages. The Framework is a free online resource. Test it here: www.amecorg.com/amecframework

This Framework makes sense of the complexities of working across the PESO channels and shows how to shift the emphasis of evaluation from counting outputs to proving value via the critical outtakes, outcomes and organisational impact of our work, added Bagnall.

AMEC will be hosting its fourth annual "Measurement Month" during September 2017. This initiative, which sees many events across the globe, aims to educate communication and public relations practitioners about the latest best-practices in measuring the effectiveness of their communication and reputational campaigns.

The Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA) and Ornico, the Brand Intelligence research company, will host a Measurement Month workshop on 15 September 2017 in Randburg, Johannesburg.

Ornico (AMECs only full member in Africa) will provide an overview of the AMEC measurement principles, the updated measurement platform and framework as well as best practices that will replace AVEs as a measurement tool. The discussion will also provide an overview of AMECs Barcelona 2.0 Best Measurement and Evaluation Principles, as well as the Integrated Evaluation Framework.

Communicators are also encouraged to follow #AMECMM on social media during September to join thousands of global colleagues who are learning and working to better the public relations industry.

For more information visit http://amecorg.com/measurement-month-2017/.

To register and attend the South African event, please go to: http://bit.ly/2fpCHkL

Any public relations practitioners interested to attend the workshop can contact PRISA at: az.oc.asirp@dpc or call 011 326 1262.




Capital & Regional, the retail fund listed in the UK and SA, grew its interim dividend 6.8% in the six months to June, thanks to a strong performance from its shopping centres.

The market reacted favourably to the results, with the company's share price rising more than 5% on Thursday, 10 August, after it declared an interim dividend of 1.73p. The owner of malls in secondary UK cities could become a takeover target if it continues to reward investors and hold onto its assets.

Capital & Regional wholly owns seven shopping centres in Blackburn, Hemel Hempstead, Ilford, Luton, Maidstone, Walthamstow and Wood Green. It also has a 20% interest in the Kingfisher Centre in Redditch.

The group manages these assets, which comprise more than 900 retail units and attract about 1.7-million shopping visits each week, through its in-house property and asset management platform. CEO Lawrence Hutchings said the results were helped by the well-positioned centres focused on convenience.

With a market capitalisation of R6.73bn, Capital & Regional could be a takeover target for other listed property funds. South African real estate investment trusts that have not managed to gain a foothold in western European property could see Capital & Regional as a potential launchpad into that region. The likes of Growthpoint Properties and Investec Property Fund have spoken publicly in recent months about scouring the UK for acquisition or partnership opportunities.

Growthpoint was continuing to hunt for opportunities across Europe, CEO Norbert Sasse said on Thursday. Investec Property Fund CEO Nick Riley has said that, while the group had not found many suitably priced acquisition opportunities in SA, the group's teams in the UK and Ireland were considering potential deals.

Capital & Regional is streamlining its cost structure, which has led the company to target annualised savings of at least 1.8m by 2018.

Evan Robins, listed property manager of Old Mutual Investment Group's MacroSolutions boutique, said Capital & Regional's results were among the better sets of results released during the latest results season.

Source: Business Day
Buyers who have found the right home will be eager to know whether their offer will be accepted by the seller or whether they need to keep looking. Being in a state of limbo can be frustrating, which brings about the question - once an offer has been made, how long does it remain a valid offer before it lapses?

Before it has been accepted, there are four scenarios in which an offer would lapse.

Lapse in time

On a standard offer to purchase document, there is normally a blank section where the prospective buyer can state how long they are prepared to leave the offer on the table. The seller will have until the specified date to accept the offer that the buyer has presented, after which it will lapse. However, there are instances where no date has been specified. In these cases, the offer will lapse after what is deemed to be a reasonable period. What is considered to be reasonable will depend on the circumstances of each party within the agreement. Ambiguity could cause conflict down the line, so it is best to have a clear date specified in the document.

The offer is revoked

Once an offer to purchase is signed by the seller, it immediately becomes a legally binding sales agreement. However, before the seller accepts the offer, it can be revoked by the buyer, provided it has not been stated that the offer is irrevocable for a certain period and it must be brought to the sellers attention within that time frame.

The seller rejects the offer

The offer ceases to exist with immediate effect if the seller rejects it. The seller will not be able to go back on their decision and accept the offer once they have rejected it. If the seller counters the buyers offer, it is considered to be a rejection of the buyers original offer. If the seller crosses out the amount the buyer has written in the offer and writes in a higher amount and initials the change  it is considered a counter offer. If the buyer decides that the amount is too high and does not accept the counter offer, the offer lapses. The seller will not then be able to accept the buyers previous offer  a new agreement will have to be drawn up.

Death of either party

If the buyer or seller dies before the offer has been accepted, it will automatically lapse. However, in the instance where the offer has been signed and accepted, all rights and duties arising from the contract will be passed to the deceased estate.
A 288-unit residential facility and the complete rebuild of an electricity substation at the University of Zululand's main KwaDlangezwa Campus have been completed. The upgrades have a combined value of over R70m.

Director of facilities management at the University of Zululand, Richard Dlongolo, inspects the newly built residences on campus.

Accelerating infrastructure development is one of the university's six strategic priorities for the period 20162021.

"Investment in post-secondary infrastructure is an investment in South Africas next generation of students and researchers. Improving the spaces where students live and where innovation takes place will fuel prosperity for years to come," explains University of Zululand vice chancellor Professor Xoliswa Mtose.

Addressing student accommodation shortage

Director of facilities management Richard Dlongolo says that the completion of additional residential accommodation for 288 students was a precursor to building further residences on the campus to address the critical shortage of student accommodation.

At present, 5,000 out of 17,000 students can be accommodated on campus. Unlike many tertiary institutions which are located in busy cities, the University of Zululand is 19km south of Empangeni and 142km from Durban and there is limited alternative accommodation.

As a result, many young people travel long distances or live in the nearby Vulindlela Village where rudimentary housing and shacks lack basic services and do not provide a suitable environment for study, he points out.

Dlongolo says that the latest residential additions are actually an extension of facilities that were completed in 2008. This project officially began in November 2015. Construction of the new residences took a year. They were ready by May this year and students took occupation in July.

Technically obsolete substation

Dlongolo said that the second project  the rebuilding of the campus electricity substation at a cost of around R26m  addressed the protracted electricity outages that had plagued the university. Because the campus is in a remote area and was established during the 1960s, it was not included on the municipal grid. It therefore required its own high voltage electricity substation. At 35 years old and technically obsolete, this was past its sell by date.

He says the climate promotes corrosion which, when coupled with poor maintenance over the years, meant that the old transformers were beyond repair.

As a result, the university had relied on a single transformer for two years. There was always a high risk of failure and a strong likelihood that this would have a negative impact on the university as, without any backup, the electricity supply could only be restored once repairs were done.

As a result, electricity outages that stretched for days at a time had become a major problem. This impacted on laboratories and IT facilities and made teaching and learning difficult in Zululand where air conditioning is a must in the hot summers.

Built to international standards

The rebuilding of the substation started at the beginning of 2015. The completed facility and the control centre, which is housed in the shell of the original control room building, has been built to international standards. Modern hybrid technology delivered a compact installation that requires minimal maintenance. It can be remotely controlled and supervised and is said to be extremely operator friendly.

Dlongolo says that the new facility has additional spare capacity for another 20-25 years and will easily accommodate the expansion of the university. The replacement of the old 6MW transformers with 10MW versions has resulted in a 40% increase in capacity. The high voltage switch gear is central to the integrity of the new system.

But the biggest challenge was rehabilitating the substation while keeping it live, Dlongolo says. He adds that security around the substation has been beefed up with CCTV cameras to help combat cable theft. A new fence also deters monkeys.

Dlongolo says that, as part of the substation upgrade, 5km of aged high voltage cables were also replaced. Ducting that will accommodate a potential installation of micro optic cable was included, eliminating the need for expensive retrenching and in turn reducing the cost of the future project.

The University of Zululand is also in the throes of improving energy usage on campus and has recently completed the specifications for the replacement of all street lighting. This will utilise LED technology and will both improve aesthetics and safety whilst also eliminating light pollution and bringing down electricity costs.
While Africa is becoming increasingly attractive for foreign investors, the cruise ship industry mostly passes the continent by. The opening of the new Durban cruise terminal, hopefully in 2019, is set to change this.

stokpic via pixabay

There isnt a large cruise ship industry around Africa, largely because of poor facilities. Other than Cape Town, which has its own modern cruise terminal, most African ports are commercial and not geared for tourism, so there arent a lot of places where cruise ships can call. An attraction like the Durban cruise terminal could be just what the African cruise industry needs, says Andrew Pike, head of the ports, terminals and logistics group at pan-African law firm Bowmans.

He leads the Bowmans team that is advising Kwa-Zulu Cruise Terminal Pty Ltd (KCT), the preferred bidder for the tender to develop, construct and operate the new state-of-the-art facility at the Port of Durban. Bowmans has worked on numerous African port projects, including the proposed Durban Dig-out Port and major port facilities in Mozambiques Port of Nacala, Ghanas Freeport of Atuabo and Tanzanias Dar es Salaam Port.

Africa needs world-class facilities

This wont be any old cruise terminal, it will be a new and iconic structure in Durban, with international-class cruise facilities that link up with existing tourist attractions such as uShaka Marine World, offering cruise ship passengers a whole experience, Pike says.

A world-class experience is essential if Africa is to increase its share of the lucrative, but highly competitive international cruise industry. In Africa, this is an industry with underserved tourism potential. Although the number of visitors to Durban has been increasing, to around 191,000 in 2016, the hope is that this will grow with the advent of the Durban cruise terminal, which is anticipated to be operational early in 2019.

The preferred bidder, KCT, is a joint venture between MSC Cruises SA and Africa Armada Consortium, a black empowerment partner. MSC Cruises is the worlds leading privately held cruise company and the fourth largest overall.

Negotiating a win-win concession

Pike says that KCT will receive a 25-year concession agreement with Transnet National Ports Authority. The process for the awarding of such a concession is relatively new, carried out under section 56 of the National Ports Act.

To date, only a handful of concessions have been granted in South Africa under the section 56 process and each concession agreement is signed after a period of negotiation, he says. As port specialists, we see our most important role as facilitating win-win solutions between the parties.

The Durban cruise terminal has widespread support among the public, government and private sector, says Pike. The sentiment is that this project makes sense, gives Durban credibility as a tourist destination and is good for the cruise industry.
It's always refreshing to find a woman in the business development driving seat, a sector that has traditionally been dominated by men. We chat to Simone Kuhn, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group's business development manager for Africa and Indian Ocean and one of Africa's Top 100 Women in Tourism - she knows all about doing business in Africa and finding ideal locations and partners to grow the group's hotel presence on the continent.

Simone Kuhn, Business Development Manager for Africa & Indian Ocean, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group

Tell us about your journey with the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is one of the leading and most dynamic hotel companies in the world. Our business is to operate hotels under one of our internationally recognised brands. Currently, Carlson Rezidor has 78 hotels (16,500+ rooms) under operation and development in 29 countries in Africa under either the upper upscale Radisson Blu brand, upscale lifestyle select Radisson Red brand, upper midscale Park Inn by Radisson brand or the luxury Quorvus Collection brand.

I joined this pioneering group in 2011 as a business development coordinator, fully supporting the business development team and the roll out of the Africa Strategy.

In 2016 I was promoted to assistant business development manager, responsible for developing my own leads and signing new hotel deals. I am currently responsible for Anglophone markets with a focus on Ethiopia, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Malawi and achieving our 2020 team target of 23,000 rooms in operation and under development.

Tell us about both the most challenging and exciting parts of doing business in Africa and the Indian Ocean

The most exciting part of the job is that no deal is the same. Each deal comes with a different owner which results in a different dynamic. Travel, of course, is quite exciting, especially when youre doing business in countries youve never been to. Most importantly for me are the relationships I have built with owners, stakeholders and professional teams as well as meeting new people and learning about different cultures, which is critical for a successful deal.

The challenging side is to ensure you are partnering with the right owner. In essence, its like a marriage and, therefore, the basics have to be right, such as understanding and trust. One also has to have the right tools to execute the strategy, which offers its own obstacles. Out of our control, for example, are political stability and recessions which affect our operational hotels, however, on the flip side of the coin, this is the time to get into the market for new leads.

What has been the biggest challenge in breaking into what is generally a male dominated industry - Business development in the hotel industry?

I wouldnt say it has been a challenge as such, as ultimately, its not about who you work with or the environment you work within, but ensuring you create your own opportunities, network and get yourself out there. Overcoming self-negative talk and knowing what you stand for is key. I believe ensuring people know they can count on you is crucial to any professional relationship.

I grew up in the hotel business... its definitely in my blood.

What made you choose a career in your industry? What motivates and inspires you?

I grew up in the hotel business as my father was a GM within Sun International for many years, its definitely in my blood. Its the diversity that comes with being in business development from the initial phone call to the final chase of the deal that motivates me. To see how far Carlson Rezidor has progressed in a brief period is a clear indicator that we are doing something right. This, in itself, opens up the future to many more opportunities on the continent which is incredibly inspiring.

What advice would you offer other women in the industry with the same aspirations as you?

To ensure you surround yourself with like-minded people that you can learn from and grow with. To not be so hard on yourself, you know more than you think and to never underestimate the value of relationships.

What are your plans and goals for the year ahead?

To progress to business development director and grow our African portfolio to the depths of the markets with clustered growth through our brand portfolio.

What is your recipe for success?

Always stick to your gut, learn from your mistakes, use your resources, ask plenty of questions along the way - both internally and externally - and dont lose who you are.

What is your Womens Month message?

Be prepared to go anywhere, as long as it's forward.
#WomensMonth: Become the next global female ad-tech pioneer

Ever wondered if your experiences in the mobile ad-tech space are markedly different from those of females from the other end of the globe? Wonder no more - Australia-based Nicole Liebmann, head of mobile for Exponential Interactive and SA's own Candice Goodman managing director of Mobitainment, share their thoughts, tips and techniques below.

I love it when a plan comes together  especially when its one thats powered by connected females who want to share their experiences and celebrate women in media, and particularly those working in mobile across the globe. While it may seem disingenuous to focus on just the females here, theres no denying we face a specific set of challenges in terms of breaking biases, confronting stereotypes and proving their worth, especially in the realm of ad-tech, where you have to be clever, context-savvy and clued in to succeed. Advertising vs adtech - is there a difference? Issued by Ads24 18 May 2017 The below therefore serves as a friendly comparison on what motivates and inspires ad-tech females in their differing regions, as well as exposing the challenges they continue to face, or have overcome, to get to where they are today. First up to bat is Goodman, providing the married South African mom perspective. With Mobitainment described as a mobile-first marketing technology enabler, shes one of SAs brightest lights in this regard. Last year alone she was announced as DMASAs direct marketer of the year as well as the SME of the year at its most recent Assegai Awards ceremony. Goodman with her Direct Marketer of the Year award from DMASA's Assegais. Little wonder as Mobitainments focus for 2017 is on sharing, connecting and bettering the local ad-tech space, specifically through highlighting mobile innovation and localising global solutions for the South African market. She juggles motherhood and a career with the best of them thanks to her to-do list, which helps her stay organised, adding that being a mom is actually the reason she left the corporate world to start her own business. 10 years in mobile win Direct Marketing of the Year Awards Issued by Mobitainment 13 Dec 2016 The turning point in her career was having a husband who believed in her, as that allowed her to build that self-confidence, and her business, knowing that she could do whatever the big boys could and in her own way! Nicole Liebmann, head of mobile for Exponential Interactive. Next up is Liebmann. Involved in the mobile industry for almost eight years, which she says is since the very first year of mobile, Liebmann is a digital native involved in anything and everything to do with mobile advertising from strategy, through design, implementation and client management at Exponential, which delivers interactive advertising experiences with an aim to transform the way audiences interact with brands across desktop and mobile. Profiled as one of AdNews Australias Young Guns earlier this year as a result of her digital prowess and ability to make the space buzz, her personal motto is: Fortune favours the brave  definitely relevant to anyone involved in ad-tech. While neither has experienced any overt bias due to their gender during their careers, many arent as lucky. Here, Liebmann and Goodman let us in on their specific career trajectories, the advice they would give to their younger selves before their first day of work and how to get around the barriers hindering womens success in the mobile/ad tech space. Lets kick off with a comment on the overall state of the mobile/adtech space in your specific region and how that compares with trends youve seen from the rest of the world. Lets kick off with a comment on the overall state of the mobile/adtech space in your specific region and how that compares with trends youve seen from the rest of the world. Candice Goodman, MD of Mobitainment. Goodman: I think that South Africans, because of our developing country, tend to look for solutions to our problems from countries like the US and Europe. We have to realise that we need to find African solutions for African problems. Africa has led the way with world firsts in this industry like pre-paid airtime, USSD and the Please Call Me, and in Africa with mobile payments like the M-Pesa. I believe that as Africans, we are leading the way in terms of marketing with a purpose, and know that doing good, is good business because our customers demand that we care about them, and their community. I believe that as Africans, we are leading the way in terms of marketing with a purpose, and know that doing good, is good business because our customers demand that we care about them, and their community.

Liebmann: When I first started in the digital industry, it was extremely common to look at larger markets such as the US or the UK to help develop an understanding of where the AU market will be or how it will grow within the next year or so. Fast forward to today and we have not only caught up but we are making a big impact on our own. Regarding mobile specifically, from a user point of view  we love these devices! We have one of the highest smartphone penetrations per capita globally and advertisers are taking note. Advertisers have the ability to leverage these devices to make meaningful connections on a consistent basis with the vast majority of our population. Many companies such as eMarketer are predicting that 2017 will be the year that mobile ad spend in Australia surpasses TV ad spend and with this investment in mobile comes more innovation and opportunity from an ad tech point of view. Australia is definitely a market to keep an eye on!

Thats quite something. Do barriers exist that hinder womens success in your regional market in the mobile/ad tech space? How has the attitude towards women working in this space changed during your career to date? Thats quite something. Do barriers exist that hinder womens success in your regional market in the mobile/ad tech space? How has the attitude towards women working in this space changed during your career to date?

Goodman: Not exactly barriers that hinder women, because I believe we always find a way around, over, or through them, but I do find that women carry a bigger load: having to run a household and care for the children  they are expected to have shopping done, children fetched and dropped, food prepared, house cleaned and then, if she gets a phone call that her child is ill, she hears the inevitable comment as she rushes out the door: Half-day, huh? I never wanted to hear that again  and hence we have built Mobitainment to have the caring spirit where women can be women, moms, wives and workers, too.

In the roughly 25 years since I entered the tech/digital and marketing industry, I see a lot more women in the boardrooms, and at industry conferences, not only in the audience, but also speaking at the podium.

Liebmann in action.

Liebmann: In Australia, there has been a real shift away from traditional gender barriers and biases and this shift continues today. Workplace diversity and equality have been highly considered topics for the last couple of years and it has been really great to see how businesses have responded positively.

One of the greatest things Ive seen is the encouragement of more women to work in traditionally male dominated roles  such as developer and engineer roles. I remember back to when I did my IT degree at university, when observing the gender breakdown of students, I was definitely outnumbered! Today there is a much more nurturing foundation that brings to light the many different opportunities and careers that exist for girls in tech.

What has been the biggest challenge in your career? What has been the biggest challenge in your career?

Goodman: Knowing how to switch off: My laptop, my phone and my mind. Being in the technology business means that you are connected and at work 24/7 and being in your own business makes you want to put each of those 24/7 hours to work. Knowing when and how to switch off has been a huge challenge that I am still battling with, especially when you love what you do.

Liebmann: I would have to agree with Candice! I find it incredibly hard to switch off, especially as we are living in such a connected world. I was recently able to take some time for a holiday and whilst travelling, I really made a conscious effort to switch off. Although challenging at first, by the end of the trip I felt refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to tackle everything that lay ahead.

What does it take to become a female leader in the mobile/adtech space? What does it take to become a female leader in the mobile/adtech space?

Goodman: We need to understand our strengths Dont assume that as a woman, you have to lead in the same way we have seen many men do it. We can lead in a womanly fashion: with compassion, collaboration and care for others  and that also works  and better, might I add!

Liebmann: Its important to have confidence, resilience, the capability to think outside of the box and to be driven. Like any great leader, we really need to maintain a strong belief in something as this will ultimately help to not only develop our beliefs but also successfully demonstrate our values.

What advice would you give to your younger self before your first day of work, and what advice would you thus give young women of today who are considering a career in your industry? What advice would you give to your younger self before your first day of work, and what advice would you thus give young women of today who are considering a career in your industry?

Goodman: You cant choose how you were born into this world, but you can choose to use your God-given talents at every opportunity you are given. So take every opportunity that comes. Its all about creating dots along the way, and sooner or later you will connect them! But you need to listen and take note of everything:

Always listen to your lecturers or teachers  absorb and assess.

Always listen to your customers needs and satisfy them and your business will grow.

Always listen to your colleagues, as they may have experienced a point of view you havent.

Digital is a great career for a woman  it allows us the mobility and flexibility of hours that will allow us to be successful working women, mothers and wives.

Liebmann: Dont be afraid to ask questions! The world of media is so fast paced that often there arent the proper resources available to help fully train you when you start a new job. Questions are a great way to help you learn, and with knowledge comes power.

Be confident and let that confidence provide a platform for your voice to be heard. Its important to develop and voice your opinions  even if they differ from those around you. Varying perspective helps a business grow and develop in ways that perhaps it otherwise would not have.

Learn the difference between tasks that are urgent and tasks that are important. This will be key in helping to prioritise those continually growing to-do lists.

Always be resourceful and lastly, go for it! This industry is very supportive of women and on top of that, it is exciting and cutting edge and there is never a dull moment.

Lots to learn from. If you've followed a similar career path, share your experiences in the comment section below. You can also click through to the Exponential and Mobitainment press offices for more, and be sure to track all the latest additions to our #WomensMonth special section.
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should thoroughly and credibly investigate an August 5 police raid on Radio Television Chretienne (RTC), return all seized equipment, ensure the protection of journalist Jose Mbuyi, and hold all those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

 weerapat kiatdumrong via 123RF

Police raided the community radio station in the town of Kananga roughly an hour after it broadcast a report on a new tax on motorcycles, according to RTC's director and media reports.

The director of the station, Sosphete Kambidi, told CPJ that Jean Mwamba, the mayor of Kananga, in Central Kasai province, phoned him shortly after a 6am broadcast in which Mbuyi reported on the new tax.

"He was angry about the report we had broadcasted at 6am, and said he was going to close the radio station," Kamdibi told CPJ. "Then, an hour later, police officers arrived in our office saying that they were looking for journalist Mbuyi."

The five police officers did not present a warrant to enter the radio station, Kambidi said, but confiscated two computers, two recorders, and a microphone before leaving. Mbuyi told CPJ that he left the station as the five police officers arrived. He has since received phone calls from unidentified callers threatening him with death, he told CPJ.

"The police raid on the Congolese community station Radio Television Chretienne is a crude act of intimidation intended to censor the radio station and its journalists," said CPJ Africa program coordinator Angela Quintal. "Journalists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo must be permitted to report without fear for their safety or harassment by police."

Mwamba declined to comment when contacted by CPJ.

Kambidi told CPJ that the five police officers responsible for the raid were detained on August 5 at the local police station, but that they were released on August 7 without charge. Two of the five police officers were re-arrested yesterday, Moisi Dibuwa, RTC's lawyer, told CPJ.

Dibuwa said that the re-arrest of the two was in response to a criminal complaint the radio station filed against the police officers with the military prosecutor's office, which has the authority to hold the armed forces and police accountable for their actions.

Kananga Police deputy major Zeus Nzengu told CPJ that he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

Kambidi told CPJ that Radio Television Chretienne has resumed broadcasting, but in a more limited capacity, since pieces of "key equipment" remain missing.
The arrested citizens were identified as Helal (20), Mohamad Shafiq (20), Mohamad Mohsin (20) and Mohamad Yasi (19). They all hail from ward no (7) in Taknef, a small town located in south Bangladesh which is adjacent to Myanmars Maungdaw township, informed a police officer from Alay Than Kyaw border police post.

We got information that one suspected fishing boat docked at the offshore near Nakaung Tho border police outpost. When we went to the area, we found four Bangladeshi citizens inside the boat, disclosed the police officer.

During the police interrogation, the Bangladeshi nationals admitted that the fishing boat was floating on Burma water after the boat engine went out of order. They were charged by the immigration department with respective laws including one of entering Myanmar illegally.

- by Narinjara News
Until the August 7 deadline, employers were instructed to register all undocumented workers without risk of facing newly increased fines.

Over 772,000 migrant workers were registered during the recent amnesty window, according to the Thai Labour Ministry. The majority of the workers, or 58 percent, were from Myanmar.

It was reported online that over 400,000 [Myanmar] workers have been registered. We havent officially received the list yet. We will make an official announcement after we receive the list, said U Aung Ko Than, a labor attache at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok.

A new slate of penalties to clampdown on irregular labor was announced in June. Employers could be on the hook for up to 800,000 baht (US$ 24,000) per undocumented migrant worker. Workers who cannot show their permit during an inspection meanwhile can be fined 10,000 baht ($300). If the employer or job listed on the work permit is incorrect, the workers can be fined 100,000 baht ($3,000)

The penalties sparked fear amongst the migrant community in Thailand, and shortly after they were announced, tens of thousands of Myanmar citizens returned over the border. To ease outrage in the migrant heavy construction and agriculture sectors and stem the exodus of laborers, Thailand announced a temporary grace period, promising not to enforce the fines until the end of the year, and to allow a registration window.

According to the Department of Employment (DOE), employers registered a total of 41,389 Myanmar migrant workers in Tak Province alone.

U Moe Gyo, chair of the Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs, said the DOE announced the list during a tri-monthly coordination meeting on August 9.

The DOE explained how the employers are registering undocumented Myanmar migrant workers in nine districts under Tak Province. We also discussed difficulties faced by migrant workers, he said, adding that migrant workers are facing long queues and delayed paperwork from the Social Security Office. He also said the increased cost of the certificate of identity documents that regularize the workers status is a burden.

Registration fees are 300 baht ($9) for a new work permit or extension of a work permit. The permit is valid until the end of March, 2018. To change the employer listed on the permit the worker must pay another 300 baht.

Around three million Myanmar migrant workers, both document and undocumented, are estimated to be working in Thailand, according to workers rights activists.
A leader of the Karen National Liberation Army has called for continuing the fight for ethnic autonomy, but through peaceful, political means.

Speaking on the 67th anniversary of Karen National Martyrs Day, General Saw Johnny said Karen autonomy has not yet been realized, and the sacrifice made by Karen martyrs has not yet been fulfilled, but he added that violence was not the way to achieve these goals.

Although we have fought with arms for over 60 years, we still havent achieved the expectations desired by the majority. Thats why we are trying to find the solution to fulfil the desire of the entire Karen people without any more bloodshed, the KNLAs chief of staff said during a speech at the Karen National Union (KNU) Division 7s headquarters on August 12.

He added that the KNUs first chair, Saw Ba U Gyi, and other martyrs sacrificed their lives to free the Karen people from oppression and to make the world recognize the Karen people as a race with its own state and rights.

The KNU designated August 12 Karen Martyrs Day in memory of Saw Ba U Gyi and Major General Sai Kay, who were killed on August 12, 1950.

The 67th anniversary of Karen Martyrs Day was commemorated in Kayin State, Mon State, Yangon Region and Tanintharyi Region, as well as by Karen people living abroad.

Over 1,000 people attended the Division 7 headquarters ceremony, including KNU leaders, representatives of the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, officers from the Kayin State Border Guard Force and members of the public.

In addition to speeches by Gen Saw Johnny and the KNUs vice chair Pdoh Saw Kwel Htoo Win, gifts were given to the families of fallen martyrs and a military parade was held.

Im proud to learn about the Karen martyrs who sacrificed their lives for their country and their people. We will strive to achieve self-determination, which was the hope of the martyrs, said Mann Thein, a student from the KNUs Karen New Generation School who attended the ceremony.

The KNU signed a preliminary ceasefire with the government in January 2012 and signed the nationwide ceasefire agreement along with seven other ethnic armed organizations on October 15, 2015. Members of the KNU have been actively encouraging other ethnic armed groups to join the political negotiations by signing the NCA.
The junta forces are said to have burned down the homes of local people in a clash with the Peoples Defense Forces in Tanintharyi Regions Palaw...


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Prints by Reginald Gammon that explore aspects of African American life and history. Runs through 9/30.

Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), originally from Philadelphia, moved to New York City in 1951. He taught in the New York public schools and for 21 years at Western Michigan University. When he retired to New Mexico in 1992 he became active in the arts scene here. Gammon's paintings and prints often explore aspects of African American life and history. He was a member of the black artists' collective, Spiral, with Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Emma Amos, among others. He was an avid jazz fan and saw many concerts in New York. Gammon made his own bold interpretations of such artists such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Lester Young performing. The expressiveness of his lines and color suggest the sounds and cadences of the performances represented on these silent sheets of paper. The juxtaposition of his sensuous nudes with the jazz portraits in this exhibition reflect the multisensory element of jazz syncopation. Gammon once said, "The human physiognomy is as great a landscape as you can find or as great a still life as you can find." These prints were created at New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery in Albuquerque located just blocks from the Outpost. Gammon was a founding member of New Grounds in 1996. While in New York the artist had worked as a commercial artist, painter and printmaker. Known mainly as a painter, Gammon revived his interest in making prints when he moved to Albuquerque. In 2007-8 New Grounds Gallery and the Albuquerque Museum and the African American Performing Arts Center held exhibitions to honor Gammon and his legacy. In 1997 Gammon showed in the original Inpost Artspace Gallery at the old Outpost on Morningside Dr. Dr. Kymberly Pinder, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico has the curated this show on the 20th Anniversary of Gammon's last Inpost Artspace show. FREE!


A representational image.

ON BOARD PLA SHIP YULIN (PTI): China's Navy wants to join hands with India to maintain security of the Indian Ocean, amid growing concerns in New Delhi over the increasing presence of the PLA fleet in India's backyard.



Throwing open its strategic South Sea Fleet (SSF) base in the coastal city of Zhanjiang to a group of Indian journalists for the first time, People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) officials say the Indian Ocean is a common place for the international community.



"It is my opinion China and India can make joint contributions to the safety and security of the Indian Ocean," Capt Liang Tianjun, Deputy Chief of General Office of China's SSF said.



His remarks came as China's Navy embarked on a massive expansion to extend its global reach.



Liang also explained the growing forays of the Chinese warships and submarines into the Indian Ocean, where China for the first time established a naval base at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.



Defending the first Chinese overseas naval base against criticism that it would amplify China's growing influence, he said it will act as a logistics centre and support anti-piracy, UN peacekeeping operations and humanitarian relief missions in the region.



The Djibouti base will also provide a resting place for Chinese navy personnel, he said.



But analysts feel the opening of the first Chinese military base abroad was in tune with PLAN's ambitions to expand its global reach amidst China's growing economic and political footprint.



"The Indian Ocean is a vast ocean. It is common place for the international community to contribute to the peace and stability in the region," Liang said.



Interacting with the Indian media on the decks of the PLAN's frigate Yulin about Chinese growing presence at the Indian Ocean much to the disquiet of India, he said China's military is defensive in nature and not offensive.



At the same time, he made it clear that China would never "intrude into other countries" but would also not "be obstructed by other countries".



"All my major weapons are not toys," he said as he gave a guided tour of the sophisticated frigate which was commissioned in 2010.



Liang also gave a detailed account of the armaments on board the stealth vessel that includes medium-range air defence missiles and various anti-submarine rockets.



Denying any specific significance and context in inviting the Indian media delegation, whose visit is sponsored by the official All China Journalists Association (ACJA), he said it was part of regular exchanges with various countries.



The sprawling base on the coast of the South China Sea is one of the three major bases of PLAN, which now is poised to expand in a major way.



Interestingly, the Sanya naval base of the PLAN on Hainan Island -- where a large chunk of China's submarine force, including nuclear submarines, are based -- also comes under the SSF which has 70,000 personnel in its ranks.



It has 300 naval ships, a fleet of bombers, offshore patrol vessels, nuclear and non-nuclear submarines.



The role of the Chinese Navy is increasing as China's 2.3 million strong Army, the world's largest, announced plans to downsize its strength of its troops to under a million.



Under the new plan, the PLA will increase the numbers of other services including the Navy and missile forces. Both Navy and the missile forces were expected to get the lion's share of the annual defence budget which last year amounted to US$ 152 billion, second only to the US.



The SSF is also responsible for keeping an eye on the resource-rich South China Sea where China is having maritime disputes with countries like the Philippines and Vietnam.



China claims almost all of the South China Sea and is currently building multiple artificial islands in the area to control them as more than half of the world's annual cargo fleet passes through it.



Asked to comment on the challenges faced by the PLAN in the South China Sea, especially from the US Navy, commanding officer of Yulin Capt Hu Luyang said it was okay for the American navy to patrol the area in the international waters.



However, if they encroach upon Chinese maritime areas, "we will not tolerate such behaviour," he added.



His comments came amidst reports from Washington that a US Navy destroyer carried out a "freedom of navigation operation" yesterday, coming within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea.






NEW DELHI (PTI): The armed forces are prepared to face any eventuality, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley assured the Lok Sabha on August 11 amid the ongoing standoff between Indian and Chinese military in the Doklam area.



In response to a question on reports of troop movements in Tibet by China amid the on-going Doklam standoff and a senior Army officer's statement that Pakistan's defence industry was better than India's, Jaitely said the armed forces have adequate defence equipment to tackle any exigency.



"Our defence forces are ready to take on any eventuality," he said without making any specific reference to Doklam.



A question was also asked about a CAG report which stated that the defence forces have ammunition that can last for 22 days in an event of a war, instead of the mandatory 40 days.



Responding to this, the Defence Minister contended that significant progress has been made on this front thereafter, but did not elaborate.



"Nobody should have a doubt on that," the Defence Minister asserted.



In response to another question on the Government's target to achieve indigenisation by 2022, Subhash Bhamre, minister of state in the Defence Ministry, said taking into consideration the next 15 years, the forces have a Long Term Integrated (LTI) perspective on this.



Jaitley also sought to allay fears of closure of ordnance defence factories, saying all these factories and defence PSUs are going to continue and no employee will be retrenched.



"The core expertise of these ODFs (ordnance factories) is (manufacturing) ammunition and they will continue to do that," Jaitely said.




India-Russia "Indra Navy 2016" drills were held in the Bay of Bengal in December last year. Image courtesy: Russian MoD

NEW DELHI (PTI): In the midst of evolving security situation in the region, India and Russia will hold a mega wargame in October involving their armies, navies and the air forces for the first time to further ramp up military ties.



The exercise Indra, which will be held in Russia from October 19 to 29, will primarily focus on achieving coordination between forces of the two countries in a tri-services integrated theatre command scenario, military sources said.



It will be for the first time India will participate in a tri-services exercise with a foreign country with such a large scale participation by the Navy, Army and the Air Force, they said.



A total of 350 Indian Army personnel will participate at the mega exercise and the contingent will be led by a Major General rank official. The contingents by the Navy and the IAF will also be sizeable in numbers, the sources said.



The exercise is taking place at a time when India's ties with China have nosedived due to the simmering border dispute and its ties with Pakistan have deteriorated over cross-border terrorism and number of other issues.



The sources said the exercise will take place in three locations in Russia including in mountainous Vladivostok region.



The armies, navies and air forces of Russia are holding bilateral exercises separately but this is for the first time, both the countries will carry out a tri-services exercise.



Russia has been a long-standing defence partner of India and both the countries are now eyeing to further deepen the ties.



During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in June, both countries had decided to "upgrade and intensify" defence cooperation through joint manufacture, co-production and co-development of key military hardware and equipment.



A vision document, issued then had said that both the countries also decided to work towards a qualitatively higher level of military-to-military cooperation.



India has already decided to significantly ramp up its defence capability and has lined up billions of dollars of procurement proposals as part of military modernisation.


JAIPUR (PTI): The Indian Army on Sunday opened the two-day equipment display 'Know Your Army' for the people in Jaipur, ahead of Independence Day.



The exhibition was inaugurated by Major General P P Prakash Singh. A large number of senior military, civil dignitaries and eminent personalities attended the inauguration ceremony, defence spokesperson Lt. Col. Manish Ojha said.



The weapons on display at the exhibition include multi-barrel rocket launchers, main battle tanks, infantry combat vehicle and a variety of infantry weapon systems, he said.



The Army's bands and a show by the dog squad was appreciated by the spectators, the spokesperson said.



Kiosks have been set up to inform youths on career options in the armed forces, he added.






WASHINGTON (PTI): The US is ready to help India modernise its military and jointly they can improve India's military capabilities in "significant and meaningful" ways, a top American commander has said.



Over the past decade, the defence trade between the US and India has touched nearly US$ 15 billion and is expected to gallop in the next few years, as India is looking at the US for some of the latest military hardware including fighter jets, latest unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft carriers.



"I believe that the US is ready to help India modernise its military. India has been designated a major defence partner of the US. This is a strategic declaration that's unique to India and the US. It places India on the same level that we have (with) many of our treaty allies," Commander of the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Admiral Harry Harris told PTI.



"This is important, and I believe that together we will be able to improve India's military capabilities in significant and meaningful ways," said Harris, who has been personally pushing for a strong India-US defence relationship.



The Admiral said he is fairly happy with the level of defence cooperation that exists today between the two sides.



"We have been partners with India in the Malabar exercise series, the maritime exercise, for a number of years. I participated in one of the very first... one of the early Malabars, in 1995," he recollected, reflecting on the decades-old association with India.



Noting that the exercise, and the complexity of it, has improved steadily over the years, he said he is very pleased that Japan is part of Malabar.



"I think the trilateral relationship between India and Japan and the US, that relationship is very important," he said, while advocating that Australia too should join this group.



"We could explore together bringing Australia into the exercise. That has merit. There's a lot of common interests in the Indian Ocean, between Australia and India. But that's really a decision for India to make, and then a decision for Australia to participate, if so invited. I'll leave that to those two countries," Harris said in response to a question.



According to Harris, there is a lot that India and the US can do together.



"I'm pleased that India is a participant in Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the Pacific exercise that's hosted every other year in Hawaii. I'm pleased in general with where the relationship is going, and I look forward to more as the years progress," he said.



Responding to a question on India's decision against the American move to have a joint India-US naval patrol in the Indian Ocean, Harris said the US is not disappointed at all.



"I'm not disappointed. This is on the patrols... I'm not disappointed at all, I'm encouraged that we were able to have a discussion about it, and I hope that that discussion remains open," he said.



"We stand ready to participate at whatever level India wants us to participate," Harris said.



Harris refrained from giving any answer on India and the United States starting to share information about Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean region.



"I don't want to answer the question, because I don't want to imply that I'm sharing intelligence, or anything like that. I'll just simply say that a close relationship between US and India is clearly helpful to the United States, and I believe helpful to India as well," Harris said in response.



Harris reiterated that he believes that the deepening US-India relationship is the defining strategic partnership for the 21st century.



"I'm very interested, and very supportive, of what's happening in India. The Indian armed forces, and that whole piece...I think that the opportunities for our two countries are simply great. It's fantastic," Harris said.



Noting that India remains an important line of effort at Pacific Command, Harris said America's national leadership is working closely with India's to grow the partnership between the two countries.


Theresa May is expected to be back in Downing Street this week as ministers prepare to flesh out their negotiating position on Brexit.

The return of the Prime Minister, who has spent three weeks on holiday in Italy with her husband Philip, coincides with the publication this week of a series of new position papers on Brexit - including one on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

It is thought that it will include an offer of continued free movement for Irish nationals in and out of the UK once Britain has left the EU in March 2019.

There will then be a further series of papers in the run up to the European Council in Brussels in October, setting out the Government's vision of Britain's future relations with the EU, including the crucial issue of the post-Brexit customs arrangements.

The move comes amid complaints from Brussels about a lack of clarity about the British negotiating position.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reported to have warned his first two rounds of talks with Brexit Secretary David Davis, covering the opening issues of the Irish border, the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britain's "divorce bill", had made limited progress.

Ministers hope the release of the position papers will convince the EU side that they will be ready to move on to the next phase of the negotiations, including a new free trade deal with the bloc, in the autumn.

Mr Davis said: "I've launched this process because with time of the essence, we need to get on with negotiating the bigger issues around our future partnership to ensure we get a deal that delivers a strong UK and a strong EU.

"It's what businesses across Europe have called on both sides to do and will demonstrate that the UK is ready for the job."

Meanwhile The Times said the slow progress so far had led to complaints in Whitehall that senior officials were now trying to rush through decisions in an attempt to break the policy logjam.

There were said to be concerns that Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU were railroading through issues at a time when many ministers were away, leading to poor decision-making.

At the end of a difficult summer, marked by speculation over a possible leadership challenge and jostling for position among senior ministers over Brexit, there was some respite for the Prime Minister with an apparent truce between two of the leading protagonists.

Chancellor Philip Hammond, who favours a "soft", pro-business Brexit, and the Brexiteer International Development Secretary Liam Fox signed up to a joint statement at the weekend agreeing that there would have to be a transition period after Britain has left the EU.

They agreed that while the measure was necessary to ensure there was no "cliff-edge" break for businesses, it would be time-limited and that Britain would leave the EU single market and the customs union when it left the bloc.

The move was criticised by the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable, who accused the Chancellor of caving in to the demands of the hardline Brexiteers.

AP
It is believed new British position papers on Brexit to be published this week will include a Scehngen-Zone style offer of continued free movement for Irish nationals and calls for a custom border between the two countries.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to travel back to Downing Street this week as ministers prepare to flesh out their negotiating position on Brexit.

The return of the British Prime Minister coincides with the publication this week of a series of new position papers on Brexit - including one on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The Irish Times are reporting this morning that that position paper will include proposals for a customs Border between the North and the South.

Citing London and DUP sources the Irish Times have suggested the paper will call for the creation of a light touch border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

They go on to suggest that Britsh authorities will seek to lessen the impact of the Border by making the Border as seamless and frictionless as possible.

This, they suggest, is expected to include proposals to have an electronic border where possible, to have spot checks of vehicles, to avail of number plate recognition technology and to also use CCTV cameras to try to monitor the movement of goods across the Border.

Meanwhile, there will then be a further series of papers in the run up to the European Council in Brussels in October, setting out the Governments vision of Britains future relations with the EU, including the crucial issue of the post-Brexit customs arrangements.

The move comes amid complaints from Brussels about a lack of clarity about the British negotiating position.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reported to have warned his first two rounds of talks with Brexit Secretary David Davis, covering the opening issues of the Irish border, the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britains "divorce bill", had made limited progress.

British Ministers hope the release of the position papers will convince the EU side that they will be ready to move on to the next phase of the negotiations, including a new free trade deal with the bloc, in the autumn.

Mr Davis said: "Ive launched this process because with time of the essence, we need to get on with negotiating the bigger issues around our future partnership to ensure we get a deal that delivers a strong UK and a strong EU.

"Its what businesses across Europe have called on both sides to do and will demonstrate that the UK is ready for the job."
Courtown RNLI in County Wexford have released footage of their rescue of a teenage girl with suspected spinal injuries whom they had to keep afloat in the sea for 40 minutes.

She was rescued last Friday after she fell off an inflatable donut which was being towed by a jet-ski.

A member of the public raised the alarm at 4.25pm saying that the jet-ski had broken down and was drifting off Ardamine Beach.

The man then made a second call to say the teenage girl was in difficulty in the sea with suspected back injuries after coming off an inflatable donut.

The jet-ski had been towing the donut when it got a rope in the water intake which disabled it.

Courtown RNLI launched their D class lifeboat and found the jet-ski not far from the girl in the water as well as a kayaker who had come to help.

You can see the footage of the rescue, supplied by the RNLI, below.

The girl's father, who had been on the shore, had also made his way to her and was supporting her in the water.

Two RNLI crew members, Fergus Slevin and Father Tom Dalton, got into the water to transfer the father into the lifeboat and assess the girl's condition before requesting a helicopter to airlift her.

Fergus and Father Tom immobilised the girl, put a neck brace on her and ensured she remained afloat, flat in the water and straight at all times, for 40 minutes.

They did so while treading water and continuously chatting to the young girl and keeping her reassured.

The Rescue 117 helicopter arrived and lowered their winch man who strapped the teenager into a rigid stretcher before she was lifted on to the lifeboat and brought to the nearby Glendoyne beach.

The lifeboat was beached, and with the help of the local shore-based Coast Guard Unit, the crew helped the helicopter to lift the casualty in a basket to be airlifted to University Hospital Waterford.

The girl is reported to be well and will make a full recovery.

The all-weather lifeboat from Arklow RNLI was also launched and rescued the two people on the jet-ski and the kayaker.

They were transferred back into Courtown where they were met by an ambulance and treated for shock and cold.

Sam Kennedy, Courtown RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, said: "I would like to highly commend the lifeboat crew for their decision making on Friday.

"We want to wish the casualty a speedy recovery after what was a frightening experience for all involved.

"This rescue was a great example of the RNLI and the Irish Coast Guard working well together to bring someone to safety and we would like to thank our colleagues here in Courtown and in Rescue 117 and also the member of the public who raised the alarm."

He finished by saying that anyone planning a trip to sea should always respect the water.

He said: "People should remember inflatables are designed for using in a pool and not the open sea. Always wear a lifejacket and always carry a means for calling or signalling for help.

"Should you get into difficulty or see someone in trouble dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard."
Update: Ryanair is calling on UK airports to enforce a two-drink limit after it was revealed the number of passengers arrested for drunken behaviour increased by 50% in the last year.

The airline has already banned customers from drinking duty-free alcohol on flights and stopped people flying from Glasgow Prestwick and Manchester to Alicante and Ibiza from bringing it on board the aircraft at all.

The company is now urging airports to ban the sale of alcohol before 10am and to limit the number of drinks per boarding pass to a maximum of two.

Ryanair's Kenny Jacobs said: "This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed."

The call comes after figures obtained by BBC Panorama from 18 out of 20 police forces with a major UK airport on their patch revealed a surge in arrests for drunken behaviour on flights or at UK airports.

There was a total of 387 in the year to February 2017, up from 255 in the period from February 2015 to 2016, according to the statistics .

Ally Murphy, a former Virgin Airlines cabin crew manager, told Panorama: "People just see us as barmaids in the sky.

"I was pulled into an upper-class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky I guess.

"They would touch your breasts, or they'd touch your bum or your legs, or I mean I've had hands going up my skirt before.

"It's rage inducing, and you shouldn't have to deal with that.

"I guess I never reported it to the police because sadly, and this is completely wrong and only really occurring to me now, you kind of just accept it as part of the job. And it shouldn't be."

Uk Airports Called On To Limit Pre-Flight Alcohol Sales Especially During Flight Delays



Read more here: https://t.co/TcdtVGcOhD pic.twitter.com/5bb1hWBBeF  Ryanair (@Ryanair) August 14, 2017

Another cabin crew member, who was unnamed in the programme, said airline workers had found "countless" litre bottles of vodka and they felt that Alicante, Ibiza and Palma were among the worst routes.

Alexandra Wilms, of the Balearic Ministry of Tourism, called for "high fines" to try and deal with the problem as "these kinds of people don't understand any other thing than really getting punished by paying a lot of money" while Airport Operators' Association chief executive Karen Dee rejected suggestions airports are irresponsibly selling alcohol.

Ms Dee said: "The sale of alcohol per se is not a problem. It's the misuse of it and drinking to excess and then behaving badly."

Panorama also points out that the UK aviation industry brought in a voluntary code a year ago.

It recommends that airports and airlines should work together to limit disruptive behaviour and sell alcohol responsibly.

Most of the big airlines and airports have signed up to this.

Earlier: Ryanair is suggesting that passengers should be restricted to two alcoholic drinks in the airport before getting on their flight.

The company thinks people should be made to scan their boarding pass in bars and restaurants to keep track of what they are buying.

The company have also said a ban on selling alcohol before 10am could help reduce the number of cases involving disruptive travelers.

"It's completely unfair that airports can profit from the unlimited sale of alcohol to passengers and leave the airlines to deal with the safety consequences," said Kenny Jacobs, chief marketing officer at Ryanair.

"This is a particular problem during flight delays when airports apply no limit to the sale of alcohol in airside bars and restaurants.

"This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed," added Jacobs.
The imposition of a customs frontier on the Irish border would "play fast and loose" with both the economy and peace process, Sinn Fein has warned.

The party dismissed any suggestion trade movement between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland could be monitored by technology as "nonsense and impossible to deliver".

The UK government's vision of how its only land border with the EU will operate when it exits the Union will be outlined in a much-anticipated document on Wednesday.

There are more than 200 roads crossing the Irish border.

Critics of a technology-based solution, potentially involving CCTV cameras and number plate recognition systems, question how movement between the jurisdictions could ever be tracked without causing major disruption.

The Irish government has made clear its position that technology alone will not resolve the border conundrum.

David Cullinane, Sinn Fein's spokesman on Brexit, said: "It is clear that the British Tory party are in disarray over Brexit.

"They have no plan, no solutions for Brexit, only slogans."

He added: "The notion of a frictionless technological border has been dismissed as nonsense and impossible to deliver.

"What is clear is that Tories are prepared to use Ireland as collateral damage in their negotiations with the EU.

"What we need is a real solution that works for our economy, our communities, and delivers for all Ireland."

However, Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson insisted only the main arterial routes needed to be monitored.

"If people want to export their goods they have to go through the proper process and clearly most of the cross border roads aren't used for trade purposes, they are used on a daily basis by local people," he told the BBC.

"It is the main roads that are used for haulage and trading.

"So we are confident that we can deal with this in a pragmatic way."

On Sunday, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood accused the UK government of drawing up its border plan on the "back of an envelope".

"It is almost laughable that it took the British Government over a year to come up with it," he said.

"Anyone who knows anything about the Irish border knows it's a non-runner."

He added: "Any border must be around the island of Ireland, not across it.

"This is the only position which recognises our unique circumstances and it is the only position which is actually enforceable.

"It is the only serious and credible solution to the Brexit problem which has so far been proposed."

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann has urged the Irish Government to kill off any suggestion that a customs border could be imposed in the Irish Sea, around the island rather than dividing it.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already said the proposal is not one he is tabling as a potential alternative.

Mr Swann called on him to go further.

"If he has any respect for the people of Northern Ireland, Leo Varadkar must come out and dismiss the idea of a post-Brexit border in the Irish Sea once and for all," he said.

Mr Swann repeated his concern that the Brexit issue was being pursued by republicans and nationalists to advance a united Ireland.

"Brexit negotiations should not be used as a Trojan Horse by those who seek to exploit the situation to further their united Ireland agenda," he said.
Suspected Islamic extremists have attacked a Turkish restaurant popular with foreigners in Burkina Faso's capital, killing at least 18 people.

It is the second such attack on a restaurant in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours of Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication minister Remi Dandjinou said at least 18 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll.

The victims were of several different nationalities, he said, including at least one French citizen.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armoured vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upmarket restaurant in Ouagadougou.

The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in west Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun.

But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly home grown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalised and has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians.

His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.

AP
The Chinese government has appealed to US president Donald Trump to avoid a "trade war" ahead of the possible announcement of an investigation into whether China is stealing American technology.

Mr Trump is set to order his trade office launch a probe under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 into the possible Chinese theft of US technology and intellectual property.

In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: "There is no future and no winner in a trade war, and both sides will be the losers.

"As we have emphasised for many times, the nature of China-US trade relations is mutual benefit and win-win.

"Considering the importance of the China-US relations, China is willing to make joint efforts with the United States to keep trade and economic relations on sustained, healthy and stable development on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit."

State newspaper the China Daily said Mr Trump's possible decision to launch an investigation could "intensify tensions", especially over intellectual property.

A decision to use the law to re-balance trade with China "could trigger a trade war", according to the commentary under the name of researcher Mei Xinyu, of the ministry's international trade and economic co-operation institute.

It added: "And the inquiry the US administration has ordered into China's trade policies, if carried out, could intensify tensions, especially on intellectual property rights."

It gave no indication of how Beijing might respond, but Chinese law gives regulators broad discretion over what foreign companies can do in China.

If an investigation begins, Washington could seek remedies either through the World Trade Organisation or outside of it.

Previous US actions directed at China under the 1974 law had little effect, said the China Daily.

It noted that China has grown to become the biggest exporter and has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves.

The newspaper added: "The use of Section 301 by the US will not have much impact on China's progress toward stronger economic development and a better future."

AP
The family of teacher Ann Maguire have lost their challenge against a coroner's decision not to call evidence from pupils who had contact with her schoolboy killer immediately before the murder.

Mrs Maguire's husband Don, children and nephews - who were not at London's High Court for the ruling on Monday - wanted Mr Justice Holroyde to order the decision taken by assistant West Yorkshire coroner Kevin McLoughlin to be reconsidered.

An inquest into Mrs Maguire's death is due to take place before a jury at Wakefield Coroner's Court in November.

The 61-year-old teacher was stabbed in the back by 15-year-old Will Cornick as she taught a Spanish class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds in April 2014.

Cornick was later sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years.

Dismissing the claim for judicial review, the judge said: "I have much sympathy for the claimants, and I fully understand their reasons for wishing to pursue this line of inquiry.

"For the reasons I have given, however, I am unable to accept the submission that the assistant coroner reached a decision which was so seriously flawed as to be ...unreasonable."

Counsel Nick Armstrong told the judge that it was the only occasion on which a teacher had been killed by a pupil in a British classroom and the family were anxious "that all the lessons that can be learned from this enormous tragedy are learned".

He said the coroner accepted that the inquest should address school rules and policies about weapons in school, reporting the presence of weapons in school, and how those rules and policies had been communicated to students.

This was because that over the three hours before the murder, Cornick told other students what he intended to do, and showed a number of them the knife - yet no report to a member of staff was made, at least until it was too late.

The coroner said that all those students - now adults - were "potentially vulnerable" and were not to be re-approached, with the result that only transcripts of their interviews with police at the time would be adduced.

Mr Armstrong said this approach was unlawful as the decision was a blanket one based on limited and generic evidence about vulnerability generally.

Will Cornick

Cathryn McGahey QC argued that the decision was lawfully open to the assistant coroner who was "uniquely well-placed" to make it.

The request to call the former pupils was opposed by other interested parties - including the sisters of Mrs Maguire, one of whom was an experienced teacher - who were concerned about the effect that giving evidence might have on these young people, she added.

And Leeds City Council had said the facts regarding the morning of the incident were already clear and required no duplication of inquiry.

Ms McGahey said: "The key issue was the usefulness of the evidence that these students could give.

"The coroner was entitled to reach the view that the benefit of calling the students would be limited."

It was a school without a history of violence and therefore without any reason for there to be any express but unwritten rule or policy.

Most of the students told the police they had not taken Cornick's threats seriously and the transcripts of their contemporaneous interviews would be available.

The evidence of teaching staff, who had experience of the attitudes of hundreds of students of varying ages, was likely to be far more reliable and useful.

ogi Amin, partner at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: "Ann Maguire's family will now take stock and discuss the options with their legal team.

"They remain committed to finding out the truth and exactly what happened on the day Ann was killed through a thorough, open and fair process.

"They believe it is the only way that lessons will be learned from the incident."

AP
Bernard Kenny, who tried to stop a right-wing extremist from murdering British MP Jo Cox, has died.

His son Phil Kenny, 58, confirmed that his father died on Monday morning.

Former miner Mr Kenny, 79, was seriously injured when he was stabbed as he intervened when Thomas Mair attacked Mrs Cox in his home village of Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016.

Mr Kenny was awarded the George Medal for his bravery this June, and in a statement said he was "honoured to receive such an award".

Mr Kenny was included in a list of new bravery awards along with the two West Yorkshire Police officers who arrested Mair.

Bernard Kenny.

Pc Craig Nicholls and Pc Jonathan Wright both received the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

There were numerous calls after Mrs Cox's murder for Mr Kenny to be honoured by the UK, including a petition aimed at securing him the George Cross - the highest possible civilian honour in the country.

At Mair's trial at the Old Bailey, the jury heard that the pensioner was waiting for his wife outside the library in Birstall when he saw Mair going "berserk".

He said in a statement to police: "I thought if I could jump on to the back, I could take him down.

"I thought he was thumping her until I saw the blood. I saw he had a knife in his hands. It was what I call a dagger. The blade was about nine inches.

"Just as I got short of him, he turned around and saw me. He shoved the knife in and it hit me in the stomach. The blood started pouring out between my fingers. I saw the blood and I thought 'Oh my God'."

Mr Kenny described Mair's actions as a "pure act of evil".

After the attack, more than 80,000 people signed an online petition calling for Mr Kenny to be awarded the George Cross for his bravery.

Mr Kenny, who shared a birthday with Mrs Cox, worked as a miner for 40 years and is a former member of the Gomersal Mines Rescue team which tried to save victims of the Lofthouse mine disaster in 1973.

Neo-Nazi Mair was given a whole life sentence for the murder of Mrs Cox, and was also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Kenny and possession of a gun and dagger.
A former Labour first minister has urged Jeremy Corbyn to throw the party behind efforts to stop Britain leaving the European Union.

Henry McLeish issued a plea to Labour's leadership to use the "natural majority" for remaining in the EU at Westminster to "derail and ultimately defeat" Brexit.

Mr McLeish, who served as Scotland's first minister from 2000 to 2001, also said it is the "final call" for the party on the issue of the constitution before Scotland moves towards independence.

Addressing an audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival about his new book Citizens United, Mr McLeish described Brexit as a "national act of self-harm" with "simply no benefits".

He said: "Can I also say to Labour's leader at this point, if Labour had half a campaign running before the referendum, Brexit would not have won.

"The second point then is an invitation to Jeremy and (shadow chancellor) John McDonnell to put their own ideas of the EU and Europe behind them and use the House of Commons and/or another referendum to make sure that there's a proper debate on this empty box that we voted on, once it is filled up.

"We are internationalists, Labour. By instinct and history we believe that protections for employees should be in place and not squandered in the return of legislation to Britain.

"There are so many pressing needs that Labour could embrace and I believe that the leadership of the Labour Party should now four-square be behind remaining."

Mr McLeish, who has previously said he could back Scottish independence in the event of Brexit, said he is "nearly there" on the question of an independent Scotland but added that he still hopes federalism could be "the key to unlocking the constitutional door for Labour in Scotland".

He said: "We (Labour) have done ourselves a whole lot of damage by pretending that this will go away. It isn't going to go away and Labour must now rejoin enthusiastically the constitutional debate and not press for a vote on independence, another referendum on independence, but a referendum on the future of Scotland, and that could have another question.

"I make an appeal to the Labour Party, do not be afraid of the constitutional question.

"You cannot go around and say to Scots, we're against having another referendum. If Scots want another referendum they shall have another referendum.

"The way to defeat independence if you're Labour is to engage in the battle, engage in the referendum, win your case, win the vote. And as a democrat, that's what they should be doing."

Mr McLeish said he believes that if there was nothing other than independence on the table, Scotland could move towards another referendum on the issue within three to five years.

"This is the final call for Labour before Scotland moves towards independence," he said.

But the former first minister said he also questioned whether it is already "too late" for federalism as it appears to be "an abstract debate" that is "not even on the radar screen of Westminster".

AP
The owners of a historic London casino have sued a high-stakes international gambler said to have once lost 2.4m in a night after complaining that they are owed 470,000.

Bosses at Les Ambassadeurs Club in Mayfair have told a High Court judge how cheques from Azam Kolia, who comes from Singapore, had bounced.

Detail of the case emerged at a preliminary High Court hearing before Mrs Justice Jefford on Monday.

She said Mr Kolia's assets should be frozen pending further developments.

A barrister representing Les Ambassadeurs told the judge that Mr Kolia - who was not at the hearing - was a prolific gambler and liked to "play for high stakes".

Daisy Boulter said Mr Kolia had gambled in the Philippines, London and Australia.

She said he had stayed at The Ritz hotel when in London and had used a bank account in Bournemouth, Dorset, England.

Miss Boulter said on one night in December 2012 he had spent 2.6m and lost 2.4m.

She said he had bought chips with cheques which had been "dishonoured".

"There is a history of evasiveness," Miss Boulter told Mrs Justice Jefford.

"This points to a man with the means to pay, who acknowledges that the debt is due, but simply refuses to pay - possibly because he thinks he can negotiate the debt down."

She said: "He has recently made an offer of settlement. The only thing he has not done is paid up."

Miss Boulter said Mr Kolia had a home in Singapore but was a frequent traveller.

She indicated that lawyers had found it hard to serve documents on him.

Miss Boulter said at one stage documents were left for him at the reception of The Ritz gambling club.

No detail of Mr Kolia's occupation emerged at Monday's hearing.

Miss Boulter said he failed to comply with a judge's order requiring him to provide detail of his assets.

Bosses describe Les Ambassadeurs as "one of the capital's most exclusive and distinguished gambling clubs" on the club's website.

They say the club has been "welcoming the cream of society" since the early 19th Century.
US vice president Mike Pence has tried to strike a balance between Latin American opposition to US military intervention in neighbouring Venezuela, and his boss Donald Trump's assertion that action is an option.

During a news conference, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said he told Mr Pence the US must not even consider military action in response to Venezuela's crisis, adding that the two countries were important allies.

"But since friends have to tell each other the truth, I have told Vice President Pence that the possibility of a military intervention shouldn't even be considered, neither in Colombia nor in Latin America," Mr Santos said.

"America is a continent of peace. It is the land of peace. Let us preserve it as such."

Mr Pence did not directly rule out the idea of US military action, but instead emphasised that America would work together with many nations in their "neighbourhood" to pressure President Nicolas Maduro so that Venezuela's democracy can be restored.

Several times Mr Pence said "but the president sent me here" to build on that partnership, adding: "As President Trump said a few days ago, we have lots of options for Venezuela."

The vice president railed against Venezuela's descent into crisis, saying, "the United States will not stand by" as democracy in the country "crumbles."

Mr Trump shocked many on Friday when he said he would not rule out a "military option" when it comes to dealing with Mr Maduro's attempts to consolidate power.

The United States accuses him of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region.

Mr Pence ssaid he was confident they could find a peaceful solution, but did not explicitly rule out a military option.

He and his wife Karen were greeted by a military honour guard on the tarmac at Rafael Nunez International Airport, where they were greeted by the Colombian minister of foreign affairs, the US ambassador to Colombia and the Colombian ambassador to the US, among other officials.

Later he met Mr Santos briefly at Casa de Huespedes Ilustres, telling him that Mr Trump sent greetings and thanks for his hospitality.

CIA director Mike Pompeo said Mr Trump, by raising the prospect of possible military action, was trying "to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored".

Mr Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that Venezuela "could very much become a risk" to the US if it descended into further chaos.

Yet a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself "a pretty hawkish guy" expressed scepticism about the idea of American troops in Caracas.

"I have no idea why we would use military force in Venezuela. I'm open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when there's a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people," South Carolina's Lindsey Graham told Fox News Sunday.

"I don't see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force."

Mr Trump's national security adviser said the Trump administration wanted to get a handle on the current situation under Mr Maduro's embattled government and "understand better how this crisis might evolve".

"When you look at contingencies, when you look at what if - what if the suffering of the Venezuelan people increases by orders of magnitude - what more can we do with our partners in the region to protect the Venezuelan people and prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe?" HR McMaster told ABC's This Week.

"The president never takes options off the table in any of these situations and what we owe him are options."

Mr McMaster said the US would "continue a series of actions against the Maduro regime which aim to strengthen the opposition and to reach out to those who are members of this oppressive regime to tell them it's time to reconsider your actions and your support for this dictator."

The US has imposed sanctions against Mr Maduro and more than two dozen current and former officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of a pro-government assembly given the job of rewriting the country's constitution.

Venezuela's chief opposition coalition issued a restrained criticism of Mr Trump's talk of using a "military option".

The coalition rejected "the use of force or threats of applying the same in Venezuela on the part of any country" but its statement did not directly mention Mr Trump's remarks.

Mr Pence has other stops scheduled this week in Argentina, Chile and Panama, giving speeches and meeting with leaders.

He will also tour the newly-expanded Panama Canal.

AP
US vice president Mike Pence is meeting people who have fled from Venezuela to Colombia as he seeks to draw attention to a deepening political crisis under Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Pence is visiting the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, where he will meet faith leaders and Venezuelan families before departing to Buenos Aires, Argentina, later on Monday.
More than 200 bodies have been brought to a morgue in Sierra Leone's capital following heavy flooding and mudslides, officials said.

Sinneh Kamara, a coroner technician at the Connaught Hospital mortuary in Freetown, told the national broadcaster that the number of corpses brought in has overwhelmed the facility.
US vice president Mike Pence has condemned the Charlottesville violence, saying "these dangerous fringe groups" have no place in American public life.

Mr Pence was asked about the weekend clashes in the Virginia college town during a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia.
Russia's intelligence agency said it has foiled a terror plot led by militants fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria.

The FSB said it arrested four people suspected of plotting a series of attacks, two of whom were supposed to blow themselves up on Moscow's transit system and in a shop.

The FSB said it discovered a lab outside Moscow where improvised explosive devices were made.

The intelligence agency said the attacks were directed by two senior militants who fight on the side of IS in Syria and hail from the former Soviet Union.

The suspects arrested outside Moscow were not identified, but the FSB said one of them is a Russian national and three others are from Central Asia.

The agency released a video which shows operatives inspecting a house used by the group to make explosives, while two suspects lie down on the floor in handcuffs.

It did not say when the arrests took place.

In May, the FSB arrested another group of suspected IS members who were also accused of plotting terror attacks in the capital.

The arrests follow a suicide bombing in St Petersburg's subway that left 16 dead and more than 50 wounded in April.

President Vladimir Putin said in April that some 9,000 militants, about half of them from Russia and the rest from ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, have joined IS in Syria.

He emphasised that a key goal for the Russian military operation in Syria is to crush them there and prevent them from coming back home.
At least 173 people have died and millions more have been displaced across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh after heavy monsoon rains unleashed landslides and floods.

Officials are still trying to determine the scale of the disaster, as weather forecasters predicted more rain for some areas and casualties were reported in multiple locations across the Himalayan foothills of South Asia.

Nepalese police are searching for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to police.

Many of those killed had drowned or been caught in collapsed houses or crushed underneath toppled trees.

The floods destroyed key rice crops in Nepal and drove thousands of farmers and their families to take refuge in schools or tents on higher ground, as water submerged roads and cut transport to affected areas.

Near the Nepalese village of Kunauli, on the border with India, people were sheltering in tents pitched along the main highway after the land on both sides became inundated.

Electricity and mobile phone services were cut off. Soldiers passed out clean water, grain and rice, which people were cooking on small, paraffin-fuelled stoves.

However, aid workers said some did not have enough food or water.

"The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop," Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for the US-based anti-poverty charity Heifer International, said.

"Making matters worse, large numbers of livestock have been swept away in the flash flooding."

Across Nepal's southern border, flooding swamped seven districts in the Indian state of Bihar and left more than half a million people homeless.

Officials said two people had also died.

Landslides and flooding are common across South Asia during the summer monsoon season, and have become more dangerous thanks to widespread deforestation and poor urban planning which makes it harder for the land to absorb rainfall.

Bangladesh was bracing for worse flooding on Monday, as weather forecasters predicted more rain.

At least 18 major rivers are flowing at dangerously high levels, according to the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.

Twenty-seven people have been killed over the last few days in the low-lying delta nation, while another 600,000 are marooned, according to Bangladesh's disaster management minister, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury.

Around 368,000 people have taken refuge in more than 970 makeshift government shelters, he said.

Bangladeshi soldiers were working to evacuate those who were stranded on rooftops or in trees, after floodwaters inundated hundreds of northern villages.

In the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes.

Officials said that at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps, and that 18 people had been killed.

With railway lines inundated, the remote region was largely cut off from the rest of the country.

Indian air force helicopters are dropping food and drinking water packets in the worst-hit districts, said Assam's chief secretary, VK Pipersenia.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said he was in contact with Assam's authorities.

He said on Twitter: "All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state."

Most of Assam's Kaziranga National Park was also underwater, forcing many of the wildlife reserve's endangered rhinos and deer to move to higher ground.

Dozens of deer were killed by cars after they leaped onto a nearby highway to escape the floods.

Farther to the west, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, soldiers recovered the bodies of 46 people who had been travelling in two buses buried in a massive landslide of rocks and mud on Sunday.

AP
America's top military officer has told his counterparts in South Korea that the United States is ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities to defend itself and its allies from any North Korean provocation.

Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting South Korea, Japan and China after a week in which President Donald Trump traded threats with North Korea.

Mr Trump had declared the US military "locked and loaded" and said he was ready to unleash "fire and fury" if North Korea continues to threaten America.

North Korea, meanwhile, has threatened to fire four intermediate-range missiles into the waters near Guam, a tiny US territory about 2,000 miles from Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.

This would be a deeply provocative act, from the US perspective, and there has been widespread debate about whether Washington would try to shoot the missiles down if they are launched.

The US-North Korean stand-off, which has simmered since the end of the Korean War in 1953, has grown more tense in recent months over worries that the North's nuclear weapons programme is nearing the ability to target the US mainland.

Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.

Gen Dunford, who met with senior South Korean military officials and President Moon Jae-in, "stressed that North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs threaten the entire global community," according to US military spokesman Captain Darryn James.

"He conveyed America's readiness to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the US homeland," Capt James said.

Mr Moon separately called for a peaceful solution to the nuclear stand-off, saying that "there must not be another war on the Korean Peninsula".

In a meeting with top aides at the presidential Blue House, Mr Moon said South Korea would work to safeguard peace on the peninsula in co-operation with the United States and other countries.

Mr Moon said North Korea must stop issuing menacing statements.

North Korea, which is angry over new United Nations sanctions condemning its rapidly developing nuclear and missile programme, continued its tough stance on Monday.

The North accused the US of mobilising a huge number of weapons and troops for annual military drills with South Korea that begin later this month.

Pyongyang, which claims the drills are war preparation, said it will be ready to send its Guam missile launch plan to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for approval just before the drills begin.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said: "What matters is that if a second conflict (on the peninsula) erupts, that cannot help but lead to a nuclear war.

"We are closely monitoring every move by the United States."

The commentary said that about 3.5 million young students and workers have volunteered to join or rejoin the army because of a possible confrontation with the United States.

Gen Dunford earlier told reporters that he aims to "sense what the temperature is in the region". He also will discuss military options in the event the "diplomatic and economic pressurisation campaign" fails.

He said: "We're all looking to get out of this situation without a war."

Chinese president Xi Jinping talked to Mr Trump by telephone this weekend and called for cool-headedness.

Mr Xi urged Washington and Pyongyang to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

Mr Trump has pushed China, North Korea's biggest economic partner and source of aid, to do more to stop the North's nuclear ambitions. Beijing insists its influence on Pyongyang is limited.

The US leader's recent threats followed a report that US intelligence indicates North Korea can now put a nuclear warhead on its long-range missiles.

For all his bluster, Mr Trump's words did not appear to be backed by significant military mobilisation on either side of the Pacific, and an important, quiet diplomatic channel remains open.

On Sunday, CIA director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt.Gen HR McMaster, Mr Trump's national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Mr Trump's tough talk.

They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

AP
Protesters have taken to the streets throughout America, condemning hatred and racism following the Charlottesville violence.

The gatherings included a march to Donald Trump's home in New York and candlelight vigils in several cities.

In Seattle, Washington, police made arrests and confiscated weapons as Trump supporters and counter-protesters converged.

Some rallies focused on showing support for the people whom white supremacists condemn and others pushed for the removal of Confederate monuments, the issue that initially prompted white nationalists to gather in anger in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Other events aimed to denounce fascism and a presidential administration that organisers feel has let white supremacists feel empowered.

"People need to wake up, recognise that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done," said Carl Dix, a leader of the Refuse Fascism group organising demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and other cities.

"This can't be allowed to fester and to grow because we've seen what happened in the past when that was allowed."

In Seattle, a rally previously planned for Sunday by the conservative pro-Trump group known as Patriot Prayer drew hundreds of counter-protesters.

A barricade separated the two groups as police officers stood by dressed in black riot gear.

At one junction, police ordered crowds to disperse and the Seattle Times said officers used pepper spray on some marchers.

In Denver, Colorado, several hundred demonstrators gathered beneath a statue of Martin Luther King in City Park and marched about two miles to the state capitol.

James Alex Fields Jr., who was charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities say he rammed his car into a crowd of protesters.

In Fort Collins, Colorado, marchers chanted: "Everyone is welcome here. No hate, no fear." One demonstrator's sign said, "Make racists ashamed again."

In New York, protesters marched from several locations in Manhattan to Trump Tower, demanding the president denounce white nationalist groups involved in the violent confrontations in Charlottesville. One sign read: "Call out evil."

Helen Rubenstein, 62, was among hundreds of people who marched through downtown Los Angeles.

She said her parents were Holocaust survivors and she was worried extremist views were becoming normal under Mr Trump's presidency.

"I blame Donald Trump 100% because he emboldened all these people to incite hate, and they are now promoting violence and killing," she said.

In Charlottesville, a crowd gathered in the street where the crash happened. They sang Amazing Grace and prayed around piles of flowers that mark the spot where Heather Heyer, 32, was killed.

Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer, who attended the rally, denied responsibility for the violence and blamed counter-protesters and police.

Mr Trump condemned what he called an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides", a statement that Democrats and some of the president's fellow Republicans saw as equivocating about who was to blame.

The White House later added that the condemnation "includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups".

AP
A close friend of the woman killed when a car was driven into peaceful protesters in Charlottesville has described her death as a terrorist act.

Marissa Blair, who was with Heather Heyer, 32, when the crash happened. She says the driver "barrelled down" and she could hear the wheels as he accelerated.
Two electric buses and one hybrid bus will hit Canberra roads next month, after the ACT government signed a $900,000 contract with Carbridge and Volvo.

The 12-month trial will look at how the buses cope with the demands of the Canberra network and will guide future decisions on the replacement of ACTION's diesel buses, Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris said.

A Carbridge Toro electric bus at Sydney Airport. Credit:Sydney Airport

"Recent improvements in battery technology mean that electric buses are becoming more economical and operationally viable, coupled with obvious environmental benefits," Ms Fitzharris said.

"If electric or electric-hybrid buses are found suitable following the trial, Transport Canberra will consider alternative fuel buses as part of the broader fleet replacement options."
Commonwealth Bank will refund about $10 million to more than 65,000 customers after selling them unsuitable insurance when they applied for credit cards and home loans.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Monday said CBA sold CreditCard Plus insurance for credit card repayments to 65,000 customers between 2011 and 2015 who were either students or unemployed.

CBA will repay about $586,000 in premiums to 10,000 customers it overinsured when they took out a home loan with the bank. Credit:Louie Douvis

As a result, they wouldn't have been eligible to claim for unemployment or temporary and permanent disability cover provided by the insurance. Most were students with lower credit card limits.

The regulator said CBA would also repay about $586,000 in premiums to another 10,000 customers it overinsured when they took out a home loan with the bank.
The Commonwealth Bank's first climate policy statement has been blasted by a leading environmental investor activist group for being scant on detail and lagging the commitments of its banking peers in Australia.

The bank released its climate statement on Monday, a day when its corporate governance was also in the spotlight with the announcement chief executive Ian Narev will exit amid allegations the country's biggest bank breached anti-money laundering rules.

The CBA pledged to finance $15 billion by 2025 for what it dubbed low-carbon projects such as renewable energy and energy-efficient buildings. That would form part of the bank's support for a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 to limit dangerous climate change.

"Climate change poses a significant risk to our environment, our economy and our society," the bank said.
Strong sales growth in phones, computers, audio equipment and home appliances has helped JB Hi-Fi record a 13 per cent boost in net profit, beating its own guidance.

The electronics retailer said its net profit after tax for the 12 months to June 30 was $172.4 million, up from $152.2 million in the same period last year.

Total revenue grew 42 per cent after the company took over home appliance retailer The Good Guys in November 2016.

Sales at its flagship JB Hi-Fi stores grew 10.9 per cent to $4.1 billion. Stripping out the impact of new stores, sales grew by 8.6 per cent.
Two senior Victorian CFMEU officials have failed to have blackmail charges against them quashed.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice James Elliott on Monday rejected an application by John Setka and Shaun Reardon to have charges against them in Melbourne Magistrates' Court dismissed.

John Setka and Shaun Reardon failed to get charges against them dismissed. Credit:Justin McManus

State secretary Mr Setka and assistant secretary Mr Reardon have been charged with blackmailing Boral executives Paul Dalton and Peter Head in April 2013.

It's alleged the pair urged CFMEU members to stop using Boral products after the company failed to meet union demands.
Even more specifically, four missiles would fly over Japan at 3,356.7 kilometres for 1,065 seconds and land in waters 30 kilometres to 40 kilometres off the coast of Guam, Kim's statement said. Its purpose would be to "contain" the US strategic forces on Guam. Kim said he would present the plan to the supreme command by mid-August.

Specifically, the commander of the North Korean Army's Strategic Force, General Kim Rak-gyom, said the force was "carefully examining the operational plan for making an enveloping fire at the areas around Guam with the medium-to-long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12," based on the English-language version supplied by the official Korean Central News Agency.

But many news outlets have been a bit sloppy in their reporting of the North Korean threat. Two key facts were omitted in most of the news reporting. First, the North Koreans are at no point threatened to bomb the island of Guam, which has a civilian population of some 150,000 as well as 12,000 military personnel and their families, on the Pentagon's figures.

Is Kim Jong-un mad? You could be forgiven for thinking so thanks to media reports about his general setting out publicly a detailed plan for the bombing of a US island, Guam, home to a huge American military base.

Kim Jong-un Credit:AP

This is a different proposition to a threat to bomb the island. Of course, it presupposes a degree of accuracy that may be more hope than reality.

Second, North Korea is always careful to avoid threatening a first strike on the US or any country. As the director of the Korean Studies Institute at the University of Southern California, David Kang, told The Washington Post: "The big thing we keep missing about North Korea is that their threats are always the second half of a sentence, and we ignore the first half. North Korea consistently says, 'If the US attacks us first, we will fight back'. The only thing that gets reported in the US media is the second clause, not the first. So their comments are clearly deterrent in nature, and the Guam 'threat' was exactly along those lines. So we always overhype the North Korean threat." What's true of the US media is equally true of the Australian.

So Kim Jong-un is not mad enough to launch a first strike on a nuclear-armed superpower. But wouldn't his nuclear-armed ally, China, back him in a fight? That's what happened in the 1950-53 Korean War, when China threw itself into the fray and suffered casualties approaching half a million men killed and wounded. Answer: It probably depends on who starts the fight.

Under their 1961 treaty, China is committed to coming to North Korea's defence if it is attacked. But if Pyongyang launches an unprovoked war, China is under no obligation. A state-owned Chinese publication, the ultra-nationalist Global Times, urged on the weekend: "China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral." This paper does not represent official policy but it reflects growing Chinese frustration with Pyongyang. "Dear Marshall" Kim cannot be sure of Chinese support in a war against the US. This was reinforced by Chinese President Xi Jinping's weekend call for "all sides" to exercise restraint.
If he is, the government may well fall, having lost its majority in the House of Representatives. In that case, the task will fall to its successor.

After persistent probing by the Herald, Mr Joyce has admitted that he may hold New Zealand citizenship, and may thus be in breach of section 44(i) of the constitution and ineligible for election to the Australian Parliament.

If it was not clear before, the situation of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce must now have made it obvious to the Turnbull government that, if it survives, it will have to begin the process of amending the constitution's provisions on the eligibility of MPs.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce during question time on Monday. Credit:Andrew Meares

Constitutional reform is not something any federal government these days views with much enthusiasm. Failure is highly likely. To pass, a referendum must gain a majority of votes, plus a majority in more than half the states. That sets the bar so high that any serious campaign against a proposal will see it fail. And oppositions are often willing to campaign against proposals they actually agree with just to frustrate the government of the day.

Even so, it would be churlish in the extreme for this opposition to campaign against reform when recent history has shown it is so obviously necessary.

Four MPs  three senators and now one member of the lower house  have either admitted they have breached section 44(i), or have asked for an adjudication of their status. The section bars citizens of other countries from parliament. (Other subsections, to do with pecuniary interests or offices of profit under the Crown, have also caused other senators difficulties.)

The basic principle of section 44(i)  that MPs should be Australian citizens, not citizens of any other country  is sound. Some may argue that in this multicultural age of increasing globalisation, dual citizenship is becoming more and more common, and our parliament should accept, and reflect, the trend. That view is flawed. Australian voters naturally expect their parliamentary representatives to be from this country and to represent its, and their, interests, not those of any other country.
Last Monday I got a phone call from a normally reliable source. With the section 44 wrecking ball still swinging through Parliament, the source suggested I might want to take a closer look at Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's citizenship.

My first reaction was to laugh. Joyce had been in Parliament since 2004, serving in both chambers. He'd risen to the second most powerful office in the land. Surely he'd done his due diligence? Plus, Joyce was a guy who prided himself in being authentically Aussie. The thought he might secretly be a Kiwi was almost too outlandish to contemplate.

Almost.

The fear of getting scooped is a powerful motivator in journalism. So I quickly started digging, establishing that Joyce's father - James Joyce - had been born in the South Island city of Dunedin in 1924. He was born a British subject but New Zealand citizenship laws made him a New Zealand citizen. The same laws - the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 - said: "A person born after the commencement of this Act shall be a New Zealand citizen by descent if his father was a New Zealand citizen."
Senators Malcolm Roberts and Matt Canavan, who have both been caught up in questions over dual citizenship. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Given the strength of the legal advice the government has received, the Prime Minister has asked that I remain as Deputy Prime Minister and continue my ministerial duties." But experts believe Mr Joyce could well be a dual citizen, forcing a byelection for his seat and putting the Turnbull government's slim majority at risk. Under New Zealand law anyone born overseas to a NZ father between 1949 and 1978 is considered a "citizen by descent". Labor called for Mr Joyce to stand aside while the matter is being considered by the High Court, citing Senator Canavan's case.

"How on earth could this Parliament be claiming to have a majority government, relying on the vote of someone they don't know whether or not he has been lawfully elected?" manager of opposition business Tony Burke said. "How on earth can this government have someone in the office of Deputy Prime Minister, when they don't even know if he is meant to be a member of Parliament? "And if the minister for resources was able to stand aside, even though he has the Attorney-General beside him, claiming that he had a strong case, then why on earth is strong case the defence for the Deputy Prime Minister? "How on earth does that work?" Born in Tamworth

Mr Joyce's father James Michael Joyce was born in the NZ city of Dunedin in January 1924, according to Australian Securities and Investment Commission company records. He moved to Sydney to attend university, later married and settled in NSW. Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth in 1967. Mr Joyce has not been through any formal renunciation process and his office cannot say whether his father - now in his 90s - ever renounced. While the older Mr Joyce was born a British subject, it's believed he became a NZ citizen with the passage of a 1948 citizenship law. Crucially, experts say NZ law - section 7 of the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act - confers citizenship by descent automatically, and does not need to be activated. While there is a process for registering NZ citizenship by descent to attain a passport, University of Auckland international law expert Anna Hood believes that may not matter. "If Barnaby's father was indeed a New Zealand citizen in 1967 then it looks like Barnaby may have become a New Zealand citizen at birth courtesy of section 7 of the 1948 Act," Dr Hood told Fairfax Media.

"There is a question about whether Barnaby or his parents would have had to register him as a New Zealand citizen. However, section 7 of the 1948 act does not explicitly require individuals born to New Zealand fathers to register their citizenship." Dr Hood also points to another section of the act, which provides that every person born outside NZ between January 1, 1949, and January 1, 1978, shall be a New Zealand citizen by descent if born to a Kiwi father. My Joyce's spokesman has previously said the MP had independently established he was not a dual citizen "many years prior to entering Parliament". However his office has not elaborated on what steps he took. Deputy PM 'shocked' Fairfax Media sent emails to New Zealand's citizenship office, the Internal Affairs department, last Wednesday, asking for clarification over the nation's citizenship laws.

Mr Joyce told Parliament he was contacted the next day. "Last Thursday afternoon, the New Zealand high commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from the Department of Internal Affairs which had received inquiries, considered that I could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent," Mr Joyce said. "Needless to say, I was shocked about this." Before Mr Joyce's statement, Fairfax Media followed up with Internal Affairs, asking again for a response to last week's questions. Despite having advised the New Zealand high commission there may be an issue, a spokesman from the New Zealand department said it had "not yet received a response from the relevant experts".

'Everyone had conversations' University of NSW constitutional law expert George Williams said Mr Joyce could be "in some difficulty". "The only question here is, 'Is he regarded under New Zealand law as a citizen?' That's not a question of activation - in fact this can happen without a person's knowledge or consent," Professor Williams said. "It doesn't even have to be registered, it's just, 'Is he entitled to the benefits under their law should he wish to take them up?' It doesn't matter if he has. If he has that entitlement, that is what the constitution extends to." Mr Joyce has been asked several times if he is a dual citizen, following the shock resignations of Greens senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters last month.

Two weeks ago, Mr Joyce joked on Today that "everyone has had their conversation with their mothers and fathers" that they weren't made citizens of Botswana while they were sleeping. "I was born in Tamworth Base Hospital, where my great-grandmother was born 100 years before me and I am an Australian, no problems there." It was only after Fairfax Media investigated NZ law, pressing Mr Joyce's office on the issue, that they began to take the matter seriously. Similar to Canavan case Anne Twomey from the University of Sydney believed Mr Joyce's case resembles that of Senator Canavan, who was apparently given Italian citizenship by descent after his mother made an application on his behalf. The High Court judgment on the case of Senator Canavan - who has stood down from the ministry but remains in the upper house - could affect Mr Joyce.

"The fact that another country can have these rules about citizenship by descent, which people have not the foggiest idea about, is potentially problematic. It may be that the High Court tries to wind these things back - so if you were born in Australia, and you haven't taken any steps to gain any foreign citizenship, then maybe that is enough to avoid disqualification," she said. "We need to know whether the mere fact that you are descended from someone and that gives you the right to do something in relation to foreign citizenship - like obtaining a passport - is sufficient to trigger this or not? I am sure many politicians would like to know that." Senator Canavan was forced to step down after it was revealed his mother had applied for Italian citizenship on his behalf, when he was 25. But he is asking the High Court to rule whether he is still eligible to stand in Parliament, as he was unaware his mother had taken this step. When Senator Canavan stepped down from the cabinet, Mr Joyce took on his ministerial responsibilities.

The High Court considers whether an MP took all reasonable steps to renounce their citizenship before nominating for election to Parliament. Mr Joyce, who is not registered with New Zealand authorities as a citizen, is expected to argue he had no way of knowing he was a dual citizen, having previously inquired to see if he was registered with NZ authorities, and receiving a "no". Kiwi by descent On its official website, the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs notes: "If you were born overseas and at least one of your parents is a New Zealand citizen by birth or grant, you are an New Zealand citizen by descent." In separate education material, the department says: "Like a citizen by birth, a New Zealand citizen by descent acquires his or her citizenship status automatically at the time of his or her birth. However many people choose to register their citizenship by descent status with the Citizenship Office of the Department of Internal Affairs in order to obtain a certificate to prove they are a New Zealand citizen."

And in a 2015 press release, the department said: "Babies born in Australia and other countries to New Zealand parents are still Kiwis. Before an overseas-based family brings their new baby home to meet the Kiwi cousins, they need to register him/her as a citizen by descent before they can apply for a New Zealand passport." The registration process involves filling out a form labelled "Confirmation of New Zealand Citizenship By Descent", rather than calling it an application for citizenship. The registration process costs $NZ204.40 ($189). Former independent MP Tony Windsor, who challenged Mr Joyce for his seat of New England at the 2016 election, wouldn't rule out another attempt if the citizenship fiasco triggered a byelection. "It's not front of mind but you never rule anything out in life," Mr Windsor, a long-time foe of the Nationals leader, told Fairfax Media.



"If he's ruled out, it's a whole new ball game." 'Opportunity' for other MPs

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on Monday, advising him of Mr Joyce's referral to the High Court, and offered him the "opportunity" to refer any Labor MPs who may potentially fall foul of the same constitutional section. "It is manifestly in the national interest that the High Court have the opportunity to clarify the limits on the operation of section 44 of the constitution," Mr Turnbull wrote. "With around half of all Australians having a foreign born parent, and with many foreign nations having citizenship laws which confer citizenship by descent, regardless of place of birth, the potential for many, possibly millions of Australians unknowingly having dual citizenship is considerable. "I am writing to you to offer you the opportunity to nominate any Labor members or senators whose circumstances may raise questions under section 44 of the constitution so that the Parliament can also refer these matters to the High Court for its consideration. "The Australian people must have confidence in our political system and resolving any uncertainty is vital."
Attorney-General George Brandis says his colleague Barnaby Joyce will escape disqualification from Parliament, despite holding New Zealand citizenship in breach of the constitution, because Mr Joyce was unaware of his dual-citizen status.

The Deputy Prime Minister's case has been referred to the High Court, along with that of his colleague, Nationals Senator Matthew Canavan, who has stood aside from cabinet until the matter is resolved.

Mr Joyce is refusing to stand aside from cabinet while his position is clarified. Labor says Mr Joyce should not be in cabinet or vote while there is the chance his position could be invalid. But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Parliament on Monday, that: "the leader of the National Party, the Deputy Prime Minister, is qualified to sit in this House and the High Court will so hold."

On Monday night, Senator Brandis rejected suggestions Mr Turnbull's comments predicting the High Court's ruling were a directive to the bench.
The failure of party officials to undertake proper vetting of political candidates, coupled with the apparent failure of a number of those candidates to undertake due diligence on their own behalf, has brought the Australian Parliament to a state teetering on disrepute.

It has also brought the sitting government to crisis and even, potentially, collapse.

It's been known since the Australian constitution came into effect on January 1, 1901, that a candidate can't hold the citizenship of any other country.

As recently as 1999, if any candidate needed reminding of the consequences of getting it wrong, One Nation's Heather Hill had her election to the Senate ruled invalid by the High Court because she hadn't renounced her British citizenship.
Time for me to call it a day. What happened?

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is a citizen of New Zealand ;

; Mr Joyce has referred himself to the High Court to determine whether or not he was eligible to run for Parliament;

has to determine whether or not he was eligible to run for Parliament; the government says it is confident the High Court will find in Mr Joyce's favour ;

; Mr Joyce will not resign from his leadership or portfolio responsibilities while the matter is being heard;

from his leadership or portfolio responsibilities while the matter is being heard; the opposition is calling for him to resign and says the Turnbull government lacks legitimacy.

My thanks to Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares for their work and to you for reading and commenting (what a day).

You can follow me on Facebook.

Andrew, Alex and I will be back in the morning. Until then, good night.
Priests would no longer be able to use the secrecy of the confessional to avoid reporting allegations of child sexual abuse, a royal commission recommends in its latest report.

In the wide-ranging report into the criminal justice system, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has made 85 recommendations aimed at better protecting children.

Failing to report information about child sexual abuse disclosed in confession should be made a criminal offence, a royal commission recommends.

One key recommendation is that failing to report information about child sexual abuse disclosed in confession should be made a criminal offence.

"The report recommends there be no exemption, excuse, protection or privilege from the offence granted to clergy for failing to report information disclosed in connection with a religious confession," it read.
Teachers are being told not to sign a confidentiality agreement covering question testing for NAPLAN online which is under way in hundreds of schools this month, in preparation for the move away from the pen and paper exam starting next year.

Two teachers' unions said they have received legal advice that the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) cannot require teaching staff to sign the documents and have concerns about the ramifications for teachers who may "inadvertently" breach the agreement.

However, ACARA and the NSW Department of Education said teachers involved in trialling NAPLAN test items had been asked to sign confidentiality agreements since 2008.

"This is to ensure the security of potential test content, so no student has any unfair advantage when taking NAPLAN the following May," a spokesman for ACARA, which runs national NAPLAN testing, said.
Some surgeons are charging thousands of dollars more than their colleagues for the same orthopaedic operation, leaving patients with up to $5500 in out-of-pocket costs.

Paying for a return flight to Adelaide for a hip or knee replacement would, in many cases, be cheaper than seeing a Sydney or Melbourne surgeon, an impractical hypothetical revealing the huge variations in surgeon fees across Australia.

The class action case alleged The Cosmetic Institute breached duty of care. Credit:Stock

A Medibank report detailing the vast disparities sends a clear signal to patients to shop around for their doctor, taking into account out-of-pocket fees, complication rates and expertise.

The average cost of a hip replacement varied by more than $20,000 ($19,439 to $42,007) depending on the surgeon, showed the joint Medibank and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) report of all orthopaedic surgeries funded by the health insurer between 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.
Public servants have been warned they could breach their conditions of employment by making political comments during the Turnbull government's postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage.

A week after the Australian Public Service Commission issued a new social media guidance for federal government employees, the main public service union has told its members to be careful in posting opinions on websites including Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

"Marriage equality is an important community issue and APS workers have the right as Australian citizens to comment and engage around the issue on social media," Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood told members.

"People working in agencies directly involved with the postal plebiscite, such as ABS and AEC, are also free to comment but should avoid criticism of their agency's capacity to carry out the plebiscite, or of the minister or Prime Minister in making that decision.
A Sydney woman who bought pills on the internet to abort her child after her boyfriend urged her to terminate the pregnancy has been prosecuted for self-administering a drug to procure a miscarriage.

In a decision on July 5, made public on Monday, Local Court magistrate Geoffrey Hiatt said the woman, who was 28 at the time, had a "clear intent to procure a miscarriage".

Courts.

He noted "the ongoing debate regarding pro- and anti-abortion is a polarising issue within the community" and said it was his job to apply the law rather than "express views either way".

It is an offence under the NSW Crimes Act for a pregnant woman to unlawfully administer to herself "any drug or noxious thing" or unlawfully use "any instrument or other means" with the intention of procuring a miscarriage.
It was a stray grape that cost an inner west Woolworths a small fortune. Now the Court of Appeal has overturned a District Court decision awarding a customer $151,000 plus legal costs after she slipped on the offending fruit in the produce aisle at Woolworths Leichhardt. Woolworths won an appeal against a decision awarding a customer $151,000 after she slipped on a grape. Credit:Louie Douvis Colleen McQuillan took legal action against Woolworths in 2015, after she slipped and fell in the Sydney supermarket on a Sunday in November 2012. District Court judge Peter Maiden found Woolworths had acted negligently, even though he also found there was no evidence the store's inspection and cleaning system could be improved.

The supermarket giant appealed against the decision and on Monday the Court of Appeal found in its favour. Justice Fabian Gleeson, with whom Justices John Basten and Anthony Payne agreed, said "keeping a proper lookout in accordance with instructions to maintain vigilance for hazards on the floor, such as grapes, does not mean a perfect lookout". Even if the grape was on the floor when Woolworths staff first passed the area before Ms McQuillan slipped over, Justice Gleeson was "not persuaded that there was a casual act of negligence by the Woolworths staff in failing to observe a single grape on the floor in the area behind the banana stand when passing by that area to attend to other duties". Justice Basten said the findings made by the trial judge were "inconsistent" with a conclusion that Woolworths was negligent. Ms McQuillan was ordered to pay the supermarket giant's costs in the District Court proceedings.
A developer and Liberal Party donor who gained approval from Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy to build controversial towers in South Yarra almost immediately sold the land to Chinese and Malaysian companies for a massive profit.

The 2014 approval by Mr Guy, then the planning minister, earned companies owned by South Yarra businessman Michael Yates a $36 million profit.

Mr Yates is a 73-year-old developer who has been prolific in building apartments in South Yarra's Forrest Hill, the precinct bounded by Toorak Road, Chapel Street, South Yarra railway station and the Yarra River.

Mr Yates bought the Chapel Street land for $20.1 million in early 2014 and sold it later that year with planning approval from Mr Guy for $56.3 million.
A hunger for fried chicken allowed police to arrest a man who threw a beer can at officers, before leading them on a chase through Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs on Monday night.

Police first spotted a Mitsubishi Magna driving erratically on the Princes Highway at Mulgrave about 9.50pm and tried to intercept it.

Police arrest a man outside the KFC outlet in Springvale. Credit:Courtesy of Channel Nine

The driver of the Magna threw a beer can at police and then sped off.

Further south, on a service slip road, the Magna sideswiped a stationary police car before continuing south on Springvale Road.
Victorian schools are secretly expelling possibly thousands of students every year, a scathing watchdog's report has found.

Jeri Packham is among them, and said her state school asked her to leave in Year 11 after she failed a unit of VCE English. She was battling depression and anxiety at the time.

Jeri Packham, seen here with her dog Scruffy, says she was asked to leave her school after she failed a unit of VCE English. Credit:Eddie Jim

"They didn't offer me the opportunity to repeat. It was just, 'you failed, goodbye'."

For the first time, the Victorian Ombudsman has shone a light on informal expulsions, revealing that as many as 6800 students are pushed out of Victorian state schools every year.
Madsen has denied the charge, saying he dropped Wall off in the harbor of Copenhagen late Thursday after she completed her reporting. Madsen has since changed his story, police said Sunday, but declined to explain further. Madsen's defense lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, told the Associated Press her client is "willing to cooperate" and hasn't decided whether to appeal the ruling on his detention. After a two-hour private hearing Saturday, a judge ordered that Madsen be held for 24 days while police continue investigating. Police had been searching for the submarine, named the UC3 Nautilus, since Friday morning, when Wall's boyfriend reported that she had not returned to Copenhagen Thursday night as planned. Krisitan Isbak told a Danish news outlet that he spotted the submarine, and Madsen in the vessel's tower, after authorities asked for help in the search. He saw Madsen go down into the submarine and reemerge shortly after. Then, the vessel began to sink, he said. "There was no panic at all," Isbak said. "The man was absolutely calm."

Isbak described the scene further to the AP, saying "there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink." Madsen stayed in the tower until water began pouring into it. As the boat sank, he swam to a nearby boat, Isbak told the AP. Madsen spoke to Danish television station TV2, claiming the submarine sank after "a minor problem with a ballast tank," which holds water to provide stability, "turned into a major issue". "It took about 30 seconds for Nautilus to sink, and I couldn't close any hatches or anything," Madsen told the station. "But I guess that was pretty good because I otherwise still would have been down there". Wall's family declined to speak in detail about her disappearance. But her mother said they still hoped for her "safe return". "It is with a great concern that we, her family, received the news that Kim is missing after an interview with Peter Madsen in Denmark," the family wrote in a statement to the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We sincerely hope that she will be found and that she is well".

Wall's disappearance resonated among journalists around the world, with many of them sharing the news across social media over the weekend. Her reporting covered topics such as identity, gender, pop-culture, social justice and foreign policy, and her work has appeared in Harpers, The Guardian, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, and many other publications. A native of Malmo, Sweden, Wall graduated from Columbia University with masters degrees in journalism and international affairs. She received a bachelor's degree from the London School of Economics & Political Science. The International Women's Media Foundation described her as a "beloved member" of its community and said it was "enormously concerned" about her disappearance. "We ask that the Danish authorities urgently make every effort to locate Kim and provide everyone who loves her with more information," the organisation wrote in a statement. "The global press freedom community is united in standing with Kim, her family and colleagues". The Committee to Protect Journalists echoed these demands, calling for an exhaustive inquiry into Wall's "fate and wherabouts".

"Denmark should not be considered a dangerous assignment for journalists," wrote Nina Ognianova, the group's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. Christopher Harress, a reporter for AL.com based in Alabama, said he became good friends with Wall while attending Columbia University with her. She was in all of his classes, he said. After she graduated in 2013, Wall's peers admired her decision to pursue a career as an independent journalist, move to China and chase stories around the world. She often relied on grants to fund her reporting trips. "She did it all," Harress said. "She'd been to all these different dangerous places". So when Harress and Wall's other classmates heard Wall was missing, they initially presumed she may have simply wandered to pursue a story on an island.

"Because it is such a safe country, we just thought off course she's gone somewhere," Harress said. "We just thought that was her, that was what she did. She just wandered places". But as the news reports took a more ominous turn, her friends became increasingly worried. "I think we just fear the worst now," Harress said. "She trusted somebody and then this is what happened." He said her disappearance has "shaken up" many of Wall's friends and fellow journalists, and has "tested a lot of our perceptions of what can happen to someone in certain places." Loading
Graffiti spray-painted by a protester lines a wall as police officers clear demonstrators from a freeway off-ramp in Oakland, California on Saturday. Credit:AP "We thought it was important for us to come together at such a time as this," state Del. Delores McQuinn, who helped put together the vigil, told the crowd. Like many of Richmond's leaders, she is African-American. "We stand at this reconciliation statue as a symbolic gesture to remind us that we still have work to do. The battle to fight hatred, racism, prejudice and faces of evil is not over." It's hard, she said, sounding both weary and angry, to know what to do next after a display of open bigotry such as the one that gripped Charlottesville over the weekend. The answer, she said, is not in violence or in political sniping. Police stand during a rally in Seattle on Sunday when protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the country. Credit:AP "We battle evil by fighting for the heart and the soul of America. Democracy in this nation. We do not fight fire with fire," she shouted, her voice breaking, "but we fight fire with faith, and that's why we are here today. . . . We continue to walk in unity with the understanding that we are our brother's keeper."

Hundreds of people gathered in Charlottesville on Sunday for a vigil at the spot where Heyer was killed. A protester burns an American flag in Seattle on Sunday. Credit:Grant Hindsley In Washington, more than a hundred people marched down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, past the Trump International Hotel and toward the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike. Among those marching was 11-year-old Maya Schindler of the District of Columbia, who was attending with her parents and younger brother. "It's not right what's happening," she said. "It's our duty to protest."

"It's unfortunate how many times we've done this," added her mother, Alison Auerbach. "This is Maya's eighth or ninth march. . . . We want to be a model for our kids but she's often leading us." Sarah Kamins was one of those who arrived early for a march to the White House and demonstration. The 31-year-old held up a sign that read, "This is not normal," and said she had just attended another gathering in Arlington, where she lives. She was soon joined by scores more marchers who filled Pennsylvania Avenue in front of Lafayette Square. "I'm appalled we're letting neo-Nazis and white supremacists lead the conversation," Kamins said. "I'm really disheartened this is happening." The marchers listened to speeches by progressive activists and chanted, "This is what democracy looks like."

In Richmond, the crowd and speakers alike seemed to struggle with how political to make the moment. Many spoke of the need to transcend partisan differences, but most also made reference to the need to start by calling racism by its name - a not-so-veiled reference to Trump's failure to denounce the white supremacists in his tweets Saturday. So when McAuliffe in his remarks said, "We gotta all figure out, how did we get to this place?" Someone in the crowd replied, "Trump," while someone else warned, "Stop!" Democrat representative Donald McEachin was blunt in his assessment. "We got here because we thought that someone who refused to disassociate himself with white supremacy could not get elected president of the United States. We were wrong." he said, to cheers from the crowd. After the speeches, though, the crowd sang hymns and heard prayers from several ministers, such as Turner, who said that while he didn't vote for Trump, it does no good to deny the president's vital role in society. "I hear people say, we not gonna call him our president," said Turner, the minister of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Richmond. "We can't fix this country when we deny who is at the head of this country."

Afterward, the crowd held hands and sang We Shall Overcome. McAuliffe hugged and shook hands as he made his way through the crowd to a waiting SUV and said he had not heard from the president on Sunday. "It's sad," he said, then shrugged. "It is what it is. An opportunity to lead - but we know what we're dealing with." In Washington, the tone at Lafayette Square near the White House was more raucous, as about a hundred marchers arrived before 7pm chanting "No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!" Many held signs denouncing Nazis and the Unite the Right rally that erupted into violence on Saturday in Charlottesville. There were also several Facebook events for vigils in cities including Houston, New York, Philadelphia and numerous towns across Virginia.
Paris: A man believed to be under the influence of drugs - and possibly trying to end his life - has deliberately rammed his car into a pizzeria east of Paris, killing a young girl and injuring her younger brother and 12 others.

The driver was immediately arrested in what was the latest of several attacks in France and elsewhere using a vehicle as a weapon.

Local prosecutors say the man's actions in the Sept-Sorts attack were clearly deliberate, but not terrorism-related.

The girl and her brother were among restaurant patrons eating dinner on the outdoor terrace of the pizzeria when a man in a BMW accelerated toward them, an official with the national gendarme service told The Associated Press. Some officials say the girl was 13, but prosectors say she was 12.
Members of the KKK are escorted by police past a large group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville. Credit:AP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called them "repugnant". The Department of Justice announced late Saturday that it was opening a civil rights investigation. "The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. "When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated." White nationalist demonstrators walk into Lee park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville on Saturday. Credit:AP

Some left-leaning Charlottesville organisers such as Laura Goldblatt, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia, said that the full airing of such ideas would eventually lead more Americans to reject them. "I think this is the beginning of the end for this spectacularised part of the movement," said Goldblatt. But some key far-right leaders say the outcome was exactly what they had hoped for. A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Credit:AP We asserted ourselves as the voice of white America. I think we did an incredibly impressive job Matthew Heimbach, a founder of the Nationalist Front, "We achieved all of our objectives," said Matthew Heimbach, a founder of the Nationalist Front, a neo-Nazi group that bills itself as an umbrella organisation for the white nationalist movement, in an interview on Saturday. "We showed that our movement is not just online, but growing physically. We asserted ourselves as the voice of white America. We had zero vehicles damaged, all our people accounted for, and moved a large amount of men and materials in and out of the area. I think we did an incredibly impressive job."

Jason Kessler, a Charlottesville conservative and the main organiser of Saturday's rally, has been fighting for months against the City Council's plan to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's Emancipation Park, which once bore Lee's name. Matthew Heimbach, who runs the Traditionalist Worker Party, with his family at home in Paoli, Indiana. Credit:New York Times Although he is a relative newcomer to the white nationalist movement, Kessler is well known in his hometown. He has attacked the city's status as a sanctuary for immigrants and has waged a public battle against Wes Bellamy, the black vice-mayor of Charlottesville who is also one of its city councilmen. For weeks, a flyer for the Unite the Right meeting made its way around the internet. It featured Pepe the Frog-styled soldiers bearing Confederate battle flags, and promised featured speakers like Spencer and Michael Hill, president of the Southern pro-secession group League of the South. Workers prepare to take down the statue of former Confederate General Robert E. Lee in New Orleans in May. Credit:AP

George Hawley, a University of Alabama political science professor who studies white supremacists, said that many of the far-right members he had interviewed did not inherit their racism from their parents, but developed it online. Many of them had never heard of, say, David Duke, the former Louisiana politician and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. But this weekend, Duke arrived in Charlottesville, along with an array of old-school and new-school white supremacists. They included organisations like Vanguard America, whose Nazi-era motto "Blood and Soil" was chanted by the marchers Friday night, and the Rise Above Movement, a loose collective of California neo-Nazis, formerly known as the DIY Division, who train to fight at political events. Members of the League of the South showed up, as did their more recently radicalised colleagues from Identity Evropa, a white separatist group that endorses racial segregation. Former Louisiana state representative David Duke arrives to give remarks after a white nationalist protest was declared an unlawful assembly. Credit:AP On Friday night, hundreds of far-right sympathisers bearing torches marched across the University of Virginia campus, chanting "You will not replace us," and "Jews will not replace us." There was a brawl as they confronted counter-protesters, and at least one arrest. Kessler said that the movement's torch-lit rally Friday night was especially successful. "It was a beautiful moment that no one will ever be able to take away from people who were involved."

Unite the Right rally organiser Jason Kessler is escorted by police after his press conference was disrupted by protestors on Sunday. Credit:AP The next morning, the trouble started early. Spencer recalled driving to Emancipation Park with Kessler. They arrived at around 10:15 am, and were almost instantly met with dissent. "As we were going in, I was sprayed with Mace," Spencer said. "Someone jumped out of the crowd and I got it in the face." The counter-protesters included clergy and mainstream figures, like Harvard professor Cornel West and members of the local Charlottesville clergy. As the rally erupted into violence Saturday morning, the First United Methodist Church on East Jefferson Street opened its doors to demonstrators, serving cold water and offering basic medical care. Hawley said he believed the far-left activists, who identify as the Antifa, are welcomed by the white nationalists. "I think to an extent the alt-right loves the Antifa because they see them as being the perfect foil," he said.

But Goldblatt, while not addressing those leftists who resorted to violence, said that some kind of response in the street was necessary. History, she said, has shown that "ignoring white supremacy, in terms of shutting your doors and not coming out to confront them, has been a really dangerous strategy". The scenes of chaos and violence were already dominating cable television news by 1:42 pm, when a gray Dodge Challenger sped down a narrow street choked with counter-protesters. The driver, identified by police as James Alex Fields Jr., had been seen at the protests alongside members of a right-wing group. He was charged with second-degree murder. The organisers of the event distanced themselves from the crash and Kessler disavowed any knowledge of Fields. "I don't know anyone who knew," Kessler said. "Everyone in my circles was like, 'Who is this guy?'" Lawrence Rosenthal, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California, said that Spencer appeared to welcome this level of violent, street-level politics. He noted an audio recording Spencer made after similar skirmishes in April in Berkeley. Spencer called them a "pitched battle" between two polarised, political "vanguards", that reminded him of political upheavals, presumably in Germany, that took place in the 1920s and 1930s. "This is a very different dynamic than I'm used to," Spencer said. "I thought that political violence had just become impossible, that we'd never see it again."
The chief executive of US pharmaceutical giant Merck said Monday in a tweet that he was resigning from President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council, saying he was doing so "as CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience" and that "America's leaders must honour our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy."

In the statement, Kenneth Frazier, one of the few African American CEOs in the Fortune 500, said "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism" and touted the power of diversity. "Our country's strength stems from its diversity and the contributions made by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs."

Mr Frazier, is the only CEO so far to leave one of Mr Trump's advisory councils because of his reaction to the violence in Virginia over the weekend. A gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in the town of Charlottesville took a deadly turn on Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters and killed at least one person.

Within an hour after the statement was first issued, Mr Trump tweeted his response. "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"
Gunmen riding motorcycles roared up to a Turkish restaurant in the capital of the African nation of Burkina Faso and opened fire, killing 18 people in a standoff with security forces that lasted into the early hours of the morning Monday.

Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told reporters that security forces had killed two of the gunmen and were now searching the neighborhood for any others, adding that at least 20 other people were injured in the attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant.

Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years. Credit:AP

Gunmen from the North Africa branch of al-Qaida attacked a hotel and coffee shop on the same busy avenue in the capital, Ouagadougou, in January 2016, killing at least two dozen people.

Al-Qaida's North African branch, in alliance with local extremist groups, has been aiming to spread its attacks beyond its base in the Sahara desert, with assaults on a beach resort in the Ivory Coast in March 2016 and on the Radisson hotel in Mali's capital in November 2015.
The property markets of several lower profile Australian cities are exhibiting signs of strong growth, according to Propertyologys analysis of recent economic data.The outlook for Hobart remains superior to all other capital cities, and theres a healthy list of regional cities with robust property markets, employment growth, and economies.Our analysis suggests that the property markets of most big profile cities will not perform as well as various major regional cities, said Simon Pressley, managing director of Propertyology. The rise of Hobart is the start of a new era of unsuspecting property market stars. There are several regional cities with extremely affordable housing and good economic outlooks.Official data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that the increase in jobs in the Tasmanian capital over the last 12 months was four times higher than the national average of 2.1%. This is more than double every other capital city.Its no coincidence that recently released data by Domain confirmed that Hobart had the biggest increase in median property values of all capital cities over the 12 months ending June 2017, Pressley said.Hobart boasted strong growth in the June quarter, with median house prices now close to $405,000 and median unit prices near $311,000, according to the Domain Group.Cairns 6.3% employment growth for the year ending in May 2017 is three times above the national average.Cairns is Australias gateway to Asia. Demand from international students, domestic and international business conferences, and tourism are through the roof, Pressley said. A Cairns construction boom is about to unfold in the form of new hotels, resorts, and expansions of the Cairns convention centre, sea port, and Bruce highway.Dubbo, which serves as the capital city for the broader central-west NSW region, registered a 21.6% increase in employment over the two years ending in May 2017. Ambitious infrastructure projects, such as the hospital expansion, are driving the regions economy. Other sources of economic stimulation include strong growth in the retail and tourism sectors.According to Propertyology, employment trends are often precursors to property market trends.The relationship between percentage of national job creation and percentage of total Australian population for all capital cities is remarkably consistent with how their respective property markets have performed over the last four years, Propertyology said.The correlation between employment growth and property market performance is evident in Brisbane and Perth, which are both below the national average employment growth rate, while Darwin saw a 0.8% retraction in jobs.Due to continued growth in the Tasmanian economy, Propertyology forecasts that Hobart will continue to remain a property market star for the foreseeable future.
Bucks County schools help Give a Christmas reach local families in need

In its 64-year history, the Give-a-Christmas drive has raised $5.26 million to help thousands of families at the holiday season.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every day to keep our community safe, said Sen. Santarsiero. Dating back to when I was a Lower Makefield Township Supervisor more than...
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UB Art Galleries take to the sky for latest project

Spectators are urged to take their own photographs of the skywritten arrows and post them to social media with the tag #ubskywriting and #ubwanderlust.

UBNOW STAFF

Youll have to look to the sky along the Buffalo waterfront between Canalside and the Peace Bridge for artist Kim Becks new project There Here, presented by the UB Art Galleries.

Commissioned as part of the galleries upcoming exhibition Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967-2017, There Here will take place between 6-7 p.m. Aug. 19  rain date is Aug. 20. In the event, a skywriter will draw arrows pointing to the U.S.-Canadian border along the Niagara River. Beck will photograph the arrows and then feature them on 10 billboards that will be scattered throughout the city beginning on Sept. 11.

A series of Becks photographs also will be on view in the UB Anderson Gallery as part of Wanderlust, opening Sept. 7 in the Anderson Gallery and in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts.

Arrows are by definition directional, writes art historian Toby Lawrence. The series of skywritten arrows in Kim Becks work There Here is layered in significance and points of reference. Earlier iterations of Becks The Sky Is the Limit project reflect billboard and advertising language, as well as highway exit signs, exploring the potential of signage to move bodies through space and the implications of this gesture, Lawrence says.

In Buffalo, the gesture is more direct, she continues. Sited within the citys rich history and its position as a border town, the arrows rendered in the sky by a skywriting airplane draw attention to the physical and psychological space held by the border and relationships between the United States and Canada. Within, the arrows signify guidance and also allude to the history of Buffalo as the traditional lands of the Seneca people, as a migratory and economic gateway, and as a site of resistance and revolution through significant markers of history, such as the War of 1812 and the Underground Railroad that provided access to freedom for black slaves into Canada.

Rachel Adams, senior curator of exhibitions for the UB Art Galleries, urges spectators to take their own photographs of the skywritten arrows and post them to social media with the tag #ubskywriting and #ubwanderlust.

Adams notes the galleries would like to have a wide range of participants in the project, and encourages photographers to send their high-resolution images to Beck at kimbeck@idealcities.com. Beck may choose one of these images to use on a billboard. Those who send photographs to Beck should be aware that the copyright of the event and any photos she receives will become hers to use in this or another context.

Beck is an artist whose work includes drawing, print, installation and sculpture. She grew up in Colorado and now lives in Pittsburgh, where she is an associate professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

Her work has been shown widely, including at the Walker Art Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Smack Mellon, Socrates Sculpture Park, Warhol Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Omi Sculpture Park, Hallwalls and on the High Line in New York City.

Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967-2017, one of the largest and most ambitious contemporary art exhibitions ever presented by the UB Art Galleries, questions and explores the complex nature of artists as voyagers  those who leave their studio to create work outside of the confines of four walls. The exhibition is a comprehensive survey of the artists need to roam and the work that emerges from this need.
Democrats largely prevail in SJ, but reversals loom in two townships

Democratic incumbents held on to many seats, but GOP challengers made inroads in two large townships
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd has posted a decline of 51.2 per cent in net profit at Rs 35.21 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2017, as compared to Rs 72.17 crore during the same quarter of previous fiscal.
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It was a fight over a Rs 6 crore contract of the Ministry of Health to supply Quadrivalent Meningococcal Meningitis Vaccine to Haj pilgrims spanning over a decade. Heard in two tribunals and two courts, it assumed the form of a fight between a small family run generic drug maker and two global pharma giants. In the end Biomed Pharma Private Ltd, that developed the capability to make the meningitis vaccine in 2005 lost the battle in the Supreme Court. The country's highest court in a judgment on Thursday upheld the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COPMPAT) order cancelling the Rs 64 crore fine imposed on pharma giants Glaxo Smithkline and Sanofi Pasteur by the Competition Council of India (CCI).
Yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday said his consumer products company is in the process of acquiring land in Jammu and Kashmir to set up a unit there and would also offer jobs to youth in the state.

Speaking on terrorism in the country, Ramdev said, "Any one who masters the art of Yoga can never become a terrorist". Not a single person who mastered Yoga ever became a terrorist in history".

Replying to questions on violence in the Kashmir Valley, he said children should be taught good things about all religions as it will bring harmony among religions.

"I believe Yoga can cure the thought process of those creating menace in the valley," he said while speaking at the the India TV conclave.

Ramdev said is in the process of acquiring 150 acres of land in Jammu and Kashmir, and would be offering jobs to Kashmiri youth.

He also called for boycott of Chinese goods, saying that India is ready to counter China on every front.

"Even the idols of our gods are imported from China. As Indians, we should boycott Chinese products for the reason that it (China) supports Pakistan," he added.

The Yoga exponent, known for his airing his political views, said India should take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and support Balochistan's movement for independence.

(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.)
Ubers board has voted to move forward on proposals by two investment groups to buy shares in the ride-hailing service and is considering a third offer, with any final decision set to affect who gains the upper hand at the company.
Amid reports of delay in the newly-launched Afghanistan-India air corridor initiative, Afghanistan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has instructed the relevant authority to take immediate step to execute more flights as part of the initiative.

Deputy Chief of the chamber of commerce and industries Khan Jan Alokozay has briefed the meeting, chaired by the Afghan President regarding the issues being faced to execute more flights.

Following the meeting, according to the Khaama Press, Ghani has instructed the authorities to negotiate Kam Air for fixing flight schedules for exports.

The Afghan President further instructed to make proper arrangements to prepare 80 to 100 tons of fresh fruits on time for export.

As per reports, he also instructed the Ministry of Finance and Customs House officials to provide necessary facilities for the entire process as part of the air corridor initiative.

The decision to establish an Air Freight Corridor between Afghanistan and India was taken in the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ghani in September 2016 during the latter's visit to India.

During his visit to India in September 2016, President Ghani had urged Indian and Afghan businessmen to achieve a target of USD 10 billion in trade over the next five years.

Earlier, in January 2015, India had announced its decision to allow Afghan Trucks to enter the Indian Territory through Atari land check post for offloading and loading goods from and to Afghanistan. India is also cooperating with Afghanistan and Iran for development of the Chabahar Port.

Later on in May 2016, a trilateral transport and transit agreement based on sea access through Chabahar was signed in the presence of the leaders of the three countries in Tehran.

Major imports from Afghanistan to India are fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, raisins, vegetables, oil seeds, precious and semi-precious stones, etc.
Government sources on Sunday denied reports of China building a bridge in Ladakh.

Earlier a report said on Sunday China was building a bridge in the no man's land in Ladakh.

"The report that China is building a bridge in Ladakh is wrong," a government source said.

The source also denied any fresh aggression from China.

Amid a stand-off in Doklam, close to the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, India has reinforced troops along the eastern border.

At Doklam, the point of the stand-off, there are around 350 troops on the Indian side and around the same number of soldiers on the other side of the border.

There have been no increase in troops or any movement on the Chinese side that may indicate a possible conflict.

The soldiers have been asked to be on high alert, and artillery guns have been moved to different points. Army officials in New Delhi have refused to comment on the situation.

The standoff close to the tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan started on June 16, after a construction party from China's People's Liberation Army entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road.

A Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade them and the ambassador of Bhutan publicly stated that it lodged a protest with the Chinese government through their embassy in New Delhi on June 20.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday visited the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where over 60 children died in five days and said anyone found guilty of negligence would not be spared.

However, rubbishing Adityanath's claim that the deaths occurred due to vector-borne diseases, the Congress termed them as "murders" and "massacre" and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the incident.

Visiting the government-run hospital, which falls in his parliamentary constituency Gorakhpur, which he has been representing for two decades, along with Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, Adityanath said the government was waiting for a report of the probe committee.

"I have formed a high level Committee under the supervision of the Chief Secretary and a thorough probe has been ordered to check the cause of the deaths in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and the supply of oxygen.

"Let the report of the Committee come... I want to assure you all that not only in Gorakhpur but in any government hospital if there has been any lapse then we will take strict action after the BRD hospital tragedy," he said.

The Chief Minister also accused the opposition parties of politicising the issue.

"Those whose sensitivity has died are now trying to rub salt on the wounds by raising this issue unnecessarily," he said.

The Congress, however, charged the Adityanath government of a "cover-up" in an attempt to bury the truth.

"According to evidence that have emerged till now, and looking at the comments of the officials and the kin of the victims, the unusually high number of deaths occurred due to neglect and mismanagement, and not due to any disease as being claimed by the BJP government in the state," Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told reporters at a press conference in New Delhi.

"It has been proved that it was not just a tragedy but it was a murder and massacre...We demand an independent probe under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge," he said, terming the Chief Minister, the state Health Minister, and the BRD Medical College's Principal "all responsible for the deaths" of the children.

The UP government has denied the deaths took place due to lack of liquid oxygen in the hospital, but Adityanath has insisted that the deaths occurred due to encephalitis and other reasons.

He and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had contended on Saturday that there has been no death due to lack of oxygen supply, but did concede there was a problem in supply of liquid oxygen for four hours on August 10 which was made up by the system switching to cylinders.

On Sunday, Adityanath also sought the Central government's help to set up a virology research centre in eastern UP to fight vector-borne diseases like encephalitis, which claim several lives each year.

"The atmosphere of eastern Uttar Pradesh is such that there are many vector-borne diseases like encephalitis. To stop the diseases we need to have a full-fledged virology research centre," Adityanath said.

Nadda meanwhile announced that the Centre has approved Rs 85 crore for setting up a central virology research centre in Gorakhpur.

Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Union Health Secretary C.K. Mishra visited the hospital on Saturday to look into the lapses in the BRD Medical College.

The principal of the medical college R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness.

But the Congress mocked the actions and the probe. "How can an accused probe allegations against himself?" asked Shergill, who also questioned why autopsies were not carried out on the children who died in the hospital. "How can the government claim that deaths happened due to any disease without carrying out autopsies or any probe?"

Shergill also sought to know why no case had been registered against the hospital officials and "why has not the Health Minister been sacked yet?"
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the death of children in the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, Gorakhpur due to snapping of oxygen supply in critical care wards.
His tenure, which was to end on March 24, was extended by three months. Upon its completion, his term was extended by another three months
On June 16, it became public information that Indian troops had entered the Doklam region near the Chumbi Valley tri-junction area wedged between Bhutan, India and Tibet/China, and stopped a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) construction crew from completing the hard-surfacing of an earlier dirt track. The Doklam plateau is one of the disputed territories between Bhutan and China. It is closely opposite Sikkim and slightly north of the narrow Siliguri corridor connecting the mainland territory of India to its seven northeastern states and region.
The Supreme Court on Monday barred Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, from leaving India and stayed a Madras High Court order allowing him to do so. Karti is facing graft charges.
The Central government is prepared to consider an exemption of one year from the NEET system for students of government colleges in Tamil Nadu if the state brings forward an ordinance, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.

"If the Tamil Nadu government brings forward an ordinance seeking exemption for students of government colleges only just for a year, the Centre is prepared to consider it," she told the media in nearby Tambaram.

Sitharaman was commenting on the raging controversy in Tamil Nadu where political parties are unanimous in opposing the NEET examination on the ground that students from rural areas would be deprived of medical education because students from elite institutions and families would enjoy an advantage under the new system.

The Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET-UG is an entrance examination in India, for students who wish to study any graduate medical course (MBBS/dental course (BDS) or postgraduate course (MD/MS) in government or private medical colleges in India. However, many colleges and institutes had taken a stay order and conducted private examinations for admission to their MBBS and BDS courses. Last NEET entrance exam (2017) was held on May 7 and results were declared on May 23.

Sitharaman said the exemption would be considered for students of government colleges only in the interest of rural students as admissions in private colleges were already over.

Reacting to Sitaraman's statement, Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijayabhaskar said the proposed ordinance would be handed over to the Central government on Monday morning by the state Health Secretary, who has left for Delhi in the evening as time was running out.

Opposition parties including DMK Working President M.K. Stalin and TNCC President V. Thirunavukkarasar said the one-year exemption offer was an "eyewash" and wanted a permanent exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu students.

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Pakistani troops on Monday targeted Indian posts at two places along the Line of Control (LoC) in Tangdhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir but there were no casualties.

"Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by firing towards our positions at Chath-Khadi Saidapora and Taad in Tangdhar sector at around 2.20 am," an army official said.

He said the firing lasted for more than an hour but there were no casualties.

This was the second ceasefire violation by the Pakistani troops in north Kashmir in the past 24 hours.

Yesterday, three soldiers were injured in Pakistani firing in Uri sector.
Accusing a section of media houses in the country of "misrepresenting facts" about the impending Independence Day celebrations in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said every person in Bengal has the full freedom to celebrate the occasion.

"Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts. Don't mislead. In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom," Banerjee said on Twitter.

She also said all the schools in Bengal would be celebrating the 70th year of India's independence on Tuesday in "their own special way".

"All schools in Bengal are celebrating Independence Day as per their choice. In their own special way," she clarified.

Controversy erupted last week after the West Bengal government issued an "urgent" directive to all District Project Officers in-charge of the Sarva Shikha Mission in the state on August 11, instructing all schools and other educational institutions to "stop all preparations" for celebrating in a format prescribed by the Union HRD Ministry.

Criticising the centre and BJP for trying to enforce their thinking on others, the state government said they do not need lessons on patriotism from the BJP and would celebrate the Independence Day "in their own way".

The Human Resource Development Ministry had earlier, issued a circular on July 25 to all state Education Secretaries specifying "additional activities" to be undertaken by schools under the Sarva Shiksha Mission to celebrate Independence Day in a "befitting manner".
Invoking rule of law to build a new India, President Ram Nath Kovind opted to refer to divisive issues only obliquely in his first address to the nation as President on the eve of India's 71st independence day. Kovind emphasised sharing, philanthropy and values of good neighbourliness as the principal creed of India.
The Indian Railways will follow the aviation sectors model to ensure quality food is served to passengers.

The transporter is mulling options to discard kitchens on running trains and, instead, shift food preparation to base kitchens run by the railways. The move comes after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had last month said railway food was unsuitable for human consumption.

According to a road map drawn up by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the plan is to rope in multinational players that operate lounges in airports across the world, such as French food services and facilities management company Sodexo and Travel Food Services (TFS). IRCTC might also engage service providers from the hospitality industry to serve food on trains. PricewaterhouseCoopers has been asked to come out with a road map to develop base kitchens and ensure quality service on trains.

We are getting a lot of complaints regarding cartels, cleanliness of kitchens and quality of food supplied on running trains, said a railway ministry official close to the development. We want to break these cartels and shift cooking completely to base kitchens across the country, while keeping a lean, canteen-type pantry on trains, where only items like tea and coffee will be prepared.



Based on the new policy, the Ministry of Railways is set to hand over catering-related operations to IRCTC. We want to change the concept of catering on trains. Hence, our target is to rope in players like Sodexo and TFS, said another official.

TFS is one of the largest food-and-beverage operator in the travel segment. It currently has operations in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam. Paris-based Sodexo is a global giant with presence in more than 80 countries through nearly 34,000 sites.

About 350 trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto, have pantry cars, and these are mainly managed by contractors engaged by the zonal railways.

We have plans to conduct third-party audits and to monitor the quality of food cooked in the base kitchens on a regular basis. Soon, IRCTC will submit a business plan in this regard, the railway ministry official added.

The new policy suggests handing over operations of base kitchens in Nagpur, the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, Mumbai Central and Balharshah from zonal railways to IRCTC.

Last month, the CAG had rapped railway catering services. It pointed out that only 16 base kitchens were located on railway premises, while 115 base kitchens were located outside railway premises and were not subjected to quality check. It also stated that recycled contaminated food, including packaged and bottled items past its shelf life, were sold at stations. The auditor highlighted that cleanliness and hygiene were not being maintained by contractors, and bills were not being given for food items served in mobile units on trains.
The capital, including the Red Fort from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the 71st on Tuesday, has been put under an unprecedented ground-to-air security cover.

Close to 70,000 Delhi Police personnel will be guarding the capital owing to the twin occasions of the and Janmashtami festival, a senior police officer said on Monday.

Thousands of security personnel, including 9,100 personnel from the Delhi Police, have been deployed in and around the historic Mughal fort which will see the presence of senior ministers, top bureaucrats, foreign dignitaries and common people during the PM's address.

Two dozen Parakram Vans manned by quick reaction teams of NSG-trained commandos have been stationed in areas with high footfall to thwart any attempt by terror groups to disrupt peace. As many as 11 such vans have been deployed in the area around the Red Fort.

"There will be multi-tier security in place. The security audit of the residents, including tenants has been completed. The area is being monitored by CCTV cameras and there will be multi-tier security checks in place for people coming to the area," said a senior police officer.

At Red Fort, a special team of NSG snipers and commandos will form the inner layers of the security cordon while anti-aircraft guns have been deployed to thwart any aerial intrusion by objects like drones and projectiles, senior police officials said.

Delhi Police has already prohibited aerial activities, including para-gliding, flying UAVs and hot air balloons, across the city.

Also, police are surveying the areas in the vicinity of the Red Fort and have collected details of over 9,000 people residing there. The buildings facing the Red Fort will be secured by police and paramilitary personnel.

Security along the route to be taken by the Prime Minister's cavalcade from his official residence to Red Fort will be monitored with the help of hundreds of CCTV cameras.

Special "spotters" of Delhi Police and paramilitary will keep an eye on parking areas. Over 60 sniffer dogs of paramilitary forces and Delhi Police will also be part of the extensive security deployment.

Preliminary security arrangements were made in July and senior police and intelligence officials have been regularly taking stock of the arrangements to weed out any shortcomings and glitches.

According to a statement by the Delhi Metro rail Corporation, train services will run as usual. However, stations like Lal Quila, Jama Masjid, Delhi Gate and ITO will have restricted entry and exit during the ceremony owing to security considerations. Parking will not be available at the stations till 2 pm tomorrow in view of the security measures, DMRC said.

Security around prominent temples like the Iskcon temple, Lakshmi Narayan temple and the Gouri Shankar temple has been ramped up since large congregations of devotees are expected on Janmasthami festival, the birthday of Lord Krishna.
The Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur.
According to medical records from August 10, 2017, which The Wire has accessed, none of the 23 children who died that day at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, died of a lack of oxygen. As far as the official government record goes, they died of 23 other things, including brain damage, cerebral palsy, low birth weight, sepsis and malnutrition.
India will soon announce a new policy to promote biofuels as part of efforts by the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases to cut imports of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal, a government minister said on Thursday.

The government aims to develop a biofuel economy worth Rs 1 lakh crore ($15.6 billion) in the next two years, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told a conference on renewable energy on Thursday.

India's top three state-owned oil companies have pledged a combined $2 billion to carry out research to develop biofuel technologies and the government has pledged to guarantee a return on their investments, Pradhan said.

"The roadmap to lower crude oil imports is connected to biofuel," Pradhan said. India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, aims to cut its crude imports by 10% by 2022.

New Delhi also plans to lower its carbon footprint by raising the use of natural gas in its energy mix to 15% in the next three to four years, up from 6.5% currently.

The government has already asked state oil companies to set up ethanol plants at 12 locations over the coming year.

Energy consumption in India is expected to grow as the government aims for economic growth of 8-9% this financial year through March 2018, against around 7% in 2016/17.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's top refiner, plans to enhance the capacity of its biofuel refineries to 100 tonnes a day from about 12 tonnes a day in the next two years, Chairman Sanjiv Singh told reporters at the conference.

IOC runs three biofuel plants with an investment of about Rs 30 billion and is looking to increase the number of such plants, Singh said.

India needs private investment in the sector and once the cost of production comes down, the country could see some private sector participation, Singh said.

Separately, transport minister Nitin Gadkari said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet could soon consider allowing the use of alternative fuel methanol in shipping.

($1 = Rs 63.96)

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A key finance ministry official said the markets regulator acted in haste by not giving 331 companies a chance to tell their side of story before placing a trading ban on these on the grounds that these might be shell companies.
Britain will continue to stand with India and support it to fulfil its potential as a leading world power in the 21st century, a senior Indian-origin Cabinet minister has said in her Independence Day message.

Priti Patel, secretary of state for international development in British Prime Minister Theresa May's Cabinet, said the UK was ready for a great future with India as it leaves the European Union (EU).

"As India celebrates its 70th year of independence, it can be proud of the remarkable developments driven by the incredible passion and spirit of its people. India has grown into the world's largest democracy, engaging people across the country in great political debate and securing India's place as a global leader in the 21st Century.

"Britain will continue to stand with India and support it to fulfil its potential as a leading world power," said the 45-year-old Conservative Party MP with her origins in Gujarat.

"From investment and trade to academia and culture, the UK and India are more connected than ever before. Our powerful people to people ties are unparalleled among any other nation and the unity we show is a sign of our strength and an example for others to admire. We have a shared history and as Britain leaves the European Union (EU) and sets itself on a new course, we will share a great future with India," she noted.

Praising India for its "phenomenal economic growth", the minister said the UK was keen to partner with India on all its plans for new infrastructure and investment to lift more people out of poverty.

Patel, who served as Indian Diaspora Champion in the previous David Cameron led UK government, made a special mention to the 1.5 million strong Indian Diaspora community as a "cornerstone" of the India-UK relationship.

"As a champion for the UK's Indian Diaspora, I want to mark this as an auspicious day of celebration for the Indian community here in the UK. The Indian Diaspora has played a proud and influential role in British life, making positive contributions to their communities," she said.

India's 70th year of independence is being marked across the UK with a series of events, including special coverage in the mainstream media.

The BBC is airing its "70 Years On Partition Stories" series all of this month to coincide with Indian independence as well as the birth of Pakistan on August 14, 1947.
Public sector lender posted a net loss of Rs 853 crore for the quarter ended June 2017 (Q1) on a sharp rise in provisions for bad loans, fall in net interest income (NII) as well as other income.
Senior US security officials have said that an attack from North Korea is not imminent but also cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo told CBS News in an interview that the Trump Administration has done a fine job of not drawing red lines that it is "not prepared to" enforce.

"An attack from North Korea is not something that is imminent. The American people should know that this administration is doing everything with its power.

The President has enabled the intelligence community and the Department of Defence, to be sure, that we're protecting America from this threat," Pompeo said.

Responding to a series of questions on North Korea, the CIA Director said the Trump Administration has done a fine job of not drawing red lines that it is "not prepared to" enforce.

"I think what the President was doing there was very effective. He was communicating to many audiences, certainly the rogue leader in North Korea, communicating to him that the strategic patience of the past decades is no longer -- we're just too close to him having this capacity to hold America at risk," he said.

Pompeo was asked about the warning given by the US President Donald Trump to North Korea if they attacked Guam, an American territory in the Pacific.

"He was communicating to the world, to China and to others who can influence the outcome there. We had a great success. We have the whole world voting to sanction North Korea, something that hasn't happened for an awfully long time," he said.

"This is real progress as a direct result of what President Trump has done and the way we have communicated the threat, not only to America and to Japan and South Korea, but to the entire world, from this rogue leader," the CIA Chief said adding that Trump has made it pretty clear that he would not allow North Korea to have nuclear weapons.

"He's made very clear that the United States finds it unacceptable for a rogue leader like Kim Jong-un to have the capacity of a ballistic missile with a warhead that is integrated and fully deliverable to the United States and hold America and the world at risk," he said.

"He finds that unacceptable. He's simply not going to permit it to happen," Pompeo added.

Responding to a question, the CIA Director said North Korea cannot be contained like Pakistan.

"This regime is different. I heard -- Susan Rice said, we just need to learn to live with this. President Trump finds that unacceptable. This is not a leader for whom containment is a policy that makes sense for American national security," Pompeo said.

The former US Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, expressed his concern over the increasing tension between US and North Korea.

"I'm really concerned because I don't know where this goes in terms of a peaceful resolution. It's an incredibly difficult, complex problem. And we have very strong rhetoric coming from both North Korea as well as from the United States," Mullen told NBC News in an interview.

"That rhetoric, it seems to me, has taken away options or it's reduced manoeuvre space, if you will, for leaders to make decisions. So I'm extremely concerned.

"And I have heard from family and I have heard from friends about what's going on, who are extremely concerned with where we are and what the outlook is.

It seems to be one of forming critical mass. And if this results in a military strike, the unintended consequences of that, the possibility that there are disproportional responses, miscalculations, it can really get out of control fast," he warned.

Mullen said China has a big role to play in resolving the crisis.

"I think it's got to be resolved politically, diplomatically, through negotiations to ensure that we don't have a military conflict that could get out of control," he said.

Responding to a question, he said that the United States should not accept North Korea as a nuclear power.

"I recognise that as an option or an outcome, and certainly there is one option is to accept that and then contain him.

"Obviously, the concern you would have with that is somehow he has this weapon. And he is still somewhat of an unknown to us, and unpredictable," Mullen said.

Appearing on CBS News, the former US Defense Secretary and CIA Director, Leon Panetta, said Trump's use of rhetoric, particularly with regards to North Korea, fire and fury, and lock and load, has frankly created even greater tensions in that part of the world.

"His failure to address what really happened in Charlottesville, and the role of white supremacists, I think also sends a message that he is not recognising the real causes of crisis even within our own country," he rued.

Meanwhile, General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Osan, South Korea to hold talks with his counterparts.

"The trip highlights our ironclad commitment to the defence of the Republic of Korea in the face of North Korea's provocations and threats.

During the visit, Gen. Dunford will meet with senior US and Republic of Korea military and civilian leaders," a defence department statement said.
Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours today. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began.

Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 18 people were dead and eight wounded, according to a provisional toll. He said two of the attackers were also killed.

The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. At least one of the dead was French.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Police Capt. Guy Ye said three or four assailants had arrived at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant on motorcycles, and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining Sunday evening.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalised and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.

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Pakistan, this year, hoisted South Asia's largest flag at Wagah border to commence the 70th Independence Day celebrations at 12

Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa was the chief guest at the ceremony, attended by hundreds of people.

The flag, made entirely in Pakistan, is 120 feet by 80 feet in size, making it world's eighth largest one. It was hoisted on a 400-feet pole at midnight.

The hoisting was followed by grand fireworks and an address by General Bajwa.

"Some 77 years ago, Pakistan resolution was passed in the same city [Lahore]. Pakistan came into being on the night of 27th Ramazan - it was a blessed night," said the Army chief General, as quoted by the Dawn.

"Today, the country is progressing on the path of the law and the Constitution. All Institutions are working properly. We will make Pakistan the country of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal," he said, adding, "We have rendered many sacrifices - we will never forget our martyrs. We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan. I want to tell our enemies, whether they are in the in east or west, that your bullets will end but not the chests of our jawans [soldiers]."

Acknowledging Pakistan's "internal and external challenges", the COAS said, "I assure you that we will never let you down. Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Pakistan Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts."

A leading ceremony, to mark Pakistan's Independence Day, is organised in capital Islamabad, which will be attended by President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and chiefs of all armed forces among .

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US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday condemned far-right groups that staged a rally in Virginia that descended into deadly violence, saying there is "no tolerance for hate and violence."



"We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK," Pence said in response to a question at a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia, where he was on the first leg of a Latin American tour.

"These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms."



Pence's comments were in contrast to those of President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the violence Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he failed to No tolerance for white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan: US VP Penceexplicitly condemn white supremacists.
China warned on Monday that nobody would win in a "trade war" with the United States as President Donald Trump prepared to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property practices.

Trump was due on Monday to sign a memorandum directing US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies.

The investigation could lead to sanctions against Beijing.

Asked about the US move, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said any member of the World Trade Organisation must respect WTO rules.

"Fighting a has no future. There will be no winner and everybody will lose," Hua said at a regular news briefing.

"I believe China and the US should continue to work together for the stable and sound development of China-US economic and trade relations," she said.

US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bluntly accused China on Saturday of "stealing our intellectual property" -- long a concern of Western companies seeking a share of the enormous Chinese market.

The looming investigation follows high tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trump has accused China of failing to rein in the nuclear ambitions of its ally North Korea.

The US officials, however, said the North Korean issue and the investigation into China's trade practices are not linked.

China today announced that it would ban from Tuesday imports of iron, iron ore and seafood from North Korea as it follows through on new UN sanctions approved earlier this month.

"I want to say that China-US cooperation should be based on mutual respect and mutual trust," Hua said.

"The Korean peninsula nuclear issue and the China-US trade issue are totally different and it's not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep the pressure on the other issue.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Pakistan and China are all weather friends and strategic partners.

"Pakistan-China bilateral ties are time tested and our relationship has attained new heights after the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that is a game changer for the region and beyond," Radio Pak quoted Abbasi, saying.

In a bid to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fields of education and infrastructure development, both countries have signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

The signing ceremony was held at the Abbasi's house in Islamabad during the visit of Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

Radio Pakistan has reported that Pakistan and China have also signed the Letters of Exchange for Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Schools project.

China's vice premier Yang had arrived in Pakistan on Sunday to take part in its 70th Independence Day celebrations.
The Trump administration has set a collision course with the auto industry as it launches renegotiations of the 23-year-old trade pact this week, aiming to shrink a growing trade deficit with Mexico and tighten the rules of origin for cars and parts.

More than any other industry, autos have been the focus of US President Donald Trump's anger over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he blames for taking car factories and jobs away from America to low-wage Mexico.

The United States had a $74 billion trade deficit with Mexico in autos and auto parts last year, the dominant component of an overall $64 billion US deficit, according to US Census Bureau data.

"The Trump administration has framed their negotiating objectives around reducing the trade deficit with Mexico," said Caroline Freund, a senior trade fellow at the Peterson Institute for Economics. "If they don't touch autos, there's no way of getting at what they want."

Among tools that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer may seek to boost auto employment in the US is strengthening the rules of origin to shut out more parts of Asia, and possibly an unprecedented US specific content requirement for Mexican vehicles.

Lighthizer's negotiating objectives for seek to "ensure the rules of origin incentivize the sourcing of goods and materials from the United States and North America," which has raised concerns among auto industry executives and trade groups that he will seek a deal that guarantees a certain percentage of production for the United States.

The industry is opposed to such a carve-out or to increase the percentage of a vehicle's value that must come from the region above the current 62.5 percent - already the highest of any global trade bloc.

They say this would raise costs and disrupt a complex supply chain that sees parts crisscrossing NAFTA borders and has made North American car production competitive with Asia and Europe.

"Our members feel very strongly that rules of origin are not the tools to use to restore jobs into the U.S.," said Ann Wilson, senior vice president of government affairs for the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, a trade group representing auto parts makers.

Wilson and other industry advocates say a better way to boost U.S. manufacturing jobs is through policies aimed at expanding vehicle exports.

Parts Threshold

But if US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross gets his way, it would be harder to reach the 62.5 percent content threshold because the "tracking list" of parts that count towards that goal would be modernized. He argues the current rules are too loose and allow a tariff-free "back door" for Chinese auto parts.

Parts that did not exist when the 300-plus page list was devised in the early 1990s, largely electronics sourced from Asia such as console touch screens or hybrid-drive controllers, do not count against reaching the threshold. If they are put on the list, companies would have to source them from North America or pay tariffs on them.

If the content requirements become too onerous, automakers will simply skip compliance "and they'll just end up paying the duty," said Charles Uthus, vice president for policy at the American Automotive Policy Council, a lobbying group for Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Fiat Chrysler.

Foregoing all NAFTA tariff-free access benefits - something that could happen if Trump is dissatisfied with the negotiations and decides to scrap the trade pact - would raise costs by about $4 billion-5 billion a year, Ulthus added. Ford plans about $7 billion in total capital spending this year.

Dispute Mechanism Disputed

Among the other contentious NAFTA issues that US Canadian and Mexican negotiators will tackle starting on Wednesday in Washington is the future of a mechanism for resolving trade disputes.

The United States wants to eliminate a so-called "Chapter 19" provision, arguing that it fails to combat unfair subsidies of some Mexican and Canadian goods. Mexico and Canada have vowed to keep the provision.

Negotiators are expected to pursue new NAFTA chapters governing digital trade, and tightening environmental and labor standards, changes previously agreed by the three countries as part of the now-defunct 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership.

US negotiators will also seek a provision to deter currency manipulation, aiming to set a precedent for future trade negotiations, such as a revised US-North Korean deal or a bilateral pact with Japan.

The negotiations face an extremely tight timeline, with officials saying they want to complete negotiations by early next year to avoid ratification difficulties posed by elections in Mexico in July 2018 and in the U.S. in November 2018.

Freund, a trade economist for more than a decade at the World Bank and Monetary Fund, said the negotiators should focus on a few key areas.

"If you really want to do a full-blown modernisation of NAFTA, it's going to take a lot more than six months," she said. "Ultimately I think they're going to get bogged down in all these details and pick two to three things and have a smaller agenda."
US President Donald Trump's re-election campaign has released an ad attacking his "enemies", the media reported.

The ad on Sunday slammed the Democrats, media and career politicians for what it said were attacks on and obstruction of Trump's efforts while touting the President's record so far of overseeing low levels of unemployment, record-high stock prices and what the ad called "the strongest military in decades", reports CNN.

"The President's enemies don't want him to succeed, but Americans are saying, 'Let President Trump do his job'," the ad said.

Trump declared his intention to run for re-election at the very beginning of his presidency and has taken part in several campaign events, including holding a $35,000-per-seat fundraiser in June.

The release of the Trump campaign's new ad comes as the President continues to receive criticism for his statements on Saturday in response to the violence that gripped Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

White nationalists gathered in the city and clashed with counter-protesters on Saturday, CNN reported.

One person was killed after a car mowed down a group of protesters in the city of Charlottesville on Saturday while the two other victims, Virginia State Police Department officers, died when a helicopter crashed nearby.

The protests were against a decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee.

Trump gave a statement condemning the violence and bigotry "on many sides" and touted his own record, including low levels of unemployment and announcements by companies such as Foxconn, an electronic components manufacturer headquartered in Taiwan, which plans to increase production in the US.

But in his remarks, Trump did not single out white supremacists as responsible for the violence, drawing criticism from some congressional leaders within his own party.

On Sunday, the White House offered a statement on background claiming the President's remarks included a condemnation of white supremacy and "all extremist groups".
Shares of Parsvnath Developers, Kavit Industries, Pincon Spirit and Signet Industries are locked in their respective lower circuits as trading resumed in these stocks after a gap of one week. Besides these four, Kalpana Industries and SQS India too plunged 20% in early morning trade on the BSE.
hit 52-week low of Rs 173, down 9% on BSE in intra-day trade after the companys consolidated net losses more than doubled to Rs 11.3 crore in June quarter (Q1FY18), due to lower operational income. The company provides security software products and solutions had posted loss of Rs 5.47 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
Shares of eight companies fell sharply on Monday after the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) temporarily stayed the trading ban imposed on them by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for being "suspected shell companies".
At least 68 members of six terrorist groups, including four women cadres on Monday surrendered before Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

Reportedly, Singh had earlier welcomed talks between former militant groups leaders with interlocutor in New Delhi.

According to Singh, former director of the Intelligence Bureau Debendra Sharma, has started talks with those who have come over ground in the Manipur to settle their issues like the demand for homeland and rehabilitation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah came down heavily on the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and said those who do not believe in the constitution of India have no business to comment on Article 35 (A).

"Hurriyat Conference has no position on 35 (A). They have to accept the Constitution; otherwise they have no business to comment on it. They have a habit of muddying the waters like they did in case of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It is because of them that trader community was divided into Jammu traders and Kashmir traders," said Omar while addressing a press conference here.

Responding to a question on Kashmiri Separatist leader Yasin Malik's wishes to Pakistan on the account of its Independence Day today, Abdullah termed it to be a move to garner support from Pakistan.

"There is nothing new in his comments. Pakistan has always tried to separate Jammu and Kashmir from India, by militancy or otherwise. Yasin Malik also needs support from Pakistan," he said.

Furthermore, Abdullah stated that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that Article 370 will not be meddled with, the same should be given reality.

"So far, only a counter affidavit has been filed by the state. If Prime Minister Modi has given his assurance, there should be some reality to it. The Centre should file an affidavit in the matter," said Abdullah.

For the unversed, Article 35A of the Constitution empowers the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to define the state's permanent residents and their privileges.

Article 35A was inserted into the Constitution of India through a presidential order in 1954, to guarantee that the maharaja's ban on outsiders would remain. It actually makes little difference in practical terms, for domicile rights apply in other states too.

Meanwhile, Article 370 of the Indian constitution grants special autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five Samajwadi Party workers were detained on Monday for showing black flags to Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh here.

This came amid chaos in the state due to the recent Gorakhpur tragedy which claimed the life of around 80 children in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur, due to alleged disruption in the supply of oxygen.

The Opposition also demanded Siddharth Nath and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath resignation after this incident.

Earlier in the day, the Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government and sought a detailed report in the matter.

The Commission has also asked the government for the steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as action taken against the guilty officers within four weeks.

The notice comes after the Commission took suo motu cognizance of several media reports hinting at negligence in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital which resulted in the tragedy.

According to the press release, the Commission has observed that reported deaths, in such a large number in a government hospital, amounts to various serious violation of Right to Life and Health of the innocent victims.

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath said that a magisterial inquiry has been ordered and a committee has been formed to look into the Gorakhpur tragedy.

"Nobody can be more sensitive towards those children than me. Prime Minister is very concerned and he assured complete assistance from the Centre.

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday took stock of flood affected areas in the state and assured that the relief and food camps were being conducted in the area for those in need.

"The relief and food camps were conducted in the area. I have also called a meeting now so that I can order them what is to be done next. Tomorrow, we will send chief secretary of Disaster Management, road construction department, Rural Works Department and all DMs to assess situation. The rescue and relief operation have been going on. We had asked for IAF helicopter to distribute food packets," he said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Nitish over the phone regarding the flood situation in Bihar.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) took to Twitter saying that, "PM @narendramodi has spoken to Bihar CM @NitishKumar regarding the flood situation in parts of the state.

Prime Minister Modi also expressed his grief for the affected people and assured that the situation is being monitored. "My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely".

Three columns of Army were deployed in flood-hit Katihar district for the relief and rescue operation.

The central help came after Nitish sought help of the Army and Air Force as the flood situation worsened in the state.

Overflowing rivers from Nepal have played a major spoilsport in four northeastern districts - Kishanganj, Araria, Purnia and Katihar.

Supaul, Saharsa, Bagha, Gopalganj, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Khagaria, Darbhanga and Madhepura districts are the other districts which have been affected by floods.

Lakhs of people have been affected in these districts.

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Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah talked about the completion of three years of BJP-led Government here today, calling it one of the most successful reigns.

Addressing the media in Bengaluru today, Amit Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government has solely worked upon the development of this country.

"This government came after one of the most corrupted government (Congress) that was involved in series of scams. About 12 lakh crore rupees of scam happened under the Congress Government," Shah said.

He further said that they have given a "transparent government" to the people of India.

BJP President also said, "It was our government that passed the One Rank One Pension bill. Soldiers fighting for this country will now get more than 8000 crore in their bank accounts."

Shah also talked about Prime Minister Modi's decision of surgical strike that occurred on September 29, eleven days after the Uri attack against suspected militants in PoK.

"It was this Prime Minister that took the decision of having a surgical strike and showed the right way of doing things," Shah said.

Speaking about different development arenas, Shah mentioned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) success saying that due to Modi-led government, ISRO has been given a global importance.

"Indian has now become the global leader in the field of space technology," Amit Shah said.

He also added the fact that it was this government that tried to bring the Other Backward Class (OBC) Bill, which was shunned down by Congress Party in Rajya Sabha.

"We tried to bring the OBC Bill which was not passed due to Congress. Will the Chief Minister of Karnataka answer to the people of backward castes why Congress stalled the historic OBC bill?" he asked.

Mentioning the tremendous work done by this government Amit Shah hailed Prime Minister Modi and said that there was a time when during Paris Summits India used to sit at the back.

Also mentioning BJP's "fight" to curb black money Shah added that Modi government has taken strict actions to curb black money and not let it enter India through any means.

Although, bashing Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Amit Shah said, "The current Karnataka Government is the most corrupt government and they have no shame about it."

He also said asked Karnataka CM where the "hugely increased central grant" given to Karnataka by Modi govt. gone, as it doesn't show in development.

Further on being asked about the recent tragic Gorakhpur incident where more than 70 deaths of children took place in BRD Medical College, Amit Shah said that Congress is just blaming the government and BJP unlike them does not blame people without evidence.

"Yogiji has kept a time bound investigation about the whole incident," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It seems like people are really unhappy about Donald Trump being silent over Charlottesville issue.

Politicians, Hollywood stars from all sides have rounded on Donald Trump for failing explicitly to condemn white supremacy groups or use the term domestic terrorism after a woman was killed when a car smashed into anti-racism protesters at the weekend,according to the Guardian.

The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the death.

And like always JK Rowling did not hold back and slammed Trump in the most precise manner.

She was one of many celebrities to criticize the president for his silence on the disturbing scene that began Friday night on the University of Virginia campus, where ahead of Saturday's "Unite the Right" rally, white nationalists marched with tiki-style torches.

She wrote on Twitter, "Hell of a day for the President to forget how to tweet."

Stand-up comedian, Kumail Najiani also tweeted, "On many sides. Never forget that phrase. Three words that protected violent bigotry. On many sides."

'Star Trek' veteran George Takei also voiced his opinion and wrote, "When terrorists abroad plow cars into crowds Trump condemns "radical Islam." But when it happens here, he talks of violence "on many sides."

Oscar-winning director Adam McKay, wrote, "I condemn the battle between the Devil and the Angels on many sides."

The clashes broke out at a "Unite the Right" protest over the decision by the local government to remove a statue of the leading Confederate general, Robert E Lee, during the American Civil War.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A former Indian Army official has said that China is adopting the same strategy in Doklam which it implemented in South China Sea, by claiming its sovereign territory.

"Military threat or provocative statements cannot be an answer to this problem. The history can be interpreted by both sides to suit their claims, threat to revise policies can be from both sides (If China can talk about rethinking Sikkim/Kashmir policy/ or intervening in Nepal triangle, India can also talk about rethinking Tibet/One China policy or establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan), the militaries have grown both sides, the escalation dynamics of conflict will block growth and economic dreams of both countries, and the reality is that none can deter another," said Major General S B Asthana ,SM,VSM (Veteran) referring to border standoff between India and China on Doklam issue.

He said even though China has resorted to adopting Sun Tzu's principle of 'winning without fighting' or trying to compel India to withdraw its troops without fighting, India is well placed to resist any action, without making much noise and maintaining its balance.

"The Chinese strategy as described above in case of Doklam Plateau has also been adopted in South China Sea, with some differences. This is evident from the fact that China on the pretext of sovereignty claims based on her perspective of historical maritime boundaries has carried out incremental encroachment into South China Sea, as part of her 'Active Defence Policy' which is worrisome for other claimant countries, as well as troublesome for other users of South China Sea following UNCLOS," he said.

Citing China's statement saying "the islands in the South China Sea (SCS) have been China's territory since ancient times, and China has the right to safeguard its territorial sovereignty", Major General Astana said it indirectly means that the must accept whatever China claims as part of Qing dynasty or any other historical period as per it's convenience, as sovereign territory of China.

Doklam Plateau involves limited players as compared to South China Sea (SCS)

In a border standoff of this kind, neither side wants to appear weak, so the two countries must find a peaceful manner and face-saving gesture to ease tensions. To resolve the current face-off the defence expert suggests:-

 Diplomatic engagement without preconditions will have to commence immediately setting aside hard stands, war of words, and rhetorics. In case either side doesn't want to be looking compromising to its people, Track2/informal talks can begin as a face saving measure, followed by formal talks. Any precondition laid down by either side, is likely to be resented, and prolong the stand-off.

 China should stop construction of road immediately, honoring sovereignty of Bhutan and Trilateral agreement of 2012.

 Once status quo of pre-standoff period is achieved, military of both sides should pull back to pre standoff positions simultaneously.

 As a long term measure both China and India should expedite demarcation of LAC on ground, and disseminate it up to the level of troops manning the borders to prevent future face-offs, which is avoidable by cooperative political intent followed by intense diplomatic efforts.

There are reasons why China has selected Doklam to needle India:

 India and Bhutan boycotted Belt and Road Forum (BRF), the Doklam ingress could demean both the countries simultaneously.

 Harping on 1890 Treaty by China takes away the logic of Tibet, as a player in dealing with India, thus a subtle message to Dalai Lama that he is not a stake holder in Tibet.

 Test the depth of Indo- Bhutanese security relationship.

 The area being too close to Siliguri Corridor/Chicken's Neck, India had to be concerned and caught in awkward situation in deciding to intervene or otherwise, thereby getting a message not to challenge Beijing in future.

 As the construction activity was in Bhutanese Territory, a violent Indian reaction was not expected.

 In case India takes action, China can proclaim itself as an innocent victim and blame India to be an aggressor.

Asthana said that China was however surprised by an unexpectedly strong Indian reaction, and then it realized that the point chosen was such, where it had strategic and tactical disadvantages in escalating it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The defence experts on Monday said that the continuous ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) by the Pakistani troops shows their extreme frustration as their sponsored militants are being killed by the India Army and they are not being able to push fresh terrorist in the Indian Territory.

Defence Expert Major General (Retd.) PK Sehgal told ANI that with every inch closer to India's Independence Day, the ceasefire violation will increase in both magnitude and intensity from Pakistan.

"Pakistan is extremely worried and frustrated that Pakistani sponsored militants are being killed and they are not being able to push fresh terrorist. For these reasons, the ceasefire violation is increasing. However the response from our side is extremely punitive," he said.

Resonating similar views, another defence expert Qamar Agha said the attempts to infiltrate are increasing because the Pakistani Army is under terrible pressure as large number of militants has been killed in the last three months.

"It has become quite frequent in past three four months. They are finding it more difficult to infiltrate. The Pakistani Army is also under terrible pressure because large number of militants has been killed in the last three months. So, the number of militants has decreased. So there attempt is to how to overcome and how to send more terrorist. There is need to take more pro-active step," he added.

The Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire four times along the LoC in Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.

At least three Army jawans were injured after Pakistan violated the ceasefire in the Bazz area of Uri Sector in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district on Sunday.

The Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire and invoked heavy mortar shelling and firing of small arms yesterday, in the Naushera sector of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier, five army jawans were injured and two others seriously hurt in an encounter with terrorists in the Shopian district on late Saturday night.

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Two fallen soldiers of Shopian encounter- Sepoy Sumedh Waman and Sepoy Ilayaraja P- were laid to rest on Monday in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu respectively.

Waman and Ilayaraja made supreme sacrifice for the country on Saturday in Avneera village of Zainapora area in Shopian district of south Kashmir while fighting with terrorists.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Monday announced compensation of Rs 20 lakh to kin of Sepoy Ilayaraja, whose last rites were performed with full military honours at his native place Sivagangai in Tamil Nadu.

Last rites of Sepoy Sumedh Waman were performed at Lonagra village in Akola, Maharashtra.

Vamanrao Gawai, father of Sepoy Sumedh Waman, told ANI that "my son sacrificed his life for the country with Vande Matram as his last words. My younger son is in the army too, If one has fallen down, my another son is still standing, who will make the enemy pay back for his brother's death."

Both Waman and Ilayaraja P served Chinar Corps, which paid them rich tributes to its heroes on Sunday at Corps' headquarters in Srinagar.

Army's strategic Chinar Corps is responsible for guarding the Line of Control in Kashmir Valley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan began celebrating its landmark 70th Independence anniversary on Monday with commemorative ceremonies held in cities across the country.

The main ceremony is being held at Islamabad's Convention Centre, where President Mamnoon Hussain hoisted the Pakistani flag. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, who is the chief guest, and the three service chiefs are present at the ceremony.

According to the Dawn, flag hoisting ceremonies were held in the provincial capitals and district headquarters. A change of guard ceremonies were held at Mazar-i-Quaid in Karachi and the Mazar-i-Iqbal in Lahore.

Later in the day, the president, prime minister, Chinese vice premier, chairman Senate and speaker National Assembly will lay a floral wreath on the memorial of forgotten heroes of democracy inside the Parliament.

Addressing the ceremony at the packed Convention Centre, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang congratulated Pakistan on its 70th Indepence Day.

Yang said China and Pakistan have stood by each other in difficult times and "this friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations".

"Our friendship is stronger than steel [and] sweeter than honey," he said, adding that China will work to strengthen strategic cooperation with Pakistan.

In his message, President Mamnoon Hussain urged the nation to reiterate the resolve to always uphold the values of determination and dedication for the objective of development of Pakistan.

"Let us join hands for development and prosperity of the motherland by keeping aside our differences. Let us promote love and harmony by overcoming hatred and misgivings and secure the future of our nation by turning despondency into hope in order to celebrate freedom in its true sense," he said.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in his message emphasised the need to strengthen the state institutions so that they can play their prescribed role within the limits of law and the constitution.

"We may belong to different tribes, fraternities and ethnicities; we may be working in different spheres of national life; our political vision and thinking can be different and our economic vision may have different perspectives but ascendancy of national interests and invincible defence are common objectives of the entire nation, for which we have to make collective endeavours," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Right from playing a key role in India's Freedom struggle to making India a treasure chest of fashion, Indian Handlooms have been an integral part of Indian culture and economics. This 70th Independence day, Unnati Silks celebrates some major achievements of our pride - Indian handlooms.

India, under colonial rule for a little above two hundred years attained its freedom in 1947. And the non-cooperation movement by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920 was a major milestone. He urged Indians to wear hand-woven Khadi. Since then, Handlooms have formed an integral part of our Freedom struggle.

Handlooms are the spirit of the nation - the vibrancy and vividness in their display reflecting the ethos of India, its rich culture and the underlying chord of unity within the diversity.

Weavers, artisans and other ancillary craftsmen are the backbone of the Indian handloom industry which demonstrates the richness and diversity of Indian culture.

With over 4.3 million people directly involved in the production, the handloom industry is the second-largest employment provider for the rural population in India after agriculture. Indian handloom products are known for their unique designs and finesse. The trend is to mix old designs with new techniques and create original products.

The industry has strong infrastructure, with about 2.4 million looms of varied designs and construction, indicating significant production capacity.

Remuneratively handlooms fetch much less as compared to power looms and govt. policies and schemes started favouring this sector and neglected the other. This caused a temporary setback and numbers in the workforce started dwindling seeking fresher pastures to eke out their livelihood.

Handloom day on August 7 every year, the initiative from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, is an acknowledgement of this 'Hand of the Loom' or the weaving community's contribution to the nation's economy and the preservation of India's rich heritage.

As a move it has many pro-handloom initiatives afresh and given the much needed shot in the arm that promises better things to come for this troubled sector.

As per the official figures from the Handloom Export Promotion Council (HEPC), the contribution of Handloom sector in Indian exports is quite significant and worthy of applause.

The export of handloom products from India stood at USD 360.02 million in FY2015-16.

In 2015-16, the US was the major importer of Indian handloom products, with estimated purchases of USD 106.13 million, followed by the UK and UAE at USD 22.42 million and USD 19.42 million, respectively. Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Netherlands, and Australia were some other export destinations.

During 2015-16, export of fabrics stood at USD 35.34 million, floor coverings stood at USD 125.27 million, clothing accessories stood at USD 25.54 million, and made-ups stood at USD 173.88 million.

Indian Handlooms have made a deep impact on the Fashion trends. Some of the leading Indian designers like Ritu Kumar, Sabyasachi Mukerjee, Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Anamika Khanna, Anju Modi extensively incorporate handloom weaves and art work in their collections.

Starting from fabric, right down to designs and motifs, they have given the handloom that fresh boost that has elevated it from a traditional weave to a fashion fabric.

But more heartening is it to see the spread of the handloom in fashion clothing overseas. Some of the biggest designer brands have incorporated designs, patterns, styles, and sometimes even the fabric itself from the Indian range of clothing.

The Hermes Spring-Summer 2008 collection of colorful India-inspired fusion garments include draped sari dresses, tunics, long jackets, reinterpreted ribbon-edged saris, Jodhpurs and safari suits.

McQueen Fall 2008 is inspired by Indian royal costumes and jewellery for this collection. Knee-length draped sari dresses with paisley work at the borders, a voluminous white dress with a red shrug with gathered effect, use of India's national bird peacock as a motif and the use of maangtikas.

Dior Resort 2008 is a tribute to the Indian colour palette and experiments with shades such as bright greens and pinks in this collection, the use of paisley, temple motifs, embroidery on silk and chiffon to create pencil pants, skirts and dresses is fascinating.

The combination of British and Indian influences, specifically the royalty of both countries by Alexander McQueen in his Fall 2008 collection was a breath taking fantasy. From Victorian and Elizabethan silhouettes to the ornamentation of Indian maharajas, McQueen's collection was dark and romantic. The use of Indian jewellery on gothic looks, sari silks to create dresses, embroidery of Indian motifs like the peacock on frothy gowns among other details were sensational.

Louis Vuitton Diwali Collection 2010 had experiments with the Benarasi weave by Marc Jacobs, inspired by Indian elegance and Western design sensibilities to create gorgeous sari dresses. There was also a special fabric called 'Louis Vuitton fabric' specially woven by Indian craftsmen with a mix of monogrammed flowers and Indian traditional motifs.

Marchesa had in her Spring 2013 range Indian drapes mimicking the sari and long, full skirts to the use of brocade and the jewelled and gilded embellishments on clothes. The collection seamlessly blended its Indian influences with the dreamy Marchesa aesthetic. The Indian touch was also visible in the colour palette that included deep red, Rani pink, sunset orange, pale green and inky blue.

Isabel Marant in her Spring 2016 Collection had a perfect blend of the Parisienne vibe with that of a bohemian globetrotter. The woven textiles of Rajasthan were used alongside chunky jewellery, laid-back harem pants, silver jackets and pants, and beaded embroidery.

Elie Saab Couture had in is Spring 2016 display showed the collection of an aristocrat visiting colonial India. With both Indian and Edwardian influences in equal measure, sari-inspired silhouettes were followed by high-necked shirts, Nehru collars by caped gowns. The clothes were feminine, intricate and beautiful, all staple features of Elie Saab couture.

All goes to show how much those overseas like about the variety & diversity in handlooms that gives them plenty of inspirations.

Change is a constant phenomenon. And to change without losing the core values and essence is what Indian handlooms stand for. The core techniques and principles used by the weavers remain the same which has been carried on from generations. The passion, dedication and love for the craft still remains the same, the magic remains the same.

Unnati's contribution to the Nation's effort began in 1980 when Devendra Ladha, CEO and founder of Unnati Silks had to make a choice other than medicine for his future career. He chose to start Unnati Silk Prints Pvt Ltd.

Right from his student days, Ladha had developed a love for handlooms.

"I was very much taken in by the traditional processes of weaving, the dedication of our weavers, intricate designs, the beauty and detail of the weaves. I love Indian ethnic like any proud Indian should. Traditional artistry is a marvel, a work of genius", he says, "but the ethnic practitioners behind this craft 'never get their place in the sun' for the marvellous offerings they create," he said.

"Unnati Silks sees itself as the bridging entity between these wonder workers of ethnic fabrics across India and the end users of these dedicated offerings - the buying community at large. There have been areas that I feel should be covered, like holistic conceptualisation, an innate understanding of market tastes through focused research, good anticipation through co-ordinated efforts and experience of what designs could be well-received and a whole lot of other customer centric efforts that would ensure a win-win situation for all concerned," added Ladha.

This became a focal point in Unnati's strategies that tremendously improved its bonding with the traditional makers of fabrics and fostered a close working relationship that has been harmonious and well-nurtured in this journey. In return the market has responded favourably on most occasions for Unnati's ideas translated on cloth.

"The smell of a freshly woven handloom saree is as invigorating as the smell of the mud when it just starts raining, something familiar and dear to those who have been associated with these weaves," said Ladha.

Unnatisilks.com, the official online shopping website of brand Unnati Silks is your one stop store for beautiful Indian Handlooms. Shop from unique collection of pure handloom cotton and silk sarees, handcrafted dress material, handloom kurtas, ethnic fabrics and more.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar has demanded a ban on outdoor music events, including rave parties, after two youngsters died at two separate raves in the popular beach village of Anjuna in North Goa possibly due to drug overdose on Sunday.

In a statement issued from St. Petersburg in Russia, Palienkar said he spoke to North Goa District Superintendent of Police to demand a ban on rave parties and other late-night events.

The Minister also demanded a thorough probe into the deaths of Pravin Surendran from Tamil Nadu and Nidam Abdulla from Kerala, at a private hospital in Anjuna, located 20 km north of Panaji.

"Drug proliferation increases with outdoor music (parties). I had written to chief secretary and other officials to take strict action. My stand is clear. I also called Superintendent of Police North. It is unfortunate and I have said that all this should stop," Palienkar said.
Hitting back at Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste for hinting that there could be a "conspiracy" behind the deaths of multitudes of children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's hospital, the Congress Party on Monday said that conspiracy is a part of their "imaginative process".

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Tom Vadakkan said it is a complete administrative failure at their end and if he (Kulaste) thinks that there is a conspiracy then a Supreme Court monitored enquiry would be ideal.

"Conspiracy is a part of their imaginative process. When the fault is at their end, they want to blame everybody else. Including the mosquitoes will be blamed for conspiracy with the opposition parties. But if he thinks that there is a conspiracy than a SC monitored enquiry would be ideal. A CBI enquiry monitored by the SC. It is completely an administrative failure," he said.

He also criticised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh by calling them "inexperienced".

Samajwadi Party leader Sunil Yadav said that nothing can be worse that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not agreeing to the fact that they are responsible for it.

"I believe that this is the worst tragedy that could happen. And the BJP is still not agreeing to the fact that they are responsible for it. It is very saddening that they are not serious about it," he said.

Contrary to this, BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said that the opposition parties should take moral responsibility for having allowed the UP's health care system to remain what it is.

"The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh have responded very quickly to the tragedy and the political parties like SP, BSP and he Congress which also have to take a moral responsibility for having allowed the UP's health care system to remain what it is... Any death of an infant or a child is a human tragedy," he said.

Further slamming the opposition and critics for politicising the issue, Rao said the sensitivity of the state government and the Chief Minister is evident from his action and his visit and his promise to take stringent action against people who are found to negligent in this manner.

"So rather than politicising this event, political parties must allow the state government to conduct inquiry and punish whoever is responsible for this negligence," he added.

Kulaste on Sunday hinted that there could be a conspiracy behind this tragedy.

"There may be a conspiracy behind this incident. It can be clearly observed from the comparison of the figures of children's death before 9th and after that. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed a probe into this matter and it is his responsibility today. The reason behind the Gorakhpur incident needs to be studied vividly. It will take time to improve the condition of the healthcare sector in Uttar Pradesh," he told ANI.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that he was tremendously affected by the death of over 70 children, while reiterating that a probe will be instigated and the guilty will be severely punished.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deeply concerned and has offered complete support, Adityanath said that nobody can be more sensitive than him in the regard.

"Nobody can be more sensitive towards those children than me. Prime Minister is very concerned and he assured complete assistance from the Centre. Prime Minister has also sent Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to take cognizance of the situation," said Adityanath.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has always been opposing the Centre's policies and initiatives, adding it is high time to stop politics over patriotism.

"Mamata Banerjee has been opposing the Centre's policies and initiatives even when they ought to have been complimented and welcomed. It is high time to stop politics over patriotism," BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao told ANI.

He further said that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) circular is encouraging schools to celebrate the Independence moment and remember those who sacrificed their lives for the country.

"There is no need for any State Government to do politics over it. But Mamata Banerjee has been indulging in such politics and people of Bengal will not forgive her. West Bengal has given the best of the freedom fighters during freedom movement," Rao added.

Another BJP leader Sudesh Verma said that just because secularism has come to Central Government it should not become an excuse for any State Government to oppose this.

"This is a format that has been evolved over the period of time. For any function of significance there is a proper format, a proper procedure that needs to be followed. It has been devised because it inculcates patriotism and it brings a kind of uniformity. Nobody should oppose for the sake of opposing it," he added.

Verma further said that this is happening just because the BJP Government is in centre.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Government has instructed its schools not to follow the Centre's circular on building "mass fervour" around Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'New India Mission' and administering a 'Sankalp se Siddhi' pledge to all students.

It has also rejected a suggested format for celebrations to mark Independence Day this year.

Earlier on Sunday, promoting the 'Sankalp se Siddhi' campaign to be launched by the BJP, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said Sunday that this initiative will help in bringing forth a corruption-free India.

While talking to ANI about the initiative, he said, "Prime Minister Modi has given a clarion call to observe 'Sankalp se Siddhi' from 2017 to 2022 to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Quit India Movement to the 75th anniversary of Independence."

He said that the programme will help in achieving the goal of a corruption-free India.

In addition to bolster the programme, BJP has arranged a number of competitions for students across all age groups.

Speaking about the West Bengal government's refusal to follow the initiative, he said that the party wouldn't want to comment on it through media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the 'Sankalp se Siddhi' programme while addressing the parliament on August 9, the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement.

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The 48-year-old former Top Gear presenter, Richard Hammond, is back behind the wheel for the first time since his horrific accident which left him with fractured knee in the hospital two months ago.

Hammond was involved in a serious accident earlier this year narrowly escaping death when his 2million electric supercar burst into flames on a hillside in Switzerland in June.

He was filming scenes for the second season of The Grand Tour when the initial incident occurred, leaving the vehicle in flames.

According to Independent, after almost two months of rest, Hammond has returned to the roads, posting footage of himself behind the wheel onto 'DriveTribe' and thanking doctors for their help.

"I'm back! Oh yeah. This feels better than the first time. Better than being 17 and given the keys to my freedom. Because this time, I'm ready," he said while driving down a leafy country lane.

Adding, "This is beautiful. Thank you, doctors, thank you. I shouldn't even be sharing this moment; it feels too personal right now. I'm dressed but I feel like I'm not."

"This is where I've been all this time, in my head. I can go anywhere. Wales is over there, it's got mountains in it. There's a ghost I need to exercise, I'm going there. I am so happy," he added.

Speaking about the incident, Hammond revealed that, after losing control of the car, he thought he was going to die.

He also revealed that the cause of the car crash is still unknown and being investigated.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Islamabad wants positive and constructive relations with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality.

"Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all the countries of the world, especially with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality," Abbasi said in his address to the nation on the occasion of Pakistan's 70th Independence Day.

"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably, the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he added.

Abbasi's remarks holds importance as tensions between India and Pakistan are running high amid spree of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration from Islamabad's side.

Relations between India and Pakistan worsened after several terror attacks including one on an Indian military base in Uri and also on an Indian air force base in Pathankot.

The situation between both nations further deteriorated after a Pakistan military court announced a death sentence to former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Relations between the two nations have been particularly worsened after the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan based terrorists.

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Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Monday said investment in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is not coming because of 'perception' and not because of state's special status.

He said industry in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) saw a decline not because of Articles 370 or 35 (A), but the age-old perception of the state being "unsafe" for investment.

Talking to media, Abduallah said, "J&K is perceived as unsafe for investment. We have a small industry infrastructure as there are no raw materials available in the state. We have a geographical disadvantage. This is the reason for the stinted growth of industries here, and not because of the imposition of Articles 370 or 35 (A), as is being projected by the ruling coalition."

Further criticising the Centre's recently implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST), Abdullah said the new tax regime will severely impact the poor, with every commodity being taxed henceforth.

"In case any waiver is required, our Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti immediately rushes to Delhi, without realizing that nobody there listens to her. A matter which could have been solved within the state itself is now being discussed by the GST Council," he said earlier while addressing a rally.

"We had intimated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the negative points of the GST. This will not benefit anyone, especially not the poor. We had told him that his power will be decentralized. We will regret the GST in the long run," added Abdullah.

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had passed the GST resolution on July 5, bringing the economy closer to the Centre's mission of 'One Tax One Market One Nation'.

Expressing delight over the same, state Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said the consumer states are to get the maximum benefit from the GST and Jammu and Kashmir is a consumer state.

Additionally, state Finance Minister Haseeb Ahmed Drabu said it was for the first time in 60 years that a transparent, democratic process was laid out for its implementation.

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Three security personnel were injured in a grenade attack by terrorists in Budgam's Kanihama area today.

As per reports, the terrorists lobbed a grenade on the armed forces in which three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and one Jammu and Kashmir Policeman was injured.

Earlier in the day, the security forces arrested two terrorists of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen from Handwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.

.

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The Janata Dal-United [JD-U] has criticised Union Minister Faggan Singh Kulaste's statement wherein he smelled a "conspiracy" in deaths of infants in a Gorakhpur hospital.

JD (U) spokesperson K.C. Tyagi termed this statement as unacceptable, and said, "This is a time to provide relief to the affected people. Such statements weren't required and I strongly condemn his statement."

JD-U rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari also condemned Kulaste's statement and demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the incident that has shook the nation.

Anwar said that the opposition is completely justified in asking for the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"Demanding CM's resignation is the very least that the opposition is doing. The Prime Minister should sack him if he doesn't resign." he added.

On Sunday, Union Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste on Sunday hinted that there could be a conspiracy behind this tragedy.

"There may be a conspiracy behind this incident. It can be clearly observed from the comparison of the figures of children's death before 9th and after that. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed a probe into this matter and it is his responsibility today. The reason behind the Gorakhpur incident needs to be studied vividly. It will take time to improve the condition of the healthcare sector in Uttar Pradesh," he told ANI.

According to data procured from Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, in five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 children died in the hospital allegedly due to the unavailability of liquid oxygen cylinders.

The Uttar Pradesh government, however, has denied that the children died due to shortage of oxygen cylinders.

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Pakistan, this year, hoisted South Asia's largest flag at Wagah border to commence the 70th Independence Day celebrations at 12

Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa was the chief guest at the ceremony, attended by hundreds of people.

The flag, made entirely in Pakistan, is 120 feet by 80 feet in size, making it world's eighth largest one. It was hoisted on a 400-feet pole at midnight.

The hoisting was followed by grand fireworks and an address by General Bajwa.

"Some 77 years ago, Pakistan resolution was passed in the same city [Lahore]. Pakistan came into being on the night of 27th Ramazan - it was a blessed night," said the Army chief General, as quoted by the Dawn.

"Today, the country is progressing on the path of the law and the Constitution. All Institutions are working properly. We will make Pakistan the country of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal," he said, adding, "We have rendered many sacrifices - we will never forget our martyrs. We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan. I want to tell our enemies, whether they are in the in east or west, that your bullets will end but not the chests of our jawans [soldiers]."

Acknowledging Pakistan's "internal and external challenges", the COAS said, "I assure you that we will never let you down. Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Pakistan Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts."

A leading ceremony, to mark Pakistan's Independence Day, is organised in capital Islamabad, which will be attended by President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and chiefs of all armed forces among others.

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Swiss maestro Roger Federer has withdrawn from this week's ATP Cincinnati Masters tournament, thus paving way for 15-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal to climb to number one spot in ATP Rankings for the first time since July 2014.

Federer, who lost to Alexander Zverev in the finals of Montreal Masters, said on Monday that a back injury will force him to miss the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

"I am very sorry to pull out of the Western & Southern Open as I always enjoy playing here," said Federer.

"Cincinnati has some of the best fans in the world and I am sorry I will miss them. Unfortunately, I tweaked my back in Montreal and I need to rest this week," he added.

Nadal will overtake Britain's top-ranked Andy Murray, who withdrew from Montreal and Cincinnati with a hip injury.

The 31-year-old has won four tournaments this year, including historic 10th titles at Roland Garros, Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. He has also reached three other finals, including the Australian Open and Miami.

Federer, however, could yet move into the world number one spot at the US Open which begins August 28 in New York.

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A large number of Hindu devotees thronged Krishna temples in capital Kathmandu and offered their prayers to celebrate Krishna Janmashtami-the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna on Monday.

Tens of thousands of devotees have flocked the Shree Krishna Mandir in Patan and Lalitpur since early morning and make offerings of fruits, sweets, and clothes.

But the devotees were unhappy because of the slow pace of reconstruction work at the Krishna temple that was ravaged during the earthquake as is the third consecutive year that the Hindu devotees have been offering prayers and worshipping the idol of lord Krishna by taking out of the temple.

"Though it has been more than three and half years that the cultural heritage sites are not reconstructed. The slow pace of reconstruction work by the government has compelled the people to worship the idol and offer prayers from outside the temple," Puja Pariyar, a devotee in Krishna Mandir of Patan complained while talking with ANI.

On April 25, 2015, a massive earthquake struck Nepal in which 9,000 people were killed and over 800,000 homes including historical and cultural monuments were destroyed in the disaster.

"People must have shown concerns and interest over it. Because of the ignorance and not playing a role to force government to reconstruct the damaged temple in a fastly manner," Ranjit Dahal another devotee complained.

Krishna Mandir which lies in Patan Durbar Square, a Heritage Site was also devastated during the earthquake but it still stands surrounded by metal polls which the authorities fears of collapsing if the devotees are allowed to enter the premises.

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The Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday told a Delhi Court that it has completed questioning of Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Shah, separatists Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Peer Saifulla.

Earlier in the day, Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Peer Saifullah were produced before Delhi's Patiala House Court in connection with the terror funding case, allegedly involving Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

The NIA on August 8 questioned Geelani's sons- Nayeem and Naseem- in the similar matter.

Nayeem is being tipped as the natural successor to lead the Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist conglomerate comprising pro-Pakistan hardline groups, after his father.

The NIA registered the case on 30 May, accusing separatist and secessionist leaders of being involved with terrorist groups.

The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The case also included causing disruption in the Valley by pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

The NIA had conducted searches in several places in the state besides Haryana and the capital.

Electronic devices and valuables worth crores of rupees were seized.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has called its ambassadors from China, Russia and the United Nations for a joint meeting to discuss the threats issued by President Donald Trump and hence the escalation with United States.

"North Korea seems to be hosting what appears to be a meeting of foreign diplomatic missions' chiefs after calling its ambassadors to major countries back to Pyongyang," Yonhap News Agency news agency reported.

The ongoing meeting reportedly includes Ji Jae-ryong, Ja Song-nam and Kim Hyong-jun North Korea's top envoys to China, the United Nations and Russia, respectively.

But how many more ambassadors are participating in the meeting is unclear.The meeting comes at a juncture when China issued an order imposing economic sanctions on North Korea .

The top envoys are likely to discuss the scenario,response and the condemnation by the international community after its two recent tests of what it called intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the mainland United States.

The meeting may also be linked with the country's purported preparations for further military provocations, possibly a nuclear test or more missile launches, as the country has warned of more action.

The U.N. Security Council on August 5 voted unanimously to impose new sanctions on North Korea, banning exports that supply up to a third of the country's annual $3 billion earnings.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution was in response to North Korea's launch of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, activities prohibited under existing U.N. resolutions.

The Ministry of Unification's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a press briefing that the meeting may be part of North Korea's regular gathering of ambassadors.

"North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors' meeting in July 2015 and (the latest meeting) seems to be in line with that," South Korean news agency quoted the spokesman statement.

Tensions between North Korea and the U.S. have escalated after two ICBMs were tested by Kim Jong-and President Donald Trump has pledged to meet further provocations "with fire and fury like the has never seen".

North Korea further threatened to attack Guam and other US territories in the Pacific region, with a government spokesman saying a strike plan was ready "to put into practise in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment" on Kim's instruction.

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The Congress on Monday said that issue of Article 35 (A) should not be discussed at the moment as the state of Jammu and Kashmir is facing enough crisis at the moment.

Asserting that Jammu and Kashmir has reached its most abysmal position presently, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are running in different directions.

Singhvi said, at a time when the state is in complete chaos and figures of border intrusions and causalities is increasing it is dangerous to rake an issue of divisive nature such as 35 (A).

"It is unfortunate that when Jammu and Kashmir has reached its most abysmal position where there is complete chaos, where the state government and the Central government though of the same color or coalition are riding in two different directions, where governance in the ground has gone, where the number of causality figures, whether of the armed forces or of the border intrusions or of terrorists incidents or of civilian deaths or of military deaths. Any of these five parameters have risen exponentially in last several months and years," said Singhvi.

"During such a time is it correct to talk about a further divisive issue like 35 A. the merits of the issue don't matter at the moment. There is a time and place for everything. Even if it is debatable, it is certainly not debatable today," he added.

Earlier in the day, Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said investment in Jammu and Kashmir is not coming because of 'perception' and not because of state's special status.

He said industry in the state saw a decline not because of Articles 370 or 35 (A), but the age-old perception of the state being "unsafe" for investment.

Talking to media, Abdullah said, "J&K is perceived as unsafe for investment. We have a small industry infrastructure as there are no raw materials available in the state. We have a geographical disadvantage. This is the reason for the stinted growth of industries here, and not because of the imposition of Articles 370 or 35 (A), as is being projected by the ruling coalition.

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Pakistan's acting High Commissioner to India Syed Haider Shah on Monday urged New Delhi to work together with Islamabad for the creation of a peaceful region.

"The way Pakistan is celebrating its independence, we also congratulate the people of India for the independence of their country and we hope there will be peace in this region and both our countries, in fact all the others in this region (subcontinent), will work together for the creation of a peaceful region," Shah told ANI during his country's 70th Independence Day celebrations at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Shah unfurled the Pakistani flag at an elegant and impressive flag hoisting ceremony held on the Chancery's lush green lawns.

Pakistani nationals, high commission officials and representatives of the country's Armed Forces also took part in the celebrations.

The envoy read out the Independence Day messages from the President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

A female student of Pakistan High Commission School Iman Sarwar delivered a speech, while other students of the Pakistan High Commission School presented national songs and tableaus.

Palwasha Haider, wife of the acting High Commissioner, gave away prizes and gifts to the teachers and children of the school.

Shah, along with his wife, also cut a cake to mark the 70th Anniversary of Pakistan.

Pakistan was created out of a partitioned Indian subcontinent on August 14, 1947.

It came into existence as a result of the Pakistan Movement, which aimed for the creation of a separate Muslim state by partition of the north-western and north-eastern regions of undivided India.

The movement was led by the All-India Muslim League under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

This was facilitated by the British parliament passing the Indian Independence Act 1947, thereby giving recognition to Pakistan.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the phone regarding the flood situation in Bihar.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) took to Twitter saying that, "PM @narendramodi has spoken to Bihar CM @NitishKumar regarding the flood situation in parts of the state.

Prime Minister Modi also expressed his grief for the affected people and assured that the situation is being monitored. "My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely".

Further giving assurance, Prime Minister Modi said, that teams of Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are in Bihar for rescue and relief work. "Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work."

Earlier in the day, three columns of Army were deployed in flood-hit Katihar district for the relief and rescue operation.

The central help came after Bihar Chief Minsiter Nitish Kumar sought help of the Army and Air Force as the flood situation worsened in the state.

Overflowing rivers from Nepal have played a major spoilsport in four northeastern districts - Kishanganj, Araria, Purnia and Katihar.

Supaul, Saharsa, Bagha, Gopalganj, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Khagaria, Darbhanga and Madhepura districts are the other districts which have been affected by floods.

Lakhs of people have been affected in these districts.

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Addressing the nation on the eve of India's 71st Independence Day, newly elected President Ram Nath Kovind praised the several schemes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while urging the nation to become better individuals.

. Spirit of empathy:

Speaking about the "spirit of empathy" President Kovind said that a tradition persisted during his childhood days when during a wedding in any one family, the entire village shared the responsibility and contributed.

"Regardless of the caste or community, the bride became the daughter of not just a single family but of the entire village. Everybody living in the village looked after guests, and took charge of different arrangements," President Kovind said in his speech.

He added that there was a sense of caring, sharing, and of interdependence.

"Today, in big cities we may not even know our neighbours. Whether in cities or villages, it is important to renew that sense of caring and sharing. This will make us a gentler and happier society and help us understand each other with greater empathy," the newly elected President said.

Calling this spirit of empathy he said that this spirit of empathy, social service and volunteerism is "very much alive in India."

"There are so many people and organisations that work quietly and diligently for the poor and the disadvantaged," he said.

To this he added that these people could be running schools for street children, caring for stray animals and birds, and providing water to hard-to-reach tribal communities in remote areas.

"They might be cleaning rivers and public places. They are nation builders in action, and we need to draw inspiration from them," President of India said.

He further said that everyone should work with unity and purpose to ensure that the benefits of government policies reach all sections of society.

"For this, the partnership between citizens and government remains essential," he said.

 Swachchh Bharat:

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most ambitious campaign, President Kovind said, "The government has started the Swachchh Bharat campaign, but it is for each of us to ensure a Swachchh Bharat and while the government is building toilets or helping build toilets, it is for each of us to use those toilets and make India open-defecation free."

 Communication and technology:

One of Prime Minister Modi's emphasis has always been on the importance of technology and addressing the nation President Kovind talked about the same saying, "The government is enabling communication infrastructure and it is for each of us to use the Internet for the right purposes which is to bridge knowledge gaps, create opportunities, and enhance educational and information access."

. Adapting technology:

"We must use technology to empower our people and achieve the goal of poverty, elimination in a single generation. Poverty and New India are simply not compatible," President Kovind said in his speech.

President Ram Nath Kovind also said that today the world is looking at India with "admiration."

"Our country is seen as a responsible global citizen, a growing economy, and a solution provider to various international challenges, such as climate change, disasters, conflicts, humanitarian crises, radicalism and terrorism," President Kovind said.

He also said that as citizens and children of India, whether we live at home or abroad, we must ask ourselves "how we can add to our country's pride."

 Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao

Addressing the nation President Kovind said, "The government is promoting the idea of Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao and it is for each of us to ensure that our daughters are not discriminated against and get the best education."

He further said that the government can only frame laws and strengthen law enforcement it is for each of us to be a law-abiding citizen and to build a law-abiding society.

 Goods & Services Tax (GST):

Talking about the recently passed Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST) President Kovind said, "The government is implementing GST to eliminate multiple taxes and simplify transactions and it is for each of us to make this an essential part of our everyday transactions and business culture."

He said that he is happy that the transition to the GST system has been smooth.

"It should be a matter of pride for all of us that the taxes we pay are used for nation building and to help the poor and the marginalized, to build rural and urban infrastructure, and to strengthen our border defences," President Kovind said.

 Demonetization:

Talking about demonetization, President Kovind said, "Your immense patience and understanding in the days following demonetisation and your whole-hearted support in the battle against corruption and black money, reflected a responsible and enlightened society."

He further said that Demonetization has boosted efforts to build an honest society.

"We must sustain this spirit and this momentum," he added.

 Gas cylinder subsidy:

"On an appeal from the Prime Minister, more than one crore families voluntarily gave up their LPG fuel subsidy, so that a gas cylinder could reach the kitchen of a poorer family of fellow Indians," the President said, adding that family members, particularly women, were saved from the smoke of chulhas that damaged their eyes and lungs.

Praising the families President of India said, "I salute those families that gave up their subsidy. No law or government order made them do what they did. Their response came from within."

He further said that the whole nation should draw inspiration from these families.

"Each of us must find a way to give back to society. Each of us must choose one thing we can do to help another, less-fortunate Indian," President Kovind said.

 New India reform:

Emphasizing about a reformed and a new India President Kovind said, "In the year 2022, our country will complete 75 years of Independence. It is our resolve to attain certain desired milestones for a New India by then."

He said that the "New India"" goes beyond the obvious parameters of a house for every family, power on demand, better roads and telecom, a modern railway network, rapid and sustained growth.

"New India must include that integral humanist component that is in our DNA, and which has defined our country and our civilization. New India must be a society rushing towards the future, and also be a compassionate society at the same time," the President of India said.

He further said that a compassionate society should be established where the traditionally disadvantaged, whether SCs, STs or OBCs, are part of the developmental process.

"A compassionate society should be established where the deprived child, the aged and the ailing senior citizen, and the poor and the under-privileged are always in our thought and not an afterthought. And where we take special care to ensure that our divyang brothers and sisters get equal opportunities in all walks of life," President Kovind said.

The President also talked about an "equal society" and said that a compassionate and egalitarian society is to be established that does not discriminate on gender or religious background.

"It is only with all this that we will build the New India we can cherish, where every Indian is equipped to fulfill his or her potential and do so in a manner that leaves each one of us content and happy. And helps each of us contribute to society and our country," President Kovind said.

He further said that he is confident that a strong partnership between citizens and the government will allow the Government to meet the goals of New India.

. Bravery of Defence Forces:

"Our soldiers, who guard our borders, on a hot day in the desert or high up on a cold mountain, are not just doing their duty. They are displaying an extra degree of selflessness," President Ram Nath kovind said.

He also said that the police and paramilitary forces that brave death to combat terrorism or crime and keep the people safe are not just doing their duty. They are displaying an extra degree of selflessness.

"Our farmers, who labour under extremely tough conditions to grow food to feed fellow Indians whom they have never met, and who live in the other corner of the country, are not just doing a job. They are displaying an extra degree of selflessness.

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Amid reports of the alleged abolition of Article 35 (A) of the Constitution, Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah urged that this would lead to the end of state subject laws in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Provisions which are stated under article 35 (A) were initiated by Raja Hari Singh. If this is scrapped by the Supreme Court, it will end state subject laws. People from other states will gain access to buy property in the region, avail educational scholarships for their children, relief material and bag government jobs; the four main things that Raja Hari Singh protected us from," said Abdullah, while addressing a gathering here.

Alleging conspiracy by the ruling BJP-PDP coalition, Abdullah claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has constantly batted for the removal of Article 35 (A), and has attempted to suppress any opposition arising against the same.

"The BJP has been on our case ever since we spoke of Article 35 (A). We have never encouraged bloodshed, but we refuse to fall prey to their conspiracy. Nobody should be carried away in their propaganda," he said.

"Surprisingly, the BJP made an issue of 35A as a case of Jammu versus Kashmir. They say it will benefit Kashmir but adversely affect Jammu. Nobody is going to benefit from the removal of 35 (A)," added Abdullah.

Coming down heavily on the saffron party over the proposed removal of Article 370 of the Constitution, Omar alleged that although the former supported the removal of this provision, it was a veiled attempt, supported by an affidavit that lacked depth and detail.

"The BJP said it would scrap Article 370 but realised it isn't possible through Parliament. Therefore, they approached the Court and asked others to fight the case on their behalf," said Omar.

Further, addressing a press conference after the speech, he opined that the Hurriyat, which does not believe in the Constitution of India has no business to comment on 35A.

For the unversed, Article 35A of the Constitution empowers the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to define the state's permanent residents and their privileges.

Article 35A was inserted into the Constitution of India through a presidential order in 1954, to guarantee that the maharaja's ban on outsiders would remain. It actually makes little difference in practical terms, for domicile rights apply in other states too.

Meanwhile, Article 370 of the Indian constitution grants special autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held a meeting with visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid O Meredov on Monday in New Delhi.

Rashid O Meredov is on a three-day trip to India from August 13. Sushma also held delegation-level talks with Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid O Meredov.

There also signed the Protocol for the 6th Session of Inter Governmental Commission.

Meredov will also hold a meeting with Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Turkmenistan in July 2015 at the invitation of the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

Both the leaders discussed bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues.

.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held a telephonic conversation with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Nepal Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Monday and discussed the flood situation along India-Nepal border.

In series of tweets, Indian Embassy at Kathmandu said that Swaraj assured all possible cooperation.

Nepal was informed that all gates on barrages of Kosi, Gandak & Rapti rivers on Indian side are open.

The flood situation arose due to incessant rains on both sides of the border. Indian Embassy is in constant touch with local authorities of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar Government.

Landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 60 people in southern Nepal and left thousands homeless.

Reportedly, 2,569 houses have collapsed, 39,272 houses have submerged in water and about six million people are affected throughout the country.

"This kind of water havoc is witnessed after five years, with overflow of the Triyuga River. The Nepal Army and Armed Police Force are working on the rescue and relief operation. The current situation shows that the destruction caused is massive," a resident of Udayapur district in Eastern Nepal, Deepu Thapa said.

"The Gaighat area and the houses around the Triyuga River are water logged and water level has also submerged the ground floor of some houses around here," he added.

This natural calamity has affected the air land and telephone connectivity. The electricity in the rural areas has been totally cut off. However, the Nepal electricity authority has said that it will take over a week to replace the electricity facility in the affected areas.

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A key provincial leader of Afghanistan's insurgent group Taliban was killed by own guards in eastern Nangarhar province.

The provincial police commandment, according to Khaama Press, has confirmed that Taliban leader Fazal Subhan and his four companions were shot dead in Khogyani district.

Nangarhar Police said Subhan was a key provincial leader and was the brother of another senior Taliban leader Mawlavi Nik Mohammad.

The insurgent group has, however, not commented, so far.

Earlier, the Taliban insurgents had suffered heavy casualties after their coordinated attack was repulsed by the Afghan security forces in eastern Nangarhar province.

"Several Taliban insurgents launched coordinated attack on security check posts in Momand Dara," Khaama Press had quoted a provincial government media office statement.

Anti-ISIS as well as anti-Taliban operation is underway to eliminate the presence of ISIS affiliates in Nangarhar province and U.S. forces are providing airstrikes support to the Afghan forces during the operations.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Monday announced compensation of Rs 20 lakh to kin of Sepoy Ilayaraja who lost his life in Shopian encounter in Jammu and Kashmir.

Two jawans were killed and three others, including a captain, injured on Sunday in an encounter with militants at Awneera village in south Kashmir's Shopian district.

Ilayaraja P was a resident of Tamil Nadu was killed in the fierce gun battle.

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The security forces on Monday arrested two terrorists of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen from Handwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Yesterday, one of the three terrorists killed in Saturday's Shopian encounter was identified as Hizbul Mujahideen's operational commander - Yasin Yatoo.

Hizbul Mujahideen's topmost commander in Kashmir, Mehmood Ghaznavi, was also killed in a gun fight that started on Saturday evening at Shopian.

Combing operations were launched to ensure no untoward elements reside in the area.

Last week a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist was arrested from Soppore district of the state.

Ishfaq Ahmad Kanna, a resident of Jamia-Qadeem in Sopore, was arrested after an operation was carried out by the Central Reserve Police Force ( CRPF) when it was conducting a security check on Seer Amargarh Road. During the security check, Ishfaq jumped over the 'Naka' and fled to a nearby orchard.

The suspected area was cordoned off immediately and he was caught and one pistol, one pistol Meg, five pistol rounds and two UBGL grenades were recovered from him.

A case was registered against Ishfaq in the Tarzoo Police Station.

After thorough investigation, it has been found out that the militant is a part of the Lashkar Module in North- Kashmir. He used to work as active recruiter before joining the LeT outfit.

Earlier, on 5th of August, three militants of the Lashkar module were killed at the Jamia Mohalla Amargarh in Sopore.

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Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has said that white nationalists should leave America after a 32-year-old woman Heather D. Heyer was killed when a driver intentionally plowed his car into a crowd.

"Let's be honest, they need to leave America, because they are not Americans," CNN quoted McAuliffe, as saying.

"They get out of bed every day to hate people and divide our country," he added.

Earlier, Charlottesville Democratic mayor Michael Signer on Sunday said that U.S. President Donald Trump had emboldened organised racists, who caused the racially charged violence in his city over the weekend.

"Look at the campaign he ran," Signer said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Signer accused Trump of running a campaign that attracted racist groups.

"Look at the intentional courting both, on the one hand, of all these white supremacists, white nationalist groups like that, anti-Semitic groups. And then look on the other hand, the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all those different efforts," he said.

Signer asked everyone to come together to identify and fight racism. He added that the fight should also include Trump as well.

Signer said that he expected a violent case to be made against the man behind the attack.

"I hope that if the facts are there, that we vigorously prosecute this as a case of domestic terrorism," Signer said.

"This cannot be tolerated."

On Saturday, white supremacist demonstrators clashed with counter protestors in Virginia City, with the violence culminating with a man ramming a car through a group of counter protestors.

According to authorities, 19 people were killed and one injured in the attack.

In a statement while reacting to the deadly attack, Trump blamed "many sides."

However, White House Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert has defended Trump and said that his statement did not prevaricate the white supremacists with the counter protestors.

Bossert blamed "both sides" for the recent violence and said that the White House was "absolutely" against the white supremacists.

"I'm sure there were good people in the groups that had various opinions on the removal or maintenance of the statue," Bossert said.

"But what they found when they showed up were groups from outside that showed up on both sides, looking for trouble, dressed in riot gear, prepared for violence," he added.

Bossert further said that both he and Trump wanted the assailant to face "swift justice" and noted that the Department of Justice was pursuing a civil rights investigation.

"This individual should face swift justice," Bossert said.

"The President of the United States shares that view. I know he does."

"These groups showed up spewing hate," he said. "These groups showed up looking for violence.

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The Rajasthan Police on Monday arrested six people for allegedly murdering a 40-year-old woman after branding her a witch in Kekri, a city and a municipality in Ajmer district.

According to police, the incident took place on August 3 wherein the woman was allegedly made to eat faeces, tortured and beaten to death by her relatives who accused her of being a witch.

The woman succumbed to her injuries at the spot, the police said.

The police registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including murder, and provisions of the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, 2015.

The police said that the woman's husband died a month ago because of Tuberculosis, and she was living with her son and daughter.

The complaint was lodged by her daughter.

Coordinator of Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti, Karuna Phillip said that the matter seems to be of family dispute.

"We received a call on August 8 regarding the woman's death. After registering the case, we visited the spot for further information. When we visited spot, we came to know that the woman was burnt, assaulted, fed excreta and made to sit on embers. There are other government organizations in that area but no action was taken against the accused," she added.

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Bank of Baroda dropped 1.02% to Rs 141.10 at 10:40 IST on BSE after net profit fell 52% to Rs 203.39 crore on 1.9% rise in total income to Rs 12103.86 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016.

The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 11 August 2017.

Meanwhile, the S&P Sensex was up 224.25 points or 0.72% at 31,438.40.

On the BSE, 4.49 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 11.18 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 143.05 and a low of Rs 139.60 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 202.45 on 5 May 2017 and a 52-week low of Rs 136 on 9 November 2016.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 11 August 2017, dropping 12.28% compared with the Sensex's 1.68% decline. The stock had also underperformed the market over the past one quarter, declining 24.14% as against the Sensex's 3.18% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market over the past one year, shedding 2.33% as against the Sensex's 12.04% rise.

The large-cap public sector bank has equity capital of Rs 460.83 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to Rs 46172.77 crore as on 30 June 2017 as against Rs 42718.70 crore as on 31 March 2017 and Rs 42991.68 crore as on 30 June 2016.

The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances rose to 11.4% as on 30 June 2017 as against 10.46% as on 31 March 2017 and 11.15% as on 30 June 2016.

The ratio of net NPAs to net advances rose to 5.17% as on 30 June 2017 as against 4.72% as on 31 March 2017 and 5.73% as on 30 June 2016.

The bank's provisions and contingencies rose 18.16% to Rs 2368.05 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016. The Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) stood at 66.28% as at 30 June 2017.

Separately, Bank of Baroda said that it allotted 8,500 Basel III compliant unsecured, perpetual bonds carrying coupon of 8.65% and face value of Rs 10 lakh each worth Rs 850 crore to ten allottees on 11 August 2017.

The bank said that Ramesh Gopalaratnam has been assigned the position of Chief Financial Officer of the bank from 14 August 2017.

Government of India holds 59.24% stake in Bank of Baroda as per the shareholding pattern as on 30 June 2017.

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Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman acknowledged on behalf of Government of India a dividend of Rs. 72.50 Cr from ECGC Limited for the year 2016-17. ECGC has a made a profit before tax of Rs. 407 Cr after settling claims to exporter and banks for Rs. 865 Cr. Gross premium income declined by 4% despite the introduction of average discount of 17% to exporters with effect from April 2017. The net worth of the company rose to Rs. 3619 Cr and the investment amount were Rs. 8025 Cr.

ECGC offers 20 products and services 12,000 covers to exporters and offers 11 products to Banks covering 23,600 accounts. The total risk value underwritten by ECGC during the year was Rs. 2,65,000 Cr. which is around 15% of total merchandise exports in 2016-17. It is noteworthy to observe that the customer base of ECGC consists of 85% of MSMEs. ECGC also has a database of around 4,00,000 overseas buyers of which 1,20,000 buyers are active with overall limit of Rs. 1,25,000 Cr.

The Minister observed that ECGC, the Export Credit Agency (ECA) has been ground breaker in the field of export credit insurance in India and in its diamond jubilee year, the role of the institution has become more relevant in the times of heightened volatility and instability with global risks hampering severely the international trade and financial system. ECGC's coverage to Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals exports and Agricultural commodities increased by 15% while the actual exports grew by around 4% to 5%.

In support of the diversification of exports destinations by way of Focus schemes, it is observed that ECGC's cover to Africa grew by 15% even though the exports did not reflect a similar trend. Thus, it may be inferred that exporters do shy away from risky markets and with the support of ECGC could expand their business in the very same market.

ECGC has been a pioneer in providing cover to banks who lend to exporters. This ensures that export opportunities are not lost for want of adequate and timely finance. This systemic role of ECGC over 60 years was followed by ECAs in other countries including the West, post financial meltdown in 2007/08. This portfolio was responsible for ECGC bagging the Excellence Award 2017 as BEST ECA (Export Credit Agency) amongst 15 nominations from various countries and finally out of a shortlist consisting of also Euler Hermes, Germany and UKEF, UK. Trade & Forfaiting Review (TFR) mentioned that ECGC also headed the popular vote in the hotly contested category of ECAs in the award initiative which has been in vogue for last two decades.

As regards, Medium and long Term export sector, ECGC manages the National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) trust of GOI, which provides insurance support to overseas projects and other contracts. In all 76 contracts with a value of Rs. 35000 Cr was being executed in 29 countries under this scheme during last year.

ECGC also contributes in the international stage as a member of management committee of Berne Union, an association of over 70 ECAs from various countries. ECGC represents India in the BRICS ECAs forum and in the G-12 meetings. Discussions in the International Working Group (IWG) forum are also supported by the relevant inputs from ECGC, gained from other international fora on export credit, insurance and guarantee.

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Seventeen persons have been killed and eight wounded in a "terrorist attack" in the centre of the capital of Burkina Faso here, the government said.

Witnesses were quoted as saying that three gunmen on Sunday opened fire on customers seated outside a hotel and restaurant, the BBC reported.

The shooting began shortly after 9 p.m. on Ouagadougou's busy Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.

Two locations, Hotel Bravia and the Aziz Istanbul Restaurant, appear to have been at the centre of the shooting, the BBC said.

"The attack claimed 17 victims, their nationalities are yet to be confirmed, and eight injured," the government statement said. A hospital in the city said that one of those killed was Turkish, the report said.

There are fears that the attack is the work of one of the affiliates of Al Qaeda that are active in the Sahel region, the BBC report said.

The city centre has been sealed off by the Army, and the US Embassy here in the West African nation has warned its citizens to avoid the area.

A jihadist attack on a cafe nearby left 30 people dead in January 2016. Back then the Splendid Hotel and the nearby Cappucino restaurant, also on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, were targeted.

Over 170 people were taken hostage and 30 were killed. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for that attack.

Burkina Faso is part of the Sahel region, which includes Mali where Islamist groups have been active since 2012.--IANS

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At least 17 Yemeni civilians were killed and seven others injured in a roadside bomb blast in the country's southern province of al-Dhalea on Monday, a police official told media.

The blast occurred in Qatabah district of al-Dhalea province when civilian vehicles running along a main road touched off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by terrorists, Xinhua reported.

Local medical sources confirmed that the violent explosion resulted in the killing of 17 civilians.

A local government official blamed the al-Qaida militant group for planting the IED in the district of Qatabah in an obvious attempt to blow up military vehicles passing through the area.

"The al-Qaida terrorists apparently planned to target the pro-government forces by IED but they failed and killed innocent civilians," the government source said.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

Yemen's government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.

UN statistics showed that more than 8,000 people have been killed in Yemen's conflict, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in 2015.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera outbreak, where about 5,000 cases are reported every day.

--IANS

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Russian security forces have arrested four people suspected of planning attacks at crowded sites in Moscow, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Monday.

A statement published on the FSB's website said the suspects, with alleged links to the Islamic State terror organisation, intended to carry out a series of terrorist attacks on Moscow's public transport and shopping malls, Efe news reported.

The FSB -- formerly called the KGB -- added that among those arrested in the special operation were an IS "emissary", a bombmaker and two potential suicide bombers.

According to the statement, a secret laboratory for the production of explosives and improvised explosive devices was found in the Moscow suburbs and rendered harmless.

"The terrorist group consisted of a citizen of the Russian Federation and three citizens of the states of the Central Asian region," the statement said.

Preliminary investigations suggested that the planned attacks were being organised by IS leaders based in Syria, added the FSB.

--IANS

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Swine flu has so far claimed five lives in Madhya Pradesh while 143 persons, suspected of having the deadly disease, have been tested in the state, health officials said on Monday.

"Diseases such as swine flu, dengue, malaria, chikungunya, etc. are being analysed everyday. From July 1 to August 13, 143 persons suspected of having the deadly disease have been tested in the state. Of the 140 reports that we have thus received, 28 persons have tested positive for swine flu. As we are yet to receive three reports, five persons have died of swine flu in the state," the Health Department said.

According to the department, the capital's Hamidiya Hospital is well-equipped to deal with the disease with necessary monitors, pulse oximeter and medicines in place. The nurses have been instructed to wear masks, gloves and aprons to maintain hygiene.

Health Minister Rustam Singh appealed to the people to not ignore allergies and visit the nearest hospital.

"Those who are coming to Madhya Pradesh after travelling in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh should be extra careful. Do not disregard cough, cold, sore throat, headaches, fever, difficulty in breathing, etc. and visit the nearest hospital to prevent yourself from catching the H1N1 virus," he said.

--IANS

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A total of 68 militants, along with a huge cache of assorted weapons including AK series assault rifles, surrendered here on Monday before Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh.

The militants surrendered at a specially-organised "Home Coming Ceremony" in the parade ground of 1st Bn Manipur Rifles.

Welcoming the surrendering militants to the national mainstream, Biren Singh said: "Violence cannot solve any problem. Dialogue is the only out."

The Chief Minister assured that full protection would be provided to them.

In the past, some surrendered insurgents had been killed.

He was happy that the insurgents reposed trust in the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state and promised a sea change in governance over the next one year or so.

Biren Singh said that since there were some complaints against the surrender policy, a proposal to amend the policy had been sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

He disclosed that for the first time, one nodal officer had been appointed to look after the needs of former insurgents.

State's DGP L.M. Khaute said: "They (the surrenderers) belong to United National Liberation Front (17), Kangleipak Communist Party (23), Kanglei Yawol Kunna Lup (3), People's Liberation Army (7), People' Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (10) and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangeleipak (Progressive) (8)."

Four of the surrendering militants were women, the DGP said, adding that the huge cache of arms and ammunition brought along by them was being verified.

--IANS

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AIADMK's "sacked" Deputy General Secretary T.T.V.Dinakaran, who leads one of the factions in Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK, on Monday said that the party cannot be controlled by sitting in the secretariat and having support of around 30 legislators.

He also said those who are demanding probe into the death of former Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa should be subject to probe.

Addressing a massive rally at Melur near Madurai, around 500 km from Chennai - to celebrate the centenary anniversary of party founder M.G.Ramachandran, he charged the party's ruling faction of kidnapping legislators who were planning to attend the rally.

"Why do you have to fear legislators attending this rally," he asked.

Sending out a warning signal to the ruling faction of AIADMK led by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, he said the lawmakers alone do not constitute the party but it is the cadres who do so.

He said with a handfull of legislators, they cannot control the party.

He urged the legislators not to act like a boss of party cadres but function like their servants and fulfill the needs of their constituency.

Referring to the demand of probe into the circumstances that led to the death of Jayalalithaa by former Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam who is leading another faction, Dinakaran welcomed it but said they too have to face the probe as they were in power at that time.

According to Dinakaran, if only they had wished, then General Secretary V.K.Sasikala could have nominated him or anybody in the family to be the Chief Minister instead of Palaniswami.

Urging party MPs to meet the central ministers and get the good schemes of the central government to the state, he said that the state government should have a friendly relations with the central government.

He also said the party has to get back the two leaves symbol and fight the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

--IANS

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BJP President Amit Shah on Monday rejected the demand of resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the wake of death of over 60 children in the past week due to lack of oxygen and other medical reasons in Gorakhpur hospital.

The BJP chief also said that after investigation ordered by Adityanath gets complete and the report is submitted, action will be taken against the culprits.

"Seeking resignation is Congress's work. In such a big country, many accidents happen. This has not happened for the first time. Such accidents happened during even Congress governments," Shah told reporters.

He was responding to a query that responsibilities can't be with the doctors and government officials only and should be fixed for politicians also for the deaths of children in Gorakhpur.

Responding to another query, Shah said that the BJP does not fix anyone like Congress does without conducting proper enquiry.

"The matter is being probed and Yogiji has ordered a time bound probe. The report will be made public after it is submitted," he said describing the deaths of children as an accident.

"It was a mistake...it might have happened at any stage," he said.

The BJP chief also justified Yogi's directions for preparations for a "grand Krishna Janmashtami celebration" at a time when the state is mourning the death of over 60 infants.

"Everyone is saddened by the deaths of children but Yogiji has not ordered celebration of Janmashtami in reference to the deaths. Janmashtami has its own place and is being celebrated every where in the country," Shah said adding that the Janmashtami is not a government festival.

"If some one celebrates Janmashtami in his house what can the government do," he said.

Shah branded the Karnataka's ruling Congress government as the most corrupt government of the country and also sought the details of the expenses of the grants given by central government from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

"I have never seen such a corrupt government after independence. It is most corrupt government of the country which has no shame left," he said.

He also accused the state government of targeted killings of its workers in the state and alleged that it was doing appeasement politics which will insecure the state.

Shah claimed that BJP will form next government in the state under the leadership of its leader and former Chief Minister B S Yeddiyurappa.

The BJP leader also refuted the media reports that the government can go for early Lok Sabha polls in 2018.

"There is no such plan. As far as simultaneous election is concerned, the matter is under consideration and a debate is going on in the country. After a consensus between all political parties and Election Commission, it can be considered," Shah said.
The New Zealand government on Monday confirmed that Australia's Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, is a dual citizen, the media reported.

Dual citizens are not allowed to run for public office under Australia's constitution, reports the BBC.

The office of New Zealand Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne confirmed to Australian media that under New Zealand law, a child born to a New Zealand national is automatically given citizenship.

Joyce revealed earlier that he may have New Zealand citizenship by descent, but said he will take his case to the nation's High Court.

He told parliament on Monday he received legal advice that he is not in breach of rules. He will remain as Deputy Prime Minister in the meantime.

"Needless to say, I was shocked about this," he said on Monday.

"Neither I, nor my parents have ever had any reason to believe I may be a citizen of another country."

Joyce is the latest of several Australian politicians to be caught up in dual citizenship scandals, the BBC reported.

Two senators, Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, were forced to resign last month over their citizenship status.

Another two senators, Matt Canavan and Malcolm Roberts, will also have their eligibility decided by the High Court.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote an open letter to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asking for help in resolving the dual citizenship saga.

"With around half of all Australians having a foreign-born parent and with many foreign nations having citizenship laws which confer citizenship by descent, regardless of place of birth, the potential for many, possibly millions of Australians, unknowingly having dual citizenship is considerable," he wrote in the letter.

--IANS

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Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the deaths of over 65 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur over the past few days.

Blaming the deaths on negligence of doctors, the administration and the state BJP government, the former Urban Development Minister said that this was a case of murder and that guilty should be brought to book.

He also extended his condolences and sympathies to the families who lost their children in the tragedy.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and SP President Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to be in Gorakhpur later on Monday where he will visit the BRD Medical College and meet the bereaved families.

--IANS

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China is ready to strengthen all-round strategic and economic cooperation with Pakistan, visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said here on Monday.

Wang, who attended the flag hoisting ceremony at the Convention Centre here on the occasion of Pakistan's 71st Independence Day, said Beijing and Islamabad had stood by each other in difficult times and "this friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations".

"We need to keep the tradition of close high-level exchanges, extend firm mutual support on issues concerning each other's major interests and strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs," Wang was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

He noted that China firmly supports Pakistani efforts to uphold independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to fight against terrorism in light of its own national conditions.

On the economic front, Wang said: "China sees Pakistan as an important partner in the Belt and Road Initiative and the two countries will take forward the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor by launching more early harvest projects to enhance Pakistan's capacity for independent development."

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

Wang said China is also ready to strengthen all-round people-to-people exchanges with Pakistan by expanding cooperation in education, science and technology, culture, health and sports.

The Chinese leader also said that Beijing wants to encourage exchanges between youth, think-tanks, media, universities, non-governmental organisations to promote China-Pakistan friendship.

Wang arrived in Pakistan on Sunday to attend the country's 71st Independence Day.

--IANS

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Pakistan on Monday celebrated its 71st Independence Day, with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang saying the Beijing-Islamabad friendship "is stronger than steel and sweeter than honey".

Wang, who attended the flag hoisting ceremony at Islamabad's Convention Centre, said China and Pakistan had stood by each other in difficult times and "this friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations", Dawn reported.

The ceremony began with a 31-gun salute here, after a flag hoisting event by President Mamnoon Hussain.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and all three chiefs of the country's armed services were present on the occasion that marked the day when Pakistan and India got freedom from British colonial rule.

A 21-gun salute was observed in the provincial capitals and commemorative ceremonies were held in all major cities, the media reported.

Hussain said on the occasion: "Let us join hands for development and prosperity of the motherland by keeping aside our differences. Let us promote love and harmony by overcoming hatred and misgivings."

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday midnight hoisted the largest national flag in the history of Pakistan at the Pakistan-India border at Wagah. The 120x80 feet flag was hoisted on a 400-feet pole.

He said: "We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan."

And in an obvious reference to Afghanistan and India, he said he wanted "to tell our enemies, whether they are in the in east or west," that Pakistani soldiers would never bow to them.

Acknowledging Pakistan's "internal and external challenges", he added: "Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Pakistan Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Monday reaffirmed opposition to the Dalai Lama's "anti-China separatist activities" in any country, even though he has called off a planned trip to Botswana.

The Dalai Lama cancelled the plan in mid-August due to health problems.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing's position was firm, Xinhua news agency reported.

China attaches great importance to relations and friendly cooperation with Botswana, and hopes bilateral ties will maintain positive and healthy development, Hua said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Monday warned of a possible trade war with the US if Washington begins investigating alleged Chinese trade practices in bilateral commerce.

US President Donald Trump had notified his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that the investigations could begin on Monday, Efe news reported.

"China and the US have intertwined interests, trade war has no future, the only result would be a lose-lose (situation)," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference.

She urged the US to continue working with China for stable economic relations and asked it not to use the conflict in North Korea as a means to pressure Beijing in trade matters.

Trump is expected to order US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to start an investigation into possible unfair trade practices by China, such as patent infringement and forced transfer of intellectual property.

Chinese experts cited by the state-run Global Times newspaper on Monday also warned of the dangers of such investigation.

"This may worsen trade friction between the two countries and jeopardise the results of the first comprehensive economic dialogue," said Huo Jianguo, Vice Chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organisation Studies.

"If the US uses Section 301 (of the Trade Act) to pressure China, countries in China's export chain, including the US, Japan and South Korea, would be affected," said Liu Ligang, Chief Economist for China at Citigroup.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A three-member central observer team appointed by AICC President Sonia Gandhi on Monday completed discussions with the Congress leaders here for the party's revival in Odisha where it has been out of power for the last 17 years.

The team -- comprising Congress MPs Gaurav Gogoi and Tamrdhwaj Sahu and former Union Minister Jitendra Singh -- will submit a detailed report on the party affairs of the Odisha unit to AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

"The three observers have met all our party office bearers in the state here. They also met senior leaders, MLAs, former MLAs and MPs, and other leaders, including district presidents. Basing on their opinions, the observers will submit their report to Rahulji," said AICC General Secretary and party's Odisha-in-charge B.K. Hariprasad.

He said the requisite roadmap and future course of action of the party would be charted out following the submission of report.

The state unit of Congress is grappling with intense infighting even as Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Prasad Harichandan continues to face opposition from party legislators.

The MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra are demanding ouster of the incumbent President and rallying behind former PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik.

The Congress was relegated to third position in the panchayat polls following the internal wranglings while the resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took the second position after the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

However, the party leaders hope that the change of guard in the state unit will give a new lease of life to the moribund Congress party.

"The observers met all and gathered reports from them. After their final report is submitted, we all hope that the high command will soon take action, after which Congress activities will gain pace up. All now depends on the high command," said former PCC President Sarat Patnaik.

The central observers met over 600 leaders of the Congress party during their three-day visit to Odisha.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Sri Lanka Navy on Monday said it has arrested four Indian fishermen for poaching in its waters.

A fishing trawler was seized in the island's northern waters, 18 nautical miles north of Point Pedro, Xinhua news agency cited the navy as saying.

"The arrested fishermen as well as the trawler and fishing gear were brought to the naval base in Kankesanthurai," the navy said.

More than 60 Indian fishermen were arrested last week for poaching in Sri Lankan waters. Fifteen bottom trawlers belonging to them were also seized.

Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen often face arrests when they enter each other's territorial waters illegally. India and Sri Lanka are divided by a narrow strip of sea.

--IANS

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Paris, Aug 14 (IANS/MAP) French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday condemned the terror attack in Burkina Faso's capital, saying his country will remain committed to support the fight against terror.

At least 17 people were killed and eight injured on Sunday night in a terrorist attack by armed men on a cafe-restaurant in Ouagadougou.

In a statement released by Elysee Palace, Macron expressed his compassion and solidarity for the victims' families. The Foreign Ministry said a French national was among those killed in the attack by suspected Islamic extremists on the upscale Turkish restaurant.

The Ministry statement gave no details about the French victim but said the country's officials were in contact with the victim's family "to help it in these painful moments".

Macron will hold talks with his Burkina Faso counterpart, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, to assess the situation.

--IANS/MAP

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Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja on Monday termed the loss of lives in a state-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur incident is a murder of innocent lives and the state government should be ashamed of the tragedy.

"It is a massacre that has happened in Gorakhpur which claimed more than 60 lives of children. The RSS-BJP is taking the country backward instead of achieving progress. What kind of freedom are we celebrating if we cannot even provide basic medical facilities at government hospitals?" he asked.

Raja was speaking at an event organised by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) to mark 70 years of India's Independence and highlight the struggles faced by the citizens.

"Our country needs to unite and stand up against RSS-BJPs' fascism. This is the biggest challenge that we are facing today. We need to stop the dictatorial attitude of the party in power; liberate India from the RSS and fight against their ideologies," he said.

--IANS

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After being blackmailed for weeks, US-based television network HBO has now vowed to stop playing games with the cyber bullies, who late on Sunday leaked the yet-to-air episodes of five shows which do not include material related to marquee series Game of Thrones (GoT).

According to a report in New York Post, hackers leaked online the episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"," "Ballers" and "Insecure" as well as some from the yet-to-debut shows "Barry" and "The Deuce".

On the latest dump, the TV network said that they were not in communication with the hackers and were "not going to comment every time a new piece of information is released".

"It has been widely reported that there was a cyber incident at HBO. The hacker may continue to drop bits and pieces of stolen information in an attempt to generate media attention. That's a game we're not going to participate in," the network was quoted as saying.

"Obviously, no company wants their proprietary information stolen and released on the internet," HBO added.

"Transparency with our employees, partners and the creative talent that works with us has been our focus throughout this incident and will remain our focus as we move forward. This incident has not deterred us from ensuring HBO continues to do what we do best," it said.

On Friday, in a bid to contain further leaks from a group of hackers, HBO reportedly offered to pay $250,000 to those who stole nearly 1.5TB data, including scripts of 'Game of Thrones' (GoT) and other employee information, from the TV network.

A purported leaked e-mail sent to various media publications by the hackers appeared to come from an HBO executive, offering the 'bug bounty' of $250,000 for showing up weaknesses in the firm's system, Forbes reported late on Friday.

"You have the advantage of having surprised us. In the spirit of professional cooperation, we are asking you to extend your deadline for one week. As a show of good faith on our side, we are willing to commit to making a bug bounty payment of $250,000 to you as soon as we can establish the necessary account and acquire Bitcoin, or we can wire the funds as soon as you give us the account information," the e-mail read.

The e-mail, dated July 27, containing the 'bug bounty' offer was leaked by the hacker who goes by the name 'Little Finger' in a message promising a "second wave".

According to the report, the HBO executive wrote that the company had not been able to acquire the amount of Bitcoin, which is nearly $6 million that the hackers had demanded.

However, HBO was yet to confirm the veracity of the e-mail.

"This episode of the HBO hack is turning out to be a 'Game of Thorns' for HBO. As far back as July 27, HBO got into a negotiation with the hackers, it appears," said Ankush Johar, Director, BugsBounty.com, in a statement.

"There is a possibility that HBO's pre-emptive bug bounty programme may have yielded a better security posture for them, avoiding this situation altogether," he added.

Last, hackers leaked the script of Episode 5 of 'Game of Thrones' Season 7 that was set to be aired on August 13, along with a note demanding ransom from the US-based television network.

The hacked material also contains "countless" HBO internal documents, including a month's worth of a top executive's e-mails, financial balance sheets, employment agreements and marketing-strategy PDFs.
Amid intelligence alerts about possible terror attacks, security was beefed up in the national capital and around 47,000 personnel were deployed ahead of Independence Day celebrations, officials said on Monday.

Around 25,000 security personnel will be deployed in and around New Delhi, north Delhi and major central Delhi areas, a police official said.

The Red Fort and its surrounding areas within a five-km radius will be taken care of by about 90 companies of security forces (over 9,000 men).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 71st Independence Day on Tuesday.

Officials said anti-aircraft and anti-drone guns have been deployed in and around Red Fort. An additional 500 closed-circuit television and high-resolution cameras have been placed in and around Red Fort.

"Anti-social elements or terrorists could pose a threat to the safety of people and vital installations by using unconventional aerial platforms. All neighbouring states have also been alerted and security beefed up on Delhi borders," an official said.

Besides Delhi Police, personnel of paramilitary forces and National Security Guard will be on duty.

The official said that after the killing of several top-rung militants in Jammu and Kashmir, there are reports that outfits in that state could be looking at carrying out terror attacks.

Delhi Police Spokesperson Madhur Verma told IANS: "Security personnel will look out for flying objects like para-motors, hang-gliders, unmanned aerial vehicles, microlight aircraft, and remotely-piloted and small-powered aircraft."

Flying of aerial vehicles like quadcopters, paragliders, and hot-air balloons has been banned in Delhi in the run-up to the Indpendence Day.

Police officials said Metro rail services on the Blue Line will be run as usual. However, boarding and de-boarding at the Red Fort and Jama Masjid stations on the Violet Line will not be allowed after 6.30 a.m. till the Independence Day function at Red Fort ends.

Officials said security personnel in plain-clothes will be deployed in several areas. NSG snipers too have been deployed on rooftops and strategically important points.

Police have carried out security checks at hotels and guesthouses, specially in areas around Red Fort.

Roads leading to Red Fort -- Netaji Subhash Marg, S.P. Mukherjee Marg, Chandni Chowk Road, Nishad Raj Marg and Link Road -- will be out of bounds for traffic for four hours from 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Garima Bhatnagar told IANS that people can use the Delhi Metro and alight at Delhi Gate, Chandni Chowk, or Kashmere Gate stations to reach Red Fort.

She appealed to the public not to touch any suspicious object and report any unidentified/suspicious object or individual or vehicle to the nearest security personnel.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, protesting white supremacists violence in Virginia the day before.

Holding black placards with slogans like "White Silence White Consent", the demonstrators gathered outside city hall to condemn racism and violent incidents occurred in Charlottesville on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

The violent incidents that occurred in Charlottesville claimed the lives of three people while around twenty were injured.

The rally was launched by Refuse Fascism Organisation, a New York-based activist group who has dozens of offices all around the country.

Michael, a young African-American girl of the organisation, delivered a speech on stairs to the front door of city hall, calling on people to take action fighting against KKK and fascism in the US.

"We are standing against fascism, we are standing with people all of the world, we should give our hands to ourselves," Michael said.

"I am here today to stand solidarity with peace movement and everyone who opposes racism, white supremacy and all the thing that is not neither KKK or our president stand for," Jeff Share, a middle age demonstrator aid.

A rally staged by white nationalists in Charlottesville turned violent on Saturday.

After hours brawls between the pro-rally far-right figures and anti-racism protesters, a sport car ploughed into crowd against the rally, killing a 32-year-old local woman and injuring 19.

On Saturday night, hundreds of people chanting against white supremacists gathered in front of Los Angeles Police Department and blocked traffic in downtown LA for about half an hour.
State-owned IDBI Bank on Monday reported its standalone net loss at Rs 853 crore for the first quarter (Q1) of 2017-18 ending June 30 from a net profit of Rs 241.1 crore reported during Q1 last fiscal.

The state-run bank's total income for Q1 fell by 18.11 per cent to Rs 6,730.88 crore compared to Rs 8,219.43 crore reported during the corresponding period of 2016-17.

The provisioning for non-performing assets (NPAs) increased substantially by 39 per cent from Rs 768.34 crore for Q1 June 2016-17 to Rs 1,069 crore for June 2017-18.

The bank'g gross NPAs rose by a whopping 83.95 per cent to Rs 50,173.20 crore at the end of June 2017.

"The Bank is implementing a comprehensive turnaround plan in respect of asset quality, cost reduction, improving income and proper mix of retail and corporate," the lender said in a statement.

The Board meeting of the bank in a meeting held on Monday approved a preferential issue of Rs 1,861 crore capital to the government.

The scrip of IDBI Bank plunged by 0.57 per cent to close at Rs 52.30 per share on the BSE.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five countries including South Korea, Congo, Bahrain and Liechtenstein will mark August 15 as Independence Day along with India.

India and Korea together celebrated the spirit of freedom in a cultural programme titled 'Jashn-E-Azadi' here over the weekend.

Sadhya, a unit of Performing Arts, directed and choreographed by Santosh Nair narrated the journey of India's Independence from the period of golden age, to the British rule, to the liberating independence through the medium of dance and music.

The performers from South Korea, as well as local artists, showcased a glimpse of Korea's culture through music, dance and martial arts at the event.

South Korean Ambassador Lee Hac Kwang expressed his happiness about the occasion saying, "I am so happy that we can celebrate Independence Day with India."

He said that Korean freedom fighters were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi during Korea's struggles for freedom. "Through this kind of cooperative celebration we are looking to strengthen the relationship between India and Korea and pave the way for an everlasting friendship for the coming generation," he said.

Congress Leader Shiela Dixit, Actor Vinay Pathak, Korean Ambassador Lee Hac Kwang marked their presence at the fifth edition of the event was organised by Nehru Bal Sangh.

"The aim of Jashn-E-Azadi to invoke and instil a sense of pride and make the youth understand the factual meaning of independence, realize its importance and engage in the celebrations withmuch more enthusiasm, fervor, energy and pride, and not consider the festival as a mere holiday or vacation," said Nehru Bal Sangh President Ashok Sahota.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Calling for creating a New India by 2022, President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said the country must be compassionate and egalitarian society that does not discriminate on gender or religious background.

In his first address to the nation, on the eve of 71st Independence Day, he hailed the government's demonetisation decision and the people's "wholehearted" support in the battle against corruption and black money, voluntarily giving up LPG fuel subsidy and the roll out of Goods and Services Tax.

He referred to Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose and various other freedom fighters and also invoked Jana Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay, saying New India must include "that integral humanist component that is in our DNA and which has defined our country and our civilisation".

"New India must be a society rushing towards the future, but also a compassionate society," he said.

The second Dalit President said India must be a compassionate society where the traditionally disadvantaged, whether SCs, STs or OBCs are part of the country's national development process.

Recalling the role of freedom fighters, Kovind said people need to draw inspiration from them and imbibe their spirit and invoke it in the task of nation building.

"The stress on the moral basis of policy and action, belief in unity and discipline, faith in a synthesis of heritage and science, and promotion of the rule of law and of education - all of it was located in a partnership between citizen and government," he said.

Asking people to work with unity and purpose to ensure that benefits of government policy reach all sections of society, the President said for this the partnership between citizens and government remains essential.

He said it is for each individual to ensure a Swachh Bharat and make India open defecation free.

He said it is also for each individual to ensure that daughters are not discriminated against and get the best education while promoting idea of "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao."

"The government can frame laws and strengthen law enforcement - but it is for each of us to be a law-abiding citizen. And to build a law-abiding society. The government is pushing transparency and eliminating corruption in public recruitment and procurement - but it is for each of us to answer to our inner conscience in everyday life."

Favouring making GST an essential part of everyday business culture, the President said he was happy that the transition to GST system has been smooth.

"It should be a matter of pride for all of us that the taxes we pay are used for nation building - to help the poor and the marginalised, to build rural and urban infrastructure, and to strengthen our border defences," he said.

Talking of a strong partnership between citizens and the government that will allow the country to meet the goals of New India, Kovind said: "Your immense patience and understanding in the days following demonetisation - and your whole-hearted support in the battle against corruption and black money - reflected a responsible and enlightened society. Demonetisation has boosted our efforts to build an honest society. We must sustain this spirit and this momentum."

He said there is need to adopt technology to empower people and achieve the goal of poverty elimination in a single generation.

"Poverty and New India are simply not compatible."

The President said while it is natural for people to think of their families, they must also think of their societies.

"We must heed the call for that extra degree of selflessness, that extra something beyond just duty," he said, asking why each citizen cannot imbibe the spirit of selflessness displayed by soldiers on the borders, police and para-military forces that combat terrorism and farmers who toil for food security.

Referring to those who had given up LPG fuel subsidy for the sake of poor families, the President said: "I salute those families that gave up their subsidy. No law or government order made them do what they did. Their response came from within.

"We should draw inspiration from these families. Each of us must find a way to give back to society. Each of us must choose one thing we can do to help another, less-fortunate Indian."

Kovind said the single most critical factor for nation building is to equip the coming generations.

"We need to ensure that not one child is left behind. As such I would urge you, as fellow nation builders, to help educate less-privileged children in our society. Help teach a child other than your own. Enrol and pay the school fees or buy the books of at least one child other than your own. Just one!

"Our India is at the door of great achievements. In a few years, we will become a fully literate society. We must set the bar higher, and aim to become a fully educated society," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday discussed with Turkmenistan Deputy Prime Minister Rashid Meredov the possibility of India joining the Ashgabat Agreement that envisages better connectivity between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

The two leaders also discussed ways to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation between the two countries, officials here said.

The Ashgabat transport agreement between Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan seeks to create an international transport and transit corridor to facilitate transport of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Meredov, who is also the Foreign Minister of the Central Asian country, is on a three-day visit to India on invitation of his External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Navy's War College at Goa on Monday lauched the second international programme for naval officers from friendly foreign countries, an official statement said.

The participants of the eight week programme include officers from Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Naval War College, Goa is one of the three War Colleges of the Indian Armed Forces.

The programme, inaugurated by Goa University Vice Chancellor Varun Sahni, will see the participants deal with international relations theory, geopolitics, concepts of maritime security and strategy, International Maritime Law and management of ocean resources amongst others.

Stressing the importance of maritime security in nation-building, Sahni said that in a dynamically changing geo-political scenario, there is a need for navies in the Indian Ocean Region to forge stronger ties and collaborate in developing an efficient security architecture in the maritime domain.

The statement said that during the course, participants will be exposed to subject matter experts and eminent speakers and familiarisation visits to the Indian Navy's operational and training commands.

The participants are also put through simulation exercises on regional security scenarios including Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Monday suspended 21 members, including former Minister Ramai Ram, for "anti-party activities" after they backed Sharad Yadav, who has opposed the party's tie-up with the BJP.

At the same time, the party denied there is any split in its ranks.

Among the leaders suspended for six years are Arjun Rai, a former MP from Sitamarhi, former MLA Raj Kishore Sinha, and former member of Legislative Council Vijay Verma. Two district Presidents and five block-level chiefs are also in the list.

Bihar JD-U President Vashistha Narayan Singh said the 21 had been stripped of their primary membership.

In New Delhi, party Secretary General K.C. Tyagi said there was no split in the JD-U as most MPs, party office-bearers, state unit Presidents and MLAs were with Bihar Chief Minister and party President Nitish Kumar.

He said only "one or two people have voluntarily left the party" or are about to leave it and it cannot be called a split.

"Out of 11 MPs, nine are with Nitish Kumar... seven of the nine Rajya Sabha MPs are with him. Ali Anwar Ansari is the only MP with Sharad Yadav, but his term is ending in March next year," Tyagi said.

He added that only five state party committees -- Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, and Dadara and Nagar Haveli -- were recognised by the Election Commission and they were with Nitish Kumar.

"Except for Arun Shrivastava and Varghese George, all party General Secretaries, a total of eight, are with Nitish Kumar. Among the Secretaries, only Virender Singh Bidhuri has gone with Sharad Yadav. The other five are with us," Tyagi said.

Dismissing claims that most party units were siding with Sharad Yadav, Tyagi said only Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat have gone with the former Union Minister.

Those units which pledged support to Nitish Kumar include Bihar, Jharkhand, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Manipur, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Chandigarh and Goa, he said.

"We have videotapes and letters from them in our favour. We can produce the same before you (media)," Tyagi said.

The JD-U on Saturday removed Sharad Yadav, who opposed the party's decision to ally with the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar, as its leader in the Rajya Sabha and replaced him with R.C.P. Singh, a trusted lieutenant of Nitish Kumar.

According to JD-U leaders, Monday's suspensions came as these leaders had accompanied Sharad Yadav during his three-day visit to Saran, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, and Darbhanga districts to meet party supporters and understand their mood over Nitish Kumar's decision.

"In Bihar, we have 71 MLAs. Not a single MLA or Minister went to meet Yadav while he was touring Bihar. No district President welcomed him across 13 districts. So where is the split," he said.

Tyagi insisted that Yadav had "voluntarily given up" the JD-U and that it would be "very difficult" for party leadership to take action against him, like it had done in case of 21 rebels or Ali Anwar Ansari.

Meanwhile, reacting to JD-U's action against those supporting him, Sharad Yadav said the action came after he visited Bihar "just once" after red flagging Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with the Grand Alliance.

Yadav said the JD-U faction led by Nitish Kumar would "lose count of partymen they will have to suspend if he tours the whole of Bihar".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reality TV personality Kourtney Kardashian is reportedly planning to go back to school to study law.

The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" thinks she finally has the time to study law, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"Kourtney probably doesn't have to work for the rest of her life, but that's not how she rolls. She already has a degree in Theatre Arts and Spanish but she's always wanted to go back to school and thinks now is the perfect time," source told heat magazine.

"She nearly signed up last year, but things were falling apart with Scott, so she put it off but really regrets it. She is in a better place to get her head in the books now," the source added.

The 38-year-old has opted to study law in honour of her father, late lawyer Robert Kardashian.

"Kourt is proud of her dad and knows he always wanted her to be a lawyer. She's already looking into doing an online course, so she can still be around the kids," said the insider.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Nithiin is buoyed by the success of Telugu action-thriller "Lie" and says the film wouldn't have been possible if Tamil star Arjun hadn't agreed to play the antagonist.

Although Arjun had starred in a few Telugu films, this was the first time he played the baddie.

Talking about the overall positive response for "Lie", Nithiin told IANS: "'Lie' has been a great journey. After the success of aAaAa', I could have chosen an easy film. But I wanted to do something new and that's why I took the tough route."

Directed by Hanu Raghavapudi, the film features Arjun in a pivotal role.

"I thank him (Arjun) for accepting the villain's role. If not for him, 'Lie' wouldn't have been possible," he said.

The film released worldwide on August 11, and Nithiin admits the shaky start worried him.

"On the first day, the film opened to mixed talk in India. Hanu and I were dejected. We were not sure what went wrong and we felt our hard work for the last one year went down the drain," he said.

From Saturday, "Lie" gradually picked up steam.

"On Saturday, about 65 to 70 percent of common audiences, who watched the film, liked it. On Sunday, more than 85 percent of audiences liked it. Their response reflected in the numbers," Nithiin added.

Produced by Anil Sunkara, the film also stars Megha Akash.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday launched a live Twitter wall for promoting 'Bharat Ke Veer portal' here on the eve of the 71st Independence Day.

On this occasion, Ministers of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Kiren Rijiju contributed their one month salary for the portal.

Launched by Rajnath Singh and actor Akshay Kumar on April 9, the portal aims to facilitate online donation directly to the families of paramilitary troopers who have sacrificed their lives for the country in line of duty from January 1, 2016.

The Home Minister said that the security forces have made supreme sacrifices in the line of duty and the people need to stand by their families and support them.

This social awareness campaign will display all tweets with hashtag Bharat Ke Veer (#BharatKeVeer) at central Delhi's Connaught Place and south Delhi's CGO complex and Khan Market areas where huge LED display screens have been installed, a Home Ministry statement said.

It also said that an emoji -- ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages -- has also been created for this hashtag.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Officer on Special Duty Rajiv Gauba and senior Home Ministry officers were also present on the occasion.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Superstar Mahesh Babu's yet-untitled Telugu film, to be directed by Vamshi Paidipally, was launched here on Monday.

The project, Mahesh's 25th film, will mark his first time collaboration with director Vamshi.

The film is being jointly bankrolled by Dil Raju and Aswini Dutt.

Talking to IANS earlier this year, Paidipally had said: "Mahesh is very excited about the film. When he heard the first narration, he was ready to go ahead. It's going to be a big film in both of our careers."

On collaborating with Mahesh, he said he is really looking forward to the experience.

"Mahesh as an actor is ready to embrace everything. As a director, I really can't ask for more and that's what makes this film really exciting," he said.

Paidipally earned critical acclaim for his last film, "Oopiri", a slice-of-life drama which explores the relationship between a quadriplegic millionaire and his convict-turned-caretaker.

Asked if we can expect another slice-of-life flick with Mahesh Babu, he said: "It's too early to talk about the film."

Devi Sri Prasad has been roped in compose music, while PS Vinod will crank the camera.

Pooja Hegde is rumoured to be the leading lady.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A criminal involved in the killing of former Delhi MLA Bharat Singh and who carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head was arrested here on Monday, police said. Arms and ammunition were recovered from him.

Hemant alias Pradhan was arrested along with his accomplice Narender alias Mintu during checking of vehicles at night near Daultabad on Dwarka Expressway, Gurugram's Commissioner of Police Sandeep Khirwar told the media.

"Police signalled a car to stop around 4 a.m. but the driver accelerated. On being chased by our team, their car collided with a divider," Khirwar said.

"The criminal opened fire at the police vehicle but finally they were nabbed by the police. Fifteen pistols and revolvers were recovered from Hemant and Narender," Khirwar added.

Hemant hails from Dichaun village in Delhi's Najafgarh area while Narender hails from Delhi's Bijwasan area.

"Hemant was involved in the assassination of INLD's former MLA from Najafgarh, Bharat Singh, in March 2015. He also gunned down Vipin, an eyewitness in the case," Khirwar added.

Narender was also involved in Vipin's murder. He also kidnapped a businessman from Sector 23 in Delhi's Dwarka area.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A criminal involved in the killing of former Delhi MLA Bharat Singh and who carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head was arrested here on Monday along with his accomplice, police said. A local court sent them to two days police custody.

Hemant alias Pradhan, 23, was arrested along with his accomplice Narender alias Mintu, 28, during checking of vehicles at night near Daultabad on Dwarka Expressway, Gurugram Commissioner of Police Sandeep Khirwar told the media.

"Police signalled a car to stop around 4 a.m. but the driver accelerated. On being chased by our team, their car collided with a divider," Khirwar said."The criminal opened fire at the police vehicle but finally they were nabbed by the police. Fifteen pistols and revolvers were recovered from Hemant and Narender," he added.

Hemant and Narender were produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate (1st class) Ashish Arya with police seeking three day police custody for both. But the court only gave two days.

Hemant hails from Dichaun village in Delhi's Najafgarh area while Narender hails from Delhi's Bijwasan area. "Hemant was involved in the assassination of INLD's former MLA from Najafgarh, Bharat Singh, in March 2015. He also gunned down Vipin, an eyewitness in the case," Khirwar said.

Narender was also involved in Vipin's murder. He also kidnapped a businessman from Sector 23 in Delhi's Dwarka area.

A looted Maruti Breezza car was also recovered from their possession.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Iranian-Swedish actress and model Maryam Zakaria, who performed to the Bollywood track "Dil mera muft ka" alongside actress Kareena Kapoor Khan in 2012, is excited about her special dance song in comedian and actor Kapil Sharma's second film "Firangi".

"It feels great to be part of 'Firangi' movie. I have done a special dance song in 'Firangi' movie with my favourite Kapil Sharma. This song is very special for me as after my 'Grand Masti' movie, I am back on the screen with a very big song," she told IANS.

"I worked very hard to be back in shape and I am happy to come back to Bollywood with such an amazing song. Thanks to Kapil Sharma and the director Rajiv Dhingra who felt that I was the right one for this song," she added.

The song has been choreographed by Chinni Prakash.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Key North Korean ambassadors stationed overseas are currently in Pyongyang for a joint meeting in which the country's verbal escalation with the US is expected to be discussed, officials said here on Monday.

"North Korea seems to be hosting what appears to be a meeting of foreign diplomatic missions' chiefs after calling its ambassadors to major countries back to Pyongyang," a government official told Yonhap News Agency.

However, the exact number of diplomats who have travelled to Pyongyang to attend the joint meeting is not known.

The Ministry of Unification's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a press briefing that the meeting may be part of North Korea's regular gathering of ambassadors.

"North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors' meeting in July 2015 and (the latest meeting) seems to be in line with that," the spokesman said.

Still, the top envoys' meeting may deal with the difficult international circumstance the country is currently handling after its two recent tests of what it called intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach mainland US.

The meeting may also be linked with the country's purported preparations for further military provocations, possibly a nuclear test or more missile launches, as the country has warned of more action.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday passed an order allowing the Aircel-Reliance Communications merger and also the Brookfield Towers sale to proceed.

According to sources, the tribunal overruled objections of Bharti Infratel, GTL and Ericsson.

The NCLT also allowed Reliance Communications (RCOM) tower arm 51 per cent stake sale to Brookfield for Rs 11,000 crore.

RCOM and Aircel had signed a definitive document for a proposed merger scheme of their respective wireless businesses on September 14, 2016. Subsequently, the two telecom operators moved all the relevant statutory and regulatory bodies for approval of the merger scheme. The Competition Commission of India gave its approval to the merger scheme in February 2017.

The two transactions will bring down RCOM debt by Rs 25,000 crore, or 60 per cent.

Sources said the merger scheme before the NCLT-Mumbai Bench will see the final order being passed on September 13, 2017.

RCOM's shares were trading at Rs 23.85 per share, up 14.94 per cent in the BSE at 2.30 pm.
Actor, writer, and director Joseph Bologna, who was also nominated at the Academy Awards for the screenplay adaptation of "Lovers and Others Strangers", is dead. He was 82.

Bologna died Sunday morning at City of Hope hospital in Duarte, California. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three years ago, said his wife of 52 years, actress and screenwriter Renee Taylor, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

He played TV star King Kaiser in the backstage comedy inspired by Mel Brooks' experiences as a young TV writer on Sid Caesar's legendary "Your Show of Shows."

Bologna and Taylor co-wrote and starred in the Broadway show "Lovers and Others Strangers" in 1968. The pair then earned Oscar nominations for their screenplay adaptation for the 1970 film starring Gig Young and Bea Arthur.

The pair also won a Writers Guild Award for their 1971 movie "Made For Each Other" in which they also starred.

He directed numerous commercials before turning his focus to the stage with Taylor.

Bologna's other film credits include "Woman of the Year", "Blame It on Rio" and "The Woman in Red", "Transylvania 6-5000", and "It Had to Be You".

More recently, he lent his voice to 2006's "Ice Age: The Meltdown".

The family has said that funeral services are being arranged at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain met visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang here on Monday and held discussions on consolidating the friendly ties between the two countries.

Hussain extended gratitude to China for sending a delegation to attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of the independence of Pakistan.

Pakistan and China are "iron friends", he said, noting that Pakistan's friendship with China forms the foundation of Pakistan's foreign policy.

Hussain said Pakistan will continue to firmly support China on issues concerning China's core interests, and enhance cooperation with China on international and regional affairs.

The Pakistani President also pledged that Pakistan will actively join the Belt and Road Initiative and promote the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Wang, for his part, said the relationship between China and Pakistan has maintained sound and stable development and become a model of country-to-country relations since they forged diplomatic ties 66 years ago.

China is ready to make joint efforts with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, continue to deepen strategic mutual trust, and understand and support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, Wang said.

The Chinese Vice Premier also mentioned boosting cooperation with Pakistan on counter-terrorism, security, and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

He said the two sides should further enrich the connotation of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and pass the friendship from generation to generation.

On Sunday, Wang met Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on deepening pragmatic cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

--IANS

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Likening Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to the mythical demon king Ravana, former state RSS chief Subhash Velingkar on Monday said Goa was de-nationalised far more under the Parrikar-led BJP regime over five years than during 451 years of Portuguese colonial regime.

In a video address uploaded on social media on Monday, Velingkar made an appeal to the voters of Panaji by-poll to back the candidature of Anand Shirodkar of the Goa Suraksha Manch, a party which is mentored by the former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) state Sanghachalak.

"We know the Ram versus Ravana war was tough, one-of-a-kind battle. Ravana was blessed with all and Ram fought the battle with valour, without even wearing footwear. This is one of a kind of war," Velingkar said while describing the electoral contest in Panaji, where Parrikar, a five-time sitting MLA, former Defence Minister and four-time Chief Minster, is taking on a Shirodkar, who runs a local business.

Girish Chodankar is the Congress candidate for the by-poll.

"From 2012, with his faulty, disruptive Parrikar managed to de-nationalise Goa and Goans to a greater degree than the Portuguese could manage over 450 years of colonial rule," Velingkar said.

"No one has personal enmity against Manohar Parrikar, but his has disrupted Goa's social and cultural life. This kind of has to be destroyed," Velingkar added.

The by-poll was necessitated after the former Defence Minister's hurried return to state politics in March to form a coalition government, following the state assembly polls.

Velingkar said Parrikar was one of the "rising stars of hope" within the Sangh, but once he came to power, his "selfish, personality-oriented politics" turned counter-productive to the BJP and the state.

"He disrupted the collective style of working and he killed the party to ensure that a system, where only one person decides, evolves. He did not allow alternative leadership to flourish and whenever such leadership emerged, he ensured that it was stunted," Velingkar said.

"Goans had a lot of hope and expectations from him (Parrikar) to defeat and purify the perverted politics of the Congress...but Parrikar only furthered politics of perversion," Velingkar said, adding that there was an "atmosphere of terror" in the by-poll-bound state capital.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bengal Warriors will take on Puneri Paltans while Gujarat Fortunegiants will take on Bengaluru Bulls in the inter zone Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) matches at the Transstadia Arena here on Tuesday.

Both Bengal and Pune start on an even note with 11 points, having clinched two wins out of their three matches.

Bengal are fifth in the Zone B standings while Pune are at the second spot in Zone A.

Bengal will rely heavily on their South Korean heavy weight Jang Kun Lee to trouble the opposition. The Korean raider has accumulated 23 points in his previous matches with help of his height, leg movement and pace inside the opposition half.

Alongside the foreign raider, Maninder Singh who have score 17 points from his raids and two points from tackles will be another key player in the defender Surjeet Singh-led side.

For Pune, captain Deepak Hooda having scored 13 points from his raids in the previous matches will look to improvise on his performance against Bengal as the only hopeful raider for the side until now.

Left and right corner defender Dharmaraj Cheralathan who has managed seven tackle points until the last match will be the key man for the side in defence.

In the other match, Gujarat, who have cemented their place on the top stop of Zone A with 23 points thanks to a three-match winning streak, will look to continue their dominance over Bengaluru who are on the first place of Zone B with 20 points.

The home side have won four out of their six matches where as the Bengaluru outfit has managed only three wins out of their seven matches.

For Gujarat, in-form raiders Sachin, Rohit Gulia along with Iranian defenders Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mighani will look to combine well once again. Gujarat skipper Sukesh Hegde will also look to play a cameo role for his side helping them add to the points tally.

Skipper Rohit Kumar will be the lone hope for Bengaluru and will aim to continue his excellent raiding form. Kumar has single handedly managed to pick 58 raid points and seven tackle points in his previous matches and will look to produce more of the same against Gujarat.

-- IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to the nation during his Independence Day address for "deliberate criminal negligence" on part of the government that led to the death of over 60 children in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur.

Terming the government "insensitive", the party also hit out at BJP President Amit Shah for his remarks that "such incidents do happen", saying it was a "matter of shame and sadness".

The party also demanded that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh must resign and an FIR be lodged on the charges of "deliberate criminal negligence".

"The deaths that took place in Gorakhpur is only because negligence of the government. PM Narendra Modi reacts to every incidents outside the country on Twitter, but has no time to react on this incident. This is very unfortunate.

"We would expect the prime minister to apologise to the nation on Tuesday when he'll be addressing the nation on Independence Day for the negligence on part of the government that in the Gorakhpur incident," said Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken.

Slamming Amit Shah, Maken said: "When deaths have taken place due to criminal negligence, BJP president Amit shah says 'such incidents do happen'. If the BJP president makes such remarks, then is is a matter of shame and sadness. How can we expect the government to be sensitive towards children."

Maken also said: "In September 2016, Rahul Gandhiji had raised the encephalitis issue, which fell on deaf ears as usual because of sheer arrogance.

"If they don't take seriously the warning of a senior leader of the principal opposition party, then how can you expect the government to sensitive. Despite repeated warnings, they did not act."

Maken noted that the oxygen supplier had written two letters to the Chief Minister - on August 9 and on April 6 - about the delay in payment.

"This year in May the medical college had sought Rs 37 crore from the state government. Later, the state government had asked the central government for the funds. But it has not responded. About 16 reminders were given to the hospital about the payment as well," said Maken.

Maken also said: "Neither the post-mortem has been done, nor the list of names of children who died have been provided by the state government. If they are not doing post-mortem, it means they are trying to protect the culprits.

"We demand an FIR should be lodged on the charges of deliberate criminal negligence and the culprit should be punished. The CM and Health Minister must resign."

"When they are saying that there is not negligence on part of the administration and that such deaths occur every year, we can't expect an impartial probe from these people," Maken added.

--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 Monday spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and assured them all support to deal with floods in their states.

Modi, in a series of tweets, said that the central government has been closely monitoring the situation in Assam and all possible support is being provided.

He said the Centre has assured all support to the Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation which is being monitored closely.

National Disaster Response Force teams are in Bihar for rescue and relief work, he said.

The flood situation in Bihar worsened on Monday, with many rivers breaching their banks and embankments and affecting nearly two million people.

In Assam, over 11 lakh people have been affected by floods.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Qatar has launched a new direct route between the country's Hamad Port and Pakistan's port of Karachi, state news agency QNA reported on Monday.

The new route was launched on Sunday and it will boost trade between the two countries. It will also offer "fast and secure" corridor for importers and exporters, with transit time of six days from Qatar to Karachi and eight days back, Xinhua news agency cited the QNA report as saying.

"The new shipping line provides more options for customers, exporters and importers from both countries, covering new important ports from around the world, which will play an important role in supporting trade between Qatar and its partners of the world," said Captain Abdul Aziz al Yafei, Director of Hamad Port.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt imposed land, air and sea blockade on Qatar since June 5, accusing it of financing extremist groups and allying with the Gulf Arab state's arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies the allegations.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday met visiting top US General Joseph Dunford to discuss the North Korea issue.

Moon met at the Blue House for about 50 minutes with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff who arrived here late on Sunday, Xinhua news agency quoted Presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun as saying.

Dunford met South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo before visiting the presidential office.

Moon said during the meeting that the security situation on the Korean peninsula got graver than ever due to the advanced nuclear and missile capability of North Korea that became a serious and real threat.

North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile twice in July, lofting the Hwasong-14 as high as over 3,700 km and flying it as far as about 1,000 km in the latest test-launch.

Moon said Pyongyang should stop provocation and rapidly come to the dialogue table to defuse tensions on the peninsula, and shared the view that any more North Korean provocation should be strongly addressed based on the firm South Korea-US alliance.

Dunford agreed that the recent series of missile provocation by North Korea led to grave security situations on the peninsula, saying no change was made in the US commitment to the defence of South Korea.

He said the US forces' priority was to support its government's diplomatic and economic pressure efforts for the denuclearised peninsula, noting that military options were being prepared for the failed efforts.

The top General said the US response and measures would be taken in close cooperation with South Korea, adding that everybody wanted this situation resolved without a war.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rebel Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav on Monday reacted sharply to the suspension of 21 members from Bihar, saying they were "loyal party workers".

He said the suspension of the 21 came after he visited Bihar just once after raising the red flag over Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with the Grand Alliance and tie up with the BJP.

Sharad Yadav told IANS here that the JD-U faction led by Nitish Kumar would "lose the count of partymen they will have to suspend if he tours entire Bihar".

The suspended partymen included former minister Ramai Ram, former MP Arjun Rai, former MLA Raj Kishore Sinha, former MLC Vijay Verma, two district presidents and five block level chiefs.

They were suspended for six years on charges of anti-party activities after they backed Sharad Yadav and accompanied during his three-day visit to Saran, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani and Darbhanga districts.

Sharad Yadav conducted the tour to meet party supporters and understand their mood over Nitish Kumar's decision.

He said he had not spoken against Nitish Kumar even once despite the Chief Minister's camp "ranting non-stop against me".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra, who is busy promoting his forthcoming film "A Gentleman", will be in Ahmedabad on Tuesday to be a spectator at a match of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

He is going to be a part of the inaugural procession by singing the national anthem along with the players.

Talking about it, Sidharth said in a statement: "It is an immensely proud moment to be a part of the ceremony on Independence Day. Kabaddi is one sport which is gaining a lot of popularity amongst people and being able to watch them play live will be a thrilling experience."

"I feel proud that the Indian sport is making its mark in the country and worldwide. I am looking forward to my visit to the heritage city of Gujarat."

-*-

Tom Cruise is unstoppable: Anil Kapoor

Actor Anil Kapoor has praised Hollywood star Tom Cruise, saying he is unstoppable.

Cruise on Sunday was injured during a building-jumping stunt on the set of "Mission Impossible 6". The actor was in London on Sunday when he attempted to leap from a rigging onto a building but he fell short of the mark and hit the building pretty hard.

Anil, who has worked with the Hollywood star in the 2011 film "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol", took to Twitter on Monday to laud Cruise's will power.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Tom Cruise bounced right back up, dusted his jacket and shot for another eight hours! This man is unstoppable," Anil tweeted.

On the acting front, Anil was last seen on the silver screen in the Anees Bazmi family comedy "Mubarakan". The film also stars his nephew Arjun Kapoor, Ileana D'Cruz and Athiya Shetty.

-*-

Neil wraps up 'Golmaal Again' shoot

Actor Neil Nitin Mukesh has wrapped up the shooting for his upcoming film action-comedy "Golmaal Again", directed by Rohit Shetty.

"Back to this gorgeous city, Mumbai. Wrapped up my part of the shoot in 'Golmaal Again'," Neil tweeted on Monday.

"Golmaal Again", the fourth instalment of the "Golmaal" franchise directed by Rohit Shetty, also stars Tabu, Parineeti Chopra, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kunal Kemmu and Tusshar Kapoor.

The previous three instalments featured Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rimi Sen and Sharman Joshi among many others. The comedy film is set for a Diwali release.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Veteran actor Anupam Kher has praised actor Sunny Deol and says that he is a genuine person in Bollywood.

Anupam on Sunday took to Twitter and shared a photograph of himself with Sunny from the airport, here.

"So happy to meet one of my favourite and genuine persons in the film industry, the soft hearted and strong willed Sunny Deol," Anupam captioned the image.

Sunny and Anupam have worked in many films like "ChaalBaaz", "Salaakhen", "Samundar", "Darr", "Arjun" and "Izzat Ki Roti" among many others.

On the work front, Anupam, who is currently seen on the silver screen in "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha", will next be seen in "The Accidental Prime Minister". He stars as Manmohan Singh, the economist-politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014.

The film is directed by Vijay Ratnakar Gutte and is based on the 2014 similarly titled memoir by Sanjaya Baru.

Sunny is all set to launch his son Karan, who is all set to make his acting debut with the film "Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas".

The film's title is inspired from Sunny's father and veteran actor Dharmendra's famous song from his film "Blackmail".

To be directed by the "Ghayal" star himself, "Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas" is a love story being shot in the exotic locales of Manali.

Zee Studios has collaborated with Sunny to launch Karan. They have joined hands after the success of "Gadar - Ek Prem Katha".

Karan's entry into filmdom marks the onset of the third generation of Deols in Bollywood. His grandfather Dharmendra is regarded as one of the best actors that Hindi filmdom has seen.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Automobile major Tata Motors on Monday announced the appointment of finance professional P.B. Balaji as the group's new Chief Financial Officer from November 2017.

According to the company, Balaji's appointment is expected to drive financial performance and bring greater vigour to operations and investment decisions across the different entities.

On the appointment, N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors said: "Mr Balaji's deep knowledge in all areas across finance and his global experience will be very valuable for the Tata Motors Group. He will be a great addition to the management team."

Balaji is a global finance professional with over two decades of experience in the corporate sector.

He started his career with Unilever in 1995 and worked in different corporate finance roles across Asian markets, Switzerland, UK and India. Since 2014, he has been heading the finance function as the Chief Financial Officer of Hindustan Unilever, a $6 billion enterprise.

In a related development, FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) on Monday said that Balaji has stepped down as Executive Director, Finance and IT, and CFO of the company.

In a regulatory filing to the BSE, the company said the announcement of appointment of the successor to P.B. Balaji shall be made in due course.

In his resignation letter to the company, Balaji said: "This is to inform you that I would like to resign from the services of the company to pursue an exciting external opportunity."

"I will be grateful if I can be relieved on or before November 15, 2017," the letter added.

--IANS

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Three members of a Manipur-based banned terror outfit, including its self-styled commander-in-chief, have been arrested in Delhi, police said on Monday.

Kangleipak Communist Party (People's War Group) chief Laishram Ranjit Meitei, 45, Khumanthem Naobicha Singh, 36, and Thoidam Chaothoi, 30, were arrested from near the Inter-State Bus Terminus in north Delhi on Sunday evening, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Kushwah said.

A laptop, a tablet, two mobile phones and extortion letters were seized from the men who the police said were looking for a safe hideout in Delhi after their hideout on the India-Nepal border was busted by security forces.

"They target schools, businessmen and owners of oil tankers to extort money for funding their terror activities," the officer said.

Police said Meitei had revealed during questioning his involvement in terror activities and other crimes in Manipur.

He was earlier arrested by Manipur Police but was on the run for the past five years, during which he stayed in Nepal for three years, police said.

In January, self-styled KCP convener Ranjjet Singh Porai was held in Delhi.

Kushwah said they were probing the real motive of the three arrested militants for visiting Delhi.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A top US military official landed in Seoul on Monday ahead of talks with the country's leader amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, the media reported.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford arrived at the Osan Air Base, and is scheduled to meet with the leaders of US Forces Korea and South Korea President Moon Jae-in, reports CNN.

"Gen. Dunford just arrived in Osan Air Base to meet with US Forces Korea leadership and explore the Camp Humphreys area with his team on board 2 UH-60 Black Hawks," a statement on the Joint Staff Facebook page said.

The trip has been long scheduled and was not arranged in response to the North Korean nuclear threat.

"The trip highlights our ironclad commitment to the defence of the Republic of Korea in the face of North Korea's provocations and threats," the statement said.

Dunford prefaced his Asia trip with a trip to Hawaii to meet with US Pacific Command, and will visit also visit Japan, as well as China, CNN reported.

The three-country visit is in "support (of) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's diplomatic and economic campaign to deter North Korea" from seeking an effective nuclear deterrent, according to the US Department of Defence.

The North Korean military are putting the final touches on a plan to fire four missiles into the waters around the US territory of Guam, to be presented to leader Kim Jong-un within days.

In a statement last week, General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, said the plan to fire "four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range strategic ballistic rockets...to signal a crucial warning to the US" would be ready by "mid-August".

A notice put out by Guam's Joint Information Centre on Saturday warned residents how to prepare "for an imminent missile threat."

"Do not look at the flash or fireball it can blind you," the note said.

"Lie flat on the ground and cover your head. If the explosion is some distance away, it could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit."
Karti Chidambarams counsel offered to undertake before the Chief Justice of India on Monday that he would go to England and return to join the investigation in the graft case registered against him by the CBI. His counsel, Gopal Subramanium, asserted that the son of the former Union finance minister was a respectable person who could be trusted to return, given his family is in India. The look-out notice prevailing against him involves a lot of odium and ignominy, it was pleaded. The Chief Justice was sceptical: he knew several respectable people giving such undertakings and never coming back, he said. He did not recount all of them, except mentioning one who was allowed to go to Malaysia with a promise to return, but one only saw his back. The court observed that Chidambaram couldnt leave the country until he took part in the probe.
On a day that Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) suspended 21 leaders from Bihar for supporting senior leader Sharad Yadav, the Rajya Sabha member indicated he was preparing to launch a non-political outfit, 'sajha virasat bachao manch', or the forum to save India's composite culture', on Thursday.



The platform will be called Sajha Virasat Bachao Manch, or the Forum to Save Indias Composite Culture.
Security forces in Burkina Faso's capital ended an assault today against suspected jihadists who opened fire on a restaurant in a "terrorist attack" that left at least 18 people dead, the government said.

The attack that began Sunday night in a Turkish restaurant popular with foreigners also left a dozen people injured, while two assailants were later killed, Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said. It was not clear how many gunmen were involved.

"The operation has ended" but searches are continuing in the Ouagadougou neighbourhood around the restaurant, Dandjinou told a press briefing carried on social media.

The Istanbul restaurant is just 200 metres from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group.

"According to witnesses, at least two assailants arrived on a motorcycle around 9pm armed with Kalashnikovs, opened fire on the Istanbul restaurant," a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A waiter in the restaurant said he saw "three men arrive on a 4X4 vehicle around 9:30 pm, get off the vehicle and open fire on customers seated on the terrace".

Shooting ended around 5 am (0500 GMT), according to an AFP journalist who was near the restaurant.

Dandjinou had earlier said that "some people were held" by the assailants and that "some were released", but gave no further details.

He said the 18 victims were of different nationalities, both Burkinabes and foreigners. Turkey said one of its citizens was among the dead.

Security forces launched a counter-assault at around 10:15 pm against the assailants who were hiding in the building, the police officer said.

The shooting was intense at first and then sporadic, an AFP journalist said.

Video footage posted on Twitter showed people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.

An earlier government statement described the shooting as a "terrorist attack."



The wounded were taken to Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.

"We are overwhelmed," one surgeon told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We have received about a dozen wounded, including three who have died. The condition of the other wounded is critical. Three of them are currently being operated on."



Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

In December 2016, a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

In the January 2016 assault, AQIM gunmen attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners.

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people.

There have also been kidnappings -- of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

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Renowned for his comedy style, actor-screenwriter Joe Bologna has passed away at the age of 82. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer.

His wife 52 years actress-writer Renee Taylor confirmed that the Emmy Award-winning writer breathed his last at City of Hope in Duarte, California, reported Deadline.

"He had a beautiful life and a beautiful death having fully and gratefully experienced three years since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at Cedars Sinai," she said.

Taylor also thanked the team of doctors who prolonged his life.

Bologna was born on December 30, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brown University, where he graduated as an art history major.

He also went on to serve the United States Marine Corps before heading to Hollywood in the 1970s.

Bologna and Taylor wrote their first Broadway show 'Lovers and Other Strangers', which was directed by Charles Grodin.

The film adaptation (1970) of the play was nominated for an Academy Award for best screenplay.

The couple continued writing together, with also starring in the acclaimed "Made for Each Other" (1971).

Their other credits include the critically acclaimed TV series "Calucci's Department", "Bedrooms" as well as "American Dream Machine".

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The Kerala Women's Commission today suo moto registered a case against MLA P C George for his 'unsavoury' remarks against a south Indian actress, who was allegedly abducted and molested by a gang in her car in February.

The commission sources here said the case was registered based on legal opinion and that Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan was informed about the development.

As per the legal opinion, George's remarks during a recent press conference amounted to defaming the actress and hurting womanhood.

Further course of action, including recording of the MLA's statement would be decided soon, the sources said.

George is an independent MLA representing Poonjar constituency in the Kerala Assembly.

The actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films besides Malayalam, was abducted and molested inside her car for two hours by the gang after forcing their way into the vehicle on February 17 in Kochi. The culprits later escaped.

Popular actor Dileep and six others, including prime accused 'Pulsar' Suni, have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.

The Kerala High Court has deferred the bail plea of Dileep, who is facing charges of plotting the abduction and assault, to August 18.

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More than 2.53 lakh new pilots will be required in the next 20 years for the surging Asia-Pacific aviation market, American aeronautic giant Boeing said here today.

The Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America markets top the list for global demand for professionals in the commercial aviation industry, according to Boeing's newly released 2017 Pilot and Technician Outlook.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the market demand for new pilots, technicians and cabin crew is forecast to reach 253,000, 256,000 and 308,000 respectively, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

In its eighth year, the annual outlook in 2017 reported a slight increase of 3.2 per cent in demand for pilots compared to 2016, and a 4.6-per cent decrease in the need for airline maintenance technicians.

Boeing predicted that from 2017 to 2036, the world's commercial aviation industry will require about 637,000 new commercial airline pilots.

The worldwide demand for commercial aviation industry professionals also includes 648,000 new commercial airline maintenance technicians and 839,000 new cabin crew.

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Aliah University Vice-Chancellor Abu Taleb said he was open for dialogue with students to ensure academic atmosphere in the campus even as the students' union today took out a rally with a series of demands including alleged reduction of of seats in different streams.

Vice Chancellor Abu Taleb Khan told PTI, the students were demanding higher number of admission to M Tech and Islamic Theology disciplines.

But with the AICTE having set a target of seats in M Tech, the students' demand for admission of far higher number of candidates cannot be met since without AICTE approval the degrees won't be valid and there would be no campusing harming the students' future prospects, Taleb Khan said.

Same was the situation for a stream like Islamic Theology where the students were demanding higher number of seats far exceeding the UGC sanctioned figure, the VC said adding the number of teachers in the stream was also insufficient.

About allegations of the students union that the Executive Council did not have proper representations, the VC said, "There are various factors behind that and the fact finding report will come up with the truth soon."



To the allegations of students union that the VC had called police to the New Town campus on August 11 agitation and beat them up, Khan blamed the unions of first starting the problem by beating up the Principal Secretary, "which resulted in the police rushing to the aid of the IAS officer but I did not call the police to the campus."



"They allege I am not flexible. But I am open for dialogue on all issues to restore normalcy in the university," he said.

Meanwhile, 800 students today went to New Town police station in a rally to protest against alleged police action during August 11 university gherao of VC.

Students' Union leader Zaidul said, "We will launch a bigger movement demanding rise in number of seats, in protest against the undemocratic way the EC has been formed and demanding the fact finding report on various issues be made public soon."



Zaidul, who claimed they were also supported by fellow students from Presidency University and Jadavpur University, said they also demanded "ouster of VC who is the fountainhead of all present ills having plagued the institution.

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today warned against censorship by cable distribution companies, saying action would be taken against those indulging in such activity.

He said his government will not indulge in political vendetta and would take strict action against any media or cable organisation found engaged in censorship of any channel or information.

The chief minister's statement comes at a time when Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been vociferously speaking against the "cable mafia", pitching for a level playing field and targeting the SAD-BJP's "favorite" private multi-system operator.

Amarinder also lashed out at SAD leader and Union Food Processing Minister Harsmirat Kaur Badal over her statement, accusing the government of misleading the people over debt waiver.

"She obviously has no clue about what she was talking about and was trying to befool the people of Punjab," the chief minister said, quipping "she should restrict herself to food processing, which was what she had been entrusted with".

On whitefly infestation of cotton crops, Amarinder pointed out that he had personally visited Mansa and met the affected farmers, who had been impacted by poor quality seeds and bad weather.

He said fields with problems had been isolated and strict monitoring was being done of the situation by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), which had undertaken spraying pesticides at its own cost.

The chief minister blamed the SAD for "ruining" the farming community during its 10 years of "misrule".

"It is unfortunate that farmers were still committing suicide," said the chief minister.

He reassured farmers that their loans up to Rs 2 lakh had been waived by his government and there was no need for them to take the extreme step.

Noting that this was the first time that a chief minister would be hoisting the flag in Gurdaspur, Amarinder dismissed opposition charges that he was not touring the state.

He said one had to go with a purpose, especially considering the huge amount of work his government needed to do to bring the state's economy back on track.

To a question, the chief minister claimed that his government's campaign against drugs had been "highly successful", with over 6,900 dealers and suppliers already in the police's net.

He said huge quantities of drugs including 95 kg of heroin had been seized.

"The big players in the trade are being chased by the police and would be arrested soon", he said, adding that many of the "so-called big fish in the trade had fled the state".

Amarinder said as many as 20 major industrial houses, along with countries like China and Russia, had shown interest in investing in the state.

For the first time the government was organizing a 'Job Mela' at Mohali to provide opportunities of employment to the youth, he said.

His government, said Amarinder, would provide all possible assistance to the encourage investment and industry in the state and take initiatives to generate employment for the youth of Punjab.

To a question on former Vice President Hamid Ansari's statement that minorities in India were feeling "insecure", he said that there was no insecurity among any of the communities in Punjab.

Expressing concern over the depleting water table, the chief minister said he would discuss the issue of water conservation during his visit to Israel next month.

Besides drip irrigation, his government was studying hydroponics and aeroponics as ways to conserve water, he added.

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Australia's Crown Resorts said today that China had released all of the casino group's employees who were detained as part of a gambling crackdown last year.

Mogul James Packer's gaming company said the last of the 19 current and former Crown employees had been set free after being held for 10 months.

"Crown is pleased that all of our employees have now been released and reunited with their families and loved ones," executive chairman John Alexander said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the employees whose sentences ended on Saturday were expelled from the country the same day.

"We hope relevant countries can inculcate their citizens living in China to conscientiously abide by laws and regulations and not be engaged in illegal activities," Hua told reporters.

The 19 defendants had pleaded guilty at a Shanghai court in June and 16 of them, including three Australians, were given sentences of between nine and 10 months in jail. The sentence included time served since they were arrested last October.

Three who were granted bail in November were not jailed.

Jason O'Connor, the executive vice president of Crown division VIP International in charge of luring rich Chinese to Australia, had been given a 10-month jail term and a two million yuan (USD 292,000) fine.

The two other Australians, Pan Dan and Jerry Xuan, were given nine-month sentences and 400,000 yuan (USD 58,000) and 200,000 yuan (USD 29,000) fines, respectively.

The executives were accused of breaching local anti- corruption laws by organising banned gambling activities overseas for wealthy Chinese.

The episode prompted a major restructuring at Crown, which runs its flagship casino in Melbourne and is also developing a large gaming resort in Sydney.

With revenues from Chinese high rollers waning, Crown last year sold its stake in Macau's Melco joint venture and shelved plans for a Las Vegas casino, concentrating instead on its Australian operations.

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Prominent film makers of Bengal today welcomed the appointment of eminent lyricist and screenwriter Prasoon Joshi as Censor Board chief and hoped it would bring the much needed change in its functioning.

Internationally acclaimed director Buddhadev Dasgupta told PTI, "former chief Pahlaj Nihalani had virtually turned the Censor Board into his own office. He had forgotten that the primary role of Censor Board is not to edit frames but show responsibility to the art of cinema."



Coming down heavily on Nihalini, the 'Bagh Bahadur' maker said, "From day one he started creating problems and forced film makers and other sections to follow his political thoughts. It is good that he was ousted."



Dasgupta, whose recent release 'Tope' has got laurels in different film festivals, said "Joshi will certainly make a positive difference with his progressive views and Censor will not court controversies like the way it did in recent times."



Director Goutam Ghosh, whose last film 'Sankhachil' had been acclaimed in the country and internationally, said, "As a film maker my first and foremost wish will be the implementation of the report of the Shyam Benegal committee in which I was one of the members."



"We had worked so hard for days to draft the recommendations for the committee. We had suggested certain amendments to the present Act but there was no follow-up action," the 'Paar' director said.

The Shyam Benegal committee was set up on January 1, 2016 to lay down rules and regulations for film certification giving sufficient and adequate space for artistic and creative expression. It submitted its report on April 29, 2016 but there has been very little progress on it so far.

Ghosh also hoped the change of guard would ensure documentaries like the one on Amartya Sen, made by young film maker Suman Ghosh, would not face the same problem any more.

The Centre replaced Nihalini, who had hogged headlines for his controversial decisions, with Joshi in a surprise announcement on Aug 11.

Director Suman Ghosh, whose 'The Argumentative Indian' on Amartya Sen had faced Censor hurdle with Nihalini asserting the documentary can't be passed with beeping of six words/phrases, said, "I hope under Joshi's tenure the work of me or other film makers will be definitely judged cinematically and meet better fate at the CBFC.

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In a gesture that promotes social harmony, some Muslim residents disposed of the carcass of a cow lying unattended in an area here.

An ailing cow had died three days back near the municipality-run cattle complex, located in Manpur area of the town.

"About three days back, the cow died a few metres away after being freed from the municipality-run cattle complex. The information about the cow's death was given to the municipality authorities but no action was taken," the corporator from Manpur area, Shahid Khan, claimed today.

The Muslim residents of the area then decided to dispose of the carcass.

"As the carcass was lying unattended for hours even after conveying the information to the municipality, we decided to bury the carcass with full respect last evening," Khan said.

Another resident of the area, Maulana Nadir Pathan, said, "I was returning from the mosque after offering Namaz and saw that some people from the Muslim community were taking the dead cow on a hand-driven cart. I also joined them," said Pathan, who is chairman of Khedipura Masjid Committee.

Meanwhile, the municipality's cattle complex in-charge, Dayaprasad Sejkar, said he had no information about the cow's death.

"The dead cow didn't belong to the cattle complex. I had no information about the death," Sejkar claimed.

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The violence in Charlottesville in which a suspected white supremacist rammed a car on a crowd of protesters fits the definition of "domestic terrorism", US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said today.

The Trump administration has been on defensive after the weekend violence by hundreds of supporters and members of the various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who converged in Charlottesville to protest against the removal of statue of Robert Lee, an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

Sessions was referring to the incident of a white supremacist allegedly driving his car into a crowd of counter protestors that resulted in the death of a woman and injuries to 19 others.

"It (violence) does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute. We are pursuing it with the Department of Justice in every way we can make it a case," Sessions told ABC's 'Good Morning America'.

"You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America, so absolutely that is a factor that we will be looking at," he said.

Sessions said by such acts, neo-Nazi groups were trying to legitimise themselves.

"They are simply attempting to legitimate themselves in any way possible. They are going to find out we are going to come after them for any violations of the law," he said.

Various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have been praising President Donald Trump, saying that they voted for him. This has come as a major embarrassment for Trump who returned for a day to the White House from his more than a fortnight-long working summer vacation at his gold course resort in New Jersey. The White House has defended Trump.

"The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK (Ku Klux Klan) Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

The FBI is investigating the incident and Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the violence by these groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, a University town about 193 kms southwest of Washington.

Sessions said he is confident that the American people will reject this kind of evil ideology.

"We need to take it seriously. Amazingly, Nazism remains alive out of all the evil it has incurred or caused in the world, so I think we take this seriously. We go at it directly, morally, legally, politically, legitimately, in any way possible to reject this kind of ideology that causes division and hatred in America. It is just not part of our heritage," the Attorney General added.

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China will halt import of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood from its ally North Korea from tomorrow, as it implements new UN sanctions amid US President Donald Trump's warnings to Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.

The Chinese announcement comes days after an increasingly aggressive rhetoric between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"China will halt imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood from North Korea from Tuesday as part of new United Nations sanctions," the Ministry of Commerce said today.

The UN Security Council had approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 in response to North Korea's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month.

China had pledged to fully enforce the sanctions after the US accused it of not doing enough to rein in its ally which heavily depends on Beijing for its economic survival.

Observers said the new sanctions could cost about USD 1 billion loss of revenue for China.

Kim had said that after the nuclear tests, North Korea could now strike at any part of the US.

Strongly reacting to this, Trump had said that US will retaliate with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if North Korea continued to threaten the US or its allies.

Meanwhile, China appointed Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou as special envoy to Korean peninsula replacing veteran Wu Dawei, who turned 71.

The appointment came amid reports that Trump plans to order probe against China's Intellectual Property Right (IPR) violations to press Beijing to do more to rein its ally North Korea.

Kong is an ethnic Korean from the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. He dealt with Asian affairs at the foreign ministry.

However, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Kong had taken Wu, but that there was no link between the appointment and the tense situation on the Korean peninsula.

She said there would be no change in China's policy towards the Korean peninsula as a result of the appointment.

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Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, the "special guest" at Pakistan's Independence Day celebration, said today the two countries have always stood by each other and their friendship was "stronger than steel".

Wang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party, is among the country's top leaders. He arrived in Islamabad yesterday on a two-day visit.

Addressing the Independence Day ceremony in Islamabad, he said China stands with Pakistan in its efforts to achieve progress and development.

"China and Pakistan have always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations," he said, with Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi by his side.

"Our friendship is stronger than steel [and] sweeter than honey," he said.

Wang is accompanying a high-level Chinese delegation and expected to sign a few bilateral agreements. He is also expected to inaugurate projects related to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor - a part of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said Pakistan is an important partner in the OBOR initiative and China wants to strengthen its multi-dimensional strategic cooperation with Islamabad.

He said China would support Pakistan's efforts to pursue the fight against terrorism as per its national interest.

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China today reaffirmed opposition to the Dalai Lama's visit to any country after he called off a planned trip to Botswana on "health grounds".

The 82-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader was due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" in Botswana's capital Gaborone on August 19.

"China attaches great importance to relations and friendly cooperation with Botswana, and hopes bilateral ties will maintain positive and healthy development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

"China's position remains firm after media reports said that the Dalai Lama cancelled the plan in mid August due to health problems," Hua said.

Earlier reports from Botswana said that President Ian Khama will be meeting the Dalai Lama.

Botswana confirmed that it will allow the Dalai Lama to visit next month as "a foreign dignitary" though it is a "purely private visit" despite firm opposition from China.

China had last month warned Botswana against hosting the Dalai Lama and facilitate a meeting with its president, saying the African nation should "respect" Beijing's core concerns.

Beijing views the Dalai Lama as a "separatist" who is engaged in activities aimed at splitting Tibet from China.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in his Himalayan homeland. He has been living in India in exile since then.

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A Chinese court says a prominent activist accused of subverting state power has stood trial.

Wu Gan called himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher as he put pressure on local officials he accused of wrongdoing.

The Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court said in an online statement that his trial took place Monday and the verdict will be announced later.

Wu was one of the first lawyers and activists caught up in an intense crackdown by authorities that began in 2015.

Vaguely defined subversion charges are frequently leveled against human rights activists and perceived political foes of the ruling Communist Party.

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The six-year-old daughter of slain CRPF Commandant Pramod Kumar and his wife will tomorrow unfurl the tricolour from the same battalion camp in Srinagar, where exactly an year ago he saluted the flag and was killed minutes after in a militant encounter.

Kumar was today decorated by the government with the Kirti Chakra, the third highest peacetime gallantry medal, for his dare devil action where he picked up his AK-47 and rushed to the Nowhatta Chowk area after he was told his patrol party was under attack.

The Commanding Officer (CO) of the 49th battalion of the CRPF suffered a fatal bullet shot in his head.

"I want my 6-year-old daughter Aarna to know what her father stood for and what he did. She should know that what is the importance of earning a Kirti Chakra. Hence, I made it a point to be on the same soil where my husband lost his life to mark his first death anniversary," Kumar's wife Neha Tripathy told PTI.

"As he unfurled the tricolour at the 49th battalion camp exactly an year before, we will be doing it tomorrow," she added.

She has already reached the Karan Nagar-based battalion of the force in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

"For the world, Kashmir is a paradise but for me it took away the most precious and valuable person I had in my life. But, I still do not feel bad about it.

"I want to salute his supreme sacrifice by being at the place where he breathed his last," she said.

Last August 15, he hoisted the flag between 8:30-8:40 AM and in his speech remarked that with India clocking 70 years of its freedom, the responsibility on security forces has "increased" and they have to effectively tackle militants and incidents of stone pelting in J-K.

Just before he ended his speech, Kumar, in a recorded video of the event, is seen looking at his watch and heard saying "it is an important day", unaware of the fate that awaited him.

Minutes later he was killed at the Nowhatta Chowk fighting militants.

Recounting the moments of last year, an officer said, as the wireless set in the CRPF control room crackled informing that militants are hurling grenades and firing on security forces at four places in downtown Srinagar like Nowhatta Chowk, Gojwara Chowk, Bata Gali and Khaniyar Chowk, Kumar rushed.

He, along with a small team of his personal security team, dashed out in a bullet-proof vehicle and soon after landed at the incident spot.

"The militants were still firing. Kumar led from the front but was shot grievously," the officer said.

He was rushed to the 92 Base Hospital of the Army in Srinagar where he succumbed to his injuries.

While Kumar and his men eliminated the two armed foreign militants, nine other personnel, including a state police official, were injured in the attack.

The CO was posted to Srinagar in April 2014 and was promoted as a Commandant only a few days before the fateful day, on July 12.

He hailed from Patna in Bihar but lived in neighbouring Jharkhand's Jamtara district.

The officer had been thrice decorated with the CRPF Director General's commendation in 2015, 2014 and 2011.

He had also served in the Special Protection Group (SPG) for three years.

The officer joined the CRPF in 1998.

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Saudi Arabia's new crown prince hopes to transform the kingdom and modernize society, but the planned execution of 14 Shiite protesters charged with violence against security forces suggests the government's handling of sectarian tensions and unrest remains unchanged.

The country's supreme court recently upheld the death penalty in the case, raising concerns among rights activists that the group could be executed at any moment.

Human rights groups allege the trial was unfair, saying the defendants' confessions were extracted under duress and that some did not have lawyers present in court. Three of the defendants were 17 years old when the alleged crimes were committed.

A defence lawyer contacted by The Associated Press declined to speak, saying he is officially barred from talking about the case with the media.

The mother of one of the defendants said her son's lawyer was pressured to quit his defence and so withdrew from the trial, leaving her son to represent himself.

"He had to defend himself and answer his own questions in court," said Zahra Abdullah, the mother of defendant Munir al-Adam. "I am demanding either a just trial or their release," she added. "To issue the death penalty for protests isn't right."



Also facing execution is Mujtaba al-Sweikat, a young Saudi man who had been accepted to attend Western Michigan University before his arrest. The American Federation of Teachers, which says it represents 1.6 million members nationwide, is urging President Donald Trump to demand that Saudi Arabia halt the executions.

In response to the outcry, the Saudi Justice Ministry issued a rare statement defending its judicial process and the verdicts. It said the 14 were convicted of "terrorist crimes" that included killing civilians and security officers.

The ministry said the group received a fair trial, and that three different courts and a total of 13 judges examined the case. The ministry said severe punishment is handed down only in cases where the most dangerous crimes are committed.

Abdullah says her son took part in protests to demand equality and greater rights. Among the charges he faced were throwing rocks at police and firing on a police checkpoint. She says her son denies the charge of firing on police.

Scholars of Islamic law, or Shariah, hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty. Under the kingdom's interpretation of Shariah, judges have wide discretion to rule and hand down death sentences for lethal as well as non-lethal offences.

The kingdom has one of the highest rates of execution in the world.
In the backdrop of rising cross border terror activities in Kashmir and standoff with China in Dokalam, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley today called upon the armed forces to defend the country's borders with "all its might".

In a strong message to Pakistan, he asked it to refrain from continuing with "abhorrent acts" of terrorism against India and reminded Islamabad of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on September 29 last year on terror launch pads.

He said "significant casualties" were caused to terrorists and those providing support to them in the surgical strikes.

While referring to contributions of countless patriots in India's freedom struggle, Jaitley without directly referring to any country, said the nation now looks at the armed forces to defend its borders.

"The nation now looks to you to defend its borders with all your might and to the best of your strength and abilities so that all our people sleep in peace tonight, so that we all see a new dawn together, tomorrow and to take our country to new heights of peace and prosperity for all our people," he said.

The comments assumed significance as armies of India and China are locked in a face-off in Dokalam for the past eight weeks.

The defence minister was addressing the armed forces personnel in a customary radio broadcast on the eve of the 71st Independence Day.

Referring to cross border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, Jaitley said the armed forces personnel continue to be vigilant on the Line of Control in defending the nation as "our adversary continues with its abhorrent acts".

"Despite our repeated requests to our Western neighbour not to use our territory occupied by it not only to train terrorists but also use it as launch pad for pushing these militants into India, such nefarious activities continued," he said.

Jaitley said India ran out of patience as these terrorists were not only targeting the armed forces but also civilians and based on credible inputs, the Indian Army had conducted surgical strikes on September 29 last year at several of these launch pads to pre-empt infiltration by terrorists.

"The operations were focused on ensuring that these terrorists did not succeed in their design to cause destruction and endanger the lives of our citizens. During these counter terrorist operations significant casualties were caused to terrorists and those providing support to them," he said.

"Even now our jawans continue to be vigilant on the Line of Control, defending the nation, as our adversary continues with its abhorrent acts. Some of our soldiers continue to make the supreme sacrifice while defending our motherland. The nation is indebted to their martyrdom," he further said.

Hailing sacrifice of the armed forces, Jaitley assured them that the government will do all that is necessary to keep their morale high and to meet their functional requirements.

Listing initiatives for welfare of the security personnel,

he said the government has taken decision on recommendations of the 7th pay commission on allowances, which will benefit 14 lakh personnel.

He said rates of Siachen allowance for extreme risk and hardship has been increased from Rs 14,000 per month to Rs 30,000 per month while counter insurgency operations allowance was increased from between Rs 3,000 and Rs 11,700 per month to between Rs 6,000 and Rs 16,900 per month.

He said Territorial Army allowance has been hiked from between Rs 175 and 450 per month to Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 per month.

Jaitley said the benefits of One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme started reaching the ex-servicemen and families since last year.

"Till July 10 this year, a sum of Rs 4,156 crore and Rs 2,385 crore have been paid towards first and second instalments of OROP arrears to around 20,40,000 Ex- Servicemen/family pensioners and 15,93,000 Ex-Servicemen respectively.

"Further, a sum of Rs 2,250 crore has also been paid to 15,13,000 ex-servicemen as third instalments of OROP arrears. The Government is also sympathetically considering the report of the one-man judicial committee headed by Justice L Narasimha Reddy on OROP to look into the anomalies, if any, arising out of implementation of OROP and will take decision soon," he said.

Jaitley also said that the government has enhanced penury grant to non-pensioner ex-servicemen/widows to Rs 4,000 per month from the existing rate of Rs 1,000 per month.

The defence minister also mentioned about the a campaign to have a 'Wall of Valour' in 1,000 educational institutions across the country.

"Portraits of Param Vir Chakra decorated soldiers will be displayed at designated places on educational campuses to instil sense of nationalism among the students," he 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.)
Heavy rains in the last three days triggered flash floods in parts of Bihar, where 41 people have died so far, and inundated large areas in Assam and Noth Bengal, paralysing normal life and snapping rail link to the Northeast from the rest of the country.

In Arunachal Pradesh too, the flood situation continued to be grim in several districts with recurring landslides disrupting road traffic.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit areas, told reporters that Araria was the worst effected district and water has entered the district headquarters.

Flood waters have engulfed areas in Kisanganj, three blocks of Purnea and one block of Katihar damaging roads.

He said heavy rains in Nepal and Bihar in last three days have led to the situation and the state government is carrying out relief operations in flooded areas on a war-footing.

Forty-one people have died in floods in Bihar so far, said the Principal Secretary, disaster management department, Pratyay Amrit.

Kumar said principal secretaries of disaster management, road construction and rural development departments would make an aerial survey tomorrow to prepare a detailed report of damage.

The CM thanked the Centre for prompt response in providing assistance to the state after he telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday.

Kumar said he also spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence minister Arun Jaitley on the flood situation.

The Chief Minister said that besides the Army column (around 50 personnel) which was sent to Purnea, four teams of NDRF had arrived in Bihar yesterday and six more NDRF teams landed today to assist



the state.

The Railway Board has decided to cancel all incoming trains from various parts of the country towards northeast region, which were to reach either Katihar or Malda town till 10 am of August 16, 2017, North Eastern Frontier Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma said in a statement.

"Heavy rainfall in the last 72 hours in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and other NE states had resulted in railway operations being severely hampered as rain water has inundated railway tracks at several places in Katihar and Alipurduar division of NF Railway," Sharma said.

In view of the prevailing condition, 11 outgoing trains have been cencelled by NF Railway today, Sharma said adding four other trains have been short terminated at various locations, he added.

Yesterday, 22 trains were cancelled, while 14 others were stranded at various places as tracks were flooded.

"While many rivers in Alipurduar and Katihar divisions were in spate, NF Railway authorities have been keeping a close watch and continuously monitoring the situation of nearby railway bridges and tracks, taking all precautionary measures for safe running of the trains," he said.

The emergency control was being manned by senior officials at the headquarter and divisions, Sharma said adding train tracks were affected at as many as 12 locations initially, of which seven have been repaired and restored.

Sharma, however, said that train connectivity from New Jalpaiguri to Guwahati, Guwahati to Dibrugarh and Murkongselek continued to be normal.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "We are concerned about the flood situation across the country. Earlier floods had affected south Bengal. Now north Bengal was also affected. We are monitoring the situation round-the-clock for relief and rescue operations".

State government sources said that Phulahar river had crossed its danger level, while 20 villages, mostly under Harischandrapur Block-II and Ratua block in Malda district were inundated.

Situation was similar at Bhutni Island, while erosion was was taking place at Pardeonapur village near Farakka also in Malda district.

Eastern Railway chief public relations officer R Mahapatra told PTI that a number of trains originating in the state were today cancelled as water is flowing above the railway tracks in North East Frontier Railway jurisdiction.

The next announcement would be made only after the situation improved, he said.

East Central Railway said that rail traffic has been hit between Kisanganj and Hatwar due to flood water flowing above the danger mark at pillar number 117 under Katihar division.

An ECR statement released by Chief Public Relations Officer Rajesh Kumar said 33 trains have been cancelled and 11 short-terminated.

In Arunachal Pradesh, flood situation continued to be grim in several districts with reports of disruption of surface communication pouring in from various parts of the state.

Remote Anjaw district remained cut off from rest of the state for the past seven days as the main road to the district from Lohit are blocked in several places by landslides triggered by incessant rains, officials said.

Food shoratge was looming large in Anjaw district following disruption in surface communication. Intra-district road communications were also badly affected due to landslides.

Though the Border Road Task Force has deployed men and machines to clear road blockades, recurring landslides were hampering restoration work, officials said.

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Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia today said Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should follow his legendary grandfather Lal Bahadur Shastri and resign on moral grounds over the deaths of children at a hospital in Gorakhpur.

Scindia slammed Singh for his reported statement, that "many children die" in the month of August every year at state -run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, and termed it "insensitive".

Shastri, who was the railway minister in the Cabinet of late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had tendered his resignation following the Ariyalur train accident in Tamil Nadu in November 1956 in which over 100 people were killed.

Singh, who belongs to the BJP, is a grandson of Shastri, who later became the prime minister.

"By presenting the hospital's data (related to deaths of children in August in previous years), Singh has shown how insensitive he is in the matter.

"I had hoped he would follow into the footsteps of (his grandfather) Shastri and resign on moral grounds. But it is surprising Singh has not resigned yet," the Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha Scindia told PTI.

The former Union minister said Singh has shown his "insensitiveness" over a serious issue, which is condemnable.

Over 60 children have died at the hospital over the past one week.

Asked about the chances of the Congress in the 2019 general elections, the 46-year-old MP from Guna claimed he is confident his party will do well as the people are "tired" of the Narendra Modi government.

On Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar rejoining hands with the BJP in that state, Scindia said he has "betrayed" the mandate given to the grand alliance (mahagatbandhan of the Congress, RJD, JD-U)) and this will boomerang on him.

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The Mumbai police today arrested four persons for leaking online an episode of popular fantasy TV series "Game of Thrones".

Three of the accused are employees of Prime Focus Technology, while the fourth one is its former employee, police said. The company, which processes the series for online streaming service Hotstar, had lodged a complaint.

A court in Mumbai remanded them in police custody till August 21, Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told PTI.

Maharashtra Cyber police and the city cops started investigation after Prime Focus Technology lodged a complaint last week that the fourth episode of season seven of the series was available online before its scheduled release on August 7, DCP Pathan said.

The accused men's motive behind leaking the episode was yet to be ascertained, he said.

Police have registered a case under IPC section 408 (criminal breach of trust by an employee) and also under the Information Technology Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tech giant Google has added voice search capability for eight additional Indian languages including Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil to help users search for content online by simply speaking into their Android phones.

Currently, voice search feature is available in English and Hindi in India. The other languages being added today are Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu.

"Starting today, speakers of these languages will be able to use their voice to dictate queries -- both in Gboard on Android as well as in Search through the Google App," Google Technical Program Manager Daan van Esch told reporters on a video conference here.

He added that in order to perform a voice-based search, users will need to set their language in the voice settings menu in the Google app.

"Globally, we now support voice search for 119 languages. We are introducing support for 30 new languages today, of which eight are Indian languages," he said.

The update, which rolls out today, will require the user to just tap the microphone icon (usually on the homescreen of Android smartphones) to start voice search.

Google has been ramping support for Indian languages across its various products like Maps and Search as a large number of the new users coming online are Indic language users.

Esch explained that Google has worked with native speakers to collect speech samples. Machine learning models were trained to understand the various sounds and words, thus translating words from sound to text in the process.

"Voice input for each of these languages is expected to get better over time, as more and more native speakers use the product," he added.

Esch said many users also prefer to use voice to dictate a message as it is convenient and also faster than typing.

Earlier this year, Google had announced the launch of new products and features to help create more language content and address the needs of new users coming online.

According to a report by Google-KPMG, an estimated 536 million Indians are expected to use regional languages while online by 2021 as compared to about 199 million users who are expected to access the web in English.

This growth is driven by increasing affordability of devices and data charges as well as availability of more local content, the report had said.

Interestingly, the report had pointed that apart from Hindi, Marathi and Bengali users are expected to drive volume growth, while Tamil, Kannada and Telugu users are expected to be among the most digitally engaged through 2016 to 2021.

Voice search in these new languages will be available in Google Search on iOS as well. These will soon be extended to other Google apps and products, including the Translate app.

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The government is exploring if it was legally tenable to sell other assets of debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech to raise money to complete pending housing projects of the company, a top finance ministry official said on Monday.

Hundreds of home buyers had been left in lurch after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted bankers' plea for initiating insolvency proceedings against the realty company for defaulting on a Rs 526-crore loan.

"The government is looking at ways to provide relief to Jaypee Infratech home buyers," the official said.

"We will discuss with the corporate affairs ministry if bankruptcy code provides any legal ground for sale of other assets of companies to fund completion of pending projects."



He said option being explored is possibility of appointing a receiver or state agencies for completion of the incomplete projects, where home buyers had paid money to book flats etc.

"We may have to take the legal way through NCLT, which can pass an order to appoint an authority - may be a state agency - to sell assets of Jayee Infratech and with the money from sale of assets, the pending projects could be completed," he said.

Insolvency proceedings, he said, can continue simultaneously.

Last week, the Allahabad-bench of NCLT admitted insolvency plea of IDBI Bank relating to default of Rs 526 crore loan by Jaypee Infratech.

It appointed Anuj Jain the interim resolution professional (IRP) to carry out the proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Jaypee Infratech, a part of the debt-ridden Jaypee group, has defaulted on Rs 526.11 crore outstanding loan to IDBI. Jaypee Infratech is into road construction and real estate business. It has constructed the Yamuna Expressway, connecting Delhi-Agra.

The biggest incomplete project of Japyee is the mammoth Wish Town project in Noida, on the outskirts of the national capital.

The company has reportedly handed over only 5,500 flats out of the proposed 32,000 flats and 3,000 plots across 800 acres along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. The project has 305 towers, of which 250 are incomplete.

Japyee Infratech is among the 12 big corporate loan defaulters against whom bankruptcy proceedings has been initiated under a new law. Other companies against whom such proceedings has been initiated include Bhushan Steel, Bhushan Steel and Power, Electrosteel Steels and Lanco Infratech, Alok Industries and Jyoti Structures.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid O Meredov today reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relationship and decided to give a fresh push to boost two-way trade and investment.

Swaraj and Meredov, co-chairing the sixth meeting of the inter-government commission, felt that there was scope for both countries to expand cooperation in a number of areas, including energy and education.

Officials said the two leaders resolved to work towards exploring untapped opportunities.

In the meeting, Meredov handed Swaraj congratulatory message from the Turkmenistan President to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Reviewing the full spectrum of a multifaceted partnership. EAM and Dy PM & FM lead the 6th IGC between India and Turkmenistan," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted along with a photograph of the meeting.

Meredov also met Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and discussed possible cooperation in areas of defence and security.

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A disquiet anxiety has gripped the residents of Charlottesville, many of whom are Indian Americans after a rally of white supremacists ended in clashes with counter-protesters and claimed the life a woman.

While normalcy seemed to have returned to the city by afternoon yesterday, residents grappled with shock and fear following a day of violence when a car rammed into a crowd peacefully protesting against the rally by white supremacists, killing the 32-year-old woman.

The city in the US state of Virginia has a significant Indian and Indian-American population, but there was no report of anyone from the community being injured in the violence on Saturday.

Two police officers monitoring the demonstration died after a helicopter crashed near the protest site and 19 were injured, though, unofficial figures could be high.

"It's still difficult for us to understand and grapple with the reality that such a thing has happened. This is not what the city is about," said Sankaran Venkataraman, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, MasterCard, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Venkataraman has lived in Charlottesville, about 190 kilometers southwest of Washington DC, for nearly 20 years.

His daughter's friend had gone to the downtown area to take part in the counter protest to the white supremacist rally. She returned with a broken leg.

"(The violence) doesn't represent any of the views or characters of the people here. We are progressive people who believe in diversity and inclusiveness.

"For something like this to happen is a shock to us. The notions of racism, hatred, bigotry are completely antithetical to the views of most citizens of Charlottesville," said Venkataraman, who recently returned from Tamil Nadu.

The Virginia university, closed for summer, is set to open in two weeks and students, a sizable number from outside the US, including India, would start arriving next week.

"I am sure there's a sense of anxiety among students here," Venkataraman added.

Vilas Annavarapu, an Indian-American and student of political science at the university, was among the few who stayed back at the campus to attend training classes.

Annavarapu is also an office-bearer of the Indian Student Association at the varsity which has about 300 active members.

While he did not leave the campus on Saturday, he had a scary encounter with white supremacists on Friday night when hundreds of them had a surprise rally inside the campus.

"They came like right there," Annavarapu said, pointing to the place inside the campus where the gathering happened.

"It was frightening," he said.

"Frustration, I think, would be an accurate word to describe the general sentiment," Annavarapu said. "From an intellectual standpoint, I've always understood that being a person of colour, I will have to be more careful when I walk down the streets. But I don't think I've ever felt as threatened as I have over these past two days."



The protesters were openly carrying guns, including AK- 47s, reports said.

Annavarapu feels the election of Donald Trump, who has a following among the white supremacists, has encouraged far- right groups.

"It's not like these views are anything new, it's just that now people feel as if they have the authority to come into public and wave them around as if they're not doing anything wrong. I understand that they have free speech, but that doesn't give them the right to incite violence," he said.

For Larry Goedde Jr, a guitar technician by profession, it was a harrowing experience. His faced was banged on the street by one of the white supremacists on Saturday, causing several bruises to his face.

"I was crossing the street and this pickup truck rolled up on me. And they slammed me down face first, stomped me and then just drove," he said.

Goedde, who recently returned to his hometown after 11 years in Montreal, said many faced a similar situation.

"I wasn't the only one that described this scene. When I went to the ER (emergency room at the hospital) last night, it was full of people. Like with injuries. All of the staff were just, they were tired. They were covered in blood," he said.

Goedde, however, said city residents have maintained their cool. "It's unbelievable. The only people that they (police) were willing to protect was the white supremacist. They had no intention of ever protecting any other... If you weren't holding an assault rifle, and if you didn't have a swastika on you, they were not interested in protecting you. And that's not hyperbole. I just saw it over and over again".

For eminent Indologist and resident of Charlottesville Daniel J Ehnbom, it was a terrible experience. "The primary blame is with the neo-Nazis because they deliberately set up to make trouble and they did. It's a very sad thing for Charlottesville. People are still shocked," Ehnbom said.

"The town and the university have a long way to go to heal this. There is a lot to be done about race relations, racism," he asserted.

"The fact that this manifest itself in (Thomas) Jefferson's hometown is horrifying," Ehnbom said, referring to the third president of the United States and the main author of the Declaration of Independence.
Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh today claimed that corruption had been detected in the administration of BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, where 30 children lost their lives within a span of 48 hours last week.

"As against the demand of Rs 68 lakh for the purchase of oxygen cylinders at the hospital, the Yogi Adityanath government had released Rs two crore on August 5.

"But the hospital administration made payments not before August 11 and even then it spent only Rs 11 lakh. Why? Because of 'commissionkhori' (the practice of seeking commission)," Singh said at a function here.

The minister said he had rushed to Gorakhpur on the instruction of the chief minister soon after the tragedy and had looked into documents relating to the supply of oxygen cylinders at the state-run BRD Medical College.

"The hospital's name is stated as that of the consumer while the supplier happens to be a company based in Nagpur, called Inox. Yet, there is also a dealer by the name of Pushpa Sales. This irregularity is also being investigated," he said.

He said 48 districts in the state had reported incidence of Japanese Encephalitis. At BRD alone, 3,000-4,000 patients complaining of JE symptoms visit daily.

The government is working towards equipping paediatric ICUs at primary health centres and community health centres so that patients "are not forced to rush to cities for treatment", he said.

"For a huge population of 22 crore, health services in UP are in dire straits. Please give me eight to ten months, I promise to bring health services back on track," the minister added.

Singh, who has drawn flak over his statement yesterday that "August sees a high number of deaths", was also shown black flags by student leaders associated with the Samajwadi Party when his vehicle entered the city this afternoon.

The minister, who represents an assembly constituency in the city, was travelling from Lucknow by road.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar today charged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with trying to influence the ongoing probe into the death of 60 children in Gorakhpur's BRD medical college.

"Even before the probe report is out, the Chief Minister's statement that the deaths have been caused due to encephalitis indicate that he wants to influence the ongoing probe," the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief said.

Led by Babbar, the Congress workers demanded Adityanath's resignation during a dharna against large number of infant deaths in the Gorakhpur hospital.

The Congress leader said that the UP CM expressing concern over the issue after 36 hours of the deaths of the children only proves his "insensitivity over the matter".

"The entire responsibility of the infant deaths is on the state government and its leader. Action is being taken against the doctors and officials only to divert the attention," he said.

The UPCC president said that soon after the deaths, the Chief Minister said that oxygen shortage was not the cause of the deaths...If that was so, then why raids are being carried out on the premises of the supplier".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Anupam Kher today said the Kashmir problem can be solved by scrapping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

"I know quite a lot about Article 370. I think that Kashmir problem can be solved by removing article 370 of the Constitution", Kher, who has come to address the India-Asean Youth Summit here, told reporters.

However, the actor said he would not comment on Article 35 (A) of the Indian Constitution as he is not having much knowledge about it.

Article 370 grants special status to Jammu & Kashmir while Article 35 A empowers the state legislature to define permanent citizens in the state (J&K).

Kher said after the abrogation of Article 370, people from different parts of India can buy properties and built infrastructure in Kashmir.

Every citizen of the country should have the right to buy land in Kashmir, he added.

The actor said if the people from different parts of the country have the right to buy properties and build hospital and industries and others thing in Kashmir, development will automatically usher in the state.

Kher said it was unfortunate that the whole country was buzzing with developmental activities and scaling newer heights but Kashmiris are not marching ahead due to a "handful of people".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority is all set to release a textbook exclusively to teach migrant labourers Malayalam, the mother tongue of the people of the state.

The state government initiative is expected to be a boon for around 25 lakh workers, who migrated to Kerala from other states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu.

Titled 'Hamari Malayalam' (Our Malayalam), the textbook will be launched by state Education Minister C Raveendranath at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, a town with largest migrant labour population in the state.

Literacy Mission Director P S Sreekala said the book has been designed in such a way that migrant labourers can interact with local people freely and fluently in their daily life.

The textbook would be used under 'Changathi', the Mission's exclusive programme for migrant workers, she said.

"Our core objective is to make migrant labourers competent in reading and writing Malayalam. Many of them can already speak broken Malayalam," Sreekala told PTI.

Though migrant workers have been playing a key role in many sectors in the state, they are still facing exclusion in society, she said.

"By teaching them Malayalam, we are aiming to end this social exclusion," she said.

Detailing the features of the textbook, Sreekala said 'Hamari Malayalam' comprises 25 chapters dealing with various topics ranging from hygiene, health and technology to rights of workers and ethical values.

The chapters would be in the format of dialogues, set in various backdrops like bank, school, market and so on.

"Our target is not just make them teach Malayalam but to inculcate among them the basic lessons of sanitation, health and values in a simplified manner. Majority of them are even illiterate in their own mother tongue," she said.

The Literacy mission would launch the initiative first in Perumbavoor and later extend it to selected places in all districts.

A survey was conducted in 27 wards of Perumbavoor recently and 400 beneficiaries had been identified for the education programme in the initial phase.

"We are planning to identify the panchayats in other districts where most number of migrant labourers are living and extend the programme there also in the coming days," she added.

The programme is targeted at those above 15 years.The classes would be conducted in their colonies, besides libraries, local schools and other state-run institutions, Mission officials said.

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A man was released by his kidnappers within 12 hours of his abduction, police claimed today.

Three persons were also arrested in connection with the abduction of Santokh Singh, said SSP Hoshiarpur J Elanchezhian.

He said that a complaint was received yesterday on police helpline number 181 about the kidnapping and a case was registered in Mehtiana police station.

The complainant had told the police that kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh to release his brother-in-law Santokh.

To trace him a number of police team were dispatched in the area and special checkpoints were set up at many places, the SSP said.

Due to the pressure mounted by the police, the kidnappers dropped Santokh Singh at village Sarhala Kalan, police said.

Santokh said that he was allegedly kidnapped by Kamaljit Singh, alias Kamal of Mehtiana, Jaspreet Singh, alias Jassa of Makhsuspur and Kuldeep Singh alias Deepa of Khera.

Later, police arrested Kamaljit and Kuldeep at a bridge near Panjora today and also seized 112 gm and 90 gram intoxicated powder from them.

Jaspreet Singh was too arrested at a check post near village Mananhana and during his personal search 105 gram intoxicated powder was seized.

During preliminary interrogation, all the accused confessed that they had kidnapped Santokh for purchasing intoxicating material. They are being produced in a local court, police said.

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The Supreme Court today said the issue of granting bail to former Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit and cancellation of bail of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, both accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, needed detailed consideration.

A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and M M Shantanagoudar listed the case for hearing on August 17, saying "this matter requires lengthy hearing" as both the pleas are on similar facts.

Purohit has moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court's order dismissing his bail plea.

Nisar Ahmed Haji Sayed Bilal, father of one of the blast victims, has challenged the Bombay High Court order granting bail to Thakur alleging that she was a "powerful person" and could influence the witnesses in the case.

He has sought a stay on the high court's April 25 order granting her bail, saying there was "no prima facie evidence against her".

The apex court had on July 28 sought Maharashtra government's reply on the plea seeking cancellation of Thakur's bail.

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) had filed its reply in the case of Purohit, saying there was ample evidence against him, but no evidence against Thakur.

The apex court had on May 5 also sought a response from the NIA and the Maharashtra government on the plea of Purohit seeking bail.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra.

A special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court had earlier ruled that the Anti-Terrorist Squad had wrongly applied this law against Thakur, Purohit and nine others.

The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population there. It had named Thakur, Purohit and co-accused, Swami Dayanand Pandey as the key conspirators.

It had alleged it was Pandey who had instructed Purohit to arrange explosive RDX, while Thakur owned the motorcycle which was used in the blast.

Ajay Rahirkar, another accused, allegedly organised funds for the terror act, while conspiracy meetings were held at Bhonsala Military School in Nasik, it had said.

Rakesh Dhawde, Ramesh Upadhyay, Shyamlal Sahu, Shivnarain Kalsangra, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Jagdish Mhatre and Sameer Kulkarni were the other accused.

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Almost 1,800 greylag goose eggs have been destroyed at a park in east Belfast since 2002 to prevent birds from being sucked into the engines of aircraft, authorities in Northern Ireland have said.

Victoria Park is close to the George Best Belfast City Airport and planes fly directly overhead.

BBC in Northern Ireland obtained the data through a freedom of information request to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Belfast City Airport has said it has a legal obligation to control the number of greylag geese for safety reasons.

The eggs are destroyed through a process known as egg- pricking, the BBC reported.

During this process the shell is pricked and injected with oil. This prevents the embryo from developing into a chick and hatching, it said.

The parent geese continue to sit on the eggs and therefore will not lay any more.

The airport said the method was the most humane way to manage the population of geese, adding that no adult geese had been culled.

If a bird flies into a plane engine, it can damage the mechanics and a few planes have been brought down as a result of such bird strikes, the report said.

In a freedom of information request the Northern Ireland environment agency revealed that since 2002, a total of 1,775 greylag goose eggs had been oiled and pricked.

The numbers involved vary each year, ranging from fewer than 50 to more than 250.

In recent years, an average of 100 eggs have been pricked.

A spokesman for the airport said: "In order to control the feral geese population in Victoria Park, the oiling and pricking of eggs is undertaken by a biologist under licence from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and with the permission of Belfast City Council.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Public health and safety is paramount to Belfast City Council.

"Due to concerns over the number of greylag geese in Victoria Park, and their potential threat to landing or taking off aircraft at George Best Belfast City Airport, Belfast City Council has an agreement with the airport granting them access to Victoria Park to carryout egg pricking," the spokesperson said.

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Expressing apprehension that the students who had appeared for NEET in Gujarati might be at disadvantage compared to those attempted the all-India medical test in English during admissions, the Congress leaders today called on Governor O P Kohli and sought his intervention.

The Congress delegation, led by the state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki, demanded the state government prepare a separate merit list for the Gujarati medium students by bringing an ordinance as soon as possible.

During the meeting with the governor in Gandhinagar, the Congress leaders said the party would support the ruling BJP if the state government brings an ordinance for a separate merit list for the Gujarat board students who attempted the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in the regional language.

The Congress told the governor that due to a "discrepancy", the NEET question papers in Gujarati were more difficult than those in English, the party said in a release.

According to Congress, as many as 47,583 students of the Gujarat board, who had given the test in Gujarati, would be "subjected to injustice in the admission".

At present, the first round of the admission process as per NEET merit list is completed.

Congress alleged the Centre and state government failed to initiate any measures "to save these students from facing injustice in admission" despite knowing that the question papers in Gujarati were more difficult than those in English.

Meanwhile, the Congress has threatened to intensify protests if the government fails to come up with a solution to the issue at the earliest.

The opposition party announced that it will participate in the protest march to be held in Ahmedabad on August 17.

Congress leaders would take out rallies in all the districts of Gujarat on August 18 if the issue is not resolved, according to the release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing condolence in the death of 30 infants within a span of 48 hours in a state run hospital in Gorakhpur, Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan today accused political parties of playing politics over the matter.

Despite the government and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath swinging into action and ordering an inquiry, opposition parties were politicising the tragedy, she told reporters here.

On NEET, the BJP leader said some political parties, with their opinions and suggestions, were confusing the students.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhi's "expansionist designs" was the "main hurdle" in constructive relations between the two neighbours.

Addressing the nation on its 70th Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan "desires positive and constructive" relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.

Indo-Pak ties nosedived after a series of attacks last year, including the Uri strike, carried out by the Pakistan- based terror outfits. Following the attacks, India boycotted the SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in November last in Pakistan.

"Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard," Abbasi said as Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang attended the celebrations as a "special guest" of the country.

Yang arrived in Pakistan yesterday for the event.

Abbasi said that China and Pakistan have "always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations."



He called on the international community to "play its role" in resolving regional conflicts, "particularly the Kashmir dispute" between India and Pakistan in conformity with the UN resolutions to ensure durable peace in the region.

Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistan's 18th prime minister on August 1 after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.

"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he said.

He termed terrorism as the biggest challenge confronting the world in the 21st century and highlighted Pakistan's "unparalleled sacrifices" in the fight against this menace.

In his address, President Mamnoon Hussain called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan.

He said it is time to forget "personal grievances" and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharif's ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was "pre-planned".

The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital Islamabad along with a 21-gun salute in provincial capitals to mark the official Independence Day celebrations.

Major public and private buildings, roads and avenues have been decorated with national flags, portraits of the national leaders, banners and buntings to give a festive look.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted a huge national flag at the Attari-Wagah border with India soon after midnight last night, kicking off the day-long celebration.

The flag flew at 400 feet, the highest in South Asia.

The 120x80 feet flag is also the largest in the history of the country, Pakistani media reported.

Bajwa was apprised of the recent "ceasefire violations from the Indian side and effective response by own troops".

"There's no better way to celebrate independence than defending the country," he told soldiers.

He also said that Pakistan will always stand with the Kashmiri people "in their just struggle against repression".

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) organised an air show in Islamabad to mark the 70th Independence Day celebrations.

Aerobatic teams from Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia performed before a huge crowd of people who flocked the Fatima Jinnah Park in the heart of the city to witness the show.

The special appearance of "Solo Turk", the famous aerobatic team of Turkish Air Force, and the internationally acclaimed "Saudi Hawks" of Royal Saudi Air Force alongside PAF aircraft were the main attraction of the show.

Pakistan air force also displayed JF-17 Thunder aircraft, indigenously built with the Chinese assistance.

Tri-Services free fall display of Special Services personnel was another salient feature of the show.

In Karachi, a similar air show by PAF was organised to mark the Independence Day festivities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain today assured his country's firm support to China on issues concerning Beijing's 'core interests' as he met with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang here.

Hussain thanked China for sending a delegation to attend the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan, China's official Xinhua agency reported on the meeting.

Pakistan and China are "iron friends," he said, noting that Pakistan's friendship with China forms the foundation of Pakistan's foreign policy.

He said Pakistan will continue to firmly support China on issues concerning China's core interests, and enhance cooperation with China on international and regional affairs, the report said.

The Pakistani president also pledged that Pakistan will actively join the Belt and Road Initiative and promote the construction of the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. India has opposed the CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said the relationship between China and Pakistan has maintained sound and stable development and become a model of country-to-country relations since they forged diplomatic ties 66 years ago.

China is ready to make joint efforts with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, continue to deepen strategic mutual trust, and understand and support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, Wang said.

The Chinese vice premier also mentioned boosting cooperation with Pakistan on counter-terrorism, security, and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

Wang had met with Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi yesterday.

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The Palestinian Authority decided to release five journalists today after arresting them last week, their lawyer said, a day after political rivals Hamas released a PA-linked reporter.

The five, including from Hamas-linked media, had been arrested in the occupied West Bank on accusations of "leaking sensitive information to enemy groups".

Three of the five were freed earlier today, with the others expected to be released later in the day, the lawyer said.

"The relevant courts decided to free five journalists and all journalists are supposed to be released," Alaa Freijat, lawyer for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, told AFP.

They were held under the PA's new electronic crimes law, which has been criticised by rights groups who say it restricts criticism of officials on social and traditional media, with the potential for jail sentences.

One of the journalists worked for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.

The releases came a day after Hamas freed a journalist in the Gaza Strip from the PA-linked Palestine TV.

Fouad Jarada, 35, was arrested in June by Hamas authorities.

The PA run by president Mahmud Abbas is based in the West Bank, while Islamist movement Hamas controls Gaza.

The two factions have been unable to reconcile in a decade and are often at loggerheads.

The journalists' syndicate has called for media to be spared the fallout from the split between the Palestinian factions.

In 2016, Freedom House classified the media environment in the West Bank and Gaza as "not free", ranking it below Iraq and Zimbabwe and level with Russia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) today admitted a petition filed by Reliance Communications for its merger with smaller rival Aircel.

The NCLT bench of judges BSV Prakash Kumar and V Nallasenapathy also admitted RCom's petition for a 51 per cent sale in its telecom tower business to Canadian fund Brookfield Infrastructure Group.

It posted both the petitions for final hearing on September 13.

The Department of Telecom, represented by senior council Beni Chatterji, had earlier told the tribunal that it would be appropriate for Aircel and RCom to take permission from the Supreme Court since the issue of 2G spectrum of Aircel is pending there.

RCom, which is apparently sitting on a huge debt pile, told the tribunal that it is running against time to complete the merger with Aircel and stake sale in the tower business. Both the deal is part of the Anil Ambani group company's bid to trim its debt.

Post-merger, debt of RCom will come down to around Rs 20,000 crore from over Rs 41,362 crore as of March 2016, while that of Aircel to around Rs 4,000 crore, the companies had claimed while announcing the merger.

The city-headquartered RCom had signed an agreement to merge its wireless business with the Malaysian Maxis Communications-owned Aircel and Dishnet Wireless, last September in an all stock deal.

Merger will combine Rcom's struggling wireless business and Aircel's operations, including the entire spectrum held by the two companies.

The merger would create asset base of over Rs 65,000 crore and net-worth of Rs 35,000 crore. Both RCom Maxis will hold 50 per cent each in the merged entity.

The companies have already received approvals from the markets watchdog Sebi, and the bourses for the proposed merger as also shareholders' approval.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Saudi Arabia and Iraq are to launch a joint trade commission, the Saudi cabinet announced today, in a sign of a thaw in ties between the two neighbours.

"The cabinet has decided to approve the establishment of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordinating Commission and to delegate the Saudi minister of trade and investments to sign on behalf of the kingdom," read a statement carried by state-run SPA agency.

The two countries went a quarter century without diplomatic relations, which were cut following Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait after which Saudi Arabia served as the launchpad for a US-led coalition to oust Iraqi forces.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq, OPEC's top two producers, were both dealt a serious blow when oil prices plummeted following a global production glut in 2014.

Riyadh and Baghdad showed an improvement in ties in June, when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the kingdom followed by a series of visits by high-ranking officials.

Iraq's Energy Minister Jabbar al-Luaybi and his Saudi counterpart Khalid al-Falih last Thursday jointly announced they would strengthen their commitment to pledged oil production cuts and vowed to ensure coordination of their nations' oil policies.

OPEC and non-OPEC members have pledged to cut back on production in an effort to stabilise market prices.

While Saudi Arabia met its production limits in July, Iraq only made one-third of the cut it had pledged, according to a report published by the International Energy Agency.

Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who led a militia that fought against the US occupation of Iraq, last month made a rare trip to Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally of Washington.

The rekindling of ties comes at a time of diplomatic crisis in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia cut all ties with neighbouring Qatar in June, accusing the emirate of supporting Islamist extremists and working with Shiite Iran.

Qatar, the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has denied the allegations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) today produced in the Supreme Court the draft communication on safety policy and adherence of guidelines on disaster management for schools, which would be sent by it to all state governments.

The NDMA placed the draft letter, which would be sent to the chief secretaries and the secretaries incharge of education departments of all states, before a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, which approved it and expressed satisfaction on the steps taken.

The apex court directed that the guidelines and policy spelt out by the NDMA in the letter should be implemented by all the concerned authorities in the states.

"We are satisfied with the draft letter to be sent by the NDMA to all the chief secretaries and secretary incharge of the education department of all states. We hereby direct that the same will be implemented by all concerned authorities," the bench said while disposing of the petition.

The bench was dealing with a PIL filed one Avinash Mehrotra seeking safety guidelines for school after the Dabwali fire incident in Haryana and the Kumbakonam tragedy in Tamil Nadu.

In the draft letter placed before the court, the NDMA has said that guidelines on school safety policy 2016 prepared by it were statutory in nature and statutorily required to be complied with "scrupulously without any deviation".

"Special attention should be paid to fire safety. All the requirements to ensure safety of children in schools mentioned in the said policy of 2016 are statutory in nature and everyone involved in the process of ensuring safety of children are statutorily bound by the same," the letter said.

It further asked the states that the district education officer of each district "shall be declared to be a nodal officer with responsibility, liablity and obligation" as well as powers and functions to ensure strict compliance with the national disaster management guidelines (school safety policy) 2016 within the district of his jurisdiction.

"It is observed that the CBSE schools, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan do not fall within the jurisdiction of the state administration or district education officer of each district in a state. For the purpose of administration of these schools, the central government can directly monitor them.

"However so far as the implementation of national disaster management guidelines (school safety policy) 2016 is concerned, it is imperative that a nodal officer is earmarked who can ensure adherence and compliance to the said policy by all above referred schools and who is functioning at local district level," it said.

The NDMA has further said that it would be the duty of district disaster management authority to ensure compliance with the guidelines on the school safety policy and monitor its compliance.

"The chief secretary of each state will satisfy himself about the due discharge of functions by the district disaster management authority as well as district education officer as a nodal officer and would send a report containing compilation of quarterly reports received by him from the district level authorities/nodal officer to the department of school education and literacy, Ministry of HRD as well as NDMA," it said.

It said that department of school education and literacy, Ministry of Human Resources and Development and the NDMA would jointly monitor the implementation of the guidelines at the national level through periodical meetings for each state and periodical reviews.

The apex court had earlier pulled up the union government for not coming up with guidelines on disaster mangement to make schools safer even after the death of a large number of children in fire incidents in Dabwali and Kumbakonam. It had then asked NDMA to come up with comprehensive guidelines to prevent such incidents.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court today asked the authorities to take a final decision on the beautification plan of the historic Haji Ali Dargah campus and its surroundings in south Mumbai and execute it by the year end.

The apex court, which had earlier saved some illegal portion of Kinara Masjid built on the approach road to the Dargah from being razed, asked the state government to decide on the plea "one way or the other" and sought its regularisation before October 4, the next date of hearing.

Referring to the proposed beautification pathway of the Dargah campus and its surroundings, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, "the same needs consideration at the hands of the concerned authorities.

"We therefore hereby direct that the Collector of Bombay shall convene a meeting of all concerned stake holders and authorities on September 04 and take a final decision, accepting the proposed beautification plan as it is or with modifications as may be considered appropriate, or even a fresh/new beautification plan within three weeks of holding the first meeting (on September 04)."



The court said that on the next date of hearing, the finally approved plan be placed before it along with an affidavit indicating the time within which the beautification plan will be implemented.

"We hope and expect that the implementation of the beautification plan will be carried out, under all circumstances, before December 31, 2017, so that the visitors to the Haji Ali Dargah in the new year will experience the efforts of all concerned in upgrading the existing structure and its environment," it said.

At the outset, the bench considered the response of the Maharashtra government on the steps taken to remove squatters from the area near the dargah.

The government said that it has removed the squatters and now six illegal structures remain to be demolished as they are protected by the orders of some competent authorities.

"With reference to the above six remaining structures,... we consider it just and appropriate to require the concerned Court/authority to dispose of the pending matters finally, one way or the other.

"To seek expeditious disposal, liberty is granted to the official respondents in the concerned cases to move an appropriate application along with a copy of the instant petition. We hope and expect that all the pending matters will be disposed of within two months from today," it said.

When it was pointed out that one of the alleged encroachers has moved the Bombay High Court, the apex court said the state government will place its order before the HC that no court, except it, can pass any interim order pertaining to removal of squatters.

The court had earlier taken note of the notice issued on March 22 of Deputy Collector Encroachment Removal in which it was said that the area under encroachment was 908 square metres.

The apex court, on July 3, had given the last opportunity to the Maharashtra government to remove squatters from the 908 square metre area earmarked in the HC order and warned that non-compliance would follow serious consequences.

The direction to the Mumbai civic body on the removal of encroachments was passed after the HADT, which had volunteered to remove the encroachments, expressed inability in removing the squatters from an area of about 500 square metres.

The Haji Ali Dargah was constructed in 1431 in the memory of a wealthy Muslim merchant, Sayyed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, who gave up all his possessions before making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The High Court had ordered the formation of a joint task force comprising the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Collector to remove the illegal encroachments on the approach road leading to the Haji Ali Dargah.

The High Court was hearing a petition filed by Sahayak, a socio-legal and educational forum, seeking immediate removal of the encroachments on the approach road to the dargah which is located on the sea.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai was of the view that the land on the approach road to Haji Ali fell in the Collector's jurisdiction and therefore the Collector should remove the encroachments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Security arrangement has been beefed up in and around the city and districts of West Bengal for the 71st Independence Day tomorrow.

Besides Kolkata, entry and exit points of the state, particularly in areas bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, are under extensive surveillance as part of the enhanced security measure for the occasion, a senior police officer told PTI.

"Five star hotels, all types of big and small hotels, including guest houses and other lodging centres in and around the city and the districts are being monitored to ensure no outsiders without proper documentation are accommodated during this period," the officer said, adding leaves of all policemen across the state have been cancelled till August 20.

A top Kolkata Police officer said the city's security arrangement has been divided into two parts. One for the Independence Day event venue at Red Road and another for the entire city.

The Red Road, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be present at the march past of the Kolkata and the state police, has been divided into 14 zones which would be monitored by top officers of Kolkata Police, while teams of radio flying squads and quick response would be on standby, the Kolkata Police officer said.

Beside Red Road, several watch towers have been set up at key junctures, he said adding that unmanned aerial vehicles would be pressed into service for surveillance.

Kolkata Police special task force would keep a strict vigil of vehicular movement as well as on crowds. We have deployed extra policemen at most public places, pilgrim spots as well as shopping malls and movie theatres, the officer said.

Special security arrangements have also been put in place for Howrah, Sealdah, Kolkata and Santragachi railway stations as well as for the city airport.

"We have also deployed police personnel at monuments, theatres and others places of interests like Howrah Bridge, Vidyasagar Setu, Writers' Buildings, Victoria Memorial, Kalighat Temple as well as markets and shopping malls," the officer said.

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BJP chief Amit Shah will take part in a 'padyatra' from Payyannur in Kannur district to Thiruvananthapuram from September 7 to highlight the political violence "unleashed" by the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, the party said today.

Besides Shah, Union ministers, and chief ministers of BJP ruled states will be among those accompanying him.

Shah is likely to be in Kerala for three days and expected to join the yatra in at least three places, BJP national executive committee member V Muraleedharan told reporters after a meeting of state office bearers here today.

The yatra will conclude in the state capital on September 23 and will be led by BJP state unit chief Kummanam Rajasekharan.

An RSS worker, Choorakad Biju, had been hacked to death in May allegedly by CPI(M) activists at Payyanur town that has witnessed a series of clashes between CPI(M) and the RSS for the past one year.

Biju was an accused in a case relating to the killing of CPI(M) activist C V Dhanraj in 2016.

"With the LDF government completing one year in office, the violence against BJP/RSS workers is on the rise," Muraleedharan said, adding that CPI(M) activists were getting closer to the BJP as they were "disillusioned".

To check this flow of its cadres to BJP, the CPI(M) was unleashing violence against the BJP and RSS workers, he alleged.

The meeting is also understood to have discussed the Rs 6.5 crore Medical college scam which hit the party recently.

The scam and various other issues, including leakage of the party's internal enquiry committee report on the scam to the media, also came up for discussions, party sources said.

The BJP had taken disciplinary action against its state secretary V V Rajesh by keeping him out of the duties and organisational responsibilities.

The state unit had come under a cloud recently after an internal party commission report surfaced in the media, which stated that a party functionary had allegedly received Rs 5.6 crore for getting the Medical Council of India clearance to a private medical college in nearby Varkala.

Earlier, S Vinod, convener of the BJP co-operative cell, had been expelled as his name was mentioned in the report.

Meanwhile, the RSS' two-day meet began in Palakkad today in which its chief Mohan Bhagwat is participating.

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Deputy chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT) on black money Justice Arijit Pasayat today said the SIT is now mainly targeting shell companies in the country, which are indulging in tax evasion and money laundering.

After a meeting with officers of government agencies dealing with economic and financial affairs here, he said the officials were instructed to locate the shell companies in the state and share information among them to launch a unified crackdown on these firms.

"The agencies were sensitised to locate and gather information about the dealings of shell companies and how to attach their properties under the provisions of Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act of 2016," Justice Pasayat told reporters.

Sources said the Central government, by executing various schemes over the last three years, has so far detected around Rs 1 lakh crore in black money, a substantial amount of which are stashed abroad.

Most of the schemes introduced by the government were the outcome of recommendations made by the SIT during the last three years, they said.

The SIT is going to submit its next interim report to the Supreme Court in September this year, sources informed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The following are PTI top



stories at 2100 hours:



DEL57 UP-2NDLD CHILDREN



Gorakhpur/Bengaluru: Six more children have died from encephalitis since Saturday at state-run BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where the death of nearly 70 of them, including infants, has set off a nation-wide outrage and political recrimination.

DEL58 DEF-BORDERS-JAITLEY



New Delhi: In the backdrop of rising cross-border terror activities in Kashmir and standoff with China in Dokalam, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley calls upon the armed forces to defend the country's borders with "all its might".

DEL45 DAY-PREZ



New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind pitches for a partnership between citizens and the government to create a New India by 2022 that is a "compassionate society" and includes the "humanist component integral to the nation's DNA".

DEL54 LD WEATHER



New Delhi: Heavy rains in the last three days trigger flash floods in parts of Bihar, where 41 people have died so far and 65.37 lakh affected, and inundate large areas in Assam and north Bengal, paralysing normal life and snapping rail link to the northeast.

DEL53 POL-CONG-PM-IDAY



New Delhi: The Congress accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making "false" promises, and hopes that in his Independence Day address, he will give an account of the promises that have been fulfilled in the past three years.

DEL25 POL-CONG-PRIYANKA



New Delhi: The Congress rejects reports of Sonia Gandhi indicating an active political role for daughter Priyanka and terms it as "mischievous instance of fake news" and unnecessary speculation.

DEL51 POL-SHARAD-JD(U)



New Delhi: The JD(U) says Sharad Yadav has "voluntarily left" the party and rejects his claim of a split in it, asserting that almost every office-bearer and all MLAs are with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

BOM17 GJ-SWINEFLU-TOLL



Ahmedabad: Eleven people die due to swine flu in Gujarat, taking the death toll to 201 since January this year.

LGD28 SC-2ND LD KARTI



New Delhi: The Supreme Court is categorical that Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram, will not be allowed to leave India without subjecting himself to investigation in a corruption case.

LGD33 SC-SUPERTECH



New Delhi: The Supreme Court directs real estate firm Supertech to deposit Rs 10 crore for refunding money to the investors, who want to opt out of its Emerald Towers project which has two 40-storey residential buildings in Noida.

FGN41 PAK-CHINA-LD WANG



Islamabad: China is ready to enhance all-round strategic cooperation and economic ties with its "all weather" ally Pakistan, Vice Premier Wang Yang says as he attends the country's Independence Day celebrations here. By Sajjad Husaain



FGN29 PAK-LDALL DAY



Islamabad: Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi blames India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhi's "expansionist designs" is the "main hurdle" in constructive relations between the two neighbours. By Sajjad Hussain



FGN40 NEPAL-2NDLD FLOODS



Kathmandu: At least 14 people are killed in a landslide in Nepal, taking the death toll in rain-triggered floods and landslides to 80 across the Himalayan nation, even as all the 35 stranded Indian nationals have been rescued, say officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three people including a Turkish national were killed in a suspected jihadist attack on a Burkina Faso cafe, hospital sources said.

"We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at hospital," a paramedic told AFP yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A doctor said a dozen injured people were taken to the hospital. "Three of them have died. The rest of the wounded are in a critical condition," the surgeon said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A trade war seems to be looming between India and China after New Delhi imposed anti-dumping duties on 93 Chinese products amidst a military standoff in Doklam area, two state media reports here said on.

An article in The Global Times, part of the ruling Communist Party's publication group, urged Chinese firms to "reconsider the risks" of investing in India and warned New Delhi to be "prepared for the possible consequences for its ill-considered action."



The article said that China "could easily retaliate" with restrictions on Indian products, but added that it "doesn't make much economic sense" for the country.

It cited figures from the Indian embassy in China to show that Indian exports fell by 12.3 per cent year-on-year to $11.75 billion while India's imports from China rose by 2 per cent to $59 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $47 billion.

According to the Indian Commerce Ministry, the trade deficit with China last year mounted to over $52 billion when the bilateral trade stood at $70 billion.

"A trade war between China and India seems to be looming after the latter moved last Wednesday to impose anti-dumping duties on 93 products from China," the report said.

"If India really starts a trade war with China, of course China's economic interests will be hurt, but there will also be consequences for India," it said.

The report on trade comes as India and China have been locked in a tense military standoff in Doklam in the Sikkim sector.

India has protested the construction of a road by the Chinese military in the area claimed by its ally Bhutan, fearing it would allow Beijing to cut off India's access to its northeastern states.

The Global Times report warned that "given the tense bilateral trade ties, China may consider temporarily suspending investment or economic cooperation projects in India to ensure the security of these investments."

Another article in China Daily said boycotting Chinese goods would harm India.

Referring to the calls of boycott of Chinese products, it said the ongoing standoff in Doklam seems to have spilled over into bilateral exchanges.

"Suffice to say, calling for the boycotting of Chinese products and those related to Chinese investors is not just a fool's errand but also risks backfiring," it said.

"It is the Indian economy that will suffer because of the boycott," it said.

Any attempt to keep Chinese cellphone companies at bay or shut down Chinese-invested factories will hurt the Indian economy and cost Indian jobs, it said.
US President on Monday denounced racism as "evil" as he slammed white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups for the weekend violence in Charlottesville, describing them as "criminals and thugs".

All those who engaged in racist violence over the weekend in Charlottesville "will be held fully accountable," Trump said in a televised address from the White House.

"We will spare no resource in fighting so every American child can grow up free from violence and fear," Trump said in his remarks that lasted for a few minutes.

He did not take any shouted questions from the pool of reporters at the White House.

Hundreds of white supremacists clashed with counter demonstrators as a car rammed into the crowd and a police helicopter crashed on Saturday, killing three people and injuring 19 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans," Trump said.

The Department of Justice, he said, has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American, and wounded .

"To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend's racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered," he said.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America," said the US President.

Observing that those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America, he said two days ago a young American woman, Heather Heyer, was tragically killed.

"Her death fills us with grief, and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers and our love," Trump said. He also mourned the death of two Virginia state troopers in the helicopter crash near the protest site.

As a candidate, Trump said, he promised to restore law and order to the country.

"Our federal law enforcement agencies are following through on that pledge. We will spare no resource in fighting so that every American child can grow up free from violence and fear," he said.

"We will defend and protect the sacred rights of all Americans, and we will work together so that every citizen in this blessed land is free to follow their dreams, in their hearts, and to express the love and joy in their souls," Trump said.

Earlier, Trump had condemned the violence but said "many sides" were involved, inviting criticism from across the political spectrum for not specifically denouncing the far right.
US President Donald Trump is under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for his muted response to the violence unleashed by white supremacists during a rally in Virgina in which a woman was killed.

Trump yesterday condemned violence by "many sides" - but stopped short of explicitly condemning far-right groups. The White House has since clarified in a statement that his condemnation included white supremacists.

A woman was killed and 19 were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville.

"I'd like the President to come out today, as I asked every elected official in this country. Don't hide. Be strong and do the right thing. Tell white supremacists, tell the neo-Nazis, tell the Ku Klux Klan members, tell them all. We've had enough of it. Get out of our country. You are not wanted here. You are dividing us," said Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Governor.

McAuliffe expressed his frustration over the top leadership not being vocal and specific in condemning the white supremacist groups responsible for this.

He has declared a state of emergency in Virginia.

The city has a population of about 50,000, according to 2010 census, where many Indian-Americans also live. The University of Virginia campus has a significant number of Indian students.

"I would call upon the President, the next opportunity he has to speak, to call out the white supremacists for who they are, for their hatred, for their bigotry, for the Nazis," said McAuliffe.

"We have got to work together on reconciliation to come together. This isn't politics. This is about who we are as a nation, and I call upon every elected official to join us together, to come up with constructive ways of healing, of reconciliation and just telling these people to stop," the Virginia Governor said as the White House spent most of the day in defending Trump.

"The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo- Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together," a White House spokesperson has said in a statement.

"When he condemned bigotry and hatred on all sides, that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis. I know it's clear in his mind and it ought to be clear to all Americans," National Security Advisor Lt Gen H R McMaster was quoted as saying by the NBC .

Democrats as well as some Republicans were quick to call out Trump's language and apparent failure to single out white nationalists, who had organised Saturday's "Unite the Right" rally.

Republicans also spoke out, and used the words white nationalism or white supremacy. House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted: "White supremacy is a scourge. This hate and its terrorism must be confronted and defeated."



Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie condemned the "racism and violence of white nationalists" and said, "Everyone in leadership must speak out."



However, his political opponents were not satisfied.

"It is an even more horrifying day when these acts take place and the President of this country refuses to acknowledge or condemn white supremacy and domestic terrorism. Instead, he painted a picture of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," said Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

Thousands of protestors gathered in New York and Washington to protest Trump's response to violence in Charlottesville.

Congressman Bennie G Thompson, Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, said that theextremist activity in Charlottesville was terrorism.

"With his weak words in the wake of yesterday's terrorist incident, it is clear we cannot count on President Trump for action...," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana Police today said it has arrested two persons for allegedly killing a former MLA in Delhi's Najafgarh area two years ago.

Fifteen pistols and 62 live cartridges were recovered from the two accused, who were nabbed last night, a spokesman of the police department said.

During checking on Dwarka Expressway near Daulatabad in Gurgaon district, the police tried to stop a speeding car but its occupants opened fire on them in a bid to flee, the spokesman said.

After a brief chase, the police apprehended the persons travelling in the car, who were identified as Hemant alias Pradhan and Narender alias Mintu, both residents of Delhi.

During interrogation Hemant to killing Bharat Singh, a former MLA, and a witness of Singh's murder case named Vipin Singh, the spokesman said, adding a bounty of Rs 1 lakh was announced on the accused after the killings.

Bharat Singh was gunned down in southwest Delhi's Najafgarh in 2015.

The other accused, Narender, was involved in a case of a loot in Gurgaon and abduction of a businessman in Dwarka Sector 23 two months. He also confessed to be an accomplice of Hemant in the killing of the former MLA.

A case has been lodged against the two accused and they were produced in a court today, the spokesman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP President Amit Shah today dismissed the Congress' demand for resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the death of several children in a Gorakhpur hospital, saying such tragedies had happened during that party's rule also.

"It's the job of the Congress to demand resignation. Many such big tragedies have occurred in this big country. This has not happened for the first time. Such (tragedies) have happened during Congress governments too," Shah told reporters in response to a question about the main opposition party's demand for the chief minister's resignation.

Replying to a query, Shah said that unlike the Congress, BJP "does not hold anybody guilty" without investigation.

Several children have died at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) medical college hospital within a span of a week in the UP chief minister's hometown and parliamentary constituency.

The BJP chief said Adityanath had announced a time-bound probe into the tragedy and a report in this regard would be made public after the team submitted its findings.

"Investigations are on. Yogiji has fixed a time-bound investigation. Once the investigation report is submitted, the government will make it public," he said.

"This is an incident and a mistake, at whichever level it may be. All said and done, you cannot deny the party's and BJPgovernment's intention for development of the poor. There is no link between the tragedy and government's intention," he added.

Asked why Narendra Modi had not tweeted on the tragedy, Shah said the prime minister had already expressed his grief over the incident in the media.

"The Prime Minister has already expressed his grief over the incident, and tweet is not the only medium to convey a message. He has already made a statement in the press," Shah added.

On a reported directive of Adityanath on preparations for a "grand" Krishna Janmashtami celebrations when the state was mourning the deaths of infants, he said that everybody is grieved over the death of children in UP.

"Everybody is sad that children have died. But Krishna Janmashtami has its own place as is August 15. Yogi ji has not said in this reference that you celebrate the festival even though children have died. Krishna Janmashtami is being observed. It will be observed across the country and in the same manner it will be in UP too based on people's belief. It is not a government festival."



To a repeated query if it shows the UP government's insensitivity, he asked that if people celebrate it at their homes then what can the government do.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long- rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic's conflict.

The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, who's fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 US election.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administration's growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in US-Russian ties.

The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorization to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to US officials familiar with the plan.

It's not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of US weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers.

Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict.

While Obama was still in office, Trump's campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform.

Now, however, it's under discussion by Trump's senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to talk about the matter publicly.

While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as US and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

"The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.

Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give "full visibility to all the parties that we're not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way."



Russia hawks in the US and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATO's viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new US-Russian partnership.

At one point, two years after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would "go into Ukraine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today called for collective efforts from all mainstream political parties to counter the forces who are trying to destabilise the state.

"The collective voice of the various mainstream political parties would assume much greater strength if all the civil society groups in J&K, of whatever kind, also join the cause to negate the agendas of those who seek to de-stabilise the state," Vohra said on the eve of Independence Day.

He called for introspection by the political parties to assess the net outcome of their policies, their achievements in the past and their targets for future.

"In the backdrop of the prolonged sufferings which the people of the state have been going through, the time has come for every political party in the state to critically assess the net outcome of the policies it has followed in the past and what exactly it seeks to achieve in the future.

"It is a sad reality that in the past years, when the state witnessed recurring turmoil, members of the various political parties, whether in or out of power, failed to muster courage for venturing out of their secure habitats to meet, hear and talk even to their own electors!" he said.

The governor said political parties in the state need to accept the challenge of reaching out to their people winning the hearts, and minds of the youth.

Regretting the loss of lives due to the unrest in Kashmir, Vohra said the recurring disturbances have adversely impacted tourism and trade.

He asserted that Pakistan has continued its support to subversive elements and increased ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) in the state.

"Alongside the continuing disturbances in the hinterland caused by the activities of separatist groups, Pakistan has maintained its strong support to subversive and terrorist activities and, in the recent past, also very significantly stepped up ceasefire violations and attempts at infiltrating a much larger number of terrorists into Kashmir.

"In the past over a year now, security forces have remained perennially engaged in carrying out counter-terrorist operations, particularly in south Kashmir," Vohra said.

He also said the education system in the state has suffered irreparable damage on account of the recurring agitations.

"I have held many meetings with teachers and educational administrators and repeatedly appealed that all possible steps must be taken to see that arising problems are not allowed to affect the education of our children," he added.

The governor, however, noted that despite the severe difficulties faced in the recent years "our boys and girls have been doing extremely well in the various pan-India competitive examinations".

On the occasion of the 71st Independence Day, Vohra said in the past seven decades, the country has achieved notable development on many fronts and "today, we are the fastest growing among the large economies in the world".

"I would yet again appeal to the leaders of all the mainstream political parties in the state to shed their differences and urgently join hands, forge an agreed approach and commence meaningful discussions with the leaders of all groups which propagate divergent beliefs," he said.

Vohra paid homage to the security personnel who sacrificed their lives to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
File photo of Merck & Co CEO Ken Frazier (R) listens to US President Donald Trump speak during a meeting with manufacturing CEOs at the White House in Washington DC. (Photo: Reuters)

Merck & Co Inc Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Trump denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan as criminals and thugs on Monday, bowing to mounting political pressure after initially saying many sides were to blame after a white-nationalist rally turned deadly in Virginia.

Frazier, who is African-American, is the only CEO so far to leave one of Trump's advisory councils because of his reaction to the violence in Virginia. Prominent Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump's response to the violence over the weekend.

The gathering of hundreds of white nationalists took a deadly turn on Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters and killed at least one person.

Trump had said "many sides" were involved, drawing fire from across the political spectrum for not specifically denouncing the far right.

"America's leaders must honour our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal," Frazier said in a statement announcing his resignation. (http://bit.ly/2fFnITM)

"As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism," he said.

Trump responded in a tweet, saying now that "Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

The son of a janitor, Frazier joined Merck as general counsel of one of the drugmaker's subsidiaries in 1992, working his way up to CEO of the company in 2011.

He made his name as the company's top lawyer, steering it through daunting litigation over Vioxx, its widely used painkiller that was withdrawn in 2004 after being linked to heart attacks.

Many observers thought Merck would eventually have to shell out $10 billion or more to thousands of plaintiffs over the drug's withdrawal. But Frazier's legal strategy led to a $4.85-billion settlement in 2007, allowing Merck to refocus on its pipeline of experimental medicines.

Merck shares rose 0.5 percent in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, roughly in line with the wider market.

Frazier frequently made political contributions during the 2016 election, donating to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress but no donations to a presidential candidate during the year.

The political PAC maintained by Merck and funded through donations from Merck employees made over $1.1 million in candidate contributions during the 2016 campaign - but did not contribute to Trump or his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to documents filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents the pharmaceutical industry and lobbies on its behalf in Congress, declined to offer a statement of support for Frazier or to comment on Trump's reaction.

The industry's silence comes as Trump is finalising an executive order on drug prices that would relax industry regulation and contains measures that, some say, would protect existing drug prices or even increase them.

Individually, at least one CEO, John Maraganore of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals , tweeted his support, saying he was "proud to stand with leaders like Ken Frazier."

Other top business leaders also spoke out in response to the violence in Charlottesville.

"I support Ken Frazier's decision. I'm thankful we have business leaders such as Ken to remind America of its better angels," said Hewlett Packard Enterprises CEO Meg Whitman, who ran for governor of California as a Republican in 2010.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein tweeted: "Lincoln: 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together."

Several executives from top U.S. companies have previously stepped down from a number of presidential advisory councils in protest to Trump policies.

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney Co CEO Robert Iger left the President's Strategic and Policy Forum, a business advisory group, in June, after Trump said he would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Musk also left the manufacturing council.

Former Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] CEO Travis Kalanick quit the business advisory council in February amid pressure from activists and employees who opposed the administration's immigration policies.

The White House said Sunday that Trump's remarks condemning violence at a white nationalist rally were meant to include the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups.

Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump for waiting too long to address the violence - his first major domestic crisis as president - and for failing when he did speak out to explicitly condemn white-supremacist marchers who ignited the melee.

Trump on Saturday initially denounced what he called "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

On Sunday, however, the White House added: "The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together."
By Jim Finkle

TORONTO (Reuters) - Neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer moved its domain registration to Google after hosting firm GoDaddy said it would sever ties with the site that promoted Saturday's deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A "whois" search of Internet domains on Monday listed Alphabet Inc's Google as registrar for The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website associated with the alt-right movement.

Representatives with Google could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Google domain registration site says that customers can transfer domains to the Internet giant through an automated, online process that can take 20 minutes.

GoDaddy Inc disclosed on Sunday via Twitter that it had given The Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider, saying it had violated the company's terms of service."

GoDaddy has previously come under sharp criticism for hosting The Daily Stormer and other sites that spread hate.

The company decided to boot the site on Sunday out of fear that it could be used to incite further violence after the events in Charlottesville, including the death of Heather Heyer, who was fatally struck by a car allegedly driven by a man with white nationalist views.

"With the violence that occurred over the weekend, the company believed this site could incite additional violence," said the person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

The internet hosting company's rules of conduct ban using its services in a manner that "promotes, encourages or engages in terrorism, violence against people, animals or property."

Meanwhile, Cloudflare, a private firm that also provides internet services to The Daily Stormer, declined to say if it was looking at severing ties.

"Cloudflare is aware of the concerns that have been raised over some sites that have used our network. We find the content on some of these sites repugnant," the company said in a statement.

"While our policy is to not comment on any user specifically, we are cooperating with law enforcement in any investigation," it added.

Daily Storm publisher Andrew Anglin could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto; Additional reporting by Salvador Rodriguez and Chris Michaud; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Zieminski)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Karolin Schaps

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday as a slowdown in Chinese refining raised concerns about demand in the world's second-biggest consumer, while an increase in U.S. drilling capacity could deepen a global supply glut.

Chinese refineries processed 10.71 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, National Bureau of Statistics data showed, down around 500,000 bpd from June and the lowest rate since September 2016.

Analysts said the drop was steeper than expected, exacerbating concerns that a glut of refined fuel products could weaken Chinese demand for oil.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures were at $51.74 a barrel at 1134 GMT, down 36 cents from Friday's close. They touched a low of $51.61 earlier in the session.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading at $48.51, down 31 cents.

Investors were also cautious after data published by oil services firm Baker Hughes on Friday showed explorers increased U.S. oil drilling capacity for the second time in three weeks, extending a 15-month recovery.

The rising rig count hints at sustained output growth just as the world's major oil producers, excluding the United States, try to stem oversupply by trimming production.

Efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers to limit output have helped prop up prices above $50 a barrel.

Breaching this threshold has meant more money managers are betting on further gains in Brent, with the latest ICE exchange data showing investors last week raised net long holdings of the commodity by the highest amount this year.

This contrasts with more bearish bets placed in the U.S. market, where investors cut net long U.S. crude positions last week, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Oversupply has been exacerbated by rising production in OPEC member Libya, which is exempt from a global deal to cut output and has been trying to regain its pre-war production levels.

"The recovery in Libyan production has been the single largest factor driving global supply growth in the last few months," oil analysts at Panmure Gordon wrote.

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Monday it was investigating security violations at its biggest oilfield, Sharara.

Sharara has been producing around 270,000 bpd but the NOC did not specify whether the violations had affected output.

Workers at the country's Zueitina export terminal have also threatened to block a tanker due to dock on Saturday unless demands for salary and overtime payments are met.

(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson)

(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.)
PANAJI, India (Reuters) - Titan Co, India's biggest listed jeweller, expects its jewellery sales to rise by 20-30 percent in 2017/18 fiscal year ending March, as it plans to add more than two dozen retail stores to boost its presence in small towns, a senior company official said.

"We are planning to add 25 to 30 stores on franchise basis this year on top of existing around 250 stores," Sandeep Kulhalli, senior vice president, retail and marketing at Titan, told .

Titan shares rose as much as 4.6 percent to a record high of 636.65 rupees on Monday. They have risen 86 percent this year up to Friday's close.

The company's total income in June quarter surged 43 percent to 40.50 billion rupees ($632.6 million) from a year ago due to higher jewellery sales during annual Hindu and Jain holy festival of Akshaya Tritiya.

The government's efforts to bring transparency in bullion trading by making large cash transactions illegal and mandating tax code for such deals is also helping the company, he said.

"Earlier people were buying from small jewellers as they were not asking for PAN card or accepting cash. With the government restrictions, they don't see any benefit in buying from small jewellers," Kulhalli said.

($1 = 64.0250 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Scott Malone

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump faced renewed pressure on Monday to respond more forcefully to a violent white-nationalist rally in Virginia, after drawing a storm of criticism when he avoided explicit condemnation of far-right groups.

In a strong rebuke to the president, the chief executive of one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies resigned from a business panel led by Trump. Merck & Co Inc CEO Kenneth Frazier cited a need for leadership countering bigotry.

The Republican president has been assailed by Republicans and Democrats alike over his handling of Saturday's violence in Charlottesville, in which a woman was killed when a man drove his car into a group of counter-protesters.

Trump was meeting top law enforcement officials at the White House on Monday to discuss the issue. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he expected the president would address the incident again later in the day.

Critics said Trump waited too long to address the violence, and slammed him for stating when he did that "many sides" were involved, rather than explicitly condemning white-supremacist marchers widely seen as sparking the melee.

A 20-year-old man said to have harbored Nazi sympathies as a teenager was facing charges he plowed his car into protesters opposing the white nationalists, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 people. The accused, James Alex Fields, was denied bail at an initial court hearing on Monday.

Merck's Frazier, who is black, did not name Trump or criticize him directly in a statement posted on the drug company's Twitter account, but the rebuke was implicit.

"America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy," said Frazier.

Trump immediately hit back, but made no reference to Frazier's comments on values, instead revisiting a longstanding gripe about expensive medicines. Now he had left the panel, Frazier would have more time to focus on lowering "ripoff" drug prices, Trump said in a Twitter post.

The outrage over Trump's reaction to the Charlottesville violence added to a litany of problems for the president.

Opponents have attacked him for his explosive rhetoric toward North Korea and he is publicly fuming with fellow Republicans in Congress over their failure to notch up any major legislative wins during his first six months in office.

In his comments on Saturday, Trump denounced what he called "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides." Under pressure to take an unequivocal stand against right-wing extremists who occupy a loyal segment of Trump's political base, the administration sought to sharpen its message.

The White House said in a statement on Sunday Trump was condemning "all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK (Ku Klux Klan), neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups." Vice President Mike Pence also denounced such groups on Sunday.

Authorities said Heyer, 32, was killed when Fields' car slammed into a crowd of anti-racism activists confronting neo-Nazis and KKK sympathizers, capping a day of bloody street brawls between the two sides in the Virginia college town.

Jeff Sessions tried to defend the president in a series of television interviews on Monday in which he also stressed the administration was taking a robust approach to investigations. The attack on counter-protesters "does meet the definition of domestic terrorism," Sessions said.

'NAZIS GO HOME'

Fields appeared in Charlottesville General District Court by video link from Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. He was being held there on a second-degree murder charge, three counts of malicious wounding and a single count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The next court date was set for Aug. 25.

The U.S. Justice Department was pressing its own federal investigation of the incident as a hate crime.

A small group of people clashed outside the courthouse after the hearing, with two men blaming those who protested against the white nationalist rally with sparking Saturday's violence.

"The police department did not do anything to protect us," Matthew Heimbach, one of the men, said. "Radical leftists are the ones that brought the violence. They are the ones that tried to kill us."

A women yelled "Nazis go home!" over and over at Heimbach until police ushered him away. The Southern Poverty Law Center says Heimbach is considered to be the face of a new generation of white nationalists.

The weekend disturbances began when white nationalists converged to protest against plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the commander of rebel forces during the U.S. Civil War.

The violence prompted vigils and protests from Miami to Seattle on Sunday, including some targeting other Confederate statues. Such monuments have periodically been flashpoints in the United States, viewed by many Americans as symbols of racism because of the Confederate defense of slavery in the Civil War.

In Atlanta, protesters spray-painted a statue of a Confederate soldier, and in Seattle, three people were arrested in a confrontation between protesters supporting Trump and counter-protesters, local media reported.

The web hosting company GoDaddy Inc said on Sunday it had given the neo-Nazi white supremacist website the Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider after the site posted an article denigrating Heyer. The Daily Stormer is associated with the alt-right movement.

Derek Weimer, a history teacher at Fields' high school in Kentucky, told Cincinnati television station WCPO-TV he recalled Fields harboring "some very radical views on race" as a student and was "very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler."

Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015 but was "released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015," the Army said.

(Reporting by Scott Malone and Ian Simpson in Charlottesville; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Writing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Bill Rigby)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Lesley Wroughton and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday authorized an inquiry into whether to investigate China's alleged theft of American intellectual property, declaring it "a very big move" while the country's largest business lobby group urged the two countries to resolve differences.

Trump broke from his 17-day vacation in New Jersey to return to Washington and sign a memorandum that instructs U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to look into whether to investigate China's trade policies on intellectual property, which the White House says are harming U.S. businesses and jobs.

The inquiry, which U.S. administration officials say will take up to a year to complete, is likely to escalate tensions with Beijing at a time when Washington has asked for its help on North Korea.

"Ambassador Lighthizer, you are empowered to consider all available options at your disposal," Trump told reporters, flanked by Lighthizer and members of his economic team, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "It's a very big move," he added.

Analysts said the action was aimed at pressuring Beijing into a negotiated settlement to revise its practices.

China's policy of forcing foreign companies to turn over technology to Chinese joint venture partners and failure to crack down on intellectual property theft have been longstanding problems for several U.S. administrations.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying group in Washington, said U.S. companies must get equal access to the Chinese market, but said the two countries should be able to work out the issues.

"If the U.S.-China relationship is to deliver mutually beneficial growth, U.S. firms must enjoy the same broad, secure access to the Chinese market that Chinese firms already enjoy to the United States," Myron Brilliant, the chamber's executive vice president and head of international affairs, said in a statement.

"Equally important, China must end forced technology transfer and protect foreign-owned intellectual property rights within China," he said, "We urge the two governments to work together to resolve these concerns."

In a statement later, Lighthizer said the investigation would be a top priority for his office.

Although Trump constantly criticized China's trade practices on the campaign trail, his administration has not taken direct action against Beijing. It declined to name China a currency manipulator and has delayed broader national security probes into imports of foreign steel and aluminium that could indirectly affect China.

In an editorial on Monday, the state-run newspaper China Daily said the investigation will "poison" relations and warned the Trump administration not to make a rash decision it could regret.

The investigation could take up to a year, according to administration officials, opening the door to a settlement before a possible investigation is launched.

Matthew Goodman, a senior adviser for Asian economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Beijing would likely resist negotiating under the threat of trade sanctions but could be amenable to a backdoor deal.

"I'm sure they will formally reject this if an investigation is launched and there is an implication this is going to require negotiation to resolve it," Goodman said. "But will they quietly be willing to talk about some of the underlying concerns?"

Jonathan Fenby, an analyst at the TS Lombard consultancy, said China was not interested in a short-term trade fix with the United States and will resist "attempts to tie it down."

Trump had been expected to seek a so-called Section 301 investigation earlier this month, but an announcement was postponed as the White House pressured for China's cooperation on North Korea.

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a popular trade tool in the 1980s that has been rarely used in the past decade, allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect U.S. industries from "unfair trade practices" of foreign countries.

(Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson and David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Monday that a probe on whether to launch an investigation into China's intellectual property practices will be one of his office's "highest priorities."

Lighthizer said in a statement that China's industrial policies and other practices "reportedly" have forced the transfer of vital U.S. technology to Chinese companies.

"We will engage in a thorough investigation and, if needed, take action to preserve the future of U.S. industry," Lighthizer said. "Thousands of jobs are at stake for our workers and for future generations."

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sahara Group's efforts to buy some time before the Aamby Valley was put up for sale seems to have failed with the Bombay High Court on Monday putting up the prestigious property in Maharashtra for a public auction. The reserve price for the property has been set at Rs. 37,392 crore. Three days earlier, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Sahara Group's plea to postpone the auction of the property. Notices in prominent media the public auction of "sale/lease" on an "as-is-where-is-whatever-there is' of the Aamby Valley City has been issued. The auction will take place in two phases for two days.

The official liquidator of the Bombay High Court while inviting bids has described Aamby valley as an 'ultra-exclusive chartered city'. Aamby Valley has modern villas, golf course, hospital, school and airport under its premises that spread over 6,761.6 acres near Lonavala. "The ultra- exclusive chartered city has residential options ranging from the Timber Chalets to fabulously modern and customised villas in distinct architectural styles and several amenities such as golf course, airport, hospital, adventure sports, retail, entertainment, international school and hospitality," the official liquidator said.

While the court proceedings were going on last week, a Mauritius-based investor, Royale Partners Investment Fund had offered $1.67 billion (over Rs 10,700 crore) for Aamby Valley project. The Supreme Court, however, did not stop the auction proceedings. As per rules, those who want to bid for Aamby Valley will have to submit a KYC forms. If they qualify, they will have to invite bids along with 15 per cent of the reserve price as earnest money.

Here are all the top developments related to Aamby Valley Auction

Sahara group has been wanting to prevent the auction of the Aamby Valley Project. The group believes that if Aamby Valley is worth over Rs 1 lakh crore and if it is sold in a hurry, it will not fetch the right value. The Aamby Valley is spread over more than 10,000 acres and includes luxury resort accommodation and an 18-hole golf course. Sahara Group had earlier said that the "court's insistence to sell Aamby Valley whose value is more than Rs 1 lakh crore will only be a big favour to those one- two corporates who want to grab it cheaper". According to a PTI report, big corporate houses such Tatas, Godrej, Adani and Patanjali apart from real estate developers including Omaxe and Eldeco have shown interest in buying Sahara group's 30 properties. But there's no knowledge if these companies will also bid for Aamby Valley. The valuation of most of Sahara's properties were expected to take a hit due to a hurry in getting the deals closed within a short time. On August 10, Supreme Court had dismissed Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to put on hold the auction process of the group's ambitious luxury project Aamby Valley, in south of Mumbai, valued at Rs 34,000 crore. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Sahara Group, had urged the Supreme Court to postpone the publication of auction notice from August 14 to September 16. Sibal had said Sahara Group's hotels in New York were sold and the group would be would able to deposit Rs 1,500 crore into the SEBI-SAHARA refund account by September 7. But Arvind Datar, senior advocate representing the SEBI, opposed Sibal's proposal and said the auction, which would be global, should not be stalled. The SEBI-SAHARA account was created for the money Sahara group was asked to deposit with the regulator for further refund to the bondholders from which the group had raised money. The Supreme Court court on July 25 had asked Roy to deposit Rs 1,500 crore in the SEBI-Sahara account by September 7. The court had said that it would then consider his plea seeking 18 months time for making complete repayment. The Sahara Group has to repay around Rs 9,000 crore balance amount of the principal amount of Rs 24,000 crore. Roy was arrested after Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) failed to return Rs 24,000 crore to their investors. Roy has been on "parole" since May last year after spending more than two years in jail.




A man in Jamshedpur got a shock of his life when he received a an electricity of - believe it or not - Rs 38 billion over the weekend. According to ANI, Jharkhand Electricity Board has even disconnected the electricity to the house of B.R Guha, the man who received the erroneous bill

Guha, who was left exasperated by the huge sum that the electricity bill cited, described that his humble abode just had three rooms and his family only used fans, a TV and tubelights. "It came as a surprise to us. We didn't anticipate this. We have a house of 3 rooms. We use three fans, three tubelights and a TV at times. How can we have such a huge bill?" he told the news agency.

The Guha family has filed a complaint to the Jharkhand Electricity Board after discussing the matter with their neighbour, who seemingly helped them raise the issue. Guha's daughter Ratna Biswas expressed her frustration at the electricity board's error and suggested that it had got her parents worried.

"My mother is a sugar patient and my father has pressure. It was only after our neighbors intervened that we were able to do anything," she said.
Nokia 5 made its first public appearance earlier this year and was launched in India a few months later. However, Nokia hasn't been able to make the device available to interested buyers so far. Earlier last month, we reported that the delay was probably caused due to the onslaught GST.



Now, according to a new report, Nokia fans have a reason to rejoice. A report from NokiaPowerUser claims that Nokia 5 will go on sale on Independence Day.



One important factor, however, is that Nokia 5 will only be made available via offline stores. Similar to the Nokia 3310, Nokia 5 is a part of HMD Global's plan to amass popularity in the offline segment of our country.Later, the device was made available online on Croma's website.



Also Read: Nokia 5, Nokia 6 availability affected by GST, retailers not ready to accept stock



Nokia 5 will sell from various B&M stores in top Indian cities from August 15. The report also provides a list of the cities that will get the device in the first wave of sales. Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Calicut, Bhubaneshwar and Bhopal are the cities that will start receiving the devices.

Here are the retailers that will be selling the device across these cities:

Sangeetha Mobiles, Poorvika in Chennai & other cities, Big C in Hyderabad and Croma

HMD Global started pre-bookings for Nokia 5 in India from the first week of July. The Finnish company has been looking to re-establish the household name in the Indian smartphone market, radicalised since its last time here. Working in this direction, the company launched Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3 in India last month.

Specifications

The Nokia 5 comes with a 5.2-inch screen protected by 2.5D sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass. The smartphone runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 430 which is paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The company is providing a MicroSD card slot that can accommodate a card of up to 128GB.

The phone comes equipped with a fingerprint scanner and runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. The phone has a 13-megapixel camera on the back and an 8-megapixel one at the front. The primary camera has dual-tone flash and both snappers have f/2 aperture.

In connectivity department, Nokia 6 has micro US 2.0, USB OTG, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and W-Fi. The device measures 149.7x72.5x8.05 mm and houses a 3000 mAh non-removable battery. The device will be priced at Rs 12,899 but can vary from retailer to retailer.
Afghanistan has been a factor in the rivalry between India and Pakistan since 1947. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embarked upon a campaign to isolate Pakistan from developments in Afghanistan. The Sixth Heart of Asia summit, held in Amritsar, India in December 2016, was overshadowed by this increasing enmity. Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani sided with Modi, accusing Islamabad of all ills in Afghanistan. New Delhis and Kabuls approach at Amritsar must be avoided in the future. Kabul needs to put its house in order and should not become a party to Indo-Pakistan rivalry. New Delhi and Islamabad also need to understand that expanding this rivalry into Afghanistan will not serve their interests.

BACKGROUND: In the recently held Senate Armed Services Committee hearing regarding Washingtons Afghanistan policy and options, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats informed the members that Islamabad does not want heavy Indian influence in Afghanistan and will likely turn to China to offset New Delhis sway on its western borders. This view is linked with Indias rising international status and ever deepening ties to the United States. Defense Intelligence Director Lt. General Vincent Stewart stated: Pakistan  desires for Afghanistan some of the same things we want: a safe, secure, stable Afghanistan  that does not have heavy Indian influence. Stewart added,  they hold in reserve terrorist organizations  so that  if Afghanistan leans towards India, they will no longer be supportive of the idea of a stable and secure Afghanistan that could undermine Pakistans interests.

A closer look at the Islamabad-Kabul-New Delhi trilateral relations indicates that contrary to the generally held view, Afghanistan is among the oldest factors in the India-Pakistan rivalry. At the time of partition in 1947, Kabul demanded that Pakistans Pashtun belt should be given the choice to opt for independence, stay with Pakistan or join Afghanistan. Kabuls was the only vote against Pakistans admission to the United Nations in September 1947. Islamabad believed that the leadership in Kabul was in fact puppets of New Delhi. When Sardar Daud became Afghanistans Prime Minister in 1953 and later President in the 1970s, he intensified the Kabul-Islamabad rivalry by arming and providing sanctuaries to Baloch insurgents. Reciprocally, with support from Washington, Islamabad provided support to Afghanistans anti-communist opposition. After the Soviet withdrawal, Islamabad was hoping for a cooperative government in Kabul as a stable Afghanistan would become a gateway to the newly independent Central Asian states for economic benefits of trade as well as gas and oil pipelines emanating from Central Asia. This did not materialize due to the subsequent Afghan civil war, in which regional countries supported their favorite Mujahedeen factions.

By the mid-1990s, Islamabad switched its support from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to the Taliban, which formed the first-ever Pakistan-friendly Afghan government with no links with India. After the tragic 9/11 attacks, Islamabad had very limited options, especially because New Delhi was quick to offer full support for U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Islamabad decided to join the U.S.-led global war on terror, factoring in the eventuality of Washington accepting New Delhis offer. Alarm bells rang in Islamabad in November 2001 when despite Washingtons assurances, the Northern Alliance (supported by New Delhi during the civil war), triumphantly moved into Kabul. In the 2001 Bonn Agreement, it further consolidated its role in Afghanistans future.

For Islamabad, this was back to square one: a hostile and pro-India Kabul. Since then, Kabul has accused Islamabad of supporting the Taliban insurgency, whereas Islamabad accuses Kabul of providing India with a playing field for conducting anti-Pakistan activities, especially in Baluchistan through the Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat.

The election of Narendra Modi as Indias Prime Minister added to this animosity. Soon after taking office, Modi embarked upon a policy to isolate Pakistan and showcase it as the troublemaker in the region. Reacting to the terrorist attack on the Uri camp in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Modi boycotted the 19th SAARC summit to be held in November 2016 in Islamabad, which eventually killed the summit. In the wake of all this, the annual Heart of Asia (Istanbul Process) summit took place in Amritsar, and was overshadowed by the increasing enmity between India and Pakistan.

IMPLICATIONS: Afghanistan continues to pose a serious security threat to the region. Yet a number of problems that Kabul faces are due to its neighbors. It could be argued that the solution to these problems lie not inside Afghanistan alone but also in the capitals of the regional states. All states in the region have their own interests and pockets of influences in Afghanistan, often at odds with other players. This is true for Iran, Uzbekistan, Russia, Turkey and Pakistan, which all have their own objectives in Afghanistan. The presence of the U.S., NATO and the EU further complicates the situation. Yet, the Indo-Pakistani rivalry appears to be a major destabilizing factor for Afghanistan. Recently, several reports and analysts have pointed out that the Islamabad-New Delhi rivalry has spilled over into Afghanistan, further worsening the already deteriorating security situation in the country.

Relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have remained tense despite several attempts to improve them, and have recently deteriorated further. New Delhis, and especially Modis, attitude towards Islamabad during the recently held Heart of Asia summit illustrates this problem. Since assuming office, Modi has denounced Islamabad as the host of the Ivy League of terrorism and the mothership of terrorism. At the Amritsar summit, diplomatic protocol was ignored. The advisor to Pakistans Prime Minister on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, was virtually made a hostage in his hotel and was not allowed to go for a planned visit to the Golden Temple or interact with media. Indian security officials attempted to prevent the Pakistani High Commissioner (ambassador) from talking to visiting Pakistani journalists. Modi found an ally in Afghanistans President Ghani, who lashed out at Islamabad and rejected a US$ 500 million aid package that Islamabad had offered Afghanistan, stating that this money would be better used to stop terrorism in Pakistan. He appeared no to consider the fact that he was speaking at a regional forum, rather than a bilateral meeting.

Prior to the summit, one view in Islamabad was that in keeping with the recent development between India and Pakistan, and especially Modis continuous pugnaciousness and attempts to isolate Pakistan, Islamabad should be represented by a lower level officer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead of the advisor to Prime Minister Aziz. Further complicating the problem, Islamabad is conducting its foreign relations without a foreign minister since Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister in 2013, which contributes to a lack of clarity regarding its foreign policy making. There is reportedly an ongoing struggle between the Prime Ministers office, the Foreign Ministry and the Pakistan Army regarding the countrys foreign policy. Islamabad therefore needs to develop a consensus regarding its foreign policy objectives.

Islamabad and New Delhi cannot afford to further expand this rivalry. Both can contribute positively to stabilizing Afghanistan and must develop their policies towards the country in accordance with their national interests; not the zero-sum prism of Indo-Pak rivalry.

CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to the generally held view, Islamabad is not the sole reason for Afghanistans miseries. Afghanistans unity government has failed to perform as differences between President Ghani and Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah are escalating, corruption is rising, governance is non-existing and confrontation is brewing between the Afghan government and the Wolesi Jirga (the lower house of parliament). The First Vice President, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, openly accused Ghani and Abdullah of supporting their own ethnic groups and has revived his Uzbek militia, reportedly responsible for recent kidnappings and torture of Dostums political rivals. In the wake of all this, pointing to Islamabad as the sole factor behind Afghanistans ills is ignoring realities on the ground. Kabul should not become a party to the enduring Indo-Pak rivalry. What happened during the heart of Asia Summit and the way New Delhi and Kabul singled out Islamabad clearly indicates the contrary. Islamabad and Kabul must work on improving their relations, whereas New Delhi must realize that its road to Kabul goes through Pakistan. Together, all countries should take into account what an Indian wise man once said: You cant change your neighbor.

AUTHORS BIO: Rizwan Zeb, Ph.D., is associate editor of the Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs (Sage). He is a former Benjamin Meaker professor, University of Bristol, UK; visiting scholar at the India-South Asia Project at the Brookings Institution. He is also consulting editor of soon to be launched weekly e-paper Pakistan Review. He tweets at @SRizwanZeb.

Image source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prime_Minister_Narendra_Modi_with_Afghan_President_Ashraf_Ghani.jpg accessed on 02.08. 2017
Bamenda BCC in fire N. Melo

The baptist Comprehensive College was set on fire early this Sunday morning. People around Nkwen neigbourhood were shocked to see the school on fire. Many people think that its a criminal act related to the current socio political crisis.

All this is happening just a few days to the next school year. See images below.

Surrounding residents say they were surprised to discover another fire incident in the town, during a tense period when parents are still confused on where to send their children for September school Year. Unidentified individuals have successfully set ablaze the Baptist Comprehensive College, completely destroying everything in the School Saturday night.

The intervention of the Bamenda Army Rescue Unit didnt succeed to prevent the fire. An official of the school said they were informed by a neigbour about the fire, a few minutes after it was set ablaze, but could not prevent it, they had to call the Army Rescue Unit to intervene.

Bamenda BCC in fire (c) N. Melo
| BY Ricki Green |

South Australian iced coffee brand, Farmers Union Iced Coffee, has launched its new name part of its latest campaign to celebrate Fathers Day via Hase Creative. For the first time, the brand that is so very South Australian will be rebranding for a limited time from Farmers Union, to Fathers Union Iced Coffee.

The rebranded Fathers Union Iced Coffee will launch exclusively in South Australia alongside a series of limited edition cartons to celebrate South Aussie Dads across the state that founded the much-loved beverage.

In the lead up to Fathers Day, Fathers Union Iced Coffee will launch four unique carton designs: No.1 Dad, Total Legend, Big Fella and The Boss, for fans to collect and share. Available throughout convenience, supermarkets and independents exclusively in South Australia from today (Monday 14 August 2017).

While the packs may be changing, Farmers Union Iced Coffee will continue to be made in Salisbury, South Australia and be the same great tasting product that all Farmers Union Iced Coffee fans have come to know and love.

Self-proclaimed No.1 Dad and Adelaide Nova radio host Dylan Lewis is backing the campaign, reminding Dads around the state that its a Fathers Union Iced Coffee, or its nothing this Fathers Day. The South Australian funny man has created a series of Fathers Union Day advice videos for Farmers Union Iced Coffee social channels and will be featured in Nova radio ads. The campaign has launched in South Australia through PR and OOH.

Darryn Wallace, marketing and innovation director, Lion Dairy & Drinks said Farmers Union Iced Coffee is synonymous with South Australia.

Says Wallace: We have a proud following of local South Aussie men so what better way to honour some of them this Fathers Day, than with the limited edition Fathers Union Iced Coffee cartons.

Fathers Union Iced Coffee is launching exclusively in South Australia, the state in which the iconic drink was created back in 1977, to show our appreciation for, and celebrate, some of our most loyal fans who make Farmers Union Iced Coffee the icon it is today.

So come on South Australia, raise a carton for the South Australian Dads that raised us.

Creative: Hase Creative / AJF Partnership



Branding: B-Brand

PR: Alt/Shift

Content Production: Hase Creative
| BY Ricki Green |

In a refreshing approach to what is typically a mother and child dominated category, Karicare Toddler is celebrating dads this Fathers Day with a media campaign conceived by Maxus, Sydney.

The campaign, Gentle Feels Good  with Dad, relies on user-generated content calling for photo submissions of dads being gentle, a trait rarely recognised in men, particularly in advertising.

The top 12 submissions will be selected by Karicare Toddler and will be celebrated with an out-of-home gallery. The public will then vote for the top five with voting open from July 31 to August 17 at gentlefeelsgoodtop12.com. The ultimate winner will be chosen by Karicare Toddlers judging panel and will receive a family photo shoot which will be featured in the September edition of The Australian Womens Weekly.

The new campaign is the product of a brief which required Maxus to activate Karicare Toddlers new brand positioning Gentle Feels Good in other channels to support TV and video.

The idea stems from the tension between dads wanting to be shown as being sensitive and the average Aussie bloke who doesnt talk openly about his gentle side. The entry mechanism for the campaign plays on the observation that women appreciate seeing a man openly embrace his sensitive side as Karicare Toddler invites mums to capture, share and celebrate these gentle moments.

The insight behind the campaign is backed by a recent Nickelodeon-commissioned study which found 42% of dads feel the media portrays them as stupid or clueless with 50% of Australians agreeing dads should be depicted as being more sensitive and nurturing by showing them interacting with kids in a variety of activities.

The study also acknowledged that traditional gender based parenting roles have evolved. Todays dads are more hands-on, affectionate and less disciplinarian than previous generations and despite dads actively purchasing and making decisions around groceries, clothing and toys, they are often overlooked or misrepresented by the media.

Says Drew Usher, strategy director for Maxus Sydney, and himself a new dad: Dads are often forgotten by brands but we know they play a significant role in parenting today. These moments set the stage for dads to reveal their true gentle nature.
There seems to be trouble brewing in Android's wearable space. Owners of Android Wear 2.0 have been reporting bugs that have repeatedly persisted or is being caused by recent updates. One of the biggest issues is that Google Assistant won't work outside of being able to do basic internet search. Android Wear has also reportedly been falsely marking recurring reminders as done, making users miss out on reminders. The bad news is this has supposedly been fixed in a patch already. Google has acknowledged the issue and said it's working on fixes. However, it doesn't make a great case for the Android smartwatch market. If they don't move fast, this might not turn out well for them.
Netflix scoops up another important talent to join its roster of powerful content creators. This time, it takes Shonda Rhimes and her production company Shondaland from their longtime partnership with ABC Studios. What's said to be a " rich four-year pact " will have Rhimes and longtime producing partners Betsy Beers create new content for Netflix. She is expected to get a percentage of the back-end on programming she makes for the streaming service. Netflix has long had Shondaland shows like Grey's Anatomy (which is already entering its 14th season), Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder on its service.

ABC will continue to be the home for the abovementioned shows and even an upcoming spinoff for Grey's as well as a new drama called For The People. Rhimes said, "Our current shows will continue to thrive on ABC and Shondaland will be there every step of the way." Rhimes has had a 15-year relationship with ABC. It's being reported her contract with them will expire in June 2018 and she has previously informed ABC about her plans to move on after the contract expiresbut not necessarily to a competitor. While financial terms of the deal weren't discussed, Rhimes was reportedly earning US$10 million a year with her deal with ABC. We expect Netflix would be paying a premium to get her to agree to an exclusive deal. This also gives Rhimes greater creative freedom to make content she'd want to make in formats she'd want to try out.
However, she said the uncertainty in the legislation was "unsatisfactory" and called for reforms to clarify whether ACT courts were unable to receive evidence by audio or audiovisual link from overseas, or could accept the evidence in some circumstances.
Do they really look forward to a bland future of sleek, nearly identical machines that supposedly will create some kind of Metropolis-like utopian city of the future? Are they drooling at the prospect of being able move about the streets and roads without ever having to take their eyes off their electronic devices? Or perhaps they relish the thought that they can squeeze in a few extra hours of work each week as they sit in their cocoons and surrender even more of their individuality to technology?
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.

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Europeans will get to order the updated Honda Jazz starting from November.



It comes with a new 1.5-liter i-VTEC petrol engine, delivering 130PS (128hp), which is said to achieve a fuel economy of 5.4 l/100 km (52.3 UK mpg / 43.6 US mpg) and emit 124 g/km of C02, when combined with the optional CVT that has been revised, offering a more linear and refined response under acceleration, as Honda notes.

The new engine, which doesnt replace the 1.3-liter i-VTEC, with 102PS (101hp), as it will still be offered on all trim levels, except for the Sport, is part of the new Dynamic trim level. This adds a bunch of exterior enhancements, such as a red front splitter and rear diffuser, side sill skirts, tailgate spoiler, LED headlights and fog lamps, and gloss black 16-inch alloy wheels, wrapped in 185/55 tires.

The automaker also upgraded the interior of the new Jazz Dynamic with a unique pinstripe pattern on the upholstery, orange contrast stitching, and leather wrapped steering wheel and gear knob.

Compared to the car it replaces, the 2018MY Jazz brings a new headlight signature, tweaked grille, different bumpers on both ends, and a new metallic color option, called Skyride Blue.

Standard equipment includes the City-Brake Active safety system, automatic headlights and cruise control, while higher grades add Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, and Traffic Sign Recognition, in addition to the keyless entry&go, 7-inch infotainment system, and reversing camera.

Honda will release full details on the updated Jazz at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, where it will mark its first public appearance. Deliveries will start early next year.

PHOTO GALLERY
Fiat Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne has made no secret of his desire for another merger. But without no major automakers in Europe or America showing any interest, Marchionnes switching his focus to the Far East. And it could bear fruit in the form of a buyout at any moment.



Automotive News reports that FCA has been entertaining offers by several major Chinese automakers. Apparently none of them have been sizable enough, but if any of the leading contenders should increase their bids sufficiently, it could be as simple as signing on the dotted line and handing over the keys to the kingdom.

Among those identified as expressing interest are Guangzhou, Geely, Dongfeng, and Great Wall. FCA and Guangzhou already partner on a joint venture to manufacture in China for the local market, while Geely in particular has been snapping up foreign automakers one after the other  including Volvo, London Taxi, Proton, and Lotus.

The impetus for the foreign expansion reportedly comes from the Chinese government, which has been encouraging domestic manufacturers across multiple industries to buy up companies in their field around the world. Sources expect Chinese companies to spend $1.5 trillion on foreign acquisitions over the next decade. But the prospect of a potential FCA acquisition would satisfy more than Beijing bureaucrats.

Chinese automakers have been desperate to break into the large and lucrative North American market, and with the quality of their products having ostensibly improved, it could come down to infrastructure. And FCA has that in spades: 162 manufacturing plants around the world, 87 R&D facilities, and an extensive dealer network that numbers 2,600 showrooms in the United States alone. Executives from some major Chinese automakers have reportedly even gone so far as to meet with representatives of major American dealer groups in preparation for a possible FCA takeover, with reciprocal delegations traveling between China and Michigan to work out details.

The development follows earlier possibilities for takeover from within the Western world have fallen through  most notably from Volkswagen (whose resources are tied up in the diesel emissions debacle) and General Motors (which was less interested in the prospect than Fiat Chrysler was). With no offers incoming, Marchionne set upon a course to court acquisition, taking steps such as discontinuing production of unprofitable small cars and focusing on the pickups, SUVs, and minivans it does well.

A Chinese takeover would be just the latest in a long history of mergers and acquisitions at Fiat and Chrysler. Aside from the former having acquired the latter, Chrysler (which acquired Jeep and Eagle from the defunct American Motors) was previously owned by Mercedes parent Daimler, while GM previously held 20 percent of Fiat (which had in turn gobbled up Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Ferrari, among others).

While a potential takeover would likely include the Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram brands, FCA and its owners could spin off certain properties from the group as separate entities  much as it did with Ferrari and the industrial and agricultural divisions under the CNH Global umbrella. Alfa Romeo and Maserati could be separated, as could suppliers like Magneti Marelli, Teksid, and Comau.

Photo Gallery
Skoda is planning an EV offensive under the close watch of the Volkswagen Group, and one of the vehicles that are believed to be rebadged by the Czech automaker is the I.D. hatch.



This could be known as the Felicia E, AutoExpress says, thus marking the return of the brands moniker that was used on the predecessor of the Fabia, from the mid-90s until 2001.

However, unlike the previous Skoda Felicia, the new Felicia E will be a pure electric car, based on the MEB architecture, and it will be the firms own version of the VW I.D. hatchback. Unlike its German counterpart, though, the Czech variant should be offered in at least two grades. These could allow buyers to choose between either a higher range or a better boot capacity.

It will be about as big as the Rapid Spaceback, but being underpinned by the MEB platform will significantly transform its cabin space, as the British publication believes that it will not only be roomier than the larger Octavia, but also very close to the Superb.

The Skoda Felicia E (name unconfirmed) wont be the manufacturers only EV model, as the zero-emission push will also include the production version of the Vision E Concept. It will also be based on the MEB architecture, and its believed to slot between the Karoq and the Kodiaq in terms of size.

The as-of-yet-unnamed coupe SUV will target the Tesla Model X, at approximately half the price, and its said to become the most expensive product in Skodas family. Its still too early to talk about its specs, but it could benefit from a range of up to 500km (310 miles), and a total system output of more than 300hp.

A Karoq-sized electric SUV is also believed to be in the pipeline, and it could be joined by a two-door or four-door coupe saloon. The latter, which was hinted by the brands R&D chief, Christian Strube, a few months ago, could have a range in excess of 480km (300 miles), and probably more than 300hp. It will likely be initially launched in China, in the first half of next decade, and probably in Western Europe later.

Skoda is still planning to electrify the Citigo, with a zero-emission variant, and it will also offer a plug-in hybrid variant of the Superb, both of which should hit the market in 2019.

Note: Skoda Vision E Concept pictured

PHOTO GALLERY
Toyotas General Manager of Intelligent Vehicle Development has confirmed the automaker will use the 2020 Summer Olympics to showcase an assortment of semi-autonomous vehicles.



Speaking to Automotive News, Ken Koibuchi said the company has big plans for the Olympics which will be held in Tokyo for the first time since 1964.

He declined to go into specifics but said the company will showcase its next-generation semi-autonomous driving system as well as prototypes which preview technology that will be introduced later in the decade. As Koibuchi stated, We want to show a high-spec technology as a showcase.

Details are light at the moment but the publication notes the Japanese government is pushing automakers to map the countrys roads and Koibuchi believes most of the highways will mapped in time for the Olympics. This could pave the way for semi-autonomous vehicles to cruise the highways with relative ease.

Despite the mapping efforts, Koibuchi said the company still needs to start using lidar sensors. Costs have been dropping and the manager said we can expect to see them on Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the near future.

Toyotas next-generation semi-autonomous driving system is expected to start showing up in vehicles next year so its likely well learn more about the technology ahead of the Olympic Games.

Photo Gallery
Photo: chocolate.fit

Are vitamins just expensive pee?

By Dr. David Hatton

Ever heard that taking vitamin is like throwing money down the drain?

First, let's debunk this saying right now. Good quality vitamins do not create expensive pee.

Let's start with some back ground information.

When it comes to vitamins and minerals, there are two categories that each can be classified into:

water soluble

fat soluble.

Vitamin A, D, E, and K are all fat soluble and are able to be stored in the body to be utilized at a later point when they are needed.

The remaining vitamins, such as vitamin C, are water soluble and only stay in the body for a short period of time.

Once these vitamins are absorbed and utilized by the body, the vitamin waste products are filtered out of the blood and excreted in the urine.

So what happens when we take higher doses of vitamins?

For this purpose we will focus on vitamin C. Higher doses of vitamin C are often taken when people feel sick to help boost the immune. If the vitamin C taken is a poor quality supplement, only a small benefit will seen.

Poor supplement quality is a waste of money.

However, good quality vitamin C in the form of L-Ascorbic acid will be utilized by the body to scavenge free radicals, which are damaging if left in the body, and be converted to the oxidized form diketogulonic acid.

Once it has been used by the body and converted, the kidneys filter it out as it is no longer beneficial to the body.

Higher doses of vitamins doesn't just create expensive pee. The body is using the vitamins at a high and effect rate before eliminating the utilized form that is no longer useful.

The key is to make sure the supplements that you are using are the correct form and at the appropriate therapeutic dose.

Many research articles are based around testing the urine content for vitamins after they have been consumed to determine the exact amount that is excreted in urine. In this way, it allows results to show how much the body is absorbing and utilizing.

However, when this form of testing is done, the different forms of vitamins are all clumped together such as seen in the example of vitamin C.

L-Ascorbic acid, dehydro-L-ascorbic acid and diketogulonic acid are all labelled as vitamin C, which is very misleading as different forms indicate different bio availability in the body.

To break this down from a long story to a short line, yes it is beneficial to be take a good quality vitamin supplement and it isn't just a recipe for expensive pee.

When looking at the rack of vitamins at the health food store, it is always important to know which will be most beneficial and which your body needs. This way you can avoid spending money on products your body will not absorb and ultimately creating expensive pee.

Your body, your health.

Dr. David Hatton is a naturopathic physician and co-founder of Helix Integrative Health in Kelowna. Check out www.helixintegrativehealth.ca for more information.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Skaha Lake Ultra Swim.

The annual Skaha Lake Ultra Swim took place in Penticton Sunday morning and a 16-year-old female won by almost 16 minutes.

The Skaha Lake Ultra Swim is a point-to-point course along a meandering warm-water shoreline nestled within an a scenic valley making it an ideal location for ultra distance swims. The race on Aug. 13 was sold out making it an extremely successful event.

"It went really well," said Steve Brown director of Skaha Lake Ultra Swim . "We ended up starting 84 I believe, everybody except one made it all the way through."

Swimmers complete the 11.8k event solo, but accompanied by one swim escort. The swim course is closed 6.5 hours after the start of the event.

Chantel Jeffrey's won in a time of 2:35:03, followed by Haley Berrisford in a time of 2:50:55 and Sean Orb took third with a time of 2:57:15.

"She is a really good athlete in a number of sports," Brown said. "She is a very talented athlete."

The event is one of the most popular events on the final day of the Penticton Peach Festival.
Photo: RCMP

UPDATE: Monday 11:45 a.m.

Police in Kamloops are looking for someone who left a grenade on a public road.

On Sunday, RCMP were notified that a smoke grenade had been left on Grandview Terrace, near Columbia Street West.

Police found the grenade had been activated, but failed to ignite, so it was treated as live ordnance and the area cordoned off. The RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit safely disposed of the grenade.

It's not known where the grenade originated.

Police are asking for the publics assistance in where it came from. Anyone with information is asked to call Kamloops RCMP at 250-828-3000 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

ORIGINAL: Sunday 6 p.m.

A resident of the Kamloops reported finding a grenade in the area.

The citizen stumbled across what may possibly have been a military smoke grenade at 11:09 a.m. on Sunday morning, at the intersection of Grandview Terrace and Columbia St. W.

Kamloops RCMP treated it as a live ordnance and closed off the area. The Grandview terrace did not reopen to the public until 5:10 p.m. Sunday evening.

E Division RCMP Explosive Demolition Unit was contacted and attended the scene to secure the device, according to Sgt. Edward Preto, Kamloops RCMP.

The device that was found has been secured by the RCMP EDU.
Photo: The Canadian Press Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, right, at Osan Air Base, Sunday, in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.

Senior U.S. national security officials said Sunday that a military confrontation with North Korea's is not imminent, but they cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump's national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Trump's tough talk. They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

"We're not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," McMaster said, adding that the Trump administration is prepared to deal militarily with North Korea if necessary.

But he stressed that the U.S. is pursuing "a very determined diplomatic effort" led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that's coupled with new financial sanctions to dissuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from further provocations.

"The U.S. military is locked and loaded every day," McMaster said, repeating Trump's threat.

Pompeo said "there's nothing imminent today," in response to a question about how worried should people be over the escalating tensions. He said the U.S. has a "pretty good idea" of North Korea's intentions, but Pompeo declined to provide specifics. The CIA chief described Kim as "rational" and responsive to "adverse circumstances."

"The reaction in North Korea that we are intending to get is an understanding that America is no longer going to have the strategic patience that it's had that has permitted him to continue to develop his weapons program," Pompeo said. "It's that straightforward."
Photo: The Canadian Press Virginia State Police cordon off area where a car ran into a group of protesters Charlottesville, Va., Saturday.

The young man accused of plowing a car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race, a former high school teacher said Sunday.

James Alex Fields Jr. also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer says.

In high school, Fields was an "average" student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Weimer, who said he was Fields' social studies teacher at Randall K. Cooper high school in Union, Kentucky, in Fields' junior and senior years.

"Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy towards Nazism, that idolization of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy," Weimer said. "It would start to creep out."

Police charged Fields with second-degree murder and other counts for allegedly driving his silver Dodge Challenger through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing a 32-year-old woman and wounding at least 19 other people. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale police response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town and both troopers on board died.

The 20-year-old Fields had been photographed hours earlier carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that organized the "take America back" campaign in protest of the removal of a Confederate statue. The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect, even as a separate hate group that organized Saturday's rally pledged on social media to organize future events that would be "bigger than Charlottesville."
Photo: Abbotsford Police Man charged with murder

An Abbotsford man is being charged with the second degree murder of Clarence Crothers.

On the morning of July 4, Abbotsford Police attended a report of a suspicious death on the 33500 block of Braun Avenue. When police arrived, they found a deceased male, identified as 62-year-old Clarence John Crothers. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took over the investigation.



Shortly into the investigation, police identified an Abbotsford resident. Jeffrey Charles Halicki as a suspect in connection to Mr. Crothers murder. Mr Crothers and Halicki were known to each other and the murder was not believed to be random.

It has been a little over a month since Crothers was murdered, and in that time the investigation has yielded a charge of second-degree murder charge against Halicki.

On Aug. 11, Halicki was arrested for this alleged crime and remains in custody. Mr. Halicki will make his first appearance in Abbotsford provincial court, Monday.
Photo: Contributed Vernon Fire Rescue Deputy Chief David Lind

Two people were taken to Vernon Jubilee Hospital Sunday following a motorcycle accident.

The crash happened in the 6600 block of Bella Vista Road at around 9 p.m.

It sounds like they left the road and hit a fence, said Vernon Fire Rescue Deputy Chief David Lind said, adding because two people were injured, two ambulances responded.

Lind added the injuries were not life threatening.
The BC Wildfire service has released an amazing video showing how large and aggressive a wildfire can be.

The fire at Bishop Bluffs west of Quesnel is an example of the extreme fire behaviour driven by high winds that was seen on a number of fires in the Cariboo Fire Centre over the weekend.

Extreme fire behaviour such as this is a force of nature and suppression efforts are ineffective. The focus of the BCWS shifts to ensuring responder and public safety and protecting values, the service said on its Facebook page.

Although the Cariboo Fire Centre is receiving rain again, we would like everyone to keep in mind that the potential for this kind of fire behaviour still exists once the beneficial effects of rain disappear.
Photo: Contributed The Cariboo Regional District and Canim Lake Indian Band announced today residents are allowed to return to the Canim Lake area.

While evacuation orders are being issued daily in the Cariboo region, one community will get to go home.

The Cariboo Regional District and Canim Lake Indian Band announced today residents are allowed to return to the Canim Lake area.

Due to successful firefighting efforts in the area, the wildfire threat has been reduced which means residents can return, but will remain under an evacuation alert.

Residents are reminded wildfire activity continues in these areas, and air quality remains poor. Those with respiratory issues, small children and the elderly should consider this before they choose to return to the area.

Wildfires remain active and firefighting activities continue in the area. It is important for residents to stay out of active wildfire areas. Interfering in an active fire area will result in crews ceasing ground and air operations potentially endangering nearby properties.

Since this area remains on evacuation alert, residents must be prepared in case the area receives a future evacuation order on short notice.

Local governments may not have time to go door-to-door should a new evacuation order be issued
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 2 p.m.

A female stunt driver working on the movie "Deadpool 2" has died after witnesses say she appeared to lose control of a motorcycle before crashing into a window of a building in downtown Vancouver.

A crumpled motorcycle was seen lying on its side surrounded by broken glass a few metres from the smashed window of the Shaw Tower near the city's waterfront. Crew members appeared distraught and one was in tears.

"She lost control really quickly. It happened in a split second," said Nathan Kramchynski, who works inside the Shaw building and watched the accident from the seventh floor on Monday morning.

He said he had been watching rehearsals of the stunt across the street outside the Vancouver Convention Centre. The stuntwoman had been riding slowly down a set of stairs and stopping when she reached the road, he said.

When it looked like the crew was ready to film the scene, Kramchynski and his coworkers rushed over to the window to watch. But that time, the driver suddenly picked up speed and crossed the street, he said.

"She kind of weaved through, almost hit a pedestrian," he said. "She was going full throttle and then there's a building there."

Sharmina Kermalli was in a Starbucks in the ground floor of the tower when she heard a loud crash. She ran toward the noise and saw a woman lying inside the building, across where the glass panel had been.

Shards were still falling on the woman, and people were running over and picking glass off her face, Kermalli said.

Kermalli said just moments earlier she had walked by the spot where the crash happened.

"I was thinking, what if I was just five seconds (later)," she said.

A spokesman for 20th Century Fox issued a statement Monday that said, "We are deeply saddened by the accident that occurred on the set of Deadpool 2 this morning. Our hearts and prayers are with the family, friends and colleagues of our crew member during this difficult time."

UPDATE: 10:35 a.m.

A stunt driver has died on the set of the newest Deadpool movie.

The sequel to the blockbuster super hero movie is being shot in the Lower Mainland and according to the Vancouver Police Department a female stunt driver has been killed on set.

Vancouver Police can confirm that a female stunt driver has died on the set of Deadpool during a stunt on a motorcycle. VPD officers are at the scene, along with investigators from Worksafe BC., police said in a statement.

Deadpool stars Vancouver native Ryan Reynolds.

 Darren Handschuh

ORIGINAL: 10 a.m.

An accident on the set of Deadpool 2, filming in downtown Vancouver, has injured a stunt person.

Witnesses say a motorcycle rider lost control at Jack Poole Plaza during filming, went off set and through the window of Shaw Tower across the street.

The rider was tended to by paramedics in an ambulance at the scene.

There is no word on the rider's condition.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Shame on us! Australia is standing alongside of America should they be attacked by North crazy. We as Canadians should be the first to stand by our closest friends!

Few can argue in favour of war but it's looking inevitable. If we Canucks somehow survive and the US survives we are going to look like buffoons if we don't help the fight.

We are okay with paying for missile defense for Europe but we don't need that here. Are you kidding me right now? I am convinced the powers that be in this country are not right in the head. I believe our Rainbow Warrior needs to offer our full support to the United States.

Now would be a good time!

Mike Kertesz
Photo: Contributed One person was injured in a boating accident near Copper Island on Shuswap Lake.

RCMP are investigating a boating accident on Shuswap Lake that injured one person.

Const. Valerie Guillaume said on Aug. 8 at 10:17 p.m., Chase RCMP responded to a call of a collision involving two vessels on Shuswap Lake, near Copper Island.

It was reported that one pleasure craft struck the rear of another that was stationary at the time, said Guillaume .

The Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR), based in Sicamous, was called to assist with the rescue, however, other boaters were able to complete the night-time rescue, and RCMSAR was stood down.

Guillaume said the stationary craft was occupied by a man and woman, while two men were on the moving boat.

The 41-year-old woman in the stationary craft suffered injuries as a result of the collision, said Guillaume. RCMP continue to investigate the collision, including whether alcohol played a part in the incident.
Photo: Contributed Officials have yet to determine the cause of an interface fire in Spallumcheen last week.

Fire officials are still looking into the cause of an interface fire in Spallumcheen last week.

On Aug. 10 a wildfire broke out near Hutley Road South.

Fire departments from several communities responded to the blaze as did ground and air resources with the BC Wildfire Service.

Armstrong/Spallumcheen Fire Chief Ian Cummings said the cause of the fire is currently undetermined, but it is still being investigated by the BCWS.
An international team of nuclear safety experts will visit the Tennessee Valley Authoritys Sequoyah nuclear power plant from Aug. 14-31 to review operational safety practices at the facility, located near Soddy-Daisy.

The voluntary peer review is coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, Austria, and is known as an Operational Safety Review Team visit. The teams 16 members came from Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, South Korea, France, Romania, Germany, and China.

Established by the IAEA in 1982, the OSART program is designed to assist member states in promoting operational safety of nuclear power plants through the dissemination of good practices. This will be the ninth OSART review of a U.S. nuclear power plant since the program began.

Areas to be covered during the review include, but are not limited to, operational experience, training and qualifications, radiation protection, chemistry, emergency planning and preparedness, and

maintenance.

Once the OSART reviewers have completed their work, they will produce a report identifying best practices and suggesting possible safety improvements. This report will be provided to the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. government.




State Representative Ron Travis Monday announced two grant awards from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation totaling almost $180,000 for House District 31 to be used for clean energy projects.The monies are a part of TDECs Clean Tennessee Energy Grant program. The CTEG program provides financial assistance to municipal and county governments, utility districts, and other entities created by law. Awarded projects have demonstrated a plan to reduce air emissions, improve energy efficiency, and create cost savings.In total, 24 communities across Tennessee including 11 distressed counties  received approximately $1.9 million in CTEG grant funding.Amounts and recipients in House District 31 include: $69,367 for Sequatchie County. The monies will help reduce electrical usage and costs at the Sequatchie County Justice Center, County Courthouse, and County Health Department through lighting upgrades to LEDs. Total savings for this project is estimated at $42,645 with a wattage reduction of 62 percent and a reduction of 412,022 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually. $110,000 for Rhea County. The funding will be used to install energy efficient roofing, insulation, and lighting at the Rhea County Courthouse/Annex. This will save an estimated $23,366 and 275,282 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually.I am grateful that Governor Haslam and Commissioner Martineau have awarded these funds to our communities so we can improve energy consumption, reduce costs, and boost our local environment for current and future generations of our citizens, said Chairman Travis. Ultimately, these grant dollars will improve the overall quality of life for our residents in Sequatchie and Rhea Counties while also saving them money.For more information about the CTEG program, visit http://tn.gov/environment/article/grants-clean-tennessee-energy-grants
What's it really like to work at Chicago startups and tech companies? Blue Sky's Inside Job lets people on the ground tell us in their own words.

Megan Dodds, 28, Community Director for the Midwest at WeWork

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WeWork is a platform for creators. We provide over 130,000 members with work space, community and services to help them do what they love. We want to create a place where people really work together and actually not just connect on a personal and social level, but really do business together.

Our members run the gamut from freelancers to startups to small businesses to nonprofits and even divisions of Fortune 500 companies. We have a very diverse member base, especially here in Chicago. We have six locations in Chicago: two in River North, one in Fulton Market and three in the Loop area.

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My day-to-day is really focused on helping the companies at WeWork collaborate, whether it's planning and hosting events in our spaces or organizing partnerships with city organizations to strengthen the local community. We're partnering with World Business Chicago to help provide a soft landing pad for international companies to set up offices in Chicago.

I make sure the events we're curating are meaningful and valuable to the community. They totally range; sometimes they're networking events, sometimes they're educational events. It might be a product launch, a panel. We hosted an event at WeWork in the National building, above the Revival Food Hall, on the future of food.

I oversee our Midwest region, so that includes locations in Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago. I live in River North. I walk here (to 20 W. Kinzie St.), oftentimes with my French bulldog, Bleu.

We have floors 9, 10, 12, 13, 17 here. If you look through this keyhole, you'll see one of our conference rooms, a secret room behind this bookshelf. The company started in New York in 2010. Across the world, we have 163 WeWork spaces spanning more than 50 cities and 16 countries.

I joined WeWork in November 2012. I was based in New York. I grew up in Minneapolis, in Eden Praire, a suburb. I went to University of Wisconsin in Madison, majored in journalism, and moved to New York right after I graduated.

I was in digital advertising. I was learning a lot but not necessarily feeling like I was really doing something meaningful. Through some of the networking that I did, I was meeting entrepreneurs and people invested in creating a life and not just a living, and that's what led me to WeWork. I started at WeWork Soho West as an associate community manager.

I traveled a lot to help with opening up new locations. In early 2016, I was in Europe, mainly in Amsterdam and Berlin, helping with locations there, and I moved to Chicago permanently in November 2016. Since I've been here, we've opened Detroit and Minneapolis, so the Midwest is becoming a bigger market for us. It's also an area that's very close to my heart.

One of the things I'm really excited about is this week, we're all heading out to WeWork summer camp. Our entire team from around the world  we're about 3,000 globally  gathers at it. This is our sixth year doing summer camp.

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In previous years, it's been held at the Adirondacks in New York, and this year, it's the first time we're hosting it in the UK, outside London, so that's exciting. It's a festival-esque getaway, where the WeWork team, as well as our members, gather from around the world to take a break.

There are a variety of speakers; there are outdoor events like yoga and community runs. There's artistic events and major musical acts. Florence and the Machine is coming this year. We'll stay in tents. It's an amazing experience. It's awesome to catch up and have these really cool relationships with people from all over the world.

Another cool aspect of our culture is we connect as a team every week over dinner and go over goals and objectives and Chicago-specific initiatives we're working toward. We call that TGIM  Thank God It's Monday.

Creating a great work space is about so much more than just the physical work space. Yes, we provide our members with beautiful collaborative spaces for sure. The energy of this place is really what makes it a great place to work. We have a strong sense of community. I think it's energizing, I think it's inspiring, I think it's collaborative.

As told to freelance reporter Erin Chan Ding. Stories are edited for length and clarity.

[ Click here to read more Inside Job profiles  ]
The entirety of President Trump's job-creation strategy was visible July 26 during a White House ceremony to announce a deal bringing a $10 billion video-screen factory for the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn to southeastern Wisconsin.

The elements included a claim about the number of jobs that was unverifiable and not believable; a description of the cost and terms of the $3 billion in tax incentives dangled in front of Foxconn that concealed their astronomical cost for Wisconsin taxpayers; the presence of political sycophants (in this case, Vice President Mike Pence, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.) to attest to Trump's role in negotiating the deal; and grandiose assertions by Trump himself that it's all about him: "If I didn't get elected, he wouldn't be spending $10 billion," Trump said of Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, also in attendance.

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Left unexpressed were doubts that the factory would ever actually be built, and that even if so, it would employ the extraordinary workforce of 13,000 that was claimed. Reporters on hand might have delved into that issue, but no questions were permitted.

This is a transfer of wealth from Wisconsin taxpayers to Foxconn shareholders. For the taxpayers, its a guaranteed loser.  Tax incentive expert Greg LeRoy

So let's provide some of the context that was overlooked on that occasion. Experts who have examined the proposed deal, which must be approved by the Wisconsin Legislature, have concluded that it won't begin to pay off for state taxpayers for more than two decades, if then  or ever.

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A good portion of the jobs will go not to Wisconsin workers, but to residents of Illinois, meaning that Wisconsinites will pay, and their cross-border neighbors will profit. The deal would exempt the Foxconn plant from a host of environmental regulations, placing the local water supply and ecology at risk.

In other words, the announcement was all flash and precious little substance. But what substance is known is disturbing.

"This is a transfer of wealth from Wisconsin taxpayers to Foxconn shareholders," says Greg LeRoy, the head of Good Jobs First, which tracks government economic incentives handed over to corporations. LeRoy observes that even if the plant reaches its projected complement of 13,000 workers, that means the deal would cost about $230,000 per job.

"The average worker at Foxconn is never going to pay $230,000 more in state and local taxes than the public services she and her family will consume during her work tenure there," he says. "For the taxpayers, it's a guaranteed loser." If the size of the workforce falls short, he noted, the cost per job could be much higher.

Under Gov. Walker, who briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year, Wisconsin has been something of a sinkhole in economic development schemes. After Walker privatized the state's main job-development agency, it became ensnared in scandal after scandal while failing to make much of a mark on job growth. The defining job program of Walker's administration was a $6 million grant in 2014 to Ashley Furniture, which was allowed to lay off half of its 3,800 Wisconsin workers as part of the deal. A few weeks after the grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. was approved, Ashley's owners donated $20,000 to the re-election campaign of the development group's chairman, Gov. Walker.

The Foxconn proposal boasts similar elements of a glittery political veneer concealing signs of rot from the inside out. One blow was landed in Madison on Aug. 8 by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which analyzes bills with budget implications. Among other points, the bureau pointed out that Foxconn would receive at least $1.35 billion and possibly as much as $2.9 billion in tax incentive payments even if it didn't owe any Wisconsin tax, that increased state tax revenue from job growth wouldn't offset the incentive spending until at least 2042  and then only if the full complement of 13,000 jobs was reached and all went to Wisconsin residents.

But the bureau acknowledged that anywhere from 10 percent to half of the jobs could go to nonresidents. That's because the proposed factory site in the Racine-Kenosha area  Paul Ryan's home district  is within easy commuting distance of Illinois. If there are fewer jobs, and fewer go to state residents, the bureau said, the break-even point could be years or decades later.

Whether the plant ever will host 13,000 workers is doubtful; the legislative analysis acknowledged that some estimates place the probable payroll as low as 3,000. Trump touted the plant as a "state-of-the-art manufacturing facility," but state-of-the-art electronics factories are replacing human assembly workers with robots, a trend the efficiency-minded Foxconn is unlikely to abandon.

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The most important aspect of Trump's participation in the Foxconn announcement may be what it says about his job development approach. It doesn't seem to be aimed at anything special except generating photo opportunities. Foxconn itself is getting a reputation for making lavish promises and letting them lapse, as appears to have been the case with a project the company touted for Harrisburg, Pa., in 2013. That deal was for a $30 million plant employing 500 workers. But the plant hasn't materialized.

Ever optimistic, Pennsylvania officials participated in a seven-state beauty contest Foxconn staged this year, playing Pennsylvania and Wisconsin off against Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Texas in its quest for the most lavish state and local incentives. This race to the bottom has the effect of all but eliminating any genuine economic gains the ostensible winner can claim from landing the plant.

Yet Trump explicitly endorsed such interstate shakedowns in December, when he bragged about keeping a Carrier air conditioning plant in Indiana. Employers "can leave from state to state and they can negotiate good deals with the different states and all of that," Trump said then. "But leaving the country is going to be very, very difficult."

Even Trump's victory in the Carrier episode was predictably ephemeral. Even though the company supposedly pledged to retain more than 1,000 jobs rather than move them to Mexico, in June it emerged that Carrier will lay off more than 600 of its workers by the end of this year.

In Wisconsin, Foxconn is insisting that the state Legislature enact the package of proposed incentives by the end of September, or no deal. That means that for all the preening at the White House last month, the deal may end up like others sponsored by Trump and offered by Foxconn: real hype and false hopes.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

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Return to Michael Hiltzik's blog.
Tronc, parent company of the Chicago Tribune, is in advanced negotiations to lease space in Prudential Plaza, a two-tower office complex that overlooks Millennium Park, according to sources. ( Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune )

After almost a century in its namesake tower on North Michigan Avenue, the Chicago Tribune is close to a deal to move a few blocks south.

The newspaper's parent company, Tronc, is in advanced negotiations to lease space in Prudential Plaza, a two-tower office complex that overlooks Millennium Park, according to sources. The deal has not been finalized and could still fall apart.

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If a deal is completed, the Tribune's newsroom and other offices and Tronc's corporate headquarters will move by mid-2018 to about 130,000 square feet in One Prudential Plaza, the sources said.

The deal comes as Chicago developer Sterling Bay is in the process of buying the two-building office complex for about $680 million. The seller is New York-based 601W Cos.

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A Tronc spokeswoman and Sterling Bay managing principal Andy Gloor declined to comment, and 601W principal Mark Karasick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal would put the Tribune newsroom and offices on the second, third and fourth floors of One Prudential Plaza, with some Tronc executives on the top two levels of the 41-story building.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 34 The Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue was built in 1925 and houses the Chicago Tribune and other businesses. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

The Tribune has been shopping for new office space because its 92-year-old namesake tower was sold last year and is expected to be redeveloped by its new owners. Broadcast company Tribune Media had been the Chicago Tribune's landlord until it sold the property, and the newspaper's lease expires at the end of next June.

Prudential Plaza is just east of Michigan Avenue along Randolph Street. The office complex is along the northern side of Millennium Park.

Tribune Tower is one of the city's most recognizable buildings because of its neo-Gothic architecture and ornate lobby, as well as its location on the Magnificent Mile shopping corridor. It was completed along the northern edge of the Chicago River in 1925.

The tower's blueprint emerged from an architecture competition in which the Tribune's co-editors and co-publishers, Col. Robert R. McCormick and Capt. Joseph M. Patterson, asked architects to design "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world." The tower designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood became a Chicago landmark in 1989.

Tronc is being represented by Jones Lang LaSalle brokers including David Miller and Meredith O'Connor. 601W is represented by Matt Pistorio and Bill Truszkowski of Telos Group.

The Tribune's move off the Mag Mile was first put in motion in 2014, when the Tribune Co. renamed itself Tribune Media and spun off its publishing division  whose daily newspapers include the Tribune and Los Angeles Times  into a separate company now known as Tronc.

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Tribune Media kept the broadcasting business and real estate throughout the country, with newspapers including the Tribune becoming Tribune Media's tenants. Tribune Media has been cashing in on the real estate portfolio's value by selling some properties and forming partnerships to redevelop others.

Tribune Tower's buyers, Los Angeles-based CIM Group and local partner Golub & Co., have yet to publicly reveal their plans. They are expected to convert the 36-story landmark tower to a new use, such as a hotel, apartments or condominiums, as well as new retail. CIM is also believed to be planning a large new tower on a parking lot east of Tribune Tower.

Since completing the sale of Tribune Tower for $205 million  plus another potential $35 million based on unspecified conditions  Tribune Media has leased office space just south of the river on Wacker Drive. The owners of ground-floor restaurant Howells & Hood recently said it will close in late 2018 to make way for the building's redevelopment.

Since 2013, Prudential Plaza has been owned by a venture of New York-based 601W. It took control of the then-financially distressed property in a deal in which it agreed to invest about $100 million toward upgrades to the buildings and adding new tenants.

Built 30 years after Tribune Tower, One Prudential Plaza  then known as the Prudential Building  was Chicago's tallest structure when it was completed in 1955. The boxy building was constructed as the headquarters of Prudential Insurance's Mid-America Co.

Alfonso Iannelli's relief sculpture of the insurer's Rock of Gibraltar symbol remains carved into a low-rise portion of the building's limestone exterior.

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A connected 61-story office tower with a pointed top was completed in 1990, boosting the complex to about 2.3 million square feet of total space.

During its ownership, 601W has made several changes including a major lobby renovation and the addition of a large roof deck and fitness center on the 11th story of One Prudential Plaza, where a wider low-rise portion of the building extends out toward Randolph.

Other tenants in One Prudential Plaza include law firm Clark Hill, public relations firm Cision and software-maker Textura. Wilson Sporting Goods plans to move its headquarters there, from an office near O'Hare International Airport, by the end of this year.

rori@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Ryan_Ori
A Chicago developer said construction of the 98-story Vista Tower, which will be the third-tallest building in the city once completed, is unaffected despite major changes to the Chinese company that is backing the condominium and hotel project.

Magellan Development Group's $1 billion East Wacker Drive skyscraper is one of several commercial real estate properties caught up in a Chinese government crackdown on high-leverage investments overseas.

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Billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group, Magellan's equity investor in the Chicago tower, is in the midst of a major company restructuring as the result of heavy pressure from the Chinese government over its investments in the U.S. and other countries.

On Wednesday, Wanda Hotel Development Co.  which is publicly traded in Hong Kong  disclosed that it is selling stakes in real estate projects including the Chicago tower to a privately held company controlled by Wang's family. That company is called Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co.

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While the sale simply amounts to shifting ownership stakes from one Wanda Group affiliate to another, it could signal more changes are ahead. Mingtiandi, a newsletter and website that covers the Asian commercial real estate market, said it could be a step toward Wanda eventually selling ownership stakes of properties in cities including Chicago, London and Sydney.

But Magellan President David Carlins said he's had no discussions about a potential sale from Wanda Group.

"We have not heard anything about (a sale), and there would have to be conversations about that, because it would require our consent," Carlins said.

Wanda Group representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Magellan Development Groups $1 billion Vista Tower, still under construction, is one of several commercial real estate properties caught up in a Chinese government crackdown on high-leverage investments overseas. ( E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune )

Carlins said Wanda Group, which continues to have two employees based in Magellan's Chicago office, has given no indication of potential changes to the project. He said Wanda has already made its undisclosed equity investment, and the partners have a Chicago-record $700 million construction loan in hand from Chinese lender Ping An Bank.

"We don't think it affects the project," Carlins said. "Their equity is invested in the deal, and we have the construction loan. They're actively involved like they have been. There hasn't been a single change in personnel or responsiveness."

The developers have presold about 35 percent of the Jeanne Gang-designed tower's planned 406 condos, Carlins said. That means they likely have commitments worth hundreds of millions of dollars, more than two years ahead of the building's expected fall 2019 opening.

The tower along the Chicago River also will include a 191-room Wanda Vista hotel, which will be operated by Wanda's hotel management arm.

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Headlines about Wanda Group's woes have led some Chicagoans to worry about a sequel to the Chicago Spire  the planned 150-story tower on a nearby site where construction stalled a decade ago, leaving a deep hole along Lake Shore Drive as the only reminder of the ambitious, Santiago Calatrava-designed project.

Key differences are that Vista Tower is already financed, and it now stands about 10 stories high. Potential buyers are reassured by continued, visible progress on construction, Carlins said.

"People ask questions because they're curious, and the project gets a lot of headlines," Carlins said. "But I think they have peace of mind when they see that construction is continuing, and knowing we have the construction loan.

"So far, we haven't seen any impact from it. It's been a nonissue to date."

rori@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Ryan_Ori
A federal judge has ordered the state to figure out how to pay more toward a program that helps people with developmental disabilities live and participate in their communities.

Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman found Friday that the state has failed to adequately fund a program that helps people with developmental disabilities receive services in their homes and transition from institutions to community-based living arrangements.

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She found the state to be in violation of a 2011 consent decree that required it to help such individuals live as independently as possible.

Coleman found that wages for workers who help people in the program have stagnated, "causing a staffing crisis that is inhibiting care and negatively impacting the individuals protected by the Consent decree."

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She acknowledged, however, that the state's budget woes  a $14 billion backlog in bills after two years without a budget  make substantial funding increases difficult. The state has already agreed to spend an additional $53.4 million for the services as part of its new budget. Coleman ordered the state to come up with a plan to bring the state into "substantial compliance" with the earlier agreement.

Meghan Powers, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said in a statement Monday that the state is committed to providing quality services to people with developmental disabilities.

"The State will continue to meet all its legal obligations and will review the court's rulings to determine appropriate next steps," she said in the statement.

Barry Taylor, vice president for civil rights at Equip for Equality, which represented those who use the services, said he was pleased with the order.

He said about 6,000 people have already used the services and more than 15,000 are still waiting to move from institutions to community-based settings.

"From a civil rights standpoint, people with disabilities should be in the most integrated setting and be productive members of our society, and they really can't unless the state meets its obligations under the consent decree," Taylor said.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lschencker
Auto mechanics and supporters walk the picket line outside the Toyota of Naperville on Aug. 14, 2017. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

The union representing almost 2,000 mechanics striking throughout the Chicago area voted over the weekend to continue the two-week walkout.

Members of the Automobile Mechanics' Local 701 voted Saturday and "overwhelmingly rejected" the latest offer from a negotiating group representing area auto dealerships, said Sam Cicinelli, directing business representative for Local 701.

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"We've tried addressing our proposal in other variations that continue to just be ignored," Cicinelli said. "It's driving our mechanics nuts."

Mechanics at almost 140 new-car dealerships throughout the Chicago area went on strike Aug. 1, demanding a contract that resolved sticking points such as uncompensated work time.

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The New Car Dealer Committee, which negotiates on behalf of the dealerships, presented the most recent offer last week.

"We are disappointed by the results of the vote, but we remain motivated to resolve the outstanding issues and end the work stoppage," according to a statement from the committee.

In the two weeks since the strike began, dealerships have been turning away customers and canceling scheduled maintenance appointments. In such a competitive auto repair market, some dealers worry about winning customers back when the strike does end.

Both parties said they are willing to return to the negotiating table and get this resolved, but a meeting has yet to be set.

There are about 420 new-car dealerships in the Chicago area. Of those, about 180 are unionized. In Illinois, there are no partially unionized dealerships. The mechanics at each dealership decide if they will be in the union. The dealerships affected by this strike are those that bargain with the New Car Dealer Committee.

The last mechanics strike involving Local 701 occurred in 1994, Cicinelli said. According to reports in the Chicago Tribune, that strike affected about 2,700 mechanics.

There were two contracts being negotiated then, Cicinelli said. The mechanics under one contract were on strike for about two weeks, he said, but those under the second contract were on strike for more than six weeks.

Mechanics participating in the current strike returned to the picket lines Monday morning.

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"Nobody advocates for a strike," the union said in a post on its website. "That's the last resort that we use, if necessary. Strikes are unfortunately painful to our members, their families and the industry as a whole."

amarotti@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @AllyMarotti
Marty Lick of Lisle, Ill., said growing up in the 1980s with the name Marty, like the Michael J. Fox character in the "Back to the Future" movies, it seems meant to be that he would own his own DeLorean one day. (Kimberly Fornek/Chicago Tribune )

Millennials are getting into car collecting, and they're changing the hobby and the idea of what vehicles are worth owning and preserving.

This year, for the first time, millennials are responsible for more collectible car activity than the pre-baby boom generation, according to Hagerty Insurance, the largest insurer of collectible cars and wooden boats. Roughly speaking, millennials are the generation born between 1977 and 1995.

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Contrary to popular belief, millennials drive and enjoy cars, Hagerty Insurance CEO McKee Hagerty says, but the vehicles that fire their imagination are more likely to be pickups, SUVs and performance cars from late 1960s to early '90s than the 1950s sedans, hot rods and early muscle cars prized by previous generations.

Get ready to see more Cutlass Supremes, Land Rover Defenders, Mazda RX-7s, Ford F-series pickups, Datsun 260Zs, Chevy Monte Carlos, BMW M3s and VW Corrados at classic car gatherings.

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It's a progression that happens as every generation reaches the point where they have the time and money to collect and restore cars. A classic car is generally considered one that's at least 25 years old, so a new set arrives every year, along with a generation who grew up admiring them. My '69 Pontiac GTO Judge could be my niece's '89 Nissan Skyline GT-R.

1960s American muscle cars were a dime a dozen 20 years ago. They became collectible classics when baby boomers and Gen Xers hit their peak earning years and sought out the cars they admired as kids.

It's happening again, to a different set of cars.

"Cars nobody thought twice about 10 years ago are generating great interest at auctions and museums," said Matt Anderson, transportation curator at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. "People like to collect cars that were popular when they were kids or in high school; 1980s Firebirds, especially Trans Ams, are having a resurgence.

"A lot of it is driven by popular culture, too. There's no reason the DeLorean should be collectible, but the 'Back to the Future' movies gave it an incredible second life."I have a theory that just like every '69 Dodge Charger was converted into a General Lee 'Dukes of Hazzard' car, every existing DeLorean will eventually be converted into a time machine."

The current classics won't disappear, but they'll be less numerous when collectors gather. Just as there will always be Model T devotees, the 1955 Chrysler 300-C, '59 Cadillac Eldorado and company will always have fans.

Millennials are more interested in going places than working on their classics, McKeel Hagerty said. That's bad news for old British cars, which are "noticeably absent" from the list of cars getting millennials' attention. "They were legendarily demanding," he said. "Millennials are not looking at them at the same level as earlier groups. They buy vehicles that are fun.

"There's an ever-increasing interest in SUVs - early 4x4s, like the Land Rover Defender, early Jeeps, the Ford Bronco and International Scout."

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While cars built through the 1970s are relatively simple machines, collecting vehicles from the 1980s will present new challenges. The Buick Riviera was way ahead of its time, offering a touch screen a decade before other brands, but pity the fool who tries to find replacement parts for its cathode ray tube.

"Older, unique SUVs and vans are gaining some attention from millennials," Kelley Blue Book editorial director and executive market analyst Jack Nerad said. "Old Minis and mid-70s Japanese pickups also get some love. Then there are the big, American boats from the '70s and '80s era: Cadillacs, Buicks and Lincolns. For (millennials), it's not the classic muscle cars and definitely not flathead roadsters. They're heading in new directions."

Despite that, some vehicles draw plenty of interest from millennials and earlier generations of collectors, according to Hagerty's data.

Nearly every generation of Ford Mustang is on the hot list, along with Chevy Camaros, Corvettes and pickups. Icons like the 1955-57 Chevy Bel Air and '49-'80 VW Beetle get plenty of love from car fans of all ages.

mmphelan@freepress.com

Twitter @markphelan






"Beer" and "mansion" aren't words you normally see consciously coupled, but we can thank Brooklyn Brewery for the stroke of genius. It's more than just wordplay, though: The popular brewery is making a stop in Chicago to bring its Beer Mansion in September, as part of a seven-city tour.

"Beer Mansion rethinks the concept of a beer festival," says Gabe Barry, the brewery's beer educator and ambassador. "Festivals are these great places for breweries to share an experience of reaching new people, but we wanted to have more fun with it."

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Taking over Morgan's on Fulton for two days, Beer Mansion is an experiential, five-room event that "embodies different beer styles and their vibe," says Barry.

If that sounds a little abstract, that's because it's meant to be. In her role as educator, Barry says that even though she trains everyone from Michelin-star beverage directors to entry-level service employees, the lessons always come back to flavor. "Remove the style of beer  whether it's an IPA or a lager  and at the root, you're still dealing with flavor."

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Applying that flavor-focused approach to the Beer Mansion, each room will introduce guests to different beer styles evoking the theme: The Darkness will serve heavy porters and stouts. The Forest will feature hop-forward IPAs, and brown and amber beers, while the Stoop will see simpler, cleaner styles. The Tart of the Tropics room will highlight fruity and light beers, like sours, pilsners and weisses.

Brooklyn's brews will not be the only suds poured. Local outfits Solemn Oath, Marz, Hopewell and Whiner Beer Co. will also set up shop throughout the five rooms, showing off how they approach each of the concepts.

The last room, The Anatomy of a Beer, is being organized by Barry herself. Taking inspiration from how Brooklyn Brewery approaches beer-making, Barry and her team have developed interactive displays that play with four of five senses: taste, sight, smell and sound. The first three are likely to be obvious to beer drinkers, but sound? "Some modern research has shown that sound frequencies can affect our sense of taste," says Barry. "We've brought in frequency generators that guest can experiment with to see if sound affects whether or not they like the beer they're sipping."

Guests can line their stomachs with food from the brewery's house chef, Andrew Gerson, along with bites from Budlong, Lobo Rey and Bombay Wraps. (Proceeds from food sales will benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.) Other snacks will be made available from various sponsors, while Logan Square, Reckless Records and other local businesses will contribute games, music and other surprises over the two-day event.

"Beer is a cultural connector," says Barry. "Beer Mansion is super fun and brings together the community, but ultimately, we're all about empowering beer drinkers with knowledge."

Brooklyn Brewery presents Beer Mansion early bird tickets are available through Aug. 17 for $45 at www.brooklynbrewerymash.com/chicago. The event takes place Sept. 22 and 23, Morgan's on Fulton, 950 W Fulton St.

jbhernandez@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @joeybear85






What's the most expensive dinner in America? An omakase meal of pristine, perfectly sliced sushi, the fish flown in from Tsukiji market in Tokyo and prepared for you personally by a Yoda-equivalent sushi master? Or maybe a 12-course tasting menu from a Michelin three-star French chef?



Not exactly. It's most likely $500-per-person Japanese hot pot  yes, hot pot.



A popular style of Asian home cooking, hot pot comes from a nearly 1,000-year-old culinary tradition of dipping sliced meat or seafood and vegetables into bubbling broth, supposedly a la Genghis Khan. A communal dish cooked and shared at the dining table, it's soul food, great for feeding an intimate group (emphasis on the intimate  you are, after all, eating from the same pot).



Lately, though, the humble hot pot doesn't seem so humble. Masayoshi Takayama, the sushi chef whose New York restaurant Masa might be the epitome of rarefied Japanese dining in the U.S., has taken it to Las Vegas. At Shaboo, the restaurant he just opened there, his version of shabu-shabu  traditionally paper-thin slices of beef quickly poached with vegetables in a water-based broth  will cost you more than the recent price of an All Nippon Airways round-trip flight to Tokyo.



American chefs are putting shabu-shabu on their menus, too, using Wagyu beef or sashimi-grade fish or foie gras.



But hot pots are by nature informal, cozy affairs, with everybody leaning over a big pot in the middle of the table, taking from it whatever they want. And they are easy enough to make at home that they can be impromptu meals.



A new book by chef Tadashi Ono and food journalist Harris Salat titled "Japanese Hot Pots: Comforting One-Pot Meals" has enthusiastic home cooks pulling out their enameled Dutch ovens and konbu (kelp) to make beef, chicken or pork belly hot pots. It's "the quintessential Japanese comfort food," Salat writes.



There are two ways to cook hot pots: at the table  using a tabletop burner  setting out a platter of ingredients to be cooked by guests (shabu-shabu style). Or on the stove, with the finished dish brought to the center of the table, from which the contents are ladled into small bowls, or diners can help themselves. It's de rigueur to pick up your own food from the pot with your own chopsticks.



Whatever the type, the foundation of the hot pot is the broth, which often includes dashi, a stock of konbu and dried bonito flakes. Into the pot you can put a wide variety of meat or vegetables: slices of rib-eye, whole shrimp, salmon, duck, lamb, mushrooms, spinach, dumplings.



When it came to hot pot cooking, my mom, a born-and-bred Tokyoite, mostly made sukiyaki. It is beefy, just slightly sweet, and warming. And it costs less than $10 per person to make  no gold bowls necessary.



bhallock@tribune.com





Tokyo-style beef sukiyaki

Prep:

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35 minutes

Cook:

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20 minutes

Makes:

6 servings

Broiled tofu and itokonnyaku noodles are available at Japanese markets. Sliced rib-eye is generally available at Japanese and Korean markets; you could also ask your butcher to slice it.

1

1/2

pounds boneless rib-eye, sliced

1/8

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-inch thick, trimmed, fat reserved

3 tablespoons sugar

2 cups sake or white wine

1/2

cup soy sauce

1 package (14 ounces) firm tofu or yakitofu (broiled tofu), cut into 12 pieces

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1 package (7 ounces) Japanese itokonnyaku noodles, rinsed, cut in half

1 bunch green onions, cut diagonally into 2-inch pieces

1 onion, thinly sliced

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

1/2

pound nappa cabbage or bok choy, sliced diagonally into 2-inch pieces

4 ounces (about 8) shiitake mushrooms, stemmed

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2 cups watercress, stemmed

Heat a large skillet over medium heat; add beef fat. Cook, stirring it around to grease the pan, until hot. Add the sugar; cook until it begins to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Carefully add the sake and soy sauce (it will sputter).

Place in arranged mounds the tofu, noodles, green onions, onion, cabbage and mushrooms, leaving some room for the beef. Heat to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to simmer. Add the beef in a mound. Cook just until the vegetables are tender and the meat is cooked to the desired consistency, about 8 minutes, pressing the ingredients into the broth so that they cook evenly. Place the watercress in the center on top of the other ingredients; simmer just until the leaves wilt, about 1 minute.

Nutrition information: Per serving: 487 calories, 28% of calories from fat, 15 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 52 mg cholesterol, 35 g carbohydrates, 31 g protein, 267 mg sodium, 3 g fiber
In the days following the Charlottesville protests that left a 32-year-old woman and two state patrol troopers dead, Chicagos Flowers for Dreams, a flower delivery company that donates a portion of their profits to local charities, is taking it upon themselves to take a stance against those who support racism, nazism or white nationalism.

On Monday, the Chicago and Milwaukee-based company unveiled a new addition to their website. A notification box that prompted buyers to answer a simple question before making an order.

Before we proceed Do you condemn racism, Nazism, and white nationalism? announced the pop up.

The buyer is then given the option to say yes or no.

A check on the no box prompted the response: Thank you but no thank you. We dont want your business here. To exit the page the user would have to hit a goodbye button that directs them to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

We dont think [taking this stance] is controversial, said Steven Dyme co-founder and CEO of Flowers for Dreams. Were reiterating and reinforcing our shared values and we hope that 99.9% of people share these.

On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered in Millennium Park and marched north to the Trump Tower. Some carried signs that read "My grandpa fought Nazis so I wouldn't have to" and "Dear racist, who taught you how to hate?"

A lot of people feel like our values are under attack, Dyme went on. So we wanted to stand up and speak out in a small way and say we care so deeply about these values and say that we dont want your business if you dont.

Visitors who select yes receive a response thanking them for standing up for injustice and asking them to consider donating to Anti-Defamation League which combats anti-semitism and Refugee One the largest resettlement agency in Illinois. To buy a bouquet or to donate visit Flowers for Dreamss website.
Cut into the delicate papel picado' hanging from the ceiling in Monica Trinidads Rogers Park home are the words Black Lives Matter.

Its just one of many politically charged works of art that surround Trinidad, a Mexican-American community-taught artist, entrepreneur and activist from Chicago, who creates movement art for social justice campaigns.

In January 2016, Trinidad founded For the People Artists (FTP) Collective, bringing together artists of color of diverse backgrounds to produce radical artwork for our communities and movements, she said.

We try to support the efforts of queer people, trans people, latinx, undocumented people, just people we know are at the margins and experiencing the most oppression in this city, Trinidad explained.

Organizations like local Latino civil rights groups Mijente and Organized Communities Against Deportations commission the band of artist/organizers to design emblems like flyers, banners and coloring books.

What were trying to do is make visible the work of efforts in our city that are just not visible because they dont have the financial means, Trinidad said.

Since the companys founding, their twelve artists have contributed artwork to over 20 social justice organizations and movements.

The group hopes to expand its efforts by finding an office where artists can collaborate and teach each other new forms of art. Trinidad emphasized the importance of solidarity among individuals of black, brown, queer, disabled and disenfranchised identities.

There are a lot of spaces in the city for art, but not many spaces are around political art, she said.

Trinidad herself has focused much of her work on police brutality in Chicago, traveling to Geneva, Switzerland in 2014 as a United Nations delegate from We Charge Genocide, a non-profit organization from Chicago that stands up against police violence.

The group of activists of color brought the story of Dominique Damo Franklin, a black man tased to death by the Chicago Police Department, to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which resulted in national recognition of Chicago police brutality against black and brown youth, Trinidad said.

Trinidad, whose father was also an artist, also sells original artwork online through her personal website. She donates part of the proceeds from her prints to organizations and people in need.

I think that so many people just dont recognize the way that art is our form of resistance in Latinx communities, Trinidad said.

The groups set a fair price, based on sliding scales, mutual aid, organizational budgets, and transparent conversations, Trinidad said.

Her commissioned design through FTP usually cost around $250 but she works with organizations budgets. She said that 20 percent of commissioned artwork payments go back to the company.

Trinidad will be moderating an event next week with the focus on art as a tool for resitance and survival in today's "trying times". For more information visit the Rapid Response: Art & Resistance Work event page on Facebook.
"Riding With George" gently confronts the marble, ossified immensity of the historical George Washington and strives to reveal the human side of America's most legendary figure. Author Philip G. Smucker's affable tour of the haunts of our first president succeeds rather well at this daunting task.

Contemporary publishing smiles on such odysseys through history, evidently hoping that modern references and a first-person narrative will overcome any dread of history instilled during rote memorization for school exams. Smucker, a journalist and a (very) distant relative of the great George, deftly sprinkles modern-day encounters through an often thoughtful consideration of who Washington actually was.

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By emphasizing the social and recreational pastimes at which Washington excelled - notably, dancing and horsemanship (and its relative, fox-hunting) - the book connects those activities with Washington's astonishing career. In those public displays, Washington modestly yet unmistakably showcased his mastery and sheer physical grace, which reinforced his leadership as a general and a politician.

To hone his historical insights, Smucker turned to many experts, including a genealogist in Virginia's Westmoreland County, where Washington was born, archeologists at Washington's boyhood home in Fredericksburg and scholars at Virginia's restored colonial capital at Williamsburg.

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The author also visited a re-enactment of the Battle of the Monongahela, where British Gen. Edward Braddock led some 1,300 soldiers (including Washington) into a brutal slaughter inflicted largely by Indian fighters. The episode reveals not only that there actually are French and Indian War re-enactments but also that they include such a notable debacle for the white intruders.

Not every attempt to connect the past to the present works out.

The book's title promises a horseback tour of Washington-related places, but the author was rarely mounted. Twenty-first-century land development patterns in the East offered no opportunity for intense horseback travel of the sort favored by Washington, who could cover 100 miles in two days.

So when Smucker couldn't hire a horse near the site of Washington's climactic Revolutionary War victory at Yorktown, he accommodated modern realities by hopping a Segway to roam the battlefield.

Smucker brings his own insights to Washington's story, connecting Mary Washington's apparent love of horses with her famous son's equestrian excellence, while shrewdly stressing the importance to his success of Washington's aristocratic neighbors, the Fairfax family. Through their invaluable sponsorship, plus their tutelage in the fine points of deportment, Washington hauled himself out of the third rank of Virginia landowners and into continental prominence.

Smucker even offers a sympathetic explanation of the young Washington's cringe-inducing report from his first battle that he found something "charming" in the sound of bullets whistling through the air.

That remark elicited perhaps the only surviving example of King George II's wit, when he commented that Washington would "not say so if he had been used to hearing many."

Based on his own experiences covering combat zones, Smucker defends his illustrious forebear's remark, insisting that the adrenaline rush of war can produce responses like Washington's. Indeed, the comment recalls the observation of another Virginia warrior, Robert E. Lee, that "it is good that war is so horrible, or we might grow to like it."

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Smucker is not a slavish apologist. He acknowledges that the young Washington could be bumptious, unwise or disrespectful, and that there was an increasing gap at the end of Washington's life between his aristocratic ways and the emerging egalitarian manners of the American republic.

Yet, unlike some who undertake literary tours through historical landmarks, Smucker maintains an affectionate attitude toward his subject, not a mocking or ironic one. That attitude is all the more remarkable for a man whose parents sometimes chastised him to "start acting a little more like George Washington." Such remarks could have soured a person on George Washington for life.

Stewart is the author of "Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America" and "The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution."

Riding with George: Sportsmanship -- Chivalry in the Making of America's First President

By Philip G. Smucker

Chicago Review Press. 362 pp. $26.99






ABERFOYLE, Scotland  Two hundred years ago, Sir Walter Scott penned one of the world's great tales, "Rob Roy." Published in 1817, the book heaped fame on its title character, a man Scott described as "still remembered in his country as the Robin Hood of Scotland, the dread of the wealthy, but the friend of the poor ..."

If "Rob Roy" was fiction, the man himself was assuredly not. Born near Loch Katrine in 1671, Robert MacGregor, the Jacobite sympathizer and eventual outlaw, lived his life mostly within the bounds of modern-day Scotland's Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

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On a sunny morning in May, I set off in search of Rob Roy. I was looking for traces of the real man along the long-distance trail called the Rob Roy Way, stretching from the town of Drymen (about 20 miles from Glasgow) northeast to Pitlochry. The 78-mile route meanders along the border between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands, traversing MacGregor's chief stomping grounds: the glen where he raised his children, the town where he's buried and the countryside where he hid from an angry English crown.

I left the logistics  lodging, luggage transportation, etc.  to tour organizer Wilderness Scotland, which can customize a tour to any length. The Rob Roy Way typically takes five to seven days to complete.

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From my starting point near Drymen in the town of Aberfoyle, the Rob Roy Way rose gradually, passing through varied topography, beneath stands of towering Scots pine trees, through pastures of skittish sheep and across open heath that Scott described as "a happy interchange of bog and shingles (pebbly hillsides)." Through the Menteith Hills I trekked, glimpses of smooth Loch Venachar soon coming into view.

Over the course of three days, the countryside grew more dramatic. As the path headed northeast, the 2,000-foot hills called grahams were gradually replaced by 2,500-foot corbetts, and corbetts by 3,000-foot munros. (The Scottish categorize their hills by elevation.) Butter-yellow gorse and purple rhododendrons bloomed in wide-open spaces. Carpets of delicate bluebells, columbines and primroses brightened the forest.

"There is an abundance of wildflowers along these paths all year long," said Mary Amos, who was hiking the trail with her husband and their four border collies from their home in Lochearnhead. "Soon the wild orchids will appear," Amos promised.

It was in this Scottish countryside that Robert MacGregor likely felt most at home. A man of property and a large-scale cattle dealer, MacGregor spent much time riding the Menteith Hills, checking on stock and selling cattle "protection" to fund the Jacobite cause of restoring deposed King James VII.

When, at age 40, Rob Roy defaulted on a debt, the Duke of Montrose declared him an outlaw. MacGregor had a price on his head. His family was evicted. And a legal prohibition against using the family name forced him to go by his Gaelic nickname, Rob Ruadh. Pronounced "roy," the word meant "redhead."

Colin Adams, owner of the Airlie House B&B in Strathyre, told me about growing up in the countryside made famous by Rob Roy. "When I was a boy, we used to walk the mountains around Balquhidder," the glen where Rob Roy eventually settled. "My father used to tell me the munros in that glen had caves. If there was anybody looking for Rob Roy, he could just vanish."

The Scottish Robin Hood, a man on the run from the English and able to disappear into the forest, quickly became legend.

A 2-mile detour from Strathyre took me to the churchyard at Balquhidder, the tiny town where Rob Roy lived his adult years and where his grave lies. A light rain picked up as I traced the banks of the River Balvag, past tiny crofts and pastures of grazing Highland cattle. It was a scene that likely hadn't changed since Rob Roy's time here three centuries ago.

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Here, in the shadow of an old stone church, a low, steel fence framed the graves of the MacGregor family: Rob Roy, his wife, Mary Helen, and sons Coll and Robert. The headstone bears the clan crest  a roaring, crowned lion  and the words "MacGregor Despite Them," an epitaph meant to defy the English.

While Rob Roy's life ended in Balquhidder, the trail named for him does not. I continued eastward and upward, past the mirrored surface of Loch Earn, its banks dotted white with sheep. I continued over the stone arches of the Glen Ogle viaduct and through Glen Ogle itself, a steep gorge with a narrow stone footpath at its bottom  the remains of an old military road built around 1700, used by royal troops to search out Scottish Jacobites like Rob Roy.

From here, the route descended abruptly into Killin, a resort town famous for its waterfall. The River Dochart rushes over a tumble of rocks in the town center. While I would have liked to linger, I had a castle to check out first.

Just 1 mile from Killin's center, Finlarig Castle stands nearly invisible, hidden by a century's worth of birch and sycamore trees. They say that Rob Roy first took shelter here with the Campbell clan in 1713 not long after being declared an outlaw. The four-story stone sanctuary stood precariously, its time-worn edifice crumbling. A disintegrating spiral staircase led to nowhere, stopping abruptly at chest height. Ferns and ivy threatened to rip apart what remained of 300-year-old archways.

"This is absolutely my favorite part of Scotland," said Suzie Queripel of East Lothian, her ancestors part of the Campbell clan that sheltered Rob Roy. "You've got a wee bit of everything here. You've got the lochs, you've got the mountains. It's full of magic, atmosphere and beauty."

"I shall never forget the delightful sensation," Scott wrote of Rob Roy country in his novel. "The refreshing fragrance of the morning air, and the glorious beams of the rising sun  high hills, rocks, and banks, waving with natural forests of birch and oak.  Man alone seemed to be placed in a state of inferiority, in a scene where all the ordinary features of nature were raised and exalted."

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And so nature rises and Finlarig Castle falls into ruin. But in this corner of Scotland, the legacy of Rob Roy lives on.

Amy S. Eckert is a freelance writer.

[ Traveling solo, but not alone, on Italy's Amalfi Coast  ]

[ Scottish Highlands elevate food, drink and funHeadline for story link 2 goes here  ]

[ Hiking Wisconsin's 'Thousand-Miler' Ice Age Trail  ]
The Blue Angels are back for the 2017 Chicago Air and Water Show on the lakefront Aug. 19 and 20. The team, made up of six blue and gold U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets, alternates years with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. A familiar cast of military and civilian aircraft will take over the skies over North Avenue Beach. Here is a guide to the show and performers. When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, and Sunday, Aug 20. Practice 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18. Where: North Avenue Beach Admission: Free  See the military performers  See the civilian performers Safety box: A cleared area where performers fly. Boat restrictions start on the lake at 7 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Buoys mark the boundaries. North Avenue Beach Parachute landing area LAKE SHORE DRIVE Millennium Garages shuttle pickup/ drop off Oak Street Beach

Transportation and parking Public transportation: The CTA will provide extra service on Blue, Brown, Green and Orange lines as well as No. 72 North Avenue and No. 151 Seridan bus routes. A number of bus routes will be rerouted. Metra also plans extra trains. Divvy bikes: Divvy will be offering its valet service at select stations Saturday and Sunday to guarantee you a spot to dock your Divvy bike. More information here. Divvy stations offering service: Theater on the Lake at Fullerton Avenue and Lake Shore Drive; Clark Street and North Avenue; Michigan Avenue and Oak Street; Streeter Drive and Grand Avenue. Parking: Millennium Garages, with a free shuttle to and from North Avenue Beach. Go to millenniumgarages.com for rates and reservations (it is cheaper to buy online beforehand).

Forecast Saturday: Mostly sunny: Highs in the upper 70s along the lake. More clouds than sun with a chance of thunderstorms. Sunday: Mostly sunny: Cooler along the lake with southeast winds. Highs in the mid-80s. Updated forecast here.

Watching and listening Announcer: Herb Hunter is the show's longtime announcer. Prime locations: The lakefront from North Avenue to Navy Pier. North Avenue Beach is air show central. The pedestrian access points at Lake Shore Drive, the parks and the playing fields are great vantage points and are less crowded. Takeoff: Spectators can watch the planes take off and land at the Gary Jet Center, 5401 Airport Road, Gary. Lake cruises: The Odyssey, Spirit of Chicago and Mystic Blue will have morning and afternoon cruises (tickets are around $54 and more). The Seadog runs its regular schedule. Contact 866-305-2469 and book tickets here. Radio, TV and live coverage: Live play-by-play radio coverage is on WBBM-AM 780 and FM 105.9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Watch live online at WBBM780.com/airshow. WLS-Ch. 7. ABC 7 will feature Air and Water Show Week segments leading up to the weekend.

What's allowed Allowed: Picnic blankets, chairs and coolers. Must walk bicycles. Encouraged: Sunscreen, sunglasses, water, earplugs and binoculars. Not allowed: Alcohol, grills, fireworks, tents, balloons, kites, weapons, flagpoles and pets (except service animals).

Military performers

A-10 Thunderbolt II The first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close air support of ground forces.

AV-8B Harrier II The U.S. military's only short takeoff, vertical landing jet aircraft in current inventory. Originally flown in the late 1960s, the modernized jet is currently used as Marine Corps support on expeditions.

Blue Angels The six-jet Navy team, flying F/A-18 Hornets, is famous for aerial maneuvers and diamond and delta formations. The Angels have been performing since 1946.

C-130 Hercules Has been used by the Air Force for over 50 years.

F-22 Raptor The 5th Generation F-22 fighter jet combines stealth, speed, agility and situational awareness with lethal long-range air-to-air and air-to-ground weaponry.

HC-144A Ocean Sentry This Coast Guard craft is used in many situations, including disaster response and search and rescue missions.

MH-65D Dolphin The Coast Guard helicopter will demonstrate an air-sea rescue. A rescue swimmer jumps from 30 feet into the lake to recover a simulated casualty, who is hoisted back to safety.

P-51 Mustang A single-seat fighter used in conflicts including World War II and the Korean War. The Mustang will be flown by Air Force Heritage Flights.

Parachute teams The Army Golden Knights and the Navy Leap Frogs will jump from 12,500 feet. Cubs catcher David Ross jumps with the Knights on Saturday.

Civilian performers

A-4 Skyhawk This Warbird Heritage Foundation performer is the type of jet that carried out some of the first airstrikes of the Vietnam War.

AeroShell Aerobatic Team This six-man stunt team has been performing for more than 25 years. The AT6 Texan is nicknamed the "pilot maker" because of the plane's role in training military pilots dating to World War II.

Aerostars This three-plane team employs Yak-52TWs and is known for flying in tight formation and upside-down.

American Airlines 787-8 American Airlines will bring a Dreamliner to the show, the smaller of the three sizes of Boeing's advanced new passenger jet. It seats 226. The airline plans to have 20 787-8s by the end of 2017.

Bill Stein Airshows An air show veteran, Stein's Edge 540 has custom color-changing paint.

Chicago Fire Department air/sea rescue The rescue unit, established in 1965, serves the lakefront and rivers. The unit uses rescue boats and two Bell 412 EP helicopters.

Firebirds Delta Team The Firebirds Delta Team is known for tumbling and head-on maneuvers.

Matt Chapman Airshows An air show veteran, Chapman performs solo and flies in formation with fellow performer Mike Mancuso.

Sean D. Tucker and Team Oracle Tucker has been flying since the 1970s, with more than 1,000 performances at more than 400 shows. He flies the custom Oracle Challenger III, built with a metal-tube frame and skin made of special fabric. The fuel-injected engine has aluminum drag-racing pistons, and the wings hold smoke generators, pyrotechnics and cameras.

Susan Dacy Dacy is one of the few women performing airshows in a biplane. She's a Chicago-based international captain and has flown more than 60 types of aircraft.

Note: The list of performers is subject to change.

Photos from Chicago Tribune, Getty, AP, Post-Tribune, Chicago Air and Water Show and performers' websites.

Sources: Chicago Air and Water Show, performers' websites and Tribune reporting

@ChiTribGraphics
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner talks with members of the press before signing House Bill 2371, a legislation cyber security bill, at the James R. Thompson Center on Aug. 7, 2017 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday found himself cleaning up his comments on weekend violence in Virginia following criticism from Democratic rivals that he failed to characterize a woman's death as domestic terrorism.

Speaking with reporters Monday at a bill signing event, the Republican governor had denounced the Charlottesville violence in the midst of a demonstration involving white nationalists as "horrible, horrible behavior." But Rauner avoided labeling the incident, in which a woman was killed when a driver plowed a car into counterprotesters, an act of terrorism, saying, "What doesn't matter is definitions."

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Hours later, following Democratic criticism, the governor's office sent out an email saying, "The deadly violence in Charlottesville this weekend is abhorrent and absolutely an act of domestic terrorism."

The messy handling of the issue was the latest in a string of recent episodes in which Rauner has shown unease in discussing national issues.

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Late last week, the governor was interviewed by Fox News and resisted answering questions about his position on immigration issues and Chicago's status as a sanctuary city, prompting an insulting Twitter comment by conservative commentator Ann Coulter.

Since at least March 2016, Rauner has dodged questions about President Donald Trump. More recently, Rauner has faced Democratic criticism for keeping quiet about his views of Republican-led efforts on Capitol Hill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, legislation that could have a major impact on Illinois.

The governor's Monday exchange with reporters about the events in Charlottesville reflected Rauner's pattern of trying to sidestep controversial issues in which he could find himself crosswise with Trump. The president, too, had trouble formulating a response to what happened in Charlottesville, where some of the white supremacist demonstrators described themselves as being aligned with the president.

Rauner's first stab at the question provided a forceful rebuke of the weekend violence.

"What I will say about Charlottesville is it's outrageous, the behavior appalling, completely beyond anything that America should be about," Rauner said. "There is no place in American society and American political discourse for racism, for hatred or violence. Period, end of story."

A reporter followed up, asking if the governor considered the incident to be an act of terrorism.

"It is outrageous, and we've got to fight against it," Rauner said at first. After more back-and-forth, the reporter noted that Rauner had not answered the question.

"You define terrorism," Rauner shot back. "What I'll say is, that is horrible, horrible behavior, completely beyond the pale. We in America have to fight against it in every way."

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In the wake of the Charlottesville incident, the Illinois Senate on Sunday adopted a resolution urging law enforcement officials to recognize white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations.

Asked by a reporter to comment on the state resolution, Rauner replied: "I'm not so focused on day-to-day in Congress."

After the reporter clarified that the resolution was in the Illinois Senate, Rauner said: "OK. Well, you know what, great. Whatever fights against this kind of vicious racism and hatred and violence, I support. And if they want to classify that as terrorism, I support that."

Rauner went on to quibble with the notion of assigning a definition.

"That's all a question of definition. What doesn't matter is definitions," Rauner said. "We know what hate is. We know what violence is. We know what racism is. And we should fight against it."

Shortly after Rauner made his initial comments, his Democratic rivals for governor pounced.

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Billionaire businessman J.B. Pritzker said Rauner was "mincing words and tiptoeing around our bigoted president."

Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss drew on his own history as a descendant of a Holocaust survivor.

"Like Donald Trump, Bruce Rauner is an incompetent billionaire unwilling to name and confront hatred because his re-election strategy relies on appealing to right-wing radicals," Biss said in a statement. "All Illinoisans should remember this moment, when Rauner refused to stand up to white supremacists because of politics."

Biss was one of the more vocal supporters of the resolution that passed in the Senate over the weekend encouraging law enforcement to recognize white nationalist groups as terrorist organizations.

Biss told the story of his maternal grandmother, who he said was put on a train with her family from Transylvania and taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Biss said his grandmother survived, eventually immigrating to Israel when his mother was a young child.

Biss said the images of Nazi symbols and salutes coming out of Charlottesville are not an "abstract symbol" for his family, saying it's important for lawmakers to take a stand against such hate.

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"What happened in Charlottesville  is an obvious and quite frankly really easy opportunity for all of us to remember the importance of naming the evil and elevating the good," Biss said. "And it's just beyond belief that we live in this moment where all of a sudden doing that is a political statement, and doing that is a politically controversial statement, and we have a president who is steadfastly unwilling to do that."

The Tribune's Monique Garcia contributed from Springfield.

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com
A search where police discovered 400 grams of cocaine led to another address, where a man in the country illegally was taken into custody along with cocaine and a handgun stolen in Iowa, according to Round Lake Park police.

Police Chief George Filenko said authorities were not yet revealing the identities of the people arrested in the first incident, but that search warrant was served at a home in the 1300 block of Turnbull Drive in Round Lake Heights on Friday. That search led to another home in the 1800 block of Turnbull Drive, he said.

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Filenko said Alfredo Guzman, 34, of the 1800 block of Tomahawk Lane, Round Lake Heights, was taken into custody after police found 14 grams of cocaine, drug paraphernalia and a .38 caliber loaded revolver.

That resulted in charges of unlawful possession of controlled substance, unlawful possession with intent to deliver, unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, two counts of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of firearm ammunition without a firearm owner's identification card, according to the police chief.

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He said the suspect said he was in the country illegally. The gun had been reported stolen from Des Moines this year, according to reports.

Filenko said the department's policy on such cases is to leave prosecution of alleged immigration law violations to federal authorities because his department has worked hard to let Hispanic residents know that it does not check immigration status and wants residents to feel safe about calling police regardless of their status.

The department has also hired Latino officers and those who are bilingual, he said.

"We will continue to separate ourselves from immigration enforcement which, in the larger picture, helps keep our communities safer by allowing victims and witnesses to come forward without fear of deportation," he said in a statement.

fabderholden@tribpub.com

Twitter @abderholden
Chicago Police department Superintendent Eddie Johnson, seen here on July 10, 2017, stripped a Chicago police officer of his powers on Aug. 14 while the off-duty shooting of a man is investigated. (Alyssa Pointer / Chicago Tribune)

A Chicago police sergeant who shot a mentally disabled teen in the arm over the weekend on the Far South Side was indefinitely relieved of his police powers Monday while the off-duty incident is investigated.

The Independent Police Review Authority had recommended the move to police Superintendent Eddie Johnson.

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Neither IPRA nor the Police Department would explain why this step was necessary, though no weapon was recovered from the 18-year-old man who was shot. In addition, hours after the shooting on Sunday, Johnson said "many unanswered questions" remained.

Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said the teen is autistic and has schizophrenia. He was reported missing by his foster mother about 2 a.m. Sunday, about three hours before the shooting near 109th Street and Hermosa Avenue in the Morgan Park community.

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The sergeant will be assigned to paid desk duty pending IPRA's investigation into the shooting, Guglielmi said.

Officers involved in shootings are routinely placed on desk duty for 30 days, but in this case, the undisclosed sergeant will remain indefinitely stripped of his police powers until IPRA completes its investigation, a process that can take months.

At the news conference, Johnson told reporters that the Calumet police district sergeant was returning home from work in his personal vehicle about 5 a.m. when he questioned the 18-year-old, who became "elusive and unresponsive."

"The officer continued to question the man, and the encounter escalated in some way, which prompted the off-duty officer to discharge his weapon," Johnson said.

The 18-year-old was released after treatment at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Johnson said.
Chicago Police Department radio traffic from the night Darius Pinex was shot and killed following a traffic stop in the Englewood neighborhood by Officers Raoul Mosqueda and Gildardo Sierra in January 2011. (Chicago Tribune)

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has moved to fire an officer accused of lying about the circumstances that led him and his partner to fatally shoot a motorist on the South Side more than six years ago.

Johnson's decision comes about six months after the Independent Police Review Authority found that Officer Raoul Mosqueda violated Police Department policies in the 2011 fatal shooting of 27-year-old Darius Pinex. IPRA had recommended to Johnson that Mosqueda be fired.

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In a 34-page report issued in February, IPRA noted discrepancies between a police dispatch recording and the testimony repeatedly given by Mosqueda about how the shooting unfolded.

In its report, IPRA concluded that Mosqueda lied on three occasions  during his initial statement to IPRA investigators immediately following the Jan. 7, 2011, shooting, at a 2013 deposition for a lawsuit filed by Pinex's family and then on the stand at trial in 2015 over the lawsuit. Even after the trial, Mosqueda stood by his version while giving another statement to IPRA investigators last September, the report said.

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Those "false, misleading and/or inconsistent" statements led to department charges against Mosqueda for a Rule 14 violation, which bars officers from making false statements, according to charges filed last week with the Chicago Police Board. Mosqueda also was accused of two other rule violations: engaging in action or conduct that impedes the Police Department's ability to achieve its policy and goals or brings discredit upon the department; and failing to promote the department's efforts to implement its policy or accomplish its goals.

On Monday, a police spokesman said Mosqueda was suspended without pay Saturday. He had been stripped of his police powers when IPRA made its recommendation in February.

Darius Pinex was fatally shot by Chicago police in January 2011. (Family photo)

Days before IPRA recommended his firing, Mosqueda was promoted by the the Police Department to field training officer at a ceremony at Navy Pier.

His case will now be heard before the nine-member, mayoral-appointed police board, which will decide whether he should be fired.

Mosqueda, a 10-year department veteran, could not be reached for comment Monday.

The city settled the lawsuit with Pinex's family in December for about $3.5 million.

Mosqueda and his partner, Gildardo Sierra, fired into a moving car at Pinex even though he had not displayed a weapon.

It marked the third shooting involving Sierra  two of them fatal  in less than six months in 2011. Last year, IPRA ruled the other fatal shooting was unjustified as well, but Sierra has never been charged with wrongdoing. He resigned from the Police Department in 2015.

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Mosqueda's alleged false statements spread beyond the Police Department during a court fight over the Pinex family's lawsuit as a veteran lawyer with the city's Law Department resigned hours after a federal judge found he intentionally concealed the recordings from the family's lawyers. A Tribune investigation last year detailed how the Law Department has routinely failed to turn over potential evidence in police misconduct lawsuits.

The following dashboard camera video released by the Indpendent Police Review Authority shows the traffic stop the night Darius Pinex was shot and killed in the Englewood neighborhood in January 2011. (IPRA) (Independent Police Review Authority/Chicago Tribune)

IPRA found there wasn't enough credible evidence to conclusively determine whether the shooting itself violated policy. Efforts to fire Mosqueda over just shooting Pinex would have likely faced a strong challenge because it took more than six years for IPRA to complete its investigation of the case, going beyond the five-year statute of limitations to punish an officer for using excessive force.

In the January 2011 incident in the Englewood community, Mosqueda and Sierra boxed in the car driven by Pinex, exiting with guns drawn, records show. The officers alleged Pinex, who had a history of drug arrests, refused orders and threw the vehicle into reverse, hitting a light pole and then gunning the car forward. Mosqueda fatally shot Pinex in the head, though Sierra also opened fire, records show. Investigators found a gun beneath the driver's seat, according to records.

Mosqueda later reported that they stopped the car because they heard a police dispatch saying it was involved in an earlier shooting. At the trial over the Pinex family's lawsuit, however, a recording emerged that contradicted Mosqueda's testimony. The officer had claimed the dispatch had matched Pinex's vehicle, but the recording didn't match the specifics of his Oldsmobile Aurora and didn't mention any shooting, raising doubts about the lawfulness of the traffic stop.

In addition to finding that Mosqueda lied, IPRA held that the recordings cast doubts on the probable cause for the traffic stop and ruled that it was legally unjustified.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

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Chicago police taped off the entrance to a laundromat after a woman driving nearby was shot in the neck Aug. 14, 2017. (Gregory Pratt / Chicago Tribune)

A man was killed and eight others were wounded, including a 67-year-old woman caught in gunfire while driving near a laundromat in the Brighton Park neighborhood, in city shootings Monday, Chicago police said.

Two shootings happened in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on the Near Southwest Side.

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The homicide happened about 10 a.m. Monday when a 25-year-old man was shot in the lower back in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side.

Police found the man while responding to a call of a person shot in the the 6800 block of South Harper Avenue. The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he later was pronounced dead. He was identified as Rakeem Simmons, of the 1400 block of East 68th Street in Grand Crossing, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

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Detectives from Area Central continue to investigate, and no arrests had been made.

Woman shot while driving

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

A 67-year-old woman was shot in the neck about 5:10 p.m. as she drove in the 4000 block of South Western Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the South Side, according to police

People in a dark-colored SUV started shooting at people in a light-colored SUV  the woman wasn't in either of those vehicles  and she was shot, authorities said.

She was not the target, officials said.

The woman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment, but police didn't immediately disclose her condition.

During their investigation, police taped off the entrance to a local laundromat as well as a portion of a parking lot. Several people inside stood around washing machines and looked out as police guarded the scene.

A police car with its lights on guarded an empty car feet from the crime scene. No arrests had been made.

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In other shootings:
A man died early Monday after he crashed into a light pole about 1:25 a.m. in the 6100 block of North Elston Avenue in the Norwood Park East neighborhood on the city's Northwest Side, police said.

The man, whose age was not yet known, was driving a black sedan when he crashed into a median and then into a light pole, police said.

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He was taken in critical condition to Presence Resurrection Medical Center. He was later pronounced dead.

There weren't any other reported injuries.

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The crash remains under investigation.
Updated Aug. 16, 2017 10:20 a.m.  A man told police he shot and killed three people  a man, a woman and a teenage boy  who broke into his home on the Southeast Side Sunday evening, according to authorities.



The man, in his 30s, said the three entered the home in the 10200 block of South Ewing Avenue through the basement around 5:30 p.m., police said. The man shot them, then locked himself in his bedroom, police said.



Responding officers found 17-year-old Antonio Lopez, 22-year-old Narcisco Ledesma and 24-year-old Celeste Cockriel dead from gunshot wounds, police said.

Ledesma was shot in the head and Lopez suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Cockriel lived in the 4100 block of West Grand Avenue.

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Police said the resident at the home has a valid FOID card. The shooting remained under investigation.



Ivan Real said he was driving in the neighborhood with his girlfriend when he noticed a heavy police presence outside the home where his friend lives with his parents.



"I told her, 'I know something's bad because they're all in front of their house,' " Real said. "Me and her walk over here and I see them in the back and the front, and they say someone died and I'm just praying it was not him."



The neighborhood has seen a rash of home invasions lately, he said.



"I'm flabbergasted that it could've happened to my close friends," he said.
Police officers on the scene take a swab of blood from a fatal shooting at the Wilson Yard senior living building along the 1000 block of West Montrose Avenue in Chicago on Aug. 13, 2017. A 25-year-old man was killed. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Sunday in Chicago began with the killing of a 20-year-old man during an argument in Old Town just after midnight.

Before the day was out, there would be a double homicide on the steps of a West Side church, a triple homicide in a Southeast Side home and a shooting by an off-duty police sergeant.

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"It's just terrible," said Richard Bones, who checked the crime scene in Old Town to see if the victim was anyone he knew. "It's terrible around here in the summertime."



Over the weekend in the city, nine people were killed and 33 others were wounded, according to data kept by the Tribune. Eight of those fatal shootings occurred Sunday over 17 hours.



So far this year, at least 2,331 people have been shot in Chicago, about 280 fewer than last year when violence reached levels not seen in 20 years, the Tribune figures show. There have been at least 432 homicides, 18 fewer than last year.



Sunday's violence began with two people fatally shot in attacks 30 minutes apart, one in Old Town and the other in Back of the Yards. A few hours later, two men were gunned down on the steps of Friendship Baptist Church in South Austin.



In late afternoon, a man told police he shot and killed three people who he said broke into his home on the Southeast Side, according to authorities. The victims were a 17-year-old boy, a 22-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman.



In the Morgan Park neighborhood on the Far South Side, an off-duty Chicago police sergeant shot an 18-year-old man during a confrontation about 5:05 a.m. in the 11100 block of South Hermosa Avenue, according to police. A gun was not recovered at the scene, authorities said.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Aug. 15, 2017, accused Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of raising uncertainty about whether schools would open in an effort to force legislators to buck his veto of an education funding bill. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

SPRINGFIELD  A day after the Illinois Senate voted to override Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of an education funding overhaul, the governor went on the attack, accusing lawmakers of surrendering to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Rauner often blames Madigan for the state's woes, and on Monday he accused the longtime speaker of raising uncertainty about whether schools would open in an effort to force legislators to buck his veto. The governor compared it to when Republican lawmakers joined Democrats last month to enact a budget and tax hike against his veto.

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"He held our budget hostage for two years, and he finally broke some Republicans. Some Republicans in some districts that had community colleges that were threatened to be shut, some Republicans that had universities Downstate that were threatened to be shut, and they finally said, 'I surrender, Speaker, you win, I'll vote for a tax hike even though it's a disaster,'" Rauner said. "He's doing that to our children and our teachers right now. It is wrong, it is mean. We as the people in Illinois should stand against it."

Rauner took particular aim at Mayor Rahm Emanuel, telling WGN radio host Steve Cochran that the mayor "collapsed into Madigan's arms completely."

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The governor later doubled down when speaking to reporters, saying Emanuel has set aside his bonafides as a political reformer in an effort to get a "bailout" for Chicago Public Schools.

"People like to talk about how the mayor and I are fighting or whatever. I like the mayor. We're personally friends, very fond of him. I wish he would go back and start to be a reformer again," Rauner said. "He's kind of given up on trying to be a reformer. He's stopped on trying to reform the system, and now he's shifted to try and get a bailout from the rest of the state."

Asked about Rauner's comments, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said the governor "is not being honest when it comes to education funding and everyone knows it."

"There is a reason why superintendents, parents and teachers across Illinois are rejecting the governor's attempts to use false numbers and alternative facts to double down on an education system that rewards wealthy children at the expense of low-income children," Collins said in a statement.

At a separate event before Rauner's comments, Emanuel thanked Senate President John Cullerton for overriding the governor's veto and "not pitting" children in Chicago and across the state against each other.

According to an analysis by the Illinois State Board of Education, Rauner's changes to Democrats' education funding bill would send $463 million less in state money to CPS this year compared with the version lawmakers approved. That money would instead be redistributed to other districts.

The Senate voted to reject Rauner's veto on Sunday, saying other changes he inserted would mean hundreds of schools across the state would lose money in future years. All of the Senate's 37 Democrats voted for the override, and they were joined by Republican Sen. Sam McCann of Plainview.

The bill now heads to the House, where lawmakers have two weeks to try to override the governor. If they do nothing, or an override fails, the state will remain unable to cut checks for schools.

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Rauner on Monday called on Democrat and Republican legislative leaders to meet to try to reach an agreement. Cullerton issued a statement saying he looks forward to a meeting with Rauner and legislative leaders.

House Democrats countered that those negotiations are already taking place.

"Somebody may want to brief him on what's going on," Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said of Rauner.

The House is scheduled to return to the Capitol on Wednesday, but it's unclear if they'll try to override the governor then. Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, said Democrats are still trying to build support for an override, which may include passing corresponding legislation to address some concerns from Republicans. Democrats control just 67 votes in the House, but it takes 71 votes for an override. That means they'll need Republicans to defy the governor to overturn his changes.

Democrats will hold another hearing on Rauner's proposed changes Wednesday morning, and they might advance another bill that's identical to the measure Rauner vetoed. The idea is to keep the underlying legislation alive as talks continue, though no final decisions have been made. Rauner called on Republicans to stand by him, saying suburban and Downstate districts risk losing out to Chicago if they vote to override him.

Rep. Lou Lang, a Democrat from Skokie who serves on Madigan's leadership team, called that argument "cynical."

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"One has to ask the question, 'What is the governor thinking when he puts his political agenda ahead of the schoolchildren of Illinois?'" Lang said.

Chicago Tribune's Hal Dardick contributed.

mcgarcia@chicagotribune.com

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @moniquegarcia

Twitter @kimgeiger
The Illinois Senate voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's amendatory veto of the school funding bill on Aug. 13, 2017. (Alexandra Wimley / Chicago Tribune)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

The Illinois Senate may have voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's amendatory veto of a bill that rewrites the school funding formula, but that doesn't mean a resolution of the issue is imminent.

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The House now gets 15 days to take up the measure. That would put the deadline at Aug. 28, if you start counting from Monday. The House is in session Wednesday (in a bit of a tweak, that's Republican Day/Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair) but the chamber doesn't have to immediately vote on an override. Thursday is Democrat Day, but the party isn't even going to have a rally at the fairgrounds, just a morning breakfast.

The longer Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan waits to hold an override vote, the more the pressure builds on lawmakers to vote for it to turn the state school funding spigot back on. Districts have not received the first state aid payments that were supposed to go out Aug. 10. While classes are expected to start, some districts eventually could close without state money.

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Still, it's unclear whether enough pressure will have built up by late August to persuade enough Republicans to join Democrats to vote for an override. There are 67 House Democrats, and if all of them voted for an override, four House Republicans would have to hop on for Rauner's changes to be set aside. While 15 House Republicans bucked Rauner to approve an income tax hike last month, that number dropped on the tax hike override. Since then, Rauner has cleaned house on his staff and retooled with people from the conservative Illinois Policy Institute.

If Madigan can't pull together the 71 votes for an override, Rauner gets new life on the school funding issue. Negotiations will continue as the clock ticks and the pressure to get something done rises.

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will attend a ribbon-cutting to mark the newly reconstructed intersection at Damen, Elston and Fullerton avenues.

*Gov. Rauner will sign a bill to prevent "the expulsion of preschoolers" on the West Side. He'll be joined by Illinois first lady Diana Rauner. In the afternoon, the governor will sign "two local consolidation bills" in Oak Brook. He'll be joined by Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti.

*U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg will host a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at Palatine High School.

*The week ahead: On Monday , the City Club of Chicago will have an infrastructure discussion featuring CTA President Dorval R. Carter Jr. and Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld. On Tuesday , the City Club will host an education funding panel featuring two Republican lawmakers and two Democrats. On Wednesday , the Illinois House meets, and it's Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair. On Thursday , it's Democrat Day at the fair.

From the notebook

*Sanders' group backing Pawar: Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar got the backing for his candidacy for the Democratic governor nomination from the "Illinois Berniecrats," a subgroup of the U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders "Our Revolution" support organization.



The endorsement came Saturday at a meeting in Naperville. The main "Our Revolution" group is a tax-exempt organization that backs the unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate's agenda.



The "Illinois Berniecrats" are located in DuPage County and were formed in 2015. (Rick Pearson)

*The "Sunday Spin": Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests were author Michael Golden, state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, and Tribune reporter Monique Garcia. The Sunday Spin airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720. Listen to the full show here.

What we're writing

*Illinois Senate overrides Rauner's school funding formula veto, but fate less certain in House. How they voted.

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*From Sunday: Our setup for the Senate's Sunday session, including Rauner analysis of his AV.

*Illinois Senate approves resolution asking law enforcement to recognize neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations.

*Chicago Public Schools proposes $5.7 billion budget that includes $269 million in city help.

*Pritzker endorsed by Cook County Democrats.

*Roskam says Trump's "lack of ambiguity" helpful on North Korea.

*Illinois names 6 insurers to take part in overhauled Medicaid managed care.

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*Prosecutors can use what Officer Van Dyke told union rep at Laquan McDonald shooting.

*Judge denies Dennis Hastert's request to ban cameras during lawsuit proceedings.

*More community meetings planned for park changes tied to Obama center.

*Emanuel seeks to block feds from imposing new grant rules on sanctuary cities.

What we're reading

*Jim Kirk, Sun-Times editor/publisher, joins Tribune parent Tronc.

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*What eclipse will look like from Chicago area.

*Coulter takes shot at evasive Rauner following his Fox News interview.

Follow the money

*The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform tracks the week's top donations.

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

Beyond Chicago



*White House tries to stem fallout from Trump's initial Charlottesville remarks.

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*NYT looks at driver accused in Charlottesville car killing.

*Anger and blame in Charlottesville a day after violence.

*Pruitt is carrying out his EPA agenda in secret, critics say.
SPRINGFIELD  The Illinois Senate on Sunday adopted a resolution urging law enforcement officials to recognize white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations.



The resolution comes in response to the violent weekend in Charlottesville, Va., where a woman who was protesting a rally staged by white nationalists was killed after a driver who participated in the rally drove a car into a line of vehicles.



"It is vital that we stand in total opposition to the hatred, bigotry and violence displayed by the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville this past weekend," said sponsoring Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park. "They are the heirs to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis. We fought two bloody wars in opposition to their ideologies. We must continue to fight those same twisted ideologies today."
Mayor Rahm Emanuel Monday praised the weekend's protests against a rally of white nationalists in Virginia and said "members of the neo-Nazi and the KKK think they have a friend in the Oval Office."

"Heather Heyer's parents should be proud that they raised somebody who knows what it means to be an American," Emanuel said of the woman who died after being hit by a car driven into a group of counterprotesters in Charlottesville.

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"And for everybody in Chicago who came out, not just in this city but across the country, to oppose what they saw in Charlottesville, those who were spewing hatred and bigotry, they stood up and had their voices heard for what our ideals are, and who we are," the mayor said.

His comments came at an unrelated event at the City Club of Chicago. Emanuel noted he participated in a 1978 Marquette Park protest of neo-Nazis. He also criticized President Donald Trump's response to the violence.

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"I think the notion that when the bully pulpit of the American presidency is to be exercised and you miss the distinction between our ideals and our values and those who spew hatred, you have failed us in the job of a president to bring us country together," he said. "It does not require a multiple-choice answer when it comes to what's right, vs. what's wrong. And what's more frightening is that those who are members of the neo-Nazi and the KKK think they have a friend in the Oval Office."

Over the weekend, after a vehicle plowed into a group protesting against the neo-Nazis, Trump condemned an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides." That statement led to criticism from many quarters that he was somehow equating the neo-Nazis to those protesting against them and not doing enough to single out white supremacists.

"There is no place in this city and this country for bigotry, for racism, for xenophobia, for homophobia and for anti-Semitism," Emanuel said.
Over and over again, America's far-right has learned that the 1st Amendment doesn't protect them from Silicon Valley tech companies.

For weeks, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other far-right figures have been organizing for a "Unite the Right" demonstration in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, which is expected to be one of the largest rallies of its kind in at least a decade.

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But days before the rally, the short-term lodging service Airbnb started suspending the accounts of rally attendees who had rented houses in the area. Why? The San Francisco-headquartered company requires customers to "accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity," among other things  a deal breaker for white nationalists, who have been banned by other popular companies for similar reasons.

It was a blow for the organizers, who had "taken over all of the large AirBnBs in a particular area," according to a user on the message board for the Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website, who had "set up 'Nazi Uber' and the 'Hate Van' to help in moving our people around as needed."

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This wasn't the first time the far-right had to find someone willing to provide services for its members. Increasingly, the group's solution is to provide its own.

Over the last two years, a crop of start-ups has begun offering social media platforms and financial services catering to right-wing Internet users.

"We're getting banned from using payment-processing services, so we have no other choice," said Tim Gionet, who goes by the name "Baked Alaska" and who is scheduled to speak at the Charlottesville rally. "If that's the gamble they want to take, I guess they can, and we'll make our own infrastructure."

The new companies are small, paling in audience size to their gargantuan, mainstream counterparts. But piece by piece, supporters of the far-right are assembling their own corporate tech world  a shadow Silicon Valley, one with fewer rules.

After being banned from Twitter during the 2016 presidential campaign, many members of the "alt-right" movement of white nationalists joined Gab, which describes itself as "an ad-free social network for creators who believe in free speech, individual liberty, and the free flow of information online." On Tuesday, one of the site's most popular posts was an image that said, "I  BEING WHITE."

"The market is owned and controlled and operated by the oligarchy of Twitter and Facebook and Google," said Gab's founder, Andrew Torba.

"The reality is hate speech is free speech," Torba added, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent. With predominantly left-leaning companies, many of them in San Francisco, setting the boundaries on what speech isn't acceptable on for-profit platforms, "that's a huge opportunity to sit here and defend the Internet that I grew up on," he said.

Right-wing activists banned from the crowdfunding site Patreon can fundraise on Hatreon, a platform created to counter the "inexcusable content policing of services like Patreon."

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Hatreon  pronounced HATE-ree-on  currently features fundraisers supporting Richard Spencer, one of America's most prominent white nationalists (who has 34 "patrons" pledging to donate $362 to him a month), and Andrew Anglin, one of America's most prominent neo-Nazis (with 50 donors pledging $869.17 a month).

Spencer called Hatreon's founder, Cody Wilson, of Austin, Texas, to praise the service, telling him he would use it "even if you were the most left-wing Jewish communist," according to Wilson. (Spencer confirmed the accuracy of the remarks.)

Wilson, who is best known for his efforts to produce guns through 3-D printing, described himself as an "Internet anarchist" who wants to disrupt the establishment's status quo. He was intrigued by far-right users on social media, who sometimes post racist, sexist and anti-Semitic comments and images but also playful memes of their de facto mascot, "Pepe," a cartoon frog. "Frog Twitter and the so-called 'alt-right'  there's a lot of life there," Wilson said. "I'm kind of happy to help it mutate."

Another crowdfunding start-up, WeSearchr, has raised more than $150,000 for Anglin's legal defense in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the anti-extremism nonprofit, after Anglin organized a "troll storm" against a Jewish woman on his website, the Daily Stormer.

WeSearchr often sponsors fundraisers for medical bills and legal defense funds for far-right figures who have gotten in fights with left-wing anti-fascists. It also offers "bounties"  money donated by users to meet a certain objective  seeking the identities of anti-fascists involved in violent encounters.

WeSeachr's owner, Chuck C. Johnson, a right-wing journalist and provocateur who has been banned from Twitter, told The Times in an email that it was "good business to allow free speech" and that he believes not discriminating against users' political views might give him better protection from lawsuits.

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One of WeSeachr's other founders, Pax Dickinson, recently split from the company to start his own crowdfunding site, Counter.Fund, with an "explicit dedication against Marxist political correctness and the globalist progressive Left," according to its website.

Dickinson was the chief technology officer of Business Insider until he was forced to resign in 2013 after sexist and racist tweets of his were uncovered by the news site Gawker. Dickinson since has channeled his entrepreneurial energies into creating financial infrastructure to sustain the far-right.

"Counter-cultural content creators are trapped into funneling income streams through platforms owned by their ideological enemies," Dickinson wrote in a manifesto explaining the need for his new company. "A non-liberal on Patreon or Kickstarter is just one hack journalist's hit piece or progressive cultural campaign away from being censored from their platform and losing their income stream entirely."

Dickinson declined to be interviewed for this article.

Were getting banned from using payment-processing services, so we have no other choice. ... Well make our own infrastructure.  Tim Gionet, who goes by the name Baked Alaska

The relationship between America's far-right and liberal tech world was mutually beneficial at first.

As the alt-right movement gained momentum over the past two years, supporters found that advertising-supported platforms like Facebook and Twitter were powerful tools for trolling and self-promotion. For a fee, crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe offered the possibility for rising stars in the movement to convert their newfound social capital into actual financial capital.

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But as the far-right's influence grew, many of those companies cracked down after liberals and leftists accused them of sponsoring hate speech.

"I don't want to patronize anyone that patronizes them," said Daryle Lamont Jenkins, an anti-fascist activist who has pressured companies that do business with far-right figures. "They make it clear that they want to undermine society, that they want to break up society as we know it, that they want to be a boot on everyone's neck. Why should we ignore that?"

The shutdown of financial services has cramped Anglin, who has said the Daily Stormer might shut down if he loses his lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Anglin accused his adversaries of "trying to silence protected speech, and they are able to shut down my access to PayPal, credit card processors, Patreon, advertisers, even webhosts, with threats to defame these companies in the media," Anglin told The Times in an email earlier this year.

As for Spencer, one of the alt-right's other most prominent figures, he still has a Twitter account, but he has been banned from the audio hosting site SoundCloud. He said three banks have terminated the accounts of his white nationalist nonprofit, the National Policy Institute, but the group still does businesses with online payment-processing services such as PayPal.

Every now and then, a new company forces him out and leaves him with fewer options for how to advance his agenda, which includes traveling around the country to spread his beliefs.

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Spencer said he recently discovered that he had been banned from Airbnb  presumably because of his viewpoints, which include calling for a separate nation for white people.

"I just went to my account, and it was gone," Spencer said. He sounded puzzled, given how his past hosts had rated him positively as a customer. "I had all these nice reviews."

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Twitter: @mattdpearce
In this Jan. 19, 2017, file photo provided U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. (AP)

NEW YORK  Private lawyers seeking to represent Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in his U.S. drug-trafficking case failed to get assurances Monday that they'll get paid, leaving the Mexican drug lord's defense in limbo.

During a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told the lawyers that if they took the case, there was no guarantee that prosecutors wouldn't later seize their fees if they could show that the money came from his estimated $14 billion in drug profits.

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"I'm not going to pressure the government to create a carve-out for counsel fees," Cogan said.

Guzman smiled and waved at family members as he was led into the courtroom, but he didn't speak during the brief appearance.

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Afterward, the lawyers told reporters that they still hope to find a way to represent Guzman. They said they were waiting for him to consult with his sister on Thursday  the first jail visit he's had by family member since he was brought to the U.S. from Mexico in January.

"We are looking forward, desperately, to come into this case and fight for Joaquin Guzman. ... The guy has a constitutional right to the best counsel he can get," said one of the lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman.

Prosecutors have argued that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for his defense. But they also said in a letter to the court last week that the government will not "grant a blanket prospective assurance" that it won't go after money spent on a private defense.

Michelle Gelernt, a public defender currently representing Guzman, called that position "hypocritical."

Lichtman is known for successfully defended John "Junior" Gotti, son of the notorious organized crime family boss, at a 2005 trial. The younger Gotti walked free after an acquittal on a securities fraud count and a mistrial on more serious racketeering counts.

The lawyer said he has met with Guzman on a weekly basis, hoping to defend him at a trial in April.

"He is charming, funny, highly intelligent. I enjoyed getting to know him. ... I don't judge someone by what I read in the papers," Lichtman told The Associated Press last week.

Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his drug trafficking operation, the Sinaloa cartel, laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings.

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The defense has claimed that he's being held in inhumane and overly restrictive conditions at a high-security jail in Manhattan known for housing alleged mobsters and terrorists.

The government has argued that his strict jail conditions are appropriate for someone who escaped from prison twice in Mexico, including once through a tunnel dug to the shower in his cell. Prosecutors said that even while he was behind bars in Mexico, Guzman used coded messages, bribes and other means to control his Sinaloa cartel and orchestrate his breakouts.

AP reporter Claudia Torrens in New York contributed to this report.
NEW YORK  Politicians accused of illegal influence peddling, bribe-taking and other crimes have been given fresh hope that a year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling will get them off the hook.

Ever since the high court reversed a jury verdict against former Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, and in doing so tweaked the legal definition of a corrupt act, a growing list of politicians including Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and others have used the ruling to try to win a new trial or force an end to their prosecutions.

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The results so far have been mixed.

In New York, a court last month ordered a new trial for former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The Democrat was so emboldened by the decision that he petitioned the Supreme Court to toss his case entirely without a retrial.

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In New Jersey, Menendez, also a Democrat, lost a bid Tuesday to get a judge to use the McDonnell ruling as reason to dismiss corruption charges before a trial set to start later this month. U.S. District Judge William H. Walls wrote that he needed to see evidence presented at trial before making a decision.

The Supreme Court in June 2016 tightened rules on what constitutes an "official act" by a public official, saying that merely setting up meetings, calling other public officials or hosting an event do not necessarily qualify as an "official act" taken in return for money or services received.

Some experts say the ruling has already discouraged prosecutors from pressing charges in public corruption cases.

Federal prosecutors in Oregon announced June 16 that they were closing a criminal investigation into allegations that former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and his girlfriend used their positions for their personal benefit. Kitzhaber is a Democrat.

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, a Republican, said in a statement that the McDonnell ruling had "set the bar so high that it is now nearly impossible to bring federal charges in political corruption cases."

Professor Tung Yin of Lewis & Clark Law School said prosecutors would have had a harder time deciding whether to charge Kitzhaber before the McDonnell decision was issued.

"The McDonnell case made it very easy to decide not to pursue charges," he said.

The full impact of the ruling may become more apparent in the coming months, as more convicted lawmakers chase appeals.

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The former leader of New York's senate, Republican Dean Skelos, who was convicted of corruption around the same time as Silver, is hoping to also get a new trial. A three-judge appeals panel considering his case invited fresh arguments after the Silver decision was released.

In Philadelphia, federal appeals judges are being asked by former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah to toss out his federal racketeering conviction and the accompanying 10-year prison sentence because of McDonnell.

In Chicago, lawyers for Blagojevich, a Democrat who began serving a 14-year sentence in March 2012, are planning to appeal his case to the Supreme Court. Blagojevich had been convicted of trying to cash in on his power to appoint a new U.S. senator for Illinois when Barack Obama became president.

"In particular, the court expressed concern about corruption prosecutions involving campaign contributions," the lawyers noted, saying Blagojevich's solicitation of campaign contributions was nothing like the "Ferraris, Rolexes, and ball gowns" that McDonnell received from an entrepreneur friend in exchange for setting up meetings where he could promote his business.

Harry Sandick, a former federal prosecutor in New York who now defends white-collar cases, said Congress may eventually rewrite the laws if the public looks at the Silver case and others and wonders why such conduct is legal.

He said the appeals court in the Silver case made it clear "they had no real joy in reversing the conviction. They were troubled too. But the law is the law."

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"It may be naive, but really good government should be a bipartisan issue. Nobody benefits when the public becomes cynical and thinks their government is for sale," Sandick said.

While the Silver case stands out as an early success for those citing McDonnell, there are limits to its impact.

The Philadelphia federal appeals court on Aug. 4 rejected an effort by Joseph Ferriero, a Democratic fundraiser who was chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization in New Jersey from 1998 to 2009, to use it to toss out his racketeering conviction for accepting payments from a vendor in return for recommending that certain officials in towns hire his firm.

"Nothing in McDonnell changes the outcome for Ferriero in this case," the judges of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. "New Jersey's bribery statute is narrower than the broad interpretation of 'official act' the McDonnell Court rejected."
President Donald Trump, for all his bluster and outward aggression, is a weak man. He eventually backs down when circumstances are right. For example:

He hasn't fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

He hasn't fired special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

He signed the Russia sanctions bill.

He fired Michael Flynn (and seems to have regretted it ever since).

He reaffirmed our support for NATO.

He signed a budget resolution without funding for the wall.

He did not withdraw from NAFTA.

He now has singled out for condemnation the KKK, neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

We do not know if a certain combination of advisers prevailed upon him to do what he had so strenuously rejected. What is clear is that his position with his base is weakening and his overall polling numbers are still sinking. He hit a new low in Gallup at 34 percent approval and new high in disapproval of 61 percent. He therefore may be amenable to even more pressure going forward. So what "works" with him?

First, he would rather bully aides into leaving (e.g., Sessions) than take the initiative to remove them himself. If the victim of his bullying ignores him and keeps plugging away, Trump very well may back down.

Second, when it's hopeless to resist (e.g., a veto on Russia would have been overridden) he'll relent.

Third, when many Republicans are on the other side he usually does not have the wherewithal to persist in a ridiculous position. In the case of Charlottesville, even allies such as Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., singled out and denounced the white supremacist groups. When they are divided or egging him on (e.g., trade restrictionism, a commission to investigate non-existent, massive voter fraud, leaving the Paris climate agreement), he is much more likely to pursue his wrongheaded, even ridiculous position.

Four, when he doesn't have to explain, answer questions or concede he backed down he is more likely to go along with the party. He had no signing statement for the Russia sanctions; he took no questions on Charlottesville Monday. Remember, protecting his ego is his constant task, hearing that he "lost" is unbearable.

And this goes back to two critical points about Republicans and the Trump presidency. First, he got to the presidency and continues to govern in extreme, abnormal ways because the GOP as a whole will not challenge him. If House and Senate leadership, for example, can drain the Trump swamp by requiring full disclosure of his tax returns, ending nepotism and enforcing the emoluments clause. They can speak with one voice to demand alt-right heroes such as Stephen K. Bannon and Sebastian Gorka leave the White House. They can, once again, refuse to fund the wall  or the phony election fraud commission. Trump, we've learned time and time again, can be forced to back down when the deck is stacked against him.

Second, Trump has no real beliefs. Other than feeding his base, undermining his opponents, concealing his finances and racking up "wins," he doesn't much care what comes out of Congress. It's therefore incumbent on constructive lawmakers, including the problem-solvers caucus in the House, to set forth bipartisan, reasonable proposals on tax reform (not huge tax cuts for the rich), infrastructure, legal immigration (not slashing it in half) and shoring up the individual health-care market. Trump lacks moral and political leadership; it's time for responsible public figures to fill it.

As for Trump, GOP lawmakers, when appropriate, should denounce his lies, egregious pronouncements and wrongheaded polices. Otherwise, frankly they should ignore him and instead follow an agenda that will draw bipartisan support. Most important, when Mueller comes out with his findings, they must if warranted impeach and remove the president. What we now know is if they are prepared to do so, he'll quit first.
A clerk, right, helps a woman shop for chicken at a supermarket in Beijing, Friday, May 12, 2017. China will finally open its borders to U.S. beef while cooked Chinese poultry is closer to hitting the American market as part of a U.S.-China trade agreement. (Mark Schiefelbein / AP)

Editor's note: Under a trade deal concluded in May, China has begun exporting chicken to the United States. Critics have pointed to China's record of food safety issues and argued that the deal prioritizes commerce over public health. Here Maurice Pitesky, a poultry extension specialist at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine with a focus on poultry health and food safety epidemiology, answers five questions about importing Chinese chicken.

1. Why is the United States importing chicken from China? Do we have a shortage?

Hardly. The United States is the largest poultry producer in the world, and the second-largest poultry exporter after Brazil. However, as part of a recent bilateral trade deal, China has agreed to accept imports of beef and liquefied natural gas from the United States. In exchange, the United States is allowing China to export cooked poultry meat to the United States.

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2. Why can China send us only cooked chicken?

This is most likely in response to concerns over avian influenza transmission from raw poultry to the United States. Viable avian influenza viruses could potentially infect U.S. poultry or birds and spread these novel viruses in North America. Some of these viruses can infect humans.

South and Southeast Asia have dense human populations, with numerous poultry producers, vendors and markets where people are exposed to live birds  all conditions that contribute to the spread of avian flu. Since 2013 China has confirmed 1,557 human cases of AH7N9 flu and 370 deaths.

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3. Given Chinas history of food safety problems, should U.S. consumers be worried about eating chicken processed there?

China is already the third leading supplier of food and agricultural imports to the United States. U.S. consumers are eating imported Chinese fish, shellfish, juices, canned fruits and vegetables.

If poultry is cooked properly, there is no food safety risk from viruses or bacteria. However, if the poultry is not cooked properly, or if there is some type of cross-contamination  for example, if raw chicken or feathers come into contact with cooked product or packaging material  then zoonotic bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter can cross the species barrier and sicken humans.

Most cases of salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis are thought to be associated with eating raw or undercooked poultry meat, or with cross-contamination of other foods by these items. There are no publicly available data on rates of salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis in China. In the United States, infections from these two bacteria sickened nearly 14,000 people in 2014. Of this group, 3,221 were hospitalized and 41 died.

Poultry meat can also contain contaminants, such as heavy metals, and antibiotic residues if birds are treated with antibiotics in an inappropriate fashion. Specifically, when poultry farmers use antibiotics inappropriately (quantity, type and timing), residue can persist in muscle, organs and eggs and toxic and harmful residues build up in the birds. These risks are probably greater for poultry raised and processed in China than for poultry raised and processed in the United States.

Here in the United States there are strict rules requiring growers to stop giving birds antibiotics for periods of days or weeks before they are processed, and we have a National Residue Program that is designed to test for these compounds in eggs and meat.

China has similar rules, but they are not robustly enforced, and many poultry farmers are not well-informed about them. The Chinese government recently announced a plan to increase surveillance, oversight and monitoring of poultry, livestock and aquatic products to decrease the presence of antibiotic residues by 2020.

Heavy metals in Chinese poultry products may also be an issue. This is a worldwide concern, but it's especially serious in China because they still burn huge quantities of coal, which releases lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. High levels of lead and cadmium have been reported in agricultural areas near Chinese coal mines. These heavy metals can contaminate soil and end up in animal feed and animal meat and eggs.

We really don't understand how widespread these problems are in China, and the Chinese government isn't very transparent about food safety. That's starting to change, but there's nothing like the publicly available data that we have in the United States at the processing plant and retail level.

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4. What will U.S. inspectors do to determine whether Chinese chicken is safe?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service is responsible for determining whether other countries have meat and poultry safeguards that are equivalent to ours. Chinese poultry processing plants cannot ship cooked poultry to the United States unless they meet that test.

When a foreign program is approved by the USDA, the Food Safety and Inspection Service relies on that country's government to certify that its plants are eligible and conduct regular inspections of the exporting plants. The Service conducts on-site audits of the plants at least annually to verify that they are still meeting the required standards. It will be interesting to see whether the U.S. National Residue Program is involved in those inspections.

5. Where will chicken processed in China show up in U.S. markets?

This is the million-dollar question. Cooked poultry is considered to be a processed food item, so it is excluded from country-of-origin labeling requirements, which would apply to raw chicken. This means that U.S. consumers will not know they are consuming chicken grown and processed in China. Restaurants also are excluded from country-of-origin labeling, so the cooked poultry could be sold to restaurants without consumers knowing. The first Chinese exporter did not specify the name brand that its cooked chicken is being sold under.

The key issue is cost competitiveness. If China can sell cooked poultry at a competitive price point, there will most likely be a U.S. market for it. At this point, though, the Chinese poultry industry is not as integrated (that is, organized so that one company owns breeder birds, hatcheries, grow-out farms and processing plants) or technologically advanced as the U.S. poultry industry. In the short run, this makes it difficult for China to compete with the U.S. poultry industry at any appreciable level, even though Chinese labor costs are lower.

Maurice Pitesky is a lecturer and assistant specialist in cooperative extension at the University of California at Davis.
Donald Trump, the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons once told me, is "the official bling-bling white man."

Simmons, a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago, was explaining to me more than a decade ago why Trump had gained widespread acclaim among rappers. In short, Simmons said, Trump was extravagant, obsessed with public displays of his wealth and loving every minute of it. Rappers saw Trump as a role model, and as someone who was inclusive. "A lot of rich white guys want to thumb their noses at you and have their cake," Simmons said. "That's not Donald."

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Simmons and Trump aren't pals anymore.

Simmons now describes the president as the "epitome" of "white supremacy." Shortly after Trump was elected last year, Simmons published a letter asking him to reconsider some of his campaign themes. "The far right wing and the alt-right were your most staunch supporters, but those people are not your friends and you know that," Simmons wrote. "You must stop with the hateful and harmful language towards women and people of color."

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Trump hasn't taken Simmons' advice. He has never really distanced himself from the white nationalists who have been among his most visible backers since he announced his presidential bid two years ago. And this past weekend he reached a new low when he failed to clearly condemn the avowed racists who gathered in Charlottesville, Va., to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The rally turned violent, a woman was killed by an alleged white nationalist, and Trump equivocated: "Many sides" were to blame for the tragedy, he said in a televised statement on Saturday.

After then being pilloried by activists, politicians from both parties, the media, and on and on, Trump  who typically seizes any opportunity to opine publicly about the news of the day  couldn't come up with anything much better than that initial statement. He took to Twitter to express his disappointment ("but Charlottesville sad!" he offered) and then his daughter Ivanka Trump entered the fray to say what her father apparently wasn't willing to: "There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis."

The White House also sought to mollify the president's critics, issuing a statement on Sunday condemning "white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups" for the violence. Better, maybe. Clearer, certainly. But that's still very weak brew amid a national tragedy.

I don't think Trump is failing to rise to the majesty and demands of the office he now holds because he's uncertain about how to respond to Charlottesville, or simply because he's pandering to a vocal and vicious segment of his political base.

I suspect, rather, that the president isn't being clear and forceful about Charlottesville because he has a long history as a race-baiter himself  and to overtly condemn others for the same is beyond him.

Remember, our president is the same man who took out full-page newspaper ads in 1989 condemning black and Latino teenagers accused of assaulting a white jogger in Central Park. Trump had no need to insert himself in that event, other than to stir up the racial animosities brewing around it and exploit them for his own publicity. Even after the teenagers were fully exonerated, including by DNA evidence proving they weren't the assailants, Trump continued to insist on their guilt as recently as last year.

Our president is the same man who embraced birtherism as a way to hound Barack Obama during his presidency, an effort that also kept Trump in the public eye. He's the same man who attacked a federal judge overseeing fraud litigation involving Trump University by highlighting his Mexican heritage. He's the same man who ran a housing and real-estate business with his father that was investigated and sanctioned by the Justice Department in the 1970s for discriminating against prospective tenants of color. He's the same man who brought Steve Bannon, the former boss of Breitbart, the white-nationalist tribune, into the White House.

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Trump is the same man who refused last year to explicitly condemn former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. "I know nothing about David Duke; I know nothing about white supremacists," Trump told CNN at the time.

Duke himself knows better. He joined the Charlottesville rally over the weekend, telling NBC that he attended because he saw the event as a "turning point" for white nationalists seeking to "fulfill the promises of Donald Trump."

David Duke is right. And Russell Simmons is right. The president has long consorted freely with bigotry, dignifying and empowering the racism that's now unspooling onto our streets.

Bloomberg View

Timothy O'Brien is the executive editor of Bloomberg Gadfly and Bloomberg View. He has been an editor and writer for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost and Talk magazine. His books include "TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald."
One could be forgiven for confusing President Donald Trump's recent apocalyptic outburst on North Korea with the outrageous threats, warnings and ultimatums that populate North Korean propaganda. On Tuesday, Trump threatened Kim Jong Un's kingdom with "fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before." Just days before his comments, a North Korean newspaper had warned, "the day the US dares tease our nation with a nuclear rod and sanctions, the mainland US will be catapulted into an unimaginable sea of fire." Without any apparent sense of irony, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson justified the president's shocking language by saying that Trump "was sending a strong message in language that Kim Jong Un would understand."

A New York real estate developer turned politician and the world's only communist dynasty wouldn't seem to have much in common. Yet the similarities between the language of Trump and the North Korean propaganda apparatus that the Kim family has overseen for decades are striking nonetheless.

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Trump has long resembled a North Korean insult generator. His put-downs display a worrying mix of bluster, aggression and ignorance tinged with misogyny and sexual anxiety. Trump is now probably the best-known man alive, and yet a sense of inadequacy visibly consumes him. He obsessively references his "historic victory" in the U.S. election and the amazing crowd sizes at his inauguration (when in reality he lost the popular vote and the audience at his swearing-in was anemic).

Like North Korea, Trump craves respect and denounces those he feels aren't sufficiently adulatory. "President Trump's the most gifted politician of our time," his adviser Stephen Miller said recently on Fox. "We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda," Reince Priebus, the deposed White House chief of staff, told the president during a Cabinet meeting in June that turned into a competitive display of sycophancy. "I would like to express the greatest thanks in the name of the people and the army to great leader comrade Kim Jong Un," a top official told a crowd of tens of thousands of North Korean citizens.

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Kim oversees one of the world's poorest countries; the success of South Korea only underscores the fragility of his rule. Kim must live with the dictator's doubt. He knows that his underlings and citizens might secretly dislike him, disobey him or plot to overthrow him. The similarity in language between Trump and the North Korean regime thus reveals a deeper commonality: a profound sense of insecurity. Both sides feel compelled to celebrate their own virtues while bullying their foes.

Women  especially powerful women  often bear the brunt. In 2011, Trump wrote that New York Times columnist Gail Collins had "the face of a dog!" In 2005, a North Korean radio program called then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "a hen strutting around in the White House," and a "(b-word) running riot on the beach." In 2009, the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling Hillary Clinton a "funny lady" who sometimes looks like a "primary schoolgirl" and sometimes like a "pensioner going shopping." In the presidential debates, Trump referred to Clinton as "the devil." In an infamous 2013 statement, a North Korean government spokesperson warned about the "venomous swish" of then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye's skirt. In an infamous 2015 CNN interview, Trump said then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."

For North Korea, as well as for other totalitarian states, there is a reassuring finality to declarative language. "We Have Nothing to Envy in This World" is a popular children's tune in North Korea. "Without you, there is no us," schoolchildren there sometimes sing in praise of their leader and country. (The two phrases serve as the titles of two of the best contemporary American books about North Korea). North Korean insults are sometimes "beautifully dense," Christopher Baswell, a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, told me a few years ago. (He cautioned that the phrases might sound different in Korean).

While Trump's words lack the brutal lyricism of some North Korean propaganda, he has a comparable penchant for superlatives: Everything is "fantastic," "tremendous," the "biggest" and "most beautiful." Like the Kim regime, it's difficult for him to admit his fallibility, apologize for his mistakes or accept his many weaknesses. And like the Kim regime, Trump consciously uses hyperbole to distract from his lies. "People may not always think big themselves," Trump wrote in his 1987 book "The Art of the Deal," "but they can still get very excited by those who do."

Luckily for the world, both Trump and Kim are supreme bluffers, and it's highly unlikely that either party plans to carry through on the recent threats they've issued. Their rhetoric is exceptionally dangerous and irresponsible nonetheless. It's almost as if the two sides can't help themselves. But then, given the fragility of the North Korean regime, and the vulnerability of Trump's own ego, perhaps they can't.

The Washington Post

Isaac Stone Fish is a journalist and senior fellow at the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. He is on sabbatical from Foreign Policy Magazine.
President Donald Trump did not deliver a modern Gettysburg Address on Monday. He didn't change the national conversation about race. Rather, he repudiated the white supremacy movement in a brief televised statement about the violence in Charlottesville, Va.

The sentences that mattered: "Racism is evil," the president said from the White House. "And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America."

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The country needed to hear those words, and they shouldn't be forgotten.

Yet what Trump declared as the truth on Monday also was the truth on Saturday, when protests over the planned removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville spun out of control. It was the truth a month ago, a year ago, a century ago, because America struggles with racism, prejudice and intolerance. Somehow, though, Trump needed 48 hours from the rioting aftermath to go beyond a measured statement about wrongdoing on "many sides" of the ugly protests to specifically identify white hate groups as the villains in Virginia on Saturday.

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What gives with this president?

Trump usually has no problem distinguishing friends from enemies. Get on his bad side and you'll know it. Monday morning, for example, Trump attacked pharmacy industry CEO Kenneth Frazier almost immediately after Frazier resigned from a White House manufacturing council over the president's initial wishy-washy statements on Charlottesville.

Therefore it was obvious over the weekend that Trump was holding back from placing full blame on white nationalist hoodlums for spewing bile in Virginia and setting off riots. Amid that chaos, an Ohio man allegedly rammed the crowd in his car, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of people. But Trump couldn't raise his voice against the Nazis and other white nationalists who marched.

There are theories about the president's initial reticence: Did he perceive racists to be part of his political base? Fail to recognize there was an urgent need for the president to speak as the nation's conscience? Many observers, this page included, have criticized Trump for lacking empathy. He struggles to honor the motives of political opponents, such as during the campaign when he attacked the parents of a fallen U.S. soldier because they criticized him at the Democratic convention.

Put frankly, Trump will disappoint anyone who expects him to behave as America's unwavering moral beacon. He's hit or miss on these sensitive issues, requiring some combination of heeding the right advice and making course corrections when instincts fail. That's what happened regarding Charlottesville. He said on Saturday the Virginia tragedy required reflection on issues of race "to see what we're doing wrong." Then he took his own advice, or somebody else's: He got the message his presidency was in danger of being tarred by allegations of racial intolerance unless he made it clear who the bad guys were in Virginia.

Just as important, Trump's Justice Department took forceful action, opening a federal civil rights hate crime investigation of the deadly car attack. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday that attack meets the definition of domestic terrorism. And he said the feds will "take the most vigorous action to protect the rights of people like Heather Heyer to protest against racism and bigotry."

Words and actions from the White House now seem aligned in the aftermath to a despicable day of violence. The White House gets no applause for doing what should be obvious. Instead we'll keep a close eye on all that comes next.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.

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Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks at a news conference on the first day of a special session on education funding at the state Capitol, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin Fowler / AP)

The easier lift came Sunday: Illinois state senators voted 38-19 to force into law a new school funding plan, with its comparatively generous treatment of Chicago Public Schools. The vote was a rebuke to Gov. Bruce Rauner and his rival proposal: The governor would give less to CPS but more to many other Illinois districts, especially those that also educate sizable numbers of disadvantaged students.

Sunday's vote wasn't a surprise; the Senate, with its Democratic supermajority, did as expected. Now comes the harder lift: Will members of the House, scheduled to convene Wednesday, also vote to override Rauner?

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If they do, the bill legislators passed May 31, and which Rauner has tried to rewrite via an amendatory veto, will become law. But a House override requires 71 votes, and the bill got only 60 yeses in the House in May. Even if all 67 Democrats now vote to override Rauner, they'll need a handful of his fellow Republicans to do the same.

Going into the weekend, we might have bet a nickel, but not a whole dime, that the House would vote to override. Several downstate school officials had complained publicly that the governor's rival plan  his amended version of the bill  would hurt their districts. But on Saturday, the Illinois State Board of Education finally issued calculations that may make an override a much tougher vote for some House members of both parties: Rauner's plan evidently would give most districts not named CPS more money than would the Democrats' Senate Bill 1.

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Those new Rauner plan numbers popped up in Sunday's Senate debate. Distilling Republicans' points to their essence: Why should we send this much money to a Chicago district that already spends twice as much per pupil as our children's schools can spend? Why not uphold Rauner's veto and bring more money to our districts? His plan would give CPS millions more than it's getting now.

Expect House Republicans and Democrats outside Chicago to hear similar challenges from their constituents between now and Wednesday.

Maybe House Speaker Michael Madigan already has persuaded enough Republicans to join Democrats in overriding Rauner. If so, game over.

But if Democrats are having trouble getting to 71, this an ideal time to summon an endangered species in Springfield: a compromise. What can Democrats offer Republicans, at this late date, to win some of their votes? To spare Senate Bill 1 from collapse?

Yes, this invites logistical hurdles: If the House changes Senate Bill 1 to attract Republican votes, the Senate would have to concur. A little more work for legislators, but they've kept a light schedule this year.

So Republicans are in a position to seek the sort of compromise-maker we advocated over the weekend: creating scholarships for low- and middle-income kids to attend public schools outside their district boundaries, or to attend private schools. Republicans also have spoken (including on Sunday) about reducing unfunded state mandates for schools, and about allowing districts to limit collective bargaining.

Democrats might not like those paths to compromise; teachers unions hate school choice almost as much as they'd hate any limit to collective bargaining. But Democrats also own a huge mess that many of them are frantic to address: the devastated finances of a CPS long mismanaged by, um, their fellow Democrats in Chicago's City Hall.

If Democrats refuse to compromise and let Senate Bill 1 die, they can wear that jacket. Or they can make a few sensible changes and attract enough Republicans to a funding plan that still gives CPS a heap of new loot.

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Over to you, Speaker Madigan.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.

Become a subscriber today to support editorial writing like this. Start getting full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks.
I want you to read these words about the young woman who was killed after a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting a rally of white supremacists. The words are despicable. But I want you to read them anyway:

"The woman killed in yesterday's road rage incident has been identified as Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old overweight slob with no children.  Despite feigned outrage by the media, most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness. A 32-year-old woman without children is a burden on society and has no value."

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That's from a Nazi website popular with the racists and anti-Semites and white nationalists who over the weekend turned Charlottesville, Va., into a scene of hatred, violence and death. Those words aren't unusual in such circles  it's the sort of vile garbage these monsters feast on daily. They're words we want to ignore, words we read and say: "We're better than this."

Many said that last sentence after the tragedy in Virginia: "We're better than this."

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But we aren't. We, as a country, allowed this moment to unfold. We allowed a man unwilling to directly and emphatically condemn Nazis become president of the United States. We let him place white nationalists in his administration, in the halls of the People's House in Washington, D.C.

We aren't better than what happened in Virginia.

On Monday, Donald Trump finally made a statement specifically denouncing "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups." But they were empty words.

He didn't call these groups out right away, and he didn't call them out the day after the tragedy.

Instead, he had the gall to say to the American people  people who saw the video of torch-carrying white men chanting "Heil Trump!" and hurling epithets  that the violence was "on many sides."

There aren't "many sides" to this kind of hatred. There's the hatred, and there are people who oppose it, and to equate the two is despicable.

It's also a tell, a look into the true character of our president. He will call out people in the media or other politicians who cross him with great specificity. On Monday morning he specifically called out Merck CEO Ken Frazier, a black man who quit the president's manufacturing council in protest over Trump's failure to condemn white supremacists.

Trump tweeted: "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

There was no hesitation before going after Frazier. There was no pause, no "many sides." That tweet came hours before the president, under intense pressure, finally denounced white hate groups.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 40 People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress)

His delayed denunciation of racists  people who proudly flaunt their support of Trump  was a wink and a nod.

Trump causes us to be no better than all of this. And the people who make excuses for him cause us to be no better than all of this. The people he has aligned himself with, in the White House and outside, cause us to be no better than all of this.

Given opportunities in the past to condemn white nationalists and flat-out racists, Trump has sidestepped. He has hesitated. And in doing so, he has given these monsters confidence to creep out from under the bed.

This is how that same Nazi website responded to Trump's many-are-to-blame statement about the white supremacy rally in Virginia.

"Trump comments were good. He didn't attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us. He said that we need to study why people are so angry, and implied that there was hate ... on both sides!"

If we want to be better than all this  better than that absurd, screaming mob of white men in Virginia whose hate left Heather Heyer dead  we will do it without presidential leadership. Trump's silence makes him an ally of racists, whether he means it to or not. He has picked his side.

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So it falls on us. We can't keep repeating "We're better than this." We have to vow to become better. To make hate like what we saw in Charlottesville so utterly unacceptable that the monsters run back into hiding and never return.

Shame them. Out them. Shout them down. Use whatever platform you have to make sure people know these views will never be acceptable.

Push your lawmakers. Demand that known white nationalists presently in the White House  like senior advisers Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon and White House aide Sebastian Gorka  be removed.

There aren't "many sides" to this issue. The existence of other radicals doesn't make the presence of Nazis in the year 2017 OK. And nothing makes the death of a peaceful protester OK.

A young woman was killed by a charging car, and these people called her fat and said "most people are glad she is dead." That's not OK in this country. Ever.

Trump can stay silent. Those who support him can do the same. That will rest on their souls.

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But silence from the rest of us is unacceptable.

Speak up. Scream out. Take a stand.

We are not, at the moment, better than this.

But we sure need to be.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RexHuppke
People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress)

After the deadly, race-fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Va., I found the most memorable internet meme to be a news photo of torch-carrying white supremacists captioned: "Vanilla ISIS."

That's appropriate on several levels, most horrifically in the car that crashed into a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters.

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Ramming vehicles into crowds of innocent people is a tactic we have come to associate with the latest phase of Islamic State terrorism. We have to concern ourselves not only with ISIS-trained terrorists but also the ISIS-inspired. We have to be wary of any ordinary person with poisonous ISIS ideas in his or her head to commit a calamity with nothing more extraordinary than an automobile.

Something very similar may have inspired the accused Charlottesville driver, identified by police as James Alex Fields Jr. from Ohio. He sympathized with neo-Nazi views, people who know him have told reporters, and those misbegotten ideas may be all that it took for tragedy to result.

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Words and ideas matter. That's why there was so much pressure on President Donald Trump to come up with a stronger statement than the tepid remarks he delivered by tweets and a formal statement on the day of the disaster.

Trump spoke up but, at first, didn't make it very easy for listeners to figure out whom he was talking about.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms," he said in his original statement Saturday, "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."

"On many sides?" Only one side had the casualties, as far as I could see.

Even some of his fellow Republican lawmakers stepped up to criticize Trump's early remarks as insufficient and vague. At times like this, we look to national leaders for voices of reason  in the same way we called on President Barack Obama to speak out against similarly senseless violence, regardless of the color of the victims or perpetrators.

But for two days, Trump, despite his history of pointedly specific barbs thrown at other targets, ranging from the media to Rosie O'Donnell, was almost as tongue-tied about condemning white racism as he has been about criticizing Vladimir Putin.

Finally, on Monday, Trump delivered the sort of statement many had waited for. "Racism is evil," he said from the White House. "And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

That's better. What does it matter? A lot.

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Trump, too, has said that a president's words against hatred and violence mean a lot  when the president was named Barack Obama. "Anyone who cannot name our enemy," Trump said in a campaign speech last August, "is not fit to lead this country."

At that time, Trump was talking about using the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism." Even Attorney General Jeff Sessions, hardly a liberal on such matters, declared the Charlottesville killing to be domestic terrorism.

Worse, the "Unite the Right" rally was linked at least in spirit to Trump by some of the event's biggest boosters.

"We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump," said former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke earlier that day. " That's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back."

Duke knows his audience. During Obama's first presidential campaign, I wrote a column mocking Duke for blogging, "Obama is a visual aid for white Americans who just don't get it yet that we have lost control of our country."

Obama hadn't even gotten elected yet. Duke sounded like the last whimpering voice in a trail of populist haters.

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But he knew what Trump appears to have figured out. A large body of white Americans feel as left out and aggrieved as a lot of nonwhites do. Duke's trick since the 1970s has been to morph the language of his movement from white supremacy to "white victimization."

A sense of victimization is a powerful organizing force, especially in the age of Twitter. Vast audiences of otherwise alienated individuals can be reached and inspired and rallied to a cause  or inspired to take things into their own hands.

When a deranged black man killed five police officers in Dallas, allegedly inspired by Black Lives Matter, conservatives called for condemnation of that entire movement. We need to hear similar rage about the other side. Words do matter.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a dumpling.

Apologies to Joyce Kilmer for bastardizing the opening lines to his famous poem "Trees," but I do love stuffed comfort food. If I were one of the people they eventually chose to colonize Mars and had to choose one earthly delight to take with me, it would probably be a lifetime supply of dumplings.

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Because I live my life 100 carbs at a time, I know dough. And let me tell youBibim Town, a new a la carte Korean restaurant in Edgewater, is serving up some fabulous dough.

The wrappers are tender at the ends, but golden and crispy at the center and dappled with pockmarks from the saute oil. Inside is a silky assortment of what I believed to be pork and scallion. But, this turns out to be a bit of an edible trompe l'oeilthe salty protein that apes nice ground pork turns out to be a soy-based substitute. While I generally abhor vegetarian approximations like nut-based cheeses and Tofurky, which taste nothing like what they proport to represent, if you're a lifelong vegetarian and have never tasted a traditional pork pot sticker, one bite of the Bibim Town dumpling is almost a perfect representation.

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What's ironic is that almost everything at Bibim Town, from tender ddokbokki ($5.99),thick, puffy cheese curl-shaped rice cakes swimming in spicy brothto the fizzy kimchi that spices up a tender Korean pancake ($5.99), is house made by owner/chef Soo Choi. And yet, the dumplings are a pre-made and purchased product, though one that was carefully chosen.

Ddokbokki, or spicy rice cake stew, from Bibim Town. (Jintae Kim / Handout)

"I tried almost every Korean dumpling on the market, maybe like 100 of them, and this was the best," said Choi.

The accompanying soy dipping sauce isn't just some store-bought Kikkoman dumped into a bowl. Choi has infused a base soy sauce with roasted mushrooms, scallions and toasted seaweed. The result is a savory bomb that explodes with complexity.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

Choi is self-taught. Korean-born, she moved to Vancouver to attend college. She moved to Chicago with her husband 12 years ago. For the last eight years, she waited tables at Tsukasa of Tokyo in Vernon Hills and spent some time as a barista at Mariano's, which she credits for teaching her about service.

Her cooking chops come from her mom.

"I have three daughters. I wanted them to eat healthier. I was really influenced by my mom. She was a strict mom, so she expressed her love through food. The love I got from her I wanted to give to my children," said Choi. "Also, when my friends are having a bad time, and I want to share or cheer them up, I cook for them. With Bibim Town, I had a dream  of bringing something to help people heal or help their stress through healthy food."

The cool thing about Bibim Town is it's easy to order a large variety for one or two people without breaking the bank (nothing on the menu is over $11.99). The interior of Bibim Town includes a colorful mix of neon green and orange mod chairs. With white, surgical suite-worthy accents, it looks less like a restaurant and more like the office of an internet start-up. Choi, who said, "Everything from the wallpaper to the chairs is from Korea," carefully planned this. "I didn't want it to be like the traditional (Korean) spots, which are often too dark and old style. I wanted the interior to be bright, so young people will jump in the restaurant."

Bibim Town

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5357 N. Broadway 773-961-7616

[ Check out more of Michael Nagrant's restaurant reviews here.  ]

Michael Nagrant is a RedEye freelancer. Reporters visit restaurants unannounced and meals are paid for by RedEye.
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.
Whenever foreign investors want to figure out whether internal control exists and is sufficient in their Chinese subsidiaries, an internal control review (ICR) might be the best and very first step to achieve that.

In contrast to an annual statutory audit, which mainly focuses on maintaining reliable financial reporting, the ICR cares more about the specific management process.

To put it simply, ICR is an overall assessment of the internal control system across various functions in a company.

It tests whether the implemented internal control system works as designed, to evaluate whether its enough to manage the risks that the company may face in its day-to-day business, and to identify deficiencies in the internal control structure that could be strengthened to maximize efficiency.

Generally, an ICR would generate the following benefits:

Encourage adherence to prescribed internal control policies and procedures;

Improve effectiveness and efficiency of operations;

Guarantee reliability of the companies financial reporting;

Ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations;

Detect and prevent errors and irregularities in a timely manner; and,

Help oveseas headquarters and senior management to have a thorough understanding of thier companys internal control mechanisms.

When is ICR needed?

Unlike listed companies that are required by law to conduct separate internal control audit and evaluation regularly, ICR is generally not mandatory for smaller companies. The ICR is often seen as a plus, rather than a must, for those whose business models are comparatively simple.

More often than not, these businesses may just combine the ICR into the annual statutory audit process. However, even SMEs should consider an ICR under certain circumstances, including:

When the key management of the company is changing;

When there is internal reporting indicating fraud or corruption within the organization;

When an acquiring company in an M&A knows nothing about the management situation of the acquired company;

When a parent overseas company and its Chinese subsidiary have difficulties in reaching a mutual understanding on internal control mechanisms due to language or cultural barriers; or,

When a company tries to figure out why irregularities, high costs, or low performance have occurred within its organization.

ICR by internal or external team?

Many companies may also wonder whether they should do the review internally or use third party professional services. While the former might be preferred for cost-saving purposes, an ICR conducted by third party professionals can actually add more value to the process in the business context of China.

This is not only because they have the expertise needed to identify the unique risks and deficiencies in China, but also because they are usually in a more independent position to ensure the objectiveness of the ICR process, and thus better serves to improve the internal control operations.

Nevertheless, the advantages of external ICR can only be achieved when the third party professionals are reliable and qualified. Companies are advised to do at least basic due diligence into a potential third party to ensure it has compatible resources and experience to conduct an ICR that are customized to their needs.

For example, the qualified service provider should handle the ICR process in English, allowing headquarters or senior managements to monitor the process; the service provider should have adequate professionals with good understanding of ICR and necessary qualifications, such as CPA certificate or other certificates; the service provider should have experience of conducting ICR for companies that have similar business operations and scope.

ICR process

For both internal ICR and external ICR, companies can always get more from the ICR process by knowing how it works. Though the methodology and procedure of each ICR vary case by case, depending on the objectives and actual situation of the company, we summarize the full set of ICR process as follows:



Step 1: Identify the companys business objectives

Since internal control is essentially designed to provide reasonable assurance for the achievement of the company objectives, identifying all objectives that are key to the success of the company is the starting point to improve a companys internal control system.

In the case of using a third party service to conduct an ICR, the company and the service provider need to figure out the objectives even before the service agreement is signed. By expressly identifying the business objectives, the service provider can better allocate their resources to the most relevant business process and reduce the likelihood of overlooking key business risks.

Step 2: Walk-through tests to learn the key business processes and controls

The walk-through test is a method commonly used to learn the key business processes and existing internal control in an ICR. A walk-through test traces how the company authorizes, records, processes, and reports a sample transaction.

For example, in a walk-through test for the purchase cycle of a manufacturing company, the auditor would go through the whole processincluding order placing, good shipment, invoicing, good receipt and quality checking, monthly reconciliation and payment settlement, and quality dispute managementstep by step. During the test, auditors will use the email chains between the staff in charge and the suppliers, the invoices, and the paper records to demonstrate the process. By studying a single transaction, the auditor gets a sense of how the company handles other similar transactions.

Step 3: Document key processes and controls narratives

After the walk-through test, the auditors would document the key processes and controls narratives they observed, not only for the purpose of presenting the companys current management situation to the headquarter or the acquiring company, but also to streamline their own thoughts to facilitate the follow-up ICR processes.

Internal control documentation can take various forms, such as flowcharts, policy and procedure manuals, and narrative descriptions. But whatever form it takes, the documentation should be of sufficient clarity to ensure that a reader will understand the detailed process.

Step 4: Identify key control points for further review

Since its impossible to test and analyze all control points considering the time and cost, auditors must decide which control points they would conduct further review. Here, the materiality principle must be followed, i.e. only those points  which could go wrong, and would thus impede the achievement of the companys key objectivesare subject to further test and review. During this preliminary assessment, the auditors professional judgement is essential to assessing these key points.

Only key controls with low or moderate risk are worth an effectiveness test. If an internal control is deemed very likely to be ineffective or non-existent, and there is no alternative controls existing, the auditor may directly report it as a significant deficiency or weakness in the later ICR report.

Step 5: Test the effectiveness of key control points

Auditors will then comprehensively apply different methods, such as interviewing, observing, inspecting, and re-performance, to test the effectiveness of the controls. Different methods suit different controls. For example, observation is appropriate when the control is a process and produces no product for inspection, such as when access to an area is restricted to authorized personnel only, and inspection is suitable when documentation is available to check, such as authorization or contract compliance.

To get sufficient appropriate evidence for evaluating the effectiveness of the controls, the size of the tested sample is a key factor. Both American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA) have standards on the minimum sample size; however, the auditors may still need to use their expertise to determine if larger sample size is needed.

Step 6: Analyze control deficiencies and assess corresponding risks

Based on the materials acquired in the former steps, the auditors could analyze the deficiencies of the key control points and assess the corresponding effects to the companies businesses.

Generally, if a control is not implemented by personnel with proper authority and expertise as designed, then the control has deficiencies in operation; if a control performed as designed could not achieve the intended objectives, then the control has deficiencies on design.

One thing should the auditors bear in mind is that ICR is subject to cost-benefit constraints. No internal control system can absolutely avoid undesirable conditions occur. The control will be regarded effective as long as it can give reasonable assurance to the success of the business.

Another thing is that when assessing the effects of the control deficiencies, it should be noted significant risks include not only those that threaten the survival of the group, or could seriously weaken it, but also the risk of failing to identify significant opportunities.

Step 7: Generate ICR report

Finally, auditors would generate a complete report that will include at least:

The description of the key controls;

The findings of the control deficiencies;

The assessment of the possible risks resulted from the control weaknesses; and,

Specific and feasible solutions to fix or improve the companys control system.

Step 8: Follow-up monitor and review

Unlike companies regulated by Article 404 of the SOX, its not mandatory for most companies to do a follow-up monitor and review to see if the deficient controls are actually improved.

For those who just want to learn the control environment of their Chinese subsidiaries, or their newly acquired companies, the ICR report is decent enough to signify the ends of the ICR process.

However, if the company wants reasonable assurance in the long term, they should continuously monitor and regularly review their internal control system for maximum benefit.
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China and Pakistan on Sunday promised to deepen their pragmatic cooperation in various fields during a meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

Wang Yang is in Pakistan to attend activities marking the 70th anniversary of Pakistan's independence at the invitation of the Pakistani government.

Noting that China and Pakistan are "iron friends" and all-weather partners of strategic cooperation who always understand and support each other, Wang said Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit to Pakistan in 2015 has ushered in a new chapter of the relations between the two countries.

China would like to join hands with Pakistan to well implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and ensure that more fruitful results will be achieved in bilateral cooperation, he said.

With regard to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative, Wang expressed the hope that the two countries strengthen coordination and make good plan and design from a long-term and top-level perspective.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

While hailing fruitful cooperation in various economic fields over the past years, especially in the CPEC construction, Wang suggested that in the near future, the two countries put emphasis on ensuring early harvests in the CPEC project.

Based on the principle of jointly building through consultation to meet the interests of both sides, China and Pakistan should work together to further accelerate the construction of Gwadar Port, Wang said.

Furthermore, the two sides should push forward energy cooperation in the fields of thermal power, Hydropower, solar energy and clean energy, implement infrastructure cooperation projects such as highways, railways, urban rail facilities, deepen cooperation in industrial parks and strengthen personnel training, the Chinese vice premier said.

China and Pakistan should further tap the potential in bilateral economic and trade cooperation, maintain the growing momentum in bilateral trade so as to promote trade balance, he said.

The two sides should also boost cooperation in the fields such as education, science and technology, culture, health, youth and media in a bid to consolidate the social basis of the China-Pakistan friendship, Wang said.

For his part, Abbasi said Pakistan and China are brothers and the bilateral relations have withstood the test of time.

Pakistan has witnessed the sustainable growth in its economy in recent years and China has played an important role in it, he said.

Pakistan totally agrees with China's proposal to push forward the pragmatic cooperation between the two sides and is willing to work together with China to continue to press ahead wth the CPEC project, expand bilateral trade, deepen and broaden pragmatic cooperation in all fields, Abbasi said.

After their meeting, Wang and Abbasi attended the completion and inauguration ceremony of important cooperation projects between the two countries and the signing ceremony of bilateral cooperation documents.
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About 100 Chinese tourists stranded in heavy floods in Sauraha, a popular tourist destination in southern Chitwan district of Nepal, had been brought to safe locations, police and the local hotel association said Sunday.

According to the local hotel association, there were about 600 domestic and foreign tourists in Sauraha before the floods from nearby Rapti river entered the hotel rooms as a result of incessant rainfalls since Saturday evening.

"All the tourists including around 100 Chinese tourists have been relocated to safe hotels at higher altitudes," Deepak Bhattarai, first vice president of the local hotel association told Xinhua over phone on Sunday.

A police official from the District Police Office in Chitwan also confirmed to Xinhua that the tourists had been rescued and brought to safe areas.

Local hotel entrepreneurs in collaboration with security agencies used elephants and boats to relocate the tourists to safe areas.

There are over 100 hotels in Sauraha and almost all of them have been affected by the floods, according to the association. The floods are said to be the biggest ones in the last 15 years in the area.

The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the main tourism promotion body, has also said that they are constantly in touch with the administration of Chitwan district and the hoteliers for the safety of the tourists.

"I had also discussed with Chinese ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong on Sunday about the safety of the Chinese tourists visiting Sauraha," said Deepak Raj Joshi, chief executive officer of NTB.

Nepal has been experiencing heavy rainfalls across the country for the last few days. As a result, as many as 64 people were dead, 44 injured and 36 went missing in floods and landslides, according to the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal on Sunday.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is risking his country becoming isolated in Asia if he continues to reorient his foreign policy for closer American alignment while falsely treating China as a danger to regional stability.

Jude Woodward, advisor to the Mayor of London from 2000 to 2008, as well an experienced writer and lecturer on China, insists that Indian troops crossing into Chinese territory from Bhutan is a serious provocation.

The cover page of Ms. Woodward's new book "The US vs China: Asia's new Cold War?" [Photo/China.org.cn]

"India's military step was taken before any attempt at negotiation or even to find out exactly what China intended. Therefore, it looks like a deliberate escalation of tension," she believes.

Ms. Woodward also argues that India's actions in the Doklam region suggest a possible transformation of India's foreign policy away from its former multilateral approach.

Strengthening relations with America, maintaining long-standing friendship with Russia and nurturing good relations with China  India seemed to be pursuing a multilateral and independent foreign policy, as Modi had promised in his 2014 election manifesto, working with a "web of allies," developing a contemporary variant on India's old Cold War "non-alignment."

However, India's intrusion into Chinese territory and intervention in the South China Sea issue in support of the U.S. Asia-Pacific Rebalancing strategy indicate its intention of relying on the U.S. to seek regional hegemony.

This strategic miscalculation is dangerous for India, because the influence and credibility of the U.S. is rapidly  if not terminally  declining in the Asia Pacific, as Ms. Woodward has concluded in her recent book "The US vs China: Asia's new Cold War?"

"For most countries in the region, friendship with China in order to maintain regional peace and stability, together with the opportunities China offers for investment and trade, have become more important than maintaining U.S. 'leadership' in the Asia Pacific," she believes.

More importantly, she notes that, with the growing close relationship between China and Russia, if India strengthens ties with the U.S. to jointly contain China, it will find itself in isolation in Asia, rather than grasping the potential of forming part of a triangular Asian synergy that leads a new phase of peaceful development.
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A Taliban key commander Fazal Subhan known as Kaka Ji was among five killed after one of his bodyguards opened fire on friends in Khogiani district of the eastern Nangarhar province early Monday, provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal told Xinhua.

No independent sources including the Taliban militants have so far commented on the incident.

In a similar incident which occurred last week in the southern Helmand province, an Afghan policeman reportedly returned to his barrack after joining the Taliban militants and murdering 18 of them.
For a long time, people in the United States took pride in the belief that one of the things that made their nation great was a system that was designed to encourage principled disagreements so that people could achieve consensus through reasoned debate.

"I disapprove of what you say, but Ill defend to the death your right to say it," as French philosopher Voltaire put it.

Yet their faith in that system seems to have wavered in recent years amid the widening social, racial and political divides in the country.

Divides that fester with animosity, as shown by the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, when a man plowed a car into a crowd of people protesting against a rally by white supremacists, killing one person and injuring 19, and bloody street brawls erupted injuring more.

While violence, bigotry and hatred in any form must be condemned, it is also imperative to identify the root cause of all these problems because they show something is wrong with US society.

Some people in the US have pointed an accusing finger at President Donald Trump, who they say is to blame for what they believe is his incitement of intolerance for his own political gains, citing his anti-immigrant and misogynist campaign rhetoric as proof.

That is why Trump has been widely criticized for his failure to explicitly condemn the white supremacists for their part in the weekend violence, unlike Vice-President Mike Pence, who stated bluntly that he had no tolerance for white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan.

Yet it would be oversimplifying the facts to attribute all the social problems in the US to a single person or certain groups. US society was polarized before Trump took office.

This is a society where 1 percent of the people have nearly 40 percent of the national wealth, prompting the quip that it is "of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent and for the 1 percent".

The Virginia violence is just one symptom of a social system that is afflicted with a severe sickness.

People may differ over what has gone wrong in the system, but there is no denying that the strength on which the United States built its success, a widely shared belief in the American dream and what made it great, is no longer there.

There is no easy cure to remedy the wrongs in US society. But to start with, a little soul-searching may be a step in the right direction.
HAVANA - Leaders from China and Cuba's silk industry gathered here on Friday to discuss ways to expand silk production in the Caribbean country and explore a new area of bilateral growth.

The seminar sponsored in Havana by the Center for Foreign Economic Cooperation (CCEE) of the Ministry of Agriculture of China offered guidance on improving the production and industrialization of silk in Cuba.

"This is not only a training project, but also contributes to China-Cuba cooperation. We hope this course can become a platform where we can share information, attract business investment and increase exchanges," said Li Bin, representative of the CCEE.

The day included conferences, visits to production sites and workshops where participants learned new techniques in silk development.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Cuba has a five-year sericulture, or silk farming program, and seeks to expand not only its knowledge of the sector but also attract Chinese investment.

Cuba is adopting sericulture as a sustainable alternative to support the development of its biomedical, biotechnological, cosmetic and textile industries, expecting it to increase incomes and jobs.

"Our courses here cover the whole process, from cultivating silkworms to producing silk, to silk cocoon processing, dying, weaving and even include the medical use of silk fiber," Wei Kai, a professor from the Soochow University located in Suzhou City, eastern China.

Wei and three other Chinese experts on the subject will provide training to more than 20 Cuban officials.

"China has been cooperating with Cuba for five years now and there is a small sericulture experimental field in operation. Our courses here are intended to introduce all relevant technology and products in the sericulture downstream industrial chain to Cuban researchers," he told Xinhua.

Luo Zhanyong, chairman of Guangdong SILDA Silk Co, said that this exchange will allow China and Cuba to expand cooperation in this sector.

"We hope to take the technological and industrial system of silk production beyond China. Cuba's silk sector has just started and we hope to have a development opportunity in Cuba via this industry," he said.
Renewed goals still ambitious but not 'unachievable'

China's new 10-year new-energy vehicle development plan has more objective, practical goals than the one released in 2012, after NEV sales in the first quarter accounted for only 5 percent of this year's original target.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's latest plan said Chinese branded pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles should hit sales of more than 1 million units by 2020 and reach 3 million by 2025. The plan said exports should account for 10 percent of the sales.

The State Council's development plan issued in 2012 said the 2020 target for EVs and PHEVs was production of 2 million units and accumulated sales of 5 million units.

China originally aimed to sell 500,000 NEVs in 2015, however, just 26,581 EVs and PHEVs were sold in the first quarter of this year. Last year, 74,763 EV and PHEVs were sold, three times that of 2013.

EVs and PHEVs are the main categories of NEVs, which are powered by new energies rather than fossil fuels and include hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and solar energy vehicles.

Production of EVs and PHEVs is in full swing, while vehicles that use other energy sources are still in the testing stage.

Hubertus Troska, member of the board of management of Daimler AG responsible for Greater China, said: "China has the best regulation and strongest push to support NEV policies in the world. I think China has the vision and the potential to become the biggest NEV market in the world because we have more big cities in this country than anywhere else. NEVs are perfectly suited to inner city traffic, not so much for long distance."

The new plan said Chinese brands should take a more than 70 percent share of the domestic EV and PHEV market by 2020, and by 2025 the share should exceed 80 percent.

Under the plan, China will aim to have domestic EV and PHEV models with sales ranking in the global top 10 by 2020, and have two carmakers' sales rank in the global top 10 by 2025.

The target for overseas sales is that they should contribute 10 percent of total sales.

Economist Intelligence Unit's Managing Editor Ana Nicholls said: "The target of one million EVs and PHEVs by 2020 is an ambitious one, but unlike previous NEV targets, it is not unachievable, given enough political will and support."

The Chinese government's latest move to support the market was a renewed tax-exemption policy for new-energy vehicles, announced this month.

Beijing decided that from June pure electric cars would not be included in its policy banning cars from hitting the road one workday a week, based on the last digit of the license plate. The city's NEV plate quota will double to 60,000 next year.

Nicholls said, "If China is going to achieve its goal, then it will probably be mainly through local carmakers, which are already responding to demands to focus their investment on NEVs.

"That may require them to scale back ambitions elsewhere, such as international expansion, but they should benefit by securing market dominance and perhaps a long-term global advantage in a key industry."

BAIC Motor's EV arm, Beijing Electric Vehicle Co, or BAIC BJEV, said it plans to achieve large production capacity and high sales volumes by 2020 to stay in the No 1 position in China's pure electric car market.

Chongqing Changan New Energy Automobile Co, Changan Automobile's NEV arm, plans to launch 27 EV models by 2025.

Encouraging users

Last year, the government said it would issue 20,000 NEV license plates in Beijing, however, only 6,000 cars were registered, with the other plates left unwanted.

To make China's new-energy ambitions a reality, automakers are attempting to cultivate a NEV market, in which customers' concerns, including charging accessibility and electric driving mileage range, are currently leading to low sales.

The ministry and companies have started to encourage people to try NEVs at a low cost, in the hope they will like them and buy one in the future.

MIIT started a NEV time-share rental pilot program this month, and Minister Miao Wei encouraged the idea of opening a site for the project in Beijing airport as soon as possible.

In March, Sino-German joint venture BMW Brilliance teamed up with eHi Car Services Ltd, a car-rental company, to make its pure electric car ZINORO 1E available for rent in eHi's Beijing network.

Last year, BMW Brilliance started offering the 1E for daily and long-term rentals to meet the different requirements of its customers and installed charging posts at users' homes.

The company has gradually built up its public charging network in Beijing and Shanghai.

BMW Brilliance's Senior Vice-President for Marketing Jochen Goller said: "Electric mobility is one of the hottest topics in the automotive industry and everyone is talking about it. But at the end of the day, is also not only talking about it, it is about bringing e-mobility into action."

According to Goller, charging infrastructure and customers who fully understand what e-mobility is are two important aspects to make e-mobility work.

Contact the writers at haoyan@chinadaily.com.cn and duxiaoying1@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/01/2015 page18)
Chinese and Serbian employees of HBIS Group work together in HBIS Group Serbia Iron& Steel D.O.O in Serbia. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Steel-maker turns around sick mill quickly with good management

After a year of imaginative management, HBIS Group of China has succeeded in turning around the troubled Smederevo steel mill, Serbia's largest, reinforcing the view that the conglomerate's go-global strategy is yielding positive results.

Hebei-based HBIS, one of China's largest iron and steel manufacturers, bought an ailing, loss-making Smederevo for 46 million euros ($51.5 million) in April last year and started to manage it in July.

The takeover ended seven years of losses and the 105-year-old Smederevo, which has since been renamed HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel D.O.O, was back in the black by the end of last year, said its CEO Song Sihai.

"It had taken only half-year for HBIS Serbia to turn a loss into a profit," said Yu Yong, chairman of HBIS Group.

HBIS Serbia's output in the second half of last year increased more than 50 percent from the first half, reaching the highest level since 2010.

Besides, in the same period, the output of high value-added cold-rolled sheets rose by 112 percent.

With its worldwide sales network, HBIS Group has opened up new markets like the US, Egypt, Turkey, Germany and Italy for its Serbian unit. In the second half of 2016, the mill was the second largest exporter in Serbia.

The dramatic turnaround was brought about by sustained efforts. Since the takeover, HBIS has sent nearly 200 Chinese personnel to deal with the problems of then Smederevo relating to mill management, finance, equipment, technology and craftsmanship.

"The biggest change for me is that I don't receive angry calls from suppliers any more," said Subotic Zarko, 41, director of the materials management department at the Serbian mill. He has been working at the mill for 13 years now.

He said it was hard for the mill to get all the materials needed because it had no stable finances, and didn't pay suppliers regularly before the takeover by HBIS.

Staff like him used to worry about their future. "Young colleagues delayed their plans for weddings and buying new houses, because they didn't know if their next salary was going to come and if they could repay bank loans," Zarko said.

After the takeover, however, things improved. "I didn't spend time on daily problems anymore, but focused on preparing ideas and projects for the future," he said.

According to Zarko, HBIS Serbia started to forge long-term contracts with suppliers in place of short-term and one-off ones. "That makes supply and price stable," he said.
A female consumer walks past an Australian wine stall in Nantong, Jiangsu province. XU CONGJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY

CANBERRA  Stronger demand for premium Australian wine in China has contributed to a 10 percent increase in Australia's overall wine export value, according to Wine Australia's export report released late last month.

China maintained its position as the No 1 export destination for Australian wine in 2016-17, after export value to China grew by 44 percent to be worth A$607 million ($482 million).

The total value of exports grew by A$201 million to A$2.3 billion.

While China remained at the top of the export value tree, the value of wine exports to the United States also grew, but by just 3 percent to A$464 million, while the value of exports to the United Kingdom fell by 7 percent.

Although the export value of wine to the UK fell, the report said the country remained the No 1 destination for Australian wine exports by volume, indicating that UK consumers prefer cheaper Australian wines, while Chinese tastes are a little more expensive.

According to Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark, there was also strong growth in exports of carbonated wines as well as premium wines.

"Pleasingly, nearly all price points experienced growth and there were benefits for exporters in all segments of the market," he said in a statement accompanying the report.

"An interesting development from last year was the growth in the carbonated wine category, which includes varieties such as Moscato."

"Exports (of sparkling wine) more than doubled to A$30 million. The United States was the destination for 35 percent of the carbonated wine exports, with the Chinese mainland (15 percent) and Japan (14 percent) the other major destinations."

Export director of Handpicked Wines James Hunt said the company's success in the Chinese market was on the back of hard work and recognizing that each market and its culture was unique.

"This is built on the back of tight brand guidelines, frequent market visits, engaged activity and communication with all levels of the distribution chain," he said in a statement.

"As the business grew, we found the need to employ within the region to maintain the brand values and ensure the message was consistent across the region, particularly with local websites, trade material and social media accounts."

Meanwhile, the report said 24 percent of all wine imported into China is from Australia, second only to France, which has a 41 percent share of the Chinese import market.
BEIJING  As China's "new economy" goes from strength to strength, more and more foreign firms are jumping in for a slice of the pie.

Shared bikes flood the city streets, diners pay for meals on their smartphones, electric cars whizz down the roads: in the rapidly shifting picture of China's new economy, foreign companies are not absent.

Apple is betting big on this emerging market. Three weeks ago, its mobile payment service Apple Pay launched its largest-scale marketing campaign since entering China, offering perks including up to 50 percent discounts on purchases for a week.

Despite a much smaller presence than its Chinese rivals Alipay and WeChat Pay, the country's massive mobile payment market is hard to ignore for the US tech giant.

The general merchandise volume of China's third-party mobile payments reached 38 trillion yuan ($5.7 trillion) in 2016, up more than 200 percent from 2015, according to consultancy iResearch.

Apple's interest is not just in mobile payments. Last year, it made an investment of $1 billion in Chinese on-demand taxi provider Didi Chuxing. This spring, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited bike-sharing startup Ofo during his China tour.

The sharing economy is taking off in China, so is its appeal to foreign investors. The country's top bike-sharing companies, Ofo and Mobike, have attracted investment from the United States, Japan, Singapore and elsewhere.

US home-sharing company Airbnb has said it plans to more than triple the size of its China workforce this year and double its investment in the market to better serve Chinese travelers.

E-commerce is another success story in China's new economy. Online retail sales reached 3.1 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, a surge of 33.4 percent from a year earlier.

On Black Friday last year, sales at Amazon China doubled from a year earlier, according to a company report. The number of active users of its cross-border shopping service soared 22 times by December 2016 from two years earlier.

In a move to tap deeper into China's internet economy, Amazon in June partnered with Migu, a China Mobile subsidiary with one of the country' s largest mobile reading platforms, to launch a new Kindle exclusively for Chinese readers.

China's spectacular growth used to be built on cheap manufacturing, low-end exports and smokestack industries. Now, with a wealthier domestic consumer base as well as technological progress, it is reconfiguring the economy for more consumption, more innovation and less pollution.

Official data also showed growing foreign interest in China's new economy. In the first half of this year, foreign direct investment in China's high-tech manufacturing and services rose 11.1 percent and 20.4 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The transition of China's economy has brought about a number of very attractive sectors including high-tech, non-banking finance, life science and consumption.
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]

BEIJING - China's coal producers posted higher profits in the first half of this year as the country made progress in reducing capacity in the bloated industry.

Large coal companies earned 147.5 billion yuan ($22.1 billion) in total profits in the first half, 140.3 billion yuan more than the same period of last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.

The turnaround came after China forced about 111 million tons of coal production capacity out of the market in the first six months, 74 percent of the annual target.

Last year, China eliminated 290 million tons of overcapacity in the coal industry.

With more than 400 million tons of coal capacity shed since last year, China has accomplished half of its goal of reducing 800 million tons of coal capacity in the 2016-2020 period, the NDRC said.

The effort to trim overcapacity is part of China's bid to overhaul the economy as its growth slowed.

The coal industry has become more orderly, with rare illegal capacity expansions and a better industrial structure, according to the NDRC.

It said more measures will be taken to dispose of debt-ridden zombie companies, resettle laid-off workers and encourage mergers and restructuring.
CAIRO - Head of Egyptian Transport Association (ETA) Mohammed Shehata said on Sunday that China can be a main player in developing Egypt's railway system.

"China is a leading country in this field," Shehata told Xinhua, adding that China is always ready to help friendly countries improve their infrastructure.

The ETA is a leading Egyptian NGO that monitors and issues reports on the transportation systems in the North African country.

The NGO chief said that China has been helping many countries, mainly in Africa to build new up-to-date railway systems, stressing that the Asian giant will not hesitate to provide Egypt with its expertise in the field of railways and transportation.

On Friday, an Alexandria-bound train coming from Cairo crashed into the rear of another train on its way from the Mediterranean city of Port Said to Alexandria, leaving 49 people dead and more than 130 others injured.

Following the accident, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi urged the government to hurry up with the development process of the country's railway network to avoid deadly train crashes.

The president gave instructions to form technical committees to evaluate the maintenance processes and specify the needed spare parts for the trains and the railroad infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Shehata said that China is more preferable than other European countries to develop Egypt's railroad infrastructure since China offers both expertise and finance for development projects and the costs are usually lower.

"Unlike European countries, China does not decide the companies that will carry out the projects. It also provides finance through generous loans from Chinese banks," Shehata pointed out.

He also said that China's participation in rebuilding Egypt's railway infrastructure will help boost the Belt and Road initiative to link Africa and Asia.

"China is more a partner than an investor," he stressed.

Speaking about the Egyptian railway system, Shehata said it is in a bad need to be renewed according to the latest available technologies, adding that Egypt has been using very old methods, railway infrastructure and trains.

"The service that transports millions of Egyptians should be fully updated for the safety of passengers," Shehata insisted.

The ETA chief also said that the development should also include the human cadre who will be running any new system, adding that the diesel locomotives should be replaced with newer electric trains.

Egypt has spent billions of US dollars to develop its railroad and train systems, but the development projects did not yield good results because "we did invest in an old infrastructure," Shehata pointed out.

"It is not a good idea to update an already old train or network. The whole network and trains should be modernized and I believe that we need a pioneer partner like China to make a leap in our railway system," Shehata said.

Over the past 15 years, Egypt has witnessed several deadly railway crashes that signaled poor railway conditions and lack of necessary railroad maintenance.

The worst train accident in Egypt took place at Giza's district of Ayyat in 2002, which killed 350 passengers when fire broke out in a train coming from Upper Egypt, forcing passengers to hopelessly jump out to survive.

Another train tragedy hit the country 10 years later, particularly in November 2012, when a train hit a school bus at a crossing barrier area in Upper Egypt's Assiut province, killing over 50 children.

Later in early 2013, the derailment of a train in Giza carrying new police recruits left 19 people killed and over 100 wounded.
NEW YORK - The US government's threat to investigate China's trade practices is "politically expedient" and the unilateral move will harm mutually beneficial China-US trade ties and ultimately hurt the American consumers, experts said.

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order asking his trade office to consider investigating China for the alleged theft of US technology and intellectual property, an administration official said Saturday.

It has been two weeks since media first reported that Trump has been mulling such an investigation under the 1974 Trade Act's Section 301, which allows the US president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions on partner countries.

It hurts America in the long run

The Trump administration has repeatedly attributed the country's economic slowdown and job losses to trade deficits with major trading partners including China and Mexico and vowed to change the situation by imposing tariffs and other non-tariff trade barriers if necessary.

"That will not solve America's economic problems and probably in the long term will make it worse," Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a leading China expert, told Xinhua in a recent interview. "And the reason is because there are these natural economic principles that you're violating by heavy tariffs."

"It helps a few Americans for a short term, a decade or more," Kuhn said, "But over the long term, it hurts America because it prevents the transformation of industry into industries that are more sustainable...It's like going backwards to try to protect something that is not protectable in the long term."

Such tariffs are politically expedient because Trump "sort of promised that" to his supporters in the manufacturing-dependent mid-west US states, which have seen great job losses in the past decade, Kuhn noted.

The loss of US manufacture jobs, as pointed out by Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, in his new book "Failure to Adjust," was more about automation that increases productivity of remaining factories in the country, which meant fewer workers working in factories.

"The problems will not be solved by bashing China," Kuhn said, "They will be solved by reeducation (of workers) over the long term, so that these people can have different kinds of, new kinds of jobs."

If there were no Chinese goods coming to the United States, prices of consumer products would go much higher and the consumers will suffer, said Kuhn.

Trade with China helps each American family save $850 every year, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. From lamps to birthday candles, from flip-flops to mouse traps, "Made in China" goods have long become an indispensable part of everyday life for many US households.

WTO mechanism more effective in solving trade disputes

Many experts have voiced concerns over the US government's plan to invoke Section 301, a trade tool frequently used by Washington before the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence.

In general, trade disputes among WTO members should be resolved through the WTO mechanism, not based on a member's domestic law, said Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of political science and international relations at Bucknell University in the US state of Pennsylvania.

"Even if China has problems with intellectual property rights, the use of Section 301 to punish China will make people think that the United States puts its domestic rules above international law, which will further tarnish the country's international image," Zhu said.

"If the United States slaps unilateral sanctions, China will certainly make a tit-for-tat retaliation. In the end, consumers and businesses in both countries will suffer," he said.

"It's a lose-lose option. In an age of globalization and interdependence, it is hard to believe that some people still think economic sanctions will solve trade problems," Zhu added.

While noting that intellectual property is "a legitimate area of concern" in US-China trade, the US side should also see China's notable progress in protecting intellectual property, said Kuhn.

"The countries (involved) really have to restart WTO negotiations and make genuine concessions," Alden told Xinhua in a recent phone interview.

It is a lesson "we have learned from history again and again," Alden said, "The only way to resist protectionism is to have international negotiations to address concerns."
BEIJING - The world is witnessing two dramatic scenarios: the world economy recovering sluggishly after the global financial crisis; and the West mired in an unprecedented institutional crisis, while China constantly creates social and economic miracles, showcasing its growth path based on socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Looking at the ruling parties around the world, very few have been at the helm for more than 30 consecutive years. Yet, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has governed for 68 years and continues to improve living conditions for its people, providing valuable experience for political parties worldwide on long-term governance.

As American China expert Robert Kuhn said, the key to the Chinese miracle is the extraordinary long-time leadership of the CPC.

A guiding ideology

When the world hit by financial crisis in 2008, sales of "Das Kapital", the works of Karl Marx, almost tripled, according to German publishing house Karl-Dieztz-Verlag. "Rediscovering Marx" suddenly became in vogue, with the West reflecting on the crisis.

As US economist Robert Heilbroner said, we should learn from Marxism in order to advance human society.

Marxism reveals the universal truths of human development. The CPC has always persisted in taking Marxism as its guiding ideology and made it the thought core to unite hundreds of millions of the Chinese people.

The CPC has combined Marxism with China's conditions on the ground to create a unique ideology shaped by Chinese characteristics.

Built for public, work for people

This April, Uruguayan Broad Front Party President Javier Miranda led a delegation to Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province to study China's targeted poverty relief work.

What he witnessed left him deeply impressed.

As president of a ruling party for three terms, Miranda knew only too well how difficult it was for a party to maintain long-term rule.

The most important responsibility of a ruling party is to ensure social justice and equity, and the CPC has established an example for other ruling parties, he said.

"Under CPC leadership, China has not only maintained rapid economic growth, but also let the development fruits benefit wide-ranging areas including the people's living conditions, health care and public education," he said, adding that this experience is something foreign ruling parties can learn from.

The key to the CPC's success is that the party always takes the people as the center of development. It insists on developing for the people, by the people, and sharing achievements with the people.

Aikyn Konurov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Kazakh Communist People's Party, said, "CPC officials know the Chinese people well. They always put the public interest first, which is the fundamental difference between the CPC and ruling parties in Western countries."

In the contemporary world where traditional ruling parties face the risk of shrinking public support, the CPC has developed with time by absorbing people from different classes, and trying to reach consensus among the majority of people.

Party discipline

"Are China's leaders better than ours?" asked the US magazine Politico.

The CPC's cadre group is selected through a rigorous process, while some members of the public can edge into the US Congress by currying favor with voters through a claptrap.

By comparison, the Politico asked: "How certain are we that whichever leaders come out of our process (general selection), of whatever party and persuasion, can stand on equal footing with whomever comes out of theirs (China's)?"

US magazine the Diplomat said that the CPC appoints cadres through performance and capability, in manner that even successful businesses cannot replicate.

When interpreting China's development miracle, Singapore founder Lee Kuan Yew said it is the most capable figures among 1 billion-plus people who are steering the country to greatness.

The CPC attaches great importance to party building and appoints officials based on their performance and competence to ensure solid governance.

Furthermore, the party is constantly strengthening discipline within its ranks.

Specifically, the CPC has established the Central Inspection Group, which is considered an intra-party strategic plan to protect itself from being contaminated by any political speculator.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the CPC Central Committee under Xi Jinping's leadership has insisted on addressing the "four forms of decadences (si feng)" - formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance.

The party's crackdown on corruption and other misconduct shows the general public the CPC's ambitions to eliminate injustice in order to raise the morale of the party and the people.

Gustavo Girado, head of Argentine consulting firm Asia & Argentina, said the CPC can plug up loopholes in its system because it excels in self-correction.

The anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi is a good example of this, Girado added.

Strategic wisdom, planning for future

Partisanship is a deep-rooted problem in Western democracies. Struggles between executive and legislative branches and "Veto Games" have resulted in the failure to enact much needed legislation. Special interest groups "kidnap" policies through lobbying, and different parties coming into power often leads to reversal of state policies, resulting in a massive loss of time and resources.

According to Professor Huang Xianghuai of the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, while there exists the so-called "economic cycle of elections" in the West, the CPC has guaranteed the long-time stability of the state's fundamental policies.

Having benefitted from successive governing, the CPC has built up its capacity for formulating strategies for the country's economic and social development.

Take the Five-Year Plans as an example. From large-scale industrial construction to creating a moderately prosperous society, the CPC has accomplished the greatest modernization project history has ever seen over the past 60 years.

"China is fully confident of the future," said Konurov from the Kazakh Communist People's Party, "because it has planned every step and will never give up the goal of working for the well-being of the people."
An employee scans a quick response (QR) code displayed on Alipay app at a store in Hong Kong. [Photo/VCG]

Starting Monday, Chinese tourists can pay via Alipay to retailers who have a partnership with Barclays in UK.

Chinese expats, students and tourists are expected to spend more than 1 billion pounds at such retailers in UK this year, news website Banking Technology said citing Barclaycard.

British shopping malls including Harrods and Selfridges already accept Alipay.

Alipay is an online payment tool run by Alibaba's financial arm Ant Financial.

Last December, the financial arm signed partnership agreement with BNP Paribas, Barclays, UniCredit, and Six Payment Services, a major payment service company, to expand its online payment service in Europe.

Currently, Alipay can be used in France's Printemps, Germany's Zwilling store chain, and stores in Munich Airport.

Alipay's main target is providing service to 520 million Alipay users who use mobile payment when they travel in EU, Liu Yu, head of Alipay in EU, said to Xinhua.

According to Liu, Alipay also has signed MOU (memorandum of understanding) related to cashless payment with Monaco government in June.
A cardiovascular disease project aimed at bringing down the morbidity and mortality of the disease at the grassroots level was launched on August 11.

The grassroots doctors' management level is also expected to be raised through the county-level project in cooperation with National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases and Pfizer China, a subsidiary of United States-based biopharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

"Pfizer is willing to help people in remote counties and villages with its side-effects free drugs and rich management experience in chronic diseases," said Wu Xiaobin, president of Pfizer Greater China, at the launch ceremony.

Chinas Cardiovascular Disease Report 2016 showed that the disease has become a major public health problem in the country with 290 million patients, and it has also become the first cause of death for urban and rural residents.

Since May 2016, Pfizer has cooperated with more than 20 county-level governments and health administration departments, supporting their projects targeted at hypertension.

The projects will build a system which will include screening, diagnosis, treatment and long-term management at medical institutions in these counties.

"As one of the leading biopharmaceutical companies in cardiovascular therapy, Pfizer has been committed to the management and prevention of chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases in China," Wu said.

Until now, there are 23 pilot counties supported by the transnational cooperation under the cardiovascular disease project.

"The number of the piloted counties is expected to reach 30 by the end of 2017, benefiting 150,000 patients," said Wu Feng, vice-president of Pfizer China, adding that the project will cover 80 counties and 400,000 patients within three years.

In order to improve the grassroots doctors' cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment ability, the project will invite specialists to undertake face-to-face training over disease prevention and control every quarter and hold online lectures every month.

"We will also provide a certain amount of free drugs to patients, so as to relive their treatment pressure," said Jiang Lixin, director assistant of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases.

The project is another action announced by Pfizer as part of its social responsibility in China.

"Our purpose to take part in the project is to improve the standardization of the diseases' treatment and reduce the economic burden of local people using high-quality drugs," said Wu Xiaobin.

"We hope these actions can actually help Chinese people to curb the illness."
Egypt sees sharp rise in trade volume with China

Xinhua | Updated: 2017-08-14 17:25

CAIRO - The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and China recorded $5.18 billion from January to June 2017, state news agency MENA reported on Monday.



China's exports to Egypt decreased by 20.79 percent on a year-on-year basis to $4.52 billion, MENA cited the latest statistics released by the Chinese General Administration of Customs as saying.



While Chinese imports from Egypt increased by 298.37 percent to reach $660 million, it added.



In June, the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and China amounted to $928 million.



Chinese imports from Egypt upped by 181.69 percent on an annual basis to $80.58 million, while exports dropped by 17.83 percent to reach $847 million.



Egypt ranked 52nd in the list of China's largest trading partners.
A pioneer in a new wave of car making, Future Mobility Corp focuses on the strengths of intelligent technologies in production. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Electric car startups in China are ratcheting up their efforts to develop and roll out models as new energy vehicles are gradually becoming more and more accepted across China.

One-year-old Future Mobility Corp has inked a deal with an industry fund to receive investment of $200 million, one of its shareholders Harmony Group said in a document filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last week.

Analysts say the move shows investors' confidence in the startup and the potential of the Chinese market, which is already the world's largest new energy market.

Two million such vehicles are expected to be sold annually by 2020.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicts around 700,000 new energy cars will be sold this year.

Construction started on FMC's $1.66 billion plant earlier this year in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

The plant will launch production in 2019 on its first model, a mid-size premium electric SUV.

FMC's first concept car will make its debut later this year.

The electric carmaker has developed all the product's core parts itself, including the powertrain and the software controlling unit, said CEO Carsten Breitfeld, who was head of BMW's electric car i8, in a previous interview.

Some startups are going even faster. The first two models of Beijing CHJ Automotive Technology, a two-seat electric car and a larger SUV, will hit the market in 2018, according to its public relations director Liu Jing.

"We do not have a concept car, as it is costly and time-consuming," she said.

Nio, which is formerly known as NextEV, is to start production of its mass-market electric SUVs later this year, according to the startup backed by Tencent Holdings and investment firm Hillhouse Capital.

Nio has reached car production deals with JAC Motors and Changan Automobile, both of which are traditional carmakers.

Yudo is probably one of the earliest startups to get its cars to market, with its first model, an SUV, having won the approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technologya must before any car can be sold in the Chinese market.

The SUV has three variants and a maximum range on one charge of 200 kilometers to 330 km.

Some electric startups are planning to pool their resources to accelerate their development and cut costs.

Shen Haiyin, CEO of Singulato Motors, said in late July that his company and several other electric car startups have been discussing an alliance for months. He told Reuters the startups aim to finalize the move by end-September, aiming to start establishing a common platform by the end of this year.

"Just like smartphones, with the same Android operating system innards across many brands, smart electric vehicles should compete more on ownership experience and services," said Shen.

He said combining resources would allow alliance members to develop far more advanced vehicle technology, and for less money.

"Let's say each player planned to spend 200 million yuan ($30 million) to develop a next-generation platform; if four players each threw in 100 million yuan, we'd all save money but end up with a 400 million yuan platform rather than a 200 million yuan platform," he said. "The benefits are clear."

Freeman Shen, co-founder and CEO of electric startup WM Motor, reckons the prospect of tougher new technical requirements is a big factor spurring startups to consider an alliance to develop basic vehicle technology.

"This shows startups need to work together to face competition from traditional automakers."

Many traditional carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Ford, have made new energy vehicles a priority in their respective development campaigns, with a special eye on the Chinese market.
BEIJING  Mobile app Yunmanman, or YMM, is looking to shake up the logistics sector in China by becoming the Didi of cargo companies.

In just three years, YMM, owned by Jiangsu Manyun Software Technology Co Ltd, has redefined the land-based logistics scene in China, having connected businesses requiring cargo delivery with 78 percent of the nation's heavy truck drivers in more than 350 cities.

Founded in 2013 by Zhang Hui and around five co-founders including Miao Tianye, the app has reduced average waiting time for cargo drivers from 2.27 days to 0.38 days and facilitates about 240,000 transport deals every day.

Miao, who is the president of Manyun Software Technology, said that the app has also helped reduce carbon emissions by 70 million tons and gasoline expenses by 130 billion yuan ($18.97 billion) between 2015 and 2016.

"As a group of people without any logistics background, we were drawn to the offline road transportation sector because it can generate several trillion yuan in revenue simply through face-to-face trades," said Miao, who had formerly worked at Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba for eight years.

"YMM is quite similar to Alibaba's e-commerce platform Taobao. Today, we have connected more than 850,000 cargo owners to over 3.9 million heavy truck drivers around China."

Previously, heavy truck drivers waited in industrial parks for assignments which were simply scribbled on a small blackboard. But this was not the only example of inefficiency in the industrydata from China's Ministry of Commerce showed that there is a 37 percent chance that drivers are travelling with no load, which is a waste of time and fuel.

"In the coming years, YMM will be looking to develop an intelligent automation system, which takes only 38 seconds to match cargo to a driver with an accuracy rate of 99 percent. The system takes 1.2 seconds to determine a price and is 98.4 percent accurate. The system can also help boost scheduling efficiency to 95 percent and increase the income of drivers by 20 percent," said Miao.

The benefits that YMM provided drivers, however, was not readily accepted. Miao said that the company sent more than 2,000 people to industrial parks around the country to promote the app, only to have many return with bruises inflicted by annoyed drivers who were resistant to change. Some of these marketers even had their phones confiscated.

"Any change to a business model that has been around for decades will be extremely difficult to accept," said Miao.

Despite the challenges, the team at YMM soldiered on and eventually grew the business revenue to 450 billion yuan in 2016. The company has a presence in three citiesits headquarters are located in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, while its research and development facility and marketing center are based in Shanghai and Beijing respectively.

Besides connecting drivers with cargo owners, YMM also rolled out a credit system to boost transparency and ensure that both parties honor their contracts. Offenders with low credit ratings are placed on a blacklist that prohibits them from using the app.
A view of Alibaba Group's headquarters in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, March 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's government is in talks with China's e-commerce giant, Alibaba, to promote online sales of the country's popular Ceylon tea, a local media reported Sunday.

The move was one of the ways in which the Export Development Board (EDB) is supporting the tea industry to increase sales, Jeevani Siriwardene, director-general of the EDB told the Colombo International Tea Convention held in Colombo.

"We have started initial talks with Alibaba to supply Ceylon tea through their platform," she said.

The EDB also wants to encourage tea companies to set up their own online trading portals to sell tea directly to consumers, she added.

The government can allocate fund for marketing and was looking at developing partnerships directly with retailers. "Maybe we can consider co-branding with multinationals like Starbucks, " she added.

Ceylon Tea has become a popular global brand especially in the Chinese market. Last year, Sri Lanka launched a fresh campaign to promote Ceylon Tea in China mainly eyeing female consumers.
China's second biggest e-commerce player, JD.com Inc, reported its net revenues for the second quarter reached 93.2 billion yuan ($13.7 billion), an increase of 43.6 percent from the second quarter of last year.

Gross merchandise volume (GMV) for the second quarter of 2017 increased by 46 percent to 234.8 billion yuan from 160.4 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Annual active customer accounts increased by 37 percent to 258.3 million in the 12 months that ended June 30, 2017. And fulfilled orders reached 591.2 million, an increase of 41 percent from 418.9 million in the same period in 2016.

"As we broaden our range of offerings, including a rapidly growing roster of top international brands, our customer base continues to expand, with female shoppers becoming an increasingly active user base," said Richard Liu, chairman and CEO of JD.com.

During the second quarter, JD further expanded its product offerings through cooperation with multiple international brands, including Swiss luxury watch brand Zenith, Austrian brand Swarovski and Italian furniture designer Kartell.

In June, JD and Farfetch announced a strategic partnership for luxury e-commerce in China. The partnership leverages JD's logistics, internet finance and technology capabilities, and social media resources, with Farfetch's leadership in global luxury, to offer Chinese consumers a seamless brand experience.

JD has expanded its leadership position in fulfillment capabilities among China's e-commerce companies. As of June 30, the e-commerce giant operated 335 warehouses covering an aggregate gross floor area of approximately 7.1 million square meters in China.

"In the quarters ahead, we will continue to prioritize investment in our technology-focused initiatives, which are already redefining China's retail landscape," said Sidney Huang, JD.com's chief financial officer.
Festival offers nature lovers a chance to glimpse remote region's impressive array of biodiversity

A herd of white-lipped deer feed on a slope in Baizha Forest Farm in Nangqen county, Qinghai province. WANGKA NYIMA/FOR CHINA DAILY

Imagine a place where, as an amateur nature lover, you have chance to see 17 species of mammals, 94 different kinds of birds and 230 types of plants in just four days.

It might seem like an impossible task, especially for anyone who is not a professional scientific researcher.

But that's exactly what those who took part in the 2017 Nangqen International Wildlife Watch Festival did, with many of their sightings substantiated by photographic evidence.

The event, held between July 20 and 23 in Nangqen county, part of Qinghai province's Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, was organized by the county government and Shanshui Conservation Center, a nonprofit organization based in Beijing.

Its stated aim: to celebrate the rich biodiversity of this unique part of China.

Hidden away in the border area between Qinghai, the Tibet autonomous region and Sichuan province, and about a four-hour bus ride from Yushu city, Nangqen offers a diverse habitat of grassland, forested hills and high mountains that provide sanctuary for a host of different species.

Some are endemic, like the Tibetan buntinga sparrow-sized bird that lives among bushes at an altitude of 4,000 meters or more in restricted areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateauand the magpie-sized Tibetan babax, which can be found in the area's hillside woods.

Nangqen is also known for some of the highest densities of large predators in the country, including the Eurasian lynx, Asian brown bears, wolves and elusive snow leopards.

For the festival, more than 50 wildlife enthusiasts from across China, Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States formed 17 teams and competed to see who could photograph the most species. The contest area mainly ranged from their base camp at 3,800 meters to 5,000 meterswell above the tree line.

Members of the local Tibetan community were hired as drivers, guides and to run the campsite where the participants stayed.

According to professor Lu Zhi, a conservation biologist from Peking University and a member of the festival's panel of judges, the area's rich biodiversity can be attributed to the locals' traditional awareness of ecological conservation. She said she expects the festival to help further promote a mode of development that prioritizes community-based nature experiences.

Terry Townshend, another of the judges and a conservationist from the UK, said on his English-language blog Birding Beijing that the festival was the best wildlife-watching event he had taken part in, demonstrating "citizen science at its best".

All of the photos chosen for this story were taken by the festival participants during the event.
Shared bicycles are parked at a subway entrance in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, April 4, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

As a national guideline calls for strict penalties for improperly parked shared bicycles, companies are turning to positioning technology for solutions.

The booming industry also brings problems like bikes scattered across sidewalks and irresponsible bike riding. To address the problems, the central government released a guideline on Aug 3 urging city governments to set up parking zones for the bikes and strict punishment for misbehavior on bikes.

Shared bike companies are cooperating with the government by promoting "smart" parking zones for the bikes.

Smart parking zones allow the company to see if the bike is properly parked through ultra-accurate positioning information provided by a Compass Navigation Satellite System or Bluetooth sensors embedded at the parking sites.

Shared bike companies like Ofo rely mainly on CNSS, whereas Mobike and Ming-Bikes combine CNSS and Bluetooth. Improper parking of bikes may cause the locking mechanism to fail which in turn would raise the user's expense.

MingBikes first tried out smart parking sites in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in March. The company identified potential sites in Zengcheng district and applied to the city government to set up the zones. It initially set up 120 parking sites and now has 250.

Users are unable to lock improperly parked MingBikes and the billing continues until it reaches an additional 2 yuan (30 US cents). Also, the user can lose some of the credits received upon starting a Ming-Bikes account, which could ultimately cause the account to be blocked.

The MingBikes app shows on a map the distance to the nearest parking site and warns the bike users of potential penalties for improper parking.

The idea of spreading smart parking zones across Beijing has met with mixed responses.

A foreigner near the capital's Sanlitun area who identified himself as Paul said everyone benefits when the bikes are parked in "proper, decent places".

"The footpath has been taken over by these bikes, and this is forcing pedestrians to use the streets," he said.

Zhou Puyu, 33, voiced concern that smart parking sites, which she compared to the docking sites of the old government run system, could make shared bikes less convenient.

"Shared bikes are more successful than the old (government-run) system, which requires users to leave bikes at docking stations, because you can park them almost anywhere. If people waste lots of time searching for parking sites that goes against what makes shared bikes so popular," Zhou said.

Li Lei contributed to this story.
Huang Youliang. [Photo by Huang Yiming/China Daily]

HAIKOUA Chinese woman forced into front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II died at the age of 90 on Saturday, bringing the number of surviving "comfort women", a euphemism for sex slaves, to 14 on the Chinese mainland.

Huang Youliang died at her home in Yidui village in China's southern island province of Hainan.

Some 400,000 women in Asia were forced to serve as comfort women for the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II, nearly half of whom were Chinese.

In October 1941, the 15-year-old Huang was raped when Japanese troops invaded her hometown. She was later put into a brothel and forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers for two years.

In July 2001, Huang and seven other comfort women sued the Japanese government, demanding an apology. But for more than a decade Japanese courts have repeatedly rejected their appeals, claiming that individuals have no right to sue a state.

The Japanese government has refused to accept legal responsibility for the women.

Efforts by 24 Chinese comfort women to sue the Japanese government in four cases since 1995 all failed.

Huang was the last victim to have sued the Japanese government over sex slavery committed on the Chinese mainland, according to Su Zhiliang, director of a research center on comfort women at Shanghai Normal University's Humanities and Communication College.
People collect trash in the upper reaches of the Xin'an River in Huangshan, Anhui province. [Hong Changsun/For China Daily]

The rise of environmental awareness among inhabitants of areas along the upper tributaries of the Xin'an Riverpeople like fish farmer Hu Chengjiuis believed to be the crux of sustaining the entire ecological program along the main channel.

Huangshan city built garbage disposal stations in every village along the river. Nearly 3,000 residents are employed as sweepers of public sites in the rural communities.

In some communities, there's even a garbage exchange supermarketfor instance, 20 pesticide bottles can be exchanged for a packet of salt.

"These things are bad for the soil. We chose them to exchange for life necessities at the supermarket. It kills two birds with one stone," said Yu Fengqing, who is in her 60s and traveled many kilometers to exchange a sack of pesticide packages and bottles at the Liukou township supermarket.

In 2015, Huangshan began purchasing low-toxicity pesticides collectively for farmers, and the farmers are encouraged to buy the carefully chosen chemicals directly from the government.

"In the system, there are 65 types of pesticides, among which 45 are of low toxicity and residue. The other 20 are biological pesticides," said Bao Zhouming, a senior agronomist in Huangshan's agricultural administrative commission. "It not only cuts farmers' costs of purchasing pesticides but also ensures the quality and safety of agricultural products and the river's water."

The city is also working on a plan to implement a unified purchasing and supply system for chemical fertilizers, Bao said.

In Xiuning county, where Hu lives, more than 3,600 families operate 5,000 spring-water fishponds using traditional local fish-farming methods dating to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It stresses clean water and organic feeding.

The villagers said the preservation of the Xin'an River revives their time-honored methods. According to Wang Zhongyu, head of the county government's poverty alleviation office, more than 560 poverty-stricken families in Xiuning ran the fishponds last year. It took only a year for half of them to bid farewell to poverty because of the profitability of fish raised in spring water. The fish are popular with tourists.

Tea growing is another source of revenue for the villagers.

More than 100,000 farmers are engaged in industries catering to tourism in 188 villages, which received more than 37.2 million tourist trips last year, more than 70 percent of the total of the city. Annual rural tourism revenue generated was 26.3 billion yuan ($3.9 billion).

The residents are confident their way of development, which strikes a balance between ecology and economy, is not only sustainable but also transplantable to other places.
A post office is decorated with the theme of Ofo bike in Shanghai on Aug 12. From walls to ball pens, everything is designed in the style of Ofo bikes. Special stamps and envelopes on Ofo bikes are also issued by Shanghai Post. [Photo/VCG]
Rescuers help the people afflicted by the flooding move their possessions from a damaged house in a village in Wenxian county, Gansu province, on Saturday. Heavy rain caused flooding and a mudslide in the county on Aug 6, leaving eight people dead, one missing and four injured. Photo/Xinhua

Heavy rain will continue to hit much of China in the next two days, the National Meteorological Center said on Sunday.

Torrential rain will sweep across parts of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and Guizhou province, the central provinces of Hunan and Hubei, and the eastern provinces of Jiangxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu, according to the meteorological authority.

The center renewed a blue alert, the lowest level in the four-tier system, for rainstorms in those regions on Sunday, with forecast precipitation ranging from 100 to 160 millimeters between Sunday and Monday.

Over the weekend, the same areas saw heavy storms with precipitation up to 300 millimeters. The overall downpour will gradually weaken starting on Sunday, the center said.

Parts of North and Northeast China will continue to have thundershowers, and the rainfall will cool the temperature in the regions in the following week, though temperatures will remain high in the southern provinces of Guangzhou and Hainan.

The center reminded local governments and residents to halt outdoor work and take precautions against hail, mountain torrents and landslides.

The heavy rains over the weekend have caused millions of yuan worth of property loss and left hundreds of tourists stranded.

Beijing closed 184 tourist sites on Saturday due to hail and thunderstorms. Reservoirs throughout the city have filled more than 10 million cubic meters of water since the downpour began on Friday.

Heilongjiang province, China's northernmost province, has experienced major rainfall since the beginning of August. The latest storm has battered 200,000 square kilometers of land with precipitation close to 500 millimeter in Renmin county in the city of Anda.

This caused the biggest flood in a decade in Tongken River, one of China's most fertile rivers for agriculture. The intense rain affected around 114,000 hectares of crops in area around Suihua and Harbin, the provincial capital, destroyed 172 houses and led to around 320 million yuan ($47.8 million) of direct economic losses, but no reported injuries, according to the local government.

Water and mud as deep as 1 meter flooded the village of Gandong in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, cutting off the roads leading to the outside world.

The village lost electricity for three days, and some 50 tourists are trapped in a hotel on a hillthey are safe but have no communication.

About 6 pm on Saturday, heavy rain in the northwestern Gansu province caused a landslide that trapped 294 tourists in the Yellow River Hoodoo National Geopark near Baiyin. All the tourists were safely evacuated on Sunday, according to China National Tourism Administration.
A Beijing resident uses a mobile phone on the subway, June 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Commuters can ditch their metro card and use electronic one on their phones to pass through the subway lines in Beijing from Aug 14.

Beijing subway officially launched the full service on all lines after a trial service on a line in suburb area in June.

About 160 brands of mobile phones featuring NFC (Near Field Communication) are compatible. Commuters can purchase the electronic metro card on their phone without deposit.

Although iPhone users cannot join the mobile metro card club as Apple Inc hasn't unlocked its NFC feature in public commuting in China.

According to the company issuing metro cards, it sold 200,000 electronic cards in one trial month since it's easy to open accounts and topping up.

About 200,000 mobile commute payments are made each day, two percent of the total daily payment.

Beijing subway system has upped its internet service to ease the pressure on commuters and provide better service.

The mobile metro cards do not need internet connection during use but they do need internet access during credit purchase.
For the past 89 years, Zhang Yuhua's family has paid tribute to a tomb on his family burial site during traditional Chinese festivals and memorial days for revolutionaries. However, the person the family remembers does not bear the surname Zhang.

Liu Chisheng, a man who joined the Communist Party of China in 1924 and helped organize peasants' movements, along with raised money for the Party in the central province of Hubei after graduating from Peking University, resides at the tomb.

The 27-year-old was arrested and murdered by the armed forces of the local landlords as he attempted to cover and relocate CPC supporters, on Feb 15, 1928.

Zhang Jinhuan, Zhang Yuhua's father, was deeply moved and secretly buried Liu's remains at a family burial site on a low-lying ground in Longwan town, Hubei's Qianjiang city.

However, the landlords noticed the father's sympathy for the CPC and threatened to kill Zhang's family. Thus, the father fled the region with his family and did not return until 1947, when Longwan town was liberated.

"We should treasure our hard-earned life, and never forget those who died for the national independence and prosperity," Zhang Yuhua was quoted as saying by Wuhan Daily.

Li Lei contributed to the story.
Tom Isherwood, one of the 71 top maths teachers from England who visited Shanghai schools (China)in September, gives maths lessons with the method he learnt from his peer in Shanghai. Wang Mingjie / China Daily

Students in some parts of the United Kingdom will use the same math textbooks pupils in Shanghai use from September.

In March, Collins Learning and Shanghai Century Publishing Group signed an agreement at the London Book Fair to publish English translations of math textbooks used by Shanghai's primary schools.

Collins named the series "Real Shanghai Maths" and plans to promote it in the UK.

The series of 36 textbooks have been translated word for word from Chinese except the renminbi symbol, which has been replaced by the pound symbol.

According to an employee of Shanghai Century Publishing Group, this is the first time a whole series of China's primary school textbooks have been introduced into national education system in a developed country.

Students from Shanghai have consistently scored well in the Program for International Student Assessment, a triennial exam of 15-year-old students that helps evaluate education systems around the world.

The textbooks already have been used by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics to train British teachers.
Pakistani students hold national flags during a ceremony on Monday marking 70 years of independence. ASIF HASSAN/AFP

China hopes to deepen Belt and Road cooperation with Nepal and reach more consensus with the country, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday while commenting on Vice-Premier Wang Yang's ongoing trip to South Asia.

Wang arrived in Kathmandu, the capital, on Monday evening after wrapping up his visit to Pakistan. He will meet with Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba during the visit, spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news conference on Monday.

Noting that China and Nepal are friendly neighbors, Hua said that the visit is an important high-level interaction between the two countries.

The visit is expected to push forward the implementation of consensus reached by the two countries and deepen cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, she said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with the rest of the world along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

Wang met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in Islamabad on Sunday, and the two sides vowed to deepen cooperation in various fields. Wang attended activities marking the 70th anniversary of Pakistan's independence on Monday.

Noting that China and Pakistan are "iron friends" and all-weather partners of strategic cooperation who always understand and support each other, Wang said Xi's successful visit to Pakistan in 2015 ushered in a new chapter of the relations between the two countries.

Vice-Premier Wang Yang and Pakistan's Interim Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (center) arrive at a flag ceremony in Islamabad for Independence Day on Monday. AAMIR QURESHI/AFP

China would like to join hands with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and ensure that more fruitful results will be achieved in bilateral cooperation, he said.

With regard to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative, Wang expressed hope the two countries will strengthen coordination and make good plans and designs from a long-term and top-level perspective.

While hailing fruitful cooperation in various economic fields over the past years, especially in the CPEC construction, Wang suggested that in the near future the two countries emphasize ensuring early harvests in the project.

For his part, Abbasi said Pakistan and China are brothers and bilateral relations have withstood the test of time. Pakistan has witnessed the sustainable growth in its economy in recent years and China has played an important role in it, he said.

After their meeting, Wang and Abbasi attended the completion and inauguration ceremony of important cooperation projects between the two countries and the signing ceremony of bilateral cooperation documents.

Xinhua News Agency contributed to this story
Couple hoped technology might someday be used to restore life

The first cryonics procedure in China for an entire body has taken place in Shandong province, the Yinfeng Life Science Foundation said on Monday.

The procedure is meant to preserve the body at a very low temperature shortly after death in the hope of bringing the deceased back to life if future medical technologies make it possible.

The procedure began on May 8, less than five minutes after Zhan Wenlian's heart stopped beating and doctors declared her clinically dead.

Aaron Drake of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, based in the United States, and medical experts from Shandong University's Qilu Hospital in Jinan, immediately put Zhan on a life support system, including nutrition and cardiopulmonary support, Kong Fei, a foundation council member, said on Monday.

The foundation was created by Yinfeng Biological Group, a private company based in Jinan that specializes in the research and development of the human cell and organ storage technologies.

Zhan's body was sent by ambulance from Qilu Hospital to a lab at an institute affiliated with the company. Her body was injected with chemicals designed to protect her cells from being damaged during the freezing process. The body was then placed in a container whose inside temperature was reduced to below-190 C.

The process took more than two days to complete.

Since May 10, Zhan's body has been stored in a 2,000-liter container at the institute. Liquid nitrogen keeps the body temperature between -192 C and -195 C, Kong said.

Zhan, who was 49 and worked at a State-owned bank in Jinan, had lung cancer. Gui Junmin, her husband, first approached Yinfeng in February after an introduction from his wife's doctor, and he decided to do the procedure after getting his wife's consent, Kong said.

"Gui said he would like to try, although he knew it was not possible to revive his wife in the near future," he said. "I think his love for his wife was the biggest factor in his making the decision."

The foundation will bear all the expense of the procedure and storage, Kong said. The cost would be very high, he said, declining to say exactly how much.

"We are dedicated to promoting the development of cryonics technology," he said. "The body is expected to be stored for at least several decades, and we may evaluate the body's condition after a certain period of time, and revive her if possible in the future.

"It depends on technological development in the field. I do not see any possibility for revival in the immediate future," he said.

Chen Jingyu, vice-president of Wuxi People's Hospital in Jiangsu province and a prominent expert in lung transplants, said that once a person's heart has stopped beating and they are not breathing, they are usually considered brain dead, and it is meaningless to preserve the body.

"It is not possible to bring a person who is considered brain dead back to life," he said.

Kong said the foundation will continue to accept requests for the procedure, but it will not keep too many bodies because of the high cost.

"We are also planning to build an organ bank, probably the largest one in Asia, for better storage of donated organs," he said.

The first person in China to receive cryotherapy was Du Hong, a writer from Chongqing, who had her head preserved at Alcor in 2015, according to Science and Technology Daily.

More than 100 people have been preserved since the first case in 1967, according to the foundation.

The object of cryonics is to prevent death by preserving sufficient cell structure and chemistry so that recovery (including recovery of memory and personality) remains possible by foreseeable technology, it said.
A remotely operated diving vehicle is launched to explore the Caroline seamount in the western Pacific Ocean on Monday. ZHANG XUDONG/XINHUA

ABOARD KEXUEChinese scientists began exploring a seamount called Caroline in the western Pacific Ocean for the first time on Monday, using a remotely operated diving vehicle to take measurements, record videos and collect samples.

Part of the Caroline Ridge in the Pacific Ocean, the Caroline seamount is located in the southern Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth, in what's called the Yap Trench. It has never been explored.

The top of the seamount is an oval basin 28 meters below the surface. It's 28 kilometers long and 9.3 km wide, according to data collected by the scientific ship Kexue in the last two days.

Kexue's remote vehicle will investigate the south side of the seamount, recording videos and collecting topographic information and biological samples, said Xu Kuidong, chief scientist aboard the ship and a Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher.

"We see many seagulls and flying fish in this area, so we believe that this seamount is rich in biological diversity," Xu said.

Before the voyage, Chinese scientists investigated two other seamounts in the area, and they will compare the geology, biology and ecology of all three.

"The distance between the two seamounts we investigated before is only 180 kilometers, but they have only 12 percent common biology," Xu said. "It's very interesting to find out what Caroline has, and to study the differences of the three seamounts and the reasons behind them."

A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean floor that does not reach the surface, and thus is not an island, islet or rock. Seamounts are typically the remains of extinct volcanos that rise abruptly from the seafloor from 1,000 to 4,000 meters.

Interactions between seamounts and underwater currents, as well as their elevated position in the water, attract plankton, coral, fish and marine mammals.

More than 30,000 seamounts have been mapped, but only a few have been studied in detail by scientists.
A Siberian tiger photographed in Hunchun, Jilin province, in 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

The number of big cats in the northeastern province is rising after decades of conservation efforts, as Zhang Zefeng reports from Hunchun, Jilin.

One evening in July last year, Yang Yongsheng was washing his feet in a creek near his home in the mountains when he noticed a Siberian tiger staring at him from a bush about 3 meters away.

Suddenly something that had puzzled Yang for a few days became clear. "The tiger did it," thought the resident of Yilinangou, a village under the jurisdiction of Hunchun, Jilin province, Northeast China.

"It" was the fact that on three consecutive nights, dogs Yang kept to guard his yard had gone missing. The three leashes that held them to posts had been torn apart.

Yang rushed home, grabbed his smartphone and returned to the spot, where he managed to take several photos of the tiger. A month later, the animal returned and killed another dog.

A year later, with the help of his son, Yang has installed surveillance cameras at his house, focused on the yard. Despite that, the 76-year-old villager is still concerned about his safety.

"If the tiger shows up again, I could be a victim," he said. "Tiger numbers, along with their areas of activity, have increased significantly in recent years."

In the late 1990s, Jilin began a project to protect its natural forests, and established several nature reserves to conserve wildlife habitats. In 2015, commercial logging was banned in the province's key State-owned forests to assist the recovery of woodland resources.

"Those efforts fundamentally alleviate the conflict between timber production and the tigers' need for habitats," said Wu Zhigang, a researcher at the Jilin Provincial Academy of Forestry Science.

According to the latest data from the State Forestry Administration, during the late 1990s there were at most 14 Siberian tigers and 10 Amur leopards in the Changbai Mountains, which run along China's border with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Now the figures are 27 and 42 respectively, and a number of cubs have also been spotted.

As the number of endangered species rises, the Jilin government has been exploring innovative solutions to settle conservation problems in nature reserves and create an animal-friendly environment.

Compensation

Early one morning last month, Jia Cunzeng received a call from a neighbor telling him that one of the cows he tended had been found dead at the foot of a mountain where Siberian tigers and other animals live.
LONDON - The British government has denied that it has agreed on the amount of its European Union exit bill, after a report emerged that it plans offer the bloc 36 billion pounds ($47 billion).

Britain's outstanding tab to settle commitments it made as an EU member is one of the biggest issues confronting the divorce talks. The EU said it won't discuss future trade relations with the United Kingdom until there is progress on the bill and other key issues.

The EU has not put an official number on the size of the bill, but estimates have ranged as high as 100 billion euros.

Britain voted in a referendum last year to quit the 28-nation bloc and is due to leave in March 2019.

EU budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told Germany's Bild newspaper in comments published on Monday that the United Kingdom would remain bound by some previous commitments to long-term projects after Brexit and "will therefore have to transfer funds to Brussels at least until 2020".

The size of the bill is a hot political issue in Britain, with some anti-EU politicians insisting the country should pay nothing at all.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that British officials have decided to offer 36 billion pounds, or 40 billion euros, in a bid to move talks on to the key issue of trade. But Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman, James Slack, said "I don't recognize" the figure.

'Fair settlement'

He added that Britain was prepared to pay a "fair settlement" of its obligations.

"The prime minister made clear in the letter triggering Article 50(the EU exit process) that the UK and the EU need to discuss a fair settlement of both our rights and obligations as an EU member state."

Oettinger said in the long term, Britain's withdrawal will mean a loss of about 10 to 12 billion euros ($11.8-14 billion) per year to the EU budget, which will be made up through a combination of cuts and higher payments from other members.

He estimated that Germany would face an "additional single-digit billion" increase.

Britain has yet to set out what kind of transitional deal it is seeking, making estimates of the final bill difficult to calculate.

Some euroskeptics within the ruling party argue Britain should not have to pay anything at all, and any settlement perceived to be generous to Brussels could prompt revolt within the Conservative ranks.

Ap - Reuters

(China Daily 08/09/2017 page11)
CANBERRA - The Australian government said on Sunday that it would "actively monitor" a situation involving its 22 Tiger attack helicopters, after the maker Airbus Helicopters declared all variants to be in an unsafe condition.

After a German version of the attack helicopter crashed when its blades fell off the chassis in Mali last month, the manufacturer released a statement saying that safety was its main concern, and that as a result, the helicopters were not suitable for flying.

On Sunday, a defense department spokesperson said while Australia's fleet was still operational, the issue would be discussed in the Parliament in "due course".

News Corp newspapers quoted the spokesperson as saying that the government was "actively monitoring sustainment contract of the Tiger helicopter capability to ensure it achieves value for money".

Airbus Helicopters said they were at a loss to understand why its helicopters were failing, but declared that "all Tiger versions" were "unsafe" at this point in time.

"Despite the missing information and considering a sudden failure, Airbus Helicopters (AH) declares an unsafe condition for all Tiger versions," the statement said.

"AH can neither identity the part, the failure of which would lead to the accident, nor the origin of the failure (design, manufacturing, maintenance).

"Consequently, AH is not in a position to propose a protective measure."

Xinhua

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page12)
KUWAIT CITY - Emergency workers are battling to contain an oil spill near a joint Kuwaiti-Saudi oilfield in the Gulf, an official said on Sunday.

"Emergency oil teams are still struggling to put an oil spill near Kuwait's southern Ras Al-Zour area under control," said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation spokesman Talal al-Khaled in a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency.

There were no official reports on the source or size of the spill in the waters off Kuwait's southern coast, near the joint Kuwaiti-Saudi offshore Al-Khafji oilfield.

Kuwaiti media however on Sunday quoted local oil experts as saying the spill originated from an old 50-kilometer pipeline from Al-Khafji.

The experts estimated that as many as 35,000 barrels of crude oil may have leaked into the waters off Al-Zour, where Kuwait is building a massive $30 billion oil complex that includes a 615,000-barrel-per-day refinery.

Emergency teams have sealed off two power and water desalination plants in the area to prevent the contamination of drinking water.

Kuwait depends largely on desalination for its fresh water supplies.

KUNA reported that officials were striving to protect waterways, power plants and water facilities first, then clean surrounding beaches.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, located south of Kuwait along the Gulf coast, said the spill had not reached their waters.

Saudi Arabia said that it had put into action a "crisis management plan" and was conducting an aerial survey of its oil plants along the coast in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said teams from Saudi Arabian Chevron and the Oil Spill Response Limited had joined the teams cleaning the coastal waters.

Kuwait is a major producer of oil and gas, which make up around 95 percent of its export revenues.

Afp - Ap

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page12)
Japan's political landscape is not expected to stabilize to suit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's style of politics despite the Cabinet reshuffle on Aug 3. Support for his administration is not constant, although approval ratings have risen slightly.

Abe is becoming increasingly unpopular for his alleged involvement in scandals and his high-handed approach to important issues such as security-related legislation. While the Cabinet reshuffle has brought him some relief, big troubles remain. He is still embroiled in controversy for allegedly pressurizing the Ministry of Education to allow his friend Kotaro Kake to open a new veterinary school. Most of the people in Japan say Abe has not yet fully explained the issue in parliament.

The Ministry of Defense, under Tomomi Inada who resigned a week before Abe reshuffled the Cabinet, covered up Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's activities during a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The two houses of parliament held only ad hoc hearings on the scandal on Thursday as demanded by the opposition.
A visitor looks at people writing Tibetan calligraphy at a creative cultural product exhibition in the China Cultural Center in Nigeria. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Nearly 100 cultural products from Tibet are on display at the China Cultural Center in Nigeria, as part of the events to celebrate the Tibet Cultural Month, China's Tibet Tashi Delek, in the West African country.

A wide range of products are on show, ranging from T-shirts and Tibetan incense to bookmarks and kites. Visitors are also encouraged to interact with Tibetan folk artists in Tibetan calligraphy, painting, weaving, and wood carving.

The exhibition is open for free to the public starting Aug 7 and will last for a week.
Chinese film director Zhang Yimou [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who's also known for directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, made the overseas premiere of his new conceptual performance in Edinburgh Fringe Festival Saturday and Sunday.

Combining Chinese traditional arts and modern technology, and jointly performed by Chinese artists and foreign studios, the two-day show called 2047 Apologue was sold out to around 2,000 audience.

As the director of the show, Zhang Yimou delivered a video speech at the premiere, in which he said his new production is trying to touch on the question of "the relationship between human and technology, as well as the cultural collision and integration between China and the world, tradition and the future."

"It is not only a show or a story," he said, "but more like a reflection on puzzles that come with the rapid progression of technology."

The Chinese director said his inspiration have come from the hope that more children could spend less time on computers, more time on communication with family and friends.

Gorden, one of the audience, praised the artistic expression of the show, saying he was quite shocked and touched. "It uses a form I've never seen before."

Bao Yi, producer of 2047 Apologue, said that they chose Chinese Art and Culture Festival, which is organized under the framework of Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as their first overseas platform. Later this year, they plan to take the show to New York and Sydney.

Chinese Art and Culture Festival, organized by the Scotland-China Chamber of Commerce, has been held successfully for three consecutive years.

Song Jie, the chamber president, believes the overseas Chinese society can act as a bridge between China and the outside world, helping to bring Chinese arts and culture to the world stage.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one of the largest art festivals in the world, covering a wide range of drama, music, dance, film and so on. It attracts millions of visitors from all over the world. This year, the Fringe runs from Aug 4 to 28, with more than 50,000 artists and performers bringing over 3,000 performances.
Actor Zeng Shunxi (left), actress Zhang Xueying (center) and actor Wang Bowen (right) attend a promotional event for the launch of a 32-episode drama When We Were Young on August 13, 2017. [Photo/mtime.com]

A 32-episode drama focusing on romance and mystery in a school is set to be released on Tencent's video channel.

When We Were Young revolves around twins, with one raised by an adopted mother while the other is raised in an orphanage.

Moving to help the twin suffering from depression in the orphanage, the other sister steps in, by switching identities to solve mysteries within the school.

Two online video platform giants, Mango TV and Tencent, have jointly produced the drama, with the target audience being those who were born after 1995.
Yam paintings are a highlight at the Creative Yunnan Culture Industries Expo 2017 in Kunming, Yunnan province, on Aug 12. [Photo/VCG]

Peasant painters' yam paintings became a hit among viewers attending the Creative Yunnan Culture Industries Expo 2017, which kicked off in Kunming, Yunnan province, on Aug 10.

The colored yam paintings, also known as potato paintings from Xundian county, were showcased at the expo. The artworks were created using potatoes painted with landscapes, Peking Opera masks, famous figures and animals. The artworks with drawings were also edible after being peeled.

Liu Tianxiang, a peasant painter, said each potato was tailor-painted according to its shape, and even though it sprouts several months later, each piece "looks quite cute".
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Sino-US trade / China Daily

US President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive memorandum on Monday authorizing the US trade representative to determine whether to investigate the allegedly "unfair" Chinese trade practices, which could pave the way for punitive tariffs on Chinese exports.

But it is of critical strategic significance that his administration demonstrates reason and avoids making a rash decision it will soon regret.

Given Trump's transactional approach to foreign affairs, it is impossible to look at the matter without taking into account his increasing disappointment at what he deems as China's failure to bring into line the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. His idea of exploiting trade as a bargaining chip in dealings with China dates back to the campaign trail.

But instead of advancing the United States' interests, politicizing trade will only acerbate the country's economic woes, and poison the overall China-US relationship.

Blaming China for "unfair" trade is unfair in the first place. The trade imbalance, regular fodder for China-bashing on Capitol Hill, is, to a great extent, self-inflicted, an outcome of the US' political restrictions on exports to China. Yet this essential aspect is conspicuously absent in the US' narrative. The list of US gains in trade with China can grow or shrink, depending on how trade issues are handled.

While Trump's prior identity as a businessman may explain his transactional propensity, the deal he seeks demands the impossible of Beijing.

It is unfair for him to consign the burden of dissuading Pyongyang on Beijing; likewise to accuse Beijing of doing "little" or "nothing".

East Asia expert and former US ambassador to the Republic of Korea Christopher Hill was correct in observing Trump should not "outsource" the US' own troubles to China.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping again told Trump on Saturday, Beijing also seeks denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It would not have voted in favor of the latest United Nations resolution against Pyongyang's missile/nuclear adventures if this was not the case. The only difference is, Beijing wants to break the circle of escalation.

By trying to incriminate Beijing as an accomplice in the DPRK's nuclear adventure and blame it for a failure that is essentially a failure of all stakeholders, Trump risks making the serious mistake of splitting up the international coalition that is the means to resolve the issue peacefully.

Hopefully Trump will find another path. Things will become even more difficult if Beijing and Washington are pitted against each other.
A Foreign Ministry photo released shows Indian troops encroaching on Chinese territory. Provided to China Daily

By persistently maintaining the standoff between its troops trespassing in China's territory and the Chinese troops stationed there, what does India want, a war with China or something else?

By calling on India to withdraw its troops and warning it time and again about the serious consequences it will face, China has given it an inch but India wants to take a mile, not only by turning a deaf ear to the repeated warnings but also by increasing its military presence along that section of the delimited border.

The Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed government official as saying that the "caution level" among the troops has also been raised. It is hard to escape the conclusion that it is making preparations for a military clash with China.

In another development, the Indian government announced on Wednesday that it will impose anti-dumping duties on 93 products imported from China, which can only be regarded as another provocation by India.

China does not want a war with India; it does not want conflict of any kind with its neighbor. That explains why China has employed the utmost restraint by repeatedly asking India to withdraw its troops and warning it about the serious consequences should a military conflict take place.

It is wrong and stupid of India to consider China's restraint as a sign of weakness and taking it for granted. By doing so, India is walking further down a dangerous path, which will take it anywhere but a destination with both diplomatic and substantial gains.

India should come to its senses and understand that there is a limit to China's restraint. It would be a grave miscalculation to expect China to give in and make concessions at the expense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

India will only shoot itself in the foot if it persists with its stubborn refusal to pull its troops out of Chinese territory, and it will only shame itself by coercing China to take whatever action it is necessary to drive the trespassing troops out of Chinese territory.

India should pull its troops out before it is too late.
A boy plays with a smartphone in an outlet of Apple Inc in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING-BASED DARE&SURE LAW FIRM has brought the first anti-monopoly case against Apple in China. Beijing-based newspaper The Mirror comments:

The iOS operating system Apple installs on its products such as iPhone and iPad is a closed-source one and its users have no other channel but the virtual Apple store to download and install applications.

Such a technological barrier is jokingly known as "jail" among iPhone and iPad users. There used to be a group of hackers who developed special software to help users "jailbreak" iPhones and iPads, but Apple has defeated most of them by closing in the loopholes in the iOS operating system.

Yet Apple has been abusing its dominant position. This June alone, Apple withdrew 89,205 apps from its Apple Store within 20 days. Although the process actually began in 2013, since then as many as 60 very popular apps developed by about 30 companies in China have been withdrawn. And Apple withdrew these apps because they refuse to pay Apple a 30-percent service fee as the latter requires.

Apple has derived quite huge profits from the move. In the fourth financial quarter of 2016, Apple had derived 92 percent of the profits of the whole industry, and the Apple Store monopoly is a cash cow for the company.

But for consumers, that's bad news because iPhone and iPad users only have part of the usage right over the products they buy. Smartphones are supposed to be a bridge that connects app developers and users, but iPhone has failed in this regard.

That's why Apple has been fined many times in many countries, including the United States. Now lawyers have reported it to Chinese authorities and we expect the latter to launch investigations. Apple should also learn a lesson from the case.

The case of Apple is not alone. On July 1, a regulation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology came into effect, which requires smartphone producers to make sure users can uninstall any app on their smartphones. That has hit the right pointUsers that buy smartphones should have the final say on what apps should stay on their smartphones.
Shili scenic gallery in Guiyang features mountains, forests and streams. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Contracts to develop a total of nine tourism projects worth 6 billion yuan ($893 million) in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, were announced at a tourism promotion conference in Beijing on Aug 4.

They include a geological tourism town, a self-drive camping site and a "red tourism" zone.

The projects are part of the city's efforts to become a tourism destination that offers diverse experiences, says Yuan Yunlong, director of the city's Tourism Industry Development Commission.

Guiyang is known as a summer getaway for its year-round cool weather and lush mountainous landscape. The average temperature is between 17 and 28 C all year round.

The city is expected to have 1,000 ecological parks by 2020.

New travel routes for visitors were also announced at the Beijing conference, and they will integrate the city's waterfalls, mountain parks, historical sites, ethnic culture and outdoor programs.

Guiyang's scenic spots usually see more visitors during the summer, the local tourism authority reports.

Approximately 30 million people visited Guiyang in the first six months of this year, up 18 percent year-on-year, and income from tourism was 85 billion yuan, up 33 percent year-on-year.

Last year, the city received 111 million visits from home and abroad, up 31 percent over the previous year, and the local government expects the number to cross 195 million by 2020.

Guiyang is going all out to attract travelers, and discounts are being offered to travelers from Chongqing, Nanchang in Jiangxi province, and Fujian province's Xiamen.

Separately, a total of 4 billion yuan will be used to upgrade or develop 23 scenic spots in the city this year.

As for new attractions, the Quanhu park, the Nanshan post, the Wanxiang Hot Springs and Nanshan water park have just opened to the public.

More flights and trains are also being introduced to make things easier for travelers.

The third phase of Guiyang airport will be completed by 2019, giving it a capacity to handle 35 million visitors per year.

And the high-speed rail system is also being expanded.

Currently, it takes eight hours by train to reach Guiyang from Beijing, but travel time is expected to be cut to five hours soon, according to Wang Yuxiang, the deputy mayor of Guiyang.

Rail connectivity to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, is expected to be launched by the end of next year, and a rail line to Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is now under construction.
A close-up of the Tibetan-style Sakya Monastery in Shigatse city. [Photo by Zhang Xingjian/chinadaily.com.cn]

Located in Sakya county, Southwest of Shigatse city, Tibet autonomous region, the Sakya Monastery is the principal monastery of the Sakyapa Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

At first, it comprised both the Northern and Southern Monasteries; however, the Northern Monastery is today only as a ruin.

The Sakya Monastery is famed as the "Second Dunhuang" due to its colossal collection of numerous Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, murals and Thangkas.

Most of the murals are from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Among them, few of the most outstanding and precious murals depict portraits of the former Sakya ancestors, Phakpa's meeting with Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, and mandalas.
The University of Cambridge has become a popular tourism destination for Chinese people. [Tan Xi/For China Daily]

Tourism provides 2.8 percent of the UK's gross domestic product. But some smaller cities are beginning to feel overwhelmed by the number of tourists, and that the costs are beginning to outweigh the benefits.

Cities such as Oxford and Cambridge are usually packed with tourists during the summer months, and local officials have started to complain.

The university cities attract many Chinese students, and Chinese tourists are visiting the UK in increasing numbers. But the complaints are directed at tourists in general, not a specific nationality.

John Hipkin, a Cambridge city councilor, told the Guardian: "Tourism is a great part of modern life. But if it gets out of hand, it can threaten the character of tourist destinations."

One of the attractions of Cambridge is punting on the River Campole-driven boatingbut the council banned punt operators from advertising and introduced a fine of 75 pounds ($98) last year.

Doctor Paul Hanna, lecturer in sustainable tourism at the University of Surrey, said: "The case in Cambridge is an example of this 'tipping point' having been reached, where local residents no longer see tourists as income generators, but rather they experience irritation and anger toward the inbound tourists that are disrupting and fragmenting normal social life."

James Kennell, principal lecturer in tourism at the University of Greenwich, agreed that many destinations are now feeling the negative impacts of rising tourist numbers.

"Small, historic towns and cities struggle to accommodate increasing numbers of large groups, along with meeting the needs of individual travelers. The growth of accommodation options like Airbnb means that destination managers are finding it ever harder to know how many tourists are visiting their destination," he said.

Tourism experts say that rising numbers of Chinese tourists to the UK are undoubtedly having an impact on the growth of the tourism sector, but they are a small proportion of the total. However, they believe that as Chinese tourists have begun to venture farther outside of London, in groups or as independent travelers, they are having a much bigger impact in smaller towns and cities.

Despite the downside, China is indisputably the most valuable market for international tourism spending. Travelers from China spent $261 billion abroad in 2016, according to VisitBritain, the UK's national tourism organization.

More than 260,000 holidaymakers from China spent more than 500 million pounds in the UK last year, and students account for 42 percent of Chinese visitors spending the night in the UK.

Kennell said Chinese tourism is a huge opportunity for the UK, but he believes it needs to be planned and managed sustainably.

"If Chinese visitors go to cities like Cambridge and find it overcrowded and not like they imagined, they won't come back," he said.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia - A car rammed into a crowd of protesters and a state police helicopter crashed into the woods on Saturday as tensions boiled over at a white supremacist rally. The violent day left three dead, dozens injured and this usually quiet college town a bloodied symbol of the roiling racial and political divisions in the United States.

The chaos erupted around what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade - including neo-Nazis, skinheads, members of the Ku Klux Klan - who descended on the city to "take America back" by rallying against plans to remove a Confederate statue. Hundreds of counter-protesters came to oppose the racism. There were street brawls and violent clashes; the governor declared a state of emergency; police in riot gear ordered people out; and helicopters circled overhead.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, both Democrats, lumped the blame squarely on the rancor that has seeped into US politics and the white supremacists who came from out of town into their city, which is home to Monticello, the plantation owned by the third US president, Thomas Jefferson.

"There is a very sad and regrettable coarseness in our politics that we've all seen too much of today," Signer said at a news conference. "Our opponents have become our enemies, debate has become intimidation."

Some of the white nationalists at Saturday's rally cited President Donald Trump's victory after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation for their beliefs.

Trump criticized the violence in a tweet Saturday, followed by a news conference and a call for "a swift restoration of law and order".

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," he said.

Associated Press
German NGO halts migrant rescue operations after aid group stands down

China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-14 08:46

BERLIN - The German aid group Sea Eye on Sunday said it was suspending its migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, citing security concerns after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

The announcement comes a day after Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

In a statement, Sea Eye said it was with "a heavy heart" that it had decided to follow suit following the Libyan government's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

Tensions have been on the rise since the Libyan navy on Thursday ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal search and rescue zone, a measure it said was specifically aimed at nongovernmental groups.

Libyan authorities have accused charities of aiding human smugglers with their rescues at sea, hampering efforts to crack down on the illegal migration route.

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible toward our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, has also moved to rein in NGOs helping the multinational search and rescue operation by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

Sea Eye said it would continue to monitor the "changed security situation" off the Libyan coast.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Buschheuer warned.

Six years since the ousting of longtime leader Muammar Gadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting the rescue operations, and Sea Eye says it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page10)
Estonia offers Brexit loophole

China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-14 08:46

TALLINN, Estonia - As Brits brace for the upheaval that Brexit could bring, some are turning to Estonia's e-residency digital ID program to keep doing business across the European Union.

Using its knack for digital innovation to capitalize on the global explosion in e-commerce, the small cyber-savvy Baltic eurozone state became the first country to offer e-residency identification cards to people worldwide in 2014.

Touted as a "transnational government-issued digital identity", e-residency allows users to open a business in the EU and then run it remotely with the ability to declare taxes and sign documents digitally.

It does not provide citizenship, tax residency, physical residency or the right to travel to Estonia. Applications can be made online via the www.howtostayin.eu website and cost 100 euros ($112).

Just over 22,000 people from 138 countries across the globe have become e-residents so far, including around 1,200 Brits and last year's Brexit vote triggered a boom in applications from the UK.

Before it, only three British citizens applied per week, but that shot up to over 50 in its aftermath. There was also a 75 percent spike in UK traffic on the website after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the Article 50 EU exit clause in March.

A "soft Brexit" would mean that Britain could retain access to the European single market like non-EU member Norway.

But the "hard Brexit" option that has prevailed so far would see Britain leave the European single market and the customs union, creating a nightmare scenario for UK businesses as there would no longer be free movement of goods and services.

"The UK may have chosen to leave the EU, but its entrepreneurs can still choose to remain inside the EU's business environment" through e-residency, said program director Kaspar Korjus.

Winners of the Mayor of London's 2017 Entrepreneur competition say they signed up for e-residency to mitigate the risk Brexit poses for their business, a startup making environmentally-friendly wet wipes.

Ellenor McIntosh and Alborz Bozorgi both live in London but say they took up e-residency in order to be able to keep their company, Twipes, inside the EU's single market.

Billing Twipes as "the future of toilet paper", its owners say they have registered it both in the UK and Estonia to boost investor confidence.

"We had discussions with many investors from across Europe, Cyprus and Estonia in particular, and they view the uncertainty of Brexit as a huge risk," Bozorgi said.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page10)
Innovative scheme aims to soften exodus from country to cities

NIEUWVEEN, Netherlands - Standing in his rubber boots in his fields surrounded by his beloved Red Holstein cows, Dutch farmer Gerard Hartveld has an air of resignation as he contemplates the future.

Hartveld says he is a dairy farmer in "his heart" and soul. Yet, his heart is heavy knowing that, like many who work the land today in The Netherlands, he has no one to inherit his family farm.

The figures are staggering. Some 60 percent of those aged over 55 have no one to whom they can bequeath their land, according to the Dutch central statistics office.

That means some 15,000 farms could disappear in the next decade, with more than eight out of 10 sheep farmers, who are reaching retirement, having no successors.

Although pig and cow farmers are faring slightly better, most family farms have witnessed an exodus of the younger generation as they desert the fields and barns in their droves lured by the promise of fortunes to be made in the city.

Hartveld's farm in central Nieuwveen has been in his family for more than a century - since 1913. He knows every inch of the land as well as his cows, including the doyens of the 20-strong dairy herd, Miranda and Greta.

But with no children, the time will come "in 15 years or so, not before", when this reserved 52-year-old man of few words will see the land and his herd "pass out of the family" to be taken over by strangers.

This is where an innovative Dutch scheme seeks to step in, aiming to rescue such farms which make up an integral part of the landscape in the country.

Thomas Legrand is a 27-year-old Frenchman, who, with his Dutch girlfriend, is looking for a farm to run. But with no contacts in the farming world, the couple are turning to an online service called "Farmer Seeks Farmer".

"It's like a dating site," said Legrand, who "dreams of taking over a small sheep farm on a polder".

Backed by the Young Farmers' Association, pig farmer Sander Thus has been working with the online scheme putting those close to retirement in contact with young wouldbe farmers seeking their own patch of agricultural land.

Like an internet dating website, users register on the site and wait for their search to throw up a match.

"Today, most of those looking to take over a farm are self-employed between the ages of 20 and 40, who don't come from the farming world but have this desire to roll their sleeves up," said Thus.

Since the scheme was launched in 2011, several dozen farms have moved outside of the original family owners to be taken over by a new generation of farmers.

And Thus hopes the numbers will grow, with 135 people searching for land registered on the site, and some 35 existing farmers looking for new blood to farm their lands.

For dairy farmer Hartveld, however, he says with a mixture of pride and sorrow that when the time comes he won't need the services of "Farmer Seeks Farmer".

There are several people interested in taking over his farm - and preserving a small piece of Dutch history.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page10)
Vote gauges appetite for Fernandez return

China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-14 08:47

BUENOS AIRES - Argentines voted on Sunday in a closely watched midterm primary election that will test their appetite for bringing back former president Cristina Fernandez.

Fernandez, who was indicted on a charge of corruption last year, is vying for a Senate seat in Buenos Aires province, home to nearly 40 percent of the country's voters. She is running against business-friendly President Mauricio Macri's former education minister and other candidates from a divided opposition.

Investors and wealthy Argentines fear a Fernandez comeback in Congress could pave the way to her running for president in 2019. Her return to power would likely mean the end of Macri's reforms and a resumption of rampant spending, protection of industry and isolation from trade agreements and international capital markets.

A seat in Congress would give the 64-year-old Fernandez immunity from arrest, though not from trial. She dismisses the corruption accusations as politically motivated.

The compulsory primary vote on Sunday will essentially serve as a detailed poll ahead of the Oct 22 election for one-third of the Senate and half the lower house of Congress, as no major candidates are being challenged from within their own parties.

Though her chosen successor lost to Macri in Buenos Aires province in 2015, Fernandez now appeals to many in its struggling industrial belt, where Argentina's emergence from recession in the second half of last year has yet to take hold.

The final weeks of primary campaigning were marked by repeated headlines highlighting gaffes from Esteban Bullrich, Macri's former education minister. On Wednesday he apologized for calling the jailing of young people "progress".

Bullrich had previously suggested craft beer as an alternative employment opportunity for Argentines who had lost their jobs and was criticized by feminists for a radical antiabortion stance.

Fernandez, who broke with Argentina's main opposition movement of Peronism for the election as some adherents form more moderate factions, meanwhile ran a relatively subdued campaign compared to her often fiery rhetoric and long speeches as president.

"We weren't always as humble as we should have been," she said of her presidency at her final rally.

No matter how many seats his "Let's Change" coalition picks up, Macri will still lack a majority in Congress and continue to need to build alliances to pass reforms.

An opponent like Fernandez representing the country's most powerful economic district could make that all the more difficult.

"If it wins Buenos Aires, the government will go into these negotiations strengthened, if it loses it will be much weaker," said analyst Rosendo Fraga.

Reuters

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page11)
Looters swoop after load falls from ship

China Daily | Updated: 2017-08-14 08:47

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Enterprising thieves near Sao Paulo used small boats to raid dozens of containers that fell from a Brazilian cargo ship containing everything from bicycles to electronics.

In scenes reminiscent of the classic 1949 British comedy film Whisky Galore, where Scottish islanders loot a cargo of booze from a wrecked ship, some seaside residents could not contain themselves when the modern-day bonanza tumbled from the 182-meter Login Pantanal on Friday.

Photos posted on Brazilian news site G1 and social media on Saturday showed people plundering the still floating containers, filled with consumer goods including car tires, electronics and bicycles.

A spilled cargo of school backpacks litters the surface of the sea in a photo shared online. In another, men can be seen walking up a beach with what look like new bicycles.

In one incident, a "piracy" patrol chased down two speedboats loaded with stolen goods.

"In total, nine crew members were caught with more than 100 items of various products, mostly electronics and household products," a spokesman for the Sao Paulo police said.

It was not yet known how the accident occurred, but an amateur video posted online showed the Log-in Pantanal rolling heavily in high swell near the shore.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 08/14/2017 page11)
Kenya's incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta holds the official certificate after he was announced winner of the presidential election in Nairobi on Friday. THOMAS MUKOYA/REUTERS

Local strategy provided foundation for election victory, experts say

NAIROBI - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta won reelection in last week's vote largely due to an enhanced grassroots campaign strategy and gains from the east African country's infrastructure development, experts said on Saturday.

According to State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu, the Kenyatta campaign held more than 400 rallies as part of an intense program, particularly in the final week.

Bob Wekesa, research associate of the China-Africa Reporting Project at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, attributed Kenyatta's victory to the campaign strategy his Jubilee Party adopted at the grassroots level, which is educating voters about its policies.

"The modus operandi of campaigning by Jubilee was well thought out and this explains why it penetrated into opposition's strongholds including winning eight parliamentary seats in Western Kenya," said Wekesa, adding that Jubilee did more footwork than the opposition.

Observers also note that Kenyatta's well-financed campaigns produced more effective advertising. David Otieno, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Nairobi, believes Kenyatta won also "because he chose nationalism over mere political expediency".

Otieno cited "regular calls for unity and an election slogan of 45-million-strong," which means Kenyatta's party serves the country's total 45 million population, in sharp comparison to the opposition's 10-million-strong - to get 10 million votes out of the 19.6 million electorate.

"He toured every county to its grassroots several times as he asked for votes. Further to this, his asking for votes was predicated on a developmental model that was not condescending to any tribe," he said.

Otieno also links Kenyatta's win to his scores in infrastructure development, citing the 480-kilometer standard gauge railway, put into operation in May between the capital Nairobi and the southeastern port city of Mombasa and which is expected to add 1.5 percent growth to Kenya's gross domestic product.
A child is seen in the Intensive care unit in the Baba Raghav Das hospital in Gorakhpur district, India August 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

Head of facility suspended as state and local officials trade blame over funding

NEW DELHI - India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh has suspended the head of a hospital where at least 60 children died, while the federal health minister on Sunday vowed action against the culprits, as state and hospital officials traded blame over funding matters.

The government in Uttar Pradesh, run by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, suspended the head of the staterun BRD Medical College, Rajeev Misra, late on Saturday and ordered an investigation into contracts to supply oxygen.

Media have said the deaths of the children, 34 infants among them, were caused in part by an oxygen shortage after a private supplier withdrew its equipment over unpaid hospital dues.

Hospital officials have denied this, saying alternative supplies had been found, and blamed many of the deaths instead on the disease encephalitis and unspecified issues related to delivery of the infants.

On Sunday, J.P. Nadda, health minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, visited the hospital in the town of Gorakhpur, 800 kilometers east of New Delhi, accompanied by the state's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath.

Nadda promised "strict action" against the culprits in an interview with the news channel NDTV, before his departure from the Indian capital.

The issue of the unpaid bills for oxygen supply has become a flashpoint in relations between the hospital and the state government, after the suspended hospital chief on Saturday accused state officials of ignoring his requests for money.

"I wrote at least three letters," Misra told television reporters on Saturday, adding that he had even flagged the issue in video conference discussions.

Reuters was unable to immediately contact Misra to seek his comments.

The Uttar Pradesh health minister defended the government's role, saying no issue of unpaid bills had been brought to its attention and all requests for funds were paid promptly.
Israel Kristal.[PHOTO/CHINA DAILY]

JERUSALEM - The world's oldest man, Israel Kristal, who lived through both World Wars and survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, has passed away just a month short of his 114th birthday, his family said on Saturday.

Oren Kristal, a grandson, said he died on Friday. "He managed to accomplish a lot. Every year he lived was like a few years for somebody else," Oren said.

Last year, Guinness World Records awarded Kristal a certificate as the world's oldest man at his home in Haifa, Israel.

Kristal was born to an Orthodox Jewish family near the town of Zarnow in Poland in 1903.

"When he was a child during World War I in Poland he was a helper for a booze smuggler, he used to run barefoot in the snow through the night many kilometers with a heavy package on his back at about 12 years old, smuggling alcohol between the lines of the war," Oren, his grandson said.

"He used to walk very fast until he was very old, faster than me, and he used to tell me that when he was my age if you didn't walk fast enough your feet would stick to the frozen ground," Oren recalled his grandfather telling him.

Kristal was orphaned shortly after World War I and moved to Lodz to work in the family confectionary business in 1920.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland Kristal was confined to the ghetto there and later sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. His first wife and two children were killed in the Holocaust. Six million Jews were systematically murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.

"He used to tell us whenever we were mourning someone that we should consider that they are being buried in the land of Israel, most of the people he knew did not get to be buried in a grave when they died," Oren said.

Kristal survived World War II weighing only 37 kilograms - the only survivor of his large family.

He later married another Holocaust survivor and moved with her to Israel in 1950 where he built a new family and a successful confectionary business.

"He was a very hard working man, a lot of energy always running from one place to another doing something," Oren, his grandson said.

He said his grandfather participated in one of his greatgrandson's bar mitzvah just a few weeks ago.

An observant Jew, Kristal himself only celebrated his bar mitzvah last year, a hundred years later than usual. He missed his bar mitzvah - the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony celebrated when a boy turns 13 - because of World War I.

Oren said his grandfather gave no explanation to the secret for his incredible longevity.

He is survived by two children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, media reported.

Associated Press
Wang Zhibing treats a boy in Kiffa, a city in south Mauritania. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

After spending one year providing medical assistance in the Northwest African country of Mauritania, Wang Zhibing has returned to his hometown Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang province.

Wang, 45, an associate chief physician of the general surgery department in Harbin Children's Hospital, received more than 1,400 patients and performed hundreds of operations in the hospital of Kiffa, a city in south Mauritania.

"Harbin has a long history of sending medical personnel in the country, but it was the first time that a pediatrician had been invited to join in," said Wang. "So when I got the news that the 32nd batch would be sent in last July, my first thought was I must participate in the mission and it would be a big plus in my career."

Before departing, Wang did lots of research about the situation in Mauritania, especially the city where he would be based.

"I thought I was ready for the challenges, from the extreme natural conditions to the serious health challenges," he said. "But when we landed in Kiffa, we were overwhelmed by a series of difficulties beyond our imagination."

Kiffa, with a tropical desert climate, is extremely dry and hot. The huge temperature differences between Harbin and Kiffa were very challenging.

"There were mosquitoes and other insects that we never saw in China," said Wang, adding "sandstorms would engulf the area without notice."

"But all these difficulties could not dampen the spirit of the Chinese doctors. From the first day we set foot there, we knew we had to stick to our posts," he said.

The Chinese doctors were warmly welcomed by the locals.

"In their eyes, the Chinese doctors are omnipotent and we can save their lives under any circumstances," said Wang. "They would ask Chinese doctors for help with eager eyes when they got sick."

Almost everyone there can say "hello, Chinese doctor" in Chinese.

Due to the extremely high temperature and the rampant flies, a large number of the outpatients suffered diarrhea, especially in the period between April and October.

"I still remember during a night shift, I received six children who were suffering diarrhea and one of them had been in moribund condition because of serious dehydration," said Wang. "I treated him and finally the little boy recovered. He said goodbye in Chinese to me before he left."

Besides the daily work as a pediatrician, he often treated adult patients and also gave the obstetric nurses in the hospital a training course about how to dispose neonates.

"In the past year, I felt quit honored as a Chinese. I received great trust and respect from the local residents. They have appreciated our help in the past decades."

"Just like Leng Feng, a former Chinese special forces operative says in the film Wolf Warrior II, I will always remember, there is a strong motherland behind me and supporting me," Wang said.
Demonstrators hold a black American flag in Chicago, US, on Aug 13, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, protesting white supremacists violence in Charlottesville of Virginia the day before.

Holding black placards with words such as "White Silence = White Consent" and "No! Drive out Trump/Pence regime!," the demonstrators gathered outside of city hall to condemn racism and violent incidents occurred in Charlottesville Saturday, in which 3 people were killed and about twenty injured.

The rally was launched by Refuse Fascism Organization, a New York based activist group who has dozens offices all around the country.

Michael, a young African-American girl of the organization, delivered a speech on stairs to the front door of city hall, calling on people to take action fighting against KKK and fascism in the United States.

"We are standing against fascism, we are standing with people all of the world, we should give our hands to ourselves." her words were echoed by applauds.

"I am here today to stand solidarity with peace movement and everyone who opposes racism, white supremacy and all the thing that is not neither KKK or our president stand for." Jeff Share, a middle age demonstrator told Xinhua.

He said things happened in Charlottesville was ridiculous as a peaceful demonstration turned to be a violent and fatal attack, so that American people should speak out against violence and white supremacy.

"Some people there voiced hatred, it's not ok." he said, "we have a raw problem in the country with people supporting and promoting violence and discrimination racism, it's not ok."
Pakistan's flag is raised on its 70th Independence Day, Aug 14, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Pakistani embassy in China held a flag raising ceremony in Beijing on Monday to celebrate Pakistan's 70th Independence Day.

Ambassador Masood Khalid read messages from Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

The event "showcased patriotic zeal, wherein founding fathers and martyrs of the nation were remembered who had given sacrifices to secure independence from foreign rule", said a statement released by the embassy.

"We need to reiterate our strong resolve to always uphold the values of determination and dedication for the objective of the development of Pakistan," Hussain said in his message.

"Today we are treading the path of prosperity and progress in a peaceful and dignified country because of those sacrifices," Abbasi said.

The ambassador congratulated the Pakistani community in China and said the Pakistani nation today is fully united and determined to meet all challenges and continue its march towards progress and development.

Pakistani children performed national songs and a cake was served.
Today, both China and Pakistan shoulder the historical mission of national rejuvenation. We are both pursuing the great dream of national prosperity and people's well-being. We need close cooperation now more than ever. During President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in 2015, our bilateral relationship was upgraded to an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, opening a new page in the history of China-Pakistan friendship and cooperation.

-- China is ready to strengthen all-round strategic cooperation with Pakistan. We need to keep the tradition of close high-level exchanges, extend firm mutual support on issues concerning each other's major interests, and strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs. China firmly supports the efforts of the Pakistani government and people to uphold independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly supports Pakistan in developing and implementing counter-terrorism policies in light of its own national conditions, improving its external environment and expanding external exchanges and cooperation.

-- China is ready to strengthen all-round economic cooperation with Pakistan. China sees Pakistan as an important partner in the Belt and Road Initiative. Following the "1+4" cooperation plan agreed by President Xi Jinping and the Pakistani leaders, we will take forward the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in line with the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and launch more early harvest projects to enhance Pakistan's capacity for independent development and deliver tangible benefits to the people along the route and all the people in Pakistan.

--China is ready to strengthen all-round people-to-people exchanges with Pakistan. We will expand cooperation in areas including education, science and technology, culture, health and sports, and encourage exchanges between youth, think-tanks, media, universities, non-governmental organizations and at the local level to enhance public support for China-Pakistan friendship and cooperation and promote closer heart-to-heart communication between our people.

As an old Chinese saying goes, "Friendship between chess playmates lasts less than a day; Friendship between diners lasts less than a month; Friendship based on power and influence lasts less than a year; Only friendship based on shared principles lasts a lifetime." What we have between China and Pakistan is a friendship based on shared aspirations and tested in adversity. It will not only last a lifetime, but also be passed on from generation to generation. No matter how the international environment may evolve and how China may grow, we will always be a good neighbor, a close friend, a trusted partner and a true brother for Pakistan.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Islamabad today is a city of fluttering national flags. On this sacred flag, the white and green colors symbolize peace and prosperity, and the star and the crescent represent light and progress. On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, I sincerely hope this great vision will guide Pakistan towards enduring peace and a bright future of prosperity and progress.

May the people of Pakistan enjoy happiness and well-being!

May the China-Pakistan friendship be everlasting!

Thank you.
SANAA - The total number of suspected cholera cases in war-torn Yemen reached half a million mark since late April, the highest record since the World War II, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

In a press release, WHO also said nearly 2,000 people died since the outbreak began to spread rapidly at the end of April.

It said the suspected cases of the deadly waterborne disease continue to rage across the Arab country, infecting an estimated 5000 people per day.

The spread of cholera has slowed significantly in some areas compared to peak levels but the disease is still spreading fast in more recently affected districts, which are recording large numbers of the cases, said WHO.

WHO said Yemen's cholera epidemic, currently the largest in the world, has spread rapidly due to deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to the water supply across the country.

Millions of people are cut off from clean water, and waste collection has ceased in major cities, it added.

It said the collapsing health system is struggling to cope, with more than half of all health facilities closed due to damage, destruction or lack of funds.

"Shortages in medicines and supplies are persistent and widespread and 30,000 critical health workers have not been paid salaries in nearly a year," WHO said.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom said Yemen's health workers are operating in impossible conditions.

"Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water. The doctors and nurses are the backbone of the health response. They must be paid their wages so that they can continue to save lives," Dr Tedros was quoted in the press release as saying.
China complies with UN resolution, halts DPRK coal, iron, lead, seafood

Starting on Tuesday, China "completely prohibits" imports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead and seafood from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs said.

The joint announcement on Monday said Beijing issued the ban to fulfill United Nations Security Council Resolution 2371, which targets Pyongyang's intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.

Observers noted that the ban has gone further than a February statement by the Ministry of Commerce, which responded to an earlier Security Council resolution on the DPRK and announced China's suspension of coal imports from the DPRK for the rest of this year.

China's total imports from the DPRK have seen a drastic drop from March to June, and the country "has strictly abided" by the past Security Council resolutions, General Administration of Customs spokesman Huang Songping said last month.

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said it is natural to see China, a permanent member of the Security Council, honor the resolution in a substantial way after voting for it.

The ban could be viewed as a signal to urge Pyongyang to adjust its policies regarding its nuclear and missile programs, Zhang said.

Wang Junsheng, a researcher of Asia-Pacific studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, warned that the situation is "entering a bottleneck stage" as there is not enough readiness from either Washington or Pyongyang to tone down their rhetoric and barbs.

Beijing and Washington have remained in contact over the peninsula situation. A phone conversation on Saturday between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump touched on the issue.

Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting the Republic of Korea, and his trip also includes Japan and China, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

"We are seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis," said Dunford, who also met with ROK President Moon Jae-in.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that it is hoped all parties concerned consider the constructive proposals made by China.

It further is hoped the parties seek a breakthrough and viable ways to resume dialogue on the issue, Hua said at a daily news conference in Beijing.

Earlier this month, Washington threatened potential retaliatory trade measures against China if the country failed to pressure Pyongyang.

In response, Hua said trade and the Korean Peninsula are two separate issues and the two countries should reinforce cooperation on them. "It's not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep pressure on the other issue," Hua said.

In another development, Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou has taken a concurrent post of China's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, according to Kong's updated profile on the foreign ministry's website.

Kong was to replace Wu Dawei, a former vice-foreign minister who served as the country's top envoy on the peninsula issue since 2010.

Before taking over Wu's job, Kong's areas of responsibility included Asia, treaty and law, boundary and ocean affairs as well as consular affairs.
Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacks on predominantly Christian Berom farmers in Plateau state, Nigeria amount to economic terrorism, Christian leaders told Morning Star News.



While Plateau state officials say relative peace prevails, Christian leaders point to herdsmen attacks in the past eight months that saw 18 Christians injured and two villages seized.



Whether the peace is said to be relative to violence in northern neighbor Kaduna state, where attacks are so prevalent that officials dictated a news blackout, or with Plateau state flare-ups of past decades in which thousands died, Christian leaders told Morning Star News that attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen since December have quietly continued.



A pastor and his 5-year-old son were injured in May, four Christian women were raped, 12 Christians were injured and two communities displaced in attacks on 17 villages in the Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas, said Christian leaders Choji Chuwang, Jatau Gyang, and Da Jelkyes.



Chuwang said all those affected were members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) and Assemblies of God.



As we gleefully wallow in the false sense of peace on the Plateau, know it today that a deliberate economic terrorism and land-grabbing strategy is being launched on Christians of Riyom and Barkin Ladi on a daily basis with the sole aim of making them poor, weak and destitute in their own land, he said.



Management Committee Chairman of Riyom Local Government of Plateau State Mafeng Gwalson told media in May that the area was enjoying relative peace because the relationship between the security operatives and the citizens had been strengthened.



Pastor David Dalyop of the Assemblies of God and his 5-year-old son were wounded when Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked Gana Ropp, Barkin Ladi LGA, the night of May 25, Chuwang said. In Jol, Riyom LGA, Fulani assailants on March 17 stoned secondary school students, injuring 14-year-old Nehemiah David. When security personnel intercepted the attackers cows, Chuwang said, there were sporadic gunshots into homes of our people. This left them panicking.



Two Fulani herdsmen on June 6 assaulted and raped a Christian woman (name withheld) in Dayan Rim, Riyom LGA, then tied her to a tree from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m., he said. Later apprehended, the Fulani herders admitted they had raped her and tied her to a tree. Later that night, Fulani herdsmen invaded Lwa community of Riyom LGA and removed the roofs of all the houses while Christians there were away from their homes at a wake.



In the past eight months, Fulani herders have attacked eight Christian women, he said: Tanitha Luka, Rifkatu Emmanuel Pam, Victoria Monday, and one identified only her surname, Maichibi. The identities of four other women were not disclosed because they were raped by the herdsmen, he said.



On July 2, Fulani herdsmen ambushed and attacked Christian women returning from a mining site, injuring many of them, he said. On July 7, Fulani pastoralists grazed their cows on maize farms of Christian villagers of Rim community, Riyom LGA, at night, destroying about six hectares of farmland.



On the evening of June 17, when inhabitants had returned home, herdsmen grazed their cattle on the farmland of Gyang Yarima and Davou Mwagwong, both of Vwak hamlet in Jol, Chuwang said. The next night, the herdsmen destroyed the maize crops of Joshua Peter of Dajol hamlet, Jol, he said. On June 28, Fulani herdsmen ambushed Christian villagers of Jol who were returning from mining, seriously wounding five of them.



A heated argument on May 1 between Fulani leaders and Solomon Mandiks resulted in an altercation at the Riyom police station; Mandiks had been petitioning against the forceful occupation of lands sacked by the herdsmen. On May 8, Chuwang said, a Fulani man had threatened Mandiks, saying that his days were numbered as Fulanis had just met in Gwav and decided that he should be silenced for petitioning their rightful claim to lands they have seized.



On May 9, Fulani herders attacked and seriously injured Gyang Dambwarang for raising his voice when they grazed their cows into his compound, Chuwang said.



On May 19, Fulani herdsmen attacked three Christians on the Rafin-Acha to Tanjol road, fatally injuring David Yakubu. They ran away and their cows were apprehended and handed over to security operatives, Chuwang said. The cows were released to the owner that night on the excuse that the owner of the cows showed some scratches to his hand, saying that he was also attacked, he said.



On May 17, the head of Darin, in Jol, was attacked by Fulani herders, who left him in a coma, apparently thinking he was dead, he said.



In Werreng Rim, Davou Joro Mangai was attacked on April 4 and seriously injured by suspected Islamic terrorists and/or Fulani herdsmen, who cut down cactus trees that Christians used as a fence around their houses, and grazed their cattle on their lands. Two of the Fulani attackers were apprehended and handed over to Riyom police, Chuwang said.



There was an invasion of a mining site at Hei-Sho of Rot-Chun (Rafin Acha) in Jol community, which had suffered the brunt of terrorism in the recent past, Chuwang said. The Islamists have invaded a vast land richly endowed with tin and claimed it as a conquered territory.



On April 5, at about 7 p.m., herdsmen grazed their cattle on crops belonging to Emmanuel Gankis of Jol community, he said. At a mining site at Rafin-Acha of Jol on April 21, Fulani herders attacked Mathew Samuel; the next day, two young Christian men were attacked by herders along Rafin-Acha Road in Jol.



On March 9, Fulani herdsmen mowed down the banana farms of our people of Lwa community of Bachit District in Riyom LGA, Chuwang said.



On Feb. 20, Fulanis erected massive and settlements on the Tagabos area of Sho community, which had been sacked by overnight raids in a definite statement of occupation, Chuwang said.



On Feb. 28, Fulani herdsmen, in a lame excuse of searching for a cow, terrorized inhabitants of Tanjol hamlets with sporadic gunshots, he said. Christian inhabitants said it was a ploy to know if any of the villagers would return shots too, so that in an eventual attack, they would know which house to target first.



On Jan. 18, Islamic extremists attacked and injured a Jol woman, Rifkatu Emmanuel Pam, he said. Also in Jol on the morning of Jan. 28, Fulani herdsmen tried to kidnap Dachung Maichibi, his wife and son in the Darin area. Later that night, they destroyed mud blocks molded by Internally Displaced People of Zim community in Ropp District of Barkin Ladi LGA, along with those of Jol who were trying to rebuild their razed houses, he said.



On Jan. 20, Fulani herdsmen attacked our women on their farms at Mere hamlet of Rahoss Community in Riyom LGA, injuring one Mrs. Victoria Monday as others escaped, he said.



One Dec. 8, 2016, Fulani herdsmen set ablaze piles of freshly harvested millet and beans belonging to the people of Nachur and Sopp communities, he said. On Dec. 9, Fulani herders attacked children at Kum of Byei community; Tabitha Lula of Werreng escaped after she was nearly killed, he said.



On the evening of Dec. 18, Fulani herdsmen led their cows to graze on the cabbage farm of Christians. They were apprehended, and the cattle of one of the herders, Musa Shuaibu of Rankum community (renamed Mahanga by the Fulani), were handed over to security agents, Chuwang said.



These encroachments and attacks should not be ignored, he said.



If this doesnt disturb us collectively as Plateau people, then lets keep playing the ostrich as they forcefully take Plateau state inch by inch, day by day, Chuwang said.



Predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen have launched numerous attacks on Christians in northern and central Nigeria. Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigerias population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.



Nigeria ranks 12th on Open Doors World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.





If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.o rg/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.



If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/don ate/ ?
We all know we shouldnt text as we drive. Or more precisely, we all know other people shouldnt text as they drive. As for me, Im exceptionally cautious, just sending off a few words to keep life moving. Plus, my texts arent a real problem since Im an excellent driver.

It turns out that 93 percent of us in the United States believe we are above-average driversa conclusion that defies the very notion of what average means. Likewise, most of us perceive ourselves to be above average in intelligence, friendship, marriage, parenting, leadership, social skills, work ethic, and managing money. As a college professor, I might guess myself to be immune from this sort of normative overestimation, and that guess would be wrong. Almost 9 out of 10 college professors believe themselves to be above-average teachers.

We live in a Keilloresque Wobegon world where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. To admit being average at anythingor worse yet, to call someone else averageseems shocking these days. But while it may come as no surprise to Christians commanded to be completely humble (Eph. 4:2), it turns out that humility is really good for us. It just took the science a while to prove it.

Experiments of Virtue

For many decades psychologists have studied what goes wrong with people and how to help repair the damage. In contrast, positive psychologythe science of virtuelooks at what goes right with people and how to help them flourish and thrive. Many of todays leading scholars in positive psychology are Christians studying topics such as forgiveness, gratitude, hope, wisdom, grace, ...

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I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
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Image: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

Update (August 16): Though a majority of the Presidents evangelical leaders and prominent pastors have spoken out against the white nationalist ideology on display in Charlottesville, few have addressed Donald Trumps suggestion that many sides are to blame and that there were very fine people on both sides.

The fallout over the Presidents remarks has drawn attention to some of his evangelical advisers, who have been welcome to discuss policy, attend White House events, and pray for Trumps leadership.

Could you imagine Daniel, Jeremiah, Samuel, Nathan, or Isaiah saying they'd no longer advise or speak to the king or government?, asked Tony Suarez, vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), who has repeatedly condemned the alt-right movement that gathered in his home state.

Others on the board have spoken up to explicitly back the Presidents both sides response.

If were going to denounce some racism, we ought to denounce all racism, and I believe that was the point the President was making, Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, told CBN. South Carolina pastor Mark Burns has also defended Trumps approach on multiple news networks.

Jerry Falwell Jr. praised Trump in his first mention of the Charlottesville incident on Wednesday: Finally a leader in WH. Jobs returning, N Korea backing down, bold truthful stmt about #charlottesville tragedy.So proud of @realdonaldtrump

Johnnie Moore, an evangelical consultant and fellow adviser, included members of the Trump administration among those who have fumbled messaging over Charlottesville:

The way that some in the media and in the administration as well as other politicians and also activistsRepublican and Democrat, liberals and conservativeshave handled the Charlottesville incident has at times been unhelpful, too emotional, and insensitive. We all must condemn bigotry and hatred in pursuit of national healing and unity without exacerbating further conflict.

Outside of the board, certain conservative evangelicals have joined criticism over Trumps latest comments. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Denny Burk wrote on his blog:

President Trump addressed the nation in a press conference in which he said that the white supremacist protestors were very fine people. His full remarks were more than disappointing. They were morally bankrupt and completely unacceptable. People who protest while chanting Nazi slogans are not very fine people.

Original post (August 14):

While many American politicians and citizens criticize President Donald Trump for not specifically calling out white supremacists for the deadly violence in Charlottesville over the weekend, his evangelical advisers have been more vocal.

All but a handful of the two dozen evangelical leaders on the Presidents advisory board posted in response to the Unite the Right rally that drew white nationalists and neo-Nazis to the historic Virginia city on Friday and Saturday, spurring counter-protests from interfaith groups.

One noticeable exception was Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., who was silent on the incident even though his school is only an hour from where the rally took place.

Among the advisers, evangelicals who meet with and pray for Trump in the White House, most restated their condemnation of the ideologies represented by the protesters and offered prayers for the victims, Charlottesville, and the rest of the nation.

These protesters do not represent in any form or way the Christian faith or the values followers of Jesus stand for, said Ronnie Floyd, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention which passed a resolution condemning the alt-right in June. In fact, white nationalism and white supremacism are anathema to the teachings of Christ, who called us to love and to serve our neighborregardless of skin color, gender, or religionto give up our life for our friends and to even love our enemies.

Trumps initial response blamed hatred on many sidesrepeating the phrase for emphasisand did not explicitly name the groups responsible for the protest. Several Republican members of Congress criticized his remarks. On Monday, he read a prepared statement that made specific mention of the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups, calling them repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. The following day, he reiterated his earlier sentiment by saying there was blame on both sides and calling out the alt-left.

Especially since some participants claimed to support Trump, wearing his Make America Great Again hats or invoking his name like rally speaker David Duke, some like Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer accused his campaign and presidency of emboldening white supremacists to shout their views in public.

Even amid a greater push to racial reconciliation and healing over the past decade, white and black evangelicals have grown further apart on how they approach race, culminating with the election of Donald Trump, where evangelicals of color were shown to favor Hillary Clinton nearly as strongly as white evangelicals favored Trump.

In the midst of the violence, Ed Stetzer, director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College, challenged Trumps evangelical advisers to encourage the President to speak more directly against the alt-right supporters behind this movement.

A couple evangelical advisers defended the President against the blame. Franklin Graham spoke out on Facebook, referencing plans to remove a Robert E. Lee statue which drew the group to Charlottesville in the first place:

Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in #Charlottesville, VA. Thats absurd. What about the politicians such as the city council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924, regardless of the possible repercussions? How about the city politicians who issued the permit for the lawful demonstration to defend the statue? And why didnt the mayor or the governor see that a powder keg was about to explode and stop it before it got started? Instead they want to blame President Donald J. Trump for everything. Really, this boils down to evil in peoples hearts. Satan is behind it all.

Pastor Mark Burns, an African American leader of a small congregation in South Carolina, posted a video distancing Trump supporters from the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups involved in the Charlottesville rally. Even though they mention the name Donald Trump as though they are doing Donald Trump a favor, that is a lie straight from the gates of hell, Burns said.

Several advisers referenced the ideologies and hate groups involved:

Consultant Johnnie Moore wrote, EVERY evangelical I know condemns antisemitism, white nationalism, & supremacism. The Christian church is proudly and increasingly the most ethnically diverse movement in the world.

Evangelist Jay Stack tweeted, Racial hatred, violence, white supremacy & Nazism are Satanic. AntiChrist As well as Anti-American!... Praying for @realDonaldTrump. For our President @attorneygeneral jeff sessions, The victims & families, law enforcement, first responders & USA.

National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) vice president Tony Suarez wrote on Facebook, The racism and hate being spewed by the alt-right and white supremacists, that have invaded our state this weekend, is an insult to Christianity and our country. God be our Prince of Peace! As a citizen of Virginia I'm offended these hate groups chose our state to drive their agenda.

Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, shared and affirmed a message from a fellow Prestonwood pastor, who told their congregation, Our hearts go out to the victims in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I think its important on a day like this that we stand together as a church  to say in the strongest terms possible that we condemn any sort of racial bigotry, white supremacy, prejudice, and intolerance.

Paula White, who regularly prays with the president and leads a majority-black congregation in Florida, stated that white supremacy is evil and wrote, The tragedy of Charlottesville extends beyond the loss of life into the very heart of race relations in America. Dialogue has been overcome by violence. Progress is sacrificed at the altar of fury. We need a renewal of grace. God help us.

Ralph Reed retweeted Kellyanne Conway and Melania Trumps statements, and also added his condemnation, saying, Those who twist the cross of Christ into a swastika exchange his message of love and redemption for one of hatred and evil.

Others spoke more generally about the sin of racism:

Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas wrote, Pray for peace in Charlottesville and across our nation. Let there be no misunderstanding. Racism is sin. Period.

Georgia pastor Jentezen Franklin posted, This is evil personified and we denounce it. This is what hatred and sin looks like. Their hate will not win. Racism is still alive and well, the only answer is God's love and the church of Jesus Christ standing hand in hand with our brothers and sisters of every race.

Tim Clinton, a Christian counselor based in nearby Lynchburg, Virginia, tweeted, Horrific scene in C'Ville - say no to racism - let's pray and work together and Love and Pray for one another: An amazing morning @ThomasRoad denouncing racism, praying for #C'Ville and for our Country #healourland

Richard Land said in an emailed statement, All of us as Americans should condemn racism and bigotry in all of its manifestations . As Christians we are called to bear witness against such evil and to both proclaim with our mouths and testify with our behavior to the fact that all of us can be liberated from such instincts by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who invariably condemns such beliefs and actions.

Trumps evangelical advisers were among thousands of Christian leaders being looked to for a response. Our voice is necessary to remind those under our care and those listening from outside that when there is wrong in the world, we fight for what is right, Stetzer said to pastors. Call this what it is and then call it wrong.

About half of Protestant pastors say they have preached on racial reconciliation in recent months, according to a LifeWay Research survey released earlier this year.

Outside of the Trump advisers, Jemar Tisby, president of the Reformed African American Network (RAAN), argued that white pastors in particular are essential to putting an end to the movement.

We are waiting for the day that the racists in Charlottesville at least feel enough shame to practice their hatred in secret, he wrote for The Washington Post. But black Christians cannot do this alone. White pastors, now is the time for courageous action in the face of white supremacy.

Bruce Ashford, a Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and author of One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics, wrote for Fox News:

Throughout American history, there are many ways in which white conservatives have admirably represented Christ and his gospel. I am convinced, however, that overcoming racism is not yet one of the ways that we represent him admirably or consistently. Events like the one in Charlottesville give good-willed conservativesespecially Christian conservativesan excellent opportunity to begin rectifying the situation by speaking a good word in the midst of a bad moment.

Al Mohler shared an apt reflection from Berlin, a city determined to ensure that the ghosts of the Nazis do not reappear in neo-Nazis.

Even a secular observer can see the lessons of history from Berlin. The evidence is pervasive, irrefutable, terrifying, and still visible, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president wrote. But Christians must see much more than the lessons of history, though we dare not miss them. We must see claims of racial superiorityand mainly that means claims of white superiorityas heresy.
Evangelist Alveda King: Racism Must Die So That America Can Thrive

Contact: Leslie Palma, 347-286-7277

ATLANTA, Aug. 14, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Evangelist Alveda King (photo) releases the following and is available for comment:

We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters], or perish together as fools. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

We should be grateful that POTUS is calling for a cease fire on the violence. My King Family Legacy foundations have taught me that nonviolent conflict reconciliation is the key to ending these race wars.

"Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13

As one of God's microphones, I'm often required to say what people don't want to hear. Abortion is racism , in that abortion takes away the civil rights and lives of our weakest and most vulnerable members of the human race, unborn babies.

Here's an encapsulation of The King Family Legacy's approach to nonviolent conflict resolution which is introduced here briefly:





SIX STEPS AND PRINCIPLES FOR NONVIOLENT SOCIAL CHANGE - A sequential journey to victory

Principle 1: Nonviolence is not passive, but requires courage.





Principle 2: Nonviolence seeks reconciliation, not defeat of an adversary.





Principle 3: Nonviolent action is directed at eliminating evil, not destroying an evildoer.





Principle 4: A willingness to accept suffering for the cause, if necessary, but never to inflict it.





Principle 5: A rejection of hatred, animosity or violence of the spirit, as well as refusal to commit physical violence.





Principle 6: Faith that justice will prevail.

Six Steps of nonviolent conflict resolution:

(1.) Prayerfully gather facts.

(2.) Prayerfully educate adversaries and the public about the facts of the dispute.

(3.) Prayerfully commit yourself to live and manifest a nonviolent attitude and actions.

(4.) Prayerfully mediate and negotiate with adversaries in a spirit of goodwill to correct injustice.

(5.) Prayerfully apply nonviolent direct action, such as prayer vigils, marches, boycotts, mass demonstrations, picketing, sit-ins etc., to help persuade or compel adversary to work toward dispute-resolution.

(6.) Prayerfully anticipate reconciliation among adversaries in a win-win outcome in establishing a sense of community which should now be achievable.
home World Abducted Nigerian pastor freed after five days of captivity

A Nigerian pastor who was abducted by suspected Fulani herdsmen last week was freed on Wednesday after five days of captivity.

On Aug 4., young Fulani herdsmen reportedly kidnapped Rev. Jen Tivkaa Moses on the highway from Jos to Abuja in Nigeria's Plateau state. On Wednesday, the leaders of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) announced that the pastor has been brought back to Jos at around 1 a.m.

The kidnappers had demanded 1 million naira (US$2,730) for the pastor's release, but the church leaders did not say whether the ransom was paid.

The Rev. Ishaku Yaro, a pastor at ECWA headquarters in Jos, posted a message on Facebook on Wednesday announcing that special prayers were held for Moses at the residence of the general secretary of the ECWA in Jos.

"Praise God we arrived in Jos safely with our CE [Christian Education] Director at about 1 a.m. on the 9th August 2017," Yaro wrote, according to Morning Star News.

"Special prayers took place at the ECWA GS house, and he was reunited with his wife. Please allow him to rest ... Presently, he will be somewhere resting for at least 3 days before coming back home," he added.

The pastor was kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen while he and his driver, Yohanna Maina, were on their way to a church leadership seminar that has been scheduled for Saturday.

Maina, who sustained a gunshot wound on his right thigh, recounted that they had passed a police checkpoint and were approaching another checkpoint being set up by the authorities when they heard gunshots.

The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Gado, president of the ECWA, and the Rev. Yunusa S. Madu, ECWA general secretary, suspected that corrupt police officers allowed the Christians to be kidnapped.

"Considering the short distance between the police checkpoint and the spot in which the pastor and other passengers were attacked by the kidnappers, one would have expected a swift response by the police to rescue them, but unfortunately they were helplessly abandoned in the hands of the kidnappers," the ECWA leaders said in a statement.

According to Nigerian news website Pulse, the Bwari-Jere road, where the pastor was abducted, is widely known to be a "den of robbers and kidnappers," who are notorious for hijacking motorists and commuters. The authorities, however, have not been able to put a stop to their criminal activities.

ECWA leaders called on the Nigerian government to step up its efforts to protect the lives and property of people passing through the highways. They also urged the government to monitor the security personnel stationed along the highways and "fish out bad eggs" among them.
home US About a tenth of Protestant churches has experienced embezzlement, survey shows

A recent survey conducted by LifeWay Research has found that about one in 10 Protestant churches in America has had someone embezzle funds.

The survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors has found that nine percent have witnessed embezzlement of funds, while 91 percent said they are not aware of any incident.

LifeWay executive director Scott McConnell said that the figure is not surprising as most churches rely on volunteers to handle their finances. He also noted that most volunteers are honest, but churches often lack systems to catch dishonest workers.

"Churches run on trustabut they also know people are imperfect and can be tempted," McConnell said, according to Christianity Today. "That's why safeguarding a church's finances is an important part of ministry," he added.

The survey findings indicated that pastors of mid-sized churches, or those with between 100 and 249 members, are less likely to say funds had been embezzled (six percent) than those with 250 or more members (12 percent).

The results also showed that 16 percent of Churches of Christ ministers are likely to say their church had funds embezzled. On the other hand, only seven percent of Baptist pastors and six percent of Presbyterian/Reformed pastors are likely to say the same.

A previous study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners found that 2.4 percent of 2,400 fraud cases at businesses and nonprofits involved churches or other charitable groups and had an average loss of $82,000.

In the LifeWay study, the pastors were asked when their church's financial books were last audited and how much cash were in the reserves.

Forty-seven percent said that their church had a complete audit in the last year, while 66 percent said their church's books had been audited within the last four years. Ten percent of pastors said that the most recent audit was more than five years ago. Another ten percent said that their church's books had never been audited, and 14 percent said they do not know when their church last had an audit.

Other findings indicated that Methodist pastors (74 percent) are most likely to say that their church had a complete audit within the last year. Baptist (17 percent) and Pentecostal (18 percent) pastors are more likely to say that their church had a complete audit more than five years ago, while Lutheran (three percent), Methodist (four percent) and Holiness (four percent) pastors are less likely.

McConnell further noted that most churches realize that having an audit can be a good thing. "It's helpful to have a second set of eyes look at the church books," he said.

He said that it is not surprising to find that some churches have few reserves, noting that an earlier study has found that about a third of churches have struggled to make their budgets.

"It takes a lot of faith to run a church, especially when finances are tight," said McConnell. "But some churches may be missing out on ministry, because there's not enough money in the bank to respond to needs and opportunities that arise," he added.
home World Archaeologists discover settlement where three of Jesus' apostles may have lived

Archaeologists have unearthed what they believed to be the ancient Roman city of Julias, which was said to be the home of Jesus' apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip.

A multi-layered site on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the Bethsaida Valley Nature Reserve, is believed to be the site of the ancient city.

Dr. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College said that the key discovery was that of an advanced Roman-style bathhouse, which indicates that there had been a city there, not just a fishing village.

According to Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, the Jewish monarch King Philip Herod, son of the great vassal King Herod, transformed Bethsaida, which was once a Jewish fishing village, into a proper Roman city. However, it is not clear whether it was built on Bethsaida or by it.

The city was renamed "Julias" after Livia Drusilla, who later became known as Julia Augusta after marriage.

"Josephus reported that the king had upgraded Bethsaida from a village into a polis, a proper city," Aviam told Haaretz.

"He didn't say it had been built on or beside or underneath it. And indeed, all this time, we have not known where it was. But the bathhouse attests to the existence of urban culture," he added.

The New Testament mentions Bethsaida as the home of at least three apostles a Peter, Andrew and Philip. Many scholars have engaged in efforts to identify its location due to its importance to the Christian world.

Archaeologists have also considered three sites as candidates for the city of Julias. The team believes that the site called el-Araj, at the delta of the River Jordan on the northern shore of the Sea of Gaililee, is the strongest candidate due to the discovery of the bathhouse and other Roman-era remains below the Byzantine ruins. The other candidates are two nearby sites by the lake.

Below the Byzantine level, the archaeologists found an older layer dating from the late Roman period, the first to third centuries A.D. Among the items found in the Roman layer were pottery sherds from the first to third centuries B.C., as well as the remains of the bathhouse. The team also found two coins a a bronze coin from the late second century and a silver denarius featuring Emperor Nero from the year 65a66 A.D.

The excavators also found walls with gilded glass tesserae for a mosaic, which may be an indication of a wealthy and important church. Willibald, the bishop of EichstAtt in Bavaria, described his visit to a church in Bethsaida that was said to be built over the house of Peter and Andrew when he traveled to the Holy Land in 725 A.D. The archaeologists believe that the current excavations may have unearthed evidence for that church.

Aviam noted that another key evidence discovered in the excavation is that the Roman layer is located at a depth of about 212 meters below sea level.

"In the past, researchers claimed that the Kinneret was at that era about 209 meters below sea level, and therefore Bethsaida, located at the Jordan Park, would have been 3 meters below the water of the Kinneret," Aviam explained.

"The finds in the excavation indicate that the Kinneret was probably lower than previously claimed," he added.

After extensive study, geologists Prof. Noam Greenbaum from Haifa University and Dr. Nati Bergman from the Yigal Alon Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, concluded that the site was covered with mud and clay that were carried by the Jordan River in the late Roman period, which corresponds to a gap in material remains from about 250 A.D. to 350 A.D. According to the archaeologists, the site was later resettled during the Byzantine period.
home World Attacks against Christians in India reaches record high in first half of 2017

The attacks against Christians in India have reached record high in the first half of 2017, with 410 reported incidents, nearly reaching the number of attacks in all of 2016.

Figures compiled by partners of persecution watchdog group Open Doors indicated that there have been 410 reported incidents of harassment, threats and attacks against Indian Christians in the first six months of 2017.

The number of incidents during that period is almost as many as the total for the whole of 2016, when there were 441 reported cases.

According to Open Doors, the number of incidents in January, April, May and June this year were more than double that of 2016, while the incidents in February and March this year were nearly double that of last year.

There were two killings and 85 incidents of violent assault this year, World Watch Monitor reported. Hindu extremists were suspected of being involved in 99 percent of the cases of violent assaults.

Most of the beatings were severe, and in 32 cases, Christians would have died if they had not been provided with timely medical aid.

"When Christians are beaten up by extremists, they are injured mostly on their heads or vital body parts. There was one incident earlier this year when the victim was attacked by a sword to his head," a local partner told Open Doors.

"He was bleeding profusely and was critically injured... Attackers do not care if the person dies. They know they will not be punished because the Government (and hence the judiciary) will take their side. In most cases attackers go unpunished," the partner continued.

In 37 incidents, victims were either socially boycotted, or threatened with it, by Hindu villagers if they do not convert to Hinduism.

Victims in 34 more incidents were forced to leave their homes because of their refusal to leave Christianity.

The Open Doors World Watch List currently ranks India as the 15th most difficult country to live as a Christians. The organization is concerned that it would rank higher in 2018 if present trends continue.

The alarming rise of persecution against Christians in India have been attributed to the process of "Hindunisation," born from "Hindutva" ideology of nationalism, which contends that the nation can be a cohesive and aspiring force only if the tenets of one religion, one culture, and one nation are maintained.

"Hindunisation of India continues to be the main reason for the increase of persecution of Christians in India. If it continues to be forced, violence against Christians and other minorities will increase too," said an Open Doors spokesman.

The organization called on India and the international community to protect millions of Indians who are persecuted for their faith.

Meanwhile, 101 Indian Christian intellectuals have signed an open letter to Catholic Bishops expressing their concern about India's move away from secular democracy to Hindu nationalism, and urging them to help them in protecting constitutional values.

Signatories of the letter include rights activist Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, rights activist and journalist John Dayal, rights activist Father Ajay Kumar Singh, along with several lawyers, priests, nuns and lay people.

"The political process taking shape today is against every fundamental humane and constitutional principle of equality and dignity of every Indian ... Indeed it is evil," the letter stated.
home World Church attack in southern Nigeria kills at least 11 worshippers

At least 11 worshippers were killed after gunmen attacked a Catholic church during Sunday Mass in Nigeria's southeastern Anambra state.

Witnesses said that five gunmen stormed St. Philip's Catholic Church in Ozubulu and opened fire on the worshippers, but the police stated that the attack was carried out by a lone gunman.

The authorities said that the violence was tied to a feud between two Nigerian siblings who are now living in South Africa.

"Intelligence report/preliminary investigation proved that it is a fight between the two sons of the community living outside Nigeria that caused the incident, because one of them built the church [at] which the incident happened," a police statement said, according to Morning Star News.

"It is sacrilegious, but for now, [it] is still premature to disclose the identities. We will brief the public after investigation is concluded," it continued.

Police Commissioner Garba Umar noted that the attack was carried out by local people, but it was rooted in a conflict between the siblings' rival gangs abroad.

Local rights activist Emeka Umeagbalasi said that the information he received regarding the motive of the attack concurred with that of the police version.

The gunmen went looking for the son of a local chief at the church, but they opened fire on the parishioners when he could not be found, Umeagbalasi noted.

Anambra state spokesman Ifeanyi Aniagoh maintained that the attack was carried out by a lone gunman.

At least 18 people were critically injured in the shootings. Aniagoh said that the government will take care of all the medical bills of the victims, who were reportedly taken to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital in Nnewi.

On Monday, Pope Francis sent his "heartfelt condolences" to the parishioners of the Diocese of Nnewi in Nigeria.

"Deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury following the violent attack in Saint Philip's Catholic Church, Ozubulu, His Holiness Pope Francis extends heartfelt condolences to you and to all the faithful of the Diocese of Nnewi, in particular the families of the deceased and all those affected by this tragedy," a telegram signed by the Vatican's Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin read.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack and described it as "an appalling crime against humanity and an unspeakable sacrilege."

No group has claimed responsibility for the shootings, but the police have launched a manhunt for the perpetrators. The police have ruled out any involvement by Boko Haram, which has attacked hundreds of churches and mosques in northern Nigeria.

Although the militants have been active in the mainly-Muslim north since 2009, church attacks are rare in southern Nigeria, which is predominantly Christian.
home World Eritrean mother who was arrested in crackdown on evangelical Christians dies in jail

A mother of three who was arrested in May during the ongoing crackdown against Evangelical Christians in Eritrea has died in jail last week.

Fikadu Debesay, who was detained along with her husband in May, died last week in Metkel Abiet, a desert camp in the Northern Red Sea Region.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the cause of Debesay's death is still unknown, but Metkiel Abiet, where she had been detained, is located in an area known for its oppressive heat and aridity. The Christian mother, who was arrested in the raid in Adi Quala town, was buried on Aug. 10 in Mendefera.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this painful time. We think particularly of her children, who are mourning their mother in the absence of their detained father, and of the other children whose parent or parents are unjustly incarcerated," said CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas.

Debesay and her husband were arrested during the campaign of house-to-house raids targeting members of non-sanctioned churches in several towns in Eritrea in May this year.

The crackdown on unregistered Christian sects has been ongoing since May 2002, when the Eritrean government enacted a law banning religious practices not affiliated with the Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox Christian denominations or Sunni Islam.

Arrests are conducted monthly, with at least 23 Christians rounded up in the capital city of Asmara in the first week of August alone. Last month, 16 female national service conscripts in their late teens were taken from their place of assignment in Adi Halo and detained in Metkel Abiet camp.

At least 210 Christians are believed to have been detained in desert camps and military facilities since May. Most were detained during the house to house raids, while a few were arrested at prayer meetings.

The conditions at the detention facilities have been known to be so harsh that a woman who had been detained in early June is reported to have become mentally ill.

"It is alarming to note that conditions and treatment in detention are so inhumane that they can cause a mental breakdown. Clearly, human rights and fundamental freedoms continue to be violated comprehensively in Eritrea, and the situation of freedom of religion or belief is deteriorating," Thomas said.

Thomas called on the international community to ensure that the Eritrean government and its officials are held accountable for the "crimes perpetrated against Eritrean citizens," and to maintain pressure on the regime until all prisoners of conscience are set free without precondition.
home US Federal judge grants injunction against policy requiring Good News Clubs in Indiana to pay facilities usage fees

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against a policy that requires Good News Clubs in Indiana to pay a fee for using a school's facilities while waiving fees for other groups.

District Judge William T. Lawrence granted an injunction sought by Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) of Indiana Inc., against Policy 7510, which gives the Pike Township Metropolitan School District superintendent unfettered discretion to determine which groups are required to pay a facilities usage fee.

CEF, which operates a Bible-based after-school program for elementary students called Good News Clubs, argued that it should not be required to pay $45 per event to rent a classroom at New Augusta Public Academy South for its programs.

The school district has required the evangelistic organization to pay facilities usage fees for the Good News Clubs, while waiving the fees for other similarly situated, non-religious groups.

CEF sought the injunction after learning that organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are allowed to use facilities free of charge, and after the district denied its request for similar treatment.

In his ruling, Lawrence noted that Pike Schools had argued that the groups that were not required to pay were "invited to participate in [the District's] education programs."

The district claimed that the groups had partnered with Pike Schools to provide programming consistent with the district's educational mission, while CEF sought permission to "use the facilities for their own purposes."

However, the school district had admitted that it does not have an established criteria to determine when a group can become a "partner," Lawrence noted.

"[I]n fact, the District is not able to provide a list of its own partners," the judge wrote, as reported by TheIndianaLawyer.com.

"This type of unbridled discretion and vague, unwritten 'partner' policy violates the First Amendment. Therefore, whether the District has chosen not to waive CEF's fees based on CEF's viewpoint or for a constitutionally permissible reason, the fact remains that CEF is likely to succeed on the merits with regard to its claim that the District's policy is unconstitutional on its face," he added.

The judge has prohibited Pike Schools from charging facilities rental fees until the district develops a policy with a "reasonable criteria" for determining which groups are allowed to use its facilities without charge.

Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, which represents CEF nationwide, hailed the federal judge's decision.

"This ruling comes just in time for the beginning of a new school year. Good News Clubs are good for children, parents, and especially good for schools," he said.
home US 'Fixer Upper' star Chip Gaines refutes divorce rumors: 'Won't Ever Happen'

Rumors have been circulating that "Fixer Upper" stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are separating, but the online chatter was suddenly extinguished in one short tweet from half of the home improvement couple.

On Friday, Chip responded to a Twitter post from a fan who appears to be annoyed by the divorce rumors.

"I'm so sick of these 'stories' claiming @joannagaines and @chippergaines breaking up. Leave this couple alone they are wonderful together," Twitter user @Liason_TRTN wrote, according to The Gospel Herald.

Chip posted a tweet minutes later, saying: "Won't ever happen..you can take that to the bank! #LoveOfMyLife."

Chip and Joanna have been married since 2003 and have four children together, ages 6 to 11. The couple's show on HGTV is currently in its fourth season and has been rated as one of the most popular programs on the network.

In an interview with People magazine in February, Chip admitted that he and Joanna have faced challenges in the past, just like any married couple.

"Nothing has come easy. We've worked so hard to have this beautiful family and this farm - it really does seem like the American dream you heard about growing up," he said at the time.

"Jo and I really have created boundaries to some extent for one another and it just helps us both flourish," he added.

Earlier this year, Joanna cautioned her fans not to believe everything they read especially as fake news continue to circulate about the "Fixer Upper" couple.

She encouraged supporters who want to know what's going on to follow her and Chip's social media accounts and keep up with their blog.

"Always remember: if you're reading big, exciting news about us, and we did not confirm it on our official sites, then proceed with caution," Joanna wrote.

The Gaines couple drew controversy last year when Buzzfeed published a story that revealed that they attend a church that opposes same-sex marriage.

The article noted that the couple attends the Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, where the pastor, Jimmy Seibert, once preached a sermon expressing his opposition to same-sex marriage after it was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After an online mob demanded that HGTV end their show, the network released a statement assuring its viewers that it does not discriminate against the LGBT community in its programs.

The American Family Association and Family Research Council launched separate petitions calling on HGTV to stand by the Gaines couple.

Despite the controversy, "Fixer Upper" recently garnered an Emmy nomination for "Best Structured Reality Program."
home US Hillary Clinton's pastor compares her election loss to Christ's death

Hillary Clinton's longtime pastor has reportedly compared her devastating loss in the 2016 presidential race to the death of Jesus Christ in a devotional he sent her hours after the election results were revealed.

In a letter sent to Clinton on the Friday morning after her defeat, Rev. Bill Shillady compared the election loss to the crucifixion of Christ in an attempt to console her. The contents of the letter were released by writer Daniel Burke on Friday on CNN.com.

"For the disciples and Christ's followers in the first century, Good Friday represented the day that everything fell apart. All was lost. ... Even though Jesus told his followers three days later the temple would be restored, they had no idea of what that Sunday would be. They betrayed, denied, mourned, fled and hid. They did just about everything BUT feel good about Friday and their circumstances," Shillady wrote in the letter.

"Today, you are experiencing a Friday. Your Friday is what happened in the last few weeks and last night in the tragic loss. But Sunday is coming. ... Friday is finished. Sunday is coming. Death will be shattered. Hope will be restored," he continued.

Shillady, who currently serves as executive director of the United Methodist City Society in New York, also revealed that she sent Clinton daily prayers throughout her campaign and that he continued to send her devotional emails weeks after her defeat.

Clinton reportedly told Shillady that the devotional emails were the first messages she opened every day.

Shillady is set to release a book titled "Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," which is a compilation of the regular inspirational scriptures he sent Clinton during the campaign.

The pastor said that Clinton encouraged him to publish the devotionals because "they gave her strength" after her devastating loss.

In an interview with CNN, Shillady revealed that Clinton is interested in becoming a Methodist lay preacher.

'We were having a photo shoot for the book and chatting about preaching and she said, 'Bill, I think I'd like to preach,'" the pastor told CNN, adding that there's a tradition in United Methodism, in which laypeople are allowed to preach from the pulpit.

The book will feature some 365 of the 600 devotionals, and they will be organized into 12 themes such as Forgiveness, Doing Good, Courage and Women.

Clinton, who was raised a Methodist, had spoken on the campaign about the importance of the devotionals keeping her "centered."

Shillady has previously told the Daily Mail that he began sending Clinton daily devotions in Easter 2015 when she revealed to him that she was running for the presidency.

The pastor attested that Clinton reads her Bible daily and suggested that her defeat in November can be attributed in part to her failure to share enough about who she is as a believer on the campaign trail. He said that he was depressed for a few months after the election, but he maintained that Clinton's loss did not pose a challenge to his faith.
home World Italy launches investigation on Eritrean priest who helps thousands of migrants cross the Mediterranean

An Eritrean priest who was once nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for helping migrants cross the Mediterranean is now being investigated in Italy for aiding illegal immigration.

Fr. Mussie Zerai, who has been hailed for saving thousands of migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean, is currently under investigation in Italy for allegedly aiding illegal immigration by illegally sending information about boats and landings to NGO rescue ships.

"I received a letter from the Trapani public prosecutor's office on Monday informing me of the investigation," Zerai told Agence France-Presse (AFP), insisting that he was innocent.

The priest admitted in a statement that he had passed on details of desperate migrant ships to NGOs and rescue authorities, but he maintained that his "interventions are aimed at saving human lives."

"I can assert myself that I have nothing to hide and that I have always acted in the light and in full legality," Zerai said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"Apart from the Trapani initiative, which I have already informed my lawyer so that I can see and possibly contradict it, I have not been called to any other venue to justify or in any way respond to my work in favour of refugees and migrants," he added.

According to AFP, Zerai would transmit coordinates of migrant boats to the Italian coast guard, but sometimes, he also sends out the information to privately-run rescue ships known to be in the vicinity.

His name somehow ended up in an investigation launched by Trapani prosecutors into illegal immigration which focuses mostly on the roles played in migrant rescues by privately-funded NGOs.

Zerai became known as a one-man emergency hotline for refugees after he gave his number to a journalist in 2003 to help him translate stories of Eritreans in a detention center in Libya.

The number soon spread, and it became a crisis support line for migrants who try to contact the priest from inside trucks in the Sahara desert.

The priest became a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 amid the worsening migration crisis. That same year, he was able to meet with Pope Francis, who was also nominated for the Nobel for his work on social justice and the environment.

During their meeting at a conference on human trafficking, they discussed the harrowing survivor stories that they had both heard on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. "He told me - have courage father, keep going,'" Zerai recalled.

According to UNHCR, about 5,000 Eritreans have entered Europe illegally by crossing the Mediterranean in 2017 alone, with the total of "sea arrivals" landing in Italy and Greece this year, reaching 117,000.
home US Medical waste disposal company cancels contracts with Planned Parenthood clinics

A medical waste disposal company will now cease from disposing of aborted babies from Planned Parenthood after it canceled hundreds of contracts with the abortion provider's clinics.

Stericycle, Inc., which has been the main medical waste service provider of Planned Parenthood, disclosed that it has canceled its contracts with more than 400 abortion facilities in the past few years, Life Site News reported.

The company stated in court papers that the contracts were canceled because its customers did not certify that they would comply with an agreement not to use the company to dispose of aborted babies.

The medical waste company has been accused by the pro-life group Created Equal of "enabling" Planned Parenthood to kill unborn children.

After Created Equal launched a project to expose the connection between Stericycle and Planned Parenthood, the medical waste company sued the pro-life group and its director Mark Harrington. However, the company eventually dropped the lawsuit after a six-month court battle.

In May, Created Equal wrote to Stericycle's CEO Charles Alutto, requesting information regarding the status of the company's business relationship with Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.

"In addition to complying with all laws and regulations, the waste acceptance policy clearly specifies that Stericycle does not accept fetuses. While your organization may argue that our policy applies only to intact fetuses, we interpret and apply the policy more broadly to include all fetal remains," Alutto said in response to the pro-life group's letter.

"Beyond our policy, we require supplemental assurances in writing that they (health care facilities) have licensed providers for fetal remains. When customers are not willing to provide this certification, we do not provide services," he continued.

Alutto further claimed that Stericycle has canceled hundreds of contracts with women's clinics since the company implemented the certification process several years ago.

Stericycle said that it learned sometime in 2013 that "some customers might be violating" its policy regarding the disposal of fetuses as medical waste.

The company was fined $42,000 in 2011 for illegally disposing of aborted children into a municipal landfill in Texas along with household and commercial garbage.

In 2012, Stericycle was also found to have been providing its services to a late-term abortion facility. The clinic was owned by Steven Brigham, who was facing numerous charges, including murder, at the time.

Harrington said that Created Equal will "trust but verify" Stericycle's claims regarding the company's refusal to dispose of fetal remains from abortion companies. However, he stated that the company will still remain an "enabler of Planned Parenthood and child-killing" because it still provides other waste services to a small number of abortion centers.
home US Moms plan 'nurse-in' at Elevation church after breastfeeding mom was told to leave service

At least a dozen mothers are planning a "nurse-in" at Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina after a church member claimed that she was kicked out of a service for breastfeeding her baby.

Amanda Zilliken, a mother who attends services at an Elevation Church campus in Ballantyne, took to Facebook to complain about how she was told to go to the ladies room to breastfeed her child.

The mother of three recounted that she was breastfeeding her 4-month-old daughter in a back row of the sanctuary during the sermon when a church volunteer escorted her into a bathroom.

"I just got kicked out of church for breastfeeding with a cover on and directed to the bathroom. Shame on you Elevation," Zilliken wrote in a Facebook post, which included a photo of the bathroom.

Zilliken, who drives about an hour from South Carolina every Sunday to attend the service at Elevation, claimed that she never had a problem breastfeeding her child there before.

Her Facebook post caught the attention of breastfeeding advocate Ariel Tauro, who organized a "nurse-in" at Elevation's Ballantyne campus on Aug. 20 to raise awareness.

"You can see here we have this nursing mother's room. We have a video set up. We have this. We have that. But that's it. That's where it stops," said Tauro, describing the facilities provided by Elevation Church.

Following the backlash, Elevation Church released a statement saying it does not have a policy that nursing mothers cannot be in the sanctuary.

"A volunteer had a conversation and felt both parties arrived at the same conclusion to exit mutually," the statement read, according to Charlotte Observer.

"We are sorry that this in any way offended anyone. We welcome everyone and anyone to attend Elevation church," it continued.

The church explained that it has several designated areas for nursing moms at the campus, including a private room to allow pumping and an "actual baby area with a TV to allow mothers to still be part of the worship experience."

North Carolina law states that a woman may breastfeed in "any public or private location where she is otherwise authorized to be."

A GoFundMe campaign was reportedly launched to help Zilliken pay for an attorney so that she could sue the church.

The South Carolina mother has been criticized by some Elevation church members online, with a few saying she was blaming the church for the actions of a single volunteer.

Zilliken maintains that her goal in raising awareness about this issue is not to "bash" the church she attends every Sunday. "I do, however, think that everything was handled wrong," she said.

Elevation Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the U.S., is led by Pastor Steven Furtick who speaks most Sundays in person at the Ballantyne campus. The Southern Baptist church now draws more than 20,000 worshippers to its nine Charlotte-area sites every weekend.
home Life Nabeel Qureshi asks for prayers after operation to remove feeding tube that got lodged in his throat

Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi, who was diagnosed with advanced-stage stomach cancer last year, is asking for prayers as he awaits to be released from the hospital following an operation to remove a feeding tube that got lodged in his throat.

Qureshi, who served with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries before he was diagnosed last summer, revealed in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he is still in the hospital after checking into the emergency room on July 21 due to a dislodged stent in his esophagus.

"I'm still in the hospital. Day 19! Please continue to pray," Qureshi said, while apologizing to his followers for not frequently posting an update on his medical situation.

On July 23, the Christian apologist announced on social media that he was taken to the hospital after a stent placed in his stomach was dislodged and traveled up to his esophagus, causing extreme pain.

In the 38th edition of his video blog, Qureshi explained from his hospital bed that he was still in the facility even though the stent had already been removed. The stent was placed in his stomach on July 20 after he told a doctor that he had lost about 20 pounds because he had not been able to eat for the past two weeks.

He recounted that he was vomiting blood on his way to the emergency room when the stent got dislodged a day after it was placed in his stomach.

"While I was in the ER, I was in excruciating pain. I have never felt or imagined pain like this before. It was internal, as if something inside me was trying to explode out," Qureshi said.

Qureshi narrated that he had an overwhelming spiritual experience as he was experiencing tremendous pain while waiting to get the stent removed from his throat.

"As I was going through this tremendous pain that I had only ever conceived of ... I felt like I heard voices of reassurance. I don't know if it was just my head or if the Lord was speaking to me or if angels were whispering assurances. I just felt a presence a that even though I knew it wasn't physically there I just knew there was a presence there," he recalled.

The apologist recounted that when some friends came to pray for him, he felt hands on his stomach and on his head even though they were not actually their laying hands on him.

He said that his experience taught him that God will be there to send comfort "when you're going through the absolute worst of it."

Qureshi said that he is hoping to get a jejunostomy feeding tube or J-tube, which enables people to receive supplemental nutrition formulas and water directly into the small intestine, to get surgically inserted soon so that he will stop losing weight, regain nourishment and begin his recovery. On July 31, he announced that he went in for laparoscopic surgery to get the J-tube placed.
home World Nigerian pastor abducted by suspected Fulani herdsmen

A Nigerian pastor who serves as the education director of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) has been abducted by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Friday while he was traveling in central Nigeria's Plateau state.

According to Morning Star News, The Rev. Jen Tivkaa Moses and his driver, Yohanna Maina, were headed from Jos to Abuja to attend a church seminar planned for Aug. 5, when they were stopped by armed Fulanis on the Kafanchan-Kwoi-Bwari highway.

Maina, who is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for his injury, said that he last saw the pastor praying loudly while being held at gunpoint by the kidnappers.

"I am glad I survived this ordeal, and I pray that Rev. Moses comes out alive," the driver said. "I am saying this as, while the gunmen led us into the bush, Rev. Moses was praying very loud, and they disliked this so they were beating and threatening to kill him," he added.

The driver said that the kidnappers left him on the highway and told him to remain on it, or he would be killed by other gunmen located throughout the bushes.

Maina eventually arrived in a village where a young man helped him contact an ECWA pastor in a nearby village. He said that soldiers took him to a police station in Bwari where he filed a complaint. The police later took him to a hospital where he was treated for a gunshot wound on his right thigh.

ECWA officials confirmed the abduction and said that the kidnappers are demanding one million naira (US$2,730) for the pastor's release.

"The kidnappers were seven Fulani boys; they were below 20 years. The incident happened on Friday night between 8 and 9 pm," said Yunusa Nmadu, the General Secretary of ECWA.

Nmadu said that the incident was already reported at a police station somewhere in the Bwari Area Council.

However, Anjuguri Manzah, the Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO] for the FCT command, stated that he has yet to receive a report on the kidnapping.

"We have not received any report of such an incident. Yes, at that end, Bwari is a very big point and the biggest town. So, oftentimes, people describe everywhere as Bwari which shares the boundary with different states," Manzah said.

According to Nigerian news website Pulse, the authorities have been unable to put a stop on the activities of robbers and kidnappers, who are notorious for hijacking motorists and commuters along the Bwari-Jere road.

Nmadu said that the church will refrain from speaking publicly about the abduction to avoid jeopardizing the investigation and the efforts free the pastor from the kidnappers. "We will speak to the press after securing his release," he added.

On Monday, the church leaders and workers held prayer vigils for the abducted pastor at the conference hall in ECWA headquarters in Jos.
home World North Korea releases Canadian pastor after more than 2 years in detention

North Korea has released Canadian Pastor Hyeon Soo Lim after serving two and a half years of his life sentence for "crimes against the state."

Lim, the senior pastor at the Light Presbyterian Church in Mississauga, Ontario, was released on humanitarian grounds after a Canadian delegation arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to discuss his case.

"Rim Hyon Su, a Canadian civilian, was released on sick bail according to the decision of the Central Court of the DPRK on Aug. 9, 2017 from the humanitarian viewpoint," the Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday, using the country's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"He (Lim) had been under the penalty of indefinite hard labour as he conducted hostile deeds against the DPRK," the news agency added.

The 62-year-old pastor is expected to fly to Ottawa on a Canadian government charter directly from North Korea's capital of Pyongyang, according to Toronto Star.

Lim, who is thought to be the longest-held western prisoner in North Korea, had made about 110 trips to the communist country since 1997. His family said that he traveled to Pyongyang in January 2015 to build a nursing home, nursery and orphanage. The pastor went missing on the day he crossed the border from China into a northern region that same month. North Korean authorities later confirmed that the pastor had been detained.

In December that year, Lim was given a life sentence in a hard labor camp after he was convicted of ostensibly plotting to overthrow the authoritarian regime of Kim Jong Un.

As a prisoner, the pastor reportedly dug holes for eight hours a day, six days a week, in a hard-labor camp.

Lim is said to be in poor health, and he suffers from high blood pressure, which requires medication.

North Korean officials reportedly allowed medicine to be sent to the pastor via the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang. The Swedish Embassy serves as the protective power for Canadians in North Korea as Canada does not have a diplomatic presence in the country.

A medical doctor was reportedly aboard the Canadian charter that flew the delegates to North Korea.

Sen. Yonah Martin, the deputy leader of the Conservatives in the Senate and a friend of the pastor, described her reaction to Lim's imminent release as "relief and disbelief a with a lot of anxiousness mixed in."

"I had a great sense of relief but it took me by surprise only because it had been so long," she said of Lim's detention, which lasted more than 900 days. "This is long-awaited," she added.
home US Ohio charter school denies allegation that creationism is taught in biology course

An online public school in Ohio has denied an allegation made by a prominent atheist group that it teaches creationism in its science courses.

Last month, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to the Ohio Distance & Electronic Learning Academy (OHDELA), alleging that creationist literature is being read in its biology classes.

"A concerned parent of an OHDELA student contacted us to report that the school's biology classes include a unit on 'biogenesis' that teaches the biblical view of creation," FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover wrote.

"The class readings for this unit reportedly include young earth creationist Walter Brown's book 'In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,' a book promoted exclusively by Brown's own religious ministry, the Center for Scientific Creation," he continued.

Grover pointed out that teaching creationism or intelligent design in public schools is "unlawful," adding that it is not "based in fact."

He further noted that the Supreme Court has struck down the teaching of "scientific creationism" in public schools and that federal courts have rejected efforts to introduce material that undermine evolution in its courses.

In a statement sent to The Christian Post, OHDELA Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer David Bowlin denied the allegation that creationism is being taught in the school's biology classes.

"Consistent with state and federal law, OHDELA does not teach creationism in its biology classes. Any allegations you may have heard otherwise are merely allegations," Bowlin stated.

In the letter to OHDELA, Grover urged the public school to conduct an investigation to ensure that its teachers are not promoting their personal religious beliefs to the students while acting on the school's behalf.

The FFRF lawyer asked the school to inform its teachers that incorporating religious theories in lessons or using materials that promote religious views in public schools is unconstitutional.

The book in question, "In the Beginning," is published through the Center for Scientific Creation, and has since gone through several editions since the 1990s.

Its eighth edition, published in December 2008, claims to include an explanation of evidence of human origins from different categories such as biology, astronomy, earth science and physical sciences. Other subjects that are discussed in the book include the origins of Grand Canyon, global flood, the sudden freezing and burial of the frozen mammoths and the formation of mountain ranges, volcanoes, submarine canyons and ocean trenches.
home World Over 600 Christian families have returned to northern Iraq to rebuild their homes, says Archbishop of Mosul.

More than 600 Christian families who were displaced by the Islamic State terror group in northern Iraq have now returned to the region in the hopes of rebuilding their homes from scratch, according to the Archbishop of Mosul.

Syriac Catholic Archbishop Petros Mouche told Christian charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the liberation of the western part of the Nineveh Plains and Mosul from ISIS is "a sign of hope for us Christians."

"Some have found work or started restaurants, shops and trade businesses. It takes a lot of courage to start from scratch again," the bishop said, according to The Tablet.

"For us Syriac Catholic Christians in Iraq, liberation is of course a cause for great joy because the vast majority of my diocese was staying in the environs of Mosul and in Qaraqosh," he added.

Syriac Catholics comprise 60 percent of 150,000 Christians and others who fled to Erbil from Mosul and the Nineveh Plains due to the violence caused by ISIS.

Nearly 13,000 homes across nine predominantly Christian villages in Nineveh have been damaged and destroyed, according to a survey by ACN.

Despite the destruction, the Iraqi archbishop said that there is a "great hope that life will begin all over again."

Earlier this month, ACN pledged 400,000 (US$520,000) to help the people that have been displaced from the Nineveh Plains.

Mouche also stressed the need to change the mindset of people who are attracted to Islamic extremism.

"We have to be able to live together. We are all sick of war. Wars have been fought in Iraq off and on since 1958. We have to learn how to live in peace," the archbishop said.

Meanwhile, the Knights of Columbus (KoC) has announced that it will raise and donate $2 million to rebuild Karamdes, a predominantly Christian town on the Nineveh Plain that was liberated from ISIS late last year.

The Knights will be working with the Archdiocese of Erbil, which is currently housing the largest population of Christian refugees in Iraq, in the resettlement and rebuilding project.

KoC Vice President Andrew Walther said that groups, churches and even individuals can help resettle a family for the amount of $2,000. The amount can be used to sort out burn damages, rebuild a house, clean up and make the place habitable.

Walther has estimated that, with the donations, hundreds of refugee families will be back in Karamdes by the end of the month.
home US Pastor Robert Jeffress says God gave Trump 'authority to take out Kim Jong-Un'

Dallas megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress has claimed that God gave President Donald Trump the "authority to take out" North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Jeffress, one of Trump's spiritual advisers, issued a statement early Tuesday evening, saying he believed the Bible makes clear that "God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary a including war a to stop evil."

The megachurch pastor's remarks came shortly after the president warned that North Korea would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if it threatens the security of the U.S.

The Texas preacher, who leads a congregation of more than 10,000 members at First Baptist Church in Dallas, commended Trump for not tolerating North Korea's threats.

"I'm heartened to see that our president a contrary to what we've seen with past administrations who have taken, at best, a sheepish stance toward dictators and oppressors a will not tolerate any threat against the American people," the pastor said, according to The Christian Post.

"When President Trump draws a red line, he will not erase it, move it, or back away from it. Thank God for a president who is serious about protecting our country," he continued.

Trump's warning to North Korea came amid reports that the communist regime has successfully developed a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.

The U.S. government calculated last month that North Korea controls up to 60 nuclear weapons, while some independent experts believe that the number of bombs is much smaller.

The communist regime has long ignored calls for it to halt its nuclear activities, and it has stated on Wednesday that it is "carefully examining" a missile strike on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Jeffress claimed that Romans 13 gives the government the authority to "do whatever, whether it's assassination, capital punishment or evil punishment to quell the actions of evildoers like Kim Jong Un."

He noted that some Christians might cite Romans 12 to point out that the Bible says not to "repay evil for evil," but he argued the verse only refers to Christians, not leaders in power.

The pastor's remarks drew the ire of some conservative Christians, including Ryan Anderson, a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C.

In a Twitter post linking to an article about Jeffress' remarks, Anderson claimed that the argument that God has granted leaders "full power" to use whatever means necessary is "heresy."

The Rev. Chuck Currie, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who teaches at Pacific University, accused Jeffress of promoting a "dangerous theology of war that goes against Prince of Peace who preached just peace." "I see nothing Christian in your remarks," tweeted in reply to Jeffress.

Jeffress, a member of Trump's evangelical advisory committee during the 2016 presidential election, has attended several meetings of prominent evangelicals at the White House, including a dinner ahead of the National Day of Prayer.

The Texas pastor also recently hosted a Fourth of July concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where the First Baptist choir and orchestra premiered a musical arrangement of Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
home World Pentecostal church in Ethiopia told to close after it was attacked by mob

A Pentecostal church in Ethiopia has been ordered by local authorities to stop conducting religious services after it was attacked by a mob in June.

The Full Gospel Church in Tikil Dingaye was reportedly attacked on the morning of June 11 by a mob, believed to be a part of a student movement called Mahibere Kidusan, according to World Watch Monitor.

The mob reportedly destroyed the church's meeting hall, offices and the accommodation of a church worker. The perpetrators also stole money from church members and assaulted some of them, including a man whose front teeth needed to be removed because of his injuries.

The movement has been described by critics as "fanatical" because of the way it tries to preserve the traditions and dominance of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC).

However, the EOC Patriarch has criticized the group in the past for "bringing unfounded charges" when it claimed that the evangelical renewal movement in the Church was infiltrating EOC-administered seminaries.

A member of the mob has been suspected of stealing church documents outlining plans for evangelism and turning them over to the police. A church member was later arrested and charged with "inciting religious clashes through illegal activities."

When the church leaders went to the local administration office in Gondar to ask for protection against further attacks, they were issued a letter informing them that they are no longer permitted to hold religious services in a residential area.

Prior to the letter from the officials, the congregation had been meeting in a house because its application for a land to build a church had been turned down by the authorities.

Although religious freedom is guaranteed in Ethiopia, Pentecostal churches in rural areas often face restrictions in a society dominated by EOC.

The persecution watch dog group Open Doors has ranked Ethiopia in the 2017 World Watch List as the 22nd most difficult country to live as a Christian.

Last month a 27-year-old Christian needed life-saving surgery after he was attacked by a mob of Muslims because of his evangelistic activities.

Local Muslims initially attacked the Full Gospel Church in Hirna, a rural town in the Mirab Hararghe Zone east of Addis Ababa, before targeting the 27-year-old Christian in his home. The victim sustained deep wounds to the back of his head after he was attacked with machetes. The man was sent to a hospital in Adama, where he received specialized treatment for his injuries.

According to Open Doors, the violence against Christians in Ethiopia increased during the organization's 2017 reporting period. Over 100 incidents have been documented including physical attacks on people and businesses, imprisonment and murder.
home US Perry Noble files incorporation articles for 'Second Chance Church'

Perry Noble, the former pastor of NewSpring Church, has reportedly filed articles of incorporation for a new church called "Second Chance."

According to Warren Throckmorton's blog on Patheos, Noble filed articles of incorporation for Second Chance Church as a religious organization in South Carolina on July 14.

Noble, who founded NewSpring Church in the same state 17 years ago, was fired from his post as a senior pastor last year for alcohol abuse and other "unfortunate choices and decisions."

After his firing from NewSpring, Noble went into a brief period of media silence where he said he would not seek a quick route back into ministry. He later launched a consultation business called the Growth Company which targets both businesses and churches.

In February, Noble returned to the pulpit and preached at the 11-year anniversary of Elevation Church in North Carolina. He had also done some preaching engagements at other churches, prompting NewSpring members to question why he was not being invited to preach there as well.

Last month, NewSpring leaders expressed their belief that Noble is still not biblically qualified to preach.

"We have been asked why Perry can preach at other churches but not at NewSpring. We cannot speak for other churches and how they make decisions. For us, Perry currently does not meet the biblical qualifications of a pastor, teacher, shepherd," NewSpring Teaching Pastor Clayton King told the congregation at a meeting in late July.

Noble responded by saying he never felt that he met all those qualifications for leadership while he served as a pastor at NewSpring. He expressed his belief that NewSpring's statement is an attack on the churches that allowed him to preach.

NewSpring leaders said that they had attempted to support Noble's recovery, but the former pastor accused the church of misrepresenting him.

"The thing that hurt me the most was what I felt was a gross and inaccurate representation of my ministry, that it was somehow not about Jesus," Noble said.

"There may be quite a few things that I did wrong as the senior pastor of NewSpring Church. However, I preached Jesus faithfully every Sunday that I had the privilege to serve at NewSpring Church," he added.

Noble admitted that he had ignored King's personal efforts to reconnect with him, but he noted that he had been in contact with other NewSpring staff, including lead pastors. He argued that the church is not in a good position to make judgments on his spiritual walk since there is currently not much of a relationship between him and the lead pastors.

Days after the filing for Second Chance Church became effective, Noble posted a reflection announcing that he had been sober for 319 days. He said that he was "learning more about the grace and mercy of God than I've ever learned in my life."

Incorporation papers are routine for a church but it only requires three board members, and they do not have to live in South Carolina.
UNC excavation crew in Galilee region of Israel uncover first known depictions of biblical heroines An excavation team in Israel has discovered the first known depiction of two biblical heroines from the Old Testament.

World to reach 8 billion people in November, India to unseat China as most populous in 2023: UN By Nov. 15, the worlds population is projected to reach 8 billion, and by 2023, India is projected to surpass China as the worlds most populous country, according to a new report from the United Nations.

Single, non-religious young adults are most unhappy Americans post-COVID-19: report Young adults under 35 who are single and non-religious report the highest levels of unhappiness since the COVID-19 pandemic began and since 1972, when the General Social Survey began measuring levels of happiness among Americans, a new analysis from the Institute of Family Studies suggests.
home World Researcher confirms historical existence of 53 Biblical figures

A professor at Purdue University has recently confirmed in a recent study that 53 figures "mentioned in a Bible have been identified in the archaeological record."

Lawrence Mykytiuk, an associate professor of library science at Purdue University, has developed a unique system to compare the names of the Biblical figures with inscriptions discovered on archaeological digs.

In order to determine the historicity of a Biblical figure, the Biblical name must match the name on an authentic inscription, with no possibility of a forgery. The names on the Bible and on the inscription must match in terms of setting and time period. Additionally, the Biblical figure must also have at least three specific details identifying an individual, such as name, father's name and title.

"If it matches the same three mentions in Scripture, it's a virtual certainty," said Mykytiuk, according to Times of Israel.

"There might be a few people with the same name, father's name, but same title? That's stretching it. I consider it a virtual certainty, either a dead ringer or virtual certainty," he continued.

Mykytiuk, who describes his system as "a way to develop historicity," was able to verify kings, pharaohs, high priests and scribes by studying 94 inscriptions.

He noted that all the names are male, but he said he is "hoping to identify a woman from an inscription."

The professor, however, cautioned that the verifications of Biblical names do not necessarily verify the Biblical events involving these individuals.

One of the names verified by the professor was King David himself, from 1,000 B.C. He was able to match the protagonist of Samuel I and the "House of David" wall inscription found at the Tel Dan excavations in northern Israel.

"King of Israel' was in one line," Mykytiuk said. "The next line read 'Melech Beit David.' It was in Aramaic, by the enemies, the Arameans, who conquered Tel Dan and indicated a victory monument, a stele, a big sign in stone. The Israelites reconquered it, and smashed [the stele] to pieces that they used to make a wall," he said.

Another Biblical figure on Mykytiuk's list was King Hezekiah, who was mentioned in the Book of Kings. Hezekiah's reign in the eighth century B.C. was confirmed when a seal bearing his name was discovered in Jerusalem in December 2015.

So far, Mykytiuk has verified eight kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and six from the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The professor is continuing his verifications involving figures from the New Testament, and his next article will include verifications of 23 political figures from the second major part of the Bible. He said that the New Testament verifications, unlike the ones in the Old Testament, will include both men and women.

Mykytiuk, who became interested in Biblical verifications in 1992, is hoping to finish his article about New Testament religious figures, such as John the Baptist, Gamaliel and the high priests, in 2017.
home US Trump administration issues guidance on new transgender military policy

The White House has reportedly issued a guidance for the implementation of the policy that bans transgender individuals from serving in the military.

According to Washington Blade, the guidance was approved by the White House Counsel's office on Friday night, and it is expected to be delivered to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis soon.

Sources familiar with the policy, titled "A Guidance Policy for Open Transgender Service Phase Out," have said that it would encourage early retirement, usher out any enlisted personnel after their contract is up and fire any transgender officers up for promotion. A source contended that the administration basically "wants to get rid of transgender service members as fast as they can."

The new policy, which has not yet been made public, will allow transgender service members to continue serving, but it reportedly does not provide protection from harassment or other efforts to get them to quit. It is unclear what will happen to service members currently fighting in combat.

President Donald Trump stated in his tweets that he made the decision to ban transgenders from serving in the military after he consulted with his generals.

As many as 56 retired generals and admirals came out against the proposed, ban arguing that it would "cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie."

Last week, the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, vowed to continue supporting the 13 transgender service members under his command despite Trump's tweets. The admiral has not openly defied the Commander-in-Chief, as Trump's tweets were not technically policy at that time. But some speculate that he would likely be encouraged to resign now that the policy is moving forward.

On Friday, more than 50 House Democrats sent a letter to Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, asking them not to comply with the ban on transgender service members.

"As members of Congress with an abiding interest in our nation's military and its policies towards the LGBTQ community, we write to not only express our strong opposition to President Trump's recent tweets seeking to ban transgender individuals from the military, but to remind you not to comply with any unconstitutional directive which may ultimately be issued," the letter reads, according to Washington Free Beacon.

The ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2015 under former President Barack Obama. A study conducted by Rand Corp. has estimated that around 2,500 transgender personnel may be serving in the active duty military, and 1,500 in the reserves.
home US Trump's approval ratings shrink among evangelicals, survey reveals

President Donald Trump's approval ratings among evangelical Christians have shrunk by more than half in the past five months, according to a new survey.

In March, a Politico/Daily Caller survey found that evangelicals approved of Trump's performance by a margin of two to one, 63 percent to 32 percent. However, after five months, the same surveyors found that the margin has decreased by more than half, to 56a42.

In his op-ed column for Religion News Service, Mark Silk noted that the survey does not separate out white evangelicals, and he speculated that the declining support for Trump probably came from Latino evangelicals.

The president's approval ratings saw an even bigger slip among non-evangelical Christians, both Protestant and Catholic. In March, the two demographic groups approved of Trump's performance, 58 percent to 40 percent, but they disapprove of it today by a margin of 56 percent to 40 percent.

The new survey comes amid reports that the influence of evangelical leaders on the White House is growing under Trump.

Earlier this month, Richard Land, the former head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, claimed that evangelicals have gained "unprecedented access" to the White House under Trump and are having an "impact on policy."

In an interview with Ronnie Floyd on the Family Research Council's Washington program, Land said that he and other evangelical leaders, including Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer and Ralph Reed "all testified to the fact that we've never had the kind of open access to the administration that we've had in this administration."

"Not only do we have access, but we have had impact on decisions. We have had impact on policy. And it's a whole different atmosphere, there really is, there's a different atmosphere in the White House and the administration," Land added.

Trump's evangelical supporters, along with conservative U.S. Catholics, have recently been criticized by two confidants of Pope Francis for forming an alliance of "hate."

In an article published in the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, the two confidants warned that the political alliance between some American Catholics and evangelicals had "gradually radicalized" to promote conflict and hatred and a "xenophobic and Islamophobic vision that wants walls and purifying deportations."

The article drew outrage from conservative American Catholics and evangelicals, who claimed that the piece grossly misrepresents their views to make a political point.

In response to the article, Johnnie Moore, a leader of Trump's evangelical advisory board, wrote a letter to the Vatican earlier this week to request a meeting with the pope to address "efforts to divide Catholics and Evangelicals."
home World Trump's evangelical advisor seeks papal meeting over critical article in Jesuit journal

A leading evangelical advisor of President Donald Trump is requesting a meeting with Pope Francis following the publication of a critical article in a Vatican-reviewed magazine.

Johnnie Moore, a member of Trump's evangelical advisory board, wrote a letter to Pope Francis on Aug. 3, in response to an article in the Jesuit-run journal La CiviltA Cattolica, which criticized American Catholics for forming an alliance of "hate" with evangelicals in backing Trump.

The article was authored by Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, one of Francis's closest collaborators, and Marcelo Figueroa, a longtime Protestant friend hand-picked by Francis to edit the Argentinian version of L'Osservatore Romano.

Moore, who previously served as the vice president at Liberty University, described the piece as "incendiary," but he said he decided to "make peace" rather than be offended by it.

"It's in this moment of ongoing persecution, political division and global conflict that we have also witnessed efforts to divide Catholics and Evangelicals," Moore wrote, according to Crux.

"We think it would be of great benefit to sit together and to discuss these things. Then, when we disagree we can do it within the context of friendship. Though, I'm sure we will find once again that we agree far more than we disagree, and we can work together with diligence on those areas of agreement," he added.

In the July 13 article, Spadaro and Figueroa warned that the political alliance between some American Catholics and evangelicals has "gradually radicalized" to promote conflict and hatred, as well as a "xenophobic and Islamophobic vision that wants walls and purifying deportations."

The piece has drawn criticism from conservative American Catholics and evangelicals, who contended that their views have been grossly misrepresented. Spadaro and Figueroa, on the other hand, have stood by the article and have reposted it regularly on Twitter over the last month.

Moore said that he was surprised that the pope, who is known for being a "bridge builder," would allow such an article to be published.

Francis has made helping refugees and immigrants a top priority of his papacy, and he has frequently contradicted Trump's view of Muslim refugees fleeing from Syria and other parts of the Middle East. He has also expressed his objection to the rising populism against the world, and he has criticized Trump's campaign pledge to build a wall with Mexico as "not Christian."

The Vatican has not yet issued a public comment regarding Moore's letter, and there has not been any indication that such a meeting with the pope will take place.
home World US State Department says ISIS' defeat 'dramatically accelerated' under Trump

The U.S.-led coalition and its allies have reclaimed almost a third of territory from the Islamic State terror group mainly due to the changes implemented by President Donald Trump and his administration, according to a senior State Department official.

Brett McGurk, the State Department's senior envoy to the U.S.-backed coalition fighting Islamic State, told The Washington Post on Friday that out of the 27,000 square miles of territory reclaimed from ISIS, about 8,000 square miles were recovered under the Trump administration.

Since its peak in early 2015, the terror group has lost 78 percent of territory in Iraq and 58 percent in Syria.

McGurk, who has held the same job under former President Barack Obama, noted that gains against ISIS under the Trump administration have almost entirely stopped civilian displacements in the countries and enabled thousands of people to return to their homes.

Around 45 percent of territory held by ISIS in Raqqa, the terror group's de facto Syrian capital, has been recovered since the U.S.-backed local forces launched an offensive two months ago.

"This is due to some key changes that were put in place very early on a three changes a initiatives from President Trump," said McGurk.

The senior envoy stated that one of the key changes was the "campaign of annihilation," which sees enemy cities surrounded before battle, to minimize the number of militants that are able to escape.

He contended that the 2,000 militants that are still in Raqqa "will most likely die in Raqqa" when it is retaken. The U.N., however, has warned that about 25,000 civilians still remain in the Syrian city.

McGurk also noted that the Trump administration has renewed efforts to "increase burden sharing from the coalition," which consists of 73 countries. He said that most of the coalition members are expected to help stabilize locations that have been taken back from ISIS by U.S. airstrikes and on-the-ground work from local allies.

The senior official explained that the U.S. was working to clear and rebuild basic infrastructure, but it will not be taking part in reconstruction or nation-building.

He said that the U.S. and its partner nations will take part in efforts to remove mines, clear rubble and return the basic services like electricity, sewage and water so that displaced residents can 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.

Despite the success under Trump, human rights groups have criticized the new strategy due to the high number of civilian casualties.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, reported in June that 472 civilians were killed during the U.S.-led coalition strikes within a month in two Syrian provinces.

McGurk contended that ISIS is using civilians as human shields and endangering their lives to deter the coalition and hold on to their key assets for a longer period of time.

"They are using snipers to kill civilians who are trying to escape. They're trying to put suicide bombers in columns of displaced people as they try to get outathe similar tactics we've seen from this barbaric terrorist organization," he said.
It's only Monday, but you should have a cocktail.

In fact, to support the Texas Book Festival, you should have a cocktail every day this week.
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The lawyer for a 23-year-old woman suing the Harris County Sheriff's Office over a roadside body cavity search is asking for a special prosecutor to be appointed following the district attorney's office dismissal of the cases against two deputies charged with official oppression.

Attorney Sam Cammack, flanked by protesters and Black Lives Matter activists at a news conference Monday in front of the Harris County Criminal Courthouse, said the two deputies should be on trial instead of having their cases dismissed on the eve of trial.

Now Playing: In June 2015, Charnesia Corley was pulled over by Harris County deputies in northwest Houston for running a stop sign. In her lawsuit, Corley said that after interviewing her, the deputies claimed to smell marijuana but found nothing in a search of her car. Then, female officers told Corley to remove her pants and shone a flashlight onto her exposed genital area to conduct a "visual strip search," according to the lawsuit she filed. Video: Houston Chronicle

READ ALSO: Spring woman claims constitutional violation in body cavity probe

Cammack also released a dashcam video of the incident Monday that he says supports his case, though an attorney representing one of the deputies says the video vindicates them.

Cammack filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Charneshia Corley, contending the deputies violated her constitutional rights by conducting the roadside search.

"There has been no material change of fact," Cammack said. "If what those officers did to Miss Corley was not mistreatment  did not amount to rape  I don't know what is."

READ ALSO: Woman sues DPS after 2014 roadside body cavity search

Cammack called for a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations and, presumably, take the deputies to trial for official oppression.

He also raised the specter that the District Attorney's Office was collaborating with the County Attorney's Office, which is representing the county in the lawsuit.

(Story continues below ... )

"After we filed, we know there's been conversations between the county attorney and the district attorney's office," he said. "They even shared our depositions of Ms. Corley with the district attorney's office."

READ ALSO: Trooper who conducted cavity search reinstated

Kandice Webber, an activist with Black Lives Matter Houston, stood with Cammack and others saying they are demanding justice for Corley.

"I've watched Ms. Corley being criminalized and demonized over and over again," Webber said. "She should not have been violated."

The deputies - Ronaldine Pierre and William Strong - have adamantly denied any wrongdoing and were cleared by an internal investigation.

READ ALSO: 24 episodes of police abuse caught on camera

Late Monday, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez issued the following statement regarding the incident:

I understand and respect the community's concerns regarding the parking lot search of a female suspect during a June 2015 traffic stop. I want to be emphatically clear that today's Harris County Sheriff's Office is fully committed to ensuring that every resident of our community is treated with dignity and respect, even if they are suspected of committing a crime. We hold the public's trust as sacred, and we will always strive to be worthy of that trust. Harris County Sheriff's Office policy prohibits deputies from conducting strip searches without a warrant. In cases in which a warrant is obtained, strip searches must be conducted in a private, sanitary, and appropriate facility. Criminal charges are no longer pending against two of the deputies involved in this case. Deputy W. Strong, who did not actively participate in the search of the suspect in this case, will be allowed to return to patrol duties. Deputy R. Pierre, who initiated the search, will remain in her current assignment within the Communications and Technology Bureau. This incident is the subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit.

In June 2015, Corley was pulled over by Harris County deputies in northwest Houston for running a stop sign. In her lawsuit, Corley said that after interviewing her, the deputies claimed to smell marijuana but found nothing in a search of her car.

Then, female officers told Corley to remove her pants and shone a flashlight onto her exposed genital area to conduct a "visual strip search," according to her lawsuit.

The deputies decided to do a manual body-cavity search while still in the parking lot, according to the complaint.

When Corley protested, "the deputies forcibly threw Ms. Corley to the ground, while she was still handcuffed, pinned her down with her legs spread apart, threatened to break her legs, and without consent penetrated her vagina in a purported search for marijuana," according to the suit.

The video - which lasts approximately two hours - shows the largely polite encounter between Corley and the deputy. The view of the search is blocked by car doors, but Corley can be seen being placed on the ground without her pants, and with her legs pinioned an awkward position for more than 10 minutes while the female deputy shined a flashlight in the area.

It is not clear from the video whether or not the deputy actually physically penetrated Corley searching for the marijuana deputies ultimately claimed to find.

Corley was charged with possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. As stated in the arrest affidavit, Corley allegedly pushed a deputy with her hip and kicked the deputy with her foot.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office later dropped the charge, according to court records. Corley was handcuffed and placed in the patrol care while the officer searched her vehicle.

Two of the three officers involved in the search were indicted by a Harris County grand jury on charges of official oppression. That led to an unusually public fight between the sheriff's office and the Harris County District Attorney's Office, with then-Sheriff Ron Hickman criticizing the decision to charge the deputies as "not based on a review of evidence, but rather ... upon a local news report."

Robin McIlhenny, who represents one of the two deputies indicted and recently cleared of charges, said the full dashcam video tells a much different story than the one they were accused of.

"Deputies can't pick and choose what laws to enforce. And they don't know what end of situation going to be when first get into a situation," McIlhenny said. "She was never penetrated, she was never violated in that way or inappropriately handled."

Read the complaint Corley filed after her arrest:

McIlhenny said the full dashcam video and audio shows that Corley could be heard saying she had smoked marijuana earlier that day and that she had never had a driver's license.

Corley's pants fell down as she was resisting arrest because they were baggy, McIlhenny said. The video does not show how her pants were removed, but they appear to be athletic pants.

"It was not their goal for her to be in that situation," she said. "It's not a situation anyone would wish for or try to create."

At the end of the video, Corley and the officer who initiated the stop can be heard talking shortly before she is taken into the jail.

"That was extreme, to pull my clothes down, in front of people," Corley can be heard saying. "People were watching - you didn't see people walking around? ... it's not like I'm shooting away.

"It was a narcotics search, OK? And you did have narcotics on you" the deputy said, moments before Corley was taken into the jail. "It's just one of those things. ... If you had been honest from the beginning. ... You escalated it. I gave you several outs."

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.

Brian Rogers covers Legal Affairs for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to brian.rogers@chron.com.




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The mother of a newborn baby found covered in ants and abandoned on a Cypress Station sidewalk was jailed Monday on a felony child abandonment charge.

Sidney Woytasczyk, who later told investigators she didn't know she was pregnant, could face up to 20 years behind bars, prosecutors said.

BACKGROUND: Hours-old infant found abandoned at North Houston apartment complex

Now Playing: The mother of a newborn baby found covered in ants and abandoned on a Cypress Station sidewalk was jailed Monday on a felony child abandonment charge. Sidney Woytasczyk, who later told investigators she didn't know she was pregnant, could face up to 20 years behind bars, prosecutors said. Video: Houston Chronicle

Sometime around midnight Thursday, the 21-year-old gave birth alone in her apartment kitchen.

Afterward, she clipped the umbilical cord, walked outside, put the infant on the ground, and went back inside to go to sleep, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said a press conference Monday.

Woytasczyk didn't want her boyfriend to know she'd been pregnant as she was afraid the baby would come between them, investigators said.

"She was scared, and she did not know that she was pregnant," Deputy Kimberly Thomas said. The baby's father was inside the apartment at the time, and had no idea what had happened.

But around five hours later, a neighbor discovered the baby girl, covered with insect bites, cuts and bruises. Fluid leaked out of the baby's umbilical cord.

"More than likely the baby would have died if nobody had found her," Thomas said.

First responders took the newborn to the hospital, and as of Monday afternoon she was still at the neonatal ICU at Texas Children's Hospital where she is being treated for a bacterial infection and rapid heartbeat. She is in "good condition" and on the mend, deputies said.

Woytasczyk is being held in the Harris County Jail on a $20,000 bail.

She does not have a criminal record. She was working in retail and was attending college at the time of her arrest, her lawyer said during a hearing early Tuesday.

Deputies urged expecting mothers to familiarize themselves with the so-called Baby Moses law, which allows moms to drop off babies under 60 days old to a fire station, hospital or emergency facility without facing any charges.

No additional charges are expected in the case, and the Harris County District Attorney's Office said probation "may be considered."

"This is not an everyday case for us," said Sgt. Matt Ferguson.
Mexican authorities swept 31 resorts, restaurant and nightclubs in Cancun and Playa del Carmen where regulators seized 10,000 gallons of illegal alcohol, according to reports.

The thousands of gallons of counterfeit alcohol came from a company with "bad manufacturing practices," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The results of the search were announced Friday at a news conference in Mexico.

GALLERY: See the slideshow below to learn of the safest places in Mexico to visit.

TOUCHING TALE: Dad bikes to Louisiana to meet his daughter's heart recipient

KTRK reports the Fat Tuesday bar in Cancun and the lobby bar in the Iberostar Paraiso Maya, where 20-year-old Abbey Conner of Wisconsin allegedly drank tainted alcohol and later drowned in a resort pool, have been shut down as a result of the search.

"This is awesome; this is huge," Ginny McGowan, Abbey Conner's mother told the Journal Sentinel.

"It's needed. There is obviously stuff going on that needs to be cleaned up and looked into further. They need to investigate and interview employees. This makes sense. This needs to happen."

WARNING: State Department warns tourists of 'tainted alcohol' in Mexico

The McGowan case is among multiple reports of people being served alcohol that had negative effects on them. The Journal Sentinel uncovered that dozens of vacation goers have been given tainted alcohol or possibly drugged, in order to mug, sexually assault or extort them. The travelers' accounts were backed up by hospital, ambulance and hotel records.
The Houston Fire Department responded to a downtown apartment Monday after a resident told authorities he spilled about 2 pounds of mercury inside of his unit.

Firefighters said the man told officials that his girlfriend had the jar and dropped it in the apartment on Friday.
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Texas A&M University abruptly cancelled a White Lives Matter rally planned by an outside organizer days after deadly violence rattled Charlottesville near the University of Virginia's campus.

University administrators consulted with law enforcement, system leaders, regents and state officials before cancelling the rally that had been set for Sept. 11, officials said Monday.

Preston Wiginton, a one-time Texas A&M student, announced on Saturday that he would host a White Lives Matter event in College Station on Sept. 11. The announcement came as the "Unite the Right" protest was under way in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M," he said in a press release.

A&M officials said the planned protest raised safety concerns after the violence in Virginia.

"Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville to the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus," officials said in a statement Monday afternoon.

The rally in Virginia turned deadly Saturday after a man slammed his car into counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring 19 others, including a Houston woman who is a student at UVA.

The 20-year-old Ohio man charged with second-degree murder in the car crash has been linked to a white supremacist organization, Vanguard America, that has posted hate-filled flyers at synagogues, and universities in Houston, across Texas and beyond.

HoustonChronicle.com: Campuses are targets of alt-right speakers. How should they respond?

The planned September event would have brought white nationalist Richard Spencer back to campus for a second time along with Ken Reed, a White Lives Matter representative from the Houston area. Wiginton said Monday he expected to pursue legal action following the cancellation.

"They think they're above the law," he said. "The First Amendment in America doesn't mean anything."

A&M officials defended the decision to cancel the event in light of the violence in Charlottesville.

In addition to safety concerns, A&M officials said Monday the daylong event would have challenged class schedules and the movement of students, faculty and staff.

"Texas A&M's support of the First Amendment and the freedom of speech cannot be questioned," the university said in a statement.

Spencer first spoke at A&M in December. Then, university officials said they could not block him from speaking on campus, citing the First Amendment.

In December, Wiginton organized an event featuring Spencer, who spouted racist views and drew hundreds of protesters to the campus.

"America, at the end of the day, belongs to white men," Spencer said.

Instead of cancelling the December event, A&M held a school-sanctioned event called Aggies United on the football field nearby.

University officials cited the First Amendment in deciding not to call off the event, despite enormous opposition.

Texas A&M President Michael Young said at the time that Spencer was legally allowed to "express odious, reprehensible ideas" as long as he followed university rules on time, place and manner of speech and did not incite violence.

The latest event would have disrupted the campus, interfering with the movement of students, faculty and staff, officials said.

"On Dec. 6, 2016 the university and law enforcement allowed the same speaker the opportunity to share his views, taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure a peaceful event," according to the university statement. "However, in this case, circumstances and information relating to the event have changed and the risks of threat to life and safety compel us to cancel the event."

A&M Regent Tony Buzbee, a Houston attorney, said in an email he supported administrators' decision to call off the event.

"We're living in a new age," he said by phone before the event was cancelled. "People show up to a so-called peaceful rally, and they're wearing helmets, holding shields and billy clubs. That's not a peaceful rally."

He added, "If we have evidence that the people are coming to be violent ... then not only should we act, I think we have an obligation to."

Students had already planned a "Maroon Wall" to "show that the Aggie Family's commitment to its own is far greater than any force trying to divide us," attracting interest from thousands of people, including other Texas students.

Another event, dubbed "BTHO Hate," was also planned to rally students against white supremacist messages.

"It is clear that the event posed a danger to the student body and Texas A&M did the right thing to protect its students," student organizer Adam Key said in an email.

State Rep. John Raney, R-Bryan/College Station, first announced the event's cancellation on the House floor Monday in the State Capitol, shortly after other representatives urged Chancellor John Sharp to call off the event.

Raney, an Aggie from the class of 1969, said Sharp called him to tell him the event had been cancelled amid safety concerns after people commented on social media they would be bringing firearms.

"I know there are, I guess you'd say, free speech issues," Raney said. "But this was not done on a free-speech basis. It was done on a safety-of-the-students basis. I think that's appropriate.

"There's no reason to put any of those kids in harm's way for a reason that's ridiculous in the first place," he said.

Gov. Greg Abbott's office also weighed in, working with the university "to prevent the type of hate-filled event that we saw in Charlottesville," according to a statement.

The white supremacist group, Vanguard America, was among dozens of nationalistic and neo-Nazi groups that turned out in Charlottesville for the weekend rally there.

Vanguard America has denied that the car's driver, James Alex Fields Jr., had ties to the organization, though he was seen wearing insignia and holding an organization shield during protests earlier in the day.

Vanguard America has a history of spreading hate in Houston, taping anti-Semitic flyers to signs, doors and gates at two Houston synagogues on July 16, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation league.

The group also participated in a protest over false reports about the possible removal of a statue of Sam Houston monument in Houston's Hermann Park.

"Vanguard America (VA) is a white supremacist group that opposes multiculturalism and believes that America is an exclusively white nation," according to the ADL's report. "Using a right-wing nationalist slogan, Blood and Soil, VA romanticizes the notion that people with 'white blood' have a special bond with 'American soil.'"

The ADL report says the group focuses on recruiting young man and has targeted its outreach to American college campuses.

Andrea Zelinski and Mike Ward contributed to this report.
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Texas university presidents and student groups expressed solidarity with the University of Virginia this weekend as deadly violence rocked Charlottesville when white supremacists gathered in the city.

Meanwhile, students and other university leaders are preparing for a rally that will hit closer to home: A former Texas A&M student announced on Saturday that he would host a White Lives Matter event in College Station on Sept. 11.

HoustonChronicle.com: Alt-right leader Richard Spencer to speak at Texas A&M

So far, Texas A&M's president has not issued a statement on the weekend's events -- or on how the university would prepare for another visit by Richard Spencer, whose racist rhetoric brought protests and school-sponsored alternative programming in December.

In a Facebook post, regent Tony Buzbee urged the A&M community to ignore the Sept. 11 event.

"It is a damn shame that our university, which sent more officers to fight the Nazis than all the service academies combined, would be tarnished with trash like him," he wrote. "In the end, the best way to deal with a lowlife like him is to ignore him."

Sen. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown said white nationalist groups "should be largely and consistently condemned by all responsible voices of our society."

He said he planned to publicly speak out against the event when the groups come to campus.

Students across the state have discussed joining Aggies in protest that day. In one Reddit thread, Texas students were asked to join a "Maroon Wall" event, in which participants would form a "silent, outward-facing wall around the plaza to protect our student."

Prairie View A&M University's student body president told the Chronicle on Sunday that students would march in Prairie View the day before the White Lives Matter event before going to College Station on Monday.

"We all should be unified," Kendric Jones, Prairie View A&M University's student body president, said Sunday. "It's how America came about."

LOCAL STUDENT: Houston vigil held to support Charlottesville victims

Over the weekend, Texas college leaders condemned violence in Charlottesville.

University of Houston President Renu Khator called the weekend "painful" in a post to Twitter. "Let's re-dedicate ourselves to creating a learning environment that is free from hatred, bigotry, racism (and) sexism."

"Racism and bigotry have no place in our democracy," University of Texas System Chancellor Bill McRaven wrote on Twitter.

Baylor University President Linda Livingstone issued a similar statement Sunday: "Racism has no place in our country nor in God's Kingdom," she wrote.

Student government presidents at UH and the University of North Texas signed onto a letter in solidarity with UVa.

"What affects one of our campuses affects us all," the student leaders wrote. "College campuses are spaces that students should be able to call home, not places of violence, hate and racism."
CargoLogicAir, Great Britain's all-cargo airline, will begin service this month out of Bush Intercontinental Airport after a deal finalized during Mayor Sylvester Turner's European trade mission in July.

CLA's Boeing 747-400 freighters will arrive in Houston from Mexico City. Cargo service will then operate between Houston and Frankfurt, Germany, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Thursdays and Sundays.
Oil traded near $49 a barrel as Libyan output and exports declined amid security threats and a labor dispute in the port of Zueitina.

Futures fell 0.4 percent in New York after Fridays 0.5 percent gain. Libyas biggest oil field cut output by more than 30 percent, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday, while the head of a union said loadings at Zueitina ceased after employees demanded better working conditions. In the U.S., drillers added three crude rigs last week, according to Baker Hughes Inc.
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One can only hope a crime like this after an obscene day of alt-right marches and ensuing street-fighting will unite Americans against the emboldened white racists. One can only hope the president and his party will rally behind the multicultural future that is and will be America.

But for now we have some mourning and to do and continued investigations ... here's the latest news from Charlottesville, Va., via AP:

A car rammed into a crowd of protesters and a state police helicopter crashed into the woods Saturday as tension boiled over at a white supremacist rally. The violent day left three dead, dozens injured and this usually quiet college town a bloodied symbol of the nation's roiling racial and political divisions. The chaos erupted around what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade  including neo-Nazis, skinheads, members of the Ku Klux Klan  who descended on the city to "take America back" by rallying against plans to remove a Confederate statue. Hundreds came to protest against the racism. There were street brawls and violent clashes; the governor declared a state of emergency, police in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. Peaceful protesters were marching downtown, carrying signs that read "black lives matter" and "love." A silver Dodge Challenger suddenly came barreling through "a sea of people" and smashed into another car, said Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student. The impact hurled people into the air and blew off their shoes. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed as she crossed the street.

Meanwhile, Getty Images provided a bit of comic relief, with photos of dancers from 'Tutu' performing in spoof Swan Lake costumes in Edinburgh, Scotland.

RELATED: World news photos: Putin bares chest; wet and wild in Poland and more

"Their Edinburgh Festival Fringe show is an invitation to those who love dance to experience familiar favorites, in an opportunity to explore some of the most famous and significant works in the repertoire from Swan Lake to Pina Bausch in a fun way with with a twist," Getty wrote.

Check out these photos and more in our weekly roundup of news of the world in photos.

Jake Ellison can be reached at jakeellisonjournalism@gmail.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
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The Houston-Galveston area has no shortage of unique structures, but one curious property stands out for its mysterious origin, which was just recently confirmed by the owner.

Dubbed the "Kettle House," the inverted steel dome with a wood-shingle roof at 1410 Miramar Drive has been the subject of curiosity for years.

HOUSE WITH HOUSTON HISTORY: Local company restores former Houston mayor Otis Massey's Riverside home

Last week, the owner of the building, Mary Etheridge-Rachels, spoke to Dallas-area writer Linda Armstrong, who documented some of its historic highlights. Etheridge-Rachels reaffirmed some of the theories found in "Weird Texas: Your Travel Guide to Texas's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets," in which authors Wesley Treat, Heather Shades and Rob Riggs explain that it was dreamed up by a man who made oil storage tanks. (Story continues below.)

Now Playing: Houston Homes and Design Videos Video: Houston Chronicle

Etheridge-Rachels said her father, an Alabama-born WWII veteran Clayton E. Stokley, built the house, which was originally intended to be a retail space. He reportedly moved to Pasadena as a newlywed to work at Houston-based Todd Shipyards Corp. until he found employment at Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. Inc. in the late 1960s.

TEXAS LEGEND: A look inside sculptor Robert Bruno's legendary 'Steel House' in Texas

Stokley was said to be a skilled welder who was eager to hone his skills in the industry and welcomed his company's discounted steel products to craft various structures. Among them, she said, was "a convenience and liquor store on Navigation Street, a convenience store on Harrisburg, and a nightclub off 45 and highway 646."

After those undertakings, Stokley reportedly set his sights on a spherical steel building his company, Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. Inc., had crafted for a client.

IN TOWN: Shipping container housing complex to be developed in Houston's Fifth Ward

"Graver had created a massive sphere for a client made out of three-eighths-inch steel," Etheridge-Rachels told Armstrong. "However, the deal fell through, and Graver was left with this giant, hollow, steel ball. So my dad bought it and decided he'd build a convenience and liquor store on the island."

CONTAINED HOUSING: Tour a Dallas home made of shipping containers

Stokley purchased the steel sculpture and had it transported to the Miramar Drive site, where he dismantled it with the help of his friends and family, including a young Etheridge-Rachels, on weekends and whenever time allowed.

The original plans for the shop included a spiral staircase and open-layout floor plan suited for customers.

The project never came to fruition, however, and Stokely passed away in 2005, leaving the second floor incomplete, Armstrong writes. The family later made some improvements to it, but no one ever moved in.

"We always saw the place as more of a project than somewhere to live or vacation," Stokley's daughter told Armstrong, adding that a recent vandalism incident led her to have it boarded up.

PLENTY OF SHADE: Go inside an earth-covered home near Austin

Etheridge-Rachels said the unique residence is now in the process of being sold. Unfortunately for interested would-be buyers, she already knows someone who's ready to purchase it.

One still unanswered question: Will anyone ever move in to the "Kettle House" or will it finally become the store it was intended to house?
Police were dispatched about 2:30 a.m. Monday to Big John's bar in the 12600 block of Briar Forest, Lt. Larry Crowson said at the scene. Officers found a man with a single gunshot wound; he was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but was expected to survive.

Crowson said officers talked with the shooter and witnesses who said a fight in the bar continued in the parking lot of strip-mall establishment whose website bills itself as "a true Texas icehouse."
blog of the State Geologist of Arizona
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A city garbage truck fatally struck a pedestrian at a west Houston intersection about 9 a.m. Monday, police said, leaving personal possessions including a grocery cart strewn on the street.

The garbage truck's driver stopped when another motorist flagged her down after the crash at the intersection of Bellaire and Gessner, police said.

"She did not realize that she'd been involved in a crash," Capt. William McPherson, who oversees the Houston Police Department's vehicular crimes unit, said at a news conference at the scene. "(When) you have a big truck versus a small pedestrian ... sometimes that does happen, unfortunately."

The captain said the victim, who has not yet been identified publicly, was pronounced dead at the scene.

McPherson said the driver did not show any signs of intoxication and was cooperating fully with police, going downtown for an interview and offering to give a blood sample for testing.

The captain said police would like to talk with the motorist who flagged down the garbage truck's driver; that driver apparently left the scene before officers arrived.

McPherson said officers were asking nearby businesses for possible surveillance video of the area, which he called "a pretty busy intersection."

When a reporter asked whether the cellphone and cart strewn on the street belonged to the victim, the captain said they did. It's not clear if the victim was pushing a cart to or from a nearby grocery store, or whether the victim may have been a homeless person pushing a cart with his or her belongings.
A grandma in North Texas is facing drug charges after police said they found her in a car with methamphetamine and her two young grandsons.

Laura Ann Nichols, 57, was pulled over by Weatherford police in a traffic stop on Saturday night, according to WFAA.
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Seven deputies with Special Emergency Response Team at the Bexar County Jail were placed on administrative leave after a hazing incident that involved county-issued handcuffs, shackles and a stun gun, Sheriff Javier Salazar said Monday.

The incident reportedly occurred at a Friday evening house party. Six deputies are accused of hazing a seventh deputy.

Salazar said he placed all seven on leave Monday, after he was made aware of a video of the incident.

READ ALSO: S.A. cop fired for attempting to feed fecal sandwich to homeless person, official say

He said they are "not welcome back at the sheriff's office" until after an internal investigation and separate criminal investigation conclude.

Now Playing: The Bexar County Sheriff's Office is investigating a hazing incident involving multiple department employees, Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Video: San Antonio Express-News

Though all the officers, even the one who was reportedly hazed, took the incident as a joke, Salazar said he's taking it seriously.

"It's not to be tolerated. It's not something I'm going to stand for," he said at a Monday press conference, surrounded by members of his command staff.

RELATED: Sheriff: Detention officer collected drug debts for inmate, had money deposited to commissary fund

At one point, even one of the officers' 4-year-old daughter took part in the hazing, Salazar said.

Criminal charges are possible against the deputies, including hazing, unlawful restraint and child endangerment.

"Had somebody not told me these were seven of my deputies involved ... and said this was video of a violent disturbance or even a murder, I would have believed it based upon what I saw," Salazar said.

Salazar said he could not release the names of the officers involved, but they included six men and one woman, he said.

Deputies are "hand-picked" to be part of the Special Emergency Response Team, Salazar said.

"It appears by all accounts that people from this highly elite team ... didn't feel the rules applied to them," Salazar said. "I think we proved otherwise today."

It's unclear whether this type of hazing was a routine occurrence for deputies in the office, Salazar said.

"I wouldn't rule it out," he said. "It's certainly something that may have occurred in years past, or months past, but it's not going to occur now."

Salazar also said placing this many officers on leave would put a strain on the department. Other deputies will work overtime to cover shifts and commanders may shift deputies from other parts of the department.

The Monday news conference came nearly two weeks after a Bexar County Jail detention officer, Rita Alvarez, was arrested and accused of collecting drug debts for an inmate and helping deposit the money into his commissary fund.

Alvarez is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and a charge of illegal barter, expenditures or investments.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

fsabawi@mysa.com

Twitter: @FaresInSA
One of the best sources of up-to-date information on PNGs development performance, and how it compares with other Asia-Pacific countries, is the Asian Development Banks Basic Statistics publication.

This understanding is improved by seeing how a country is going relative to its neighbours (we economists call this comparative public policy analysis).

A good national plan begins by fully understanding the challenges and opportunities facing its people.

THE new Papua New Guinea government is proposing a 100 day plan. What should this consider?

It shows that PNG still faces massive development challenges. It is saddening to see hat PNG so often ranks at the very bottom in the region. This illustrates that PNGs politicians have been failing their people.

On opportunities, PNG leads the world in key areas such as its cultural richness (1st), the extent of its tropical forests (3rd for the entire island) and its extraordinary biodiversity (PNG is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries).

In terms of mineral and petroleum wealth, it does fairly poorly  even in LNG its ranks 47th and in petroleum 62nd.

In future, PNG needs to change its self-image of mountains of gold in seas of oil. This myth (at least in world terms) has delivered appalling development outcomes for PNG. There are much better development paths.

A better self-image would be mountains of culture in rich seas of diversity or something similar. (Suggestions would be welcome  but about people, not minerals).

I hope the 100 day plan takes a much more people-orientated approach to PNGs development - this is a key lesson from failed economic development to date.

May PNGs new politicians do much better.
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.
The immediate question is how it can cope with an affordability crisis. I wish I knew the answer, but I emphatically don't. I think that the solutions to the question are largely out of local control. I think we're talking about large-scale economic mechanisms and national, international policy.

Despite the demand for walkable urban places in New York, most real estate investment has been in the regions core rather than in creating new walkable urban places or growing the regions rail-served town centers. This represents a lost economic opportunity, and presents a real danger of a substantial affordable housing crisis if efforts to balance the region are not taken.

As lifestyle preferences continue to shift back toward walkable urbanism, its pent-up demand becomes greater and greater.

The overbuilding of drivable sub-urban development was a major cause of the mortgage meltdown that triggered the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. This research shows that this development pattern is on the wane in the tri-state region, which now has among the strongest demand for walkable urbanism in the United States. This pent-up demand is evident to anyone who has recently compared the price per square foot of a condo or coop in Brooklyn or Jersey City with a McMansion in the fringe suburbs.

Our data, which includes rental rates per square foot and market valuations per square foot, shows strong market value premiums on average of 150 percent per square foot for walkable urban products versus drivable sub-urban.

Pent-up demand results in substantial social equity challenges. Gentrification is the result of demand without the supply to meet it. This leads to the displacement of existing low-income residents in walkable urban places and limits incoming residents to the wealthy. However, this demand also creates the possibility of building more mixed-income and multiethnic places in walkableor potentially walkablecommunities that are currently drivable sub-urban.

Meeting the demand for new walkable urban development must include a major new trend: building and expanding walkable downtowns and neighborhoods throughout the region. By this we do not mean developing the suburbs to the levels of urbanization in New York City. This generally means a level of walkable urbanism in between what is experienced in downtown Princeton and downtown Stamford.

...This report identifies 70 Town Centers throughout the region that are already walkable. Continuing to invest in their development, and in creating more places like them, is key to meeting this pent-up demand.

Walkable urban development calls for dramatically different approaches than drivable sub-urban development with regards to design and planning, regulation, financing, and construction. Taking a drivable sub-urban approach to walkable urban development nearly guarantees failure, since the needs and context are fundamentally different. A walkable urban development form also requires the introduction of another level of civic supervision: place management. This new field develops the strategy and provides day-to-day management for WalkUPs, creating a distinctive sense of place where investors and residents invest with a generally long-term perspective. Many take the form of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), although communities can use other structures that incorporate local businesses, residents, and elected officials.

 Walkable urban housing costs for low-income households may be lower than drivable sub-urban housing costs, but the rent is still too damn high. Across the region, housing costs consume more than 50 percent of the budget for low-income households making less than $40,000 annually. The amount spent on housing should not exceed 30 percent

 Walkable urban areas have greater diversity, a higher share of low-income people, and lower racial segregation compared to drivable sub-urban areas. The share of people of color in walkable urban areas ranges from 59 to 67 percent of an areas population, whereas in the drivable sub-urban areas it ranges from 38 to 41 percent. This is unsurprising, given past public policies that led to the concentration of people of color in center cities.A similar pattern holds for low-income families. The share of families making less than $40,000 annually is 46 to 48 percent in walkable urban areas compared to 31 percent in drivable sub-urban areas. We also found less racial segregation in WalkUPs.

 When we consider housing and transportation costs, walkable urbanism in the tri-state region is more affordable for a low-income family (at the 50th percentile of area median income) than drivable sub-urban. For such a familyconsisting of a single adult with two children, renting their home, and making approximately $32,900 a yearWalkUPs in the region are, on average, 18 percent less expensive than drivable sub-divisions. Transportation costs, specifically, are 35 percent less expensive. The WalkUPs ranked highest in social equity are concentrated in New York City. Chinatown is the highest-ranked WalkUP by this measure, although a handful of places outside of Manhattan also ranked highly: Melrose Concourse, Bronx (#5); Ft. Greene, Brooklyn (#10); Long Island City, Queens (#13); Downtown Newark (#22); and Journal Square, Jersey City (#34). These rankings are indicative of their high levels of transit accessibility and subsequent transportation affordability.

1. EXPAND & BUILD MORE WALKABLE URBAN PLACES.

Walkable urban land is a minuscule 2.4 percent of the tristate region. This has resulted in world record land prices, the primary reason for the valuation premiums. We should aim to double the amount of land in the region that could be walkable urban to five percent, through rezoning and infrastructure improvements. Increased supply can be achieved through the following:

 Crowd-sourced Planning: Open the planning of an emerging or potential walkable urban place to citizens through online tools that democratize the process and encourage participation.

 Emulate Regional Models: Visit and understand the benefits of a walkable urban place, particularly to its surrounding neighborhoods. Clarify the local fiscal benefits of walkable urbanism to the tax base.

 Adopt Model Form-based Code Zoning: There are many off-the-shelf models of zoning that will allow for mixed-use, walkable urban development that local jurisdictions can adopt.

2. ENGAGE IN CONSCIOUS SOCIAL EQUITY STRATEGIES.

This research has shown that walkable urban places are inherently more socially equitable for low-income households in the tri-state region. However, housing costs in WalkUPs are still too high. The tri-state region, especially New York City, has a commendable history of providing public and subsidized housing that has had a substantive impact on affordability, but the market is moving much faster than the public sector. Aggressive affordable housing strategies in walkable urban

places can address displacement and provide more affordable housing. These strategies should include elements such as:

 Place management organizations, such as business improvement districts and Main Streets, could be empowered to encourage and possibly even assist in the development of affordable housing.

 Inclusionary zoning, which requires a minimum percentage of affordable housing in each new development.

 Enlarge, or introduce, at the local jurisdiction level the development of public and subsidized housing. In addition to state and federal subsidies and incentives, local taxpayers should assume some of the funding for providing mixed-income walkable urban affordable housing.

 Legalize ancillary housing. Surplus bedrooms and unoccupied basements can be turned into rental housing units with minor redesign. In many jurisdictions, this is illegal. By legalizing ancillary housing, also known as granny flats, existing under-utilized assets can provide homeowners with extra income while increasing the supply of affordable housing.

 Transfer fee for market-rate housing sales. Many jurisdictions charge a nominal fee (less than one percent) of the sales price for any re-sale of a market-rate house; these proceeds could finance affordable and work force housing.

3. SUBSTANTIALLY INVEST IN A PORTFOLIO OF TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS. The importance of investing in transportation infrastructureparticularly existing rail and bus transitas well as biking and walking, cannot be underestimated. The major question is where the funding will come from.

The following tools can help make funding available:

 U.S. Department of Transportation low-cost loan programs, referred to as TIFIA14 and RRIF.5 Tens of billions in finance capacity are available in these two programs, and both have been recently modified to finance not just rail transit, but also surrounding infrastructure that is walking distance to the station.

 Increase sales tax: Dedicate existingor increasesales and/or other local taxes for the purpose of servicing federal transit-oriented loans. Metropolitan Los Angeles has recently raised sales taxes to finance an additional $120 billion of transit investment.

 Create a catalytic development company, capitalized by deep pocket private investors, universities and foundations, to push the fast forward button on walkable urban development. Catalytic developers can assume control of public, nonprofit, and donated land for the development of affordable and work force housing.

 Negotiate with developers and private land and property owners around transit stations to engage in value capture. This is capturing a portion of the anticipated upside of development that has been sparked by the rail transit. This is similar to how rail transit was financed 100 years ago and has been re-introduced in many international cities and some U.S. metros, such as Washington, D.C.

In an April interview, New York magazine critic (and author) Justin Davidson, asked about New York City's future, responded And, perhaps, regional policy, a focus of the Regional Plan Association and other planners. The WalkUP Wake-Up Call: New York, released recently by the George Washington University School of Business's Center for Real Estate & Urban Analysis in partnership with Smart Growth America, recently pointed out that "just 2.4% of the total regional land mass in New York is considered 'walkable urban.'" The full report is embedded at bottom.And that scarce land is far more valuable than the suburbs. According to the announcement:Consider the map below, in which green is considered WalkUp, defined as a regionally significant Walkable Urban Place; yellow is a locally-serving Walkable neighborhood; and red is a regionally significant Driveable suburban location.

Smart Growth America defines its goal of smart growth as "an approach to development that encourages a mix of building types and uses, diverse housing and transportation options, development within existing neighborhoods, and community engagement.There's clearly a business opportunity. The real estate publication Bisnow on 3/3/17 published what was headlined originally as T HE ENORMOUS DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF NEW YORK'S SUBURBS , summarizing the report and suggestion "developers must work with local government leaders to take advantage of the region's potential and build mixed-use projects along an already existing network of rail stations."From the report's Executive Summary (All emphases added)What's the goal?How might it work?On economics:I'm not sure that Fort Greene is so equitable as that it has an enormous diversity of incomes, given public housing projects and historic brownstones.The conclusions:I'm not sure that crowd-sourced planning will be used to increase density without more leadership.That's interesting--tax the locals and also direct transfer fees to affordable housing. But New York City already has a transfer tax. What isn't mentioned is a more dramatic national policy change like the elimination or curtailment of the mortgage interest deduction.A catalytic development company--interesting idea, but who would control it? There's already a significant debate in New York City over the public-private partnership behind the proposed BQX streetcar line.Note thank-yous to NYC's Department of City Planning and Small Business Services/Business Improvement Districts, as well as research partners at the Regional Plan Association.The Private Sector Funders and Advisors include: AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.; Forest City Realty Trust; HOK; Kushner Real Estate Group; Mack-Cali Realty Corporation; M&T Bank Corporation; Normandy Real Estate Partners; Renaissance DowntownsRXR Realty; Silverstein Properties; Skyline Developers; Taconic Investment PartnersMajor Foundation Support and Advice came from the The Rockefeller Foundation.
All-Conference WEC teams The All-Conference teams for the War Eagle Conference have been announced with multiple MMCRU and South OBrien volleyball players making...

Crane signs off, for now I miss my ol' buddy, sportscaster Keith Crane on the sidelines. I miss his friendly smile, his dedication to his...
Massachusetts officials promised a crackdown Thursday on marijuana-impaired driving as the state prepared for full implementation of the voter-approved law legalizing adult use of recreational pot.

State police said they were increasing the number of officers with special training in detecting whether motorists are under the influence of THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana.

One continuing hurdle for law enforcement is the lack of a reliable scientific test, similar to a breath test for alcohol, to measure THC impairment.

Officials also unveiled a public education media campaign aimed at younger adults that uses a humorous touch to drive home the risks associated with driving while high. One TV spot depicts an obviously stoned young man repeatedly and futilely attempting to light a gas grill without a propane tank, suggesting how dangerous it might be if the man tried to drive somewhere to fill the tank.

Arthur Kinsman, regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the goal isnt to demonize marijuana use, but change perceptions that its safer to drive after using pot than after drinking alcohol.

This isnt a Cheech and Chong movie, where everybody is kind of laughing and driving along and everyone is laid back, said Kinsman, referring to the popular 1970s-era stoner comedy duo.

Massachusetts voters were among those in four states that approved recreational marijuana questions last November, joining four states that had done so previously.

Jennifer Queally, undersecretary of public safety for law enforcement, cited evidence that those earlier states had experienced a spike in marijuana-related highway crashes since legalization.

A recent study by the Highway Loss Data Institute, a leading insurance research group, found that collision claims in Colorado, Washington and Oregon went up 2.7 percent in the years since legal recreational marijuana sales began, when compared with surrounding states.

Drivers who are high on marijuana demonstrate slower reaction times, sleepiness and more difficulty estimating time and distance, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Col. Richard McKeon, head of the Massachusetts State Police, said law enforcement planned to increasingly rely on drug recognition experts, officers who are trained in identifying drug impairment. There are currently 33 such experts in the state police force and 141 total in departments around the state, he said, with funding available to add another 60 in 2018.

But McKeon acknowledged the current lack of a conclusive test for measuring THC impairment makes prosecutions difficult.

We can testify to our observations and we bolster that with our training and our experience and that is how we bring these cases forward, he said. But it is a challenge.

A recently passed bill that makes revisions to the Massachusetts law included creation of a task force to study all aspects of law enforcement personnel ability to properly test impaired operators and prevent impaired operation of motor vehicles.

While questioning some of the methodology behind studies that link marijuana legalization to increases in highway crashes, cannabis industry representatives have generally embraced efforts by states to tackle impaired driving.

Mike Dundas, chief executive of Sage Naturals, a medical marijuana dispensary in Cambridge, said his staff is trained to discuss the risks with customers.

We urge other dispensaries to join us in partnering with the state to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking and driving, said Dundas.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has settled a lawsuit by two insurers that sought to avoid covering its multimillion-dollar payout to comedian Tracy Morgan for injuries he suffered in a 2014 crash involving one of the retailers trucks.

U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton, New Jersey, on Monday ordered the dismissal of all claims against Wal-Mart by Ohio Casualty Insurance and Liberty Insurance Underwriters, and all counterclaims by Wal-Mart against the insurers.

Terms of the settlement are confidential, and both sides agreed not to bring their claims again.

We are pleased to have resolved this matter, Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove said in an email.

The accord came two and one-half months after the insurers, both affiliated with Liberty Mutual Group, had sought permission to question Morgan and another injured passenger, Ardley Fuqua, to help them determine whether Wal-Mart paid too much.

Lawyers for the insurers and Boston-based Liberty Mutual did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Morgan and Fuqua referred a reporter to an outside spokesman, who had no immediate comment.

Morgan, a former star of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, was seriously injured on June 7, 2014 when a Wal-Mart truck crashed into his limousine van on the New Jersey Turnpike.

His friend, comedian James McNair, was killed in the crash, and other passengers also suffered injuries.

The truck driver had been awake for more than 24 hours when the crash occurred. He pleaded guilty last November to vehicular homicide under a plea agreement that let him avoid prison time, according to published reports.

Wal-Marts payouts to Morgan and Fuqua have not been disclosed, but court documents suggest that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer might have paid more than $90 million.

That was based on a reported $10 million settlement that Wal-Mart reached in early 2015 with McNairs children, and subsequent court papers saying that more than 90 percent of Wal-Marts total payout were for Morgans and Fuquas claims.

Morgan suffered a broken leg and ribs and what his lawyer has called a traumatic brain injury in the crash. He has since returned to performing.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)
A generator on a marijuana farm is to blame for a fire last year that destroyed a dozen homes south of San Francisco, investigators said Thursday.

Its the latest in a string of fires at marijuana growing sites in the past several years that have caused wildland firefighters to take increased precautions. The Santa Clara County Sheriffs office is still investigating whether the pot growing operation in the Santa Cruz Mountains was legal.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection investigators determined that the fire that destroyed 28 structures, including 12 homes, was caused by one of three portable generators used at the pot farm. The fire burned about seven square miles over 16 days in September and October, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents from Santa Cruz and Santa Clara county neighborhoods.

It was one of four wildfires linked to marijuana grows last year, CalFire spokeswoman Janet Upton said.

In nearby Monterey County, firefighters last year rescued several pot farmers who were trapped for three days by a fast-moving wildfire that destroyed 900 plants.

Police said they could make no arrests in that blaze because the evidence went up in smoke.

There were at least five pot-related fires in 2015, including a blaze that burned about 108 square miles in Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties north of San Francisco. The fire that destroyed 43 homes and 53 outbuildings was caused by a faulty water heater that was strapped to a tree at an illegal marijuana farm east of Clearlake.

No fires this year are known to be caused by pot grows.

Even when there are no fires, forestry and wildlife officials are cautious about stumbling across booby-traps or armed guards protecting illegal pot grows in certain areas of the state, Upton said.

Its rare nowadays that we send someone alone out into the woods, so that is a change, she said.

The designated safety officers also have to take into account the possibility of contact highs, though to date no equipment operators have been pulled off the line because of exposure to marijuana smoke.

Inmate firefighting crews are kept out of areas with known marijuana grows, she said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Each year, a group of experts gather at the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel of the Finger Lakes region to sample the best of the best in New York wines. It's a competition called the New York Wine and Food Classic, sometimes referred to as the Oscars of New York wine.

On Aug. 8 and 9, 21 judges sampled 915 wine, 27 hard cider and 16 craft spirit entries, and had the tough task of choosing which were their favorites in each category. The top prize at this competition is the prestigious Governors Cup, a large silver chalice that recognizes the best of show, or top prize of all the entries in the event.

The Cayuga Lake Wine Trail is extremely proud to announce that this year's Governor's Cup winner is member winery Buttonwood Grove. Its 2016 Riesling came out on top among 958 entries. Winning this award is a big deal in the wine industry. With the Finger Lakes region being known specifically for its Rieslings, this comes at no surprise. The kicker: Buttonwood is a small-batch winery, so the award-winning wine is unfortunately in short supply!

The Buttonwood team has been striving to make a name for itself. As Finger Lakes wines have grown in popularity, the wineries here have global competition, not just regional anymore. "There are so many wineries out there, and hearing that the industry's best say we make great wine  it's incredible. This (award) does more for our reputation than I can do in hours and hours of work. Its amazing to gain this credibility. I think we've staked our claim in the wine-world. All of the advertising in the world is not as valuable as this accolade that tells everyone that we make fine premium estate wines, said Marcia Klue, Buttonwoods marketing coordinator. She learned of the award while on vacation with her family in Maine, which has made her vacation that much sweeter!

Dave Pittard and his wife, Melissa, purchased Buttonwood from its founder, Ken Reimer, in 2014. Dave is a fifth-generation apple farmer from Onondaga County who discovered his love for agriculture at an early age. Dave considers himself a rookie and owes much of the credit to his winemaker, Sue Passmore. Sue has spent many years in the industry and is a self-taught winemaker.

The winning Riesling grapes are from vines planted on the property in 1999, and mark the second year this Riesling has been classified as an estate wine. This means everything involved in the end product  the grapes, the making and the bottling  all happened on Buttonwood-owned property. This same wine also recently won gold at the 2017 Indy International Wine Competition, where wines from all over the globe were submitted.

Over the past three years, Dave and his team have been diligently working on their image and their property, to make it one-of-a-kind. Buttonwood has four cabins on site that are booked well over a year in advance, a beautiful Scottish Highland cow named Melody (who even has her own Facebook page!), a new production facility with more space for more tanks (which will equal more award-winning wines), the recent addition of an enhanced deck space for summer parties that garner much attention, and its very own waterfall! Buttonwood Grove also has a spectacular view of the lake, and as you can imagine, is one of the top locations for weddings on Cayuga Lake.

Buttonwood isnt the only winery along Cayuga Lake to take home a medal at this years New York Wine and Food Classic. Amongst our wineries, 114 other medals were awarded. In the double gold category: Buttonwood Grove Winery, Goose Watch Winery, Knapp Winery, Thirsty Owl Wine Co. and Toro Run Winery. In the gold category: Goose Watch Winery, Knapp Winery, Lucas Vineyards, Swedish Hill Winery, Thirsty Owl Wine Co. and Toro Run Winery. In the silver category: Buttonwood Grove Winery, Goose Watch Winery, Hosmer Winery, Knapp Winery, Lucas Vineyards, Montezuma Winery, Swedish Hill Winery, Thirsty Owl Wine Co., Toro Run Winery and Treleaven Wines. In the bronze category: Goose Watch Winery, Hosmer Winery, Knapp Winery, Lucas Vineyards, Montezuma Winery, Swedish Hill Winery, Thirsty Owl Wine Co. and Treleaven Wines.

This toast is for you, Buttonwood Grove  to Sue, the Pittards and the rest of the gang. Congratulations and thank you for being a member of the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - James Corner Field Operations, the leading landscape architecture firm that designed the renovation of Public Square, is working on what it hopes will be a high-quality solution to address homeland security concerns about terrorists using vehicles to plow into the space.

The solution would replace the ugly concrete Jersey barriers and circular planters temporarily installed by the city last March after federal and city homeland security officials raised concerns about potential attacks.

"We want to make sure that whatever security measures are incorporated in the square, they will respect the original integrity of the design," Veronica Rivera, a Field Operations associate, said Friday in an interview. "We want to make it look as if nothing's changed."

Anthony Coyne, the Cleveland lawyer who heads the nonprofit Group Plan Commission, the city-county organization charged with improving key downtown public spaces, said the goal is to go public with a permanent design solution by the end of 2017.

Potential solutions under consideration include steel posts, new landscaping to bar vehicles, higher curbs or gates, Coyne said.

Coyne said he couldn't offer a timetable on how quickly the security barriers could be added to the square, or speculate on cost and funding for the changes.

"Right now, I want to get the best design we can to be effective," he said. "And I want to make sure it looks good so it's great public space still."

Darnell Brown, the city's chief operating office, reiterated that the city wants a safe design that "will have aesthetic quality consistent with the theme of the park."

Retrofitting the renovated park is complicated by underground utilities.

"For the most part when people look at the park, they look at the surface," he said. "There are a lot of things under the ground that need to be considered."

The 15-month, $50 million renovation of the square, completed in time for the 2016 Republican National Convention, earned glowing media reviews as a symbol of a revitalized Cleveland.

Politico called it "The Hot New Park at the Center of the Republican Convention." PBS Newshour asked in a headline what's "Hot in Cleveland?" And answered: "The city's new, cool Public Square."

The renovation designed by Corner's firm - famous as the co-designer of New York's High Line Park - took a big step toward unifying Public Square, previously a quartet of decaying quadrants crisscrossed by Ontario Street and Superior Avenue.

The renovation removed Ontario Street, but incorporated bus lanes on Superior Avenue, which was narrowed from 72 to 48 feet in width.

Mayor Frank Jackson nevertheless resisted reopening the square to buses after the Republican convention in response to public enthusiasm about seeing the long subdivided square function as a single, unified space.

Transit advocates were equally passionate, however, about their desire to see bus service reintroduced.

The city relented under pressure from federal transportation officials who said Cleveland would have to refund $12 million granted for the Euclid Avenue bus rapid transit line installed in 2008.

The city installed the temporary barriers on the square in response to fresh homeland security concerns that postdated the original design of the renovation.

"When we started planning the space, the term 'weaponized vehicle' was not yet even a term of art," said Coyne.

Rivera said her firm has been working with the Group Plan Commission over the past five months to reach a new solution.

She said Donley's, the square's design-build contractor, is providing cost estimates and technical expertise.

"We were given the heads-up it was going to happen, and the city saw it as something temporary," Rivera said of the barriers installed in March. "They wanted to keep us engaged and look for a more final resolution."

City residents have complained since March that the planters and Jersey barriers have marred the square and created the perception that once the global media left town, the city was retreating from its effort to create high quality public space in the heart of the city.

The Jersey barriers, for example, slice across cobbled paving that marks the butterfly-shaped perimeter paths that crosses Superior Avenue at four points. The path is one of the defining features James Corner used to unify the halves of the square north and south of the avenue.

"It's a common goal for the new design to integrate as smoothly as possible with what's there today, and to kind of disappear," Rivera said. "The goal is that the final implementation will be as light as possible, while increasing the security for public square."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Tattoos are all the rage. Cool, sexy, eye-catching -- they definitely make a statement.

According to Inked magazine and Statistic Brain, Americans spent $1.65 billion last year at the more than 20,000 licensed tattoo parlors in the country. And 40 percentage of U.S. adults ages 26-40 have at least one tattoo.

So let's see the best tattoos out there, Greater Cleveland.

Whether you are a showcase for your favorite ink slinger, or just got your first tat, here is your chance to show off your ink.

cleveland.com is holding an online contest to determine the Best Tattoo in Greater Cleveland.

If you have a tattoo you want to show off, here's how:

Nominate yourself (or a friend of yours) by sending a clean photo of the tattoo to best@cleveland.com . Remember: Photos must be clean in order to be considered.

If you have a sleeve or a bodysuit, you must select a specific tat for the contest.

The person with the tattoo on their body must reside in our seven-county coverage area: Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Summit, Media and Lorain counties. Note: The tattoo artist does not need to be from Northeast Ohio.

Send along what inspired the design; when and where you got the work done and the tattoo artist's name (if known).

We will collect your nominations through Friday, Aug. 25 at 10 a.m.

How the contest will work:

cleveland.com "Best of" reporters Brenda Cain and Hannah Drown will select 50-100 semifinalists from all the tattoo photos emailed in. They will also select winners in a number of superlative categories.

Then it's all up to the readers, who will determine the ultimate winner of Greater Cleveland's Best Tattoo in online polls. Readers will vote in the semifinals Aug. 29-Sept. 7, and the finals Sept. 13-20.

So whether your tattoo is custom, dot-work or a flash, show off your canvas and join the fun. We can't wait to see your art.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - One of the first things Quentin McCorvey Sr. did 10 years ago, when he became chairman of the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Workforce Development Board, was to meet with area business leaders.

The board's primary mission is to connect job seekers with employers. However, most employers said they never considered tapping board programs to fill openings. They saw the board more as overseeing a social service agency than a public job-placement service.

"Everyone said it was a welfare-to-work system," he said.

Today, many employers contact the workforce board's job placement agency, OhioMeansJobs|Cleveland-Cuyahoga County, when they have openings to fill. Many residents rely on its programs in finding work or directing them to - and sometimes even paying for - job training.

"Last year, our board was responsible for over 33 percent of placements for the entire state of Ohio," McCorvey said, referring to how the local OMJ office stacked up to its counterparts throughout the state.

Last program year, OMJ|Cleveland-Cuyahoga County placed 4,215 adults in jobs, more than 45 percent of whom had been unemployed at registration. This is triple the number of placements from five years earlier.

Having accomplished several of his goals for the board, McCorvey stepped down in June. Micki Tubbs, CEO of FIT Technologies, now chairs the board. At 9 a.m. today, in the Rotunda of City Hall, McCorvey, principal at Nirvana Analytics, will be honored for his decade-long service in the volunteer position.

"As chairman of the Workforce Development Board, Quentin has been a visionary when transforming the public workforce system to one that is now driven by the demands of local businesses for skilled workers," said Grace Kilbane, executive director of the workforce development board, in an email.

"He has been a strong leader when implementing strategies that have resulted in job training for over 1,000 and jobs for over 10,000 Cuyahoga County residents," she wrote. "Through his outstanding work and countless volunteer hours, he also connected with national and state leaders to benefit our agency when making known our local workforce results and needs. He has been an inspiration to many."

Joe Calabrese, chief executive officer and general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority described McCorvey as having "non-stop determination and energy."

"Quentin is an outstanding leader and a consensus builder," the head of RTA wrote in an email. "He led the agency to become the most effective Workforce Development Board in Ohio."

When McCorvey took leadership of the workforce board, he said there was a disconnect between its job placement agency and area businesses.

Pivoting the board in this new direction could - at times - prove difficult because it was such a departure from the way things always had been done, he said. Also complicating matters was that board members were having difficulty in implementing a state requirement that the once separate city and county workforce organizations merge. When McCorvey became chairman, the merger hadn't been completed, even though it had been in process for a few years. He implemented the completion of the merger; then succeeded in leading the fully merged board in embracing a new workforce development philosophy.

"We had spent 80 percent of our budget on job seekers -- training them for jobs that didn't exist," McCorvey said of the old way of doing business. "We then started focusing 80 percent of our budget on businesses. And with that demand-facing system, we started getting results. With significantly less budget we had a 300 percent increase in outcome because of the way we worked and interacted."

In 2010, the workforce board spent $32.6 million placing 1,500 people in jobs, officials say. By 2014 it was spending $8.3 million to place nearly 4,500 workers.

McCorvey said there was a reason he had a driving motivation to transform the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Workforce Development Board from a poorly functioning organization into one that is effective.

"At the end of the day, it is the people who we serve," he said. "That is why I start every meeting with what I call the 'voice of the customer.' We have someone, who is a user of the system, and who has been through challenges, come in and tell their story.

"We make policy about people who need to make a change in their lives, so we need to hear their stories," McCorvey said.

Follow: @OPinfo
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Canadian man whom flew to the Cleveland area to have sex with a 17-year-old now faces a child pornography charge in the United States, as investigators said they found sexually explicit images of the teen on his computer, according to a criminal complaint.

Joseph Haggerty, 49, of St. Stephen in New Brunswick, was detained by Rocky River police on Thursday after authorities watched him travel from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport to Linden Park in Rocky River, the complaint says.

Haggerty's plan was to meet up with a 17-year-old, and to then to go with the girl to the Days Inn on Lake Avenue in Lakewood to have sex. U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents intervened before that could happen, and Haggerty was held on a state charge before federal prosecutors charged him on Friday.

Local authorities reached out to the Canadian Mounted Police Friday after Haggerty's arrest here. Canadian officials searched Haggerty's home found sexually explicit photos of the victim in Ohio, a lifelike child sex doll and contact information for six other possible victims, the complaint states.

The age of consent in Ohio is 16 years old. However, federal law states it is illegal to possess or share explicit images of anybody under 18 years old.

Haggerty is charged with production of child pornography. He made his first appearance in federal court Monday in front of a magistrate judge and is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The case will be presented to a federal grand jury.

Jeff Hastings, Haggerty's attorney, declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Homeland Security agents in Austin, Texas told Cleveland authorities that Haggerty was chatting online with another minor online and had asked the minor to send him sexually explicit photos.

Agents approached Haggerty and the girl on Thursday while the pair headed toward a taxi. Haggerty said he felt he was doing nothing wrong because he knew the girl was 17, over the age of consent in the U.S. and Ohio, the complaint says.

The girl told authorities that she met Haggerty on the chat app Kik in December. She said Haggerty had become controlling and forbade her to speak to other men. She said he directed her to perform sexually explicit acts for him on camera, the complaint says.

After his arrest, but while the girl was still with authorities, Haggerty called the girl's cellphone from a phone in the Rocky River Police Department booking cell. The girl told him she knew he had chatted with other minor girls, according to the complaint.

Haggerty denied it and said the police were lying to her. He told her, "I'm in jail right now with my future in jeopardy because I love you," the complaint states.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.
EUCLID, Ohio -- Euclid police released cruiser dashcam video Sunday evening of a "violent struggle" and arrest captured on video Saturday that quickly became viral.

The video was first obtained by Cleveland 19 News. Cleveland.com also submitted a public records request for the video Saturday evening, but Euclid police spokesman Lt. Mitch Houser has not replied to the request as of 8:35 p.m. Sunday.

The dashcam video shows a struggle during a Saturday morning arrest of 25-year-old Richard Hubbard III, of Cleveland. He was pulled over about 10:30 a.m. on East 228th Street.

Euclid officers ordered Hubbard to get out of the car -- a 2011 Hyundai -- and face away from the officers so that he could be handcuffed and arrested. Hubbard did not face away, and the struggle ensued, a news release from the Euclid police department states.

An officer is seen repeatedly slamming Hubbard on the ground, grabbing his neck and punching his head.

Euclid police said Saturday that the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave. His name has not been released.

"It is the mission of the Euclid Police Department to provide professional and transparent service to the residents, business owners, and visitors to the City of Euclid," Houser said in the news release. "This entire incident will be reviewed, in detail, so that the public can have a full and open understanding of the series of events that eventually led to this violent encounter."

The bystander of Hubbard's arrest quickly went viral on social media. As of 8:30 p.m. Sunday, the video has been viewed more than 3 million times on Facebook.

You can see both videos -- the dashcam video and the video posted to Facebook -- below.

After his arrest, Hubbard was medically examined in jail, police said. He posted bond on charges of resisting arrest and driving under suspension.

Cleveland 19 News tried to speak with Hubbard Sunday, but his family declined, saying he was resting and recovering from the incident.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Rural hospitals across Ohio face a crisis in care and funding. Many feared that proposed cuts to health care funding in Washington would have pushed them to cut vital services, or go out of business entirely. But even with repeal and replace seemingly out of the equation, they still worry about their future in an increasingly difficult industry.

"The underlying problem is still there. It's just the fix they were working on didn't address the underlying problem and made things worse," said Alan Morgan, CEO of National Rural Health Association (NRHA). "Hopefully, the debate has shifted off of cutting Medicaid to how do we make the system better."

Forty-one percent of all rural hospitals in the nation, including 13 Ohio facilities, operate at a loss. Expensive services like obstetrics are among the first to be cut. Already, some women in Ohio must drive more than 100 miles to deliver their babies.

Union Hospital in Dover, for instance, cut 30 jobs last year, saving $3 million. It had been economizing for years. But that wasn't enough. In May, the hospital entered into an agreement with the Cleveland Clinic, announcing plans to become part of the Clinic's healthcare system by 2018.

"You're constantly challenged with finding ways to be more and more cost effective. Eventually, you start running into negative margins," said Bruce James, president and CEO of Union Hospital. "We wanted an organization that would help build up rural healthcare."

Nationally, 80 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to The Chartis Center for Rural Health. Another 273 are at risk.

Unless something changes for the better, the country is on pace to lose a quarter of its rural hospitals in the next decade, Morgan said. And that means rural residents, who statistically are older and sicker, could see even greater barriers to healthcare access.

"It is a tough time for rural hospitals out there right now. We are in the middle of a rural healthcare closure crisis," Morgan said.

The American Hospital Association estimates hospitals receive 90 cents per dollar spent on Medicaid and 88 cents per dollar of Medicare. Hospitals with greater shares of Medicaid and Medicare patients have to find ways to make up the difference, despite rising costs of supplies, prescriptions and providing care.

"Somehow, some way, those resources need to be found to support those needs," said Jason Justus, CFO of Pomerene Hospital in Millersburg.

In Ohio, rural hospitals fare a bit better than those in other parts of the country because of the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare that provided insurance to an extra 700,000 people.

That meant they could see primary care doctors instead of using expensive emergency room care. And it meant that when they did need hospitalization, they were covered by Medicaid. Before the Medicaid expansion in Ohio in 2014, Wooster Community Hospital had to write off $400,000 a month in charity care. Today, that number is about $30,000 per month.

While not all of that change can be directly tied to the Medicaid expansion, a significant portion of the drop in unreimbursed charity care was, according to Scott Boyes, Wooster's chief financial officer.
A school supply drive is being held through Friday, Aug. 18, at Walgreens, 150 Grant Ave., Auburn.

Donations can be brought to the store or purchased there, and left in a designated box. All donations will be distributed locally.

The drive is being held by the Friend Helping Friends of Cayuga County group.

For more information, find the "Local School Supply Drive" page on Facebook.
Auburn Fire Department: July 30-Aug. 6, 2017

 EMS: 94 (5 cardiac, 10 difficulty breathing, 17 trauma, 4 strokes, 19 medical emergencies, 5 seizures)

 Motor vehicle accidents: 2 (both with injuries)

 Fires: 1 (structure fire - Weedsport)

 Smoke odor condition: 3 (2 smoke detector activations, 1 smoke scare)

 False alarm: 6 (2 accidental, 2 malfunction, 2 malicious at Cayuga Centers)

 Service calls: 2

 Good intent calls: 4

 Hazardous conditions: 35 (22 storm responses on 8/4, additional wires down calls on other dates)

 Carbon monoxide incident: 1 (no illness)

 Mutual aid given: 1 (Weedsport  structure fire in downtown district, cancelled on arrival)

 Special details: 31 (17 hydrant function, 14 Healthy Neighborhood inspections)

 Fire safety inspections: 23

 Vacant building inspect: 2

 Fire safety consults: 35

 Yearly re-inspects: 5

 Inspection forms: 18

 Certificate of occupancy: 0

 CO alarm consults: 3

 AFD personnel took part in 115 hours of documented training this week: 23 hours of personal safety and protective equipment; 18 hours of rescue; 9 hours of apparatus driving, operation and maintenance; 9 hours of fire hoses, fire pumps, fire streams and hydraulics; 8 hours of fire hydrant marking, locations and inspections; 6 hours of hazardous materials and radiation.

 Dive team members met with city filtration staff regarding underwater filtration system inspections.

 AFD responded to multiple service requests during the wind storm that occurred on Aug. 4.

 AFD has seen an increase in calls at Cayuga Centers for EMS and malicious false alarms.

 Companies are providing continual training to our two probationary firefighters.

 Fire officers continue to attend building safety inspectors courses.

 All companies are performing annual fire hydrant function inspections on all city hydrants.

 All companies are assisting the Cayuga Community Health Network with Healthy Neighborhood inspections, improving the health and safety of city residents.

 AFD personnel taught classes in Cayuga County, at the New York State Fire Academy and across the state.
City

 Ian M. Ingram, 28, 121 Park Place, Auburn, was picked up Aug. 14 on a bench warrant.

 Arthur J. Laduke, 45, 159 Gristwood Road, Pennelville, was picked up on a warrant Aug. 11 and charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

 Mark H. Novak, 61, 24 Copley St., Auburn, was charged Aug. 11 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and violation of interlock device.

 Abbey P. Cottrill, 24, 2576 Giles Road, Skaneateles, was charged Aug. 11 with possession of a hypodermic instrument.

 Karrie L. Huey, 29, 2156 Dildine Road, Union Springs, was charged Aug. 11 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Anthony D. McNealy, 33, 9 Cross St. Apt. 2, Auburn, was charged Aug. 12 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Erica M. Thuesen, 28, 2 Mann St., Auburn, was charged Aug. 12 with second-degree unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Heather L. Rejman, 43, 212 East Main St., Elbridge, was charged Aug. 12 with driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit and driving while intoxicated first offense.

State

 Brian K. Malone, 52, Auburn, was charged Aug. 12 with driving with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit and driving while intoxicated first offense.

 John M. Fuller, 62, Aurelius, was charged Aug. 11 with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit with a prior conviction and driving while intoxicated first offense.

 Jason P. Nihoff, 32, Martville, was charged Aug. 13 with operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit and driving while intoxicated first offense.

 Jeffrey W. Mondics, 48, Moravia, was charged Aug. 13 with endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated driving while intoxicated first offense.
The classic British testern silver coin is honored with a modern version struck in the name of St. Helena.

An example of a classic English coin from four centuries ago has received new life on a modern commemorative from the modern firm that shares its name with what was once among the most powerful business entities in the world.

The East India Companys newest coin celebrates the testern. One of Britains rarest coins, the historical currency was nicknamed portcullis money for its design showing a heavy vertically-closing gate, typically found in medieval fortifications. The gate appears on the reverse of the antique Proof .999 fine silver 25-penny coin issued for St. Helena. The obverse features the Raphael Maklouf effigy of Queen Elizabeth II.

The classic coin was originally minted for the historical British East India Companys 1601 maiden voyage, to use in overseas trade during the reign of Elizabeth I, and qualifies as Britains very first colonial coinage.

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Queen Elizabeth I insisted that the company take specially minted coins on each voyage, as set out in the companys charter of 1600, according to the modern EIC. To demonstrate her power she needed her own trade currency that, to be effective, would need to be based on the existing international trade coin of the time  the Spanish real  in both size and weight. For these reasons, the classic testern was minted to the exact same specifications as the Spanish 8-real coin.

Slightly more than 6,000 worth of Portcullis money was loaded onto four East India Company ships leaving Woolwich, England, in February 1601. Approximately 20 worth of coins were struck for presentation to dignitaries, and many of these compose the limited number of the original coins that are available to collectors today, many of the rest being melted for use in local currency.

The modern coin matches the classic weight of 26.7 grams, and measures 38.6 millimeters in diameter. Each coin comes in a capsule and presentation box, with a certificate of authenticity.

The coin has a mintage limit of 10,000 pieces and retails for $138.60 U.S. at press time Aug. 10.

To order, visit the issuer website.
More than 100 years after his prime, German medallic satirist Karl Goetz is remembered because of the biting nature of many of his works.

One such medal, commenting on American neutrality before Americas entry in the war, is among lots in Stephen Album Rare Coins Sept. 14 and 15 auction in Santa Rosa, California.

The 1915 bronze medal features on its obverse a facing bust of President Woodrow Wilson, who was able to keep Americans out of the war for more than two-and-a-half years. A suited Wilson appears wearing glasses and a laurel wreath. A scarf lies with both ends on his shoulders displaying eagles, one of which is two-headed. Surrounding are his name and a legend translating to liberty, neutrality, humanity.

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The reverse shows Uncle Sam seated on a pile of cannonballs, holding a ship in one hand and bag of money in the other hand, with a cannon and other armaments in the background. The legend AMERIKAS NEVTRALES HANDELN, meaning Americas neutral trading, is a reference to the American trade with both sides early in the conflict and financial support from American banks loaning to allies in France and the United Kingdom.

The medal measures 56 millimeters in diameter and is graded Mint State 65 brown by Numismatic Guaranty Corp.

It has an estimate of $250 to $350.
The costs of the governors out-of-touch priorities are adding up for New Yorkers. This week, he unveiled his College-in-Prison Reentry Program, which will use more than $7 million in bank settlements to fund college classes for inmates. While countless students are struggling to pay rising college costs and recent graduates are suffocating under crushing loan debt, the governor has prioritized prisoners over law-abiding students and their families. Its insulting.

The cost of education in New York is too high and mounting student debt is crushing young men and women trying to start their careers. It is shameful the governor has again chosen to chase headlines and political points rather than enact sound, common-sense public policy.

NEW YORKS HIGHER EDUCATION PLAN IS MISGUIDED

Recently, the governors Excelsior Scholarship Program was enacted to cover the cost of tuition at state schools for certain residents. Unfortunately, this plan does nothing to address the avalanche of debt students have accumulated and does nothing to help graduate students. It was a program the governor announced alongside Bernie Sanders and finalized next to Hillary Clinton. Its a restrictive and narrow plan masquerading as free college.

We must alleviate the pressure on all students. They are New Yorks future leaders, entrepreneurs and educators. It is critical we give them every advantage as they begin their journey into the workforce.

In the politically-driven fanfare, the governor failed to mention that his college tuition program affects only a tiny fraction of the states total student population. The Assembly Minority Conference proposed a comprehensive approach to reducing the cost of college and student debt. Our proposals include:

Increasing the Tuition Assistance Program Household Income Threshold to $125,000 over the next three years, bringing more students into the program.

Making TAP Awards Bigger and raising the maximum award to $6,470. Further, every TAP recipient would receive at least an increase of $500.

Assisting Graduate Students by making them, again, eligible for the Tuition Assistance Program.

Offering a Taxable Income Reduction on both principal and interest for those paying student loans. Single filers can receive up to $4,000, head of household filers can receive up to $6,000, and married filers can receive up to $8,000 under our proposal.

Undoubtedly, there must be programs in place to assist those reentering society from prison. However, the states public policy must reflect fairness, economic interests and support for those who play by the rules. The governors proposal, sadly, does not reflect any of those ideals.

What do you think? I want to hear from you. Send me your feedback, suggestions and ideas regarding this or any other issue facing New York State. You can always contact my district office at (315) 781-2030, email me at kolbb@nyassembly.gov, find me by searching for Assemblyman Brian Kolb on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.
Got extra smartphones sitting around your office? How about tablets? As we move multiple generations into mobile technology, more and more of us are building up collections of old, dated devices from both our work and our personal lives. And more often than not, those devices do little more than take up space and gather dust.

Here's a little secret, though: Your abandoned Android gadgets are actually virtual gold mines. You just have to find the right way to tap into their potential and give them new life.

So grab the nearest DustBuster and get ready: Here are 20 ways to make your old phone or tablet useful again.

1. Use it as a wireless trackpad and controller for your computer

With the right software and a couple minutes of configuration, your old Android device can act as an on-demand controller for your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

An app called Unified Remote and a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection are all you need to make the magic happen. The free version of the app gives you basic mouse and keyboard control along with specialized remotes for media playback and power-related commands, while the full $5 version adds in program-specific remotes for presentation control along with other advanced features.

JR Raphael / IDG Unified Remote provides basic mouse and keyboard control along with a variety of specialized remotes.

Grab whichever version you prefer and download the server-side software for your computer  then toss your old device into a desk drawer or computer bag and rest easy knowing it'll be ready and waiting the next time you need to go wireless.

2. Turn it into a remote computer terminal

Want easy access to your home computer from the office  or vice-versa? Your old Android phone or tablet can be a splendid stationary screen for keeping a remote system at arm's reach.

The newer version of Google's Chrome Remote Desktop program doesn't support Android, oddly enough, but a third-party app called TeamViewer handily fills the void. To get started with it, download and install the appropriate app for your desktop computer. Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS are all supported.

Once the program is in place, open it, and you should see an access code and password for remote sign-ins. All that's left is to install the companion app on your Android device, tap in those same credentials  and within a matter of seconds, you should be staring at your desktop computer from your Android device's screen.

You'll find commands for advanced forms of interaction (including locking or rebooting the remote system) in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen. You can pull up a virtual keyboard by tapping the keyboard icon in that same area, meanwhile, and if you need to use the computer's mouse, you can tap once to click, tap and hold to right-click, double-tap to drag and drop, and drag with two fingers to scroll. You can also pinch to zoom on any particular area.

TeamViewer is free for personal use (so be sure to select the "personal/non-commercial use" option during the program's initial setup, provided that classification makes sense for you). If you're using it in a commercial context, plans start at $35 a month for a year-long business license.

3. Use it as a universal smart remote

Even the junkiest old Android device has ample power to serve as a smart remote for your home or office. That can be a helpful way for you and anyone else around to control your various smart devices and multimedia components without needing any special access (or your own current personal phone in hand).

First, the easy part: Load up your old phone or tablet with all the relevant apps for your smart-device setup  things like Nest, Hue, and anything else appropriate for controlling your home or office tech.

Next, think about adding some tools that'll let the device handle any audio and video systems in your area. There are a few ways you can make that work:

Pair the phone or tablet with one of Google's ultra-affordable Chromecast streaming sticks. You can then keep the old Android device on your desk or coffee table and use it as a hub for wirelessly casting content  everything from Netflix and YouTube to TED Talks, CNBC, and Google Slides  to your TV.

Use your device as a dedicated remote for your home or office entertainment setup. If the device is running an Android version from 2012 or later, you can give yourself a ready-to-roll Google TV remote that'll work with any compatible streaming products by installing and then signing into the official Google TV app. The Play Store also has a variety manufacturer-made apps for controlling specific components, including those by Comcast Xfinity, AT&T U-verse, and Roku.

Set up a full-fledged media server using Plex, then use your old device as a dedicated remote to stream your own local content to a TV. (The Plex media server software is free; a premium subscription with added features runs $5 per month, $40 per year, or $120 for a lifetime license.)

4. Let it power scientific research

Here's something: Your clunky old Android device could actually help scientists search for extraterrestrial life, detect earthquakes, or improve cancer treatments.

It's all part of a series of programs that use your device's computing power to conduct scientific research. Some of the more worthwhile options:

Zooniverse connects your phone or tablet to a variety of research projects ranging from wild beluga whale identification to breast cancer tumor mapping.

DreamLab is a project helmed by Vodafone that typically aims to uncover insight into how cancer relates to a patient's DNA profile. That, in turn, could allow for the development of more specific and effective cancer-fighting drugs. More recently, the app has been focused largely on research into potential treatments for COVID-19 as part of a partnership with the Imperial College of London.

MyShake, from the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, uses your device's sensors to detect and analyze earthquakes. If you live in an area where earthquakes occur, leaving your device plugged in and on a stable surface will provide the scientists with valuable real-time data about any seismic activity.

All of the apps work in essentially the same way: After downloading and installing (and sometimes going through a brief setup or sign-in procedure), you simply plug your device in and turn its screen off. As long as it remains connected to an active Wi-Fi network, researchers will be able to put its processing power to use.

JR Raphael / IDG Apps like Zooniverse, left, and DreamLab, right, can turn your old Android tablet or phone into a scientific research machine.

5. Transform it into a free-standing security camera

Who needs a fancy-schmancy connected camera when you've got an old Android phone sitting around? With the aid of a third-party app, the camera on your dated device can let you keep an eye on your home, office, or top-secret crime lair from anywhere  and even perform advanced functions like video recording and motion detection.

Just download the free IP Webcam app or get the fully featured $5 pro version and follow its instructions. Within moments, you'll be able to peek through your device's lens from any compatible web browser and cackle with glorious glee.

6. Reframe it as a full-time videoconferencing station

Set up your old Android device with the app for your video-chatting platform of choice  Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, or whatever the case may be  then drop it into a dock on your desk or conference room table. Say "hocus pocus" for good measure, and ta-da: You've just created a permanent access point for virtual face-to-face communications.

Just think: With enough old phones and tablets, you can create an entire house- or office-wide videoconferencing system. Sign each device into its own unique account, with the name of the room as its username, and seeing someone across the building will never be more than a couple quick taps away.

7. Turn it into a kitchen command center

Hard to believe, but my ancient 2011 Motorola Xoom tablet was one of the most used devices in my house until it finally kicked the bucket some six years into its life. That's because I converted it into a multipurpose command center for our kitchen  a role my 2012 Nexus 10 tablet then took over for another couple years after that.

So how to make a kitchen command center of your own? Easy: First, use a custom Android launcher like Action Launcher or Nova Launcher to simplify your old tablet's home screen and add in some easy-to-perform gestures  like double-tapping anywhere on the screen to launch Android's voice search function for on-the-fly info-gathering and other hands-free commands. If your device is at least a little less ancient than mine, you should be able to take advantage of hands-free voice activation and a much wider variety of commands with Google Assistant instead.

Second, populate the home screen with the right apps for the purpose. Netflix and other video-streaming services will effectively turn your old tablet into a cooking-time television. Recipe apps can also be useful, as can cloud-connected note-taking services  like Google Keep, Evernote, or OneNote  for quick viewing of personal recipes or editing of always-synced family-shared shopping lists.

8. Make it a data-based extension of your current phone service

If you use Google Fi (formerly known as Project Fi) for your current phone's wireless service, take advantage of a little-known bonus feature: the ability to get an extra SIM card that's connected to your account and able to provide data on any other device  without any superfluous fees.

All you've gotta do is order the card from the Google Fi website, pop it into an old phone (or a tablet, if you happen to have one with a SIM slot)  and bam: That device is instantly online and connected. You'll pay only for whatever mobile data the device uses in any given month, at the same flat rate associated with your regular Fi plan, so it's essentially just an extension of your primary phone.

That opens up plenty of interesting possibilities: You could use your old device as a ready-to-go backup phone in case your regular one is ever missing, broken, or low on battery; you could use it as a dedicated hotspot to beam out mobile data access without draining your primary phone's battery; or you could use it as an always-connected on-the-go slate for your kids (hello, airport video-streaming) without having to pay for an extra line of service.

9. Make it your live window into the world

Don't have the greatest view from your desk? Let your old Android phone or tablet be your window to wild and exciting locales.

To get started, grab the EarthCam Webcams app from the Google Play Store. It'll give you one-touch access to an impressive list of live streaming cameras around the world, from the hustle and bustle of New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street to the swooshing serenity of Niagara Falls. Pull up any view you like, then tap the icon to go full-screen and gaze the day away. If you find yourself craving some variety, you can consider upgrading from the app's free collection to a set of 175 live cameras for a one-time $5 fee.

JR Raphael / IDG EarthCam lets you gaze down Niagara Falls  or a slew of other webcams around the world  for a break from the mundane.

You can find quite a few mobile-friendly live cameras on the web as well: Pull up your device's browser and try out the San Diego Zoo's assorted animal cams  including a penguin cam, koala cam, and tiger cam, among other exotic views  or the Monterey Bay Aquarium's extensive underwater cams for even more "aww"-inducing options.

10. Convert it into a digital photo frame

Ah, memories. Snag an inexpensive stand, plug your device into its charger, and turn it into a cloud-connected photo frame for your home or office.

If you use Google Photos, just open up the app, tap on any photo in your main library or within a specific album, and then tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Scroll horizontally along the menu that appears and select "Slideshow." The app will cycle through your photos and give you plenty of memories to reflect upon whilst relaxing or taking care of business.

If your old Android phone is a Pixel, you can also set it on one of Google's official Pixel Stands to start an ever-evolving Photos-linked slideshow showing any specific albums or even specific people you want.

11. Use it as a dedicated e-reader

Want a distraction-free reading environment for your next business trip or public transit commute? Load up your old Android device with only the apps you need for reading  Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, Nook, or whatever tickles your text-ingesting fancy.

You can even borrow books from your local library: Check with your nearest branch for information on how to do it or download the free OverDrive app, which is used by a variety of libraries, schools, and institutions.

Be sure to disable notifications from Gmail and other noisy apps  heck, even switch the device into airplane mode once you've downloaded the content you need  and you've got the equivalent of a dedicated e-reader without all the usual phone or tablet temptations.

NEXT PAGE: Connect your old device with calendars, cars, and cash 


Microsoft has backed off a possible confrontation with customers who had been told their two-to-four-year-old PCs were unfit for Windows 10, a sign, said one analyst, that the company remains unsure of its support strategy for the OS.

Earlier this year, Microsoft blocked a class of low-end personal computers - those equipped with Intel's Atom system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors, dubbed "Clover Trail," part of the "Cloverview" architecture - from receiving the Windows 10 Creators Update. Also known as 1703 in Microsoft's year/month parlance, Creators was the first feature upgrade of the year, and the third since the operating system's launch.

Those Clover Trail-powered devices were made and sold between 2012 and 2015 - the latter the same year Windows 10 debuted - and many if not most were eligible for the free upgrade to 10 that Microsoft offered. But the company balked at serving those machines 1703, telling users in April that because Intel dropped support for four models of the Clover Trail SoC, the PCs "may be incapable of moving to the Windows 10 Creators Update without a potential performance impact."

(Intel calls this state, "End of interactive support (EOIS), which means it no longer offers phone-, chat- or email-based support. Microsoft cited a lack of "necessary drive support" on Intel's part as well, hinting that the issue was largely due to the SoCs' integrated graphics.)

"They're still vague about the constraints to Windows 10 support," said Stephen Kleynhans, an analyst with Gartner. "They're still trying to figure out [support] themselves."

[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ]

The background: A built-in support contradiction

Some background is required to put Microsoft's decision, or indecision, into context.

Windows 10 suffers from a support contradiction. On the one hand, Microsoft has said that the OS will be the last version of Windows, ever, implying that it will be updated and maintained - "serviced" in the company's vernacular - for all time.

Yet Microsoft has also set the usual 10-year limit on Windows 10 support, setting the end of its "product lifecycle" as Oct. 14, 2025, for almost all versions of the operating system. (The exception: Windows 10 LTSB, for "Long-term Servicing Branch," a change-free SKU available only to enterprise customers, which currently has an end-of-support date of Oct. 13, 2026, or 10 years after the appearance of the last approved LTSB build, mid-2016's Anniversary Update.)

But Microsoft has stuck a different kind of monkey wrench into the works, one that raised questions when it was announced two years ago and was the cause of the recent consternation over Clover Trail. According to company statements of the past, Windows 10 was to be "supported for the life of the device," a timespan it never defined. In its own documentation, Microsoft gets more specific: "A device may not be able to receive updates if the device hardware is incompatible, lacking current drivers, or otherwise outside of the Original Equipment Manufacturer's ('OEM') support period," that documentation reads.

This was the out Microsoft gave itself when it explained why it denied the Clover Trail SoC-powered machines the right to upgrade to Creators Update, aka 1703. "They require additional hardware support to provide the best possible experience when updating to the latest Windows 10 feature update, the Windows 10 Creators Update," Microsoft said. "However, these systems are no longer supported by Intel, and without the necessary driver support, they may be incapable of moving to the Windows 10 Creators Update without a potential performance impact."

Later, Microsoft threw more fuel on the fire when it nailed down the support timetable for each feature upgrade. Its original plan - 12 months of support - was clearly too short, relying on a three-times-a-year release cadence. So, Microsoft extended the support lifespan to 18 months, that period defined by a twice-a-year release tempo. According to Microsoft, once the 18 months was up, a Windows 10 device would no longer receive security updates and other bug fixes. The only way to continue receiving those updates and fixes was to upgrade to a new feature upgrade.

And that was a problem for Clover Trail. The systems would be stuck on the Anniversary Update, or 1607, which by Microsoft's schedule, would drop off support in March 2018.

Microsoft capitulates

Last month, after the Clover Trail Catch-22 again cropped up -- ZDNet's Ed Bott led the way on July 17 - Microsoft gave in. While the company kept the door to upgrades beyond 1607 closed, it reprieved the devices from the execution of its usual no-security-updates order.

"To keep our customers secure, we will provide security updates to these specific devices running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update until January of 2023, which aligns with the original Windows 8.1 extended support period," Microsoft said in an addendum to the April support document.

That solution was easy for Microsoft to implement, as it was already committed to coming up with vulnerability patches for 1607 because that feature upgrade was designated a "Long-term servicing branch" (LTSB) edition, the no-change version aimed at enterprises. Windows 10 1607 LTSB is to receive security fixes until Oct. 13, 2026, so Microsoft was going to quash bugs in any case.

Does Microsoft know what it's doing?

Microsoft has struggled to clarify Windows 10 support since before the Redmond, Wash. giant got it out the door, taking months, for example, to confirm that it would maintain the OS for the usual 10 years. And it's still grappling with defining policy, argued Gartner's Kleynhans.

"They're being hit by the unexpected implications of things they hadn't considered," Kleynhans said when asked about the turn-about on Clover Trail.

Under that explanation, Microsoft hewed to its promise to push hardware off the Windows 10 train when it decided that hardware was too old to run the OS. But it did not anticipate the blow-back, whether from users of the Clover Trail devices or the media, when people realized it meant an end to security updates, and thus a forced obsolescence of systems purchased as few as three years earlier.

But Kleynhans contends that the Clover Trail snafu is a blessing in disguise. "This was a good wake-up call. It could be something bigger that runs into the same problem [in the future], Skylake or Haswell," he said, referring to Intel processor architectures that populate many times the devices of Clover Trail. Better to have an issue that affected millions of systems rather than hundreds of millions, Kleynhans said.

Where Microsoft has stumbled has been in communicating how Windows 10 support works, why and how it's been changed when events superseded stated policy, and what new rules have been put into place. "Microsoft will come up with an answer in cases like this, but it must be communicated," Kleynhans said, implying that the firm has been less than stellar on the latter. "That's going to be the challenge for them."

Although Kleynhans envisions Microsoft taking each instance of inadequate support as it comes along, "The goal would be to formalize that," he said.

In cases like Clover Trail, however, Microsoft may not be able to set policies alone. "I imagine there will need to be coordination with Microsoft's partners," said Kleynhans, talking about chip makers such as Intel and AMD, as well as major OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo and others.

It remains unclear how Microsoft will handle similar situations in the future if they arise. The company may not be able to rely on Windows 10 LTSB to provide the security updates that would cover systems Microsoft decides can't upgrade, as it did the Clover Trail devices; the next LTSB won't appear until 2019, Microsoft has said. (Windows 10 1607 remains the current LTSB version.)

"This is definitely an area that [Microsoft] has to clean up," Kleynhans said of Windows 10's support policies. "It's still fuzzy."
Erroll Hulse canvassed both sides of the Atlantic for finances to buy books, which were then sold to pastors at prices they could afford or even given out to them freely at the conferences that were also highly subsidised. The last time I counted there were 40 such conferences taking place per year right across southern, central, and eastern Africa. In those conferences, Reformed Baptist pastors from Zambia have been the main preachers. The last time I met Erroll on African soil was at an African Pastors Conference in South Africa. He was with Lyn his wife of many years. She was not well and it was clear that this was the last time I would see her. Sure enough, Lyn went to be with the Lord soon after that. It was during one of those conferences in November 2013 in Empangeni, South Africa, that Erroll Hulse suffered the stroke that finally took his life a week agoalmost 4 year later!
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A shocking number of nitrous oxide gas canisters, used to inhale as laughing gas by revellers at this years Boardmasters festival, were seized by police as part of a huge drug crack-down.

A total of 20 people were arrested on suspicion of supplying drugs at the popular festival, which saw more than 50,000 people pour through its gates over the last few days.

Police said that out of the 20 arrests, three were believed to be supplying nitrous oxide and more than 1,000 canisters of the drug were snatched in an effort to stamp out drug dealing at the festival.

Last year, police estimated that only five people were arrested for drug related offences, around one quarter of the number of arrests at Boardmasters this year.

But police commander Ian Drummond-Smith said that although more arrests were made this year, he did not believe that there were more drug dealers at this years festival.

He said: I think we arrested about five people last year for drug offences, this year was a lot more.

We arrested 20 people for drug supply offences, which is really good and we were really pleased with that result.

I dont think it is necessarily that the amount of people dealing drugs at the festival has increased it was just that we worked together with organisers this year and we were a lot more on top of it.

Out of the people arrested, three were believed to be supplying nitrous oxide gas, which is a relatively new thing that we have seen more of in the last five years on the drug scene.

The canisters are things that anyone can get hold of, theyre used to make whipped cream. In these circumstances, you tend to see drug dealers put the gas into balloons to sell, then people inhale from the balloons, its like laughing gas.

We seized well over 1,000 canisters this year.

While the amount of drug offences were up this year, police commander Drummond-Smith told Cornwall Live that the number of thefts reported had decreased.

People either go into the arena and leave their valuables in the their tents and things get stolen when they are out, or people come back go to sleep and thieves come into the tent and take stuff then, the police commander said.

One theft is one too many, this year we had 46 thefts reported  but that is down from 70 last year which is very reassuring.

Police added that although the number of people attending the festival this year had dramatically increased, the amount of crime on the whole, was down.

Mr Drummond-Smith added: The overall policing of the event went very well. There was 10,000 extra people there this year, but overall we recorded less crimes, apart from the drug dealing, but we dont believe that has necessarily increased.

Here is a breakdown of all of the arrests made over the five day festival:
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Controversial plans to transform Bodmins Public Rooms into a four-screen cinema have been granted permission following months of uncertainty.

The Bodmin Public Rooms were put on the market by Bodmin Town Council in December last year.

After a battle between the Bodmin Public Rooms Trust (BPRT) and Merlin cinemas, the town council chose the latter's bid in a highly disputed move.

In May, Craig Johns Architecture submitted a planning application to Cornwall Council on behalf of Merlin cinemas and explained that it planned to start work on the interior and exterior of the Grade two building and would create thirty jobs.

The plans gained listed planning consent on Monday after councillors voted - with 11 supporting the plans, two voting against and one abstaining.

Geoff Greaves, owner and operator of the UK's Merlin Cinemas chain, said: We are delighted with the outcome.

We think it is a really good use for the building which has been underused.

We will finally be able to bring a four screen cinema to Bodmin and from canvassing we have found that it is something much desired by people locally.

We have to complete legal formalities but we are looking to get on and finalise designs.

We will do everything we can to get the project moving as soon as possible. We couldnt have advanced any further if we didnt get this permission so now we have it its all steam ahead.

The cinema, which is set to be named Capital Cinema, will include four screens and architects planned the installation of internal partitions, repair works, provision of insulation to floors and roof, removal of defective elements and replacement "with historically appropriate materials".

Many Bodmin residents were furious in January when Merlin cinemas' bid was accepted by the town council, saying the move was "short sighted".

The BPRT, which wanted to retain the asset as a community venue, even tried to scupper the deal by calling for a judicial review into the voting process.

The reasons mentioned by the opponents to the decision were that the BPRT was trying to keep the building for the public use and that a cinema would damage such an historical place.

Architects clarified in their documents that they would pay particular attention to any changes to the building.

The planning application stated: "This proposal relates to the restoration and conversion of 'The Public Rooms' which is a grand hall situated within the centre of Bodmin.

"The client brief is to convert the dilapidated and neglected structure into a cinema complex for the people of Bodmin.

"The design approach begins with respecting the integrity of the existing historic building.

"All like-for-like repair works are to be provided in traditional materials in order to protect the historic integrity and physical structure of the building.

"In order to protect the historic significance of the listed building, the structure has not been adapted or extended externally; this is to ensure that no impact is caused to the historic asset."

In all, 15 people will be employed full-time and another 15 on a part-time basis, the application revealed. Opening hours have yet to be revealed.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Lamoureux Park was bustling with activity this Saturday, Aug. 12 as Your Arts Council (YAC) celebrated art in its many forms at their second annual YACabuskalooza busker festival.

While the forecast managed to scare a few buskers away, spirits remained high throughout the event. With imported act, Junkyard Symphony stealing the show with their energetic afternoon performance, the day also offered a fair assortment of local talent[DA1] .

The event was created in response to last years approval of the proposal to allow busking in the City of Cornwall.

The city had recently approved busking as a concept, said YAC facilitator Richard Salem. So, we said lets do a busker festival  and YACabuskalooza was born.

Montreal-born guitarist, Michael Taiger said that while busking is deeply ingrained in Montreal culture, its refreshing to see it in celebrated in Cornwall.

This a great event, because people who wouldnt necessarily have the exposure get the chance to perform, said Taiger.

The event featured some great live music, dance, puppetry, and a rare appearance by the sun.

Anybody who is local and performs can come and busk here, said Salem. Its fun, its free, if you arent here, youve missed it, and you will have to wait another year.
CORNWALL, Ontario  In partnership with Google and the Great Waterway, two summer students will be embarking on a 22 km hike, capturing the beauty of the citys waterfront trails.

The new project, called Google Trekker, aims to give people a closer glimpse into more remote locations across Ontario. With a 45-lb backpack in-tow, trekkers are able to capture a 360-degree panoramic image of their surroundings.

Denis Lalonde oversees the Citys Geographic Information Systems, and had been itching to get this mission off the ground for a while now.

Were pleased to finally be expanding off the streets, said Lalonde. Were hoping it really entices people to use the bike path.

Linda Wilson is Tourism Coordinator with Cornwall and the Counties, and sits on the board of directors with the Great Waterway. After hearing that the Great Waterway had been in touch with Google, she was asked to help undertake the project.

When we heard this was happening, they asked if we would map our section for them, said Wilson. We jumped on it.

Spanning from Bay of Quinte to Cornwall and the Counties, the Great Waterway portion of the project will wrap up at Boundary Road with another tourism region taking over afterwards.
ROBBERY, POSSESSION OF A WEAPON FOR A DANGEROUS PURPOSE, BREACH

Cornwall, ON  Morgan Watters, 54 of Cornwall was arrested on August 13th, 2017 and charged with robbery, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breach of undertaking for failing to notify a change of address and failing to keep the peace. It is alleged in the early morning hours of August 13th, 2017 the man took a womans cigarettes after striking her and assaulting her with a kettle. Police were contacted and an investigation ensued. During the investigation the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

BREACH

Cornwall, ON  Alain Boudrias, 40 of Ottawa was arrested on August 13th, 2017 and charged with breach of recognizance for failing to reside at a specified address and for failing to remain in the city of Ottawa. It is alleged on August 13th, 2017 police attended a Water Street address for an unrelated matter and located the man in breach of his conditions. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

THEFT UNDER $5000

Cornwall, ON  Christina Lafrance, 33 and Jacob Benoit, 18 both of Cornwall were arrested on August 11th, 2017 and charged with theft under $5000. It is alleged on August 11th, 2017 the two entered a Cornwall Square store and removed a quantity of chocolate bars making no attempt to pay for the items as they left the store. Police were contacted and located the two persons in the area of Race Street and Marlborough Street. They were taken into custody and found to be wanted on other investigations. Both were charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

BREACH

Cornwall, ON  A 21-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on August 11th, 2017 and charged with breach of recognizance for not residing at a specific address, not being in his residence at all times, communicating with his ex-girlfriend and being within 100 meters of her. He was also charged with breaching four probation orders for failing to keep the peace. It is alleged on August 11th, 2017 the man was found to breach of his conditions when he was located at his ex-girlfriends residence. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as the conditions stem from a domestic incident and would identify the victim in the matter.

Cornwall, ON  Jake Buckshot, 19 of Cornwall was arrested on August 12th, 2017 and charged with breach of undertaking for having consumed alcohol. It is alleged in the early morning hours of August 12th, 2017 the intoxicated man was causing a disturbance in the area of Osborne Avenue and police were contacted to investigate. During the investigation the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

Cornwall, ON  John Cook, 38 of Akwesasne was arrested on August 13th, 2017 and charged with breach of recognizance for communicating with certain individuals and being within 500 meters of them. He was also charged with breach of probation for failing to keep the peace. It is alleged the man had contact with two individuals he has conditions not to communicate with and police were contacted to investigate. During the investigation the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a b bail hearing.
From the National Weather Service: Expect decreasing thunderstorms activity today as much drier air moves into Arizona. No storms are forecast from Tuesday through Friday. Breezy southwest winds are on tap for today and Tuesday.

Monday is a transition day to dry weather across northern Arizona. The large scale pattern this morning has a trough of low pressure moving deepening over the Pacific Northwest, with west southwest flow aloft over Arizona. There is a jet speed max at 200mb over central. For today we expect less storm coverage than the weekend, with scattered afternoon storms around the White Mountains and isolated coverage elsewhere. Breezy southwest winds are anticipated this afternoon.

From tonight through Friday, a drier and stable airmass will cover northern Arizona with west southwest flow aloft continuing. While no showers and thunderstorms are forecast after this evening, there could be a decent amount of mid level cloud cover tonight as a shortwave trough moves through the Great Basin. Min temps the next few mornings should be around 4 degrees below average for the date.

For the weekend, monsoon moisture and instability may return to eastern Arizona Saturday and spread northwestward Sunday. We keep the slight chance of storms going for now.
Yeah, you guessed it.

In 2016, an employee of the Greensboro, NC branch of BB&T was opening up when a masked man approached, pointed a gun at him, and generally went through all the motions of an extremely efficient robbery. The employee tried to alert the police with the handheld alarm device he was carrying, but to his growing horror, no one responded. This incident turned out to be a robbery drill designed for another branch of the bank. The robber was a teller from that bank, and the cops were in on the joke. The employee hadn't been informed for the sake of authenticity.

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Later that same year, two sisters aged six and 11 had their day thoroughly ruined when they were shopping in a H&M in Dublin. A man training the staff had chosen that day to stage a fake robbery, and the pair ended up hiding in a changing room with their mother, fearing for their lives as the fake robber screamed threats and demands.

The idea behind these mock robberies is sound: Banks and stores do get robbed for real, and it's good to know how you'd perform in such a situation (and maybe receive some pointers from the professionals on how not to poop your pants in quite so visible a fashion). In practice, however, mock robberies almost always wind up with a ski-mask-wearing middle manager scaring the shit out of entry-level store employees and nobody learning anything.

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As you can probably guess, both BB&T and H&M were promptly slapped with lawsuits. In another case from 2007, a masked gunman fake-robbed a New Jersey pharmacy so hard that the victim got diagnosed with PTSD. Not that the situation is always safe for the "robbers," either. In 2011, another pharmacy in West Kern Water District, CA managed to thoroughly traumatize a poor employee with their mock robbery. The "robber" in that case was the company's quality control manager, who was hesitant to put on his ski mask because he was afraid that the cops would arrive and shoot him. He was ultimately coerced into the role by a supervisor setting up the exercise. The supervisor, incidentally, hadn't managed to inform the police about the drill, leading to a situation wherein a guy who didn't want to play a robber fake-robbed a woman who didn't know the robbery was fake, while the police could have stormed in at any moment and shot the "robber," whose biggest fear about the exercise was getting shot by the police. Those are near-lethal levels of irony.
So don't judge Bruce too harshly when he grumps like a gramps every time he gets near a microphone. In addition to the eardrum thing, his daughter described another increasingly difficult and painful hurdle he must face every day: "I think he just has this vibe where he feels like he's gotta kinda do a cool man ." OK, you could have just said that.

4 Star Trek: Nemesis Made Tom Hardy Smoke Crack

Many people don't know Tom Hardy starred in a Star Trek film. Tom Hardy wishes he was in that group -- early on in his career, he appeared in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) as Captain Picard's younger, sulkier, telepathic rapist-ier clone. It was not a good movie, and the 25-year-old actor dealt with this fact by self-medicating with booze and crack cocaine.

Paramount Pictures

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That's the diametric opposite reaction we'd have upon finding out we'd turn into Patrick Stewart someday.

Not that Hardy wasn't prone to self-destructive behavior in the first place. In an interview, he recalled an incident when he was just 11 and a police officer visited his school to warn the kids about the hazards of sniffing glue. It, um, didn't have the intended effect. Long story short, he was arrested for joyriding while in possession of a firearm at age 17. It wasn't until he woke up in an alleyway, wallowing in a puddle of (presumably his own) puke and blood, that he decided to check himself into rehab.

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Hardy stayed on the relative straight and narrow, and his choice to pursue acting paid off as he landed roles in Black Hawk Down and the acclaimed Band Of Brothers miniseries. And when got cast as the main villain in Nemesis, many believed he was on track to become Hollywood's next A-list leading man. Unfortunately, Nemesis was to the Star Trek franchise what George Lucas' prequels were to, uh, cinema in general. The movie flopped like a boardwalk halibut, sending Hardy to a place where he would've "sold mother for a rock of crack."
Channel programs News

XChange 2017: Here's A Sure-fire Way To Improve Your Sales Team's Prospecting

Michael Novinson

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Solution providers should have their salespeople dedicate an hour each day to prospecting and focus on building relationships through telephone calls, according to an XChange 2017 speaker.

Simple, direct telephone conversations with prospects will enable channel partners to overcome common brush-offs, stand apart from their email-dependent peers, and build true connections, said Keith Lubner, founder of Philadelphia, Pa.-based Channel Consulting Corp.

"The telephone, as crazy as it sounds, is now our new weapon," Lubner told solution providers gathered Sunday at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center is Kissimmee, Fla. "You'll go above those robocalls because people are aching to talk to real people. They're so tired of getting emails."

[RELATED: Champion Solutions CEO Chris Pyle: The Channel Must Be 'The Tip Of The Spear' In Cloud Market]

And given that end-user executives typically have a phone attached to their hips at all times, Lubner said solution providers can initiate that meaningful dialogue even when the client is out of the office.

"[Today's salesforces] haven't been taught to make a phone call," Lubner said. "We've gotten away from that, quite honestly."

Lubner also urged channel executives to carve out one hour each morning for their salespeople to do prospecting via phone, social media, email or text. Companies that require their sales team to spent a certain amount of time each day contacting prospects will see their sales pipeline grow within a week, Lubner said.

If possible, Lubner said solution providers should have salespeople do prospecting first thing in the morning so that they finish one of their most difficult tasks right out of the gate. This then frees up the rest of the day for the sales team to conduct follow-up calls, make visits, and take care of some administrative tasks, according to Lubner.

"Just get it done first thing," Lubner said. "They'll feel good."

Lubner advised solution providers to have their salespeople follow a five-step prospecting process that is simple, direct, and to the point. He urged channel partners to avoid starting prospecting calls with the dreaded 'How are you doing today?' and instead use the prospect's name, introduce themselves, and move quickly to the reason for the call.

"They think, 'that [starting with 'How are you doing?'] is how you have a conversation with a friend,'" Lubner said. "Yeah, once they're your friend, you can have that conversation and they'll reply accordingly. But [in this instance], you don't know them. How can you expect them to reply [honestly]?"

And at the end of their pitch, Lubner said most salespeople put the ball in the prospect's court, asking them what would be a good day to meet. Instead, Lubner said salespeople should give a few periods they would be available for a meeting, and ask which of those times would work best for the prospect.

"You have to give them options," Lubner said. "Because if they start dialoguing with you at this point, the challenges will work themselves out. They really will."

Part of what Lubner said causes paralysis in salespeople is the fear of rejection.

Lubner said objections typically take three forms: a reflex response such as 'I don't have enough time,' or 'no thanks' in response to, 'Can I help you?'; a brush-off such as "send me more information," or a material objection.

There are basic frameworks and techniques that Lubner said can help partners get past reflex responses and brush-offs and reframe the conversation. In the examples above, Lubner said these would include asking prospects what specific information they would like to be sent, or pointing out that the offering could help create more time for the business owner.

"You want to get to an objection, because that's the true essence of what they're about," Lubner said. "But most of the time, they come back at us with a reflex, and we think it's a real rejection."

Alliance Technology Partners has struggled with prospecting since employees are typically wearing many different hats and usually find themselves responsible for everything from client support to operations to administration, according to CEO Bryan Ferrario.

In addition to taking up Lubner's recommendation for a dedicated prospecting hour, Ferrario said the Chesterfield, Mo.-based solution provider should work on its pitch to prospects. Alliance hired a telemarketing firm three months ago to help woo prospects, but Ferrario said they haven't had any luck at all.

"Maybe their message has been wrong," Ferrario said.
Channel programs News

Pax8 Execs: Solution Providers That Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost Will Boost Valuation, Be More Efficient

Michael Novinson

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Solution providers can spend less money getting new customers and boost their valuation by embracing modern marketing techniques and driving cross-sell opportunities, according to Pax8 executives.

Rayn Walsh, senior vice president of partners solutions at the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based cloud distributor, said solution providers should look to spend less than $24 for every $1 of new recurring revenue. Leveraging sales and marketing more effectively will enable solution providers to get a better return on their investment, Walsh said.

"If you can get that under $24, the rest of that is gravy," Walsh said during a solution track session Monday at The Channel Company's XChange 2017 conference. "It goes to the bottom line."

[Related: Pax8 Executive: Solution Providers Must Lower Customer Onboarding Costs, Bundle Products To Win In The Cloud]

Reducing customer acquisition cost will enable solution providers to increase their valuation and run a more efficient shop, Walsh said. One of the best ways to do this is by owning a niche, he said, meaning the company must be one of the top three providers in a particular geography, technology or vertical area of focus.

"Long are the days where you can just broadly shoot," Walsh said. "You've got to own something."

Solution providers that don't find themselves in the top three of any category need to rethink their strategy and make it specific enough to own a certain segment of the market, Walsh said.

When it comes to marketing, Walsh said no one is reading long emails anymore that describe a company in great detail. Instead, solution providers should communicate with prospective customers using short blurbs and a call to action.

"That requires that you capture what your secret sauce is in the shortest amount of space," Walsh said. "Be very proscriptive about what it is."

Modern marketing techniques also require that solution providers examine conversion rates, ad tracking and search engine optimization to assess what's working and what's not, Walsh said. The channel should examine how prospects are coming to their company as well, according to Walsh.

"We have a lot of new developments, which means you need to be able to know what's effective and what's not," Walsh said.

Another way solution providers can maximize their return of marketing dollars is having someone dedicated to social media, according to Nick Heddy, Pax8's vice president of sales.

"More are more people are doing research and already have buying decisions made before they look for a resource to get that solution from," Heddy said during the solutions track session.

Once solution providers land a prospect, Heddy recommended having stack design and complementary products ready so that upsell and cross-sell opportunities can be examined at the time of the initial buying decision.

"Once you have already spent the money to acquire that customer, the easiest way to then reduce customer acquisition costs is to sell them something else," Heddy said.

Walsh said it's much easier to sell additional products and services to existing customers that trust you than it is to convince a prospective customer to make its first purchase.

"It's not to be dismissed," Walsh said. "If you're not doing it proactively, you should."

Recurring revenue transactions give solution providers the best path for exponentially grow their business. Walsh said a solution provider selling an additional $1,000 of recurring revenue each month will have brought in $78,000 by the end of the year.

"If you start that recurring revenue stream, the value starts to kick in right away," Walsh said. "If you can repeat this performance, you're increasing the value of your firm."

LinuxCertified has been attempting to expand its line card beyond hardware and services, but has found its customers are hesitant to move data into the cloud due to perceived security risk, according to company President Rajesh Goyal.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said it needs distribution to help with persuading its customers to move to the cloud and eventually with handling the mechanics of migrating workloads off-premise. Goyal said he's interested in boosting LinuxCertified's valuation by driving more recurring revenue transactions.

"We need to convince customers that cloud is as secure as data in-house," Goyal said.
Internet of things News

Solution Providers: Make IoT Less About 'Things,' More About Data Interpretation

Gina Narcisi

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The hottest IT trend on everyone's mind  the Internet of Things (IoT)  still has glaring security risks that are turning many solution providers off from building their own practices.

However, IoT's biggest problem is also presenting the greatest opportunity for solution providers to step in with data management expertise, according to a panel of solution providers in the midst of building their own IoT practices who spoke at The Channel Company's XChange 2017 conference in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday.

David Carter, director of technical solutions for Greenville, S.C.-based solution provider Encore Technology Group, asked the audience of channel partners why they were hesitant to build out their own practices and was met with answers that ranged from confusion around IoT in general, to security being too great an obstacle.

[Related: Samsung Enterprise IoT VP: 'We Can't Succeed Without Our Partners' In IoT]

"We haven't ventured into IoT because solution providers already know what's wrong. And what's wrong is there is an inherent lack of focus in providing security around IoT devices," Carter said.

It's safe to say that businesses are already seeing a plethora of connected devices. This creates as many opportunities for solution providers as it does vulnerabilities, said John Holman, president and CEO of Pax Advisory, a solution provider and consulting firm.

"As we connect to things in the air, on the surface, and things under the water, what happens now? The more [connection] points you have, the harder it is to monitor," Holman said.

Solutions Information Systems (Solutions IS) is one solution provider of many in the audience that has yet to build out its own IoT practice, but the company is working on building awareness around IoT within its customer base.

The Houston, Texas-based solution provider supports small to mid-sized business customers, many in the financial, and oil and gas industry. Security, especially for these customers, is the biggest roadblock to IoT adoption, according to Tim Loney, president and CEO of Solutions IS.

"These industries are going to be very skeptical until the market is more mature," Loney said.

But once they are ready, customers are going to be relying on solution providers for data interpretation, Loney said.

"I think [solution providers] should take more of a consultative approach to understanding the information being collected," he said. "We are there to help them understand what their hardware, systems, and traffic is trying to tell them."

Encore Technology's Carter argued that whether they know it or not, most solution providers already have an IoT practice.

Many partners today are selling products that collect data, such as routers. These devices are interacting with other devices without human intervention. All those sensors need to be managed by someone, and they need to be managed securely, Carter said.

"Who is making sure that it's OK that the sensor that is attached to the heart monitor in the NICU goes out to the internet to be aggregated by a health care system and then is used by other healthcare devices to make decisions about the patient?" Carter said. "All of that is greenfield, and its a huge market opportunity."
Mobility News

Review: Lenovo's T470S Is A Touch-Screen ThinkPad In The $1,000 Range

Kyle Alspach

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In some ways, Lenovo's ThinkPad brand is the anti-Mac. While Apple offers just a very few laptops -- primarily the MacBook Pro and MacBook, with the aging MacBook Air still hanging on -- Lenovo has built a ThinkPad for every possible user preference.

But that's as long as those preferences don't demand much pizzazz in the way of looks. The classic black ThinkPads aren't even trying to play in the same league as the MacBooks on style.

Still, while Lenovo's strategy of selling so many niche varieties is very un-Apple, the actual user experience with many ThinkPads is in fact on par with that of Macs.

[Related: Lenovo's Second-Gen ThinkPad X1 Yoga Is A Smooth Operator]

The latest Lenovo laptop we've been trying out in the CRN Test Center is the ThinkPad T470S. It's the third ThinkPad we've tested in the past few months, with the others being the X1 Carbon and the X1 Yoga.

Like those laptops, the T470S gets the most important things right, in our view. The touchpad is close to flawless, and the keyboard is a pleasure to type on. It's very fast with a top Intel processor, and fairly light, too, at 2.9 pounds. The battery life is solid; we got 5.5 hours on a charge in our tryout, with heavy usage and the brightness set to 75 percent.

To Lenovo at least, there are enough differences from other premium ThinkPad machines to warrant offering the T470S as a device of its own. Unlike the X1 Carbon, the laptop offers a touch-screen display option. But unlike the X1 Yoga, the touch screen only folds 180 degrees backward, rather than the full 360 degrees.

The T470S also isn't as thin as the X1 models, which no doubt helps keep the price down while giving space for large ports such as Ethernet (RJ45 Gigabit LAN). All around, there are a lot of ports on the laptop, with others including three USB-A ports, USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, SD media card reader, micro SIM, and an optional smart card reader.

Maybe the biggest differentiator of all from the X1 models is on the price, with the ThinkPad T470S starting at $1,079. By comparison, the X1 Yoga starts at nearly $1,700 while the X1 Carbon has a starting price of $1,400.

We think that price helps make Lenovo's ThinkPad T470S a worthwhile consideration for anyone who's drawn to getting a workhorse ThinkPad with some, but not all, of the premium features out there.
Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
Networking News

XChange 2017: Ruckus Launches New Program That Gives Partners A Free Wireless Controller

Mark Haranas

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Ruckus Wireless unveiled a new program at XChange 2017 on Monday that gives partners its wireless controller for free with the purchase of a Ruckus access point.

"Between now and the end of September, if you buy a Ruckus access point, we'll give you cloud for free," said Shawn Lucas, director of global solutions engineering at Ruckus Wireless (pictured). "This is giving partners the opportunity to sell the cloud controller or give it away. It's 100 percent gross profit for the channel. You can do that for up to 200 access points."

Lucas said partners could get the free wireless controller for up to one year; the goal is to drive more cloud sales via the channel.

[Related: XChange 2017: APC Bridging The Worlds Of IT And OT Together]

Blake Schwank, CEO of Colorado Computer Support, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based solution provider and Ruckus partner, touted the vendor's channel dedication and support after the program was revealed.

"Ruckus does a great job engaging the channel, probably better than any other wireless solution that's out there," said Schwank. "They seem to be the ones that work the hardest getting engaged with the channel, which is a great thing."

However, Schwank expressed some concern about the future of Ruckus with Arris International expecting to acquire the company later this year.

Ruckus was acquired by Brocade Communications last year for $1.2 billion. Brocade-Ruckus is set to be acquired by Broadcom this fall for $5.9 billion; Broadcom plans to then sell Ruckus and its IP networking business to Arris International immediately.

"It is a little bit of a concern just because with what we've seen with other [vendors] that's been acquired. Some partners dont miss a beat. Some, it can be very painful," said Schwank. "When Meraki got acquired by Cisco, it was a lot different and harder to work with Meraki."

Schwank reassured XChange attendees that partners wouldn't have any issues selling Ruckus once the acquisition closes.

"When I met the CEO of Arris  I said, 'What can I expect?' He said, 'I expect you to keep being Ruckus,'" said Lucas. "So for those of you that really like Ruckus -- like the culture, like the people you work with -- we're going to keep having fun. We're going to keep being Ruckus."

More than anything, we're going to stay focused on the channel. We dont take customers directly. We never have, and we're not going to," he said. "We're going to keep working through you, driving through you, educating you and making sure you make money on our products."

Ruckus is expecting to be acquired by Arris in October. "The acquisition is going to happen. We're not worried by that," Lucas said.

Ruckus partners have until Sept. 30 to enroll in the free wireless controller promotion.

XChange 2017, run by CRN parent The Channel Company, is taking place Aug. 13 to Aug. 15 in Orlando, Fla.
Security News

Kaspersky Lab Loses SVP Of B2B Sales Canavan To Globalscape

Sarah Kuranda

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Kaspersky Lab Senior Vice President of B2B Sales Michael Canavan has left the security vendor to take a new role leading professional services at Globalscape, CRN has learned.

Canavan left Kaspersky a little over a month ago to take the new role, one source said.

Canavan joined Kaspersky in 2010, first leading the company's pre-sales systems engineering for North America and, more recently, leading its B2B sales team in the region. His responsibilities included overseeing the company's channel program and partners.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Kaspersky Lab Names Stein As North American Channel Chief]

A Kaspersky spokesperson confirmed Canavan's departure in an email to CRN, saying he stepped down from the role. The spokesperson said Alexander Moiseev, chief sales officer, and Angelo Gentile, executive vice president, finance and operations, North America are leading B2B sales in the region while the company identifies a replacement.

"[Kaspersky Lab] greatly appreciates Mikes contributions to the success of the B2B business in the region for the past seven years, and we wish him well in his next endeavor," the Kaspersky spokesperson said.

Canavan and Globalscape did not respond to CRN requests for comment.

News of Canavan's departure comes shortly after Kaspersky appointed a new North American channel chief, Jason Stein. Stein replaced former North American channel chief Leslie Bois, who left the company in December to take a channel chief role at Veracode (acquired by CA Technologies). The Kaspersky channel had been led by Canavan in the interim.

Matt Johnson, CEO of Phalanx Secure Solutions, a Baltimore, Md.-based Globalscape partner, said he hopes Canavan can bring some sales expertise to his new role at Globalscape. He said that is an area in which Globalscape recently has been weaker with partners and he hopes Canavan's sales and B2B experience will boost the security vendor's efforts there.

"Hopefully he can come in and make things better," Johnson said.
GoDaddy finally took action against the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi hating-spewing site, giving the website 24 hours to move the domain. The decision came after the Daily Stormer published five fat facts (thats not a typo) about Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed in Charlottesville when an alleged white supremacist plowed into a crowd with his car.

The article, which called Heyer  among other things  a fat, childless 32-old slut, claimed she was killed in a road rage incident. It called her a drain on society who was too fat to dodge a Dodge Challenger. The ridiculous sickness spews on and on.

GoDaddy tweeted:

.@GoDaddy you host The Daily Stormer - they posted this on their site. Please retweet if you think this hate should be taken down & banned. pic.twitter.com/fqTtGoTbmn  Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) August 14, 2017

In a statement to TechCrunch, GoDaddy added, If no action is taken after 24 hours, we will cancel the service. Given this latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service.

Although the Daily Stormer was dubbed the top hate site in America back in February by the Southern Poverty Law Center, GoDaddy didnt see fit to ban it then. In fact, as the Washington Post pointed out, GoDaddy previously said that despite the tasteless and ignorant content on the site, it was protected by the First Amendment. The company told the Daily Beast in July that a Daily Stormer article threatening to track down the family members of CNN staffers did not violate Domains by Proxys terms of service.

On the heels of GoDaddys termination announcement, a post appeared on the Daily Stormer that claimed, This site is now under the control of Anonymous.

Daily Stormer Screenshot of Daily Stormer website

Come on! Why would Anonymous leave up the other hate posts and make a TangoDown post like it was a new article?

Daily Stormer Screenshot of Daily Stormer website on which it claims it was hacked by Anonymous

The post about the supposed takeover by Anonymous includes tidbits like: It took a united force of elite hackers from around the world to breach the systems and the firewall. It gave the site 24 hours to stay online before it would be taken down. Additionally, besides holding off on dropping the data from the servers, the alleged Anonymous post says, We have also gathered location data on the founder of the site and are sending our allies in Lagos to pay him a visit in person.

Pffft. A non-digital attack doesnt sound like what the hacker collective usually does. Of course, since anyone can claim to be part of Anonymous, one person cannot say for sure what everyone claiming to be Anonymous is doing. Nevertheless, YourAnonNews tweeted:

We have no confirmation that "Anonymous" is involved yet. Looks more like a DS stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host. https://t.co/ikXXRBfC5p  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017

Now that seems much more believable to me.

We find claim that it took a "UNITED FORCE OF ELITE HACKERS" to hack a CMS run by amateurs incredibly amusing.  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017

YourAnonNews also suggested:

This is likely to be the derps from dailystormer engaging in a silly troll to woo their clueless base. If we're proven wrong, so be it. https://t.co/dkiXGCDEwY  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017
Milford Police

MILFORD >> A man attempted to fight police officers and struck one in the face with his foot, police said.

John Beddington, 48, of Mountain Road, Seymour, was charged Saturday with third-degree assault, assaulting a police personnel, criminal attempt to assault a police personnel, interfering with an officer and second-degree breach of peace, police said in a news release.
Connecticut residents looking to expand their families are in a good place, according to a new report by WalletHub.

The site ranked each state on different aspects of raising a baby from cost to health care and

baby and family-friendliness." The "friendliness" categories measure criteria such as child care centers, mom groups and parental leave policy.
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HARTFORD - If the states craft beer makers are feeling squeezed out of markets because of a recent mega-merger that created the largest beer company in the U.S.  theyve got a senators ear.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, said Monday he wants to hear from them.

Its a behemoth that will have massive influence, Blumenthal said of the $106 billion merger of Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller approved last year by the U.S. Department of Justice and company shareholders.

Blumenthal said the new mega beer company could threaten small craft brewers now thriving in Connecticut by pressuring distributors to drop their products or drive up the price of ingredients.

It will control half the U.S. market and there is huge potential for abuse, Blumenthal said of the new Busch-Miller company.

Blumenthal on Monday toured a Thomas Hooker Brewery in Hartford and told brewery owners to notify his office of any discriminatory practices they encounter. The senator said he can file a complaint with the DOJ and hearings could be held before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Peter Doering, a partner in Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, said hes concerned about the future given the merger.

We want to make sure craft brewers have the opportunity to work with distributors and that [Anheuser-Busch-SAB Miller] does not exert discriminatory practices, Doering said. They have a lot of influence over distributors.

More Information Here are some craft beer facts: 49 craft beer breweries in Connecticut Breweries represent $569 million in annual economic impact Breweries last year produced 129,825 barrels of beer Source: The Brewers Association See More Collapse

Beer, whether a craft brew or a mass produced product such as Budweiser, is distributed to stores and bars by small, family owned companies that operate within a defined territory.

The fear is the new Busch/Miller company could pressure those independent distributors to stop offering a craft beer, withhold products or sell only certain brands, Blumenthal said.

In 2016, the states 49 craft beer breweries pumped $569 million into the states economy and sold 129,825 barrels of beer, according to the Brewers Association.

Rules set

During Senate hearings last year over the merger, Blumenthal said Anheuser-Bush and SABMiller agreed to conditions to protect craft breweries from being cut out of the distribution loop.

Blumenthal said the newly merged beer company cannot tell distributors to only sell certain products, force distributors to choose between products or buy ingredients to drive up the price or interrupt the supply.

I know the best settlement is useless if not enforced, and thats what Im here for, Blumenthal told a group of craft beer makers.

Curt Cameron, owner of the Thomas Hooker Brewery, said hes concerned about the impact of the merger, although he said so far he has not seen an impact. Hooker products are sold through a Budweiser distributor.

Im worried about the pressures they could put on them, Cameron said. There could be some challenges. Miller has bought so many craft breweries its growth is something we have to monitor.

Blumenthal said craft breweries deserve to be protected.Its a great American success story and its important to recognize the economic impact, he said.
A 34-year-old Bridgeport man has pleaded guilty to distributing heroin that led to the death of a Monroe man last November.

On Monday, Careem Bentley, also known as C-Lows, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today in New Haven federal court to one count of distribution of heroin.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/usa-ready-to-work-with-india-to-modernise-its-military-capabilities-says-top-american-commander-3926711.html

USA ready to work with India to modernise its military capabilities, says top American commander

Washington: The US is ready to help India modernise its military and jointly they can improve India's military capabilities in "significant and meaningful" ways, a top American commander has said.

Over the past decade, the defence trade between the US and India has touched nearly $15 billion and is expected to gallop in the next few years, as India is looking at the US for some of the latest military hardware including fighter jets, latest unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft carriers.

"I believe that the US is ready to help India modernise its military. India has been designated a major defence partner of the US. This is a strategic declaration that's unique to India and the US. It places India on the same level that we have many of our treaty allies," Commander of the US Pacific Command or PACOM Admiral Harry Harris told PTI.

"This is important, and I believe that together we will be able to improve India's military capabilities in significant and meaningful ways," said Harris, who has been personally pushing for a strong India-US defence relationship.

Representational image. Reuters

The Admiral said he is fairly happy with the level of defence cooperation that exists today between the two sides. "We have been partners with India in the Malabar exercise series, the maritime exercise, for a number of years. I participated in one of the very first ... one of the early Malabars, in 1995," he recollected, reflecting on the decades-old association with India.

Noting that the exercise, and the complexity of it, has improved steadily over the years, he said he is very pleased that Japan is part of Malabar. "I think the trilateral relationship between India and Japan and the US, that relationship is very important," he said, while advocating that Australia too should join this group.

"We could explore together bringing Australia into the exercise. That has merit. There's a lot of common interests in the Indian Ocean, between Australia and India. But that's really a decision for India to make, and then a decision for Australia to participate, if so invited. I'll leave that to those two countries," Harris said in response to a question.

According to Harris, there is a lot that India and the US can do together. "I'm pleased that India is a participant in Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the Pacific exercise that's hosted every other year in Hawaii. I'm pleased in general with where the relationship is going, and I look forward to more as the years progress," he said.

Responding to a question on India's decision against the American move to have a joint India-US naval patrol in the Indian Ocean, Harris said the US is not disappointed at all. "I'm not disappointed. This is on the patrols ... I'm not disappointed at all, I'm encouraged that we were able to have a discussion about it, and I hope that that discussion remains open," he said. "We stand ready to participate at whatever level India wants us to participate," Harris said.

Harris refrained from giving any answer on India and the United States starting to share information about Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean region. "I don't want to answer the question, because I don't want to imply that I'm sharing intelligence, or anything like that. I'll just simply say that a close relationship between US and India is clearly helpful to the United States, and I believe helpful to India as well," Harris said in response.

Harris reiterated that he believes that the deepening US-India relationship is the defining strategic partnership for the 21st century. "I'm very interested, and very supportive, of what's happening in India. The Indian armed forces, and that whole piece ... I think that the opportunities for our two countries are simply great. It's fantastic," Harris said.

Noting that India remains an important line of effort at Pacific Command, Harris said America's national leadership is working closely with India's to grow the partnership between the two countries.

Published Date: Aug 13, 2017 05:57 pm | Updated Date: Aug 13, 2017 05:57 pm
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.
Social Security is a large portion of many Americans retirement incomes, and Congress is working on a number of solutions to strengthen the program and increase efficiency for beneficiaries.

At the end of June, I joined Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson of Texas in introducing the Providing Choice for Social Security Retirees Act. This bill would provide Social Security Old-Age (OASI) beneficiaries the option to claim a portion of their delayed retirement credit in a one-time, partial lump sum.

A modernized Social Security should allow seniors to make their own retirement decisions rather than pressure them to conform to a one-size-fits-all program. This additional option ensures seniors who choose to remain in the workforce beyond their full retirement age have greater flexibility to determine how they access their benefits. Workers have paid taxes into Social Security with the expectation their benefits will be there in retirement, and they should be able to choose the method of receiving these benefits which best suits their needs.

Another crucial part of strengthening Social Security is preventing fraud and abuse. I am a cosponsor of the Social Security Disability Insurance and Unemployment Benefits Double Dip Elimination Act to prevent beneficiaries from receiving Social Security disability benefits and unemployment benefits at the same time. This is an important step to preserve Social Security disability benefits for those who truly are unable to work.

Unfortunately, fraud committed by those entrusted to administer Social Security benefits is also a concern. One example made the headlines earlier this year when Social Security Administration (SSA) Administrative Law Judge David Daugherty and Kentucky disability lawyer Eric Conn pleaded guilty in a scam involving $550 million in fraudulent SSA disability claims. As a judge with the responsibility to decide disability claims on behalf of the SSA, Mr. Daugherty admitted to accepting more than $600,000 in cash in exchange for awarding benefits in more than 3,000 cases brought forth by Mr. Conn.

Despite his guilty plea, the SSA still did not have the authority to revoke Mr. Daughertys retirement benefits. Under current law, Mr. Daugherty could only lose these benefits if convicted of criminal offenses related to treason and espionage. To close this loophole, I cosponsored the Holding SSA Employees Accountable Act to prohibit SSA employees convicted of a felony related to their official job duties from receiving their federal retirement benefits.

Addressing Social Security fraud is not just about going after those who have broken the law but also protecting current and future beneficiaries. When benefits are paid to ineligible individuals, it reduces resources for those who truly need access to these benefits and frustrates taxpayers who are expected to foot the bill.

In addition to protecting Social Security funds from fraud, we are also working to ensure the safety of Americans personal information. Ten years ago, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo requiring all federal departments and agencies to eliminate the unnecessary use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and look into alternative methods of identification. A report issued in July shows some progress has been made, but we still have a long way to go.

This is why I cosponsored legislation last Congress, which was signed into law, to remove SSNs from Medicare cards. On the Ways and Means Committee, we continue to work on ways to cut down on the use of SSNs in government and employer documentation.

We have a lot of important work to do to shore up Social Security and protect beneficiaries. By cutting down on fraud and providing more choices to retirees, we can create a stronger Social Security which better serves the American workforce.
Every year my office welcomes new interns, both in Nebraska and on Capitol Hill. Throughout my time in the Senate, the interns who have served in my office have proven to be invaluable. They are often the first person you meet when Nebraskans come to share their opinions with me. Their assistance helps me better serve our state.

In Lincoln, Kearney, Scottsbluff, and Omaha, our interns join with permanent staff to help find solutions to issues affecting Nebraskans. Eric Kros, of Omaha who interns in my Omaha office, for example, said that his internship was a good way to bridge my interest in politics with my desire to serve Nebraska. JB Davis, also from Omaha, agreed with Eric. He told me he enjoyed interning with and learning from many wonderful people dedicated to making sure the voice of Nebraska is heard in Washington.

Our interns didnt just answer phones or grab coffees, they went out and did real work in our communities. Those experiences, Alex Kuszak from Lincoln, told me were unlike any other. He particularly enjoyed one of the most fun projects our office has done. He said his favorite part of the internship has been working with the Veterans History Project, interviewing veterans, and helping tell their stories so that generations to come can look back and understand the sacrifices made by those who came before them.

I recently had the honor of sharing Alexs work with the Library of Congress. His interviews with veterans will be archived so future generations can learn from Nebraskans who served in war.

In Washington, our interns are the ones who first answer your calls, lead tours of the Capitol, and process requests for flags flown over the U.S. Capitol. Amanda Kowalewski, from Gothenburg, said interning in Washington gave her a chance to be in the trenches of our public policy debates, and Justus Hanson, from Kearney, explained, It has been so rewarding to know that the work we do here every day is being done to serve this nation and the great people of Nebraska.

Along with Molly Abboud from Omaha, they both agreed that interning gave them the opportunity to serve others.

All of my interns have helped me better serve Nebraska. At our weekly Nebraska Breakfast, which occurs every Wednesday when both the House and Senate are in session, all of the Nebraska delegation used some of their time to personally thank their interns. Id like to use this space to thank them, as well. They have worked tirelessly to assist the people of our state this summer. I hope they learned a lot from their experiences and trust they found serving the state of Nebraska to be as rewarding as I find it to be.

Internships are available throughout the year in my Washington, D.C. and Nebraska offices. We are always looking for Nebraska college students who are interested in serving their community. I encourage all Nebraskans who are interested to apply for this opportunity to learn more about our government and the legislative process. Details about the application process can be found on my website.
Now in their eighth year, the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrate the best New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing; fiction and non-fiction. Its been a remarkable year, and a tough one for our international judging panels, said awards founder Craig Sisterson. After record entries last year, we really weren't sure what to expect in 2017. None of our previous winners were in the running, nor some other great Kiwi crime writers who'd been multiple-times finalists. In fact, eighteen of the nineteen authors who'd been finalists in the first few years of the awards were MIA.
Chancellor Philip Hammond confirmed that Britain would leave the EU Customs Union in 2019

Finally, its sorted. Until yesterday, the anti-Brexiteers known as Remoaners had high hopes of Philip Hammond, the Chancellor.

His statement on The Andrew Marr Show last month that failure to reach an amicable deal with the EU would be a very, very bad outcome for Britain was seen as an attack on his Brexiteer colleagues in the Cabinet (and, indeed, on the Prime Minister).

But yesterday he appeared as joint author of a newspaper article with the most adamantine Brexiteer in the Cabinet, the International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox. The two supposed foes declared that in March 2019, Britain would not just be leaving the EU but also we will leave the Customs Union and be free to negotiate the best trade deals around the world as an independent, open, trading nation.

Although the Cabinet Brexiteers were content with Hammonds proposal that there should be a transition period after March 2019, pending a final settlement of the countrys arrangements with the EU, the Chancellor had given the impression he was bending to the demands of the CBI that Britain remain within the Customs Union during that unspecified period.

Blunder

This they regarded as a fatal blunder  and not just because they suspected the CBI (which had campaigned for Britain to give up sterling for the euro) of seeking to keep the UK in the EU by the back door.

As Shanker Singham, chairman of the special trade commission of the Legatum Institute (a group consulted regularly by the Government), warned last week: The UK must be able to provide the clarity of being outside the Customs Union on Day 1 of Brexit. If such clarity does not exist, then other countries will not think the UK is serious about executing an independent trade policy and they will quickly lose patience and move on.

The point is that while remaining a member of the EU Customs Union, you cant unilaterally negotiate trade deals with other countries  which would wreck one of the fundamental purposes of Brexit.

Last week, the man appointed by Theresa May and Dr Fox to be our chief trade advisor, Crawford Falconer, arrived from New Zealand to take up his post. If the Government had given way to the demands of the CBI, Professor Falconer  renowned for his expertise in trade negotiations across the world  might as well have returned immediately to the Antipodes. That will now not happen, thank goodness (I speak as someone who has met the redoubtable New Zealander).

In the circumstances, it is almost comical that David Miliband appeared yesterday as the author of a column in The Observer demanding a second referendum on Brexit, and declaring Philip Hammond is playing an important, even valiant role in defying what the former Labour Foreign Secretary termed the delusion of Dr Fox (and other hard Brexiteers in the Government).

Comic timing: David Miliband demanded a second referendum in a newspaper column but he had the rug pulled from under him following Mr Hammond's comments

Not only has Hammond pulled the rug from under Milibands feet: his argument for a second referendum  the eternal demand of the Remoaners  is also dead and buried. We are going to leave in March 2019: full stop.

Any referendum thereafter about EU membership would not be on the basis of our previous terms. We would be applying as a new member, obliged to agree a timetable for joining the euro, and without the mega-billions rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher. Good luck selling that to the British people, Mr Miliband.

In any case, the nation has not changed its collective mind since the referendum in June 2016. If anything, views have hardened in the direction set by the result. A survey of 3,293 people published on Friday by the London School of Economics showed that even those who had voted Remain would prefer the sort of Brexit deal the LSEs team described as hard.

A total of 51.3 per cent of Remain voters backed a Brexit deal which delivered full control over immigration and led to lower numbers of migrants from the EU. No fewer than 54.7 per cent of Remainers said that the UK should pay nothing to the EU by means of a divorce bill.

And 52.2 per cent of Remainers told the LSE researchers that we should entirely free British law from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Unsurprisingly, a still higher proportion of self-identifying Leave voters supported what the LSE termed hard Brexit.

Monstrous

This clearly disappointed the most voluble critic of the Brexiteers on the Tory parliamentary benches, Anna Soubry. In her own newspaper article yesterday, she lamented a sense of resignation among most people who voted Remain that we have to man up and make the most of what we know will be a rotten Brexit.

Critic: Anna Soubry (left) claimed Liam Fox (right) one of the Brexit ideologues who had brought down previous Tory PMs - including Mrs Thatcher'

This former business minister under David Cameron described the likes of Dr Fox as the sort of Brexit ideologue who had brought down previous Tory PMs, among whom she listed John Major, her old boss Cameron  and Mrs Thatcher!

It is a monstrous misrepresentation to say that Thatcher was brought down by Brexit ideologues.

It was two days after Mrs T declared No! No! No! to Brussels plans for a federal European state that her deputy, Geoffrey Howe, resigned in protest, precipitating the leadership challenge by his fellow supporter of British membership of the euro, Michael Heseltine.

In other words, it was Soubrys fellow pro-EU ideologues who brought down Thatcher. By intimating yesterday that she would vote in Parliament against the Government over a hard Brexit, Soubry signalled her readiness to bring down Theresa May over the same issue.

But the waters are closing rapidly over Soubrys head: the Cabinet is now united over its approach to Brexit. About time, too.

A spooky political diagnosis of dementia

In a BBC interview my father Nigel Lawson (pictured) said there had been no increase in extreme weather events and that we should stop panicking about climate change

I received a puzzling email from a doctor last week. It was headed Climate Change and warned: Your paps needs a dementia screening soon. Because of climate change?

Not exactly. Juergen Messner  that was the senders name  was referring to an interview my father Nigel Lawson had just given to the BBC, in which he said there had been no increase in extreme weather events and that we should stop panicking about climate change.

Dr Messner, a registrar in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at an NHS teaching facility in Yorkshire, seemed to think my 85-year-old fathers opinions indicated that he was losing his mind to dementia.

He isnt, as it happens  but I emailed Dr Messner to ask if, as a bone rather than a brain specialist, he was qualified to diagnose dementia. He replied with the garbled: Assessing mental capacity is part of most clinical doctors.

I emailed back that surely any doctor with respect for the proprieties of his profession does not give anyone a diagnosis of a potentially terminal condition in one of their relatives without personally having responsibility for the patient  Dr Messner has never met my father. I added that I would consult the General Medical Council to check if I was right.

Dr Messner responded by asserting his rights to freedom of speech under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, followed by what some would term a religious profanity.

Actually, he has a good point about freedom of speech  and it covers abuse (which basically is what Dr Messners original email was). But it is a little spooky when a doctor in this country regards dissent from establishment views on the effects of climate change as evidence of mental incapacity.

Totalitarian regimes in the past  notably the Soviet Union  often treated dissent as a form of mental illness. Such dissidents would be consigned to psychiatric units, where they were drugged by doctors compliant with the prevailing political orthodoxy.

I would advise elderly patients at Dr Messners orthopaedic clinic not to engage him in discussions about climate change. They may get a diagnosis they hadnt bargained for.
We all know, of course, that liars are always other people. Lovers who have fallen out accuse one another of deceit; voters declare all politicians liars; the religious charge the godless with hating the truth, while atheists accuse churchgoers of perpetuating the biggest lie of all.

It doesnt matter which side youre on in these arguments, the basic grammar is the same: I am a truth-teller, you try to bamboozle me with a self-serving fiction.

Whats strange is that, unlike stealing or murder, lying is a moral crime we all commit  and on a regular basis.

In one study, 147 people were asked to keep a diary for a week and note the number of times they intentionally misled someone. On average, they admitted to lying 1.5 times a day. And that is probably conservative.

We lie by saying: Im fine, thanks when were feeling miserable. We lie when we say: What a beautiful baby while inwardly noting its resemblance to an alien. And most of us have simulated anger, sadness, affection, or said: I love you when we dont mean it.

Ian Leslie reveals in his new book that lying is as innate to us as communication - and just as important to our survival (file image)

We tell our children to smile and look grateful for the soap-on-a-rope grandma has given them for their birthday  and perhaps we add that if they dont, Father Christmas wont come this year.

Not only do we make exceptions to the prohibition against lying, sometimes we approve of it. If a doctor tells a bereaved husband his wife died instantly in the crash, rather than the truth  that she spent her last hours in horrific pain  we applaud the doctors compassion.

We call the lies we like white lies, but asked to define what makes a lie white we soon get lost in qualifications and contradictions. And while traditionally we frown upon liars, Id argue that lying is a basic human necessity.

BOOST YOUR FRIENDSHIPS

We exert our powers of deception virtually from birth. One study looked at the deceits children under the age of one engage in and, among many examples, found a nine-month-old faking laughter as a way of signalling that he wants to join in with others who are laughing.

Lying is as innate to us as communication  and just as important to our survival.

Most of us have, at some point, perhaps in a cab or around the canteen table, found ourselves faced with a choice between pretending to agree with a political statement in which we dont believe, or being honest and risking an unpleasant argument.

We have to deal with conflicts between our desire to be truthful and our standing in the community  and often we choose to do so by lying.

Yes, that dress looks lovely on you. Im so sorry Im busy that night. Of course I dont mind! White lies are sticking plasters we put over everyday social problems, theyre the way we avoid hurting peoples feelings.

People who are talented self-deceivers are more likely to be successful at school or in business than those who arent (file image)

Dont agree? Just imagine being brutally honest in all of the above situations and what would happen as a result.

YOU'LL FEEL FITTER AND HEALTHIER

Lying to others is only one part of it. There are also the lies we, sometimes unknowingly, tell ourselves. And this self-deception is essential for our health.

Take the research done into a form of laser surgery for heart disease. One study compared patients whod had the surgery against those whod had a fake operation. Twelve months later, most of the patients who had undergone the laser surgery were in much better shape.

They revelled in a rediscovered capacity for physical exercise. They reported that their heart pains had receded and that they were feeling healthier and fitter than they had done in years.

Yet the patients in the sham group were also rejuvenated. Despite not having had any treatment, they too felt years younger and the frequency of their angina pains declined.

In terms of effects on patients, there was no significant difference between the groups.

This is an example of the placebo effect, which has shown that if a person is given something they believe will make them feel better, then they will.

It has limits, of course. Theres no evidence to suggest it can stop the growth of cancerous tumours, for instance, but if we expect to feel better, we are more likely to get better  even if this expectation is based on a lie.

It actually helps our romantic relationships if we see our partners through rose-tinted glasses and see our own actions in a flattering light. There is good reason to think that this particular type of self-deception provided a survival or reproductive advantage (file image)

LIES ARE CRUCIAL FOR RELATIONSHIPS

If you were asked for a short definition of sanity, you would probably say it had something to do with being free of illusions.

But actually it helps our romantic relationships if we see our partners through rose-tinted glasses and see our own actions  in choosing that specific partner, for example  in a flattering light.

There is good reason to think that this particular type of self-deception provided a survival or reproductive advantage and was therefore spread by natural selection.

A degree of unrealistic optimism about ourselves would have helped us survive in the treacherous ancestral environment and to confidently impress potential mates. Now we live in centrally heated houses rather than caves, but we still rely on illusions to carry us through life.

Lying to others is only one part of it. There are also the lies we, sometimes unknowingly, tell ourselves. And this self-deception is essential for our health

We imagine having children will make us happier even though studies suggest this is, at best, uncertain (anticipating our own happiness isnt the only reason we have children, of course, but it certainly smooths the decision).

We fall in love with a person we believe is uniquely suited to us, and this helps us stick with them for long enough to raise those children.

And  crucially  most people believe their relationships to be better than most others.

FOOL YOURSELF AND BE A GREAT SUCCESS

People who are talented self-deceivers are more likely to be successful at school or in business than those who arent. Some economists believe countries become economically stagnant when business people are too rational and sensible.

We need over-optimistic entrepreneurs who are prepared to take irresponsible risks. Without people who are willing to ignore the prevailing wisdom and follow their instincts, many of our biggest innovations and creative leaps forward wouldnt have happened.

Every year, thousands of people with vaulting ambitions start new companies in full awareness that the odds are against them achieving the kind of world-changing success of which they dream.

Most fail or settle for something less, but a few of those companies eventually become Apple or Starbucks or Dyson.

At every turn, it seems, life undermines any strict adherence to truth.

So whether you like it or not, you are a liar. The question is, which sort of liar?

THINK YOU NEVER LIE? BE TRUTHFUL IN OUR FUN QUIZ... 1 You are writing an online dating profile. Do you: A. Stick to the facts on all particulars, but make your social life sound more interesting than it actually is. B. Add 2in to your height and take five years off your age. C. Blatantly lie about your marital status. D. Write nothing but the unvarnished truth. 2 Its Christmas and your mother-in-law gives you the same book she gave you last year (you hated it). Do you: A. Gently remind her that she bought it for you last year and that you really enjoyed it. B. Thank her profusely while claiming the author is a friend. C. Tell her youve been looking forward to reading this book for years and that she must be able to read your mind. D. Explain the situation honestly. 3 In a job interview, you are asked to name the achievement you are most proud of in your career. Do you: A. Cite a project from your last job but make it sound more impressive than it was. B. Invent a story about doubling the firms revenue. C. Run through a few options from your entirely fictional CV before landing on the most impressive lie. D. Tell them you cant think of one right now. 4 You bump into an old friend pushing a pram and she invites you to admire her baby. It resembles a squashed tomato. Do you: A. Tell her its lovely. B. Weep and say youre always moved to tears by beauty. C. Claim it resembles your own (non-existent) child. D. Enquire if the baby is sick. 5 Your friend goes on holiday and entrusts you with her dog. One day, you leave the front door open, he makes a run for it and gets run over. Do you: A. Call your friend and break the bad news, without saying that you left the door open. B. Tell your friend that while out walking the dog he ran off and although you threw yourself in front of the car, you failed to save him. C. Buy a new dog that closely resembles your friends and train it to answer to Buster. D. Tell your friend exactly what happened. 6 Your company fails to land a new contract with a key client after a member of your team screws up. Your boss asks you what happened. Do you: A. Make up a reason for the failure that omits your colleagues mistake. B. Pretend the client was about to sever all ties with your firm until you saved the day with a heartfelt speech. C. Wildly exaggerate the extent of your colleagues misdemeanour; demand that he is fired and his salary is added to yours. D. Tell the boss about your colleagues mistake but take the blame yourself. 7 You borrow a friends designer coat to wear to a glamorous boat party and spill a glass of red wine on it. The coat is damaged irreparably. Do you: A. Tell your friend that someone at the party (not you) spilt wine on the coat. B. Say that you saw a shivering homeless person and gave them the coat. C. Break off all relations with your friend since you never had any intention of returning the coat anyway. D. Admit that you spilt wine on the coat and offer to pay for a replacement. 8 Youre paying for your child to have extra tuition to pass an entrance exam, but you dont want other parents at school to know. When asked why hes doing so well, do you: A. Say he is getting help from a family friend. B. Explain that you are highly gifted and so is your child. C. Give them the number of a different tutor you know is not very good. D. Tell them about the private lessons. HOW YOU SCORED Mostly A: Little White Liar. You tell porkies now and then, usually to avoid hurting peoples feelings. Mostly B: Narcissist. Your lies are designed to impress upon everyone just how fabulous you are. Mostly C: Sociopath. You have no compunction about lying to achieve your ends  even if other people end up getting hurt in the process. Mostly D: Self-Deceiver. You never lie. Advertisement

Born Liars: We All Do It But Which One Are You  Psychopath, Sociopath Or Little White Liar? by Ian Leslie is published by Quercus at 8.99. To order a copy for 7.19 (offer valid until August 21) visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640. P&P is free on orders over 15.
The bestselling author suggests key novels to help you through the trickier times in life.

The sun did not shine / It was too wet to play / So we sat in the house / All that cold, cold, wet day . . .

Summer holiday boredom in a nutshell from that literary master Dr Seuss. And while the weeks seem interminable and the weather is at its least agreeable, theres a lot of it about. But boredom in childhood is no bad thing: its character-forming  and dont they like being told that  and never lasts long.

This week Gill Hornby recommends Then We Came To The End and Mrs. Bridge

In adult life, though, it can be a killer. Take Evan S. Connells poor Mrs Bridge. Shes a Kansas housewife in the mid-20th century whose life revolves around her cold husband and disappointing children in a community that thrives on sameness.

Her horizons are so narrow and her anxiety so heightened that when her son uses a guest towel, she bursts into tears.

Shed been christened India by parents whod had hopes for her. And shed once harboured hopes for herself, too. Instead, life passes her by: Thirty, thirty-five, forty . . . all had slipped away without a trace, without a sound, and now, once again, she was waiting. There is no release for her. It breaks your heart.

Office boredom is brilliantly portrayed by Joshua Ferris in Then We Came To The End. It is set in an ailing ad agency, which is staffed by polo-shirted drones whose only expression of identity comes from their choice of mug, as the dot-com bubble bursts.

Each week the bestselling author suggests novels to help you through the trickier times in life

As it hits its crisis, drama and even love come into the workers lives.

There had to be a better story than this one, they hoped at the beginning. And for those with spirit and empathy  there was.

Nobody has ever been as bored as Richard Hannay at the beginning of The Thirty-Nine Steps. Then, just as The Cat In The Hat appears before Dr Seusss children, so a man of mystery and excitement comes into Hannays life.

Proving you can be wretched with boredom one moment, and off on a quite brilliant adventure the next.
Not all lakes are placid. They can be the setting for thrilling breaks...

STUNNING NEW ZEALAND

Lake Wakatipu, on New Zealands South Island, is lightning-bolt shaped and surrounded by mountains

Glacial Lake Wakatipu, on New Zealands South Island, is lightning-bolt shaped and surrounded by mountains. It starred in the first series of hit BBC drama Top Of The Lake.

INSIDER TIP: Sail on the vintage steamship T.S.S. Earnslaw, which cruises Wakatipu daily.

DETAILS: Bridge & Wickers has a 15-day trip to the South and North Islands. Prices from 3,325pp including flights and accomodation, bridgeandwickers.co.uk.

SEVEN LAKE SPECTACLE

Lap up Chiles Lake District starting in lakeside Pucon, before following the route of the Seven Lakes in Argentinian Patagonia

Lap up Chiles Lake District starting in lakeside Pucon, before following the route of the Seven Lakes in Argentinian Patagonia with its mountains, lakes and forest.

INSIDER TIP: Cross Lake Pirihueico by ferry, which will take you from Chile into Argentina.

DETAILS: A 14-day self-drive trip is from 4,200pp (based on two sharing). Price includes flights, transfers and accommodation, audleytravel.com.

LUXURY ON THE LAKE

Stay on the Swiss side of Lake Maggiore and you can access the valleys and grottos of Ticino

Stay on the Swiss side of Lake Maggiore and you can access the valleys and grottos of Ticino. Lakeside hotel Eden Roc has a beach from which you can sail.

INSIDER TIP: Drop anchor at the Brissago and Borromean Islands where youll find white peacocks.

DETAILS: Rooms at Hotel Eden Roc from 350 CHF (276) based on two sharing, edenroc.ch. Return flights to Milan around 50, easyjet.com.
Prince Harry and singer Laura Wright at the Invictus Games in Florida, last year

Prince Harry was praised by leading mental health experts when he launched his Heads Together campaign earlier this year, and has spoken candidly about his own emotional struggles following the death of his mother, Princess Diana.

And I can reveal he has now earned a heartfelt tribute from someone within his tight-knit circle  the beguiling soprano Laura Wright, a favourite of the Queens, who credits Harry with helping her confront her own demons.

My involvement with Harry and the Invictus Games has made me feel able to talk to people who I didnt think Id be able to talk to. Theres no shame in a story, Laura, 27, tells me.

The Suffolk-born brunette, who has remained friends with Harry since she performed at the opening ceremony of his inaugural Games in London three years ago, admits she has struggled with her own mental health problems in the past, including disordered eating.

I got signed when I was 15 and I really struggled. People in the industry told me to lose weight.

That really affected me. I had puppy fat, so I hadnt grown into my body. I used to barely eat anything and Id be like, Why do I feel really faint? It was because I wasnt eating.

She happily has a much healthier relationship with her body now, balancing her love of food with exercise, but admits she still battles with the blues.

Sometimes Im still not balanced. Sometimes Ill have a really big cry and Ill feel really angry, and sometimes I feel really amazing.

I used to shut myself away from the world when I felt down. When youre on stage and everyones clapping and then you come off and its silent, its a really weird contrast. Harrys mental health campaign is, unsurprisingly, welcomed by Laura, who says talking to Harry is like talking to a mate.

Wright performs prior to the opening ceremony of the 2015 Rugby World Cup at Twickenham

Thats what the mental health push is about; its about talking.

We are very good as performers at putting on a mask and doing what is expected. But behind that mask theres a completely different thing going on and you feel alone because no one can see it.

She also credits her fiance, rugby player Harry Rowland, with keeping her balanced, as well as their beloved pooch, Rocky. My fiance is a massive part of keeping me balanced. Having a dog helps, someone whose unconditional love is always there, and someone who needs you.

When you feel down, take your dog for a walk, then you can take yourself out of your mind for a bit.

Deliciously silly: Ella and her dog compare yoga poses

Slender Ella Mills is the perfect poster girl for her healthy lifestyle brand Deliciously Ella, but the same cannot be said for her beloved spaniel, Austin.

I went to the vet yesterday and he told me I was overweight. I almost fell off my chair, she writes from the dogs point of view on his own social media page.

Slender Ella Mills and her beloved spaniel, Austin, compared yoga poses during a playful snap

Ella, 26-year-old daughter of former Labour MP Shaun Woodward and wife of Baroness Jowells son, Matt, has put him on a weight-loss programme and, as this picture shows, is including him in her exercise routine.

Time for a dog diet book?

Ben Goldsmith, who will become a father for the fifth time next month, was told to stop breeding by sister Jemima after he moaned on Twitter that Britain was overcrowded. Now their mother has waded in.

Lady Annabel Goldsmith, widow of financier Sir James, is about to become a grandma for the 14th time.

She tells me: I love my grandchildren more than anything, but Ive got quite enough for the moment.

Her barbs on the Weakest Link made Anne Robinson TVs queen of mean  and shes just as formidable in reality.

Speaking about her inimitably named personal assistant Sweetpea Slight, the 72-year-old says: Im very fussy about how she looks. I dont let her wear nail polish.

On her second day she came in with her nails painted, which I hate, and I said, Just dont tell anyone you work for me when youve got that on! Shes never painted them since.
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Perhaps more than any other part of her appearance, Dianas hair defined her. In early photographs, she always kept her head down, as though that silky, strawberry blonde curtain might act as a visor against the sudden media glare.

It gave her an air of vulnerability and uncertainty that earned her the moniker Shy Di. Sweet and girlish, it set her apart from all the confident, worldly-wise women Prince Charles had previously dated, such as Sabrina Guinness and Lady Jane Wellesley (who, when asked if an engagement was on the cards, famously snapped: Do you honestly believe I want to be Queen?).

Dianas hair projected the exact image the Royal Family were after: that of a young bride-to-be who was not only untarnished, but also charmingly unselfconscious.

At the same time, however, the cut was rather modern and, crucially, short  which, for a future Princess, was unconventional.

With hindsight, perhaps that ought to have been a warning that beneath her gentle exterior beat the heart of a rebel, someone who knew her own mind  even if she did not yet have the confidence to show it.

It also made her easy to relate to. It was the kind of haircut thousands of young girls had, from myself  about to start starting for my O-levels  to The Nolans, Sheena Easton, Kiki Dee and the many fans who bopped around to them on Top Of The Pops.

One of the first hairdressers responsible for her early look was stylist Richard Dalton, who encountered Diana at Fenwick of Bond Streets in-store salon. It was here that well-bred young ladies had their hair cut, including Dianas older sisters Sarah and Jane.

I met her when she was 17, he tells me from Southern California, where he now lives. I used to cut her sisters hair, so when Diana came in too I asked Kevin [Shanley] to do it.

So it was actually Shanley who gave her that first iconic flicked and feathered cut, and who later styled her hair for the wedding.

One of the first hairdressers responsible for Diana's early look was stylist Richard Dalton, who encountered her at Fenwick of Bond Streets in-store salon. She is pictured, from left, watching polo in 1980, at a visit to the Royal Opera House in 1981 and during the 1982 royal tour of Australia

The Diana was popular at the time and scores of women copied it with magazines even printing diagrams to show readers' hairdressers. She is pictured at a charity event in 1984, left, a visit to a helicopter factory in Milan during 1985, centre, and at an event in Cardiff, right

The Diana was popular at the time and scores of women copied it. Magazines even printed diagrams and encouraged readers to clip our sketch to show your hairdresser.

Shanley and Dalton later fell out  supposedly over how she should wear her hair for the State Opening of Parliament  after which Dalton says he became Dianas principal stylist. I was with her every day for 12 years. He adds: I dont do gossip, but I do know she was really in love with Charles. I always felt she had to be protected, not exposed.

Let me tell you, the inner circle of power, its not attractive. Diana wasnt prepared to put up with that. She always used to say to me: Ill show this family.

She wanted and deserved a proper family life. I used to buy her white chocolate and Opal Fruits to cheer her up. She loved them. Im not sharing! she would say.

Until 1991, when he moved to America permanently, Dalton used to cut the boys hair too.

Richard Dalton became Dianas principal stylist after a row with Kevin Shanley and worked with Diana for 12 years, also cutting William and Harry's hair.

After Richard Dalton came Sam McKnight, an altogether different sort of snipper for an altogether different Diana. He first styled her hair in 1990, above right. The Princess is pictured left, at a gala dinner in New York during 1989

William would get terribly excited because theyd put a chair on top of the coffee table at Kensington Palace so I could cut his hair and they would get to watch extra telly.

Harry was just like his mother  always the one for fun, he says, recalling how he used to climb all over the luggage racks on the train to Sandringham, in Norfolk.

 Get him down! the nanny used to shout at me, and Id say: I cant! 

In those days, Diana was reluctantly learning to live with the intense public scrutiny of her every move. When she wanted a shorter, lighter haircut for a trip to Africa, Dalton made the change in increments, a quarter of an inch at a time over several weeks, so no one would notice.

A VOGUE MAKEOVER

After Dalton came Sam McKnight, an altogether different sort of snipper for an altogether different Diana.

He first met the Princess and styled her hair in 1990, at a studio in East London.

At the time, McKnight was working in New York, but had flown to London to join Vogues top team, stylist Anna Harvey, make-up artist Mary Greenwell and photographer Patrick Demarchelier, on a shoot of various It-girls, including Victoria Lockwood, first wife of Dianas brother Charles, and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, Princess Margarets daughter.

Bold, fresh look: Throughout the period of her divorce, McKnight experimented with the cut while Daniel Galvin looked after her colour. She is seen with wet hair, left, during a concert at Hyde Park in 1991

With her new freedom, Diana dispensed with a full-time hairdresser and styled her own hair, sending for the professionals only when she had an engagement that required her to look super-groomed. She is seen in Nepal during 1993, left, and at the Royal College of Nursing in London in 1994

We were told we had one more to do, he says, but they had no idea who it was. Then Diana just came bounding up the stairs.

My first impression of her was as this burst of energy, these long limbs  and the most beautiful smile.

Her hair was quite long at the time and after we had chatted for a while she asked: What would you do if I gave you free rein? I immediately said: Cut it off.  And so they did, there and then. He put a plastic bag over her shoulders and chopped it all off. The result was a bold, fresh look for a woman who was, as McKnight says, obviously ready for a change.

In more ways than one. This was almost ten years after her marriage. Two years later, Andrew Mortons book was to expose her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles and, by December 1992, they had separated. Diana was beginning the long process of detaching herself from her life as a royal.

Hair is an important part of a womans psychological make-up, says McKnight and, like all women facing great change, Dianas hair was a big part of creating a new image to match her new identity. McKnight soon became an integral part of this process, becoming her main stylist until her death.

Throughout this period, he experimented with the cut while Daniel Galvin looked after her colour.

Dianas succession of short, sharp crops and slicked-back styles suited the aesthetic of the times. Left she is seen during a 1995 visit to New York while she attends a charity ball in Sydney in 1996, right

McKnight last saw Diana a few weeks before her death and described her lovely, thick, luxuriant hair that she was very good at looking. The princess arrives at the Royal Albert Hall for a performance of Swan Lake in June 1997

Its a measure of her new-found confidence that at this point, astonishingly, she dispensed with a full-time hairdresser and styled her own hair, sending for the professionals only when she had an engagement that required her to look super-groomed.

It was the minimalist Nineties, and Dianas succession of short, sharp crops and slicked-back styles suited the aesthetic of the times. I was working with supermodels Linda [Evangelista] and Eva [Herzigova], says McKnight. And Diana was built in that mould, too  Amazonian, beautiful, but also powerful, with a fit, lithe body.

I used to say to her: You look great coming out of the gym; natural, glowing but shed say: Sam, people dont want to see me in trainers, they want to see Princess Diana.

She had an acute sense of what was expected of her in that respect.

McKnight last saw her a few weeks before her death.

She had lovely, thick, luxuriant hair, and she was very good at looking after it herself, he says. She had just come back from the landmines trip, where shed had no hair stylist or make-up at all, and I thought she looked great; so confident, quite radiant.

And that is the tragedy of Diana. Not only the fact that she died so young, but that she was in her absolute prime, a woman who had turned all the negativity of her unhappy marriage into something positive.

In the final pictures taken of her, as she exits the Ritz hotel in Paris, we see a confident, smiling woman in a chic linen suit, her sleek blonde hair, lightened by the Saint Tropez sun, held back with sunglasses. Fabulous until the very last.

Haven't we seen that somewhere before?

When it came to starting trends, Diana could have taught todays Instagram wannabes a thing or two.

Her hair in particular inspired a nation of females, who soon also wore theirs short with a side parting and a big, flicked fringe. It was the perfect style for the busy career woman because it required little maintenance and looked great with sharp suits and shoulder-pads, which were very much de rigueur.

Trend setter: Diana's hair cut flattered most face shapes, hair types and personalities, from the blonde ambition of uber-publisher Tina Brown, to the glamour of newsreader Selina Scott and the everywoman image of TV presenter Anne Diamond

And it flattered most face shapes, hair types and personalties, from the blonde ambition of uber-publisher Tina Brown, to the glamour of newsreader Selina Scott and the everywoman image of television presenter Anne Diamond.

Here's why she rarely wore her hair up...

Diana may have been a Princess, but her cropped hair was not typically princessy.

In this respect, as in many others, she was the opposite of a traditionalist.

While even modern-day royals tend to favour long, classical locks, Diana always wore hers short.

In fact, the shorter her hair, the happier she seemed to be. The only time it ever came close to grazing her shoulders was when she was in the grip of her demons.

Diana rarely wore her hair up because it just wasnt ever really long enough. She also had a somewhat unruly hairline with flyaway strands that would require vast amounts of hairspray, which wasn't her thing

The thinner she became, the bigger her hair seemed to get, until it threatened to overwhelm her features.

No, Diana with short hair was a happy Diana, all dynamic and sporty and in control.

She rarely wore it up because it just wasnt ever really long enough. That, and the fact she had a low, somewhat unruly hairline.

Her hair was thick and yet at the same time quite flyaway, so wearing her hair up required vast amounts of hairspray and frequent touch-ups, neither of which were her thing.

Besides, overall she simply felt that the style was rather unflattering.

High-maintenance styles: Diana found fancy up-dos and hair pieces a bore and the length of her hair was often an indicator of how happy she was, with the shorter the better

Diana thought it emphasised her nose which, although by no means a bad nose  in fact, it had a pleasing Greco-Roman quality to it  she used to say was a bit knobbly.

Nowadays, of course, what with ceramic straighteners, Frizz Ease and myriad lotions and potions available to stylists, it would have been a breeze keeping those tresses under control.

And this might have saved her from the occasional, somewhat disastrous attempts to compensate  for example with the Sloane hairbands and, even worse, the chokers worn as tiaras, which only ended up making her look like she was at a fancy-dress party.
Dave Sylvester rolled into Billings Sunday afternoon with a pretty short to-do list: hugs and high-fives.

A large, gregarious man with an easy laugh, Sylvester this year embarked on his latest cross-country trip after picking up corporate sponsorship from the Duke Cannon soap company to fund his mission: Give a hug or high-five to at least 25,000 people across the lower 48 states.

I said, The scent of your soap will be in peoples nostrils the rest of the day, and they bought it, he says. My job for this summer is to go around the country and make America smile.

So far, hes at just a little over 9,000 hand-slaps and embraces  he always carries a small, mechanical clicker to keep track of his progress  but beams with the confidence of a man who has grown out of self-doubt since his first transcontinental journey, by bicycle, in 2002.

"I thought it was gonna take someone else to discover me  I didnt think it could come from me, he says, reflecting on his initial trepidation. It aint easy, but Im doing it.

Sylvester said hes always been partial to hugs and high fives  Im that guy, he says, but his initial sojourns across America began as he struggled with his grief after losing a close friend who was in the first tower struck during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

I wanted to do something significant, I wanted to do something special, he recalls. That was as vulnerable as everyone in the country ever felt. I remember looking up in the sky, with Philadelphia being sandwiched between New York and Washington, D.C., looking up into the sky and wondering if were next.

After pedaling off from the City of Brotherly Love to spread goodwill in 2002, he realized, I wasnt alone. People wanted to feel as warm, safe and secure as I did.

Following a severe ear infection that left his balance compromised, Sylvester now travels the U.S. by car, rather than bike. Yet given the news headlines, consistently filled with the days latest tragedy or outrage, he believes a hug goes just as far as it did 15 years ago.

With everything going on in the world, I think its something people need.

Sylvester set up shop Sunday at the Pickle Barrel in Billings, following another stop Saturday at the same franchise in Bozeman. Its his first time visiting Montana  one of just three states in the lower 48 he hadnt yet checked out.

Next up as his one-man tour heads back east are Rapid City, South Dakota, Mount Rushmore and Fargo, North Dakota. For Sylvester, each day is a different one, filled with the never-ending variety of people and places he encounters. But the driving force behind his journey remains a simple one.

Its all about something we all desire, to feel a hug and a high-five, he says. Who doesnt like that?
Australia's top fitness influencer Kayla Itsines says the tide is turning, with body confidence set to replace body perfection as the next biggest trend to sweep social media.

The 26-year-old - whose love of fitness has seen her branded a worldwide expert - has revealed she is on a mission, along with leading figures, to support women to embrace a more down-to-earth approach to their health, and their bodies.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph , the passionate health advocate revealed she wanted to support women to feel they could be more 'real' and ditch the idea their bodies needed to be perfectly faultless before they could post photos of themselves online.

Fitness influencer Kayla Itsines predicts 2018 will be the year of body confidence

Kayla Itsines helps millions of women reach their body goals through her fitness programmes

Speaking with her app's new trainers, yoga enthusiast Sjana Elise Earp and post-pregnancy training expert Kelsey Wells, Kayla said that it was important to open up about the highs and lows of training.

'Well talk about everything and well talk about things that women dont want to talk about on social media  like when we have our periods or when we feel bloated or when we miss a workout,' she said.

'We all get bloated, we all have stretch marks, its just completely 100 per cent normal. We talk about those things to make it more real.'

Kayla anticipated that in 2018 there was going to be a 'big trend focusing on body confidence'.

'There are some girls on social media at the moment who are pushing this big (idea) that it doesn't matter what you look like, it matters what you feel like, and that's what we're pushing as well,' she said.

The social media star has over seven million followers on Instagram and regularly posts snaps of herself showing a body that's been through the rigours of training

New trainers to the Sweat team include yoga-enthusiast Sjana Elise (pictured left) Kayla and post-pregnancy training expert Kelsey Wells (shown right)

The fitness enthusiast - with more than seven million Instagram followers - wants to urge women to feel they can use social media to offer insight, inspiration and encouragement to others by showing what actually goes on behind the scenes.

'It's really important to talk about why you took that photo or the hard work that goes into everyday life, or goes into yoga, or becoming a mum, or after you have a baby.

'You have to talk about those things. What's the point of social media if you're just going to upload a photo and say nothing?'

Post-pregnancy fitness expert Kelsey Wells joins Kayla for workout programmes

Popular yoga enthusiast Sjana Elise is a new trainer on the app's fitness programme

The Adelaide-born fitness fanatic  who isn't afraid to flaunt a body herself that's undergone the rigours of training  recently hit out against those taking to social media to criticise her for being too thin.

In an Instagram post titled 'TOO SKINNY' Kayla wrote: 'Whenever I upload a photo like this, I always get this comment.

'When I upload a photo sitting down it's 'awesome', when I upload a photo of me flexing it's 'so strong' or 'this is too much'.'

Kayla recently took to Instagram to hit out at those who've called her too thin

The fitness entrepreneur told followers to remember photos only capture a single moment

'Just a reminder that I am the same person in each photo! If turn to the side, sit down or lay down, I look completely different!'

She said each photo simply captured her on the day, as she was, going on to explain that 'photos show ONE part of you in just that moment. Just remember that.'

The health advocate encouraged her followers to take inspiration from her belief that the greatest goal is to be the best person you can.

'People will love you because of the person you are on the INSIDE not for what you look like on the outside  THAT is what is most important!'
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A photo series has captured the unfailing love of motherhood from all corners of the globe.

In a blog post by UNICEF Australia, the organisation shared poignant photographs of mothers and their children who have faced adversity.

'Whether theyre walking their children to school or rescuing their newborn from the rubble of an earthquake, these mothers would do anything to keep their children safe, healthy and happy,' the post reads.

Martha Jere holds her 8 month-old son Rahim at their home in Bilemoni village, Malawi

MALAWI

Martha was born with HIV and although she was diagnosed during a time when survival rates were low, she has defied the odds.

Martha is now a mother and her son Rahim is part of Malawis AIDs-free generation.

To make sure that she would not pass on the disease to her son, single-mother Martha took daily treatment and tested Rahim six weeks after he was born.

'I was so excited, so happy he was not carrying the virus. [Hes] growing healthy and strong. He is happy, friendly and feels comfortable with anybody,' she said.

Martha received assistance from a teen support group and now speaks out about her experience hoping to help other young mothers.

'I encourage other mothers I meet that even if theyre HIV-positive, its not the end of the world, they can still live a long life.'

Avalon and her young son Caleb hold newborn baby Tina in Fiji in 2016

FIJI

In 2016 Avalon Buksh was expecting twins in two weeks when Cyclone Winston hit Fiji, which was one of the strongest tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere on record.

While the family of eight were preparing for the storm Avalon couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she went into labour during the cyclone.

As the winds reached where they lived, Avalon's twins Gina and Tina were born happy and healthy early on Sunday morning.

Luz Dari Landazuri holds her daughter after giving a workshop on mine awareness in Narino, Colombia

COLOMBIA

Luz Dari Landazuri and her baby were the victims of a landmine explosion in 2012.

'What I remember most is my babys scream. I never heard a baby scream so loud,' she said.

'It was frightening, even scarier than the explosion itself. Her little face was all covered with blood,' she went on.

Now Luz helps other Colombians avoid the explosions that have killed or injured 11,000 people since 1990.

'There are a lot of landmines here and no signs to point them out. I feel like Im saving lives,' she said.

Bimila Dhakune and her son Kris at a hospital in Charikot in Nepal

NEPAL

When an earthquake struck Nepal, Bimila was outside her house while the rest of her family were inside.

Her husband and four year-old daughter managed to flee the building before it collapsed but her youngest child, 18 month-old Kris, was trapped underneath the rubble.

Bimala and her husband ran into the rubble to dig out Kris and when they found him he was unconscious and covered in dust.

'It was terrible. I cant remember anything [but] the dust and his blue face,' Bimala said.

Luckily, and to the relief of Bimala and her family, Kris eventually regained consciousness

'I thought "Oh my God, we are all alive. If another earthquake happens, we will be OK, because we are safe now. The world can fall apart, but we are together".'

Nonhlanhla Dubazane with her son Answer in Mphumaleagna, South Africa, in 2013

SOUTH AFRICA

Nonhlanhla found out that she was pregnant with her son Answer and was HIV positive at the same time.

Although she said she was frightened with the information, through antiretroviral treatment and uninterrupted breastfeeding, her son Answer was born healthy and HIV-free in 2013.

A 15-year-old mother holds her baby who was born with microcephaly in Recife, Brazil

BRAZIL

A 15-year-old mother from Recife in Brazil found out her son was born with a condition called microcephaly, which is when babies are born with a head smaller than normal size.

This means he also has a under-developed brain that can lead to severe developmental disorders.

'Towards the end of my pregnancy, they told me my son had a problem in his head, a calcification,' she said.

'Then, when he was born I learned he had microcephaly. Then they asked if I had Zika and I didnt even know what that was.

'Now I will take care of him, which is what is important. I need to be very responsible. Sometimes I dont even sleep. I have stopped studying. I intended to get back, but with all his treatments it would be very complicated, very intense.'

Metab carries her one year-old son Khalil in her arms at the Domiz refugee camp in 2014

IRAQ

Mother Metab was nine months pregnant with baby Khalil when her and her family had to leave Syria.

They were forced to leave the country because they couldnt survive the rapidly increasing cost of food and the fact that there were little to no jobs.

Metab went into labour after she walked the last two miles into Domiz refugee camp in Iraq, which was caused by the difficult work she was forced to do.

When Khalil was one year old he was 'frail' and 'underweight' but was proving to get better.

Kadiatu Koromo holds her son and his birth certificate in Bombali, Sierra Leone in 2013

SIERRA LEONE

27 year-old mother Kadiatu Koromo had been fortunate enough to obtain a birth certificate for her son Amadu.

In Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, many births are not registered but thankfully her son is now a part of the country's legal system.

This fundamental right is vital as it enables children to access health services and receive education while also protecting them from childhood marriage and trafficking.

Neveen Barakat comforts her six year-old daughter, Rosol, in the Gaza Strip

STATE OF PALESTINE

A mother-of-four, Neveen, was left a widow when a blast hit a UN school in Gaza and killed her husband.

The blast also injured three of her children, including six-year-old Rosol, and Neveen was left with a permanent disability.

'[Rosol] saw a lot of things - people injured with missing hands or legs, with wounded faces and eyes. She also saw her father killed,' the mother said.

'This was shocking for her. It had serious psychological effects on her.'

Neveen's main focus is her children's mental and physical health and has them receive psychosocial support from a counsellor working for a UNICEF partner.

Mariam Mahamame carries her baby son in a sling while walking to a health centre in Gao, Mali, in 2014

MALI

In 2014 one mother had to go through something that no mother should when her son was admitted to hospital due to severe acute malnutrition.

Mariam's son Al-Matar was discharged from the general hospital in Gao, Mali, after eight days of treatment.

While in hospital, Al-Matar received medication and high-protein powdered milk to boost his weight and provide essential nutrients.

Amira Rasland holds her daughter Jannat outside an emergency shelter on the southern edge of Berlin

GERMANY

Refugees from Syria, Amira and her family made the weeks-long journey from Turkey to Germany, seeking asylum in 2015.

The journey involved both land and see and although they faced hardship and violence Amira and her husband, Khalid, want to remain strong for their children.

'The scariest part was the water crossing. We managed to put all three kids to sleep before the boat left, and used our bodies as shields between them and the sea so they couldnt see the water We had to master our emotions so we didnt transmit our fear to the kids.

'Were very determined - all of us - to go to school and master German. Twenty years from now, I hope that people around the world will talk about our family and the challenges that we faced and the successes we achieved.'
On Sunday night, a report aired on 60 Minutes about the controversial new Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Test that some say could 'effectively end Down Syndrome' in Australia.

The simple blood test has been described by doctors as 'a huge step forward' due to its '99 per cent accuracy' in detecting foetal abnormalities and doctors are lobbying to make it free for Australian women.

But Joelle Kelly, 38, from Hervey Bay, Queensland, is concerned about the already high termination rate (90 per cent) after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and says a focus on 'eliminating' the chromosomal condition is a terrible idea.

Mrs Kelly, whose four-year-old daughter Josee has Down syndrome, said the story about the NIPT ' highlighted the fact that Australia really does need a national framework around prenatal clinical care and screening'.

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On Sunday night, a report aired on 60 Minutes about the controversial new Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Test that some say could 'effectively end Down Syndrome' in Australia (pictured is Joelle Kelly with daughter Josee)

The simple blood test has been described by doctors as 'a huge step forward' due to its '99 per cent accuracy' in detecting foetal abnormalities and doctors are lobbying to make it free for Australian women

'Women aren't given objective information across Australia and they are also not given consistent information,' Mrs Kelly told Daily Mail Australia.

'Because I speak to pregnant women every week, I get to really see what these women face and the inconsistencies within the information and support and services that they receive from medical professionals. This is the one thing that really needs to be addressed.

'Particularly if they are going to be rolling this out to Medicare, who is actually going to be responsible for counselling these women and supporting these women in an objective way?'

Mrs Kelly knows of the inconsistencies because of her own experience with Josee.

But Mrs Kelly, 38, from Hervey Bay, Queensland, is concerned about the already high termination rate (90 per cent) after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and says a focus on 'eliminating' the chromosomal condition is a terrible idea

'Women aren't given objective information across Australia and they are also not given consistent information,' Mrs Kelly told Daily Mail Australia

What is Down syndrome? Down syndrome is a genetic condition. It is not an illness or a disease. Our bodies are made up of millions of cells. In each cell there are 46 chromosomes. The DNA in our chromosomes determines how we develop. Down syndrome is caused when there is an extra chromosome. People with Down syndrome have 47 chromosomes in their cells instead of 46. They have an extra chromosome 21, which is why Down syndrome is also sometimes known as trisomy 21. Although we know how Down syndrome occurs, we do not yet know why it happens. Down syndrome occurs at conception, across all ethnic and social groups and to parents of all ages. It is nobody's fault. Source: Down Syndrome Australia Advertisement

'I look back to how devastated I was and it was embarrassing - the feelings I had do not match the reality of our lives. I was the person who was on the floor sobbing and devastated and thinking it was the worst thing in the world,' she said.

'I completely broke down and I still remember one day I was in the car park waiting for a friend and sobbing like I never have before and there is just no way that that matches my reality today.'

Mrs Kelly was asked by doctors whether she wanted to terminate her pregnancy repeatedly until she was 23 weeks pregnant and not given any helpful information about Down syndrome.

'I did go through all of that but my experience now is like going on a holiday and you are told its the worst place in the world but you have the best time,' Mrs Kelly said.

'I thought we wouldn't be able to travel or work or have a regular life and that couldn't be further from the case.'

'I look back to how devastated I was and it was embarrassing - the feelings I had do not match the reality of our lives. I was the person who was on the floor sobbing and devastated and thinking it was the worst thing in the world,' she said

Mrs Kelly said while she isn't against any testing, she simply wants there to be consistency and accurate information given to any women who are told there is a high chance their baby does have Down syndrome.

I thought we wouldn't be able to travel or work or have a regular life and that couldn't be further from the case.

'The thing is some mums have had an amazing genetic counsellor who has gone above and beyond to provide very objective resources and given them a bit of time,' Mrs Kelly said.

'And then you could have the doctor down the road from them who has booked an Amniocentesis (medical procedure used in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities) or booked a termination and given them no information.

'Last night it really raised the point of why are we testing? The initial first trimester screening came out at a time when people with Down syndrome didnt even have their hearts operated on if they had a heart condition.'

Actress Sally Phillips (pictured), whose son Ollie has Down syndrome, was featured on the 60 Minutes episode and urged expecting parents to 'think very carefully when the tests are positive'

'It's not the scary terrible disability that it's made out to be,' she said (pictured is Ollie)

Mrs Kelly hopes that there has been some positive awareness surrounding Down syndrome and the reality of the condition through all of the public attention - despite some negativity.

'People always look at the context through whatever lens they grew up in so you have some elderly people who will be pitiful and sorry to us a lot of the time because they were the ones who grew up in a time where kids with Down syndrome died,' Mrs Kelly said.

'Then you have the kids of those people who are the ones who dont believe that kids with Down syndrome should be at schools because when they went to school everything was quite segregated.

'It depends on what time frame people grew up in and it influences how people feel about kids with Down syndrome.

'In reality, Down syndrome does not define any person regardless of whether they are suffering related health issues or not. I dont look at my daughter and go "here is my Down syndrome daughter coming down the hallway".'

'If you are going to take a decision to terminate pregnancy, something that serious that is going to be with you forever, you are not going to do that lightly. You need to do it on correct facts not out of date facts,' she said

Mrs Kelly is currently pushing for a number of key things.

'What we are trying to push for is an informed consent to enter screening where before you enter into screening all women across Australia are given exactly the same information presented with exactly what they are screening for. So many people have no idea what they are screening for,' she said.

People are out and around in your community wanting you not there, I can't fathom what that would feel like.

'We also want a whole set of guidelines around clinical care. When women come back with that high chance some doctors may push for invasive testing and they dont give information so if the woman does come back with a high chance there needs to be another lot of objective information delivered.

'If they are continuing the pregnancy there needs to be guidelines for clinical care for the pregnancy because women are reporting that they are not being looked after so terminology around the result is important too.

'In summary, we want objective information, consistent terminology and an informed consent to screen.'

'In summary, we want objective information, consistent terminology and an informed consent to screen,' Mrs Kelly said

When ads were circulating about a 'new test' that could 'eliminate Down syndrome' many parents including Mrs Kelly and those with Down syndrome were upset and frustrated.

'Can you imagine what that must feel like?' Mrs Kelly said.

'People are out and around in your community wanting you not there, I cant fathom what that would feel like.'

Actress Sally Phillips, whose son Ollie has Down syndrome, was featured on the 60 Minutes episode and urged expecting parents to 'think very carefully when the tests are positive'.

'It's not the scary terrible disability that it's made out to be,' she said.

'For me personally that [Down syndrome] is not a reason to terminate... for mums about to go into the system they need to be aware that they are getting on a treadmill.

'Can you imagine what that must feel like?' Mrs Kelly said. 'People are out and around in your community wanting you not there, I cant fathom what that would feel like,' Mrs Kelly said

'Once you start having these tests and getting results you are on a conveyor belt towards a decision about whether or not to terminate.

'I believe women who feel they are terminating for Down syndrome on medical grounds are being misled.

It's not Josee having Down syndrome that we find hard, it's society's negative stigma.

'If you are going to take a decision to terminate pregnancy, something that serious that is going to be with you forever, you are not going to do that lightly. You need to do it on correct facts not out of date facts.'

Taking to her Facebook page ahead of the episode, Mrs Kelly wrote 'on 60 Minutes Australia tonight, in a couple of hours time, people across Australia will begin to discuss whether they think a child "like ours" is worthy of life'.

'Let that sink in for you. Instead of tagging me in posts tonight, I want you to think about how this feels for a person WITH Down syndrome who is listening or reading.'

'Josee already reads, imagine what she could read online tonight if she was older. Instead her brother and sister will probably feel the brunt of it tonight,' Mrs Kelly wrote on Facebook

'Josee already reads, imagine what she could read online tonight if she was older. Instead her brother and sister will probably feel the brunt of it tonight.

'Let people know out there that you value the natural diversity of life. After all, it's not Josee having Down syndrome that we find hard, it's society's negative stigma.'

Over the past four years, Mrs Kelly has been working to create an online support platform for women who are expecting children with Down syndrome and to show that the perception of having a child with Down syndrome compared with the reality is 'vastly different.'

'Josee is just like our other children. She goes to daycare, she eats, she sleeps and does everything they do. Sometimes things take that little bit longer but it's so rewarding when she achieves a new milestone,' Mrs Kelly told Daily Mail Australia previously.

Over the past four years, Mrs Kelly has been working to create an online support platform for women who are expecting children with Down syndrome and to show that the perception of having a child with Down syndrome compared with the reality is 'vastly different'

'She's really good at reading emotions and she always knows when somebody needs a cuddle or when someone might be sad and that's a really beautiful side to her. She's cheeky, but also very knowing and very clever and just an absolute joy to be around. She makes us laugh everyday.'

Mrs Kelly started her Facebook page, Josee's Journey of Faith Hope & Love six weeks after her little girl was born as a progress page and to help mothers who were in a similar situation to herself.

'I very quickly realised the page was a way to show women who were expecting a baby with Down syndrome that their life wasn't over. I run her page because I have been changed by Josee and I want her to change people's minds and hearts,' she said.

'We always say that her having Down syndrome is not difficult. It's society's perception about it that makes it difficult.

'We always say that her having Down syndrome is not difficult. It's society's perception about it that makes it difficult,' she said

'I am never ever speaking from a righteous or judgemental view and when it comes to termination I am pro information. You can't make a choice if you don't have information to make a choice from,' she said

And despite Mrs Kelly saying she personally wouldn't have a prenatal screening again, she isn't against those who do.

'I am never ever speaking from a righteous or judgemental view and when it comes to termination I am pro information. You can't make a choice if you don't have information to make a choice from... it's not a choice it's just an influenced decision,' she said.

'We pleaded with doctors for more information or a brochure and they just said to Google it. I can't imagine there is any other medical condition where a doctor would say that. There are some wonderful resources out there though, women just need to know where to find them.

In addition to her Facebook page, Mrs Kelly also runs an Australian support group called T21 Mum Australia.

She also runs forums on Prenatal testing and support and Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) Pregnancy on Baby Centre.

Extensive resources and support information can also be found on the Down syndrome Australia website.
A distraught couple have opened up about their anguish after losing their baby boy to whooping cough at just four weeks of age.

Perth parents Greg and Catherine Hughes said their family of four was 'complete' after they welcomed their son Riley in February 2015.

But just three weeks later, little Riley started sneezing, during which his parents thought was just a cold - but eventually he was diagnosed with the deadly disease.

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Perth parents Greg and Catherine Hughes have opened up about their anguish after losing their baby boy to whooping cough at just four weeks of age

Little Riley (pictured) tragically died after he was diagnosed with the deadly disease in 2015

'To watch your son deteriorate in front of you like that is one of the hardest things you can ever imagine. Really difficult,' Mr Hughes said.

'The image of my son just constantly coughing, coughing and pleading with me with his eyes hooked up to all these monitors.

'And I couldn't fix him and I felt too helpless and so, at that moment, worthless as a Dad, because I couldn't make it right.'

Far from getting better, Riley was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit as his parents started to notice their son's cough had developed a 'whoop' sound.

Tragically, the parents - who also have a young daughter together - was left reeling when doctors told them to prepare for the worst.

Riley was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit as his parents started to notice their son's cough had developed a 'whoop' sound

'We were called into the family room and informed that we should baptise Riley, and straight away, I just knew, this is it,' Mrs Hughes said.

'They think he is going to die and it was the first time I had really considered that and it just felt like a punch in the stomach.

'It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest and I still remember him, you know, holding his hand and him gripping my little finger.

'But it just got worse and worse and his heart started to shut down from the toxins caused by the whooping cough.

'Doctors gave us his tiny little body, and it was still all covered in the tubes and wires. It was time for him to go. We decided we wanted to hold him and cuddle him.'

The Hughes family have rallied behind the federal government's $5.5 million campaign in an effort to encourage parents to vaccinate their children

Children can't get vaccinated until they are six to eight weeks old.

'Riley was only four weeks old so he was too young for his own vaccinations, so he sort of relied on protection from our community,' Mrs Hughes said.

The Hughes family are among the grieving parents who have rallied behind the federal government's $5.5 million campaign in an effort to encourage parents to vaccinate their children.

'I want all pregnant Mums to know, it's so important to have a booster when you are pregnant to protect not just you but your baby against whooping cough,' Mrs Hughes said.

'It's so effective and to be able to give your baby the gift of immunity before your baby is even born is a miracle, it's amazing.'

By sharing their tragic story, the parents said they wanted to prevent other families from going through the same grief.

For more information, please visit Get the Facts: Immunisation Saves Lives.
A woman who was sexually abused by her geography teacher has waived her right to anonymity to reveal her ordeal as part of a campaign for a better justice system.

Sue Adey, 49, from Hastings, East Sussex, was abused by Alan Rees, 59, twice in 1980s when she was just 13, in what she says was an 'open secret' in her school.

In a special programme by 5 News, Sue, who was then known as Susie Brooks, claims all the girls in her school were attracted to the teacher and that when she reported the incidents she wasn't taken seriously.

When more girls came forward the school investigated the accusations but rather than report them to the police, Rees was sent to a psychiatrist. Astonishingly he was allowed to return to teaching the male students for another 26 years - a decision a judge would later describe as 'staggering'.

It was the second time Sue had been abused as family friend George Hilder was later convicted for eight counts of gross indecency with a child.

Rees and Hilder were both jailed in February this year in two separate cases. Rees was handed a two-and-a-half-year sentence and Hilder was jailed for four years.

Brave: Sue Adey, 49, from Hastings, was abused by teacher Alan Rees twice in 1980s. She waived her right to anonymity in the hope of helping others affected by abuse

Sue said Rees had been a 'dashing' teacher that everyone in her school fancied - but he soon took advantage of her schoolgirl crush.

She said: 'He was just a dashing teacher that everyone had a crush on, we used to love going to geography because it was Mr Rees teaching us.'

Sue tried to report the abuse to her school, which has since been demolished, but nothing was done about it until more girls came forward years later.

Sue said: 'I told people, it wasn't that I didn't tell. The whole school knew, why was nothing done? Why was it just left?

'Why would you have put him back? That was just disgusting, it's supposed to be a place of safety, you know, they're supposed to be looking after kids.'

Alan Rees, 59, is serving two and a half years in prison for sexually abusing Sue

In 1992 Rees was confronted about the complaints but was not sacked and the police were not informed. Instead the education authority disqualified him from teaching girls.

Sue said: 'All that happened was he was sent to a psychiatrist and he was allowed to carry on teaching and that's the bit I'm annoyed with because I had gone back 19 years ago and said "Why didn't you do anything?".

'They said "It's very serious what you've accused, we're sending it to the police, they'll be in touch" but they were never were in touch.'

Rees was questioned again back in 2008 when a CRB check brought up the accusations, but he still wasn't prosecuted.

Sue was just a young girl, pictured, when she was abused by family friend George Hilder, 81

'No one ever took it any further, just left it and I think it's disgusting. So many kids in so many situations in the country have been affected by things like this and nothing was done,' Sue said.

In February 2017 Rees pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and was jailed for two-and-a-half years under 1980s guidelines.

Emily Cherry of the NSPCC said: 'It is really shocking in cases like Sue that her abuse was swept under the carpet, that she was ignored, she was not listened to and that professionals didn't support her but we must reassure victims right now that if they come forward things are starting to change.'

Betrayal of trust: Family friend who abused Sue as a child Sue's family friend George Hilder, 81, was sentenced to four years in prison for abusing her Around the same time she was abused by Rees, Sue Adley, 49, was also sexually abused by a family friend. For years in the 1980s, Sue was abused by George Hilder, 81, a man who abused her family's trust. Speaking to 5 News, Sue said: 'He made threats to me that if I didn't do what he wanted, if I said anything against him he could very quickly sort that out, that was a regular threat.' Sue claimed Hilder was the leader of a pedophile ring who threatened her into silence. Though decades have passed since the abuse, the memories still haunt Sue. She said: 'I can still smell him, I can still see him, and I can't get rid of that smell in my nose. It breaks my heart because I know how wrong it is. Back then I thought it was a sign of love and he wanted to be with me.' After seeing pedophile Jimmy Savile escaped justice before he died, Sue was determined that her abusers wouldn't get away with what they did to her. She said: 'I want others to come forward because I want them to have a voice, say their piece, to get justice. It isn't just me. I know there are others.' In February this year Hilder was convicted of eight counts of indecency with a child and sentenced to four years in prison. Some old Christmas cards and damning testimony from a former colleague helped secure the conviction. When asked what she would those who say she should 'let go' because it is 'ancient history', Sue replied: 'Its not just for me, it's not, this isn't about me, it isn't. It's not the sort of thing you sit and talk to someone about, you're one of the only people I've spoken to about it. I haven't spoken to my own husband about it. She added: 'I still feel like that kid because I just wanted people to hear me and do something because it was wrong and I wish I'd not lost so many great opportunities in my life. I still feel like that 12 year old and I wish it had never happened.' Advertisement

5 News is on tonight at 5pm
Dame Helen Mirren has established herself as one of the most timeless beauties in Hollywood, but the revered actress has revealed she once suffered from terrible insecurities as a young woman breaking into the industry.

The 72-year-old icon reflected on her rise to fame in the 1960s in a new interview with Allure published on Monday, and recounted disliking her curves because they didn't match the tomboyish aesthetic of the decade.

'It was the time of Twiggy, and I did not look like a twig,' she said. 'My cheeks were too fat, legs were too short, breasts too big.'

Looking back: Dame Helen Mirren, 72, reflected on her rise to fame in the Twiggy era in a new interview with Allure published on Monday

Outspoken: The proud feminist revealed she would like to tell her younger self not to be so 'bloody polite' and now wishes she had told more people to 'f**k off'

Looking back, the Academy, Emmy and Tony Awards winner said she can see why people called her sexy at that time, but explained she struggled to accept her own appearance because it seemed at odds with the trends.

'I fell into the cliche of sexiness: blonde hair, tits, waist, which I hated at the time because it was not fashionable,' she added. 'You had to be thin and have a cigarette and only wear black. And I just never fit into that look.'

If she could give her younger self a few words of advice, Mirren said she would like to tell her not to be so 'bloody polite' and say 'f**k off' more often.

While she didn't use quite such strong words, the movie icon famously stood up to British talk show host Michael Parkinson when, in a 1975 interview, he suggested that her figure might be getting in the way of her becoming a 'serious' actress.

Even though she held her own that day, Mirren now wishes she had been less concerned with politeness in general during her younger years.

'In those days, you had to,' she told Allure. 'It's hard to explain how difficult it is to overcome the culture. You become a voice in the wilderness. No one wants to listen.'

Movement: Now an outspoken advocate for gender equality, the actress recounted her past struggle to call herself a feminist, and how she has embraced the label

Speaking out: In her thirties, Mirren famously stood up to talk show host Michael Parkinson when he suggested that her figure might get in the way of her being a 'serious' actress

Now an outspoken advocate for gender equality, the actress reflected on her past struggle to call herself a feminist, and how she has embraced the label.

'I wasnt into the very didactic feminism of the 1960s and 1970s because I liked wearing makeup and high heels. That was a no-no. It was sort of "Thats playing to the patriarchy," ' she said.

'I was thinking, "Well, I just really like it." Then as feminism developed, they realized you can like nice dresses, high-heeled shoes, and makeup. Thats not stopping you from being feminist.'

The British-born actress, who had a Russian father and an English mother, recounted taking part in New York City's Women's March earlier this year, describing it as a 'positive, funny... joyous' event, even though everyone in attendance 'had good reason to be angry'.

Past: The Dame also recounted feeling insecure about her frame earlier in her career. 'It was the time of Twiggy, and I did not look like a twig,' she said

Trends: 'I fell into the cliche of sexiness: blonde hair, tits, waist, which I hated at the time because it was not fashionable,' Mirren added about her look

Bashing the current administration, she added: '[Trump] just said and did whatever it took to get what he desired. That is quite terrifying, because it means there's a lack of morality there and a lack of conscientiousness.'

As for Ivanka Trump, Mirren finds the First Daughter 'talks a good game, but there's no substance'.

'Her book is so ignorant about how the majority of women live, talking about "Make time for yourself to have a massage." Puh-lease,' the actress added in reference to Women Who Work, Ivanka's latest book, which was slammed by critics for being tone-deaf when it came out in May this year.

Mirren's feelings about the First Lady seemed more mixed.

'You look at old Mel there, and she is one of the most powerful women in the world because she could take him down,' the actress said of Melania, adding that the former model 'almost' brought her husband down when she brushed off his hand.

'I'm Eastern European, you know; [we've] got these dark souls,' Mirren added. 'That dark Slovenian soul is about to come out. She's only got to do a nice interview with Allure.'
Once upon time most of us wanted to dress up like fairy tale princesses. There's just something about sparkly tiaras and fluffy dresses that had us swooning.

Call it instinctual, but many (regardless of age) have a soft spot for all things fantastical. Stars like Brie Larson, 27, Nicole Kidman, 50, and Luara Haddock, 31, have all made headlines recently by stepping out in gowns fit for modern-day storybook characters.

Shop our roundup of fanciful fashions and get ready for your happily ever after.

Once upon a time: Brie Larson attended 'The Glass Castle' New York Screening at SVA Theatre wearing a tulle embellished Monique Lhuillier Resort 2018 tulle gown. She rounded out the dreamy look withe silver Jimmy Choo sandals

Brie Larson attended 'The Glass Castle' New York Screening at SVA Theatre wearing a tulle embellished Monique Lhuillier Resort 2018 tulle gown. She rounded out the dreamy look with silver Jimmy Choo sandals.

Nicole Kidman was dressed to impress at the 'Top of the Lake: China Girl' Australian Premiere at the Sydney Opera House this month. The Australian beauty donned a dainty dress from Zuhair Murads Fall 2017 Couture collection and Jimmy Choo shoes.

Happily ever after: Nicole Kidman and Laura Haddock appeared to have stepped out of a story book in dresses by Zuhair Murad and Giambattista Valli (respectively)

Laura Haddock appeared to have stepped out of a story book at the 'Transformers: The Last Knight' China World Premiere.

The actress graced the red carpet in a Giambattista Valli Couture Spring 2017 Couture ball gown, featuring a frothy skirt and crystal accents. Piaget jewels completed her sparkly ensemble.

Fairy tale ending: While Elisabeth Moss added edge to her feminine Oscar de la Renta dress with a black leather jacket, Isabela Moner and Kate Beckinsale's Marchesa gowns were designed for modern day princesses

Elisabeth Moss, 35, added edge to her uber feminine Oscar de la Renta dress for 'The Square' screening during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival, by accessorizing with a black leather jacket, platform sandals and Chopard jewels.

'Transformers' star Isabela Moner, arrived at the blockbuster hit's Chicago, Illinois, premiere in a pale pink Marchesa Spring 2017 gown, complete with cascading layers of tulle.

Kate Beckinsale, 44, turned heads at the after party for the premiere of 'The Only Living Boy In New York' wearing a strapless tulle Marchesa dress. The textured skirt and corseted bodice with 3D floral embellishment, made this fantastical ombre number a modern day masterpiece.

SHOP FAIRY TALE FASHIONS FOR MODERN DAY PRINCESSES

Julianne Ballerina crepe de chine and embroidered tulle dress by Alice & Olivia, now $247.50; theoutnet.com Autum Bow Jeweled Clutch by Badgley Mischka, $179; lordandtaylor.com Belle Bandeaux Headband by Jennifer Behr, $298; shopbop.com Follies Strass Mesh & Glitter Pumps by Christian Louboutin, $1,195; barneys.com

Bridal cropped embellished tulle cape by Needle & Thread, $345.20; net-a-porter.com Isadora Crystal Hair Clip by Brides and Hairpins, $225; nordstrom.com Tall Emily Boutique Tulle Mesh Midi Skirt by Boohoo, $40; boohoo.com Flesh Viva Crystal Lace-Up High Heel Sandals by Tabitha Simmons, now $399; c21stores.com

Lucille Stretch Embroidered Maxi Dress by French Connection, $378; frenchconnection.com Portia Feather-Trim Lucite Clutch by BCBG, $198; bcbg.com Celestial embellished tulle gown by Needle & Thread, $450; net-a-porter.com Lace slip-on kitten heel pumps by Dolce & Gabbana, $895; mytheresa.com
Dame Helen Mirren has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and his administration, and the actress didn't hold back when it came to sharing his thoughts on his daughter's 'ignorant' book about working women.

Although Ivanka Trump has branded herself as a feminist who is dedicated to empowering women, 72-year-old icon and advocate for women's rights told Allure that she isn't buying it.

'[Ivanka] talks a good game, but theres no substance. Her book is so ignorant about how the majority of women live, talking about, "Make time for yourself to have a massage." Puh-lease,' Mirren said in reference to Women Who Work, Ivanka's latest book.

Outspoken: Dame Helen Mirren has slammed Ivanka Trump, saying the First Daughter 'talks a good game, but there's no substance'

Joining the critics: The 72-year-old actress noted that Ivanka's book Women Who Work is 'so ignorant about how the majority of women live'

Still smiling: Ivanka's book was criticized for being tone-deaf when it came out in May this year. She is pictured with Secretary Betsy DeVos and Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta

Women Who Work received scathing reviews from numerous publications that slammed the book for being tone-deaf when it it came out in May this year.

In one excerpt, Ivanka discussed going into 'survival mode' while working on her father's presidential campaign, explaining that she didn't have time to treat herself to massages or meditate like she would have liked.

Critics found revelations like those to be cringe-worthy and oblivious to the realities that plague other working moms that don't have the financial means or outside help that Ivanka has.

Despite her obvious disdain for Ivanka, who works as her father's senior adviser, Mirren's feelings about First Lady Melania Trump are more mixed.

Still stunning: The icon sports a white frock and bright red lips on the cover of the September issue of Allure magazine

Feminist: Mirren took part in New York City's Women's March earlier this year, describing it as a 'positive, funny... joyous' event, even though everyone 'had good reason to be angry'

'You look at old Mel there, and she is one of the most powerful women in the world because she could take him down,' the actress said of Melania, noting that the former model 'almost' brought her husband down when she brushed off his hand.

'I'm Eastern European, you know; [we've] got these dark souls,' Mirren added. 'That dark Slovenian soul is about to come out. She's only got to do a nice interview with Allure.'

Now an outspoken advocate for gender equality, the Academy, Emmy and Tony Awards winner reflected on her past struggle to call herself a feminist, and how she has embraced the label.

Movement: Now an outspoken advocate for gender equality, Mirren recounted her past struggle to call herself a feminist, and how she has embraced the label

Looking back: 'I wasnt into the very didactic feminism of the '60s and '70s because I liked wearing makeup and high heels,' she said

'I wasnt into the very didactic feminism of the '60s and '70s because I liked wearing makeup and high heels. That was a no-no. It was sort of "Thats playing to the patriarchy," ' she said.

'I was thinking, "Well, I just really like it." Then as feminism developed, they realized you can like nice dresses, high-heeled shoes, and makeup. Thats not stopping you from being feminist.'

The British-born actress, who had a Russian father and an English mother, recounted taking part in New York City's Women's March earlier this year, describing it as a 'positive, funny... joyous' event, even though everyone in attendance 'had good reason to be angry'.

Bashing the current administration, she added: '[Trump] just said and did whatever it took to get what he desired. That is quite terrifying, because it means there's a lack of morality there and a lack of conscientiousness.'
A Japanese-born actress playing the lead in a Little Mermaid production is hitting back at racist social media users who claimed she cannot play Ariel because she is Asian.

Diana Huey, 31, plays the mermaid in a theater version of the classic Disney tale. The actress, from Mukilteo, Washington, took to Facebook this weekend to speak out against a string of racist comments posted about the casting decision.

'When I auditioned for Mermaid, I was just excited to get to sing Part Of Your World with a live accompanistI didn't think I had a real chance in booking it because I'm Asian,' she wrote, referring to one of the animated movie's most famous songs.

Response: Japanese-born actress Diana Huey, 31, took to Facebook this weekend to speak out against a string of racist comments posted about her being cast as Ariel in The Little Mermaid

Online: The actress was about to perform in Memphis, Tennessee, when she noticed racist comments on Facebook, claiming the mermaid's part should have gone to a white woman

'Looking back at that now, that thought makes me so sad. No one should feel like they aren't enough because of the color of their skin or the shape of their eyes or any factor outside of WHO THEY ARE.'

Huey wrote her message to share an article published about her in Western New York's The Buffalo News, in which she and the show's director recounted the backlash received when she was picked to play Ariel.

Not long before her interview with the newspaper, the actress was about to perform in Memphis, Tennessee, when she noticed racist comments on Facebook, claiming the mermaid's part should have gone to a white woman.

The tour started in November in Seattle. As the show traveled south, negative comments about her being cast to play the lead intensified, Huey told the newspaper.

Impact: 'For me personally with this show, I've often also felt the added pressure of feeling like I have to work even harder to get the audience to like me,' Huey wrote

Inspiration: Despite the blowback, Huey (pictured as Ariel with Prince Eric) knows how empowering it can be for Asian children to see her in the lead role

Well-deserved: Director Glenn Casale, meanwhile, stressed that he picked Huey solely because of her talent, saying she was the best out of all the potential Ariels he saw

Director Glenn Casale, meanwhile, stressed that he picked Huey solely because of her talent.

'She was a good actress, she was the right age, she sings it like nobody else,' he said. 'We probably saw 50 Ariels, and Diana really sang it the best.'

He believes the presidential election has encouraged those with racist ideas to express them, and that this explains why the backlash against Huey's casting has been so prominent.

'It started in Seattle a little bit, and I've been on the phone with a lot of people around the country,' he said. 'A lot has changed since this [presidential] election. People are allowed to speak their minds now.'

Despite the blowback, Huey knows how empowering it can be for Asian children to see her in the lead role. After performing in Nashville, Tennessee, an Asian girl and her mother came to talk to her.

Dreams: Huey (pictured at a mermaid-themed event) expressed her hope that she will inspire other performers to audition for the parts they truly want

Message: 'I want to believe in a world where racism and bigotry no longer exists,' she added. 'I want to believe that we can truly have equality in this world'

'The mom pulled me aside and said, "The second I saw that you were playing Ariel, I just burst into tears for the sake of my daughter being able to see that," ' Huey recounted.

'Seeing a little Asian girl in a place where there aren't a lot of Asians, it reminds me how important it is to say diversity matters and being open-minded matters and equality matters. If I have to take the brunt of it every now and again, I will.'

In her Facebook post, Huey explained how comments about her race added to the enormously demanding parts of her job.

'For me personally with this show, I've often also felt the added pressure of feeling like I have to work even harder to get the audience to like me or be with me because I'm not what they might have expected to see as an Asian American actor,' she wrote.

Huey expressed her hope that she will inspire other performers to audition for the parts they truly want.

'I want to believe in a world where racism and bigotry no longer exists,' she added. 'I want to believe that we can truly have equality in this worldand the arts are a damn good place to start.'
BISMARCK, N.D.  Six commodity and farm groups in North Dakota have formed an alliance aimed at moving the state's livestock industry forward, but some people wonder about its potential impact on family farms.

Organizers of the North Dakota Livestock Alliance say the nonprofit organization is nonpartisan and will promote the development of the livestock industry in North Dakota, which is dominated by crop farming. While the state ranks first or second in the production of more than a dozen commodities, it barely makes the Top 10 in beef cows and isn't on the chart when it comes to hogs, sheep or chickens.

The intent is to educate consumers about responsible livestock operations to further their development  not to push through large confined animal feeding operations, which often draw opposition by neighbors who fear noise, odor or traffic disruptions, said alliance Chairman Craig Jarolimek, a longtime leader in the state's hog industry.

"Animal agriculture has changed quite a bit. We feel North Dakota is a good fit for that," he said. "Unfortunately there's a misconception of these operations."

North Dakota has become more urban in recent years, with U.S Agriculture Department and Census Bureau data showing 8 percent fewer farms than 20 years ago, along with bigger cities. The population of Fargo, the largest metropolitan area in the state, has grown nearly 30 percent in that time period.

"We're basically about education, and understanding," Jarolimek said.

However, the state's largest rancher group isn't involved in the alliance, and an attorney for a citizen group opposing a proposed hog farm in the southeastern part of the state says there's a danger the new alliance could hurt North Dakota's strong family farming tradition, which has been the subject of a public vote and a lawsuit in recent years.

"I think there are opportunities that would align with what most North Dakotans want for agribusiness, but I do have concerns that this alliance will be taken over by industrial interests (that) don't have family farms at interest but want to make money for shareholders," said Derrick Braaten, attorney for the Concerned Citizens of Buffalo.

The North Dakota Livestock Alliance modeled itself after similar groups in Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa. Other goals are to help develop more meat processing operations and to create another market for crops such as corn and soybeans, which can be used for animal feed.

The alliance includes groups representing the pork, dairy, corn, soybean and ethanol industries, with the support of the state's Agriculture Department and North Dakota State University. The North Dakota Stockmen's Association, the state's largest rancher group, isn't part of the organization because it already does similar work, Executive Vice President Julie Ellingson said.

"It's something we support," she said, adding that "we have some shared goals, continuing to grow the industry and utilizing feed stuffs."

North Dakota Farm Bureau also decided against being a member, although it has promoted animal agriculture in the state through the years and is suing over a state law that bars out-of-state corporations from owning farms.

Executive Vice President and CEO Jeffrey Missling said Farm Bureau supports what the alliance is trying to do but that "we've got enough of our own projects right now." He did acknowledge, however, that "It would be awkward to be seated at the table with someone involved in the lawsuit."

The reference was to North Dakota Farmers Union, which is on the opposite side of the lawsuit, helping the state attorney general defend the constitutionality of the state's Depression-era ban on corporate farming. Farmers Union also led the fight against the decision by the 2015 Legislature to allow non-family corporations to own hog and dairy operations to boost those industries. Voters in June 2016 overwhelmingly rejected the exemptions.

Despite that, Farmers Union chose to join the alliance. President Mark Watne rejects any notion of incongruity, saying the organization has always supported value-added agriculture and that "I think we can build a much stronger, more successful business model."

Jarolimek thinks the alliance can do just that.

"We'll be there to prepare the seedbed," he said, using a farming analogy. "Then the operators will come after us."
Crop spraying with the worlds most widely used pesticide is a greater danger than passive smoking to children living near the fields.

A new study has linked spraying with elemental sulphur to raised evidence of asthma and breathing problems in children.

Significantly, the chemical is widely used on both conventional and organic farms on the basis it is a natural substance.

It is typically used to prevent and eradicate fungus such as mildew damaging fruit crops such as strawberries, grapes, as well as scab on apples and pears.

The chemical is also widely used on wheat, barley, hops, sugar beet and swedes.

Crop spraying with the most widely used pesticide is a greater danger than passive smoking

STEROIDS FOUND IN INHALERS PUT ASTHMA SUFFERERS AT RISK OF PNEUMONIA Asthma sufferers may be at risk of pneumonia if they use an inhaler, research revealed back in April. Their risk of being hospitalised with the potentially fatal complication is 83 percent higher than non-inhaler users', a study found. Breathing in the steroids found in inhalers is thought to be to blame, according to the researchers from McGill University, Montreal. Steroid-containing inhalers are commonly prescribed to control inflammation in the airways. It is unclear why inhaling steroids, also known as corticosteroids, is linked to pneumonia in asthma patients. Advertisement

Sulphur is linked to poor respiratory health in children

However, it appears the fine powder can drift and damage the lungs of children living near the farms, according to a landmark study.

Academics at the University of California, Berkeley suggests farmers may need to change how they use the spray.

This could include bans on spraying near homes or wetting the powder before spreading, which mean it is less likely to blown into neighbouring communities.

The research was funded by the US Government through Americas National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

It is the first to link agricultural use of sulphur with poorer respiratory health in children living nearby.

Research looked at a group of children who live in Salinas, California, which is famed for growing strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach and has become known as Americas salad bowl. It is also an important area for grape growing and Californias vineyards.

The study linked reduced lung function, more asthma-related symptoms and higher asthma medication use in children living less than a mile from recent elemental sulphur applications compared to unexposed children.

The study found an association with spraying of the fungicide and a fall in the lung function of children aged 7 who live within 1km (0.6miles).

This was measured as an average fall of 143 millilitres per second (mL/s) in the maximal amount of air that the 7-year-old children could forcefully blow out in one second.

This is worse than the 101 mL/s reduction shown in children of the same age exposed to passive smoking via a mothers smoking for five years.

Elemental sulphur raises the risk asthma and breathing problems in children (stock)

'Breathing in sulphur dust can irritate airways and cause coughing'

The researchers said: Elemental sulfur is allowed for use on conventional and organic crops to control fungus and other pests and is very important to both systems. It is the most heavily used agricultural pesticide in California and Europe.

Professor at the School of Public Health, Berkeley, Brenda Eskenazi, said: This study provides the first data consistent with anecdotal reports of farmworkers and shows that residents, in this case, children, living near fields may be more likely to have respiratory problems from nearby agricultural sulphur applications.

Co-author of the study, Asa Bradman, associate director of the Center for Environmental Research and Childrens Health at Berkeleys School of Public Health, said: Sulphur is widely used because it is effective and low in toxicity to people.

It is naturally present in our food and soil and is part of normal human biochemistry, but breathing in sulphur dust can irritate airways and cause coughing.

We need to better understand how people are exposed to sulphur used in agriculture and how to mitigate exposures. Formulations using wettable powders could be a solution.

Georgina Downs, of the UK Pesticides Campaign, said: This study provides further evidence of the significant health risks for rural residents living in the locality of pesticide sprayed crops.

WHY YOU SHOULD ONLY BUY ORGANIC STRAWBERRIES: SUMMER-FAVOURITE FRUIT CONTAINS AT LEAST 20 PESTICIDES Strawberries contain the most pesticides of any fruit or vegetable, research revealed last month. The summer-favorite fruit contains at least 20 synthetic chemicals, a report by the Environmental Working Group found. Other chemically-ridden produce includes spinach, nectarines and apples, the research adds. Yet, only one percent of non-organic avocados and sweetcorn are contaminated with pesticide residues, the study found. Other 'clean' produce are pineapples, cabbages, onions, frozen peas, papayas, asparagus, mangoes, eggplants, honeydew melons, kiwis, cantaloupes, cauliflowers and grapefruits, the report adds.

It also again confirms the fact that such risks and adverse impacts on residents exposed to agricultural pesticides anywhere in the world has simply not been properly assessed before such pesticides are approved.

She said farm workers spreading these chemicals are usually in sealed tractor cabs with air filters or protective clothing and masks, but residents and passers-by are not.

Miss Downs said: Throughout my 16 year campaign I have continued to receive reports of both acute health effects, as well as chronic long-term effects, illnesses and diseases, from rural residents and communities. This includes numerous reports of impacts on the respiratory system, breathing problems, and asthma related symptoms.

People living in rural areas should be allowed to breathe in air free from such powerful and clearly harmful chemicals. It is an absolute no brainer that no pesticides should ever have been sprayed where people live and breathe, especially babies and young children.

Her campaign has set up a petition calling on the government to ban all crop spraying of pesticides near homes, schools and playgrounds.

'Organic farming has been found to help reduce the air pollution associated with farming practices'

Chris Atkinson, head of standards at the Soil Association, which supports organic farming, said: The health impacts of high pesticide use on local residents as well as farm workers are sometimes overlooked and we hope that this American study will boost efforts to move towards more sustainable farming systems.

In the US, sulphur is widely applied to crops, primarily fruit and nut trees, by "fogging" the trees. This technique is one that requires a great deal of care to avoid the risk of spray drift.

Here sulphur is more likely to be used in field crops where different techniques which target sprays onto the plants are used.

When it comes to organic farming, sulphur is one of a very small number of pesticides permitted in exceptional circumstances, and even then, only under strict conditions and where theres no alternative to tackling a major threat to a farmers crops.

'Overall, organic farming has been found to help reduce the air pollution associated with farming practices by reducing emissions of sulphur and other substances.
Erin Heasley started noticing something was wrong with her son, Riley, when he was only nine months old in 2009.

He was not developing at the same rate as other babies his age in Longmont, Colorado. He started sitting up far later than he should have done and did not walk until he reached 20 months.

Even then, he had to hold on to things when he walked to steady himself.

As his peers started chattering, Riley could only say about 35 words and he struggled to put two words together.

Concerned, Erin, who was 17 at the time, took him to doctors. They were perplexed by his symptoms.

Some thought it was Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental problems, but tests came back negative.

It was not until Riley was three-and-a-half years old, after years of testing, that doctors figured out what was wrong. He diagnosed with Pantothenate Kinase-Associated(PKAN), a terminal brain disease that affects just one in a million children.

Now, 25-year-old Erin and her family are desperately trying to fund research for a cure as they fear he may not have long left.

Erin Heasley, 25, held her son Riley, eight, who suffers from a degenerative disease called Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration, last summer, when Riley was in the hospital for seven-and-a-half weeks

The rare disease - which can progress in a matter of days - is caused by iron deposits accumulating in the brain and typically shows up during a child's first 10 years.

It robs children of their eyesight, speech and ability to swallow. It hinders their mobility and they experience dystonia, which causes intense muscle spasms.

Erin's mother Janis Heasley, 60, told Daily Mail Online the family was floored by his diagnosis.

'Riley's a normal kid. He fell a lot but he was normal,' she recalled.

She described the day doctors delivered his diagnosis as 'horrific'.

'They said Riley has PKAN and explained what it was and that there's no cure and it's terminal.

'[Erin] kept saying, "No, no, no, you've missed something. That's not right." I, being the elderly one, just held her,' Janis said, fighting back tears.

She said that her daughter struggled to face the reality of Riley's disease for a few years but has now come to grips with it.

'She didn't want to talk about it for a few years. She didn't want to research or look into it. I, being the more realistic one, did the research.'

She said Erin was 16 when she had Riley. 'She was a young mother struggling to come to terms with what the doctors had told her. But she fights hard for Riley and she turns into a mama bear if you cross her,' Janis said.

Janis's daughter-in-law Heather, who is married to Erin's brother, found out about a clinical trial for PKAN called the Deferiprone Study. Riley participated in the study at the Children's Hospital Oakland in California.

Riley's younger brother Mason, six, kissed him on the cheek when Riley was in a coma last summer. Riley was put into three medically induced comas during one hospital stay, the last of which saved his life

Erin, who works as a waitress because of the quick money that it allows her to bring in, posed with her two sons in March last year

But the trial was unsuccessful in finding a cure for PKAN and at the beginning of last year Riley started experiencing muscle spasms for the first time.

His most unstable period yet arrived last summer. He was in the hospital for seven-and-a-half weeks and went into three medically-induced comas. After the last one, he became more stable.

WHAT IS PKAN? PKAN affects one in a million children

There are two types of the disease but the classic type develops in children around three-and-a-half years old

Children with PKAN are sometimes originally perceived to simply be clumsy, as they struggle to walk

As the disease progresses, falling becomes common

Children with the illness eventually lose the ability to swallow, their eyesight, their mobility and their speech

Many children with PKAN die before the age of 10 Advertisement

'That coma is the one that saved his life and stopped the dystonic storm,' Janis said.

Erin, who works as a waitress because of the quick cash that the job provides her, was not able to work during Riley's hospital stay last summer so she was fired.

The expenses became overwhelming. Riley's disease meant that he constantly needed things that other children did not need, such as a wheelchair ramp, a special bed and a special bathtub.

The family organized a motorcade fundraiser called the Ride for Riley, in which motorcyclists and drivers of other vehicles participated. They raised $3,800.

The second annual Ride for Riley is being held in Longmont this Saturday and the family hopes to raise $350,000.

'We would like to at least double from last year's amount, if not more,' Janis said.

While last year's proceeds went to the Heasleys so they could buy Riley all of the specialized products he needs, all of this year's funds will go to the Spoonbill Foundation, which is working to find a cure for PKAN.

'Everything goes to the Spoonbill Foundation. We are just trying to do our part with helping out. The sooner we get [the cure] the sooner Riley can learn to run and play with his brother and cousins again.'

She and Erin experienced a moment of hope when Riley, who had been declared legally blind and who doctors said would never see again, was able to see his mother one day.

A hospice nurse now comes to Riley's house two times a week. A special education teacher from his public elementary school also comes, in addition to speech and occupational therapists. Riley is pictured above celebrating his birthday in October

WHAT IS DYSTONIA: THE MUSCLE-SPASM CAUSING SYMPTOM OF RILEY'S DISEASE Dystonia, a symptom of PKAN, causes people to twist and move involuntarily

Areas of the body that dystonia can affect include: neck, eyelids, tongue, jaw, vocal cords, hands and forearms

There is no cure for dystonia

Some forms of it are inherited

It can be a symptom of diseases such as Parkinson's, Huntington's and Wilson's Advertisement

Riley was watching TV and Erin walked between the screen and her son.

'He followed her with his eyes. She looked at me and I said: "What's happening?" and she said: "I don't know but hand me that balloon." I handed her the balloon and she said: "Riley, look at this balloon," and he followed it!

'Erin said, "Where's your mommy?" He looked at her, and we both just burst into tears.'

Janis and Erin, who live together, look after Riley round the clock, splitting up the duties.

'Erin and I work well together,' Janis said, describing their system as 'co-parenting'.

They feed Riley five times a day, starting at 5am and ending at 11pm, so he he's had enough calories to maintain him overnight.

'The sooner we get [the cure] the sooner Riley can learn to run and play with his brother and cousins again,' Janis said. Pictured above are Riley, Erin and Mason in April last year

Riley can no longer use his arms or legs but his muscle spasms keep him moving constantly. His grandmother said the only time he is still is when he is asleep. He is pictured here with his mother, Erin, in August 2016

Janis said that she, Erin and a mother from Australia who has a child with PKAN started a support group for family members who take care of loved ones with the disease. Erin is pictured here cradling Riley's head last summer

Riley is on a slew of medications, some of which are for pain management. Others, such as Artane, are for dystonia.

Everything he consumes now he does so through a feeding tube because he cannot swallow anything anymore. He cannot move his arms or legs but he is constantly in motion because of the dystonia.

Janis said he still says a few words. Riley likes watching Mickey Mouse on TV and she said he'll say the word 'more' when one episode is almost over.

Riley is a student in the special education program at the public school he attended, Sanborn Elementary School in Longmont.

Janis said that the school system tried to make Riley change schools at one point but she and Erin fought it. They wanted him to be able to stay in the school where people knew him well and did not view him simply as a disabled person.

Riley is no longer able to travel to the school but his special education teacher comes to him to give him lessons.

'It's something about Riley: the people who take care of him, they all come floating back to him,' Janis said.

Additionally, occupational and speech therapists come to his home, where Janis and Erin both live, to work with him.

Janis said that she is cautiously optimistic about the cure that the Spoonbill Foundation, which the family is raising money for, is working on and that she does not think the family will have much more time with Riley.
As she stared down at her husband's apparently lifeless body, Steffanie Strathdee was forced to contemplate the worst.

Tom Patterson, her husband of 13 years, lay in a deep coma, the victim of an aggressive superbug; it had been more than three months since he'd last spoken.

'I was told Tom had gone into toxic shock and was on the verge of death,' she recalls. 'His heart, lungs and major organs were all shutting down and there was no hope left.'

Steffanie Strathdee (left) feared the worst when husband Tom Patterson (right) was comatose. But his 'miraculous' recovery was a result of a natural phenomenon that could also treat acne

The couple had been on a Nile cruise to Luxor, Egypt, in November 2015 when one evening Tom, a professor of psychiatry, said he didn't feel well and went to bed.

'By the next day he was much worse with bad stomach pain, vomiting, fever and a racing heartbeat,' Steffanie recalls.

Tom, then 69, and Stephanie, 49, thought he had food poisoning, but at a clinic in Luxor, he was diagnosed with pancreatitis  an inflamed pancreas  and a gastric tube was inserted to rehydrate him and maintain his blood pressure.

When his condition only worsened, Tom was flown to Germany. There, doctors discovered that fluid had collected around his pancreas  and in the fluid, they discovered Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium found in soil and water that has started to thrive as antibiotic medicines kill off other bacteria. It is thought the bacterium may have been introduced through the gastric tube.

Tom was immediately put on three different powerful antibiotics  meropenem, tigecycline and colistin  stabilising his condition enough for him to be flown home to San Diego in California.

But the antibiotics were not able to kill off the infection and a month later Tom was still dangerously ill when an internal drain slipped out of place, spilling the deadly bacterium into his bloodstream. Septic shock immediately set in, causing his blood pressure to fall dangerously low, and Tom slipped into a coma. For almost three months he hovered between life and death as intensive care and infectious disease specialists battled to keep him alive.

By March 2016, Steffanie was in despair. 'He was getting weaker and weaker. I had been told he was going to die. I needed to know if he had run out of fight or if he wanted to carry on.'

Tom was put on three different powerful antibiotics (file pic)  meropenem, tigecycline and colistin  stabilising his condition enough for him to be flown home to San Diego in California

As Steffanie held his hand and asked the question, 'Have you had enough or do you want me to see if I can find some other treatment', she felt the faintest squeeze of her hand in return.

That set her off on a desperate global quest for a way of fighting the deadly infection. And it was no little thanks to her that Tom is now alive and well.

His apparently miraculous recovery is the result of a natural phenomenon that could not only combat the growth of antibiotic-resistant infections  but also help treat even humble infections such as a sore throat and acne.

The key are viruses known as phages  there are millions of different types of phages all around us which infect and destroy disease-causing bacteria.

GIVEN ONLY A FEW DAYS TO LIVE

As she scoured the medical literature for a treatment, Steffanie, a scientist at the University of California studying the spread of infectious diseases, recalled her school biology lessons about phages.

Phages were used medicinally in the Twenties and Thirties and continue to be used in areas of the world where access to modern antibiotics has been limited.

'I remembered hearing about a friend of a friend who had been successfully treated with phages for a superbug infection in Tiblisi in Georgia, and I thought that might just be the answer,' Stephanie told Good Health. 'It turned out it was the answer. Once Tom got the phage therapy, the transformation was instant. He got better in two days, I couldn't believe it  nor could his doctors.'

The rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs is a global crisis which, according to a 2016 UK government review, is responsible for an additional 700,000 deaths a year worldwide from conditions which in the past would have been knocked out by antibiotics  including simple chest infections.

Ironically, the problem was predicted by Alexander Fleming, the Scottish scientist who discovered the first antibiotic penicillin, even as he collected a Nobel prize for his achievement in 1945.

The rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs is a crisis which, according to a UK government review, is responsible for an additional 700,000 deaths a year worldwide from conditions which in the past would have been knocked out by antibiotics such as simple chest infections

He warned that while easily wiping out susceptible colonies of bacteria and saving millions of lives that would previously have been lost as a result of infected cuts, chest infections or post-operative infections in hospitals, overuse of antibiotics would also clear living space for treatment resistant bugs to flourish and multiply.

In the intervening decades, antibiotics have been freely distributed globally for routine conditions. They have also been used liberally for pets, as well as in agriculture, poultry production and fish farming, often before animals are sick, to protect them from the infections caused by their crowded and unhygienic living conditions.

All of this contributed to a looming crisis. As the UK's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, warned recently: 'If we don't find new treatments, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can't be treated by antibiotics.

'Routine operations like hip replacements could become deadly because of the risk of infection.'

Phage therapy, which for decades has been repeatedly identified in The Lancet and other leading medical journals as a possible answer to the crisis, could indeed change all that. Tom Patterson received nine different phages following an emergency call to phage researchers by his doctors. Three phages were supplied by Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical) University, and another came from AmpliPhi, a phage research company in San Diego.

These were administered through catheters being used to drain an abcess in his stomach. Five more, given intravenously, were supplied by the Biological Defense Research Directorate of the U.S. Navy Medical Research Centre. There was a potential risk, though rare, of phage therapy itself sending his body into shock. But within two days of receiving the therapy, 'I was getting better,' recalls Tom. 'It was like a miracle.

'I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious, but if I had been given it when I was first infected I'd have never got sick.'

Although the phages cleared the infection very quickly, it was nine more months before Tom regained strength in his wasted muscles. He finally returned to work earlier this year, over a year after becoming ill, and has just returned home from France, his first foreign holiday since the fateful trip to Egypt in 2015.

Robert Schooley, professor of medicine at the University of California in San Diego, who supervised Tom's treatment, was amazed by the experiment. 'Before this, I saw phage therapy as being mainly of historical interest, and of limited use because of the practical and regulatory challenges,' he said.

'Now I see them as a very well tolerated and potent antimicrobial tool that can be of clear benefit to patients with multi drug- resistant bacterial infections.'

Indeed the miraculous success of Tom's phage treatment has triggered interest from microbiologists worldwide. Mzia Kutateladze, director of the Eliava Institute phage therapy treatment centre in Tiblisi, said the number of foreigners coming in for treatment has suddenly risen from 20 per year to 15 or 20 per month, including Britons who pay for their own treatment.

'We can reduce the bacteria count and improve people's quality of life,' she says. 'We have six different phage products which are approved medicines for a variety of conditions, including chest and stomach infections, but are also working on medicine tailored for individual patients.'

CAN IT CURE YOUR SORE THROAT?

One of her successes is Professor Martha Clokie, an infectious diseases expert at Leicester University who has been working on phages for 17 years and collaborates with the doctors in Tiblisi.

'About five years ago I had caught tonsillitis in Leicester from my two-year-old son,' she says. 'I was in Tiblisi for a meeting and it was getting worse, so they gave me a phage therapy to gargle with to kill the bacteria. It was very yeasty and tasted a bit like Marmite, but it worked.

'My husband and son had the same infection at the same time. I discovered they had gone to the GP back home and got antibiotics. They both got better at about the same time as me. Not very scientific, but it suggests the phage therapy worked.'

As well as other patients rescued at death's door by phages, recent reports of successful phage therapy include infected post-surgical wounds, chronic ear infections, antibiotic-resistant acne, and even potentially life-threatening infections in cystic fibrosis patients.

So why isn't phage treatment being rolled out widely? One problem is that it doesn't fit European and U.S. methods of trialling and approving medicines. There is also no profit incentive for drug companies in developing them because, as naturally-occurring bacteria-infecting viruses, they cannot be patented.

Professor Clokie, who is now working on phages as a treatment for hospital-acquired infectious superbugs such as MRSA and clostridium difficile, says it is impossible to produce a phage cocktail that contains a precise, measured number of viruses of different types, guaranteed to target a specific infection.

'If you want to get a product regulated here, you have to know that kind of information,' she says. 'It's very difficult. We had a meeting with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency a couple of years ago, but we're no further forward.'

Antibiotics were not able to kill off the infection and a month later Tom was still dangerously ill when an internal drain slipped out of place, spilling the deadly bacterium into his bloodstream

Last week, phage scientists, including observers from the World Health Organisation and some major international drug companies, converged on Olympia, capital of Washington State, for the Evergreen College phage conference, an annual meeting of phage specialists that's attracted more and more people since it began 22 years ago. One of the promising areas is treating cystic fibrosis.

Jerome Larche, an intensive care specialist in Montpellier, France, reported in 2012 that phage use has controlled lung infection in his brother who is a cystic fibrosis patient and Jane Davies, a professor of paediatric respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, is planning to begin the first human trials of selected phages for cystic fibrosis patients within two years.

A spokesman for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, which helps to fund Professor Davies's work, said: 'We have a strong interest in phage research and hope it leads to a viable treatment for the future.'

BETTER TARGETED THAN ANTIBIOTICS

As for concerns that phages themselves could trigger illness or overwhelm the immune system, in controlled circumstances the risk of phage use should be minimal, says Professor Davies.

'Phage treatment should be better than antibiotics because it only targets specific types of bacteria, and not lots of other benefiical or harmless bacteria.'

Studies at the University of Pittsburgh also suggest that phages, given in a cream, can help treat antibiotic-resistant propionibacterium acnes, which cause one in four cases of acne.

In an earlier study at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London, 24 patients who'd suffered years of chronic antibiotic resistant ear infections, showed dramatic benefit with phage therapy.

David Harper, an infectious diseases expert involved in the 2009 study, is developing the therapy through his company Evolution Technologies, aiming initially to treat dogs with the same ear infection that humans develop.

'It is a small market, but if we can get it into commercial use that will prove it is possible to do this,' said Dr Harper, who is also a member of the Alternatives to Antibiotics panel of advisors assembled by the Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust. 'We would aim to embark on human trials in about 2022.'

Meanwhile, both the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council are actively researching phages, and are using insects to test which types of phages can best kill off resistant bacteria. 'We have a limited pipeline of new antibiotics,' Dr Jonathan Pearce, head of infections and immunity at the MRC, told Good Health.

'Bacteriophages which naturally infect and kill bacteria can potentially be used to help eliminate infections.'

Tom Patterson is living proof that they are even now saving people's lives.
With chinks in the Opposition widening following JD(U) and the NCP's exit, supporters of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal sense an opportunity for their respective leaders to take charge in the 2019 parliamentary polls.

Hours after the JD(U) announced its exit from the Grand Alliance on July 26, Kejriwal's supporters including its star campaigner and music composer Vishal Dadlani tweeted 'Bas ek akela baaki hai (only one person is now left)' hinting at Kejriwal.

Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba too vocally backed Kejriwal saying that he was the only one who could take on the might of the BJP and Modi.

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi leaves after casting his vote in the Vice Presidential Election at Parliament House in New Delhi on Saturday

India main opposition Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi speaks during the 'Kisan Akrosh Rally ' at Banswara in Rajasthan on July 19, 2017

New Delhi: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal

'Kejriwal has always been the strongest challenger to Modi, be it exposing the faulty Electronic Voting Machines or the Centre's misuse of the government agencies.

Even during demonetisation Kejriwal led the charge and the AAP protested while the Congress was napping.

'Rahul Gandhi ceases to be an option today and the Congress is on a downhill path,' said a senior AAP functionary.

He added: 'Even now it is only Kejriwal who can bring in credible faces from the Opposition such as Mamata Banerjee, Tripura CM Manik Sarkar.'

The first chink in the Opposition appeared when the Congress and the AAP refused to sit together to deliberate on the Opposition's nominee for the presidential polls.

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the filing of nomination papers by the Opposition's vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi at Parliament in New Delhi

It was only after CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury intervention that Kejriwal eventually extended support to the Opposition's presidential as well as vice-presidential candidates.

NCP too 'boycotted' the Opposition meet chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi as it was upset with the allegation leveled by the Congress over NCP MLAs in Gujarat not voting Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls.

However, senior Congress leader and national spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad attempted to gloss over the issue saying: 'Sharad Pawar could not attend the meeting because he has been unwell and that is why he is not even attending the Rajya Sabha sessions for the past three-four days'

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia claimed that the party is set to promote Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate in 2019.

A senior party functionary told Mail Today: 'It is certain that we will go into the 2019 polls under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi with him as the PM contender.

His elevation within the party, which is slated to take place by October, will see a massive revamp in the party, giving a fresh start to the poll preparations.'
In 1901, Radesh Singh's Sikh grandfather left his village in the Punjab province to move to Peshawar in northwestern India on a promise of work and adventure.

At that time he was 11 years old, the British ruled the Indian subcontinent and Pakistan wasn't even a glimmer in the eye of its founder.

But Singh's grandfather would never return to his village, not even in 1947, when Partition divided the country into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, leaving Peshawar part of the latter. In both, Sikhs remained a religious minority.

Pakistani Sikh Radesh Singh, left, talks at a temple in Peshawar, Pakistan

In the 70 years since India's break from British rule they have waged a secessionist uprising in India demanding outright independence for the Punjab state where they dominate.

They have felt increasingly less at home on either side of the border, but particularly so in recent years in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan as they too have become victims of local Taliban violence.

Singh said poverty kept his grandfather in Peshawar, located at the foot of the famed Khyber Pass and dominated by fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen.

'It's not easy to start over at zero when you have very little,' he said.

The hostility in the immediate aftermath of 1947 was brief in the northwest, said Singh. It was followed by decades of peace. The decision to stay in the new country now called Pakistan seemed like a good choice at the time. The Sikhs had lived peacefully for centuries alongside their Pashtun Muslim countrymen.

Singh said that his grandfather was just 11 years old when he left his 'simple village' in India's Punjab province to move to Peshawar, in the far northwest on the border with Afghanistan

After all, said Singh, Sikhs had a glorious history in the northwest. For a time in the 18th century they oversaw a dynasty. Their capital was Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. It was a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, who rebuilt Peshawar's infamous Bala Hisar Fort, an imposing walled fortress that some historians say is as old as the city itself, which traces its origins back more than 2,000 years.

Today Sikhs are among Pakistan's smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colorful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus.

Until 1984, Singh said, Pakistan's Hindus and Sikhs lived as one in northwest Pakistan. Their children married, they even worshipped together. But then India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

A refugee train leaving Punjab during Partition in 1947

'They (Hindus) cut all relations with us. They said Pakistani Sikhs are like all Sikhs everywhere. No difference. They said, 'From now on, we will be separate from you,'' Singh recalled.

Today Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples that they call gurdwaras; while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of the buildings. Many were abandoned in 1947 and taken over by Muslims who arrived from India. The Pakistan government, which took over the buildings after 1947, allowed the squatters to remain.

In a congested neighborhood in Peshawar's old city, Singh stepped through large steel gates that opened on to a sweeping courtyard. It no longer resembled a house of worship, but Singh said it was once a vibrant gurdwara attended by hundreds of Sikhs. Now two families call it home.

Pakistani Sikh Radesh Singh, center, shows a house occupied by Muslim families, used to be a Sikh temple in Peshawar

Two clotheslines crowded with clothes drying in the blistering midday sun stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other. A child's plastic toy sat idle nearby.

Elsewhere in Peshawar, an armed guard, his rifle slung loosely by his side, stood guard at the city's largest Sikh temple, an ornate marble building that dates back 250 years. Inside a half dozen Sikh men sat on plastic chairs.

It is a short, bureaucratic-looking man, a Muslim, who has the final say about who enters the gurdwara. He works for the government body that oversees properties vacated by people who fled to India in 1947.

People from Pakistan Sikh community visit their temple in Peshawar, Pakistan. Today Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples that they call gurdwaras and while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of their temples

After phone calls made, names recorded, passports handed over and more phone calls made, the doors to the gurdwara were opened. revealing a cavernous carpeted room and ornate pillars decorated with hundreds of tiny mirrors. In a small room at the far end of the upper story, two students read the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy book.

Singh, who heads a council representing the Sikhs in Pakistan, said that since his homeland began to turn toward radical Islam, particularly in the Pashtun heartland, young Sikhs have been looking to leave.

'They want to go to another country, not to India or Pakistan,' he said, but every country eyes them with suspicion. Even Indians, he said, see his Pakistani passport and question his intentions, suggesting he wants to agitate for Sikh secessionism, the battle that resulted in Indira Gandhi's death and a dream still held by many Sikhs on both sides of the border.

Pakistani Sikh girl Harmeed Koul reads the Sikh's Guru Granth Sahib holy book at a temple in Peshawar

For Singh, Pakistan's slide into intolerance began in the late 1970s with the former Soviet Union's invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's military dictator Zia-ul Haq set the country on the course of Islamic radicalisation as jihad became a rallying cry to defeat the communists in Afghanistan, he said.

Extremism worsened after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by a US-led coalition, he said. The tribal regions were gradually overtaken by Taliban and in 2013 several Sikhs were killed, their limbs severed. The brutality of the killings and the threats sent thousands fleeing Pakistan, said Singh.

He said today Pakistan's intolerant use blasphemy - a crime that carries an automatic death penalty - as a weapon against minorities and fellow Muslims alike.

'That is why we have a fear in our hearts, that this law can be used against us,' he said. The mere accusation of blasphemy can incite mobs to violence.

'In the last nearly 40 years we have been facing the boom, boom (mimicking the sound of explosions) in every city of Pakistan,' said Singh. 'In a long time we have not heard any sweet sounds in our Peshawar, but still we love our city.'
It has emerged that the ongoing violence against BJP-RSS workers, allegedly by CPM men in Kerala, has moved on from random acts of violence and into the homes of honest families just because of their political affiliation.

Mail Today has found that a social boycott of victims' families is the new tool adopted by the CPM to sustain its dominance in what they call 'party villages'.

More than 100 'party villages' exist in Kannur district alone with the CPM ruling them all.

Father and child of Rajesh, a BJP worker who was recently hacked to death allegedly by CPI(M) cadre

Delhi BJP supporters shouting slogans against CPI(M) leadership to protest the attacks on RSS workers in Kerala at CPI(M) HQ at Gole Market on October 10, 2016 in New Delhi, India (stock photo)

With their robust ground-level intelligence network, the CPM cadres identify the BJP/RSS supporters and force them out of the villages by denying them basic amenities.

As locals put it, one has to either live as per the party diktats or leave the village. The social atrocity against the families has only aggravated in the last five years with a gradual increase in the votes for the BJP-RSS combine in Kerala.

Violence in the area has claimed many victims

The party does not allow the villagers to cooperate with ostracised families. Those who attend any events such as marriages and funerals in the houses of such non-members are marked out, said C Chandrasekhar, RSS head in Kannur district.

'In party villages, nobody is allowed to have a different political ideology. If anybody is found to be supporting or sympathising with the opposition parties, he is socially rejected. This means no supply of milk, vegetable, fish or any other daily household needs,' he added.

'The BJP leadership is indulging in doublespeak on the clashes between CPI(M) and BJP-RSS workers in Kerala. It is the RSS which has initiated killings in the state. 13 CPI(M) workers have been killed by the RSS men,' the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement

Last week, when Arun Jaitley visited the families of slain RSS workers in Kerala, senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had slammed the BJP saying it was the saffron party's propaganda to create unrest in the state.

Baby, the widow of E Santosh who was hacked to death in Andallur village near Dharmadom in Kannur this January, narrates her ordeal.

'I had to leave the village with my 13-year-old daughter after they (CPM activists) killed my husband. Nobody in the village was ready to help,' she said.

Anger after the murder of a RSS member

Santosh's daughter Vismaya Santosh was admitted to another school fearing the CPM activists.

The family has no source of livelihood; education of the girl and family's financial needs are taken care of by the BJP and RSS. Abhilash, a local BJP worker in Dharmadom, and a neighbour of the family told Mail Today that Santosh was killed because he had contested a local body election wherein he secured nearly 100 votes in Andallur village which is fiercely dominated by CPM.

'Santosh had been actively associated with the BJP for many years but the CPM workers were furious over his contesting the elections.

'He was killed on the night of January 18 when he was alone in his house,' Abhilash said.

Similarly, an autorickshaw driver and three other members of his family were brutally attacked in another CPM stronghold Kodiyari village after he transported a BJP worker to hospital who was attacked by CPM men.

'His limbs were chopped off and his family wanted to take him to Bengaluru for limb transplant. My father transported the victim to railway station in his autorickshaw.

Enraged over this, the CPM men attacked our house and severely injured all in the family,' said Sajesh and Sarosh, two brothers who were axed by attackers in 2009.

'Kannur's party villages are a law unto themselves. Here the party controls the lives of the people. It is the CPM leaders who decide who buys or sells properties or who gets to attend marriages and funerals and who marries whom,' said O Rajagopala, the lone BJP MLA in Kerala state Assembly.

A BJP leader in Kannur said CPM workers had killed an old woman for attending the funeral of Uthaman, who was murdered by the CPM men in 2002. The woman, who hailed from the party village at Kalathodu, was a relative of Uthaman.

His son Remith was stabbed to death at Pinarayi recently. Incidentally, Pinarayi is the native place of the incumbent Kerala chief minister P Vijayan.
As India celebrates turning 70 on Tuesday, Delhi's public health system continues to be a national embarrassment.

As the world struggles to grasp the tragedy in Gorakhpur where dozens of children died over an alleged oxygen shortage, Mail Today looks closely at five government-run medical institutes in the Capital.

The findings paint a dismal picture for those in need living in India's capital.

India is ranked a lowly 112 from 190 countries in health index according to WHO

From the expectant mothers placed two in a bed at the maternity wards, and pregnant mothers lying on the floor awaiting admission along the corridors of the hospitals in Delhi, authorities turn a blind eye to the suffering.

'What has changed over the 70 years of Independence?Children are dying in BRD hospital in Gorakhpur'

Mail Today found that the situation is the same at Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital (LHMC), Safdarjung, RML and Kalawati Saran, as well as Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya - best known for neonatal care, are all sick.

Two pregnant women, Sushila and Geeta (names changed), were in pain at the central government-run LHMC and were forced to share a single bed.

Mothers sit on the floor as they wait to be seen: Only 1% of Indias GDP is spent on health - the lowest in the world

There were many other such cases at the hospital. When this reporter reached them, Sushila had given birth to a boy a day before, while Geeta had been advised treatment for premature delivery.

Geeta was not able to speak because of the pain but Sushila spoke on her precious first moments of motherhood: 'I know it is not easy to share a bed with another pregnant mother, but I am helpless. We both are not able to rest and get the comfort that we need.'

Another expectant mother was lying on the floor because of the unavailability of beds at the hospital. Mohd Nizamuddin, 25, whose wife Sabina is seven months pregnant, was sitting next to her.

Rahul, 10, down with fever, was found lying on the floor of Chacha Nehru Chikitsalaya

'This is my first child and I have been wandering around here for three days to get a bed for my wife with doctors suggesting premature delivery. We are just waiting,' he said, with his wife in pain.

India's public healthcare system is one of the most underfunded in the world while it contends with problems like a high rate of infant mortality and communicable diseases.

A senior doctor at the LHMC gynaecology ward told Mail Today on the condition of anonymity: 'We are overloaded with patients. Anyhow, we have to adjust pregnant mothers. They can't be left in pain. It's just that authorities need to understand and should expand the medical facilities here.'

Ten-year-old Rahul was down with viral fever and he visited Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya. This reporter found him collapsed on the floor.

'It has been more than four hours since my father is standing in the queue waiting for my medical consultation,' he said.

Siblings Roshini and Abhishek too had viral fever. They came to RML hospital at 8am but were waiting to meet a doctor till afternoon.

Mohd Nizamuddin with his seven-month pregnant wife Sabina

'It is not easy to get treatment at a government hospital. It is a struggle. Even though we have come on time we are far away from the doctors,' said their mother, Renu.

Ashraf, 25, had been at Safdarjung Hospital with his pregnant wife for two days but she was yet to get admission.

'What can we do? For the past two days doctors were making us run from pillar to post. Now I am planning to take her to another hospital,' he said.

Dr Vivek Chouksey, president of the resident doctors' association at LHMC, said that the public health system in Delhi and other parts of the country is a mess.

'What has changed over the 70 years of Independence?' he said. 'Children are dying in BRD hospital in Gorakhpur and has the government ever worked to improve health status in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and this is the national Capital, which itself has a poor health-care system.'

'We are getting about 70% referral cases from outside Delhi,' Dr Anup Mohta, director of Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, told Mail Today.

'Delhi hospitals are overloaded and manpower is less. In the past 70 years, health services in Delhi have improved but we need to focus more on providing quality medical care.

Accordingly, bed strength should be increased and tertiary level of healthcare should be set up at district level.'

Dr KK Aggarwal, national president of the Indian Medical Association, urged the government to control the crisis so no further deaths, like the ones in Gorakhpur, take place.
Supreme Court advocate Charu Wali Khanna, a Kashmiri Pandit, has questioned why she has no right to property in Jammu and Kashmir just because she had married outside the state and settled in Delhi.

The question comes as part of the ongoing challenge to the validity of the Constitution's Article 35A, on the ground of gender discrimination, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir currently being heard at India's apex court.

Article 35A allows the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define the list of 'permanent residents' of the state, who are eligible to vote, work for the state government, own land, secure, public employment and college admissions.

Petitioner Charu Wali Khanna, a Supreme Court lawyer and a native of Kashmir has raised the issue of Article 14 and 35A being in contradiction

Non-permanent residents are denied all these rights. It was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954.

Critics have panned the manner of its enactment, without any discussion in Parliament.

Khanna wanted to buy land to build a house but the PDP-BJP government refused her permission citing this particular section of the Constitution.

'Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar (National Conference leaders) are married to non-Kashmiris. The father and son not only do not lose permanent resident status, but their wives get a right to property too, Jad told a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

'At the same time, Sarah Abdullah, the daughter of Farooq Abdullah, who is married to Sachin Pilot (Congress leader) loses her permanent resident status and right to property too.

'This is where the gender inequality, a clear violation of right to equality lies. Likewise my client, who married outside the state, loses the citizenship and also property rights. She is unable to build a house in her birth state.'

Kashmir's main opposition leader, National Conference (NC) president (left) Farooq Abdullah arrives with his son and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah

But the lawyer appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir government said a full bench of the high court had in a 2002 case, State of Jammu and Kashmir vs Susheela Sawhney, settled the matter and held that the daughter of a permanent resident marrying a non-permanent citizen would not lose property rights.

However, the judges felt that the issue, which involves questioning the validity of an article in the Constitution, required hearing by a five-judge constitution bench.

The bench then tagged the petition with a similar plea challenging the legitimacy of Article 35A in which attorney general KK Venugopal has been asked to represent the Centre and fixed it for hearing on a later date.

Khanna said, 'Article 14 of Constitution gives a fundamental right to equality before law.

'But 35A is heavily loaded in favour of males because even after marriage to women from outside they will not lose the right of being permanent residents. A woman from outside the state shall become a permanent resident on marrying a male permanent resident of the state, but a daughter who is born state subject will lose the right on marrying an outsider.'

The hearing comes four weeks after the Narendra Modi government told SC during the hearing of another petition challenging the article, that it wanted a 'larger debate' on the issue.

The BJP in its election manifesto had promised to scrap or at least dilute the special status to the state given under Article 35A.

The ruling party's ideological mentor, the RSS, also favours abolition of the special status to change the state's demographics.

A petition in this regard filed by RSS-backed think tank Jammu & Kashmir Study Centre is already pending in the SC.

The Sangh has termed the article a recipe to several conflicts. The threat of abrogation of Article 35A is also leading to unprecedented political developments in the Valley.

For the first time in years, all major political parties in Kashmir, including the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the opposition National Conference, independent MLAs and even the Hurriyat have come together on an issue.

Even before an opposition leader could rake up the matter, it was the chief minister of the state and the face of PDP-BJP alliance, Mehbooba Mufti, who spoke out against the abrogation of Article 35A in a very aggressive tone.
In recent times, there has been an intense debate on the legality of Article 35A of the Constitution, specifically as it concerns Jammu and Kashmir.

This Article empowers the state legislature to define 'permanent residents' of the state, their special rights and privileges.

It was added to the Constitution through a presidential order of 1954 with the concurrence of the state government of the day.

The Supreme Court is the Apex court in India, where Article 35A is being challenged

Special status

Article 370, on the other hand, guarantees special status to the state, restricting the Union government's power to only three subjects - defence, foreign affairs and communication.

The Delhi agreement between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheik Abdullah in 1952 led to several additional provisions of the Constitution being extended to the state. This was done via a presidential order of 1954. Article 35A was inserted then.

Article 35A provides the right to purchase and own property, seek government jobs, aid, college admissions and scholarships in the state.

Those who emigrated from the state to Pakistan during Partition are considered state subjects for two generations, but those who migrated from other than POK and settled in J&K, post Partition, are ineligible.

The Delhi agreement between Jawaharlal Nehru (left) and Sheik Abdullah (right) in 1952 led to several additional provisions of the Constitution being extended to the state

Article 35A is now being challenged in the Supreme Court. There are differences in views, both within the state and between political parties.

The BJP had mentioned removal of the Article in its election manifesto and believes it has outlived its utility and the state should be merged with the nation, akin to other states.

Its coalition partner, the PDP, and the National Conference (NC), both Valley-based political parties, are averse to its removal. CM Mehbooba Mufti stated that if the status of J&K is tampered with, there would be no one to hold the Indian flag in the state, while Farooq Abdullah warned of mass protests.

The Valley parties are against this proposal solely because they have been propagating that such a step would lead to change of demography in the Valley.

Desperate people board a train headed for Pakistan from New Delhi in the days before independence, in 1947

J&K has three distinct parts - Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. There are no major objections to the Article's abrogation in Jammu; in fact, the region desires its removal, as recent forum discussions have indicated, while Ladakh seeks a union territory status. However, the Valley remains solely averse.

It is unlikely that the Article can be considered for removal in one part of the state, while it remains in the others. The Article has been discriminatory among its own population, hence has come under questioning.

A resident woman marrying outside the state is no longer considered a permanent resident, thus she and her children lose their status. The same is not applicable to male members, who may marry outside the state.

Further, residents of the state since Independence, having migrated from Pakistan, are non-residents, while those who emigrated to Pakistan are. Legally, the Article can be questioned as it denies residents their basic rights under the Constitution.

The Articles of the Constitution which are violated are Article 14 concerning equality, Article 15 concerning discrimination on basis of place of birth, Article 16 dealing with equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and reservations and Article 19, which is right to free speech and right of life and liberty.

Demography

Article 370 has a different connotation. The J&K High Court in October 2015 had ruled that Article 370 is 'permanent, beyond amendment, repeal or abrogation'.

In a subsequent appeal, the Supreme Court stated that it is not permanent and Parliament can take a call on scrapping it. Hence, the battle has now shifted to Article 35A, which could be a precursor to Article 370.

Over the years, Kashmiris have been made to believe that scrapping of Article 35A would change the demography of the region. This could never be further from the truth.

Residents of the entire state possess the power to purchase property and settle anywhere, within the state. There has been no movement of population from either Jammu or Ladakh towards the Valley and thus no demographic change has occurred in the region in the last 70 years.

The property of Kashmiris who migrated post the ethnic cleansing was bought by local Muslims, not residents of Jammu or Ladakh.

Second, why should Valley-based political parties possess the prerogative to take decisions on behalf of the state? Their logic that the demography of the Valley would change is skewed, as they represent the state and not only the Valley.

The Valley is much smaller when compared to Jammu and Ladakh, both in terms of area and population, hence it should not be permitted to hold the rest of the state to ransom.

Support base

The reality is that the Valley-based parties are afraid of losing their support base, because for years they have drilled into the population the thought of demographic change, hence they cannot back down now, though evidence points to the opposite.

In addition, there is a latent fear that the BJP would soon become a force in the Valley, eroding their power. If the state is required to take a legal stand on the issue, then it should consult representatives of Jammu and Ladakh also.

They are unwilling because Jammu is dominated by the BJP, whose views are clear and Ladakh by the Congress. Hence, in case political consensus is not forthcoming, then the next democratic step would be to conduct a referendum across the state.

Both PDP and NC are hesitant against this step, knowing they would lose. Thus, they are willing to support violent protests in the Valley, as it is the only part of the state where locals have been brainwashed.

In case the Centre does seek to bring about a change, it needs to engage the population, commence debate on the advantages and disadvantages of the Article in vernacular media and college forums, creating awareness to override the misconstrued campaign of the Valley-based political parties.

It should not let only one voice, opposing the article, flow from the Valley. Saner thoughts must prevail and complete state views must be considered, which are strongly for its abrogation.
Strict vigilance and a series of raids along dry Bihar's border with Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal has forced smugglers look for cheaper booze in Haryana.

According to officials, liquor has been smuggled to Bihar from Haryana on trains and the trend was unearthed with seizure of over 1,000 bottles of liquor in Delhi.

Delhi's divisional railway manager (DRM) RN Singh said recoveries were made in the last two weeks from some youths, who were travelling as passengers in different trains. He said the liquor bottles were hidden in their luggage.

Officials found more than 1,000 bottles of liquor on board a train bound for Bihar from Haryana

Officials said bootleggers found cheap liquor in Haryana and this led to a new trend of smuggling. Prompted by the recoveries, security agencies have tightened vigil on bootleggers especially in wake of the festive season round the corner.

'Railway Protection Force (RPF) and rail police have been instructed to conduct regular inspection at stations as well as trains. Any suspect is being frisked,' Singh said.

Senior divisional security commandant Shashi Kumar told Mail Today that in the last two weeks about 1,000 bottles worth several lakh rupees were seized from different stations in the national capital and surrounding areas.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar banned booze last year to help combat disorder in the state

The bootleggers were in the age group of 20 to 30 years. Most of the bottles were seized from Anand Vihar railway station which caters to the Bihar-bound trains.

Explaining the modus operandi, the officer said, the bootleggers travelled in a group and made several packets of 10 bottles of similar sizes. Mostly they smuggle small bottles that are easier to be hidden.

'They purchased Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) from Sonepat, Gurgaon and other places in Haryana to sell them in Bihar,' he said. 'They also boarded trains from stations like Ghaziabad.'

But a new black market has emerged for people who want to buy alcohol still (photo for representation only)

Sources said bootleggers began eyeing Haryana as strict vigilance are enforced along Bihar's border with Jharkhand, UP and Nepal.

After the liquor ban was imposed in Bihar, there was a sharp increase in smuggling.

The Bihar government had even written to other state governments to put a check on liquor smuggling.

According to the Bihar excise department, over nine lakh litre of liquor has been seized in the state till present. A total of 44,594 people were arrested under new Excise Act, 2016 in the state.
Even though some politicians in Washington want to keep disagreeing with the science, the effects of climate change in Montana can be seen far and wide. Whether it is the spread of mountain pine beetle infestations, increased frequency of wildfires, or extreme drought, climate change threatens to affect the way of life for many Montanans.

Montana has some of the best fly fishing in the country, with abundant wild trout populations and numerous blue-ribbon trout streams. Montanas fly fishing industry is a huge economic driver, providing thousands of jobs and bringing tens of millions of dollars in consumer spending to the Treasure State each year. But the industry has already seen negative impacts from the greatest threat to cold water fisheries around the West.

Last year, anglers witnessed unprecedented fishing restrictions on our rivers due to low stream flows and warm water temperatures. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 2016 saw a record number of water bodies restricted around the state and some of the earliest closures ever, some beginning as early as late June. In addition to these restrictions, low flows and warm temperatures exacerbated a largescale outbreak of proliferative kidney disease in mountain whitefish, resulting in the shutdown of 186 miles of the Yellowstone River to all recreation. The economic impacts from the closure were felt by business owners around the region.

This spring, the above-average snowpack in most of the state gave hope to many anglers that 2017 would be a good water year. However, with scorching heat in the month of July and little to no precipitation, rivers and streams dropped rapidly, leading to warm water temperatures and subsequent hoot-owl restrictions.

A large-scale interagency study led by the United States Geological Survey in 2012 looked at changes in stream discharge in five major western watershed basins. Comparing stream discharge to historical data from 1950-2009, the study found a common trend across basins of greater discharge earlier in the year leading to less discharge later in summer months.

Though the need for fishing restrictions was non-existent decades ago, they are now the new norm in Montana as climate change is having a dramatic impact on snowpack and hydrologic cycles.

The Montana Wildlife Federation has been gathering input from Montana hunters and anglers on climate change for several years. Earlier this year, MWF launched a program to hear from outfitters, guides, and other fishing industry professionals. This gives guides the opportunity to meet with local biologists to talk about the effects of climate change already seen in their local rivers. The program also features an opportunity for guides to speak on the issue and brainstorm opportunities to take action.

When anglers and business owners work together, a lot more can be done to combat the negative impacts of climate change. If our elected officials are not working in the best interests of the citizens of Montana, including business owners who rely on our rivers, then they must be held accountable.

Climate change is not a partisan issue. Anglers, guides, outfitters and other business owners who care for the health of our rivers are showing the courage to look 50 years into the future and step up to the plate to combat climate change. Sportsmen have long been the stewards of conservation of fish and wildlife. With collective action, anglers can keep it that way and help preserve our outdoor traditions for future generations.
A top shareholder has called for BT boss Gavin Patterson to quit following a 530 million accounting scandal in Italy

GAVIN GLOOM A top shareholder has called for BT boss Gavin Patterson to quit following a 530 million accounting scandal in Italy.

HOSTEL FLOAT Burmese hostel company Myanmar Strategic Holdings is floating on Londons main stock market in a bid to raise 3.3 million to fund expansion.

CREW CLIMBS Sales at fashion firm Crew Clothing climbed 6 per cent to 58.3 million last year, but losses swelled from 2.5 million to 2.9 million.

HOTEL PUSH Another 30 hotels are being opened by American chain Hilton as the business bets that Britains tourism popularity will continue to grow.

FOOTFALL DOWN Visits to UK shops fell 1.1 per cent in July, according to the British Retail Consortium.

PENSION DEAL A 10 billion package of pension annuities owned by Prudential could be snapped up by fellow insurer Legal & General, sources say.

SALES FEARS DIY chain B&Q is expected to report a 4 per cent slump in sales as a slowing housing market drags on its UK performance.

CORPORATE MOOD Business confidence has dropped as political uncertainty takes a toll, according to accountancy trade body ICAEW. Its index of optimism, where anything above zero suggests firms are positive, fell from 6.7 in the second quarter to -8.

HUT BOOSTED Health and beauty retailer Hut Group has secured 125 million of cash from Old Mutual Global Investors in a deal valuing the online shop at 2.5 billion. It made a 50 million profit last year, as sales jumped 50 per cent to 501 million.
An international crackdown on using fixers who bribe government officials and firms to win foreign contracts has led to major shake-ups at some of Britains biggest companies.

The Serious Fraud Office and other law enforcement agencies are targeting the actions of middlemen who have been used by UK firms for decades to help set up deals in Asia and Africa.

The use of agents who understand local business cultures and can introduce company representatives to key government figures has long been viewed as part and parcel of doing trade in some parts of the world.

On the case: An international crackdown on using fixers who bribe government officials and firms to win foreign contracts has led to major shake-ups at some of Britains biggest companies

All too often companies were prepared to turn a blind eye to the tactics used in order to open doors.

But the introduction of new bribery laws and a clampdown on corporate behaviour has thrown their actions under the spotlight.

Earlier this month, the SFO informed British American Tobacco that it had opened a formal investigation into its dealings following allegations in a BBC Panorama programme that it paid bribes in East Africa in an effort to undermine anti-smoking laws.

A whistle-blower who worked for the company in Kenya for 13 years claimed illegal payments were made to politicians and civil servants in order to win their support.

The investigation has prompted firms which operate in emerging markets to review or cut back on their use of agents, although the practice is not generally illegal in itself.

In a separate case, the SFO is examining claims of bribery, fraud and money-laundering at Monaco-based engineering group Unaoil.

Investigators are now looking into eight companies with alleged links to Unaoil, including London-listed Amec and Petrofac.

It comes after Rolls-Royce agreed a 671 million settlement with the authorities for paying bribes to win business around the world, including lavishing gifts on middlemen in Russia, Nigeria and India.

The engineering company has now cut agents for its aerospace division more than 90 per cent, replacing them with its own staff.

Firms are increasingly going to foreign embassies instead, or direct to future clients.
The price of cryptocurrency bitcoin has surged in the last few weeks meaning the value of the coins is up 332 per cent since the start of the year.

Now sitting at $4,317 a coin, bitcoin had reached a record high of $2,476 back in May when This is Money last covered the digital currency.

From there, it had fallen below $2,000 a coin in mid-July. However, it has surged since it 'forked' with a separate spin-off cryptocurrency  bitcoin cash  created from that earlier in August.

Soaring value: Bitcoin, ethereum and ripple have seen their value explode so far this year

Bitcoin cash is already up to $320 a coin, making it the fourth biggest cryptocurrency. The fork came after differences about where bitcoin was heading by developers.

The fork means there are now two sets of tokens - bitcoin on the original chain and bitcoin cash on the new blockchain.

Created in 2009, bitcoin is a type of virtual currency that is free from government interference and can be shared instantly online.

The underlying technology is blockchain, a financial ledger maintained by a network of computers that can track the movement of any asset without the need for a central regulator.

According to Reuters, cryptcurrencies are big money and are now virtually as large as Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland combined.

Bitcoin: The price of the most recognised cryptocurrency is up vastly since the start of the year

Now some investors fear a giant crypto-bubble may be about to burst.

It has been a year of unprecedented growth for the largely unregulated market, with dozens of new currencies appearing every month in 'Initial Coin Offerings' or ICOs.

At the start of 2017, the total value - or market cap - of all cryptocurrencies in existence was about $17.5billion, with bitcoin making up almost 90 percent of that, according to industry data firm CoinMarketCap.

WHAT ARE CRYPTOCURRENCIES? Cryptocurrencies - so-called because cryptography is used to keep transactions secure - allow anonymous peer-to-peer transactions between individual users, without the need for banks or central banks. They use blockchain technology, a shared record-keeping and processing system that means digital money cannot be copied and spent more than once.

It is now around $120billion - around the same value as Goldman and RBS together - and bitcoin makes up only 46 per cent.

Bitcoin cash was valued at more than $1billion less than 24 hours after it had started trading.

The second biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, is also up nearly 4,000 per cent since the start of the year, from $8 per coin to $302.

It is similar to bitcoin, in that it is created with blockchain technology - a digital ledger of transactions - but it also has more uses.

One of those is that it can be used as a token by companies seeking to raise funds, which has led to a rush of ICOs that have been credited with sending interest in Ethereum - and its price - soaring.

Cryptocurrency has grown in popularity, with blue-chip companies such as BP, JP Morgan and Microsoft having endorsed Ethereum this year.

One of the main interests that top technologists and financial institutions have in cryptocurrencies is not to do with the price, however. Instead it is to do with the blockchain technology and how it can be used.

Second biggest: Ethereum has also seen its price surge since the start of 2017

Molly Spiers, of cryptocurrency website Coin Corner, said: 'Ethereum has got a tough road ahead, as with any cryptocurrency right now.

'With bitcoin paving the way over the last seven years, alt-coins have previously had an easy ride on bitcoin's coat tail.

'Bitcoin's recent scaling debate is an example of what other alt-coins have to look forward to should they really gain traction.

'This is exactly the position Ethereum have found themselves in right now - popularity of the alt-coin exploded coming in to 2017 which has come with many issues, one being scaling.

'It will be interesting to see how not only ether plays out, but also the ICOs that ether is enabling.'

Billionaire U.S. investor Howard Marks likens the digital currency market to the dotcom bubble of the turn of the century - whose demise he predicted.

He said in a recent investor letter that digital currencies were an 'unfounded fad ... based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it'.

But advocates of cryptocurrencies say 2017 is just the beginning of a bull run.

They argue the finite nature of these currency units - there will never be more than 21million bitcoin, for example - as well as the technological innovation that underpins them will ensure their enduring value.

Miguel Vias of Ripple, the third-biggest cryptocurrency, said: 'The idea of this thing being a bubble is silly. We're in the bottom of the first innings.'

Sceptics say bitcoin and its rivals are not particularly useful as currencies, as they are still volatile and not accepted by most merchants. They are mostly just used for speculative trading purposes.

There are some signs of acceptance of the biggest players by the establishment, however. For example, Ethereum has been piloted by the United Nations as a way to distribute funds to Syrian refugees.

Ripple has been successfully used as a payment method between settlement systems in a Bank of England trial.

Some other, smaller cryptocurrencies such as Dash, Monero and Z-cash are seen as having real value by some users because they offer an even higher level of anonymity than the likes of bitcoin.

Whistleblowing website Wikileaks this week said it would accept Z-cash for online donations.

Early investors in bitcoin are now likely to be millionaires with those who bought in at 0.003 cents in May 2010 now potentially sitting on a fortune.
Wearing a traditional Indian dancing costume with her face painted and feet bare, she was the four-year-old whom Princess Diana described as 'my daughter'.

Baby Avanti Reddy instantly captured the princess's heart when she visited Lalapet Government High School, Hyderabad, in 1992 and the image of her cradling the child on her knee became one of the most famous from that royal tour of India.

Diana was so smitten with the adorable girl who had danced for her, she refused to let her go and they later corresponded by mail.

Princess Diana described four-year-old Avanti Reddy as her 'daughter' during a royal trip to India in 1992. After she left the country, the princess and Avanti kept in touch by mail

'I don't have a daughter, so today you are my daughter': Avanti remembers Diana and said she was a motherly figure. She hoped to reunite with the Princess but tragically, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris days before

Avanti is now 28 and used to work as a dance and primary school teacher. Though she was young, she remembers the day she met the Princess of Wales fondly. She proudly displays the framed and signed picture Diana sent her

She never forgot Avanti Reddy, now 28 years old and a qualified dance and primary school teacher. But just days before they planned to meet again in 1997, when the youngster had traveled to Europe with her family, Dianas life was cut short in a tragic car accident.

Today Avanti maintains the colorful dress sense, cute rounded facial features and smiling eyes that so captivated Diana.

She proudly displays the framed and signed picture the princess sent her. Though she was too young to remember much detail, she recalls the February day they met fondly.

'I was the youngest girl there. We performed a tribal Lambadi dance. Diana saw me sitting on the ground, picked me up and took me back to stage and put me on her knee.

'She asked me what my name was, so I told her and which my school was and class. I had a cold so she wiped my nose with her own handkerchief,' explains Avanti, adding: 'She kept me with her the whole time then as she was going said, "I don't want to leave you".

'She was a very motherly figure, I can remember that. She said "I don't have a daughter, so today you are my daughter".'

Avanti (front) and her mother Japamala Rani (back) returned to Lalapet Government High School for the first time in 24 years with DailyMail.com

Though the grounds are somewhat dilapidated, 350 students still attend the school. Avanti remembers marveling at how the Princess of Wales was able to walk in heels on the sandy ground in front of the building

Avanti and her schoolmates were bussed in for Diana's visit and she hadn't returned to the scene of her royal meeting in 24 years until DailyMail.com took her there.

Looking at the school grounds  which, although somewhat dilapidated and basic, are still in use by 350 students - she remembered being struck that the Princess was wearing high heels despite the sandy forecourt and wondering how she managed to walk so fast in them.

Former Director of School Education for Hyderabad, Pronoti Suhasini Kavoori, 60, also recalled how taken the princess was with the young dancer.

She says: 'Avanti was very bold  she was not conscious of who was watching. When I saw her dance so confidently, I knew that she should be at the front.

'Diana came down from the stage and spent time with the children. Then she said she was taking the girl [Avanti] back to the UK, carried her to the stage and sat her on her lap.

Though Avanti (front, center) was just four-years-old, she danced at the front of the formation for Princess Diana's visit. The former director of school education for Hyderabad recalled how Avanti was confident while she danced

Avanti's mother Japamala worked as dance instructor as well and choreographed the dance students performed for Princess Diana in 1992

Avanti traveled to Leuven in Belgium where her dance troupe performed at schools in 1997. That year, her uncle tried to organize a trip for her to reunite with Princess Diana

'All my bosses were worried, saying, "We'll carry her," but she wouldn't allow them near her.'

Avanti was born into dance as her mother, Japamala Rani, 55, was a dance teacher who had choreographed the royal visit.

Her talents also took her dance troupe to Leuven in Belgium where they performed at a number of schools in 1997. At the end Avanti's uncle made plans for her to visit Diana, which were sadly curtailed by her death in the Paris accident.

Avanti says: 'When I got older I started to realize more about who Princess Diana was.

'I read her biography and I always wanted layered hair like hers, but it's not possible to become Princess Diana.

'I appreciate all the work she did for charities and all the things she did for poor children and people with leprosy.

'I used to show the letter she sent me to everybody.

Avanti said she learned more about Diana as she grew older. She respected the work she did for the poor and said she wanted layered hair like the Princess. Former Director of School Education for Hyderabad, Pronoti Suhasini Kavoori, remembered the day Diana visited

Princess Diana sent Avanti a signed photograph of them together. She is remembered with great fondness and reverence for visiting the city of Hyderabad

'When she passed away we were in Belgium. I was ten at the time. We were staying there and performing dances in a number of schools. I performed on the day she died.

'At the end of the trip, we were going to tie up our work and go over and see her again, but it never happened. It was the only time I've ever been out of the country.

'I remember the funeral, it was very sad.'

Diana's figure still looms large in India, and her visit to a fairly unremarkable part of Hyderabad is remembered with great fondness and reverence.

Ms Kavoori keeps the beautiful indigo silk she bought to line the princess's chair safe, stored in a plastic bag decorated with heart shapes inside a chest at her home. She shows the youngsters in her family but won't let them touch it, joking she will leave it to her daughter in her will.

Ms Kavoori (pictured) keeps the indigo silk she bought to cover Diana's chair safe in a plastic bag inside of a chest in her home. She will not let youngsters in her family touch the silk, and jokes how she will leave it to her daughter in her will

Avanti is mourning the death of her infant daughter Moksha Ragni who passed away five months ago from breathing complications

At Avanti's parents' house they keep a well-maintained collection of newspaper clippings featuring their daughter and her picture with Diana, as well as pages in memory of the former princess after she passed away and photo albums of the high school visit.

Japamala explains how her friend recently pointed out how her life had similar echoes to that of the princess  they were both married in 1980, had sons in 1982 and 1984 and were both teachers. She adds: 'She became a princess, but I'm just a princess to my own family.'

The family is very close too, and have recently rallied around Avanti after she and her husband suffered a devastating loss when their year-old daughter, Moksha Ragni, passed away.

Although she has been putting on a brave face, Avanti tears up as she says: 'I had a small baby, a daughter, but she passed away just five months ago.

'Her name means Queen of Heaven.

'She had a breathing problem. We admitted her to hospital on November third, by November 12 she was gone. We celebrated her first birthday then the next month she passed away. It has been incredibly hard and so heart-breaking.'

Avanti had been a pre-primary teacher at the city's Infant Jesus School - which her mother had opened before retiring - for nine years since she was 18.

She completed a degree in dance at the same time, graduating in 2007, but had settled down to concentrate on starting a family two years ago.

Avanti worked at the pre-primary school opened by her mother for nine years. She settled down to concentrate on starting a family two years ago

Avanti doesn't feel ready to go back to teaching dance just yet, but she mused about one day organizing a dance for Prince George and Princess Charlotte when they grow up

Her recent tough times meant Avanti didn't follow much of the 2016 royal tour of India by Prince William and Duchess Catherine, but she saw the pictures they took at the Taj Mahal.

Asked if she would have liked to meet them, Avanti smiles: 'I would love to. But this time I won't be sitting on the Prince's lap! I don't think Kate would like that!

'I would invite them to my house and make them tea - I make very good chai, Indian tea. And I would cook them a traditional biryani, but not a spicy one, because I don't think they eat spicy food.'

Avanti likes the Duchess, saying she hopes she will become a good figure for India, although she is quick to point out how she doesn't think she - or anyone else  will be able to take the place of Diana. She is less fond of Prince Charles, saying only: 'I do not like him.'

Although she doesn't feel ready yet, Avanti would like to one day go back to teach in a primary school, and work on some choreography herself to one day present to the next generation of royals.

She said: 'Right now I'm not sure of my ambitions. Everything is fresh for me now. I don't have any plans, but I like roaming and seeing new things.

'I want to visit someplace with the snow and the cold, somewhere very different to here.

'It's been too long since I danced. Maybe if I go back to work in a school again, I could start a production. Maybe one day I could organize a dance for Prince George and Princess Charlotte when they grow up.'
US Vice President Mike Pence's weeklong visit to Latin America comes amid unrest in Venezuela and concern by its neighbors about a possible American military role.

Pence kicked off his trip on Sunday in Cartagena, Colombia, where he met President Juan Manuel Santos in advance of talks likely to be dominated by conversations about the crisis in Venezuela.

The US accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region.

Under Maduro's socialist regime, Venezuela has been wracked by food shortages, and spiraled further into chaos after he installed an all-powerful assembly of loyalists last month.

President Donald Trump said Friday he would not rule out a 'military option' in response to Maduro's moves.

Speaking during a joint news conference with Santos, Pence also declined to rule out possible military action against Maduro.

US Vice President Mike Pence is welcomed by Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, left, at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia on Sunday

The US accuses Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro (center) of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region

Venezuela spiraled further into chaos after Maduro installed an all-powerful assembly of loyalists. Pictured: Protesters against the socialist regime throw Molotov cocktails Saturday

Still, Pence stressed the U.S. would much prefer what he called a 'peaceable' solution to the growing political and humanitarian crisis.

'President Trump is a leader who says what he means and means what he says,' Pence said.

'But the president sent me here to continue to marshal the unprecedented support of countries across Latin America to achieve by peaceable means the restoration of democracy in Venezuela, and we believe it is achievable by those means.'

Trump's statement drew quick condemnation, including from the Colombian Foreign Ministry, which said it opposes any 'military measures and the use of force,' and said efforts to resolve Venezuela's breakdown in democracy should be peaceful and respect its sovereignty.

Pence and his wife, Karen, were greeted by a military honor guard on the tarmac at Rafael Nunez International Airport.

Pence has scheduled other stops in Argentina, Chile and Panama, giving speeches and meeting with leaders. He will also tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump, by raising the prospect of possible military action, was trying 'to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored.'

Pompeo told 'Fox News Sunday' that Venezuela 'could very much become a risk' to the US if it descended into further chaos.

Yet a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself 'a pretty hawkish guy' expressed skepticism about the idea of American troops in Caracas.

Anti-government demonstrators take cover from Venezuelan Bolivarian National guards officers at a protest against socialist President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas in Saturday

Opposition leaders in Venezuela called a demonstration Saturday to protest the seating of a special assembly to rewrite the constitution. The country has been wracked by protests

Pence, right, began a Latin America trip in Colombia on Sunday. He has scheduled other stops in Argentina, Chile and Panama as well

'I have no idea why we would use military force in Venezuela. I'm open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when there's a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people,' South Carolina's Lindsey Graham told ''Fox News Sunday,' adding: 'I don't see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force.'

Trump's national security adviser said the Trump administration wants to get a handle on the current situation under Maduro's embattled socialist government and 'understand better how this crisis might evolve.'

'When you look at contingencies, when you look at what if - what if the suffering of the Venezuelan people increases by orders of magnitude - what more can we do with our partners in the region to protect the Venezuelan people and prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe?' McMaster told ABC's 'This Week.'

'The president never takes options off the table in any of these situations and what we owe him are options,' he said.

Wracked by shortages, Venezuela has seen Mad Max-style violence in the streets as protests against socialist president Maduro have mounted. A protester in Caracas on Saturday is seen

A demonstrator gestures while clashing with riot security forces during a rally in Caracas on Saturday. The writing on his chest says 'I'm not a protester, I'm a Venezuelan'

McMaster said the US would 'continue a series of actions against the Maduro regime which aim to strengthen the opposition and to reach out to those who are members of this oppressive regime to tell them it's time to reconsider your actions and your support for this dictator.'

The US has imposed sanctions against Maduro and more than two dozen current and former officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of an assembly of socialist loyalists given the job of rewriting the country's constitution.

Venezuela's chief opposition coalition issued a restrained criticism of Trump's talk of using a 'military option.'

The coalition rejected 'the use of force or threats of applying the same in Venezuela on the part of any country.' But the coalition's statement didn't directly mention Trump's remarks.

President Donald Trump, seen with Pence has said he would not rule out a 'military option' in Venezuela, where president Nicolas Maduro has been consolidating power

In Colombia, Pence was expected to highlight trade, business investment and other ties between the nations, including US support for Bogota's efforts to implement its peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The US probably will seek assurance that Colombia is taking seriously a surging coca production that's been blamed partially on Santos' decision in 2015 to stop using crop-destroying herbicides.

A July report from the United Nations showed that coca production in Colombia had reached levels not seen in two decades, complicating Colombia's efforts to make its vast, lawless countryside more secure.

The Trump administration has been putting pressure on Colombia to curb the flow of drugs into the US, and Colombia has stepping up its forced eradication program and increased seizures of cocaine.
A young Melbourne mother who has suffered three strokes in just over one year has been warned by experts a fourth could kill her.

Sherie Lucas suffered her first stroke in January 2016 after complaining of dizziness, slurred speech and a pressure in her head.

'On the worst days I can barely walk, I feel really heavy, have trouble walking around the house and have to grab onto things,' Ms Lucas told Daily Mail Australia.

Scroll down for video

Sherie Lucas, a 28-year-old Melbourne mother who has suffered three strokes in 14 months, has been warned by experts a fourth could kill her (pictured left with her husband Julian and their daughter)

Ms Lucas (pictured) suffered her first stroke in January 2016 after complaining of dizziness, slurred speech and a pressure in her head.

It wasn't until the 28-year-old had been transferred to three different hospitals and her condition deteriorated even more than she was told her stroke had been caused by a brain cavernous hermangioma, a legion that bleeds.

'The cavernous oozes ... the cluster of cells that bleed a lot and burst and do nasty stuff,' Ms Lucas said.

'A lot of the time people are born with these things that sit in there and do nothing, they've never had bleeds.'

After completing rehab, doctors told Ms Lucas and her worried husband Julian Lucas 'not to worry' because there would be 'very slim' chance of it happening again.

Ms Lucas said it was a one in 100 chance to have a reoccurring bleed, which happened to her twice more.

However, Ms Lucas suffered a second stroke in August 2016 - the same day the couple sold their hairdressing business, the couple wrote on their Go Fund Me page.

A third stroke followed in March, just months after the couple discovered Ms Lucas had miscarried with their second child.

This left the young mother unable to work because of persistent debilitating deficits, including body tremors, headaches, flickering vision and nausea.

The mum-of-one was told her stroke had been caused by a brain cavernous hermangioma, a legion that bleeds

'To resign - it's really horrible, it's really hard,' Ms Lucas told Daily Mail Australia.

'I loved my business so much ... having to sell it because of an illness is devastating.'

Desperate for a cure, the family met with neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo, who is based in Sydney.

Dr Teo told the couple Ms Lucas is a great candidate for surgery but that it will cost $100,000 because the couple doesn't have private health insurance.

Dr Teo told the pair that although there is hope, the surgery is urgent because she already has multiple bleeds that could end her life, Mr Lucas said.

Despite being told there would be 'very slim' chance of it happening again, Ms Lucas later suffered two more strokes

This left the young mother unable to work because of persistent debilitating deficits, including body tremors, headaches, flickering vision and nausea

Desperate for a cure, the family met with neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo (pictured), who is based in Sydney

'It's quite scary, I try not to think about it and keep as positive and happy as I can,' she said.

'I get quite upset ... Charlie Teo mentioned it could kill me and that scared the bejesus out of me.

'I don't want my daughter to be without a mum and my husband without his wife ... it makes me feel horrible.'

So far almost $25,000 has been raised for the procedure but the couple are asking for any and all help after their debts accumulated from Ms Lucas being ill for more than a year.

Dr Teo told the couple Ms Lucas is a great candidate for surgery but that it will cost $100,000 because the couple doesn't have private health insurance

'Please help me save my wife. There is not much I can offer you in return other than as many updates on the situation and my eternal gratitude,' Mr Lucas said.

'You are just helping her you helping me keep the love of my life alive and giving my perfect kid the change to grow up knowing her mother.'

While Ms Lucas has faith that 'things happen for a reason', she is grateful for the help from family and strangers.

'You never know what could happen, I might have to start buying TattsLotto tickets and then pay my luck forward,' she said.
Horrifying images have emerged of the injuries suffered by a Houston woman after she was one of several plowed into by a car at a white nationalist rally on Saturday.

Natalie Romero, 20, from Texas, is currently recovering in a hospital in Virginia. She suffered a small skull fracture and multiple injuries to her face.

Romero, a University of Virginia sophomore, was a counter-protester against the supremacist groups marching in Charlottesville against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee.

Horrifying images have emerged of the injuries suffered by a Houston woman (pictured) after she was one of several plowed into by a car at a white nationalist rally on Saturday

Natalie Romero, 20 (pictured), from Texas, is currently recovering in a hospital in Virginia. She suffered a small skull fracture and multiple injuries to her face

Romero (pictured), a University of Virginia sophomore, was a counter-protester against the supremacist groups marching in Charlottesville against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee

Romero told KHOU11 that she was hit by the car as it drove into the crowd, killing one and injuring 35, including her.

She said she isn't sure if she will be able to attend the first day of classes when they begin later this month.

'A lot of back pain and neck pain. Just a lot of bruises. I think when fell, I bit my lip. And so my lip is really busted and my face looks pretty horrible right now,' she said.

Her mother, Ericka Chaves, has started a GoFundMe page to raise money that will be used to cover her daughter's medical expenses.

'At a counter-protest, a 20 year old (my daughter) was one of the people who got hit by a car,' Chaves wrote.

'She's in the hospital and we really will appriecate [sic] any help for the hospitals expences [sic]. Thank you and God bless you.'

So far, $26,000 has been raised out of a $75,000 goal.

Police said 20-year-old James Alex Fields, Jr, took dead aim at the counter protesters with his car, slamming into them at the rally on Saturday (pictured)

Romero (pictured) graduated from Houston's Bellaire High School in 2016. She was active in the school's JROTC program

Her mother, Ericka Chaves, has started a GoFundMe page to raise money that will be used to cover her daughter's (pictured) medical expenses. So far, $9,465 has been raised out of a $50,000 goal

Fields (pictured) was arrested a short time later and charged with second degree murder among other counts

Romero graduated from Houston's Bellaire High School in 2016. She was active in the school's JROTC program.

Chaves says her daughter is the first in their family to attend college and is currently on a full scholarship at the University of Virginia.

'I always told her, I know I cannot pay for college, so you need to study hard so you can get good grades and get a scholarship...and she's helping me out,' Chaves told KHOU11.

'Whenever I need money, she's the one sending me. She's not asking me for money.'

Police said 20-year-old James Alex Fields, Jr, took dead aim at the counter-protesters with his car, slamming into them. He was arrested a short time later and charged with second degree murder and other counts.

Heather Heyer, 32, of Virginia was identified Sunday as the victim who was killed.
Officials in Connecticut are attempted to re-write the aviation history books by claiming a German-born resident of the state performed a powered flight two years before the Wright Brothers.

Gustave Whitehead, who was born in Germany, but settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut was an aviation pioneer.

State officials claim on August 14, 1901 he flew for half a mile at a height of approximately 50 feet after taking off from Fairfield.

Campaigners in Connecticut claim Gustave Whitehead, pictured here with his daughter Rose and his aircraft Number 21 had beaten the Wright Brothers into the air by two years

Unlike Whitehead, the Wright Brothers photographed their aircraft 'Kitty Hawk' at Kitty Hawk North Carolina on December 17, 1903 during its first flight providing evidence

Later, Wilbur Wright flew for some 24 miles in their longest flight at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio, near the current Wright-Patterson airforce base in Fairborn, Ohio

However, officials in North Carolina reject the claim suggesting the Wright Brothers were responsible for the first powered flight in Kitty Hawk in 1903.

In 2013, Connecticut governor Dannell Malloy signed a bill into law acknowledging Whitehead as a father of flight instead of the Wright Brothers.

Connecticut is basing its claims on contemporary newspaper reports which describe the flight, although experts at the National Air and Space Museum do not agree.

In January, the Senate and House of Representatives in Connecticut voted to 'honor Gustave Whitehead as the father of manned, power-controlled flight' with his Number 21 aircraft.

The Fairford Museum and History Center supports the controversial claims.

According to Tom Crouch, senior curator of the Aeronautics Department at the National Air and Space Museum, the Orville and Wilbur Wright, pictured, kept meticulous records and photographed their flights

In an article defending their place in history, the museum wrote: 'In 1901, Gustave Whitehead invented, built, and flew the worlds first successful powered airplane. His pioneering first flights, which took place in Fairfield County, Connecticut, predated the Wrights by 28 months.

'The first flight, occurring on August 14, 1901, was witnessed and written up by a prominent newspaper reporter as an exclusive for the local paper, the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. A second set of flights occurred later in the morning, according to witnesses. The account was then carried in scores of newspapers internationally, with multiple local newspapers supporting his successful flights of the summer of 1901.'

The museum claimed further flights took place, even passing near populated areas where 'entire neighborhoods' could see his aircraft.

It continued: 'Whitehead received international recognition for his early flights until attention shifted to the Wright Brothers accomplishments, starting around 1904-1906.

'Though a man with little money, who took jobs to support his family while he invented on a part-time basis, Whitehead accomplished what no one else before him had  true sustained flight, with power and control, for a distance of 1/2 a mile, landing without damage, in 1901. That first flight was the peak of his achievements, as even with longer flights to come, as it marked the beginning of the age of aviation.

'Whitehead never obtained adequate funding to continue developing his own designs. Many of his early ideas, which he actively shared with other inventors, contributed to further development of the airplane.'

The museum claimed Whitehead did not make money from his pioneering work.

However, Tom Crouch, senior curator in the Aeronautics Department at the National Air and Space Museum dismissed the claims Whitehead had flown before the Wright Brothers.

Crouch said: 'The standard arguments in favor of Whiteheads flight claims were first put forward in a book published in 1937, and have been restated many times, most recently in a controversial website that persuaded the editor of aviation reference annual, Janes All the Worlds Aircraft to support the claims.

Politicians in Connecticut have passed a law recognizing Whitehead as the father of flight

'The evidence in the Whitehead case includes questionable news articles, much testimony both for and against the claims, and a supposed photograph of Whiteheads Number 22 machine in the air, which, if it ever existed, has not been seen since 1906.

'Supporters of the claims have been arguing in favor of Whitehead for many years, while the critics, like me, have been vigorously refuting their evidence. I believe that the time has come to move beyond the confusing mass of contradictory detail, rising out of the trees to gain a view of the forest and reach a rational conclusion. Why do I reject the Whitehead claims? Consider this sequence of events.'

Crouch said the academic journal Scientific American reported on Whitehead's experiments with an obsolete glider in their issue of December 26, 1903. The piece did not mention Whitehead's earlier flights in his aircraft Numbers 21 or 22.

Crouch claims it is unlikely Whitehead - if his design was successful - would have abandoned it for an eight-year-old glider configeration.

He said: 'Over the next decade, as aviators in American and Europe took to the sky following the pattern established by the Wright Brothers, Whitehead would continue to build aircraft for other enthusiasts. Not one of those powered machines ever left the ground.

'My conclusion--either Whitehead had somehow forgotten the secrets of flight, or he had never flown a powered machine at all.'

Defending the Wright Brothers, Crouch added: 'Unlike Whitehead, who had kept virtually no record his experiments, the Wrights had documented their work in detailed, notebooks, letters, and photographs, including what is arguably the most famous photograph ever taken.'
A man who allegedly stabbed a woman and her teenage son multiple times has died in a car crash while fleeing the scene.

The 46-year-old man assaulted the 37-year-old woman, who police say he was in a relationship with, after entering her Forest Lake home around 3:30am Monday.

The woman's 18-year-old son tried to stop the attack and received multiple stab wounds to his arms and hands.

A 46-year-old man who allegedly stabbed a woman and her teenage son multiple times has died in a car crash (pictured) while fleeing the scene

He left the scene of the stabbing at a Forest Lake home but died moments later after his car slammed, at speed, into the back of a parked semi-trailer (pictured) at nearby Wacol

The woman was stabbed repeatedly in her upper body, suffering critical injuries and was later transported to Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The man fled the scene of the incident, which occurred at a home on Collina Crescent, following the attack.

He died moments later when his car slammed, at speed, into the back of a parked truck at nearby Wacol.

'We identified the person who did the stabbing and that man has been involved in a fatal traffic crash where his vehicle has slammed into the back of a parked semi-trailer close by,' Inspector Steve Flori told Nine News.

A 37-year-old woman was stabbed repeatedly in the upper body, with her 18-year-old son also suffering wounds to the arms and hands after trying to stop the attack

The injured woman and teenager were taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital (pictured) where they are expected to make a full recovery

The man was pronounced dead at the scene around 3.50am, police say, with investigations into both incidents continuing.

Police told AAP that at least two children , both aged under 10, were at the home at the time of the assault.

But Inspector Flori told Nine New that three children were in the home, in addition to the 18-year-old boy.

He also confirmed that the children were being cared for and that the woman's condition was 'now stable'.

The national domestic violence helpline is 1800 737 732.
Australian Federal Police officers are unable to check the identification of passengers travelling by air until they have boarded a plane or committed another crime, it has been revealed.

The gaping loophole in the law has allowed passengers to travel under false names, despite the fact it is illegal.

AFP officers flagged the issue in a submission to a senate inquiry into aviation and airport security in 2015, but no change has been made to equip the police with extra powers.

Australian Federal Police officers are reportedly unable to check the identification of passengers until they have boarded a plane or committed another crime (stock photo)

According to the submission, '[flying with a fake ID] can only be detected by police after the event, or aside to the commission of another offence'.

Officers requested that a form of identification be produced alongside the boarding pass before any person boards a flight.

The AFP also suggested they be given the power to ask any 'suspicious individual identified' for their name and address.

A spokesperson for Michael Keenan, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter-Terrorism, told Daily Mail Australia that an independent review of security at airports was underway.

'If we can do more to ensure the safety of Australians then of course we will take all necessary action.'

The gaping loophole in the law has allowed passengers to travel under false names, despite the fact it is illegal (stock photo)

AFP officers flagged the issue in a submission to a senate inquiry into aviation and airport security in 2015, but no change has been made to equip the police with extra powers

'Since the threat level was raised in September 2014, this Government has passed eight tranches of national security legislation and invested more than $1.5 billion in our national security agencies, to ensure they have the powers and capabilities to meet the threat head on.

'It was these powers and capabilities that empowered our security agencies to last months terror plot.'

The revelation comes just weeks after two men were charged with plotting a terror attack, which a Daily Mail Australia source says was 'very close' to occurring.

Accused terrorists Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat allegedly planned to sacrifice their own brother by planting a bomb disguised as a meat mincer in his luggage on July 15.

A spokesperson for the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter-Terrorism, told Daily Mail Australia that an independent review of security at airports was underway (stock photo)

Khaled Khayat (pictured) and Mahmoud Khayat allegedly hatched a second plot to carry out a gas attack on Sydney's public transport network

Khaled, 49, accompanied his unwitting brother to Sydney airport ahead of his flight to Abu Dhabi, but the luggage never made it onto the plane and Khayat took it from the airport, police said.

After the plan was thwarted, a Daily Mail Australia source claims the brothers allegedly began plotting to set off a bomb inside the Sydney airport at the same time a second bomb was detonated on public transport.

A Daily Mail Australia source has claimed it was just 'a fluke' the Khayat brothers were caught before the alleged second attempt which was 'very close' - even just days or hours from happening.

The pair were charged with terror offences after police foiled their alleged plot, which officers described as sophisticated, and raided their homes on July 29.
If you went to a doctors office yesterday, you probably dont know what that visit cost you. If she wrote a prescription, you didnt know what the pharmacy would charge until you picked it up. If someone in your family has been hospitalized in recent weeks, youre probably still getting multiple bills for specialty services, lab, inpatient and outpatient care.

Most Americans dont know in advance  or even after the treatment -- what their health care will cost. That makes choosing care options and budgeting for out-of-pocket expenses very difficult.

The 2017 Montana Legislature resolved to try to close that information gap, starting with a study of transparency in health care pricing. House Joint Resolution 20, sponsored by Rep. Kathy Kelker, D-Billings, authorizes a study of factors influencing the pricing of health care services, including:

Efforts undertaken in other states and by entities within the state to make health care cost information more widely available to consumers.

Ways to improve consumer understanding of the factors affecting health care prices.

Methods for encouraging consumers to make informed decisions on costs.

Existing price transparency tools and health care quality measures, including health care outcomes data and hospital accreditation data.

Ways to provide consumers with information about both costs and quality of health care services they may be considering.

Including quality measures is key. Good care is less expensive because it reduces relapse, complications and hospital readmissions.

Not even doctors know care prices, said Kelker, who returned last week from a National Conference of State Legislatures workshop that focused on health care price transparency. After hearing panelists from other states, Kelker said some tools that are supposed to help consumers understand costs havent worked. Patients could benefit more from information about billing pre-treatment, she said. Medicare and Medicaid innovations may be helpful in the private sector, too.

Kelker was appointed last week to chair the Health Care Price Transparency Subcommittee. Sen. Mary Caffero, D-Helena, chairwoman for the interim Committee on Children, Families, Health and Human Services appointed a well-balanced subcommittee. In addition to Kelker, three other legislators were appointed: Sen. Albert Olszewski, R-Kalispell; Sen. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls; and Sen. Tom Facey, D-Missoula.

Importantly, the majority of the subcommittee members are not legislators. They are Montanans with significantly diverse experience in the health care system. Two volunteers are from Billings: Kevin Larson, president of EBMS, which provides third-party benefit administration; and Connie Prewitt, chief financial officer for Billings Clinic.

Sarah Swanson Partridge, general manager of Farm Equipment Sales in Glasgow will represent a small group employer. Other members include Bob Olsen, Montana Hospital Association vice president; John Hill, president of Bozeman Health; Cherie Taylor, CEO for Northern Rockies Medical Center in Cut Bank, Dr. Roman Hendrickson of Sheridan; Jen Hensley, of PacificSource Health Plans; and Olivia Riutta, outreach and engagement manager for the Montana Primary Care Association. The state Department of Administration and the State Auditors Office will each have a representative.

The price transparency subcommittee will have one year to complete its study and report. Its first meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 12 in Room 137 of the Capitol. HJR20 says the panel has to be finished by Sept. 15, 2018.
The former prison inmate who had 'DEVAST8' inked over his face has been cashing in on his newfound fame with a star turn shooting a cash gun into the crowd at a packed nightclub.

Mark Cropp, 19, had been drinking homebrew alcohol behind bars in New Zealand when he was given the unique tattoo, later shooting to worldwide fame when he took to social media to complain about a lack of job prospects.

Now the teenage father has been spotted at Auckland nightclub Cassette Nine shooting cash into the crowd at midnight on Saturday.

Sporting his trademark ink, Mr Cropp can be seen making the most of his notoriety firing off fake noteswhile loud music and cheers ring out among the revellers.

Kick On @ Cassette Nine promoter Alex Vine told Daily Mail Australia Cropp agreed to make an appearance at the nightclub with his partner Taneia Ruki for a $50 bar tab after a message on Facebook.

In sending Mr Cropp the message, Mr Vine acknowledged it was a 'strange enquiry' before the man with the infamous tattoo replied that he was 'keen as'.

Mr Vine said Cropp was well-received, and their special guest seemed to enjoy the experience.

'It was quite intense, no-one was expecting it. Everyone started filming it.'

Mark Cropp, 19, was given the tattoo by his brother while behind bars for aggravated robbery

Mr Cropp made international headlines when he complained about his plight in July.

He was serving a two-year jail sentence for aggravated robbery after he pulled a knife on a tourist when his brother, also his cellmate, gave Mr Cropp the tattoo.

After being inundated with job offers Mr Cropp originally agreed to an offer for a free laser removal of the tattoo, despite being reluctant given the effect it would have on his skin.

Cropp agreed to his star appearance with a cash gun at the nightclub for a $50 bar tab

He told Kyle Sandilands on KIIS FM that he was worried people will say, 's*** that fella's got a lot of blackheads'.

Mr Cropp eventually did a U-turn on the free removal at Sacred Laser in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland after just one of 12 sessions and decided to keep his distinctive face marking.

His quest for employment reached a happy ending as he agreed to take up a $22-an-hour scaffolding job at PR Contracting last month.
BBC presenter Vanessa Feltz (pictured) has revealed she would 'probably not' have signed a letter by her female colleagues demanding equal pay

BBC presenter Vanessa Feltz has revealed she would 'probably not' have signed a letter by her female colleagues demanding equal pay.

The Radio 2 host, who earns between 350,000 and 399,000, has argued that the issue is 'more complicated' than simple discrimination.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, she said there are 'all different reasons' why individual men and women would be paid unequally, and condemned the 'gross' exposure of her salary.

Last month, a BBC report revealed two-thirds of its top earning celebrities are men, with just one woman, Claudia Winkleman, in the top 10.

Fellow presenter Chris Evans was paid more than 2.2million, Jeremy Vine earned more than 700,000 and John Humphrys received more than 600,000.

Stars including Sue Barker, Victoria Derbyshire and Fiona Bruce added their names to an open letter calling for equal pay throughout the organisation.

However, this weekend Miss Feltz revealed she had not received an invitation to sign the letter  possibly because she does not use email.

'Look, thank God nobody asked me', she said. 'I didn't see the letter so I didn' t have to make any decision about signing or not.'

The Radio 2 host, who earns between 350,000 and 399,000, has argued that the issue is 'more complicated' than simple discrimination

When asked if she would have added her name if she had known about it, she replied: 'Probably not'.

She said: 'How do you prove two people on the same show are doing an equal job? There are all different reasons why people get paid different amounts.

'I don't approve of a gender gap. Obviously I think people should be paid the same for the same, but in this instance I do think it's a bit more complicated than that.'

She also told the newspaper that 'nobody knows.how much people at ITV get paid', describing the report as 'utterly pointless'.

The radio star said she was 'embarrassed' to have her salary leaked, adding that the issue of discussing her pay was 'gross' and 'nobody's business'.
Arrests for drunken behaviour at airports and on aeroplanes have rocketed by half over the past year, a report shows.

It said 387 passengers were arrested last year for causing alcohol-fuelled disruption at airports or on aircraft  a rise of 50 per cent on 2015.

BBC1s Panorama collected the information from 18 of the 20 police forces that cover Britains airports.

Arrests for drunken behaviour at airports and on aeroplanes have rocketed by half over the past year, a report from BBC Panorama shows

Licensing laws which affect pubs, bars and shops do not apply to airside areas of airports, the zones in which passengers wait for flights after passing through security.

A House of Lords committee reported this spring that one airline  Jet2  was faced with 536 disruptive incidents in the summer of 2016. It said that many offenders had the opportunity to drink heavily at the airport before they get on the flight.

Panorama said more than half the cabin crew staff who answered a survey said they had either experienced or witnessed verbal, physical or sexual abuse on a UK flight. One in five had been physically abused.

Former Virgin airlines crew manager Ally Murphy said: People just see us as barmaids in the sky. They would touch your breasts, or theyd touch your bum or your legs ... Ive had hands going up my skirt before.

More than 387 passengers were arrested last year for causing alcohol-fuelled disruption at airports or on aircraft  a rise of 50 per cent on 2015.

Baroness Hayter, of Alcohol Concern, said of airports: They are selling alcohol in front of children, they are selling it around licensing hours, they are selling it without asking how much people have already drunk. They are making it very, very readily available.

Karen Dee, of the Airport Operators Association, said: I dont accept that the airports dont sell alcohol responsibly.

The sale of alcohol per se is not a problem. It is the misuse of it and drinking to excess and then behaving badly.

The Lords committee said rules that applied elsewhere should also be implemented airside.

The Home Office said ministers were considering the peers report.
A serial paedophile who sexually abused his nieces then kept them quiet with lollies and ice cream has been jailed for five years.

The 72-year-old abused the girls aged between four and eight while they were left in his care at his home about 40 years ago.

After abusing them he promised to by them lollies and ice cream to keep them quiet, but also threatened to shoot one of them if they told anyone.

A serial paedophile who raped his nieces then bribed them with lollies and ice cream has been jailed for five years (stock image)

Perth District Court Judge Gillian Braddock jailed the man for five years but made him eligible for parole after three years, according to The West Australian.

The sentence was despite his long criminal history including sexual abuse of children dating back almost 50 years.

He was convicted of a sex offence on his underage girlfriend in 1970 and found guilty of abduction a few years later after a teenage fan of his band went on a trip with him.

Then in 2004 he was jailed for 5.5 years for abusing his own daughter in the 1980s and 1990s.

The 72-year-old abused the girls aged between four and eight while he was supposed to be taking care of them at his home about 40 years ago (stock image)

His nieces reported their abuse to police in 1985 and 2001, but the paedophile was never charged until the case was reviewed two years ago.

Judge Braddock said the elderly man continued to deny his 'abhorrent' crimes and showed no remorse for the harm he caused his victims.

'It affects the development of a young person emotionally in ways that are hard for an outsider to appreciate. It is a very grave injury, non-physical, that has been done to these then children, now women,' she said.

The victims said they were never able to forget what their uncle did to them, and that he stole their innocence and gave them a fear of older men.
A taxi ploughed into an art gallery on Sydney's Oxford Street, injuring a female pedestrian and stopping traffic during peak hour.

The incident occurred in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Paddington just after 8am on Monday.

Emergency services are treating a woman for rib and arm injuries and the male driver was freed after being trapped inside the cab.

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A taxi (pictured) was doing a u-turn when it was struck by another vehicle, sending it onto the footpath and through an art gallery

The driver of the taxi (pictured) was freed from the wreckage and taken to hospital for testing

Police say the taxi was making a u-turn when it was struck by another car, sending it onto the footpath and into the art gallery.

The driver - who is believed to be uninjured - is undergoing mandatory testing at St Vincent's Hospital.

The art gallery (pictured) was badly damaged by the impact of the taxi after it ploughed into the shop

Police say the silver taxi was making a u-turn when it was clipped by another car, sending it out of control and into the art gallery (pictured)

A pedestrian walking past the art gallery (pictured) was struck by the out-of-control taxi after it mounted the curb

All citybound lanes on Oxford Street have since been reopened to traffic.

A police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia police are still on the scene and an investigation is ongoing.

Police urge witnesses or anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev has announced he will retire by the end of 2018, just days after it was revealed he would suffer a 20 per cent pay cut to his $12.3 million salary.

Chairman Chatherine Livingstone said in a press release on Monday Mr Narev's exit will depend on an 'ongoing comprehensive internal and external search process', but didn't disclose details.

'In discussions with Ian we have also agreed it is important for the business that we deal with the speculation and questions about his tenure. Todays statement provides that clarity and will ensure he can continue to focus, as CEO, on successfully managing the business,' she said.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev (pictured) has announced he will retire by the end of 2018, just days after it was revealed he would suffer a 20 per cent pay cut to his $12.3 million salary

Chairman Chatherine Livingstone said in a press release on Monday Mr Narev's exit will depend on an 'ongoing comprehensive internal and external search process' (stock image)

Last week Commonwealth Bank announced it would cut executive bonuses and director's pay despite posting a full-year profit of almost $10 billion.

The 4.6 per cent rise in cash earnings beat analyst's predictions, and the bank announced a final dividend of $2.30 - which topped the $2.25 analysts had been predicting.

Mr Narev's pay reached $12.3 million in August 2016 - $8 million more than the previous year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The result comes despite CommBank being rocked by a money-laundering scandal after the Australian Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre alleged it committed almost 54,000 legal breaches.

The bank's board responded by announcing cuts to bonuses to executives and 20 per cent cuts to director's fees.

'Commonwealth Bank's performance this year has again contributed to the financial wellbeing of our customers, shareholders, our people and the Australian economy,' Mr Narev told the Australian last week.

'This is the result of our consistent focus on customer satisfaction, innovation and financial strength.'

The news comes amid a worsening money-laundering scandal has rocked the bank after the Australian Transactions Reports & Analysis Centre alleged almost 54,000 legal breaches

Net profits for the year are up 7.6 per cent and are accompanied by a one per cent rise in revenue to $44.95billion.

The Commonwealth Bank's announcement - the first made by Australia's major banks - shows worries persist over job security, incomes, and living costs.

'Global caution remains high due to geopolitical change and less expansionist monetary policy. So all of us need to focus on working together to create an environment where businesses continue to invest to create rewarding jobs,' Mr Narev said.

The CEO also emphasised the importance of technology to the bank's competitiveness, and revealed plans to improve the mobile app.

CEO Ian Narev (pictured) said the bank will continue to focus on technology to stay competitive

'We will also maintain our focus on our long term sources of competitive advantage in our customer base and in technology,' he said.

AUSTRAC's court action has not seemed to affect the record profits, despite penalties that could run into the billions of dollars.

The government agency alleged the bank knew five customers who deposited $63,700 through their accounts, had potential links to terrorism funding.

AUSTRAC also alleges the bank as aware of organised groups using fake names to transfer money to offshore accounts for 'drug manufacturing', 'drug importation' and 'drug distribution'.
A 78-year-old Harley-Davidson fan dying of terminal cancer was lifted into a sidecar for one final spin.

Tom Strehlow, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a former employee of the motorcycle company, had several health setbacks that left him unable to ride his beloved bikes.

Strehlow is not just suffering from cancer but also Lewy body dementia - a progressive brain disorder in which proteins build up in areas of the brain that regulate behavior, cognition, and movement.

So family and friends decided to surprise him on what could be his last birthday.

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A 78-year-old Harley-Davidson fan dying of terminal cancer was lifted into a sidecar for one final spin (pictured) Tom Strehlow, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a former employee of the motorcycle company, had several health setbacks that left him unable to ride his beloved bikes

Strehlow was first taken to the Harley-Davidson Museum where he was given his very own Harley-Davidson leather jacket (pictured)

Strehlow was first taken to the Harley-Davidson Museum and was given his very own tour.

'No, it was perfect, beautiful. All I really wanted was a handshake,' Strehlow told Fox 6.

A group of about 30 people then showed up with their motorcycles to grant the birthday wish on Saturday as Strehlow was lifted into the sidecar.

'What other company can you think of where you retire from it and you want to come back as one of your final wishes to help celebrate your birthday?' said Tim McCormick, a museum staff member.

Before the tour of the museum started, the company gave their own gift to Strehlow: his very own Harley-Davidson leather jacket.

A group of about 30 people showed up with their motorcycles to grant the birthday wish on Saturday as Strehlow was lifted into the sidecar (pictured)

'Our connection has always been motorcycles. If we get to give him one last big wish, what an amazing gift for us to be able to do that for him,' said Forest Mrezek, Tom's at-home nurse

A lifelong rider of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and a former employee of the company, celebrated his 78th birthday with a special gift from his family. Happy Birthday, Tom! http://via.fox6now.com/tsMER Posted by FOX6 News Milwaukee on Saturday, August 12, 2017

'Our connection has always been motorcycles,' said Forest Mrezek, Tom's at-home nurse.

'If we get to give him one last big wish, what an amazing gift for us to be able to do that for him.'
A British Sainsbury's worker beat police to finding a missing four-year-old from his bedroom 5,000 miles away after convincing her captor to order a takeaway to his motel room in America.

Harry Brown, 21, tracked Yvette Henley to a hotel in Arizona where she was with her father Virgil Henley, 28, and said today: 'Instead of pizza he got the police'.

Gamer Mr Brown, from Staines, Surrey, was Facebook friends with Henley after meeting him online and was contacted by Yvette's grandparents who begged for his help to find Yvette.

Gary and Kim Forester were granted custody of the four-year-old because a court found she was suffering 'emotional damage' living with her father.

Henley fled with the little girl and was hiding in a motel until Mr Brown managed to locate him and teased out his location by offering him free pizza.

Sainsbury's worker Harry Brown, pictured, tracked down a girl, four, missing in the US from his bedroom in Staines, Surrey

Harry Brown, 21, tracked Yvette Henley (left) to a hotel in Arizona where she was with her father Virgil Henley, 28 (right), who fled after losing custody of his daughter

Mr Brown was approached by Yvette's grandfather Gary Forester, pictured with the missing girl, who had been going through her father's Facebook friends trying to find someone who might know his location

Henley fled with the little girl and was hiding in a motel until Mr Brown managed to locate him and teased out his location over two days by offering him free pizza (messages pictured)

Over two days of talking, Harry teased information out of him and learned he had taken his girlfriend Alyssa, 28, and Yvette to Arizona, where they were staying in cheap hotels.

Gamer Mr Brown, from Staines, Surrey, was Facebook friends with Henley after meeting him online and was contacted by Yvette's grandparents who begged for his help to find Yvette (pictured)

He eventually pinpointed their exact location by offering to order a pizza to his room at a motel and even convinced Virgil to hand over the room number.

But instead of the food showing up at the door, police did. Yvette was recovered and is now living safely with her grandparents in California, who have custody.

Harry, of Staines, Surrey, said: 'I spend my life on the internet but little did I know that talking to random people would lead to me finding this little girl.

'She is loving where she is now. I cried so much when I saw the photos of her with her grandparents.

'The police had been trying to find her since May and within two days I got his exact location.

'It's a really weird set of circumstances that fell into place. Before, Yvette was probably living a nightmare.

'Now she is in the best place possible for her. She is having the most happy days of her life.

'I can't wrap my head around it. It's life-changing for me. I had all these worries but now they all seem meaningless.

'I have saved a girl's life. I have so much more to be happy about now.'

Mr Brown (pictured) managed to locate the child when the police and her family could not

Yvette's grandparents Gary and Kim Forester, pictured together, paid tribute to Harry on Facebook and said the family would 'never be able to express their gratitude to him'

Harry became wrapped up in Yvette's story after Gary messaged him on Facebook earlier this month because he was one of three people who liked one of Virgil's profile photos.

The youngster, who was stacking shelves at Sainsbury's at the time and checked his phone on his break, said: 'I got this message completely out of the blue.

'I thought, 'This could be real.' So I started looking into it.'

Harry messaged Virgil and started a conversation out of the blue, asking about what he had been up to and talking about food, music and the weather.

The dad, who was using a Facebook profile under the name Mark Johnson, let slip his location while complaining about the humidity, ranting: 'f*cking HATE Arizona'.

Harry later managed to get his exact location in Kingman, Arizona by offering to buy him pizza.

Harry, who plans to fly out to California to meet Yvette and her grandparents soon, added: 'He said he didn't want any but his wife did.

'He gave me his exact address and room number. I rang Gary straight away. He called the police in America and a police officer showed up.

'Instead of pizza he got the police.'

The following day, Yvette was driven back to her grandparents' house in Hesperia, California.

Mr Brown, pictured with blonde hair, who is an avid online gamer, said he 'cried so much' after finding out Yvette was safe with her grandparents

Henley was in Arizona with his girlfriend Alyssa, 28, and also had Yvette (left and right) with him

Overjoyed Gary, a janitor, said: 'When Yvette was missing it was exhausting.. I made it my mission to find her but ended up losing the two jobs I was working.

'I was just desperate to find her. I can't explain how much Harry helped. He was the key to everything.

'It is amazing to have Yvette home. I remember standing in the driveway as the car pulled up.

'She got out and started yelling and she ran up to us and jumped into my arms. I hugged her and kissed her and the tears were flowing.

'It was very emotional. Just to see the joy on her face was incredible. We had prepared ourselves for the worst. I feared for her life.

'In my heart, Harry saved her life. I will be forever in gratitude to him for that.'

San Bernadino County Sheriff's Dept said: 'The missing person report for Yvette Henley was filed by her grandfather on June 20 in Hesperia.

'He believed Yvette was with her parents and he had not been able to reach them.

'The grandfather was given guardianship of Yvette also on June 20. At the time he filed the report it had been 10 days since he had last seen the three of them.'

A spokeswoman added: 'On July 9th the reporting party contacted the Hesperia Station stating he had been advised that the child was located in Kingman, AZ.

'Child Protective services was contacting Kingman and the reporting party stated he would be going to Kingman to pick up the child.'
A man who bashed a ski resort worker repeatedly in the head with a snowboard was dressed as Star Wars' character, Chewbacca.

The 51-year-old man was dressed as the Wookie warrior when he attacked a staff member with a snowboard at the Alpine Way resort in Thredbo, on Saturday at 10am.

The 55-year-old employee sustained facial and dental injuries from the attack.

A man dressed as Chewbacca from Star Wars hit a Thredbo staff on Saturday (stock image)

A 55-year-old employee was hit repeatedly over the head with a snowboard in Thredbo

Investigators from the Monaro Local Area Command arrested the man at the scene.

He was later taken to the Jindabyne police station to assist police with inquiries.

A NSW police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the man has since been charged for using an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence.

He has been granted conditional bail and will appear before the Cooma local court on Sept 6.

The attack was at Thredbo's Alpine Way in the Snowy Mountains on Saturday at about 10am

The 51-year-old man who hit a man with a snowboard was taken to Jindabyne Police Station




Having been ostracized from using the services of mainstream Silicon Valley giants like Twitter and Airbnb, white nationalists have established their own online niche by using obscure social media platforms and crowdfunding sites that have become alt-right 'safe spaces'.

The use of alternative tech tools has helped the alt-right organize activities like the march in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend, according to the Los Angeles Times.

One anti-fascist protester was killed and others were injured when a suspected white nationalist allegedly rammed his car into a crowd.

The incident and the violence that marred the protests sent shockwaves throughout the country.

White nationalists, for their part, say that they were able to bring thousands of their followers to Charlottesville despite being denied the services of mainstream tech firms.

Airbnb, Twitter, crowdfunding sites like Patreon and GoFundMe, and Facebook have shut down a number of accounts belonging to alt-right figures because of those companies' policies against hate speech.

White nationalists (like those seen above in a torch lit march through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday) have used alternative social media platforms after being ostracized by mainstream Silicon Valley tech giants

The companies are also mindful of the reaction of liberal and left-leaning users who pressure them to deny the alt-right a platform for their views.

This has led to a mass migration of white nationalist users who have now popularized once-obscure social media platforms like Gab, which bills itself as 'an ad-free social network for creators who believe in free speech, individual liberty, and the free flow of information online.'

They have also founded alternative crowdfunding initiatives like Hatreon, WeSearchr, and Counter.Fund.

'The market is owned and controlled and operated by the oligarchy of Twitter and Facebook and Google,' Gab's founder, Andrew Torba, told the Times.

The above image shows a screenshot of WeSearchr, a crowdfunding site used by alt-right Internet users who have been banned from mainstream sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter

Hatreon is another crowdfunding site which is the alt-right's answer to Patreon, where users can donate to artists. Hatreon allows users to give money to prominent far-right figures

'The reality is hate speech is free speech,' Torba said.

He believes that Silicon Valley is censoring a section of the populace  and it's up to him to fill the void.

'That's a huge opportunity to sit here and defend the Internet that I grew up on,' he said.

Utsav Sanduja, a spokesperson for Gab, told DailyMail.com that while his site is eager to welcome views that others may deem hate speech, the company condemns the violence that was witnessed in Charlottesville on Saturday.

'First and foremost Gab is not a far-right site,' Sanduja said on Monday.

'We are a free speech, pro-First Amendment social media site.

'Gab completely denounces the violent acts that took place in Charlottesville and we encourage a civil and peaceful discourse amongst our user base in the United States and globally.'

Sanduja said that although extremists are free to post comments on Gab, the site does remove users who incite others to commit crimes, including calls to violence, child pornography, propagating on behalf of terrorist organizations, or encouraging others to partake in terrorism.

He said that Gab has blocked users who have called for the assassination of President Donald Trump as well as those who have posted links to revenge porn sites.

Sanduja says that Gab is a necessary venue since it gives conservatives and nationalists a platform denied to them by giants like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Apple.

'Gab has been rejected by the App Store nine times on the basis of hate speech, but Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other platforms have had child pornography, ISIS propaganda, and terrorist materials and these sites are allowed on the App Store,' Sanduja said.

'The Left and Silicon Valley giants are enfranchising only their side of the spectrum while conservatives and nationalists are being ostracized.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Apple, which operates the App Store, to seek comment.

Far-right Internet users were angered by 'inexcusable content policing of services like Patreon,' which led them to found Hatreon.

The crowdfunding site allows users to donate money to influential white nationalist figures like Richard Spencer and prominent neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin.

So far, Spencer has 34 'patrons' who donate $362 a month to him. Anglin, the founder and editor of the Daily Stormer, receives $869 combined from 50 donors.

Spencer himself has been banned from Airbnb, as have other white nationalist followers.

The San Francisco-based company has shut out those who do not 'accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, [and] ethnicity.'

Though Spencer still has a Twitter account, he has been banned from SoundCloud, the audio hosting site.

White nationalist Internet users have migrated en masse and popularized once-obscure social media platforms like Gab (whose logo is seen above)

'The market is owned and controlled and operated by the oligarchy of Twitter and Facebook and Google,' said Gab's founder, Andrew Torba. The above tweet seeks to appeal to those who are 'sick of being censored by Twitter and Facebook', inviting them to sign up for Gab

Twitter famously banned for life one of the heroes of the alt-right, Milo Yiannopoulos, after he had engaged in hate speech.

Anglin has been sued by the anti-racist watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center after he organized a 'troll storm' against a Jewish woman on the Daily Stormer.

In order to pay for his legal defense, Anglin has turned to alt-right crowdfunding site WeSearchr, where users have donated over $150,000.

The owner of WeSearchr, Chuck C. Johnson, has also been banned from Twitter.

WeSearchr offers users opportunities to donate to a number of far-right causes, including raising money for medical expenses for white nationalists who have been injured in clashes with anti-facist demonstrators.

Hatreon was founded by Cody Wilson, a gun rights activist from Austin, Texas, who has been named by Wired Magazine as one of the 'most dangerous people on the Internet.'

A self-described 'Internet anarchist,' Wilson said he was amused by the social media memes that used Pepe, a cartoon frog who has been adopted as a mascot by the alt-right.

'Frog Twitter and the so-called 'alt-right'  there's a lot of life there,' Wilson said.

'I'm kind of happy to help it mutate.'
In June 2016, Congress passed House Resolution 343, condemning the Chinese government for sanctioning the pillaging of organs from Falun Gong and other prisoners of conscience.

Falun Gong is a Buddha School teaching whose principles are truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. On July 20, 1999, over 18 years ago, this teaching was outlawed by the Chinese communist government under the leadership of Jiang Zemin. Falun Gong was becoming too popular and he wanted it eliminated.

In 2006, investigators found those arrested were being blood typed, killed and their organs sold for transplantation.

In 2008, Israel passed a law prohibiting its citizens from getting an organ transplant in China, where wait times are only 1 to 4 weeks. In other countries it can be a few years wait time. Illinois, Pennsylvania and Minnesota have passed resolutions condemning Chinas organ pillaging; these states alert their citizens to what is happening in China. Montana should do the same.

U.S. Senate Resolution 220 condemns the Chinese Communist Partys violent suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, including the killing of practitioners and selling their organs for transplant. This resolution is an important step in further exposing this crime against humanity and will help our medical community and transplant patients make informed decisions to avoid becoming an accomplice to this heinous crime. Please sign this petition, encouraging Senators Tester and Daines to co-sponsor it at: stoporganharvesting.org.

Katherine Combes

Kalispell
We were an hour into Martin Creed's achingly artsy one-man show when an American woman beside me succumbed to snorting laughter.

She tried to suppress it, but was soon jabbing herself with her fingernails to halt her hog-whimpering.

The venue was Edinburgh's minimalist Studio theatre and the event was part of the city's International Festival. Now 70, the festival  not to be confused with its thriving Fringe  is an annual celebration of supposedly the greatest creative performers of our age.

These people take themselves seriously. Artistes are booked more than a year in advance.

Martin Creed (pictured) was performing at the Edinburgh International Festival, which is now in its 70th year

They include brooding Russian maestros, neck-clutching New World divas, flamenco artistes with chins as sharp as their heels, and panels of ponderous intellectuals discussing the Syria crisis, 'global citizenship and culture', or self-determination through the filter of rhyming calpyso music.

Knit your brows, please.

The festival is a showcase for artistic talent. It receives millions of pounds from Scottish Government funds, the EU, the BBC and other public bodies. And this year it has used some of that cash  we are not told how much  to book 20 performances by Martin Creed.

Turner Prize-winning artist Creed, a whiskery creature with a passing resemblance to Catweazle, was plucking away on his guitar, pling-pling-pling. He was singing an absurdist song he had written littered with F-words, and he yowled it in a high-pitched, nasal voice that put me in mind of a mating vixen.

'What the f*** am I doing?' sang Creed (that much repeated phrase was, indeed, the title of his masterpiece). Pling-pling-pling went his guitar strings. Imagine the Goons sending up Chop Suey restaurant music. 'What the f*** am I doing?' repeated Creed, his accent somewhere between Glasgow and a Michael Bentine version of Peking.

As he strained for high tenor notes he betrayed a long set of yellowing gnashers, worthy of a Derby winner. Pling-pling-pling. The din continued for several minutes.

Some in the audience had already fled. Others had remained and a few were leaning forward, chins in hands, hoping to look appreciative. One or two even nodded their heads to show cultured relish for the strangulated caterwauling issuing forth.

A would-be bolter came creeping down the steps and it became clear that, in order to complete his escape, he was going to have to cross the front of the stage. He did so on tiptoe, at a semi-crouch, vaguely in time to the music.

Creed was by this point not only pling-plinging his dreadful guitar but also blowing into (my particular pet hate) a mouth organ. As the escapee crossed his field of vision, Creed's bulging eyes tracked his agonised progress. It was here that the American woman did the nose trick.

We shouldn't laugh, tempting though it might be. But before I explain why, let me tell you a little more about Martin Creed.

The Edinburgh International Festival - not to be confused with its thriving Fringe - is an annual celebration of supposedly the greatest creative performers of our age

Born in 1968, he is acclaimed as one of our foremost 'conceptualists'. In the world of Creed, rules are pointless and anything goes. Art modernists used to argue that 'art is what I say it is', but Creed affects a modesty and claims to be unwilling to impose his views on anyone else.

Art thus becomes whatever you  or we  wish it to be.

In such a world, professionalism and ability become unimportant. And you could never accuse Creed of being over-rehearsed. On the night I saw him last week, he ambled on stage and immediately struggled to collect his thoughts.

He had not even polished his opening gambit. The sound effects went wrong. Creed swore, asked his sound engineer to rectify the error  it took a while  and drank noisily from a plastic (water) bottle to fill time.

Some might call this charming dottiness. Others would think it mouldy incompetence.

The modern arts Establishment, alas, regards it as something so profound that it should be given hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money and chosen to represent the acme of our civilisation.

At a time when our country could usefully express its character in every way possible  to assert the possibilities of post-Brexit Britain  we are being represented by a nihilist gimp.

Creed won the 2001 Turner Prize for an installation work which chiefly comprised some lights going on and off. That recognition brought international commissions. Gullible public arts officials are not unique to Britain, you see.

Creed has become known for his 'simple' style, possibly because he lacks the artistic skill to pull off anything more complex.

His pieces include 'Everything Is Going To Be Alright' in neon lights on the exterior of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and a sign saying 'Understanding' on the riverbank in New York.

By his own admission he spends much of his time with 'very rich' patrons and is probably himself immensely wealthy. He says that even if you throw baked beans against a wall, it can be art.

How droll. But also how damaging to educational practice. If youngsters think anything is art, why will any of them learn to draw or sculpt? This is how Western civilisation can die.

Over the years Creed has developed an inept, rambling character who does not believe in anything having 'hard edges'. Any attempt to define boundaries, he claims, is flawed because the world is in constant flux.

'Anything that's definite in the world is against life because life is for ever changing,' he told us last week. 'Anything fixed is dead.' He did, though, concede that things such as chairs had to be rigid or they would collapse when people sat in them.

He mumbled about how 'I went to party in my head and I met myself and the first chance I got, I went home'. I wondered if he was drunk. Alas, he was entirely sober.

The festival is a showcase for artistic talent and it receives millions of pounds from Scottish Government funds

Further philosophical gems followed. Feelings and words were little different from excrement, he averred, save for the fact that 'feelings don't have a smell'. Oh, and 'life is like soup'. If true, Creed's show would be a puddle of undersalted Vichyssoise, unredeemed by croutons.

The rear wall flashed up the words 'YES' and 'NO'. Was Creed seeking to confront us ethically? Nah. It just gave him a spiel about how indecisive he was. When lost for words he grabbed his long moustache as though it were the emergency handle on a train.

He was wearing some home-made trousers with long pieces of cloth dangling between his legs. He explained that these were designed to disguise stains from his trips to the lavatory.

This, ladies and gentlemen, was the level of guff offered to an international audience in the name of British arts excellence.

Not that the Britishness of the festival is really mentioned. Don't forget that its sponsors include the EU and the Scottish Government. Perhaps they chose him to make Brexiting Britain look as silly as possible.

Creed's maundering monologue deplored national borders. We were shown a photograph of refugees trying to enter Europe. 'Let them in,' warbled Creed.

Then he confessed he locked his door when at home in London. How can you want personal security yet deride territorialism?

Creed just shrugged at his inconsistency and went into a riff that 'border control, it's a con, it's a bore'. This ignited another flurry of audience members heading for their own freedom.

Those lucky devils who left early missed Creed's closing piece de resistance: his drawing a bad picture of a penis. Why? Search me, guv. We also had a reprise of that song 'What The F*** Am I Doing?'  a question most of us had by now asked ourselves.

The elevation of this blithering buffoon to the point where he is garlanded at the festival is reflective of one of two things.

It flows either from a loss of nerve by our arts administrators, no longer confident enough to say boo to the fifth-rate; or it stems from a purposeful eradication of artistry from art. That may be driven by the mistaken belief that artistic ability is inegalitarian.

All this should trouble us greatly. In the past year, the Left has propagated the phrase 'fake news' to describe public loss of trust in the mainstream media. 'Fake news' became an assault on the sort of populism that fuelled Brexit and Trumpism.

Yet something worse has happened at places such as the Edinburgh Festival. They are promoting 'fake art', and that could be far more damaging.

Art, at its most pure, is an expression of the truths of human nature. These are deeper and more lasting than anything found in even the most accurate news reports. A society no longer interested in seeking out the truth of the highest, noblest art is a society in terminal decline.

For much as one might mock Martin Creed, it is worth asking the following question. Given how much of our tax money Creed is pocketing, who is the real nincompoop here: he or we?
New Zealand authorities have confirmed Barnaby Joyce is a New Zealand citizen, putting his political career in jeopardy.

NZ Prime Minister Bill English told a press conference Mr Joyce was automatically given citizenship via his father under a more than 50-year-old law.

The Deputy Prime Minister told the House of Representatives the New Zealand High Commission contacted him last Thursday to advise he may be a Kiwi citizen.

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Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (pictured on Monday) told parliament the New Zealand High Consulate called him to advise he might be a dual citizen

Mr Joyce (pictured) would be the third Member of Parliament ousted over dual citizenship issues, after Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlum

The 50-year-old said he was 'shocked' to receive the call but would stay in his position while the matter was referred to the High Court.

NZ Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne's office said under NZ law, a child born to a Kiwi parent - in this case Mr Joyce's father - is automatically given citizenship without needing to apply.

'Under our law, as we understand, and it has been confirmed by crown law - they have had a look at it - yes, he is,' it said.

This was because the concept of separate Australian and NZ citizenship wasn't formal until 1948 - a year after Mr Joyce was born.

'If you were born overseas and at least one of your parents is a New Zealand citizen by birth or grant, you are an NZ citizen by descent,' the NZ citizenship website states.

The 50-year-old (pictured with his wife Natalie) said he was 'shocked' to receive the call but would stay in his position while the matter was referred to the High Court

Mr Dunne later told Sky News: 'The advice that I received was being checked by crown law. That was confirmed. At that point it was conveyed via the NZ high commissioner in Canberra to Mr Joyce directly.'

NZ Prime Minister Bill English then weighed in saying: 'Unwittingly or not he is a New Zealand citizen.'

'These things are almost always accidental. No one sets out to confuse the public with their citizenship.'

The High Court would still have to rule on whether the archaic law would make him ineligible under the Australian Constitution.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke told parliament Mr Joyce should stand aside from the ministry and the government should not accept his vote.

'We've never before in this parliament... had to go to the High Court and say: "Look, we're not really sure if there's a majority government in this country",' he said.

If he is found to be ineligible, the Turnbull Government - which holds a one-seat majority in the lower house - would be forced into a by-election.

The concept of separate Australian and NZ citizenship wasn't formal until 1948, which would make Mr Joyce a Kiwi citizen by descent automatically

Opposition leader Bill Shorten wasted no time bringing this up with his first point in Monday's Parliamentary Question Time.

'Can the Prime Minister confirm the Turnbull Government is the first government in Australian history to ask the High Court whether in fact it has a majority?' he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull replied that the government was 'very confident' the High court would not rule Mr Joyce ineligible.

He blamed NZ for 'imposing foreign citizenship' on him without his knowledge.

That didn't stop Labor members from bleating like sheep whenever Mr Joyce got up to speak during Question Time.

Mr Joyce would be the third Member of Parliament ousted over dual citizenship issues, after Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlum.

'I was born in Tamworth, just as my mother and my great-grandmother was born there 100 years earlier,' he told parliament.

'Neither I, nor my parents have ever had any reason to believe I may be a citizen of any other country.

'I was born in Australia in 1967 to an Australian mother and think I am fifth-generation. My father was born in New Zealand and came to Australia in 1947 as a British subject. In fact we were all British subjects at that time.

'Neither I nor my parents have ever applied to register me as a NZ citizen, and the NZ Government has no register recognising me as a NZ citizen.'

On the basis of the solicitor-general's advice, the government is of the firm view that I would not be found to be disqualified by the operation of section 44 of the constitution,' he said

But Mr Joyce said government took legal advice from the solicitor-general and based on that was of the 'firm view' he would not be disqualified from serving under section 44(1) of the constitution.

'However, to provide clarification to this very important area of the law, for this and future parliaments, I have asked the government to refer the matter to the High Court,' he said.

'Given the strength of the legal advice the government has received, the Prime Minister has asked that I remain as Deputy Prime Minister and continue my ministerial duties.'

Mr Joyce's citizenship scare follows former Greens deputy leader Mr Ludlum resigning last month after discovering he 'forgot' to renounce his NZ citizenship.

If forced to resign, Mr Joyce would be the third Member of Parliament ousted over dual citizenship issues, after Greens senators Larissa Waters (L) and Scott Ludlum (R)

He was swiftly followed by the other Greens co-leader Ms Waters, who still has a Canadian citizenship.

Less than two weeks later, Resources Minister Matt Canavan quit cabinet after it was revealed he may have dual Italian citizenship.

He blamed his mother for applying on his behalf without telling him, was staying in parliament while the High Court investigated.

PARLIAMENT'S DUAL CITIZENSHIP FIASCO July 14: Greens senator Scott Ludlum resigns after discovering he is a New Zealand dual citizen July 17: Greens senator Larissa Waters quits as she was still a Canadian citizen July 25: Resources minister Matt Canavan steps down from cabinet as he may have dual Italian citizenship August 10: One Nation refers its own Senator Malcolm Roberts to High Court over possible UK dual citizenship August 14: Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce asks High Court to investigate if he has NZ citizenship Advertisement

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts also faces the High Court over whether he was still a British citizen when he was elected last year, after party leader Pauline Hanson referred him herself.

Former PM Tony Abbott, who was born in Britain, produced a copy of his renunciation confirmation document to quiet rumours he too was a dual citizen.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari revealed he had to hire a team of lawyers and pay $25,000 to renounce his Iranian citizenship.

Just to be sure, he paid two Iranians to go into the embassy with his renunciation papers and take a selfie with his forms.

'It was difficult, expensive, lengthy and precarious for my family still living in Iran. Nonetheless the rules are the rules and I have met them to ensure I meet the requirements to be properly elected,' he said.
An American immigrant who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a former girlfriend during a frenzied attack will not be deported because he was sentenced to less than a year in jail.

MacKenzie Agnant recently received a 60-day jail sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for biting a woman on the arm repeatedly early last year and assaulting her while she showered, according to the Herald Sun.

The 42-year-old also received an 18-month long corrections order, but was released on bail after he appealed the ruling  which did not meet the one year prison sentence required for a mandatory deportation.

MacKenzie Agnant (pictured) recently received a 60-day jail sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for biting a woman on the arm and assaulting her while she showered

The father of two accused the woman of cheating on him and became infatuated with her after their short relationship ended, the court heard.

After accepting a ride home from Agnant one day, the 42-year-old repeatedly assaulted the woman as she showered.

Neighbours reported hearing the woman scream 'no' and told police officers her shrieks for help sounded like 'pure fear,' according to the Herald Sun.

The woman pushed Agnant through the shower screen before he locked her in the bathroom. She was later freed by police.

The 42-year-old (pictured) will not be deported back to America because his prison sentence was less than one year

In another incident, the 42-year-old bit the woman on her arm  which Agnant claimed was a consensual act.

The American's defence barrister Marcus Dempsey argued that Agnant was drunk at the time.

'There are other ways of punishing this man other than removing him from the community,' Mr Dempsey said, according to the Herald Sun.

'His children live here and he has sought a life here. A term of imprisonment of more than 12 months would see him returned to the USA.'
The violence in Charlottesville has been described as a belated 'coming out party' for resurgent white nationalism in the US.

The protest was organised by members of the so-called alt-Right, or alternative Right, a loose collective of mainly young men who believe white racial identity is under attack from multiculturalism.

Donald Trump's election victory and his subsequent appointment of alt-Right icon Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist have emboldened the disparate groups that make up America's far Right.

Mr Bannon  a key figure in Mr Trump's toxic election campaign was a founder of the virulently Right-wing news and commentary website Breitbart. The site takes a scorched-earth approach to attacking the Establishment, liberals, mainstream conservatives and political correctness.

The protest in Charlottesville was organised by members of the so-called alt-Right, or alternative Right

Mr Bannon denies he is a white supremacist but he had boasted that he wanted to make Breitbart into the 'platform of the alt-Right' movement.

Protected as it is by America's strong free speech laws, the far Right has struggled for decades to overcome in-fighting which has left the myriad groups often more at odds with each other than with their enemies on the Left and in black activism.

Religious differences  some groups are pagan while others are Christian  and a split over attitudes to the Nazis  with some groups pro-Hitler and others opposed  have divided attempts to find common ground.

While ideological differences split neo-Nazis from the Ku Klux Klan from the anti-government militias, leadership squabbles even divided competing Klan factions.

However, the election of Mr Trump on an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, politically incorrect platform provided the warring organisations with what they believe is a common ally.

Putting aside their differences, they agreed that a Trump administration was their best chance to advance their views and reverse what  after the election of Barack Obama  some hailed as a 'post-racial America'.

In May, a few dozen white supremacists pre-empted this weekend's violence by rallying around the Robert E Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, with lit torches.

The group, which met after the city's authorities voted to remove the statue from a park that bears Lee's name, chanted: 'You will not replace us.'

Alt-Right figurehead Richard Spencer told protesters: 'What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced.'

Donald Trump's election victory and his subsequent appointment of alt-Right icon Stephen Bannon t have emboldened the disparate groups that make up America's far Right

Aware that many white, working-class Trump supporters believe Washington and the media are trying to wipe out their cultural identity, the far-Right allies portray themselves as guardians of white 'heritage'  particularly in the South where many see its pro-slavery Confederacy past as a crucial part of their history.

The alt-Right insists liberal phrases such as 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' effectively amount to the extinction of America's white origins. Some, though not all, are also anti-Semitic and Holocaust deniers.

Protests have focused on university campuses because this is where the movement believes that it can recruit new members.

Although many far-Right leaders enthusiastically supported Mr Trump's presidential campaign  and he has been criticised for not explicitly condemning their violence in Charlottesville  there has been growing disappointment that he has not done what they hoped while in government.

Many were incensed by his missile strikes on Syria in retaliation for the Assad regime's chemical weapons attacks on civilians, arguing that the US should put itself first and stay out of foreign conflicts.

The alt-Right bizarrely identified Jane Austen as an icon, arguing her portrayal of a cosy  and white  Georgian England is closer to what they are aiming for than Nazi Germany.
A police officer has been banned from the roads after he crashed through a fence on the way home from a Christmas party while he was more than four times over the drink driving limit.

South Australian police officer Jay Shambrook, 44, from Port Lincoln pleaded guilty to driving without due care and with an excess blood alcohol level of 0.213.

Shambrook, a patrol officer, failed to navigate a corner and crashed through a fence when he was driving on New West Road at Port Lincoln on December 6.

South Australian police officer Jay Shambrook, 44, from Port Lincoln pleaded guilty to driving without due care and with an excess blood alcohol level of 0.213

When he appeared at Port Lincoln Magistrates Court he was disqualified from driving for 10 months and ordered to pay more than $1,400 in fines, Adelaide Now reported.

Shambrook, an officer at the Port Lincoln police station, was placed on desk duties by the police force, according to the publication.

Magistrate John Wells slammed Shambrook's behaviour as 'stupid'.

'It is his own view that his decision to drive was selfish, irresponsible and stupid  I agree,' Mr Wells said.

He noted Shambrook was dealing with 'significant stressors' at the time of his offending but said it was no excuse.

Shambrook, an officer at the Port Lincoln police station, was placed on desk duties by the police force

'His father was very ill with cancer and he had recently undergone a messy and distressing separation,' he said.

Mr Wells also took Shambrook's regret into consideration.

'I am told, and I accept, that he is not only contrite but he is deeply ashamed  on a number of levels, but particularly because he is a police officer,' he said.

Mr Wells also noted Shambrook was of good character prior to his arrest.

Despite this, he said Shambrook's blood alcohol level of 0.213 was too high to show leniency in sentencing.

A South Australian police spokesperson confirmed the officer remains on the force.

'This matter has been completed through the court and internal disciplinary processes for some time,' the spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia via email.

'The police officer remains in police service but with restricted duties commensurate with the court imposed penalties.

'We do not comment on individual officer disciplinary outcomes.'
A couple have blown up their SUV in the middle of the road by lighting a cigarette while transporting a propane grill that was switched on.

Nobody was killed in the incident, which occurred at about 3.30pm on Sunday in Orlando, Florida, and left a red Kia Sorento on the side of the road with its roof blown partially off.

Police say a husband and wife were driving the Kia, which had a propane grill inside that had the gas valve switched on.

A couple in Orlando, Florida blew up their Kia Sorento when the wife lit a cigarette while they were transporting a propane grill with the gas valve switched on

The wife lit a cigarette as the car was driving near the entrance to the Central Florida Fairgrounds.

The resulting explosion blew out the windows of the car and peeled open the roof of the car.

The car traveled off the road and crashed into a pole, police said.

The man and woman suffered burns that were not life-threatening, and were transported to a hospital.

No further information about the couple was immediately available.
A gang of nine African youths have allegedly punched a worker in the face after storming an electronics store in Melbourne's north before stealing headphones.

The group descended on JB Hi-Fi at Preston's Northland shopping complex on Saturday about 2.30pm and made attempts to leave without paying.

The males, of African appearance, allegedly became involved in an altercation with staff members who tried to stop them stealing goods.

A gang of nine African youths have allegedly punched a worker in the face after storming an electronics store in Melbourne's north before stealing headphones (stock image)

Believed to be aged between 15 and 22, the gang are said to have forcibly pushed a female member of staff before punching her male colleague in the face.

Darebin Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident.

'All of the offenders are perceived to be of African appearance and anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers,' Victoria Police confirmed.

In a similar incident on Sunday, police have confirmed a gang of six youths committed thefts at a a Melbourne clothing retailer.

The group made their way to the Kathmandu store at Fountain Gate in Narre Warren and allegedly stole a selection of jackets in the latest in a long line of gang-related incidents to hit Melbourne.

The group descended on JB Hi-Fi at Preston's Northland shopping complex on Saturday about 2.30pm and made attempts to leave without paying, before assaulting staff

Darebin Police have confirmed they are investigating the latest gang-related incident




A heartbroken family has revealed photos of the horrific injuries suffered by their Jack Russell Pebbles after she was mauled by a husky in front of them.

Angela Sanderson, from Toowoomba in Queensland, was walking Pebbles at a park near the family home in Highfields about 4.30pm on Sunday when a husky mauled it to death.

Ms Sanderson said Pebbles was on a leash when the husky, who was not, ran over and attacked.

A heartbroken family has revealed photos of the horrific injuries suffered by their Jack Russell Pebbles after she was mauled by a husky in front of them

Angela Sanderson (far right), from Toowoomba in Queensland, was walking Pebbles at a park near the family home in Highfields about 4.30pm on Sunday when a husky mauled it to death

The devastated mother-of-three said she was thankful her children Holly, 14, Lucy, 11, and eight-year-old Ruby were not with her to witness their dog being killed.

The girls' father Justin Anlezark said Pebbles was so badly injured after the attack that he could see her organs.

'The dog just grabbed Pebbles and was tearing holes in her,' Mr Anlezark told the Northern Star.

'The holes were so deep you could actually see her heart beating.'

Pebbles clung to life after the attack, but her injuries were so severe the vet was forced to put her down.

Mr Anlezark said Pebbles was his daughters' 'soul mate' and the family was shattered.

'Poor Pebbles didn't have a chance. She was just six-years-old and she was everything to us. It is like you have lost a child,' he said.

Ms Sanderson said Pebbles was on a leash when the husky, who was not, ran over and attacked

Ms Sanderson recounted the horrific moment she watched on as Pebbles was attacked.

'I said to her "I'm taking you home for a bath Miss" as she went through some mud, then I turned and saw this great husky on top of the bank of the oval,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'It looked for a split second like it was focusing and boom, just charged and went straight for the kill.

'It was just horrible, I was screaming "help" so loudly.'

Ms Sanderson said Pebbles' heart was punctured and 'there was blood everywhere' within seconds.

'My girls and I and their father are just devastated,' she said.

'Thank goodness the girls weren't with me at the horrifying scene.'

The devastated mother-of-three said she was thankful her children Holly, 14, Lucy, 11, and eight-year-old Ruby were not with her to witness their dog being killed



While they lost a family member, Mr Anlezark said the results could have been far worse.

He feared the dog could have harmed or even killed a baby or small child just as easily.

Mr Anlezark called for dog owners to have more responsibility.

He said dog owners, especially the owners of larger dogs who had the ability to cause major harm, should keep their dog on a leash.

The Toowoomba Regional Council spoke to the husky's owners following the incident on Sunday but it is unknown what action will be taken.

The council told Daily Mail Australia it took the attack seriously and was investigating.

A spokeswoman said an animal management officer visited the families shortly after the incident.

'Dog owners have a responsibility to maintain control of their dogs in public at all times,' she said.

'They also have a duty to ensure dogs are properly enclosed in private yards and do not wander.'

The council said it was working together with the owner of the husky, and they were assisting the council with the investigation.
A man who stabbed his own brother to death in front of his 10-year-old daughter has been jailed for seven years.

Robert Hudson, 35, stabbed his 25-year-old half-brother Nokoma in the neck with a knife when the younger man intervened in a domestic violence attack.

Hudson's young daughter tried to break up the fight in the kitchen of the Adelaide family home as her father put her mother in a headlock.

Nokoma Hudson (pictured), 25, was stabbed by his half-brother Robert during a violent family argument at a home in Adelaide's Gilles Plains in February last year

The brave girl yelled 'stop it dad, you're hurting mummy' before kicking him in the head, according to the Adelaide Advertiser.

Crown prosecutor Peter Longson last month told the Supreme Court Hudson then pulled out a knife and swung it at his partner, before Nokoma and another man intervened.

'Nokoma threw him off the decking and hit him with a stick. Nokoma, who had a young daughter, also threw a bucket at him during the fight,' the court heard.

The fight ended when Robert stabbed Nokoma in the neck. He cradled his younger brother in his arms and said he was sorry as he died.

Robert Hudson, 35, was at first charged with murder, but in March he was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and on Monday sentenced to seven years jail

He was at first charged with murder, but in March he was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Justice Anne Bampton told the Supreme Court on Monday she had no doubt that Hudson was 'racked with remorse' and that the killing had scarred and challenged his family relationships.

But she said he had clear problems with alcohol abuse and anger management as well as a long criminal history - by his own admissions spending half his life in jail.

Justice Bampton said her sentence had to reflect the seriousness of the crime that involved the violent taking of a human life by someone who introduced a lethal implement into a volatile situation.

She jailed him for seven years with a non-parole period of six years.

Nokoma, who had a young daughter, threw his brother off the decking and hit him with a stick, the court heard

Sharon Lemon, the mother of both the men, told the South Australian Supreme Court in April she is kept awake at night because she still loves Robert.

'Living with this pain has shattered my heart,' Ms Lemon said in her victim impact statement.

'I lay in bed feeling guilty for loving Robert because of the betrayal of taking my other son away from me.

'It is draining to be torn between both of them.... I love them both more than life itself.'
A man has been charged over the alleged sexual assault of a young girl after threatening her at knife-point at a home in Tamworth.

The 27-year-old will face court on Monday after allegedly forcing his way into a girl's bedroom on Sunday morning, threatening her with a knife and sexually assaulting her in another room.

He has been charged with aggravated sexual assault and threat to inflict actual bodily harm with a weapon.

A man has been charged over the alleged sexual assault of a young girl after threatening her at knife-point at a home in Tamworth

The alleged incident occurred at 8am at a house in West Tamworth on Sunday morning.

Police were called to the house after the allegedly armed man assaulted the teenage girl. The 27-year-old was known to the young girl, police said.

She was taken to Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital to be treated and has been offered counselling.

The man was arrested at a house nearby just after 1pm on Sunday. He has been refused bail.

Forensic officers are examining the house and a crime scene has been established.

Detectives from the State Crime Command's Child Abuse Squad have attended the home and are investigating.
The Oscar-nominated writer and actor Joseph Bologna, known for his roles in the films My Favorite Year and Lovers And Other Strangers, has died. He was 82.

Bologna died on Sunday in the Los Angeles area after a three-year battle against pancreatic cancer, his manager Matt Sherman confirmed.

He was best known for his role as Stan 'King' Kaiser in the 1982 comedy, My Favorite Year.

Actor Joe Bologna, pictured with his wife Renee Taylor in 1985, died on Sunday in California

'He had a beautiful life,' his wife Renee Taylor said in a statement. Bologna died just two days after the couple celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.

Taylor credited his doctors for prolonging his life so he could receive a lifetime achievement award at the Night of 100 Stars for the Actors' Fund of America on February 26.

Born December 30, 1934, Bologna was a native to Brooklyn, New York.

After he graduated from Brown University with a degree in art history, Bologna served in the Marines.

Bologna died just two days after the couple celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary

'Joe was a loveable man, a kind soul, a good friend and always a pleasure to be with,' his manager Sherman said.

Bologna was nominated for an Oscar in 1971 for best adapted screenplay for 'Lovers and Other Strangers.' He won an Emmy in 1973.

Bologna was a voice actor for the 2006 animated film 'Ice Age: The Meltdown' and had a role in the 1999 Adam Sandler comedy 'Big Daddy'.

He is survived by his wife and son.
Police are hunting two men caught on camera laughing as they brazenly make off with 'Gizmo' the Pomeranian.

The beige puppy escaped from his home at Wareemba in Sydney's inner west at 2:30pm on Sunday and made his way to a local cafe.

The pocket Pomeranian was then snatched up by two men seen laughing as they make their getaway.

Gizmo (pictured) is a beige pocket Pomeranian and was wearing a brown collar with a red tag

Police are hunting two men (pictured) in connection with the theft of Gizmo the Pomeranian from a cafe in Sydney's inner west

The suspects are of Pacific Islander or Maori appearance and were both wearing shorts and black sunglasses.

One was wearing a red t-shirt, the other a blue, white and grey t-shirt. Both men have large builds.

The chilling footage shows one of the men throwing his head back and laughing while his mate makes off with Gizmo.

Gizmo, who was wearing a brown collar with a red tag, disappeared from near the cafe on the corner of Great North Road and Coranto Street in Wareemba.

Police are urging anyone with information in relation to this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The men (pictured) are suspected of stealing the pooch after it escaped from home at 2:30pm on Sunday
A five-year-old girl who has 'turned eyes' was thought to be on a Queensland hospital waiting list for surgery only for the parents to find out she was reportedly left off due to an admin error.

Scarlett Godden was born with esotropia and after temporary surgery at 13 months her mother Nikita Goddin was advised that her daughter needed further surgery as she was at risk of permanent damage.

However, it has been reported due to a public health mistake the five-year-old was never placed on a waiting list for 20 months, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Scarlett Godden (pictured) was born with 'turned eyes' and needs surgery

The publication phoned the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital and discovered the apparent delay, despite the mother ringing and inquiring about her daughter's position for surgery a year ago.

'To now find out Scarlett was never even on a waiting list is devastating. We've spent so much money and had so much stress that could have been avoided,' the mother told the publication.

'It's heartbreaking to think our little girl was lost (in the system).'

A spokesperson for the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital said there was no record of Scarlett's procedure on the list.

Scarlett Godden (pictured) has been scheduled in for surgery on September 4th

'Our current records show that as of July 2017, no child was waiting for an ophthalmology outpatient appointment longer than clinically recommended,' A Lady Cilento spokesperson said.

On Scarlett's GoFundMe page, her mother said her daughter is scheduled for an appointment on September 4th.

The family created the GoFundMe page to take a more proactive approach to get their daughter the required surgery.

Ms Godden said the family were overwhelmed after the positive response.
The Turnbull Government has slammed the ABC's decision to air Tim Minchin's controversial marriage equality song.

The Australia-raised comedian caused a stir on Friday with his expletive-laden remix of the 1980 hit 'I Still Call Australia Home' by Peter Allen, calling Australians against the vote 'bigoted c***s'.

The chorus' main line was changed to 'I still call Australia homophobic' which aired on Sunday during ABC's program The Insiders.

The Turnbull Government has slammed the ABC's decision to air Tim Minchin's controversial marriage equality song

Minchin caused a stir on Friday with his expletive-laden remix of the 1980 hit 'I Still Call Australia Home' by Peter Allen, calling Australians against the vote 'bigoted c***s'

The move has been lambasted by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield for their apparent prejudice ahead of Australia's same sex marriage plebiscite.

'No one should be negatively labelled because of a sincerely held view,' Mr Fifield told The Daily Telegraph.

'All media, with the ABC leading by example, should cover the marriage debate in a respectful and considered manner that provides the opportunity for different views to be heard.'

Mr Fifield joins ACT Liberal party senator Zed Seselja in a growing list of politicians to condemn ABC's behaviour regarding the postal vote.

'Even the ABC, who are tasked with being fair in their charter, haven't actually been fair on this issue and haven't equally given both sides an airing,' he said last week.

The move to air the song on ABC's The Insiders has been lambasted by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield for their apparent prejudice

To make matters worse for the corporation, ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy re-tweeted his employer's post of Minchin's song on their official Twitter account.

The ABC's decision to air the video comes after prominent presenters at the corporation tweeted in favour of same-sex marriage and ignoring a directive from their employer to refrain from taking sides on the issue.

Lateline presenter Emma Alberici and Sydney radio drive broadcaster Richard Glover have declared their support for redefining marriage despite a memo from ABC management.

The ABC's editorial policy manager Mark Maley sent an email to staff on Thursday last week reminding employees to be 'circumspect' on social media as the federal government embarks on a same-sex marriage postal vote.

Former A Current Affair reporter Emma Alberici has tweeted arguments for gay marriage

Lateline presenter Emma Alberici tweeted in favour of gay marriage after ABC memo to staff

The ABC presenter tweeted 'no' case supporters were 'denying marriage' to a loving couple

'Advocating for one side or the other will make it more difficult for the ABC to be seen as impartial. The more high-profile you are the more important discretion is,' his email said.

However, Alberici has appeared to ignore this memo by publishing a series of weekend tweets that appear to show she favours changing the Marriage Act.

'I understand the arguments in favour of same-sex marriage. Please tweet me your reasons to deny marriage to a loving, same-sex couple,' she said.

Earlier, the former A Current Affair reporter said Australia was lagging behind other first-world nations.

'Australia is the only English-speaking democracy not to have legislated same-sex marriage,' she said.

Emma Alberici (left) told cabinet minister Mathias Cormann about a gay friend of her daughter

Three days before that staff memo, Alberici opened an interview with Acting Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann by mentioning how a 15-year-old friend of her daughter's was kicked out of home after he had come out as gay.

'Now whilst you and your colleagues are bickering in your party room, aren't you concerned about the message you send to young, vulnerable gay and lesbian Australians that they don't deserve the same treatment as other Australians?',' she asked.

Emma Alberici had asked a senior minister if political bickering was harming young gays

After that Monday night interview, Mr Maley sent staff a memo pointing out that 40 per cent of Australians opposed gay marriage.

'It is very important that we are impartial and that all perspectives are given a fair hearing and treated with respect by the ABC,' his email, published in The Weekend Australian, said.

Sydney 702 drive presenter Richard Glover has also voiced support for gay marriage, despite a follow-up email from ABC's head of radio Michael Mason to be 'respectful, balanced and impartial'.

On Friday, he tweeted his piece for The Sydney Morning Herald making the case for gay marriage by mocking a conservative columist at The Australian, Gerard Henderson.

'Yikes. I'm in trouble with Gerard. #marriageequality. Or do I mean same-sex marriage?,' he said.

The ABC staff memo had advised journalist to use the term 'same-sex marriage' instead of 'marriage equality'.

ABC Sydney radio drive presenter Richard Glover wrote an opinion piece for gay marriage
North Korea has recalled several of its key ambassadors back to the country for a joint meeting in the capital.

The ongoing meeting reportedly includes Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong, Ambassador Ja Song-nam and Ambassador Kim Hyong-jun, North Korea's top envoys to China, the United Nations and Russia, respectively.

'North Korea seems to be hosting what appears to be a meeting of foreign diplomatic missions' chiefs after calling its ambassadors to major countries back to Pyongyang,' a government official told Yonhap News Agency.

It is not known how many ambassadors are involved in the meeting.

Scroll down for video

North Korea has recalled several of its key ambassadors to China, Russia and the UN back to the country for a joint meeting in the capital (Pictured, Kim Jong Un, April 2017)

The move occurred amid rising tensions with the US. This week, US President Donald Trump (pictured) vowed that North Korea would be met with 'fire and fury' if Kim Jung-Un followed through on a threat to execute a missile strike on nearby Guam, a US territory with an American military base

The Ministry of Unification's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a press briefing that the meeting may be part of North Korea's regular gathering of ambassadors.

'North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors' meeting in July 2015 and (the latest meeting) seems to be in line with that,' said the spokesman.

However, there are rumors the meeting may be linked with the country's purported preparations for further military provocations, such as nuclear test or more missile launches.

This week, US President Donald Trump vowed that North Korea would be met with 'fire and fury' if leader Kim Jung-Un followed through on a threat to execute a missile strike on nearby Guam, a US territory with an American military base.

Despite calls for Trump to tone down the rhetoric and end the back-and-forth with Kim, the president continued to make his point, saying Friday that the US military is 'locked and loaded'.

However, CIA director Mike Pompeo assured there was 'nothing imminent' in the US standoff with nuclear-armed North Korea.

A director Mike Pompeo assured on Sunday there was 'nothing imminent' in the US standoff with nuclear-armed North Korea (Pictured, two US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers fly from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for a 10-hour mission, with an escort of a pair of Japan Self-Defense Forces on August 8)

Pomepeo also dismissed talk from those who suggested the White House was surprised by a news report that North Korea now has a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can be put on an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US (Pictured, one of two US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers is refueled during a 10-hour mission flying to the vicinity of Kyushu, Japan on August 8)

A US Air Force B-1B Lancer is deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota preparing to take off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for a 10-hour mission on August 9

'There's nothing imminent. There's no intelligence indicating we're on the cusp of a nuclear war,' he told Fox News Sunday.

'But make no mistake about it...the increased chance that there will be a nuclear missile in Denver is a very serious threat.'

Pompeo said the US intelligence community has 'a pretty good idea' about what's going on in North Korea.

He also dismissed talk from those who suggested the White House was surprised by a news report that North Korea now has a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can be put on an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US.

'It doesn't surprise me that those who came before us were surprised; they did nothing,' he said.

He added that he was confident North Korea would continue to develop its missile capabilities under Kim Jong-Un.

Additionally, National Security Adviser HR McMaster said Sunday that the US is 'taking all possible actions' to resolve the nuclear threat from North Korea without resorting to military action.

When asked on ABC's This Week to clarify if threats alone would provoke a military response from the US, McMaster replied that it 'depends on the nature of the threat.'

Meanwhile, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is set to meet meet with South Korea's president on Monday (Pictured, Dunford, left, talks with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, right, on Monday)

Dunford and President Moon Jae-in will reportedly discuss the threat from the North and South Korea's longstanding alliance with the US (Pictured, Dunford, left, shakes hands with Song, right)

Meanwhile, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is set to meet meet with South Korea's president on Monday.

Dunford and President Moon Jae-in will reportedly discuss the threat from the North and South Korea's longstanding alliance with the US.

Moon, who took office on May 10, has found himself largely sidelined as the White House and Pyongyang traded threats, raising fears of possible military conflict as the divided peninsula faces its worst crisis in years.

But North Korea isn't the only nation the US is currently at odds with.

President Trump is allegedly planning to launch an investigation of whether China is stealing US technology.

The China Daily, a state newspaper, warned Monday that Trump 'could trigger a trade war' and 'intensify tensions' if he goes ahead with the investigation.

The Chinese government has yet to comment on the announcement.
A Victorian man will spend at least seven years in jail for shooting dead an unarmed victim he believed was going to seek retribution over a failed drug scheme.

Scott Wilson McDonald, 49, was paranoid, upset and had been using the illegal drug ice when he shot Michael Jones in the chest in April 2014.

Mr Jones was nearby his Heidelberg West home when spotted by McDonald, Victorian Supreme Court justice Jane Dixon said on Monday.

Scott Wilson McDonald, 49, (left) being taken into the Melbourne supreme court on Monday

'He was walking alone and unarmed,' she told the court.

'Mr Jones was at that moment not presenting any threat to you.'

But McDonald was worried Mr Jones might try to hurt him over a drug-manufacturing scheme gone wrong.

In the lead-up to Mr Jones' death, McDonald had tried to sell stolen drug manufacturing material to Mr Jones.

McDonald soon realised Mr Jones knew the rightful owner of the items, which had been stolen from a Sunbury methamphetamine lab.

He was worried Mr Jones and the original owners would take the items back and seek retribution.

Convinced Mr Jones and his associates had burgled his home while his partner and her children were inside, McDonald loaded a shotgun and sat in his car with a friend.

He fired at Mr Jones from a distance of some six metres, later claiming he was afraid the victim had a gun.

Justice Dixon said McDonald was influenced by anger, fear, paranoia, and methamphetamine when he impulsively fired.

McDonald (left) was sentenced to jail for killing garbage truck driver Michael Jones in 2014

'None of those matters excuse your conduct,' she said.

McDonald fled Victoria after the shooting but returned and made admissions when arrested.

He claimed self-defence and stood trial for murder in 2016 but the jury was discharged after they failed to reach a verdict.

The jury in his second trial acquitted him of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter.

Justice Dixon said McDonald was entitled to a slightly shorter sentence because he offered to plead guilty to defensive homicide before the trials.

The 49-year-old has already spent more than three years in custody.
Crestview police say 32-year-old Mathew Horace Jones (pictured) allegedly used a forklift to damage the building under construction around 9.10pm in Florida

A man is in police custody after he claimed an Alice in Wonderland character coerced him into committing a crime at a Florida construction site.

Crestview police say 32-year-old Mathew Horace Jones broke into a construction site and allegedly used a forklift to damage the building under construction around 9.10pm.

The rampage caused more than $100,000 in damage to the liquor store under construction at the Crestview Walmart and to construction equipment.

Additionally, the suspect damaged a city fire hydrant and a two-inch water meter worth about $3,200.

Crestview Police received calls that the suspect was 'throwing cinder blocks off the scaffolding in the construction zone'.

Authorities, in a Facebook post, say they were told by a building contractor that the damage included:

$40,000 in scaffolding and materials

$15,000 in block and mortar

a $15,000 forklift

a $7,500 mixer

$1,500 mud pans

$4,000 in damaged fencing

Jones is also responsible for about $60,000 in labor to clean and rebuild the site.

When Crestview police officers arrived on scene, Jones aimed the forklift at the officers. However, he was stopped at gunpoint.

The rampage caused more than $100,000 in damage to the liquor store under construction at the Crestview Walmart (pictured) and to construction equipment Additionally, the suspect damaged a city fire hydrant and a two-inch water meter worth about $3,200

Jones told police his name was 'Alice Wonderland and he was told to commit the offenses by a hookah-smoking caterpillar', referencing the character from Lewis Carroll's novel and the subsequent film adaptions (seen here in Walt Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland film)

Jones first told police his name was 'Alice Wonderland and he was told to commit the offenses by a hookah-smoking caterpillar', referencing the character from Lewis Carroll's novel and the subsequent film adaptions.

Crestview Police Sgt Don Howe said: 'The defendant stated Walmart was building a place to sell alcohol and he had a problem with it.'

Jones was on probation for burglary. He has since been charged with felony grand theft, use of a motor vehicle to damage property of another in excess of $1,000, criminal mischief with damage greater than $1,000, and violation of felony probation.
Seventeen people have been killed and a dozen injured in a 'terrorist attack' on a restaurant popular with foreigners in Burkina Faso's capital, the government said Monday.

Witnesses said three gunmen arrived at a Turkish restaurant in a pickup truck on Sunday evening and opened fire on customers seated outside.

The government then launched a counter-assault, with gunfire heard into the night.

'A terrorist attack at Istanbul restaurant on Ouagadougou's Kwame Nkrumah Avenue claimed 17 victims, their nationalities are yet to be confirmed,' a government statement said, adding that 12 people had been injured.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began. At least of the dead was French.

Burkina Faso gendarmes and army forces patrol on August 13, 2017 as soldiers launch an operation against suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso after gunmen attacked a cafe in the capital Ouagadougou

A wounded restaurant customer sits on the ground following an attack by gunmen on a restaurant in Ouagadougou

Communication minister Remis Dandjinou said it was not clear how many assailants were involved.

'They are confined to one part of the building they attacked. Security and elite forces are conducting an operation,' he said on television.

A paramedic told AFP that one of the victims was a Turkish national.

'We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at hospital,' the paramedic said, declining to be named.

Police evacuated civilians from the area before launching the counter-assault, with the heavy exchange of fire becoming more sporadic as the operation went on.

The above map of Ouagadougou, Bukina Faso, shows where the 'terrorist attack' took place

One soldier had said there were hostages on the first and second floor of the two-storey building housing the Turkish restaurant.

The mayor of Ouagadougou and government ministers were at the scene, he added.

Video footage posted on Twitter shows people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.

An AFP journalist at the scene said the gunfire stopped at around 3am GMT.

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

Burkina Faso gendarmes and army forces patrol as soldiers launch an operation against suspected jihadists

In December 2016 a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

The worst recent attack was an assault on a hotel and cafe in central Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people including several foreigners.

Gunmen from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners, sparking a protracted standoff with security forces.

Soldiers are seen at the back of a truck following an attack by gunmen on a restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

A wounded unidentified person is evacuated following the attack by gunmen on a restaurant in Ouagadougou

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years. A wounded unidentified person is seen above

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighboring Mali, that killed 20 people.

There have also been kidnappings - of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda.
Adversaries of National Security Adviser General HR McMaster are planning to paint him as an alleged alcoholic in an effort to undermine his authority in the White House.

Outside sources familiar with the alleged defamation campaign told news publication Axios that the narrative is already being peddled by public figures on the extreme-right.

Controversial nationalist Mike Cernovich, who has over two million subscribers on YouTube and has repeatedly railed against McMaster, recently teased out the idea in an interview with Alex Jones of the website Infowars.

Al-Right figures are reportedly looking to smear National Security Adviser HR McMaster (pictured) with rumors of a drinking problem

President Trump is reportedly aware of the plan being concocted outside the administration

Some believe the attack will sway McMaster out of favor with President Donald Trump, who is an avid nondrinker.

There is no evidence to suggest that McMaster has ever had a drinking problem.

'McMaster has been made aware that the attack is likely coming, and prefers to focus on his work,' a confidential source outside the administration told Axios on Sunday.

Axios also reported that the President has been made aware of the oncoming attack, along with Chief of Staff John Kelly who finds the suggestion reprehensible.

Senior staff including Kelly have 'rallied around McMaster and believe that all of the attacks against him are divorced from reality,' Axios citing another confidential source reported.

Many senior staff members believe that White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is behind the ploy, who is at odds with McMaster over his supposed 'globalist' agenda.

A number of senior staff members believe White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (pictured) is behind the ploy

Controversial nationalist Mike Cernovich (pictured) recently began teasing out the notion on his popular YouTube channel

Bannon allegedly distrusts McMaster for continuing foreign policy initiatives that are patterned off of Obama era plans concerning Iran, Afghanistan and the greater Middle East.

Bannon is reportedly in precarious standing at the White House, who Trump believes is a source of leaking according to multiple sources who spoke with Axios.

Bannon has told associates that he is not behind the attacks, which has been repeatedly featured on Breitbart.com, a nationalist publication Bannon use to operate before joining the 2016 Trump campaign.

Some Republican were taken aback recently after Mort Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America, launched an attack against McMaster accusing him of being hostile towards Israel and soft against the country's adversaries in the region.

Two former senior Israeli military officials pushed back against the attack, however, writing in an opinion piece published by The Jerusalem Post: 'Such an attack is not mere opinion; it is an offense against the truth, against basic decency and against the best interests of Israel as we see them.'
A skydiver who was blown off course in Massachusetts has been rescued after spending a couple of hours stuck 70 feet up a tree.

Dunstable police said late Sunday that the man had been removed from the branches more than two hours after rescue teams were first dispatched.

Manny Ullaguari who had jumped many times before was learning how to skydive solo.

Emergency crews in Dunstable, Massachusetts rescued a skydiver stuck in a tree Sunday

Manny Ullaguari was learning how to solo skydive at Skydive Pepperell and was almost to the landing zone when he ended up in a tree

Don Mayer, the airport manager at Pepperell Skydiving Center, tells WBZ-TV the man was an experienced diver who missed the landing area.

Mayer says Manny was embarrassed, but not seriously hurt. It took fire rescue crews about 45 minutes to pull him from the branches.

He says there were five other people who jumped from the same plane.

'There was a lot of wind earlier today  it can be our friend and it can be our foe  and at this point on the superficial level it looks like he might have turned when he shouldnt have,' said David Goldstein, instructor, and safety and training adviser to CBS Boston.

It took fire rescue crews about 45 minutes to pull him from the branches. They had to find a bucket truck that could reach

It took a couple of hours before firefighters arrived to rescue him

At first, we heard this crack of our tree,' recalled homeowner David Scharn. 'Then we heard, "hey, I'm stuck in a tree." So I thought it was some kid who climbed a tree and couldn't get down but then I went out there and could see the orange parachute at the top of the thee and this fellow was up there.'

'He was just screaming "help, help, help,' for a bit but his friends came over eventually and they kind of had a conversation," said Serena Scharn. 'So he's completely fine which is good, it's just kind of freaky.'

Scharn said Manny was sitting on a branch. He was one of six to jump out of a Pepperall Skydive plane at that time.

Manny who skydived in his native Guatemala said there a few nervous moments when he realized he was off course.

'It happens  I was afraid maybe I hit my head on the tree,' he said.

Manny was checked out at the hospital. He only had a small scrape on his chest as evidence that anything at all went wrong at all.
The North Dakota Public Service Commission is asking Dakota Access Pipeline to pay $15,000 to resolve a dispute over whether the pipeline developer broke state law after discovering Native American artifacts during construction last year.

The three-member board voted unanimously Monday to extend a settlement offer to the developer of the $3.8 billion pipeline that would dismiss claims against Dakota Access related to failing to notify regulators about the cultural artifacts.

Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the proposed agreement aims to resolve a matter thats been pending since October.

Were not interested in being hung up in procedural delays indefinitely, Fedorchak said.

The issues date back to Oct. 17, when Dakota Access discovered four stone cairns and other artifacts in the pipeline route in Morton County. Dakota Access notified the State Historic Preservation Office and rerouted the project to protect the sites.

The company did not notify the Public Service Commission, which learned about the discovery eight days later from a third-party inspector. The permit authorizing construction of Dakota Access requires the company to get clearance from the commission to proceed with a reroute.

The PSC proposes a $15,000 contribution to the State Historic Preservation Office or a mutually agreeable entity.

The maximum fine the agency can issue is $10,000 per day for each violation, or up to $200,000. Last November, PSC staff proposed $15,000 as the minimum fine, but commissioners have the ability to issue one that's higher or lower.

Dakota Access has 10 days to consider the settlement offer. The agreement states that payment is not to be construed as an admission of liability on any party, and that all parties deny liability and intend merely to avoid litigation.

Commissioners said they think the settlement offer is a fair compromise.

I think its time to move on and get this wrapped up, said commissioner Brian Kroshus.

If the company does not agree to the settlement, the matter will continue through a formal administrative process.

Dakota Access attorney Lawrence Bender, who attended the meeting, said he has sent the settlement offer to company representatives for their review.

The settlement does not affect a separate investigation related to whether Dakota Access removed too many trees while constructing the pipeline.

That issue is scheduled for an all-day investigatory hearing on Thursday. However, commissioners are considering a request from Dakota Access to postpone the hearing.
The United States government fears that a powerful Venezuelan lawmaker may have issued an order to kill Florida Senator Marco Rubio (above)

The United States government fears that a powerful Venezuelan lawmaker may have issued an order to kill Florida Senator Marco Rubio, it was reported on Sunday.

Rubio has been assigned a beefed-up security detail in recent weeks after US intelligence reportedly learned that a former Venezuelan military chief, Diosdado Cabello, put out a hit on the Republican senator, according to the Miami Herald.

The Herald emphasizes that the US government has yet to gather information indicating the existence of a concrete plot to assassinate the former presidential candidate.

Nonetheless, the Department of Homeland Security took the precautionary step of bolstering Rubio's security details in both Washington, DC, and his native Miami.

The DHS issued a memo in which it noted that intelligence indicated 'an order to have Senator Rubio assassinated' while cautioning that 'no specific information regarding an assassination plot against Senator Rubio has been garnered thus far.'

The memo goes on to speculate that Cabello may have contacted 'unspecified Mexican nationals' as part of a plan to harm Rubio, though no specific evidence is cited.

Rubio has been assigned a beefed-up security detail in recent weeks after US intelligence reportedly learned that a former Venezuelan military chief, Diosdado Cabello (above), put out a hit on the Republican senator

The government's heightened state of alert was prompted by a back-and-forth Twitter war between Rubio and Cabello.

Rubio has derisively referred to Cabello as 'the Pablo Escobar of Venezuela' due to longstanding suspicions that the Venezuelan lawmaker has engaged in drug trafficking.

Cabello, who is thought by the Americans to maintain control of Venezuela's security forces, fired back at Rubio, calling him 'Narco Rubio'.

He has denied American allegations of drug trafficking.

In recent weeks, observers on Capitol Hill have been struck by the unusually large security presence surrounding Rubio.

Rubio is a vociferous critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader of the South American country.

Maduro has tightened his grip on power despite being deeply unpopular due to a failing economy, food and medicinal shortages, and an election of a new legislative body designed to circumvent the opposition-led parliament.

President Donald Trump startled observers last week when he said that the US was not ruling out 'a military option' in dealing with Venezuela.

Rubio is thought to have influence on Trump as it relates to US policy toward Caracas.

Washington has denounced Maduro and expressed a clear preference for the opposition.

Like his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro has long warned of an American plot to invade Venezuela and steal the country's oil.

Cabello was a confidant of Chavez, with both men having participated in a failed coup attempt in 1992.

Rubio is a vociferous critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (above), the socialist leader of the South American country who has tightened his grip on power despite being deeply unpopular due to a failing economy, food and medicinal shortages

He is currently a powerful political operative who exerts considerable influence over the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

'We're not surprised by threats from the empire, from its chief Trump,' Cabello wrote Saturday on Twitter.

'In the face of such deranged imperial threats, each person should man their trench. Mine will be next to the people defending the fatherland!'

Washington imposed sanctions on eight Venezuelan officials on Wednesday for their role in creating an all-powerful legislative body loyal to Maduro, but stopped short of action against the OPEC nation's vital oil industry.

More than 125 people have died in violence since the opposition began a sustained wave of protests in April.

Earlier this month, Venezuela inaugurated a new legislative superbody that is expected to rewrite the constitution and give vast powers to Maduro's ruling Socialist Party, defying protests and worldwide condemnation that it undermines democratic freedom.

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that Venezuelan security forces have systematically wielded excessive force to suppress protests, killings dozens, and have arbitrarily detained 5,000 people since April, including 1,000 still in custody.
The Governor of Guam has defended President Donald Trump's hard-line rhetoric on North Korea and dictator Kim Jong-Un.

Governor Eddie Calvo said he was grateful that Trump was taking a strong stance against North Korean threats to Guam - a U.S. territory island in the West Pacific.

Calling North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un a 'bully', Mr Calvo said Monday that 'sometimes a bully can only be stopped with a punch in the nose'.

Defender: Guam's governor Eddie Calvo says Trump is being unfairly criticised over his handling of the North Korea crisis

'Everyone who grew up in the schoolyard in elementary school, we understand a bully,' Calvo said on Monday

'Kim Jong-Un is a bully with some very strong weapons... a bully has to be countered very strongly.'

Calvo, a Republican, said Trump was being unfairly criticised over his handling of the North Korea crisis, which escalated when Pyongyang announced plans to launch missiles toward Guam in a 'crucial warning'.

He said North Korea had threatened Guam - which hosts two large U.S. military bases and is home to more than 6,000 military personnel - at least three times since 2013.

Trump has responded by threatening 'fire and fury', warning last week that the US military was 'locked and loaded' to respond to any aggression.

'Fire and fury': President Donald Trump responded to North Korea's threats to send missiles into the waters near Guam by saying the U.S. would unleash 'fire and fury'

Threats: Mr Calvo said North Korea's Kim Jong-Un has threatened Guam at least three times since 2013

Paradise: Tourist destination Guam, a US territory, also hosts two large military bases and is home to more than 6,000 military personnel

'President Trump is not your conventional elected leader, what he says and how he says it is a lot different from what was said by previous presidents,' Calvo said.

But he pointed out previous presidents had also used strong words to warn off Pyongyang, including Barack Obama who said last year that 'we could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals'.

'One president (Obama) said it one way, cool and calmly with a period... the other said fire and fury with an exclamation point, but it still leads to the same message,' Calvo said.

He rejected suggestions that Trump and the North Korean dictator were as bad as each other when it came to the sabre-rattling playing out in the western Pacific.

'Well there's only one guy that has vaporised into a red mist his uncle or a general because he fell asleep in a meeting with an anti-aircraft gun, that's Kim Jong-Un,' he said.

Guam governor Eddie Calvo called on China and Russia to do more to contain Pyongyang, saying 'no one wants to see a war'

Guam governor Eddie Calvo said he did not expect the crisis would have a major impact on the island's tourism industry, which draws more than 1.5 million tourists a year

'There's only one guy that's killed his brother with one of the most toxic nerve agents ever created, that's Kim Jong-Un.'

Some regional players such as China have urged Trump to tone down his rhetoric but Calvo called on them to do more to contain Pyongyang, saying 'no one wants to see a war'.

'It's not only in the interests of America and its allies, but also China and Russia to see this fellow does not continue in his effort towards nuclearisation or longer-range missiles,' he said.

'You're allowed to voice those opinions without going to prison, whether you're for the military or against it, unlike North Korea,' he said. He acknowledged there were 'varying opinions' among Guam's 160,000 residents about the huge US military presence on the island but insisted the majority of inhabitants backed it.

A fisherman catching 'goat fish' off a beach at Tumon Bay in Guam

Calvo also dismissed criticism of the US-operated THAAD weapons system, which has been deployed in Guam and is capable of destroying intermediate-range missiles in the final phase of flight.

'It's meant not to shoot people, it's meant to shoot at missiles that kill people,' he said.

Calvo said he did not expect the crisis would have a major impact on the island's tourism industry, which draws more than 1.5 million tourists a year.

'Guam's a safe place to go to. Even though all this stuff is going on in the airwaves there has been no added threat level,' he said.

'I'm welcoming all the people of the world to come visit Guam, it's a beautiful place.'
A publisher has refused to take on a Muslim Imam's book that criticises Islam out of fear their offices will be attacked by religious extremists.

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, from Adelaide, took to Facebook on Sunday to reveal his first book was rejected by a publisher because it could provoke violence among Islamic radicals.

'They responded with an apology and informed me that they fear the company will be attacked by Islamic extremists if they publish my book,' he said.

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, from Adelaide, took to Facebook on Sunday to reveal his first book was rejected by a publisher because it could provoke violence among Islamic radicals

'They were willing to publish it if I agreed to erase certain passages and reword a number of paragraphs.

'I respect their feelings and concerns but I refuse to accept their requests.'

Imam Tawhidi, who has come under fire from hardline Muslims for condemning extremism and Sharia Law, said the rejection would not silence him.

'I will be exposing the corruption without hiding the truth,' he said.

'They responded with an apology and informed me that they fear the company will be attacked by Islamic extremists if they publish my book,' Tawhidi said

Imam Tawhidi, who has come under fire from hardline Muslims for condemning extremism and Sharia Law, said the rejection would not silence him

Without a publisher locked in, Imam Tawhidi said he still expected the book to be released 'around Christmas'.

The 34-year-old Iranian-born religious leader, who claims to be the 'Imam of Peace', has been outspoken about his condemnation of extreme Muslims.

In April, he said all Muslim schools in Australia were a danger to the country.

'These schools do exist, they are a problem and they need to be either shut down or changed completely,' he said.

Retribution from the Muslim community was swift.

Police were forced to escort him into hiding shortly after he made the comments because he claimed he was threatened with violence.

Without a publisher locked in, Imam Tawhidi said he still expected the book to be released 'around Christmas'

The controversial Imam, who moved to Australia from Iraq in 1995, was also questioned by the Islamic community when he said Muslims were trying to establish a Sharia Law state within Australia's borders.

'I stated that there was an extremist, radical agenda to create a country within Australia. A government within the Australian government,' he said.

'I am afraid of such an agenda. I am worried and fearful.'

Imam Tawhidi claimed he was again targeted with threats of violence online.

He told Daily Mail Australia he was forced to move out of his home and seek alternative accommodation while the controversy blew over.

After he moved home in June, he arranged to have extra security around his house.

He claimed there was a target on his head, and members of the Muslim community called for him to be beheaded.

The controversial Imam, who moved to Australia from Iraq in 1995, was also questioned by the Islamic community when he said Muslims were trying to establish a Sharia Law state within Australia's borders

Imam Tawhidi was also condemned by members of the Muslim community when he said Muslim traditions went against Australian values.

When footage of young Muslim girls at a hijab ceremony surfaced online in June, Imam Tawhidi slammed the tradition.

The ceremony was conducted to signify the age when girls became women and needed to cover up their bodies.

It showed 24 girls walking on stage covered head-to-toe in white.

Imam Tawhidi said it symbolised girls, as young as eight, entering adulthood.

'It means that they're no longer girls but adult females who would lead an adult life, including marriage,' he said.

'This goes against the Australian values and social ethics and is basically promoting and imposing Sharia Law in Australia.'
A dentist used hypnosis and relaxation techniques on four boys he is accused of sexually molesting, a Sydney jury has been told.

The 82-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty in the Downing Centre District Court to 26 charges dating from 1981 involving four boys, aged between eight and 17.

Opening the crown case on Monday, prosecutor Roger Kimbell said the dentist took advantage of the hypnotised or highly relaxed boys and took them to a back room where there was a bed where the offences allegedly occurred.

Dentist, 82, used hypnosis and relaxation techniques to molest four boys (stock image)

The dentist 'went a lot further' than using hypnosis and relaxation techniques for such things as alleviating pain, he said.

'The allegations related to the accused were not in the dentist's chair, but to taking people out the back to a separate room where there was a bed.'

The first complainant, now aged around 50, was expected to give evidence about a school counsellor who is not standing trial.

The then Year-8 boy was sent to the counsellor, who had a day bed in his office, for playing up and was told he needed 'to take part in relaxation classes', Mr Kimbell said.

The sessions later led to the boy being massaged, fondled, asked about his parents' sex life and being shown magazines such as Playboy, he said

'This interaction between (the boy) and (the counsellor) was going on for about 18 months to two years before he came into contact with the accused.'

His opening address is continuing.

The dentist has pleaded not guilty to all 26 charges from 1981 involving four boys (stock image)




Fired White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci acknowledged on Sunday that he was not cut out for the job.

Scaramucci expressed regret on Sunday after he promised Stephen Colbert an exclusive interview for his CBS show on Monday only to grant the first television sit-down to ABC's George Stephanopoulos a day earlier.

'The Mooch' embarrassed Colbert, who last week boasted about landing the first television interview with the loudmouth former hedge fund manager.

'That was not intentional,' Scaramucci said Sunday in a Periscope livestream interview.

'Regrettably I didn't tell him [Colbert] I had already made an agreement to go on George's show. Maybe that's another reason I shouldn't be the comms director. I didn't get all the nuances and subtlety about these exclusive things  There was no element of trickery there.'

Stephen Colbert, left, will interview Anthony Scaramucci on The Late Show on Monday about his tumultuous two-week stint as Donald Trump's communication director

Scaramucci (seen above on Periscope on Sunday) was apologetic after he promised Stephen Colbert an exclusive interview for his CBS show on Monday only to grant the first television sit-down to ABC's George Stephanopoulos a day earlier

Scaramucci used his appearances on television Sunday to criticize White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, saying he didn't know if the former head of Breitbart is a white supremacist or white nationalist.

'You know, I don't know, I mean I've never sat down with Steve Bannon and said, 'Hey, are you a white nationalist or a white supremacist?'' Scaramucci answered when asked the question by ABC News' Rick Klein.

'But I think the toleration of it by Steve Bannon is inexcusable.'

Scaramucci, doing a trio of interviews on Sunday, blamed Bannon's ideology for some of the president's recent missteps, including Trump's much-panned response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

Scaramucci continued to publicly criticize Steve Bannon, going as far to say he wasn't sure if Bannon was a white supremacist or white nationalist

Bannon, the White House chief strategist, was blamed by Scaramucci for President Trump's widely-panned messaging over the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which Trump seemed to equate neo-Nazis and white nationalists with the hate groups' counter-protesters

He also hinted that Bannon could soon be ousted, advising the president to move away from this 'Bannon-bart nonsense.'

On Saturday, Trump had condemned the violence on 'many sides,' whereas a neo-Nazi used his car as a weapon to mow down counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19 others.

The president was criticized for seemingly equating neo-Nazis and white nationalists with the counter-protesters marching against the hate groups' racist messaging.

During a sit-down with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week, Scaramucci blamed Trump's tone deaf response on White House staffers being reluctant to tell him the truth.

'Maybe Ivanka would do that ... maybe Jared would do that, but you've also got this sort of Bannon-bart influence in there, which I think is a snag on the president,' Scaramucci said, mushing together Bannon's name with the publication, Breitbart, which the White House aide formerly ran.

'If the president really wants to execute that legislative agenda that I think is so promising for the American people, the lower-middle class people and the middle class people, then he has to move away from that sort of Bannon-bart nonsense,' Scaramucci added.

'The whole thing is nonsensical. It's not serving the president's interest,' Scaramucci said of Bannon's positions, which tend to be nationalist in nature.

The former White House communications director, who was fired on his 11th day on the job after he blasted Bannon and now former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in a phone call with the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, also hinted that Bannon's tenure might be ending soon too.

'I think the president knows what he's going to do with Steve Bannon,' Scaramucci told Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos asked him for more details.

'Let's leave it up to the president. It's his decision, but at the end of the day, the president has a very good idea of who the leakers are inside the White House,' Scaramucci said.
An Adelaide woman given home detention for faking death threats to get time off work has been taken into custody and will be re-sentenced, sparking angry scenes in court.

Tabitha Lean was given a minimum three-year home detention sentence after being found guilty with her partner of more than 45 deception charges.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday allowed a prosecution challenge to the suspended jail term, agreeing it was manifestly inadequate.

Tabitha Lean (pictured) sent dozens of threats to their office, home and their children's school

In a move that visibly upset Lean and her supporters, the court ordered she be taken into immediate custody before submissions on a new term later this month.

The decision prompted an angry outburst at the three-judge panel from one of her supporters in court.

'What about the kids? What's happening with the children?' the man yelled.

'Have you any concern for the children? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.'

During the trial for Lean and her partner Simon Peisley, the District Court heard that they orchestrated about 80 fake threats, sending them to their offices at the South Australian Aboriginal Health Service and to their home.

The scheme also involved vandalising their own house and sending parcels, containing pieces of their children's clothes stained with fake blood, to the children's school.

The couple were given time off work and a family holiday to the Gold Coast and had also negotiated a $580,000 compensation payment before they were caught.

They were arrested after police covertly broke into their flat and marked envelopes and paper with 'invisible ink'.

The next threat the couple received was tested with a UV light to reveal the markings the officers had made.

Lean was offered home detention in court on Tuesday, while Peisley (pictured) will serve his time behind bars

The trial judge ordered Peisley serve his minimum three-year term behind bars but allowed Lean to serve hers on home detention, ruling it was best for her and her children.

But in its judgment, the appeal court ruled that the home detention order was not appropriate and would undermine the administration of justice.

'I consider the gravity of the respondent's offending, the non-acceptance of responsibility and the absence of any explanation such that it was inappropriate to suspend the sentence of imprisonment imposed and order service of that sentence on home detention,' Justice Martin Hinton said in the court's published reasons.

Justice Hinton said the hardship a jail sentence would cause to Lean's children did not exceed what was appropriate.

The court will take submissions on a new sentence on August 21.




The partner of a man who was fatally stabbed in the neck following a struggle with his older half-brother said the 'coward' deserved a longer prison sentence.

Trina Davenport was angry after Robert Leslie Hudson, 35, was sentenced to a minimum six years in prison for the manslaughter of younger brother and her partner Nokoma Hudson, 25, in Gilles Plains, Adelaide, last year.

Robert Hudson stabbed his 25-year-old half-brother Nokoma in the neck with a knife when the younger man intervened in a domestic violence attack.

'It was 100 per cent murder  Robert is a murderer and he is a coward,' the devastated partner of Nokoma told The Advertiser.

Nokoma Hudson (pictured), 25, was stabbed by his half-brother Robert during a violent family argument at a home in Adelaide's Gilles Plains in February last year

Nokoma Hudson (pictured left) with partner Trina Davenport (pictured right)

'Nokoma would still be here if he didn't try to stop Robert from stabbing Louise and our daughter would still have a father.'

Hudson's young daughter tried to break up the fight in the kitchen of the Adelaide family home as her father put her mother in a headlock.

The brave girl yelled 'stop it dad, you're hurting mummy' before kicking him in the head, according to the Adelaide Advertiser.

Crown prosecutor Peter Longson last month told the Supreme Court Hudson then pulled out a knife and swung it at his partner, before Nokoma and another man intervened.

'Nokoma threw him off the decking and hit him with a stick. Nokoma, who had a young daughter, also threw a bucket at him during the fight,' the court heard.

The fight ended when Robert stabbed Nokoma in the neck. He cradled his younger brother in his arms and said he was sorry as he died.

Robert Hudson, 35, was at first charged with murder, but in March he was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and on Monday sentenced to seven years jail

He was at first charged with murder, but in March he was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Ms Davenport told The Advertiser she felt let down by the family who supported Robert Hudson.

'We have been let down in a massive way by the justice system because six years is not long enough, and I think we've been let down by the family because they've supported Robert,' Ms Davenport told the publication.

Justice Anne Bampton told the Supreme Court on Monday she had no doubt that Hudson was 'racked with remorse' and that the killing had scarred and challenged his family relationships.

But she said he had clear problems with alcohol abuse and anger management as well as a long criminal history - by his own admissions spending half his life in jail.

Justice Bampton said her sentence had to reflect the seriousness of the crime that involved the violent taking of a human life by someone who introduced a lethal implement into a volatile situation.

She jailed him for seven years with a non-parole period of six years.

Nokoma, who had a young daughter, threw his brother off the decking and hit him with a stick, the court heard

Sharon Lemon, the mother of both the men, told the South Australian Supreme Court in April she is kept awake at night because she still loves Robert.

'Living with this pain has shattered my heart,' Ms Lemon said in her victim impact statement.

'I lay in bed feeling guilty for loving Robert because of the betrayal of taking my other son away from me.

'It is draining to be torn between both of them.... I love them both more than life itself.'
Police are appealing to the public for information after a woman was discovered with life-threatening injuries in a Queensland drain.

The woman, aged in her 30s, was found under a bridge in Clarkes Creek on Sunday after spending the day at the Cairns Cup races.

She was found at 9:15pm by a passerby who immediately contacted emergency services and was taken to Cairns Hospital where she remains in a critical condition.

A woman, aged in her 30s, was found under a bridge in Clarkes Creek on Sunday night

Woman is believed to have been separated from her friends after spending the day at the Cairns Cup racing carnival

Detectives would like to speak with anyone who saw the woman wearing a floral dress with a large pink hat and white heeled shoes from 6pm near the Cannon Park Race Course and the nearby Stockland Shopping Centre.

The woman is described as being Caucasian and wearing a white, pink and purple floral dress.

She also was wearing a large pink hat with feathers and white high-heels.

Police would also like to speak to the man who approached officers conducting roadside breath tests on Mulgrave Road last night with information about the woman.

They believe she may have been separated from her group and that passing motorists could have seen her.

Anyone with information are being urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A British tourist travelling across Siberia has fallen to his death on steep mountains on the edge of Lake Baikal, Russian police have revealed.

The 60-year-old man named only as Anthony C., from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, screamed as he lost his footing on the path but his companion said he was unable to save him.

The man rolled down an almost sheer drop and his body was later founded on a rocky beach at the edge of the water in the world's deepest lake in southern Russia.

Local reports say the 56-year-old British friend identified only Andrew D., also from Huddersfield, has been 'interrogated' by police investigating the exact circumstances of the tragedy.

A British tourist travelling across Siberia has fallen to his death on steep mountains on the edge of Lake Baikal (pictured), Russian police have revealed

The 60-year-old man named only as Anthony C., from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, screamed as he lost his footing on the path but his companion said he was unable to save him. A picture of his body on the beach beside Baikal was released by Russian police

The pair had been travelling on the Trans-Siberian railway and intended to go to China after the break at Lake Baikal.

Andrew said he attempted to help after his friend 'lost his balance' but was unable to do so on the steep path they were trekking, reported The Siberian Times.

'I was walking in front when I heard screams and turned around,' he said.

'Anthony was rolling down the hill. I tried to help him but failed. I tried to call the rescue service but there was no coverage on my phone.

'I still can't cope with it and don't believe this could happen.'

But Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported: 'Police have already interrogated Andrew because the story could be a different one. The autopsy will probably answer all the questions.'

The route has stunning views of mountain-rimmed Baikal, which contains around 20 per cent of the world's unfrozen freshwater, but the paths are treacherous (file picture)

The report continued: 'It is very likely that it was just an accident.'

The Russian Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - is performing 'preliminary checks' on the incident, and refused to divulge the full names of the men.

Andrew found a group of women hikers and they managed to call the emergency services, he told police. But when rescuers found the man, he was already dead.

A picture of his body on the beach beside Baikal was released by Russian police.

The tourists were walking from the resort town of Listvyanka to the village of Bolshoi Koty, a distance of around 14 miles.

The route has stunning views of mountain-rimmed Baikal, which contains around 20 per cent of the world's unfrozen freshwater, but the paths are treacherous.

The men 'wanted to enjoy the beauty of Lake Baikal', said one report.

A British embassy spokesman said: 'We confirm the death of the UK citizen. The consulate is in touch with the local authorities and with the family of the victim.'
A Victorian man who gave his younger sister genital herpes after forcing himself on her has avoided a jail term.

The 22-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Monday apologised to his sister and mother before he was given a three-year community correction order for incest between siblings.

Twenty-two-year-old Victorian man avoids jail time for raping his sister (stock image)

'I don't have much to say, but I am sorry for what I've done,' he told the Victorian County Court.
GRAND FORKS  A few weeks ago, when Nancy Pasley received a large, official-looking envelope in the mail, My initial thought was, Uh oh, what did I do now? 

But the contents were anything but ominous.

In the envelope, Pasley, of Grand Forks, found a letter and photos from Kari Yang, a young woman who received a kidney from Pasleys daughter, Jane, upon her death in 2013.

One photo showed Yang dressed in her graduation cap and gown, holding a framed diploma representing her masters degree. Other photos reveal close-ups of her newborn daughter.

The items were joyful evidence of how Yangs life has changed since she received Janes kidney four years ago.

With restored health, Yang had gone back to college and earned a masters degree in technical communications in December.

She gave birth to Shirah Pasley Yang about a month ago.

I knew as soon as I got pregnant that I wanted to name the baby in honor of the donor family, said Yang.

She and her husband chose Pasley as a middle name to honor the entire donor family.

They need to be remembered, she said. I feel like theyre part of me now. I owe them the world. Its a debt Ill never be able to repay.

A new life

In August 2013, Jane Pasley, 43, of Grand Forks, fell ill while the family was on vacation and died of cardiac arrest Aug. 13 -- Yangs 34th birthday.

Yang, of Woodbury, Minn., had been waiting five years for a kidney, she said. With the transplant, Jane gave her a new life.

Kari and Mike Yang have a son, Malachi, born in 2006. They wanted another child, but were unable to conceive. They learned that women with kidney disease are usually infertile.

The doctor was surprised that I had one child, let alone have another one, Yang said.

In 2006, she was in her seventh month of pregnancy when, during a checkup, her nurse midwife found that her blood pressure had spiked to an abnormal level.

Lab tests came back bad. Everything was out of range, said Yang, who was surprised since she had no symptoms.

I had always been totally healthy. My nurse midwife was very worried.

Yang was sent to the hospital where her son was born, six weeks early. In neonatal intensive care, he did pretty well, she said.

But within three days of returning home, Yang had to return to the hospital where a kidney biopsy was performed. She learned that her body was not properly processing a certain type of protein and, instead, was storing it in the kidney, causing serious damage.

She was initially prescribed steroids to slow the deterioration, but within two years, she began to notice worrisome symptoms. At night she would have episodes of accelerated heartbeat and she would be winded from climbing a half-dozen steps.

I thought, I should not be exhausted,  she said.

One Sunday, while socializing after a church service, she had to sit down. She told her husband she couldnt breathe. They went to an emergency room where she was told the only option right now is to start dialysis, she remembered.

I thought it was the end of the world. I was 28, 29 years old. It seemed like that was the end. It was terrible.

She became a regular outpatient at a local dialysis center and, later, learned the skills for home dialysis.

Monumental difference

As an organ recipient, Yang wrote her first letter to Rob and Nancy Pasley in February 2014 but, in accord with rules surrounding organ donation, it was written anonymously and not delivered until August of that year.

Yang shared the monumental difference the donated kidney made in her life.

Before the transplant, she had been a young wife and mother, she told them. The word dialysis shattered my world, but I didnt have the energy to fight. I didnt have the energy for much at all.

In August 2013, a few days before she was to start an exciting new job, she received the call about a possible kidney transplant.

The transplant surgery, on Aug. 15, 2013, went so well that the surgeon removed the port used for dialysis.

Janes kidney was such a workhorse right away, Yang said. It was amazing.

In the first month of recovery, I had so much energy. Before, I could cook one meal and Id be done for the day.

Describing recovery from the transplant, she said, its as if Ive come back from death.

Coincidence

Yang finds it amazing and mysterious that Jane died on her birthday.

When I was younger, I didnt care much about my birthday, she said, but with Janes donation, I feel like my birthday holds an extra special meaning. I came into this world as a new life on Aug. 13, 1979, but when I turned 34 years old, I got another new life. 

Words will never be sufficient to express her gratitude for the organ donation, Yang said.

Jane will always be part of me. I have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of my life, because her blood is in me.

The Pasley family is her family, she said.

We share blood. Were family now. Usually its only family that would do something like that for you anyway.

The only way for her to repay such kindness, she said, is living my life in a way that would prove this gift of renewed life was well worth it -- and that is exactly what I intend to do.
Suong Thao Nguyen, 36, started banging on their car window when she was a woman wearing a veil at Macquarie University

The woman caught on camera accusing a Muslim woman of being a terrorist has been sentenced after pleading guilty to intimidating a couple at a Sydney university.

The court heard Semaa Abdulwali and her husband, Ramzy Alamudi, were sitting their car in Sydney's north-west when Suong Thao Nguyen, 36, started banging on their car window at Macquarie University.

'Who are you? Why have you got a mask? Terrorist. You have gun?' Nguyen is heard saying in the January video.

Footage shows the Vietnamese mother-of-two shouting at the woman, berating her for her choice of clothing and damaging their vehicle.

Nguyen has been sentenced to a two-year good behaviour bond by Burwood Local Court, and also copped a $750 fine for the January 20 incident.

She will also attend counselling and anger management courses, and pay $817.95 in damages to the car.

It was revealed in court Ms Abdulwali was wearing a head scarf and veil which revealed only her eyes when she and her husband saw a woman staring at them.

Mr Alamudi asked Nguyen if something was wrong after which she approached the vehicle, shouted at the couple, attempted to pull off windscreen wipers and keyed the car.

Mr Alamudi said he got out of the car after about a minute, restrained Nguyen appealed to the public for help.

University security on the North Ryde campus was called and Nguyen was later arrested by police.

The court heard from Nguyen's lawyer Andrew Tiedt his client was sorry for subjecting the couple to 'extraordinary unpleasant experience' and there was 'no excuse for what happened'.

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Nguyen was sentenced to a two-year Good Behaviour Bond after a racist tirade in Januar

Mr Tiedt went onto say she was afraid of the women's attire and therefore 'completely overreacted', according to The Daily Telegraph.

After the footage was released by seen by 1.6 million people in four days, Nguyen was been banned from the Macquarie University campus

Nguyen is now dealing with 'notoriety' from the video as well 'family troubles' and the fact she cannot attend campus to complete her studies.



It was a completely unprovoked attack by Nguyen, who reacted with 'resentment and anger', to Ms Abdulwali's niqab, Magistrate Seagrave said.

'Ms Nguyen was unable or unwilling to control her impulses on this occasion and there was no provocative behaviour whatsoever by either victim that could explain this gross over-reaction,' the magistrate said.

Magistrate Seagrave said Nguyen's behaviour was 'wrong and unacceptable' and that such prejudice had no place in a multicultural society.

Ramzy Alamudi got out of the car and restrained the Nguyen, 36, before security arrived

On the day of the incident, Mr Alamudi wrote on Facebook: 'We were super excited to make our way out of the university to go celebrate.

'However, things took a sudden shift for the worse.'

The married couple were sitting in their parked car and were about to drive off for celebrations after the wife finished her final exam in her medical science degree.

Nguyen was filmed banging on the passenger side of the window, before she walked around to the driver's side where she again banged on the window and attempted to pull the locked door handle.

'Call security,' Mr Alamudi could be heard saying.

His wife, who filmed the confrontation, replied: 'Just drive, just drive.'

Nguyen glares at the Muslim woman wearing a niqab face covering, and asks if she's a terrorist

Mr Alamudi asked the 35-year-old woman what was wrong, when she pointed aggressively at his wife and said, 'Get out.'

The Muslim woman replied: 'Who are you? Who are you?'

The 35-year-old woman said: 'F*** off.'

She again walked back to the passenger side and tried to pull the door handle and bang on the window.

Mr Alamudi's wife then called security as the woman allegedly lifted up the windscreen wipers.

As Mr Alamudi opened the driver's door of the car, the woman pointed at his wife.

'Who are you? Why have you got a mask? Terrorist. You have gun?,' she said.

Mr Alamudi told his Facebook followers he had posted the video to demonstrate racist discrimination.

Many viewers praised the couple.

'Well handled, guys,' Haj Qahtan commented.

Afterwards, the woman demanded the Muslim couple provide ID.

Witness Emily Grace Guff told her Facebook followers the woman had been ranting at the Muslim couple while her baby was sitting in her unlocked car, metres away.

'This deranged woman had the nerve to attack his wife because of the burqa she was dressed in, claiming she 'didn't feel safe' around people like her,' she said.

'Who are you? Why have you got a mask? Terrorist. You have gun?' Nguyen was filmed asking

'It makes me sick to know we co-exist in a world where this happens so frequently, people thinking they have the right to belittle someone else because of their race or religion.'

In a follow-up video, the 35-year-old woman told Mr Alamudi she found his wife 'scary' before a security guard arrived.

In a statement, Macquarie University called the incident Islamophobic.

'The couple has been shaken by the incident and requests that their privacy be respected,' a spokesperson for the university said.

'They will not be providing any further commentary on the incident at this stage.'

In his Facebook post, Mr Alamudi said this not an isolated incident.

Nguyen tried to pull the locked door handles of the couple's car during the racist verbal attack

'Unfortunately, this type of Islamophobia isn't isolated to this one individual and incident. Rather, it is an overarching systematic issue in our society that continues to be bred by the propaganda of some media and some politicians. Dehumanizing Muslims. This is the problem.'

Nguyen was initially charged with destroying or damaging property and common assault following the January incident, NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia.

She was issued with a field court attendance notice to appear at Burwood Local Court.
The Danish inventor arrested in connection with the disappearance of a Swedish journalist last seen on his home-made submarine is being described as hot tempered loner in local media.

The wreckage of Peter Madsen's submarine which sunk in Copenhagen harbour on Friday, was raised on Sunday, but the remains of 30-year-old Kim Wall was not on board.

Madsen, an amateur enthusiast who had built the UC3 Nautilus himself, has a history of lashing out at journalists who gave his project bad press, his biographer has said today.

Miss Wall, 30, (left) had gone along for the submarine's maiden voyage to report on Peter Madsen (right), who built it himself. He is under investigation for negligent manslaughter

'Hot-tempered': Peter Madsen, pictured with fellow enthusiast Kristian von Bengtson and one of their rocket prototypes in 2010, allegedly has a history of lashing out at journalists

He often ends up in conflicts, and has a lot of enemies,' says Thomas Djursing, a journalist who has written a book about Madsen.

'He can throw tools at you. But at the same time, he's not a violent person. I've never been afraid of him,' he told Aftonbladet.

Mr Djursing adds that Madsen would often become angry with journalists who wrote about his ambitious projects in a negative way, and says 'I don't know a journalist who has not been in conflict with him'.

In Mr Djursing's book 'Rocket Madsen', the inventor describes himself as a 'nerd with few friends' who grew up with his elderly father after the parents separation.

Early on, he joined several rocket and space travel clubs, but his lack of patience and short fuse saw him excluded from the societies in his teens.

Passionate: Madsen's biographer has revealed that the hobby rocket builder has made enemies of the people he has worked with , and that his temper can flare unexpectantly

Police have raised the wreckage of Danish sub UC3 Nautilus which sank in Copenhagen on Friday, but failed to find the body of journalist Kim Wall, 30

A new image has also emerged which Swedish media claims shows Miss Wall on board the sub alongside Madsen on Friday, after he claimed she had disembarked

'The past few years, he has been driven by a kind of vengeance. To show those he has worked with in the past, but who has since become his adversaries, that he can beat them,' Mr Djursing toldExpressen.

'He is a crazy person,' photographer Bo Tornvig tells the newspaper.

'I mean, making space rockets and sailing around in home-made submarines is not normal behaviour. But I've never seen him lay a hand on anyone. This whole story really stinks.'

Miss Wall was last seen on board the vessel with amateur builder Madsen who is now being held on suspicion of negligent manslaughter.

A picture of the pair standing in the sub's tower emerged on Sunday, Aftonbladet reported, marking the last time Miss Wall was seen before vanishing.

Danish investigators say they have found evidence the Nautilus was sunk deliberately as they continue land and sea searches for any sign of Miss Wall.

Miss Wall's family and boyfriend have not heard from her since she boarded the submarine and police have been unable to contact her

The UC3 Nautilus was raised from the bottom of Copenhagen harbour on Saturday night where it had been under 8m (24ft) of water since sinking on Friday morning

Despite not finding Miss Wall's body, Danish investigators are continuing to search in water and on land for any sign of her

The freelance reporter boarded the sub, which was built by Madsen, on Thursday night in order to write a story about it.

On Friday morning the Danish Navy were scrambled to help the stricken sub, before reporting it sunk at 10.45am.

Madsen claims he was the only one on board at the time, and that he dropped Miss Wall off at the mouth of the harbour shortly after 10pm the previous night.

But Danish police on Sunday said he has given them several conflicting accounts of what had happened, without elaborating further.

Miss Wall's family and boyfriend have not heard from her since she boarded the submarine and police have been unable to contact her.

Around the time he claimed to have dropped Miss Wall off, Madsen sent a mysterious text to a friend saying she had left the vessel and cancelling a trip he was supposed to be taking on the submarine the following day, according to local reports.

He did not respond to questions from the friend about why he had dropped Miss Wall off or why the trip was being cancelled.

Madsen was arrested on manslaughter charges on Saturday before a judge ordered that he be held in custody while investigations are carried out.

He is charged with having killed Miss Wall 'in an unknown way and in an unknown place sometime after 5pm on Thursday.'

Police technicians are pictured investigating the rescued private owned submarine UC3 Nautilus today

Madsen claims he dropped Miss Wall off at the mouth of the harbour and was the only one on board when his craft (pictured right) sank

The privately owned submarine, Nautilus, arriving in Copenhagen harbour today. Danish investigators say they have found evidence the Nautilus was sunk deliberately as they continue land and sea searches for any sign of Miss Wall

The 40-ton, 18-meter long Nautilus, one of three subs built by Madsen, was found by divers under 7m (24ft) of water, though they were unable to enter it safely

Speaking to reporters at court, Madsen said 'there is something I really want to tell you later', without elaborating any further.

Before the two-hour hearing, which was held in private and attended by his relatives, Madsen smiles, chatted with his lawyer and told reporters: 'I would very much like to express myself'.

The prosecutor asked for doors to the hearing to be closed as information likely to distress Miss Wall's family was about to be heard.

If convicted, Madsen faces between five years and life in prison.

The 40-ton, 18-meter long Nautilus, one of three subs built by Madsen, was found by divers under 7m (24ft) of water, though they were unable to enter it safely.

A salvage ship, the Vina, has now raised the sub from the sea bed close to Copenhagen's south island of Dragoer and brought it back to shore to be inspected.

Authorities were alerted that something had gone wrong with the submarine by Miss Wall's boyfriend after she failed to return home, prompting a major search operation involving two helicopters, three ships and several private boats.

Kristian Isbak, who had responded to the Navy's call to help locate the ship, sailed out immediately Friday and saw Madsen standing wearing his trademark military fatigues in the submarine's tower while it was still afloat.

Divers had located the submarine underwater on Friday but were unable to enter it safely

The submarine was reported missing early on Friday by Miss Wall's boyfriend after she failed to return home, prompting a major search operation by the Danish Navy

'He then climbed down inside the submarine and there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink,' Isbak told The Associated Press.

'(He) came up again and stayed in the tower until water came into it' before swimming to a nearby boat as the submarine sank, he added.

Madsen said there was a valve error that became serious when he tried to repair it.

Footage aired on Denmark's TV2 channel showed Madsen, 46, getting off what seemed to be a private boat and making a thumbs up sign as he walked away.

Upon his rescue from Kge Bay, Madsen said: 'I'm fine. But I'm sorry because 'Nautilus' has gone down.'

Miss Wall is a freelance journalist who graduated with a masters from Columbia University before going on to write about identity, gender, pop-culture, social justice and foreign policy.

Madsen, pictured above in 2008 in front of his submarine, was seen standing the tower of the still-floating submarine moments before it sank, according to a rescuer

Peter Madsen, who built the submarine himself before inviting Miss Wall along for the maiden voyage, is still under investigation for negligent manslaughter as investigators say there is evidence it was wrecked deliberately

She is from Sweden but spent time living in New York and Beijing. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, The Guardian, New York Times, Foreign Policy, Vice Magazine, Slate, South China Morning Post, The Atlantic, Roads & Kingdoms, and TIME.

The submarine was Madsen's third attempt at building such a structure and was the largest privately built submarine in the world at the time of its launch.

The Nautilus was a diesel-electric submarine. The diesel engine is uses when sailing or propelling just below the surface, while the electrical engine is used when the submarine is deep below the water's surface.

It was built like a post-World War II submarine, with a galley, crew bunks, officer's mass, bridge and engine room.

It's named after the famed submarine manned by Jules Verne's Captain Nemo character in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
A woman claims she was left with a lump of filler under the skin beneath her eye after her family GP allegedly botched a cosmetic procedure.

Adrienne Townsend, 29, from Barrow Island, Cumbria, paid Dr Chetandra Javeria,425 to carry out a private 'tear trough treatment' to make the bags under her eyes disappear.

But she says the procedure left her with a 'pea-sized lump' on the left side of her face forcing her to shell out for corrective treatment.

And Miss Townsend claims that Dr Javiera, who runs a private cosmetic surgery clinic as well as a GP surgery, offered her a refund if she agreed to sign a contract promising to keep the incident a secret.

Adrienne Townsend, pictured, claims a 'botched' cosmetic procedure left her with a 'pea-sized' lump of filler under her skin, circled right

Miss Townsend, who was left bruised and swollen following the initial procedure, said: 'I had done plenty of research on it beforehand.

'I'd watched videos of it on YouTube so I knew what was involved.

'Dr Javeria was my family GP so I trusted him and he said he'd done it before.

'But it took a long time and was very painful, he couldn't get the angle right and I was left with a lot of bruising under my eye.

'I wasn't happy. My face was uneven and when the bruising went I was left with a pea-sized lump under the skin which I was really self-conscious about.'

Miss Townsend booked a GP appointment with Dr Javeria last year to discuss the removal of a mole.

She alleges that during this appointment, the doctor said the NHS would not carry out the procedure. He then handed her a leaflet for his private cosmetic surgery clinic; Radiant Me Ltd.

What is 'tear trough treatment'? Tear trough treatment is a non-surgical aesthetic procedure to refresh 'tired-looking' eyes. It involves injecting filler between the eye and cheek to fill out dark circles. Advertisement

A Facebook page for the Barrow-based business describes it as offering a range of treatments carried out by 'special aesthetic doctors'.

Initially, Miss Townsend paid for some lip filler treatments before asking about the tear trough procedure in February.

Miss Townsend described how she complained to Dr Javiera after the surgery.

She said: 'When I said I wasn't happy, he asked me to meet him at the surgery to look at my eyes, but he didn't turn up.

'When I asked him for my money back he said he didn't do refunds and he would do another procedure instead.

'I didn't want him to do anything else to my face. He asked me to go to the surgery to discuss it and that's when he asked me to sign the agreement not to tell anyone or go to the press.

'I didn't want to sign it, then he said I'd only paid him 350 but I know I gave him the full amount. It's been awful.'

Tear trough fillers involve placing filler under the skin beneath the eyes to refresh dark circles or tired looking eyes.

Miss Townsend says she had to pay for corrective surgery after the initial treatment

It is one of a range of procedures Dr Javeria claims to offer through his Radiant Me business.

Though GPs can carry out private work, guidelines state they must not approach their own NHS patients about it or advertise their services during normal appointments.

Increasing number of GPs offering specialist treatment privately General practitioners can provide specialist operations, such as small surgery, privately. They can advertise their services via various mediums as long as long as they adhere to a set of rules that ensure claims are verified. GPs cannot charge patients of their NHS practice for these services Advertisement

A spokesman for Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group - the organisation that buys services from GPs on behalf of residents across the area - said: 'We are not aware of any individual complaint of this nature being brought to our attention.

'Any patient can contact us if they have a concern. Details of how to report a concern can be found on the Morecambe Bay CCG website.

'Speaking generally, there are ethical guides for clinicians available from the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council.

'Guidance from the BMA says, for example, that "increasing numbers of GPs are able to provide specialist treatments, such as complementary therapies or minor surgery in addition to their general practice".

'These treatments may be offered to private patients and advertised in the usual way but GPs may not charge patients of their NHS practice for these services.'

Dr Javeria did not comment on the matter despite a series of requests.
Kim Jong-un has disappeared from the public eye for the last two weeks raising fears that another missile launch could be imminent.

The last time the North Korean dictator was missing for this long was before the two most recent tests of the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korean outlet KBS reports.

There are fears that a public holiday on August 15 marking the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan at the end of the Second World War could be used to fire a new rocket.

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Kim Jong-un has not been seen in public for two weeks. The last time the North Korean dictator was absent for this long was before the launch of the country's new ICBM missile

Kim's absence comes as satellite imagery showed activity around a submarine that was used during a weapons launch in August last year

Activity around the submarine in the past week exactly mirrors preparations carried out before the successful launch of a missile last year (pictured)

Satellite images have also emerged showing activity around a submarine which mirrors preparations for a missile test which took place in August last year.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo also told Fox News on Sunday that he would not be surprised if another test were carried out.

He said: 'I am quite confident that Kim will continue to try to develop his missile program, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was another missile test.'

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been mounting since the second ICBM test last month, leading to the UN to pass new sanctions on North Korean trade.

That led to a series of furious statements from North Korea, which in turn prompted Donald Trump's threat to unleash 'fire and fury' on the dictatorship unless it reigned in its rhetoric.

Kim has since threatened to strike the US territory of Guam, while Trump has said weapons are 'locked and loaded' in case of another 'overt threat' from the North.

Experts believe North Korea could be ramping up for a test of its Pukguksong-1 submarine-launched missile (pictured during land tests earlier this year)

Donald Trump has warned of 'fire and fury like the world has never seen' if North Korea makes any more 'overt threats' to the US, though he has not made it clear if a new missile test would constitute such a threat

It is unclear whether President Trump would consider a fresh missile test an 'overt threat', but allies in the region have been preparing for conflict to break out, with Japan deploying Patriot missile defenses.

On Monday it was revealed that North Korea has recalled its ambassadors to key allies Russia and China, along with its UN representative, to Pyongyang for talks.

The Ministry of Unification's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a press briefing that the meeting may be part of North Korea's regular gathering of ambassadors.

'North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors' meeting in July 2015 and (the latest meeting) seems to be in line with that,' said the spokesman.

However, there are rumors the meeting may be linked with the country's purported preparations for further military provocations, such as nuclear test or more missile launches.
John Oliver has branded President Trump a 'f****** idiot' for his failure to explicitly condemn white nationalists after a Nazi-sympathizer used his car to kill a female counter protester and wound 19 others in Charlottesville.

The HBO host opened yesterday's Last Week Tonight with a monologue condemning Trump and implying he is 'feeding' Nazis.

In a press conference just after the killing of anti-fascist demonstrator Heather Heyer on Saturday, the President stopped short of explicitly condemning far right groups.

Instead he said there was violence 'on many sides' - and a day later the White House released a statement insisting he was talking about White Supremacists.

Trump has taken heat  including from members of his own party  for condemning the violence in Charlottesville 'on many sides' and failing to call out the hate groups marching in the Virginia town by name.

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John Oliver said the US now has a President who 'cannot even be bothered to f****** condemn (Nazis)'

On Monday, he still hadn't personally pointed a finger at the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, KKK members and other hate groups, tweeting instead about his day trip to Washington, D.C. and blaming Democrats for being obstructionists on the issue of trade.

And the pressure on the President increased as the only black member of his American Manufacturing Council - Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck - quit over the president's response to the violence in Charlottesville.

A press conference with the President that was promised for Monday quietly disappeared from his agenda.

Speaking on his show on Sunday, Oliver said: 'On many sides? This was a white nationalist rally. You have to call that out by name.

'There honestly arent many instances in modern American politics where you could honestly think "That guy really shouldve mentioned the Nazis", but this is emphatically one of them.

'Its like a reverse Godwins Law: if you fail to mention Nazism, you lose the argument.'

Oliver fumed: 'What kind of f****** idiot would not immediately distance himself from them?' after Trump's blamed the violence on hatred and bigotry on 'many sides'. The President is pictured returning to DC today

Nazi sympathizer James Fields, left, drove his car into a group of antifascist protesters killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyes, right

Fields drove his car into the protesters in Charlottesville at speeds of up to 40mph, pictured

Referring to remarks by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke - a Trump supporter - Oliver said: 'It simply doesn't get easier than disavowing Nazis'

The 40-year-old continued: 'So there is clearly no point waiting for leadership from our president in moments like this, because it is just not coming, which means we will have to look to one another, because incredibly, in a country where previous presidents have actually had to defeat Nazis, we now have one who cannot even be bothered to f****** condemn them.'

Instead he fumed: 'What kind of f****** idiot would not immediately distance himself from them?.

'It simply doesnt get easier than disavowing Nazis. Its almost as much of a presidential gimme as pardoning a f****** turkey.'

Fields is pictured posing with his $27,000 muscle car that he used in the attack in Charlottesville

A vigil was held outside the White House on Sunday night after the death of Ms Heyes

A memorial at the spot where Ms Heyes died in Charlottesville is pictured, left. Vigils have been held across the country including in Washington DC, right

This morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions joined Vice President Mike Pence in defending President Donald Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville this weekend

'He made a very strong statement that directly contradicted the ideology of hatred, violence, bigotry, racism, white supremacy,' Sessions said on NBC's Today show, pointing to remarks Trump made Saturday from his Bedminster resort.

Sessions also argued that a statement made by an unnamed White House spokesperson on Sunday counted as part of Trump's official response.

'It as a White House spokesman explicitly condemning these groups by name and I'm sure he'll talk about it again soon,' Sessions said.

Pence also defended Trump's remarks when asked about them by a journalist.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions (right) said on the Today show that a statement made by the White House Sunday should count as part of President Trump's official response. Trump hasn't personally condemned groups like the KKK, though the White House statement did

'We have no tolerance for hate and violence, by white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK,' Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday at a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia Read

'Yesterday President Trump clearly and unambiguously condemned the bigotry, violence and hatred which took place on the streets of Charlottesville,' Pence said.

He continued his support in an interview that aired Monday morning on Today.

'I think the president yesterday spoke into a national moment, words that the American people needed to hear that we condemn acts of violence, acts of hatred,' Pence told NBC News' Peter Alexander.

Pence tried to blame the media for putting the criticism of Trump so squarely in the spotlight.

'I will tell you, Peter, that I take issue with the fact that many of the media are spending more time criticizing how the president addressed the issue,' Pence said, as Alexander pointed out that Congressional Republicans, including Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ted Cruz, are the ones highlighting the statement's deficiency.

'Many in the media spend an awful lot of time focusing on what the president said and criticisms of what the president said, instead of criticizing those who brought that hatred and violence to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia,' Pence added.

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier quit President Trump's American Manufacturing Council over President Trump's lackluster response to violence in Charlottesville caused by white supremacist groups

President Trump quickly hit Frazier's decision on Twitter Monday, by suggesting Merck overcharged for its drugs

Protesters marched against white nationalism in New York on Sunday

But on Sunday, the White House did damage control by having an unnamed spokesperson release a statement calling out the hate groups by name.

'The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred,' the spokesperson said. 'Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.'

The President's words on Saturday were: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.'

Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck, is one of the most high profile figures to take action after Trump's statement, resigning from the President's American Manufacturing Council.

Frazier said his decision was a 'matter of personal conscience' that he take a 'stand against intolerance and extremism.'

'I am resigning from the President's American Manufacturing Council,' he wrote.

'Our country's strength stems from its diversity and the contributions by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs,' Frazier said.

President Trump quickly hit back on Twitter, writing, 'Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!'

At least 19 people were injured when James Fields deliberately drove his $27,000 Dodge Challenger into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday.

The protests against the violence in Charlottesville stretched from coast to coast. Demonstrators are pictured in LA on Sunday

Riot police were forced to separate white nationalists and antifascist protesters in Seattle

The 20-year-old failed Army recruit from Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with second degree murder over the death of Ms Heyes. He was denied bail on Monday and will remain in prison.

A former high school teacher claims that Fields admired Adolf Hitler, sympathized with Nazi views and wrote a paper that was a 'lovefest' for the racist group.

Derek Weimer told the Washington Post he taught history to Fields during his junior and senior years at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky.

The teacher said Fields once wrote a lengthy research paper about the Nazi military.

Weimer said: 'It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler. He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff.'

Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, who was in Charlottesville, told reporters that the far-right demonstrators wanted to 'fulfill the promises of Donald Trump'.

Saying he wanted to 'take our country back', Duke said: 'Thats what we believed in. Thats why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said hes going to take our country back.'

Oliver observed: 'Ive gotta say, David Duke and the Nazis really seem to like Donald Trump'.

He continued:'And that kind of connection there is something that anyone in their right mind would want to immediately and repeatedly disavow, and its not like Trump wasnt given the opportunity.'

The President has been heavily praised from the extreme right, with white supremacist site The Daily Stormer wrote: 'No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him, they wrote.'

Vigils were also held in downtown Philadelphia, left, and Chicago, right, on Sunday
The Commonwealth Bank has been ordered to refund 65,000 credit card insurance customers $10 million on the same day its chief executive resigned from his $5.5 million a year job.

Ian Narev will quit as the boss of Australia's biggest bank at the end of June next year, following allegations his bank breached money laundering and terror financing laws.

Hours later, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission slapped the Commonwealth Bank of Australia with a $10 million fine for selling dubious credit card insurance.

Ian Narev (pictured) has quit as the chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Mr Narev's resignation came on the same day his bank was fined $10 million for selling dubious credit card insurance

The corporate regulator slammed the bank for marketing a product supposedly designed to help customers meet repayments if they become sick or lose their job.

ASIC said 65,000 'CreditCard Plus' customers, between 2011 and 2015, were unable to claim the insurance, including the unemployed and students.

'Consumers should not be sold products that provide little or no benefit,' ASIC's deputy chairman Peter Kell said.

On Monday, Commonwealth Bank chairwoman Catherine Livingston confirmed Mr Narev, a New Zealander, would step down on June 30, 2018.

Commonwealth Bank chairwoman Catherine Livingstone insisted succession planning was already underway to replace Ian Narev as CEO

'This statement has not been rushed,' she told the Australian Securities Exchange.

'It has been carefully considered.'

Ms Livingstone said succession planning had been under way before AUSTRAC, the federal government's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism unit, filed civil proceedings in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth Bank on August 3.

'In these roles, the right and wrong are clear but the judgement calls that have to be made along the way can be very challenging,' she said.

Ian Narev is stepping down from his $5.5 million a year job as CEO at the end of June 2018

'Those are the qualities we have currently in Ian and we would seek to ensure we have those in his successor.'

Last week, the bank revealed Mr Narev's remuneration, for the 12 months to June 30, 2017, was slashed by 55 per cent.

This saw his package drop to $5.5 million compared with $12.3 million in the year to June 30, 2016.

Commonwealth last week announced a $9.9 billion annual profit - its eighth straight record result.

The bank's shares closed 81 cents, or one per cent, higher at $81.31 against the backdrop of a stronger overall market.
Rob Cowley is angry that he is being forced to pay a 100 parking fine despite having paid the correct amount, due to a mix-up over how many digits from his number plate he had to put into a machine

A pensioner has slammed car park bosses after he was landed with a 100 fine despite paying the correct amount for a ticket.

Rob Cowley, 70, paid for a 1.50 ticket at the Seel Street car park in Liverpool this summer when he went to pick up his wife from the cinema.

After believing he had managed to navigate the car park's complicated ANPR system correctly, he was stunned to then be sent a 100 fine 10 days later.

It turned out he had only entered the last three letters of his number plate rather than the full registration, as required.

He lost an appeal against the fine and now faces potential debt collection procedures over the amount.

Mr Cowley, a retired computer engineer from the Wirral, said: 'I had never come across this type of payment before, so I asked someone who'd also parked there what you had to do to get the ticket.

'He said I had to enter on a keyboard the last three letters of my registration, then pay the money, which is what I did - 1.50 for one hour, as I was picking up my wife from a cinema visit.

'I then returned to pay for another hour when I realised we wouldn't be back in time.'

The fine came after Mr Cowley parked his car in this car park in the centre of Liverpool

The retired computer engineer added: 'Although there were signs at the car park saying you need to enter your full registration, I feel that a fine of 100, which is over half my old-age pension, is out of all proportion for what was an honest mistake.

'I did not fail to pay any fees which were due for the duration of my parking.

'Also, why were the company issuing parking tickets that were invalid? I will fight this all the way, as far as court if necessary.'

The fine would have been reduced to 60 if he paid within 14 days and ParkingEye, who run the car park, offered to cut it 20 after hearing of the mix-up.

But Mr Cowley took to took his appeal to POPLA, the body which adjudicates on disputes over parking on private land, who upheld the original 100 fine issued by ParkingEye.

A ParkingEye spokesman said: 'ParkingEye is a member of the British Parking Association (BPA) and follows its code of practice.

'ParkingEye operates an audited appeals process and encourages people to appeal if they feel there are mit-igating circumstances.

'If a motorist disagrees with our decision, they have the option to appeal to the independent appeals service (POPLA). In this case, the driver did appeal to POPLA, who upheld our original decision.'
A politician tipped as a potential successor to German chancellor Angela Merkel has hit out at waiters in Berlin for speaking English.

Junior finance minister Jens Spahn said hearing restaurant workers only using English in the German capital 'drives me up the wall'.

The 37-year-old insisted 'you would never find this kind of lunacy in Paris' as he compared Germany's attitude to protecting its language to the fierce protectiveness France has over its native tongue.

A politician tipped as a potential successor to German chancellor Angela Merkel has hit out at waiters in Berlin for speaking English (file picture shows a cafe in Berlin)

Spahn told Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung warned that 'co-existence can only work in Germany if we all speak German' and suggested 'we can and should expect this from every immigrant.'

English is widely spoken and English expressions and Anglicisms are common, but its use over German is becoming an increasingly hot topic in the country.

In the last decade there have been campaigns from several advocacy groups against the massive use of 'Denglish' - a hybrid of the two languages - in Germany's advertising, television and everyday parlance.

In 2010, German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer banished Anglicisms from his ministry while national rail operator Deutsche Bahn said it would refrain from using English at train stations in the same year.

Junior finance minister Jens Spahn (pictured) said hearing restaurant workers only using English in the German capital 'drives me up the wall'

But some academic linguists are still sceptical about the long-term success of campaigns to limit the use of 'Denglish,' saying imports are part of the organic evolution of languages.

Last year, it emerged that Germany was planning new laws which would force migrants to either learn German and integrate into society or leave the country amid a huge influx of refugees.

At the time, interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said refugees would have to accept the initiative or face losing their permanent right of residence.
The Prime Minister is back in Downing Street on Thursday after three weeks away with husband Philip (pictured in Italy)

Theresa May is returning from holiday this week amid pressure for her to end bitter Cabinet infighting over Brexit.

The Prime Minister is coming back to Downing Street on Thursday after three weeks away - with the government due to unveil a series of crucial position papers.

Chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox attempted to settle their differences yesterday by penning a joint article setting out the Brexit plan.

They agreed Britain would leave the EU single market and customs union immediately upon Brexit in March 2019, and that there would be no attempt to stay in the EU by the back door.

Crucially, they accepted that the length of any transition period would be limited and that Britain would be free to negotiate trade deals with third countries.

Mr Hammond enraged Brexit-supporting MPs over the summer as he appeared to freelance over the terms of transition while Mrs May was away.

This week the government is due to publish a series of new position papers on our departure from the EU - including one on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

They are expected to include an offer of continued free movement for Irish nationals in and out of the UK once Britain has quit the bloc.

There will then be a further series of papers in the run up to the crucial European Council summit in Brussels in October.

The move comes amid complaints from Brussels about a lack of clarity about the British negotiating position.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned of a lack of progress in his first two rounds of talks with Brexit Secretary David Davis, covering the opening issues of the Irish border, the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britain's 'divorce bill'.

Ministers hope the release of the position papers will convince the EU side that they will be ready to move on to the next phase of the negotiations, including a new free trade deal with the bloc, in the autumn.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier (right) warned of a lack of progress in his first two rounds of talks with Brexit Secretary David Davis. The pair are pictured together in Brussels last month

No back door: Chancellor Philip Hammond (left), who favours a 'softer' Brexit and hardliner Liam Fox (right) agree that the UK will pull out of both the EU single market and customs union

Mr Davis said: 'I've launched this process because with time of the essence, we need to get on with negotiating the bigger issues around our future partnership to ensure we get a deal that delivers a strong UK and a strong EU.

'It's what businesses across Europe have called on both sides to do and will demonstrate that the UK is ready for the job.'

Meanwhile The Times said the slow progress so far had led to complaints in Whitehall that senior officials were now trying to rush through decisions in an attempt to break the policy logjam.

There were said to be concerns that Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU were railroading through issues at a time when many ministers were away, leading to poor decision-making.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was back for work at the Foreign Office today

Mr Johnson, pictured waving to photographers at the Foreign Office today, has welcomed the joint position on leaving the single market and customs union

At the end of a difficult summer, marked by speculation over a possible leadership challenge and jostling for position among senior ministers over Brexit, there was some respite for the Prime Minister with an apparent truce between two of the leading protagonists.

Chancellor Philip Hammond, who favours a 'soft', pro-business Brexit, and the Brexiteer International Development Secretary Liam Fox signed up to a joint statement at the weekend agreeing that there would have to be a transition period after Britain has left the EU.

They agreed that while the measure was necessary to ensure there was no 'cliff-edge' break for businesses, it would be time-limited and that Britain would leave the EU single market and the customs union when it left the bloc.

The move was criticised by the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable, who accused the Chancellor of caving in to the demands of the hardline Brexiteers.
Dozens of lingerie-clad women took to the streets of Sydney to campaign for marriage equality.

The Sydney flash mob was organised by lingerie brand Honey Birdette, who carried placards reading 'make love not plebiscite' as well as a ticked 'yes' box above the hashtag 'marriage equality'.

Women dressed in black, white and red lace bras and underwear paired with suspenders marched from central Sydneys Pitt Street to Martin Place as Australia prepares for a postal vote on same-sex marriage.

Models wearing Honey Birdette lingerie marched for women's quality in Sydney on Monday

Employees of Honey Birdette carried placards and megaphones through the Sydney CBD

The goal of the flash mob was to empower women and celebrated women's equality, according to the brand's Facebook page.

In marching, the women were supporting the fight for equality across the board and hoping to engage and mobilise thousands of women and their allies in the political process.

It was crucial to the organisers that the march be held before August 24, which is the deadline to register to vote in the postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage.

The march was also for the founder and CEO of Honey Birdette, who is a 'proud member of the community', according to their Facebook page.

The Honey Birdette CEO Eloise Monaghan is a lesbian and is married to a woman.

'This is not a protest,' said a Honey Birdette spokesperson. 'It is a celebration of women's equality, conceived by women, led by women and staged in the name of women.'

Lingerie-clad women marched today 'to support the fight for equality across the board'

The flash mob carried large signs that said 'Make Love Not Plebiscite' and 'Free The Nipple'

The main aim of the march to empower young people in particular to involve themselves in politics and generate non-violent action.

Honey Birdette streamed the event live on their Facebook account and posted live updates via Instagram stories.

'Not only do we want to share the marriage equality message but the female empowerment message too,' the spokesperson said.

'There are three topics close to our heart - marriage equality, female empowerment and freeing the nipple!'

A group of Honey Birdette employees and models marched near Town Hall in Sydneytoday

Women from the Honey Birdette Sydney management team walked along Martin Place today

The controversial, voluntary postal vote on whether to legalise gay marriage is planned for August 12, if it not shot down by the High Court.

Turnbull has committed $122 million to the postal survey, run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with ballot papers sent out on September 12 and due back by November 7.

Parliament's upper house, the Senate, last November rebuffed plans for a national plebiscite involving 15 million people, with the Labor opposition, Greens and crossbench MPs arguing it would be expensive and spark divisive debate.

Several gay senators made impassioned pleas against the plan at the time, saying it would lead to denigration of their families and subject them to hate speech.

Marchers encouraged people to get involved in the political process by registering to vote
GRAND FORKS  The Pentagon has approved a policy that allows military bases to defend themselves against invasive and threatening unmanned aircraft, including the potential to shoot down the machines.

But military personnel say the recently issued guidelines are meant to protect the bases and clarify policy that has been in place for decades.

Media outlets began reporting about the guidelines last week. The policy in its entirety is classified, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.

Due to operation security, the U.S. Air Force isn't able to go into the specific rules for the use of force, but as previously stated we retain the right and obligation to act in self-defense against unmanned aerial system threats, Airman Elijaih Tiggs, a spokesman with Grand Forks Air Force Base, wrote in an email. What I can tell you is that our Security Forces Airmen are highly trained, mission-focused and always prepared to defend the base at all times.

News reports speculated the guidelines, developed by the Defense Department in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agencies, give military personnel authority to confiscate or shoot down unmanned aircraft, commonly known as drones, that threaten bases. The Defense Department would not discuss strategy for removing threats, but the right for bases to defend themselves is not a new concept, Davis said.

As drones become more popular, the Defense Department wanted to update its defense guidelines to include drones invading military airspace as possible threats, he said.

The main intent of that is to say military bases have the right to defend themselves, and if there are drones over their property, they will do something to remove that threat, Davis said. Could it be shooting down? It could be. Would it be other things? It could be. Obviously, we dont want to discuss what those are for security purposes.

Everybody goes straight to the, Hey, were going to shoot it down,  he said. Well, yeah, that could be something that happens. The main thing we want to stress is there are military bases that are out there, we have to do things to protect them and there are things that are going to be happening if there are drones that are posing a threat.

Davis said it is all right to fly drones. Pilots should just check with the FAA before flying and avoid military base airspace.
A British man has died after falling asleep on the balcony of his third-floor apartment and plunging to the ground at a popular holiday resort on the island of Ibiza.

Carl Shepherd, 28, was pronounced dead at Jet Apartments, Playa d'en Bossa around 6.30am this morning, following a failed 45-minute attempt by paramedics to save his life.

Mr Shepherd became the second British holidaymaker to lose his life from a fall on the popular party island in just eight days.

Tragic: The 28-year-old man died after falling from the Jet Apartments in the popular resort of Playa d'en Bossa, Ibiza

Mr Shepherd had reportedly fallen asleep on a small ledge between the terrace of the apartment he was in and a neighbouring apartment at around 5.30am.

Well-placed sources also revealed police had confiscated several laughing gas capsules they found in the apartment he was sharing with friends and found several bottles of alcohol lying on the floor of the flat.

The insider said: 'The floor of the inside of the apartment was strewn with empty alcohol bottles and there were also several laughing gas capsules inside.'

Mr Shepherd's friends are thought to have been partying inside the apartment when he went outside to lay down on the ledge.

Laughing gas - nitrous oxide, also known by the name hippy crack - has been linked to a number of deaths.

Horrifying: The incident took place at just after 5.30am on Monday morning

Police have warned young people using the gas they are at 'exceptional risk', especially when they combine it with alcohol.

A worker at the apartment block where Carl died said he had seemed like a 'lovely man' and had even helped a cleaner tidy up his apartment and the one beside his the day before he fell to his death.

Jet Apartments are famed for their parties and is located just a stone's thrown from popular clubs like Ushuaia. They attract a mainly British crowd.

On Sunday last week Callum Marriott, 26, from Clipstone, Nottinghamshire, died after plunging onto the floor of an inside patio from the fourth-floor of a building called the Tanit building in nearby San Antonio.

He had just enjoyed his last night out on the holiday island with friends and was due to catch a plane home later the same day.

Investigators said afterwards they believed he may have been trying to get into his fourth-floor apartment when he fell around 4.15am on August 6 after leaving his friends and returning early only to find he didn't have keys to get in.

Charlie Simpkin, 20, a workmate at Mansfield Citroen where Callum worked as a technician, said in a moving tribute: 'There aren't words to describe him. He was just golden. He was like a brother to me. He was really bubbly, he loved life, his music and his cars.'

Last month, a 27-year-old Irishman was badly injured after hitting his head on the bottom of his swimming pool at his two-star hotel in San Antonio when he miscalculated the depth and dived into the shallow end.
A woman has been rushed to hospital after a brewery wall collapsed and crushed two parked cars.

The woman was entrapped in one of the cars after a wall of the Matilda Bay Brewery Company crumbled on Monday afternoon.

Fire crews freed the woman aged in her 30s who was taken to Royal Perth Hospital.

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A woman has been rushed to hospital after a brewery wall entrapped her in a car (pictured)

Two cars were crushed (pictured) by the wall debris of Matilda Bay Brewery Company in Perth

Perth fire crews freed the woman aged in her 30s, who was taken to Royal Perth Hospital

The collapse of the North Fremantle brewery wall of bricks and concrete crushed the driver's side of the cars just before 1pm.

Witness Andrew Wilson told Perth Now he was working near the building when it collapsed and trapped the woman under the car windscreen.

'Basically the top part of this factory has blown down in the wind,' Mr Wilson said.

'We just ran up here and then [started] getting bricks away from the car and trying to push it out.

'[The woman] was in the red car, in the passenger seat ... her head was sticking up through the glass.'

A witness said the top part of the factory, a heritage listed building, blew down in the wind

Fire crews took about 30 minutes to rescue the woman from the car but wall continued to fall

The area is currently restricted with fears the wall could collapse further with Perth's storms (stock image)

The rescue took 30 minutes before the woman was rushed to hospital with serious facial injuries, reports The West.

It is believed the wall collapsed as a result of the high winds hitting Perth, which continued to fall onto the car after the woman was rescued.

The area is currently restricted with fears the wall could collapse further.
An elderly couple who were married for 65 years have died holding hands after their request for a double euthanasia was granted in the Netherlands.

Nic and Trees Elderhorst, both 91, passed away surrounded by family at their home in Didam, in the country's east, on June 4.

The pair made the request to die together because of Nic's failing health and Trees' inability to take care of her ailing husband.

Nic and Trees Elderhorst, both 91, shared a final kiss before they passed away holding hands in a rare case of double euthanasia in the Netherlands

Nic suffered a stroke five years ago which greatly reduced his mobility and left him in constant pain.

The stroke had caused numerous health complications and meant he required constant care an antibiotics to keep him alive.

The burden of caring for her husband meant Trees' health had also begun to decline to the point where she felt unable to give him adequate care.

Her memory had been badly affected and only with the help of neighbours, friends and healthcare workers did the couple manage keep going.

Both feared that if one of them were to die, the one left behind would be left to deteriorate in a nursing home.

After Nic's stroke in 2012, the couple signed a special euthanasia will and studied, with the help of their children, the laws involved in ending their lives.

The Netherlands introduced a euthanasia law 17 years ago, and since then more than 5,500 people have chosen ended their lives.

After a specialist diagnosed Trees with vascular dementia, a progressive and lethal form of dementia, the conditions to file a euthanasia request were met for both.

One of the couple's daughters told local media: 'It soon became clear that it could not wait much longer.

'The geriatrician determined that our mother was still mentally competent. However, if our father were to die, she could become completely disorientated, ending up in a nursing home, something which she desperately did not want.

'Dying together was their deepest wish.'

It took half a year for the 'End of Life clinic' to deal with the request, in what was described as 'an intensive period' by the couple's daughters.

Two teams, one for each senior, had to determine if Nic and Trees had an individual wish to die independent from each other.

Nic had suffered a debilitating stroke five years ago that left him in constant pain, while Trees was recently diagnosed with dementia, meaning she could not care for him

After both teams determined that all conditions had been met, they worked with the couple and their family to pick a date on which they wanted to die.

Nic and Trees Elderhorst told all their friends and neighbours about their decision, for which they said they got a lot of support.

They then spent time saying goodbye to everyone and made arrangements for their funeral.

One of their daughters said that when the day came, they said some final sweet words to each other before they died.

The daughter said: 'They gave each other a big kiss and passed away confidently holding hands. According to their own wish.'

According to Dutch media, the euthanasia of Nic and Trees Elderhorst is exceptional as not many couples with a joint death wish get final authorisation.

Dick Bosscher of the Dutch Association of Voluntarily Life Ending said: 'It must be a coincidence when both people meet the demands for euthanasia at the same time.

'Dual requests are therefore rarely honoured.'

Spokesman Koos van Wees of the End of Life clinic explained that 'the difficulty is that both of the married people have to be more or less in the same situation with their illness', which according to him is 'very rare'.

Van Wees said: 'It happens more often that one is further in the process. The other then wants to join because they do not see a future alone. That is often not enough for the request to be granted.'

The Netherlands has been debating a proposed extension of euthanasia laws which would give all over-75s the right to assisted suicide.

Liberal parties publicly advocate the extension, although no law has yet been filed after the May 15 elections failed to produce a new government.

According to the political parties led by the left-liberal D66 Party, a few conditions would have to be met first, including a 'sustainable, well-considered and intrinsic' wish to die.

A specially trained 'life-ending consultant' would give their verdict about the death wish, which has to be seconded by another consultant or checking committee.

The life-ending consultant would have at least two interviews with the OAP, with at least two months between, to make sure the person knows what they are deciding and that they are not being pressured by their environment. The life-ending consultant could be a doctor, a nurse, a psychologist or a psychotherapist.

But three Christian parties, as well as the Socialist Party (SP), have vowed to stop any such law.

MP Renske Leijten of the SP said: 'Elderly care is not in order, a lot of OAPs are lonely and then they are making the ending of life easier?'

Gert-Jan Segers, an MP for the Christian Union, also attacked the plan.

He said: 'The proposal relies on the myth that this is an individual choice, but relatives, society and care workers are also involved.'

His party said the law would contradict with the duty of government to care for and protect the elderly, especially those in a vulnerable position.
A Yemeni man has been executed in a public square for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in the country's rebel-controlled capital Sanaa.

Hussein al-Saket, 22, was shot five times before his body was strung from a crane in front of a large crowd in Sanaa.

This is the second such public execution in less than a month, seen as a display of power by the Shiite rebel group that has been in control of the city since the 2014 military coup

Public execution: Convicted paedophile murderer Hussein al-Saket, 22, is executed in Tahrir Square in Yemen's capital Sanaa

Al-Saket had abducted four-year-old Safaa al-Matari and raped her before killing her and burying her body.

Ali Ayedh, the victim's uncle, said al-Saket 'took part in the search for the girl before being unmasked' during the police investigation.

He said his public execution would act as a 'deterrent for criminals'.

Saket was placed face down on Tahrir Square in Sanaa, which the Shiite Houthi rebels have controlled since 2014.

Dead man walking: Yemeni soldiers escort Hussein al-Sakit, 22, to his public execution

Military rule: This is the second public execution for a similar crime in Sanaa in recent weeks

Convicted: Al-Saket was shot five times in the back in front of rebel soldiers and the public

A policeman shot him dead through the back with five bullets aiming for the heart, before his body was strung up on the end of a crane.

On July 31, another man was executed in the same square after being convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl.

Both executions have been framed as an example of the Shiite rebels' efforts to combat crime in their areas.

Spectacle: A woman takes a photo of the body of al-Saket as it is strung up on a crane

Murderer: Al-Saket had abducted four-year-old Safaa al-Matari and raped her before killing her and burying her body

The Iran-backed Houthis have been locked in war with the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi for more than two years.

More than 8,300 people have been killed and millions displaced in the conflict, while some 2,000 have died of cholera since April.

The United Nations has described Yemen as 'the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,' with 10 million civilians in acute need of life-saving aid as the country teeters on the edge of famine.
An alleged Latino gang member accused of stabbing three black women has livestreamed the aftermath of the attack.

The disturbing cellphone footage, which was filmed in a neighbourhood in Chicago, shows the bloodied man screaming and brandishing a screwdriver.

As he threatens those around him, men are seen waving sticks, as one woman tries to defend herself with a metal pipe.

The disturbing cellphone footage, which was filmed in a neighbourhood in Chicago, shows the bloodied man screaming and brandishing a screwdriver

Terror: As he approaches a group of women, they scream and flee in fear

As he approaches a group of women, they scream and flee in fear.

When police arrive at the scene, he records officers speaking to witnesses, who accuse him of stabbing three women, MTO News reported.

But he protests: 'No, no, they're lying.'

A later video shows more police arriving at the scene, as they tell him to put his belongings down on the ground.

As he threatens those around him, men are seen waving sticks, as one woman tries to defend herself with a metal pipe

At one point, he points the camera towards his face, showing blood dripping down his face, arms and chest.

The video has since gone viral, clocking up over 7,000 views on Liveleak.
A cyber attack on a neo-Nazi website that posted vile comments about a protester killed in the Charlottesville car attack may have been a hoax, it has emerged.

Activists from the Anonymous network appeared to have seized control of the Daily Stormer, an extreme hard right website founded and edited by US-born Andrew Anglin.

A promise to 'end the hate' was published on the site, which had earlier posted sickening comments about Heather Heyer, a legal assistant killed when a car was driven into campaigners opposing a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

But this morning, one of the biggest Anonymous Twitter accounts said it doubted any of its established members had carried out such a hack - and suggested it was a publicity stunt with the website already facing the prospect of being taken down by its host.

A cyber attack on a neo-Nazi website that posted vile comments about Heather Heyer (pictured), a protester killed in the Charlottesville outrage, may have been a hoax, it has emerged

Activists from the Anonymous network appeared to have seized control of the Daily Stormer, an extreme hard right website founded and edited by US-born Andrew Anglin

Your Anon News wrote: 'We have no confirmation that "Anonymous" is involved yet. Looks more like a [Daily Stormer] stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host.'

The development comes after the Daily Stormer posted a vile message headlined: 'Heather Heyer: woman killed in road rage incident was a fat, childless 32-year-old s**t.'

Activists claiming to be with Anonymous then appeared to have taken over the website in Heyer's name threatening to release details about Anglin, who is now based in Lagos, Nigeria.

'For too long the Daily Stormer and Andrew Anglin have spewed their putrid hate on this site,' the message said, adding: 'That will not be happening anymore.'

'We have all the details on the servers and will be releasing the data when we feel the time is right.

'We have also gathered locational data on Anglin himself and are sending out allies in Lagos to pay him a visit in person. This evil cannot be allowed to stand.

'It took a united force of elite hackers from around the world to breach the systems and the firewall. We have had the Daily Stormer in our sites for months now.

A promise to 'end the hate' was published on the Daily Stormer, which had earlier posted sickening comments about Heather Heyer (pictured), a legal assistant killed when a car was driven into campaigners opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia

Activists claiming to be with Anonymous appeared to have taken over the website in Heyer's name threatening to release details about Anglin, who is now based in Lagos, Nigeria

'The events of Charlottesville alerted us to the need for immediate action. We want you Nazis to know: your time is short.

'We will allow the site to remain online for 24 hours so the world can witness the hate. Then we will shut it down.'

In May, it was reported that Anglin's site takes its name from Der Sturmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda. It was said to include sections called 'Jewish Problem' and 'Race War.'

Meanwhile, a man accused of ploughing his car into the protesters in Virginia is set to make his first court appearance.

Colonel Martin Kumer, superintendent at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, said 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr will face a bond hearing on Monday morning.

One of the biggest Anonymous Twitter accounts said it doubted any of its established members had carried out such a hack

Your Anon News suggested it was a publicity stunt with the website already facing the prospect of being taken down by its host

Fields is charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities say he drove his silver Dodge Challenger into the crowd in Charlottesville on Saturday, killing 32-year-old Heyer and injuring at least 19 other people.

Fields has been in custody since Saturday. Jail officials told the Associated Press they do not know if he has obtained a lawyer.

A high school teacher said Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolised Adolf Hitler and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his 'deeply held, radical' convictions on race.

Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said.

In high school, Fields was an 'average' student, but had a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Mr Weimer, his social studies teacher at Randall K Cooper school in Union, Kentucky.
A leading female Labour MP has blasted left-wing men as being the 'absolute worst' sexists.

Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, said that while left-leaning men harp on about equality 'they don't think of you on the same level'.

And she hit out at claims that Jeremy Corbyn helped lead the fight for women's equality in Britain.

She described how a leading Guardian journalist lectured her on how the party's former deputy leader Harriet Harman 'was not that great for women' and Mr Corbyn had done more for the cause.

Labour MP Jess Phillips, pictured at the Edinburgh book festival at the weekend, hit out at left-wing men as the absolute worst kind of sexists

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival she said the reporter - who she refused to name - said Mr Corbyn had 'always voted the right way'.

The reporter is rumoured to be Jeremy Corbyn's chief aide Seumas Milne, although he denied it.

According to The Times, she added in a sarcastic tone she said: 'So yeah, Jeremy Corbyn better for women than Harriet Harman, obviously.

'I remember him in all those meetings, there with his banners for [equality]'.

The MP said that men on the left talk about being feminists but fail to recognise the achievements of women.

She said: 'When they close their eyes at night and think of amazing people who have changed the world, it's always some white dude that pops into their head.'

And she hit out at her party's policies, saying that women were 'entirely missing' from their industrial strategy because it was all about 'men with shovels'.

Ms Phillips was asked whether the 'out and out sexists of the right' were worse than the 'well-meaning' of the left.

She replied: 'They [the left-wing men] are the worst, the actual worst'.

'Men said they supported better female representation but, when it came to losing their own jobs, they would say, 'Oh, you mean me? But I am so clever. I've got so much to offer the world'.

Ms Philips revealed that a Guardian reporter lectured her on how Labour's former deputy leader Harriet Harman (pictured right) was not that good for women. The comments appeared to point the finger at former Guardian journalist turned chief aide to Jeremy Corbyn Seamus Milne (pictured left) but he denied it

'They are literally the worst.'

Ms Phillips said that 'men who want to own your equality and the things you fought for are absolutely fine if they want you to own it as well but when they want it to puff out their own chests, that is really, really, really annoying'.

Since being elected to Parliament in 2015, Ms Phillips has made a name for herself as being a prominent campaigner on women's rights.

She campaigned against the tampon tax, and made history last year when she read out the names of the 10 women murdered in Britain in a year.

And she told the festival how she is abused on Twitter by 'dunderheided Neanderthals'.

She said that after the murder of her friend and colleague Jo Cox, she reported all the death threats she got online to West Midlands police.

But she told how she refuses to let the sick threats she receives online cow her, and that she think ' f*** it, I am still going to buy milk from the corner shop'.
The socialite niece of media legend Ita Buttrose has been charged with drink driving for an alleged fourth time, after being caught at more than four times over the limit.

Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Buttrose was arrested on Saturday night near her home at Vaucluse, in Sydney's east, when she was spotted behind the wheel of her car near her lavish mansion.

Police had earlier been called to intervene in an argument between the 48-year-old, a prominent member of the eastern suburbs social scene who has appeared on Real Housewives of Sydney, and her now ex-fiance Zoran Stopar.

After returning a positive roadside result Buttrose was taken back to Waverley Police Station and tested again, returning a result of 0.214 - more than four times the legal limit.

Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Buttrose (right), the niece of media legend Ita Buttrose, has been arrested for her fourth drink driving offence after being caught behind the wheel on Saturday night

The 48-year-old socialite (left) had been involved in a fight with fiance Zoran Stopar (right) on Saturday night, leading police to be called to the home. It's believed the pair have now split

In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, NSW police said Buttrose had been charged with high range PCA and her licence had subsequently been suspended.

Her expected appearance at the Downing Centre Local Court on September 22 this year will not be her first.

Earlier this year she had charges of threatening to 'injure' her son withdrawn, while in June she pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer after an argument with Stopar.

At the time of that assault she was on a good behaviour bond following a third drink-driving conviction.

Adding to what was a tumultuous weekend for Buttrose, her engagement to Stopar is now seemingly on the rocks, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

At 9.40pm on Saturday, just hours before the incident, she reportedly took to social media to write: 'I am safe. Zoran can't bash me or my dogs anymore.'

But her aggrieved fiance denied he had bashed her, before also claiming he had footage of her arrest which showed her refusing to step out of her car for police.

'She posted that I was bashing her up and gave her black eye, which is complete nonsense,' Mr Stopar told The Sydney Morning Herald.

In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, NSW police said Buttrose (pictured left) had been charged with high range PCA and her licence had subsequently been suspended

A prominent member of the eastern suburbs social scene, Buttrose is pictured with television presenter Jessica Rowe (left) and Real Housewives of Sydney star Athena X Levendi (right)

Mr Stopar claimed that police were forced to smash the socialite's car window to be ultimately able to remove her. Stopar (right) is now reportedly selling footage of her arrest for $25,000

'I'm walking out on her, I have had enough.

'Somebody called the cops to our house and she wasn't here... [but when she came back] the police spotted her in her driveway.'

Mr Stopar claimed that police were forced to smash the socialite's car window to be ultimately able to remove her.

Potentially adding to Buttrose's pain, Stopar is now reportedly selling footage of her arrest for $25,000.

Ita Buttrose is a former editor of both Cleo and Women's Weekly magazines and now appears on Channel Ten talk show Studio 10.
Two-thirds of Australians living in poorer suburbs are uncomfortable with women wearing burqas, a study shows.

Research by RMIT University found poorer and older Australians are more likely to be biased against Muslims.

The study of people in Broadmeadows and Fawkner, in Melbourne's north, found high levels of discomfort with burqas, with two-thirds of non-Muslims surveyed expressing concerns about Muslim women wearing face coverings.

Two-thirds of Australians living in poorer Melbourne suburbs are uncomfortable with burqas

Even Muslims were uneasy about burqas, with 28 per cent of them saying they were uncomfortable.

Burqas and niqabs were seen as forms of clothing that 'precluded inter-ethnic commmunication', the study of 300 residents in the two disadvantaged suburbs found.

Secular and non-practising Muslims, who reject Sharia law, were critical of 'militant' or 'proselytising' Muslims, interviews with people in areas with a high Muslim population found.

Associate Professor Val Colic-Peisker said poorer and older people were more likely to be anti-Muslim.

Face coverings for Muslim women were regarded as a barrier to 'inter-ethnic communication'

Older and poorer people are more likely to be hostile towards Muslims, the study found

'Low socio-economic indicators for an area seem to be a stronger predictor of prejudice against Muslims than their visible local presence,' she said.

'On the individual level, respondents with lower socio-economic status and older respondents tended to be more Islamophobic, which confirms findings of other Australian and overseas studies.'

The study was done with help from the Islamic Council of Victoria and Moreland City Council.
A father-son fishing trip took an unexpected turn after the young boy accidentally hooked a whale.

Glenn Brasen took his son, Nicholas, out fishing with another father-son duo when they spotted a humpback whale right beside their boat, capturing the amazing ordeal on camera.

'Holy s*** that's the closest I've ever been to a whale,' one of the boys can be heard shouting.

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A father-son fishing trip took an unexpected turn after a young boy accidentally hooked a whale (pictured)

Glenn Brasen took his son Nicholas out fishing with another father-son duo when they spotted a humpback whale right beside their boat (pictured)

'Holy s*** that's the closest I've ever been to a whale,' one of the boys can be heard shouting

The excited boys were thrilled to have a whale so close to their boat despite it 'scaring the s***' out of them

'That scared the s*** out of me.'

The whale caught their fishing lines, surprising everyone on board the boat off the coast of Kingscliff, northern New South Wales.

'I don't think he's really happy about getting hooked,' one of the fathers said.

Mr Brasen told 9News there were a few whales 'frolicking around' the boat which quickly disappeared, but soon after one of the whales grabbed the line and the excited fisherman let the line snap.

'We were relatively close to shore, and didn't think they would come that far into the shallows,' Mr Brasen said.

Mr Brasen said the whale caught their line, which they let snap to free the whale (pictured)

The fishermen didn't expect to see the whales because they were fishing in shallow waters off northern NSW coast

'We've had a few experiences with whales coming up close, but not like that.

'It seems like they get a bit curious and want to come for a stickybeak when they realise a boat is there.'

But the eager fisherman didn't leave empty handed, catching a couple of snapper and jewfish and some 'epic footage' of their unforgettable fishing trip.
Next week's ballot offers some intrigue for North Dakotans  from late congressional entries by independent candidates to term limits and marijuana legalization. Voters will decide whether to endorse changing the state constitution to limit the terms of the governor and state legislators. Another citizen-led initiative also will put the question of marijuana legalization before voters, who rejected the idea four years ago. Ninety-eight of the Legislatures 141 seats are on the ballot. All but one Democrat is up for reelection this year. Contests for secretary of state, attorney general and other state offices Also will appear on the ballot.
A young girl who is battling an extraordinary medical condition is set to undergo an operation that will change her life.

Angel, who was born in a Pakistani slum and came to Australia 18 months ago, suffers from a rare disease called CLOVES (Congenital, Lipomatous, Overgrowth, Vascular Malformations, Epidermal Nevi and Spinal/Skeletal Anomalies and/or Scoliosis) syndrome.

The condition, which is so rare there are only 200 documented cases worldwide, has made her misshapen feet swell up to the size of Ian Thorpe's.

The Australian Olympic swimmer has size 17 feet.

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Pakistani five-year-old Angel suffers from a rare, painful disease called CLOVES syndrome

'I want to get rid of these feet, and get new shoes and dance,' the five-year-old told A Current Affair.

Angel finds it almost impossible to lift her feet, and lives every day in constant pain.

Now, she is almost ready for a double amputation performed by Australian humanitarian Moira Kelly's surgical team.

She has had no energy to walk because of the exertion of lifting her heavy feet from the ground.

Ms Kelly alerted a surgical team in Australia when she found Angel suffering from the rare disease in a slum in Pakistan.

Angel was brought to Australian from Pakistan 18 months ago by Moira Kelly for treatment

The child was reportedly humiliated and bullied by in her home community of Orangi Town in Karachi, and was refused entry to the local school.

When she arrived in Australia, she was suffering from severe malnutrition and wasn't even strong enough for surgery.

'She would not have made adulthood...No, I don't think so,' said one of the doctors of her state when she arrived.

Now, Paediatric plastic and reconstructive surgeon Professor Tony Pennington is preparing to operate on her feet free of charge.

Angel was suffering from severe malnutrition when she first arrived in Australia 18 months ago

Angel has no energy to walk, because of the exertion of lifting her heavy feet from the ground

Paediatric plastic and reconstructive surgeon Professor Tony Pennington will operate for free

Professor Tony Pennington will perform a double amputation on Angel's feet in Melbourne

'Moira finds these kids from around the world, kids who are in desperate trouble and she contacts you, and when Moira contacts you, you don't say no,' he told A Current Affair.

Ms Kelly says that Angel is aware she will be losing both her feet and the bottom part of both her legs, but is still 'over the moon' about the operation.

'Look at this little angel,' Ms Kelly said. 'How can she suffer like that?'

Angel's mother Siniya said that Pakistani doctors said that they could not treat Angel's condition that she would have 'no more life'.

Siniya told A Current Affair that Angel had only ever had one dream, which was to wear shoes.

'I love her mum and I love Angel,' Ms Kelly said.

'Angel's journey is now beginning and we're going to be there till the end.'

Angel's mother Siniya said that Pakistani doctors said that they could not treat her daughter
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American Marines and their Japanese counterparts have staged a joint show of strength with live-fire military drills on the island of Hokkaido.

A combined total of 3,500 soldiers are taking part in 18 days of live-fire military drills code-named Northern Viper which began last week.

On Monday Marines and Japan's Self Defense Force were pictured firing mortars, maneuvering tanks and using armored personnel carriers.

While the drills are a regular scheduled event, they come as a welcome display of unity between allied nations amid heightened regional tensions with North Korea.

American Marines and troops of Japan's Self Defense Force are taking part in joint live-fire drills on the island of Hokkaido in a training operation code-named Northern Viper

In total 3,500 soldiers are participating in the drills which involve rocket artillery tests and tank maneuvers. While the operation is a regular event, it comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea

North Korea has threatened to fire four missiles at a US base in Guam, meaning the projectiles would pass over Japanese territory. The two countries have committed to working together to stop the threat

Japan Ground Self Defense Force's Type 90 tanks and U.S. Marine Corps' LAV-25 Light Armored Vehicles are pictured sitting side by side during the training exercises

Japan is seen as one of the strongest military powers around the Korean Peninsula, despite the fact that its constitution forbids it from engaging in any conflict unless in self defense. Japanese Type 90 tanks are pictured here during a drill

Japanese Type 90 tanks weigh more than 50 tons each and are armed with a main 120mm cannon, supplemented by two machine guns. They entered service in 1990 and are currently being replaced by the Type 10 tank

The US LAV-25 is designed to work both on land and in water, and its primary use is as a reconnaissance vehicle. It weighs 13 tons and is protected with up to 10mm of hardened steel. The vehicle entered service in 1983

The LAV-25 is armed with a 25 mm chain gun on its main turret (top left) and complimented with two smaller machine guns mounted on the body. It has a typical crew of two, but can carry up to six passengers

South Korean and U.S. troops are also gearing up for an annual joint drill from August 21, called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, in which up to 30,000 U.S. troops will take part.

South Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and his U.S. counterpart H.R. McMaster spoke on the phone for 40 minutes early on Friday, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House in Seoul said.

The two discussed responses to North Korean provocations and the security situation on the Korean peninsula, he said.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford said on Monday U.S. military options being prepared against North Korea would be for when diplomatic and economic sanctions failed, South Korea's president's office said on Monday.

Dunford made the comments to South Korean President Moon Jae-in in a 50-minute meeting to discuss recent issues including North Korean provocation, office spokesman Park Su-hyun told a media briefing.

Dunford was in Seoul speaking to South Korean military officials, including Defence Minister Song Young-moo. He was due to leave South Korea later on Monday and will make stops in China and Japan this week.

Members of U.S. Marine Corps stand on an LAV-25 vehicle on the Japanese island of Hokkaido during Northern Viper drills

Despite being bitter enemies during the Second World War, Japan and America are now close allies. Here Japanese troops (front) load ammunition into an American LAV-25

A member of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force inspects the country's tanks using binoculars during the training exercise

Two members of the US Marine Corps walk through the training area with unloaded M16A4 rifles slung across their chests

Following these exercises, US troops will travel to South Korea where 30,000 will take part in the much-larger Ulchi Freedom Guardian training drills

Training exercises took place as U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford said military options are being prepared for North Korea in case diplomatic options fail

Marines sit on top of canisters containing live ammunition which will be used during the 18 days of training exercises alongside the Japanese military
Eric Bellquist, who was wrongly arrested in connection to the Putney Bridge attack, has hit out at why he was implicated

The millionaire banker wrongly arrested after a jogger pushed a pedestrian in front of a London bus has hit out over his treatment.

Eric Bellquist, originally from San Diego, California, was detained last week in connection with the attack by the runner on Putney Bridge.

He today told of his 'upset' at being implicated in the crime, and of his relief after the police confirmed he was not involved.

In a statement, his lawyers said: 'Our client is pleased to have had his name cleared by the Metropolitan Police but obviously very upset to have been implicated at all in this abhorrent crime.'

Mr Bellquist has received death threats and been forced to hire a bodyguard since he was freed by police.

He today asked members of the public and the media to respect his and his family's privacy.

It emerged yesterday that police could have avoided the embarrassing arrest by Googling his name.

Records from the Mapmyrun app, which come up by running Mr Bellquist's name through the search engine show that - although he has not recorded any exercise since 2013 - he has one preferred route he always takes from Sloane Square to Battersea Park, some three-and-a-half miles from Putney.

It is one of several pieces of evidence to distance Mr Bellquist, 41, from the crime and raises further questions as to how he was ever arrested.

His lawyers managed to produce irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident.

Footage of the incident, showing a man apparently knocking a woman into the path of an oncoming double-decker, sparked outrage when it was released by Scotland Yard.

Millionaire banker Eric Bellquist has received death threats and been forced to hire a bodyguard after he was wrongly detained

Prior to his current position at Hutton Collins, Mr Bellquist worked in the European Leveraged Finance and Sponsor Coverage group at Lehman Brothers

Mr Bellquist has one preferred route he always takes from Sloane Square to Battersea Park, some three-and-a-half miles from Putney

The Metropolitan Police has since confirmed officers did not check whether or not Mr Bellquist was in the country at the time of the incident before his arrest, nor that they checked his running routes.

Mr Bellquist was dramatically hauled away in handcuffs from his home in west London last week after police released CCTV footage of the incident and appealed for members of the public to identify the jogger.

Asked whether the force would be issuing an apology to Mr Bellquist, a spokesman said last week: 'There were reasonable grounds to arrest the man in connection with this offence.

'He was subsequently released with no further action to be taken.'

Police have renewed their appeals for people who might recognise the attacker from CCTV footage to come forward.

The video clip has provoked widespread outrage and shows the woman walking across the bridge to work when she is pushed into the road by a male jogger wearing a grey T-shirt and dark shorts.

A jogger was running across Putney Bridge in west London when he barged into the woman

Mr Bellquist was wrongly arrested after shocking CCTV apparently showed a jogger pushing a woman

The 33-year-old woman was lucky to escape serious injury after a bus driver swerved to avoid her on the bridge in south west London

She narrowly avoided serious injury after an approaching double-decker bus swerved to avoid her head as she lay inches from its wheels.

Meanwhile, the driver of the London bus who swerved to avoid the woman who was pushed over has insisted he was 'just doing his job'.

Bus operators Go Ahead London told 5 News: 'The driver commented that he is pleased to have been a hero, he was just doing his job.

'He is pleased to have been able to react the way he did and that there was no serious injury to the lady.'

The bus stopped after the fall and passengers tended to the woman - who received minor injuries - following the incident during rush hour, at around 7.40am on May 5.

Officers claimed the jogger ran the other way across the bridge around 15 minutes later and the victim attempted to speak to him, but 'he did not acknowledge her'.

Bellquist, pictured here giving his opinions on The Finance Forum on Youtube, is aged 41, and a partner at Mayfair based private equity firm Hutton Collins

Mr Bellquist (pictured), who lives in Chelsea, west London, joined Hutton Collins in 2002

Speaking last week, sergeant Mat Knowles said: 'After he pushed her he ran across the bridge and 15 minutes later came back.

'By this time the members of the public who had helped the woman were gone and she tried to talk to him as he ran past her but he just ignored her.

A senior source from the bus company Go Ahead London said it was only down to the slow speed of the vehicle that the accident did not result in serious injury.

Mr Bellquist has worked for investment firm Hutton Collins since 2002.

Over the course of various transactions he has represented Hutton Collins in the leisure, media/telecom and manufacturing sectors.

He currently represents Hutton Collins on the boards of Byron Hamburgers and was responsible for the firm's investment in Caffe Nero.
Model Chloe Ayling, 20, claimed to have been snatched by a group calling itself Black Death

A British model today broke down in tears on TV as she defended herself over doubts about her six-day alleged kidnap ordeal in Italy and why she went shoe-shopping with an 'armed assassin'.

Chloe Ayling, 20, said she was injected with ketamine after being lured to a fake modelling shoot in Milan before being bundled into the boot of a car and told she was going to be sold as a sex slave.

Today, the model from Coulsdon, South London, told ITV's This Morning that she blamed her agent for not performing sufficient checks over the shoot, said she was wishing for a 'non-painful death' and that doubts over her story were 'hurtful'.

Her comments divided viewers, with some saying they did not believe the dramatic details of her story - while others said this was only because she is a woman and a glamour model.

Miss Ayling also recalled the 'absolute panic' of her ordeal which saw her wake up in the boot in a zip-up bag with a taped mouth and handcuffs on her feet and hands.

She told ITV's This Morning: 'It is really hurtful to see people doubt my story. Like when I went shoe shopping apparently, which was to the camping shop to get shoes for the consulate, people were saying why didn't I run?

Some viewers of ITV's This Morning told how they did not believe Miss Ayling's dramatic story

'It's easy for them to say that but when you're in my situation it's not that easy. I was with an assassin that's always armed, I'd been shown knives.

'So I couldn't just try and put my life in the hands of a random Italian woman.If I couldn't communicate with her, or she didn't care, then I'd risk my life.'

Miss Ayling said she was injected with ketamine after being lured to a fake shoot

Miss Ayling claimed to have been snatched by a group calling itself Black Death last month before being drugged and transported in a bag to an isolated village near Turin.

She said she was held for six days there as her captors tried to auction her online - and first realised something was wrong when she arrived at the 'studio'.

Miss Ayling told This Morning: 'When I walked into the "studio" there was just silence. Normally someone would greet you at the door, closer to the door, but I just didn't hear anything.

'So that's why when I saw the door saying "studio" on it I went to open it, but before I had the time to quickly process my thoughts that is exactly when the masked man put his arm round my neck and my mouth and nose.

'And another one came to the front of me and injected me in my wrist. Two men, two masks. Absolute panic - I didn't know what it was, I didn't know why they were doing it. At this point I still thought someone wrong had got me and the shoot was still supposed to go on. I didn't connect it as a set up.'

Miss Ayling, who was bundled into the boot of a car and told she was going to be sold as a sex slave, also spoke about the moment when she woke up.

Others viewers said Miss Ayling was only being criticised because she is a woman and a model

Miss Ayling told This Morning she had been in an 'absolute panic' during her alleged ordeal

She said: 'I woke up in the boot of a car in a zip-up bag and I had tape on my mouth and handcuffs on my feet and on my hands. It was a really hot day. It was horrible.

'I was still drugged up - I didn't process it automatically. I was trying to shout and trying to find my way out but I didn't know what was happening.

Lukasz Pawel Herba, the chief suspect in the alleged kidnap, has said he did not knowingly take part in any crime

'The car was moving and the radio was blaring as well, so I couldn't really get the attention, so I had to really raise my voice, like "driver, driver, where are we?"

'And then it took a while for them to actually pull over the car and come round the back.'

She continued: 'It was when they put the pull over, I saw through the gap that they'd put an empty suitcase above it, and at that point I thought that I was going to die.

'Because what other reason would they put an empty suitcase about my size on top? I was hoping for a non-painful death. I try to be as strong as possible.'

Miss Ayling was eventually taken to the British Consulate in Milan, but could not return home to London for almost three weeks.

Miss Ayling, 20, spoke to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on ITV's This Morning today

The model was handed a tissue by Langsford as she began to cry while being interviewed

She told This Morning: 'I was in Italy for three weeks before I actually came home to the UK, so what people here didn't witness was me crying almost every day, me being too paranoid to leave my room, any noises I hear I would freak out, having nightmares - no one here witnessed that.

Miss Ayling poses for a photo at the ITV Studios as she spoke about her alleged ordeal

'I only started to get more reassured as it came to the end of the three-week period when police were trying to reassure me that they know the truth of the story and I don't have to be as fearful as I am now when I return to the UK.'

Miss Ayling was freed after six days when a captor took her to the British consulate. She said she was told she would be killed by Black Death if she tried to flee.

On a website, the group purports to sell weapons and drugs, arrange murders and conduct human trafficking. But police say they have not determined whether the organisation is real, and many cyber-experts are sceptical about its claims.

Meanwhile, the chief suspect in the alleged kidnap has said he did not knowingly take part in any crime.

Lukasz Pawel Herba says his involvement stems from wanting to raise money to treat his leukaemia and that he was hired by a group of Romanians to rent properties around Europe to store garments they were selling, according to reports.

He is also said to have told investigators he posed as a photographer and met Ms Ayling. He said he was paid 500,000, found out the Romanians intended to kidnap her, and backed out of the plan.
A father is fighting for his life after he heroically rushed back into his burning home to save his 12-year-old son who died.

Tributes are flowing for Scott McColl who died in the tragic house fire in Netherby, south of Adelaide, after his 65-year-old father, Donald, tried to save him from a blaze that took 35 firefighters to extinguish.

Family friend and Filipino community leader Aida Garcia told The Advertiser Scott's mother, Antonette, was devastated by the fatal news of her only son.

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A father is fighting for his life (pictured back) after he rushed into his burning home to save his son Scott McColl (left) who died

Scott's mother, Antonette, (front) was devastated by the fatal news of her only son

Scott McColl (right) died in the tragic house fire in Netherby, south of Adelaide which left his father Donald, 65, (left) fighting for his life in ICU

Scott, who had autism, died in the hallway after 3.30am Monday after trying to escape fire

'Antonette and Donald would give their lives for the life of their son - that's how much they love their son,' Ms Garcia said.

'Don doesn't even know that yet and Don went back to get Scott.'

Scott, who had autism, died in the hallway after 3.30am Monday after trying to escape the fire which engulfed the family home while Ms McColl was working a night shift at Australia Post.

Errington Special Education Centre principal Sam Hele told ABC News the school community was shocked by Scott's death.

'He was a gentle, likeable and valued member of the school community and everyone who has come into contact with him will take this extremely hard,' Mr Hele said.

Neighbour Susan Bowler told The Advertiser she found Mr McColl leaning on his front fence, holding his severely injured arms saying 'Scott's dead'.

Mr McColl was rushed to hospital with serious burns and had emergency surgery after the fire

Metropolitan Fire Service crews (pictured) fought the huge blaze that broke out in the inner south Adelaide suburb but were unable to save the boy

Mr McColl is in intensive care at Royal Adelaide Hospital with extensive burns after an emergency surgery.

Commander Rainer Kiessling of the South Australia MFS told Seven News the group of six international students were saved from the back of the home.

'The rear of the premises was heavily involved in fire and there was very narrow access from the rear yard to the front so obviously the intensity of the fire was keeping the students trapped in the backyard effectively,' he said.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, and fire service (pictured) investigators and detectives are interviewing nieghbours and witnesses

Fire crews (pictured) arrived on the scene just before 3:30am and took half an hour to extinguish the flames

It is believed the fire started at the back of the building where the students were trapped before it spread to the roof, according to the publication.

The single-story home on Smith Dorrien St was badly ruined in the blaze, causing the roof to collapse and an estimated $250,000 worth of damages.

An investigation to determine the cause of the fire is ongoing.
Tony Blair was paid millions of pounds by an Arab state while working as Middle East envoy, emails have revealed.

The former Prime Minister has been accused of a conflict of interest after details of the payments he received were revealed in reports today.

The United Arab Emirates helped to fund Mr Blair's London office while he was carrying out work trying to solve the Israel Palestine conflict.

But at the same time, he also received millions in consultancy fees from the sovereign wealth fund of its capital, Abu Dhabi, according to The Daily Telegraph.

And both these payments - for his private work and his envoy activities - from the UAE were paid into the same company.

Tony Blair was employed as a consultant by a sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi while he was working as Middle east envoy, new emails have revealed

But the UAE's payment for his envoy work does not appear on the relevant website, despite funding from other donors being listed.

A spokeswoman for the former Labour leader said he received the money to bankroll the travel expenses of him and his staff.

But she insisted there was no conflict of interest between this and the work he did as envoy for the Office of the Quartet.

Questions have also been raised over whether any of the staff who supported his work as envoy were ever used to aid his lucrative, private work with the Gulf state.

TONY BLAIR SPORTS FOUNDATION CLOSES DOWN The Tony Blair Sports Foundation, which was set up a decade ago as a gift to the region where he was an MP, has closed down. The ex-prime minister set the body up to boost the number of coaches working with children in the North East across a range of sports. After putting in 700,000 and raising further funds, Mr Blair said it had recruited, trained and placed 6,132 coaches with clubs. He said: 'When I stood down as MP for Sedgefield, I wanted to repay the kindness, generosity and support given to me by the people in the constituency and the wider region. 'That is why I decided to set up and personally finance the Sports Foundation. 'From its early beginnings 10 years ago, even though we were ambitious for the organisation, I could not have predicted that it would turn out to be the amazing success that it has been.' Mr Blair said the foundation had 'reached the end of its natural life'. Record-breaking middle distance runner Steve Cram said: 'The foundation leaves behind a strong platform for others to follow - and even though it's come to the end of its path, many of those whom it has helped will continue to work in sport volunteering and leadership for many years to come.' Advertisement

One email seen by the newspaper shows that Nick Banner, his chief of staff in the envoy role, went to the UAE to meet Khaldoon Al Mubarak - the chief executive of the Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund which Mr Blair later started working for.

The next month Mr Banner, a Whitehall official on loan from the Foreign Office, was in charge of arranging talks between UI Energy, the Korean oil firm the ex PM was being paid to advise, and the head of a state-run investment firm in Abu Dhabi.

Mr Blair's work for the Korean oil company later came to light.

In an email, after a delegation from UI landed in Abu Dhabi, Mr Banner wrote to a senior UAE official: 'Below are details of the UI group.

'They're very keen to meet the most senior management of IPIC [The International Petroleum Investment Company], to try to resolve the differences that appear to have risen, for understandable but I think mistaken reasons.

'Given there seems to be a mutually beneficial outcome available, Mr Blair is very grateful that Sheikh Abdullah undertook to ensure their meetings could take place.'

Mr Blair has previously insisted that his staff as envoy were 'never involved in commercial work'.

And in 2009, Rebecca Guthrie, a Foreign Office official seconded to Mr Blair's envoy office, sent bank details for Windrush Ventures, the company which channelled money for his commercial advisory work, to a UAE official.

This was days after formal Middle East talks he held with Sheikh Abdullah at the United Nations in New York.

In a separate email, sent in 2010, Jason Searancke, the financial controller of Tony Blair Associates, the umbrella organisation for Mr Blair's commercial work, emailed UAE officials seeking money for Mr Blair's 'activities as the Quartet representative'.

The Daily Telegraph said it saw details of a separate $2 million (1.2 million) payment to Windrush from Sheikh Abdullah's office in 2011.

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said the disclosures appear to 'blow out of the water' his insistence that 'there was no conflict of interest' between his roles.

A spokeswoman for Mr Blair said: 'The story about conflicts of interest with his non OQR (office of quartet representative) activities was always false.

Tony Blair stands with Hebron Governor Hussein al-Araj (second from the left) and senior Palestinian Muslim cleric Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi (on the right) during his visit to the West bank in 2009. As Middle East envoy he tried to help solve the Israel Palestine conflict

'He did no commercial work connected with the Israeli/Palestinian issue.

'The contract with Mubadala was for work unconnected with the Quartet role as was the work for UI Energy briefly in 2008 which was a Korean company.

'As has already been publicly acknowledged, the UAE have supported the work of Mr Blair over the years including his work on governance - now done solely on a not for profit basis - in countries like Colombia and Serbia.

'In addition they contributed to the costs of Mr Blair and his London based staff for the work he and they did for the Quartet role, particularly travel. None of this money went to Mr Blair personally.

'It was quite separate from the funding of the Office of the Quartet Representative in Jerusalem, which Mr Blair also raised from a range of different Governments.'

She added: 'Any emails from London based staff of Mr Blair about money would have been in connection with the support Mr Blair received for his work from the UAE.

'The Windrush account was used simply for accounting purposes. All the money received was ring fenced for that specific purpose, audited and accounted for, and held in a dedicated bank account. The procedures for ensuring this were strict and adhered to completely.'
A driver overdosed on heroin behind the wheel and crashed into a police cruiser leading a funeral procession, authorities say.

The 44-year-old woman was driving a green sedan when she ran a red light on Saturday in Huntingdon, West Virginia.

The sedan struck the cruiser driven by a reserve officer at about 3.40pm. The officer was leading a funeral procession.

The woman was found unconscious and was revived with naloxone.

A 44-year-old woman overdosed on heroin before running a red light and crashing her car into a police cruiser leading a funeral procession in Huntingdon, West Virginia, on Saturday. Pictured is the intersection where the crash happened

She told police she had injected heroin before driving, according to criminal complaints from Cabell County Magistrate Court.

Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli (pictured) said the woman was charged with DUI and two passengers in the car with her were also cited for misdemeanors

Her name has not been released by police, but she is from Hurricane, West Virginia, about 30 miles east of Huntingdon.

The woman refused medical attention and was arraigned for a misdemeanor DUI charge before being held in Western Regional Jail.

Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli said two passengers in the sedan were also cited for misdemeanors, The Herald-Dispatch reported.

One passenger was charged with permitting DUI and the other was charged with possession of intoxicating substances.

No one was injured in the incident. The police cruiser was damaged but can still be driven.
A Thai woman has been cautioned by police after she filmed herself hanging her one-year-old son by the neck in order to force her husband to pick up his phone.

Nareumon Jampasert, 28, issued a chilling warning to her husband in the video, threatening to kill their son if he did not come home.

Police in Bangkok arrested Ms Jampasert, but she was released shortly afterwards with a spokesperson calling the incident a 'family disagreement'.

Horrifying: Nareumon Jampasert, 28, from Bangkok, Thailand, filming herself holding up her son with a black rope already tied around his neck, issuing a threat to her husband

The video of Ms Jampasert was posted online by worried family members after she sent it to her husband.

It shows her speaking into the camera and holding up her son, Theeradej Saisupan with a black rope already tied around his neck.

She then briefly suspends the little boy in the air in front of the camera, with the boy squealing in pain before she lets him go.

Addressing her husband Jakrit Saisupan, 32, she says: 'You see, Joe. You care about people a lot. This is your son. This is a rope.

'Look at him. He not dead. I have not killed him yet. Look at him. I will take him to die somewhere. You have to wait to see me today.

'If you don't come back to take him, you have to wait to see what happens today. You don't answer your phone, yeah?'

Terrified: The boy can be heard screaming in pain, before his mother drops him on the bed, the long black rope still tied around his neck

Arrest: Police question Nareumon Jampasert, 28, pictured in a white tshirt, while she holds her son Theeradej Saisupan, who was reportedly not harmed in the incident

Ms Jampasert told police she recorded the threatening video after suffering from stress with her business, and because she thought her husband was having an affair

Ms Jampasert then sent the sickening video to Mr Saisupan, who passed it on to his sister and mother in a desperate attempt to get someone to the family home to help his son.

They in turn posted it online in a desperate bid to raise the alarm amid fears the boy could be harmed, sending police to the flat on Friday afternoon.

Ms Jampasert was arrested while the boy was given a health check by paramedics.

She reportedly broke down in tears, telling officers that she had been suffering from stress because sales from her online shop had been low, and that she feared that her husband was seeing another woman because he was spending a lot of time at work.

She said: 'I'm hurting a lot. The first thing I was thinking was that I wanted to kill myself. I did this to the baby because I wasn't thinking, and I was emotional.

'In my heart I'm thinking my husband does not care about his son, does not care about his wife.

Omline shame: Ms Jampasert's sister-in-law posted the video online to alert authorities

'I took the baby and I wanted to do something to make my husband hurt. I took the video and sent it to him.

'He sent to his sister and then they sent me a message to calm down and to not do this [harm the child]. After I spoke with his family it was OK, and me and the baby went to sleep.'

Police interviewed Ms Jampasert but said at a press conference that she would not be charged, as it was a 'family disagreement' and the boy's father said he did not want to take it further.

Lt Col Samat Gringaew said the baby did not have any injuries but would be checked again at hospital.

He added: 'We will not proceed with charges against the mother because if she goes to prison, who will take care of the child?'

But police said that social workers - who initially wanted to seize the child - would speak with the family to ensure it was safe for the baby to return home.
Theresa May today condemned the 'Far Right' after a white supremacist rally in Virginia erupted into violence.

The Prime Minister and Angela Merkel have joined those speaking out against racism following the bloody episode over the weekend.

But Downing Street stopped short of criticising Donald Trump over his muted response to the clashes - which saw him merely decry 'violence on many sides'.

The Prime Minister and Angela Merkel (pictured together at a summit in Hamburg last month) have joined those speaking out against racism following the bloody episode over the weekend

On Saturday, President Trump condemned the violence 'on many sides' in Charlottesville

'What the President says is a matter for him,' the PM's spokesman said.

'We are very clear. We condemn racism, hatred and violence.

'We condemn the Far Right.'

On Saturday a Nazi sympathiser, 20-year-old James Fields of Ohio, used his Dodge Charger to run over people protesting against the march, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 more.

Fields has been charged with second degree murder.

Speaking from his resort in New Jersey, Mr Trump said: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.'

The statement was widely criticised  including by senior Republicans  for seemingly equating the white nationalists and neo-Nazis with those marching against the hate groups.

In an apparent attempt to defuse the row, the White House later clarified the response, saying: 'The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred.

The vehicle ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday

'Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.'

Mrs Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters today that she regarded the 'extreme-right march' as an 'absolutely repulsive scene'.

He said 'there was outrageous racism, anti-Semitism and hate in its most despicable form to be seen, and whenever it comes to such speech or such images it is repugnant.'

He added that it's 'completely contrary to what the chancellor and the German government works for politically, and we are in solidarity with those who stand peacefully against such aggressive extreme-right opinions'.
Russian intelligence officers have foiled a plot by an Islamic State-linked terrorist cell to carry out a number of attacks in Moscow, including at least two suicide bombings.

Four people have been arrested on suspicion of planning terror attacks in Moscow, allegedly led by two Russian-born ISIS-fighters.

The group's plans involved two suicide bomber attacks - one on public transport and one in a shop, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said today.

Taken down: Russian intelligence officers arrest a man on suspicion of plotting a series of terrorist attacks outside Moscow

Caught: Khodzhiev Davlatyor detained on suspicion of plotting terror attacks

Foil: Davlatyor is escorted to a court hearing of the FSB (Federal Security Service) motion on his arrest at the Lefortovsky District Court in Moscow

Two of the four arrested men were supposed to blow themselves up on Moscow's transit system and in a shop, the FSB said in a statement.

As part of the arrests, officials also discovered a lab outside Moscow where improvised explosive devices were made.

The intelligence agency said the attacks were directed by two senior militants who are fighting for ISIS in Syria, and hail from 'the former Soviet Union'.

The suspects arrested outside Moscow were not identified, but the FSB said one of them is a Russian national and three others are from Central Asia.

Deck: Siyovushi Davronzoda (R) detained on suspicion of plotting terror attacks in Moscow attends a court hearing of the FSB (Federal Security Service) motion on his arrest

Plot: The foiled terrorist attacks were allegedly masterminded by two Russian-born Islamic State fighters

Attack: The ISIS-linked terrorist cell was reportedly planning suicide attacks on public transport in Moscow

Their plans echo that of a Russian citizen from the former Soviet state Kyrgyzstan, who detonated a bomb inside a St Petersburg metro train in April, killing 15 people.

Fifty were also injured in the blast as bodies, blood and wreckage were strewn across the carriage of the train blown up between Sennaya Ploshchad and Sadovaya metro stations in Russia's second city.

Russian citizen Akbarzhon Jalilov, 22, who was born in Kyrgyzstan, was named by security services as the attacker who also planted a second device hidden in a fire extinguisher that failed to explode.
A rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend ended in violence and domestic terrorism, as white nationalist groups clashed with counter-protestors. The Unite the Right rally was intended, as co-promoter Matthew Heimbach explains, to unite the alt-right around the 14 words: We must secure the existence of our people and the future for white childrenas our primary motivating factor.

The objectives of the alt-right movement are antithetical to the mission, values, and principles of the Acton Institute and other like-minded groups. Yet the movement is often associated with traditional forms of conservatism and libertarianism even though its supporters frequently rejects issues such as economic freedom and the dignity of all people that we consider foundational.* For this reason, you should know what the alt-right believes and the agenda they work to promote.

Here are five facts you should know about the alt-right:

1. The alt-rightshort for alternative rightis an umbrella term for a host of disparate nationalist and populist groups associated with the white identity cause/movement. The term brings together white supremacists (e.g., neo-Nazis), religious racialists (e.g., Kinists), neo-pagans (e.g., Heathenry), internet trolls (e.g., 4chans /pol/), and others enamored with white identity and racialism. These groups seek to provide an alternative to mainstream American conservatism, which they believe is insufficiently concerned about the objectives of white identity, the defining concept that unites the alt-right. Racial Identity, said Arthur Kemp in March of the Titans: A History of the White Race, can be defined as the conscious recognition that one belongs to a specific race, ethnicity, and culture and with that comes certain obligations toward their own welfare. And the alt-right leader Jared Taylor of American Renaissance defines white identity as a recognition by whites that they have interests in common that must be defended. All other racial groups take this for granted, that its necessary to band together along racial lines to work together for common interests.

2. This association of the term alt-right with white identity politics first appeared in December 2008 when Paul Gottfried wrote an article for Takis Magazine titled, The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right. (The article itself does not use the phrase alternative right, and the editor of the magazine at that time, Richard Spencerthe current leading figure in the alt-rightclaims to have added the title.) At the time, the alternative right was loosely associated with paleoconservatives (another term created by Gottfried). Paleocons were self-identified conservatives who rejected the neo-conservatism of the George W. Bush-era. While the group tended to be anti-globalist and anti-war (especially opposed to the Iraq War) it was not necessarily associated with white identity politics. But in his article Gottfried identified postpaleos as a growing communion that now includes Takimag, VDARE.com, and other websites that are willing to engage sensitive, timely subjects. The sensitive, timely subjects Gottfried refers to are topics that had previously been the main concern of white identity groups, issues such as non-white immigration (being physically displaced by the entire Third World) and human cognitive capacities (i.e., the belief that certain racial groups are, in general, intellectually inferior to others). In 2010, Richard Spencer launched a website, AlternativeRight.com, to promote these views. Since then, the term has been associated with the white identity movement.

3. The alt-right is a mostly secular movement that frequently embraces leftist political views (especially on economics) and rejects traditional conservatism. As George Hawley, a University of Alabama professor who has studied the movement, told The Washington Post, the modal alt-right person is a male, white millennial; probably has a college degree or is in college; is secular and perhaps atheist and [is] not interested in the conservative movement at all. What puts the movement on the right is that it shares, along with conservatism, skepticism of forced egalitarianism. But thats generally all it shares with mainstream conservatism. In fact, many on the alt-right (such as Spencer) hold views associated with progressivism (e.g., support for abortion and opposition to free-market economics). The confusion about the movements politics lies in thinking that extremist groups are on each end of the left-right political spectrum. It is more accurate to consider them through the lens of the horseshoe theory, a concept in political science that claims the far left and the far right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble one another, much like the ends of a horseshoe.

4. While generally secular, the alt-right sometimes embraces Christendom (their version of a white European cultural Christianity) and some (such as Vox Day) claim that Christianity is a foundational pillar of the movement. But what they mean by Christianity is often a heretical form (Day rejects the Trinity and doesnt believe the races are spiritually equal) a racialized version of the faith (e.g., the Kinist movement), or religion as culture (Spencer says he is both an atheist and a culture Christian). The movement is also frequently embraced by neo-pagans. As alt-right leader Stephen McNallen has said, I am a pagan because it is the only way I can be true to who, and what, I am. I am a pagan because the best things in our civilization come from pre-Christian Europe. McNallen says he opposes Christianity because it lacks any roots in blood or soil and consequently can claim the allegiance of all the human race. The true religion of the alt-right is white identitarianism.

5. The alt-right embraces white identity politics and almost all of them embrace white nationalism. But not everyone on the alt-right embraces white supremacy. White supremacy is the belief that lighter-skinned or white racial groups are superior to all other racial groups. Modern advocates of white supremacy (such as the KKK) almost always advocate for white identity, though the reverse is not always true. As alt right leader Vox Day says, The Alt Right does not believe in the general supremacy of any race, nation, people, or sub-species. Every race, nation, people, and human sub-species has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and possesses the sovereign right to dwell unmolested in the native culture it prefers. White supremacy is also often conflated with white nationalism, the political view that merges nationalism with white identity. White nationalists are racial separatists who believe that to preserve the white race, other racial groups must be excluded or marginalized in white states (i.e., countries or regions that have historically had majority-white populations). White nationalists are frequently concerned about miscegenation and non-white immigration because it contributes to what they consider to be white genocide, i.e., the replacement of the white race by other racial groups.

*Many Christian conservatives and libertarians who do not agree with white identity politics have recently begun to refer to themselves as the alt-right. This is a disconcerting trend.

Some who do so simply do not understand the history of the term. They assume it means something akin to paleoconservative or is a synonym for Trump supporter. They arent aware it was chosen several years ago specifically to provide diverse groups who embrace the 14 Words with a label to rally around. Others have adopted alt-right because the media has begun to use the term as a critique of all people on the political right, and so claim it as an act of defiance to the media. A smaller number of people understand what the term means but want to reclaim it for other uses.

But no one who is not a white nationalist, white supremacist, or white identitarian should ever use the label to describe their own views. Here are three reasons why.

First, it delegitimizes conservatives who do not embrace racialism. When decent people align themselves with a label like alt-right it gives the impression such views are considered acceptable within mainstream conservatism.

Second, it legitimizes racist elements within society. If you would not associate yourself with the KKK or neo-Nazis, you should not associate with the alt-right simply because they do not all wear hoods and chant sieg heil. (Though they sometimes do.) Conservatives and libertarians should be distancing themselves from fascist movements, not embracing them out of solidarity against the mainstream media.

Third, we cant take back the term. Whatever legitimate uses the term alternative right may have had were destroyed long ago. Eight years ago Richard Spencerthe man who coined the term alt-rightstarted the website Alternative Right. Spencer used the site to flirt with Holocaust denial, promote racist and anti-Semitic views, and to champion the cause of white nationalism. Hes owned the term longer than anyone who now wants to adopt it. Attempting to reclaim the term is about as futile and unnecessary as attempting to reclaim the swastika.

Fourth, at the core of the alt-right movement is idolatrythe idol of whiteness. In building their identity on shared genetic traits the alt-right divides humanity and leads people away from the only source of true identity: Jesus Christ. The alt-right is anti-gospel because to embrace white identity requires rejecting the Christian identity. No Christian who loves Jesus should associate themselves with a label that is intended to promote racial separation and hate.
Emily Potter, from Hampshire, was spotted driving her Renault Clio with no lights on

A Team GB badminton bronze medallist has been banned from the road after being caught driving home after a night out while almost twice the limit.

Emily Potter, 19, from Hampshire, was spotted driving her Renault Clio with no lights on in the early hours of the morning - just days after returning from an international competition.

Potter had been out celebrating, having competed at the World Transplant Games in Malaga, Spain between June 25 and July 2, when she was caught.

The teenager, who has had a heart valve and kidney transplant, had reached the semi-final of the ladies singles competition and the quarter-final of the doubles.

At the last World Transplant Games, four years ago in Durban, South Africa, she won bronze in the individual badminton event.

Portsmouth Magistrates' Court heard Potter had been on a night out with friends when she had got a taxi home.

After having a short sleep, the badminton star decided she would take her car and find something to eat.

When police officers on patrol spotted her car with no lights on they pulled her over and breathalysed her.

The 19-year-old was found to 64 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath - almost twice the legal limit of 35.

Prosecutor Giles Fletcher said: 'It's 3.30am in the morning and she is driving with no lights on.

'Of course, police are going to stop a car if they see someone with no lights on.'

Potter, from Waterloovile, admitted one count of driving a motor vehicle when alcohol level above limit.

At the last World Transplant Games, four years ago in Durban, South Africa, she won bronze in the individual badminton event

Potter, who has no previous convictions, was banned from driving for a year

Engela McMonnies, defending, said her client had showed 'bad judgement' in getting behind the wheel that night.

She said: 'Not being able to drive will have a real impact on her life.

'She's a heart valve and kidney transplant recipient, she needs to drive back and forward to Oxford for appointments.

'She represents Team GB in the British World Transplant team and travels to Coventry for training. This is a case of driving in bad judgement.'

Potter, who has no previous convictions, was banned from driving for a year.

She was also fined 240 and ordered to pay a 24 victim surcharge and 85 costs.
A wedding anniversary is a time to celebrate your bond with your spouse, and this pensioner has given his critically ill wife the most romantic celebration possible in her hospital ward.

Zhang Ligen, 81, brought roses and sweets for his partner of 54 years, Cai Guifang, and hoped he could wake her up from a coma by singing their favourite love song.

The emotional scene was filmed in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Urumqi, China, on August 8, and has moved thousands of people on the internet.

He arrives at the hospital with a bunch of red roses for his wife who is currently in a coma

Heartwarming: He can be heard telling his wife that is only wish is for her to get better

In the footage from Pear Video, Mr Zhang tells his wife that is wish is for her to get better.

The loving husband can be seen holding a bouquet of roses for her.

In addition, he has six roses as well as 60 sweets.

Mr Zhang encourages Ms Cai, who is in a coma, by telling her: 'I brought you 60 sweets today. Our goal is to celebrate our diamond anniversary, okay?'

A doting husband: He can be heard asking staff if it is okay to sing for her

The song he sing is an old Chinese love song about a groom lifting his bride's veil

The 81-year-old then asks hospital staff if he can quietly sing to his wife.

He can then be heard singing to his wife as a nurse tends to her.

The song is an old Chinese love song about a groom lifting the veil on his bride at their wedding.

Lines include: 'Your eyes are bright and shiny like a glimmering star' and 'Your face is rosy and full like a rose in bloom.'

On the video, many people have pledged their support to the couple, touched by the footage.

One user said: 'Their love is invincible. She will be better.'

While another commented: 'This is the way of love.'

And one said: 'This is the purest love.'
A police officer has today denied assaulting her force's own race relations expert who was tasered in the face during an arrest.

Avon and Somerset PC Claire Boddie, 47, is accused of attacking Judah Adunbi in Easton, Bristol on January 14 this in an incident filmed by a witness.

Mr Adunbi was mistaken for a wanted man as he walked his dog and was tasered in the face before collapsing.

During a short hearing at Taunton Magistrates' Court this morning Boddie pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault by beating.

Avon and Somerset PC Claire Boddie, 47, (left today) is accused of attacking Judah Adunbi (right) in Easton, Bristol on January 14

This is the moment PC Claire Boddie arrested Avon & Somerset police race relations adviser Judah Adunbi - she was later arrested herself

Mr Adunbi, 64, who was also in court to watch today, co-founded the Independent Advisory Group in Bristol, set up with the help of police to improve the relationship with the Afro Caribbean Community.

He was allegedly assaulted by the police officer as he tried to enter his flat in Bristol after taking his dog for a walk.

Boddie, who wore a black suit and a white shirt, was granted unconditional bail and will next appear at Swindon Magistrates Court on September 12.

A video of the alleged assault was widely published at the time.

Mr Adunbi said in January: 'I was just finishing my walk and coming home. Police were driving up the road and caught a glimpse of me.

'One of the officers came right in my face. They insisted on trying to antagonise me.'

He added: 'I made my way towards the gate took my keys out and went to go through. They tried to force it open which made me release the grip I had on the gate.

'Then I heard this sound and felt something hit me below the lip. I collapsed on the ground.

'She started saying you've been tasered. I was paralysed. I couldn't speak or move. It's a grace of god that I'm still alive. She has done a very terrible thing to me.'

Judah Adunbi, 63, was accompanied at Taunton Magistrates' Court by a supporter wearing a 'Justice for Judah' T-shirt

Mr Adunbi was trying to get into his Bristol flat after taking his dog for a walk and was tasered in the face on this spot

Following an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, a file of evidence was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided to issue a summons.

Boddie, whose address in court papers was given as Avon and Somerset Police headquarters, spoke only to confirm her name and date of birth

Boddie, whose address in court papers was given as Avon and Somerset Police headquarters, spoke only to confirm her name and date of birth and enter her not guilty plea during the hearing.

District Judge David Taylor told the court that 'given the nature of the case, particularly the circumstances of the case' it should be heard outside the Avon and Somerset Police force area.

He said it would be listed for a case management hearing on September 12 at Swindon Magistrates' Court.

The judge told Boddie: 'I am satisfied, given the nature of this case as a whole, that the interests of justice would be far better served outside the force area.

'I will adjourn the case until September 12 and give you unconditional bail. At this case management hearing a trial date will be fixed.'

Mr Adunbi, who attended the hearing with friends, said afterwards: 'We are pleased with the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service.

'We are hopeful that justice will seen to be done by the courts.'

Avon and Somerset Police voluntarily referred itself to the police watchdog following the incident.

Mr Adunbi is a former member of the Independent Advisory Group to Avon and Somerset Police.

The groups advise on policing issues that may cause concern to local people and communities. Members from various backgrounds volunteer with the purpose of building trust, confidence and better relationships with diverse communities.
Cynthia Estrada-Lopez of Lexington, South Carolina, is charged with homicide by child abuse over the death of her four-year-old daughter

A little girl has died after her mother restrained her to her bed and duct taped her mouth shut.

Cynthia Estrada-Lopez of Lexington, South Carolina, is charged with homicide by child abuse over the death of her four-year-old daughter.

Police say the 24-year-old had restrained her daughter in the child's bed, taped her mouth and then simply abandoned her on July 31.

When she returned later, she found the girl unresponsive.

Paramedics arrived and the little girl was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead a short while later.

A cause of death has not yet been confirmed and the investigation is ongoing.

Estrada-Lopez was arrested and remains in the Lexington County jail after she was denied bond, the Houston Chronicle reported.
A veteran police chief in Conroe, Texas was asked to leave a doctor's office after he reportedly refused a receptionist's request to put the gun he was carrying in his car.

Chief Philip Dupuis checked in to his appointment at the Texas Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists in The Woodlands the afternoon of August 8, with his handgun attached to his side and an identification badge hanging from a lanyard around his neck.

Dupuis told The Courier he 'didn't think twice about it' because he is legally allowed to carry the weapon and 'always' has done so without any incidents of accidental discharge.

'I carry to protect myself and I carry to protect my family and the public,' Dupuis told the Montgomery County-based newspaper.

Police chief Philip Dupuis was asked to leave a doctor's office in The Woodlands August 8 for carrying a handgun on him

A receptionist working at the Texas Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists asked the officer to leave after he refused to put the gun in his car

Dupuis told The Courier he was wearing his badge, lanyard with identification and gun when he began to check in for his appointment

'My badge is clearly displayed. I have my lanyard on with 'police' on my ID card hanging around my neck. I had handcuffs. The lobby was full of people, and they asked me to leave because of who I am.'

The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) states that 'qualified' and the 'qualified retired law enforcement officer' are permitted to carry in any jurisdiction regardless of state or local laws.

With an exception, private businesses and property owners hold the right to prohibit both open and concealed carry.

Dupuis recognized the reservation and said, 'Legally, they can ask me to leave because I'm not there on official business.'

Dupuis took to Facebook explaining the embarrassing incident

Licensed police officers in the state of Texas can legally carry guns openly, anywhere in the state. But private business or property owners can create 'weapons-free' zones,

Since the incident, the Texas Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists released a public apology to the officer on their Facebook page.

'We regret the situation that occurred on August 8, 2017 involving Chief Dupuis and a member of our staff. We have personally apologized to Chief Dupuis for any inconvenience or embarrassment he experienced,' the post read.

'Our company values law enforcement officers and first responders for their selfless service and will serve them and our communities with the utmost respect.

Texas Ear, Nose & Throat Specialists will continue to treat armed law enforcement officers who have the appropriate identification. Again, we sincerely apologize to Chief Dupuis for the situation and the embarrassment he may have felt.'

The Texas Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists later sent out a public apology to the officer

Facebook users had mixed reactions about the incident.

One user wrote: 'As a healthcare professional I feel you had no reason to apologize to this crybaby cop. He and his ilk have slandered you. you have every right to protect your staff and other patients.'

Another said: 'That employee better be gone from your employment. There is no excuse for what happened and it disgust to me to no end, I hope your practice feels the pain for allowing this to happen to the Chief and that person should be ashamed of themselves.'

The specialty care group said they will make efforts to ensure an incident of this kind does not happen again in the future.
A 58-year-old man had to be rescued after falling into a 10-foot sinkhole while walking between parked cars in Philadelphia.

Eugene Clarke stepped off the curb between the cars in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in the city's northwest late on Saturday night when he fell.

The sinkhole was about two feet wide and 10 feet deep.

Eugene Clarke, 58, stepped off the curb between the cars in his Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in Philadelphia late on Saturday night when he fell into the sink hole

Clarke was pictured lying at the bottom of the hole for about 25 minutes before responding fire crews could rescue him.

He was taken to Temple University Hospital for treatment. He suffered non-life threatening ankle, wrist and lower back injuries.

'My hip and my back a little bit hurts,' he told NBC. 'It's just shocking. It was a shocking situation to be in that hole.'

The sinkhole in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood was about two feet wide and 10 feet deep

Eugene Clarke was rescued after 25 minutes and was rushed to hospital. He was released on Sunday (above) after being treated for ankle, wrist and lower back injuries

Clarke said a car had knocked down the cones and he was going to stand them back up around the gaping hole when he fell down

Clarke said residents in the neighborhood had first reported the sinkhole to the water department on Thursday.

Officials from the department taped off the area surrounding the hole and put up hazard cones.

Clarke said a car had knocked down the cones and he was going to stand them back up around the gaping hole when he fell down.

'The hole has been here about a week now,' he said. 'They could have even put a cover, one of those steel plates that you can move them but nobody would have been able to fall in that hole there.'
A Missouri high school has removed yearbook quotes from two openly gay students.

Seniors Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz at Kearney School District had both decided to use their yearbook quotes to celebrate coming out while at school.

'Of course I dress well. I didn't spend all that time in the closet for nothing,' Slivinski's quote read.

'If 'Harry Potter taught us anything, it's that no one should have to live in the closet,' read Swartz's.

A Missouri high school has removed yearbook quotes from openly gay students Joey Slivinski (left, with his quote) and Thomas Swartz (right, with his)

But both students, who are openly gay, say they were outraged to find that neither quote had been included after the year books arrived.

Instead, they were left with just a blank space under each of their names. Neither student was consulted before the quote was pulled.

Slivinksi wrote that the decision made him feel like the school was 'ashamed of having a gay student.'

'Kearney School District showed me that I am not accepted for being who I am,' he wrote in a Facebook post liked hundreds of times.

The Kearney School District (Kearney High is pictured) claims it removed their quotes without warning over concerns that they could 'potentially offend' other students

Swartz (left) said the move had left a bitter taste at the end of many happy years at the school, while Slivinksi (right) wrote that the decision made him feel like the school was 'ashamed of having a gay student'

'I put a very innocent quote as my senior quote and they took it away from me with absolutely no warning or option to change it.

'Our schools are supposed to be a place that you can express being who you are. Today I realized Kearney isn't ready for me being me. I always thought Kearney was going up hill but quickly realized we're zooming down hill quick.'

The Kearney School District claims it removed their quotes without warning over concerns that they could 'potentially offend' other students.

'In an effort to protect our students, quotes that could potentially offend another student or groups of students are not published,' school's principal and Kearney School District Superintendent Bill Nicely said in a statement to the Washington Post. 'It is the school's practice to err on the side of caution.

'Doing so in this case had the unintentional consequence of offending the very students the practice was designed to protect. We sincerely apologize to those students,' it continued. 'We acknowledge our mistake and will use it as a learning opportunity to improve in the future.'

But both students, who are openly gay, say they were shocked and hurt to find that neither quote had been included after the year books arrived

Instead, they were left with just a blank space under each of their names. Neither student was consulted before the quote was pulled

But Swartz pointed out that the school had allowed other 'potentially offensive' quotes, such as one student who wrote: 'If I could vote, I would've voted for Trump because I can't stand having a woman as president.'

Swartz added that both he and Slivinski had submitted their quotes at the beginning of December last year, giving the school plenty of time to discuss changing them, but said that no one had approached them to say there was any problem.

The students are now planning to make stickers with their quotes to put in their friends' yearbooks.

But Swartz said the move had left a bitter taste at the end of many happy years at the school.

He said that the 'direct discrimination' had 'ruined' his last year at school, and was 'completely disheartened and angry' to have suffered 'this type of senseless censorship.'

Friends of the pair also expressed their outrage at the school's move.

Mikala Dawn wrote in a Facebook comment on Slivinski's post that the school district 'should be ashamed!'

'They are taking away your first amendment-- freedom of speech. I'm so proud that you spoke out!' she added.

Others deemed it 'unacceptable' and 'bulls**t.'

'That is messed up! Kearney is spiraling downhill, 'Mallory Haskins said.

'Not cool,' added Cody Miller. 'Crazy how close minded some people can be back home, our City Hall literally flies the Pride flag here.'
A Subway shop where a worker was cleared of drugging a Utah police officer's drink filed a lawsuit Wednesday saying police waited two months to publicly disavow the headline-making allegations despite internal evidence the officer had no drugs in his system.

The Subway shop owners said officers in Layton, Utah, knew within hours that blood and urine tests were negative, but a police spokesman nevertheless continued to cite early tests indicating the possible presence of THC and methamphetamine in the officer's lemonade. Those results were never duplicated.

'My life has been changed forever. It will never be the same,' said co-owner Kristin Myers. 'It's always going to be known as the store that drugged the cop.'

Scroll down for video

Dallas Buttars (left) and Kristin Myers (right), the owners of a Subway sandwich shop in Layton, Utah, have filed a lawsuit against their city asking for unspecified damages

Buttars and Myers are the owners of this Subway sandwich shop in Layton, Utah. Last August, a police officer wrongly claimed that he had been drugged at their store

Layton City Attorney Gary Crane said the department had to investigate after the officer returned to the station with serious symptoms. Police couldn't publicly declare the worker had been cleared until receiving the results of extensive testing from the state crime lab.

Police responded to reporters' questions about information in public documents, and stressed that the allegations didn't reflect on the store, he said.

'You've got to investigate every angle,' he said.

Layton police declined to comment.

Employee Travis Ukena was arrested for drugging the cop, but was cleared two months later. He settled with the city for $50,000

Buttars and Myers say cops knew within hours that blood and urine tests were negative, but that a police spokesman continued to publicize the early results. Above, security video showing Ukena waiting on the officer at the drive thru

The story made national headlines and garnered speculation about the possible motive of the worker who prepared the drink amid growing animosity and distrust of police around the country in the wake of a number of officer-involved shootings.

The Subway owners say their business dropped 30 per cent after a police spokesman told a reporter about the sergeant who reported feeling impaired, having trouble finding the brake pedal and struggling to answer questions after getting the drink in his patrol car on Aug. 8, 2016. He was briefly hospitalized, Crane said.

Several Subway employees also quit after police detectives grilled other workers for hours about the case even though the store cooperated with the investigation, franchise owners Dallas Buttars and Myers said in the lawsuit. They say the lost business, employee time and stigmatization cost them nearly $300,000.

Buttars and Myers said they asked Layton city officials to publicize the negative test results for weeks before police announced they'd cleared worker Tanis Ukena in October 2016, two months after his arrest.

Buttars and Myers (pictured above with their attorney Robert Sykes, right) are seeking unspecified damages in the lawsuit

It's still a mystery what caused the serious symptoms the officer suffered that day, Crane said. The officer, whose name has not been released, remains employed with the department.

Ukena has said he received online death threats and hateful comments that made him afraid to leave his northern Utah home after the case became public. After being cleared, the top student and Eagle Scout who never had been in trouble said he was relieved but disappointed that police didn't apologize.

That family has reached a resolution with the city, he said, though he wouldn't give details.

Attorney Randy Richards has said his client, who is now serving a Mormon mission, had no reason to target a police officer and didn't put anything in the drink. He didn't immediately have comment on Wednesday's lawsuit, and members of the Ukena family could not be reached.
Donald Trump used his Twitter account on Monday to attack Merck pharmaceuticals after its CEO Kenneth Frazier quit the president's American Manufacturing Council in reaction to Trump's response to deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

'@Merck Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!' Trump tweeted as he left Washington for New York.

Frazier was the council's only black member. He announced his decision to resign while calling on American leaders to clearly reject 'expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.'

He said his decision was a 'matter of personal conscience' and a 'stand against intolerance and extremism.'

Trump had already blasted Frazier Monday morning, tweeting: 'Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!'

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Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier quit Trump's American Manufacturing Council over the president's lackluster response to violence in Charlottesville caused by white supremacist groups

Trump lashed out at Merck on Monday afternoon, calling it a price-hiking exporter or jobs

The president had already bashed Frazier by name on Monday morning after news broke that the only black member of his manufacturing council had quit

President Trump (left) is photographed with Kenneth Frazier (right), the CEO of Merck in July, as the only black member of Trump's manufacturing council exited the group over the president's inability to call out white supremacists by name

On Monday morning, the official Merck Twitter account sent out CEO Kenneth Frazier's statement on why he decided to quit President Trump's American Manufacturing Council

The president is now facing a business backlash over his much-panned response to the violence that broke out Saturday in Charlottesville, in which one counter-protester  marching against hate groups gathered in the Virginia town  was killed.

Nazi sympathizer James Fields, a 20-year-old from Ohio, used his Dodge Charger to run over counter-protesters killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 more.

He's been charged with second degree murder.

Two police officers who were responding to the violence were also killed when their helicopter crashed.

On Saturday, Trump made a statement from his Bedminster resort in New Jersey saying, 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.'

Critics, including a handful of Congressional Republicans, suggested that Trump was falsely equating the neo-Nazis, KKK members and white supremacists protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee with those marching against the hate groups.

Since then, an unnamed spokesman for the White House has updated the statement to say 'of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.'

But Trump hadn't personally condemned the hate groups by name. He didn't do that until Monday afternoon, after Frazier had quit.

Kenneth Frazier (left), the CEO of Merck, was the only black member of President Trump's (right) American Manufacturing Council

Members of white supremacist groups are photographed gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, Friday night

Members of hate groups including the KKK are escorted by police past a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia

Counter-protesters and members of hate groups clash in Charlottesville, Virginia. One counter-protester was killed, along with two police officers in a helicopter crash

Instead, Trump spent his Sunday out of journalists' sights, not making public appearances and staying off Twitter throughout the day.

Around 6 p.m. he finally retweeted several pieces of positive coverage, but made no mention of the Charlottesville violence again.

It took Trump under an hour to respond to Frazier's decision to quit the manufacturing board.

On Sunday night, Vice President Mike Pence defended Trump's response and by Monday morning Attorney General Jeff Sessions had also chimed in.

'He made a very strong statement that directly contradicted the ideology of hatred, violence, bigotry, racism, white supremacy,' Session, during an appearance on the Today show, argued.

But that wasn't enough to sway Frazier, whose statement from the official Merck Twitter account quickly picked up steam.

'I am resigning from the President's American Manufacturing Council,' he wrote.

'Our country's strength stems from its diversity and the contributions by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs,' Frazier said.

Frazier's exit marks the fourth time a prominent CEO has walked away from one of Trump's White House boards.

On the heels of Trump exiting the Paris climate accord, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, also part of the American Manufacturing Council, threw in the towel. Disney CEO Bob Iger, who served on the president's Strategic and Policy Forum exited over Paris too.

Now former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick left Trump's boards in February over the administration's travel ban, which targeted Muslim-majority countries.

Another member of the manufacturing board, Under Armour's Kevin Plank, also tweeted about Charlottesville on Monday.

'We are saddened by #Charlottesville. There is no place for racism or discrimination in this world. We choose love & unity,' Plank wrote.

Later Plank, along with Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich, who are both white, decided to leave the group.
They are an everyday sight that could mean the difference between a smooth journey and a costly repair bill.

But many of us have no idea what the lights and symbols on our car dashboards actually mean and when to take action.

They flag up issues with the engine or can even save a driver's life in the most serious of cases - but how many do you know?

There are 64 warning lights and symbols on a car's dashboard - but how many do you recognise?

According to a new survey, one in three cannot recognise which symbol is the headlamp indicator, while 27 per cent can't identify the 'check engine' sign, the study of 2,000 drivers found.

And when people do understand what the car is warning them about, very few know how to manage the problem themselves.

Two thirds of those polled have no idea how to check the oil, just under half don't know how to change a tyre and 44 per cent wouldn't have a clue how to change the windscreen wipers.

While 58 per cent have no idea what their tyre thread limit should be, when it becomes illegal, or how to check it.

Here is your handy guide to recognising what each symbol means and what you need to do about it.

1. Front fog lights turned on

2. Power steering system problems

3. Rear fog lights switched on

4. Low level of windscreen fluid

5. Worn brake pads

6. Cruise control is activated

7. Signalling direction

8. Trouble on light sensor or rain sensor

9. Winter mode

10. Info indicator

11. The diesel auxiliary heater

12. Ice warning

13. Starting system problems

14. The key is not in the car

15. Key low battery

16. Warning distance to another car

17. Indicator to push the clutch

18. Indicator to push the brake pedal

19. Locked steering-wheel

20. Long beam turned on

21. Low tyre pressure

22. Short beam on

23. Problems with headlight / taillights / signals bulbs

24. Problems with brake lights

25. Problems with the particulate filter (DPF)

26. Error - disconnection of the plug from the trailer

27. Air suspension problems

28. Warning for exceeding the lane without signaling (anti sleep system, lane assist)

29. Problems with catalyst

30. Warning for seat belt (belt is not on)

31. Warning parking light

32. Alternator or battery problems

33. Parking sensors turned on

34. Service warning light

35. Adaptive headlights turned on

36. Headlight angle

37. Problems with variable rear spoiler

38. Problems in triggering electric roof

39. Front airbag is switched off

40. Handbrake is pulled on

41. Water in fuel filter

42. Airbag switched off

43. Mechanical problem or electrical error

44. Short beam turned on

45. Dirty air filter requires replacement

46. ECO mode turned on

47. Downhill assist on

48. Cooling system problems

49. Problem with ABS

50. Problems with fuel filter

51. Open door

52. Open bonnet

53. Fuel tank on reserve, need to fill the tank

54. Automatic gearbox problems

55. Speed limiter is on

56. Suspension problems

57. Low oil pressure

58. Front window defroster

59. Open boot

60. Electronic Stability Programme is off

61. Rain sensor

62. Engine problems or hazards

63. Rear window defroster

64. The automatic windscreen wiper

A study of 2,000 motorists in Britain has shown that nine out of 10 people have had a symbol pop up in their car that they didn't recognise

David Carter, spokesman for Accident Advice Helpline, said: 'It's worrying how little drivers know about their own cars.

'Knowing the meaning of a dashboard symbol on your car could be the difference between having an accident or not.'

The study reveals only 16 per cent of drivers would now try to fix a problem with their car themselves.

Just under half of those polled would look online if the dashboard started flashing at them with unrecognisable symbols.

And three per cent of people would continue to drive their car regardless of warnings until it actually felt unsafe.

When it comes to car maintenance, a quarter of motorists admit they have been late in getting their car through the MOT.

Of these, 18 per cent took their car to the garage more than 16 days after the test was due.

Most common reasons for missing the car MOT were forgetting, feeling the car was safe and not being able to afford it.
 C-SPANs Orgel Again Facilitates Disinformation and Defamation Concerning Israel | Main | Iran Increases Military Spending and the Media Fumbles 

August 14, 2017

The Washington Post and The Case of the Missing Abu Jihad



The Washington Post continues to neglect internal Palestinian affairs. Six-months after he was appointed deputy to Fatah head and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, a man named Mahmoud al-Aloul has yet to be featured in the pages of The Post. Fatah is the dominant movement in the PA, which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).

As CAMERA has noted, al-Aloul is a convicted and unrepentant terrorist who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Jihad (Father of Jihad?). Since his appointment in February 2017, al-Aloul is potentially in line to succeed Abbasan ailing octogenarian autocrat who leads entities that receive considerable U.S. and international aid. His ascension should be a news storyparticularly given The Posts frequent coverage of the future of the peace process? with Israel and recent U.S. congressional efforts aimed at addressing PA payments to terrorists (for more details, see here).

The United States, Israel and others could potentially be looking at the day in which a man named Abu Jihad leads the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, Abbas decision to activate the Tanzim faction of Fatah during the latest Temple Mount dispute, led to analyst Grant Rumley proclaiming that the end of the Abbas era? might be here.

In a Feb. 24 2017 Algemeiner Op-Ed entitled Terrorist Appointed as Mahmoud Abbas Deputy, But the World Stays Silent,? CAMERA pointed out the lack of media attention that Abu Jihads appointment was receiving. In conversations with Post staff, and in several Op-Eds since then, CAMERA highlighted the importance of the media devoting attention to Palestinian political developments commensurate with their attention to Israeli affairs.

Yet, six months later, The Washington Post has yet to note Abu Jihads rise. Instead, The Posts Jerusalem bureau has filed dispatches on Palestinian pigeon ownership (An old pastime thrives in a Palestinian enclave,? Aug. 13, 2017), a Palestinian winning an Arab Idol song contest (Feb. 26, 2017) and the Palestinian used car market (How junkyard cars from Israel have become deadly Palestinian treasures,? March 29, 2017)along with numerous reports on Israeli political developments and the future of the peace process.

Abu Jihad, however, is still missing in the papers pages. And its not as if the paper is unaware of who he is.

A March 15, 2011 Post dispatch (Palestinians rally for unity in Gaza, West Bank?) described a gathering in which Mahmoud al-Aloul, a senior Fatah official, threw his arm around Hussein Abu Kweik, a Hamas leader, in a show of brotherhood.? An Aug. 23, 2013 report by Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth even uncritically quoted Abu Jihads claims that Israelis do not want a peace process.? The paper, describing al-Aloul as the former governor of Nablus district,? omitted his record as a convicted terrorist. (Fatal West Bank clash threatens peace talks, Palestinians say?).

Yet, now that al-Aloul has risen in Palestinian politics, The Post has nothing to say. By contrast, Israeli affairs are covered extensively, with reports about who the Israeli prime ministers dog is biting at a dinner party, an Israeli restaurant purportedly overcharging tourists, and politicians like Naftali Bennett being profiled.

Bennett, The Post tells readers, is hardline.? Fatahs deputy head, Abu Jihad, however, is nowhere to be found.

Posted by SD at August 14, 2017 03:35 PM

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Councils are raking in 1.5billion a year on parking - including more than 1billion on fines alone - it has been revealed.

Brighton and Hove Council has made the most money outside London with 28.7million, shortly followed by Nottingham city council with 20.9m and Birmingham city council with 18.3m.

The five authorities with the highest revenue were all in London, led by Westminster with a whopping 76.4million.

This was followed by Kensington and Chelsea (46.1m), Camden (38.1m), Hammersmith and Fulham (35.6m), and Wandsworth (30.4m).

Overall, parking income for English councils outside London amounted to 906 million, a five per cent increase on 2014-15

A report from the RAC found total income from on-street tickets and permits totalled 483m, a further 338m came from on-street parking charges and 682m from off-street charges and penalties, such as car park fines.

This represents a four per cent increase from the year before.

Parking income included money from meters, residents' parking permits, business parking permits and penalties for parking offences.

Company Click4reg analysed which local authorities in England are receiving the highest income from parking charges.

Overall, parking income for English councils outside London amounted to 906 million, a five per cent increase on 2014-15.

Brighton and Hove council was in top spot with the authority making 28.7m in parking income.

This was closely followed by Nottingham city council, with 20.9 million and Birmingham city council with 18.3 million.

Parking income included money from meters, residents' parking permits, business parking permits and penalties for parking offences

The total income in 2015-16 from parking was 1.5bn, four per cent higher than in 2014-15 (file picture)

In terms of rise and fall, councils with the largest increase in rates included Bristol city council (22 per cent) and Milton Keynes (16 per cent).

Elie Fakhoury, managing director at Click4reg, said: 'Parking charges, especially those considered excessive, are certainly an emotive issue.

'Parking charges can be laughable  but they are necessary. Motorists need structure, rules  but it's about being smart.'

The company said that the total parking income, split between every driver each year would add up to around 58.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove council told MailOnline: 'Brighton & Hove's surplus from on-street parking for 2015/16 is 12.69 million and from off-street parking is 2.6 million.

'These are the actual figures the council has left after all the outgoing costs of enforcement, administration, maintaining parking machines, and reviewing or introducing new schemes have been taken into account. Financial returns such as those used by the RAC do not include all these expenditures.

'Nearly all of the parking surplus is spent on providing 46,000 free bus passes for older and disabled people, which the council has a legal duty to provide.

'For the year 2015/16 this was 10.75 million, with just over 1 million invested back into supporting bus services and the remainder going on other transport benefits such as traffic light improvements, walking facilities and school travel plans.'

A spokesman for Nottingham city council said: 'This report mistakenly includes the Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) which is unique to Nottingham and is ring-fenced by law to fund particular transport projects. So remove that and we in fact receive less revenue from parking than many major cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol - 11.6m.

'The WPL income makes up the vast majority of our total in this report  but when the so-called surplus from our day-to-day parking charges is fairly compared against others  our overall surplus is actually 5m, meaning Nottingham is ranked outside the top 10 and way down the table.

'Our car parks and parking spaces are busy which shows a thriving city centre and that our charges are appropriate. And of course, having the award winning WPL means we can further improve the alternatives to the car that are already include the expansion of Nottinghams tram service, the redevelopment of Nottingham Station, and the ongoing running of the citys popular Link Bus services.'

An LGA spokesperson said: 'Parking charges and fines are essential to help councils keep traffic flowing and pedestrians and motorists safe.

'Councils do not make a profit from on-street parking. All income from charges and fines has to be spent on running parking services and any surplus goes on essential transport projects such as tackling our 12 billion national roads repair bill, providing subsidised bus travel for children or elderly residents and creating extra parking spaces.'

Parking income (on- and off-street): Top 20 English councils outside London Authority Parking income Brighton and Hove

Nottingham

Birmingham

Bristol

Cornwall

Manchester

Newcastle

Milton Keynes

Guildford

Leeds

Colchester

Bath and North East Somerset

Cambridge

Bournemouth

Norwich

Liverpool

Southampton

Canterbury

Woking

Portsmouth 28.7million

20.9million

18.3million

16.5million

15.7million

15.5million

15.1million

13.8million

12.1million

11.2million

10.5million

10.5million

10.4million

9.9million

9.2million

8.8million

8.6million

8.5million

8.4million

8.3million

A Bristol City Council spokeswoman said: 'All surplus income from parking is put back into much-needed transport initiatives such as concessionary bus fares, filling potholes and supporting park and rides.

'With the current financial challenges the council is facing this income is even more crucial to manage the everyday transport services Bristol relies on.

'The council's parking operations play an important role in helping to manage the sheer volume of vehicle activity within our busy city.

'The income includes parking charges, but also enforcement of our restrictions to keep traffic moving effectively.

'We have very limited capacity on our road network and just one badly parked car can be hugely disruptive to other motorists, leading to queues and bus delays.

'For that reason we need to continue to enforce parking laws vigilantly and set appropriate tariffs to support the running of our operations.'
Grace, 8, and Kara McKinney, 5, are thought to be with their father Michael for a week-long visit

Police launched an appeal for information in a bid to trace two 'highly vulnerable' missing girls.

Victoria McKinney, the mother of the girls, has not heard from her young children since Thursday morning.

Grace, 8, and Kara McKinney, 5, are thought to be with their father Michael for a week-long visit.

They were last seen travelling in an old Eldiss Autoquest campervan with the registration H36 PBO and were thought to be visiting the west coast of Scotland.

They had last been seen in Alyth, Perth and Kinross, and were heading for Fort William and Skye.

The caravan was last seen on a ferry heading towards Larne in Northern Ireland.

It is believed that their father Michael McKinney has visitation rights.

But an emotional appeal for information on Facebook by mother Victoria has been shared more than 70,000 times.

She wrote: 'My two daughters Grace McKinney and Kara McKinney have been missing since Thursday morning.

'Were visiting their father for a week but they have all disappeared, seen leaving his flat in Alyth early Thursday morning.

'Travelling in an Elddis Autoquest campervan which is creamy/green in colour, very old and rough looking, reg H36 PBO.

'They will be with their father Michael McKinney (5'10, grey hair worn in a top knot with shaven sides and a goatee) and his Czech girlfriend Martina (5'5 with shoulder length dark brown hair and heavy build) and also her three-year-old boy Woody who has blonde hair.

'They will also have a white staffy dog with them. If you have any information please let us know.

'Police are treating the children as highly vulnerable missing persons. Please call police on 101 if you have any relevant information.'

A police spokesman said they want to confirm the youngsters' well-being.

He said: 'Police Scotland is appealing for information in order to trace Grace Elizabeth McKinney and Kara McKinney.

'Officers are eager to trace Grace and Kara in order to confirm their well-being.

'Grace is described as 4'10' slim with red/auburn hair and Kara is 4'0' with red/auburn hair.

'If you have any information which may assist Police in tracing Grace and Kara please contact Police Scotland on 101 and quote incident number 3165 11/08/17 or approach any police Scotland Officer.'
This video shows the heart-stopping moment a wildlife expert swims with more than 20 alligators.

In the footage, Michael Womer - known as the Gator Crusader - takes a selfie with the reptiles before deciding to swim with them.

He says that since he was already in the water with them, he should 'swim around with them for a bit, kiss their tail, rub their back and try to stay survive'.

The Gator Crusader may be short in stature but he doesn't let that stop him from swimming with the creatures

Crazy for gators: Known as the most eccentric and unusual gator trainer in Florida the Gator Crusader loves taking selfies with the animals

However, being surrounded by the dangerous reptiles doesn't faze the Gator Crusader.

At one point, he even rubs and kisses the tail of one of the creatures and lifts his hand over the gator's head to grabs its attention.

The next second, the Gator Crusader holds a key ring over one of the scaly beasts to encourage it to lift its head.

The alligator complies and is then rewarded with some food.

Alligator kisses: At one point he even kisses and rubs the tail of one of the creatures

But Orlando-based Womer is no match for hungry gators and quickly has to jump out of the water when he runs out of food.

Known as the shortest, most eccentric and unusual gator trainer in Florida, Womer's passion is alligators and he loves getting selfies with the 'awesome, beautiful animals'.

He has worked with alligators for 25 years and has posted clips of himself brushing a gator's teeth, texting with his phone inside a gator's mouth and reading an issue of a Deadpool comic to an eager gator audience.

Food for thought: The Gator Crusader attempts to get one of the alligators to lift its head with food and a key ring
A British mother-of-three died from a blood clot after marrying a US killer and jetting back and forth to America to visit him in jail, an inquest heard.

Divorcee Kay Frazier, 50, from Wigan, began writing to Gary Frazier online in 2010 and said when they married in 2012: 'I feel safer with him than any other person.'

The killer, 37, is currently not eligible for parole from his Nebraska jail until 2024 after shooting two people, killing one, during a row when aged 19.

Over five years the couple exchanged 12,000 letters with Kay sending him around 12 love letters every day.

She later flew from Greater Manchester to marry Frazier in his cell and give him a 'passionate kiss' but said they were not allowed to consummate their relationship.

An inquest into her death has heard just seven years before he could be released at the earliest from his 49 year sentence, she has unexpectedly died from surgery following a thrombosis - the medical term for a blood clot.

Divorcee Kay Frazier, 50, from Wigan, began writing to Gary Frazier online in 2010 with the couple exchanging 12,000 letters - around 12 every day - and said when they married in 2012: 'I feel safer with him than any other person'

Bolton Coroner's Court was told how after their wedding Mrs Frazier remained in Wigan, but flew to the US regularly - and wrote 12 letters a day.

On one trip to the States, she had 16 separate day visits approved so she could spent time with her new husband.

But last May 11 she died suddenly at Salford Royal Hospital after a huge clot in her basilar artery blocked blood to her brain.

The killer, 37, is currently not eligible for parole from his Nebraska jail until 2024 after shooting two people, killing one, during a row aged 19

The hearing was told her death was also down to complications from risky surgery, deemed by doctors the only chance to save her life.

Coroner Jennifer Leeming heard she was rushed to Salford Royal Hospital from Wigan Infirmary last May 9 with serious headaches.

Radiologist Toby Williams said there was 'nothing left to lose' in performing the blood clot-removing 'thrombectomy' treatment.

The consultant stressed although it has a 1-10 per cent mortality rate, he was '100 per cent sure' she would die without it.

He said: 'We have treated thrombosis like this before with success.'

But as Mr Williams tried in vain to remove the clot, Mrs Frazier suffered a ruptured artery causing a bleed in her brain.

She lost all brain activity by 7pm on May 10th, finally passing away on May 11th.

Coroner's officer Peter Yates confirmed he had repeatedly tried to contact her children to tell them about the inquest but with no success.

There is no explanation as to why Mrs Frazier developed the blood clot, which is believed to have occurred naturally.

In a 2014 interview, Mrs Frazier admitted friends think 'I'm mad' after 'a normal woman from Wigan ended up marrying a murderer from Nebraska.'

She told how she first married aged 17, had three sons now aged 31, 30 and 25, but divorced in 2004.

In 2010, she started watching documentaries about prisons and saw how US inmates would go online to find a pen pal.

She explained: 'Gary sounded confident and interesting. He got mixed up with the wrong crowd when a teenager.

'One night he and some friends got into an argument with some other lads. Gary shot two, one of them died.

'Prison saved him. If he hadn't been locked up, he would be dead by now.'

Admitting flying out to see him the first time was 'madness' she said: 'I was outside a prison in the middle of Nebraska visiting a murderer.

'But when Gary walked in it felt like I'd known him forever.'

She visited Frazier again in 2011 and added: 'He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

'I stammered "yes" and everyone in the visiting room cheered.'

In 2012 she returned to the prison to get married and said: 'A minister carried out the ceremony. His mum and his sister were there.

'We managed a passionate kiss but prisoners have no conjugal rights, so we still haven't consummated our marriage. I'm happy to wait.

'He won't be allowed to come to Britain, I'll have to go to Nebraska to live'.
An Oklahoma federal judge has ruled that a former middle school teacher who is currently serving a 10-year sentence for having sex with her student will have to pay him $1miilion for causing him emotional distress.

Jennifer Caswell, 31, pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and related charges and was sentenced in 2015 to 15 years in prison, with five of them suspended, for having a half-dozen sexual encounters with a 15-year-old student at Hollis Middle School.

Around the same time, the victim and his father filed a civil lawsuit against Caswell and the Oklahoma school district that had employed her. Two years later, US District Judge Robin Cauthron has ruled in the boys favor, awarding the teenager $1million for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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Seven-figure verdict: A judge has ruled that Jennifer Caswell, 31, a former Oklahoma middle school teacher, will have to pay her former student $1million of repeatedly having sex with him

Caswell was a rookie eighth-grade English teacher at Hollis Middle School in Oklahoma (pictured) when the abuse too place

The judge wrote in her opinion that the child 'reported feelings of depression, isolation and self-blame,' and that he felt humiliated after news of his sexual relationship with the teacher spread.

Plaintiffs attorney Bob Wyatt said his clients were pleased with the outcome of the lawsuit, which they hoped would send a message to teachers and schools across the state that sexual abuse perpetrated by educators will not be tolerated, reported NewsOK.com.

According to the ruling, the victim had gone from being a popular athlete to the subject of mockery in his community, which eventually forced him to enroll in school in a different town, where he has no family and few friends.

In this case, a teacher abused her position of trust and authority to sexually violate a young man who will face the emotional effects of the encounter for the rest of his life, Cauthron wrote.

Insolvent: Caswell's lawyer says she will spend the next several years in prison and does not have the means to pay the victim

The opinion went on to say that the victim has been receiving counselling to deal with the trauma of the abuse, and his therapists expect that he will have problems in the future trusting women in general, and female authority figures in particular.

Caswell's defense attorney said his client will spend the next several years behind bars and has no means to pay the $1million judgement, but she is unlikely to appeal the verdict.

Bob Wyatt, the victims lawyer, has acknowledged the money is likely uncollectible.

Last month, Hollis Public Schools agreed to pay the former student $125,000 to settle a separate lawsuit that accused the district of covering up Caswell's sexual abuse.

The family, whom DailyMail.com is not naming because the boy was a victim of a sex crime, alleged he was told to keep his mouth shut about his relationship with Caswell.

She appeared on the Dr Phil Show in 2015 claiming that she was 'not a rapist' and blamed the 15-year-old boy for making the first move.

Caswell, who was formerly known by her married name, Saxton, said she was disgraced by her 10-year sentence and said: 'I didn't force anything. I didn't manipulate. I didn't take advantage.'

But Hollis Public Schools agreed to pay the six-figure sum to settle the claims made against them in relation to the illicit relationship.

Speaking out: In May, Caswell appeared on the Dr Phil Show claiming that she was 'not a rapist'

Charles Watts, an attorney for the victim's family, told The Oklahoman in July the figure was $125,000, but school officials refused to speculate on the figure.

The boy's parents said his life outside of school and his grades suffered as a result of the relationship and that he suffered emotional distress and humiliation when word got out to classmates.

Watts said: 'The truth is that this has a terrible effect on a child.

'You can expect in his future life that he will have a hard time with relationships.'

It was claimed the school allowed Caswell to resign so that she could keep her teaching credentials.

School attorney Andy Fugitt argued school officials notified police and the local district's attorney's office when Caswell resigned, and said the Oklahoma State Department of Education has the right to revoke a teacher's credentials, not the school district.

'The school district responded to the information it had  which was very limited  in an appropriate way,' Fugitt told The Oklahoman.

In May 2015, Caswell appeared on the Dr Phil Show claiming that she was 'not a rapist' and blamed the 15-year-old boy for making the first move.

'I didn't force anything. I didn't manipulate. I didn't take advantage,' she said at the time.

Harmon County District Judge Richard Darby sentenced Caswell to prison for the six incidents involving sex with the teenager.

The sentences were ordered to run concurrently, totaling 10 years behind bars for the then 29-year-old divorced mother-of-one from Hollis.

'I cant say that we had ever considered it being that harsh,' Caswell's attorney, David Cummins, told the station NewsOK after the hearing.

Cummins said they had expected a maximum sentence of five years.

Caswell, who had a 6-year-old son, will only become eligible for parole in six and a half years.

After her release, she will be required to register as a sex offender.

Blaming the victim: Caswell told Dr Phil it was her student's flirting and affection that led to them having sex

In the wake of Caswell's sentencing, the young victim's mother said she felt the disgraced teacher's punishment was fair.

After she resigned in April 2014 with her credentials intact, Caswell had sex with the boy in a vehicle, her house and the boy's father's house, according to prosecutors.

After the woman followed the 15-year-old 650 miles to Mississippi, where he had been sent to stay with his mother, the boy began cooperating with authorities.

During her appearance on the Dr Phil Show in May, Caswell suggested it was the boy's persistence that led to them having sex in her classroom last April.

She told Dr Phil: 'He came in, I was working on things, he kept coming closer to me and I would kind of walk away to the other part, you know another room, another areas of the classroom and he just walked up to me and then he kissed me. And then it just kind of went from there.'

Bleak future: After her release, Caswell will be required to register as a sex offender

'I was walking around the classroom straightening up the desks and he came and I guess it was standing up,' Caswell said.

The 31-year-old admitted that she did not tell the student to stop what he was doing.

She said: 'I kept on saying, ''No, you know we cant do this. No, no, no.''.

'He wasn't forcing me, I mean, I could've easily just walked out of my classroom, but I didn't.

'But I was resisting because I knew it was wrong, but I didn't.'

Caswell said that following sex with the student, she felt 'terrified'.

'I just couldn't believe I had done something like that,' she added.

The sexual encounter took place within six weeks of Caswell having her teaching certificate. She was arrested two months later.

Caswell claimed her failing marriage with her now ex-husband, as well as the culture in her small town, all contributed to the unlawful relationship.

She said: 'I felt very unwanted by my husband. I was with him for ten years and I was never complimented. We never held hands or were physical.'

The former English teacher said she was flattered and came to enjoy the attention, flirting and compliments she received from the student.
Ryanair is calling on UK airports to enforce a two-drink limit after it was revealed the number of passengers arrested for drunken behaviour has increased by half.

The budget airline has already banned customers from drinking duty-free alcohol on flights in response to the rise, which has taken place over the last year.

It has also stopped people flying from Glasgow and Manchester to Alicante and Ibiza from bringing any alcohol on board the aircraft at all to improve behaviour.

The company is now urging airports to ban the sale of alcohol before 10am and to limit the number of drinks per boarding pass to a maximum of two.

Ryanair is calling on UK airports to enforce a two-drink limit after it was revealed the number of passengers arrested for drunken behaviour has increased by half

Ryanair's Kenny Jacobs said: 'This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed.'

The call comes after figures obtained by BBC Panorama from 18 out of 20 police forces with a major UK airport on their patch revealed a surge in arrests for drunken behaviour on flights or at UK airports.

There was a total of 387 in the year to February 2017, up from 255 in the period from February 2015 to 2016, according to the statistics.

Ally Murphy, a former Virgin Airlines cabin crew manager, told Panorama: 'People just see us as barmaids in the sky.

'I was pulled into an upper-class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky I guess.

Ryanair's Kenny Jacobs said that the issue of drinking on planes 'must be addressed'

'They would touch your breasts, or they'd touch your bum or your legs, or I mean I've had hands going up my skirt before.

'It's rage inducing, and you shouldn't have to deal with that.

'I guess I never reported it to the police because sadly, and this is completely wrong and only really occurring to me now, you kind of just accept it as part of the job. And it shouldn't be.'

Another cabin crew member, who was unnamed in the programme, said airline workers had found 'countless' litre bottles of vodka and they felt that Alicante, Ibiza and Palma were among the worst routes.

Alexandra Wilms, of the Balearic Ministry of Tourism, called for 'high fines' to try and deal with the problem as 'these kinds of people don't understand any other thing than really getting punished by paying a lot of money'.

Ms Dee said: 'The sale of alcohol is not a problem. It's the misuse of it and drinking to excess and then behaving badly.'

Panorama also points out that the UK aviation industry brought in a voluntary code a year ago.

It recommends that airports and airlines should work together to limit disruptive behaviour and sell alcohol responsibly.
A biker brutally murdered a young missionary by shooting him five times before being forced to flee the scene on foot when his bike failed to start.

The aftermath of the shooting was captured on camera by another driver in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

The victim, named as 27-year-old Jonathan Ernesto Ordonez, was walking home from church when he was set upon and killed.

Footage appears to show the killer struggling to get his bike going after the shooting as the man lies lifeless on the ground

It is alleged the biker rode over to him, shooting him fatally five times, before trying to flee the scene.

But footage appears to show the killer struggling to get his bike going after the shooting. Instead, he is seen running down the road, pushing the bike along.

Before running away, the alleged killer is said to have grabbed a rucksack belonging to the victim which was filled with bibles.

The gruesome footage was uploaded to social networks with police appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

Unable to start his bike, the man is seen running down the road, pushing the bike along. Officers confirmed they have since arrested a man, named as 39-year-old Wilmer Leonel Sierra on suspicion of murder

Officers confirmed they have since arrested a man, named as 39-year-old Wilmer Leonel Sierra on suspicion of murder.

They said he has a record after being previously convicted on charges including homicides, drug trafficking and making threats to kill.

The investigation is ongoing.
Prosecutors said he demanded 160,000 from terrorists in order to equip cars with explosives and

A Syrian refugee living in Germany has been found guilty of trying to defraud ISIS.

The man, identified only as Hasan A., was sentenced to two years in jail after a judge in the city of Saarbruecken ruled that he had attempted to cheat the terror group.

The judge said Hasan, a 39-year-old hairdresser, had falsely claimed he was going to carry out terror attacks before asking the militants for 180,000 euros (160,000).

The ruling swept aside prosecutors' arguments that Hasan was guilty of the more serious crime of plotting attacks on behalf of a terror organization.

It also grants legal protection to ISIS, despite the fact that the money was never transferred to Hasan.

Hasan A, from the city of Saarbruecken, has been sentenced to two years in jail for defrauding ISIS after he asked for 160,000 from the group in order to make bombs for a terror attack

Both prosecutors and lawyers for Hasan have announced they will be appealing the decision, which was announced on Monday.

Hasan was arrested on New Year's Eve 2016 as police commandos raided his apartment near the French border around 2:00am.

He was detained before being formally arrested on terror financing charges on New Year's Day.

The man's 'as yet undefined attack scenario' suggested turning cars into suicide bombs in Germany, France, Belgium and The Netherlands, police said.

Spiegel Online reported the plan was to re-paint the vehicles to make them look like police patrol cars.

It named the suspect as Hasan A and said the man he contacted was located in ISIS' de-facto capital of Raqqa, in Syria.

The man had entered Germany in December 2014 and applied for asylum in January 2015, obtaining refugee status and a residency permit, prosecutors said in a statement.

More than a million asylum-seekers entered Germany in 2015, sparking a wave of protests amid a resurgent far-right.

In December 2016, Hasan asked an ISIS contact in Syria to send him the money 'so he could purchase vehicles which he could load with explosives and which he wanted to drive into crowds...and blow up in order to kill unknown numbers of people who do not follow the Muslim faith'.
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Britain enjoyed its hottest day of August so far today - but it comes after the country suffered its coldest summer holidays for 35 years, with further rain and gales hitting Britain this week.

London's maximum temperature in the first three weeks of school holidays was just 73F (23C) on August 4, making it the capital's coldest peak temperature in the first half of the vacation since records began in 1982.

Birmingham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne also had their coldest peak temperatures for the first half of the holidays since their records began in 2001  and forecasters say there is no end in sight to the unsettled weather this week.

However there was some relief today in the South East as temperatures made it to 77F (24.9C) today in Gravesend, Kent - beating the previous record for the month set in the same town on August 1, when it got to 76F (24.5C).

A container ship sails out of the River Mersey past New Brighton lighthouse today with a gloomy sky pictured overheard

Two herons tussle for fishing rights on the banks of Bewl Water near Lamberhurst in Kent this afternoon

12 clipper boats sail past the wind farm at the Mersey Bar ahead of this Sunday's start of the Clipper Round the World race

People walk past residential houses today overlooking a canal in Limehouse, East London, covered in growing green algae

But over the next ten days, the UK is in the path of multiple low pressure systems bringing further showers and longer downpours  including thunder. Some parts have already had more than a month's rain so far this August.

And even over the bank holiday weekend, the situation is 'unlikely' to change.

Describing the gloomy week ahead, Met Office forecaster Marco Patagna said: 'Britain is in the path of a number of depressions and the next ten days will see continued changeable and unsettled conditions.

'The wettest and windiest areas will be towards the North and West, while it will be drier and brighter towards the South and East.

Your browser does not support the <code>iframe</code> HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.

'Temperatures will remain around the teens and low 20s Celsius although some parts of the South and East could see temperatures as high as 25C (77F) during sunny spells.'

Britons escape the country for some sun The soggy conditions have helped more than double the number of last-minute bookings to the sun compared with last year, according to some of Britain's biggest holiday companies. The number of last-minute bookings to Mediterranean destinations  currently sweltering under a heatwave - are said to currently be more than twice the level they were this time last year. Thomas Cook and Thomson, and internet search engine Skyscanner all report a surge in desperate sun-seekers snapping up bookings for the remainder of this summer, according to travel industry website TravelMole. TravelMole has found Turkey, Greece and its islands, Spain and the Balearic Islands are among the top choices for those looking for the sun this month. Tony Hopkins, of Thomas Cook, said: 'The not-so great British summertime weather has prompted a last-minute dash from Brits to get on a plane and head to the sun.' Meanwhile, Thomson's parent company TUI said last minute bookings were 150 per cent up year-on-year, while Skyscanner has seen a 22 per cent rise in searches for sunshine trips and self-catering firm Novasol reported a 26 per cent year on year rise in bookings. Advertisement

Today, northern and western areas could see heavy rain with 0.4in (10mm) to 0.8in (20mm) at low levels and as much as 2in (50mm) on the Welsh mountains.

Tomorrow, the heavy rain will clear to be replaced with showers in the North and West, which will be heavy and possibly thundery. It will be drier in the South and East although these areas could also see a shower.

A further band of more persistent rain is due to move across the country on Wednesday, reaching the South East by the evening.

It will be accompanied by strong winds, with gale-force gusts of up to 40mph possible on Irish Sea coasts of Wales and the North West, Mr Patagna said.

More sunshine and showers will follow on Thursday and Friday.

Mr Patagna added: 'The outlook towards the bank holiday weekend at the end of the month is not likely to be any different.

'There are no signs of any settled spell or warmer weather on the way.'

The forecast follows heavy downpours which brought flash flooding to a number of towns and villages in East Yorkshire and north-east Lincolnshire last week.

On Wednesday, standing water up to 3ft deep built up in parts of Withernsea, East Yorkshire, where emergency services had to rescue people from their cars.

Meanwhile, there were also numerous flooding incidents across the Grimsby and Immingham areas of North Lincolnshire.

The Met Office said 2.3in (58mm) of rainfall was recorded at Painshill Reservoir in Surrey over just 12 hours - more than the county's August average monthly rainfall of 56.8mm.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service reported a number of calls to incidents of localised flooding, while flooding at Kidbrooke in South East London caused disruption to trains between Dartford and the capital.
A hit-and-run killer who celebrated his birthday in prison on social media just three months after being locked up has been labelled 'so disrespectful' by the mother of his four-year-old victim

Aidan McAteer, 24, was jailed for nine years and four months after the stolen vehicle he was driving more than 50mph over the speed limit hit young Violet-Grace Youens.

His actions also seriously injured the young girl's grandmother, Angela French, after the crash in St Helens, Merseyside, in March.

Violet-Grace Louens was killed by Aiden McAteer in a hit-and-run

Yesterday, he celebrated his 24th birthday by posting on Instagram an image of a card apparently from fellow inmates in which he is called 'HMP Birthday Boy'.

It was written out to 'A' and the photograph was captioned: 'Lil b day card off the lads on the wing x nice one everybody for me cards n messages means allot c yas all soon'.

Violet-Grace's furious mother Rebecca hit out at the post which she said shows the prisoner does not care about his crime.

Aidan McAteer (pictured) was jailed for more than nine years after he hit and killed a four-year-old girl

In a Facebook post Ms Youens wrote: 'Well happy birthday to Aidan McAteer, nice how you are actually alive and can hug your mum and contact friends and family on your birthday.

'My beautiful innocent Violet-Grace who you killed, you child killer, is reduced to ashes. You are so disrespectful and obviously do not care what you have done.

'If you had to see the images and have the nightmares I have on a constant basis maybe you might have a slight insight to our pain and sufFering.

'You're not sorry, only sorry you were caught. You stepped over my baby girl dead in the road.'

McAteer, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury to Ms French, had run past his victims as they lay injured on the ground following the crash.

Within hours he was on a plane to Amsterdam before later handing himself in after his own mother made a public appeal for his return.

It has been reported that McAteer has posted more than a dozen images on Instagram since his sentence in May.

Violet-Grace's parents Rebecca and Glenn Youens have slammed McAteer's post

The birthday card was written out to 'A' and the photograph was captioned: 'Lil b day card off the lads on the wing x nice one everybody for me cards n messages means allot c yas all soon'

They are thought to have been made on a mobile phone smuggled into prison.

Bringing a mobile phone into jail or transmitting sounds or images from within its precincts using a mobile phone can carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Prison officials are investigating the matter.

Ms Youens added: 'If you must know, I have a big birthday coming up, which I cannot face to celebrate without my baby girl. I just about get through each hour!!! We are eagerly awaiting her headstone, instead of shopping for her school uniform.

'Oh and her birthday is not far away in the autumn... she would be five, and settling into Reception class with all her friends. Instead they are traumatised by your actions and scared 'the bad man will get them too!

'You have not learned your lesson... only a few months in prison and already breaking the rules and disrespecting my daughter who you killed!

Violet-Grace Youens (pictured) was knocked down by a black Ford Focus in St Helens, Merseyside

'You are evil and I hope one day you realise the devastation and carnage you have caused.'

Violet-Grace's father, Glenn, also wrote on Facebook: 'You've got no remorse what so ever. You got out of the car and you stepped over Violet's lifeless body in the road and ran off while other people were running to help her!

'While she was in a hospital bed after 3 cardiac arrests and was unable to breathe or her heart beat for herself, you were in Amsterdam "smoking weed to clear your head" what kind of man are you!

'I hope the Ministry of Justice make an example of you and not let us down for having a phone in prison and give you more time than just an extra three months.

'We all have a life sentence, and anything extra you get inside is no less than you deserve.'

The scene of the tragic hit-and-run collision that caused Violet fatal injuries and left her grandmother in hospital

The Ministry of Justice has said it will take action to investigated the claims he used social media while serving his sentence in prison.

A Prison Service spokesman said: 'This behaviour is completely unacceptable and we are taking immediate action.

'We are clear that those who break the rules will be punished and can face extra time behind bars.

'We are taking decisive action to find and block mobile phones in prison, including a 2million investment in detection wands and legislation to block phones from being in prisons.'

Bringing a mobile phone into prison or transmitting sounds or images from within a prison using a mobile phone can carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Prison officials are investigating the matter.
President Donald Trump returned to Washington on Monday for a half-day of meetings and a staged event attacking Chinese trade practices  but a promised press conference quietly disappeared from his agenda.

Trump told reporters Friday in New Jersey that he was 'going to have a pretty big press conference on Monday' in the nation's capital.

But that was before his attempt to condemn a white supremacist protest in Virginia turned into a public relations disaster on Saturday.

'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence  on many sides, on many sides,' the president said Saturday.

That was thought to have been a reference to left-wing 'antifa'  anti-fascist  protesters' plans to start fistfights with neo-Nazis. But it was the white nationalists who turned most violent, with one Ohio native driving a car into a crowd and killing a 32-year-old dissenter.

Donald Trump returned to Washington for a half-day of meetings and an event attacking Chinese trade practices  but a promised press conference disappeared from his agenda.

Trump told reporters Friday that he was 'going to have a pretty big press conference on Monday' in the nation's capital. But that was before his attempt to condemn a white supremacist protest in Virginia turned into a public relations disaster

Trump tweeted Monday morning about his policy agenda but didn't mention the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left one protester dead on Saturday

After tweeting he flew from Morristown to DC on Air Force One, then took Marine One to the White House

The President walks across the South Lawn after landing in Marine One

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, left, and White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, walked after him

The White House issued an unsigned statement on Sunday claiming that Trump 'condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.'

But the damage had already been done, with members of Trump's own party wasting no time in criticizing him for failing to call out racists specifically and with vigor.

'Mr. President - we must call evil by its name,' tweeted Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner. 'These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.'

Trump created a firestorm over the weekend by saying that he condemned 'this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence  on many sides'

HBO host John Oliver said Trump 'cannot even be bothered to f****** condemn' Nazis

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said on Twitter that it's '[v]ery important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.'

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah vented: 'We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.'

By Sunday night Trump's omission had become a literal punchline.

HBO funnyman John Oliver said on his 'Last Week Tonight' program that 'incredibly, in a country where previous presidents have actually had to defeat Nazis, we now have one who cannot even be bothered to f***ing condemn them.'

'What kind of f***ing idiot would not immediately distance himself from them? It simply doesnt get easier than disavowing Nazis. Its almost as much of a presidential gimme as pardoning a f***ing turkey!'

Nazi sympathizer James Fields, left, drove his car into a group of anti-fascist protesters, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyes

Trump's official Monday schedule appeared geared toward sidestepping the controversy entirely, and did not include his promised press conference.

In included a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Chris Wray about investigations related to the Charlottesville riots and the vehicular homicide.

But the White House offered no indication of what might fill an hours-long gap between that sitdown and a mid-afternoon announcement of new policies related to 'China's laws, policies, practices, and actions related to intellectual property, innovation, and technology.'

An administration official offered no explanation on Monday morning, saying: 'No changes. Not going there.'
Three Russian men have been arrested after they allegedly beat an Italian tourist to death in a Spanish nightclub.

The victim, named as 22-year-old Niccolo Ciatti, was pronounced dead on Sunday, 24 hours after he was punched and kicked unconscious in Gerona, Spain

He was attacked at around 3am on Saturday in a nightclub called Sant Trop in the popular tourist region of Costa Brava.

Three Russian men have been arrested in the Costa Brava region of Spain after horrific footage emerged showing Italian Niccolo Ciatti, 22, being beaten to death in a nightclub

Mr Ciatti, from Scandicci in Tuscany, Italy, was visiting the area on holiday at the time of his death.

Police say the suspects and victim did not know each other, and there was no verbal altercation before the beating started, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reports.

Officers say the fight could have started over a single push on the dancefloor.

The suspects are Russian citizens from Chechnya, who are thought to have been seeking asylum in Spain at the time of the beating.

Mr Ciatti worked as a fruit seller in his hometown and was on holiday with friends who were also beaten during the attack, but escaped without serious injury.

Shocking footage taken from inside the club shows the moment Mr Ciatti was set upon by three men before being kicked in the head.

Police say the suspects did not know Mr Ciatti, there was no verbal altercation before the fight took place, and the whole incident could have started over a single push

Two men - the victim and one of his friends - are seen lying on the floor as shocked revellers crowd around them.

Three men are seen surrounding them, and one of them kicks Mr Ciatti in the head.

He was rushed to hospital in a serious condition and later died from his injuries.

The three men fled the nightclub but were later arrested by police.

They are set to go on trial in the region, and prosecutors said they will seek the highest penalty possible.

Mr Ciattis family have travelled to Spain to make arrangements to have his body returned to his home country.

Investigators are also focusing on whether nightclub owners were abiding by the law amid concerns that no security guards appeared to help Mr Ciatti in the video.

A minute of silence for Mr Ciatti was also held on Monday.
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Flames have engulfed homes in Greece while crews are battling 200 infernos in Portugal as wildfires continue to hit Europe.

Campsites and an entire village were evacuated as a fierce blaze ripped through undergrowth near Athens.

On the Greek holiday island of Zakynthos, authorities have declared a state of emergency with wildfires burning for a fourth day.

Meanwhile, an army of 3,700 fire fighters are battling to contain more than 200 blazes across Portugal. Officials say 112 people have been evacuated from their homes in the central town of Vila de Rei while the country's wildfires have accounted for 45 injuries in the last two days.

Dramatic pictures also show the aftermath of fires in Tuscany, Italy, and how flames have destroyed part of a pine forest in Castel Fusano, near Rome.

Wild fires have engulfed homes close to the Greek capital of Athens. Two men and a dog are pictured fleeing from a huge blaze in Varnavas, north of Athens

Members of the fire department battled to try and extinguish a forest fire in the Kalamos region of Athens, Greece, on Monday

Ruins: Flames ripped through this villa following a wildfire near the village of Kalamos, north of Athens, Greece, earlier today

Campsites and an entire village were evacuated as a fierce blaze ripped through undergrowth near Athens while firefighters continued to battle the inferno

A firefighting plane empties water over flames huge flames in Kalamos region of Athens, Greece

Taking action: An army of 3,700 fire fighters are battling to contain more than 200 blazes across Portugal. They are being helped

Firefighters and civilians battle with a wildfire which has been continuing for two days, in Varnava region (pictured) of Greece. High winds are driving wildfires near the capital Athens, forcing residents and holidaymakers to flee

Firemen are pictured trying to extinguish a wildfire burning in a forest near Kalamos village to the north of Athens, Greece today

In Greece, a large wildfire north of Athens is threatening homes as it sweeps through pine forest for a second day amid high winds.

Fire Service officials two planes and five helicopters are fighting the blaze at Varnava, 28 miles north of the Greek capital, while a main road in the area is closed to traffic to give fire trucks better access.

The fire burned out of control for a second day this morning after damaging at least 20 homes on Sunday and forcing the evacuation of holiday campsites used in the area for children's vacations.

A woman collects belongings from inside a burnt house after it was destroyed in a fierce wild fire at Kalamos village

The fire burned out of control for a second day after damaging at least 20 homes on Sunday and forcing the evacuation of holiday campsites used in the area for children's vacations

Fire crews worked through the night north of Athens as they battled to contain the fires raging through the area

Pictures showed how the wild fires had spread to houses in the Kalamos area, 20 miles away from Athens, the Greek capital

Emergency: A fire fighter looks on from his truck as flames rage east of Athens. Campsites and holiday homes have been evacuated as the flames rip through the area

There have been power cuts in the area while countryside houses have burned down and children's camps evacuated

Portuguese officials say 112 people have been evacuated from their homes in the central town of Vila de Rei while the country's wildfires have accounted for 45 injuries in the last two days

A Canadair CL-215 (Scooper) firefighting amphibious aircraft drops water over a forest fire today in Ferreira do Zezere, Portugal

The Portuguese government has asked for EU help to combat hundreds of forest fires in both central and northern regions of the country

No one was hurt, and Fire Service spokeswoman Brigade Manager Stavroula Maliri described all the evacuations as precautionary.

A fire in Kalamos, east of the Greek capital, was burning across a wide front for a second day and had already burned a number of homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A force of more than 200 firefighters with over 100 fire engines, water trucks and a handful of aircraft had been mobilised, the fire department said.

'It's a strong fire in an area full of summer homes,' civil protection official Ioanna Tsoupra told ERT television.

The local municipality of Oropos had earlier urged residents to evacuate for their safety, and a monastery was also emptied.

A fire in Kalamos, east of the Greek capital, was burning across a wide front for a second day and had already burned a number of homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries

Overall, 91 fires had broken out in Greece since Sunday, the fire department said, though most were quickly placed under control.

The other flashpoint is the tourist island of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea, where emergency crews have struggled to put out a wave of fires since last week, and officials suggest arson is at play.

'Such a situation is unheard of,' regional fire chief Vassilis Matteopoulos told ERT.

'We had 22 fires on Zakynthos just in the last 24 hours.'

Aftermath: This was the scene of devastation after a fires ripped through the Castel Fusano pine forest near Rome, Italy

Pictures show burnt landscape after forest fires ripped through woodland and undergrowth in Tuscany at Castiglione della Pescaia

Fires have caused widespread damage in the Castiglione della Pescaia area of Tuscany recently - one of the many area of Europe hit by wildfires

Pictures show an aerial view of the partially burnt Castle Fusano woods in the outskirts of Rome today. Wildfires, some of which were started deliberately, have been blazing across much of Italy, causing casualties and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of tourists and residents

The Fire Service says that the blazes are burning on 12 fronts and not threatening homes or resorts on the island, which is popular with tourists.

A statement from the office of Zakynthos Mayor Pavlos Kolokotsas said there were 'clear indications that fires were caused by an organized campaign of arson.'

Arson-related fires near populated areas in Greece are often associated with illegal development, especially near Athens and around holiday resorts.

Greece is routinely hit by wildfires at this time of year, fanned by strong winds and high temperatures, and authorities have warned that the risk remains high.

The worst recent major blazes, in the Peloponnese and on the island of Evia in 2007, left 77 people dead and ravaged 250,000 hectares (620,000 acres).

Overall, 91 fires had broken out in Greece since Sunday, the fire department said, though most were quickly placed under control

Risky: A man walks in front of huge blaze during a forest fire near the village of Varnava , north of Athens, this morning

A force of more than 200 firefighters with over 100 fire engines, water trucks and a handful of aircraft had been mobilised, the fire department said

A fire helicopter draws water from the sea close to wildfires in Greece yesterday. A forest fire has been raging in the area of Kalamos, 20 miles east of Athens in Greece

Volunteer fire fighters joined the battle against flames ripping through Kalamos village near Athens, Greece
A woman in China who was forced into working in brothels for Japanese troops during the Second World War has died.

Huang Youliang was just one of eight people who tried to sue the Japanese government demanding an apology.

She died on Saturday at the age of 90 in Yidui village, China's Hainan province still waiting for that personal apology, reports the People's Daily Online.

Huang Youliang pictured in 2005 receiving a free health check at home in Hainan province

Huang Youliang is the last surviving 'comfort woman' to have tried to sue Japan

Women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during the war are often referred to as 'comfort women' (File photo)

In late 1941, 15-year-old Huang was raped as Japanese troops invaded her hometown.

She was transferred to a brothel and later forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers. This ordeal lasted for two years.

Women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during the war are often referred to as 'comfort women'.

Its thought that some 400,000 women were forced to be 'comfort women' during the war (File photo)

There are now only 14 'comfort women' left on the Chinese mainland (File photo)

Its thought that some 400,000 women were forced to be 'comfort women' during the war.

In July 2001, Huang and seven other women attempted to sue the Japanese government for their treatment. However the Japanese courts rejected their claims, saying that individuals had no right to sue the state.

Former Chinese comfort woman Gou Xi Cui enters Tokyo's High Court in 2005 (left) while Chen Yapian wipes tears from her eyes after her lawsuit is rejected in 2006 (right)

Nationalist officer guarding women prisoners said to be "comfort girls

She died still waiting for the personal apology.

There are now only 14 'comfort women' left on the Chinese mainland.

In 2015, Shinzo Abe expressed 'deepest remorse' and 'sincere condolences' to Japan's wartime victims.
Protesters in North Carolina toppled a nearly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier on Monday at a rally against racism following the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia over a statue of Confederate hero Robert E. Lee.

Activists in Durham brought a ladder up to the statue and used a rope to pull down the Confederate Soldiers Monument that was dedicated in 1924.

A diverse crowd of dozens cheered as the statue of a soldier holding a rifle fell to the ground in front of an old courthouse building that now houses local government offices.

Seconds after the monument fell, protesters began kicking the crumpled bronze monument.

Hours after the statue was toppled, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted: 'The racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable but there is a better way to remove these monuments - RC'.

Protesters in Durham, North Carolina toppled a nearly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier on Monday at a rally against racism

Activists in Durham brought a ladder up to the statue and used a rope to pull down the Confederate Soldiers Monument that was dedicated in 1924

A diverse crowd of dozens cheered as the statue of a soldier holding a rifle fell to the ground in front of an old courthouse building that now houses local government offices. After it was toppled, the crowd celebrated

The Durham protest, one of many held across the country, was in response to a white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

Several Confederate memorials have been defaced and at least one removed after plans to take down a statue honoring southern Civil War hero Robert E. Lee spurned back-to-back days of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend.

Three Confederate memorials were defaced with red paint on Sunday.

A bust honoring a Confederate hero was covered with a black sweatshirt at the Tennessee capitol on Monday, the same day that a monument to Confederate soldiers was removed in Gainesville, Florida.

The statue in Gainesville, located outside the Alachua County Administration Building, honors Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War and is nicknamed 'Old Joe' by locals.

The statue's removal had been in the works for months after protests and several failed attempts to relocate it.

Hours after the statue was toppled, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted: 'The racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable but there is a better way to remove these monuments - RC'.

A monument honoring Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War was removed on Monday from a public building in Gainesville, Florida. The statue's removal has been in the works for months. It's unclear whether the removal process was sped up in light of the violence over a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville this weekend

On Sunday, a statue commemorating John B. Castleman, who served on the Confederate side of the Civil War, was discovered splattered with orange paint in Louisville, Kentucky. Municipal works attempt to remove the paint on Monday

It was unclear if the work was hastened by the violent protests surrounding the removal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's statue in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

One woman was killed and 19 injured when an alleged white supremacist plowed his Dodge Challenger through crowds of protesters a few blocks from the Lee statue on Saturday.

Since then, protesters have defaced at least four other Confederate memorials in the south.

The first was discovered Sunday morning in Louisville, Kentucky.

A municipal worker is seen cleaning the statue up on Monday. Some residents pointed out that the statue shows him in civilian clothes, not his Confederate uniform. After the Civil War, he served with the U.S. Army in the Spanish-American war

However, the monument to Castleman focuses mostly on his Civil War service

The statue honoring Confederate officer John B Castleman was discovered splattered with orange paint around 8am, in the city's Highlands neighborhood.

Some residents defended the statue, saying it shows him in civilian clothes and was clearly erected to commemorate his civil service, not the Civil War. After the Civil War, Castleman joined the U.S. Army and served in the Spanish-American War as well.

Also Sunday morning, another Confederate memorial in Tampa was discovered painted red as well.

A passerby called 911 around 11am when they saw the city's Confederate Memorial Park vandalized.

The vandals wrote 'f*** fascists' on one of the marble slabs set up to honor Confederate soldiers who gave their lives in the Civil War.

A similar scene played out in Atlanta, Georgia, where a statue commemorating the end of the Civil War was splattered with red paint as well.

A picture of Heather Heyer, an anti-white supremacist protester who was killed in the Charlottesville demonstrations on Saturday, sits at the base of a vandalized Confederate memorial in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday

Protesters upset with the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville gathered at the city's Piedmont Park Sunday night, with some scaling the park's Civil War statue to spray paint it red.

The statue shows an Angel towering over a Confederate solider as he lays his rifle to the ground.

Anti-white supremacists also took issue with a bust commemorating Confederate lieutenant general Nathan Bedford Forrest, which stands outside the Tennessee House and Senate chambers.

Someone covered Forrest's face with a black sweatshirt, while hand-drawn signs were set up at the base, calling Forrest a 'slaver,' 'traitor' and 'klansman'.

On Monday, demonstrations were held at the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, calling for a bust of Confederate lieutenant general Nathan Bedford Forrest to be taken down

The bust of Forrest stands in the hallway outside the state House and Senate chambers

A woman speaking out against white supremacy holds up signs saying 'Ya'll means all' and 'The strength of Tennessee is in the DIVERSITY of our people' on Monday

On the left, a protester covers Forrest's bust with a black sweatshirt. On the right, a building manager takes the sweatshirt down after the demonstration

David Zach, second from right, speaks during a demonstration outside the office of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Nashville, Tennessee

A demonstration was held at the government building on Monday, calling for the Confederate's bust to be taken down.

The violence that broke out in Charlottesville on Friday and Saturday was prompted by white supremacists, who have been protesting the planned removal of a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The city has already voted to remove the statue, but a judge stalled the actual removal by six months in May.

A confederate heritage group has already petitioned to hold another rally at the site of the monument on September 16 - making future confrontations over the statue likely.

The Americans for Richmond Monument Preservation filed a request with the Department of General Services to hold an event, but their application is still under review and has not been approved yet according to Richmond.com.
He's never been one to shun the spotlight and became known in the US through his role in the Trump campaign.

Now a Hollywood studio is said to be close to signing a deal to make a TV series about Nigel Farage and his Ukip friends.

A script has been put together to turn Ukip donor and Brexit campaigner Arron Bank's book into a six-part film.

A Hollywood studio is said to be preparing to plough six-part film 60million into a film about Nigel Farage and his Ukip friends

Kevin Spacey and Benedict Cumberbatch have been named as possibles to star in the film

The series is based on Banks' book 'The Bad Boys of Brexit', which describes his and Farage's scraps and scrapes during the EU referendum campaign.

A source said the film would be produced from the point of view of Gerry Gunster, an American pollster who advised the Leave.EU campaign.

Early tips for who might star in the 60million-budget series include House of Cards actor Kevin Spacey and Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch.

But Mr Farage told the Daily Telegraph: 'I am hoping if they do make the film, I think I should play me. I am really good at being me.'

Responding to the news, political commentator Iain Dale, who published the book, tweeted: 'Hollywood, here we come,' this morning.

News of the film emerged as the latest race to take over the leadership of Ukip continued.

Eleven candidates have been approved to stand in the leadership contest. Ballot papers will be issued on September 1 and the new leader will be announced at Ukip's conference in Torquay on September 29.

The script for the film is based on the book 'The Bad Boys of Brexit' by Ukip donor Arron Banks
This is the shocking moment when a woman is being thrown onto the floor and hit by her alleged boyfriend in northeastern China's Liaoning Province.

The girl was found bleeding in her head after being viciously beaten by the man with his shoulder bag last Monday afternoon.

The woman, surnamed Ge, was sent to hospital immediately whilst the man was captured by the police.

A couple at a ticket hall corner in Xiongyue,China was having a quarrel over relationships

The man got angry and threw the man onto the floor and smashing her head repeatedly

Surveillance camera footage, uploaded on btimes.com, shows the alleged couple had had a quarrel at a ticket hall in Xiongyue Train Station of Yingkou on August 7.

At 12:20pm, a woman in yellow dress can be seen standing by the wall while talking to a man in black top.

It is unsure of their conversation but the man tried to snap away the woman's phone from her hand.

Soon after, he threw Ge onto the floor and repeatedly hitting her head by his black shoulder bag.

The assailant then lifted her body up and smashed her head to the floor hard.

The woman was unable to get up and appeared to be unconscious.

There were about a dozen passengers including young children present at the ticket hall.

But none of them can be seen trying to stop the man.

A blood trail can be seen clearly as the man kicked Ge to the side.

He then grabbed his shoulder bag and walked away.

But awhile later, he walked back and picked up the phone on the floor.

The man viciously smashed his shoulder bag to his girlfriend's head before throwing it away

A number of onlookers stood close and watched but not offering help to stop the beating

The woman was left unconscious and a blood trail can be seen clearly on the floor

The man walked back to pick up the phone on the floor and left the scene after

According to btimes.com, the man was captured by local police officers.

Xiongyue policemen issued a statement on Weibo, confirming the assailant to be the 31-year-old man, surnamed Shang.

It was believed that the couple was arguing over relationship problems.

Ge was sent to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.

She is remained unconscious.

The incident has now passed on to Dalian Railway police officers for further investigations.
Pauline Hanson is frustrated a referendum will not be held in Australia to put a constitutional ban on Muslim polygamy and child brides.

The One Nation leader asked Attorney-General George Brandis about future definitions of marriage after Muslim leader Keysar Trad expressed his support for allowing men to have multiple wives.

But Senator Brandis, a former barrister, said the Federal Parliament already had the power to make laws on marriage, which made a constitutional referendum 'entirely unnecessary'.

Senator Hanson later expressed her frustration to her 208,000 Facebook followers.

'The government could give you no guarantees,' she said on Monday.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson asked about a referendum on polygamy and child brides

Muslim leader Keysar Trad is hoping the Australian public one day supports polygamy

'As long as there is no definition of marriage enshrined in the Australian Constitution there is nothing to stop future governments pandering to minorities and helping Keysar Trad's dream become a reality,' Senator Hanson said.

Last week Mr Trad, the former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, described polygamy as a privilege reserved for women, even though only men are allowed multiple spouses under Islamic law.

'If public opinion was pushing for a change, that was consistent with my religion, I would not object to it,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

'In my humble opinion, the advantage is not so much to the man.

'It's always the prerogative of the woman. Any marriage in Islam requires consent and the most crucial consent is the consent of the woman.'

Pauline Hanson is livid the government won't hold a referendum to ban polygamy in future

Senator Hanson was so incensed by Mr Trad's support for polygamy she asked three questions in parliament to the Attorney-General.

'What guarantee do you give the people of Australia that future governments will not change the Marriage Act to include polygamous marriages or marriages under the age of 16, regardless of what the Australian people want in consideration of what Keysar Trad... has said?,' she asked.

Senator Brandis described the idea of a referendum on banning polygamy or child brides as 'entirely unnecessary', following a High Court ruling in 2013 that gave the federal government instead of the states the power to make marriage laws.

'Senator Hanson, we do not think it is appropriate or desirable to have an unnecessary constitutional referendum,' he said.

Attorney-General George Brandis described a referendum on polygamy as 'unnecessary'

The Attorney-General stressed the voluntary postal vote on same-sex marriage would only lead to a bill recognising couples, if the 'yes' case won more support.

Mr Trad, the Sydney-based founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, is taking a stand against gay marriage as the Turnbull Government proceeds with this postal vote.

'My personal view is that people of the same gender can be friends but they should not be encouraged to engage in sexual activity,' he said.

'Call it something else, a union. Call it whatever you want to call it.'

Keysar Trad is upset Muslims don't have the same platform to campaign for Islamic marriage equality

The Islamic Friendship Association of Australia founder says polygamy is a female privilege

Mr Trad wryly pointed out the 'yes' vote for gay marriage would fail if a Muslim publicly supported it.

'If you want an idea to fail, get a Muslim to campaign for it,' he said.

While gay marriage campaigners have been able to change public opinion, Mr Trad is disappointed Muslims don't have the same platform to advocate for polygamy.

'Muslims, we have learnt to stop lobbying for anything,' he said.

'It is near impossible for Muslims to get a fair go anywhere so whatever our issues are, my experience has forced me to keep those issues to myself.'

Keysar Trad says it is 'near impossible' for Muslims to lobby for change to suit their religion

Mr Trad in February said husbands could lightly beat their wives 'as a last resort' before explaining his comments were clumsy (Women of Hizb ut-Tahrir pictured)

Mr Trad is hoping another generation of Muslims will campaign for change but is urging people of the Islamic faith to obey Australia's existing laws on marriage.

His observations on the definition of marriage come as the Turnbull Government sends out ballot papers to Australian households, from September 12, as part of a $122 million exercise.

Voters will have until November 7 to return them.

In February, Mr Trad controversially said the Koran allowed husbands to lightly beat their wives 'as a last resort' before clarifying he was giving a clumsy interpretation of the religious text.

Two months later, Women of Hizb ut-Tahrir released a video saying husband could hit their wives with a small stick.

Where Islamic polygamy is allowed, women are not allowed multiple husbands.

Under Sharia law, an Islam legal system, a man can divorce a woman by saying 'I divorce you' three times but a woman does not have this same privilege.
Marcus Hutchins arrives today at the US federal courthouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A British cyber security expert credited with stopping the ransomware attack on the NHS today pleaded not guilty to US charges that he creating malicious software to steal banking information.

Marcus Hutchins - who entered the plea at a court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - and a co-defendant face charges of conspiring to commit computer fraud in the state and elsewhere in 2014.

The 23-year-old was arrested on August 2 at Las Vegas Airport on his way home to Ilfracombe in Devon after a cyber security convention in the US.

Hutchins, also known as MalwareTech, was hailed a hero in May this year when he found a 'kill-switch' that slowed the effects of the WannaCry 'ransomware' virus that crippled the NHS and hit more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries.

But the charges relate to alleged conduct occurring between July 2014 and July 2015, long before he found a way to stop the WannaCry ransomware virus.

In his first public comments since his arrest, Hutchens revealed that he will be able to go online once more and that he plans to write a blog as a result of relaxed bail conditions.

On his Twitter account he wrote: 'There's a lot of people I'd like to thank for amazing support over the past 11 days, which I will do when I get a chance to publish my blog.

'I'm still on trial, still not allowed to go home, still on house arrest; but now I am allowed online. Will get my computers back soon.'

Hutchins (right), 23, and a co-defendant face charges of conspiring to commit computer fraud

He also cracked a joke in his Tweets on Monday with a list of things to do during the Def Con convention he was attending before his arrest.

The list included partying, renting supercars, visiting Red Rock Canyon - and being 'indicted by the FBI'.

Prosecutors allege that before Hutchins won acclaim he created and distributed a malicious software called Kronos to steal banking passwords from unsuspecting computer users.

In addition to computer fraud, the indictment lists five other charges, including attempting to intercept electronic communications and trying to access a computer without authorisation.

The indictment says the crimes happened between July 2014 and July 2015, but the court document doesn't offer any details about the number of victims.

Prosecutors have not said why the case was filed in Wisconsin. The name of Hutchins's co-defendant is redacted from the indictment.

Hutchins has been granted computer access for work while his case is pending. It was not clear from today's brief hearing what that work would entail.

Hutchins found a 'kill switch' that slowed the outbreak of WannaCry virus four months ago

Hutchins is free on $30,000 (23,000) bail, but with strict conditions.

His bond has been modified so that he can stay in Los Angeles near his attorney and travel anywhere in the US, but Hutchins is not allowed to leave the country.

He is currently staying at a hotel in Milwaukee. A pre-trial hearing has been set for October 17.

Hutchins faces decades in prison if convicted on all the charges.

After the hearing, defence lawyer Marcia Hofmann said she is confident he will be found not guilty at a trial.

She said: 'Marcus Hutchins is a brilliant young man and a hero.

'He is going to vigorously defend himself against these charges and when the evidence comes to light, we are confident that he will be fully vindicated.'
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A thoughtful Texas man has surprised his now bride-to-be with a magical underwater mermaid-themed engagement photoshoot in Mexico.

Eric Martinez, 40, popped the question to his girlfriend of a year and a half in a cave while they were on a vacation in the tropical country and hired a photographer to capture the moment.

But instead of calling it a day after the surprise proposal, Eric, a reconstruction and trauma specialist, decided to go one foot deeper.

Eric Martinez proposed to Cammy Rynae Cuoco and then continued the surprise her with an underwater mermaid-themed photo shoot

Eric proposed to Cammy while they were on vacation in Mexico. He got down on one knee in a stunning cave

After he gave Cammy Rynae Cuoco, 26, the ring, which came in a diamond-studded dolphin-shaped box, he told her they would be doing the whole thing again - except this time underwater in a swimming hole.

Eric, who ironically has the same name as the prince from The Little Mermaid, said that he wanted to make the moment memorable, special and unforgettable, according to ABC News.

He said: 'I didnt want to do a plain Jane proposal. Why do it if youre just going to take someone to a restaurant? Thats the way I am.'

Cammy, who is an employee at Rodan and Fields Skincare, was so excited about the photo shoot that she couldn't stop smiling.

Eric wanted to go above (and below) for his bride-to-be by making it a memorable, special and unforgettable occasion

Eric had some help from the Del Sol photography when planning the photo shoot.

He contacted the photography company months before the proposal because he knew Cammy loved their work and wanted her to have photos that she could cherish forever.

They even made the sequined mermaid skirt that Cammy wore during the underwater shoot by hand and helped brainstorm themes.

When they settled on the mermaid idea, they knew it was perfect for Cammy, whose favorite Disney princess is Ariel.

Match made underwater: Eric knew that The Little Mermaid was Cammy's favorite and wanted to make it special for her

Cammy and Eric pose for a underwater photo op by Del Sol photography

The couple decided to use a ring pop because they needed something that would stand out underwater

Posing with the ring: The couple set aside their bright red ring pop to take some pictures with Cammy's engagement ring

Cammy said she has always loved Ariel from The Little Mermaid because 'she got to do whatever she wanted and swim with animals and dolphins'.

And that just so happens to be Cammy's second favorite thing in the world.

Both Cammy and Eric can't wait for Del Sol photography to shoot their upcoming wedding in Mexico.

For more, Del Sol Photography pictures visit their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Google Plus sites.

As clear as the sea: Cammy's engagement ring that Eric used to pop the question

After brainstorming with the photography company on the best theme, Eric knew that doing a mermaid photo shoot was the way to go

Cammy said that her favorite princess is Ariel from The Little Mermaid because she gets to do what she wants and swim with dolphins

Eric pulled Cammy's engagement ring from a diamond-studded box in the shape of a dolphin

Eric reached out to Del Sol months before he popped the question to make sure everything was perfect for his fiancee

A proposal like no other: Eric said that's just the way he is when it comes to going over the top for his now fiancee

The couple plan for Del Sol photography to take their wedding photos in Mexico as well

Kiss the girl: The couple is photographed in the cave where Eric proposed on what Cammy thinks is a vacation photo shoot

Under the sea: After the cave proposal the couple had their underwater photo shoot in a swimming hole in the cave

All smiles: Cammy was so happy about the photo shoot that she couldn't stop smiling

Eric decided to use Del Sol photography because he knew Cammy had seen their work before and loved it

Eric, who has the same name of the prince from The Little Mermaid, didn't want to plan a 'plain Jane' proposal

Eric managed to include everything Cammy loves into one unforgettable day

Officially a princess: With a prince Eric of her own the couple can now swim off into the sunset

The couple get ready for their underwater photo shoot. The happy couple can't stop smiling during the shoot

Eric Martinez pictured above in November 2015 and Cammy Rynae Cuoco pictured in June of this year
An elephant has trampled and killed an Argentinian hunter who was among a group tracking a herd in Namibia.

The Namibian Press Agency reported that 46-year-old Jose Monzalvez was killed on Saturday afternoon in a private wildlife area 43 miles north-west of the small town of Kalkfeld.

Mr Monzalvez, who worked for an oil company, was with another Argentinian and three Namibians when he was killed.

Jose Monzalvez was killed by an elephant which charged him while on a hunt in Namibia on Saturday. The elephant charged him before he and his group could shoot the animal (file pic)

Police claimed one of the elephants targeted Mr Monzalvez and crushed him (file photo)

Monzalvez was killed outside the small town of Kalkfeld in northern Namibia on Saturday

Social Media users have expressed delight the elephant escaped getting shot

One of the elephants is reported to have charged before the group was able to shoot.

Relatives have been informed of Mr Monzalvez's death.

Mr Monzalvez and his group had the appropriate hunting permits according to local police.

According to the Journal Du Cameroun, the group were also professional big game hunters.
Ten people had to jump to safety after a speedboat caught fire in New Jersey.

The passengers escaped injury when they leapt from the boat in the Shrewsbury River yesterday afternoon.

Despite a number of fire departments responding to the blaze, they were not able to save the vessel from sinking.

Dramatic pictures show the speedboat ablaze in the Shrewsbury River yesterday afternoon

It is not yet known what caused the fire, which caused the 19ft vessel to sink after 10 passengers escaped

New Jersey State Trooper Alejandro Goez told NJ.com that all those on board were able to climb onto another boat after leaping into the river.

It is not yet known what caused the fire.
British tourists have been branded 'terrorists' as Spanish authorities attempt to put firm caps on the number of visitors to the Balearic islands.

Under plans being considered by the left-wing Balearic government, renting properties through services such as Airbnb will be outlawed unless the villa or apartment is officially registered.

Owners who are not properly registered will face fines of 361,000 while the websites will also face prosecution for advertising properties without a valid licence number.

Anti-tourism protests have broken out across several popular resorts in Spain as left-wing activists protest about the lack of affordable housing for locals due to the number of visitorss

Radicals released smoke bombs in the port of Mallorca as part of their protest

Others have held protests on La Barceloneta in Barcelona protesting about tourist numbers

This graffiti in Oviedo, northen spain from August 7, reads 'Hipsters and tourism, new form of terrorism'. The writing was scrawled inside the historic centre of the popular destination

The local government wants to introduce a cap of 623,624 beds for tourists - with half of those in hotels. More than two thirds of the beds will be located in Mallorca.

Locals have complained properties being advertised online have driven up the cost of rent in the region.

The left-wing government wants to reduce the number of beds to 500,000 over the coming year.

Residents in Barcelona have also expressed their unhappiness over rising tourism numbers, with protests on the city's beach.

They say the influx of tourists has increased the price of rents and driven a spike in rowdy behavior by party-seeking foreigners.

Tensions have been growing between authorities and radical leftist groups who launched a campaign of vandalism against mass tourism in Barcelona and other parts of Spain.

Spain, a country of 46 million, received 75.3 million tourists in 2016. The number of arriving tourists increased by 12 per cent in the first six months of this year.

Tourism accounts for 11 per cent of Spain's gross domestic product.

The 75 million annual tourists represent 11 per cent of Spain's gross domestic product
Richard Hubbard III, 25, was driving a 2011 Hyundai when he was pulled over by Euclid police in Euclid, Ohio. He was ordered out of his car and told to face away by police but Hubbard hadn't in time

An Ohio police department is reviewing a struggle between a police officer and a man after video of the cop bashing his head went viral over the weekend.

Richard Hubbard III, 25, was driving a 2011 Hyundai when he was pulled over by Euclid police in Euclid, Ohio.

He was ordered out of his car and told to face away by police but Hubbard hadn't in time.

In the video posted on Instagram, Hubbard can be seen on the ground getting beaten while a woman screams next to him.

One of the officers repeatedly slams the Cleveland native's head and body to the ground.

He then puts his hands around Hubbard's neck, choking him and pushing him further into the ground.

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Richard Hubbard III, 25, was driving a 2011 Hyundai when he was pulled over by Euclid police in Euclid, Ohio. He was ordered out of his car and told to face away by police but Hubbard hadn't in time

In the video posted on Instagram, Hubbard can be seen on the ground getting beaten while a woman screams next to him

While this is happening, a small child can be heard asking what is going on, and fear is evident in her voice.

The cop sits on Hubbard and punches him in the face repeatedly and doesn't move until another officer comes and pats him on the back. The officer has not been identified.

'It is the mission of the Euclid Police Department to provide professional and transparent service to the residents, business owners, and visitors to the City of Euclid,' Lt. Michael Houser said in the news release.

The cop sits on Hubbard and punches him in the face repeatedly and doesn't move until another officer comes and pats him on the back. The officer has not been identified

'This entire incident will be reviewed, in detail, so that the public can have a full and open understanding of the series of events that eventually led to this violent encounter.

The entire clash lasted more than three minutes and Hubbard was eventually taken into custody with the help of additional officers.

Police captured the video on a dash camera and haven't released it.

Hubbard was taken to Cuyahoga County Jail Euclid Annex and medically examined. He posted bond on charges of driving under suspension and resisting arrest

Hubbard seen wearing a neck brace after he posted bond for the altercation

Police also detained the woman in the video that was with Hubbard.

Hubbard was taken to Cuyahoga County Jail Euclid Annex and medically examined. He posted bond on charges of driving under suspension and resisting arrest.

The officer who made the arrest was taken to a local hospital and is now on paid leave until further review.

Protesters gathered at the sight of the altercation and protested Saturday night.

A Gofundme was set up for Hubbard to assist in the payment for his lawyer.
China's government has appealed to President Donald Trump to avoid a 'trade war' amid rumors of a probe into whether China is stealing U.S. technology.

US officials say the President will today consider whether to launch the investigation.

If a probe is ordered, investigators will examine allegations of intellectual theft under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

US officials say the President will today consider whether to launch the investigation into alleged intellectual property theft

But Beijing has warned there would be serious implications if Trump takes this approach.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters: 'There is no future and no winner in a trade war and both sides will be the losers.

'As we have emphasized for many times, the nature of China-U.S. trade relations is mutual benefit and win-win.

'Considering the importance of the China-US relations, China is willing to make joint efforts with the United States to keep trade and economic relations on sustained, healthy and stable development on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.'

Donald Trump, pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping in July, is considering launching an investigation which officials warn could trigger a trade war between the two countries

Earlier today, a state newspaper, the China Daily, said Trump's possible decision to launch an investigation could 'intensify tensions,' especially over intellectual property.

A decision to use the law to rebalance trade with China 'could trigger a trade war,' said the commentary under the name of researcher Mei Xinyu of the ministry's International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute.

'And the inquiry the U.S. administration has ordered into China's trade policies, if carried out, could intensify tensions, especially on intellectual property rights,' the commentary said.

It gave no indication of how Beijing might respond but Chinese law gives regulators broad discretion over what foreign companies can do in China.

If an investigation begins, Washington could seek remedies either through the World Trade Organization or outside of it.

Previous U.S. actions directed at China under the 1974 law had little effect, said the China Daily. It noted that China has grown to become the biggest exporter and has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves.

'The use of Section 301 by the U.S. will not have much impact on China's progress toward stronger economic development and a better future,' said the newspaper.
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Four rare and adorable white lion cubs have been born in a safari park in Crimea, the region of Ukraine annexed by Vladimir Putin.

The quadruplets made their public debut at the park after conveniently being born on August 10 - World Lion Day.

Oleg Zubkov, a 'lion whisperer' and owner of Taigan Safari Park, which has remained open despite Russia retaking control of Crimea, hailed their birth as a 'great event'.

Four white lions born at a safari park in Crimea have made their public debut four days after they were born on August 4 - which is conveniently World Lion Day

The animals were born at Taigan Safari Park which is run by 'lion whisperer' Oleg Zubkov who walks into an open enclosure with the big cats each day, but always emerges unharmed

The lions are white thanks to a genetic mutation which is endemic to South Africa's Kruger Park region. There are thought to be just 300 of them in the world

Taigan Park is home to around 20 white lions, according to Mr Zubkov, who claims it is the biggest population of the animals anywhere in Europe

Mr Zubkov said the birth is rare not just because it involves white lions, but four of them born at the same time, which is even more unusual. The cubs are the offspring of parents Afina and Richard

He said: 'A white lioness gave birth to four cubs. It is a rare case to see four cubs born at a time. It is a very important event because white lions are themselves rare, there are just 300 of them in the whole world.

'Our Taigan Park is proud to be home for more than 20 white lions, the biggest population in Europe. These cubs are the first to be born this year.'

The colouring of the white lions is due to a genetic mutation endemic to South Africa's Kruger Park region. There are around a dozen living in the wild. The earliest recorded sighting of a white lion was in 1938.

Russian-born Zubkov, 49, is famous for fearlessly entering his safari park compound with dozens of lions and somehow emerging unscathed each day.

He claims to talk to the big cats, meaning they do not attack him or guests he brings close to them.

Mr Zubkov (pictured) named the lions Matilda, Nyasha, Tsar and Rezhisser which reference an ongoing political row he is having with a pro-Putin Crimean MP called Natalia Poklonskaya

The safari park owner was full off praise for mother Afina (right) and father Richard, saying: They bring us amazing offspring each year'

Two of the cubs are male, and two of the cubs are female. They are being kept away from visitors at the safari park until they are old enough to entertain tour groups

The safari park where the lions will be raised is located in Crimea, which is the region of Ukraine which was annexed by Russian President Putin back in 2014

Mr Zubkov said the cubs are the first to be born at the park this season, which he claims is home to the biggest population of white lions anywhere in Europe

The parents of the little cubs are Afina and Richard, both aged nine. 'They bring us amazing offspring each year,' he said.

Mr Zubkov also used the cubs to poke fun at pro-Putin MP Natalia Poklonskaya, who represents Crimea, over her bid to ban a new movie entitled 'Matilda' about Tsar Nicholas II's passionate pre-marital relationship with a seductive ballet dancer, Matilda Kschessinskaya.

There has been deep controversy over the movie's portrayal of Nicholas II, who was later shot with his entire close family by the Bolsheviks in 1918, and now held by the Orthodox Church to be a saint.

Mr Zubkov named one of the cubs Matilda - after the ballerina - and another Nyasha, which is 37-year-old Poklonskaya's nickname.

One male cub is called Tsar, after Russia's emperors, while the other is named after film producer Alexey Uchitel.

Poklonskaya led a campaign to ban the movie, starring 25-year-old Polish actress Michalina Olszanska in the lead role, but free-spirit Zubkov is opposed to the move.
Tributes have been paid to a 19-year-old artist and shopworker who died falling from a multi storey car park in Gloucester in the early hours of Saturday.

Murron McDermid sold her paintings on Facebook under the name 'Clementine Art.'

Tragic: Tributes have been paid to 'beautiful' Murron McDermid (pictured), after she fell from Longsmith Street car park in Gloucester in the early hours of Saturday

The events which led to her plunging from the Longsmith Street car park - in the shadow of the city's cathedral - are still being investigated, but police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

She worked at the Grape Tree shop in Gloucester and was a former pupil of the city's schools Chosen Hill and Crypt Grammar School.

Ms McDermid had also studied art at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.

Creative: Ms McDermid sold her paintings on Facebook under the name 'Clementine Art.' A recent self portrait (right), was uploaded in June

Around a dozen floral tributes have been laid against the car park wall after the tragic fall.

One says: 'To a beautiful lady. We will miss you my dear, all our love, Julie, Ellie. Another message in the same card says 'Thank you for being my friend, collaborator and confidante, all my love, Annie, xxxx.'

Another card said simply 'Gonna miss you Murron xxx Lisa X.'

One of Ms McDermid's Facebook friends, Phoenix Ben Jackson, said today: 'Heaven took one of its angels back yesterday.

McDermid worked at the Grape Tree shop in Gloucester and was a former pupil of the city's schools Chosen Hill and Crypt Grammar School.

'I still remember the day we first met and we instantly clicked. I remember seeing you under the shelter at college early in the mornings where we would kill our time with stupid jokes and meaningless banter.

'I'm so grateful to say that every second I spent with you was filled with positivity and happiness. Then again, it makes it so much more difficult to say goodbye at such a short notice.

'To say you were one of the most unique people I've ever met would be an understatement. Not only were you an amazing friend, but such a talented artist who had so much passion to show to the world.

'Though you can't show your artistry on paper anymore I'd like to think that, when I look up at the sunset, God has let you paint the skies tonight.

'Maybe we'll see each other again someday. Until then, stay fierce, Queen.'

The events which led to Ms McDermid plunging from the car park - in the shadow of the city's cathedral - are still being investigated, but police said there were no suspicious circumstances. Pictured: Floral tributes at the scene

Emergency services at the scene in Gloucester on Saturday

Tributes: One card left in memory of Ms McDermid said: 'To a beautiful lady. We will miss you my dear, all our love, Julie, Ellie. Another message in the same card says 'Thank you for being my friend, collaborator and confidante, all my love, Annie, xxxx'

Police closed the road and the car park for several hours on Saturday to examine the scene but said there were no suspicious circumstances

Police closed the road and the car park for several hours on Saturday to examine the scene but said there were no suspicious circumstances.

A Gloucestershire police spokesman said they would not be able to reveal or confirm the name of the person who died until after formal identification had been carried out and an inquest opened.

She said: 'She was a 19-year-old Gloucester woman who fell from one of the upper floors of the car park in the early hours of Saturday 12 August.'

'Her death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious and her next of kin and family have been informed.

'We will now be continuing enquiries on behalf of the coroner.'
Last weeks raids on a worldwide drug syndicate are just the first step in stopping the influence major international criminals are having in Australia.

Raids in Sydney, Dubai and The Netherlands targeting the alleged $810 million drug ring in the early hours of last Monday morning led to the arrests of 18 people.

And now, following the success of the international venture, Australian authorities are set to target some of the top criminals in the world - on par with Mexican cartel leader 'El Chapo', The Daily Telegraph reports.

Australian authorities are set to target some of the top criminals in the world on the level of top Mexican cartel leader and notorious prison escapee Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (pictured)

Former Commanchero bikies Hakan Ayik (left) and Mark Buddle (right) who have both now fled Australia are believed to be among the crime kingpins the ACIC will target

Looking to crackdown on everything from drugs to weapons and cyber crime, police have been targeting kingpins living overseas wielding major influence in Australia.

As part of 'Taskforce Vestigo', the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is working on gathering information on crooks living everywhere from China to Mexico.

Under their new approach targeting top dogs, authorities will look into figures as big as Mexican drug boss and notorious prison escapee Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

'El Chapo', who is the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, reportedly has control over close to 60 per cent of Australia's cocaine trade - which is a $1.2 billion business annually.

'Crime now is so global and sophisticated we have to attack it differently,' a source reportedly told The Daily Telegraph.

'In many ways they see themselves as large corporations and we have to bring down their business models.'

Although their list of targets remains a secret, it's believed to include a number of Mr Bigs who once lived in Australia but are now hiding out around the world.

Among them is Hakan Ayik, a former Commanchero bikie associate, who in 2010 fled the country after sneaking $230 million worth of heroin into Sydney.

It comes after raids in Sydney, Dubai and The Netherlands targetting last week targetting an alleged $810 million drug ring led to the arrests of 18 people, including Fadi Ibrahim (right)

Fadi and Michael Ibrahim (right), the brothers of notorious Kings Cross nightclub identity John Ibrahim (left), remain in a Dubai prison cell more than a week after their arrest

The 38-year-old was reportedly last working alongside Vaso Ulic a former drug boss in Kings Cross who is hiding in Montenegro and is also believed to be on ACIC's list.

Fellow former Commanchero member Mark Buddle has also fled Australia, said to be living in Dubai.

Last week's series of international raids saw Fadi and Michael Ibrahim, brothers of Kings Cross nightclub identity John Ibrahim, arrested as part of the alleged ring.

The pair and three other Australian men dubbed the 'Dubai Five' remain locked up in prison awaiting their extradition back home.
Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, was arrested on Saturday over his alleged plans to detonate an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank

A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly trying to detonate a bomb in Oklahoma City reminiscent of the deadly 1995 bombing by anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh in the same city.

Jerry Drake Varnell, of Sayre, allegedly tried to trigger what he thought was an ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb - like McVeigh's - outside a BancFirst branch in the center of the city on Saturday.

A federal complaint says the FBI learned in December that Varnell had wanted to blow up a building and an undercover FBI agent posed as someone who wanted to help him.

'I think I'm going to go with what the okc bomber used,' Varnell allegedly told the FBI's source in an encrypted message.

'What happened in Oklahoma City was not an attack on America, it was retaliation,' he later said. 'The time for revolution is now.'

Varnell allegedly told the undercover agent that he initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C. - eight blocks from the White House.

He also considered attacking data centers of Facebook and the Internal Revenue Service before settling on the bank in Oklahoma City.

Authorities say the bomb would have caused 'serious damage'.

Varnell is accused of trying to detonate a bomb outside a BancFirst branch in the center of Oklahoma City on Saturday morning

In a series of text messages with the undercover agent, Varnell 'claimed to have a bunker for when the world (or United States) collapsed'.

'I'm out for blood,' the complaint quotes Varnell's texts. 'When militias start getting formed I'm going after government officials when I have a team.'

Authorities found that he had built a bunker to store food and supplies at his family's home in Sayre. The secret bunker was a large storage container buried on three sides.

Varnell allegedly admitted to an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to stage a bombing similar to the deadly 1995 bombing by anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh (above) in the same city

Varnell told investigators he supported the far-right 'III%' anti-government movement and wanted to form his own armed militia.

According to the complaint, Varnell told the undercover agent that, unlike McVeigh, he did not want to kill a lot of people with his bombing, but to 'cripple the government'.

'Something needs to be done,' Varnell said, but killing a lot of people was not a good idea, according to the complaint.

During text conversations in July, Varnell stated he wanted to conduct the attack after closing hours to prevent casualties but conceded that some bank workers or custodians who were inside the building could be killed or injured in the blast, it says.

Varnell's actions were monitored closely by the FBI for months as the plot developed.

According to the complaint, Varnell and the FBI agent built the bomb in a van in El Reno.

The undercover agent met face-to-face with him on June 1 to discuss obtaining materials for an ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb similar to the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Varnell helped assemble the device and load it into what he believed was a stolen van. The bomb was built with 'inert' materials including blasting caps and dynamite that were all supplied by the agent, which meant the bomb was never real.

Varnell then allegedly drove the van from El Reno to Oklahoma City first thing Saturday, just after midnight.

The inert bomb was parked outside the bank and Varnell allegedly tried to used a cellphone to set it off.

He was immediately arrested by the FBI and members of a Joint Terrorism Task Force after trying to detonate the bomb, before 1 a.m.

McVeigh killed 168 people when he exploded a fertilizer bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. He was executed in 2001 for the crime

Varnell had allegedly prepared a statement to be posted on Facebook after the explosion, which reads in part that the attack was 'retaliation against the freedoms that have been taken away from the American people' and 'an act done to show the government what the people think of its actions.'

He had told the agent he wanted a way to communicate his message about the bombing to prevent other groups like Islamic State from claiming responsibility.

The bomb was a similar make to the one used in 1995 by McVeigh.

McVeigh killed 168 people when he exploded a fertilizer bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. McVeigh was arrested soon afterward, imprisoned and in 2001 executed for the crime.

Varnell's arrest was announced two days after white supremacist and extreme-right anti-government groups clashed with opponents in Charlottesville, Virginia.

One woman killed when an extremist rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protestors, and two police officers died in a helicopter crash.

Varnell is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday afternoon on a charge of attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce.

If convicted, he faces between five and 20 years in prison.
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Tini Owens (pictured) is trying to divorce her husband Hugh Ownes

A wife who is trying to divorce her husband of nearly 40 years has argued she should not have to prove 'unreasonable' behaviour in the 'most significant' family case of the century.

Tini Owens, 66, lost the latest round of the 'extraordinarily unusual' court fight in March when the country's top family judge told her she has no right to split from her 'wretchedly unhappy marriage'.

The decision meant she must remain 'locked into' to the marriage with her 'old school' husband she no longer loves in Broadway, Worcestershire.

She suggested Hugh Owens, 78, was 'unpleasant' to her, castigating her over an affair she had with another man several years ago and 'disparaging' her in front of family and friends.

But she is continuing to fight and lawyers representing have outlined their plan after Supreme Court justices said they would consider the case.

If she's successful, top family court lawyers said the Court of Appeal ruling would strengthen calls for the introduction of 'no fault' divorces.

Philip Marshall QC, who heads her legal team, said Mrs Owens should only have to prove that the behaviour of Mr Owens was such that she could not reasonably be expected to live with him.

The statement from her legal team said: 'Mr Marshall QC and his team will argue that the courts' emphasis on trying to find that a (husband's) behaviour is in some way 'unreasonable' is wrong.

'It will be argued that this is a 'linguistic trap' and that the (law) does not require unreasonable behaviour, but simply behaviour such that (she) cannot reasonably be expected to live with (him).'

Mrs Owens suggested Hugh Owens, 78, (pictured) was 'unpleasant' to her, castigating her over an affair she had several years ago

Judge Robin Tolson refused to grant Mrs Owens' divorce petition but then asked Court of Appeal judges to overturn that decision.

Three appeal judges - led by Sir James Munby, the most senior family court judge in England and Wales - analysed the case at a hearing in London on Valentine's Day.

They dismissed Mrs Owens' appeal, against a ruling by Judge Tolson, in March.

The statement from her lawyers added: 'The case started in 2015, with Mrs Owens petitioning for a divorce from her husband of 37 years.

'Mr and Mrs Owens married in 1978 and Mrs Owens moved out of the family home in February 2015.

'Mrs Owens asked the court to grant her a divorce on the ground that the marriage had irretrievably broken down and alleged in support that Mr Owens's behaviour was such that she could not reasonably be expected to live with him. Mr Owens defended the divorce.'

While the case went through the courts Mrs Owens lived in the farmhouse on the left while her millionaire husband lives in the manor on the right

Mr Marshall told appeal judges that the 'vast majority' of divorces were undefended in 21st century England - and said it was 'extraordinarily unusual in modern times' for a judge to dismiss a divorce petition.

But Sir James said Judge Tolson had correctly concluded that the marriage had not 'in law' irretrievably broken down.

Sir James added: 'Parliament has decreed that it is not a ground for divorce that you find yourself in a wretchedly unhappy marriage, though some people may say it should be.'

No date has yet been fixed for the Supreme Court hearing.

Simon Blain, who works at law firm Penningtons Manches, said: 'This is the most significant divorce case of the century so far.'

He added: 'The judgment will strengthen calls for Parliament urgently to consider amending the law to introduce no-fault divorce.'

DIVORCE: WHAT THE LAW STATES AND THE FIVE-YEAR RULE The Owens' divorce case is rare because in most cases both parties agree to splitting up, even if they can't agree on the settlement. In England and Wales the petitioner, Mrs Owens, must prove fault for an immediate divorce. 'Fault' can include abusive behaviour or infidelity. But if fault cannot be proved the couple must separate for at least two years and then both agree to an official divorce. If one party does not agree to the divorce - Mr Owens - after two years the couple must be separated for at least five years before the separation alone will be enough to grant the petition. Advertisement

Ayesha Vardag, who runs law firm Vardags, said: 'The real question, whether it is right in 21st century Britain to force couples through the Victorian farce of fault-based petitions, is one only Parliament can answer.

'Fault-based divorce has caused significant misery and costs in this case. It does so on a smaller scale for thousands of couples each year.

'It is time that government stepped in and brought about meaningful reform to our outdated divorce laws.'

Lorraine Harvey, who is based at law firm Slater and Gordon, said: 'What constitutes unreasonable behaviour in one relationship may be completely different in another, yet if both parties can't agree then they must go through this protracted process in order to get a divorce.

'This case again highlights the need for urgent reform in divorce law. For example, the blame culture still attached is both outdated and unnecessary.

'When couples who want an amicable split are forced into assigning blame, it is at best uncomfortable and can be extremely damaging - particularly when there are children involved.

'It has been around 10 years since the idea of a 'no fault' divorce was first mooted in the UK, in which time it has been successfully adopted in other countries including America and the Netherlands.

'That and the fact that it is supported by most experts working in this field should be a catalyst for us to adopt it as well, or at least prompt a more meaningful debate.'
A convicted murderer who escaped prison after armed thugs forced guards to release him during a hospital visit had lost four stone to fool medics into thinking he was seriously ill.

Shaun Walmsley, 28, deliberately lost the weight so he would be taken to hospital and planned his escape for three months, police revealed.

He was serving a 30-year jail term for murder when he was sprung by men wielding a gun and a knife at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool in February.

Shaun Walmsley, 28, deliberately lost four stone so he would be taken from prison to hospital in Liverpool, where armed thugs forced guards to allow him to escape

Merseyside Police have also revealed they believe he began plotting his escape after an appeal against his sentence length was rejected in 2016.

A gold-coloured Volvo, which was used for the escape, was later found abandoned in the Fazakerley area of the city.

Walmsley was serving life with a minimum term of 30 years for the murder of Anthony Duffy, 33, in May 2014.

The drug dealing had an appeal against his punishment rejected in late 2016 - leaving the thug facing the prospect of three decades behind bars.

He then attempted to lose a lot of weight to give the impression he was ill and needed hospital treatment.

The plot was supported by his criminal network of contacts, including the Vale Heads gang.

CCTV footage, pictured, shows the moment men armed with a gun and a knife accosted the guards and forced them to release the murderer

Detectives from Merseyside Police previously revealed how Walmsley used mobile phones smuggled into HMP Liverpool to plot the escape.

The accomplices are believed to have waited for 90 minutes outside the hospital before leaving the scene with Walmsley in the Volvo.

Detective Superintendent Natalie Perischine told the Guardian the trio then switched to another vehicle, which drove 35 miles to Cheetham Hill in north Manchester.

Police believe he obtained new identity documents at the address and have been trying to track him down ever since.

Detectives from Merseyside Police previously revealed how Walmsley used mobile phones smuggled into HMP Liverpool to plot the escape.

Last week police raided several properties in Merseyside, pictured, as part of the investigation into Walmsley's disappearance

The accomplices are believed to have waited for 90 minutes outside the hospital before leaving the scene with Walmsley in the Volvo.

Detective Superintendent Natalie Perischine told the Guardian the trio then switched to another vehicle, which drove 35 miles to Cheetham Hill in north Manchester.

Police believe he obtained new identity documents at the address and have been trying to track him down ever since.

Det Supt Perischine told the Guardian: 'Shaun Walmsley is a convicted killer who was sentenced to life for murder with a tariff of 30 years, he is a cold-blooded murderer and a particularly dangerous individual and we are determined to find him and we will not stop there.

'If you have assisted him in his escape from custody, or are providing him with the means to evade capture, we will come for you too. So think again about what you are doing and where your actions could lead to in the long term. Do the decent thing and let us know where he is.'

Officers have been investigating the escape for six months and have so far arrested 30 people and seized more than 165,000 in cash

Last week officers from Merseyside Police conducted a series of raids across 11 properties in Liverpool and also hit several cells at HMP Liverpool as part of the investigation in Walmsley's disappearance.

They recovered six mobile phones, large quantities of drugs, stolen motocross bikes, heat cameras and 7,000 in cash.

So far 30 people have been arrested in the probe into his escape, which is known as Operation Devon, while more than 165,000 in cash has been seized as officers have raided properties in Merseyside, north Wales, Sussex and Dorset.

It is believed Walmsley has probably left the country.

Det Supt Perischine added: 'We believe that Walmsley is probably abroad and therefore will need money to exist. Someone is funding him and in time it could prove to be exceptionally costly.'
The bodies of two men lost at sea when their tiny boat collided with a fishing trawler have been formally identified.

Mircea Ilie, 40, a bike shop owner from Brighton  known as Mitch  and Irinel Popovici, 41, were found by emergency services on Monday morning.

Father-of-four Mr Ilie had only been the owner of the James 2 since May this year.

The four men left Shoreham harbour on a fishing trip in The Channel at 10.30pm on August 6 and their boat sank after colliding with the trawler two hours later.

Irinel Popovici, 41 (right) and Mircea Ilie, 40 (left), were both from Brighton. The men were with a party of four fishermen whose five-meter boat capsized and sank after late night collision

Shoreham Lifeboat is pictured bringing one of the men's bodies ashore after the tragic collision between a their boat and a trawler

Traiam Dumitrache was pronounced dead on 6 August after his body was recovered from the sea

One of the men survived and was rescued and one body recovered on the same day.

It is believed all four men on board the James 2 were thrown overboard when they collided with a scallop dredger off the south coast.

Traiam Dumitrache, 50, from London was formally identified following a post mortem examination on Thursday morning.

Elvis Cojocariu clung to a buoy for hours before another fishing boat picked him up.

Police and marine accident investigators identified the scallop dredging boat, Vertrouwen, which left Shoreham around the time of the incident bound for Grimsby as the boat which collided with the James 2.

Elvis Cojocariu is the only man so far to have been rescued after the fishing boat he and three friends were on collided with a bigger vessel

Sussex police are now in touch with the owners, MacDuff Shellfish Ltd, who are co-operating fully with the investigation.

A spokesman for Sussex police said: 'Two bodies recovered from the sea off Shoreham on Monday morning (August 14) have been identified as those of the two men missing since Sunday, August 6.

'The first was reported to HM Coastguard by a fisherman around 2.5 miles off Shoreham Harbour around 7am.

'The RNLI Shoreham lifeboat was launched to recover the body and as they were returning to shore, a second body was spotted in the water just before 8am.

'Both bodies were landed at Brighton Marina where they were handed to the coroner's officer and following notification to their families, they have now been formally identified.

'It is now known that the collision occurred around 12.30am and the boat was lost without raising a distress call.

'One man was rescued by commercial fisherman after clinging to a buoy for more than five hours and another man's body was recovered by an HM Coastguard helicopter later that morning.'

Another unidentified body was found inside the new Rampion wind farm, 20km, off the coast of Worthing, on Friday.
President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that he and his administration forcefully denounce the 'evil' embodied by white supremacists and other bigoted hate groups whose weekend rally in Virginia left one woman dead and 20 others injured.

'Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,' the president said at the White House.

'We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.'

'Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups,'President Trump said Monday  two days after a deadly attack in Charlottesville, Virginia

Trumps scathing remarks in the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room followed a weekend in which he was criticized for not condemning bigots

James Alex Fields Jr. (left) was charged Sunday with the murder of Heather Heyer (right) after he allegedly drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters gathered in opposition of a white nationalist rally

The president also announced that the Department of Justice had opened a civil rights investigation into the weekend's violence.

'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred bigotry and violence. It has no place in America,' he said.

'As I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag. And we are all made by the same almighty God.'

The president's Monday do-over featured harsher language than his first public reaction to the tragedy on Saturday. And unlike that first statement, it specifically called out racist groups.

Members of white supremacy groups clashed with opponents on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia

Trump returned to Washington for a half-day of meetings and an event attacking Chinese trade practices  but a promised press conference disappeared from his agenda

Trump told reporters Friday that he was 'going to have a pretty big press conference on Monday' in the nation's capital. But that was before his attempt to condemn a white supremacist protest in Virginia turned into a public relations disaster

A CNN reporter known as a vocal Trump opponent asked the president hours later at the end of an unrelated event why it took him two days to name and shame the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.

'Can you explain why you did not condemn those hate groups by name over the weekend?' Jim Acosta asked.

'They've been condemned. They have been condemned,' a stoic Trump responded, before dismissing Acosta and CNN as 'fake news.'

At day's end Trump tweeted an exasperated jab over the questioning, saying that he had '[m]ade additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied...truly bad people!'

Trump had told reporters Friday in New Jersey that he was 'going to have a pretty big press conference on Monday' in the nation's capital.

But that was before his attempt to condemn the white supremacist protest turned into a public relations disaster on Saturday, making Monday a day of explaining and losing precious political high ground.

President Trump ended his day with an exasperated tweet framing CNN reporter Jim Acosta's question about his do-over as a 'Fake News' move by 'truly bad people' in the press

Trump tweeted Monday morning about his policy agenda but didn't mention the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left one protester dead on Saturday

Trump's half-day return to Washington was expected to focus on an event attacking Chinese trade practices.

Instead he was forced to reframe his botched comments from Saturday in which he decried 'hatred, bigotry and violence  on many sides, on many sides.'

That was thought to have been a reference to left-wing 'antifa'  anti-fascist  protesters' plans to start fistfights with neo-Nazis. But it was the white nationalists who turned most violent, with one Ohio native driving a car into a crowd and killing a 32-year-old dissenter.

The White House issued an unsigned statement on Sunday claiming that Trump 'condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.'

But the damage had already been done, with members of Trump's own party wasting no time in criticizing him for failing to call out racists specifically and with vigor.

'Mr. President  we must call evil by its name,' tweeted Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner. 'These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.'

Trump created a firestorm over the weekend by saying that he condemned 'this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence  on many sides'

HBO host John Oliver said Trump 'cannot even be bothered to f****** condemn' Nazis

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said on Twitter that it's '[v]ery important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.'

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah vented: 'We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.'

By Sunday night Trump's omission had become a literal punchline.

HBO funnyman John Oliver said on his 'Last Week Tonight' program that 'incredibly, in a country where previous presidents have actually had to defeat Nazis, we now have one who cannot even be bothered to f***ing condemn them.'

'What kind of f***ing idiot would not immediately distance himself from them? It simply doesnt get easier than disavowing Nazis. Its almost as much of a presidential gimme as pardoning a f***ing turkey!'

Nazi sympathizer James Fields, left, drove his car into a group of anti-fascist protesters, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyes

Trump's official Monday schedule appeared geared toward sidestepping the controversy entirely, and did not include his promised press conference.

In included a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Chris Wray about investigations related to the Charlottesville riots and the vehicular homicide.

But the White House offered no indication of what might fill an hours-long gap between that sitdown and a mid-afternoon announcement of new policies related to 'China's laws, policies, practices, and actions related to intellectual property, innovation, and technology.'

An administration official offered no explanation on Monday morning, saying: 'No changes. Not going there.'
An alleged sex attacker accused of groping six women in the same underpass had his case adjourned after telling the court: No speak English.

Hasan Alkhabbaz, 22, allegedly committed six sexual assaults on women walking through Joe Strummer Subway in central London.

Mr Alkhabbaz grabbed genitals and slipped his hand up skirts while lurking in the underpass where The Clashs frontman used to busk, Westminster Magistrates' Court was told.

Mr Alkhabbaz is accused of grabbing women's genitals in the central London underpass

Prosecutor Aislinn Rice said: This is targeting a number of women and hes grabbing different parts, their bottom or genitals, mostly over clothing but also with his hand under skirts.

The Crown say its very much targeting females in isolated areas.

But Mr Alkhabbaz's case had to be adjourned because an Arabic interpreter hadnt been booked.

When District Judge Nina Tempia asked for Fayezs address, he replied: No speak English.

The judge explained the court would have to book an interpreter through an agency and adjourned the case until tomorrow at 2pm.

We have got an interpreter who has left his stuff, but we have to book it through the agency.'

The court was forced to adjourn the case after a lawyer was not booked through an agency

She banned Mr Alkhabbaz from subways while on bail.

From now onwards you mustnt use any underpass.

When it became clear Mr Alkhabbaz didnt understand the word underpass, she attempted to clarify.

Underpass, where you have been allegedly committing the offences in the underpass, you know what I mean.

You mustnt use them, because this is what the police say, thats where youre committing these offences, where you are touching the women.

Im saying you are not allowed to use the underpass.

She then told a friend who had attended with him to explain his bail conditions to him in Arabic.

Mr Alkhabbaz, wearing a grey t-shirt and black jeans, nodded as his friend explained.

Alkhabbaz, of Fonthill Road, Islington, north London, was released on conditional bail until another hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court tomorrow at 2pm.

He is yet to enter pleas to six counts of sexual assault alleged to have occurred between November 14 last year and March 3 this year.
A suspected killer pleaded not guilty to bludgeoning his mother, sister and her friend to death as it emerged he 'also used a knife during vicious attack' in Long Island.

Bobby Vanderhall, 34, allegedly took a large hammer from Lynn Vanderhall's garage on Perry Street in Long Island, New York, at around 1.15am and broke through a basement door.

He then beat his mother, 58-year-old Lynn Vanderhall, to death in the kitchen, as well as stabbing her, according to a prosecutor at Nassau County District Court in Hempstead, New York.

Bobby Vanderhall, 34 (pictured, July 2011), is accused of breaking into his mother's house and bludgeoning her and two others to death on Saturday in New York

Vanderhall then allegedly found his sister, 29-year-old Melissa Vanderhall, and one of Melissa's friends on the staircase and beat them with the hammer, authorities said.

The friend was able to escape and call for help.

Vanderhall found the last victim, 29-year-old Janel Simpson, in an upstairs room, it is alleged. She also died from bludgeoning.

Prosecutor Ani Pulaski said Vanderhall 'used a hammer to viciously attack and bludgeon to death three female victims', the New York Post reported.

Vanderhall allegedly took a large hammer from his mother Lynn Vanderhall's garage in Long Island at around 1.15am and broke through a basement door before beating her (left) and his sister, Melissa Vanderhall (right), to death

Pulaski added: 'During the attack on his mother, he also used a knife to stab her multiple times.'

Vanderhall's uncle Leon Alexander, 70, also reportedly told the court: 'He's a big, strong kid. Once, when things got out of hand, it took six guys to take him down.'

Vanderhall had been kicked out of his mother's house and was homeless, according to Lt Stephen Fitzpatrick of Nassau County homicide.

Vanderhall allegedly found his last victim, 29-year-old Janel Simpson (pictured, November 2015), in an upstairs room. She also died from bludgeoning

Lynn Vanderhall had an order of protection against her mentally troubled son, police said.

'When he came here last night, the doors were secured and he became enraged,' said Lt Fitzpatrick the morning after the incident.

'He went to the garage, he obtained a large hammer... With this hammer, he broke through the basement door.'

Vanderhall had been kicked out of his mother's house on Perry Street (pictured) and was homeless, according to Lt Stephen Fitzpatrick from Nassau County's homicide unit

'The family right now is distraught,' said Juanita Johnson, a cousin of the Vanderhalls. 'We in shock.'

The survivor, who has not been identified, was hospitalised but in a stable condition. Police said she is 29 years old.

Denis Simpson told NBC New York that his daughter, Janel, had worked late in her role as a secretary at healthcare network Northwell Health, before going to visit her friend.

According to police, Lynn Vanderhall (right, with Bobby and Melissa Vanderhall in November 2015) had an order of protection against her mentally troubled son

Denis Simpson told NBC New York that his daughter, Janel (pictured, March 2016), had worked late in her role as a secretary at healthcare network Northwell Health, before going to visit her friend. He said his daughter and her friends were fun-loving women

He described his daughter and her friends as fun-loving women who had gone to the Carnival in Trinidad and were planning a trip to Cuba in the autumn.

'These girls don't give problems, these girls just have fun,' Mr Simpson said.

Vanderhall, who police described as more than six feet tall and at least 230 pounds, was arrested within two miles of the house after officers found him asleep in a car.

He has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Police said Vanderhall has a history of mental problems and a criminal record that includes driving while intoxicated and sexual abuse charges.
Theo Luckett could be scarred for life after what was supposed to be a treat during a family trip abroad ended in disaster

A mum has issued a warning after her seven-year-old son suffered a potentially fatal allergic reaction to a temporary hennah tattoo on holiday.

Little Theo Luckett could be scarred for life after what was supposed to be a treat during a family trip abroad ended in disaster.

He had queued up excitedly for the procedure on his arm at a market stall in Bulgaria with dozens of other children.

But shortly after having the substantial inking done, Theo started to get blisters which swelled to be yellow and oozing overnight.

His panic-stricken parents rushed him to the nearest pharmacy in the seaside town of Sozopol where they were told he was suffering an allergic reaction.

Mum Alexandra, 41, who lives with husband Jonathan, 39, and their daughter Charlotte, nine, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said: 'Straight away I feared the worst.

'It brought it all back as Theo has an egg allergy and a few times we have had to get ambulances as he has been close to anaphylactic shock.

'His arm looked terrible. The other night he woke up crying as it was so itchy.

'I have been told he may be scarred for life. Getting the tattoo was meant to be an enjoyable activity and I feel awful as a parent this has happened.

'There were lots of children there and I am wondering if any of them have been affected too.

The doctor says that if he goes near the henna tattoo chemical para-phenylene diamine (PPD) again, it could be deadly as it can cause people to stop breathing

'I just want to warn parents of the dangers.'

Theo picked the substantial sleeve design from a book on the seller's stand while his sister had a little inking at the one next door.

But while hers has faded since the family returned from their two week break more than a week ago her brother is still in lots of pain.

Alexandra is now applying strong steroid cream on the skin as prescribed by the doctor.

The doctor says that if he goes near the henna tattoo chemical para-phenylene diamine (PPD) again, it could be deadly as it can cause people to stop breathing.

Alexandra added: 'Theo's skin is very inflamed and angry looking now but we have been very lucky and it is starting to heal.

'It's not infected- the doctor said he was lucky. The PPD can cause the anaphylactic shock.'
A Nevada college student who has been identified by social media users as a man photographed marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, before a deadly white supremacist rally claims he is not an angry racist.

Peter Cvjetanovic, 20, gave an interview to the station KTVN over the phone on Sunday, two days after he was caught on camera demonstrating on the University of Virginia's campus alongside other white nationalists carrying tiki torches.

During a related rally on Saturday, a car allegedly driven by suspected white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr drove into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 19 others.

Scroll down for video

Named and shamed: Peter Cvjetanovic (R) along with neo Nazis and white supremacists encircle and chant at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after marching through the University of Virginia campus with tiki torches in Charlottesville on Friday

Cvjetanovic, pictured in a Facebook photo above, admitted that he was a white nationalist but denied being an 'angry racist'

Cvjetanovic, an undergraduate student at University of Nevada-Reno studying history and political science, told KTVN he did not expect his photo from Fridays Unite the Right rally to spread so widely but insists that he's a white nationalist who cares for all people.

I understand the photo has a very negative connotation, he said. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo.

The 20-year-old, however, then went on to defend his beliefs and the legacy of Confederate general Robert E. Lee; it was the removal of Lees statue from Charlottesville that prompted the dueling rallies over the weekend.

I came to this march for the message that white European culture has a right to be here just like every other culture,' Cvjetanovic told the station. It is not perfect, there are flaws to it, of course. I do not deny that.

However, I do believe that the replacement of the statue will be the slow replacement of white heritage within the United States and the people who fought and defended and built their state and their homeland. Robert E Lee is a great example of that. He wasnt a perfect man, but I want to honor and respect what he stood for during his time.

This photo surfaced on social media over the weekend showing Cvjetanovic (far right) posing with Sen. Dean Heller (second from left, in circle)

The Nevada Republican wasted no time distancing himself from the 20-year-old

Cvjetanovic further insisted that white nationalist arent all hateful.

We all deserve a future for our children and for our culture, he added. 'We just want to preserve what we have

On Sunday, University of Nevada-Reno President Marc Johnson released a statement acknowledging that one of the marchers photographed on Friday was a university student, though he stopped short of referring to Cvjetanovic by name.

Racism and white supremacist movements have a corrosive effect on our society. These movements do not represent our values as a university, the statement read. We denounce any movement that targets individuals due to the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation, ability/disability, or whether they were born in our country.

As an institution, we remain firm in our commitment in denouncing all forms of bigotry and racism, which have no place in a free and equal society.

FULL STATEMENT FROM UNV-RENO PRESIDENT ON CHARLOTTESVILLE We have been witness to the violence that has taken place this weekend during the white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. One of the marchers photographed has been identified as a University of Nevada, Reno student. Racism and white supremacist movements have a corrosive effect on our society. These movements do not represent our values as a university. We denounce any movement that targets individuals due to the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation, ability/disability, or whether they were born in our country. As an institution, we remain firm in our commitment in denouncing all forms of bigotry and racism, which have no place in a free and equal society. The University of Nevada, Reno is a caring and safe community of students and employees from a broad range of backgrounds with differing beliefs. This community will not be divided by hateful language and violence. Our learning environment respects the right to freely express views and debate openly in civil discourse. There will be clashes of beliefs and opinions, but they must be peaceful. As a community, we abhor violence and it has no place on our campus. If we are to come to greater understanding of each other, it will be through open, honest, non-violent discussion and exploration of all ideas. Educating ourselves on the other's point of view is the key to understanding and peaceful co-existence. The tragedy that occurred this weekend in Virginia is an important reminder that we must recognize the perspectives of all individuals. Peaceful assembly and exchange of ideas is part of the bedrock of any free society. We will maintain a commitment to the safe, peaceful expression and exchange of ideas on our campus. Advertisement

People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville Saturday

James Alex Fields Jr (left) who has been charged with second-degree murder after he reportedly drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, killing Heather Heyer, 32

After another recent photo surfaced on social media showing Cvjetanovic posing with Sen. Dean Heller, the Nevada Republican wasted no time distancing himself from the 20-year-old.

I don't know this person & condemn the outrageous racism, hatred and violence, Heller said in a tweet sent out on Saturday. It's unacceptable & shameful. No room for it in this country.

Meanwhile, a petition has been launched on the site Change.org calling on University of Nevada-Reno officials to expel Cvejtanovic for being a white supremacist.

'It is not enough to say that this is not tolerated on your campus. YOU NEED TO ACT AS WELL,' the petition reads.

A makeshift memorial of flowers and a photo of Heather Heyer sits in Charlottesville Sunday

As of Monday afternoon, more than 11,450 people have supported the action.

Cvejtanovic reacted to news of the petition by stating that he does not believe that as a publicly funded university, UNR has a right to expel him for exercising his freedom of speech at a political rally, during which he committed no acts of violence.

I am allowed to express my political beliefs and if UNR does expel me, then it is a clear violation of my first amendment, the defiant student said.
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Harrowing 911 audio has revealed how the stuntwoman killed on the set of Deadpool 2 went 'airborne through a building' after losing control of her bike.

Joi 'SJ' Harris, a professional motorbike racer from New York, was killed shortly after 8am on Monday while filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, when she crashed into the lobby of Shaw Tower.

In the call recording dispatchers can be heard discussing the accident, saying Harris hit a curb before being thrown through the air and 'hasn't been moving' since.

The call audio emerged as one witness told Deadline that Harris had not been wearing a helmet during the crash because the character she was portraying, Domino, was not supposed to be wearing one.

Haunting Facebook posts also revealed Harris's final excited messages to friends when she arrived in Vancouver on Saturday to start shooting her first movie.

Joi 'SJ' Harris has been identified as the stuntwoman who was killed on the set of the upcoming Deadpool sequel

This was Harris's last post on Facebook on Saturday as she arrived in Vancouver to start filming for her first movie

Tragic posts underneath the pictures show how the tragedy broke, with excited well-wishes turning to heartbroken tributes

Harris reportedly lost control of the Ducati she was riding on the fifth take of a driving sequence for the film on Monday

Harris was an experienced racer and the first African-American woman to be licensed in the sport of professional road racing, but had not worked for the big screen before.

On Saturday she had uploaded images of Vancouver, as her friends commented below. Nicole Davis-Lynch wrote 'go best friend!' along with an large image of a heart, to which Harris responded: 'Go best friend, go best friend.'

A series of well-wishes followed, before news of the tragedy broke on Monday.

Around the time of the accident Glen Ettienne wrote to Harris asking her to 'hit me up', before her loved ones realize that nobody can get in touch with her.

Just a few hours later Irvondra Boyce-El breaks the bad news, saying 'she passed, on the set of the Deadpool movie,' before the joyous posts turn to heartbroken tributes.

Kenya Moore wrote 'I LOVE YOU SIS,' before Grace Roselli added: 'This just sucks. Am so sorry for her friends and family's loss. SJ was truly amazing.' Nesh Cheekz Dickinson said: RIP.. my heart is broken.. just spoke to her..'

Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds paid also tribute to Harris on Monday, saying he was 'heartbroken' by the tragedy.

'Today, we tragically lost a member of our crew while filming Deadpool,' wrote the film's star in a message posted to his social media accounts.

'We're heartbroken, shocked and devastatedbut recognize nothing can come close to the grief and inexplicable pain her family and loves ones must feel in this moment.'

He closed out by saying: 'My heart pours out to them  along with each and every person she touched in this world.'

Harris lost control of her bike while filming a sequence for the movie shortly after 8am, causing her to ram the bike into the glass-enclosed lobby of the Shaw Tower in Vancouver (pictured)

Paramedics quickly arrived at the waterfront office building in the British Columbia city and were able to pull Harris from the wreckage and get her to the hospital, but her injuries were too severe

Response: 'We are deeply saddened by the accident that occurred on the set of Deadpool 2 this morning. Our hearts and prayers are with the family, friends and colleagues of our crew member during this difficult time,' 21st Century Fox said in a statement on Monday (worker cleaning up bloody glass on Monday)

Investigation underway: There were no other injuries reported and filming was halted for the day after the crash (officer examining the scene)

Star: Reynolds was spotted filming last week on the set while riding a red Vespa, with precautions taken to ensure he did not have to perform his own stunts (above)

The sequel to the popular 2016 film has been filming since June and will be released next summer (Zazie Beetz on the Vancouver set of Deadpool 2 back on August 8)

Paramedics quickly arrived at the waterfront office building in the British Columbia city and were able to pull Harris from the wreckage and get her to the hospital, but her injuries were too severe.

Audio from the 911 call made after the crash reveals that Harris was not moving following the crash, with one man stating she flew across the street and 'remained airborne' as she went through the glass.

The rescue vehicle was on site for 45 minutes after loading in the victim and drove off without using its sirens according to CTV Vancouver.

'Vancouver Police can confirm that a female stunt driver has died on the set of Deadpool during a stunt on a motorcycle,' the local force said in a statement Monday.

'VPD officers are at the scene, along with officers from WorkSafeBC. More information will be released when it is available.'

WorkSafeBC, who has five workers investigating the crash, also released a statement on Monday.

Ryan Reynolds pair tribute to Harris on social media

'WorkSafeBC was contacted by the Vancouver Police Department this morning at 8:31am regarding a serious incident in the 1000 Block of West Waterfront Road, Van B.C. WorkSafeBC has five officers at the incident site,' said the agency.

'Two officers are inspecting the site for immediate occupational health and safety issues. Three officers are investigating the incident for cause and prevention under the Workers' Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.'

Eyewitnesses to the horrific tragedy claimed that they did not hear the motorcycle break before the crash.

'People were running on the sidewalk, the motorcycle comes flying across the street, looks like from a ramp because it was in the air,' said one individual.

'[The victim was] standing on the bike, slams into that building, clearly hit and out-of-control and clearly not planned.'

That person then added: 'It was so out-of-control, it looked like an accident.'

Another witness said they watched as the bike went 'out-of-control,' saying it then 'flew right into the building.'

Sharmina Kermalli said she had just walked into a Starbucks next door to where the accident happened when she heard a loud crash. She ran out of the coffee shop and saw glass still falling on the body of the woman.

New villain: Josh Brolin in costume as Cable on the set of the film on August 7 in Vancouver (above)

Covered: Reynolds' stunt double was filmed riding a Vespa last week with his legs crossed for a scene in the film (above)

Stunt persons: The Marvel film relies heavily on stunt performers (Josh Brolin stunt double on left and Zazie Beetz stunt double on right filming on August 7 in Vancouver)

The victim had completed the stunt successfully four times prior to the crash on the set of the film before something went wrong on the fifth attempt. It is unclear still if those attempts were all being filmed or just practice runs for Harris.

Nathan Kramchynski had been watching Harris complete several rehearsals of the stunt from his office on the seventh floor of the Shaw Tower.

He saw Harris drive the bike down two ramps across two flights of stairs, each time stopping at the end.

But on the fifth attempt, Harris went down the stairs and then suddenly 'picked up speed'.

'It looked like she kind of hit the throttle,' Kramchynski told Metro News. 'Before you know it, she crossed [the] street and then [we] kind of lost her to view.'

'But we saw she had no where else to go. It was like, she was going full throttle - and then there's a building there.'

Kramchynski said it also appeared Harris 'missed' hitting two pedestrians as she lost control of the bike.

Harris was reportedly travelling at a speed of approximately 35 mph when she crashed, hitting a pool before going into the building.

There were no other injuries reported and filming was halted for the day after the crash.

Investigators meanwhile were spotted on the scene snapping photos of the motorcycle and impact site as they try and piece together what caused the fatal crash.

Three workers have been assigned to the investigation while the other two were addressing any immediate concerns as a result of the accident.

A number of local streets had been shut down for the past week according to residents to film bike scenes for the film.

The upcoming Marvel release also stars Josh Brolin and Jack Kesy along with Morena Baccarin and TJ Miller, who both appeared in the first film.

'We are deeply saddened by the accident that occurred on the set of Deadpool 2 this morning. Our hearts and prayers are with the family, friends and colleagues of our crew member during this difficult time,' 21st Century Fox said in a statement on Monday.

Scene: 'People were running on the sidewalk, the motorcycle comes flying across the street, looks like from a ramp because it was in the air,' said one individual (workers remove motorcycle on Monday)

Clearing the scene: The worker was reportedly travelling at a speed of approximately 35 mph when she crashed, hitting a pool before going into the building (tow truck above with motorcycle)

Aftermath: Eyewitnesses said they did not hear the motorcycle break prior to the crash, which happened shortly after 8am on Monday (crash site above at Shaw Tower)

Limited information: 'Vancouver Police can confirm that a female stunt driver has died on the set of Deadpool during a stunt on a motorcycle,' the local force said in a statement Monday (officer examining the scene)

Difficult day: No additional information has been provided at this time and there has been no comment from any of the individuals involved in the film

Reynolds is a Vancouver native, having grown up in the British Columbia city before striking it big in Hollywood.

It has been over 20 years since a stunt performer was killed in the city, with the last incident occurring in 1996 when a man's parachute failed to deploy after jumping from a helicopter on the set of the film 'Firestorm,' which starred former football star Howie Long and James Cameron's wife Suzy Amis.

A performer was killed last month on the set of 'The Walking Dead' in Georgia.

John Bernecker, 33, died from injuries he suffered after falling off a 25-foot balcony during filming for the show's upcoming season.

There was also an incident on the set of the upcoming sixth installment of the rebooted Mission Impossible franchise last week that left star Tom Cruise limping when he hit the side of a building after jumping off the structure for a sequence in the film.
An Ohio teacher is accused of having a three-year sexual relationship with one of her students that resulted in her giving birth to his child.

Laura Lynn Cross, 36, allegedly started grooming the boy when she was his eighth grade English teacher at Buchtel High School in Akron in 2012.

The alleged sexual abuse occurred between August 2013 to September 2016.

Laura Lynn Cross, 36, allegedly started grooming the boy (pictured above) when she was his eighth grade English teacher at Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio in 2012

Cross initially started inviting him around to use her swimming pool before he allegedly started spending the night at her house.

Cross was charged with three counts of sexual abuse last week. The abuse allegedly occurred between August 2013 and September 2016

She later convinced the boy's mother to let him move into her home as part of a court approved 'partial parental custody' arrangement because she was his 'mentor'.

Her Facebook profile is filled with photos of the pair together.

Cross quit teaching at Buchtel High in 2015.

She was arrested and charged last week after police were informed she had given birth in 2015 to the student's child.

The birth was kept secret until someone recently notified the boy's father.

The boy's father, who can't be named to protect his son's identity, claims he first raised concerns with the school back in 2012 but says nothing was done about it.

Cross, who quit teaching in 2015, was arrested and charged last week after police were informed she had given birth in 2015 to the student's child

'First of all, she's a schoolteacher,' the father told ABC5. 'To get aroused by a child basically you have to be a sick individual.'

'It was a straight failure from the system... from the school and definitely from the police.'

Cross was charged with three counts of sexual abuse.

She is being held at Summit County Jail on $100,000 bond.
The Obama administrations political appointees may have cleaned out their desks at the U.S. Department of Education and the White House six months ago or more. But that doesnt mean that they have stopped working on K-12 policy.

Many of the folks who ran Race to the Top, oversaw waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act, or helped implement the School Improvement Grant program, are still at jobs inside the Beltway, working in state education agencies, or school districts. Many have ended up at the same think tanks, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations. (The Center for American Progress was a popular landing site.) Theyve even got an informal alumni network, and a website, Education 44 .

And in general, they seem to be continuing to champion the same kinds of policies they worked on during the Obama years. Think college access, equity, and innovation, often with a technological twist.

Thats not a shocker, said Elizabeth Mann, a fellow at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Political appointees at least share some policy goals on some portion of the agenda with the administration thats in power, so its not terribly surprising to me that they would end up working on similar issues, she said.

This revolving door isnt unique to the Obama team. Former political aides often end up working on the same policies they pushed when they were heading up federal agencies and offices. Staffers from President George W. Bushs administration have filled out the ranks at think tanks, in state education agencies, or worked for standardized testing companies. In many cases, theyve focused on accountability for student results, a hallmark of Bushs education agenda. And its easy to imagine members of the Trump team ending up at organizations that push vouchers and charter schools down the road.

So what happened to Obamas education staffers? Heres a quick look, both at major players, plus a smattering of other key aides. Big thanks to former press secretaries Dorie Nolt, who starts next month at Strategies 360, a research, public affairs and communications firm, and Justin Hamilton, now a communications consultant, for their help in putting together this list.

 Arne Duncan, Obamas longest-serving education secretary, is now a managing partner at the Emerson Collective , a philanthropic and advocacy organization run by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Duncans focus there is disconnected youth and combatting gun violence. And he isnt the only Obama appointee on Emersons roster. Russlyn Ali, who served as the assistant secretary for civil rights, is the organizations managing director of education.

 John King, who started in what was essentially the deputy secretary role, then moved to the top job for the final year of the Obama administration, is now the president and CEO of the Education Trust , an advocacy organization that looks out for disadvantaged kids. And he brought along a few folks who worked for him at the department.

 Ary Amerikaner, for instance, who helped craft the Obama administrations now-defunct spending rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act, is the director of P-12 resource equity at the Education Trust.

 Takirra Winfield, who was the communications point person on ESSA, is now the Education Trusts senior director of communications and campaigns.

There are a ton of Obama-edu refugees clustered at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that was closely associated with the administration.

 Carmel Martin, the one time assistant secretary for planning evaluation and policy, who helped design waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act and the School Improvement Grant program, is the executive vice-president for policy.

 Emma Vadhera, who served as chief of staff to both Duncan and King, is a senior fellow and consultant for CAP.

 Scott Sargrad, another key waiver point person, is CAPs managing director of K-12 policy.

Some staffers have taken a different direction and gone to work in school districts.

 Ann Whalen, who played a huge role in the implementation of Race to the Top, and came back at the end of the administration to serve as the acting assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. Whalen is now the deputy chief of academic strategy for Denver Public Schools, a district thats implemented a lot of the same policies that Duncan pushed as secretary, including teacher merit-pay.

 Kelly Gonez, a former Obama adviser, recently won a seat on the Los Angeles school board.

 Deb Delisle, who was the assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education when the administration was implementing the NCLB waivers, is now the executive director of ASCD, which supports professional development.

 Cameron Brenchley, an Obama administration social media guru, is with Delisle at ASCD.

 Tony Miller, who was Duncans original deputy secretary, is now at the Vistria Group, a private equity firm.

 Jim Shelton, Obamas second deputy secretary, is now heading up the Chan Zhanberg Initiatives education efforts. (You can read an interview with Shelton about his new role here .) Shelton was also the brains behind the administrations Investing in Innovation program, which helped scale up promising practices at the district level.

 Catherine Lhamon, who headed up the Office for Civil Rights during Obamas second term, is now the chair of the Commission on Civil Rights. In that role, shes actually investigating the Trump administrations record on civil rights issues. Read a recent Education Week interview with Lhamon here .

 Roberto Rodriguez, who served as the White House point person on K-12 through all eight years of the Obama administration, is now the president and CEO of TeachPlus, which works to help teachers have a voice in policymaking.

 Amy McIntosh, who was acting assistant secretary of planning evaluation and policy analysis during Obamas second term, is now the associate vice-chancellor for academic strategy at the City University of New York.

 Robert Gordon, meanwhile, who held the same title as McIntosh and put a focus on evidence at the department, is a senior vice-president at the College Board.

 Peter Cunningham, who served as Duncans communications guru during the first term, is now running Education Post, a website that supports charter schools, rigorous accountability, the Common Core standards, and a bunch of other Duncan-esque policies.

 Alexa Posny, Obamas first assistant secretary of special education and rehabilitative services, was famous for her Power Points, according to my colleague, ace special education reporter Christina Samuels. Shes now a senior vice-president of state and federal programs at Renaissance Learning. Michael Yudin, who replaced her, is at the Raben Group, a public affairs and strategic communications firm.

 Margot Rogers, Duncans original chief-of-staff, is now a senior adviser in the education practice at Parthenon-EY, a consulting organization.

 Alejandra O. Ceja, who headed up the Hispanic Outreach office at the White House, is now the executive director of the Panasonic Foundation.

 Khalilah Harris, the one-time deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, is now a vice-president at Opportunity@Work.

 Johan Uvin, who was the acting assistant secretary in the Office of Career and Technical Education, is now the president of the Institute for Educational Leadership.

 Melody Musgrove, former director of the Office of Special Education Programs, is now a co-director of the Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning and Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi.

 Richard Culatta, who was the director of the office of educational technology is the CEO at the International Society for Technology in Education.

 Finally, plenty of people are consulting, including Joanne Weiss, Duncans former chief of staff, as well as communications gurus Jonathan Schorr, Matt Lehrich, and Massie Ritsch.

We know, the administration was eight years long and we missed a ton of really important people. Let us know who we left out by emailing us at aklein@epe.org or aujfusa@epe.org.
A second suspect in the hunt for a jogger who shoved a woman in front of a bus has been arrested before being ruled out of police inquiries.

The 41-year-old man was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of grievous bodily harm following a CCTV appeal about the incident on Putney Bridge in south west London.

He was taken to a south London police station but, following further inquiries, he was released with no further action later that day.

It followed an announcement that a financier arrested in connection with the incident had been eliminated from inquiries.

A jogger was running across Putney Bridge in west London when he barged into the woman

It comes after Eric Bellquist was released without charge after shocking CCTV apparently showed a jogger pushing a woman

The 33-year-old woman was lucky to escape serious injury after a bus driver swerved to avoid her on the bridge in south west London

Eric Bellquist, also 41, was quizzed by police in connection with the incident which was captured on CCTV before being ruled out of the inquiry.

Mr Bellquist's lawyers said the financier, who works for Mayfair firm Hutton Collins, had irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident.

But detectives say they are following up a number of new leads following a 'positive' response to the appeal.

Footage of the incident on Friday May 8 appears to show the jogger shove the 33-year-old woman into the oncoming path of a bus.

The driver of the Go Ahead service swerved to avoid her and has been hailed as a 'hero' by colleagues.

Some passengers got off and rushed to the aid of the badly shaken woman who suffered minor injuries.

Millionaire banker Eric Bellquist has received death threats and been forced to hire a bodyguard after he was detained

Prior to his current position at Hutton Collins, Mr Bellquist worked in the European Leveraged Finance and Sponsor Coverage group at Lehman Brothers

Around 15 minutes later the jogger came back the other way across the bridge.

The victim tried to speak to him, but he ignored her and carried on jogging.

The jogger is described as a white man, aged in his early to mid 30s, with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was wearing a light grey T-shirt and dark blue shorts.

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Detectives investigating an incident where a man appeared to push a woman into the path of a bus continue to appeal for witnesses and information.

'A second man, aged 41, was arrested on the afternoon of Saturday August 12 on suspicion of grievous bodily harm following information received in response to a CCTV appeal about the incident on Putney Bridge.

'The man was taken to a south London police station and following further inquiries, he was released with no further action later that day.

'This followed the arrest of a 41-year-old man on Thursday August 10 who was eliminated from inquiries on Saturday.'

He added: 'There has been a positive public response to the appeal so far with a range of information provided to investigating officers.

'Some people have simply put forward possible names for the suspect; officers would urge those people to please contact police or Crimestoppers again with as much information.'
The mother of the suspected Charlottesville attacker called 911 on him several times when he was a teen, a new report has revealed.

Samantha Bloom called police at least three times in 2010 and 2011 because of her violent son, according to 911 records obtained by TMZ.

Fields, who is now 20, would have been 13 and 14 at the time of the calls, which were made in Kentucky, where the mother and son used to live before moving to Ohio.

In one of the cases, a friend of wheelchair-bound Bloom called police, saying that Fields had threatened his mother, spit in her face, and stood behind her with a 12-inch knife.

Bloom reportedly told police that she wanted him taken away, and they followed suit by arresting him and taking him to a juvenile detention facility.

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Samantha Bloom (right) the mother of suspected Charlottesville attacker James Fields (left) called 911 on her son at least three times when they lived in Kentucky

Bloom (pictured), said in an interview Saturday night: 'I just knew he was going to a rally. I mean, I try to stay out of his political views. You know, we don't, I don't really get too involved, I moved him out to his own apartment, so I'm watching his cat'

In another case, Bloom personally called 911 and said that her son exploded in anger at her when she told him to stop playing video games. She claimed that he hit her in the head and put his hand over her mouth. She locked herself in a bathroom and then called police for help. She told the emergency dispatcher that her son was on medication to treat his anger issues.

And in the third case, Bloom called police saying her son was being threatening toward her and she was scared.

All of this is a sea change to Bloom's statements after her son's arrest on Saturday, when she was shocked to learn about what he had done.

Bloom told reporters that she thought her son was going to a Donald Trump rally, not a white supremacist march.

'I just knew he was going to a rally. I mean, I try to stay out of his political views. You know, we don't, I don't really get too involved, I moved him out to his own apartment, so I'm watching his cat.

'I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist,' she said.

Fields was arrested on Saturday after plowing his Dodge Challenger through dozens protesting the alt-right rally he had taken part in earlier in the day. One woman died in the incident and 19 others were injured.

Alt-right groups have been protesting the planned removal of a Robert E Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. But hundreds of others turned out to make a statement against the white supremacists.

Horrifying video from the scene of the attack showed the silver muscle car speeding towards a group of fleeing anti-fascist protesters

In an interview with The Toledo Blade, Bloom said that her son texted her Friday to say he had dropped his cat off at her apartment so he could go to an 'alt-right' rally in Virginia.

'I told him to be careful,' Bloom said. '[And] if they're going to rally to make sure he's doing it peacefully.'

She had returned from dinner Saturday evening unaware that her son was involved and had not yet been contacted by police.

He told her about the rally last week, but didn't offer details about it. 'I thought it had something to do with Trump,' she said.

Fields is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail without bail

Bloom said she was surprised with the deadly outcome. 'Yeah, that he would run his car into a group of people for... I'm really not clear on...'

When pressed by the reporter about what Bloom was told by her son, it does appear that he had indicated it was an alt-right gathering.

'Like I said, I don't really talk to him about his political views,' she said. 'He just -- so I don't really understand what the rally was about or anything, so... I just know there was -- he did mention it was 'albright'?'

The reporter then interrupts her, asking, 'Alt-right?'

Bloom responds: 'Albright'

The reporter then corrects her, saying: 'No, alt-right. It's like alternative right.'

Bloom said she and her son had just moved to the Toledo area from the northern Kentucky city of Florence. She said that's where Fields grew up. She relocated to Ohio for work.

Fields is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Photos that recently emerged showed Fields marching with a racist, right-wing group known as Vanguard America.

The white supremacist group opposes multiculturalism and believes America is an exclusively white nation.

Vanguard America has released a statement claiming that Fields was not an official member.

It said: 'The driver of the vehicle that hit counter protesters today was, in no way, a member of Vanguard America. All our members had been safely evacuated by the time of the incident. The shields seen do not denote membership, nor does the white shirt. The shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance, All our members are safe and accounted for, with no arrests or charges.'

Photos of Fields (far left with glasses) at the march showed him marching with racist right-wing group Vanguard America

Shortly after Fields was charged, the FBI and federal prosecutors announced a civil rights investigation, following Texas Sen Ted Cruz's call for the Justice Department to launch a 'domestic terrorism' probe into the deadly crash.

The FBI's Richmond field office, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia said they have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.

Video of the Dodge Challenger, which is registered to Fields, showed the driver accelerating into the crowd throwing bodies into the air as people scream before reversing at high speed.

The incident killed a 32-year-old woman, whose identity has not been released by authorities pending her family's notification.

Witnesses his car (pictured) was traveling up to 40mph when it hit and reversed before ramming into the crowd again and speeding off with someone's shoe attached to its bumper

Fields was apprehended and arrested a few blocks away from the bloody scene.

According to the jail's superintendent, Martin Kumer, Fields was also booked on suspicion of malicious wounding, failure to stop for an accident involving a death, and hit and run.

Kumer said Fields is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

The deadly crash came after violent clashes erupted as hundreds of white supremacists including armed militias marched into Charlottesville sparking violent confrontations with counter-protesters.

Police cleared the scene with tear gas but the violence continued. Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said a total of 35 people had been treated for injuries, 14 of those were from individual engagements on the streets.

Horrifying video from the scene of the attack showed the silver muscle car speeding towards a group of fleeing anti-fascist protesters.

Several residents gathered on Saturday night to hold a candlelight vigil for the woman who was tragically killed and the 19 others who were injured

Photos showed candles spread out near the scene where the woman was killed as the mourners joined hands in a circle

Another clip showed the vehicle ramming into the crowd at high speed and victims crying out in pain as they desperately sought medical help.

Witnesses said the car was traveling up to 40mph when it hit and reversed before ramming into the crowd again and speeding off with someone's shoe attached to its bumper.

Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe strongly condemned all of the so-called 'patriotic' white nationalists during a press conference Saturday evening.

'Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth,' McAuliffe proclaimed. 'You are not patriots. You came here today to hurt people and that is not patriotic,' McAuliffe added.

President Donald Trump admonished the day's tragic events, saying in a press conference: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, violence, on many sides... The hate and division must stop, and must stop right now.'

Several residents gathered on Saturday night to hold a candlelight vigil for the woman who was tragically killed and the 19 others who were injured.

Photos showed candles spread out near the scene where the woman was killed as the mourners joined hands in a circle.
An estate agent who cut short his holiday to search for his missing car has accused breakdown firm RAC of losing it.

Shafiq Siddiq was in Morocco for a friend's wedding when the 36-year-old became so worried about Smart Car he left early.

He said he hadnt seen the 6,000 vehicle since he sent it in for a minor repair on July 16 after breaking down in Maidenhead, Berkshire, despite being told its damaged manifold would only take 24 hours to fix.

Shafiq Siddiq says the RAC lost his Smart Car after it was towed for minor repairs

He claims his holiday was marred by frequent calls to the RAC and Westbourne Motors garage in Basingstoke, Hampshire, who towed his car on behalf of the roadside rescue service.

'I am disappointed, to say the least. Ive never had these problems before.

'You dont expect this from the RAC. It has been a disaster from start to finish. I didnt know what was going on.

'I must have made about 40 calls and by the end I was getting worried.

'I thought the car had been stolen.

'I was supposed to be in Morocco until August 27 but came back on Wednesday to try to sort this out.'

Mr Siddiq flew home early from a holiday in Morocco because he became so worried about his 6,000 Smart Car

Mr Siddiq says his calls to the RAC and garage became more frantic as he was given wildly conflicting reports about the vehicles whereabouts.

His worry worsened when he was told it had been repaired and driven to a garage in Stoke, Staffordshire.

Mr Siddiq is adamant that he never asked for the car to be stored in Stoke - but checked and found the car wasnt there anyway.

He claims he was told that the vehicle was missing.

'Ive called several times, spoken to different people to find out whats happening, but I get a different answer each time.'

Despite being told the car would be repaired the same day Westbourne towed the car to its Basingstoke garage, it still wasn't ready when Mr Siddiq flew to Morocco on July 18.

The RAC says the car has been located after Mr Siddiq didn't see it for a month despite being told repairs would take just 24 hours

Mr Siddiq says he then had to make arrangements to have it dropped off at a friends house.

That did not happen, and on Friday the businessman said he was still in the dark about its whereabouts - and when he might see it again.

That is despite Mr Siddiq ringing both the RAC and Westbourne again on Thursday.

'This has caused me a lot of anxiety and money. The calls from Morocco alone came to 150.

'What has happened, I really dont know. I think theres been a mess-up with paperwork or they have misplaced it.

'As well as the Ombudsman, I will speak to my solicitor. At the very least, I deserve an apology.'

A spokesman for Westbourne said the car has now been found.

An RAC spokesman said: 'We would like to apologise to Mr Siddiq for the time it has taken for us to get his car back to him.

'We have now made arrangements for it to be returned to him on Saturday.'
Nothing can come between a man and his steaks - not even an enormous black bear.

A video posted online shows a black bear deciding it wanted a piece of the action at a family barbecue.

Footage shows the animal walking slowly toward the grill. A man, believed to be called Josh, immediately tries to rescue his cooking steaks.

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A black bear was attracted by the smell of barbecue and came to check out the scene

The man tries to throw beer at the bear, who just licks its lips and keeps trying to take the steak

A woman believed to be heard yelling in the background for him to leave the meat.

However, Josh was determined to protect the family meal. He approached the bear, beer in hand, and then tossed some of the liquid at the animal.

The creature was not concerned in the slightest, and simply licked its lips - enjoying the beer taste.

In the background, Josh's wife can be heard yelling 'Josh quit it!'

Josh keeps throwing beer at the bear while saying 'go on, get' as if attempting to chase away a dog.

The bear manages to steal a piece of steak, despite Josh threatening it with a fork.

However, the bear still isn't satisfied.

The woman in the background says 'give him one.'

Josh throws the bear a piece of steak, but the animal doesn't seem to see it.

The bear sticks its paw on the grill trying to steal some of the meat. He manages to get a piece

The bear now is now more interested in shrimp on the grill, so it attempts to steal it.

The woman's father comes out of the house to help Josh chase away the creature.

The bear reaches onto the grill first with its paw and then with its mouth trying to steal the shrimp.

Because the grill was lit, it burnt the animal and scared it away.

The bear runs off, and then returns for the piece of steak previously abandoned on the floor.

The woman can be heard saying 'he gave him a $20 steak' in the background.

It is unclear where this video was taken.

This is not the first time black bears have come close to humans stolen food.

The bear tries to steal the shrimp (left image) but burns his mouth on the grill (center image) before running away (right image)

In 2012, an animal broke into a family's house five times in one day to steal raw meat in California

This past July, a bear got nosy and investigated a Massachusetts family's deck and was captured on video.

The cub climbed up the side of the balcony, checked some things out, and then clambered on back down.

The homeowner's children saw the bear through the window.

In May, a brave black bear snatched a bag from a man's pickup truck while he was camping in Alberta, Canada.

The bear hopped right into the back of the truck, stole the bag, and ran away.

Two men chased the animal in vain.
President Trump is mulling his first presidential pardon, which will potentially go to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, another controversial crusader against illegal immigration.

'I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio,' Trump told Fox News on Sunday at the president's club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 'He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He's a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him,' the president added.

In late July, the former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff was found guilty of criminal contempt for violating a 2011 court order in a racial profiling case, brought to the courts by a group of Latinos, by continuing patrols that targeted immigrants.

Former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio (left) could receive President Trump's (right) first presidential pardon, the POTUS told Fox News on Sunday

Joe Arpaio (left), who served as sheriff to the greater Phoenix area for more than two decades, supported President Trump (right) during the Republican primary, and they both claimed President Obama was born outside the United States

Judge Susan Bolton wrote in her decision that Arpaio knew of the court order, but showed a 'flagrant disregard' for it, according to CNN.

'Not only did defendant abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise,' Bolton wrote.

Arpaio's defense attorney blamed his previous counsel saying the lawyer 'dropped the ball' by not explaining the order clearly to the sheriff, nor reaching out to the judge who ordered it for further explanation.

Federal prosecutors countered that Arpaio defied the order purposely, believing he could get away with it.

Arpaio will be sentenced on October 5 and could face up to six months in jail, unless Trump intervenes.

Trump told Fox that the pardon, if he decides to go through with it, could come over the next few days.

'I might do it right away, maybe early this week,' Trump said. 'I am seriously thinking about it.'

Arpaio appeared alongside Trump on the campaign trail last year, as they both moved to eradicate illegal immigration.

They also both prescribed to the 'birther' conspiracy theory, which suggested President Obama was born outside the United States.

Obama was born in Hawaii.

'Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?' Trump mused to Fox News on Sunday, as other journalists covering the president were kept away.

The president was taking heat for not directly calling out the white supremacists who wreaked havoc on Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, leaving one counter-protester dead.

On Sunday, the president stayed off Twitter and his pool of reporters was kept away.

Finally on Monday afternoon, Trump condemned the various hate groups who marched in the Virginia town.

'Racism is evil,' Trump said. 'And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.'

Trump critic Walter Shaub, the ex-director of the Office of Government Ethics, connected Trump's announcement of a potential Arpaio pardon with his sluggish response to condemn the white supremacists, according to the Hill.

'Scrambling to reassure the white supremacists and nazis that he didn't really mean what he said to the "normies" today...' Shaub tweeted, linking to Politico's story about the Arpaio pardon being in the works.

Arpaio was on the job for more than two decades, in the top law enforcement job in the county that includes Phoenix, Arizona.

He was known for constructing a tent city to house convicts, forcing them to wear underwear and bringing back chain gangs.

'He has protected people from crimes and saved lives,' Trump told Fox News of the former lawman.

While Trump was taking the White House, Arpaio lost his race last November to serve a seventh term.

Speaking to Fox about a potential pardon, Arpaio said he would welcome it.

'I am happy he understands the case,' the former sheriff said. 'I would accept the pardon because I am 100 percent not guilty.'
A senior British soldier stationed at a training camp in Kenya collapsed and died while visiting his girlfriend at her home.

David Jones, 42, had complained of headache shortly before his mysterious death in front of his 22-year-old partner, Joyce Nyakinyua, in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Kenya.

Police had to fire shots into the air to disperse a crowd that had formed in the vicinity in order to retrieve the body from Nyakinyua's apartment on Saturday evening.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (C) talks to British soldiers at British Training Unit Kenya, popularly known as BATUK, in Ole Naishu near Nanyuki in northern Kenya

Confirming the incident, Laikipia East police boss James Kithuka said Jones was the long term partner of Nyakinyua.

Neighbours told Kithuka that Jones was a frequent visitor of her home when off duty from the British Army Training Unit (BATUK) in Laikipia and his car was often seen outside her plot when he stayed the night.

'He told the longtime girlfriend that he had a severe headache before vomiting. He later collapsed and died,' Kithuka said.

Nyakinyua wailed uncontrollably as Jones' body was taken by a British Army ambulance, Nairobi News reports.

Police also said they found prescription drugs on Jones, that Kithuka says, are most likely to be painkillers, dismissing claims in local media that they were sexual enhancement medication.

An Army spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that Sergeant David Jones from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards has died while off duty in Kenya.

y Boris Johnson (C-L) talks to British soldiers at British Training Unit Kenya in the same region David Jones was stationed

'Our thoughts are with the soldier's family and our deepest condolences go out to them at this most difficult time.

'The full circumstances of the soldier's death are under investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time.'

His body is believed to have been taken to Nairobi before being returned to the UK.
Ashley Hautzenrader, 24, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of child endangerment

The Iowa woman who attempted to flush her newborn baby down a toilet then left her in a trash can has pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges.

Ashley Hautzenrader, 24, gave birth on May 8, 2016 while inside a restroom at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Hautzenrader reportedly believed the baby had died during birth when she tried to flush it down the toilet.

When that was unsuccessful, the woman wrapped the infant in a pillowcase and put it in a trash can  where it was later found by hospital staff alive, according to University of Iowa police.

Hautzenrader claimed she was unaware about her pregnancy when the incident happened, although she admitted being responsibility for the wrongdoing.

Police say that when they questioned the woman, she told them that she believed the infant was stillborn because she did not hear crying, according to the criminal complaint.

She claimed she was unaware about her pregnancy when the incident happened

Hautzenrader was previously charged with attempted murder, which has since been dropped.

In addition to child endangerment, Hautzenrader pleaded guilty to neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.

UIHC spokesman Tom Moore previously told the Press-Citizen, that due to federal patient privacy laws, he could 'not disclose' further private information about the matter.

The condition of the baby and whether or not Hautzenrader and the child were patients at the hospital during the time is unknown.

Hautzenrader gave birth on May 8, 2016 inside a restroom at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Moore included in an email that he could not legally release information regarding the identity of the baby's father.

Hautzenrader also reportedly has a toddler daughter who was born in 2014.

She now faces up to 12 years in prison, compared to her first possible punishment of up to 25 years in prison.

Hautzenrader currently awaits her sentencing.
Lara's Trump secret birth plan has just become very public after it was accidentally left on the dashboard of their car.

The handwritten note, titled 'Baby hospital info' reveals exactly which New York hospital the first-time mother is is planning to give birth at next month, as well as the address of the emergency entrance and the phone number for security.

It also lists the name of a contact who is to be called 'asap' after Lara goes into labor.

Lara's Trump secret birth plan has just become very public after it was accidentally left on the dashboard of their car

Weeks to go! Lara Trumps was spotted wearing a form-fitting black dress that showed off her bump in New York on Monday

Growing family: Lara and Eric, who are pictured in July, are expecting their first child together in September

The note was spotted on the dashboard of Secret Service vehicle parked outside Trump Tower on Monday as it appears an agent may have left it in full view by mistake.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Trumps for comment.

Lara was also seen in person on Monday, sporting a black, sleeveless dress, which showed off her growing bump, as she walked to Trump Tower.

She matched the dress with black and gold shoes from her sister-in-law Ivanka's collection, and what appears to be the same red Gucci bag she wore round town on Thursday.

Lara is due to give birth to her first child with husband Eric, President Donald Trump's son, next month.

She has been hunkering down at home in New York, with any trips relating to the goings-on in Washington, D.C. having to wait until after she gives birth.

The handwritten note, titled 'Baby hospital info' reveals exactly which New York hospital the first-time mother is is planning to give birth next month, as well as the address of the emergency entrance and the phone number for security

It appears to have been left by an agent in a Secret Service vehicle parked outside Trump Tower

The note, which also lists the name of a contact who is to be called 'asap' after Lara goes into labor, can clearly be seen by passersby

The 34-year-old was spotted in Manhattan on Thursday evening, stopping to talk with Eric outside of their apartment after leaving Trump Tower.

The first-time mom-to-be wore a black tank top that hugged her growing belly, which she paired with flowy floral pants, flat sandals, and a red Gucci bag.

'Doctors told me that my last chance to travel had to be last week,' she told Daily Mail Online last week, 'so I attended a rally in West Virginia with my father-in-law which was amazing.'

Now she's holding tight in the city awaiting her little one's arrival, and doing her best to keep cool in the high August temperatures.

She seemed comfortable enough on Thursday, and even had her hair perfectly coiffed and her nails done as she stood outside talking to Eric, with about seven Secret Service agents milling about nearby.

Eric appeared to be, unsurprisingly, scrolling through his Twitter feed, and neither he nor Lara wore a smile as they continued their discussion outside the building.

Calling home? Lara, who is eight months pregnant, took a call as she walked to Trump Tower on Monday flanked by a secret service agent

Counting down: The president's daughter-in-law announced in March she was expecting her first child. The new baby will be Trump's ninth grandchild

Dressed up: Lara sported a black, sleeveless dress, which she matched with black and gold shoes from her sister-in-law Ivanka's collection, and what appears to be the same red Gucci bag she wore round town on Thursday

In the city: Eric and Lara Trump were photographed outside of their New York City home on Thursday

Homestretch! Lara wore a snug black top that showed off her baby bump

Lara was in an upbeat mood, though, when she spoke exclusively to Daily Mail Online this week, revealing that she has been 'blessed with an incredibly easy pregnancy' that has allowed her to remain fit and active throughout.

'I was always a little worried, because I had heard different things from different people about their pregnancies; some people have to stay in bed for months... you never know what you're going to get,' she said.

'I knew I needed to workout for my sanity, and I try and make it a daily habit if I can, so I count myself very lucky that I have been able to keep doing that while pregnant.'

Lara also admitted that she had heard staying fit and active can make delivering a baby easier  and helps to ensure that the recovery time after birth is as speedy as possible.

Keeping busy: Lara has become increasingly more active in Trump's circle before her due date

Final days: Last weekend, Lara's sister-in-law Ivanka Trump took a photo of the mom-to-be cradling her baby bump during her last visit to the White House before she is set to give birth

'I know it can make the delivery easier, which would be great,' Lara said of her efforts to stay fit and healthy. 'And it means that the recovery time after birth is often shorter.'

Her trainer Michael seems to think his client is doing a good job. He shared a bideo of the mom-to-be working out, writing, 'Baby training with my client @laraleatrump 35 weeks in and looks amazing.'The trainer went on to say that the first move she did is 'great for shoulders, glutes, hamstrings, and quads'.

But being able to stay active isn't the only thing that has helped Lara throughout her pregnancy. The expectant mother admitted that she has had a great deal of support from husband Eric, and both of their families, as she prepares to welcome her first child.

'The nursery is coming along nicely, we're nearly there with it, which is a huge weight off [my and Eric's] shoulders,' she explained. 'Eric actually built the crib himself, he's very handy!

And as for ensuring she feels fully prepared for every eventuality, Lara says that her two sisters-in-law with children, Ivanka and Vanessa, have been on-hand throughout her pregnancy to offer help and advice whenever she has needed it.

Feel the burn: On Tuesday, the mom-to-be shared a video of herself working out with her trainer while nearly nine months pregnant

'The great thing about both of my sisters-in-law is that I've been able to watch them being great moms,' she said, before adding: 'They have both been so great with me, they have answered all my questions and are always there to tell me what I should do, which is great; I'm a brand new mom so I don't know the difference between car seats and strollers.

'Having them there has been wonderful.'

And with the help of her in-laws, and husband Eric, Lara says her main focus now is just taking care of the final preparations, including buying a stroller, and diapers, and getting her hospital bag ready.

'I spent most of the weekend in our laundry room washing, drying, and folding baby clothes,' she admitted, revealing that she and Eric have been given plenty of gifts for their newborn by friends and family.

'We'll probably get the stroller this weekend, and then we're pretty much ready,' she then added, explaining that she will be splitting her time between New York and Westchester in the coming weeks as her doctor has advised that last weekend was the last time she could travel before the birth  when she took the chance to attend a rally with her father-in-law, President Trump, in West Virginia.

Last weekend, Lara showed off her growing baby bump during her last visit to the White House before before her due date.

'Last trip to the #WhiteHouse before this bump can see it for himself,' she wrote on Instagram along with an image of the visit.

In addition to soon becoming a mother, Lara has also taken on a new role for her father-in-law, appearing on Trump's 'real news' program, which provided viewers with a recap of what he and his White House claim were his 'wins' for the week.

Though her video has been viewed over two million times  and a subsequent video have earned more than 1.7 million views  critics have decried the clips as state propaganda and compared it to news channels controlled by the government in Russia and North Korea.
The man who 'deliberately' crashed into a pizza restaurant in France, killing a 13-year-old girl and injuring a dozen others, has been pictured being arrested by police.

The 32-year-old has been described as 'suicidal' and believed to have been under the influence of drugs when he ploughed his car into the restaurant, killing the teenager and injuring a dozen others, police say.

An image from the scene shows a dark-haired man in a blue sports-jacket and jeans, being led away by police with his arms behind his back, seemingly uninjured.

Arrested: The 32-year-old suspect is pictured being led away from the scene, seemingly uninjured, following the crash which killed a 13-year-old girl

The horrific incident took place in the town of Sept-Sorts, which is around 40 miles east of the French capital.

French officials have said the driver 'clearly acted with intention but we have no reasons so far to suspect a terrorist motive'.

The younger brother of the girl who died is among four people who received serious injuries  a further eight sustained minor injuries.

The male driver is thought to have 'pulled up close to the restaurant' in a dark-coloured BMW car, and then 'deliberately targeted it'.

Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that the man was born in 1985 and is believed to have tried to kill himself last week.

French officials have said the driver 'clearly acted with intention but we have no reasons so far to suspect a terrorist motive'

The pizzeria is in an industrial zone, surrounded by other restaurants. It is particularly popular with young families on warm summer evenings like tonight

Mr Brandet said a young girl was killed and four people were injured in a condition of 'absolute emergency'.

A police official said the man is in custody and was psychologically unstable but had no police record.

'There were quite a lot of people on the terrace,' said a source close to the case.

'The man was arrested and is now with the police. There is a gendarmerie very close by.'

A source close to the case said 'there were quite a lot of people on the terrace' and that 'the man was arrested and is now with the police'

The horrific incident took place in the town of Sept-Sorts, which is around 40 miles east of the French capital

Roads into the village were being closed off by police and residents were instructed to remain indoors.

The pizzeria is in an industrial zone, surrounded by other restaurants. It is particularly popular with young families on warm summer evenings like tonight.

Last week an illegal immigrant to France was shot by police five times after running down six soldiers with a hired BMW in a Paris suburb.

The terrorist suspect, identified as Hamou Bachir, a 36-year-old Algerian, was caught after initially escaping the scene of the crime at Levallois-Perret.

Bachir - who also uses the name Benlatreche  ploughed into a uniformed and heavily armed unit of the 35th Infantry Regiment as they took part in Operation Sentinel.

The security initiative was set up in 2015 following a series of atrocities in Paris carried out by Islamic State and Al-Qaeda operatives.

Bachir was lurking as two three-man patrols swapped shifts, and then he approached them slowly 'before speeding up,' said local mayor Patrick Balkany.

One Twitter user posted a picture of the car, adding: @BFMTV Car in the pizzeria to Sept-Sorts

There are 10,000 soldiers patrolling France as part of Operation Sentinel, and 4,700 police and gendarmes.

France remains under a State of Emergency following a long string of attacks, including an attempt to kill a soldier at the Eiffel Tower earlier this month.

The 19-year-old psychiatric patient is in custody after he brandished a knife and pledged allegiance to Isis.

In April, 39-year-old police officers Xavier Jugele was shot dead while on duty on the Champs Elysee just days before the French presidential election.

Isis claimed the killing by Karim Cheurfi, also 39, who was shot dead by police in a gun battle. Two other officers were injured in the attack.

In June an Algerian student shouted 'This is for Syria' as he tried to attack a policeman with a hammer outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He was shot and ended up in custody in hospital.

And in March a convicted criminal with links to radical Islam shouted 'I am here to die for Allah, there will be deaths' seconds before he was shot dead during an attack at Paris Orly airport.

Ziyed Ben Belgacem, a 39-year-old career criminal, was killed after wrestling a soldier's gun from her and fleeing into a McDonald's restaurant.

It followed the shooting in February of a man outside the Louvre museum in the heart of Paris after he attempted to storm the historic art gallery.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an enquiry into today's attack. The assailant will be questioned at length 'when his condition allows', said an Interior Ministry spokesman.
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Hundreds of people have marched silently through the streets around Grenfell Tower to mark two months since the deadly fire which left at least 80 dead.

There was complete quiet as the procession started near the Notting Hill Methodist Church, in the shadow of the charred block of flats.

People of all ages and all backgrounds took part as it worked its way to nearby Ladbroke Grove before returning to finish near a memorial wall for those who lost their lives.

The crowd of around 300 included children being pushed in prams and carried by their parents.

Scroll down for video

Hundreds of people took part in a silent march, pictured, through the streets of London tonight to mark the two month anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster

The huge crowd walked around north Kensington, with some wearing special T-shirts, right, as the remains of the building loomed over them, left

People of all ages and all backgrounds took part in the procession, which ended at a memorial wall dedicated to those who lost their lives in the fire

Others carried banners demanding justice for those killed ahead of a public inquiry into how the disaster happened and was subsequently handled

Some people walked with the help of crutches or joined the march in wheelchairs.

Others carried lit candles or banners calling for 'justice for Grenfell' as they walked without speaking through the mainly residential streets of north Kensington.

The marchers' route took them down roads still lined with posters of those missing and killed in June's disaster.

Just a handful of police officers helped to hold back the traffic as they walked down the roads around Ladbroke Grove before returning close to Grenfell.

At a small and restrained rally at the end, there were chants of 'no justice, no peace' - with speakers vowing to continue the marches on the anniversary of the tragedy.

Judy Bolton, who is part of the Justice4Grenfell group representing some of the survivors, said the march was not designed to be political, but was 'letting the world know we are still here' and remembering those lost.

She said: 'You can see a whole community is out here today. There is no shouting, no tension.

'Everybody is hugging each other, we are showing love because this is our home, this is our Grove and this is how we do it in our Grove.

'It's heartbreaking, it really is heartbreaking, I don't want the world to forget it, don't want the nation, the country, to forget it could happen to them also.'

Meanwhile the survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster may have to wait a year to find new homes, with around 200 believed to still be holed up in hotels.

Theresa May promised to find new accommodation within three weeks of the tragedy in June, but it has now been almost nine and the Government is drastically delaying its deadline.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, has written to residents pledging they will find them permanent homes 'as quickly as possible, and within 12 months'.

Some of those involved in the march also wore messages on their clothes demanding justice and calling for citizens to come together to get the truth

The participants wore solemn looks on their faces as they walked from Notting Hill Methodist Church to Ladbroke Grove

There has been much anger from the community about how the fire spread so quickly with plastic cladding on the building blamed for the disaster

The survivors of the disaster may have to wait a year to find new homes, with around 200 believed to still be holed up in hotels

It comes following news that 70 of the 80-plus victims of the inferno have now been identified.

According to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, 134 families are still living in temporary accommodation, with a further 24 from Grenfell Walk, where properties were also destroyed in the fire.

No exact figure is available on how many people this equates to, but it is believed it could be around 200.

The council said all survivors had been offered one emergency solution, but only 19 families accepted, according to The Sunday Times.

It also emerged this week that barely 15 per cent of the 18.9million raised in the wake of the Grenfell disaster has been given to survivors.

Data from the Charity Commission shows 7.25million has been handed to distributing organisations on the ground.

But only 2.8million has reached survivors, almost two months after the blaze ripped through the 24-storey tower block.

Seventy of the victims of the blaze have now been identified and some of those involved chanted 'no justice, no peace' to show how they would not let the matter lie

Organisers said the march was not designed to be political, but was 'letting the world know we are still here' and remembering those lost
Its official! U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos team has offered feedback on all seventeen Every Student Succeeds Act plans that have been released so far. The last one on the list was Colorado , whose letter was posted publicly Monday.

If youve been reading other states ESSA feedback, the list of things that Colorado needs to address shouldnt come as a shocker. The Centennial State must:

 Rework its student achievement goals and academic achievement indicator so that they are based on straight up proficiency rates, not scale scores. Other states, including Massachusetts and Vermont have gotten similar feedback. Theres a great explanation of this overall issue from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute here .

 The state needs to do a better job of explaining how graduation rates and English-language proficiencytwo required elements of ESSA planswill figure into school ratings.

 The state needs to make sure that its proficiency rates include students whose parents decide to opt them out of standardized tests.

Reminder: So far, sixteen states and the District of Columbia have turned in their ESSA plans, and four have been approved, including Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, and New Mexico. The other 34 states will submit their plans next month.

The department recently changed its process for providing feedback. At first, the department sent letters to states letting them know where their ESSA plans needed to be improved. But then the agency got pushback for going overboard with state feedback. So the department tweaked its process, first calling states to go over any trouble spots. If a state is able to address a particular concern on a phone call, it might not be reflected in its official letter from the department.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
A man who allegedly rammed a stolen car into a police vehicle before fleeing to a Melbourne KFC drive-thru has been arrested.

The 20-year-old man was spotted by police driving erratically on the Princes Highway in Mulgrave, in the city's south-east, at 9.50pm on Monday, officers said.

After police tried to stop the driver, he allegedly threw items at the officer's vehicle before trying to flee in what is believed to be a stolen car, according to 9News.

Scroll down for video

A 20-year-old man who allegedly rammed a stolen car into a police vehicle before fleeing to a Melbourne KFC drivethru has been arrested (pictured)

The man (pictured) was spotted by police driving erratically on the Princess Highway in Mulgrave, in the city's south-east, at 9.50pm on Monday, officers said

Police claim he swiped a parked police car, injuring the officer inside, but was spotted 20 minutes later in a nearby KFC drivethru in Springvale (pictured)

The man drove along the slip road on the highway before allegedly swiping a second police vehicle that was stopped, injuring the officer driving, police said.

He was seen again allegedly driving erratically before pulling into the drivethru of a KFC in the Springvale Junction, police said.

The 20-year-old allegedly tried to flee for a second time when officers approached him at the fast food restaurant.

Police claim he slammed the allegedly stolen car into an another parked vehicle and damaged the restaurant.

A total of six police vehicles swarmed the area and arrested the man, who was seen in video footage wearing a high visibility top.

Police said is expected to be charged with several offences, including evade police, discharge a weapon, speed dangerous, careless drive, fail to stop after an accident, fail to render assistance after an accident, possess drug of dependence, refuse breath test and several other traffic offence offences.
Andrew Hunter Jr., 26, was found guilty on Friday of raping the young girl at gunpoint in New Orleans in October 2014. The girl tested positive for chlamydia three weeks after her rape

A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the horrific rape of his ex-girlfriend's seven-year-old daughter who ended up with a sexually transmitted disease.

Andrew Hunter Jr., 26, was found guilty on Friday of raping the young girl at gunpoint in New Orleans in October 2014.

The victim tested positive for chlamydia about three weeks after her rape, according to police.

The child's mother told police she had also contracted the STD after having consensual sex with Hunter before they broke up.

State police determined a DNA sample matched seminal fluid recovered on the child.

Defense attorney Martin Regan has denied that his client ever had chlamydia.

The girl had been abducted from her bed before being blindfolded, bound and gagged by the intruder on the night of October 17, 2014.

Hunter will be given a mandatory life sentence after being found guilty by a jury on Friday

She told police she saw the man's shoulder-length dreadlocks, which is the hairstyle Hunter had at the time.

Hunter sexually assaulted the girl before fleeing.

A jury on Friday found Hunter guilty of all five counts that he was facing.

He was convicted of charges including second-degree kidnapping and aggravated burglary.

Hunter will be given a mandatory life prison sentence on September 15.
A retired orthodontist has become the oldest person to climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Dr Fred Distelhorst, 88, from Vail, Colorado, climbed to the summit with his granddaughter, Ellen Edgerton.

Edgerton was already in Tanzania volunteering when she emailed her grandfather to say she had signed him up to climb the mountain.

'It wasn't such a big deal,' Distelhorst told Vail Daily. 'I was surprised it wasn't harder.'

Dr Fred Distelhorst, 88, (left) from Vail, Colorado, is the oldest person to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, the world's tallest freestanding mountain. He climbed with his granddaughter Ellen Edgerton (right). The two are pictured at the highest peak on July 20

Edgerton (left) was already in Tanzania volunteering when she emailed her grandfather (right) to say she had signed him up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro

Distelhorst stays fit by riding his bicycle and skiiing in the mountainous area of Vail.

Mount Kilimanjaro is 19,361 feet above sea level. It is Africa's tallest mountain and the world's tallest freestanding mountain.

As many as 30,000 people a year climb it, but only about 50per cent of people make it to the top.

'When you sign in at the bottom, hundreds and hundreds are there. But once you start to climb, you don't see much of anyone,' he told the outlet.

Distelhorst and Edgerton made it to the peak on July 20 after four days of climbing for about four or five hours a day. The return trip was 16 hours a day for two days.

The entire climb took a total of six days.

Though alcoholic beverages aren't allowed on the climb, Distelhorst packed an empty Coors beer can and took a picture with it at the top (pictured)

However, when he first arrived in Tanzania, the guides with the service that were helping Distelhorst and Edgerton weren't sure what to make of him.

'When we first saw Fred, we were a bit afraid,' lead guide Davis Assey from Peak Planet said.

As the guides monitored Distelhorst's health, they realized he was doing fine.

'We quickly learned that while he is old, he is stronger than even the youngest and most fit in the group.'

Distelhorst and Edgerton were part of a group of nine climbers and four guides.

The retired orthodontist ended up using oxygen for the last part of the climb because his doctor recommended it, but otherwise the trip went smoothly.

Distelhorst and Edgerton were part of a group of nine climbers and four guides. The entire climb took a total of six days

On the last leg of the trip before the top, they left the high camp at 11.38pm on July 19 and arrived at the top at 9.33am on July 20.

'As you climb, the sun comes up. It's all the way up when you reach the top. Spectacular,' Distelhorst said. 'You can see 100 miles.'

Though alcoholic beverages aren't allowed on the climb, Distelhorst packed an empty Coors beer can and took a picture with it at the top.

Assey said: 'When he arrived at the summit, word spread across the mountain and every guide and porter was proud to know that Dr Fred made it, even at 88 years.

'It was an honor and a pleasure to hike with him.'

The grandfather and granddaughter team decided they wanted to do their climb for a cause, so Edgerton started a GoFundMe page to help them raise money for a children's home in Kenya where Edgerton had been volunteering before and after the climb.
A Virginia family came home to find their floors and walls splattered with blood after their German Shepherd attacked an intruder while they were out.

At first Tristan Murrin and his mother didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when they walked into their Richmond home on Thursday night.

But when Murrin saw his beloved dog Oden waiting to greet them at the front door, he knew something was wrong.

Tristan Murrin and his mother were horrified when they walked into their Richmond, Virginia home and found the floors and walls covered in blood

They realized their German Shepherd Oden (pictured) had attacked an intruder who broke into the home while they were away

That's when he saw the drops of blood on the first floor. And when they looked upstairs, they found a scene straight out of a horror film.

'We looked upstairs and you could see trails of blood coming from upstairs, going all the way down,' he told WRIC.

Huge amounts of blood were also splattered all over the walls upstairs.

Murrin said nothing was stolen from the home, and the intruder was no longer inside by the time he and his mother arrived.

There had been several recent robberies in the neighborhood, but this time the only thing the intruder managed to escape with was his life.

There was blood on both floors of the home, with a trail running down the stairs

Bloody handprints could also be seen on doors upstairs as the intruder tried to escape

There were pools of blood in front of the stairs on the second floor of Murrin's home

Murrin said that although his German Shepherd is a big dog, this is the first time Oden has been aggressive.

'He plays with the kids, the cul-de-sac knows him,' Murrin told the station.

'The community loves him, the kids come up to him and want to touch him and play with him.'

Murrin said he is proud that his dog, who he calls his best friend, protected their home.

'I think the dog did its job,' he said.

'He knew that someone was not supposed to be in my house and no one was home and he knows that [the intruder] wasn't supposed to be in there and was doing something that he wasn't supposed to be doing.'

Murrin (pictured right) said he is proud that his dog did 'his job' and protected their home

Murrin said that although his German Shepherd is a big dog, this is the first time Oden has been aggressive. He often plays with children in the neighborhood

'And so he knew to act upon it.'

Murrin said the family are now sharing their story in hopes it will help lead to finding the intruder, who they believe must have required serious medical attention.

He posted a video showing the gruesome scene on Facebook, where it has already been viewed more than 16 million times.

'My best friend Oden who is a German shepherd, protected my home and belongings when I wasn't there, I couldn't be more proud of him, Murrin wrote in the caption.

'Such an amazing breed that's why everyone who doesn't have an actual dog should consider on adopting or buying a dog. Please share and like to get the story out.'

Police have investigated the scene but so far no arrests have been made.
A man has been charged with repeatedly bashing the manager of a ski resort with a snowboard while dressed as a Star Wars character.

Keith Melvyn Wass, 51, allegedly attacked Jordan Rodgers, the general manager of Thredbo Alpine Village, during an argument on Saturday morning.

Mr Rodgers, 55, sustained facial and dental injuries.

On Sunday morning, Wass admitted to the attack in a Facebook post  and claimed it was prompted by Mr Rodgers banning him from snowboarding in his costume.

Keith Melvyn Wass is accused of attacking the manager of a ski resort with a snowboard

'Been banned from Thredbo by the CEO Jordan Rogers for riding in the Chewbacca costume, so I dropped him, he lost consciousness and some teeth,' he wrote.

'Coped a head but [sic] to the bridge of the nose and have been having some difficulty with balance.'

He added: 'Been ordered not to have any contact with Thredbo staff (even if I know them) about what happened and must stay 15km away from Thredbo.'

Wass claimed other bail conditions were impossible for him to follow so he was thinking of going into custody pending a trial.

Wass (pictured in his Chewbacca costume) allegedly attacked the man with his snowboard

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Wass claimed the incident started because Mr Rodgers banned from from snowboarding in his costume

He has been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, causing reckless grievous bodily harm and using an offensive weapon with the intention to commit an indictable offense, the Daily Telegraph reports.

He was granted conditional bail to appear before Cooma Local Court on September 6.

Police will also apply for an apprehended violence order on Mr Rogers' behalf at the hearing, according to The Telegraph.

Jordan Rodgers, the general manager of the ski resort, sustained facial and dental injuries

Wass is a 'Pastafarian'  someone who follows the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

When not in the Wookie costume, he is often seen wearing a colander on his head, according to locals in Thredbo.

He became the second Pastafarian in NSW to win the right to wear a colander on his head for his driver's licence photo, the church's Australian captain Tanya Watkins told the Telegraph.




Defense Secretary James Mattis said Monday that if North Korea launches a missile in the direction of Guam, U.S. armed forces 'will take it out.'

And he warned that 'if they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly.'

The Pentagon chief told reporters during a half-hour medis availability that the Defense Department can determine where an airborne missile is headed 'within moments' of a launch.

And if a missile from dictator Kim Jong-Un is seen as threatening Guam, a tiny U.S. Pacific island 2,100 miles from Pyongyang, 'then it's game on,' Mattis declared, 'and we will try and do our best to make sure it does not hit the United States.'

'We will defend the country from any attack at any time from any quarter,' he said.

Defense Secretary James Mattis, pictured last Thursday, said Monday that the U.S. armed forces will shoot down any North Korean test-fired missile that appears to endanger Guam

Dictator Kim Jong-un's go vernment has threatened to test launch four missiles in Guam's direction

The Pukguksong-1 submarine-launched missile (pictured during land tests earlier this year) could be the weapon of choice, and Mattis warned that new launches could escalate into war

North Korea's state-controlled media reported last week on preparations for test firing four missiles, saying they would be aimed in the direction of Guam but splash down before reaching it.

President Donald Trump pledged to meet new saber rattling from the communist country with 'fire and fury.'

'If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about [an] attack  of anybody that we love or we represent, or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,' Trump warned on Thursday.

'And they should be, because things will happen to them like they never thought possible.'

'North Korea better get their act together or they are going to be in trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble,' the president said.

On Friday he tweeted that 'military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded.'

The U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson arrives at the port of Busan, South Korea on March 15, 2017, for ongoing joint military drills with South Korea aimed at improving their response to missile launches by North Korea

'LOCKED AND LOADED': President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that 'Military solutions are now fully in place' in his latest escalation

Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, wouldn't say on Monday whether the U.S. would respond militarily to a missile launch in Guam's deirection that appeared to intentionally miss the target.

'If it falls short of Guam, then it becomes an issue that we take up however the president chooses,' he said.

'You cant make all the decisions in advance. There are a host of things going on,' he added. 'I need a certain amount of ambiguity on this because I am not going to tell them what I'll do in each case.'

But Mattis insisted the U.S. military stands ready to fight a belligerent North Korea if the president decides to engage.

'The bottom line is we will defend the country, and for us that's war,' he explained.

'You don't shoot at people in this world unless you bear the consequences.'

On Thursday while Trump was threatening to crush Pyongyang, Mattis struck a more patient tone, making Monday's forceful comments even more significant in contrast.

'My portfolio, my mission, my responsibility,' he told a defense industry event in California on Thursday, 'is to have military options if you need it.'

'However, right now,' he said then, 'Secretary Tillerson, Ambassador Haley  you can see the American effort is diplomatically led, it has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic results. And I want to stay right there right now.'
Accused white supremacist killer James Fields bullied African-American classmates and marched around his school making Hitler salutes, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The 20-year-old hatemonger also daubed swastikas on his work and plastered his books with the Confederate flag, according to former student Chloe Alyssah.

Alyssah and her younger brother Caleb Orndorff were among a handful of non-white students who attended Randall K. Cooper High School in Florence, Kentucky, at the same time as Fields.

'He and another kid would constantly make Nazi salutes,' she told DailyMail.com.

'They would just come straight up to me, call my name and do the salute right in my face.

'I didn't know whether to feel threatened or take it as a joke - but I guess we have our answer now.'

Nazi salute: Fields raised his right hand in court but former classmates have told DailyMail.com how he made Nazi salutes, used racial slurs and bullied them for being African American

Horror: Fields is alleged to have been at the wheel of his Dodge Challenger as it was driven at speed into the crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, VA, on Saturday

Multiple charges: Field faces murder, malicious wounding and hit and run charges already after the car was driven at speed into the anti-white supremacist counter-protest

We were victims: Chloe Alyssah and her younger brother Caled Orndorff attended Randall K. Cooper High School at the same time as James Alex Fields Jr. and have told of their racial bullying by him and his friends

Didn't do enough: Chloe Alyssah and Caleda Orndorff say that facilty at the

HOW DID HE GET CLEARED BY OHIO TO WORK SECURITY? James Fields told the court in Charlottesville where he appeared by video link Monday that he had worked for Securitas, the security giant. He said he earned $650 every two weeks. The security firm told DailyMail.com in a statement that he had worked for them since May 5, 2016, as a security officer, with a break between July and November 2016. It said: 'Fields was hired in accordance with appropriate laws and company requirements, and he was issued a security officer license by the State of Ohio. 'During the time of his employment he performed his duties satisfactorily. 'At the time of the incident he was on a previously requested vacation leave. His employment has been terminated.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the State of Ohio for comment. Advertisement

Fields appeared in court Monday accused of deliberately plowing his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia two days earlier.

He was held without bond for the murder of Heather Heyer, 32, as well as three counts of malicious wounding and one charge of hit and run.

Fields was living alone in an apartment in Maumee, Ohio, after a failed stint in the military but he grew up a three-hour drive south in predominately-white Florence, 10 miles outside Cincinnati.

'There was a big group at school that didn't like black people and James Fields was part of that,' Alyssah, 27, who overlapped with Fields for a year as she retook grades, told DailyMail.com.

'He repeatedly used the N-word. He had a Confederate flag sticker on his agenda book. He drew swastikas on some of his homework papers.

'Quite a few of his friends would have the Confederate flag on the side of their trucks. They would justify it by saying some nonsense like "we just love the South".

'My brother would come to me saying they were making fun of his skin color and his hair. The teachers did nothing.'

Call center worker Orndorff, 22, said he eventually grew tired of the insults and squared up to Fields beside the school swimming pool.

'It got pretty heated, we both said cuss words,' he told DailyMail.com.

'He called me a n****r, a bitch. He was quite a smart kid but he made it pretty clear he didn't care for black people or Mexicans.

'He was an unstable person, little things would set him off.'

DailyMail.com can reveal that Fields lost his father to a drink-drive car crash before he was even born, leaving him to be raised by just his paraplegic, wheelchair-bound mother Samantha Bloom.

Family member say the late Jay Fields was a respected art teacher at the Northern Kentucky University who was politically liberal and rejected racism.

However he also abused alcohol and suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition that seems to have afflicted successive generations of the Fields family.

Jay Fields was being driven home by two friends in December 1996 when they skidded off a road and hit a lamppost.

Father: James 'Jay' Fields died in a car crash before his son was born and is seen for the first time with his first wife, Rhonda Hendrix, at their wedding

Remembered: Jay Fields was being driven home by two friends in December 1996 when they skidded off a road and hit a lamppost in Erlanger, KY, marked by this memorial to him

Tragedy: Jay Fields, 33, was found dead inside the wreck by police after the driver fled. Bloom, his girlfriend, was just months away from giving birth to their first child, James Jr.

The 33-year-old was found dead inside the wreck by police after the driver fled. Bloom, his girlfriend, was just months away from giving birth to their first child, James Jr. 'The two in the front were saved by the airbags.

But when the car flipped it snapped his neck,' said 53-year-old David Fields, Jay Fields' brother.

'His friends got out of the car and went straight back to the bar to have another drink. They didn't do a thing for my brother, just left him to die.

'I was happy for my brother that he was going to have a son so it was a tragedy that he never even got to hold him.

Difficult: Ronda Hendrix, 61, told DailyMail.com her ex-husband Jay Fields had been 'a wonderful man' and talented artist who was not a liberal, but that when he drank he was abusive. 'I honestly believe the son could have got the bipolar from his daddy. '

'Sam was a great girl but I know my nephew gave her a lot of problems. He was fighting with other kids at school. He stole stuff, mainly little things from stores.

'But he wasn't some rude little bastard, he was quiet and distant. At family gatherings he barely said a word to anyone.

'I don't have a clue where all this racism comes from. If he had a father maybe this would never have happened but we are headstrong people.

'My mom and dad had their roots traced once and they said we were all descended from the Hatfields and the McCoys.' [The notorious feuding Southern families of the late 1800s.]

Jay field's ex-wife Ronda Hendrix, 61, told DailyMail.com he had an alcohol problem and a long family history of depression.

There have also been family members with schizophrenia, other family members said. The former couple were married for seven years but broke up before he started a relationship with Bloom.

'When he didn't have episodes he was a wonderful man,' she told DailyMail.com. 'He was an extremely talented artist and some of his artwork is still hanging in the university.

'We didn't talk too much about politics but I would say he was liberal. He was very open-minded and absolutely not a racist.

Mother: Paraplegic, wheelchair-bound mother Samantha Bloom raised Fields alone after his father Jay's death before his son's birth

'But when he was drinking he ruined everything. He had a terrible temper and he beat the hell out of me for seven years.

'I honestly believe the son could have got the bipolar from his daddy. '

James Fields is accused of driving his Dodge into a crowd of counter-demonstrators who had gathered in response to a white nationalist rally on Saturday afternoon. He was held without bail on Monday.

Alt-right groups have been protesting the planned removal of a Robert E Lee statue when hundreds turned out to oppose them.

Horrific videos filmed by bystanders show the moment that Fields' speeding muscle car rammed into the crowd, catapulting bodies through the air and killing Heyer, before reversing away.

Bloom, who lives in Maumee, told reporters she knew her son was going to a rally but denied any knowledge of his alleged ties to racist groups. 'I thought it had something to do with Trump.

'Trump's not a white supremacist,' she told reporters, hours before she was interviewed by the FBI. Fields enlisted in the Army in 2015 but left after less than four months for reasons that remain unclear, even to his own family.

He received money from his late father in the form of a trust that matured when he turned 18.

'It can't have been much,' his uncle David told DailyMail.com. 'We used to joke that Jay was a professional student because he stayed so many years in college.

'I think James will be in jail for a long time but my door will always be open to him. I would have never in a million years have guessed he was involved with neo-Nazis or anything like that.

'Eventually I will ask him why he did this - but I'm not sure he'll give me much of an answer.'
Teenagers hoping to get into a top university through clearing will have a better chance than usual this year.

Elite institutions are lowering their entry requirements in a desperate bid to recruit more students when A-level results are announced on Thursday.

Colleges are awash with places because of a dip in initial applications, caused by a reduction in the population of 18-year-olds and a decrease in EU students.

University of Leeds is students to sign up ahead of results day in case they have to go through clearing, as institutions try to boost their numbers

There is no cap on the number of students universities can take  and many are aggressively trying to increase their total to boost revenue.

A Daily Mail survey revealed some will be lowering their normal grade offers, while others are running online campaigns and promising extras such as guaranteed accommodation.

Two thirds of Russell Group universities currently have vacancies, with a total of more than 4,000 courses advertised on the website of the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (Ucas). There are even places available on competitive courses such as medicine, law, English, maths and the sciences.

Experts say this year students entering clearing will have unprecedented choice.

Durham University is one of 15 Russell Group institutions entering clearing

The Mails survey revealed the lengths admissions tutors are taking to recruit via clearing:

Queens in Belfast, which is recruiting for 212 courses, has no limit for students from England and Wales, and in many cases will accept students with at least one grade lower than the official requirements;

Sheffield is making most courses available and will guarantee accommodation to any students coming through clearing to make it stress-free;

Liverpool is offering medicine in clearing  despite it normally being an extremely competitive course requiring a minimum of three A grades;

Cardiff has been using Twitter to promote its clearing places to potential students;

Leeds is asking students to register before results day so they are easy to recruit if they miss out on their first choice.

On Thursday, sixth-formers will open their A-level results and discover whether they have secured a place at their chosen university. Those missing out can apply for other courses via clearing, while those doing significantly better than predicted can trade up for a more elite course through a process called adjustment.

In total, the Ucas site shows that yesterday there were around 4,400 undergraduate courses at Russell Group institutions with available places for English students.

Among competitive courses on offer was medicine at St Georges, University of London, a hospital-affiliated programme that normally requires AAA. Meanwhile, the highly selective University College London, which never enters clearing, has revealed it will make a limited number of its spare places available through adjustment.

The 15 Russell Group universities entering clearing are Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Queen Mary, Queens Belfast, Sheffield, Southampton and York.

These universities are advertising courses as the teenage population has decreased

Alan Smithers, education professor at Buckingham University, said: Clearing this year is a buyers market. Even the leading universities, other than Oxford and Cambridge, have places they are desperate to fill.

Anyone with better grades than expected should aim for the top  there is a good chance they will get in. Clearing this year is a free-for-all and a great opportunity to get into the top universities.

Many universities are so desperate to secure students that they have made unconditional offers  guaranteed places regardless of grades. Over the weekend, it emerged unconditional offers at some top institutions more than doubled in the past five years.

It is thought most non-Russell Group universities will also be entering clearing.

On Thursday, sixth-formers will open their A-level results and discover whether they have secured a place at their chosen university. Those missing out can apply for other courses via clearing

In the capital, London Metropolitan University (pictured) had 183, Royal Holloway had 261, Goldsmiths had 70 and SOAS had 398

At Plymouth, there were 287, while at Loughborough the figure was 237, at Kent (pictured) it was 337

Yesterday, Bath University had 101 courses listed with vacancies, while Essex had 536 and East Anglia had 182.

At Plymouth, there were 287, while at Loughborough the figure was 237, at Kent it was 337 and at Leicester it was 179.

In the capital, London Metropolitan had 183, Royal Holloway had 261, Goldsmiths had 70 and SOAS had 398.

And in the North, Lancaster had 297, Salford had 252 and Bradford had 123.

Among the art colleges, Falmouth had 35, the Glasgow School of Art had 13 and the University of the Arts London had 32.

Leicester University had 179 courses listed with vacancies. Almost 65,000 people found their university or college place through clearing in 2016  more than ever before

According to official UCAS statistics, 273,000 students are currently holding the offer of a university or college place.

On results day  this Thursday  students can log on to the UCAS Undergraduate Track service from 8am to see whether their university place has been confirmed.

Those missing out on their place can find another via UCAS clearing website.

Almost 65,000 people found their university or college place through clearing in 2016  more than ever before.

This means one in eight students who got into higher education last year used clearing.

Of these, 15,000 people applied after they got their exam results.

Students from outside the UK can use clearing too  last year, almost 6,000 EU and international applicants got in through clearing.

Close to half of those using clearing are usually placed by the Monday after A level results day.

Helen Thorne, UCAS director of external relations, said: 89 per cent of students who used clearing last year said they found the service useful.

UCAS is the worlds largest central admissions service for higher education, and our team is ready to offer help and support on A level results day.

Last year saw around 300,000 Clearing searches, and we answered 15,804 phone calls, 1,314 enquiries through Facebook, and 1,352 enquiries through Twitter.

If you think you might want to use Clearing, do some homework in advance.
A university boss has been shamed live on air over his 295,000 salary and refusal to reduce student tuition fees.

David Phoenix, vice chancellor of London South Bank University, was accused of coining it in as it emerged he earns twice the salary of the Prime Minister.

In a heated exchange on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, former Labour education minister Lord Adonis said the university head could halve his salary and those of other senior staff to reduce fees.

David Phoenix refused to lower student fees at London South Bank University as Lord Adonis shamed him on BBC Radio 4 for his 295,000 salary

Professor Phoenix, who has run the university for three years, earned 243,000 in 2015/16  rising to 295,000 with pension contributions and other benefits included.

This represents an 8 per cent increase on his pay the previous year, at a time when wages are stagnant for ordinary academics.

In addition, nine other senior managers earned six figure salaries that year.

Data collected by the University and College Union also shows Professor Phoenix spent 3,894 on business or first class airfare that year.

London South Bank got a silver in government teaching rankings this year  but is rated only 108th of 129 in the Complete University Guide.

Lord Adonis said: Dave is paid a salary of 295,000 for leading a public service institution.

He has ten staff in his university who are paid over 100,000. All of those salaries in my view should be halved.

That would save 1 million alone and be a big first step towards reducing fees.

Lord Adonis said that fees are simply too high and are unsustainable in their current form  with a further increase to 9,250 approved for this September.

Lord Adonis slammed fees as 'simply too high' and 'unsustainable' in their current form

He said they would have to be swept away entirely if left unreformed as some people are graduating with up to 60,000 of debt.

He added: My own view is that Southbank university could offer many of these courses for half that level and one of the places they could start saving money soonest is his own salary and that of his senior management team.

Lord Adonis said no vice-chancellor has produced figures to show their universitys arts and social studies courses, among others, cost 9,250 to deliver or that they are worth such a sum.

He added of Professor Phoenix: He is paid 295,000 to lead his institution. What he should do is cut fees, announce on the day of A-levels that he is going to give a much better deal to students, and I can tell him, hell have a lot happier of a student body if he does that. And he could start by cutting his own pay.

However, Professor Phoenix said criticism of fees and vice chancellor pay was unfair because universities have faced cuts over the last five years.

He said on the show: Especially since 2012, with austerity, whats effectively happened is that the funding the university used to get from the government has been reduced and its been transferred to a loan system So of that 9,000 fee, about 8,000 of that is effectively replacement money that we used to get from government.

Lord Adonis replied: It is true .. but the universities made a big profit on top. Even on the figures that Dave has just given, universities are still coining it.

The figures quoted by Lord Adonis are the same as those in the universitys annual financial statements.

However, Professor Phoenix claimed on Radio 4 that his base salary was only 227,000.

He said he supported the view that fees had gone too far and that publicity around vice chancellor pay was deflecting from this.

Oxford's vice chancellor, Louise Richardson earns 410,000 including pension and had a 100,000 refurbishment of her home

However, he did not go as far as to say that South Bank would reduce its fees.

Earlier in the summer, universities minister Jo Johnson called for institutions to curb the constant ratcheting up of senior staff salaries.

Last week, the Mail revealed how Oxfords vice chancellor, Louise Richardson, who earns 410,000 including pension, had a 100,000 refurbishment of her grace and favour home.

In a statement after the Radio 4 show, Professor Phoenix, vice chancellor of London South Bank University said: The debate on fees and sustainability of higher education is really important if we are to ensure that those who have the ability are able to access university education irrespective of their background.

Given that universities have had in the region of 80 per cent of their government funding cut since 2012 and maintenance grants to students have been replaced with loans there is a real chance now to review the balance of payment between government and students and to look at more creative means of support - especially for mature and part time students.
A Los Gatos man who tragically lost his wife and son in a pond accident in January is now facing the possibly of having his home taken away.

Gary Claassen, 43, resides in a four-bedroom house off Old Santa Cruz Highway north of Holy City, where he signed another renter family in one of the units downstairs in order to help alleviate the bills he was left following the devastating loss.

Claassen received a warning from Santa Clara County officials in March regarding a complaint they received about a violation of planning laws, just two months after he was forced to say goodbye to his loved ones.

The widower said he has been 'anticipating the worst' since, and even began packing his belongings after learning the legal ramifications of his in-law unit.

Gary Claassen, 43, (right) is pictured with his wife Polly and son Trent. Claassen lost his family in a freak pond accident in January

Now, the family home is suddenly at risk because of complicated and fluctuating planning laws

The widower said he is 'anticipating the worst' and has started packing his belongings

Claassen tried to make the sitatuation right and called the county and had inspectors come out

'It tears me up. This was the place (my family) loved most. We were going to retire here,' he expressed in an interview with The Mercury News.

In March, Claassen was given the chance to challenge the violation accusations thanks to a new tweak in the county law regarding people with illegal 'Accessory Dwelling Units.'

However, the homeowner lost his luck when the county planning department decided to overturn the ordinance in June.

'I (first) wanted to make it right,' he said. 'I was calling the county, the inspector came out ... and in the beginning of May I got a phone call that made me so happy.'

According to the Mercury report, the reenacted law affirms that second housing units on 'a half-acre of rural land, instead of the previous one-acre minimum requirement' are permitted, but Claassen's home 'falls short' because it is a third of an acre.

Claassen said his family loved the home and planned 'to retire' there

Claassen has been slowly taking the unimaginable steps of carrying on with his life after losing his entire family from the pond tragedy

Claassen has done the best he can to cope and has made friends with his new family of renters

The widower teared up in the interview when talking about his family

An official in the code compliance department, Mark Ruffing, said he's working to do all that he can for Claassen during this difficult time; however, a conclusion has not yet been made.

'What he's going through, that's unthinkable. It's completely understandable that he would feel very frustrated with the process,' Ruffing said.

'We are reaching out  if he needs more time, and it's reasonable, we're willing to do that and resolve this so it takes care of the violation.'

The family of four, who have grown close to the widower, would always be required to vacate the property if the violation is not resolved in an alternate manner.

'My best friends (will also) need to move out,' Claassen told the newspaper.

His son Trent, (center) died in the freak accident at a frozen pond while vacationing in Kansas

Claassen, his wife Polly, 44, and son Trent, 8, were visiting the William Pack Memorial Park in Kansas when the deadly accident took place.

The family was said to be walking across the ice pond before it shattered.

Polly and Trent fell several feet away from shore into the brisk water and were not recovered until nearly an hour later, when an emergency team arrived. Both died in the hospital.

Claassen also fell but was treated fully for his injuries.

A teary-eyed Claassen recalled a time when the home once occupied his ever-loving family.

'(My wife) loved this place, she loved this home, and she loved welcoming people into this home,' he said, while adding the space served as 'a place of peace.'
Two Atlanta educators, who were convicted two years ago in connection with a widespread test-cheating scandal that rocked the nation, have lost appeals to have their convictions overturned.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that Tamara Cotman, a former executive director at Atlanta Public Schools, and Angela Williamson, a former teacher at Dobbs Elementary School, both lost their bids to the Georgia Court of Appeals to have their convictions reversed.

Their attorneys argued that the trial judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter, gave too much leeway to the jury.

Williamson and Cotman were among 11 Atlanta teachers and school administrators who were convicted in 2015 for their alleged role in a cheating scandal, in which they were charged with conspiring to inflate test scores by changing students answers or guiding students to the right answers on the 2009 Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.

Former Atlanta superintendent Beverly Hall was among those charged in connection with the cheating scandal, but Hall died before she could stand trial. Hall had denied any wrongdoing.

Cotman was sentenced to seven years in prison, along with 2,000 hours of community service, and a $25,000 fine. Williamson was convicted of racketeering and two counts of false statements and false swearing and was sentenced to two years in prison, 1,500 hours of community service, and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Other educators who were convicted also plan to appeal their convictions, but Cotman and Williamson were the only ones who appealed directly to the state Court of Appeals, according to the paper. The others plan to appeal to the Fulton County Superior Court.

Williamsons and Cotmans attorneys said they planned to appeal Fridays opinion to the State Supreme Court. The two will remain free while their appeals are pending, the paper said.
Giving people oxytocin alongside positive social pressure increases kindness toward refugees, even in those with a fear of foreigners, new research has found.

The hormone is released naturally by humans during social and sexual behaviour, and research has shown it breeds trust and generosity in others.

Oxytocin, known as the love or 'cuddle hormone', together with being surrounded by charitable peers was found to boost people's willingness to donate money to refugees in, even in those with a sceptical attitude toward migrants.

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Giving xenophobic people oxytocin along with positive social influence from peers increases kindness toward refugees, new research has found (stock image)

WHAT IS OXYTOCIN? Oxytocin, known as the 'love hormone', engenders trust and generosity. The hormone is released naturally in the blood and brains of humans and other mammals, during social and sexual behaviours. The hormone is produced by women during labour to help them bond with their baby. It is also released during lovemaking, leading to it being nicknamed the 'cuddle chemical'. Other loving touches, from hugging a teddy bear to patting a pet dog, also trigger its release. Advertisement

The researchers, from the University of Bonn in west Germany, claim their finding could eventually help people adapt to living around migrants.

'The combined enhancement of oxytocin and peer influence could diminish selfish motives,' study lead author Professor Rene Hurlemann said.

'Given the right circumstances, oxytocin may help promote the acceptance and integration of migrants into Western cultures,'

In the first of two experiments, scientists, from the University of Bonn in western Germany, showed 183 German study participants a series of 50 brief, real-life stories of refugees or native people in need.

Each of the accounts, shown as text on a computer screen, described the personal needs of poor people.

Half of the stories of people in need were portrayed as refugees, and half as German natives.

Pictured are examples of native (left) and refugee (right) cases presented to participants in the study. In total, the task consisted of 50 such 'vignettes' briefly describing the personal needs of poor people

OXYTOCIN MYSTERY Two main theories exist on how and why the body releases oxytocin. Some scientists believe that the hormone is released primarily to enhance a relationship and make it stronger when you're with someone you love. But others believe that oxytocin levels increase primarily when we find ourselves in difficult or even threatening situations. In those cases, the hormone helps us seek out new social relationships. Scientists are yet to definitively answer which of the two theories is true. Advertisement

The personal needs were all what the United Nations has defined as minimum standards for leading a safe and dignified life, namely access to food, adequate housing, or participation in social and cultural life.

Subjects were given 50 (45 or $59) and could donate a maximum of 1 (0.91 or $1.20) to each case, leaving them the rest as personal payoff.

'We were surprised that the participants in the first experiment donated around 20 percent more to refugees than to local people in need,' said Ms Marsh.

In another independent experiment involving over 100 participants, the subjects' personal attitudes towards refugees were assessed in a questionnaire.

Then, half of the group received the bonding hormone oxytocin via a nasal spray.

The other half of the group received a placebo before they went through the donation task used in the first experiment.

Under the influence of oxytocin, the individuals who tended to show a positive attitude towards refugees doubled their donations to both the locals and the refugees.

However, oxytocin had no effect in individuals who expressed a more defensive attitude towards migrants: In those participants, the tendency to donate was very low to locals and refugees alike.

'Oxytocin clearly increases generosity towards those in need, however, if this altruistic fundamental attitude is missing, the hormone alone cannot create it,' said Professor Hurlemann.

The new study found that oxytocin, known as the 'love hormone', can even make non-xenophobic people kinder toward refugees, without the need for a social push (stock image)

In a third experiment, the team found that the addition of positive social cues drastically increased generosity among xenophobic test participants.

In this test, the team presented participants with the average donation their peers made in the first experiment under each donation story.

Half of the participants once again received oxytocin, while the other half got a placebo.

'Now, even people with negative attitudes towards migrants donated up to 74 per cent more to refugees than in the previous round,' said Ms Marsh.

Through the combined administration of oxytocin with a social norm, the donations for refugees in those sceptical towards migrants nearly reached half of the sums donated by the group, which showed a positive attitude towards refugees.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE 'LOVE HORMONE' A study published in May 2017 suggested that oxytocin could play a role in how we deal with crises. Researchers discovered that the hormone is released when people feel their relationship is under threat, helping them to re-engage with their partner. An international team of researchers led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, looked at the effects of oxytocin when a relationship was under threat. The researchers examined 75 American couples, and 148 Norwegian individuals who were one of the partners in their relationships. Participants were asked to spend a few minutes thinking about their relationship, before writing about ways that their partner responds to them, or how they wished their partner would respond to them. Oxytocin levels were measured both before and during the tasks. The partners who were more invested in a relationship released more oxytocin when they thought about their relationship than the less invested partner did. Here, oxytocin may be acting like a relationship 'crisis hormone'. Advertisement

'Our results suggest that there should be a greater focus on enabling positive social encounters among citizens of hosting countries that communicate a prosocial norm,' Ms Marsh told MailOnline.

'For example, if people whom we trust, such as supervisors, neighbours or friends, act as a role model by making public their positive attitude towards refugees, more people would probably feel motivated to help.

'In such a 'prosocial' context, oxytocin could increase trust and minimise anxiety  experience shows that the oxytocin level in the blood increases during social interaction and shared activities.'
The August 21 solar eclipse, when passage of the moon completely blocks out the sun, will be seen first in Oregon and cut diagonally across 14 states to South Carolina.

Millions are expected to flock to see the first total solar eclipse visible coast-to-coast since 1918 - but will they also see animals react strangely to the phenomenon?

Anecdotes and previous studies support the idea that animals behave in bizarre ways during both lunar and solar eclipses - for example whales and dolphins swimming to the surface, and nocturnal fish leaving their daytime habitats.

Still, some suspect the phenomenon may just be a myth, and researchers are now using the upcoming solar eclipse as an opportunity to observe how animals will really react.

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During a total solar eclipse, the moon completely blocks the face of the sun, NASA explains. For this phenomenon to take place, the moon and the sun must be perfectly aligned, allowing the moon to appear as though its the exact size of the sun

Dr Doug Duncan, an astronomer at the University of Colorado where he direct the Fiske Planetarium, told the LA Times that he has had some strange encounters with animals throughout his years of eclipse chasing.

He says that when he was in Bolivia for an eclipse, he saw a line of llamas gather together and then march away.

'We're all looking at the total eclipse when somebody shouts "look down look down!", and we do and we're surrounded by llamas,' said Dr Duncan in a video for the Fiske Planetarium.

'I don't know where they came from, when the eclipse was over, they all lined up in a line, and then they marched away.

'And at another total eclipse in the Galapagos, we were on a small boat, and five minutes before totality every whale and dolphin in the vicinity, dozens, surfaced and swam back and fourth and watched the eclipse with us.

WHERE TO SEE THE TOTAL ECLIPSE The path of totality will stretch from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston South Carolina. To find out exactly when and where it will be visible, visit NASA's interactive map, and click on a city along the path. In less than two weeks, the United States will be treated to its first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in nearly a century, sweeping across the country from Oregon all the way to South Carolina Totality will cross the US from west to east, beginning at Lincoln Beach, Oregon, where totality will occur at 10:16 a.m. (PDT). It will the US over roughly an hour and a half, passing through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. It will end near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. (EDT), according to NASA. Advertisement

'Five minutes after totality, they all swam away and we never saw them again,' said Dr Duncan.

Totality refers the period when the sun's face is totally covered by the moon, and it only lasts a few minutes.

Dr Joanna Chiu, a researcher who studies animal circadian clocks at the University of California, Davis, told the LA Times that 'certain stimuli can overrule normal behavior without affecting an animal's daily physiological rhythms.'

She said that while the eclipse can temporarily affect animal behavior, it is unlikely to affect their internal clock or their long-term behavior.

Eclipses have also been shown to affect fish behavior.

In a 1998 study conducted over Pinta Island in the Galapagos and published in the Journal of Fish Biology, diurnal (active during the day) fish responded rapidly to decreased light levels during a total solar eclipse and sought shelter in the reef.

By contrast, nocturnal fish sometimes left the cover of their daytime habitats.

'The activity cycles of diurnal reef fishes appear to be a direct response to changes in light levels,' the researcher wrote.

Prior to a partial solar eclipse in the UK on March 20, 2015, Dave Clarke, Head of Invertebrates at ZSL London told the DailyMail.com: A solar eclipse, especially a full eclipse, could affect the flight of nocturnal moths and diurnal butterflies - who use the light for navigation.

During a total eclipse in the Galapagos, Dr Doug Duncan, an astronomer at the University of Colorado, who was on a small boat, says that five minutes before totality, every whale and dolphin in the vicinity surfaced and swam back and fourth, watching the eclipse with the team

While the zoo had prepared by amending the lighting slightly in Butterfly Paradise, it said that in the end, it was pretty underwhelming with no strange behavior seen.

This may however be because the skies of London were grey and cloudy.

Prior to the same UK eclipse, Donald Broom, Emeritus Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Cambridge, told the DailyMail.com that the most people will notice is that many of the common birds might stop singing and some may move to higher perches or more secluded spots to feel safer.

'Farm animals out in the fields might stop grazing and move to a more sheltered place as they do at night,' he said, before adding that because all animals have 24 hour body clocks, they know it is not night time but that something unusual is going on.

In a 1998 study conducted over Pinta Island in the Galapagos and published in the Journal of Fish Biology , diurnal (active during the day) fish responded rapidly to decreased light levels during a total solar eclipse and sought shelter in the reef

Professor Broom also said that pet dogs and cats will probably be 'sightly disturbed' by tomorrow's eclipse.

They'll notice it will get dark,' he said, before adding: 'Although night happens every day, you don't have a substantial change in light intensity in the morning, so it's a bit disturbing for them.'

Dogs, for example, will probably be more alert and pay more attention to what's going on around them more then usual because they will be 'sightly surprised.'

Some people, however, claim that animals do not react to solar eclipses.

For example, Michael Aisner, an eclipse chaser and film maker based in Boulder, Colorado, told the DailyMail.com that he has seen 12 solar eclipses around the world, but he has never observed animals react strangely.

Prior to a partial solar eclipse in the UK on March 20, 2015, Dave Clarke, Head of Invertebrates at ZSL London told the DailyMail.com: A solar eclipse, especially a full eclipse, could affect the flight of nocturnal moths and diurnal butterflies - who use the light for navigation.

Prior to a partial solar eclipse in the UK in 2015, Donald Broom, Emeritus Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Cambridge, told the DailyMail.com that the most people will notice is that many of the common birds might stop singing and some may move to higher perches

'I'm skeptical - I've heard for a long time that there are indeed reactions,' says Aisner.

'With an eclipse, it's too short to imagine a change.

'It also could be a cloud or sunset to them,' Aisner suggests.

In order to learn more about the effects of eclipses on animals, researchers are planning on conducting studies during the upcoming American eclipse on August 21.

For example, Dr Jonathan Fram, Assistant Professor at Oregon State University's College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, plans to use bio-acoustic sonars to see whether zooplankton in the eclipse's path of totality will rise in the water column.

WHAT 'PROPS' TO BRING Michael Aisner, a self-proclaimed space groupie who runs EclipseFreaks.com, has revealed several props you may want to bring to take the viewing experience to the next level. Along with protective glasses, which are a necessity for observing the sun, he suggests: -A pasta colander or straw hat 'Theres a phenomenon that turns pinholes into little suns and as the moon encroaches over the sun face, it remarkably projects that image onto a white surface,' Aisner wrote in a tip list shared with Dailymail.com. 'A thatched hat or even crossed fingers will show it too. You can see hundreds of little crescents without protective glasses shown on a white sheet or cardboard.' -Binoculars ' Binoculars on a tripod project a magnified image of the sun,' Aisner wrote. 'You can see sunspots and the moon moving in as it projects onto a white surface.' But, he warns: NEVER look at the sun directly thru binoculars! Advertisement

Many deep ocean animals remain in the dark depths during the day, and rise to the surface at night to feed on food that has been generated during the day - but changed in light may affect this pattern.

In a separate study to see the effects on land animals, the California Academy of Sciences has launched a citizen science project where users can download an app called iNaturalist to record observations of animals 30 minutes before totality, during the five minutes of totality, and 30 minutes after totality.

Participants need only make notes in 'notes' section of the app.

People who are not located in the path of totality can still participate in the project as well.
Google's self-driving car spin-off Waymo has patented a self-driving vehicle that 'softens' when it is about to hit a person.

The patent, awarded to the firm last week, describes a flexible car shell material that lowers its rigidity before crashes to cushion its impact on pedestrians or cyclists.

The patent states the material's design will limit the damage caused by vehicles during collisions.

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Google's self-driving car spinoff Waymo has patented a 'softening' self-driving car shell. The design uses several 'tension members' (horizontal lines above) - such as cables - that keep the car's exterior rigid under normal conditions. These cables are released in the event of a crash

HOW DOES IT WORK? The design uses several 'tension members' - such as cables - that keep the car's exterior rigid under normal conditions. In the event of a collision, the vehicle's sensors trigger the release, cutting or loosening of these cables to collapse parts of the car. Different components of the vehicle, such as the hood, bumper or side panels, could soften depending on the speed, direction and even classification of the object. This means the car's exterior could change how it softens based on whether it was hitting a bike, tree or pedestrian etc. Advertisement

'The force of the vehicle's impact is a primary factor in the amount of damage that is caused by the vehicle,' the patent says.

'Accordingly, it is desirable to design a vehicle that can reduce the force of impact experienced during a collision.'

The design uses several 'tension members' - such as cables - that keep the car's exterior rigid under normal conditions.

In the event of a collision, the car's sensors trigger the release, cutting or loosening of these cables to collapse parts of the vehicle.

Different car components, such as the hood, bumper or side panels, could soften depending on the speed, direction and even classification of the object.

Should Waymo follow through with its patent design, different components of its self-driving vehicles (file photo), such as the hood, bumper or side panels, could soften depending on the speed, direction and even classification of the object

WAYMO TIMELINE - 2009: Google launches its self-driving car project - 2012: With over 300,000 miles of highway driving, vehicles start to explore more complex city street - 2015: Firefly driving 'pods' tested with no pedals, steering wheel or driver - December 2016: New project Waymo launches with a range of larger 'minivan' type vehicles, which can perform three point turns and other difficult maneuvers - January 2017: Waymo announces it will start testing the self-driving vehicles on public roads - April 2017: Waymo seeks volunteers to take part in first public tests of the vehicles Advertisement

This means the car's exterior could change how it softens based on whether it was hitting a bike, tree or pedestrian etc.

'For example, if it is determined that a bicyclist is about to strike the hood and front bumper of the vehicle, the tension may be reduced for the tension members associated with the hood and front bumper, so as to reduce the rigidity of those surfaces,' the patent says.

The patent does not state whether Waymo has performed any tests to analyse how effective the design would be, nor does it mention whether drivers inside the car will be safer.

Waymo is yet to respond to MailOnline's request for comment.

The firm's patent comes after news arose last month that its self-driving cars were undergoing special tests to teach sensors how to recognise emergency vehicles.

The team worked with Chandler Police and Fire to put on a special testing day.

Over the course of a day and night, the vehicles  equipped with a powerful suite of sensors  observed police cars, motorcycles, ambulances, firetrucks, and even a few undercover vehicles as they trailed, passed and led the self-driving cars.

Google said its latest sensors can now hear sirens from twice as far as they could with previous versions.

The sensors can even discern which direction the sirens are likely coming from.

As well as the 'hearing' system, Waymo's vehicles can see emergency vehicles and their flashing lights even further and clearer with a custom vision system, radars, and LiDARs.
Android users are being warned to be on the lookout for a new type of malware that can secretly record you.

Dubbed SonicSpy, the malicious software has been found in more than 1,000 apps, including several that have made their way on to the Google Play Store.

As well as capturing audio and video clips, the virus can steal sensitive information and send it back to cyber criminals.

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Android users are being warned to be on the lookout for a new type of malware that can secretly record you. Dubbed SonicSpy, the malicious software has been found in a huge number of apps, including several that have made their way on to the Google Play Store (stock)

HOW TO AVOID GETTING HACKED On top of downloading security software for their phones, users can avoid being hacked by being selective about the apps that they download. Gamers should always check the rating of gaming guides and be wary of those with anything below a four-star rating. That's because hackers often bombard the rating system with five-star reviews, which artificially boost the app's overall score. Reading through written feedback to check for negative comments is another good way of avoiding the scam. Advertisement

Security researchers from antivirus firm Lookout say that they have identified over a thousand infected apps, which they believe are being deployed by a hacker in Iraq.

The spyware has been spreading rapidly since February, according to the San Francisco-based company.

The most recently found version of the malware on the Google Play Store was hidden in software called Soniac, which is marketed as a messaging app.

Among the spyware's more chilling features, are the abilities to silently record phonecalls using an infected device's microphone and hijack its camera to take photos.

It can also make phonecalls and send text messages, which could allow criminals to steal money through premium services they set up.

An infected user's location could also be uncovered by monitoring Wi-Fi hotspots which have been used, and information like who you have called and your full contacts list can be stolen.

Writing on the Lookout blog, security research tech services lead Michael Flossman said: 'Anyone accessing sensitive information on their mobile device should be concerned about SonicSpy.

'The actors behind this family have shown that they're capable of getting their spyware into the official app store and as it's actively being developed, and its build process is automated, it's likely that SonicSpy will surface again in the future.

The most recently found version of the malware on the Play Store was hidden in software called Soniac (pictured), which is marketed as a messaging app. It can silently record phonecalls using an infected device's microphone and hijack its camera to take photos

Over a thousand infected apps, which are being deployed by a hacker in Iraq, have been detected. A Play Store account called iraqwebservice was responsible for uploading Soniac and two other infected messenger apps, called Hulk Messenger (left) and Troy Chat (right)

'We discovered this threat after the Lookout Security Cloud analysis stack identified the spyware capabilities, flagging the app to our research team for manual review.

'All Lookout customers are protected from this threat. Google removed at least one of the apps after Lookout alerted the company.'

A Play Store account called iraqwebservice was responsible for uploading Soniac.

It also uploaded two other infected messenger apps, calledHulk Messenger and Troy Chat, which managed to bypass Google's security measures.

Lookout discovered the threat after their Security Cloud analysing software identified the spyware capabilities hidden in the apps. They then used a computer networking utility called Netcat (pictured) to find out exactly what SonicSpy can do

This is not the first time in recent months that malicious apps have slipped past Google's defences.

Last month, users were warned to be on the lookout for a new type of ransomware that can secretly record you.

Dubbed GhostCtrl, the malicious software was being spread by masking itself as apps like WhatsApp and Pokemon Go.

As well as capturing audio and video clips, the malware locks a the device's screen and resets the password, making it ideal for ransoming infecting users.

In a statement to MailOnline, a Google spokesman said: 'While we dont comment on specific apps, we can confirm that our policies are designed to provide a great experience for users, and we'll remove apps from Google Play that violate those policies.'
A controversial pesticide can potentially wipe out common bumblebee populations by preventing the formation of new colonies, research has shown.

The neonicotinoid chemical thiamethoxam dramatically reduces egg-laying by queen bumblebees, say scientists.

Predictions based on a mathematical model suggest this could result in the total collapse of local populations of the wild bees.

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A controversial pesticide could wipe out common bumblebee populations by preventing the formation of new colonies, research has shown. The neonicotinoid chemical thiamethoxam dramatically reduces egg-laying by queen bumblebees, say scientists (stock image)

HOW THE BEES ARE AFFECTED Queen bees emerge from hibernation in spring to fly off to continue the bees' life cycle in a new colony. An agricultural dose of thiamethoxam reduces their ability to do this, and boosts the risk of population collapse. When a queen is going to set up a colony, she will secrete wax and form it into containers for nectar and pollen. She will then begin to lay her eggs and sit on them like a bird - these spring queens represent the next generation of bumblebee colonies. But exactly how thiamethoxam blocks the queens' reproductive cycle is not yet known. Advertisement

Lead researcher Professor Nigel Raine, from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, said: 'Bumblebee queens that were exposed to the neonicotinoid were 26 per cent less likely to lay eggs to start a colony.

'A reduction this big in the ability of queens to start new colonies significantly increases the chances that wild populations could go extinct.'

Neonicotinoid pesticides are widely used in farms across the US and Europe, but in recent years both laboratory and field studies have linked them to the decline of bee populations.

In 2013 a two-year temporary ban on the use of neonicotinoids on flowering crops was imposed throughout the European Union due to claims the nicotine-related chemicals can harm valuable pollinators.

Currently the ban remains in place while it is under review.

Environmental campaigners want to see a permanent ban extended to all crops, while farmers have warned this could lead to crop losses and a return to older, more harmful pesticides.

One argument against the pro-ban lobby has been that most neonicotinoid research has focused on honeybees and ignored the important contribution to crop pollination made by wild bees, including bumblebees.

The new study exposed bombus terrestris bumblebee queens to thiamethoxam in spring, when the insects emerge from hibernation and prepare to lay their first eggs.

Predictions based on a mathematical model suggest the pesticide could result in the total collapse of local populations of the wild bees (stock image)

Roughly half a total population of 300 bees were fed syrup laced with the pesticide at levels similar to those found in wild pollen and nectar.

Egg-laying behaviour and death rates were observed for 10 weeks.

The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, showed that queens exposed to the pesticide laid 26 per cent fewer eggs than those that were not exposed.

A mathematical model was then used to predict what such a rate of decline might mean in the real world.

The effect on population dynamics 'dramatically increased' the chances of local extinction, the scientists found.

Queen bees emerge from hibernation in spring to fly off to continue the bees' life cycle in a new colony.

THE STUDY The new study exposed bombus terrestris bumblebee queens to thiamethoxam in spring, when the insects emerge from hibernation and prepare to lay their first eggs. Roughly half a total population of 300 bees were fed syrup laced with the pesticide at levels similar to those found in wild pollen and nectar. Egg-laying behaviour and death rates were observed for 10 weeks. The research showed that queens exposed to the pesticide laid 26 per cent fewer eggs than those that were not exposed. A mathematical model was then used to predict what such a rate of decline might mean in the real world. The effect on population dynamics 'dramatically increased' the chances of local extinction, the scientists found. Advertisement

An agricultural dose of thiamethoxam reduces their ability to do this, and boosts the risk of population collapse.

Professor Raine said: 'When a queen is going to set up a colony, she will secrete wax and form it into containers for nectar and pollen.

'She will then begin to lay her eggs and sit on them like a bird - these spring queens represent the next generation of bumblebee colonies.'

But exactly how thiamethoxam blocks the queens' reproductive cycle is not yet known.

'This study shows that neonicotinoids could be having a devastating effect on wild bumblebee populations,' Professor Raine said.

'We urgently need to know more about how pesticides could be affecting other species to make informed decisions about the risks associated with using these chemicals.'
Repairing cardiac tissue after a heart attack usually requires invasive open-heart surgery, which comes with severe risks, including chest infections and memory loss.

But the risky operations could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to an incredible new injectable tissue bandage.

The bandage, which is the same size as a postage stamp, can be injected using a small needle  although the researchers stress that more research is needed before it is used on patients.

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The bandage, which is the same size as a postage stamp, can be injected using a small needle  although the researchers stress that more research is needed before it is used on patients

ANGIOCHIP DEVICE The team has spent nearly three years developing a patch that could be injected, rather than implanted. After multiple attempts, the researchers found a design that matched the mechanical properties of the target tissue, and had the required shape-memory behaviour. As the tissue emerges from the needle, the patch unfolds itself into a bandage-like shape. Once it had been designed, the next step was to grow the patch with real heart cells. After letting them grow for a few days, they injected the patch into rats and pigs. Not only did the injected patch unfold to nearly the same size as a patch implanted by more invasive methods, but the heart cells survived the procedure well. The scaffold is built out of the same biocompatible, biodegradable polymer, meaning that over time, the scaffold will naturally break down, leaving behind the new tissue. Advertisement

Researchers from the University of Toronto have developed the new device, called the AngioChip, which is a tiny patch of heart tissue with its own blood vessels.

While such lab-grown tissues are already being used to test potential drug candidates for side effects, the team's long-term goal is to implant them back into the body to repair damage.

Professor Milica Radisic, lead author of the study, said: 'If an implant requires open-heart surgery, it's not going to be widely available to patients. It's just too dangerous.'

The team has spent nearly three years developing a patch that could be injected, rather than implanted.

Mr Miles Montgomery, one of the researchers working on the tissue, said: 'At the beginning it was a real challenge; there was no template to base my design on and nothing I tried was working.

'But I took these failures as an indication that I was working on a problem worth solving.'

After multiple attempts, Mr Montgomery found a design that matched the mechanical properties of the target tissue, and had the required shape-memory behaviour.

As the tissue emerges from the needle, the patch unfolds itself into a bandage-like shape.

Professor Radisic said: 'The shape-memory effect is based on physical properties, not chemical ones.'

This means that the unfolding process doesn't require additional injections, and won't be affected by the conditions within the body.

Mr Miles Montgomery (pictured front), one of the researchers, said: 'At the beginning it was a real challenge; there was no template to base my design on and nothing I tried was working. But I took these failures as an indication that I was working on a problem worth solving'

THE RISKS OF OPEN HEART SURGERY The injectable mesh could replace the need for open heart surgery, which has a number of risks. These include: - Chest wound infection (more common in patients with obesity or diabetes) - Heart attack or stroke - Irregular heartbeat - Lung or kidney failure - Chest pain and low fever - Memory loss or 'fuzziness' - Blood clot - Blood loss - Breathing difficulty - Pneumonia Source: HealthLine Advertisement

Once it had been designed, the next step was to grow the patch with real heart cells.

After letting them grow for a few days, they injected the patch into rats and pigs.

Not only did the injected patch unfold to nearly the same size as a patch implanted by more invasive methods, but the heart cells survived the procedure well.

Mr Montgomery said: 'When we saw that the lab-grown cardiac tissue was functional and not affected by the injection process, that was very exciting.

'Heart cells are extremely sensitive, so if we can do it with them, we can likely do it with other tissues as well.'

The scaffold is built out of the same biocompatible, biodegradable polymer, meaning that over time, the scaffold will naturally break down, leaving behind the new tissue.

The team also found that injecting the patch into rat hearts can improve cardiac function after a heart attack.

After injecting the patch, damaged ventricles pumped more blood than they did without the patch.

The scaffold is built out of the same biocompatible, biodegradable polymer, meaning that over time, the scaffold will naturally break down, leaving behind the new tissue

Professor Radisic said: 'It can't restore the heart back to full health, but if it could be done in a human, we think it would significantly improve quality of life.'

The researchers highlight that there is still a long way to go before the material is ready for clinical trials.

The team has applied for patents on their invention, and is exploring the use of the patch in other organs, including the liver.

Professor Radisic added: 'You could customise this platform, adding growth factors or other drugs that would encourage tissue regeneration. I think this is one of the coolest things we've done.'
Our brains are tricked into thinking a bottle of wine tastes better if we believe it is expensive.

A new study has found that the same wine tastes better to people when they think it has a higher price tag.

The researchers hope their findings will shed light on the placebo effect - a marketing tactic often used to coerce people into buying more expensive goods.

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Our brains are tricked into thinking a bottle of wine tastes better if we believe it is expensive (stock image)

THE STUDY The participants lay in an MRI scanner while tasting various wines, allowing brain activity to be recorded. A price for a wine was shown, before around one millilitre was given to the participant via a tube in their mouths. The participants were then asked to rate how good the wine tasted on a nine-point scale. Their mouths were rinsed with a neutral liquid and the next identical wine sample was given for tasting  but at a different price. The researchers carried out the tests using an average to good quality red wine with a retail bottle prize of 12 (11/$14). The price of this wine was shown randomly as 3 (2.70/$3.50), 6 (5.45/$7) and 18 (16.30/$21.20). And to make the study as realistic as possible, the participants were given 45 (40.86/$53) of initial credit. For some of the tastings, the displayed sum was deducted from this account. As expected, the subjects stated that the wine with the higher price tasted better than an apparently cheaper one. But it was not important whether the participants also had to pay for the wine or whether they were given it for free. Advertisement

Researchers from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn looked at how different prices are translated into taste experiences in the brain, even if the wine tastes the same.

The study involved 30 participants  15 women and 15 men, with an average age of 30.

The participants lay in an MRI scanner while tasting various wines, allowing brain activity to be recorded.

A price for a wine was shown, before around one millilitre was given to the participant via a tube in their mouths.

The participants were then asked to rate how good the wine tasted on a nine-point scale.

Their mouths were rinsed with a neutral liquid and the next identical wine sample was given for tasting  but at a different price.

Professor Bernd Weber, lead author of the study, said: 'The marketing placebo effect has its limits: If, for example, a very low-quality wine is offered for 100 [90/$117], the effect would predictably be absent.'

Instead, the researchers carried out the tests using an average to good quality red wine with a retail bottle prize of 12 (11/$14).

The price of this wine was shown randomly as 3 (2.70/$3.50), 6 (5.45/$7) and 18 (16.30/$21.20).

And to make the study as realistic as possible, the participants were given 45 (40.86/$53) of initial credit.

For some of the tastings, the displayed sum was deducted from this account.

Professor Hilke Plassmann, who also worked on the study, said: 'As expected, the subjects stated that the wine with the higher price tasted better than an apparently cheaper one.

'However, it was not important whether the participants also had to pay for the wine or whether they were given it for free.'

Researchers from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn, including Professor Bernd Weber (pictured) looked at how different prices are translated into taste experiences in the brain, even if the wine tastes the same

WORDS ON WINE BOTTLES MATTER New research suggests that the language used on the label of a wine bottle could be as important to your enjoyment as the flavour of the drink itself. This is because elaborate and emotional descriptions act as a placebo, tricking our brains into a false sense of quality. Study participants rated the same wine higher if its description included information regarding winery history and positive wine quality statements, while the drink received worse reviews if it had no description at all. Advertisement

The brain scans from the MRI also confirmed that identical wine tasted better when the participants believed it was more expensive.

When the prices were higher, the researchers found that the medial pre-frontal cortex and ventral striatum  areas of the brain associated with reward and motivation  were activated.

Professor Weber explained: 'The reward and motivation system is activated more significantly with higher prices and apparently increases the taste experience in this way.'

Ultimately, the reward and motivation system tricks our brain into thinking the wine tastes nicer.

When prices are higher, it leads us to believe that a taste is present that is not only driven by the wine itself, because the products were identical in all of the tastings.

Professor Weber added: 'The exciting question is now whether it is possible to train the reward system to make it less receptive to such placebo marketing effects.'
Self-driving cars are the top priority for Lyft, the company's director of product has revealed.

Taggart Matthiesen, who runs autonomous efforts at the rideshare firm, called it 'one of the key pillars' the organization is working on, and said its 'basically the brand.'

He also said the company will always employ human drivers in some way, but while Lyft hasn't figured out in what capacity, it appears it would be for special services and not typical Lyft rides.

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Self-driving cars are the top priority for Lyft, the company's director of product revealed. Taggart Matthiesen, who runs autonomous efforts at the rideshare firm, called it 'one of the key pillars' the organization is working on said its 'basically the brand'

LYFT'S PRODUCT HEAD ON AUTONOMOUS EFFORTS Lyft's director of product, Taggart Matthiesen, said self-driving cars are the company's top priority. 'Autonomous is one of the key pillars this organization is working on,' he said. He said the technology will bring down costs due to how these vehicles are manufactured and can be completely controlled for optimization. He added, however, that the fleet may never be 100 percent autonomous and there will always be a place for drivers. It seems the company will employ drivers for special services but not typical rides. 'If I need to go to the doctors office and my leg is in a cast and I cant drive, we have a service for that,' Matthiesen said. 'If you get into the world of autonomous, we may need someone in that vehicle to help that person' Advertisement

In a podcast interview with Recode, Matthiesen said, 'We're trying to solve a pretty hard problem in terms of "how does a car drive itself?"'

Recode's Johana Bhuiyan pointed to all the other initiatives Lyft has announced recently - from Taco Mode to a partnership with Amtrak - and asked if there's a hierarchy in what the company is working on.

'Autonomous is one of the key pillars this organization is working on,' he said.

'We are dedicating a significant amount of effort and time to this self-driving system announcement.'

He added that 'it's basically the brand' and the company will have hundreds of engineers focusing on this problem in 2018, referring to the 'Level 5' self-driving car division Lyft announced last month.

When Bhuiyan zeroed in to ask if it is the top priority, Matthiesen said 'absolutely.'

'Today we're 100 percent drivers on our platform and we see this kind of hybrid evolution where autonomous will become at some point very, very key to how we provide transportation solutions to people.'

Matthiesen spoke of a future subscription model, which 'coupled with autonomous vehicles the company can 100 percent control for optimization,' would lower fares for riders.

This led to discussion of one of the most-controversial issues surrounding the rideshare industry's race for autonomous vehicles: what about the drivers?

'It will become cheaper by virtue of what? How does it become cheaper?' Bhuyian asked.

'It becomes cheaper, just the vehicles again,' Matthiesen.

'And also you don't have to pay commission out, so you can charge less?' Bhuyian questioned.

Matthiesen replied: 'I still think when you talk about commission and drivers, I still think drivers will be in this equation.'

He said 'drivers have always been part of the Lyft family' but didn't get specific on this front, choosing not to reveal what conversations Lyft has had with drivers or how many cars will have humans behind the wheel when autonomous vehicles hit the streets en masse.

Matthiesen spoke of a future subscription model, which 'coupled with autonomous vehicles the company can 100 percent control for optimization,' would lead cheaper fares for riders, which begged the question: what happens to the drivers?

WAYMO AND LYFT Waymo and Lyft are joining forces against ridesharing giant Uber, which is racing to develop its own self-driving vehicles. 'Waymo holds today's best self-driving technology, and collaborating with them will accelerate our shared vision of improving lives with the worlds best transportation,' the Lyft statement read. Waymo and Uber are currently engaged in a bitter legal dispute. In February Waymo filed a lawsuit claiming that a former manager took technical data when he left to launch a competing venture that was later acquired by Uber. Advertisement

But he said Lyft's fleet 'may never be 100 percent' autonomous because there are certain things only humans can do, making it clear the company's plan to include drivers only applies to special services and not the typical rides that make up for vast majority of its business.

'If I need to go to the doctors office and my leg is in a cast and I cant drive, we have a service for that,' Matthiesen said.

'If you get into the world of autonomous, we may need someone in that vehicle to help that person.'

'There are things were doing beyond getting a passenger from point A to point B, additional services that we as a company can look at.'

Lyft's motivation for moving to autonomous is rooted in the potential to cut costs and boost profits.

While Matthiesen wasn't very willing to discuss saving by the means of eliminating the need to pay drivers, he spoke to the purely technological ways in which autonomous vehicles will be a cost-saver.

'But if you just look at autonomous vehicles, there's an opportunity for the cars to become cheaper in terms of how its manicured and utilization of these vehicles.'

'And then also just positioning of these vehicles as well to ensure we have the most optimal location for passenger pick ups.'

He said: 'It's a bit of a technology play, it's a bit of a subscription play and it's a bit of where these vehicles is evolving, and we think the combination of those will help us lower these prices over time.'

When exactly self-driving Lyfts will hit the road was an even more difficult question to navigate.

Matthiese said 'pockets' of self-driving Lyfts will be hitting the roads in urban areas very soon. 'We will slowly and surely bring these onto our network in a way that you again, as I said before, it's no different,' he said

Reports have indicated this is could be in just a few years while others have said it's decades out.

'It's anyone's guess at this time - you could say six to ten years from now,' Matthiesen said, regarding a mass roll-out.

But he said 'pockets' of self-driving Lyfts will be hitting the roads in urban areas very soon.

'We will slowly and surely bring these onto our network in a way that you again, as I said before, it's no different,' he said.

'I mean yes, it's going to be an autonomous vehicle, but it's going to slowly and surely be part of your day over time. '

Lyft has partnered with General Motors, Google's Waymo, Nutonomy, and Jaguar/Landrover for self-driving efforts.

The company's strategy originally involved an open platform where others could bring their autonomous technology to the company, but Lyft is now also developing its own technology.

The first reason why Lyft is so well-positioned to do this, Matthiesen says, is because it 'has a significant amount of data.'

'We do a million miles a day in trips,' he said.

'If you think about the self-driving problem for vehicles, people talk about mapping - well there's 930-something miles of navigable road in San Francisco and we have enough info to help us identify a very small segment of that would allow us to get our vehicles up and running, so we don't need to map all 930 miles of road.'

Lyft Inc has formed a self-driving car division, company executives said, a bold investment for the second-largest U.S. ride-services firm as it jockeys for position in the highly competitive autonomous vehicle race

'We know the routes, so we have an opportunity to work with our partners and make sure the tech they're bringing to market fits those requirements.'

Last month, Lyft revealed its opening a 'Level 5' self-driving car division to take on autonomous efforts by Uber.

The executives said the company would soon open a facility in Palo Alto, California known as 'Level 5' that would eventually be staffed by 'several hundred' engineers.

Lyft engineers will collaborate there with autonomous vehicle experts from other companies to build self-driving systems.

'We are putting down the accelerator significantly on investment on this,' Raj Kapoor, chief strategy officer for Lyft, told reporters at its San Francisco headquarters.

Lyft's new effort could put it in direct competition with some of its earlier automatic partners.

The company, which will not be manufacturing the actual cars, offered no time line for its self-driving ambitions.

Executives said Lyft would share data from its self-driving efforts with other companies joining the collaboration.

Lyft does not have a permit to test autonomous cars in California, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

The company plans to launch a pilot with Nutonomy in Boston by year-end.

Building autonomous driving systems is a complicated and expensive endeavor, and brings a new layer of complexity to Lyft.

Lyft previously announced partnerships with Alphabet's self-driving division, Waymo, technology company Nutonomy, and automakers General Motors Co and Jaguar Land Rover

None of the 1.2 billion miles driven last year were with autonomous technology, experts point out, meaning Lyft will be starting from scratch in a business where Waymo, Tesla and Uber have been operating for years.

'It does still take a lot to do this, even if there is lots off-the-shelf technology, to engineer them together and create systems and put them in a vehicle,' said Jeremy Carlson, an automotive analyst at IHS Markit.

Lyft's new push comes as Uber is facing a lawsuit from Waymo over alleged theft of trade secrets relating to self-driving technology designs.

Lyft in April raised $600 million in new funding .

The company has begun preparations for an initial public offering, sources close to the company told Reuters.
It was set to become the brightest object in the night sky, after the moon  but now, the team behind the Russian artificial star satellite has revealed its solar reflector failed to unfold in orbit.

The Mayak satellite launched from Baikonur spaceport on July 14 aboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket, and in the weeks to follow, amateur astronomers and scientists tracking its journey spotted what they believed to be the spacecraft.

But, the developers now say these observations were likely other satellites mistaken for Mayak, as they suspect the craft has failed to work as expected.

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It was set to become the brightest object in the night sky, after the moon  but now, the team behind the Russian artificial star satellite has revealed its solar reflector failed to unfold in orbit

CROWDFUNDING SPACE PROJECTS Crowdfunding has become a popular way of raising money for space exploration projects in the last few years. In 2013, the asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources raised more than $1.5 million (1m) via the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to help develop its public-use Arkyd space telescope. The company's first space craft was successfully deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) last year. Another Kickstarter campaign by a group called Lunar Mission One, aiming to send a robotic spacecraft to drill deep into the rocks near the moon's south pole, received more than $1 million (716,000) in pledges in 2014. Advertisement

In a post for Geektimes, Mayak engineer Alexander Shayenko cites a combination of errors that may have led to the satellites failure, including incorrect calculations, a sluggishly working application, and a bad PR.

Initially, the team said the operational satellite would achieve a brightness of magnitude -10.

While it was later determined that this would not be the case, it was still expected to be among the brightest objects in the night sky, making it visible to viewers at the surface.

Still, Shayenko says reports of a bright flash and other observations were, most likely, not Mayak sightings.

Now that Mayak is in orbit, he writes, it most likely is not visible to professionals or amateurs, and its up to us to find out what is the reason.

After the Russian artificial star Mayak first made it to orbit and the team obtained its ID number, it was hoped skygazers would be able to track its location using an app for iOS and Android.

According to the Mayak team, the satellite reached orbit at 12:10 p.m., following the 9:36 a.m. launch on July 11.

'After the launch and orbiting Mayak unfolded sun reflector,' the firm's site claimed.

At the time, however, the firm had yet launch its iOS app to track the device, leaving amateur astronomers unable to spot it.

'At this point, it isn't clear yet whether Mayak has successfully deployed its reflector,' said Sky and Telescope at the time.

'Your best bet is simply to go out and look for it.'

The launch of Mayak scheduled for 14 July and is expected to be taken up in a Soyuz 2 rocket, with help from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency

Leading up to the event, Russian scientists working on the Mayak CubeSat crowd-funded around $20,000 (15,400), allowing them to build and test the satellite.

Its designers say it could be used to combat space junk by using a parachute-like structure to lower the orbits of debris so they can burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

However, some astronomers have slammed the creation, which is no larger than a rugby ball, calling it a 'nonsense' project that could 'ruin' dark skies for everyone.

Called the 'Mayak' or 'Beacon', the satellite is set to outshine everything in the sky, apart from the sun, thanks to a giant reflective sheet of material.

Its the work of engineers from the University of Mechanical Engineering in Moscow.

Dr McDowell also noted that with telescopes scanning much of the sky each night it 'could cause problems'

Facebook user Paulonius Woodham, who says he is a teacher and student in Perth, wrote on his Facebook; 'Brightest star in our night sky? No just a useless piece of junk that they will send up to join all teh other useless junk polluting orbit'

'We fight so hard for dark skies in and around our planet,' Nick Howes, an astronomer and former deputy director of the Kielder Observatory in Northumberland, told IFLScience.

'To see this being potentially ruined by some ridiculous crowdfunded nonsense makes my heart simply despair.'

Mayak was taken up in a Soyuz 2 rocket, with help from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The team planned to place the spacecraft in a sun-synchronous orbit 370 miles (600km) above the ground.

The controversial satellite, which is set to be the brightest 'star' in the night sky, is due to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan

This means it will always be in the path of sunlight, so will always be shining at different locations on Earth as it rotates.

There, the small spacecraft would launch a giant pyramid-shaped solar reflector in orbit.

'Russian cubestat 'Mayak' to launch Jul 14 will deploy a reflector that may be as bright as mag minus 10. Astronomers likely to be annoyed', tweeted Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

He also noted that with telescopes scanning much of the sky each night it 'could cause problems'.

Its designers say it could also be used to combat space junk by using a parachute-like structure to lower the orbits of debris so they can burn up in Earth's atmosphere

The team is planning to place the spacecraft in a sun-synchronous orbit 370 miles (600km) above the ground. This means it will always be in the path of sunlight, so will always be shining at different locations on Earth as it rotates

Facebook user Paulonius Woodham, who says he is a teacher and student in Perth, wrote on his Facebook; 'Brightest star in our night sky? No just a useless piece of junk that they will send up to join all teh other useless junk polluting orbit'.

The reflector is 170 square feet (16 square metres) in size and made of a thin polymer film 20 times thinner than human hair.

Each edge will be 2.7 meters (9ft) long, with a total surface area of 6 square meters (65 square feet).

The Cubesat will used also a braking system to open a parachute that will catch space debris.
Tesla is roadtripping around in Australia in a tiny house to show off its latest energy products.

The company unveiled the 'Tesla Tiny House' and its plan to tow it around with a Tesla Model X today.

The house is powered by 100 percent renewable energy via Tesla solar panels and Powerwall, the company's solution for storing solar energy.

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he company unveiled the 'Tesla Tiny House' and its plan to tow it around with a Tesla Model Xtoday. The house is powered by 100 percent renewable energy via Tesla solar panels and Powerwall, the company's solution for storing solar energy

TESLA TINY HOUSE Tesla is driving a tiny house around Australia to show off its energy products. It's 100 percent sustainable and powered by a Tesla Powerwall and a 2kW PV system of 6 solar panels. Inside is a design studio for customers to configure Solar Plus energy storage purchases for their homes. The tiny house weighs 2 tonnes, measures 6m X 2.2m x 4m and is being towed around by a Tesla model X. It's hitting major Australian cities, and people in other areas request the tiny house visit their location. Advertisement

'The tour is designed to provide a one-on-one educational experience on how to integrate Powerwall and solar to seamlessly power an entire home 24/7, allowing Australian consumers to gain control and understanding of their power use,' the company said.

Inside the house is a mobile Tesla design studio that will enable customers to configure Solar Plus energy storage for their home - it's reminiscent of a similar design studio the company hosted last year, in which it let customers design their own Tesla cars.

The tiny house - which weighs 2 tonnes and is 6m X 2.2m x 4m - is made from locally-sources sustainable lumber and is powered with a Tesla Powerwall and a 2kW PV system of 6 solar panels.

Currently, the house is in Melbourne before setting off on a roadtrip to visit other major Australian cities, including Bistbane, Adelaide, and several locations in Sydney.

Additionally, people in other areas of Australia can go on the Tesla website to request the tiny house visit their location.

The company is focusing on Australia because the country has the world's highest per capita penetration of rooftop solar with 15 percent of households using solar for a total of 1.5 million households across the country.

Inside the house is a mobile Tesla design studio that will enable customers to configure Solar Plus energy storage for their home - it's reminiscent of s similar design studio the company hosted last year, in which it let customers design their own Tesla cars

The house is in Meborne before setting off on a roadtrip to visit other major Australian cities, including Bistbane, Adelaide, and several locations in Sydney. Additionally, people in other areas of Australia can go on the Tesla website to request the tiny house visit their location

Australia was one of the first markets Tesla launched the Powerwall 2 because of the belief that all of those houses will soon have energy storage systems.

Other than that, Tesla hasn't been able to penetrate the Australian solar market because its firm, Solar City (which recently merged with Tesla) only operates in the US and Mexico.

However, now that Tesla recently won a contract to build a massive 100 MW/129 MWh energy storage system to help stabilize the South Australia grid, the company could make great strides in the company's booming solar industry.

In May, Tesla boosted its solar efforts when it finally began selling its' much-anticipated solar roof tiles with the long-term foal to make every roof solar.

In May, Tesla boosted its solar efforts when it finally began selling its' much-anticipated solar roof tiles with the long-term foal to make every roof solar. The glass tiles are designed to look like a traditional roof, with options that replicate slate or terracotta tiles

Of the 'invisible' tiles, Elon Musk said: 'Ultimately we want all of these roofs to be beautiful and to be generating energy from the sun - that's the future that we want.'

The glass tiles are designed to look like a traditional roof, with options that replicate slate or terracotta tiles.

They contain photovoltaic cells that Tesla says are invisible from the street, and the energy from the tiles can power a home when combined with Tesla's Powerwall energy storage unit.

While initially only available in the US, the company plans to roll them out to other global markets next year.

Of the 'invisible' tiles, Elon Musk said: 'Ultimately we want all of these roofs to be beautiful and to be generating energy from the sun - that's the future that we want' he said today'

'We need to make [solar rooftops] as appealing as electric cars have become,' Musk said.

'The goal is to have solar roofs that look better than a normal roof, generate electricity, last longer, have better insulation, and actually have a total cost that is less than the price of a normal roof plus electricity,' Musk said.

'Why would you buy anything else?'
For many teachers, a pall has been cast over the first few days of school. This weekend, a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., turned deadly when a 20-year-old man drove his car into counter-protesters, fatally injuring one woman and hurting 19 others. The Associated Press reported that the high school teacher of the man accused of the incident said he had been fascinated with Nazism in school, and had deeply held, radical convictions on race in the 9th grade.

Even before the violence, the images of the white supremacistsincluding neo-Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klanmarching in droves were shocking. And they left many teachers wondering how they would address this overt display of racism and hatred in class.

If youre a white teacher or TOC, white parent or parent of color, and youre stuck at Where do I even begin? #CharlottesvilleCurriculum   melinda d. anderson (@mdawriter) August 13, 2017

To help start the conversation, Melinda Anderson , a contributing writer for The Atlantic who covers education and race, created the hashtag #CharlottesvilleCurriculum for educators to share websites, videos, and other documents to use in class. Here are some resources, from both the hashtag and elsewhere, that can help start the conversation in your classroom.

On Twitter, educators stressed the importance of having these conversations, no matter how intimidating and challenging they can be.

Yesterday we mourned, today we learn and plan, tomorrow we will teach. Hope is in the classroom. #charlottesvillecurriculum -- Aubrie Rojee (@RojeeHistory) August 13, 2017

Today is a new day:stand up, speak out against white supremacist, racist, actions. Educators must not be silent. Our sts are listening. -- Delores Lindsey (@DrDBL) August 13, 2017

And Education Week Teacher opinion blogger Christina Torres wrote that it is essential for teachers to have honest conversations with students about racism and white supremacy.

We must teach our students that the "history" of these events is far from "past" and "passed." The history our students face now is a very living thing that we must learn about in order to affect change for our future. ... As many of us prepare to return to our classrooms, we don't just need to buy flowers and make bulletin boards. We need to prepare and read resources (like #CharlottesvilleCurriculum from Melinda Anderson) that help us make space in our classrooms to discuss these events. We need to ensure that we treat our students' stories and the stories happening right now as a very real, living thing that our kids have the ability to change. They deserve that knowledge. They deserve that power."

Teachers, let us know how youre discussing the events of Charlottesville in your class in the comments below. Anything Im missing here? Tweet me , or share in the comments section below.

Photo: Multiple white nationalist groups marched with torches through the UVA campus in Charlottesville, Va. on August 11. Mykal McEldowney/The Indianapolis Star/AP
She's the Married At First Sight star that admitted to hating her nose for the past 10 years.

But it wasn't until Sharon Marsh saw it 'side-on' that she opted for surgery in Thailand, by Restored Beauty Getaways.

Just a day after announcing her split from 'TV husband' Nick Furphy, the 32-year-old flew to Thailand for rhinoplasty, later telling Woman's Day in their Monday issue: 'It looked huge on TV!'

'It looked huge side-on!' Married At First Sight's Sharon Marsh, 32, revealed to Woman's Day why she flew to Thailand for rhinoplasty, just a day after announcing split to 'TV husband' Nick Furphy

Sharon revealed to Woman's Day that it wasn't until she watched herself on the reality series, alongside identical twin sister Michelle Marsh, that she realised how much she disliked her side profile.

'I always thought I had the same nose as my twin sister Michelle. But hers is fine. Mine had a hump and it looked huge on TV,' the Perth-based star told the publication.

Sharon also admitted that trolling on her social media accounts about the size of her nose encouraged her to undertake reconstructive surgery.

Reflection: The Perth-based star admitted that it wasn't until she watched herself on the reality series, that she realised how much she disliked her side profile. (Before shot on the left)

Not impressed: 'Mine had a hump and it looked huge on TV,' Sharon told the publication

'There were some comments on my (social media) pages about the size of my nose. I already had a problem with it...but it hurt to read it,' she explained.

'Reading the comments reaffirmed my long-term desire to get it fixed,' she went on to say.

Having flown to Thailand a day after announcing her split to 'TV husband' Nick Furphy, 30, Sharon is now delighted with her 'hump-free nose'.

Group tour: Rebecca Cosier of Restored Beauty Getaways, told Daily Mail Australia on Monday, that Sharon travelled with the company on a group tour with other women, who had also had surgery ranging from tummy tucks, liposuction, breast augmentation to face lifts

The surgery at Restored Beauty Getaways required Sharon's nose to be broken first followed by a shaving down of the hump.

Rebecca Cosier of Restored Beauty Getaways told Daily Mail Australia on Monday that Sharon's 4.5 hour surgery in Reduction Rhinoplasty was discounted.

She also travelled with the company on a group tour with other women, who had also had surgery ranging from tummy tucks, liposuction, breast augmentation to face lifts.

Negative comments: Sharon also admitted that trolling on her social media accounts about the size of her nose, encouraged her to undertake reconstructive surgery: 'Reading the comments reaffirmed my long-term desire to get it fixed'

Overseas trip: The blonde beauty had her nose broken and the hump shaved down, at Restored Beauty Getaways in Thailand

The overseas trip was also said to have allowed Sharon the chance for some 'me-time' following her split from partner of nine months, Nick.

Speaking to OK! magazine earlier this month, the cleaning business owner admitted that she was never deeply in love with her reality star beau and wasn't prepared to relocate to Melbourne where Nick resides.

'I made excuses [as to] why I couldn't move over to Melbourne straight away. My business, I needed to rent out my house, I'd miss my family and friends, my dog... Bullsh*t!' the blonde bombshell told the magazine.

Calling time: Sharon made the announcement to undergo surgery, a day after splitting with 'TV husband' Nick Furphy, 30

Not to be: Sharon and Nick were the only couple who remained together from Married At First Sight's fourth season and seemed to be going strong as recently as June when they got inked with matching tattoos

She continued: 'I realise if you are truly in love with someone and want to commit to them, you will make it happen.'

As well as self-sabotaging her relationship, Sharon explained that while she and Nick are fond of one another, the now-friends are 'not in love with each other'.

Sharon and Nick were the only couple who remained together from Married At First Sight's fourth season and seemed to be going strong as recently as June when they got inked with matching tattoos.

However, just one month later the fairytale romance was over, with the duo calling time on their relationship.

In July, Sharon took to Instagram to break her silence about the break-up, by posting a picture of a 'protection of life' necklace with the words: 'Things don't always go the way you hope'.

Public knowledge: Sharon announced the couple's split via an Instagram post in July
It takes a lot to shock in the Celebrity Big Brother household.

But The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville managed to do just that when she confessed during Sunday's night's show that she sold weed at high school.

The high-flying socialite, 44, made the candid confession during a conversation with housemates Sandi Bogle and Helen Lederer.

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Nothing to cheer about: Brandi Glanville, 44, told her Celebrity Big Brother housemates on Sunday's show that she sold weed instead of being a high school cheerleader

For this week's task, the house has been transformed into Big Brother's cheerleading camp and the housemates were all wearing cheer outfits.

So Absolutely Fabulous star Helen naturally asked Californian Brandi whether she was a cheerleader at high school.

And her response resulted in some comically shocked facial expressions - especially from ex-Gogglebox castmember Sandi.

Shock: Ex Gogglebox alumni Sandi Bogle had viewers laughing as she pulled a series of over the top faces at Brandi's news

Shocker! Brandi revealed that her father grew weed in their family home

She's an open book! The model admitted that there was even a time she blackmailed her father over his illegal activities

The 44-year-old replied: 'No I wasn't [a cheerleader], this makes me very happy. I was selling weed.'

An astonished Sandi shouted 'weed' in shock before covering her mouth and adding: "No you didn't Brandi.'

Brandi, who moved to Paris and began modelling at the age of 16, explained the reasoning behind her illegal activities....astonishingly implicating her dad Guy in her hustle.

Back to high school: The housemates have been split into two cheer squads for the latest task

Knocked for six! Viewers were quick to also voice their surprise over Brandi's out of character announcement

The mother-of-two said: 'My dad grew it so I stole it and sold it. I was friends with all the cheerleaders and everyone so it was perfect.

'I blackmailed my dad once, in a positive way. I said we all want 100 bucks, my brother and sister and me, or we'll call the police."

A confused Sandi summorised her scam by saying: 'You hustled your dad.'

Brandi added: '100 bucks was like so much money to us back then.'

Viewers were quick to also voice their surprise over Brandi's out of character announcement.

One tweeted: 'Brandi sold weed? I did not see that one coming! #CBB'

Another wrote: 'Brandi sold weed? And why would you admit that on TV ? I like brandi but thought was odd she said she sold weed. #CBB (sic)'

'You hustled your dad': Despite their controversial past, Brandi and her father still boast a close relationship [pictured with son Mason and father Guy]

Quite the turnaround: The reality star moved to Paris at 16, where she began a career in modelling
She lovingly referred to their two-year-old son as a 'total weirdo' during a recent TV appearance.

And on Sunday, Jessica Biel couldn't have looked happier to have playtime with her son Silas in New York City.

Her husband Justin Timberlake pushed a stroller as Biel and a nanny swung her child - rocking a $42 Jagged Culture 'Let the Music Play' T-shirt - through the air by his arms.

Super Silas: Jessica Biel swung her two-year-old son by his arms with the help of a nanny in New York City on Sunday

Daddy duty: Husband Justin Timberlake stayed on stroller duty for the cute family outing

The curly-haired tot looked delighted by the play time fun, with his strong mother picking him up and tossing him in the air on her own at one point.

Their family outing comes after Jessica spoke about having youngsters with fellow mom Busy Phillipps as she guest-hosted on Live With Kelly And Ryan, saying: 'Theyre like these little, lovely, strange, mini humans and theyre so specific. Its a complete cute, weird combo.'

They picked up their son after brunching at Bubby's in New York City on Sunday.

Feet on the ground: The tot - rocking a $42 Jagged Culture 'Let the Music Play' T-shirt - looked ready to leap up after he was placed back on the ground

'Total weirdo': Biel lovingly referred to her young son as a 'total weirdo' on Live With Kelly And Ryan

Jessica looked effortlessly elegant for the low-key outing, sporting a white top with lace accents and white denim capri pants.

The actress, 36, paired the outfit with silver flat sandals for maximum comfort on their walk.

Wearing her brunette locks tied up in a messy bun, the mother-of-one sheltered her eyes from the summer sunshine with tortoise-framed Cuyana x Sunday Somewhere sunglasses.

Solo toss: The athletic actress proved her strength when she threw her boy up in the air

Just like Dad: Silas' dirty blonde ringlets were reminiscent of his father's famously curly locks

Jessica completed her look with minimal make-up to showcase her naturally striking features.

Despite the NYC heat, Justin kept a woolly hat on in addition to his dark sunglasses, perhaps to keep a low profile from his many adoring fans.

The former pop star, 36, wore a Nike hooded shirt and shorts that showed off his leg tattoos, one which is the logo from his boy band days with 'NSYNC.

Strolling: Their nanny took Silas on an adventure, but Timberlake held on to his son's stroller

PDA: The actor and singer put a protective arm around his lady love, they began dating in 2007

Justin has been busy filming Woody Allen's movie Wonder Wheel with Kate Winslet in NYC.

Jessica is currently starring in USA Network's racy eight-part drama series The Sinner.

The first few episodes have received rave reviews and the actress - who takes on the role of Cora Tannetti - has been setting pulses racing in the first few episodes, some of which see her donning a skimpy lace bra.

Couple goals: The Timberlakes looked more in love than ever as they walked earlier that day

Plenty to smile about: The good-looking couple went summer casual for their stroll through the Tribeca neighborhood after grabbing a bite to eat

White hot: Jessica looked effortlessly elegant for the low-key outing, sporting a white top with lace accents, and white denim capri pants

In the eight part limited series, Cora is arrested after stabbing a man to death on a local beach and in front of her husband and young son.

Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pulman) is investigating the case and wants to know why the suburban mum of one has committed murder.

Covering this year's August issue of Marie Claire, Jessica talked about her marriage, saying: 'We have similar values; we believe in loyalty, honesty. We like to have fun.

Fun in the sun: Wearing her brunette locks tied up in a messy bun, the mother-of-one sheltered her eyes from the summer sunshine with tortoishell Cuyana x Sunday Somewhere sunglasses

Pretty as a picture: Jessica completed her look with minimal make-up to showcase her naturally striking features

Feeling hot? Despite the NYC heat, Justin kept a woolly hat on in addition to his dark sunglasses, perhaps to keep a low profile from his many adoring fans

'We like a lot of the same things. Also, in the business, we're all very career-oriented, and you have to be a little selfish,' the actress has allowed.

'I understand that about my peers - about being focused and driven - and if you can find that and someone who shares the same values as you, it's like: Score!'

The Book of Love couple - who began their romance in 2007 - will celebrate five years of marriage on October 19 after tying the knot in a romantic ceremony in Fasano, southern Italy, in October 2012.

Busy: Jessica recently wrapped her role as Cora on the eight-part USA Network drama The Sinner

Tight grip: The couple of ten years, who have been married almost five of them were inseparable
She's the Bachelor hopeful who locked lips with Matty J Johnson on Thursday's episode of the hit dating reality show.

Although it seems that Tara Pavlovic's heart may not be fully committed to finding love with Matty, with the brunette nanny wearing a necklace gifted to her by a former beau.

New Idea reported that Tara has been seen in the mansion wearing a gold necklace featuring the letter 'D' - the first initial of her ex-boyfriend David.

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Holding a candle? It seems that The Bachelor's Tara Pavlovic's heart may not be fully committed to finding love with Matty, with the brunette nanny wearing a necklace gifted to her by a former beau during her time in the mansion.

The publication quoted an unnamed source who said that, during her time in the mansion, Tara's mind had been firmly fixed on her former flame.

'It was really strange,' the source said. 'she was supposed to be there fore Matty, yet every day she insisted on wearing a reminder of this David guy.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Network ten for comment.

Old flame: New Idea reported that Tara has been seen in the mansion wearing a gold necklace (pictured) featuring the letter 'D' - the first initial of her ex-boyfriend David

Regardless of her intentions, Tara was the fortunate hopeful who scored a kiss with Matty on air on Thursday and she revealed to Popsugar that the amorous move was something she never expected.

'It was perfect timing, but no, wasn't expecting it. I wasn't even expecting a date! I was not expecting to even come this far, so it's all a big surprise,' she told the publication.

While her mind may be on another, Tara also revealed that she was happy that Matty had kissed her.

Romance: Regardless of her intentions, Tara was the fortunate hopeful who scored a kiss with Matty on air on Thursday and she revealed to Popsugar that the amorous move was something she never expected

'I'm, glad he did because I couldn't get any words out of my mouth, so he kind of saved me - thank you, Matty!,' she said.

It was also revealed recently that Tara had the perfect person in her corner as her mother is Debbie Newsome, the former co-host of 1980s dating game show Perfect Match.

Speaking to Woman's Day, Tara said that Debbie, who also starred in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, constantly pestered her daughter for Bachelor updates.

'She bugs me about how often Im in episodes and if Ive gotten a date yet!" she said.

Tongue tied: 'I'm, glad he did because I couldn't get any words out of my mouth, so he kind of saved me - thank you, Matty!,' she said
He was married to Nicole Heir on season three of Married At First Sight, only to call it quits after filming.

But Craig Keller has now found 'the one', announcing his engagement to girlfriend and single mother of two, Katie Martin, in Brisbane, last weekend.

The 27-year-old took to Instagram to reveal to his fans that he had popped the question to the 'love of his life'.

'I don't need experts on this one!' Married At First Sight's Craig Keller announces he is engaged to his girlfriend after failed marriage to TV wife Nicole Heir

In snaps shared from the occasion, Craig appeared go all out organising an elaborate proposal in a park.

The navy engineer looked dapper in a suit, while his bride-to-be looking stunning in a short white lace dress.

The setting looked like an unconventional and impromptu wedding, but Craig quashed any hopes of a shotgun wedding writing in the caption: 'SHE SAID YES.'

'Today I got engaged to the love of my life @katmart.0.0.7 and I couldn't be happier.'

Former flame: The 27-year-old first came to fame on season three of Married At First Sight where he was married to Nicole Heir

He continued: 'So much love for bringing today together. I don't need experts on this one, she's perfect.'

Fans of the reality TV star congratulated the couple on their happy announcement.

Friend and fellow MAFS alumni from season four Sean Hollands wrote: 'Best wishes to you both. Looking forward to the big day. How awesome was that.'

New love: Craig recently took to Instagram to reveal to his fans that he had popped the question to the 'love of his life' during a beautiful proposal

Happier than ever! He captioned his announcement post, 'Today I got engaged to the love of my life @katmart.0.0.7 and I couldn't be happier'

The show's relationship expert Melanie Schilling also congratulated Craig, writing: 'So happy for you, congratulations to you both. You deserve abundant happiness.'

Craig replied back to her: 'Thank you so much love.'

'Honestly, without doing the show I would never have the confidence to fall in love like this,' he added, while referring to his TV wife Nicole Heir.

The couple weren't without any controversy during their time on the program.

Nicole claimed he had an issue with alcohol and pain medication.

The past: The couple weren't without any controversy during their time on the program. Nicole claimed he had an issue with alcohol and pain medication

He hit back at the claims, telling Now To Love her allegations were 'rubbish' and that he went on the show for the right reasons.

'Obviously I didn't find (love), but I found a newfound confidence in myself and it's helped me find the love that I have today with [current partner] Katie,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Nicole for comment.
Matty J and Tara Pavolovic locked lips in a passionate embrace in last Wednesday's episode of The Bachelor.

And so entranced was the 30-year-old Sydneysider, he later told producers the date had left him questioning 'not just where I'm at with Tara, but now where I'm at with all the ladies in the mansion'.

But on Monday, Tara told NW magazine that it would be unlikely that she would move to Sydney for the marketing manager.

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Not moving! on Monday, Tara told NW magazine that it would be unlikely that she would move to Sydney for the marketing manager

'My Plan is to go back to Queensland. No one expects to be with Matty at the end and no one thinks they will,' the nanny bluntly stated.

'You think, as if he's going to choose me!' she added.

Tara appeared to remain nonchalant about their relationship saying: 'I would be let down if I'm not his girl, but I think everything happens for a reason...it's for the best.'

Passionate: Matty J and Tara Pavolovic locked lips in a passionate embrace in last Wednesday's episode of The Bachelor

On the single date, the pair spent their date making pasta, where Tara's fondness for any activity truly shone through.

The Queenslander jumped for joy as she prepared to cook pasta with her Bachelor beau.

'I love cooking so much. I do it all the time at home,' she squealed.

Nonchalant: Tara appeared to remain nonchalant about their relationship saying: 'I would be let down if I'm not his girl, but I think everything happens for a reason...it's for the best.'

'I find it therapeutic and a man who cooks...'

Matty J said he was earnest to see a deeper, more mature side to the fun-loving Tara, and he appeared to have been handed his dreams on a silver platter.

As the pair chatted about family and relationships, the Bachelor was visibly delighted by her answers.

Fortunately for Tara, she shared Matty J's desire to have children as soon as possible.

The bubbly blonde said her work as a nanny made her especially clucky.

'You look at [the kids] and you just love them. You have so much love for them,' she said.

Matty previously told New Idea he is 'excited to have kids' and stated he would love to have his first child 'within five years' time'.
He has confirmed he's found love with one of The Bachelor contestants.

But Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson might be reconsidering his new relationship, with the news his ex-girlfriend Nathalie Darcas has returned to Bondi Beach.

The former lovebirds, who split due to Nathalie's travel commitments as a model, 'could be back in touch', an alleged 'source' has told NW magazine.

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Former flames: Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson might be reconsidering his new relationship with the news his ex-girlfriend Nathalie Darcas has returned to Bondi Beach

'Nat and Matty were smitten with each other when they were together,' the insider reportedly told the publication.

'They have plenty of mutual friends, so there's every chance they could be back in touch,' they added.

The stunning blonde revealed she was back in Australia via her Instagram account, where she posted multiple snaps geo-tagged with a Bondi Beach location.

'They have plenty of mutual friends, so there's every chance they could be back in touch,' the 'source' added

Back in town: The stunning blonde revealed she was back in Australia via her Instagram account, where she posted multiple snaps geo-tagged with a Bondi Beach location

In an earlier interview, Matty told NW he didn't even consider starring as The Bachelor during his time with Nathalie.

'While we were together, there was no conversation of The Bachelor, and the idea of me taking on the role never popped in my head until after she'd left,' he confessed.

Fans of the reality series have predicted Matty has fallen in love with one of the top contenders: Laura Byrne, Lisa Carlton or Cobie Frost.

Fans of the reality series have predicted Matty has fallen in love with one of the top contenders: Laura Byrne (pictured), Lisa Carlton or Cobie Frost

Another hopeful, Leah Costa, was apparently booted from the show by Matty after revealing her past as a topless waitress.

A source told New Idea the 24-year-old Melbourne uni student was shown the door after opening up about the topless scandal, but insists she wanted to leave anyway.

'Eventually she realised the only way out of the show was to open up about her work as a topless waitress and reveal her past to Matty,' the insider said.

'The producers made her go over it again and again. Then she had to tell Matty about it... it was degrading really,' they continued
Since parting ways with 'TV wife' Sharon Marsh, he's been pictured with fellow Married At First Sight star Nadia Stamp and former Miss Universe Australia finalist Cassie Wainwright.

And now according to Monday's Woman's Day, Nick Furphy has been 'catching up' with ex girlfriend Georgie Rash.

An insider, claimed to be a friend of the 30-year-old reality star, allegedly told the publication: 'We're wondering if they ever really got over one another.'

'We're wondering if they ever got over one another': Woman's Day has claimed that MAFS' Nick Furphy, 30, has been 'catching up' with ex girlfriend Georgie Rash, since splitting with 'TV wife' Sharon Marsh (pictured), 32

A friend of Nick reportedly told Woman's Day of Nick and Georgie: 'They were long-time friends before they got together.

'We're wondering if they ever really got over one another,' the friend reportedly went on to say.

The magazine's insider also suggested that the pair have been 'smitten' for over a year.

Any truth? An insider, claimed to be a friend of Nick, allegedly told the publication of his 'catch-ups' with ex Georgie (pictured): 'We're wondering if they ever really got over one another'

Just claims? The magazine's insider also suggested that the pair have been 'smitten' for over a year

Rumour mill: Nick was previously linked to former Miss Universe Australia finalist Cassie Wainwright (pictured), however she has since confirmed that she's in a relationship

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Nick for comment.

Shortly after the magazine hit stands, it appeared Nick had spoken out via an Instagram post, over the alleged reports.

Taking to the social media site on Monday morning, the Melbourne-born personality wrote: 'I'd be lying if I said I was doing ok. Yes people are seeing me out and about.

'But that's me trying to distract myself. Better to be out with friends than hiding at home,' Nick continued.

The comments ran alongside a graphic of an inspirational post, that read: 'Sometimes all you can do is smile. Move on with your day, hold back the tears and pretend you're okay.'

Cryptic: Shortly after the magazine hit stands, it appeared Nick had spoken out via an Instagram post, over the alleged reports

More claims: The recent claims come after Nick was pictured with fellow Married At First Sight star Nadia Stamp, 36

Just friends? Nick was seen putting on a playful display with Nadia late last month at a 'Boozy Brunch' event

The recent claims come after Nick was pictured with former Miss Universe Australia finalist Cassie Wainwright and Married At First Sight's Nadia Stamp, 36.

While Cassie is now confirmed to be in a relationship, Nick was seen putting on a playful display with Nadia late last month at a 'Boozy Brunch' event.

The pair looked to be enjoying each other's company as they playfully held onto each other in a series of poses.

Content: The pair looked to be enjoying each other's company as they playfully held onto each other in a series of poses

Looking for a new flame? And just as early as this month, Nick looked to have joined dating app Tinder, with a promotional image of himself from the reality show, appearing online

'It broke my heart': Nick has previously spoken of being devastated about Sharon Marsh's decision to dump him in July this year, having recently told New Idea: 'I started to shake and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I fell hard and fast and gave it my all. It has made me lose my faith in love a little bit'

And just as early as this month, Nick looked to have joined dating app Tinder, with a promotional image of himself from the reality show, appearing online.

Nick has previously spoken of being devastated about Sharon Marsh's decision to dump him in July this year, having recently told New Idea: 'It broke my heart.'

'I started to shake and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I fell hard and fast and gave it my all. It has made me lose my faith in love a little bit,' he said.

In July, Sharon took to Instagram to break her silence about the break-up, by posting a picture of a 'protection of life' necklace with the words: 'Things don't always go the way you hope.'

Going public: Sharon announced the split via an Instagram post in July this year
She was enjoying a moment in the spotlight at a star-studded red carpet event.

But Millie Bobby Brown ensured she stood out from the crowd as she attended the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at the University of Southern California's Galen Center in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

The Stranger Things star, 13, dazzled in a night yellow silk dress with a sheer overlay and mullet hem as she arrived for her big night, which saw her nominated for her role as Jane 'Eleven' Ives in the Netflix series Stranger Things.

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Little Miss Sunshine: Millie Bobby Brown ensured she stood out from the crowd as she attended the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at The Galen Center in Los Angeles on Sunday night

The teen actress teamed her pretty dress with a pair of towering orange and yellow heels and chic circular sunglasses.

Millie toted her belongings in a small lemon clutch bag as she put on an animated display on the blue carpet.

The actress sported an intricate braided hairstyle as she shared a hug on the blue carpet with her fellow child star Maddie Ziegler.

The dancer, 14, wore a silk orange and green floral suit for the occasion.

Mellow yellow: The Stranger Things star, 13, dazzled in a night yellow silk dress with a sheer overlay and mullet hem as she arrived for her big night

Big moment: The teen actress teamed her pretty dress with a pair of towering orange and yellow heels and chic circular sunglasses

Millie's accolades for her Stranger Things performance have included a nomination for one of this year's Primetime Emmy Awards, which will take place on September 17.

Playing Eleven has also brought Millie a Saturn Award for Best Younger Actor In A Series and an MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Actor In A Series.

The cast of the show also won Outstanding Performance By An Ensemble In A Drama Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards this year.

Season Two of the show will premiere on Netflix this October.

Already a winner! Millie toted her belongings in a small lemon clutch bag as she put on an animated display on the blue carpet

So sweet! The actress sported an intricate braided hairstyle as she shared a hug on the blue carpet with her fellow child star Maddie Ziegler

Millie's recently spoken with Deadline about the appeal of her character, saying: 'Eleven I think resonates because she is different.

'Shes an outcast, shes a freak, and that is why people relate to her. People love her for being a freak and for being different, and Mike [Finn Wolfhard] loves her for being a unique character. Thats, I think, why people related to her so much.'

Millie admitted that the fact the show's set in the 1980s, a decade she didn't live through, made things difficult.

She added: 'It was a little harder than everything else because I would be like: "Why doesnt she just call? Oh, she cant because there was no phone."

'It was harder to grab on to that idea, but once youre on board, and understand what everything means, then you realize: "Oh, wow. This is an 80s show."'

Hand in hand! The dancer, 14, wore a silk orange and green floral suit for the occasion
She has been experimenting with her tresses for the duration of the summer.

And Kerry Washington unveiled her latest look as she attended producer Jennifer Kleins star-studded 19th annual Day Of Indulgence party at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on Sunday.

The Scandal star, 40, ditched her usually poker straight locks and returned to her natural afro as she made her way into the private gifting bash.

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New 'do: Kerry Washington unveiled new hair at producer Jennifer Kleins star-studded 19th annual Day Of Indulgence party at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on Sunday

The actress chose a denim mini dress that showed off her toned legs as she headed inside.

Kerry clutched a brown and black briefcase-inspired bag that matched her tan and black platform sandals.

The look was just the latest in the star's summer of switching up her hairstyles.

In early June, Kerry attended the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York City with her hair worn in a wet-and-wavy style. Inside the event, the guests were served TYKU sake, Sunday Cats popsicles, detoxwater, gimMe Seaweed, Uptime, and Icelandic Glacial Water.

Hair today: The Scandal star, 40, ditched her usually poker straight locks and returned to her natural afro as she made her way into the private gifting bash

Leggy lady: The actress chose a denim mini dress that showed off her toned legs as she headed inside

Soon after that appearance, she debuted a short bob cut which she wore straight for the premiere of Cars 3 in Anaheim, California.

Days later at a Forbes event in New York, her hair was the same length but worn with waves.

On July 20, she attended the launch for Balmain's boutique opening in Los Angeles, sporting her most common style: sleek, straight locks that fell past shoulder length.

Kerry's locks have often been subject of debate among Scandal fans, as she is always seen with impeccably smooth hair in her role as White House crisis manager Olivia Pope.

Sleek: The actress sported silky straight locks that fell past shoulder length at a Balmain event on July 20 in Los Angeles

Her tresses are only seen in 'natural' form when Pope is shown on vacation.

Washington talked about her decision to wear her hair in it's natural form at the 2016 Emmy's to Redbook magazine.

'I'd been relaxing my hair since I was a little girl, so part of it was just wanting to see what would happen if I didn't.

'Quitting has been such a time-saver, and my hair feels much healthier now. It's been fun getting to know my real curls,' she revealed.

Variation: Kerry's hair was worn in a wavy bob in New York on June 13 (left), and in a straight version of the same cut on June 10 in Anaheim, California (right)
Is Your Parental Leave Policy Up to Date?

Obviously you want to take good care of your employees, and sometimes that means giving them time away from the office. And as an employer, this can be a difficult balance to strike: you hired your employees for a reason -- to work -- but if they're not happy, they won't be working for you for long.

For the most part, federal labor laws strike the balance for you -- most workers are limited to 40 hours per week unless they're paid overtime. But the feds don't have a lot to say about parental leave, especially paid parental leave, and states and cities have recently stepped into the void. So it may be time to re-examine your parental leave policy.

Legal Leave

The Family Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees take up to 12 months of unpaid, job-protected leave for a newborn child, adoption, or a child's medical condition per year. While employers are free to offer additional benefits like more time or paid time off, the FMLA sets the floor for covered employers.

Some states have also taken it upon themselves to provide more or paid parental leave. California, Washington, and New York have all updated their family leave laws in recent years, including more paid time off for new parents. Some cities as well have been expanding statutory protections for family leave.

Parental Policies

As mentioned above, city, state, and federal law will merely set the minimum required leave for parents, and you are free to provide more benefits to entice the best employees and show them your appreciation. And, like we said as well, figuring out the best parental leave policy for your small business can be a challenge.

While bigger corporations like Spotify and Yahoo have begun to offer expanded parental leave benefits to recruit and retain talented employees, small businesses could be stifled losing a key employee for six months or more. Balancing the law and your corporate culture could require the help of an experienced employment law attorney -- contact one today.

Related Resources:
She was up against Derek Hough, Julianne Hough, Chloe Lukasiak, Kida The Great and tWitch for the Choice Dancer at the Teen Choice Awards.

And when Maddie Ziegler could not hide her excitement as she was named the winner of the category at the annual ceremony, held at the University of Southern California's Galen Center on Sunday night.

The former Dance Moms star, 14, took to the stage with a massive smile as she collected her surfboard.

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Happy days: Maddie Ziegler could not hide her excitement as she was named the winner at the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at the University of Southern California's Galen Center on Sunday

'Thank you so much. First off, I cant believe this is my second choice dance award. Its the most surreal thing,' the dancer exclaimed to the crowd.

'I just want to say thank you guys so much for getting me to where I am today because I am just a girl from Pittsburgh.

'I would not be here getting to share my passion with you and doing all these amazing things without you guys. This is dedicated to you.'

Talented: The teen was up against Derek Hough, Julianne Hough, Chloe Lukasiak, Kida The Great and tWitch for the Choice Dancer at the Teen Choice Awards

Fashion statement: Maddie looked lovely for her moment in the spotlight, teaming a dark green and orange silk suit with towering black heels

BFFs: Maddie held hands with her friend Millie Bobbie Brown, 13, from Stranger Things

Teens: The girls became friends after Brown praised Ziegler's work during their first meeting

Maddie looked lovely for her moment in the spotlight, teaming a dark green and orange silk suit with towering black heels.

The teen wore her locks down and straight and accentuated her pretty features with natural make-up.

At the event, she hung out with her friend Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things.

The girls have become close within recent months after Brown praised Ziegler's work the first time they met.

'We actually connected,' Maddie told People, 'I was like, "I know well be friends." And then she was talking about her show.

Natural beauty: The teen wore her locks down and straight and accentuated her pretty features with natural make-up

Spotlight: Maddie and Millie also appeared on stage with Grace VanderWaal to present the Choice Movie Actor prize to Chris Pratt, 38, for his role in Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2

'I didnt really know what she was talking about. And then when I watched Stranger Things in a day and a half  it was so good!'

Maddie and Millie also appeared on stage to present the Choice Movie Actor prize to Chris Pratt, 38, for his role in Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2.

It was the star's first public appearance since he announced his split from wife of eight years, Anna Faris, 40, last weekend.

Maddie also enjoyed a reunion of sorts with a number of her former Dance Moms co-stars, with the likes of Chloe Lukasiak, Kendall Vertes, Kalani Hilliker and Nia Sioux all in attendance at the ceremony.

Nice to see you! Maddie also enjoyed a reunion with a number of her Dance Moms co-stars, with the likes of Chloe Lukasiak, Kendall Vertes, Kalani Hilliker and Nia Sioux all in attendance
She spent her 19th birthday performing for a large crowd at Australia Zoo last month.

And a new report claims Bindi Irwin is 'exhausted and stressed' due to her busy work schedule.

A source told New Idea on Monday that the 19-year-old, who has various work commitments with Australia Zoo, has 'a hard time turning work down' and that subsequently her 'crammed scheduled' is taking a toll.

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Stressed? A new report claims Bindi Irwin is 'exhausted and stressed' due to her busy work schedule

'She's been burning the candle at both ends , working non-stop and jet-setting round the world with Chandler [Powell],' a source told the publication.

'She crams as much into her schedule as possible and has a hard time turning work down.

The insider continued: 'But as positive as she is on the surface, there's no doubt it takes a toll. She's exhausted and stressed from all the travelling and pressure. it's taken a toll on her emotionally.'

Hectic work schedule: 'She's been burning the candle at both ends , working non-stop and jet-setting round the world with Chandler [Powell],' a source told the publication

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Bindi Irwin for comment.

The bubbly star works as a 'wildlife warrior' at Australia Zoo and recently embarked on a month-long trip to the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve for Croc Trip 2017.

Last week, she shared a cryptic Instagram post about 'toxic' people, after denying reports of a 'love triangle' boyfriend Chandler Powell and mate Luke Reavley.

Various work commitments: The bubbly star works as a 'wildlife warrior' at Australia Zoo and recently embarked on a month-long trip to the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve for Croc Trip 2017. Bindi is pictured with her mother Terri Irwin (3-L), brother Robert (R) and her boyfriend Chandler Powell (L) on July 24, 2016 in Queensland, Australia

Cryptic post: Last week, she shared a cryptic Instagram post about 'toxic' people, after denying reports of a 'love triangle' boyfriend Chandler Powell and mate Luke Reavley (not pictured)

She captioned the post: 'Hold on to positivity - Stay true to you'

'When a toxic person can no longer control, they will try to control how others see you,' Bindi's post read.

'The misinformation will feel unfair, but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth, just like you did.'

She captioned the post: 'Hold on to positivity - Stay true to you.'

False report: The post came after Woman's Day magazine wrongly claimed that Bindi Irwin and Chandler are 'caught in a love triangle'

The post came after Woman's Day magazine wrongly claimed that Bindi Irwin and Chandler are 'caught in a love triangle.'

'He's worried sick she might be falling for him,' a 'source' allegedly told the publication of the 20-year-old's supposed 'jealousy' of his girlfriend's bond with Luke, 27.

'He's worried Bindi might be getting cold feet (about their romance),' the "insider" reportedly told Woman's Day of Chandler's concerns.

Claims: 'The trouble is Chandler has noticed that Bindi seems to be spending a lot more time with Luke (pictured) lately and he's worried sick she might be falling for him,' the source allegedly told the publication

'That's why he got so annoyed a few weeks ago when he saw Luke giving Bindi a long hug - it was too much as far as he was concerned.

'The trouble is Chandler has noticed that Bindi seems to be spending a lot more time with Luke lately and he's worried sick she might be falling for him,' the source allegedly went on to say.

Bizarre insinuations: Woman's Day magazine alleged that Luke, who joined Australia Zoo as the family's executive assistant in 2007, shortly after the death of Steve Irwin, struck up a close friendship with Bindi

Woman's Day magazine went on to claim that Luke, who joined Australia Zoo as the family's executive assistant in 2007, shortly after the death of Steve Irwin, struck up a close friendship with Bindi.

Representatives for Australia Zoo have since slammed the claims, telling Daily Mail Australia: 'Another claim we were never contacted about because they know we'd tell them the truth, not true at all.

'Luke is Terris Executive Assistant and has worked with the family for years. Although Bindi and Chandler are not married, they are firmly an item.

'If Woman's Day think that makes a triangle, I suggest they go back to school to study their geometry,' the spokesperson continued.

Picture-perfect: The bizarre claims come just one week after Bindi gushed over Chandler in a loved-up social media snap

Sweet embrace: Posting a photo of the high-profile pair embracing, the wildlife warrior wrote in the caption: 'Being in love is the greatest adventure of all'

The bizarre claims come just one week after Bindi gushed over Chandler in a loved-up social media snap.

Posting a photo of the high-profile pair embracing, the wildlife warrior wrote in the caption: 'Being in love is the greatest adventure of all'.

Fans of the duo were quick to comment on the image, with most asking when the pair would be getting married.

Still going strong: Bindi and her American beau have been dating for three years. They first met in November 2013 when Bindi gave the professional wakeboarder a tour of Australia Zoo

'Can you just get married yet?' asked one, while another made a cheeky request: 'Can I get an invite to the wedding please?'

Bindi and her American beau have been dating for three years. They first met in November 2013 when Bindi gave the professional wakeboarder a tour of Australia Zoo.
Fifi Box has revealed she was sexually assaulted by a 'very high profile' celebrity during a radio interview in the early days of her career.

The media personality described the incident on The Fifi, Dave, Fev & Byron Show on FOX FM on Monday.

She said an unidentified guest 'rubbed my head in his crotch'.

'He grabbed my head and forced it down into his crotch': Fifi Box recalls the shocking moment a 'very high profile' celebrity sexually assaulted her during a radio interview

The 40-year-old opened up during a segment, where she was reporting on Taylor Swift's case against a radio DJ, who allegedly groped the pop star during a meet and greet.

'I can say I've found myself, as a young woman particularly working in the media, in situations where I've found myself uncomfortable,' she revealed.

'You could argue I've been sexually assaulted, and yet laughed or giggled my way through I because I've been scared or intimidated by the situation,' she added.

The popular host said she was around '24-25 at the time' while the guest 'would have been in his 50s'.

'You could argue I've been sexually assaulted, and yet laughed or giggled my way through I because I've been scared or intimidated by the situation,' she said during the interview

'He sat in the studio and during the interview he was touching me - reaching over and grabbing and stroking my leg - then grabbed my head and forced it down into his crotch. Actually rubbed my head in his crotch,' she explained.

One of Fifi's morning show co-hosts Byron Cooke chimed in, saying he witnessed the incident during the time they worked on Triple M's The Shebang show.

He revealed they had made the decision not to air the interview with the talent in question.

Support: Fifi is pictured with her curret radio co-hosts

'It felt like 1981 with this dude, not that it was ever right. But it sounded wrong, looked wrong, and it was wrong,' he stated.

Fifi went on to explain how her boss at the time came up to the studio after the incident happened and she 'thought he was going to save her'.

He then requested a photo with the guest, which left her thinking what took place might not be as horrific as she thought it was.

On Monday, Byron said he was apologetic about the incident, stating 'it wasn't right'.

'We were both kids in that situation. In the moment, it was awkwardly laughed off because we thought, I don't know, maybe that's what happens,' he stated.
She's the daughter of Hollywood royalty with an actress mother and producer father.

And Iris Apatow, 14, proved the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree as she attended the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at the University of Southern California's Galen Center in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

The teen looked the spitting image of her actress mother, Leslie Mann, 45, as she hit the red carpet with her dad, 49.

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Seeing double: Iris Apatow, 14, and her producer dad Judd, 49, attended the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at the University of Southern California's Galen Center in Los Angeles on Sunday night

The Girls producer was casual in a plaid shirt layered under a navy blazer, which he teamed with jeans and black sneakers.

Iris coordinated with her father in a denim jacket, which she layered over a striped pink and white dress dress.

The actress- who has already appeared in the likes of Knocked Up, This Is 40 and Love - kept her hair straight and make-up natural.

Iris added extra height to her frame with a pair of pink platform heels as she enjoyed her night out with her doting dad.

Mini-me: The teen looked the spitting image of her actress mother, Leslie Mann, 45, as she hit the red carpet with her dad

Twins: While Iris resembles Leslie, elder sister Maude, 19, takes after her father (pictured in Hollywood in June)

Judd's youngest daughter looked to be wife Leslie's twin.

The pretty teen has the same high cheekbones and smile as her mother.

While Iris resembles Leslie, elder sister Maude, 19, takes after her father.

In an interview with Vulture, Judd discussed the jokes that feature his children in stand-up comedy shows.

He said: 'Im very careful with what I say,' he began. Most of the jokes are more about me than them.

Casual: The Girls producer was casual in a plaid shirt layered under a navy blazer, which he teamed with jeans and black sneakers

Stylish: Iris coordinated with her father in a denim jacket, which she layered over a striped pink and white dress dress

'Basically what Im saying about parenting is that in a faster-moving world, a world that encourages less quiet and more vanity, there are new challenges to raising kids.'

'Probably the kids are fine; its the parents who are having the nervous breakdowns. Every generation deals with this stuff.

When I was a kid I used to watch TV from 3:30 in the afternoon till 1:30 at night. I watched The Merv Griffin Show, Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and then Letterman and The Tonight Show.'

'My parents were terrified, and because I wouldnt stop watching TV they bought me a KX80 motorcycle, the most dangerous machine, just to try and get me to go outside.

'Thats how concerned they were. And the way they felt about TV is how I feel about social media: Is this okay for my kids? It probably is, but my terror is funny.'

Judd and Leslie met on the set of comedy film, The Cable Guy, in 1996 whenshe portrayed Matthew Broderick's character's girlfriend and Apatow served as producer.

The couple tied the knot the following year on June 9, 1997 in Los Angeles.

Working the audience: The actor and film producer took the stage during the ceremony

Pals: Judd posed with fellow comedic actor Chris Pratt, 38, who received the Choice Movie Actor prize
Victoria Justice showcased her enviably flat midriff in the white ensemble she wore to The Galen Center in Los Angeles for the Teen Choice Awards.

The 24-year-old arrived at the Sunday night celebrity-strewn bash in a look that fell off her left shoulder and, at the right, featured a half-bow of extra fabric.

A slender cape dipped from that right shoulder and hit the floor, and she matched the outfit with a white clutch she at one point gripped with both her hands.

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Scene-stealer: Victoria Justice showcased her enviably flat midriff in the white ensemble she'd worn to The Galen Center in Los Angeles for the Teen Choice Awards

Her glinting slender belt - which was dotted all around with white false flowers - was cinched about the Florida-born actress' trim waistline as she walked the blue carpet.

Taking the stage near the top of the show, Victoria delivered the bombshell announcement that Miley Cyrus - who per the awards' website was scheduled to win the Ultimate Choice Award that night - 'couldn't make it' to the night's festivities.

After spilling that bit of information for the audience, she brought to the stage one Jake Paul, a YouTube star whose brother Logan Paul is himself also a YouTube star.

Garnish: The 24-year-old arrived at the Sunday night celebrity-strewn bash in a look that fell off her left shoulder and, at the right, featured a half-bow of extra fabric

Drapery: A slender cape dipped from that right shoulder and hit the floor, and she'd matched the outfit with a white clutch she'd accessorized with

The Ultimate Choice Award is the greatest honor out of all the illustrious Teen Choice Awards, of which Miley's previously won 18, as the Associated Press have noted.

In fact, many who won awards - including Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Zac Efron - hadn't actually turned up to The Galen Center for the broadcast ceremony.

Nor did Bruno Mars and Gal Gadot, who'd also got prizes that night, though per the Associated Press they did wind up delivering victory speeches on video.

No-show: Taking the stage near the top of the show, Victoria delivered the bombshell announcement that Miley Cyrus 'couldn't make it' to the night's festivities

Introducing: After spilling that bit of information for the audience, she brought to the stage one Jake Paul, a YouTube star whose brother Logan Paul is himself also a YouTube star

Victoria's latest role, as her IMDb page attests, was in a film called The Outcast out this April that centers on high-school misfits who join forces against bullies.

She was also in The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do The Time-Warp Again, last year's TV remake of the 1975 cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Victoria had a starring role as one of the protagonists, Janet Weiss, a role that in the original version was played by none other than up-and-coming Susan Sarandon.

Emphasis: Her glinting slender belt - which was dotted all around with white false flowers - was cinched about the Florida-born actress' trim waistline as she walked the blue carpet
Bonnie Sveen and boyfriend Nathan Gooley spent the last week moving her belongings into their new Sydney home.

And on Friday, the 28-year-old actress appeared a little on the tired side while helping him to an awaiting taxi.

Wearing the same plaid shirt and black ripped jeans she had worn just days before, the former Home And Away actress seemed fatigued after the big move.

Feeling tired? Former Home And Away actress Bonnie Sveen appears exhausted after moving in with boyfriend Nathan Gooley

Nathan also looked a little exhausted as he carried a large animal carrier.

The Secret Daughter actress was seen giving her beau a long kiss goodbye before he got into the cab.

Later Bonnie was spotted heading out in a casual navy V-neck T-shirt, acid wash jeans and black sneakers, as she toted a backpack and pouch.

Big move: Her beau Nathan also looked a little fatigued as he carried a large animal carrier

Smitten: The Secret Daughter actress was seen giving her beau a long kiss goodbye before he got into the cab

The Tasmanian-born beauty recently opened up about her incredible weight loss, going from a size 12 and dropping down to a size eight.

She said leaving her grueling 12-hour work schedule at Home And Away helped her free up her time to dabble in physical activity.

'It gave me a freedom to do things I love with more regularity, like yoga and hiking,' she told WHO!

Looking good: The Secret Daughter actress (pictured with Jessica Mauboy) said leaving her grueling 12-hour work schedule at Home And Away helped her free up her time to dabble in physical activity

Bonnie and Nathan met on the set of the Summer Bay soap in 2015.

'He's great. He's in this game too so he gets that there's an interest in my private life,' she told TV Week in a previous report.

'We get each other's work. He has a bit more experience than me on different shows,' the stunner added.
Chris Pratt said he built his Hollywood career on lies.

The actor, who recently announced the end of his eight year marriage to Anna Faris, said in an acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards that he lied to his first agent and jokingly added it 'was the first of many lies I told to get where I am today'.

The speech, which was an attempt at self-deprecation, came when he was awarded twice for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2.

Just kidding! Chris Pratt said he built his Hollywood career on lies at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday night

The 38-year-old appeared in good spirits, despite the fresh split, as he recalled how his career began.

'When I came to Los Angeles,' Pratt said, 'I came from Hawaii and I had all of this blond hair and I was tan and I met an agent because I really wanted to be an actor and get an agent.'

He then said that the agent asked, '"Wow. Bro you must surf?" And I said "Yeah" and that was the first of many lies I told to get where I am today. Thank you.'

Getting the tone: The speech, which was an attempt at self-deprecation, came when he was awarded twice for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

'When I came to Los Angeles,' Pratt said, 'I came from Hawaii and I had all of this blond hair and I was tan and I met an agent because I really wanted to be an actor and get an agent.'

He then said that the agent asked, '"Wow. Bro you must surf?" And I said "Yeah" and that was the first of many lies I told to get where I am today. Thank you.'

While he did not thank his soon to be ex wife, he did leave on a religious note: 'I would not be here with the ease and grace I have in my heart without my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.'

The actor also confirmed he would be coming back for a third Guardians film.

He also made sure to give a shout out to Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn, whom the actor said was coming back for a third.

The 38-year-old appeared in good spirits, despite the fresh split, as he recalled how his career began

Meanwhile, Chris , 38, and Anna, 40, shocked the world when they announced their separation on Monday.

And sources are now claiming that Chris' movie star status and skyrocketing fame might have contributed to the demise of the couple's eight-year marriage.

Competitive? Sources claim Pratt and Faris' shocking split might have been caused by Chris' movie star status and skyrocketing fame

'Chris became this huge movie star and Anna wasn't getting any big jobs. She was the more famous and sexy one at the start of their relationship and then things took a turn,' a source told Us Weekly.

When the couple first started dating in 2009, Chris was just starting his stint on NBC's Parks and Recreation and had virtually no star power.

Anna, on the other hand, was starting to bonafide comedic actress with leading roles in House Bunny, Take Me Home Tonight and What's Your Number.

Friends say the situation has since reversed itself and Chris has gone on to become a major A-list star, while Anna has had a hard time finding big jobs.

The source added that the pair have always been a little competitive with each other.

'When they're in a big group, they each want to be the one telling the funniest joke,' the source told the magazine.

Ironically, Anna blamed her last divorce on the same issue.

The actress was married to actor Ben Indra, but got divorced in 2007 and blamed her career successes.

Happier times: The couple pictured in 2012 when Anna was still the bigger movie star

'That kind of destroyed my marriage,' she told Marie Claire in a 2011 cover story. 'The divide became too great.'

Anna and Chris announced their separation on Sunday evening following eight years of marriage, with other sources telling TMZ that their different family values were to blame.

A source told the site that Anna wanted to have more children, but Chris 'can't juggle a growing family with his career', which sees him shoot movies all over the world, leaving home for months at a time.

The couple share four-year-old son Jack, and were keen to stress in their split statement that they 'love him very much'.

The website reports that as well as Chris not wanting to have more children in the foreseeable future there are 'other personal reasons for the split, but the way they see family in the long-term was a big factor in their decision.'

MailOnline have contacted Chris and Anna's representatives for comment.

Co-stars: Jennifer and Chris starred together in the 2016 sci-fi flick Passengers

Following the shock announcement Jennifer Lawrence also found herself in the middle of reports.

As the couple confirmed their separation, fans flocked to social media to bizarrely blame the actress, 26 - who starred in Passengers with Chris in 2016 - for the split.

Taking to Twitter, one wrote: 'I can't believe Chris Pratt and Anna Faris are splitting up this is all Jennifer Lawrence's fault.'
She is known for her effortless, natural beauty.

And Halle Berry was a vision on Sunday as she left the star-studded 19th annual Day of Indulgence party in Brentwood.

The A-list-packed event was hosted by -and held at the home of- Hollywood producer Jennifer Klein.

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Gorgeous guest: Halle Berry, 50, was a vision on Sunday as she left the star-studded 19th Annual Day of Indulgence Party in Brentwood

The Oscar-winning actress wore a brown and white, Bohemian-style, flowy dress, pairing it with some Ipanema With Starck sandals.

Halle, 50, accessorized with a set of mirrored shades, a small pendant necklace and a slouchy handbag.

The star wore her highlighted locks in tiny ringlet curls.

So so happy to reunite with these amazing women!': In an Instagram post shared by Debra Messing, Halle looked to be having the time of her life inside the bash

In an Instagram post shared by Debra Messing, Halle looked to be having the time of her life inside the bash.

'So so happy to reunite with these amazing women!,' she began, followed by a collection of hashtags, including "#HalleInCali and #SmizingEyes."'

In the shot, Debra, 48, shared a bright smile as she posed between Halle and Tyra Banks for a selfie.

Flowy: The Oscar-winning actress wore a brown and white, Bohemian-style dress, pairing it with some Ipanema With Starck sandals

Earlier this month, Halle's thriller flick, Kidnap, premiere in theaters.

Later this year, the star will take the lead in Kings alongside Daniel Craig and Raven's Home actor Isaac Ryan Brown.

Come September, Halle will star in the action-comedy, Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
She's the host of popular breakfast show Sunrise, who reportedly parted ways with fellow Channel Seven personality Michael Usher recently after a short-lived romance.

But it may well be that love is in the air again for Samantha Armytage, after TV presenter teased she was dating someone during Monday's edition of the show.

Sam's admission came after weatherman Sam Mac, who was chatting to Hell's Kitchen star Sam Frost about an Uber promotion, mistakenly said: Three Sams in the one show and there's a common thread, we're all single.'

Is love in the air? Sunrise's Samantha Armytage says she 'may be' currently dating after being linked to fellow Channel Seven star Michael Usher

When Sam Frost, who recently confirmed her new romance with beau Dave Bashford, corrected the weatherman by saying: 'I'm actually dating at the moment,' the host let the cat out of the bag with: 'And I might be, too.'

Sam's words sent her fellow panellists David Koch, Natalie Barr and Mark Baretta into fits of gasps and surprised shock.

Sensing their astonishment, and David's penchant for inter-workplace gossip, Sam supplemented her comment by saying: 'I don't tell you all, especially you,' as she pointed directly at her co host.

Revelation: Sam's admission came after weatherman Sam Mac, who was chatting to Hell's Kitchen star Sam Frost about an Uber promotion, mistakenly said: Three Sams in the one show and there's a common thread, we're all single'

Spill: When Sam Frost, who recently confirmed her new romance with beau Dave Bashford, corrected the weatherman by saying: 'I'm actually dating at the moment,' the host let the cat out of the bag with: 'And I might be, too'

Natalie confirmed Sam's suspicions about David by saying: 'As if she'd tell you', before Sam fired back telling David that he had a 'big mouth'.

The 40-year-old would not be drawn on who her mystery admirer was, and when Sam Mac pressed her she hinted that certain publications may suggest that David was her paramour.

'I think I just accidentally got an exclusive,' the weatherman excitedly proclaimed. 'So, Sam, would you like to share yours as well?.

Funny side: The 40-year-old would not be drawn on who her mystery admirer was, and when Sam Mac pressed her she hinted that certain publications may suggest that David was her paramour

'No look on the silly websites, they'll run something next week,' she joked. 'They might say its you [David] if you stand next to me for long enough.'

The Sunday Telegraph reported in June that Sam's short lived relationship with fellow Channel Seven personality Michael Usher had fizzled, with a source telling the publication Michael wanted to focus on his career after moving from Nine to Seven.

'Usher certainly won't be wanting for a date or the attention of women if he rises to be presenter of one of Sydney's top news bulletins, and he happens to be a really nice guy,' the source said.
She's The Real Housewives of Melbourne and Hell's Kitchen star who is known for her larger-than-life personality.

And Pettifleur Berenger, 52, turned heads when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction while frolicking in the surf at a Santa Monica beach on Saturday.

The Melbourne- based property developer wore a brown-coloured two-piece bikini for her ocean sojourn.

Saucy! Bikini-clad Hell's Kitchen star Pettifleur Berenger suffers a nip-slip as she frolicks in the surf during trip to LA

Sun's out: The Melbourne- based property developer wore a brown-coloured two-piece bikini for her ocean sojourn

Looking good: Showing off her trim, taut and terrific form in the revealing bikini, Pettifleur was ready for a day of fun in the sun

Svelte: The Melbourne- based property developer wore a brown-coloured two-piece for her ocean sojourn

Showing off her trim, taut and terrific beach ready-form in the revealing bikini, Pettifleur was ready for a day of fun in the sun.

She could barely contain her excitement at being in the iconic beach side suburb, and she made a beeline for the water where she playfully cavorted among the waves.

However, it seems that Pettifleur's playfulness may have been a little vigorous as the star almost lost her bikini top in the waves.

Oops: Looking shocked at the wardrobe malfunction, Pettifleur gave an embarrassed expression as the incident occurred

Busting Out: It seems that Pettifleur's playfulness may have been a little vigorous as the star almost lost her bikini top in the waves

Surf's up: She could barely contain her excitement over being in the iconic beach side suburb, and she made a beeline for the water where she began to playfully cavort among the waves

Nevermind: However, it seems that any embarrassment or shock Pettifleur may have felt washed away as quickly as the salt water that cascaded down her slender form

Looking shocked at the wardrobe malfunction, Pettifleur gave an embarrassed expression as the incident occurred.

However, it seems that any embarrassment or shock she may have felt washed away as quickly as the waves.

With her chest still exposed to the elements, Pettifleur continued her ocean fun, playfully splashing water about.

Playful: With her chest still exposed to the elements, Pettifleur continued her ocean fun, carelessly splashing water about

Racy: While she did deign to attempt to cover herself, her bikini top kept falling down

Out and proud: It seems that Pettifleur was aware of her wardrobe malfunction but had a laugh

Not shy: Pettifleur suffered a garment guffaw that would have many scrambling for their towels before scurrying off to the change rooms

While she did attempt to cover herself, her efforts were short-lived with the reality star preferring to go au naturale for much of her beach visit.

It seems that Pettifleur was aware of her wardrobe malfunction as she appeared to have a laugh at the incident.

Despite suffering a garment guffaw that would have many scrambling for their towels before scurrying off to the change rooms, the brunette continued to smile widely.

Having fun: Pettifleur continued to smile widely despite the wardrobe malfunction

Not bothered: Content to splash around in the water, Pettifleur took her wardrobe troubles in her sassy stride

Formidable form: Aged 52, Pettifleur displayed a body that would be the envy of many women

Content to splash around in the water, Pettifleur took her wardrobe troubles in her sassy stride.

Aged 52, Pettifleur displayed a body that would make women half her age envious.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Pettifleur for comment.

Pettifleur was recently forced to defend herself against online trolls after she posted a picture of herself in lingerie, which was intended to inspire fans to eat well and exercise.

Haters: Pettifleur was recently forced to defend herself against online trolls after she posted a picture of herself in lingerie, which was intended to inspire fans to eat well and exercise

'Looks like you're advertising to be a hooker' One keyboard warrior wrote, starting the furore

Pulling no punches: Never one to hold her tongue, Pettifleur was quick to respond, writing: 'When did a pair of bras and knickers become uncool or unclassy?'(sic)

The drama started when one keyboard warrior wrote: 'Looks like you're advertising to be a hooker.'

They continued: 'You're a beautiful lady thought you had more class than this. There's better ways to show off your hard work. Leave this outfit for your boyfriend or husband to see!'

Never one to hold her tongue, Pettifleur was quick to respond, writing: 'When did a pair of bras and knickers become uncool or unclassy?' (sic)

Body positive: 'This post is to inspire everyone to eat clean and exercise as your body will thank you for it'

'The results you see in this photo is hard work and dedication. Sending you good vibes,' Pettifleur wrote in the caption of a picture of her in underwear

She continued: 'This post is to inspire everyone to eat clean and exercise as your body will thank you for it. The results you see in this photo is hard work and dedication. Sending you good vibes.'

She fired up even more when another fan asked how her son felt about the photo.

Pulling no punches, Pettifleur retorted: 'I am sick of women like you. Tearing other women down shows your insecurities. This is my page, you are welcome to leave.'

The reality star found her self in hot water on Sunday night's Hell's Kitchen as she was sent to the last chance cook-off.

Not holds barred: She fired up even more when she was asked how her son felt about the photo

Shots fired! 'I am sick of women like you. Tearing other women down shows your insecurities. This is my page, you are welcome to leave' Pettifleur told one online hater
Ex-Felon Turned Good Samaritan Seeks Admission to Connecticut Bar

It might be a bit of a far cry from Arlo Guthrie being asked if he'd rehabilitated himself after being a litterbug so that he could be drafted into the Vietnam War, but Reginald Betts, an ex-con like the most famous Guthrie, is being asked to prove his good moral character in order to be admitted to the state bar of Connecticut.

You see, Mr. Betts was convicted of something quite a bit worse than being a litterbug, and rather than being drafted, he is seeking to become a licensed attorney. However, Connecticut, like every other state, imposes that pesky moral character and fitness requirement, and if you have a conviction history, it can often be an insurmountable hurdle.

A Question of Character

When it comes to the question of good moral character, a person's past can often be hard to look past. In fact, in three states, Texas, Mississippi, and Kansas, there is an outright blanket ban on former felonies getting licensed by those state's bar associations.

Fortunately for Mr. Betts, Connecticut does allow former felons to be admitted to the practice of law, however, it requires a moral character and fitness hearing to confirm rehabilitation and good character. As the chairperson of the examining committee explained, "it's not an automatic disqualifier." If a person is rehabilitated, and can prove such to the committee, they will be admitted.

Fairness for Felons

Since the purpose of state bar's moral character requirements are generally to protect the public from individuals that might abuse their professional status, imposing restrictions on convicted felons, particularly those convicted of fraud crimes, seems to make sense. Though the blanket bans are likely excessive, imposing an additional requirement of a moral character hearing provides a reasonable and prudent safeguard.

For Mr. Betts, it seems all but assured that he will be admitted. After all, he has more than just served his time for a crime he committed while only 16 years old, he has proven himself to be a pillar of the community, graduated from Yale, passed the state's bar exam, and was even awarded, in 2010, with an NAACP Image Award for his non-fiction memoir.

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Last week, throwback photos surfaced of The Bachelor's Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson looking VERY different with curly hair and wearing daggy clothes.

And fans quickly noticed one physical feature which had changed considerably in the last decade or so his ears, which appear more prominent in old photos.

Dr Jeremy Hunt MBBS FRACS, a spokesperson for the Australian Society of Plastic Surgery, told Daily Mail Australia he believes Matty had an otoplasty.

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My, how you've changed! Dr Jeremy Hunt, a spokesperson for the Australian Society of Plastic Surgery, told Daily Mail Australia he believes Matty J previously had his ears pinned back

'It does appear that he has had an otoplasty (ears pinned back),' Dr Hunt said on Monday after viewing before and after photos of Matty.

'The ideal ear will sit in a line that parallels the face as is seen in the after,' he added.

'In the before, the middle third of the ear is prominent, resulting in an ear that protrudes beyond the scalp.

'In the after, the prominence of the ear is back within the normal limits.'

Will he find The One? Matty is now known for his dashing good looks. Pictured above on The Bachelor, which is currently airing on Network Ten

Throwback! Last week, old Facebook photos surfaced of Matty J looking very different with curly hair and wearing daggy clothes; his ears also appeared to be a different shape

It comes after Daily Mail Australia discovered old Facebook photos of the Sydney marketing manager, 30, in his younger days.

The Bondi-based heartthrob looked almost unrecognisable with long, curly hair and daggy early 2000s clothes.

In one social media snap, the reality TV star is seen pulling a dorky expression while partying with a group of friends.

Another throwback picture shows him with shaggy locks styled to one side.

Party boy! It comes after Daily Mail Australia discovered old social media photos of the Sydney marketing manager, 30, in his younger days

WHAT IS OTOPLASTY? 'Otoplasty' refers to plastic surgery performed to correct prominent ears by re-shaping the ear folds and setting the ears closer to the head, in a natural and subtle manner. The aim of surgery is to create a very natural, 'not operated on' appearance of the ears. Source: Pure Aesthetics Advertisement

Matty previously told The Daily Telegraph he used to be 'skinny with bad acne' back in the day.

'I was pretty skinny and weedy in high school  I had really bad acne as well,' he said.

'I had to go to a lady to see my skin. I also had a growth spurt really quickly and so I was kind of gangly and with pimples.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Matty's representatives for comment.

'I had to go to a lady to see my skin': Matty previously The Daily Telegraph he used to be 'skinny with bad acne' when he was younger
Shonda Rhimes, one of television's most talented and productive showrunners, is headed to Netflix after a long and fruitful run with ABC Studios.

Rhimes, 47, has inked a multiyear deal with the streaming service to develop new programs for it, while her longtime associate Betsy Beers will continue to work under the Shondaland banner at ABC.

The Chicago native said in a statement that her new pact comes amid working alongside Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos to continue building on her legacy 'as a storyteller,' while evolving her company in a way that 'has limitless possibilities.'

New chapter: Shonda Rhimes, 47, has departed ABC to take a deal at Netflix, the networks announced on Sunday. Rhimes was snapped at an NYC gala this past May

She credited Sarandos for understanding 'what [she] was looking for' and providing her the means to accomplish it with 'a clear, fearless space for creators.'

Rhimes said that her new deal gives her 'the opportunity to build a vibrant new storytelling home for writers with the unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach provided by Netflixs singular sense of innovation.'

Sarandos called Rhimes - the creator of shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder - 'one of the greatest storytellers in the history of television' in announcing the service's star acquisition.

He said in a statement that 'her work is gripping, inventive, pulse-pounding, heart-stopping, taboo-breaking television at its best.'

Track record: Rhimes has been at the helm of a number of key ABC hits, most notably Grey's Anatomy and Scandal

He said that Rhimes is 'a true Netflixer at heart' as someone who 'loves TV and films,' 'cares passionately about her work,' and 'delivers for her audience.'

Rhimes said her current slate of shows on ABC, a catalog that also includes For the People and a Grey's Anatomy spinoff, 'will continue to thrive,' with reps from her Shondaland organization 'there every step of the way.'

Key acquisition: Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos has provided 'a clear, fearless space for creators,' Rhimes said in announcing the deal

She said of ABC: 'I could not have asked for a better home to begin my career.'

ABC Studios president Patrick Moran said in a statement he was 'proud of the work' the network has done with Rhimes and Beers in what's been a 'long and productive relationship.

'The Shondaland imprint will always be an important part of ABC Studios,' he said, 'and we wish them all the best in this new endeavor.'
They are rarely seen stepping out in ensembles that are anything short of glamorous.

And Chloe Sims and Georgia Kousoulou pulled out all the stops as they stepped out in Marbella on Sunday night for the next batch of TOWIE filming.

Chloe, 34, was clearly in a bold mood as she flaunts her honed pins and eye-popping assets in a bodysuit while Georgia flaunted her sensational frame in a skin-tight peach-coloured dress.

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Here they come! Chloe Sims, 34, and Georgia Kousoulou, 26, pulled out all the stops as they stepped out in Marbella on Sunday night for the next batch of TOWIE filming

Chloe was the main focus of the night as she seemed to forego half of her ensemble to put her enviable steams on show.

The one-piece plunged down the middle to flaunt her busty assets and boasted a sexy high-rise.

The bronzed beauty, who sported a glamorous coat of make-up and blonde wavy tresses, teamed the look with a flowing cape and strappy nude heels.

Georgia also rivalled her on the style front as she showed off her curves in a figure-hugging orange dress.

Sexy: Chloe was the main focus of the night as she seemed to forego half of her ensemble to put her enviable steams on show

Saucy: The one-piece plunged down the middle to flaunt her busty assets and boasted a sexy high-rise

Eye-catching: Georgia also rivalled her on the style front as she showed off her curves in a figure-hugging orange dress

Work it: She looked every inch the blonde bombshell as her locks caught the wind and framed her striking, chiselled features

She looked every inch the blonde bombshell as her locks caught the wind and framed her striking, chiselled features.

Seemingly taking inspiration from Chloe's all-black look, Lauren Pope opted for a matching ensemble which flashed her abs.

She donned a tiny bandeau top and paired it with high-waisted semi-sheer trousers while expertly draping a biker jacket over her shoulders.

Lauren, who recently had her implants removed, has re-joined the cast of the ITVBe reality series, having previously quit TOWIE in 2015.

Glam: Seemingly taking inspiration from Chloe's all-black look, Lauren Pope opted for a matching ensemble which flashed her abs

Hotties: Meanwhile, Yazmin Oukhellou looked undeniably loved up to her man James Lock as they stepped out holding hands to film

Gorgeous: The brunette absolutely sizzled in a saucy glittering mini-dress which complemented her tan

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Lauren revealed that she was persuaded to make a return during an alcohol-fuelled meeting with the show's producers and her long-standing pal Chloe Sims.

Lauren said: 'I had a drunken night out and I bumped into Chloe Sims and she was with a couple of TOWIE producers. Our meeting was basically drinking cocktails all day and in my tipsy state I agreed to go back!'

Meanwhile, Yazmin Oukhellou looked undeniably loved up to her man James Lock as they stepped out holding hands to film for the 21st series of The Only Way Is Essex.

The brunette absolutely sizzled in a saucy glittering mini-dress which complemented her tan.

Glittering: The stunning star couldn't wipe the smile from her face as she stepped out to enjoy the warm Spanish night

Sensational: The beauty completed the look with a pair of towering open-toe heels as she strutted along

Finally cutting loose! Jon Clark was also there for the night time endeavours after a bad start to the trip which saw him forgetting his passport back in London

Successful show: The cast are filming for the 21st series of The Only Way Is Essex

The beauty completed the look with a pair of towering open-toe heels as she strutted along.

Meanwhile, the cast are being joined by two new glamorous girls - Ruby Lacey and Maddie Hooper.

Ruby showed that she was a force to be reckoned with in coming days as she flaunted her curves in a strapless white bandeau dress.

Her locks were glamorously curled and she completed the look with a heavy coat of make-up.

Ruby also flaunted her sartorial flair in a blue floral dress which features sexy slashes and a keyhole cut-out.

Squad goals: The girls were hard to miss in the stunning looks for the night

White hot: Ruby showed that she was a force to be reckoned with in coming days as she flaunted her curves in a strapless white bandeau dress

Fashionista: Ruby also flaunted her sartorial flair in a blue floral dress which features sexy slashes and a keyhole cut-out

Newbies: Prior to their Marbella trip, a spokesperson for ITV confirmed the addition of Ruby Lacey and Maddie Hooper

Prior to their Marbella trip, a spokesperson for ITV confirmed the addition of Ruby Lacey and Maddie Hooper.

Fans will see the girls make their debut when TOWIE returns to screens next month in September, with a source claiming to The Sun that bosses recruited the girls as a result of Georgia's popularity with viewers.

They said: 'Georgia has become one of the most popular Towie girls ever - she is well-loved with Towie fans and bosses wanted to bring her some mates onto the show.

'Viewers can look forward to seeing a lot more of Georgia and her friends this series.'
She relocated to California more than a decade ago, but Cat Deeley was representing her home-country as the 2017 Teen Choice Awards kicked off on Sunday evening.

The British presenter commanded attention in a thigh-skimming leather miniskirt as she made an appearance at Los Angeles venue Galen Centre ahead of the annual event.

Cat, 40, added to her look with a simple white T-shirt, while distinctive black ankle boots rounded things off.

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Doing it for the Brits! She relocated to California more than a decade ago, but Cat Deeley was representing her home-country as the 2017 Teen Choice Awards kicked off on Sunday evening

In keeping with her understated look, the former SM:TV Live star opted to accentuate her naturally pretty features with subtle touches of mascara, foundation and soft pink lipstick.

A distinct lack of accessories ensured her outfit was not overshadowed, while her tousled blonde locks were maintained with a simple centre parting.

Evidently in high spirits, Cat beamed as she made her way inside for the event, during which she was on hand to present Vanessa Hudgens with the #SeeHer Award.

Looking good: The British presenter commanded attention in a thigh-skimming leather miniskirt as she made an appearance at Los Angeles venue Galen Centre for the annual event

This one's for you: Cat was on hand to present Vanessa Hudgens with the #SeeHer Award on Sunday evening

Cat raises Milo with her husband Patrick Kielty, 46, who she married in a romantic ceremony in Rome in September 2012.

The pair had been friends and worked together on the set of BBC's Fame Academy before embarking on a relationship.

Cat previously discussed how she would love to add to her brood because she is loving every minute of being a mother.

Finishing touches: Cat added to her look with a simple white T-shirt, while distinctive black ankle boots rounded things off

But the presenter revealed doctors have warned her she is at 'triple high risk' as a 'geriatric mum'.

Talking about her wish to have more children, she told The Mirror: 'I would love some more. But I have got to get on with it if I do.

'When you go for your check-ups they call you a "geriatric mum". That is the terminology they use, I swear. They say, "Ma'am, you are triple high risk".'

The phrase is used to refer to women who get pregnant after the age of 39, where it is considered that there is a high risk of abnormalities.

Say cheese: (L-R) Cat, Gina Guangco and Vanessa Hudgens posed for backstage snap

Teen Choice Awards 2017: Winners MOVIES & TELEVISION Choice Breakout TV Star (#ChoiceBreakoutTVStar) Chrissy Metz - This is Us Finn Wolfhard  Stranger Things K.J. Apa  Riverdale WINNER - Lili Reinhart  Riverdale Millie Bobby Brown  Stranger Things Ryan Destiny  Star Choice TVShip (#ChoiceTVShip) #BELLARKE (Eliza Taylor & Bob Morley)  The 100 WINNER - #BUGHEAD (Lili Reinhart & Cole Sprouse)  Riverdale #EMISON (Shay Mitchell & Sasha Pieterse)  Pretty Little Liars #KARAMEL (Chris Wood & Melissa Benoist)  Supergirl #MALEC (Matthew Daddario & Harry Shum Jr.)  Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments #STYDIA (Holland Roden & Dylan O'Brien)  Teen Wolf Choice Liplock (#ChoiceLipLock) Chris Pine & Gal Gadot  Wonder Woman WINNER - Dan Stevens & Emma Watson  Beauty and the Beast Jennifer Morrison & Colin O'Donoghue  Once Upon a Time Matthew Daddario & Harry Shum Jr.  Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments Melissa Benoist & Chris Wood  Supergirl Orlando Bloom & Keira Knightley  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Choice Movie Villain (#ChoiceMovieVillain) Charlize Theron  The Fate of the Furious Elizabeth Banks  Power Rangers James McAvoy  Split Javier Bardem  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales WINNER - Luke Evans  Beauty and the Beast Priyanka Chopra  Baywatch Choice Breakout Movie Star (#ChoiceBreakoutMovieStar) WINNER - Auli'i Cravalho  Moana Deepika Padukone  xXx: Return of Xander Cage Harry Styles  Dunkirk Janelle Monae  Hidden Figures Tom Holland  Spider-Man: Homecoming Zendaya - Spider-Man:Homecoming Choice MovieShip (#ChoiceMovieShip) Chris Pratt & Zoe Saldana  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Deepika Padukone & Ruby Rose  xXx: Return of Xander Cage WINNER - Emma Watson & Dan Stevens  Beauty and the Beast Gal Gadot & Chris Pine  Wonder Woman Michelle Rodriguez & Vin Diesel  The Fate of the Furious Zac Efron & Dwayne Johnson  Baywatch Choice Action Movie (#ChoiceActionMovie) Logan Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales The Fate of the Furious Transformers: The Last Knight WINNER - Wonder Woman xXx: Return of Xander Cage Choice Action Movie Actor (#ChoiceActionMovieActor) Brenton Thwaites  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales WINNER - Chris Pine  Wonder Woman Dwayne Johnson  The Fate of the Furious Hugh Jackman  Logan Johnny Depp  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Vin Diesel  The Fate of the Furious, xXx: Return of Xander Cage Choice Action Movie Actress (#ChoiceActionMovieActress) Deepika Padukone  xXx: Return of Xander Cage WINNER - Gal Gadot  Wonder Woman Kaya Scodelario  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Michelle Rodriguez  The Fate of the Furious Nina Dobrev  xXx: Return of Xander Cage Ruby Rose  xXx: Return of Xander Cage Choice Sci-Fi Movie (#ChoiceSciFiMovie) Arrival WINNER - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Kong: Skull Island Power Rangers Rogue One: A Star Wars Story The Space Between Us Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor (#ChoiceSciFiMovieActor) Asa Butterfield  The Space Between Us WINNER - Chris Pratt  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Dacre Montgomery  Power Rangers Diego Luna  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Jeremy Renner  Arrival Tom Hiddleston  Kong: Skull Island Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actress (#ChoiceSciFiMovieActress) Amy Adams  Arrival Becky G  Power Rangers Brie Larson  Kong: Skull Island Felicity Jones  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Naomi Scott  Power Rangers WINNER - Zoe Saldana  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Choice Fantasy Movie (#ChoiceFantasyMovie) WINNER - Beauty and the Beast Doctor Strange Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Moana Choice Fantasy Movie Actor (#ChoiceFantasyMovieActor) Asa Butterfield  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Benedict Cumberbatch  Doctor Strange Dan Stevens  Beauty and the Beast WINNER - Dwayne Johnson  Moana Eddie Redmayne  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Choice Fantasy Movie Actress (#ChoiceFantasyMovieActress) Auli'i Cravalho  Moana WINNER - Emma Watson  Beauty and the Beast Eva Green  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Katherine Waterston  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Rachel McAdams Doctor Strange Choice Drama Movie (#ChoiceDramaMovie) Before I Fall WINNER - Everything, Everything Gifted Hidden Figures The Edge of Seventeen The Shack Choice Drama Movie Actor (#ChoiceDramaMovieActor) Andrew Garfield  Hacksaw Ridge Chris Evans  Gifted WINNER - Kian Lawley  Before I Fall Nick Robinson  Everything, Everything Taylor Lautner  Run the Tide Choice Drama Movie Actress (#ChoiceDramaMovieActress) Amandla Stenberg  Everything, Everything WINNER - Emma Watson  The Circle Hailee Steinfeld  The Edge of Seventeen Taraji P. 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She recently confirmed her pregnancy, some 20-months after separating from husband Jenson Button.

But the inevitable concerns that come with impending parenthood were momentarily forgotten as Jessica Michibata took her pet dog for a coastal walk on Sunday afternoon.

The Japanese model, 32, displayed her growing baby bump in a black bikini as she strolled across Hendrys Off Leash Dog Beach in picturesque Santa Barbara.

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Good times: The inevitable concern that come with impending parenthood were momentarily forgotten as Jessica Michibata took her pet dog Mochi for a coastal walk in Santa Barbara on Sunday afternoon

The identity of the father of Jessica's baby remains unknown. MailOnline has contacted her representatives for comment.

Taking to Instagram, Jessica shared a snap of herself as she frolicked in the surf alongside her beloved pooch Mochi, who she admitted was enjoying his first day at the beach.

Seemingly in high spirits, the striking model beams for the camera as she poses with the pet, her eyes shielded behind a pair of heavily tinted sunglasses.

Jessica was making her latest appearance shortly after confirming her surprise pregnancy.

Bumping along nicely: Jenson Button's ex-wife looked every inch the proud mother-to-be as she revealed her blossoming bump in a semi sheer negligee on Instagram

Proud: The Japanese model, who was in a relationship with Jenson, 37, for seven years, tenderly cradled her beautiful baby bump as she took a mirror selfie while clad in the racy black and gold number

Sharing an image of her baby bump in a recent Instagram post, looked every inch the proud mother-to-be as she posed in a semi sheer negligee.

The Japanese model, who was in a relationship with Jenson, 37, for seven years, tenderly cradled her beautiful baby bump as she took a mirror selfie while clad in the racy black and gold number.

Keeping the focus on her bump, the stunning star partially obscured her striking features with her phone, but showed off natural fluttery lashes, with her glossy brunette tresses swept up into an elegant half up-do.

Blessed:Jessica excitedly revealed her baby news on Instagram last month, sharing a joyful snap showing her holding a 'baby girl' cake and captioned 'So grateful for my #babyshower #itsaGIRL'

Expecting: Other sweet snaps show the bikini-clad brunette beauty lovingly cradling her blossoming bump on the beach with the caption 'Feeling summery and blessed'

She teased a glimpse of her ample cleavage and toned legs in the negligee, and added a pop of colour with a scarlet manicure.

The star accessorised with diamond stud earrings.

Jessica excitedly revealed her baby news on Instagram last month, sharing a joyful snap showing her holding a 'baby girl' cake and captioned 'So grateful for my #babyshower #itsaGIRL'

Special delivery: Last month the clotheshorse showed off her growing belly in a lycra crop-top and and skintight leggings as she got in a gym workout, writing' Feeling better and started to exercise again'

Other sweet snaps show the bikini-clad brunette beauty lovingly cradling her blossoming bump on the beach with the caption 'Feeling summery and blessed' with another swimsuit snap under a waterfall entitled 'Can't wait to take my baby for hike again!'

Last month the clotheshorse showed off her growing belly in a lycra crop-top and and skintight leggings as she got in a gym workout, writing' Feeling better and started to exercise again'

Further sweet snaps show Jessica enjoying a prenatal massage and displaying her rounded bump while enjoying a pool day with her pooch in Hawaii.

Excitement: Jessica joyfully captioned a swimsuit snap under a waterfall 'Can't wait to take my baby for hike again!'

Jessica and Jenson - who tied the knot in a lavish Hawaiian ceremony in December 2014 called time on their relationship just one year later but remain on good terms.

A spokesperson for Jenson told MailOnline at the time: 'Jenson and Jessica have decided to go their separate ways and it is very amicable. There is no one else involved.'

Jenson and Jessica first met in 2008 in a hotel bar in Tokyo and began dating eight months later.

Past love: Jenson and Jessica first met in 2008 in a hotel bar in Tokyo and began dating eight months later (pictured six months before their split in June 2015)

Their relationship experienced ups and downs and they split for a short time in 2011 before the McLaren star proposed on Valentine's Day 2014, with a ring worth 250,000.

Unlike conventional married couples, Jenson revealed the pair did not live together throughout their marriage due to their busy careers.

'We don't see each other any more than before we were married,' he admitted in an interview with Mail On Sunday in 2015.

The TAG Heuer model shared a modest flat with her mother in Tokyo, while the sportsman's home is in tax haven Monaco.

'Jessie still works a lot in Japan,' he went on to explain. 'She enjoys her job, she models, she had a television show and has done a Japanese film.

'Prenatal massage': The star shrouded her blossoming bump in a flowered shirt as she went for a prenatal massage

Expectant: Jessica offered a glimpse of her baby bump in this cute snap of her pooch

Moved on: Jenson has since gone on to find happiness with former Playboy model Brittny Ward, 27, who he started dating three months after the split

'She enjoys working, which is great, but it obviously means that we dont see each other very often.'

Jessica - born to an Argentine father and a Japanese mother - had often been seen supporting her husband from the sidelines as he took part in the world's biggest races.

Jenson has since gone on to find happiness with former Playboy model Brittny Ward, 27, who he started dating three months after the split.

The star, who has formally retired from F1 racing, is currently enjoying a sunsoaked break on the Amalfi coast with his girlfriend, with the pair seen packing on the PDA as they smooched and hugged one another.

Smitten: The star, who has formally retired from F1 racing, is currently enjoying a sunsoaked break on the Amalfi coast with his girlfriend, with the pair seen packing on the PDA as they smooched and hugged one another
She recently described herself as being left 'heartbroken' when husband Roman Zago called time on their marriage in December.

But Real Housewives of Miami star, Joanna Krupa, 38, put on a brave face as she enjoyed a meal out at trendy Hollywood hotspot Catch on Sunday.

The blonde bombshell showed off her gravity defying assets as she made her way into the vogue Hollywood eatery in the eye catching ensemble.

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Endless pins: Real Housewives of Miami star, Joanna Krupa, 38, cut an effortlessly chic figure as she enjoyed a meal out in LA on Sunday.

Stepping out in a futuristic strapless dress with an extreme plunging neckline hinting towards her ample assets, the star looked effortlessly chic in the daring ensemble

Stepping out in a futuristic strapless dress with an extreme plunging neckline hinting towards her ample assets, the star looked effortlessly chic in the daring ensemble.

The leggy blonde showcased her elegant frame in the sultry frock that tapered in around her waist before flaring out to highlight her enviable figure.

Letting her long blonde locks fall past her shoulders, the star was a smattering of light makeup which highlighted her natural good looks.

Adding a slick of pink lipstick of good measure, Joanna clutched a flashy gold purse that matched perfectly her pointed gold heels sun-kissed complexion.

Chic: The leggy blonde showcased her elegant frame in the sultry frock that tapered in around her waist before flaring out to highlight her enviable figure

Leggy: Adding a slick of pink lipstick of good measure, Joanna clutched a flashy gold purse that matched perfectly her pointed gold heels sun-kissed complexion

The Real Housewives of Miami, who enjoyed the night out with, rumoured new beau Nico Santucci, opened up about her heartache following her failed marriage recently.

Speaking to InTouch magazine, Joanna revealed: 'I spent many nights crying. It was the worst Christmas imaginable.

'I felt like my life had been turned upside down, and I couldnt see the light at the end of the tunnel. I cried. I couldnt eat. I probably lost about 7 pounds.'

Natural beauty: Adding a slick of pink lipstick of good measure, Joanna clutched a flashy gold purse that matched perfectly her pointed gold heels sun-kissed complexion

On her failed marriage: 'I felt like my life had been turned upside down, and I couldnt see the light at the end of the tunnel. I cried. I couldnt eat. I probably lost about 7 pounds'

The beauty - who was married to Romain for four years - explained that their marriage went wrong because of their differing priorities.

She told them: 'I was heartbroken. He had wanted a family, but I was always traveling and made work my priority.

'As time has gone on, Ive realized we were both unhappy.'

Party time: Krupa (right) was spotted with the hunks of Las Vegas Thunder From Down Under during her sister Marta's bachelorette weekend

Leggy ladies: Joanna wore a tight black dress with nude heels while her sister had on a white dress with white pumps

The Polish-born beauty has put on a brave face on social media, regularly posting nude, or nearly nude pictures, perhaps to show her ex what he's missing.

She told the publication that seven-months after their split she feels ready to reclaim her happiness.

'I feel alive again. I finally woke up one day thinking, "Ive got to get myself together." I had been dead inside. I realized Im healthy, Im successful, I have an amazing family and friends, what am I crying about? Life is too short,' she told them.

All alone: Here the Playboy cover girl was laying down as a young man put his hand on her waist; her sister was not included

Top of the crops: Joanna showed off her flat stomach in a tiny black crop top

The couple - who were seen frolicking on the beach together just a day after she filed divorce papers - are apparently on 'great terms' according to Joanna.

She told In Touch that they speak daily, explaining: 'We were together 10 years, and I want to respect that. We were both at fault, we both neglected the relationship, but weve found forgiveness.

'Im finally enjoying life again. Im going out to dinners with friends and planning a vacation.'
He has been relaxing with his family in Spain, following accusations he had an affair with Amir Khan and his wife Faryal Makhdoom.

But Anthony Joshua appeared back to his usual self after the drama on Friday, as he continued to enjoy a family holiday in Marbella.

The heavyweight champion, 27, appeared in better spirits than ever as he soaked up the sun with his cousin on the beach - before happily snapping a number of selfies with adoring fans.

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Life's a beach: Anthony Joshua appeared back to his usual self after the drama on Friday, as he continued to enjoy a family holiday in Marbella

Back to his usual self(ies)! The heavyweight champion, 27, appeared in high spirits as he soaked up the sun with his cousin - before happily snapping photos with adoring fans

Anthony seemed to have put the recent drama with his fellow boxer behind him, as he spent an afternoon in the blazing Spanish sunshine.

Weighing almost 18 stone, the world champion displayed his impressively muscular torso as he reclined shirtless on a number of beach chairs, in order to support his frame.

Clad in nothing but blue shorts, the sportsman's rock hard abs were clear for all to see as he sipped on a drink in the heat, and happily chatted to his cousin as he relaxed.

Chilling: Anthony seemed to have put the recent drama with his fellow boxer behind him, as he spent an afternoon in the blazing Spanish sunshine

Muscle man: Weighing almost 18st, the world champion displayed his impressively muscular torso as he reclined shirtless on a number of beach chairs, in order to support his frame

Hunky: Clad in nothing but blue shorts, the sportsman's rock hard abs were clear for all to see as he sipped on a drink in the heat

Powerhouse: Anthony sat on three beach chairs as he relaxed, in order to support his famous 18st frame

Slinky: The Watford native was joined by his cousin on the beach, who showed off her slender figure in a tight-fitting burgundy dress

Relaxed: Upping the glamour with a nude clutch but ditching shoes and going barefaced, the brunette proved her natural beauty as she too, topped up her tan

Known for his interest in style, Anthony added a shining silver necklace and a trendy white fedora as he browsed through his phone on the golden sand.

The Watford native was joined by his cousin on the beach, who showed off her slender figure in a tight-fitting burgundy dress.

Upping the glamour with a nude clutch but ditching shoes and going barefaced, the brunette proved her natural beauty as she too, topped up her tan in the sunshine.

Finishing touches: Known for his interest in style, Anthony added a shining silver necklace and a trendy white fedora as he browsed through his phone on the golden sand

Chilling: He appeared completely relaxed as he topped up his tan

We are family: He was first seen happily chatting and laughing with his cousin on the beach

Well-earned break: He was later seen indulging in a foot massage, in order to relax after a hectic few weeks

Soothing: The masseuse then relaxed him on his back as he browsed his phone in the sunshine

Feeling good: The boxer erupted into laughter as he jokingly snapped a few selfies with the therapists

First chatting and laughing with his relative, the boxer was later seen indulging in a back and foot massage, in order to relax after a hectic few weeks.

Widely renowned as an Olympic gold medallist, Anthony was soon swarmed by a whole host of adoring fans, begging for a few photos with the star.

Despite holidaying with his family however, the athlete did not hesitate to snap a few selfies with his admirers - beaming widely for the shots before thanking them for their support.

It's really him! Widely renowned as an Olympic gold medallist, Anthony was soon swarmed by a whole host of adoring fans, begging for a few photos with the star

Say cheese! Despite holidaying with his family however, the athlete did not hesitate to snap a few selfies with his admirers

Grateful: The boxer beamed widely for the shots, before thanking the fans for their support

In demand: Anthony was swarmed by fans throughout his day at the beach

Hectic: Anthony appeared to be enjoying his holiday, ahead of a busy forthcoming stint in his career

Gimme five! He was later seen joking with the masseuse on the beach

Cooling off: He and his relatives were then seen enjoying an ice-cold drink

After mingling with his excitable fans, Anthony was seen slipping into a black T-shirt and making his way back down the shore, to join the rest of his family.

The boxer appears to be enjoying some time away from the spotlight, after becoming embroiled in the public break-up between Amir Khan and his wife Faryal Makhdoom.

Faryal, who Amir married in 2013, was accused by her husband of having an affair with the undefeated boxer on Twitter.

Onto the next: He was later seen leaving his position on the chairs to continue his sun-soaked afternoon elsewhere

Like what you sea? Anthony was seen slipping into a black T-shirt and making his way back down the shore, to join the rest of his family

Casual: He carried his white slip on shoes in one hand as he wandered the beach

Shady guy: He added oversized dark sunglasses to his face

Cool as a cucumber: Anthony looked naturally cool as he wandered the sand with a bag slung over one shoulder

Making a splash! He later rinsed his feet off in the beach shower with a blonde companion

Social media king: Anthony could not stop himself from laughing as he checked his phone

However Anthony took to the social media site on Saturday to confirm that he has made up with Khan since the public spat earlier this month, after it was revealed Khan was threatened with legal action.

He wrote: 'Apology accepted,' before responding to a tweet from Khan to say: 'Glad all is cleared up and all lies. I got angry like any man would. No truth to it. Good to know. All the best.'

Joshua was accused of having an affair during a foul-mouthed tirade strewn across social media by Amir, following the news he and Faryal were splitting.

The boxer first responded by sharing a clip of the Shaggy song 'It Wasn't Me', to the hilarity of social media users.

Taking a break: The boxer appears to be enjoying some time away from the spotlight, after becoming embroiled in the break-up between Amir Khan and his wife Faryal Makhdoom

At war: Amir Khan (L) took to Twitter to claim Joshua had an affair his wife, who he wed in 2013

It wasn't me: Khan appeared to post Snapchat messages between Faryal and Joshua, but Anthony replied by sharing a clip of Shaggy's famous song, to the hilarity of social media users

Smoothed over: However Anthony and Amir took to the site on Saturday to confirm they had made up (above), following claims Khan faced legal action for the accusations

However Faryal had earlier described the events linking Joshua to her faltering relationship with Khan as a 'misunderstanding' in another online post, claiming messages attributed to her and the boxer were fake.

She wrote: 'I've been quiet for some time... because I myself didn't know what's going on. Everything that's going on is just not right and a complete misunderstanding.'

At the height of the tense Twitter spat, Joshua looked to diffuse the situation by writing: 'Bantz (banter) aside, I hope you guys can resolve your situation or this is a hack as we have never even met!

'Plus, I like my women BBW (Big Beautiful Women) #ItWasntMe.'
She's been lapping up the sun during a family trip away to St. Barts.

And Heidi Klum, 44, looked happy and relaxed as she made her way through LAX on Monday, with her entire brood in tow.

The stunning German-American former supermodel shared a sweet moment with daughter Leni, 13, who's shaping up to be a dead ringer of her famous mother.

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Summer holiday: Heidi Klum, 44, looked happy and relaxed as she made her way through LAX on Monday with her entire brood in tow.

America's Got Talent judge Heidi cut a relaxed figure in a flowing blue and white asymmetrical checked blouse that fell past her knees.

Wrapping a thick woolen pashmina around her neck, Heidi let her dark blonde locks flow past her shoulders, shading her hazel eyes with a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Completing her look with a pair of mom-jeans, Heidi slipped into a pair of leather sandals that complemented the leather handbag she had nonchalantly draped over her shoulder to perfection.

Meanwhile, her lookalike daughter donned sporty attire in a yoga sweater, leggings and running trainers.

Effortessly chic: America's Got Talent judge Heidi cut a relaxed figure in a flowing blue and white asymmetrical checked blouse that fell past her knees

The family were returning from their fun-filled family trip, where Heidi flaunted her exquisite bikini body in an Instagram Boomerang.

Sharing herself leaping into the air in the shallows at the beach, the star racked up thousands of likes via her social media channel.

Just behind her, Heidi's four sweet children could be seen dashing into the azure water.

Pearly whites: Wrapping a thick woolen pashmina around her neck, Heidi let her dark blonde locks flow past her shoulders and shaded her hazel eyes with a pair of oversized Aviators

Feeling fine: Heidi Klum flaunted her exquisite bikini body in an Instagram Boomerang posted Saturday of herself in St. Barts with her four children

'We LOVE you St.Barth Thank you .... until next time !!!!!!,' she captioned the clip, before adding a string of hashtags which read: '#familievacation #Love #fun #Thefastest10daysever.'

Heidi had accessorized her multicolored patterned two-piece with a pair of over-sized green sunglasses, which just about remained in tact when she cheerfully flung her arms wide in the air as she jumped forward.

The same clip had also been posted to the German-born model's Instagram Story from France's Collectivite territoriale de Saint-Barthelemy in the West Indies.

Celebrating life! A similar clip had also been posted to the German-born model's Instagram Story from France's Collectivite territoriale de Saint-Barthelemy in the West Indies

Her Instagram Story's seen updates from the Bergisch Gladbach native's Sunday, including one that shows her bikini-clad in silhouette while on a moving boat.

In another photo, she leans down toward the camera, a couple of necklaces clasped on and a filter that's attached a cartoon cat's ears and snout to the model's face.

Three of Heidi's children are hers by her decade-long marriage to Seal from 2005 to 2015: a seven-year-old daughter called Lou and two sons, one of them a 10-year-old called Johan and the other an 11-year-old called Yohan.

Looking fabulous: Her Instagram Story's also played host to other images of the Bergisch Gladbach native, including one that shows her bikini-clad in silhouette while on a moving boat

Heidi's 12-year-old daughter Leni resulted from her previous relationship with Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, but as of 2009, Seal legally adopted her.

'Leni,' Flavio told the Milan-based daily Corriere Della Sera last July, 'is my natural daughter, but the three of us calmly agreed that it made the most sense that he adopt her, because a child needs to grow up in a family.'

Flavio, whose Wonderbra model wife Elisabetta Gregoraci gave birth to their son Nathan Falco in 2010, also said to the paper: 'Leni is Seal's family, Nathan mine.'
She recently revealed that was 'just friends' with Brooklyn Beckham after rumours of a romantic relationship began to spread.

And Madison Beer, 18, showed the Hollywood starlet what he's missing by displaying her incredible abs in a tiny crop top in LA.

The former protege of Justin Bieber cut a relaxed figure as she left the trendy Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood along with a clutch of gal pals on Sunday.

Rising star: Madison Beer, 18, showcased her incredible abs in a tiny crop top in LA on Sunday. The star enjoyed a meal out in Hollywood not long after denying Brooklyn Beckham dating rumours

Flaunting her taut midriff in the figure hugging top, Madison draped a light denim biker jacket nonchalantly around her shoulders while chatting to a pal on the phone.

Sporting a pair of glossy black skinny jeans, the star showcased her endless legs in the effortlessly cool ensemble, finishing her look with a pair of Vans sneakers.

Wearing a smattering of light makeup to bring out her natural good looks, Madison carried a trendy Louis Vuitton leather rucksack while making her way to her ride.

And letting her long dark tresses flow past her shoulders, the star completed her look with dark mascara and a slick of red lipstick which brought out her LA tan.

Hotline bling: The former protege of Justin Bieber cut a relaxed figure as she left the trendy Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood, clutching her phone in her hand

Laid back cool: Sporting a pair of glossy black skinny jeans, the star showcased her endless pins in the effortlessly cool ensemble and finished her look with a pair of Vans skateboarding shoes

Madison and David Beckham's son set the internet alight after being spotted sharing a smooch during a shopping trip to Barney's in Beverly Hills earlier in August.

Despite the kiss, the pair have vehemently denied claims they are dating and insist they have been friends for years.

Madison told People around the time: 'I'm very much single, not ready to mingle. I'm very much focused right now on my career.

Hollywood smile: Wearing a smattering of light makeup to bring out her natural good looks, Madison carried a trendy Louis Vuitton leather rucksack while making her way to her ride

Chic: Letting her long dark tresses flow past her shoulders, the star completed her look with dark mascara and a slick of red lipstick

'I'm 18 just trying to navigate my life and I'm having fun and there's obviously boys I can crush on, but I'm very much single.

'Brooklyn's great, though, he's a cutie, literally one of my best friends.

'It's hard because now every time I'm seen with him people are like, "Oh my god, they're boyfriend and girlfriend!"

Going it alone, the solo artist recently discussed she is chasing her dreams of a high-flying singer career rather than looking for love.

Young love? Madison and David Beckham's son set the internet alight after being spotted sharing a steamy smooch during a shopping trip to Barney's in Beverly Hills earlier in August

'But we're seriously best friends.

'We hang out almost every day with our whole group of friends in LA together and he's moving to New York soon, so we're just hang out.'

After being linked to Brooklyn, Madison revealed she'd been targeted to a slew of abuse, including death threats.

Gal pals: Despite the passionate kiss, the pair have vehemently denied claims they are dating and insist they have been friends for years

Rocking out: Madison and her pals enjoyed a rock'n'roll moment between themselves

Meanwhile Kyle Richards, 48, was also spotted at the trendy Hollywood restaurant.

Stepping out in chic black and white ensemble, the star sported a pair of ripped skinny jeans which showed off her curvaceous figure.

Adding a black leather jacket tapered in around the waist, the star showcased her elegant pins in a pair of red velour heels that synced perfectly with the trim on her top.

Wearing a smattering of light makeup which highlighted her natural good looks, the star pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail emphasising her enviable cheekbones.

Meanwhile: Kyle Richards, 48, was also spotted at the trendy Hollywood restaurant in an effortlessly chic ensemble
He has proudly been flaunting the results of his '50,000 total face revamp'.

And Rodrigo Alves, who underwent the procedures during a '48hr whirlwind trip, couldn't have looked more pleased as he modelled his new look at London's Euston station on Tuesday with an array of Gucci suitcases.

The plastic surgery addict, famously known as the 'Human Ken Doll', was joined by his pal Selina Waterman- Smith as he happily exhibited the full extent of his cosmetic enhancements - which have cost him 450,000.

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Loving life: Rodrigo Alves, who recently underwent a 50,000 total face revamp, modelled his new look at London's Euston station on Tuesday with an array of Gucci suitcases

Rodrigo Alves looked sensational as he arrived at the station in a fitted white shirt and ankle-grazing distressed blue jeans.

Covering up slightly, the Brazilian, who recently revealed he has put on three tone, opted for a green striped blazer and matching loafers which boated tassel detailing.

Clearly heading somewhere for an overnight stay, Rodrido crammed his essentials in a Gucci suitcase and a matching holdall.

The TV star's blonde locks were centre parted and framed his enhanced features, which were partially hidden with shades.

Enhanced: The plastic surgery addict, famously known as the 'Human Ken Doll', was joined by his pal Selina Waterman- Smith as he happily exhibited the full extent of his cosmetic enhancements - which have cost him 450,000

Stylish: Covering up slightly, the Brazilian, who recently revealed he has put on three tone, opted for a green striped blazer and matching loafers which boated tassel detailing

Is it the same person? Rodrigo, who appeared on Loose Women last week (L) has made quite the transformation over the years (R in 2015)

Proving he was the man of the moment, Rodrigo was joined by former The Apprentice star Selina.

The blonde bombshell couldn't take her eyes off Alves as she also put on quite the sartorially savvy display herself.

The TV sensation donned a plunging nude-coloured crotchet vest top and skinny ripped jeans which she teamed with thigh-high brown boots.

His sighting follows on from Thursday's episode of ITV's Loose Women, where he proudly display the results of his surgical procedures to a stunned panel.

Fashionable: Rodrigo Alves looked sensational as he arrived at the station in a fitted white shirt and ankle-grazing distressed blue jeans

New face: The TV star's blonde locks were centre parted and framed his enhanced features, which were partially hidden with shades

However, his bid for perfection didn't go down too well with host Anne Diamond, who was criticised by Twitter for grilling him - with one person calling her, as well as Jayne Moore 'old bats' and asking for her to 'leave the show.'

Speaking enthusiastically on the show, Rodrigo revealed that he had a 'nose job ten days ago' and also a 'chin implant which came in the post.'

Ahead of his tenth rhinoplasty, he was warned by doctors on E! plastic surgery show Botched that his nose could fall off if he opted for more adjustments.

But Rodrigo defied the odds as he unveiled his new nose, as well as his facial overhaul, as he took to the daytime chat-show.

Living the high life: Clearly heading somewhere for an overnight stay, Rodrido crammed his essentials in a Gucci suitcase and a matching holdall

Famous: Proving he was the man of the moment, Rodrigo was joined by former The Apprentice star Selina as they posed for snaps with fans

Celebrities: The pair proved to be bombarded with well-wishers as they attempted to catch their train

Two peas in a pod: The blonde bombshell couldn't take her eyes off Alves as she also put on quite the sartorially savvy display herself

While he was talking, a life-size image of him prior to his surgical endeavours was shown in the background - proving how much he has changed since.

Revealing why he chose Iran to continue his cosmetic enhancements, he revealed: 'It's the number one country for the rhinoplasty.'

Rodrigo seemed oblivious to the criticism from the host as he got up on his feet and modelled his new physique.

He also talked through his major transformation with a life-size cut-out of himself - which was labelled with price tags on various parts of his body.

Every little helps: Selina was joined by a very helpful man who carried her bright pink suitcase down the stairs for her

Curvy: The TV sensation donned a plunging nude-coloured crotchet vest top and skinny ripped jeans which she teamed with thigh-high brown boots

It seems like Rodrigo's quest for perfection may stem from his school days where he was bullied as he told the panel:

'Boys would push me down the stairs and push my face into the urinal. It made my wide nose.'

'My parents didnt notice and I didnt want to bother them as they were divorcing. If they had noticed, I would have probably gone down a different path,' he admitted.

However, knowing full well he would have his fair share of haters, Rodrigo defiantly revealed: Im not crazy, I have had psychological treatment but I don't have body dysmorphia.'

TV appearance: Rodrigo's sighting comes after he was was slammed by Anne Diamond on Loose Women as he proudly displayed the results of his 'total face revamp' following a whirlwind '48 hour' trip to Iran

Flaunting his figure: The Human Ken Doll also listed off the further 400,000 cosmetic enhancements he has undergone

Not impressed: However, his bid for perfection didn't go down too well with host Anne Diamond, who was criticised by many Twitter for grilling him - with one person calling her, as well as Jayne Moore 'old bats' and asking for her to 'leave the show'

This comes after he exclusively revealed to MailOnline of his plans for gastric bypass surgery after putting on three stone.

The TV personality explained that his body was unable to handle any more liposuction procedures following his fluctuating weight.

He also confessed that in the past few weeks he has soared from spending 400,000 to $450,000 on his quest for perfection.

Updates: Speaking enthusiastically on the show, Rodrigo revealed that he had a 'nose job ten days ago' and also a 'chin implant which came in the post'

Ahead of his tenth rhinoplasty, he was warned by doctors that his nose could fall off if he opted for adjustments

Once upon a time: While he was talking, a life-size image of him prior to his surgical endeavours was shown in the background - proving how much he has changed since

Describing his next body enhancement, Rodrigo revealed: 'I'm now planning a gastric bypass surgery in September since my body cant handle lipos anymore.'

Alves has undergone liposuction numerous times in the past, but now it seems like his body is unable to handle it - causing him to opt for the extreme solution of gastric bypass.

The procedure will see his stomach divided into a small upper pouch and a larger lower remnant pouch and is typically used to treat morbid obesity.
The newly formed Kayah State Democratic Party has submitted the necessary paperwork to gain official recognition, with party members saying they are now ready to get down to the nuts and bolts of representing the Karenni people.

The new party is the result of a merger between the Kayah Unity Democracy Party and the All Nationals Democracy Party (Kayah State).

The party was created with the aim of establishing federalism in the region including via the peace process, said Sai Naing Naing Htwe, spokesperson of the Kayah State Democratic Party.

The officials from the two political parties felt that by uniting forces they could form a stronger bloc, he added.

The party was registered with the Union Election Commission on August 4, and the partys new name, flag and emblem are being announced to the public.

Sai Naing Naing Htwe said the party will begin drafting its policy manifesto and will lay out future plans and elect the executive committee soon.

We will work as an ally with all democratic parties that are interested in the federal union system. We will focus on the politics of Kayah State and work together with other democratic forces on the issues, he said.
She lashed out at the so called 'parent police' on Sunday after they criticised her for taking a three day holiday without her daughter Vienna.

And Cally Jane Beech shrugged off the drama ignited by her vitriolic Instagram video as she made a saucy appearance at the Miss Swimsuit UK competition in Chelmsford on Saturday.

The Love Island beauty, 25, looked sensational in a risque figure-hugging ivory dress which flashed her ample assets and showed off her sensational post-baby body, four months after giving birth.

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Racy lacy: Cally Jane Beech shrugged off the drama ignited by her vitriolic Instagram video against the 'parent police' as she made a saucy appearance at the Miss Swimsuit UK competition in Chelmsford on Saturday

Love Island reunion! The former Miss Great Britain, 25, who competed on Love Island's 2015 season, was in good reality star company as she walked hand-in-hand with fellow villa star Katie Salmon,21, who enjoyed a short but explosive stint on last year's show

With daring lace-up panels on each side of the dress, the brunette bombshell showcased her extreme confidence after becoming a mother, and revealed she had gone underwear-free for the event, for which she was a judge.

Her raven tresses were worn in soft, bouncy curls and the star accentuated her striking blue peepers with a a light coating of mascara and liquid eyeliner.

The star's plump pout was painted with a glossy baby pink hue and her modelesque features glowed with highlighter.

Daring: With daring lace-up panels on each side of the dress, the brunette bombshell revealed she had gone underwear-free for the event, for which she was a judge while Katie (right) looked busty in a bodycon two piece

Ample assets: Representing 2017's smash hit season of Love Island, axed housemate Chloe Crowhurst, 21, looked extremely busty in a peachy bustier dress and metallic heels paired with a diamond choker

Leggy: Chloe looked sensational in her clinging dress while Katie rocked a silver bob as she put on a flesh-flashing display in a jade bodycon crop-top and gold pencil skirt

Reality star brigade: The reality star community was out in force for the swimsuit event with Cally and Katie seen walking arm-in-arm with Big Brother's Sally Axl, 28 (second right) and Ex On The Beach's Helen Briggs, 21

Glam squad: Blue haired Helen continued the commando trend in a tiny crop-top and skirt with chain see-through panels flashing ample bust and thigh

Curvaceous: Helen struck a sultry pose as she posed with Chloe, Katie and a friend

Adding height, Cally teetered on a pair of strappy sandals.

The former Miss Great Britain, who competed on Love Island's 2015 season, was in good reality star company as she walked hand-in-hand with fellow villa star Katie Salmon,21, who enjoyed a short but explosive stint on last year's show.

Katie rocked a silver bob as she put on a flesh-flashing display in a jade bodycon crop-top and gold pencil skirt which showcased ample cleavage and her slender midriff.

Representing reality: Katie and Cally joined (L-R)EOTB's Ched Johnson, 27, Joss Mooney, 30, Rogan O'Connor, 27 and Big Brother's Lotan Carter, 28 at the event

Wow factor: Chloe posed up with a scantily-clad friend outside the venue

Fun group: Joss, Katie, Cally and Rogan looked funky in their on-trend ensembles

Handsome: Adding an injection of testosterone to the event, axed Big Brother housemate Lotan Carter, 28, was joined by EOTB stars Rogan O'Connor, 27, Chet Johnson, 27, and Joss Mooney, 30

Jokey: The group held hands as they mugged for the cameras

Lads; It was piggybacks all round as the group jumped on each other's shoulders

Banter: The guys looked like they were having the time of their life as they larked about

Blonde beauties: Blonde beauties and stars of Take Me Out and EOTB Sophie Whitaker and Megan Clark also flashed major cleavage in both plunging and thigh-skimming outfits as they walked in hand-in-hand with a pal

The glamorous star, who was involved in a love triangle with Sophie Gradon and Adam Maxtead in her Love Island year, enhanced her eyes with metallic eyeshadow and fluttery lashes, with a peach hue on her lips.

Completing the stunning display, she slipped into nude wedge heels.

Representing 2017's smash hit season of Love Island, axed housemate Chloe Crowhurst, 21, looked extremely busty in a peachy bustier dress and metallic heels paired with a diamond choker.

Her tumbling platinum locks were worn curled over her shoulder and she rocked her usual false lashes and gloss laden pout.

Busty: Sophie looked sensational in a leather minidress as she strutted long

Playful: Megan kicked one toned pin up in the air as she posed

Pert: She flashed her pert derriere as she posed up on the pavement

Glossy: Katie looked sleek with her chic bob as she chatted with a pal at the event

Peachy: Katie and her friend couldn't resist striking a coy pose over their shoulders

The reality star community was out in force for the swimsuit event with Cally and Katie seen walking arm-in-arm with Big Brother's Sally Axl, 28 and Ex On The Beach's Helen Briggs, 21.

Blue haired Helen continued the commando trend in a tiny crop-top and skirt with chain see-through panels flashing ample bust and thigh.

Heavily inked Sally rocked a hippy chic vibe in a multi-coloured headscarf and skimpy playsuit as the quartet strutted along.

Adding an injection of testosterone to the event, axed Big Brother housemate Lotan Carter, 28, was joined by EOTB stars Rogan O'Connor, 27, Chet Johnson, 27, and Joss Mooney, 30 as the group jokingly held hands and jumped onto the shoulders of one another.

Blonde beauties and stars of Take Me Out and EOTB Sophie Whitaker and Megan Clark also flashed major cleavage in both plunging and thigh-skimming outfits as they walked in hand-in-hand.

Girls squad: The group posed and pouted as they sashayed along to the event

Pals: Cally's public appearance came hours before she took to her Instagram story to brand the haters, who she nicknames the 'parent police', as 'disgusting' for making her feel like she was not a good mother

Cally also joined her fellow reality darlings for a fun group shot at the event,

The public appearance came hours before she took to her Instagram story to brand the haters, who she nicknames the 'parent police', as 'disgusting' for making her feel like she was not a good mother.

Explaining she had visited Ibiza while Vienna was staying with her father Luis Morrison, Cally assured fans that her sweet little girl was surrounded by love, and told the trolls to 'get a life'.

Hitting back: Explaining she had visited Ibiza while Vienna was staying with her father Luis Morrison, Cally assured fans that her sweet little girl was surrounded by love, and told the trolls to 'get a life'

She began: 'I think its disgusting that some people, who I call the 'parent police', try to judge other people's lives when they have no idea what they're doing.

'I can't even go out for a meal with friends without people thinking, 'Oh my god she's left her baby.''

Addressing her recent trip to the White Isle, she stood up for herself by stating bluntly: 'I went to Ibiza for 3 days. Vienna wasn't even at home, she was with her grandparents and her dad as it was Luis' birthday.'

'If you're one of these people who comment nasty things on Instagram when you don't know them, you've really got to get a life,' she continued, proving to be riled up.

Hot mama: Cally stood out in her racy lacy dress as the group strutted along

'It's not very nice when you have no idea who someone really is. I still have feelings too.'

The stunner went on to admit she had become upset by the comments while at a Miss Swimsuit UK event on Saturday night, and felt sad her friends had to comfort her over something which could be easily avoided.

Calling the haters out as parents themselves however, she continued: 'You shouldn't judge other parents on how they're living their lives and what they're doing.

'My child is happy and my child is looked after. I spend every single day of my life with her, apart from those three days in Ibiza.'

She wrapped up her lengthy rant with a call for people to stop commenting on her parenting methods and her daughter, as she will block them if they do.

Cally finished: 'Say what you want about me. If you don't like me, don't follow me, but don't bring my child into it. She's 3 months old.

'She has so much love around her, and its disgusting how some people behave behind social media.'

The pair welcomed their daughter in May, but separated romantically last month amid claims her former co-star had cheated on her.
It's the Channel Nine program that sees everyday Australians commit to changing their life over a course of a year.

And on Monday night's episode of This Time Next Year, host Karl Stefanovic was left speechless and teary-eyed after an incredible transformation.

Chloe Towney, 16, told Karl that she was so embarrassed by the birthmark on her face that she was too scared to leave her hometown in New South Wales.

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Shocked! On Monday night's This Time Next Year episode, host Karl Stefanovic was left speechless after an incredible transformation

'This time next year, I would like how I look in the mirror,' she pledged.

Born with a port wine stain birthmark, Chloe revealed she was terrified of venturing into big cities because of how she looked.

Explaining that people always look and laugh at her, she said: 'I always put my head down so no-one can see me.'

Sad tale: New South Wales resident Chloe Towney told Karl that she was so embarrassed by the birthmark on her face that she was too scared to leave her hometown

Pledge: 'This time next year, I would like how I look in the mirror' Chloe told Karl

Struggling: 'People laugh at me. I always put my head down so no-one can see me'

After walking through the transformation doors a video showed the Year 11 student keeping her pledge and having her first laser treatment.

The painful treatment reduced Chloe to tears, 'It feels like someone is burning your face to the point where you can feel it in your bones,' she said.

Challenge accepted: But after exiting through the transformation doors, a video showed the year 11 student keeping her pledge and starting her first session of a lazer treatment

Suffering: In the heart-breaking clip, Chloe was seen left tears due to the excruciating pain she was enduring

But the 13 laser sessions paid off for the teenager who walked through the doors looking completely unrecognisable one year on.

Showing off her new look the stunner was radiant, 'I'm glowing. This is the happiest I've been in my life,' she said.

Amazing! But the 13 lazer sessions paid off for the teenager who walked through the doors completely unrecognisable one year on

Life changing: Showing off her new look the stunner said she couldn't be happier

Living her best life: 'I'm glowing. This is the happiest I've been in my life'

But it wasn't all celebrations as Karl found himself $100 out of pocket due to another guest.

Eight-year-old aspiring painter Ned Heaton successfully met his pledge to enter the Young Archibald prize but didn't manage to take home the $100 prize money.

So Karl handed him it out of his own wallet in exchange for the portrait he'd drawn of the host.

$100 out of pocket: Eight-year-old aspiring painter Ned Heaton successfully met his pledge to enter the Young Archibald prize but didn't manage to take home the $100 prize money

Aspiring artist: Karl gave Ned $100 out of his own wallet in exchange for the portrait he'd drawn of the host

Returning to the show a year later, Ned didn't come back empty handed.

'It's Scotty Cam!' joked Karl as Ned unveiled another portrait he'd drawn for him.

'You didn't win $100 but I'm going to give you $100. That's for you, for this painting,' he said.

Masterpiece: Returning to the show a year later, Ned didn't come empty handed

'It's Scotty Cam!' joked Karl as Ned unveiled another portrait he'd drawn for him

Still a winner! 'You didn't win $100 but I'm going to give you $100. That's for you, for this painting,' Karl said as he handed the young artist money for his portrait

It was a moving episode that saw guest Jamie Manning's story reduce Karl to tears.

A serious car accident left the former horse rider with 40-degree burns to his face as well as broken ribs, a broken back and the loss of a hand and a leg.

Despite ongoing troubles from his injuries, the resilient man from Dubbo pledged to get back on a horse and ride over 500km around Australia for charity.

Survivor: It was a moving episode that saw guest Jamie Manning's story reduce Karl to tears

Bruised and battered: A serious car accident left the former horse rider with 40-degree burns to his face as well as broken ribs, a broken back and the loss of a hand and a leg

Achieving his goal in 24 days, alongside his wife and three kids, Jamie returned to the show one year later on horseback.

Bringing Karl to tears, he revealed he had raised over $30,000 for the Limbs for Life organisation.

'Whatever you're going to achieve in the future it's going to be as extraordinary as what you've done already,' said Karl.

He did it! Achieving his goal in 24 days, alongside his wife and three kids, Jamie returned to the show one year later on horseback

Moved: Bringing Karl to tears, he revealed he had raised over $30,000 for Limbs for Life

Running away to be in the circus! Former osteopath Tim Crowe transformed into an acrobat

The episode also saw former osteopath Tim Crowe, go from health worker to circus acrobat.

Passing auditions to perform in the world's biggest water-based production, the 37-year-old said he couldn't be prouder of himself.

Another guest, Elle Goodall shared how she had been told she wouldn't live past 40 due to her weight.

A year later she was 40kg lighter and had completed a triathlon.

Meanwhile, other weight loss goal setter Kelly Alvarez lost 13kg and was subsequently blessed with a surprise pregnancy thanks to her new healthy lifestyle.

Unrecognisable! Elle Goodall shared how she had been told she wouldn't live past 40 due to her weight. A year later she was 40kg lighter and had completed a triathlon
She soared to fame on ITV2's Love Island this year.

And Chloe Crowhurst flaunted her star power as she attended the Miss Swimsuit UK competition in Chelmsford on Saturday.

The reality star put on an eye-popping display in a peachy bustier dress which flaunted her toned legs as she strutted along.

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Striking: Chloe Crowhurst flaunted her star power as she attended the Miss Swimsuit UK competition in Chelmsford on Saturday

Chloe looked every inch the blonde bombshell in the figure-hugging number which fell at a saucy thigh-skimming finish.

She boosted her toned legs in a pair of metallic heels which flaunted her pedicure as she headed to the venue

Chloe looked sensational as she teamed the look with a diamond choker.

Her tumbling platinum locks were worn curled over her shoulder and she rocked her usual false lashes and gloss laden pout.

All eyes on her: The Love Island star put on an eye-popping display in a peachy bustier dress which flaunted her toned legs as she strutted along

Standing tall: She boosted her toned pins in a pair of metallic heels which flaunted her pedicure as she headed to the venue - with Verena Twigg (CEO of Miss Swimsuit UK)

Glam: Chloe looked sensational as she teamed the look with a diamond choker

Chloe looked in high spirits as she reunited with her Love Island pals and they all posed for a number of striking snaps.

Ever the career woman Chloe enjoyed a number of guest commentary stints on This Morning following her Love Island experience.

Amid claims that she entered the Love Island villa whilst dating TOWIE star Jon Clark, 27, the pair enjoyed a brief reconciliation when she left, but later confirmed that they have finally called it quits.

The Essex-born beauty admitted that she still had 'feelings' for Jon, and that the couple had 'tried to make a go of things' but ultimately decided to part ways.

'When I got out of the villa we tried to make a go of things  but I'm not sure,' she told The Sun.

Stunning: Her tumbling platinum locks were worn curled over her shoulder and she rocked her usual false lashes and gloss laden pout

Squad: Chloe looked in high spirits as she reunited with her pals and they all posed for a number of striking snaps

Famous: Ever the career woman Chloe enjoyed a number of guest commentary stints on This Morning following her Love Island experience

'There are feelings there  definitely from my side  but I'm not a mind reader, I don't know what he's thinking.'

'I'm really busy at the moment. Trying to work and then try and build a relationship is really difficult. But if you definitely want to, you can make it work.'

It comes after Chloe hit back at claims she has a secret Tinder profile, after a photo of her was spotted on the popular dating app.

The profile, which featured a glamorous and very pouty selfie of her, read 'If you want someone crazy come and get me boys. Looking for a boy with good banter' followed by heart emoticons
His new show, This Time Next Year, is a ratings smash.

And on Monday's episode, Karl Stefanovic was moved to tears when he spoke to Jamie Manning, from Dubbo.

Jamie rode a horse 500km across Australia for charity, after losing his leg and a hand in a horrific car accident.

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'Wherever you go the whole of Australia is going to be with you': Karl Stefanovic (pictured) is moved to tears on This Time Next Year as star Jamie rides over 500km for charity

'Bloody hell mate,' Karl said, after watching snippets of Jamie's ride, for which he raised over $30,000 for Limbs for Life.

Visibly moved by the footage, the presenter added: 'Look what you made me do... What a man. What an achievement.'

The Today star added: 'Whatever you're going to achieve in the future, it's going to be as extraordinary as what you've done already.

'Wherever you go, I think the whole of Australia is going to be with you.'

Inspiring: 'Bloody hell mate,' Karl said, after watching snippets of Jamie's ride, for which he raised over $30,000 for Limbs for Life (pictured is Jamie Manning from Dubbo)

What a feat: Jamie completed the ride in just 24 days, and rode from Tilburg to Dubbo

The day that changed everything: Driving home from work one day he smashed his car into a tree and was trapped in it as it became engulfed in flames

Jamie completed the ride in just 24 days, and rode from Tilburg to Dubbo, with his family, including his wife.

Driving home from work one day he smashed his car into a tree and was trapped in it as it became engulfed in flames.

The accident left him with 40-degree burns to his face, he also broke his back in two places and almost all of his ribs.

He lost his leg and a hand after his burns became infected.

Tough: The accident left Jamie with 40-degree burns to his face, he also broke his back in two places and almost all of his ribs. He lost his leg and a hand after his burns became infected

He's a fighter: The father of three revealed his wife (pictured with their children) was told by doctors that they didn't expect him to survive his injuries

The father of three revealed his wife was told by doctors that they didn't expect him to survive his injuries, since then he has endured approximately 30 operations.

Jamie said he wanted to complete the trek as he loved horse riding and hadn't done it since his accident.

Still overcoming his injuries, he said that the ride was a struggle at times.

'What's got me through it is just remembering or thinking about what I'm doing it for,' he said.

'There's a lot more people worse off than me in a lot more pain, so that little bit of pain I have to go through is bugger all really.'
She recently delighted her fans by sharing a titillating snap of herself in cowboy chaps layered over nothing but a very tiny thong.

And Victoria's Secret Angel Sara Sampaio proved that was just the start of her raunchy photo spree as she shared yet more sexy snaps on Instagram on Monday.

Once again chanelling her inner cowgirl, the beauty stripped down to some Western inspired underwear as she posed up a storm for the camera.

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Howdy! Victoria's Secret model Sara Sampaio saw her spree of sexy Instagram snaps continue as she shared a snap of herself in Western inspired lingerie on Monday

The 26-year-old supermodel showcased her enviably lithe physique as she modelled a semi-sheer bra, which covered her more intimate areas with a black floral adornment.

Her tiny black knickers were paired with a chunky leather belt, while her svelte legs were emphasised in knee-high cowgirl boots.

Atop her curled, raven tresses was a leather cowgirl hat, while a black, fringed jacket finished her Western style.

Sizzling! Once again chanelling her inner cowgirl, the beauty stripped down to some Western inspired underwear as she posed up a storm for the camera alongside Taylor Hill

Twerk it! Moments after sharing the snap, Sara joined her fellow Angels for a sultry Boomerang clip

Moments after sharing the snap, Sara joined her fellow Angels for a sultry Boomerang clip, which depicted the models twerking with coquettish smiles on their faces.

'Side to side, up and down, in and out and round and round @victoriassecret @laisribeiro @jastookes @josephineskriver,' she captioned the clip.

The snap came just a day after Sara flashed her pert bum and toned abs in yet another seriously racy cowgirl outfit while shooting a new Victoria's Secret campaign.

The brunette beauty was clearly in a playful mood as she shared some very cheeky behind the scenes snaps after joining her fellow Victoria's Secret Angels for a sexy new photo shoot in Aspen, Colorado.

Bottoms up! Sara's clip depicted the models twerking with coquettish smiles on their faces

Cheeky chappie: Sara, 26, looked incredible as she flaunted her model physique and very pert bum oce again while filming the Victoria's Secret Holiday 2017 campaign over the weekend

Channelling her inner cowgirl, the Portuguese stunner highlighted her supermodel figure in a delicate white lace bra and matching thong knickers.

And while chaps aren't usually considered the height of fashion or synonymous with sex appeal, Sara managed to pull off a pair of cream tasseled chaps with model confidence.

Adding a sturdy brown leather belt, she posed with her back to the camera, allowing everyone to get a glimpse of her perky rear, which was visible through the crotchless leg covers.

Wearing a cowboy chat and dipping her head to the camera, the sultry star posed with her fingers in a cocked gun gesture.

Her glossy dark brown locks were styled in loose waves down her back, while she kept her make-up simple with a smoky eye and lined pink pout.

Unusual look: the brunette beauty was clad in lacy white lingerie and leather chaps for day one of filming in Aspen, Colorado

What a view! The Portuguese stunner highlighted her perky derriere by standing with her back to the camera while wearing a white lace thong

That could be a problem! The cheerful model joked alongside this snap: 'I could be a cowgirl except I don't get along with horses!'

Having fun? The star appeared to be in a playful mood as she joked around with crew members in a behind the scenes shot

The catwalk stunner posed in front of a pile of chopped wood before moving indoors for the next shot, where she was seen casually leaning on a dressing table and gazing at the camera.

Sara looked radiant for her shoot having just enjoyed a sun-drenched holiday across Europe with millionaire boyfriend Oliver Ripley.

The loved up couple went island hopping between the likes of Mykonos, Ibiza and Menorca on a luxury yacht before it was time for Sara to return to the US and get back to work.

Three new sheriffs in town! Sara joined Elsa Hosk and Taylor Hill for a sultry photo during a break in filming

But all good things must come to an end, and Sara was back at work for Victoria's Secret this weekend as she joined the likes of Jasmine Tookes, Elsa Hosk. Taylor Hill and Josephine Skriver to shoot the Victoria's Secret Holiday 2017 campaign in the beautiful Aspen mountains.

Details of the campaign have been kept under wraps for now, but judging from the girls' attire it will have a bit of a wild west theme.

In one photo posted between takes, Sara cosied up to Elsa and Taylor for a photo in a log cabin, showing them sporting matching chaps, cowboy hats and plunging white lace bras.

While Sara and Taylor were both clad in leather chaps, blonde Elsa was given a more sultry pair of white lace chaps that clung to her long pins.

Natural beauty: beautiful Taylor struck a pose in a white lingerie set and leather chaps while enjoying the great outdoors

Beautiful: Elsa, Jasmine Tookes and Josephine Skriver wrapped themselves in white towels for a selfie while changing clothes behind takes

Stunning Taylor also flaunted her incredible abs and toned arms in another behind the scenes shot, standing outdoors with the beautiful Aspen background taking centre stage behind her.

She wore a white bra and high-waisted matching knickers, once again teamed with the ubiquitous chaps that appeared to be the common theme running throughout the day's filming.

Elsa also joined Jasmine and Josephine Skriver for a pretty selfie, which highlighted their flawless makeup.

All three women were wrapped in white towels as they changed clothing behind the scenes, and gave their best come-hither look to the camera during their brief break from shooting.

Smitten couple: Sara has just been holidaying across Europe with millionaire boyfriend Oliver Ripley. The loved up couple went island hopping between the likes of Mykonos and Ibiza
He's preparing to take the stage by storm in Australia, which will mark his first tour since 1993.

But Sir Paul McCartney put his family first on Saturday when he spent the afternoon with his step-son Arlen Blakeman, 25, at Vilebrequin in East Hampton.

British musician Paul, 75, caught the eye in his striking orange tee as he enjoyed a relaxed spot of shopping with the only child of his wife Nancy.

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Twist & Shop! Sir Paul McCartney, 75, put his family first on Saturday when he spent the afternoon with step-son Arlen Blakeman, 25, at Vilebrequin in East Hampton

The iconic rocker slipped into a pair of skinny-fit chinos to complete his casual ensemble, as well as throwing on a jacket to keep off the chill.

Donning a blue hat, the bass guitarist stood out from the sea of faces in the Big Apple when he looked utterly relaxed in the good company of his young relative.

Arlen- whose father is American politician Bruce Blakeman - looked equally pleased to be spending time with his step-dad.

The star's family member pulled on a baggy hoodie and cut-off shorts for the casual outing.

It's all relative! British musician Paul, 75, caught the eye in his striking orange tee as he enjoyed a relaxed spot of shopping with his step-son

Paul and Nancy will celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary in October, after tying the knot at London's Marylebone register office in 2011, the same location as Paul's first marriage to James' mother Linda in 1969.

The romantic ceremony saw Arlen give his mother away to Paul after walking her down the aisle.

Aside from his step-son, the music legend has five children and he has been married three times.

He shares four children, Heather (who he legally adopted), Mary, Stella and James with his first wife Linda Eastman.

The couple exchanged vows in a romantic ceremony in 1969 and they were married until her death in 1998.

He went onto marry Heather Mills - who he shares daughter Beatrice Milly with - in 2002 but they divorced in 2008, a year after he struck up a romance with Nancy.

In July, the rocker confessed that he will no longer have an alcoholic drink before a gig to calm his nerves, out of fear he would forget the lyrics to his own songs.

In the early days, the musician used to enjoy a drink on tour ahead of a gig but he has explained it 'didn't work' as he would forget the lyrics he didn't know.

The rocker told The Mirror: 'No. I used to try drinking before a gig, particularly in the early days of Wings when we would tour.

Third time's the charm! He has been married three times and has five children but now he is happily loved up with his third wife Nancy Shevell (pictured at SVA Theatre in December 2016)

'But it didn't work  I would just forget the lyrics I didn't know anyway.'

The sensational songwriter explained his fellow band members enjoy a couple of glasses of red wine to kick start them for the night.

But The Beatles icon prefers to feel 'light' on stage as he goes without eating or drinking anything 'heavy'.

He added: 'I don't eat or drink before I go on because I sort of like to feel light. Then afterwards I can get heavy and have a drink.'

The music icon, however, does grab a little bite to eat before his energetic performances.

Blast from the past! He made history alongside John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the iconic rock band The Beatles

Paul is particularly inclined to having chocolate covered raisins and an handful of salted cashews in his dressing room while he is gearing himself up for the gig

Recently, he gushed about the part he played in the phenomenon which was The Beatles, alongside John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Reflecting on his time in the band, he told The Telegraph's Stellar: 'I sometimes I look at it (his role in the band) and think, "Bloody hell, it's amazing".'

It is certainly a busy time for the rocker as he recently announced he will tour Australia from December 2 as a solo artist for the first time since 1993.
She has effortlessly taken to her role as a mother, since welcoming baby Cooper in April.

And Ronan Keating's wife Storm proved parenting suited her down to the ground on Sunday, as she enjoyed a Greek getaway with her husband, 40, and their three-month-old son.

The stunning blonde, 35, could not hide her beaming smile as she cosied up to her musician lover and their tot in the sweet family selfie, posted to Instagram.

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Family portrait: Ronan Keating's wife Storm proved parenting suited her down to the ground on Sunday, as she enjoyed a Greek getaway with her husband, 40, and their son Cooper

The golden-haired star was positively glowing in the Mediterranean sunshine, proving her natural beauty in minimal make-up, and a retro pair of sunglasses.

Cuddling up to her man, the pair looked more loved-up than ever as they beamed widely for the camera - with their sweet son Cooper nestled in Ronan's arms.

Clearly indulging during their time away, Ronan also appeared to be sharing a delicious chocolate ice-cream with his boy, finished with a patriotic Greek flag on top.

Sensational! Storm showed off her incredible post-baby body while posing beneath the Mediterranean sun on Monday with three-month-old Cooper in her arms

The pair - who have been married for five years - have been sharing a string of photographs from their sun-soaked break away.

Revelling in yet another day of her Greek holiday, the model looked sensational in a red bikini as she cradled her son beside the sea.

The Australian-born fashion designer flashed her ample cleavage in the sizzling two-piece, which also boasted barely-there bikini bottoms.

Her sexy swimwear style was arguably overshadowed by her adorable tot however, who was clad in a cute blue wet-suit.

Family time: Ronan shared a snapshot on Instagram of his wife Storm and their son Cooper during their Corfu holiday on Wednesday

Announcing her little one's penchant for the water, she enthused alongside the snap: 'Water baby #timeforasnooze #toomuchexcitement #firsttimes #funtimes #baby #swim #cooperkeating #familyholiday #summertime.'

The snap comes just a few short days after Ronan shared a snap of the mother-son duo reclining on their sun lounger with a comical filter.

The gushing dad captioned the heartwarming image: 'My heart could burst #Love #summertime #Laughs #cooperkeating.'

Just a few hours later, Storm shared a snap of the lower half of her svelte frame lying on a blue towel next to a shirtless Ronan, who gazed adoringly into his youngest child's eyes as the baby sucked on a dummy.

Body: Storm showed off her sensational post-baby body as she uploaded a snap of her own

Gush: Storm's followers flocked to the comments section to gush over her sensational body

Storm wrote beside the image: 'Poolside #intheshade #chillin #giggles #cooperkeating #daddy #summerdayz #greece.'

Former Boyzone frontman Ronan already has three children - Jack, 18, Missy, 16 and Ali, 11.

Ronan shares his older children with his ex-wife Yvonne Connolly, who he split from in 2010 after 12 years of marriage.

Their divorce was finalised in March 2015, five months before he tied the knot with Storm.

Ronan lavished praise on the Aussie TV producer before the birth of their son, saying that she was 'looking good'.
They ended their long-term relationship back in 2015.

But Rebel Wilson and her ex Mickey Gooch, Jr. looked the friendliest of former flames as they enjoyed a day out in New York City on Sunday.

The actress, 37, and the How To Be Single star, 31, seemed happy and relaxed as they took a low-key stroll around Manhattan.

Former flames: Rebel Wilson and her ex Mickey Gooch, Jr. looked the friendliest of former flames as they enjoyed a day out in New York City on Sunday

Rebel looked stylish in a cleavage-baring teal dress cut off at the knee, with her blonde hair fasted up in a chic chignon.

The Australian star's black heels matched her black quilted Chanel purse.

Mickey had pulled on a pair of tight charcoal jeans, black shoes and a loose-fitting grey T-shirt.

Friendly exes: The actress, 37, and the How To Be Single star, 31, seemed happy and relaxed as they took a low-key stroll around Manhattan

Dressed to impress: Rebel looked stylish in a cleavage-baring teal dress cut off at the knee, with her blonde hair fasted up in a chic chignon

Rebel and Mickey called it quits on their romance in September 2015.

In February 2016, Rebel told the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph that she was happy to remain single so she could concentrate on her acting work.

'A lot of my friends who are married now wish theyd taken the same path  where you really went after your career and your dreams,' she said.

The way they were! Rebel and Mickey called it quits on their romance in September 2015

'Thats not to say both are mutually exclusive, because you can have it all if you want to.

'But I obviously chose career over relationships. And I dont regret that decision one bit.'

Mickey starred alongside Rebel - as well as Alison Brie, Leslie Mann and Dakota Johnson - in 2016 romantic comedy, How To Be Single.
The working holiday showed no sign of ending as Georgia Kousoulou made her most provocative appearance yet in Marbella on Monday afternoon.

With summer temperatures continuing to soar The Only Way Is Essex star left little to the imagination while filming scenes for the forthcoming 21st series of her hit show.

Revealing a hint of under-boob, Georgia, 26, was hard to miss as she made the most of an extended stay in the Spanish coastal city.

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Hard to miss: The working holiday showed no sign of ending as Georgia Kousoulou made her most provocative appearance in Marbella on Monday afternoon

Dressed in a striking peach coloured bikini-bottoms, the TV personality ensured her toned physique was on full display.

A breezy white shirt, worm casually off-the-shoulder, added to her seasonal ensemble, while strappy wedge heels rounded things off.

Shielding her eyes behind a pair of heavily tinted sunglasses, the reality star was an engaging sight as she posed for photos.

Revealing: With summer temperatures continuing to soar The Only Way Is Essex star left little to the imagination while filming scenes for the forthcoming 21st series of her hit show

She was joined by co-star Gemma Collins, whose own rather less revealing outfit ensured she grabbed her own share of attention.

The voluptuous TV personality, 36, opted for a floral patterned semi-sheer summer dress ahead of her latest filming commitment on behalf of the show.

Evidently in high spirits, Gemma greeted onlookers with a warm smile as she climbed from the rear of her car.

Here she comes: She was joined by co-star Gemma Collins, whose own rather less revealing outfit ensured she grabbed her own share of attention

The pair will have good company when the new series of The Only Way Is Essex returns in the form of Ruby Lacey and Maddie Hooper.

Fans will see the girls make their debut when TOWIE returns to screens next month in September, with a source claiming to The Sun that bosses recruited the girls as a result of Georgia's popularity with viewers.

They said: 'Georgia has become one of the most popular TOWIE girls ever - she is well-loved with TOWIE fans and bosses wanted to bring her some mates onto the show.

'Viewers can look forward to seeing a lot more of Georgia and her friends this series.'
She claimed the Australian Apprentice (Trainee) of the Year Award in 2015 after climbing the ranks within her local McDonald's store in Lismore.

And now Bethany Spoor is set to offer up her business, Bethany Grace Natural Skincare, for investment on tonight's episode of Shark Tank.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that the 20-year-old would ask for $400,000 for a 30 per cent share in her business.

Big goals: Bethany Spoor, 20, will present her skin care business on tonight's Shark Tank and ask for $400,000 in exchange for a 30 per cent share

Bethany started her skin care line at the ripe age of 13, after starting her first business venture, handmade birthday cards, at the tender age of nine.

And according to the publication, she first sourced ingredients for her products from her parents' Lismore farm.

It seems the driven young woman gained plenty of useful business insights during her time working McDonald's.

Start them young! Bethany began her skin care line at the ripe age of 13, after her first business venture, hand making birthday cards, at the age of nine

She completed a traineeship, gained Certificate III in Retail Operations and acquired the skills needed to manage every in-store unit.

Bethany even claimed to have made 'Maccas history' after being the first employee to make it to the national training awards.

She's since completed a business degree at Southern Cross University and has her sights set on introducing her brand to shop shelves.

Focused! Bethany completed a traineeship, gained Certificate III in Retail Operations and acquired the skills to manage every in-store unit while working at McDonald's

The ambitious brunette also dabbles in graphic design and creates logos, business cards, posters and signs on a freelance basis.

She's also a personal trainer and was appointed the Apprenticeships Ambassador for the Australian Government.

Bethany got married in a country wedding in April this year to her partner, Joel.
The TOWIE girls have been bringing their A-game in the style stakes this week after touching down in Marbella for filming.

And Chloe Sims ensured all eyes were on her when she stepped out with her ITVBe castmates on Monday, sporting a rather unusual beach ensemble.

The 34-year-old blonde dared to bare in a plunging crop top with lace-up detailing at the bust drawing attention to her cleavage.

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Daring to be different: Chloe Sims ensured all eyes were on her when she stepped out with her ITVBe castmates on Monday, sporting a rather unusual beach ensemble

She showed off her flat stomach in the tiny top, which was knotted at the waist.

Chloe teamed her sportswear inspired number with a pair of high-waisted hotpants, which featured bizarre, floor-length fringing.

The blonde beauty pulled the look together with a pair of skyscraper heels with silver studding detailing.

She styled her long locks in loose, beachy waves and kept her make-up pretty and pink.

Top of the crops: Chloe showed off her flat stomach in the tiny lace-up top, which was knotted at the waist

Tasselled: Chloe teamed her sportswear inspired number with a pair of high-waisted hotpants, which featured bizarre, floor-length fringing

Meanwhile, Georgia Kousoulou made her most provocative appearance yet in Marbella on Monday afternoon.

With summer temperatures continuing to soar The Only Way Is Essex star left little to the imagination while filming scenes for the forthcoming 21st series of her hit show.

Revealing a hint of under-boob beneath a cropped white vest, Georgia, 26, was hard to miss as she made the most of an extended stay in the Spanish coastal city.

Hard to miss: The working holiday showed no sign of ending as Georgia Kousoulou made her most provocative appearance yet

Adding to her beach-ready look with striking peach coloured bikini-bottoms, the TV personality ensured her toned physique was on full display.

A breezy white shirt, worm casually off-the-shoulder, added to her seasonal ensemble, while strappy wedge heels rounded things off.

Shielding her eyes behind a pair of heavily tinted sunglasses, the reality star was an engaging sight as she posed for photos.

Revealing: With summer temperatures continuing to soar The Only Way Is Essex star left little to the imagination while filming scenes for the forthcoming 21st series of her hit show

She was joined by co-star Gemma Collins, whose own rather less revealing outfit ensured she grabbed her own share of attention.

The voluptuous TV personality, 36, opted for a floral patterned semi-sheer summer dress ahead of her latest filming commitment on behalf of the show.

Evidently in high spirits, Gemma greeted onlookers with a warm smile as she climbed from the rear of her car.

Here she comes: She was joined by co-star Gemma Collins, whose own rather less revealing outfit ensured she grabbed her own share of attention

The pair will have good company when the new series of The Only Way Is Essex returns in the form of Ruby Lacey and Maddie Hooper.

Fans will see the girls make their debut when TOWIE returns to screens next month in September, with a source claiming to The Sun that bosses recruited the girls as a result of Georgia's popularity with viewers.

They said: 'Georgia has become one of the most popular TOWIE girls ever - she is well-loved with TOWIE fans and bosses wanted to bring her some mates onto the show.

'Viewers can look forward to seeing a lot more of Georgia and her friends this series.'
She's said to have paid her ex Arthur Collins a visit in jail last week ahead of his alleged nightclub acid attack trial.

And Ferne McCann, who revealed she visited him to 'discuss matters surrounding their child' seemed to be getting on with her everyday life as she documented on her Instagram.

The former TOWIE star, 26, shielded her blossoming baby bump and instead focused on her busty assets for a number of short clips.

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Candid: Ferne McCann, who revealed she visited her ex Arthur Collins in prison to 'discuss matters surrounding their child' seemed to be getting on with her everyday life as she documented on her Instagram

Ferne looked in high spirits in the clips which saw her go make-up free.

Having a little fun, the beauty first joked that she thought she was opening up Snapchat, before revealing her secret food stash.

Earlier on in the week, the reality star was effortlessly glamorous in another snap where she donned a two-piece, printed with a black and white tribal pattern all over.

The shirt, adorned with quirky fringe detailing, remained sophisticated with soft chiffon sleeves, and a subtly plunging neckline.

She's got front: The former TOWIE star, 26, shielded her blossoming baby bump and instead focused on her busty assets for a number of short clips

Talking to her followers: Having a little fun, the beauty first joked that she thought she was opening up Snapchat, before revealing her secret food stash

Chic: Earlier on in the week, Ferne shielded her blossoming baby bump in a chic monochrome co-ord on Saturday, as she dolled herself up for a hen do in Essex

'There is a baby in there I promise!': First sharing a full length shot, Ferne then snapped a quick selfie of her proudly cradling her bump

Tying in a chic striped ribbon belt at her waist, the wrap-around skirt then concealed her baby bump from view - before cutting off high at her thigh in a sexier touch, to leave her long and slender pins on show.

Adding height to her frame with towering black heels, Ferne accessorised with statement drop earrings to glamorously tie her look together.

Sweeping her hair into a low ponytail and adding bronzer and a nude lip, the TV personality was every inch the glowing mother-to-be as she documented her night on Instagram.

First sharing a full length shot, Ferne then snapped a quick selfie of her proudly cradling her bump, captioned: 'There is my baby in there I pwomise but this outfit disguised it! What's everyone up to on this fine morning? let's spread #love' (sic)

Pregnant: Ferne is expecting her first child with ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins, who currently faces trial for an alleged nightclub acid attack

Ferne is expecting her first child with ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins, who currently faces trial for an alleged nightclub acid attack.

It was reported earlier this week that the former TOWIE star had gone to visit the 25-year-old scaffolder and businessman at HMP Thameside in south London in the past two weeks.

Ferne split from Arthur earlier this year, amid allegations that he carried out an acid attack at an east London club that left 22 people injured.

Rumour has it: The former TOWIE star allegedly went to visit the 25-year-old at HMP Thameside in south London in the past two weeks

A source stressed that the couple were 'certainly not' rekindling their romance, claiming that Ferne was visiting Arthur to discuss matters surrounding their unborn child.

A source told The Sun: 'They are most certainly not back together and she has no intentions of doing so. But she saw him to discuss certain matters, given she is carrying his unborn child. She clearly didn't want to be seen as she went in and kept a very low profile.'

The insider claimed that Ferne was keen to keep a low profile and arrived at the Greenwich prison, ahead of Arthur's trial in October, wearing a hoodie.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Ferne for comment.

It's over: She dumped Arthur earlier this year amid allegations that he carried out an acid attack at an east London club that left 22 people injured

Her outing comes as Arthur denied carrying out an acid attack which left two clubbers partially blinded and others disfigured.

The 25-year-old pleaded not guilty in June to six counts of causing grevious bodily harm and 11 of actual bodily harm when he appeared at Wood Green Crown Court today via video link from HMP Thameside.

A 24-year-old man and 22-year-old woman were each blinded in one eye while up to 18 others were burnt after the attack outside the Mangle nightclub in Dalston, east London in April.

Allegations: A source stressed that the couple were 'certainly not' rekindling their romance, claiming that Ferne was visiting Arthur to discuss matters surrounding their unborn child

Keeping a low profile: The insider added that Ferne arrived at the Greenwich prison, ahead of Arthur's trial in October, wearing a hoodie

Collins was arrested by armed police in his underpants at in Rushden, Northamptonshire, during an early morning raid.

Previously Ferne sobbed as she discussed becoming a single mother after Arthur was charged with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Speaking with hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, the former TOWIE star fought back sobs as they addressed his charges, at one point having to stop the interview as she was unable to speak.

Pleading guilty: Arthur denied carrying out the attack which left two clubbers partially blinded in June, pleading not guilty to six counts of grevious bodily harm and 11 of actual bodily harm

Attacked: Arthur, 24, was arrested and charged with intent to do grievous bodily harm in connection with the acid attack in London nightspot Mangle (above) in April

Ferne explained: 'It had been such a stressful, surreal situation to be in but I'm actually feeling good, feeling positive because I'm pregnant.

'I think that has given me strength and hope to get through this.'

Explaining that she's been overwhelmed with the support she has received, Ferne - who is 12 weeks pregnant - revealed: 'I've got such a strong support group, everyone has been so amazing.

'This is the reason why I haven't spoken to anyone because when most women are pregnant they don't tell anyone until they're at that three month stage.'

Upsetting: Ferne had broken down in tears on This Morning as she revealed she wants to be the best mother she can be to her unborn child

Emotional: Feeling good: Ferne explained: 'It had been such a stressful, surreal situation to be in but I'm actually feeling good, feeling positive because I'm pregnant'

Just two days after Arthur was arrested, she told MailOnline that she will go forward with life as a single mother as she professed her determination 'to do all she can to have a happy and healthy child'.

Her full statement read: 'Ferne is grateful for the sympathetic way news of her pregnancy has been covered and people's support and obviously her first concern is for her child's health.

'Nor does she wish to discuss her ex-boyfriend who she does not recognise from the events of the last week.

'Ferne is in no way seeking sympathy for her situation and is determined to do all she can to have a happy and healthy child and face the challenges of being a single parent with all her energy.

'Her thoughts are with the victims of the horrific attack on Easter Monday.'

Staying strong: Just two days after Arthur was arrested, she told MailOnline that she will go forward with life as a single mother
She spent the day enjoying some family time with her husband Justin Timberlake, 36, and their adorable son Silas, two.

But Jessica Biel was back to business when she was spotted filming her new USA Network drama The Sinner in New York City's Yonkers district on Sunday night.

The actress, 36, looked hard at work as she shot scenes in a parking lot outside a bar.

Hark at work: Jessica Biel was back to business when she was spotted filming her new USA Network drama The Sinner in New York City's Yonkers district on Sunday night

The screen star showed off her lithe physique in a black tank top with spaghetti string straps, a black Alice + Olivia mini-skirt that featured a colorful floral print and brown leather block heeled sandals.

The beautiful brunette's tresses were smoothed back into a pony tail and she accessorized with a large brown leather tote bag.

Jessica - who is also producing the eight-part limited series - plays Cora Tannetti who is arrested after stabbing a man to death on a beach in front of her husband and young son.

Bill Pullman plays Detective Harry Ambrose, who is trying to find out why the suburban mum committed murder.

In character: The actress, 36, looked hard at work as she shot scenes in a parking lot

Stylish: The screen star showed off her lithe physique in a black tank top with spaghetti string straps, a black Alice + Olivia mini-skirt that featured a colorful floral print and brown leather block heels

The drama kicked off August 2 and the first two episodes have already received rave reviews.

The series - which wraps on September 20 - is based on author Petra Hammesfahr's 2007 'surprising and compelling' book, Jessica toldReddit AMA last week.

'I feel like I've seen it all, read it all and this book consistently shocked me,' Jessica said. 'I loved the material and became a huge fan of it.'

The actress said she had to tap deep into her psyche to portray the mom-turned-murderer.

Meanwhile, her own life as a mom-of-one is going much more smoothly.

Happy family: Jessica spent the day enjoying some family time with her husband Justin Timberlake, 36, and their adorable son Silas, two

Happy: The twosome looked every inch the lovebirds

Hunk: Justin looked super trendy for the outing ina black tee and grey trousers

Cool: He completed the look with a grey beret and black shades which complemented his stubble

Jessica shares Silas with pop star-turned-actor Justin, 36.

They began dating in 2007 and will celebrate their fifth anniversary on October 19 after tying the knot in a romantic ceremony in Fasano, Italy, in 2012.

Covering this year's August issue of Marie Claire, Jessica talked about her marriage, saying: 'We have similar values; we believe in loyalty, honesty. We like to have fun.

'We like a lot of the same things. Also, in the business, we're all very career-oriented, and you have to be a little selfish,' the actress has allowed.

'I understand that about my peers - about being focused and driven - and if you can find that and someone who shares the same values as you, it's like: Score!'

Fun: Justin seemed to be having a blast as he enjoyed the excursion
Anna Faris has been pictured for the first time since announcing her split from husband Chris Pratt after eight years of marriage.

The actress, 40, cut a decidedly glum figure as she was seen driving through Los Angeles on Monday morning.

Wearing her blonde locks pulled back from her face in a ponytail, the House Bunny star sheltered her face with a pair of large sunglasses as she went about her day.

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Moving on: Anna Faris has been pictured for the first time since announcing her split from husband Chris Pratt after eight years of marriage

The ex factor: Anna's appearance comes just one week after announcing the couple - who raise son Jack, four, together - had parted ways

Anna's appearance comes just one week after announcing the couple - who raise son Jack, four, together - had parted ways.

Chris, 38, was seen taking the pair's son to church in Los Angeles on Sunday, before putting in a high-profile public appearance at the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at the University of Southern California's Galen Center later that night.

Accepting the Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor prize for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the star joked that he had built his Hollywood career on lies.

The speech, which was an attempt at self-deprecation, saw Chris detail how his career in the industry began.

Feeling blue? The actress, 40, cut a decidedly glum figure as she was seen driving through Los Angeles on Monday morning

Carrying on as normal: Wearing her blonde locks pulled back from her face in a ponytail, the House Bunny star sheltered her face with a pair of large sunglasses as she went about her day

'When I came to Los Angeles,' Pratt said, 'I came from Hawaii and I had all of this blond hair and I was tan and I met an agent because I really wanted to be an actor and get an agent.'

He then said that the agent asked, '"Wow. Bro you must surf?" And I said "Yeah" and that was the first of many lies I told to get where I am today. Thank you.'

While he did not thank his soon to be ex wife, he did leave on a religious note: 'I would not be here with the ease and grace I have in my heart without my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.'

The actor also confirmed he would be coming back for a third Guardians film.

First sighting: The mother-of-one hasn't been seen since news of the Hollywood couple's split emerged last week

Chris , 38, and Anna, 40, shocked the world when they announced their separation last week.

The couple met on the set of Take Me Home Tonight in early 2007.

They got engaged the following year and tied the knot in a small ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, in July 2009.

Sources have since claimed that Chris' movie star status and skyrocketing fame might have contributed to the demise of the couple's eight-year marriage.

'Chris became this huge movie star and Anna wasn't getting any big jobs. She was the more famous and sexy one at the start of their relationship and then things took a turn,' a source told Us Weekly.

When the couple first started dating, Chris was just starting his stint on NBC's Parks and Recreation and had virtually no star power.

Out and about: Chris, 38, put in a high-profile public appearance at the 2017 Teen Choice Awards at the University of Southern California's Galen Center on Sunday night

Winner: Accepting the Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor prize for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the star joked that he had built his Hollywood career on lies

Anna, on the other hand, was starting to bonafide comedic actress with leading roles in House Bunny, Take Me Home Tonight and What's Your Number.

Friends say the situation has since reversed itself and Chris has gone on to become a major A-list star, while Anna has had a hard time finding big jobs.

The source added that the pair have always been a little competitive with each other.

'When they're in a big group, they each want to be the one telling the funniest joke,' the source told the magazine.

Ironically, Anna blamed her last divorce on the same issue.

The actress was married to actor Ben Indra, but got divorced in 2007 and blamed her career successes.

Happier times: When the couple first started dating in 2009, Chris was just starting his stint on NBC's Parks and Recreation and had virtually no star power (pictured in 2012)

'That kind of destroyed my marriage,' she told Marie Claire in a 2011 cover story. 'The divide became too great.'

Anna and Chris announced their separation on Sunday evening following eight years of marriage, with other sources telling TMZ that their different family values were to blame.

A source told the site that Anna wanted to have more children, but Chris 'can't juggle a growing family with his career', which sees him shoot movies all over the world, leaving home for months at a time.

The couple share four-year-old son Jack, and were keen to stress in their split statement that they 'love him very much'.

It's all over! Anna and Chris announced their separation last week following eight years of marriage, with other sources telling TMZ that their different family values were to blame

The website reports that as well as Chris not wanting to have more children in the foreseeable future there are 'other personal reasons for the split, but the way they see family in the long-term was a big factor in their decision.'

Following the shock announcement Jennifer Lawrence also found herself in the middle of reports.

As the couple confirmed their separation, fans flocked to social media to bizarrely blame the actress, 26 - who starred in Passengers with Chris in 2016 - for the split.

Taking to Twitter, one wrote: 'I can't believe Chris Pratt and Anna Faris are splitting up this is all Jennifer Lawrence's fault.'
She's the stunning model known for flaunting her incredible physique.

And on Tuesday Natalie Roser showcased her taut stomach as she enjoyed her morning coffee in a pair of skimpy briefs and short crop top.

The 26-year-old uploaded the snap to Instagram and captioned the post: 'Good morning!'

Good morning! on Tuesday Natalie Roser showcased her taut stomach as she enjoyed her morning coffee in a pair of skimpy briefs and short crop top

Fans were quick to flood her post with comments such as 'beauty' and 'sexy'.

Not present was Natalie's new beau, Neighbours star Harley Bonner, 26.

Last Saturday, the blonde beauty shared a loved-up photo of the pair as they canoodled in bed.

Natalie, raising her head from her pillow slightly, turned to face Harley and flashed her pearly whites while her golden locks framed her face.

Mi amor: Natalie Roser, 26, took to Instagram on Saturday to share another loved-up photo of her and beau Harley Bonner as they canoodled in bed

Splitting from her personal trainer fiance Dan Adair in October last year, Natalie recently revealed to Daily Mail Australia that she first met Harley just weeks after calling off the nuptials.

'We met on a work trip with Heineken. We went to New Zealand and he was on the trip and I was on the trip and we became really good friends,' she said.

But she claimed it took a while to realise her feelings, saying: 'We got to know one another over time and eventually fell head over heels in love.'
The ladies of Victoria's Secret are often photographed on the beach in Florida.

But this month the beauties went Western for a cowgirl-themed photo shoot in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado.

Taylor Hill, Stella Maxwell, Lais Ribeiro, Elsa Hosk, Candice Swanepoel and Jasmine Tookes all stepped into chaps, Daisy Dukes shorts and cowboy hats to model the brand's latest lingerie designs.

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Yee-haw! The ladies of Victoria's Secret are often photographed on the beach in Florida. But this month the beauties went Western for a cowgirl-themed photo shoot in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado

The internationally famous stars of the shoot took to Instagram to share their favorite looks.

Many of the women were longtime VS vets who also walked in the runway shows.

All involved took incredible selfies and portraits that looked perfect for the annual VS lingerie catalog.

Girls will be girls: Stella Maxwell put her legs around Hosk as they posed on a wall

A new look: Rimee Strijd wore a pair of lace chaps and a very small pair of undies in her images shared to Instagram

Moody: The star also pouted when wearing these leather jackets

Hill looked stunning in her ripped jeans paired with a silk bra and a cowboy hat with a bolero necktie for jewelry.

The 21-year-old Illinois native also posed with Strijd, a 22-year-old looker from the Netherlands.

Stridj wore a pair of lace chaps and a very small pair of undies in her images shared to Instagram.

Hosk looked sensational in a white leather jacket, white boots and a matching white cowboy hat.

Chilly? Hosk looked sensational in a white leather jacket, white boots and a matching white cowboy hat

Watch out for splinters! The 28-year-old Swedish delight writhed around on the floor and posed with her legs out

She knows how to look leggy: Here the cover girl put her white boots up as she touched her hair

The 28-year-old Swedish delight writhed around on the floor and posed with her legs out.

Tookes stood out in a black outfit that consisted of a bra and skirt with boots and hat to match.

Ribeiro was more adventurous with leather chaps and worn-in cowboy boots as she helped sell a satin mauve bra.

Chaps: Fellow angel Taylor Hill shared her own photos from the shoot, including this woodsy shot

Arty: Hill, 21, posted a few previews from the upcoming shoot on Instagram with different filters

Round her up! Tookes stood out in a black outfit that consisted of a bra and skirt with boots and hat to match

Matching: Here she posed with another model who seemed to have on three belts

Swanepoel showed off her virtually bare behind in fringed leather chaps.

The mother-of-one also had on skimpy panties and a bra as she channeled her inner cowgirl.

The beautiful 28-year-old blonde completed her look with boots, of course, and a cream cowboy hat.

Off-duty chic: Alessandra Ambrosio didn't join her fellow Victoria's Secret Angels for the sexy Western shoot - looking chic in casual wear as she stepped out in New York on Monday

Model behaviour: The brunette beauty, 36, kept things casual in a white T-shirt and jogging bottoms

Rightly proud of her toned behind she posted an Instagram clip of herself jiggling her cheeks that she captioned, '#giddyup, #bumbumtamtam' with three horse emojis.

In a second video clip, she posed from left to right, looking over her shoulder.

Candice captioned it: 'Wild Wild West out here.'

A tip of the hat: Candice swapped her chaps for teeny black lace panties, a black leather jacket and matching black hat for the shoot

Stunner on the loose: Here Candice wore a mauve bra and matching undies with leather chaps

Bare butt rider: Candice Swanepoel showed off her beautiful booty in cowboy chaps and skimpy undies during the Victoria's Secret holiday shoot in Aspen, Colorado on Saturday

Easy on the eyes: Swanepoel stood against a log cabin as she tried on this outfit

A black and white video showed her strolling across a meadow in her revealing outfit as Josephine Skiver, also scantily clad, rode a horse behind her.

Edward Razek, senior creative at Victoria's Secret, described the shoot in a picture he posted saying: '13 Angels, 2 photographers, a crew of 100+, one big time director, and an $80 million ranch - no one does Holiday like Victoria's Secret does Holiday!'

The 'big-time director' is Transformers' Michael Bay, seen with seven Angels in Ed's snap.

Sitting pretty: Here Lais sat in a chair; she added the caption: 'Ainda da tempo de entrar no #regimefechado? @simoneesimaria'

A tummy to die for: Ribeiro looked like she was gym toned in this image with a breathtaking background

Like a Western Charlie's Angels: These three models looked like they got into their roles

Bevy of beauty: Director Michael Bay is surrounded by Angels in this snap posted by Edward Razek, senior creative at Victoria's Secret. Michael is capturing the action in Aspen

Aside from Candice and Josephine, the Angels include Sara Sampaio, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Taylor Hill, Elsa Hosk, Niki Baratta, Jen King, Lily Aldridge, Lais Ribeiro, Jas Tookes, Romee Strijd and Behati Prinsloo.

Candice appears to be in Aspen with fiance and long-time love Hermann Nicoli, a Brazilian model.

The South African native posted an adorable Snapchat photo of the 35-year-old holding their excited 10-month-old son Anaca on his lap as he tried to eat his lunch in a cafe. She captioned it: ' Feliz dai papai!'

Ride it: The Angel straddled a horse in her skivvies, covered by a large brown blanket
Although sentenced to hard labor for life, Pastor Lim was granted "sick bail" following a visit to Pyongyang by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security advisor Daniel Jean

A Canadian pastor imprisoned in North Korea for more than two years returned home Saturday days after being released, officials said.

Hyeon Soo Lim, 62, was arrested in January 2015 on charges of subversive activities against the North Korean regime, an accusation denied by Ottawa.

Although sentenced to hard labor for life, he was granted "sick bail" following a visit to Pyongyang by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security advisor Daniel Jean.

"Today, we join Pastor Lim's family and congregation in celebrating his long-awaited return to Canada," the foreign affairs ministry said in a press statement.

"Canada has been actively engaged on Mr. Lim's case at all levels, and we will continue to support him and his family now that he has returned," it added.

According to local media reports, Lim was flown to a military base in Trenton, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) east of Toronto.

His liberation came at a moment of high tensions between North Korea and the United States. Three Americans remain in the custody of the regime of Kim Jong-Un.

Pyongyang has threatened to launch missiles on the island Guam, a strategic US outpost in the Pacific some 3,300 kilometers (2000 miles) from North Korea.

US President Donald Trump for his part as promised to rain down "fire and fury" on Kim's regime.

Lim, who belongs to the Light Korean Presbyterian Church, was considered at the time of his arrest one of the most influential Christian missionaries in North Korea.

He had previously traveled extensively in the country to work in orphanages and hospitals.

But some projects he worked on, including a noodle plant and flour mills, were linked to associates of Jang Song-Thaek, the purged uncle of leader Kim.

Jang was arrested and executed for treason in December 2013.
Google and other Silicon Valley giants are increasingly being targeted by the extreme right amid efforts to crack down on what is described as hateful speech

Silicon Valley is finding itself entrenched in battle with the far right over ground rules for the digital world, a conflict that mirrors the polarization of American politics in recent years.

The recent firing of a Google engineer for questioning the internet giant's diversity efforts, which ignited a backlash from the "alt-right" and fueled charges of hypocrisy, is just one example.

Facebook has been accused of suppressing conservative voices and skewing information presented in its news feed.

Twitter has banned accounts from far right activists for violating its terms on "hate" speech.

Paypal refused to transmit donations to a group in Europe seeking to turn back refugees, claiming it does not support activities that promote "hate" or "violence."

And even Airbnb canceled accounts ahead of a white nationalist rally for promoting discrimination in violation of the terms of the home-sharing platform.

Activists on the extreme right have responded with an outcry against the tech giants and have begun migrating to alternatives for social networking and money transfers.

The conflict has caught Silicon Valley off-guard, amid a political onslaught from critics as online platforms grow in importance.

In Silicon Valley, "you've got a bunch of people who are interested in technology who would prefer to be apolitical," said Bob O'Donnell, consultant for Technalysis Research.

"They are being dragged into these decisions and being put into a difficult spot."

O'Donnell acknowledged that the big tech firms may allow bias to filter into their business operations because "Silicon Valley and northern California are heavily Democratic and heavily focused on political correctness."

The flare-up of tensions come with the tech sector roiled by accusations of discrimination, sexual harassment and a lack of diversity despite the idealism espoused by its leaders.

- Evolving from 'fake news' -

Silicon Valley firms such as Airbnb are grappling with efforts to promote inclusion while banning users promoting extreme views

Alan Rosenblatt, a digital strategist for left-leaning groups, said alt-right activists are frustrated because they have been unable to exploit online platforms as much as they would like.

"It traces back to the whole 'fake news' issue" starting in the 2016 election campaign, Rosenblatt said.

Rosenblatt said social networks such as Facebook and Twitter were correctly working to crack down on disinformation, such as the erroneous report about a child sex ring in a Washington pizza restaurant in an effort to tarnish candidate Hillary Clinton.

It was appropriate, Rosenblatt argued, to suspend accounts "pushing alt-right messaging that is either hateful or disinformation."

President Donald Trump, he argued: "is the greatest enabler of the alt- right. He gives political coverage to their attacks on diversity and workplace fairness."

Tensions have flared at Google over the firing of engineer James Damore, who published a "manifesto" which claimed "biological differences" were a key factor in the low percentage of women in technology jobs.

Google said Damore's memo went too far in advancing "harmful gender stereotypes" but his dismissal fueled criticism that the tech giant was ignoring diverse viewpoints.

Damore said in an essay Friday that Google had become an "echo chamber" intolerant of open debate.

"How did Google, the company that hires the smartest people in the world, become so ideologically driven and intolerant of scientific debate and reasoned argument?" he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Elaine Ou, an engineer at a financial technology company, offered a similar comment in a column for Bloomberg: "Silicon Valley won't solve its gender issues if political correctness shuts down every conversation."

In a sign of the fractious atmosphere, Google canceled a "town hall" meeting intended to air viewpoints on diversity, sexism and free speech, citing worker safety concerns.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a memo to staff that despite the cancellation he wants a "frank, open discussion" and that "all of your voices and opinions matter."

- 'Hijacked' the discourse -

Some analysts argue a small group of activists are trying to impose their will on the tech sector.

"A small group of social terrorists have hijacked the rational discourse led by society's most accomplished, intelligent, and promising organizations," said a blog post by John Battelle, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and journalist.

Thomas Main, a political science professor at the City University of New York's Baruch College, said the latest developments reflect a realization that the internet may not be the utopia for political discourse that some had imagined.

"In some ways the internet is an ideal speech situation," he said.

But extremist "trolls," Main said, "are polluting the environment and you need some gatekeeping function."

Main said the gatekeeping function "is a big problem" because "we don't want government going in" and it's not clear if the digital companies are positioned to handle this.

"I'm searching for a better solution," he said.

O'Donnell said social networks and other digital companies may end up splintering along political lines in the same manner as the media industry.

"We may see over time an evolution where one social network is more left leaning and another is right leaning," he said. "It has become so challenging to remain in the middle."
National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition supporters demonstrate in the streets of the Kondele Estate in Kisumu, along Lake Victoria, demanding their candidate to be named the winner in the general elections on August 11, 2017

Seven people have been killed in Kenya's flashpoint west since protests erupted after the announcement of disputed poll results, police sources said Sunday, taking the total number killed across the country to 16.

"We have three bodies that were taken to the main mortuary in Kisumu, we also have one in Homa Bay, and there's one in Migori and two in Siaya," a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity as he is not permitted to speak to the media.

This total includes one death in Kisumu county and one in Siaya already reported by AFP Saturday.

"These are people killed in the confrontations with officers since Friday night," said the officer.

A second senior officer corroborated the figures, and said the region, a stronghold of defeated opposition leader Raila Odinga, had returned to calm Sunday.

"We haven't had any problems since late last night, let's say from midnight. The area is calm but we are still maintaining our presence in the hotspots which are prone to chaos just to ensure calm returns."

Angry opposition supporters took to the streets directly after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor Friday night in a hotly disputed election on Tuesday which Odinga claims was rigged.

Residents of Nairobi slums, and in the western city of Kisumu, threw rocks at police and burned tyres, while officers responded with tear gas and in some cases, live ammunition.

Eight bodies were taken Saturday to the Nairobi city morgue, most of them with gunshot wounds, from the protest-hit slums of Mathare, Kibera and Kawangware since Friday night, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

On Saturday morning, an AFP photographer saw the body of a young girl whose family said she had been shot in the back while standing on their balcony in Mathare.

Interior Minister Fred Matiangi denied Saturday that police had fired on "peaceful protesters" referring to those in the streets as "criminal elements".
Ian Narev, the chief executive of Australia's biggest bank, the Commonwealth, will retire, the company said on August 14, 2017, amid pressure from regulators over alleged breaches of money laundering and terrorism financing laws

The chief executive of Australia's biggest bank, the Commonwealth, will retire, the company said Monday, amid pressure from regulators over alleged breaches of laws on money laundering and terrorism financing.

The bank's chairwoman Catherine Livingstone said in a statement to the stock exchange that Ian Narev "will retire by the end of the 2018 financial year".

Narev faced calls to step down last week after the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC launched a civil action against the bank alleging "serious and systemic non-compliance" with the laws more than 53,000 times.

The 50-year-old initially insisted he would stay on but Livingstone said Monday that the bank wanted to end speculation over his future.

"Succession planning is an ongoing process at all levels of the bank. In discussions with (Narev) we have also agreed it is important for the business that we deal with the speculation and questions about his tenure," she said.

"Today's statement provides that clarity and will ensure he can continue to focus, as CEO, on successfully managing the business."

Shares in CBA, Australia's biggest company by market capitalisation, rose by 1.40 percent to Aus$81.63 afternoon trade in Sydney.

"I'm not really that surprised that's happened," said TS Lim, a banking analyst at Bell Potter.

"The good thing is there's a lead time of a year or year-and-a-half, so there's continuity," he said. "I think it removes some of the volatility in the company."

New Zealand-born Narev took over the top job at the Commonwealth in late 2011.

He had previously been involved in its private banking arm and before that worked as a corporate lawyer.

His tenure has delivered bumper returns for shareholders, including a record Aus$9.93 billion (US$7.86 billion) annual net profit unveiled last week.

But it has also been marred by scandals over poor financial planning advice, insurance payouts and now allegations of money laundering.

In the latest case, the country's corporate regulator ASIC said Monday the bank was refunding some Aus$10 million in total to more than 65,000 customers after selling them "unsuitable consumer credit insurance".

The Commonwealth Bank is accused by AUSTRAC of failing to deliver on time 53,506 reports for cash transactions of Aus$10,000 or more at its cash deposit machines between November 2012 and September 2015, with a total value of Aus$624.7 million.

It also failed to report suspicious transactions on time, or at all, that totalled Aus$77 million, and did not monitor customers or manage the risk even after becoming aware of suspected money laundering, AUSTRAC claimed.

Each breach could attract Aus$18 million in fines, potentially running into the billions of dollars.

ASIC on Friday added it would also probe how the lender handled the alleged breaches.
News / Africa

by Stephen Jakes

First Lady, Grace Mugabe was forced out of a plush hotel in Sandton, South Africa after she attacked a young model who was with her son, Chatunga.Garnett Basson CEO of The Capital hotel group where the assault took place said there was an incident that prompted management to ask guests to leave the hotel."What happened in the hotel room I don't have a comment on ... I can't disclose the name. We did have guests removed from the premises due to a scenario where we thought it was not good for them to stay there."It was almost a forceful exit but it wasn't. It was a decent exit after about a half an hour of discussions.The model, Gabriella Engels 20 is furious. "We were chilling in a hotel room and they were in the room next door" Engels said."She came in and started hitting us. The front of my forehead is busted open. I'm a model and I make my money based on my looks" she told The Times.Engels said Grace Mugabe proceeded to beat her and two of her friends with an extension chord while the two sons ran away and the Mugabe bodyguards looked on.She said she suffered gashes to her forehead and scalp.Engels said she went to the nearest police station on Sunday night but was shown away by the police officer on duty who told her to first seek medical attention.Gabriella's mother Debbie said they were going to the police station to open an assault case on today.
Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga believes he was the rightful winner of last Tuesday's presidential vote

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga was weighing his next move Monday to contest an election he claims was rigged after defying pressure at home and from abroad to take his complaints to the courts.

The 72-year-old insists he was the rightful winner of a "stolen" election last week and urged his supporters to stay away from work Monday to mourn the deaths of those killed in angry protests against the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

However, after nearly a week in limbo in which businesses remained shut and workers stayed home, Nairobi came back to life on Monday with many unable to afford any more time away from their livelihoods.

"I came to work because I need to eat, I need my children to eat, and I need my grandchildren to eat. They can call us to strike, but at the end of the day, they'll be eating and we won't," said Margaret, 62, a hairdresser in the Kibera slum, an Odinga stronghold.

"You know, I am very sad that Raila did not win, but what can he do now? It's over and we want peace."

Kenyatta reached out to Odinga, offering a "hand of peace" and urged him to use legal means to express his grievances. He also said Odinga was free to organise peaceful demonstrations if he chose not to go to court.

"Just do it peacefully, orderly... As a government we will not allow loss of life, destruction of property and looting, because many, many millions of Kenyans also are desirous to go about their business as before," he said.

Odinga, a veteran opposition leader in Kenya, lost his fourth shot at the presidency, according to official results, and has repeated claims he made in 2007 and 2013 that the vote was rigged against him.

His loss sparked angry protests on Friday night and Saturday in his strongholds in the west of the country and in Nairobi slums, leaving 16 people dead according to an AFP tally. This includes a nine-year-old girl hit by a stray bullet.

Police have denied that innocent protesters have been killed, saying those shot dead had been armed and attacked officers, many while carrying out criminal acts such as rape and looting.

- Ethnic grievances -

Kenya: Call for calm

The dispute has plunged Kenya into its worst political crisis since Odinga lost a 2007 election that many observers agreed was riddled with irregularities.

That election exposed decades-old political and ethnic grievances over access to power and land that sparked two months of violence in which 1,100 were killed and 600,000 displaced.

Three of Kenya's four presidents have been Kikuyu and the other Kalenjin, leaving Luos and other major ethnic groups feeling excluded from power and marginalised for over half a century.

While there have been efforts to dilute the winner-takes-all nature of Kenyan politics, notably by devolving power to the counties, critics argue the underlying fault lines have merely been papered over.

As a grim reminder of this, members of Odinga's Luo ethnic group and those from Kenyatta's Kikuyu group clashed violently in Nairobi's Mathare slum late Sunday with sticks, rocks, bows and arrows.

Mobs set on a Luo man, and then later in revenge a Kikuyu man, leaving them bloodied and motionless, as captured by two AFP photographers.

Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome denied the incident.

"We don't have attacks in Mathare," he told journalists.

- 'No turning back' -

Despite this isolated incident, protests in Odinga's strongholds appeared largely to have fizzled, as supporters await his next move.

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga who has protested the election results has told supporters not to give up, but it is unclear what his next move will be.

"We are not done yet. We will not give up. Wait for the next course of action which I will announce the day after tomorrow (Tuesday)," Odinga told a crowd of thousands in Nairobi's Kibera slum on Sunday.

Later on Twitter he wrote: "There is no turning back".

The United Nations, Britain, France and the European Union have beseeched Odinga to use legal means to address his concerns. Kofi Annan, who mediated the 2007/08 crisis, has warned Kenya's political leaders to "be careful with their rhetoric and actions."

Odinga and his National Super Alliance (NASA) claim the results from Tuesday's election which came in via an electronic tallying system were hacked and manipulated.

Documents he has provided as evidence so far have been dismissed by the electoral commission, and it is unclear what Odinga will do next.

He lost a court dispute in 2013 when he alleged an election was rigged, and this time NASA has said court is not an option.
Australia's Crown Resorts said Monday that China had released all of the casino group's employees who were detained as part of a gambling crackdown last year

Australia's Crown Resorts said Monday that China had released all of the casino group's employees who were detained as part of a gambling crackdown last year.

Mogul James Packer's gaming company said the last of the 19 current and former Crown employees had been set free after being held for 10 months.

"Crown is pleased that all of our employees have now been released and reunited with their families and loved ones," executive chairman John Alexander said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the employees whose sentences ended on Saturday were expelled from the country the same day.

"We hope relevant countries can inculcate their citizens living in China to conscientiously abide by laws and regulations and not be engaged in illegal activities," Hua told reporters.

The 19 defendants had pleaded guilty at a Shanghai court in June and 16 of them, including three Australians, were given sentences of between nine and 10 months in jail. The sentence included time served since they were arrested last October.

Three who were granted bail in November were not jailed.

Jason O'Connor, the executive vice president of Crown division VIP International in charge of luring rich Chinese to Australia, had been given a 10-month jail term and a two million yuan ($292,000) fine.

The two other Australians, Pan Dan and Jerry Xuan, were given nine-month sentences and 400,000 yuan ($58,000) and 200,000 yuan ($29,000) fines, respectively.

The executives were accused of breaching local anti-corruption laws by organising banned gambling activities overseas for wealthy Chinese.

The episode prompted a major restructuring at Crown, which runs its flagship casino in Melbourne and is also developing a large gaming resort in Sydney.

With revenues from Chinese high rollers waning, Crown last year sold its stake in Macau's Melco joint venture and shelved plans for a Las Vegas casino, concentrating instead on its Australian operations.

Shares in Crown Resorts closed 0.43 percent higher at Aus$11.55 on Monday on the Australian stock exchange.
Founded between the fifth and 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu has been dubbed "the city of 333 saints" for the number of Muslim sages buried there

War crimes judges will Thursday hand down a landmark ruling on reparations for the razing of Timbuktu's fabled shrines, but the victims' fund which is to implement the order warned it will not be easy.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was jailed for nine years in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to directing attacks on the UNESCO world heritage site during the jihadist takeover of northern Mali in 2012.

Judges ruled last September that Mahdi "supervised the destruction and gave instructions to the attackers" who used pickaxes and bulldozers to hack apart some of the city's most ancient landmarks.

Last month the judges announced they will hand down a decision on compensation for victims who suffered from the destruction of the ancient city's centuries-old shrines and mausoleums.

Mahdi's case was the first to focus on cultural destruction as a war crime before the Hague-based tribunal and the verdict was seen as a warning that destroying mankind's heritage will not go unpunished.

Whereas the judgement sent a strong message, an order for reparations "aims to alleviate the lasting imprints of these crimes," said Alina Balta, a researcher at Tilburg University's International Victimology Institute.

The International Criminal Court's order also "has the potential to bring hope to the victims of similar crimes committed in other parts of the world" including the destruction of Palmyra in Syria by the Islamic State group, Balta told AFP.

- 'Challenging security' -

According to the court's founding Rome Statute, judges can decide that victims are entitled to reparations including "restitution, compensation and rehabilitation."

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was jailed for nine years in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to directing attacks on the UNESCO world heritage site

The court can also hand out an order directly against a convicted person, demanding similar reparations.

It was not clear however what type of compensation the judges will decide on at Thursday's hearing.

But the Trust Fund for Victims which will implement the judges' order has warned that doing so will be difficult and may still take a considerable amount of time.

In a recent court filing the TFV asked judges to set a deadline for a draft implementation plan "at a minimum of six months."

The security situation in northern Mali "poses serious challenges not only to the implementation of any awards, but also the amount of time that the Trust Fund may need to consult with all the relevant stakeholders," the fund said in a submission to the judges.

Furthermore, it was hampered by the fact that many of Timbuktu's victims had been displaced and were currently not living in the ancient city.

The TFV also warned that victims' hopes for compensation should be "carefully managed" in order to avoid expectations that are "raised to an unrealistic level, which can lead to confusion, anger and resentment when they were not met.

The fund also noted concerns that "if financial compensation is made a central component of these reparations, it risks creating -- in the face of poverty -- an incentive for people in other towns to attack cultural heritage sites".

- Landmark award -

The reparations will only be the second such award in the history of the court since it began work in 2002.

In March, the ICC awarded symbolic damages of $250 to each of the 297 victims of former Congolese warlord Germain Katanga, who is serving 12 years for a 2003 attack on a village in the troubled Ituri province.

The court estimated the damage caused in the attack at $3.7 million, and found Katanga liable for $1 million of that total, while recognising he was penniless.

ICC judges announced they will hand down a decision on compensation for victims who suffered from the destruction of the ancient city's centuries-old shrines and mausoleums

Founded between the fifth and 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu has been dubbed "the city of 333 saints" for the number of Muslim sages buried there.

Revered as a centre of Islamic learning during its golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was however considered idolatrous by the jihadists who swept across Mali's remote north in early 2012.

September's landmark verdict by the ICC was also the first arising out of the conflict in Mali, and the first time a jihadist had sat in the dock.
Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema waves to supporters from a police van as he leaves a courtroom in April

Zambia's detained opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema is due to appear in court Monday on treason charges, four months after he was arrested and as political tensions rise in the country.

Hichilema, who narrowly lost last year's presidential elections, has been in custody since April over an incident when he allegedly failed to give way to President Edgar Lungu's motorcade.

A lawyer from his United Party for National Development (UPND) told AFP that the party expected the charges to be dropped and for Hichilema to walk free.

"They don't have a case against him. We are certain that he will come out tomorrow," the party lawyer, who declined to be named, told AFP on Sunday.

Lungu invoked emergency powers in July, increasing police powers of arrest and detention after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks.

The president has denied allegations of growing authoritarianism and has accused his rivals of trying to overturn the election result.

Hichilema, 55, says the election was rigged and has refused to recognise the president.

- Relative stability -

Zambia has enjoyed relative stability since its first multi-party election in 1991.

But last year's election was marked by clashes between supporters of Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF) party and the UPND.

President Lungu invoked emergency powers in July, after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks

Parliament has suspended 48 UPND lawmakers after they boycotted an address by Lungu in March.

Police on Thursday released the leader of a smaller opposition party who is a fierce critic of the president after one week in detention.

Savior Chishimba, leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), was detained by plain-clothed police, triggering further accusations of a crackdown on dissent.

Hichilema has been held in custody after allegedly putting Lungu's life in danger when his convoy failed to make way for the presidential motorcade in a high-speed road drama caught on video camera.

The two men were both travelling to Western province for a traditional ceremony.

Days later, more than 100 armed police surrounded Hichilema's house outside Lusaka, firing tear gas before detaining him.

Businessman-turned-politician Hichilema has claimed that he was assaulted by police during his arrest and has suffered mistreatment in detention.

Treason is a non-bailable offence in Zambia, with a minimum jail term of 15 years and a maximum sentence of death.

Lungu did not mince his words during the election campaign, warning political rivals and activists that "if they push me against the wall, I will sacrifice democracy for peace."
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's revelation that he possibly holds New Zealand citizenship has major implications for the government

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's political future was in doubt Monday after it emerged he may be a dual citizen, placing the conservative government's slim parliamentary majority at risk.

Australia does not allow dual citizens to sit in parliament, meaning Joyce's revelation that he possibly holds New Zealand citizenship has major implications for the government.

The obscure rule was little known until recently but several lawmakers have fallen victim to it in recent months, leaving parliamentarians scrambling to clarify their ancestral ties.

"Needless to say, I was shocked to receive this information," Joyce told parliament about the news he may be a dual citizen.

"I've always been an Australian citizen born in (regional city) Tamworth. Neither me or my parents had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country."

The dual citizenship crisis kicked off in July when the minor Greens party's co-deputy leader Scott Ludlam resigned after revealing he had dual Australian-New Zealand citizenship.

The crisis soon claimed other victims, including Canadian-born Greens senator Larissa Waters and Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who left cabinet after finding his mother signed him up to Italian citizenship in his 20s.

Joyce said Monday he might have New Zealand citizenship, by descent, but did not quit cabinet or parliament and instead referred his election to the High Court.

"The New Zealand High Commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from the department of internal affairs... considered that I could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent," he said.

While Joyce -- the leader of the Nationals party -- is born in Australia, he told parliament his father was born in neighbouring New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1947.

The revelations could spark a crisis for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal-National coalition government, which won national elections last year with 76 seats in the House of Representatives -- a narrow one-seat majority.

Turnbull on Monday wrote to Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten to ask if his party wanted to refer any MPs over their citizenship status to the High Court so all the cases could be considered as a bloc, The Australian newspaper reported.

Canavan and minor party One Nation's Indian-born Malcolm Roberts have already had their elections referred to the court, with the judicial body to decide if they had taken reasonable steps to renounce their foreign allegiances.

Almost half of Australia's 24-million-strong population is made up of people born overseas or who had at least one parent born overseas, last year's census revealed.

Indigenous people account for about three percent of the population.
A handout photo taken in late 2016, and obtained from the Refugee Action Coalition, shows Australia's regional processing centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea

Australia is scrapping secrecy laws designed to stop whistleblowers from speaking out about alleged abuse at offshore asylum-seeker detention camps, in a move which campaigners Monday hailed as a victory for free speech.

Asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are either turned back or sent to remote camps in Nauru and on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

Refugee advocates and medical professionals have long criticised conditions in the camps, where some detainees have been held for years.

The secrecy provisions were introduced in 2015, making it a jailable offence for immigration department workers to speak out about conditions in the centres.

But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last week moved an amendment to the law to restrict the definition of unauthorised disclosures to information relating to the national or public interest.

He told parliament last week the 2015 changes had "not kept pace with the developments in the modern border environment".

"The definition of the information to be protected has been refined to include only certain kinds of information" such as national security and defence, Dutton added.

The previous provisions were set to be challenged in the High Court by rights group Doctors for Refugees, which welcomed the government's U-turn.

"This is a stunning victory for anyone in Australia who believes people who are concerned about abuse or neglect should be allowed to speak out," Barri Phatarfod from Doctors for Refugees said in a statement Monday.

A PNG court ruled last year that holding people on Manus was unconstitutional, and Canberra is set to shut the camp later this year.

The detainees will be moved to third countries such as the US and Cambodia or be resettled in PNG.

Canberra has been criticised for its asylum-seeker policies but defends its tough stance as necessary to stamp out people-smuggling and stop asylum-seekers dying at sea in rickety boats.
Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr (L) shakes hands with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (R) in Abu Dhabi

Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has visited the United Arab Emirates, its official news agency said Monday, his second trip in weeks to a Sunni-ruled Gulf country after Saudi Arabia.

Late Sunday, Sadr met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who congratulated Iraq on its victory against the Islamic State group in Mosul last month, WAM said.

Sheikh Mohammed said he hoped Iraq would "regain the role it deserves among Arab countries".

"The prosperity of Iraq reinforces the security of the Arabs," WAM reported Sheikh Mohammed as saying.

"Experience has taught us to call for what unites us as Arabs and Muslims, and banish partisans of discord and division," he said.

Earlier this month, Sadr called on the Baghdad government to dismantle the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary group, which is dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias and has played a major role in the fight against IS.

He has also called on the authorities to "seize the arsenal of all armed groups".

Sadr's visit to the UAE comes after he made a rare journey to Saudi Arabia at the end of July.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq went a quarter century without diplomatic relations, which were cut following Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

But both countries hailed an improvement in ties in June when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the kingdom.

Sadr led a militia that fought against the US occupation of Iraq.

He is now seen as a nationalist who has repeatedly called for protests against corruption in the Iraqi government. His supporters have staged huge demonstrations in Baghdad calling for electoral reform.
Advertisement

It is a story seemingly straight out of the pages of a fairytale, sprinkled with Disney magic: boy meets girl in a cafe, boy falls in love with girl, turns out girl is a real-life princess.

Today, Dennis Muhammad Abdullah - a former semi-professional footballer from Lisse, in the Netherlands - married Princess Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim: the only daughter of the Sultan of Johor, Malaysia.

Dennis, 28, met Princess Tunku Tun Aminah, 31, in a cafe when he worked as a marketing manager for a Singapore football team.

Some three years later, after converting to Islam and leaving his christian name Dennis Verbaas behind, the Dutchman married his princess in a lavish traditional ceremony.

A fairy tale: Johor Princess Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim and Dutch-born Dennis Muhammad Abdullah were pronounced husband and wife after their solemnization of marriage in Johor, Malaysia

Princess Tunku Tun Aminah is the only daughter of one of Malaysia's most powerful sultans: Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar.

The Dutchman and the princess wed according to Muslim Malay custom at the Serene Hill Palace, the royal family's residence in the southern city of Johor Bahru.

The private ceremony was attended by close family and friends.

The groom, who now works for a property development company in Johor, wore traditional white Malay wedding attire and the bride wore a white dress.

Dennis Muhammad placed the wedding ring on Tunku Aminah's finger in a special room in the palace, according to the royal press office.

Princess and the footballer: Dennis Muhammad, 28, met the 31-year-old Malaysian royal some three years ago

New life: The groom puts the wedding ring on the finger of his new royal bride after their marriage solemnization ceremony at the Serene Hill Palace in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

True love: The couple wed according to Muslim Malay custom at the Serene Hill Palace, the royal family's residence

In keeping with centuries-old wedding customs in the Muslim-majority southern state of Johor, he also gave her a dowry of 22.50 ringgit (about 4), and the couple kissed the hands of their parents, aunts and uncles as a mark of respect.

An evening ceremony replete with pomp and tradition capped the festivities in the southern state of Johor, with the couple sitting on an elaborately decorated dias as family members and dignitaries dropped petals into their hands and sprinkled them with scented water and yellow rice.

Afterwards, the newlyweds made their first public appearance as man and wife on the palace steps, smiling and waving to around 1,200 reception guests assembled in the garden.

Man and wife: When the couple first met, Dennis Muhammad Abdullah worked as a marketing manager for a football team

Ceremony: The young royal couple receive blessing from her father, Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, during their wedding ceremony at Istana Besar in Johor Bahru

Tradition: This was followed by blessings from her mother Permaisuri Raja Zarith Sofiah

Pure joy: Princess Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim smiles as she descends from the palace stairs during her wedding

Dennis Muhammad Abdullah, believed to be pictured with his mother, is from a small town near Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Richard Chong, a 30-year-old marketing executive from Singapore and friend of Dennis who was a wedding guest, said that he was going to wish the couple happiness.

'My message to the couple when I meet them is 'Marriage is about taking care of each other. They must respect and love each other',' he said.

There have been frenetic preparations in recent days, with the grounds of the main palace decorated with bunting and main streets adorned with flags.

'I am taking my wife and two young children to the city square tonight to witness the live broadcast of the evening celebrations,' Azim Mohamad Nurazim, a 34-year-old local salesman said

'It is a celebration for all Johoreans. My message to Tunku Aminah and her husband is long and healthy life, and may Allah bless the couple with lots of children.'

Stunning: The princess smiles in images from her wedding day posted by a royal fan on Instagram

Feast for the people: The wedding ceremony was projected on a giant screen for public viewing in the city of Johor Bahru

Small token: In keeping with Johor wedding customs, the Dutchman gave her a dowry of 22.50 ringgit (about 4)

A week before their wedding, the couple posed for their first official photos as married

Johor's royal family is rich and powerful and possesses its own private army - the only Malaysian state to have one.

The Sultan is an army officer, and studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, Massachusetts, and has several business ventures, including in telecommunications.

'Let's be honest here, we are a constitutional monarch. I have to earn my living like everyone else. I cannot depend on my allowances. I must earn a living, like ordinary Malaysians,' he told the Straits Times.

Malaysia has a unique arrangement in which the throne of the Muslim-majority country changes hands every five years between the rulers of the nine states which are still headed by Islamic royalty.

The current king is Sultan Muhammad V, from the conservative Islamic northern state of Kelantan, who steps down in 2021.

But Dennis Muhammad is unlikely ever to assume the role since the rulers choose among themselves who the next king will be.
Nepali residents look at the water in a flooded area in the Birgunj Parsa district, some 200km south of Kathmandu

At least 143 people have died and thousands have fled their homes as monsoon floods swept across Nepal and India, officials said Monday, warning the toll could rise as the extent of the damage becomes clear.

Three days of relentless downpours sparked flash floods and landslides that have killed at least 70 in Nepal and 73 across northern and eastern India.

Around 200,000 are living in emergency camps in Assam in northeast India, which suffers frequent flooding during the annual monsoon rains.

Another 15,000 have had to leave their homes in the eastern state of Bihar, which borders Nepal and where one official said seven rivers in Bihar were at danger levels.

Monsoon disasters in India, Nepal

Huge swathes of the state were submerged in 2008 when a river burst its banks across the border in Nepal, with the two countries trading blame for the disaster.

A massive landslide in the mountainous northern state of Himachal Pradesh swept two passenger buses off a hillside and into a deep gorge, killing at least 46 people on Sunday.

In Nepal, over 48,000 homes have been totally submerged by the floods and 21,000 people displaced, according to police.

As emergency workers struggled to reach far-flung areas, the country's home ministry said another 47 people were missing, presumed dead.

The Nepal Red Cross warned that shortages of drinking water and food could create a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Himalayan country.

"In many parts of the country there is a scarcity of safe drinking water creating a high risk of health hazards," spokesman Dibya Raj Poudel told AFP.

"Several villages and settlements are unreachable. Telecommunications, mobile phones are still not working so it difficult to give a full assessment."

The southern lowlands of Nepal known as the Terai have so far born the brunt of the monsoon deluge.

The Terai is Nepal's most fertile region and the economic toll is expected to be severe.

"We are getting reports that about 70 percent of agriculture area in the Tarai is inundated," said Shankar Sapkota, senior agricultural economist with the government.

"Paddy fields, vegetable plantation and fish farms have been affected but right now we cannot confirm the extent of damage."

The rains are now expected to shift westwards and authorities in Nepal have begun evacuating 74,000 people from the area expected to be hit.

Nearly 150 people have been killed in Nepal since the beginning of the rainy season in late June.

Hundreds have died in torrential rain, floods and landslides in neighbouring India during the monsoon, which hits the country's southern tip in early June and sweeps across the nation, lasting into September.

In the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand -- which borders Nepal -- three people were killed in a landslide late Sunday triggered by heavy rains, local police official Ajay Joshi told AFP.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

The Zimbabwe Communist Party secretary general Ngqabutho Mabhena has lambasted the Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe for allegedly assaulting his sons' girlfriend whom she found staying with them at Sandton in South Africa.Reports say in her recent visit to SA Grace found a girl who had moved in to stay with his sons and in the assistance of the security personnel they assaulted the helpless girl."I hope the South African police will not hide behind diplomatic immunity. News reaching us is that, the Zimbabwean First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe teamed up with her security personal (likely male) to beat up a young lady who is said to be staying with her sons in Sandton Johannesburg," said Mabhena."As we celebrate Women's month, we must be firm against those who abuse the weak (women and children) in our society. Minister Mbalula must act as he did against the Deputy Minister of Higher Education who is accused of beating up a woman in a night club."He said the ANC WL President Bathabile Dlamini and the former AU Chairperson Dr Dlamini Zuma must protect this young lady."It is common cause that men (including young men)chase after a women. So if the Mugabe boys chased after this young lady, leading in her staying with them, why punish her alone?" he said."We are tired of those in powerful positions who abuse the weak. If the sons of President Mugabe lack discipline, is it difficult for their parents to take them back home? President Mugabe is on record telling the people of Matabeleland not to come to South Africa to look for opportunities forgetting that , his own children are causing havoc in Sandton. Surely if the reports are true that the Mugabe sons are on drugs, why is the Minister of Police not paying them a visit?"
Burkina Faso gendarmes and troops launch an operation after gunmen attacked a Turkish restaurant in the capital Ouagadougou

The attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital on Sunday was the latest in a series of assaults in Africa targeting spots popular with foreigners and locals alike.

Here is an overview of the worst such attacks in recent years, most of which have been claimed by jihadist groups:

- 2017 -

- August 13: Three gunmen open fire at a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens.

Map showing Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where suspected jihadists attacked a cafe

- June 18: At least two people are killed when suspected jihadists stormed the Kangaba tourist resort popular with foreigners on the edge of Mali's capital Bamako. More than 30 hostages are freed.

- June 14: At least six people are killed when a suicide car bomber targets the popular Posh Treats restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab claims responsibility.

- 2016 -

- March 13: Fourteen civilians, including foreigners, and two special forces troops are killed when gunmen storm the Ivorian beach resort of Grand-Bassam. Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claims responsibility.

- January 15: Thirty people are killed, including many foreigners, in an attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel and a nearby restaurant in Ouagadougou. AQIM claims the assault, saying the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

- 2015 -

- November 20: Gunmen take guests and staff hostage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in a siege that leaves at least 20 dead, including 14 foreigners. The attack is claimed by AQIM, which says it was a joint operation with the Al-Murabitoun group. Another jihadist group from central Mali, the Macina Liberation Front, also claims responsibility.

- October 31: A Russian passenger jet is downed en route from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 on board. The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group claims responsibility. Russia confirms the crash was caused by a bomb.

- August 8: Malian armed forces storm the Byblos hotel in the centre of the country, ending a hostage-taking by gunmen that leaves at least 12 people dead including four UN foreign contractors.

- June 26: Thirty Britons are among 38 foreign holidaymakers killed in a gun and grenade attack on a beach resort near the Tunisian city of Sousse. The attack is claimed by the Islamic State group.

- March 18: Gunmen kill 21 tourists and a policeman at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in another attack claimed by IS.

- March 7: A grenade and gun attack on the popular La Terrasse nightclub in Bamako kills five people -- three Malians, a Belgian and a Frenchman. The attack is claimed by Al-Murabitoun.

burs-boc/txw
Three Britons may face long jail terms in Singapore

Three young Britons pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a drunken Malaysian woman during a stag party in Singapore and may now face long prison terms and caning.

Khong Tam Thanh, Le Michael and Vu Thai Son, all in their 20s, were originally charged with rape but admitted the lesser offence of sexual assault at the city-state's High Court after a four-day trial.

The men, British citizens of Vietnamese origin, will be sentenced on Tuesday. Sexual assault carries a penalty of up to 10 years jail and caning, a punishment that dates back to British colonial rule.

The three were in Singapore in September as part of a group of nine for a bachelor party, and attended an electronic music festival called Ultra Singapore.

The groom, the brother of Khong, was also on the trip.

They met the 23-year-old woman in a popular nightspot in the city-state. After she had agreed to have sex with one of their friends, a British citizen also of Vietnamese origin identified as Richard Ahn, he took her to his hotel room.

After the pair had sex, Khong, 22, Le and Vu -- both 24 -- took turns to enter the room and have sex with the woman as she lay drunk and unconscious, the court heard.

While the men took care to make as little noise as possible, the woman woke up as Le was assaulting her.

Prosecutors asked for a prison sentence of between five and seven years.

"The offender must pay for what he has done... (In this case), they clearly exploited the victim," said deputy public prosecutor G. Kannan.

Khong and Vu, who worked as beauticians in Britain, were convicted of an additional charge of sexual assault by using their fingers to penetrate the woman. Le is unemployed.

The men's lawyers all read out letters from their clients apologising to the victim.

"(Khong) was rash, he was reckless, and now he regrets it," his lawyer Shashi Nathan told the court.

He also offered the victim Sg$5,000 ($3,700) in compensation, which prosecutors said the woman has accepted.
Former hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was barred from running in presidential elections in May

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced a new hardline head of one of the country's top oversight bodies on Monday, while former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad kept his seat despite a string of controversies.

The appointment of former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as head of the Expediency Council means Iran's conservatives have tightened their grip on a key institution despite recent election successes for reformists.

The Expediency Council plays a critical role in shaping policy and resolving disputes between different power centres.

For years it was chaired by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the central figures of the Islamic revolution who sought to chart a middle ground between Iran's hardliners and reformists.

But his death in January has opened the way for conservatives to assert their influence.

Shahroudi, a 68-year-old who led the judiciary for a decade, has been touted in the past as a possible successor to Khamenei.

The new line-up of 44 members of the Expediency Council, who are appointed for five-year terms, includes hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi and outgoing Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, both defeated by moderate President Hassan Rouhani in May's presidential election.

Perhaps the most surprising inclusion was Ahmadinejad, a hardliner whose controversial populist style as president between 2005 and 2013 saw him eventually fall out of favour with the establishment.

He was barred from running in May's election and several corruption cases have been opened against him in recent weeks.

Mohammad Reza Aref, head of the reformist faction in parliament, was one of the few progressives included in the list despite their recent successes in legislative elections in 2016, and their critical role in helping Rouhani win re-election in May.
South Korean protesters hold placards at an anti-Trump rally

South Korean President Moon Jae-In called Monday for calm in the standoff with North Korea, saying there should never be another war on the peninsula.

Tensions have flared since US President Donald Trump, responding to the North's latest missile tests, warned it of "fire and fury like the world has never seen".

The North in turn threatened to test-fire its missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The war of words has sparked global alarm, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides.

Moon, a left-leaning leader who has previously advocated dialogue with the North, urged it to "stop all provocations and hostile rhetoric immediately, instead of worsening the situation any further".

He also indirectly urged the US -- the South's key ally and security guarantor -- to resolve the crisis peacefully.

"Our top priority is the national interest of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and our national interest lies in peace," Moon told advisers in a meeting.

"We cannot have a war on the Korean peninsula ever again," he said. The 1950-53 conflict cost more than a million lives, left cities in ruins and perpetuated the division of the peninsula.

"I am confident that the US will respond to the current situation in a calm and responsible manner in line with our policy direction," Moon said.

Moon Monday also met General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is visiting Seoul as part of a trip which will also include China and Japan.

According to Moon's spokesman, Dunford said in the meeting that the US would only consider military action against North Korea if all diplomatic and economic sanctions failed.

"He said everyone was hoping to solve the current situation without a war," spokesman Park Su-Hyun said, adding that Dunford stressed Washington would closely coordinate with Seoul over any future action.

The latest US and North Korean sabre-rattling has sparked concern that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a catastrophic conflict, although many analysts voice doubts over such a prospect.

Any conflict between the North and the US could have devastating consequences for Asia's fourth-largest economy, with Seoul within range of Pyongyang's vast conventional artillery forces.

Also within range are many of the 28,500 US troops stationed in the South.

The latest bout of tension was sparked by the North's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, which appeared to bring much of the US within range.

The tests are seen as a milestone in the North's quest to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

Since then the North and Trump have locked horns in fiery exchanges, with Trump saying on Friday that US troops were "locked and loaded" in case a military solution became necessary.

jhw/iw
The Chinese and North Korean flags attached to a railing as trucks carrying Chinese-made goods cross into North Korea on the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge at the Chinese border town of Dandong on December 18, 2013

China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Tuesday, following through on new UN sanctions after US pressure for Beijing to strongarm Pyongyang over its ally's nuclear programme.

The decision was announced on Monday after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un's regime, which has raised international alarm about where the crisis is headed.

Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions after the United States accused China of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour, which relies heavily on the Asian giant for its economic survival.

The Chinese commerce ministry said on its website that all imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood will be "completely prohibited" from Tuesday. Beijing had already announced a suspension of coal imports in February.

The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 that could cost the country $1 billion a year.

Focus on Guam

The sanctions were in response to the North's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed after the UN sanctions were approved that his country "will for sure implement that new resolution 100 percent, fully and strictly".

- China urges dialogue -

President Donald Trump warned North Korea it would face "fire and fury" if it attacked the United States while the North threatened to test-fire its missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam

China, which is suspected of failing to enforce past UN measures, accounts for 90 percent of North Korea's trade.

Trump complained in July that trade between the two nations had increased by nearly 40 percent in the first quarter.

Beijing has defended its economic ties with Pyongyang as normal commerce between neighbours and insisted the trade did not violate UN sanctions.

The suspension of coal imports deprives North Korea of massive income as it totalled $1.2 billion last year.

Among the latest banned products, China imported $74.4 million worth of iron ore in the first five months of this year, almost equalling the figure for all of 2016.

Fish and seafood imports totalled $46.7 million in June, up from $13.6 million in May.

North Korea's Kim Jong-Un (centre) boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States with missiles

The United States angered China in June when it imposed unilateral sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash.

Trump will on Monday formally order a probe into China's intellectual property practices, though US officials said it was not linked to the North Korean matter.

"It's not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep pressure on the other issue," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing.

- Soaring tensions -

The United Nations slapped new sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missile last month

Regional tensions have soared in the past week as Trump warned North Korea it would face "fire and fury" if it attacked the United States, while the North threatened to test-fire its missiles over Japan and towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

Japan has deployed Patriot missile defences in four prefectures in response.

"We will do our best to prevent (North Korea) from taking such acts by stepping up pressure through the UN," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday.

"The government's heaviest responsibility is to secure our people's lives."

North Korea has long had missiles that can reach targets across South Korea and Japan

The war of words has sparked global concern, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides in a phone call with Trump over the weekend.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In, a left-leaning leader who has previously advocated dialogue with the North, joined the appeals for restraint on Monday.

Moon called for an end to "all provocations and hostile rhetoric immediately, instead of worsening the situation any further".

The governor of Guam, Eddie Calvo, defended Trump's rhetoric against Kim's regime, saying in an interview with AFP that "sometimes a bully can only be stopped with a punch in the nose".

China has pleaded for a resumption of long-dormant six-nation talks to peacefully resolve the crisis.

But its proposal for North Korea to suspend its arms programmes in return for the United States to halt military drills in the region has been ignored.

"The relevant parties should exercise restraint, in order to avoid aggravating the words and deeds of the tense situation on the Korean peninsula," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua said.
Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been in custody since April over an incident when he allegedly failed to give way to President Edgar Lungu's motorcade

International media in Zambia were barred from a court Monday where opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema was due to appear on treason charges in a case that has fuelled political tensions.

The High Court in Lusaka issued press accreditation cards to foreign media outlets last week but later withdrew them.

"We initially withdrew the cards to activate the barcodes in good faith (but) unfortunately your applications have now been rejected," Neto Zulu, senior assistant registrar at the court, told AFP and other media outlets.

A large number of police officers were on duty at the court, where Hichilema was due to enter a plea to the treason charges.

President Edgar Lungu has denied allegations of a crackdown on dissent in Zambia.

He invoked emergency powers in July, increasing police powers of arrest and detention after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks.

Hichilema, who narrowly lost last year's presidential election, has been in custody since April over an incident when he allegedly failed to give way to Lungu's motorcade.

A lawyer from Hichilema's United Party for National Development (UPND) told AFP that the party expected the charges to be dropped and for Hichilema to walk free later Monday.

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The collapse of Yemen's infrastructure after more than two years of war has made the country's cholera epidemic the worst in the world

Cholera is believed to have affected more than 500,000 people and killed nearly 2,000 since late April, the World Health Organization said Monday.

A full 503,484 suspected cases and 1,975 deaths are attributable to the outbreak that erupted last than four months ago in the war-ravaged country, a WHO overview showed.

The UN health agency said the speed at which the deadly waterborne disease was spreading had slowed significantly since early July, but warned that it was still affecting an estimated 5,000 people each day.

The collapse of Yemen's infrastructure after more than two years of war between the Saudi-backed government and Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa has allowed the country's cholera epidemic to swell to the largest in the world.

WHO warned that the disease had spread rapidly due to deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions, with millions of people cut off from clean water across the country.

"Yemen's health workers are operating in impossible conditions," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

"Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water," he said, also lamenting that many of the doctors and nurses needed to rein in the outbreak had not been paid for nearly a year.

"They must be paid their wages so that they can continue to save lives," he said.

WHO said that it and its partners were "working around the clock" to support the national efforts to halt the outbreak, adding that more than 99 percent of people who contract cholera in Yemen can survive if they can access health services.

More than 15 million people in the country have no access to basic healthcare.

Tedros called on all sides in Yemen's conflict, which has killed more than 8,300 people since March 2015, to urgently seek a political solution.

"The people of Yemen cannot bear it much longer - they need peace to rebuild their lives and their country," he said.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will probe China's intellectual property practices

China warned Monday that nobody would win in a "trade war" with the United States as President Donald Trump prepared to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property practices.

Trump was due on Monday to sign a memorandum directing US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies.

The investigation could lead to sanctions against Beijing.

Asked about the US move, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said any member of the World Trade Organisation must respect WTO rules.

"Fighting a trade war has no future. There will be no winner and everybody will lose," Hua said at a regular news briefing.

"I believe China and the US should continue to work together for the stable and sound development of China-US economic and trade relations," she said.

US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bluntly accused China on Saturday of "stealing our intellectual property" -- long a concern of Western companies seeking a share of the enormous Chinese market.

The looming investigation follows high tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trump has accused China of failing to rein in the nuclear ambitions of its ally North Korea.

The US officials, however, said the North Korean issue and the investigation into China's trade practices are not linked.

China on Monday announced that it would ban from Tuesday imports of iron, iron ore and seafood from North Korea as it follows through on new UN sanctions approved earlier this month.

"I want to say that China-US cooperation should be based on mutual respect and mutual trust," Hua said.

"The Korean peninsula nuclear issue and the China-US trade issue are totally different and it's not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep pressure on the other issue."
More than 70 years after their creation, nuclear weapons remain a controversial deterrent measure

The doctrine of nuclear deterrence, put to the test in the standoff between Washington and Pyongyang, dates to the Cold War when the world's two superpowers seemed hellbent on "mutually assured destruction".

The arms race between United States and the then Soviet Union saw a proliferation of nuclear warheads as well as their vectors -- missiles, planes and submarines.

On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the Soviet arsenal boasted some 37,000 warheads, compared with nearly 22,000 warheads in the United States, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS).

Today, thanks to a series of multi-lateral and bilateral treaties, those numbers have dropped to around 7,000 and 4,480 respectively -- still more than enough to assure nuclear suicide for both sides.

"The nuclear weapon, invented 70 years ago, has shown itself to be an effective means of preventing war since there has been no conflict between major powers since then," said researcher Bruno Tertrais of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.

"There has never been open conflict between nuclear powers and no country with nuclear weapons has ever been invaded," he added in a report.

Similarly, "no country protected by the nuclear umbrella has ever suffered a massive military attack," he wrote, referring to NATO's 29 member states.

But critics of the deterrence doctrine reject these arguments, saying it is a theory that cannot be tested.

An atomic bomb of the type nicknamed "Little Boy" that was dropped by a US Army Air Force B-29 bomber on August 9, 1945 over Hiroshima, Japan

Moreover, they argue that the interdependence of the world's economies and the influence of international institutions have been the overriding guarantors of peace between the big powers since World War II.

- Two hair-raising tests -

The policy has faced two serious tests -- the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and a hair-trigger confrontation between India and Pakistan 40 years later.

In 1962, at the height of the Cold War, an American spy plane detected Soviet medium-range ballistic missile installations on the territory of Soviet ally Cuba just miles off the Florida coast.

The Soviet move followed the deployment of American ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey.

The US president John F. Kennedy responded with a military blockade of Cuba and placed US strategic forces on maximum alert dubbed DEFCON 2, the level preceding full-out nuclear war.

B-52 bombers were on continuous airborne patrol and dozens of inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were on ready alert.

Soviet ships laden with nuclear missiles turned back in exchange for a secret agreement by Washington to remove its missiles from Turkey.

Washington also promised not to invade Cuba.

The crisis prompted the BAS to move its "Doomsday Clock" to two minutes before midnight, the closest the world has ever been to global nuclear catastrophe in its estimation.

Four decades later India and Pakistan came to the brink of nuclear war as their decades-old dispute over Kashmir reached fever pitch, with nearly a million soldiers massed on either side of the territory's disputed border.

Both became a nuclear power in 1998.

After Pakistan's then president Pervez Musharraf said he was prepared to resort to nuclear weapons against India, India's defence minister told the International Herald Tribune that "he should realise that India can survive a nuclear attack, but Pakistan cannot."

The two sides began a series of tit-for-tat missile tests before agreeing, under US pressure, to de-escalate tensions.

They reached a ceasefire in November 2003 and started a dialogue the following January.

The stand-off between the United States and North Korea has raised questions over nuclear deterrent theory

International relations expert Daniel Vernet, former editor-in-chief of the influential French daily Le Monde, said the crisis involving North Korea illustrates the dangers of nuclear proliferation.

"Dissuasion worked as long as there were few actors and they were considered rational," he said in a recent op-ed. "Their proliferation increases the possibility for misunderstandings, false interpretations of another's intentions, or unbalanced judgement in autocratic regimes."

The BAS set its Doomsday Clock to two and a half minutes to midnight in January this year partly as a result of a Trump's "comments over North Korea, Russia and nuclear weapons."
News / National

by Staff reporter

VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly been air lifted to South Africa for medical attention after his health is reported to have deteriorated yesterday.A well-placed source said Mnangagwa was taken out of the country in the company of his wife Auxillia."He is now out of the country to seek further medical attention following (the poisoning). I can't tell you more," the source said.Details were scant at the time of going to print, but sources had initially revealed that Mnangagwa had been discharged after the alleged poisoning that happened at President Robert Mugabe's youth interface rally in Gwanda on Saturday.Another source said Mnangagwa left at 10:20am from Manyame Air Base en-route to Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.He was accompanied by his wife, his son and other close family associates.Mnangagwa, sources said, was supposed to have an engagement with war veterans in Mwenezi yesterday, but did not pitch due to his affliction.The VP had earlier yesterday been reportedly discharged from Thornhill Airbase military medical facility in Gweru, where he had been admitted.Although Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo and Information deputy minister Thokozile Mathuthu declined to comment on the matter citing VIP security concerns, sources in Mnangagwa's family said he had been certified fit and discharged from the medical facility."It's nothing to do with the public, it's a personal issue," Mathuthu said."If someone has a flu and is not feeling well, why should the government issue a statement?"It has got nothing to do with the government, you should talk to the Vice-President himself."Moyo said he was unaware Mnangagwa had been taken ill."To be honest my brother, I am in the dark as you are. I have not been briefed, so I don't know," he said."If nobody has bothered to tell me, then how would I know?"Efforts to contact presidential spokesperson, George Charamba for comment were fruitless, as his mobile phone went unanswered, while the minister of State in Mnangagwa's office, Clifford Sibanda, was also unreachable.But Mnangagwa's allies were convinced itwas their foes were behind the "poisoning"."This is the work of G40. They want to kill him because they have failed to discredit him and now the answer is to eliminate him," a top official aligned to Mnangagwa claimed."We are going to respond and the response will be felt."Even people close to the family said they suspected that the Vice-President was poisoned by his rivals within the ruling Zanu-PF party in an alleged attempt on his life.The sources said the VP was taken ill after he complained of feeling dizzy after drinking a fruit juice during the rally."He had some drink during his flight in the helicopter and at the rally. So we are no longer sure where he could have ingested the poisonous food," one of the sources said.According to protocol used on VVIPs, Mnangagwa was supposed to be rushed to a military hospital at Thornhill Airbase in Gweru, but he chose to be taken to a private hospital in the Midlands capital first before he was later transferred to the airbase after he was ruled out of danger."He refused to go to the military base and, instead, chose to go to the private hospital. He was later transferred to Thornhill after his doctor saw that he was out of danger," a close family member said.Larry Mavima, a close friend to the Mnangagwa family, who accompanied the Vice-President to Thornhill Airbase, yesterday declined to comment on his condition."I have no comment. Please refer to the Vice-President's office for details," he said.Sources said when Mnangagwa was discharged from Thornhill, doctors are reported to have prescribed bed rest and said he was out of danger.Meanwhile, United Family International Church (UFIC) leader, Emmanuel Makandiwa reportedly told his followers during a church service yesterday that he prophesied Mnangagwa's food poisoning incident on April 9 this year and publicly shared the prophesy."I see someone in authority, who is loyal to a higher office, swallowing poison through food and vomiting blood and rushed to the hospital and only prayer can save him," Makandiwa said in an April recorded video, which he showed to his congregants yesterday.UFIC spokesperson Prime Kufa confirmed the prophecy, saying: "Yes the video was played, re-living the service of the 9th of April wherein the man of God spoke about the need to pray for a prominent politician because he was seeing something entering his stomach causing him to vomit  food first and then blood and ending up in hospital. Though the man of God did not mention any names, you need to watch the footage in order to come up with your own interpretation."
Demonstrators shout slogans in front of Moroccan security forces during a march in defiance of a government ban in the northern Moroccan city of Al-Hoceima on July 20, 2017

Morocco on Monday rejected accusations by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that it obstructed coverage of months of unrest and protests that have shaken the northern Rif region.

In July, RSF issued a scathing statement accusing the authorities in the North African country of preventing journalists from covering events in the Rif, particularly in the main city of Al-Hoceima.

"The situation of Moroccan and foreign journalists covering the events in northern Morocco keeps on getting worse," said Yasmine Kacha, the head of RSF's North Africa bureau, at the time.

"By trying to prevent coverage of the Rif protests, the Moroccan authorities are gradually turning this region into a no-go zone for independent media."

On Monday, the culture and communications ministry rejected the accusations as biased, unfounded and "lacking in credibility and proof".

It said 89 foreign media correspondents accredited in Morocco hold "all the permits necessary to carry out their work under normal conditions across the country".

The authorities have not "influenced the coverage" of any foreign or local journalist, the ministry said.

However, it acknowledged the arrest and sentencing in July of local journalist Hamid El Mahdaoui at the start of a banned demonstration in Al-Hoceima on charges of incitement.

El Mahdaoui, who heads the Badil online news site, was found guilty of helping to organise "a non-authorised march" and having "invited" others to take part, the website said.

He was sentenced to three months in jail and fined 20,000 dirhams ($2,120, 1,800 euros), Badil said.

During the banned July 20 demonstration, police in Al-Hoceima fired tear gas to disperse protesters and dozens of people including El Mahdaoui were arrested.

At the same time internet connection slowed and was at times fully interrupted across Al-Hoceima, which "complicated the work of journalists on the ground", RSF said.

The media watchdog has said a total of seven citizen-journalists have been arrested in the Rif in recent months.

The protests erupted last October after a fishmonger was crushed to death in a rubbish truck as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated for being caught out of season.

Demands for justice later snowballed into a wider social movement named Al-Hirak al-Shaabi, calling for jobs, development and an end to graft.
Israeli rabbi and right-wing MP Yehuda Glick sets up a make-shift office outside a flashpoint Jerusalem site holy to Muslims and Jews on August 14, 2017 to protest a ban on lawmakers from entering it

A rabbi and lawmaker from Israel's ruling party held office hours Monday outside a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to protest a government ban on visits by MPs and ministers.

Yehuda Glick, who was shot in 2014 over his campaign for Jewish prayer rights at the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, said it was a one-day action.

"I'm here to protest the fact that the prime minister won't enable police to allow us to enter the Temple Mount," Glick told AFP.

"I suffer every day I can't enter the Temple Mount," he said, as he held court at one of the gates to the compound alongside a number of bodyguards.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in October 2015 imposed the ban on visits by MPs and ministers to the flashpoint religious site in an effort to restore calm after an outbreak of violence.

The unrest was fuelled in part by fears among Palestinians that Israel was planning to assert further control over the compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

The site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, and it is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Glick had in March petitioned the supreme court against Netanyahu's ban.

The government decided in response to allow lawmakers to visit the compound for a "pilot number of days" in July, but an outbreak of violence there put off the plan.

- 'We don't want to harm Muslims' -

Glick, a US-born rabbi, survived a 2014 assassination attempt by a Palestinian over his campaign for Jewish prayer rights at the site before he joined parliament as a member of Netanyahu's Likud party.

Violence erupted in and around the site after three Arab Israelis shot dead two Israeli policemen on July 14.

Israel responded by installing metal detectors at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, used as a staging point for the attack.

For nearly two weeks, worshippers refused to submit to the checks and staged mass prayers in surrounding streets.

An Israeli border policewoman holds her weapon while checking the ID of Palestinians on their way to Friday noon prayer at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on August 4, 2017

Ensuing protests and clashes left seven Palestinians dead, while three Israelis were stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant.

The crisis abated when Israel removed the detectors.

Jews are allowed to visit the compound but not pray there, and the site has been the scene of regular confrontation when they try to flout the rule.

Glick described the site as "the essence of my life."

"There's no reason in the world to think that my entering the Temple Mount will stir trouble," he said.

"The Jewish god is inclusive... he wants to see the prayer of Muslims and Jews and Christians and Indonesians and Mexicans," Glick said.

"We don't want to harm the Muslims, on the contrary... when I see a Muslim praying at the Temple Mount it fills my heart with great joy. It shows me the fulfullment of the prophecies of our prophets."
UN officials in Mali have denounced the use of child soldiers by some of armed groups in the north of the country

Gunmen attacked a UN base in central Mali on Monday, killing a UN peacekeeper and a Malian soldier, the United Nations said, denouncing a "revolting terrorist attack".

The soldiers were killed during an attack in Douentza, in the Mopti region, according to a statement from the UN mission in the country, known by the acronym MINUSMA.

Another peacekeeper was wounded but not seriously, the statement said.

A group of attackers "fired at a MINUSMA camp from an adjacent hill," with the Malian armed forces returning fire, according to the statement.

A second group of attackers shot at peacekeepers in a neighbouring camp, who also returned fire, killing two of the assailants.

The UN mission called it a "terrorist attack" and said it would not stop its "support of Mali and its people in order to contribute to the achievement of lasting peace and stability."

A Malian military source, confirming the attack, said reinforcements had been sent to bolster security in the town, he added.

Last week, UN peacekeepers accused former rebel fighters and a rival pro-government militia in the north of the country of having used child soldiers in recent clashes.

On Friday, nine child soldiers aged 15 to 17 were handed over to UN peacekeepers in the northern city of Kidal.

In 2012, key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis say the United States has "no interest" in regime change in North Korea, in a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned Monday that an attack by North Korea against the United States could quickly escalate into war, as he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson moved to dial down tensions.

North Korea last week threatened to test-fire four missiles that would fly toward the small US Pacific island territory of Guam, following a promise from President Donald Trump to meet ongoing threats from Pyongyang with "fire and fury."

"If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly," Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

Mattis's comments came after he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal that America has "no interest" in regime change in Pyongyang or the accelerated reunification of the two Koreas, and stressed the importance of a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The two statesmen decided to write the piece a couple of weeks ago, and it had not been in response to last week's heated rhetoric, Mattis said.

"We were thinking it would be wise to put out something that shows how the State Department and the Defense Department work together, it's not one or the other, it's the two working together," he said.

Mattis and Tillerson said the United States favors a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off, especially with help from China, though they stressed diplomacy is "backed by military options."

"The US has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea," Mattis and Tillerson wrote.

"We do not seek an excuse to garrison US troops north of the Demilitarized Zone. We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang."

Mattis and Tillerson called on China, which is North Korea's main trading partner and ally, to take advantage of an "unparalleled opportunity" to assert its influence on Pyongyang.

"If China wishes to play a more active role in securing regional peace and stability -- from which all of us, especially China, derive such great benefit -- it must make the decision to exercise its decisive diplomatic and economic leverage over North Korea," the US officials wrote.

Mattis and Tillerson also credited UN efforts and said the United States was willing to negotiate with North Korea, but said Pyongyang should indicate a desire to show good faith by halting weapons and nuclear tests.

General Joseph Dunford, who chairs the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and is the nation's top uniformed military officer, met Monday with South Korea's defense minister Song Young-Moo and defense chief General Lee Sun-Jin.

He "conveyed America's readiness to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the US homeland," said spokesman Captain Darryn James.
An Iranian drone with no lights on flew close to US aircraft operating in the Gulf, US officials said Monday, in what they called an "unsafe and unprofessional" incident

An Iranian drone with no lights on flew close to US aircraft operating in the Gulf, US officials said Monday, in what they called an "unsafe and unprofessional" incident.

The Sunday night event saw an Iranian QOM-1 drone fly within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of aircraft based on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier operating in international waters, Navy spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey said in a statement.

"Despite repeated radio calls to establish communications and remain clear, the QOM-1's controlling station was unresponsive and the (drone) did not use any aircraft navigation lights while it made several passes in close proximity to Nimitz and its escort ships during active flight operations, coming within 1,000 feet of US aircraft," he said.

The failure to use standard, internationally mandated navigation lights at night "created a dangerous situation with the potential for collision" and was not in keeping with international maritime customs and laws, McConnaughey added.

The incident follows an August 8 encounter when an Iranian drone flew within 100 feet (30 meters) of an F/A-18E Super Hornet.

The US jet had to maneuver to avoid collision, with the drone passing just 100 feet away at its closest point.
Marcus Hutchins (R), the British cyber security researcher accused of creating and selling malware that steals banking passwords, appeared at a court hearing Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his lawyers Marcia Hofmann and Brian Klein

A lawyer for a 23-year-old British computer security researcher accused of creating malware to attack the banking system on Monday called him a "hero" and predicted he would be "fully vindicated."

The lawyer's remarks came after Marcus Hutchins -- who three months ago found a "kill switch" to stem the spread of the devastating WannaCry ransomware outbreak -- pleaded not guilty to US charges of creating and distributing malicious software.

Hutchins was arrested earlier this month in Las Vegas after attending the Def Con gathering of computer hackers.

The case stunned the computer security community and drew fire from critics who argued that researchers often work with computer code which can be deployed for malicious purposes.

"Marcus Hutchins is a brilliant young man and a hero," said Marcia Hofmann, an attorney affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, who represented Hutchins at the hearing.

"He is going to vigorously defend himself against these charges. And when the evidence comes to light, we are confident he will be fully vindicated."

Hours after the hearing, Hutchins resumed activity on Twitter.

"I'm still on trial, still not allowed to go home, still on house arrest; but now i am allowed online," he wrote.

He also joked about the experience with a sarcastic "to do" list from his US visit: "Things to do during defcon: Attend parties. Visit red rock canyon. Go shooting. Be indicted by the FBI. Rent supercars."

A federal indictment accuses Hutchins and another individual of making and distributing the Kronos "banking Trojan," a reference to malicious software designed to steal user names and passwords used at online banking sites.

The indictment set the time of the activity by Hutchins as being from July 2014 to July 2015.

A trial date was set for the case for October 23, according to participants at the hearing, who added that a federal magistrate agreed to allow Hutchins to reside in California while the case is pending.

Hutchins, who lives in Britain and remains free on $30,000 bail, works for a California-based computer security firm. A court official said his bail terms were modified allowing Hutchins to travel within the United States and to access the internet.

"We are very pleased that the court modified the terms (of bail) allowing him to return to his important work," said Brian Klein, the second attorney for Hutchins.

His arrest has sparked criticism from some researchers who argue that the case could dissuade "white hat hackers" -- those who find security flaws to help fix them -- from cooperating with authorities.

Hutchins, known by the alias "Malwaretech," was charged in an indictment that was dated July 12 and unsealed in early August by federal authorities in Wisconsin.

According to the indictment, Hutchins was part of a conspiracy to distribute the hacking tool on so-called dark markets.
In signing a memorandum launching a trade investigation targeting China, US President Donald Trump said Washington would no longer 'turn a blind eye' to unfair practices

Trade tensions between the United States and China heated up on Tuesday as Beijing warned that it "will not sit idle" if a US probe into its intellectual property practices leads to sanctions.

President Donald Trump's decision to order the investigation comes on top of strains between the two nations over how to handle Beijing's ally North Korea.

Trump on Monday signed a memorandum directing US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether Chinese policies hurt American investors or companies -- with retaliatory measures a possible outcome.

"We will stand up to any country that unlawfully forces American companies to transfer their valuable technology as a condition of market access. We will combat the counterfeiting and piracy that destroys American jobs," Trump said.

"Washington will turn a blind eye no longer," Trump said, vowing to safeguard copyrights, patents and other intellectual property that are "vital to our security and to our prosperity".

The president said the US would no longer tolerate Beijing's "theft" of US industrial secrets, long a concern of major foreign corporations seeking a share of the huge Chinese market.

"We will engage in a thorough investigation and, if needed, take action to preserve the future of US industry," Lighthizer said.

China's commerce ministry issued a statement voicing "serious concern" and warning that any US trade protectionism "will definitely harm bilateral trade relations".

"If the US side take actions that impair the mutual trade relations, disregarding the facts and disrespecting multilateral trade rules, China will not sit idle," the statement said.

The ministry said the country "is definitely going to adopt all appropriate measures to vigorously defend the lawful rights and interest of China."

The United States is China's second-largest trading partner after the European Union, but Washington and Beijing have seen their relations grow increasingly fraught since a promising summit between Trump and China's Xi Jinping in April.

- Multiple trade disputes -

The new intellectual property inquiry joins numerous investigations launched by Washington into Chinese trade practices, notably those concerning steel and aluminum and their national security consequences, which the Trump administration began earlier this year.

However, the start of a US probe will not immediately result in open confrontation.

Lighthizer will first need to reach a preliminary finding of unfair practices by China before opening a formal investigation, which could take as much as a year, administration officials said.

The Chinese commerce ministry said the country has "always been paying high attention to intellectual property right protection, continuously perfecting the legislation", and that the progress it has made on that front is "obvious to all".

Yang Zhao, chief China economist at Nomura research firm, said a US tariff penalty would only cause minor impacts on the Chinese economy and fall short of a full blown trade war.

"The decision to launch this probe may raise the risk of tit-for-tat trade protectionism," Zhao said in a note.

"But we believe the Trump administration's strategy is more likely to be one that looks to raise its bargaining power to reach a better longer-lasting solution over the start of, or the threat of, a real trade war."

China-US trade balance

Since launching his successful run for the White House and then taking office, Trump has frequently accused China of undermining the US economy.

The bilateral US trade deficit with China approached $350 billion in 2016, and Trump has repeatedly blamed Chinese imports for gutting employment in US sectors such as steel.

Last week, Washington announced preliminary sanctions against Chinese imports of aluminium foil. But so far, the US has not imposed heavier trade measures on Chinese goods.

- North Korea a bargaining chip? -

On Thursday, Trump reiterated the suggestion that he could soften his position on trade if Beijing were to do more to help rein in nuclear-armed North Korea.

China said it would halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Tuesday, in accordance with new UN sanctions that Beijing voted to approve.

US administration officials, however, have denied any link between the latest trade action and Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Beijing echoed this view Monday, with the foreign ministry saying the two matters were "totally different."

Despite Monday's expected action, Trump has so far refrained from making good on threats of retaliatory trade measures against China.

This includes in particular concerns over Beijing's requirement that foreign companies establish local joint ventures. According to Washington, this can mean surrendering technological know-how to Chinese partners.
Iraqi government forces drive down a road leading to Tal Afar on June 9, 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters

Iraqi officials said Monday that preparations have been made for the battle to retake Tal Afar, a town held by the Islamic State jihadist group between Mosul and the Syrian border.

Federal police chief Lieutenant General Raed Shakir Jawdat said in a statement that "armoured and elite units are headed for Tal Afar", the main remaining stronghold of IS in northern Iraq.

The town is located 70 kilometres (43.5 miles) west of Mosul, where the jihadist group declared its "caliphate" in 2014 before being ousted from the city in July.

The units, whose number has not been specified, were "regrouping in combat positions in preparation for the next battle, said the statement.

Joining them is the Hashed al-Shaabi, a Shiite-dominated coalition of paramilitary units deployed since 2014 to halt the jihadist advance.

"Hashed al-Shaabi commanders met Saturday with army and police commanders to decide on the plan to free Tal Afar," spokesman Ahmed al-Assadi told reporters.

The coalition, which includes Iran-backed militias, would take part "actively and on all fronts" in the battle for Tal Afar to be launched within days, he said.

Assadi did not give a date for the launch and said that only Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi could announce the beginning of military operations.

IS jihadists overran Tal Afar in June 2014, when it had a population of around 200,000.

Tal Afar is surrounded by Hashed al-Shaabi and cut off from Mosul in the east and the Syrian border to the north and west.

The town was a Shiite-majority enclave in the mostly Sunni Muslim area with an overwhelmingly Turkmen population before its capture by IS.

The jihadists still hold Hawija, in the province of Kirkuk, 300 kilometres north of Baghdad.

But any military offensive in Hawija is expected to be postponed due to an upcoming planned referendum on Kurdish independence.

IS is also still present in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, including the Al-Qaim area on the border with war-ravaged Syria.
Deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville has sparked demonstrations like this one in Washington

The suspected white supremacist who allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of protesters over the weekend was described Monday as a quiet man who has held radical views for years.

A US judge held James Fields, 20, without bond on a second-degree murder charge. He is accused of killing a 32-year-old woman Saturday when he plowed his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-protestors after a violent rally by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions told ABC's Good Morning America program that the attack, which also injured 19 people, meets "the definition of domestic terrorism" under US law.

An image of Fields emerged as an introverted young man who held white supremacist views and admired Nazi ideology, but who failed as a soldier despite a fascination with military tactics.

A photo of Fields captured at the Saturday rally showed him carrying symbols attributed to a racist right-wing organization, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors American hate groups.

James Alex Field, 20, has been charged with second degree murder for allegedly plowing his car into a crowd of protestors, killing a young woman and injuring 19 others in Charlottesville, Virginia

Fields's views were known to Derek Weimer, his former teacher at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky, where he said other teachers were also concerned about the quiet student's "very radical beliefs."

He was interested in military tactics, especially of the German military of World War II, Weimer said.

"He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler," he told CNN.

"He went to a good school. Lived in a good neighborhood. There were plenty of people around to try to guide him in the right direction. My first feeling is we failed. I failed," Weimer said in a separate interview with Ohio public radio station WVXU.

Fields enlisted in the US Army in August 2015 soon after graduating, but was released four months later "due to a failure to meeting training standards," the service said in a statement.

Fields and his mother Samantha Bloom had moved from Kentucky to nearby Ohio in recent months, according to US media reports.

Bloom told the Toledo Blade newspaper that her son had said he was going to an "alt-right" rally in Virginia -- using a term that encompasses the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

"I thought it had something to do with Trump," she told the newspaper, adding that she did not know about the extremist nature of the event.

"I try to stay out of his political views," she said.
A picture taken on August 10, 2017, shows a man walking past the Damascus International Fair grounds in the Syrian capital. The fair is scheduled to run from August 17 to August 26

The Damascus International Fair, the top event on pre-war Syria's economic calendar, is making a comeback this week after a five-year absence with western companies among participants from 23 countries.

Organisers say firms from Britain, France and Germany will exhibit their goods and services in a private capacity, with their countries having severed relations with President Bashar al-Assad's Syria.

"Countries with a hostile attitude towards Syria have not been invited," Fares al-Kartally, the fair's general director, told AFP.

"But at the same time we've not expressed reservations over any company expressing an interest in taking part in the fair either directly or through Syrian mediators," he said, without naming them.

The Damascus trade fair, which dates back to 1954, making it the oldest in the Arab world, opens on Thursday and runs for 10 days.

Its comeback has been made possible by "the return of calm and stability in most regions" of Syria, said Kartally. "We want this fair to signal the start of (the country's) reconstruction."

The fair was last staged in the summer of 2011, just months after the outbreak of Syria's conflict, which the World Bank estimates has cost the Arab state as much as $226 billion in losses, or four times its annual pre-war GDP.

Around 1,500 delegates are expected to attend, with 49 pavilions for different sectors ranging from the textile industry which was a mainstay of the Syrian economy before the war but has since been decimated, to the agricultural sector, according to organisers.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Robert Mugabe confirmed that his deputy was in Johannesburg, South Africa for treatment, heightening concerns around his condition.Mnangagwa was conspicuous by his absence during the country's Heroes Day commemorations presided over by the Zimbabwean leader on Monday afternoon. He was reportedly taken ill and whisked away on a military helicopter while allegedly vomiting profusely.Mugabe had begun his keynote address by revealing that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is in Johannesburg getting medical attention at a hospital there."He is not back yet from hospital in Johannesburg," Mugabe said during his speech at the national Heroes Acre. He did not give details.Mnangagwa is under fire for allegedly displaying unbridled ambition to succeed his long-serving boss.President's Mugabe's one-time right-hand-man has been a dead man walking after the veteran leader's wife Grace started relentlessly making sensational claims during party rallies the VP harboured a plot to dethrone her husband.Mnangagwa's allies - backed by military chiefs as has been confirmed by the Zimbabwean leader - have not helped matters either after they appeared to openly back the vice president.Mnangagwa fanatics within the vocal mainstream war veterans group want Mugabe to step down and hand over to the Midlands strongman.Both government and Zanu PF officials have chosen to be cautious over the issue. However, the Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa says Mnangagwa is in a stable condition.Dr Parirenyatwa has cleared the air following a health scare suffered by Vice President Mnangagwa saying the nation must not panic because the vice president is recovering well and is in a stable condition though still in hospital.Dr Parirenyatwa was speaking during a media briefing where he was in the company of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Christopher Mushohwe in the capital this Monday.Dr Parirenyatwa said Mnangagwa had severe stomach pains during the youth interface rally and was rushed to South Africa for treatment where he is recovering well.Dr Parirenyatwa and Dr Mushohwe also said Zimbabweans will continue to be updated on the condition of Vice President Mnangagwa.
Jerry Varnell told the undercover FBI agent that, unlike McVeigh's bombing of Oklahoma City in 1995 that left 168 dead (pictured), he did not want to kill a lot of people

US officials announced Monday the arrest of a man who sought to detonate a bomb in Oklahoma City reminiscent of the deadly 1995 bombing by anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh in the same city.

Jerry Varnell, 23, was arrested Saturday after attempting to trigger what he thought was an ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb -- like McVeigh's -- outside a BancFirst branch in the center of the city, according to a criminal complaint filed in Oklahoma district court.

Varnell told an undercover FBI agent and a cooperating source he wanted to attack the government, with his initial target the Federal Reserve in Washington, eight blocks from the White House.

He also considered attacking data centers of Facebook and the Internal Revenue Service before settling on the bank in Oklahoma City, 130 miles (210 kilometers) east of his home in Sayre, Oklahoma.

"I think I'm going to go with what the okc bomber used," Varnell allegedly told the FBI's source in an encrypted message.

"What happened in Oklahoma City was not an attack on America, it was retaliation," he later said. "The time for revolution is now."

McVeigh killed 168 people when he exploded a fertilizer bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. McVeigh was arrested soon afterward, imprisoned and in 2001 executed for the crime.

Varnell's arrest was announced two days after white supremacist and extreme-right anti-government groups clashed with opponents in Charlottesville, Virginia. One woman killed when an extremist rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protestors, and two police officers died in a helicopter crash.

Varnell told investigators he supported the far-right "III%ers" anti-government movement and wanted to form his own armed militia.

But he told the undercover agent that, unlike McVeigh, he did not want to kill a lot of people with his bombing, but to "cripple the government," according to the complaint.

Varnell also told the agent he wanted a way to communicate his message about the bombing to prevent other groups like Islamic State from claiming responsibility.

According to the complaint, Varnell and the FBI agent built the bomb in a van, with "inert" materials including blasting caps and dynamite that were all supplied by the agent.

The inert bomb was parked outside the bank and Varnell was immediately arrested early Saturday morning after he tried to used a cellphone to set it off.
James Alex Fields, 20, has been charged with second degree murder for allegedly plowing his car into a crowd of protestors, killing a young woman and injuring 19 others in Charlottesville, Virginia

The suspected white supremacist who allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of protesters over the weekend, leaving one woman dead, is a failed soldier who openly admired Adolf Hitler at high school, according to associates.

Teachers and relatives of James Fields, who was refused bail Monday by a court in Virginia, painted a picture of a reserved young man -- but one who was not afraid to espouse white supremacist views from a young age.

A photo of Fields, 20, captured at Saturday's rally showed him carrying symbols attributed to a racist organization, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors American hate groups.

Fields's views were known to Derek Weimer, his former teacher at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky, where he said other teachers were also concerned about the quiet student's "very radical beliefs."

He was interested in military tactics, especially those employed by the German military during World War II, Weimer said.

"He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler," Weimer told CNN.

"He went to a good school. Lived in a good neighborhood. There were plenty of people around to try to guide him in the right direction. My first feeling is we failed. I failed," Weimer said in a separate interview with Ohio radio station WVXU.

Relatives of Fields said his father died before he was born and that he suffered from the lack of a father figure, while fellow students told US media he struggled to make friends at school.

Fields enlisted in the US Army in August 2015 soon after graduating, but was released four months later "due to a failure to meet training standards," the service said in a statement.

Fields and his mother Samantha Bloom had moved from Kentucky to nearby Ohio in recent months, Bloom told reporters, appearing surprised to learn her son had been arrested over the killing of 32-year-old Heather Heyer in Charlottesville on Saturday.

The website TMZ said it had obtained Kentucky police records showing that Bloom called police due to her son's threatening and violent behavior when he was aged 13 and 14.

Bloom told The Toledo Blade that her son had said he was going to an "alt-right" rally in Virginia -- using a term that encompasses the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

"I thought it had something to do with Trump," she told the newspaper, adding she did not know about the extremist nature of the event.

"I try to stay out of his political views," she said.
Travis Kalanick, seen in a 2016 photo, resigned earlier this year as CEO of the global ridesharing service Uber, but his future at the company is still being debated by investors and board members

A bitter fight over control of Uber has intensified in recent days with warring factions battling over the future role, if any, of ousted chief executive Travis Kalanick at the global rideshare titan.

On Monday, a major investor fired off a message to Uber employees explaining why it filed suit last week against founder Kalanick, accusing him of covering misdeeds while rigging the board in order to return to power at the company.

Benchmark Capital Partners said in the letter it acted to push Kalanick out due to "a deep conviction that it would be better for Uber, its employees, and investors to have a fresh start."

The letter said the company needed to clean up "utterly unacceptable" behavior at the company, which has been roiled by disturbing reports of a cutthroat workplace culture, harassment, discrimination and questionable business tactics to thwart rivals.

It added that Kalanick failed to live up to his promises when he quit as CEO in June and that he may be manipulating the search process for his replacement to "create a power vacuum in which Travis could return."

The suit filed by Benchmark accused Kalanick of committing fraud, breach of contract, and violating fiduciary duty by conniving to "entrench himself on Uber's board of directors and increase his power for his own selfish ends."

The company which calls on a Delaware court to bar Kalanick from tinkering with the Uber board.

- Kalanick loyalists -

Shareholders loyal to Kalanick meanwhile have asked Benchmark to sell its shares and have nothing to do with the Uber board of directors.

In a letter to Benchmark last week, investors siding with Kalanick accused the company of hurting Uber by holding "the company hostage to a public relations disaster" by calling for his resignation on short notice "and within weeks of a personal tragedy, under threat of public scandal."

Kalanick's mother had died a short time earlier in a boating accident.

The letter signed by early Uber "angel" investor Shervin Pishevar and others asked Benchmark to sell enough shares to surrender board appointment rights, saying it had people ready to buy the stake.

An early investment of $27 million made in Uber by Benchmark was now estimated to be worth some $8.4 billion.

Uber is not listed on a public exchange, so its value is determined by how much private investors pay for stakes in the company.

- New investors? -

Global ridesharing giant Uber is being roiled by internal strife over control since the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick

Meanwhile, a New York Times report on Monday indicated that Uber's board is selling shares in the San Francisco-based company at a discount from Uber's estimated $68 billion value with one of the scenarios allowing Benchmark to take its money and leave.

One of the reported offers is from Japanese banking giant SoftBank and the other from a consortium of investors led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Uber declined comment on the report.

Uber dominates the market for smartphone on-demand car rides, but has faced fierce opposition from regulators and the taxi industry in various countries.

Uber drivers have been pressing for better pay and benefits befitting employees instead of contract workers. The company's image has been dented by an array of scandals, from sexism in the headquarters to Kalanick caught on video ranting at a driver during a ride.

The Benchmark suit contends Kalanick essentially duped the investor into agreeing to expand the Uber board by three seats to 11 people, giving the then chief executive the power to appoint members.

Kalanick, who had been the driving force behind Uber's massive global expansion and whose brash style had made him a liability, still holds a large voting stake in the company.

Uber has yet to replace Kalanick, with Benchmark in the letter to employees claiming it appeared at times that the search for a new chief executive was being intentionally derailed to clear a track for him to return to power.
If North Korea fires a missile at Guam, "then it's game on, and we will try and do our best to make sure it does not hit the United States," Mattis said

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned Monday that an attack by North Korea against the United States could quickly escalate into war, and said the military would try to shoot down any missile that threatened Guam.

North Korea last week said it was drawing up plans to test-fire four missiles that would fly toward Guam but splash into the sea before hitting the small US Pacific island territory, after President Donald Trump promised to meet ongoing threats from Pyongyang with "fire and fury."

"If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly," Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

Mattis's comments came after he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said America has "no interest" in regime change in Pyongyang or the accelerated reunification of the two Koreas, and stressed the importance of a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The defense chief said the Pentagon is able to tell "within moments" where North Korea's missiles are headed, and said the United States would try to shoot down anything that threatened America.

"We will defend the country from any attack at any time from any quarter," he said.

If North Korea fires missiles deemed to be a threat to Guam, "then it's game on, and we will try and do our best to make sure it does not hit the United States," Mattis said.

When asked if he would order the shoot-down of missiles headed toward Guam -- but which would fall short of actually hitting the island -- Mattis said he did not want to signal whether the United States would still try to stop them.

"If it falls short of Guam, then it becomes an issue that we take up however the president chooses," Mattis said.

"I need a certain amount of ambiguity on this because I am not going to tell them what I'll do in each case."
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has sold its stake in General Electric

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has sold off its stake in General Electric, according to US regulatory papers filed Monday.

Berkshire had previously held 10.4 million shares in the US industrial giant, according to earlier securities filings.

But GE was no longer listed among the 20 or so Berkshire stakes, according to the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares of General Electric are down nearly 20 percent thus far in 2017, a stark underperformance compared with the index, which has risen more than 11 percent.

GE has been hurt by weakness in its oil and gas business.

The company in June announced that longtime chief executive Jeff Immelt was retiring and would be replaced by GE veteran John Flannery. But a disappointing outlook during the company's July earnings conference call further pressured shares.

As Berkshire Hathaway exited GE, it added a 17.5 million share stake in Synchrony Financial, a credit card company spun out of GE in 2015.

Shares in GE dipped 0.4 percent in after-hours trading to $25.27, while Synchrony rose 4.4 percent to $30.95.
The UN peacekeeping force MINUSMA has borne the brunt of attacks in Mali

Gunmen attacked two United Nations bases in Mali on Monday, killing a peacekeeper, a contractor and seven Malians, the UN said, in the latest attacks on its presence in the country.

The Togolese peacekeeper and a Malian soldier were killed in an attack in the early morning in Douentza, in the central region of Mopti, according to a statement from the UN mission in the country, known by the acronym MINUSMA.

Hours later, six men toting guns and grenades drove up to the entrance of the UN mission's camp in Timbuktu in northwestern Mali, the UN announced in a separate statement.

They opened fire on Malian UN security guards, killing five of them, as well as a policeman and a civilian contractor whose nationality was not specified, the UN said in a separate statement.

A UN source told AFP six guards had been killed, but the statement said one was wounded but had not died.

Two suspected jihadists were killed in the Douentza attack and six in Timbuktu.

UN peacekeeping operations in Africa

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the violence in a statement, stressing that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers "may constitute war crimes under international law".

The body's 15-member Security Council urged Mali to investigate the incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The assault underlines the scale of the UN's struggles to contain a death toll among its peacekeepers that has already earned its Mali mission the unwelcome title of the world's deadliest active UN deployment.

Another peacekeeper was lightly wounded in Douentza and six others, as well as a Malian security guard, suffered injuries in Timbuktu, according to the UN statements.

"I don't have enough words to condemn this cowardly and ignoble act a few hours after the terrorist attack we endured in Douentza," said UN Special Representative for Mali, Mahamat Saleh Saleh Annadif, in a statement.

"We must combine all our efforts in order to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can answer to their crimes in court," Annadif added.

A Malian security source meanwhile told AFP that the Timbuktu security guards were "killed on the spot," though the attack soon attracted the attention of Malian forces and French helicopters stationed in the area, who fired on the attackers.

On Monday night, reinforcements were deployed to both bases and in the city of Timbuktu itself.

- Constantly targeted -

Active in Mali since 2013, the UN mission, known as MINUSMA, is constantly targeted by jihadists that roam northern and central Mali, and has also been beset by operational difficulties including a lack of helicopters and allegations of abuse lodged by the population.

Last week, UN peacekeepers accused former rebel fighters and a rival pro-government militia in the north of the country of having used child soldiers in recent clashes.

In 2012, key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising, leading to a French-led military intervention and the eventual deployment of MINUSMA.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

Monday's attacks in Mali came hours after an assault in Ouagadougou, the capital of the neighbouring Sahel state of Burkina Faso, where 18 people were gunned down at a restaurant popular with foreigners.

France is pushing for five countries in the western-central Sahara region to form a joint "G5" force to combat jihadism.

It would comprise 5,000 men drawn from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

But the plan has met with worries over funding, with an estimated 400 million euros ($471 million) required to make it operational.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis suggested Monday that a ban announced by President Donald Trump on transgender people serving in the US military may not be a done deal.

In a series of tweets, Trump last month upended an Obama-era policy of more than a year that allowed transgender troops to serve openly.

But in the weeks since the July 26 tweets, the White House has not issued formal guidance to the Pentagon explaining how a ban would work, or what would happen to those transgender troops who have already come out.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis suggested Monday that a ban announced by President Donald Trump on transgender people serving in the US military may not be a done deal

Mattis said he had 'no doubt' that the White House would be providing additional guidance, and said the Pentagon is giving military input as it studies the issue.

'The policy is going to address whether or not transgenders can serve under what conditions, what medical support they require, how much time would they be perhaps non-deployable, leaving others to pick up their share of everything,' Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

'There's a host of issues... it's obviously very complex.'

The current Obama-era policy remains in place for now. When pushed on whether the Pentagon will still employ transgender troops, Mattis said: 'We are going to study the issue.'

In a series of tweets, Trump last month upended an Obama-era policy of more than a year that allowed transgender troops to serve openly

He added that the Pentagon had received no White House directions that would 'indicate any harm to anybody right now.'

In a lawsuit filed in federal court last week, five transgender women from the Air Force, Coast Guard and the Army said they faced uncertainty about their futures, including whether they would be fired or lose post-military and retirement benefits.

The suit was filed in the US District Court in Washington, DC on behalf of the transgender service members with nearly 60 years of combined military service.

The lawsuit, filed by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, says such a ban is unconstitutional, denying transgender service members equal protection and due process.

The number of transgender troops among America's 1.3 million active duty service members is small, with estimates topping out at 15,000.

President Donald Trump tweeted about the new U.S. military policy on transgender individuals last month

Trump's tweeted announcement came with little apparent coordination with the Pentagon and landed while Mattis was on vacation.

Several senior military officials have voiced unease over the policy shift, with the head of the Coast Guard saying he would not 'break faith' with transgender personnel.

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain said in a statement at the time that the military should welcome capable people 'regardless of their gender identity.'

McCain added: '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 soand should be treated as the patriots they are.'

Trump last week said he did the Pentagon a 'great favor' by banning transgender troops, saying the issue had been 'complicated' and 'confusing' for the military.
This July 28, 2017 picture from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency shows leader Kim Jong-Un (R) celebrating a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at undisclosed place in North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has been briefed on a plan to fire missiles near Guam, home to US air and naval bases, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.

Kim "examined the plan for a long time" and "discussed it" with commanding officers on Monday during his inspection of the command of the Strategic Force in charge of the North's missile units, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea's military said last week that it would finalise by mid-August its detailed plan to test-fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles in an "enveloping fire" around Guam and report it to its leader for approval.

Tensions have been mounting since the North tested two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, which appeared to bring much of the US within range.

Responding to the tests, US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen".

The North in turn threatened to test-fire its missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The war of words has sparked global alarm, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In also waded in on Monday, calling for calm in the standoff with North Korea, saying there should never be another war on the peninsula.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hinted that he would hold off on plans to test-fire missiles towards Guam

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has been briefed on a plan to fire missiles near Guam but hinted that he would hold off on the launch, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.

Kim "examined the plan for a long time" and "discussed it" with commanding officers on Monday during his inspection of the command of the Strategic Force in charge of the North's missile units, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

He said that "the US imperialists caught the noose around their necks due to their reckless military confrontation racket".

But Kim hinted he would hold off on the plan to test-fire missiles towards the US Pacific island territory, saying he would "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees spending a hard time of every minute of their miserable lot".

"In order to defuse the tensions and prevent the dangerous military conflict on the Korean peninsula, it is necessary for the US to make a proper option first and show it through action, as it committed provocations after introducing huge nuclear strategic equipment into the vicinity of the peninsula", he was quoted as saying by KCNA.

He urged the US to "stop at once arrogant provocations" against the North and not provoke it any longer.

- War of words -

North Korea's military said last week that it would finalise by mid-August its detailed plan to test-fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles in an "enveloping fire" around Guam and report it to its leader for approval.

Tensions have been mounting since the North tested two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, which appeared to bring much of the US within range.

Responding to the tests, US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen".

The North in turn threatened to test-fire its missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The war of words has sparked global alarm, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In also waded in on Monday, calling for calm in the standoff with North Korea, saying there should never be another war on the peninsula.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned Monday that an attack against the United States could quickly escalate into war, as he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson moved to dial down tensions.

Mattis's comments came after they said in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal that America has "no interest" in regime change in Pyongyang or the accelerated reunification of the two Koreas, and stressed the importance of a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The two statesmen decided to write the piece a couple of weeks ago, and it had not been in response to last week's heated rhetoric, Mattis said.

Mattis and Tillerson said the United States favors a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off, especially with help from China, though they stressed diplomacy is "backed by military options."
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A more traditional person might call it crass, an ostentatious 90th birthday bash with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. But then, no one would call Louisiana's four-term former governor, Edwin Edwards - the convicted felon with a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and a lifetime of making headlines - anything close to traditional.

The birthday festivities Saturday night at a posh Baton Rouge hotel sold out weeks in advance, with hundreds of elected officials, lobbyists and onlookers ponying up for tickets and a chance to watch the throw-back celebration remembering when Edwards was the Democratic king of Louisiana politics.

"A lot of people just feel personally close to him. No other governor has served four times. To me this is just a once-in-a-lifetime historic event," said Robert Gentry, a former newspaper publisher and the long-time Edwards friend who organized the celebration.

Trina Edwards, left, joins her husband, former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, as he cuts a cake in celebration of his 90th birthday, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuk /The Advocate via AP)

Edwards called it "one of the highlights of my long career" to see the cocktail party and ballroom packed with more than 500 people, including Louisiana's current governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards (no relation), Democratic former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Republican Senate President John Alario.

"Obviously he's beloved by a lot of folks," said Gov. John Bel Edwards.

The former governor's daughter Anna was surprised so many celebrants turned out for a man out of office for two decades, but she's been gratified to see how many people continue to embrace her father's legacy even after his federal corruption conviction.

"You never know what to expect when somebody comes home from prison. Will he be shunned? Will he be greeted warmly?" she said. "From the day I picked him up from prison he's been greeted warmly by people from all walks of life. It's amazing, and it's heartwarming."

The program included a highlight video of Edwards' life, an appearance by New Orleans burlesque dancer Chris Owens and a speech from Edwards. And everyone at the party was going home with a gift bag: photos of Edwards with his wife, Trina, and preschooler son Eli, a souvenir magazine and a commemorative poster. More items were available for sale outside the ballroom.

Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for the second half of the 20th Century, with charisma and power rivaled only by that other famous Louisiana legend from decades earlier, Huey Long.

Edwards sums up his 90 years succinctly and without bitterness: "It's very wonderful to reach 90. I've had a great life, and while I've had my ups and downs over life, I have no complaints."

He won his first office, a city council seat, in 1954, followed by elections to the state legislature and Congress before serving as governor for 16 years between 1972 and 1996. He was famous for deadpan one-liners delivered with a Cajun accent, deftly cutting one opponent by describing him as "so slow it takes him an hour and a half to watch '60 Minutes.'"

That wit is what Edwards' authorized biographer Leo Honeycutt believes is drawing so many to the birthday festivities: "People are tied of seriousness. They're tired of belligerency."

As for the attendance price tag?

"I look at this like Edwin is an entertainer," Honeycutt said. "And I haven't been to a concert yet where an entertainer just said, 'Come on in for free.' Everyone's willing to pay to see him perform."

The lovable rogue nostalgia chafes Bob Mann, an LSU mass communication professor who worked for years as a Democratic political operative. Mann said the Edwards terms were marked by razzle-dazzle, but few long-term accomplishments - and he said elected officials should "stay 10 miles away" from the party for a man convicted of corruption.

"I don't know anybody who says the state is so much better off than we were in 1972 when he took office. After four terms, he didn't markedly improve the state's lot in terms of poverty and education," Mann said. "I don't think there are many people who would argue that he ran anything close to an ethical administration in any of his four terms."

During decades in office Edwards drew a reputation for shady, backroom dealing. The ex-governor seemed to foster the status, with quips about two dozen investigations and multiple trials. As he defeated white supremacist David Duke in the 1991 governor's race, bumper stickers promoting Edwards declared: "Vote for the Crook. It's Important."

Edwards' luck with federal investigations ran out in 2000, when he was convicted in a bribery and extortion scheme to rig riverboat casino licenses during and after his fourth term. He spent more than eight years in federal prison, always maintaining his innocence.

Prison did nothing to quell public interest - or Edwards' popularity in many pockets of Louisiana. Freed in 2011, Edwards was quickly back in the spotlight, getting married for a third time, having a son and starring in a short-lived reality show while traveling the state touting his biography.

Though he continued to captivate, Edwards was unable to regain political footing. He was handed his first-ever election defeat in 2014 when he ran for Congress in a heavily Republican district. He's a real estate broker now, living in the Baton Rouge suburbs and raising his fifth child.

Edwards hasn't given up on politics entirely. Son Eli bears his same initials, EWE, a well-known monogram in Louisiana politics. Edwards said his wife printed T-shirts bearing the slogan "EWE for Governor 2043."

___

Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte

FILE - In this March 17, 2014 file photo, Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, center, walks down the hallway pushing his son, Eli, as he is accompanied by wife Trina Scott Edwards, right, and Charlotte Guedry, left, before speaking at the Baton Rouge Press Club in Baton Rouge, La. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Travis Spradling, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2011 file photo, former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, 84, and his wife Trina Scott Edwards, 32, serve as honorary bartenders at Molly's On The Market Bar during a Press Club of New Orleans function in New Orleans. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - In this July 29, 2011 file photo, former Governor Edwin Edwards, right, kisses his new bride, Trina Grimes Scott, after a ceremony in the French Quarter in New Orleans, La. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber, File)

FILE - In this July 29, 2011 file photo, fourteen-year-old Logan Scott gets ready to kiss his mother Trina Grimes Scott, who married former Governor Edwin Edwards in the French Quarter in New Orleans, La. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state.(AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2000 file photo, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, right, and his son Stephen share a moment on a park bench in front of the federal courthouse in Baton Rogue, La. Both men were on trial on federal gambling and corruption charges. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwin Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)

FILE - In this March 13, 1985 file photo, Tom Benson, left, and Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards are all smiles as they announce that Benson just signed a deal purchasing the New Orleans Saints for $64 million at a press conference in New Orleans. Louisiana's former four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2011 file photo, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards arrives with his daughter Anna Edwards, center, at the Ecumenical House, a halfway house, to begin serving the remainder of his prison sentence after being released from the Oakdale Federal penitentiary in Baton Rouge, La. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwin Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - In this February 5, 1977 file photo, actress Gloria Swanson was crowned Queen of the Mardi Gras festivities by Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards at a gala party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 1969 file photo, President Richard Nixon greets Victoria Edwards, queen of a Louisiana Mardi Gras to be held in Washington. She is introduced by her father, Rep. Edwin W. Edwards, D-La. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state.(AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 20, 1976 file photo, Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards answers a reporter's question as Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter grins on in front of the Carter home, in Plains, Ga. Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend. The powerful and charismatic Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction. Out of prison for six years, he's got a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity in his home state. (AP Photo/Peter Bregg, File)

Counter clockwise from bottom left, first lady of Louisiana Donna Edwards, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, Trina Edwards, and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards pose for a photo while celebrating Edwards' 90th birthday, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuck /The Advocate via AP)

Trina Edwards, left, joins her husband, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, and their son, Eli, as Edwards cuts a cake in celebration of his 90th birthday, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuk /The Advocate via AP)

Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, left, celebrates his 90th birthday with his wife, Trina Edwards, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuk /The Advocate via AP)
News / National

by Staff reporter

Thousands of Zimbabweans thronged the National Heroes Acre to remember the fallen and living heroes and heroines who sacrificed themselves to ensure the country got liberated. Similar gatherings were also replicated at provincial shrines across the country.Delivering his keynote address to the thousands who converged at the National Heroes Acre to mark Heroes Day, President Robert Mugabe expressed shock at the sudden death of Masvingo Minister of State Shuvai Mahofa who died early this morning, saying he spoke to her at the last Zanu-PF politburo meeting.The President said he got the news early in the morning from Happyton Bonyongwe, the Director General of the Central Intelligence Organisation.The President said he was astonished to learn of Mahofa's demise, saying at the last politburo, as he always does, he asked Mahofa how she was feeling now to which she replied in the affirmative.President Mugabe calls for peaceMugabe called for peace as the country is heading for elections next year in 2018, ending his address with a saying popularized by the late Vice President Land John Nkomo, Peace begins with me, peace begins with you and peace beings with all of us'."As we prepare for the 2018 elections we need peace in the party, peace in the other parties. If there is peace, every sector can go about their tasks freely. I want to thank the security forces for ensuring peace in the country," said President Mugabe.President Mugabe condemns soldiers, police skirmishesMugabe condemned the incident in which some soldiers went into the streets and had skirmishes with the police, adding that he spoke to the security chiefs to ensure that such an incident does not recur in future.'Use the internet properly'President Mugabe said at independence, government pronounced that all children must go to school and go up as high as they could, adding that education continues to development in terms of technology, hence the reason why he launched the schools computerisation programmes to enhance the knowledge base."You can now use the internet to obtain knowledge. For example, if you want to know kuti Robert Mugabe ndiani, akazvarwa rinhi unozviwana pa interrnetEurope yakamira sei(Tony) Bair iyeyu akazvarwa rinhi akadzidza kupi.unozviwana zvakare," he added.The President, however, took a swipe at those who peddle lies on the internet about the country, writing that people are being put in detentions, saying it is particularly the opposition does that. He described such habits as "Zvivi zve technology, cyber crime," highlighting that government is looking at way to address these crimes.'Draw inspiration from the country's heroes, heroines'Turning to the sacrifices made by the country's heroes and heroines, the President urged Zimbabweans to draw inspiration from the heroes lying at the various shrines, and consider the sacrifices these men and women made.He spoke about how blacks were discriminated against during colonialism where all men were called "boys" and where blacks could not buy items from certain shops or build a house in areas like Borrowdale or Highlands."Taivakirwa dzimba KuMbare sezvo vaizoda cheap labour, tichigara semabhachura Blacks residential areas like Highfield, Mbare and Chitungwiza were build far away from the city," the President said.Mugabe called for more comprehensive research about the country's heroes.President Mugabe calls for fund to assist war vets familiesHe also appealed for assistance to children and families left by the departed heroes, including assistance to families and war veterans still alive.The President called for the creation of a fund to assist the war veterans families, both departed and alive, saying funds from treasury are not enough as Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa has a lot on his plate that requires funding in terms of all government programmes.Mugabe spoke about the importance of heroes' shrines, adding that Heroes Day is meant to pay tribute to all heroes wherever they lie."The National shrine and other shrines across the country are meant to institutionalise memories of our heroes. Let us remember the heroes' everyday. Thousands were massacred at Nyadzonya, Tembwe, Chimoio and many other places."Our heroes were the best of our nation at a difficult period who deserve recognition and respect in a very special way as we celebrate their sacrifice to serve their people," he said.'National shrine not for the Tsvangirais'President Mugabe reiterated that the national shrines and other provincial heroes acre are for those who sacrificed immensely for freedom Zimbabweans enjoy today.He said: "Nyika yakauya neropa". The Tsvangirais should know that. The Heroes Acre is for those who paid the supreme sacrifice. If we are to bury the likes of Tsvangirai heretinoti vakaitei chingaita kuti varadzikwe pano..iko kuvamba MDC ndiko kounza munhu pano? Hongu panyaya yekuwana ivhu nderedu tose, vakatengesa nevasina kutengesa, vakaenda kuhondo nevasina vanekodzero yekuwana ivhu."'No one chased away the whites'President Mugabe takes a swipe at former white commercial farmers who are coming back to farms saying we left our equipment. Mugabe said as government they never chased whites away. He equally blasted blacks who are now leasing farms to whites, saying they are defeating the purpose of the Land Reform Programme."We never chased away whites from this country but.ivo vakangoti-PFochopfocho kutiza but they are now slowly trying to come back on their own what has happened to South Africa and other places that you ran too? Those running industries we never chased them away. In the civil service at independence we wanted to count how many whites we had there but before we could do that, "vakangoti-PFochopfocho kutiza" fortunately, blacks who had been educated saved the day and filled the posts left vacant by the whites," he said.President Mugabe spoke on the death sentence, saying government is considering the issue, on whether to abolish it or keep it, adding that other countries have done away with it. He mentioned that Vice President Mnangagwa who is the Minister responsible for Justice is of the view that it must be abolished.'Unity, unity and more unity'Mugabe reiterated the need for Zimbabweans to remain united on principles on which national unity is based on."Tinoda kuti tirambe takabatana," said President Mugabe.VP Mnangagwa in SA hospitalPresident Mugabe had begun his keynote address by revealing that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is in Johannesburg getting medical attention at a hospital there.
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (AP) - A Canadian pastor who was imprisoned for more than two years in North Korea arrived back home Saturday.

Hyeon Soo Lim was serving a life sentence of hard labor in North Korea for alleged anti-state activities, but was released last week on what the North Korean government described as sick bail.

His son, James Lim, said it was surreal to see him again after living in fear over what might happen to him.

James Lim, center, the son of Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim, speaks to the media at the Light Presbyterian Church, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, after his father's return home from a North Korean prison. At left is family spokesperson Lisa Pak and church spokesperson Richard Ha, right. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

James Lim said his dad was extremely grateful to the Canadian government. He said his father was resting at home and looked forward to going to his church's Sunday service and meeting with the community after so long.

"Now more than ever, he's never felt more Canadian," the son said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent national security adviser Daniel Jean to North Korea to seek Lim's freedom.

Lim, a 62-year-old South Korean-born Canadian citizen, was convicted and sentenced in 2015 for allegedly trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system and helping U.S. and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens.

South Korea, the U.S. and others often accuse North Korea of using foreign detainees to wrest diplomatic concessions, and foreigners have said after their release that their declarations of guilt were coerced while in North Korean custody.

Lim's release came nearly two months after U.S. college student Otto Warmbier died shortly after he was released from North Korea in a coma. Warmbier had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 after being accused of stealing a propaganda poster.

Lim is pastor at the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto. His supporters have said he was on a humanitarian mission to North Korea when he was detained.

Canada does not have diplomatic offices in Pyongyang and relies on Sweden to handle consular issues.

At least three Americans and six South Koreans remain in custody in the North.

James Lim, the son of Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim, speaks to the media at the Light Presbyterian Church, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, after his father's return home from a North Korean prison. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)
TUMON, Guam (AP) - Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests prayed for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory faced a missile threat from North Korea.

Archbishop Michael Byrnes instructed priests in Guam's 26 churches to offer prayers for peace between the two nations and courage for military forces on the island. He asked for prayers for "just resolution of differences, and prudence in both speech and action."

Guam's Catholic faithful attended Sunday Mass after several days of dramatic rhetoric between the two nuclear-armed nations. President Donald Trump threatened swift and forceful retaliation against North Korea, declaring the U.S. military "locked and loaded."

Pastor Fr. Jose Antonio" Lito" P. Abad, right, greets parishioners as they leave Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church following Sunday Mass, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Tumon, Guam. Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests are praying for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

There hasn't been any widespread anxiety among Guam residents, even after Pyongyang vowed to complete a plan to attack waters near the island by mid-August.

Monte Mesa, who is vice-chairman of the Guam Visitors Bureau, said the Mass at Blessed Diego de San Vitores Catholic Church in Tumon was comforting. He said after the crowded Mass the message from the readings and the gospel "tell our people that God is in control of what is happening and if we have faith and believe in God all this rhetoric and war possibility here on Guam will be taken care of by God."

The Rev. Jose Antonio "Lito" P. Abad said during the Mass that he woke up Wednesday morning reading the breaking news on his phone that Guam was a missile target from North Korea. He felt anxious, he told the congregation during his homily, but that saying prayers gave him peace. He asked his parishioners to pray that God will give them strength.

The church is a major influence on the devout island where 85 percent of the population is Catholic. The church is grappling with numerous lawsuits alleging sex abuse in a growing scandal that has rocked the tiny island where Catholicism is deeply woven into the Spanish-influenced culture of about 160,000 people.

The Archdiocese of Agana invited people to a noon rosary prayer rally, where hundreds gathered under an overcast sky at the ruins of the old Spanish government palace in the heart of Hagatna, Guam's capital. Rallies are being held across the world in commemoration of Our Lady of Fatima's appearance to three shepherd children, 100 years ago in Fatima, Portugal. "Praying for peace in our world and conversion of sinners is very much a part of the messages Our Lady imparted to the children in her appearances at Fatima," the archdiocese said in a statement.

Nikky Flores, a member of the Catholic Daughters of America, said the prayers offered during the rally were "totally significant especially because of this threat. We all come together and pray. We really are very hopeful that it will not come," she said of the missile threat.

The Rev. Francis X. Hezel, assistant pastor at Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo, said he hasn't heard of parishioners seeking comfort from the church amid the North Korea threat.

"It's business as usual with this dark cloud hovering over us for sure," he said. "I don't think they'll be trembling with fear."

Hezel noted that Guam is familiar with the threats.

"The people of Guam are used to standing in a perilous position," he said. "That's the peril and the promise of the place."

__

Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.

A car sits parked outside Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Tumon, Guam. Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests are praying for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

An altar boy carries a cross during Sunday Mass at Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Tumon, Guam. Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests are praying for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Worshippers attend Sunday Mass at Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Tumon, Guam. Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests are praying for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Worshippers attend Sunday Mass at Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Tumon, Guam. Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests are praying for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Locals arrive at Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church to attend Sunday Mass, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Tumon, Guam. Across Guam - where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic - priests are praying for peace as residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
HONOLULU (AP) - The Syrian grandmother at the center of Hawaii's lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's travel ban on people from six mostly Muslim countries is expected to arrive in Honolulu Saturday.

Ismail Elshikh, the imam of a Honolulu mosque, said his 52-year-old mother-in-law Wafa Yahia received approval from the U.S. government several weeks ago. She is scheduled to arrive at Honolulu International Airport Saturday evening on a flight from San Francisco in a 28-hour journey that started in Lebanon, he said.

Elshikh is a plaintiff in Hawaii's challenge to the travel ban. The lawsuit argues that the ban prevented his Syrian mother-in-law from visiting.

The complex legal wrangling over the travel ban is ongoing. A federal appeals court in Seattle is scheduled to hear arguments later this month in the government's appeal of a judge's ruling in July that allows grandmothers and other family members of those in the U.S. who may enter the country.

The U.S. Supreme Court previously allowed a scaled-back version of the ban to go into effect before it hears the case in October. The justices exempted visa applicants from the ban if they can prove a "bona fide" relationship with a U.S. citizen or entity.

"The news that Dr. Elshikh's family is being reunited is one bright moment today when love trumped hate," Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement. "In America, no race should ever be excluded, no religion should ever be hated, and no family ever gets left behind."

Yahia's immigrant visa approval would not affect Hawaii's lawsuit, Chin said: "So long as this discriminatory and illegal executive order is not struck down, the state of Hawaii and its residents are harmed."

Two of Elshikh's five children have never met her, he said. She last visited her family in Hawaii in 2005.

"Without the lawsuit, we couldn't get the visa. Without this challenge, my children would not have been reunited with their grandma," he said. "I still feel sadness for those who are still affected by the Muslim ban, who are not as lucky as my family."
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) - An attack by gunmen on a Turkish restaurant left at least four people dead late Sunday in the capital of Burkina Faso, a West African country that has seen a surge in violence by Islamic extremists over the past few years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued early Monday and brought back painful memories of a January 2016 attack at a cafe that left 30 people dead.

At least four people had been killed and 11 others were wounded, according to an official at the Yalgado Hospital in Ouagadougou. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou.

Police spokesman Capt. Guy Ye told The Associated Press the target of the attack was a Turkish restaurant known as Aziz Istanbul.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in

Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) - North Korea has announced a detailed plan to launch a salvo of ballistic missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, a major military hub and home to U.S. bombers. If carried out, it would be the North's most provocative missile launch to date.

Here's a closer look at Guam and its role in the U.S. and North Korea's ongoing war of words.

THE LATEST

In this image released by the U.S, Air Force, a B-1B Lancer assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, prepares for takeoff from Andersen AFB, Guam, to conduct a sequenced bilateral mission with South Korean F-15 and Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) F-2 fighter jets, July 7, 2017. (Airman 1st Class Jacob Skovo/U.S. Air Force via AP)

Senior U.S. national security officials said Sunday that a military confrontation with North Korea's is not imminent, but they cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump's national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Trump's tough talk. They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

"We're not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," McMaster said, adding that the Trump administration is prepared to deal militarily with North Korea if necessary.

But he stressed that the U.S. is pursuing "a very determined diplomatic effort" led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that's coupled with new financial sanctions to dissuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from further provocations.

GEOGRAPHIC BASICS

The strip of land in the western Pacific Ocean is roughly the size of Chicago, and it's just 4 miles (6 km) wide at its narrowest point. It is about 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southeast of North Korea, much closer than it is to any of the United States. Hawaii is about 4,000 miles (6,500 km) to the east. Its proximity to China, Japan, the Philippines and the Korean Peninsula has long made the island an essential possession of the U.S. military.

U.S. RELATIONSHIP

Guam was claimed by Spain in 1565 and became a U.S. territory in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Japan seized it for about 2 years during World War II. In 1950, an act of Congress made it an unincorporated organized territory of the United States. It has limited self-government, with a popularly elected governor, small legislature and non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. Residents do not pay U.S. income taxes or vote in the general election for U.S. president. Its natives are U.S. citizens by birth.

MILITARY HISTORY

The U.S. keeps a Naval base and Coast Guard station in the south and an Air Force base in the north that saw heavy use during the Vietnam War. While already taking up 30 percent of the island, the American military has been seeking to increase its presence by relocating to Guam thousands of Marines who are currently based in Okinawa, Japan. Protecting the island is the U.S. Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, which is used to shoot down ballistic missiles. While there has been some resistance and displeasure from the people of Guam over the U.S. military's presence, it is also essential to the island's economy, second only to tourism in importance.

PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT

The island was first populated about 4,000 years ago by the ancestors of the Chamorros, still the island's largest ethnic group. Now, about 160,000 people live on Guam. Its capital city is Hagatna and its largest city is Dededo. Its chief languages are English and Chamorro. It has seen various popular movements pushing for greater self-government or even U.S. statehood, most notably a significant but failed effort in the 1980s to make it a commonwealth on par with Puerto Rico.

MILITARY INSTALLATIONS AND THIER SIGNIFICANCE

There are two major bases on Guam: Andersen Air Force Base in the north and Naval Base Guam in the south. They are both managed under Joint Base Marianas. The tourist district of Tumon, home to many of Guam's hotels and resorts, is in between. The air base was built in 1944, when the U.S. was preparing to send bombers to Japan during World War II. Today, Naval Base Guam is the home port for four nuclear-powered fast attack submarines and two submarine tenders. Andersen Air Force Base hosts a Navy helicopter squadron and Air Force bombers that rotate to Guam from the U.S. mainland. It has two 2-mile (3-kilometer) -long runways and large fuel and munitions storage facilities. Altogether, 7,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed on Guam.

GUAM AND NORTH KOREAN THREAT

The U.S. military began rotating bombers - the B-2 stealth bomber as well as the B-1 and B-52 - to Andersen in 2004. It did so to compensate for U.S. forces diverted from other bases in the Asia-Pacific region to fight in the Middle East. The rotations also came as North Korea increasingly upped the ante in the standoff over its development of nuclear weapons. In 2013, the Army sent the THAAD missile defense system to Guam. A THAAD battery includes a truck-mounted launcher, tracking radar, interceptor missiles and an integrated fire-control system.

In this image provided by the U.S. Air Force, a B-1B Lancer assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker over the Pacific Ocean March 10, 2017. (Airman 1st Class Christopher E. Quail/U.S. Air Force via AP)

A rainbow appears over Tumon Bay, Guam Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam face a missile threat from North Korea. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A man and his son pray for peace at Plaza de Espana, in Hagatna, Guam Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Residents of the U.S. Pacific island territory face a missile threat from North Korea.(AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Why doesn't President Donald Trump just unequivocally condemn white supremacists?

It's a jarring question to ask about an American president. But it's also one made unavoidable by Trump's delayed, blame-both-sides response to the violence that erupted Saturday when neo-Nazis, skinheads and members of the Ku Klux Klan protested in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump has faced such a moment before - one that would have certainly drawn swift, almost predictable condemnations from his recent predecessors, regardless of party. As a candidate and now as president, when racial tensions flared or fringe groups rallied around his message, Trump has shown uncharacteristic caution and a reluctance to distance himself from the hate.

President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Va., at Trump National Golf Club, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Bedminster, N.J. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

At times, his approach has seemingly inflamed racial tensions in a deeply divided country while emboldening groups long in the shadows.

On Saturday, as Trump read slowly through a statement about the clashes that left dozens injured and one woman dead, he condemned hatred, bigotry and violence "on many sides." The president was silent when journalists asked whether he rejected the support of nationalist groups.

That silence was cheered by the white supremacist website Daily Stormer: "When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him."

Trump denies that he's racist or sympathetic to such groups. Son-in-law Jared Kushner, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, are among those who have defended the president against those charges.

Still, he has a history of engaging in high-profile, racially fraught battles.

Early in his career as a developer, Trump fought charges of bias against blacks seeking to rent at his family-owned apartment complexes. He long promoted the lie that the nation's first black president, Barack Obama, was not born in the United States. As a candidate, he proposed temporarily banning Muslims from the United States. He retweeted a post from accounts that appeared to have ties to white nationalist groups. And he was slow to reject the endorsement of former KKK leader David Duke.

Some of the president's friends and advisers have argued that Trump is simply refusing to bend to liberals' desire for political correctness. A boastful, proudly disruptive politician, Trump often has been rewarded for saying impolite and impolitic things. Some supporters cheered him for being someone who said what they could not.

Democrats frequently assert that Trump sees a political advantage in courting the support of the far right. Indeed, he has benefited politically from the backing of media outlets such as Breitbart or InfoWars. They have consistently promoted Trump and torn down his opponents, sometimes with biased or inaccurate reports.

Charlottesville's mayor, Democrat Mike Signer, said Sunday that Trump made a choice during his campaign to "go right to the gutter, to play on our worst prejudices."

"I think you are seeing a direct line from what happened here this weekend to those choices," Signer said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

White House senior adviser Steve Bannon ran Breitbart before joining Trump's campaign, and several of the president's other aides believe Bannon continues to have influence over the website. In "Devil's Bargain," a new book about his role in the Trump campaign, Bannon is quoted as saying that attempts by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to tie Trump to the alt-right and nationalists did not move voters.

"We polled the race stuff and it doesn't matter," Bannon said, according to the book.

But there no reliable public polling on the scope of Trump's support among those with white nationalist leanings or the percentage of the electorate they comprise. The reaction from Republicans following Trump's statement Saturday suggests there may be greater political risks for the president in aligning himself with bigoted groups.

"The president needs to step up today and say what it is," said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who was one of several GOP lawmakers urging Trump to be more strident in calling out the nationalists and neo-Nazis that gathered in Charlottesville. Gardner said plainly: "It's evil. It's white nationalism."

By Sunday, the White House was scrambling to try to clean up the president's statement. The White House issued a statement saying the president does condemn "white supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups."

The spokeswoman who issued the statement refused to be named. And the president himself remained silent.

That left Vice President Mike Pence, traveling in South America, to offer the kind of comment Trump's critics sought from the White House: "We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK. These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms."

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Washington bureau chief Julie Pace has covered the White House and politics for The Associated Press since 2007. Follow her at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare suddenly and fade almost as quickly - but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily.

Events closer to home, including deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia, could demand more of President Donald Trump's attention in the days ahead and cut into the volume and frequency of his fiery North Korea rhetoric.

But North Korea has yet to back away from its biggest threat: a plan to lob missiles toward U.S. military bases on the island of Guam that Pyongyang says should be ready for leader Kim Jong Un to review anytime now.

FILE - In this July 21, 2017, file photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, a B1-B Lancer bomber assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron flies over the 73rd Guam Liberation Day parade, at Andersen Air Force Base in Hagata, Guam. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (Airman 1st Class Christopher Quail/U.S. Air Force via AP, File)

Will it all stop there?

Or, despite the extremely high risks, will Kim really give the go order? And, regardless of what Kim does or doesn't do, will the tough-talking Trump feel compelled to take matters into his own hands?

Unpredictable as the situation is, some potential flashpoints to watch for:

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BOMBER FLIGHTS

This could be the biggest trigger.

North Korea says it was compelled to put the Guam plan together because it feels threatened by a squadron of B-1B bombers on the island that the U.S. has increasingly sent to fly in Korean airspace in symbolic shows of force during times of particular tension.

But that may be only a pretense.

North Korea is certainly sensitive to the bombers, which could cause a lot of devastation if a war did start. But it also might just want an excuse to fully test the capabilities of its new Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missiles.

Either way, it's a cagey tactic: If Trump orders the B-1Bs to stay on the ground, Pyongyang can claim victory. If he orders them to fly, North Korea has its excuse to launch. If, of course, that's what it really wants to do - Pyongyang wisely left itself a lot of wiggle room and hasn't committed itself one way or the other.

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LIBERATION DAY

Aug. 15 is the anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945 and the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

Pyongyang likes to use big anniversaries to make high-profile statements with military activity or political provocations. It launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile, for example, on July 4 - Independence Day in the United States.

This week's World War II anniversary isn't linked so closely to veneration of North Korea's ruling Kim family, the primary days for demonstrating national power. But it's a national holiday just the same and could be an opportune moment for the North to make some kind of a move.

So far, however, there haven't been any telltale signs of anything brewing in Pyongyang. The day could just be marked with small celebrations and the distribution of free treats - or maybe more rhetoric about the Guam missile plan.

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WAR GAMES

This is another likely trigger, if Pyongyang is going to actually do anything.

Tens of thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops are expected to kick off the annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian military exercises on Aug. 21. North Korea sees these exercises and larger ones held every spring as a rehearsal for invasion. Getting Washington to halt them has long been one of Pyongyang's key demands, and it regularly stirs the pot around the time they're held.

North Korea carried out its biggest nuclear test just after last year's UFG drills ended and fired four Scud ER missiles into waters off Japan to coincide with the spring exercises this past March.

This year's UFG exercises are expected to last around 10 days.

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Eric Talmadge is the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief. Follow him on Twitter at EricTalmadge and Instagram @erictalmadge.

FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2015, file photo, North Korean soldiers stand guard at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in North Korea, on Liberation Day, the anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945 and the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2015, file photo, participants stand behind a North Korean flag at a rally on Liberation Day, the anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945 and the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, at the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 24, 2016, file photo, U.S. Army soldiers move during the annual U.S. South Korea Ulchi-Freedom Guardian military exercises in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 24, 2016, file photo, U.S. Army soldiers move during the annual U.S. South Korea Ulchi-Freedom Guardian military exercises in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2016, file photo, a U.S. B-1B bomber flies over Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

FILE - In the May 2, 2017 file photo, a TV screen shows images of U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

In this Aug. 10, 2017 photo, a man watches a TV screen showing a local news program reporting on North Korea's missiles, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-Joon)

FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2010 file photo, South Korean army soldiers hold their weapons during an anti-terror exercise carried out as part of Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, against possible attacks from North Korea in Seoul, South Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man, File)

FILE - In this June 20, 2017 file photo provided by South Korean Defense Ministry, U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, top, and second from top, and South Korean fighter jets F-15K fly over the Korean Peninsula, South Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare up suddenly and then fade away almost as quickly, but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily. (South Korean Defense Ministry via AP, File)
CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) - Demonstrating the delicate balancing act that has come to define his vice presidency, Mike Pence tried to strike a balance Sunday in Colombia between Latin American opposition to possible U.S. military intervention in neighboring Venezuela, and President Donald Trump's surprising refusal to rule out that option.

Speaking during a joint news conference with Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos shortly after his arrival in Latin America, Pence also declined to rule out possible military action against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose efforts to consolidate power in the country have drawn alarm. Still, Pence stressed the U.S. would much prefer what he called a "peaceable" solution to the growing political and humanitarian crisis.

"President Trump is a leader who says what he means and means what he says," Pence said. "But the president sent me here to continue to marshal the unprecedented support of countries across Latin America to achieve by peaceable means the restoration of democracy in Venezuela, and we believe it is achievable by those means."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a joint press conference with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Trump's startling comments Friday sparked backlash across the region, including from Venezuela's chief opposition coalition and the Colombian government.

Standing at Pence's side in Cartagena after a joint meeting, Santos said he had repeatedly told Pence in no uncertain terms that the U.S. must not even consider military action in response to Venezuela's crisis.

The two countries are important allies, Santos said. "But since friends have to tell each other the truth, I have told Vice President Pence that the possibility of a military intervention shouldn't even be considered, neither in Colombia nor in Latin America," Santos said through a translator. "America is a continent of peace. It is the land of peace. Let us preserve it as such."

Analysists said Trump's comments played into Maduro's hands by awakening dark memories of U.S. intervention in the region and making it harder for other Latin American countries to join the anti-Maduro coalition. "The phantom of military interventions in Latin America disappeared a long time ago, and we don't want it to return," Santos said.

Pence emphasized the U.S. will work together with many nations in Venezuela's "neighborhood" to pressure Maduro so that Venezuela's democracy can be restored.

"We simply will not accept the emergence of a dictatorship in our hemisphere," he said, continuing the tough talk that has been Trump's approach to Maduro. "The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles," he said.

Pence also addressed the deadly violence that broke out Saturday during a march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, using words the president would not. "We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK," Pence said. "These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms."

Trump has been criticized by both Democrats and Republicans for not singling out those groups directly in a lengthy Saturday statement and instead blaming "many sides" for the violence.

Pence insisted the president had "clearly and unambiguously condemned the bigotry, violence and hatred which took place on the streets of Charlottesville" and blamed the media for the criticism. "We should be putting the attention where it belongs, and that is on these extremist groups that need to be pushed out of the public debate entirely," he said.

Pence also addressed the spike in coca production in the Colombia, saying the worsening crisis required "swift action to protect the people of both our countries." A July report from the United Nations showed that coca production in Colombia had reached levels not seen in two decades, complicating Colombia's efforts to make its vast, lawless countryside more secure.

Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami lashed out at Pence, rejecting what he called "interventionist" comments intended to hide the failure of US anti-narcotics policies in Colombia. He dismissed Pence's meeting with Santos as "an encounter between the world's largest producer of drugs and the nation with the most consumers."

El Aissami was sanctioned by the Trump administration in February for allegedly running a drug trafficking network of corrupt officials in Venezuela.

Pence and his wife, Karen, arrived Sunday in Colombia for a six-day, four-country trip through the region. Pence has other stops scheduled in Argentina, Chile and Panama, giving speeches and meeting with leaders.

White House officials tried Sunday to explain Trump's decision to raise the prospect of possible military action in Venezuela.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump was trying "to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored." Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday" that Venezuela "could very much become a risk" to the U.S. if it descended into further chaos.

Yet a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself "a pretty hawkish guy" expressed skepticism about the idea of American troops in Caracas.

"I have no idea why we would use military force in Venezuela. I'm open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when there's a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people," South Carolina's Lindsey Graham told "'Fox News Sunday," adding: "I don't see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force."

Trump's national security adviser, who has previously warned against military talk, said the Trump administration wants to get a handle on the current situation under Maduro's embattled government and "understand better how this crisis might evolve."

"The president never takes options off the table in any of these situations and what we owe him are options," McMaster told ABC's "This Week."

The U.S. has imposed sanctions against Maduro and more than two dozen current and former officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of a pro-government assembly given the job of rewriting the country's constitution.

Venezuela's chief opposition coalition issued a restrained criticism of Trump's talk of using a "military option." The coalition rejected "the use of force or threats of applying the same in Venezuela on the part of any country." But the coalition's statement didn't directly mention Trump's remarks.

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Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

___

Reach Jill Colvin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/colvinj

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, arrive to give a joint press conference at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara).

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, talks to the media alongside Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, is welcomed by Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is welcomed by Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, left, at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos shake hands at the start of a meeting at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

In this Aug. 10, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, speaks to reporters before a security briefing at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Pence departs Sunday for Latin America, a trip that comes on the heels of yet another provocative statement fromTrump that Pence is sure to have to answer for: this time Trump's sudden declaration that he would not rule out a "military option" in Venezuela, where president Nicolas Maduro has been consolidating power, plunging the country into chaos. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence walk past the honor guard after being received by Colombia's Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin, far right, upon their arrival to the Rafael Nunez airport in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The American workplace is grueling, stressful and surprisingly hostile.

So concludes an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S. workers by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles. Among the findings:

- Nearly one in five workers - a share the study calls "disturbingly high" - say they face a hostile or threatening environment at work, which can include sexual harassment and bullying. Workers who have to face customers endure a disproportionate share of abuse.

In this Monday, June 19, 2017, photo, a person types on a laptop keyboard, in North Andover, Mass. The American workplace is grueling, stressful and surprisingly hostile. So finds an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S. workers, released Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

- Nearly 55 percent say they face "unpleasant and potentially hazardous" conditions.

-Nearly three quarters say they spend at least a fourth of their time on the job in "intense or repetitive physical" labor. "I was surprised at how physically demanding jobs were," says lead author Nicole Maestas, a Harvard Medical School economist.

-Telecommuting is rare: 78 percent say they are required to be present in their workplace during working hours.

-Only 38 percent say their jobs offer good prospects for advancement. And the older they get, the less optimistic they become.

-About half say they work on their own time to meet the demands of their job.

"Wow - (work) is a pretty taxing place for many people," Maestas says. "I was surprised by how pressured and hectic the workplace is."

In many cases, less-educated workers endure tougher working conditions. For example, fewer than half of men without college degrees can take a break whenever they want to, compared to more than 76 percent of men with college degrees. Likewise, nearly 68 percent of men without degrees spend at least a fourth of their time moving heavy loads.

Maestas wonders whether toxic working conditions are keeping Americans out of the labor force. The percentage of Americans who are working or looking for work - 62.9 percent in July - has not returned to pre-recession levels and is well below its 2000 peak of 67.3 percent.

The unemployment rate is at a 16-year low, and many employers complain they can't fill jobs.

"There's a message for employers here," Maestas says. "Working conditions really do matter."

Not everything about American workplaces is grim. Workers enjoy considerable autonomy: more than 80 percent say they get to solve problems and try out their own ideas. Moreover, 58 percent say their bosses are supportive, and 56 percent say they have good friends at work.

The first-time survey of Americans ages 25-71 was carried out in 2015. It is similar to a long-running European survey, and researchers plan to conduct another survey next year and eventually to draw comparisons between U.S. and European working conditions.
Three Illinois men who were shot to death at point-blank range during a drag racing event in southeastern Wisconsin may have been targeted by a rival gang member, a sheriff's official said Monday.

The three were fatally shot as they stood near a concession area in the parking lot of the Great Lakes Dragaway near Union Grove about 7 p.m. Sunday, according to Kenosha County sheriff's officials.

The shooter remains at large, sheriff's Sgt. Mark Malecki said Monday.

No suspects were arrested and no one else was injured.

Emergency response vehicles gather at Great Lakes Dragaway on Sunday near Union Grove, Wisconscin. Three men were shot and killed during an auto racing event at the facility

Kenosha County Sheriff's Office said the three men were shot at point-blank range at a fast food stand although they have no idea yet what gun was used or the motive for the attack

'The victims were known gang members,' Malecki said, adding that they came from the Aurora area in Illinois. Deputies were investigating the possibility that the assailant was a rival gang member.

Two of the men died at the scene and the third died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.

Sheriff David Beth urged any witnesses to the shooting to contact his department.

'A lot of people may not have wanted to come up and talk to the sheriff's department initially because maybe they were afraid someone was going to see them,' Beth said.

'So what I'm hoping happens is someone who knows what's going on or saw what happened will call us, give us more information and help us catch the individual who did this.'

The sheriff's office estimated that more than 5,000 people were at the raceway for an event known as 'Larry's Fun Fest.' The track's website shows the event included drag racing, tailgating, live entertainment and a car show.

Union Grove is about 25 miles south of Milwaukee.

The sheriff's office asked people to avoid the area while they continue with their investigation.

Investigators have not identified the type of weapon used by the shooter or the motive for the attack.

If anyone has information related to this incident, please contact the Sheriff's Department at 262-605-5100.
News / National

by Andrew Manyevere

I lament that Opposition politics have become part and parcel of the ugly ploys and machinations of Zanu however noble we may want to view it. How come these men and women are unable to tell right from wrong irrespective of who is targeted? This would have been the right time for Teurai Ropa to rise up and pay tribute to gone comrades by condemning efforts on elimination of human life in any way, shape and form on others in power contestation. But when prisoners see the evil not in the Sheriff, but among themselves, they are victims to divide and rule and could be swept at the sheriff's pleasure anyway he pleases. Ladies and gentlemen study, with pathos, the saga of prisoners rising to conquer the prison chief officer in Zimbabwe prison political system. Possibly prisoners are the only one who can demonstrate anger at the sheriff, who knows, because Zimbabwe politics has defied all norms.Firstly, as a Christian and secondly, as a human right activist, irrespective of hate one might harbour against Emmerson Mnangagwa either as a person or as a Zanu portage, I will not be, and have never been in favour of any human induced death on another human being however the motives may be. The collapse of our democracy in Zimbabwe originated from this heinous admiration of the-eliminate-your enemy political survival system from Zanu. The system sugar coats rule of law and supremacy of the constitution while in truth it abhors all elements of it and prefers from, deeds and acts manifested, the State of Nature governance type. If masses ever doubted the inhuman hand of Zanu in controlling politics in Zimbabwe, their eyes need open now.Zimbabwe is not a tribe. Zimbabwe is not an individual. Zimbabwe is neither about one family nor a village. Zimbabwe is people owned that thrives on the supremacy of the constitution, of the rule of law and the system of representation sustained, maintained and upheld by its authors the people of Zimbabwe. Food poison as a weapon to internal struggles is an act of gagsters and thugs who do not deserve to run the country. How did they get there? The Zimbabwe prison political system has put many in denial. Subsequently small battles on nothingness are sustained while substantive battles of life, health and development are thwarted as a strategy of a few manipulating the rest.Prisoners often know much about the prison system and fall in 'love' with prison chiefs in order either to receive early release on good behavior or stay close for favours while serving their sentences. No doubt from her inception and the thirty years of ruling, mysterious deaths of many high ranking Zanu cadres has occurred and met with dead silence. Needless to mention names, but suffice to say the road to freedom in Zimbabwe has been marred with extremely ugly blood shading on the innocent and proponents of true freedom and democracy. Not only was blood shade during the war. Blood has, is and will be shade in Zimbabwe in ways so conniving and clandestine that only the country's authority would be indicted as guilty if a free and fair legal inquiry was instituted in the country to trace and find cause for disappearances and mysterious deaths to many who held office in Zanu or criticised it openly.If prisoners are the actors on behalf of the Chief of prison, once they do not carry instructions to the letter, they run the risk of mysterious disappearance or death in view of their being the only reliable witnesses if the dirty games are discovered. No doubt, Mr. Robert Mugabe and his relationship to his lieutenant for close to forty years, Emmerson Mnangagwa, out dates his recent marriage to Grace Marufu. But Grace appears to be the new sheriff in the Zimbabwe political prison system that is in a hurry to exercise power for the fun of power and wealth accumulation.Unfortunately for Grace, and the best for Zimbabwe though, is that her skills are lacking in experience of the Machiavellian politics while equally true Mr. Mugabe is inevitably suffering from natural wastage. The combination is, and has to be disaster as evidenced by unfolding events in our politics of chance through elimination. The good is the price to freedom is soon maturing if Zimbabweans have drawn any lessons of note.The real fierce but silent battle on succession begun when Grace Marufu took over as Sheriff number two in the Zimbabwe political prison system. The battle was subtle and nasty but could not manifest without repercussions on the chief sheriff Mr. Robert Mugabe himself. A roller-caster politics begun adjusting from within from Veterans against Mr. Mugabe to their ousting from the association; out to the current state when crisis looms with a bitter aim to revenge and rid of a once upon time stalwart of Mr. Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangangwa. Whether it's good or bad depends on whose stake we consider at jeopardy. That people have died causing more questions in the mind of Zimbabweans cannot be doubted. That many will be sorrowful at the departure of any arch rivalry to Mr. Mugabe through mysteriously political innuendos would honestly be a gross statement given where the country has come from.To think that since Grace married Mr. Mugabe peace existed in State House is too imaginary and cannot be a blessing to our country. That Mr. Mugabe spotted the unsettlement in his new wife is true when he appointed her Secretary of women affairs which triggered the fall of 'Teurai Ropa' Nhongo and no doubt opened a shape battle between prisoners within the prison political system of Zanu. Zanu has resisted reformation and 'killed' opposition for a very long time from 1987 with the union of Zanu and Zapu at the be haste of Mr. Mugabe's politics of survival backed by his surrogates all of whom are at disarrays in one form or another today. That G40 is born characterises a history of a Mr. Robert Mugabe ousting both Ndabaningi Sithole and Herbert Chitepo rein in a sequence of formula politics. We see him again ousting Mr. Joshua Nkomo to wear him into a Union of Patriotic Front. That, though, his long survival was prolonged by the 'War Veterans' as King Markers in Zimbabwe prison political system is not a subject of debate than open evidence.However way the development current in our prison political system take, it cannot be denied even from the readership of pieces of news that the country is in shock and wondering who could ever be the best person to please the geriatric leader Mr. Robert Mugabe for succession. Having dribbled 'Teurai Roapa' out of Zanu was shocking but resorting to open handed plan to eliminate a supposedly close comrade who had asked to resign is callous and exemplifies the inhuman nature of who this president is. Might it highlight the recent visit of our neighbour the former president of South Africa Mr. Thabo Mbeki or is it too much imagination?In Zimbabwe Prison Political System (ZPPS) where prisoners are supportive as well as main actors, the fate of other prisoners as well as that of their own; typifies a condition of politics marred in both greedy of wealth and of power and envy. It no doubt has no room for national interest. Zimbabwe citizens are at best advised to rise now and ask for a national referendum to return the government to the people for the people by the people in and through a referendum. The alternative is not difficulty to see at all given events that took place elsewhere in the continent. Soldiers have a pretext to take over whether we question what is meant by soldiers. Veterans are calling for change contrary to what Mr. Mugabe espoused for the last thirty eight years of his rule. The soldiers are a hierarchy of command and their commander has taken a position directing affairs contrary to the Chief Sheriff in the prison politics of Zimbabwe.The good book has warned that those who use arms to kill will die through use of arms and vice versa. What happens in Zimbabwe prison political system highlight deadly power machinations which have been put to silence never to surface. Where we are now needs strong personalities, who are fearless to rise and urge for the building of a national interest coalition. No doubt the veterans realize their vulnerability, so also does their comrades in the services of the country's government. We need each other to build Zimbabwe. We need no dictators, or families that wish to take the country into personal possession. Tribe, color and politics of prisoners strategy has and is failing. The last thing Zimbabweans need avoid is lead the country into blood shading out of greedy and personal ambitions of anybody. We need guard against selfishness going beyond the constitution of Zimbabwe.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan kicked off a day of celebrations on Monday marking 70 years of statehood and independence, the festivities beginning with gun salutes in the capital, Islamabad, and in each of the four provincial capitals.

In Islamabad, President Mamnoon Hussain hoisted the national flag at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, and scores of Pakistani military and government officials and other dignitaries.

Security was on high alert across the nation following the suicide attack on Saturday when a bomber on a motorcycle targeted a military truck in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing 15 - eight soldiers and seven civilians.

People from Pakistani Sikh community celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Pakistan gained independence when the departing British left India and split the subcontinent in 1947, sparking one of the most violent upheavals of the 20th century.

For the Pakistanis, the anniversary comes amid political turmoil that has characterized successive civilian governments of the country, which has been dominated by military rule through much of its history.

Addressing the ceremony in the capital, Hussain urged the nation to look to the wisdom of its founders when facing the current "hot" environment.

"Solutions to all the problems of this time persist in our ideologies, thoughts of leaders of our freedom movement and our bright history," he said. "By following them we can improve our situation today and our future as well."

He appealed on the citizens to "rise above" their party and group interests and "protect the future of the nation." Later in the evening, Hussain was to hand out medals to noteworthy citizens.

Most recently, Pakistan's political scene has been shaken when the Supreme Court dismissed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office in July for concealing his family assets.

Sharif stepped down, allowing for Abbasi to take over, but decried the court's ruling as an injustice and vowed to clear his name. Then he embarked last week on a series of on-the-road rallies, spanning four days and covering the stretch from Islamabad to his hometown, the eastern city of Lahore where he addressed tens of thousands of supporters.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said his country considers Pakistan an important partner in the "Belt and Road Initiative" that calls for Beijing building ports, railways and other facilities in a vast arc spanning 65 countries, including Pakistan.

In Karachi, visitors paid respects at the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder the country.

Pakistan Air Force put on a spectacular airshow, with Pakistani, Turkish and Saudi fighter jets flying over Islamabad as thousands of spectators watched from one of the city's parks.

People from Pakistani Sikh community celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Pakistan airforce pilots demonstrate their skill during an air show to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

A Pakistani Sailor stands guard at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan during a parade to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistanis commemorated its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

A Pakistani vendor paints the color of the Pakistani flag on a girl's face celebrating the 70th Independence Day in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Pakistan students participate in a ceremony to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistanis commemorated its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Spectators watch Pakistan Air Force fighter jets demonstrate an aerobatic maneuver during an air show to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistan airforce pilots demonstrate their skills during an air show to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Pakistan airforce pilots demonstrate their skills during an air show to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

People buy Pakistani flags to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A Dutch national who was reported missing in Turkey has been found dead, officials and Turkish media reports said Monday.

The body of 22-year-old Joey Hoffman was found in a dried-up stream bed in the village of Narlikuyu, near the Mediterranean coastal town of Silifke, the private Dogan news agency reported.

An initial inspection of the body showed no sign that the man had been killed, Sevket Cinbir, the district governor in Silifke, told the state-run Anadolu Agency. He said that an autopsy would be carried out.

Rescue personnel carry the body of Dutch national Joey Hoffman near the town of Silifke, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. A 22-year-old Dutch national who was reported missing in Turkey has been found dead, officials and Turkish media reports said Monday. Joey Hoffman's body was found in a dried-up stream bed in the village of Narlikuyu, near the Mediterranean coastal town of Silifke, the private Dogan news agency reported. Sevket Cinbir, the district governor in Silifke, told the state-run Anadolu Agency that an initial inspection showed no sign that the man had been murdered. (Ali Ekber Sen/DHA-Depo Photos via AP)

Hoffman disappeared after he had gone to Silifke to help a couple of friends who were building a house, according to Dutch media. He was last seen on July 8.

Anadolu said he went missing after he left to wander in the area searching for land to buy.

Police and rescue crews had been searching for Hoffman with the help of a drone, Anadolu reported.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - The driver charged with killing a woman at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville was previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife, according to police records released Monday.

Samantha Bloom, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, repeatedly called police about her son, James Alex Fields Jr., in 2010 and 2011, telling officers he was on medication to control his temper, transcripts from 911 calls show.

Fields, 20, is accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters on Saturday in Charlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, photo, James Alex Fields Jr. stands on the sidewalk looking at the procession of the clergy as they gathered at McGaffey park, ahead of a rally in Charlottesville, Va. Fields is accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters Saturday in Charlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring over a dozen others. (Eze Amos via AP)

Fields, described by a former high school teacher as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, was charged with second-degree murder.

A judge denied him bail Monday after the public defender's office said it couldn't represent him because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday's protest.

Fields was assigned a local attorney, and another hearing was set for Aug. 25.

Records show that Fields was arrested and put in juvenile detention after his mother reported in 2011 that he stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife.

In another incident in 2010, she said her son smacked her in the head and locked her in the bathroom after she told him to stop playing video games. There was no indication in the records that he was arrested.

Also Monday, a former classmate told The Associated Press that on a school trip to Europe in 2015, a teenage Fields couldn't stand the French and said he only went on the trip so that he could visit "the Fatherland" - Germany.

"He just really laid on about the French being lower than us and inferior to us," said Keegan McGrath.

McGrath, now 18, said he challenged Fields on his beliefs, and the animosity between them grew so heated that it came to a boil at dinner on their second day. He said he went home after three or four days because he couldn't handle being in a room with Fields.

The incident shocked McGrath because he had been in German class with Fields for two unremarkable years.

"He was just a normal dude" most of the time, though he occasionally made "dark" jokes that put his class on edge, including one "offhand joke" about the Holocaust, McGrath said.

McGrath said Fields was no outcast: "He had friends. He had people who would chat with him."

Meanwhile, under pressure to speak out more forcefully, President Donald Trump condemned Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as "criminals and thugs" and declared that "racism is evil."

Trump's initial failure on Saturday to denounce the groups by name, and his blaming of the violence on "many sides," prompted criticism from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats.

A teacher who taught Fields in high school said Sunday that Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Hitler, and had been singled out in the ninth grade by officials at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Kentucky, for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race.

Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, according to the teacher, Derek Weimer.

Fields later enlisted in the Army and reported for basic training in 2015 but was released from active duty four months later because of what military described only as "a failure to meet training standards."

The violence in Charlottesville also was blamed for the deaths of two Virginia State Police officers in a helicopter crash.

Fields had been photographed hours before the attack with a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that took part in the protest against the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The group on Sunday denied any association with Fields.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.

Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, holds a photo of Bro's mother and her daughter, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. Heyer was killed Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, when police say a man plowed his car into a group of demonstrators protesting the white nationalist rally. Bro said that she is going to bare her soul to fight for the cause that her daughter died for. (AP Photo/Joshua Replogle)

A makeshift memorial of flowers and a photo of victim, Heather Heyer, sits in Charlottesville, Va., Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Heyer died when a car rammed into a group of people who were protesting the presence of white supremacists who had gathered in the city for a rally. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

On Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, police tape and flowers mark the site where a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - In a wood-paneled stateroom in the Philippine presidential palace, Rex Tillerson sat across from a leader who boasts of hunting down drug dealers to personally kill. Whether he'd confront his host for letting police kill thousands - and how forcefully - was being closely scrutinized for proof the Trump administration has any commitment to human rights.

When the secretary of state ultimately broached it last week with President Rodrigo Duterte, he backed into it, rattling off U.S. death tolls and addiction rates that tell the story of America's opioid crisis. Then he noted matter-of-factly that Americans have voiced concern about Duterte's approach to his country's drug war. He offered U.S. help, two of the meeting's participants said.

To Tillerson's critics, it was the latest underperformance by a secretary of state they see as abdicating traditional roles and aspirations of American diplomacy. To Tillerson, aides said, it was a concrete solution to a problem, rather than grandstanding for grandstanding's sake.

FILE - In this May 10, 2017, file photo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, walk from a media opportunity at the State Department in Washington. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned praise from President Donald Trump despite policy differences, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic and unpredictable administration.

Yet he's also stoked deep doubts about his leadership among many U.S. diplomats and the traditional foreign policy establishment, with a daily drumbeat of editorials like "Why Has Rex Tillerson Belly-Flopped as Secretary of State?" and "How Rex Tillerson is Wrecking the State Department."

And so difficult has Trump made Tillerson's job at times that it's sparked talk of a "Rexit," a potential early departure from the job. As with the histrionic headlines, Tillerson has brushed it all off, calmly telling reporters last month, "I'm not going anywhere."

This account of Tillerson's first six months draws on interviews with roughly two dozen State Department officials, foreign diplomats and other Tillerson associates. Some weren't authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

___

In private conversations, Tillerson has taken issue with the approach of his predecessors, and especially John Kerry, whose high public profile, constant travel and impulse to plunge himself into every crisis became a running State Department joke.

Tillerson has told those in his orbit he can get more done if countries know they can negotiate in confidence without their positions being dissected in the press.

That argument hasn't caught on among the chorus of diplomats and foreign policy scholars who have piled on, claiming he's squandering the only real tool in his arsenal. After all, diplomats don't have weapons at their disposal, only words.

There are questions about why he took the job if he doesn't have a particular mark he hopes to leave on the world. In a Washington Post column entitled "Rex Tillerson is a Huge Disappointment," former Bush administration official Michael Gerson asked, "Who would want to be known as the secretary of state who retreated from the promotion of justice and democracy?"

Many past secretaries reached eagerly and early for Nobel Peace Prize-worthy achievements. Tillerson's most enthusiastic focus has been streamlining the State Department's inner workings, a project expected to extend the rest of the year or longer.

"I think he came to the job with a feeling that America was approaching foreign policy with too much of a missionary zeal. We were telling the world what they ought to do," said John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Tillerson served 11 years on the board. "He's not a missionary for grand causes. He's a pragmatist."

Two decades ago, as Tillerson was rising through Exxon's management, the oil company merged with Mobil to become the world's biggest, with revenues exceeding many countries' economies. Tillerson has told aides the State Department redesign is tougher than the merger ever was.

"This takes time," said R.C. Hammond, a senior Tillerson adviser. "We're not changing one light switch. We're rewiring an entire house."

___

On his first day as America's top diplomat, Tillerson spoke in the marbled lobby of the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building headquarters. He told assembled employees that he knew the election was "hotly contested" and that while all were entitled to their beliefs, it mustn't overwhelm "our ability to work as one team."

Much of the diplomatic corps was deeply suspicious of the new administration's worldview. An astonishing 900 signed a rare "dissent memo" - before Tillerson even arrived - objecting to Trump's initial travel ban on people from seven mainly Muslim countries.

Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO until just weeks earlier, represented to some the prospect of a sober, levelheaded "adult in the room" for Trump's national security decisions. As Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat, put it in Tillerson's confirmation hearing, "You don't strike me as someone likely to be naive."

Addressing State Department workers, Tillerson emphasized honesty, respect and accountability for all - themes borrowed from the Boy Scouts of America that he once led.

Then he started talking about efficiency. He predicted "changes to how things are traditionally done." The mood in the room changed.

"Change for the sake of change can be counterproductive, and that will never be my approach," Tillerson said. "But we cannot sustain ineffective traditions over optimal outcomes."

When, two months later, Tillerson embraced a 37-percent cut to foreign aid and diplomatic spending, lawmakers of both parties balked, accusing him of weakening diplomacy and U.S. influence. Trump's final proposed budget softened the cuts somewhat, but still calls for roughly one-third less money, fewer workers and consolidation of many offices.

___

Tillerson locked in his reputation as an under-the-radar secretary on his first trip abroad, when he told the one reporter allowed to travel with him he was "not a big media press access person" and said, "I personally don't need it."

In Texas, that approach paid off for Tillerson, and Exxon flourished. Corporations are rarely harmed by their CEOs avoiding the limelight.

But in Washington, the same approach has denied Tillerson the chance to define his own narrative - or to effectively calm the inevitable concerns when a workforce of 75,000 is told big cuts are coming.

"I will say this: It's very Rex," said Paul Tetreault, director of Washington's Ford's Theatre, where Tillerson was involved for a decade. "He is disciplined, he is methodical, he has a plan. You, me, we may not know what that plan is, but I think he does."

Still, the vacuum has been filled by a steady stream of rumors, leaks and reports about impending changes that, left largely unchallenged by Tillerson, have reached sky-is-falling proportions. Among them:

- That promotion of a just and democratic world may be removed from the State Department's mission statement. An early draft that relied on employee feedback didn't include it, but officials say the final version likely will.

- That Tillerson wants to move passports and visas to the Homeland Security Department. Outside consultants recommended it, but Tillerson and Deputy Secretary John Sullivan oppose the move.

- That a micromanaging Tillerson has taken back all authorities previously delegated to subordinates. In fact, Tillerson rescinded a few, left most in place and issued a dozen-plus other new ones.

"There are elements of truth in some of these stories," Sullivan, Tillerson's deputy, said. "But then they're twisted in a way that makes it sound as though the secretary is out of touch, mismanaging, whatever. I see him, when he's in town, three or four times a day. The guy is committed to the mission."

___

On one critique, even Tillerson agrees.

So slow has Trump's administration been to staff the State Department that nearly the entire upper echelon of assistant secretaries who oversee specific regions and functions is vacant. Foreign embassies, reluctant to publicly criticize Tillerson, privately complain they have no point person- or only an "acting" official with limited authority.

"No," Tillerson said last month when asked if he's satisfied with the pace of hiring. "I'd like it to go faster."

The empty offices are due in part to Trump, in part Tillerson. While political spats with the White House have stalled some of Tillerson's preferred picks, in some cases he's leaving positions vacant because they might be eliminated or combined with other posts in the overhaul.

Many "special envoys" and issue-specific offices are expected to be merged into related State Department bureaus. That's sparked concern among some lawmakers and special interest groups but also enjoys support from some diplomats who have long complained about a notoriously unwieldy bureaucracy.

___

No secretary before Tillerson has faced the unique challenge of working for a president like Trump. So often does Trump contradict or undermine him that foreign diplomats have struggled to determine when Tillerson truly speaks for his boss.

No sooner had Tillerson tried to calm the nation by downplaying prospects for a North Korea military conflict than Trump reaffirmed his "fire and fury" threat and boasted about U.S. nuclear weapons.

But Trump also defends Tillerson, saying Friday they were "totally on the same page." Tillerson often downplays signs of incongruity between their messages, and on North Korea, Tillerson says boss was merely "trying to support our efforts by ensuring that North Korea understands what the stakes are."

There have been similar divisions over Qatar, Iran and the Paris climate accord.

___

In the Cabinet, it's Tillerson who's made the most concerted effort to translate Trump's "America First" mantra into cohesive policy. In a May speech, Trump said alliances remain critical but that as the world changed economically and militarily over the last two decades, things grew "out of balance" and no longer serve U.S. interests as well.

What Tillerson said next fueled growing concerns that traditional values of human rights, democracy and global well-being were falling away under Tillerson and Trump. The secretary said America's values are not its policies, and that forcing values on others too heavily "really creates obstacles" for U.S. interests.

Tillerson's aides argue he's actually promoting those values more effectively than his predecessors, by using a "light touch" and offering specific solutions or help rather than issuing demands or self-righteous lectures. In each case, aides said, Tillerson emphasizes why doing the right thing advances another country's self-interests.

___

Six months in, Tillerson presides over a State Department deeply uneasy about its future, but still hopeful he'll lead American diplomacy more successfully than the panicked editorials predict.

Insigniam, a consulting firm Tillerson hired for the department's redesign, warned in a 110-page report that prolonged uncertainty would have negative repercussions. Tillerson says he's mindful of that but hopes the uncertainty will ebb as the redesign takes shape.

"It's to be expected that we will go through some morale issues early on," Tillerson said this month. But, he added, "I cannot change what we're doing from a policy standpoint, if that's what's behind people's unhappiness."

___

Lee reported from Washington.

FILE - In this April 28, 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson listens to the debate at United Nations headquarters. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2017, file photo, then-Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2017 file photo, Secretary of Stat Rex Tillerson shakes hands with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

FILE - In this May 21, 2017 file photo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hands a note to President Donald Trump during a meeting with leaders at the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In this photo taken June 26, 2017, from left, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Vice President Mike Pence talk in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2017, file photo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson greets State Department employees upon arrival at the State Department in Washington. Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned frequent praise from President Donald Trump, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic administration. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) - Seeking to highlight the growing plight in Venezuela, Vice President Mike Pence on Monday met with people who've fled the country to neighboring Colombia.

Pence visited the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, where met with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before planning to depart to Buenos Aires, Argentina. His wife, Karen Pence, helped to lead a prayer circle, where she prayed for "comfort to the Venezuelan refugees."

The vice president and his wife also spent time speaking with the migrants, listening to their emotional stories. Reporters were not able to hear their conversations, but watched the vice president comfort several women, including at least one who was seen wiping away tears.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence leans in as he visits with Venezuelan families at the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pence is seeking to highlight the growing plight of Venezuelans with a visit with people who've fled the country to neighboring Colombia. He prayed with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before departing to Buenos Aires, Argentina later Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

He said he heard "heartbreaking" stories of their struggle for food.

"President Trump's made it very clear we will not stand by while Venezuela collapses into dictatorship," Pence said, arguing that "a failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of our entire hemispheres and the people of the United States."

Pence is trying to rally the region against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's attempts to consolidate power. Pence on Sunday denounced Maduro's tactics and said the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela "crumbles."

Venezuelan officials have been firing back in a series of statements, with Information Minister Ernest Villegas denouncing U.S. meddling in Venezuela's affairs as hypocritical on Twitter Monday.

"The US and its satellite in Bogota are trying to give classes in democracy to Venezuela while it provides cover for neo-Nazis in its own territory," Villegas wrote, linking to photos of the recent deadly march in Charlottesville, Virginia involving far-right groups.

Asked whether the U.S. would commit additional financial aid for those migrating from Venezuela, Pence said only that the U.S. "has a long and storied history of generosity with regard to refugees populations and it's happening here in Colombia."

The Trump administration has pushed to reduce the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. as well as money spent on foreign aid.

___

Reach Jill Colvin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/colvinj

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, and his wife Karen Pence, second left, meet with Venezuelans at the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pence is seeking to highlight the growing plight of Venezuelans with a visit with people who've fled the country to neighboring Colombia. He prayed with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before departing to Buenos Aires, Argentina later Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from right, and his wife Karen Pence, third from right, stand in prayer with Venezuelans at the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pence is seeking to highlight the growing plight of Venezuelans with a visit with people who've fled the country to neighboring Colombia. He prayed with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before departing to Buenos Aires, Argentina later Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U. S. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence, greet Venezuelans during a meeting at the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Pence is seeking to highlight the growing plight of Venezuelans with a visit with people who've fled the country to neighboring Colombia. He prayed with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before departing to Buenos Aires, Argentina later Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, talks to the media alongside Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is welcomed by Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, left, at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police on Monday arrested a prominent Israeli billionaire businessman and four other suspects on a battery of charges, including money laundering, obstruction of justice and bribery, and other crimes.

The police said the suspects were taken into custody and questioned following a joint investigation with Swiss and American authorities.

One of those arrested was Beny Steinmetz, a Geneva-based diamond-mining magnate with an estimated worth of just over $1 billion, according to Forbes.

Steinmetz was also arrested by Israeli authorities in December over allegations of bribing officials in the African country of Guinea to promote business interests there. He spent two weeks under house arrest at that time.

Among the four other suspects arrested were Tal Silberstein, a former political consultant to ex-Israeli premier Ehud Barak and a current advisor to the Austrian chancellor, as well as the CEO of Israeli telecom giant Bezeq, David Granot.

Police wouldn't elaborate on the specifics of the current investigation. A court extended Steinmetz and Silberstein's custody later on Monday.

Israeli media reported in December that Steinmetz was suspected of bribing the former leader of Guinea and his wife for rights to mine at the Simandou range, one of the world's largest sources of iron ore. Steinmetz's company BSGR previously had its mining license revoked in Guinea because of corruption charges.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's state TV says the country's supreme leader has appointed a conservative cleric to head a council tasked with mediating disputes between government bodies.

Monday's report says Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as the new chief of the arbitration body - known as the Expediency Council - for the next five years.

Shahroudi replaces former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who died in January after heading the council for more than 27 years.

Shahroudi served as the chief of the Iranian Judiciary for 10 years, from 1999 to 2009.

The council was created in 1988 and its main responsibility is to resolve differences or conflicts between the country's parliament and Iran's constitutional watchdog.
BEIJING (AP) - China announced Monday it will cut off imports of North Korean coal, iron ore and other goods in three weeks under U.N. sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile programs.

China, the isolated North's main trading partner, has been reluctant to push leader Kim Jong Un's regime too hard for fear it might collapse. But Beijing is increasingly frustrated with Pyongyang and supported a U.N. Security Council ban on Aug. 5 on coal and other key goods.

The Chinese customs agency said it will stop processing imports of North Korean coal, iron and lead ores and fish at midnight on Sept. 5.

FILE - In this June 6, 2015, file photo, heavy machines move imported iron ore at the dock in Rizhao in eastern China's Shandong province. China announced Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, it will cut off imports of North Korean coal, iron ore and other goods in three weeks under U.N. sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile programs.(Chinatopix via AP, File)

"After that, entry of these goods will be prohibited," said an agency statement.

The announcement follows an escalating exchange of angry words between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim's government. Trump declared the U.S. military "locked and loaded" while Pyongyang threatened to fire four missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam.

The latest U.N. sanctions are intended to block North Korean exports worth $1 billion - a significant share of total exports valued at $3 billion last year.

China stopped importing North Korean coal in February but total trade has risen. That prompted Trump to accuse Beijing in July of failing to use its economic leverage to stop Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Other North Korean exports to China also include clothing, knitwear and plastic rain ponchos, which appear not to be affected by the latest sanctions.

Beijing had long been Pyongyang's only diplomatic defender but agreed in March 2016 to sanctions against the North following its test of a long-range missile.

Still, Chinese leaders oppose blocking all trade with the impoverished North, which they argue might cause widespread hunger.

The Chinese import cut will come the week of Foundation Day on Sept. 9, the North Korean holiday commemorating the founding of the country's government in 1948.

North Korean imports of Chinese oil, consumer goods and other products rose 36.7 percent from a year earlier in the first half of this year to 1.1 billion yuan ($165 million), according to Chinese customs data. Chinese imports from the North fell 7.6 percent in the same period to 611 million yuan ($91 million), squeezing the North's revenue.

___

General Administration of Customs of China: www.customs.gov.cn
News / Press Release

by Moses Mzila-Ndlovu - ANSA Party President

We people of Mathebeleland celebrate hero's day with sadness all the time because those who are celebrated and decorated heroes and heroine are a prerogative of Zanu PF, are mostly people who were Zanu army officials and politicians. The president of the party and government decide who is the hero/heroine in Zimbabwe. The definition of heroism according to Zanu PF, is based on the participation in the struggle for independence. Did Zipra freedom fighters not participate in the freedom war? The systematic exclusion of their heroes' status is very painful to those who were with them in the struggle and exile.There are thousand heroes/heroines: it is those citizens some of whom made outstanding heroic contributions for the nation before and after independence without any liberations credential. What name should we give them if to be named a hero in Zimbabwe you must have participated in the Zanu-PF Chimurenga liberation struggle, most fallen Zipra heroes and heroines are systematically excluded from this great day! History has been rewritten and remade to give praise to one sided struggle. Zanu PF has remade history to mean that it is only them who defeated racist Ian Douglas Smith regime. The independence for Zimbabwe was negotiated in a round table in Lancaster House. Both armed struggles: Zapu/Zanu put pressure on the racist regime to sit down and negotiate a settlement. Zanu PF did not win the war in the battlefields as they want us to believe!The 1980 elections were the most violent elections in the history of Zimbabwe. Zanu PF used a tribal card to win the elections: and they won. But winning the elections fraudulently did not mean that they won the war for independence in the battlefields. This fact must be spoken in the strongest terms. Fraudulent winning of elections in 1980 did not mean that Zanu PF be given the right to rewrite and distort history about the Zipra contribution to the liberation of this country.This question who is a hero/heroine in Zimbabwe is the most debatable issue. We need not go into the debate on how Zapu split to make two formations because we know this history of Zapu and Zanla very well. These two parties were parties formed on the premise that the people of Mathebeleland cannot be leaders in a new Zimbabwe. Hence most political parties will field Ndebele deputies in political party positions. Should that surprise us if those who fought for liberation for independence including Zapu are left out altogether: very few handpicked Zapu liberation heroes were declared heroes. We call this a travesty of justice. It is not only a rewriting of history but nauseating, emotional degrading, delimiting the other! We want and we demand justice for all, beginning with acknowledging the contributions other political and military parties did to gain independence of this great country.We remember those freedom fighters that lost their lives in Zambia and Tanzania and Mozambique. We remember those civilians who lost their lives in the cross-fire encounters of Smith's army and the freedom fighters, those men and women who fed the freedom fighters, those civilians who were falsely labelled enemy collaborators and were dealt with in most excruciating circumstance. We remember all front line states: Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique and Botswana that sacrificed so dearly for the betterment of a free Zimbabwe. We remember the contributions Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other East European countries.Indeed heroism is convoluted and much debated and must be given a non-partisan approach. It should never be the prerogative of one man. President Mugabe monopolizes the declaration of heroism this must be condemned. The people of Zimbabwe themselves should know who has outstanding talent that deems one a hero. May all our heroes and heroines of this great country rest in peace; we remember them and their outstanding contributions. We shall always value their contributions for generations to come!
CLARKESVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Authorities say a sheriff's deputy shot and killed a carjacking suspect during a traffic stop in Georgia.

Habersham County Sheriff's Office spokesman Mike Wurtz tells local news outlets that a deputy pulled over a silver Ford Explorer on Sunday afternoon that matched the description of a vehicle that had been carjacked in White County. He says that during the stop the driver, 24-year-old Christopher Collins, failed to show his hands when the deputy asked him repeatedly.

Wurtz says Collins exited the vehicle and the deputy shot him.

Collins was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were injured.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting.
Willie Nelson is blaming Utah's high altitude for forcing him to cut a performance near Salt Lake City short.

Nelson ended his show early at the USANA Amphitheatre in suburban West Valley City on Sunday night.

Nelson, who has battled with a string of health complaints in recent months and years, was taken to a local hospital.

He later apologized in a statement posted to his Twitter and Facebook accounts. The 84-year-old country music legend explained: 'The altitude got to me. I am feeling better now and headed for lower ground.'

Willie Nelson ended up cutting his performance in Salt Lake City short blaming Utah's high altitude for giving him breathing problems leaving him out of breath

The singer posted an apology on Twitter explaining to fans that he was feeling better after heading to 'lower ground'

The 20,000-capacity USANA Amphitheater is located in West Valley City, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, with an altitude of 4,300 feet.

The latest health concern comes after a report published by Radar Online in March quoted an anonymous source saying Nelson was 'deathly ill.'

Elaine Schock, Nelson's publicist, denied the claim and said he was 'perfectly fine.'

Nelson cancelled several shows in late January and early February because he had a 'bad cold,' though he has since resumed touring.

Nelson cancelled several shows in late January and early February because he had a 'bad cold,' though he has since resumed touring. Here he is pictures on Sunday night

Nelson has been the target of various online death hoaxes over the years

Nelson's publicist didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment Monday.

Texas-born Nelson has recorded more than 60 albums, written songs such as 'Crazy,' and appeared in more than 30 movies and TV shows.

Known for his honky-tonk tunes and hippie flair, Nelson rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

His fame has transcended genres with the release of hits such as 'Always on My Mind' and 'On the Road Again,' in the 1980s.

The Billboard charts rank Nelson as the No. 3 greatest of all time country singer after George Strait and Merle Haggard.

Nelson was forced to cancel several concerts earlier this year because of what his publicist said was a bad cold.
BERLIN (AP) - The German government is condemning the white nationalist rally in Virginia that turned violent Saturday, expressing solidarity with peaceful counter-protesters.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters Monday that it was an "absolutely repulsive scene at this extreme-right march."

He said "there was outrageous racism, anti-Semitism and hate in its most despicable form to be seen, and whenever it comes to such speech or such images it is repugnant."

White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

He added that it's "completely contrary to what the chancellor and the German government works for politically, and we are in solidarity with those who stand peacefully against such aggressive extreme-right opinions."

Seibert says Merkel also regrets the death of a counter-protester and sent her sympathies to those injured.
KUNAULI, Nepal (AP) - Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh.

Officials said Monday that they were still trying to determine the scale of the disaster, as weather forecasters predicted more rain for some areas and casualties were reported in multiple locations across the Himalayan foothills of South Asia.

Nepalese police were searching Monday for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to police spokesman Pushkar Karki.

Commuters wade through flood waters on a road in Murkata village east of Gauhati, north eastern Assam state, India , Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed dozens of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

"The death toll may go up further as reports come in from remote areas," Karki said.

Many of those killed had drowned or been caught in collapsed houses or under toppled trees.

The floods destroyed key rice crops in Nepal and drove thousands of farmers and their families to take refuge in schools or tents on higher ground, as water submerged roads and cut transport to affected areas. Near the Nepalese village of Kunauli, on the border with India, people were sheltering in tents pitched along the main highway after the land on both sides became inundated. Cows and buffalo meandered between the tents, and poisonous snakes slithered through the water.

Electricity and cellular phone services were cut off. Soldiers passed out clean water, grain and rice, which people were cooking on small, kerosene-fueled stoves. But aid workers said some did not have enough food or water.

"The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop," Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-based anti-poverty charity Heifer International, said in a statement. "Making matters worse, large numbers of livestock have been swept away in the flash flooding."

Across Nepal's southern border, flooding swamped seven districts in the Indian state of Bihar and left more than half a million people homeless. Officials said two people had also died.

Landslides and flooding are common across South Asia during the summer monsoon season, and have become more dangerous thanks to widespread deforestation and poor urban planning that makes it harder for the land to absorb rainfall.

Bangladesh was bracing for worse flooding Monday, as weather forecasters predicted more rain. At least 18 major rivers were flowing at dangerously high levels, according to the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Center.

Twenty-seven people have been killed over the last few days in the low-lying delta nation, while another 600,000 are marooned, Bangladesh's disaster management minister, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury, said Monday. Around 368,000 people have taken refuge in more than 970 makeshift government shelters, he said.

Bangladeshi soldiers were working to evacuate those who were stranded on rooftops or in trees, after floodwaters inundated hundreds of northern villages.

In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes. Officials said that at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps, and that 18 people had been killed.

With railway lines inundated, the remote region was largely cut off from the rest of the country. Indian air force helicopters were dropping food and drinking water packets in the worst-hit districts, said Assam's chief secretary, V. K. Pipersenia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was in contact with Assam's authorities. "All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state," Modi said on Twitter.

Most of Assam's Kaziranga National Park was also under water, forcing many of the wildlife reserve's endangered rhinos and deer to move to higher ground. Dozens of deer were killed by cars after they leapt onto a nearby highway to escape the floods.

Farther to the west, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, soldiers recovered the bodies of 46 people who had been traveling in two buses that were buried in a massive landslide of rocks and mud on Sunday.

___

George reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Wasbir Hussain in Gauhati, India, Ashwini Bhatia in Dharmsala, India, Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Roshan Sedhai in Kathmandu, Nepal, contributed to this report.

A Nepalese flood victim woman checks a water pump in front of her partially submerged house in Saptari district, Nepal, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed dozens of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A commuter keeps his goats in a bag as he sits on a boat to cross flooded waters in Murkata village, east of Gauhati, north eastern Assam state, India, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed dozens of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Flood affected villgers move to safer places at the Narpatganj Block, in Araria district, Bihar, India, Monday Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed scores of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Aftab Alam Siddiqui)

Villagers offer prayers for flood waters to recede in Chandrapur village east of Gauhati, north eastern Assam state, India , Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed dozens of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Nepalese man Shrawan Ram 17, walks through a flooded area to reach his inundated home in Saptar district, Nepal, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed dozens of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A young Nepalese girl wades through flood waters outside her partially submerged home in Saptari district, Nepal, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed dozens of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Villagers wade through a flooded area in Murkata village east of Gauhati, India, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes. Officials said at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

A list of trains cancelled due to floods are displayed on the information counter as an Indian passenger makes an enquiry at the Sealdah railway station in Kolkata, India, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed scores of people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
MADRID (AP) - Police in northeastern Spain have arrested three Russians accused of beating a 22-year-old Italian man to death in the seaside resort town of Lloret de Mar.

A statement by the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police on Sunday said that officers were sent to a discotheque at around 3 a.m. Saturday where they found the Italian badly injured after a fight was reported. It said the man died a day later after being admitted to a hospital in the nearby city of Girona.

A video of the incident on Spanish media showed a man being kicked in the face.

Police identified the victim as Niccolo Ciatti. The Barcelona-based newspaper El Periodico said he was from the town of Scandicci, near Florence.

Police said they later found the 20- and 26-year-old Russians in the town. They said they would most likely be brought before a judge Monday.

Italy's foreign ministry said Monday the Italian died "following aggression" against him, adding that the Italian consulate in Barcelona was following the case.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - On the final day of campaigning in Alabama, U.S. Sen. Luther Strange on Monday touted his backing from President Donald Trump while his GOP rivals continued to batter him as the candidate of the so-called Washington establishment because of his bankrolling from Senate leadership.

Alabama voters go to the polls on Tuesday for party primaries in the race to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Senate seat. Despite Trump's endorsement and the backing of millions of dollars in advertising by a super political action committee tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Strange has found himself a tight primary against firebrand challengers, including former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Trump recorded a message urging Alabama Republicans to vote for Strange, who was appointed earlier this year to temporarily fill Sessions' seat. Trump's message was sent out as an automatic call to more than 150,000 households on the eve of the primary.

FILE - In this July 11, 2017, file photo, Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala. responds to questions during a TV news interview on Capitol Hill in Washington. In the Alabama race for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' former Senate seat, the Republican slugfest primary is about love of all things Trump, with contenders openly wooing Trump voters, and hatred of the so-called swamp of Washington D.C. Sen. Strange, who was appointed to the position in February, is trying to fight off a field of firebrand challengers, including U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks and former chief justice Roy Moore in the GOP primary. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

In the call, Trump says his administration is accomplishing many of his promises "but I need Luther to help us out." The call came after Trump twice spoke of his support for Strange via Twitter.

"I feel like the momentum is on our side with the President's tweet and robocall today. I think everything is looking great," Strange said as he worked telephones at his campaign office.

Brooks on Monday said the race was an opportunity to send a "huge message" to the Senate leadership about the dysfunction in the U.S. Senate.

It would send "chills down the spine" of McConnell, Brooks said, for the race to end up in a runoff between himself and Moore. Brooks spent the last two-weeks crisscrossing the state on a bus nicknamed the "Drain the Swamp Express" that also had a "Ditch Mitch" sign secured to it.

In a campaign stop Monday, Brooks said he is the candidate with the strongest voting record for Trump's agenda. Brooks said he, unlike Strange, supports Trump's request to change Senate filibuster rules that make it easier for Democrats to defeat legislation.

Moore is often considered a contender in the race because of the fame he has gained as an icon of the culture wars. Moore was twice removed from his duties over stances for the public display of the Ten Commandments and against gay marriage

"It's a critical stage for our country. This is a prelude to the 2018 senatorial races. I think the Washington crowd is watching this race because it's kind of a bellwether," Moore said.

The Senate Leadership Fund, which has ties to McConnell, has saturated state airwaves with ads on behalf of Strange, with commercials aimed at keeping down support for both Moore and Brooks.

The crowded GOP field increases the odds that the race will end up in a September runoff between Tuesday's top two finishers.

Other Republicans in the race include Sen. Trip Pittman and Christian Coalition leader Randy Brinson.

The rollicking primary began with Strange's appointment in February by then-Gov. Robert Bentley, who later resigned in the cloud of a scandal. Challengers have taken swipes at Strange for seeking an appointment from the governor when Strange, as attorney general, was in charge of an investigation.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, immediately after taking office, announced the election would occur this year - instead of 2018 as Bentley planned- triggering a four-month demolition derby among contenders.

The Democratic side of Tuesday's election is also crowded.

Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney under the Clinton administration, is perhaps the best-known statewide in the field vying for the nomination and is backed by some national party figures such as former Vice President Joe Biden.

Other candidates include Michael Hansen, the head of an environmental organization who has urged Democrats to fully embrace progressive stances. Robert Kennedy, Jr., a Navy veteran who is unrelated to the famed Massachusetts political dynasty, has urged Democrats to build bridges with Republicans and independents.

While Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in more than 20 years, some Democrats hope that a December special election - particularly if Republicans end up with a polarizing nominee - could give them at least a chance in the matchup between the winning Republican and Democrat.

FILE - In this March 22, 2017, file photo, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. is interviewed on Capitol Hill in Washington. In the Alabama race for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' former Senate seat, the Republican slugfest primary is about love of all things Trump, with contenders openly wooing Trump voters, and hatred of the so-called swamp of Washington D.C. Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to the position in February, is trying to fight off a field of firebrand challengers, including Brooks and former chief justice Roy Moore in the GOP primary. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - In a story Aug. 14 about corruption allegations against the former head of Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Mexico's Attorney General's Office said the Brazilian companies Odebrecht and Braskem were involved in paying bribes in Mexico. The Attorney General's Office said only that Odebrecht had admitted paying bribes in Mexico.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Ex-head of Mexico's state oil company denies taking bribes

The former head of Mexico's state-owned oil company is denying accusations that he took bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The former head of Mexico's state-owned oil company, a key campaign adviser to President Enrique Pena Nieto, has denied accusations that he took bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Emilio Lozoya said Sunday via Twitter that he was never corrupt and suggested the allegations were made by executives seeking to reduce their own sentences in Brazil.

His lawyer Javier Coello Trejo said on Radio Formula on Monday that "we will prove that Emilio Lozoya did not receive a single cent of those supposed $10 million that they paid as a bribe."

The Brazilian newspaper O Globo said Sunday it had obtained statements made by former Odebrecht's director in Mexico Luis Alberto de Meneses Weyll to investigators. De Meneses Weyll said that from 2012 to 2014, Odebrecht paid Lozoya $10 million to win a contract for work on a refinery in central Mexico. Lozoya left Pemex last year.

Mexican investigative media collaborative Quinto Elemento Lab and anti-corruption nonprofit Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity also reported they have prosecution documents detailing payments to offshore accounts allegedly linked to Lozoya. The authenticity of the documents could not be immediately confirmed.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said in a statement that it did not have all of the information from Brazilian investigators, but would pursue the case to its ultimate consequences.

It noted that Odebrecht and another company, Braskem, had pleaded guilty in federal court in New York in December 2016 to paying bribes in a number of countries. The Mexican Attorney General's Office said that Odebrecht acknowledged paying $10,500,000 to Pemex officials.

The Attorney General's Office said it had already taken statements from a number of Pemex executives as part of its own investigation. Coello, Lozoya's lawyer, said that his client had offered to give a statement, but the agency had still not scheduled him to come in.

When the alleged payments began in 2012, Lozoya was an adviser to Pena Nieto's campaign and a leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
VIENNA (AP) - Austria's Social Democratic Party has announced that it is severing business relations with an Israeli political consultant after Israeli authorities arrested him on suspicion of money laundering, obstruction of justice, bribery and related crimes.

Tal Silberstein was one of four suspects arrested Monday in Israel following a joint investigation with Swiss and American authorities.

Social Democratic Party official Georg Niedermuhlbicher says his party's move is a result of "the legal accusations that have been made known from Israel." The party is the senior partner in the coalition now ruling Austria.

The development comes ahead of October national elections and could hurt the Social Democrats, who are trailing behind center-right and right-wing rivals in polls. The other parties are criticizing the Social Democrats for choosing Silberstein as a consultant.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is hosting the head of Libya's eastern military forces, part of efforts to boost its influence in the chaotic country.

Welcoming Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia supports U.N.-led efforts aimed at political settlement in Libya.

Hifter, the commander of Libya's self-styled national army allied with its eastern-based parliament, is a rival to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli led by Faez Sarraj.

Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Hifter listens during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Russia has maintained contacts with both Libyan leaders in a bid to expand its clout by talking to both sides.

Libya sank into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and has remained split between rival parliaments and governments in the east and west, each backed by a set of militias, tribes and political factions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov listens to Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Hifter, right, during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Hifter, top center, listens to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, bottom center, during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, welcomes Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Hifter, center, during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Opinion / Columnist

Professor Jonathan Moyo and Emerson Mnangagwa are the heavy-weights in Zanu PF; these are two ten tonne bulls, supercharge with testosterone, locking horns; this is the clash of the titans. The Zanu PF G40 vs Lacoste factional war has moved up a gear, straight into overdrive. This is it!Professor Jonathan Moyo has opened his attack with his Blue Ocean presentation revealing Emerson Mnangagwa's plans to seize State Institutions and then, ultimately, seizing power from Mugabe himself. Mnangagwa has promised to give his counter presentation which will prove that our "nutty" Professor is a CIA American agent!Jonathan Moyo has been at the heart of Zanu PF's vote rigging machine and Emerson Mnangagwa has been at the heart of the party's culture of violence and murder. So, the two have been a lot more than Mugabe's right hand and left hand man; they have been are the right and left lobe of the tyrant's brain. Mugabe owes his long stay in power to those two gentlemen, there is no question about it.The two know the regime's dirtiest secrets in great detail because they were involved in their planning, execution and/or burying the skeletons. Booting out of the party a simpleton Mai Mujuru was easy; she held very senior positions in the party and government but had no clue what was going on around her. Ever when she uncovered some serious stuff by accident, she lacked the intellect to understand its full import. Booting out Moyo or Mnangagwa, with all the wealth of information they have on everyone in the party, is a totally different kettle of fish.Still, Zanu PF has certainly become too small to house these two bulls, Moyo and Mnangagwa; it is clear one of them must be booted out. The two bulls are now eyeing each other knowing fully well that when the fighting is done one will be food for the vultures. "Manya yamagora!" as one would say in Shona.President Mugabe is behind the G40 factions. If he thought booting Mnangagwa out of Zanu PF was going to be as easy as booting out Mujuru; he could not have been more wrong. Whether Mugabe like it or not, he knows his fate and the fate of his ambitious and greedy wife is now irretrievably tied to the G40 faction. Whilst the two factions trading blows, each expose and counter expose; he, as the leader of Zanu PF, and the party will feel each blow. His and the party's grip on power is weakening with each blow.A weak and enfeeble Zanu PF will present the best opportunity to push for the implementation of the democratic reforms, since MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU. Before the victorious faction, it is irrelevant which faction wins, has had the time to recover its breath and lick its wounds we must confront it with demands for democratic change.Both Mnangagwa and Moyo have already made it clear that "Zanu PF will not reform itself out of office!"Well, the democratic reforms are about restoring the people's individual freedoms and basic human rights which Zanu PF has systematically eroded. The party must be pressed to explain who gave them the right to ride roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms, human rights, hope and human dignity!If is important that we do not allow the next elections to take place with no reforms in place. Zanu PF will rig the elections and use the election result as cover to resist demands for reforms. The party will then use the next five years to consolidate its strangle hold on power and thus better able to resist future demands for reform.By contesting the flawed July 2013 elections against the advice of SADC leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and his corrupt and incompetent MDC friends accomplish nothing other than offer Zanu PF the bolt-hole to escape having to implement the democratic reforms, as David Coltart admitted in his book."The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious - withdraw from the elections," confessed Senator Coltart."The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."Since the rigged July 2013 elections the opposition have failed to get even one reform implemented and yet they still want contest next year's elections. Tsvangirai is banking his hope of winning the elections on voter education and mobilization. We know Zanu PF has deliberately allocated fewer voter registration centres in opposition strong holds and followed this up with fewer polling stations in these areas compared to Zanu PF strong holds.Besides there are other electoral problems such as a corrupted voters' roll, a pro-Zanu PF public media, Zanu PF's unfair access to public resources and funds to bankroll its election campaigns, etc. which gives Zanu PF the electoral advantage. The nation would be very foolish indeed to once again allow Zanu PF get away with holding another flawed election.Tsvangirai is but an errant student who can answer but one question out of ten, voter education and mobilization alone will never be enough to counter Zanu PF's many other vote rigging activities. We want free, fair and credible election and for that we must have all the democratic reforms implemented. There is no better time to demand the reforms from Zanu PF than now when the regime is breathless and enfeeble by its own savage internal factional war.The G40 vs Lacoste factional war is going to be blood; when heavy weights like Jonathan Moyo and Emerson Mnangagwa lock horns, they do with explosive forces. Whatever the outcome of the fight happens to be; we, the people, must be quick and uncompromising in making our demands for democratic reforms and an end to dictatorial rule!
CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) - Under a scorching sun just a short walk from Colombia's border with Venezuela, hundreds of hungry men, women and children line up for bowls of chicken and rice - the first full meal some have eaten in days.

An estimated 25,000 Venezuelans make the trek across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge into Colombia each day. Many come for a few hours to work or trade goods on the black market, looking for household supplies they cannot find back home.

But increasingly, they are coming to eat in one of a half-dozen facilities offering struggling Venezuelans a free plate of food.

FILE - In this July 17, 2016 file photo, a woman carrying a bundle on her head waits in line to cross the border into Colombia through the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela. An estimated 25,000 Venezuelans trek across the international bridge into Colombia each day. Many come for a few hours to work or trade goods on the black market. But increasingly, they are coming to eat in one of a half-dozen facilities offering the increasingly hungry Venezuelans a free plate of food. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

"I never thought I'd say this," said Erick Oropeza, 29, a former worker with Venezuela's Ministry of Education who recently began crossing the bridge each day. "But I'm more grateful for what Colombia has offered me in this short time than what I ever received from Venezuela my entire life."

As Venezuela's economy verges on collapse and its political upheaval worsens, cities like Cucuta along Colombia's porous, 1,370-mile (2,200-kilometer) border with Venezuela have become firsthand witnesses to the neighboring South American nation's escalating humanitarian crisis.

According to one recent survey, about 75 percent of Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds (8.7 kilograms) last year.

The Colombian government has crafted contingency plans in the event of a sudden, mass exodus, but already church groups and nonprofit organizations are stepping in, moved by images of mothers carrying starving babies and skinny men trying to make a few bucks on Cucuta's streets to bring back home.

Paulina Toledo, 47, a Colombian hairstylist who recently helped feed lunch to 900 Venezuelans, said seeing how hungry they were "hurt my soul."

"Those of us here on the border are seeing their pain," she said.

People living on either side of the Colombia-Venezuela border have long had a foot in both countries: A Colombian who lives in Cucuta might cross to visit relatives in San Cristobal; a Venezuelan might make the reverse trip to work or go to school.

In the years when Venezuela's oil industry was booming and Colombia entangled in a half-century armed conflict, an estimated 4 million Colombians migrated to Venezuela. Many started coming back as Venezuela's economy began to implode and after President Nicolas Maduro closed the border in 2015 and expelled 20,000 Colombians overnight.

Oropeza said he earned about $70 a month working at the Ministry of Education and selling hamburgers on the side - twice Venezuela's minimum wage but still not enough to feed a family of four. Once a month his family receives a bundle of food provided by the government, but it only lasts a week.

"So the other three weeks, like most Venezuelans, we have to make magic happen," he said on a recent afternoon.

Desperate for money to feed his family, he left his job and traveled to the Venezuelan border town of San Antonio. He wakes up at 4 a.m. each morning to be among the first crossing the bridge into Cucuta, where he earns money selling soft drinks on the street.

He goes straight to the "Casa de Paso," a church-run shelter that has served 60,000 meals to Venezuelans since opening two months ago. On an average day, 2,000 Venezuelans line up for meals, getting a ticket to reserve their spot and then waiting four hours for a meal served at outdoor plastic tables.

Workers stir gigantic metal pots filled with chicken and rice set on the bare dirt floor. Volunteers hand out boxes of juice to tired-looking children. Adults sit quietly, savoring their bowl of food as chickens waddle between them.

"Every day I have to remind myself why I am here," said Oropeza, dressed in a faded striped collared shirt. "I try to repeat it to myself so that I won't, you know, so those moments of weakness don't affect you so much."

When he's not helping out or waiting in line at the shelter kitchen, Oropeza sells malted soft drinks for about 50 cents each. He's been able to bring money back to his family and has earned enough to buy a cellphone, which he'd lacked for two years.

Jose David Canas, a priest, said his church will continue to serve food "as long as God allows."

"Until they close the border," he said. "Until everything is eaten or until the province tells us that they no longer have lunches to give out. And then it's the end."

--

AP Writer Christine Armario contributed to this report from Bogota, Colombia
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - A top Serbian official has called for a compromise over Kosovo that could end a dispute hindering both Serbia and Kosovo from one day becoming European Union members.

In an opinion piece published Monday in pro-government Vecernje Novosti newspaper, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic suggested partitioning Kosovo along its predominantly ethnic Albanian and Serb parts.

Dacic says the division would represent "a lasting solution of the Serbian-Albanian conflict which can be reached only through an agreement in which everyone will win something and lose something."

There was no immediate reaction from Kosovo, but rejection is likely.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It is recognized as a separate nation by 114 countries, including the United States and most of the EU, but not Serbia and its allies Russia and China.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romanian police say a fugitive businessman sentenced to seven years in prison for real estate fraud has been detained by British police.

Police said Gabriel Popoviciu, who was sentenced on Aug. 2 in Bucharest, handed himself in Monday after Romanian police found him at a London address. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said Romania would start extradition proceedings.

Prosecutors said that the 58-year-old Popoviciu obtained land in north Bucharest from a state university from 2000 to 2004 at a vastly undervalued price where he built the capital's best-known mall. The High Court for Cassation and Justice sentenced him for illegally acquiring the land. He denies wrongdoing.

The ex-rector of the University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Nicolae Alecu was sentenced in the same case to six years for official misconduct.
NEW YORK (AP) - Private lawyers seeking to represent Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in his U.S. drug-trafficking case failed to get assurances Monday that they'll get paid, leaving the Mexican drug lord's defense in limbo.

During a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told the lawyers that if they took the case, there was no guarantee that prosecutors wouldn't later seize their fees if they could show that the money came from his estimated $14 billion in drug profits.

"I'm not going to pressure the government to create a carve-out for counsel fees," Cogan said.

In this courtroom sketch, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, second from right, and Assistant US Attorney Andrea Goldbarg, seated in foreground, listen to Michelle Gelernt, left, a public defender, during a hearing in federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Private lawyers seeking to represent Guzman in his U.S. drug-trafficking case failed to get assurances that they'll get paid, leaving the Mexican drug lord's defense in limbo after the judge said there was no guarantee that prosecutors wouldn't later seize defense lawyers payments if it was shown the money came from Guzman's estimated $14 billion in drug profits. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Guzman smiled and waved at family members as he was led into the courtroom, but he didn't speak during the brief appearance.

Afterward, the lawyers told reporters that they still hope to find a way to represent Guzman. They said they were waiting for him to consult with his sister on Thursday - the first jail visit he's had by family member since he was brought to the U.S. from Mexico in January.

"We are looking forward, desperately, to come into this case and fight for Joaquin Guzman. ... The guy has a constitutional right to the best counsel he can get," said one of the lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman.

Prosecutors have argued that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for his defense. But they also said in a letter to the court last week that the government will not "grant a blanket prospective assurance" that it won't go after money spent on a private defense.

Michelle Gelernt, a public defender currently representing Guzman, called that position "hypocritical."

Lichtman is known for successfully defended John "Junior" Gotti, son of the notorious organized crime family boss, at a 2005 trial. The younger Gotti walked free after an acquittal on a securities fraud count and a mistrial on more serious racketeering counts.

The lawyer said he has met with Guzman on a weekly basis, hoping to defend him at a trial in April.

"He is charming, funny, highly intelligent. I enjoyed getting to know him. ... I don't judge someone by what I read in the papers," Lichtman told The Associated Press last week.

Another candidate for the defense team, attorney Eduardo Balarezo, represented Mexican drug kingpin and former Guzman rival Alfredo Beltran Leyva in a separate U.S. drug case. Leyva was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year.

Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his drug trafficking operation, the Sinaloa cartel, laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings.

The defense has claimed that he's being held in inhumane and overly restrictive conditions at a high-security jail in Manhattan known for housing alleged mobsters and terrorists.

The government has argued that his strict jail conditions are appropriate for someone who escaped from prison twice in Mexico, including once through a tunnel dug to the shower in his cell. Prosecutors said that even while he was behind bars in Mexico, Guzman used coded messages, bribes and other means to control his Sinaloa cartel and orchestrate his breakouts.

___

AP reporter Claudia Torrens in New York contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's official Holocaust memorial has expressed concern over the violence in Charlottesville, where far-right activists marched with Nazi flags and gave the Nazi salute, and where a counter-protester was killed over the weekend.

Yad Vashem said Monday "in our post-Holocaust global society, there is no room for racism or antisemitism." It warned that Nazi ideology "was a precursor to the eventual murderous policy."

It said the events in Virginia show "we must remain vigilant about educating the public regarding hatred and xenophobia."

Israel was founded just three years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) - Donald Trump may not be planning to visit the United Kingdom this year but he's become a very popular figure in Scotland's capital.

Performers at this year's Edinburgh Fringe festival - an annual buffet of hundreds of standup, theater and musical offerings - are roasting the U.S. president in several shows, including "Trumpageddon," ''Trumpus Interruptus: The Impeachment of Donald J Trump," ''Locker Room Talk" and "Trump'd."

In "Trump'd," a singing, dancing Trump, still in power in 2030, is being sought by a Mexican resistance group that's pleading to be deported. "It is really important to poke fun," said Adam Woolf, the show's writer.

"When Trump is making really incendiary comments that could genuinely pose a threat to everyone on the planet, I think it is easy to be overwhelmed. It is important to have some sort of respite from that," he said.

Zach Tomasovic wrote and stars in "Trumpus Interruptus," which portrays the U.S. president as a soft drink addict heavily under the influence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tomasovic said the sound of laughter is one of the most powerful tools that artists have at their disposal.

The festival, which runs until Aug. 28, has often included shows with a biting, satirical bent, tackling everything from the Lockerbie bombing, the death of Princess Diana or Brexit. In 2012, "Clinton: The Musical" was nominated for best new musical and made it off-Broadway in 2015.

The theater community has been quick to respond to the new president, including Robert Schenkkan's play "Building the Wall," a production of "Julius Caesar" in New York City with the title character portrayed as an ego-driven populist with fluffy blond hair and a gold bathtub, and the jokey "Me The People: The Trump America Musical," now playing in Manhattan. Even before the new administration took office, Trump criticized the Broadway actors in "Hamilton" after they had pointed words for his vice president.

At the Fringe, which began in 1947 as a democratic alternative to the high-toned Edinburgh International Festival, Trump may be a draw - but not for everyone. Patrick Wilson, director of "Trump'd," said he was recently handing out flyers to his show when an American visitor balked.

"She took it and then came back and handed it back to me and very properly said, 'I will not be mocking my president thank you very much,'" he said. "I said, 'Well that is absolutely fine, but we will be, so do something else with your evening - just don't come and see this.'"

___

Online:

https://www.edfringe.com
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Latest on the Oklahoma bomb plot (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma says it's chilling that someone would want to commit an act of terror in Oklahoma City as a tribute to the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Officials say 23-year-old Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Oklahoma, was arrested Saturday in connection with a plot to detonate a vehicle bomb outside an Oklahoma City bank. Undercover FBI agents prevented the attack from happening.

Lankford says the incident is a somber reminder that Americans must remain vigilant about home-grown extremism and radicalization in local communities.

A criminal complaint says Varnell told undercover investigators he sympathizes with "III% ideology," which pledges resistance to the U.S. government and wanted to use a device similar to the one that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people.

___

11:30 a.m.

The FBI has arrested a 23-year-old man who authorities say attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank.

Officials say Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Oklahoma, was arrested Saturday in connection with a plot to detonate a vehicle bomb in Oklahoma City.

A federal complaint says the FBI learned in December that Varnell wanted to blow up a building and that an undercover FBI agent posed as someone who could help. Officials say Varnell initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., with a device similar to one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Varnell is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday afternoon on a charge of attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce.
The Government should advise British nationals in the Korean peninsula to leave if the tensions over Kim Jong Uns nuclear programme continue to ratchet up, a former head of the Royal Navy has warned.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead said there was a real risk the current stand off between North Korea and the United States could escalate into an actual conflict, resulting in an exchange of nuclear weapons, with catastrophic consequences for the region.

He said advising UK citizens to leave the peninsula and nearby Japan would send a message to the international community that they needed to act to prevent a lurch into all out war.

Admiral Lord West. (Carl Court/PA)

When you start giving certain advice to your nationals people start taking notice and maybe China and others will say Goodness me, this is really serious, he told BBC Radio 4s Broadcasting House.

I would set out a certain number of parameters, that if in terms of tension if things change, and say You should now think about getting out and about other people you should think about not going there.

The current Foreign Office travel advice for both South and North Korea notes that tensions remain high following the Norths latest nuclear and missile tests but does not advise Britons to leave.

Lord West, however, said he feared chances of a conflict breaking out in the region were now higher than at any time since the end of the Korean War in 1952.

It is extremely worrying. I think that there is a real risk  by miscalculation, probably, more than anything else  of something happening that no one intends, he said.

The results would be catastrophic. It would be hundreds of thousands if not millions, dying and, yes, we would be pulled into finally.

I dont think our nation would be liable to a nuclear attack. I think any nuclear weapons would be limited to two or three, but that is enough to cause absolute untold damage because nuclear weapons should not be warfighting weapons. They are there, I believe, to make war unthinkable.

The latest rise in tensions follow the disclosure that US intelligence analysts had concluded the North Koreans had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to be fitted on a ballistic missile that could be used to attack the US mainland.

It prompted President Donald Trump to issue a series of strident warnings that the US would rain fire and fury on North Korea if it continued its threats.

Pyongyang responded by announcing plans to test fire a series of missiles into the waters around the US Pacific island territory of Guam where American strategic bombers are based.
A senior Sinn Fein MLA has called on all the nationalist parties on the island to work together to deliver a united Ireland.

Delivering a speech in Co Mayo to commemorate the 1981 hunger strikes, Gerry Kelly also paid tribute to the late Martin McGuinness and said the political institutions at Stormont should be re-established.

I challenge the leaders of the SDLP, Fine Gael, and Fianna Fail to stop hiding behind the mantra of now is not the time to discuss unity. One hundred years on since 1916, as we face into Brexit, now is the time not only to discuss unity, but to plan and deliver Irish Unity, he said.

Gerry Kelly

Now is the time to deliver Irish unity  @GerryKellyMLA speaking at the National Hunger Strike Commemoration https://t.co/v3tlpS6B4X pic.twitter.com/Exeka78Mo5  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) August 13, 2017

The Sinn Fein man added: Sinn Fein wants an Ireland that is defined by hope, prosperity and opportunity for all citizens irrespective of their age, gender, religious persuasion, cultural identity, political affiliation, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.

He paid tribute to the late Martin McGuinness and the 1981 hunger strikers.

The North Belfast MLA also insisted that the political institutions at Stormont should be re-established.

We want the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement re-instated but on the basis of equality, mutual respect and integrity.

The present talks, now stalled, are about implementing agreements already made. That is basic to a power-sharing Executive and Assembly, he said.

Sinn Fein demands in the talks process include an Irish Language Act, a Marriage Equality Act, a Bill of Rights and measures to deal with legacy issues.

Senator Rose Conway Walsh welcomes large crowd to Mayo for Hunger Strike commemoration https://t.co/WvlsTe4Njw pic.twitter.com/75TBt1tU2l  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) August 13, 2017

Mr Kelly said these are not unreasonable asks for people living in Northern Ireland, especially when they are rights everywhere else in Ireland and Britain.

Northern Ireland has been without a functioning devolved government since January, when the coalition led by the two biggest parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein collapsed, over a green energy scandal.

In January, Mr McGuinness resigned in protest over the DUPs handling of an inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.

His party had demanded that DUP leader Arlene Foster step aside temporarily to allow an investigation into the scheme she set up, but Mrs Foster refused.

Since then the two parties have been deadlocked over a number of issues.
A close friend of the woman killed when a car was driven into peaceful protesters in Charlottesville in Virginia has described her death as a terrorist act.

Marissa Blair was with Heather Heyer, 32, when the crash happened. She says the driver barrelled down and she could hear the wheels as he accelerated.

Speaking at a vigil at the scene of the crash, she said Ms Heyers death was an act of terror and a hate crime  and should be treated as such.

We honor #HeatherHeyer. Thank you, Heather, for standing against racial injustice. Rest in power, friend. #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/sKeKQsA5Hn  The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center (@TheKingCenter) August 13, 2017

She said the driver of the car deserves everything he gets and more.

Ms Blair paid tribute to her friend, saying Ms Heyer cared about people and stood up for equality.

Felicia Correa, who grew up with Ms Heyer, said her friend was no different to a casualty of war.

She said Ms Heyer was a sweet person who died standing up for people of colour, adding she and the other counter-protesters put their lives on the line to confront bigotry.

Ms Correa, who has set up a fund to raise money for her friends family, said there was no difference between Ms Heyer and someone who died in the September 11 2001 attacks.
Highest Paying Careers in the U.S.

Looking to Make Bank? These Are the Jobs for You

Maybe you've got a lot of mouths to feed, or bills to pay (hello, credit card debt) or maybe you've just always dreamed about owning a nice car and a big fancy house. Whatever your motivation, the fastest path to financial success is to make money  lots and lots of money. And while you can certainly do that as a rock star or professional athlete, you're no longer a teenager and those dreams have probably died. The surest way to make the big bucks is the old-fashioned way: lots of education and hard work in a lucrative industry. It won't be easy, but the payoff at the end will put you in some of America's most coveted highest paying careers, earning top dollar and paying a boatload in taxes.

RELATED: Professionals Share the Courses You Should Take Over the Summer

Now, you may be asking yourself, "what is the highest paying career?" While certain professions in finance and medicine might immediately come to mind, there are a few lesser-known professions that also hold the potential for lofty salaries. To give you a better idea of the highest paying professions, we did a little research and tallied up the average annual wages for the highest paying jobs in the U.S. workforce as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in April 2019 (the most recent figures available).

However, we should note that we made a slight change. Since most of the highest paying careers in the U.S. are in the medical field, we've grouped doctors and surgeons together to avoid this list becoming "10 reasons why you should've studied more in high school science and gone to med school."

Without further ado, here are the highest paying careers in the United States.

Highest Paying Careers in the U.S.

10. Financial Managers

Average annual wage: $127,990

Training time: 5+ years

Of course, when one thinks of lucrative jobs, finance quickly comes to mind. After all, it makes sense that those who are responsible for keeping an organization's money in order would be earning a decent dollar for their essential expertise.

Financial managers work in a variety of industries from corporations to insurance. To become a financial manager you will require a bachelor's degree in finance, economics or business. In addition, many will work for at least five years as an auditor, financial analyst or accountant before making their way up to the manager level. In terms of schooling, the University of Chicago is known for its strong finance programs.

9. Marketing Managers

Average annual wage: $134,290

Training time: 4+ years

It's not just about what you're selling, it's how you sell it. The prestigious world people like (the fictional) Don Draper worked in back in the 1950s is still prestigious, and one of the highest paying. However, the highest-paid marketing managers don't just work in advertising and promotions, they work in securities and commodity exchanges, too.

Marketing, in general, is a field where the required education is a bit cloudy. Many businesses want you to have a bachelors degree in marketing, but years of experience  and an eye-catching portfolio  can help elevate you to the level of marketing manager. One of the best marketing schools in the country is The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

8. Petroleum Engineers

Average annual wage: $137,170

Training time: 4+ years

Despite the drop in oil prices as of late, those who know how to extract liquid gold, like petroleum engineers, are still paid extremely well. Still, the industry is volatile. Earnings often depend on how the price of oil is doing, but employment is still expected to grow over the next few years.

If you want to go down the rocky road of the oil and gas industry, your best bet is to go to school for petroleum engineering and then work in co-op programs during the completion of your degree. One of the top schools in the country for petroleum engineering is the University of Texas at Austin, which has the added benefit of being in oil country. Oh, and breakfast burritos, yay!

7. Airline Pilots, Co-Pilots and Flight Engineers

Average annual wage: $140,340

Training time: 6+ years

Want to have your office above the clouds, get free travel and make lots of money? Easy, become a pilot. Well, maybe easy isn't the best word to use. Becoming a pilot requires a bachelors degree in an aviation-related discipline, a commercial pilot's license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate. You'll also need several hundred hours of pilot-in-command experience, specialized training in specific tools and devices, as well as regular physical and mental testing. It's all pretty expensive and time-consuming, and it can take 10 years or longer before a newly minted pilot starts making serious cash flying the longer scheduled passenger flights.

Airline jobs are expected to grow over the next few years, but less than average. Jobs will mostly arise as a result of many current pilots reaching the required retirement age of 65. There's not really an undisputed champ when it comes to the best school for aviation, but Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana is known to be pretty good.

6. Architectural & Engineering Managers

Average annual wage: $140,760

Training time: 4+ years

Not all, architectural and engineering managers are building mansions or bridges  although many do. Some of the highest-paid architectural and engineering managers likely work in the oil and gas industry and focus on the transportation of crude oil through a network of pipes. But with lower gas prices, Americans who work in this profession are making significantly less than they were a couple of years ago. However, according to the BLS, this profession is projected to grow at an average rate over the next few years, as infrastructure requires upgrades across the country.

Becoming an architectural and engineering manager requires a bachelors degree and at least five years of experience working in the industry. A good college to go to is Pennsylvania State University.

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5. Computer & Information Systems Managers

Average annual wage: $142,530

Training time: 4+ years

Millions of Americans have come to rely on the internet for almost everything in their personal and professional lives, which means that if any business wants to succeed today, they'll need to be tech-smart. Some small businesses may be able to get by with a few online platforms that make things easier, but bigger companies need IT managers who can plan, coordinate and direct everything that has to do with computers  that's where computer and information systems managers come in.

There's a huge demand for people that can work these types of jobs, so as a result, they're highly paid. To become an IT manager, you'll need to do a bachelor's degree in a computer or information science field and it's a good plan to start by working in IT support. One of the best schools for this field is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

4. Nurse Anesthetists

Average annual wage: $167,950

Training time: 6 years

First of all, yes, there are male nurses, and it turns out they're making bank. Also known as "advanced practice registered nurses," these men and woman coordinate patient care and, in certain states, offer primary and specialty healthcare. Their specialty, of course, is administering anesthetic, typically to prepare a patient for surgery. If you're willing to put in the time and find the prospect of having people's lives in your hands exhilarating, nurse anesthetists might be the career for you.

Nurse Anesthetists must earn a Masters Degree at an accredited institution. One of the best is at Virginia Commonwealth University.

3. Chief Executive Officers

Average annual wage: $189,600

Training time: 6+ years

Being a CEO is a stressful job with plenty of responsibility, but it's also the highest-paid job you can get without doing a decade of schooling. Many Americans claim to be CEOs for businesses big and small, according to BLS numbers. If you want to become a top-level CEO, youll need a hell of a lot of experience in the industry and probably a bachelor's degree followed by an MBA  about half of America's top CEOs have one. Want another route to CEO? Jump on the startup trend and start something cool.

Stanford is known as one of the best universities for an MBA in the U.S.

2. Dentists and Orthodontists

Average annual wage: $151,850 (Dentists), $208,000 + (Orthodontists)

Training time: 8 years

Do you see a beautiful smile when someone flashes their pearly whites? What you really should be seeing are dollar signs instead of teeth because dentists and orthodontists make big-time moolah. Outfitting your kids with braces allows orthodontists to rake it in, making orthodontistry the sixth highest paying job in the United States.

But orthodontist jobs are relatively scarce, with only 6,600 recorded in the workforce, according to BLS. Dentists don't make quite as much, but there are a lot of them in the country (132,800), which could signify more openings. Another plus about becoming a dentist or an orthodontist? One of the best schools in the country is the University of California in Los Angeles, so you'll get to soak up the rays during study breaks.

1. Doctors and Surgeons

Average annual wage: $203,880 - $267,020

Training time: 11+ years

If you want to bring home the bacon (and help people too), your best bet is the medical profession  but it wont come easy. It takes at least 11 years to become a doctor and more than 12 for certain specialties. But when you finish, you'll probably be paid extremely well. Eight out of the top 10 highest-paid jobs in the U.S. are in the medical community (orthodontists and CEOs are the exceptions), so youll be paid handsomely for your efforts.

Within the medical field, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, general surgeons, obstetricians and gynecologists, psychologists, and anesthesiologists are at the top of the pay scale. If youre a top shooter, one of the best med schools in the country is Harvard Medical School.

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The family of teacher Ann Maguire have lost their challenge against a coroners decision not to call evidence from pupils who had contact with her schoolboy killer immediately before the murder.

Mrs Maguires husband Don, children and nephews  who were not at Londons High Court for the ruling on Monday  wanted Mr Justice Holroyde to order the decision taken by assistant West Yorkshire coroner Kevin McLoughlin to be reconsidered.

An inquest into Mrs Maguires death is due to take place before a jury at Wakefield Coroners Court in November.

Don Maguire and his daughter Kerry outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The 61-year-old teacher was stabbed in the back by 15-year-old Will Cornick as she taught a Spanish class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds in April 2014.

Cornick was later sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years.

Dismissing the claim for judicial review, the judge said: I have much sympathy for the claimants, and I fully understand their reasons for wishing to pursue this line of inquiry.

Tributes for Ann Maguire outside Corpus Christi School in Leeds (Lynne Cameron/PA )

For the reasons I have given, however, I am unable to accept the submission that the assistant coroner reached a decision which was so seriously flawed as to be unreasonable.

Counsel Nick Armstrong told the judge that it was the only occasion on which a teacher had been killed by a pupil in a British classroom and the family were anxious that all the lessons that can be learned from this enormous tragedy are learned.

He said the coroner accepted that the inquest should address school rules and policies about weapons in school, reporting the presence of weapons in school, and how those rules and policies had been communicated to students.

People attend the memorial service for Ann Maguire at Leeds Town Hall

This was because over the three hours before the murder, Cornick told other students what he intended to do, and showed a number of them the knife  yet no report to a member of staff was made, at least until it was too late.

The coroner said that all those students  now adults  were potentially vulnerable and were not to be re-approached, with the result that only transcripts of their interviews with police at the time would be adduced.

Mr Armstrong said this approach was unlawful as the decision was a blanket one based on limited and generic evidence about vulnerability generally.

Tributes for Ann Maguire outside Corpus Christi school

Cathryn McGahey QC argued that the decision was lawfully open to the assistant coroner who was uniquely well-placed to make it.

The request to call the former pupils was opposed by other interested parties  including the sisters of Mrs Maguire, one of whom was an experienced teacher  who were concerned about the effect that giving evidence might have on these young people, she added.

And Leeds City Council had said the facts regarding the morning of the incident were already clear and required no duplication of inquiry.

Teacher Ann Maguire's family want lessons to be learned

Yogi Amin, partner at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: Ann Maguires family will now take stock and discuss the options with their legal team.

They remain committed to finding out the truth and exactly what happened on the day Ann was killed through a thorough, open and fair process.

They believe it is the only way that lessons will be learned from the incident.
Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez is edging closer to a deal for Stoke striker Joselu.

Press Association Sport understands the player is discussing terms with the Magpies with a view to completing a 5million switch to St James Park.

Newcastle have been targeting the 27-year-old Spaniard, as well as Arsenals Lucas Perez, in recent weeks as Benitez attempts to add firepower to his team.

Newcastle have been targeting the 27-year-old Spaniard Joselu (Nigel French/Empics)

Joselu: "Its a dream for me to join a Club like this & to play in the Premier League." http://t.co/8phwVEIqeK #scfc pic.twitter.com/vzTCNcPIYe  Stoke City FC (@stokecity) June 16, 2015

Joselu, a 5.75million signing from Hannover in June 2015, scored only four goals in 27 appearances during his first season at Stoke, and spent the last campaign on loan at Deportivo la Coruna, where he managed six in 24 run-outs.

Benitez has repeatedly expressed his frustration in recent weeks at the clubs relative lack of transfer activity and with owner Mike Ashley having made it clear that he will not break the bank, he is having to be inventive in the transfer market as he waits to offload players now surplus to requirements in the top flight.

He saw his side lose 2-0 at home to Tottenham on their return to the Premier League on Sunday with Dwight Gayle operating as a lone frontman and only Aleksandar Mitrovic as back-up on the bench.
An attack by suspected Islamic extremists on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Fasos capital Ouagadougou has left 18 people dead and several others injured.

The dead are mainly children and women, and it is feared the toll could rise after several people were wounded by gunfire, a government spokesman said.

Two terrorists were neutralised following the incident, which was stopped by Burkina Fasos special forces after a seven-hour battle.

At least three members of the security forces were wounded during the assault, according to security forces spokesman Captain Guy Ye.

In an image taken from video, crowds start to gather outside a Turkish restaurant that came under attack in Ouagadougou (El Hadji Macky Diouf via AP)

Assailants arrived at the restaurant on motorcycles and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining on Sunday evening, reports said.

Security forces arrived at the scene in armoured vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul.

This is the second such attack on the popular restaurant in the last two years. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence.

Among the 18 dead is at least one French person and a Turkish person.

French president Emmanuel Macron has condemned the attack, and promised Frances continued support to countries in West Africa against terror groups. Mr Macron also praised the effective mobilisation of Burkina Fasos security forces at the scene and expressed solidarity with the attack victims families.

In addition to those killed, eight others were wounded, communications minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said.
Teachers in one local authority area will be seeing double again this week as 13 sets of twins start school.

It means 164 sets of twins will now be taught in the Inverclyde Council region, leading some locals to believe there is something in the water.

Reilly (left) and Harry Small join 13 sets of twins for a photocall

The primary one twins gathered at the new 7 million St Patricks Primary in Greenock, the latest new-build school created under the councils 270 million investment in its School Estate Programme.

But Arlene Cairns believes teachers will not have too much trouble telling her five-year-old twin daughters Kendal and Skye apart, who will shortly start at Ardgowan Primary in Greenock, as she says they look nothing alike.

She said: One has red hair and one has brown hair. One has brown eyes and one has blue eyes, but theres definitely something in the water here because last year there was even more twins.

Kendal and Skye McCabe - middle row centre - are easily distinguishable (Jane Barlow/PA)

For the past 10 years there have been 775 registered births a year in Inverclyde, with an average of 14 sets of twins starting primary school every year.

Education chiefs said the council area is likely to be top for twins entering education in Scotland.

Twins at St Patrick's Primary School in Greenock

Councillor Jim Clocherty, education convener at Inverclyde Council, said: That gives us a twinning rate of 18 per 1,000 births, which is well above the Scottish average of 15 per 1,000, and I wouldnt be surprised if we were among the highest in the country.

Provost Martin Brennan said: Every year I am surprised at the significant number of twins we have leaving nursery and heading for primary school. It seems to always run into double-figures and this year is no exception.

I am particularly pleased, as a former teacher, to be able to welcome them as they prepare to join their new classmates in their new schools and I am sure they will have a huge amount of fun over the coming years.
Stuart Broad and England step into the unknown this week in the first day-night Test match to be held in this country.

The historic encounter begins on Thursday when Joe Roots side take on the West Indies at Edgbaston.

It is the fifth match of its type in the global game after three day-night Tests in Australia and one in Dubai, where the Windies were beaten by Pakistan.

England's Stuart Broad is excited at the prospect of playing in a day-night Test

Final 100 seats available for Day 2 (Friday 18 August) of UK's FIRST EVER day/night Test #ENGvWIhttps://t.co/IeUCrDqpdQ pic.twitter.com/DhEHF9kXb5  Edgbaston (@Edgbaston) August 11, 2017

A 2pm start, with lunch at 4pm and tea at 6.40pm, raises the prospect of some attacking evening declarations and even juggling of the batting order, while the pink ball could behave very differently as the days progress.

Broad, one promotional delivery aside, has never bowled with the pink ball  easier to pick up under the lights and without clashing with the players white clothing  which will be used in Birmingham.

The 31-year-old fast bowler admitted: Its stepping into the unknown completely. Ive bowled one ball with the pink ball  I got it relatively straight!

Game Day 

First day of Windies v @DerbyshireCCC three-day first-class match at 3aaa Ground

It's day/night match using the pink ball #DERvWN pic.twitter.com/o4WxVJxTHl  Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) August 11, 2017

I just dont know what to expect. We are just going to have to be so adaptable on the day and figure out whats going on.

Its an exciting concept. I watched the day-night match in Adelaide and enjoyed it. The exciting thing as a player is we are going in with a clear mind and learning on the job almost.

The team which will come out successful this week will be the team which reacts quicker.

Thursdays Test is the first of three against a young West Indies side missing some star names such as Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Darren Sammy and Marlon Samuels.

Windies at Lords @HomeOfCricket for today's training session ahead of the start of their Test tour. #RALLY pic.twitter.com/bk1yfJBJGz  Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) July 30, 2017

The tourists have lost their last six Test series and have not won one since beating Bangladesh in 2014.

But Broad added: Weve got a huge amount of respect for the way the West Indies play and the competitive spirit they bring.

With a slightly inexperienced team you know they are going to be hungry for success, they are going to be determined to prove themselves and that is something we need to be aware of.

Every ball in this series is going to be competitive and we have to be switched on to that.
Two polar bears living in the Highlands appear to have celebrated World Bromance Day  with a bear hug.

Walker and Arktos have been best friends since being introduced to each other at The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland Highland Wildlife Park in April 2012.

And the pair seemed to show off their relationship by getting into the spirit of World Bromance Day, which takes place six months after Valentines Day.

Two polar bears celebrate World Bromance Day with a hug

Walker and Arktos are getting in on the fun of #WorldBromanceDay! Do you have any pictures of these 2 best friends? https://t.co/2lkTJqKrKC pic.twitter.com/UJ3ROhODfL  Highland Wildlife Park (@HighlandWPark) August 14, 2017

Una Richardson, head keeper at the park, said: Our polar bear bromance at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park is clear for everyone to see. From play fighting to dunking each other under water and generally messing around, the pair get on extremely well.

It is a real pleasure to watch their friendship flourish and continue to grow after so many years together.

Walker arrived at the park in Kingussie from Rhenen Zoo in the Netherlands in October 2010. He was followed two years later by Arktos, from Hanover Zoo, in April 2012.

They are the only male polar bears in Scotland but the park is also home to the UKs only female polar bear, Victoria, who arrived in March 2015.

Polar bears are currently listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of endangered species.

Climate change is predicted to cause further sea ice losses and it is estimated that the global population could decline by over 30% in just three generations.
Rafael Nadal will overtake Andy Murray to reclaim the world number one ranking next week after Roger Federer announced his withdrawal from the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati with a back problem.

Only Federer could have prevented the Spaniard from returning to the summit for the first time since July 2014, with Murray guaranteed to be toppled as he continues his recuperation from a hip problem.

The Scot, who lost to Marin Cilic in the 2016 Cincinnati final, will lose 600 points, meaning Nadal would usurp him even if the 31-year-old followed his big-name rivals in withdrawing from the tournament.

Rafael Nadal

Nadal is the only player in the worlds top six still standing in the Cincinnati event, with Federer now joining Murray, Cilic, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka on the sidelines.

Apologising to Cincinnati fans in a statement, Federer said: Unfortunately, I tweaked my back in Montreal and I need to rest this week.

Nadal could have reclaimed the world number one spot by reaching the semi-finals in Montreal last week, but fell to Denis Shapovalov in the third round.
Celtics chances of signing Patrick Roberts ahead of their final Champions League qualifier suffered a major blow when the winger was included in Manchester Citys travelling party for a training camp in Catalonia.

Celtic are hoping to re-sign the 20-year-old on loan following a successful 18-month spell in Glasgow and Roberts is believed to be keen on a return.

One of the players representatives, former St Johnstone and Hearts player Allan Preston, had admitted he expected his immediate future to be resolved last week but City listed Roberts in a 25-man party which landed in Girona on Monday. Nice and Southampton have also been linked with loan bids for the former Fulham player.

Patrick Roberts enjoyed a successful loan spell at Celtic and is keen on making the move permanent

City have landed in Girona. Here's the travelling squad in full. #mancity https://t.co/AJ3fFczZ5D  Manchester City (@ManCity) August 14, 2017

Celtic can add one new player to their Champions League squad for Wednesdays play-off first leg against Astana if the signing is registered before 11pm on Tuesday.

Hoops manager Brendan Rodgers revealed on Friday he had also been working on signing a new striker amid fitness issues for Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele.

The latter will miss Wednesdays Parkhead clash with a hamstring injury while Griffiths was only handed a substitutes role in Fridays 1-0 victory over Partick Thistle amid an ongoing calf problem.

Celtic also have a shortage of central defenders. Erik Sviatchenko and Dedryck Boyata are missing with knee injuries and midfielder Nir Bitton was fortunate not to concede a late penalty at Firhill while playing at the back alongside Jozo Simunovic.
The family of Dalian Atkinson have said they are still reeling from our loss, a year after the ex-Aston Villa striker died after being shot with a police Taser.

The 48-year-old was fatally shot in the street where he grew up in Telford, Shropshire, after West Mercia Police were called to an incident on August 15 last year.

Mr Atkinsons family said: A year has gone by and were still reeling from our loss. Dalian was our baby brother.

Dalian Atkinson's family are still reeling from loss a year after his Taser death

Family of Dalian Atkinson issue statement one year after his death | @INQUEST_ORG press release https://t.co/1PmDVoTXr4  Netpol (@netpol) August 14, 2017

Our determination to get to the facts and to see that appropriate action is taken will not be weakened by the passing of time. Were buckled in for the long haul.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) earlier revealed that three West Mercia Police officers have been interviewed under criminal caution and served with gross misconduct notices relating to his death.

The watchdog said it has has been looking into the level and type of force used during the incident, and considering evidence from 15 other police officers and more than 15 members of the public.

Dalian Atkinson investigation update: all investigative

enquiries into @WMerciaPolice contact are now completehttps://t.co/r3Q6jKkbh8  Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) (@policeconduct) August 9, 2017

Paramedics and doctors were unable to revive Atkinson, despite administering CPR on him for more than an hour after he was taken to hospital.

His funeral was attended by hundreds of mourners, including former Aston Villa stars Ian Taylor and Tommy Johnson and scores of fans, at Telford crematorium last November.

Mondays statement, issued by the team leading the inquest into his death, renews the familys previous demands for answers over the use of force during the former players confrontation with police.
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Three people were shot dead at a drag race track in Wisconsin on Sunday, authorities said, but it was unclear who was responsible and what the motive might have been.

The shooting took place at the Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth told reporters at the track in news footage carried on the FOX6 News website.

Several thousand people were at the track at the time, which was evacuated. About 100 police officers responded to the shootings, interviewing witnesses, combing for evidence and helping with the investigation.

No suspects were in custody, authorities said, and no motive had been determined.

"We're not aware of any danger to the community," Beth said.

The victims, all men in their 20s or early 30s, were from Illinois. Their identities were not released.

The men were standing near a food vendor when a gunman approached and shot them at what appeared to have been point-blank range, Beth told reporters.

Two friends who were with the victims "had no idea what caused this," he said.

"We're not aware of any altercations that might have happened earlier," Beth said. (Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Paul Tait)
By Barbara Lewis

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - British mining company Cornish Lithium has secured 1 million pounds ($1.30 million) to explore for lithium in Cornwall, southwest England, its CEO said, taking the country a step closer to a domestic source of the strategic mineral.

Lithium plays an essential role in electric car batteries, and is produced by evaporation in Latin America, which has been considered the cheapest source. But new technology to extract lithium from brine is helping to make other options more viable.

In January, Cornish Lithium said it had reached a mineral rights agreement with Canada's Strongbow Exploration.

It then said it needed around 5 million pounds to develop its project to extract lithium from underground hot springs and to supply products to the rapidly growing battery market for electric cars and for power storage.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO of Cornish Lithium, told Reuters he now expected the project would be cheaper and the million pounds announced on Monday would be enough for at least a year.

The money will be used to decide where to put the first drill holes. Production is at least five years away, Wrathall said, adding the investors brought mineral expertise, as well as funds.

They are Peter Smedvig, founder of investment firm Smedvig Capital, Keith Liddell, a metallurgical engineer and former mining CEO, and Chris von Christierson, director and principal of mining firm Southern Prospecting.

Liddell said in a statement he believed Cornish Lithium could become a very significant player in the lithium industry in Britain and Europe.

The British government is counting on a low-carbon car industry to shore up the economy after the country leaves the European Union. The government has also said it will ban new petrol and diesel cars from 2040, raising the prospect of a huge increase in demand for lithium.

Wrathall, a mining engineer who graduated from Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, said Cornish Lithium also has synergies with a hoped-for mining revival in Cornwall and with development of geothermal energy, which could be used in processing.

The United Downs Deep Geothermal Project is seeking to produce energy with the help of EU and local government money by drilling deep into Cornish granite, which naturally produces heat.

Ryan Law, managing director at Geothermal Engineering, which is helping to develop the project, said drilling should start early next year.

Strongbow Exploration, which will get royalties from any lithium extracted by Cornish Lithium, bought South Crofty, which in 1998 was the last tin mine to close in Cornwall, and aims to bring back tin production there. ($1 = 0.7737 pounds) (Editing by Jane Merriman)
MOSCOW, Aug 14 - The following are some of the stories in Russia's newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

VEDOMOSTI

www.vedomosti.ru

- The Finance Ministry wants to amend the law regulating state procurement to ban companies headed by relatives of state officials from receiving any state orders, the daily says.

- Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, is allowed to have access to personal information of the users of instant messaging services and social networks which will include all correspondence with their friends, including archives of their audio and video communications, the ministry of communications says.

KOMMERSANT

www.kommersant.ru

- Only 0.1 percent of Russians decided to review their plans to spend vacations in Turkey after Russia's consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, warned against travelling to Turkish resorts because of the growth of the number of tourists infected with the Coxsackie virus.

- Russian flag carrier Aeroflot had to use a reserve store of aviation fuel at Sheremetyevo international airport last week to carry out more than 50 flights because of disruption to supplies from Gazpromneft-aero, operator of the Gazpromneft aviation refuelling business, the daily says.

IZVESTIA

www.izvestia.ru

- Abnormally cold weather this year has encouraged Gazprom to raise production of natural gas in the second quarter of the year by 25.2 percent, the daily says. It adds that Russia's federal budget could receive an additional 7 billion roubles ($117.10 million)as a result.

ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA

www.rg.ru

- For the first time Russian girls will be allowed this year to study at the higher military school in Krasnodar, southern Russia, to become military pilots, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is quoted as saying. ($1 = 59.7764 roubles) (Reporting By Tatiana Ustinova; Editing by Christian Lowe)
BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - China has appointed a new special envoy for the North Korean issue, Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, its foreign ministry said on Monday, after his predecessor, Wu Dawei, reached retirement age.

Kong, 58, is an ethnic Korean from the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, who has overall responsibility for Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, according to his resume.

He has held senior positions at the Chinese embassy in Japan and from 2011 to 2014 he was China's ambassador to Vietnam, two countries with which China has often troubled relations.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Kong had taken over from Wu, but that there was no connection between the appointment and the current situation on the Korean peninsula, where tensions have been rising in recent days.

There would be no change in China's policy towards the Korean peninsula because of the new appointment, she added.

A Beijing-based foreign diplomat who is familiar with the matter said that Wu, who turns 71 in December, had reached retirement age.

Asked whether Kong had any immediate plans to visit Pyongyang, spokeswoman Hua said she had no information about that.

Tension on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Korea's president said resolving the North's nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and key U.S. officials played down the risk of an imminent war with North Korea.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tension in recent months.

China is North Korea's closest ally, but it has been infuriated by its repeated missile and nuclear tests and has signed up for increasingly tough U.N. sanctions on the isolated nation.

However, China says sanctions are not the final way to resolve the issue, and has repeatedly called for a return to diplomacy and the restart of a six-party talks process with North Korea, which includes China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan, and which collapsed in 2008. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By William James and Kylie MacLellan

CHATHAM, England, Aug 14 (Reuters) - There is a whiff of betrayal in the air across Britain's Brexit heartlands where many impatient voters fear Prime Minister Theresa May is going soft on implementing last year's decision to leave the European Union.

May's gamble in calling a snap election on June 8, only to lose her parliamentary majority, has thrown the future of Brexit into doubt and the opening rounds of divorce talks have raised the prospect of a complex and expensive withdrawal which could take years to complete.

Throw in a visceral distrust of the London political classes, and for many voters it all points to one thing: a plot to water down, or even stop, Brexit.

"We voted to come out, so why didn't they do it straight away? Why have we got to wait?" asked 64-year-old Chris Murdoch, in the small English town of Chatham, 50 km (30 miles) east of London. "We won't come out completely because it's not in their favour."

Her husband Peter, a retired construction worker, added: "They're all in it for themselves. They're all two-faced ... We don't trust any of them."

Like 52 percent of Britons, both Chris and Peter Murdoch voted for Brexit last year and, like most, according to recent opinion polls, they haven't changed their minds.

Such views in Chatham, a stronghold of May's Conservatives in recent years, are shared widely in much of the country. That spells danger for May who must unite her party, divided for decades over Europe, to drive Brexit legislation through parliament and win approval for the final deal with Brussels.

It also means likely disappointment for those European politicians who hope Britons will have second thoughts about the wisdom of Brexit, and settle for a close relationship with the EU if the divorce has to go through.

Many Brexit voters in Chatham now fear that Britain's leaders - who they say have ignored their interests for decades and are beholden to big money - are plotting to betray their dream of a clean break with the EU.

May called the early election to win a mandate for her vision of a 'hard' Brexit that prioritised immigration controls above the interests of the economy. Instead she emerged wounded, reliant on a small Northern Irish party to win major parliamentary votes and under pressure from her party's pro-European wing and business to compromise with Brussels.

Some European leaders seem still not convinced by May's mantra that "Brexit means Brexit". French President Emmanuel Macron has said the EU's door remains open and European Council President Donald Tusk even invoked the lyrics of John Lennon to 'Imagine' a Brexit rescinded.

At home, former Conservative prime minister John Major has said there is a credible case for giving Britons a second vote on the Brexit deal. His successor, Labour's Tony Blair, has said repeatedly the process can and should be stopped.

LITTLE SYMPATHY

There is little sympathy for this in Chatham, one of a cluster of towns on the banks of the River Medway that for centuries acted as part of England's naval defence against the fleets of its European enemies.

Earlier this year the town marked an ignominious chapter in English history: the 350th anniversary of a daring raid by Dutch ships which caught the King's defences napping, sailing up the Medway to capture and burn prized assets of the fleet.

Nowadays Chatham's dockyards are a museum, the barracks are being converted into flats and despite regeneration efforts, a higher-than-average 12.2 percent of the local working-age population receive government social payments.

The Medway towns, including Chatham, backed Brexit by almost two to one. Like so many of the towns outside England's major cities that overwhelmingly voted to leave the EU, it has long struggled to adapt to a decline in traditional industries.

"My fear is that they won't follow it through and they'll find a reason to stay in," said former postal worker Trevor James, a 61-year-old Brexit-supporting voter from Chatham.

James noted that a majority of Conservative and opposition Labour lawmakers had backed staying in the EU before the referendum, along with most members of the upper House of Lords. "It's all in the lap of the gods as to whether they follow it through properly," he said.

Above all, Brexit supporters want to control arrivals of workers, especially from poorer, eastern EU states, on which many employers have come to depend. They accuse migrants of taking jobs, undermining wages and overloading public services - even though foreign-born workers play a major role in running hospitals, doctors' surgeries and other vital services.

TRANSITION OR TREACHERY

May's government is now struggling to design, negotiate and implement a chaos-free exit plan by March 2019. With business demanding a staggered departure, top ministers have accepted a transitional period is needed to minimise legal and investment uncertainty that could damage the economy.

Finance minister Philip Hammond has suggested there could be little immediate change to immigration rules, saying the transition might last until 2022. Such arguments carry little sway outside London.

Relatively few Britons have changed their minds in the 14 months since the referendum. A YouGov poll this month showed 45 percent believed that in hindsight it had been right for Britain to vote to leave, and the same amount that it had been wrong. No less than 61 percent of 'Leave' voters thought significant damage to the economy was a price worth paying to quit the EU.

David Barker, a 55-year-old manager at a telecoms firm from the Medway town of Rochester, believed people like Hammond were wobbling. "It's not going to be the hard Brexit we voted for with immigration (control) and coming out totally."

Several local voters said any transitional deal allowing continued unrestricted EU immigration was unacceptable.

Medway politicians are determined to hold May to account on Brexit via their local members of parliament. "I don't accept that the general election shows the will of the people has changed," said Alan Jarrett, the Brexit-supporting leader of the Conservative-run local authority.

"We speak regularly to our three local MPs to make sure they don't lose sight of what Medway people voted for," he said, adding that a transition of three to five years was "excessive".

BORDER CONTROL

The Medway towns sit in the southeastern county of Kent, home to the Channel Tunnel rail link with France and Dover ferry terminal. At its closest point, the coast of continental Europe is just 33 km away.

Residents say Kent lies in the front line of the immigration debate, making little distinction between EU migrants and people from outside the bloc seeking asylum.

Despite a lower proportion of residents born outside Britain than the national average - at 10 percent of the Medway population compared with 14.5 percent across England - voters say immigration is the main issue that May must address.

"I'm not against immigrants but it's just overflowing the country," said Bryan Burrows, 85, who says that after paying taxes for more than half a century, he resents migrants having easy access to the publicly-funded healthcare service.

May insists the free movement of EU workers to Britain will end in 2019 and a British-controlled border policy will come into effect. But so far she has offered little detail of the new regime and businesses are lobbying hard for as few restrictions as possible to ensure they can find the workers they need.

For many residents the bottom line is simple: anything other than a radical tightening of Britain's borders would be a betrayal.

"This used to be a lovely town, Chatham. Now all you hear is foreigners," said Peter Murdoch. "They're coming over getting all the benefits, houses, the lot. Struggle, that's all we do. It's not fair."

"That's what's turned us: immigrants and what they get when they come over here," he said. "Of course it should stop. Blow the tunnel up as well."

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Stamp)
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Serbia's foreign minister and a top ally of President Aleksandar Vucic has suggested a compromise to end a conflict over Kosovo, the newest independent European state, that is blocking Serbia's hopes of European Union membership.

Serbia, where many regard Kosovo as the cradle of their nation and Orthodox Christian faith, refuses to recognise the independence of its former Southern province and has been blocking its membership in organisations including Interpol and UNESCO.

But normalisation of relations with Pristina is a key condition for Serbia to come closer to membership in the European Union, which the government has set as its priority.

In an op-ed piece published by the Vecernje Novosti daily on Monday, Ivica Dacic suggested that delimitation between Serbs and Albanians, the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, would be a way out of what he described as Serbia's centennial problem.

"Everyone needs a lasting solution of the Serbian-Albanian conflict which can be reached only through an agreement ... where everyone will win something and lose something," wrote Dacic, who is also First Deputy Prime Minister.

Dacic said Serbia should seek autonomy for Serb enclaves in Kosovo, a protected status for Orthodox monasteries and financial compensation for what Serbia claims as its property including industrial and energy facilities.

There was no immediate reaction from Pristina. Most Kosovo Albanians oppose greater autonomy for Serb-dominated municipalities, saying that would allow Belgrade to exert greater influence.

Dacic's comments echoed a call for a nationwide dialogue over Kosovo suggested by Vucic, who is leading the Serbian team in EU-led talks to resolve differences between the two countries.

Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO intervened with air strikes to drive out Serbian forces and halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians during a two-year counter-insurgency war.

Currently there are around 120,000 Serbs in Kosovo and most of them, mainly in the north, oppose the Pristina authorities.

Serbia has so far avoided formal proposals for the carve-up of Kosovo as the move would mean abandoning its title to the whole territory, which it insists on under its constitution.

Kosovo has been recognised by 115 countries, including 23 out of 28 EU members, but its UN membership is being blocked by Serbia's allies Russia and China. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alister Doyle)
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The Serbian government has increased its controlling stake in indebted drugmaker Galenika in a debt-to-equity swap that should pave the way for another privatisation attempt, state news agency Tanjug reported.

The government has been trying to sell Galenika as part of efforts to privatise, shut or slim down unprofitable state firms under its 1.2 billion euro ($1.4 bln) loan deal with the International Monetary Fund, but the drugmaker's heavy debts have discouraged investors.

The government and state gas retailer Srbijagas took on a combined 14.7 billion dinars (123 million euros) of debt in exchange for an 8 percent stake in Galenika, Tanjug said on Monday.

The transaction increases the government's total stake in the drugmaker to 93 percent.

"This was the first official decision that will lead the company to the privatisation process (this year)," Tanjug quoted Galenika's in-house head of the Independent Trade Unions, Zoran Pantelic, as saying.

Pantelic was also quoted as saying that after the transaction Galenika now owes 71 million euros to commercial banks, but it was not clear whether it still had other outstanding debt. He also said the company is owed 120 million euros from retailers who have not settled bills for Galenika drugs.

Galenika's employees hold the remaining 7 percent stake in the company.

The government tried to privatise the drugmaker in 2013 but the sole bidder, Canada's Valeant, later pulled out, citing the hostility of local unions as one factor.

In February this year, Serbia failed to reach a deal with a group of foreign drugmakers on the sale of a 25 percent stake in Galenika. ($1 = 0.9341 euros) (1 euro = 119.1733 Serbian dinars) (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By Maggie Fick and Katharine Houreld

KISUMU/NAIROBI Kenya, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Six-month-old Samantha Pendo was sleeping with her mother when police in the city of Kisumu in western Kenya forced the wooden door open a crack, fired in teargas and battered the choking baby and her parents with batons, her parents said.

Now Samantha is in a coma.

The couple say their experience flies in the face of government statements that only looters or thugs were killed or injured in violence following last week's disputed election.

On Friday, the election board announced President Uhuru Kenyatta won a second term by 1.4 million votes. But veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, 72, insists those results are fake and that he won last week's presidential election.

Odinga hasn't called for protests yet, but has said he will announce his strategy on Tuesday. Many Kenyans fear that demonstrations could provoke a repeat of the bloodshed that followed 2007's disputed vote and claimed around 1,200 lives.

Since the results were announced, Odinga supporters have mounted sporadic protests in Kisumu and the Nairobi slums that are his strongholds. Odinga accuses security forces of deliberately beating and killing residents, accusations the police deny.

"Our response was lawful and proportionate," Police Inspector General Joseph Boinnet told Reuters. "We are investigating (the Pendo case). No sane police officer would hit a child."

For Samantha's parents, those words ring hollow.

"We are not thugs, we are not thieves. We are just a family," said her father Joseph Abanja. His hands and arms are swollen and scraped from the beating he says he received after throwing open the door of his one-room home gasping for air.

Men in police uniforms pulled him outside while others dashed in to hit Samantha and his wife Lenzer, lying in the family bed. After the baby was clubbed, his wife began screaming, and the men panicked, said Abanja.

"They started moving and said, 'let's go,'" he said in an interview at the hospital on Sunday. "One told me to do first aid and I told him I don't know first aid."

Police ignored his wife's pleads for a lift to a hospital. It was four hours until the family reached help, a delay that doctors at Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu said probably exacerbated her injuries.

Neighbours told Reuters that police were sweeping their neighbourhood, Nyalenda, for protesters.

SCREAMS

"I heard the screams next door and on my street, and then the banging," said shopkeeper Maurice Abanja.

Four other Nyalenda residents said police had forced their way into their homes and taken cash or phones.

Mary Awuor, 36, said a police officer beat her and her teenage daughter with sticks early on Saturday. Her right thigh was still swollen.

"The officer took my phone and 3,000 shillings ($30)," she said.

At least 177 injured people have been treated by the Red Cross countrywide since the elections, mainly with injuries from assault with blunt objects, the aid group said Monday. It's not always police who are responsible; some victims said they were attacked by robbers.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said on Saturday that 24 deaths had been reported nationwide since Tuesday's polls, although the government put the death toll at 10.

Reuters reporters have seen police repeatedly fire tear gas and guns to disperse crowds, but most shots seemed to be blank or fired in the air.

In the Nairobi slum of Mathare on Sunday, Odinga visited the home of an 8-year-old girl hit by a stray bullet on her third floor balcony when witnesses said police were firing to disperse protesters.

"I saw another child running towards me and tell me, my child has been shot," her mother Moraa Nyarangi told Reuters. "She was on the ground bleeding seriously. I couldnt do anything."

Boinnet said he was investigating.

"If indeed it was a police officer then the law of the land will apply. As of now, we have strong reasons to believe it was thug with a firearm," he said.

In the same slum, police dragged 18-old-year student Silus Lebo out from under a bed and beat him, his mother Christine Lebo said.

"There were about four policemen on either boy, each beating them up with batons," she said. Two witnesses confirmed her account.

When the beating stopped, her son could not stand or speak. He died on Sunday.

On Monday, Kenyatta commended police but called for restraint.

"We thank them for the good work that they are doing but we continue to encourage them to use restraint as they exercise their duties," he told reporters. (Additional reporting by Edwin Waita in Nairobi; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Giles Elgood)
Aug 14 (Reuters) - The white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that turned violent on Saturday, leaving one counter-protester dead and dozens injured, has raised questions about how authorities should balance the right to free speech and public safety. The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protects free speech very broadly and it has historically set a high bar for courts weighing restrictions on what people can say, and where. The following explains the U.S. approach to regulating speech and the options available to authorities looking to avoid a repeat of the bloodshed in Charlottesville. Does the First Amendment protect hate speech? Yes. A bedrock principle of U.S. jurisprudence is that the First Amendment allows for hate speech, including that which denigrates people on the basis of their race, gender or sexual orientation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its vitriolic "God Hates Fags" anti-gay campaign, could not be prevented from picketing at military funerals. In the landmark 1969 case Brandenburg v. Ohio, the high court upheld the free speech rights of a Ku Klux Klan member. "The vast majority of speech that could be deemed hateful is protected by the First Amendment," said Will Creeley, a lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a free-speech watchdog group. The First Amendment only applies to government actors, however. Corporations and private citizens are free to censor speech taking place on their property. Other countries take a less absolute position on free speech. Britain and Germany are among nations that have criminalized hate speech in various forms. Can speech be regulated if it encourages violence? In the Brandenburg case, the Supreme Court said speech loses First Amendment protection if it calls for and is likely to lead to "imminent lawless action." The operative word is "imminent." Following Brandenburg, the high court clarified that vague threats of violence were protected by the First Amendment. In 1982 the court said civil rights activist Charles Evers did not incite violence when he said blacks who did not participate in a boycott of white-owned businesses would "have their necks broken" by their own people. The statement was not specific enough to incite violence, the court said. Creeley said that typical speech at white supremacist rallies falls far short of incitement to violence. He also said carrying firearms or other weapons would not be considered incitements to violence. Geoffrey Stone, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, said cities will face uphill battles if they try to prohibit rallies on the grounds that they incite violence. "What Brandenburg is about is literal incitement - 'Im encouraging you to kill somebody,' not just saying something that angers someone. Thats different," he said. Can U.S. authorities regulate when and how speech takes place? Yes. The government can place restrictions on the time, place and manner of a protest or rally. But such restrictions must be content-neutral and narrowly tailored. "Government has to do everything possible to respect the right to free speech in public places," said John Jeffries, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. "When you think public protest might lead to violence the legal answer is not to say 'No.' The right answer is 'Yes, but...'" Charlottesvilles city government granted the organizers of Saturdays "Unite the Right" rally a permit to hold a demonstration in a one-acre park in the citys downtown. Citing concerns over safety and crowd size, the city later sought to move the demonstration to a larger park further from downtown. A federal judge said on Friday the city could not move the protest, saying the rallys organizer presented evidence that the citys decision was "based on the content of his speech" rather than public safety considerations. Could things change in the aftermath of the Charlottesville rally? Because of what happened in Charlottesville, municipal governments and courts will likely weigh public safety concerns more heavily when considering issuing permits to white-nationalist groups, Jeffries said, which could lead to more time, place and manner restrictions on those groups' rallies. "Anytime something like this happens, it affects how people view situations like this going forward," he said. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday suggested his office may place restrictions on a planned Aug. 19 rally which was initially scheduled to bring to the city some of the same far-right figures who spoke at Charlottesville. Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said at a news conference that the city will take steps to ensure safety, such as keeping opposing protesters separated. "It is such a shame that we have to be wasting resources on such a group," he said. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Anthony Lin and Bill Rigby)
Senior Lecturer of Mass Communication Professor Ajantha Hapuarachchi of the Colombo University Journalism Unit in a recent interview with the Daily Mirror shared her views on constitutional reform, religion in government and media regulations. Excerpts of the interview:

What are the factors serving as obstacles to formulating a new constitution?

The most contentious issue is the governments stability. The past regime also experienced similar issues because they couldnt secure a stable government. Successive governments implemented certain remedies to maintain power, but have proved it to be a difficult task. Unlike in previous instances, this government has been formed by uniting two major political parties. This is considered a new experience. But it isnt so. We had several coalition governments dubbed as thun hawula or hath hawula in 1964 and 1965. We have experienced such regimes by coalition governments which were however short-lived. A coalition government cannot function for a long time because the two parties function on different agendas. This is a noteworthy problem.



How successful was the role of the Public Representations Committee on constitutional reform?

The people who are involved in implementing constitutional changes have failed to identify the types of changes required and which parts of the constitution need change. This is despite the appointment of a Public Representations Committee which sought public opinion from a cross-section of the country.

I dont think the public has any idea about the real constitution. The ordinary person does not know what the constitution is all about. There are elite persons who are well-versed in these matters. Their support is vital. A separate body should be established with experienced persons involved in constitutional changes, without the Cabinet or parliament being involved.

In your view, which areas should be the focus of formulating the new constitution?

One of the significant points I noted was that lawmakers are not discussing the changes that should be implemented. Instead they talk of race and religion, which are simple and undisputed matters. When we talk about human rights, all people are entitled to them. That alone is enough to secure the rights of the people. We all have common rights which we are entitled to and those should be secured by the constitution.



What is your opinion of the debate on religion being endorsed by the constitution?

The freedom to observe a religion of an individuals preference is all that needs to be endorsed by the constitution. Today, religion is used as a survival mechanism in politics. There have been many instances where religion has been used by politicians to secure votes. Buddhism is now hauled into the constitutional debate as well.

Sri Lanka is a country that is still in a hybrid political set-up. It should have been made a secular country when we gained independence. The Soulbury Commission gave some freedom to constitutional practices, followed by the Donoughmore Commission. Even at that point, people were unaware of the constitution and democracy. This is because our people were used to regimes and a monarchy. Sri Lanka has a chronicled monarchy spanning some 2000 years. The citizens of the country are by nature moulded to fit such a system. Even the literary heritages attach the countrymen to this system.

We had a continuous lineage of kings until the rule of King Rajasinghe during the British period. History painted these kings in positive light. Because of this perception, people depicted former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as a king. The defeat of the LTTE and conclusion of the war led our people to believe he was in fact a king.

To a country that is accustomed to royalty to such a degree, democracy was an alien concept brought in by Western countries. To date we have not been able to comprehend this situation and it is the root cause of all our problems. We cannot amalgamate the concepts of royalty and democracy.

Countries like Britain, Denmark and even Thailand have fathomed this situation well. There we have what is known as a constitutional monarchy, which means, while the sovereign is head of state, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected parliament.

They have the royal family which the people adore and respect and democracy lies within the parliament, whereas we are still unable to differentiate between these two concepts. That is why we look for security of religion in the constitution. We had the opportunity of establishing a secular country in 1971 through the likes of Colvin R. De Silva. Having missed that opportunity, the problems that arose are many.



How can this situation be remedied?

In my opinion, democracy should be within the parliament. Sri Lankans need a concept of royalty or monarchy. This status can be attributed to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and be separated from lawmaking. Government must be separated from religion. Then we do not need ministries for Islam, Hinduism or Christianity. Religion is a private matter. A ministry for culture and education can be held responsible for all functions under religious ministries. Only such measures will disentangle this confusion.



What should be the areas of focus when revising the present constitution?

I believe we only need to focus on two major areas of the constitution at present. One is the electoral system. The 19th Amendment to the constitution saw the dilution of many powers of the executive presidency. However, I believe the executive presidency should remain so. Sri Lankans believe in the concept of a King. Our people favour the handling of citizens by a higher authority. Without understanding this, Sri Lanka as a country cannot go far. The war ended because of this. If it were not for Mahinda Rajapaksas decisions and authority, the war would have continued. Therefore, the presidency should be a strong one, and it should be a president who listens to the people of the country.

"A referendum for the constitution would only ensure that corrupt politicians would find their way to power. Why should we entrust such individuals with the future of our nation? We dont need a complete change of the constitution. We only need to revise parts of it which will have a significant impact on society and the countrys development"



In this sense, I believe our current president is ideal. President Maithripala Sirisena is a person who loves the country and his decisions would not harm Sri Lanka or its people, because he is enriched in experience.

However, he is caught between a tug of war. With episodes like the scandal the former Foreign Minister is involved in, the president is unable to function effectively in his position. This tug of war between parties is also a reflection of a hybrid political system. Unlike in Sri Lanka, other developed countries have only a handful of ministries. But their governments are functioning in an orderly manner resulting in development. Only Sri Lankan taxpayers nourish a parliament to this extent. We are still a developing country because of this electoral system. The number of ministries should be brought down.

Ministers are appointed by the president. In making these appointments, it should be required that the appointees are qualified to take responsibility of this portfolio. There are countless deputy ministers who have not even finished secondary education. These are the areas that should be addressed by the constitution. We should not give thought to futile debates over religion.



Do you think a referendum is necessary?

A referendum for the constitution would only ensure that corrupt politicians would find their way to power. Why should we entrust such individuals with the future of our nation? We dont need a complete change of the constitution. We only need to revise parts of it which will have a significant impact on society and the countrys development.

How practical are your proposals?

We cannot see a solution at the linear level thus far. But only with experience can we build on it. In terms of practicality, all these changes can be implemented with the education of the people. We need to implement the each one, teach one theory here as Sri Lankans do not have proper political awareness. People at the grassroots level have to be educated.

Peer groups meanwhile are silent. There are many womens rights groups. But in the case of the murders of Seya or Vidya, where were these groups? There must be a group that would appear and fight for matters of such nature. If we had such effective peer groups, public thinking would be refreshed.



How do you view the future of the unity government?

The president is grappling with an unstable government. However, if President Sirisena is accompanied by even 10 patriotic individuals who are committed to honest and just development of the country, government will not be an issue. Unfortunately, our parliament is comprised of the likes of Sarana Gunawardena who was only fined Rupees 2,000 for failing to declare his assets and liabilities. Earlier, parliament members either had a sound education or wealth; qualities which people voted for and believed in. Now, we have MPs who have neither education nor wealth. Organisations such as PAFFREL must educate the general public on the graveness of this situation. They should also influence parties to refrain from recruiting such members to their parties and disqualify them when necessary.

Meanwhile, the UNP has a weakness where some of its members are of a different mindset while the general public is at a different level. There exists a considerable gap between the rulers and the people. One party refrains from reaching out to the masses and the other faction is clearly comfortable in engaging with the public. While decisions are made at the superior level, those messages dont trickle down to the bottom level. These decisions must be taken considering our own citizens and not by replicating foreign models. This class difference of the rulers and their reluctance to reach out to the masses is a problem in government.

Government stability a concern in constitution-making

Public Representations Committee failed to identify necessary changes

Lawmakers not focusing on areas that need to be addressed

Religion used as a survival mechanism in politics

Hybridity of political set-up reflected by past failures

Government must be separated from religion

President Sirisenas decisions would not harm Sri Lanka

Sri Lankas foreign missions very weak

Implementing measures to regulate media should not be done in haste





The Missing Persons Act (OMP) was a point of controversy over which the government and opposition locked horns. How necessary is the OMP?

The government was not forced to implement it. We had freedom, the opportunity to discuss and time. Despite that freedom, politicians were not patient to decide on its implementation. Like in China, every proposed Act or Bill should be taken to the people. The people should be educated and made aware of it. The response is then received by the government from the people. This was never the case in Sri Lanka.

Engagement with the public is necessary for any government. For instance, the former regime implemented a number of mega development projects according to models from Jordan or Iran. Our geographical differences were not calculated, similar to what has happened to our constitution. Sri Lanka adopted Charles De Gaulles constitution. But that was formulated to cater to a society that arose after the French revolution. In Russia, the constitution catered to a society established after the October revolution. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, never had a constitution that catered to a society following a social, political or cultural revolution.



How do you view Sri Lankas foreign relations?

Sri Lankas foreign missions are in a very bad state and should be reformed. Sri Lanka witnessed great examples of reconciliation recently when a Sinhalese police officer was gunned down in Jaffna while protecting a Tamil judge. Buddhist monks donated blood to those in need in the North. Such incidents illustrate that our people have the need for reconciliation. It is the politicians who dont have them. It is simply a tool for them. These messages have to be carried out to the world through our foreign missions. The Presidents Media Division (PMD) is very weak. The PMD should be able to tell the foreign missions, at least on a monthly basis, about all the good that is happening in this country. But this network is still poor. Politics can be kept aside and the human aspect promoted. Sadly, none of this is taking place.



What is your opinion on the governments attempts to enforce laws to regulate the media?

Regulation of media is not suitable for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a different country and needs its own model. An understanding of behaviours and cultural values are also linked with these things. Therefore, only a copy of a Western or Scandinavian practice will serve no purpose. Their people were civilized before Sri Lankans. I dont think our people are civilized to that extent. We need to take time in implementing such regulations for media and it should not be done in haste.



There is fear that this move is to suppress media freedom under the guise of raising the standards. Do you agree?

Yes, I believe media freedom will be suppressed. Journalists should know their responsibilities and limitations. That is the basic need. If journalists have sufficient responsibility, we need not impose any restrictions upon them.



The Prime Minister recently raised the question of regulating social media. As a country with an active social media user base, how will it affect the youth and what reaction can we expect from them?

I believe there should be a certain degree of restrictions placed, especially for students who use social media. Students are vulnerable. They dont know how to use it, nor do they know the value of it. They use social media without any guidelines and it should be remedied. Defamation in social media should also be taken into account in implementing these regulations. Sri Lanka needs the defamation law which was repealed. With technological advancement, defamation can have serious effects on individuals as well as groups. I believe the government must take a stern decision in this regard.

We have the Press Complaints Commission, Press Institute and the Press Council. All three cater to newspapers. Newspapers are on the decline now. Therefore, we only need one such institution because we cant see these authorities in action. People are not even aware of their existence to make a complaint. However, there should be a regulatory commission for all media, including electronic, web and social media, which would be sufficient. It is very important that this commission is transparent and its members should be independent. A common guideline must be formulated for all media to adhere to.
Aries (Mesha):



A powerful Sun due to move into your 5th House assures you of happiness from children and success in academic efforts among other benefits. Watch your health for you are prone to disease with an unfavourable Jupiter in the 6th House. A good time socially and living comforts and a sound financial position are held out by Venus due in your 4th House on August 21. However, mental unrest and blood-related disease, heart and digestive troubles are likely to be caused by Mars in the 4th House due to conjoin Rahu on Aug: 18.



Taurus (Vrushabha):



Sun due in his own sign Leo falling in your 4th House indicates an ideal time for entering into transactions relating to lands and other property. A good time is on for speculation-related investments. Short journeys and cordial relations with your relatives and siblings and good health are benefits that Venus will bring you when it enters your 3rd House on Aug: 21. Mars already in your 3rd House assures good health, increased power and influence and happiness from brothers in addition to enhanced wealth and influence.



Gemini (Mithuna):



A powerful Sun due in your 3rd House can bring higher status, a rise in career or even a position of influence and authority if you are running favourable Dasas. Marital bliss and good health are held out by Venus due in your 2nd House on Aug: 21. However, the unfavourable Mars about to join Rahu in the 2nd House can cause a drop in your income, eye trouble, and domestic problems, involvement in disputes and attempts to bring you into disrepute and intrigues by enemies. Saturn now in your 6th House is quite auspicious for you.



Cancer (Kataka):



The Sun due in your 1st House on Aug: 17 being Swakshetra will bring you an increase in income. Venus due in your 1st House assures comforts, luxuries and marital happiness. However, Mars continuing transit in it can cause an excess of Pitta (bile) affecting your general health. Mars in your 1st House makes you energetic, but could cause blood-related disease. Those running Rahu Maha Dasa in particular are likely to face situations that cause them humiliation.



Leo (Sinha):



Lagnadhipati Sun due in your 1st House on Aug: 17 holds out an auspicious time ahead. It will make you energetic, enthusiastic and proactive. You will enjoy good health and experience a positive mindset. Rahu due in the 12th House favours foreign travel and Mars already placed in it indicates heavy expenditures. However, you are fortunate that Jupiter continuing transit in the 2nd House assures financial stability and the moral strength to face times of adversity.



Virgo (Kanya):



You are likely to spend much time and money on activity aimed at providing relief to the lesser fortunate. Mars  Rahu  Venus combination due to form in your 11th House holds out enhanced wealth, higher status and a good time socially. Jupiter now in your 1st House is favourable for only activity aimed at spiritual advancement. You will enjoy good health and general prosperity and recover much of what you lost in the recent past financially, materially and socially as you are now fully relieved of the adverse influence of Lagna Shani Erashtaka.



Libra (Thula):



You are likely to develop an altruistic bent and a positive outlook due to the beneficial influence of Swakshetra Sun in the 12th House. Mars  Rahu  Venus combination due to form in your 10th House by Aug: 21 holds out success in your career or business and a sharp increase in your earnings. Sun due in the 11th House will bring you fame and high recognition. Jupiter in the 12th House is likely to keep you away from your spouse and children.



Scorpio (Vrushika):



Sun  Mercury combine in the 10th House assures career success and even gainful foreign travel. Mars  Venus  Rahu combination due to form in your 9th House will bring mixed results - general prosperity and comforts, but tensions and worries as well. This combination in the 9th House, however, is favourable for foreign travel, religious and spiritual activity. Meanwhile, you have to be braced for setbacks and disappointments resulting from unforeseen impediments.



Sagittarius (Dhanu):



Swakshetra Sun in the 9th House holds out general prosperity and good luck while holding out a very favourable time for parents. Mars and Rahu due in the 8th House could subject you to accidents and blood-related diseases. Distant or foreign travel is likely for those running the Rahu Maha Dasa. You can look forward to a very favourable time when Venus enters your 8th House on August 21.



Capricorn (Makara):



Sun Swakshetra in the 8th House indicates the possibility of an unforeseen inheritance and gains from partnerships. Mars  Rahu -Venus combination due in the 7th House holds out a brief unfavourable spell marked by ill health, an unhappy married life, loss of wealth and disputes with partners. Lagnadhipati Saturn in your 11th House, however, assures you of a sound financial position and enhanced comforts. Jupiter in the 9th House, a great redeeming feature, holds out general prosperity and gainful foreign or distant travel.



Aquarius (Kumbha):



Gains from foreign sources and even honours and recognition in a foreign land are possibilities indicated by Swakshetra Sun and Mercury in the 7th House. Mars  Rahu  Venus combination due to form in your 6th House will give good health, power and influence, success at competitions and contests and power over enemies and rivals. Marital happiness is also assured.



Pisces (Meena):



Swakshetra Sun in the 6th House can bring you power, influence and wealth. The adverse influence of Mars in the 5th House could cause illness, a troubled married life and anxiety about children. This situation will turn for better when Venus enters this House on August 21. Saturn in the 9th House could cause much anxiety and distress and a frequent change of the occupation. A highly favourable Jupiter in the 7th House could counter adverse planetary influences to a great extent.
A B-1B Lancer bomber prepares to take off from Andersen Air Force base, Guam, on Aug. 7. (Richard P. Ebensberger/AFP/Getty Images)

By Simon Denyer and Amanda Erickson August 11 at 7:25 PM

BEIJING- China wont come to North Koreas aid if it launches missiles threatening U.S. soil and there is retaliation, a state-owned newspaper warned Friday  but it would intervene if Washington strikes first.



The Global Times newspaper is not an official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, but in this case its editorial probably does reflect government policy, experts said.



The stern Chinese warning came as government leaders and politicians around the world urged calm after a series of threats and counterthreats by the U.S. and North Korean governments. The brinkmanship has spread jitters and weighed on global financial markets, which were down Friday for a fourth consecutive day.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday called the escalating rhetoric the wrong answer. She pledged her countrys support for any nonmilitary solutions, telling reporters in Berlin, I dont see a military solution to this conflict.



Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said there had been an overwhelming amount of belligerent rhetoric from Washington and Pyongyang. The side that is stronger and cleverer will take the first step to defuse tensions, he said.
Muhunthan Canagey, the CEO and Managing Director of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka has announced his resignation from the agency.



He said he had been asked to resign by President Maithripala Sirisena and the message was communicated to him by Minister Harin Fernando.

His statement is as follows:

As you all know I am a person who has built my career bypure hard work and maintained the highest levels of professionalism and integrity.

I will never be part of aiding and abetting any fraud or corruption or delay in any implementation of Digitization in Sri Lanka. I have been raised from a child to speak my mind, boldly, fearlessly and honestly which are the very basic principles I live by and the rights that should prevail to me and any other human being. I am not willing to let go of that just because I need to protect my job at ICTA.

Under this circumstance it is regrettable that I am tendering my resignation and start commencing my handing over of my duties, he said.
By Joe Heim, Ellie Silverman, T. Rees Shapiro, Emma Brown

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -

Chaos and violence turned to tragedy Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members - planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to take America back - clashed with counter-protesters in the streets and a car plowed into crowds, leaving one person dead and 19 others injured.



Hours later, two state police officers died when their helicopter crashed at the outskirts of town.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who had declared a state of emergency in the morning, said at an evening news conference that he had a message for all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today: Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.



State and local officials declined to take reporters questions and abruptly left after making statements.

Video recorded at the scene of the car crash shows a 2010 gray Dodge Challenger accelerating into crowds on a pedestrian mall, sending bodies flying - and then reversing at high speed, hitting yet more people. Witnesses said the street was filled with people opposed to the white nationalists who had come to town bearing Confederate flags and anti- Semitic epithets.



A 32-year-old woman was killed, according to police, who said they were investigating the crash as a criminal homicide.



The driver of the Challenger, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit-and-run attempted failure to stop with injury, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer said.

(c) 2017, The Washington Post Aug 13, 2017 -
ecently, many folks were bragging about our strategic location astride the key maritime routes in the Indian Ocean while at the same time complaining that any partnership with foreign entities on those matters was tantamount to a sellout. In a sense, they are pursuing a national pastime that is dating back to the early years of independence.

Every country in the world has some sort of strategic value and those who have little of it, have augmented it by entering into alliances, alignments and strategic cooperation with other states, thus not only maximizing their physical security, but also giving a real shot at economic prosperity.

However, Sri Lankas discourse on its strategic value has often been sentimental and foolhardily. That may be due to an inward looking scholarship and a dogmatic worldview, which were rather mistakenly termed as progressive during its hey days. One of the most grandiloquent advocates of this world view was Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who demeaned alliances as reducing a countrys security -- only to go pleading for the dispatch of squadrons of American bombers when China routed the Indian army in the 1962 border war.

Our dogmatic worldview prevented us from exploiting our strategic location, and any other intrinsic strategic values the country had as a new nation to advance our self-interest, i.e. primarily, economic prosperity. Like Victorian women, we were poor but pure. No one else was to touch our precious assets.



Old habits die hard and certainly not easily in Sri Lanka. The recurrent debate on the lease of the Hambantota Port to a Chinese company, the proposed Chinese-funded export processing zone, the proposed lease of the Mattala Airport to an Indian company and the proposed joint development of the Trincomalee Port with India follow the same trend of that historical discourse.

First they covet our strategic location, then regurgitates the same sentimental and dogmatic baloney that has been uttered during the past seven decades. Perpetuating that idiosyncrasy and flaunting it has the received wisdom does not help the country or its people.

Interestingly, before they were listed for restructuring, those strategic ventures were termed as colossal white elephants. For instance, the accumulated loss from the Hambantota Port during the past three years is a whooping Rs.47 billion. If the loss is divided squarely among Sri Lankas 5.2 million households ( based on the 2012 census), each will have to chip in Rs.9,000 to pay off the losses. Billions of rupees invested in infrastructure in Hambantota had not made a return.

SriLankan airline has recorded a loss of Rs.6.5 billion during the financial year 2016/2017. Mattala airport is now a paddy storage warehouse. Trincomalee, the strategically important port sits at the mouth of a vast underdeveloped Eastern Province, where the absence of economic opportunities force many hundreds of thousands of local youth and especially vulnerable women and war widows to go to the Middle East to work under sub-human conditions.

The per capita income in all other provinces is a fraction of that of the Western Province. For instance, the median household income in the Eastern Province is only a half of the Western Province. With the infusion of foreign capital, living standards in those provinces should easily be uplifted faster than the national average.

The main argument peddled by the detractors of those foreign-funded development projects is a perceived threat to sovereignty. Thus we are told that the lease of the Hambantota Port would turn Sri Lanka into a Chinese colony and the Chinese Navy would have free reign. Before the lease of Hambantota port, a Chinese company, Landbridge purchased Australias Port of Darwin for $370 million on a 99-year lease. No one then cried wolf that Australia was becoming a Chinese colony.

In the current international context, sovereignty is neither absolute, nor can it easily be undermined. The complex transnational inter-dependency of the international system means that countries pool certain attributes of their sovereignty. Brexit voters wanted to take back their sovereignty and now the British political class is pondering how to avoid the post-Brexit recession.

Similarly, this is not the 19th century. Institutions, laws, norms and global regimes that regulate the state interaction in the internal system offer sufficient safeguards for even the weakest states. Economic interdependence has not enslaved countries, instead embedded economic and security interests of other nations have increased their security. Take Singapore or tiny Qatar for example.

" In the current international context, sovereignty is neither absolute, nor can it easily be undermined. The complex transnational inter-dependency of the international system means that countries pool certain attributes of their sovereignty"



However, letting one country to run the entire show would in the long term create a disproportionate dependence on a single major state, in our case, on China. That is exactly why Sri Lanka should diversify its development partners. The problem however is that there are few takers. Unlike the state-owned Chinese companies, which seem to have a very liberal attitude on the returns on its investment, large scale Indian, South East Asian, Japanese investors have serious reservations about Sri Lankas investment climate. Nor do we have a high end investment platform, a showcase city like Kuala Lumpur is for Malaysia that serves as a magnet for investment.

Sri Lanka should use the Chinese investment to create infrastructure and industrial and technology clusters that could attract other nations. Chinas proposed investment in the port and a 15,000 hectare export processing zone has potential to turn the deep south backwater into a mini Shenzhen. Of course, Chinese investments have geopolitical designs and are part of the One- Belt-One Road initiative (OBOR), that aims to bring in Chinese economic and geopolitical influence further afield in Asia, Africa and some parts of Europe.

Sri Lanka lost out potential benefits of an earlier geopolitical competition in the bipolar world since it chose to be in the middle ground. However, in the current one, at least because the Rajapaksas entangled us in the Chinese aid, we have an early bird advantage.

Save Chinas all-weather friend Pakistan, the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port are as of now, the main achievements of the OBOR in South Asia, a region of 1.7 billion people.

The ensuing geopolitical competition would happen anyway irrespective of our participation, as the growth of Chinas relative power propels its expansion and other countries, India, Japan and the US try to hedge against it.

We have two choices. We can shut the door and pretend like nothing is happening in our external neighbourhood and emerge from the slumber in five decades to find the world has changed beyond its recognition. Or we have to take dispassionate realist decisions to harness systemic forces of this geopolitical completion to our advantage and to modernize our economy, just like the East Asian economies did during the bipolar competition. Also, one thing for sure is that our empowering democratic traditions as Asias oldest democracy, which even Mr. Rajapaksa could not fully dismantle, would serve as a safeguard against certain pernicious influence of Chinese involvement.

A good economic and foreign policy should aim to build on these available opportunities so that we can attract the cooperation of other major states. India and Japan would follow suit if the government set the right investment climate through reformed labour, land and investment laws. Even now, the renewed Indian interest in the Mattala Airport and the Trinco harbour had much to do with balancing intents: Earlier the Indians snubbed a much publicized offer of Trinco harbour, calling it economically unviable. Hypothetically speaking, if the Chinese pack and go, most other nations who are reluctantly here due to geopolitical, rather than economic considerations, will soon lose their interest in Sri Lanka.The reason is that Sri Lanka does not offer a competitive economic advantage at the moment. This may however change if the government manages to sign those proposed Free Trade Agreements with India (ECTA), China and some parts of South East Asia.

The current discourse of demeaning foreign investment is in part a cultural problem, but it is also opportunistic. It is also a recipe to send another generation of Sri Lankans to toil in the Middle East under less than ideal conditions. In that sense, this discourse is wicked.



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Lakshman Silva  CEO (Designate),DFCC Bank speaking at the panel discussion on Trade/ Finance

Upholding its commitment to the countrys business community, DFCC Bank has stepped forward to support the Colombo International Tea Convention from 8thto 11thAugust 2017, as a Strategic Partner. Organized by the Colombo Tea Traders Association, the apex body for tea trade, this years convention marked 150 years of the Ceylon Tea Industry, and has attracted over 100 foreign delegates, 500 plus local participants and high level dignitaries and government officials. By partnering such key events, DFCC Bank creates value and growth opportunities for customers in the Tea Industry.

Lakshman Silva  CEO (Designate), DFCC Bank,commented, We are proud to partner this community at the Colombo International Tea Convention as a Strategic Partner. DFCC Bank has made a significant contribution to the growth of tea by extending financial solutions for development and modernization of tea factories as well as import and export financing, thereby supporting expansion and growth of the industry. Besides this, DFCC together with its subsidiary Synapsys, has introduced an innovative IT solution to streamline operations in the tea industry. DFCC offers the trade an automated payment solution through a fully-fledged integrated payment and settlement system developed by Synapsys and showcased and promoted the solution to potential customers in the tea trade at the event. DFCC has become a crucial partner for the exporter community in Sri Lanka and plays a pivotal role in elevating Sri Lankas export community to establish its footprint in the international arena by making finance accessible at critical points in our customers business cycle, we have encouraged the spirit of entrepreneurship to endure.

Dinesh Fernandopulle  CEO/Managing Director, SYNAPSYS making a presentation on DFCCs Role in the Tea Industry at the convention

At the convention, DFCC Bank together with its IT subsidiary Synapsyspresented its revolutionary supplier settlement system that supports Sri Lankas well-established community of private tea manufacturers and tea leaf suppliers. The system enables suppliers to have revenues from their sales managed by a bank and be transferred directly into their bank account.

DFCC Bank operates the V Cash Card as part of this initiative, enabling tea leaf suppliers to withdraw cash from over 3,000 ATMs island wide. The system encourages efficiency, visibility and increased accountability, resulting in tea leaf suppliers possessing greater confidence in the collection process and control over their receipts.

Through sheer commitment and tireless effort, DFCC Bank has evolved from being a development bank into a strategic partner for exporters, offering working capital and investment facilities, along with customized solutions to gain a competitive edge.

Denver Lewis  Vice President, Alternate Channels and Cash Management, DFCC Bank making a presentation on DFCCs Role in the Tea Industry at the convention

During the event, the Bank was able to highlight its comprehensive range of financial solutions for the export community. Its range of new value added services coupled with its signature speedy service goes a long way in giving exporter the competitive edge by lowering their transaction costs. Today, the bank combines the expertise of a pioneer development bank and the energy of a dynamic commercial bank, to offer its growing portfolio of clients the full gamut of development and commercial banking services.
THE HINDU, 13th AUGUST, 2017-Landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 47 people in southern Nepal and left thousands homeless, police said on Sunday.



The death toll was expected to go up, with around two dozen other people missing and feared dead after three days of heavy downpours in at least nine southern districts of the Himalayan country, said police spokesman Pushkar Karki. Around 31,000 families have been displaced by the floods and landslides, which began on Friday, he said.



Police said floodwaters toppled telephone towers and power lines, cutting communications and electricity in many areas.



Rescue efforts were hampered by incessant rain and roads that were washed away in many places. Traffic on Nepals main EastWest highway was stopped after parts of the road and some bridges were severely damaged by the floodwaters.



Teams of soldiers and police officers were working together in the rescue and evacuation efforts, said Ram Krishna Subedi, a home ministry spokesman.
Food poisoning is an illness caused by eating contaminated food. Its usually very trivial and just about everybody has experienced it, one way or another. Its also a problem that can be easily avoided. Food poisoning is caused when the food item is contaminated with bacteria (such as Salmonella) or a virus (such as norovirus). It can also be contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury or copper or even chemicals such as pesticides. The symptoms that are experienced during food poisoning are usually vomiting, abdominal pain/cramps and diarrhoea. Dr. Enoka Corea, Senior Lecturer, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, explained how different types of bacteria can contaminate our food and how this can be prevented in the domestic setting.

Contamination by bacteria

Starting off with the different types of bacteria that can cause food poisoning, Dr. Corea said,Food poisoning can occur in many different ways. There are certain bacteria that can make toxins (poisons) in the food itself, so that when you eat the food the toxin or poison is already present and you start getting the symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea within 2-6 hours after the meal. Bacteria such as Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus have the property of producing toxins while multiplying in food. Staphylococcus aureus can multiply in salty foods like ham, cheese and mayonnaise and cause this type of food poisoning whereas Bacillus cereus is seen more commonly in rice .



There are other bacteria that contaminates food and multiplies only when they enter the intestine, after you eat the food. So it takes a while, maybe 12 to 24 hours, before you get the food poisoning symptoms. Bacteria like Salmonella, which are commonly found in eggs and chicken, are common causes of food poisoning which is why we advise people to boil eggs and cook chicken thoroughly, She continued.



Moving on to more life threatening bacteria she said,E. coli and Campylobacter are other bacteria that can contaminate food. These can be found in meats when they arent cooked properly. For example, meat in a hamburger or barbeque meat. E. coli has become a problem because there is a particular strain called enterohaemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 which can actually cause complications that can lead to death. Children die from this, even in the richer parts of the world, because this strain can result in kidney failure and subsequent death. This is a very serious type of food poisoning. Most of the other food poisonings are very trivial.



Food poisoning doesnt always lead to diarrhoea. If your food is contaminated by botulinum toxin you will have constipation and paralysis rather than diarrhoea and may even die of respiratory failure. Botulism is caused by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum which is found in the environment. Spores of this bacterium can contaminate your food and then the bacteria can multiply and produce the toxin in your food, especially in badly tinned food. This is one of the most poisonous toxins in the world because tiny amounts (nanograms) can kill you, She added.



From farm to fork

Dr. Corea further said that proper preparation of the food is important when preventing food poisoning, starting from the farm. To ensure that the food doesnt get contaminated you have to practice very good farming and animal husbandry. The produce mustnt be contaminated with animal faeces and human sewage shouldnt be used as manure. Even in slaughter houses hygiene needs to be maintained. Then, of course, storing and transport of the meat or vegetables must be done in a proper manner using the correct temperature,Dr. Corea added.



She further explained the measures that can be taken at home. At home, there are some very important things we need to practice in the kitchen. You must always wash your hands and your utensils properly in clean water. You must separate raw food and cooked food. You should also have separate utensils, such as knives, for raw food and cooked food. You must cook your food at the proper temperature for the correct period and either eat it hot or cool it fast and store it in the fridge. You must not keep warm food outside for long periods of time. If you are reusing your food from the fridge you must heat it well before eating. Eggs shouldnt be eaten raw or even half boiled. Never drink raw milk, the milk should always be boiled or pasteurized.Those who are handling the food must maintain good personal hygiene and handle the food properly and carefully. People must never try home canning. If you are going on a holiday to another country you must make sure that you have water or drinks that come in a properly sealed bottle or only drink piping hot drinks. High risk foods are chicken,eggs, barbeque meat, mince meat, shellfish etc. she said.



Treatment

Dr. Corea stated that generally there is no specific treatment given for food poisoning. What you must do is replace the fluids you are losing through vomiting and diarrhoea and focus on rehydrating the person. A patient maybe given an antiemetic for the vomiting. You must never give drugs to stop the diarrhoea, because diarrhoea is the protective mechanism and flushes out the food poisoning from your system. Only if the food poisoning leads to blood poisoning-which is very rare-that you will have to take antibiotics. But in general, you dont need to take antibiotics. Most food poisoning is self-limiting and you will feel better after a few hours, she concluded.
Eyes are very important organs that deserve that extra effort to be taken care of. When considering medical complications related to the eyes, the list includes both harmless to harmful conditions that could even lead to blindness. A very general eye issue that many people face is styes. Dr. M. Wijetunge, retired Consultant Eye Surgeon of the Ragama Teaching Hospital, explained what styes are and provided answers to generally posed questions that spring up in peoples minds in connection with eye styes.

Definition

A stye, also known as a hordeolum, is an infection of an oil gland in the eye lid. A stye is a red, tender bump seen at the edge of the eyelid. A stye could appear either inside or outside the eyelid. The eyelashes of the eye comprises lash follicles. These follicles contain sebaceous glands. When these glands get blocked and infected, they lead to styes, explained Dr. Wijetunge. Individuals belonging to any age group can be infected with this infection. Styes can recur in people more than once. In most cases they are harmless and tend to heal taking their own time.



Causes

The usual cause for styes is a bacterial infection. The infection is caused by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, but is also triggered by various reasons such as poor nutrition, sleep deprivation, lack of water, improper eye hygiene or rubbing of eyes. Dusty surroundings, use of eye cosmetics such as eye liners and even dandruff could lead to stye formations in the eyes,Dr. Wijetunge stressed.



Symptoms

Dr. Wijetunge listed the clear telltale signs of a stye. A lump on the top or bottom eyelid, localised swelling of the eyelid, pain and redness are common signs of styes, Dr. Wijetunge said. Others include tenderness, irritation of the eye, light sensitivity, tearing and discomfort during blinking .



Care and treatment

Dr. Wijetunge stated that a stye usually vanishes on its own without any specific treatment. It could last for a few days or weeks. Warm compressing and gentle massaging of the eye, antibiotic eye ointment or oral antibiotics help treat styes. Cleansing the irritated eye with tap water or mild non-irritating soap such as baby soap is also a step that can be followed. Cleansing must be done gently, explained Dr. Wijetunge. Proper eye hygiene should be followed. Its also recommended not to use eye makeup such as eyeliners, etc , when having developed a stye. The use of lotions and contact lenses are also advised against, as they could aggravate the infection and spread the infection to the cornea in some instances.



Prevention

The answer to the stye issue is following proper eye hygiene. Washing hands is very vital, not just to prevent styes, but also to avoid other infections. Applying a warm wash cloth on the eyelids helps reduce the tendency to get infected and thereby prevent the development of styes in the eyes. Through this method the contents of the oil glands of the eyes are kept in fluidity avoiding blockages. Washing the eyes daily with soap water is a good practice to follow, advised Dr. Wijetunge. Its also further recommended to never share eye cosmetic products and tools with others. The removal of makeup every night is advised along with the discarding of old and contaminated eye makeup. Sharing of face towels is a definite no as it could spread the infection among individuals. Dr. Wijetunge also mentioned that if a person suffers from dandruff, appropriate steps must be taken to avoid the condition as the use of an anti-dandruff shampoo, as dandruff, could also lead to the formation of styes.



Can it lead to other complications?

Styes are generally harmless, but there are rare cases of complications as well. So if a stye condition doesnt tend to heal or if the condition worsens in a matter of weeks, its advised to seek medical treatment. Large styes have to be drained out as they can hinder vision.The most frequent stye complication is the development of the stye to a chalazion. This condition (Chalazions) often requires surgical removal as it could cause cosmetic deformities and

corneal irritation.



Another possible complication of eye styes is eyelid cellulitis.
CARACAS REUTERS Aug 12- After months of attacking Venezuelas unpopular President Nicolas Maduro, Latin America came out strongly against U.S. threats of military action against the crisis-hit nation. U.S. President Donald Trumps surprise comments on the Friday may bring the beleaguered Maduro some respite in the region, just as Venezuela was the on verge of becoming a pariah over its recent installation of a legislative superbody, widely condemned as a power grab by the ruling Socialists.



Following Trumps assertion that military intervention in Venezuela was an option, Maduros critics are caught between backing the idea of a foreign invasion of Venezuela or supporting a president they call a dictator.
Mirihana Special Crimes Investigation Unit arrested a 33-year-old man who befriended women on social media websites on charges of robbing.

Police said the suspect, a resident of Niwithigama had befriending the women promising to marry them.

They said the suspect arranged to meet the women whom he robbed while courting them.

Police said the suspect was arrested and recovered some of the stolen jewellery. They also seized a motorcycle which had been used to carry out his criminal activities. Investigations revealed that the suspect had committed the robberies in Padukka, Kalutara and Dehiwala. (Darshana Sanjeewa)
Sri Lanka, once identified at a time known granary of the East, is now almost reliant on imported food items. The unfolding problematic situation arose due to the considerable decline in domestic food production. As the global food crisis deepens due to various reasons, including armed conflicts, macro-economic collapses and natural disasters like droughts, many countries have started focusing on domestic food production. Sri Lankas agriculture-still being considered the most important yet- is a less encouraged sector that needs to undergo a transformation. Senior Social Scientist and Former Head of Sociology Department of the Colombo University Prof. Siri Hettige described this transformation as a Green Revolution. During an interview with the Daily Mirror, Prof. Hettige outlined the importance of taking the necessary actions to improve the productivity of the domestic agriculture sector. He said that this should be backed by investment on research, new scientific methods of farming and appropriate policy changes with the ultimate goal being known as the granary of the East again. Further, he aired his views on the significance of replacing non-bio degradable materials with bio-degradable materials which he said will solve the long-standing waste management issue and create a healthy environment.



How serious issues were dealt with

In the 1960s, the green revolution was a major policy response of many developing countries like Mexico, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. This was their response to a number of serious issues in traditional agriculture including low productivity, vulnerability of farmers, poverty and malnutrition. Consequently, agricultural scientists and others were exploring various ways to improve the small scale agriculture sector and the quality of lives of rural farmers. The change was made by introducing a range of new agricultural technologies.

Following decolonization, the population increased in many ex-colonial countries where there was stagnation of traditional agriculture. These countries faced a need to improve the conditions in rural areas since people were moving away from these areas, making the cities unmanageable. The Governments of such developing countries advocated certain interventions which were quite different to techniques used in large-scale industrial agriculture in countries like the United States. The new package that was introduced by the Governments included new seed varieties, new agricultural techniques like planting and mechanical type technologies. All these new methods gradually improved productivity of the lands. Consequently, the people had a much bigger yield whilst poor living conditions of farmers and issues caused by scarcity were addressed. The green revolution was backed by research conducted by newly established research stations.



Adopting a new green revolution in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka and other countries need a new type of green revolution in response to a much bigger challenge we face at present; unsustainable development and unsustainable consumption. Development is taking place almost everywhere, but not in a sustainable manner. Correspondingly, there is unsustainable consumption. Both have resulted in major issues that are prevailing in the world such as climate change and the increasing disaster situations.

Slow onset disasters like floods and droughts appear to be sudden events. Nevertheless, they are part of a long- term trend. Accumulation of toxic waste is another problem. Some industrial products contain harmful substances. Such toxic materials end up in our food chain, water ways and even in the ocean. Some of the materials, that we have got used to, pose huge challenges in terms of disposal, pollution of the water ways, soil structure and the environment.

The main reason for this situation is the expansion of the industrial civilization, beyond the boundaries of traditional industrialized countries. The expansion of the industrial civilization has affected production and consumption of goods and services at an unprecedented rate.

Scientists should come up with bio degradable materials which are as good as plastics.

We have an artificially created labour problem.

Well-to-do people should use surplus of their income to create employment.

In India, green revolution made a huge impact.



Improving rural agriculture

Owing to the fact that Sri Lanka has been moving away from rural agriculture, there are thousands of acres of abandoned lands in all parts of the country. These lands can be used to produce raw materials for new income-generating industries that can produce substitutes for things that we have to replace like plastic bags, containers and many household items. Farmers should be encouraged to produce biodegradable material and be given science and technological know-how to do so. Once rural industries are initiated and developed, a large portion of imported items can be produced within the country. This way job opportunities will also be created. In other words, a whole new value chain can be established involving a whole range of public and private institutions. A significant part of the local population can get involved in this endeavour.

It will also eventually help to minimize rural-urban migration. Sri Lanka cant continue to add more people to the cities. Cities are already over-crowded; people have lost open space. They should live in a healthy environment with clean air and open space. Development shouldnt be confined to one place, but be dispersed.

In the 1960s, many developing countries focused on how to improve the rural agriculture sector. In fact, traditional agricultural methods were not very productive. The seeds used werent high yielding. The output of grain that was produced on a unit of land was very low. Later, fertilizers and agro-chemicals were introduced. In India, a green revolution made a huge impact thus improving the living conditions of millions of people. But it also led to population increase.



Artificially created labour surplus

Labour migration can also be addressed through the green revolution. In fact, some people will anyway migrate for personal reasons. At least people wont migrate just to make a living if job opportunities are created within the country. If the country provides social protection, decent working circumstances and favourable living conditions, Sri Lankans will be better off here and wouldnt have to find employment abroad.

In such a circumstance, the labour within the country can be made use of. Sri Lanka doesnt have a labour surplus. Its just that Sri Lanka has an artificially created labour problem which has existed since the time people werent deployed in a reasonable way. This problem is attributable to the mismanagement of public finances. This issue exists not because people are leaving the country, but due to decision makers in the country being short-sighted.



Growing inequality

The country at present has so much inequality as it doesnt effectively re-distribute income. What do the rich people do with their money? Are they responsible? If they are socially responsible entrepreneurs, they should create more employment opportunities. They can do this using their surplus of income for the purpose of contributing to the development of the country. There is no reason to have inequality in a country where we have seen economic growth and decreasing unemployment. On the other hand, globalization cant continue unchecked. It has to be balanced by some degree of localization. In other words, both production and consumption have to be localized as much as possible. When it comes to the whole problem of globalization, everyone in the society has a role to play.



Concerns over non-bio degradables

Industrial products werent used for household needs in the past. Hundred years ago, there were few industrial products in this country. However, we are worried about such products today. Cleaning utensils like brooms and many other things were all made of natural materials. To begin with, Sri Lanka has to identify the things that can be easily replaced.

Excluding paper and cardboard which might be harmless in the long run, plastic and other synthetic materials could pose huge threats unless they are recycled in an effective manner or replaced by products made of natural material. In fact, plastic is very convenient and durable. The challenge for Sri Lankans is to move away from some of these materials and replace them with bio-degradable materials.

The question is whether its possible for scientists to do their experiments and come up with bio degradable materials which are as good as plastic. But, what exists is a much bigger process starting with a national policy, institutional development and the facilitation of the development of an entirely new value chain; production and processing of raw materials, design and manufacture, distribution and marketing and use and safe disposal.

If the Government is going to ban plastic, they need to find alternatives. The Government cant simply ban plastic and ignore the consequences. Options should be suggested when getting rid of something. However, everything cant be replaced. We dont have to eliminate some materials, but such products can be reduced, reused and recycled.

No one can have 100% percent control over the use of non-biodegradable materials. Instead of using plastic bottles, why cant we use glass, ceramic or stainless steel bottles? Why cant people use bags made of natural fibres, clothes or paper instead of polythene? People give priority only to convenience, not to what is healthy.

This is a challenge which should be taken up by everyone including the educational authorities. There are urgent things like curriculum development, training of teachers, skill development and the creation of opportunities to acquire new knowledge. Everybody should fulfill he/she responsibilities to overcome these issues. This is an area where public and private partnerships can make a huge difference.



Targeting market of millions

There are problems of affordability in Sri Lanka as many people struggle to meet their basic needs. If things made of bio-degradable materials are quite expensive, the solution is to make them affordable. This can be done through large scale production, because then the price of a unit will drop. As Sri Lanka is a country with twenty million people, theoretically, this nation can produce anything in millions, even for the domestic market.

If people get familiar with alternatives to plastic like clothe, reed and paper, there will be a continual demand for such products. This shift will ensure that production will rise, reducing the price of a unit. If production takes place in large volumes- targeting the entire population of the country- the demand will bring the price down. Even a Pettah market vendor knows this theory. Nonetheless, there is a need to strengthen a whole range of institutions which will facilitate production and encourage the use of bio-degradable materials so that there wont be any scarcity.



Farmers need assistance

Farmers who are struggling to make a living cant survive with their own devices. They need to be assisted by specialist institutions led by the leaders of innovation. There should be cooperatives and organizations that can assist farmers. Many rural women, who are left behind, will be able to play a major role in the new green economy for their own benefit as well as that of the country and the environment.

At present, children are pushed by the system only to graduate through regular schools and universities. Eventually, many of them dont come up with useful ideas for their future. This is the result of responsible adults not getting the children to start thinking from the early childhood. If they do, they will have innovative minds to meet global challenges by the time they graduate from schools and universities. Computer assisted design is one area that can open up many opportunities for youth.

Unfortunately, Sri Lankans are far away from innovation. Instead, they are using whatever materials they have and contributing to the problem. However, many other countries have often played their roles. Its high time that Sri Lankans stop sitting and relaxing. East Asian countries, as a result of their pragmatism and entrepreneurship, have always come up with new products because they have allocated substantial public finances for education, research and the science sectors.



Peoples responsibility

The main point is that the country has to move towards a greener economy which demands people to produce and consume responsibly. The potential change can be revolutionary or transformative and unprecedented. To meet these challenges, we require a major shift in the way we think and live. We cant consume things in the way we do right now. While getting rid of certain things, we have to start embracing certain new things, which arent widely used today.

A greener future will be healthier, sustainable, human friendly and more acceptable while also addressing prevailing social and economic imbalances. What we discussed today is a small part of the green revolution that is yet to happen here and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the new green revolution will be very creative, so it isnt going back, but having a combination of what nature can offer together with scientific knowledge. This revolution will touch and enrich the lives of everyone in the country irrespective of differences among people.

The Government should take a policy decision in this regard in order to take the initiative and provide the necessary policy support. There should be consensus among all social groups to implement it. Other stakeholders should be in line to support the implementation of the policy. There is a role to be played by intellectuals who could bring people altogether and make them aware of the potential transformation. Scientists also have a major role to play in making the transformation possible. Basically, all should get together and take the necessary steps for a healthier and more sustainable future.
Associated Motorways (AMW), in partnership with Unisons Capital Leasing Limited (UCL), a specialised leasing subsidiary of Citizens Development Business Finance PLC (CDB), recently announced a range of exciting new leasing packages, with attractive benefits, for businesses or individuals seeking to purchase Yamaha motorbikes.



The range of bikes offered include Alpha, Ray ZR, Saluto, Fascino, the FZ range, Fazer and R 15.

Accordingly, UCLs lease rentals will be among the lowest in the market for a four-year lease, with the down payment also minimised to ensure an ultimate competitive edge.



Additional benefits include an air cooler or a smart phone, which are all a part of this exciting offer.

Yamaha dealers will also enjoy attractive cash prizes and all-expenses-paid trips to Singapore.

Were happy to tie-up with Unisons Capital Leasing and offer one of the most appealing leasing deals in the industry, where customers will now be able to purchase Yamaha bikes at some of the lowest rates available in the market, AMW Passenger Vehicles Director, Yohann De Zoysa, said.



Endorsing this statement, Unisons Capital Leasing CEO Karthik Elangovan added Yamaha is a global leader in the industry and their motorbikes are among the most popular in the world. We are proud to partner with Yamaha, a leading international brand, and AMW, a leading conglomerate in Sri Lanka, to offer cost effective leasing solutions to the market.



Yamaha and AMW have had a strong relationship spanning many years, with Yamaha being the market leader in the motorbike category in Sri Lanka for several decades.
Mr Prime Minister, please do not hide your grief, let it come out; we realise you need quiet and solitude: Ms Smriti Irani tells us you are in a state of disbelief - some kind of an emotional shutdown, which may make it appear as if you're not affected at all...

She tells me you will overcome your numbness in time for the Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort. Yes, we saw your tweet asking us for input - that is very gracious of you - but we are all rather busy right now, attending the last rites and writing epitaphs on tombstones...

Or, maybe, your silence is not understood? You are just livid with yourself, outraged like the rest of us; correct me if I am wrong, but you had almost handpicked that IIT-BHU whiz kid Manoj Sinha for the CM's post. And then you were blindsided by saffron... sure, I understand, you had to accommodate your political nanny - the RSS - and keep your part of the Faustian bargain.

But, maybe, if you had tried hard to look for one, you would have found a person with some intellectual virtue even within the saffron brotherhood - someone who can uphold the dignity of the august office of CM as well as be the custodian of the BJP's political heirlooms beyond 2022.

Maybe, Mr Prime Minister, you need to hold Mr Naidu's hand and have a good cry - these things always help. I, too, did not know how to handle such situations since I don't have children of my own.

But, instinctively, when I gently touched the cheek of this woman who had lost her newborn, she broke down in a torrent and I cradled her in my arms as if she were my baby. But I did not shed a tear: I am like you, the strong, silent type!

Some uncharitable fellow citizens have said you are blissfully ignorant; others have opined that you are sitting on the fence. Honestly, I don't agree with your detractors.

It is your privilege as the head of the government to sit on a fence and be a bystander in a national tragedy, if you so desire.

But how could the hospital administration and the parents of the deceased be so insensitive to your suffering? More so, when they know you have put all your eggs in chief minister Adityanath's basket - eggs that will hatch in 2019.

Maybe, if you had tried hard to look, you would have found a person with some intellectual virtue even within the saffron brotherhood. Photo: PTI

The hospital was clearly careless and the parents callous in not taking care of their environs, inflicting such a horrendous tragedy on you.

As well-meaning citizens we can only prod you - no, I did not say poke, Mr Prime Minister - How dare I?

Anyhow, semantics apart, in case you are indeed in the dark and missed out on the wailing parents due to your punishing schedule, let me put you abreast...

No, no, no, this Mr Prime Minister is not about the raging Portugal forest fires as has been suggested in the social media; those are being doused, we appreciate your sensitivities about the weather conditions in southern Europe.

Sad to learn of tragic loss of lives in the forest fire in Portugal. Deepest condolences to the Portugese people on this tragedy.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 18, 2017

No, sir! It is not about the elephant calf that was found abandoned in Kenya - it is doing well in an orphanage; and, yes, we saw your tweet on the HP mishap - 45 dead - that was very prompt, sir. And that has been duly acknowledged in the social media.

Mr Prime Minister, I think we are all barking up the wrong tree; it seems in your excitement about the impending visit of Ivanka Trump this fall, perhaps you missed out on the news that 61 children were choked to death in a Gorakhpur hospital because they did not get the oxygen that would have kept their hearts ticking. Possibly, smothered to death by red tape as anxious parents sat on their bedside, prayers on their lips.

No, we understand that the PMO is very fastidious and we all have to wait for the facts to emerge - possibly in a couple of months. But, Mr Prime Minister, even if you don't have all the facts, all you need to do is look the nation in the eye and put out a tweet, the kind of endearing one-liners you keep dishing out to your global chums.

I assure you, Mr PM, it does not take a robust chest to comfort a wailing parent.

Remember, this is all about saying the right thing to your countrymen; you need not worry about acknowledging what is right and what is wrong - leave that to the experts in the TV studio.

Am I heckling you? No, no, Mr Prime Minister, we were merely wondering why you were maintaining a strategic silence: such misgivings are bound to arise when an otherwise eloquent prime minister tends to get constipated on matters of national gravitas. Remember how you lost control of your vocal cords for a year or so while the lynchings were on?

Sometimes silence can be disturbing for moral and ethical reasons, too. These hapless parents are crying out in anguish, feeling frustrated and vulnerable in a people's democracy. Yet you allow an over emphasis on cow worship, the compelling need to liberate a community from its culinary habits and the obsession with a national song to distract you from issues of actual governance.

We have seen you huffing and puffing about the need to fix Pakistan; you have often invoked the 56 inch metaphor to spook them into submission; but I assure you it does not take a robust chest to comfort a wailing parent. Just gently put your arms around them, let them sob on your shoulders; now is your opportunity to hug your own people.

I wish we too could take refuge in silence; then we too could have joined you, Mr Prime Minister, on the fence.
India and China have been locked in an "eyeball-to-eyeball" face-off for two months now. A snowy expanse that is barely inhabited by humans and has nothing better than icy winds on offer is the bone of contention. And yet, geography assumes such great significance that this undulating plateau has two nuclear powers locked in a stand-off.

This piece of Bhutanese territory is at the junction that it shares with its two outsized neighbours - India and China. Further, to its south lies Indias tenuous link to its seven northeastern states, the Siliguri Corridor. Some of these states have insurgencies simmering for half a century. Some of these insurgent groups use Chinese weapons while a few of their leaders are based in China. The Siliguri Corridor is less than 20 km deep at places. A road through Doklam allows the Chinese easier access to this lifeline to the Indian northeastern states.

But, Doklam is Bhutanese territory. Why should China select Doklam for its expansion when the India-China border provides for such opportunities elsewhere?

The winning argument is perhaps the wrongly assessed Chinese appreciation that Doklam being in Bhutan, Indians would be slow, even reluctant to react. The Bhutanese wouldnt dare to either, and the Chinese would get their road across the plateau to address Indias vulnerability more emphatically.

Beyond that, the Chinese strategic objective may have been to prove the point that India is too weak to oppose China in the region. The intention may also have been to send a message to south and south-east nations of the futility of partnering with India. India's reluctance to respond decisively would have also weakened its influence on Bhutan, decisively.

The Doklam issue has been magnified considerably by the Chinese state-controlled media.

At Doklam, the sequence of events that did roll out perhaps foxed the dragon. Indians reacted swiftly, with more than adequate force and uncompromisingly. After the initial jostling between troops from both nations, a thin barbed wire coil separates them.

Indian Army's mountain divisions tasked to guard the sector would have got their act together by now, sealing all Chinese military options in Sikkim - the Indian state that borders Bhutan. There are reports of the annual operational alert (that these formations practice) that the move to their hot war locations were preponed.

Should Doklam flare up, the altitudes at which the battle will be fought in Sikkim is above 14,000 feet. To be attacking with a definite objective of winning, a force ratio superiority of over 6:1 is also considered insufficient in such terrain configurations.

Its a ratio that neither side can muster. In those lofty mountains, technology does count, but boots on ground and preponderance of artillery remain the prime assets. Of course, sound communications and logistics remain a must in all situations.

For the Chinese to launch an offensive in another sector where they have relative advantage, would only result in the Indians doing the same in sectors where the advantage lies with them.

It could escalate a very localised incident to a greater conflagration. Not the kind of act that a sane leadership in either of the countries would want.

The Doklam issue has been magnified considerably by the Chinese state-controlled media ventilating continuously and far too aggressively. It has led to the Chinese painting themselves into a corner, sharply lowering the possibilities of easing the situation through the process of dialogue.

Its also led to attracting the attention of the whole world. South and Southeast Asian countries, already victims of Chinese bullying, are the ones closely watching every step being taken by the two nuclear powers. The wisdom of Chinese media blitz is debatable.

Fortunately, the Indian government has not tried to keep pace with the Chinese tirade and that provides a window of opportunity for settling the issue.

Reportedly, China has agreed to withdraw its troops 100 metres from the stand-off point, while the Indians want them to go back 250 metres. Though 150-odd metres hardly makes a difference, the problem is rooted in the Indian experiences of the past.

Creeping in a few hundred yards at a time, and trying the same trick again next year has been their practice along some of our borders. Perforce, the Indian side wants to emphasise that in Doklam the lines are inviolable.

Bhutan has also emphatically asked the Chinese to move out of its territory. Bhutan, however, has made no such statements about Indian troops. However, Chinese president Xi Jinping would not like to appear a weak man who tried to bite more than he can chew.

China needs to realise that smaller states in its neighbourhood and in the South China Sea will develop closer relationships with it only if it displays adequate respect for these countries.

Using threats and coercion will only drive its neighbours into the American arms. Incidents such as Doklam will also lead to strengthening the India-US relations.

India will need some deft diplomacy that would allow the Chinese to withdraw without losing face. With winters not too far away it would stress the logistics of both sides if the confrontation continues.

The obvious first step is both sides returning to their old positions. If the Indians can also ensure a commitment from the Chinese to abide by their agreement with the Bhutanese to peacefully resolve their border problems, perhaps most of the battle is won.

Doklam already provides China a brand new barometer to gauge possible Indian response to misadventures it practices annually in some sectors.

Hopefully, they will want to maintain peace and tranquillity along the borders, hereafter.
In my past visits to China going back to the early 1990s, India was mostly a peripheral issue, unless, the stay was part of a prime ministerial or presidential visit. But this time around, things are different.

For four consecutive days last week, China Daily, the countrys only English broadsheet, carried articles on the Doklam issue, with two lead editorials, one of which was titled New Delhi should come to its senses while it has time.

As for Global Times, its commentaries are too well known in India to be repeated. On Friday, the state-owned tabloid headlined Bhutan under India pressure. The border dispute, the strap said, was proof of New Delhis hegemony in South Asia.

Nervousness showing

The journalistic tour, organised after the crisis had erupted was expected to have subtle messaging aimed at pushing Chinas point of view. But there was nothing subtle about the briefings from top foreign ministry and ministry of defense officials. The briefings were harsh, and uncompromising, as the new chief spokesman Senior Colonel Ren Guoqing declared, that China had legal proof of its territory and to resolve crisis, India needed to withdraw immediately and unconditionally.

China claims the border was set by the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890 and India had invaded Chinese territory. [Photo: Mail Today]

Perhaps there was a message hidden in the visit organised to the 3rd Garrison Force in the Huairou district of Beiing, where the crack division displayed its tactical skills with small arms in a range which was clearly aimed at impressing foreign audience.

The message from a visit to the CNS Yulin, a 054 frigate at the headquarters of the South Sea Fleet at Zhangjiang, 2,500 miles to the south Beijing was vintage Chinese as Capt Liang Tiajun, an officer at the fleet headquarters blandly remarked that India and China could cooperate in Indian Ocean security. It is no secret that the PLAN lacks the ability to take on the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean Region.

More dramatic was a seminar in which two top officers known to represent the PLAs point of view in international gatherings participated. The meeting was moderated by Senior Colonel Zhou Bo. The British educated officer is well known to those who attend the Shangrila Dialogue.

The director of the Centre for Security Cooperation professed to be pained by the developments since he had served in the border regions with India. He set the tone of the meeting by waxing indignant about Indias allegedly changing stance, and attacked this writer for changing his positions perhaps under pressure.

It was difficult to assure the Senior Colonel that positions evolve more and more privileged information is divulged. For example, it was only on June 30, when the Indian press release came out that it was known that there was, to use a word often used by the Chinese, consensus that the trijunctions be worked out in conjunction with all three countries.

No clear border

Another Senior Colonel, Zhao Xiaozhuo, also a well-known face of the PLA, said he had served in the area and had no doubt that India had invaded Chinese territory. Zhao, who is at the Research Centre for China-US Defence Relations said the border was set by the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890 and claimed there was no dispute between China and Bhutan over Doklam.

There was little answer from the Chinese side that there had been no map attached to the 1890 Convention and hence the border was not even properly delimited, leave alone demarcated. The Chinese official position is that the border has been delimited, whereas India has maintained that as of now, there is only agreement on the basis of alignment of the border, viz the watershed, and that further work is needed to translate it into a full-fledged border.

Impressing the media

It was clear, however, that the discussion was aimed at the Chinese media, which was also present. Indeed, it is difficult to escape the feeling that the high-pitched campaign and the torrent of words are aimed at the Chinese audience primarily. So, there is no hesitation in blandly asserting palpably false things, as Chinas top border official Wang Wenli did, that India was twice notified about the road construction, or that Bhutan had agreed that the Doklam region belongs to China. Or, for that matter, the insistent claim that India had invaded Chinese territory.

There are too many variables in play to predict how the Doklam issue will turn out. Clearly, it not about some piece of land 7x5sqkm. For years the Chinese have patrolled the area, after parking their trucks in plain sight of the Indian positions in Doka La. The decision to disturb the status quo, in violation of their solemn commitments to Bhutan, was done with particular end in view which has probably come unstuck by the Indian action.
Amid the media frenzy, public outcry and fearful silence of government authorities, I have not been able to ascertain or understand the exact causes that led to the death of children in the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur. Whatever the actual reason be, 70 children dying over a span of a few days in a medical college hospital cannot be taken casually.

Some reports say that a few children had Japanese Encephalitis and were ventilator dependent (which requires oxygen supply). But none of the reports clearly states why in the first place 70 children became oxygen dependent. It is the responsibility of the authorities to investigate the cause and provide justice to the affected families.

In addition to all this, spreading awareness about a potentially fatal disease like Japanese Encephalitis is essential. We should not hesitate to learn from our mistakes. This article is all about simple preventive measures that could be adopted to combat it.

What is Japanese Encephalitis (JE)?

It is the inflammation of the brain caused by a virus - the JE virus - which is transmitted by female Culex mosquitoes to human beings. This virus mainly survives in pigs, ardeid birds and in mosquitoes. Man is an accidental host and is considered as the dead end in transmission because the virus cannot spread from one individual to another.

In a document released by the Indian Council of Medical Research, it has been stated that JE affects children below 15 years in south Indian states, whereas it affects people of all age groups in north India. It is one of the leading causes of encephalitis in Asia. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the two states which have witnessed an increasing number of encephalitis-related deaths over the past few years.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union health minister JP Nadda during a press conference after visiting BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur on Sunday, August 13. (Credit: PTI photo)

What are the clinical features?

It can present with fever, headache, vomitting, fits and can have rapid progression to disorientation and even coma over a span of hours or days. If the patient survives the acute stage, long-term sequelae in the form of permanent neurological damage can occur. In an area where encephalitis is known to occur, it is important to seek medical advice at the onset of any of these symptoms.

Can JE be prevented?

The mosquitoes that transmit the virus to human beings live in dirty stagnant water, paddy fields and ditches. If measures are taken to eliminate the proliferation of these mosquitoes, especially after the onset of monsoon season, then the spread of the virus can be curbed to some extent. Only if there is a very high-density of the mosquitoes, it can result in transmission of the virus to human beings. This is specifically the reason why we should focus on preventive measures.

Just by decreasing the breeding of the mosquitoes, the spread of the disease can be reduced. Taking personal precautionary measures against mosquito bite is essential. This can be achieved by wearing fully covered clothing and using mosquito repellents.

JE vaccine

An effective vaccine is available for Japanese Encephalitis since 2006. This vaccine is not recommended to be given as part of the national immunisation schedule. But two doses of the vaccine are recommended in children residing in endemic areas under 18 years of age.

The vaccine is also recommended for individuals travelling to areas with higher number of cases of Japanese Encephalitis, with two doses of vaccine completed at least one week before travelling. In our country, with enough anti-vaccine campaigns, making vaccines available for children and adults in endemic areas and motivating people to get vaccinated, looks like a Herculean task.

As we progress in the field of medicine, finding cure and treatment for diseases, every outbreak of an infectious disease tries to teach us the same lesson: prevention is always better than cure.
David Newton Bell helped develop Harrison into the county seat, but failed to lure the all-important railroad to the river community. His son, James Smith Bell, was one of the Hill City(North Chattanooga) promoters and Bell Avenue bears his name.

The Bell family was living at Wythe County,Va., when David N. Bell was born in 1797. But when he was a young boy, his father, Samuel Bell, brought the family to Knox County. Samuel Bell had been born in 1756. The other children of Samuel Bell were James Smith, Margaret, Jane, Samuel Givens, Rosannah, Robert M. and Washington. Samuel Bell died in 1843 and was buried at Bells Campground Cemetery at Powell, Tn.

As a young man, David Newton Bell moved to Philadelphia in Monroe County. There he married the widow Eliza Martin Manley, daughter of John Martin. Their first son, Samuel Granville Bell, was born in 1837. Though he kept his home in Monroe County, Bell began investing in Hamilton County, where there was agitation for a new county seat to replace the one at Dallas on the north side of the river. Bell and other investors anticipated the new site would be across the river, and they began to sell lots at Vannville, which was "situated on a beautiful eminence commanding a beautiful view of the Tennessee River surrounded by a beautiful country with a first-rate spring.'' The Vannville promoters argued that the Western and Atlantic Railroad could save $35,400 by running its track to Vanville rather than Chattanooga. They said it was "the most direct and practicable route to extend said road to Nashville, and being near the center of Hamilton County, possessing the above advantages it will doubtless be selected for the county site of said county.'' It turned out that Harrison in 1840 was chosen the county seat to replace Dallas. This was near Vannville, and the latter settlement was a few years later absorbed into Harrison. David Newton Bell moved to Harrison in 1844. But Bell and his cohorts at Harrison and Vannville were outdone by Chattanoogans Rush Montgomery, Samuel Williams and James A. Whiteside in the battle to land the W&A. Though the line had been surveyed toward Harrison and a stretch of road bed graded from Tyner's Station, the tracks were finally built in 1849 through Missionary Ridge into Chattanooga.

Even without the railroad, David N. Bell thrived at Harrison by trading in land, livestock and merchandise. He accumulated 2,200 acres and by 1860 had a fortune of $71,000. One listing of his assets included a one-horse buggy, a two-horse buggy, a piano forte, a silver watch, and $28,234.28 money loaned or deposited at interest. He sold the lot in 1848 where the Harrison Male Academy was erected. Eventually he extended his endeavors into Chattanooga, becoming president of the Discount and Deposit Bank.

Ellen, Bell's youngest daughter, married Allen C. Burns, the bank's cashier. The Burns couple lived in town on McCallie Street (Avenue). Both his son, Samuel, and son, David Newton, died at a young age. The daughters also included Mary Jane who married W.H. Smartt, Sidney who married C.F. Swann and then James Laymon, and Rosa who married Gus Cate. Sidney died in 1879. David N. Bell was residing with his daughter, Rosa, at Cleveland, Tn., when he died in 1882.

Another son, James Smith Bell, was born at Harrison in 1848. After attending the Harrison Male Academy, he studied at Ewing and Jefferson College and Maryville College. He also had a business course at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He ventured into Chattanooga as a young man and worked as a cattle trader for Samuel Williams,his father's former foe in the railroad effort.

The connection "evidently proved agreeable and profitable for soon after Mr. Bell married Anne, the daughter of Mr. Williams.'' Rev. T.H. McCallie presided at the wedding of Jan. 15,1873. It was held at the stately Williams home opposite Williams Island. James S. Bell was a Chattanooga school commissioner and was one of the founders of the Hamilton County Industrial School (Bonny Oaks School). He was a deputy in the county clerk's office and was director of a number of Chattanooga businesses. He rose to the presidency of the Richmond Hosiery Mills. It was said that his "careful economic habits of mind made Mr. Bell's services valuable in public capacities.'' He was a commissioner to the Tennessee Centennial. He also owned valuable farmland. James S. Bell was among those developing the former Cowart farm across the river from Chattanooga into the suburb now known as North Chattanooga, and he made his home there. Bell Avenue was named for him.

Of the seven children of James Smith Bell, a number went to live in the West as many of the children of Samuel Williams had done. James Edgar, David N. and Charles A. went to Oklahoma and Ralph W. to Colorado. A daughter, Mrs.W.A. Quinn, lived in Oklahoma City. Daughters remaining in Chattanooga were Mrs. Thomas S. Myers and Mrs. I.B. Merriam. A former sergeant in the Union army, Merriam was a Chattanooga merchant. Anne Williams Bell died at the old Bell homestead in North Chattanooga in 1917.James S. Bell lived until 1930.

Eldon Raymond Bell of Springdale, Ark., wrote a book about the Bell family.

ANOTHER Bell living in Hamilton County before the Civil War was Dr. William S. Bell, who established Bell's Distillery and a flour mill near the foot of Cameron Hill. He was mayor of Chattanooga in 1858. Dr. Bell was a brother-in-law of Reese Brabson, having married Elizabeth Keith. When the war broke out, Dr. Bell disposed of his business interests and moved to Memphis. He volunteered his services as a surgeon to the Confederate army. Dr. Bell was standing on a steamboat at New Madrid, near Cairo, Ill., when a cannonball struck him below the knees, carrying away both his legs. He lived for only a few hours.

His son, Charles Keith Bell, was a member of Congress from Texas for many years. Elizabeth Keith Bell made her home with him at Fort Worth.
Bible in the Schools, a local nonprofit in its 96th year, presented Dr. Bryan Johnson, newly-elected superintendent of Hamilton County schools, with a gift from the community of over $1 million to reimburse 100 percent of the costs of Hamilton County schools elective Bible History program for the 2016-2017 academic year. HCDE enrollment data reported 3,736 students in grades 6-12 elected an optional Bible History class during the 2016-2017 school year  a 4.3% increase over the 2015-2016 year.To the best of our knowledge, this represents over 9 decades of sustained private contributions to public education in the history of our community  an annual tradition that goes back to 1922, said Superintendent Johnson.Presenting the reimbursement check totaling $1,076,631 to Dr.Johnson and his leadership cabinet was Cathy Scott, the organizations president. Also in attendance was Bible in the Schools board member, Mike Harrell. This community gift covers the complete costs of the county-wide Bible History program, including teacher salaries, benefits, taxes, teacher professional development training, classroom materials, and the textbook for all participating schools, which is the Bible.Dr. Johnson said, We are grateful for those in this community who have provided funding for this robust elective and to Bible in the Schools for their dedication each year in raising awareness and support for public education. This gift empowered HCDE to hire 18 qualified and certified Bible History teachers in the 2016-2017 school year. This enriched 20 middle and high schools with key mentors and role models for students, reduced student-teacher ratios, and expanded academic course offerings  all things that continue to increase the quality of public education in Hamilton County.Bible in the Schools is pleased to be a part of strengthening Hamilton County public schools. We believe the optional Bible History courses provide a unique benefit to public school students, at no cost to taxpayers, that will have a long-term impact, said Bible in the Schools Board Chairman, Mr. Chris Maclellan.Ms. Scott said, Bible in the Schools is honored to be the conduit through which the community makes these electives possible in our public schools. This gift represents thousands of individuals and entities who understand the value of Bible History electives to a well-rounded education and to the overall development of youth. The benefits of studying Bible History go beyond simply improving reading comprehension, increasing vocabulary, and growing cultural literacy; it often fosters healthier decisions, specifically related to student conduct and relationships. In addition, Bible History encourages divergent and critical thinking as students wrestle with essential questions around complex text. Courses are rigorous and quantifiable data provides valuable information relative to student growth and academic achievement. We were delighted to see pre- and post-test averages from assessments given to all 3,736 students reflect an 85% increase in students Bible content knowledge county-wide for the 2016-2017 school year. This is a testimony to the pedagogy of Hamilton Countys exceptional Bible History teachers. It is with deep honor that we present this gift that we trust will enrich the lives of public school youth with the hope, wisdom and knowledge of what is still the worlds most influential book.Since summer 2016, Bible History electives in Hamilton County have expanded by 28%. For the academic year of 2017-2018 these electives will be offered in 23 schools and will be taught by 20 qualified teachers, who collectively hold 45 degrees. 79% of all Hamilton County public middle and high school students now have access to these electives. Schools offering Bible History include: Brainerd High School, Brown Middle School, Central High School, Dalewood Middle School, East Hamilton School, East Lake Academy, East Ridge High School, East Ridge Middle School, Hixson High School, Hixson Middle School, The Howard School, Hunter Middle School, Ivy Academy Chattanooga, Loftis Middle School, Ooltewah High School, Ooltewah Middle School, Red Bank High School, Red Bank Middle School, Sale Creek Middle/High School, Signal Mountain Middle/High School, Soddy Daisy High School, Soddy Daisy Middle School and Tyner Academy. Courses offered are: Genesis (taught in 6th), Exodus (7th), Life of Jesus (8th), Old Testament Survey and New Testament Survey (9th-12th).Bible History classes follow guidelines established by a 1980 federal court ruling, which affirmed teaching of Bible History for-credit electives in Hamilton Countys public middle and high schools as constitutionally permissible, with the Bible as the textbook. Teachers, who are certified and trained educators selected and hired by school principals, utilize a court approved curriculum that aligns to academic state standards established by the Tennessee Department of Education.Bible History elective classes are an opportunity for students to have a viewpoint neutral, foundational study of one of the cornerstone texts of world history, which helps students become culturally literate and better equipped to thrive and contribute to a global world. More information is available at www.bibleintheschools.com.
American economist Arthur Laffer, Ph.D., will keynote this years Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting, Wednesday, Aug. 23, presented by Pinnacle Financial Partners and Elliot Davis Decosimo.

Mr. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an institutional economic research and consulting firm, as well as Laffer Investments, an institutional investment management firm.

Educated at Stanford and Yale Universities, Mr. Laffer is widely noted for his economic acumen and influence in triggering a worldwide tax-cutting movement in the 80s. This expertise and his creation of the Laffer Curve earned him the distinction of the father of supply-side economics.

The Laffer Curve, one of the main theoretical constructs of supply-side economics, illustrates the tradeoff between tax rates and the tax revenues actually collected by government. Read more about the Laffer Curve here.

Mr. Laffer was part of President Reagans Economic Policy Advisory Board, and advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the UK in the 80s. He is the author of a number of books, including Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status, Eureka! How to Fix California, and New York Times bestseller An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States.

Mr. Laffer now resides in Middle Tennessee. Read more about him here.

In addition to Mr. Laffers keynote address, Annual Meeting celebrates the Chambers accomplishments over the last year, from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center Aug. 23.

Register and learn more here.
McCallie School's Faculty Fellows program annually rewards outstanding educators who make a positive impact on both the academic and character development of their students.

The 2017 Faculty Fellows announced at the Opening of School Dinner are Director of Instrumental Music Brent Alverson; French, Latin, Spanish and Germin teacher Paul Cudd; English Department Chair Sam Currin '03; sixth-grade math teacher Roc Evans '91; holder of the Baker Chair of American History Duke Richey '86; upper school math teacher Cary Hubbard; English teacher and Director of Academic Research Cleve Latham; History Department Chair Randy Odle; and Language Department Chair Frank "Paco" Watkins.

Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Lathan, Mr. Odle and Mr. Watkins are now two-time Faculty Fellow honorees.

The program was initiated in 2008 by former Board Chairman Ed Michaels 60. A monetary reward for each honoree is funded through an endowment.

A committee selects the fellows from a pool of teachers who are in their professional review year. Faculty are evaluated every four years based on classroom observations, class surveys, a professional improvement plan, department input, response to strategic questions, a personal teaching portfolio and nominations from alumni and parents.

Selection criteria include the following:

Passion for teaching and their subject

Knowledgeable about the subject and effective at helping students understand the material

Enthusiastic and energetic

Effective communicator

Genuinely interested in the student as a person and his well-being

Approachable, accessible, patient and understanding

Challenges boys to be more than they think they can be

Stresses character and values in and out of the classroom

Offers thoughtful and helpful ways to improve
On the morning after protests in Charlottesville on Saturday turned deadly, City Councilor Wes Bellamy attended two church services with local and state officials to reflect on the tragic events, as well as discuss how to move forward.

Bellamy, who was one of three city councilors to vote to remove the Robert E. Lee statue from Emancipation Park and was a frequent target of Unite the Right event organizer Jason Kessler, vowed on the steps of First Baptist Church that the community is stronger than ever.

I love this city, I know were going to be stronger because of it, he said.

Heather D. Heyer, a 32-year-old Albemarle County resident and Greene County native, died after a car plowed through a group of people on the Downtown Mall, injuring 19 others. Two Virginia State Police troopers died in a helicopter crash in Albemarle County after the rally had subsided.

Hundreds of solidarity events were held across the nation Sunday in the aftermath of Heyers death.

Ive been told by several people that Ms. Heather was a freedom fighter in every sense of the word since she was a little girl in Greene County, Bellamy said. And for her, we owe her to continue to fight and stand tall against not only white supremacy and bigotry, but against hate and injustice and fighting for equity.

Were going to mourn the loss of Ms. Heather, as well as the others who lost their lives, but were going to fight for them, he later added. We are going to be encouraged by these cowards who thought that they could break us, but actually what they did was make us stronger.

James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old from Maumee, Ohio, was charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit and run with injury. He is scheduled for an appearance in Charlottesville General District Court on Monday morning.

Nineteen were injured when the car ran into the crowd. All were transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center for treatment.

Ten of those patients were listed in good condition and nine patients had been discharged, according to the UVa Medical Center. Additional people were treated, but the hospital did not have exact numbers to report.

A photo from Saturday posted on Twitter showed Deandre Harris, a 20-year-old African-American resident of the city, being beaten with poles by attendees of the Unite the Right rally, The Root reported.

As a result, Harris has eight staples in a head, suffered a broken wrist and his tooth was chipped, he told the news publication.

UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan announced in a statement Sunday that the university will go back to operating on a normal schedule Monday.

The weekend events do not define Charlottesville or the University of Virginia, she said in the announcement. Our community comes together in times of great need, and in the coming days we will continue an important dialogue and begin the healing process.

Rep. Tom Garrett, R-5th, made several TV news appearances over the weekend condemning the attacks and white supremacy.

Garrett had come under fire for a meeting he had with Kessler in March ahead of a congressional forum at UVa. When pressed about the photo he took with Kessler at that meeting, Garrett told Eric Shawn on Fox News that he regrets taking that meeting and had no idea who he was at the time when they met.

Garrett was asked if he had a message for Kessler.

Go away, he said. Certainly, he has a right to speak and all that, but I am telling you right now, looking into the camera at that person, should he be watching, that you failed to grasp what this country is meant to be. This is a land where all people of all creeds can come together and find  I hope  a common, agreeable purpose, that is that we all have a right to aspire and succeed and that we all have a right to do so, free of the nasty and nefarious acts of others.

Before 5 p.m. Saturday, a Virginia State Police helicopter went down in Albemarle County, killing two troopers. The pilot, Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, of Quinton, died at the scene.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, though authorities said there was no indication of foul play.

The state police, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration all are investigating the crash.

On Saturday night, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice announced they would open a civil rights investigation into the circumstances of the deadly crash.

Virginia State Police arrested three people Saturday related to the planned Unite the Right rally in Emancipation Park and the ensuing disorder.

Troy L. Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, of Louisa, was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery; and James M. OBrien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, was charged with carrying a concealed handgun, according to police.

Authorities did not provide further details on the arrests.
Hundreds of people gathered throughout the evening Sunday at the intersection of Fourth Street and Water Street to reflect on what happened Saturday and the lives that were lost.

The vigil came a day for the history books, as thousands of people descended on Charlottesville on Saturday to attend or protest the white nationalist Unite the Right rally.

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 people were injured after a driver sped into a crowd of counter-protesters at Fourth and Water streets mid-afternoon Saturday.

About two hours after the car crash, two state troopers, Jay Cullen and Berke Bates, were killed when their police helicopter crashed and burned near Old Farm Road. The helicopter was involved in providing rally surveillance and information during the day.

Heather died because of white terrorism, Brittany Caine-Conley, an organizer with Congregate Cville, told Sundays gathering. Heather died because of white supremacy.

Many at the vigil were quiet, leaving flowers, candles and writing messages in chalk. The group sang together and had moments of silence for Heyer, Cullen and Bates.

Marcus Martin, who broke his leg Saturday when he was hit by and flew over the vehicle, called for the those who got the Unite the Right permit approved to be held accountable for the injuries.

The person that made the decision to allow them to come here, they need to be held accountable for it, he said. That woman cant even call her daughter no more.

Like me yesterday, my legs broke, Martin said. I cant work. All because you made a decision to allow this to come, knowing the outcome of it. You know what they stood for. You knew exactly what it was.

Marissa Blair, Heyers coworker at the Miller Law Group, was pushed out of the way of the car on Saturday by Martin, her fiance.

We just need to spread love all day, every day, and not just when something like this happens, when a tragedy happens, Blair said. Now, everyone wants to get together and rally and be there. And were going to be there for Heather, but Heather would want us to be there all the time, and thats what were going to do.

Blair said the crash shouldnt have happened.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder, among other charges. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

We werent wrong for being out there; he was wrong for driving his car through a crowd of peaceful protesters, Blair said. He deserves everything he gets and more 
Heather Heyer, the woman killed by a car driven into a crowd on Charlottesvilles Downtown Mall on Saturday, will be remembered at a memorial service at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Paramount Theater.

Attendees are asked to wear something purple.

Heyer, 32, was among a mass of counter-protesters gathered at Fourth and Water streets after the white nationalist Unite the Right rally was broken up by authorities, who declared the rally at nearby Emancipation Park to be an unlawful assembly.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail without bond. He is charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run resulting in death.

Heyer grew up in Ruckersville, was a graduate of William Monroe High School and worked at the Miller Law Group in the bankruptcy department.

She was an outspoken, outgoing, determined and passionate individual; and had a special regard for social injustices and especially those concerning race relations, her obituary reads.

'Heather died because of white supremacy': Vigil held at spot of Saturdays killing Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 people were injured after a driver sped into a crowd of counter-protesters at Fourth and Water streets Saturday.

Lauren Moon, Heyers friend since she moved to Greene County in third grade, described Heyer as a passionate person who was kindhearted with an infectious laugh.

We had a pretty tight little group of friends and we remained that way. Of course, life happens  people move, people get married, people have kids  and you lose touch, kind of, she said.

Moon said she had last seen Heyer about a month ago, when one of their other good friends was in town from Kentucky.

And, literally, we were just talking about how we need to make time to see each other, even when our other friend isnt in town, and, unfortunately, it didnt happen, she said.

Heyer was supportive of interracial marriages, Moon said, and had a who cares attitude about things such as sexual orientation.

Who cares. As long as you have a good heart and youre a good person, who cares if youre gay, who cares if you want to date a black person or a black person wants to date a white person. Who cares, Moon said. Just be a good person, be kind to others. Stop with all the hatred.

I just want the world to know what an amazing person she was, honestly. She died standing up for what she believed in, she said. And everybody that knew her, even people that didnt know her, everybodys just so proud of her.

Heyer was a Piedmont Virginia Community College student in 2007.

Our sincerest condolences go out to those who were injured and to the family and friends of Heather Heyer, who tragically lost her life on August 12, Frank Friedman, president of PVCC, said in a statement.

We mourn her loss and the troubling events that led to her passing, the statement said.

Larry Miller, for whom Heyer had worked for five years, said Heyer was scared when she started, but she just jumped in with both feet and was a very good paralegal.

She also showed compassion to our clients, too, Miller said. She would listen to them and she always believed that everybody was the same and that everybody needed to have the same opportunities available to them.

At a news conference Monday, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said police are working to protect vigils and memorials for Heyer.

We are working with the Heyer family to ensure that that the safety of vigils and memorials that are planned for this week are safe. We plan to keep the Fourth Street crossover closed until further notice as there are thousands of flowers lining the street.

There are multiple online petitions to send a letter to Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer to remove the Gen. Robert E. Lee statue from Emancipation Park and put a statue of Heyer or a memorial in her honor in its place.

Im going to keep fighting until it happens, Moon said.
A Charlottesville defense attorney assigned to represent the man accused of murder in the death of an Albemarle County woman by ramming his car into a crowd protesting Saturdays white nationalist rally is a former Republican candidate for the City Council and a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city regarding the removal of Confederate statues.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail without bond until he can meet with an attorney.

Fields is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer, 32, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run resulting in death.

Charlottesville General District Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. appointed Charles L. Buddy Weber to represent Fields, who said he made about $1,300 a month as a security guard and could not afford an attorney.

You have no ties to the community, so at this time you will not have bond until you have an attorney and they can come to this court regarding a bond, Downer told Fields, who appeared via video feed from jail.

Downer indicated that Weber was unaware of the appointment.

I do not know if Mr. Weber has a conflict or if he is willing to represent you.

Will Lyster, a friend of Weber, said the attorney is on a hiking trip and does not have cellphone service. He is expected to return next week.

Downer said a member of the Charlottesville Public Defenders Office has a conflict of interest with Fields regarding the incident and that the office could not represent Fields. He then appointed Weber, a local defense attorney who is on a list of local public defenders, to represent Fields.

Downer set the next bond hearing for Fields for Aug. 25.

Weber, a former chairman of the city Republican Party, is one of 13 plaintiffs who have sued the Charlottesville City Council for its decision to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from the park that once bore the Confederate generals name. The park has since been renamed Emancipation Park.

The park was the site of Saturdays Unite the Right rally, which brought several white supremacist and white nationalist groups to the park, as well large crowds of counter-protesters. The rally erupted in violence between the groups before it could start, however. Police declared an unlawful assembly and cleared the park after hundreds of people beat each other with sticks and fists, sprayed each other with pepper spray and hurled makeshift missiles.

After the rally, a car plowed into a crowd of about 100 counter-protesters marching down a Downtown Mall cross street and slammed into other cars that had stopped for the protesters. Heyer was killed in the crash, and 19 others were injured.

The car backed up on Fourth Street and sped away. Fields was later arrested.

As Fields Monday hearing was ending, Matthew Heimbach, leader of the white nationalist Traditionalist Worker Party, began shouting accusations that counter-protesters caused Saturdays violence. He was quickly surrounded by television crews and news reporters who were milling about the courthouse, awaiting Downers ruling.

Bystanders then joined the throng, drowning the mans words by chanting Nazi go home until police whisked him safely away from the growing crowd.

The Associated Press on Monday reported that police records from Florence, Kentucky, show Fields mother had called police in 2011, reporting that Fields stood behind her wheelchair wielding a 12-inch knife.

In a 2010 incident, his mother reported that Fields struck her on the head and locked her in the bathroom after she told him to stop playing video games. She told officers Fields was on medication to control his temper.

A former teacher told The Washington Post that Fields espoused Nazi ideals in high school.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe declined TV interviews Sunday morning and went right to his constituents.

McAuliffe and other elected officials gathered at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, both in Charlottesville, Sunday morning to speak to congregants about the deaths that resulted from the white nationalist Unite the Right rally on Saturday.

To the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis who came to our beautiful state yesterday, there is no place for you here in Charlottesville, there is no place for you in Virginia and there is no place for you in the United States of America, McAuliffe said at Mount Zion.

McAuliffe led a moment of silence for the three people ... who lost their lives yesterday doing what they loved doing, fighting for freedom.

On Saturday, 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and 19 people were injured after a driver sped into a crowd of counter-protesters at Fourth Street Northeast and Water Street mid-afternoon.

About two hours after the car crash, two state troopers, Jay Cullen and Berke Bates, were killed when their police helicopter crashed and burned near Old Farm Road. The helicopter was involved in providing rally surveillance and information during the day.

McAuliffe had worked closely with both state troopers.

Jay had flown me for three and a half years, but Berke was part of my protection detail for three years and he had just moved over to, something he had always dreamed of, the helicopter detail. And he had only been on the detail for a week, he told reporters. Today is his 41st birthday and it just breaks our heart. I just spoke to him on Friday. He called me up and wanted to send my son a care package overseas. Its senseless.

While McAuliffe said he had been angry, he said he had put his anger aside and asked others to do the same.

Let us use today to reach out to our fellow citizens, put your hand out to help them, he said. Let us show these people that we are bigger than them, we are stronger than them.

Mayor Mike Signer said Charlottesville was still one of the greatest communities in the world.

We will get through this stronger than we were yesterday, he said. Our democracy has been through a lot, weve been through segregation and Jim Crow, and weve been through McCarthyism. And we will get through this challenge and we are going to do it together.

Attorney General Mark R. Herring said that while it a difficult and a tragic day for the community and for the country, Sundays thoughts should be of peace.

Peace and love for all, for this community, for those who were hit and for those families who are suffering an unspeakable loss, he said. Let us also recommit ourselves in the weeks and in the months and in the years ahead to never stay silent in the face of injustice.

Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam said people need to ask themselves where does hate come from and who taught these people.

It is incumbent on all of us to make sure that we promote inclusivity in the commonwealth of Virginia, that we promote equality, that we are all Gods people, that we are all in this together, that were to promote love, he said.

Don Gathers, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, said at First Baptist Church that on Friday and Saturday the devil had come to Charlottesville and that yesterday was something out of a war zone.

I implore you, please continue to pray for this congregation, pray for this city, pray for this entire community and more than that, pray for our leaders, he said. At times like these, we need leadership, we need direction, and were looking to the leaders of this community and of this state to provide that.

Del. David J. Toscano, a former Charlottesville mayor, said the events of this weekend have left him feeling both drained and energized.

The events of yesterday were very troubling and they took a lot of energy to process, he said after the second service. But this morning in the church, I was uplifted and energized to start anew and move forward in healing our community and building bridges to make the commonwealth a better place.

Standing outside of First Baptist, Charlottesville City Councilor Wes Bellamy echoed the governors remarks in that people need to rally together now.

We dont fall down. And if we do, we stand back up, he said. Thats what the city of Charlottesville is.

We are going to be encouraged by these cowards who thought that they could break us, but actually what they did was make us stronger, he later added.

Daily Progress staff writer Michael Bragg contributed to this story.
RICHMOND  A Confederate heritage organization has asked the state for permission to gather Sept. 16 at Richmond's Robert E. Lee monument.

The rally would come roughly a month after Saturday's white nationalist protest descended into violence in Charlottesville.

The Department of General Services has received a request from Americans for Richmond Monument Preservation for a permit to hold an event at the Lee Monument, on Monument Avenue according to Dena Potter, an agency spokeswoman, who said the application is under review and has not been approved.

Potter said the request was submitted by Bragdon Bowling - a former commander of the Virginia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans. Bowling could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday evening.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe's office said it could not provide information on Sunday, and Mayor Levar Stoney also declined to comment, referring questions to Capitol Police. Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said city police and Capitol police will be meeting to discuss the request, but he could not provide further information.

Capitol Police, as a legislative agency, would not be involved unless and until the request is approved by General Services as an executive branch agency.

Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham said more information about the status of the permit is expected this week.

According to an online post dated Aug. 7 on a blog listed as being for The Virginia Flaggers, a group called Save Southern Heritage has obtained a permit from Capitol Police to rally at the Lee Monument on Sept. 16. However, that information does not match what the state received, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch was unable to reach anyone associated with that group.

The Virginia Flaggers says in the post that it plans to support the efforts of Save Southern Heritage and that a large showing is needed to make a statement to Stoney and the Monument Avenue Commission, a 10-member group studying ways to add context to Richmond's public memorials to the Confederacy on Monument Avenue.

The first public hearing hosted by the Monument Avenue Commission was a contentious affair that attracted more than 500 people on Wednesday at the Virginia Historical Society. Stoney has said he was to add context to monuments to Confederates and Confederate President Jefferson Davis that stand on Monument Avenue, but does not support relocating them.
Nonprofit regional blood center Blood Assurance announced that Elders Ace Hardware is its August #BAChampion community partner. A #BAChampion is a community partner who has committed to raising awareness within their community through various special events dedicated to education and blood collection.We are honored to partner with Blood Assurance to help raise awareness of the need for blood donations this month, said Tom Glenn, president of Elders Ace Hardware. Elders was founded on the principle of helpfulnessnot just in the stores, but throughout our community as well.Its a privilege to help our neighbors who find themselves as patients in need.Through the #BAChampion initiative, Blood Assurance unites with businesses and organizations to further educate the community on the importance of blood donations. The #BAChampion title is given to an organization that is dedicated to raising awareness of the constant need for blood donations within their community.Elders Ace Hardware has been giving back to the East Tennessee and North Georgia regions for many years, and Blood Assurance is proud to have them as our August #BAChampion, said Jay Baumgardner, executive director of marketing and community relations for Blood Assurance. Blood supply is very low in the summer months, and Elders Ace Hardware is helping to ensure that blood donations are available for patients in need.Elders Ace Hardware was founded in 1969 when Elder Glenn and three partners opened their first store outside of the Chattanooga city limits. In the last 48 years, the company has remained a family owned and locally operated group and has expanded to include 20 stores. Elder Glenns sons, Tom Glenn and Grif Glenn, vice president and controller, manage the stores with the philosophy of providing outstanding customer service to all guests, hiring staff with experience in hardware, stocking top-of-the-line products, and offering competitive pricing.Elders Ace Hardware has 20 locations throughout East Tennessee and North Georgia. These locations include nine stores in Chattanooga, one store in Cleveland, four stores in North Georgia, and six stores in Knoxville.To learn more about becoming a #BAChampion, contact the Blood Assurance marketing department at 423-752-5926 or visit bloodassurance.org/bachampion-2017. For the latest Blood Assurance news and updates, follow @BloodAssurance on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.All donors will receive the Donor Surf Co. T-shirt; donors 18 years or older will be entered into a Blood Assurance monthly drawing for a $100 Elders Ace Hardware gift card, compliments of August #BAChampion Elders Ace Hardware; and donors 18 years or older will also be entered into a drawing to win the Pick Your Paradise vacation getaway for a $1,500 travel voucher ending on Aug. 31.To be eligible to donate blood, you must be at least 18 years old (16 and 17 years old with parental consent), weigh 110 pounds or more, and be in good health. Donors are asked to drink plenty of fluids  avoiding caffeine  and eat a meal that is rich in iron prior to donating. To schedule an appointment at a donor center or blood drive near you, visit www.bloodassurance.org, call 800-962-0628 or text BAGIVE  to 444999.
This is what we dreaded. Some international crisis was bound to flare up, and President Trump would make it worse. Now we can only hope that the mature adults surrounding him are able to cool things down.

Trump probably thought it was oh-so-clever to answer North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear provocations with a taste of the dictator's own apocalyptic language, threatening "fire and fury like the world has never seen." It sounded like a playground taunt, reflecting the president's emotional immaturity. On Aug. 10, Trump said that maybe those words weren't "tough enough." Soon these two nuclear-armed leaders may be trading insults about the size of each other's hands.

The "fire and fury" line was "improvised," meaning Trump failed to warn anyone about it beforehand  not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, not Defense Secretary James Mattis, not chief of staff John Kelly, not national security adviser H.R. McMaster, not U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Wish these five officials well, because they stand between us and unthinkable disaster.

It is possible that "fire and fury" was, in Trump's mind, a bit of strategy. Perhaps he wanted to come across as a dangerous madman. If so, he succeeded in unnerving Americans and our allies  but not, apparently, the North Koreans.

Ironies abound. Before Trump's intervention, his administration was actually doing pretty well in orchestrating a global response to North Korea's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. Haley managed to get the U.N. Security Council to approve tough new sanctions, which meant she had to win cooperation from China and Russia  a real diplomatic achievement.

Moreover, Trump's bombast may even have occasioned high-fives in Kim's inner circle. Kim has long sought direct talks with the United States as a way of showing the North Korean people his exalted status among world leaders. A back-and-forth exchange of rhetoric fills the bill.

Dealing with this crisis will require patience and realism, both of which Trump totally lacks.

There is no quick solution. If there were, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama would have implemented it long ago. A U.S. military strike could cost millions of lives in South Korea and perhaps many thousands in Japan. Our nation, under Trump, would become an international pariah. We would have the blood of many innocents on our hands.

The reality is that Kim doesn't want to conquer the world  or provoke a U.S. attack that could end his regime. He wants to remain in power. He also dreams of someday reuniting the Korean Peninsula under his own leadership, but that is a much longer-range goal. Right now, his imperative is survival.

By developing nuclear weapons and advanced missile technology, Kim sought to ensure that he never faces the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Having gone to extraordinary lengths to obtain this insurance policy, he is not likely to give it up. Ever.

The Trump administration believes the Chinese government could do more to pressure Kim. It is true that China has the power to destroy the fragile North Korean economy, but Chinese leaders are not willing to confront the consequences of provoking a collapse of central authority in Pyongyang. And the Kim dynasty has shown a willingness to force the North Korean people to endure unspeakable hardship in the pursuit of national goals.

I see no way that Kim is ever going to be persuaded or coerced into giving up his nukes. Maybe he would do so under imminent threat of being deposed. But in any scenario I can imagine, he has more leverage with nuclear weapons than without them.

I don't want to live in a world in which a nuclear-tipped North Korean missile can hit Guam or Hawaii or Los Angeles or Chicago, but we may not have a choice.

Deterrence does work, though. It worked throughout the Cold War. It worked during Mao's Cultural Revolution, when China was at least as unhinged as North Korea is today. It works between India and Pakistan.

Trump once said he would be willing to meet with Kim. If the president can be kept from making further threats and the present crisis allowed to subside, perhaps we can eventually offer direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang  something Kim dearly wants  with the subject being a verifiable freeze on the North Korean nuclear program. After a freeze is in place for a while, it might be possible to negotiate reductions.

As I said, we need to be patient and realistic. Someone please distract the president with a shiny object for the next few years.

Eugene Robinson is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. Email him at eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
Attorney Martin L. Pierce, a certified estate planning specialist in Chattanooga, has been selected for inclusion in the 2018 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Trusts and Estates.



"The Best Lawyers in America is the oldest peer-review publication in the legal profession, and inclusion in the listing signals not only legal expertise, but also ethics and professionalism of the highest caliber. Since it was first published, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer review evaluation. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers 'the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice'", officials said.



A member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and a certified estate planning specialist, Mr. Pierce practices elder law, wills, special needs trusts, guardianship, and business law (among others) in Tennessee and Georgia. He was previously included in the 2017 and prior listings of Mid-South Super Lawyers for Estate Planning and Probate.
Photos: Chicagoans Hold Vigil For Charlottesville Victims, Denounce 'Vile White Terrorism'

By aaroncynic in News on Aug 14, 2017 3:50PM



Hundreds turned out to Federal Plaza Sunday evening for a vigil to show solidarity with and mourn the tragic attack on demonstrators by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

We have lost lives once more to senseless, vile white terrorism. That is exactly what this is: white terrorism, said Mrinalini Chakraborty, head of field operations for the Womens March Network, who helped organize the vigil. When torch bearing klansmen gather in broad daylight without any fear of consequences I cannot put into words my anger that I feel at how this will trigger so many of my friends in black and brown communities.

The vigil came after several other actions took place in Chicago, which showed support for the victims of multiple attacks on counter demonstrators who opposed a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. The rally was hosted and attended by several far-right, white supremacist and other fascist groups. Dozens were injured in several melees and one woman was killed after a man drove a vehicle through a crowd of demonstrators. The alleged driver James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was seen sporting white-supremacist regalia.



Demonstrators gathered in Federal Plaza for a vigil for the victims of a nazi attack on counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo by Aaron Cynic.

Trump Tower was the focal point of many of the actions, as the President was roundly criticized for a statement that barely criticized white supremacists and instead blamed many sides for the violence. Additionally, many who organized and participated in demonstrations blamed the Trump administration for emboldening the rising tide of fascism and white supremacist violence.

A small group of people gathered Saturday evening for a candlelight vigil, which was followed by two rallies and a march through the Loop Sunday afternoon where hundreds converged on Trump Tower in succession. Ahead of the evening vigil, which took place in Federal Plaza on Sunday, attendees chalked messages such as give peace a chance, love wins, and white silence is violence on the concrete while organizers handed out flowers to people as they arrived.

"I had friends who were there, friends who were beaten & hit" says Charlottesville native who recently moved to Chicago pic.twitter.com/rqs0OBTnrm  Aaron Cynic (@aaroncynic) August 13, 2017

Moving forward, speakers encouraged people to take their thoughts and feelings with them back into their communities as they left, and to challenge racism, fascism and oppression wherever they find it. "I'm here to ask you what are you willing to sacrifice...Too many of us have allowed individuals to just be how they are, one speaker told the crowd.

"Right now we've got too many people who are comfortable with hate" pic.twitter.com/1aBrYBtljg  Aaron Cynic (@aaroncynic) August 13, 2017

We know white supremacy and white terrorism is the leading cause of death when you think about terrorism in this country, said Kofi Ademola of Black Lives Matter. Its not Muslims, its not black people. We have to struggle with these conditions and we have to do things that are going to put us in a position to fight back against it. Not just show up in rallies like this so we can feel good and console and comfort ourselves, but really go back into our homes, to our places of work, to our schools and challenge these institutions of oppression.

An interfaith service is scheduled for noon on Monday at Federal Plaza.
Company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 3,065.2 crore in the year-ago period, Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in a filing to BSE.

New Delhi: State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Monday posted 23 per cent decline in consolidated profit at Rs 2,351.2 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, due to higher expenses.

The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 3,065.2 crore in the year-ago period, Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in a filing to BSE. However, CIL's consolidated income during April-June quarter was at Rs 21,774.4 crore, registering an increase of 4.5 per cent.

The firm's consolidated expenses increased to Rs 17,836.7 crore in April-June this year, over Rs 16,197.8 crore in the year-ago period.

The production of the country's largest coal miner was at 118.8 million tonnes (MT) in the first quarter of FY2017-18 against 125.6 MT in the same quarter of previous fiscal.

The company's off take for the April-June quarter was at 137.4 MT, over 133.2MT in the same quarter of previous fiscal.

On standalone basis, Coal India posted a profit of Rs 32.18 crore for April-June 2017 against that of Rs 3.6 crore in the year-ago period.

However, standalone total income declined to Rs 187.8 crore over Rs 189 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.
The three categories saw net inflows of Rs 60,084 crore, Rs 12,727 crore and Rs 7,864 crore respectively.

Mumbai: Led by an over 41 per cent surge in inflows from small towns or the B15 cities, assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry rose 30.35 per cent to Rs 19.97 trillion in July, says a report.

"Smaller towns or B15 (beyond top 15 cities) cities accounted for 17.7 per cent of total AUM as of July, thanks to a 41.3 per cent surge to reach past Rs 3.60 trillion in July from Rs 2.55 trillion a year ago helping the industry AUM to grow over 30 per cent to Rs 19.97 trillion," Icra said quoting Amfi data on Monday.

According to the report, there is a better balance of equity and non-equity assets at 5:4 in B15 locations compared with 1:2 in the T15 (top 15) cities. Also, the share of direct plans in B15 centres is 22.7 per cent against 45.2 per cent in the T15 cities.

The industry AUM had touched Rs 10 trillion in May 2014 and in a short span of three years, it has nearly doubled, the report said. Investors pumped Rs 63,504 crore into mutual funds in July with income, equity (including equity linked savings schemes or ELSS), and balanced funds witnessing the highest inflows.

The three categories saw net inflows of Rs 60,084 crore, Rs 12,727 crore and Rs 7,864 crore respectively, the report said. Equity funds (including ELSS) witnessed the highest ever monthly net inflow at Rs 12,727 crore, reflecting a jump of 55.9 per cent month-on-month and 407.9 per cent year-on- year.

This comes after more than Rs 70,000 crore investments in equities in fiscal 2017. Net inflows through the SIP route also hit an all-time high of Rs 4,947 crore in July.

Data reveal that in the first four months of the current fiscal, total net inflows through SIPs rose to Rs 18,544 crore while 8.23 lakh SIP accounts were added every month on an average with an average ticket size at Rs 3,250 per account.

As per the Sebi data, total folio count as of July was 5.94 crore, 2 per cent higher than June. Around 8.36 lakh and 2.10 lakh new folios were added to the equity (including ELSS) and balanced categories, respectively.

Surprisingly, the ELSS category added 3.7 lakh new folios in April-July. Folio count dropped by 2,331 and 1,670 in gold ETFs and fund of funds investing overseas, respectively, from June levels. These were the only two categories to witness de- growth in July.
The banks plans to adopt 100 gram panchayats in the next three years.

Mumbai: The nation's largest lender State Bank of India on Monday launched a CSR initiative, SBI Gram Seva, which will work in the areas of health, education, environment and rural infrastructure.

The SBI Foundation will identify and partner with NGOs to carry out CSR initiatives under which it adopt five villages each from 10 village panchayats with each village getting around Rs 2.40 crore over the next three years.

"The reason why we undertook this initiative is threefold. One is to ensure it is holistic, sustainable and we want to ensure that we do it in collaboration," chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told reporters.

Initially, 10 gram panchayats comprising of 50 villages in six states have been adopted, she said, added the banks plans to adopt 100 gram panchayats in the next three years.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday chaired a meeting to review foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in certain sectors, sources said.

The meeting was attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and senior officials in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), sources added.

Sources, however, remained tight-lipped about the deliberations held in the meeting. Sources said the meeting appears to be a follow up of the meeting Prime Minister had called last month on FDI policy.

The meeting assumes significance as the government is considering to liberalise FDI policy in certain sectors such as single brand retail, multi brand retail and construction.

The government is relaxing norms to provide investor friendly climate to foreign players, and in turn attract more FDI to boost economic growth and create jobs. Foreign direct investment in the country grew by 9 per cent to USD 43.47 billion in 2016-17.
Total public investment for agriculture at Rs 2,843 billion at 2004-05 prices and Rs 5,080.8 billion at 2011-12 prices for all the major states.

New Delhi: An additional investment of Rs 6,399 billion is required from both public and private sectors to enable doubling of farmers' real income by 2022-23, a government committee said in its latest report.

At present, public investment is below national average in states like Assam, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab and Odisha.

Less developed states in the eastern region continue to lag behind in private investment, suggesting an urgent need to develop financial and other infrastructure, it added.

These are some of the suggestions made by the Committee on Doubling Farmers Income headed by National Rainfed Area Authority CEO Ashok Dalwai, in first four volumes of the report released for public comment.

The remaining eight volumes are yet to be released. Given the large variations in the existing investment requirements across all states, the panel said: "The resource allocation for higher growth should be designed in such a way as to help achieve a balanced growth."

For a targeted 10.41 per cent annual increase in farmers income, the required rate of increase in investment on private account is estimated at 7.86 per cent per annum, it said.

The estimated increase in weighted public investment (together in agriculture, irrigation, rural roads and transport and rural energy) is pegged at 14.17 per cent per year.

"The investment rates vary considerably across the states, ranging from 1- 24 per cent. The less developed states would require higher rate of public investment owing to initial low capital base in rural areas," it said.

To boost farmers' real income, the committee said there is need for an additional Rs 617 billion of private investment by 2022-23 at 2004-05 prices and Rs 1,318.4 billion at 2011-12 prices.

The committee strongly recommended the stepping up of institutional credit on a large scale, as only 50 to 60 per cent of the investment requirements of farmers are being fulfilled through institutional loans.

It has also worked out total public investment for agriculture at Rs 2,843 billion at 2004-05 prices and Rs 5,080.8 billion at 2011-12 prices for all the major states.

The capital requirements are found to be much higher in the poorer and agriculture-dominant states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. More funds would be required for developing irrigation systems, it added.

With government continuing to play key role in farm sector development, the panel said: "By 2022-23, the private investment should increase by nearly two times while public investment should increase four times from the base year 2015 -16."

It also noted: "Policy should focus on creating a favourable investment climate for increasing investment in agriculture and for agriculture for exploiting their relative potential strengths through public and private sources to ensure that accelerated private investments crowd- in from farmers and private sector enterprises."

Since public investment in agriculture in the less developed states has been historically low, investment in agricultural infrastructure needs to be significantly stepped up to boost productivity growth, it said.

The marginal returns in terms of income from additional public investments in agricultural research and development, irrigation, energy and education are relatively higher in agriculturally less developed states, which highlights the need for enhancing investments in these areas, it added.

Besides, the panel suggested that the focus should be on the "demand-driven fork-to-farm approach", diversification towards high value crops, market reforms and investment in infrastructure for cold-chain integration to reduce wastages among others.

It, however, cautioned that income support system alone may not work as a long-term solution for tackling farmer distress, particularly in the backdrop of depleting natural resources and uncertainty caused by climate change, as also the dependence of a huge labour force on the farm economy.
The 30-share BSE Sensex had opened higher in the morning at 31,299.52. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Stocks on Monday rose for the first time in six days, with the benchmark Sensex rebounding over 235 points to end at 31,449 as investors took comfort from the fact that tensions between the US and North Korea showed some signs of easing.

Chinese president, for his part, urged both countries to restrain from activities that would raise geopolitical temperature. The surge in stocks came even as industrial production entered the negative territory in June.

The 30-share Sensex after opening higher at 31,299.52 advanced to the day's high of 31,526.40 and settled up 235.44 points, or 0.75 per cent at 31,449.03. The gauge had lost 1,111.82 points in the last five days. The NSE Nifty bounced 83.35 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 9,794.15. It shuttled in a range of 9,818.30 and 9,752.10.

Stock exchanges will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Independence Day.
Mumbai: After the shocking and much talked-about midair brawl between comedians Sunil Grover and a highly inebriated Kapil Sharma, surfaces yet another case of misdemeanour with cabin crew in the hands of a  completely sloshed Bhojpuri actor Nirahua.

On July 28, Bhojpuri movie star Nirahua was flying down to London with some of his fellow actors from the industry to attend the Bhojpuri Film Festival when he allegedly over-utilised the freebies that come along with food on international flights.

The actor in question misbehaved with an air hostess to an extent that his co-passengers were disgusted by his foul behaviour and the other actors present had to jump in for damage control.

Nirahua was reportedly drunk beyond out of his wits.

An eyewitness reportedly told a daily, Nirahua was completely sloshed by the time the flight took off. He was loud, aggressive, unruly and he misbehaved with an air hostess. All hell broke loose and there would have been hell to pay for if the other actors on board had not mediated and pacified the offended lady. She agreed not to file a police complaint against Nirahua after he apologised or else he would be behind the bars.

Earlier this year, on their way back to Mumbai, a very drunk Kapil Sharma had misbehaved with fellow comedian Sunil Grover and even hurled his slippers on him, prompting the latter to quit the show Comedy Nights With Kapil.
Mumbai: For his character Daliya in Milan Luthrias 'Baadshaho,' Emraan Hashmi spent a considerable amount of time with locals in Rajasthan and street artistes to better understand their body language, their mannerisms and how they dress.

Since the film is set in the 1970s , it was important to understand the history of the state apart from looking the part.

Says Emraan, I met a local guide in Rajasthan who spoke a variety of languages, sported funky attire and had tattoos. He wore T-shirts on dhotis with pagdis. I loved that and I decided to incorporate it in my character's look. He had a nonchalant and carefree attitude. Daliya is based on this colourful real-life character. He gave us references for the accessories I've worn in the film. They are very retro and were worn by the men in those days."

Promising to be a full-fledged action-packed thriller, the songs of the film have already caught the fancy of the audience.

The film is set for a September 1 release.

Here are few stills of his look from the film:
Mumbai: Along with many white-collared officials, Bollywoods megastar Amitabh Bachchans name has emerged in the infamous Panama Papers case, with the Income Tax department aggressively pursuing the case. The I-T department has dispatched a higher authority to the British Virgin Islands to extract information, a senior official told Times of India.

The Caribbean Island is considered to be one of the several tax havens. Thirty-three prosecutions have been launched by the tax department to the names popped up in the Panama Papers and is questioning others.

An official, on condition of anonymity, told the publication, "There is no let-up in investigations. We are aggressively seeking information from other countries."

Recently, Pakistans Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif was expelled from his position, after the countrys top court found him guilty in connection with the Panama Papers case. Since then, the Indian tax authorities' credibility has been questioned for their laid-back behaviour in this highly contentious case.

When interrogated about the information linked to the accusations against Bachchan, the officials stated, Mr Bachchan has said he does not own any of the firms named in the documents. So we just can't launch a probe. We have to seek information."

"We have sent a senior CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) officer to the British Virgin Islands to gather information and we are also seeking information from various other countries and then we will have to analyse and see if there are any violations," revealed the official to the leading daily.

Names of several film stars, businessman and politicians have been attached to the Panama Papers.

Amitabh Bachchan has denied any unlawful activity, and said that his settlements overseas were regulated on the lines of Indian law. The actor denied names of the firms linked to the Panama Papers.

"Some of the accounts which were revealed are also genuine and those named have come forward to give details. It is a long-drawn process of seeking information," said the official.

Names of 140 political figures from 50 countries have been linked to the offshore accounts, which include 12 current or former heads of state and sportspersons, administrators and 29 billionaires from a popular magazines rich list. It has 11.5 million documents, involving 2,14,000 offshore organisations covering a time period between 1977 and 2015.

Panama Papers are leaked documents from a Panama-based law firm - Mossack Fonseca, which has offices in 35 countries.
Sushant Singh Rajput is currently prepping up for his film 'Chanda Mama Door Ke.'

Mumbai: Sushant Singh Rajput is one actor, who is known to get into the depth of his character; he almost makes it his second skin.

His dedication and hard work did pay off for his blockbuster film MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, and he is back with another sci-film Chanda Mama Door Ke, for which he is training extensively to get the nuances of an astronaut apt.

In a recent interview to a leading tabloid, the actor openly discussed about his last film Raabtas debacle, his personal life being under the scanner, and his equation with co-star Kriti Sanon.

When the actor was quizzed about him being a player, the versatile actor rather revealed the reason why his girlfriend dumped him, which clearly indicates that hes definitely not the player sorts.

My first girlfriend dumped me because I was too boring. I've tried to be more interesting ever since, disclosed the 31-year-old actor.

Sushant is on a roll with several films like Tarun Mansukhani's Drive, Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan's Chandamama Door Ke, Abhishek Kapoor's Kedarnath, Robbie Grewal's Romeo Akbar Walter, Abhishek Chaubey's untitled dacoit drama.

He is currently prepping up for 'Chanda Mama Door Ke,' which is tentatively slated to release on January 26, 2018.
Illinois Senate Asks Police To Treat Neo-Nazis Like Terrorists

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Aug 14, 2017 3:20PM



Photo: Tyler LaRiviere

The Illinois state Senate has passed a resolution asking law enforcement to treat white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as domestic terrorist organizations. The resolution comes on the heels of a deadly attack on anti-racist counter protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. Yesterday hundreds of Chicagoans marched in solidarity with the victims of the brutal attack, who included Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed when a driver plowed into a crowd of protestors. The alleged driver, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, faces a charge of second-degree murder.

The resolution asks police to "recognize these white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations, and to pursue the criminal elements of these domestic terrorist organizations in the same manner and with the same fervor used to protect the United States from other manifestations of terrorism." That is, to treat it the same way it might treat, say, ISIS.

The Senate calls out white nationalism, neo-Nazism and the "alt-right" for its intimidation and violence against individuals on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and immigration status. It recognizes that these sorts of groups are "continuing to grow."

"It is vital that we stand in total opposition to the hatred, bigotry and violence displayed by the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville this past weekend," sponsoring Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park told the Chicago Tribune. "They are the heirs to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis. We fought two bloody wars in opposition to their ideologies. We must continue to fight those same twisted ideologies today."

Since Trump's candidacy, there has been increasing visibility of these sorts of groups around Chicago. One white nationalist group called Identity Evropa left flyers around the Loop and the University of Chicago. One church in Pilsen has been vandalized several times over the last year by extremists, and it even received a visit from a suspected white supremacist who also vandalized a synagogue. Its pastor complained that police didn't seem to take their complaints seriously.

If you're curious about this kind of domestic terrorism, you can check out the Southern Poverty Law Center's map of hate groups in your very own back yard.
The holistic development centre was set up in May 2017 for children and young adults focused on learning difficulties, behavioural problems and also to provide career guidance.

Bengaluru: Two child psychologists and special educators, Naomi Menon and Madhuri Mohan, have set out on a unique mission to help children with special needs.

Naomi, a special educator and child psychologist who has also done her Masters in inclusive education, had made up her mind to open a centre that focuses on special education. She wanted to help devise ways and techniques to explore ideas and implement them in schools. This gave birth to 'Merritude', a holistic development centre, which has been set up at Whitefield. Apart from helping children with various learning disabilities, the centre also organises workshops for parents.

"The main focus is on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mild Autism, learning difficulties and behavioural concerns. But the idea is to open a place for all children and an inclusive centre where any child can walk in and seek help," explains Naomi.

Recently, Merittude in association with the Rotary Club Bangalore, conducted a parenting seminar and Salma Prabhu, a renowned author, clinical psychologist and special educator from Mumbai, helped the parents understand various issues. "The biggest road block sometimes is from parents, who do not accept that their child might require some help and guidance or that their child has ADHD or other learning disability. This delays the help to such children," she says.

The holistic development centre was set up in May 2017 for children and young adults focused on learning difficulties, behavioural problems and also to provide career guidance. "It is open for children from 5 years to 25 years and we help them with their issues," Naomi says.

Considering the increasing number of cases of children with various psychological issues, Naomi feels that these centres can provide answers to their problems. "There are very few centres that work on these lines, but it is mostly a small network and sadly, because of lack of much regulation in this field, parents also question the legitimacy of such centres and then are unsure about which centre to reach out to. This too is a concern," she says.

"It is important because the kind of needs children have these days is growing and because of technology and social media, the pressures are getting harder and a lot more. Such centres can help schools manage these issues better and empower the children as well," she says.

Naomi and Madhuri have been reaching out to schools, but till now it is mainly the word of mouth that has got parents to visit their centre. "Currently, we are working with a child with ADHD and learning disabilities," says Naomi.

"Our motto is Perspective, Potential and Excellence and it entails the understanding of perspectives, discovering potentials and working toward excellence. The centre also conducts both parenting and teaching workshops apart from career guidance and personal counselling. Under personal counselling, one-on-one sessions with children are held on various issues that they are facing. Individualised modules based on the needs of the child are worked on. We try and instil the child with the necessary coping skills," she says.

Their goal, however, is to focus on teacher education programmes, apart from counselling and remedial education. "Teachers need to be educated and made aware of these disabilities and they need to be empowered with the basic tools to help include these children into mainstream education. We will focus on that in the near future, but now, we are taking things slow and focusing only on these children," she sums up.
Washington: A team of researchers have revealed a helpful strategy that may help older adults improve their memory.

According to researchers, the use of action and consequence to remember objects is only found to work in older people, who are not suffering from cognitive decline, as it requires the brain to carry out more than one function at once.

The results revealed that people using the action and consequence technique, or unitisation, achieved 78 percent after being trained in the memory game and playing it following an hour's break.

Co-author Jennifer Ryan from the University of Toronto, said, "Previous research has shown that imagining two objects fusing into one will help people work around these memory deficits, but our work demonstrated that understanding the relationship between the two items is also important." They analysed 80 people aged 61 to 88, who boosted their performance significantly in memory tests.

The memory trick is similar to the playground game of rock, paper, scissors. According to scientists, imagining an action between two objects, such as the umbrella lodged in the door lock and a potential consequence, such as being unable to unlock the door.

Imagining an action and a consequence together, such as the keys scratching the table, gets round the problem by fooling the brain into grouping the two separate items together as one. The older study participants were asked to use one of four memory techniques to figure out the winner in each pair.

The results reveal that an action and consequence between two objects makes it far easier to keep them in mind. Ryan further explained that the team is trying to understand what's important to unitisation and what people need to learn in order to benefit. The research appears in the journal Memory & Cognition.
Women who earnin more than their husbands are more susceptible to depression. (Photo: Pexels)

Washington: Women, who earn more than their spouses are more likely to experience depressive symptoms, warns a study. According to researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in US, some mothers' and fathers' psychological well-being may suffer when their work and family identities - and the amount of financial support they provide - conflict with conventional gender roles.

They found that when women's paychecks increased to compose the majority of their families' income, these women reported more symptoms of depression. Researchers Karen Kramer and Sunjin Pak also found the opposite effect in men: Dads' psychological well-being improved over time when they became the primary wage-earners for their families.

The team analysed more than 1,463 men and 1,769 women and out of which majority were born between 1957 and 1965. The participants' psychological well-being was measured in 1991 and 1994 using a seven-item scale that assessed their levels of depressive symptoms.

The findings indicated that although women's psychological well-being was not affected by exiting the workforce to become stay-at-home moms, men's mental health declined when they stayed home to care for the kids.

"We observed a statistically significant and substantial difference in depressive symptoms between men and women in our study," Kramer stated.

Mothers and fathers who deviate from conventional gender roles -- such as dads who leave the workforce to care for their children full time -- may be perceived negatively, potentially impacting their mental health, they stated.

However, women in the study who viewed themselves and their spouses as equally responsible for financially supporting their families and caring for their homes and offspring experienced better mental health when their wages and share of the family's income increased.

The research is scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Montreal.
BENGALURU: To bridge the gap between technology and visually impaired, a group of engineering graduates quit their jobs to focus on their dream project which would help the visually impaired chase bigger dreams. Sparsh, as the final product of the project is named, streams digital data into Braille real-time. It has been invented and designed by former students of CMR Institute of Technology in the city.

The innovators told Deccan Chronicle that the hardships faced by the visually impaired motivated them to work on the project. Braille books available at blind schools are bulky, as the normal one-page content takes up three pages in Braille after translation, they said. The fact that the students are not allowed to take books home because of scarcity of resources was also one of the prime reasons behind working on an easily portable device, they said.

The team consists of Kiran L., a telecom engineer, Siddhant Gaonkar and Rohit Neil Goash, specilaised in electronics engineering, and Vishnu Ramakrishnan, a mechanical engineer. The diversity helped us, as we had expertise in all fields for the device, which works on electro-mechanical technology, Kiran said.

The invention works based on a Dynamic Braille Board (DBB), which consists of a single cell forming a rolling display that can be projected onto the users fingertips, helping them access the information in the tactile Braille script. According to the team, the final product will be similar to a developed version of a computer mouse. Considering the heavy cost of such accessibility devices available at the market at the moment, the creators of Sparsh have made it a point to make their product economic. While such devices cost around Rs 1.5-2 lakh in the market, the maximum cost of Sparsh will be around Rs 7,000, he said.

The compatibility of the device with computers and smartphones via Bluetooth is another highlight of Sparsh. The user can use earphones to get audio feedback which reads out file names helping him/her to make the selections easier. The innovation is believed to be the successor to assistive technology, including screen readers and magnification tools which are used in the digital space now.

The team is now applying for global patents before introducing the product in the market.
Rome entered the war as the dominant power in Italy, but emerged an empire. (Photo: Pixabay)

Berlin: The defeat of the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca - considered one of the greatest military commanders in history - in the Second Punic War led to the rise of Rome from a regional power to an Empire, say scientists who studied ancient Roman coins.

The Second Punic War from 218 to 201 BC, where Hannibal famously marched his elephants across the Alps in a failed attack on Rome, has been regarded as one of the pivotal events of European history.

Rome entered the war as the dominant power in Italy, but emerged an empire. The war led to the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, with the Romans gradually gaining control over the lucrative Spanish silver mines from around 211 BC.

Revenues from the rich Spanish silver mines coupled with booty and extensive war reparations from Carthage - located in present-day Tuninia - helped fund the expansion of its territory.

Now the application of geochemical analysis techniques has provided proof of the importance of the Spanish silver to the Roman conquest.

Scientists led by Fleur Kemmers and Katrin Westner from the Goethe University in Germany analysed 70 Roman coins dating from 310-300 BC to 101 BC, a period which bracketed the Second Punic War.

Using mass spectrometry, they were able to show that lead in the coins made after 209 BC has distinctive isotopic signatures which identified most of the later coins as presumably originating from Spanish sources.

The changing origin of the coin bullion is mirrored by differing ratios of the lead isotopes 208Pb, 207Pb, 206Pb and 204Pb, which serve as geological clocks recording the formation age of the ores used to extract the silver.

After 209 BC, the lead isotope signatures mostly correspond to those of deposits in southeast and southwest Spain or to mixtures of metal extracted from these districts.

"Before the war we find that the Roman coins are made of silver from the same sources as the coinage issued by Greek cities in Italy and Sicily," said Westner.

"In other words the lead isotope signatures of the coins correspond to those of silver ores and metallurgical products from the Aegean region," she said.

"But the defeat of Carthage led to huge reparation payments to Rome, as well as Rome gaining high amounts of booty and ownership of the rich Spanish silver mines," she added.

"From 209 BC we see that the majority of Roman coins show geochemical signatures typical for Iberian silver," said Westner.

This massive influx of Iberian silver significantly changed Rome's economy, allowing it to become the superpower of its day.

"We know this from the histories of Livy and Polybius and others, but our work gives contemporary scientific proof of the rise of Rome," said Westner.

It shows that the defeat of Hannibal and the rise of Rome is written in the coins of the Roman Empire, she said.
One of two jawans killed was identified as P. Ilayaraja from Sivagangai

Chennai: A jawan from Sivagangai district in Tamil Nadu was killed in the counter-terror operation in Shopian district in Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday night. Three terrorists were also killed in the encounter.

One of two jawans killed was identified as P. Ilayaraja from Sivagangai. Reports reaching here said that Ilayaraja hails from a village in Ilayamkudi. Son of Periaswamy and Meenakshi, he had joined the army four years back and worked as a sepoy. He got married a year back. His wife, Selvi, is five month pregnant now.

Security forces had launched a search operation on Saturday following information about the presence of militants in Avneera village of Zainapora area of the district, a police official said.

As the security forces were conducting searches, the militants opened firing on them, which was retaliated by the law enforcement personnel, triggering a gun battle.
The arrested men and the seized notes were handed over to Abid Road police for investigation.

Hyderabad: The Central Zone Task Force arrested two persons with demonetised currency notes worth Rs 41 lakh on Sunday.

The arrested men are Parcha Kiran Kumar, 33, a civil contractor from Banjara Hills and Rapolu Praveen Raj, 46, an electrician from Serilingampally.

The two were in the real estate business. Both Kiran and Praveen got huge payments from customers within a short period and could not exchange their old currency in the time given by the government. Subsequently, Rs 36 lakh remained with Kiran and Rs 5 lakh with Praveen Raj.

Meanwhile, Praveen contacted an unknown person in Hyderabad for exchanging the old demonetised currency.

Finally, a deal was struck between Praveen and the person with a commission of 40 per cent and as per their plan, on Saturday the two came near Sujatha Primary School on Chapel Road in Hyderabad along with the old currency and were waiting for the agent when police nabbed them, said Task Force DCP B. Limba Reddy.

The arrested men and the seized notes were handed over to Abid Road police for investigation.
Hyderabad: The Rachakonda Police on Monday arrested Nooka Navyanth, a close aide of Calvin Mascarenhas, the kingpin of the drug racket.

The police also arrested three other drug peddlers  including a Nigerian and an engineering dropout  in connection with the drug and human trafficking racket that was busted in July. They seized 450 amphetamine pills, 45 grams of MDMA, 60 LSD stamps and other psychotropic drugs from them. The arrested are Ajah Gabriel Ogbona, Ankith Pandey, and Bollareddy Ganath Kumar Reddy. Another accused, Pavan Kumar Reddy, is absconding.

Gabriel, who was originally suspected to be the kingpin of the racket, is a former student of the Nizam Degree College. After dropping out of college, he began selling drugs along with some Nigerians. When his friends were arrested he fled to Bengaluru. He was nabbed when he returned to the city to meet his girlfriend Ogunfowora Oluwapel-umi Esther.

Gabriel was earlier arrested in March 2017 with 20 grams of cocaine. After his release, he began sourcing drugs from Goa, Mumbai and Pune, and selling them in Hyderabad.

Ankith Pandey, another accused, completed Bachelors degree in marketing, worked as an HR consultant before becoming a DJ. He became friends with the Nigerians who visited the pubs where he worked and started peddling drugs. Police said that Ankith was one of Gabriels regular agents. Police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said house owners who rent houses to foreigners should verify their documents and get them registered with the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices.

WhatsApp has turned out to be a boon for drug traffickers also. The suspects arrested on Monday were found to have been using international numbers on which they were using only WhatsApp. The main accused Navyanth operated via WhatsApp only.

Navyanth had fled to goa after Calvin was caught

Nooka Navyanth, an associate of Calvin Mascarenhas, hails from Karimnagar district. Associated with Calvin since some years, he went into hiding after Calvin was arrested.

Once a student of Geethanjali Engin-eering College, he discontinued studies in 2015. After that, he became a drug addict and came into contact with drug traffickers in Hyderabad and Goa. To meet his drug needs, he turned into a peddler.

He procured drugs from a foreign-based website. After placing orders online, he used to get the consignment in 15 days through post.

He supplied cocaine, amphetamine pills, heroin, MDMA, LSDs and weed in Hyderabad and Goa. After Calvins arrest, he fled to Goa and stayed in a rented house in Anuja Beach paying Rs 450 per day and operated his business from there.

Ganaths dad gave him up

The police received information about Ganath Kumar Reddy, one of the drug peddlers arrested on Monday, from his father Vijay Kumar Reddy.
Vetron Diplomat N Parthasarathi at the Indo-China stand off at Doklam-Stratgic Perspective a Symposium held at Mythic Society in Bengaluru on Saturday. Sandeep unnithan, Lt Gen V M Patil and others were present on the ocassion (Photo: Satish.B)

Bengaluru: China has more to lose than India if the impasse continues. With Prime Minister Modi at the helm, India won't take things lightly, asserted Lt. Gen (retd) V.M. Patil here on Saturday, while speaking at a symposium organised by the Karnataka chapter of the Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) on India-China standoff at Doklam  A Strategic Perspective.

Ambassador N. Parthasarathi, author and journalist Sandeep Unnithan and Lt. Gen (retd) V.M. Patil spoke at the symposium. Mr Parthasarathi provided inputs on the strategic and economic perspectives, author Unnithan on the diplomatic impact and Lt. Gen (retd) Patil on the military perspective.

Mr Parthasarathi said, China knew very well that Bhutan would protest if it entered Doklam, but it surely did not expect a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi to stand up to this incursion.

Referring to the 1962 war, Mr Parthasarathi said that India was underprepared and neither the Indian Air Force, nor the Navy was used in the conflict which led to Indias defeat.

But 2017 is a different issue, he said. His views were echoed by the other two speakers. Mr Unnithan pointed out how China was encircling India through its String of Pearls policy.

It is time we countered Chinas String of Pearls policy with our own strategy, said Mr Unnithan, referring to Indias slow pace in implementing its Look East Policy.

All the speakers agreed that the 21st century belonged to the US, China and India. India-China, India-US and China-US are going to be the most spoken about relationships in the 21st century, Mr Unnithan said.

The speakers stressed that this was a test for Xi Jinping as the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is due soon, and President Xi will do his utmost to retain power.

The speakers also agreed that after October, Doklam starts to freeze which means both sides will have to pull out their troops. This works in Indias favour, said Ambassador Parthasarathi. Lt. Gen (retd) Patil stressed that India is more than capable of countering China and 2017 is much different from 1962. Yes, China is capable of harassing us and India is capable of giving it back to the Chinese, he concluded.
Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq comments come in the wake of the Shia Waqf Board telling the Supreme Court that a mosque can be built at a distance from the disputed land. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Mumbai: Senior Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq on Sunday advocated for peace in the issue of Babri Masjid, stating that if the Supreme Court's verdict is in their favour, then the Muslim community should give up their claim on the disputed land.

"The Supreme Court is dealing with the Babri Masjid issue and we have full faith in the top court's verdict. If Babri Masjid verdict is not in favor of Muslims, then they should peacefully accept it. And if the verdict is in favor of Muslims then they should happily give the land to Hindus. The issue should be dealt with respect by both the communities," Maulana Sadiq said while addressing the World Peace and Harmony conclave in Mumbai.

Adding context to his seemingly controversial advice, the cleric further said that one receives thousands in return on giving away just one thing close to them.

His comments come in the wake of the Shia Waqf Board telling the Supreme Court that a mosque can be built at a distance from the disputed land, as the latter on Friday commenced the cross-appeals hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, to look for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

MC Dhingra, the lawyer appearing for Shia Waqf Board in the Ayodhya case, while speaking to ANI on the same, said that the Shia Board has decided to leave the one-third land allotted to them, to avoid problems for both the religious denominations, in regard to their prayers.

Briefly explaining the Shia Board's stand, Dhingra said that if mosque is built in the one-third area, there will not be any permanent solution to the long-driven dispute.

In a 30-page affidavit, filed on August 8, the Shia Waqf Board asserted that the Babri Masjid site was its property and only it was entitled to hold negotiations for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

The board placed an affidavit before the apex court in which it stated that a mosque can be constructed at a place near birth place of Lord Ram.

"Since, the Babri Masjid was a Shia Waqf, we are alone entitled to negotiate and arrive at peaceful settlement with other stakeholders," Shia Waqf Board said in its statement.

It came just a few days after the apex court agreed to fast track the proceedings on a string of appeals, challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict on the land dispute in the case.

The Sunni Central Waqf Board too issued a statement on Thursday, responding strongly to the claim, terming it "baseless."
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jill Soloway, Alan Alda & More Added To Chicago Humanities Festival Events

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 14, 2017 4:14PM



Ta-Nehisi Coates / Getty Images / Photo: Anna Webber

The Chicago Humanities Festival fall program will be Fallfest/17: Belief, taking place in various locations around Chicago from Oct. 28 through Nov. 12. Based around the central question, "What do we mean by 'Belief'?" it will attract some great thinkers and luminaries from across the arts, education and politics.

This morning organizers announced the next round of headliners for Fallfest/17: Belief. Ta-Nehisi Coates will join NPR host Krista Tippett for a live taping of her program, On Being. Transparent and I Love Dick creator Jill Soloway will appear to join in a discussion of her own work. Actor Alan Alda will interview biologist Edward O. Wilson about his work in sociobiology. Astronaut Scott Kelly will make an appearance discussing his record for unbroken days of living and working on the International Space Station. And Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson will open the first day of Fallfest/17: Belief in Oct. 28th, and be honored with the Chicago Tribune Literary Award.

This latest wave joins previously announced headliners, former Vice President Al Gore, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, author Ron Chernow, and Reza Aslan, host of CNN's Believer.

The full line-up and schedule will be announced on Sept. 6.

Tickets for the live taping of On Being and Samantha Powers program will go on sale to Chicago Humanities Festival members at 10 a.m. on Aug. 23, and on sale to the general public on Aug. 28.



Tickets for many of the other headlining events will go on sale to Chicago Humanities Festival members on Sept. 19, and on sale to the general public on Sept. 26.
Vijayawada: The AP government had agreed in-principle to provide reservations in education and employment for the Kapu community.

At a recent meeting with ministers belonging to the backward classes and TD-affiliated BC associations, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu started initiating the process of persuading them not to oppose the inclusion of the Kapu community into the BC category.

The CM has also enlisted the help of the BC welfare minister K. Atchennaidu to convince the BC community.

Pro-TD organisations and associations of Kapu community have been directed to gather in Vijayawada for a meeting that will be addressed by the Chief Minister.

The move to provide reservations for the Kapu community is seen to benefit the ruling party in the August 23 Nandyal byelection.

According to party sources, Mr Naidu vowed not to touch the political reservations except for employment and education reservations for the Kapu community.

Both Mr Naidu and Mr Atchennaidu are trying to convince the BC community that the inclusion of the Kapus would not adversely impact them. Mr Atchennaidu had organised a meeting with both BC and Kapu community TD leaders who are holding nominated posts.

Kapu movement leader Mudragada Padmanabham and other community leaders are keenly observing the happenings.

Kapu Corporation chairman Chalamalasetty Ramanujeya said, On Monday, Kapu community associations and organisations are going to request the Chief Minister for reservations. The government is also positive towards this and I am sure, they will start procedures at the earliest to provide reservations.

A Kapu JAC leader said, We are observing this keenly. Once we get the employment and education reservation we will then fight for the political reservations. In this context there is a meeting going to be held on Monday between pro-TD Kapu associations and the Chief Minister.

The Kapu community had not emphasised on political reservations earlier. Even for employment and education reservations, they had to ask for presidential approval. For this the Assembly will have to first send the resolution to the Centre.
Chennai: After receiving an intelligence alert from central agencies, more than 15,000 police personnel are to be deployed in Chennai city as a measure to beef up security ahead of Independence Day celebrations. Apart from deploying 5-tier security at the Fort St George where the main government event would take place, the entire police strength will be put to use in the state to make sure no untoward incident happens during the celebrations on Tuesday, police said here.

Police disclosed that all lodges and hotels in the city have been told to keep an eye on their guests and report if they found anything abnormal about them. Sources said that even private bus stands are being checked and watched by the cops after the central agencies had asked them to be extra cautious this year. All the central government offices are also now under the close watch of security agencies.

The police are already closely monitoring all railway stations, metro station and bus stands, including CMBT, besides places of worships and malls. The mall owners in the city were also asked to closely monitor CCTV footage in their premises to make sure all persons in the premises are accounted for. Though almost all of them have metal detectors at the entrance, we have asked the mall management to doubly ensure security this time, a senior official said.

The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) teams are kept ready and asked to maintain round-the-clock checks of the important government campus, including Fort St George until the Independence Day events get over.

Chennai airport banned entry of visitors from last Tuesday until August 21. Intensified anti-sabotage and vehicular checks are being carried out at all entry points into the city. All vital installations had been brought under surveillance, besides beefing up security there.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the police department to follow the traditions in the celebration of the festival. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Just a handful of days after a deadly tragedy in a Gorakhpur hospital, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the state police to celebrate Janmashtami in a grand way.

As many as 72 children, including several newborns, have died in Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College Hospital since August 7 due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen. The state government has, however, denied that the children died due to shortage of oxygen.

Bhavvyata aur shaleenta se is baar manayen Janmashtami, Bhartiya sanskriti ke anusaar ho is varsh ka aayojan. (Celebrate Janmashtami in a grand and decent way, and follow the Indian tradition), ANI quoted Adityanath as saying on Monday.

He asked the police department to follow the traditions in the celebration of the festival.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) has forwarded the chief minister's order to all police officers in different districts of the state.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has refused to take suo motu cognisance of deaths of children. Hearing a petition, which sought a probe into the incident by a Special Investigation Team, the bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

While the reports suggested that the children died due to oxygen shortage, the Adityanath-government has claimed that the deaths occurred due to acute encephalitis, rampant in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The media was creating false propaganda as not a single death had taken place due to oxygen shortage, Adityanath had said.
A woman holds a goat while sitting on a raft at the flood affected Koliabor village, some 186km from Guwahati, Assam on August 13, 2017. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: With the flood situation turning worrisome in Assam and Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the situation in the state and assured him of all support from the Centre to mitigate the situation.

The situation is being monitored closely, Modi said.

"My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar," the PM said.

My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

"Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work," the PMO tweeted.

Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work: PM  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also conducted aerial survey of flood affected areas.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar conducts aerial survey of flood affected areas. (Photo: ANI)

The chief minister had demanded an additional deployment of 10 companies of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in the state, besides deployment of the Indian Air Force's helicopters to carry out relief-and-rescue operations.

Due to rains in the catchment areas of Nepal and Seemanchal district, rivers like Mahananda and Kankai in Bihar have swelled leading to floods in four districts.

Modi also said all possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state.

"Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely and constantly monitoring the situation," the PMO tweeted.

Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely & constantly monitoring the situation: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

The PM also spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonwal on Sunday and Monday regarding the flood situation in the state.

The flood situation in Assam has deteriorated in Assam, with at least 99 people dying and 22.5 lakh being affected in 21 districts, according to officials.

The Army has been called out for rescue operations in the state.

Assam Chief Minister on Sunday informed the Prime Minister about the devastation caused by the flood in middle and upper Assam and the disruption to vehicular movement on National Highway 37, the lifeline between the two areas, a state government spokesman had said.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Nripendra Mishra has asked Assam Chief Secretary V K Pipersenia to submit a report detailing the damage and devastation caused by the current wave of floods in the state.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday addressed the nation on the eve of 71st Independence Day. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: In his maiden address to the nation, President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday, while congratulating the nation on the eve of its 71th Independence Day, urged the people to pledge to achieve important goals to make a 'New India'.

"It is our national pledge to achieve important goals to make a 'New India'. There is no place for poverty in 'New India'," President Kovind said.

Praising the freedom fighters of India, President Kovind said the nation is indebted to those who laid down their lives for achieving this independence.

"It is time that we must take inspiration from those who gave their lives for the nation and move forward," he said.

He even lauded the Centre's Swachch Bharat campaign and said that it is not just the Government's duty to keep the nation clean but every citizen should strive to make India clean and pollution free.

"Government can make, implement & strengthen laws but it is everyone's duty to abide by them," he said.

Indian would be celebrating its 71th Independence Day on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hoist the Tricolour from the ramparts of the Red Fort tomorrow.
Children receive treatments in the Encephalitis Ward at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur district. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The NHRC has sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the death of several children at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur, observing that it indicated "gross callousness" on part of the health administration.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) asked the state Chief Secretary to submit a detailed report in four weeks on the steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as the action taken against the guilty officers, the NHRC on Monday said.

Over 70 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many allegedly for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

The rights panel has taken suo motu cognisance of several media reports hinting at negligence in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital which resulted in the tragedy.

"The reported deaths, in such a large number at a government-run hospital, amount to serious violation of right to life and health of the innocent victims.

"This indicates towards gross callousness on part of the hospital administration and the medical education and health department of the government of Uttar Pradesh," the Commission said in a statement.

Earlier also, the NHRC said, it has come across several instances of deaths in the hospitals due to Japanese Encephalitis.

The rights panel observed that the issue of death due to Japanese Encephalitis was discussed with the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the state government in detail during the Commission's recently concluded open hearing and camp sitting in Lucknow.

The camp was held from August 9-11 for the cases related to Uttar Pradesh. However, in spite of assurance given by the state administration, the "situation has not improved", the Commission observed.

According to the various media reports, carried since August 12, the private firm, contracted to supply liquid oxygen to the BRD Medical College, stopped the supplies, as it was not paid the outstanding dues of almost Rs 70 lakh and the result was tragic deaths of about 60 children, admitted in the neo-natal and encephalitis wards of the hospital, it said.

As per those reports, a magisterial inquiry has been ordered by the administration to ascertain the cause of the fatalities, it said.

"In the last three decades, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) have claimed over 50,000 lives in the eastern Uttar Pradesh, mostly in Gorakhpur district. It is further mentioned that a total of 124 deaths were reported in the hospital till August 8," it said.

"And, 641 children died last year and 491 in the year 2015," the Commission said.
Vijayawada: There is criticism that governance is being affected with ministers focussing on the Nandyal byelections. Ministers Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Adinarayana Reddy, Amarnath Reddy, Akhila Priya, K.E. Krishnamurthy and Kaluva Srinivasulu had dedicated to Nandyal for election purpose leaving behind their constituency, district and their respective departmental affairs.

These entire ministers arent seen in the Secretariat except while the Cabinet meeting. Remaining all other Cabinet ministers are regularly visiting Nandyal. Even MAUD Minister Narayana had given special assignment for bypolls.

Mr Chandramohan Reddy admitting that he was not able to address the grievances and focus on his constituency mentioned about being able to handle administrative affairs from Nandyal and attending to policy matters and execution when and where required.

Right from the day the byelection notification was released on July 27, the TD deployed its ministers in Nandyal.

It had started preparations two months earlier. Hundreds of crores worth development activities like roads widening, sewage system, drinking water, implementation of street lights, Andhra Pradesh Fibernet, housing, CC and BT roads, and additional selection of pensioners and all other government development and welfare schemes are initiated and implemented in Nandyal.

Defected MLC S.P. Mohan Reddy in this regard even wished, tongue in cheek for the death an MLA to get rapid development as was being done in Nandyal.

Apart from this, the TD deployed ministers to Nandyal. The district minister and in-charge minister along with others from the Reddy community were deployed in Nandyal as the constituency is seen to be dominated by the community.

Most the ministers deployed in Nandyal had defected from the YSRC.

Each minister is conducting around six meetings daily in order to meet the targets.

Ministers Adinarayana Reddy, Akhila Priya, Srinivasulu, Amarnath Reddy and Sujaya Krishna Ranga Rao havent even completed their first review meetings to know about their departments indepth, being first-time ministers.

Though ministers are claiming that they are able to provide effective administration, there isn't anyone to redress public grievances, a deputy director rank official told this newspaper.
Police is free to take action against those who are staying illegally but it will be gross injustice to send back those who are holding refugee cards as they face serious threat to their lives back in their country (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: Rohingya Muslims who are not registered or have not renewed their refugee cards with the UNHCR pose a serious security threat, according to the IB and the Hyderabad police. There are about 3,800 registered refugees in the three police commissionerates of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. But around 300 to 400 Rohingyas who migrated from Myanmar have no refugee card and are considered illegals.

DCP V Satyanarayana said that an alert has been received from the Centre about illegals from Myanmar. Even those having refugee cards are not supposed to have voter ID card or ration card and should not avail benefits meant for Indian citizens. However, our investigations found that many of them have got voter ID and ration cards. We have booked four cases recently for obtaining these cards, Mr Satyanarayana said. He said the refugees enter India via the porous Bangla border.

Police said the Counter Intelligence wing is monitoring three Rohingyas for links with ISIS suspects in the city. Mr Satyanarayana said, Two or the three are under our scanner for activities linked to terror. Unauthorised Rohingyas pose a serious security threat.

He said there are about 10,000 Rohingyas in Kolkata. Hyderabad is the second largest shelter for them, particularly Balapur, Pahadishareef, Hafeezbabanagar, Ki-hanbagh and Bahadur-pura.

On August 5, the police conducted a search on 22 families of Rohingyas living in Asadbabanagar and arrested six of them  all were having a valid UNHCR refugee card. They were released on station bail.

UNHCR runs a refugee facilitation centre in the city along with COVA. COVA director Mazhar Hussain says, Without local help these refugees cant get voter ID cards and ration cards. There are instances where they have got passports too. We are asking the police to take action against such people and also against agents and officials who aid them.

But, as he points out pertinently, "The government and its agencies should differentiate between refugees and illegals. There are international conventions regarding refugees.

He also pointed to restrictions placed on refugees that invite them to turn to illegal methods to survive. For example, the refugee card does not entitle them to get a SIM card or open a bank account. No one can live without a SIM card these days, so to obtain the SIM card they are trying to get voter ID cards, Mr Hussain explained.

The fact of the matter is that most of the refugees are daily workers who earn Rs 400 to Rs 500 a day. Some of them get funds from their relatives abroad. As they dont have bank accounts, they get money through hawala. The government should allow them to have SIM cards and open bank accounts with the refugee cards so that these illegal activities can be curbed, Mr Hussain said.

He says refugee cards are given after rigorous verification. Police is free to take action against those who are staying illegally but it will be gross injustice to send back those who are holding refugee cards as they face serious threat to their lives back in their country.

We have not come across a single instance of anti-national activity among refugees here, he said.
Militants hurled a grenade at a road opening party of CRPF and police at Batpora in Magam area, 20 kilometres from Srinagar. (Representational Image)

Srinagar: Four security personnel were injured on Monday in a grenade attack by militants in central Kashmir's Budgam district, police said.

Militants hurled a grenade at a road opening party of CRPF and police at Batpora in Magam area, 20 kilometres from Srinagar, a police official said.

He said three CRPF personnel and one policeman were injured in the grenade blast.

The injured personnel have been admitted to SKIMS Medical College hospital at Bemina in Srinagar.

The attack came amidst stringent security arrangements across Kashmir valley for tomorrow's Independence Day celebrations.
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama speaks during the World Peace and Harmony Conclave in Mumbai on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday said India and China cannot defeat each other and both the countries will have to live together as neighbours.

The spirit of "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai" is the only way forward, he stressed.

"In the current border situation, neither India nor China can defeat the other. Both countries are militarily powerful," the Dalai Lama said.

Both the countries will have to live together as neighbours, he said.

"There may be some incidents of cross-border firing. It does not matter," he said.

The Dalai Lama was responding to questions by reporters at an event in Mumbai.

He said, "In 1951, a 17-point agreement was signed between the Local Government of Tibet and People's Republic of China for peaceful liberation of Tibet. Today China is changing and has become a country with the highest Buddhist population. They (India and China) should go back to 'Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai' again."

It is a Communist government but Buddhism is widely accepted, he said.

"Earlier, the Dalai Lama used to be the head of spiritual and political movements in Tibet, but in 2011, I totally retired from politics. It was a way of democratising the institutions, because it had some feudal elements in it," said the 14th Dalai Lama.

He suggested that India should "develop pilgrimage for Chinese" people who are followers of Buddhism.

"We must understand that the followers of Buddhism in China are actually following the line of Indian Buddhism that came from Nalanda (Indian seat of learning) and Sanskrit," said the spiritual leader.

"India should develop a pilgrimage for Chinese people who follow Buddhism. These people can come to places like Bodh Gaya and can come closer to India emotionally as well," he said.

India and China have been locked in a standoff in the Dokalam area since June 16 after Chinese troops began constructing a road near the Bhutan trijunction.

Commenting on the definition of secularism in he Indian context, the Dalai Lama said, "Respect for all religions and even the non-believers too. This is the definition of secularism in Indian context."

"During the French Revolution and the Bolshevik movement, people opposed the exploitation by their kings and queens. Then religious institutions were supporting the feudal lords; hence the revolution also went against them. That's why in the western context, secularism has become a word expressing disrespect to religion," he said.

"Even an Indian communist leader had once told me that as a communist party worker, he does not believe in God. But for the people who he works for, they do believe in God and it is his duty to respect their feelings. I welcome such a mature approach," the Dalai Lama said.
The latest edition of Wang's book is released by Post Wave Publishing Consulting (Beijing). [Photo provided to China Daily]

A young woman looks deep into her lover's eyes as they scrunch together in a narrow bed, sharing one blanket, in a sleeping carriage of a train heading from Guangzhou to Chengdu.

The moment was captured in 1996 by Wang Fuchun, a photographer who's renowned for his book Chinese People on Trains, which features photographs capturing such moments in the lives of people traveling on trains.

Since 1978, Wang has devoted himself to photographing passengers on trains for nearly 40 years, and the 74-year-old photographer still sticks to this theme.

As time has passed, his collections of black-and-white images have formed a record of the changes in Chinese society and charted the transformation of China's railways as they have progressed the age of steam locomotives to diesel to the current era of electric bullet trains.

"His works show a strong sense of the times and display the spirit of the people," Yuan Zi, an author known for his young-adult fictions, said at a recent book event in Beijing to promote the release of the latest edition of Wang's Chinese People on Trains.
Pakistan girl Faiza affected with Ameloblastoma, an oral tumour which is aggressive in nature, tweeted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to grant her visa for treatment in India. (Photo: Twitter | @FaizaTanveer8)

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has assured of granting a visa to a Pakistani woman - who is suffering from cancer - for her treatment in India.

A Pakistani woman named Faiza Tanveer had requested Swaraj to grant her a medical visa by saying that she should be given help as India is about to celebrate its 70th Independence Day.

"Ma'am you are mother for me. Please grant me visa on the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day. Please help me thankyou," Faiza Tanveer said in a tweet.

@SushmaSwaraj mam qp mery lie maa he hain plz mam mujhu medical visa dy dain es 70win azadi k sall ki khushi main meri maddad kr dain dhnywd pic.twitter.com/SMBhfo2cOT  Faiza Tanveer (@FaizaTanveer8) August 13, 2017

The External Affairs Minister conveyed the decision of granting the medical visa to her on Sunday and tweeted, "Thanks for your greetings on India's Independence day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India."

Thanks for your greetings on India's Independence day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India. https://t.co/jThT2KayoZ  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 13, 2017

It is reported that Faiza is affected with Ameloblastoma, an oral tumour which is aggressive in nature, and want treatment from India.
According to a ministry communique, the illegal migrants, apart from infringing on the rights of the Indian citizen, are also a major security challenge.

New Delhi: The Centre has asked state governments to identify and deport illegal immigrants such as Rohingyas, saying that such people can be a security risk as they can be roped in by terror organisations.

The Union home ministry told the states last week that illegal migrants are more likely to be recruited by terror outfits even as the increase in such activities in the last few decades is a matter of serious concern.

According to a ministry communique, the illegal migrants, apart from infringing on the rights of the Indian citizen, are also a major security challenge. The recent trend of infiltration by Rohingyas, the ministry added, from Myanmar into India also infringes on the rights of the Indian people.

During the Monsoon Session, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju informed the members that as many as 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are living in India. The minister said nearly 40,000 Rohingyas are staying illegally in Rajasthan, UP Delhi & NCR, Hyderabad, Haryana and Jammu.

2 crore illegal Bangladeshis in India

On November 16, 2016, the government disclosed in Parliament that nearly 20 million or two crore illegal Bangladeshi migrants are living in different parts of the country.

The ministry communique said India shares its borders with many adjoining nations with people from the sub-continent region having many similarities in terms of physical looks and a common history. Due to a variety of reasons in neighbouring countries, people from such countries often enter India. There are cultural and ethnic similarities, and, on many occasions, such migration goes unnoticed as they settle in the Indian territory, the letter states. The states have been told to form a task force to identify and deport such people.
The case is related to alleged irregularities in FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds in 2007 when Karti's father was the Union FM. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed till Friday the Madras High Court order, staying Centre's lookout notice against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and others in an alleged corruption case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and DY Chandrachud has also stayed Madras High Courts order allowing Karti to travel abroad.

The bench, during the hearing, repeatedly observed that Karti had not joined the investigation in the case and, moreover, he has not sought grant of anticipatory bail in the matter. It has asked Karti to appear before the CBI for questioning and not travel abroad till the next hearing on Friday.

The case is related to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds in 2007 when Karti's father was the Union finance minister.

The Supreme Court has also asked the Madras High Court to decide on Karti's plea, seeking to quash the FIR in consonance with law.

The Madras High Court had on August 10 stayed the 'lookout circulars' issued against Karti and four others by the Centre, holding that they were prima facie "unwarranted".

Besides Karti, his associates CBN Reddy, Ravi Viswanathan, Mohanan Rajesh and S Bhaskararaman had also got the interim relief.

The Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and the Bureau of Immigration, under the Union Home Ministry, had issued the circulars against Karti on June 16 last and against the four others on July 18.

An FIR, dated May 15, was registered before the special CBI judge in New Delhi. It was followed by searches at the residences and offices of Karti and his friends on May 16.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy on Monday announced compensation of Rs 20 lakh to kin of Sepoy Ilayaraja who lost his life in Shopian encounter in Jammu and Kashmir.

Two jawans were killed and three others, including a captain, injured on Sunday in an encounter with militants at Awneera village in south Kashmir's Shopian district.

Ilayaraja P was a resident of Tamil Nadu was killed in the fierce gun battle.
Rythu Bazaars are failing to supply onions and tomatoes adequately to the public, despite directions from the chief minister.

Vijayawada: The skyrocketing prices of almost all the vegetables are worrying the consumers.

The prices of tomatoes, onions, brinjal and others has increased by 200 per cent in the last 10 days with huge demand from the catering and hotel industry, as there are many functions and marriages being held in the city.

The directions of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to maintain sufficient stock of onions and tomatoes at Rythu Bazaars was ignored and only a few counters have been opened to sell these two vegetables.

Surprisingly, the prices of essential commodities were under control and within the reach of common man in summer season but have skyrocketed in rainy season when there would be good crop due to adequate rains.

The price of onions, which usually are imported from Rayalaseema and Maharashtra, were normal till the recent past with good crop. The demand for onions and tomatoes has doubled with marriages and the retailers are selling tomatoes at `45 per kg and onions at `50 a kg.

Rythu Bazaars are failing to supply onions and tomatoes adequately to the public, despite directions from the chief minister.

Only three stalls have been opened at Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazaar in Vijayawada where onions of poor quality are being sold at different prices.

District collector B. Lakshmikantham inspected the Rythu Bazaars and queue lines arranged at the onion counters.

Quality of the onions and tomatoes sold at Rythu Bazaars is poor. The vendors are being rude and refusing to sell tomatoes to the general public. They are hoarding stocks for bulk sale. Some stalls are selling tomatoes for Rs 23 a kg while some other are selling the same for Rs 30 a kg. Officials are failing to check the vendors who are fleecing the public, said K. Vanaja, a homemaker.

We are seeing huge stock of tomatoes in the stalls but the vendors refuse to sell them for prices mentioned on the boards. Quality vegetables are being sold to hotels, said Jampa Vara Prasad, a buyer.
Hyderabad: In a significant order, the Hyderabad High Court has directed that Directors-General of Police of both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh to order investigation officers to collect samples of hair, tissues and blood from dead bodies in medico-legal cases and send them for DNA tests to identify the victims.

A division bench of Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice Shameem Akhter made the order while acquitting a life convict in a case of killing a woman.

The judges said that though there were no witnesses to identify the victim, whose body was found floating in a well in a highly decomposed state, the investigation officer did not collect body samples.

The bench felt that if the samples were collected and sent along with blood samples of the relatives of the deceased for forensic tests, there was possibility that she could have been identified. The bench held that in similar cases, investigating officers were required to identify the body by following the procedure to conduct DNA tests.

The bench said, DNA fingerprinting can connect the crime scene or a body to another individual. Dry blood stains and sperm can also be used for a DNA test. These tests are useful in various criminal investigations involving offences like rape, murder, kidnapping, exchan-ge of babies, infanticide, abandonment of newborn child, illegal abortion, paternity related disputes, immigration, inheritance, assignation etc.

The bench said that the DNA test, a new scientific invention which is used for scientific investigation in criminal cases, was useful in cases where witnesses were not available.

The bench said the main advantage of the using DNA was that the test could be done using small samples and could establish their origins with a high degree of certainty.

DNA is stable and resistant to degradation caused by environmental changes, the bench said.

Reinstated staff to get back wage

The Hyderabad High Court has held that the decision of the labour court to deny back wages to employees was wholly unjust when their removal of service was declared as illegal by the labour court itself.

Justice P. Naveen Rao, while granting relief to RTC employees Ch Suresh Babu and K. Narsaiah, found fault with the labour court for denying back wages without showing reason, even after declaring that their removal from service by the APSRTC as illegal.

The RTC had rem-oved Mr Suresh from service for being absent without authorisation in 2002. Mr Narsaiah, a driver, was removed from service due to alleged rash driving which resulted in the death of two staff members.

Both moved the labour court challenging their removal by filing separate petitions. The labour court held that their remo-val was illegal and directed the corporation to reinstate them. The court denied them back wages by applying the principle of no work, no pay. The duo moved the High Court separately, challenging the denial of back wages.

Allowing their cases through a common order, Justice Naveen Rao said the labour court did not discuss why the back wages were denied and why increments were withheld in one case.

The judge noted that when their removal from service was de-clared illegal, and their assertion that they were not gainfully employed in the interim was not controverted, denial of back wages was unjust.

The judge declared that the petitioners were entitled to back wages from the date of removal from service. He also restored increments to one of the petitioners.
Hyderabad: The family court in the city on Sunday used the video calling application called Skype to convene court proceedings, in the judges chamber, in a divorce case.

The parents of both parties were present and the video conferencing started after proper verification of the IDs and passports of both, the husband and the wife. The judge permitted the use of the video calling technology on the grounds that the wife couldnt come to India as she was giving her exams in the US. The husband was also unable to come as he has a job in the US.

SC allowed use of tech in March

The divorce was by mutual consent. The facility of video conferencing has proved to be a blessing for couples who are based abroad but were married in India. The provision was introduced in March this year after a judgement by the Supreme Court in a case where the wife, who was in Hyderabad, requested the transfer of the case from the Jabalpur family court to Hyderabad.

The SC said, We understand that in every district video conferencing is now available. Wherever the facility is available, it ought to be fully utilised.
There are nearly 230 Pakistani nationals living in the city on long-term visas, as well as a few on short-term visas

Hyderabad: Seventy years ago, several families left Hyderabad for Pakistan in the midst of Partition, leaving their relatives behind. Though separated by time, their relationships have persisted, albeit under the veil of fear.

Mr Aziz Khan, a retired government employee from Chanchalguda, said letters and, later, phone calls, served to diminish the distance with his few relatives who moved to Pakistan. Over the past few years, the frequency of their communication has declined drastically. With Pakistan being in the news for the wrong reasons most of the time, we contact them only if necessary. We dont want to take chances, Mr Khan said.

He recalled their departure to the neighbouring nation. Our elders told us that they had left Hyderabad along with a few other friends and relatives. Rumours that Muslims would not be allowed to live in India drove them away, he says.

In Falaknuma, Mr Syed Amjad Hussain lives along with his family of three. A few of his closest relatives live in Karachi. They have stopped coming to India over the past few years. We also prefer not to go to Pakistan due to visa and safety issues. We meet them whenever they are in West Asia, he said.

Mr Mohd Saleemuddin, a resident of Jahanuma in the Old City, said Mohammed Abdul Burhan, a friend of his fathers and a resident of Rawalpindi, would occasionally visit him until 2008. He stayed with us after the death of my father. But now, Burhan has stopped coming. I last contacted him over the phone in 2010. I stopped calling out of fear of police surveillance, Mr Saleem said. He recalled that Mr Burhan visited the Yousufain dargah during his last trip here.

Despite the strained relationship between the two countries, a few people still get their daughters married to the sons of friends and relatives in Pakistan. Ms Shaista Begum of Misrigunj had her daughter Maimoona Begum married to a relative in Pakistan. The marriage was performed 10 years ago. I am in touch with her over the phone. We only answer calls from one particular number which my daughter uses, she said. Ms Begum will soon be leaving for Pakistan to meet her daughter.

According to an official of the special branch of the city police, there are nearly 230 Pakistani nationals living in the city on long-term visas, as well as a few on short-term visas. Every month around 12 persons come from Pakistan to visit their relatives here, and an equal number go from here to their country, said Special Branch Additional DCP K. Goverdhan Reddy.
HYDERABAD: The Centres decision to introduce programmes to create a festive and patriotic mood among students for the 70th Independence Day celebrations has been met with mixed responses. The government has directed schools to conduct patriotic-theme debates, elocution and painting competitions between August 9 and August 20. Some school principals believe that politics should remain outside of the realm of school education. Principal P. Ushasri of Johnson Grammar School, Nacharam, said, Patriotic fervour is inborn. Schools are only learning grounds for the cultivation of it. There should be no enforcement of patriotism. The competitions must be treated as opportunities for students to improve their skills.

Some teachers felt that the Centres decision to turn August into a month of celebration to garner support for the ruling partys vision of New India was uncalled for. Teacher Chava Ravi said, Our students are taught about the freedom struggle in their curriculum. That is enough to inculcate a patriotic spirit. Schools should be free to conduct Independence Day celebrations in any way. This move by the Centre to try and inject fascist culture by highlighting the nationalistic spirit will create communal disturbances rather than harmony.

The Centre has asked the schools to take photographs and record videos of their celebrations, upload them on social media and send them to the Union ministry of human resource development to be shared on the governments website. Ms G. Arundathi, principal of Sanghamitra School, said, We will be sending videos and publicising them. The younger generation needs to know more about how we have attained freedom. The competitions advised by the Centre are a bit too much, but we can conduct them as per our preference on any day this month.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar and other party workers detained while they were protesting over the death of children in Gorakhpur on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL for a probe into the death of over 60 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh due to lack of oxygen supply.

However, the National Human Rights Commission in a suo motu cognisance of the incident has issued notice to the Chief Secretary of UP seeking the governments response in four weeks.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud while declining the plea of a lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it for a SIT probe, asked him to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

The CJI told the counsel the authorities are handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the High Court concerned.
Egyptian artists are learning China's ceramic techniques at a workshop in Cairo.

A Chinese artist and many Egyptian artists are making ceramic works at the workshop that aims to promote Chinese art among Egyptians to enhance cultural links.

They have been using plaster molds, boards and paper templates of fish and other shapes and designs during a 14-day event organized by the Chinese Cultural Center and held at the Foustat Traditional Crafts Center in Cairo.

Chinese ceramic artist Li Hongliang, who had given nine classes of 11 at the workshop, says the Egyptian artists responded well and some were qualified to join world competitions in ceramic art.

"I hope to maintain further interaction and communication with Egyptian ceramic artists through this workshop that cement ties between the Chinese and the Egyptian peoples as two nations of great ancient civilizations," Li says.

Ebtisam Zaki, an amateur artist in her late 50s, says when she heard about the workshop, she was so interested to join because she lived in China for a while and was fascinated by Chinese art, especially pottery and ceramic works.

"I have seen in China a lot of old and modern ceramic works with blue and white as (the) main colors and they really looked like our Islamic ceramic art, which shows the close resemblance between our two cultures," Zaki says.

Ancient pottery is seen in the antiquities of both civilizations in their different stages, indicating the originality and uniqueness of pottery art and artists in the two cultures throughout history.

Ahmed Eid, a ceramic artist attending the workshop, calls the project an important step in cultural interaction and people-to-people exchange. Art also deepens mutual respect.

"Cooperation between Egypt and China is as old as history, as they exchanged their strong cultural heritage through the ancient Silk Road that connected China with the Arab world including Egypt," Eid says, adding he hopes more such joint workshops will be held in the future.
Nellore: The women of Nellore played a key role in Indias freedom struggle. Many of them donated their land and jewellery, unmindful of the punishment from the British police. Paturu Balasaraswatamma, a Nellore resident, handed over all her gold ornaments to a group of Netaji Subhas Chandra Boses followers who were making bombs.

Ponaka Kanakamma is remembered for her contribution to the Sri Kasthuri Devi Vidyalayam in Nellore and the Pinakini Satyagraha Ashram in Padugupadu. The vidyalayam was set up to ensure that girls in the region were educated, as their parents were reluctant to send them to co-educational schools.

The construction of the 22-acre Pinakini Satyagraha Ashram on the banks of the Pennar began in 1921 with funds donated by Kanakamma and others. It was completed in 1925 with financial support from Rustumji of the Indian National Congress Committee, and Munagala Raja. The ashram was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi visited Nellore in 1921, 1929 and 1933. The people donated liberally to his Handloom Fund and the Harijan Fund.
NeW DELHI: Around 60 years ago, Harish Chandra Mehra was a national hero who saved the life of the then prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru from a fire at the historical Ram Lila grounds. After the incident on October 2, 1957, became the first recipient of a Bravery Award.

But after six decades, he is now a forgotten man and lives in the shadows of his glorious past in Chandni Chowk area of the old city.

It was October 2, 1957, and I was a 14-year-old, doing duty as a scout in the same shamiana where Pandit Nehru and other VIPs were sitting. Suddenly, a fire broke out due to a spark from fireworks. Sensing that it could lead to a major disaster, I within a fraction of a second entered the burning shamiana and started climbing the 20-foot-high electrical pole, the 74-year-old said.

On reaching the top, without thinking of my own safety, I whipped out my scout knife and started cutting the ropes of the shamiana. Suddenly, my hands touched a wire and I fell to the ground unconscious, burning my hands severely. I was admitted to the JP hospital for treatment, he recalled.

During the award ceremony, it was also mentioned that the 74-year-old helped the police in rescuing two children who got separated from their family in Chandni Chowk area during Mahatama Gandhis birth anniversary celebrations.
Hyderabad: They would have butchered us if we had stayed back, recalls 83-year-old Gurucharan Bhavanani, one of the oldest surviving members of the Sindhi community that came from Quetta in Balochistan to Hyderabad, when their hometown became part of Pakistan.

Now chairman of Sadhuram Hospital, Mr Bhavanani lives in Banjara Hills. He was just 13 years old when he saw the horrors that accompanied the Partition of India 70 years ago, causing one of the biggest refugee migrations in history.

Several families from Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces migrated to Hyderabad when these provinces were divided or ceased to exist. Most of them were Sindhis who settled in Sindhi Colony in the backwaters of Hussainsagar.

Mr Bhavanani recalls that in that awful August of 1947, arson and looting was the order of the day.

As violence broke out, many of us left Balochistan. There was indiscriminate stabbing. A majority of the refugees travelled by overloaded trains, but we were able to fly to Karachi and from there to India. There was violence and mass killings on both sides, he says.

Dayal Chimnani, chairman of Bottles and Chimney

Muslims helped many escape

It was Muslim friends who helped many people escape to India, he says. Before Partition all of us lived in peace and suddenly things changed and we saw killings in front of our eyes. He recounts the plight of being a refugee, without property or a home.

We came to Wellington near Ooty in Tamil Nadu. We had lost all our properties and were homeless. We had to re-establish ourselves. We worked hard and developed our business. After police action in Nizams Hyderabad, we moved to the city. My father was an army contractor. Initially we were into automobile and then into garment export business in Delhi. My wifes family that owned Gulchand and Company were living in Delhi from 1943, prior to Partition.

There are around 35,000 Sindhis living in Hyderabad today, originally from Sindh now in Pakistan. Most of them are born here after Partition.

Dayal Chimnani, who lives in Sindhi Colony and is the chairman of Bottles and Chimney, is now 85-years-old. He remembers every moment of his flight to Hyderabad in September 1947.

I was 15 years old and was in school in Karachi. We received sweets to mark Pakistans independence. Initially, after Partition, Sindh was quiet compared to Punjab and Bengal, which were largely affected by riots. An Urdu newspaper called Al-waheed, published from Sindh, ran a story with the caption: Slaughtering of Muslims in Bihar-Happiness in Sindhi Hindus. This provoked the rioting in Sindh.

The rioting broke out a few days later in September. When we came back to our house situated on Bunder Road (now called Mohammed Ali Jinnah Road) in Karachi, we found a notice put up by the Pakistan government that said it is assumed that we are migrating to India and the property has been allotted to a Muslim refugee from Uttar Pradesh.

Panic struck us and we immediately boarded a ship to Mumbai from Karachi. We were put in a camp in Devlali.

The women sold their jewellery and small businesses were started. Initially, there were only a few Sindhi families in Hyderabad during the Nizam's regime. We grew in numbers later. We were into banking, film distribution, electronics, textiles and other business. When we boarded the ship along with 300 other refugees, we didnt know what would be our fate, says Mr Chimnani.

The family that owns Karachi Bakery also migrated from Sindh.
Mumbai: In the wake of talks about a possible Cabinet expansion at the Centre, speculation is rife in Maharashtra about a reshuffle in the state ministry. According to some, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis might be asked join the Union Cabinet while a few state ministers could lose their posts and new ones are likely to be inducted in Maharashtra. Also, the BJP is keen on conducting the Assembly polls alongside the Lok Sabha elections. However, the BJP declined to comment on the issue officially.

In the Monsoon Session of the Legislature, two ministers  Prakash Mehta and Subhash Desai  faced corruption allegations. Bowing to pressure, Mr Fadnavis announced separate inquiries against the two.
Thiruvananthapuram: RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat, who is on a two- day visit to Palakkad for the RSS meetings (baithak), held talks with former BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai on Monday. The other top BJP leaders attending the baithak are Mr M. Ganesh, RSS nominee in the party, who acts as BJP general secretary, and also Mr B. Gopalakrishnan, Thrissur-based BJP state secretary.

Mr Bhagwat asked the three leaders to further strengthen the RSS in the state. RSS state secretary and prantha karyavahak P. Gopalankutty Master attended the baithak. There are 4,500 daily RSS shakhas which have nearly four lakh members. Mr Gopalankutty Master told DC that out of them nearly two lakh are active members.

Usually, BJP leaders are not invited for the RSS baithak. But this time, Sreedharan Pillai was invited and other top leaders were ignored as the RSS is unhappy with the medical college scam, said a party source.

Mr Bhagwat will hoist the flag at the local government school on the Independence Day on Tuesday.
Hyderabad: TS Congress incharge R.C. Kuntia said his first priority was to set the Congress house in order while simultaneously taking up agitation programmes against the TRS government failures.

He said there was no necessity to wage a war against the TRS government, a systematic campaign on its failures would be sufficient for the Congress to come to power in the 2019 elections. He said one need not attack Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao as a person, the party should attack government policies and programmes. He also instructed party leaders not to praise the TRS government in the state or the NDA government at the Centre

He said TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy would be the captain in the 2019 elections. Along with him, party leaders K. Jana Reddy, Shabbir Ali and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka would continue in their posts.

He said the party may announce its candidates six months before the elections.

Me Kuntia told Congress frontal organisations like the Youth Congress, NSUI, Seva Dal and the womens wing that though they are appointees of the respective AICC wings, they would need to report to the PCC president.
Chennai: Finance minister D. Jayakumar on Monday warned AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran that people would not forgive him if he brought down the Amma government.

Speaking to the media, he said Toppling the government will amount to betrayal, people alone would decide if the current government should last or not.

Lashing out at AIADMK, Dhinakaran said that he had benefited a lot from former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaas government, but is speaking without maturity and responsibility.

The current AIADMK government was being run without the interference of Dhinakarans family, said Jayakumar claiming that those running the government were the true heirs of Jayalalithaa legacy.

Recalling that Dhinakaran was expelled from the party in 2011, he asked how he could hold the post of deputy general secretary.

He also asserted that no one could be placed in the position of partys former general secretary Jayalalithaa.

He also said former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hoped that the two factions of the party would merge soon.
On the 70th anniversary of Indias independence from colonial rule, multiple foreign policy challenges loom for the republic. The last course correction was a quarter-century ago when the Cold War had ended. Indias close friend, the Soviet Union, ceased to exist as a nation and the Pakistan-Saudi-US combines victory in Afghanistan expanded Pakistans strategic space and an American-led unipolar world emerged.

The 9/11 attacks on the United States in September 2001, heralding the arrival of radical Islam as Al Qaeda, and Chinas ascent as a disruptive force dawned on the US as the 21st century began. A series of Indian Prime Ministers beginning with P.V. Narasimha Rao adjusted Indian foreign policy to a world rapidly changing as global economic and political power was redistributed.

President Donald Trumps election brought new disruptions via ad-hoc decision-making. Six months in power, he has oscillated between engaging and threatening China, North Korea, Iran and fellow members of Nafta like Mexico and Canada. His Russian gambit with President Vladimir Putin as the linchpin for resolving the West Asian quagmire and containing Iran has come unstuck as the US Congress, in the face of an expanding inquiry into the Russian links of President Trumps relatives and associates, expanded sanctions on Russia. Even India would have to study them carefully as they include defence sales and energy cooperation.

The challenges in Indias neighborhood seen be viewed against this setting. The principal challenge is of course China, which after decades of clandestine and subtle penetration in South Asia now links its footprint to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). From blocking Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the listing of terrorist mastermind Masood Azhar by the UN sanctions committee, it finalised the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), traversing Gilgit-Baltistan, which is claimed by India, and then linked it to BRI. India boycotted the BRI forum in Beijing arguing that the initiative lacked financial viability and ignored sovereignty issues.

The Doklam standoff is India drawing a red line on Chinese conduct along the Line of Actual Control, where China interminably seeks creeping control over contested territory. The logjam can be broken only if China is willing to recognise strategic Indian interests and demonstrates willingness to give and take, say by amending its stand on Indias NSG membership and the listing of known terrorists. Meanwhile, India must be ready for a military response to any Chinese adventurism as China has been emboldened by its successful bullying efforts over the South China Sea. China has also managed to undermine Aseans unity by propping up countries like Cambodia to curtail China-bashing. China may blink as its economy tries to overcome the loss of its low-cost advantage as other manufacturing hubs rise. Commercial vehicle exports fell from 900,000 in 2014 to 700,000 in 2016. Similarly, while merchandise exports doubled in 2006-11, they have just risen by 11 per cent since then. US President Trump has also announced an inquiry, to decide trade sanctions on China, into Chinese rules that force foreign investors to hand over technology.

The other major conundrum for Indian policymakers is, of course, Pakistan. The Narendra Modi government has tried to break the cycle of dialogue and terror by vetoing any talks until terror ends, accompanied by a security crackdown in Jammu and Kashmir. Common sense and global counter-terrorism experience dictates that a combination of the carrot and the stick works best. Winning over hearts and minds is a condition precedent to getting a grip on domestic terror and choking off further recruitment. The Modi government contrariwise wishes to tire out the population by a hard-fisted approach and frustrate the Pakistan Army by a tit-for-tat response at the Line of Control. A stalemate of sorts persists, the endgame being unclear. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharifs ouster and his Rabri Devi-style solution of having his wife as his eventual successor, and not his brother Shahbaz, now the chief minister of (Pakistan) Punjab, will prolong the instability. Shahbaz, with his experience and a good equation with the Army, may have been the man of the hour that Pakistan really needs. But all this will have little impact on India-Pakistan relations as the Panama Papers inquiry had already weakened Pakistans PM and a belligerent India only increased the Armys space for manoeuvre on India-Pakistan relations.

The real challenge would be the playing out of Sino-Indian rivalry in Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives as political leaders there use the crutch of China to stymie India. The ceding by Sri Lanka of control over 15,000 acres around Hambantota as Chinese debt settlement is an example of how Chinese influence will penetrate Indias neighborhood. India allowing a dictator to bully his opponents in the Maldives is again poor geostrategic management of a crucial island chain which provides forward maritime defence to India. India has a natural convergence of interests with Russia and Japan. When President Putin announced in 2016 The Great Eurasian Project, he aimed to stymie China from filling the vacuum created by US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Central Asia. A mercurial Donald Trump is poor comfort for Indias strategic rebalancing. Europe led by an economically weakened France and a reluctant Germany doesnt play much of a global pole. An Islamic world fragmented between Shia and Sunni blocs and according to its dependence on Russia or the US presents yet another challenge. The Islamophobia that emanates from the BJPs fringes will doom any transactional wooing of Gulf and West Asian rulers. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure peace at the borders and to deescalate tensions with China and Pakistan. Resenting every Chinese move in the neighbourhood would only lose India friends unless India has a counter-offer to put on the table. Finally, Indian diplomacy gains when there is inclusiveness and harmony at home. If this is ignored, India may find it difficult to make its tryst with its 21st century destiny.
This Renaissance Man of infotech has contributed to information theory, communications, filtering theory, linear systems and control, signal processing, semiconductor manufacturing and more.

The US-based Marconi Society, has conferred on legendary Stanford University professor, Thomas Kailath, its Lifetime Achievement Award.

This is only the sixth time in the societys almost half century history that the award has been given. Earlier recipients have included such giants of Information Technology as Claude Shannon, the 'father of Information Theory' and Gordon Moore of "Moore's Law" fame.

Professor Kailath is Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at Stanford University (US).

The award recognises Professor Kailath for his contributions to information and system science over six decades as well as his sustained mentoring and development of new generations of scientists.

This Renaissance Man of infotech has contributed to information theory, communications, filtering theory, linear systems and control, signal processing, semiconductor manufacturing, probability and statistics, linear algebra, matrix and operator theory... many of these have directly or indirectly advanced the modern communications technology behind Wi-Fi and 4G/5G.

Kailath and his students hold a dozen patents, and together with them he co-founded four companies, two of which went public: Integrated Systems, Inc., founded in 1980 and now part of Intel, and in 1996, Numerical Technologies, Inc., acquired by Synopsis in 2003.

Prof. Kailath's also fostered a rigorous research culture at Stanford, while mentoring an array of over a hundred doctoral and postdoctoral scholars, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in academia and in the industry. They include Arogyaswami Paulraj, currently Emeritus Professor in the electrical engineering department at Stanford University, who was himself honoured with the Marconi Prize in 2014.

Kailath and Paulraj, are joint holders of the original US patent for MIMO technology which underpins the technology that drives every WiFi, 4 G, and 5G network today and helps to make them more efficient.

Says Dr Paulraj: "Thomas Kailath has been an influential mentor to a number of Indian academics, including me, who worked in communications and control theory. He hosted many of us at his research group at Stanford University, even in lean times when federal funding was tight. We in India can take special pride in Prof. Kailath's remarkable achievements."

Kailath, earned a Bachelors degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune, in 1956 and came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT) in 1957 with a research assistantship in the Information Theory Group where his work generated widespread notice. He was the first Indian-born student to earn a doctorate at MIT.

In January 1963, he accepted an associate professorship at Stanford and spent almost all his professional life there, building the Information Systems Laboratory there into a world-leading centre for communications, control and signal processing research.He is the first holder of the Hitachi America Professorship in Engineering at Stanford and became Emeritus in June 2001. The Indian government conferred the Padma Bhushan on Prof Kailath in 2009.

Kailath will receive his award at the annual Marconi Society Awards dinner in Summit, New Jersey, on October 3, where another Indian, former Bell Labs President Arun Netravali, the father of digital video, will be honoured with the $100,000 Marconi Prize.

Written by Anand Parthasarathy

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The MIUI 9 China ROM rolled out a few days ago to flagship Xiaomi devices like the Mi 6, Mi 5 and Redmi Note 4X. The China ROM has some new features like Smart App launcher, Smart Assistant and Image Search. However, Xiaomi also sells its products in markets outside China and the company is, therefore, preparing MIUI 9 for its global markets, as is evident from the MIUI 9 Global Beta.

The global version of MIUI 9 will give a miss to the Smart App Launcher and Smart Assistant but is expected to retain the rest of the features. Apart from compatibility with Google apps suite, these are some of the other features to be added to the existing MIUI 8 software:

Deep-level system optimisations

New icons

New animations for launching and exiting apps

Simpler Home screen editing

Introducing Split screen

Improved Silent mode triggered by the volume button

Improved readability for the start page of Messaging

Search for apps in the dual apps settings

If you want to try the latest MIUI 9 global beta, you can get it from here, but keep in mind that you can only test it on the Mi 6 and the Redmi Note 4/4X. Also, the global beta is also prone to bugs, which is why you should head over to the ROM with caution.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Students cook in the shared-kitchen at Hubei University. [Photo/the Beijing News]

Hubei University students desperate for a taste of home cooking have set up their own shared-kitchen on campus, the Beijing News reports.

The facility was the brain child of Yang Haibei, a senior student, who yearned for the cuisine of his hometown, so invested 20,000 yuan (USD 3000) in May this year to buy cooking utensils and materials.

"I missed the flavors of my hometown Tangshan, but there was no such food in the school canteen. After chatting with my hometown friends, I had the idea of running a shared kitchen at the college," said Yang.

Yang Haibei, the senior student who started the shared-kitchen at Hubei University. [Photo/the Beijing News]

At the moment, the kitchen is open to students attending all the universities in the city of Wuhan. Users have to book ahead, prepare their own vegetables, and pay 10 yuan (USD 1.50) to use the kitchen to cook their own food, which just about covers the running costs. Recently there's been a surge in the numbers using the facility, although it is still operating at a loss.

Yang Haibei has now been joined by two business partners who help with the management and promotion of the service.

The students use the sharing kitchen especially when celebrating birthdays, couples have dates, or roommates have parties.

"Students love cooking crawfish the most. One portion of crawfish in the market in Wuhan is over 200 yuan, but it only costs 60 yuan to buy uncooked crawfish, and then 10 yuan to use the kitchen to make the dish themselves," said Yang Haibei.

"The kitchen works well. Most students don't know how to cook and the kitchen provides students with an opportunity to experience cooking," Yang added.

Yang is planning to take his shared-kitchen idea to other universities in Wuhan, and is now in discussions with relevant departments.

Yang says young people should show the spirit of innovation and keep up with the times. He says it's been a great experience so far, and that he's learned a lot in the process.
Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. (Photo: AFP)

Ouagadougou: Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant late Sunday in the capital of Burkina Faso, killing at least 17 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. Among the dead was at least one French national.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.
Mumbai/ Ouagadougou: The death of 18 people, mostly foreign nationals, dinning at an upscale restaurant in Africa, has again made terrorists successful in their attempt to target tourists.

On Sunday, terrorists cold-bloodedly gunned down people at Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso. The place has Muslim population. This incident once again brings to fore how foreigners touring in parts of Africa are being targeted by terror outfits.

Surprisingly, ISIS and al-Qaeda have claimed the responsibility of the bloodbath.

A French national and a Turkish citizen were among those killed in Burkina Faso attack.

The Burkina Faso terror attack comes almost after a year. In June last year, over 20 people, mostly foreign nationals, were killed by three unidentified gunmen, who crashed into plush hotel in Burkina Fasos capital and held more than 126 people hostages.

29 people from 18 countries, including Canada, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the US were killed in the strike. An Islamist extremists group, AQIM, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sunday's terror strike is the fourth such attack this year in African countries luxurious hotels or restaurants where foreign nationals were targeted with the same modus-operandi.

Apart from eateries, shopping malls and tourist hubs have also been targeted by terrorists. This gives them more opportunity to accomplish their mission of teaching lesson to western countries.

Earlier in June this year, at least two people were killed in a terror attack at a luxurious resort frequented by tourists in Mali. The authorities identified one dead person as a French-Gabonese citizen, but could not identify the other foreign national.

The June incident was the second such attack in Mali. In November 2015, heavily armed gunmen, shouting Allahu Akbar, stormed into the luxurious Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako and killed at least 21 people and took more than 175 people hostage.

Mali, also Muslim-majority underdeveloped country in Central Africa, was the easy target for Islamist extremists to target citizens of western countries.

Similar attacks took place in Somalia and Indonesia, with same modus-operandi.

In June this year, gunmen clad in military uniform stormed into a Somalia restaurant killing at least 31 people.

For Islamist extremists, entering a Muslim-majority country is a cakewalk compared to western countries, Europe and the United States. With an upsurge in terrorist attacks, western countries have made stringent norms for entry into these countries.

In this regard, the newly elected US President Donald Trump, in May, had put a travel ban on six Muslim countries. Britain and France, the most attacked countries since 2016, have also made necessary amendments in their immigration process.

The recent terror attacks are largely weighing on tourism in poor African nations, which are one of the economical options for foreign nationals for refreshment. The African nations also largely rely on tourism as their main source of revenue.
Washington: Senior US national security officials said Sunday that a military confrontation with North Koreas is not imminent, but they cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.

CIA director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt General HR McMaster, President Trumps national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Trumps tough talk. They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

Were not closer to war than a week ago but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago, McMaster said, adding that the Trump administration is prepared to deal militarily with North Korea if necessary.

But he stressed that the US is pursuing a very determined diplomatic effort led by secretary of state Rex Tillerson thats coupled with new financial sanctions to dissuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from further provocations.

The US military is locked and loaded every day, McMaster said, repeating Trumps threat.

Pompeo said theres nothing imminent today, in response to a question about how worried should people be over the escalating tensions. He said the US has a pretty good idea of North Koreas intentions, but Pompeo declined to provide specifics. The CIA chief described Kim as rational and responsive to adverse circumstances.

The reaction in North Korea that we are intending to get is an is an understanding that America is no longer going to have the strategic patience that its had that has permitted him to continue to develop his weapons program, Pompeo said. Its that straightforward.

The top US military officer, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, is travelling in Asia and expected to meet with leaders in South Korea, Japan and China. Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters travelling with him that he aims to sense what the temperature is in the region. He also will discuss military options in the event the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails.

Were all looking to get out of this situation without a war, Dunford said.

Chinas President, Xi Jinping, made a plea for cool-headedness in a phone conversation with Trump on Saturday, urging both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

The call came after Trump made fresh threats against North Korea on Friday, declaring the US military locked and loaded and warning Kim that he will regret it fast if he takes any action against US territories or allies.

Trump has pushed China to pressure North Korea to halt a nuclear weapons program that is nearing the capability of targeting the United States. China is the Norths biggest economic partner and source of aid, but says it alone cant compel its wayward ally to end its nuclear and missile programs.

The White House said in a statement that Trump and Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour. It also said that the two reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

State-run China Central Television quoted Xi as telling Trump the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

But Trump on Friday appeared to set another red line  the mere utterance of threats  that would trigger a US attack against North Korea and big, big trouble for Kim.

North Koreas Minju Joson newspaper said in an editorial Saturday that the Norths army is capable of fighting any war the US wants.

The tough talk capped a week in which long-standing tensions between the countries risked abruptly boiling over.

New UN sanctions condemning North Koreas rapidly developing nuclear program drew fresh ire and threats from the North. Trump, responding to a report that US intelligence indicates Pyongyang can now put a nuclear warhead on its long-range missiles, vowed to rain down fire and fury if challenged.

The North then came out with a threat to lob four intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missiles near Guam, a tiny US territory some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from the Norths capital, Pyongyang.
Washington: A top American commander has offered the US' help to India to modernise its military, saying that together they can improve India's military capabilities in significant and meaningful ways.

Over the past decade, the defence trade between the US and India has touched nearly $15 billion and is expected to gallop in the next few years, as India is looking at the US for some of the latest military hardware including fighter jets, latest unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft carriers.

"I believe that the US is ready to help India modernise its military. India has been designated a major defence partner of the US. This is a strategic declaration that's unique to India and the US. It places India on the same level that we have many of our treaty allies," Commander of the US Pacific Command or PACOM Admiral Harry Harris told PTI.

"This is important, and I believe that together we will be able to improve India's military capabilities in significant and meaningful ways," said Mr Harris, who has been personally pushing for a strong India-US defence relationship.

The Admiral said he is fairly happy with the level of defence cooperation that exists today between the two sides.

"We have been partners with India in the Malabar exercise series, the maritime exercise, for a number of years. I participated in one of the very first... one of the early Malabars, in 1995," he recollected, reflecting on the decades old association with India.

Noting that the exercise, and the complexity of it, has improved steadily over the years, he said he is very pleased that Japan is part of Malabar.

"I think the trilateral relationship between India and Japan and the US, that relationship is very important," he said as he advocated for Australia joining this group too.

"We could explore together bringing Australia into the exercise. That has merit. There's a lot of common interests in the Indian Ocean, between Australia and India. But that's really a decision for India to make, and then a decision for Australia to participate, if so invited. I'll leave that to those two countries," Mr Harris said in response to a question.

According to Mr Harris, there is a lot that India and the US can do together.

"I'm pleased that India is a participant in Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the Pacific exercise that's hosted every other year in Hawaii. I'm pleased in general with where the relationship is going, and I look forward to more as the years progress," he said.

Responding to a question on India's decision against the American move to have a joint India-US naval patrol in the Indian Ocean, Harris said the US is not disappointed at all.

"I'm not disappointed. This is on the patrols... I'm not disappointed at all, I'm encouraged that we were able to have a discussion about it, and I hope that that discussion remains open," he said.

"We stand ready to participate at whatever level India wants us to participate," Mr Harris said.

Admiral Harris refrained from giving any answer on India and the United States starting to share information about Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean region.

"I don't want to answer the question, because I don't want to imply that I'm sharing intelligence, or anything like that. I'll just simply say that a close relationship between US and India is clearly helpful to the United States, and I believe helpful to India as well," he said in response.

Mr Harris reiterated that he believes that the deepening US-India relationship is the defining strategic partnership for the 21st century.

"I'm very interested, and very supportive, of what's happening in India. The Indian armed forces, and that whole piece...I think that the opportunities for our two countries are simply great. It's fantastic," Mr Harris said.

Noting that India remains an important line of effort at the Pacific Command, Mr Harris said America's national leadership is working closely with India's to grow the partnership between the two countries.
Seoul: Tensions between the United States and North Korea tend to flare suddenly and fade almost as quickly - but the latest escalation won't likely go away quite so easily.

Events closer to home, including deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia, could demand more of President Donald Trump's attention in the days ahead and cut into the volume and frequency of his fiery North Korea rhetoric.

But North Korea has yet to back away from its biggest threat: a plan to lob missiles toward US military bases on the island of Guam that Pyongyang says should be ready for leader Kim Jong Un to review pretty much anytime now.

Will it all stop there? Or, despite the extremely high risks, will Kim really give the go order? And, regardless of what Kim does or doesn't do, will the tough-talking Trump feel compelled to take matters into his own hands?

Unpredictable as the situation is, some potential flashpoints to watch for:

Bomber Flights

This could be the biggest trigger. North Korea says it was compelled to put the Guam plan together because it feels threatened by a squadron of B-1B bombers on the island that the U.S. has increasingly sent to fly in Korean airspace in symbolic shows of force during times of particular tension.

But that may be only a pretense. North Korea is certainly sensitive to the bombers, which could cause a lot of devastation if a war did start. But it also might just want an excuse to fully test the capabilities of its new Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missiles.

Either way, it's a cagey tactic: If Trump orders the B-1Bs to stay on the ground, Pyongyang can claim victory. If he orders them to fly, North Korea has its excuse to launch. If, of course, that's what it really wants to do - Pyongyang wisely left itself a lot of wiggle room and hasn't committed itself one way or the other.

Liberation Day

August 15 is the anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945 and the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

Pyongyang likes to use big anniversaries to make high-profile statements with military activity or political provocations. It launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile, for example, on July 4 - Independence Day in the United States.

This week's World War II anniversary isn't linked so closely to veneration of North Korea's ruling Kim family, the primary days for demonstrating national power. But it's a national holiday just the same and could be an opportune moment for the North to make some kind of a move.

So far, however, there haven't been any telltale signs of anything brewing in Pyongyang. The day could just be marked with small celebrations and the distribution of free treats - or maybe more rhetoric about the Guam missile plan.

War Games

This is another likely trigger, if Pyongyang is going to actually do anything.

Tens of thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops are expected to kick off the annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian military exercises on August 21. North Korea sees these exercises and larger ones held every spring as a rehearsal for invasion. Getting Washington to halt them has long been one of Pyongyang's key demands, and it regularly stirs the pot around the time they're held.
The bill calls for the Defence Ministry and the Guard to increase spending, without elaborating. (Photo: AP)

Tehran: Iran's parliament overwhelmingly has voted to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in response to recent new American sanctions.

In a session on Sunday, 240 lawmakers voted for the bill, with only one abstention. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency says 247 lawmakers were on hand in the session.

The bill calls for the Defence Ministry and the Guard to increase spending, without elaborating.

The back-and-forth sanctions come as US President Donald Trump has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers in 2015. That deal saw economic sanctions against Iran lifted in exchange for the Islamic Republic limiting its enrichment of uranium.

Iran meanwhile has launched ballistic missiles in tests, something it is allowed to do under the deal, despite American criticism.
Peshawar: Radesh Singh's grandfather was just 11 years old when he left his village in India's Punjab province to move to Peshawar, in the far northwest of the country on the border with Afghanistan.

The year was 1901: The British ruled the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan wasn't even a glimmer in the eye of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Peshawar held the promise of work and adventure.

Singh's grandfather would never return to his village, not even in 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, generating one of the largest migrations in modern history and unleashing a brutality that left few untouched as mobs of Hindus and Muslims turned on each other.

Singh's family is neither Hindu nor Muslim but Sikh, a religious minority in both countries. In the 70 years since Partition they have waged a secessionist uprising in India demanding outright independence for India's Punjab state where they dominate.

They have felt increasingly less at home on either side of the border, but particularly so in recent years in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan as they too have become victims of local Taliban violence.

Singh said poverty kept his grandfather in Peshawar, located at the foot of the famed Khyber Pass and dominated by fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen.

"It's not easy to start over at zero when you have very little," he said. The hostility in the immediate aftermath of 1947 was brief in the northwest, said Singh. It was followed by decades of peace.

The decision to stay in the new country now called Pakistan seemed like a good choice at the time. The Sikhs had lived peacefully for centuries alongside their Pashtun Muslim countrymen.

After all, said Singh, Sikhs had a glorious history in the northwest. For a time in the 18th century they oversaw a dynasty. Their capital was Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore.

It was a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, who rebuilt Peshawar's infamous Bala Hisar Fort, an imposing walled fortress that some historians say is as old as the city itself, which traces its origins back more than 2,000 years.

Today Sikhs are among Pakistan's smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colourful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus.

Until 1984, Singh said, Pakistan's Hindus and Sikhs lived as one in northwest Pakistan. Their children married, they even worshipped together. But then India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

"They (Hindus) cut all relations with us. They said Pakistani Sikhs are like all Sikhs everywhere. No difference. They said, 'From now on, we will be separate from you,'" Singh recalled.

Today Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples that they call gurdwaras; while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of the buildings.

Many were abandoned in 1947 and taken over by Muslims who arrived from India. The Pakistan government, which took over the buildings after 1947, allowed the squatters to remain.

In a congested neighbourhood in Peshawar's old city, Singh stepped through large steel gates that opened on to a sweeping courtyard. It no longer resembled a house of worship, but Singh said it was once a vibrant gurdwara attended by hundreds of Sikhs. Now two families call it home.

Two clotheslines crowded with clothes drying in the blistering midday sun stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other. A child's plastic toy sat idle nearby.

Elsewhere in Peshawar, an armed guard, his rifle slung loosely by his side, stood guard at the city's largest Sikh temple, an ornate marble building that dates back 250 years. Inside a half dozen Sikh men sat on plastic chairs.

It is a short, bureaucratic-looking man, a Muslim, who has the final say about who enters the gurdwara. He works for the government body that oversees properties vacated by people who fled to India in 1947.

After phone calls made, names recorded, passports handed over and more phone calls made, the doors to the gurdwara were opened revealing a cavernous carpeted room and ornate pillars decorated with hundreds of tiny mirrors.

In a small room at the far end of the upper story, two students read the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy book. Singh, who heads a council representing the Sikhs in Pakistan, said that since his homeland began to turn toward radical Islam, particularly in the Pashtun heartland, young Sikhs have been looking to leave.

"They want to go to another country, not to India or Pakistan," he said, but every country eyes them with suspicion.

Even Indians, he said, see his Pakistani passport and question his intentions, suggesting he wants to agitate for Sikh secessionism, the battle that resulted in Indira Gandhi's death and a dream still held by many Sikhs on both sides of the border.

For Singh, Pakistan's slide into intolerance began in the late 1970s with the former Soviet Union's invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's military dictator Zia-ul Haq set the country on the course of Islamic radicalization as jihad became a rallying cry to defeat the communists in Afghanistan, he said.

Extremism worsened after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition, he said. The tribal regions were gradually overtaken by Taliban and in 2013 several Sikhs were killed, their limbs severed. The brutality of the killings and the threats sent thousands fleeing Pakistan, said Singh.

He said today Pakistan's intolerant use blasphemy - a crime that carries an automatic death penalty - as a weapon against minorities and fellow Muslims alike.

"That is why we have a fear in our hearts, that this law can be used against us," he said. The mere accusation of blasphemy can incite mobs to violence.

"In the last nearly 40 years we have been facing the boom, boom (mimicking the sound of explosions) in every city of Pakistan," said Singh. "In a long time we have not heard any sweet sounds in our Peshawar, but still we love our city."
Twenty one districts have been badly hit by flooding and landslides. (Photo: AP)

Kathmandu: At least 55 people have died and nearly 700 tourists, including 200 Indians, stranded at a popular tourist district in central Nepal due to flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall, officials said on Monday.

Heavy rainfall has lashed Nepal for the past three days, swelling several Himalayan rivers beyond the danger mark and causing flooding and landslides at many places in the country.

Rapti, which flows through a large part of Nepal towards the southern plains, flooded human settlements and hotels popular with tourists in the central Chitwan Valley. The valley is home to Nepal's first national park.

More than 100 hotels have been partially submerged in Chitwan. Over 1,000 houses have been inundated in the Parsa district, further south, The Himalayan Times reported.

Of the 700 tourists stranded in Sauraha in the Chitwan National Park, nearly 200 were from India and about the same number from other countries. The rest were Nepalese citizens.

Suman Ghimire, chairman of the Regional Hotel Association, said the tourists trapped by flooding in Chitwan were being rescued with the help of elephants and boats.

An hotelier said Nepal's home ministry has been approached for government support to help them battle out of the problem.

Authorities said that at least 49 people have died due to the flooding and landslides until Sunday afternoon. Thirty six people have been reported missing until now, they added.

Meanwhile six members of a family were killed in a landslide in Makawanpur district of central Nepal.

Chitwan's Chief District Officer Narayan Prasad Bhatta said four rubber rafts have been sought from the neighbouring Devghat administration to carry out rescue operations.

The meteorological department forecast says central and western plains were likely to receive more rainfall over the next couple of days. The monsoon, it added, was gradually getting weaker in the east and moving towards the west.

Twenty one districts have been badly hit by flooding and landslides.

A Kathmandu Post report said that public health experts have warned of water-borne epidemic in the flood-hit areas.

It cited the experts as saying that the flooding this monsoon have hit mainly the human population, affecting over six million people in the plains which could trigger epidemic.

Transportation via the East West Highway, one of the longest in the Himalayan country, has been suspended after a pillar at a connecting bridge was washed away in the flooding.

On Sunday, the Nepal government Cabinet held an emergency meeting and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba ordered district officials to intensify rescue operations.
Beijing: China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Tuesday as it implements new UN sanctions, the commerce ministry said Monday.

Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions against its diplomatic ally after coming under pressure from the United States to do more to compel Pyongyang to drop its nuclear weapons programme.

The ministry said on its website that all imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood will be "completely prohibited" from Tuesday.

The announcement follows days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un's regime, which has raised international alarm.

The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 that could cost the hermetic country $1 billion a year.

The sanctions were in response to the North's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States.

The US has accused China, which is North Korea's main economic lifeline, of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour.

But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed after the UN sanctions were given the green light that his country "will for sure implement that new resolution 100 percent, fully and strictly".
The flag is reported to be the highest one in South Asia and the 8th highest in the world.

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday hoisted the largest flag in its history at Attari-Wagah border near Lahore to mark the countrys 70th Independence Day.

Pakistan army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted the flag at the border at 12 in the midnight, kicking off the festivities of across the country.

The flag is reported to be the highest one in South Asia and the 8th highest in the world.

Made in Pakistan, it is 400-feet high and 120 feet by 80 feet in size.

Speaking on the occasion, General Bajwa said: Some 77 years ago, Pakistan resolution was passed in the same city (Lahore). Pakistan came into being on the night of 27th Ramadan - it was a blessed night.

Today, the country is progressing on the path of the law and the constitution. All institutions are working properly. We will make Pakistan the country of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal.

Bajwa further said, We have rendered many sacrifices - we will never forget our martyrs. We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan. I want to tell our enemies, whether they are in the east or in the west, that your bullets will end but not the chests of our jawans [soldiers].

Acknowledging Pakistans internal and external challenges General Bajwa said, I assure you that we will never let you down. Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts.

Other speakers also paid rich tributes to those killed during migration to Pakistan.
Photo taken on March 22, 2017 shows the Gwadar port area in Gwadar, Pakistan. [Xinhua]

Providing countless benefits for Central and South Asia, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has reached another milestone with the development of special economic zones (SEZ).

Enhancing connectivity with more people-to-people business interaction and joint ventures, ultimately the trickle-down effect of the CPEC projects has the potential to reach 3 billion people living in the neighborhood and in Central Asian states.

In the first phase, development of Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea, and infrastructure involving transportation and energy were the main focus; now, however, the focus has moved to industrial co-operation under the CPEC.

Conceptually, the idea of SEZs was first started in New York in 1937. These were described as designated areas with special economic regulations such as tax incentives and lower tariffs to help attract foreign direct investment and boost industrial development.

Even though many countries subsequently employed this approach, it was China that achieved greatest success as it used its SEZs to attract foreign capital. The entire province of Hainan was declared an SEZ when usually the concept was limited to individual cities.

Offering tax incentives to foreign investors and allowing them to develop their own infrastructure, the economic liberal environment provided in the six Chinese SEZs greatly helped boost national innovation and advancement.

Greatly inspired by the success of Shenzhen, transformed from a remote fishing village to one of the worlds busiest cities with a GDP of over U.S.$230 billion, Pakistan has plans to establish nine special economic zones.

Providing special concessions in tax and economic policies for domestic and international investors, these zones will seek to promote industrial growth and target sectors that will help bridge the urban-rural divide and create an effective zone of influence improving standards of living and eradicating poverty.

In July, the Joint Industrial Working Group visited Pakistan to discuss incentives for investors and feasibility of the SEZs, as well as implementation of the ongoing Gwadar projects and industrial cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Delegation leader Du Zhenli, from the Department of Global Cooperation of China International Engineering Consulting Corp., explained: We need to undertake the work step by step. Chinese companies are willing to develop SEZs in Pakistan. For that purpose, we must create a long-term mechanism for industrial cooperation.

Having already established 77 industrial parks in 36 countries, China has fine-tuned development model and has the expertise required to provide a win-win outcome for each and every stakeholder.

Re-affirming the commitment to invest in Pakistan and move the initiative forward, the Chinese delegation devised a road map for industrial cooperation and finalized policies and planning along with Pakistani representatives from the Board of Investment.

SEZs have played an important role in the development of many Asian economies and created rapid industrialization. Strategic industry clusters planned to date include steel foundries and building materials, petrochemical, automotive and allied, light engineering and textile and garment entities.

Developed as a model for cooperation between China and Pakistan, the first SEZ at Dhabeji covers over 1,000 acres. Located in the province of Sindh, its annual industrial output is expected to exceed U.S.$2 billion.

Situated near the port city of Karachi and just 700 km from Gwadar, it is accessible to the Central Asian Republics, the Middle East, Europe and East Africa, making it the most viable SEZ for that particular region.

Primarily, the main success factors for a special economic zone are connectivity and access to a commercial center -- in Dhabeji SEZs case, the city of Karachi. With two seaports and 90 percent of the multinational companies operating in Pakistan based there, Karachi provides Dhabeji with immense growth potential.

Likewise, Chinas pioneering SEZ in Shenzhen used locational advantages to make it the principal access point for foreign investment into Chinas mainland from Hong Kong. As a result, it has grown from a modest population of 30,000 in 1979 into one of the worlds most modern cities with more than 10 million residents.

In Pakistans case, Sindh Board of Investment Chairperson Ms. Naheed Memon announced that Dhabeji SEZ would create 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, when she spoke to the press after a meeting with Chinese investors, adding that the SEZ Authority of SBI is actively engaged with provincial industrial associations and Chinas state-owned enterprises to promote the zone.

As it progresses, the CPEC is beginning to achieve its potential by transforming the regions it passes through into centers of economic activity. After all, practically generating economic opportunities with enhanced connectivity and mutual trade interests is what the Belt and Road Initiative is all about.

Sabena Siddiqui (Twitter: @sabena_siddiqi) is a foreign affairs journalist and lawyer based in Pakistan.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
The Sharad Yadav faction on Sunday claimed that it has support of JDUs 14 state units, ahead of the partys national executive next weekend to formally join the NDA.



Yadav recently said that he represents the real JDU and Bihar Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar the sarkari JDU.

At a meeting on August 19 in Patna, the JDU will also assess the damage and formulate strategy to counter rebels led by Yadav, said a leader here. JDU general secretary Arun Shrivastava, who was removed from the post after he was seen instrumental in egging lone party MLA Chottu Vasava to vote for Congress candidate Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat, claimed that 14 state unit presidents have come out in support of Yadav.

Shrivastava also said that Nitish Kumar himself had said that JDU exists only in Bihar, but thats not true, he added, as it has national presence.

We will not leave the party. Nitish himself says that the party does not exist outside Bihar. Then he should form a new party for Bihar. He should not try to capture the JDU, which always had a national presence, the disgruntled leader told a news agency.

Earlier, Shrivastava, who is travelling with Yadav in Bihar to garner public support, claimed that 20 JDU MLAs are with them, but he had pointed out that they would not join them since they will have to give up the party membership in that case for indulging in anti-party activities.
At least 12 people were killed in a landslide in Nepal today, taking the death toll in floods and rain-related calamities to 78, while thousands remained displaced across the Himalayan nation, officials said.



Heavy rainfall has lashed Nepal for the past four days, swelling several Himalayan rivers beyond the danger mark and causing flooding and landslides at many places in the country.



The river Rapti, which flows through a large part of Nepal towards the southern plains, flooded human settlements and hotels popular with tourists in the Chitwan Valley.



According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), in the latest incident at least 12 people were killed by landslide in Morang district today, taking the death toll in the district to 17 and overall to 78 and 35 went missing in the last four days.



The monsoon havoc which started on Friday has affected 27 districts spanning from the eastern, central to the western regions.



The latest data released by the MoHA showed that one person was killed in Panchthar and Ilam each, five in Jhapa and Morang each and eight in Sunsari.



Nine persons were killed in Rautahat, eight were killed in Sunsari, four each in Sarlahi, Sindhuli, Bara, Makawanpur and Banke districts, five persons were killed in Jhapa, three killed each in Dang and Surkhet, two each were killed in Bardiya and Chitawan and nine persons were killed elsewhere.



Meanwhile, Nepal's Energy Minister Mahendra Bahadur Sahi has claimed that the highways built along the no man's land on the Indian side of the border are the major reasons behind the floods in the Terai.



"The highways made by elevating the land next to the Nepal-India border have restricted the natural flow of water, leaving Nepal's Terai plains submerged during the rainy season," Shahi said.



The government will take up the issue with India during Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's India visit slated for next week, Shahi said yesterday.



A total of 34,843 houses were inundated across the plains. More than 1,000 houses were destroyed in floods that killed an estimated 400 livestock, the Kathmandu Post reported.



The government has mobilised Nepal Police, Nepali Army and Armed Police Force personnel for rescue and recovery work.



While rainfall is likely to continue in the next few days, as predicted by the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD).



Weathermen have said the extreme rainfall, starting from eastern Nepal, witnessed in the last few days was caused by the formation of a low pressure zone over the hills. The monsoon, it added, was gradually getting weaker in the east and moving towards the west.


August 15, 1947, deserved to be remembered, the African-American writer W E B Du Bois argued, as the greatest historical date of modern history. It was the day India became independent from British rule, and Du Bois believed the event was of greater significance than even the establishment of democracy in Britain, the emancipation of slaves in the United States or the Russian Revolution. The time when the white man, by reason of the colour of his skin, can lord it over coloured people was finally drawing to a close.



It is barely remembered today that Indias freedom heralded the liberation, from Tuskegee to Jakarta, of a majority of the worlds population from the degradations of racist imperialism. Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, claimed that there had been nothing more horrible in human history than the days when millions of Africans were carried away in galleys as slaves to America and elsewhere. As he said in a resonant speech on August 15, 1947, long ago India had made a tryst with destiny, and now, by opening up a broad horizon of human emancipation, we shall redeem our pledge.



Multiple mutations



But India, which turns 70 next week, seems to have missed its appointment with history. A country inaugurated by secular freedom fighters is presently ruled by religious-racial supremacists. More disturbing still than this mutation are the continuities between those early embodiments of post-colonial virtue and their apparent betrayers today.



Du Bois would have been heartbroken to read the joint statement that more than 40 African governments released in April, denouncing xenophobic and racial attacks on Africans in India and asking the UNHCR to investigate. The rise in hate crimes against Africans is part of a sinister trend that has accelerated since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.



Another of its bloodcurdling manifestations is the lynching of Muslims suspected of eating or storing beef. Others include assaults on couples who publicly display affection and threats of rape against women on social media by the Hindu supremacists troll army. Mob frenzy in India today is drummed up by jingoistic television anchors and vindicated, often on Twitter, by senior politicians, businessmen, army generals and Bollywood stars.



Hindu nationalists have also come together to justify Indias intensified military occupation of Muslim-majority Kashmir, as well as a nationwide hunt for enemies: an ever-shifting and growing category that includes writers, liberal intellectuals, filmmakers who work with Pakistani actors and ordinary citizens who dont stand up when the national anthem is played in cinemas. The new world order  just, peaceful, equal  that Indias leaders promised at independence as they denounced their former Western masters violence, greed and hypocrisy is nowhere in sight.



Back in 1947, Du Bois had good reason to hope that India would offer a superior alternative to the Wests destructive modernity. His hero, Mohandas K Gandhi, had lived on three continents by the time the first phase of globalisation violently ended with World War I. Gandhi had intimately experienced how Western imperialists and capitalists blended economic inequalities with racial hierarchies, entrenching, as Du Bois wrote, a new industrial slavery of black and brown and yellow workers in Africa and Asia. Gandhi was determined not to let post-colonial India replicate the injustices built into modern civilisation or, as he put it, English rule without the Englishman.



From that perspective, Gandhi may seem to have chosen his protege unwisely: Nehru was the scion of a family of rich Brahmin Anglophiles. But Nehru received his own education in global inequities through people he met in international left-wing networks. On a wide range of international issues, the two men shared a rhetoric that expressed a preference for solidarity, compassion and dialogue over violence.



Gandhi claimed to understand the longing of a Jew to return to Palestine, but warned Zionists against doing so under the shadow of the British gun. In 1946, Nehru, then prime-minister-in-waiting, sacrificed Indias lucrative trade links with South Africa in protest against apartheid. In 1947, India voted at the UN against the partition of Palestine because, Nehru explained to Albert Einstein, the Zionists had failed to win the good will of the Arabs. Distrustful of American motives, Nehru spurned a potentially rewarding partnership with the US during the Cold War.



Legacy of repression



But Indian leaders seldom practiced domestically what they preached internationally. Though committed to parliamentary procedures, Nehru never let go of the British-created colonial state and its well-oiled machinery of repression. The brute power of the Indian police and army was used in 1948 to corral the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union. Upto 40,000 Muslims were killed, and the episode remains the single-largest massacre in the history of independent India.



Nehru shared with Hindu nationalists a mystical faith in the essential continuity of India from ancient civilisation to modern nation. Determined to hold on to Kashmir, for example, he abandoned his promise of organising a referendum to decide the contested regions political status. In 1953, he deposed a popular Kashmiri politician (and friend) and had him sent to prison, inaugurating a long reign of puppet leaders who continue to enrich themselves under the long shadow of the Indian gun.



As early as 1958, Nehrus regime introduced the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the forerunner of repressive legislation that today sanctions murder, torture and rape by Indian soldiers in central India and border provinces. It was under Nehru that Indian troops and paramilitaries were unleashed on indigenous peoples in Indias northeastern states in the 1950s and 60s. It was Nehru who in 1961 made it a crime to question the territorial integrity of India, punishable with imprisonment.



Yet in the eyes of the world, India maintained its exceptional status for decades, as many promising post-colonial experiments with democracy degenerated into authoritarianism, if not military rule. The countrys democratic politics appeared stable. But they did so only because they were reduced to the rule of a single party, the Congress, which was itself dominated by a single family  Nehrus.



And far from being socialist or redistributionist, Nehrus economic policies boosted Indias monopoly capitalists. His priorities were heavy industries and elite polytechnics, which precluded major investments in primary education, health and land reform.



Indias lynch mobs today represent the latest and most grisly expression of such cynical political ideologies. As the sheer brutishness of Modis populism becomes clear, the memory of the aristocratic Nehru becomes more sacred, especially among politicians and commentators from Indias English-speaking upper castes. But Modi has also turned that legacy of high-flown promises to his political advantage.



Nehru and his followers had articulated an influential ideology of Indian exceptionalism, claiming moral prestige and geopolitical significance for Indias uniquely massive and diverse democracy. Only many of those righteous notions also reeked of upper-caste sanctimony and class privilege. Modi has effectively mobilised those Indians who have long felt marginalised and humiliated by Indias self-serving Nehruvian elite into a large vote bank of resentment.



Virtuous talk of unity in diversity and secularism has been replaced by a barefaced Hindu nationalism: The tattered old masks, and the gloves, have come off. The state, colonised by an ideological movement, is emerging triumphant over society. With the medias help, it is assuming extraordinary powers of control  telling people what they should eat at home and how they should behave in public, and whom to lynch.



Modis rule represents the most devastating, and perhaps final, defeat of Indias noble post-colonial ambition to create a moral world order. And so one can, of course, mourn this August 15 as marking the end of Indias tryst with destiny or, more accurately, the collapse of our exalted ideas about ourselves.


AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi today said mosques cannot be handed over to anybody simply because a religious cleric says so, as Allah owns the places of worship.



His statement came in the backdrop of the Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh telling the Supreme Court that a mosque could be built in a Muslim-dominated area at a reasonable distance from the disputed site in Ayodhya.



"Masjids cannot be given just bcos 1 Maulana says so, Allah is the owner not a Maulana once a Masjid always a Masjid," Owaisi tweeted.



"Masjids can be managed by Shia, Sunni, Barelvi, Sufi, Deobandi, Salafi, Bohri but they are not owners ALLAH is the owner even AIMPLB cannot give," he posted on social networking site Twitter.



"Masjids are built by people who believe in Day of Judgment and fear ALLAH only. It is duty of Muslims to offer namaz in masjid that is protection," he added.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to take suo moto cognizance of the recent deaths of children at a government hospital at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.



A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud told Rajashree Shetty, the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with the grievances.



The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) hospital.



The court said that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned.



Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.



The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra as well as removed Dr Kafeel Khan, in charge of the unit.
Authorities today imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar to maintain law and order in the wake of killing of two civilians in security forces' action on stone-pelting protestors.



Restrictions have been imposed in five police station areas of the city here, a police official said.



He said the curbs have been enforced in the police station areas of Nowhatta, Rainawari, Khanyar, M R Gunj and Safakadal.



The official said the restrictions were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order in the wake of killing of two civilians in south Kashmir yesterday.



Two youth Owais Shafi and Mohammad Sayeed Bhat were killed in security forces' action on mobs of stone-pelting youth in Pulwama and Shopian districts respectively.



22-year-old Shafi sustained multiple pellet injuries at Kakapora in Pulwama and was referred to SMHS here for treatment, where he was declared 'dead on arrival' by the doctors yesterday.



Bhat (25) received bullet injury near the encounter site at Avneera in Shopian and was taken to a hospital where he succumbed late last night.



Three militants were killed in the encounter with security forces.



Educational institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, have been closed for the day in the Valley in view of the prevailing situation.



The Kashmir University and the Islamic University of Sciences and Technology have also postponed the examinations scheduled for today, while the class work has been suspended.
Guam's leader said today that "sometimes a bully can only be stopped with a punch in the nose", in a spirited defence of President Donald Trump's rhetoric against North Korea which has the island in its crosshairs.



While Trump's critics accuse him of inflaming tensions with Pyongyang, Guam governor Eddie Calvo said he was grateful the US leader was taking a strong stance against North Korean threats against his Pacific homeland.



"Everyone who grew up in the schoolyard in elementary school, we understand a bully," Calvo told AFP. "(North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un is a bully with some very strong weapons... a bully has to be countered very strongly."



Calvo, a Republican, said Trump was being unfairly criticised over his handling of the North Korea crisis, which escalated when Pyongyang announced plans to launch missiles toward Guam in a "crucial warning".



He said North Korea had threatened Guam -- a US territory which hosts two large military bases and is home to more than 6,000 military personnel -- at least three times since 2013.



He said previous presidents had also used strong words to warn off Pyongyang, pointing out Barack Obama said last year that "we could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals".



"One president (Obama) said it one way, cool and calmly with a period... the other said fire and fury with an exclamation point, but it still leads to the same message," Calvo said.



He rejected suggestions that Trump and the North Korean dictator were as bad as each other when it came to the sabre-rattling playing out in the western Pacific.



"Well there's only one guy that has vaporised into a red mist his uncle or a general because he fell asleep in a meeting with an anti-aircraft gun, that's Kim Jong-Un," he said.



"There's only one guy that's killed his brother with one of the most toxic nerve agents ever created, that's Kim Jong- Un."
A Chinese state newspaper has warned President Donald Trump "could trigger a trade war" if he goes ahead with plans to launch an investigation into whether China is stealing US technology.



In a commentary written by a researcher at a Commerce Ministry think tank, the China Daily said Trump's possible decision to launch an investigation, which an official says he will announce today, could "intensify tensions," especially over intellectual property.



The official told reporters on Saturday the president would order for his trade office to look into whether to launch an investigation under the Trade Act of 1975 of possible Chinse theft of US technology and intellectual property.



The Chinese government has yet to comment on the announcement.
 Flash

Police stand guard near the rally site in Charlottesville, Virginia, the United States, Aug. 12, 2017. At least one person was killed in a multiple car crash following a violent white nationalist rally on Saturday in Charlottesville in Virginia. [Photo/Xinhua]

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, protesting white supremacists violence in Charlottesville of Virginia the day before.

Holding black placards with words such as "White Silence = White Consent" and "No! Drive out Trump/Pence regime!," the demonstrators gathered outside of city hall to condemn racism and violent incidents occurred in Charlottesville Saturday, in which 3 people were killed and about twenty injured.

The rally was launched by Refuse Fascism Organization, a New York based activist group who has dozens offices all around the country.

Michael, a young African-American girl of the organization, delivered a speech on stairs to the front door of city hall, calling on people to take action fighting against KKK and fascism in the United States.

"We are standing against fascism, we are standing with people all of the world, we should give our hands to ourselves." her words were echoed by applauds.

"I am here today to stand solidarity with peace movement and everyone who opposes racism, white supremacy and all the thing that is not neither KKK or our president stand for." Jeff Share, a middle age demonstrator said.

He said things happened in Charlottesville was ridiculous as a peaceful demonstration turned to be a violent and fatal attack, so that American people should speak out against violence and white supremacy.

"Some people there voiced hatred, it's not ok." he said, "we have a raw problem in the country with people supporting and promoting violence and discrimination racism, it's not ok."

A rally staged by white nationalists in Charlottesville turned violent Saturday. After hours brawls between the pro-rally far-right figures and anti-racism protesters, a sport car ploughed into crowd against the rally, killing a 32-year-old local woman and injuring 19.

Saturday night, hundreds of people chanting against white supremacists gathered in front of Los Angeles Police Department, and blocked traffic in downtown LA for about half an hour.
Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhi's "expansionist designs" was the "main hurdle" in constructive relations between the two neighbours.



Addressing the nation on its 70th Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan "desires positive and constructive" relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.



"Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard," he said as Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang attended the celebrations as a "special guest" of the country.



Yang arrived in Pakistan yesterday for the event. He said that China and Pakistan have "always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations."



Abbasi called on the international community to "play its role" in resolving regional conflicts, "particularly the Kashmir dispute" between India and Pakistan in conformity with the UN resolutions to ensure durable peace in the region.



Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistan's 18th prime minister on August 1 after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.



"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he said.



President Mamnoon Hussain, in his address, called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan. He said it is time to forget "personal grievances" and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharif's ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was "pre-planned".



The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital Islamabad along with a 21-gun salute in provincial capitals to mark the official Independence Day celebrations.



Major public and private buildings, roads and avenues have been decorated with national flags, portraits of the national leaders, banners and buntings to give a festive look.



Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted a huge national flag at the Attari-Wagah border with India soon after midnight last night, kicking off the day-long celebration. The flag flew at 400 feet, the highest in South Asia. The 120x80 feet flag is also the largest in the history of the country, Pakistani media reported.
At a time when Yogi Adityanath was under fire for the death of nearly 60 children in his constituency, BJP MP Varun Gandhi has pledged Rs 5 crore for the hospital.



The human tragedy has left me jolted, the Sultanpur MP said in a letter on Monday. While grieving the terrible loss of lives of children, the incident must act as an impetus to take actions that serve as a deterrent against a reoccurrence of such an event.



Varun Gandhi said he is pledging Rs 5 crore from the MPLADS fund to build a model hospital pediatric wing with state-of-the-art infrastructure in the Gorakhpur hospital.
Four Kashmiri separatists, including the son-in-law of Hurriyat leader SAS Geelani, were sent to judicial custody today by a Delhi court in a terror funding case.



Duty magistrate Pankaj Sharma sent Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Nayeem Khan to jail for 14 days.



The court's order came after the NIA submitted that they were not required for further interrogation.



The agency had arrested seven persons on July 24 in the case of alleged funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley to fuel unrest.



The other three separatist leaders -- Shahid-ul-Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar and Mohamad Akbar Khanday -- were sent to the judicial custody till September 1.



The money was being raised to fund separatist and terror activities in restive Jammu and Kashmir, NIA had alleged, claiming that the accused were waging war against the country and were involved in various offences punishable under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.



It had also alleged that the accused were involved in creating unrest by way of anti-India demonstrations and bandhs, which were done on their and others' instructions.

Shah was in the custody of Jammu and Kashmir Police, which had put him under preventive detention immediately after Eid last month.



Geelani's close aides, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah, were arrested by the NIA from the Valley.


The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday sought a report from Uttar Pradesh government on the death of children in Gorakhpur, saying it indicated "gross callousness" on the part of the hospital and the state administration.



It said nothing has improved despite the assurance the administration gave to the NHRC just days before on improving the situation.



The NHRC took suo motu cognizance of the death of over 60 children in BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur came following media reported negligence on the part of the administration in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital.



The state Chief Secretary has been asked to submit a detailed report within four weeks on the deaths and steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families. The NHRC also wants to know what action has been taken against the guilty officers.



The "reported deaths, in such a large number in a government run hospital, amount to serious violation of Right to Life and Health of the innocent victims. This indicates towards gross callousness on part of the hospital administration and the Medical Education and Health Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh," the NHRC said in a statement.



Earlier also, it said, it has come across several instances of deaths in the hospitals due to Japanese Encephalitis.



The NHRC said the issue of deaths due to Japanese Encephalitis was discussed with the Chief Secretary and senior officers during its recently concluded Open Hearing and Camp Sitting at Lucknow between August 9 and 11. "However, in spite of assurance given by the state administration, the situation has not improved," the statement said.



Quoting media reports in both English and Hindi media, it said the private firm contracted to supply liquid oxygen to the BRD Medical College stopped the supplies, as it was not paid the outstanding dues of almost Rs 70 lakh. The "result was tragic deaths" of about 60 children admitted in the neonatal and encephalitis wards of the hospital.



A magisterial inquiry has been ordered by the administration to ascertain the cause of death. In the last three decades, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) have claimed over 50,000 lives in the eastern Uttar Pradesh, mostly in the Gorakhpur district.



According to media reports, 124 deaths were reported in the hospital this year till August 8 while 641 children died last year and 491 in 2015.
The Janata Dal (United) on Monday suspended 21 party leaders, considered close to Rajya Sabha member Sharad Yadav, for their anti-party activities. Those who have been shown the door include three former JD (U) legislators and a former MP Arjun Rai. Rest others are district-level party workers. Former MLA Ramai Ram and Arjun Rai were the two prominent faces who toured with Sharad Yadav when the latter was on a three-day Bihar visit last week.



The suspension order has been issued by Bihar JD (U) president Bashishtha Narayan Singh after taking into consideration their anti-party activities, said JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.



Sharad, who had opposed Nitishs decision to join hands with the BJP and form another government with the help of NDA, has claimed that the real JD (U) was with him as 14 State units of the party were still with him.



Last week, Sharad was removed as leader of the JD (U) Parliamentary Party in the Rajya Sabha for his utterances against Nitish. If he continues to deride Nitish, who is national president of the party, then Sharad too may meet the same fate as his supporters have met today, said a ruling camp source.



The JD (U) has convened its national executive committee meet here in the State Capital on August 19 where it may pass a resolution to formally join the NDA. It may later join the Narendra Modi Ministry too, after Nitish is possibly elevated as NDA convenor.








Congress on Monday sensed a government hand in reports about Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra being made the Working President' of the party.



These are government planted fabrications and distractions that require no comment from the Congress. I dismiss this, senior Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters here.



A newspaper had reported that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had broached the topic of leadership change in the party after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee last week.



It said that senior leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had suggested making Priyanka the Working President of the Congress.



Rejecting the report, Sharma said it was an attempt to distract attention from the non-performance of the Modi government. They do not want to discuss the rise in terror attacks, lack of jobs, the state of the economy and the death of kids in a Gorakhpur hospital, he said.



Priyanka's office also termed the report as complete fabrication. No such discussion took place whatsoever, Priyanka's aide Preeti Sahai said.



Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala also dubbed the report as entirely false and baseless.



It is a mischievous instance of fake news and unnecessary speculation, Surjewala said.
Pakistani troops today targeted Indian posts at two places along the Line of Control (LoC) in Tangdhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir but there were no casualties.



"Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by firing towards our positions at Chath-Khadi Saidapora and Taad in Tangdhar sector at around 2.20 am," an army official said.



He said the firing lasted for more than an hour but there were no casualties.



This was the second ceasefire violation by the Pakistani troops in north Kashmir in the past 24 hours.



Yesterday, three soldiers were injured in Pakistani firing in Uri sector.


The O Panneerselvam faction of the AIADMK today quashed speculation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's involvement in solving internal issues of the party and said it would be "demeaning" to think so.



Speaking to reporters, Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan said, "It will be demeaning to say that the PM is involved in solving the internal affairs of another political party."



Ever since the AIADMK broke into two factions, representatives of both the camps have been meeting PM Modi and other top brass of the BJP giving space for speculation that the saffron party was meddling with internal issues of the AIADMK.



The press interaction was held after former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam today met PM Modi at his residence and apprised him about the political situation in the state.



"Prevailing atmosphere in the state under the present regime, feeling of AIADMK cadres and opinion of the public has been expressed to the PM," said Panneerselvam.



However, he refused to divulge the nitty gritty of the discussion, particularly after the AIADMK Amma faction led by chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami "delegitimised" TTV Dhinakaran's position in the party moving a step forward for merger of both camps.



"Decisions which suit the best for the people of the state will be taken," Panneerselvam said.



Notably, CM Palaniswami had also met PM Modi last week. Later, he had said that only talks related to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test took place in the meeting.


Three paramilitary troopers and a policeman were wounded when militants lobbed a grenade on a CRPF party in Magam area of central Kashmirs Budgam district on Monday.



Reports said the militants threw a grenade on the CRPF party in Magam, 25 km from here, this afternoon which exploded with a big bang. Three CRPF and one police personnel sustained splinter injuries in the attack and all of them were removed to the hospital.



Soon after the attack, large posse of police, Army and CRPF rushed to the spot and launched searches to track down the attackers.



On Saturday evening, a civilian was killed after suspected militants hurled a grenade at a police naka near Budyari Chowk, Dalgate in Srinagar. Militants have been using grenade attacks frequently against the security forces in the last few months.



On June 13, a series of five grenade attacks rocked southern Kashmir in which eight CRPF personnel and four policemen were injured.


A trial court had on January 1 this year directed the man to pay Rs 20,000 per month, towards rent of the alternative accommodation to his estranged wife till the disposal of the domestic violence case filed against him by the woman.



The man, in his plea, had said that the woman was educated and had enrolled as an advocate in 2006 and hence her claim about her income was false.



The court, however, said that since the matter was pending before the trial court in its preliminary stage, the issue of income claim could be decided only after the evidence is led from both the sides.



"The respondent (woman) can be cross-examined by counsel for the appellant (man) before the trial court on these aspects," the ASJ said.



According to the complaint, the woman, who got married on May 25, 2014, had alleged that her husband and his family had treated her with utmost cruelty and she was subjected to mental and physical torture, harassment and humiliation for bringing insufficient dowry.



The trial court had said the man was duty-bound to provide for the alternate accommodation at the same level as was enjoyed by her in the shared household and had directed him to pay Rs 20,000 per month to the woman.

Women, who have to leave their matrimonial home over a dispute, should have some financial security, a Delhi court has said while upholding the maintenance granted to a woman by a trial court.Additional Sessions Judge Deepak Garg said that even if the woman was residing at her parental house, it cannot be said that she should not be granted any maintenance towards her alternate accommodation."It is necessary that there has to be some security for the women who have to leave the matrimonial house if the atmosphere is not conducive there."Even if she is living with her parents, she should feel some security and confidence even to live separately from her mother if circumstances so warrant," the court said while dismissing her estranged husband's appeal against the trial court order.
The CBI today told the Supreme Court that its probe into the murder of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan of Siwan, in which controversial RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin is one of the prime accused, is at an "advanced stage".



The probe agency told a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar that they were likely to file a charge sheet in the case within two weeks.



"The investigation in the case is at an advanced stage. A final report will be filed before the trial court within two weeks," the agency's counsel told the bench and requested it to defer the hearing in the matter for two weeks.



To this, the apex court asked the advocate representing petitioner Asha Ranjan, who is the wife of the slain scribe, whether he had any objection to the CBI seeking more time for hearing of the matter.



Advocate Kislay Pandey, appearing for the petitioner, said his only prayer was for registration of FIR against RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's son Tej Pratap Yadav, whose photograph was published in media with an alleged sharp-shooter close to Shahabuddin, and Superintendent of Police Siwan district for purportedly not taking any action in the matter.



The CBI counsel said all these aspects would be looked into after the final report was filed before the trial court.



The court, which had earlier ordered shifting of Shahabuddin who is facing trial in around 45 criminal cases from Siwan Jail in Bihar to Tihar Jail here, listed the matter for hearing on September 18.



The apex court had earlier said that it would examine the plea seeking the lodging of FIR against Tej Pratap Yadav.



It had ordered shifting of Shahabuddin from Bihar's Siwan prison to Tihar Jail here to ensure free and fair trial in the cases lodged against him.



The petitioner, whose husband was murdered in Siwan in May last year, has sought a direction for registration of FIR against Shahabuddin and Tej Pratap for alleged "conspiracy and harbouring and sheltering the proclaimed offenders" in the murder case.



Her counsel had earlier alleged in the court that in September last year, she had seen the pictures of accused Mohammed Kaif and Mohammad Javed, who were absconding at that time, with Tej Pratap on news channels.


With the opposition parties planning to launch a major agitation on the issue of the death of 30 children allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, a cornered BJP has gone into damage control mode.



As the opposition leaders made a beeline for the BRD Medical College expressing outrage over the deaths, senior saffron party leaders went into a huddle here to formulate a strategy to counter the opposition charge and contain further damage.



Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav, who visited Gorakhpur on Monday, held the Yogi Adityanath government responsible for the death of the children and assured all help to the kin of the victims.



Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was also likely to visit the medical college on Tuesday, sources in the UP Congress party here said.



BSP supremo Mayawati has sent a delegation of party leaders to visit the grieving families of the dead children and extend all possible help to them.



The opposition parties also joined a call for 'Gorakhpur Bandh' on Monday to protest the deaths. The 'bandh', which was called by social organisations, evoked a good response though shops and business establishment remained open in some areas, especially those close to the Gorakhnath Temple of which chief minister Yogi Adityanath was the 'mahant' (chief).



The tragedy could not have come at a worse time for the BJP. Adityanath, who was still not a member of either of the house of the UP legislature, has to resign his Lok Sabha membership by September 19 after which a by-poll would be held at Gorakhpur.



''The deaths will be a major issue in the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-poll,'' said a senior SP leader here.



Sources said that the saffron party had asked its leaders in Gorakhpur to meet the families whose children had died owing to alleged shortage of oxygen and provide them help. The state government has not announced any compensation for the families as it will signal an admission that the deaths were caused by lack of oxygen.



Senior BJP leader Sunil Bansal, who rushed to Gorakhpur on Sunday, reportedly met Adityanath and other party leaders and discussed its political fall out.


Hizbul Mujahideen today named Mohammad bin Qasim as its "field operational commander" in Kashmir in place of Yaseen Yattoo who was killed yesterday in a fierce gunbattle with security forces in Shopian district.



Qasim was made the new commander of Hizb at a meeting of the outfit's command council chaired by Syed Salahuddin in Muzaffarabad (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), a spokesman of the outfit said in a statement.



Salahuddin said the high number of killings of militants in encounters were because of "traitors" and "Indian agents".



Yattoo, alias 'Gaznavi', and his two associates were killed yesterday in an encounter that began on Saturday night in Awnira village of Shopian district in south Kashmir.



In the encounter, two armymen were also killed and three others, including a Major, were injured.



Yattoo, who hailed from Budgam district of central Kashmir, had a long association with Hizbul Mujahideen and was responsible for keeping alive the prolonged unrest of 2016 following the killing of group's commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.



He had also played key role in recruiting several young men into the outfit, according to the police.



Yattoo had joined Hizbul Mujahideen in 1996 but had surrendered in 2007 and was later released on parole in 2014. Subsequently, he had joined the militant group again and was its self-styled chief operations commander.



Along with him, the security forces killed Umar Majeed, who hailed from Shopian, and Irfan, a tech-savvy militant involved in online propaganda for the militant outfit.
Indian Army's plan to open up an aviation base in the northern parts of West Bengal has hit a roadblock with the state government jacking up the land price by almost 15 times from the base value.



The stalled negotiations that began nearly five years ago adversely impacted Army's preparedness against China on the eastern front.



The Eastern Command and Siliguri-based 33 Corps of the Indian Army was in talk with the West Bengal government to acquire large tracts of land to set up a composite aviation base that will be crucial for the surveillance of Siliguri corridor  the chicken neck area in the northern parts of West Bengal that connects the north east India with the mainland. The base was also to house the Army's unmanned aerial vehicles.



However, over the years the negotiators from the state government increased the price by nearly 15 times because of which the Army couldn't acquire the land in Shaugaon till now, a source told DH. The central government initially allocated nearly Rs 10.5 crore for the aviation base.



Out of the 228 acres of land identified by the Army, nearly 97 acres of land are in active possession of the Army and the state government's support was required for the rest of the land, which belongs to an abandoned tea estate.



The stalemate in West Bengal comes at a time when India is beefing up its military presence in the east in order to match China's military assertiveness.



An Indian Army mountain strike corps is being raised while the Indian Air Force plans to have its second squadron of C-130J Super Hercules aircraft in Panagarh. The first two C-130J  a US aircraft capable of undertaking special force's operations  touched down in the West Bengal base in July.



Once raised fully, the mountain strike corps (17 corps) will be headquartered in Barala, an area close to Panagarh. To be raised at a cost of Rs 64,000 crore, the new strike corpse with 80,000 troops and two divisions is scheduled to be ready by 2021-22.



The IAF has also spruced up its advanced landing grounds in the north east whereas road and rail links are being improved.






Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said BJP President Amit Shah has no moral right to call his government corrupt, asserting that none of the Congressmen had gone to jail on graft charges as it had happened during the BJP rule in the state.



"Shah has been saying this repeatedly. He has no moral right to speak about my government," the chief minister said, as he came under attack from Shah. The BJP president is on a three-day visit to Karnataka since Saturday to galvanise the party for the assembly polls that is due early next year.



Speaking to reporters after a meeting on Mahadayi water dispute issue involving Goa with floor leaders, MPs and MLAs here, Siddaramaiah said, "He(Shah) does not have morality at all, as corrupt are sitting next to him when he is saying things against us."



"Our's has been a corruption free and scam free government in the last four years. None of us had gone to jail as happened in the previous BJP government," he added.



Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, Shah had on Saturday kicked off his visit to the state, declaring that the party stands united and said, 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government).



Terming the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government as "corrupt", he had asked people to overthrow it.


Continuing to put up a brave front despite a revolt by Chief Minister K Palaniswami-led camp, beleaguered ruling AIADMK (Amma) deputy chief T T V Dhinakaran today exuded confidence of uniting the party and getting back its 'Two Leaves' symbol.



Dhinakaran, whose appointment to the post of AIADMK (Amma) deputy chief was declared against party rules at an August 10 meeting presided by Palaniswami, told reporters here that the camp had earlier endorsed his leadership by filing an affidavit before the Election Commission.



"Now they have passed a resolution as per which appointments made by me are null and void. Is this not 420 (cheating)? If 27 ministers, including the chief minister, have signed the resolution nullifying the appointments made by me, it is cheating," he said.



Dhinakaran, who is slated to undertake a statewide tour from here today, said that he was working to strengthen the party and that was the reason MLAs were "switching over" to his side.



The resolution by the CM's camp on August 10 had also asked party cadres to ignore Dhinakaran's directives.



It had also said that though V K Sasikala was made party general secretary following the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last, she could not function in the post in "view of extraordinary circumstances".



Dhinakaran, nephew of Sasikala, said he was not scared of any person and that he had faced a lot of "opposition" since 1987.



He alleged there were reports of corruption against a minister in implementing a marriage assistance scheme.



He also said the party organ 'Namathu MGR' was being managed by his relative Vivek and those who had worked against the organisation had been weeded out.



Referring to Palaniswami's ascent to the chief minister's post, Dhinkaran said he had "got the throne by accident".



He added that Palaniswami was elected chief minister by Sasikala and others.



Dhinakaran is here to take part in a meeting at Melur tonight to celebrate the birth centenary of late chief minister M G Ramachandran, which is expected to be a platform for a show of strength by him.


BJP MP from Karnataka would meet Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar to convince him on the need to attend talks to explore an out of court settlement to the inter-state Mahadayi river water dispute, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said.



Speaking to reporters here after a meeting of legislative floor leaders of parties, central ministers, MLAs, MPs and farmers organisations on the Mahadayi issue, Siddaramaiah said he would also speak to the opposition Congress in Goa on the issue out of courtesy.



Goa had earlier expressed its opposition to out of court settlement of the dispute over sharing of the Mahadayi River waters with the lower riparian state of Karnataka.



The chief minister said all BJP MPs, including state party chief B S Yeddyurappa had decided to meet Parrikar after coming assembly byelections in Goa and convince him to attend the talks, Siddaramaiah said.



"I will call a meeting to discuss the outcome of their (BJP) discussions with Parrikar, once it happens. I'm hopeful that they will be able to convince Parrikar," he said.



The meeting here was attended by Union Ministers Sadananda Gowda and Ramesh Jigajinagi and Leader of Opposition in the assembly Jagadish Shettar, former Union Minister Veerappa Moily, several state Ministers, MLAs from all political parties and farmers' leaders from the region.



Pointing out that demands were also made in the meeting to lead a delegation to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention on the issue, Siddaramaiah said a call on this would be taken based on the outcome of BJP's meeting with the Goa Chief Minister.



The Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal had last September had asked the states concerned, including Maharashtra, to resolve the water dispute amicably by holding discussions.



The Chief Minister also said that the Goa Chief Secretary has written to Karnataka Chief Secretary about their inability to attend the meeting till the end of August citing by-polls as the reason.



"They have said that it is not advisable to hold the meeting between Chief Ministers of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra till the end of this month on account of by-elections in Goa and prevalent model code of conduct in the state," Siddaramaiah said quoting from the letter.



The letter was in response to Siddaramaiah's recent missive to his Maharashtra and Goa counterparts for organising a meeting of the three Chief Ministers.



It was second such attempt to bring the Chief Ministers of the three riparian states to the table for discussion. The first similar meeting in October last year did not succeed.



Stating that Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa advised him to speak to Congress leaders in Goa, Siddaramaiah said though a Chief Minister would always speak to his counterpart or an elected government and not with the opposition, he had still said he would talk with them (Congress).



"I will speak, but it is not a condition precedent and will be out of courtesy," he added.



The Karnataka government had earlier petitioned the tribunal seeking the release of 7.56 tmcft of water for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, but it was rejected in an interim order on July 27, resulting in violent protests in North Karnataka.



The project was being undertaken to improve drinking water supply to the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and the districts of Belagavi and Gadag.




Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday lashed out at the ruling BJP for trying to engineer a regional divide in the state over Article 35-A of the Constitution, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"If the so-called assurance given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was true why a counter affidavit hadn't been presented before the Supreme Court by the Centre to defend the Article 35-A," he said while addressing National Conference (NC) district and block presidents in Jammu.



Instead of defending this Article 35-A, the Attorney General (of India) pitched for a larger debate on it. All this is being done under an elaborate conspiracy to rob J&K of its Special Status and rights," the former CM said and added his NC will not give permission to tinker with the constitutional provisions giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir.



Article 35-A provides special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of J&K - a provision which came into effect in 1954 when the President used the powers conferred on him by Article 370 to introduce the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954.'



Omar expressed surprise over singling out of Jammu and Kashmir in respect of the special provisions related to State Subject laws notwithstanding the fact that Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern states and Lakshadweep were having almost similar laws regarding ownership of land and definition of domicile regulations.



"The BJP has been hell-bent to trample the special status of Jammu and Kashmir for a long time, which was incidentally their election plank in 2014. But once they came to power, the BJP realized that their designs cannot be achieved politically and therefore a short cut of proxy judicial activism through various affiliated NGOs has been initiated by clandestinely challenging the Article 35-A," he added.



The NC leader warned that abrogation of Article 35-A will not only affect the valley but Jammu and Ladakh regions as well. "People will lose jobs and scholarships not only in the valley but also in Jammu and Ladakh. If the Article is tampered with, you might find that nobody knows your language in the offices you visit as outsiders will take those jobs," Omar said.



The former CM said it is not true that women who marry outside the state face harassment as they lose their right to property, adding the Supreme Court has decided in favour of women owning property in Jammu and Kashmir. "My sisters who are married outside the state own property in Kashmir as much as I do," Omar said.



He also said that Kashmiri separatist leaders had no business talking about Article 35-A as "they do not believe in Indian Constitution."
Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia today said Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should follow his legendary grandfather Lal Bahadur Shastri and resign on moral grounds over the deaths of children at a hospital in Gorakhpur.



Scindia slammed Singh for his reported statement, that "many children die" in the month of August every year at state -run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, and termed it "insensitive".



Shastri, who was the railway minister in the Cabinet of late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had tendered his resignation following the Ariyalur train accident in Tamil Nadu in November 1956 in which over 100 people were killed.



Singh, who belongs to the BJP, is a grandson of Shastri, who later became the prime minister.



"By presenting the hospital's data (related to deaths of children in August in previous years), Singh has shown how insensitive he is in the matter.



"I had hoped he would follow into the footsteps of (his grandfather) Shastri and resign on moral grounds. But it is surprising Singh has not resigned yet," the Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha Scindia told PTI.



The former Union minister said Singh has shown his "insensitiveness" over a serious issue, which is condemnable.



Over 60 children have died at the hospital over the past one week.



Asked about the chances of the Congress in the 2019 general elections, the 46-year-old MP from Guna claimed he is confident his party will do well as the people are "tired" of the Narendra Modi government.



On Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar rejoining hands with the BJP in that state, Scindia said he has "betrayed" the mandate given to the grand alliance (mahagatbandhan of the Congress, RJD, JD-U)) and this will boomerang on him.


Police on Monday arrested five people in Rajasthans Ajmer district for torturing and murdering a woman who was branded as a witch.



"We have arrested Mahaveer, Gopi Chand, Chandra Prakash, Pinki and Sonya in this case. The arrest has been made under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including Section 302 (punishment for murder) and the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, Shankar, sub inspector of Kekri police station in Ajmer told DH.



Superintendent of Police (SP) of Ajmer, Rajendra Singh confirmed that FIR has been registered against five of her relatives.



As per the police, Kanya Devi Raigar died on the spot. In Rajasthans Ajmer district a 39-year-old widow was tortured and beaten to death by her relatives, who accused her of being a witch. The woman subsequently died and was cremated on August 4, according to the complaint.



According to the police, Kalu and Maya, the son and daughter of the 39-year-old woman in a complaint to police, alleged that their mother was ill for some time after her husbands death about a month ago and some relatives allegedly to grab her property branded her as a witch. Woman's relative registered a police complaint on August 11. But police lodged the FIR on August 13 after her daughter and son also lodged the complaint.


President Ram Nath Kovind today pitched for a partnership between citizens and the government to create a New India by 2022 that is a "compassionate society" and includes the "humanist component integral to the nation's DNA".



In his maiden address to the Nation on the eve of 71st Independence Day, Kovind remembered the role of leaders of Independence struggle including Jawaharlal Nehru.



He said the generation that brought us to freedom was diverse which included men and women from all parts of the country and a variety of "political and social thought".



Asking people to draw inspiration from freedom fighters, Kovind said there was a need to invoke the same spirit today for nation building.



"The stress on the moral basis of policy and action, belief in unity and discipline, faith in a synthesis of heritage and science, and promotion of the rule of law and of education  all of it is located in a partnership between citizen and government," he said.



Kovind said that is how India has been built--by a partnership between citizen and government, between individual and society, between a family and the wider community.



"Today, in big cities we may not even know our neighbours. Whether in cities or villages, it is important to renew that sense of caring and sharing. This will make us a gentler and happier society and help us understand each other with greater empathy," he said.



Kovind said this spirit of empathy and of social service and volunteerism is very much alive in India.



"There are so many people and organisations that work quietly and diligently for the poor and the disadvantaged. We should also work with unity and purpose to ensure that the benefits of government policies reach all sections of society," he said.



He said partnership between citizens with government remains crucial to the success of several flagship announcements of the Narendra Modi government like voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy, demonetisation, introduction of GST besides schemes like 'beti bacaho beti padhao', 'Swachh Bharat' among others.



"I am happy that the transition to the GST system has been smooth. It should be a matter of pride for all of us that the taxes we pay are used for nation building--to help the poor and the marginalised, to build rural and urban infrastructure, and to strengthen our border defences," he said.



The President said in the year 2022, the country will complete 75 years of Independence and "it is our national resolve to attain certain desired milestones for a New India by then".



He said a New India means some obvious parameters  like a house for every family, power on demand, better roads and telecom, a modern railway network, rapid and sustained growth.



"And yet there is more. New India must include that integral humanist component that is in our DNA, and which has defined our country and our civilisation. New India must be a society rushing towards the future, but also a compassionate society," Kovind said.



He said it is only with all this that we will build the New India we can cherish  where every Indian is equipped to fulfil his or her potential and do so in a manner that leaves each one of us content and happy.



"I am confident that a strong partnership between citizens and the government will allow us to meet the goals of New India," he said.



Kovind lauded "immense patience and understanding" of the citizens in the days following demonetisation and "whole- hearted support" in the battle against corruption and black money. He said it reflected a responsible and enlightened society.



"Demonetisation has boosted our efforts to build an honest society. We must sustain this spirit and this momentum," he said.



Appreciating the families which gave away LPG subsidy, Kovind said, "Each of us must find a way to give back to society. Each of us must choose one thing we can do to help another, less fortunate Indian".



The single most critical factor for building our nation is to equip our coming generation. We need to ensure that not one child is left behind. As such I would urge you, as fellow nation builders, to help educate underprivileged children in our society, he said.



The President urged people to help at least one child other than their own get educated by enrolling in school, paying their fees and buying them books.


Stunned by the death of 30 children allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh government was probing if demand for bribe had delayed payment of the company that supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital leading to the shortage of the life saving gas.



The government has also directed the district authorities to investigate the charges that a majority of the doctors of the medical college indulged in private practice despite a ban on the same.



''There are allegations of corruption against some medical college doctors...we are investigating if a bribe was demanded for clearing dues of the oxygen supplying company,'' said a health department official here.



The oxygen supplying company had written dozens of letters to the medical college officials and also to the medical education minister seeking payment of its dues, which had mounted to around Rs. 70 lakh. The company had threatened that it would be forced to stop the supply of the gas if the bills were not paid.



Sources said that the government had released part payment of the company on August five but the money had not reached the latter even by August 11. ''We are probing as to what caused the delay,'' the official said.



The suspended principal of the medical college Rajiv Mishra claimed that he had received the money on August 8 but it could not be released owing to his preoccupation following chief minister Yogi Adityanath's visit to the medical college on August nine.



A medical college official said on Monday that stern action would be taken against the doctors, who were found to be indulging in private practice. ''We are preparing a list of such doctors...action will be taken against all of them,'' he added.



30 children, mostly new born, had died allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the hospital in a period of 36-hours between Thursday and Friday.


A day after the killing of its operational chief Yasin Yatoo alias Mehmood Ghaznavi, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Tuesday named Muhammad Bin Qasim as the new "field operational commander" of the outfit.



The announcement was made after Hizbul chief Syed Salah-ud-din headed a meeting of the outfits command council in Muzaffarabad (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir).



The meeting has decided to give the responsibility of operational commander to Muhammad Bin Qasim, Hizbul chief spokesman Saleem Hashmi said in a statement to local news gathering agency KNS.



Ghaznavi along with his two associates were killed in a fierce gun battle in Awneera, Shopian in south Kashmir on Sunday morning. Police termed his killing as a major jolt to Hizbul and a major achievement for the security forces.



As there is no militant by the code name of Muhammad Bin Qasim in the police records, sources said the new commander could be tech-savvy Riyaz Naikoo, considered a moderate among the hardline Hizbul militants.



"Muhammad Bin Qasim name could be given to anyone by the Hizbul. But among the remaining commanders who have the ability to take over, there is Riyaz Naikoo at the number one. The Hizbul leadership in PoK has complete trust on him and he has a good influence over his cadres, a senior police officer told DH.



The other reason for Hizbul to nominate Naikoo as next chief, he said, could be to counter the narrative that militants in Kashmir were fighting for Caliphate and imposition of Sharia. "The Hizbul leadership in Pakistan is under tremendous pressure from ISI after Hizbul former commander Zakir Musa spoke about establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Valley besides threatening separatist leaders," the officer said.



After the killing of Burhan Wani's successor, Sabzar Bhat on May 28, speculation was that Naikoo could take over the reigns of the largest indigenous militant outfit in Kashmir. However, that time the Hizbul preferred Ghaznavi as he was the longest surviving militant in the Valley and had played a key role in recruiting several young men into the outfit.



The Hizbul could use the abilities of 27-year-old tech savvy Naikoo to galvanise support for militancy through social media campaigns, he said. Naikoo along with Saddam Padder and Altaf Kachroo, are among the oldest members of the Hizbul and rated 'A++' category militants who carry a reward of Rs 12 lakh on their heads.



Naikoo, police believe has the edge over both Kachroo, a resident of Kulgam and Padder of Heff, Shopian, as he is much literate than both of them. Kachroo and Padder have not studied beyond Class X while Naikoo is better qualified than the two.



A native of Durbug in Awantipora, Naikoo is said to have escaped from the trap laid down by the security forces several times over the past three years. According to police records, Naikoo after his release in 2014 when he was detained under the public safety (PSA) got recycled into militancy. Naikoo, who is wanted in several killings including those of police officials, was a close associate of slain Burhan Wani and was seen in some photographs with him last year.



Hizbul is almost as old as the Kashmiri militancy which started in the late 80's. The group is made up almost entirely of local youths and had always campaigned for joining Pakistan.
On the eve of his fourth Independence Day address, Congress on Monday gave a wishlist to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it expected him to give an account of his achievements over the last three years.



We expect the prime minister to talk about unemployment, job creation, the Gorakhpur incident and the state of the economy, senior Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters here.



Another leader Ajay Maken wanted the Prime Minister to deliver an apology for the murder of kids in Gorakhpur in his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day.



Former Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde slammed BJP President Amit Shah for dismissing the Gorakhpur tragedy saying that such incidents had happened during Congress rule also.



This is the murder of children in Gorakhpur. As an opposition party it is our duty to hold the ruling party accountable, Shinde said.



Sharma said the Prime Minister had made several tall promises from the Red Fort, and the Congress expected him to give an account of his achievements in his address to the nation on Tuesday.



We hope that Modi will do an honest introspection of his work. He should tell us how many jobs he has created in the last three years against his promise of creating two crore jobs every year, Sharma said.



Maken accused the Uttar Pradesh government of not allowing post-mortem of the kids who died in the Gorakhpur hospital contending that it was an attempt to protect the culprits.



Neither the post-mortem has been done, nor the list of names of children who died have been provided by the state government. If they are not doing the post-mortem, it means they are trying to protect the culprits, Maken said.



Maken said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had flagged the issue of encephalitis in September last year, which fell on deaf ears because of sheer arrogance.
A long-pending proposal to allow foreign universities set up their campuses in India has been put on hold for now.



After several rounds of deliberations on the proposal, the Government has decided to keep its focus on the move to set up 20 'Institutes of Eminence' and build an international brand of the existing higher education institutions in the country.



The Government's immediate challenge is to improve the quality and standard of the country's higher educational institutions as well as build an international brand. Move to establish 20 Institutes of Eminence is part of the strategy, official sources in the Human Resource Development (HRD).



The official response came when asked about the status of the proposal to allow entry of the foreign university campuses in India.



UGC has framed regulations which provide for the operation of the foreign universities in the country under a twinning arrangement with the Indian higher educational institutions. Many of the institutions are joining hands with foreign institutions of repute to offer courses under twinning arrangement, the official added.



The proposal to allow foreign universities set up their campuses in India within the framework of a law to be passed by Parliament or a UGC regulation has been witnessing a flip-flop since a long time.



The Government first came up with a Bill to facilitate foreign university's entry under a legal framework in 1995. But, it could not take off. Another attempt to allow entry of foreign varsities was made in 2005-06 but the draft legislation could not even get the approval of the Cabinet.



During the erstwhile regime of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the HRD Ministry brought a Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010. The Bill, however, failed to pass muster in Parliament and eventually got lapsed in 2014 with the completion of the five-year term of the UPA-II government.



Earlier this year, the Niti Aayog cleared decks for the opening of the foreign university campuses in India after several months of inter-ministerial consultations on the matter.



It suggested the HRD Ministry to either bring in a new legislation to regulate the entry and operation of foreign university campuses in India under the university grants commission (UGC) or amend the UGC Act of 1956 and its regulations to enable their establishment as deemed universities in the country. "Ministry has not a taken any decision on this so far," sources told DH.


Managing editor of Aaj Tak and India Today Supriya Prasad has been elected as the new president of the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA).



Arnab Goswami of the Republic TV and Dibang of the ABP News were elected as vice-presidents of the association.



The Broadcast Editors Association (BEA), at its general body meeting held on August 14, 2017, unanimously elected Supriya Prasad (Managing Editor of Aajtak and India Today) and Ajit Anjum as its President and General Secretary respectively. Dibang (ABP News) and Arnab Goswami ((Republic TV) were elected as Vice-Presidents and Ajay Kumar as Treasurer, the BEA said in a communique on Monday.



A 15-member executive committee was also constituted following the election of the office bearers, it added.



The newly elected president (Supriya Prasad) thanked the outgoing team and appreciated the contribution made by it during its tenure. He also exhorted the new team to work for improving the role of electronic. news media so as to make it more and more public- oriented, the BEA said.



Anjum highlighted the need for expansion of the BEA by the inclusion of editors of the regional channels.



For this purpose, a three-member subcommittee was constituted with Sanjeev Paliwal , Rahul Kanwal and Sanjay Bragta as its members, it added.
After being reportedly pulled up by party president Amit Shah, the Karnataka BJP today announced a week-long agitation against the state government, particularly against Power Minister D K Shivakumar, over "corruption".



Various properties linked to Shivakumar were raided by the Income Tax department for three consecutive days earlier this month.



"The BJP will launch a week-long statewide agitation from Wednesday against the Congress government in general and D K Shivakumar in particular on the issue of corruption," state party chief B S Yeddyurappa said in a statement.



He added that the saffron party had taken a serious note of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah not taking any action against the minister in the wake of the IT raids.



"The government has always been tolerant towards corruption and corrupt people," Yeddyurappa said.

Shah, who is on a three-day visit to Karnataka which concludes today, has reportedly expressed his disappointment with the state BJP leaders over their silence on the "failures" of the state government and on the IT raids.



Asserting that the BJP had always been a party committed to probity in public life and which believed in providing a corruption-free administration, Yeddyurappa said Karnataka had unfortunately become "synonymous with corrupt administration" and earned the epithet of being the "most corrupt government" in the country.



Pointing out that Siddaramaiah had not removed any of his ministers, who had become "tainted" due to corruption charges, the state BJP chief said the agitation would take the form of dharnas, rallies, torch-light processions (by the BJP Yuva Morcha) and silent-protest marches (by the Mahila Morcha).



These would be held at the state, district and taluk levels and a memorandum would also be submitted to the governor, deputy commissioners and tahsildars, he said.



In a swoop down that stirred a huge political controversy, the IT department, on August 2, began raiding various properties linked to Shivakumar, who hosted 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort on the city outskirts, reportedly to forestall alleged "poaching" attempts by the BJP in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha polls in that state.



IT officials said they had seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 15 crore during the raids at about 66 places across the country.



The department is yet to issue an official statement on the outcome of the raids.
BJP President Amit Shah today said the party would fight the next Assembly polls under the leadership of state party chief B S Yeddyurappa and reap electoral benefits because of the goodwill shown by the Modi government towards Karnataka in extending development grants.



"We will fight the election under Yeddyurappaji's leadership... but it is quite natural that the BJP would reap poll benefits by way of goodwill shown to Karnataka by Modi government at the Centre by doling out grants for development," he told reporters here.



On the Siddaramaiah government "playing politics" over Hindi language, Shah said the people of the state understood that he was doing what he was keeping in mind the assembly polls due early next year.



"Why didn't Siddaramaiah raise this issue two days after taking oath as Chief Minister. The fact that he has raised them four months prior to the election, people for sure know he is not serious, but playing vote bank politics," he said.



Shah also slammed the Congress government in the state over the attacks on BJP and Sangh workers. In the last four years, some 30 workers of the Sangh have been killed and attacked, he said.



"What kind of appeasement politics is this? Will the government answer why it let off jailed Popular Front of India activists and revoked all cases against them?" he asked. When asked to respond to Congress' allegation that the BJP government at the Centre was using central agencies to book their leaders during Gujarat MLAs' stay here at a resort, Shah said, "Is it right to keep MLAs as hostage when a part of Gujarat was reeling under floods? Let Congress give reply on it first, then I will answer all their questions."



On the timing of Income Tax raids on state Energy Minister D K Shivakumar's properties, Shah said many such raids have taken place, but why did the Congress not seek resignations of their leaders. Shivakumar was in charge of managing Gujarat MLAs' stay at a resort in Bengaluru.



"Why doesn't Congress seek resignations from their leaders, whose black money and benami property comes to light during raids?" he asked.



Replying to a query, Shah said BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have ordered investigation in corruption charges against their leaders, unlike the Congress government led by Siddarmaiah in Karnataka.



"The BJP initiated a High Court-monitored probe into MP scam (the Vyapam scandal involving recruitment for government jobs and admissions in educational institutions). We did the same in Rajasthan. You must understand the difference. Let Siddaramaiah at least initiate probe into corruption charges," he said.



He said the BJP also suspended two of its Kerala unit leaders for corruption.



Asked about the demand for a separate religion status for Lingayats, the largest community in Karnataka, Shah said "This is a political game of Siddaramaiah." He, however, did not elaborate.



On the Centre's plan to hold state and general elections together next year, Shah said the issue would be taken up for discussion after all parties were taken on board. On BJP's stand on article 35 A relating to special rights and privileges of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "We will place our stand before the court."



The Supreme Court is hearing a plea filed by one Charu Wali Khanna challenging Article 35A of the Constitution and Section six of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution which deal with the permanent residents of the state.



The plea has challenged certain provisions of the Constitution which deny property rights to a Kashmiri woman who marries a person from outside the state.



The provision, which results in forfeiture of the right of such women from the state over ancestral property, also applies to their son.
Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is likely to launch a non-political forum in his fight against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over BJP alliance even as both sides hardened their stand against each other.



While Kumar-led party suspended 21 Bihar-based leaders who are close to the rebel leader, sources said Yadav is determined to stay put with his fight against JD(U) joining hands with the BJP. He would be going ahead with a conference on composite culture on Thursday where he has invited opposition leaders.



Yadav has also invited Maharashtra farmers' leader Raju Shetty of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana, an ally of BJP-led NDA that is not in good terms with the saffron party, as well as Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of B R Ambedkar. Both have accepted the invitation while Opposition leaders from Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad to CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury are also attending the function among other leaders.



Sources said Yadav is likely to announce his plans to launch a forum after the name of the conference 'Sanjha Virasat Bachao Sammelan'. They said one of the names being considered for the forum is 'Save Composite Culture Forum'.



On Monday, Yadav also met CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury with whom he had held discussions soon after Kumar snapped ties with Grand Alliance in Bihar, dealing a blow to opposition unity against Narendra Modi-led BJP.



The conference comes days after Yadav held road shows in Bihar. Several leaders close to him are being targeted by the leadership with 21, including Dalit leader and former minister Ramai Ram, being suspended from the party on Monday for their participation in Yadav's road shows.



In the war of attrition, Yadav camp claims that it has the support of 14 state units. However debunking these claims, JD(U) General Secretary K C Tyagi said only five state units are recognised by the Election Commission.



On Saturday, JD(U) had removed Yadav as the leader of its Parliamentary Party leader while another close aide Ali Anwar Ansari, also a Rajya Sabha MP, was suspended from the party a day before after he attended a joint Opposition meeting called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Heavy rain in the last three days triggered flash floods in parts of Bihar  where 41 people have died so far and 65.37 lakh affected  and inundated large areas in Assam and north Bengal, paralysing normal life and snapping rail link to the northeast.



In Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district, two separate incidents of cloudbursts claimed lives of six people while 10, including six army personnel, went missing.



The flood situation in Assam turned very critical with 32 lakh people in 25 districts affected. Three more persons lost their lives, taking the toll in the second wave of deluge in the state to 18.



In Arunachal Pradesh too, the flood situation continued to be grim in several districts with recurring landslides disrupting road traffic.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the chief ministers of Bihar (Nitish Kumar) and Assam (Sarbananda Sonowal) and assured them of all support from the Centre.



Army, IAF in Bihar

Separate teams of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force (IAF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were pressed into service in different flood-affected districts of Bihar.



Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday undertook an aerial survey of the worst-hit flood-affected districts  Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar and Araria.



Heavy rainfall in Nepal over the last few days has made rivers in Bihar, particularly Gandak, Mahananda, Kankai and Kosi, wreak havoc in different districts bordering the Himalayan kingdom, said Nitish after winding up his visit.



Nitish, who earlier spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, expressed satisfaction over the Centres timely assistance.



At least 17 trains, including the New Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express, were cancelled after flood water submerged railway tracks at the Kishanganj station.

Meanwhile on Monday, IAF choppers were used to distribute food packets among the flood-hit who were brought to relief camps or remained stranded on roads, particularly NH 31.



Assam toll at 102

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority, the toll in this years flood-related incidents in the state climbed to 102. Till Sunday, 22.5 lakh people were hit by the latest wave of flood across 21 districts.



Dhubri is the worst affected with 7.79 lakh people affected by the deluge, followed by Morigaon where 3.83 lakh people have been hit.



Currently, the Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, Goalpara and Dhubri towns.



The second wave of floods in Assam have submerged rhino habitats in Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, forcing the animals to take shelter on highlands.



According to an official, over 85% of the 430-sqkm Kaziranga National Park, is inundated.



Bengal wall collapse

Though the incessant downpour eased a little on Monday in north Bengal, two persons died after a mud wall collapsed in Gangarampur area. However, the flood situation continued to remain grim across the entire region.



Train services to the Northeast from the rest of the country, which passes through a vast stretch of north Bengal, have been suspended till Wednesday due to floods and waterlogging on railway tracks in West Bengal and also in neighbouring Assam and Bihar.



North Bengal-bound trains and buses from Kolkata have also been suspended due to inundated tracks and waterlogging on major thoroughfares, including National Highways 31, 31D, 55 and 512.



A key bridge on NH 31D linking Falakata with Alipurduar was washed away in the wee hours of the day as the gushing waters of Torsha river hit it.
A day after pulling up the state unit for its lax attitude, BJP president Amit Shah on Monday curtly told local leaders to either deliver or quit.



Chairing the state core-committee meeting, that went into the early hours of Monday, Shah said that he expects visible progress and improvement in the partys image in the coming weeks, failing which he will be forced to crack the whip.



Shah also told the 12-member core-committee members, including state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa and K S Eshwarappa, that he will have no option but to sack a few if they fail to deliver.



On Sunday, the BJP president expressed strong displeasure at the lack of aggressiveness in the state unit to take on the ruling Congress.



Shah, who has held four rounds of core-committee meetings during his three-day stay in Bengaluru, told the leaders that he will be returning in September and expects results by then.



Must win election

Shah told state leaders to shun all differences and focus on winning the Assembly polls. He sought immediate steps to strengthen the party at the booth-level and boost the morale of the workers.



Shah said corruption will be the main issue in the Assembly polls and asked local leaders to chalk out a detailed action plan to take on the Congress.



Interestingly, the state leaders swung into action within hours after the meeting.



Yeddyurappa announced a state-wide agitation against the Congress government for shielding corrupt ministers, including Energy Minister D K Shivakumar who faced I-T raids recently.



The BJP will organise protests, rallies, two-wheeler rallies, torchlight processions and silent protests at the state, district and taluk levels, said Yeddyurappa.



Addressing reporters before concluding his three-day visit, Shah attacked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for not acting against Shivakumar.



The government is shameless. One gets the feeling that the government considers corruption as a badge of honour. It takes pleasure in winning medal after medal, he said.



On Siddaramaiahs statement that his move to galvanise the state unit will not affect the Congress, Shah said, Why did he make that statement?...Is he afraid of my presence here? Let him comment when the counting process is complete."



The BJP chief also charged the Congress of playing politics on providing separate religion tag for Veerashaiva-Lingayat dharma, official status for the state and primacy to the Kannada language.



The fact that Siddaramaiah has raised these issues just months prior to the election makes it obvious that he is playing vote-bank politics, Shah added.
A specially-designed American aircraft, that will be used to take up cloud seeding, landed at the Jakkur airfield on Monday.



The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department is planning to start cloud seeding tentatively from August 18 at a cost of Rs 35 crore, covering areas that have received deficit rainfall. The target is to cover the basins of Cauvery, Malaprabha and Tungabhadra rivers.



Cloud seeding, which involves spreading aerosols (silver iodide or sodium chloride) into the upper part of clouds to stimulate the precipitation process to form rains, was last taken up in the state in 2003 under the S M Krishna government. Back then, the 83-day exercise was successful, the department officials said.



The aircraft, which is a Beechcraft King Air with a rate of climb of 2,460-feet per minute, has been manufactured by North Dakota-based Weather Modification LLC, the same company that provided an aircraft for the 2003 cloud seeding drive. RDPR Minister H K Patil inspected the aircraft at the Jakkur airfield.



So far, since June, Karnataka's rainfall has been 26% less than what was expected. The north and south interior parts of the state, including the coast, have received deficit rainfall, according to the Meteorology department data.



The cloud seeding will be aided by three radars that are being installed at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru, Shorapur in Yadgir district and one in Gadag. These radars  expected to be commissioned in a couple of days  will help authorities identify clouds that are suitable for seeding.





In July 2008, Patil took up a private initiative to initiate cloud seeding in Gadag, Haveri and Dharwad districts, which resulted in increase in rainfall in the range of 20 mm to 45 mm, a statement said.
For the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) officials, it has become a challenging task to identify the fake mark cards. The duplicate certificates carry original seal, stickers, signature and have been produced out of original Bank Papers, which are used by the KSOU officially.



Interestingly, the fake documents is suspected to have being printed in a printing press located at the second floor of KSOUs administrative block.



According to sources, out of 990 marks cards, which have been seized from the accused, who were arrested by the City Crime Branch (CCB) police recently, 514 are claimed to be duplicate and the authorities are verifying the remaining certificates.



The authorities could come to a conclusion as the certificates have been proved fake only after verifying the names on the certificate compared with the admission list. The names do not figure in the admission list.



It may be mentioned that the CCB police have arrested 10 people, out of 13 suspects, including employees of the KSOU, recently. KSOU Assistant Registrar Siddaraju, temporary employees Prajwal and Shivanna, are among them. Three others are absconding.



According to a police officer, Prajwal, who was a temporary worker in KSOU, used to provide the details of fake certificate aspirants, along with the marks to be printed, to the authorities of the Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM), which was an official company appointed by the KSOU to print certificates. After printing the fake certificates, Shivanna used to get them sealed and signed by Assistant Registrar Siddaraju. The police said, the accused were also running educational institutions in parts of the state.



DH News Service


The High Court of Karnataka has taken objection to the decision of the government to appoint special public prosecutors (SPPs) to certain cases, on the request of the complainants.



Justice A S Bopanna, while granting stay on the notification appointing K B K Swamy as special public prosecutor in a medical negligence case, sought to know if the government was trying to send a message that public prosecutors are incapable and special public prosecutors are specially appointed through government orders.



The petitioner - Dr P Ashok, an anaesthesiologist at Santosh Hospital, had administered anaesthesia to Kapali Patne, who was scheduled to undergo elective caesarean section.



However, the patient along with her child died on the operation theatre table in April 2010.



Kapalis husband Parikshit Dalal had named Ashok and others in the case.

Ashok, in his petition, has contended that there are no special circumstances to appoint a SPP in the case.



He said the governments notification says the complainant should bear the fees and expenses of the SPP, which is arbitrary and unconstitutional. Ashok has sought directions to quash the appointment of the SPP.



Advocate C H Hanumantharaya was Dalals pecial public prosecutor, appointed by the government for the past seven years. He recently retired from the case.



DH News Service
Let the Congress and the BJP do anything they want. It is time for me to face the electoral battle, said former prime minister and MP H D Deve Gowda.



Speaking at a programme at Bookanabetta under Hirisave hobli in Channarayapatna taluk on Monday, Gowda said, he has performed puja at the temples of Mavinakere Ranganathaswamy and Lord Shiva, his family deities. I am confident that the people of the state will bless and support the regional party, he said.



Reacting to a question on the preparations being made by the national parties  the Congress and the BJP  to face the elections, Gowda said, Battle time is approaching. For me, the people are Janardhan (god). I will fight for their cause. We will wait and see whether the regional party, the JD(S), will survive or not.



Commenting on the recent visit of BJP president Amit Shah to the Adichunchanagiri Mutt in Nagamangala, Mandya district, Gowda said, everyone visits religious centres. Similarly, Amit Shah too has visited the mutt and there is no need to find fault in his visit, he said.



However, Deve Gowda declined to react to a question on Kannada actor Upendra entering politics.


The 71st Independence Day celebrations will usher in cheer and new hope for hundreds of thalassaemic in Dakshina Kannada district.



A thalassaemia day care centre with six beds in RAPCC building (second floor) in district Wenlock Hospital will be inaugurated on August 15 at 11 am, said Wenlock Hospital superintendent and district surgeon Dr Rajeshwari Devi H R.



The day care centre and blood bank will be shifted to a permanent building, that is being constructed near Lions Limbs Centre in the hospital premises, she said.

District early intervention officer and nodal officer for hemoglobinopathies Dr U V Shenoy said that though the district has seven medical colleges, there are no centre of excellence for clinical management of thalassaemia.



The centre will be a boon for hundreds of patients suffering from thalassaemia and related hemoglobinopathies. The centre will provide holistic, systematic management and cure to children suffering from thalassaemia, sickle cell disease among others. Earlier children had to visit different centres for proper blood transfusion, medicines, routine investigation among others, he said.



The centre, in partnership with the Bengaluru-based Sankalp India Foundation (SIF), Indian Womens Association (IWA) in Kuwait, Seva Bharati and Kalpa Trust will be able to provide consultation with international experts.



In addition, the centre will provide oral iron-chelating drugs, folic acid, calcium tablets, portable infusion pumps for those who need aggressive chelation therapy, free of cost.Treatment will also be provided to thalassaemia intermedia with minimum blood transfusion and hydroxyl urea. The centre will conduct HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) typing of all thalassaemics in order to promote bone marrow transplant surgeries.



Several programmes



The centre will create awareness, screen parents and start an antenatal screening programme for pregnant mothers, Dr Shenoy informed. With the help of department of Life sciences, KMC Manipal, the centre will initiate research on genetic mutations in thalassaemia, he said.



Dr Tahseen Khan of Indian Womens Association (IWA), Kuwait, sponsoring medicines and scholarships to thalassaemics for the last seven years, has promised all help to the centre.



Seva Bharati has been supporting thalassaemics by organising blood donation camps regularly, maintaining blood donors register, providing Iron chelating tablets, supporting parents awareness meetings among others. Seva Bharati with help from a donor has donated ILR (a cooler) to the centre, said Dr Shenoy.



Sankalp India Foundation (SIF) president Lalith Parmar said that the centre in Wenlock Hospital is fourth such centre in Karnataka (two in Bengaluru and one in Belagavi).



We intend to reach out to every child suffering from thalassaemia and help them lead a life free from such blood disorders, he said. Dr Shenoy hoped to enroll a minimum 200 children in the centre within a year.






Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday took a dig at BJP president Amit Shah for sitting crosslegged in front of Adichunchanagiri Mutt seer Nirmalanandanatha Swami.



One should show respect to pontiffs and follow etiquette. Perhaps, Shah doesnt know how to behave, Siddaramaiah told reporters seeking his reaction on the issue.



On Sunday, Shah visited the seer in what was seen as a move to woo the Vokkaliga community, which holds the Mutt in high reverence. However, Shah courted controversy when a picture showing him seated crosslegged in front of the seer went viral. Sitting with one leg crossed on top of the other is considered informal and disrespectful.



The chief minister also hit back at Shah for calling the Karnataka government Indias most corrupt. He has no moral right to speak on corruption when he has corrupt people flanking him all the time. In the last four years, Congress has given a scam-free administration in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said.



Earlier in the day, Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda targeted the Siddaramaiah government for not waiving loans taken by farmers from nationalised banks. Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra wrote off farm loans taken from nationalised banks. It wont be a new thing if Karnataka does it. It was under the Modi government that we gave interest-free loans to sugarcane factories and ensured that 90% farmers got their dues. Also, the devolution of central funds to states is up from 32% to 42%. It is the state governments responsibility to ensure the excess 10% reaches farmers, Gowda said.



Siddaramaiah responded by pointing out that former prime ministers, Manmohan Singh and V P Singh, had waived farm loans worth Rs 72,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore, respectively. If he (Manmohan Singh) could do it, why cant Modi? If the BJP doesnt do it, they are anti-farmer, he said.



DH News Service
Even as the parishioners of Holy Cross Church in Cordel are fighting to recover more than Rs 5 crore misappropriated by the then parish priest, a parishioner from Urwa has filed a criminal case against the Urwa former parish priest Rev Fr Victor DMello, who is presently the parish priest of Our Lady of Remedies at Kirem, near Kinnigoli.



According to the complaint, Fr DMello has misappropriated over Rs 11 lakh allegedly after forging the will of

parishoner Annie Pais, a spinster, and taking her thumb impression soon after she breathed her last on July 31, 2010.



Urwa police have filed a criminal case against Fr Victor DMello under Section 200 CrPC for the offences punishable under Sections 420 (cheating), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 465, 467, 468, 469, 471 and 474 (all pertaining to limitations for taking cognizance of offences), based on a complaint by Winnie Pinto, the neice of Annie Pais. Cases have also been filed against Irene Lobo (a friend of Annie Pais, who transferred Annie Pais money to Fr DMello), Kevin Ajay Martis (then vice president of Urwa parish council) and Jenevive B Mathias (then secretary of parish council and also kin of Fr DMello). Both Kevin and Jenevive have signed as witnesses to the alleged fake will.



Loopholes in fake will



The last will (original) and testament of Annie Pais dated February 4, 2008 is in English and has all the details such as her moveable and immovable properties (A and B schedule), cash at bank, fixed deposits, death bed charges and funeral expenses besides name of the person who drafted the will (C T J Gonsalves), notary (Clarence Pais), executor of the will (Joseph DSouza), witnesses and signed by herself (Annie Pais).



On the other hand, according to sources in police department, there are several loopholes in the second will as several details which are mentioned in her original will are missing in her last will dated June 18, 2010 (prepared 43 days before her death). Neither there is any mention about the person who drafted the will, executor nor the same has been notarised.



In fact, there is no mention about her immovable properties, which are worth several crores, in the June 18, 2010 will. However, all details of all her FDs are mentioned in the will.



Four major blunders



There are four major blunders in her last will. While the first blunder is that there is no signature of Annie Pais (who was very healthy, educated and celebrated her 84th birthday on July 11, 2010 with all her friends and relatives (20 days before her death), the second blunder is that there is left thumb impression of Pais in the will (as per the law, always a womans right thumb impression is taken and NOT left). The third blunder is that the first para of the will says that details of immovable properties.... whereas there is no mention of even single immovable property in the will.



The fourth blunder is that the will prepared on June 18, 2010 has details of receipts of a Rs 1,00,000 FD maturing on June 24, 2010 (It is not possible to know the receipt number of a FD which is maturing 6 days after...!).



Pressure mounting

Soon after the police filed the criminal case against the priest, pressure is mounting on complainants to withdraw the complaint. While a priest with a delegation visited the complainant, after his attempts to summon the complainant to church went in vain, a few others too have tried their level best to brainwash her, but in vain.


BJP national president Amit Shah on Monday dismissed the Congress demand for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths resignation over the death of children in the Gorakhpur hospital, saying such incidents had happened during the Congress rule too.



Replying to queries at a press conference here, Shah said it was natural for the Congress to ask for Adityanaths resignation. This is not the first time such an incident has taken place in our country. Such incidents have taken place during the Congress rule in many states. He said Adityanath had announced a time-bound probe into the matter and a report will be made public soon. On why prime minister had not tweeted on the tragedy, he said, The Prime Minister had expressed his grief over the incident and Twitter is not the only medium to convey a message.
The ruling Congress and principal Opposition party BJP on Monday decided to hold talks with their respective party leaders in Goa in an effort to finding an out-of-court solution to the Mahadayi river water dispute.



BJP leader Jagadish Shettar said a delegation of party leaders will soon meet Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and try to convince him to hold talks with the Karnataka government on the issue. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also agreed to hold talks with Congress leaders in Goa in this regard.



However, the parties sought to pass the buck on each other on finding an amicable solution to the issue. The leaders were speaking to reporters after attending an all-party meeting on the issue. The meeting was convened by the chief minister.



Out-of-court settlement is possible if Congress leaders in Karnataka convince their partymen in Goa, Shettar, also the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said. Cooperation of the opposition party leaders (Congress) in Goa is important for resolving the issue, he added.



To this, Siddaramaiah said his government would reach out to the Congress in Goa while the next course of action would still depend on state BJP leaders convincing Parrikar to sit across the table.



We are an elected government and we will speak to the elected government in Goa. It will be unprecedented if we speak to the opposition party, but we will still do it. I hope the BJP convinces the Goa chief minister, Siddaramaiah said.



Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said the BJP delegation from Karnataka is likely to visit Goa only after August 28. There is a code of conduct in place in Goa, where two Assembly constituencies have bye-elections. We will go there after the polls, he added.

The two states have locked horns over implementing the Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project. Maharashtra is also a party to this dispute. But the Maharashtra government has already agreed to participate in talks if it is organised.



This apart, BJP leader K S Eshwarappa and KPCC working president S R Patil clashed over the issue of Prime Minster Narendra Modis intervention to resolve the Mahadayi dispute. Eshwarappa pointed out that former prime minister Manmohan Singh could have easily intervened to resolve the issue, but he didnt. This angered Patil, who sought to know what the BJP-led government planned to do.



DH News Service
A section of RSS functionaries, who interacted with BJP national president Amit Shah on Monday, are said to have expressed their concern about the lack of aggression in the state unit of the BJP.



As many as 25 RSS and Sangh members held an hour-long interaction with Shah at RSS state headquarters Keshva Krupa in Bengaluru. Shah is learnt to have told the functionaries that he is in the process of taking stringent measures to pep up the party in the run-up to the polls.



The functionaries stated that their request to BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa to change his style of functioning and take seniors into confidence before taking major decisions related to the party had met a dead-end.



Shah said he will address the issue. Besides, Shah was told that the BJP should have played a more active role in condemning the killing of RSS functionaries, sources said.



Party wings also not spared

Earlier, Shah took representatives of various departments of the party like IT Cell, Social Media Cell, Lawyers Cell to task for not showing sufficient progress.



I am very disappointed.....This is not the way to function. Take this as a warning. The next time I am here, there should be results, he is understood to have told the meeting.



Shah also met leaders who had joined the party recently, including S M Krishna, Jayaprakash Hedge among others.



DH News Service
The son of popular Kannada actor Jaggesh was stabbed in the thigh by a motorist in what the police described as a road rage incident in northern Bengaluru on Monday morning.



Gururaj was driving his son to school in a Skoda when the driver of a Maruti Swift overtook him, brushing against his automobile at Mattadahalli near RT Nagar around 8.30 am.



Gururaj accelerated and bumped into the motorist at CQAL Circle. Both of them got off their cars and got into a heated argument. Suddenly, the other person pulled a knife out of his car and tried to stab Gururaj in the abdomen. The actors son, who is a sportsperson, jumped to dodge the attack but ended up getting stabbed in the left thigh. The suspect then drove off.



Gururajs left thigh required nine stitches at a private hospital. He was discharged later. Gururaj said: He drove recklessly and hit my car. I got off and objected to his rash driving. He tried to stab me. I jumped to avoid the stab in my abdomen, but he wounded me in the left thigh. My son was in the car. There were many people, but nobody came to my rescue. It wasnt the attack but peoples silence that hurt me.



The jurisdictional RT police have the vehicles registration number and are hunting for the driver who has been identified as Shivashankar, a small-time realtor. The car is, however, owned by Sulochana Krishnegowda, a resident of Hebbal. The suspect has been booked for attempted murder.



Police said they verified Shivashankars background and found that he had no criminal record.



We are yet to make the arrest and retrieve the weapon used in the stabbing, a senior police officer told DH.

The suspect is said to have gone into hiding after learning that his victim is Jaggeshs son.



DH News Service
The Supreme Court on Monday asked for initiating the process for installing CCTV cameras in trial courts and tribunals across the country.



A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit said it would be useful to achieve the objective of transparent judicial system.



It was time that every word uttered during the proceedings could be recorded, the court said.



"We are a court of records. Every word should be recorded. We don't see any problem with this," the bench said. The court asked all the 24 high courts to initiate the process of installing CCTV cameras inside courtrooms. It also noted that the proceedings in the US courts were recorded and were available on YouTube.



Acting on a petition by Pradyuman Bisht, the court had in March directed for installing CCTV at least in two trial courts on a trial basis. On Monday, the court directed for audio recording of the proceedings.



It asked high courts to devise modalities and complete the exercise as soon as possible. It gave one month to the Union Ministry of Information Technology and Department of Justice to come up with standards of technical specifications and pricing of these CCTV cameras.



However, the court said the recordings would not be available under the Right to Information Act.



Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh submitted that out of the 24 high courts, 12 are complying the directions, while West Bengal, Hyderabad, Tripura, Sikkim etc have not complied so far.


Nursing colleges have moved the High Court of Karnataka challenging the single-bench order which had stated that the Indian Nursing Council does not have the authority to grant recognition to institutions imparting the nursing course. Adichunchanagiri College of Nursing and 29 other nursing colleges moved the court contending that the Indian Nursing Council has the authority.



The Karnataka State Association of the Management of Nursing and Allied Health Science Institutions and others had earlier approached the court seeking directions to rule out the authority claimed by the council and said that they are governed only by the university to which their institution is affiliated or to the Medical Council of India.



A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar adjourned the next hearing until August 21.



Notice to govt

The High Court of Karnataka on Monday ordered notice to the state government in a petition filed by Rajeshwari Shetty, the wife of Udupi-based businessman Bhaskar Shetty, who was murdered under mysterious circumstances.



Rajeshwari moved the court challenging the death certificate issued by the Karkala tahsildar. She contended that the police had not found her husbands body or any of his remains but still a death certificate had been issued. Bhaskar Shetty went missing from his house and later his wife Rajeshwari Shetty is alleged to have confessed to having killing him. Justice A S Bopanna ordered notice in the matter.

DH News Service
Police have booked three people for criminal negligence over the death of a 13-year-old girl in a BBMP park in MVJ Layout, east Bengaluru.



The FIR registered by the jurisdictional Mahadevapura police is against the contractor responsible for installing play equipment in the park, an unnamed BBMP official and the watchman.



A senior police officer said investigation would fix culpability on the BBMP official. It could be an assistant engineer (AE), assistant executive engineer (AEE) or the joint commissioner, the officer said.

Police investigation shows that the play equipment were brought to the park a week ago. Local residents, especially an elderly woman, had argued with the guard and forced him to open the park for evening walk. The park was left open ever since.



On Saturday, Priya Gowda, whose house is located about two kilometres away, visited a friend who lives near the park. From there, she and her two friends went into the park. Shortly thereafter, a playground slide crashed on her, inflicting grievous injuries on the head. She died later.



Rs 7 lakh ex gratia

On Monday, Mayor G Padmavathi announced ex gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh for Priyas family. We will hand over the money to her family on August 19, she told DH. KR Puram MLA Byrathi Basavaraj has announced Rs 2 lakh for the family.


Many doctors are concerned about the justice delivery systems delay in deciding on adolescent rape victims who end up delivering babies.



Recently, the Supreme Court had denied permission for termination of pregnancy of a 10-year-old who was raped by her uncle in Chandigarh.



Many doctors in Bengaluru opined that delayed decisions by courts put adolescents at a risk of having to deliver the baby which adds to their trauma.



Doctors said families of rape victims are scared to reveal the incident due to fear and shame, because of which reporting of these incident gets delayed.



This delays an option for abortion.



According to Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, pregnancy should not exceed 20 weeks before it is terminated.



By the time court approves abortion, the girl would have reached full pregnancy, said Dr Vidya Desai, consultant, obstetrician and gynaecologist, Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru.



She said victims should find it easier to come forward and seek medical intervention. Emotional, physical and social trauma make them hide the incident.



Doctors say that in certain cases, foetal abnormality is detected after 20 weeks, or the victim may report it later. The 20-week limit should be prolonged for greater good, they said.



Pregnancy before 18 is never safe. The uterus is under-developed. The pelvic bones and spine are not developed enough to carry the weight of a pregnancy without damage.



The cervix and birth canal are narrow, and a vaginal delivery would run a serious risk of obstructed labour, making it a cause of maternal death, said Dr Manisha Singh, consultant gynaecologist, Fortis Hospital.



Abortion is anytime a better option than a delivery if it is known earlier, she added.



Dr Savitha C, professor and head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, said teenage pregnancy is a risk.



If there is a choice, the court should hasten the process so that it does not reach a stage where abortion is impossible.



Carrying the pregnancy to term and delivering is a complication for the mother. A teenagers body is not ready for pregnancy, there is a risk of blood pressure. The body does not have enough volume, even a normal loss of blood at that time is risky, said Dr Anupama Rani, department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Sakra World Hospital.



Doctors says each case is different. A gynaecologist, child psychologist and paediatrician should decide together what is less traumatic as both abortion and delivery are traumatic, said Dr Vidya.



DH News Service




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The Bomb Squad carried a controlled explosion on Exmouth beach on Sunday night after a suspicious item was found.

Two young holidaymakers had discovered the suspicious item on the main beach at Queens Drive while playing.

They picked up the item and put it in a bucket and brought it to Exmouth Coastguards, who were supporting the Exmouth RNLI as part of their open day.

Coastguard crews could not identify the item and so the Royal Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal were called.

Cordons were put in place on open ground on the Maer and the item was destroyed in a controlled explosion on the beach just after 6pm.

An Exmouth Coastguard spokesman said: While supporting our colleagues at the Exmouth RNLI open day we were approached by two young holiday makers with something they'd dug up on the beach. This failed our test for pyrotechnics and as it could not be identified it was moved to open ground on the Maer.

A 100m cordon was in place and photos were mailed via the maritime operations centre to the Royal Navy for identification as it may contain highly toxic and dangerous phosphorus.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: We were alerted at 1.20pm by the coastguard that a suspicious device has been located on Exmouth seafront. It was a small cylinder around 15cm in diameter and although it was rusty and corroded, it was still in tact.

The item had been moved onto wasteland behind the lifeboat station and cordons around the site were put in place.

The Royal Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal from Plymouth were called and they blow up the item on the beach just after 6pm, and then cordons reopened.

An Exmouth Coastguard spokesman added: If you see or find something suspicious on the beach you shouldn't touch it. Move well away, at least 30metres, and call the coastguard on 999.

Coastguard officers are trained to identify pyrotechnics even if damaged and have appropriate PPE. Non pyrotechnics are dealt with by the Royal Navy.

The item looks innocent enough doesn't it? But I can assure you it wasn't and we knew what the right thing to do was.

Phosphorous grenades/flares can cause life threatening injuries and even death.

If in doubt, don't touch, Dial 999 and ask for COASTGUARD.
Two months after the Northwoods Blues Festival relocated from Spooner to Chippewa Falls, another summer event has found a new, much larger home at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds: the Eau Claire Big Rig Truck Show.

Held in the parking lot of the Chippewa Valley Technical Colleges Eau Claire campus for its first seven years, the show is moving north into Chippewa Falls to give out free semi rides, pit monster trucks against cars and parade big rigs down Bridge Street on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Terry Biddle, show organizer, said the event has free admission and is family-friendlybut job-seekers might be interested as well. Weve never charged for the show. You can come in, spend a couple days looking around...but youve also got people like Kenworth, companies looking for drivers across the Midwest, Biddle said.

Biddle noted attendees will be charged $5 for parking to contribue to venue costs.

Attractions include almost any type of truck imaginable: antique trucks, fire and first responder vehicles, U.S. Army military trucks, semis and monster trucks. But fans might be just as enthusiastic about the drivers: this weekend, fans of the History Channel might bump into Alex Debogorski, star of Ice Road Trucker; drag racing buffs might recognize Alex Laughlin, NHRA race car driver.

One of the two main attractions, Biddle says, is the Monster Truck Throwdown, held at the fairgrounds new grandstand: six monster trucks will attempt to jump a lineup of 14 cars, four vans and two buses. A motocross stunt team will also entertain the crowd. The Throwdown will take place on Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m.; tickets are $12.50 for children and $20 for adults.

The other headlining attraction will bring the trucks into the heart of Chippewa Falls downtown. Mainly, were known for a fantastic parade, Biddle said. Formerly held in Eau Claire, the parade will begin on the north end of Bridge Street at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday and end at the roundabout next to Allen Park.

Biddle believes the fairgrounds will remain a solid venue for the sprawling event. This fairground is just a diamond in the rough, he said.

Fairgrounds executive director Rusty Volk believes the two large events that relocated to Chippewa Falls this summerBlues Fest and the Big Rig Truck Showare a boon to the community and the citys future. I absolutely feel the grandstand and stage will have appeal for a number of other events, he said. Thats one of the reasons we needed to have the event (here): to grow, operate and bring tourism to Chippewa Valley.

The Big Rig Truck Show will take place at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, 225 Edward St., Friday through Sunday. Gates will open at 10:00 a.m. Find a full Big Rig Truck Show schedule at www.eauclairebigrigtruckshow.com. Purchase tickets for the Monster Truck Throwdown at www.nwsfa.com/events/2017/big-rig-truck-show-monster-trucks.
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A dentistry student charged with seven terror offences is to be tried at the Old Bailey.

Abdurahman Kaabar, 22, of Martin Street, Sheffield, who was studying in Devon, is charged with three offences of possessing records of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, and four offences of disseminating terrorist publications.

He was arrested on August 10 and has been in custody since.

Thickly bearded Kaabar, wearing a dark blue T-shirt and bottoms with flip-flops, remained expressionless throughout the Westminster Magistrates' Court hearing.

Kaabar, a UK citizen of Libyan descent, was studying at Plymouth University, according to court documents.

He was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on September 1.

Kaabar intends to plead not guilty to the charges, defence lawyer Sav Khan said.
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Police received a report of what is believed to be the attempted theft of a dog in Teignmouth on Saturday, and are appealing for information from anyone who might have seen anything suspicious.

At 9pm on Saturday, a local fisherman left his Cocker Spaniel tied up to railings at Den Promenade in the town while he retrieved some items from the beach. When he returned, he found a man trying to untie the dog.

The fisherman retrieved his dog, but now police are appealing for anyone with information or CCTV in the area to get in touch.

A police spokesman said: The male suspect is described as white, late 20s, wearing a shirt, dark coloured hair and of medium build. He was in company with two other males.

We ask for anyone with information or CCTV in the area to contact police via 101@dc.police.uk or by calling 101 quoting crime CR/067847/17.
A developer has successfully ported the Google camera app for other devices which are powered by Snapdragon 820, 821 or 835

Google Pixels camera app has been praised time and again for snapping great pictures with good amount of details. This is in part due to the contribution of the software used by the Pixel which processes the photographs using HDR+. A Ukrainian developer B-S-G has posted a modified version of the Google Camera app with added HDR+ feature. He has successfully made the app capable of running on Snapdragon 820/821 and Snapdragon 835 chipsets.

XDA has tried the app on various smartphones such as the OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, OnePlus 5, LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8. According to XDA, the phones could click good photos in varied conditions. The modified app has also been independently tested and verified by Amir Zaidi at XDA to be safe and doesnt contain any malicious code. XDA also explains,  the modified Google Camera app with HDR+ support does indeed seem to work with Googles HDR+ technology, as the notification that the app is processing HDR appeared after each picture and there was a clear difference in the pictures after it was done processing.

Image credits: XDA developers

XDA also got in touch with the Ukrainian developer to ask him more about his work and the apps future. Asking about how he got the app to work on other devices, he replied I took Nexus 6 as entry device to spoof. Then you just take needed device from HDR-supported (like Nexus 5X/6P or Pixels) list and replace all necessary stuff to get different processing. I spent about 6-8 hours to get it work. 2 evenings of suffering. Saying more about his plans for the app, he said its a beta version and he is trying to get the front camera to work with disabled flashlight. He also said he has no plans to support any specific device as of now but might make his own modified versions with different devices. Also, he said, Every device works differently with HDR+ and its better to find the favorite one yourself. I already have at least 5 different versions here on forum (4pda) with different processing algorithm (2 hybrids, Nexus 6P, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 XL).

There have been, however, a number of references made to Muskie in the modified apps code when compared with the original app. The Muskie, was the codename for the third Pixel phone which was canceled. It could be the case that the app is being tricked in the sense that it is running on an unreleased Pixel device. You can try the app here.
The Floating Bar would work in a manner similar to that of the Secondary display, but can be removed if not needed. The phone is also tipped to come with facial recognition and voice unlock

LG is tipped to launch its V30 smartphone on August 31 and the company has now teased some of the UI features of the phone. The company says that the phone will come with LGs UX 6.0+, which is an improved version of the UI that was introduced in the LG G6. The company notes that the new UI is optimised to work better with the 18:9 OLED FullVision display. LG adds that the V30 will features its first OLED FullVision display. The new additions in the UI include a Floating Bar, improved security features and an improved camera UI.

LG notes that that the Second Screen feature, that was a trademark feature of the V10 and V20, is now evolved to become Floating Bar. The semi-transparent bar will allow users to access frequently used apps and functions. Users can also drag the floating bar off the display when not needed. Further, the Always-on Display is also customisable and can be used to display Quick Tools, Music Player or a picture.

Security features include - facial recognition to unlock the device that can work when the display is off. Further, Voice Recognition to unlock the phone without the need to press a button. The company notes that the feature is supported by Qualcomms Aqstuc Voice UI technology, which uses little battery power.

Another feature is integration with Graphy, which can be accessed in the cameras manual mode. This will allow users to choose from a number professional shots taken by photographers and apply that metadata presets (white balance, shutter speed, aperture and ISO) to photos taken by the phone. Users will also be able to take GIF, while the Create Movie option will allow them to create movies using photos or videos, which can then be edited using the Quick Video Editor.

The company has already confirmed that the camera on the V30 will have an aperture size of f/1.6. The company claims that this will allow the phone to take 25 percent brighter images as compared to the LG V20.

In related news, ETNews reports that the LG V30 and V30 Plus will be released together on September 15, and are estimated to cost between 800,000 KRW (approx Rs 44,900) and 1,000,000 KRW (approx Rs 56,200). The phone is tipped to sport a dual rear camera setup, Snapdragon 835, 6GB of RAM and a 3200mAh battery. It is also expected to have a IP68 certification like its predecessor.
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Intel Xeon D-2100 processor

Intel has introduced the new Intel Xeon D-2100 processor, a system-on-chip (SoC) processor architected to address the needs of edge applications and other data center or network applications constrained by space and power. The Intel Xeon D-2100 processor extends the Xeon Scalable platform from the heart of the data center to the network edge and web tier, where network operators and cloud service providers face the need to continuously grow performance and capacity without increasing power consumption, said the vendor. Intel Xeon D-2100 processors will enable greater performance and hardware-enhanced security to the network edge in support of the growing number of workloads that demand more compute, analytics and data protection closer to endpoint devices. For example, the new processors will help communications service providers CoSPs offer multi-access edge computing (MEC), which allows software applications to tap into local content and real-time information about local-access network conditions, reducing mobile core network of network congestion. This can enable uses cases ranging from 5G-connected cars, smart stadiums, and retail and medical solutions, said Intel.
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Tolls will be eliminated on a highway in El Paso, and Dallas has rejected plans to build a new toll road. One state official blames toll fatigue."



By DAVID WARREN

Associated Press

DALLAS  Texas officials have recently moved to scrap tolls on several highways for the first time in 40 years, bucking a national trend toward more tolls on mostly urban roadways to shift the costs of transportation to those who use the roads.

A regional authority voted last week to eliminate tolls on the Cesar Chavez Border Highway in El Paso. On the same day, some 600 miles away, the Dallas city council rejected plans to build a toll road along the Trinity River near downtown. The council's action appears to be the death knell for a toll project that was debated for decades as a way to alleviate congestion along a network of aging, narrow highways.





. . .
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The biggest mall in the United States is celebrating its 25th anniversary with cupcakes and party hats.

The Star Tribune reports that the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, will attempt to set Guinness World Records on Friday for the most people wearing conical birthday hats and the most people simultaneously decorating cupcakes in celebration.





. . .
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ANCHORAGE (AP)  The Alaska Energy Authority will continue with its plans for a $46.4 million expansion at its Bradley Lake hydroelectric plant near Homer following the approval from its board of directors.

The Alaska Journal of Commerce reports the board unanimously voted in favor of the expansion at their Aug. 10 meeting in Anchorage. With the board's approval, the Alaska Energy Authority can look at developing and financing options for its Battle Creek diversion project.





. . .
WASHINGTON  President Trump appears to have found himself a new national security adviser.

His name is Barack Obama.

Recent days have brought evidence of two foreign policy successes for the Trump administration:

On Friday, a top State Department official who has served in the Obama and Trump administrations announced that gains against the Islamic State have picked up sharply and that the militants have lost 78 percent of their territory in Iraq and 58 percent in Syria. The Washington Posts headline (which the White House circulated in an email): Under Trump, gains against ISIS have dramatically accelerated.

Then, on Saturday, China and Russia joined in a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote to approve a U.S.-sponsored resolution with tough new sanctions on North Korea, a forceful world response to that countrys missile tests.

These two developments, in addition to being successes, had another thing in common: In both cases, the Trump administration essentially embraced Obama administration policies  policies Trump previously derided as a total failure. The Trump administration, at least temporarily, shelved the presidents bellicose rhetoric, made some tweaks to his predecessors strategies and pursued a course of relative continuity.

On North Korea, Trump has long been making threats and ultimatums, promising severe things and raising the possibility that South Korea and Japan could build nuclear arsenals. He was harshly (if vaguely) critical of the Obama administrations handling of North Korea, saying Obama and Hillary Clinton  who were pushing for tougher sanctions  werent being strong enough.

And now? Last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered soothing words about North Korea: We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek a collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th Parallel, he said. We are trying to convey to the North Koreans: We are not your enemy, we are not your threat.

Those words cleared the way for China and Russia to support the sanctions resolution at the United Nations on Saturday, as The Washington Posts Karen DeYoung reported. Representatives of both countries mentioned Tillersons statement in casting their votes, with Chinas representative saying, Our hope is that the United States will translate these four nos into a firm policy.

Under the headline Trumps North Korea policy resembles Obamas, Politico on Monday reported that administration officials were privately sending signals that a pre-emptive attack on North Korea is not on the table (although national security adviser H.R. McMaster says otherwise in public) and that the Trump administration is pursuing a five-part strategy similar to the strategy undertaken by the Obama administration.

On the Islamic State, likewise, Brett McGurk, a top State Department official under both Obama and Trump, announced that steps taken by Trump  notably his delegation of decision-making authority from the White House to commanders in the field  contributed to the reclaiming of 8,000 square miles of Islamic State territory.

Trumps decision to give more authority to field commanders makes the military more nimble. The Obama White House was justifiably criticized for its plodding micromanagement of military strategy. Former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates, among others, complained about the centralized and controlling Obama national security team.

But this change is a massage  not a reversal  of an Obama strategy Trump repeatedly derided as weak and a disaster. By the time Trump took over, the territory controlled by the Islamic State had already fallen substantially from its peak in early 2015.

Trump promised to replace the Obama strategy with a secret plan of his own. But, as DeYoung reported, Trumps Islamic State strategy looks very much like the one the Obama administration pursued: denying territory to the militants while avoiding conflict with Iran and staying out of Syrias civil war.

Trumps decision to free field commanders to make quick decisions comes with downsides. As gains against the Islamic State have accelerated, reports indicate that civilian casualties are also up sharply. Trump is also relying more on Russia than Obama did to keep Syrian government forces from interfering in the U.S.-led coalitions fight against the militants. Still, these differences are matters of degree, not a wholesale change from Obamas strategy.

Its not as if Trump is about to usher in a third term for the Obama national security team. But even if these two cases turn out to be isolated and temporary, they show that within the Trump administration there is at least some instinct to tone down the wild talk and, ever so quietly, to bend to reality.
The new Bishop of Raphoe has urged Stormont politicians to agree on the Irish Language Act and to preserve the power-sharing principles of the Good Friday Agreement, which he said, is "a great gift to everyone".

Bishop Alan McGuckian is a fluent Irish speaker and would frequently visit the Donegal Gaeltacht.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph the new Bishop said: "Given the support there is for the local national languages of Wales and Scotland, it is obvious that there should be the same support for the traditional Irish language here.

"There is a great richness in the Irish language and I would like to see the Stormont politicians working together to make the Irish Language Act a reality.

"I know Protestants who became interested in the Irish origin of the place names where they live and they began to explore the Irish language in more depth.

"I would like to see the DUP supporters and other people beginning to find some affinity with the Irish language and not see it as a threat."

Speaking in relation to speculation of a referendum on the eighth amendment, Bishop McGuckian, said: "There is a right to life at every stage, from the beginning to the end. This is not only a religious stance, but it is also self-evident and I believe strongly that the Irish Constitution should continue to back that right."

When asked about his views on the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's backing for the Pride march in Belfast recently, the Bishop of Raphoe, said: "One of the Christian teachings is to respect people in the way that you would want them to respect you.

"So, obviously, I respect the right of everyone, including the Taoiseach, to hold his or her point of view on same-sex marriage and all those related issues. The politicians have a role to play on these matters, but as a teaching bishop I hold firmly to the biblical view that marriage is only between one man and one woman."

The 65th Bishop of Raphoe said that he had been surprised when Pope Francis announced his appointment on June 9, he said: "It is not the expectation of a Jesuit to become a bishop, and when I had the phone call telling me of my appointment I was really shocked. It will be a huge change to my life, but I will give it my all. If there is any place in the world to be a bishop, it's hard to beat Donegal."

Bishop McGuckian has left the country for his annual pilgrimage to walk part of the Camino de Santiago.
It was a good combination for Matt Rodgers.

The opportunity to guide Enterprise State Community College and being able to do it while staying in the area he loves were big reasons why the longtime Enterprise High School principal pursued the open ESCC president position.

Rodgers was named the new ESCC president during the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday in Montgomery. Rodgers last day at EHS will be Aug. 31, with his first day at ESCC on Sept. 1.

First of all, I have a deep love this community, it is home to me and my family, was the first thing, Rodgers told The Ledger on Thursday. I see tremendous opportunity at Enterprise State Community College. I view the position as an opportunity for me really to continue to serve the students and residents, just in a different capacity.

While he expects a transition time from EHS to ESCC, Rodgers  who was entering his sixth year as EHS principal, according to his online biography  said the core values established at EHS would help form the foundation at ESCC in serving the region.

Rodgers said it is an exciting period to be in the states community college system, and that ESCC is in a unique position to keep up academic excellence and to expand opportunity in the colleges service area. He also said the ACCS Board of Trustees has established a vision that ESCC to buy into.

Theres just so many positives about Enterprise State Community College, and were going to take whats already an outstanding institution and hopefully make it even better, he said.

ESCC emailed a statement on Thursday, calling it a great day for the institution.

Mr. Rodgers is a proven leader with a reputation of being knowledgeable, creative, insightful and student-oriented, the statement said. He is also a well-respected figure in the Wiregrass community. The faculty, staff and students at Enterprise State are excited about Mr. Rodgers' arrival, and we look forward to his leadership and the future of Enterprise State.

Rodgers complemented the ESCC staff, saying he understands it is exceptional.

Its not going to be an I thing. Its going to be a collective effort as far as faculty, staff, student body, all stakeholders, community members. Collectively, were going to try to put an organization and an institution together that the residents in our community and the service area can be proud of, he said.

On Wednesday, Rodgers posted on the EHS Facebook page a letter addressed to the Wildcat Family. In the letter, he expressed gratitude for the support he has received during his 16 years in the citys school system. He also praised the faculty, staff, students, parents and members of the community.

I look forward to seeing EHS continue to move forward and be one of the elite schools in the state, he said in the letter. There is a strong team in place, and I am confident that Enterprise High School's best days are ahead. I am excited about the new partnerships that will be formed in the future between EHS and ESCC. It is my hope this relationship will benefit future Wildcat students and graduates.
MARIANNA POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Marianna Police Department reported the following incidents for Aug. 13, the latest available report: 13 traffic stops, two suspicious vehicles, one special detail assignment, two verbal disturbances, one accident, three follow-up investigations, one death, 13 non-residential property checks, one assist of a motorist or pedestrian, two assists of other agencies, three public service calls, 19 patrol requests and 21 home security checks.

JACKSON COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE

The Jackson County Sheriffs Office and county fire/rescue reported the following incidents for Aug. 13, the latest available report: One drunk pedestrian, one accident, one stolen vehicle, two abandoned vehicle reports, four suspicious vehicles, seven suspicious person reports, one escort, three physical disturbances, one verbal disturbance, three fire calls, one drug offense, 19 medical calls, two traffic crashes, three medical transports, one medical stand-by, four medical alarms, one burglar alarm, one fire alarm, two medical lift assists, one report of shooting in the area, one request for police/fire department assistance, 18 traffic stops, three larceny complaints, two civil disputes, one trespass complaint, one found/abandoned property report, two follow-up investigations, one juvenile complaint, one assault, two suicide attempts or threats, two noise disturbances, one animal complaint, 26 property checks, one assist of a motorist or pedestrian, three assist of other agencies, one child abuse complaint, one public service call, one K-9 deployment, one welfare check, one transport and one patrol request.

JACKSON COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

The following persons were booked into the county jail during the latest reporting periods:

Cletis Brown, 66, 2913 Wonder Road, Marianna, possession of a firearm-two counts, possession of ammunition by a felon, manufacture/delivery of drug-two counts.

Frank Brown, 69, 2920 Harrison St., Marianna, possession of a firearm, manufacture/delivery of drug.

Patrick Pender, 43, 2987 Tracy Drive, Marianna, driving while license suspended or revoked.

Koneyshia Clark, 25, 2987 Racy Drive, Marianna, failure to redeliver leased or hired property.

Zachary Chance, 34, 2486 Fairview Road, Marianna, non-child support.

Christopher Rogers, 44, 6601 Camphead Road, Altha, hold for Washington Co.

Samantha Young, 28, 1985 Hope School Drive, driving while license suspended or revoked.

Brianna Hall, 23, 2715 Brightwell Ave., Marianna, violation of probation, hold for Washington Co.

Renee Cox, 27, 3119 Salem Church Road, Sneads, assault/battery with a deadly weapon domestic.

Jantez Johnson, 33, 1470 Booker T. Boulevard, Miami, driving while license suspended or revoked (knowingly), fleeing/attempting to elude a police officer, resisting without violence, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, possession of a firearm/concealed weapon by convicted, obstruction by disguised person.

Joe Thomas, 29, 403 Whispering Pines St., Enterprise, AL, petit theft-1st offense.

Virgil Dilmore, 51, 712 First St., Chipley, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana-less than 20 grams.

Edward Lang, Jr., 29, 2528 Mt. Zion Road, Gordon, AL, concealed firearm violation, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving while license suspended or revoked (knowingly), grand theft of a firearm, dealing in stolen property.

Carlos Pittman, 40, 857 Spear Point Lane, Graceville, obstructing justice, resisting officer without violence, battery.

JAIL POPULATION: 237

To report a crime, call CrimeStoppers at 526-5000 or a local law enforcement agency.

To report a wildlife violation, call 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).
Plans for a longtime Delta Connection contract carrier to soon part ways with Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines wont have a big impact locally.

Dothan Regional Airport Director Art Morris said Delta is not going to end a relationship with a carrier unless it has a replacement.

Right now we are served by three different entities, but people dont know it because it says Delta on all the jets, Morris said. About one flight a day is operated by ExpressJet right now.

Atlanta-based ExpressJet will not fly for Delta after late 2018, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

ExpressJet, a subsidiary of St. George, Utah-based SkyWest, recently announced that it and Delta have agreed to terminate their contract early. ExpressJet was formerly known as Atlantic Southeast Airlines or ASA.

ExpressJet said it's working to minimize employee reductions through natural attrition or transfer opportunities within its existing operations.

At other locations around the country, ExpressJet operates for United Airlines as United Express and for American Airlines as American Eagle.

ExpressJet has long been the largest Delta Connection carrier flying out of Atlanta, and operates about 4.8 percent of the flights out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It operates 28 CRJ-900s and 33 CRJ-700s for Delta.

But ExpressJet has struggled with delays and cancellations for years, while Delta has made efforts to push its regional carrier partners to improve their operational performance and keep costs down, the Journal-Constitution reported.

ExpressJet ranked ninth out of 12 carriers for on-time arrivals in the first six months of 2017, for example, just ahead of Spirit. Delta ranked second.

The contract between ExpressJet and Delta had been due to expire in 2019, but ExpressJet in October will begin to return the aircraft Delta owns, including all of the CRJ-900s.

Delta plans to keep most of those 76-seat CRJ-900s based in Atlanta and transfer them to Endeavor Air, a Delta Connection carrier based in Minneapolis that is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta, said Delta spokesman Michael Thomas. Endeavor will expand to routes previously operated by ExpressJet.

Delta has made considerable investments in the reliability and overall customer experience of Delta Connection, and this move allows us to more effectively continue that investment, Thomas said.

Delta has touted Endeavor Air's operational performance, particularly its low flight cancellation rates.

Through 2018, ExpressJet plans to transfer the rest of its Delta Connection aircraft to the flying it does for other major carriers. It announced Wednesday an agreement with American Airlines to add eight CRJ-700s to its American Eagle flying in the second quarter of 2018.

SkyWest will continue to fly as a Delta Connection carrier, along with Endeavor, Minneapolis-based Compass Airlines, Missouri-based GoJet and Indianapolis-based Republic Airways.
BMW continues to drip-feed the reveal of the new X2 in the lead up to the 2017 Frankfurt motor show.

The German brand has released fresh images of the new coupe-styled baby SUV.

While the images show the X2 in bright camouflage, it still gives us the best impression yet of the production version.

A tapered roofline with narrow rear windows dominate the new X2's profile, while the classic conservative BMW design language is present along with the kidney grille.

The X2 was first revealed in concept form at the 2016 Paris motor show and will share the same underpinnings as the new X1.

BMW has envisaged the X2 taking on the same role as the X4 does with the X3, giving the small SUV a more sporty image.

Powerplants are most likely to mirror the range of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines in a variety of tunes seen in the X1, along with the choice of both manual and automatic transmission driving the front or all four wheels.

Earlier this year BMW Australia's CEO, Marc Werner, confirmed that the X2 would be sold in Australia.

"From a pure numerical product lineup it makes perfect sense to launch an X2 between the X1 and X3, and basically follow the concept of the SAV coupes (Sport Activity Vehicles) such as the X4 and the X6, particularly as the X4 is going from strength to strength here in the market," said Werner.

However, Werner didn't speak as to when the X2 would arrive, but the first half of 2018 would be the most likely landing date.

For all the latest BMW information, visit our showroom.
Infiniti has invented a past to showcase its future.

The Nissan-owned luxury brand, the was born in 1989, has unveiled this radical retro-racer concept, dubbed Prototype 9, which showcase its next generation electric vehicle powertrain.

Harking back to the 1940s era of sleek, open-wheel racing cars the Prototype 9 is designed to showcase the brands design and craftsmanship. According to Alfonso Albaisa, Infinitis senior vice president of global design, Prototype 9 began in response to a request from Infiniti USAs marketing director Allyson Witherspoon to design a historic type of car.

"It started as a simple thought: What if we found a car, down at the southern tip of Japan, buried deep in the barn, hidden from all eyes for 70 years? Albaisa explained.

What if in this car we found the seed of passion planted during our first Japanese Grand Prix and the power and artistry of Infiniti today? What would this discovery look like?"

But beneath the sleek steel bodywork the 890kg Prototype 9 racer features a cutting edge powertrain borrowed from the second-generation Nissan Leaf. A 120kW/320Nm rear-mounted electric motor with charge fed from a 30kW/h battery pack powers Infinitis retro concept.

Because of its lightweight construction the company claims Prototype 9 can rocket from 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds up to a top speed of 170 km/h.

The Prototype 9 has an undersized battery, compared to the production Leaf, that gives only 20 minutes of track time.

According to Infiniti global president, Roland Krueger, said the project began as an after-hours idea by the team but quickly became worthy of being showcased by the brand at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours dElegance.

What started as an after-hours idea grew into a fully-fledged prototype; our designers and engineers were excited by the notion of creating a past vision, a nod to our origins, Krueger said. They volunteered their own time, more and more staff became involved. Our teams have proven skills in manufacturing, engineering, design and advanced powertrains, yet they wanted to bring their own traditional craftsmanship to the project. They made Prototype 9 a reality, a result of their ingenuity  they recognised and realised the past, powered by a future-centric electric powertrain at its heart. Prototype 9 blends modern technology and hand-crafted details paying tribute to the forebears of Infiniti.

While the motor may be as modern as they come, Infiniti has kept things more traditional in the handling department with a leading arm solid front axle and De Dion rear axle riding on transverse leaf springs. Steering is via an unassisted recirculating ball setup for a more period correct feel.

The giant finned drum brakes mounted inside each wheel arent what they seem, hiding a more modern disc brake setup inside a stylised cover, but theres no trickery in the narrow 19-inch wire wheels and skinny cross-ply tyres.
Those of us planning on flying in the next few weeks  either domestically or internationally  are probably a little concerned. Were hearing horror stories left, right and centre about heightened security, hours of delays and missed flights. So how can you ensure that your business trip runs smoothly and how can you adjust to these new security measures?

Arrive early

Unfortunately, if you dont take the current heightened security measures into account and you miss your flight, you wont be eligible for any form of compensation. In the eyes of the airport, lateness is your fault and not theirs, so the only thing you can do to avoid the queues is to be as early as possible.

Whilst Sydney domestic airport is recommending that you arrive two hours early for your flight, the international airport is now suggesting a three hour buffer period at a minimum. However, if youre flying at peak time, its a good idea to get there even earlier, just to be safe. Missing a flight because of circumstances outside of your control is extremely frustrating, so do everything you can to avoid it.

Dont fly during peak times

Where possible, book your flights during off-peak times. That way, there should be fewer crowds to get in your way and to delay check-in and security checks. While it may not be an ideal flying time for you, its the best way to get around potential delays that you might face at the airport. And one of the perks of early morning domestic travel is that youll still have a full day ahead of you after you land.

Be contactable

If youre going overseas, the last thing you want is to be MIA when any colleagues or affiliates you are travelling with are trying to meet with you. Either purchase global roaming through your Australian provider or buy a SIM card the second that you land. Then make sure all of your contacts have your new number so that youre accessible if needed. This just helps prevent confusion, especially if youre trying to organise logistics.

Beat jet lag

Easier said than done, and not applicable if youre flying within Australia (although perhaps flying between Perth and Sydney might cause a few problems for some), but if you can time your sleeping on the plane so that youre only asleep when its night time at your destination, youll have a much easier time adjusting once you get there. Especially on a long-haul trip to somewhere like the US or Europe, this is particularly difficult, but if you can push yourself to stay awake for as long as possible until your time zones sync up, youll have a much easier trip. When you land, try not to sleep until at least 6pm local time.

Get insured

Insurance wont help you get through security faster but it may provide compensation if your flight is significantly delayed (typically over six hours), your accommodation is cancelled or your baggage is lost or stolen. Essentially, any sort of cancellation or event thats completely unexpected and results in a financial loss for you should see you eligible for cover.

At the end of the day, ensuring that your business trip runs to plan is just about being organised. The more you and your colleagues plan ahead, the smoother your trip should be.

About the author
One of the big questions of for todays Americans is What would you have done when the fascists were rising to power in the run-up to World War II? We no longer need to ask that question because will now be able to see precisely what we WILL do.

My grandfather knew. He enlisted in the Army and went off to fight Nazis in Germany during the War.

My mother was a feminist activist, an LGBTQ activist, and a civil rights activist.

Now its my generations turn and I pledge to fight fascism and terrorism in the United States of America with everything I have.

I have a message for the people who attended the so-called Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA over the weekend and all of the people who think as they do: I will NOT call you the Alt-Right. I will call you what you are. You are Nazis. You are Ku Klux Klanners. You are racists. You are white supremacists. Many of you are terrorist extremists in word, if not in deed. I wont even use the term neo-Nazi because theres nothing neo (new) about you. Weve seen your loathsome, deplorable, un-American beliefs before. My grandfather tried to kill as many Nazis as he could during the war. Your kind were defeated then and YOU will be defeated now.

The First Amendment protects your execrable spewage. But it also protects mine and I will not be cowed or silenced by your terrorism. I and others will shame you, shun you, and make sure you lose your jobs and job opportunities. We will out you for vile subhumans that you are. You are few and we are many and we will not stop until you crawl back into the sewer from which you slithered and where you belong and the heavy lid that Donald Trump removed is put back in place.

To paraphrase our president, we will rain down non-violent fire and fury on you like the world has never seen.

You will NOT be allowed to terrorize us and you will NOT rise to power in the United States of America.

[CC photo credit: Kyle J. Schultz | Flickr]
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(Photo: Light Presbyterian Church)Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim the pastor from Mississauga, Ontario who was detained in North Korea during an aid trip and who made a made a televised confession July 30 admitting to treason, according to KCNA, the official news agency in the country.

A pastor from Canada released from imprisonment by North Korea has told church congregants he suspects his recent release from prison by North Korea was a bid to ease tensions between in the verbal missile-driven war between Pyongyang and Washington.

"I believe (North Korean leader) Kim Jung Un let me go as a gesture of goodwill in the face of so much rhetoric," Hyeon Soo Lim told a packed worship hall in a Toronto suburb on Aug. 13, Reuters reported.

The 62-year-old Canadian pastor who was held in a North Korean prison for more than 2 and a half years said in Toronto he suspected his life sentence was commuted last week to help reduce pressure on Pyongyang.

"I believe (North Korean leader) Kim Jung Un let me go as a gesture of goodwill in the face of so much rhetoric," Hyeon Soo Lim said in a Sunday worship hall in near Toronto suburb.

His comments came at a time the United States and North Korea were locked in a standoff following repeated missile launches by the North Asian nation in the region and threats by U.S. President Donald Trump of the consequences of more such acts.

The following day on Aug. 14 CNBC's Jake Novak commented that less a week earlier the world seemed to be on the edge of a nuclear confrontation or at least a bloody military conflict in East Asia.

On Aug. 11 a United Nations human rights expert had welcomed the release of Lim, who had been detained in North Korea since February 2015.

"I am delighted by Pastor Lim's release from prison on humanitarian grounds. He is among several foreign nationals who have been arrested in the DPRK in the past couple of years and given a harsh sentence," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea had commented.

Was the pastor's release North Korea's peace marker in the week that had the world fretting with worry and the global Christian community praying together?

CNB's Nova noted what a difference a few days make.

"After a weekend filled with a series of conciliatory statements from China, some of them downright surprising, the situation with North Korea seems to be less tense right now, which could be construed as a major win for the Trump team.

"To be specific, the big move came Monday as China agreed to ban imports of North Korean iron, lead, and coal as part of new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang. That's hitting Kim Jon Un's regime where it hurts."

Novak said there had also been the statement in China's State newspaper Global Times Aug.11 that said that if North Korea attacks the U.S., China should remain neutral.

"In other words, they'd be on their own," wrote Novak.

He noted, "While these developments do not fully constitute a real solution to the potential threats North Korea's nuclear and missile programs pose to the region and the world, everyone's nervous meter seems to have gone down several notches."

But then on Aug. 14 Trump who seems to has on numerous occasions been accused of dumping his friends, said he had asked the top U.S. trade official to review China's practices regarding intellectual property in a cautious but strongly-worded statement.

That left the pondering once again on the utterances of the U.S. president.


Below, the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) CEO, Aasha Murthy, tells The Educator about how the organisation is enhancing principals professional development opportunities in 2017 and beyond.





What can you tell us about how ACEL is strengthening the educational leadership of principals currently and in the year ahead?



We are doing four conferences this year. The first one will be on the topic of well-being and how to improve support for school leaders. In June, we held a disability leadership summit, which focused on leadership within environments of students who are impacted by disability. Two weeks ago, we held an early childhood leadership conference, involving leaders in the early childhood sector. Finally, in October, we have our flagship national leadership conference, which involves over 1,200 people. This focuses on all aspects of educational leadership.



Some of the speakers at the conference, being hosted by NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, include experts such as Pasi Sahlberg and Ben Walden. We are constantly looking for people who can both deliver on the needs of leaders but also expand on the thinking, the world we live in and the pace of change. Schools operate in a world that is incredibly complex and moving fast, so we want to make sure that the content we put out is not just current but also future-focused.





What are some of the most high-demand areas of PD that principals are requesting help with, and how is ACEL assisting in this way?



Delivering student outcomes is the big ticket thing for principals, because thats what education is ultimately about. However, if you look at this purely through the lens of leadership, then you have needs around managing change, for example. Then there is the area of innovation, where principals seek to be at the cutting-edge of educational technology and practice. A lot of the workshops we run are applicable to teachers as well as principals, and generally there are teams who come to these events, but the role of the principal is often how to improve teacher practice to improve student outcomes. This is an area were constantly looking at how to help them improve.



Weve all seen the statistics showing that outcomes are not improving despite more money pouring into schools. This is something principals are very aware of, and are asking what they can do, so were helping them with this. One important thing to remember is that ACEL is an independent, cross-sectoral voice and organisation that is not tied to or funded by any political group, and that puts us in a very unique position of influence and trust among school leaders.





What does educational leadership in Australia look like compared to other OECD countries?



Australias Federal system brings several challenges with it. Where youve got a one-system approach like Singapore or Finland, there is a unity of purpose. However, in Australia, there is the complexity of having a federal system with different bodies funded by the Federal Government. Then you have the state systems which each have their own way of approaching education. This makes it different for education leaders, particularly if theyre moving states. However, if you take this out of the equation and look at it further up, the big trends in almost all of the schooling systems are around greater autonomy for school leaders.



More autonomy means principals have a greater degree of freedom to pick certain things that can improve your school. The advantages are greater agency for principals to introduce various programs and initiatives to improve their schools. ACEL is a great organisation for principals to be a part of for this, because what all events and conferences do, apart from the specific areas of learning they promote, is the networking opportunities they provide. This isnt just about school leaders connecting with other school leaders, but for teachers and principals to connect with academics and thought leaders  and that brings tremendous value to schools.


Education research can be a high-wire act between districts and researchers, balancing the need for straightforward access to dataand frank conversations about study resultswith protection of student and teacher privacy.

If Louisianas two-year-old privacy law is anything to go on, that balancing act may get a lot trickier for researchers as states move to protect student data. Thats according to researchers speaking at a symposium at the National Center for Education Statistics annual meeting in Washington recently. Considered one of the strictest in the country, Louisianas law bars school districts from sharing nearly all personally identifiable information for students without a data-sharing contract or written consent from a students parent or guardian. The law imposes personal penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail for staff or researchers who share data improperly.

The law arose out of real concern among parents not just that student data would be released, but of how the state and federal government and even private researchers might use it. Theres a real fear of us [at the state education department] and of researchers, said Kim Nesmith, the data governance and privacy director for the state, at the symposium.

Louisianas state education agency no longer directly collects individual student data. Instead, districts now report accountability and other student data to a data management company, eScholar, which provides the masked data to the state agency. The firm created and issued more than 700,000 new identification numbers in five months, and has updated five years of historic student data since the law went into effect in 2015.

In the meantime, the state has focused on training for school districts and more outreach to parents about the existing protections for student data.

Having data governance that balances privacy and transparency is not for sissies; its tough, really tough, work, Nesmith said. I hate that [the data privacy law] is scary, because it causes people to be afraid and overreact, but its good because I dont have to fight to prove the importance of [student privacy and data governance.]

State Concerns

Since 2013, weve had the landscape completely shift with regard to state approaches to data privacy, according to Amelia Vance, education policy counsel for the nonprofit Future of Privacy Forum. Thirty-nine states have passed new laws dealing with student data privacy, with nearly two dozen that affect K-12 or early-childhood data. In an analysis of both the bills introduced and laws passed during that time, the forum found only about 1 in 5 focused on training staff to secure data; often many were introduced without input from researchers or district data experts. Youve seen a lot of laws that react to the political zeitgeist more than respond to concrete privacy concerns, Vance said.

See Also Read Education Weeks 2015 report on data sharing and student privacy:

Some of the most stringent laws, Vance said, tend to incentivize, instead of really good data practices, they incentivize doing nothing with data at all.

That has left educators and researchers to figure out workarounds for systems that dont always gel with modern, data-intensive education systems.

Working Within Limits

For example, the Pelican State uses a broad definition of personal informationbasically, any information that could be used on its own or with another piece of information to trace an individuals identity, including a Social Security number, date of birth, medical or financial information, education achievement or transcripts over time, and even biometric information like height or weight. The law also requires that all personally identifiable data from Louisiana students remain physically in the state.

It certainly raised some challenges, said Patrick Wolfe, a professor of education policy and a chair in school choice at the University of Arkansas who has studied Louisiana school choice issues since 2013, before the privacy law passed.

Of all the states Ive worked in ... Louisiana has the most strict education-data-access law that Ive seen so far. It does basically mean you have to do more planning at the front end.

For example, in one ongoing evaluation of the states voucher program, Wolfe had only a single week to analyze school data at a secure facility in Metairie, La. That analysis led to follow-up questions, which he had to do long-distance with help from a locally based Tulane University graduate researcher. Its a little tricky writing computer code when you cant see the data you are writing for, he said.

Wolfe continues to study Louisiana, but Nesmith said the law has had somewhat of a chilling effect on researchers working there.

It just adds time and cost to research when you have to find workarounds to state laws like Louisianas, Wolfe said. You can still do solid research within the law as it stands. ... As an academic researcher I just wish they made it easier for us.

One recent attempt to create flexibility for education researchers to use student data under the law passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by the governor.
Without principles, there can be no health care policy By Richard E. Ralston

Republican Senators have clearly demonstrated that, without the correct principles, there is no basis for health care policy. A tiny majority in the Senate were unable to overcome the giant chasm that separates American principles--rooted in individualism and freedom--from whatever we have now. In these circumstances, a shallow parliamentary device to overcome the requirement of 60 votes to pass legislation was doomed. Considering the number of Republican senators who vigorously defended the huge expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare, the device was also ridiculous. Republicans failed to repeal Obamacare because they did not want to. Despite having just elected a new Congress, there is now no prospect for repeal of Obamacare until we elect another one. The first task is to clearly promote the correct foundations for policy. As discouraging as the prospects for legislative relief are, at the moment, we must not shut up. We must talk, and write, and annoy members of Congress with the right ideas. And next year, we must vote. There is an immediate role for some tactical steps, including the elimination of regulations imposed during the Obama administration. We should cheer new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, as he destroys what President Obama imposed by whim with his "phone and pen." Whatever we think of President Trump, President Obama did not sit around waiting for majority support from the U.S. House or Senate. We must expect the Trump administration to clean up the current mess, and the courts to clean up the unconstitutional bits. We must expect the Justice Department to continue to go after constitutional issues in court. At least one bright spot: a major channel of reform opened up at the Food and Drug Administration. The newly-appointed FDA chairman, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, is taking on that huge, 110 year-old bureaucracy. Streamlining and shortening the lengthy approval process for new drugs and medical procedures has been an early priority. This will lower the cost of new drugs and save lives--not least, the lives of terminally ill patients dying while waiting for drugs to be approved. After many years of the FDA defending its approval gauntlet for new drugs, some pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturers have long since knuckled under to the political games. They have transformed from victims to enthusiastic partners in a political spoils system. One way that Dr. Gottlieb has taken action to break up the party is by eliminating obstacles to competition in the manufacture of generic drugs. More inexpensive generic drugs will allow forward leaps in affordable medication. At the other end of the spectrum, a free environment for new genetic therapies and personalized medicine can improve, or even revolutionize, care. If we can keep the FDA out of the way. We can speculate about the precise way that aspects of Obamacare will fall apart. The prospect for the insurance exchanges seems particularly death spiral- like. Whatever form failure and collapse take, we can look forward to many proposals to save current regulations or make them worse. We must strive for the eloquence of principles, including individual choice and free markets, to make sure that proposed legislation goes nowhere. Richard E. Ralston is executive director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, Newport Beach, California. Copyright  2017 Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. All rights reserved. Home
Recognizing a Palestinian state before a peace agreement with Israel undermines the international rule of law By Peter Wertheim

According to the Palestinian Authority, 136 (70.5 percent) of the 193 member states of the United Nations and two non-member states have officially recognized a State of Palestine. This study considers the rules of international law which govern the creation of new states and their recognition by established States, and the application of those rules to the question of whether, at law, a State of Palestine has been created and is capable of being recognized. Advocates of immediate recognition of a State of Palestine, other than as an outcome of a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel, frequently refer to Israels civilian settlements in the West Bank as illegal  an alleged violation of Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other international instruments  and cite the failure to reach a peace agreement and the growth in the number of settlers and continuing settlement construction as reasons to recognize a State of Palestine. The conflation of the question of recognition of a Palestinian state with the question of the legal status of the settlements is clearly misconceived. The two issues raise entirely separate legal and policy considerations. There is also a striking irony in the contrast between the legalistic approach purportedly adopted by these advocates on one question, namely settlements, and their cavalier disregard for well-established legal principles on another, namely the creation of states and their recognition. One either supports the international rule of law as a general principle or not at all. One does not get to pick and choose. Recognition of States in Customary International Law In international law, there are two general theories about the recognition of States. The constitutive theory maintains that it is the act of recognition by other States that creates a new State and endows it with legal personality. The declaratory theory adopts the opposite approach. It maintains that recognition is merely an acknowledgment by States of an already-existing situation. A new State acquires a legal personality and legal capacity only if and when it actually begins to operate as a State on the ground. The issue of recognition in any particular case is therefore not primarily a question of whether a State should exist, but rather of whether such a State does in fact exist. The constitutive theory has many difficulties. A new State cannot simply be wished into existence. If a putative State has no government that is capable of asserting its authority over its territory and of delivering on any agreements it enters into, no amount of recognition by other States can cure those defects. These are problems which ultimately must be overcome by the putative State itself and by the people it purports to represent. States and international organizations have generally affirmed and acted in accordance with the declaratory theory rather than the constitutive theory. For this reason, customary international law (the body of rules reflecting the actual practices of established states and their legal opinions about those practices) predominantly reflects the declaratory theory. Accordingly, under the rules of customary international law, which are binding on all States, a political entity does not become a new State unless and until it meets certain objective criteria on the ground. While legal writers have suggested many definitions of a state, Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention the Rights and Duties of States, 1933, is the best-known formulation of the basic criteria for statehood (the Montevideo criteria). The putative State must have (i) a permanent population (ii) a defined territory (iii) government (that is, a single centralized administration that can effectively assert its authority over, and maintain order among, the people within its claimed territory, without the assistance of another State.); and (iv) capacity to enter into relations with other States (including the capacity to fulfill any international agreements it may enter into). The inclusion of the fourth requirement has been questioned by some writers, and further criteria have been proposed by others. Yet, leading up to the Montevideo Convention there was a consensus that the first three criteria at least must be fulfilled for there to be any legal basis for claiming that an entity is a state. It follows that recognition does not confer statehood on a political entity. Recognition is a political, not a legal act. It must follow the fact of statehood and is purely declaratory. Recognition cannot create a State where none exists on the ground. Instead, recognition by other States may serve as an expression of their view that the entity meets the requisite criteria of statehood. Although recognition is a political act and a matter of discretion, it is subject to compliance with the imperatives of general international law. Thus, recognition by even a large number of other States cannot overcome clear and compelling objective evidence indicating that the requisite criteria of statehood have not been met. An exception will be if the putative state is admitted as a member State of the United Nations. Admission as a member State of the UN requires a decision of the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. According to the UN Charter, the UN as an organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members. There is, therefore, little doubt that once admitted as a member State of the UN, a political entity has the legal personality of a State in international law. If, notwithstanding its admission to the UN as a member State, the entity does not, in fact, meet the customary law criteria of statehood, at law it is still a State, albeit a failed State. Applying the four Montevideo criteria to the Palestinians, the first two criteria appear to be satisfied. The Palestinians are a permanent population located in a defined territory, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These two territories would be regarded as having sufficient consistency to be considered defined, even though their precise boundaries have not yet been accurately delimited. The two remaining Montevideo criteria of statehood  government and the capacity to enter into relations with other States  are at present not satisfied by any Palestinian entity. Given what has thus far been an irreconcilable philosophical and political division between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which each control different parts of the territory claimed by the Palestinians, there is currently no Palestinian entity which satisfies the third criterion: that of a government capable of asserting its authority over its territory and people. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) which it controls are publicly committed to a State based on the sovereignty of the Palestinian people. In their conception of a Palestinian state, the people would have the final say on all decisions. Hamas, on the other hand, believes in the sovereignty of God (alternatively expressed as the sovereignty of Islam), and the primacy of religious authority over the secular. Hamas thus envisages a theocratic State in which the people may get to vote, but dont have the final say. The final say would lie with some form of religious authority. The internal divide between the secular nationalist and theocratic movements within Palestinian society is perhaps the most powerful obstacle to the achievement of Palestinian statehood at present. The division is not only ideological but also geographic. The PLO and the PA exercise limited control over the West Bank. Hamas has effective control in Gaza. The bitter differences between these two movements have degenerated into internecine violence on many occasions. Representatives of the PLO/PA and Hamas have met many times over the years, both directly and through mediators, to try to resolve the fundamental differences between them, and to formulate a single vision of the kind of State a State of Palestine would be. All of these attempts have failed. The differences between them appear to be intractable. This means that for reasons which are entirely internal to Palestinian society, there is no reasonable prospect for the foreseeable future of any government being formed which would exercise effective control over both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Hamas does not consider itself or the people and territory of Gaza to be bound by any agreement that the PLO/PA may enter into. Similarly, the PLO/PA do not consider themselves or the people and territory of the West Bank to be bound by any agreement that Hamas may enter into. This precludes any possibility of the fourth of the Montevideo criteria being fulfilled, namely the capacity to enter into international relations, including the capacity to fulfill treaty obligations affecting both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, an eminent international lawyer who represented the Palestinians before the International Court of Justice in the 2004 Wall case, had expressed the following opinion, as apposite now as when it was first published in 2011: Until such a time as a final settlement is agreed, the putative State of Palestine will have no territory over which it exercises effective sovereignty, its borders will be indeterminate or disputed, its population, actual and potential, undetermined and many of them continuing to live under occupation or in States of refuge. While it may be an observer State in the United Nations, it will fall short of meeting the internationally agreed criteria of statehood, with serious implications for Palestinians at large, particularly as concerns the popular representation of those not currently present in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Quite apart from the political reality that there is no entity which presently meets the description of a government that can assert control and maintain order over both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and enter into relations and live up to any agreements with other States, the Palestinians internationally recognized representative organization  the PLO  has itself accepted limitations on the jurisdiction and powers of the PA. (For further details, see section below on bilateral agreements between Israel and the Palestinians which are currently in force). These limitations, by definition, are incompatible with any claim of sovereign statehood. Given that no Palestinian entity presently exists which meets the essential criteria of statehood or UN membership, recognition of any such entity as a state would be to affirm a fiction which, in the words of the Yugoslav Arbitration Commission cited above, would be contrary to the imperatives of general international law. Further, the Montevideo criteria are only the most basic and minimal requirements that a political entity needs to satisfy in order legitimately to be recognized as a State. On 16 December 1991, the European Community adopted a Declaration on the Guidelines on the Recognition of New States in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, which stipulated the following additional requirements for recognition: respect for the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the commitments subscribed to in the Final Act of Helsinki and in the Charter of Paris, especially with regard to the rule of law, democracy and human rights,

guarantees for the rights of ethnic and national groups and minorities in accordance with the commitments subscribed to in the framework of the CSCE,

respect for the inviolability of all frontiers which can only be changed by peaceful means and by common agreement,

acceptance of all relevant commitments with regard to disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation as well as to security and regional stability,

commitment to settle by agreement, including where appropriate by recourse to arbitration, all questions concerning State succession and regional disputes. The European Community additionally required the new Yugoslav Republic, to commit itself, prior to recognition, to adopt constitutional and political guarantees ensuring that it has no territorial claims towards a neighboring State and that it will conduct no hostile propaganda activities versus a neighboring  State. If identical requirements were to be imposed on a putative State of Palestine as a precondition of recognition, it is virtually certain that such requirements would not be met. Commitments to respect the inviolability of the frontiers with Israel, to repudiate all territorial claims by Palestine against Israel, and to settle all disputes with Israel by peaceful means would at present be politically unacceptable to the PLO/PA and Hamas and, it has to be said, to most Palestinians. We know this because of the results of Palestinian survey research. Polls of Palestinians are carried out frequently and by a variety of reputable institutes, and they are generally of a very high quality. A recent examination of the results of 400 surveys carried out by five Palestinian research centers, each of which has conducted regular polls in the West Bank and Gaza for many years and has made the results available online in English and Arabic, concluded that: When asked to choose among three options  an Israeli State and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace, a unitary state with equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis, and a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea (i.e. ending Israels existence)  most Palestinians chose the last option; and

When asked what ought to be done if Palestinian leaders strike a two-state deal with Israel, most declared that the struggle should go on until all of historical Palestine is liberated. Only a minority of Palestinians have declared themselves in favor of a two-state solution as a permanent outcome. This minority has remained at about 30 percent of Palestinians for about the last 20 years. Recognition of a State of Palestine in these circumstances would therefore not only be contrary to the minimum requirements for statehood stipulated by customary international law and the additional requirements mandated by the European Community Declaration and Guidelines in 1991, but would also lay the foundations for opening a new phase of the Palestinians conflict with Israel, rather than for resolving the conflict. Recognition would, therefore, undermine the primary purpose of the UN Charter and the current international rules-based order, which is to maintain international peace and security. The Effect of Existing Israeli-Palestinian Bilateral Agreements and International Frameworks Recognition of a State of Palestine, other than in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, would be contrary to both the letter and the spirit of certain bilateral agreements that have been entered into by the State of Israel and the PLO. The first such agreement was set out in an exchange of letters between Israels Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat on 9 September 1993. The exchange of letters provided the foundation for the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (known as the Oslo Accord or Oslo I) which was signed by the parties in Washington four days later (13 September 1993).23 In the letter from Yasser Arafat to Yitzhak Rabin, reproduced below, the PLO committed itself to resolving all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations. LETTER FROM YASSER ARAFAT TO PRIME MINISTER RABIN: September 9, 1993 Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel Mr. Prime Minister, The signing of the Declaration of Principles marks a new era in the history of the Middle East. In firm conviction thereof, I would like to confirm the following PLO commitments: The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security. The PLO accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The PLO commits itself to the Middle East peace process, and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations. (Emphasis added.) There is no doubt that the issue of Palestinian statehood is an issue relating to permanent status. Attempts by the PLO or the PA to try to resolve the issue of Palestinian statehood other than through negotiations, whether through UN resolutions or through political declarations of recognition by individual states and parliaments, are therefore incompatible with, and constitute a clear breach of the foregoing Palestinian commitment. The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (also known as Oslo II) was entered into by Israel and the PLO in 1995. Oslo II explicitly provides that the Palestinian Authority will not have jurisdiction or control over the external borders of the territory in which it operates (Article XII), its airspace (Article XIII, para 4 of Annex 1), foreign relations (Article IX, para 5), Israeli nationals and settlements located within the territory of the West Bank and Gaza (Article XII) and elements of internal security and public order (depending on the particular area involved, Area A, B, or C). The fact that the Palestinian Authority, by agreement, does not exercise jurisdiction or control over any of these matters  which are fundamental indicia of sovereignty  contradicts its claims that Palestine is a State. If in the agreements they have entered into, those representing the PLO and PA have acknowledged that the issue of statehood is on the agenda of the permanent status negotiations, then clearly, pending the outcome of such negotiations any Palestinian entity cannot be seen to be a state. An entity that does not recognize itself as a state cannot, logically or legally, be recognized as such by others. Oslo II also contains certain provisions relating to final status issues. Article XXXI, paragraph 7, provides: Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations. For the Palestinians to declare that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are parts of the sovereign territory of a State of Palestine is an attempt to change the status of those territories. Accordingly, any such declaration also constitutes a breach by the PLO and PA of that binding commitment. It follows that any declaration of a Palestinian state, other than as an outcome of a directly-negotiated agreement with Israel, would be in clear violation of Oslo II, and that any recognition of such a State by parliaments and governments in the international community would be complicit with such a breach. It is a generally accepted principle of international law that a state may not arise out of an illegal act, as an illegal act cannot produce legal rights  ex injuria non oritur jus. The Performance Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2003) (the Roadmap) was adopted by the International Quartet (UN, United States, Russia and the EU) and endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1515 (2003). On 1 July 2003, in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas held a ceremonial opening to peace talks, televised live in both Arabic and Hebrew. Both government leaders said the violence of the conflict had gone on too long and that they were committed to the Roadmap for peace. The Roadmap requires both sides not to act unilaterally but rather to negotiate with one another to resolve the conflict. It provides for the establishment of a Palestinian state as an outcome of the final stage of such negotiations: A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be achieved through an end to violence and terrorism, when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror and willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty, and through Israels readiness to do what is necessary for a democratic Palestinian state to be established, and a clear, unambiguous acceptance by both parties of the goal of a negotiated settlement as described below. A settlement, negotiated between the parties, will result in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors. [Emphasis added.] The Quartet on the Middle East has repeatedly reaffirmed this principle, most strikingly in the Statement it issued in Munich on 5 February 2011: The Quartet reaffirmed that negotiations should lead to an outcome that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and resolves all permanent status issues.[The Quartet] reaffirms that unilateral actions by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community. [Emphasis added.] It follows that any declaration of the establishment of a Palestinian State other than as an outcome of negotiations with Israel constitutes a breach by the PLO and PA of the commitments to which they agreed to be bound under the Roadmap and will not be recognized by the international community. Unresolved Issues Recognition of a State of Palestine other than in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel would do nothing to resolve the core issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, in particular Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, security, and water. The complex arrangements required to address the core issues will require co-operation between the parties pursuant to detailed agreements, not grandiloquent, symbolic statements of recognition by outside parties. For example, any attempt by third parties to impose a border between Israel and the Palestinians would be a nullity at law. It is a well-accepted principle of international law that only the relevant States can mutually resolve outstanding border disputes. Outside actors that are not party to the dispute cannot force a resolution of the issue of borders. At present, bilateral arrangements exist in over 40 spheres of civilian activity, which serve as the basis for economic, legal and security cooperation between Israel and the PA, including tax transfers and water allocation. The establishment of a State of Palestine other than in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel would violate fundamental provisions of these agreements (see section III above) and thereby throw into doubt their continuing validity and operation. For other states to abet this would be to undermine the integrity of international law. If the territory of the recognized State were to consist of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, questions would also arise as to the relative status to be accorded to the PA, which has partial control of the West Bank, and Hamas, which has effective control over the Gaza Strip. Hamas, despite its recent publication of a supplement to its notorious Charter, has never amended the Charter and has declared that the Charter remains in full force and effect. Hamas has been outlawed as a terrorist organization in various countries throughout the world, including the United States and the EU. Hamas rejects outright Israels right to exist, repudiates existing agreements, embraces terrorist violence, and continues unabashedly to call for the destruction of the State of Israel. The Palestinians attempts to procure recognition of a Palestinian State from other States is manifestly an attempt to achieve Palestinian statehood without resolving the conflict with Israel. This will only serve to validate hardliners on both sides in the eyes of their own people, and thus cement Israelis and Palestinians into mutually irreconcilable positions. It will likely result in more, not less, bloodshed. Historical Analogies The proposal that a State of Palestine should be recognized other than in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has been compared, inaccurately, to the UN General Assemblys endorsement of the establishment of a Jewish State in Resolution 181 on 29 November 1947. That resolution recommended the partition of the former Mandate territory of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. It did not purport to extend recognition to either State because neither State then existed. The resolution never entered into force in light of its rejection by the Arab states, and their decision to prevent its implementation by declaring and initiating war, initially against the Jewish community in the country, and then against the new Israeli state. Peter Wertheim AM is the Executive Director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the elected national representative body of the Australian Jewish community. He has degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Laws degree in Public International Law from the University of New South Wales. In 2003 he was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to the Jewish and wider communities and for work in a variety of projects promoting communal harmony and understanding. He has been a Statutory Board Member of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board, and a member of the Australian Multicultural Council. Home
Republicrats impeachment and the silent coup By Dr. Robert Owens

We have a three-pronged attack aiming to reverse the results of last Novembers election. First comes the Government Party, lets call them the Republicrats, made up of the perpetually re-elected hacks who infest the capital of the world. Second is the deep state cancer that infects the federal bureaucracy. And third are the one world social democrats masquerading as journalists. These three give their middle finger to America as they point their index fingers at President Trump. They accuse him of colluding with the Russians to steal the last election. And all the while theyre colluding with leakers committing felonies and endangering American security in an effort to overthrow the President. A few things to illustrate the problem: According to Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon: A new wave of leaks targeting the Trump administration has actively endangered ongoing intelligence and military operations being conducted by the United States and its allies, sparking anger and concern inside and outside the White House, according to multiple conversations with senior U.S. officials intimately familiar with the situation. The classified leaks, which are being handed to sympathetic journalists by former Obama administration officials who left the government and by holdovers still serving in the Trump administration, have damaged a number of ongoing operations, ranging from American efforts to prevent Russian infiltration of the United States to Israeli efforts against ISIS, sources said. According to Theodore Bunker of Newsmax: The FBI has seized smashed hard drives from the home of a Democratic House staffer an aide to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, The Daily Caller reported. Imran Awan, a longtime IT aide of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is under investigation for allegedly stealing equipment and improperly accessing the House IT network, while working in Congress. Shortly after the case went public, Awan moved out of his home in Lorton, Virginia, renting it eventually to a couple, one a Marine Corps veteran and one a Navy Officer. The renters told The Daily Caller they found "wireless routers, hard drives that look like they tried to destroy, laptops, [and] a lot of brand new expensive toner." They called the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which coordinated with the FBI and Capitol Police to seize the equipment. "It was in the garage. They recycled cabinets and lined them along the walls. They left in a huge hurry," the unnamed Marine, who spoke under the condition of anonymity out of concern for his wife's career, told The Daily Caller. "It looks like government-issued equipment. We turned that stuff over." Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has admitted that she violated official information security policy  blaming the chief administrative officer in the House of Representatives for not stopping her, the Daily Caller reports. According to John Solomon of The Hill: The National Security Agency and FBI violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama administration by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts, according to newly declassified memos that provide some of the richest detail to date on the spy agencies ability to obey their own rules. The Hill reviewed the new ACLU documents as well as compliance memos released by the NSA inspector general and identified more than 90 incidents where violations specifically cited an impact on Americans. Many incidents involved multiple persons, multiple violations or extended periods of time. For instance, the government admitted improperly searching the NSAs foreign intercept data on multiple occasions, including one instance in which an analyst ran the same search query about an American every work day for a period between 2013 and 2014. According to John Solomon of The Hill: The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is accusing top political aides of President Obama of making hundreds of requests during the 2016 presidential race to unmask the names of Americans in intelligence reports, including Trump transition officials. Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), in a letter to the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, said the requests were made without specific justifications on why the information was needed. We have found evidence that current and former government officials had easy access to U.S. person information and that it is possible that they used this information to achieve partisan political purposes, including the selective, anonymous leaking of such information, Nunes wrote in the letter to Coats. The Obama 'Demasking' Scandal is not just growing, it's surging. Everyday more comes to light showing how the Obummber administration as it headed for the showers did their best to disseminate classified information as far afield as possible. Of course the ABCNBCCBSPBSCNNMASNBCNPR Cartel isnt going to tell the low-information voters anything about it and of course they wont do any research of their own. So I guess its just between you and I and the millions who care to look. According to Fred Fleitz of Newsmax: You wouldnt know it from the mainstream media, but the scandal of Obama officials weaponizing U.S. intelligence to collect against their political enemies is not just growing, it's surging. There have been several damning reports over the last few weeks that Obama officials made hundreds of requests to "demask" the names of Trump campaign and transition officials from intelligence reports. Some of these demasked names were leaked to the press to hurt Mr. Trump politically before and after the election. And all this cloak and dagger skullduggery is leading up to one thing, the impeachment of President Trump. Since theyve known from the beginning there was no collusion between the President and the Russians they have to find another way to thread the needle. The Special Counsel witch-hunt is frantically searching day and night to find anything to call a crime so they can get the ball rolling. And the political savants in Congress are doing their bit too. Theyre attempting to pass a bill, hopefully for them, with a veto proof majority that makes it a crime for the President to fire the Special Counsel. This is a replay of the same strategy used to impeach President Andrew Johnson. In Johnsons case it was the Tenure of Office Act. The action of President Johnson that led directly to his impeachment was his deliberate violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The Tenure of Office Act was repealed in 1887. In 1926, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional even though it had been repealed almost 40 years before. So here we go again. How can it possibly make sense to pass a law saying that the head of the executive branch is committing a crime to fire someone who works for the executive branch? But thats where were headed. If there is no crime theyll manufacture one. According to Joe Crowe of Newsmax: A bipartisan (Republicrat) bill in the Senate would turn Department of Justice regulations about the president's ability to take action against a special counsel into law, according to Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. The bill would also require that an attorney general confirmed by the Senate would be the only official able to fire Mueller, according to Coons. If for this or any other reason the House impeaches and the Senate removes President Trump we Deplorables out here in fly over country may see this whole election business for a sham. If we dare to elect someone who isnt one of the self-appointed crooked lawyers whose conflicts of interest are aided and abetted by the special interests the big bi-coastal pajama boys will just overturn our choice and go back to business as usual. Or so they think. Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com  2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens Home
Who are the Palestinians? By Pinhas Inbari

Yet again, Palestinian leaders are claiming that the Palestinians are descended from the Canaanite people who lived in the land of Canaan before the Israelite tribes settled in it. No less than the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, made that claim in Germany; no one was taken aback by his remarks or questioned him. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat frequently makes the assertion, and during an international forum, he insultingly sniped at senior Israeli politician Tzipi Livni that his origins lay with the Canaanites of Jericho who were wiped out by the Israelites, alluding to war crimes of Joshua ben Nun. Again, none of the senior international officials who were present made any effort to ask questions, raise doubts, or come to the defense of the abashed Israeli representative. Ironically, a strong dissenting view to this thesis that the Palestinians can be traced back to the Canaanites comes from Hamas. On March 23, 2012, the Hamas Minister of the Interior and National Security, Fathi Hammad, linked the Palestinians origins to Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula: Who are the Palestinians? We have many families called al-Masri, whose roots are Egyptian! They may be from Alexandria, from Cairo, from Dumietta, from the north, from Aswan, from Upper Egypt. We are Egyptians; we are Arabs. We are Muslims. We are part of you. Egyptians! Personally, half my family is Egyptian  and the other half are Saudis. The Palestinians Canaanite narrative is not new. It emerged after the fall of the Hashemite monarchy in Syria in 1920, Syrias incorporation into the French Mandate, and King Faisals flight to Iraq so that he could assume the throne there in 1921. Yasser Arafat claimed that the Palestinians are descendants of the Jebusites, whom he describes as a Canaanite tribe. In short, this argument has been around for a while. Whats in a Name? What is the source of the name Palestine? It is not Arab; it is derived from the name Palestina, by which the Roman Emperor Hadrian chose to call the land after the defeat of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 CE. His aim was to erase Judea and negate any connection of the lands history and identity with the Jews. This denial of the lands Jewish roots has regrettably been continued to the present day by todays Palestinians. When the Islamic armies conquered the land, they adopted the administrative name used by the Byzantines and dubbed part of Palestina Prima (the first Palestine)  more or less todays Jerusalem area and the Shfela [coastal plain]  as Jund Filastin. Jund means army; Jund Filastin means the Palestine military command. In other words, the name did not signify the national identity of a Palestinian people who lived in the land, but instead, a military district, in line with the Byzantine nomenclature. The hub of Jund Filastin was the town of Ramle, not Jerusalem; the intention was apparently to protect the trade routes leading from Egypt to Syria and Iraq. The first generation of the Palestinian Muslim leadership took part in the Great Arab Revolt of the Hashemites in 1916. Palestinian leaders were members of the Hashemite administration in Syria, and it was only after King Faisals reign collapsed that they came to Palestine.

Arab demonstration in Jerusalem, circa 1920. The sign on the left says: We resist the Jewish immigration; the sign on the right says: Palestine is part of Syria. According to Palestinian historian Muhammad Y. Muslih, during the entire 400-year period of Ottoman rule (1517-1918), before the British set up the 30-years-long Palestine Mandate, There was no political unit known as Palestine. In Arabic, the area was known as al-Ard al-Muqadassa (the holy land), or Surya al-Janubiyya (southern Syria), but not Palestine. The Arabs of British Mandatory Palestine (1918-1948), then, had been exposed to competing narratives by which they could construct their political identity. Haj Amin al-Husseini, for example, was an Ottoman officer, but he joined the Hashemite army as a recruiter. Another figure from those days was Aref al-Aref, a supporter of the Hashemite regime in Damascus who orchestrated the April 1920 Nabi Musa riots in Jerusalem as a way of honoring the reinstatement of the Hashemite Faisals government. In 1919, al-Aref edited a Jerusalem-based publication called Southern Syria. At the 1920 riots, Haj Amin al-Husseini held up a portrait of King Faisal of Syria and showed it to the Jerusalem Arab crowd: This is your King! The crowd responded: God Save the King! The focus of much of the protest at the time was on the imposed separation of British Mandatory Palestine from Syria, which came under a French Mandate. The goal was reunification not Palestinian independence. As long as Palestinians saw themselves as part of Syria, they were not aware of their Palestinian identity. Adnan Abu Odeh, a senior Jordanian statesman of Palestinian extraction, wrote about Palestinian-Jordanian relations and made a distinction between the two peoples. In his view, the difference between Jordanians and Palestinians does not necessarily lie in how they define their identity but in how others define them. This distinction emerged, he maintains, when the British established the Emirate of Transjordan, which defined the Jordanians, and designated Palestine as the Jewish national home, thereby defining the Arabs who lived in the territory allocated to the Jews as Palestinians. The following are Adnan Abu Odehs definitions: Trans-Jordanians: Jordanian citizens whose origin is in Transjordan,

Palestinians: The Arab people of Mandatory Palestine,

Palestinian Jordanians: Palestinians who became Jordanian citizens after the West Bank and the East Bank were unified by Jordan in 1950,

Jordanians: Jordanian citizens of whatever origin. Thus, the national definition of the Palestinians stemmed from the borders that the Western powers carved out, whereas, after the First World War, they defined themselves as part of the short-lived Hashemite regime in Syria. A remnant of those early days is the flag of Palestine, which is actually the flag of the Great Arab Revolt of the Hashemites. It still serves as the official flag of the Syrian Baath Party and was only adopted as the official flag of Palestine at the PLO congress of 1964. In any case, the flags colors represent symbols from Islamic history and are in no way specifically linked with the Palestinians. The flag of Hashemite Syria The flag of the Syrian Baath Party This latter flag represents the Syrian aspiration for an empire. Similarly, the first generations of Palestinian nationalists joined the Hashemite administration out of hope that pan-Arabism would liberate Palestine. To this day, the PLO regards itself as pan-Arab. This means that for the Palestinians, defining themselves as pan-Arabs entails the total negation of the other  in the Palestinians case, of Israel. The first article in the 1964 Palestine Liberation Organizations Charter declares Palestine is an Arab homeland bound by strong Arab national ties to the rest of the Arab Countries and which together form the great Arab homeland. The flag of Palestine is, then, one of the flags of Greater Syria. It expresses a pan-Arab commitment, which the flags of Jordan, the Baath Party, and the Hashemites during their short-lived regime in Syria also upheld. Denial of Jewish History When Nabil Shaath, head of the PLOs foreign relations department, explained why they oppose the 1917 Balfour Declaration, he described Jewish history as a potpourri of legends and fabrications. Britain had awarded the country to those who had no bond with it whatsoever. [The Jews] he said, have no connection with the country, neither in distant nor in more recent history. Britain destroyed Palestine and cleared the path for the colonialist settlers instead of the real owners of the country. That is history, declared Shaath. Associating Palestinian history with the Canaanites is, then, part of the total denial of Jewish history. It is echoed in the denial of the Jewish peoples connection to the Temple Mount and the existence of a Jewish Temple there  nothing but a potpourri of legends and fabrications. This narrative is directly linked with the outrageous UNESCO resolutions that sever the bonds between the Jewish People and the cities of Jerusalem and Hebron. Some time ago, in one of the West Bank cities, I talked with a retired Palestinian teacher about the Canaanites. He claimed that they were a Yemenite Arab tribe that settled in Palestine and that the Israelites when they conquered the country, did not build a single new city or village; all the cities are Canaanite cities. He also said that the Israeli Shekel bears a Canaanite name; the evidence is that it was a Canaanite currency that Abraham paid to the Canaanites for the Cave of Machpelah. He claimed the Palestinians hold the right to the name Shekel. According to the Torah  so the Palestinian teacher claimed as well  Ishmael (Abrahams son) was the firstborn, not Isaac. Gods promise to Abraham pertained to Ishmael and not to Israel, he insisted. One theory associates the Canaanites with the tribe of Amalek, hated by the Israelites. It posits that the Canaanites were among the Amalekites descendants, and that explains why the Jews want to annihilate the Palestinians. Thus, linking the Palestinians with Canaan reflects an uncompromising attitude of all-out war. Palestinian scholar Khairiya Qassemiya wrote in the PLOs journal that the Palestinians disengagement from Syria was difficult for them because they then had to contend alone, without the Arabs, against the Zionists. King Faisal, she wrote, opposed severing Palestine from Syria, and in doing so set the stage for the ongoing opposition of all Syrian governments to creating a separate Palestinian state that is detached from Greater Syria. The collapse of Faisals government, however, cut the Palestinians off from Syria and forced them to seek separate roots for their identity; thus, the Canaanite ethos was born. For his part, PLO leader Yasser Arafat was known to describe the Palestinians as a nation of heroes (kum jabarin). The term comes from a Koran verse concerning the Israelites trepidation over entering the land of Canaan since it harbored a nation of giants, that is, the Canaanites. Thus, Arafat gave the Canaanite narrative Islamic roots. The Public Relations Hype versus Genealogy Such is the ethos. When one looks into what the Palestinians say about themselves, how each family describes its lineage, there is no trace of a Canaanite ancestry. Most of the families find their origins in Arab tribes, some of them with Kurdish or Egyptian background, and there are even  by word of mouth  widespread stories of Jewish or Samaritan ancestry. Although one might have expected some effort to adduce a Philistine ancestry, there is almost no such phenomenon. In Nablus, there is a family named Kanaan  that is, Canaan. We asked members of the family about its lineage, and they affirmed that they had been Canaanites for 3,000 years. However, a look at the familys website gave a different picture. It is indeed an ancient family  part of it Christian, indicating its pre-Islamic origin; but coming from Aleppo in Syria. From Aleppo, the family branched out to Damascus, Cyprus, and other places, including Nablus. Although the name may indicate Canaanite ancestry, the Canaanite forebears were in Syria, not in the land of Canaan. According to another source within the family, the clan originated in Homs, Syria and became widely dispersed in the Middle East, apparently including Nablus, about 300 years ago. Despite the fact that the name suggests a Canaanite lineage, this source says the familys origins lie in the ancient Arab Tamim tribe. Thus, apart from the Kanaan family with its possible Canaanite ancestry coming from Syria, not Palestine, and its possible Arab origins, there is no direct or indirect evidence of the Palestinians having descended from the Canaanite people as they claim. On February 1, 2014, Saeb Erekat locked horns with his negotiating partner, Tzipi Livni, before a European audience in Germany. He pronounced: I am a son of Jericho. My age10,000 years. I am a proud son of the Canaanites, and I was [here] 5,000 years ago, and 500 years before the coming of Joshua bin Nun, who burned my city, Jericho, and I will not trade in my history [because of a demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state]. In other words, Erekats claimed Canaanite roots entail that he cannot recognize Jewish history; and in any case, Joshua bin Nun, Erekat intimates, was a war criminal. Is the Erekat family Canaanite, as he angrily insisted to Tzipi Livni before a European audience that did not bat an eyelash? To find out how the family views its lineage, we looked at his familys genealogical sites. It turns out that the Erekat family originates in the large Huweitat tribe, and they belong to the Ashraf (families that trace their lineage to the family of the Prophet). They are related to the descendants of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet, who migrated from Medina to the Syrian Desert and settled in the Aqaba area. The Erekat family itself settled in Abu Dis, Jericho, Amman, and Ajloun (in Jordan). The sheikh of the family was Kamal Erekat, commander of the jihad against the nascent Jewish state in 1948 after Abd al-Kader al-Husseini was killed in the Battle of Kastel during Israels War of Independence. Kamal Erekat himself was wounded in the war and later became the first speaker of the Jordanian parliament. In general, the list of heads of the Erekat family includes many Jordanian cabinet ministers. Why is the family so prominent in Jordan? Because the Huweitat tribe was among the main tribes that backed the Great Arab Revolt of the Hashemites in Mecca, and it moved north along with Laurence of Arabia that is, at the same time as the Zionists were establishing themselves in Palestine. The Hejaz-based Huweitat tribe linked up with the branch of the tribe that had already settled in Jordan, and together they conquered Aqaba. Historic Arab Migration How did the Arab tribes of the Levant and Arab tribes, in general, come to be so dispersed? The Ottoman Empire was a gigantic open space, and internal migration and free movement of individuals and nomadic tribes were a common and characteristic feature. Hence, Arab tribes that settled in the Land of Israel were also varied and of different lineages, and during the Ottoman Empire, the Arabs in the country did not identify themselves as Palestinians. The term Palestine was Western and was regularly used by Jews who immigrated to the country; the Zionists called themselves Palestinians while the Arabs simply identified themselves as Arabs. The Zionist institutions  such as the Anglo-Palestine Bank, the Palestine Post, and so on  were Palestinian whereas the Arab institutions, such as the Arab Higher Committee, were simply Arab. As Adnan Abu Odeh observed, the definition of the Arabs as Palestinians stemmed from how the British identified the land  that is, from how foreigners, not necessarily Arabs, referred to the area. During and before the Ottoman Empire, Arab tribes were defined as Qays and Yaman  that is, the tribes of the northern Arabian Peninsula and the tribes of Yemen. That dichotomy characterized the disputes between the Arab tribes long before Islam began. It stemmed from the massive northward migration of the Yemenite tribes after a traumatic event in Yemens ancient history  the collapse of the Great Marib Dam sometime between 570 and 575 CE. Those migrations were not typical of Palestine, which had not yet emerged, but rather of the Middle East as a whole, and in this regard, the Palestinian tribes were no different from the region in general. Up to the present, almost every Palestinian family describes its origins by identifying either with the Qays (northern Arabian) tribes or with Yaman (Yemen). We did not find a single Palestinian family or tribe that referred to a Canaanite origin, including the Erekat tribe, which locates its lineage in the northern tribes. In 1938, the historian Ihsan Nimri published in Damascus a book about the history of Nablus and the Balka. Nimri was a resident of Nablus. Balka, a region in central Jordan in which the town of Salt is located, was connected to Nablus and was not referred to in terms of southern or northern, but rather, regarding the eastern direction  where Jordan is today. As Nimri wrote in the introduction: Nablus was known in the days of the Canaanites as Shechem [the Hebrew name], and it was unimportant. The Israelites conquered it easily, and after that, the Assyrians deported them to Iraq, and Iraqis settled in it. In the days of Rome, the city rebelled, and the Romans destroyed it and rebuilt it and called it Neapolis, the new city. Until the Muslims conquered it, its residents were an assortment of Christian Arabs, Samaritans, Arab governors, and soldiers Subsequently, Nablus got caught up in events in Syria, and I have devoted a chapter to the events in Syria because of [Nablus] connection with this history. Thus, according to this book on the history of Nablus, the references to the Canaanites are chronological rather than actual, and the Canaanites have left no trace in the current demography of the city. Jewish Origins for Some? Among the prominent tribes is that of the Barghoutis, from whose ranks have come Marwan Barghouti and other well-known figures. In a conversation with a member of the family many years ago, he told me that the Barghouti family symbolizes sumud  remaining steadfastly on the land. The family originally was Jewish, he said, and they converted to Christianity during the Byzantine Empire, and then, when Islam arrived, to Islam. There is no evidence of this description in the familys genealogy. There are, however, signs of its Christian origins. The family comes from the village of Deir Ghasana in the Ramallah district. Today, it is a Muslim area, but the names of the villages indicate that it was Christian in the past. The word Deir means monastery, and Deir Ghasana means the Ghasana monastery. Thus, the village from which the Barghouti family spread to other points on the map bears a Christian name. Although the Barghoutis ignore this Christian origin, other sites refer to it. For Muslim families, a Christian origin could indicate a Jewish origin, though not necessarily. The Christian families of Ramallah are an example. According to their tradition, the Christians of Ramallah are descended from the Christian Bedouin tribe of southern Jordan. (Yes, there were Christian Bedouins in the past.) They were the Haddadin tribe of the Karak area, 140 kilometers south of Amman, who were forced to leave 250 years ago by pressure from the Muslim tribes who sought to marry their daughters. Originally, the Haddadin tribe was Yemenite, and it was forced to leave pre-Muslim Yemen at the time of the Jewish king, Dhu Nuwas (455-510 CE), to avoid converting to Judaism and to maintain their Christianity. Today, the Haddadin is one of Jordans important tribes, and its members hold senior positions in the Hashemite government; an example is Munzer Haddadin, who headed the Jordanian delegation to the talks on water with Israel. The Jewish origin of the fellahin [villagers, laborer] is a fascinating subject. The Israeli computer scientist Zvi Misinay has sponsored genetic studies that have demonstrated a primary genetic link between the Palestinian fellahin and the Jews. Arab researchers have rejected this thesis, ascribing it to the desire to Judaize the Palestinians. Nonetheless, in conversations, many Palestinians confirm ancient traditions of Jewish origins that are common in their families. For example, a female clerk in the office of Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) once told me that her origins lay in the two biblical towns of Tzora and Eshtaol mentioned in the Samson story (Judges 13). Interestingly, the pairing of Tzora and Eshtaol is also preserved in spoken Arabic. The Palestinian Encyclopedia, published by the Palestinian Authority, describes Sara as a village that was founded in Canaanite days. The Israeli nonprofit organization Zochrot, which preserves the memory of the Palestinian villages that were destroyed during the War of Independence, makes use of the Palestinian descriptions but adds that the original name of this village was Sora and that it was known by this name at least until the 16th century. Crypto-Jews A source in Mount Hebron told me once that the Mount Hebron villagers call the residents of Hebron the Jews. Although the families of Hebron do not regard themselves as having Jewish ancestry, in the Mount Hebron villages there are traditions with Jewish origins. The most notable examples are the village of Yatta  the Biblical Juttah  and particularly among the Makhamra family. Israels second president, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, was a noted historian who researched the village of Yatta. In 1928 he described the lighting of Hanukah candles and observance of Jewish customs. The tradition that the Makhamra clan has Jewish ancestry is common to this family, noted Ben Zvi. Strikingly, one finds on a Palestinian Facebook page, alled All of us are for Palestine, a passage reposted from a different Facebook page called Yatta is everyones: It is said that the Makhamra family is of Jewish origin, and this was proved in the United Nations, and in 1947 Yatta was registered as a Jewish town, and it is said that all the residents of Yatta are of Jewish origin, and that the Samu, the Maharik family, the Carmel, Susya, Bani Naim, the Taamar, and the Rashaida and Azazmah tribes [in Jordan] are also Jews. The Middle East scholar Moshe Elad said on Israels Arabic television that two members of the Makhamra family had converted to Judaism and were now Israeli citizens living in Israel and that in the village customs of lighting Shabbat and Chanukah candles had been preserved. Unfortunately, the two terrorists who perpetrated the Islamic State-inspired attack at Tel Avivs Sarona market on June 8, 2016, were members of the Makhamra family. A Search for the Conquests When Arab families investigate their origins, they tend to associate themselves with a glorious chapter of Islam. The Huweitat family claims to be descended from the Imam Ali. One should take this affiliation with a grain of salt since honor considerations of the tribes lead them to seek honorable origins. However, when it comes to the ascriptions of the Arab tribes of Hebron, there are independent testimonies that the Tamim, a major Arab tribe, indeed has honorable origins connected with the dawn of Islam before the seventh-century conquest of the country. The tribes traditions, as well as other Islamic sources, such as the books of the Hadith, assert that the Hebronite Tamim family is among the descendants of the friend of the Prophet, Aws, from Medina days, and that the Muhammed gave him and his descendants Hebron as a patrimony  Habrun or Habra in the Hadith. Aws had no sons, but his daughter, Rukiyah, married a member of the Dar family, and the full name of the family is Tamim-Dari. The familys pre-Islamic origin was Yemenite. It converted to Christianity, and when the Prophet Muhammed came to Medina, the family came to him from Hebron (not al-Khalil) to convert to Islam. The family received Hebron and its neighboring villages from Muhammed as a patrimony. The Jordanian al-Majali tribe of Karak is also Tamimi, and its name, Majali, signifies that it was exiled at some point from Hebron to Karak. Just as Nablus was connected with Balqa of todays Jordan, Hebron was connected with Karak of todays Jordan. Not Canaanites, but Arab and Kurdish Origins Whereas the Tamimi tribe consolidated the Arab origins of Hebron, there are testimonies by Hebronites themselves that half of the city is of Kurdish origins. The reason lies in Islams wars against the Crusaders. They were not waged by the Arabs but by Kurds and Turks (still before the Ottoman Empire), and the army of Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin) had a Kurdish command. After conquering the country, he transferred a considerable portion of his army to Hebron to safeguard the countrys borders against the Arab Bedouins. Within Hebron, the Arabs led by the Tamim tribe opposed these fighters, and Hebrons history became fraught with the many wars between the Kurds and the Arabs. Numerous Hebron families, such as the Hashlamun, Kafisha, and other families, are of Kurdish origin. The Kurds also settled in other parts of the country and Transjordan. By now, the Kurds have completely Arabized, and they retain no connection with their origins. In Amman, however, a Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi Society has been established that seeks to preserve the Kurdish background. Hebrons demography, then, includes Kurdish families that fought over the birthright with the Arab tribes that united behind the Tamim-Dari tribe, whose origins go back to the dawn of Islam. The prominent Jabari tribe formed part of the Arab alignment, and it originated in Iraq. Just as the wars against the Crusaders brought Kurdish families to the country, the eighteenth-century war of Ibrahim Pasha against the Ottoman Empire brought Egyptian families to it; Ibrahim Pashas army did not return to Egypt, but instead, settled in the country. The members of the Masarwa family, the largest one in the Triangle, do not hide their Egyptian origins. Who Are the Canaanites Descendants? A study published by the American Journal of Human Genetics on July 27, 2017, reports that descendants of the Canaanites have indeed been found in the Middle East. They are modern Lebanese. Information of the study was released by National Geographic. While the researchers were surprised at the level of genetic continuity between ancient Canaanites and modern Lebanese after some 4,000 years of war, migration, and conquest in the area, NG reported, They caution against drawing too many conclusions on ancient history based solely on genetic data. Conclusion Of late, the Palestinian leadership has been repeating the theme that the Palestinians are descended from the Canaanites. Because it keeps reiterating this narrative, there is a concern that some in the West will fall for it. The purpose of the Canaanite narrative, however, is not to shed light on the Palestinians real ancestry, but to deny the Jews narrative. Why the Canaanites? Because they were in the country before the Israelite tribes were and thus have precedence. According to Nabil Shaath, Jewish history is but a potpourri of legends and fabrications. The Canaanite narrative cannot promote reconciliation and compromise but only the destruction of the Israeli-Jewish narrative, according to the same principle by which the various communities are now destroying each other in Syria. Hence, it is important to clarify how the Palestinians themselves view their own ancestry. Indeed, not a single Palestinian tribe identifies its roots in Canaan; instead, they all see themselves as proud Arabs descended from the most notable Arab tribes of the Hejaz, todays Iraq, or Yemen. Even the Kanaan family of Nablus locates its origins in Syria. Some families are Kurdish or Egyptian, and in Mount Hebron, there are traditions about Jewish origins. This study does not deny the right of the Palestinian families as a whole to define themselves as a Palestinian people. It would be better, however, if the Palestinian leadership were to choose a positive and constructive narrative and not a baseless one that is intended to negate that of the other. Pinhas Inbari is a veteran Arab affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar newspaper, and currently serves as an analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Home
Darren Sammy's final-over effort did not pay off as Guyana Amazon Warriors knocked off the eight runs needed to clinch their first win of the season

Guyana Amazon Warriors 153 for 4 (Mohammed 38, Gajanand 35*) beat St Lucia Stars 152 for 8 (Charles 53, Emrit 4-35, Rashid 2-9) by six wickets

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Rayad Emrit took two wickets off his final over to finish with his best figures for the season  Ashley Allen - CPL T20 / Getty

In a battle of the winless, Guyana Amazon Warriors got off the mark in tense fashion, securing a six-wicket win with a ball to spare courtesy a rounded batting effort chasing a target of 153. They rode their luck, behind thirties from Chadwick Walton, Jason Mohammed and Gajanand Singh . The victory for the 2016 finalists gives them a boost leading into their home-leg beginning Thursday in Providence while Stars remain without a win at the halfway point of their season.

Charles in charge

The Stars had been missing a major top-order contribution through the first nine days of the tournament but Johnson Charles produced a half-century to steer the first half of the innings after Darren Sammy elected to bat. Despite a pair of hiccups in the Powerplay that saw Andre Fletcher and Marlon Samuels fall cheaply, Charles battered his way to 53 off 32 balls with three fours and four sixes, showcasing some of the ferocity that made him such a valuable asset in the team's maiden playoff appearance in their final year as the Zouks.

Rashid Khan's intervention

The Afghanistan legspinner had gone wicketless in his first three games for Amazon Warriors but on his return to the venue that saw him claim 7 for 18 against West Indies in June, Rashid Khan reprised a slice of that magic with a sterling 2 for 9, the most economical four-over spell of CPL 2017. Charles fell skying a slog to long-on two balls after the drinks break but Rashid's next over was a sight to behold.

Rashid preyed on Kamran Akmal, whose awful tournament plumbed new depths when he flailed aimlessly after charging down the wicket to be stumped for 2. Standing toe-to-toe with new batsman Sammy, Rashid ripped three balls past the outside edge and would have had a wicket maiden were it not for a googly that pitched outside off before spinning viciously down the leg side for a wide. Sammy gave Rashid a high five at the end of the over as a mark of respect for the testing spell.

Emrit takes four

After claiming Samuels in the Powerplay, Rayad Emrit returned late to help contain the Stars. Emrit caught a slice of luck when Shane Watson spliced a full toss to Martin Guptill in the circle at cover. Bowling the final over, he conceded sixes to Sammy off the first two balls - part of a 19-run sequence for the Stars captain in four balls.

But Emrit bounced back strongly, conceding just three runs off the last four balls while taking two wickets. Sammy misfired a drive to long-on before Rahkeem Cornwall's attempt to pull Emrit against the wind found Rashid at deep midwicket. The Stars' power failure across those final four balls proved vital. Emrit ended with 4 for 35.

Gajanand's redemption

Amazon Warriors rode middle gear through much of the chase behind three solid partnerships forged by Walton, Martin Guptill, Babar Azam and Mohammed to carry them to 88 for 3 in the 13th over. But Gajanand's arrival marked a shift into high gear for the visitors as he cracked an unbeaten 35 off 22 balls, including a 57-run fourth-wicket stand with Mohammed.

Even though Amazon Warriors had wickets in hand, Stars began to edge marginally in front with five overs to go as the required run rate crept towards 10 per over. Mohammed and Gajanand decided to make their move in the 16th over. They went after Shane Shillingford, carting him for 17, including a streaky edge to third man and an authoritative pull by Gajanand over long-on for six.

Gajanand flicked Kyle Mayers for six over fine leg in the next over, before slapping two fours off Jerome Taylor in the 18th to bring the equation down to 11 off 12 balls. His knock might have erased the bad memory of losing his cool against Carlos Brathwaite in Florida last Sunday

Optimus Primus
A Review of Perl 6 (Raku)

By Evan Miller

August 13, 2017

[ Update, Feb. 5, 2020: Perl 6 is now called Raku. Ive updated the review title, but left the review body intact. ]

Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece, he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the glass case. Perhaps the artist was a little mad Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

Perl 6 reminds me of my uncles Ph.D. dissertation. For the first five years, we would ask (around Christmas) when hed be finished; putting less and less stock in his answers as the years wore on, and lacking any evidence that the dissertation, in any form, actually existed, we made the completion date a kind of running joke, a familial version of Bostons Big Dig or New Yorks Second Avenue subway line. But after enough self-imposed deadlines came and went, we stopped joking about it. After enough years, we stopped asking.

In case you missed it, and I think everyone did, Perl 6 was released to the world a year and a half ago  on Christmas of 2015, incidentally  after an effort nominally spanning almost sixteen years. (I think, but am not certain, my uncles dissertation was also completed at some point.) The market for new programming languages, as I write this in 2017, is competitive but not impenetrable  but like a freshly minted Ph.D., no one seems to be sure of Perl 6s market prospects, and like a just-turned-in dissertation, no one seems to know whether the fruit of many years labor is actually worth a damn.

It doesnt help that the purveyors of Perl 6 provide few hints as to what you should actually do with the language, besides the facile answer of whatever you want. Perl 6 is multi-paradigm, maybe omni-paradigm; it claims to support object-oriented programming, functional programming, aspect-oriented programming, array programming, and (good old) procedural programming. Its a new language, and not just a cleaned-up version of Perl 5, any more than English is German minus the umlauts. Knowledge of previous versions, alas, wont get you very far. By the same token, prejudices regarding the preceding incarnations dont necessarily hold todays water.

What follows is my attempt to provide the world with an honest if incomplete assessment of the programming worlds whitest of elephants, Perl 6. I was motivated by the following thought: every sysadmin knows at least a little Perl, but I do not know anyone who knows any Perl 6, nor do I know anyone who knows anyone who knows any Perl 6. Ive never read anything about Perl 6 that was longer than a punchline. I could equally imagine a world where Perl 6 is a heap of rubbish, and one where its the Hope Diamond of language design. No one seems to know; no one would know. Perl 6 is a register that has been written to, still waiting to be read.

After a number of false starts (by me) over the years, Ive finally managed to spend enough time with the language to say, with confidence, that Im familiar with it. Ive read a cornucopia of blog posts, devoured documentation, and written a small (500-line) Perl 6 library with cursory test coverage. I still have no idea what its like to use Perl 6 for a year, or even a proper work week, so this review will be less of a definitive testimonial, and more like one of those mom-tries-Linux reaction videos. Its likely that Im missing some things.

Perl 6 lacks a strong hook, and its also kind of slow. Its therefore difficult, but not impossible, to pique the readers interest with a hold-my-beer demonstration. (If youd like one, see Why Im Learning Perl 6.) Instead, Ill start with small examples.

Numbers

Perl 6 is easy enough to install from the Perl 6 website; unlike Perl 5, it ships with a passable shell:

$ perl6 To exit type 'exit' or '^D' >

If youre interested in some version numbers, which if any Perl 6 people are reading this, should probably be displayed in the shell greeting, just run perl6 --version :

$ perl6 --version This is Rakudo version 2017.04.3 built on MoarVM version 2017.04-53-g66c6dda implementing Perl 6.c.

Perl 6 really consists of a language specification (Perl 6.c; the c is for Christmas), a compiler (called Rakudo), and a virtual machine (called MoarVM). Theres a reason for the multiplicity of monikers: the Perl 6 folks believe no implementation ought to be privileged over the others.1

Tutorials and teasers for Perl 6 often begin with what, at first glance, looks like the worlds easiest math problem:

> 0.1 + 0.2 == 0.3 True

Most languages evaluate this expression as false, and the tutorials go on to explain the difference between floating-point and exact arithmetic. (Perl 6 treats number literals with decimals after the dot as rationals  that is, as a quotient of two integers  rather than as inexact floating-point numbers.)

Perl 6 is object-oriented, and you can see the class of any object with the .WHAT method:

> (10).WHAT (Int) > (0.1).WHAT (Rat) > (1e-1).WHAT (Num)

Int is an integer, Rat is a rational (exact fraction), and Num is a double-precision float. If you want the traditional floating-point behavior, just make a Num out of each number before adding them:

> Num(0.1) + Num(0.2) == Num(0.3) False

Scientific notation (such as 1e-1 for 110-1) always produces a floating-point Num in Perl 6. For reasons I dont understand, however, they sometimes seem to add up as rationals, rather than floating-point:

> 0.1e0 + 0.2e0 == 0.3e0 False > 1e-1 + 2e-1 == 3e-1 True

Maybe someone can explain the discrepancy to me in a polite email. Anyway, I wholeheartedly endorse Perl 6s use of rational numbers for exact arithmetic, and I think more languages could benefit from a similar implementation. For reference, Julia and Haskell have built-in rationals, constructed (respectively) with the // and % operators; most other languages have them as a library, if at all, without support for literals.

The overall math support in Perl 6 is quite good, with complex numbers and popular constants built right into the language. Here is Eulers identity, correct to 15 decimal places at any rate:

> e**(pi*i) -1+1.22464679914735e-16i

Speaking of which, if youre frequently dealing with floating-point numbers, Perl 6 has a handy approximately-equal operator =~= , which measures things within 10-15:

> e**(pi*i) + 1 =~= 0 True

Perl 6 has Unicode everywhere, so if you wish you can also use  in place of pi (and, cutely, superscripts to exponentiate to an integer). However, the Perl 6 shell doesnt seem to be completely multibyte-aware, so backspace through Unicode expressions at your own peril. The non-interactive compiler works with UTF-8 just fine.

Be aware that the choice of numeric types can have a significant impact on performance. For example, heres a small script to compute the 999,999th term of a harmonic series:

my $num = 1; my $total = 0; while $num < 1_000_000 { $total += 1/$num; $num++; } say $total;

That takes about 4.4 seconds on my machine. But change 1/$num to 1e0/$num and it takes only 1.75 seconds  in the first case, Perl 6 constructs a rational to represent 1/$num , but goes straight to the floating-point representation with 1e0/$num .

Another oddity crops up if you inspect $total closely. It begins life as an Int, becomes a Rat in the first loop iteration, and is converted to a Num around the 46th iteration. Theres some subtle type trickery going on behind the scenes, and one senses the benign presence of Larry Wall, whose skulduggery with strings and numbers in the original version of Perl made it such a hit with programmers weary of scanf and sprintf .

In my small test here, the fast version of the Perl 6 script is still about four times slower than Perl Classic, and 500 times slower (!) than C. The Perl 6 people often point to the speed improvements theyve made since the initial Christmas release, so perhaps the speed situation will improve with time. Overall, when it comes to numerical computing, I guess you could say that while Perl 6 is perfectly capable of heavy lifting, the lifting crew isnt in any apparent hurry.

If you were beginning to worry that there was only way to compute a harmonic series in Perl 6, you can compute the same thing with this hieroglyphic one-liner:

[+] (1..^1e6).map: 1/*

I wont trace the mechanics of that 22-byte code snippet here, but I will take this moment to note that among his other accomplishments, Larry Wall, the creator of Perl and designer of Perl 6, is a two-time winner of the Obfuscated C Contest.

One final observation about Perl 6 and math: although Perl 6 has all the usual functions from math.h, it could certainly use a few more.

Strings and Regexes

Perl 6s string support, and Unicode support in particular, is the best in the business. Unlike Go or JavaScript, Perl 6 is aware of graphemes and combining codepoints, and unlike Python, Swift, or Elixir, Perl 6 can can access arbitrary graphemes by position in constant time, rather than iterating over every grapheme to access a particular one.2 Unicode identifiers are allowed, and so are custom Unicode operators. Perl 6 has a number of built-in Unicode operators (with ASCII fallbacks) for things like set operations and equality tests.

Remember Eulers identity, with the approximation test? You can write it like this, if you like:

> e**(i) + 1  0 True

Perl 6 allows any form of quotation construct recognized by the Unicode standard, so the following are equivalent:

Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece "Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece"

The Perl 6 philosophy, as expressed by Larry Wall in interviews, is that Unicode symbols may be difficult to type now, but technology will improve and in the future youll be happy to have expressive Unicode defining your source code. Im personally satisfied with the ASCII variants  in Perl 6 parlance, theyre called Texas symbols (because everythings bigger, get it?)  but maybe some people will find Unicode easier on the eyes. Its worth noting that there are rumors of e-Ink keyboards in upcoming Apple hardware, so perhaps Larry Wall is ahead of this particular curve.

Back in late 1980s, Perl introduced the programming world to regular expressions, or at least the non-stack-based kind that people might actually want to use to capture and print stuff. Perl 6 has Perls regexes with a few changes: extending the Unicode support, moving the modifiers around, and reassigning some symbols, and also changing the whitespace rules to be more legible. They feel to me more modern, with more room to breathe. Ill give a few examples.

Character classes use <[]> instead of [] , and ranges use .. instead of - . So:

[a-zA-Z0-9]

is now:

<[ a..z A..Z 0..9 ]>

Capturing groups still use parentheses, but non-capturing groups now use plain square brackets. Spaces must now be made explicit. So this:

(Male|Female) (?:Cat|Dog)

is now:

(Male || Female) ' ' [Cat || Dog]

Modifiers ( i for case-insenstive is the most important one) can appear inside a regex when preceded by a colon. For example, this Perl 5 regex:

(Male|Female) (?:[Cc][Aa][Tt]|[Dd][Oo][Gg])

would be translated to Perl 6 as:

(Male || Female) ' ' [:i cat || dog]

\d now matches Unicode digits such as  (a Balinese five) and  (a Thai three). \w matches digits and anything Unicode considers to be a letter, including  and . \h matches any Unicode-defined horizontal whitespace character; if you want to match only the space on grandpas ASCII typewriter, you have your choice of \c[SPACE] , \x[20] , or ' ' .

Sets of characters can be identified by traditional Perl groupings such as alnum or xdigit , or using Unicode General Categories such as Lu (uppercase letter) or Sm (math symbol):

<alnum> # traditional character class name, now in angle brackets <:Lu> # Unicode General Category, note the colon

Additional sets can be computed by defining ranges or with set operators, union, intersection, difference, and so on.

<alnum - [0..9]> # Alphanumerics, excluding 0 through 9 <alnum + :Sm> # Alphanumerics, plus Unicode-defined math symbols <alpha & xdigit> # Alphabetical hexadecimal digits; same as <[ a..f A..F ]>

If I dealt with Unicode text files on a regular basis, Id likely feel  with these features.

Grammars

The Perl 6 feature I was most excited to read about  in fact the initial reason I was drawn to Perl 6, aside from morbid curiosity  is the inclusion of grammars in the language. A good way to ease into grammars is to refactor a regular expression, for example like this:

my regex sex { "Male" || "Female" }; my regex species { :i "cat" || "dog" }; if "Male CAT" ~~ /<sex> \s <species>/ { say "Sex: " ~ $/<sex>; say "Species: " ~ $/<species>.lc; }

(Tilde is Perl 6s string concatenation operator; double-tilde is smart match, which in this context applies a regular expression.)

Next you can group regexes into a grammar block, providing a special regex named TOP, indicating where the parsing should begin:

grammar Animal { regex sex { "Male" || "Female" } regex species { :i "cat" || "dog" } regex TOP { <sex> \s <species> } } if my $result = Animal.parse("Male CAT") { say "Sex: " ~ $result<sex>; say "Species: " ~ $result<species>; }

Because named regexes (or rules) can refer to each other, and to themselves, the Perl 6 grammar engine can be used to build recursive-descent parsers. I use Ragel for a number of parsing tasks, so I liked the idea of having a language that has something Ragel-ish built in  but Im afraid I wont be abandoning Ragel anytime soon, and wont be migrating to Perl 6, at least not on account of its grammar engine.

The problem with Perl 6s grammar engine  and perhaps this shortcoming could be addressed in a future version of the language  is that if parsing fails for any reason, the parse method simply returns Nil . There is no indication of any kind about where the failure occurred; so for any kind of non-trivial input, grammars are a real pain to debug. A single misplaced character kills the whole parse, and the coroners report is blank.

The Perl 6 compiler is written using the Perl 6 grammar engine, so I was wondering how the Perl 6 parser produces its line numbers and error messages. I started poking around the languages grammar file, and like a kid rifling through his parents bedside table, I regret that I ever had the idea.

Its bad enough that the Perl 6 grammar file is a foam party of intermingled grammar, code, and error messages, but heres the cherry on top: most rules in the Perl 6 grammar file have an extra condition that, instead of matching something, throws an exception, and the exception handler picks apart the internal state of the parser to figure out how much input was processed before the exception was thrown. It works, sort of, but its a kludgy technique to replicate if all you want are some line numbers. Traditional parser-generators do a much better job handling non-matching input.

This shortcoming explains, in part, why Perl 6s error messages are sometimes useless if you have a syntax error in your source code. Many of Perl 6s error messages are helpful and good, but for example, if you forget to close a quote, Perl 6 will tell you that theres an error in the last line of the file  when of course the error is more likely near the opening quote, which could be anywhere in the file. Good luck finding it, as Perl 6s exception-throwing parser provides nary a clue.

As a long-time Ragel addict, I really wanted to like Perl 6s grammar engine, but the lack of decent failure handling means I cant endorse it except as a refactorable regex machine. Perl 6 could have been an interesting platform for prototyping new programming languages, for example, but as soon as you take a look at the Perl 6 grammar file, youll want to close the drawer and go back to a more innocent time.

A Note on Identifiers

Lets get something out of the way: Perl 6 identifiers can contain dashes.

$why-hello-there = "Why, hello there!";

Perl 6ers call this kebab case; Im told on good authority that Lispers use the same case convention, but they never really had a meat-related name for it.

Kebab case is the preferred case convention in Perl 6s standard library, including for function and variable names (e.g. is-prime($a-big-number) ). Because variables in Perl 6 almost always start with a sigil (dollar sign, at sign, or percent sign), the convention usually doesn't create any ambiguity with subtraction operations. Its therefore not a terrible choice for Perl 6, and is at least consistent with Larry Walls bet on Unicode, and his bold vision that one day we will be able to type hyphens and minus signs into our computers as separate characters.

Most programmers that I show Perl 6 to instantly recoil at the kebab case, as if there were human flesh hanging off of it. Ive personally grown to like it. It gives a screen full of Perl 6 code a distinct visual identity, and even if you dislike the aesthetic, you have to admit its easier on the Shift finger than either CamelCase or underscores.

Of course, any salutary effects on the health of your left pinky will likely be washed away by Perl 6s $@%&! variable sigils.

Arrays and hashes

Perl 5 had arrays, indicated by @ and indexed by integer, and hashes, preceded by % and keyed by string; on these blocks, the church of Perl was built.

Perl 6 has the same two data structures, but with a number of modifications. A noticeable syntactic change is that $array[0] is now written @array[0] , that is, value accesses use the data structures sigil (at-sign or percent sign), rather than the scalar sigil (dollar sign).

An important semantic difference is that arrays and hashes can be parameterized with a value type; for example,

my Int @array; my Str %hash;

declares an array that stores only integers, and a hash that stores only strings. The hash keys are strings by default, so you dont need to parameterize them.

Literal arrays are written with square brackets:

@array = [99, 100, 101];

Literal hashes can be written in a few different ways. The following are equivalent:

%( minutes => 3, seconds => 45 ) %( "minutes" => 3, "seconds" => 45 ) %( "minutes", 3, "seconds", 45 ) %( :minutes(3), :seconds(45) ) %( :3minutes, :45seconds )

The last form feels like a hack, but I guess its preferable to the pineapple upside-down ontology of Rails methods like 3.minutes or 45.seconds .

In constructing a hash, braces can be used in place of %() , that is, unless the braces contain the default variable, $_ , in which case Perl 6 gets confused and thinks a block is being declared. The documentation discourages braces for hashes for this reason  but then, braces are the default representation when Perl 6 prints a hash, so Im getting mixed messages about what to use. In the tradition of Perl, there is indeed more than one way to do it, but in this case, Im still looking for a satisfactory explanation as to why. It seems to me Perl 6 should have just endorsed one surrounding hash syntax, outlawed the other, and saved themselves countless StackOverflow questions tagged #newbie.

Hash members are accessed as either %hash<key> or %hash{"key"} . A cute feature is that hashes can look up arrays of keys, so %hash<key1 key2> returns the values for both "key1" and "key2" .

If youre not satisfied by string keys, its possible to declare a different type of key inside of braces:

my %hash{Int};

Or create a hash keyed by arbitrary objects with colon-prefixed braces:

my %hash := :{ 100 => "One hundred", 200 => "Two hundred", $(pi) => "Three point one four one five nine" }

For the record, thats the only literal syntax for creating object hashes; the weird $_ prohibition applies here, too. And note the $() syntax above, necessarily for preventing Perl 6 from interpreting pi as a string. For all the rhetoric about Perl 6 being more consistent than Perl 5, it sure has a lot of little rules.

Lists

Technically, Perl 5 had a third data structure, the list. Lists could be assigned to arrays or to hashes  list values were separated by commas and surrounded by parentheses  but were themselves immutable, and could not be explicitly bound to variables.

Lists are still present (and immutable) in Perl 6, but in a departure from the predecessor language, Perl 6 lets you bind lists to variables for later re-use, using the bind-to ( := ) operator:

my @list := (1, "One", pi);

Assigning to an item in the list can result in an error:

@list[0] = 2 # Cannot modify an immutable Int (1)

Note that this error message indicates that you cant modify the Int, not that you cant modify the List. If the list contains a variable, you can modify the contents of the variable, without changing the actual list (which still contains the variable):

my $value = 10; my @list2 := (1, 2, $value); @list2[0] = pi; # Error: Cannot modify an immutable Int @list2[1] = pi; # Error: Cannot modify an immutable Int @list2[2] = pi; # Works say @list2; # (1 2 3.14159265358979) say $value; # 3.14159265358979

Weird, huh? In a sense, because lists themselves are assumed immutable, value assignments are just re-routed to a particular list member. In this way, list assignment follows somewhat naturally:

my $value1 = 1; my $value2 = 2; ($value1, $value2) = ($value2, $value1);

Dont get too excited though, as this assignment wont behave as youd expect:

my $value1 = 1; my $value2 = 2; my $value3 = 3; (($value1, $value2), $value3) = ((100, 200), 300);

For reasons that arent clear to me, the lefthand side is flattened before assignment, and is equivalent to this:

($value1, $value2, $value3) = ((100, 200), 300);

Thus in both cases $value1 gets assigned (100, 200), $value2 gets 300, and $value3 gets nothing. Theres a separate colon prefix for doing a destructuring assignment (note that bind-to := is required in this usage):

:(($value1, $value2), $value3) := ((100, 200), 300);

In the above line, $value1 gets 100, $value2 is 200, and $value3 becomes 300. I dont understand the logic of making a syntactic distinction between list assignment and full destructuring assignment  and silently flattening the lefthand list structure in the first case  but there you have it.

Lists can contain other lists, and also arrays and hashes. Arrays and hashes can contain arrays and hashes (this is still Perl), and can also contain lists.

The last thing Ill note about lists is that they can be unrolled with the special pipe operator:

my @list := (2, 3, 4); say (1, @list, 5); # "(1 (2 3 4) 5)" say (1, |@list, 5); # "(1 2 3 4 5)"

This comes in handy when calling functions. But well talk about that after we talk about something that has been bothering me.

Itemization

If youre not especially interested in the gory details of how lists differ from arrays, feel free to skip this section.

An array is a list, but items within an array (or hash) behave differently from items within a list:

my @array = (1, 2, 3); my @list := (1, 2, 3); say @array.WHAT; # "(Array)" say @list.WHAT; # "(List)" say @array[0].WHAT; # "(Int)" say @list[0].WHAT; # "(Int)" say @array[0].VAR.WHAT; # "(Scalar)" say @list[0].VAR.WHAT; # "(Int)"

Arrays have an extra, hidden layer of indirection, which the documentation calls itemization. Unlike the list, the array is really full of transparent containers which point to the actual values and which can be accessed through the .VAR method. Assigning to an array member really modifies the container, whereas modifying a list member attempts to manipulate the item itself.

However, lists can also have this layer of indirection, on a per-member basis, using the special dollar function, $() . You still cant modify the list, but itemized members are protected from list-flattening operations.

Itemization is a confusing part of an already complex language  most of the time, methods pass straight through the container, but because itemized members of a list are not flattened by List.flat , when you return a nested list from a function, you are expected to be aware of which members are itemized, and which are not, based on what you expect the caller to expect when the caller calls List.flat on the returned value.

Got that?

The documentation provides five heuristics for deciding when items in a list returned from a function should be itemized; after dozens of readings, the heuristics are still mostly mumbo-jumbo to me, and so I think Ill be sticking to simple lists and objects and arrays of objects.

Functions

Perl 6 might have my favorite function-dispatching mechanism of any language Ive used; its certainly the most flexible.

Function arguments can be named or positional, but not both. Named arguments are preceded with a colon:

sub triangle-area(:$base, :$height) { return 0.5 * $base * $height; } triangle-area( height => 3, base => 4 ); # 6 triangle-area(4, 3); # error, "Too many positionals passed"

Signatures can destructure their arguments, a popular feature in functional languages:

sub first-item([$head, *@tail]) { return $head; } my @array = (99, 100, 101); first-item(@array); # 99

If you miss the old Perl 5 convention of putting all of your parameters into an array, you can use whats called a slurpy:

sub add-em-up(**@numbers) { return @numbers.sum; } add-em-up(1, 2, 3); # returns 6

The pipe operator, mentioned in the previous section, can also be used to pass a regular list as an argument list:

my @args := (3, 4, 5); add-em-up(|@args); # equivalent to add-em-up(3, 4, 5)

Hashes destructure:

sub volume(%( :length($x), :width($y), :depth($z) )) { return $x * $y * $z; } my %dimensions = %(depth => 2, length => 10, width => 5); volume(%dimensions); # 100

And can be unrolled to named parameters with the pipe operator:

sub triangle-area(:$base, :$height) { return 0.5 * $base * $height; } my %dims = %( base => 4, height => 5 ); triangle-area( %dims); # Error: Too many positionals passed triangle-area(|%dims); # Works

Multiple-dispatch occurs not just on types, like Julia and C++, but also on values, as in Elixir and Haskell. There are often faster ways to compute a factorial, but:

multi sub factorial(0) { 1 } # "return" and semicolon are optional, btw multi sub factorial(Int $n where * > 0) { $n * samewith($n-1) } factorial(4); # 24 factorial(4.0); # type error

Note the use of samewith in the second clause; this is a feature that I pined for in Erlang, a keyword to perform recursion so that you could rename a function without having to change all the recursive calls within it. Its a welcome feature in Perl 6.

Candidate clauses are evaluated in order, but note that you might get unexpected results defining multiple-dispatch functions inside the Perl 6 shell. Each clause seems to only be aware of the clauses that preceded it, so for example switching the two clauses above results in a run-time error. But switching the order is fine if youre using the regular compiler.3

In a couple of places thus far, Ive used a Whatever Star, which creates a closure with itself as an argument:

my $add-two = * + 2; say $add-two(pi); # 5.14159265358979

The Whatever Star is the skeleton key to a number strange-looking Perl 6 expressions, such as the following (which, incidentally, strengthen the case for Unicode operators):

(1, 2, 3).map: * * 2 # multiply by 2; first * is Whatever, second is multiply (1, 2, 3).map: * ** 2 # raise Whatever to power of 2

Ive avoided the Whatever Star because, in addition to making Perl 6 look like a lineal descendant of brainfuck, it is governed by rules that are too subtle for my understanding. All of the following work, and do the same thing (compute the square root of a list of numbers):

(1, 4, 9).map: *.sqrt (1, 4, 9).map: { $_.sqrt } (1, 4, 9).map: { sqrt($_) }

This doesnt work:

(1, 4, 9).map: sqrt(*)

Im sure theres a valid explanation for this discrepancy somewhere on the Internet. In cases like these I like to say that the monads must be acting up again, and move on.

NativeCall

The most pleasant set of surprises for me with Perl 6 function-calling  in fact some of the more pleasant surprises in all of Perl 6  is the nearly frictionless interfacing with C libraries.

To get a feel for the C interop, I decided to use Perl 6 to wrap up one of my favorite C libraries, libxlsxwriter. The C library, ironically, began life as a Perl 5 library, and was later ported to C, but, alas, never to Perl 6. As the name implies, libxlsxwriter can be used to generate XML-based Excel documents.

(Heres the code I came up with, if you want to follow along at home: XLSX::Writer, a Perl 6 library for generating Excel spreadsheets; pardon the SEO keywords.)

The NativeCall module in Perl 6 unlocks all kinds of dark magic for calling C code. Declaring a Perl 6 class to be an opaque C pointer is simple:

class Writer::Workbook is repr('CPointer');

Declaring a C function that returns an opaque pointer object is a matter of:

sub workbook_new(Str is encoded('utf8')) returns Writer::Workbook is native("xlsxwriter") {...}

NativeCall automatically converts Perl 6 strings to C strings, and to the encoding of ones choosing (via is encoded() ). The ellipses between the braces above are literal ellipses, but a Whatever Star can be used in their place (Im not sure why); anyway, the workbook_new routine is now ready to be called from any method. For example, if you make a new method in the Writer::Workbook class:

method new(Str $path) { workbook_new($path) }

Then a workbook can be opened in a script with:

use Writer::Workbook; my $workbook = Writer::Workbook.new("/path/to/workbook.xlsx");

The wrapping process quickly becomes a kind of three-step waltz: declare the C function as a subroutine, make a method for a nice OO interface, and add a few lines to the test script. One-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three

If the C library requires knowledge of the C struct, mirroring the data layout is fairly simple. For example, this C struct:

typedef struct lxw_datetime { int year; int month; int day; int hour; int min; double sec; } lxw_datetime;

Becomes:

class Writer::CDateTime is repr('CStruct') is export; has int32 $.year; has int32 $.month; has int32 $.day; has int32 $.hour; has int32 $.min; has num64 $.sec; # alignment is ok!

I couldnt figure out whether theres a platform-specific C int type in NativeCall (Rust and Julia provide this), but int is 32 bits on all modern computers, so I didnt lose any sleep over it.

One particularly pleasant surprise was that NativeCall uses the correct alignment rules to pad out data structures; in the example above, the sec field begins at byte 24 in both the C and Perl 6 structures, even though only 20 bytes (five 4-byte integers) precede it. Bullet dodged. The C struct is then initialized as a regular Perl 6 object:

my $now = DateTime.now; my $dt = Writer::CDateTime.new(:year($now.year), :month($now.month), :day($now.day), :hour($now.hour), :min($now.minute), :sec($now.second));

Heres where things get interesting. NativeCall always passes pointers to structs, so you dont have to muck around with pointer types in the Perl 6 code. Thus this C function:

void workbook_set_creation_datetime(lxw_workbook *workbook, lxw_datetime *datetime);

Would be declared nicely and neatly in Perl 6:

sub workbook_set_creation_datetime(Writer::Workbook, Writer::CDateTime) is native("xlsxwriter") {...}

And wrapped in a Writer::Workbook method thus:

method set-creation-datetime(Dateish $date) { my $dt = Writer::CDateTime.new(:year($date.year), :month($date.month), :day($date.day), :hour($date.hour), :min($date.minute), :sec($date.second)); workbook_set_creation_datetime(self, $dt) }

Then called from a script:

my $wb = Writer::Workbook.new("/path/to/workbook.xlsx"); $wb.set-creation-datetime(DateTime.now);

Most of the type-mappings between C and Perl 6 are automatic and straightforward; the only exception that I encountered was the num64 type, which requires a Num (floating-point) type, and wont accept a generic Numeric (Num, Int, or Rat). But the .Num conversion method is an easy workaround.

Ill mention one other language feature that makes wrapping a C library pleasant, Perl 6s enum construct:

enum LibraryError <LXW_NO_ERROR LXW_ERROR_MEMORY_MALLOC_FAILED LXW_ERROR_CREATING_XLSX_FILE LXW_ERROR_CREATING_TMPFILE # many more >;

Each value of the enum is really a key-value pair, beginning with the value zero. A nicety is that if a C function returns an integer, the Perl 6 side can easily access the symbolic representation:

sub some_c_function() returns int32 is native("something") {...} my Int $code = some_c_function(); say LibraryError($code) # LXW_NO_ERROR, etc

Enums can start with a value other than zero:

enum Script <<:superscript(1) subscript>>;

Or have specified values:

enum Color ( black => 0x1000000, blue => 0x0000FF, brown => 0x800000, cyan => 0x00FFFF);

I hesitate to suggest expanding the language any further  even a tiny suggestion at this point may be like the mortal mint that did in Mr. Creosote in The Meaning of Life  but one feature Perl 6 might borrow from Go is incrementing the enum value via bit-shift, i.e. Gos too-clever-by-half 1 << iota construct.

My only real qualm with Perl 6s enum feature is that it appears enum symbols must be unique within the declaring scope, or else you get warnings and a strange error. Id prefer the symbols not to be exported into the scope, and then access the symbols via the enum name ( LibraryError::none , Color::black , etc.). Right now, if the Color and LibraryError enums are declared in the same scope, then Color::none and LibraryError::none would create a conflict. So you have to either use C-style globally unique names ( LIBRARY_ERROR_NONE , LIBRARY_COLOR_NONE , ), which doesnt feel very Perlish to me, or else put each enum in its own file and then import it, which is pretty inconvenient.

Nonetheless, wrapping up a C library in Perl 6 is a painless experience, even an addictive one. You can even pass a Perl 6 function or closure as a C callback, using the native types ( int32 and all that) directly in your Perl 6 code. However, the usefulness of this feature is mitigated somewhat because you cant get a Perl 6 object back from a void * context pointer, which is how many C APIs are designed. Another limitation is that NativeCall does not support passing or returning C structs by value; of course, theres a hack for that.

Concurrency

Perl 6 has a number of abstractions for dealing with concurrency  promises, channels, and something called supplies  but I think its more helpful to start with a picture of the Perl 6 execution model so you can see what these abstractions are really doing and what their limitations are.

Perl 6 runs on a virtual machine, MoarVM, which has a thread scheduler, a garbage collector, and an event loop. Unlike the C implementations of Python and Ruby, MoarVM has no global interpreter lock, so Perl 6 code can always execute concurrently inside a single process. As of this writing, Perl 6 threads map directly to OS threads, but this behavior will change in the upcoming Diwali (Perl 6.d) release, which will support a degree of M:N thread multiplexing. Perl 6 threads have their own storage, but are able to access each others objects, so some care must be taken to avoid race conditions. A lock mechanism is provided, but is discouraged in favor of the languages message-passing abstractions.

Theres a fixed upper limit on the number of OS threads that MoarVM will use; this number defaults to 16, but can be changed with the environmental variable RAKUDO_MAX_THREADS . If your code attempts to start more than that number background tasks using threads, execution may deadlock.

The garbage collector is generational, and halts all execution across all threads while it runs (i.e. it is stop-the-world). The garbage collector itself is multi-threaded. It will run till done, so it doesnt have the same time guarantees as, for example, Gos garbage collector.

To handle asynchronous I/O, MoarVM uses libuv, the secret sauce in Node.js; I havent tried it, but juggling thousands of concurrent network connections in a single-threaded Perl 6 server shouldnt present any insurmountable challenges.

With all of that out of the way, lets talk about Perl 6s core concurrency abstractions: promises, channels, and supplies.

The start keyword kicks off code on another thread, assuming a thread is available; its a shortcut to Promise.start , and should be met with an await :

my $task = start { say "Hello from {$*THREAD.id}"; } say "Ahoy from {$*THREAD.id}"; await $task;

If you run the above code, youll see that the greetings are initiated from different threads, and that the messages may appear in either order. Note that await returns from the current thread in Perl 6.c, but might return from a different thread in future versions.

To see the thread pool in action, try starting more than 16 tasks:

my @p = (1..32).map: { start { say "Sleeping on {$*THREAD.id}"; sleep 5; } }; await @p;

You should see the resulting messages in two batches; sixteen messages immediately, using every thread in the thread pool, followed by sixteen more messages (after 5 seconds), re-using those same threads. You can imagine how code might unexpectedly deadlock if some code is waiting for a particular thread to start, but there are no available threads in the thread pool. Future versions of Perl 6 are supposed to alleviate some of these thread-exhaustion problems by moving Perl 6 threads across OS threads if the Perl 6 thread is waiting on a message from a channel; this will bring the implementation closer to the concurrency model of Erlang, Go, or .NET.

Channels, since were talking about them, exist for thread communication in Perl 6. The language includes the react/whenever keywords for receiving messages on a channel.

my $channel = Channel.new; my $p = start { react { whenever $channel { say "Hello from {$*THREAD.id}! You said \"$_\""; } } }; my $message = "Ahoy"; say "This is {$*THREAD.id}. Let's send \"$message\" to our buddy (twice)."; $channel.send($message); $channel.send($message); $channel.close; # mandatory await $p;

react is a blocking construct, and only returns when every channel that its listening to has been closed, or when done is explicitly called from within react . In the above example, failure to close the channel (by commenting out the line marked # mandatory ) will result in the start block never returning, and so the modified program will hang on the call to await .

Channels in Perl 6 are similar to Gos channels, or message-passing in Erlang, with important differences. Gos channels can be typed, and Erlangs messages can be pattern-matched; listeners on Perl 6 channels just have to accept whatever is sent. Go and Erlang both have a timeout mechanism on the receiving end; Perl 6 does not. (I imagine as the Perl 6 community gains experience with concurrent and distributed systems, theyll demand similar features in their language.)

The final bit of abstraction for handling concurrency in Perl 6 is called the supply. A Supplier object emits (via the emit method) a sequence of values to its Supply object; the Supply can have one or more listeners, called taps. Taps are not objects, but rather callback functions that are executed once for each supplied value.

By default, the taps are called on the thread that calls Supplier.emit . For example:

my $supplier = Supplier.new; my $supply = $supplier.Supply; $supply.tap({ say "Tap #1 got \"$_\" on {$*THREAD.id}" }); $supply.tap({ say "Tap #2 got \"$_\" on {$*THREAD.id}" }); say "Sending values from {$*THREAD.id}..."; $supplier.emit("Hello");

If you run that code, youll see all the action happens on a single thread. Supplies dont introduce concurrency; theyre more of a curtain for hiding it. For example, a supplier that emits values as it receives messages from a channel (say, inside a react block) would ensure that application logic occurred in a predictable order and on a predictable thread.

One of the more interesting applications for supplies is receiving data from external programs. In Perl 5, receiving data from both the standard out stream and standard error stream is a headache; in Perl 6, they each get their own supply:

my $proc = Proc::Async.new(:r, 'echo', 'Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece'); $proc.stdout.tap({ say "OUT: $_"; }); $proc.stderr.tap({ say "ERR: $_"; }); await $proc.start;

Incidentally, the Proc::Async class also has write and close-stdin methods to facilitate two-way interactions with external programs.4

UNIX signals can be accessed from a supply, too:

signal(SIGINT).tap( { say "Perhaps the artist was a little mad..."; exit 0 } )

Note in both this example and the previous one, because emit is called from behind the proscenium, these particular callbacks will execute on a different thread from the main program.

Concurrency isnt easy in any language, but Perl 6 seems to have a decent set of abstractions for writing complicated programs without introducing race conditions. However, the threading model of these abstractions is not obvious at first glance, and seems to be a common source of confusion on StackOverflow. I also didnt see much guidance for exception-handling in concurrent code, which is a common source of bugs and deadlocks outside of the shared-nothing Erlang diaspora.

Finally, Im not totally sold on the rationale for supplies; their banner use-cases (signal handling and stdout/stderr processing) dont really require sequential execution of different callbacks, and because the emit happens deep in the standard library, the callbacks end up executing on a Mystery Thread as far as the main application is concerned.5

I suspect these Supply use-cases would be better served with channels capable of broadcasting messages to multiple subscribers. For example, the following hypothetical API is more verbose, but would give more clarity about which code is executing on which thread:

my $proc = Proc::Async.new(:r, 'echo', 'Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece'); # Get channels for the external process's output my $out = $proc.stdout-channel; my $err = $proc.stderr-channel; # Start a worker thread that listens on the channels my $worker = start { react { whenever $out { say "OUT: $_"; } # Print stdout on the worker whenever $err { say "ERR: $_"; } # And also stderr on the worker } }; # Run the external program await $proc.start; # Wait for the worker to finish await $worker;

Right now channels pick a listener at random to deliver a message to, so even if the data streams were delivered over channels, as in the fake API above, you wouldnt be able to plug in multiple receivers. The current 1:1 channel design fits well with worker-thread designs, but not so well for event listeners.

So What?

Theres more, as you might guess, to Perl 6  Ive mostly left out its object model, class hierarchy, array-programming features, and control-flow constructs, but I think Ive covered enough territory to offer up a general perspective on the language and run-time. To put the burning question bluntly, what is Perl 6 good for?

Perl 6s math support is excellent  complex and rational numbers are handled seamlessly  but Im afraid Perl 6 is just too slow for serious scientific number-crunching. To keep up with the Joneses it would need either a major investment in native libraries, like Pythons Numpy, or a built-in JIT compiler like Julias. Supposedly theres a JIT in the works, but it appears to have been in the works for a number of years, so Im not holding my breath.

Perl 6s string handling, in particular the Unicode support, is unparalleled. I like the new regex syntax. However, the grammar engine is a bit of a disappointment, and despite my initial enthusiasm, it wont be replacing parser-generators, at least not in my toolkit. Compiling Perl 6 code and processing text files from disk are relatively slow operations, and neither is helped by the non-instantaneous VM start time. Perl 6 will likely have a hard time replacing Perl 5 in the worlds UNIX pipelines, at least in its present form.

Perl 6 is better at concurrency than Ruby and Python. But for high-throughput, low-latency applications, the current release is significantly behind Go, Erlang, or .NET. It will start to catch up with the 6.d Diwali release, which introduces M:N thread multiplexing, but the VM will still need some serious battle-testing and battle-tuning before it can claim to compete with the other platforms.

Testing is easy  just put test scripts in the t/ directory and follow the Test module docs  but Im still not sure if theres a preferred method for writing function and module documentation. People seem to just put everything in README.md, and I didnt see anything to extract an API from source code in the manner of pydoc or javadoc.

In light of the foregoing, I have a hard time justifying Perl 6 in its current incarnation for real work. Then again, I never thought Ruby made any sense as a server technology, so anything can happen, I guess.

I like writing Perl 6 programs. The generics, type-checking, and OO model inspire more confidence than than the Little Rascals Clubhouse attitude of Perl 5, while stopping considerably short of the slavery-is-freedom mentality of Rust or Haskell. Perl 6s functional features let me distill logic to its essentials, which I like. Its easy to write Perl 6 code that is difficult to read, but I personally prefer to be treated like a responsible adult rather than, for instance, a teenager trapped in the father-knows-best house of Go.

Still, the language remains distressingly permissive; out-of-bounds array accesses just return Nil , and these two lines of code:

($one, $two, $three) = (1, 2); ($one, $two, $three) = (1, 2, 3, 4);

each compile and run just fine. I would be much more comfortable with a compiler that voiced at least mild concern in these cases, since theres likely a bug in the code.

Most things in Perl 6 are well-named, but the reliance on sigils and such makes many operators  and there are many, many operators in Perl 6  hard to Google. Sometimes I feel like Im trying to look up a swear word from a Beetle Bailey comic strip. Its a language where a single typed character can convey a world of significance; I personally enjoy the languages concise aesthetic, but I also enjoy algebra problems more than most people who consider themselves to be psychologically fit. Programmers who prefer things to be spelled out with modifier keywords might be put off by Perl 6s load-bearing asterisks and pipe symbols and so forth.

The Perl 6 language is large, and has a number of trap doors. Learning can at times feel like taking a tour of Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory, where every room seems to have new treats with strange effects. But the factory floor-plan, if viewed at sufficient distance, is basically coherent, and even predictable: I found myself on more than a few occasions correctly guessing syntactic constructs and how to do this-or-that. Im particularly fond of Perl 6s function dispatching, which feels like Erlang with the addition of named parameters, varargs, and built-in type checking. Ill probably start using Perl 6 for slice-and-dice system scripts, the same way I use Ragel for fleshing out grammars or Julia for exploring math problems.

So what is Perl 6 best for?

Perhaps its not the most exciting to everyone else, but the most immediate application in my mind is gluing together C libraries and writing command-line wrappers for C libraries. For the ReadStat library that I maintain, Id be more than happy to replace the Hieronymous Bosch hellscape in the bin/ directory with nice clean native-interfacing Perl 6 scripts. (If the dream is to be realized, Ill need the aforementioned improvements to NativeCall, passing structs by value and being able to convert context pointers to Perl 6 objects.)

This will sound stupid, but if full-screen terminal programs become popular again, Perl 6s concurrency and strong systems support would make it an excellent choice. I would port Hecate: The Hex Editor From Hell in a heartbeat, and Id love to see Perl 6 mail clients, text editors, and so on. (The Terminally Insane Programming movement is sure to catch fire any day now.)

I didnt mention this before, but Perl 6 is exceedingly clever when it comes to making command-line tools. If this is your file:

# script.pl6 sub MAIN(Str $input-file, Int :$lines = 10) { say "blah"; }

Running the script without any arguments gives:

$ perl6 script.pl6 Usage: script.pl6 --lines=<Int> <input-file>

Made you smile, right? (Perl 6: The Ruby on Rails of command-line tools.)

There are a number of unexpected surprises in Perl 6; some, like these command-line cushions, tickled my fancy, but others, like the rules about $_ inside hash braces or anything having to do with itemization, leave me dumbfounded.

A few notes about creature comforts in Perl 6. The compilers error messages are usually adequate, but sometimes theyre incorrect, or irrelevant. The REPL is useful, but needs better support for multiline copy-paste and backspacing through multibyte characters. The default Vim highlighter is slow, and the vim-perl6 package has an annoying highlighting bug thats been sitting open on GitHub for almost a year. Travis CI supports Perl 6, but it will download and compile the language each time, which adds several minutes to each test run. Its not the Wild West, exactly, but it does feels like a mom-and-pop hotel where you have to jiggle the toilet handle, and maybe smack the side of the TV screen until the picture clears up.

If Its So Great, How Come I Never Heard Of It?

Languages are inseparable from their communities, so some parting words about that. I found myself, in late-night moments of bewilderment, on the #perl6 IRC channel, asking for help with the finer points and darker corners of the language. The responses were usually helpful, and always courteous. At least one of the causes of my confusion turned out to be a bug in the VM, which was quickly fixed.6

Most of the discussions on the IRC channel are technical, but if you lurk long enough its hard not to miss a current of frustration that Perl 6 isnt more widely adopted. Theres a kind of righteous indignation that the language is very good  so dammit (Im projecting), when will people start taking us seriously?

Ive spent long enough in the software business to have more than a passing familiarity with that feeling. Theres nothing quite so demoralizing as spending a year or two on something  or fifteen years in the case of Perl 6  and being unable to secure so much as five minutes of a potential users time.

The explanation, of course, is banal: if youre a geek, writing correct computer code is a lot easier than reprogramming peoples perceptions.

I dont feel qualified to offer up marketing suggestions to the Perl 6 people, but in honor of their butterfly mascot  a winsome sprite named Camelia that belies a sprawling netherworld of complexity  Ill part ways by pointing them to the great butterfly collector of Western literature, the character Stein from Joseph Conrads Lord Jim.

Stein (right), occasional conscience of Jim (left), in the 1965 film adaptation.

(Columbia Pictures)

Stein, the story goes, spent his youth in a late 19th-century life of adventure, sailing the high seas, battling bandits, living as a native in the East Indies, and all that. The turning point for his character is a story where he is set on by seven would-be assassins, drops three of them with successive shots from his revolver, and proceeds to chase a butterfly through a field. He finally catches it with the help of his hat:

Flop! I got him! When I got up I shook like a leaf with excitement, and when I opened these beautiful wings and made sure what a rare and so extraordinary perfect specimen I had, my head went round and my legs became so weak with emotion that I had to sit on the ground. I had greatly desired to possess myself of a specimen of that species when collecting for the professor. I took long journeys and underwent great privations; I had dreamed of him in my sleep, and here suddenly I had him in my fingersfor myself! Lord Jim, ch. 20

As I re-read that passage, I cant help but think of Larry Wall, a man who certainly took long journeys and underwent great privations in pursuit of his dream, a redesigned Perl.7 I think of my dissertation-writing uncle, too, though Im afraid to ask if he ever finished the thing. For his own part, after a certain age, Stein stopped pursuing wealth and fame and adventure in order to cultivate and cherish the iridescent beauty of his butterflies.

I wonder sometimes if the software profession could use a few more butterflies  not as inputs into commercial empires, but as specimens to study, appreciate, and admire in the lamp-lit silence of wood-shelved rooms. 8

Is Perl 6 a masterpiece? Im not sure what instructions Id give to the foreman of that particular jury, but Perl 6 is certainly alone in the audacity of its ambitions and sheer complexity of the language. It might be the sort of thing thats impossible to judge without using it for at least a year, or half-decade. Im afraid Ill have to save my Final Judgment for a future article, but in the meantime I have enough reason to keep a stable version of Perl 6 rattling around the /usr/local curio cabinet.

Will Perl 6 conquer the world? These things are hard to predict, but in a certain sense  Im speaking to frustrated members of the IRC channel now  it doesnt matter. Perl 6 is one-of-a-kind; no one can argue with that. Maybe its enough, once youve captured something rare and beautiful in this uncertain world, to sit on the ground and hold it in your fingers a little while. Only one specimen like this they have in your London, said the Bavarian-born Stein to Lord Jims narrator, hand hovering over a glass-encased butterfly of bronze and white and yellow. And then  no more. To my small native town this my collection I shall bequeath. Something of me. The best.

Notes

Youre reading evanmiller.org, a random collection of math, tech, and musings. If you liked this you might also enjoy: A Taste of Rust

Four Days of Go

Why Im Learning Perl 6

Why I Program in Erlang

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Promises made, promises kept!

Donald Trump was always talking about how he would "take back America"there were bumper stickersand now look, he's actually done it. We've been taken back to the 1960s, with protesters clashing in the street over the weekend and a civil rights demonstrator killed in the street.

Or are we back in the 1940s? It felt that way Friday, with torch-bearing Nazis marching, sieg-heiling and chanting "blood and soil." It could have been an America First rally at the old Chicago Stadium in 1940.

Although they were tiki torches. The bamboo kind costing $1.99 at Costco. That sort of ruined the effect. Give the original Nazis credit; they were sticklers for detail. Real torches are expensive and hard to find, but you're never going to seize controlassuming they haven't already, and with the Trump White House you never knowby cutting corners. Tiki torches in a fascist demonstration are like Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloons at the Nuremberg rallies.

Sorry. None of this is funny. After three deathsthe protester and two Virginia State troopers who died in a helicopter crashthe clownishly unaware street theater of men whose fondest fantasy is to be concentration camp guards slides into anguish and tragedy.

Then again, that's what happens, and there's an important lesson there. Whenever I see these idiots, I'm not filled with terror, or concern--and you think I would be, as half the time they're chanting about Jews. Rather, I get an almost avuncular concern. I want to help them, to say, "Guys, guys, gather around. You do know that the whole Nazi thing did not end well for the Germans?" History focuses on their victims, and rightly so, but by the time the would-be supermen were done manifesting their superiority they had lost four million soldiers and another two million civilians. About six million Germans dead, for you fans of irony.








AUSTIN  Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos was 8 years old when his father, a dentist in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, decided to bring the family across the bridge to El Paso, Texas so their children could be educated in U.S. schools.

Fast forward four decades, and Pablos now has four degrees that run the gamut  a biology degree from St. Marys University in San Antonio, an MBA from the University of Texas-San Antonio, a masters in hospitality management from the Hilton College at the University of Houston, and another degree, a Juris Doctor, from St. Marys. Hes married to Laura San Martin, an orthodontist, and lives Austin with her and their four children.

His binational, bicultural background and assorted bits of expertise have served him well as a lawyer, a two-time state regulator, the head of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and El Paso-based Borderplex Alliance, honorary consul to Spain, head of a nascent renewable energy company and now the states top official for election integrity and international trade.

Since taking office in January, Pablos has met with dignitaries from more than 40 foreign nations and promoted Texas business during travels to Mexico, China and Canada.

Now Playing: Business reporter Lynn Brezosky talks with Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos about his daily routine. Video: San Antonio Express-News

Pablos, 49, took some time to sit down with the Express-News and talk about himself, his San Antonio ties, and his responsibilities as the guy next door to the governors office. Here is an edited transcript of the interview:

More Information Quick facts on Rolando Pablos What book are you reading: "The Americano Dream" by Lionel Sosa. How do you typically start your day: I'm a very early riser and so I just meditate and pray in the mornings and I allow myself to just take that time to be grateful. My quiet time. We have four kids and there's no quiet time in the evenings and so I kind of sneak out of bed in the mornings and use those first couple of hours to kind of get my head on straight and definitely look into my day and anticipate my meetings and then since I still have a lot of relationships in Europe it's better to make those phone calls early because they're seven, eight hours ahead of us. What was your first job: Delivery man for a sub shop owned by a friend's parents. What's your favorite restaurant: Besides Mi Tierra, I'm really partial to Elizabeth Street Cafe here in Austin. It's French-Vietnamese. What's your passion/hobby outside of work: I like to cook. I collect recipe books and that's kind of like my therapy. My favorite thing to make is paella, going back to my roots to Spain. I just love paella. That's another thing we did in San Antonio, we started the Paella cookoff (Corona Paella Challenge) with Johnny Hernandez. I think the first year we had 500 people show up. And then now I think he caps it at two or three thousand people. If you could pick an entirely different career, what would that be: A restaurateur. See More Collapse

Q: So you were born in Mexico and you studied law and it looks like you went to hospitality school. How did you come to be secretary of state? Was it an office you ever envisioned holding?

A: My background and everything Ive done in my career I think allows me to provide the best value for what the office of secretary of state requires.

You know, Im an attorney who has practiced international law for many years, who understands diplomacy, who understands government and is able to interact at the highest levels both in English and in Spanish. And I fully understand the Mexican culture, as I do the American culture. And so Im in a position where I can straddle both sides of the border and represent Texas extremely well.

Q: How you see the role of this office?

A: Im the chief elections officer. Im also the chief protocol officer. Im the governors chief adviser on all border and Mexican affairs. My office also handles business filings, notary public, a lot of the administrative stuff, like the (Texas) Register.

With respect to elections, we administer the election statewide for 254 counties.

Then, with respect to protocol, my job is to be the ambassador of Texas around the world. My job is to spread the good news about Texas, to promote the Texas brand and to promote investment in our state, promote trade on the Mexican side. Were in direct communications with Mexican federal state officials and we have an excellent relationship with them. And there my job is to advise the governor on anything related to Mexico, including trade and anything related to border affairs.

On the international front weve been traveling. I was just in China, Ive been to Mexico twice already. Weve been up to Canada. Next, were going to leave to Spain.

Were very excited about extending an invitation on behalf of the state of Texas, on behalf of Governor Abbott, to the king to come celebrate 300 years since the Canary Islanders landed in San Antonio.

Q: The ties (between San Antonio and Spain) go way back. You also have a background in San Antonio.

A: I came to San Antonio in 85 and I came to St. Marys University sight unseen. I remember my parents backing up the station wagon  I started there in 85, and basically weve been there ever since.We still have our house in San Antonio.

Q: I did want to ask about the Trump administration request for voter roll data from the Commission on Election Integrity and Texas answer (that it would hand over whats publicly accessible). Whats the reasoning behind that?

A: When we receive requests for public information we have to treat every request the same way. You dont want me picking and choosing who I release public information to and who I do not, I have to follow the law. In this case, our lawyers have shown me what type of information is public and what type of information is private. So the private information were going to keep private. But the public side of things, were going to treat this like any open records request.

Q: Why would some states just flatly deny it?

A: Well first and foremost every state has different laws.

Q: You cant ignore one of the biggest trade issues now: the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Do you see any of that progress (with cross-border trade ties) at risk right now?

A: It seems that all the stakeholders are joining forces. I see only positive things coming out of this. I see the Texas-Mexico relationship only getting stronger, the trade growing. Given that thats a federal issue, we at the state level have been standing on the sidelines allowing that process to occur organically, but were watching it. Every single community in Texas is somehow, whether its directly or directly, impacted by trade with Mexico.

Q: Back in February, you were keynote speaker at a luncheon of Mexican entrepreneurs based in San Antonio and you mentioned you were going to Mexico to meet key trade players including Juan Pablo Castanon Castanon, who is head of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, a national private sector business organization in Mexico. And even though you say NAFTA is a federal issue, dont you think meetings like that are influential?

A: So my job is to develop and strengthen relationships with both the Mexican private sector and the Mexican government, and so our meetings at that time were mostly focused on developing relationships.

And we felt that it was a wise thing to do to reconnect with the Mexican private sector at the highest levels, because a lot of those companies that are part of the CCE are invested in Texas.

Weve had meetings with secretaria de energia, with Pemex. We want to make sure that if they would like for Texas companies that have expertise in oil and gas, in electricity wed like to be able to make those connections because we want Texas companies to do businesses in Mexico and I know that Mexico does as well.

Q: So youre not still worried about border taxes?

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.

A: Im a very optimistic person and like I said I think that anything that is going to come out of these talks related to NAFTA and anything else related to international trade with Mexico is going to be purely positive.

We just had a great meeting in San Antonio. We had the mayors of Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo over at the community college, and so were working to make sure that whatever infrastructure we have in place is going to be enough for the trade that were expecting. Were expecting trade to only grow and we need to make sure that those border communities are equipped to deal with the growth because the travel, the transportation thats going to occur is going to be phenomenal.

Q: Spain, theyre doing a lot of energy investment here, like the wind farms.

A: Its been amazing. Spain has really doubled down on Texas. We were just down in Los Fresnos (looking at) a 95 megawatt wind plant that Acciona (Energy) just started operating. Thats a big investment. Spain has been heavily investing in Texas and thats why its important I think to continue that relationship. Renewable energy, theyre big on renewable energy.

Q: You said you still use your biology and chemistry degrees. How so?

A:

My first job out of law school was with a high security printer and we used a lot of chemical formulas for inks and so its always been handy. My science background has always come in very handy.

But where Im really passionate is the hospitality side, and then ultimately economic development, helping communities come up with ideas on how to attract investment. Because at the end of the day, to bring prosperity to the people of a community you have to make sure the community is attractive for investment. So thats really what Ive been doing and now Im doing it at the statewide level.

Q: Is there a lesson in there about a degree is never wasted? Or a skill set?

A: I think the life lesson is that education will open doors and perseverance will get you through to the success that youre looking for. And so you know my education has allowed me to get to places that I know I wouldnt have been able to be without it.

Q: But it doesnt all happen in the classroom?

A: It doesnt all happen in the classroom. You know, washing dishes isnt the most appealing thing in the world but working in restaurants taught me a lot of life lessons. Being a waiter, you have to be a salesman, right? You have to be diplomatic because you have to interact with the kitchen. And if you upset the chef, good luck getting your food. You have to think fast on your feet, you have to be good at logistics and so waiting tables has been probably I mean it sounds corny, but waiting tables has probably been the greatest lesson of all because it allows you to put a lot of skills into motion that you normally wouldnt do. As a 19, 20 year old you have to learn how to deal with people, smile when you dont necessarily want to.

LBrezosky@express-news.net
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Last Thursday was a very big deal for Hector Serna.

That evening, the members of LEstro Barocco, the baroque ensemble Serna has long dreamed of founding, got together for the first time all in one place to rehearse for their debut concert.

The ensemble gathered in the sanctuary at Covenant Presbyterian Church, where they rehearsed an ambitious premiere program including works by Vivaldi, Handel, Torelli and Telemann.

I was very happy, Serna said Friday. I feel like it was a little shaky at first, but that comes with the newness of playing together for the first time. I felt like once we got going, we made some really cool things happen.

The musicians are working with reproductions of instruments from the baroque era in hopes of more closely capturing what the music sounded like in the 1600s and 1700s.

Period instruments add another timbre, another sound, said Gerald Self, who builds harpsichords, including the one that Billie Whittaker played at the rehearsal and the one that will be played at the concert. We know what modern instruments sound like. Hearing the music on these instruments adds a different color.

Musical instruments have evolved substantially over time. The natural trumpet that musician Daniel Miller will be playing at the concert, for example, has no keys. And the baroque bassoon that Patty Fagan-Miller plays has far fewer than its 21st century counterpart.

It kind of looks like a bedpost, joked Fagan-Miller, who will step into the spotlight for Vivaldis Concerto for Bassoon, Strings and Continuo In E minor RV 484.

Figuring out how to play the instruments is part of the fun, she said.

Its like a rabbit hole you jump into, she said.

Another element that Serna enjoys is the cooperative nature of the enterprise.

Although Im kind of a leader of the group, the idea with baroque music is you dont want one person dictating what happens, he said. Its a collaboration, and everyone has their ideas.

Some of the musicians play with baroque ensembles in other places, and they are excited to have an opportunity to play with a group here.

Kristin Hayes, who has played baroque recorder for 10 years and helped Serna pull together LEstro Barocco, said that when she moved to San Antonio a few years ago, she immediately started hunting around for performance opportunities.

Everything was in Austin, she said. It was so impractical. It was hard to find the time to go up to rehearse.

Serna has spent the past eight years or so mostly playing in the orchestras of musical theater productions, including shows at the Woodlawn Theatre and the annual stagings of The Rocky Horror Show featuring stars from RuPauls Drag Race. Hes not giving that up, but hes excited to add classical music back into the mix.

Its almost a surreal feeling, like I almost cant believe its really happening, he said. Im very grateful. Just arriving (at the rehearsal) and having the harpsichord there, it was like, This is really happening.

Its wonderful.

LEstro Baroccos debut concert is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Treadway Hall at St. Marys University, 1 Camino Santa Maria. $10 suggested donation.

dlmartin@express-news.net

Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
CARTAGENA, Colombia  Vice President Mike Pence touched down here Sunday afternoon amid a deepening crisis in neighboring Venezuela, beginning a weeklong trip to South and Central America during which he plans to reinforce U.S. trade and security partnerships and increase pressure to restore democracy in Venezuela.

Pences six-day visit to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama is expected to be dominated by the turmoil in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduros autocratic government seized power last month and has cracked down on dissent.

Pence greeted Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidents guest house in advance of talks planned later Sunday.

The U.S. accuses Maduro of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region. President Donald Trump said Friday that he would not rule out a military option in response to Maduros moves.

That statement drew quick condemnation, including from the Colombian Foreign Ministry, which said it opposes any military measures and the use of force and that efforts to resolve Venezuelas breakdown in democracy should be peaceful and respect its sovereignty.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump, by raising the prospect of possible military action, was trying to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored. Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that Venezuela could very much become a risk to the U.S. if it descended into further chaos.

But a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself a pretty hawkish guy expressed skepticism about the idea of U.S. troops in Caracas.

I have no idea why we would use military force in Venezuela. Im open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when theres a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people, South Carolinas Lindsey Graham told Fox News Sunday, adding: I dont see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster said the Trump administration wants to get a handle on the current situation under Maduros embattled government and understand better how this crisis might evolve.

When you look at contingencies, when you look at what if  what if the suffering of the Venezuelan people increases by orders of magnitude  what more can we do with our partners in the region to protect the Venezuelan people and prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe? McMaster told ABCs This Week.

The president never takes options off the table in any of these situations, and what we owe him are options, he said.
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AUSTIN  Lawmakers are sending a bill to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that gives landowners power to vote on whether their communities are annexed by big cities such as San Antonio.

After that success Sunday evening, however, a flurry of behind-the-scenes negotiations were unable to produce a compromise on high-profile tax and school funding bills and both chambers put off any action on the measures until Monday, a mere two days before the special session is set to conclude.

The Senate approved the annexation bill 21-10, agreeing with changes made by the House to expand a military buffer zone meant to control development around base borders.

Its a huge victory, said the bills sponsor, Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. No longer will cities be able to forcibly annex anyone with the residents having a say.

Though municipal officials had worried the bill could hamper efforts to expand city limits and control growth, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg called the latest version an acceptable compromise.

We are extremely grateful to our memberswho fought hard to protect San Antonios military installations, which generate $49 billion per year for the State of Texas, he said in a statement Sunday.

Still, not all city representatives were on board. San Antonios Sen. Jose Menendez voted against Senate Bill 6 over worries that it could hurt a land swap between Alamo City and Converse meant to aid neighborhoods in Northeast Bexar County, including Camelot II and The Glen.

It is critically important to me that The Glen and Camelot get services, he said. My concern is this bill could potentially cause problems for them to move forward.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott made annexation reform one of his 20 priorities for the special session that is set to conclude Wednesday. He plans to sign the bill into law, according to spokesman John Wittman. An overhaul of the states annexation laws failed in the regular session, when Menendez mounted a filibuster over concerns the bill didnt adequately protect military bases.

He and other San Antonio lawmakers pushed for the five-mile buffer zone included in the bill, a radius recommended in a military joint land use study of San Antonio bases.

I'm glad that the Senate did the right thing in supporting our armed forces and preserving their mission readiness, said Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, chair of the House Committee on Defense and Veterans' Affairs. Our current global security needs are too great to risk compromising our military's ability to project force globally at a moment's notice.

Landowners who live within five miles of a military base, such as Camp Bullis, will get to vote on whether they are annexed. But if they refuse, cities can still regulate development in the area so it doesnt interfere with base training operations. Building height and population density, among other factors, can negatively affect a military installations mission, officials have said.

Concern about encroachment has dialed up recently amid talk in Washington that a round of base realignment and closures, known as BRAC, could be on the horizon.

Only cities that fall in the states 10 most populous counties, those with more than 500,000 residents, will be required to get approval from affected property owners before annexing new land under the bill approved Sunday. Residents of smaller counties could petition for a vote, but one lawmaker questioned why the reforms dont apply to all.

The people of Texas deserve the same level of protection, and it's disappointing that not everyone will be covered, said Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood.

In the House, tensions ran high Sunday evening when the lower chamber voted to delay a final decision on the property tax bill, much to the frustration of some members.

As the special session dwindles to a close, the House and Senate are deep in negotiation over the property tax bill, Abbotts top priority, and a plan to fund the states beleaguered public education system. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton said postponing a vote on his tax bill, seemingly a House bargaining chip, ensures those discussions continue.

We are having great conversations to send all the members home with positive success for the state of Texas, he said, though State Rep. Matt Schaefer pressed for a vote. This bill doesnt belong to you, it belongs to the people of Texas, said Schaefer, R-Tyler.

Under the proposal big cities would need voter approval before they can hike property taxes by more than 6 percent. Republicans in control of the Senate, however, favor a lower, 4 percent threshold to trigger the automatic rollback election. The chambers still need to work out their differences, which likely wont take place now until early in the week, if at all.

Local officials, including Nirenberg have pushed back against the bills, saying the change could hurt their ability to provide services, such as public safety. But County Judge Nelson Wolff, who also would prefer that the Legislature leave well enough alone, has said he could live with a 6 percent compromise.

Currently, people in cities, counties and special districts can petition for a rollback election if officials move to hike local property tax revenues by more than 8 percent.

Major differences also remain between the chambers competing proposals to fund the states struggling public education system, mainly how much to spend and where to get it.

The Senate version sends $311 million to smaller districts and charter school building projects. A large chunk of the money would bolster school districts that are set to see stipends, known as Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction, dry up on Sept. 1. The spending falls far short of the $1.8 billion House members want to pump into the public education system to boost spending per student and money for bilingual education.

Senators have balked at that sum, and prefer creating a commission to look at long-term school finance solutions they can take up during the next legislative session in 2019.

Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, called the commission the most important bill lawmakers have to pass in the special session, which must come to a close Wednesday.

If dont leave here with a commission to work on a proposal that will completely redo the way we fund our schools, we are missing a golden opportunity that isnt going to come again for a while, she said at a committee meeting Sunday.

House members, however, say school finance has been studied enough and now needs action.

The Senate finished the night by advancing two abortion-related measures, including one that will add reporting requirements for abortions performed on minors. Another, which requires women purchase separate health insurance to cover abortion procedures, got final passage 20-10 and is headed to Abbotts desk.

Near the end of business Sunday night, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick paused proceedings to recognize the momentous occasion when Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, logged her 60,000th vote in a row. Senators broke into applause and Patrick later gave Zaffirini, who hasnt missed a vote during her 30 years in office, the wooden gavel he used on that vote to mark the occasion.

AMorris@express-news.net
AUSTIN - Gov. Greg Abbott is taking names as lawmakers consider his agenda in this special session, hinting at possible election consequences for Republicans who oppose him.

But local officials who would lose authority under Abbotts agenda are watching their lawmakers closely, too. And at least one, Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker, said he is re-thinking his support for his fellow Republicans.

At this point, Im not endorsing anyone, including my local elected Republican officials. Ive said it to all of em, said Voelker when I caught up with him at the Capitol. I have three representatives and one senator who represent my city. I have no plans to endorse them if this goes through, and Ive stated that to them.

This is a bill to require automatic rollback elections if city and county officials raise property tax revenues above a certain rate. It worries local officials around Texas even if they havent gone over the proposed rate. They want to maintain their flexibility, and theyre already planning for what theyll have to do if a level is imposed that cramps their ability to fund everything.

Im in the budget process right now. This situation has caused such uncertainty, said Voelker, who was among a group of local officials who came to the Capitol to speak out against the bill last week. His city, he said, is kind of like Texas, with the challenges that entails.

I have hyper growth, and I have an aging infrastructure, Voelker said, so he dedicates some city revenues to things like alleys, streets, basic infrastructure. Those would be the first knobs Id turn down. Id hate to do it.

The things they (residents) contact me about all the time would be probably the first things Id have to reduce, he said. And quite honestly, those have been reduced over a decade because of the economy. Were now with this sort of a recovery having our first opportunity to actually apply more revenue to those types of infrastructure needs.

But Voelker said he would have little choice about prioritizing public safety over potholes because, I have to protect my people.

As he and other local officials from around Texas plead their case, they have an uphill battle.

Cities, often headed by Democrats, make an attractive target for state Republicans.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in a recent appearance on Fox Business Network, said that all our problems in America are in cities that are mostly controlled by Democrat mayors and Democrat city council men and women.

Abbott, in looking to curtail municipal power over not only taxes but regulation of everything from tree-cutting to the use of public restrooms, contends cities threaten Texas business-friendly reputation.

Despite being a Republican, Voelker said he hasnt found a warm reception at the GOP-majority Legislature. When he has tried to make the case to his lawmakers, he said, Theyre almost indifferent to local politicians at this point. Thats the perception I get.

Republican lawmakers also are getting pressure from Abbott. The governor hasnt published a daily list of lawmakers who are for and against his agenda, as he said he would do before the session began.

But he told the Austin American-Statesman in a recent interview, I will be involved in primaries in the upcoming election cycle. Asked whether that would include targeting Republican incumbents, he said, Well see.

Sen. Van Taylor, a Plano Republican whos expected to run for Congress, said his focus is on constituents who are really upset about property tax increases.

Its unsustainable, Taylor said. I was talking to a gentleman whos losing his home  Quite frankly that is very important to me. The purpose of government is to not to tax us out of our homes. The purpose of government is to protect our rights. And I work for the citizens We have got to slow the growth of property taxes in the state.

Voelker said his concerns go beyond the tax issue to the overall attitude that this body has toward taking power away from local officials.

Theyre telling me how to do my job. I believe in swim lanes, and you should stay in them, said Voelker, adding that the issue shouldnt be framed as one of partisan politics.

Potholes dont care whether Im a Republican or a Democrat, Voelker said.

I checked with San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenbergs office to see whether the legislative battle would spur him into action in the 2018 election. Nirenberg has been to the Capitol several times during the special session to work against bills to curtail city authority, but his office said he plans to stay out of other peoples races.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
The Financial Reporting Council is investigating KPMG for failing to spot large-scale bribery at Rolls-Royce. But there are serious questions whether the regulator, which is yet to impose a sanction in a corruption-related case, will carry out a proper inquiry.

In this post and the next, Ill look at the Financial Reporting Councils poor track record in bribery-related cases, and Ill examine the deep-seated causes behind the regulators general reluctance to pursue an aggressive enforcement strategy against major audit firms.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) investigation into KPMG  which audited Rolls-Royces financial statements for over 20 years during which time the UK-based manufacturer paid millions in bribes across multiple countries  is only the second time that the regulator has opened an inquiry into alleged misconduct linked to overseas corruption.

The other case also concerned KPMG, but for its audits of BAE Systems, which in 2010 entered into a $450 million corruption-related global settlement with the DOJ and SFO and pleaded guilty. However, the FRC closed the BAE case in 2013 after a three-year investigation, claiming the inquiry, which looked at possible misconduct between 1997 and 2007, was no longer in the public interest as too many years had lapsed since the alleged wrongdoing.

The FRCs foot-dragging in the BAE Systems case provoked strong criticism at the time. Two London-based civil society groups, The Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House, threatened legal action against the FRC, saying the regulator had dropped the investigation despite strong evidence of a failure of oversight on the part of KPMG. The auditor failed to pay particular attention to corruption allegations against BAE published in the Guardian from 2003 onwards, the civil society groups said.

The FRCs BAE case has receded from the memory of most, but it is important that the regulator learns from its previous mistakes and avoids similar shortcomings in its Rolls-Royce investigation. It is imperative that the FRC carries out a full and thorough investigation into KPMGs audits of Rolls-Royce, and, unlike the BAE case, gets to the bottom of whether the auditor should have done a better job at spotting evidence of corruption.

Unfortunately, the FRCs poor track record suggests that a full and proper investigation may not be in the cards. Since 2008, UK authorities have imposed sanctions in 24 cases linked to foreign bribery, and launched many more investigations, but to date the FRC has not fined a single auditor in a case related to overseas corruption.

In one case, Ian Foxley, a former lieutenant-colonel in the British army and the primary corruption whistleblower against EADS subsidiary GPT Special Project Management, offered the FRC evidence of possible wrongdoing by the companys auditor KPMG.

GPT is accused of paying bribes in connection with a multi-billion dollar deal, facilitated by the UK government, to supply communications equipment to the Saudi National Guard. Foxley, in a letter shared with the FRC, said GPTs auditors KPMG were aware of possible corruption as early as 2007, but did not report inconsistencies in the companys accounts till 2011.

In the same letter, Foxley said: It is highly surprising that the FRC has not made any effort to contact me at all in order to ascertain the part that KPMG played in the audit of the company and whether they are culpable.

KPMG denies the allegations that Foxley has made against it. The audit firm also said it disagreed with claims that the FRC is lax in its approach to enforcement.

In the next post, Ill look at the FRCs tendency to impose small and inadequate fines, as well as the reasons behind the regulators lacklustre approach to tackling wrongdoing by major audit firms.

______

Rahul Rose is a senior researcher for Corruption Watch, a London-based NGO that undertakes cross-border investigations into grand corruption and pushes for effective enforcement of UK anti-corruption legislation. He can be contacted here.
Two former executives of a Singapore-based defense contractor were sentenced to prison Friday for helping their employer in a $35 million fraud against the U.S. Navy.

Neil Peterson, the former vice president for global operations at Glenn Defense Marine Asia or GDMA, was sentenced in San Diego federal court to 70 months.

Linda Raja, GDMAs general manager for Singapore, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, was sentenced to 46 months.

The two Singaporeans pleaded guilty in May for submitting bogus bids, phony claims, and inflated invoices to the U.S. Navy.

Peterson, 40, and Raja, 45, were arrested by authorities in Singapore at the request of the U.S. government and extradited in October 2016.

Each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.



GDMAs owner, Leonard Glenn Francis  also known as Fat Leonard  is a 51-year-old Malaysian national. He pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to bribing dozens of Navy officials. Hes waiting to be sentenced.

His company provided port services including cleaning, food and fuel to U.S. Navy ships in Asia.

Peterson and Raja helped GDMA submit bids to the Navy that were either entirely or partially fictitious, the DOJ said.

The phony bids ensured that GDMAs quote would be selected by the U.S. Navy as the supposed lowest bidder.

After winning the work, Peterson and Rajah submitted inflated invoices and phony claims.

Overall losses to the Navy were more than $34.8 million.

So far, the DOJ has charged 21 current and former Navy officials in the massive fraud and bribery scandal.

Most of the Navy defendants allegedly accepted luxury travel and hotel stays across Asia, as well as meals, electronics, cash, and the services of prostitutes. In exchange they allegedly helped Francis and his company win and keep Navy contracts. They also gave Francis classified and internal U.S. Navy information about ship movements and port calls.

Fifteen defendants have already pleaded guilty.

_____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
Sarah Paulson won't consult her girlfriend Holland Taylor on style choices.

Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor

The 42-year-old actress has been dating the former 'Two and a Half Men' actress since 2015, and whilst their relationship is going strong, they don't consult one another when it comes to red carpet fashion, as the pair have their own "sense of style".

Asked if Sarah ever asks her for fashion advice, Holland said: "Certainly not! For me, I am [stylish], but she really knows what she's doing. She has a real eye for fashion. Also young designers and new designers, she'll spot them and say 'That person is really going somewhere', and she'll wear their clothes. She's very very particular, and very exacting. She has tremendous sense of style."

And the 74-year-old star gushed over her 'American Horror Story' actress partner, as she says the beauty can always manage to look different on the red carpet, and "can wear anything".

Holland told People Now: "[She looks] different. I always look exactly the same. I have one look, I have this very conventional ... I wear very classic clothes and tailored things, I look ridiculous in anything that's faddy or 'of the moment'. She can wear anything, and her face is like a canvas. I mean, she does completely different make-up, completely different hair. She's a chameleon."

It's not the first time Holland has gushed over her beau either, as she previously described herself as "the luckiest person in the world".

She said: "I'm the luckiest person in the world. I can't talk about my life today and not mention this wonderful love.

"It has to be part of what is the most wonderful thing in my life. The whole embrace of this wonderful relationship, which makes everything else makes sense."
Its absurd that a womans worth is still inextricably linked with her beauty, youth and child bearing potential.

Marysia Trembecka

Yet this was something I found as a successful City trader. In a place where all that should matter was my ability with financial figures I had to wear glasses (I had perfect eyesight) and dress to deter attention  ridiculous.

So I took matters into my own hands, went into the arts and now create and perform solo theatre and cabaret.

At the moment I have two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, one is The Singing Psychic Game Show (bonkers fun with audience readings and lots of daft games like Psychic Bingo).

The other is a dark, fierce political cabaret called Queen of the F*cking World which explores life on the front line of gender politics.

The origins of both shows go back to those five years after graduation when I worked as a government bond dealer.

Of the 800 people on the dealing floor I was one of just five women allowed to work in the markets in sales. There were 45 other female staff, all in admin.

I later headed for Los Angeles to train as a performance artist. Once again I discovered that curves counted more than creativity.

So I started to devise my own shows and characters. Two very different ones emerged, with the Singing Psychic being a Polish clairvoyant who reads the songs in peoples hearts. Its bonkers comedy but her big rule is that she is never wrong. A woman in charge.

At the heart of Queen is an exotic dancer and it is through her that I explore feminism, sexual politics and our right to choose without being judged.

Her name (or perhaps title) Queen Of The F*cking World came about because of her deliberate use of her sexuality. Like many women, past and present, it is the main marketable asset society permits her. She is judged because of her trade.

In fact all women are judged by their sexual behaviour and use of sexuality. Perhaps the only people arent judged for their sexual habits are straight white men who are still seen as lads or charmers. Its very different for sexually active women and the LGBT community.

The Queen incorporates my years of playing and studying traditional female characters with historical research. It also results from a series of fantastic interviews (funded by an Arts Council script development grant) with individuals and organisations including the English Collective Of Prostitutes, a charity helping Kenyan sex workers and male and female strippers.

I used to play bass guitar in jazz bands (which is quite rare) so I brought my bass and some original songs into the show to move the story forward.

The results have been wonderful. On the second night of the Fringe a man told me how happy he was that his student daughter was there to hear what I had to say. That night my job was done.

For details go to https://www.edfringe.com
Starring in the lead role as Maddy in new film Everything, Everything, we can today share with readers an exclusive interview with the brilliant Amandla Stenberg, who discusses why she jumped on board with the film, what we should expect from her performance and more.

What attracted you to Everything, Everything?

I thought it was a special story because it has a lot of heart. It felt real, and at the same time had an element of whimsy and fantasy. I also thought it was special because it features an interracial couple, which reflects whats going on today with young people.

How would you describe your character, Maddy, and how did you connect with her?

Many of us sometimes feel trapped in our environments, and I was able to connect with Maddys feelings of feeling trapped or lonely, due to her illness. Maddy is really artistic and expressive and those are two ways she copes with her surroundings.

Maddy is also kind of a badass. Shes pretty daring and comes to a crossroads, where she has to decide if shes going to continue living life the way she has been, or if shes going to do something life-changing. Maddy ends up making the decision to change her lifeone of many things thats really special about her.

Maddys journey will inspire people to take risks and live life to the fullest, which sounds like a cliche, but its important and true.

Talk about Maddys relationship with Olly, played by Nick Robinson, and how it evolves.

Olly eventually becomes Maddys world because she doesnt have many people in her life. So having this boy next door becomes everything to her.

Whats special about their relationship is its awkwardness and their being afraid to show themselves to each other. Maddy and Olly spend some time testing the waters and figuring out how to relate to each other, and experiencing that awkwardness of being a teenager and being in love for the first time.

What was it like working with Nick?

Nick and I became close friends on the shoot and developed a really special bond. Part of that comes from being similar and connecting to each other; the other part was pretending to be in love with each other for a couple of months, which created a friendship thats really special. Nick is brilliant in the role and brought a lot of nuances to it in a really special way.

Another central figure in Maddys life is her mom, Pauline, played by Anika Noni Rose. How does Maddy feel about her mother?

Maddy loves her mother, and theres no reason why she shouldnt, until she discovers a shocking secret. Much of the story is about a mother/daughter relationship in which the mother loves her daughter too much. Shes driven out of fear to protect Maddy, but thats coming from a genuine place of love and caring.

Maddy is kind of the sun to Paulines Earth. Pauline is everything in Maddys life until she meets Olly and things are shaken up. Maddy has to learn how to let Pauline go and be her own, independent person.

This film reflects a lot of things we go through as teenagers. You just feel the need to disconnect or break away from your parents, in order to figure out who you are. Thats what Maddy is experiencingbut in a heightened way.

Did you develop a kind of mother-daughter bond with Anika?

Anika is really incredible and I feel so blessed to have worked with her. She was such a grounding presence for me on set and I learned a lot from her, even in terms of how to go through the script and break it down, and how to have a conversation about the lines, intonation, relationships and movement.

Often on set I felt like she was like my stepmother, which was really cool. This was actually the first film set on which I didnt bring a parent with me. So it was challenging, and Anika gave me a lot of love, support and wisdom.

Much of the film was shot on soundstages and locations in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but you wrapped the film on a beach in Mexico. What did you experience making that move?

It was incredible to go from a location that was cold and maybe a little dusty, because thats how soundstages are, to a humid, fun and sun-splashed location with palm trees and beautiful beaches and fresh fruit. I remember that as soon as we got to Mexico, we took a boat ride from Puerto Vallarta to the private beach where we were filming. Nick and I sat on the boat and just looked at each other and shared this amazing moment.

But even in paradise, things can get a little scary. Tell us about your close encounter with a sudden storm.

For a scene where Nick and I are snorkeling, we were waiting in the water and I got this feeling in my gut. I looked up to the sky and saw it turning gray, and I knew something was about to happen. I turned to Nick and said, I think its going to rain. A second later these huge, fat droplets started dripping on us. The rain somehow enhanced the experience to be in the water.

Then came the first bolt of lightningand this huge, thundering sound reverberated through the entire ocean. And we looked over at the crew, which was on a nearby catamaran, and they looked a little worried. We were told we all had to get out of the water, pronto, and so we started speeding towards the shore.

The private beach where the production was based had been evacuated due to the storm, so we had to speed directly towards land because it quickly became clear that this lightning storm was pretty dangerous.

Everyone was stumbling around the catamaran, which was being lurched from side to side, due to the storm. It was raining so hard that it created these huge rolling waves, unlike anything Ive seen before. Every few minutes thered be a huge lightning strike, and Nick and I sat huddled together in the corner counting the seconds between lightning strikes and thunder. We were terrified and excitedalmost gleefulbecause we felt like fishermen lost at sea, who were saying their goodbyes to the world. Well, maybe we were being a little over-dramatic, but thats what it felt like!

You presented a unique gift to the crew, which reflects your interest in music. Tell us about that.

I think its really important to show your appreciation for the crew, and I always like to give really personal gifts. I took some of my favourite songs, adding a suave DJ voiceover naming the tracks. I burned that onto a CD and added some personal artwork for the cover. I gave all the crew members a CD.

Speaking of artwork, I heard you did some other special drawings on some of the props?

Im very passionate about visual art. The props department came to me and said, We need drawings for this and we heard you like to draw. So if you feel like it, you can work on it. I said, Hell yeah. Ill do this!

I did a couple of abstract line drawings of Nick and of the state fish of Hawaii, the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa, which is one of Maddys beacons of light while shes trapped inside of her house.

I also drew Maddys environment and things I thought she should be thinking about because the character is an artist, which you can see in the novel Everything, Everything. There are a lot of really cool drawings in the book that are part of Maddys diary entries, which she draws to keep herself sane.

What do you hope audiences take away from Everything, Everything?

We wanted the film to feel real, accessible and truthful. What I hope people take away from it is the idea that its okay to be yourself, even if you havent yet had much exposure to the outside world, and you feel like an outsider. You will be okay.

Everything, Everything hits cinemas across the UK on Friday, August 18.
Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar and Esther Garrel are amongst the cast bringing critically-acclaimed novel Call Me By Your Name (by author Andre Aciman) to the big screen, with the film of the same name set to tell a hugely emotional and romantic story. This week, the first official poster and trailer for the film have been revealed, both of which you can see below:

Hitting UK cinemas this October

Set in the summer of 1983 in northern Italy, the movie introduces Elio Perlman (Chalamet), a 17-year-old American-Italian teen who spends his days in his familys villa, transcribing music, flirting with his friend Marzia and enjoying a lazy lifestyle.

When charming, 24-year-old American scholar Oliver (Hammer) turns up at the villa, tasked with helping Elios father (Stuhlbarg), he and Elio discover the beauty of discovering a desire over the course of a summer that will change their lives forever.

Described as beautifully erotic, ravishing filmmaking, triumphant and heartbreaking by the critics, the movie looks set to be one of the must-see events of the year.

Call Me By Your Name officially hits cinemas across the UK on October 27.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me on
Prince Harry sent Ant McPartlin a handwritten letter thanking him for speaking out about mental health.

Prince Harry

The flame-haired royal - who spearheads the Heads Together campaign alongside his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Duchess Catherine - penned a note to the 'Britain's Got Talent' co-host after he opened up about his battle with depression after going into rehab.

The TV presenter said: "I woke up this morning, getting ready to come here, and was given an envelope.

"It was a handwritten note from Harry sending all of his best wishes on behalf of him, William and Catherine and telling me well done for speaking out.

"Obviously he leads the Heads Together charity, so it's something he encourages.

"I wish I'd spoken out a lot earlier. But what a great time to get that letter. Brilliant. Thanks, Haz."

Ant has left rehab after a two-month stint, and recently told fans about his prescription drug addiction, admitting it could've killed him.

He said: "I was at the point where anything - prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs - I would take.

"And take them with alcohol, which is ridiculous. The doctors told me, 'You could have killed yourself.' "

Harry isn't the only big-name to have helped Ant along the way as Sir Elton John - who was pals with Harry and William's late mother Princess Diana - left a message of support for him.

Ant added to The Sun newspaper: "It's quite funny having Elton on the answer machine. I'm saving that one."

William recently admitted his, Harry and Catherine's major aim is to wipe out the taboo surrounding mental health.

He said: "Smashing the taboo is our biggest aim.

"We can't go anywhere much until that's done. People can't access services till they feel less ashamed so we must tackle the taboo the stigma, for goodness sake, this is the 21st century.

"I've been really shocked how many people live in fear and in silence because of mental illness. I just don't understand it.

"I know I come across as quite reserved and shy, I don't always have my emotions brewing, but behind closed doors I think about the issues, I get very passionate about things."
An eight-member executive delegation of Cotton USA emphasised on the quality of cotton produced in US to China and Pakistan textile mill leaders during their visit to Dubai, UAE, and Qingdao, China for quality conferences. These conferences by Cotton Council International (CCI) were a platform to know about the benefits of using US cotton fibres.

The COTTON USA Quality Conference encouraged participants to 'Take a Closer Look at US Cotton'. The executive delegation participants gave presentations about sustainability, quality, transparency and premium value of US cotton to show how it can help textile mills prosper. The conference helped the delegates know the areas of improvement in the US cotton industry.

"The executive delegation will use what we learned to strengthen our industrys commitment to supplying our textile mill customers with the cotton the world trusts," CCI president Eduardo Esteve said.

An eight-member executive delegation of Cotton USA emphasised on the quality of cotton produced in US to China and Pakistan textile mill leaders during their visit to Dubai, UAE, and Qingdao, China for quality conferences. These conferences by Cotton Council International (CCI) were a platform to know about the benefits of using US cotton fibres.#

The delegations first stop was Dubai, where the members had a private meeting with the leadership of the Pakistani textile industry in addition to speaking at the conference. Thirty-one representatives from 27 mills attended the Dubai conference, as well as nine exporter agents.

In China, the delegation participated in the second quality conference and visited a textile mill in Zibo, Shandong Province, met with government officials in Beijing (CNTAC and CCA). Fifty-five participants from 38 textile mills attended the conference in China. Among the 38 participating mills, 67 per cent were first-time attendees while the others had also attended the conference in 2016. The participating mills cotton usage in 2016 was 1.8 million bales and US cotton usage was 193,405 bales, which accounts for 26 per cent and 73 per cent of total China industry consumption respectively.

The 2017 Cotton USA executive delegation participants included Eduardo Esteve, CCI president; Jeff Johnson, ACSA chairman; Raymond Faus, ACSA vice-chairman; Keith Lucas, AMCOT; American Cotton Producers representatives Nathan Reed, board of directors, National Cotton Council) and Brent Nelson, secretary treasurer, Plains Cotton Growers Association; Matthew Ryan, ICE senior director, Global Soft Commodities; and Marc Lewkowitz, Supima president & CEO. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Chinas Heilongjiang province has intensified its research and development efforts to make fine, environment- friendly hemp fibres a large-scale alternative to cotton and will review its hemp production value chain to produce hemp on an industrial scale. The total area under hemp cultivation in this province may reach 150,000 acres by early 2018.The area under hemp cultivation in the Heilongjiang province has grown from below 2,500 acres to more than 74,000 acres within a few years, a level on par with the overall hemp cultivation area in Canada or Europe, according to a report by Germany-based private institute nova-Institut GmbH. China is the second largest hemp planting country in the world.

China's Heilongjiang province has intensified its research and development efforts to make fine, environment- friendly hemp fibres a large-scale alternative to cotton and will review its hemp production value chain to produce hemp on an industrial scale. The total area under hemp cultivation in this province may reach 150,000 acres by early 2018.#

The province, where experts work on hemp foods and pharmaceuticals, hosted an international hemp conference in the first week of August in Harbin with the theme Developing global hemp industry  innovation, cooperation, green, win-win. Participants from Europe, Canada and Australia attended the conference to establish global networks and exchange technologies, products and marketing strategies.Scientists at the conference highlighted the benefits of hemp fibres: a complex three-dimensional structure, very good moisture absorption characteristics, anti-bacterial properties, sound UV protection and allowing textiles to dry fast.Cotton needs a lot of water, soil salinity and the use of pesticides, all of which cause environmental problems and Chinese cotton is not very competitive, either qualitatively or price-wise, according to the nova-Institut.Universities from the Chinese province and partners from Ukraine and Canada have developed new, high-yield hemp varieties using enzymes through a technique called enzymatic cottonisation of hemp fibres. The fibres may then be processed alone or together with other fibres by cotton machines.The Chinese army buys hemp uniforms and socks for its soldiers. Hemp fibres are now also used in the country in compound materials for door and pillar panels, dashboards and parcel shelves, the nova-Institut report added. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- Spartan Energy Corp. ("Spartan" or the "Company") (TSX: SPE) is pleased to report its financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. Selected financial and operational information is set out below and should be read in conjunction with Spartan's June 30, 2017 interim financial statements and the related management's discussion and analysis, which are available for review at www.sedar.com or on the Company's website at www.spartanenergy.ca.

UPWARD REVISION TO ANNUAL PRODUCTION GUIDANCE

Spartan is increasing our 2017 annual production guidance to 21,600 boe/d from 21,080 boe/d, representing annual production per share growth of 14%. We are maintaining our 2017 drilling and maintenance capital budget of $145 million.

SECOND QUARTER FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Spartan's highlights for the second quarter include:

-- Achieved record average production of 22,061 boe/d, comprised of 92% oil and liquids, representing an increase of 143% (42% per share) over the second quarter of 2016. -- Drilled 19 (16.7 net) development wells in the second quarter and brought 23 (20.9 net) wells on production, including 13.3 net wells drilled in the first quarter. -- Generated adjusted funds flow from operations of $46.1 million ($0.26 per basic share and $0.25 per diluted share), representing an increase of 184% (63% per basic share and 67% per diluted share) over the second quarter of 2016. -- Delivered excess cash flow (funds flow from operations less capital expenditures exclusive of acquisitions, land, seismic and waterflood capital) in the quarter of approximately $18.8 million. -- Reduced net general and administrative ("G&A") expenses to $1.13 per boe, a 49% decrease from the second quarter of 2016. -- Maintained our balance sheet strength, with net debt (exclusive of finance lease obligations) at the end of the quarter of $204.1 million, representing 1.1x annualized second quarter adjusted funds flow from operations, and available liquidity of $145.9 million.

FINANCIAL RESULTS

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Cdn$000s except per boe and per share Three Months Six Months amounts) Ended June 30 Ended June 30 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average daily production (boe/d) 22,061 9,080 21,760 9,381 Realized oil and gas sales price (excluding derivatives) ($/boe) 52.65 43.83 53.22 37.61 Production costs ($/boe)(1) 18.47 15.04 18.03 14.86 Royalties ($/boe)(2) 8.78 6.55 8.61 5.51 Operating netback ($/boe)(3) 25.40 22.23 26.59 17.23 Net general and administrative expenses ($/boe) 1.13 2.23 1.10 2.11 Interest expense ($/boe) 1.28 0.32 1.33 0.57 Funds flow from operations(3)(4) 46,142 16,265 95,165 24,869 per share - basic(6) 0.26 0.16 0.54 0.26 per share - diluted(6) 0.25 0.15 0.52 0.24 Net loss (9,829) (6,659) (9,585) (19,540) per share - basic(6) (0.06) (0.07) (0.05) (0.20) per share - diluted(6) (0.06) (0.07) (0.05) (0.20) Capital expenditures(5) 32,592 6,869 76,026 23,986 Net debt(3) (233,128) (100,359) (233,128) (100,359) Net debt exclusive of finance lease obligations(3) (204,093) (100,359) (204,093) (100,359) Bank Facility 350,000,000 150,000,000 350,000,000 150,000,000 Weighted average shares outstanding Basic(6) 175,612,037 102,320,614 175,458,342 96,516,401 Diluted(6) 183,244,450 110,215,196 183,700,228 104,006,280 (1) Including transportation costs. (2) Royalties include the Saskatchewan resource surcharge. (3) Funds flow from operations, operating netback, net debt and net debt exclusive of finance lease obligations are non-IFRS measures. See "Non- IFRS Measures". (4) Excluding transaction costs. (5) Excluding acquisitions. (6) Prior period numbers restated on a 3 for 1 basis to reflect share consolidation that occurred on June 20, 2017.

OPERATIONAL UPDATE

Spartan had an active second quarter of operations due to a shortened break-up period in southeast Saskatchewan. We re-commenced our drilling program in May, drilling 19 (16.7 net) wells in the quarter and completing and bringing on production an additional 16 (13.3 net) wells that were drilled in the first quarter. We brought a total of 23 (20.9 net) wells on production in the quarter, consisting of 8 (7.1 net) open-hole wells, 5 (5.0 net) frac Midale wells, 2 (0.8) Torquay wells and 8 (8.0 net) Viking wells, with 10 (7.2 net) wells drilled but not on production at the end of the quarter. Total capital expenditures (excluding acquisitions, land, seismic and waterflood) were $27.3 million in the second quarter, bringing our total to $69.7 million in the first half of 2017.

Our first half 2017 drilling program was focused on open-hole wells drilled across our southeast Saskatchewan asset base and frac Midale wells drilled primarily on our core Alameda property. We continue to operate three rigs in southeast Saskatchewan drilling open-hole and frac Midale wells. In addition, in the third quarter we drilled our first operated well on our recently acquired Torquay acreage and have commenced drilling open-hole Frobisher and Ratcliffe wells on properties acquired from Arc in late 2016.

Our first half drilling program yielded exceptional results, with average rates from open-hole and frac Midale wells continuing to outperform internal type curves. The success of our drilling program resulted in production of 22,061 boe/d in the quarter, up from 21,455 boe/d in the first quarter despite the impacts of spring break-up. The combined impact of the outperformance of our drilling program and the accretive acquisitions completed by Spartan in 2016 resulted in second quarter production per share increasing by 42% over the second quarter of 2016.

Spartan delivered adjusted funds flow from operations in the quarter of $46.1 million ($0.26 per share), representing an increase of 184% (63% per basic share) over the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted funds flow from operations exceeded capital expenditures (excluding acquisitions, land, seismic and waterflood capital) by approximately $18.8 million.

In addition to our successful drilling program, Spartan executed on our business plan of deploying a portion of our excess cash flow to strategic future investments, spending approximately $6.4 million on tuck-in acquisitions, land additions and waterflood infrastructure in the second quarter. Reservoir modelling is ongoing on waterflood initiatives at our core Oungre, Winmore and Alameda properties, and we anticipate increased capital spending on waterflood projects in the second half of the year.

Spartan continues to focus on cost savings to improve netbacks. Net G&A expenses were $1.13 per boe in the second quarter, a reduction of 49% from the second quarter of 2016. Production costs in the quarter were $18.47 per boe, up from $17.56 in the first quarter of 2017. Scheduled turnarounds on acquired facilities, an increase in rental payments made to surface land owners due to a large number of leases that came due in the second quarter and an increase in power costs in southeast Saskatchewan contributed to the increase in production costs in the quarter. Spartan will continue to work diligently to reduce production costs through the balance of 2017.

OUTLOOK AND REVISED PRODUCTION GUIDANCE

Spartan remains focused on delivering long term organic production growth within cash flow while preserving our strong financial position. Due to the outperformance of our drilling program, Spartan is increasing our 2017 annual production guidance to 21,600 boe/d from 21,080 boe/d, representing annual production per share growth of 14%. We are maintaining our 2017 drilling and maintenance capital budget of $145 million, of which approximately $70 million was spent in the first and second quarters with $75 million remaining for the second half of the year. Our capital plan will remain flexible going forward as we monitor production levels and commodity prices.

In the first half of 2017, Spartan has executed on our business plan of delivering production growth within a subset of cash flow, while using excess cash flow to fund strategic future investments. We increased corporate production from our 2016 exit rate of 20,800 boe/d to 22,061 boe/d in the second quarter, while delivering excess cash flow of approximately $25.5 million. We invested approximately $14.0 million of our excess cash flow in tuck-in acquisitions, strategic land purchases and waterflood initiatives, with an additional $11.5 million available to be deployed in the second half of the year.

At current commodity prices, we forecast that we will generate excess cash flow of approximately $10 to $15 million in the second half of 2017, bringing total 2017 unallocated excess cash flow to $21.5 to $26.5 million. We intend to allocate up to $10 million to advance waterflood projects and will strategically invest remaining excess cash flow in asset acquisitions, land and seismic purchases or share buybacks to further enhance shareholder value.

Given our track record of operational execution, the depth of our inventory of economic locations and the strength of our balance sheet, we believe Spartan remains well positioned to succeed in a variety of commodity price environments. We thank our shareholders of their support and we look forward to the continued execution on our business plan during the remainder of the year.

READER ADVISORY

BOE Disclosure. The term barrels of oil equivalent ("BOE") may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of six thousand cubic feet per barrel (6mcf/bbl) of natural gas to barrels of oil equivalence is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. All BOE conversions in the report are derived from converting gas to oil in the ratio mix of six thousand cubic feet of gas to one barrel of oil.

Forward Looking Statements. Certain information included in this press release constitutes forward-looking information under applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information typically contains statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Forward-looking information in this press release may include, but is not limited to, planned drilling and completion activities, planned investment in waterflood projects and land acquisitions, number of drilling locations and years of drilling inventory, future production levels, future cash flows at various WTI oil prices, future capital expenditure levels, potential NCIB purchases and the completion of asset acquisitions.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Spartan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the success of future drilling, development and completion activities, the performance of existing wells, the performance of new wells, the availability and performance of facilities and pipelines, the geological characteristics of Spartan's properties, the successful application of drilling, completion and seismic technology, prevailing weather and break-up conditions, commodity prices, royalty regimes and exchange rates, the application of regulatory and licensing requirements, the availability of capital, labour and services, the creditworthiness of industry partners and our ability to source and complete land and asset acquisitions.

Although Spartan believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because Spartan can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; the uncertainty of reserve estimates; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks), constraint in the availability of services, commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations, adverse weather or break-up conditions and uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures. These and other risks are set out in more detail in Spartan's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016.

The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof and Spartan undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable securities laws. The forward looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Non-IFRS Measures. Certain financial measures referred to in this press release, such as adjusted funds flow from operations, adjusted funds flow from operations per share, net debt and net debt excluding finance lease obligations are not prescribed by IFRS. Adjusted funds flow from operations is calculated based on cash flows from operating activities before changes in non-cash working capital, transaction costs and decommissioning obligation expenditures incurred. Adjusted funds flow from operations per share is calculated using weighted average shares outstanding consistent with the calculation of net income (loss) per share. Spartan uses adjusted funds flow from operations to analyze operating performance and leverage, and considers adjusted funds flow from operations to be a key measure as it demonstrates the Company's ability to generate cash necessary to fund future capital investments and repay debt. Spartan's determination of adjusted funds flow from operations, on an absolute and per share basis, may not be comparable to that reported by other companies.

The following table reconciles adjusted funds flow from operations to cash flow from operating activities, which is the most directly comparable measure calculated in accordance with IFRS:

For the three months ended June 30, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ thousands) 2017 2016 % change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash flow from operating activities 61,894 10,815 472 Transaction costs 201 565 (64) Changes in non-cash working capital (15,953) 4,885 (427) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted funds flow from operations 46,142 16,265 184 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the six months ended June 30, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ thousands) 2017 2016 % change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash flow from operating activities 107,174 5,838 1,736 Transaction costs 368 565 (35) Changes in non-cash working capital (12,377) 18,466 (167) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted funds flow from operations 95,165 24,869 283 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Net debt is calculated as bank debt plus trade and other liabilities plus finance lease obligations less current assets. The following table reconciles bank debt (an IFRS measure) to net debt (a non-IFRS measure):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ thousands) June 30, 2017 December 31, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bank debt 176,406 217,921 Trade and other liabilities 64,601 38,546 Finance lease obligations 29,035 31,124 Current assets (36,914) (41,906) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net debt 233,128 245,685 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spartan management considers net debt excluding finance lease obligations to be a meaningful measure of the Company's leverage and liquidity. The following table reconciles net debt (a non-IFRS measure) to net debt excluding finance lease obligations (a non-IFRS measure):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ thousands) June 30, 2017 December 31, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net debt 233,128 245,685 Finance lease obligations (29,035) (31,124) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net debt excluding finance lease obligations 204,093 214,561 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This press release also contains other industry benchmarks and terms, including operating netbacks (calculated on a per unit basis as oil, gas and natural gas liquids revenues, plus/minus realized derivative contracts, less royalties and less operating and transportation costs), which are not recognized measures under IFRS. Management believes that in addition to net income (loss) and cash flow from (used in) operating activities, adjusted funds flow from operations, net debt, net debt excluding finance lease obligations, total market capitalization and operating netbacks are useful supplemental measures as they provide an indication of Spartan's operating performance, leverage and liquidity. Investors should be cautioned, however, that these measures should not be construed as an alternative to both net income (loss) and cash flow from (used in) operating activities, which are determined in accordance with IFRS, as indicators of Spartan's performance.

Contacts:

Spartan Energy Corp.

Richard (Rick) McHardy

President and Chief Executive Officer



Spartan Energy Corp.

Tim Sweeney

Manager, Business Development



Spartan Energy Corp.

Suite 500, 850 - 2nd Street S.W.

Calgary, Alberta T2P 0R8

403.355.2779 (FAX)

info@spartanenergy.ca




LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA, Canary Islands, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The sporadic appearance of microalgal blooms on a limited number of Canary Islands beaches is a natural phenomenon caused by a range of biological, environmental and climatological factors and is unrelated to any form of pollution

In response to continued international press reports about beach closures in the Canary Islands caused by 'toxic microalgae', the Canary Islands Government, via Health Minister Jose Manuel Baltar, has clarified that health and environmental experts guarantee that the presence of microalgal blooms at a small number of Canary Islands beaches is a sporadic and natural event caused by a rare combination of biological, environmental and climatological factors. The microalgae is in no way connected to any form of pollution, has not led to the closure of any Canary Islands beaches, and is not toxic.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/544666/Turismo_de_Canarias_Logo.jpg )



This natural phenomenon, which is rare and sporadic, has not led to any bathing restrictions at Canary Islands beaches other than a small number of red flag events at a few beaches. When microalgae appears at a beach, driven ashore by the wind, waves and currents, it only affects a small area and then only for a short period.

The only effect of microalgae is skin irritation and the Canary Islands Health Authorities therefore recommend that people avoid direct skin contact with the blooms. These are easy to identify due to their characteristic appearance and colour. It must be noted that the Canary Islands Public Health System has not seen any variation in the number of reported cases of skin irritation since the start of the phenomenon.

Figures from the Canary Islands Government Monitoring System for Beach Safety and Water Quality, which follows European regulations, rate 98.2% of Canary Islands beaches are excellent with 0.9% are rated as good and 0.9% as uncategorized. These figures are delivered annually by the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Spain to the European Commission's European Environment Agency.

Despite this temporary situation, which only affects a small number of the beaches in the Canary Islands and then only prevents swimming in the limited areas directly affected, tourist activity goes on as normal in the Canary Islands. Our visitors are enjoying the swimming areas of the vast majority of beaches in tourist areas as they always have done.

For more information, please contact:

Brezo Rodriguez: brezo.rodriguez@porternovelli.es, +34-91-702-7300

Alberto Tapia: alberto.tapia@porternovelli.es, +34-91-702-7300

Marta Garcia: marta.garciafuentes@porternovelli.es , +34-91-702-7300
SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- Global Payout, Inc. (OTC PINK: GOHE) (the "Company") today announces that it has finalized and fully executed a Licensing Agreement with Cagney Global Logistics for the exclusive white labeling and implementation of the Global Reserve Platform. The Platform will be integrated into Cagney's existing delivery and payment component, the Final Mile solution, to enhance its Fortune 500 customer web sales.

The finalization of this agreement comes on the heels of the Letter of Intent that was executed between the companies on May 1, 2017. Under the LOI, Global Payout and Cagney entered into advanced phases of planning the integration of the Global Reserve Platform into the existing processes and software currently utilized by Cagney for its logistics supply chain.

"Our technical team has been diligently working to address the specific needs and requests that have been presented to us by Cagney," says Global Payout President William Rochfort. "In this time, we have developed a more in-depth understanding as to how the intricate components available in our Global Reserve Platform can be configured to deliver a platform for Cagney that will completely enhance the logistics supply chain process experience for its customers and delivery partners."

Global Payout expects that the finalization of this Licensing Agreement will provide the Company with a revenue stream as early as the beginning of the third quarter of 2017. For Cagney, the agreement will enable improved payment and supply chain efficiency.

"The Global Reserve Platform provides Cagney Global Logistics, our e-commerce customers, and 'Final Mile' delivery partners anywhere in the United States, a true market differentiator streamlining payment solutions and pipeline visibility. Home and office web sale deliveries for the exploding 'e-tailer' marketplace is by far the hottest space in logistics today," said Tom Cagney, founder and CEO. "Customer success is our goal, and Global Payout has provided us with a truly unique solution to speed delivery, payment options and cloud based control tower visibility."

Global Payout and Cagney will collaborate on the integration of the Global Reserve Platform with the intent to roll-out a test launch in key markets in the coming weeks.

About Global Payout, Inc.

Since the Company's inception in 2009, Global Payout, Inc. has been a leading provider of comprehensive and customized prepaid payment solutions for domestic and international organizations distributing money worldwide. In 2014, Global Payout introduced its first online payment platform, called the Consolidated Payment Gateway (CPG), which allowed its enterprise clients to transfer money to international bank accounts, mobile accounts, and prepaid card accounts. The development of the CPG became the foundation for the introduction of its new, state-of-the-art FINTECH payment system in 2017, designed for both online and mobile applications to allow account holders to maximize an expanded suite of financial services and minimize operational costs. Global Payout will continue to offer its FINTECH payment system to many vertical markets for support of foreign currency exchange and digital currency, including ongoing support of the banking industry and international governments.

For more information, visit www.GlobalPayout.com

About Cagney Global Logistics

Cagney Global Logistics is a supply chain solutions provider specializing in full-service, client-specific "gain sharing" programs. The Company brings transportation intelligence to businesses, using customized solutions, giving them meaningful and measurable advantages. For over 28 years, Cagney Global Logistics has been a leader in global logistics, warehousing, distribution, local delivery, residential delivery, storage, reverse logistics, less than truck load (LTL) and full truck load. Cagney Global Logistics dedication to teamwork, technological advancement and customer satisfaction has made the success of their customers the basis of their own success.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for historical matters contained herein, statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may," "will," "to," "plan," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "would," "estimate," or "continue," or the negative other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Public Relations and Media Contact:

Global Payout

www.GlobalPayout.com

619.795.5180 Office

Information@GlobalPayout.com



Communications Contact:

NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com






KENILWORTH (NJ) (dpa-AFX) - Kenneth Frazier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Merck & Co. (MRK), has resigned as a member of the U.S. President's American Manufacturing Council in protest against Donald Trump's handling of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.



A 32-year old woman was killed and 19 others injured when a car rammed into a crowd protesting at a white supremacist rally in the university town Saturday.



The President did not explicitly condemn the actions of white supremacists involved in the rally, but condemned what he called an 'egregious display of hatred and bigotry' displayed by antagonists 'on many sides,' drawing fire from across the political spectrum.



Frazier, one of the few black CEOs of a major U.S. corporation, announced his resignation from the elite presidential council on Monday.



'America's leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,' Frazier said in a statement.



'As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,' he added.



Trump, who had condemned drug makers over rising costs of prescription drugs, responded immediately through Twitter, saying, 'Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!'



Frazier is the latest among a number of corporate heads to quit a presidential advisory council to protest Trump's actions and policies. Former Uber Technologies CEO Travis Kalanick left in February over the Trump administration's immigration policies.



In June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger resigned from the President's Strategic and Policy Forum, a business advisory group, in dissent of Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate deal. Musk also had departed the manufacturing council.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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BROSSARD, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- DIAGNOS Inc. ("DIAGNOS" or "the Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: ADK)(OTCQB: DGNOF), a leader in early detection of critical health issues through the use of its FLAIRE platform based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), announces today results from the votes at the annual general meeting of shareholders ("AGM") held on July 21, 2017, the appointments of Mr. Georges Hebert as Chairman of the board of directors and Dr. Hadi Chakor as Chief Medical Officer and stock options grants to directors and officers.

Results from the AGM

Directors: The five candidates proposed by Management were elected as directors of the Corporation to hold office until the closing of the next annual meeting of the shareholders or until his successor is duly elected. The directors are Georges Hebert, Tristram Coffin, Andre Larente, Jean-Yves Therien and Dr. Netan Choudhry.

Auditor: Mazars Harel Drouin, LLP was reappointed as the independent auditor of the Corporation to hold office until the next meeting of shareholders.

Stock Option Plan ("SOP") amendment: The proposed amendment to the SOP, pursuant to which the vesting period of stock options granted after July 21, 2017 be set at two years, was approved by a majority of disinterested shareholders.

Appointment of Mr. Georges Hebert as Chairman of the board of directors

Mr. Hebert joined DIAGNOS as a director in January 2017. Previously, he was a director at the Laurentian Bank, where he served for twenty years as a member of the audit committee. He was also a director of Vitran Corp. for seven years, where he served as a member of the audit committee and chairman of the compensation committee.

The Board of directors wishes to thank our former chairman, Mr. Philip Renaud, for his dedication and important contribution to DIAGNOS over the last 8 years.

Appointment of Dr. Hadi Chakor as Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Chakor holds a medical school diploma with a specialization in ophthalmology. He further completed his master's degree in biomedical engineering in the field of visual electrophysiology (evaluation of the functional aspect of the retina) at the University of Montreal, followed by a Doctorate (PhD) in Biomedical Sciences on the subject of the prevention of coronary heart disease through the early presence of retinal microvascular abnormalities.

Stock options grant

The board of directors approved a grant totalling 3,400,000 stock options to its directors and officers. Stock options vest at 50% per year, commencing with the first anniversary of the grant. The exercise price of these options has been established at $0.13 per share. The expiry date to which these options can be exercised has been fixed to August 11, 2022.

All monies quoted in this press release shall be stated in lawful money of Canada.

About DIAGNOS and its technologies

Founded in 1998, DIAGNOS is a publicly traded Canadian corporation with a mission to commercialize technologies combining contextual imaging, text and traditional data mining. DIAGNOS has developed its own Artificial Intelligence ("AI") technologies, CARA and FLAIRE. FLAIRE is a powerful AI engine that provides the capability of analyzing large and complex data sets. Using Deep Learning methodology combined with our own proprietary algorithms we can deploy rapidly new solutions to the healthcare market. CARA (Computer Assisted Retinal Analysis) is an Artificial Intelligence tele-ophthalmology platform for retinal analysis. It integrates with existing equipment (hardware and software) and processes at the point of care (POC) and comprises: image upload, image enhancement automated pre-screening, grading by a specialist, and referral to a specialist. CARA's image enhancement algorithms make standard retinal images sharper, clearer, and easier to read. CARA is accessible securely over the internet, and is compatible with all recognized image formats and brands of fundus cameras, and is EMR compatible. CARA is a cost-effective tool for screening large numbers of patients, in real-time and has been cleared by regulatory authorities including Health Canada, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Union (CE), COFEPRIS (Mexico).

Additional information is available at www.diagnos.ca and www.sedar.com.

This news release contains forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements. DIAGNOS disclaims any intention or obligation to publically update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Mr. Andre Larente, President

DIAGNOS Inc.

450-678-8882 ext. 224

alarente@diagnos.ca




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- The Ontario Federation of Labour is raising serious concern about the validity of the assertions in the Keep Ontario Working (KOW) coalition's commissioned economic impact analysis of Bill 148, conducted by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA).

"The assertions released today by the corporate lobby is inaccurate, incomplete and just not responsible," said Chris Buckley, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

This analysis fails to acknowledge the increases in consumer spending of higher incomes for low-wage Ontario workers, the reduced demand on social services and the strengthening of household financial stability that will result from a more equal distribution of income in Ontario. In other words, this report considers only the costs of a higher minimum wage, not the benefits.

"Every economist that we've consulted since the Fair Workplaces Better Jobs Act was announced points out that its measures will in fact strengthen Ontario's economy," said Buckley. "Many also note that areas for improvement still exist within the legislation."

"The pessimistic assertions in this report are at odds with the well-established conclusion in published, peer-reviewed economic research that changes in minimum wages have very small, if any, impacts on employment levels," said Jim Stanford, Harold Innis Industry Professor of Economics at McMaster University.

"Some low-wage employers may want to maintain a situation where employees have to work for poverty-level wages. But from the perspective of Ontario's overall economic success, it is these very pools of working poverty that are in fact holding our economy back," said Stanford. "The dire assertions in this report have not been validated or reviewed by other economists. Indeed, the consultants hired by the business lobby have not even explained how these forecasts were generated," Stanford added.

There is strong economic evidence that the provisions of Bill 148 that aim to raise incomes for low-wage workers and contribute to more better workplace rights for Ontarians will lead to a stronger and fairer economy.

"The self-serving scare tactics of certain corporate lobbyists and their consultants cannot refute the actual outcomes seen in those jurisdictions that have already made substantial increases in their minimum wage. The business lobby tried a similar tactic in BC and Alberta, and they were wrong there too," said Chris Buckley.

For example, when the Alberta government began to phase-in a $15 minimum wage in September 2016 and eliminate the sub-minimum wage rate for liquor servers, corporate lobbyists were quick to predict dire economic consequences, especially for the services sector.

However, those predictions failed to materialize. The Parkland Institute published this rebuke of the outrageous claims made by the business lobby in Alberta: " (The CFIB) made the bold prediction that the government of Alberta's $15 per hour pledge would cost the province "between 53,500 and 195,000 jobs." In other words, the CFIB believes that almost half of the 350,500 Alberta workers currently making less than $15 an hour could lose their jobs. This is simply not credible."

As it turned out, Alberta's Treasury Board and Finance Department reported that, despite the recession caused by the drop in oil prices: "The service-producing sector has seen consistent gains throughout the downturn, with employment now 37,800 higher than in June 2016.

"Today's announcement should be taken for what it's worth, a simple attempt by the employer and business lobby to whip up a frenzy about imagined hardships," said Buckley.

"Ontario's economy is growing relatively strongly right now, including creating 138,000 jobs in the last year alone. This is exactly the time for ambitious, forward-looking measures to ensure that this growth is shared more fairly," said Stanford.

Along with community partners the Fight for $15 and Fairness, the Ontario Federation of Labour has been calling for enhancements to Bill 148.

The OFL's Make It Fair campaign and the Fight for $15 and Fairness takes on issues of inequality in the workforce, and coincides with the province's "Changing Workplaces Review." The campaign calls for across-the-board changes to the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act that would improve standards for all workers and make it easier for them to join a union.

The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For more information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.

Contacts:

Rob Halpin

Executive Director

Ontario Federation of Labour

416-707-9014

rhalpin@ofl.ca




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new lawsuit alleges that Cheesecake Factory Inc. (CAKE) is tricking customers into giving higher tips on bills split between several customers. BuzzFeed News reported that the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Marcel Goldman, has alleged Cheesecake Factory is recommending exorbitantly high tips on bills split between several customers. Cheesecake Factory calculates suggested gratuity on its receipts in a range of 15 percent to 22 percent of a bill's total amount. According to the complaint, the suggested gratuity at the bottom of the split bill is calculated not on the individual customer's share, but on the total amount before splitting. This means the suggested gratuity remains the same despite each customer's portion of the split bill being smaller. Marcel Goldman reportedly said that Cheesecake Factory's suggested gratuity printed on the bill ranged from $11.50 to $16.94, while her share of the meal was only $38.50. It may be noted that $16.94 amounts to 44 percent of $38.50. Goldman left a $15.40 tip, which is actually 40 percent of the split bill. Although Goldman sent a letter regarding the 'billing error' to Cheesecake Factory, the error was not corrected. According to Goldman's complaint, the practice has been going on at more than 200 restaurant locations operated under the Cheesecake Factory mark and at 13 locations operated under the Grand Lux Cafe mark for at least the last four years. However, a Cheesecake factory spokesman told BuzzFeed News that gratuity amounts listed on the guest checks are suggestions only, and guests are fee to tip as they please. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
PISMO BEACH, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- Coastal Community Builders (CCB) and Presidio Residential Capital recently announced that all 120 homes at Legacy at La Ventana in Santa Maria, Calif., and all 16 homes at Costa Azure in Pismo Beach have sold.

"Demand for housing on the Central Coast is high, and we're pleased we could help ease some of that with both of these new residential communities," said CCB president Gary Grossman.

Located on East Main and Dressler Avenue, Legacy at La Ventana, a 40.5-acre community, offered Spanish colonial, contemporary and French country homes and feature dramatic landscaping, a high-end monument entrance, large landscape setbacks, split-rail fencing, rolled curbs and driveway pilasters. Conveniently located near Pioneer Valley High School, Legacy at La Ventana is close to major employers, including Marian Hospital, Hancock College and downtown Santa Maria. A quick drive to Highway 101 gives residents access to all the Central Coast has to offer.

"Demand was extremely high for homes at Legacy at La Ventana because we offered elevations and floorplans for families in every stage of life and generous estate-sized lots," said Cheryl Benzer, sales representative for Legacy at La Ventana.

Located on picturesque Shell Beach, Costa Azure offered Santa Barbara and Spanish colonial homes and feature stunning views of the ocean, canyons, green belts and mountains. The exteriors of the homes are detailed in two separate architectural styles of either Santa Barbara or Spanish Colonial.

Coastal Community Builders and Presidio Residential Capital have partnered to build more than 780 new housing units on California's Central Coast.

About Coastal Community Builders

Coastal Community Builders is a California development company building on a tradition of value, quality craftsmanship and homeowner satisfaction. Since 1988 under the leadership of president Gary Grossman, the company has grown from humble beginnings to a leader in new home construction. https://www.coastalcommunitybuilders.com/

About Presidio

Presidio Residential Capital is a real estate investment company focused on the residential housing sector. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the firm provides capital in the form of joint ventures for the entitlement, development and build-out of for-sale residential projects throughout the Western United States. Presidio has infused more than $1 billion into the economy to capitalize the housing industry. The firm's goal is to invest in excess of $150 million in capital for home-building projects in the Western United States in the next 12-plus months. It currently has investments in Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado and Washington with current committed capital of $800 million focused on 100+ projects. The firm is affiliated with a privately held registered investment advisor specializing in alternative investment strategies who has a long history of investing in the home-building sector. Current assets under management total more than $2.5 billion. Online and social media: www.presidioresidential.com, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contacts:

Anton Communications

Vanessa Showalter

Email Contact

Genevieve Anton

Email Contact




MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- DataWind Inc. (TSX: DW), a leader in the delivery of internet access in emerging markets, reported financial results for its fiscal 2018 Q1results ending June 30, 2017. All amounts are in Canadian dollars.

Financial and Operational Highlights

-- Revenues of $8.1 million during the three months ending June 30, 2017 representing a slight decrease of 2.0% over the three months ending March 31, 2017; but a more substantial decrease of 61.4% over the three months ending June 30, 2016, due to the impact of demonetization in India. -- 126,439 units sold in Q1 2018 compared to 97,096 units sold in Q4 2017. -- Quarterly gross margin in Q1 2018 is 25.2% compared to 19.6% in Q4 2017 and 33.4% in Q1 2017. -- Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 is ($4.2 million) compared to EBITDA of $(12.9 million) for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 representing an improvement of $8.7 million.

Management Commentary

The Company continues to recover from the impact of November 2016's demonetization by the Indian government. The resulting shift to a TV infomercial based business model has allowed the Company better control on its cash flow and payment collections, as it strives to reach breakeven. As a result of this shift, receivable collection has improved to 29 days at June 30, 2017 compared to 137 days at June 30, 2016.

"We see significant opportunity for growth by using direct TV infomercials to sell our products in India. This essentially eliminates credit risk and removes any middle-man between us and our customer. As we continue to tweak complex variables associated with selling via infomercials, we are aggressively working towards breakeven." said Suneet Singh Tuli, president and CEO of DataWind.

"While we await government approval of our Virtual Network Operator license, we have developed an alternate go-to-market strategy with our telecom partners in India and hope to launch our device-independent data plans within the next two quarters." said Suneet Singh Tuli.

For more information, please refer to the company's MD&A and full financial statements that have been filed with SEDAR.

About DataWind

DataWind, Inc. is a leader in providing affordable mobile Internet connectivity in emerging markets. The company's patented, cloud-based technology reduces up to 97% the amount of data needed for web browsing, providing a broadband experience on any network -- even on legacy 2G networks that are still prevalent in developing countries. DataWind also provides economical smartphones and tablets that come bundled with one year of unlimited Internet access, making it the largest tablet provider in India. DataWind's unique solution offers broad social and economic benefits for the billions of people around the world for whom an Internet connection was previously out of reach. DataWind is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: DW). For more information, visit www.datawind.com.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted net loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA") is a non-IFRS measure and excludes finance costs, interest income, income tax expense or recovery, depreciation and amortization and income and expenses of a non-recurring, unusual or one-time nature. Adjusted EBITDA is a measure used by management, the retail industry and investors as an indicator of the Company's operating performance, ability to incur and service debt, and as a valuation metric. While Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure, management believes that it is an important indicator of operating performance because it excludes the effect of financing and investing activities by eliminating the effects of interest and depreciation and removes the impact of certain non-recurring items that are not indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Therefore, management believes Adjusted EBITDA gives investors greater transparency in assessing the Company's result of operations. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other reporting issuers. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to measures prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations, which involve risks and uncertainties associated with our business and the environment in which the business operates. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements, including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward- looking statements are not historical facts, but reflect management's current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. The Company does not undertake or accept any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in the Company's expectations, except as prescribed by applicable securities laws.

Key assumptions made in preparing the forward-looking statements contained in this Press Release include, but are not limited to, the following: The Company will continue to successfully increase its sales volumes, the Company will be able to maintain its gross margin, and the Company will continue to effectively manage the transition from private to public entity by hiring key senior and middle management and effectively rolling out and adopting appropriate policy changes.

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved the contents of this press release/media advisory.

Contacts:

DataWind Inc.

Suneet S. Tuli

Chief Executive Officer

1 (905) 671-0202




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Colombian government gained a license to sell fresh hass avocado to the United States, said the U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence, after a bilateral meeting with the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos. The Colombian government has been working for more than a decade to reach such an agreement. 'I announce that the United States has reached an agreement for Colombia's hass avocado to enter the U.S. market,' Pence said at a press conference. According to the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the U.S. market, in 2016, imported about $ 2 billion in avocado, being almost 90% was bought from Mexico. Meanwhile, with the agreement, Colombians will be able to double exports, which by June of this year reached US$ 25.2 million, and were entirely destined to Europe. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/14/17 -- (All amounts expressed in US dollars, unless otherwise stated)

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE: FSM)(TSX: FVI) today reported net income of $8.9 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $26.4 million, and revenue of $63.9 million in the second quarter of 2017.

Jorge A. Ganoza, President and CEO, commented, "Our San Jose and Caylloma mines have delivered strong production and financial results. Higher operating costs at both operations are expected to recede in the second half of the year and remain within 5% of our annual cost guidance." Mr. Ganoza continued, "At our Lindero gold project in Argentina, feasibility study optimization work continues to advance as planned in order to support a construction decision next month."

Second quarter consolidated financial highlights:

-- Sales of $63.9 million, compared to $44.5 million in Q2 2016 -- Net income of $8.9 million, compared to net loss of $1.4 million in Q2 2016 -- Earnings per share of $0.06, compared to a net loss per share of $0.01 in Q2 2016 -- Adjusted EBITDA of $26.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin over sales of 41% -- Cash flow from operations before changes in non-cash working capital of $16.7 million, compared to $7.4 million in Q2 2016 -- Cash position, including short term investments, and working capital as at June 30, 2016 was $188.0 million and $186.8 million, respectively -- Silver and gold production of 2,116,863 and 14,547 ounces, respectively -- AISCC(i) per ounce of payable silver was $8.22

(i) All-in sustaining cash cost is net of by-product credits for gold, lead and zinc (Non-GAAP Financial Measure)

Second quarter consolidated financial results

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- % % Consolidated Metrics Q2 2017 Q2 2016 Change YTD 2017 YTD 2016 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Expressed in $ millions except per share information and all-in sustaining cash cost) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales $ 63.9 $ 44.5 44% $ 128.7 $ 87.2 48% Mine operating income 22.2 15.9 40% 49.4 31.5 57% Operating income 14.2 3.6 294% 33.8 9.8 245% Net income (loss) 8.9 (1.4) 736% 21.9 1.2 1725% Earnings (loss) per share (basic) 0.06 (0.01) 700% 0.14 0.01 1300% Earnings (loss) per share (diluted) 0.06 (0.01) 700% 0.14 0.01 1300% Adjusted net income (loss)(i) 9.2 (1.5) 713% 23.3 1.1 2018% Adjusted EBITDA(i) 26.4 10.6 149% 56.4 23.0 145% Cash provided by (used in) operating activities 12.0 (1.4) 957% 20.9 (2.2) 1050% Cash generated by operating activities before changes in working capital 16.7 7.4 126% 35.2 13.1 169% Capex (sustaining) 7.4 4.8 54% 12.4 9.0 38% Capex (non- sustaining) 3.2 6.0 -47% 5.1 17.4 -71% Capex (Brownfields) 2.9 1.7 71% 5.6 3.5 60% All-in sustaining cash cost ($/oz Ag)(i) 8.2 9.8 -16% 7.2 9.8 -27% Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments(ii) 188.0 123.6 52% 188.0 123.6 52% Total assets(ii) 637.8 387.7 65% 637.8 387.7 65% Non-current bank loan(ii) 39.8 39.6 1% 39.8 39.6 1% Other liabilities(ii) 0.9 4.8 -81% 0.9 4.8 -81% (i) refer to Non-GAAP Financial Measures (ii) Comparative figures are as at December 31, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Net income for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 was $8.9 million or $0.06 earnings per share compared to a net loss of $1.4 million or $0.01 loss per share. Increase in net income was driven mostly by higher silver and gold production of 36% and 55%, respectively, related to the expansion at the San Jose Mine. Increase in net income was also due to a higher share-based payment charge in 2016 of $7.3 million related to mark-to-market effects on the outstanding restricted and deferred share based units compared to $0.7 million for the second quarter of 2017. Net income in the period was negatively affected by higher foreign exchange loss of $1.1 million and $1.0 million write-down of plant and spare parts at San Jose.

To view cash provided by operating activities please click the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/FortunaIMG814.pdf

Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2017 increased $15.8 million year over year to $26.4 million as a result of higher sales at the San Jose Mine. Cash provided by operating activities was $12.0 million compared to cash consumed of $1.4 million in second quarter of 2016. Cash provided by operating activities before changes in working capital for the second quarter of 2017 was $16.7 million compared to $7.4 million for the comparable quarter in 2016. Improved results were due to the expansion of mill throughput to 3,000 tpd at the San Jose Mine.

Cash provided by operating activities in the first half of the year was $20.9 million while total capital expenditures (sustaining, non-sustaining, and brownfields) was $23.1 million yielding negative free cash flow of $2.2 million. Cash generation in the semester was mostly impacted by tax payments from 2016 and changes in working capital of $14.3 million.

At June 30, 2017, the Company had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $188.0 million (December 31, 2016: $123.6 million). The increase in cash was due to the bought deal equity financing in the first quarter of 2017 for net proceeds of $70.9 million.

San Jose Mine, Mexico

QUARTERLY RESULTS YEAR TO DATE RESULTS --------------------- --------------------- Three months ended, Six months ended, San Jose June 30, June 30, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine Production 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes milled 268,456 185,080 535,724 364,189 Average tonnes milled per day 3,016 2,152 3,061 2,105 Silver Grade (g/t) 238 226 232 233 Recovery (%) 92 92 92 92 Production (oz) 1,887,269 1,234,988 3,680,236 2,515,300 Metal sold (oz) 1,874,226 1,216,636 3,653,429 2,509,270 Realized price ($/oz) 17.30 16.84 17.38 15.89 Gold Grade (g/t) 1.82 1.70 1.75 1.71 Recovery (%) 92 92 91 92 Production (oz) 14,410 9,246 27,526 18,407 Metal sold (oz) 14,222 9,174 27,262 18,415 Realized price ($/oz) 1,257 1,263 1,239 1,237 Unit Costs Production cash cost ($/oz Ag)(i) 1.03 2.54 1.18 2.45 Production cash cost ($/tonne) 61.87 60.47 59.36 59.79 Unit Net Smelter Return ($/tonne) 172.86 153.11 167.31 149.90 All-in sustaining cash cost ($/oz Ag)(i) 7.67 8.62 7.15 8.66 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold

Silver and gold production at San Jose for the second quarter 2017 increased 53% and 56%, respectively, to 1,887,269 and 14,410 ounces of silver and gold, compared to 1,234,988 and 9,246 ounces produced for the comparable quarter in 2016. The increases were the result of higher throughput from the plant expansion completed at the end of the second quarter of 2016 and increased head grades of 5% and 8% for silver and gold, respectively.

Cash cost per tonne of processed ore for the second quarter 2017 was $61.87; in line with the cash cost for the comparable period in 2016. Compared to annual guidance, cash cost was 9% higher due mostly to short term variations. Cash cost for 2017 is expected to remain within 5% of annual guidance (see Fortuna news release dated January 11, 2017).

All-in sustaining cash cost per payable ounce of silver, net of by-product credits, was $7.15 for the first half of 2017 and was below the annual guidance of $8.40 as a result of higher gold credits and the timing of planned spending on sustaining capital.

Caylloma Mine, Peru

QUARTERLY RESULTS YEAR TO DATE RESULTS --------------------- --------------------- Three months ended, Six months ended, Caylloma June 30, June 30, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine Production 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes milled 131,974 129,958 261,343 247,149 Average tonnes milled per day 1,483 1,460 1,477 1,388 Silver Grade (g/t) 64 89 66 96 Recovery (%) 85 86 85 86 Production (oz) 229,594 318,229 469,818 655,313 Metal sold (oz) 229,436 313,010 465,504 670,605 Realized price ($/oz) 17.24 16.73 17.28 15.69 Lead Grade (%) 2.70 3.28 2.73 3.50 Recovery (%) 91 94 92 94 Production (000's lbs) 7,170 8,825 14,381 17,932 Metal sold (000's lbs) 7,127 8,752 14,163 18,372 Realized price ($/lb) 0.98 0.78 1.01 0.78 Zinc Grade (%) 4.04 4.41 4.10 4.45 Recovery (%) 90 89 91 89 Production (000's lbs) 10,613 11,202 21,430 21,591 Metal sold (000's lbs) 10,943 11,376 21,645 21,903 Realized price ($/lb) 1.18 0.87 1.22 0.82 Unit Costs Production cash cost ($/oz Ag)(i) (22.40) (2.89) (27.07) (2.49) Production cash cost ($/tonne) 84.99 71.01 79.20 72.33 Unit Net Smelter Return ($/tonne) 150.39 116.64 154.66 118.12 All-in sustaining cash cost ($/oz Ag)(i) (2.73) 6.39 (7.46) 5.73 (i) Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc

Silver production for the second quarter 2017 was 229,594 ounces, while lead and zinc production were 7.2 million and 10.6 million pounds, respectively; 28%, 19%, and 5% lower than the comparable period in 2016. Lower production for the second quarter was due to lower head grades of 28% for silver, 18% for lead, and 8% for zinc. Compared to plan, silver, lead, and zinc production were 2%, 3%, and 5% above budget.

Cash cost per tonne of processed ore for the second quarter 2017 was $84.99; 20% above cash cost per tonne of $71.01 for the comparable quarter in 2016. Compared to annual guidance, cash cost per tonne was $9.49 or 13% higher. The increase in cash cost included approximately $3.00 per tonne for non-recurring items, including a retroactive payment to settle union wage increases and administrative charges.

Other items of higher cost which impacted the quarter included energy, ground support and labor costs, representing approximately $4 per tonne. Cash cost for 2017 is expected to remain within 5% of annual guidance (see Fortuna news release dated January 11, 2017).

All-in sustaining cash cost per payable ounce of silver, net of by-product credits, was negative $7.46 for the first half of the year and was significantly below the annual guidance of $10.80 due primarily to higher by-product credits. In spite of higher unit cash cost per tonne in the quarter, all-in sustaining cash cost is being positively impacted by substantially higher by-product credits.

Conference call details:

Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Time: 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern

Dial in number (Toll Free): +1.866.682.6100

Dial in number (International): +1.862.255.5401

Replay number (Toll Free): +1.877.481.4010

Replay number (International): +1.919.882.2331

Replay Passcode: 10421

Playback of the conference call will be available until August 31, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Playback of the webcast will be available until November 17, 2017. In addition, a transcript of the call will be archived in the company's website: https://www.fortunasilver.com/investors/financials/2017/.

About Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Fortuna is a growth oriented, precious metal producer focused on mining opportunities in Latin America. The Company's primary assets are the Caylloma silver mine in southern Peru, the San Jose silver-gold mine in Mexico and the Lindero gold project in Argentina. The Company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Jorge A. Ganoza

President, CEO and Director

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM / TSX: FVI

Forward looking Statements

This news release contains forward looking statements which constitute "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "Forward looking Statements"). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward looking Statements. The Forward looking Statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements about the Company's plans for its mines and mineral properties; the Company's business strategy, plans and outlook; the merit of the Company's mines and mineral properties; the future financial or operating performance of the Company; and proposed expenditures. Often, but not always, these Forward looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "planned", "reflecting", "will", "containing", "remaining", "to be", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward looking Statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortuna's mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; governmental and other approvals; political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward looking Statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to expectations regarding the Company's plans for its mines and mineral properties; mine production costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any Forward looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that Forward looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward looking Statements.

This news release also refers to non-GAAP financial measures, such as cash cost per tonne of processed ore; cash cost per payable ounce of silver; total production cost per tonne; all-in sustaining cash cost; all-in cash cost; adjusted net (loss) income; operating cash flow per share before changes in working capital, income taxes, and interest income; and adjusted EBITDA. These measures do not have a standardized meaning or method of calculation, even though the descriptions of such measures may be similar. These performance measures have no meaning under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and therefore, amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies.

Contacts:

Investor Relations:

Carlos Baca- T (Peru):

+51.1.616.6060, ext. 0




TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - August 14, 2017) - Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM) announced today the release of its unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. All financial figures contained herein are expressed in U.S. dollars ("USD") unless otherwise noted.

Lombardo Paredes Arenas, Chief Executive Officer of Gran Colombia, commenting on the Company's results for the first half of 2017, said, "As we reach the midpoint of 2017, we are pleased to report that our operating and financial results have been tracking to our guidance for the year. Our exploration effort in 2016 has paid off with a four-year extension of the expected mine life at our Segovia Operations to 2026 and we are now 40% of the way through our 2017 drilling program. We believe that our investment and social programs in Segovia over the last seven years have positively impacted the local community, respecting the role that responsible mining plays in the local culture and economy. The recent civil disruption is not an issue caused by Gran Colombia. It is the response by illegal miners to the Colombian government's recent regulations aimed at illegal mining in the country, including restrictions on the use of mercury. While we hope that the Colombian government will soon be able to restore order in the community so that our people and their families can safely go about their daily lives and we can return to normal operations, we are continuing our negotiations to formalize illegal mining within our title."

Second Quarter and First Half 2017 Highlights

Gran Colombia has updated the life-of-mine ("LOM") plan for its Segovia Operations to incorporate the Mineral Resource estimate announced on April 19, 2017, extending the expected mine life at Segovia by four years to 2026. Measured and Indicated Resources at the Segovia Operations increased to 2.9 million tonnes at a grade of 12.0 g/t totalling 1.1 million ounces of gold, up 174% compared to the Mineral Resource estimate as of December 31, 2016. Gran Colombia also added 0.4 million ounces of gold to the Inferred category at Segovia bringing total Inferred Mineral Resources to 3.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 9.9 g/t representing 1.0 million ounces of gold. Gran Colombia is continuing its exploration campaign at Segovia in 2017 with approximately 40% of the planned 20,000 meters drilling program completed in the first half of the year. The mine life extension, coupled with an increase in the expected long-term gold price to $1,250 per ounce, resulted in a $35.5 million after-tax reversal of impairment related to the Segovia Operations in the second quarter of 2017.

On May 31, 2017, Gran Colombia extended the maturity date for $47.0 million of its Senior Secured Convertible Debentures due 2020 (the "2020 Debentures") to 2024.

Gran Colombia's adjusted EBITDA of $21.3 million in the second quarter of 2017 represented a 16% increase over the second quarter last year. This brings the trailing 12-months' adjusted EBITDA to $71.0 million, up 8% from the end of 2016. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure.

Gran Colombia generated $3.2 million of Excess Cash Flow (see the Company's MD&A for the computation) in the second quarter of 2017, bringing the total for the first half of 2017 to $5.5 million, as expected.

Gran Colombia has continued to execute its strategy to aggressively reduce its Senior Debentures with its Excess Cash Flow, repurchasing and cancelling $1.7 million of 2020 Debentures under its Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB") in the second quarter of 2017. Subsequent to June 30, 2017, the Company repurchased and cancelled an additional $0.7 million of 2020 Debentures and completed a $3.0 million partial redemption at par of the 2020 Debentures on July 31, 2017. Collectively, these actions reduced the potential dilution from conversion of the 2020 Debentures by approximately 2.8 million shares, equivalent to approximately 3% of total shares on a fully diluted basis (excluding stock options and warrants), and saves future interest costs of about $0.8 million. Gran Colombia intends to continue using the sinking fund balance to repurchase 2020 Debentures in the open market under the NCIB, when available, or to make further partial redemptions.

Gold production in the second quarter of 2017 totalled 46,075 ounces, up 21% from the second quarter last year led by continuing strong performance at its Segovia Operations. For the first half of 2017, gold production increased by 22% over the first half last year to a total of 85,083 ounces. The trailing 12-months' total gold production as of the end of June 2017 stands at 165,073 ounces, up 10% over 2016's annual gold production and above the Company's production guidance for the 2017 calendar year of a total of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces. Gold production in July 2017 totalled 14,980 ounces. However, production in the first half of August 2017 has been adversely impacted by a civil disruption in Segovia and Remedios convened by illegal miners commencing in late July, preventing many of the Company's personnel from safely reporting to work. The Company has implemented its contingency plans during this civil disruption, including ensuring sufficient cash is set aside to meet the interest payments on the Senior Debentures at the end of August. Certain capital projects have been suspended until the civil disruption subsides and Gran Colombia is currently able to conduct some mining, processing and maintenance activities until order is restored by the Colombian government. Negotiations between Gran Colombia and representatives of the Cogote and San Nicolas mines operating in the Company's mining title at Segovia are continuing at this time.

Revenue has been positively impacted in 2017 by the increased level of gold production compared with last year, up 17% in the second quarter of 2017 to $56.0 million and up 23% in the first half of 2017 to $101.7 million.

Gran Colombia's total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs ("AISC") were also positively impacted in the second quarter of 2017 by the increased level of production, averaging $676 per ounce and $884 per ounce, respectively, bringing the averages for the first half of 2017 to $709 per ounce and $910 per ounce, respectively. The Company continues to expect that its total cash cost and AISC averages for the full year should remain below $720 and $900 per ounce sold according to its guidance for 2017, provided there is no prolonged adverse impact on production from the civil disruption. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of these non-IFRS measures.

Net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $36.2 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $0.1 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter last year. For the first half of 2017, net income was $35.4 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $10.9 million, or $1.40 per share, in the first half last year. Net income for the second quarter and first half of 2017 includes a $35.5 million after-tax reversal ($1.73 per share) of impairment related to the Segovia Operations. Net income in the first half of 2016 included a $14.5 million after-tax gain on financial instruments.

Adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $4.1 million, or $0.20 per share, compared with $3.9 million, or $0.42 per share, in the second quarter last year. For the first half of 2017, adjusted net income increased to $7.2 million, or $0.36 per share, compared with $4.1 million, or $0.53 per share, in the first half last year. See the reconciliation in the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure. The increase in adjusted EBITDA combined with reductions in finance costs and wealth tax, net of an increase in adjusted income taxes, in 2017 were the primary drivers behind the improvement in adjusted net income in the first half of 2017.

Financial and Operating Summary

A summary of the financial and operating results for the second quarter and first half of 2017 and 2016 follows:

Second Quarter First Half 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating data: Gold produced (ounces) 46,075 38,229 85,083 69,718 Gold sold (ounces) 45,179 38,902 83,613 68,588 Average realized gold price ($/oz sold) $ 1,225 $ 1,216 $ 1,201 $ 1,185 Total cash costs ($/oz sold) (1) 676 680 709 682 All-in sustaining costs ($/oz sold) (1) 884 811 910 802 Financial data ($000's, except per share amounts): Revenue $ 55,973 $ 48,014 $ 101,690 $ 82,484 Adjusted EBITDA (1) 21,263 18,299 34,854 29,885 Reversal of impairment charges, net of tax 35,460 - 35,460 - Net income 36,172 65 35,388 10,891 Basic and diluted (loss) income per share (2) 1.77 0.01 1.77 1.40 Adjusted net income (1) 4,123 3,857 7,207 4,108 Basic and diluted adjusted income per share (1)(2) 0.20 0.42 0.36 0.53 Excess Cash Flow (1) 3,228 2,276 5,504 2,299

(1) Refer to "Additional Financial Measures" on pages 21-24 of the Company's MD&A. (2) Per share information has been adjusted to reflect the 1:15 consolidation completed on April 25, 2017.

June 30, December 31, 2017 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Balance sheet ($000's): Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,008 $ 2,783 Cash in trust for Senior Debentures (3) 4,627 537 Senior debt (4) 90,609 84,602 Other debt, including current portion 879 1,652

(3) Represents amounts deposited into sinking funds for the Senior Debentures, net of cash used for the NCIBs. (4) Represents carrying amounts, which are at a discount to principal amounts, for the Senior Debentures. At June 30, 2017, the aggregate principal amounts of the 2018 Debentures, 2020 Debentures and 2024 Debentures issued and outstanding were $46.0 million, $52.5 million and $47.0 million, respectively (December 31, 2016 - $49.7 million, $101.2 million and Nil, respectively).

Segovia Operations

In light of the updated Mineral Resource estimate for the Segovia Operations announced in April 2017, the Company collaborated with SRK Consulting (USA) Inc. ("SRK") to update its internal LOM plan for Segovia. The updated LOM plan foresees a total of 4.1 million tonnes of material with an average head grade of 8.8 g/t being processed over an extended mine life through the end of 2026, four years longer than the previous LOM plans. Over this mine life, the updated LOM plan expects a total of 1.0 million ounces of gold to be produced at an average LOM total cash cost of $697 per ounce and an AISC (excluding corporate G&A) of $896 per ounce. At an expected long-term gold price of $1,250 per ounce, total LOM undiscounted after-tax free cash flow from mining operations amounts to $210 million. SRK is completing a NI 43-101 independent report that includes an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Segovia Operations based on this updated LOM plan that is expected to be filed on the Company's website and SEDAR profile within the next 45 days.

In the second quarter of 2017, tonnes processed at the Segovia Operations averaged 842 tpd, a 9% increase over the second quarter last year. In addition, head grades in the Company-operated mining areas improved to an average of 11.3 g/t in the second quarter of 2017, up from an average of 4.4 g/t in the second quarter last year, as a result of mining higher grade stopes in the Providencia mine this year. This brought the overall head grade for the Segovia Operations to an average of 15.9 g/t in the second quarter of 2017 compared with 13.8 g/t in the second quarter last year. Segovia's gold production of 40,228 ounces in the second quarter of 2017 brought the total for the first half of 2017 to 72,996 ounces, up 26% over the same period last year. The trailing 12 months' total gold production as of the end of June 2017 at Segovia was 141,374 ounces, up 12% over 2016's annual gold production and above the Company's production guidance range for the 2017 calendar year at Segovia of 126,000 to 134,000 ounces. Gold production in July 2017 was 12,651 ounces. However, production in the first half of August 2017 has been adversely impacted by the civil disruption and the impact of the civil disruption on 2017's full year production guidance cannot be assessed at this time.

Segovia's total cash costs were $620 per ounce in the second quarter of 2017, down from $690 in the first quarter of 2017 reflecting the favorable impact on fixed costs on a per ounce basis of the 23% increase in quarterly gold production at the Segovia Operations. Segovia's second quarter 2017 total cash cost of $620 per ounce was slightly better than the $627 per ounce total cash cost reported for the second quarter of last year as the benefit of this year's production increase was partially offset by the year-over-year appreciation of the Colombian peso ("COP") against the U.S. dollar.

The Company's AISC for the first half of 2017 included $12.6 million of sustaining capital expenditures, equivalent to $150 per ounce sold and $76 per ounce higher than the first half of 2016 due to the increased level of exploration, development and capital investment in the Segovia Operations this year. Sustaining capital expenditures in the first half of 2017 of $11.9 million at the Segovia Operations, equivalent to $142 per ounce sold, included (i) $4.8 million for exploration and mine development, (ii) $3.6 million for the mines including completion of a ventilation shaft at the Providencia mine, commencement of ventilation improvements at the El Silencio mine, installation of mine refuge stations, mine equipment and other infrastructure upgrades, (iii) $1.8 million for further upgrades of equipment in the Maria Dama plant and initiation of the project to expand the tailings storage facility, and (iv) $1.1 million to commence installation of a water treatment plant at the Maria Dama plant site to reduce the environmental discharge fees being incurred by the Company.

Marmato Operations

At the Marmato Operations, gold production continued to be steady with 5,847 ounces produced in the second quarter of 2017, bringing the total for the first half of 2017 to 12,087 ounces, up 2% over the same period last year. This brings Marmato's trailing 12 months' gold production at the end of June 2017 to 23,699 ounces, up 1% over its 2016 annual production. July's production amounted to 2,329 ounces and the Company continues to expect Marmato's annual gold production for 2017 will range between 24,000 and 26,000 ounces.

Total cash costs at the Marmato Operations were also steady in the second quarter of 2017 at $1,062 per ounce, but were $129 per ounce over its total cash cost in the second quarter last year as a result of the year-over-year COP appreciation and the impact on total cash costs on a per ounce basis of the impact on gold production of the lower head grades in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the second quarter last year.

Outlook

The Company produced a total of 100,063 ounces of gold production through the end of July 2017, keeping it on track to produce a total of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces of gold for the full year compared with the 149,708 ounces produced in 2016. However, the recent civil disruption in Segovia and Remedios has adversely impacted mining and plant operations at Segovia in the first half of August. Although the Company is able to conduct some operations at Segovia at this time, there can be no assurance regarding the duration of the current disruption or the extent of the impact that it will continue to have on production and cash flow during the balance of 2017.

The Company's total cash cost and AISC averaged $709 and $910 per ounce sold, respectively, in the first half of 2017. These results were in line with the Company's expectations and the Company continues to expect, provided there is no prolonged adverse impact on production through the balance of the year, that its total cash cost and AISC averages for the full year 2017 will remain below $720 and $900 per ounce sold, respectively.

The Company has deposited a total of $5.5 million representing its Excess Cash Flow for the first half of 2017 into the sinking funds for the Senior Debentures. In 2017, provided gold prices remain at least at the current levels and there is no prolonged adverse impact on operations from the civil disruption in Segovia, the Company expects to generate Excess Cash Flow for the full year in the order of $16 million and, to the extent possible, will use the cash in the sinking fund to make open market repurchases of the 2020 Debentures for cancellation. The Company also completed a $3.0 million partial redemption at par of the 2020 Debentures on July 31, 2017 and will continue to consider, as appropriate, additional partial redemptions going forward as a means to reduce its 2020 Debentures ahead of maturity.

Webcast

As a reminder, the Company will host a conference call and webcast on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the results.

Webcast and call-in details are as follows:

Live Event link: http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/urfvuni7

International: 1 (514) 841-2157

North America Toll Free: 1 (866) 215-5508

Colombia Toll Free: 01 800 9 156 924

Conference ID: 45399427

A replay of the webcast will be available at www.grancolombiagold.com from Tuesday, August 15, 2017 until Thursday, September 14, 2017.

About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based gold and silver exploration, development and production company with its primary focus in Colombia. Gran Colombia is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with several underground mines in operation at its Segovia and Marmato Operations. Gran Colombia is continuing its expansion and modernization activities at its high-grade Segovia Operations.

Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to anticipated business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated as of March 30, 2017, which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Mike Davies

Chief Financial Officer

(416) 360-4653

investorrelations@grancolombiagold.com
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/07/17 -- DAVIDsTEA Inc. (NASDAQ: DTEA) today announced financial results for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 and that it will be evaluating strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value. In addition, the company announced today that Howard Tafler, its interim Chief Financial Officer, has been confirmed as Chief Financial Officer.

For the three months ended October 28, 2017:

-- Sales decreased by 2.5% to C$43.0 million from C$44.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Comparable sales decreased by 6.8%. -- E-commerce sales continued to perform well and registered double-digit growth over the third quarter of fiscal 2016. -- Gross profit decreased by 10.2% to C$18.4 million from C$20.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016, while gross profit as a percent of sales decreased to 42.7% from 46.6%. The decrease in gross profit as a percent of sales was primarily due to the planned clearance of seasonal products early in the quarter, additional promotional activity during the quarter, and deleveraging of fixed costs due to the negative 6.8% comparative sales this quarter. -- Adjusted EBITDA, a non-IFRS measure, was C$(2.9) million compared to C$0.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. -- Impairment charge of C$2.7 million incurred in the third quarter due to underperforming stores. -- Net loss was C$(6.5) million compared to a net loss of C$(5.0) million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Adjusted net loss, a non-IFRS measure, was C$(4.5) million compared to C$(2.4) million. -- Fully diluted loss per common share was C$(0.25) compared to C$(0.20) in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Adjusted fully diluted loss per common share, a non-IFRS measure, was C$(0.17) per share compared to C$(0.10).

DAVIDsTEA President and Chief Executive Officer, Joel Silver, stated: "We are disappointed with our third-quarter results, which came in below anticipated sales and profitability. The decline in same-store sales of 6.8% reflects several factors, including challenges in accessories and kits. The latter can be explained by a product offering which did not excite the customer and which we are working diligently on improving. On a more positive note, our tea business was the best performing product category during the quarter, and our e-commerce business continued its strong growth over last year.

We continue to integrate our merchandising and product development team under new leadership, a process which started during the quarter and which is expected to have an increasing positive influence on our business each season. We are filling out some other positions as we remain focused on building a strong executive team. Work on our improved website, which should allow us to keep pace with growing on-line demand, is progressing well and is expected to be launched early in the new year. In parallel, we have implemented a cost reduction process which included eliminating some positions to reflect changes in our organizational structure. Our new e-commerce platform remains on track to be launched in early 2018. We are also delighted that Howard Tafler has been confirmed as Chief Financial Officer."

Company to explore strategic alternatives

The Board of Directors has decided to explore strategic alternatives in order to enhance shareholder value. This process will include the evaluation of strategic alternatives to maximize the Company's value, which may include a sale or other transaction.

In making the announcement, DAVIDsTEA's Chairman, Maurice Tousson stated: "DAVIDsTEA is an excellent brand with strong consumer appreciation and is a recognized leader in the tea industry. A recent Leger survey on the Consumer Experience highly ranked DAVIDsTEA in the specialty boutiques category. We were number one in Ontario and third in Quebec. That said, we are disappointed in DAVIDsTEA's performance, and believe that exploring potential alternatives is an important component towards our goal to deliver value to shareholders."

The strategic alternatives that the Board of Directors may consider include, but are not limited to, a potential financing, refinancing, restructuring, merger, acquisition, joint venture, divestiture or disposition of some or all of the Company's assets outside of the ordinary course of business.

No definitive schedule to complete its review of strategic alternatives has been established. There can be no assurance that this process will result in a transaction, or, if a transaction is undertaken, its terms or timing. As a matter of policy, the Company does not comment on or provide the market with updates as to the status of any informal expressions of interest or formal proposals or offers presented to the Company from time to time, or the course of discussions with any prospective counterparties, nor will it comment upon any rumors with regard to either of the foregoing or make a further announcement regarding the Company's consideration of any proposal or other expressions of interest until such time, if ever, that it enters into a definitive agreement for a completed transaction or is otherwise required to make an announcement.

The Company will be undergoing a process in the near-term to select financial advisors to assist in this initiative.

Outlook:

Commenting on DAVIDsTEA's outlook, Mr. Silver added, "In the short term, our team is laser focused on the all-important Holiday fourth quarter. Our emphasis is on maximizing the opportunities over the next several weeks leading up to Christmas, as they are key to the overall performance of the quarter."

"We remain confident in the strength of our brand, our network and in our capacity to improve profitability. We are taking necessary measures to improve the performance of DAVIDsTEA. We have implemented a cost rationalization process aimed at rightsizing the organization and, in early 2018, we will launch a new and more robust e-commerce platform, which represents a multi-million dollar investment."

DAVIDsTEA 2017 outlook:

-- To date DAVIDsTEA has opened 11 new stores in Canada and 5 new stores in the United States. -- Capex for the year is expected to be approximately C$13 to $15 million. -- The Company currently expects to be free cash flow positive for the full year.

Other financial metrics for the three months ended October 28, 2017:

-- Selling, general and administration expenses ("SG&A") decreased by 0.7% to C$27.0 million from C$27.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. As a percent of sales, SG&A increased to 62.9% from 61.6%. Adjusted SG&A, a non-IFRS measure, increased to C$24.4 million from C$23.7, due primarily to the hiring of additional staff to support the growth of the Company, including new stores, and higher store operating expenses considering 11 net additional stores. As a percent of sales, adjusted SG&A increased to 56.7% from 53.7% -- Results from operating activities were C$(8.7) million as compared to C$(6.6) million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Adjusted results from operating activities, a non-IFRS measure, decreased to C$(6.0) million from C$(3.2) million.

For the nine months ended October 28, 2017:

-- Sales increased by 5.9% to $137.4 million from C$129.7 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2016. Comparable sales decreased by 4.5%. -- Gross profit decreased by 1.3% to C$62.8 million from C$63.6 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2016, while gross profit as a percent of sales decreased to 45.7% from 49.0%. The decrease in gross profit as a percent of sales was primarily due to the planned clearance of seasonal products, additional promotional activity and deleveraging of fixed costs due to the negative 4.5% comparative sales for the year to date. -- Net loss was C$(12.4) million compared to a net loss of C$(5.7) million in the comparable period in fiscal 2016. Adjusted net loss, a non-IFRS measure, was C$(9.9) million compared to C$(3.1) million. -- Fully diluted loss per common share was C$(0.48) compared to C$(0.23) in the comparable period in fiscal 2016. Adjusted fully diluted loss per common share, a non-IFRS measure, was C$(0.38) per share compared to C$(0.13).

Other financial metrics for the nine months ended October 28, 2017:

-- SG&A increased to C$79.0 million from C$71.1 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2016. As a percent of sales, SG&A increased to 57.5% from 54.8%. Adjusted SG&A, a non-IFRS measure, increased to C$75.9 million from C$67.6, due primarily to the hiring of additional staff to support the growth of the Company, including new stores, and higher store operating expenses to support the operations of 236 stores as of October 28, 2017 as compared to 225 stores as of October 29, 2016. As a percent of sales, adjusted SG&A increased to 55.2% from 52.1%. -- Results from operating activities were C$(16.2) million as compared to C$(7.5) million in the comparable period in fiscal 2016. Adjusted results from operating activities, a non-IFRS measure, decreased to C$(13.1) million from C$(4.0) million.

Conference Call Information:

A conference call to discuss the third quarter of fiscal 2017 financial results is scheduled for today, December 7, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Interested parties can join the call by dialling 1-866-521-4909 or 1-647-427-2311. The conference call can also be accessed via live webcast in the Company's Investor Relations section of its website at www.davidstea.com.

An online archive of the webcast will be available within two hours of the conclusion of the call and will remain available for 30 days.

Non-IFRS Information:

This press release includes non-IFRS measures including Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss), and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share. Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share are not presentations made in accordance with IFRS, and the use of the terms Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share may differ from similar measures reported by other companies. We believe that Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share provide investors with useful information with respect to our historical operations. We present Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share as supplemental performance measures because we believe they facilitate a comparative assessment of our operating performance relative to our performance based on our results under IFRS, while isolating the effects of some items that vary from period-to-period. Specifically, Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share allow for an assessment of our operating performance, including new store costs, without the effect of non-cash charges of the period or other one-time charges, such as depreciation, amortization, finance costs, deferred rent, non-cash compensation expense, costs related to onerous contracts or contracts where we expect the costs of the obligations to exceed the economic benefit, gain (loss) on derivative financial instruments, loss on disposal of property and equipment, impairment of property and equipment, and certain non-recurring expenses.

These measures also function as benchmarks to evaluate our operating performance. Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss), and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share are not measurements of our financial performance under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to net income, net cash provided by operating, investing or financing activities or any other financial statement data presented as indicators of financial performance or liquidity, each as presented in accordance with IFRS. We understand that although Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss), and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share are frequently used by securities analysts, lenders and others in their evaluation of companies, they have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under IFRS. Some of these limitations are:

-- Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss), and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; and -- Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements.

Because of these limitations, Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses, Adjusted results from operating activities, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income (loss), and Adjusted fully diluted income (loss) per share should not be considered as discretionary cash available to us to reinvest in the growth of our business or as a measure of cash that will be available to us to meet our obligations.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "could," "may," "will," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "goal," "project," and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address various matters including management's beliefs about the Company's growth prospects, store openings, product offerings and financial guidance for the coming fiscal quarter and fiscal year. The Company cannot assure investors that future developments affecting the Company will be those that it has anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to risks and uncertainties including: the Company's ability to maintain and enhance its brand image, particularly in new markets; the Company's ability to compete in the specialty tea and beverage category; the Company's ability to expand and improve its operations; changes in the Company's executive management team; levels of foot traffic in locations in which the Company's stores are located; changes in consumer trends and preferences; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; general economic conditions and consumer confidence; minimum wage laws; the importance of the Company's first fiscal quarter to results of operations for the entire fiscal year; and other risks set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K dated April 12, 2017 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 13, 2017. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if any of the Company's assumptions prove incorrect, the Company's actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in this release speaks only as of the date on which the Company makes it. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws.

About DAVIDsTEA:

DAVIDsTEA is a retailer of specialty tea, offering a differentiated selection of proprietary loose-leaf teas, pre-packaged teas, tea sachets and tea-related gifts, accessories and food and beverages, primarily through 236 company-operated DAVIDsTEA stores throughout Canada and the United States as of October 28, 2017, and its website, davidstea.com. The Company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

INTERIM CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars) As at As at October 28, January 28, 2017 2017 $ $ --------------- --------------- ASSETS Current Cash 36,865 64,440 Accounts and other receivables 3,777 3,485 Inventories 37,290 31,264 Income tax receivable 5,625 539 Prepaid expenses and deposits 6,232 5,659 Derivative financial instruments 628 454 --------------- --------------- Total current assets 90,417 105,841 Property and equipment 47,012 51,160 Intangible assets 3,502 2,958 Deferred income tax assets 13,860 14,375 --------------- --------------- Total assets 154,791 174,334 --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current Trade and other payables 13,592 19,681 Deferred revenue 4,075 4,885 Current portion of provisions 919 2,562 --------------- --------------- Total current liabilities 18,586 27,128 Deferred rent and lease inducements 8,669 7,824 Provisions 3,926 5,932 --------------- --------------- Total liabilities 31,181 40,884 --------------- --------------- Equity Share capital 111,339 263,828 Contributed surplus 7,936 8,833 Retained earnings (deficit) 1,323 (142,398) Accumulated other comprehensive income 3,012 3,187 --------------- --------------- Total equity 123,610 133,450 --------------- --------------- 154,791 174,334 --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (LOSS) AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS) (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars, except share information) For the three months For the nine months ended ended ------------------------- ------------------------- October 28, October 29, October 28, October 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 $ $ $ $ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Sales 42,997 44,134 137,353 129,682 Cost of sales 24,625 23,587 74,594 66,072 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Gross profit 18,372 20,547 62,759 63,610 Selling, general and administration expenses 27,035 27,187 79,004 71,116 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Results from operating activities (8,663) (6,640) (16,245) (7,506) Finance costs 327 19 615 55 Finance income (149) (125) (420) (394) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Loss before income taxes (8,841) (6,534) (16,440) (7,167) Income tax recovery (2,356) (1,574) (4,030) (1,454) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Net loss (6,485) (4,960) (12,410) (5,713) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Other comprehensive income (loss) Items to be reclassified subsequently to income: Unrealized net gain (loss) on forward exchange contracts 1,872 537 95 (1,982) Realized net (gain) loss on forward exchange contracts reclassified to inventory 824 (26) 79 (396) Provision for income tax recovery (income tax) on comprehensive income (714) (136) (46) 631 Cumulative translation adjustment 589 699 (303) (770) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax 2,571 1,074 (175) (2,517) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Total comprehensive income loss (3,914) (3,886) (12,585) (8,230) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Net loss per share: Basic (0.25) (0.20) (0.48) (0.23) Fully diluted (0.25) (0.20) (0.48) (0.23) Weighted average number of shares outstanding - basic 25,829,090 24,902,385 25,659,164 24,554,391 - fully diluted 25,829,090 24,902,385 25,659,164 24,554,391 INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars) For the three months For the nine months ended ended ------------------------- ------------------------- October 28, October 29, October 28, October 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 $ $ $ $ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ OPERATING ACTIVITIES Net loss (6,485) (4,960) (12,410) (5,713) Items not affecting cash: Depreciation of property and equipment 2,138 2,110 6,316 5,818 Amortization of intangible assets 494 198 1,248 527 Loss on disposal of property and equipment 18 311 48 311 Impairment of property and equipment 2,658 2,516 4,971 2,516 Deferred rent 174 385 377 1,031 Provision (recovery) for onerous contracts (46) 48 (1,573) 48 Stock-based compensation expense 362 643 1,738 1,573 Amortization of financing fees 19 19 59 55 Accretion on provisions 307 - 558 - Deferred income taxes (recovered) (227) 453 203 475 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ (588) 1,723 1,535 6,641 Net change in other non- cash working capital balances related to operations (15,546) (23,978) (21,511) (31,467) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Cash flows related to operating activities (16,134) (22,255) (19,976) (24,826) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ FINANCING ACTIVITIES Proceeds from issuance of common shares pursuant to exercise of stock options 90 962 1,696 1,806 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Cash flows related to financing activities 90 962 1,696 1,806 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ INVESTING ACTIVITIES Additions to property and equipment (2,770) (5,776) (7,501) (15,498) Additions to intangible assets (728) (399) (1,794) (860) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Cash flows related to investing activities (3,498) (6,175) (9,295) (16,358) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Decrease in cash during the period (19,542) (27,468) (27,575) (39,378) Cash, beginning of period 56,407 60,604 64,440 72,514 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Cash, end of period 36,865 33,136 36,865 33,136 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars) For the three months For the nine months ended ended --------------------- --------------------- October October October October 28, 29, 28, 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Net loss $ (6,485) $ (4,960) $ (12,410) $ (5,713) Finance costs 327 19 615 55 Finance income (149) (125) (420) (394) Depreciation and amortization 2,632 2,308 7,564 6,345 Loss on disposal of property and equipment 18 - 48 - Income tax recovery (2,356) (1,574) (4,030) (1,454) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- EBITDA $ (6,013) $ (4,332) $ (8,633) $ (1,161) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Additional adjustments : Stock-based compensation expense (a) 362 643 1,738 1,573 Executive separation costs related to salary (b) 1,070 505 1,882 505 Impairment of property and equipment (c) 2,658 2,516 4,971 2,516 Impact of onerous contracts (d) (1,138) 48 (3,913) 48 Deferred rent (e) 174 385 377 1,031 Loss on disposal of property and equipment (f) - 311 - 311 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Adjusted EBITDA $ (2,887) $ 76 $ (3,578) $ 4,823 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- (a) Represents non-cash stock-based compensation expense. (b) Executive separation costs related to salary represent salary owed to former executives as part of their separation of employment from the Company. (c) Represents costs related to impairment of property and equipment for stores. (d) Represents provision, non-cash reversals, and utilization related to certain stores where the unavoidable costs of meeting the obligations under the lease agreements are expected to exceed the economic benefits expected to be received from the contract. (e) Represents the extent to which our annual rent expense has been above or below our cash rent payments. (f) Represents non-cash costs related to the loss on disposal of property and equipment due to new store concept at an existing store location in the prior year periods. Reconciliation of IFRS basis to Adjusted net income (loss) (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars) For the three months For the nine months ended ended --------------------- --------------------- October October October October 28, 29, 28, 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Net loss $ (6,485) $ (4,960) $ (12,410) $ (5,713) Executive separation costs (a) 1,112 594 2,074 594 Impairment of property and equipment (b) 2,658 2,516 4,971 2,516 Impact of onerous contracts (c) (831) 48 (3,355) 48 Loss on disposal of property and equipment (d) - 311 - 311 Income tax expense adjustment (e) (956) (897) (1,131) (897) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Adjusted net loss $ (4,502) $ (2,388) $ (9,851) $ (3,141) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- (a) For the current year periods, executive separation costs represent salary owed to former executives of $1,070 and $1,882 for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 as part of their separation of employment from the Company and stock-based compensation of $42 and $192 for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 relating to the vesting of equity awards due the separation of employment from the Company. For the prior year periods, executive separation costs represent salary owed to the former Chief Executive Officer of $505 payable as part of the separation agreement and stock-based compensation expense of $89 relating to vesting of equity awards pursuant to the separation agreement. (b) Represents costs related to impairment of property and equipment for stores. (c) Represents provision, non-cash reversals, utilization, and accretion expense related to certain stores where the unavoidable costs of meeting the obligations under the lease agreement are expected to exceed the economic benefits expected to be received from the contract. The accretion expense on provisions for onerous contracts is included in Finance costs on the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017. (d) Represents non-cash costs related to the loss on disposal of property and equipment due to new store concept at an existing store location in the prior year periods. (e) Removes the income tax impact of the executive separation costs, impairment of property and equipment, impact of onerous contracts, and the loss on disposal of property and equioment referenced in note (a), (b), (c) and (d). Reconciliation of IFRS basis to Adjusted results from operating activities (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars) For the three For the nine months months ended ended --------------------- --------------------- October October October October 28, 29, 28, 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 $ $ $ $ --------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Results from operating activities (8,663) (6,640) (16,245) (7,506) Executive separation costs (a) 1,112 594 2,074 594 Impairment of property and equipment (b) 2,658 2,516 4,971 2,516 Impact of onerous contracts (c) (1,138) 48 (3,913) 48 Loss on disposal of property and equipment (d) - 311 - 311 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Adjusted results from operating activities $ (6,031) $ (3,171) $ (13,113) $ (4,037) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- (a) For the current year periods, executive separation costs represent salary owed to former executives of $1,070 and $1,882 for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 as part of their separation of employment from the Company and stock-based compensation of $42 and $192 for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 relating to the vesting of equity awards due to separation of employment from the Company. For the prior year periods, executive separation costs represent salary owed to the former Chief Executive Officer of $505 payable as part of the separation agreement and stock-based compensation expense of $89 relating to vesting of equity awards pursuant to the separation agreement. (b) Represents costs related to impairment of property and equipment for stores. (c) Represents provision, non-cash reversals, and utilization related to certain stores where the unavoidable costs of meeting the obligations under the lease agreement are expected to exceed the economic benefits expected to be received from the contract. (d) Represents non-cash costs related to the loss on disposal of property and equipment due to new store concept at an existing store location in the prior year periods. Reconciliation of IFRS basis to Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars) For the three months For the nine months ended ended --------------------- --------------------- October October October October 28, 29, 28, 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 $ $ $ $ ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Selling, general and administration expenses 27,035 27,187 79,004 71,116 Executive separation costs (a) (1,112) (594) (2,074) (594) Impairment of property and equipment (b) (2,658) (2,516) (4,971) (2,516) Impact of onerous contracts (c) 1,138 (48) 3,913 (48) Loss on disposal of property and equipment (d) - (311) - (311) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Adjusted selling, general and administration expenses 24,403 23,718 75,872 67,647 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- (a) For the current year periods, executive separation costs represent salary owed to former executives of $1,070 and $1,882 for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 as part of their separation of employment from the Company and stock-based compensation of $42 and $192 for the three and nine months ended October 28, 2017 relating to the vesting of equity awards due to the separation of employment from the Company. For the prior year periods, executive separation costs represent salary owed to the former Chief Executive Officer of $505 payable as part of the separation agreement and stock-based compensation expense of $89 relating to vesting of equity awards pursuant to the separation agreement. (b) Represents costs related to impairment of property and equipment for stores. (c) Represents provision, non-cash reversals, and utilization related to certain stores where the unavoidable costs of meeting the obligations under the lease agreement are expected to exceed the economic benefits expected to be received from the contract. (d) Represents non-cash costs related to the loss on disposal of property and equipment due to new store concept at an existing store location in the prior year periods. Reconciliation of fully diluted weighted average common shares outstanding, as reported, to adjusted fully diluted weighted average common shares outstanding (Unaudited and in thousands of Canadian dollars, except per share) For the three months For the nine months ended ended ----------------------- ----------------------- October October October October 28, 29, 28, 29, 2017 2016 2017 2016 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Weighted average number of shares outstanding, fully diluted 25,829,090 24,902,385 25,659,164 24,554,391 Net loss per share, fully diluted (0.25) (0.20) (0.48) (0.23) Adjusted net loss per share, fully diluted (0.17) (0.10) (0.38) (0.13)

Contacts:

Investor Contact

MaisonBrison Communications

Pierre Boucher

514.207.0000

investors@davidstea.com




A Place for Mom, a Seattle, WA-based network connecting families to senior living service providers across North America, is to be acquired by Silver Lake and General Atlantic.

The company is being sold by its previous investor Warburg Pincus for an undisclosed amount. General Atlantic and Silver Lake will own equal stakes in A Place for Mom, which will continue to be led by CEO Sean Kell and the companys management team, who will remain meaningful shareholders in the business. As part of their firms investment in A Place for Mom, Greg Mondre and Adam Karol from Silver Lake and Anton Levy and Robbert Vorhoff from General Atlantic will join the companys board of directors.

Established in 2000 by Sean Kell, CEO, A Place for Mom provides a multi-channel marketing and technology platform that connects families to a network of over 18,500 senior living providers in the U.S. and Canada, giving free, personalized assistance. The company generates detailed informational guidance that can simplify an often challenging and opaque search process.

The company and its network of senior living partners offer options for independent living, assisted living, residential care homes, memory care and home care services.

In its next phase of growth, A Place for Mom will seek to expand its service offering across the senior living continuum and to make further investments in its technology platform including cloud-based initiatives and advanced data collection and analytics.

FinSMEs

14/08/2017
Altaeros, a Somerville, MA-based rural broadband connectivity, received an additional $7.5m investment from SoftBank Group Corp.

The company will use the funds to deploy and scale its aerial platform to bring low cost broadband wireless communications to rural communities beginning in 2018.

Founded in 2010 at MIT and led by Ben Glass, CEO and CTO, Altaeros is commercializing the SuperTower, a tethered aerostat that provides coverage equivalent to a network of up to 30 conventional cell towers, offering wireless telecom carriers a tool to expand LTE and future 5G networks to rural communities at lower cost, in half the time, and with lower energy use than conventional infrastructure.

The SuperTower, which deploys approximately 800 feet (250 meters) high, utilizes the companys proprietary aerostat design and automation technology that was first tested for renewable energy applications in 2012.

Altaeros, which will begin customer trials of the SuperTower in 2018, partnering with some large carriers in the U.S., has received funding from a number of sources, including SoftBank Group Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Suhail Bahwan Group, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and RNT Associates, wholly owned by Mr. Ratan N. Tata, former Chairman of Tata Sons.

FinSMEs

14/08/2017
Vodafone had launched the #LookUp campaign on Valentines Day this year which encouraged people to keep their phones aside and have real conversations with their loved ones. These days, when we count the likes on our posts, share moments using snapchat and consider these to be real interactions; one needs to realize that offline conversations will always have more depth than any online interaction. The campaign received an overwhelming response. This thought was then extended to Fathers Day and the response once again was phenomenal. The Father`s Day video got 33 million views and was shared over 60,000 times, making it the most shared Vodafone campaign on Facebook. It also got featured on the Readers choice top 5 Ads across platforms.

With the same philosophy in mind, Vodafone has launched a new digital campaign on Friendship Day - #LookUp to have real conversations with friends. The campaign draws contrasts between the look down and the look up scenarios in our lives.

Siddharth Banerjee, EVP - Marketing, Vodafone India said, India is one of the fastest growing Data markets today, and more and more conversations happen online on social media. We rolled-out our social experiment #LookUp to encourage real conversations on Valentines Day and Fathers Day which resonated well with our audience. We are delighted to bring back this initiative this Friendship Day; encouraging people to make the day special by looking up for real friendship 

The film showcases what a person misses out in life while being on the phone. In a birthday party setup, a young girl in her twenties is looking down at her phone throughout and is completely oblivious to her surroundings while others are enjoying the party to the fullest. When the party moves out of the room is when she realizes that she has missed out on something. The film ends with a twist which makes the viewer ponder over what real friendship should be all about.

This is a partnered post.
Preparing ground for extraditing the fugitive billionaire Vijay Mallya from the UK, the Indian government has told a London court that the former liquor baron will be lodged at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai.

Once extradited from the UK, Mallya would be kept in Barrack 12, where Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab was lodged, the government has told the court, said a report in The Times of India.

The report states that the jail located near Mahalaxmi racecourse has all the safety and security measures for Mallya.

"The report was prepared in detail by the jail department and handed over to the government, which, in turn, through the CBI, sent it to the Westminster Magistrates' Court which is hearing Mallya's extradition case," a source was quoted as saying in the TOI report.

The Indian government has already submitted the requisite "opening note" and paperwork related to Vijay Mallya's extradition case to the liquor baron's legal team within the UK court deadline.

Chief Magistrate Emma Louise Arbuthnot, presiding at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London at the last hearing in the case on 6 July, had set 31 July as the deadline for the Indian side  represented by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)  to provide Mallya's defence team with a detailed opening note on the case.

The 61-year-old tycoon is sought by Indian authorities for allegedly defaulting on several bank loans amounting to nearly Rs 9,000 crores. "All matters are on track," official sources confirmed to PTI. The next hearing to assess the progress in the case will be held at Westminster Magistrates Court on 14 September.

Mallya, who has been in self-imposed exile in the UK since March 2016, was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on 18 April and is currently out on bail. The CPS, arguing on behalf of the Indian government earlier this month, had told the court that they had "excellent cooperation" with the Indian authorities in the case and now had sufficient material to establish a prima facie case for the extradition of the former chief of erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.

"We have completed a review of materials and I am happy to state that we have had excellent cooperation with the Indian authorities in this case. We are ready and willing to proceed and would invite the court to fix a hearing date at the earliest, CPS barrister Mark Summers had said.

The judge agreed with the CPS to "progress with some rigour" and retained December 4 as the date for a final hearing in the case. If the Chief Magistrate rules in favour of extradition at the end of the trial, the UK home secretary must order Mallya's extradition within two months of the appropriate day. However, the case can go through a series of appeals before arriving at a conclusion.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992, and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had recently indicated it was working fine. We are on the verge of extraditing an individual from India to the UK in the next week or 10 days. The extradition treaty is working just fine and there is no difficulty in the extradition treaty. We have extraditions already successfully completed," Mehrishi had said during his UK visit earlier this month.

So far only one extradition has taken place from the UK to India under the India-UK extradition treaty  that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel. "He was extradited with the due process of law. We do understand that extradition does take time and there are multiple levels of appeal in either country and it is not the easiest of processes to complete. But being a liberal democracy that we are, we have to allow for the law taking its own course," Mehrishi added.

(With PTI inputs)
New DelhiA uniform GST (Goods and Services Tax) rate of 18 percent will be charged on takeaways as well as food served from a non-AC area of a hotel or restaurant if any of its part has a facility of air conditioning, the government has said.

The new GST regime, which was rolled out from 1 July, provides for levy of 12 percent on food bill in non-AC restaurants. The tax rate for AC restaurants and those with liquor licence will be 18 percent while 5-star hotels will charge 28 percent GST.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has clarified through an FAQ on the GST rates that will be levied by restaurant-cum-bars where the first floor area is air- conditioned and used for serving food and liquor while the ground floor only serves food and non-AC. The CBEC said tax will have to be charged at 18 percent irrespective of from where the supply is made, first floor or second floor.

"If any part of the establishment has a facility of air conditioning, then the rate will be 18 percent for all supplies from the restaurant," it said.

With regard to tax rates that would be charged for take-away food from such restaurants, the CBEC said, "Tax has to be charged at 18 percent on supplies of food made from their takeaway counter." Besides, such restaurants are also not eligible for the composition scheme as they are engaged in supplying liquor.
Nagpur: As Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) announced induction of first third-party aircraft for major maintenance work at its Nagpur MRO unit, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said profit-making subsidiaries of Air India should be kept out of proposed privatisation.

The announcement of the induction of SpiceJet's Boeing737 for "C checks" at the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility was made here in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Gadkari and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Air India Chairman and Managing Director, Ashwani Lohani and SpiceJet chairman, Ajay Singh were also present.

Gadkari, the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, is part of the five-member ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, tasked with deciding on the process of privatising Air India.

"I would urge the aviation minister that the subsidiary running the MRO is kept different from its parent, because if a decision on Air India (stake sale) is taken, I hope this company also doesn't go to some other party. Any business that is profitable should be encouraged by the government," Gadkari said.

On 28 June, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave in-principle approval for considering strategic disinvestment of Air India and five of its subsidiaries. Gadkari also urged SpiceJet to launch services from Nagpur to destinations such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi, saying there is a huge untapped traffic potential from the city.

Responding to Gadkari's remarks, Raju said that any suggestions on Air India were welcome, and if they had come from a colleague (Gadkari), they had to be taken "seriously". "But we all need to work together," he added.

Later, when asked about Gadkari's views, Raju said, "The discussion on Air India's divestment is an ongoing process and his comments are welcome."

This is the first major maintenance work to be carried out for any external party at the Nagpur MRO facility, which will be completed in six days.

"Once the capacity at the Nagpur MRO facility is fully utilised, it will create thousands of jobs," Raju said, expressing hope that foreign airlines will also avail of the MRO services here.

SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh said the airline is planning to make Nagpur one of its hubs for operations, and launch air services from the city.

Built over 50 acres of land in MIHAN special economic zone, the MRO unit was set up as a joint initiative between the Air India and the US aircraft maker, The Boeing Company, in 2010. Besides maintaining Air India's Boeing aircraft fleet, it has the mandate to carry out third-party works too.

AIESL is working aggressively to expand its foot print in the high-growth potential MRO segment as most of the private airlines carry out these works overseas.

So far, Air India and Boeing have invested around US $116 million in the Nagpur facility. Of this, about US $107 million has been invested by Boeing alone.

AIESL had signed an agreement with SpiceJet for C1, C2 and higher checks to be carried out on latter's Boeing 737 -800/900 aircraft in September last year.

The contract is worth US $6 lakh per year and is valid for three years with assured 100 days of work each year.
Mumbai: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) won the Green Marketer Award, which honors brands that have strived and conquered, by keeping a close focus on environment sustainability at the first-ever Marquee Awards that recognizes brands for their excellence in marketing, building sustainable and path breaking brands.

The Special Award for Conquering an impregnable fortress was won by Bira 91. Pro Kabaddi League was recognized as the brand that Traversed unchartered waters and Paytm was recognized for Riding on an emerging wave. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter was awarded for Breathing new life into a category, Indian Accent was recognized for Creating a Global Impact while Oppo was recognized for Carving out a Niche for themselves in a highly competitive category.

The Advertising Club (TAC) India hosted the inaugural edition of the Marquee Awards in Mumbai on Saturday. Presented by News18 India, COLORS and MTV and partnered by One India, the event was flagged off by Smriti Irani, Minister of Textiles, Information & Broadcasting,

Speaking at the Marques 2017, Irani congratulated the award winners and jury for making a great selection. It fills me with a sense of deep gratitude and privilege that I stand here today as the Minister of Information & Broadcasting. I am what I am today thanks to this industry.

She further added, The advertising industry inspires millions across this nation. Having been a part of this journey, I have just one appeal this evening - while we sell dreams to the nation and world, there are many amongst us who wither away with the passage of time. All I implore today to the industry stalwarts is that we now, in a systemic fashion, build a platform that takes care of those who need help, specially from the creative faction of the industry, so that the world does not accuse us selling dreams but living a lie. I hope that one day, on this stage, some of us will stand here to applaud an Indian media company that has made it at the global stage.

Speaking about the awards, Raj Nayak, President, The Advertising Club said, Marquees 2017 has emerged as the gold standard in marketing awards.

Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India said, The debut edition of Marquees has set a new benchmark of excellence by recognizing brands that have challenged the communication archetype in the industry, thus appealing to the evolved consumer of today. These awards through their differentiated scope, right from the jury panel to representation to categories has ensured that they are a marketers dream.

Speaking on the occasion, Avinash Kaul, Managing Director, A+E Networks | TV18 and President - Network18 said, We take great pride in associating with the first edition of Marquees, and congratulate the winners. At News18 India we identify with the spirit of celebrating brands that drive positive change. News18 India as a brand has also undergone a transformation after the rebranding exercise and the results are visible in top ratings for the channel. This only re-affirms our association with Marquees which has today honored path-breaking marketing campaigns that have inspired change. News18 India remains committed to doing impactful stories aimed at empowering our viewers."

In the durables category, LG Electronics was the winner, Auto  4 Wheelers, Maruti Suzuki; Auto  2 Wheelers, Royal Enfield; Food  Wai Wai Noodles (CG Global); Banking  HDFC Bank; Personal Care  Lifebuoy (HUL), Insurance  LIC; Telecom Services  Bharti Airtel; Home Care  Vim (HUL), E-Commerce  Amazon India; Beverages  Frooti (Parle Agro), Telecom handset  Xiaomi Smartphones.

Awards were given to special categories: Breathing a new life into a category was bagged by Honda Motorcycle & Scooter; Creating a global impact  Indian Accent; Green Marketer  HUL, Riding on an emerging wave  Paytm; Carving out a nice  Oppo; Reimaging for the better  Good Earth; Traversing unchartered waters  Pro Kabaddi League; Conquering an impregnable fortress  Bira 91

(Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.)
New Delhi: An additional investment of Rs 6,399 billion is required from both public and private sectors to enable doubling of farmers' real income by 2022-23, a government committee said in its latest report.

At present, public investment is below national average in states like Assam, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab and Odisha.

Less developed states in the eastern region continue to lag behind in private investment, suggesting an urgent need to develop financial and other infrastructure, it added.

These are some of the suggestions made by the Committee on Doubling Farmers Income headed by National Rainfed Area Authority CEO Ashok Dalwai, in first four volumes of the report released for public comment. The remaining eight volumes are yet to be released.

Given the large variations in the existing investment requirements across all states, the panel said: "The resource allocation for higher growth should be designed in such a way as to help achieve a balanced growth."

For a targeted 10.41 percent annual increase in farmers income, the required rate of increase in investment on private account is estimated at 7.86 percent per annum, it said.

The estimated increase in weighted public investment (together in agriculture, irrigation, rural roads and transport and rural energy) is pegged at 14.17 percent per year.

"The investment rates vary considerably across the states, ranging from 1- 24 percent. The less developed states would require higher rate of public investment owing to initial low capital base in rural areas," it said.

To boost farmers' real income, the committee said there is need for an additional Rs 617 billion of private investment by 2022-23 at 2004-05 prices and Rs 1,318.4 billion at 2011-12 prices.

The committee strongly recommended the stepping up of institutional credit on a large scale, as only 50 to 60 percent of the investment requirements of farmers are being fulfilled through institutional loans.

It has also worked out total public investment for agriculture at Rs 2,843 billion at 2004-05 prices and Rs 5,080.8 billion at 2011-12 prices for all the major states.

The capital requirements are found to be much higher in the poorer and agriculture-dominant states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. More funds would be required for developing irrigation systems, it added.

With government continuing to play key role in farm sector development, the panel said: "By 2022-23, the private investment should increase by nearly two times while public investment should increase four times from the base year 2015 -16."

It also noted: "Policy should focus on creating a favourable investment climate for increasing investment in agriculture and for agriculture for exploiting their

relative potential strengths through public and private sources to ensure that accelerated private investments crowd- in from farmers and private sector enterprises."

Since public investment in agriculture in the less developed states has been historically low, investment in agricultural infrastructure needs to be significantly stepped up to boost productivity growth, it said.

The marginal returns in terms of income from additional public investments in agricultural research and development, irrigation, energy and education are relatively higher in agriculturally less developed states, which highlights the need for enhancing investments in these areas, it added.

Besides, the panel suggested that the focus should be on the "demand-driven fork-to-farm approach", diversification towards high value crops, market reforms and investment in infrastructure for cold-chain integration to reduce wastages among others.

It, however, cautioned that income support system alone may not work as a long-term solution for tackling farmer distress, particularly in the backdrop of depleting natural resources and uncertainty caused by climate change, as also the dependence of a huge labour force on the farm economy.
On the busiest day of the week for a cinephile (Friday), the ding-ding of social media in my pocket grew louder. I was watching a Tamil movie in which the male protagonist was also the co-writer and co-producer. During the coffee-and-pee break, I released my phone and scrolled down to see what was happening in the real world.

The news that appeared in large ink, on my phone, startled me. Malayalam (and Tamil) cinema had given away one more actor to Bollywood. I felt the pain of separation in my guts. Had the allure of a wider audience cast its spell on the poster boy of Malayalam cinema? Did Suleimani (aromatic black tea) from the rooms of Kozhikode fly away to Mumbai to become Vada Pav (buns and fried potato)? I asked myself if I had to write a goodbye song, for I couldnt take it anymore.

Dulquer Salmaan, the heartthrob of Kerala and Instagram sensation, was going to make his Bollywood debut. I knew it wasnt going to be curtains for him in the South, yet it took a while for me to realise that.

I scrolled down further to get more details about the project. I learned that hed be joined by the impeccable shapeshifter, Irrfan Khan, and the fresh-out-of-college, fellow internet sensation Mithila Palkar. A wave of calmness washed over me.

I knew Dulquer would enjoy his debut on the other side of the Vindhyas. Plus, the as-yet-untitled film has Ronnie Screwvala as the producer, with newbie Akarsh Khurana taking the directors chair.

Dulquer the rider

Dulquer and Irrfan, as friends, on a road trip, with Mithila in the equation? Would it have the flavorful bonhomie of Dil Chahta Hai, or the cathartic sermons of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara?

This isnt going to be the first time where Dulquer will be seen on a road trip. In the five years since his first Malayalam release, Second Show, filmmakers have given him more than one valid reason to hit the road. Hes been on the move in a couple of films. His characters  Kasi travels from Kerala to Nagaland on a Bullet in search of peace and the girl he fell in love with (Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi); Arjun, a bike mechanic and racer, tries to make Bangalore his home by not giving in to his nomadic urges after dipping his feet in several places (Bangalore Days); Charlie shifts cities in the blink of an eye (Charlie)  have tapped into the psyche of the millennial.

Going by that logic, I can say hes played more characters that belong to the skin of Ranbir Kapoor  the coming-of-age kind of rituals.

A small reason for the acceptance of these characters may have something to do with his affinity for cars and bikes. His Instagram account is a gleeful witness to the angel-horned affection he shows toward them. Naturally, the idea of him high-fiving Irrfan on a road trip shouldnt come as a surprise.

Hes the urban hero of Malayalam and Tamil cinema

Dulquer Salmaan is the go-to guy, in Malayalam and Tamil cinema, to play the quintessential urban hero. His main contemporaries, Fahadh Faasil and Nivin Pauly, along with seniors who swim in the same pond, Kunchacko Boban, Jayasurya, and Prithviraj, slip in and out of the big villages and small towns of Kerala as gentlemen, lazy bums, thugs, honest-to-rogue police officers, and anti-heroes.

Whereas Dulquer seems to be the only guy from that battalion of actors to headline films wherein his characters are educated and, to some extent, appear to be polished. Even in the Rajeev Ravi brick-and-blood saga of urbanization, Kammatipaadam, Dulquers character Krishnan speaks Hindi (a language that Krishnan, probably, picked up in Mumbai).

In any film, for that matter, the hero is one step above the other earthlings. However, with Dulquer, its a little different. It doesnt matter if hes making biryani in Ustad Hotel, or mouthing mushy dialogues to impress his ladylove in OK Kanmani, he embodies the true spirit of the guy-next-door. His characters dont aim at being the supreme beings. They just find company wherever they go.

How is Bollywood planning to receive this urban hero?

Other Bollywood Entrants from the South vis-a-vis Dulquers Path

In the recent years, Prithviraj, Dhanush, and Ram Charan have entered Bollywood. Though Dhanushs Raanjhanaa hit the bulls eye, his next Hindi release, Shamitabh, didnt do wonders for him. The fact that hes completed the shoot for a Hollywood film is another story.

Ram Charans Zanjeer, remake of the Amitabh Bachchan starrer, sunk without a trace, and Prithviraj is still wading through mediocre Hindi films. Then again, there are examples of Siddharth and Madhavan. These men take up Bollywood films every now and then, and manage to enhance their pan-Indian images.

Dulquers star is most likely to shine in a film that involves road trips. Its his territory after all. Moreover, the film is attached with the names of Irrfan and Mithila. Hence, the smiles, at the moment, outweigh the doubts.

The actor who can speak Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and English without his listeners catching the scent of an accent has proved that hes like a dying lamp that dances to the tune of the moving wind. If Bollywood can grind his talents to the fullest, well have people from Kerala and Tamil Nadu whistling for their home boy.
After the fire and devastation that was Game of Thrones' season 7 episode 4 (The Spoils of War), episode 5 (Eastwatch) was more of a slow burn.

All through Eastwatch (which except for the very end wasn't really set at the dank Northern holdfast for which it was named), there was a sense of events being set into motion, the consequences of which will lead to a major conflagration. Of course, with only two episodes left this season, the conflagration won't be a long time coming, and it's probably going to take a far less literal form than the blowing up of the Sept of Baelor that marked the finale of season 6.

(A moment of silence for all those written-out actors lost souls.)

A quick recap: the Battle of Tumbleton (or the 'loot train attack' as DB Weiss and David Benioff insist on calling it) had ended with Jaime rushing full tilt at Daenerys (who descended on the battlefield to tend to the spear in Drogon's breast) only to have a full burst of dragonfire directed in his way. Bronn knocked him out of harm's way and into the nearby river.

(Spoilers ahead.)

Eastwatch was all about answering some questions that viewers of Game of Thrones have had for a while now. There were at least a couple of 'break the fourth wall' moments when the makers directly referenced fan grouses/musings regarding the happenings on GoT. Here's a non-linear review of the good, bad and the so-so that episode 5 brought us:

The Good

>> As we hurtle towards the conclusion of Game of Thrones, more and more characters who've had disparate storylines thus far are coming together. Some of them, like Jon and Dany, haven't met before, while others are old friends (or foes). Eastwatch set up at least four major meet-and-greets (or what passes for them in the GoTverse).

1. Jorah and Dany

Jorah, having being cured of greyscale, has made his way to Dragonstone. His khaleesi is happy to see him and the duo have an emotional reunion. By the end of the episode, however, Jorah's off with Jon to fight those zombies white walkers marching to Eastwatch.

2. Ser Davos and Gendry

Gendry has been the butt of the 'still rowing' joke for a while now, and Ser Davos teased him about it when they were reunited in Flea Bottom. Fans have theorised for a while now that Gendry (if he wasn't still rowing) would be invaluable in the effort against the Night King, trained as he is in working with Valyrian steel. However, he ends up taking on a far more active role, heading beyond the Wall with Jon and his party. Oh, and Gendry's learnt to wield Robert Baratheon's war hammer.

3. Gendry and Jon

Their fathers were best friends. (Well neither of the duo knows that Ned Stark is not really Jon's father.) So it made for a nice moment when Davos introduced Gendry to Jon. Will their partnership achieve as much as Robert and Ned's did?

4. Gendry and The Hound, Ser Beric Dondarrion

Last he encountered them, the Brotherhood  Ser Beric Dondarrion, Thoros the priest  had sold Gendry to Melisandre, who wanted to you know, sacrifice Robert Baratheon's bastard son to prop up Stannis' chances in the Great War. So you can imagine Gendry was none too pleased about coming face to face with Ser Beric et al at Eastwatch, where Tormund had placed them in a cell when they attempted to cross the Wall (because of the Hound seeing the vision in the flames etc). Anyway, Jon's words soothe the animosities away and everyone decides to play nice fight together against the white walkers.

5. Tyrion and Jaime

After preventing him from becoming a pile of charred flesh, Bronn did Jaime another favour, by setting up a meeting with Tyrion. Tyrion has a proposal for an armistice with Jaime: a ceasing of open war with Cersei while Dany helps Jon fight the Night King. On a scale of Jon-Sansa, Sansa-Arya, Sansa-Bran, Arya-Bran, this sibling meeting scored... somewhere in between? The brothers met in the basements of the Red Keep (where all the dragon skulls are) which made us think it might go the Sansa-Arya way, but there was no hug! Jaime didn't even tell Tyrion he knows his little bother had no role to play on Joffrey's death! And when Tyrion starts to explain how his killing Tywin was a response to his father wanting him executed for a crime he didn't commit, Jaime is all  'I got more important things to do brother'. Still, they're talking, which we suppose is a step in the right direction. Now if only they'd hug and make up.

6. Tyrion and Jorah

Tyrion tells Jorah he's missed his 'glower'. Jorah glowers back. All is peace and bliss.

>>The Dany and Jon romance has progressed from knee-bending injunctions and subterranean dates to wistful glances and dragon nuzzling (no, not a form of foreplay, literal dragon nuzzling). It was only in the last episode that we heard Ser Davos gently rib Jon about staring at Dany's 'good heart'. Now, we get to witness some of that staring. He stares at her when she watches her dragons fly and speaks fondly of them as their children. This is right after Jon pats Drogon like he would a horse (or Ghost, if someone would reunite them) and Drogon goes all mushy and 'I-love-Jon' about it. This is perhaps also the right moment to bring up who else got away with patting one of the dragons  Tyrion! Which could either be conclusive proof that A+J=T is true  or that Dany's dragons are just suckers for some good, old-fashioned petting. Anyhow, back to Jon and Dany  we see some reciprocal staring happening when he heads off for Eastwatch. When will the pair meet again? Soon, is the hope. Maybe Dany can pet Jon Ghost if she goes to the North.

>> Another couple that continues to make us go 'aww': Bronn and Jaime. The bromance continues, and we couldn't be happier.

>> Ghost is back  or at least his existence is being acknowledged. A burning question that GoT fans have had is: 'where is Ghost?' As one of the two last surviving direwolves, you'd think he'd get a little more screen time than what he's getting at present  which is zilch. We didn't get to see him, but Sansa made an allusion to him sitting and waiting patiently for Jon to return. For now, we'll have to content ourselves with this vision of Ghost, busy being a direwolf, padding about Winterfell, hoping against hope that Jon doesn't start loving dragons more than his old loyal, furry friend.

The Bad

1. Not so much for the viewers, but things definitely went south for the Tarlys, who got roasted early on in episode 5. Dany tells them to do her newest favourite thing in the world (bend the knee), they refuse, and end up in front of flame-spewing Drogon.

2. Arya and Sam! Two of our favourite characters did two of the stupidest thing in recent GoT history. After squabbling with Sansa (Arya thinks older sister is more power-hungry than she lets on), Arya decides to spy on Littlefinger. She lurks in nooks and crannies while he holds secret tete-a-tetes with various folks and then breaks into his room to look for a scroll she saw him hide. The message gets her all bothered, but little does she know that Littlefinger is aware of what she's up to and has planted a fake message for her to get at.

3. Sam, possibly, does worse. After acing his library research game for the past few episodes, Gilly offers him a HUGE piece of information  and Sam doesn't even register it. Sure, he is all riled up about the archmaester not paying attention to Bran's warning about the Night King's army, and he's had a rough few weeks, and Gilly is also feeding him details like 'how many steps are there in the Citadel' and 'how many windows in the Sept of Baelor'  but when the girl starts to talk about, you know, about a marriage being annulled between a Prince Rhaegar (or 'Ragga' as Gilly pronounces the name) and about him marrying another woman, you pay attention Samwell Tarly! Anyhow, Sam has stolen some of those scrolls and tomes from the library's restricted section and left the Citadel with Gilly and the baby.

4. Did we mention Sansa and Arya are squabbling? All this time apart and you'd think they'd just be more grateful to be together.

5. Meanwhile, Team Dragonstone has come up with the very dumb strange plan of getting a couple of white walkers to King's Landing  to show Cersei the threat beyond the Wall is real. We're still a little iffy on why they reach that decision (Tryion talks so fast!) but this is how it happens: Jon receives a raven from Winterfell that Arya and Bran are alive and home (hooray!) and that the white walkers are marching to Eastwatch, as Bran has seen in a vision (sob!). He tells Dany he needs to go to Eastwatch at once; she says she can't give him manpower because of her ongoing war with Cersei, Tyrion muses aloud that they could negotiate a temporary truce with Cersei while they deal with the Night King, then he realises that she'll never believe in the white walkers  unless! 'What if we brought a couple of white walkers to King's Landing?' they chorus. And so Jon and Jorah Mormont (has he gotten tired of the 'I served with your father, he was a great man' line yet?) set off for Eastwatch, with Gendry and Ser Davos, to bring back a couple of friendly white walkers. Seriously, that's their plan.

The So-So

1. Really? Jon is going to face that massive white walker army with just some seven men in tow? Unless Dany comes flying in on Drogon for back-up, we really don't see how that battle is going to go well for the King in the North.

2. Cersei's having a baby! With Jaime! Uh, congratulations? Jaime was all happy (in a restrained, manly, jaw clenched with emotion way) when Cersei told him the news  this was when they were discussing the armistice Tyrion has proposed on Dany's behalf. But you can bet we were not. If there was any chance that Jaime would see sense and recognise Cersei for the psychopath she is, this little development is going to ensure that never comes to pass. In our fantasy scenario, Jaime would kill Cersei and write a note to Tyrion asking him to bring up their kid to be an honest, decent sort. Who knows? Weiss and Benioff might just give us that seeing the other sops they're throwing us.

3. Varys and that whole Dany-is-going-the-way-of-her-father-the-Mad-King, spiel. Now why are we beginning to feel there's some sinister plot afoot where the Spider is concerned?

4. People seem to be going to a lot of trouble to keep things secret in Westeros and not really succeeding. Tyrion thinks he snuck into King's Lading without Cersei knowing. (She knows.) Arya thinks she snuck into Littlefinger's oom without him knowing. (He knows.) Meanwhile the people who really should know a few things are all in the dark  we're not forgiving your faux pas yet, Sam! Tell us you're going to be a bit smarter in episode 6?
Tom Cruise has reportedly suffered an injury while filming for his upcoming movie Mission: Impossible 6, the sixth installment in the Mission Impossible series.

A video has surfaced from the movie's set during the shooting schedule in London, in which Tom Cruise is performing a stunt in which he jumps from one building onto an adjacent one. However, Cruise is seen missing his mark and banging into the building instead, and after pulling himself up, landing safely and getting back on to his feet  we see an injured cruise limping away.

WATCH: Tom Cruise limps away after performing a stunt on the London set of Mission: Impossible 6: https://t.co/foAftTdYZU pic.twitter.com/Z7U4n0pquR  Good Morning America (@GMA) August 14, 2017

Cruise was able to move just enough to get himself back to the original building from which he jumped, after which we see crew members rushing to aid him as he tries to walk. No official statements have been made reporting an injury however.

Cruise, 55, has a long drawn history of performing his own stunts, the riskier the better. One of his most famous stunts was the Mission: Impossible  Rogue Nation plane sequence, which even served as a major marketing gimmick for the film. The opening scene of this movie sees Cruise's on screen character Ethan Hunt hanging on to an Airbus 400 as it taxies it way down on a runway, with the plane eventually taking off.

Mission: Impossible 6 stars Alec Baldwin, Frederick Schmidt, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett alongside Tom Cruise and also sees director Christopher McQuarrie returning to the popular movie franchise for the sixth installment.

Mission: Impossible 6 is all set to release in theatres on 27 July, 2018.
In the 70 years since independence, India has made most progress in improving life expectancy, literacy, but has been slower in improving the level of income, and reducing infant mortality rates when compared to five other nations.

On the eve of independence day, we compared the progress India has made in improving income, health, education, and in preserving its forests, to five countriesChina, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Korea and Brazil.

Why we chose these countries

We chose China because it had roughly the same per capita income in 1960 as India did. Our analysis showed that even though China and India are constantly compared, until now, China has outperformed India across most wealth and health indicators.

We looked at South Korea to get a sense of how India performed compared to a country that has gone from being a developing to a developed country after 1947.

We used Pakistan to compare progress in a country that shares the same history and culture, and was formed at the same time as India.

Brazil, one of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, serves as a comparison with another emerging economy that is estimated to become one of the largest in the world over the next 30 years.

We picked Malaysia because it is, like India, multicultural and, although it was more prosperous than India when independence came, it has weathered significant ethnic tension and conflict. It represents the unique dynamism of a region, southeast Asia, in close proximity to India.

In 56 years, Indian income up 21 times, but progress slower than China, Malaysia

Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (current US$)which is the average income of each citizen and reflects the well being of the populationincreased 21 times from $81.3 (Rs 1,705) in 1960 to $1709.4 (Rs 1,14,530) in 2016, according to World Bank estimates. But India made slower progress as compared to China, Malaysia, Brazil and South Korea.

Source: World Bank

The GDP per capita is calculated by dividing the countrys GDP by its population.

In 56 years, the gap in per capita GDP has increased most between India and China, in our comparison. In 1960, Chinas GDP per capita ($89.5) was 9 percent more than Indias. In 2016, Chinas GDP per capita ($ 8123.2) was 79 percent more than Indias ($1709.4). This widening gap could be attributed to greater increases in productivity of the Chinese labour force and more capital per worker, according to an opinion piece published by The Hindu in January 2015.

Similarly the gap between India and South Korea in 2016 is nearly twice of what it was in 1960. South Koreas growth can be attributed to rapid industrialisation and emphasis on sectors such as steel, shipbuilding and electronics, according to an April 2015 article by Quartz.

Until 1991, when India liberalised its economy, per capita GDP is estimated to have grown by an average of 4.7% per year, compared to an average of 7.5% every year after 1991.

Indias GDP per capita in 1960 ($81.3) was 65 percent lower than Malaysia ($ 234.9), 61% lower than Brazil ($210), and 49 percent lower than South Korea ($158.2). Today Indias GDP per capita is 82 percent lower than Malaysia ($9502.6), 80 percent lower than Brazil ($8649.9) and 94 percent lower than South Korea ($27538.8).

Indias GDP per capita in 1960 was 1.5 power lower than that of Pakistan ($82.5), which had progressed economically because of greater state capacity, investments in infrastructure and heavy industry and the agricultural revolution which started in Pakistan before it did in India, according to this September 2016 LiveMint article by economist Ankit Mital. But the situation has now reversed and Indias GDP per capita is 16.4 percent higher than its western neighbour.

Greater progress in improving life expectancy than Brazil, South Korea

In 55 years, Indias life expectancy at birththe average number of years a person is expected to survive if existing patterns of mortality stayed the same throughout their lifean indicator of the strength of the health system throughout the lifecycle of a citizen, rose by 65.8 percent or 27 years.

Source: World Bank

From 41 years in 1960, the average life expectancy at birth is now 68 years in 2015, the latest year for which data are available, according to the World Bank.

Among the five countries used for comparison, Indias progress in raising the average life expectancy at birth comes second to that of only China. In 1960, with an average life expectancy of 43 years, Chinas position was close to that of India. However, in the same period the average life expectancy in China rose 76.7 percent or by 33 years to an average expectancy of 76 years in 2015.

Pakistans progress was on a par with Indias; life expectancy there increased by 65 percent to 66 years in 2015.

Between 1960 and 2015, Brazils life expectancy rose by 38.8 percent to 75 years, the life expectancy in South Korea increased by 54.7 percent to 82 years, and in Malaysia by 27 percent to 75 years, compared to a 65.8 percent rise to 68 years for India.

Still, India needs to catch up with the higher life expectancy at birth in these four countries, as well as with the global average, which was pegged at 71.4 years in 2015.

Indias efforts to reduce child mortality led to a significant decline in the death rate by 3.7% between 1990 and 2013, and is one of the main reasons for the increase in life expectancy at birth, according to this Public Health Foundation of India study from 2015.

Infant mortality rate reduces 76% over 55 years, but other countries did better

In 55 years, Indias infant mortality rate (IMR)the number of babies per 1000 who died before their first birthdayan indicator of the strength of the health system, reduced 76 percent from 165 deaths per 1000 children in 1960 to 38 deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data are available, according to the World Bank.

Source: World Bank

Note: Figure for China is from 1969

But four of the five countries we used as comparison did much better than India, showing that though the IMR in India has fallen, progress in improving health systems has been slow.

Between 1960 and 2015, Brazils IMR reduced by 92%, the IMR in South Korea reduced by 96 percent, and in Malaysia by 91%, compared to a 76 percent reduction in India. Chinas IMR reduced 92 percent between 1969 and 2015, compared to 73 percent over the same period in India.

The IMR in Pakistan reduced by 65 percent, the only country in our comparison that did worse than India.

The infant mortality rate is a good indicator of child health, and a crude indicator of community health, poverty and socio economic status of a community and availability of quality health services and medical technology, according to the Association of Maternal and Child Programs, a United States-based public health advocacy organisation.

India made progress comparable with China, Malaysia on literacy

In 2015, seven of every 10 Indians, 15 years and above, could read and write a simple, short statement related to their everyday life, with understanding, according to estimates from the United Nations (UN). The share of literates in Indias population rose 30 percentage points since 1980the earliest year for which data are available for this indicatorwhen four of every 10 Indians were literate.

Source:UNESCO, Foreign Policy Research Institute

Note: South Korea data for 2013

(In 1951, only two in every 10 Indians, five years and above, were literate, according to independent Indias first Census, which defined literacy as anybody who could write a letter to a friend andread the reply.)

India has made equal or more progress than all other countries in improving literacy between 1980 and 2015  the time period over which comparative data are available  shows our analysis of India and five other countries, based on data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

As India started off at a lower level of literacy in 1980, the scope for progress was much greater compared to, say, South Korea, where 94% of the population, 15 years and above, was literate in 1980, or Brazil where 74.5 percent of the population was literate.

The gap between India, and Brazil, South Korea and Malaysia is now lower than it was in 1980, showing that India is catching up with these countries literacy rates. The share of literates in India was 53 percentage points lower than in South Korea in 1980, 29 percentage points lower than in Malaysia, 34 percentage points lower than in Brazil. In 2015, Indias literacy rate was 22 percentage points lower than Brazil, 24 percentage points lower than Malaysia, and 27 percentage points lower than South Korea.

The gap between India and China (~25 percentage points) has remained about the same as has the gap between India and Pakistan (~13 percentage points).

Forest cover increased in India, but numbers might be an overestimation

In 25 years, Indias forest area, as a percentage of total land areaan indicator of a countrys ability to clean its air and water, conserve biodiversity and mitigate climate changeincreased from 21.5% in 1990 to 23.8% in 2015, according to data from the World Bank.

Source: World Bank

Note: Definition (FAO)  Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than five meters and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

India did better than four of the five countries we compared it with, in terms of preserving forest area, while China performed better than India, increasing its forest cover by 5.5 percentage points from 16.7 percent in 1990 to 22.2 percent in 2015. But the effectiveness of Chinas reforestation programme is questionable, with large swathes of planted trees dying prematurely. Forest cover includes lands under afforestation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization defines forest area as land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than five meters and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach these heights at maturity in that area. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

The Indian government might be overestimating forest area as its definition of forests includes agricultural plantations.

Between 1990 and 2015, Pakistan, South Korea, Malaysia and Brazil lost forest cover.

The forested area in Brazil reduced by 6.4 percentage-points from 65.4 percent of total land area in 1990 to 59 percent in 2015, South Koreas reduced by 2.6 percentage-points from 66 percent in 1990 to 63.4 percent in 2015, while the forest cover in Malaysia reduced by 0.5 percentage-points in the same time period.
Civil services in India has for long remained a prestigious and much sought after career-choice for precocious, young talent from varied educational and professional backgrounds. Though the motivation to opt for this career varies starkly from individual to individual  ranging from romantic idealism and a genuine commitment to public service to a sheer attraction for the power and pelf associated with the services. Its irresistible charm has held sway for many decades.

However, over the last several years, a new perception has gained ground. That with increasing influence of market forces in all spheres of the civil servants' lives, and the receding dependence on the State for welfare or even sheer survival, their role in society and their contribution to the process of national development has been on the wane.

Being new entrants to civil services, we realise that nothing could be further from the truth and the life-stories of many a new entrant, including the authors' which we will re-visit later, are a complete antithesis to such a proposition. As the fast-paced changes in India's economic and socio-political fabric throw up newer dilemmas and challenges for young civil servants, our mandate might have changed and evolved, as it should in any dynamic and progressive society, but it has certainly not diminished.

In many ways, an increasingly restless society has resulted in the "fierce urgency of now", which demands an ever greater devotion to duty and ability to 'deliver' on the ground. The perception conundrum cited earlier is unfounded and only a myth, reasons for which are three-fold.

First, for the "magic of the market" to work, we need "enabling institutions", which only the State can provide. In his path-breaking book, The Mystery of Capital, Hernando de Soto argues that only a society that establishes the rule of law and enforces property rights witnesses long run economic growth. There are occasions when the market, in its single-minded pursuit of the single 'p'- profit, overlooks the other two 'p's - people and planet. This calls for sound property rights, effective laws, good governance, and a robust regulatory architecture - all of which lie in the realm of today's cutting-edge administrators.

Second, evidence shows that while economic reforms have lifted millions out of poverty, the gap between the rich and the poor must be reduced without further ado. In an increasingly aspirational society, meeting this objective needs the collective creative inputs of many a public servant, especially the younger lot, who deal with the implementation of varied schemes and are the pivot of success or failure of all government endeavours.

Third, for the teeming millions living at the margins of society, the need of the hour is to build up of their capabilities so they may participate in the prosperity this nation has achieved in the last 70 years. The mandate for this still lies with civil services in India.

A plethora of formidable challenges is faced by present-day administrators. The increasingly complex environment in which public servants operate demand enhanced skill-sets for tackling the cutting edge problems like the environment and climate change, disaster management, trade negotiations, and technological innovations.

In rural areas, the focus has been on the provision of basic services like education and healthcare, income support to the poor, provision of productive assets to the impoverished and securing the future of Young India. In the cities, the challenge has been manifold. With rising populations, the focus is on the provision of sanitation, housing, water-supply; re-orienting urban infrastructure to present-day needs and preserving the sense of 'community life and urban culture'. The unfinished agenda of India @ 70 is to ensure 'access and quality' of services like primary education, public health and basic infrastructure.

As in physical infrastructure, more so in human resources, the administration's real challenge lies. The focus is now on developing private productive capacity, infusing competition and encouraging entrepreneurship. The issues have thus evolved and beckon a relook.

Our battle is not with resource-constraint anymore, but with resource allocation. Be it land, finance or skilled labour, resource redistribution and transfer of ownership of productive capital, are affecting a whole gamut of industries and also our manufacturing might.

While policy direction comes from the Centre, all the action now happens in the States, and more so in the districts, where young administrators now have tremendous scope for modernisation, mediation and monitoring. Innovation happens at the cutting edge and it is here that newer civil servants play a vital role.

The ever-evolving mandate of a public servant can be envisaged through the institution of a Collector. Although in many states the development agenda now lies with separate agencies or the Panchayats and implementation work with the many line departments, it is only the office of the Collector that has true insight and overview of governance, and thus has the role of a prime mover in order to deliver services seamlessly to the citizens.

The Collector continues to be at the fulcrum of all service delivery at the local level, and improving his or her efficiency can greatly impact the delivery of services. In his video conference with District Collectors recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged this when he gave his clarion call for India 2017-2022.

In conclusion, we would like to revisit the earlier point of perceived dwindling relevance of civil services today. Having studied at top institutions in the United Kingdom and after working a few years in London with leading banking and consulting firms, we found our calling in the pursuit of public service.

While newer entrants to the services are inherently driven by a sense of righteousness associated with this vocation, a deep-rooted sense of idealism and romanticism still persists. India is already on the brink of the greatest transformation in its history. As Young India teams up to build New India, it is our collective efforts which will determine the reality of tomorrow.

It is this conviction, that civil services continue to be the beacon of change and more importantly the single most powerful and effective medium of bringing about positive transformation in the lives of millions, that civil servants across the spectrum dedicate their lives to the service of this great nation and her people.

The authors are both young civil servants. Views expressed are personal.
New Delhi: The issue of Article 35A, which provides special rights to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, seems to be heading into a major controversy with the Supreme Court on Monday saying a constitution bench may examine whether it is gender-biased and violative of the basic structure.

Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, accords special rights and privileges to Jammu and Kashmir citizens and denies property right to a woman who marries a person from outside the state.

The provision, which makes such women from the state to lose rights over property, also applies to her heirs.

The apex court indicated that if Article 35A relating to special rights and privileges of the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir violates the basic structure of Constitution or if it is ultra vires, the issue may be dealt with by a five-judge constitution bench.

It tagged a plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution with a similar pending petition to be heard by a three-judge bench.

"We really feel the issue should go to five-judge constitution bench but that has to be decided by a three-judge bench. If Article 35A violates the basic structure of the Constitution or if it ultra vires to the procedure, then the issue may be dealt by a five-judge bench," a bench headed by Justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar said.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha informed the bench that a similar prayer challenging Article 35A exists in another plea filed by a Delhi-based NGO 'We the Citizens' which has been referred to a three-judge bench.

He submitted that the present plea filed by one Dr Charu Wali Khanna should be tagged along with the pending writ petition, which will be heard by a three-judge bench.

Advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir government, said the issue has already been "prima facie settled" by the High Court in its verdict in 2002.

He said that in Dr Susheela Sawhney versus state of Jammu and Kashmir, this issue has been settled by a full bench of the High Court in 2002.

In that case, the full bench of High Court in its majority view had held that a daughter of a permanent resident marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of permanent resident of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The submissions were opposed by petitioner's advocate Bimal Jad, who said that no formal notice has been issued in the matter to the state government and it cannot put forth its view at this juncture.

He said his plea challenges Article 35A on two grounds, that it is gender biased and is volative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 (equality before the law and equal protection within the territory of India).

Narasimha said the three-judge bench will hear the matter tentatively by 29 August.

The bench said the matter will be listed before a bench of three-judge bench, adding that if the issue required to be heard by a five-judge constitution bench, then the three-judge bench may refer it.

The petitioner has also challenged Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution which deals with the "permanent residents" of the state.

The plea has challenged certain provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution which deny property rights to a woman and her children who marries a person from outside the state.

Article 35A, empowers the state's legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution.

"Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution restricts the basic right of women to marry a man of their choice by not giving the heirs any right to property if the woman marries a man not holding the Permanent Resident Certificate.

"Her children are denied a permanent resident certificate thereby considering them illegitimate - not given any right to such a woman's property even if she is a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir," the plea, filed through advocate Bimal Roy Jad, said.

The petitioner said that as per the provisions, if a woman marries a person outside Jammu and Kashmir, then she loses property rights as well as employment opportunities in the state.

While Jammu and Kashmir's Non-Permanent Resident Certificate holders can vote in Lok Sabha elections, the same individual is barred to vote in local elections in the state.

In a related matter filed by the NGO 'We The Citizens' challenging Article 35A of the Constitution, a bench headed by the Chief Justice on 17 July, had referred the case to a larger three-judge bench for final disposal.
Bhopal: Actor Anupam Kher Monday said the Kashmir problem can be solved by scrapping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

"I know quite a lot about Article 370. I think that Kashmir problem can be solved by removing Article 370 of the Constitution", Kher, who has come to address the India-Asean Youth Summit here, told reporters.

However, the actor said he would not comment on Article 35A of the Indian Constitution as he is not having much knowledge about it.

Article 370 grants special status to Jammu & Kashmir while Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define permanent citizens in the state (J&K).

Kher said after the abrogation of Article 370, people from different parts of India can buy properties and built infrastructure in Kashmir. Every citizen of the country should have the right to buy land in Kashmir, he added.

The actor said if the people from different parts of the country have the right to buy properties and build hospital and industries and others thing in Kashmir, development will automatically usher in the state.

Kher said it was unfortunate that the whole country was buzzing with developmental activities and scaling newer heights but Kashmiris are not marching ahead due to a "handful of people".
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said separatist leaders have no business talking about Article 35A as they do not believe in the Constitution of India.

The National Conference working president told reporters here that abrogation of Article 35A would not only adversely impact the Kashmir Valley but Jammu and Ladakh regions as well.

"People will lose jobs and scholarships not only in the valley but also in Jammu and Ladakh.

"If the article is tampered with, you might find that nobody knows your language in the offices you visit as outsiders will take those jobs," he said.

The National Conference leader said it was a myth that investments were not coming into the state because of Article 370 and the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

"We are a small state situated on the northern-most end of the country. It is difficult for a producer in Jammu and Kashmir to sell his products in Chennai. The fact is investments are not coming because of the situation and not because of Article 35A," he argued.

Asked why he opposed the idea of "one India and one country" by asserting the separate status of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah said: "We have acceded to the Union of India on four subjects of currency, communication, defence and foreign affairs.

"Saying this does not mean we are opposing the idea of one India and one country."

He said the propaganda that women who marry outside the state face serious bias because of the article as they lose property rights was wrong.

After the Supreme Court decided in favour of women owning property in Jammu and Kashmir after taking a spouse from outside, the matter had been settled, he said.

"My sisters who are married outside the state own property in Kashmir as much as I do," he said.
Nearly two million people have been affected by the floods in Bihar, including thousands who have been forced to evacuate from their homes, officials said on Monday.

Over one million people were affected in the worst-hit districts of Kishanganj, Araria, Purnea and Katihar in last two days.

"Thousands were displaced after their villages were inundated," a Kishanganj district official said.

Other affected districts are Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul, East and West Champaran.

The state disaster management department has asked people living in low lying areas to move to higher places as heavy rains continued.

"The flood situation in Bihar will continue to be grim following rising water levels in rivers and incessant rains," department officials said.

So far, at least 10 persons, including women and children, have been killed in the floods.

Major rivers in the state including the Koshi, Mahananda, Gandak, Bagmati and Ganga are in spate, officials said.

"With heavy rainfall in the catchment areas in Nepal, the water level of these rivers has been rising for several days," one officer told IANS.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday has sought the Army and the Indian Air Force's help in relief and rescue of affected people.

He also requested Prime Minister Narender Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to provide all possible aid.

"Both have assured their assistance," Nitish Kumar said.

The Chief Minister's Office said an 80-member team from the Bihar Regiment rushed to Kishanganj and Araria on Sunday eveningto rescue people.

"Nitish Kumar has also sought 10 additional teams of the National Disaster Relief Fund from the Centre for affected districts."

Railway stations in Kishanganj, Katihar and Jogbani in Araria were flooded by water, leaving scores of passengers stranded. Eighteen trains have been cancelled since Sunday.

According to officials, crops worth crores were damaged and road link to several places had been snapped.
New Delhi: Three members of a Manipur-based banned terror outfit, including its self-styled commander-in-chief, have been arrested in Delhi, police said on Monday.

Kangleipak Communist Party (People's War Group) chief Laishram Ranjit Meitei, 45, Khumanthem Naobicha Singh, 36, and Thoidam Chaothoi, 30, were arrested from near the Inter-State Bus Terminus in north Delhi on Sunday evening, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Kushwah said.

A laptop, a tablet, two mobile phones and extortion letters were seized from the men who the police said were looking for a safe hideout in Delhi after their hideout on the India-Nepal border was busted by security forces.

"They target schools, businessmen and owners of oil tankers to extort money for funding their terror activities," the officer said.

Police said Meitei had revealed during questioning his involvement in terror activities and other crimes in Manipur.

He was earlier arrested by Manipur Police but was on the run for the past five years, during which he stayed in Nepal for three years, police said.

In January, self-styled KCP convener Ranjjet Singh Porai was held in Delhi.

Kushwah said they were probing the real motive of the three arrested militants for visiting Delhi.
With the media abuzz with reports that villages around Doka La in the tri-border junction with China and Bhutan  including Gnathang, Kupup and Sherathang  have been evacuated following the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops, Firstpost spoke to locals here, only to find that no such orders have been passed, and people are still living in those villages.

In fact, even a member of the Sikkim legislative Assembly and a highly placed source from the Indian Army denied these reports.

Gyatso Bhutia from Kurup village, who owns a tourist taxi and ferries passengers from Gnathang to Gangtok, said, "I go to Gnathang everyday and I wasn't asked to stop. Apart from the usual roadblocks and patrolling, I haven't noticed people being evacuated," he said.

Bhutia added that only once in the last two weeks was he asked to stop, and that was due to a landslide in the region. "There was a landslide en route to Gnathang. Until the debris was cleared, we were asked to wait. This lasted a few hours," he says.

While soldiers on both sides are standing eyeball to eyeball on a contested tract of land, which has evoked a tense political situation on the ground, it has not affected normal life in the bordering villages.

In fact, when the news broke on 11 August that villagers in Gnathang, a border village about 10-12 kilometres from Doka La, were asked to evacuate their homes and move elsewhere, it took many by surprise. "I don't know where the media is getting such false information. People from Gnathang have neither been evacuated nor has the transportation service been cut," said district collector (East region) Prabhakar Verma.

However, he added that some areas were restricted, and residents had to take permission from the army and the police divisions.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Rai, a social worker who works and stays in Gnathang, also said the contractor and the local police haven't told them to leave. "Soon after news started coming in that villages had been evacuated, some of my friends and acquaintances who stay in Kupup and Sherathang called me and said this isn't true," Rai said.

However, he added, villages located at higher altitudes have been asked to keep the lights switched off at night.

Gnathang resident Sonam Tshering said, "Though we see an increased army presence in the area, nobody has asked us to leave. We were asked to remain alert, but that's a routine order."

According to sources in the Kurup police, routine checks were being conducted at all tourist spots, public gatherings, and lodges.

Firstpost accessed the Daily Situation Report (DSR) sent out by the local police regarding all checks and restrictions in place. The DSR from Kupup sent on 14 August does not mention any evacuation, and in fact only talks about increased security as part of Independence Day.

"Homestays and vehicles were checked. Round the clock patrolling was intensified. No anti-social elements or suspicious persons were found," it said.

Speaking to mediapersons on Friday, state transport minister Dorjee Tshering Lepcha, who is also the MLA from East Sikkim constituency, which is where most of these villages lie, denied the news that civilians were being evacuated. "Local authorities have not ordered any evacuation. There is some restriction of movement to certain areas but this is in place since a long time, and not a recent move," he had said.

A highly placed army officer also categorically denied that villagers were being evacuated from Gnathang. "The only advice we gave to people was to remain alert. We also spoke to village heads to inform the residents to remain safe and keep their eyes and ears open for any unusual movement. This is a routine drill," he said.

During the peak tourist season in the winter, tourists flock to Nathu La pass. However, given the border tensions, and with the Indian embassy also taking a wait and watch approach towards the issue, it has not affected tourism majorly.

Bikas Tamang, a Gangtok-based travel agent, said that the police are continuing to issue passes to tourists to visit Changu Lake and Baba Mandir. "While the lake is 25 kilometres away from Nathu-La, Baba Mandir is only eight kilometres away. If they were evacuating the area, they wouldn't issue daily passes to tourists especially," he said. "But the tourism department is not encouraging people to visit the border area at this juncture."

Seujal Pradhan is a Gangtok-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots journalists
BJP national president Amit Shah condoled the death of 72 children at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, and called it an "accident".

Speaking at a press conference in Bengaluru on Monday, Shah said, "The incident is an accident. The Uttar Pradesh government is currently investigating it. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a time-bound probe as well."

Shah also added that the those responsible for the tragedy will be brought to book. "We won't spare the guilty. We will fix accountability," he said.

Politicising the Gorakhpur tragedy, Shah said that unlike the Congress, BJP won't blame anybody without a proper investigation. "Congress' only job is to demand resignations. In such a huge country, a lot of tragedies have occurred. This is not a first such incident," Shah added and reject demands for Yogi Adityanath's resignation.

Shah added that BJP's sincerity must not be doubted based on just one incident. "Our intention to serve the poor must not be doubted based on just this one incident," he said.

On 11 August, 30 children died within a span of 48 hours, while 63 children have lost their lives in the last week at Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College over various reasons, including lack of oxygen supply, since it was stopped after the hospital failed to clear pending dues of over Rs 68 lakh.

On Sunday. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union health minister JP Nadda visited the hospital where Adityanath warned of exemplary action against those found responsible for the horrifying tragedy.

To cool frayed tempers, the Narendra Modi government announced setting up a regional medical centre at a cost of Rs 85 crore in Gorakhpur for conducting research on ailments that afflict children.

Asked why Narendra Modi had not tweeted on the tragedy, Shah said the prime minister had already expressed his grief over the incident in the media.

"The prime minister has already expressed his grief over the incident, and tweet is not the only medium to convey a message. He has already made a statement in the press," Shah added.

On a reported directive of Adityanath on preparations for a "grand" Krishna Janmashtami celebrations when the state was mourning the deaths of infants, he said that everybody is grieving over the death of children in Uttar Pradesh.

"Everybody is sad that children have died. But Krishna Janmashtami has its own place as is 15 August. Yogi ji has not said in this reference that you celebrate the festival even though children have died. Krishna Janmashtami is being observed. It will be observed across the country and in the same manner it will be in Uttar Pradesh too based on people's belief. It is not a government festival."

To a repeated query if it shows the Uttar Pradesh government's insensitivity, he asked that if people celebrate it at their homes then what can the government do.

With inputs from PTI
Mohammad Sajjad, 30, is teary-eyed but emphatic.

I want to discharge my child from BRD Medical College Hospital. Please help me sir. Help me see my daughter. The doctor isn't letting me see her, he pleads with Firstpost. I won't ever forget this help.

Sajjad is not the only parent disillusioned with Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur. There has been complete panic since the news broke Thursday that several children died due to alleged non-supply of oxygen.

Most parents want to take their children home or to another hospital. Many told Firstpost they had lost confidence in the hospital and feel helpless. Some are ready to go to private hospitals, even if they can't afford the treatment.

Since 9 August, more than 70 children have died in BRD Medical College. However, the hospital is reportedly refusing to discharge any of the other 284 children. Sajjad is one of many parents who spent 10 August on their feet. Twenty-three children died that night.

There was panic all around. Parents were shouting and weeping. Doctors were running around shouting there is no oxygen, the children will die, says Sajjad. That night felt like a decade."

Sajjad, who wants his 10-day-old daughter discharged from BRD, is a resident of Padrauna in neighbouring Kushinagar district. The short, bearded man looks like he's been through the wringer. He says he doesn't even know if his daughter is still alive. Sajjad runs a small shop in Padrauna and farms on 12 biswa land he owns in Mishrauli village, 12 kilometres from his rented home in Padrauna. He earns around Rs 7,000 per month.

"She is my second born. My elder daughter is healthy and happy by the grace of God. Please help me get my child back," he pleads. I brought my daughter to BRD on 5 August. She was burning up with fever. It took four hours to get her admitted. Registration took that long. But now he feels it wasn't worth the hassle.

Dr Chandra Prakash Dubey junior resident doctor, NICU, says Sajjads daughter is critical but could recover. Only hospital staff is allowed entry to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as the children are vulnerable to infections, he says. "The children are in great pain. Please try to understand."

On Sunday, Manju Devi Sharma, 40, of Golghar, Gorakhpur, unnerved by the rising death toll, insisted her daughter be discharged from hospital. "My daughter Pinky (7) is in lot of pain. We were here since Tuesday. Pinkys health deteriorated and the doctors' behaviour was atrocious. I did not want Pinky to die here," she told Firstpost.

Ram Ashish, a resident of Ram Kola in Kushinagar district, has been at BRD for the past 12 days. His five-month-old son Kush is down with Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES). The cycle mechanic says he wouldn't have brought his son to BRD if he had a choice. "The doctors treat us like animals," he says. My mother and my wife have gone home to try to scrounge up some money. I want to take my son to another hospital.

Treatment at a private hospital can cost up to Rs 3 lakh, which is beyond the means of many.

Pagra Basantpur resident Pintu Kumar also wants to take his daughter, admitted in BRD for past six days, home. "If death is the only option, why should I let her die in this hospital? I might as well take her home, the 34-year-old farmer says. The hospital is not allowing me to take her home. I don't know if shes dead or alive."

Gorakhpur, famed for the Gorakhnath Temple, is Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanands constituency. Opposition parties are calling the deaths of the children murder.

However, for the parents, nothing seems to change. Not the intervention of the health ministry nor an assurance from Adityanath that things will return to normal and strict action will be taken against erring individuals.

Parmatma Prasad Gautams month-old son Roshan was one of the 23 children who died on 10 August. Roshan was brought to the hospital on 9 August with high fever that refused to break. Multiple organ failure was listed as the cause of death.

A resident of Bhatauli village in Siddharthnagar district, about 100 kilometres from Gorakhpur, Parmatma says he called up a family member to dig a grave in the field but not to tell his aged mother of her grandson's death.

"Don't tell mother. She's old. She won't be able to bear it," Parmatma says over the phone.

Dr Kafil Khan, former head of the Pediatrics Department, says the pressure on the staff is immense. The 900-bed BRD Medical College caters to nearly two crore people. It is the only such institute in this area.

"People from Bihar and Nepal also bring their children here. Most bring the child when he or she is critical," Khan says.

A team of 80 doctors are keeping an eye on the 284 children, according to college superintendent Dr RS Shukla.

The parents too, continue to wait and watch. And pray.

Saurabh Sharma is a Lucknow-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.
Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the deaths of over 65 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur over the past few days.

Blaming the deaths on negligence of doctors, the administration and the state BJP government, the former Urban Development Minister said that this was a case of murder and that guilty should be brought to book.

The sequence of events that led to the massacre of 70 children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College since 7 August is a damning indictment of the government machinery. First, it failed to pay the contractor who supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital, running up arrears in excess of over Rs 68 lakh, even when, as the supplier argued, the terms and conditions of the supply agreement said the pending amount would not exceed Rs 10 lakh.

He also extended his condolences and sympathies to the families who lost their children in the tragedy.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and SP President Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to be in Gorakhpur later on Monday where he will visit the BRD Medical College and meet the bereaved families.
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to the country in his Independence Day address for the death of children at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur.

Congress senior spokesperson Ajay Maken attacked Modi for remaining silent on the death of 30 children, allegedly due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen, within a span of 48 hours last week.

"The prime minister uses Twitter to say something about tragedies even in Turkey or USA, but he has not found any word to console the families of the dead children.

"We hope he apologises to the country for the deaths due to negligence in his address to the nation on Independence Day," Maken said.

The manner in which this government has failed, the way this incident has happened and there is negligence on the part of the government, "we hope that the prime minister will in his Independence Day address first apologise", he said.

Maken also said that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had warned that the funds of BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur had been "stopped" in September, 2016, and had also visited its encephalitis wing.

"People are now complaining that funds which were being sanctioned for encephalitis control have been stopped," Maken said, quoting Gandhi.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at the state-run BRD Medical College since 7 August, many allegedly for want of oxygen. Oxygen supply was allegedly disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

Maken alleged that the oxygen cylinder vendor had written two letters to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in recent months and sent several reminders regarding his bills, but no step was taken to ensure continuous supply of oxygen.

He also charged the government with trying to "save" the guilty in the tragic deaths of children and demanded resignation of Chief Minister Adityanath and health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh.

"No list of dead children has been provided by the government so far. Also, post-mortem of the dead children has not been conducted which could reveal the cause of death due to lack of oxygen," he said.

Pointing that so many people were involved in "lapses and negligence" leading to the tragic deaths, he demanded cases be registered against the accused under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for "deliberate criminal negligence".
Allahabad: Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh on Monday claimed that corruption had been detected in the administration of BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, where 30 children lost their lives within a span of 48 hours last week.

"As against the demand of Rs 68 lakh for the purchase of oxygen cylinders at the hospital, the Yogi Adityanath government had released Rs two crore on 5 August," he said.

"But the hospital administration made payments not before 11 August and even then it spent only Rs 11 lakh. Why? Because of 'commissionkhori' (the practice of seeking commission)," Singh said at a function in Allahabad.

The minister said he had rushed to Gorakhpur on the instruction of the chief minister soon after the tragedy and had looked into documents relating to the supply of oxygen cylinders at the state-run BRD Medical College.

"The hospital's name is stated as that of the consumer while the supplier happens to be a company based in Nagpur, called Inox. Yet, there is also a dealer by the name of Pushpa Sales. This irregularity is also being investigated," he said.

He said 48 districts in the state had reported incidence of Japanese Encephalitis. At BRD alone, 3,000-4,000 patients complaining of JE symptoms visit daily.

The government is working towards equipping paediatric ICUs at primary health centres and community health centres so that patients "are not forced to rush to cities for treatment", he said.

"For a huge population of 22 crore, health services in Uttar Pradesh are in dire straits. Please give me eight to ten months, I promise to bring health services back on track," the minister added.

Singh, who has drawn flak over his statement on Sunday that "August sees a high number of deaths", was also shown black flags by student leaders associated with the Samajwadi Party when his vehicle entered the city this afternoon.

The minister, who represents an assembly constituency in the city, was travelling from Lucknow by road.
New Delhi: Accusing the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh government of "criminal negligence" that led to the death of over 60 children in a Gorakhpur hospital, the AAP on Monday said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should resign and be booked on murder charges.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh said he visited the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur and conditions there was not good. He said there was enough evidence to suggest that the children's deaths were a case of "murder" due to "criminal negligence".

He said the company supplying oxygen had informed the authorities concerned, including the principal of the medical college and the health minister, at regular intervals about the pending dues and of stopping the oxygen supply.

He said that on 5 April, Pushpa Sales  the company which supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital  wrote to the principal regarding non-payment of dues and its inability to supply the oxygen if the dues were not cleared.

The copies of this letter were sent to Chief Minister Adityanath, state health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh, Director General Health Services and the Principal Secretary - Medical Education.

He added that on 9 August, the company wrote another letter to nedical education minister Ashutosh Tandon, saying it was not being paid and the dues till 8 August 2017 stood at around Rs 68 lakh.

For the last six months the company had been telling the medical college principal about the non-payment through letters, e-mails, phone calls and legal notices, so that the oxygen supply could continue uninterrupted.

"They all (chief minister, health minister and officials) knew that payment was not being made to the company due to which it could stop supply. Despite that if the oxygen supply arrangements were not made in the medical college, then it is clearly a case of criminal negligence and murder of innocent children," Singh said.

"An effort is being made to brush the matter under the carpet. Whoever responsible  be it the chief minister, health minister or the medical college principal  should be booked on murder charges," the AAP leader said.

Another AAP leader Ashutosh said these letters established the culpability of Chief Minister Adityanath in the Gorakhpur kids' deaths.

"Yogi should resign as CM, because he has no right to hold the post now," Ashutosh demanded.

"Adityanath, health minister and the medical education minister all said that the deaths were not due to oxygen supply shortage. Then what these letters  written to the authorities regarding payment of dues else the supply would be interrupted  were about?" Singh asked.

He said the AAP would not keep mum on the issue as he had filed an RTI petition in this connection.

"As soon as I get the reply to the RTI, I will even go to the court to get the culprits booked on murder charges," Singh said.
In the run-up to this year's Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the entire heat and dust revolved around complex caste equations, Dalit outreach, Muslim votes, Hindu consolidation, Ram Temple, free school bags, free laptops, free internet, shutting down of illegal abattoirs and even anti-Romeo squads.

As the polls drew near, Uttar Pradesh skies were crisscrossed by chopper-borne netas and celebrity scribes. Thousands of electoral rallies, yatras and public meetings were held, scores of journalists landed or motored their way into rural interiors, talking heads on TV engaged in 24x7 debates, tons and tons of newsprint discussed all angles a new and petabytes of data were generated in cyber space. Except for a passing reference here or a stray mention there, one struggles to find any references to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) or child deaths in the state.

Issues like prevention and cure of one of the most deadly seasonal diseases that kills hundreds of children each year in the heartland of India were simply absent from public discourse.

It's as if neither the politicians were interested in talking about it, nor the journalists were interested in highlighting the danger of this mosquito-borne scourge which, according to government data, has claimed the lives of 25,000 kids and infants since 1978 in Gorakhpur alone. And this number, by all indications, could be a severely conservative estimate. The unofficial figure is at least double that figure.

BRD Medical College is the only hospital in eastern Uttar Pradesh  where the mosquito-borne viral fever is a seasonally endemic  to have a measure of the facility to treat AES-related symptoms and it is flooded annually by patients from nearby districts. Many kids die before even getting primary medical care.

AES is a broad-spectrum term used by the World Health Organisation to refer to a range of vector-borne diseases including Japanese Encephalitis (JE), symptoms of which are prevalent in many cases of deaths in eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is notorious for its lack of antidotes. The patient is totally dependent on critical care procedure. What makes matters worse is that a range of other pathogens have symptoms similar to the JE and treatment for one disease is often mixed up with another during an endemic, leading to higher child mortality rates.

The cyclical fatality of these deaths, helplessness of the parents and monumental apathy of the administration were highlighted in an exhaustive report last year by Priyanka Pulla, who in a piece carried by FountainInk wrote, "By September, around 50 patients arrive every day, and the medical colleges infrastructure stretches to breaking point. There arent enough beds: unconscious children, sometimes two or three, lie on a single bed. There arent enough doctors, so diploma students in child health from around Gorakhpur are drafted in. There arent enough mechanical ventilators, even though patients with severe encephalitis often need them."

Writing for Firstpost, Phalguni Rao quotes data from Directorate of National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme to point out that between 2010 and August 2017, 26,686 cases of encephalitis were reported in Uttar Pradesh of which 24,668 were of AES and 2,018 of JE. Out of those reportedly suffering from AES, 4,093 died in the same period while 308 JE-related deaths were registered.

Bear in mind that even this staggering number is likely an under-reported one. Data journalists from Indiaspend, referring to a 2016 study in the Journal of Paediatrics, reveal that "JE cases could be many times the officially reported data because the testing method popularly used to detect the virus infection in the patients blood and cerebrospinal fluid may be missing cases of JE among patients of acute encephalitis syndrome, a brain fever."

Let's recount the figures. Since 1978, more than 25,000 kids have fallen prey to AES-related symptoms in Gorakhpur alone (official figure). More than 26,000 encephalitis cases have been reported since 2010. Researchers say the actual figures could be at least 10 times higher. And yet, there were no discussions on this issue before 11 August when news first emerged that at least 30 children had died in the preceding 48 hours at BRD Medical College. The number eventually has crept up to more than 70 till the writing of this piece.

The media narrative has centred around cutting off oxygen supply by the hospital vendor leading to deaths. This, however, has been contested by hospital authorities and the state government who admitted to the paucity of oxygen cylinders but claimed that it was unconnected to the instances of death. Sanjeev Singh writes in Times of India that Pushpa Sales, the oxygen suppliers, is believed to have cut oxygen supplies last year as well when the hospital dues touched nearly Rs 50 lakh.

Is eastern Uttar Pradesh the only place in India to suffer from this seasonal pandemic? Hardly. This viral disease is also equally prevalent in West Bengal, Assam and Bihar and kids have also died in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. As the FountainInk story points out, over 2,000 people were affected in Assam in 2015 and close to 400 died of it.

In 2014, news agency PTI quoted West Bengal's director of medical education (DME) Susanta Banerjee as saying that 102 had reportedly died till the month of July. Virulent encephalitis attacks were reported from the northern part of the state where 42 fell prey to JE in just two days.

Instances of 'mysterious deaths' were also reported from West Bengal in January 2012, when 37 kids died in a week in Malda and in November 2014, when once again in Malda 13 young lives were snuffed out in 72 hours.

Which brings us to the nub of the issue. Why do we ignore vital signs of a looming disaster and wait till it befalls and a sensational headline emerges? Truth is, the Union and federal governments have routinely failed to provide even the most basic public service and they have been routinely let off by the watchdogs of democracy who are too busy chasing market share.

Journalist and author Neelesh Misra, the founder of rural media platform Gaonconnection, kept the finger on the pulse in a series of tweets after the Gorakhpur tragedy.

Dear mainstream media, #Gorakhpur is what happens when you don't do your job on health reporting and make it a headline only in tragedy.  Neelesh Misra (@neeleshmisra) August 12, 2017

Polio eradicated. Why couldn't we end Encephalitis deaths for 30 yrs? Cos cities and villages aren't clean. And those dying are the poor.  Neelesh Misra (@neeleshmisra) August 12, 2017

Among the SAARC countries, India has the third highest child mortality rate, after Afghanistan and Pakistan with 48 deaths reported per 1,000 live births. One of the chief reasons why we are in such 'exalted' company is that most of these deaths take place among the poorest strata of the society where children are regularly exposed to unhygienic conditions, malnutrition, lack of immunity and have no access to healthcare facilities. It is the government's job to provide these basic amenities, but they have no incentive to do so because there is nobody to hold them accountable for non-performance.

The media is in a position to make a difference. Ever since the highlighting of Gorakhpur deaths, the administration has been compelled to act and Opposition leaders have made a beeline to meet victims' families. If even a fraction of this outrage had been generated in earlier instances of an annual tragedy, maybe eastern Uttar Pradesh would have already had a regional medical centre for research into vector-borne diseases (which Union health minister JP Nadda has promised to set up only now) and many of these unfortunate deaths could have been avoided.

The question  why governments over the years have failed to provide even basic public services and why media has failed in its primary job  is worth pondering over.

It boils down to the fact that the empowered elites and the upwardly mobile middle class who set the public discourse and media narrative in India, have been totally disinterested in lacklustre government services. They have instead put their faith in private service, leaving the government to take care of the unwashed masses who have little political agency except during electoral season when they are usually placated with monetary entitlements instead of public services like better sanitation and healthcare.

This is where India lags behind SAARC nations. As Monica Das Gupta of The World Bank's Development Research Group points out in her paper on Public Health In India, "selling a public health success electorally requires creativity, since the successes are by nature negative ('no cases of typhoid last year' does not hit the headlines, while advances in surgical techniques is big news) It is notable that the non-democratic regimes of East Asia were the most successful in the developing world in improving health outcomes, by focusing their scarce resources on public health measures rather than on providing advanced medical care."

As long as the government finds no incentive to treat the poor as equal citizens and the media finds no merit in holding the government responsible except in spasmodic outbursts of outrage, many such Gorakhpurs will be repeated.
If watching 72 infants die at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College wasn't heart-wrenching enough, relatives of patients at the hospital also had to suffer a stream of politicians visiting the medical facility throughout Monday. Many of them even complained that healthcare at the hospital took a back seat as staff set about attending to the VIP guests.

More than 10 politicians  including Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union health minister JP Nadda and Opposition leaders Ghulan Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar and Ram Govind Chaudhary  visited the hospital on Monday.

Dhananjay Gupta, 30, who lost his only son on Monday, blamed the negligent doctors squarely for the tragedy. "My son was alive and well when he came here. But the doctors were busy attending to the ministers, and arranging snacks for them. My son was not killed by the disease but by these netas and doctors," the bereaved father said.

His mother Geeta Devi alleged that not a single doctor checked on the child. "They (doctors) visited his bed just to declare him dead," she said.

Responding to the tragedy, BJP national president Amit Shah had said this was not the first time an incident like this took place in India. However, the explanation was scant consolation for Geeta Devi. "Jekre khud ke poot naahi woh kaa jaane poot khone ka dard? Hamri haaye lage Modi ko," she said. (How would the childless know the pain of losing a baby? We curse Modi).

Ankit Singh Rathore, uncle of three-year-old Kumar Ajay, said the doctors and the hospital staff would treat them badly every time they learnt about the arrival of a VIP. "We are kooda-kachda (garbage). The hospital staff come in and and oust us from the waiting area to allow VIPs' movement. They don't want to be reprimanded, and don't want to clean things every time just to make things look good for the ministers," said Rathore.

On condition of anonymity, a junior resident doctor working at the BRD Medical College, told Firstpost they were under a lot of pressure ever since the media picked up the issue. "One of the seniors was instructed to keep junior residents ready for 14-16 hour shifts, and we have been doing it for the last three-four days. Our seniors are busy entertaining politicians and they have asked juniors to take care of everything else," the doctor said.

The doctor added they missed working with Dr Kafil Khan, the former nodal officer of the encephalitis ward who was released following the tragedy.

For Yogi Adityanath's visit, the encephalitis ward  which has seen dozens of deaths in the past week  was scrubbed clean with bleaching powder and given new dustbins. Garbage was cleared, trays were set in place, tubelights restored, and even a door that was hitherto hanging on its hinges was set right.

When Adityanath visited the hospital on Monday, followed by a rush of mediapersons and followers, the chaos sent one of the hospital doors crashing, and the ensuing shards of glass injured those nearby.

Repeated visits by politicians has hassled not only doctors and patients but also the policemen. On 10 August, when news of the deaths first broke, the state had deployed about 2,000 policemen at the hospital, most of whom were posted outside and near the entrance of the encephalitis ward.

Saurabh Sharma is a Lucknow-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots journalists
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday slammed the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh on the death of children in Gorakhpur government hospital and said a government that cannot protect children does not deserve to rule.

"Gorakhpur is a man-made tragedy. The nation waits to see if any honourable man will take responsibility."

"A government that cannot protect its children does not deserve to rule," he said in tweets on the Gorakhpur tragedy.

The UP Congress on Sunday termed the large number of infant deaths in a Gorakhpur hospital "murder" and demanded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's resignation, saying if he was unable to handle an institution, how will he run the state.

The Congress has also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the death, alleging that the Yogi Adityanath government, through "operation cover-up", was attempting to bury the truth.

The party said according to reports that have emerged till now, the unusually high number of deaths occurred due to neglect and mismanagement, and not due to any disease as is being claimed by the BJP government in the state.

On Saturday, Adityanath rejected reports that the children died due to shortage of oxygen. He asserted that no one will be allowed to go scot-free and stern action will be taken against those responsible.

With inputs from PTI.
There is a great relief in knowing that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and minister for health Siddharth Nath Singh have survived in their jobs and will stoically bear the burden of the death of 72 infants at the hospital in Gorakhpur. The latter is, incidentally, the grandson of Lal Bahadur Shastri but at present, he is more akin to Bre'r Rabbit as he advisedly lies low and says nuffin'.

By placing the state chief secretary in-charge of the investigation into the 72 deaths, the UP totem pole has saved the political entities, the bureaucracy, the administration and served up one sacrificial dish to emphasise its 'stringent intent'. Look at it this way. The system is untouched and unaffected and has been saved from those of us who unreasonably demand a certain accountability.

This Houdini-like-ability to wriggle out of the ropes of responsibility have been made possible by three elements. First off, they have shown a deep intent by sacking Dr Kafeel Khan, head of pediatric ward, BRD Medical College, so there's a valid scapegoat to finger-point.

That the good doctor (Khan) is being hailed as the one person who shoved his hand in his pocket and tried hard to save lives and went out and bought oxygen off his own bat is a major factor that is being sidetracked seeing as how he is the politically-chosen-one for sacrifice. It has been conveniently forgotten that doctors have to make do with whatever that is sanctioned by the administration, and it is those heavyweight mandarins who should be raked over the coals. But then these plum posts with their fancy designations are probably enjoying some patronage, so they have been left untouched.

So far so good. We have got our guy. Now with the Independence Day upon us, the attention will shift to pomp and ceremony at the India Gate, and all the clicking of heels and gun salutes will drown the wails of the 72 families stunned by grief. You can almost sense the exhaustion in the public and the media as the reportage begins to slip off the page and within the next 24 hours will pale into oblivion.

We just don't have the stamina to keep at it and life at the common man level is cheap. No financial relief has been granted to these families and they are all anonymous, and just a stat  cold and bloodless. Even the Supreme Court has refused to take cognisance of the tragic events over the six days.

Harnessing our public apathy, which is best reflected in the flagging effort to mount a nationwide campaign of protest on social networks against what is most kindly described as an atrocity, the Centre has also adopted a posture of genial condemnation all of utterly sans any point confident that this cloudburst shall also pass.

That no one in power will be held culpable, and the management, the board, the various departments, and suppliers will keep passing the buck till it cools off is now a given.

The kids don't even get a decent burial.

And the prime minister hasn't yet found it necessary to share his Mann Ki Ba'ath. Bigger fish to fry.
Lucknow: The situation at Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College where over 60 children, including infants died last week owing to alleged disruption of oxygen supply in the paediatrics and acute encephalitis wards, is normal, officials claimed on Monday even as the opposition continued to protest the deaths.

While most officials refused to entertain queries from the media about the casualties in the last 24 hours, sources in the state-run hospital said things were "better, improved and under control".

Opposition parties however continued to slam the Yogi Adityanath government for alleged callousness, leading to loss of innocent lives. Leading the attack on the BJP government was former chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav who visited Gorakhpur and met the bereaved families.

Expressing anguish at the deaths of children, he said while there should be no politics on the issue, but action should be expedited against the guilty and the state government should try to get to the bottom of the tragedy.

He also demanded a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each for the families who lost their children over the last one week.

The Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) on Monday demonstrated against the state government in Gorakhpur, alleging mishandling of the situation and a large number of its workers were arrested.

State secretary Sudhakar Yadav said the "state-sponsored massacre" will not be allowed to be forgotten and that the state government will have to own moral responsibility for the tragedy.

Demonstrations by various political parties have also been reported from Deoria, Mau, Ghazipur, Ballia, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Allahabad, Kanpur, Moradabad, Pillbhit and the state capital.

Workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) meanwhile gheraoed the personal residence of the state medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon in Lucknow and were arrested. District convener of AAP Gaurav Maheshwari said police force was used against them.

The AAP has also alleged that due to "failure in negotiation in commission and cuts" for delay in payment to the oxygen vendor which led to the tragedy. Maheshwari also demanded that a case of murder be slapped on health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh.

The ruling BJP however trashed such reports and claimed that the chief minister was very much sensitive to the situation and vector-borne disease of encephalitis.

"The prime minister immediately sent two ministers to Gorakhpur and so did Yogiji, where is the alleged callousness?" said BJP state spokesman Manish Shukla, asking political parties not to engage in politics over the issue.
Gorakhpur: Six new cases of encephalitis deaths were reported from the paediatric ward of BRD Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur since Saturday, amid fresh blame game after over 60 children died in the state-run hospital over the past one week.

Even as the authorities grappled with the situation in the aftermath of the tragedy, additional director health Dr Pushkar Anand on Monday said these fresh deaths occurred between 12 -14 August.

"In the past three days  from August 12 to August 14  six encephalitis patients, mostly children have died. In the same period, as many as 21 patients were admitted for treatment. At present nearly 75 encephalitis patients are undergoing treatment in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital," he said.

In state capital Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders including UPCC chief Raj Babbar on Monday staged protest over the death of children in Gorakhpur. The Congress leaders also courted arrest.

Babbar had on Sunday claimed that "70 children were murdered" since 10 August and held the state government responsible for it. "This government is a killer and I want to ask how many more children will be killed?" he had told a press conference in Lucknow.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday visited Gorakhpur and met family members of deceased infants and consoled them.

The former chief minister visited two villages and met three families who lost their children.

Meanwhile, the NHRC has sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the deaths, observing that it indicated "gross callousness" on part of the health administration.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) asked the state's chief secretary to submit a detailed report in four weeks about steps initiated for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as action taken against those found guilty.

Moved by the Gorakhpur tragedy, BJP Lok Sabha member Varun Gandhi on Monday pledged Rs 5 crore from his MP local area development fund to build a state-of-the-art paediatric wing in Sultanpur district hospital. "The human tragedy in Gorakhpur has left me jolted," he said.

While grieving the terrible loss of lives of children, the incident must "act as an impetus" to take actions that serve as a deterrent, the Sultanpur MP said in a statement.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since 7 August, many of them infants who perished in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

The state government has ordered an inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the BRD Medical College Rajiv Mishra.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said exemplary action would be taken against those found responsible for the tragedy.

Giving the data of previous years' deaths at the BRD college, health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh had said, "The paediatric deaths which took place in August are - 567 in 2014 (19 per day), 668 in 2015 (22 per day) and 587 in 2016 (19.5 per day)."

In the last three decades, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) have claimed over 50,000 lives in the eastern Uttar Pradesh, mostly in Gorakhpur district.

Till 8 August, 124 deaths have been reported. 641 children died last year and 491 in 2015.
The Supreme Court has refused to take suo motu cognisance of the matter involving the death of children at a hospital in Gorakhpur. The plea had also sought an SIT probe into the matter.

The bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College Hospital since 7 August. At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neonatal intensive care unit. It is alleged that the disruption in oxygen supply to the hospital due to the non-payment of bills could be the cause of several of the reported deaths.

Police had said no case has been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint.

The state government had ruled out lack of oxygen as the cause behind the deaths. State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said, After the first level of investigation, we can claim that the deaths did not take place due to disruption of gas supply. The discussions happened in detail, but issue of gas supply that shouldve come to light didnt come up, said Singh.

The government had also ordered an official inquiry lead by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra. Mishra had later resigned to take "moral responsibility" for the incident.

The deaths set off protests in the national capital even as Congress demanded that a murder case be registered against those whose negligence resulted in the "massacre".

Amid the tragedy, it was reported that a doctor's quick thinking saved many lives, according to DNA. Dr Kafeel Khan, the head of encephalitis ward at the hospital, thought on his feet and arranged oxygen cylinders with the help of his friends and private vendors.

But a day after the tragedy, Khan was terminated from his services by the hospital.

Under strident opposition attack over the death of the children, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday warned of "exemplary" action against those found responsible for the horrifying tragedy amid calls for his resignation.

With inputs from PTI




1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar on Monday charged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with trying to influence the ongoing probe into the death of 60 children in Gorakhpur's BRD medical college.

"Even before the probe report is out, the chief minister's statement that the deaths have been caused due to encephalitis indicate that he wants to influence the ongoing probe," the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief said.

Led by Babbar, the Congress workers demanded Adityanath's resignation during a dharna against a large number of infant deaths in the Gorakhpur hospital.

The Congress leader said that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister expressing concern over the issue after 36 hours of the deaths of the children only proves his "insensitivity over the matter".

"The entire responsibility of the infant deaths is on the state government and its leader. Action is being taken against the doctors and officials only to divert the attention," he said.

The UPCC president said that soon after the deaths, the Chief Minister said that oxygen shortage was not the cause of the deaths...if that was so, then why raids are being carried out on the premises of the supplier".
Gorakhpur: Under strident opposition attack over the death of scores of children in a state-run Gorakhpur hospital, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday warned of "exemplary" action against those found responsible for the horrifying tragedy amid calls for his resignation.

The Modi government stepped in to cool frayed tempers, announcing setting up a regional medical centre at a cost of Rs 85 crore in Gorakhpur for conducting research on ailments that afflict children.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since 7 August, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor. At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The deaths set off protests in the national capital even as Congress demanded that a murder case be registered against those whose negligence resulted in the "massacre".

Adityanath, who visited the hospital on Sunday, however, counselled against politicising the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Kafeel Khan, who was the nodal officer for the paediatric department at the hospital, who was hailed as a hero for reportedly spending money from his own pocket to buy oxygen cylinders at the height of the crisis, has been divested of the charge.

"Dr Khan's charge has been withdrawn," a top official at the hospital said, adding it should not be misconstrued that he has been placed under suspension.

"We have formed a high-powered committee under the state chief secretary to probe the reason of the deaths of children in the BRD Medical College and the (lack of) supply of oxygen. Stringent action will be taken against the guilty, whether in Gorakhpur or elsewhere," Adityanath said.

The punishment will "set a standard", I assure you, the UP chief minister, who addressed a joint press conference with Union Health Minister JP Nadda after visiting the hospital together, said.

Adityanath criticised the media over putting out "fake" news about the deaths and asked them to visit the wards to see for themselves if treatment (upchar) or massacre (narsanhar) was happening there.

Nadda said a regional medical centre would be set up in Gorakhpur for in-depth research on children's ailments.

"During the last parliamentary session, I assured Adityanath ji that a full-fledged institute will be set up. Before coming here, I approved the establishment of a regional medical research centre in Gorakhpur at a cost of Rs 85 crore which would conduct research on the infections among children and the possible reasons," Nadda said.

Speaking before Nadda, Adityanath made a strong pitch for a full-fledged virus research centre in Gorakhpur, an area prone to encephalitis, which has claimed hundreds of lives over the years.

"The geography of east UP is such that we cannot win the war against vector-borne diseases until and unless we have a full-fledged virus research centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given AIIMS, we have started it. But, there should be a full-fledged virus research centre in Gorakhpur," Adityanath told the press conference.

The chief minister said he has been "waging a war" against Japanese encephalitis for the last two decades.

"I have witnessed children of east UP dying. We will not allow this to happen anymore...Who can be more sensitive to this issue (than me)? I have been raising it from the streets to Parliament...No one can understand the pain and agony more than me," Adityanath said, his voice choking with emotion.

Meanwhile, UP Congress chief Raj Babbar on Sunday demanded that a murder case be registered against those responsible for the "massacre" of children and resignation of Adityanath.

"70 children were murdered in the last four days (since August 10). The state government is responsible for their murder," he told reporters in Lucknow.

Babbar also demanded a compensation of Rs one lakh to the next of kin of each child who died due to alleged neglect at the hospital.

Reacting to Congress' allegations, Adityanath said,"This is not the time to indulge in politics, but to show sensitivity. And sensitivity is in finding an answer to vector-borne diseases and eradicating them.

"When Ghulam Nabi Azad was the Union health minister, he had said that he cannot do anything (about Japanese encephalitis in Gorakhpur) since health is a state subject.

People whose sensitivity has died, are now unnecessarily rubbing salt to wounds by raising a sensitive issue," the chief minister said.

Azad, Congress' leader in the Rajya Sabha had on Saturday visited the hospital and blamed the "careless" state government for the tragedy. He had demanded an apology from Adityanath for it and his resignation.

Samajwadi Party workers on Sunday hurled tomatoes and eggs at the private residence of UP health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh in Allahabad to protest against the deaths.

"We staged a protest outside the health minister's residence over the Gorakhpur tragedy. Eggs and tomatoes were hurled by some of the activists who were agitated over the deaths of innocent children," Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha leader Faisal Mansoor said after TV channels showed protesters throwing eggs and tomatoes at Singh's residence.

Police said no case has been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint.

The state government had on Saturday ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the BRD Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra.

Several social and political organisations, including the Left-wing AISA, staged protests at Jantar Mantar in the national capital against the shocking deaths.
Ahmedabad: Eleven people died due to swine flu in Gujarat on Monday taking the death toll to 201 since January this year.

1,754 patients infected with the H1N1 virus have been admitted in various hospitals across the state. Out of them, 640 have been have been cured, 913 are still under treatment while 201 have died, a health bulletin issued by the government said.

On Monday, 11 persons infected with the virus died. While two deaths each were reported in Junagadh and Rajkot city, one death each was reported in Ahmedabad city, Vadodara city, and Gandhinagar, Surendranagar, Kutch, Rajkot and Ahmedabad districts, the bulletin said.

It said 145 new cases of swine flu were registered today in the state, including 51 in Ahmedabad city, 32 in Vadodara, nine each in Surat and Gandhinagar, five in Panchamahal district and four each in Bharuch, Anand and Bhavnagar districts.

While three cases each were reported from Jamnagar city, and Mehsana and Surat districts, two cases each from Rajkot city, and Vadodara, Sabarkantha, Surendranagar and Banaskantha districts. One case each is reported from Kutch, Rajkot, Junagad, Ahmedabad, Amreli, Kheda, and Chhotaudepur districts, besides from Bhavnagar city.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held a meeting with senior government officials to review the swine flu situation.

The government announced that 17,000 teams had launched an intense door-to-door surveillance across the state with ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) and Anganwadi workers as well as with malarial surveillance squads.

Around 40,000 Anganwadi workers, over 5,000 MBBS doctors, and 3,000 AYUSH doctors are part of these teams, an official release said.
Srinagar: Hizbul Mujahideen on Monday named Mohammad bin Qasim as its "field operational commander" in Kashmir in place of Yaseen Yattoo who was killed on Sunday in a fierce gunbattle with security forces in Shopian district.

Qasim was made the new commander of Hizb at a meeting of the outfit's command council chaired by Syed Salahuddin in Muzaffarabad (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), a spokesman of the outfit said in a statement.

Salahuddin said the high number of killings of militants in encounters were because of "traitors" and "Indian agents".

Yattoo, alias 'Gaznavi', and his two associates were killed yesterday in an encounter that began on Saturday night in Awnira village of Shopian district in south Kashmir.

In the encounter, two armymen were also killed and three others, including a major, were injured.

Yattoo, who hailed from Budgam district of central Kashmir, had a long association with Hizbul Mujahideen and was responsible for keeping alive the prolonged unrest of 2016 following the killing of group's commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on 8 July.

He had also played key role in recruiting several young men into the outfit, according to the police.

Yattoo had joined Hizbul Mujahideen in 1996 but had surrendered in 2007 and was later released on parole in 2014. Subsequently, he had joined the militant group again and was its self-styled chief operations commander.

Along with him, the security forces killed Umar Majeed, who hailed from Shopian, and Irfan, a tech-savvy militant involved in online propaganda for the militant outfit.
New Delhi: The national capital, including the Red Fort from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the 71st Independence Day on Tuesday, has been put under an unprecedented ground-to-air security cover.

Close to 70,000 Delhi Police personnel will be guarding the national capital owing to the twin occasions of the Independence Day and Janmashtami festival, a senior police officer said on Monday.

Thousands of security personnel, including 9,100 personnel from the Delhi Police, have been deployed in and around the historic Mughal fort which will see the presence of senior ministers, top bureaucrats, foreign dignitaries and common people during the prime minister's address.

Two dozen Parakram Vans manned by quick reaction teams of NSG-trained commandos have been stationed in areas with high footfall to thwart any attempt by terror groups to disrupt peace.

As many as 11 such vans have been deployed in the area around the Red Fort. "There will be multi-tier security in place. The security audit of the residents, including tenants has been completed. The area is being monitored by CCTV cameras and there will be multi-tier security checks in place for people coming to the area," said a senior police officer.

At Red Fort, a special team of NSG snipers and commandos will form the inner layers of the security cordon while anti-aircraft guns have been deployed to thwart any aerial intrusion by objects like drones and projectiles, senior police officials said.

Delhi Police has already prohibited aerial activities, including para-gliding, flying UAVs and hot air balloons, across the city.

Also, police are surveying the areas in the vicinity of the Red Fort and have collected details of over 9,000 people residing there. The buildings facing the Red Fort will be secured by police and paramilitary personnel.

Security along the route to be taken by the prime minister's cavalcade from his official residence to Red Fort will be monitored with the help of hundreds of CCTV cameras.

Special "spotters" of Delhi Police and paramilitary will keep an eye on parking areas.

Over 60 sniffer dogs of paramilitary forces and Delhi Police will also be part of the extensive security deployment. Preliminary security arrangements were made in July and senior police and intelligence officials have been regularly taking stock of the arrangements to weed out any shortcomings and glitches.

According to a statement by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, train services will run as usual. However, stations like Lal Quila, Jama Masjid, Delhi Gate and ITO will have restricted entry and exit during the ceremony owing to security considerations.

Parking will not be available at the stations till 2 pm on Tuesday in view of the security measures, DMRC said. Security around prominent temples like the Iskcon temple, Lakshmi Narayan temple and the Gouri Shankar temple has been ramped up since large congregations of devotees are expected on Janmasthami festival, the birthday of Lord Krishna.
New Delhi: Government sources on Sunday denied reports of China building a bridge in Ladakh.

Earlier a report said on Sunday China was building a bridge in the no man's land in Ladakh.

"The report that China is building a bridge in Ladakh is wrong," a government source said.

The source also denied any fresh aggression from China.

Amid a stand-off in Doka La, close to the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, India has reinforced troops along the eastern border.

At Doka La, the point of the stand-off, there are around 350 troops on the Indian side and around the same number of soldiers on the other side of the border.

There have been no increase in troops or any movement on the Chinese side that may indicate a possible conflict.

The soldiers have been asked to be on high alert, and artillery guns have been moved to different points. Army officials in New Delhi have refused to comment on the situation.

The standoff close to the tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan started on 16 June, after a construction party from China's People's Liberation Army entered the Doka La area and attempted to construct a road.

A Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade them and the ambassador of Bhutan publicly stated that it lodged a protest with the Chinese government through their embassy in New Delhi on 20 June.
Indias defence and security strategists should take a serious note of the revelation that China has built a bridge in a sensitive part of the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh region.

Chinas repeated mention of Jammu and Kashmir during the Doka La stand-off since early June is ample indication that Beijings intentions regarding the northern state are inimical.

In the past few years, the Sino-Pakistan axis appears to have been preparing a major strategic initiative for the area. There are indications that China has supportive links with terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba. In addition, it seems to have worked through well-positioned third countries to prepare the ground in Kashmir.

The new Chinese construction has been brought to light by no less than Dr Sonam Dawa, the Chief Executive Councillor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, an office with ministerial status. Dr Dawa, who has been a respected social and political activist for three decades, is the elected leader of the council that administers the sprawling Leh district.

Parallels with 1965

Ever since the strategic patterns of last years uprising on the streets of Kashmir became obvious, it has been clear that policy planners ought to examine developments in and around Kashmir in light of what happened in 1965. That year too, large numbers of infiltrators entered the Valley and Pakistan had planned to take over strategic locations such as the radio station under cover of mass protests.

Pakistani Army regulars in civilian clothes were among the infiltrators in the Valley that year. After a mass uprising on the streets of Srinagar did not take place as planned, the Pakistan Army had overtly moved in to cut off the highway near Samba. That highway was the sole connection between the state and the rest of the country, since the Manali-Leh highway had not yet been built.

Before launching what it called as the 'Operation Gibraltar' in Kashmir, Pakistans army had provoked India with skirmishes in the Kutch area, at the other end of the border between the two countries. That turned out to be a diversion, meant to take the focus of Indias strategists away from Kashmir. The situation could turn out to be similar this year, but is far more threatening since India faces a Sino-Pakistan axis rather than a single enemy country. Strategists should keep a hawks eye on the possibility that the Doka La stand-off could parallel the Kutch skirmishes of 1965.

Longstanding pattern

Chinas soliders have repeatedly intruded into the Ladakh area, particularly in the years since the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In 2009, China had for a few months refused to issue visas on the Indian passports of citizens from the state of Jammu and Kashmir  even to the then commander-in-chief of the Northern Command, who was a native of Jammu.

China and Pakistan have together cocked a snook at Indias concerns by going ahead with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes right through the state. Pakistan has formally included the Gilgit-Baltistan area into its territory by declaring it its fifth province last year.

During the Doka La stand-off, Chinese analysts and spokespersons have used threatening language directly with regard to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It has stated, for instance, that Indias defence of disputed territory on behalf of Bhutan could open the door for China to do the same in Kashmir at Pakistans request. Indian strategists must prepare for the possibility that China could up the ante with regards to Jammu and Kashmir. If that happens, Doka La could become the 2017 version of what Kutch was in 1965  this time, for the Sino-Pakistan axis rather than for either alone.

The presence of Chinas vice-premier at Pakistans Independence Day celebrations on Monday is another indicator of the two countries increasingly closer ties. Pakistan has ceded unprecedented authority to Chinese troops and officials in areas around CPEC and near the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.
Jammu: Three persons were on Sunday arrested for allegedly smuggling 116 bovines in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, the police said.

Acting on a specific information, a police team set up a checkpost near the Churung Bridge in the Thanamandi belt of the district.

As the smugglers came to know about it, they took the animals off the vehicles and attempted to cross the checkpost on foot, a police officer said.

The police managed to nab three of the smugglers, while the others fled taking advantage of the darkness and by pelting stones at the policemen, he added.

"While three persons have been arrested, a hunt is on for the rest of the bovine smugglers," the officer said.

The police also rescued 116 bovines and seized 16 vehicles of the accused, he said, adding that the accused had a plan to take smuggle the bovines into the Kashmir region.

A case was registered in connection with the incident and an investigation was underway, he said.

Since the blanket ban on the movement of livestock was imposed by the district administration, the bovine smugglers had adopted a new strategy of smuggling the animals on foot and loading them onto vehicles after crossing a particular checkpost, the officer added.

Many such bovine-smuggling attempts had been foiled at Thanamandi in the recent past, he said.
Srinagar: Two militants belonging to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen outfit were on Monday arrested in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, police said.

Acting on specific information about the movement of militants in the area, security forces set up a picket at Bakihaker crossing.

During checking, two persons who were walking towards Bakihaker started running after seeing the security personnel from a distance, a police spokesman said.

Security forces had deployed another team in civilian clothes at a distance which apprehended the suspects, the spokesman said.

After a preliminary enquiry, he said, the two were identified as Younis Ahmed Mir (19) alias Sarfaraz, a resident of Sebdan Galwanpora in Budgam district, and Tahir-ul-Islam (21) alias Sajad Afgani, a resident of Muloora Tawheedabad area of Shalteng in Srinagar district.

According to the spokesman, the two claimed that they had recently joined the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit and were tasked to create disturbance in Handwara by indulging in violent activities.

Two pistols, two hand grenades and other "incriminating" material were seized from their possession, he said.

On sustained interrogation, the spokesman claimed, the militants revealed that most of the militant organisations based in Handwara-Kupwara region are facing problems on account of depleting the number of local militants in the field.

"They further revealed that youths of the region are not ready to pick up guns, despite a lot of efforts by the militant commanders based in Kashmir and PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir).

"The militant outfits had succeeded in recruiting some local boys in Kupwara region recently, but they either surrendered before police or were caught by security forces within a short span of time after joining militancy, he said.

Because of this pressure on the Valley-based commanders of militant outfits to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the region, they are making efforts to recruit militants in other regions and bring them to Handwara for carrying out militant attacks, the spokesman said.

Police have registered a case in this regard and further investigation is on, he said.
Kolkata: In the backdrop of reports that the state government has ordered schools to ignore a central government circular and follow their usual mode of celebrating Independence Day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday reacted strongly describing it as a misrepresentation of facts.

Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts.Don't mislead.In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom 1/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 14, 2017

All schools in #Bengal ARE celebrating #IndependenceDay as per their choice. In their own special way 2/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 14, 2017

Ahead of Independence Day, the Centre had written to the states to organise events in schools towards creating a "patriotic mood" and a "mass fervour" to help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "New India" vision.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar had alleged that West Bengal had instructed its schools to desist from following the Centre's circular.

Javadekar had termed the decision of the Trinamool Congress government as "unfortunate".
Mumbai: The Mumbai Police are on high alert and have tightened the security ahead of Independence Day on Tuesday which coincides with Dahi Handi celebrations this year.

"We are taking all possible security measures," a senior police officer said.

Security at all sensitive establishments and important buildings in the city has been increased.

Police patrolling has been stepped up and vehicles coming into the city are being checked at entry points.

Units of the Quick Response Team, Anti Terrorism Squad, Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad, Crime Branch and reserve forces are ready for deployment, the officer said.

"In view of Independence Day and Dahi Handi, we are deploying enough forces to maintain law and order," said deputy commissioner of police Rashmi Karandikar.

Dahi Handi celebrations, the chief attraction of which is Govinda troupes competing to form human pyramids and break pitchers strung high above the ground for hefty cash prizes, attract large crowds.

This would pose additional challenge for the city police who would already be on their toes on Independence Day on Tuesday.

Though the "glamour" surrounding Dahi Handi competitions seems to be a bit down in the city this time, police will keep tight vigil and deploy plainclothes personnel for monitoring crowds, another officer added.
Islamabad: Several websites of the Pakistan government were defaced on Monday allegedly by hackers from India.

The hackers attacked websites of some key ministries on the day the country celebrated its 70th Independence Day.

The sites hacked included Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Climate Change, Ministry of Inter-provincial coordination, Ministry of Water and Power, Ministry of Information Technology and others.

An official of the Ministry of Information Technology said the attack was carried out by a group calling themselves "LuluSec India". The hackers posted pro-India material on the web pages of hacked websites.

Several websites are still not functional.

There was no formal reaction by the government so far.

It is not the first incident of cyber-attack by hackers targeting the Pakistani government websites. Such attacks have occurred in the past also.
Islamabad: Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhi's "expansionist designs" were the "main hurdle" in constructive relations between the two neighbours.

Addressing the nation on its 70th Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan "desires positive and constructive" relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.

"Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard," he said as Chinese vice premier Wang Yang attended the celebrations as a "special guest" of the country. Yang arrived in Pakistan on Monday for the event.

He said that China and Pakistan have "always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations."

Abbasi called on the international community to "play its role" in resolving regional conflicts, "particularly the Kashmir dispute" between India and Pakistan in conformity with the UN resolutions to ensure durable peace in the region.

Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistan's 18th prime minister on 1 August after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.

"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he said.

President Mamnoon Hussain, in his address, called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan.

He said it is time to forget "personal grievances" and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharif's ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was "pre-planned".

The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital Islamabad along with a 21-gun salute in provincial capitals to mark the official Independence Day celebrations.

Major public and private buildings, roads and avenues have been decorated with national flags, portraits of the national leaders, banners and buntings to give a festive look.

Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted a huge national flag at the Attari-Wagah border with India soon after midnight last night, kicking off the day-long celebration.

The flag flew at 400 feet, the highest in South Asia. The 120x80 feet flag is also the largest in the history of the country, Pakistani media reported.
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, invoked 'New India' in his Independence Day address to the nation on Monday evening, and spoke of the need for being united to ensure progress.

Kovind began his address congratulating fellow Indians on the occasion of India's 71st Independence Day. He recalled freedom fighters like Matangini Hazra of Tamluk, Bismillah Khan and Bhimrao Ambedkar, saying they fought for India's Independence and for Mahatma Gandhi's principles, which remain relevant even today.

Kovind went on to say the partnership between citizens and the government has always been crucial for the country's development and progress.

The president compared the country to a village. He said, back in the day, when a girl from the village would be married, each local villager would contribute and fulfil some responsibility. "It is our responsibility to make sure there is no discrimination against girls and 'daughters' of this nation," he said.

He elucidated how partnership has changed and people have become individualistic. "These days it is a different story, especially in the cities where people do not even know who their neighbours are. This is why the feeling of partnership and companionship is very different," he said.

"The government can impose laws and rules but every citizen must take up the onus of following the responsibilities. Everyone must collectively to ensure that the schemes and programmes started by the government reach the people they are intended for, including ensuring equal education," Kovind added.

Kovind said this spirit of empathy and of social service and volunteerism is very much alive in India. "There are so many people and organisations that work quietly and diligently for the poor and the disadvantaged. We should also work with unity and purpose to ensure that the benefits of government policies reach all sections of society," he said.

He also spoke of the Goods and Services Tax, saying it was "commendable" how people of India have accepted GST. "This will help us in our goal of 'New India' which we are going to achieve in 2022. 'New India' must be a society that is not only progressive, but also tolerant. A society where there is no discrimination on the basis of gender, " he said.

He said 'New India' means some obvious parameters  like a house for every family, power on demand, better roads and

telecom, a modern railway network, rapid and sustained growth. "And yet there is more. 'New India' must also include that

integral humanist component that is in our DNA, and which has defined our country and our civilisation. New India must be a

society rushing towards the future, but also a compassionate society," Kovind said.

New India must include that integral humanist component that is in our DNA, & which has defined our country and our civilization: President  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

"We hope to advance in every field to a place where every Indian can reach a place where they can realise their dreams and contribute towards the development of the country," he said. He then recalled the months after demonetisation, saying citizens of the country showed "great patience and unity at the time". The president said in the year 2022, the country will complete 75 years of Independence, and "it is our national resolve to attain certain desired milestones for a 'New India' by then". Emphasising on the need for unity, he said, "It's normal to think about one's family but we must also selflessly think about our country and think about how we can make it proud." Every citizen must listen to his/her conscience and do something simple for the country. Only then can all of us be a part of a big change, he said.

On PM's appeal more than 1 Cr families voluntarily gave up LPG subsidy so that a gas cylinder could reach kitchen of a poorer family: Pres pic.twitter.com/EuQ2BZeuVo  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

Kovind ended his speech with the Buddha's words  Ap deepo bhava (Be your own light)  and urged everyone to do their bit in taking the nation to greater heights.
New Delhi: All of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the UN refugee agency, and the government aims to deport them, a senior government official told Reuters.

Junior interior minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament last week the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants including Rohingya, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India that it says help them "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation".

But Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government, said in an interview on the weekend that the UNHCR registration was irrelevant.

"They are doing it, we can't stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees," he said.

"As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported."

The UNHCR's India office said on Monday the principle of non-refoulement  or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger  was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports deportations were taking place.

The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as its most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalised and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months, there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests.

Rijiju declined to comment on the deportation process, even as some human rights activists question the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

"There's a procedure, there is a rule of law," Rijiju said.

"We can't throw them out just like that. We can't dump them in the Bay of Bengal."

India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan.

But deportation is likely to be difficult, given Myanmar's position that all Rohingya need to be scrutinized before they can be allowed back in as citizens.

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment.

A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, has said India was helping it solve the crisis.

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since 9 October after an insurgent group attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.
Shimla: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has reprimanded the police for "trying to hush up" a case of alleged rape and killing of a schoolgirl in Shimla and demanded that murder charges be slapped on the policemen for the custodial death of an accused.

NCSC member Swaraj Vidwan, who met the family of the victim at Kotkhai on Sunday, alleged "gaps" in police probe indicated that there was a conspiracy to save the real culprits. She claimed that all the people she met were of the opinion that the matter was being hushed up. Vidwan alleged that the police tried to cover up the case and that all the people she had met were of the same opinion and demanded that the real culprits be brought to the book and punished.

She claimed that people had lost confidence in the police and they maintained that the probe was in the right direction till it was being handled by the DSP but got derailed after the SIT was set up. "The death of accused Suraj, a Nepalese national, in police custody further raised suspicion on the role of the police in the entire case," she alleged. She questioned how he died when policemen were present in the police station and said that murder charges be slapped on the policemen for the custodial death of an accused.

She alleged that "some top cops and politicians" tried to influence the probe and the real culprits were not arrested at their behest. Vidwan said she also met the parents of the victim yesterday and they were still in shock. "Her parents want speedy justice and they are seeking the arrest of real culprits in the case," she said.

She said now that the case has been handed over to the CBI, she was hopeful that the culprits would be brought to book. "I have taken statements of parents of the victims and other persons and would soon submit the report to the central government," she added.

The 16-year-old girl had gone missing in Kotkhai area here after school hours on 4 July and her body was found in the nearby Haliala forest on 6 July.
The Shopian district in south Kashmir witnessed the first encounter operation in fifteen months on Saturday evening. Seven to eight militants were about to hold a meeting inside a residential house in Awneera village of the district when security forces surrounded the locality, the police said.

As the forces zeroed in on the location, the militants opened fire on the security forces killing two Indian army soldiers. It took the security forces some time to retrieve the dead bodies of Sepoy Ilayaraja P of Tamil Nadu and Sepoy Gawai Sumedh Waman of Maharashtra in the pitch dark.

In the overnight gun battle, the army managed to kill three militants but sources said that many other militants were able to flee from the spot. Two civilians were also killed in the aftermath.

After 20 hours of operation, two militants were immediately identified but the Jammu and Kashmir Police struggled to identify the dead body of the third person killed in the encounter. Failing to reach a conclusion on the identity of the slain militant, the police then took a closer look at the colour of the deceased's hair and the weapon, a KK rifle, that he was carrying. By Sunday evening the police was sure that the slain militant's physical appearance closely resembled with one of the longest surviving militants in Kashmir Valley, according to police officials involved in the operation.

His name was Yaseen Yatoo, who went by the nom de guerre Mahmoud Ghaznavi and Mansoor.

Who was Yaseen Yatoo?

Yatoo, a tall burly man with a round face and aged features, was often spotted in military fatigues in pictures and videos shared on social media. However, the forty-year-old's journey from a second year college student in Amar Singh college in Srinagar in 1996  when he first crossed over to Pakistan for arms training  to becoming one of the most wanted militant commanders is like a thriller straight out of a Hollywood film.

There was a funeral in absentia offered for him in his village Nagam, Budgam as he was thought to be dead. The Hurriyat paid rich tributes to him and the militant organization Hizbul Mujahideen released a statement claiming he was killed when he fell from a mountain while on operational duties. But Yatoo, senior police officials said, faked his own death to divert attention and mysteriously disappeared.

When Yatoo's pictures appeared on social media showing him reading Quran, an assault rifle rested beside him, it took his family some time to realize their son was still alive.

I thought he was dead but then the police called me one day and showed me his picture and I recognized him, Habibullah, Yatoos father, said recently in a conversation with Firstpost.

His hair and beard had turned gray, he looked weak in the photograph.

The security forces had been coming down heavily on militants as the militancy intensified in Valley, inflicting massive casualty to both old and new ranks of militias in the terror groups active in the Valley. And finally on Saturday evening, the security forces managed to kill Yatoo, one of the longest surviving militants among the Hizbul Mujahideen cadres in Valley, apart from neutralizing two other militants.

He was a chronic case... It is a big catch, DIG south Kashmir SP Pani who had earlier arrested Yatoo, said on Sunday.

The DIG said that although the stone pelting incidents have gone down, compared to the scene in February and March, but unfortunately militants are opening fire after mingling with the civilian crowds. "This makes it an extremely difficult job to carry out counter insurgency operation, the DIG said.

In the past 20 years of his activity in the Valley, he had been in and out of jail several times. He was arrested several times under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which provides for a person's arrest if he is perceived to be a threat to the maintenance of public order

Yatoo even quit militancy for a brief period but he took up arms again in 2002. He was arrested by the Border Security Force in November 2002 and subsequently released in June 2004. In March 2005, he again joined Hizbul Mujahideen. In June 2006, he was again arrested in Awantipora but was released in 2009. He was identified as A+ category militant .

The police said he was instrumental in reviving the militancy in both south and central Kashmir after the death of Burhan Wani last year in July. Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salah-ud-din had announced him as the successor to Wani but Zakir Musa stole the show.

Where does Yatoo's death leave Hizbul Mujahideen as a militant outfit?

Ahead of Wanis first anniversary Yatoo, who was the operational commandeer of the outfit, stressed upon the need for people to have faith in political and armed resistance leadership. He indirectly challenged Musa for his Caliphate comments, cautioning him against trying to alter the legal and historic nature of Kashmir conflict.

Any person, whosoever, challenges the legal and historic nature of Kashmir conflict is either living in a fools paradise or is unintentionally or intentionally playing into the hands of divisive elements, Yatoo said in a video massage.

The Kashmir dispute, he said, has been widely acknowledged by the world community and it has strong legal, geographical, international and diplomatic dimensions. So, the armed resistance leadership takes everything into consideration before devising any strategy.

While appealing to people he said, people are interpreting Islam and Quran out of context and misrepresenting Islamic history deliberately to suit their vested interests.

This statement was a directly aimed at Musa for his comments on caliphate and threatening the Hurriyat leadership.

Now the only prominent face left with Hizbul Mujahideen is Reyaz Naikoo. The man who was doing the balancing act between Musa and Naikoo is gone now, a police official said.

While Musa was pushing for Islamic Caliphate, Naikoo was doing the bidding of Pakistan, Yatoo was doing the balancing factor. Now who will do the containment from Hizbul Mujahideen's side? His death is a huge problem for Hizbul as he was one of the moderate leaders among the ranks and had chosen a middle ground. Who will contain the pro-Pakistan line in the organization remains to be seen. The officer said.
Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah Monday said BJP president Amit Shah has no moral right to call his government corrupt, asserting that none of the Congressmen had gone to jail on graft charges as it had happened during the BJP rule in the state.

"Shah has been saying this repeatedly. He has no moral right to speak about my government," the chief minister said, as he came under attack from Shah.

The BJP president is on a three-day visit to Karnataka since Saturday to galvanise the party for the Assembly polls that is due early 2018.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting on the Mahadayi water dispute issue involving Goa with floor leaders, MPs and MLAs here, Siddaramaiah said, "He (Shah) does not have morality at all, as corrupt are sitting next to him when he is saying things against us. Our's has been a corruption free and scam free government in the last four years. None of us had gone to jail as happened in the previous BJP government," he added.

Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, Shah had on Saturday kicked off his visit to the state, declaring that the party stands united and said, 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government). Terming the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government as "corrupt", he had asked people to overthrow it.
New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday handed over to the Centre a draft of the proposed ordinance it plans to enact to give exemption to students from the NEET examination for admission to government colleges in the state.

Tamil Nadu health secretary J Radhakrishnan handed over the documents to RK Mitra, joint secretary in the Union home ministry, a day after Union minister Nirmala Sitaraman said the Centre would consider such a request for just one year.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET-UG is an entrance examination in India for students who wish to study any graduate medical course in government or private medical colleges in India for MBBS and BDS courses conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

It replaced the All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) and all individual MBBS exams conducted by states or colleges. However, many colleges and institutes had taken a stay order and conducted private examinations for admission to their MBBS and BDS courses.

There is a broad political consensus against the NEET exams in Tamil Nadu, with parties demanding a permanent exemption and not just a temporary relief.

Senior counsel Nalini Chidambaram, who has taken up the cause of students in favour of NEET, described the ordinance as an "eyewash" being done in the name of rural students.

She said the number of rural students seeking admission amounted to just 250 of the 10,000 medical seats in the state. The rural students would not benefit from this ordinance, she said, adding it was being done with an eye on the management quota seats.

Nalini Chidambaram said the ordinance was unconstitutional and would be challenged in courts.
New Delhi: Ahead of Independence Day, three alleged members of different factions of Manipur-based terrorist outfit, Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP-PWG), including its commander-in-chief were arrested, the police said on Monday.

KCP (People War Group) was formed last year in January by the members of KCP-Poirei faction, KCP-Tamnganba faction and KCP-Paikhomba faction under commander-in-chief of KCP-Tamnganba faction Laishram Ranjit Meitei (45).

The KCP-PWG had allegedly carried out attacks on oil tankers in April and June after the oil tankers' association refused to give extortion money to it.

The three men, Meitei, finance secretary of KCP (Lamjanba Khuman (LK) faction) Khumanthem Naobicha Singh (36) and a member of KCP-LK Thoidam Chaothoi (30), were arrested on Sunday, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) PS Kushwah.

They were on the run and had come here to identify a base around Delhi to coordinate their anti-national activities. A team of Delhi Police's Special Cell was working on inputs that Meitei was hiding somewhere in Delhi, said the officer.

It was learnt that he had been staying in Kakarbeta area near the West Bengal-Nepal border but had plans to set up a hideout here to carry out the organisation's anti-national activities, he said.

On the basis of a tip-off, Meitei was arrested near Tibetan Market, ISBT, here along with two other members.

During interrogation, Meitei said that he was the commander-in-chief of the organisation and had earlier been arrested by the Manipur Police. He was on the run for five years, he said.

The second accused, Naobicha, had recently come in contact with Meitei. He also had a police record and was earlier associated with other banned organisations of Manipur.

Prior to coming to Delhi, they were operating from their base at Kakarbeta area near the West Bengal-Nepal border, said the officer.

They were living in Nepal for the last three years to evade arrest from Manipur Police. They used to extort money from government authorities, the local businessmen, private schools, leaders of political parties, operators of oil tankers etc by sending them threatening letters, said Kushwah.

The cadres based at Manipur used to collect extortion money which was later it was distributed between different wings of the outfit. A part of the money was also received by the Nepal-based leaders of these outfits.

In January, the special cell had arrested the self-styled convener of KCP PWG Ranjeet Singh Porai alias Rocky.
Srinagar: One person was killed in south Kashmir's Shopian district during security forces' action on a mob of stone pelters who were protesting after an encounter in which three militants were killed on Saturday, police said.

Mohammad Sayeed Bhat (25) received bullet injuries when security forces used fire to chase away the mob near the encounter site at Avneera in Shopian last night, a police official said.

He said Bhat was taken to a hospital where he succumbed. The official said 12 other persons were injured in the clashes.

This was the second civilian death in the last 12 hours due to the security force's action against protesting mobs.

Another person was killed earlier on Sunday night when security forces fired pellets to chase away a mob of stone-pelting youths in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, police said.

Owais Shafi (22) sustained multiple pellet injuries in his chest at Kakapora in Pulwama and was referred to SMHS Hospital here for treatment, a police official said. He said Shafi was declared dead on arrival by doctors.

With inputs from PTI
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government should hang its head in shame over the death of two persons in a hospital in Vellore district due to the absence of doctors, PMK founder Anbumani Ramadoss said on Monday.

The Ambur Government Hospital, around 190 km from Chennai, should have at least 10 doctors on duty at all times, he said.

"It is highly condemnable that on Sunday nobody was on duty. The hospital employees turned down patients as there were no doctors," he added.

On Sunday, two injured persons were brought to the hospital. "Since no doctors were available in the emergency ward, one of the injured, identified as industrialist Rajkumar, died after two hours," Ramadoss said.

Similarly, a 13-year-old girl Vaishnavi was admitted in the hospital also on Sunday for breathing difficulties.

"A doctor attended to her later but she lost her life," Ramadoss said. According to the leader, the hospital did not have mortuary van. The girl's body was taken home on a two wheeler.

"The loss of lives due to a shortage of doctors is more pathetic than what had happened in a government hospital in Uttar Pradesh where 63 children lost their lives due to lack of oxygen," Ramadoss added.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government official Monday said that adequate arrangements have been made for effective treatment of swine flu in the state.

Giving information in this regard, director of communicable diseases Dr Badri Vishal said, "As per the directives of the Centre, the patients have been categorised as 'A', 'B' and 'C' as per their symptoms. Only the patients, who are in the C category have to be admitted in hospitals. Those who complain of breathing difficulty, chest pain, drowsiness, low blood pressure, blood coming out with sputum and nails turning blue have been kept in the C-category."

Children who complain of high fever, not able to eat food, breathlessness and difficulty in breathing are also categorised in the C category, he said, adding that children showing these symptoms must be hospitalised.

"However, those who complain of mild fever, cough, itching in throat, body pain, headache and diarrhoea need not undertake swine flu test. They come in the B-category. They should refrain from public interaction. These patients should be under observation for 24 to 48 hours, and then their health condition be re-evaluated," he said.

If those in A-category complain of high fever and severe throat itching, they should be isolated in their houses, the director of communicable diseases said.

Some of the ways to prevent spread of swine flu are staying home if a person is sick, washing the hands thoroughly and frequently, covering mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing, staying away from crowds if possible, and reducing exposure within the household.

This year, 695 cases of swine flu have been reported in Uttar Pradesh till 13 August. Out of these, 21 deaths have been reported, according to an official statement by the state director general, medical and health services.
New Delhi: As the clock struck 12 on the night of 14 August, the dinner menu at an iconic hotel in what was then Bombay doffed its cap to a newly independent nation.

The menu  mainly consisting of Indo-French dishes  has been recreated at some Taj hotels across the country to celebrate 70 years of the country's independence.

"While flipping through the archives of Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai one of our associates found the menu from the night of independence. It was shared with head chefs as a valuable piece of history," says Rajesh Wadhwa, Executive Chef at Taj Palace Delhi.

The hotel in the city carefully curated the menu while keeping in mind the ingredients and methods used then, but giving it a modern Indian twist.

The menu, priced at Rs 1947, includes an array of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes celebrating independence  such as the "Consomme a L'indienne" or the "Indian consomme", "Vacherin de peches liberation" and "Poularde Souffle Independence". It will be on offer till 14 August.

"We have retained the Indo-French touches not only in the names of the dishes but also in the core French sauces. We are also presenting the food in sync with the culinary traditions of that year," says Wadhwa.

The three-course meal includes a classic French bouillon broth with chicken, flavoured with cardamom and pepper, a smoked creamy almond soup, "Delices a l'hindustan"- tamarind flavoured cottage cheese tikkas  and the souffle independence  a fluffy three-egg omelette with chicken. The "Paupiette De Saumon Joinville" is pink salmon coated with white sauce and garnished with herbs.

"We did research into how to localise this menu. It took us around ten days to create this elaborated spread. The challenge was to present our guests with a menu which is certainly dated and reminiscent of different times," he says.

The Taj is also offering all serving and retired Indian Armed Forces personnel a special discount of 70 percent across its hotels in India.

"The Taj has been a proud partner in India's journey for Independence. In 1903, our founder Jamsetji Tata built the Taj Mahal Palace hotel as a tribute to India in its journey towards economic and industrial independence," says Chinmai Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer, Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris.

Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was the country's first Governor-General, bid farewell to India from the steps of the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai in 1948.

Independence was ushered in with music, dancing, speeches and merry-making, the hotel states in a release.

"Everyone was very happy and gay," it quotes from its archives a guest, Catherine Courtney, as saying.

"We were dancing round madly. At midnight the lights went out and DF Karaka, who then owned the Current Weekly, got up and made a little speech. Then the lights came on again and behind him, there was the Indian national flag lit up in lights...Outside the Taj the streets were absolutely packed with people," she said.

The guest recalled seeing "hundreds of people" coming up the stairs.

"They were all happy and gay and I said, Jai Hind and they said, Jai Hind".
Ahmedabad: Congress veteran Ahmed Patel has admitted he learnt "bitter lessons" in his Rajya Sabha election when a battery of legislators openly tried to sabotage his winning prospects but asserted it ended up helping the party separate the wheat from the chaff.

In a candid interview to IANS where he spoke about issues afflicting the party, Patel, political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, said: "We will need to be careful in future, keep a close watch and look into individual grievances of party leaders and MLAs."

Asked if this meant rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela was correct in his claims that the problems and aspirations of MLAs were ignored, he said: "Well, not exactly. But we will look into the details and the genuineness of the grievances for sure. But that is no justification for stabbing the party in the back like this."

"It was the toughest electoral battle of my career. I have fought five Lok Sabha elections and four Rajya Sabha, but this was the toughest," the 67-year-old Patel admitted.

"We learnt bitter lessons but we have emerged stronger. This entire episode (of sabotage) has automatically led to purging of people whom we could not trust. We know who is ours and who is not, and who was never," said the Congress leader, who won his fifth term after two votes against him by rebel MLAs got invalidated.

Good riddance of bad rubbish? "No, no, no, don't use such words; not bad rubbish, but those who were not the party's well-wishers have left," said Patel, who belongs to south Gujarat's Bharuch district.

Six Congress MLAs resigned in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha election on 8 August, and eight others, including rebel leader Vaghela, openly cross-voted against the party's official nominee Patel in an election which turned into a battleground with four candidates in the fray for three seats.

Two of them, BJP President Amit Shah and Patel, were the most powerful leaders in their respective parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party was bent upon seeing Patel out  also to snub Sonia Gandhi.

Within 24 hours of Patel's victory, reportedly with the support of the lone Janata Dal-United legislator Chhotubhai Vasava, the eight Congress rebels were sacked, and the party also issued sack letters to the six who had resigned because they had done so after a whip to vote for Patel.

Patel added: "The first and the most important outcome of this election is that there is new spirit and sense of determination, which had dissipated and given way to inertia."

"The mood has changed now. Sometimes it is the will to win alone that overrides and takes care of several issues."

What was in this victory that has sent a current of energy through the party, something that did not happen even after the Congress lost all 26 Lok Sabha seats in 2014?

"When you pull life out of the jaws of death, you don't want it to happen again. All our people, the entire party was made to feel completely helpless by the enemies very much within us. This was not the case in 2014, though it was a humiliating defeat," pointed out Patel, whom Vaghela had promised to vote for, only to take a U-turn at the eleventh hour.

Asked if he was now going to take active charge of the Gujarat Congress and lead from the front, given that he has set the party rank and file a target of 125 seats (in a House of 182), he said an emphatic "No".

"I will be a facilitator, I will keep a much closer watch and do my best possible to meet this target. I am not for chief ministership, if you are suggesting even something remotely like that."

So who is going to channelise this new energy in the party since every leader in the Congress seems to be a chief ministerial candidate, the key party strategist laughs, but admits: "This is a big challenge for us, the tendency to count the eggs even before they are hatched."

So, what do you do with this? "We will sort it out. See, sometimes small distractions and minor tussles blur the big picture, the bottomline. This episode has come as a blessing in disguise. There is a realisation that a victory is now a necessity for survival."

"Once the bottomline becomes your goal, other things start falling in place."

Gujarat is expected to go to the polls in December 2017.

With Vaghela gone, does the Congress have a chief ministerial candidate with state-level stature?

"I won't like to go into Vaghela's claims, but I would say your ability to fetch victory on a tough ground has to be demonstrated through adequate evidence," Patel said, tacitly referring to Vaghela's erstwhile Rashtriya Janata Party's ability to win only four seats.

"We have not thought of a Chief Ministerial candidate, we will do so when the need arises. Right now, the immediate priority is put our house in order," he said.
New Delhi: Days ahead of the 23 August Bawana bye-election, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday claimed that no other government had worked for rural Delhi the way his regime had.

Addressing a rally at Bawana in north Delhi, he also listed out the measures initiated by his government in the last two-and-a-half years for the rural areas.

Referring to Kailash Gahlot, the recently-appointed transport minister, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief said he specifically chose him, so that the issues related to the rural areas could be addressed more efficiently.

Gahlot represents the Najafgarh constituency, a rural area of the national capital.

The bye-election at Bawana was necessitated after AAP's Ved Prakash resigned as the local MLA and subsequently, quit the party to join the BJP.

Kejriwal said his government had been working for over two years to ensure that the land-related rights of the people of rural Delhi were not violated and the matter was now before the Centre.

Listing out the work done by his dispensation, he said the compensation amount for land acquisition was hiked from Rs 53 lakh to Rs three crore after the AAP came to power in Delhi.

However, the chief minister added that the decision was set aside by the lieutenant governor and the issue was now in court.

He also said the education system in the national capital had improved due to the hard work of education minister Manish Sisodia and added that there had been a "major transformation" of the government schools in the last two years.

This was visible in this year's Class VIII examination results, in which the state-run schools outperformed the private schools in Delhi, Kejriwal said.

He added that his government was committed to delivering "world-class education for free" to the children of Delhi.
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday rejected reports of Sonia Gandhi indicating an active political role for daughter Priyanka and termed it as "mischievous instance of fake news" and unnecessary speculation.

"The news is entirely false and baseless," AICC in-charge of media department Randeep Surjewala said in a statement.

"It is a mischievous instance of fake news and unnecessary speculation," he added

Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said it is laughable that the media takes planted news seriously.

"It is mischievous and a fabrication. We reject it," he said.

"These are government planted fabrications and distractions. They require no comment from the Congress, except that I dismiss this," Sharma said.

The Congress leader alleged that the government was busy planting news and distracting the attention of people from their failures and shortcomings.

Sharma, however, cautioned the media not to fall into this "trap of planted news" and said this is to distract attention and focus from what is happening.

He said the government does not want to discuss issues like the failures of this government, non-performance, non-deliverance, rising terrorist attacks, killing of soldiers and jawans, as also what is happening and also what has happened in Gorakhpur.
More often than not outrage in India is opportunistic. The frenzied reaction to death of children in Gorakhpur perfectly exemplifies it.

Those who know Gorakhpur and the adjoining part of eastern Uttar Pradesh can vouch for it that people of the Terai region bordering Nepal are historically exposed to acute privation, epidemic and the worst kind of criminal governance. The death of hundreds of children is an annual feature that scarcely catches attention of the national media.

The reason is not far to seek. After Bir Bahadur Singh died in the late 1990s, the region was bereft of any political stalwart except for the brief stint of Rajnath Singh. In the successive regimes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and later Akhilesh Yadav, eastern Uttar Pradesh was considered to be a backyard with limited electoral relevance to win Lok Sabha or Assembly seats.

As a result, the annual outbreak of deadly vector-borne diseases like malaria and meningitis that results in hundreds of deaths used to create a transient outrage in local media. In Parliament, Yogi Adityanath was often seen expressing his "selective outrage" over the governments inability to contain the epidemic which regularly kills children. In this context, nobody was better placed than him to comprehend the magnitude of the menace.

Unlike in the past when Adityanath used to rake up this issue as an MP, his role as the chief minister required him to take corrective measures long before the killer monsoon season kicked in. He was well aware of the fact that as the monsoon ebbs, the outbreak of epidemic is a given. Yet, he miserably failed as the chief minister. His governments approach to the problem was quite cavalier and quite similar to responses in the past. What seems to have compounded the crime is the manner in which the Centre is also found wanting in reacting to the threat of the epidemic.

But particularly disturbing is the manner in which collective outrage is expressed in a very opportunistic manner. In the past four decades when the state has been ruled by political parties of all denominations (Congress, BJP, SP and BSP), there had never been any serious attempt to contain the epidemic and prevent the deaths of hundreds of children every year. The state bureaucracy made only cosmetic attempts to improve medical facilities during the chief ministership of Bir Bahadur Singh. Since then, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Siddharth Nagar, Kushi Naga, Basti, Bahraich, Gonda and the adjoining Lakhimpur Kheri were regarded as a region where people were doomed to live as second-class citizen. Peoples representatives in the legislative Assembly or Parliament are rarely seen expressing their outrage over the plight of people. Even when they did, it was in a ritualistic manner, like Adityanath did during his stints in Lok Sabha.

Even now those expressing outrage over the deaths of children in Gorakhpur treat the problem as episodic. The cavalier manner in which the countrys policy makers treat our children is an endemic problem. Barely 200 kilometres away from Gorakhpur, 27 children died after they were fed mid-day meals mixed with pesticide in Dharamsthali Gandaman village of Saran district of Bihar on 16 July, 2013. Most of them could have been saved if the primary health centre had facilities. Even in the district hospital at Saran, the doctors were ill-equipped to treat children. The issue that made headlines for many days could hardly do anything to improve the situation in Bihar where health facilities continue to deteriorate.

In fact, the problem lies in the manner in which successive governments at the state and the Center have been treating these problems in a manner which does not take into account a sustained and systematic approach. The fact that a vast region of eastern Uttar Pradesh, bordering a significant part of western Bihar registers as an area with highest mortality rate of newly-born babies and malnutrition among children has hardly been taken up for correction in the government at a serious level.

And it will hardly be surprising if the Gorakhpur tragedy is taken to score brownie points in callously competitive politics. It would require courage of conviction on the part of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Adityanath government at the state to recognise the nature of the problem and initiate correctives in right earnest. This region endowed with natural bounties and the most fertile soil is benighted by criminal governance of a bunch of power-seekers and criminals over the decades.

Children being the most vulnerable are the worst sufferers of this criminality.

It would be worst if this outrage is allowed to subside in face of sops and "chalta hai" approach of a criminalised system. Modi and Aditynath would do well if they take this crisis as an opportunity to radically improve governance in eastern Uttar Pradesh and take measures to rid this area of the menace that routinely takes its toll on children. Perhaps the idea of reaping a demographic dividend will then be better served in action rather than rhetoric.
The agreed-upon theory among the villagers of Boiling Springs was that water from the local side of South Mountain fed into the Bubble near Childrens Lake.

People for years told me the water comes off of the South Mountain chain, South Middleton Township Supervisor Tom Faley said.

He was, therefore, stunned when other news reached his ears. A recent study from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster County indicated that this wasnt the whole story.

This is something hydrogeologists had suspected for decades but had been unable to prove, according to recent F&M graduate and researcher Jake Longenecker.

While some of the water at the Bubble located behind the Boiling Springs Tavern could be traced to this area of South Mountain, most of the water didnt share the same characteristics, he said. Scientists believed for decades that there was another source of the water.

That was where scientists in the past left it.

Longenecker himself may have very well ended up joining those ranks.

In 2015, he was an undergraduate who was already doing graduate-level work in his chosen career path. He worked with mapping and did a project at Indian Echo Caverns. Another student was leaving behind the project to find the Bubbles water source, and Longenecker received approval from geoscience adjunct professor Tim Bechtel to take on the task that others couldnt solve.

It was clear that the usual methods of locating the water source wouldnt be useful. Longenecker understood why so many had abandoned the search.

Thats where I would have left it, he said.

What scientists didnt have then that Longenecker did, however, was access to a NASA satellite.

NASA had just launched a satellite to make data available to the public, he said.

Where precipitation data could be patchy and sparsely available through local channels, the NASA satellite could collect the data for all areas in a uniform fashion. The satellite could tell Longenecker where and when it was raining, which could help determine the source of the water when comparing it to fluctuations in the Bubbles water levels.

Understanding the potentially ground-breaking data, however, was another matter.

Longenecker, with the help of an F&M alumnus, had to create something to make sense of the raw data they collected. Longenecker created the algorithm to find water sources, and his friend coded it to use the data.

The result was so astounding that he thought their ECHO computer program must be incorrect.

Findings

While about 20 percent of the Bubbles water in fact comes from the local part of South Mountain, the source of the other 80 percent was narrowed down to the area of Pigeon Hills in York County near the Maryland border  on the other side of the mountain chain.

But it wasnt just that the source was more than 50 miles away than previously thought. The way the water moved through multiple rock formations and got to this area  where it was thought a type of volcanic rock made it impenetrable to outside water sources  was what concerned Longenecker. What geologists believed for years to be true of the areas geology didnt seem to support ECHOs results.

The geology didnt seem to allow for the water to be coming out of there, he said.

Using ECHO with data for other sites with established water sources  Big Spring in Missouri, Areuse in Switzerland and Sagebach in Austria  it became apparent that the program was functioning fine.

And that means what was thought to be the geology of South Mountain is in question. Longenecker said that, generally, there are a lot of questions now.

It raised more questions than it provided answers, he said with a laugh.

Thats not to say he and his professors  Bechtel and geoscience associate professor Robert Walter  dont already see the usefulness of the program he created. Sourcing a water supply correctly could help with isolating contaminant pathways and pollutant source-identification. The data could also help governments know where not to approve a pig farm based on proximity to an important water source.

Better knowing the source of water could also help establish more accurate flood warning systems for residents.

Though the data hasnt yet been used in such a manner, the study that was published in May has garnered worldwide attention. Longenecker, who finished his undergraduate degree this year, will speak at World Water Week in Sweden at the end of the month.

Even with this breakthrough, there is more work to be done. Longenecker is talking with those at Shippensburg University who are interested in continuing research on the Bubble, which may involve using dye to track the water flow. Longenecker said the dye they use is often colorless and not harmful, but detectable with their equipment.
Cracking a whip against Sharad Yadav loyalists, the Bihar unit of JD(U) on Monday sacked 21 party leaders for anti-party activities, CNN News18 reported.

#Bihar JDU state president Vashistha Narayan Singh suspended 21 party members from their primary memberships over anti-party activities. pic.twitter.com/yEXoYyzOJI  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

According to ANI, among the 21 leaders suspended by Bihar unit chief Vashistha Narayan Singh is Arjun Rai, a former MP from Sitamarhi.

The development assumes significance as Yadav was sacked as the leader of the JD(U) in the Rajya Sabha on Saturday. Yadav was replaced by RCP Singh. A day earlier, the JD(U) had suspended its Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party after he attended a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Ever since Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ended his party's alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress on 27 July to join hands with former ally BJP, Yadav had been at loggerheads with the party leadership.

Showing his disapproval of the new alliance, Yadav had on Thursday said that Nitish had "betrayed the people's mandate".

"The trust of 11 crore people who gave mandate to form the grand alliance government in Bihar was broken. The agreement of 'gathbandhan' (grand alliance) was for five years which was broken...I am hurt by this. I continue to stand for the 'gathbandhan'," he said.

Yadav also claimed that the 'original party' is still with him, hinting at an imminent split within the party. At a function at Sonepur on Thursday, Yadav said, "Sarkari JD(U) is with Nitish Kumar while the original party is with me. The original JD(U) in association with secular forces would form a government after the next general election."

However, notwithstanding Yadav's claim, only former minister Ramai Ram and a handful of partymen were seen with him during his tour of Bihar.

Yadav was on a state-wide tour to hold "direct dialogue" with the people. However, JD(U) under Nitish distanced itself from Yadav's tour.

RJD supporters were, however, seen in large numbers receiving him at Patna airport as well as during his tour indicating Lalu Prasad's wholehearted support to him.



With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The JD(United) Monday said Sharad Yadav has "voluntarily left" the party and rejected his claim of a split in it, asserting that almost every office bearer and all MLAs are with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The party stepped up its attack on Yadav, who has opposed the decision to join hands with the BJP, as it suspended 21 leaders in the state, considered loyal to him, for alleged anti-party activities.

JD(United) spokesperson KC Tyagi said Yadav can still return to the party but will be "useless" for it if he attends RJD chief Lalu Prasad's rally on 27 August. He claimed "98 percent of office bearers, 100 percent of MLAs and 75 percent of state committees" are with Kumar, who is also the party president, as he refuted Yadav's claim of enjoying support of 14 state units.

Bihar JD(United) president Basistha Narayan Singh Monday suspended from primary membership 21 leaders and office bearers including former minister Ramai Ram, ex-MP from Sheohar Arjun Rai, former MLA Raj Kishore Sinha and ex-MLC Vijay Varma.

Despite the JD(United) distancing itself from the recent tour of Sharad Yadav to the state, these 21 leaders and district level office bearers were seen with him.

Tyagi, however, also held out an olive branch to Yadav saying he has "sacrificed" a lot for the socialist cause and will be respected like an elder brother if he comes back. "There is no split in the party. It is as united behind Nitish Kumar as it was until recently. A party does not split if one or two persons leave it ... As far as Sharad ji is concerned, he has left the party voluntarily," he told reporters.

Asked to elaborate, he claimed Yadav was not participating in JD(United) events but those organised by the RJD which indicated that he had left the party. Yadav had been elected to Parliament many times with the support of the BJP, he said, wondering why he was siding with "corruption" when he had opposed it during his entire political career.

Tyagi also said only five state units  Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Jammu and Kashmir  of the JD(United) are recognised in the Election Commission as ones with a say in election of the party president and all except Kerala unit are with Kumar.

Even Kerala unit headed by Rajya Sabha member MP Veerendra Kumar is not supporting Sharad Yadav, Tyagi claimed. He claimed Veerendra Kumar has decided to leave the Congress-led UDF and join the CPM-led LDF in the state.

He also added that JD(United) as a party with its symbol of arrow is recognised only in Bihar.

Tyagi acknowledged that some state units may be with Yadav but added that they have no recognition.

Asked if the party will expel Yadav, he underlined its long association with the veteran leader and said such a decision would be very difficult. "He has spent three years in jail. He has quit the Lok Sabha on moral ground. He is not like Ali Anwar, who did not spend even half-an-hour in any party dharna," he said.

Anwar, a Rajya Sabha member, has stood by Yadav and was suspended from its parliamentary party by the JD(United).

With the RJD and the Congress crediting their alliance with Kumar for his return as chief minister in 2015 assembly polls, Tyagi said it is not Lalu Prasad but Nitish Kumar who has ensured victory of whichever alliance he has joined.

If the Lok Sabha and assembly elections are held today, the Opposition alliance of 16 parties will not win more than two and 15 seats respectively, he claimed, citing vote share if these parties in the 2014 general elections when NDA, RJD and JD(United) had fought elections separately.

Kumar has called a meeting of party national executive in Patna on 19 August.
New Delhi: JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said on Monday that there was no split in the party and that most MPs and MLAs are with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Tyagi said that only rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties, was with senior leader Sharad Yadav.

"Since most of the MPs and MLAs are with Nitish Kumar, so the question of split does not arise," he told reporters in New Delhi.

Ansari along with Sharad Yadav have expressed differences with party chief Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with Congress and RJD and form a government in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Tyagi added that only five state committees of the party are recognised by the Election Commission and all those five state units are with the Chief Minister.

The five state committees include Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, and Dadara and Nagar Haveli.
New Delhi: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and discussed the political situation in the state, including the possibility of the merger of AIADMK factions.

Talking to the media, he said he had detailed discussions with the Prime Minister on the prevailing political situation, the stance of Tamil Nadu government headed by K Palaniswamy and the problems facing the state.

Asked if it would be right to speculate that the merger of the two AIADMK factions headed by him and the chief minister came up for discussion, Panneerselvam said: "You can speculate whatever you want."

AIADMK MP V Maitreyan, who accompanied Panneerselvam, said the political atmosphere in Tamil Nadu was discussed.

"But it would be demeaning to say that the prime minister is involved in the affairs of another party," he added.

Asked about the possibility of AIADMK's merger, Panneerselvam said whatever decision he would take would be in the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu and in accordance with the thinking of the party cadre.
Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday sought to dismiss BJP president Amit Shah's assertion that the saffron party will wrest power in the state assembly polls in 2018, saying his "strategy" of Uttar Pradesh would not succeed in the state.

He also said that any attempt to break the society would not be possible in Karnataka, as "secularism was deep rooted" in the state.

"Yesterday, Amit Shah has arrived here and I am told that he will formulate a (poll) strategy. We are also in the politics for 40 years...but no strategy will be effective (here)," Siddaramaiah said.

Shah, who arrived in Bengaluru on Sunday on a three-day visit to Karnataka to re-energise the rank and file, had said that the BJP in the state was united and it would return to power in the assembly polls under the leadership of state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa.

Speaking at a public event in Kalaburagi, the chief minister said "someone's house may be raided, the ED or the CBI may be sent behind someone..."

"I want to tell Shah that only these things can be done, but communal activities or attempts to break the society is impossible on Karnataka's land, as this is the land of Basavanna, Kuvempu and Kanakadasa where they have sown the seeds of secularism that has grown into a huge tree today," he said.

Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, Shah had on Sunday declared that the party was united and said, 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government).

Calling Siddaramaiah-led Congress government as "corrupt", he had asked the people to over throw it.

Hitting back at Shah, Siddaramaiah today said the BJP's strategy would not be successful in Karnataka.

"They say, they did a strategy for Uttar Pradesh, they will also do here. Why they couldnt do it in Punjab, Goa, and Manipur? It is impossible to do any such strategy in Karnataka," he said.

Targeting Yeddyurappa, the chief minister termed his target of winning 150 of the 224 assembly seats in the polls due early next year an "illusion".

"Wherever he goes and come, he speaks about mission 150, it's only an illusion," Siddaramaiah said.
IANS

A senior official of China's Weiqi Association (CWA) said on Sunday that it's lucky for both AlphaGo and Weiqi when they met, which brought the best in each other.

Riding over human player demonstrates the AlphaGo, or the Artificial Intelligent (AI), has upgraded the capability to a new level, Xinhua quoted Hua Yigang, deputy chairman of CWA, as saying.

Meanwhile, AlphaGo helps human players explore new ways of gaming. Hua visited Houston for an event of amateur Weiqi (or Go) tournament, which lasted two days during 12 - 13 August, attracting more than 20 players with ages ranging from seven to 74.

AlphaGo is a narrow AI computer program that plays the board game Go. It was developed by Alphabet Inc.'s Google DeepMind in London in October 2015. It became the first computerised Go program to beat a human professional Go player without handicaps on a full-sized 19x19 board.

In March 2016, it beat Lee Sedol in a five-game match, the first time a computer Go program has beaten a 9-dan professional without handicaps. In the 2017 Future of Go Summit which was held in China, AlphaGo beat Ke Jie, the world No.1 ranked player at the time, in a three-game match.

Hua said he is glad that Weiqi is getting popular in the US as well as in the European countries, especially in the wake of the very first appearance of the AlphaGo. He believes the Internet and the computer programmes would be useful platform and tool and players across the world can take advantage of them to improve their ability.
tech2 News Staff

Opera has decided to discontinue its Opera Max application. The company announced the change in direction in a blog post on its website. The main reason for the shut down was because Opera wants to focus on browsers and other upcoming services.

Opera Max was released as an application in 2014 which allowed users to manage as well drastically reduce data usage across applications in the Android ecosystem. The app will no longer receive updates in the future and it 'has also been delisted' from the Google Play Store. The interesting part about the delisting is that we could still access the app in Google Play Store at the time of writing.

The company mentioned that in the post that "The product had a substantially different value proposition than our browser products, and represented a different focus for Opera. We, therefore, focus on our browsers and other upcoming services."

The company, however, clarified that existing Opera Max users will be able to continue using the service for the time being. A termination of server-side support will take place soon, about which users will be informed ahead.

The news of the discontinuation of Opera Max comes as a surprise as the application was awarded for 'Innovation in Mobile First Markets' by Meffys as recently as December 2016. Opera Max was awarded after its success in Africa, enabling users to adapt to the smartphone revolution thanks to its advanced data compression technology which helped cut data cost by up to 50% on mobile data as well as WiFi.

The app also helped save data on streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. Opera had also recently introduced a privacy mode on the app, providing an extra layer of protection on connections while saving data.
IANS

Saudi Arabia's public prosecution has issued an order to summon a group of Twitter users who have been charged with criminal offence for promoting extremism, media reports said on 13 August.

These Twitter users are accused of "influencing the integrity and moderation of the intellectual curriculum of the society with harmful participations that took the seriousness of extremism leading to the misguided campaign of thought."

The names of those summoned and the nature of their posts haven't been revealed. Saudi Arabia's public prosecution has warned of legal actions against those who will carry contents that are harmful to the society  regardless of its material, pretexts, and means of publication, Xinhua reported.

This includes media publications, social media, lectures, speeches, books and others. This act is part of many steps by Saudi Arabia to fight extremism and terrorism that could affect the security of the state.

The country has registered a number of deadly blasts in recent years by terror cells that are backed by the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

This news comes after Al-Alam, a state-run Iranian news agency, had accused earlier in the month of July that hackers from Saudi Arabia were posting a fabricated news story on their Twitter account, according to reports by CNN.
IANS

Indian insurance companies are lagging their global counterparts in increasing investment in digital technologies and will need to adopt technology required to launch products that meet customer needs, a study by industry chamber CII said on 13 August.

"Global average investment in digital technologies is increasing over the years, while the insurance industry in India is lagging, both in its level of digitalisation and its ability to realise financial returns on its digital investments," said a joint CII-PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report.

The report on Evolving Considerations for the Indian Insurance Industry also said that with increasing smartphone penetration and internet access, insurance companies will need to adapt to the modern customer needs by adopting the new technological infrastructure.

"Insurers must adapt to new-age customers' needs, leverage on the explosion of data and digital footprint and the changing investment environment," the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in a release here.

"Mobile adoption and internet trends under Digital India banner are bringing in a new generation of customers who are conversant and comfortable with using technology for their financial decisions.

"It is important to adapt to strategies that align with these changing trends to stay ahead of competition," it added.

Leveraging low-cost digital distribution channels for sales and service is likely to play a significant role in helping insurance companies deepen market penetration, the report said.

Moreover, simplification of processes will also lead to some degree of uniformity in the expectations of customers.

"There needs be a simplification of products in the areas of policy benefit, wording of policy, application process and the claim process," CII said.

"The insurers could focus on 'One Need One Product' scenario, where customers are provided simplified products that cater to their specific needs," it added.

The report also said that with digitalisation, insurance companies should be wary of new methods of fraud.

It stresses on three key areas relevant to the insurance sector, simple products and low-cost distribution, digitisation and fraud management, and broadening the investment horizon.
Sydney: Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said on Monday he may not be eligible for parliament after being told he may be a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand, potentially posing a threat to the conservative government's hold on power.

Australian politicians are not eligible to be elected to parliament if they hold dual or plural citizenship, a rule that has forced the resignation of two senators in recent weeks.

Joyce is the leader of the rural-based National party, the junior partner in the centre-right Liberal-National coalition government that has just a single seat majority in parliament. The government's majority would be eliminated if Joyce was forced from office, likely triggering an election, political analysts said.

Joyce, who was born in Australia, said he was told by New Zealand officials last week that he may be a citizen by descent. His mother was Australian and his father was born in New Zealand and came to Australia in 1947 as a British subject. "Neither I nor my parents have ever had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country," he said.

Joyce asked for the matter to be referred to Australia's High Court for a ruling on his eligibility. He said he would not resign or temporarily step down from office after being told by Australian Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue that he was likely to be cleared by the High Court.

However, should the High Court rule against him, it would likely end Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government. If Joyce was disqualified, Turnbull would be forced to rely on the support of independents to prevent a successful no- confidence vote from the opposition Labour Party.

"I think if Joyce is forced out, Turnbull would call an election," said Peter Chen, a senior lecturer in government at the University of Sydney.

Recent polls suggest Turnbull would lose an early election, with his government bleeding support to the populist far-right One Nation party, while moderates have flocked to Labour as Turnbull struggles to deliver on his progressive reputation.
The Farmington R-7 School District announced classes will be canceled on Aug. 21.

On Monday, the district released the following press release:

The Farmington R-7 administrative team with the board of education have conducted a careful review of the most current district data on potential safety concerns and staff/student attendance. Concentrated attention was given to both the magnitude of the event as well as the potential scope of unknown factors in our area. The district holds the safety of students as a mandate each day of the school year. This most recent analysis has led to a decision to cancel school on Monday, Aug. 21.

The multitude of educational opportunities that this eclipse will provide, drove the initial decision to maintain a regular school day. Many of our staff members have planned engaging activities that span from the first day of school on Aug. 16, through the eclipse on the 21st, and beyond. Most of the learning opportunities planned, will be maintained and continue after the eclipse. Our staff members are to be commended for their commitment to every student, every day.

Farmington Superintendent Matt Ruble sent the following statement after the announcement was made.

"As I have stated from the first planning sessions back in the spring of 2017, I really wanted to be in session for our students on the day of the Eclipse," he wrote. "Sadly, the more information we gathered the more it became clear that we were fighting an uphill battle.

"I sent out an e-mail to our district leaders and staff late Monday morning letting them know that I truly appreciate their efforts to plan and make this event something to remember. I know we will still use the days leading up to the 21st as well as the days after to help our students understand, appreciate and safely experience this amazing opportunity!"

The release states ISO-approved viewing glasses will be sent home with every student in the district on Friday along with a guide to safe viewing. A rescheduled attendance date for Aug. 21 will be announced soon.

Farmington was the last of the local districts to announce plans to close on the date of the total solar eclipse. A survey was handed out to parents during open house asking if they would be keeping their child home from school on that date or  if school was in session  attending activities with their child at the school.
Sydney: Australia's Crown Resorts said on Monday that China had released all of the casino group's employees who were detained as part of a gambling crackdown in 2016.

Mogul James Packer's gaming company said the last of the 19 current and former Crown employees had been set free after being held for 10 months.

"Crown is pleased that all of our employees have now been released and reunited with their families and loved ones," executive chairman John Alexander said.

The executives were accused of breaching local anti-corruption laws by organising banned gambling activities overseas for wealthy Chinese.

The episode prompted a major restructure at Crown, which runs its flagship casino in Melbourne and is also developing a large gaming resort in Sydney.

With revenues from Chinese high rollers waning, Crown last year sold its stake in Macau's Melco joint venture and shelved plans for a Las Vegas casino last year, instead concentrating on its Australian operations.

Shares in Crown Resorts were down 0.87 percent at Aus$11.60 in early afternoon trade on Monday on the Australian stock exchange.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant late on Sunday in Burkina Faso's capital, killing at least 17 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours of Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. Among the dead was at least one French national.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armoured vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalised and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.
Its been going on for a long time in our country, US President Donald Trump said after a car plowed into a crowd of peaceful anti racist protestors Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one woman and injuring at least 19.

With snarling faces, flares in their hands and armed with assault weapons, white supremacists walked the streets near the Blue Ridge mountains with second hand slogans from the Holocaust - Unite the Right, blood and soil, Jew will not replace us, Do you want your grandson to be brown?.

Trump did not condemn, in clear and precise language, the ugly and naked racism of a sea of white racist men promising to deliver Trumps promises.

What did Trump say instead thats being celebrated as victory by the same racist men?

We ALL must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

Although none of the white men or KKK supporters got killed, they are painting themselves as the victims in that part of Trumps statement which fits best - There is no place for this kind of violence in America.

Why?

Because the local police turned out in riot gear.

Ive never been this offended in my life, snarls one of the self proclaimed thought criminals who led the march of racist men with loaded guns slung onto their shoulders.

Your heads gonna spin, how many times were going to be back here . . . Were going to make Charlottesville the center of the universe. We are US citizens, we have rights here, is one of the many threats circulating on Twitter by those proclaiming a propaganda win for the white supremacists.

As clamour grew for Trump to name the villians, the White House stepped in and issued an add-on statement: The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

Trump is deemed to have said it, but it hasnt come from him, its not on his Twitter, it doesnt have the Trump stamp on it.

On the same day, Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump posted on her handle that there should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis. Fox, Trumps pet telly network tweeted the same text superimposed on an outsize picture of Trumps favourite daughter.

Trump, who routinely retweets Ivanka and Fox, hasnt retweeted this one.

For the wingnuts, this is the crack where the light gets in.

When Trump wants to put his stamp on stuff, he does it with lightning speed and attitude - hes been relentless on North Korea, tweeting non stop from his vacation home in Bedminster.

When Trump wants to raise the drawbridge on Americas borders back to the way it was before 1965, he makes a special appearance in the White House, he praises the RAISE Act to the skies.

Its not what Trump said about racism in Charlottlesville that everyones talking about, its what he did not say.

Its what they dont say that fires up tight and jealous nationalism.

Not just in America.

Elsewhere too.

Look at these tweets, posted after the Charlottseville horror.

Today, the Gov. of Virginia reinforced the truth - George Washington was an American hero... good thing we are simply FREE SPEECH advocates! pic.twitter.com/KcM3sXxXYO  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) August 13, 2017

Goodnight, "Charlottesville" - thanks for showing America what we are dealing with... see you soon. pic.twitter.com/MupK8whUch  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) August 13, 2017

Trump is right. This has been going on for a long time.

Long before live video streaming gave us proof.

You feel it in the edge of a remark, a hard look, a car overtaking you from the left on a packed highway, an army of plus size men dressed in leather jackets and riding on Harley Davidsons tailgating you.

You see it in the discordant colours of wigs that many African Americans wear - blond, brunette, straight locks sitting atop matted hair, the unceasing striving to be more like them.

Nobody talks about it, but they (the whites) dont think were equal, an African American woman says to me.

Thats why we spend so much time at nail salons and parlours. We dont have straight hair and lighter skin but we do have nice eyes and eyelashes so we take a lot of time to accentuate that which the whites envy, she continued.

I spend at least an hour in front of the mirror before I get to work. Its important, she says.

This conversation happened in McLean, one of the states toniest urban neighbourhoods, where Narendra Modi came to address the Indian diaspora, where the CIA headquarters resides.

That place called Charlottesville in not urban America. Its a good 80 miles from the burbs where Washington DCs office goers live in Virginia.

Charlottlesville is where you go to see the scarlet and crimson colours of Fall, its the visual mooring for John Denvers Take me home, country roads, its where brown and black skin tones are like warts which erupt seasonally, colours that dont belong.

These are places where the silent majority that Trump wooed easelessly is now baring its white fangs. These are not big, cosmopolitan cities but remote towns, where racism is swaddled by the things politicians wont say.

Trump isnt the only man who doesnt leave fingerprints.

Trump is in your workplace.

Look around you, check your phone.

Its the retweet that hasnt yet happened, the mail that hasnt been answered.

Trump is right. It's been going on for a long time.

This is what's new: After similar attacks in Nice, London and Palestine, the speeding car has arrived as a new murder weapon in the USA.

Updating: A full 48 hours after the violence in Charlottesville and considerable pressure from all around plus his daughter's (undeniable) influence, Trump called out the KKK, white supremacists by name.
Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday slammed as "disgusting" the role of white supremacists in a violent protest in Virginia and an "evil attack" against counter-demonstrators that left one woman dead, her spokesman said.

In sharply worded remarks, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert expressed shock at the weekend rally by Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists in Charlottesville.

"The scenes at the right-wing extremist march were absolutely repulsive - naked racism, anti-Semitism and hate in their most evil form were on display," he told reporters.

"Such images and chants are disgusting wherever they may be and they are diametrically opposed to the political goals of the chancellor and the entire German government."

Seibert said Merkel stood in solidarity "with those who peacefully oppose such aggressive, far-right views".

He underlined "how much the chancellor regrets the death of a woman who fell victim" to "an evil attack" by a car driver.

Asked about possible links between German neo-Nazi groups and the Charlottesville marchers, Seibert said he was unaware of any connection and expressed confidence that US authorities would conduct a thorough investigation.

One woman died and 19 people were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of people after the rally by white supremacists turned violent. Two state police officers died in a helicopter crash near the area.

Some of the marchers used Nazi symbols, slogans and gestures that have been explicitly banned in Germany since World War II.

President Donald Trump has come in for virulent criticism after an initial failure to explicitly condemn the white nationalists for their role in the protest.

A full day after the violence erupted, the White House insisted Sunday that Trump's condemnation included all such groups.
Washington: The violence in Charlottesville in which a suspected white supremacist rammed a car on a crowd of protesters fits the definition of "domestic terrorism", US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday.

The Trump administration has been on defensive after the weekend violence by hundreds of supporters and members of the various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who converged in Charlottesville to protest against the removal of statue of Robert Lee, an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

Sessions was referring to the incident of a white supremacist allegedly driving his car into a crowd of counter protestors that resulted in the death of a woman and injuries to 19 others.

"It (violence) does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute. We are pursuing it with the Department of Justice in every way we can make it a case," Sessions told ABC's 'Good Morning America'.

"You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America, so absolutely that is a factor that we will be looking at," he said.

Sessions said by such acts, neo-Nazi groups were trying to legitimise themselves.

"They are simply attempting to legitimate themselves in any way possible. They are going to find out we are going to come after them for any violations of the law," he said.

Various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have been praising President Donald Trump, saying that they voted for him. This has come as a major embarrassment for Trump who returned for a day to the White House from his more than a fortnight-long working summer vacation at his gold course resort in New Jersey. The White House has defended Trump.

"The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday (Sunday) that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK (Ku Klux Klan) Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

The FBI is investigating the incident and Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the violence by these groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, a University town about 193 kilometres southwest of Washington.

Sessions said he is confident that the American people will reject this kind of evil ideology.

"We need to take it seriously. Amazingly, Nazism remains alive out of all the evil it has incurred or caused in the world, so I think we take this seriously. We go at it directly, morally, legally, politically, legitimately, in any way possible to reject this kind of ideology that causes division and hatred in America. It is just not part of our heritage," the Attorney General added.
Beijing: Days after the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama cancelled his visit to Botswana, China said its ties with the African country will progress smoothly.

Beijing said it "attaches great importance" to Botswana where state-run Chinese companies are engaged in infrastructure building.

Botswana had invited the Dalai Lama to speak at the three-day human rights conference in the capital Gaborone, to which he had confirmed his presence. The event begins on 17 August.

However, China was angry and warned Botswana against hosting the Dalai Lama, who has been demanding greater autonomy in China's Tibet.

On Saturday, the Dalai Lama said he was cancelling his Botswana visit due to "exhaustion".

"His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest," a statement said.

Reacting to the development, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said: "China firmly opposes the Dalai Lama to go to any country to engage in anti-China activities in any capacity or name.

"China attaches great importance to its friendly cooperation with Botswana. We hope the bilateral relations will move forward steady and sound way," she said.

China slams any country that invites or maintains contact with the Dalai Lama who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising in Tibet. He has lived in India since then.
Pyongyang: China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Tuesday as it implements new UN sanctions, the commerce ministry said Monday.

Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions against its diplomatic ally after coming under pressure from the United States to do more to compel Pyongyang to drop its nuclear weapons programme.

The ministry said on its website that all imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood will be "completely prohibited" from Tuesday.

The announcement follows days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un's regime, which has raised international alarm.

The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on 6 August that could cost the hermetic country $1 billion a year.

The sanctions were in response to the North's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States.

The US has accused China, which is North Korea's main economic lifeline, of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour.

But Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi vowed after the UN sanctions were given the green light that his country "will for sure implement that new resolution 100 percent, fully and strictly".
Washington: India and China should engage in direct dialogue free of any "coercive aspects" to reduce the tension over a military standoff in Doka La, the Pentagon has said.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off in Doka La area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

"We encourage India and China to engage in direct dialogue aimed at reducing tensions and free of any coercive aspects," Gary Ross, a defence department spokesman told PTI.

Ross, however, refused to take sides on the issue.

"We refer you to the governments of India and China for further information.We are not going to speculate on such matters," Ross said when asked if the Pentagon fears the tension may escalate between India and China.

The US State Department too has made similar statements over the past week.

In recent years, almost all neighbours of China have accused Beijing of coercive tactics to settle border disputes.

The standoff in Doka La is seen as part of the same tactic to change the status quo in the area. India has taken a strong stand against the Chinese "unilateral action".

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is to head to Beijing for a meeting of BRICS' NSAs next week. He is expected to discuss the issue with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

Earlier this week, a top Pentagon Commander told US lawmakers that China was exploiting its economic leverage as a way to further its regional political objectives.

"As China's military modernisation continues, the United States and its allies and partners will continue to be challenged to balance China's influence," General Paul Selva, USAF, said in written response to questions to the Senate Armed Services Committee for his reconfirmation as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Selva said deterring war is an exercise in influencing China's decision calculus, making diplomacy preferable to conflict and managing crises in such a manner that they do not unintentionally escalate.

"To do this, the Joint Force will engage with the Chinese military within Congressionally mandated limits, build alliance capacity through close cooperation, and uphold international law through appropriate operations," he said.
Paris: French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday condemned an overnight assault by presumed jihadists on a Turkish restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, calling it a "terrorist attack".

In a statement, Macron also praised the "effective mobilisation" of the Burkina security forces in ending the assault, which left at least 18 people dead, including at least one French national, according to Paris prosecutors.

Macron and his counterpart in the former French colony, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, will discuss the situation, his office said in a statement.

France remains committed to pursuing the fight against terrorist groups in west Africa and accelerating work to set up a planned Sahel force to fight jihadists, the statement said.

Macron visited the region in early July, when he said he wanted the force, which will initially count some 5,000 troops and begin its operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, to be operational by the end of August.
India and Pakistan mark their 70th year of existence on 14 and 15 August. Seventy years ago, both nations stared at an uncertain future after the tumultuous episode of Partition, which killed more than a million people on either side of the new border.

As Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah were addressing their respective Constituent Assemblies, they knew the task ahead was not going to be easy. Both nations lacked the institutions that could sustain the test of time. Democracy was an alien concept in both countries  more so in Pakistan. A model of governance had to be institutionalised through a written Constitution. Moreover, both nation-states had a myriad of socio-political issues to resolve  ethnic and linguistic sub-nationalism, role of religion in state affairs, devolution of power to constituents and implementing land reforms.

While both countries faced similar socio-economic issues, India had the advantage of being the successor state of the British Raj. In 1947, India was home to about a quarter of the world population and ranked among the top five industrialised nations in the world. Pakistan, on the other hand, was nothing more than an amputated piece of land without a coherent industrial base or even a capital city.

In the backdrop of such challenges, Nehru and Jinnah came up with impressive inaugural speeches. While Nehrus Tryst with Destiny speech set the tone for Indias future role as a responsible voice of the third world, Jinnahs secular State speech sought to position Pakistan as a country where every citizen, irrespective of his religion will be treated equally.

Although, Jinnahs speech sounded an antithesis of the very concept of Pakistan  a state for the Muslims of India. However, both leaders would not have had the slightest of idea on how the destinies of their countries would pan out in the next seven decades.

The sheer power of personalities

India had Jawaharlal Nehru at the helm of affairs till his death in May 1964, while Jinnah lost his battle against tuberculosis within 13 months of Pakistans creation as a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent.

Strong personalities have often shaped the early destinies of countries. Kemal Pasha Ataturk ruled modern-day Turkey from 1923 to 1938, transforming the Islamic Caliphate into a modern secular republic. Similarly, George Washington, the founding father of the United States, led the world's first oldest democracy, first as a military leader and then as its inaugural president, in the process creating an edifice by which the country still stands by  more or less.

Despite all his flaws, Nehru was an institution builder, creating and nurturing several institutions that have endured the test of time. The Election Commission  arguably the best-run State institution  is perhaps the single biggest contribution of Nehru.

Whether every Nehruvian institution was effective is still debatable, but nevertheless, Nehru turned his vision of a socialist, democratic and secular India into reality before he passed away on 27 May 1964.

Nehrus impact on Indias early history can be gauged by the fact that it was a young Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had paid the richest tribute to his dear Panditji in the Rajya Sabha:

"A dream has remained half-fulfilled, a song has become silent, and a flame has banished into the Unknown. The dream was of a world free of fear and hunger; the song a great epic resonant with the spirit of the Bhagwad Gita and as fragrant as a rose, the flame a candle which burnt all night long, showing us the way. Mother Indias beloved prince has gone to sleep.

Jinnah died too soon to turn his vision of a Turkey-like Pakistan into reality. However, historians still debate whether Pakistan could have become South Asia's Turkey had Jinnah lived long enough to fulfil his dream of emulating his idol Ataturk.

But history is the saga of many ifs and buts.

The reticent Jinnah never developed a second generation of leadership in the Muslim League. When asked who all he thought helped him achieve Pakistan, Jinnah remarked, I, my secretary and his typewriter.

Jinnahs death created a huge void in the national leadership, which could never really be filled. Pakistan struggled with political instability, the Constitution took nine years to take shape, while the idea of democracy failed in the nascent nation-state.

Indias Damocles Swords

In 1958, General (later field marshal) Ayub Khan took over the reins of the country. Since then, the military has shaped the destiny of Pakistan, either directly or indirectly.

Towards the end of 1960s, Ayub had strengthened the militarys hold over the State machinery and inaugurated a Constitution establishing a presidential form of government, elected by basic electors  a concept which was as vague as it sounds.

Meanwhile, India had begun to take baby steps into the world of democracy. Proving critics wrong, India successfully held four general elections. The Centre, aided by several states, also introduced legislations to implement land reforms, albeit with limited success.

Between mid-1950s and 1960s, India witnessed the climax in two major issues: official language and language-based statehood.

Nehru for the record was opposed to idea of creating states based on languages, fearing the rise of sub-nationalism. While Nehrus fears might have been true to some extent, the move ultimately helped India to enrich the edifice of federalism  an idea which was already enshrined in the Constitution.

The federalism debate was compounded by linguistic zeal in non-Hindi parts of India. While the federalism debate was being settled, the issue of a common language propped up. With none of the languages being spoken by the majority, the question was always expected to be the Damocles Sword for the Centre.

As the Centres deadline of 31 January, 1965  the day Hindi would become the sole official language  approached, Tamil Nadu erupted against the decision. Other non-Hindi speaking states like West Bengal too voiced their dissent. It took days of rioting in Tamil Nadu for the Centre to scrap the idea.

In 1967, the Union government amended the Official Languages Act, 1963 to allow English to continue as a link language until the Parliament passes a resolution to reverse the decision. The Constitution had already accorded the status of official language to 14 (now 22) languages through the VIIIth Schedule of the Constitution.

Thus, India was saved from possible Balkanisation. Although debatable, one can say that India could take such decisions, partly due to its perceived commitment to socialist and pluralistic ideals along with the strong leadership provided by the Congress party.

But the language issue turned out to be the death knell for the two nation theory in Pakistan.

A farce called two-nation theory

Pakistan was the product of the two-nation theory  a belief that Hindus and Muslims had always been separate nationalities within India. It did not matter whether Indian Muslims came from different cultures and ethnicity. The proponents of the theory believed that religion will be the glue to stick every Indian Muslim.

However, the theory proved to be farcical from 1950s onwards, when ethnic sentiments emerged in East Bengal over the alleged economic and cultural indifference by Pakistan's western wing.

Separated from each other by over a thousand miles, religion was the only common factor between the two wings of the country.

The obsession with the theory meant that ethnic and language issue was never given serious consideration.

Since the establishment of Pakistan, it was amply made clear that Urdu would continue to be the national language of the newly-carved nation-state. This is what Jinnah said in a speech at Dhaka:

Let me make it clear to you that the State language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead is merely the enemy of Pakistan. Without one State language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the State language is concerned, Pakistan's language should be Urdu; but, as I have said, it will come in time.

Nevertheless, Bengali was made an "official language" along with Urdu, but it remained so only on paper. Bengali, as conventional wisdom suggested, was always considered a Hindu language, while Urdu came to be signified as the symbol of Islam in the Subcontinent.

Federalism as an idea never took off in Pakistan.

In 1955, four provinces of the western wing  Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  were unified under the One Unit scheme to bring "parity" between the two wings of Pakistan. The plan also nullified the numerical advantage of the Bengalis, ending up alienating the eastern wing. The controversial scheme was ultimately scrapped in 1970.

The Anti-Bengali sentiment transgressed the economic realm too. The eastern wing was discriminated in the allocation of central funds, with western wing receiving 70 percent of the funds between 1950 and 1970.

All these factors forced Awami leader Mujibur Rahman to seek more autonomy in the 1960s. However, Pakistans military dictatorship brooked no dissent as Mujibur and fellow leaders were jailed for their demands.

Things reached the nadir, when Bengali nationalists declared independence in March 1971. Nine months later, Bangladesh was born.

Bhuttoism and Indiras India

Nine months before India entered the 13-day war with Pakistan which created Bangladesh, Indira Gandhi comprehensively won the fifth general elections. But Indiras ascendancy also sowed the seed for her ultimate ouster.

With a mammoth parliamentary majority and control over most of Indias state governments, Indira wielded absolute power. But as John Dalberg-Acton once said, "Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely." Indira's new found absolute power soon came under Opposition's fire.

The anti-Indira sentiment reached its zenith when the Centre declared Emergency in June 1975. In the next 18 months, Opposition was suppressed, media was silenced, lakhs were forcefully sterilized and a 20-point economic programme was enforced: all this only because she was convicted for electoral malpractice.

While "Indira's India" was flirting with authoritarianism, a truncated Pakistan finally saw the dawn of democracy under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1973, Bhutto became Pakistans first democratically elected leader after drafting the countrys third Constitution.

For the first time in Pakistan's political history, a government pursued an ideology-based policy. Bhutto embarked on a socialist sojourn, nationalising heavy industries, addressing labour issues, implementing two phases of land reforms  with limited success and improving ties with the Warsaw Pact countries. In the process, Bhutto created a political ideology called "Bhuttoism".

It was probably the only time in subcontinent's history when both countries seemed to be on the same page on the question of economy.

1977: watershed year in the Subcontinent

If 1947 was the year both countries won their Independence, 1977 was the year when the destinies of two countries took completely opposite turns.

After the Emergency was lifted in March 1977, Indira was booted out and the hodgepodge coalition Janata Party led by Morarji Desai came to power. Although the coalition collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, the Janata experiment proved for the first time that the hegemonic Congress could be defeated.

While India applied the break on authoritarianism, Pakistan applied reverse gear to return to dictatorship.

On 5 July, 1977, General Muhammad Zia ul Haq overthrew the democratically elected Bhutto government. The racoon-eyed Zia cruelly put his former boss Bhutto to death in an obscure murder case and went on to rule for 11 years. Lacking a constituency of his own, Zia introduced Sharia law in a bid to gain the approval of Islamists. While reneging on his promise to hold elections till 1985, Zia consolidated the military as part of Operation Cyclone  the covert US plan to back Mujahideens in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.

Zia's policies created the mullah-military complex  a byword for rabid Islamisation of the State machinery. The dominant moderate voices were sidelined while Islamism gained ground in Pakistan.

The general was also single-handedly responsible for the rise of Pakistan as the "motherboard of terrorism".

When Zia was planning a non-party election in 1985, Rajiv Gandhi had just won the largest ever mandate in India's history. Indias youngest prime minister brought about many reforms in India's democratic system such as penalising defections to bring long-term political stability, and reducing the voting age from 21 to 18.

Rajiv also gave the initial impetus to empowering India's urban and rural local bodies. In 1992, his idea took form of the 11th and 12th Schedule of the Constitution.

The contrast between Zia and Rajiv administrations could not be starker than this: when Rajiv was overhauling the education system through the 1986 National Education Policy, Zia regime was busy promoting Jinn sciences with Saudi Arabias backing.

Going nuclear amid uncertainty

India and Pakistan were again at the cross-roads of destiny in the mid-90s.

India had three prime ministers  HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral and Vajpayee  between 1996 and 1999. Coalition politics seemed to be failing once again after the Janata Party and National Front debacles.

While India was struggling with coalition politics in its 50th year of Independence, Pakistan had elected its most powerful government. In the February 1997 elections, Nawaz Sharif secured his second term as prime minister with a two-third majority.

If 1977 was politically significant in Subcontinents history, 1998 will go down in history as the year that changed the strategic balance of the region.

India conducted its first thermonuclear tests  Shakti I and II  on 11 and 13 May while Pakistan followed up with its own tests codenamed Chagai I and II on 28 and 30 May.

While many argued that the threat of nuclear war loomed after 1998, experts like Sumit Ganguly believed that the nuclear power has brought about a deterred both countries from going for an all-out war fearing MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). However, in his book, India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia, Ganguly also added that Pakistan would indulge in more unconventional warfare, emboldened by its nuclear capabilities.

In less than a year, however, the political situation in the nuclear-armed neighbourhood changed; that too in a matter of less than 48 hours in October 1999.

A day before Vajpayee was to take oath as the leader of the first majority-enjoying coalition government in Indias history, General Pervez Musharraf disposed Sharif on the night of 12 October 1999. And the reason for Vajpayees ascendency to power and Sharifs downfall was the same: Kargil War.

Vajpayee went on to become the father of modern coalition politics. The UPA I and II governments that followed NDA I, as well as the current NDA II regime have proved the power of coalition dharma.

Time to re-route our destinies in the 21st Century?

In the 21st Century, both India and Pakistan have been victims of Islamist terror. Although, in Pakistans case, it was more of its own doing. While the bane of terrorism binds us, Pakistans sponsorship of terrorism sets us apart.

In 2013, Pakistan saw a democratic transition of power for the first time  a significant event in the countrys chequered democracy. However, no Pakistan prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term. The one who was expected to break the jinx  Sharif  was recently dismissed by the Pakistan Supreme Court on corruption charges.

Our neighbour is yet again passing through a phase of political uncertainty. But the army does not seem to be taking over the reins of the country. When Pakistan goes to polls in early 2018, it will be the first time since Independence that two consecutive governments would have completed their full terms. This will be a good sign for democracy in the country.

Meanwhile, India under Narendra Modi  arguably the strongest prime minister after Indira  is witnessing the resurgence of the right-wing, the gradual repudiation of the Nehruvian legacy and the restructuring of Indias governance model.

There is however one question that needs to be asked.

Will there be any period in future when both nations would simultaneously be moving on the path of stability?

Nobody can answer the question right now. Only time will tell whether destiny will keep the two nation-states moving on opposite directions or help bring them closer at some point.
Lahore: Pakistan's banned militant outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which recently launched a political party, on Sunday fielded a candidate against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif's wife Kulsoom for the seat which fell vacant after the former premier's disqualification.

Headed by Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) announced the formation of 'Milli Muslim League' (MML) in Islamabad on 7 August following weeks of campaign in Punjab's provincial capital Lahore.

Ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMN-L) party members Asif Kirmani and Captain Safdar filed the nomination papers of Kulsoom, who is in her late 60s, for the upcoming by-poll for the NA-120 seat at the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) Lahore office on Friday.

The National Assembly seat fell vacant after 67-year-old Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case on 28 July.

"We will protect the people's especially women rights. Khidmat (service) committees will be set up at union council level to ensure serving the people at the grass roots," said MML President Saifullah Khalid at a large rally 'Istehkaam Pakistan Conference' held on the Mall Road in Lahore.

Khalid said his party would provide an "honest" leadership to the country and also announced launching of a movement to revive Pakistan's ideology.

"We will defend Pakistan's ideology at any cost. We will also defend the constitution of 1973. The MML will promote unity in the country," he said, adding that supporting Kashmir's freedom struggle "is part of our faith".

"We will defend Pakistan's ideology. Our rulers are incapable to rule," said Qari Yaqoub Sheikh, MML's candidate for the vacated seat.

As the MML is yet to be registered with the ECP, Sheikh has filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate.

Sheikh said the process of the MML registration as a political party was under way before the ECP.

Former federal information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said at the rally that the "MML is the party that wil guard Pakistan's ideology".

He said the MML would eliminate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's friends from Pakistan.

Head Political Affair and acting chief of JuD Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki said Politics of MML was "based on unity, and on texts of Quaid and thoughts of Iqbal".

The JuD is believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 deadly attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed by 10 terrorists who came from Pakistan.
Washington: A man accused of ramming a car into a crowd of activists protesting a white supremacist rally in the US state of Virginia, had long sympathised with the Nazis, his former school teacher said.

One person was killed after the car mowed down a group of protesters in Charlottesville city on Saturday while the two other victims, Virginia State Police Department officers, died when a helicopter crashed nearby.

The alleged driver, James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who travelled to Virginia from Ohio, had espoused extremist ideals since high school, the Washington Post quoted the suspect's former history teacher Derek Weimer as saying.

"It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler," the teacher said. "He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff."

Fields also wrote a deeply researched paper about the Nazi military during the Second World War, Weimer said.

It appeared to be a "big lovefest for the German military and the Waffen-SS (armed wing of the Schutzstaffel paramilitary group)", Weimer said.

The events on Saturday took place after hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members carrying torches held a rally in Charlottesville on Friday, to protest the planned removal of a statue memorialising Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

As they waved Confederate flags and screamed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs, the protesters  almost all white and male  were met with fierce resistance from activists who had come to stop them.

Fields, now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation, was arrested shortly after the incident.

He has been accused of killing Heather D. Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, the Post reported.

He is charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death. Fields is scheduled for an arraignment on Monday.

He had joined the Army in 2015 but was on active duty for less than four months, according to online records from the Defence Department.

President Donald Trump condemned the violence, but did not specifically mention white nationalists, neo-Nazis, or their views, instead criticising hatred and violence "on many sides".

Trump received sharp criticism, even from members of his own party, for failing to directly condemn white supremacists. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke condemned Trump's statement.
London: The famous Big Ben is going to fall silent for four years for a crucial refurbishment project.

The iconic London landmark will stop chiming from 21 August as the Palace of Westminster's Elizabeth Tower, which houses the clock, undergoes a series of repairs, the Telegraph reported on Monday.

The hammers which have struck the 13.7 tonne bell every hour for most of the last 157 years will be locked and disconnected from the clock. However, the bell will still strike for important national events such as New Year's Eve and Remembrance Sunday.

A parliamentary spokesperson said it was necessary to silence the bell to "ensure the safety of those working in the Tower".

Steve Jaggs, Keeper of the Great Clock, said: "Big Ben falling silent is a significant milestone in this crucial conservation project.

"As Keeper of the Great Clock I have the great honour of ensuring this beautiful piece of Victorian engineering is in top condition on a daily basis."

The Palace of Westminster on the bank of the River Thames is a world heritage site and major tourist attraction. Jaggs encouraged members of the public to gather in nearby Parliament Square to hear the final bongs next Monday.

The 96-metre-tall Elizabeth Tower is already half enveloped in scaffolding as part of a major renovation project, the report said.

As part of the works, the clock housing Big Ben will be dismantled and each cog examined and restored. The clock's four dials will be cleaned and repaired, their cast iron framework renewed and the hands removed and refurbished, the Metro reported.

One working clock face will remain visible at all times, telling the time silently and it will be powered by a modern electric motor until the original clockwork mechanism is reinstated.

All the other bells which chime every 15 minutes will be silent as well during the works due to be completed in 2021 when Big Bell's familiar tolls will begin again.
Cartagena (Colombia): Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday responded to the violence during a march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying "these dangerous fringe groups" have no place in American public life.

Pence was asked about the violent clashes in the Virginia college town as he spoke on Sunday during a news conference in Cartagena.

Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump's initial remarks about the violence in Charlottesville. Trump did not single out any group but blamed "many sides" for the violence.

On Sunday, Pence said, "We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK."

Following his remarks about such fringe groups, Pence added, "We condemn them in the strongest possible terms."
The United States "will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles," Vice President Mike Pence has said, but he emphasised a peaceful path even as he stood by President Donald Trump's startling warning that US military action remained a possibility.

"We have many options for Venezuela, but the president also remains confident that working with all of our allies across Latin America we can achieve a peaceable solution,"

Pence said in a news conference alongside Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, as he began a week-long Latin America tour of four countries.

His trip comes after Trump on Friday said he was mulling a range of scenarios for crisis-hit Venezuela -- "including a possible military option if necessary." Trump's comment drew condemnation from Caracas, which called the threat "reckless" and "craziness."

The rest of Latin America even countries strongly opposed to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's usurpation of his country's democratic institutions also strongly rejected it.

Santos re-affirmed that regional stance by saying he told Pence frankly "that the possibility of a military intervention shouldn't even be considered." He added: "The Latin American continent, every country in

Latin America, would not favor any form of military intervention."

Colombia, Venezuela's neighbor, is a stalwart US ally and a fierce critic of Maduro and his policies.

But it and many other Latin American countries have bitter memories of past US adventures in the region, including invasions, the propping up of military dictators and the sponsorship of guerrilla groups and paramilitaries.

Pence's trip to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama was dominated by US efforts to find joint action with Latin American partners to increase pressure on Maduro. Washington has already imposed unilateral sanctions on Maduro and nearly two dozen of his officials over the establishment of a new loyalist body, an all-powerful Constituent Assembly, that supersedes the legislature controlled by the opposition.

Specifically on the threat of military action, Pence said: "President Trump is a leader who says what he means and means what he says." But he emphasized his trip was "to marshal the unprecedented support of countries across Latin America to achieve by peaceable means the restoration of democracy in Latin America, and we believe it is achievable by those means."

Trump's stated possibility of a US military operation looked likely to shadow Pence at every stop, eclipsing bilateral issues, especially trade, that he was raising along the way.

In Venezuela, Maduro's regime has seized onto Trump's threat as proof of its oft-repeated claim that the United States wanted to topple the current leftist government to get its hands on Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in the world.

The Venezuelan opposition coalition seeking to oust Maduro through early elections on Sunday also rejected "the use of force, or the threat of applying such force, by whatever country against Venezuela," in a statement. Venezuela's leftist allies Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua meanwhile all backed Venezuela in a confrontation against its "imperialist" foe
Kathmandu: Elephants were pressed into service to rescue hundreds of foreign tourists trapped in a Nepal jungle safari park, officials said on Monday, as the death toll from flash floods and landslides after four days of heavy rains rose to 70.

In Sauraha, 80 km south of Kathmandu, the Rapti River overflowed its banks, inundating hotels and restaurants and stranding some 600 tourists.

Sauraha, on the fringe of Chitwan National Park, is home to 605 greater one-horned rhinoceroses, or Indian rhinoceroses, and is popular with foreign tourists, including Indian and Chinese visitors, mainly for elephant ride and rhino-watching.

"Some 300 guests were rescued on elephant backs and tractor trailers to (nearby) Bharatpur on Sunday and the rest will be taken to safer places on Monday," Suman Ghimire, chief of a group of Sauraha hotel owners, said by telephone.

Shiva Raj Bhatta of WWF Nepal said one rhino had died in the floods.

Relief workers said 26 of Nepal's 75 districts were either submerged or hit by landslides after heavy rains lashed the mainly mountainous nation, home to Mount Everest and the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

The death toll, which had stood at 49 on Sunday, was expected to rise with another 50 people reported missing in the floods and landslides, Information and Communications Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet said.

Basnet said more than 60,000 homes were under water, mainly in the southern plains bordering India. Estimates of losses were not available, with rescuers yet to reach villages marooned by the worst floods in recent years.

"The situation is worrying as tens of thousands of people have been hit," Basnet told Reuters.

Large swaths of farmland in the southern plains, Nepals breadbasket, are under water and the Himalayan country could face food shortages due to crop losses, aid workers said.

"The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop in the countrys most important agricultural region," said Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for US-based non-profit group Heifer International.

Monsoon rains, which start in June and continue through September, are important for farm-dependent Nepal, but they also cause heavy loss of life and property damage each year.
Islamabad: Chinese vice-premier Wang Yang, the "special guest" at Pakistan's Independence Day celebration, said on Monday the two countries have always stood by each other and their friendship was "stronger than steel".

Wang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party, is among the country's top leaders. He arrived in Islamabad on Sunday on a two-day visit.

Addressing the Independence Day ceremony in Islamabad, he said China stands with Pakistan in its efforts to achieve progress and development.

"China and Pakistan have always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations," he said, with Pakistan president Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi by his side.

"Our friendship is stronger than steel [and] sweeter than honey," he said.

Wang is accompanying a high-level Chinese delegation and expected to sign a few bilateral agreements. He is also expected to inaugurate projects related to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor - a part of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said Pakistan is an important partner in the OBOR initiative and China wants to strengthen its multi-dimensional strategic cooperation with Islamabad.

He said China would support Pakistan's efforts to pursue the fight against terrorism as per its national interest.
Attari: Celebrating the 70th Independence Day of Pakistan, Pakistani Rangers on Monday gifted a box of sweets to the Border Security Force (BSF) on the Indian side of Attari/Wagah border in Attari.

Security personnel of both the sides hugged and shook hands with each other, besides sharing pleasantries for a few minutes, officials said.

Pakistani Wing Commander Bilal shook hands with BSF Commandant Sudeep during the sweet giving ceremony to mark Pakistan's Independence Day celebration at the Joint Check Post of Attari/Wagah border, they said.

The BSF personnel would offer traditional Indian sweets to their Pakistani counterparts on the 71st Independence Day of India on Tuesday, they added.
Doha: Qatar has launched a new direct route between the country's Hamad Port and Pakistan's port of Karachi, state news agency QNA reported on Monday.

The new route was launched on Sunday and it will boost trade between the two countries. It will also offer "fast and secure" corridor for importers and exporters, with transit time of six days from Qatar to Karachi and eight days back, Xinhua news agency cited the QNA report as saying.

"The new shipping line provides more options for customers, exporters and importers from both countries, covering new important ports from around the world, which will play an important role in supporting trade between Qatar and its partners of the world," said Captain Abdul Aziz al Yafei, Director of Hamad Port.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt imposed land, air and sea blockade on Qatar since 5 June, accusing it of financing extremist groups and allying with the Gulf Arab state's arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies the allegations.
Editor's Note: These days, refugee crisis is an oft-heard term. Ever since German chancellor Angela Merkel's famous 2015 "Wir schaffen das!" (We'll manage it) speech, Germany has emerged as the European nation taking in the most number of refugees. Firstpost's Nimish Sawant travelled to its capital Berlin, as part of the Robert Bosch Foundation's India - Germany Media Ambassadors program, to see how refugees are trying to integrate into German society. This process goes much beyond just learning the language and knowing the customs and traditions. While some are trying to keep their culture alive in a foreign land, others are building a case for talented migrants in a society that is ageing fast. While some hope to go home when the situation improves, others prefer building their lives anew. This article is part one of the five-part series which will explore the stories of refugees living in Berlin.

As soon as you enter the building housing the ReDI School of Digital Integration, you are received by a robot made of brown packaging boxes. The robot spells out different technologies from Internet of Things (IoT) IoT to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Robotics, preparing you to enter this school of digital learning.

ReDI has an open floor plan. Despite the white walls, there is a lot of colour in the room. Be it the red-coloured tent house meant for brainstorming sessions, the bright-coloured notice board or pictorial charts showing the before and after story of the students who have escaped their war-torn countries and are called refugees.

But at ReDI, this bunch of youngsters are more than statistics on a sheet. They are talented individuals, augmenting their love for technology with professional training which will prepare them for the German technology-related job market, requirements for which has grown by 18 percent over past year.

ReDI's genesis

Anne Riechert, the founder of ReDI, began mulling over this idea in the summer of 2015. After starting the Peace Innovation Lab in 2012, she formed a community of around 1,800 individuals working in private industry, NGOs and startups.

"In 2015, when the refugee crisis was the subject of much debate in Germany, we brought our community together to see how technology could help people who were arriving. We went to many refugee camps to understand their needs and see how we could help them," says Riechert.

It was at one of the refugee camps in North Berlin, that Riechert met Mohammed Kareem, an IT engineer from Baghdad University, Iraq, who would spark the idea for ReDI.

"Mohammed told me he could not continue programming as he did not have a laptop. That really motivated us to collect laptops and help refugees who wanted access to them. But in the span of 24 hours, we realised that laptops are not really a solution. We also needed to provide teachers who can educate them and help build networks, which in turn, would help them with integration, Riechert adds.

Using incoming talent and making them job-ready seemed like the logical solution. After all, the demand for information technology (IT) professionals has grown from 43,000 to 51,000 over the past two years.

"The idea was to create a win-win situation where German society, companies and the refugees benefited. That would make this venture sustainable in the long run," says Riechert.

This set the ball rolling. By February 2016, ReDI started its first batch: 42 students. That number has only grown. Today, 115 students study around 10 courses, with 13 women studying a course tailored for female refugees who may not be fluent in IT.

ReDI has two semesters of three months each, in spring and summer. Each week sees two or three classes in a particular course. Media attention also helped ReDI nab several interested partners who were willing to donate cash or equipment such as laptops and desktops. In fact, a table at the school is dedicated to reusable laptop and computer parts.

Admission is free

It's free! ReDI is a non-profit. Prospective students need to write a statement of purpose and fill in an online application form. The school then shortlists worthy candidates and holds an introduction session where students are told about the school and its various offerings. Finally, there is a 15-minute interview with students to gauge their interpersonal skills. Only then is final list drawn up.

Knowing German isn't a requirement. However, students need to be fluent in English. "We teach in English, so it is expected that the students understand English to a relatively fluent level. In Berlin, the tech industry is extremely international and especially in the startup world, people from various countries come to work," adds Reichert.

Thirty-one-year-old Khawar, a student from Pakistan, is currently doing his fourth course at the ReDI. According to him, if most of the work is done on computers, one can get by with knowing English and a bit of German. "But in a job profile where you are interacting with customers such as in the hospitality industry or even at the supermarket, you need to know German," he says.

Khawar, who loves studying business and computer programming-related subjects, is also helping set up a small library at ReDI. His backgrounds helps: He worked as a librarian in Pakistan for six years. Not only did Khawar gain from ReDI, he also volunteers his expertise. Nine past graduates are also teaching at ReDI. Two of them have also developed a multilingual curriculum.

Kareem, who was in a way, instrumental to the formation of the school, is also an instructor. He teaches the course on Android app development twice a week, while also working as an intern at a business management school.

The tech industry response

According to Riechert, many refugees who come to Germany are working professionals. "But once in Germany, the integration process means that many may have to start from scratch." According to statistics from the Federal Employment Agency, around 4,84,000 refugees are looking for work, a figure that is up by 50 percent this year.

The response from the tech industry has been mainly positive. But not all graduates of ReDI have managed to find work. Riechert also says a few German tech companies are so desperate to hire, professional know-how is all they care about.

If they find value in someone, they invest in them, she adds, citing the example of Rami, a 23-year-old former student of ReDI currently working with as an operations manager with steel company Kloeckner. The company has sponsored Rami's German classes, she says.

Reichert says that ReDI's motto is: "Hire for motivation and attitude. Train for the job". Even German university students have had to undergo training before they are job ready, she says.

"A lot of students already know a couple of languages, including Arabic, Farsi and English. Over the years they will also learn German. So after a year or two, you have an IT talent who is fluent in four languages and a good programmer. If you invest in them now, you will be building a pipeline of talent going forward. That's a huge win for employers," says Reichert. She also stresses that students are adapting to new surroundings on a daily basis, an aptitude that can be a huge advantage in the constantly changing world of IT.

Among the student pool that has graduated from ReDI or is currently studying, over 70 percent are university graduates from around the world. Two-third of these have studied computer science or subjects relating to computer science. Others like 24-year-old Mohammed Ahmed come from a non-IT background.

Ahmed, studied architecture in Syria for seven semesters. Then it became difficult for him to finish his education. Ahmed has been living in Germany for the past two years. He wants to study IT. To prepare for university, he graduated in 'Data Analytics' and is currently studying the Fundamentals of Programming at ReDI. Ahmed wanted to study IT in Syria, but he could not clear the cut-off. He is giving his dream another shot in Germany and is grateful for the help offered by the ReDI: Inside and outside school.

Students are provided with help even after they graduate from ReDI, in case they want to work on their soft skills or need interview training or CV training. Paulina, head of career navigation at ReDI, acts as an interface between companies and students.

We have 400 students. We know their backgrounds, so it is easier for us to identify which student would be a good fit with which company," says Riechert.

Riechert says ReDI graduates are getting a positive response from the industry. Cisco has hired six students, SAP has hired two, Kloeckner has hired two, one student is working with Fraunhofer Fokus.

"We have an ongoing conversation with the industry. We focus on ensuring that students get jobs. It helps make a great case study for other companies as we can then demonstrate that refugees are also quite talented and they should be given opportunities," says Riechert.

'We aren't an incubator'

Four startups have emerged from ReDI, but Riechert says the school not an incubator. Bureaucrazy, their most popular startup, has secured 20,000 in funding. It helps refugees make sense of the German bureaucratic processes.

Riechert is aware that most of her students, if not all, will not succeed in becoming entrepreneurs. "It is a risky business. You need the right amount of capital, networking skills, cultural understanding, language know-how. These are not necessarily the skills that our students have at the moment. They will get there eventually, but not right away," says Riechert.

Even as we discuss the school's success stories, one question comes to mind: Can ReDI spread its wings to other cities?

Riechert says she received requests to start ReDI schools in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Hamburg, Barcelona and Dublin. While expansion is part of the strategy, there are certain criteria such as sustained funding that are necessary. ReDI school is looking at expanding to Munich this November.

There are a lot of cities that want us to start schools but it important we find the right financial partner. For example, municipalities which see us as an integration tool or companies which are looking for talent and are considering investing in the refugee community," she says.

It is 8.30 pm. A few classes have wrapped up. Khawar is back to his machine in the library, Ahmed is getting ready to leave and other students are conversing with their teachers, intent on clarifying any lingering doubts.

"I just hope this kind of model is adopted by other industries as well. This kind of integration will certainly be advantageous to Germany," Riechert says.

The average German is between 43 and 45 years old. Germany is an ageing society. It could certainly use young refugees. It's simply a matter of giving them confidence, the right tools and the opportunity to succeed.

ReDI is working towards that tirelessly. One day at a time.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I have a teenage daughter, and my good friend has a teenage son. She has very different ideas about teens and dating than me. I think that it is natural for teenagers to be attracted to each other. Sometimes that turns into crushes and even dating. When monitored, teenagers going out and getting to know each other, going to events and spending time together seems normal to me. My friend says teens should not be allowed to date until they are over 16. She thinks it is distracting and dangerous.

While I am not naive, I do not think it is practical or wise to try to prevent young people who like each other from being around each other. I do think it is a parent's responsibility to teach teenagers what they deem to be appropriate behavior. Do they always follow directions? No. But I believe that not allowing them to spend time together could be worse. How do I address this with my friend when we do not share ideals at all? -- At Odds, Dallas

DEAR AT ODDS: You do not have to come to an agreement with your friend over your parenting styles. It can be enlightening to learn about how other parents set boundaries and teach their children about the twists and turns of growing up, including the birds and the bees. Ultimately, though, you must decide what to teach your daughter and how to guide her steps. You can take comfort in being resolute in your approach. If and when you run into challenges, review them based on your values, not someone else's.

DEAR HARRIETTE: Most of my son's friends plan on going to private high school. Currently, we all are in a private, or so-called "independent," school together. My husband and I have thought about it long and hard, and we just can't afford the paid route anymore. We are experiencing tuition fatigue and need to figure out a way to save some money so we can send our son to college when the time comes. He is very disappointed that we are considering public schools only, even though there are some great choices in our city.

How can we get our son to understand that this decision is based on the bigger picture? We want to be able to enjoy family time together, take vacations and not go broke. We can't have that quality of life and keep paying high tuition. -- Gaining Perspective, Brooklyn, New York

DEAR GAINING PERSPECTIVE: Talking to your son about lifestyle choices can be helpful. First, you can show him the great options in high-quality public high schools. Second, you can explain what you can do as a family with some extra available cash. You also need to talk to him about being clear that every family is different. What one family can afford and chooses to do is quite different from the next. Your measuring stick should be in your own home rather than comparing yourself to your friends. This is hard to accept, but it is a necessary part of life. Show him your vision, and then help to make it manifest.

DEAR HARRIETTE: Do you remember those spam emails that circulated a few years ago from Nigerians "princes" who claimed they wanted to wire millions of dollars into your bank account? Well, I just got one from a Russian making the same claim. It is obvious to me that this is a scam, but it also makes me uncomfortable. I wonder how these people got my email address and who else they might be scamming when it works? The promise is unbelievable. They will wire millions in your account if you send a small amount of money to them along with your bank account number. I know that there are lots of people out there with money problems. When you are desperate enough, you could make the mistake of falling for one of these crazy scams. Is there anything I can do as one who received this solicitation? I would love to help if I can. -- Be the Solution, Atlanta

DEAR BE THE SOLUTION: Unfortunately, scam artists abound, and they do catch some unsuspecting people who think that they are about to get an unbelievable deal. When something seems too good to be true, it usually is. You can report the message as spam to your provider. You can also file a report at ftccomplaintassistant.gov.

DEAR HARRIETTE: A guy who went to college with me has kept in touch over the years, always asking me to do him favors -- for free -- for his various business ideas that he is building in order to make a profit. When he first started with his requests, I tried to comply to be nice. While we were not close in college, I did know him. I figured it's collegial to help each other out. But his requests typically come with great urgency and absolutely never with a paycheck.

He has worked on all kinds of things -- many that have been profitable. Once I told him I would help if he hired me. I put together a proposal, but nothing came of it. I think he was offended that I wanted to be paid. He has come back to ask me to do something else for him. It wouldn't take that long, but I already have other favors that I'm doing for people that have been postponed because of my work schedule. How do I manage this man's constant requests? He is always taking, never giving. But he's so smooth in his requests that I seem to agree to do what he wants without evening realizing it. -- Beware the Leech, Wilmington, Delaware

DEAR BEWARE THE LEECH: It sounds like this guy puts you under a spell, so to speak, and when you wake up later, you've been duped. Rather than feeling like you must fulfill whatever he has asked of you when you realize that he has pulled a fast one again, evaluate what you have agreed to do. If you don't want to do it or don't have time, tell him. In this case, you can let him know via email that you cannot get to his project until you have fulfilled your work obligations and the other favors that are you your list. Let him know plainly that you have put him in a queue, and you will get to it when you can. If he cannot live with your revised timeline, apologize for not being able to comply and suggest that he ask someone else to do it.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I recently ran into one of my neighbors, who used to invite me over to his house for drinks and social events with some regularity. I realize he doesn't invite me anymore. When I saw him, he casually said to me that he looks forward to me inviting him over for drinks sometime. Naturally, reciprocating is what I should be doing, but I can't. My house looks like it should be featured on that show "Hoarders." I'm serious. I can't seem to get it under control. I constantly work on sorting through things and throwing stuff away, but without success. When my neighbor asked me to invite him over, I thought I would die. How can I climb out of the mess? -- In Hiding, Minneapolis

DEAR IN HIDING: Get help. If you have been trying for years to clean up without accomplishing your goal, you need professional support. Contact a company in your area that helps hoarders clear out their homes. It is not an easy process, but you can get there with the right help. Keep thinking of being able to invite your neighbor over as motivation to take action!

DEAR HARRIETTE: Every summer for the past 15 years, my family and I have gone on vacation to the beach. This year has been difficult. I lost my job a few months ago, and we have had to cut back on our activities a lot. We managed to scrape together enough money to send our son to the camp he has attended for the past few years, but that meant that there was no money left for my husband and me to do anything more than whatever we can do locally. Friends keep asking us what's up, why we aren't heading to the sun like usual. Do I tell the truth -- we just can't afford it this year? Or do I say we decided to stay home and work on our house, which is also true? I'm not sure how forthcoming is appropriate. -- No Sun, No Fun, Dayton, Ohio

DEAR NO SUN, NO FUN: Think about the friends who are asking, how close you are to them and how much you want them to know. Since you are out of work, you may want to let people know so that if they have any leads, they can share them with you. Keeping your state of employment to yourself does not necessarily help you, even though it can be tough and feel embarrassing to talk about it. For the friends that you feel comfortable talking to, tell the truth -- all of it. It is a blessing that your son is able to enjoy the summer in his normal way. You are making the best of your situation, but these are lean times. Opening up allows you to think out loud with loved ones. Maybe you will find a path to abundance in this way.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I read one of your recent columns, and I wonder: Did anyone entertain the possibility that "Alex," the hungry teenager who eats constantly without any regard for his family, has an eating disorder and needs help? I know that it's more common in girls, but the fact that he doesn't make any specific requests but gorges on everything in sight sounds like compulsive eating. He's a teenager, and teenagers are under stress and often have emotional problems. Please suggest to his mother that she check it out. -- Concerned, Memphis, Tennessee

DEAR CONCERNED: Thank you for your suggestion. You are smart to point out that boys, too, can suffer from eating disorders. I did some research to be able to share more here. It turns out that teenage boys (and men) nationwide do wrestle with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Any parent who suspects his or her child of eating in an unhealthy way should investigate the possibility of an eating disorder. Get a complete physical for your child so that you gain an assessment of his or her health, and take the necessary steps to get your child healthy. This website has some good information specific to eating disorders and males: nationaleatingdisorders.org/males-and-eating-disorders. For anyone else who may be facing an eating disorder, do not suffer alone. Get help.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
Seoul: A top US military official landed in Seoul on Monday ahead of talks with the country's leader amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, the media reported.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford arrived at the Osan Air Base, and is scheduled to meet with the leaders of US Forces Korea and South Korea President Moon Jae-in, reports CNN.

"Gen. Dunford just arrived in Osan Air Base to meet with US Forces Korea leadership and explore the Camp Humphreys area with his team on board 2 UH-60 Black Hawks," a statement on the Joint Staff Facebook page said.

The trip has been long scheduled and was not arranged in response to the North Korean nuclear threat.

"The trip highlights our ironclad commitment to the defence of the Republic of Korea in the face of North Korea's provocations and threats," the statement said.

Dunford prefaced his Asia trip with a trip to Hawaii to meet with US Pacific Command, and will visit also visit Japan, as well as China, CNN reported.

The three-country visit is in "support (of) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's diplomatic and economic campaign to deter North Korea" from seeking an effective nuclear deterrent, according to the US Department of Defence.

The North Korean military are putting the final touches on a plan to fire four missiles into the waters around the US territory of Guam, to be presented to leader Kim Jong-un within days.

In a statement last week, General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, said the plan to fire "four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range strategic ballistic rockets...to signal a crucial warning to the US" would be ready by "mid-August".

A notice put out by Guam's Joint Information Centre on Saturday warned residents how to prepare "for an imminent missile threat."

"Do not look at the flash or fireball it can blind you," the note said.

"Lie flat on the ground and cover your head. If the explosion is some distance away, it could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit."
Ankara: A policeman was stabbed to death in Istanbul by a suspected member of the Islamic State group who had been arrested for planning a suicide attack, Turkish media said.

The assailant stabbed the officer at around 11 pm (20.00 GMT) on Sunday as he was being taken out of a patrol car near a police station following his arrest, according to the privately run Dogan news service.

The attacker, who was detained on suspicion of planning to carry out a suicide bombing, was then shot dead by police, the pro-government Anadolu agency reported.

The officer, who was taken from the scene in an ambulance, died from his wounds.

It was not immediately clear how the man managed to keep a knife while being taken into custody.

Turkey was hit in 2016 by a succession of attacks that left hundreds dead in the bloodiest year of terror strikes in its history.

The attacks were blamed on Islamic State jihadists who had taken swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq as well as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who have battled the Turkish state in an insurgency lasting more than three decades.

Last month, anti-terror officers in Istanbul detained dozens of alleged Islamic State members, several of whom were said to be preparing a "sensational attack" in Turkey, police said.

An attack by a jihadist gunman on an elite nightclub in Istanbul just 75 minutes into New Year's Day in 2017 left 39 people dead, mainly foreigners. There has since been a lull in similar attacks, but tensions and high security remain in big cities.
Washington: Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic's conflict.

The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, who's fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 US election.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administration's growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in US-Russian ties.

The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorisation to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to US officials familiar with the plan.

It's not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of US weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers.

Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict. While Obama was still in office, Trump's campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform.

Now, however, it's under discussion by Trump's senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to talk about the matter publicly.

While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as US and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

"The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.

Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give "full visibility to all the parties that we're not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way."

Russia hawks in the US and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATO's viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new US-Russian partnership.

At one point, two years after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would "go into Ukraine."
Samsung has released a new teaser and says Do bigger things with a powerful new device built to achieve exactly that.

Samsung Galaxy Note8 rumored specifications

6.3-inch Quad HD+ (2960  1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display with 522ppi, 18.5:9 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with Adreno 540 GPU / Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 8895 processor with Mali-G71 MP20 GPU

6GB LPDDR4 RAM with 64GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory with microSD

Android 7.1 (Nougat)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

12MP Dual Pixel rear camera with LED Flash, f/1.7 aperture, wide-angle lens, secondary 12MP camera with telephoto lens, f2.4 aperture, 2x optical zoom

8MP auto focus front-facing camera with f/1.7 aperture, wide-angle lens

Water and dust resistant (IP68)

Fingerprint Sensor, Iris scanner

Dimensions: 162.5 x 74.6x 8.5mm

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth v 5.0 (LE up to 2Mbps), GPS with GLONASS, USB 3.1, NFC, MST

3300mAh battery with fast charging both on wired and wireless (WPC and PMA)

The Samsung Galaxy Note8 is expected to come in Midnight Black, Maple Gold, Orchid Grey and Deep Sea Blue colors and will be announced at the Galaxy Unpacked event on August 23. It is rumored to go on sale globally for about 999 Euros (US$ 1118 / 72120 approx.) in early September.

Regarding the phone, Samsung said:

At Samsung, we believe thinking that you cant is the greatest barrier to progress, so with each new device and service, we aim to find ways to help you unleash your potential, using bigger platforms for creative expression, bigger tools to capture precious moments, and bigger innovations to help bring your ideas to life. Dont settle for little things. Dare to do big things with a powerful new device built to achieve exactly that.

Source
Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote on op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on North Korea which revealed they do not want a regime change, they would like to see denuclearization and that negotiation talks were still on the table. Admiral Robert Natter (Ret.), former U.S. Fleet Forces commander, told FOX Business that Tillerson and Mattiss approach stresses the importance to China of negotiation.

The United States appropriately is stating enough, we are not going to be duped in this process approach any longer. They want and they need an obvious statement on the part of North Korea preceded by actions, he said to Dagen McDowell on Mornings with Maria.

Natter described what a campaign to eliminate North Koreas missile capabilities would look like. In his opinion it would be the ugliest military action we would have seen since World War II.

That would be a campaign of last resort as you well know  only when all diplomatic efforts are exhausted  but it would obviously be proceeded by an air campaign, a missile campaign. Hopefully it would be conventional but it would be ugly by any, any description, he said.

Natter, who spent his U.S. Navy career on surface ships, also discussed the role of cruisers and destroyers.

Cruisers and destroyers have a large number of surface to surface missiles, Tomahawks, they also have a very able surface to air capability against opposition aircraft and they have a missile defense capability against the launch of missiles whether they be conventional or nuclear armed.
Proponents of nuclear power are pushing to revive a failed project to build two reactors in South Carolina, arguing that the demise of the $14 billion venture could signal doom for an industry that supplies one-fifth of the nation's electricity.

Even though the nation's 99 commercial nuclear reactors supply about 20 percent of U.S. electricity, no new nuclear plant has been built from scratch in more than 30 years. Supporters were alarmed when two South Carolina utilities halted construction on a pair of reactors that once were projected to usher in a new generation of nuclear power to provide reliable, cost-effective, carbon-free electricity for decades.

Instead the project was plagued by billions of dollars in cost overruns, stagnant demand for electricity, competition from cheap natural gas and - most importantly - the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric, the lead contractor.

The July 31 suspension of the partly completed V.C. Summer project near Columbia, South Carolina, leaves two nuclear reactors under construction in Georgia as the only ones being built in the U.S. The collapse of the nearly decade-old project in South Carolina could cost ratepayers billions of dollars for work that ultimately provides no electricity and could signal that new nuclear plants are impossible to complete in the United States.

"These reactors failing would be the end of a nuclear renaissance before it even started," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Graham and other lawmakers from both parties are urging Congress to extend a production tax credit that would provide billions of dollars to the South Carolina project and the two Georgia reactors. The House approved an extension in June, and Graham is pushing for a Senate vote after Congress returns from its August recess.

"I'm mad as hell that you spend all this money and you can't get it done," Graham said.

The Vogtle plant in Georgia faces similar economic and competitive threats, including the Westinghouse bankruptcy. The plant's operator, Atlanta-based Southern Co., has said it will decide in coming weeks whether to finish the two reactors, which are years behind schedule and billions of dollars above projected costs.

Southern CEO Tom Fanning called Vogtle "the last (nuclear) project standing in America" and said it "goes beyond economics" to affect national security.

"If you want a world safe from nuclear proliferation," construction of nuclear plants "is how we maintain nuclear technology," said Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath, a conservative-leaning clean energy group.

Besides the production tax credit, nuclear supporters want the extension of an Energy Department loan guarantee program that has helped Vogtle and other energy projects secure funding. Vogtle received an $8.3 billion loan guarantee under the Obama administration - the largest ever issued by the loan program and a deal that some critics say could end up biting taxpayers.

"We've said it for eight years: These massive nuclear reactor projects were doomed from the start, and taxpayer money should not be risked on them," said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group.

The Summer plant did not receive a loan guarantee, but the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas, one of the utilities building it, tried to get a federal grant worth up to $3 billion before abandoning the project. SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh said he and other executives had "very direct discussions" with the White House and Energy Department, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and "explained the need for support for these projects because of the national security interest."

A spokeswoman for Perry said the project's failure has not dimmed Perry's belief in nuclear power. "Secretary Perry remains optimistic about the future of nuclear energy in America and continues to watch this issue closely," said spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes.

The Energy Department invited the S.C. utility to apply for a loan guarantee, but "that invitation was ultimately turned down by the project's representatives," Hynes said.

Marsh, speaking at an Aug. 1 hearing before the South Carolina Public Service Commission, said a loan "doesn't help the situation we're in."

The loan guarantees typically serve as long-term incentives for companies to take on major energy projects.

While President Donald Trump backs nuclear energy, the administration eliminated the loan guarantee program in its proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The program was a frequent target of GOP lawmakers during the Obama administration, especially a $535 million loan to the failed solar company Solyndra.

The White House supports extension of the production tax credit, saying it would "fulfill the president's commitment to the continuation of nuclear energy as a major contributor to our nation's energy production and security."

The current credit requires plants to be operational by 2020 - a deadline neither the South Carolina nor Georgia project will come close to meeting.

Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., called suspension of the South Carolina project a shame. "I can tell you, wind and solar are not going to provide the kind of power that nuclear energy provides," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Seanna Adcox in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Matthew Daly: http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC
In this MarketFoolery segment, host Mac Greer, David Kretzmann of Supernova and Rule Breakers, and Ron Gross of Motley Fool Total Income tuck into the numbers from the meal delivery service, which has seen its stock go nowhere but down since it went public a couple months ago. Its second-quarter report wasn't entirely bad, but once management started talking on the earnings call, it was one problem after another.

A full transcript follows the video.

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This video was recorded on Aug. 10, 2017.

Mac Greer: Not a lot of high points for Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN), the meal-delivery service. Shares down big on Thursday. David, they reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue. So that sounds good. But then things really started heading south once the earnings call happened this morning. Do tell.

David Kretzmann: Yeah. They had a lot of unexpected complexities and costs, in management's words. They're rolling out a new manufacturing facility, a facility where they put together these meal kits, in New Jersey. It's supposed to be very automated, but that's taking longer than expected, they're running into issues as they try to ramp it up. So that's one thing. They also raised less cash than anticipated with the IPO, because their timing really couldn't have been worse after the Amazon - Whole Foods announcement, so they had to slash the entry price for the IPO, so they raised less capital. They still raised about $275 million. But as a result of having less cash than anticipated, as well as these other headwinds for the business, they're also reducing their marketing expense. This is a company that has spent a ton on marketing trying to get new customers in.

As a result of all these different headwinds, they're having to shift their strategy a bit. Something that they found is that once someone signs up for Blue Apron, they really only stick around for about a month. So when you're trying to build a business model on a subscription model, that's awful. That's not going to turn out very well. As a result, they're losing a lot of money. Over the past year, they've spent over $450 million per new subscriber to the service, and the average revenue per subscriber right now is about $250, so you're losing a lot of money. With all those different headwinds, shifting their strategy, that's not a strong entrance to the public markets when this is your very first quarter.

So a lot of things here. They're also guiding for revenue to stagnate and drop later this year. So as a result of pulling back on that marketing spending, they're expecting revenue to essentially flat-line. Revenue grew over 40% in the first quarter, it grew 18% this quarter, and we'll probably see it flatten and drop the next couple quarters this year. So not a good entrance as a newly public company.

Ron Gross: Yeah, completely agree. I think that hit the nail on the head. To me, you could boil it down to they have a business-model problem, both in terms of competition and what it costs to acquire a customer and keep a customer, and then you pile on top of that an operational problem now with the New Jersey facility. Those are two things that never go well together. It'd probably be enough to have just a business-model problem, and as an investor you would say, "I'm going to stay away. Why would I want to invest in a company with a business-model problem?" Layer on top of that, now, operational difficulties, and you can see it in the stock. The market in this case seems perfectly efficient to me. Investors really don't want anything to do with the stock until, perhaps, maybe, they can get their act together. But it's going to be tough.

Kretzmann: And that business-model shift is the recognition on management's part that people are not treating Blue Apron like a subscription service. They're treating it more like any other e-commerce purchase that they make. So I'll sign up, I'll get a few meals this month, and you can choose when you want to use the service. Mac, I think you've used it. Is that in line with your experience?

Greer: Yeah. We were talking about this before the show. We used it for a month or so. The recipes are incredible, and I should say that, but you also feel this pressure, because sometimes you get home and you're like, "You know, I don't want to cook tonight," or you want to go out or you want to do something on the fly, and you have all these Blue Apron fresh ingredients.

Gross: A piece of salmon in the fridge.

Greer: Just waiting for you, yeah, and you just feel all this pressure. But when you cook it, it's absolutely incredible. The other big issue I had with them -- we don't use it anymore -- is the packaging. Everything is wrapped, and you get tired of all this packaging. And that's why I think, like an Amazon-Whole Foods, if they can solve that, if you've got a cooler on your front door and you've got fresh produce that they can deliver and there's no packaging, that to me feels like an even bigger problem for Blue Apron. Now, I really loved the recipes. But we don't use it anymore, at the end of the day.

Ron, you're a great cook. I come to you for advice all the time. Is Blue Apron ultimately after the aspiring gourmet foodie? Or are they after someone who just wants convenience? Because if that's the market, they're not quite convenient enough.

Gross: I think it's convenience with also a person who enjoys the process of cooking. Now, I enjoy it so much that I actually enjoy the process of shopping for the produce or the fish or the protein or whatever it is. So that isn't really something that would interest me. I don't want someone to do that for me. But I certainly understand that there are plenty of folks who do want it done for them.

Kretzmann: Mac, speaking to your experience, that is something Blue Apron is focusing on. That's what they're shifting their strategy toward. They're shifting away from trying to acquire new customers, which they've been doing guns blazing over the past few years, and instead they're going to try to focus on customer retention, so, keeping the people in their ecosystem once they have them in. But that's obviously a pretty big shift. And especially, as soon as you go public, you're announcing this shift, that isn't exactly a strong show of confidence on the part of management's talent. This is something you should have mentioned before you went public, and you should have had some idea that these headwinds were arising.

So to drop this on the public markets within a couple months of going public, this is really just a case study for what not to do in an IPO. Because when you go public, you want to make sure you have a good idea of what the business is going to do. You want to go public at a strong time. You want to gain that investor confidence and build that confidence. But in this case, it's hard for me to take management at its word now, because these are all substantial issues that they should have known about a couple of months ago before going public.

Gross: And if you ever see a pre-IPO price come down -- I believe in this case, priced lower than the range or at the low end of the range -- big, big red flag. That means there's not the proper demand. The investment bankers are going out looking for the institutional demand to sell the stock into the marketplace, and if that demand isn't there, they have to bring the price down to a point where the demand is there, and there's equilibrium between the supply of the stock and the demand for the stock. Big, big red flag.

Kretzmann: Yeah, and looking at the high-profile IPOs this year, it hasn't been a great here in that sense. If I'm a private company now, I'm taking note of what happened to Snap and Blue Apron, companies that have been struggling pretty much right out of the gate. The public markets are different than the private markets. It's a different ball game. I think Redfin is a recent IPO that, I think they have their act together a little bit more. The stock has actually been doing well since going public a couple of weeks ago. But yeah, if I'm a private company, you have to make sure you have your act together before you go public, or you're going to get whacked like Blue Apron and Snap.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. David Kretzmann owns shares of Amazon and Whole Foods Market. Mac Greer owns shares of Amazon. Ron Gross owns shares of Amazon and Whole Foods Market. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of Whole Foods Market. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Whether you're a current retiree or a worker readying to retire in a few years or decades, odds are you'll be at least somewhat reliant on Social Security. As of this year, 55% of current retirees consider it a "major" source of income, compared to just 10% who didn't consider it a needed source of income at all, according to national pollster Gallup. Comparatively, 79% of non-retired adults in 2017 expect Social Security to be a "major" or "minor" source of income during their golden years.

While Social Security has long been a rock-solid foundation for retirees, the disabled, and even survivors of deceased workers for more than 75 years, that foundation is starting to crack. Namely, ongoing demographic changes in the U.S. could dramatically change the face of Social Security in less than two decades.

Social Security is less than two decades from a potential disaster

The latest Social Security Board of Trustees report, released in July, forecasts that in 2022, Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it's collecting in revenue from payroll taxes, interest income, and the taxation of benefits. By 2034, the nearly $3 trillion in asset reserves are expected to be completely gone. The blame for this lies with a confluence of factors including the mass retirement of baby boomers, a steady lengthening of life expectancies, and the longevity gap between the rich and the poor.

Long story short, it's pretty evident that a fix is needed for Social Security, and only Congress can produce one.

Unfortunately, progress on fixing Social Security is at a standstill in Washington. Part of the blame falls on President Trump, who has no intentions of touching Social Security, as per his campaign pledge. With Congress instead focused on healthcare and tax reform, there's simply no room on the docket for Social Security.

The other issue is the partisanship of Washington. Solutions to fix Social Security clearly aren't the issue. Both Democrats and Republicans have produced plans that would adequately address the projected $12.5 trillion cash shortfall through 2091. But herein lies the issue: Both parties have a workable solution, ergo neither side will back down and consider finding common ground with the other party. This is the primary reason why Social Security remains broken.

Steven Mnuchin has an idea -- and it's a bad one!

One figure within the Trump administration that you might expect to be a voice of reason regarding Social Security is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. After all, the program's Board of Trustees is a six-member panel, and Mnuchin is one of the six, by default. He, of all people, should understand how urgently Social Security's issues need to be addressed.

However, here's what Mnuchin had to say last month, shortly after the Trustees report was released: "To help make [Social Security and Medicare] more sustainable into the future, we should focus on strengthening the economy today. Compounding growth will help ease projected shortfalls."

Mnuchin's comments suggest that strengthening the economy will help boost wages and income for many Americans, thereby increasing the amount of payroll tax revenue collected by Social Security. In 2016, 87.3% of the $957.5 billion in income for the program was derived from payroll taxes. Mnuchin, along with Trump, believes that cutting individual and corporate income-tax rates will achieve a consistently higher GDP growth rate, and higher incomes along with it.

Unfortunately, Mnuchin's theory has two fatal flaws that he should plainly see as Treasury Secretary and as a member of the Board of Trustees. First, Mnuchin has wrongly implied that economic growth is consistent over time. History shows that peaks and troughs are a normal part of the economic cycle, meaning that any accelerated growth from tax reforms would only be temporary on a larger scale. In short, tax reform is a possible Band-Aid, not a permanent fix.

Secondly, as Mnuchin states in his comments, economic reforms "will help ease projected shortfalls." Not fix, but ease. Mnuchin is looking at ways not to fix Social Security, but rather to lessen the imminent cash shortfall of the program. That's not a smart strategy in this writer's opinion.

Mind you, Mnuchin is also the person who, in June, suggested that if the Republican-led Congress were to pass Social Security reforms, including benefit cuts, the White House may indeed sign it.

We need a bipartisan approach

In order to fix Social Security for the long term, there's a strong likelihood that we'll need to see a compromise between the major political parties. Imagine that -- Republicans and Democrats working together on Capitol Hill.

A strong Social Security solution would likely involve some of each party's core Social Security principles.

For Democrats, we'd be talking about increasing taxation for the wealthy. Currently, all earned income between $0.01 and $127,000 is taxed at a rate of 12.4%, with most workers paying only half (6.2%) and their employers covering the other half. However, for the roughly one-in-10 workers who earn more than $127,200 a year, income above this threshold is free from Social Security's payroll tax. Democrats want to reinstitute the payroll tax on earned income above, say, $250,000 or $400,000 so that the wealthy pay more.

Meanwhile, Republicans want to index benefits to account for increased longevity. When Social Security was rolled out in the 1940s, it was only designed to pay benefits for a few years. Today, many seniors collect benefits for two decades or longer, thanks to Americans' lengthening life expectancies. Republicans propose increasing the full retirement age (the age at which you can collect 100% of your retirement) to 68, 69, or 70, from the peak of 67 years that we'll reach in 2022. This would require seniors to either wait longer to collect 100% of their benefits or to accept a bigger reduction in their payout by claiming sooner.

These two proposals could strengthen Social Security for future generations, but Congress has yet to take the hint.

The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank on Monday joined a growing chorus of business executives in denouncing the violent white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to at least one death and more than a dozen injuries.

Weve seen the terror of white supremacy & racist violence before. Its a moral issue  an affront to America. We must all stand against it, Cook said on Twitter.

In a post to Under Armours official Twitter account, Plank said he was saddened by the events in Charlottesville, adding that there is no place for racism or discrimination in this world.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein shared Abraham Lincolns famous quote, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together, Blankfein added.

Weve seen the terror of white supremacy & racist violence before. It's a moral issue - an affront to America. We must all stand against it  Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 14, 2017

We are saddened by #Charlottesville. There is no place for racism or discrimination in this world. We choose love & unity. - CEO Kevin Plank  Under Armour (@UnderArmour) August 14, 2017

Lincoln: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together.  Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) August 14, 2017

None of the executives made specific reference to President Trumps polarizing response to the Charlottesville protests. Trump drew bipartisan criticism last weekend after he failed to condemn by name the white nationalist groups that participated in the march.

Kenneth Frazier, CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck, resigned from Trumps American Manufacturing Council in an apparent protest to the presidents handling of the situation.

Trump lashed out at Frazier after his resignation, writing on Twitter that the Merck CEOs decision to leave the council would give him more time to lower ripoff drug prices.

Under Armours Plank is also a member of the American Manufacturing Council. Company representatives did not immediately respond to a request for clarification of Planks views on Trumps response to the protests.
Kenneth Frazier, CEO and Chairman of American pharmaceutical giant Merck (NYSE:MRK), announced on Monday he was leaving President Donald Trumps American Manufacturing Council, becoming the latest corporate executive to abandon a position on a White House council over political events.

Heres a look at the CEOs who have left positions on White House councils, and why, since January.

Kenneth Frazier, Merck

In the wake of what some saw as President Donald Trumps tepid response to the violent and deadly white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Frazier announced on Twitter he would no longer be participating on the White House manufacturing council.

In response to his abdication, Trump fired back at Frazier, suggesting that now he may have more time to work on lowering drug prices.

Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017

Elon Musk, Tesla

In June, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX founder Elon Musk left the presidents Strategic and Policy Forum. Musks decision was made after Trump announced the United States withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords. Musk said on Twitter that climate change is real and leaving [the] Paris [agreement] is not good for America or the world.

Musk faced criticism from Trump opponents for his decision to participate in White House roundtables in the first place, but defended his decision to provide feedback on issues that I think are important for our country and the world.

Bob Iger, Disney

Disney (NYSE:DIS) CEO Bob Iger exited the Strategic Policy Council on the same day as Musk. Igers decision was made out of principle and in response to the Paris Climate Agreement withdrawal.

Protecting our planet and driving economic growth are critical to our future, and they arent mutually exclusive, Iger said in a statement in June.

Iger missed a planned meeting of the council in February, when he instead attended a Disney board meeting.

Travis Kalanick, Uber

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick left Trumps economic council in early February, following public criticism for his participation on it and issues he and the company had with the White Houses travel ban.

Kalanick sent an email to employees in which he said, The implicit assumption that Uber (or I) was somehow endorsing the administrations agenda has created a perception-reality gap between who people think we are, and who we actually are  There are many ways we will continue to advocate for just change on immigration but staying on the council was going to get in the way of that. The executive order is hurting many people in communities all across America.

Since then, Kalanick has stepped down as CEO of the ride-sharing company, following a myriad of public relations scandals, including sexual harassment and discrimination claims.
The United States, Mexico and Canada will meet on Wednesday for the first round of discussions to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and on Monday Canadas trade minister outlined the countrys goals for those discussions in the most detailed way to-date.

Canada the United States and Mexico have a powerful shared interest in reaching a mutually beneficial agreement, Foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland said during a speech in Ottawa. Strong economic fundamentals are a compelling agreement for bolstering what works and improving what can be made better.

Freeland said Canada is looking to make NAFTA more progressive by improving labor safeguards, emphasizing gender and indigenous rights and strengthening environmental protections. She said Canada is on the same page as the United States when it comes to reducing unnecessary red tape and seeking a freer market for government procurement.

However, Freeland was resolute about one item that could cause problems between the United States and its neighbor to the north: maintaining a settlement dispute mechanism.

Just as good fences make good neighbors, strong settlement dispute settlement systems make good trading partners, she said.

In its outlined goals released last month, the U.S. declared its intention to eliminate NAFTAs dispute-resolution panels. In theory, that could allow the U.S. to implement tariffs more easily. Earlier this year, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped punitive tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber producers.

Freeland, while hoping for a happy ending," cautioned Canadians about periods of drama and excitement throughout the negotiations. The first round begins on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and Mexican officials have said the plan is to hold seven rounds of talks at three-week intervals, according to Reuters.

Canada has an expressed interest in making what is a good agreement, even better, Freeland said. She compared the benefits Canada has received from participating in NAFTA to the country receiving a $20 billion check each year since the trading pact went into effect in 1994. Freeland said the U.S., Mexico and Canada account for one quarter of the worlds GDP with a $19 trillion regional market.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has called NAFTA the worst trade deal the U.S. has ever approved. Among the Trump administrations goals for the NAFTA renegotiation are cutting the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, encouraging greater labor market integration, improving market access for American manufacturers and farmers, as well as eliminating unfair trade practices.

According to the White House, since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, the U.S. trade balance with Mexico has shifted from a surplus of $1.3 billion to a $64 billion deficit in 2016.
A lunatic with a nuclear weapon has directly threatened America. It is not a stretch to say that our military is on a war footing. It is positioned for a fight.

At a time like this, we need rational discussion. But thats not what we're getting.

Look at this headline from the LA Times: "Trump the notorious cut-up: the president may be a joke, but he doesn't make jokes"....I don't think we should be calling our president that kind of name when our commander-in-chief is facing down North Koreas Kim Jong Un.

And then there's Keith Ellison, second in command at the Democratic National Committee....a very prominent Democrat....he told the world that North Koreas leader is "acting more responsibly" than President Trump. He's rational. Our president is not.

What do these critics think they're doing? Cheerfully undermining the president, even as he deals with the threat of a nuclear attack. Thats playing into the enemy's hands.

President Trump's policy is to show the enemy we can deal with them, and convince them we'll pull the trigger if we have to....thats why we're flying B-1 bombers over the Korean Peninsula. Thats why the commander-in-chief is standing firm...no backing off.

Calling the president a joke. Calling him irrational. Building up Kim Jong Un as some kind of superior guy is a deliberate and dangerous tactic. The North Koreans will seize on any sign of division in America.

We should not be doing this. A lunatic with a nuke is a serious threat. Our president should be able to confront him with the backing of the country..... Even if you don't like him. Even if you oppose all things Trump, do not call him a joke and do not suggest any support for our enemy.

We're all in this together....
Usually its the cars in the museum that get the attention.

A Dodge Challenger crashed just outside the Volo Auto Museum near Chicago last week, its driver losing control while being pursued by police.

A museum photographer, who happened to be outside snapping some shots, caught the aftermath on camera.

DODGE CHALLENGER SRT HELLCAT WRECKED AFTER JUST 18 MILES

According to police, the red coupe had just been clocked doing 84 mph in a 55 mph on the highway and was weaving in and out of traffic in what appeared to be an attempt to evade the patrol car that spotted it.

The driver, identified as 22-year-old Dakota Eckmann, then left the main road and smashed head-on into a utility while negotiating a curve across the street from the museum, the Chicago Tribune reports. The photographer, Rick Schultz, says police got Eckmann out of the car just as it began to smoulder. According to police, he'd had the used muscle car car for only about two weeks.

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS SAYS THE DODGE CHALLENGER SRT DEMON SHOULD BE BANNED

Eckmann was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police found drug paraphernalia in the car that they believe he may have been using while driving. He was charged with several offenses, including reckless driving and passing on the shoulder, while police said a DUI charge was pending the results of a blood test.

The Volo Auto Museum houses several actual and tribute movie cars, along with a number of cars previously owned by the rich and famous. It also buys and sells classic and notable used cars. It currently has a custom Challenger convertible in inventory, if you happen to need to replace your Dodge soon.

DODGE CHALLENGER SRT HELLCAT TEST DRIVE:
Infiniti has revealed its "what if" Prototype 9 race car ahead of the festivities of the Monterey Car Week. We must admit, for a flight of fancy what might have been grand prix racer, this thing is pretty cool.

The concept started with the idea of running across a forgotten race car in a barn in the Japanese countryside. From there, Alfonso Albaisa, Senior Vice President, Global Design, made a design sketch inspired by roadsters and aircraft of the era

Soon, many on the design team were giving their input, and then word got out beyond the design team to production, who volunteered to build it.

The project was moved to the Nissan Research Center in Oppama, Japan, where a team of Takumi, the same master craftspeople who build cars like the Nissan GT-R, set to building it. The Takumi literally hammered the bare-metal steel body panels around a steel ladder frame sporting a 106.3-inch wheelbase.

For the suspension, Infiniti chose period pieces. Up front is a leading-arm rigid axle with a transverse leaf spring. Out back is a DeDion axle with another transverse leaf spring. The steering isn't power assisted, and the brakes aren't boosted, though discs are found at all four corners. The tires are cross-ply 450-19 fronts and 650-19 rears mounted on center-locking wire wheels.

For the interior, the Takumi chose the best materials and tailored them to bring out their best characteristics. They chose black leather with red contrast stitching and sewed Japanese flags into the seat. (We'll ignore for now that Japan was an Axis power during this era.)

When Nissan Motor Corporation's powertrain engineers heard about the project, the Prototype 9 took a left turn. Instead of a period internal combustion engine, they went with a modern electric powertrain. In fact, this powerplant has yet to be used in any Nissan or Infiniti car. It consists of a 30-kwh battery teamed with a prototype electric motor that produces 148 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. The power is sent to the rear wheels via a single-speed transmission.

Weighing in at just 1,962 pounds, Infiniti says the Prototype 9 has a top speed of 105.6 mph, can sprint from 0-62 mph in 5.5 seconds, and can handle 20 minutes of heavy track use before running out of juice. Infiniti isn't saying how many miles it can drive at highway speeds.

The Prototype 9 will make its public debut this week at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It will be shown alongside a real race car from Infiniti parent Nissan's past, the Prince R380 of the 1960s.

For more coverage from Monterey Car Week, visit Motor Authority's dedicated hub.
A stunt person died on the set of Deadpool 2 while attempting to film a motorcycle scene.

Vancouver Police confirmed the fatal accident on Twitter:

TMZ reported Monday the rider, a female whose identity is being withheld, went airborne in Vancouver where the action flick, starring Ryan Reynolds, is taking place.

Her bike crashed through the glass of a ground-floor studio inside Shaw Tower near Jack Poole Plaza. Witnesses claimed she didn't apply the brakes.

The rider was pulled from the crash site and rushed to the hospital. The celebrity gossip site added police taped off the area and an investigation is underway.

Reynolds later tweeted a note expressing his condolences to the deceased crew member's family.

This isnt the first accident that has occurred on a film set recently.

Stuntman John Bernecker died in July after falling 20 feet onto a concrete floor while filming a scene for Season 8 of "The Walking Dead."
Israeli supermodel Shlomit Malka was hospitalized Sunday after she was seriously injured riding an electric scooter down a popular bike path on Tel Avivs Rothschild Boulevard.

The Jerusalem Post reported the 23-year-old model and former host of Israels The Voice suffered a head injury after she fell off her bike.

STARS POST PICS FROM HOSPITALS AND DOCTORS' OFFICES

Its unclear whether Malka was wearing a helmet at the time. However, witnesses claimed the path was slippery due to an automatic sprinker system for the grass.

She was seriously injured after crashing the bike, but is not in a life-threatening situation, said police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld to the publication. Police arrived at the scene and are looking into how the accident took place.

Police added Malka was sedated and placed on a respirator at Ichilov Hospitals Intensive Care Unit. MDA paramedic Yaarit Oren said she was found unconscious on the side of the road.

We gave her life-saving medical treatment, including medication and anesthesia, and we urgently evacuated her to the hospital while her condition was defined as critical and unstable, said Oren.

A hospital spokesperson confirmed a medical team conducting tests on the model.
A family-owned pizzeria in New Jersey is facing backlash after an officer claimed she got a pizza box with the word pig written on it.

In early August, the East Brunswick police officer walked into the family-owned pizza restaurant to pick up her order.

While the officer waited for her food, pizzeria owner Frank Mancinis brother marked a pizza box with a sharpie and put it in the oven to wait for pickup, NJ Advance Media reported.

$180 WAGYU BEEF SANDWICH COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO AS PART OF $595 DINNER

The box had a derogatory comment directed toward the officer, East Brunswick PBA Local 145 wrote on its Facebook page. After confronting the employee, the officer left without her food or a refund.

Mancini, though, denies there was any anti-cop message. Mancini states that the box in question was titled with P for plain pie and had a symbol next to it to indicate garlic twist.

The restaurant maintains that this is a case of misunderstanding and that it appreciates and supports the police force.

"This has been a nightmare," Mancini said. "We love cops. People just want to blow it up for our business to fail."

In an attempt to defend itself, Mancini Pizza released a photo, claiming it showed the pizza box in question. However, the police union denied the photo was accurate.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The photograph conjured up by Mancini Pizza, 11 days after the incident, is not an actual depiction of the original pizza box. It is unfortunate, but not surprising that Mancini Pizza would attempt to cover up the truth and continue to avoid taking responsibility for the behavior of their employees. As mentioned in our previous statement, the officer refutes the claims made by Mancini Pizza regarding the matter. We will continue to stand by the officer's account of the event.

The East Brunswick community has responded to the allegations by calling for a boycott of the restaurant. Its Yelp page is now being monitored because of reviews left regarding this incident.
A waitress at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Illinois was surprised recently when she picked up the check from a table she had just served and discovered her customers had left a rude note instead of a tip, all because of her tattoo.

According to the Rock River Times, waitress Samantha Heaton has a tattoo on her arm of a rainbow in the shape of an equal sign.

It represents equality and LGBTQ rights.

Because of that tattoo, the customers reportedly put a 0 on the tip line of the check and wrote: Cant tip someone who doesnt love Jesus. Bad tatoo.

They also misspelled tattoo.

Heaton is gay, but never mentioned anything about being gay or about her religion to her customers. They just saw the tattoo.

One of Heatons coworkers posted a photo of the tattoo to Facebook to point out that a person can be LGBTQ and still be a Christian. Most servers also rely on tips to earn a living wage and pay their bills, regardless of their religion.

Heaton says she is a Christian, and as a Christian she objects to their judgment and intolerance, and especially worries about the bad example they might be setting for the two small children at the table with them.

As a Christian, thou shall not judge. No matter how someone looks, you should love them for whats in their heart and how they treat younot for what is on the outside, she said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Meal
The Spanish village that shot to fame after being painted blue and dubbing itself the home of the Smurfs has now been banned from associating itself with the popular cartoon.

The tiny Andalusian village of Juzcar was painted blue in 2011 as part of a publicity stunt by Sony Pictures to promote the film "The Smurfs."

Paintings of Smurfs also decorated the walls, stalls were stuffed with Smurf souvenirs, and some locals even dressed up as Smurf characters to pose for photos.

VOLUNTEER DETECTIVES REVEAL POSSIBLE BREAKTHROUGH IN DB COOPER CASE

It was supposed to be a temporary stunt, but locals voted to keep it after the town saw interest from tourists. In fact, the once sleepy village, which is home to only 250 people, began attracting up to 80,000 tourists a year, according to The Independent.

However, the sudden influx of visitors from all over the globe led to a dispute between the town hall and the heirs of Pierre Culliford, the Belgian artist who created the Smurf comics.

It was believed to have been resolved when locals agreed to pay 12 percent in royalties on all Smurf-related income, but now the Smurfs must be evicted for good.

WHY AUSTRALIANS WILL PAY FOR CASSIE SAINSBURYS DEFENCE

In a notice posted on the villages council website last week, the mayors office announced that as of August 15, all smurf related activities must cease  although the village will remain blue.

Labelled important information for tourists, the notice said Juzcar had lost the authorization to market itself as a Smurf town and from Tuesday August 15th there will be no more statues or references to that brand, The Local reports.

FEMALE PASSENGERS ON SAUDIA AIRLINES WARNED TO COVER ARMS AND LEGS

There was no further explanation from the council about the events that led up to this decision and they have said they have nothing further to comment on the matter.

Sony Pictures originally chose the village as it is famous for its fungi, which grow in the surrounding hills, and Smurfs are known for their love of mushrooms.

This story originally appeared on News.com.au
The American public is once again having to learn history all over again.

When it comes to North Korea, Americans are having to face the prospect of a rogue nationa human rights abuser on par with Nazi Germanythat is now armed with nuclear weapons that can strike our homeland.

History reminds us we have been down this road beforewhether it was with the Soviet Union building a deadly nuclear arsenal in the 1950s or China doing the same in the 1960s.

The collective shock and panic you see when it comes to North Koreaand the nightmare reality that they can hit the U.S. with nuclear weaponsis our generations Sputnik moment. While some are still in denial, the simple facts are now inescapable.

The collective shock and panic you see when it comes to North Koreaand the nightmare reality that they can hit the U.S. with nuclear weaponsis our generations Sputnik moment.

So, the next question seems obvious: Would Kim Jong Un use his nuclear weapons under the right conditions, say if he felt his survival was threatened? The answer is a resounding yes.

Know this: if Pyongyang decided to launch a salvo of nuclear armed missiles towards Seoul, Tokyo, U.S. military bases or the homeland, the carnage unleashed would be unlike anything we have seen since the days of World War II. In such a scenario, millions upon millions of people could die or become the victims of radioactive fallout, whose injuries could lay dormant for years. It would be, per one senior Pentagon official I spoke to last week, as if Lucifer opened the gates of hell.

Gaming out nuclear war scenariosas horrific as they areis part of my job working for a D.C. foreign policy think tank. Back in 2013, I took part in a series of wargames to consider what would happen if North Korea and America become entangled in a nuclear conflict. No matter how we approached such an atomic conflict the results were the same. There was no question millions of people would dieit was just a question of how many.

Over the course of several days, experts, journalists, academics and retired Pentagon staffers played out three scenarios of what a war with North Korea would look like  focusing on nuclear weapons use, and concluding one war per day in a sped-up fashion. We started with a scenario that involved atomic weapons release on a small scale and in the next two sessions raised the stakes dramatically.

The first wargamethe smallest and least lethal of the bunchimagined a conflict in 2020 where U.S. and allied forces on the Korean Peninsula were attacked by surprise with conventional weapons only by North Korea, responding to intelligence that Washington was considering building forces in the region for a possible attack.

Kim decides to open this imagined Second Korean War by launching a massive artillery barrage on Seoul while raining down 250 or so small- and medium-range missiles on targets all around South Korea and Japan. Allied forces then counterattack, focusing mostly on Kims weapons of mass destruction, the biggest threat of all, eliminating what they think is all of them.

Eventually, allied forces battle their way up the peninsula and close in on Pyongyang, the capitol of North Korea. But Kim, even with his forces battered and bloody, kept four nuclear weapons hidden from U.S. strikes and decides to attack Seoul and Tokyo. While the allies do win the war, the casualties from the nuclear attackswith one warhead each making it past allied missiles defenses detonating in each cityresults in over one million people dead and millions more wounded. Add that to the likely staggering body count totals from what would be a bloody conventional campaign, and you would see a death toll that seems unthinkable today.

As if the above wasnt bad enough, a second scenario involved Kim starting a conflict using nuclear weapons in a sort of atomic Pearl Harbor. In this exercise, we assume that in 2020 U.S. forces are building in the Asia-Pacific in preparation for a regime change operation, responding to a demand from the international community for North Korea to give up its nuclear weaponsjust like the Second Gulf War.

But Kim Jong Un is a student of history. He knows once U.S. forces are in place they will try to take out his weapons of mass destruction and move across the 38th parallel. He decides to attack first. In this wargame, we assumed Kim launched successful nuclear strikes on Seoul, Pusan, Incheon, Tokyo, Sendai and Nagoya, with one nuclear weapon hitting each city and getting past allied missile defenseshe fires more, but this is what actually hits the target. Before the allies can even spring into action, over two million people perish in the atomic fire.

The final wargame was the most dramatic and led to the most loss of life. We assume a similar scenario in 2020 with allied forces getting ready for a possible invasion, but this time Kim decides to launch a pre-emptive attack on the U.S. homeland. We assume he strikes the target cities in the second scenario, but add on successful nuclear attacks on Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. We were shocked to discover we ended up with a combined body count of over three million people between losses in Asia and America. Oh, and by the way, this is before Americas nuclear counterattack, which would add millions more to the total.

By the time this wargame ended, North Korea went all in with every weapon it had, launching more nuclear attacks along with chemical and biological weapons strikes. When it was over and North Korea was finally defeated, eight million people were killed.

Now, to be fair, a wargame does not predict the future and is nowhere near perfect in its analysis. However, experts conduct such exercises many times to game out worst-case scenarios and consider unconventional strategies for dealing with the threats of the future. But one thing we assumed in this scenario is quite haunting: we believed by 2020 Kim would have nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a warhead and could target all northeast Asia and hit the U.S. homeland, something some in the simulation thought was fantasy. Now it is a chilling realityin 2017.

What can we take away from all of this?

While military options for removing Kims nuclear weapons, as you can see above, could result in the death of millions, we still have time to make sure North Korea cant keep adding more and more advanced capabilities to its atomic arsenal.

The most important thing we can do now is stop the amount of resources flowing into North Korea and enforce the recently passed UN Security Council resolutionsand that means China must finally join the international communities efforts. If not, North Korea could get its hands on a hydrogen bomb or even more long-range missilessomething we did not consider in our wargames. If that day comes to pass, the above scenarios, played out with smaller atomic weapons, will seem downright optimistic. And that should send a chill up everyones spine.
In Sundays New York Times, Kristen Ghodsee paints a glowing picture of womens lives in the former Soviet Union. From full voting rights in 1917, liberalized divorce laws, high labor force participation  and yes, reportedly better sex  life was supposedly much better for women. Ghodsee writes, Although the Communists never fully reformed domestic patriarchy, Communist women enjoyed a degree of self-sufficiency that few Western women could have imagined.

Of course, full voting rights dont count for very much when there is always only one candidate allowed on the ballot.

But there is a more fundamental problem with Ghodsees argument. Totalitarian governments have gone to great lengths to indoctrinate children, and the biggest obstacles to that goal were parents. The way to overcome this problem was to take women away from their children by encouraging or forcing them into the work force. Making divorce easy also weakened the institution of the family.

Soviet women were more indoctrinated than they were empowered.

As former Moscow Bureau Chief for the New York Time David Shipler discovered, during the 1920s and 1950s, the Soviet Union even experimented with raising children in communal childrens houses, dining halls, and other institutions that would decrease the importance of the individual household. During the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Soviet government forcibly took tens of thousands of three- and four-year-old Afghanis to the USSR so that they would be raised away from their families. The hope was to later return them to Afghanistan, where they might form the core of a loyal government administration.

The former Soviet Union viewed children as the property of the state and they were actively encouraged to criticize, expose, and reform parents possessing insufficient revolutionary ideals.

But there are more subtle ways of achieving this without forcibly removing children from their homes. An article of mine in the Journal of Political Economy found that more totalitarian countries, such as the Soviet Union, had higher rates of divorce, female labor force participation, and out-of-wedlock births. They also tend to have children start school at an earlier age. If the government took care of the children most of the day from a very young age, a single parent would not have much opportunity to affect what the child would learn.

A totalitarian government is also likely to control the media and own the countrys television and radio stations. Soviet women were more indoctrinated than they were empowered.

Policies that weaken the family are not just limited to totalitarian governments. Governments with very large wealth transfer programs have also followed somewhat similar paths. A good example is Sweden, which aggressively instituted a very costly system of nursery school care. Education minister Ingvar Carlsson (a future prime minister) declared that school is the spearhead of Socialism and pre-school training is essential to eliminate the social heritage of undesirable parental views.

Minutes from Swedish cabinet meetings reveal that the government adopted tax and employment policies in the 1960s to get both parents out of the home, so that children are forced out as well. One method was to separately tax each adult's income rather than family income as a whole. Because of Sweden's highly progressive tax structure, a family of two adults working for $40,000 each would actually have a much higher after-tax income than a family with only one person making $100,000. The scheme was intentionally set up to force women out of the home and into the labor force.

Many women in the former Soviet Union might have enjoyed being away from home, but the frequent use of government force demonstrates that not all women felt liberated by this. Ultimately this liberation came at the cost of children being indoctrinated with values not resembling those of their parents.

While Ghodsee may see all this as necessary social change, there is a reason that few men or women were trying to break into the old Soviet Union, and people werent staying away just because of the poverty.
Over three million students were suspended for acting out in class this past school year. Tens of millions more completely shut down learning with their antics.

Disciplining these unruly students won't change their behavior because it won't address the root cause -- emotional turmoil. People's frontal lobes, the part of the brain that processes emotions and governs behavior, don't fully develop until age 25. Kids simply can't tune out feelings of hurt, stress, fear, and anxiety the way adults can.

It's unrealistic to expect students to sit still, focus and learn if they're still seething about snide hallway remarks and lunch hour gossip. Teachers can reclaim control of their classrooms and boost students' academic success by uttering three simple words before class: "Are you okay?"

Emotional distress alters the brain's chemistry, making learning all but impossible. "Emotions are significantly related to students' motivation, learning strategies, cognitive resources, self-regulation, and academic achievement," a study published in Educational Psychologist found.

According to a literature review published in the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine, anxiety can also take a toll on test performance, grades and the likelihood of attaining of a high school diploma. Angry and anxious kids often find it difficult to remember classroom material.

On the flip side, pleasant emotions like hope and pride "positively correlate with students' academic self-efficacy, academic interest and effort, and overall achievement," according to German professor Reinhard Pekrun. Simply put, a good emotional state facilitates learning, while unstable emotions produce difficult or impossible learning scenarios.

A child who has been made to feel worthless in the hallway can't be expected to tackle an academic challenge five minutes later.

Teachers and school administrators can, and must, gauge students' emotions and step in before troubled students have to act out to get noticed. Merely checking in with students and offering a kind word or opportunity to reset can help kids concentrate on the upcoming lesson.

But, with all they have on their plates, it's hard for teachers to spot hurt and anger in a sea of student faces. Luckily, some schools are using education technology to make sure a hallway insult doesn't ruin a whole day of learning.

At California's Canalino Elementary School, teachers act as "emotional detectives" thanks to an initiative launched by teacher Brandon Sportel. Students regularly report their feelings -- both positive and negative -- through helloyello.net, a web app. Teachers monitor these reports and intervene if they notice anything troubling.

For instance, one student checked in with regrets about bullying another student. Teachers were able to help this student deal with his emotions, preventing future name-calling.

Schools nationwide could implement similar technologies to improve the classroom dynamic.

Imagine if a student could let his teacher know that other kids excluded him at lunch. The teacher could step in and help the student cool off before instruction begins, potentially preventing him from acting out in class. That student would learn better -- and so would all his classmates.

A child who has been made to feel worthless in the hallway can't be expected to tackle an academic challenge five minutes later. Until educators start accounting for the impact of emotion on learning, unaddressed emotional turmoil will continue to impede millions of kids' academic progress.

In short, if we don't start asking students across America if they're okay, their learning and behavior never will be.
President Trump seems intent on starting a trade war with China. If so, he had best get used to life without Twitter. Or for that matter, without computers, smartphones, cars, fighter jets, commercial airplanes or lasers.

All of those products contain so-called heavy rare earths, the 17 metals and minerals that power almost every consumer item that requires energy. China has a virtual monopoly on the production of rare earths, and has already signaled that if the United States imposes penalties on its exports, the supply could be cut off, quickly.

Because fully processed rare earths are relatively cheap, they are often taken for granted in the production chain. The U.S. militarys most advanced aircraft, the F-35 jet fighter, for instance, cannot operate without rare earths. Nor can aircraft carriers launch planes from their decks. And GPS and satellite-guided transportation systems will go dark.

Virtually all consumer products that use any kind of energy, graphics or optics need rare earths. So do wind turbines, solar panels and other producers of so-called green energy.

The United States used to mine and process rare earths, but allowed its production capacity to wither because China could supply them at a lower price. American businesses have, by and large, assumed that China will continue to supply them with rare earths, the way you expect water to come out of a bathroom tap.

But some, like Anthony Marchese, chairman of Texas Mineral Resources Corp., see a real threat. If you control 100 percent of a commodity  in this case, heavy rare earths, he told me, why wouldnt you use this as a threat? They would logically do that. Are they hurting themselves by doing that? Yes, to a certain extent. On the other hand, China is not run by economists. If the Chinese military believes this is the right thing to do, it doesnt matter what its business leaders believe.

The gamut of products that require rare earths is an encyclopedia of life in the 21st Century. Ever since manufacturers saw value in miniaturizing products like mobile phones, electronic watches, and GPS guidance systems, rare earths have been used increasingly. They are not expensive, and most consumers are unaware of their existence. But that doesnt mean they are not vital.

The analogy that I use is, you own a Ferrari that has a $50 oil filter under the hood, says Marchese. Without that oil filter, that Ferrari is useless.

Virtually all consumer products that use any kind of energy, graphics or optics need rare earths. So do wind turbines, solar panels and other producers of so-called green energy.

Would China actually cut off its supplies in a trade war with the United States? Back in 2010, China and Japan had a territorial dispute. Without warning, China cut off its exports of rare earths. Japan folded.

Theres no question that China has no respect for intellectual property, says Marchese. The problem we now face in the U.S. is that is that China is in a position of hurting us, at the same time as hurting themselves. Its a game of chicken.

And one that the Trump Administration seems to be playing without knowing the rules.
President Trump should be taking a victory lap. In recent days, Kim Jung Un has backed away from his earlier threat to bomb Guam, according to Pyongyang's state-run media.

At the same time, China has (finally) leveled extremely damaging sanctions against North Korea, banning imports of coal, iron and seafood.

Are these positive developments an accident? No, it appears that the Trump White House has changed the calculus by the leaders of those two countries, and that the president has had a plan for confronting the hermit kingdom, after all.

Unfortunately, as has happened all too often, the White House, offering initially only a tepid condemnation of the racist attack in Charlottesville, has stepped on its own good news.

Obama knew that Pyongyang had moved faster and farther towards nuclear capability than generally known. He just didnt want to deal with it. His diplomatic priority with China was to get them to sign onto the Paris Climate Accord.

President Trump shocked the world by warning that military aggression by North Korea would be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before." Critics have called his bold threats against the hermit nation undisciplined and dangerous. They have accused the Trump White House as uncoordinated, and lacking a strategy.

Could they be wrong? Yes.

Trumps aggressive remarks appear consistent with a multi-step strategy that has been in the works for months. The president has not laid out his plan, because, as he has argued on numerous occasions, doing so can undermine any programs effectiveness. Announcing that we would attack Mosul in several months time, as President Obama did, only allowed ISIS fighters to dig in, stockpile supplies and bolster their defenses. In war and in diplomacy, the element of surprise can be critical.

Trumps team may have decided, as others have, that the only path to changing North Koreas provocative behavior was through China. Beijing has until now paid only lip service to reining in their belligerent neighbor. China is guided exclusively by their own self-interest; it has been convenient and fruitful to have the West begging for their help.

How to engage China in a more serious and effective manner?

The first step in the plan was to convince Beijing that President Trump is as unpredictable and potentially dangerous as Kim Jung Un, and would not hesitate to use force if provoked.

This important first step was accomplished during President Xi Jinpings visit to Mar-al-Lago in April. That was the first meeting for the two heads of state, the critical first read. The two leaders enjoyed a dinner and conversation with wives and associates, which was abruptly interrupted when President Trump excused himself to meet with his security advisors.

The United States had just bombed Syria, in retaliation for the Bashar Al-Assads use of chemical weapons on his own people. The strike was unexpected, targeted and it sent an unequivocal message to President Xi: there is a new Commander in Chief in town who, unlike Obama, would use military force to back up his threats. No more meaningless red lines; if Trump promised retaliation, as he did when he warned the Syrian regime not to poison its own people, he would follow through.

That the Trump team gave the Chinese no advance warning of the strike was entirely intentional. It was meant to rattle President Xi and his foreign policy henchmen, and set them to recalibrating what the United States might do next.

The next step in the program was to spotlight Chinas hypocrisy, and to reaffirm its responsibility for enabling North Koreas march to nuclear capability. At the Mar-al-Lago summit, President Trump backed down from earlier threats to label China a currency manipulator in exchange for Xis promises to help rein in Kim Jung Un, following the playbook of prior administrations.

Three months later, however, Trump tweeted that he was very disappointed in China. They do NOTHING for us with North Koreajust talk. In interviews he called out Chinas cheating, noting that its trade with North Korea had jumped 34 percent in the first quarter  hardly indicative of economic pressure. Stories appeared in the New York Times and elsewhere chronicling how Chinese companies, with full knowledge of the government, had circumvented sanctions against Pyongyang, enabling their weapons programs.

Having spotlighted Chinas treachery, the United States began to press for broader sanctions on North Korea. Ambassador Nikki Haley scored a major foreign policy win when the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to meaningful and damaging sanctions against Pyongyang. Its duplicity exposed, China was in no position to object.

Sanctions, however, may not stop North Koreas march towards nuclear capability. It may also require fear.

Hence, President Trump has undertaken step three  threatening North Koreas very existence. Kim Jung Un is ruthless but not a madman, nor is he stupid. He would not have risen to the top of his nation without cunning and an excellent survival instinct. He understands that the United States has the military capability to destroy his country; but he has never imagined it would come to that.

Kim has also long understood that his nuclear weapons program gave him standing on the world stage. He will not give that up unless he is afraid for his life, or his regime. He may not do so even then; we will soon find out.

The foreign policy establishment is aghast at Trumps belligerence. Tranquilized by decades of strategic patience, they have no new ideas, in fact no ideas at all. Learned papers have asserted that there are no good options in dealing with North Korea, even with all options on the table. The defeatism, from the worlds most powerful nation, is embarrassing.

President Trump is trying something new. When he met with his predecessor before taking office, President Obama warned him about North Korea. Obama knew that Pyongyang had moved faster and farther towards nuclear capability than generally known; he knew they had miniaturized weapons that fit on the nose of a ballistic missile. He just didnt want to deal with it. His diplomatic priority with China was to get them to sign onto the Paris Climate Accord.

So warned, President Trump has had many months to map out a new approach to North Korea with his security team. Standing alongside his impressive team of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and Nikki Haley the other day in Bedminster, he seemed in command and confidant.

Will his gamble work? We dont know, but if I were Kim Jung Un, or President Xi, I would not underestimate this president.
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday denounced white supremacist groups in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., saying: We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK.

Pence said the dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life. He was speaking during a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia.

Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Trumps initial remarks about the events that unfolded in Charlottesville. When Trump addressed the nation on Saturday, he said he condemns in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.

TRUMP CONDEMNS 'WHITE SUPREMACISTS,' OTHER EXTREMISTS BEHIND DEADLY VIRGINIA RALLIES, OFFICIAL SAYS

Pence said that when President Trump spoke about yesterdays tragedies, his call for unity between both sides was from the heart. The vice president added that our hearts go out to the victims of Saturdays violence.

Trying to explain the presidents position, the White House released a statement on Sunday: "The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups."

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS ENCOURAGE TRUMP TO SPECIFICALLY CALL OUT WHITE NATIONALISTS

It added: "He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together."

Fox News' Jennifer Bowman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The breach will come in September. The breakpoint has been coming for a while now. Its built over the past few weeks as President Trump browbeat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The schisms grew when GOP Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas called out the president for his comments about the violence in Charlottesville.

But it will metastasize later this summer over health care payments, government spending, avoiding a federal shutdown and the debt ceiling.

Ever so slowly, Trump has distanced himself from many Republicans in Congress. In turn, many congressional Republicans have erected a trench between themselves and the president. After all, this was only a marriage of convenience. Not true love.

Consider how critical Trump was of Congress after the health care debacle.

One can find clues to this fissure in the signing statement Trump issued after he reluctantly put his name on the Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions Act.

The plan imposed penalties on Russia, North Korea and Iran that Trump said he favored. But the president then bludgeoned Congress, declaring this legislation is significantly flawed.

Its not new for presidents to compose signing statements to provide context and views about bills they ink into law. Presidents have long added caveats about what they like and dislike concerning legislation.

They may telegraph how they plan to interpret or execute a law -- sometimes contrary to the vision of Congress. A closer inspection of Trumps signing statement reflected the contempt he had for lawmakers on the sanctions bill. It could be a taste of things to come.

He noted that Congress in its haste to pass this legislation included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions.

Trump said that sections of the plan purport to displace the presidents exclusive constitutional authority of recognized foreign governments.

He again characterized the bill as flawed near the end of the signing statement.

In short, Ill sign it, but I dont like it.

Not exactly the type of bluster and braggadocio we heard from candidate Trump on the campaign trail last year.

That signing statement could forecast what to expect from Trump and Congress in the coming weeks as they hurtle down a collision course with health care payments, government operations and the debt limit.

In reality, there is a chasm between what many lawmakers know is operationally possible in Congress and what averts a legislative calamity on these issues and what the president would like to do.

Congressional sources say lawmakers will soldier on, develop some Band-Aid fixes for this trifecta of crises and essentially dare Trump to veto the legislation.

The bet on Capitol Hill is that he will do so grudgingly.

Keep in mind, these arent Republicans in Congress challenging President Obama over health care in 2013, sparking a shutdown.

This is a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president. That attests to the size of the crevasses between Capitol Hill and the White House these days.

The first issue is health care and Cost Sharing Reduction payments. CSRs defray the discounts health insurance companies offer poor customers when they sell them insurance. The government is due to pay the next installment on August 21.

Trump threatened to cut off the payments to get lawmakers scurrying to the table to repeal and replace ObamaCare. But so far, theres no movement from the administration.

A maneuver to halt the payments could wreck the health care system and harm many Americans who support the president. Republicans repeatedly talk about how they need to stabilize the health care markets. A failure to make the August 21 payment produces precisely the opposite effect.

Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the panel, plan bipartisan hearings in September to address the CSR problem and bring continuity to the health care marketplace.

A decision by the administration to slash the payments may embolden bipartisan lawmakers to redouble their efforts when it comes to plussing-up the CSRs.

A standalone vote for this in both the House and Senate is a tacit reaffirmation of ObamaCare. But Republicans concede they may get smoked if they dont figure the CSRs out in some form. A bipartisan solution could be the best route.

Then theres the debt limit -- the total balance the U.S. is allowed to carry at any one time.

Congressional conservatives are beside themselves that theres no concrete plan to actually reduce spending right now. Therefore, theyre unwilling to vote for a debt ceiling increase.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has advocated a clean debt-ceiling increase by September 29. Its believed that whatever action Congress takes, it will delay grappling with the debt limit until after the 2018 midterm elections.

So its likely Mnuchin and actuaries will determine an approximate debt-ceiling dollar figure and peg it to a date in late 2018 or early 2019.

The new threshold must be somewhere north of $20 trillion. Naturally, Republicans dont want to be on the hook for just increasing the debt ceiling with nothing to show for it.

Expect a coalition of some Republicans and lots of Democrats to come together -- especially if the final agreement is a clean debt-limit increase with no strings attached. Democrats would likely provide the votes for that scenario.

Then theres the issue of funding the government by the start of the new fiscal year, October 1.

The House has approved four of the 12 annual spending bills that run the government. The Senate hasnt done anything. So, expect lawmakers to forge what is often called a CR to keep the lights on in Washington. A CR is short for a Continuing Resolution.

It re-ups federal funding at the current level for a short period. Lawmakers and journalists alike cant wait for September to differentiate between the CR and health care CSRs. Its sure to confuse the public.

Now it gets tricky. Its possible lawmakers could wrap the health care CSRs, the debt ceiling and a plan to avoid a government shutdown into one, massive, grotesque legislative package.

No one will like it. But theyve assembled Frankenstein bills like this before. At the very least, they could link two of the three. Such a package would avert a shock to the health care system, raise the debt ceiling (sidestepping a stock market meltdown) and avoid a government shutdown.

The latter would be particularly embarrassing since Republicans control all levers of government yet need help from Democrats to fund the place.

It may not work out exactly like this. But expect some variation of the above. But heres the key: Members of Congress are working on their own and producing legislation that could fly in the face of the administrations stated goals.

Raising the debt limit is about the only subject on which the administration has been reasonably vocal.

Mnuchin argued for a clean increase on multiple occasions. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said recently: Its important to raise the debt ceiling as soon as possible to have robust economic growth.

This is where Congress could essentially defy the president to veto such a bill. It aint pretty. But its all easier to digest when rolled together. Plus, its Congress just being Congress. Waiting until the last minute. Gluing a bunch of unrelated but must-pass bills together just to engineer the votes. Congress can serve as the perfect foil to president Trump.

This would reflect the gaping canyon between the White House and Congress. But it would afford Trump the opportunity to browbeat lawmakers like he did in the Russia/North Korea/Iran sanctions signing statement.

Various crises are averted. And President Trump can again turn on his favorite whipping boy: the U.S. Congress.
Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans are calling for Congress to hold hearings and work with federal law enforcement in investigating the weekend violence in Virginia, calling Saturday's fatal attack terrorism and demanding more information about the white supremacists involved.

Yesterday's horrific acts against innocent Americans were clear acts of terrorism, Rep. Lou Correa said Sunday. Our country has a homegrown terrorism problem we refuse to address. We must hold hearings and finally address that terrorism inflicted by white supremacy extremists is destroying our country.

Correa, a California Democrat, is calling on the House Homeland Security Committee to conduct the hearings and investigate white supremacy domestic terrorism in America.

South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham also suggested Sunday that Congress should assume a more aggressive role in investigating the incidents -- in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rallies in Charlottesville, Va., in which three people were killed.

Heather Heyer, 20, of Charlottesville, died when a car allegedly driven by 20-year-old James A. Fields Jr., of Ohio -- a purported white nationalist sympathizer -- plowed Saturday into a crowd of counter-demonstrators. And two state troopers died when their helicopter, which was providing overhead surveillance of the protests, crashed.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has already announced that the Justice Department is starting a civil rights investigation, which will focus on the fatal vehicle attack.

Graham acknowledged on Fox News Sunday that the extremist groups that organized the rally were "hateful" and called the demonstration a nod to domestic terrorism.

And he called for the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to look at the size and scope of the groups, then report back to Congress to see if we need to do more in terms of suppressing them.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the extremist activity in Charlottesville was terrorism, plain and simple.

The Mississippi lawmaker stopped short of calling for hearings but asked Republicans who control Congress to work with Democrats to help stop acts of domestic terror.

The national advocacy group Common Cause on Sunday called for the FBI and the Justice Department to investigate the deadly protests as acts of domestic terrorism.

These agencies must throw their full weight behind their investigations of this act of white supremacists terrorism and not treat it as an isolated incident, said group President Karen Hobert Flynn. If they treat [Saturdays deadly violence] as an isolated incident, more terrorist acts will surely follow.
California is suing the Trump administration for threatening to withhold funds for sanctuary cities, accusing the Justice Department of pure intimidation and arguing the state  not the federal government  should be the one to allocate its law enforcement resources.

"When President Trump threatened to defund our local law enforcement's ability to do its job and protect our people, he picked the wrong fight," state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

'He picked the wrong fight.'  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra

California, which could lose more than $28 million, is the first state in the nation to sue over sanctuary city restrictions on public safety grants.

Its a low blow to our brave men and women who wear the badge, and to the communities they serve, Becerra said, when announcing the lawsuit.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed his own lawsuit against the DOJ, arguing the government is trying to unfairly force the citys hand.

These conditions do not appear in any federal statue, and they do not reflect the will of Congress in appropriating funds, the lawsuit said. To the contrary, the new conditions are simply the latest attempt by the Trump administration to coerce state and local jurisdictions into carrying out the federal governments immigration enforcement priorities.

The showdown over so-called sanctuary cities has been heating up in recent months as some local governments have refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, though a wave of smaller, cash-strapped communities have shed their sanctuary status.

MIAMI-DADE COOPERATES WITH FEDS ON IMMIGRATION, GETS OK FOR $$

The California suit comes on the heels of another filed in early August by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In that 46-page complaint, Emanuel claimed the DOJ, under the stewardship of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, wants to slap unfair conditions on the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, a long-running federal crime prevention grant.

The DOJ fired back at the time, with a department spokeswoman reportedly saying "its especially tragic that the mayor is less concerned with that staggering figure than he is spending time and taxpayer money protecting criminal aliens."

Calls to the DOJ for comment on the California suit were not immediately returned.

The crackdown on sanctuary cities lines up with Trumps promised prioritization of the issue on the campaign trail. Members of his administration have repeatedly tried to link violent crime to illegal immigration  though mayors of sanctuary cities have pushed back on that assertion.

While not a technical term, sanctuary cities are places that have refused to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after detaining undocumented immigrants. By law, they are required to inform the feds when they have an illegal immigrant in custody, even if he or she has not been convicted of a crime.

There are an estimated 200 to 608 local and state governments with some sort of sanctuary policy in place  however, their degree of cooperation varies. Some work with federal authorities on felony convictions while others only comply in civil investigations. There are a few places that refuse to cooperate altogether.
Simmering efforts to remove Confederate statues in cities across the country have been reignited in the wake of last weekends deadly clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

State and local lawmakers are pointing to that rally  during which one counter-protester was killed in a car attack, 19 were injured and two state police officers died in a chopper crash  to push anew for the removal or even the destruction of Confederate-era symbols.

In Kentucky, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray said Saturday he would start the process to remove two Confederate monuments from the citys courthouse.

We have thoroughly examined this issue, and heard from many of our citizens, Gray said in a statement. The tragic events in Charlottesville today have accelerated the announcement I intended to make next week.

Gray said he will ask the Lexington-Fayette County Urban County Council to begin the removal process by formally asking a state military commission for permission to take down statues of John Hunt Morgan (a Confederate general) and John C. Breckinridge (Confederate secretary of war and former U.S. vice president).

While some champion these calls, an expanded push to remove the symbols could also lead to more clashes.

Two white nationalists seen outside the Charlottesville courthouse Monday morning told Fox News they would be heading to Lexington on Tuesday to make their presence known.

Saturdays rally-turned-riot in Charlottesville was related to the removal of a 1924 statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and the renaming of a park.

Though similar efforts in nearby Alexandria and Leesburg have stalled, momentum has picked up elsewhere to topple statues, rename streets and take down flags associated with the Confederacy.

Since 2015, at least 60 public Confederate symbols have been removed, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

DRIVE TO REMOVE CONFEDERATE SYMBOLS SPURS BACKLASH

In Baltimore City, Councilman Brandon Scott called for all four of the citys Confederate-era monuments to be taken down. Scotts resolution demands the immediate destruction of all Confederate Monuments in Baltimore.

Following the acts of domestic terrorism carried out by white supremacist terrorist groups in Charlottesville Virginia this past weekend cities must act decisively and immediately by removing these monuments, Scott wrote.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said shes already contacted contractors about removing the statues and the states governor, Larry Hogan, stopped issuing license plates with the image of the Confederate battle flag. Baltimore County officials also want to change the name of Robert E. Lee Park to Lake Roland Park.

Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch also reportedly is calling to take down an Annapolis statue of the author of the Dred Scott decision upholding slavery, ex-Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney.

In Jacksonville, Fla., activists are calling on city council members to pick up the pace and remove Confederate monuments. The council president reportedly is preparing such a plan.

The symbols have been the topic of heated debate ever since June 17, 2015, when 21-year-old Dylann Roof opened fire in a historically black church in Charleston, S.C.  murdering nine people who were there for a bible study. Roof confessed he committed the crime in hopes of igniting a race war.

Video and pictures surfaced of Roof spitting on and burning the American flag while posing proudly for pictures and waving the Confederate flag.

At the time, then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley ordered the removal of the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds.

On Saturday, Haley, now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted, I know all to (sic) well the pain hate can cause. The American Spirit that binds us has no place for actions like this.

Residents in West Virginia gathered Sunday at a statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas Stonewall Jackson on the grounds of the state capital in Charleston.

'I want people to know that hillbillies do not stand for this type of hate.'  Dustin White, Charleston, W. Va.

"I want people to know that hillbillies do not stand for this type of hate," Dustin White, of Charleston, told WSAZ 3.

But removing statues and other symbols has stirred deep controversy in many cities, with supporters saying the symbols stand for southern heritage and history that should not be destroyed.

In April, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered the removal of multiple Confederate statues and faced a stiff backlash. He was forced to have heavy police presence in place when the nighttime removals began.

Despite threats, Landrieu did not reverse course.

"These statues are not just stone and metal," he said after the last Confederate statue had been taken down. "They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for."

Fox News' Jason Donner contributed to this report.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday that if North Korea follows through on its threats to fire a missile at the United States, "it's game on."

Speaking to reporters, Mattis added that the U.S. military would "take out" any North Korean missile it detects is heading for American soil, including Guam, a U.S. territory. Mattis said the U.S. would detect a missile of that nature heading towards Guam "within moments."

Mattis added that if North Korea fires at the U.S., "it could escalate into war very quickly... yes, that's called war, if they shoot at us."

KIM JONG UN'S DISAPPEARANCE SPARKS CONCERNS MISSILE LAUNCH COULD BE IMMINENT

North Korea has warned it was considering a plan to launch four ballistic missiles to land in the sea just outside Guam.

Asked how the U.S. would respond, Mattis initially declined to say. When pressed, he said that if U.S. radars and other detection and tracking systems determine that a missile was going to fall into the sea, short of Guam, then the matter would be taken to President Donald Trump for a decision on how to respond.

Trump vowed last week that the U.S. would respond to an attack from North Korea with "fire and fury," and is "locked and loaded" should the country come close to attacking Guam.

Pentagon officials have told Fox News that the U.S. military stands ready to "fight tonight."

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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
Republican Rep. Brian Babin is calling for Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his legal team to come out of the shadows and answer questions before Congress on the scope and cost of the Russia meddling investigation.

Babin has drafted a letter on the matter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the respective chairmen of the Senate and House judiciary committees.

The team led by Mr. Mueller, who is arguably just as empowered if not more so than any United States attorney, is allowed to operate largely in secret, Babin, a two-term Texas lawmaker, wrote.

We respectfully request that one or both of the  committees immediately convene a public and open hearing or series of hearings to bring Mr. Mueller and his team out of the shadows and into the public square.

Babin is still looking for support from congressional colleagues on his letter.

Babins concerns, though, are similar to those expressed by other critics of the investigation. This includes concerns about the scope of the probe and whether any of the investigators have a political agenda. Several of them have given to the campaigns or political action committees associated with Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama.

Babin and others also are concerned about where Muellers investigation begins and ends. The former FBI director was appointed in May to investigate Russian meddling in the election and any possible collusion with the Trump campaign, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the probe.

Muellers probe has reportedly moved into looking into the financial records of Trump and members of his campaign team, including those of former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose home was raided last month by FBI agents looking for related documents.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told Fox News last week that the Justice Department doesn't engage in fishing expeditions.

He also said Mueller, whom he appointed, would need special permission to pursue matters beyond the original scope of the investigation.

Babin argues in his letter that Mueller effectively has the same authority as a U.S. attorney without having gone through the rigorous Senate confirmation process.

Those who are nominated to serve in the highest offices of public trust must not only be confirmed by the Senate, but are expected to make regular appearances  in both chambers to answer questions, wrote Babin, who also wants to know how much the Mueller probe is costing taxpayers.

The Senate committee on Monday said it has yet to see the letter, and the House committee did not immediately respond to questions.

Babin is also raising concerns about Muellers professional relationship with former FBI Director James Comey, an Obama administration holdover fired by Trump, who for his part has called the numerous Russia investigations a collective witch hunt.

While we agree that specific questions about the ongoing investigation cannot and should not be addressed in such a hearing, we also strongly believe the American people deserve knowledge and accountability regarding the potential expenses incurred by Mr. Mueller, the scope of his investigation and the selection of his special counsel team, Babin wrote.
EXCLUSIVE: President Trump may soon issue a pardon for Joe Arpaio, the colorful former Arizona sheriff who was found guilty two weeks ago of criminal contempt for defying a state judges order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected undocumented immigrants. In his final years as Maricopa County sheriff, Arpaio had emerged as a leading opponent of illegal immigration.

I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio, the president said Sunday, during a conversation with Fox News at his club in Bedminster, N.J. He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. Hes a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.

Trump said the pardon could happen in the next few days, should he decide to do so.

Arpaio, 85, was convicted by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton of misdemeanor contempt of court for willfully disregarding an Arizona judges order in 2011 to stop the anti-immigrant traffic patrols. Arpaio had maintained the law enforcement patrols for 17 months thereafter.

The man who built a controversial national reputation as Americas toughest sheriff admitted he prolonged his patrols, but insisted he did not intend to break the law because one of his former attorneys did not explain to him the full measure of restrictions contained in the court order.

He is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 5 and could face up to six months in jail. However, since he is 85 years old and has no prior convictions, some attorneys doubt he will receive any jail time.

'Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?'  President Trump

Citing his long service as an outstanding sheriff, the president said Arpaio is admired by many Arizona citizens who respected his tough-on-crime approach.

Arpaios widely publicized tactics included forcing inmates to wear pink underwear and housing them in desert tent camps where temperatures often climbed well past 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He also controversially brought back chain gains, including a voluntary chain gang for women prisoners.

Civil liberties and prisoner advocates as well as supporters of immigrants rights have criticized Arpaio for years, culminating in his prosecution. He lost his bid for reelection last year.

Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe? asked Trump. He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesnt deserve to be treated this way.

Stopping the flow of undocumented immigrants across the southern U.S. border was a central theme of the presidents campaign. Arpaio endorsed Trump in January 2016.

Trump indicated he may move quickly should he decide to issue a presidential pardon. I might do it right away, maybe early this week. I am seriously thinking about it.

Trump could decide to await the outcome of an appeal by Arpaios lawyers who contend their clients case should have been decided by a jury, not a judge.

In a statement after the verdict, his attorneys stated, The judges verdict is contrary to what every single witness testified in the case. Arpaio believes that a jury would have found in his favor, and that it will.

Reached Monday for reaction to the possible pardon, Arpaio expressed surprise that Trump was aware of his legal predicament.

I am happy he understands the case, he told Fox News. I would accept the pardon because I am 100 percent not guilty.

The former sheriff said he will continue to be a strong supporter of the president regardless of whether he receives a pardon. But he also voiced concern that a pardon might cause problems for Trump, saying, I would never ask him for a pardon, especially if it causes heat. I dont want to do anything that would hurt the president.

Trump has not granted any pardons so far in his presidency.
President Trump targeted Chinas trade policies in a newly signed execution action on Monday, asking his trade office to explore a possible investigation over alleged theft of American technology and intellectual property.

We will safeguard copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property, Trump said.

He said he was empowering U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to consider all available options.

"This is just the beginning," Trump said as he signed the memo at the White House.

Trump wants government officials to dig into Chinese practices that force American companies to share their intellectual property in order to gain access to the world's second-largest economy.

The push comes as Trump simultaneously seeks Beijing's help on North Korea. In a move that could ease tensions, China on Monday issued an order to carry out the United Nations sanctions imposed on the rogue regime earlier this month.

Trump and the regime of North Koreas Kim Jong Un have been trading escalating warnings over the past week, though White House and other administration officials have since sought to give reassurances that conflict is not imminent.

Meanwhile, in a phone call Friday, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for backing the recent U.N. vote to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea, and the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump sparred Monday with CNN star and frequent White House antagonist Jim Acosta, trading charges of fake news at the tail-end of a brief appearance focused on Chinas trade practices.

Acosta, shouting his questions after Trump signed an executive order, at first pressed the president on why he didnt initially condemn white supremacist hate groups after the weekend attack in Charlottesville.

They've been condemned. They have been condemned, Trump responded.

But Acosta then asked why Trump wasnt holding a press conference despite indications to the contrary.

Trump claimed he just had a press conference  but Acosta asked if the media could ask more questions.

Trump responded, It doesn't bother me at all, but you know, I like real news, not fake news. You're fake news.

STEPHEN MILLER SPARS WITH JIM ACOSTA

Trump walked out of the room, leaving Acosta to try turning the tables on Twitter.

As the president was walking out, I responded that he has spread plenty of fake news himself, Acosta tweeted, adding: The president said we just had a press conference. We did not. That's fake news.

Later Trump tweeted himself: Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied...truly bad people!

Acosta frequently clashes in public with the president and his aides.

Earlier this month, senior adviser Stephen Miller lashed out at Acosta for his alleged cosmopolitan bias during a heated debate in the briefing room over Trumps call to overhaul legal immigration.
Nearly 40 years after lifting off, NASA's historic Voyager mission is still exploring the cosmos.

The twin spacecraft launched several weeks apart in 1977  Voyager 2 on Aug. 20 and Voyager 1 on Sept. 5  with an initial goal to explore the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn, while its twin took advantage of an unusual planetary alignment to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

And then the spacecraft kept on flying, for billions and billions of miles. Both remain active today, beaming data home from previously unexplored realms. Indeed, in August 2012, Voyager 1 became the first human-made object ever to reach interstellar space. [Photos from Voyager 1 and 2's Grand Tour]

The mission's legacy reached into film, art and music with the inclusion of a "Golden Record" of Earth messages, sounds and pictures designed to give any prospective alien who encountered it an idea of what humanity and our home planet are like. This time capsule is expected to last billions of years.

"I believe that few missions can ever match the achievements of the Voyager spacecraft during their four decades of exploration," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "They have educated us to the unknown wonders of the universe and truly inspired humanity to continue to explore our solar system and beyond."

The spacecraft are now flying through space far away from any planet or star; their next close encounter with a cosmic object isn't expected to occur for 40,000 years. Their observations, however, are giving scientists more insight into where the sun's influence diminishes in our solar system, and where interstellar space begins.

Voyager 1 is nearly 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth and has spent five years in interstellar space. This zone is not completely empty; it contains material left over from stars that exploded as supernovas millions of years ago. The "interstellar medium" (as the space in this region is called) is not a threat to Voyager 1. Rather, it's an interesting environment that the spacecraft is studying.

Voyager 1's observations show that the huge bubble of the sun's magnetic influence, which is known as the heliosphere, protects Earth and other planets from cosmic radiation. Cosmic rays (atomic nuclei traveling almost at the speed of light) are four times less abundant near Earth than they are in interstellar space, Voyager 1 has found.

Voyager 2 is nearly 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth and will likely enter interstellar space in a few years, NASA officials have said. Its observations from the edge of the solar system help scientists make comparisons between interstellar space and the heliosphere. When Voyager 2 crosses the boundary, the two spacecraft can sample the interstellar medium from two different locations at the same time.

"None of us knew, when we launched 40 years ago, that anything would still be working, and continuing on this pioneering journey," Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in the same statement. "The most exciting thing they find in the next five years is likely to be something that we didn't know was out there to be discovered."

Mission designers made the spacecraft robust to make sure they could survive the harsh radiation environment at Jupiter. This included so-called redundant systems  meaning the spacecraft can switch to backup systems if needed  and power supplies that have lasted well beyond the spacecraft's primary mission.

Each of the spacecraft is powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which convert the heat produced by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 into electricity. The power available to each Voyager, however, decreases by about 4 watts per year. This requires engineers to dig into 1970s documentation (or to speak with former Voyager personnel) to operate the spacecraft as its power diminishes.

Even with an eye to efficiency, the last science instrument will have to be shut off around 2030, mission team members have said. But even after that, the Voyagers will continue their journey (albeit without gathering data), flying at more than 30,000 mph (48,280 km/h) and orbiting the Milky Way every 225 million years.

In their four decades in space, the spacecraft have set many records and made key discoveries about the outer solar system and interstellar space. These include:

First and only spacecraft to enter interstellar space (Voyager 1).

First and only spacecraft to fly by all four outer planets (Voyager 2).

First active volcanoes seen beyond Earth, on Jupiter's moon Io (both Voyagers).

Finding evidence of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa (both Voyagers).

Discovering an early-Earth-like atmosphere on Saturn's moon Titan (both Voyagers).

Imaging the chaotic terrain of Uranus' moon Miranda (Voyager 2).

Imaging icy geysers on Neptune's moon Triton (Voyager 2).

Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook or Google+ . Originally published on Space.com .
Faster than a tornado, speedier than the giant storm swirling on Jupiter  it's the world's fastest-swirling vortex, which scientists have created in a primordial soup of gluey particles meant to re-create the Big Bang.

The swirling particle soup rotates at head-snapping speeds  many times faster than the closest contenders.

However, don't expect this fast-spinning fluid to turn heads anytime soon, as the vortices occur in a material called a quark-gluon plasma that is so small that the signature of this whirling can be detected only by the particles it produces.

"We can't look at the quark-gluon plasma; it's on the scale of an atomic nucleus," said Michael Lisa, a physicist at The Ohio State University who works on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) collaboration, which produced the new results. [The Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events]

Hot soup

Right after the Big Bang, a hot primordial stew of elementary particles called quarks and gluons permeated the baby universe. These elementary particles are the building blocks of better-known particles such as protons and neutrons. This quark-gluon plasma has several unique properties. First, at a blazing 7 trillion to 10 trillion degrees Fahrenheit (3.9 trillion to 5.6 trillion degrees Celsius), it's the hottest known fluid. It is also the densest fluid and "nearly perfect" in that it experiences almost no friction, meaning it flows very easily.

To understand exactly what happened in those moments after the Big Bang, scientists have re-created this primordial particle soup in an atom smasher at the RHIC, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. The RHIC smashes the nuclei of gold atoms together at nearly the speed of light and then uses ultrasensitive detectors to measure the particles that fly off the collision.

Whirling fluid

In the new study, the team analyzed the quark-gluon plasma's vorticity  essentially a measure of its angular momentum or, in colloquial terms, how fast it spins.

Of course, they had a unique obstacle: The RHIC can produce just a teensy amount of the material, and it lives very fleetingly, or about 10 ^ minus 23 seconds. So there is no way to actually "observe" this fluid in the traditional sense.

Instead, scientists look for signatures of its whirling, based on the particles emitted from the soup, Lisa told Live Science. On average, particles inside a spinning fluid should have spins that roughly align with the angular momentum of the fluid. By measuring how much the particles coming off this whirling soup are deflected from their expected path, the team could calculate a rough estimate for the fluid's vorticity  which roughly measures the local spinning motion. In particular, particles known as lambda baryons tend to decay more slowly than other particles, such as protons and neutrons, meaning the RHIC detectors could more easily track their paths before they vanished.

It turns out, the vorticity in the quark-gluon plasma makes the whirling motion inside a tornado seem like a calm day in the park. The vorticity is the fastest ever recorded  much more rapid than that of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a swirling storm of gas. It's also faster than the previous record holder, a supercooled type of helium nanodroplet, the researchers reported Aug. 2 in the journal Nature.

Understanding the structure of fluid flow in the plasma could reveal insight into the strong nuclear force, which binds atoms together, the researchers said. Several competing particle theories make predictions about vorticity that could eventually be compared against these experimental results. However, scientists still know too little about the plasma's swirling properties to make definitive conclusions.

"It's too early to say whether it teaches us something fundamental," Lisa said.

Originally published on Live Science.
Mark Zuckerberg really wants Facebook to have an presence in China, but it doesn't matter what he tries the social network remains banned there. He' s learned to speak Mandarin, gone jogging across Beijing's Tiananmen Square, met with their censorship chief, promoted President Xi Jinping's book, and even created a censorship tool for the country, but to no avail.

Now it seems, Zuckerberg is trying a completely different tactic: secretly entering China by anonymously releasing an app there.

As The New York Times reports, the app in question is called Colorful Balloons and it "shares the look, function and feel" of photo-sharing app Facebook Moments. But while it feels like a Facebook app, there is absolutely no hint of Facebook when using it.

Facebook apparently used a local company to handle releasing the app back in May, which meant the social network's involvement remained invisible. What remains unclear is how exactly Facebook believes it can profit from doing this.

All data from the app needs to be kept on servers in China. The authorities are also clamping down hard on the use of VPNs for access to servers outside of China. Even if Facebook wanted to see the data collected it would be difficult to send it to Facebook in the US. And even if they did, it would be met with a lot of suspicion by the Chinese government.

The fact Colorful Balloons has been highlighted as a Facebook app in disguise won't go unnoticed by the Chinese authorities. They are likely already reviewing the app, and it could end up disappearing if they find anything even the least bit suspicious. But the fact Mark Zuckerberg clearly had to authorize this stealthy app launch won't do much to enhance his relationship with China.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
GoDaddy has given white supremacist site Daily Stormer 24 hours to find a new domain provider after an online post disparaging Heather Heyer, who was killed during protests in Charlottesville Saturday.

Heyer was killed when police say a man plowed his car into a group of demonstrators protesting a white nationalist rally.

In a tweet on Sunday, Amy Siskind, president and co-founder of the female advocacy group New Agenda, called GoDaddys attention to the Daily Stormer post disparaging Heyer. Siskind also urged her followers to retweet if they think the post should be taken down and banned. Her tweet has been retweeted 6,500 times.

CHARLOTTESVILLE VIOLENCE: FEDS INVESTIGATE WHETHER SUSPECT HAD HELP WITH PLANNING

In a tweeted response to Siskind, GoDaddy said that it is expelling Daily Stormer from its Web hosting service.

We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service, explained GoDaddy.

GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race tells the New York Daily News that the Daily Stormer violated its terms of service by labeling the 32-year-old Heyer "fat" and "childless."

MCMASTER CALLS VIOLENCE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE 'TERRORISM,' AS TRUMP PRESSED TO REJECT GROUPS



The company told Fox News that if no action is taken by Daily Stormer after 24 hours, GoDaddy will cancel the service. "Given their latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service," it said, in an emailed statement.

A post on the Daily Stormers site claims that it has been taken over by hacking collective Anonymous. This site is now under the control of Anonymous, the post reads. We have taken this site in the name of Heather Heyer a victim of white supremacist terrorism.

However, the @AnonyInfo twitter account, which claims to be linked to Anonymous, said that it could not confirm that the Daily Stormer site was hacked. Remain cautious, it added.

The @YourAnonNews account tweeted a similar note on Monday. We have no confirmation that "Anonymous" is involved yet. Looks more like a DS stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host, it tweeted.

Business Insider reported that Daily Stormer registered its domain with Google at 10:51 a.m. ET Monday, but Google cancelled the registration at 2:02 p.m. ET. We are cancelling Daily Stormers registration with Google Domains for violating our terms of service, explained Google, in a statement emailed to Fox News.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The ice cream has taken off.

SpaceX launched its 11th NASA-contracted cargo mission on Monday, carrying ice cream and equipment to space.

The Falcon 9 is brand new and on top of the rocket is a new Dragon cargo capsule. Space X intends to make this launch the last one that uses a Dragon that has not flown before. Its all part of the commercial companys cost-reducing formula, rocket and capsule reusability.

SPACEX CEO ELON MUSK TEASES LAUNCH OF 'WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL ROCKET'

In fact, Space Xs last cargo launch, in July, was with a reused Dragon capsule, proving that after splashing down in the Pacific, the Dragons can be successfully refurbished.

Packed inside the Dragon are almost 6,500 pounds of crew supplies, including food, new underwear and toilet paper, (the necessities of living 250 miles above Earth) plus hardware for the International Space Station. The cargo mission is also bringing up an extra-large treats of frozen ice cream and fruit bars for the floating men and women in low-earth orbit, a special treat from NASA to keep the astronauts happy.

It is also carrying several science investigations, including building on the success of the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) balloon flights and also new research to grow crystals in space funded by the Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation. NASA said crystals grow bigger in micro-gravity and the long-range hope is that the crystal research will help lead to new treatments for people with Parkinsons disease.

NASA UNVEILS 2018 LAUNCH TARGETS FOR PRIVATE SPACESHIPS BUILT BY BOEING, SPACEX

After launching, the Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and early Wednesday morning it will arrive and dock at the Station. Space Xs 150-foot tall Falcon 9 rocket first stage will release and again descend to earth in its own controlled burn, deploying its steering fins and slowly landing upright at Landing Zone 1 at the Kennedy Space Center. The company has successfully landed 13 rockets so far and has already re-flown those refurbished rockets on a couple of satellite contracts.

Next Monday, as the full solar eclipse passes west-to-east over the United States, the crew on board the Space Station will get to see the moons shadow down on earth three separate times. The Space Station orbits the planet every 90 minutes, so the astronauts will see the shadow first on the west coast, then theyll see the dark circle of the moons shadow over Kentucky and, finally, the crew will see the shaded Charleston, South Carolina area as it moves off into the Atlantic.
Twitter users are harnessing the social media platform to identify white supremacists photographed during this weekends protests at Charlottesville, Va., that sent shockwaves across the U.S.

White nationalists had gathered in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, sparking chaotic scenes that ended in tragic violence. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed Saturday when police say a man plowed his car into a group of demonstrators protesting the planned Unite the Right white nationalist rally.

The Twitter account @YesYoureRacist has been tweeting images of white supremacists in Charlottesville.

If you recognize any of the Nazis marching in #Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and I'll make them famous #GoodNightAltRight, tweeted @YesYoureRacist, which has 280,000 Twitter followers.

Peter Cvjetanovic, a 20-year-old student at the University of Nevada, Reno, was identified after he was photographed with white nationalists marching through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches Friday.

This angry young man is Peter Cvjetanovic, a student at @unevadareno pic.twitter.com/7rLGJkcT3o  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017

I did not expect the photo to be shared as much as it was. I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo, Cvjetanovic told KTVN.

Cvjetanovic said he's a white nationalist who cares for all people and wants to "preserve what we have."

Sen. Dean Heller, R- Nev., after a recent photo of the two reportedly surfaced, condemned the events and said he didn't know Cvjetanovic.

The University of Nevada, Reno, also denounced the movement as corrosive to society.

GODADDY EXPELS WHITE SUPREMACIST SITE DAILY STORMER AFTER ARTICLE ON CHARLOTTESVILLE VICTIM

The hashtag #ExposeTheAltRight is also being harnessed in the social media backlash against the events in Charlottesville.

Twitters privacy rules state that context plays a big part in whether certain information is considered private or not. We may consider the context and nature of the information posted, local privacy laws, and other case-specific facts when determining if this policy has been violated, it says.

The rules, however, prohibit posting private information such as Social Security numbers, addresses and non-public phone numbers, as well as images or videos that are considered and treated as private under applicable laws.

The hashtag #ExposeTheAltRight is also being harnessed in the social media backlash against the events in Charlottesville.

On Sunday GoDaddy gave white supremacist site Daily Stormer 24 hours to find a new domain provider after an online post disparaging Heyer.

A post on the Daily Stormers website claims that it has been taken over by hacking collective Anonymous. However, the @AnonyInfo Twitter account, which claims to be linked to Anonymous, said that it could not confirm that the Daily Stormer site was hacked. The @YourAnonNews account tweeted a similar note on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
This is a rush transcript from "The Story," August 11, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Breaking tonight, President Trump's new words for North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hopefully, it'll all work out, OK. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you. Hopefully, it'll all work out. But this has been going on for many years, it would've been a lot easier to solve this years ago before they were in the position that they're in. But we will see what happens. We think that a lot of good things could happen and we could also have a bad solution. But we think lots of good things can happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would be a solution, sir?

TRUMP: I think you know the answer to that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say bad solutions, are you talking about war? Is the U.S. going to go to war?

TRUMP: I think you know the answer to that. If anything happens to Guam, there's going to be big, big trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard from North Korean state T.V. saying we consider the U.S. no more than a lump, which we can beat to a jelly any time.

TRUMP: Well, let me hear -- let me hear others say it. Because when you say that, I don't know what you're referring to, and who's making the statement. But let me hear Kim Jong-un say it, OK? He's not saying it. He hasn't been saying much for the last three days. We are considering additional sanctions at a very, very high level. And probably, you could say as strong as they get.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: That's "The Story" tonight. I'm Dana Perino in for Martha MacCallum. The impromptu, 10-minute press conference wrapping up just a short time ago; the president backed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Ambassador Nikki Haley, and National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster. Tripling down, there'll be no doubt the U.S. will respond if threatened. President Trump, also announcing, he will speak by phone with Chinese President Xi tonight -- a key ally needed to stop the rogue nation from taking their nuclear ambitions any further.

At the same time, Secretary of Defense James Mattis is trying to calm fears in Guam which finds himself in the center of an international nuclear showdown. This is the headline that people of Guam woke up to today. 14 minutes, that's how long it would take for a missile launch from North Korea to strike the U.S. territory. Officials in Guam are also handing out this pamphlet; advising island residents how to prepare for a strike. Some of the ominous warnings include: take shelter as soon as you can; if you're caught outside, lie flat on the ground and cover your head; and do not look at the flash or fireball -- it can blind you.

Guam is not the only place feeling the pressure tonight. Millions on the Korean Peninsula are worried about the days to come. Here now is Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal's Seoul bureau chief, and he joins us from South Korea. Jonathan, thank you for being here, what is the view from over there in Seoul tonight?

JONATHAN CHENG, SEOUL BUREAU CHIEF, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, I think people here in Seoul are -- they're accustomed to a certain element of rhetoric on the Korean peninsula here. But this is definitely more than we're used to, and it's certainly a cause for concern.

PERINO: Well, I read somewhere today that somebody said that they've called their mother-in-law who is in Seoul, and she said, well, we don't really think that anything is going to happen. And I understand that that has been the feeling for many years, possibly, a couple of decades. Does it feel different now? And does the fact that China weighed in today saying it would actually remain neutral, change anybody's feeling in the region?

CHENG: Well, I think having China say that, probably, comes as some relief. I mean, I think the last thing we want to see is a repeat of the U.S. and China fighting over the Korean Peninsula. That's not to say that they're going to stay out necessarily, it depends on what happens. Yes, to answer your question, I think that people definitely are concerned to a new level here. And that's because we have a lot of uncertainty coming from both sides here.

Typically, North Korea, this is what they do. They bluster and they talk a big game. And typically, what we see from the White House, it can be quite predictable. It's usually steady, reassuring, all of those sorts of things. And the president right now, you know, for all of the things can you say about him, he's not necessarily looking to calm things down. He has used language that people here haven't heard from the White House in a very long time when referring to North Korea.

PERINO: And so, then, there is a new president in South Korea that was just elected in May, how has that changed things in Seoul?

CHENG: Well, I think he's really been caught between a rock and a hard place in a certain sense. His platform from the very beginning has been: we need to talk to North Korea. In fact, he's reached out to Kim Jong-un several times, he said let's meet anywhere, anytime. Have North Korea come to the Olympics which South Korea is hosting in a few months' time.

None of those outreaches have been met with any response at all. It's not even a no, it's simply nothing. And instead, what we've got is we've had two ICBM tests in the last month and we've had the death of Otto Warmbier -- the U.S. citizen who was in North Korea. None of this looks good. And for him, he's sort of stuck in a bad place here.

PERINO: And just to confirm there was supposed to be some joint military exercises between the South Koreans and the United States, I believe this weekend. Are those still on track?

CHENG: Yes, those are on track. Actually, the dates haven't been announced. What we're expecting is, actually, in about a weeks' time. But before then, we have North Korea basically saying that they're drawing up plans to strike, you know, send foreign missiles to the water around Guam. And that's the mid-August deadline that they sort of put on that to have the plan ready, and all it needs is Kim Jong-un say-so, at that point. So, we still have a lot of potential red lines and ominous dates on the calendar ahead.

PERINO: Jonathan Cheng, no doubt will be a busy weekend for you. Thank you so much for being here.

CHENG: Of course.

PERINO: Here with more: Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a CIA trained intel operative; Brad Thor, a former member of the Homeland Security Department Red Cell Unit; and Laura Rosenberger, she worked in the last two administrations and a National Security Capacity and on this particular issue. So, Colonel, let me start with you. How significant was it for you when you heard that China said it would remain neutral if there were going to be a conflict between North Korea and the United States?

LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER, INTEL OPERATIVE, CIA: Well, it's very significant, because, obviously, where we're at partly because they created a situation, they have enabled North Korea to become what it is. And of course, back in 1953, they sided with the North Koreans and actually pushed them, and we fought against the Chinese. So, I think it's very significant. It's not something you dismiss to say it's not important; it's very important.

With that said, I don't think it's going far enough. This White House has been trying to reinforce the message, which I think is important to understand that the Chinese, as much as the South Koreans, would suffer badly, gravely from any sort of military conflict. So, it's in their interest to not simply only take a side, but do something to help. And simply put also to have other enemies out there, should this start firing up. The Vietnamese, Philippines, and India are all enemies, challengers, if you will, of the Chinese. So, I think there could be secondary effects that China has not really calculated. So, I think it's in their interest to try to help us to de-escalate this as much as possible.

PERINO: Yes. I do think that that was very significant. Brad, I wanted to ask you about your time in the Red Cell Unit, because you worked on a very particular scenario such as what would happen if the North Koreans were actually going to attack the United States. And I imagined since that work wasn't too long ago, that the government is actually utilizing those plans to think ahead, and to sort of craft its strategy at the moment.

BRAD THOR, FORMER MEMBER OF THE HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT RED CELL UNIT: So, when I was there, we didn't work on this specific issue of miniaturizing nukes and putting them on ICBMs and getting them here. But with that said, Tony knows this. There are binders after binders, after binders that exist on shelves at the Pentagon, what if this happens? Pull it down, open it up; it's been war game and everything.

I think what we need to realize here is that this is the fault, we are where we are now because of kicking the can down the road. Jimmy Carter kicked the can. In fact, Carter shoved President Clinton in his going around. Clinton, doing things he shouldn't have done with the North Koreans. But this H.W. Bush, W. Bush and Barack Obama, they've all kicked it. And we're at the point where you can't kick it anymore. And I think people really need to get behind the president and give him a lot of support in dealing with this because he's been left with very few options.

PERINO: Yes. I don't disagree with that at all. And Laura, I would add, it's not as if the previous administrations weren't trying some things, and none of those things. The North Korea's behavior hasn't changed in terms of the sanctions. What more -- what the president just said in his press conference that they're thinking about even tougher sanctions at a very high level. What do you think that means, and what sort of squeeze could be put on the Chinese, I think, or the North Koreans that he's talking about that would actually affect some sort of behavior change?

LAURA ROSENBERGER, DIRECTOR, SECURE DEMOCRACY: Yes. I think that it's really important that we look at additional sanctions options here, especially in terms of secondary sanctions on the Chinese. There are a lot of money flows through China into North Korea. There are a lot of various components of their ballistic missile programs that come through and from China. It's really important that we crack down on those networks, that sanctions were put in place, that penalize Chinese companies, Chinese banks that are facilitators of this. But that has to be part of a larger strategy, and I think it has to be coordinated with whatever is happening under Secretary Tillerson on the diplomatic front. It has to be coordinated with our military posture approach. This has to be a coordinated strategy of which sanctions are certainly one piece.

PERINO: Tony, earlier today, I read a story in that news week about an MIT scientist who thinks that Kim Jong-un is wildly exaggerating his capabilities. But we have, I guess, an Intel assessment of our own that says, actually, he might be much farther ahead than any of us would ever want.

SHAFFER: Dana, look, I've worked this issue since 1992. And I was there. I actually walked the ground in Seoul back in '93, '94 when we first had concerns about the nuclear program. Look, the original nuclear program that we entered into to prevent this, we already knew they had five weapons back in '94 -- nuclear weapons. So, I think the -- part of the Intelligence Community have way underestimated where he's at. And I think I would go with a -- this is the way I look at it too, you've got to go with the worst case here.

PERINO: Assume the worst, right.

SHAFFER: You assume the worst, hope for the best. But as Brad said, we've looked at this before, where there are certain new technologies which are being introduced that we have to take seriously. But there's still the threat, as Brad studied, of the asymmetric threat of the North Koreans giving nukes to someone (INAUDIBLE), smuggle again through a container crate, things like that so. No matter how you play it, they've got nuclear weapons, they're trying their best to mount it on a -- some sort of ballistic missile. And therefore, Dana, you've to basically, as the president has done, say we're going to take very radical action, should you try to do anything militarily.

PERINO: Brad, I want to show you a tweet today from a former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, he worked for President Obama. He said this, "This is a key point. Any chance of a deal with North Korea goes out the window if Trump cancels a nuclear deal that Iran is complying with." Do you believe that, basically, that this is the original Iran deal? Like what we're looking at right now.

THOR: Absolutely. So, one thing at a time, all right. Right now, I really think Ben Rhodes and Susan Rice and anybody else in the Obama administration ought to take a big step back and quiet down for a little bit. And let the current administration handle this crisis because the Obama administration in 2013 was informed by the Defense Intelligence Agency that the North Koreans had miniaturized nukes, and where to get them on top of ICBMs.

So, for Ben Rhodes to come out and start talking about Iran, this is what's going to happen in Iran: so, what's happening in North Korea, this is the exact same thing we're going to see in Iran where the IAEA can't get into military sites where they're going to be doing the hardcore development of their nuke program. So, that's a problem. So, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, they all ought to zip it and stay out of this. Leave it to the Trump administration; they'll do the right thing.

PERINO: Let me ask Laura, last question here. The Chinese are looking at a possible party Congress this fall, possibly, in November. How important is it for President Xi to have a good conversation with President Trump today to be cooperative with the United States, so that he doesn't have an international crisis to deal with ahead of that meeting of the Communist Party there in China?

ROSENBERGER: Well, the party congress in China is extremely important. And in fact, in 2012, as Xi Jinping was actually taking the reins, North Korea engaged in a series of provocations that really rattled the Chinese government that really got under Xi Jinping's skin. So, I think it's, really, you know, going to be an important thing for Xi Jinping to be able to have stability heading into the party congress. But I think it's also really important that we bear in mind that China is never going to have the same interests that we do vis-a-vis the Korean Peninsula.

And that means that there's always going to have to be things that we need to be prepared for, that we can't just simply force onto China. But I do think that there are other really important steps that we need to be taking. And I think that I would just reiterate, this all has to be part of a coordinated approach. What worries me right now is we have different messages coming out of different parts of the administration. That, I think, leaves a lot of room for miscalculation. And that's my biggest concern.

PERINO: Although, I have a theory that it, actually, could be all coordinated but we won't read about it until the history is written. But we'll see.

ROSENBERGER: I have my doubts.

PERINO: Maybe, Brad. He's going to write about this in his next book. Brad, we'll be looking for that. Call your agent. Give me a credit.

SHAFFER: I agree. I agree.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: All right. Thank you all. Still, to come, should we believe Kim Jong-un's threats or is he a madman? Trace Gallagher, dives into what do we know about the brutal regime that's shrouded in secrecy. And if the president decides to take military action in North Korea, what role would Congress play? Chris Stirewalt and Austan Goolsbee are here on the president's war powers. Plus, a Democratic congresswoman going after gun owners; you won't believe the comparison she's drawing between the NRA and terrorists. And new developments in the Google memo controversy and why the company really canceled a last-minute meeting? Ben Shapiro is here with his take, straight ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SHAPIRO, CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He has made a bunch of different claims about the memo. They've said that you were saying in the memo that women are biologically unfit for tech, that was at (INAUDIBLE) and CNN. Were you making the claim: James Damore, the Google memo guys, were you making the claim that women are biologically unfit for the tech industry?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This man will not get away with what he's doing, believe me. And if he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat, which by the way, he has been uttering for years, and his family has been uttering for years, or if he does anything with respect to Guam, or any place else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it. And he will regret it fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: As the war of words between President Trump and Kim Jong-un reaches a fever pitch tonight, there are new questions about the North Korean dictator and the brutal grip he holds on the nation that is shrouded in secrecy. Trace Gallagher is live on our West Coast Newsroom with the look at the man that has the world on edge.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: You know, Dana, it's difficult to do a deep dive into Kim Jong-un's background, because his childhood and teenage years have been a fairly well-guarded secret. In fact, we still don't know his exact age. We do know he attended an English language school in Switzerland under a fake name, and that he was a fan of American athletes like Michael Jordan, and actions stars like Jackie Chan, and Jean Claude Van Dam. His mother was believed to be Kim Jong-il's favorite wife. And as early as 2009, rumors began circulating that Kim the younger would succeed his father. Those rumors gained credibility when Kim Jong-un was given a top post in a powerful brand to the military, and later was put in charge of North Korea's counter Intelligence agency.

After Kim Jong-il's death in 2011, Kim Jong-un quickly showed he would be a ruthless leader, ordering the execution of his own uncle. And just months after taking power, he conducted his first nuclear test. Since then, experts say U.S. Intelligence Agencies have likely done extensive psychological make-ups on Kim Jong-un. Though there's no study that we know of that definitely confirms whether he is mentally unstable. But in 2013, a unit for the study of personality in politics at St. John University, said that its initial assessment was that Kim Jong-un is, "agreeable, charming with a need for external approval which is inconsistent with North Korea's continued belligerence."

St. John's most recent assessment shows that at worse, Kim Jong-un only has a "moderate predisposition to aggressive behavior." For the record, President Trump says he hopes that Kim is rational but doesn't know for sure. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, all believed that Kim Jong-un is rational. Former Homeland Security Secretary and current White House Chief Of Staff, John Kelly, said he's unsure but thinks the Korean leader is probably rational. Others warn that trying to decipher the behavior of such an enigmatic figure is like reading tea leaves, Dana.

PERINO: Thank you, Trace. The president says, the U.S. is locked and loaded, but can he take action without Congress? Chris Stirewalt, Fox News Politics Editor; and Austan Goolsbee, former Chief Economist under President Obama. Chris, what does the Constitution tell us about the president's war powers? I understand they're quite broad.

CHRIST STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICS EDITOR: Well, the president has the constitutional authority to do anything, really, when it comes to an exigent threat, an emerging threat to the United States. Now, what the founders didn't foresee was that there would be so many people in Congress for so long who would refuse the power that's granted them to declare war. They have devolved their power to the executive branch. And over the past seven years, presidents have taken more and more authority to broadly define what constitutes those kinds of threats, and when they can act on their own.

PERINO: Austan, will Democrats be in a cooperative mood on this if the president needs their help?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIST UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Maybe, you know, the thing is the War Powers Act exists, it gives President Trump pretty much the authority that he would need for the kind of actions he's talking about North Korea. It says, if you take military action, you've got to notify Congress in 48 hours, and you can't have troops there for more than 60 days without getting an approval of Congress. If you look at the go force, if you look at some of the others, they go to Congress to get a congressional authorization.

I think the Democrats -- there'd be a lot of Democrats who'd be suspicious. They would harken back to Donald Trump in the campaign when he said Hillary's a war monger, she's going to take us into war, and I wouldn't do that. So, they'd be asking on the front. I think the bigger issue, though, is what would the Republicans say? Is it wise for Donald Trump to go pick a fight with Mitch McConnell, and say Mitch McConnell can't do his job? If you're actually thinking about doing military action and want to get congressional approval, I just don't understand.

PERINO: I do think that -- I think Mitch McConnell is able to sort of blow that off. But, Chris, this is a different type of war. This is not getting troops ready and sending over, you know, tanks and everything into the desert for a war. This is actually a nuclear war. So, I guess, this has a way of focusing the mind. But the Intel question is very interesting, of course, the Intel failure in 2002, 2003, right before the war in Iraq. And our Intel in North Korea is still a little shady. But I guess as Tony Shaffer said this before, the Lieutenant Colonel, that we have to assume the worst. Do you think that President Trump will actually trust the intelligence community on this?

STIREWALT: No one has made a larger public point of the past failings of the intelligence community than President Trump himself.

PERINO: Yes.

STIREWALT: Because he, of course, doesn't like their finding that relates to Russian interference in the 2016 election. So, he has sometimes vociferously, sometimes with a gentler touch deplored their work. But it is their work on which he will rely if does, in fact, have to make the case. And remember, we already have the troops on the Korean Peninsula, if this thing kicks off, even if it's not a nuclear cogs creation, you're talking about U.S. troops on the front line, pronto. If we get in a little bit, we'll get in a lot.

PERINO: Let me ask you something, Austin, about September. Apparently, the Congress plans to be in for about 12 days. They have a lot on their plate including the debt ceiling. How do you see the pressure on the foreign policy side maybe squeezing that? And do you think that maybe they'll just kick the can down the road and do something, you know, some sort of short term measure and revisit it in December?

GOOLSBEE: Yes, I've never seen a can they couldn't kick in Congress. So, if they got an option to kick the can or kick it from around the corner so nobody can see them kick it, I'm sure they will do that. You know, as I say, I think in this confrontation with Korea, you know, I hope that the sober heads are going to prevail in the White House and that we -- the president can maintain a discipline. Sometimes he looks like he's had discipline here in this confrontation, sometimes he hasn't. If he is able to maintain that discipline, I think Congress could certainly get their act together. If not for a big resolution like the gulf war, certainly for something like the War Powers Act where they say, you know, the president can act.

PERINO: Chris, the last question to you, was there anything else that the president said in that ten-minute press conference? I thought he covered a lot of ground, any other headlines that stuck out to you that he'll probably have to follow up on Monday when he says, he'd do a more full-fledged press conference?

STIREWALT: Well, I think the most important thing is that he said he would do a more full-fledged press conference. And that's something that everybody should be happy about because he has been unwilling to step forward and do that sort of complete conversation. So, that's good because there's a lot of questions that need to be answered, that can't be answered in a sort of shouted from the front porch of your country club. You need to be able to -- reporters need to be able to ask questions, do follow ups, and have it in that setting. So, that's something I am very happy about.

PERINO: Those reporters will be working furiously all weekend to just get that question exactly as they want.

STIREWALT: That's why I'm going on vacation.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: Well, have a good time, you deserve it. Chris, Austin, thank you so much. Have a good weekend. Still ahead, recently released from prison; Chelsea Manning is now getting the celebrity treatment. Ben Shapiro has some thoughts on that coming up. Plus, a Democratic lawmaker compares millions of gun owners to terrorists. Lawrence Jones and Zac Petkanas are here on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Developing tonight, a Democratic lawmaker finding herself on the receiving end of some major backlash for what she had to say about millions of gun owners. Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, tweeting, quote, I'm just going to say it, NRA and Dana Loesch quickly becoming domestic security threats under President Trump. We can't ignore that. Chief national correspondent Ed Henry is live in Washington tonight with the backstory on this. Ed?

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dana, good to see you. Dramatic example of how some on the left are not just vilifying President Trump, but also hitting some of his allies with pretty rough attacks, including the NRA and potentially its nearly five million members. It all started when the conservative national syndicated radio host, Dana Loesch, tweeted this week about the highly controversial case in Minnesota, involving the death of Philando Castile. Last noted, Castile a black man who was killed by police during a traffic stop last year, had a controlled substance while carrying a gun. Congresswoman Kathleen Rice took to social media to rip not just Loesch, but the NRA as well. Rice first tweeting, so if a white guy was shot dead during a routine stop with a legal gun and a joint in his car, NRA would stay silent? You're the ones lying. Then she added that second tweet you mention, for context here, I'm just going to say it, NRA and Dana Loesch are quickly becoming domestic security threats under President Trump. We can't ignore that.

Now, the NRA part refers in part to the fact that in addition to Black Lives Matter protests last year over Castile's death, after his girlfriend live streamed the moments after the police shooting, there has been anger at the NRA for not standing up for the victim since he had a permit to legally carry that firearm that was mention. Nonetheless, Loesch, plus the leadership in the NRA, and perhaps some of its members are domestic security threats that claim -- that's ignited a firestorm, with Loesch declaring she's waiting for the congresswoman to seek her secret police on her, interesting. Rice lectured President Trump earlier this year for name calling, she declared it was juvenile, some of his tweets, and there was a, quote, certain amount of decorum we expect from the commander in chief. This now from a congresswoman who is calling people she disagrees with domestic security threats. Dana.

PERINO: Good point. All right. Ed, thank you so much. Now, here with more is Lawrence Jones, he's a conservative commentator and host at The Blaze, and Zac Petkanas is former senior Democratic National Committee advisor. So Lawrence, this is -- kind of getting a lot of attention for good reason. Congresswoman's comments were, I think, arguably over the top. But as far as I can see, she pays no political price from her party or her district for having said it. What do you think?

LAWRENCE JONES: Well, that's the interesting part about this situation. Considering this is the same congressman that said during the election that words matter. Well, this congressman sits on the homeland security committee, who gets classified information, who is responsible for holding homeland accountable for keeping America safe. And now she's accusing NRA members and Dana Loesch, who is my colleague, I would note, of being security threats to the United States? I think she should be more responsible. And the question is why aren't Democrats and those same people that went after President Trump about his words not holding her accountable.

PERINO: Yeah -- I'll let you respond to that, because I do wonder about why the Democrats seem to pay no political price for having said something like this, at least amongst their own party. Is there no desire on behalf of party leadership or even peer pressure to try to dial it down a notch?

ZAC PETKANAS, FORMER DNC ADVISOR: First off, I don't agree with your assessment that she was casting all five million members of the NRA.

JONES: Oh, yes, she was.

PETKANAS: With lack of leadership. I think she was talking about the leadership and those who are -- the spokespeople for the organization. And let's look at the language that's coming out of the organization. I mean, just today, the spokesman on NRA TV, Grant Stinchfield, he said that North Korea should be bombing California instead of Guam. I mean, this is the kind of language that we're seeing, the kind of extremism that's coming out of the NRA leadership and its spokespeople. And this is seen not just within this tweet, that disgusting offensive violent tweets, but also in terms of the ad that they put out that was basically a move that you threw around words like assassination, and Hitler, and it made viewers feel like they were -- that their lives were in danger. And identified an enemy, you know, friends and neighbors.

PERINO: Lawrence, I'll let you get in there because it does seem like this, in some ways you can look at something, and so many people in the country can see it from such vastly different views. How do you respond to his thoughts that this is really over the top from the NRA's perspective?

JONES: Well, the NRA was talking about violence on the left. And he's referring to Dana Loesch's ad that she released with the NRA, which she shows them, actually, burning up the street because this was a peaceful protest that they were showing in this ad. It was showing the violent radical left. And so, it was just images, and she was narrating these ads, describing what the left is doing. But he can spin this all he wants. Let's get to the bottom of it.

PERINO: OK.

JONES: Conservatives and libertarians have been talking about this for a while about the left trying to take our guns away. And then, when we talk about -- they say we're being dramatic, we're being not reasonable, but this is what this really goes to. All members of the NRA and Dana Loesch are being violent people that pose a threat to the United States, and it's simply not true. If they think that law enforcement can protect this country by themselves then they're delusional.

PERINO: All right.

JONES: The members of the NRA, which is the largest and strongest civil rights organization in this country that keeps America safe as well as law enforcement.

PERINO: All right, Zac, I'll give you the last word.

PETKANAS: I think that is simply divorced from reality. We're talking about someone -- Dana Loesch.

JONES: Oh, it's true.

PETKANAS: Civil rights icon, John Lewis, as quote, un-American and a threat to democracy. That is completely outrageous. And just shows the extremism out of the leadership of the NRA between this ad and between threatening us with nuclear weapons should be used against California. It is outrageous. And we need apology from the NRA.

PERINO: It does feels a little bit like Dana Loesch is this lightning rod, and yet if you look and go line by line with what she's saying, it's actually a lot more reasonable than I think the congresswoman took. Calling people a domestic terrorist I think goes too far.

PETKANAS: She did not call her a domestic terrorist.

(CROSSTALK)



PERINO: I mean, if you're going to write it in a tweet, I think you said it. All right, Lawrence, Zac, thank you and happy weekend.

JONES: And she's a homeland security member.

PERINO: All right. Thank you so much. Still ahead, new developments in that Google memo controversy. There're surprising new calls from some on the left who say it's the CEO who should step down for stifling free speech. Plus, one day after President Trump declares a new national emergency on opioid abuse, we talk to two people directly connected to the epidemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)



TRUMP: We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money on the opioid crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The opioid crisis is an emergency and I'm saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. It's a national emergency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: That was President Trump impromptu announcement officially declaring the opioid epidemic a national emergency. The designation opens up federal funds and resources to directly combat the problem, which statistics show has grown to staggering proportions in the United States. According to the CDC, since 1999, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids has more than quadrupled. Now resulting in 91 deaths per day. Joining me now is Lettie Micheletto, a mother who lost her daughter Megan to the opioid epidemic in 2014, and Dr. Roger Crystal, CEO of Opiant Pharmaceuticals, the company manufacturing products to prevent overdose death. Lettie, let me start with you, and thank you so much for being on, and I'm so sorry for your loss. What was it like for you when you realized that there was an addiction problem with your daughter? I believe that you weren't even aware that there was an opiate problem brewing in the United States?

LETTIE MICHELETTO, LOST DAUGHTER TO OPIOID EPIDEMIC: That's very true. I had no idea there was an opiate problem. I didn't realize that there was a crisis already in hand. And she started out taking pills and then moved to heroin, and that's when she came to me and she told me what was happening. Even then, I didn't realize it was as dangerous as it was. I thought it was a simple matter of just going into treatment and getting help, but it's much more complicated than that. And it was at that time hard to find the help, and someone to talk to and resources. So by declaring that this opioid crisis is a national emergency, that's going to really help open resources, it's going to help people talk, it's going to reduce stigma, it's going to bring communities into awareness of what is happening to try and help a whole generation of young people that I think we're losing because of the opioid epidemic.

PERINO: Dr. Crystal, what would this mean for a company like yours, if there is a declaration of a national emergency, it's not very clear to me yet exactly what would happen with the -- them, is the support from the federal government that would then flow out. For you, what do you think it could do for your company to try to help others?

ROGER CRYSTAL, OPIANT PHARMACEUTICAL CEO: Thank you. So a lot of this is through accelerations. I think that we've already been very grateful for the Trump administration, and President Trump to declare a state of national emergency because it means we can then crack on and develop our products beyond just the Narcan nasal spray. That's our first product which is licensed through our partner, Adapt, who is now being made available throughout the nation. Our work isn't done. So for us, more funding, greater collaboration, and more rapid access to funding can really help drive some of our other programs to help combat this epidemic.

PERINO: And for you, Lettie, when you look at maybe giving awareness to other parents that would be one thing. Is there a law enforcement component here that you think needs to take place?

MICHELETTO: There are some law enforcement agencies that are already a step ahead of where they need to be. They've realized that they can't arrest their way out of this problem. And they're being proactive and they're allowing people to come in. And its different agencies. It's very limited. That people to come in and say, hey, I need help. And they can hand over their paraphernalia, their drugs, and not be arrested, and they don't leave until they have a place to go for treatment. I think that's need to be a model that's used in all of our law enforcement system because it is a disease. We can't arrest them. It's not going to help them. I mean, you could, but it doesn't help. It's a disease that needs to be treated, and families need to be supported, and people need to work together.

PERINO: And then, for you, doctor, are there other companies that are sort of working towards this same goal? When I think of national emergency, I think that means like all hands on deck. Surely, I hope, you're not the only company that's out there working on this.

CRYSTAL: Well, that's partially true, unfortunately. But we are one of the only companies in our industry with a dedicated focus toward addiction. We look at opioid addiction, alcohol addiction, even food addiction. There are other companies out there. But if you compared that to perhaps the oncology field, it's very small. So perhaps, again, this funding and this declaration of a national emergency will at least open up the field. We're driven no matter what, we're committed to this space, and we're here for the long run. So we have programs as early as what we're doing with the heroin vaccine. And I'm very hopeful that some of the other programs as well can really -- they accelerated with this national emergency declaration.

PERINO: All right. Well, Lettie and Dr. Crystal, thank you so much for being here. And Lettie, again, we are so sorry for your loss. We appreciate you being on to talk about it.

MICHELETTO: Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing me to speak for Megan.

PERINO: Absolutely, thank you. All right, thank you. New fallout in the Google memo controversy. Why some on the left now believe it's the CEO who needs to go. They're just firing everybody. Then, some view her as a traitor who puts our very nation at risk, so why is Chelsea Manning getting treatment usually reserved for stars. Ben Shapiro is here on all of that.

Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: What is the reported illegal activity that's going on at Google that you're attempting to expose?

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: So part of it is that they treat people differently in the hiring process depending on what their race or gender is.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Were you making the claim, James Damore, a Google memo guy, were you making the claim that women are biologically unfit for the tech industry?

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: No, I was just trying to explain why we see a disparity in the population of people that are interested in working in tech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)



PERINO: That was part of Ben Shapiro's interview with fired Google engineer, James Damore, whose memo sparked a fierce debate about gender and free speech in the work place. Just last night we told you that Google had decided to cancel a town hall that was meant to address the controversy. And now, the company's CEO is facing sharp criticism for his handling of the ordeal. David Brooks even writing in the New York Times that he should resign. Saying in part, quote, he could have wrestled with the tension between population level research and individual experience. He could have stood up for the free flow of information. Instead, he joined the mob. This episode suggests he should seek a non-leadership position. Ben Shapiro is the Daily Wire editor in chief. You had that interview yesterday. I think you were the first person to get to talk to the memo writer. What was your take away from it?

BEN SHAPIRO, THE DAILY WIRE EDITOR IN CHIEF: I think there are other couples of people to be fair who talked to him before I did.

PERINO: I was trying to give you elevation.

SHAPIRO: I totally appreciate it. But I don't want to take credit away from anybody else. But my take-away was this was not somebody who is seeking to destroy the idea of women in tech. In fact, there's a whole page and a half of the memo that is specifically dedicated to the idea of how do we get more women into tech, because one of the reasons you don't see as many women in tech is because fewer women are interested in getting into tech because of all of the demands of work-life balance, because of the way that the job itself is done. And so, he looks at that, he looks the social science date and say, OK, maybe we can make the jobs more attractive to women by doing X, Y and Z. And for this he's run out of a rail from Google, which just demonstrates the sort of orthodoxy at Google. And if you're a -- tech at anyway, you have to be ousted by the upper echelon.

PERINO: I was surprised that he got fired. I mean, isn't this something when you're 28 years old you might get, you know, a warning, maybe a memo put in your file.

SHAPIRO: You know it got so big, I think it went around the internet so much that Google was forced into a position where all the, quote, unquote, diversity advocates inside Google who can't stand an opposing opinion felt they had to make a stink about it in response, and thus he had to go. They were afraid that somebody might launch a lawsuit. I mean, there were stories about women who were staying home from work because they were so offended, which, of course, sort of proves James Damore's point about differences between the sexes. And if you want to prove that women are completely the same as men in the workplace, I don't know how many men would take off the day for sexism reasons that some women.

(CROSSTALK)

SHAPIRO: How bad men are.

PERINO: You, obviously, visit a lot of campuses where there is obviously an attempt to restrict free speech. It's interesting to me to watch this actually happen at Google that they have to cancel the town hall meeting because people were afraid for their safety?

SHAPIRO: Yeah. I mean, I heard that, I'd like to see the evidence as to who was actually being -- obviously, threats of violence are out of bounds on all grounds. So there are, you know, people of the right who were threatening people about diversity meetings and that that's obviously out of bound, but let's see the evidence of it.

PERINO: All right. We've got another story because White House aide Omarosa Manigault, she's finding herself at the center of this controversy. She was invited to be a panelist during the national association of black journalist conference. But shortly after she was added two journalists dropped out, thought they now claim she wasn't the reason. And I kind of feel bad for her. I mean, they showed tonight a picture that she's there. Some of the journalists got up and turned their backs to her. I can understand if they don't agree with her policies or maybe that of President Trump. But surely they should be proud of her for getting this position in the White House, and at least give her the courtesy of a listen.

SHAPIRO: Well, this is the biggest problem that this notion that you go to lectures and then you turn your back on the person who's there. What exactly are they protesting from Omarosa? Again, looking for the policy that they're very angry about. My understanding is that Omarosa when she was at this event, she even actually criticized the president on such things as his talk about treatment by police of criminals. So she wasn't exact toeing the party line on everything Trump related. But she was treated as an outcast because the national association of black journalist's is apparently the national association of leftist black journalists.

PERINO: All right. Before you go, three months ago, she was in prison for one of the worst security breaches in our history. But now, Chelsea Manning, you talk about her a lot, getting this full celebrity treatment complete with this lengthy profile in Vogue, and a photo shoot by a famed celebrity photographer, Annie Leibovitz. In the time we have remaining, I wonder what you think about this, because in some ways, it's just feels like a push from the left to glamourize somebody who, one, broke the law. And also, I don't know if she deserves this kind of celebrity treatment, but I'll let you tell us what you think.

SHAPIRO: It's a slap in the face I think to all Americans, and people in the military who are victimized by Chelsea Manning's behavior when Chelsea Manning was leaking military secrets to WikiLeaks. What's amazing about all of this, of course, is the left trying to use identity politics as a cover for anti-patriotism. So Chelsea Manning is a traitor. And now they're trying to say, well, if you don't like Chelsea Manning being a traitor it's really because you're anti-trans. Chelsea Manning, by the way, has already tweeted out that he is not watching this particular segment to which I tweeted back that I hope not, because I wouldn't want Chelsea Manning to let al-Qaeda know that it's happening.

(LAUGHTER)



PERINO: Well, it's true. And I also think that, obviously, Annie Leibovitz -- that's a high praise. And there's been other trans-genders that gets those kinds of treatment. OK, that's fine. But in this particular case when it came to what he did, when it came to stealing those documents and giving it to WikiLeaks, to me that just crossed the line.

SHAPIRO: Totally agree. I mean, again, there's a lot of controversy over people like Caitlin Jenner and whether they should get star treatment over a controversial question about mental illness or not mental illness.

PERINO: We've got to run.

SHAPIRO: To use that as sort of a shield for bad behavior, traitorous behavior, and to suggest.

PERINO: Thanks, Ben. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: That's The Story for tonight. Thanks for being a part it. Martha MacCallum is back on Monday. I'll see you back here tonight at 9:00 for "The Five." The whole gang will be there. Have a great weekend, everyone.

END

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The widow of Nazem Amine, a former baggage handler for Spirit Airlines, has filed a federal lawsuit against the company over an injury her late husband suffered on the job.

Amine, who recently died at age 90, had been working for Spirit until he suffered a hernia after lifting 500 pieces of luggage during a single shift in 2015. Amine, who was 88 at the time, then needed surgery to fix the hernia, and his family believes this lead to complications brought on a fatal heart attack on July 16, the Detroit Free Press reports.

SPIRIT PASSENGERS ARRESTED DURING CHAOTIC BRAWL AT FLORIDA AIRPORT

His 53-year-old widow, Siham Amine of Dearborn, Mich., is currently suing for medical expenses incurred during Amines treatment for hernia, colitis and congestive heart failure.

"Any guy who is 88 years old and can lift 500 bags seems to be in pretty good health," said Sihams lawyer, Bryan Schefman, who first filed the suit in January, when Amine was still alive but confined to a wheelchair. "He died from secondary complications relating to the complete meltdown of his physical status.

According to the suit, Siham is seeking $721,000, with half of that earmarked for Medicare, the Press reports.

Amines family alleges that he was in good physical condition until the incident  the Lebanese immigrant was a former Olympic wrestler who competed for Lebanon in both 1956 and 1960, and had worked at Spirit as a handler and driver for 16 years. Previously, he had worked as a butcher.

FROM DAVID DAO TO ANN COULTER: A LOOK AT RECENT AIRLINE CONTROVERSIES

But Spirit  which is not disputing that Amines hernia was work-related  is trying to get the case dismissed, arguing that the Michigan Workers Compensation Board (MWCB) has not yet decided whether Amines hernia caused his heart problems.

The airline also claims that the MWCB has already paid Amines hernia-related medical bills, so theres nothing left to argue.

A representative for the airline was not immediately available to comment.

In the meantime, Amines family is remembering their late patriarch as a loyal, hard-working employee and father.

"He would say, 'I don't want anyone taking care of me. I want to take care of myself,'" Amines son Mike Mike Amine told the Press. "We would beg him to come and work with us. ... I tried to talk him out of [working], but he couldn't let go."

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The National Wrestling Hall of Fame, too, remembered Amine in a Facebook post on July 29.

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Nazem Amine, who competed in wrestling for Lebanon in the Olympics in 1960, the site wrote, later adding, Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.
Looking for a quiet, natural setting in which to view the countrys first total solar eclipse in nearly 100 years? Youre not alone: According to reports, the U.S. National Park Service is expecting hordes of skyward-gazing visitors to descend upon its grounds.

"With all the hype, with all the attention that's being directed towards the Eclipse, we are really anticipating near or at record crowds for the parks across the country, said Brian Carlstrom, Deputy Director of Natural Resources for National Park Service.

KRISPY KREME TO DEBUT CHOCOLATE-GLAZED DOUGHNUTS FOR ECLIPSE

According to Carlstrom, 21 of the countrys National Parks lie within the path of totality, the westernmost being the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument near Kimberly, Ore., and the easternmost being Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston, S.C.

The best views, however, just might be reserved for those who trek out west.

"Yellowstone and the Tetons are directly in the path of this Eclipse, explains NASA scientist and astronomer Maria Thaller. And there are many, many people that are going out there to see the Eclipse in this spectacular national setting."

But if you cant make it out to Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons, dont fret: The rest of the country will still experience a partial solar eclipse. Besides, Carlstrom said visitors would be hard-pressed to secure a campsite or hotel room near any of the most popular parks within the path of totality, anyway.

"Many of the hotels and campgrounds around them are booked to capacity and have been for months, said Carlstrom, who instead suggested visiting a lesser-known park in the path of the eclipse, such as Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming.

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And if you do make the journey, expect to fight some traffic. The Park Service isnt exactly sure how many people are planning to pop by, but theyre beefing up security and staff accordingly.

"We're expecting huge crowds, said Carlstrom. No idea of exactly how many, but we know they're going to be big."
White nationalist blogger Jason Kessler, who organized Saturdays Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Va., was suddenly chased out of his press conference Sunday afternoon by a crowd of protesters, leading to at least one arrest.

Footage on social media showed Kessler being escorted by law enforcement away from the area, with protesters shouting the name of Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed after a car plowed into a crowd of people at yesterdays rally.

Robert Litzenberger, 47, was arrested after a trooper saw him spitting on Kessler, state police said. Litzenberger was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, and released on unsecured bond.

Kessler was chased away from the press conference by protesters. As he exited the area, there were audible chants of shame coming from the crowd.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

Kessler planned the news conference after a group of white supremacists went to Charlottesville on Saturday to "take America back" by rallying against plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park.

Kessler reportedly blamed the violence that unfolded on local government and law enforcement officials, claiming they did not separate the protesters and counter-protesters.

"All of the carnage that happened was because the Charlottesville city government would not recognize our right to assemble," Kessler said during a live-stream on his Twitter account. He added that his "first amendment rights are being trampled on," after he claimed he received no help from state police Sunday as protesters went after him during his news conference.

Protesters and counter-protesters clashed throughout the day, and it turned deadly after a Dodge Challenger was rammed into a group of counter-protesters.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, the alleged driver, has been arrested in connection with the crash, which left 32-year-old Heyer, a counter-protester, dead and 19 others injured.

CHARLOTTESVILLE WHITE NATIONALIST RALLY BLAMED FOR 3 DEATHS, DOZENS OF INJURIES

According to Virginia State Police, three other people were arrested in connection with the rally. Police identified them as Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tenn., charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Va., charged with assault and battery; and James M. O'Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Fla., charged with carrying a concealed handgun.

The Richmond FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia have since opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly crash.

Fox News' Jenny Buchholz contributed to this report.
More than a dozen illegal immigrants were discovered trapped inside a tractor-trailer in Texas on Sunday.

The Edinburg Police Department said 17 immigrants were in the back of the trailer, KRPC reported. The locked trailer was in the parking lot of a Flying J convenience store, according to Fox 8.

A man and woman who oversaw that trailer have been detained and the U.S. Border Patrol is investigating, according to reports.

Officials said that the immigrants were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Romania, KRPC added.

Police were notified by a worried family member in Mexico who reported that a relative was locked inside a trailer that was getting to hot for those inside.

The trailer was discovered just a month after ten people were found dead in the back of a tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio as part of what investigators called a botched smuggling mission. The driver of that trailer was charged and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Seattle police have arrested three men and confiscated weapons as opposing groups of protesters converged downtown on Sunday.

As hundreds gathered in the area, police ordered the protesters and counter-protesters in the area to disperse. Officers used pepper spray and "blast balls," similar to flash-bang grenades, in an effort to keep the two groups away from each other, The Seattle Times reported.

Seattle police said they arrested a 40-year-old man for obstruction, and a 37-year-old man, as well as a 25-year-old man, for assault.

One rally was organized by pro-Trump group Patriot Prayer. The counter-protest was planned by Solidarity Against Hate. Both events were planned prior to Saturdays deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.

A barricade separated the two groups in downtown Seattle, where law enforcement stood by dressed in riot gear. It's unclear exactly how many arrests they made.

TRUMP CONDEMNS 'WHITE SUPREMACISTS,' OTHER EXTREMISTS BEHIND DEADLY VIRGINIA RALLIES

People carrying signs opposing the KKK and showing support for Charlottesville marched to downtown Seattle where the Patriot Prayers rally was stationed, rallying in support of free speech and freedom.

The pro-Trump group has held similar events throughout the Pacific Northwest, often drawing counter-protesters.

Meantime, in Denver, several hundred demonstrators gathered beneath a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in City Park and marched about two miles to the state Capitol. In Fort Collins, Colorado, marchers chanted "Everyone is welcome here. No hate, no fear." One demonstrator's sign said, "Make racists ashamed again."

Other protests were planned later in the day in other places, including candlelight vigils in Winter Haven, Florida, and near the New Hampshire Statehouse. Other demonstrations centered on confederate statues on the state Capitol grounds in West Virginia and in Tampa, Florida; officials in Tampa have voted to relocate theirs.

Charlottesville descended into violence Saturday after neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered to "take America back" and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia college town, and hundreds of other people came to protest the rally. The groups clashed in street brawls, with hundreds of people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and beating each other with sticks and shields.

Eventually, a car rammed into a peaceful crowd of anti-white-nationalist protesters, killing a woman. A state police helicopter monitoring the events crashed into the woods, killing two troopers. In all, dozens of people were injured. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Three people were shot and killed at a dragstrip in Wisconsin Sunday, the Kenosha County sheriff told Fox 6 News.

Two people died at the scene, and a third died en route to the hospital.

It happened around 7:00 p.m. at the Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove. All three of the victims are from Illinois, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said.

In a news release issued around 9:00 p.m., sheriffs officials called the situation fluid.

The type of weapon used in this incident is unknown, as is what might have precipitated this action.

It was estimated that over 5,000 people were at Larrys Fun Fest at the time, an event that has, in the past, attracted persons from Milwaukee, Chicago and other surrounding areas.

This is not indicative of this crowd. This is isolated and this is somebody who had a grudge with somebody and they came here and they really ruined a family event for people, Brian Mitchell, a Great Lakes Dragaway volunteer, said.

Click for more from Fox 6.
The 21-year-old man accused of ramming his car through a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 has been charged with federal hate crimes. Heather Heyer, who was 32, died in the alleged attack.

Authorities say James Alex Fields Jr., from Ohio, allegedly smashed his car into a group of people demonstrating against the "Unite the Right" rally in August 2017, which drew hundreds of white nationalists to the college town, where officials planned to remove a Confederate monument.

Fields has been charged with one count of a hate crime resulting in Heyer's death as well as 28 other hate crime charges involving attempts to kill others, according to an indictment released on June 27. These charges are in addition to the first-degree murder and other charges levied at the state level.

The indictment also said Fields, through social media accounts he operated, expressed and promoted his belief that white people are superior to other races and peoples; expressed support of the social and racial policies of Adolf Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, including the Holocaust; and espoused violence against African Americans, Jewish people and members of other racial; ethnic and religious groups he perceived to be non-white.

Heres what we know about Fields and his case.

Hes charged with first-degree murder

Fields is charged with first-degree murder and has been in custody since the August 2017 rally.

Heyer was among the hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Charlottesville to decry what was believed to be the largest gathering of white supremacists in a decade  including neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members  who descended on the city to rally against plans to remove a Confederate statue.

Police said she was killed when Fields drove into the crowd Saturday afternoon.

VICTIM REMEMBERS CHARLOTTESVILLE CAR ATTACK

Heyers mother said, Heather died doing what she loved  standing up for people.

His teachers knew about his radical views on race

Fields teachers said he was an average student in high school who had an interest in Nazi Germany, Hitler and military history.

Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy toward Nazism, that idolization of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy, Derek Weimer, Fields high school social studies teacher, told The Associated Press.

Weimer also said Fields had told him he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger.

His work history was uneven

Fields flunked out of basic training two years ago, the U.S. Army told Fox News.

Security firm Securitas Security Services said in a statement that Fields was employed with the company from May 2016 until July 2016, and again from Nov. 2016 until his arrest as a security officer. Securitas said Fields performed his duties "satisfactorily" and was on vacation leave when he attended the rally in Charlottesville. The company said Fields has since been terminated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A mother died Sunday after she jumped in a Colorado river in a desperate bid to save her son, who had been caught in a strong current, officials said.

The Golden Police Department identified the woman as Amber Raye Presson of Denver, FOX31 Denver reported. Her 11-year-old son survived the episode and was not hurt.

Authorities were called to Clear Creek, located west of Denver, around 1:15 p.m., as bystanders tried to pull the boy and his mother, who had been floating in an inner tube, from the water.

Witnesses told police the 31-year-old might have hit her head and then plunged under the water.

"This is just a tragic situation," Golden Police Capt. Joe Harvey told FOX 31.

Police once again strongly recommend people in the area wear headgear and safety vests due to danger that may lie beneath the surface.

"You have to understand the surface underneath is going to be slippery," Harvey said. "The current is going to be rapid."

Officials added the creek was not at a dangerous level that would prompt a closure, which would include water being much colder and moving much faster than it was Sunday.
A British grandmother who married a convicted American killer, crossed the Atlantic to visit him scores of times and exchanged 12,000 letters with him died in May from a freak blood clot, a new inquest found.

Kay Frazier, 50, began writing to Gary Frazier online in 2010. When they married in 2012, she told the Sun: I feel safer with him than any other person.

The 37-year-old killer is not eligible for parole from his Nebraska jail cell until 2024 after shooting two people, killing one, during a fight when he was 19.

ARKANSAS INMATES SNATCH KEYS, TAKE CONTROL OF PART OF PRISON

The divorcee later flew from the U.K. to marry Frazier in his cell, where she gave him a passionate kiss but told the British tabloid they were not allowed to consummate their relationship.

Frazier unexpectedly died from surgery following a clot in her basilar artery that blocked blood flow to her brain, an inquest into her death revealed.

CONVICT WITH ESCAPE PLAN: GUARDS LET HIM REPAIR PRISON LOCKS

On one of her trips to the prison where her husband was held, she had 16 separate day visits approved.

Although Frazier admitted that flying out to see him the first time was madness she said in a 2014 interview with the Sun: When Gary walked in it felt like Id known him forever.

Since British law would forbid him from moving to the country, Frazier was prepared to move to Nebraska and live with her husband.
The man accused of mowing down a counter-protester Saturday during a Virginia white supremacist rally flunked out of basic training two years ago, the U.S. Army told Fox News on Monday.

James Fields, who was denied bond and didn't enter a plea during a brief video link appearance from his jail cell before a Virginia judge on Monday, reported for basic military training in August 2015 but soon washed out.

"He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015," Army Lt. Col. LTC Paul Haverstick, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "As a result he was never awarded a military occupational skill nor was he assigned to a unit outside of basic training."

Fields appeared stoic and was looking down during his Monday court appearance. Because a relative of the public defender's office was involved in Saturday's incident, no one from that office could represent Fields, who is alleged to have plowed his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer, a Virginia paralegal.

Fields confirmed he had no previous ties to the Charlottesville community and hailed from Maumee, Ohio.

Fields was appointed a lawyer and his next court date is set for Aug. 25, though a judge may reconsider his bond application prior to that.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.
The Latest on the shooting at a southern Wisconsin race track that left three men dead (all times local):

3:10 p.m.

Authorities have identified three Illinois men they say were gang members who were fatally shot at a southern Wisconsin race track.

The Kenosha County Sheriff's Office said Monday the victims of Sunday night's shooting were 30-year-old David L. Watson of Oswego, 30-year-old Khalid R. Howard or Aurora, and 26-year-old Derek K. Edwards of North Aurora.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said Monday the man who killed the three Sunday night is still at large. Beth says investigators have identified the victims as gang members but officials have not determined a motive for the shooting.

The three men were shot point-blank in a concession area in the parking lot of the raceway where some 15,000 people had gathered for a car show and drag race.

___

1:45 p.m.

The sheriff heading the investigation into the slayings of three Illinois men at a southern Wisconsin race track says a gunman shot two of the victims, followed the third as he tried to run away and shot him, then returned to the other two and shot them a second time.

At a news conference outside the Great Lakes Dragaway near Union Grove, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said Monday the man who killed the three Sunday night is still at large.

Beth says the three victims are gang members from in and around Aurora, Illinois. Beth says he doesn't yet know what motivated the shooting, which were done point blank at close range in a concession area in the parking lot of the raceway where some 15,000 people had gathered for a car show and drag race.

The sheriff says a pistol was used in the shooting, which has not been recovered.

Union Grove is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Milwaukee.

___

11:50 a.m.

The sheriff heading the investigation into the fatal shooting of three Illinois men at a southern Wisconsin race track says detectives are being stymied by a lack of cooperation from family members and others involved in the case.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth, speaking on WTMJ-AM Monday, says that's making it more difficult to find the person responsible for the slayings. Beth says the shooter approached the men near a food vendor in the parking lot of the Great Lakes Dragaway Sunday about 7 p.m., identified them as the people that he was looking for, then shot them each at point blank range and took off running.

As many as 5,000 people were attending Larry's Fun Fest at the raceway when the shots were fired. Authorities have not identified the victims, but say they are known gang members from in and around Aurora, Illinois.

The sheriff planned a news conference for 1 p.m. Monday.

___

8:50 a.m.

Sheriff's officials investigating the fatal shooting of three Illinois men at a southern Wisconsin race track say the slayings may have been gang related.

Kenosha County sheriff's Sgt. Mark Malecki said Monday that the victims were known gang members from the Aurora area. He says the man shot them at point-blank range at the Great Lakes Dragaway near Union Grove Sunday night.

Malecki says investigators are looking into the possibility that the shooter is from a rival gang.

The shootings happened near a concession stand in a parking lot about 7 p.m. As many as 5,000 people had gathered at the speedway for Larry's Fun Fest, a car show and drag race.

Two of the men died at the scene and the third died on the way to the hospital.

Union Grove is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Milwaukee.

___

7 a.m.

Sheriff's officials are encouraging anyone who witnessed the fatal shooting of three men at a southern Wisconsin race track to contact authorities.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth says there may be witnesses who initially hesitated to talk to deputies at the Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove Sunday night, but now may be willing to share information.

Authorities say the man who shot the three men at point-blank range is still at large. Beth says the shooting happened in a parking lot concession area about 7 p.m. Two men died at the scene, and the third died en route to a hospital. The sheriff says at least two of the men were from Aurora, Illinois.

Union Grove is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Milwaukee.

___

12:41 a.m.

A Wisconsin sheriff says three men were shot and killed during an auto racing event.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth says authorities responded to the Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove around 7 p.m. Sunday after receiving reports about shots being fired.

Beth says the three men were shot by another man at point-blank range near a food vendor. No suspects have been arrested.

Two men died at the scene, and the third died while being transported to a hospital. The sheriff says at least two of the men were from Aurora, Illinois.

The sheriff's office estimated that more than 5,000 people were at the raceway for an event known as "Larry's Fun Fest."

Union Grove is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Milwaukee.
President Trump's national security adviser said Sunday that the violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend "meets the definition of terrorism."

H.R. McMaster told ABC's "This Week" that "anytime that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it is terrorism."

DIVINE INTERVENTION

As the threat of nuclear conflict escalates between the U.S. and North Korea, religious leaders are stepping into the firestorm in an urgent quest to calm the rhetoric between President Trump and dictator Kim Jong Un.

Christopher Hale, a senior fellow at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and leader for President Obamas national Catholic outreach, told Fox News that church members in both the Korean Peninsula and in the U.S. have potential to play a key part in stopping the military escalation.

ASSASSINATION THREAT?

A top Venezuelan politician may have ordered Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be assassinated after the senator unleashed a string of criticisms against the countrys government, Fox News has learned.

The possible threat led Rubio to take on a stronger security detail, including U.S. Capitol Police. Rubio was seen with additional security in both Washington and Miami.

ATTACK ON RESTAURANT

Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began.

COMING UP ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL

12: 31 PM ET: Scheduled launch of SpaceX CRS-12 Cargo mission to the ISS. Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral.

2 PM ET: SpaceX CRS-12 post-launch news conference. Kennedy Space Center. NASA TV LIVE
A former Ohio high school teacher was impregnated by a teenage boy during a three-year sexual affair -- despite the teen's father raising concerns about the relationship to school officials, authorities said.

Laura Lynn Cross, 36, was indicted last week on three counts of sexual battery from Aug. 1, 2013 through Sept. 6, 2016.

The teen's father, who did not identify himself, told News5 Cleveland he first raised concerns to Buchtel High School officials and Tallmadge Police in 2012 when his son was a freshman, but no charges were filed at the time.

"It was a straight failure from the system," the teen's father told News5. "From the school and definitely from the police."

Cross resigned from her teaching position in 2015, and convinced the teen's mother, who reportedly had custody, to allow him to move in with her through a court-approved "partial parental custody" arraignment.

The 36-year-old teacher told the teen's mother she could "mentor" him, and filled her Facebook with posts of her and the teen.

Officials filed charges last week after police learned Cross had a child with the teen, which was kept secret until someone contacted the teen's father, according to News5 Cleveland.

"First of all, she's a school teacher," said the teen's father. "To get aroused by a child, basically you have to be a sick individual."

The ex-teacher is being held in the Summit County Jail on $100,000 bond.
Marcus Martins fiancee is forced to describe him in a way she didn't need to before. Now, "he's the guy in the photos."

The havoc of Saturday, when a man plowed his car into a group protesting a Virginia white supremacy rally, prompted the change.

Martin is "the guy" in the white shirt, shorts and red sneakers seen "in the photos" being tossed in the air behind a car alleged to have been driven by James Fields in a horrific attack that killed one person and injured 19 others.

"He had on a red hat and the hat had blood all over it. And it terrified me."  Marissa Blair

"I shouldn't be here right now, having this interview. I should be home getting ready for work," said Martin, who told Fox News the incident was a "terror attack" and a "hate crime."

Martin said he was frustrated President Trump wouldn't use those terms, though Trump on Monday gave his most passionate statement on Saturday's events, terming it "racist violence."

Martin and his fiancee initially decided to attend the protest with a few friends, though, Martin said, it was clear the tense atmosphere would eventually erupt.

"It was like milk and oil," he said, speaking to Fox News just a block from where he was run over. "That [white supremacist] group was not going to mix...they knew what they were doing."

Martin now sits in a wheelchair. His left leg in a beige cast. His fiancee, Marissa Blair, is physically fine. She says that's because Martin saved her.

"All of the sudden we hear a commotion," Blair said. "I see bodies flying. Your first reaction is to move, but it happened so fast. The car came so fast and all I could feel was someone push me out of the way. My fiance pushed me out of the way.

"I looked for Marcus, and I turned around - he had on a red hat and the hat had blood all over it. And it terrified me."

One of the most recognizable photos of that day was taken sometime around 1:42 pm, as the Dodge Challenger plowed into two other cars and a crowd of pedestrians.

The photo has since become a symbol of the hate and violence that enveloped the Virginia city.

There are shoes on the ground, under cars, as bodies hurl over the top of them.

"Marissa was on Facebook live," Martin said. "I was on my phone, and then I heard the tires screech. So I looked up and I see people just flying. I just pushed Marissa out of the way, and I took the hit."

Police said Fields, 20, intentionally drove his Dodge Challenger "at a high rate of speed" towards a crowd of pedestrians, rear-ending a sedan that then hit a minivan in front of it. All three vehicles headed into the crowd, as they crossed the street.

Fields fled the scene, but was apprehended a short time later. He's charged with one count of second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit and run.

The Department of Justice opened a civil rights probe as well, Trump announced Monday.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday the attack meets the definition of domestic terrorism, telling ABC's Good Morning America, "you can be sure we will charge and advance the most serious charges that can be brought. This is an evil attack, that cannot be accepted in America."

Witnesses say the people injured in the attack were counter-protesters demonstrating against white supremacists and fascists who had gathered in the area.

Martin and Blair said they were not part of any particular group, but were "concerned citizens" who wanted their voices heard.

"We weren't just going to let [white supremacists] walk freely around our city like they used to," Blair said. "We were marching peacefully. Nobody was terrorizing [anyone], destroying any property."

The couple marched with friends -- including one named Heather Heyer.

Heyer did not manage to avoid the cars. Officials say the 32 year old was transported to UVA Medical Center, but did not survive her injuries.

Blair met Heyer three years ago. The pair worked together as paralegals at a local law firm.

Blair said her friend and coworker enjoyed making people laugh and always "stood up for what she believed."

"She was a sweet, sweet soul - always spoke with conviction," Blair said. "[Heyer] believed in equality and she didn't want hate. She wanted everyone to get along, to be equal."

By Sunday, only nine of the 19 people who were injured in the attack remained at the hospital - all listed in "good" condition.

Martin said he is angry.

He said he believes what happened was avoidable and places a lot of the blame on the city he calls home.

"You approved it," Martin said. "You know what the federal judge did, said if you don't allow this to happen we're going to sue you. Sue me. We're not going to bring that type of crowd to our city. You could've done that but you didn't. You didn't want to press the issue and now somebody died because of your decision."

Martin and Blair plan to marry in 2018.

The City of Charlottesville did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
North Korea launched what it called a successful missile in August that flew over Japan and into the northern Pacific Ocean  an apparent threat to Guam, according to its state run media.

After the launch, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for even more weapons launches targeting the Pacific Ocean to advance his countrys ability to contain the U.S. territory of Guam, state media said.

The launch seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to target Guam, if it chooses to do so, while also establishing a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future missiles flying over Japan.

Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific Ocean, is tiny  but its strategic location is of great importance, especially to the U.S. military.

Heres a rundown on the island and its significance.

Location

Roughly 2,100 miles south of North Korea, Guam is one of the U.S. territories closest to Asia.

Guam, which is 210 square miles, is nearly 4,000 miles west of Hawaii.

Its proximity to China, Japan, the Philippines and the Korean Peninsula has long made the island an essential position for the U.S. military.

Military importance

Reportedly called Americas permanent aircraft carrier by military commanders, Guam is home to some 7,000 U.S. service members. Its total population is more than 162,000, according to the latest census data.

The U.S. keeps a Naval base and Coast Guard station in the south, and an Air Force base in the north that saw heavy use during the Vietnam War.

While already taking up 30 percent of the island, the American military has been seeking to increase its presence by relocating thousands of Marines, who are currently based in Okinawa, Japan, to Guam.

Former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said in 2014 that Guam increasingly has become a strategic hub for the U.S. military.

Guam has always been a central part of our plans, Work said then. Certainly, a central part of the Navys plans, but now a central part of the entire Department of Defenses plans.

Guam is also armed with the U.S. Armys missile defense system  known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD  the same system recently installed in South Korea.

While the 162,000 Guamanians on the island rely primarily on tourism, the U.S. military is also essential to the islands economy.

Relationship with the U.S.

Though Guam was initially claimed by Spain in 1565, it became a U.S. territory in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.

Japan seized it for more than two years during World War II. But in 1950, an act of Congress made it an unincorporated organized territory of the United States.

Guam has limited self-government, with a popularly elected governor, small legislature and a non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. Residents do not pay U.S. income taxes or vote in the general election for president, but they are U.S. citizens by birth.

Guams response

Despite the growing concerns and threats, Guamanians feel reassured and protected by the military.

"I feel that the presence of the military on Guam will help us a lot," said Virgie Matson, 51, a resident of Dededo, Guam's most populated village. "They are here to protect the islands, just in case something happens."

A missile launched from North Korea would only take about 14 minutes to reach the island, Guam Homeland Security spokeswoman Jenna Gaminde told the Pacific Daily News. And if a missile would be fired, Guam residents would be notified immediately through alert sirens.

In an interview with Fox News, Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo dismissed the continuing threats from North Korea, chalking them up to the nations position of fear.

There is a defense umbrella contained within South Korea, there is a defense umbrella for Japan, there are naval assets between Korea, Japan and Guam, and there is a missile defense system of Guam that make up a multi-level defensive umbrella, Calvo said.

Calvo thanked Trump for his support in a recent phone call and said "everyone should be unifying behind our president."

"Mr. President, as the governor of Guam representing the people of Guam and as an American citizen, I have never felt more safe or as confident with you at the helm," Calvo said. "We need a president like you, so I'm just so thankful, and I'm glad you're holding the helm, sir."

Trump responded that Guam shouldn't "have to worry about a thing." He also said tourism in Guam will "go up ten-fold."

Guam Lt. Gov. Ray Tenorio called Kim Jong Un the demon in the rising tensions and said threats from North Korea arent uncommon.

We know that multiple layers of defense that protect our island, along with the rest of our partners and our allies in the region, we have confidence in them, Tenorio told Fox Business.

"An attack or threat to Guam is a threat or attack on the United States," Calvo, who has been in contact with White House officials said. "They have said that America will be defended."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Before she got into her green sedan, she shot up with heroin.

Then she set out to drive -- but the Hurricane, W.Va. woman overdosed while her car was still in motion, and she crashed into a police cruiser that was leading a funeral procession Saturday.

Huntington Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli said the woman, who was not identified, ran a red light shortly after 3:30 p.m. before striking the cruiser, according to the Herald Dispatch.

The woman, 44, was unconscious from the overdose. Emergency workers administered naloxone, a medication used in cases of overdoses of heroin and other opioids.

Neither the officer nor the woman were injured, the newspaper reported.

Criminal complaints from Cabell County Magistrate Court, where the woman was arraigned for misdemeanor DUI, noted a mark on the her right wrist indicated a recent injection, according to The Dispatch. The woman reportedly told police that she had shot up heroin before getting behind the wheel.

Other misdemeanor charges were filed against two people traveling in the car with the woman, the police chief told the Dispatch. The charges included permitting DUI and possession of intoxicating substances, Ciccarelli said.
A woman planned for at least a month to poison her grandmother before she finally poured antifreeze in the woman's juice and then gave it to her drink, New Jersey police said.

Elise Conroy was arrested Saturday and faces attempted murder charges for allegedly trying to poison her grandmother. Police said the 84-year-old grandmother drank the tainted juice and suspected something was wrong. She called police, but did not require medical attention, according to the Daily Record of Morris County.

THE ICONIC MOSCOW MULE COPPER MUG MAY BE POISONING DRINKERS

Conroy, 26, lived in her grandmothers home.

Conroy allegedly bought the antifreeze in July with the intention of poisoning the older woman.

Conroy was being held pending a detention hearing, which has not yet been scheduled. It wasn't known Saturday if she has retained an attorney.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began.

Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 18 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. He said two of the attackers were also killed.

The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. At least one of the dead was French.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Police Capt. Guy Ye said three or four assailants had arrived at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant on motorcycles, and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining Sunday evening.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.
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Radesh Singh's grandfather was just 11 years old when he left his village in India's Punjab province to move to Peshawar, in the far northwest of the country on the border with Afghanistan.

The year was 1901: The British ruled the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan wasn't even a glimmer in the eye of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Peshawar held the promise of work and adventure.

Singh's grandfather would never return to his village, not even in 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, generating one of the largest migrations in modern history and unleashing a brutality that left few untouched as mobs of Hindus and Muslims turned on each other.

Singh's family is neither Hindu nor Muslim but Sikh, a religious minority in both countries. In the 70 years since Partition they have waged a secessionist uprising in India demanding outright independence for India's Punjab state where they dominate. They have felt increasingly less at home on either side of the border, but particularly so in recent years in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan as they too have become victims of local Taliban violence.

Singh said poverty kept his grandfather in Peshawar, located at the foot of the famed Khyber Pass and dominated by fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen.

"It's not easy to start over at zero when you have very little," he said.

The hostility in the immediate aftermath of 1947 was brief in the northwest, said Singh. It was followed by decades of peace. The decision to stay in the new country now called Pakistan seemed like a good choice at the time. The Sikhs had lived peacefully for centuries alongside their Pashtun Muslim countrymen.

After all, said Singh, Sikhs had a glorious history in the northwest. For a time in the 18th century they oversaw a dynasty. Their capital was Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. It was a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, who rebuilt Peshawar's infamous Bala Hisar Fort, an imposing walled fortress that some historians say is as old as the city itself, which traces its origins back more than 2,000 years.

Today Sikhs are among Pakistan's smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colorful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus.

Until 1984, Singh said, Pakistan's Hindus and Sikhs lived as one in northwest Pakistan. Their children married, they even worshipped together. But then India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

"They (Hindus) cut all relations with us. They said Pakistani Sikhs are like all Sikhs everywhere. No difference. They said, 'From now on, we will be separate from you,'" Singh recalled.

Today Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples that they call gurdwaras; while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of the buildings. Many were abandoned in 1947 and taken over by Muslims who arrived from India. The Pakistan government, which took over the buildings after 1947, allowed the squatters to remain.

In a congested neighborhood in Peshawar's old city, Singh stepped through large steel gates that opened on to a sweeping courtyard. It no longer resembled a house of worship, but Singh said it was once a vibrant gurdwara attended by hundreds of Sikhs. Now two families call it home.

Two clotheslines crowded with clothes drying in the blistering midday sun stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other. A child's plastic toy sat idle nearby.

Elsewhere in Peshawar, an armed guard, his rifle slung loosely by his side, stood guard at the city's largest Sikh temple, an ornate marble building that dates back 250 years. Inside a half dozen Sikh men sat on plastic chairs.

It is a short, bureaucratic-looking man, a Muslim, who has the final say about who enters the gurdwara. He works for the government body that oversees properties vacated by people who fled to India in 1947.

After phone calls made, names recorded, passports handed over and more phone calls made, the doors to the gurdwara were opened. revealing a cavernous carpeted room and ornate pillars decorated with hundreds of tiny mirrors. In a small room at the far end of the upper story, two students read the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy book.

Singh, who heads a council representing the Sikhs in Pakistan, said that since his homeland began to turn toward radical Islam, particularly in the Pashtun heartland, young Sikhs have been looking to leave.

"They want to go to another country, not to India or Pakistan," he said, but every country eyes them with suspicion. Even Indians, he said, see his Pakistani passport and question his intentions, suggesting he wants to agitate for Sikh secessionism, the battle that resulted in Indira Gandhi's death and a dream still held by many Sikhs on both sides of the border.

For Singh, Pakistan's slide into intolerance began in the late 1970s with the former Soviet Union's invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's military dictator Zia-ul Haq set the country on the course of Islamic radicalization as jihad became a rallying cry to defeat the communists in Afghanistan, he said.

Extremism worsened after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition, he said. The tribal regions were gradually overtaken by Taliban and in 2013 several Sikhs were killed, their limbs severed. The brutality of the killings and the threats sent thousands fleeing Pakistan, said Singh.

He said today Pakistan's intolerant use blasphemy  a crime that carries an automatic death penalty  as a weapon against minorities and fellow Muslims alike.

"That is why we have a fear in our hearts, that this law can be used against us," he said. The mere accusation of blasphemy can incite mobs to violence.

"In the last nearly 40 years we have been facing the boom, boom (mimicking the sound of explosions) in every city of Pakistan," said Singh. "In a long time we have not heard any sweet sounds in our Peshawar, but still we love our city."
The key to stopping the ratcheting tension between North Korea and the U.S. could be North Korea's biggest ally, China, the top U.S. general said Sunday.

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during his trip to Asia that "effective military-to-military" ties between the U.S. and China are key. He added that he would continue building his relationship with Gen. Fang Fenghui, the head of the People's Liberation Army's joint staff department.

"As a military leader, Ive got to make sure that the president does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails," Dunford said, according to VOA News. Still, he added, "Were all looking to get out of this situation without a war."

Dunford is expected to meet with leaders in China, South Korea and Japan during his trip. He added that he wanted to underscore the United States' "ironclad commitment" to its alliance with Seoul and Tokyo.

Beijing is North Korea's biggest economic partner and source of aid.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump's national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Trump's tough talk. They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

CIA CHIEF DEFENDS TRUMP ON NORTH KOREA

Pompeo said "there's nothing imminent today," in response to a question about how worried should people be over the escalating tensions, on "Fox News Sunday." He told Chris Wallace the U.S. has a "pretty good idea" of North Korea's intentions, but Pompeo declined to provide specifics. The CIA chief described Kim as "rational" and responsive to "adverse circumstances."

"The reaction in North Korea that we are intending to get is an is an understanding that America is no longer going to have the strategic patience that it's had that has permitted him to continue to develop his weapons program," Pompeo said. "It's that straightforward."

"We're not closer to war than a week ago but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," McMaster said on ABC News' "This Week," adding that the Trump administration is prepared to deal militarily with North Korea if necessary.

But he stressed that the U.S. is pursuing "a very determined diplomatic effort" led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that's coupled with new financial sanctions to dissuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from further provocations.

"The U.S. military is locked and loaded every day," McMaster said, repeating Trump's threat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As the threat of nuclear conflict escalates between the U.S. and North Korea, religious leaders are stepping into the firestorm in an urgent quest to calm the rhetoric between President Trump and dictator Kim Jong Un.

The Catholic Church has been a leader against nuclear proliferation, and the Church has been able to act in different areas around the world where others cant, Christopher Hale, a senior fellow at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and leader for President Obamas national Catholic outreach, told Fox News. He stressed that church members in both the Korean Peninsula and in the U.S. have potential to play a key part in stopping the military escalation.

Late last week, the National Council of Churches in South Korea (NCCK) issued an emergency letter to South Korean president Moon Jae-In, emphasizing their serious concerns.

Military tension is at its height in the Korean peninsula and there is fear of war spreading among the people, the NCCK wrote, offering its willingness to get actively involved in peace talks. In order to transform the present crisis into an opportunity and open the door for dialogue, we humbly ask you to dispatch a special envoy to North Korea.

The Catholic Bishops Conference in South Korea has made a plea for diplomatic solutions. The chairman of the bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace, Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is echoing their sentiment to Washington. Cantu has penned a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledging that that North Koreas perils cannot be underestimated and ignored, but that the U.S should turn to the talking table.

The high certainty of catastrophic death and destruction from any military action must prompt the United States to work with others in the international community for a diplomatic and political solution based on dialogue, Cantu wrote.

He also emphasized to Tillerson that nuclear deterrence only seeks to exacerbate tensions and produce arms races as countries acquire more weapons of mass destruction in an attempt to intimidate or threaten other nations.

Similarly, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, previously the Holy Sees permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva and the reigning advisor to the Vaticans new office for Integral Human Development, has called for dialogue and inclusive negotiations to resolve the mounting catastrophe.

The way of conflict is always the wrong way. The way forward is not that of having the latest military technology, but of having an approach of inclusion, Tomasi said on Vatican Radio, reiterating the Holy Sees stance against the use and possession of atomic weapons.

The effort from religious figures to simmer hostilities comes as Trump and Kim continue to exchange barbs about the potential for mass-scale attacks.

Trump vowed last week that the nation would respond with fire and fury and is locked and loaded should North Korea dare come close to carrying an attack on the U.S territory of Guam as the regime has cautioned. Pentagon officials have told Fox News that the U.S military stands ready to fight tonight.

DEVOUTLY CATHOLIC GUAM CELEBRATES MASS AMID N. KOREA THREAT

The back-and-forth discourse between governments has seen Pyongyang offer up warnings that even a single shell dropped on the Koreans Peninsula might lead to the outbreak of thermonuclear war and that North Korea considers the U.S no more than a lump which it can beat to a jelly at any time.

However, some experts are doubtful that religious voices calling for a peaceful resolution to the nuclear dilemma will have any significant impact. While a significant 14 million of South Koreas 50 million population are devout Christians, North Korea remains the most religiously oppressive nation in the world  with devotion to anyone but the dictatorship completely outlawed  although hundreds of thousands are believed to practice their faith in secret.

DEFECTORS FROM NORTH KOREA DESCRIBE CONCENTRATION CAMP, DAILY LIFE

The Vatican has no influence with North Korea, and while I am sure the American Bishops will get a polite hearing from the Trump Administration, on this issue their call for a de-escalation of the rhetoric are likely to fall on deaf ears, Michael Desch, director of the Notre Dame International Security Center, told Fox News.

But given the increasingly dire situation, churches are using the drama as a reminder for followers to turn to prayer.

As good citizens, we can remind our elected officials to pursue all possible means of diplomacy, Father Michael Sliney, Catholic Priest and Lumen chaplain for Manhattan told Fox News. More importantly, we should not doubt the power for prayer.

On Sunday, the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches called on all members to observe the day as a Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula and stand in solidarity with the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and the Korean Christian Federation (KCF).

The global prayer event, which this year had a theme based on Romans 14:10 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding, came just two days before the annual Liberation Day in both North and South Korea. Traditionally celebrated on August 15th, the occasion commemorates the date in 1945 when Korea was granted independence from the Japanese, and was subsequently divided into two.

Global unrest should drive Christians to prayer, noted Dr. Phillip Bethancourt, Executive VP for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. As the crisis with North Korea escalates, believers should pray that our government leaders would have wisdom, that our persecuted brothers and sisters in North Korea would have protection, and that our own hearts would have faith in the power of God in the midst of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, Douglas Carver, the former U.S. Army chief of chaplains, also prompted followers not only to pray for a diplomatic solution first and foremost, but also for the commander-in-chief and his cabinet members, our congressional leaders and members of the armed services who may be required to make grave and costly decisions in the near future.

He added, It appears that the time for a diplomatic solution is running out.
A Turkish police officer was stabbed to death in Istanbul late Sunday by a suspected Islamic State terrorist, state media reported.

The knife-wielding attacker reportedly had been arrested on suspicion he was preparing to carry out a suicide attack, and was in custody en route to the police station when the stabbing unfolded. The suspect reportedly was shot and killed after the stabbing.

The officer died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital and the attacker was shot dead immediately after the attack. It is not yet known how the suspect was able to keep a knife hidden following his arrest.

BATTLE TO FREE RAQQA PUTS COALITION UP AGAINST BOOBY-TRAPS, CAR BOMBS AND MINES

Turkey, which has taken in a large number of refugees fleeing the protracted conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq, has been the site of several ISIS-inspired attacks in recent years.

The latest killing came just days after an alleged ISIS plot involving a drone attack on Turkey's Incirlik air base -- which is used by the U.S. Air Force -- was foiled.

SOPHISTICATED ISIS PLOT TO BOMB AIRLINER RAISES SERIOUS QUESTIONS

Renad Bakiev, a Russian national who previously traveled to Syria to join ISIS, was detained in the southern city of Adana for planning the drone attack, police said Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Chinese court says a prominent activist accused of subverting state power has stood trial.

Wu Gan called himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher as he put pressure on local officials he accused of wrongdoing.

The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said in an online statement that his trial took place Monday and the verdict will be announced later.

Wu was one of the first lawyers and activists caught up in an intense crackdown by authorities that began in 2015.

Vaguely defined subversion charges are frequently leveled against human rights activists and perceived political foes of the ruling Communist Party.
A 13-year-old girl was killed and at least 12 people were injured after a driver who was apparently suicidal intentionally rammed his vehicle into patrons Monday night at a pizza restaurant east of Paris, police said.

The girl's younger brother was among the injured, officials said.

The restaurant is located in a shopping center at Sept-Sorts, in the Seine-et-Marne region that's populated by young families.

Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television the man was believed to have tried to commit suicide last week.

The public prosecutor's officer in the town of Meaux said that investigators believe the act "apparently has no connection with a terrorist act," reports Sky News. A security official said there is no evidence of a political or Islamic extremist motive.

SUSPECTED PARIS VEHICLE ATTACK DRIVER ARRESTED

An official with the national gendarme service said the driver was arrested soon after the incident.

An Algerian man drove his car into a group of French soldiers last week, and a truck attack in the French city of Nice left 86 people dead a little more than a year ago. Several other countries have seen cars used as weapons in recent years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Italy is letting its ambassador take up his post in Cairo, citing Egyptian progress in a probe of the 2016 torture death of an Italian scholar that had weighed on diplomatic ties.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano says the diplomat will bring a letter from him asserting determination to discover the truth about the murder.

Giulio Regeni was a Cambridge University doctoral student researching labor movements in Egypt. He was abducted in Cairo, and his body was found a few days later bearing marks of extensive, dayslong torture.

Italian news agency ANSA said Italian and Egyptian prosecutors issued a joint statement pledging to find the "truth and all the circumstances that led to the abduction, torture and death."

Italy had withdrawn its ambassador to protest lack of progress from Egypt.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has been briefed on missile test plans to hit Guam, the U.S. Pacific territory, state media claimed early Turesday.

During an inspection of the Korean Peoples Armys Strategic Force, Kim praised the military for constructing a close and careful plan, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim said he would give the order for the missile test if the United States continues its "extremely dangerous actions" on the Korean Peninsula, the report added.

The KPA's Strategic Forces said last week it would finalize by mid-August a plan to fire four intermediate ballistic missiles near Guam and send it to Kim for his approval. North Korea would create enveloping fire near the U.S. military hub in the Pacific, the country said last week.

KIM JONG UN'S DISAPPEARANCE SPARKS CONCERNS MISSILE LAUNCH COULD BE IMMINENT

The news followed remarks from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday that the U.S. military would "take out" any North Korean missile spotted heading for American soil, including Guam. Mattis said the U.S. would detect a missile of that nature heading towards Guam "within moments."

If North Korea fires at the U.S., "it could escalate into war very quickly, Mattis said, adding that the move would be game on.

Last week, President Donald Trump claimed the U.S. would respond to an attack from North Korea with "fire and fury" and is "locked and loaded" in preparation for any attack on Guam.

Pentagon officials have told Fox News that the U.S. military stands ready to "fight tonight."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has vanished from the public eye for two weeks, South Korean media reported, prompting fears that he may be preparing to mark Tuesdays public holiday by firing a new rocket.

The last time Kim went days without being seen was prior to the ICBM launch in late July, when he remained incognito for two weeks before making his grandiose public appearance. His public withdrawal comes as nuclear tensions mount between Washington and Pyongyang, and on the heels of the leaders threat to attack the U.S. island territory of Guam.

On Tuesday, North Korea is set to commemorate the Korean Peninsulas liberation from Japan at the end of World War II.

Adding to the speculation of an imminent rocket-fire test, last week U.S.-based North Korea watchdog site 38 North released satellite imagery of a submarine base in the hermit country, showing that tarps had been placed above both the fore and aft decks of the Sinpo-class submarine base, presumably to conceal any inside movements.

NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR ACCELERATION PROMPTS CHURCH INTERVENTION

However, other analysts have also pointed out that Kim has previously disappeared for lengthy periods due to an unknown physical condition. Furthermore, his father, Kim Jong Il, disappeared for around six weeks after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, prompting speculation that he simply may have felt threatened.

Trump vowed last week that the U.S. would respond with fire and fury and is locked and loaded should North Korea dare come close to carrying an attack on the U.S. territory of Guam. Pentagon officials have told Fox News that the U.S. military stands ready to fight tonight.

MATTIS, TILLERSON: NORTH KOREA THREAT -- THE WORLD IS UNITED IN PURSUIT OF A DENUCLEARIZED KOREAN PENINSULA

Pyongyang, in turn, warned that even a single shell dropped on the Korea Peninsula might lead to the outbreak of thermonuclear war and that North Korea considers the U.S. no more than a lump which it can beat to a jelly at any time.
The latest on violence involving the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the African nation of Mali (all times local):

6 p.m.

The United Nations says unidentified gunmen attacked the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu, killing seven people and injuring seven others.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission says six assailants also were killed by U.N. peacekeepers in the attack Monday afternoon.

The mission says five Malian security guards and a Malian contractor working for the mission were killed along with a member of the Malian gendarmerie.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said earlier Monday that unidentified gunmen attacked two neighboring U.N. camps in Douentza in the Mopti region of central Mali, killing one Malian soldier and one U.N. peacekeeper.

The peacekeeping mission in Mali is the deadliest of the U.N.'s 16 global peacekeeping operations, and this was one of the worst losses of mission staff.
Mexican regulators raided 31 hot spots in Cancun and Playa del Carmen this past weekend as part of a widening effort to crack down on illegal alcohol -- a black market that came into the national spotlight after a Wisconsin woman's alcohol-linked death at a posh Mexican resort.

At least two locations were temporarily shut down after the raids, including the popular Fat Tuesday bar in Cancun, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Police also seized 10,000 gallons of tainted alcohol from a manufacturing company that supplies booze to popular restaurants, nightclubs and resorts in the region, authorities said.

CONTAMINATED, DRUGGED LIQUOR MAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WOMAN'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT MEXICAN RESORT, DAD SAYS

The tourist meccas, popular with college students, have come under increasing scrutiny over tainted -- and potentially fatal -- alcohol after 20-year-old Abbey Conner mysteriously died in January during a family vacation at an upscale Playa del Carmen resort. Conners family believe she drowned in shallow water after drinking bootleg alcohol that may have caused her to unexpectedly black out.

The lobby bar at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya, the hotel where Conner died, was temporarily shut down as part of the recent crackdown.

Conners mother told the Journal Sentinel she was glad to hear about the raids.

Its needed. There is obviously stuff going on that needs to be cleaned up and looked into further, Ginny McGowan told the newspaper. They need to investigate and interview employees. This makes sense. This needs to happen.

The raids came after the Journal Sentinel published a series of articles about how dozens of tourists who had visited upscale resorts in Cancun and Playa del Carmen complained of blacking out after drinking a small amount of alcohol. Some tourists, the newspaper reported, said they were assaulted and robbed after they lost consciousness.

Its important to emphasize that our vigilance is long-lasting, Alvaro Perez, Mexican commissioner of sanitary operations, said at a press conference last Friday. We will continue to enforce these sanitary measures and will continue to be vigilant to make sure our tourists are confident that the alcohol they are drinking is safe...and they can have a safe and healthy family vacation.

DEATH OF AMERICA TOURIST AT MEXICAN RESORT STILL A MYSTERY, FAMILY SAYS

About 36 percent of the alcohol consumed in Mexico is illegal, according to a recent report.
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Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh.

Officials said Monday that they were still trying to determine the scale of the disaster, as weather forecasters predicted more rain for some areas and casualties were reported in multiple locations across the Himalayan foothills of South Asia.

Nepalese police were searching Monday for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to police spokesman Pushkar Karki.

"The death toll may go up further as reports come in from remote areas," Karki said.

Many of those killed had drowned or been caught in collapsed houses or under toppled trees.

The floods destroyed key rice crops in Nepal and drove thousands of farmers and their families to take refuge in schools or tents on higher ground, as water submerged roads and cut transport to affected areas. Near the Nepalese village of Kunauli, on the border with India, people were sheltering in tents pitched along the main highway after the land on both sides became inundated. Cows and buffalo meandered between the tents, and poisonous snakes slithered through the water.

Electricity and cellular phone services were cut off. Soldiers passed out clean water, grain and rice, which people were cooking on small, kerosene-fueled stoves. But aid workers said some did not have enough food or water.

"The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop," Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-based anti-poverty charity Heifer International, said in a statement. "Making matters worse, large numbers of livestock have been swept away in the flash flooding."

Across Nepal's southern border, flooding swamped seven districts in the Indian state of Bihar and left more than half a million people homeless. Officials said two people had also died.

Landslides and flooding are common across South Asia during the summer monsoon season, and have become more dangerous thanks to widespread deforestation and poor urban planning that makes it harder for the land to absorb rainfall.

Bangladesh was bracing for worse flooding Monday, as weather forecasters predicted more rain. At least 18 major rivers were flowing at dangerously high levels, according to the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Center.

Twenty-seven people have been killed over the last few days in the low-lying delta nation, while another 600,000 are marooned, Bangladesh's disaster management minister, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury, said Monday. Around 368,000 people have taken refuge in more than 970 makeshift government shelters, he said.

Bangladeshi soldiers were working to evacuate those who were stranded on rooftops or in trees, after floodwaters inundated hundreds of northern villages.

In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes. Officials said that at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps, and that 18 people had been killed.

With railway lines inundated, the remote region was largely cut off from the rest of the country. Indian air force helicopters were dropping food and drinking water packets in the worst-hit districts, said Assam's chief secretary, V. K. Pipersenia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was in contact with Assam's authorities. "All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state," Modi said on Twitter.

Most of Assam's Kaziranga National Park was also under water, forcing many of the wildlife reserve's endangered rhinos and deer to move to higher ground. Dozens of deer were killed by cars after they leapt onto a nearby highway to escape the floods.

Farther to the west, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, soldiers recovered the bodies of 46 people who had been traveling in two buses that were buried in a massive landslide of rocks and mud on Sunday.

___

George reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Wasbir Hussain in Gauhati, India, Ashwini Bhatia in Dharmsala, India, Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Roshan Sedhai in Kathmandu, Nepal, contributed to this report.
Pope Francis is praising acceptance for migrants as a way to show brotherhood, even as Europe's welcome mat wears thin.

Francis sent a message Monday to a diocesan-organized conference in southern Italy promoting brotherhood in the Mediterranean area.

He encouraged Christians, young people and "all persons of good will to consider the presence of migrants an opportunity for human growth, encounter and dialogue" as well as an opportunity to practice charity.

In the last few years, Italy has taken on hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers, many of them economic migrants, who were rescued at sea from smugglers' boats setting out from Libya's coast. Several European countries have refused to follow EU-assigned quotas to distribute the migrants. Many Italian politicians acknowledge Italy's patience for caring for migrants is fraying.
A top Serbian official has called for a compromise over Kosovo that could end a dispute hindering both Serbia and Kosovo from one day becoming European Union members.

In an opinion piece published Monday in pro-government Vecernje Novosti newspaper, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic suggested partitioning Kosovo along its predominantly ethnic Albanian and Serb parts.

Dacic says the division would represent "a lasting solution of the Serbian-Albanian conflict which can be reached only through an agreement in which everyone will win something and lose something."

There was no immediate reaction from Kosovo, but rejection is likely.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It is recognized as a separate nation by 114 countries, including the United States and most of the EU, but not Serbia and its allies Russia and China.
The sinking of an amateur submarine was a deliberate act, Danish investigators said, as officials on Monday continued searching for the body of a Swedish journalist believed to have been aboard the doomed craft.

Peter Madsen, 46, was the lone survivor after his 40-ton homemade Nautilus sub foundered off Denmarks eastern coast on Thursday evening. Madsen was arrested hours after he was rescued, hit with preliminary manslaughter charges in the death of 30-year-old Kim Wall, who was seen departing on the sub with Madsen shortly before the Nautilus sank.

Madsen initially told authorities he dropped off Wall prior to the subs sinking, but police say Madsen has since changed his statement, though they havent elaborated on how, the BBC reported.

Officials now believe Wall, who was based in Brooklyn, N.Y., was aboard the Nautilus when it sank. But though the craft has been raised, Walls body was not found inside of it.

It appears to be a deliberate act to sink the submarine, Jens Moller, the chief homicide investigator of the Copenhagen police, said at a Sunday news conference.

Authorities have not said what that act was or what the motivation behind it may have been.

Madsen has maintained his innocence and told a local television station the sub sank due to technical issues.

I was toying with various things on the submarine and then an error occurred, he told TV2.

What is likely the last picture taken of Wall, showed the freelance journalist, smiling, aboard the sub and standing alongside Madsen, whose back is turned, just before the Nautilus departed on its ill-fated Thursday voyage.

Wall had been writing about Madsen and the Nautilus at the time of the incident. And though investigators charged Madsen with preliminary manslaughter, they sent mixed signals about whether they had come to a firm conclusion about Walls fate.

Were still hoping that well find Kim Wall alive, Moller said. But we are preparing ourselves for the fact that she may not be.
The South Koreans raised doubt that North Korea may soon be capable of launching a nuclear missile at the U.S. Sunday after South Koreas vice defense minister said that the North does not appear to have the technology.

Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk said on a Korea Broadcasting System show that North Korea has yet to master missile re-entry technology and doing so will take close to one or two more years of work, Reuters reported.

"Both the United States and South Korea do not believe North Korea has yet completely gained re-entry technology in material engineering terms," he said.

"We don't feel they've reached that point yet but it's true they are approaching it. We can't pinpoint the exact timing, but it will take at least one to two more years," Suh added.

President Trump last week said North Korea would be met with fire and fury if leader Kim Jung Un followed through on a threat to execute a missile strike on nearby Guam, a U.S. territory with an American military base.

Despite this, officials say provocations by the North are likely to continue.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo agree that Kim Jong Un will continue to test his weapons.

"I am quite confident that he will continue to try to develop his missile program, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was another missile test," Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday.

Pompeo also made clear that there is no intelligence that would show that a nuclear war is imminent.
Iran on Sunday sent another drone close to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf -- the second time in a week such an episode occurred, and an incident the Navy called "unsafe."

This latest incident comes after the "unsafe" encounter last week between an Iranian drone and a U.S. Navy F-18 Hornet that was attempting to land aboard the USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf. It also comes one day after Iran said it would spend $500 million to boost its missile program following new sanctions from the United States.

Navy Lt. Ian McConnaughey, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said the drone's flight was "unsafe and unprofessional."

"Despite repeated radio calls to establish communications and remain clear, the QOM-1's controlling station was unresponsive and the [unmanned aerial vehicle] did not use any aircraft navigation lights while it made several passes in close proximity to Nimitz and its escort ships during active flight operations, coming within 1,000 feet of U.S. aircraft," McConnaughey said. "The failure of the Iranian UAV to utilize standard, internationally-mandated navigation lights during a night time approach of a U.S. aircraft carrier engaged in flight operations created a dangerous situation with the potential for collision and is not in keeping with international maritime customs and laws."

On Tuesday, an Iranian drone nearly collided with a Navy jet, coming within 100 feet of vertical separation.
Ronald Daniels Jr.s life has come full circle.

He grew up riding along with his dad as Ronald Daniels Sr. made the rounds in his light blue and white Tastykake truck delivering Krimpets, Kandy Kakes and a variety of fruit pies to gas stations and grocery stores in Hampton Roads.

I actually have some pictures of me sneaking off a box of cupcakes when I was little, said Daniels, who lives in Locust Grove. My dad told me, Boy, if I ever see you with another brand, dont even come home. 

Now Daniels is the one behind the wheel of one of those Tastykake trucks, which are now dark blue and emblazoned with a picture of the companys sweet treats on either side. His son, 12-year-old Ryan Daniels, often tags along to lend a hand.

Having a son follow in his fathers footsteps at Tastykake isnt unusual, said Rusty Schneck, the companys vice president of sales.

He said that Tastykake has had a good family culture ever since Philip Baur, the son of a bakery owner, joined forces with egg salesman Herbert Morris in 1914 to found a business specializing in individually wrapped snack cakes, baked and delivered daily. Its retained that feeling of family even as the Philadelphia-based company has grown to be one of the countrys leading bakeries, selling its products in supermarkets and other retail outlets throughout the East Coast, South and Southwest.

Schneck knew Daniels father, who died three years ago, and said that Daniels sounded just like him when he called about buying a route. He said Daniels will have big shoes to fill, because his father was one of the finest sales distributors and managers he ever worked with.

I talked with him before he died, and he told me his happiest days were when he was in his Tastykake truck, Schneck said. He was serious about that. He represented our brand as well as it could possibly be represented.

Becoming an independent distributor for Tastykake products, however, wasnt Daniels original career choice. He spent 24 years working in maintenance for an insurance company before deciding that he no longer wanted to put his fate in someone elses hands.

Ive always wanted to own my own business, he said. When you work for yourself, you can adjust your route and schedule. Thats whats kind of cool about it.

Daniels considered buying a route from several other vendors, but Tastykake had been part of his life for as long as he could remember. Not only did his late father go from being an independent distributor for the company to district manager, but his mothers brother, Bill Baker, was also an independent distributor for Tastykake.

Both men did try working for Voortman Cookies for a brief stint, but that didnt work out. Soon they were back as independent distributors for Tastykake. The company, now owned by Flowers Foods, has about 450 IDs, as theyre called, who have the exclusive right to sell and distribute certain Flowers products within a defined geographic territory.

Earlier this year Baker offered Daniels the opportunity to buy his route, which includes Locust Grove and much of Spotsylvania County.

My uncle was 59 and he said he would like to keep it in the family, Daniels said. He said, Would you like it? I said, Absolutely!

Daniels bought out his uncle, formed Rapidan Distributors Inc., and then rode with his uncle and a Tastykake district manager for five weeks to learn his new role.

Im loving it, he said. Im still getting a grasp on the route.

Daniels day typically starts in Locust Grove with stops at Walmart and Wawa. He then heads over to Spotsylvania, where he services grocery and convenience stores all the way down to Thornburg. Along the way he passes a number of stores under construction or soon to be built.

Were looking at getting into Lidl, the new Publix and the Royal Farms that opened on [State Route] 17, he said. Ive heard Royal Farms is talking about opening eight stores in the area. It just opened the one on 17. Its similar to Sheetz or Wawa.

Twice a week he also drives to Tastykakes storage facility at Five Mile Fork to restock his truck, and he uses a handheld device to check inventory in the stores on his route every two to four weeks. He also uses the device every night to send sales information to Tastykake.

This is all new to me, Daniels said. Dad did all handwritten tickets.

Tastykake pays him a percentage for every item that gets sold. Bags of its mini donuts are among the best sellers, as are the Butterscotch Krimpets and pies.

It depends on what the stores that I serve sell and whats authorized in those stores, Daniels said, adding that coconut cream pies are his favorite.

He said that many grocery stores, including Giant Food, have a place where he can leave items past their sell-by date for food banks.

Its better to donate them than for me to throw them away, Daniels said.

Daniels said that some of the people he talks with at Tastykake used to work for his father and have since climbed the corporate ladder. When the company learned that Ryan would be entering a car painted with the Tastykake logo in the 21st Annual Fredericksburg Soap Box Derby, it sent him a card wishing him good luck and a box of Tastykake logo items.

That was really cool, Daniels said.

His days as an independent distributor are long, beginning at 5:30 a.m. and ending about 10 to 12 hours later. Sometimes his 16-year-old daughter Courtney will come along instead of Ryan.

Daniels said that hes keeping in mind a sage piece of advice that his uncle passed on. Baker told him not to get so busy that he doesnt have time for his family.

As my route grows, theres a possibility that I could sell off some of the stores to another distributor, he said.
Clouds will increase and dominate the skies as the work week begins around Fredericksburg.

Whatever early morning sunshine existing in the Burg will give way to overcast skies before noon today (Monday). The cold front that squeezed across the city Saturday only made it to the Tidewater area and has seemingly taken up residence there. That boundarys lack of further progress prevented much dryer air from reaching Fredericksburg which is contributing to the cloudy conditions.

Thus today can be categorized as mostly cloudy (or partly sunny) as temperatures creep into the low 80s. Although one short range forecast model wants to bring light rain into Fredericksburg by early afternoon any local showers will likely hold off until the evening hours. Tuesday, however, will be cloudy and damp with temperatures climbing into the mid-80s. A thunderstorm cant be ruled out tomorrow afternoon.

The main benefit from the stalled front across the Tidewater region and the associated East Coast upper level trough is that this combination will block Tropical Storm Gert from approaching the coastline. Gerts center is forecast to track roughly halfway between the U.S. and Bermuda on its way north and then east across the Atlantic (see graphic). The system is forecast to become at least a minimal hurricane but itll be well east of Virginia when that occurs.

Sunshine will return to Fredericksburg and vicinity midweek but it will be accompanied by a brief return to hot, sticky, and stormy conditions. More details to follow in Wednesdays regular blogpost.
Bill JohnsonMiles of Stafford County was in Charlotttesville Saturday, where he literally found himself caught between groups of white supremacists and religious leaders from various faiths.

The intensity between the two was overwhelming, he said. So was the fear he harbored as he witnessed the hatred, violence and name-calling by organizers of the white nationalist rally.

The experience he had Sunday afternoon in Fredericksburg, at the corner of William Street and State Route 3, couldnt have been more different. He stood among more than 60 people who shared messages such as Reject Racism, No Hate in My State or Hate Has No Home Here.

I think this really shows what yesterday did to us, and that we all want to express our emotions today, he said. Were all Virginians, and this shows there is more love than hate in this state.

Sundays gathering was organized by a number of diverse groups, including We Are For America; Sisters, Misters and Resistors; Pantsuit Nation; the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee; and several church congregations. Some participants, such as organizer Shelley PineoJensen of Fredericksburg, have protested on the corner every Sunday afternoon since President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January.

But the number of peaceful protesters, holding printed and homemade signs and waving American flags, clearly swelled Sunday in the wake of Saturdays deadly rally. One person was killed and 19 injured in Charlottesville when a car slammed into a group of counterprotesters. In addition, two State Policemen coming to help control the crowds died when their helicopter crashed.

This is the biggest turnout that we ever had, PineoJensen said. People are out here, mediating the negative experience of the news by standing up for whats good and right.

Sue Sargeant of Spotsylvania County wanted to show solidarity with the people of Charlottesville and also send the message that it could happen anywhere. She recalled earlier this year, when white supremacist fliers were left at homes in Spotsylvania, and vandals painted swastikas in one of the high schools.

Its here in the area, its just that its hidden, she said, adding she believes its best to confront hatred instead of refusing to talk about it. You call them out, you dont let them hide under a rock.

Most of the motorists who drove by the protesters honked in agreement, waved or said God bless you as they stopped at the traffic light. Some others waved Confederate flags and gave obscene gestures.

A Hispanic woman marched up to Nancy Shehata, who was wearing the head covering of Muslim women, motioned to her hijab and told her she needs to go back home.

And she was foreign! said Nicole Gordon of Spotsylvania, who stood next to Shehata.

Its just so sad because racism is not just white and black, Gordon said. Its all.

Shehata, whose father is from the deep South, said her roots in America go back to Colonial days.

A few minutes later, Luisa Molina of Stafford County joined the two women. Shes Guatemalan and has lived in America for 49 years. When she saw the protest on Facebook, she said she needed to be there.

It is important because democracy is the first thing of this country, and I hate whats going on, she said.

Jerome Halls decision to participate was totally spontaneous. He drove by the protesters, then decided his time was better spent there than working in the library. A Marine Corps reservist, he appreciated the instructions from organizer PineoJensen that this wouldnt be a violent rally, that if someone offered a different opinion, those gathered would allow that expression.

Everything she said was so peaceful and graceful and loving, he said. We can talk among each other in peace. It doesnt have to be violent.
CHARLOTTESVILLEThe day after a white nationalist rally ended with three deada 32-year-old paralegal from Greene County and two Virginia State Police pilots from the Richmond areaits organizer fell flat with an attempt to reclaim the spotlight in a city fed up with the turmoil he helped to create.

Jason Kessler, organizer of the Unite the Right rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, tried to speak about 2 p.m. Sunday in front of City Hall. Hundreds of counterprotesters greeted him with chants of shame and say her name, referring to Heather Heyer, who was killed Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters on Fourth Street.

Kessler kept speaking through the chants, but his speech was largely inaudible. As he departed, the crowd rushed behind and a woman tackled him, prompting police to step in for his protection.

We still got to live in this town, Charlottesville native Katris Scott said, fuming with frustration over the turmoil left behind by white nationalist and supremacist groups drawn here for the rally. We just want our town back.

Virginia State Police charged Robert K. Litzenberger, 47, of Charlottesville, with misdemeanor assault and battery after a trooper saw him spit on Kessler, according to a city spokeswoman.

A rally ostensibly held to protest the citys proposed removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee turned into a street battle between protesters and counterprotesters at war over direly different visions of America, but the aftermath left Virginia in mourning and political shockwaves trembling across the country and around the world.

It was a local event with strategic, international implications, said George W. Foresman, an Albemarle County resident who formerly served as Virginias top homeland security official and undersecretary for preparedness under President George W. Bush.

The dead included Heyer, who was hit by a car police believe was driven by a 20-year-old Ohio man who had rallied with an organization associated with white supremacist, anti-Semitic ideology. The vehicle rampage injured 19 other people who, by Sunday, had either been released from hospital care or upgraded to good condition.

Charlottesville city officials said in a statement Sunday that Heyer was struck down by a vehicle while exercising her peaceful First-Amendment right to speech. This senseless act of violence rips a hole in our collective hearts.

In an appearance on Sunday morning on NBCs Meet the Press, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer called the vehicle rampage a terrorist attack with a car used as a weapon.

Foresman said it is too soon to label the incident as terrorism because it is still under investigation by the FBI, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia. Thats a decision for a federal prosecutor, he said.

However, the homeland security consultant compared suspect James Alex Fields Jr. to a young, Islamic jihadist who blows himself up in an American city. Hes a young man who came here with a purpose and who to some degree had been indoctrinated, Foresman said.

Weve got a generation of youth who are susceptible to radicalization, he said.

Three people were arrested by state police on Saturday during the planned rally at Emancipation Park, where the Lee statue stands, and what police described as the continued unrest following the declaration of an unlawful assembly.

They are: Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tenn., who was charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, who was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery; and James M. OBrien, 44, of Gainesville, Fla., who was charged with carrying a concealed handgun. Police did not characterize their roles in the confrontation.

The aftermath of the rally was filled with sorrow for state police, who lost two pilots, one of them the commander of the Aviation Unit, in the crash of the helicopter that had been circling above the city on Saturday to spot confrontations breaking out in a widening radius around the park and relay them to law enforcement on the ground to respond.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who declared a state of emergency on Saturday, attended two church services in Charlottesville on Sunday and told reporters that he had spoken with President Donald Trump the previous day. Twice I said to him we have to stop this hateful speech, this rhetoric.

McAuliffe said protesters were emboldened to walk around our street with weapons and to spew hatred.

In televised remarks on Saturday, Trump condemned the violence in Charlottesville on many sides, but did not directly address the behavior of white supremacist groups drawn to the rally. The White House clarified his remarks on Sunday to include white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

Foresman faulted political leaders on both sides of the aisle for failing to take steps to de-escalate the rhetorical march to violence in the weeks leading to the rally and the months following the beginning of the debate over removing the Lee statue.

I am stunned by the level of political rhetoric that is still going on, he said.

More than 90 minutes after Kessler spoke on Sunday, John Allen was listening to demonstrators outside City Hall on his birthday after driving here from his home in Alexandria the previous night.

Allen, a pastor who had returned to the U.S. after living in South Africa for more than a decade, said he had watched Saturdays events unfold on television and social media before deciding he wanted to be on the scene.

I sensed a need to make the trip to stand up for what is right, he said.

Allen had squeezed as close as he could to Kesslers podium. His feelings alternated between uneasiness that things could get out of hand, and a level of comfort at the large presence of law enforcement. He didnt chant through Kesslers speech. He wondered if it would have been better to let the rally organizer speak and then respond with counter speeches.

Elsewhere in the mall, Nicole Curry, a resident of Charlottesville for more than 40 years, said she never had seen anything like the events of the weekend here.

Its not a good feeling: racism, Curry said. We got to deal with this all over again.
CHARLOTTESVILLEThe man accused of killing one person and injuring 19 in a car attack was held without bail by Charlottesville District Court Judge Robert Downer.

James A. Fields, 20, appeared via video conference from jail Monday morning. Downer told him that the Public Defender Office would typically represent him, but that a relative of an employee was injured in the crash and the office had informed him that it could not take him as a client.

Instead he appointed attorney Charles Weber from a list of possible court-appointed attorneys. Downer described Weber as very experienced and set a Aug. 25 hearing to reconsider bond once Fields has had an opportunity to consult with Weber.

Weber is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city regarding the removal of Confederate statues. In 2013, Weber ran for Charlottesville City Council as a Republican.

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed Saturday when a 2010 Dodge Challenger plowed into a group of anti-racist counterprotesters at Fourth and Water streets mid-afternoon that followed an intense and violent white nationalist rally protesting the citys decision to remove a Confederate statue of Robert E. Lee from a public park.

Fields appeared calm throughout the hearing. Hair neatly parted and wearing a jail jumpsuit with thick, black stripes, he stared blankly at the camera, periodically looking down and sniffling. He answered most of Downers questions by saying yes, sir or no, sir.

He told the judge he could not afford an attorney. He said he earned $650 every two weeks and identified his employers as Securitas and Ohio Omni.

The small, brick-walled courtroom just blocks from the scene of the intense violence that took place on Saturday was filled almost entirely with reporters.

Fields appeared on the roughly 2-foot-by-2-foot screen without warning during a recess at 9:55 a.m. A hush came over the courtroom as reporters watched his eyes dart around the small room he appeared to be sitting in.

At 10:05, the court was called into session. Downer explained the severity of the charges.

You are charged with a number of felonies, including murder and malicious wounding, he said. So you should have a lawyer representing you. Can you afford to hire one?

No, sir, Fields said. Downer then placed Fields under oath. When Fields began to speak the oath backI solemnly swear ...Downer interrupted him, telling him he didnt have to repeat the words.

Downer then explained why the Public Defender Office couldnt represent him and set the hearing, which he said could be moved at Downer and Webers request.

Do you understand all these those things? Downer said.

Yes, sir, Fields said.

The hearing ended and the screen on which Fields appeared went dark.

Reporters rushed out. Leave quietly please, Downer instructed.

Outside, two men shouted that the melee over the weekend was not the fault of white supremacists who massed in the city to protest removal of a Confederate statue. Instead, they blamed it on the City Council, for attempting to remove the statue. The men were swarmed by national and local media and eventually shouted down by several Charlottesville residents.

Downer and the Commonwealths Attorney Office described the Aug. 25 hearing as a control date. Commonwealths Attorney Dave Chapman said in a statement that a control date is one of which a more informed decision can be made concerning the scheduling of a preliminary hearing. The timing of a preliminary hearing may be affected by many factors, including the availability of witnesses and the results of any forensic testing.

Addressing the future course of the case, the office said city police will complete a full and fair investigation and final decisions regarding the charges will not be made until its complete.

Before then, we will not engage in public discussion or speculation about new or additional charges, Chapman said. Our pretrial comments are limited to court proceedings.
A group of young protesters marched through the Fan District to the Lee Monument to Clay and Jackson streets in Jackson Ward.

At least one person was arrested and one protester was carrying a firearm.

Roughly 200 attendees participated in the rally, which lasted around two hours. At times demonstrators could be heard chanting "cops and the Klan go hand in hand" and that it's time for Richmond to take down the statues.

Police officers followed the protest in cars with blue lights on.

The Richmond Police Department tweeted at 10:21 p.m. that protesters were walking down west on West Broad Street near the intersection with Laurel Street.

Chief Durham briefs media about tonight's demonstration. One arrest. #RVA pic.twitter.com/29SNK2216Z  Richmond Police (@RichmondPolice) August 14, 2017

At 10:49 p.m., police tweeted that the group had turned on Lombardy Street and appear headed for Monument Avenue.

The Lee Monument is on Monument Avenue at Allen Avenue, one block west of Lombardy.

At 11:12 p.m., police said the protesters were marching east on Monument Avenue away from the Lee Monument.

Several protesters stopped journalists from filming and cursed at anyone filming it, telling them to instead film the police.

By 12:20 am the protest had largely broken up.

We had a photojournalist attacked tonight by someone in the crowd that is marching. He had to get stitches. pic.twitter.com/lHM2kNetqE  WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) August 14, 2017

Our photojournalist reported back that he got 4 staples after a protester hit him in the head. pic.twitter.com/bG5JRYfksJ  WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) August 14, 2017

Happening on broad now. Yells if death to the klan pic.twitter.com/URZCAnZCvv  Shelby Lum (@shelby_lum) August 14, 2017
VOUCHERS PUT educational choices for children in the hands of the people who care most: the parents. The voucher program was developed in the 1980s to give low-income families more choice in where their kids go to school. Rich people already have this choice.

Why should this choice be denied to low-income kids who especially need a school environment that will help them acquire the skills needed to compete in a world where jobs are increasingly based on cognitive skills?

Vouchers give less affluent families the option of having money that would ordinarily be spent educating their children in public schools applied toward tuition in a private or parochial school. Vouchers have the potential to make struggling public schools perform better because they will need to become competitive if they are to attract the business of parents who suddenly are empowered to weigh the merits of various schools.

Instead of welcoming competition, which can give failing public schools incentive to improve, the National Education Association, the public school teachers union, cried bloody murder. The NEA claims that vouchers will harm public schools by denying them funds. This puts the interests of unionized teachers above those of children. They argue that it is wrong to allow parents to spend education money as they, and not the unions, see fit.

But public money earmarked for the education of children is earmarked forwellthe education of children and not for specific schools. Moreover, families are unlikely to use vouchers to remove their children from thriving, safe public schools where children learn and develop social skills. But, if you believe the NEA, voucher-using students do not profit from the experiencean odd assertion, which says, in effect, that it doesnt matter where poor kids go to school.

A crime-ridden public school with metal detectors at the doors versus a quiet parochial school with nuns? Hey, if youre poor, it doesnt matter.

The NEA tries to make us believe that vouchers dont give some kids, who would otherwise be in failing pubic schools, a better chance. A new study of the voucher program in Indiana, however, indicates otherwise.

Researchers Mark Berends and R. Joseph Waddington studied a voucher program that involved more than 34,000 children. They found that the childrens scores in math and English declined in the first two years of using vouchers and then, if the kids remained in the parochial or private school, their scores picked up and they did better than their public school peers.

Anyone who has ever moved from a public to a private school, as I did in the ninth grade, knows the phenomenon: you have to struggle in a newer, more demanding school, but ultimately, it pays off.

And, of course, parents dont pick non-public schools only for academic standards. They are also influenced by safety concerns and cultural values. Shouldnt low-income parents be empowered to make the same value judgments regarding a childs environment that families in posher ZIP codes routinely make?

Public schools would do better to regard vouchers as representing a challenge to improve rather than fighting to hold kids captive. Opposing vouchers is opposing the primacy of parents in making decisions about their childrens education and the notion that low-income parents should be empowered to make those decisions every bit as much as rich parents.

It is a shame that the teachers union is engaged in a vitriolic fight against low-income parents who see opportunities for their children in voucher-funded attendance at schools of their choice. Make no mistake: the fight against school vouchers pits a powerful educational establishment against low-income parents.

Why should school choice be the prerogative only of the rich?

Charlotte Hays is the director of cultural programs at the Independent Womens Forum (iwf.org). She wrote this for insidesources.com.
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A deeply worrying rise in farm thefts has prompted warnings that criminals targeting the countryside are becoming more brazen.

Despite a 4% drop to 39.2m last year, the cost of rural theft rose sharply during the first half of 2017, according to the latest figures from insurer NFU Mutual.

Early theft claims statistics show an increase of more than 20% for the first half of this year  raising fears of a new rural crime wave.

See also: News background: The NFUs manifesto on rural crime

Being staked out by criminals is the biggest worry for country people, followed closely by longer police response times in rural areas, said NFU Mutuals annual report.

Criminals are continuing to target Land Rovers, quad bikes, tractors, tools and livestock, despite increased security on farms, according to the report, published on Monday (14 August).

Farmyard fortresses

It warns that farmers are turning their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from increasingly bold attacks from rural thieves.

While the fall in rural theft in 2016 is welcome news, the sharp rise in the first half of 2017 is deeply worrying, said Tim Price, NFU Mutual rural affairs specialist.

Countryside criminals are becoming more brazen and farmers are now having to continually increase security and adopt new ways of protecting their equipment.

In some parts of the country, farmers are having to turn their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from repeated thieves who are targeting quads, tractors and power tools.

They are using tracking devices on tractors, video and infrared surveillance in their farmyards and even DNA markers to protect sheep from rustlers.

Farmer anxiety

Mr Price said the threat of becoming a victim of rural crime  and regular reports of suspicious characters watching farms  were causing high levels of anxiety among farmers.

As the main insurer of the countryside, NFU Mutual had responded to its members concerns and invested more than 1m to tackle the menace, as well as working with police.

The cost of rural theft fell by more than 32% in Scotland last year where NFU Mutual and Police Scotland joined forces to form the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime.

When police, farmers and other rural organisations tackle rural crime in an organised way, these schemes can be extremely effective, said Mr Price.

In Northern Ireland, where a Rural Crime Partnership has brought together NFU Mutual with police and other organisations, the cost of rural theft was down by 14.9% in 2016.

But the cost of rural crime rose in north-east England (8.7%), south-west England (5.6%) and East Anglia (3.7%) during the same 12 months.
WREN RYAN CLARY Free Access Zach and Erica Clary of Gaffney announce the birth of their daughter, Wren Ryan Clary, born August 17, 2022. Wren has a sister, Reese. Grandparents are Eric and Teresa Bennett...

Fresh fruit and veggies for Thanksgiving Free Access Families can receive a box of fresh fruits and vegetables just in time for the Thanksgiving holidays. FoodShare Cherokee provides opportunities for all residents to order fresh food boxes every...

Museum, Limestone collaborating on textile history program Free Access The Cherokee County Museum is partnering with Limestone Universitys communications class and local educator Tim Lipsey to conduct a history program on textiles. If you or your family has worked...
Story Highlights 44% of low-income Spaniards satisfied with standard of living

35% of poorest in Spain struggled to afford food in past year

12% of poorest Spaniards think it is a good time to find a job

LONDON -- Recent economic news from Spain has been mostly good, with employment gains accompanying respectable GDP growth of close to 3% in the past few quarters. However, new Gallup data suggest not all Spaniards are feeling this improvement. In fact, in 2017, low-income Spaniards split sharply from the rest of the country's population on key quality-of-life perceptions.

In 2017, 44% of Spaniards in the poorest 20% of the population say they are satisfied with their current standard of living, the lowest figure among this group since Gallup began tracking this in 2009. Among Spaniards in all other income groups, at least three-fourths currently say they are satisfied with their standard of living.

The Spanish economy has struggled to regain its footing since the country's housing market collapsed amid the global financial crisis in 2008. Like several of its neighbors in southern Europe, Spain suffered a budget crisis in the ensuing years that forced the government to raise taxes and cut public spending. However, the country's poorest residents may be hardest hit by those austerity measures. In 2017, 35% of those in the bottom income group say they have had trouble paying for food in the past year; this figure is below 10% among Spaniards in other income groups.

This divergence in economic perceptions is also evident in Spaniards' current outlook on local employment conditions. Between 2014 and 2017, the percentage of high-income Spaniards who say it is a good time to find a job in their area has risen considerably from 11% to 36%, but has remained stagnant among low-income Spaniards, just 12% of whom currently feel it is a good time to find a job.

Implications

The growing differences between low-income and high-income Spaniards are a troubling reflection of the rising inequality that has accompanied the weak economic recovery in many European countries. The OECD's most recent update on income inequality noted that it remains at "historical highs" in many member countries and has increased most substantially since 2007 in Estonia, Spain, Sweden and Slovakia.

Thus far, Spain has not been party to the rise of far-right isolationist politicians elsewhere in Europe. Analysts have noted that the nationalist appeals driving support for those figures in some countries is less appealing to Spaniards, who are wary of such rhetoric after it was used to suppress democracy under the Franco regime.

However, to the extent that rising inequality creates a sense among the poor that they are cut off from economic opportunities, the country could see greater division along social fault lines that may be exploited by leftist movements. The left-wing coalition Unidos Podemos has already altered the landscape of Spanish politics with its strong showing in the June 2016 general election, tapping into an undercurrent of resentment against the dominant parties and opposition to the austerity measures backed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

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Story Highlights Favorability among Democrats up sharply, down among Republicans

Highest McCain favorable rating since November 2008

Rare for politician's party base to be less positive than other party

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Arizona Sen. John McCain's favorable rating is 58% after he cast the vote that sank GOP attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That is five points higher than McCain's previous reading from August 2015, with a surge in Democratic favorability more than making up for a decline among McCain's fellow Republicans.

Democratic Gain More Than Offsets Republican Decline to Boost Overall McCain Image Ratings Figures are the percentage who have a favorable opinion of McCain August 2015 August 2017 Change % % pct. pts. U.S. adults 53 58 +5 Democrats 49 71 +22 Independents 50 54 +4 Republicans 61 51 -10 Gallup

The results are based on an Aug. 2-6 Gallup poll, conducted shortly after McCain returned to the Senate from his home in Arizona after having emergency surgery and finding out he had an aggressive form of brain cancer. The return of the self-described "maverick" was eventful, as he joined with two Republicans, 46 Democrats and two independents to oppose the latest -- and, for now, final -- GOP attempt to repeal "Obamacare."

Additionally, since Gallup last measured opinions about McCain, he and Donald Trump have had a contentious relationship that includes disagreement on many policy issues and Trump's criticism of McCain for being captured in the Vietnam War.

Democrats now view McCain much more positively than they did two years ago, with their 71% favorable ratings representing a 22-percentage-point increase since then. Republicans' opinions have grown more negative, though their 10-point decline (from 61% to 51%) is about half as large as the Democratic increase. Independents' opinions of McCain are virtually the same as they were two years ago.

The net effect of these changes is that McCain's 58% favorable rating among all Americans is improved from 2015 and is his best since a 64% reading in November 2008, shortly after he lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama. Since Gallup first asked about him in 1999, McCain's favorable rating has been as high as 67%, including in March 2008 after he clinched the Republican presidential nomination and in February 2000 after he defeated George W. Bush in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.

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Patterns of Party Support for McCain Highly Unusual

The Democratic and Republican shifts in opinions of McCain have created a rare instance in which a politician receives better ratings from supporters of the opposition party than from his own party's base.

Gallup has documented only one other case in which a politician had significantly higher ratings from the opposition party than from his own party. McCain's friend and former Senate colleague, Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, had higher ratings among Republicans than Democrats in two 2006 polls.

Lieberman's consistent support for the Iraq War was at odds with most elected Democrats' views, and his pro-war positions caused Democratic identifiers to sour on him while Republicans came to view him positively. By July 2006, when the incumbent Lieberman was engaged in a spirited primary campaign he ultimately lost, Republicans rated Lieberman better than Democrats did.

The last time Gallup measured opinions of Lieberman, in September 2006 after he decided to seek re-election to his seat as an independent, 53% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats rated him favorably.

For most of Gallup's trend on McCain, the typical partisan pattern has held, with Republicans rating him more positively than Democrats have. However, from 2001 through mid-2006, the time in between his two presidential bids, Republicans and Democrats gave McCain roughly similar favorable ratings.

After McCain won the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, his ratings were the most politically polarized of his career, including a 71-point party difference in the final pre-election poll, when 93% of Republicans and 22% of Democrats had a favorable opinion of him. Wide partisan gaps in views of presidential nominees are the norm.

Since the 2008 election, Republicans' favorable ratings have returned to more normal levels for the senator. However, the current 51% of Republicans rating him favorably ties for the lowest by that group since he became a well-known national figure in late 1999. Meanwhile, Democrats' 71% rating is their highest for McCain to date.

Bottom Line

McCain's decision to oppose the latest Obamacare repeal effort has endeared him to many Democrats while turning off some Republicans. His ongoing battles with Trump may be producing a similar effect. Now, Democrats, just 22% of whom viewed McCain favorably when he faced Obama in the 2008 election, rate him much more positively than Republicans do. Overall, McCain remains fairly popular and slightly more so than his average favorability of 54% since 1999.

Given the unique nature of McCain's ratings by party, it is unclear how long he can sustain his high ratings among Democrats. He has voted against his party on occasion -- most notably on campaign finance reform -- but in the past, Democrats' ratings of McCain were at best on par with those of Republicans. Ultimately, how much McCain's recent actions stand out in partisans' memories compared with other things he has done over the past two decades will determine their opinions about him.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.
Story Highlights 13% of workers are worried about technology eliminating their job

U.S. workers are more than twice as likely to worry about losing benefits

Worry about each of six job setbacks is generally low

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Amid the steady stream of news about driverless cars, artificial intelligence and robots supplanting humans in the workplace, most employed U.S. adults are not worried that their jobs will become obsolete or unnecessary because of technology. U.S. adults are most concerned that their benefits will be reduced, though worry about that is not high either.

Employed Americans Not Worried About Various Employment Setbacks Happening Please indicate whether you are worried or not worried about each of the following happening to you, personally, in the near future. How about -- ? Worried Not worried % % That your benefits will be reduced 32 68 That your wages will be reduced 19 81 That you will be laid off 19 81 That your hours at work will be cut back 16 84 That your job will become obsolete or unnecessary because of technology 13 87 That your company will move jobs to countries overseas 9 90 Gallup, Aug. 2-6, 2017

In its annual Work and Education poll, Gallup asked employed Americans to say how worried they are about six different changes at work happening to them. The Aug. 2-6 poll included for the first time a question about losing a job because of technology.

The results, showing that 13% are worried that "in the near future" their job "will become obsolete or unnecessary because of technology," are consistent with a similar question Gallup asked in May about the likelihood of such an event happening. At that time, 13% of workers said it was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that their job would be eliminated in the next five years because of new technology, automation, robots or artificial intelligence.

A report by market research company Forrester estimates robots will replace 6% of jobs in the U.S. by 2021, just four years from now. These jobs include customer service representatives and, eventually, taxi and truck drivers. White-collar jobs that could be replaced include surgeons, anesthesiologists and legal associates. The May Gallup survey found a higher 26% believing that technology would eliminate their job within 20 years.

Of the other five potential job disruptions, having benefits cut (32%) sparks the most worry in U.S. workers, though 68% say they are not worried about that happening in the near future. No more than one in five workers are worried about any of the other possibilities. This is consistent with recent trends on these measures, which include being laid off (19%), having wages reduced (19%), having hours cut back (16%) and having their employers move jobs overseas (9%).

Worker anxiety on four of these five possibilities was higher between 2009 and 2013 -- after the financial crisis, when the U.S. unemployment rate was much higher than it is today. Since then, worry has returned to pre-recession levels. But even during the recession, many more workers generally were not worried than worried about any of these setbacks happening to them.

Bottom Line

The majority of employed U.S. adults say they are not worried about six possible negative job-related events happening to them in the near future. The newest item Gallup introduced to this question -- technology making one's job unnecessary or obsolete -- gives the employed public little cause for concern. It is possible that the effects of automation, which are increasingly permeating many aspects of American life, are not apparent to many workers.

These would include self-driving cars, which are not available commercially in any widespread way, and customer service, which is often handled by telephone or on the internet. It is also possible that some Americans displaced by technology have since found jobs in other fields, such as bank tellers replaced by ATMs and grocery store cashiers replaced by self-scanners.

Employed U.S. adults also may be aware of the rapid automation of work but do not believe they will personally be affected, or, if their job is eliminated, they think it will be many years in the future. Regardless, it is not a question of if, but when, and how broad-based these effects will be.

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On August 8, a squad of what looked like assault troops gathered at the old YMCA building in Albany. They were there to smash out windows, toss flash bangs and blow the hinges off doors with specialty shots fired from pump-action shotguns.

But this is not a military operation: This is the Linn County regional SWAT team, an assembly of 29 law enforcement officers from different agencies in Linn County, and since June has welcomed members from Benton County. They were there for their monthly training exercise, and thanks to the leadership at the Y, they were able to do some damage to the building, already slated for demolition, in order to get some hands-on experience.

Suited up in Marine Corps digital cammo with full body armor, ballistic helmets, face guards, sidearms and assault rifles, the group looks more like an assault team about to storm a hideout in some back warren in Pakistan.

It also comes supported by two armored vehicles, each painted olive green. One, a refurbished V-150 armored car, leads some in the community to believe citizens are being confronted with a tank.

Such misconceptions of how and why the SWAT team does business has been at the center of some national controversy about whether or not the police are becoming too militarized. But, as Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley explains, the team is equipped and ready to be used only when necessary, and to assure the upper hand in a dangerous situation where lives are at stake.

"You don't want to go into a fight 50/50," he said. "You want to stay a step ahead. In the old days, with 'Andy Mayberry,' you didn't need a SWAT team. But this is 2017."

SWAT is an acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics. The first such team was formed in Los Angeles in the late 1960s after law enforcement officials realized their departments were unprepared to countermand suspects armed with sniper rifles. Several active shooter incidents had happened in recent years, some tied to the Watts riots in 1965.

The teams have since evolved to resemble military assault units, made possible in part through the Federal 1033 program, which in 1997 authorized civilian police agencies to get surplus military gear. The program came at a time when officers found themselves facing suspects armed with assault rifles while they themselves were still carrying .38- and .40-caliber pistols.

As military equipment evolved, so too did the SWAT teams, but as Riley explains, the team is a weapon that's only deployed under specific circumstances, with its primary mission being to save lives.

And as weapons go, a SWAT team is a pricey one to pull.

"It's several thousand bucks each time we ring that bell," Riley said. He added that his agency alone spends nearly $15,000 annually on training, ammunition and vehicle maintenance, but that each agency shoulders the cost for their team members.

Discretion is also a major part of the SWAT team ethos. It only deploys after certain criteria, set by the National Tactical Officers Association, is met. The association provides a matrix, assigning points to a situation based on key factors, such as threat to family and community, and whether or not the suspect is armed or is a violent felon. Only if the situation carries 11 points in the matrix will the team deploy.

The deciding factors to deploy are not unlike an individual officer's decision process on whether to pull his gun, said Detective Capt. Paul Timm, incident commander with the team. He said it deploys on 12 missions each year, most of them warrant service missions, where the team will act as support, just in case anything goes sideways, or perhaps as a polite encouragement for the suspect to cooperate. While each mission is considered high risk, a few involve very real dangers in which training and equipment makes all the difference on how the day will go, and how well the team can protect citizens.

Apart from warrant service missions, most recently the group deployed to an Albany hostage situation on Oct. 17, 2016, when Gerald Armand Thompson, 62, of Eugene, armed with a handgun, entered Santiam Liquor at 2530 Pacific Blvd. SE and held at least two people before shooting himself. The team secured the scene and evacuated the block, ultimately deploying a camera-equipped, wheeled robot to confirm Thompson was deceased.

"We're here to serve the public," said Lt. Jeff Schrader, the SWAT team commander. "When the V-150 rolls up on your house, unless you're the bad guy, that's a good day for you."

Schader explained how the armored car can and has been used as a "hard space," providing cover for team members during a mission.

The V-150, as well as the other armored vehicle, were acquired through creative means, said Riley. He said they got the old Brinks Security truck in California for only $10, drove it back and then converted and up armored it for SWAT service. The V-150 was free, partly because it had no rear axle. But Riley authorized the team to refurbish the machine, and gives credit to the Linn County Road Department for the rebuild.

"We could not have done it without them," he said.

A lot of the work was also done using Linn County Jail inmate work crew labor.

The grassroots effort to find and rebuild the SWAT vehicles has an added bonus, said Schrader. He cited the Obama administration's efforts in 2015 to roll back the 1033 program, in some cases recalling the equipment sent to law enforcement, but he noted that the team owns the V-150 free and clear.

"So they'd have some trouble getting that one back," he said.

The monthly training exercises can include scenarios involving live actors as suspects, but the Aug. 8 exercise focused on breaching tactics. Hence, the window-smashing and door-blasting. The goal behind smashing out the window, said Schader, is to deny a suspect a sense of security.

"When we knock out that window it gets their attention," he said. "It takes away their safety zone."

Team members also deployed a device known as a flash bang, which, as the name describes, fills a room with a non-lethal blinding flash and a deafening bang, creating a couple seconds of chaos and disorientation, allowing team members to swarm and overcome the suspect. When it goes off, the concussion from the flash bang sends a thud through the room that seems to bounce off a person's chest, and even with earplugs in, the blast is rattlingly loud. But Deputy Josh Moyes said he gets frustrated when some in the media call it a grenade.

"It is not a grenade," he said. "It's designed to startle and disorient, where grenades are designed for the military to kill enemies and clear a room."

To qualify for the SWAT team, each officer must receive a recommendation from their agency, pass a rigorous physical fitness test, qualify on the pistol and rifle range, and pass an oral board review. Each member is also a serving officer, ready to deploy when called. Along with the breaching teams, SWAT members also include hostage negotiators and combat-trained medics.
The Benton County Historical Society soon will have a new museum in downtown Corvallis for residents and tourists to visit and enjoy. We are indeed fortunate to live in an area where citizens understand the value of a museum's role in learning about history and culture and the knowledge it brings to help us grow and thrive in countless ways.

The need for a larger museum building is due to the collection's size, which has more than doubled since the society took ownership of the Horner Collection from Oregon State University in 2008. The new museum will comprise nearly 19,000 square feet of space and will feature four galleries for exhibitions.

The Philomath College Building (the largest artifact in the collection) cannot be expanded due to its historic status in the National Register of Historic Places, but changes can be made inside this beautiful old building that will improve service for visitors. Perhaps the most notable change will be to the research library, now located in a small corner room. It will expand over most of the main floor, providing much-needed space for research and study, as the society holds large collections of historic photographs, manuscripts and other printed materials available to the public. The Moreland Gallery, located on the second floor, will continue to showcase exhibitions.

To date, $7.5 million has been raised and an additional $2 million is needed to complete the project. Please contact the Benton County Historical Society at 541-929-6230 or bentoncountymuseum.org if you would like to contribute and support this great cause.

Rod Harvey

Philomath (Aug. 4)

The writer is co-chair of the museum's capital campaign.
Peugeot 806: geraumiger Eurovan

Foto: dpa

Im Jahr 1994 brachte Peugeot den 806 auf den Markt, der mit den baugleichen Modellen Citroen Evasion, Fiat Ulysse und Lancia Zeta den Namen Eurovan tragt. Der Peugeot-Van empfiehlt sich fur den Transport groerer Familien: Er lasst sich auf bis zu acht Sitzplatze erweitern, alle Passagiere sind dabei kommod untergebracht, so die Sachverstandigen-Organisation Dekra in Stuttgart.

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Wer allerdings auch die dritte Reihe benotigt, muss - wie auch bei den meisten anderen Vans - einen verhaltnismaig kleinen Laderaum in Kauf nehmen. Das Fassungsvermogen geht dann auf Kompaktwagenformat (340 Liter) zuruck.

Als Lieferwagen fasst der groe Peugeot laut Dekra hingegen bis zu 3,3 Kubikmeter Ladung. Praktisch seien die beiden groen Schiebeturen, die im hinteren Bereich den Einstieg und das Beladen erleichtern. Auch voll beladen - das Limit liegt bei den meisten Ausfuhrungen bei etwa 700 Kilogramm - liege der Van jederzeit sicher auf der Strae, federe gut ab und halte konsequent die Spur.

Die Ausstattung des Peugeot sei gut, so die Dekra. Die neueren Modelle verfugen meist serienmaig uber ABS, Klimaanlage und Zentralverriegelung. Als Antrieb dienten zunachst Zweiliter-Otto-Motoren mit 121 beziehungsweise 147 PS, alternativ gab es einen 1,9-Liter-Diesel mit 90 PS und einen 2,1-Liter-Vierzylinder mit 109 PS. Nach dem Facelift im Jahr 1999 kamen moderne Aggregate ins Programm. Hervorzuheben seien vor allem der sparsame Zweiliter-HDI-Diesel mit 109 PS, aber auch die Zweiliter-Benziner mit 121 und im 16V-Motor mit 132 PS.

Bei den Hauptuntersuchungen fallen nach Angaben der Sachverstandigen schon die dreijahrigen 806 durch eine stark erhohte Mangelquote auf. Als besonders haufige Mangel registrierten die Prufer ausgeschlagene Lenkgelenke, Fehler am Motor, ungenugende Wirkung der Feststell- und der Fubremse, wellige Bremsscheiben sowie defekte Ruckleuchten.

Foto: dpa Familienwagen mit guter Ausstattung: Der Peugeot 806. zuruck

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Originally Posted by BubbaJones

My POINT was, for all the finger pointing at Clinton and Obama, Bush essentially doubled down on the Clinton deal. He did so BECAUSE of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those wars had become increasingly unpopular and Bush desperately needed a "win" on the foreign policy front. Your opinion of his neocon credentials is irrelevant.



An opinion shared by many millions.



It's worse than that.



Afghanistan was the Bush War the president did NOT lie U.S. into.



For the Bushies to lose the War they DID lie U.S. into would have compounded the disgrace.



So the Bush administration marched in place on Afghanistan, concentrating their energies on preventing their needless War from becoming a resounding defeat.



The result of course is that Afghanistan is now the longest War in U.S. history, involving 3 different presidential administrations; with no end in sight.



And as predictable as the sunrise, Bush inflicted catastrophic geo-political destabilization across the region.



How bad?



Most of ISIL senior military leadership was composed of former Saddam / Iraq military command.



It was Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld that opted to fire them all; leading to blossoming of the regional caliphate.



All that's not merely a $Trillion $Dollar burden on the U.S.

The refugee burden on our close regional friend Jordan is enormous.



Bush's lie is a mistake that will be paying dividends for generations.
Article

Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
The Linn County Sheriffs Office aided two mountaineers who were summiting Three Fingered Jack and got stuck in extreme fog.

On Sunday at about 5 p.m., Linn County 9-1-1 received a call from Mikayla Jean Duvenik, 21, of Sisters, and her brother, Charles Justin Duvenik of Ashland.

The experienced climbers got disoriented and stuck on a rock face when conditions became foggy, with near zero visibility, according to a news release.

The Duveniks were unable to descend on their own any further.

As Linn County Search and rescue members responded, deputies were able to contact the two several times by phone through the night. The climbers were cold and concerned about hypothermia.

With the assistance of the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, deputies were able to pinpoint the Duveniks' location through their cellphone.

At 11:26 p.m., search and rescue teams located the climbers flashing light. At 1:25 a.m. Monday, Corvallis Mountain Rescue was able to make contact with the Duveniks and worked on getting blankets, food and water to them.

The Sheriff's Office coordinated with the Oregon Army National Guard to airlift Mikayla Duvenik off the mountain with a helicopter, as she may have sustained a shoulder injury. She was evaluated by medics and not transported to the hospital.

At about noon, search and rescue teams were guiding Justin Duvenik, who was uninjured, out of the area on foot.

Eugene Mountain Rescue, Sisters Fire Department and Deschutes County Mounted Posse also assisted with the search efforts.
Founder Of Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo Spotted In A Private Jet In Benin (Photos)

bohlah at 13-08-2017 07:50 PM (5 years ago) (m)

Founder and presiding Bishop of the church, Faith Tabernacle, Bishop David Oyedepo was in Benin for a program hosted by Church of God Mission.

Founder and presiding Bishop of the church, Faith Tabernacle, Bishop David Oyedepo was in Benin for a program hosted by Church of God Mission.





He was pictured in his private jet. He was pictured in his private jet.

Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 13-08-2017 07:50 PM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero

tegonwa at 13-08-2017 08:08 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Enjoy Your Money.Nawaa O! Posted: at 13-08-2017 08:08 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Enjoy Your Money.Nawaa O! Reply

Starnixx at 13-08-2017 09:31 PM (5 years ago)

(m) God is with him Posted: at 13-08-2017 09:31 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac God is with him Reply

deboalabi262 at 14-08-2017 01:39 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Who Jah Blessed, No Man Cursed...... Posted: at 14-08-2017 01:39 AM (5 years ago) | Hero Reply

deboalabi262 at 14-08-2017 01:53 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Who Jah Blessed, No Man Cursed...... Posted: at 14-08-2017 01:53 AM (5 years ago) | Hero Reply

Soundnaija at 14-08-2017 02:22 AM (5 years ago)

(m) nice Posted: at 14-08-2017 02:22 AM (5 years ago) | Newbie nice http://soundnaija.com.ng/download-mp3/audio-lil-kesh-baby-favour-prod-young-john/ Reply

Patrioti at 14-08-2017 05:00 AM (5 years ago)

(m) And the poor church members who contributed for this through tithes and offerings are going to bed with an empty stomach. Posted: at 14-08-2017 05:00 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming And the poor church members who contributed for this through tithes and offerings are going to bed with an empty stomach. Reply

braveman at 14-08-2017 05:10 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: Patrioti on 14-08-2017 05:00 AM And the poor church members who contributed for this through tithes and offerings are going to bed with an empty stomach.



Then why will another man's problem cause you an headache Na them get there money, if you can use yours to phyuk dirty and stinking honeypot of ashawos they love to give there's to God and people at free will Posted: at 14-08-2017 05:10 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Then why will another man's problem cause you an headache Na them get there money, if you can use yours to phyuk dirty and stinking honeypot of ashawos they love to give there's to God and people at free will Reply

WhaleDog at 14-08-2017 05:18 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: Patrioti on 14-08-2017 05:00 AM And the poor church members who contributed for this through tithes and offerings are going to bed with an empty stomach.

] Doee God need money to worship him ? No ! These guys parading themselves as anointed men are evil and outrageously mean and greedy .Imagine him sitting comfortably to attend a national church program not international program,while many of his church members are hanging onto truck without cover to convey them to the venue .Using vulnerable people to live a life opulent .God go punish all of you claiming men of God ! What a nonsense;Government should levy heavy tax on these organization ripping money from Nigerians .Its a business venture and therefore must be levied with 40% income tax .What a society where some undeserved people are allowed to accumulate wealth at the expense of hard working poor people . Spare me Posted: at 14-08-2017 05:18 AM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac ] Doee God need money to worship him ? No ! These guys parading themselves as anointed men are evil and outrageously mean and greedy .Imagine him sitting comfortably to attend a national church program not international program,while many of his church members are hanging onto truck without cover to convey them to the venue .Using vulnerable people to live a life opulent .God go punish all of you claiming men of God ! What a nonsense;Government should levy heavy tax on these organization ripping money from Nigerians .Its a business venture and therefore must be levied with 40% income tax .What a society where some undeserved people are allowed to accumulate wealth at the expense of hard working poor people . Reply

Patode at 14-08-2017 07:30 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Any Country whose main stay in the economy is religion, is a country in decline. If all the churches can go into food production, Nigeria will be able to feed the whole of Africa. The money is there, the manpower is there, like the early missionaries, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food production. When the deportees arrive synagogue church, I would have expected T B Joshua to establish a farm and send them there, instead of giving them money. Posted: at 14-08-2017 07:30 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Any Country whose main stay in the economy is religion, is a country in decline. If all the churches can go into food production, Nigeria will be able to feed the whole of Africa. The money is there, the manpower is there, like the early missionaries, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food production. When the deportees arrive synagogue church, I would have expected T B Joshua to establish a farm and send them there, instead of giving them money. Reply

paulsmit at 14-08-2017 09:25 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: braveman on 14-08-2017 05:10 AM Then why will another man's problem cause you an headache Na them get there money, if you can use yours to phyuk dirty and stinking honeypot of ashawos they love to give there's to God and people at free will



You are as stupid as any animals. What you wrote made me feel that you're an idiot. The truth is that they man is duping and taking advantages of poor people the people that have not and brainwashing them in the name of God, collecting the money they do not have and then used it to buy private Jet and live like a king. This is in sane and all these pastors and churches should abolished.

Posted: at 14-08-2017 09:25 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming You are as stupid as any animals. What you wrote made me feel that you're an idiot. The truth is that they man is duping and taking advantages of poor people the people that have not and brainwashing them in the name of God, collecting the money they do not have and then used it to buy private Jet and live like a king. This is in sane and all these pastors and churches should abolished. Reply

paulsmit at 14-08-2017 09:29 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: braveman on 14-08-2017 05:10 AM Then why will another man's problem cause you an headache Na them get there money, if you can use yours to phyuk dirty and stinking honeypot of ashawos they love to give there's to God and people at free will



You are as stupid as any animals. What you wrote made me feel that you're an idiot. The truth is that this man is duping and taking advantages of poor people the people that have not and brainwashing them in the name of God, collecting the money they do not have and then used it to buy private Jet and live like a king. This is in sane and all these pastors and churches should be abolished. All these pastors as scamming poor people in the name of God in Nigeria. They are all scammers and all belong in secret cult, which they use to hold all their members. Church is a business in Nigeria. Posted: at 14-08-2017 09:29 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming You are as stupid as any animals. What you wrote made me feel that you're an idiot. The truth is that this man is duping and taking advantages of poor people the people that have not and brainwashing them in the name of God, collecting the money they do not have and then used it to buy private Jet and live like a king. This is in sane and all these pastors and churches should be abolished. All these pastors as scamming poor people in the name of God in Nigeria. They are all scammers and all belong in secret cult, which they use to hold all their members. Church is a business in Nigeria. Reply

sensations77 at 14-08-2017 10:18 AM (5 years ago)

(f) From the sister Ex-May grp.

Enenche Comedian blew my mind with this write up : CAPITALISM AND THE CHURCH... THE WAY FORWARD.

TV

There is a work side to prosperity. It is the works of your hand God blesses.



People are in farms planting yams and you are busy sitting in church, when it is harvesting time; don't expect yams to fall from heaven. When it is eating time; people are eating and you are "believing" God for yams.



Faith without work is dead. There should be a corresponding action in line of faith.



When the gospel came to Africa, the missionaries saw two vital areas of deficiencies; hospital and school. They filled these gaps. Today, directly or indirectly, we have all benefited from it.



Today, we have a major problem; unemployment. Instead of filling this gap we are taking advantage of it.



We gather the unemployed and "prophesy" jobs to them. We give them stickers, sell "holy water", tell them to sow and expect harvest, convincing them to "work" for the Lord, that breakthrough is coming... All these we do to exploit and explore the vulnerable.



We travel abroad. We have gone to Isreal and see the agricultural exploits there. But we are not willing to bring them home.



When we sow, instead of our money to be invested into ventures like agriculture that would alleviate the sufferings of the weak ones among us, we channel the money to an atheist in Germany who designed MOG's customised car.



We channel the money to Buddhists in China where we bought our building materials. We channel the money to a gay in America who produced the sound system and lighting system.



We channel the money to a Muslim in Dubai who did the interior decoration of our " magnificent " building...what a Capital Flight!



Why are we crying of poverty and for breakthrough? The God that I know respond to work wherever he sees man doing something to advance humanity, be it a Hindu, Gay, Buddhist, atheist etc.



I don't want to start mentioning names, neither do I want to indict any person. But just imagine Living Faith going to rice production, RCCG going into Cassava production, Christ Embassy into Maize, God's Choosen into Yams, Catholics into millets etc.



The land is there, the man power is there, the money is there, like the missionaries, who saw a problem and filled it, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food security.



Just imagine a church sending hundreds of trailer load of food to evangelise the north. No man can resist love. Feed them in love and watch how their hearts change. That was how the missionaries changed the hearts of our forebears.



The missionaries have tried for us, and instead of us to keep pressing northwards, we have resulted in building empires. We have commercialized the gospel. It is all about breakthrough, money and less Jesus, His Person, His Sacrifice and Finished works.



We have the manpowers to feed Nigeria and Africa, generate employment by adding values to farm produce and exporting them.



We have traveled abroad and have seen great agricultural exploits, it is time to bring these inventions home.



It is time we convert our exotic cars in our garages to tractors and other mechanised and modern agricultural tools. Doing what government cannot do, by do doing this; "THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER ".



When we roar, the government is supposed to quiver, not because of our large bank accounts, but because of our intimidating exploits.



It is time to wake-up... I see a day when we shall be holding our numerous church services in farms and factories. It is time to take the government upon His shoulder. It is action time!



A mere comedian has spoken! Posted: at 14-08-2017 10:18 AM (5 years ago) | Newbie From the sister Ex-May grp.Enenche Comedian blew my mind with this write up : CAPITALISM AND THE CHURCH... THE WAY FORWARD.TVThere is a work side to prosperity. It is the works of your hand God blesses.People are in farms planting yams and you are busy sitting in church, when it is harvesting time; don't expect yams to fall from heaven. When it is eating time; people are eating and you are "believing" God for yams.Faith without work is dead. There should be a corresponding action in line of faith.When the gospel came to Africa, the missionaries saw two vital areas of deficiencies; hospital and school. They filled these gaps. Today, directly or indirectly, we have all benefited from it.Today, we have a major problem; unemployment. Instead of filling this gap we are taking advantage of it.We gather the unemployed and "prophesy" jobs to them. We give them stickers, sell "holy water", tell them to sow and expect harvest, convincing them to "work" for the Lord, that breakthrough is coming... All these we do to exploit and explore the vulnerable.We travel abroad. We have gone to Isreal and see the agricultural exploits there. But we are not willing to bring them home.When we sow, instead of our money to be invested into ventures like agriculture that would alleviate the sufferings of the weak ones among us, we channel the money to an atheist in Germany who designed MOG's customised car.We channel the money to Buddhists in China where we bought our building materials. We channel the money to a gay in America who produced the sound system and lighting system.We channel the money to a Muslim in Dubai who did the interior decoration of our " magnificent " building...what a Capital Flight!Why are we crying of poverty and for breakthrough? The God that I know respond to work wherever he sees man doing something to advance humanity, be it a Hindu, Gay, Buddhist, atheist etc.I don't want to start mentioning names, neither do I want to indict any person. But just imagine Living Faith going to rice production, RCCG going into Cassava production, Christ Embassy into Maize, God's Choosen into Yams, Catholics into millets etc.The land is there, the man power is there, the money is there, like the missionaries, who saw a problem and filled it, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food security.Just imagine a church sending hundreds of trailer load of food to evangelise the north. No man can resist love. Feed them in love and watch how their hearts change. That was how the missionaries changed the hearts of our forebears.The missionaries have tried for us, and instead of us to keep pressing northwards, we have resulted in building empires. We have commercialized the gospel. It is all about breakthrough, money and less Jesus, His Person, His Sacrifice and Finished works.We have the manpowers to feed Nigeria and Africa, generate employment by adding values to farm produce and exporting them.We have traveled abroad and have seen great agricultural exploits, it is time to bring these inventions home.It is time we convert our exotic cars in our garages to tractors and other mechanised and modern agricultural tools. Doing what government cannot do, by do doing this; "THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER ".When we roar, the government is supposed to quiver, not because of our large bank accounts, but because of our intimidating exploits.It is time to wake-up... I see a day when we shall be holding our numerous church services in farms and factories. It is time to take the government upon His shoulder. It is action time!A mere comedian has spoken! Reply

ruthie at 14-08-2017 12:33 PM (5 years ago)

(f) RIDE ON SIR....NOTHING WRONG HERE..IF U DONT LIKE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING...GO N JUMP IN THE LAGOON..HATERS EVERYWHERE Posted: at 14-08-2017 12:33 PM (5 years ago) | Hero RIDE ON SIR....NOTHING WRONG HERE..IF U DONT LIKE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING...GO N JUMP IN THE LAGOON..HATERS EVERYWHERE Reply

abati666 at 23-11-2017 10:27 AM (4 years ago)

(m) MY FELLOW NIGERIANS......



I DO NOT BLAME OYEDEPO FOR LAUGHING......



I DO BLAME THE SHEEPLE WHO DONATE THEIR LAST PENNY TO HIS MISSION.....



GOD HAS NO RELIGION...... Posted: at 23-11-2017 10:27 AM (4 years ago) | Gistmaniac MY FELLOW NIGERIANS......I DO NOT BLAME OYEDEPO FOR LAUGHING......I DO BLAME THE SHEEPLE WHO DONATE THEIR LAST PENNY TO HIS MISSION.....GOD HAS NO RELIGION...... Reply
kacylee at 14-08-2017 08:01 AM (5 years ago) (f)

The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, on Sunday warned the federal government that re-arresting pro-Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, could lead to crisis in the country.

The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, on Sunday warned the federal government that re-arresting pro-Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, could lead to crisis in the country.

Kanu, leader of another pro-Biafran group, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was arrested and detained by the federal government for alleged treason in 2015. He was granted bail earlier this year with stringent conditions.



The court ordered that he should not be seen in a crowd of more than 10 persons and he must not address press conference or interviews.



But some northern youths and groups have called for his arrest for flouting the order.



Responding, MASSOB, in a statement by factional leader, Uchenna Madu, warned that if Mr Kanu is re-arrested, the country may not recover from the crisis such action will generate. MASSOB warns that any attempts or plan to re arrest Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will be thoroughly and massively resisted. We can never tolerate it. It is an insult and embarrassment to our inalienable Rights. We shall collapse Nigeria if he is arrested.



Now that we know that our consistency and exposure of the hidden truths is dangerously frustrating, disorganising and killing their age long agendas against the people of Biafra, we shall never relent or surrender, Madu stated. Kanu, leader of another pro-Biafran group, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was arrested and detained by the federal government for alleged treason in 2015. He was granted bail earlier this year with stringent conditions.The court ordered that he should not be seen in a crowd of more than 10 persons and he must not address press conference or interviews.But some northern youths and groups have called for his arrest for flouting the order.Responding, MASSOB, in a statement by factional leader, Uchenna Madu, warned that if Mr Kanu is re-arrested, the country may not recover from the crisis such action will generate. MASSOB warns that any attempts or plan to re arrest Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will be thoroughly and massively resisted. We can never tolerate it. It is an insult and embarrassment to our inalienable Rights. We shall collapse Nigeria if he is arrested.Now that we know that our consistency and exposure of the hidden truths is dangerously frustrating, disorganising and killing their age long agendas against the people of Biafra, we shall never relent or surrender, Madu stated.

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 14-08-2017 08:01 AM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero
Officials Provide Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 13, 2017 -- U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 26 strikes consisting of 32 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 19 strikes consisting of 23 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Shadaddi, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two vehicles and an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Raqqa, 15 strikes engaged 14 ISIS tactical units and destroyed three command-and-control nodes, two ISIS headquarters, an ISIS unmanned aerial system launch site and a vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of nine engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Qaim, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Bashir, a strike destroyed five pieces of ISIS oil equipment.

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS staging area.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed three ISIS-held buildings and a tunnel.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike suppressed a mortar team.

-- Near Tuz, a strike destroyed an ISIS excavator and a supply cache.

Aug. 11 Strikes

Additionally, 12 strikes consisting of 16 engagements were conducted in Syria and Iraq on Aug. 11 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, 11 strikes engaged nine ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven improvised bombs, six ISIS communication lines, three fighting positions, a vehicle and a tactical vehicle.

-- Near Tal Afar, Iraq, a strike suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

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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Experts guided a group of photographers Saturday at Oregon State University in building solar filters to attach to their cameras, telescopes and binoculars on the day of the eclipse.

Just as eclipse viewers must wear glasses while watching the partial phases of the eclipse to protect from solar retinal damage, camera lenses must also be protected.

You cannot look through a camera at the sun with your naked eye, said Dr. Randall Milstein, Oregon Space Grant Consortium astronomer-in-residence, who led the filter-making demonstration. And you also cannot look at the sun through your camera with a pair of solar glasses on.

The camera will magnify the suns light, burn through your glasses and cause eye damage, he said. Instead, the camera lens should be covered with a Mylar film during the duration of the eclipse. The only time the filter should be taken off is during totality, or when the moon is completely covering the suns bright face.

Eye damage caused from looking directly at the sun during the eclipse could be permanent, ophthalmologists say.

In Corvallis, the eclipse will take place from about 9:04 a.m. to 11:37 a.m. Totality will be at approximately 10:16 a.m. and will last about one minute and 40 seconds.

Saturdays filter-making lesson was the seventh and final such session put on by OSU, Milstein said. He said he and his fellow photographers and astronomers are focusing on safety, first and foremost.

They warned attendees of fake, uncertified eclipse glasses being sold online. Certified solar eclipse glasses will bear a tiny picture of a globe with the letters "ISO" inside, the initials CE and a statement that says the glasses meet the requirements for ISO 12312-2.

Astrophotographer Tom Carrico also offered advice on how to successfully photograph the eclipse. He suggested that photographers use tripods and remote clickers. Without a remote, a photographer might bump the camera while taking a photo, upsetting the frame. He also offered advice on what ISO, aperture and shutter speed to use and how to capture the suns corona and its prominences.

Carrico said photographers should practice ahead of Aug. 21 so theyre prepared to set up their camera on a tripod and program it to take photos during the eclipse, while making only minor adjustments as the sun moves through the sky. This way they can enjoy the eclipse rather than fuss with their camera.

But, Carrico warned photographers not to become overwhelmed with capturing the eclipse. For those who have never seen an eclipse, Milstein recommended not taking pictures at all.

Enjoy the eclipse, he said. Its the most beautiful shared experience and beautiful natural phenomenon in the world. Dont spend it looking through a piece of electronic equipment. Share it with those around you.
Dunford to Visit China, South Korea, Japan to Discuss Range of Issues

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Aug. 13, 2017  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is traveling to Asia to reassure allies and improve military-to-military ties during a complicated time in the region.

Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford will visit South Korea, China and Japan. North Korea, Dunford said, will be a big topic of discussion when he meets with leaders in all three countries.

The general stopped in Hawaii on his way to consult with Navy Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the commander of U.S. Pacific Command.

"Effective military-to-military relations are important for our allies -- we have to have transparency in our planning efforts -- and we need to have effective military-to-military relations with China so there is no miscalculation," Dunford said during an interview with reporters traveling with him. "During this trip I will work to improve our already strong military-to-military relationships in Seoul and Tokyo and to continue to develop the relationship I have had with [Chinese] General Fang Fenghui since our first conversation 16 months ago."

North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4, and duplicated the feat on July 28.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has tied his nation to the development of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them despite worldwide condemnation and repeated calls to "denuclearize" the Korean Peninsula. Most recently, the United Nations unanimously voted to impose tough economic sanctions against North Korea. China -- North Korea's ally -- also voted to impose the sanctions. U.S. Pacific Command officials said they believe China voting for the sanctions indicates the Chinese could be losing patience with North Korea.

Diplomatic, Economic Pressure

Dunford's trip is in support to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's diplomatic and economic campaign to deter North Korea. Success in that campaign would be a North Korean commitment to denuclearization and a halt of missile tests, officials said.

North Korea first tested a nuclear weapon in 2006 and its most recent test was September 2016. On the missile side, North Korea has conducted 17 launches this past year.

Dunford believes that a conflict on the Korean Peninsula would be horrible, but that does not mean there are not military options.

"No one is more reluctant to go to war than those of us who represent the men and women who actually have to pay that sacrifice," the chairman said. "[We're] also mindful of the civilian sacrifice that could occur in a war."

The general believes all nations want to resolve the situation peacefully.

"As a military leader I have to make sure that the president does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails," Dunford said. "But even as we develop those options, we are mindful of the consequences of those options, and that gives us a greater sense of urgency to make sure we are doing everything we absolutely can to support Secretary Tillerson's path."

U.S.-South Korean-Japanese Partnership

In Seoul, Dunford said he'll assure South Korean leaders of America's ironclad commitment. He said he'll speak with his South Korean counterpart about other mutual issues of concern including military planning, and capabilities on the peninsula.

"When I go to Beijing, my primary objective will be to continue to develop our military-to-military relationships, to mitigate the risk of miscalculation in the region and to have cooperation where those opportunities exist," the general said.

Most of the interactions between U.S. and Chinese military forces are professional and courteous, said a senior Pacific Command official speaking on background. However, the official added, U.S. and Chinese military leaders what to minimize the possibility of a miscalculation by either side.

During his stop in Tokyo, Dunford said he'll reassure a close, treaty ally of America's ironclad commitment.

"I think it is important as I go over there that the president has already outlined what the policy is, and one of the things he said is there has to be a credible military option in the event the diplomatic and economic campaign to denuclearize the peninsula fails," the general said.

Dunford said the U.S. military will continue to examine plans to ensure the president has options.

"In the meantime, our focus militarily is to support Secretary Tillerson's diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign," he said.

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Boko Haram militants kill four , torch homes in northeastern Nigeria village

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 5:59PM

The Takfiri Boko Haram terrorists have killed four people and torched homes in a nighttime raid on a village in northeastern Nigeria.

Local sources said on Sunday that Boko Haram terrorists stormed Amarwa village, which lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

Ibrahim Liman, a leader of a local militia fighting Boko Haram, confirmed that the terrorists shot indiscriminately at villagers in the raid late Saturday.

"Two were shot dead and the other two choked to death in the fire the attackers set to houses," media outlets quoted Liman as saying.

A local chief, who did not want to be named, told AFP that the attack in Amarwa, Konduga district, started about 11 p.m. (2200 GMT) and continued past midnight.

"We have so far recovered four bodies, two of them with bullet wounds," said the local chief, adding, "We lost our homes and food stocks in the fire."

Amarwa also came under attack in May, when Boko Haram terrorists on motorbikes killed six farmers outside the village as they prepared for the planting season.

In recent weeks, a number of bomb attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram have taken place in the capital of Borno state and its environs. Mosques, markets, camps for those displaced by the conflict in Nigeria and civilians have been targeted across the region.

In December 2016, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, announced that the army had "crushed" the terror group by retaking its last key bastion, deep inside the thick Sambisa Forest in Borno.

The group has, however, resorted to sporadic shooting attacks and bombings in the northeast of the African country, spreading panic among local residents.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly terrorist attacks in Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far claimed the lives of at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.7 million people displaced.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by the Boko Haram militancy face a humanitarian crisis.

Back in February 2016, four countries of the Lake Chad Basin, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, launched a campaign, together with a contingent from Benin, to confront the threat from Boko Haram in the region.

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Kenya's Odinga vows more action on vote result

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 3:11PM

The loser in recent presidential elections in Kenya Raila Odinga has vowed he would not remain silent in the face of what he describes as rigged vote results and says supporters should skip work until he makes a major announcement on more anti-government actions.

Odinga told a heaving crowd of supporters in Nairobi on Sunday that he will not give up his claims that the presidential elections on August 8 was rigged in favor of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, saying he would announce his strategy for more actions on Tuesday.

"We had predicted they will steal the election and that's what happened. We are not done yet. We will not give up. Wait for the next course of action which I will announce the day after tomorrow," he said in an address to people in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum which has seen widespread clashes between opposition supporters and police forces since Kenyatta was announced the victor Friday.

Odinga said the supporters would better stay away from work at least for Monday until he makes his announcement.

"But for now I want to tell you not to go to work tomorrow (Monday)," he said.

The opposition leader, which has lost two previous attempts to become president, condemned police for what he branded as indiscriminate killing of opposition supporters during post-election unrest.

"This is a failed regime that is resorting to killing people instead of addressing the real issue. The vote was stolen. There's no secret about that," he said, adding that there was "a plot to kill our supporters".

Reports have indicated that 24 people have been killed since the election. The government has put the toll at 16. Most of the casualties have been reported in Kibera, Mathare, another Nairobi slum, and in Odinga's strongholds in western Kenya. Police has repeatedly fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the rioters.

Kenya's election commission has rejected allegations that the vote was rigged and says its voting process was fair. The international community has called on Odinga to calm his protesters and seek legal channels to prove his allegations.

The post-election riots are reminiscent of violence that erupted in 2007 following another disputed presidential vote involving Odinga. More than 1,000 people were killed in that episode of unrest, heavily tarnishing the image of Kenya as one of Africa's most prosperous economies.

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Lebanese Hezbollah leader says Israel not able to wage new war on Lebanon

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 2:59PM

The Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement says Israel is not able to launch a new war on Lebanon, because it knows that Hezbollah is much more powerful than 2006 and any such war would cost Tel Aviv dearly.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a speech on the anniversary of Israel's defeat in the 33-day military onslaught against Lebanon back in the summer of 2006.

During his speech, Nasrallah noted that the main reason behind the victory of Hezbollah fighters in the war with Israel was their patience, steadfastness, valor and faith.

Stressing the rise in Hezbollah's power since the war in 2006, Nasrallah noted that the resistance group is ready to counter any further act of aggression, warning that in case of new Israeli aggression, Israel will face a 100 times tougher response than the one its forces saw during the 2006 war.

Nasrallah added that Israeli analysts were still analyzing the results of that war, because it destroyed their self-confidence and they have admitted to their defeat in the summer war in 2006.

Everything that Israelis say about the power of Hezbollah is because of their defeat in summer 2006 war, Nasrallah said.

The Hezbollah chief stated that Israelis wanted to destroy Hezbollah, but after 11 years, they say Hezbollah has become stronger and more powerful and this shows that they have failed to achieve the goals they pursued through 2006 war.

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah explained that Hezbollah only fights outside the Lebanese borders and will not use force in domestic developments of the country.

He added that in return for its victories, Hezbollah does not seek personal, party, or tribal interests, noting that today, the resistance movement is more powerful than ever and the enemy has reached the conclusion that any new aggression against Lebanon will be very costly.

Rejecting any chance of a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon, Nasrallah noted that the time of toying with Lebanon is over and Israelis themselves have owned up to the high cost of such a war and have said that war with Lebanon should not take place.

They wanted to crush the resistance in 2006 war, but they failed to achieve this goal, Nasrallah said.

The Hezbollah chief added that not only Israel, but all those parties which seek to crush Hezbollah at the present time will fail to achieve this goal.

Nasrallah said that due to its inability to wage new war on Lebanon, Israel wants to collectively punish the entire Lebanese nation, and it is putting high pressure on the administration of US President Donald Trump, but they will fail to achieve anything as in the past.

About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, lost their lives during Israel's 33-day war on Lebanon back in the summer of 2006.

According to the 629-page Winograd Report by the Israeli regime itself, Hezbollah fighters involved in defending Lebanon against the Israeli war defeated the enemy and Tel Aviv was compelled to withdraw without having achieved any of its objectives.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the 2006 war, calls on Israel to respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar television network on Jul 14, head of Hezbollah's Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine stated that the resistance movement will "surprise" Israel in any future war, relying on its enhanced military capabilities.

Safieddine stressed that Hezbollah has been changing and developing new military capabilities, and Israeli reports on Hezbollah's weaponry are "inaccurate as the enemy intelligence agencies can never reach veracious data in this context."

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US military says airstrike has killed senior Daesh terrorists in Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 1:21PM

Several senior members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have been killed in a US airstrike in eastern Afghanistan.

General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said on Sunday that the air raid had been carried out against hideouts of the terrorists in the northeastern province of Kunar on Thursday.

The strike also killed Abdul Rahman, claimed to have been a provincial leader of Daesh in Afghanistan, which is known as ISIS-Khorasan Province.

Nicholson identified Rahman as the so-called provincial emir of Daesh in Kunar and said he had been a "primary candidate" to succeed Abu Sayed following his death. Abu Sayed was reportedly killed in a strike on his base in Kunar in July.

"The death of Abdul Rahman deals yet another blow to the senior leadership of ISIS-K," Nicholson said in a statement, adding, "He found out just like those before him that there are no safe havens in Afghanistan. We will hunt them down until they are no longer a threat to the Afghan people and the region."

According to the statement, three other Daesh terrorists were among those killed in the strike in Darah-Ye Pech district.

In April, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in the American arsenal on an area of eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, known to be populated by Daesh terrorists, according to the US Defense Department.

Afghanistan is still suffering from insecurity and violence years after the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. The military invasion removed the Taliban from power, but militancy continues to this day.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in US history with a cost of about $1 trillion. More than 2,400 Americans have died and another 20,000 have been wounded in the country since the invasion in 2001.

US President Donald Trump has been skeptical about the campaign in Afghanistan. US officials have said that Trump's doubts about the war have led to a delay in completing a new strategy in the war-torn country.

Daesh, which is mainly concentrated in Iraq and Syria, has been sustaining heavy losses in battles with national armies and allied forces in those countries in the past months.

The Takfiri group emerged in Afghanistan in early 2015 and has claimed responsibility for some deadly attacks in the country.

Earlier this month, Daesh claimed an attack on a mosque in Afghanistan's western city of Herat that killed 33 worshippers.

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Five killed in Kashmir clashes

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 9:10AM

Armed clashes in Indian-controlled Kashmir have left three militants and two Indian forces dead.

A fierce firefight broke out after hundreds of Indian forces surrounded Awneera, a village about 50 kilometers south of the main city of Srinagar, on Saturday following a tip-off about armed militants in the area.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the militants were identified as locals.

As news of the militants' deaths spread, hundreds of residents from neighboring villages took to the streets in protest, throwing stones at soldiers and chanting slogans against Indian rule.

In a separate incident early on Sunday, militants fired at an army convoy in the northern area of Hajin and injured two police officers and a soldier, the same police officer said.

On Saturday, a civilian and a soldier were killed in an exchange of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani forces along the border Line of Contact (LOC), which divides Kashmir between the two rivaling nuclear-armed neighbors.

The Himalayan territory has been divided between India and Pakistan since their partition and the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

Both countries claim the territory in full but control only parts of it. They have fought three wars over the region.

India has deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to maintain security in the Muslim-majority region, where people oppose Indian rule.

Militant forces, backed by the locals, have fought in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the clashes.

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Opposition claims 100 killed in Kenya post-election unrest

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 6:20AM

A member of Kenya's opposition has claimed that 100 people have been killed in the ongoing post-election violence in the country.

James Orengo, from the opposition coalition National Super Alliance (NASA), said on Saturday that 100 people had died during violence that erupted after Uhuru Kenyatta was on Friday declared the winner of the presidential election.

The 55-year-old Kenyatta has been in office since 2013, and the opposition says the election, which was held on Tuesday, was rigged to give him a second five-year term in office.

Orengo claimed that it had all been pre-planned.

"This state terror is being executed following a very meticulous preparation," he said. "They knew they would steal an election, so all the instruments were put in place."

Orengo did not specify the source of the death toll he offered, and government officials have denied that any deaths have occurred.

Media reports have cited eyewitnesses as saying that fatalities have happened, but they have put the toll at much lower. A Reuters report said 11 people had died.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission said it had registered 24 deaths since the Tuesday election, most of them in the capital, Nairobi.

Interior Minister Fred Matiang'i said police had not used live bullets against "peaceful protesters," but described some of the protesters as "opportunistic criminals and looters" who had to be "dealt with."

Amnesty International has called on Kenyan authorities to investigate the reported deaths.

Amnesty said it had received credible reports that three people had been shot in the protests.

"Everyone has a right to peaceful protest and they must not be hurt, injured, or killed for exercising that right," Muthoni Wanyeki, the group's regional director for East Africa, said in a statement.

AU praises Kenya as Africa's role-model

Meanwhile, the African Union (AU) has commended Kenya for what it has described as a smooth presidential election.

"The Africa Union wishes to congratulate the people of Kenya for this demonstration of the maturity of their democracy," said Ebba Kalondo, a spokesperson for the Africa Union Commission (AUC), on Friday.

Kalondo described the Kenyan nation as a role model for other African states.

"We think that Kenya is an example to the continent by this display of faith in their own systems, in the constitution and the electoral law that brought about this process," he said.

The AU spokesperson added that electoral disputes had to be addressed through legal channels. "If there is any dispute, we feel that the laws in place and the institutions in Kenya are strong and robust and can deal with such disputes."

Kenya's electoral commission announced that Kenyatta had won 54.27 percent of the votes and that his 72-year-old rival, opposition leader Raila Odinga, had secured 44.74 percent of the ballots.

Post-election violence in Kenya in 2007 and 2008 left some 1,200 people dead.

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US to experience '15 Vietnams' in potential war with Venezuela: FM

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 5:52AM

The Venezuelan foreign minister says the United States, which has threatened Venezuela with military action, would experience 15 times as many difficulties as it suffered in the Vietnam War.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering "many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary," to solve the ongoing domestic political crisis in the Latin American country.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza suggested on Saturday that the US would deeply regret any such action.

"Threatening our country, our people, our Latin America, our Caribbean, with a military intervention, is not only unprecedented and unusual, but deeply hostile, disrespectful, condemnable, abject," Arreaza said.

The US would experience "15 Vietnams" if it were to wage war on Venezuela, he warned.

Latin America behind Venezuela

Also on Saturday, Latin American countries often critical of Venezuela rejected the US's threat to use force against the conflict-hit country.

"The only acceptable means of promoting democracy are dialog and diplomacy," the South American trade bloc Mercosur said in a statement on Saturday.

The bloc, which consists of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, added, "The repudiation of violence and any option that implies the use of force is inalienable and constitutes the fundamental basis for democratic coexistence."

Other South American countries, such as Peru, Mexico, and Colombia, also joined the chorus of Latin American unity against the US with statements of their own, criticizing Washington's threat of military action against Caracas as a move against the United Nations' principles.

Senior Venezuelan officials have also responded to Trump's threat. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino denounced the threat as "an act of craziness," and Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas described it as "an unprecedented threat to national sovereignty."

Also, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has rejected the threat as "hostile," and called on Latin America to unite against Washington.

"The reckless threat by President Trump aims to drag Latin America and the Caribbean into a conflict that would permanently alter stability, peace, and security in our region," he said.

Trump's threat came as the oil-rich but impoverished country has been convulsed by months of deadly protests against the government in Caracas.

While some of the Latin American countries that rejected the use of force against Venezuela have been critical of Caracas, Trump's threat seemed to have been an escalation that warranted a rare moment of unity with the Venezuelan government. They did not, however, offer any explicit support for Caracas beyond rejecting the American threat of force.

Political tensions in Venezuela rose recently after Caracas announced plans to establish a Constituent Assembly to take over the opposition-controlled parliament and rewrite the constitution. The opposition saw the move as an overt attempt by President Nicolas Maduro to accumulate power.

Protests erupted on the streets, and clashes led to the death of at least 120 people from the two sides.

The elections were held for the 545-member Constituent Assembly according to plan on July 30, and the government said more than eight million people participated.

Maduro, who as president is the head of the Venezuelan state, later "subordinated" himself to the Assembly.

Siding with the opposition, the US has blamed Maduro for the violence and has urged regional and international governments to take strong action against his government. The US imposed sanctions against current and former Venezuelan officials over the crisis, and the US Treasury Department later froze "dictator" Maduro's US assets for going ahead with the elections.

The 54-year-old socialist leader says the US and its allies in the region are inciting the violence to bring down his government.

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US Strike Kills Islamic State's Provincial Leader in Afghanistan

By Noor Zahid August 13, 2017

A provincial leader of the Islamic State militant group in Afghanistan has been killed in a U.S. air strike in eastern Kunar province, Afghan and U.S. military officials confirmed Sunday.

"U.S. and Afghan Forces have confirmed the death of Kunar provincial Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan (ISIS-K) emir, Abdul Rahman," U.S. forces in Afghanistan said in a statement.

Rahman was killed along with three additional senior IS members on Thursday in Kunar's Dara-e-Pech district, the statement added.

Abdul Rahman was a potential candidate to become the IS leader in Afghanistan following Abu Sayed's death in a U.S airstrike last month.

"The death of Abdul Rahman deals yet another blow to the senior leadership of ISIS-K," said General John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "He found out just like those before him that there are no safe havens in Afghanistan."

U.S. and Afghan forces have been engaged in joint- counterterrorism operations against IS in eastern Afghanistan. American and Afghan military forces have promised to eliminate IS in Afghanistan in 2017.

Hundreds of IS fighters, including several senior commanders, have been killed in recent months.

Abu Sayed, the group's top leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a U.S. airstrike last month. Sayed was the second IS leader in the past four months, and third in the past year, to have been targeted and killed. Abdul Hasib, his predecessor, was targeted in a U.S.-Afghan security forces raid in Nangarhar's Achin district in April.

"We will hunt them down until they are no longer a threat to the Afghan people and the region," the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said following the death of Abdul Rahman.

Based in southern parts of eastern Nangarhar province, IS's Khorasan Province branch (ISIS-K) emerged in early 2015 in the mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan to cover Afghanistan, Pakistan and "other nearby territories."

IS in Afghanistan has primarily been active in several districts of eastern Nangarhar province. Since its emergence, the terror group has targeted villages in several districts in the province, killing and abducting hundreds of people and setting their homes on fire.

IS under increasing pressure

Facing large-scale joint-U.S. and Afghan forces operations in Nangarhar, IS militants are trying to expand to mountainous parts of the adjacent Kunar and Nuristan provinces which share a border with Pakistan.

Juma Gul Hemmat, Kunar's police chief, told VOA that the terror group has a presence in at least eight districts in Kunar. "The group runs a training base in the Patash valley, where foreign fighters, including Arabs and Pakistanis train new fighters," Juma Gul Hemmat said.

Police authorities in Nangarhar last week arrested five minors - 10 to 15 years old, who were being transported by IS recruiters from Kunar to a Nangarhar's remote district for training purposes.

Despite the battlefield successes of Afghan and American Special Forces against the Islamic State in Afghanistan, IS has carried out or claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks across the country, sparking fears that the group might be seeking to trigger sectarian conflict in Afghanistan and the greater central Asian region.

IS said its fighters stormed Iraq's embassy in Kabul last month, and the terror group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Shi'ite mosque in western Herat province in early August.

Amongst the dead was the father of Fatima Qaderyan, captain of the Afghan all-girls robotics team that made headlines last month after managing to get U.S visas to participate in the International Robot Olympics for High School Students in Washington D.C.

They were initially denied U.S visas, but following President Trump's personal intervention, they were able to travel to the U.S.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.

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Somali Insurgent Defects

By Harun Maruf August 13, 2017

A senior Somali militant who had been on the run for several years has surrendered to the government, intelligence official tells VOA Somali.

Mukhtar Robow Ali, known as "Abu Mansour," met with government representatives early Sunday morning at his hideout in Abal village in southwest Somalia, and was later taken to the main town of Huddur, a senior regional official told VOA Somali.

Shine Moallim Nurow is the commander of Special Forces in the southwestern regional administration. He led government officials who reached Robow's base in Abal on Saturday.

He said he met him last night in the battle field in Abal where Robow's men and al-Shabab have been fighting for the past few days.

"We have been tasked by the central government and the southwestern regional administration to go there, we met him there and then we agreed with him to come together to Huddur," he said.

"I can confirm to you that he is in Huddur, he is sitting with me now," he said.

According to a senior intelligence official Robow told government officials that he has defected from al-Shabab and wants to work with the Somali government.

Robow was a spokesman, defense chief and deputy leader of al-Shabab. He was one of the few al-Shabab leaders who were trained in Afghanistan.

Asked about how the government is going to treat Robow, Nurow admitted that he has weight.

"Sheikh Mukhtar is not someone who was chased away by al-Shabab, he is someone who fell out with them, defended his line and stood up to them," he said.

"Until now his men are defending his base, if someone defends his position you can feel that he is agreed to come because of talks," he said.

Robow has 400 militias he collected from clan loyalists who still remain in his old base in Abal village, 18km south of Huddur, the official said. It will be the most significant defection from al-Shabab if the government succeeds in in transferring all his men to its side.

Robow is now meeting with senior government officials including defense minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed and other regional officials.

Robow has been fighting against his former al-Shabab colleagues during the past five days in a remote area south of Huddur town. Robow's men repulsed two major al-Shabab attacks since Wednesday. 19 people were killed in the clashes.

On Saturday reinforcement troops sent by the regional administration and the Somali military reached Abal village.

In June the U.S. withdrew a $5 million bounty which was put on Robow's head in 2012.

Robow has served as a spokesman, defense chief and deputy leader for al-Shabab.

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Pence Visits Latin America as Venezuela Crisis Grows

By Mike O'Sullivan August 13, 2017

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence heads Sunday to Latin America for a week-long trip to meet with the leaders of Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama.

Pence has in effect become a "roving ambassador" for the U.S. as the Trump administration has left many top diplomatic posts unfilled. Since April, Pence has visited South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia, attended security meetings in Munich and Brussels, and traveled to Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro.

His Latin American trip comes at a time when the leaders of South and Central American countries may be somewhat distrustful of U.S. policies, following President Donald Trump's recent statement about not ruling out a "military option" for the political crisis in Venezuela.

His first stop Sunday will be with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Colombia 'military option'

Colombia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement shortly after Trump's "military option" warning. The ministry's statement said it condemned any "military measure and the use of force " and that efforts to resolve Venezuela's breakdown in democracy should be peaceful and respect its sovereignty.

Pence will undoubtedly talk to Santos about Trump's statement. He will also likely discuss Colombia's implementation of a controversial peace agreement with the rebel group FARC and the country's efforts to reduce production of coca for cocaine.

Chile

In Chile, Pence will face questions over the sudden U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Chile's U.S. Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes told the VOA Spanish service. "With or without the U.S., we will continue working in the Asia Pacific to push for an agreement that results in clear rules for everyone," Valdes said.

He added that his nation hopes the United States does not follow through on the threat to leave the Paris climate agreement because Chile believes that climate change is real.

China growing trade role in region

U.S. trading partner Panama, home to the Panama Canal, established diplomatic ties with China in June, and Pence's upcoming visit comes against the backdrop of a growing Chinese trade role in the region.

Vice presidents do not determine U.S. policy, and none, "including Mike Pence, is going to be taking ownership of, say, foreign affairs, diplomatic relations," said Christopher Devine, a political scientist at the University of Dayton.

"He's contributing to it," he added, "or at least he should be if he's playing the modern role, and what he's doing is helping the president to carry out his policy."

Vice presidents have been key intermediaries and trusted presidential advisors. Analysts say that although Pence's diplomatic role is conventional so far, he works for a president who has promised to do things differently.

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Top US General Focusing on Diplomacy for N. Korea, but Preparing Military Options

By Carla Babb August 13, 2017

The top U.S. general is on the Korean Peninsula as annual U.S. and South Korean military exercises risk further increasing tensions with North Korea.

U.S .Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford said his visit to the region this week is aimed at reassuring allies South Korea and Japan, while building the military-to-military relationship with China in order to prevent miscalculations.

Meanwhile, senior U.S. national security officials said Sunday a military confrontation with North Korea is not imminent, but the possibility of war has increased.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said on Fox News Sunday North Korea's push to develop a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States, "... is a very serious threat and the administration is going to treat it as such."

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, on ABC's This Week program said "...We are not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago.''

Dunford said the military's "primary focus" is supporting the administration's diplomatic and economic campaign to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, while preparing military options in the event that campaign fails.

"We're all looking to get out of this situation without a war," Dunford said, even as he stressed Pyongyang possessing nuclear weapons that threaten the United States and its regional allies is "unacceptable."

"As a military leader, I've got to make sure that the president does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails," he added.

But some experts do not agree that Pyongyang's acquisition of nuclear weapons is an unacceptable option. Richard Bush, a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, said the Trump administration has "made a big mistake" by determining that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States is something to fight over.

"The bigger danger or focus should be ensuring that North Korea doesn't use those capabilities," Bush told VOA.

Dunford arrived at Osan Air Base plans to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-In and his South Korean military counterpart on Monday before traveling to China and Japan later in the week.

New military exercises to start

Annual exercises between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, dubbed Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, begin later this month. North Korea has always condemned these exercises, and some experts fear these war games could increase hostilities from Pyongyang while irking Beijing, a key influencer of North Korea.

"If you have the current tensions and pile on top of that these exercises, it's going to make for a much worse situation," Joel Wit, who helped negotiate the 1994 U.S.-North Korea nuclear deal that delayed North Korea's nuclear program for almost a decade, told VOA.

A senior official with U.S. Pacific Command, which overseas military activity in the region, said China will almost certainly propose to Dunford that the U.S. and South Korea stop these exercises. However, the Trump administration would not agree to that proposal because it considers the exercises necessary for readiness in the event of an attack, the official added.

In the past, China has been reluctant to deny resources to North Korea in order to pressure Pyongyang to curb its nuclear weapons ambitions. But in the last few weeks, China has appeared to take measures to keep its bad-behaving neighbor in check.

Last week China voted alongside a unanimous U.N. Security Council to impose strict new sanctions on Pyongyang in response to North Korea's launch of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month. Estimates say the new sanctions could cost Pyongyang $1 billion a year.

And on Friday, China's Global Times Newspaper warned that China will not come to North Korea's aid if it launches missiles threatening American soil and would only intervene if the United States strikes North Korea first.

Bruce Bennett, a defense analyst at RAND Corporation, noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping has held eight summit meetings with the South Korean president but none with the young North Korean leader, which he said "clearly suggests" that Xi "thinks Kim Jong Un is a lightweight and really not important."

'Locked and loaded'

The chairman's visit comes just two days after U.S. President Donald Trump warned in a tweet that military solutions were "locked and loaded" should North Korea act unwisely. "Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path," Trump tweeted.

North Korean state media announced the country is drawing up plans to fire missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, as the U.S. military continued preparations for a potential military response.

The United States has carried our several B-1B Lancer strategic bomber jet flights from Guam to the peninsula, with the last one carried out about a week ago. Japanese and South Korean jets have escorted the bombers at times.

The United States also has deployed Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system to South Korea that can shoot down short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Two of the system's six launchers are fully operational, and President Moon has ordered consultations on the possibility of deploying the final four interceptors, which are already in-country. THAAD's ability to take out missile threats has proven 15 for 15 in tests conducted since 2005, when the system began operational testing.

THAAD is also deployed on Guam, along with Aegis ships that have Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) interceptors used to destroy medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

The U.S. homeland is defended from intercontinental ballistic missiles by ground-based interceptors located at Fort Greely, Alaska.

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Iran Parliament firmly approves anti-US bill

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 13, IRNA -- Iranian lawmakers on Sunday overwhelmingly voted to approve a bill aimed at countering Washington's adventurous and terrorist activities in the region.

The bill secured 240 yes votes and one abstention.

A total of 247 lawmakers were present at the parliament session.

The legislation is a reaction to a bill ratified recently in the US Senate allowing Washington to impose non-nuclear sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Government representative Abbas Araqchi was also present in the Majlis session. He described the legislation as wise and said that government of President Rouhani will support it.

'The bill has very wisely tried not to violate the JCPOA and also give no chance to the other party to manipulate it,' Araqchi said.

According to the bill submitted to the Majlis Presiding Board, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Intelligence, as well as the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), the IRGC Quds Force, and the Islamic Republic Army, based on their hierarchy and in coordination with the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, are obliged to, within a period of six months following the ratification of the bill, devise a comprehensive strategic plan to counter the US threats.

The plan should be aimed at addressing the US bullies and threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Washington's hegemonic, terrorist and divisive policies, its illegal military and security interferences in the region, and the US military and intelligence support of terrorism and extremism.

The bill also urges the above-said ministries and military bodies to annually report to the Majlis on the implementation of their plans.

The bill also, with regard to the US overt and covert military and intelligence support for terrorist groups and the confession made by some US officials, including US former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, that the Washington is behind the formation and propping up of Daesh (ISIS), recognizes the US forces in the region, both military and intelligence, as promoters of terrorism.

Therefore, the following entities won't be granted a visa to enter Iran, and they are not going to be allowed to do any transactions at the Iranian banks, while their accounts will be blocked and their properties in Iran will be confiscated:

1. US military and security organizations and their commanders who have provided effective financial, intelligence, military, logistic and training backing for the terrorists in the region, especially those of Daesh and al-Nusra Front.

2. US entities involved in the above-mentioned activities.

3. US entities involved in organizing, financing, leading or committing terrorist actions against Iran.

4. US entities who, directly or indirectly, support the Mujahedin Khalg Organization (MKO) terrorists or similar extremist terrorist groups, such as Daesh and al-Nusra Front, and give them financial, political, cultural, military, and propagandistic aids.

5. US entities who support state terrorism, including the Zionists' regional terrorist activities, targeting the Palestinian people in the Occupied Lands and Lebanon, and those who play a significant role in such activities.

According to article five of the bill, inasmuch as the US government hypocritically and systematically violates the basic human rights in the region and the world, and supports dictatorial and aggressive governments under the cover of economic, scientific, medical, biological and industrial activities, and even act against its own citizens, like what it did to the Branch Davidians [in 1993] and as well as the African Americans, it is subjected to all the above-mentioned punishments.

The bill also allocates a budget of about five billion dollars to reinforcing the country's defensive power, improving deterrent its power, countering terrorism, increasing Iran's diplomatic leverage and intelligence capabilities, safeguarding the regional stability, supporting the IRGC, development of nuclear propellers and boosting Iran's defensive capabilities against possible nuclear attacks.

Fifty percent of the budget earmarked should go to the Staff of the Armed Forces in order to expand missile activities and the other half should be allocated to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Defense.

In order to fight terrorism, the bill also allots 2.5 billion dollars to the IRGC Quds Force.

According to the bill, the Iranian government can provide support for individuals who disclose US illegal actions and violations of human rights by Washington.

The Ministry of Defense is responsible to provide weapons needed to defend the country with the priority given to domestic military hardware, but the ministry can seek help from other countries if necessary, the bill says.

9060**2044

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Iran Majlis passes motion in response to US sanctions

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 9:52AM

Iran's lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a motion in response to recent US sanctions, voting to boost spending on Tehran's missile program and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' defense mechanism.

In a session Sunday, 240 lawmakers voted for the bill, with only one abstention, to confront "America's terrorist and adventurous actions" in the region.

The measure came after President Donald Trump signed into law a bill passed by US Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program in early August.

Washington's new sanctions violate a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran both "in letter and spirit." Tehran says its missile program does not breach a UN resolution which endorsed the nuclear deal.

Devising the Sunday motion, the Parliament took great care not to violate the nuclear accord and provide excuses for opposing sides, spokesman for Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said.

The plan would require Iran's government and armed forces to draw up a strategy to counter US violations of human rights around the world, and to support Iranian bodies and individuals affected by US sanctions.

The measure would also allocate over $260 million each to Iran's ballistic missile program and the Quds Force - the external arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), which has sent military advisers to Iraq and Syria to fight terrorists.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is the head of an Iranian commission tasked with monitoring the agreement's implementation, told MPs that the government backed the bill which he described as "very strong."

He said Iran has many devices at its disposal apart from the nuclear agreement to confront the United States.

The motion was designed in view of continued bellicose policies of the US towards Iran, and its persisting measures aimed at endangering peace and security in the region, it said.

It also took into account America's enmity towards the Iranian government and people and their interests through supporting terrorism and violent extremism, as well as taking adventurous actions, creating divisions, and stoking sectarianism.

The bill tasks Foreign, Intelligence, and Defense Ministries, Iran's Army, and its Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and its Quds Force to produce a comprehensive strategy aimed at countering US threats.

It considers the entirety of the US military forces and intelligence operatives in the region to be supporters of regional terrorist groups, and subject to punitive measures.

The blacklisted individuals will be denied Iranian visas, their assets will be frozen by Iran's Judiciary, and their bank accounts blocked by its Ministry of Economy.

A parliamentary committee is also tasked with monitoring US government and congressional moves and and proposing appropriate reciprocal measures to the Parliament.

To counter US economic sanctions, the government has been ordered to provide a comprehensive plan on expanding economic cooperation with world countries, especially Iran's neighbors and friends as well as countries which have likewise been subject to Washington's embargoes.

The government must also use all available international capacities, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, to take action against the US over its human rights violations, "like its crimes against humanity in Yemen."

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Iran's Defense Ministry to continue missile activities: General

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:49AM

Brigadier General Amir Hatami, who has been nominated as defense minister in President Hassan Rouhani's new cabinet, has vowed to continue boosting Iran's missile program.

Briefing a group of lawmakers on his future plans on Saturday, Hatami said that the current situation is special as the enemies have imposed sanctions on Iran's military field in a bid to weaken it.

"The enemy is stationed in the region, bringing weapons to the region and trying to damage the country's defensive might, but we have set objectives in our plan to counter the move," he added.

The Iranian general also hailed achievements made in both missile and defense industry sectors and stressed that this trend should continue.

He further noted that all the Islamic Republic's capabilities should be used to provide permanent deterrence as well as defensive power and help people live in absolute peace and security.

"The president has issued a strict written order for reinforcing the country's defensive might while Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] also has clear plans in that regard," he said.

"Given these circumstances, we do not look to anybody's permission for reinforcing the country's defensive power," he pointed out.

'Not enough space for missiles'

Also on Saturday, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said in a live TV program that "the rate of our missile production is so high that we are faced with the problem of space" for storing them.

The military commander ruled out the possibility of a new war in the region as well as calls in the US for inspection of Iran's military sites.

"The Americans lack the power to launch a new war," Salami said, adding "access to our military facilities is one of the dreams that the Americans will take to the grave."

He also touched on recent confrontations between Iranian naval boats and US military vessels in the Persian Gulf, saying American claims of "harassment" by Iran's patrols are a "psychological ruse."

"We defend our territorial integrity with all our power and our intelligence systems observe the presence of any foreign vessel anywhere. If Americans think that we are to stop these activities, they are completely mistaken and it is better for them not to belittle themselves," he said.

"If something happens in the Persian Gulf, the security of the world's energy will be affected in a big way. However, they (the Americans) are partly aware of our military capability, while they know nothing about its invisible part," Salami said.

"A war in the Persian Gulf would be a fluid one that would move far beyond the imagination of the Americans and engage all the areas bearing their interests; it would be drawn toward the Zionist regime and its destruction," he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Salami described the Daesh terrorist group a joint product of the US, Britain, Israel and their regional allies.

"Soon, with enormous struggles which are being made, the star of Daesh will be on the wane and their remnants will be purged. However, their harm to Islam has been immense," he said.

On June 7, Daesh gunmen mounted assaults on Iran's Parliament and the Mausoleum of late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini, leaving 18 people dead and over 50 others wounded.

The IRGC responded with a missile strike, which pummeled Daesh positions in Syria's eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province, killing more than 170 Takfiri elements and inflicting heavy damage on their weaponry and communication systems.

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Iranian Parliament Increases Funding For Missiles, IRGC In Reaction To U.S. Sanctions

August 13, 2017

Iran's parliament has given initial approval to a bill to increase spending on the country's missile program and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in response to recent sanctions imposed by the United States.

Lawmakers on August 13 overwhelmingly approved the outlines of the bill to "counter America's terrorist and adventurist actions" as some chanted "Death to America," state-controlled television reported.

"The Americans should know that this was our first action," parliament speaker Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by state media.

The measure comes in retaliation to new U.S. sanctions on Iran over its ballistic-missile program and missile tests.

Iran maintains that the missiles that it tests don't violate its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers because they are for defensive purposes.

The measure would allocate about $260 million each to Iran's ballistic-missile program and the Quds Force, the external branch of the IRGC that is said to be active in Syria and Iraq.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted by the government news agency IRNA as telling members of parliament that the bill "was designed wisely so that it does not violate the [nuclear deal] and provide excuses for opposing sides."

Araqchi said the government of President Hassan Rohani will support the bill.

The bill must now pass a second vote before being submitted to the Guardians Council for final approval and passage into law.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and IRNA

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-parliament- increases-funding-missiles-revolutionary-guard- reaction-us-sanctions/28673921.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 Navy Commander Says Tehran Plans to Send Ships to Atlantic

Sputnik News

21:07 13.08.2017(updated 21:48 13.08.2017)

Iran plans to send ships to western Atlantic Ocean in the near future, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said.

According to Tasnim news agency, the move is aimed to highlight the Iranian navy's "powerful presence in international waters."

The Iranian military also refuted mainstream media reports portraying the Islamic republic's Naval Forces as "weak."

"[In a program aired] on CNN, they (Americans) [] said Iran by no means is capable of entering the ocean and passing through it, but we arrived in the Atlantic, and we will go to the west of the ocean in the near future," Tasnim quoted the Rear Admiral Sayyari by saying.

In recent years, the Iranian fleet increased its presence in international waters to secure naval routes and protect ships and oil tankers from pirates.

Last November, Sayyari spoke about Iran's plans to send ships to the Atlantic Ocean for the first time; the 44 flotilla of the Iranian Naval Forces entered the Atlantic Ocean after visiting one of the ports in South Africa.

Coincidence or not, the statement came after a number of incidents involving the US navy and Iranian ships in the Arabian Gulf.

 Sputnik

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Iran Parliament Approves Increase in Funding to Its Missile Program

By VOA News August 13, 2017

Iranian legislators voted Sunday on a bill to increase spending of the country's missile ballistic program.

The overwhelming support for the bill comes after tensions between Iran and U.S. President Donald Trump who imposed new sanctions on the Iranian government.

"The Americans should know that this was our first actions," Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said.

Larijani announced the vote, which received 240 yes votes out of 247 lawmakers, and said the bill aims to "confront terrorist and adventurist actions by the United States in the region."

The Iranian government had previously said new sanctions imposed by Trump broke the terms of its nuclear deal with the United States and other countries. It had promised an "appropriate and proportional" response.

Iran's parliament added in the package a half a billion dollars in funding for its missile program along with a series of actions against the American government.

Iran's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee spokesman Seyed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini told the ISNA news agency, the bill "does not undermine the nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers."

"Iran will never be the first to kill the nuclear deal and take responsibility for its costs," he said.

The bill also imposed new visa and a travel ban on U.S. military and other organizations that "provided financial, intelligence, military, logistic and training support to terrorists in the region, naming the Islamic State group and the Syrian branch of al-Qaida," ISNA reported.

Trump signed new sanctions on Iran and other countries in July to include more restrictive measures on Iran.

During his election campaign, President Trump promised to renegotiate the nuclear agreement that then-president Barack Obama had signed into law along with measures against Russia and North Korea.

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Analysts: Trump's Mixed Russia Policy Still Taking Shape

By Daniel Schearf August 13, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump's reluctant support for tighter sanctions against Russia and recent comments about Russia have been interpreted in Moscow as a turning point in hopes for improved relations.

The tougher line, despite Trump's apathy toward Kremlin interference in the U.S. election, his dismissal of possible collusion, and flattery of President Vladimir Putin, raises the question: What is Trump's Russia policy?

"My opinion is that there is no such concept as Trump's Russia policy," said Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Center. "There is no such policy. Neither is there a Russia policy in relation to Trump's America."

Campaign vision

Trump's campaign comments about Russia flattered Putin and raised hopes in Russia for U.S. cooperation. Meanwhile his questioning of the NATO military alliance and Russia's aggression in Ukraine created uncertainty among U.S. allies.

"He said a lot of these things during the campaign. And it just seems so far, after eight months, that his vision of what the United States' relationship should be with Russia is not being carried out," said James Kirchick of the Brookings Institution.

One reason: Trump's own political party and members of his own administration take a tougher line than he does on Russian aggression in Ukraine and interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

"There was a key dispute (in Russia) whether Trump would gain victory over American democracy or whether it would prevail," Kolesnikov said. "So far, it is gaining victory over him. So the model the Kremlin was relying on, does not exist."

Sanctions increased, not lifted

Trump's tone changed in July, when he delivered a speech in Poland urging Russia to "cease destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere as well as its support for hostile regimes such as Syria and Iran."

Just a day later, Trump had his first meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany. The two leaders agreed on a cease-fire for Syria but made little progress in bilateral relations.

"It was expected that Trump would lift sanctions imposed by (President Barack) Obama," said Pavel Sharikov of the Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies. "It was expected that Trump would reduce a level of negative reaction, or somehow forget the Crimea issue, and there would be fruitful collaboration in anti-terrorism in Syria. But that did not happen."

In August, Trump signed into law tougher Russia sanctions, despite calling it "seriously flawed."

"As much as President Trump might want in his heart to have a more productive relationship with Russia, as long as Russia is doing the things it's doing and behaving the way it does, and has the sort of world view that it has, it's going to be very difficult for the United States or its allies in Europe to have a positive relationship with Russia," Kirchick said.

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said via Twitter that the law's restrictions on Trump's ability to remove sanctions "ends hopes" for improving relations.

Chilly relations

And ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia will likely keep bilateral relations chilly for some time to come.

An increasing number of Russians agree.

"I think he will always do what is beneficial for America," said Anastasiya, a Muscovite who gave only her first name. "That is why I did not have any illusions when he was elected. It seems to me we have to go our own way and ignore him."

The tit-for-tat diplomatic retaliation is not helping.

In response to U.S. sanctions and expulsion of Russian diplomats for alleged spying, Moscow ordered the U.S. mission in Russia to reduce its embassy staff by 755 by Sept. 1.

Despite bipartisan condemnation of Russia's move in the U.S., Thursday Trump thanked Putin, saying "we're trying to cut down on the payroll, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people, because now we have a smaller payroll."

U.S. officials say the administration plans to announce its own retaliation after Sept. 1.

Olga Pavlova contributed to this report.

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Saudi forces cordon off Shia town of Awamiyah: HRW

Iran Press TV

Sun Aug 13, 2017 10:7AM

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Saudi forces have encircled the predominantly Shia town of Awamiyah and sealed it off since July, raising concerns about the humanitarian situation there.

The New York-based rights organization cited five Awamiyah residents and three activists as saying on Sunday that the town's residents are at risk, with Saudi security forces "arbitrarily shooting at or arresting those who emerged from their houses."

Since July 26, they said, Saudi authorities have prevented emergency services from reaching the wounded and failed to provide humanitarian assistance to trapped Awamiyah citizens.

The residents also noted that an order had never been issued for people to leave Awamiyah while their only chance out of the town had been short periods coordinated with local volunteers and activists.

Saudi forces turn away anyone who tries to return to Awamiyah to check on relatives or recover possessions, they added.

The residents further complained that the Awamiyah electricity grid have been damaged and all clinics as well as pharmacies have been closed since May.

"Saudi security forces should provide essential services to trapped Awamiyah residents and make sure they can move in and out of the town safely," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

She also urged Riyadh to hold security forces accountable if probes showed that they had fired at residents unlawfully.

"Saudi authorities should also immediately and credibly investigate whether its forces used excessive force in Awamiyah," Whitson pointed out.

She said Saudi Shia in Awamiyah face discrimination every day, and for the last three months, they have been caught in the crossfire.

She further called on Saudi officials "to allow people to safely return home, allow business and clinics to reopen, and compensate residents for property damage and destruction caused by security forces."

The HRW warned that significant damage has been inflicted on Awamiyah based on an assessment of satellite imagery from February and August.

Awamiyah, situated in Eastern Province, has long been a flashpoint between the Saudi kingdom and the inhabitants complaining of discrimination.

It has witnessed renewed deadly clashes between the military and residents since May, when Saudi forces began razing the town's old quarter, known as al-Mosawara.

Saudi authorities claim that Mosawara's narrow streets have become a hideout for militants suspected of being behind attacks on security forces in Eastern Province.

Critics, however, say Saudi Arabia is trying to bring a demographic change to the city, erasing cultural heritage and violating human rights through Mosawara's demolition.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said recently that the world body could not independently verify the reports coming out of Awamiyah, but that all Riyadh's actions should be in line with its commitments to human rights.

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How This Syria's Neighbor Plans to Eliminate Daesh in Border Areas

Sputnik News

17:17 13.08.2017

The Lebanese Armed Forces continue their military operation against Daesh in border areas with Syria. On Thursday, the military shelled Daesh positions with heavy artillery and rockets.

Earlier, the Lebanese Higher Defense Council said that the country's authorities had approved recommendations on the military operation to liberate border areas from terrorists.

Muhammad Khawaja, prominent Lebanese military expert, underscored that in order to be successful the Lebanese operation should be coordinated with the Syrian Army despite political difference between the countries.

"There is a common war and we have a common enemy. In order to defeat Daesh, [Lebanon] needs to cooperate with Damascus. I guess that the Lebanese military will contact with the Syrian Army on the ground despite political tensions," Khawaja told Sputnik.

The expert noted that there have been differences among Lebanese politicians on the Syrian crisis. Some Lebanese politicians support Damascus and others stand by the Syrian opposition. Moreover, there are some forces in the Lebanese government and parliament that are against coordinating the operation with the Syrian military.

Khawaja also commented on reports by some Lebanese media outlets that the United States may provide support for the operation. The expert said that personnel of the Lebanese military are professionally trained for fighting terrorism. As for US assistance, it is likely to be limited to munition supplies.

"The role of the US may involve supplies of ammunition, including for 155-mm heavy artillery system and M-16 assault rifles. Lebanon doesn't need American military experts and aerial support," Khawaja said.

Commenting on the beginning of the operation, the expert pointed out that it was the right moment for such an offensive, taking into account the recent advances by the Syrian Army and its allies.

"In recent months, they liberated hundreds of residential areas from Daesh and took control over 45 kilometers of the Syrian-Iraqi border," Khawaja said.

He added that the Lebanese military will play the key role in the liberation of mountainous areas along the border, including in Ras Baalbek and Al Qaa.

Since the beginning of Syrian civil war in 2011, Lebanon has faced a number of security challenges. Lebanese army and Shia militia Hezbollah have been on high alert amid the conflict and have been preventing attempts of terrorists to penetrate Lebanon's territory.

On July 18, the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced that the Lebanese armed forces would be dispatched to the Lebanese-Syrian border in order to fight against Daesh. He explained this decision by increased cases of Daesh attacks on Lebanese security forces.

Currently Daesh takes control over 54 square miles of the Lebanese borderline territory in the mountain regions of Ras Baalbek and Al Qaa and 21 square miles of Syrian borderline territory.

 Sputnik

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Russian Warplanes Help Syrian Army Liberate Daesh Hotbed in Homs

Sputnik News

12:27 13.08.2017(updated 15:42 13.08.2017)

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russian military aviation helped the Syrian army liberate Daesh's hotbed in the Homs province, the town of As-Sukhnah.

The liberation of As-Sukhnah paves the way for the operation to free besieged Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"On August 13, 2017, as a result of joint actions by the Russian Aerospace Forces, Syrian government troops and militia units in the east of the province of Homs, the town of As-Sukhnah was completely freed from Daesh terrorists."

After fierce clashes, Syrian armed forces units liberated the central and southern parts of the town from terrorists, establishing full control over the city, the Russian military said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strategic town was completely liberated at 7 am.

"The liberation of As-Sukhnah from Daesh terrorists opens new opportunities for the Syrian government forces to launch an offensive and deblock the city of Deir ez-Zor."

On Saturday, a local source told Sputnik that the Syrian army managed to secure the largest Daesh hotbed in Homs and the last significant citadel of terrorists on the way to the besieged city of Deir ez-Zor.

Last week, the Syrian army supported by its Air Force repelled a Daesh attack on Deir ez-Zor.

Deir ez-Zor, located on the shores of the Euphrates River to the northeast of Damascus, and a military airfield near the city have been besieged by Daesh for over three years, with food and ammunition only being delivered by air.

 Sputnik

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More Chinese military aircraft spotted near eastern Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

2017/08/13 15:26:03

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) Two Chinese military surveillance aircraft were seen flying east of Taiwan on Sunday, the third time in August that Chinese military planes were seen near Taiwan, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense.

Two Y-8 aircraft from the People's Liberation Army of China first flew near southern Taiwan, through the Bashi Channel, but remained outside of Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), and continued in a northeastern direction, according to the ministry.

They later flew over the Miyako Strait, accompanied by two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, before returning to their base in China, the ministry said.

It was the latest in a series of Chinese military activities close to Taiwan since last month.

On Wednesday, a Y-8 aircraft was detected flying over the Western Pacific Ocean, through the Miyako Strait and into the East China Sea east of Taiwan.

Before that, on Aug. 5, a group of China's Xian H-6K bombers and Y-8 aircraft were seen near Taiwan's ADIZ.

Last month, on July 25, an H-6K bomber flew close to Taiwan's ADIZ, passing through the Bashi Channel and the Miyako Strait before returning to Chinese airspace, according to the ministry.

A few days before that, on July 20, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets as a squadron of eight H-6K bombers and Y-8 aircraft flew past its east and west coasts but remained in international waters.

The Miyako Strait, which lies between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa, is part of Japan's exclusive economic zone but includes a narrow band of international waters and airspace.

The maneuvers by the Chinese military planes have been closely monitored, according to the ministry.

(By Claudia Liu and Evelyn Kao)

Enditem/ls

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Realizing the school system is an integral part of a community effort to combat gang violence in Danville, city education leaders say they are ramping up training for administrators and imposing intervention tactics including a new code of conduct for students.

The approach has to be multifaceted, said Danville Public Schools Director of Safety and Security Dave Cochran. Suppression alone is not enough. We cant just suppress this and hope it goes away.

Cochran  who has years of experience in Danville as a school and district administrator  said street gangs and the violence that can come from them are not a new problem for schools. As a principal at Bonner Middle School in 2004, Cochran said gang affiliation would manifest through clothing choices, like bandanas or rosary beads worn by non-Catholics. In one instance, a student even had the nicknames of sets, or subsidiary gangs, bleached onto his jeans.

Being aware of gang presence was always an ongoing challenge, Cochran said.

However, recent gang-related shootings and homicides have spurned the school district, along with other Danville entities, to action. On Aug. 6, rising George Washington High School senior Nitaya Adams, 16, died after a disagreement began among a crowd of people along Paxton Street and gunfire erupted. Police believe Adams might not have been the intended target and that the shooting could involve a gang element.

Involving the community

In January, after a year of rising gun crime, Danville City Manager Ken Larking called for the creation of a gang task force.

City schools are active participants in that process, Cochran said.

Additionally, city officials decided to implement a comprehensive gang violence prevention model from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the National Gang Center. Representatives from Danville government, law enforcement, community services and Danville Public Schools traveled to a conference this summer in Denver, Colorado, to learn about the model.

One of the participants was Robin Owens, the school districts coordinator of support services. Owens said one of the main takeaways from the conference was the necessity of working with other community agencies.

The comprehensive gang model includes a community approach, and with that community approach and the community effort, the school system is an integral part of that, Owens said.

Owens said the school systems role in the model would help ensure students could receive the support they need to be successful citizens.

The city was applying for a federal grant of up to $125,000 this week, which would hire a coordinator for the program.

Educating school leaders

Cochran said the school district itself also is taking other steps to update its gang intervention tactics.

This summer, our focus was on education, he said.

In July, every school administrator participated in a seven-hour training course with gang expert and former Richmond Police Officer Hamlet Hood, who is currently a trainer with the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justices Gang Management Unit. Cochran said Hood went over gang history, structure, activity and means of identification, among other topics.

The first step toward this school year was going back and making sure all of our administrators were knowledgeable, Cochran said.

Additionally, all student resource officers in Danville attended 16 hours of training last week, where they also learned about gang understanding and identification.

Even the definition of gangs in the student code of conduct was updated this year, Cochran said. The new definition includes stronger language indicating that students may not encourage gang activity or solicit others to participate in gangs.

Teachers and administrators are told to be aware of attendance, truancy and tardiness issues with students, as well as decreases in academic performance. Cochran said he hoped to refer those students to both internal services such as school counselors and external community organizations like social services.

Lastly, Cochran said the school district is simply talking about the issue of gangs out in the open.

We realize that one of the worst things we can do in the community is that cone of silence: not to say we have a gang problem, but to go ahead and discuss it openly and frankly, he said.
About 60 people lit candles at the JTI Fountain at Main Street Plaza for a vigil Sunday night to show solidarity with Charlottesville in the wake of Saturdays white nationalist rally and counter-protests that turned into chaotic attacks and claimed the life of one woman and injured others.

We wanted to get folks together and talk about, and remember, what happened yesterday; I think its the right thing to do, Eric Stamps, the leader of Indivisible Southside, said Sunday before the vigil. The white nationalists dont want peaceful rallies and protests; they want to incite violence.

People who attended the vigil, organized by Indivisible Southside, lit candles and talked about how they felt about the deadly rally in Charlottesville. A state helicopter crash also claimed the lives of two state police officers. The helicopter was one of two circulating over Charlottesville after Saturdays violent rally.

Glenda Clark-Motley said she heard about the vigil from Chris Daniel, chairman of Danvilles Democratic Party.

It breaks my heart, Clark-Motley said. This is 2017; [the white nationalists] would take us back to how it used to be  they are a small minority creating havoc. America has come a long way and is inclusive of everyone.

Clark-Motley said people need to stop teaching hate to their children.

Hate is taught. They need to stop teaching the next generation to hate, Clark-Motley said. It starts at home.

Gloria Bradley held a sign that quoted John 11:35: Jesus Wept.

I heard someone say, Our soldiers that fought in World War II did not fight Hitler to have him come here, Bradley said.

Four Danville City Councilman  Gary Miller, Larry Campbell, Lee Vogler and James Buckner  were at the vigil.

Its sad its come to this in our country, Miller said. I wish people would talk and not fight  this is reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Stamps said efforts to ignore white supremacists have not worked.

Weve been ignoring them for too long; theyve grown and gotten stronger, Stamps said.

Dale Jordan agreed.

Theyre bringing hate back to the whole nation, she said. We cannot be silent, or we take the side of the oppressor.

Ebony Guy said she has felt an escalation in hate since the Confederate flag controversy in 2015, and asked council members if there was a way to get all of the Confederate flags down, or at least reduced in number and size.

Campbell said the issue does get talked about a lot.

Ive had realtors come to me and say [the Confederate flags] are affecting home sales, Campbell said. But the flags are on private property.

Campbell said he would check on curtailing the size of the flags and height of the flagpoles.

Stamps told the crowd work needed to be done to stop the hate.

We dont want to go back, Stamps said. We want to go forward.

Indivisible Southside was formed mainly to encourage people to vote, Stamps said. That national group was formed to resist Trumps agenda and hold their members of Congress accountable, according to the website, www.indivisibleguide.com.
Virginia State Police lost the commander of its 33-year-old Aviation Unit in the helicopter crash in Albemarle County on Saturday after violent protests in Charlottesville.

Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian was the pilot of the Bell 407 helicopter that crashed at 4:51 p.m. near Old Farm Road and was engulfed in flames. Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, of Quinton, who previously had served on Gov. Terry McAuliffes protection unit, died at the scene.

The helicopter was one of two state police choppers that had been circling over Charlottesville as violence broke out before the scheduled white nationalist rally and after police canceled the event as an unlawful assembly.

They were simply assisting the ground resources by forwarding them the aerial optics, said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller, who said fights were breaking out between the rally participants and counterprotesters in a wide radius around the site of the protest.

We were able to identify hot spots and deploy resources, Geller said.

Cullen had become commander of the Aviation Unit in February after first joining it in 1999. Bates had transferred to the unit in July from the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

State police established the Aviation Unit in 1984 to conduct search and rescue, law enforcement and medical evacuation missions. The unit operates from bases in Chesterfield County, Lynchburg and Abingdon. A fourth base in Manassas closed in 2009. State police also operates its Med-Flight and Medvac aviation operations from the bases in Chesterfield and Abingdon.

The unit operates four Bell 407 helicopters, two American Eurocopter EC145 helicopters and three Cessna fixed-wing aircraft. Geller said the unit employs three full-time mechanics and exceeds the Federal Aviation Administrations minimum requirements for maintenance.

The helicopter, which was manufactured in 2000, left the Charlottesville airport at around 4 p.m., according to Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash.

The crash occurred at approximately 4:44 p.m. Saturday, according to Knudson, who also said that no distress call was made, that investigators are aware of.

The accident site happened 7 miles southwest of the airport and came down in a wooded area. The fuselage and some wreckage came to rest on the ground, according to Knudson, while some wreckage remained in the trees. Crews will begin to recover the wreckage Monday.

Cullen and Bates had routinely flown McAuliffe and administration officials on state business, but Fairfax County police transported the governor to Charlottesville on Saturday for an afternoon news conference because the state police helicopters were not available, Geller confirmed.

Fairfax police said in a news release on Saturday that its helicopter flew McAuliffe to Charlottesville from Northern Virginia on Saturday.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our (state police) family as well as the families of both troopers who died while serving and protecting the community, Fairfax police said in a statement.

McAuliffe and his wife, Dorothy, took the loss personally because of the time they spent with Cullen and Bates, who had been part of the governors executive protection unit for three years.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jay and Berke, both of whom were our close friends and trusted members of our team, the McAuliffes said in a statement.

This is a devastating loss for their families, the Virginia State Police, and the entire commonwealth. Our hearts go out to their wives and children, and we stand by to support them during this difficult time. These heroes were a part of our family and we are simply heartbroken.
VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 - OK2 Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:OK)(the Company or OK2) is pleased to report that results have been received for all Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes in the 2017 Phase 1 exploration program at the Companys Pyramid copper-gold porphyry project at the northern tip of BCs Golden Triangle. Eleven holes were drilled for a total of 1260.42m and four zones were drill tested: the West, Central and East Zones as well as Zone 37.

The RC drilling program was successful in testing IP geophysical anomalies and surface geochemical anomalies. The depth limits of the RC drill rig (200m) meant that the deeper geophysical targets could not be tested and deeper testing of the geologic model based on surface and downhole geochemistry, remains a priority.

Based on results from this program, diamond core hole locations have been finalized and contractor Omineca Drilling will be mobilized to the site shortly to begin a diamond core program to test these deeper targets.

Mike Devji, CEO states: We are pleased with these results, as they demonstrate a large area of encouraging mineralization. We will follow up by diamond drill testing of all three zones, and are particularly excited to test the Central and West Zones with deeper diamond drill holes as our exploration efforts to-date clearly show that there is excellent potential for a deeper copper-gold porphyry system. The size of this project makes drill targeting an involved process, and we continue to be impressed with our early-stage exploration results.

West Zone: PY-17-08 was drilled to intersect anomalous copper and gold surface rock and soil geochemistry as well as targeting an area of moderate chargeability between two chargeability highs. This hole encountered 6.62m of 0.25 g/t Au. PY-17-09 was drilled into a 500m wide shallow chargeability high in the western portion of the West Zone. It returned encouraging copper mineralization with 21.32m of 0.09% Cu from 67.06m including 9.14m of 0.13% Cu. Chip logging determined the presence of strong QSP (Quartz-Sericite-Pyrite) alteration within the drill hole.

Target Drill Hole From To Length (m) Cu ppm Cu % Au ppb Au g/t West Zone PY-17-08 16.76 83.82 67.06 257 0.03 52 0.05 including 77.2 83.82 6.62 218 0.02 245 0.25 West Zone PY-17-09 67.06 88.38 21.32 891 0.09 29 0.03 including 79.25 88.39 9.14 1268 0.13 16 0.02

Central Zone: Drill holes PY-17-01 through PY-17-03 were drilled into the Central Zone to investigate an area mostly covered in overburden, with anomalous copper-in-soil geochemistry and coincident near-surface to deep chargeability highs. This drilling confirmed the presence of a new porphyry copper mineralized body with intense QSP alteration in PY-17-03 grading into propylitic alteration (Epidote-Chlorite-Carbonate-Pyrite) in PY-17-01 and PY-17-02, all noted in thin section. Drill hole PY-17-03 returned low grade intercepts but did show anomalous copper throughout most of the drill hole with up to 0.06% Cu from 152.4 to 153.92m. The drill hole was completed to a depth of 164.59m with both copper and sulfur increasing with depth. The Company is encouraged by these results as they confirm that the Central Zone represents a new porphyry system that will be tested at depth with diamond drilling.

East Zone: Two RC holes were drilled to cross cut surface rock sampling up to 11.6 g/t Au. Drill holes PY-17-04 and PY-17-05 both encountered Argillic (Clay-Pyrite) alteration as well as QSP alteration. The results are summarized below in Table 1. This drilling confirms the presence of wide spread gold  copper mineralization. The most significant intercept were 28.95m of 0.28 g/t Au in hole PY-17-04, which included 4.57m of 1.43 g/t Au and 91.44m of 0.12 g/t Au which included 4.57m of 0.94 g/t from shallow depths in PY-17-05. This zone remains a target for future diamond drilling.

Target Drill Hole From To Length (m) Cu ppm Cu % Au ppb Au g/t East Zone PY-17-04 19.89 77.7 57.81 184 0.02 153 0.15 Incl. 19.89 48.84 28.95 179 0.02 279 0.28 Incl. 19.89 24.46 4.57 215 0.02 1426 1.43 East Zone PY-17-05 28.96 120.4 91.44 278 0.03 124 0.12 Incl. 28.96 33.53 4.57 106 0.01 938 0.94 Incl. 85.34 102.11 16.77 841 0.08 196 0.20 Incl. 117.35 120.4 3.05 1285 0.13 894 0.89

Zone 37: Two drill holes; PY-17-10 and PY-17-11 in this prospective zone did not return any significant intercepts with gold mineralization.

ABOUT OK2 Minerals Ltd.

OK2 Minerals Ltd. is a Canadian-based junior exploration company comprised of highly qualified mining professionals with two very prospective copper-gold exploration projects, the Pyramid Project and the Kinskuch Project, both located in northwestern British Columbia in close proximity to, or within the Golden Triangle.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF

OK2 Minerals Ltd.

Per: Minaz Devji Minaz Devji,

CEO and Director

This news release was prepared by Company management, who take full responsibility for its content. George Cavey P.Geo, Director, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators and has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure in this release.

The RC rock chip samples were prepared at the ISO certified SGS Canada Minerals in Burnaby, B.C. and analyzed at the SGS Canada Minerals facilities in Burnaby using a GE-IC14A procedure. IC14A is an Aqua Regia Digestion with an ICP-MS finish. The company routinely inserted known commercially prepared standards every 10th sample and did not detect any QC/QA concerns from the analytical results.



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.







OK2 Minerals

Mike Devji

(604) 258-8666

mike.devji@ok2minerals.com



Investor Relations

Kin Communications

1-866-684-6730 (toll-free)

ok@kincommunications.com


/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES./

VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Hannan Metals Limited ("Hannan" or the "Company") (TSX.V: HAN) (OTCPK: HANNF) announces that the non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering") that was launched on August 2, 2017, (see news release August 2, 2017) is currently oversubscribed. As a result, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, the Company now proposes to issue up to 12,600,000 units (the "Units") at an exercise price of Cdn$0.26 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to Cdn$3,276,000.

Each Unit comprises one common share (a "Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional Share of the Company at an exercise price of Cdn$0.40 for a period of two years from closing of the Offering.

Finder's fees may be payable on a portion of the Offering. Certain insiders of the Company may participate in the Offering.

All securities to be issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four-month hold period under applicable securities laws in Canada.

The Company plans to use the net proceeds to fund exploration expenditures at the Company's Kilbricken Project in Ireland, as well as for general working capital and corporate purposes.

The Offering is subject to receipt of approval from the Exchange.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements.

About Hannan Metals Limited (TSX.V:HAN)

Hannan Metals Ltd. has 100% ownership of the County Clare Zn-Pb-Ag-Cu project in Ireland, which consists of 9 prospecting licences for 32,223 hectares. Zinc remains in tight supply amidst rising demand and stagnant supply. Ireland is a leading global jurisdiction for zinc mining and exploration. In 2015, Ireland was the world's 10th largest zinc producing nation with 230,000 tonnes produced.

This maiden mineral resource for Kilbricken was published in July 2017, and immediately ranks Kilbricken as one of the top ten base metal deposits discovered in Ireland by tonnes and grade. Total indicated mineral resources were calculated as 2.7 million tonnes at 8.8% zinc equivalent ("ZnEq"), including 1.4 million tonnes at 10.8% Zneq and total inferred mineral resources of 1.7 million tonnes at 8.2% ZnEq, including 0.6 million tonnes at 10.4% ZnEq. Importantly, the initial resource is expandable at all scales, from near resource to prospect scale.

Over the last decade, the team behind Hannan has forged a long and successful record of financing and discovering mineral projects in Europe. Additionally, the team holds extensive zinc experience, gained from the world's largest integrated zinc producer of the time, PasmInco Ltd.

Mr. Michael Hudson FAusIMM, Hannan's CEO and Chairman, a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

On behalf of the Board,

"Michael Hudson"

Michael Hudson, CEO & Chairman

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release contains "forward-looking statements", and "forward-looking information" under applicable securities laws. Except for statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements, which include the Company's expectations regarding future performance based on current results, expected cash costs based on the Company's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs, which may prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projects of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: closing of the Offering, the proposed use of the net proceeds from the Offering, liabilities inherent in mine development and production, geological risks, the financial markets generally, and the ability of the Company to raise additional capital to fund future operations. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE Hannan Metals Ltd.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Aug 14, 2017) - Dynacor Gold Mines Inc. (TSX:DNG)(OTC:DNGDF) (Dynacor or the Corporation) a Corporation with gold and silver ore processing operations and exploration projects in Peru, has released its unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and the management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the three-month and six-months periods ended June 30, 2017.

These documents have been filed electronically with SEDAR at www.sedar.com and will be available on the Corporation's website www.dynacor.com.

(All figures in this press release are in millions of US$ unless stated otherwise. Earnings per share and cash-flow per share are in US$. All variance %, except for net income, are calculated from rounded figures. Some additions might be incorrect due to rounding).

In a period where heavy rains which impacted on the volume of ore provided to its Veta Dorada mill in Chala, Peru (Refer to June 19th, 2017 press release), Dynacor recorded its 25th consecutive profitable quarter for the three-month period ended June 30, 2017("Q2,-2017") as it earned a net income of $0.3 M or $0.01 per share, compared to $1.1 M or $0.03 per share for the three-month period ended June 30, 2016 ("Q2-2016").

Highlights for the second quarter of 2017

(Variance %, are calculated based on rounded figures)

Gold production of 18,185 ounces in Q2-2017 (35,310 ounces for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to 17,525 ounces for Q2-2016 (33,332 ounces for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016), an increase of 3.8% between quarters (increase of 5.9% over the six-month period ended June 30, 2016);

Sales of $21.8 M in Q2-2017 ($46.5 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $21.5 M in Q2-2016 ($41.9 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016), an increase of 1.4% between quarters (increase of 11.0% over the six-month period ended June 30, 2016);

Gross operating margin of $2.7 M (12.4%) in Q2-2017 ($5.8 M and 12.5% for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $3.1 M (14.4%) in Q2-2016 ($6.1 M and 14.6% for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016), a decrease in dollars of 12.9% from Q2-2016;

EBITDA (1) of $2.0 M in Q2-2017 ($4.6 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $2.3 M in Q2-2016 ($4.6 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016), a decrease of 13% between quarters;

of $2.0 M in Q2-2017 ($4.6 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $2.3 M in Q2-2016 ($4.6 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016), a decrease of 13% between quarters; Cash flow from operating activities before change in working capital items of $1.4 M and $0.04 per share (2) in Q2-2017 ($3.2 M and $0.08 per share (2) for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $1.6 M and $0.04 per share (2) in Q2-2016 ($3.0 M and $0.08 per share (2) for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016);

in Q2-2017 ($3.2 M and $0.08 per share for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $1.6 M and $0.04 per share in Q2-2016 ($3.0 M and $0.08 per share for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016); Cash on hand of $9.5 M at June 30, 2017, compared to $6.2 M as at December 31, 2016.

Recent event

Subsequent to quarter end, the Corporation executed a partial prepayment of $1.0 M on its outstanding debt, reducing the total principal balance owed to $5.3 M.

Overview

The Veta Dorada Plant was officially inaugurated on October 3, 2016. This plant is the stepping stone for the future growth of our processing activities in Peru.

The first half of 2017 was highlighted by extremely heavy rainfalls, occurring mostly in March and up to mid-April and which caused extensive flooding and loss of lives in the northern regions of Peru. El Nino like conditions that deployed near Peru's coast affected the overall miners' production and transport conditions entering the second quarter of 2017. As well, the current ore purchase market conditions are very competitive, as available ore supply is down due to the ongoing volatile gold price and unfavorable climate conditions.

Despite these challenges, the gross operating margin obtained at the Veta Dorada Plant in Q2-2017 was 12.4% consistent with Q1-2017 (12.5%), and better compared to the 9.5% margin during its initial quarter of operations in Q4-2016.

During Q2-2017, monthly gold production has progressively increased and reached a yearly high of 6,895 oz in June. The lack of accumulated ore inventory at March 31, 2017 and the extreme weather conditions, affected the Corporation's overall gold production during Q2-2017. In that period the Corporation produced 18,185 ounces of gold in Q2-2017, as compared to 17,525 ounces of gold in Q2-2016, an increase of 3.8%. Nevertheless, production increased by 6.0% from the 17,125 ounces produced in the previous quarter (Q1-2017) (refer to July 21, 2017 press release).

Overall for the first six-months of 2017, the Corporation produced 35,310 ounces of gold in the six-month period ended June 30, 2017, as compared to 33,332 ounces of gold in the six months ended June 30, 2016, a 5.9% increase.

Results from operations:

Total sales amounted to $21.8 M (cumulative of $46.5 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $21.5 M for Q2-2016 ($41.9 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016), an increase of 1.4% between quarters (increase of 11.0% over the six-month period ended June 30, 2016).

The gross operating margin amounted to $2.7 M in Q2-2017 (cumulative of $5.8 M for the six-month period) compared to $ 3.1 M and $ 6.1 M for the same periods in 2016. In 2017 gross margin was reduced by a sales discount which reduced sales, in lieu of selling expenses which were all supported by our customer in 2017. Even though this had no effect on the Corporation's net income, the gross margin was reduced by approximately $0.2 M and $0.4 M in the three-month and six-month period of 2017. As well, the gross operating margin is affected by higher operation expenses due to the larger scale operation at the Veta Dorada plant. Those expenses are to be reduced with increase production.

Net income was $0.3 M for the three-month period ended June 30, 2017 ($1.2 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $1.1 M for the three-month period ended June 30, 2016 ($1.8 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016. The quarter decrease in net income compared to 2016 is explained by the $ 0.3 M decrease in the gross operating margin as well as increases in transition expenses of $0.2 M, in financial expenses of $0.2 M, in other expenses of $0,2 M, in tax expenses of $0.1 M and positively by a decrease of $0.3 M in selling expenses.

Jean Martineau, Dynacor's CEO and President commented, "Despite the worst rainy season in the last 20 years in Peru, we have achieved solid operational results. We have managed to increase not only our gold production but also our ore purchases and ore processing volumes compared to the first quarter of 2017 and 2016 six-month period. This clearly shows the impact of our new plant and sustained efforts on the ground. Now we have to overcome our challenges, fill-up the plant capacity as soon as possible and fine tune our production cost to achieve better cost per unit results."

Financial statement highlights

Three-month periods ended June 30, Six-month periods ended June 30, (in $'000) 2017 2016 2017 2016 Sales 21,754 21,521 46,482 41,949 Cost of sales 19,056 18,401 40,684 35,846 Gross operating margin 2,698 3,121 5,798 6,103 General and administrative expenses 1,055 1,116 2,129 1,998 Operating income 1,444 1,726 3,280 3,483 Net income and comprehensive Income 284 1,066 1,221 1,767 EBITDA(1) 2,045 2,268 4,578 4,551 Net cash flow from operating activities before change in working capital items 1,404 1,551 3,161 3,021 Cash flow from operating activities 1,425 441 4,492 1,027 Earnings per share Basic $ 0.01 $ 0.03 $ 0.03 $ 0.05 Diluted $ 0.01 $ 0.03 $ 0.03 $ 0.05 Reconciliation of net comprehensive income to EBITDA(1) Net comprehensive income 284 1,066 1,221 1,767 Income taxes 733 594 1,387 1,287 Financial expenses 291 87 585 323 Depreciation 643 571 1,291 1,203 Write-off of exploration and evaluation assets 94 - 94 - Gain on revaluation of financial instrument - (50 ) - (29 ) EBITDA (1) 2,045 2,268 4,578 4,551 Reconciliation of net cash flow from operating activities before change in working capital items per share(2) Net cash flow from operating activities before change in working capital items (in $'000) 1,404 1,551 3,161 3,021 Basic weighted average number of common shares outstanding ('000)

38,754

37,584

38,730

37,970 Net cash flow from operating activities before change in working capital items per share(2) $ 0.04 $ 0.04 $ 0.08 $ 0.08

(1) EBITDA: "Earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation" is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS. It is therefore possible that this measure could not be comparable with a similar measure of another Corporation. The Corporation uses this non-IFRS measure as an indicator of the cash generated by the operations and allows investor to compare the profitability of the Corporation with others by canceling effects of different assets bases, effects due to different tax structures as well as the effects of different capital structures. (2) Cash-flow per share is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS. It is therefore possible that this measure could not be comparable with a similar measure of another Corporation. The Corporation uses this non-IFRS measure which can also be helpful to investors as it provides a result which can be compared with the Corporation market share price.

Cash flow from operating, investing and financing activities and working capital

Operating activities

During Q2-2017, the cash flow from operations, before changes in working capital items, amounted to $1.4 M ($3.2 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017), compared to $1.6 M in Q2-2016 ($3.0 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016). This reduction is primarily explained by the decrease in net income between quarters, mostly offset by the increase in interest expense, increase in deferred tax expense and the write-off of exploration and evaluation assets for $0.1 M during the quarter.

During Q2-2017, total cash from operating activities amounted to $1.4 M compared to $0.4 M in Q2-2016. Changes in working capital items increased by $0.02 M (decrease of $1.1 M in Q2-2016).

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2017, total cash generated from operating activities amounted to $4.5 M, compared to $1.0 M in 2016. Changes in working capital items amounted to $1.3 M (decrease of $2.0 M in the comparative period) relating primarily to a decrease in inventory ($2.2 M), which was offset by a decrease in trade and other receivables ($0,2 M) and an increase in trade and other payables ($0.8 M).

Investing activities

During Q2-2017, the Corporation invested $0.2 M ($0.5 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017) for the acquisition of property, plant and equipment ($3.0 M and $ 6.4 M for the same periods in 2016). Additions to exploration and evaluation assets during Q2-2017, amounted to $0.2 M ($0.3 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017) compared to $0.2 M and $0.7 M for the same periods in 2016.

The decrease from the comparative periods was expected as the Veta Dorada Plant is no longer in construction and the next phase of the Tumipampa exploration has not yet commenced.

As a non cash transaction During the three-month period ending June 30, 2017, considering the ongoing inability to perform any exploration work in this agricultural region, the Company did not renew the Casaden claims and consequently the amount of $0.1 M capitalized as mining right cost was written-off into the statement of comprehensive income as at June 30, 2017.

Financing activities

In the first six-months of 2017, financing activities relate primarily to the payment of interest and transaction costs for the term loan. Interest expenses paid during the period amounted to $0.2 M ($0.1 M in 2016) and ($0.3 M for the six-month period ended June 30, 2017 ($0.2 M in 2016)).

Working capital

As at June 30, 2017, the Corporation's working capital amounted to $18.0 M, including $9.5 M in cash ($15.8 M, including $6.2 M in cash at December 31, 2016).

Outlook 2017

Ore processing

The objective for the remainder of 2017 is to control and reduce production costs and ramp up production at the Veta Dorada Plant to its current 300-tpd capacity. Approval for capacity increase to 360 tpd has been obtained, however until full consistent production volume at 300 tpd is achieved and mineralized material inventory accumulates, the capital investment to increase capacity will be delayed on a month to month basis.

The production objective for 2017 was set between 88,000 and 92,000 ounces of gold. However with the described issues affecting ore supply and with roads still not fully open for transport, we have adjusted our target down to between 78,000 and 80,000 ounces. As at June 30, 2017, the Corporation production amounts to 35,310 ounces of gold.

ABOUT DYNACOR GOLD MINES INC.

Dynacor Gold Mines Inc. is a gold production corporation headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The Corporation is engaged in production through its government approved ore processing operations. At present, Dynacor produces and explores in Peru where its management team has decades of experience and expertise. In 2016, Dynacor produced 73,476 ounces of gold, a 9% increase as compared with 2015 (67,603 ounces in 2015). For 2017, the corporation revised its production target to between 78,000 and 80,000 ounces of gold. Dynacor trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (DNG) and the OTC in the United States under the symbol (DNGDF).

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements in the foregoing may constitute forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Dynacor, or industry results, to be materially different from any future result, performance or achievement expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance as of the date of this news release.

Dynacor Gold Mines Inc. (TSX:DNG)

Website: http://www.dynacor.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DynacorGold

Facebook: facebook.com/DynacorGoldMines

Shares outstanding: 38,764,911
ZUG, Switzerland, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Katanga Mining Limited (TSX: KAT) ("Katanga" or the "Company") today is providing an update on the previously announced review of certain of the Company's past accounting by the independent directors of the Company's Board of Directors, being Robert G. Wardell, Terry Robinson and Hugh Stoyell (the "Independent Directors").

As previously announced, the Independent Directors are working with Management, Katanga's external auditors, Deloitte & Touche, the Company's outside legal counsel and outside accounting advisors to review historical accounting relating to the production of copper cathode, copper concentrates and stockpiled ore. In particular, the review concerns certain historical entries relating to the incorrect recording of the total tonnage of finished copper cathodes produced during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, and certain other entries which deal with the valuation of copper oxide concentrates included in work in progress inventories, the valuation of ore in stockpile inventories and the recorded amounts of property, plant & equipment.

While the review is still ongoing, based on the results of the review to date, the Independent Directors have concluded that the Company's consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 and related management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") and all interim consolidated financial statements and interim MD&A since December 31, 2014 should not be relied upon. Accordingly, the Independent Directors have recommended to the Board of Directors that the Company's audited consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 and its unaudited interim consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, and all related MD&A should be restated. The Company currently expects to effect such refilings, in conjunction with its external auditor, by mid-September, 2017.

Based on the results of the review to date, the Company's restated consolidated balance sheets as at December 31, 2016 and 2015 are expected to both reflect a reduction in property, plant and equipment (previously reported as $2,404 million as at December 31, 2016) of approximately $130 million, an increase in non-current inventories (previously reported as $365 million as at December 31, 2016) of approximately $55 million, with a corresponding reduction in total equity (previously reported as $528 million as at December 31, 2016) of approximately $75 million less related income taxes of approximately $19 million.

The Company also expects that total equity as at January 1, 2015 (previously reported as $1,810 million) will be reduced by approximately $90 million ($130 million less related income taxes of $40 million) and the net loss previously reported for the year ended December 31, 2015 of $630 million will be reduced by approximately $55 million less related income taxes of approximately $21 million.

To date, no adjustments to the previously reported loss for the year ended December 31, 2016 have been identified.

Katanga wishes to emphasize that the review and restatement do not affect the anticipated timing for the commissioning of its whole ore leach project, previously disclosed cash and debt balances, 2017 production guidance or limited ongoing operations during the suspension of copper and cobalt processing that commenced in Q3 of 2015. The review is still ongoing, and the amounts included in this press release are subject to change.

The review and the resulting restatement will cause the preparation and filing of the Company's unaudited interim consolidated financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 and accompanying MD&A ("Q2 Filings") to be delayed beyond the August 14, 2017 deadline under National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Requirements.

As previously announced, the Company has informed staff of the Ontario Securities Commission (the "OSC") about its review and has applied to the OSC pursuant to Part 4 of National Policy 12-203 ("NP 12-203") for a Management Cease Trade Order ("MCTO") pending the filing of the Q2 Filings and the restatement of the Company's historical financial statements. If an MCTO is issued, the Company intends to satisfy the provisions of the "alternative information guidelines" as set out in NP 12-203, including the requirement to file bi-weekly status reports in the form of news releases containing prescribed updating information, until the Q2 Filings are made. An MCTO would not generally affect the ability of persons who are not directors, officers or insiders of the Company to trade in securities of the Company. There can be no assurance that an MCTO will be issued.

In light of the proposed MCTO and in conjunction with the preparation of the Q2 Filings, the Company has established a blackout on trading by directors, officers and certain other insiders of Katanga, and intends to continue the blackout until the Q2 Filings and the restated consolidated financial statements have been filed.

Unless circumstances otherwise require, Katanga will provide further comment only when the review and restatement is completed.

About Katanga Mining Limited

Katanga Mining Ltd. operates a major mine complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo producing refined copper and cobalt. The Company has the potential to become Africa's largest copper producer and the world's largest cobalt producer. Katanga is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol KAT.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

All forward-looking statements reflect the Company's beliefs and assumptions based on information available at the time the statements were made. Actual results or events may differ from those predicted in these forward-looking statements. All of the Company's forward-looking statements are qualified by the assumptions that are stated or inherent in such forward-looking statements, including the assumptions listed below. Although the Company believes that these assumptions are reasonable, this list is not exhaustive of factors that may affect any of the forward-looking statements. The key assumptions that have been made in connection with the forward-looking statements include the following: the Independent Directors' review of certain past accounting, the outcome, analysis or conclusions of the Independent Directors' review, the expected delay in filing the Q2 Filings, the need to restate certain historical financial statements of the Company, the expected timing of completion of the restatement of the Company's historical financial statements, the issuance by the OSC of an MCTO or any other action to be taken by securities regulatory authorities in light of the review, the operations of the Company during the production suspension and timeline for the recommencement of operations remaining consistent with management's expectations, there being no significant disruptions affecting the operations of the Company whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, rollout of new equipment, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at the Project being consistent with the Company's current expectations; continued recognition of the Company's mining concessions and other assets, rights, titles and interests in the DRC; political and legal developments in the DRC being consistent with its current expectations; the continued provision or procurement of additional funding from Glencore for operations, the completion of the T17 Underground Mine, the WOL Project and the Power Project (as defined in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016 dated March 31, 2017); new equipment performs to expectations; the exchange rate between the US dollar, South African rand, British pounds, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, Congolese franc and Euro being approximately consistent with current levels; certain price assumptions for copper and cobalt; prices for diesel, natural gas, fuel oil, electricity and other key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production, operating expenses and cost of sales forecasts for the Company meeting expectations; the accuracy of the current ore reserve and mineral resource estimates of the Company (including but not limited to ore tonnage and ore grade estimates); and labour and material costs increasing on a basis consistent with the Company's current expectations.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, future events, conditions, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, prediction, projection, forecast, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, unfavourable conclusions of the Independent Directors' review, unforeseen action taken by the OSC or other securities regulatory authorities, the unforeseen delays or changes to the WOL Project; actual results of current exploration activities; actual results and interpretation of current reclamation activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of copper and cobalt; possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration, development or construction activities, delays due to strikes or other work stoppage, both internal and external to the Company as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's current annual information form and other publicly filed documents. Although Katanga has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Katanga Mining Ltd.
VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Mason Resources Corp. (TSX:MNR  "Mason" or the "Company") is pleased to report its financial results for the period ended June 30, 2017. Details of the Company's consolidated interim financial results are contained in the unaudited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis, which are available on the Company's website at www.MasonResources.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.

Q2 2017 HIGHLIGHTS

On May 9, 2017, Mason and Entree Resources Ltd. (formerly Entree Gold Inc.  "Entree") completed a strategic reorganization of Entree's business where Entree transferred to Mason all of the issued and outstanding shares of Entree's wholly owned subsidiary, which indirectly owns the Ann Mason copper-molybdenum project in Nevada and the Lordsburg copper-gold property in New Mexico, and $8.75 million in cash. As a result, each Entree shareholder received 0.45 of a Mason common share, and option-holders and warrant-holders of Entree received replacement options and warrants of Mason which are proportionate to, and reflective of the terms of, their existing options and warrants of Entree.





On May 9, 2017, the Company entered into an Administrative Services Agreement with Entree, pursuant to which Entree will provide basic day-to-day head office and executive responsibilities on a pro-rata cost-recovery basis.





On May 12, 2017, the Company's common shares commenced trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MNR".





As at June 30, 2017, the Company's cash balance was $9.2 million.





The Company's financial results have been prepared on a continuity of interest basis of accounting following the completion of the strategic reorganization, which requires that prior to the May 9, 2017 effective date thereof, the assets, liabilities, results of operations and cash flows of the Company be on a 'carve-out' basis from the consolidated financial statements and accounting records of Entree. As a result, the Company's net loss of $0.4 million (three months ended June 30, 2017) and $1.1 million (six months ended June 30, 2017) included carve-out results from Entree for the periods prior to May 9, 2017.

Subsequent to the end of the second quarter 2017:

On July 19, 2017, the Company adopted a Shareholder Rights Plan (the "Rights Plan") to ensure, to the extent possible, that all shareholders of the Company are treated fairly and equally in connection with any take-over bid or other acquisition of control of the Company. The Rights Plan was not adopted in response to any specific take-over bid or other proposal to acquire control of Mason and Mason is not aware of any such pending or contemplated proposals.





On August 4, 2017, Mantos Copper (Bermuda) Limited ("Mantos") acquired 13,664,757 shares of Mason from Rio Tinto International Holdings Limited and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd., representing approximately 17.53% of the outstanding common shares of Mason.

Ann Mason Project

On May 10, 2017, Mason filed its National Instrument 43-101 technical report titled "2017 Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Ann Mason Project, Nevada, U.S.A." for its flagship Ann Mason Project in Nevada on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

During the second quarter 2017, a program of geological mapping and sampling has been on-going on the Ann Mason Project to identify potential new targets of near-surface copper mineralization west of the Ann Mason deposit and northwest of the Blue Hill deposit and over the Shamrock target. Several zones of interest have been identified through detailed mapping and XRF analysis of copper mineralization. Work remains ongoing to define targets which could be further evaluated by future drilling programs.

OUTLOOK AND STRATEGY

Corporate

The Company's corporate focus going forward will be to maximize market value through increasing investor awareness of its key asset, the Ann Mason Project, while undertaking a process to prioritize and progress growth strategies including: introducing one or more strategic partners, evaluating opportunities for district consolidation and other strategic acquisitions. The Company will also continue to focus its efforts on fiscal responsibility and conserving cash reserves.

Total corporate costs for the second half of 2017, including marketing, investor relations, and compliance, are estimated to be $0.5 million.

Ann Mason Project

The Company is currently evaluating options for its Ann Mason Project which may include commencing a pre-feasibility study and testing high priority exploration targets with potential to provide early production options.

The Company is targeting expenditures of between $0.7 million and $0.9 million for the 2017 year, including claim filing fees, site maintenance and local administration costs. The Company is currently evaluating various strategies for the second half of 2017.

Lordsburg Property

The Company is managing the costs associated with the Lordsburg property while management evaluates the best path forward to add value to the project. Expenditures for 2017 are mainly for claim filing fees and local administration costs. The Company expects to spend approximately $0.1 million for the 2017 year.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Robert Cinits, P.Geo., Mason Resources' Chief Operating Officer, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has approved the technical information in this release.

ABOUT MASON RESOURCES CORP.

Mason Resources Corp. is a well-funded Canadian company focused on copper exploration and development in the U.S.A. The Company's key asset is its 100% owned Ann Mason Project  an extensive, prospective land package located in the Yerington District of Nevada. The Ann Mason Project hosts two copper-molybdenum porphyry deposits, Ann Mason and Blue Hill, as well as numerous earlier-stage or untested priority targets. The Ann Mason deposit is currently at a PEA level and is among the largest undeveloped copper porphyry resources in Canada/U.S.A. The excellent infrastructure, year-round access, strong community support and clear permitting process are all factors that contribute to making Yerington, Nevada one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world. Mason also holds a 100% interest in the Lordsburg property, an exciting earlier-stage copper-gold porphyry project, located within an historic mining district in New Mexico.

Mason's strong financial position and high-quality asset portfolio provide it with a solid foundation and flexibility for growth, by advancing development of Ann Mason towards Pre-Feasibility, introducing one or more strategic development partners, exploring high priority targets or considering strategic acquisitions. More information on Mason Resources can be found at www.MasonResources.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to corporate strategies and plans of Mason; uses of funds; the value and potential value of assets and the ability of Mason to maximize returns to shareholders; completion of a Pre-Feasibility study on the Ann Mason Project; a potential strategic development partner for the Ann Mason Project; the potential impact of future exploration results on Ann Mason mine design and economics; the potential development of Ann Mason; potential discovery of new mineralized zones; plans for future exploration and development programs and budgets; anticipated business activities; proposed acquisitions and dispositions of assets; and future financial performance.

While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of the Company's future performance and are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies, local and global economic conditions and the environment in which Mason will operate in the future, including the price of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum. Uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, unanticipated costs, expenses or liabilities; discrepancies between actual and anticipated production, mineral resources and metallurgical recoveries; the size, grade and continuity of deposits not being interpreted correctly from exploration results; the results of preliminary test work not being indicative of the results of future test work; fluctuations in commodity prices and demand; changing foreign exchange rates; actions by government authorities; the availability of funding on reasonable terms; the impact of changes in interpretation to or changes in enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practices, including laws, regulations and government practices with respect to mining, foreign investment, royalties and taxation; the terms and timing of obtaining necessary environmental and other government approvals, consents and permits; the availability and cost of necessary items such as power, water, skilled labour, transportation and appropriate smelting and refining arrangements; and misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements. In addition, there are also known and unknown risk factors which may cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to international operations, including legal and political risk; risks associated with changes in the attitudes of governments to foreign investment; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; inability to upgrade Inferred mineral resources to Indicated or Measured mineral resources; inability to convert mineral resources to mineral reserves; conclusions of economic evaluations; future prices of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining government approvals, permits or licences or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; environmental risks; title disputes; limitations on insurance coverage; as well as those factors discussed in the Company's most recently filed Managements' Discussion and Analysis available at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Mason Resources
Cook County's sweetened beverage tax has landed the state in hot water with the feds, potentially causing roughly $87 million in federal food stamp money to be withheld, Illinois officials said Thursday.The problem: Purchases made with federal food stamp benefits are exempt from the soda tax under federal law, but Cook County has allowed retailers to tax those purchases and provide refunds as a workaround for stores that haven't been able to program their point-of-sale systems.Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Services, the federal agency overseeing the SNAP food stamp program -- officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- warned Illinois that federal money could be withheld if the problem isn't fixed.USDA officials told the county the regulation was "unacceptable" in a phone call in late June, according to its memo to the state."It is (Food and Nutrition Services') strict interpretation that retailers may not charge the tax to SNAP recipients at any time and that providing an immediate subsequent refund at a customer service does not cure the problem or the violation of the law," said James Dimas, secretary of the Illinois state Department of Human Services, in his memo relaying the message to Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday.Preckwinkle spoke at the Cook County Democratic Party's slating event Thursday. Asked about the memo afterward, she declined to comment because she hadn't yet reviewed it.Later in the day, county spokesman Frank Shuftan said in a statement that the county was unaware the USDA considered the county's regulation to be unacceptable after that June phone conversation. The county believed USDA was considering the policy and would follow up with any concerns, he said."At this time, we believe we are in compliance with existing SNAP rules. We do however recognize that USDA's powers against the state in this regard are substantial and we will work collaboratively with both the state and USDA to address USDA's concerns," Shuftan said in the statement.As of Thursday, a sweetened beverage tax regulation allowing the refunds was still posted on the county website. It's not known how many Cook County retailers are applying the tax to SNAP purchases and then offering refunds.To avoid having the federal SNAP funds withheld, the state human services department has until Aug. 21 to submit a plan that either details how the county tax regulation will be fixed or confirm a delay of the tax to allow retailers more time to program their point-of-sale systems.Under federal law, SNAP purchases are exempt from state and local sales tax. Cook County officials were hopeful they'd be able to apply the tax universally by having retailers fold the cost of the tax into the selling price of the products instead of tacking it on at checkout.But the state Department of Revenue said that would constitute an "overcollection" because the higher selling price would then be subject to sales tax. On June 6 -- less than a month from the planned July 1 start date -- the county announced the tax would primarily be applied at the point of sale, thus rendering SNAP purchases exempt.The Illinois Retail Merchants Association's lawsuit challenging the county's tax, now in the appeals court, outlined concerns about the tax putting retailers at risk of violating SNAP rules, among other allegations.The tax has rolled out with some minor bumps at Fresh Market Place on North Western Avenue, said general manager Danny Drossos. Implementing such a complex tax doesn't happen flawlessly overnight."We have had a few instances where (SNAP recipients) were charged, and we made sure we took it out," he said. "It's going to take some time to make sure we dot the i's, as they say, and cross the t's."Even at Jewel-Osco, Chicago's largest traditional grocery chain, there's ample room for human error."Due to the many taxes applied at the retail level Jewel-Osco is not able to program the register to automatically remove the tax. Instead the cashier must remove it manually once they are aware the customer is paying with a Link card," said Jewel-Osco spokeswoman Mary Frances Trucco in an email, referring to the card used to access SNAP benefits.
Mayor Jim Gray released a video Sunday further explaining his decision to move two Confederate statues from the lawn of the former Fayette County courthouse on Main Street.Gray announced Saturday he was going to ask the Lexington city council to support a petition on the matter. That petition would go to a state military monuments commission that must approve moving the statues of John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge. Gray's announcement came on the same day that one person was killed and at least 19 were injured in Charlottesville, Va., after a violent skirmish that erupted around the removal of a Confederate statue there.In the video, Gray said he made the decision only after careful consideration and hearing from people who both supported keeping the statues and those who demanded their removal.Lexington honors history. But that history must be accurate, he said.The statues of Hunt Morgan -- a Confederate general -- and Breckinridge -- the last Confederate Secretary of War -- also stand on the same ground that was once one of the largest slave markets in the South, Gray said."It's just not right for us to continue to honor these Confederate men who fought to preserve slavery on the same ground that men, women and even children were once sold into a life of slavery," Gray said.Gray said he is recommending the statues be moved to Veterans Park in southeast Lexington near a war memorial there. Two new monuments honoring Kentucky's Union history will also be added, he said in the video posted on Facebook.
Expressions of grief and solidarity have played out again and again in other American cities struck by tragedy _ impromptu memorials of flowers and cards, prayers for the dead and injured, pledges of peace.But as Charlottesville police and residents tried to piece together what led to the bloody events at a "Unite the Right" rally of white nationalists, there was the inescapable sense Sunday that the violence that left three dead and dozens injured was somehow different from previous incidents. The chaos that spread at the rally Saturday involved dozens, not just some lone guy with a grudge.Charlottesville residents were asking whether the city and police had been properly prepared and could have prevented the deadly attack.As the city tried to heal, officers stood guard in riot gear. Police snipers positioned themselves on rooftops.A memorial vigil was to be held Sunday night for 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer, who was killed when a man said to be infatuated with Nazis plowed his car into anti-racism protesters. She had been known in the city for her civil rights activism. The vigil was postponed because of safety concerns.Anti-racism activists are questioning why Charlottesville police, who had weeks to prepare for the permitted rally, seemed caught off guard or, in other cases, seemed to ignore violence the city had vowed to prevent. Video clips shared on social media show police standing by in some cases as brawls broke out the morning before the rally was officially set to begin Saturday."It's a joke," said Larry Engel, a local business owner, who faulted police for not separating white supremacists and anti-racist groups that repeatedly clashed before the car attack. "There was no buffer zone" between opposing groups that gathered on downtown streets and in a city park that has become an ideological battleground because of the presence of a Confederate statue.Others defended the efforts of law enforcement. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, referring to the man accused of driving his car into the protesters, said, "You can't stop some crazy guy who came here from Ohio and used his car as a weapon. He is a terrorist."McAuliffe also addressed those who attended the "Unite the Right" rally, which was preceded Friday night with a torch-lit march in which demonstrators chanted the Nazi slogan "Blood and soil!""To the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis who came to our state yesterday, there is no place for you here," McAuliffe said, drawing an implicit contrast with President Donald Trump, who on Saturday did not single out the same groups for blame. (The White House on Sunday said that Trump was denouncing right-wing hate groups.)"Shame on you," said the governor of the white nationalists, delivering his remarks at the Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, blocks from the site of Saturday's clashes.Rallies also took place around the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, in support of the dozens injured in Charlottesville and the three who died, including two state police officers whose helicopter crashed Saturday.Others, however, were quick to cast blame, including on Trump _ who many demonstrators said emboldened white supremacists with nativist rhetoric _ as well as on police and neo-Nazi groups.On Sunday afternoon, angry protesters chased down one of the rally's main organizers as he attempted to address a throng of reporters outside Charlottesville City Hall.Members of the crowd shouted "murderer" and "shame" at Jason Kessler, a blogger based in Charlottesville, as a police sniper watched from a nearby rooftop. One man spat on Kessler and another punched him before he darted away with the help of a police escort.In a statement, Kessler deflected blame and said the violence was "primarily the result of the Charlottesville government officials and the law enforcement officers which failed to maintain law and order by protecting the First Amendment rights of the participants of the 'Unite the Right' rally."Kessler, who organized the demonstration in response to the city's efforts to take down a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in a park, also accused police of not doing enough to keep the two sides apart.Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College who studies policing and protests, said the strategies used by law enforcement in Charlottesville played a role in how quickly tensions escalated.Vitale said it looked as if large numbers of police in riot gear were assigned to guard fixed barriers, which may have prevented them from moving quickly into the street and making arrests."They assumed that the crowds would just have their rallies and keep separate," Vitale said.Erroll Southers, the director of homegrown violent extremism studies at USC, said because white nationalists have become bolder in recent years, local law enforcement and government officials need to be better prepared to deal with domestic extremism and terrorism.Southers said tensions in Charlottesville, where debates have raged over the city's Confederate history and ties to slavery when Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, had brewed for some time.The threat of homegrown terrorism will continue to grow, Southers said. "I see this getting worse unless the violence is taken seriously ... This was not a planned event. It was not a surprise. There are questions that need to be answered."The Charlottesville police chief, Al Thomas, declined to speak to journalists Sunday. Miriam Dickler, a spokeswoman for the city of Charlottesville, declined to address specific reports about police interactions."Our police officers, the Virginia State Police and other law enforcement agencies were around the area the entire day, responding to more than 250 incidents and assisting people," she said.One incident involved De'Andre Harris, a 20-year-old city resident who protested against neo-Nazi groups. As a gang of white supremacists was beating him bloody, Harris said, he thought he might not survive and wondered why police were not rushing to defend him.A few moments before, he and four friends, all of them African-Americans, were screaming curses at white nationalists marching along Market Street on Saturday.The verbal confrontation soon turned ugly. Harris said he did not know why the marchers singled him out, though he had tied a white towel around his neck on which he had scrawled epithets directed at the Ku Klux Klan and police. As he fled into the nearby parking garage, the men caught up with him, hitting him with their fists and wooden poles.But a group of police officers only a few yards away did not attempt to break up the fight, according to Harris and another witness."They were trying to kill me out there," Harris said. "The police didn't budge, and I was getting beat to a pulp." After five or six minutes, one officer from a different group of police came to his aid.Dozens of others were injured Saturday, including 19 people who were hospitalized after the car attack. Ten of those people were listed in "good condition" Sunday at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and nine had been discharged.The driver _ identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, from Ohio _ was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that ended in death.His mother, Samantha Bloom, who lives in Toledo, Ohio, said she didn't know that her son was attending a white supremacist rally."I thought it had something to do with Trump," she told the Toledo Blade, saying she avoided getting "too involved" in her son's political views. The family moved to Ohio a year ago for the mother's job, she said.Derek Weimer, who was Field's high school history teacher where he grew up in Kentucky, told WCPO-TV in Cincinnati that Fields had been "infatuated with Nazis" and had "radical ideas on race."On Sunday, U.S. Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson said Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015 but was "released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards" just four months later.Photos circulating on social media appeared to show Fields posing with members of Vanguard America, a white nationalist group, on the day of the rally. Fields held a black-and-white shield with the organization's insignia. Vanguard America said Fields was not a member and that shields were distributed widely.More details also emerged about the two state troopers killed when a State Police helicopter crashed near the city after monitoring the chaos.H. Jay Cullen, 48, was a veteran of the force who spent years flying the governor around the state. Berke M.M. Bates, 40, was just beginning a career as a helicopter pilot that he had dreamed about for decades. He would have celebrated his 41st birthday Sunday.
The Illinois Senate on Sunday adopted a resolution urging law enforcement officials to recognize white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations.The resolution comes in response to the violent weekend in Charlottesville, Va., where a woman who was protesting a rally staged by white nationalists was killed after a driver who participated in the rally drove a car into a line of vehicles."It is vital that we stand in total opposition to the hatred, bigotry and violence displayed by the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville this past weekend," said sponsoring Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park. "They are the heirs to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis. We fought two bloody wars in opposition to their ideologies. We must continue to fight those same twisted ideologies today."
Description

GIS - 14 August 2017: The International Monetary Funds (IMF) work involves conducting assessments of the economic and social situation and, Mauritius has always made the most of lessons learnt, in particular, recommendations made by experts, said the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, on 11 August 2017 at the Treasury Building in Port Louis.

The Prime Minister made this statement following a meeting he had with a delegation from the IMF led by Mr Amadou Sy, Advisor African Department. Prime Minister Jugnauth indicated that the meeting was an opportunity to review the different sectors of the Mauritian economy, various governing indices and Governments vision for the country. IMFs report will further assist us so that we are able to attain the objectives that we have set for the future, he added.

For his part, Mr Sy highlighted that the meeting with the Prime Minister presented an opportunity to debrief on the meetings held with all the relevant stakeholders. We have also begun the discussion process pertaining to the recommendations of economic policies which the IMF holds with countries, and once we return to Washington DC, we will present the results to the Executive Board, added Mr Sy.

Under Article IV of the IMFs Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions/consultations with members, usually every year on economic developments and policies.

IMF

The IMF, also known as the Fund, is an organisation of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

Created in 1945, the Fund is governed by and accountable to the 189 countries that make up its near-global membership.

The IMF's primary purpose is to ensure the stability of the international monetary systemthe system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries (and their citizens) to transact with each other.
Description

GIS - 14 August, 2017: The issuance of letters to some 138 families granting them ownership of land in Constituencies 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Port Louis puts an end to squatting within the capitals region, stated the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Housing and Lands, Mr Showkutally Soodhun, at a ceremony held on 11 August 2017, at the Sir Harilal Vaghjee Memorial Hall in Port Louis.

He highlighted that Government is committed to address the problem of squatting in an efficient and humane manner, and at present, there are 346 squatters across the country. He reiterated his Ministrys determination to combat illegal occupation of State land and deal with the issue of squatting with all the consideration that it warrants.

According to Mr Soodhun, all those who were illegally occupying State Lands in Tranquebar, Cite La Cure, Riche Terre and Monseigneur Leen, among others, have either been regularised in situ, or relocated. He added that the 138 beneficiaries will now have security of tenure, thereby enabling them to get connected to the water and electricity networks as well as rendering them eligible for loan facilities.

It is noted that the benefiting families will have to disburse some Rs 2,000 to obtain ownership of the land they have been occupying.
58 percent of companies are failing in their efforts to measure the effectiveness of their cybersecurity investments and performance against best practices.

4 out of 5 companies worldwide are not fully satisfied with their cybersecurity metrics.

1 in 3 companies invest in cybersecurity technologies without any way to measure their value or effectiveness.

4 out 5 companies dont know where their sensitive data is located, and how to secure it.

4 out of 5 fail to communicate effectively with business stakeholders and include them in cybersecurity investment decisions.

2 out of 3 companies dont fully measure whether their disaster recovery will work as planned.

4 out of 5 never measure the success of security training investments.

While 80 percent of breaches involve stolen or weak credentials 60 percent of companies still do not adequately protect privileged accounts  their keys to the kingdom.

Small businesses are targeted in 2 out of 3 cyberattacks.

60 percent (of small businesses) go out of business six months after a breach.

Educate Employees and Measure Cyber Hygiene

Mandate that C-level execs experience a Red Team assessment

Implement an approach and culture of least privilege

Backup critical data and systems and customize your recovery plan for different types of cyberthreats. Test your restore capabilities.

Ensure Multi-Factor Authentication is in place

Strengthen Identity Access Management and Protect Privileged Accounts

Prepare and Implement a Cyber Incident Plan

Control, Monitor, and Report Admin Privileged Access to Systems

Correlate, Monitor and Audit Security Logs

Get your Key Business Metrics Sorted

Take the Security Measurement Index Benchmark Survey

With new data breaches, cyberattacks, nation-state hacking, ransomware outbreaks and related stories making news media headlines daily, the global cybersecurity landscape has become somewhat of a blur for the vast majority of us. As a result, only the biggest hacking stories (Im talking really bad incidents with broad impact such as HBOs recent data breach) receive significant attention anymore.Sadly Americans have grown accustomed to being hacked. Even security and technology professionals cannot keep up with the rapid growth of regional, national and international cyberactivities.Meanwhile, organizations struggle to measure and report on their own security risks, vulnerabilities and solutions or justify cybersecurity expenditures. Fortunately for some, most local cyberemergencies never make the evening news.So given this backdrop, how do you measure your cybersecurity progress? What metrics do you use in your public- or private-sector business? Are your measurements yielding improvements in your cyberdefense posture? Are you passing cyber 101  or are your grades improving?A new report suggests that the majority of us are failing to make passing cybergrades.Back in April of this year, I wrote an article formagazine entitled: Cybersecurity Has a Metrics Problem  Heres What You Can Do About It . The global response to that piece has vastly exceeded expectations, with thousands of online references and shares and over 400 likes and comments from the Information Security Community on LinkedIn. I have also received many thoughtful messages from thought-leaders all over the world who are working on this metrics problem.One person that I met along this cybermetrics journey was Joseph Carson, who is a respected cybersecurity professional and ethical hacker with more than 25 years experience in enterprise security. Carson speaks at global conferences such as Black Hat , and he serves as chief security scientist at Thycotic. He is also the author of Privileged Account Management for dummies Beyond a fascinating online conversation regarding metrics, Carson pointed me to some new research that their company has performed on this cybermetrics topic. Their full report can be downloaded for free by registering at their website here . Nevertheless, I received permission to provide readers with some fascinating report excerpts, along with related graphics. At the end of this report summary, I interview Carson to dig deeper into a few cybersecurity measurement areas.I found the results of this global survey, which included U.S. federal, state and local governments, to be very eye-opening.With over 400 global business and security executives participating in this benchmark survey, more than half of respondents scored an F or D grade when evaluating their efforts to measure their cybersecurity investments and performance against best practices. Based on internationally accepted standards for security embodied in ISO 27001, as well as best practices from industry experts and professional associations, the Security Measurement Index benchmark survey provides a comprehensive way to define how well an organization is measuring the effectiveness of its IT security.Most survey respondents do not feel confident about how they are measuring the value of their cybersecurity investments, and 80 percent stated that they are not fully satisfied with the metrics available.With global companies and governments spending more than $100 billion a year on cybersecurity defenses, a substantial number  32 percent  of companies are making business decisions and purchasing cybersecurity technology blindly.Even more disturbing, more than 80 percent of respondents fail to include business users in making cybersecurity purchase decisions, nor have they established a steering committee to evaluate the business impact and risks associated with cybersecurity investments.With ransomware causing major havoc in the past year, its alarming that so many organizations are uncertain whether they have backed up information properly and if they can recover it in a timely manner. Nearly two out of three businesses (64 percent) among survey respondents fail to recover timely, or in a way that aligned with their disaster recovery plan.Results from this Security Measurement Index benchmark survey clearly indicate that companies need to do a better job of measuring business success and key metrics on how cybersecurity investments are performing.In addition, 8 out 10 companies fail to ensure that their IT security policies are understood by employees and measure this. This puts organizations at risk since human error or malicious intention are frequent causes of security breaches.Access controls for privileged accounts in network systems are some of the most important ways to protect enterprises, including highly sensitive power accounts like those of a system administrator or root accounts that if compromised, can enable an attacker to move anywhere within the network undetected. Yet, nearly two out of three or 60 percent of our survey respondents fail to adequately protect privileged administrator accounts.Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are being targeted more because their cybersecurity is typically much easier to compromise. Though they are not usually the main target but a secondary victim, the real goal of cybercriminals is to infiltrate partnerships SMBs have established with larger organizations via a supply chain or data shared with larger companies.This was the first time we have run such a security research report on Cyber Security Metrics. We have run security research previously on Password Growth, State of Privileged Accounts and Hackers reports from Blackhat and RSA. The main reason for conducting the report is that we are researching what critical data and cybersecurity metrics executives and CISOs need to be able to effectively measure their Cyber Security Effectiveness and wanted to understand what the current state is today. What appears to be is that we are not getting any better as many companies continue to measure cybersecurity as part of IT and not as part of Risk and Governance and without this change, it will always be measured incorrectly.JC: The main reason why it is doing so poorly as companies are measuring the technology as part of IT which has always been about availability, performance and usage however cybersecurity is about risk mitigation and is very different from measuring traditional IT systems. It is about the risk to the business and cost of incidents and lost productivity, and unless companies/governments change the way they measure cybersecurity, they will continue doing this poorly and wasting huge sums of money and not reducing the cybersecurity risks.JC: The best security metrics are about how well the business is performing against the threats mitigated, knowing that systems and data did not get corrupted due to security controls being in place and the value over time this helps companies measure the effectiveness of the solutions. At the end of the day, it is how did these solutions help our employees do their job and reduce the risk of compromise.JC: Not really. We found all sizes of organizations had the same issues and have been approaching the measurement of cybersecurity in a traditional IT sense.JC: Governments organizations failed just like the private sector, while they had more regulations to deal with they become overwhelmed with resource constraints, lack of budget and education.JC: It is important to get Cyber Security Metrics correctly prioritized and measure the risk of the business versus traditional IT. Once the data has been classified and the risks impact versus probability, companies can then easily choose the right security controls that will help both the business measure the right metrics and reduce the right risk effectively allowing them to easily meet compliance.Here is a subset of what the report recommends. Note: Many more details on each item are available in the report:The weakest link in the security of most organizations is the human being. As more sophisticated social engineering and phishing attacks have emerged in the past few years, companies must consider expanding their IT security awareness programs beyond simple online tests or acknowledgements of policies. As personal mobile devices are increasingly used for business purposes, educating employees on secure behaviors has become imperative.At the moment, the difficulty measuring cybersecurity risk and effectiveness for many organizations has challenged the CISO in demonstrating how cybersecurity can show business value. The metrics are still evolving, and for most cybersecurity professionals, its been about keeping the existing security controls working, make continuous improvements where possible, and placing security on previously adopted technologies. Cybersecurity has typically been an afterthought, making the CISOs already-tough job more challenging.As cybersecurity continues to capture more attention at the boardroom level, measuring the planning and performance of cybersecurity investments will hopefully get more sophisticated and helpful. The stronger our metrics, the better our odds of making smart decisions that keep our businesses growing safely and securely.There are many cybersecurity industry viewpoints, including several recent books and whitepapers, on this cybermetrics topic. While I am not endorsing their products or services and have no business relationship with their company, I like the approach that Thycotic has taken on this important security metrics discipline. I want to thank Joe Carson for providing his viewpoints, materials and expertise for this blog.Other industry experts have focused on other aspects of applying the right security metrics, such as this recent article inmagazine on why security ROI is not a good measurement . Whether you agree or not, the article is thought-provoking.I urge readers to take action on cybersecurity metrics and come up with what the best approach is for your enterprise. Doing nothing is not a sustainable option, and the results of this survey tell an important story on why cybersecurity grades are failing around the globe.
(TNS) -- WASHINGTON  Its an experience every computer or smart phone user has had. After downloading new software or an app, a window pops up with a legal agreement. At the bottom is an I agree button. One click, and its gone.Most users have no clue what theyve agreed to.That single action can empower software developers to extract reams of personal information  such as contacts, location and other private data  from the devices. They can then market the information.Even as privacy erodes in the digital era, little outcry arises over the digital tracking and profiling of consumers. Only slight murmurs are heard on Capitol Hill.But a handful of security researchers, lawyers and privacy watchdogs voice increasing concern that consumers might one day wake up in anger at the collection of data by software companies winning rights to do so through end user license agreements, also known as EULAs. One researcher says the data collection potentially poses a national security threat.For now, news about how companies collect data emerges in bite-sized stories. In late July, articles brought to light that certain models of the Roomba robotic vacuum not only collect dust as they whir across the floor, they also map the homes of users and send the data back to headquarters. The Massachusetts manufacturer, iRobot Corp., may share the data to enable the smart home and the devices within it to work better. It says it will do so only with customer consent.iRobot chief executive Colin Angle said, iRobot will never sell your data. He added that such information needs to be controlled by the customer and not as a data asset of a corporation to exploit.Other companies, empowered by the click-through habits of consumers that allow them to gather and sort through data, exploit the information by selling it to data brokers.We need legislation that basically forces these companies to be very, very clear on what information they are taking from us when we install these apps, said Michael Patterson, chief executive of Plixer International, a Kennebunk, Maine, cybersecurity firm.If they change the EULAs, they have to tell us, and they also have to make what theyve taken from us available at any time, Patterson said.When you buy a box of cereal or crackers, on the side of it it gives you nutrition facts, Patterson continued. Thats what I want. I want nutrition facts on every piece of software I install so that I can click on it and it says all the information theyre taking.Gary Reback, a Palo Alto, Calif., antitrust lawyer who has tangled in legal battles with Google and Microsoft over data privacy issues, said data harvested from consumers has led companies to create individual profiles, often at a level of detail that even family members may not know.When an online profile is created of you, which you never really get to see, its not just kind of what you buy, its who you might vote for, Reback said in a recent telephone interview.An old saying goes that when a consumer gets a service or product for free, the consumer becomes the product. His or her profile becomes an item to be marketed.You may think your identity is, you look in the mirror and thats what you see, but its really not. Your identity is what theyve compiled, Reback said. That is kind of scary when you think about it. I just dont think people think about it enough.Internet-connected devices proliferate in homes. An estimated 8.4 billion such devices exist in the world today, the Gartner research firm says, and that number is projected to climb to 20.4 billion by 2020. Those devices are often lumped together as the Internet of Things.Its getting worse because the Internet of Things is like where your location is, how much your heart rate is going, (and) what youre saying with these new voice-controlled devices, said Chris Wysopal, cofounder of Veracode, a Burlington, Mass., app security company.Wysopal is concerned enough about privacy that he avoids all voice-activated devices in his own home out of concern they may be feeding his private activities back to manufacturers. But he said young people may feel that we enjoy all this technology so much that were willing to give it up.As time passes, added Reback, the growth of big players in technology may leave consumers with the sense they have little choice but to accept conditions imposed on them.Youve got no alternative. Back when there was competition, if some people did a better job at protecting privacy, that might have influenced your choice, Reback said.The direction of where the issue may head is unclear.I dont have a good answer for where its going to go. But I think that things might just change that people really start to think its fine to have all this data in the hands of third parties, Wysopal said.(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)In addition to how the personal data of consumers is used, a corollary is whether companies can keep the data safe, said James Scott, senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a Washington center that calls itself Americas cybersecurity think tank.If U.S. adversaries hack databases containing consumer profiles collected and built up by data firms working with software companies, they could use the information to manipulate public opinion to stoke chaos, Scott said.What happens then is that nation states are able to fan the flame of alt-right, alt-left, Bernie Sanders supporters, Trump supporters, Hillary supporters, Scott said, adding that a potential campaign could fan the flame of distrust of the population against the government.Scott, too, said he stops using some products when he learns that companies are marketing his usage data, and did so after a lawsuit filed in April charged that Bose, the audio manufacturer of wireless headphones, was monitoring your music and selling that data.Im a privacy rights kind of guy, so I tossed my Bose and will never buy Bose again, he said.Bose, on its webpage, says it respects the privacy of our users.Patterson, the Plixer chief, said he is particularly wary of smart phone navigation apps.Maybe they keep track if Im speeding a lot, he said. Maybe they sell it to insurance companies.On a trip to one of the main U.S. intelligence agencies, which Scott would only identify as a three-letter agency, he said he was stuck at security with an unrelated large delegation, and inquired of a colleague who they were.Oh, thats Google, he said he was told. They are always here begging us to buy their data.
(TNS)  CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  Expressions of grief and solidarity have played out again and again in other American cities struck by tragedy  impromptu memorials of flowers and cards, prayers for the dead and injured, pledges of peace.But as Charlottesville police and residents tried to piece together what led to the bloody events at a "Unite the Right" rally of white nationalists, there was the inescapable sense Sunday that the violence that left three dead and dozens injured was somehow different from previous incidents. The chaos that spread at the rally Saturday involved dozens, not just some lone guy with a grudge.Charlottesville residents were asking whether the city and police had been properly prepared and could have prevented the deadly attack.As the city tried to heal, officers stood guard in riot gear. Police snipers positioned themselves on rooftops.A memorial vigil was to be held Sunday night for 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer, who was killed when a man said to be infatuated with Nazis plowed his car into anti-racism protesters. She had been known in the city for her civil rights activism. The vigil was postponed because of safety concerns.Anti-racism activists are questioning why Charlottesville police, who had weeks to prepare for the permitted rally, seemed caught off guard or, in other cases, seemed to ignore violence the city had vowed to prevent. Video clips shared on social media show police standing by in some cases as brawls broke out the morning before the rally was officially set to begin Saturday."It's a joke," said Larry Engel, a local business owner, who faulted police for not separating white supremacists and anti-racist groups that repeatedly clashed before the car attack. "There was no buffer zone" between opposing groups that gathered on downtown streets and in a city park that has become an ideological battleground because of the presence of a Confederate statue.Others defended the efforts of law enforcement. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, referring to the man accused of driving his car into the protesters, said, "You can't stop some crazy guy who came here from Ohio and used his car as a weapon. He is a terrorist."McAuliffe also addressed those who attended the "Unite the Right" rally, which was preceded Friday night with a torch-lit march in which demonstrators chanted the Nazi slogan "Blood and soil!""To the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis who came to our state yesterday, there is no place for you here," McAuliffe said, drawing an implicit contrast with President Donald Trump, who on Saturday did not single out the same groups for blame. (The White House on Sunday said that Trump was denouncing right-wing hate groups.)"Shame on you," said the governor of the white nationalists, delivering his remarks at the Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, blocks from the site of Saturday's clashes.Rallies also took place around the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, in support of the dozens injured in Charlottesville and the three who died, including two state police officers whose helicopter crashed Saturday.Others, however, were quick to cast blame, including on Trump _ who many demonstrators said emboldened white supremacists with nativist rhetoric _ as well as on police and neo-Nazi groups.On Sunday afternoon, angry protesters chased down one of the rally's main organizers as he attempted to address a throng of reporters outside Charlottesville City Hall.Members of the crowd shouted "murderer" and "shame" at Jason Kessler, a blogger based in Charlottesville, as a police sniper watched from a nearby rooftop. One man spat on Kessler and another punched him before he darted away with the help of a police escort.In a statement, Kessler deflected blame and said the violence was "primarily the result of the Charlottesville government officials and the law enforcement officers which failed to maintain law and order by protecting the First Amendment rights of the participants of the 'Unite the Right' rally."Kessler, who organized the demonstration in response to the city's efforts to take down a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in a park, also accused police of not doing enough to keep the two sides apart.Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College who studies policing and protests, said the strategies used by law enforcement in Charlottesville played a role in how quickly tensions escalated.Vitale said it looked as if large numbers of police in riot gear were assigned to guard fixed barriers, which may have prevented them from moving quickly into the street and making arrests."They assumed that the crowds would just have their rallies and keep separate," Vitale said.Erroll Southers, the director of homegrown violent extremism studies at USC, said because white nationalists have become bolder in recent years, local law enforcement and government officials need to be better prepared to deal with domestic extremism and terrorism.Southers said tensions in Charlottesville, where debates have raged over the city's Confederate history and ties to slavery when Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, had brewed for some time.The threat of homegrown terrorism will continue to grow, Southers said. "I see this getting worse unless the violence is taken seriously ... This was not a planned event. It was not a surprise. There are questions that need to be answered."The Charlottesville police chief, Al Thomas, declined to speak to journalists Sunday. Miriam Dickler, a spokeswoman for the city of Charlottesville, declined to address specific reports about police interactions."Our police officers, the Virginia State Police and other law enforcement agencies were around the area the entire day, responding to more than 250 incidents and assisting people," she said.One incident involved De'Andre Harris, a 20-year-old city resident who protested against neo-Nazi groups. As a gang of white supremacists was beating him bloody, Harris said, he thought he might not survive and wondered why police were not rushing to defend him.A few moments before, he and four friends, all of them African-Americans, were screaming curses at white nationalists marching along Market Street on Saturday.The verbal confrontation soon turned ugly. Harris said he did not know why the marchers singled him out, though he had tied a white towel around his neck on which he had scrawled epithets directed at the Ku Klux Klan and police. As he fled into the nearby parking garage, the men caught up with him, hitting him with their fists and wooden poles.But a group of police officers only a few yards away did not attempt to break up the fight, according to Harris and another witness."They were trying to kill me out there," Harris said. "The police didn't budge, and I was getting beat to a pulp." After five or six minutes, one officer from a different group of police came to his aid.Dozens of others were injured Saturday, including 19 people who were hospitalized after the car attack. Ten of those people were listed in "good condition" Sunday at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and nine had been discharged.The driver _ identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, from Ohio  was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that ended in death.His mother, Samantha Bloom, who lives in Toledo, Ohio, said she didn't know that her son was attending a white supremacist rally."I thought it had something to do with Trump," she told the Toledo Blade, saying she avoided getting "too involved" in her son's political views. The family moved to Ohio a year ago for the mother's job, she said.Derek Weimer, who was Field's high school history teacher where he grew up in Kentucky, told WCPO-TV in Cincinnati that Fields had been "infatuated with Nazis" and had "radical ideas on race."On Sunday, U.S. Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson said Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015 but was "released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards" just four months later.Photos circulating on social media appeared to show Fields posing with members of Vanguard America, a white nationalist group, on the day of the rally. Fields held a black-and-white shield with the organization's insignia. Vanguard America said Fields was not a member and that shields were distributed widely.More details also emerged about the two state troopers killed when a State Police helicopter crashed near the city after monitoring the chaos.H. Jay Cullen, 48, was a veteran of the force who spent years flying the governor around the state. Berke M.M. Bates, 40, was just beginning a career as a helicopter pilot that he had dreamed about for decades. He would have celebrated his 41st birthday Sunday.___(Staff writers Cloud reported from Charlottesville and Kaleem and Etehad from Los Angeles. Staff writer W.J. Hennigan contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.)___(c)2017 Los Angeles TimesVisit Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) -- In the early days of atomic energy, the federal government powered up an experimental reactor in Idaho with an ambitious goal: create a wonder fuel for the nation.The reactor was one of the nations first breeder reactors  designed to make its own new plutonium fuel while it generated electricity, solving what scientists at the time thought was a looming shortage of uranium for power plants and nuclear weapons.It went into operation in 1964 and kept the lights burning at the sprawling national laboratory for three decades.But enthusiasm eventually waned for the breeder reactor program owing to safety concerns, high costs and an adequate supply of uranium.Today, its only legacy is 26 metric tons of highly radioactive waste. What to do with that spent fuel is causing the federal government deepening political, technical, legal and financial headaches.The reactor was shut down in 1994. Under a legal settlement with Idaho regulators the next year, the Department of Energy pledged to have the waste treated and ready to transport out of the state by 2035.The chances of that happening now appear slim. A special treatment plant is having so many problems and delays that it could take many decades past the deadline to finish the job.The process doesnt work, said Edwin Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has documented the problems in a new report. It turned out to be harder to execute and less reliable than they promised.The delays have also fueled a massive increase in costs, which were originally estimated at about $500 million but at the current cleanup rate would hit $1 billion, Lyman said.The waste is one of many unusual radioactive concoctions that came out of federal weapons and civilian power research programs and now require complex technologies to treat.Many of the cleanup efforts, like the one in Idaho, are years or even decades behind schedule, reflecting practices that were far too optimistic when it came to technology, costs and management know-how.Jim Owendoff, the acting chief of the Energy Departments environmental management program, recently ordered a 45-day review of the entire $6-billion-a-year radiation cleanup effort.What I am looking at is how we can be more timely in our decision-making, he said in a department newsletter.The Idaho reactor, located at the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory, was designed to produce electricity while it breeds new fuel by allowing fast-moving neutrons to convert non-fissionable uranium into fissionable plutonium.But the complexity of breeder reactors led to safety problems.Only one breeder reactor ever went into commercial operation in the U.S.  the Enrico Fermi I near Detroit, which suffered a partial core meltdown in 1966. Construction of a breeder reactor on the Clinch River in Tennessee was stopped in 1983.A reactor using similar technology above the San Fernando Valley experienced fuel core damage in 1959 that is believed to have released radioactive iodine into the air.Ultimately, the nation never faced a shortage of uranium fuel, and now the Energy Department is spending billions of dollars to manage its surplus plutonium.Unlike uranium, the wonder fuel, as the lab called it, was bonded to sodium to improve heat transfer inside the reactor.The sodium has presented an unusual waste problem.Sodium is a highly reactive element that can become explosive when it comes in contact with water and is potentially too unstable to put in any future underground dump  such as the one proposed at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.To remove the bonded sodium, the government developed a complex process, known as pyroprocessing . The spent fuel parts from the reactor are placed in a chemical bath and subjected to an electrical current, which draws off the sodium onto another material. The process is similar to electroplating a kitchen faucet.Back in 2000, the project managers estimated in an environmental report that they could treat 5 metric tons annually and complete the job in six years.But privately, the department estimated that it would take more than twice that long, according to internal documents that Lyman obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.Even that was unrealistic, because it assumed that the treatment plant could work around the clock every day of the year, without down time for maintenance or allowance for breakdowns. Lyman found that during one year  2012  no waste at all was processed.Since the project began 17 years ago, 15% of the waste has been processed, an average of one-fourth of a metric ton per year. Thats 20 times slower than originally expected, a pace that would stretch the work into the next century  long past the 2035 deadline.The problem with the breeder reactor waste is just one of many environmental issues at the lab, located on a high desert plateau near Idaho Falls. The federal government gifted the Idaho lab with additional radioactive waste for decades.After the highly contaminated Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver was shut down in 1993, the waste was shipped to Idaho. The Navy has been sending in its spent fuel from nuclear-powered ships.The lab is dealing with tons of waste containing artificial elements, so-called transuranic waste. The Energy Department promised to move an average of 2,000 cubic meters to a special dump in New Mexico, but it has missed that goal for several years, because of an underground explosion at the dump.The Energy Department declined to answer specific questions about the breeder waste cleanup, citing the sensitivity of nuclear technology. It blamed the slow pace of cleanup on inadequate funding but said it was still trying to meet the deadline.When the implementation plan for the treatment of the [spent fuel] was developed in 2000, there was very limited nuclear energy research and development being performed in the United States, a department spokesperson said in a statement.The funding for this program has been limited in favor of other research and development activities. The Department remains strongly committed to the treatment of this fuel in time to meet its commitments to the State of Idaho.Susan Burke, who monitors the cleanup at the laboratory for the states Department of Environmental Quality, said the state will continue to demand that the waste be ready for shipment out of Idaho by 2035.The Energy Department is doing the best it can, but our expectation is that they will have to meet the settlement agreement, she said.Idaho watchdogs are skeptical.There is some bad faith here on the part of the Energy Department, said Beatrice Brailsford, nuclear program director at the Snake River Alliance, a group that monitors the lab. The department is misleading the public. Not much information has been given out, but enough to be skeptical that the technology works well enough to meet the settlement.Lab officials declined to comment.Lyman said he was determined to explore the Idaho program in light of increasing interest in the scientific and regulatory communities in advanced nuclear reactors  including breeder reactors  and what he believed was misleading information by advocates.He presented a technical paper about pyroprocessing at a conference held in July by the International Atomic Energy Agency.Lyman said he believes the Energy Department has little chance of success in the program.They are just blowing smoke, he said. It is a failure and they cant admit it, because they dont have a backup plan that would satisfy the state.
(TNS) -- Pushed by its new Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, who seems to have never met a regulation he didnt want to kill, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed repealing the tough net neutrality rules his predecessor, Democrat Tom Wheeler, adopted in 2015 and replacing them with  well, that parts not clear . One possibility Pai floated is to have the FCC punt oversight of broadband providers such as Comcast and AT&T to the Federal Trade Commission, which can do little more to first-time offenders than tell them theyll be punished if they transgress again.Pais retreat would be the fifth pivot by the commission since phone and cable TV companies introduced always-on, high-speed Internet connections in the late 1990s. The regulatory gyrations havent damaged the open, innovative nature of the Internet, at least not yet. But the uncertainty isnt helpful, and it isnt likely to end if Pai gets his way. The next time a Democrat takes the White House, a new FCC chairman will almost certainly push more vigorous efforts to prevent Comcast, AT&T and company from putting their thumbs on the Internet scales.The obvious answer  and it has been obvious for years  is for Congress to prohibit broadband providers from picking winners and losers online by monkeying with the data on their networks, and to give the commission clear authority to enforce that prohibition. But lawmakers have been unwilling to arbitrate the dispute between broadband providers, which have toyed with the idea of extracting tolls from websites and services to support new business models, and Internet-based companies, which dont want to face any new barriers to competing online.The heat generated by Pais proposal  the commission has received 20 million public comments thus far, albeit many of them form letters generated by advocacy groups  and by congressional Republicans controversial move to repeal the FCCs broadband privacy rules in March, might finally get Congress moving. Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced last month that they would hold a hearing in September on ground rules for the Internet.With almost everyone in agreement about fundamental principles to prevent anti-competitive behavior such as throttling and blocking, I think we are closer than ever to achieving a lasting resolution, Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said in a statement.As encouraging as that may sound, the initial witness list for the hearing betrays a dismaying ignorance about why net neutrality is an issue. The committee set the hearing up as something of a clash of titans, inviting the chief executives of the largest broadband providers and the biggest Internet companies, such as Google, Facebook and Netflix. The only thing missing was a steel cage.The point of having net neutrality rules isnt to protect multibillion-dollar Internet companies. Its to give other companies a chance to join or topple them. The rapid pace of technological change makes even companies with enormous economies of scale vulnerable to disruption, especially when consumers can easily switch from one shiny online object to the next.No question, Facebook and its ilk would prefer not to have to pay Comcast or Verizon for priority access to its customers if broadband providers were allowed to impose such fees. But if push came to shove, those are the companies that could and would pay. The start-up trying to be the next Facebook could not.Curiously, Pai and other Republicans have voiced less concern about the prospects of these smaller online businesses  the ones likely to inject a crucial dose of innovation into the 21st century economy  than the ability of giant, consolidating broadband providers to invest in faster, more widely available services. Better broadband connections in rural America, poverty-stricken inner cities and other underserved areas is a most worthy goal. But those connections shouldnt come at the cost of net neutrality.Leading broadband providers insist that they support an open, neutral Internet. The problem, they say, is the utility-style regulations the Wheeler-led FCC imposed to achieve that end. The Democrats on the commission voted to do so, however, because a federal appeals court said it was the only route to enforceable rules that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing connections to lawful sites and services, or to prioritize connections for a fee.Pais hands-off approach is the wrong answer. If Republican lawmakers dont like applying decades-old utility-style regulation to broadband providers, they need to work with Democrats to give the commission explicit new authority to protect the open Internet from interference. Otherwise, the fight over how to do that will be always-on too.
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David L. Stevens, chief information officer for Maricopa County, Ariz., the nations fourth-largest county by population, will leave his post to take a position in the private sector in about six weeks.Stevens, who has served as CIO for nearly five years, toldhe gave notice on Thursday, Aug. 10, and his last day of work will be Oct. 2. However, he will work with Maricopa County to facilitate a transition, he said.Previously, he had served in county government since 2001, in positions including CIO of the countys judicial branch, and deputy county CIO before ascending to CIO in Oct. 2012.He is leaving for the private sector, Stevens told, to take a position as executive vice president of corporate relations at Valor Global , which offers call center, managed information technology, infrastructure and data center services to companies including Sprint.The firm is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., with offices in Germany, Costa Rica and the Philippines, where it nevertheless expanded in 2014 despite cancelling planned acquisitions there.In a news release, Stevens said he will focus on Valors rapid national growth in the public sector market.I think it will be a great fit for them and for us and a great opportunity to come alongside a lot of public sector companies, Stevens told, citing Valor Globals pretty strong track record here, locally reducing operations costs, improving call times and forging equal or better service-level agreements.Valor Global CEO Simer Mayo said in a statement the company continues to experience rapid public sector growth, and Stevens knowledge of the market will help it focus on creating best-of-breed public-private partnerships.Davids extensive experience in public sector business and as a nationally recognized leader in technology is a major asset to Valor Global, Mayo said.His experience and knowledge of incorporating ITIL and LEAN in IT and Call Center delivery will allow us to continue to serve national, federal, state, county, education and city governments while expanding our current product capabilities to our customers, Mayo added.Maricopa County is in the first year of a three-year strategic plan built upon a technology foundation improved to meet the growing demands of business, as part of a long-term tech strategy aimed at enabling development of innovative products and services and engaging customers on their terms  anywhere, anytime, with any device.Going forward, the county is working to enhance cybersecurity with increased investment, develop new solutions to further customer experiences, and promote its Digital Government initiative to improve online citizen, customer and business engagement.A special edition of the countys Office of Enterprise Technology Business Value Report that Stevens provided highlighted achievements during his tenure as the county has modernized its technology infrastructure.The report, which examined the 2014-2016 fiscal years, documented savings including:But Stevens said he's also very proud of the countys employee culture and its staffers.Just a culture of success. People not afraid to win and to collaborate. Really, to be bought into the shared business outcomes that were trying to achieve and building that kind of culture, just takes time and trust, he said.Officials at Maricopa County did not respond to requests for comment. However, the departing CIO said he will remain closely involved as the agency shapes its search to replace him.Theyre working on what kind of recruitment process they want to do. I think the county executive is still sorting that out, and thankfully I think Ill be able to help them in that transition in some way, shape or form, he said.
(TNS) -- Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams plans to end the citys red-light camera program next year, in part because he doesnt believe it reduces car accidents.Williams discussed his intentions to dismantle the citys network of red-light cameras Thursday to the City Council Finance Committee during its review of the Sheriffs Offices proposed $410 million budget for next year.The committee also discussed Mayor Lenny Currys request to hire 80 more police officers next year, a key part of his and Williams plan to reduce violent crime.Council members had a number of questions for Williams about how and where the new officers would be deployed. They held off approving the hiring request until Williams returns with answers later this month.After the meeting, Williams said he wasnt concerned the request was in jeopardy of not being approved.I think the questions they asked me are easily answered, he said. If you listen to them, theyre very common-sense based.RED-LIGHT CAMERASSince the city began using red-light cameras in 2012, statistics havent definitively proven the technology reduces crashes at the 26 intersections outfitted with them.Reports from state highway officials found an increase of crashes statewide at intersections with cameras.Local data has shown that both increases and decreases of accidents at camera-outfitted intersections. Former Sheriff John Rutherford, a vocal proponent of red-light cameras who brought the technology to Jacksonville, conceded in 2014 the results were a mixed bag.Williams, who took office in 2015, isnt sold on their effectiveness. We know from the data that its not really reducing crashes at intersections, he said.However, Williams said he stuck with the program because he had high hopes in a nascent and potentially life-saving technology that was offered by the citys red-light camera vendor, Redflex.Known as the Halo System, the cameras purportedly could detect cars running a red light and delay the opposing traffic signal from turning green until the intersection was clear.The city installed that technology at five intersections, but Williams said it was riddled with problems that limited its effectiveness. He said his department concluded the technology just isnt there yet, so hes decided not to renew the citys red-light camera contract after it expires at the end of this year.Redflex guaranteed the cameras wouldnt cost the city a dime. The company said the fines generated by the cameras would not only be enough to cover the costs but would also boost city coffers.While the cost-neutral promise has held true, their revenue-earning ability fell short of expectations.City officials expected to earn $1.5 million during the first year the cameras went online. Instead, they generated just $82,000 that year. Fine revenue would increase in later years, but that was significantly offset by a portion collected by the state and citys costs of employing staff to oversee the program.Last year, the city expected to bring in $840,000 in revenue from red-light cameras. That number will decrease by $310,000 next year.MANPOWER ON STREETThis years proposed budget is the third consecutive year Curry requested money to hire more police officers. So far, hes financed the hiring of 80 new officers.This year, Curry requested money for the sheriff to hire an additional 80 officers next year and permission to bring on as many as 100 new officers. The budget calls for $12 million in salary increases, which includes salaries for the new officers and raises for current employees.Williams said he expects to be able to hire 80 new officers next year if he receives the money. Hiring any more would be difficult, he said, because of the limited space in the police training program, which takes 11 months to complete.Councilwoman Lori Boyer had questions about how many of the new officers hired in the last three years were assigned to patrol. She said a police officer who attended a recent neighborhood meeting told her that his patrol area was still short dozens of officers and that a number were being assigned to other units, like the marine division.Williams said that rank-and-file officers often have their own view of things and that roughly 60 percent of the officers hired in the last year have been assigned to patrol. He said another priority was rebuilding units that investigate homicides and burglaries, which he said suffered the most from the personnel reductions in recent years.Still, Boyer and her colleagues said they werent ready to approve the money until they knew how many officers would be on the street and the parts of town theyd patrol.We are trying to fund appropriate resources in the appropriate places. Im concerned, if we allocate additional personnel, if were going to get the necessary on-the-ground police officers, Boyer said. What Ill be looking for is how you come back and how youll be using them.
(Governing) -- On this years list of top 10 policy and technology priorities, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) named cybersecurity No. 1.When people think about cybersecurity, they often focus on the vulnerabilities of hardware and software systems. For example, as Governing reported in late July , several local governments across the U.S. are using a Russian brand of security software that the federal government fears could be leveraged by the foreign country for cyberespionage.But, as Rajiv Das, chief security officer for the state of Michigan explains: There are two aspects to cybersecurity: One is the systems side, and the other is the human side.Agnes Kirk, chief information security officer for Washington state, agrees. The human factor is critical. Its been demonstrated as the weakest link in cybersecurity.When cities, counties and states dont adequately train their workforces, experts warn that the entire entity is at heightened risk of cyberattack. Luckily, a growing number of governments are beginning to catch on and are working to improve their cyber-hygiene.One important element of this is limiting technology access to people who genuinely need it and giving those people the necessary training to protect it. A study released in late April by Verizon reported that one of the most common reasons for a breach in the public sector is misuse of privilege.Washington state has been highly successful at avoiding serious breaches of its digital integrity. Why? Every state worker is required to undergo cybertraining.First and foremost, the training expresses the idea that cybersecurity is everyones job -- not just the job of the IT department. Employees are shown the IT resources available to them, including an easy way to have an expert review a suspicious email before responding. Then, employees are taught how their specific jobs can turn them into targets.If they cant relate it to their job, then its hard to care, says Kirk.Perhaps the biggest cyberthreat on the horizon is the prospect of "phishing," or disguising of malicious software inside harmless-looking links in emails or pop-ups. One employee's click on the harmful link can open the gates for people to steal privileged data, including Social Security numbers and birth dates. It can even give hackers the ability to lock data and charge governments to unlock it, using a type of malicious software referred to as "ransomware."Bingham County, Idaho, for example, paid $3,500 in ransom to unlock encrypted data in February. But the true cost of the attack was far greater -- nearly $100,000 , which was needed to cover the conversion to manual processes during and immediately following the attack, repair the damaged server, and heighten security and training. According to the, the county is still recovering, and operations may not return to normal until 2018.Fortunately, many states are increasingly using a proven technique to keep employees from falling into a phishing hole.They send something like 10,000 employees an email and monitor how many of those click on that link, and then they try to change users behavior, says Doug Robinson, executive director of NASCIO.Its working for Delaware: Employees phishing click rate dropped from 23 percent in August 2013 to 1 percent in February, according to Elayne Starkey, the states chief security officer.Despite that success, Starkey is still concerned by the oft-heard notion that the bad guys are always going to be one step ahead of the good guys when it comes to cybersecurity.Thats the kind of mentality were trying to fight against, she says. We dont want our employees to give up.
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VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd and ITS Russia have signed a partnership agreement concerning the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS). The objective of Project CAVLANE is to develop new services, products and standards for border crossings in particular. CAVLANE is linked to an initiative of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to create a roadmap for transport solutions that support automated driving as well as to the Autonet-2 scientific and technical initiative.

Businesses from all over Europe are hoped to join the partnership.

The goal is to promote automated driving and therefore to prepare for the advent of robotic cars with varying degrees of autonomy. VTT has a long history of developing the reliability and safety of autonomous cars. Erja Turunen, Executive Vice President, VTT

The project involve testing ITS services for drivers before and after border crossings, such as queue cautions that are hoped to make traffic flow more smoothly at the Nuijamaa border crossing point and standardized EU V2V warning messages.

Project CAVLANE has already helped to network a number of Finnish organizations and businesses. VTT is in charge of coordinating the national business consortium, which currently consists of Indagon, Nokia, Vediafi, Dynniq and Infotripla.

The Finnish Transport Safety Agencys TrafficLab and the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications launched a project aimed at enabling new transport services for cross-border transport in May.

Finland as an ITS gateway to China. The aim is to link CAVLANE to an ITS route sponsored by the Russian Government, which would begin from the biggest cities in Finland and run via Helsinki to Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and China.
GREENSBORO  When Matt Casella closed his eyes Saturday night he relived the horror of seeing his friends run over by a Dodge Challenger.

I see the cars crushing out human life, Casella said. I couldnt sleep last night. This attack wounded my heart and mind.

Casella and fellow activists Scott Trent and Becca Aubrey, of International Socialist Organization of Greensboro, were marching down Fourth and Waters streets in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday when James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19 others.

The activists had come to protest the Unite the Right rally, organized by white nationalists  including neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members  who descended on the city to rally against plans to remove a Confederate statue.

Heather Heyer, 32, was among the hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Charlottesville to decry what was believed to be the largest gathering of white supremacists in a decade.

Two state troopers also died Saturday when their helicopter crashed while deployed as part of a large-scale police effort to contain Saturdays violence.

On Sunday evening, an estimated 1,000 people came to honor the three victims on the steps outside City Hall  one of the many vigils held in North Carolina and across the country. Many said they felt compelled to counteract the ugliness of the white supremacist rally.

Disgusting. Horrifying. Mortifying, City Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter told the crowd. What other words could be used to describe what happened yesterday?

Mayor Nancy Vaughan said her immediate reaction was to denounce the attack.

When I was watching TV yesterday and saw the horror unfold I thought we are not this, Vaughan said. But the more I thought about it the more I thought yes we are. We are a community very similar to Charlottesville and if it can happen there it can happen anywhere.

Councilwoman Yvonne Johnson also spoke to the crowd.

We must get back to honoring what is sacred, Johnson said. The elderly, our children, our neighbors, justice and fairness. All those things that our country once considered important.

The crowd was peaceful, occasionally chanting and singing hymns.

Some speakers condemned the government. Others spoke out against white supremacy and in favor of uniting all races, cultures and communities.

Thats what Casella, Trent and Aubrey were trying to do in Charlottesville Saturday when things turned violent.

Aubrey was with Casella when the crash happened.

I cant stop revisiting those horrible moments, but its important to move forward, Aubrey said. We need to rest, to heal and to support each other but we will never be truly safe and free if we do not organize to defeat the far right that seeks to intimidate us into submission.

Casella explained to those in attendance Sunday night how he and Aubrey wound up near the wreck.

He said they were in Justice Park protesting the rally but decided to march through the town.

We left the safety of the park into an unknown landscape, Casella said. We encountered a second group of marchers with antifascists flags and chants coming from them.

Casella said his group of marchers shouted back in solidarity.

The emotions of success, joy and safety in numbers overwhelmed me, Casella said.

What he didnt know was that feeling was about to be stripped away.

Casella said the marchers walked past many parked cars blocked from travel by the protesters. Those inside cars honked in support, cheered and filmed the march, he said.

When he reached the intersection of Fourth and Water streets he passed two more vehicles as the road narrowed. He walked onto the sidewalk and shouted with the crowd, Whose streets? Our streets!

Then he heard something strange.

There was a noise I did not recognize, Casella said. Some people were standing between the parked cars and I watched them be pulled under the wheels of those cars as they smashed over them and on top of their bodies.

They were run over.
GREENSBORO  Hold onto your whiskers, cat lovers, have we got mews for you!

The Crooked Tail Cat Cafe will open later this year at 604 S. Elm St. in downtown Greensboro, providing a place for patrons to sip coffee while playing with adorable  and adoptable  cats.

It will be the citys first cat cafe, a concept that originated in Taiwan in the late 1990s as spaces where people could pay a small fee to enjoy a hot beverage while interacting with cats. The cafes crept through Asia and Europe, finally reaching North America a few years ago.

Karen Stratman, owner of the Crooked Tail Cat Cafe and a self-described cat lady, decided to start her own kitten kingdom after a pop-up cafe in Portland (Purringtons Cat Lounge, now a permanent fixture) caught her eye.

I am a cat person and an entrepreneur, and when I saw that, that was when I knew I wanted to do this, said Stratman, 29, who has four cats (three permanent, one foster). Its the perfect way to help animals and also bring something exciting to downtown Greensboro.

The 2,100-square-foot property will host a dozen cats at a time, all on loan from a local rescue organization. All of the cats will be adoptable, Stratman said, but prospective guardians must go through the rescue to take one home. Guests will pay by the hour, and reservations are encouraged, though walk-ins are welcome if theres space.

The cafe will serve coffee, tea and pre-packaged sandwiches and pastries from Camino Bakery in Winston-Salem. Stratman also hopes to serve beer and wine. All food and drink prep will be limited to the cafes back room, which will be off-limits to all four-legged guests (humans are welcome to take their snacks anywhere).

The front room, though, is all about the cats. Plans for the space are still in progress, though Stratman envisions elevated walkways, ample lounging space and tons of toys for the rescued felines. She will likely raise money for some of those features via crowdfunding, she said.

I will be seriously catifying this space, she said. Its all about making the space acceptable to the cats and making the cats happy.

The Crooked Tail is poised to be one of the first cat cafes in North Carolina, though others are in the works in Wilmington, Charlotte and Raleigh. Theres no firm opening date yet, though Stratman said she aims to open the business this year. Word of the cafe has gotten out, she said, and interest is high.

Ive gotten so many calls from people hoping to volunteer to help care for the cats, she said. People are really excited, and Im excited, too. It helps the community, it helps the cats, and I get to pursue something that Im passionate about.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A man accused of plowing a car into a crowd of activists here - killing one person and injuring 19 - long sympathized with Nazi views and had stood with a group of white supremacists hours before Saturday's bloody crash.

The alleged driver, James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who traveled to Virginia from Ohio, had espoused extremist ideals at least since high school, according to Derek Weimer, a history teacher.

Weimer said he taught Fields during his junior and senior years at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky. In a class called "America's Modern Wars," Weimer recalled that Fields wrote a deeply researched paper about the Nazi military during World War II.

"It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler," Weimer said. "He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff."

Fields's research project into the Nazi military was well written, Weimer said, but it appeared to be a "big lovefest for the German military and the Waffen-SS."

As a teacher, Weimer said he highlighted historical facts, not just opinion, in an unsuccessful attempt to steer Fields away from his infatuation with the Nazis.

"This was something that was growing in him," Weimer said. "I admit I failed. I tried my best. But this is definitely a teachable moment and something we need to be vigilant about, because this stuff is tearing up our country."

By the weekend's finish, Fields had become the face of one of the ugliest days in recent American history. After marching through the University of Virginia's campus carrying torches and spewing hate Friday night, hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and KKK members gathered in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday to protest the removal of a statue memorializing Robert E. Lee. As they waved Confederate flags and screamed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs, the protesters - almost all white and male - were met with fierce resistance from activists who had come to stop them.

"No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!" they chanted, holding "Black Lives Matter" signs and placards calling for equality and love.

Who threw the first punch or launched the first rock was, it seemed, impossible to say, but by midmorning, fists and faces had been bloodied. Members of both sides wielded sticks and shields. In one of the most intense confrontations, a group of white supremacists charged into a line of activists, swinging clubs and bashing bodies. The activists fought back, tossing balloons filled with paint and spraying stinging chemicals into the faces of their adversaries.

When the chaos subsided late Saturday, a young woman and two state police officers, who had crashed in a helicopter, were dead, and many more were hurt. As of Saturday evening, the car's impact had left five people in critical condition and another 14 injured at the University of Virginia Medical Center. By Sunday, 10 were in good condition and nine had been discharged. At least a dozen more were treated after being injured in street brawls.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump continued to receive sharp criticism, even from members of his own party, for failing to directly condemn white supremacists - who, in turn, praised him for not doing so. Meanwhile, thousands of people were expected to gather at vigils in Charlottesville, Washington and beyond Sunday night. Their messages focused largely on healing, but many people who had witnessed Saturday's most terrifying moment, either in person or on video, were struggling to move on.

A viral recording captured the scene: A sedan and a minivan rolled to a stop in a road packed with activists. Suddenly, a 2010 Dodge Challenger smashed into the back of the sedan, shoving tons of metal into the crowd as bodies were launched through the air. The Dodge then rapidly reversed, hitting yet more people.

Fields, now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation, was arrested shortly after and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and another count related to the hit-and-run, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled for a Monday arraignment.

Brian Moran, Virginia secretary of public safety, said this of Fields: "He was a terrorist to do what he did."

Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 15 miles southwest of Toledo, records show. Both family and acquaintances described him as quiet and, often, solitary.

His father was killed by a drunk driver five months before the boy's birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Fields's dad left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.

"When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him," the uncle said.

Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where he'd been raised by a single mother, Samantha Bloom, who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as "not really friendly, more subdued."

Fields joined the Army in late summer 2015, but remained on active duty for less than four months, according to online records from the Department of Defense. It's unclear why he served so briefly.

"The what-ifs," the uncle said. "What could've been - you can't answer questions like that. There's no way of knowing if his life would have been different if his father had been around."

Fields's mother told The Associated Press on Saturday that she didn't talk to him about his political views. He'd mentioned to her that he was going to a rally, but Bloom said they never discussed the details.

"I didn't know it was white supremacists," she said. "I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a supremacist."

Saturday's horror was just the latest for her family. Aside from losing Fields' father in a crash, Bloom's parents died in a murder-suicide - 33 years ago this month - according to a pair of 1984 newspaper articles. After an argument, Marvin Bloom, a self-employed contractor, killed his wife, Judy, with a 12-gauge shotgun, then put the gun to his head. He was 42, and she was 37. Their daughter, Samantha Bloom, was 16.

Richard B. Spencer, a leader in the white supremacist movement who coined the term "alt-right," said he didn't know Fields but had been told he was a member of Vanguard America, which bills itself as the "Face of American Fascism." In a statement tweeted Saturday night, the group denied any connection to Fields.

Inseveral photographs that circulated online, Fields was seen with the group while sporting its unofficial uniform. Like members, he wore a white polo shirt, baggy khakis and sunglasses, while holding a black shield that features a common Vanguard symbol.

"The shields seen do not denote membership, nor does the white shirt," the group said in its statement. "The shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance."

Vanguard members did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Fields has been accused of killing Heather D. Heyer, 32, a Charlottesville resident who was there Saturday to stand against bigotry and hatred, her mother and friends said.

"She died for a reason," said Felicia Correa, a longtime friend. "I don't see any difference in her or a soldier who died in war. She, in a sense, died for her country. She was there standing up for what was right."

Killed in the helicopter crash on the outskirts of town were Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, the pilot, and H. Jay Cullen of Midlothian, a passenger, according to officials. State police said their Bell 407 chopper was assisting with the unrest in Charlottesville. Bates died one day before his 41st birthday; Cullen was 48.

"Jay Cullen had been flying me around for 3  years," Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said. "Berke was part of my executive protection unit. He was part of my family. The man lived with me 24-7."

Bates had just called the governor Friday, the day before his death, to ask about sending a care package to McAuliffe's son, a Marine stationed overseas.

On Sunday morning, one day after McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, he and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam attended a service at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church. The governor brought the predominantly African-American congregation to its feet as he stood at the pulpit and condemned "the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who came to our state yesterday."

"You pretend you're patriots. You are not patriots," he said. "You are dividers."

Later Sunday, Jason Kessler, who had helped organized Saturday's rally, held a news conference near Charlottesville City Hall.

Police snipers stood on the roofs of the two adjacent buildings as they peered through binoculars and steadied their bolt-action rifles on tripods. A cordon of police officers dressed in riot gear waited nearby.

Before Kessler even began to talk, counterprotesters shouted him down.

"Murderer," they screamed.

Kessler, dressed in a blazer, tried to speak into the TV microphones, but reporters huddled close by couldn't hear him. The noise from the crowd of about 100 demonstrators was overwhelming.

Finally, a few of them broke through the line of reporters and headed toward Kessler. As one extended his middle finger and another lunged at Kessler, police rushed him into City Hall.

Twenty minutes later, riot police formed a line around an exit where Kessler was expected to leave. Then, suddenly, he sprinted out a door around the side of the building and lunged into the back of a marked police SUV, which sped away.

A single activist chased after him.

"Shame! Shame! Shame!" he yelled, as the car carrying the white nationalist disappeared from view.

- - -

The Washington Post's Joe Heim, Ellie Silverman, Jack Gillum, Jim Higdon and Steve Friess contributed to this report.
The goals that are typically established for an SEO campaign are often aligned with a numbers-driven strategy and closely tied to the vagaries and constantly changing rules of the Google algorithm. Those goals are fundamentally flawed.

The primary goals of most SEO practitioners are to increase rank in the SERP and drive traffic, but they are not going far enough. Because most practitioners use artificial means to accomplish that goal, results are focused on those metrics alone, and not on actual engagement and conversion.

Related: Effective Branding Is a Smart Strategy to Improve Your Website's Search Metrics

The true goal of SEO should be to engage customers and deliver conversions, and that cannot be accomplished with the artificial tactics used in traditional SEO campaigns. What SEO practitioners are missing is the fact that a highly-ranking search result that does not engage offers no value.

When SEO doesnt engage.

Because the focus is on numbers, SEO practitioners, before deploying any given tactic, will ask first, Will this increase my rank in the SERPs? And if the answer appears to be yes, then the tactic is executed. The flaw with that methodology is that Google ranking is transitory. The algorithm changes constantly. Also, this overlooks the fact that position is not only dependent on your own SEO work, but on the work done by your competitors, which you cannot control.

Those tactics often fall short of actual engagement, and as a result, even if SERP position is increased, no additional sales will result.

Lets take a common tactic -- content marketing. SEO specialists believe strongly in the value of backlinks, hyperlinks on third party sites that point back to your site. There is no doubt that Google values legitimate backlinks highly in calculating a websites position. Practitioners accomplish these backlinks through a variety of means. A common tactic is creating dozens, if not hundreds of short backlink-containing articles, which are then placed in blogs and websites that have been created for the express purpose of SEO. The flaw in that thinking is that those articles -- and the sites on which they are published -- are created for search engine algorithms, not for real people. Content is often thin, poorly written, and contains very basic information that is of little value to someone looking for guidance in making a purchasing decision.

Related: How to Get Your SEO and Content Teams to 'Play Nice' Together

Those types of articles do not lead to conversion. In fact, it may lead to the opposite, since the poor quality of the article may harm your brand rather than help it. The end result of that strategy is a temporary boost in SERP ranking, but no actual sales.

What Fred has to say.

The March 2017 Google update, known as Fred, was designed to penalize websites that host thin or low-quality content. Anecdotal stories show a significant amount of consternation on the part of SEO marketers who have seen their boilerplate affiliate websites, sites meant solely to drive AdSense revenue, and private blog networks, designed to artificially generate backlinks, take a significant dive in rank.

Does this mean that SEO practitioners and marketers should stop using SEO? Not at all. But it does mean that the goal of SEO has to be redefined before it can have any lasting value. SEO that works will have to shift away from mechanical tactics and numbers-driven strategies that ignore quality and rely on thin content created by non-professionals who are more concerned with keywords than value. Private blog networks are out. Brand journalism is in. Brands with a strong SEO strategy are already replacing SEO managers who understand metrics and tactics with managing editors who have journalism experience and understand quality and thought leadership. Larger brands like Kroger are already getting in on the act with branded sites with thoughtful stories. Bulk posts in article comment threads that dont add to the conversation are being replaced with thoughtful discussion, curated by editors and often by invitation only.

Related: The 5 Most Common SEO Myths

A new shift in SEO strategy, and a redefinition of its goals, will ultimately result in a stronger campaign that can withstand the changes in search algorithms. Google may penalize specific tactics, but they will never penalize quality.

Related:



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Stella Parks in her Kentucky kitchen. Photo: Sarah Jane Sanders

Stella Parks doesnt really like cookbooks. Thats surprising, since Parks is an award-winning pastry chef, a successful baking blogger, and now a cookbook author. And she does like the idea of cookbooks, but she says shes been turned off over the years by books that rely on repetitive recipes, outdated science, and too many variables in their advice. Seeing that kind of urban-legend advice baked into so many recipes, it just made me not want to pick it up, Parks says. So why did she spend the last five years working on her own debut cookbook, BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts? In part, to share the kind of advice she wishes she had as a kid when shed follow a recipe to a T and still end up with a failed cake.

BraveTart is also a celebration of the kind of food people ate long before anyone had invented the phrase farm to table. What Parks likes best are Oreos, key-lime pie, cinnamon rolls, Thin Mints, and banana pudding. It doesnt matter to her where they came from or who made them first. What matters is that theyre good. These desserts are a part of our culture and are worth our attention as much as an eclair or baklava, but have in recent years been given the short end of the stick.

I also feel like American desserts havent received sufficient attention in an in-depth way, Parks admits. Theyve been kind of relegated to the realm of home baker and not taken seriously. Most American baking books are very casual.

The idea of American desserts, in Parkss eyes, means the kind of supermarket stuff labeled as junk food, a term that she feels reveals a tendency to look down on these things. Her interest in and appreciation for these products is very real. Its not precious; its not fanciful, says Serious Eats founder Ed Levine. At the same time, she goes deep into recipes, techniques, and ingredients.

Parks isnt alone in the food world in embracing treats often waved off by food snobs. Christina Tosi, after all, built an empire out of cereal milk and candy bars. But often, these desserts are treated as shtick, gimmick, or jumping-off point for something fancier. They arent for Parks, who you get the impression would be content to hoard all the Oreos for herself, so long as she has enough milk.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Parks was born and raised in Kentucky, where she still lives. One side of her family was literary. Her paternal great-grandmother edited a church cookbook, and her great-grandfather helped found the University of Mississippi, Oxfords library. Her moms side was more the 1950s nuclear family type, and she calls her maternal grandmother very much a Betty Crocker kind of cook, who made everything from mix. She writes and bakes with an unpretentious scholarliness that marries these backgrounds, explaining the origin of Rice Krispies Treats with a enthusiasm that could only be fueled by a serious sugar binge. Its food science for cookie lovers.

Parks making a batch of Hostess cupcakes. Photo: Sarah Jane Sanders

She started baking at a young age, but came to it as a profession through a somewhat unusual path: In 2010, she was asked to become the pastry chef at Lexingtons now-shuttered Table 310, where Food & Wine took notice of her, and started blogging as BraveTart. Her recipes caught the attention of The Food Lab author Kenji Lopez-Alt, the science-minded Serious Eats writer, and by the following summer, she was contributing a weekly column to the food site. (Her first recipe for the site was for an imitation Oreo.) These days, she is Serious Eats pastry wizard. Her recipes sometimes contain ingenious tricks and discoveries, like how to make caramel without melting sugar (with science, she says, that the food world collectively shrugged off) and using the Japanese technique of yukone to solve the age-old problem of bagels rapidly going stale. (Which should make her a hero in New Yorkers eyes.)

As someone interested in the science of making food better, Parks is an unexpected champion of corporate desserts and industrial food. Often, there are smart, innovative techniques and tricks behind these treats, ones that can and have been useful to home cooks. Take the dehydrated apple powder used for binding in McDonalds apple turnovers. It amplifies the apple flavor, provides thickness without starch, and is totally natural, Parks says. Its a technique that home cooks can latch onto; its not super complicated. Who else is doing that besides companies?

Which gets to another of Parkss points. Corporations, industrial food production, and advertising firms are responsible for some of Americas most iconic desserts. If not always in outright inventing them, then in tweaking and widely popularizing them. Parks points out as much when she talks about Boston cream pie, crediting Pillsbury with adding a chocolate glaze to the cake, and via a 1934 advertisement, popularizing it. But her best example, because of the science involved, is key-lime pie, which she calls a stunning reminder of how deeply Americas traditions are shaped by advertising.

In recent years, the desserts origin has been attributed to a Key West millionaires cook in the 1860s. But theres no evidence to back this up, and theres nothing intuitive about the science behind the dish. Parks convincingly argues that it was born in a Madison Avenue test kitchen, a place that had the resources and knowledge to experiment and create key limes predecessor, Magic Lemon Meringue Pie.

Introduced in 1931, it was created by Borden to promote its Eagle Brand condensed milk. Parks writes that it was a staple of womens club cooking classes by just the next year  a reach no home cook could achieve  and a 1965 Borden leaflet with several magic-pie recipes claims that the Magic Lemon Meringue Pie recipe was used more than 10 million times in 1964. Developing the recipe meant understanding food science to know that condensed milk contains very high levels of casein proteins that coagulate in the presence of acids. But also that youd need to use enough lemon juice (1/2 cup to 1 1/3 cup of condensed milk) to curdle fresh milk. Magic Lemon Meringue Pie transformed into key-lime pie in Florida, where limes were subbed in for lemons and the crust was rolled in graham crackers. That technique was included in a 1941 key-lime-pie recipe, the first that Parks could find, and by the 1950s it was a Florida birthright.

People didnt have the luxury of randomly experimenting like that, Parks says. When creative home bakers did have a fruitful kitchen accident or revelation back in the days before Pinterest and blogs, it was rare for it to spread beyond their own kitchens. (How would the Mississippi roast go viral 50 years ago? Through an advertisement.) From that point of view, junk-food companies have given both amateur and professional pastry chefs a lot to work with. Parks does have the luxury of playing with her food. Corporations used food science to create new recipes for their products. Through BraveTart, Parks uses it to give people new tools to become better bakers, a better understanding of baking, and an emphatic reminder of why every one loved these cookies, cakes, and other sweets in the first place.
Photo: Ace Biscuit & Barbecue Facebook/Facebook Get out of here, Brian Ashworth says he told the group.

A barbecue joint in Charlottesville, Virginia, is reportedly getting threats after the owner booted a group of patrons who started Nazi-saluting each other this weekend. Ace Biscuit & Barbecue is less than a mile from the Robert E. Lee statue at the center of the white-nationalist rally and horrific attack, and Brian Ashworth tells CNN he closed the establishment entirely on Saturday (which he thought was better than the alternative: cooking southern comfort food while a bunch of white nationalists were in town for a rally).

On Sunday, he says a group of four or five men and one woman came in wearing #MAGA apparel and shirts that said things like Pinochet Helicopter Company (a popular alt-right meme thats a nod to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who threw political opponents out of helicopters). He felt urged to turn them away, but he let them stay and eat anyway. He says they behaved themselves fine until the very end, when they were all outside smoking; they reportedly gave the Hitler salute in full view of Aces other customers. Ashworth lost it, telling them to leave, admittedly in unkind words that apparently involved a multitude of F-bombs.

They countered that they had rights, and Ashworth conceded they had rights but said, as a business owner, there are federally protected groups his restaurant must serve, and theyre happy to, but he reserves the right to deny service to other groups. His employees dont have to serve them, he said.  The woman in the group called him limp-wristed and another pejorative for gay men. And then came the threat: This isnt over. Well be back.

Ashworth says he got a round of applause from the rest of his customers, but that doesnt keep anybody safe. He asked Charlottesville PD to post a squad car out front, but they told him resources were a little thin. His answer for the time being is to arm himself with two .45 pistols while hes at the restaurant. I just want to sell some food and make a few bucks, he tells CNN. I dont want to be the guy who got shot by a fking Nazi.

Meanwhile, a man named Cole Whites picture started circulating on social media after the rally  he was part of the tiki-brand torch-carrying crowd. The Twitter account @YesYoureRacist spent the weekend crowdsourcing the identities of rallygoers, and it only took internet sleuths a few hours to unearth Whites name and employer: a libertarian-leaning hot-dog chainlet in the Berkeley area called Top Dog. Top Dog has some questionable views of its own, but by yesterday evening, the company announced White was no longer employed there:

Cole White, from California -- allegedly works at Top Dog restaurant in Berkeley pic.twitter.com/gxPvwQtAPw  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017

Pretty much everyones happy with the fact that he no longer works here, an employee told the local news site Berkeleyside.
The Samsung Galaxy Note8 is going to have a dual-SIM version. Not unexpected, but still nice to get some confirmation, which in this case comes from a support page on Samsung.com that went up too early.

The page lists model number SM-N950F/DS, which should be the Exynos-powered version of the Note8 (F models usually are). The page was on the Austrian sub-site, so this model is for Europe. The card slot arrangement is not yet clear, though the Galaxy S8+ uses a hybrid slot exclusively.

The US version of the Galaxy Note8 could launch as soon as 10 days from now. That will likely be Snapdragon-based and single-SIM only, though.

Source | Via




Haiti - Heritage : Partnership between the Ministry of Culture and the Faculty of Sciences of the UEH





The Ministry of Culture and the Geosciences Research Unit of the Faculty of Sciences of the State University of Haiti (FSD-UEH) signed a Convention on the prospecting and promotion of two Major geological sites of the department of Grand'Anse: the "Grotte Marie-Govin" and the "Rock Nan Manmel". These two sites are located respectively in the communal section of Danglise (Commune of Abricots) and in the locality Mamelle (Commune of Moron).



"This initiative has a two-fold scientific and cultural dimension, consisting in the exploration of two (2) geological sites, namely the Marie Govin Cave and the Nan Manmel Rock, which constitute case studies for the Ministry using the Geosciences Research Unit of the Faculty of Sciences of the State University of Haiti," said Limond Toussaint, Minister of Culture.



Minister Toussaint clarified that the FSD's Geosciences Research Unit will carry out prospecting studies on these sites and submit the results to the Ministry for their promotion, valorization and use for the purpose of cultural and tourist attractions.



For his part, the Engineer Dominique Boisson, Coordinator of the Research Unit in Geosciences of the Faculty of Sciences, said he welcome favorably this request for expertise from the Ministry. He sees this as an opportunity to help the University respond to its missions affirming "This initiative is for us a new opportunity, a challenge even to play our role of Scientific Research Unit and to put the skills of our teachers and researchers at the service of the Community."



The Dominican Engineer took the opportunity to congratulate Minister Toussaint, to want by this agreement to make the University Community, of partners.



HL/ SL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2017/08/13

See photographs from Argus Paul Estabrook's award-winning series of the recent political protests, catch Wonwoo Lee's "Lost & Found in the Ball" exhibition in Seoul, 10 Magazine puts eight English speaking tattoo artists in the spotlight, and an Australian photographer captures North Korean locals at the beach.

Advertisement

"Losing Face: Inside the Fall of South Korea's President"

Award-winning Korean-American photographer Argus Paul Estabrook took some remarkable images during the ousting of South Korea's former President Park Geun-hye. In "Losing Face", Estabrook's presents a visual record of those historical protests: "I remember hearing about the first anti-Park Geun-hye protest on an airplane flight back to Seoul. I immediately knew that I'd be on the street documenting it".

...READ ON LENS CULTURE

"Wonwoo Lee at Art Sonje Center, Seoul"

Artist Wonwoo Lee's "Lost & Found in the Ball" exhibition is currently on at the Art Sonje Center in Seoul; the show "focuses on works that explore the various elements of life, articulating them through various mediums such as performance, sculpture, video and installation etc".. You'll find all the information you need in this news post on Blown Artinfo, as well as get a glimpse of what's on display...

...READ ON BLOUIN ARTINFO

"8 TALENTED ENGLISH-SPEAKING TATTOO ARTISTS IN SEOUL"

10 Magazine's Maddie Demas highlights eight great tattoo artists in Korea's capital city that not only do great work but also have no problem communicating in English. "This is in no way a list of all of them, but a starting point for those who want to get some ink, but are worried about not being able to connect with their artist".

...READ ON 10 MAGAZINE

"New photos reveal exactly how North Koreans spend a day at the beach"

An Australian photography captures candid seaside moments in North Korea in this telling photo series. "From roasting clams with lighter fluid to singing karaoke and forming weird conga lines on the sand, here's how North Koreans enjoy a day at the beach".

...READ ON NEWS AU
Published on 2017/08/13

CNN Travel lists ten reasons travellers love visiting Jeju Island, tour the historical city of Yeosu, TripAdvisor reveals Korea's top attraction, and more Koreans are travelling alone to avoid stress and recharge.

"10 reasons travelers can't keep away from Jeju Island"

Advertisement

Just in case you needed any more reason to visit the beautiful island of Jeju, CNN Travel lists ten reasons travelers love this idyllic attraction. "Jeju Island features a volcanic Hallasan commanding the island from the center, a 224-kilometer semi-tropical forested national park, a wild coastline dotted with waterfalls and the longest lava tube in the world". Fancy a hike up a dormant, 1,950-meter high volcano?

...READ ON CNN TRAVEL

"Take a night time stroll across the sea shores of Yeosu in South Korea"

Admiral Yi Sun Sin is a national icon, a military hero who held off hundreds of Japanese ships in 1597 with just a few of his own in the Myeongnyang Strait. His deeds were cinematically celebrated in Kim Han-min's 2014 blockbuster "The Admiral: Roaring Currents". To honour his service and bravery, there is a large statue of him in the city of Yeosu, where he spent time building up his forces. In this post on The Strait Times, you'll hear more about Yeosu and the tours you can take around this beautiful and historic part of the country. "The main attraction of the tour is the city itself. The view of the sunset over the quiet sea town is enjoyable and relaxing".

...READ ON THE STRAIT TIMES

"The South Korean capital's top tourist attraction isn't sexy or scenic - it's the subway"

Believe it or not, but the number one attraction for Seoul, according to TripAdvisor, is its super subway service! "Using top-rated, user-submitted 'Things to Do' in each country, the site curated an exhaustive travel itinerary featuring top tourist attractions of the world", and the Seoul Metro came out on top in Korea: "The major perks of Seoul Metro as shortlisted by SMRT [Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit] were complimentary Wi-Fi coverage, air-conditioned cars and the public transport card that enables easy transfers between subway lines"

...READ ON THE CHINA POST

"South Koreans Travel Alone to Avoid Stress"

A recent study shows that more and more Koreans are making serious efforts to reduce the amount of unnecessary stress in their lives and are seeking more time alone. One interesting indicator of this trend is the significant increase in the number of single vacations being searched for online and through travel agencies: "there had been 13,345 online posts thus far this year related the keyword 'traveling alone' including blogs, tweets, and news articles, surpassing the figure for 2015".

...READ ON THE KOREA BIZWIRE
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Published on 2017/08/13 | Source

Models promote craft beers at a store in Seoul. /Courtesy of Homeplus

Regional craft beers are starting to enjoy the same popularity in Korea as they do in other hipster parts of the world. "It lends uniqueness and an air of luxury to a beer if it's produced in small batches, and it stimulates the curiosity of consumers over mass-produced mainstream beers", an industry insider says.

Advertisement

Global craft beer maker Brooklyn Brewery is due to launch Jeju Beer in Korea next month, which is allegedly made with pure spring water from the resort island.

Local patriots are enthusiastic customers. Superstore chain Homeplus sold 7.7 times more Haeundae Beer in its Haeundae store in Busan than elsewhere, while sales of Gangseo Beer in its store in Gangseo, Seoul, were 3.2 times higher than the national average.

Kim Seon-hyeong, a 35-year-old who went on holiday at Haeundae Beach in Busan in mid-July naturally drank Haeundae Beer there. "It's like buying the local beer when you travel abroad", Kim says. "It feels like it suits the local atmosphere and local food better than mainstream beer".

This trend is not just limited to beer. Baesangmyun Brewery has launched Korean rice wine or makgeolli with regional names such as Gongdeok-dong and Sillim-dong. A staffer at Baesangmyun Brewery said, "They carry district names, so they're more specific than just the region, so I think consumers find them more special".

In North America and Europe, many alcoholic drinks are named for their place of origin, such as Germany's Erdinger after a small town just outside Munich, and Weihenstephaner after the hilltop monastery where it is brewed.

Lee Jung-chang at Konkuk University, said, "There are big regional variations in flavor because each region uses different hop and water. This is why many breweries use the names of the region or maybe a regional saint".

But in Korea image tops substance. Haeundae Beer is actually brewed in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, and Gangseo Beer is produced in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province. "We named Haeundae Beer to accentuate the cool image of Korea's largest beach, and Gangseo Beer because the maker's headquarters is in Gangseo", explained Homeplus.

Dalseo Beer from Daegu is also produced in Hoengseong, but was named for the color of sunsets in Duryu Park. And Gangnam Beer, which is due to be sold through E-Mart, is made not in the swish part of southern Seoul whose name it bears but in Canada.

"Consumers are being misled into thinking that they are drinking craft beer made in a small local brewery", says one skeptical insider. "If they want to gain the trust of consumers in the long term, brewers have to make more of an effort to develop their own characteristics that set them apart from mainstream beers".
Bombay Sapphire reveals campaign partners

By Lisa Riley

Bombay Sapphire has partnered with ten bars across Europe as part of its recently launched A Gin Of Ten Journeys campaign.

For a 12-week period, each of the bars involved will create and serve a unique botanical-inspired cocktail inspired by the 10 botanicals infused to create the gin brand.

The UK bars taking part in the activity comprise Panda and Sons, Edinburgh; Science and Industry, Manchester; Scout, Shoreditch London; The Blue Bar at The Berkeley, Kensington London and Three Sheets, Dalston London.

The A Gin of Ten Journeys push was launched at the backend of June in a bid to illustrate the artistry of Bombay Sapphire and its botanical journeys through unique, sensory experiences.

It was rolled out across physical and digital touchpoints, including advertising billboards and social media, featuring an image of a Bombay Sapphire bottle surrounded by illustrations of the 10 botanicals.

Created by Portuguese illustrator Mariana Rodrigues, it the image was made using a combination of techniques including pencil, ink, watercolour and digital colouring.
My Cafe Group: Sommelier  Kingdom of Bahrain

Are you interested in working in the Kingdom of Bahrain if so read on. The My Cafe Group are opening 2 new venues before the end of this year to add to their award winning all day dining restaurant My Cafe (mycafebh.com). We are looking for a 2-3 year qualified sommelier who would like to join our team. You will be working closely with our wine consultant, Joe Fattorini. Your main duties will be selling wines and spirits across the 3 outlets, guiding our guests in their choice, organization of the storage and inventory of the wines and spirits.

Our new restaurant, in which you will be mainly based, will be a gastronomic experience with the chefs menu being paired with wines as well as an a la carte list that is dynamic and unique. The service will be impeccable but give the air of being relaxed and fun, you should be able to be flexible with our guests as they will be from all over the world, if you have experience with Gulf nationals that would be a real advantage.

The opportunity is full time employment, located in Bahrain with a good package, sales incentive, discretionary bonus, accommodation, 21 days leave plus public holidays in lieu, opportunity for sponsored further education and professional growth. Start as soon as possible!!

Please apply to pia@greenshootsgroup.com with a detailed cv, a full photograph, email address and telephone number.
I expect there to be global interest in regards to the segment of [Helsinki Region Transport] HSL and the local services in Southern Finland, she stated to Kauppalehti on Saturday .

Anne Berner (Centre), the Minister of Transport and Communications, has expressed her confidence that foreign railway companies will be interested in entering the passenger rail market in Finland.

Berner revealed that she was not surprised by the partly lukewarm response to her proposal to de-regulate the passenger rail market in Finland by 2026. The proposal has faced criticism from both opposition members and locomotive drivers, who have announced a strike that will halt practically all domestic rail services between 6pm on Monday and 23.59pm on Tuesday.

This is an issue that has understandably stirred up some emotion. Were talking about an institution that was founded 155 years ago. The reform needs and demands discussion, told Berner.

The market will be opened to competition by tendering out a total of five concession contracts consisting of both profitable and unprofitable routes, and providing the railway companies that submitted the successful tenders access to the rolling stock of VR.

Osmo Soininvaara (Greens), an ex-Member of the Parliament, argues that such a cross-subvention is a bad idea.

In order to be able operate the HelsinkiTampere route, you would have to operate an almost empty train somewhere else, he summarised in a blog post on Wednesday. Why should passengers on the HelsinkiTampere route have to pay for operations on the NurmesLieksa route instead of all Finns?

The objectives of the reform are extremely ambitious: the reform aims to virtually double the share of rail transport of all passenger transport from roughly five per cent to up to ten per cent.

The objective is achievable, although not overnight, said Berner. Weve got a total of ten years to carry out the project, she reminded in the interview with Kauppalehti.

The increase in rail passenger volumes, she reminded, would also be an important step towards reaching the emissions cut targets of Finland. The European Commission in mid-2016 recommended that the country reduce transport emissions by up to 40 per cent relative to the levels of 2005.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Dublin's four local authorities have been given until the end of October to come up with a plan for bringing vacant homes back into use.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy will launch a series of initiatives aimed at putting families into some of the country's nearly 200,000 empty properties.

He wants councils to examine census and other data to identify areas that are "vacant hot spots" so they can be prioritised in his plans.

The Dublin Bay South TD expects to have a City Action Plan for the capital in the coming weeks.

He will then adopt what he described as a "carrot and stick" approach to encourage property owners to make homes avail-able for rent.

"We're building new houses and we're going to build more, but with the pent-up demand in the system from years of little or no construction we have to manage empty homes back into use," Mr Murphy said.

Penalties

Discussions are under way with the Attorney General to investigate the feasibility of introducing penalties for homeowners who leave properties empty for a long period.

Among other measures being taken is the establishment of an Empty Homes Unit to coordinate a national response and the activation of a website for individuals to anonymously highlight vacant properties.

Mr Murphy intends to put draft regulations before the Dail on its return that will allow the change of use of vacant commercial and over-the-shop premises to residential use without having to seek planning permission.

"As I've said before, there's going to be a carrot and stick approach to this, which will be finalised in the coming month or so," Mr Murphy said.

"People with property interests need to be made aware that we are moving quickly on this."

The minister is under pressure to deliver reforms after the latest figures showed the homeless crisis worsening, despite the Government's heralded Rebuilding Ireland action plan.

In June there were 5,036 homeless adults, up from 4,922 in May. The number o f homeless families rose to 1,365.
Gardai search for clues into the disappearance of Trevor Deely

Gardai are investigating if a member of a notorious Crumlin crime family shot and killed Trevor Deely before dumping his body in a Dublin wooded area almost 17 years ago.

Detectives recently received information which alleges that Mr Deely, who was 22 when he disappeared in December 2000, was shot before his body was dumped in west Dublin.

A three-acre wooded site in the Chapelizod area has been sealed off to facilitate an extensive garda search.

The information was received from an informant in recent months, who has alleged that a well-known Crumlin criminal is responsible for Trevor's murder.

Doubts

However, senior sources last night stressed that there were "certain doubts" in the statements they have received, while adding that the information had to be acted upon.

"While there are certain doubts in this case, gardai were given an account of what happened to Mr Deely and where his remains were buried," a senior source said last night.

Mr Deely was last seen on the morning of December 8, 2000, in the Haddington Road area of the city centre.

The information recently passed to gardai was not as a result of their public appeal earlier this year.

The individual who has given information to gardai has not supplied any motive for the alleged murder of Mr Deely, but claimed that he was killed after having an interaction with the Crumlin criminal on the morning of his disappearance.

The alleged suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a well-known criminal who has been involved in various forms of criminality over decades.

He is a convicted drug dealer who has operated in the south inner city and south Dublin areas.

His family has also been involved in a litany of crimes, including firearms offences and the sale and supply of drugs.

Two of his siblings, who were involved in criminality, are now deceased.

Associates of the alleged suspect were involved in running street prostitution in the Baggot Street area at the time of Mr Deely's disappearance.

This criminal gang have also been investigated for the unsolved murder of 21-year-old prostitute Sinead Kelly in the same locality in June 1998.

Ms Kelly, from Santry in Dublin, was brutally stabbed to death on the banks of the Grand Canal off Baggot Street on June 22, 1998.

Gardai believe that she was murdered because she owed IR800 to a Dublin drug dealer.

Two files, one on him and one on the man whom detectives believe he hired to kill Ms Kelly, were sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

However, the DPP decided that there should be no prosecution in the case.

Speaking at the Chapelizod search site sealed off over the weekend, Det Insp Paul Costello said that gardai would be keeping an "open mind" as the examinations developed.

"The reason for this is because we're conducting a search over the coming days, searching for evidence connecting to the disappearance of Trevor Deely," he said.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to appeal to anybody who has not come forward to contact us at Pearse Street Garda Station or on the Garda Confidential Line. You will appreciate that this is a very stressful time for the Deely family, and I'd ask that their privacy is respected."

Dedicated

A number of specialist garda units are also assisting with the search.

Mr Deely's case was never closed and a dedicated unit operating from Pearse Street was set up last December to carry out a complete review of his disappearance.

In April, newly-enhanced CCTV footage was released showing Mr Deely talking to a man dressed in black outside the Bank of Ireland on Baggot Street.

Detectives believe this was the same man captured on CCTV following Trevor along Haddington Road afterwards.

The individual has never come forward to make contact with gardai.
The funeral of Kevin Murray, who had motor neurone disease

Suspected Regency Hotel shooter Kevin 'Flat Cap' Murray was laid to rest over the weekend following his death from motor neurone disease.

The low-key funeral of Murray (47), who was allegedly involved with dissident vigilante group Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD), had no paramilitary send-off with mainly family and friends in attendance.

A group of men, wearing white shirts and black ties, walked behind his coffin as it was led into Strabane's Church of the Immaculate Conception.

A green and white wreath from RAAD was visible, alongside an orange wreath bearing the word "Dad".

Some 300 people attended the Mass.

Upheaval

Parish priest Fr Declan Boland said Murray had faced his illness "bravely" and that the father-of-two had been "caught up in a vortex of [Troubles] upheaval".

"During our lives we make many decisions, some good, some bad, some indifferent and, in this regard, Kevin was no different from the rest of us," Fr Boland told mourners.

Murray was diagnosed with rapidly deteriorating motor neurone disease and died on Wednesday at his home in Townsend Street in Strabane.

Last December it was estimated that he had only a few months to live and it is understood that his family was informed last week by doctors that there was nothing more that they could do.

A Northern Irish judge ruled that he was too ill to stand trial in relation to the Regency murder in 2016.

The Tyrone man was arrested on September 5, 2016, in Strabane, Co Tyrone, in connection with the murder of Kinahan cartel member David Byrne (34).

He was due to face murder and firearm charges on foot of a European Arrest Warrant ordered by the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions.

In May, a court heard that Murray was confined to his bed and was being fed through a tube. A judge ruled that his deteriorating health meant he could not be extradited to the Republic of Ireland to stand trial for murder.

Murray's lawyers argued against his extradition on the grounds that he would be unlikely to be tried given his condition. The extradition attempts were ended in May.
Joe Macken has been left in the dark over the proposals

A mysterious "festival" to celebrate Dublin's Creative Quarter in less than a fortnight has left local traders scratching their heads.

Restaurateur Joe Macken, owner of the Jo'Burger restaurant chain, said he and other traders in the area have been left perplexed and annoyed after representatives from Dublin Town met them last week to discuss hosting a festival celebrating the district later this month.

Improving

Mr Macken claims Dublin Town - a collective representing local business tasked with promoting and improving the capital - is keeping its cards close to its chest, failing to reveal any details of the event even though it is due to take place in less than two weeks time.

"I just don't get it," Mr Macken told the Herald.

He said he and other local business owners were invited to a meeting with officials last Wednesday, when they were informed that Dublin Town had permission to close off streets in the area for the event, which is reportedly due to take place on August 26 and 27.

"They couldn't tell us any details," Mr Macken added.

"They say it's going ahead but I've seen nothing about it. I've sent them emails, I've called them, I've tried to meet them, but there's nothing. There's no posters, there's nothing on their website.

"They had nothing in place. It seems really strange."

Despite several emails and phone calls to Dublin Town yesterday, the Herald was also unsuccessful in obtaining confirmation that the event is taking place or is even in the planning stages.

Mr Macken said the proposed event could have a negative impact on businesses that operate at the weekend, given that permission has been granted to close off some streets to facilitate the "festival".

Closure

The Creative Quarter is the district between South William Street and George's Street, as well as St Stephen's Green South to Exchequer Street. The area houses an array of popular shops, restaurants, cafes, boutiques and art galleries.

A closure of the streets will prevent trucks from making deliveries to the area and, traders say, will cause "intense disruption" to Fade Street, South William Street, Castle Market, Clarendon Street, Exchequer Street and Drury Street.

Mary Costelloe, owner of Costelloe & Costelloe boutique on Chatham Street, said the lack of consultation with businesses was causing them a lot of unnecessary stress and confusion.

"This event is about Dublin Town trying to justify their half-baked idea of a Creative Quarter and it's not about doing anything positive for business in the area," she said.

"It doesn't make sense to host this event at a very busy time of year.

"It is a badly thought out, calamitous idea and all of the businesses I've spoken to are utterly outraged."

The controversy over the festival has reared its head just weeks after Dublin businesses voted narrowly in favour of keeping Dublin Town's Business Improvement District (BID) levy following a No campaign by firms opposed to maintaining it.

There were 843 votes in favour of maintaining the status quo, with 715 opposed.
RICHMOND, Va.  Certified farmers can now use a modified Virginia Grown logo to promote their farm products as both locally grown and produced by U.S. military veterans.

For more than 15 years the Virginia Grown label has helped promote locally-grown produce and farm products. Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the new joint logo July 26 as part of his administrations efforts to support military veterans and Virginia agriculture.

The Virginia Grown symbol has been added to the Homegrown by Heroes logo, which is the official farmer veteran brand image developed in 2013 by the national Farmer Veteran Coalition. A sample image is available at vdacs.virginia.gov/vagrown/homegrownbyheroes.shtml.

There is a groundswell of support for veterans, and there is a dire need for new farmers, said John Fant, chairman of the newly formed Virginia chapter of the FVC. We worked with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to develop this logo to demonstrate that a product is grown by veterans here in Virginia.

Fant, who is also a cattleman and retired U.S. Army colonel, said the joint logo is just one effort to support current veteran farmers and encourage more military veterans to begin farming.

From a food security perspective, the average age of a Virginia farmer is 58 years. So as current farmers transition into retirement, we need to replace them, he explained. We think many veterans have the specific skill set to do that, and this marketing tool can help them. Anyone whos ever sold something knows you can have a great product, but if you cant sell, you wont succeed.

There already are many veteran farmers in Virginia. Fant said if theyre interested in using the new logo, they need to become certified as former military personnel through the FVC. Then they can acquire the marketing tools from the Virginia Grown program.

Paul Farmer Paul Meyer is a Virginia veteran and urban farmer who plans to adopt the new joint logo for his products. Meyer raises cut flowers and produce in Petersburg and said hell replace the Homegrown by Heroes logo on his packaging with the new image.

Im always pushing local, but Ive never had a customer say thanks for being a veteran, Meyer said. But Im sure it doesnt hurt. Its still important to me, and Ill be using it on the packaging for my salad mix and all my invoices.

Training Scheduled

The first Virginia FVC training program for interested veteran farmers is scheduled for Oct. 27 and 28 in Halifax County at Hudson Heritage Farms. Information and registration details are available by contacting Rebekah Slabach of Virginia Cooperative Extension, rslabach@vt.edu, or 434-476-2147.
ABINGDON, Va. -- A judge is ordering the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission to turn over documents submitted by Bristol Virginia Judge Kurt Pomrenke or his attorney in connection with a judicial misconduct case against him.

In an order filed today by U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent, the documents must be sent to the court by Sept. 1.

Pomrenke, 63, a juvenile and domestic relations court judge for Bristol, Virginia, Washington and Smyth counties, had shared information with the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission last year.

Pomrenke is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Abingdon on Sept. 13 for a charge of criminal contempt. Federal prosecutors allege Pomrenke disobeyed a Dec. 1, 2015, order from Judge James. P. Jones regarding evidence from the corruption trial of his wife, former BVU Authority executive Stacey Pomrenke.
BRISTOL, Va.  A trip out to sea was a perfect change in scenery for Boy Scout Troop 8 of Bristol, Virginia.

The troop, which is one of the oldest in the region, has been sponsored by State Street United Methodist Church for almost 90 years. In mid-July, the group of 32 Scouts and Scouters embarked on a journey to the Florida National High Adventure Sea Base in the Florida Keys, a program run by the Boy Scouts of America.

Were proud that were able to offer opportunities for young men to enjoy the outdoors, said Rob Rutherford, assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 8. Thats something that youth today dont always have opportunities to take advantage of.

Troop 8 began planning the week-long trip a year ago. Scouts worked to earn money to fund their trip through service projects, including a leaf raking drive and a pizza dinner, among other projects. The troop was fortunate to be chosen from a lottery to which interested Boy Scout troops nationwide apply.

Logistics presented the next challenge  transporting a large group to Florida was a challenging and potentially costly task. Flying proved to be an expensive option, so the troop chartered a bus and, laden with camping supplies, hit the road to Florida.

Our goal is to offer these types of activities at as low a cost as feasible, and while air travel is fun and exciting, it was also very expensive, which might have made it difficult for some Scouts to afford, Rutherford pointed out. We want it to be available to all of our Scouts.

Other considerations had to be made to include all of the members of the troop  the adventure base is only for Scouts ages 14 and older, but Troop 8 has members as young as 11.

We didnt want to take only our older Scouts and leave out the younger ones behind, Rutherford explained. So we worked with the boys to plan and implement kind of a parallel program for our younger Scouts.

While the older boys took a week-long sailing adventure, the younger Scouts camped out at Long Key State Park, which offered primitive conditions that made camping an adventure. The younger crew participated in a day-long fishing charter, enjoyed snorkeling on the reef, went kayaking through the mangrove trees and spent a day at Key West learning the history of the area.

The mangroves grow out of the water and grow together to form a canopy, Rutherford described. You can kayak and actually go through them like tunnels. That was probably my favorite thing that we did. It was a new experience for me.

The older team spent a week crewing an 80-foot gaff-rigged topsail schooner called the Bloody Pirate while exploring the waters and reefs surrounding Key West. The group spent the first day gathering their supplies, learning how to navigate using a sea chart and how to the tie knots used in the sail rigging and reviewing safety rules.

There was no set itinerary for the cruise. The Scouts worked with the captain and crew of the boat to decide where to go and what to see. They boys swam in the ocean, snorkeled in the reefs and even caught, cleaned, cooked and ate their own fish. They even spent several nights on the boat.

I really enjoyed the trip, said 14-year-old Corbin Birt, a freshman at Virginia High School. It was really cool because I have never really gone on a big sailboat before. I really liked the snorkeling because I got to go see all the cool fish and the reefs  we dont have anything like that around here.

Corbin enjoyed the unique adventure, and recalls several exciting moments after hooking very large fish, including what the crew thought was a shark, and a Goliath grouper, which he estimated at 130 pounds. The shark snapped the fishing line, and the grouper was cut loose. Mostly, the boys caught mackerel, which was filleted and fried up for dinner.

The whole trip was a lot of fun, Corbin said. The captain and crew were really great. It was also really cool to get to spend time out there together with the troop  it was really a bonding experience for us.
A few words on trash-talking the president.

Said words are occasioned by emails from a large number of readers who have noted an increased propensity toward that practice in this space. Many found that rather ironic in light of an admonition that appears in the auto response received by any person who sends me an email. It warns that the reader who engages in name-calling will not receive a personal reply.

How, these readers demand to know, can I square that delicate concern for decorum with the fact that yours truly has repeatedly name-called the present tenant of the white mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I plead guilty as charged, having dubbed him the so-called president, the boy president and President Dumpster Fire, among other choice epithets.

Amazing, wrote one person. So its OK for you to name-call the president of the USA and then exclaim that you dont respond to name-calling?

The short answer is yes. The longer answer goes like this:

As a general rule, Ive always tried to avoid excessive name-calling in this space, particularly of the chief executive. The one big exception was back during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when I dubbed Bill Clinton a human oil slick, manipulative slime, Gomer, and President Hefner.

There is a simple reason  beyond decorum, I mean  for not going to that level too often. You see, two things happen when you call someone names.

The first is that you signal your lack of respect. The second is that you foreclose any possibility of engaging that person in a substantive manner on whatever the point of contention might be. The woman you call a stupid so-and-so is unlikely to then sit and have a calm discussion with you about police brutality.

So the reader who is affronted by my views on police brutality or any other topic has every right to call me names, but no reasonable expectation of any response beyond a tap of the delete button. Similarly, when I call the present president a human dumpster fire, it signals that I do not expect to engage with him or any of that shrinking minority of Americans who think hes doing a bang-up job.

It is a tacit surrender, an admission that I dont believe I can persuade him or them. That is, trust me, a bitter pill for someone who has spent more than 40 years as a professional persuader. But it says less about me than about the fact that many of us now live beyond the reach of reason and logic.

I wont subject you here to another listing of the presidents many extraordinary shortcomings and acts of incompetence. Ill just say that anyone for whom those things are not manifestly clear by now is unlikely to see them, ever  unless it be by the light of a nuclear explosion, which he is even now working to bring about.

The rest of us are in a fight for the life of our country. The memory and promise of America is our last redoubt. It is our Alamo against those who ask us to accept and normalize this madness.

I, for one, will not.

My preference is always to persuade. But when you cannot persuade, you can still protest. And yes, I know someone will advise me to respect the office, if not the man. My answer: I will if he will.

Until then, conscience requires me to treat this president, this singular existential threat, as Ive never treated any president  liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican  before him. Meaning with utter contempt. I understand that some people will find that offensive. But our country is at stake here.

And I think subtlety would be the greater sin.
Im trying hard to keep an open mind about President Trump, but it closed just a little further after his flippant comments about expulsion of employees at U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia. In response to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putins outrageous demand to reduce U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people, Trump said, I want to thank him [Putin] because were trying to cut down our payroll, and as far as Im concerned, Im very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll.

That response made me wonder whether our president thinks seriously about defending and advancing American national interests before he speaks. It most certainly is not in our interest to reduce our staff at our embassy and consulates in Russia by 755 people.

First and foremost, our ability to obtain information about Russia will be drastically constrained by this reduction. There are representatives of dozens of U.S. government agencies and departments, not just the State Department, in Russia. All of them now will be less able to inform their agencies back home about Russia.

We will have fewer people gathering data about Russias military modernization programs  both nuclear and conventional. We will have fewer people acquiring information about Russian foreign policy decision-making. We will have fewer people writing cables about economic trends in Russia. Our national security team in Washington, including Trump, will be less informed about Russia as a result of this staff reduction. That may be good for Putin. Thats bad for the United States.

Second, we also will have less capacity to conduct diplomacy, either the formal kind between the State Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or those informal relationships that develop between American and Russian soldiers, economists or astronauts that help to nurture ties between our two governments. Trump claims he wants better ties with Russia, but thats harder to do with a skeletal team in Moscow.

The embassy also supports the verification of treaties, such as the New START Treaty and other Russian international obligations. How can it be in the national interest to have less capacity for these activities? Thats good for Putin. Thats not good for the United States.

Finally, we will have fewer resources to engage Russian society. The embassy staff that runs exchange programs will be cut. Those working in our public diplomacy shop will have fewer people. Diplomats will have fewer meetings with civil society leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, religious leaders and human rights activists. Thats good for Putin. Thats not good for the United States.

The loss of our Russian employees will be especially devastating. Some of our Russian national experts in nuclear physics, economics, politics and military affairs have worked for decades at our embassy. They have invaluable experience, expertise and contacts. Reducing their number serves Putins interests, not ours. (It will also be nearly impossible for them to find new jobs in Russia.)

So when Trump praises Putin for these reductions, what countrys interests is he advancing?

Trump also sounds weak when making such conciliatory statements toward Putin. The Russian president  whom Trump admires as a strong leader  did not praise President Barack Obama for kicking out 35 Russian diplomats in response to Russias interference in our 2016 presidential elections. Russian leaders, including even Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Twitter, now openly mock Trumps incompetence regarding foreign policy, yet he does nothing to push back. Thats bad for our Russia policy and damaging to the United States international reputation more generally.

Trump can correct his mistake. He can respond to Putin by negotiating a smaller reduction. He can respond by some act of retaliation such as closing down a Russian consulate (save Putin some money!). Or at a minimum, he can make a statement in solidarity with those serving him and our country in Russia. In such a statement, he could correct the shocking factual error he made today when he said that Putin let go our employees. (Our diplomats dont work for Putin, and they wont be fired, just reassigned.) Or if a statement is too onerous, how about a tweet? Heres an example for you, Mr. President, from John A. Heffern, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe:

The State and inter-agency community is thinking about our colleagues in Moscow and Consulates as they prepare for difficult weeks ahead.

What was most upsetting about Trumps comments was his complete lack of empathy, support or respect for his fellow American public servants. Every American working at our embassy and consulates took an oath to serve our great country. They endure harassment - tires slashed, apartments broken into, helicopters swooping down on their cars, and even sometimes beatings and guns to their head - to serve our country. Many serve away from their families. Thats life in the Foreign Service, life in the Marines, life in the Commerce Department. They are dedicated American patriots who deserve to be defended by their leader, the president of the United States. On Thursday, they were not.
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.




The Vietnamese Embassy in Bangladesh coordinated with the ministry and the two countries chambers of commerce and industry to organise an investment and trade promotion workshop.

At the event, Bangladeshi Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism Rashed Khan Menon pledged to coordinate with Vietnam to soon open a direct air route linking the two nations so as to enhance trade and tourism. He promised to provide the best possible conditions for Vietnamese firms to invest in potential industries of his country such as technology and tourism.

Minister of Commerce Tofail Ahmed called on Vietnamese enterprises to invest in Bangladesh and asked the Vietnamese Government to create favourable conditions for his countrys pharmaceutical products to enter Vietnam.

Noting the progress in economic and trade ties, Vietnamese Ambassador to Bangladesh Tran Van Khoa said bilateral trade reached about USD400 million in the first half of 2017, up 40 percent year on year.

He stressed to develop sustainable and win-win trade relations, businesses of both sides should diversify their export items, instead of depending on just few strong products like they have done so far.

Bangladesh is assessed as a potential market with a population of over 160 million, rapid economic growth and young and abundant workforce. It is considered a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter other South Asian markets.

Meanwhile, it also has a number of potential commodities for export to Vietnam such as jute and jute products, ceramics and pharmaceuticals.

At the workshop, some Vietnamese firms also signed export contracts with Bangladeshi partners at a total value of USD60,000.

Aside from the event, the Vietnamese Embassy worked with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries to hold a meeting to listen to businesses proposals and help address problems facing their activities.

During their stay, the Vietnamese delegation surveyed the Bangladesh market and visited automobile and motor maker Runner and electric and electronic device producer Rahimafrooz./.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives President of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai (Photo: VNA)



The PM said he will lead a high-level Government delegation to visit Thailand from August 17th-19th to exchange measures to promote bilateral friendship and cooperation, and increase the two countries strategic partnership.

Vietnam and Thailand have enhanced coordination in various fields from politics, security, and defense to economics, trade, tourism, culture and society in recent times, Phuc said.

Last year, Thailand is the biggest trade partner of Vietnam in ASEAN with two-way trade reaching USD12.5 billion. However, as Vietnam ran a trade deficit of USD5 billion with Thailand, Phuc hoped the two countries will seek measures to balance trade and increase the bilateral trade to USD20 billion by 2020.

The tourism cooperation also developed with about 800,000 Vietnamese tourists visiting Thailand in 2016 while over 200,000 Thais travelling to Vietnam, he noted.

The PM proposed Thailand open its market for Vietnamese goods and create more favourable conditions for Vietnamese workers to work in the country as well as encourage Thai businesses to boost investment in Vietnam.

Vietnam will address difficulties and create conditions for Thai investors to do business, he affirmed.

For his part, Pornpetch highlighted the sound relations between Vietnamese and Thai legislatures. The two sides have exchanged ways to boost bilateral cooperation at international forums.

Thailand and Vietnam are big trade and investment partners, he said, adding that they have pushed cooperation in other fields such as security, defense, and marine patrol.

The connection of roads and railways between Thailand and Vietnam via third countries in the future will be an important factor to promote bilateral wide-ranging cooperation, including tourism, he said, hoping that the two sides will strengthen measures to draw more Thai tourists to Vietnam./.
NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan welcomes President of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai on August 14th (Photo: VNA)



The remark was made during talks in Hanoi on August 14th between NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and President of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, who is on an official visit to Vietnam from August 13th to 16th.

The two sides noted the soundly developing relations between the countries, which can be seen through regular mutual visits by high-ranking delegations.

Chairwoman Ngan affirmed Vietnams consistent policy of prioritising the strategic partnership with Thailand. She asked both sides to work more closely to effectively carry out the plan of action to implement their strategic partnership between 2014 and 2018, as well as important cooperation mechanisms such as the joint cabinet meeting, the political consultation, the high-level dialogue on security, and the dialogue on defence policy.

The officials said to optimise the countries cooperation potential, specialised agencies of the two parliaments should closely supervise the Governments cooperation agreements and maintain delegation exchanges at all levels. The two parliamentary friendship groups also need to increase connections.

Highlighting thriving trade and investment ties, they noted Thailand ranks 10th among foreign investors in and is the biggest ASEAN trade partner of Vietnam, which in turn is the eighth largest foreign investor in Thailand.

Bilateral trade hit USD12.5 billion in 2016, up 8.9 percent year on year, and approximated USD7 billion in the first half of 2017, up 22.5 percent from a year earlier.

Chairwoman Ngan asked the two sides to coordinate more strongly to reach the targeted trade revenue of USD20 billion in 2020 and reduce trade imbalance since Vietnam still records high deficit in trade with Thailand.

They should provide more favourable conditions for Vietnamese and Thai businesses to boost trade and investment activities, she added.

She pledged optimal conditions of the NA and the Government of Vietnam for Thai firms to invest in such fields as tourism (especially marine tourism), textile-garment, footwear, cosmetics, food, agricultural products, machinery, chemistry and material production. These are the areas that match Thailands strength and Vietnams potential.

Echoing his hosts viewpoint, NLA President Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said the two countries need to step up partnership in trade and investment and gradually balance their trade.

Thailand wants more Vietnamese investment, he noted, stressing that the two legislative agencies are ready to work together to resolve obstacles facing investors.

In 2016, about 800,000 Vietnamese tourists came to Thailand, but only 260,000 Thais visited Vietnam. Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said he hopes after more routes linking the countries are inaugurated, the number of Thai visitors to Vietnam will surge.

Regarding cooperation in ASEAN, Chairwoman Ngan said as ASEAN members, Vietnam and Thailand need to enhance solidarity to promote the blocs unity, strength and central role. They should persist in ASEANs common principles and viewpoints on regional global issues.

She urged further coordination with each other and with other Mekong countries to promote cooperation, management and sustainable use of the rivers water resources, and to effectively implement the outcomes of the seventh Summit of the Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS 7), held in October 2016.

In terms of agriculture, fisheries and labour, the legislators discussed the acceleration of signing a new memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Thailand, and the signing of an agreement on setting up a hotline for fishery activities at sea.

Ngan suggested both sides consider expanding the fields and jobs opened for Vietnamese workers in Thailand. The two countries labour ministries need to promptly carry out relevant procedures so that Thailand can officially recruit Vietnamese workers.

She also thanked the Thai Government for favourable conditions for Vietnamese-Thais to integrate into the local society and for the construction and management of the relic sites of Vietnams late President Ho Chi Minh in Udon Thani and Nakhon Phanom provinces.

At the talks, the officials discussed international and regional issues of shared concern. Chairwoman Ngan said Vietnam wants to keep coordinating with Thailand to strengthen ASEANs solidarity, boost the blocs common voice and role in settling security and development affairs in the region, and help deal with East Sea disputes through peaceful means in line with international law.

Later on August 14th, Chairwoman Ngan hosted a banquet in honour of NLA President Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, his spouse and other members of the Thai delegation./.
CATAWBA COUNTY  Catawba County has seen an increase in the number of residents with medical insurance since the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010 and the insurance marketplace launched in 2013.

However, 15.4 percent of adults in Catawba County do not have insurance, according to the 2016 State of the County Health Report. This is a 0.2 percent decrease from 2013 data.

When comparing the 2010 and 2016 data sets, there has been a 1.4 percent decrease in uninsured county residents.

Over the last several years, the county's reports credit the ACA as the reason for coverage increases.

The reports also credit the lack of Medicaid expansion in North Carolina for the small amount of those gaining insurance in Catawba County.

Without Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, adults who fall in the Medicaid gap typically do not have enough income to purchase insurance and are not eligible for a federal subsidy to help them afford it, according to the 2014 county health report.

In 2014, the countys Medicaid gap was estimated to be more than 3,000 people.

On the state level, the North Carolina Community Health Center Association estimates 244,000 uninsured people in North Carolina fall into the Medicaid gap.

As many as 400,000 would benefit from expanding Medicaid coverage, according to the N.C. health centers website. Additionally, there are more than 100,000 uninsured children in North Carolina, and closing the coverage gap could greatly reduce that number since children are more likely to get covered and stay covered if their parents gain access to insurance coverage.

Despite the Medicaid gap, North Carolina is in 10th place for most citizens under 65 to gain coverage under the ACA, with 509,000 people gaining insurance between 2010 and 2015, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

On the national level, more than 19 million people have gained coverage.

However, not everyone who gained coverage under the ACA did so through Medicaid or the insurance marketplace, according to the Urban Institute's report.

A majority of Americans were able to gain coverage through other provisions the ACA provides, such as young adults staying on their parents insurance until the age of 26, , prohibiting lifetime caps on coverage and prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions, like diabetes and asthma.

An additional benefit of the ACA includes free preventative health care, such as cancer screenings and essential vaccinations.

Although the ACA benefited some residents, others see the act as a burden due to some insurance companies increasing premiums to offset the costs companies now face following ACA policy.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press published a report about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina expecting their 2018 premium increase percentage to drop, despite what the company originally predicted.

Instead of a 22.9 percent price increase for individual policies under the ACA, Blue Cross says itll be about a 14.1 percent price increase.

In May, the Durham-based insurer blamed the size of its 2018 rate increase on the Republican-led Congress refusal to fully fund so-called cost sharing reductions, a subsidy that helps insurance companies hold down customer premiums, according to the report.

The anticipated medical cost for people with ACA plans is lower than what Blue Cross was expecting, which consequently lowered the premium increase, according to the report.

Blue Cross is the largest insurance provider in North Carolina and is the only company to offer ACA policies for 95 out of 100 counties in North Carolina, which includes Catawba County.

Congress will continue to address health care reform following the August recess.

The most recent plan, dubbed the skinny repeal, failed in the Senate toward the end of July.

At the beginning of August, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) said bipartisan health care hearings would begin the week of Sept. 4 because if Congress fails to act, millions may not have insurance to purchase in 2018.

The Senates health committees hearings will focus on the actions Congress should take to stabilize and strengthen the individual health insurance market so that Americans will be able to buy insurance at affordable prices in 2018, Alexander said via press release. We will hear from state insurance commissioners, patients, governors, health care experts, and insurance companies.

Committee staff will begin working (in August) with all committee members to prepare for these hearings and discussions.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group, estimated Congress last plan would have left up to 32 million Americans without insurance within 10 years.
HICKORY  Teaching good citizenship was on the priority list in July for the North Carolina General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper when both bodies approved House Bill 135.

Among other issues of course study addressed, the bill included a mandate for local school boards to develop character education plans for their districts.

According to the bill, the plans will be incorporated into the standard curriculum and address eight traits: courage, good judgment, integrity, kindness, perseverance, respect, responsibility and self-discipline.

Along with these objectives, the new policy encourages school boards to include instruction on respect for school personnel, responsibility for school safety, service to others and good citizenship.

This subject is not necessarily new to local school districts. Hickory Public, Catawba County and Newton-Conover City School systems have spent the last few months updating their policies. Among these is language stating a key focus on students includes creating a learning environment in which students learn and practice responsible behavior.

Newton-Conover has made the idea of character development a part of their operations four years ago when David Stegall became superintendent for the district. He established a plan to create magnet programs in several of the schools from Leader in Me at South Newton Elementary to blended learning at Shuford Elementary and project-based learning at Discovery High.

I think we have the basic structure with the programs we already have, Associate Superintendent Aron Gabriel said. We just need to look at the (state) policy to see whether we need to ramp up in some areas or continue to build up whats already working.

Leader in Me already addresses character development with the habits it teaches and the other elementary schools have similar themes that emphasize behavior.

Along with having Leader in Me schools as well, Catawba County Schools (CCS) is looking at other ways to address these issues in their system, particularly in relation to the conflict resolution in the responsibility for school safety objective.

The district has worked during the summer to create a system-wide character education plan to bring before the board. It will cover areas like conflict resolution, good digital citizenship, ethical behavior on the internet, social media, Catawba County Schools Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction DeAnna Finger said.

There are multiple reasons why this issue came up, Finger said. One, we have some Leader in Me schools, so those that arent Leader in Me schools, we still have to have a character focus and we got to figure that out.

Behavior also is a key piece to the districts new Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) process.

We work on math and literacy constantly. Now the behavior piece is huge, so were trying to look at what does core instruction look like in behavior, Finger said. When you hold a kid responsible for an action, youve got to be able to prove youve taught them that was not the right action.

She admits not everyone agrees this should be the responsibility of schools but with their own policies being developed along with the states new law, its apparent teaching character is a new direction for educators.

Hickory Public Schools has character development that the districts teachers have previously developed into their lesson plans. As a district, HPS has implemented the following: Capturing Kids Hearts, Guidance Essential Standards (developed by Department of Public Instruction), School Counselor class lessons and Outside community partners/presenters.

Highlights from the bill regarding character education traits:

Courage  Having the determination to do the right thing even when others don't and the strength to follow your conscience rather than the crowd; and attempting difficult things that are worthwhile.

Good judgment  Choosing worthy goals and setting proper priorities; thinking through the consequences of your actions; and basing decisions on practical wisdom and good sense.

Integrity  Having the inner strength to be truthful, trustworthy, and honest in all things; acting justly and honorably.

Kindness  Being considerate, courteous, helpful, and understanding of others; showing care, compassion, friendship, and generosity; and treating others as you would like to be treated.

Perseverance  Being persistent in the pursuit of worthy objectives in spite of difficulty, opposition, or discouragement; and exhibiting patience and having the fortitude to try again when confronted with delays, mistakes, or failures.

Respect  Showing high regard for authority, for other people, for self, for property, and for country; and understanding that all people have value as human beings.

Responsibility  Being dependable in carrying out obligations and duties; showing reliability and consistency in words and conduct; being accountable for your own actions; and being committed to active involvement in your community.

Self-discipline  Demonstrating hard work and commitment to purpose; regulating yourself for improvement and restraining from inappropriate behaviors; being in proper control of your words, actions, impulses, and desires.

Respect for school personnel  In the school environment, respect includes holding teachers, school administrators, and all school personnel in high esteem and demonstrating in words and deeds that all school personnel deserve to be treated with courtesy and proper deference.

Responsibility for school safety  Instruction in this responsibility should include a consistent and age-appropriate antiviolence message and a conflict resolution component for students in kindergarten through grade 12. These messages should include media-awareness education to help children recognize stereotypes and messages portraying violence.

Service to others  Engaging in meaningful service to their schools and their communities. Schools may teach service-learning by incorporating it into their standard curriculum or involving a classroom of students or some other group of students in one or more hands-on community service projects.

Good citizenship  Obeying the laws of the nation and this State; abiding by school rules; and understanding the rights and responsibilities of a member of a republic.
HICKORY  Hickory resident Derrick Allen Black, 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory sex offense with an 11-year-old child during Burke County Superior Court on July 31, according to a press release sent from the District Attorneys Office.

Superior Court Judge Nathaniel J. Poovey sentenced Black to 28 to 34 years in prison, according to the release.

Blacks prison sentence will run concurrent to another conviction from Catawba County involving the same victim. He also will have to register as a sex offender and undergo satellite-based monitoring for the rest of his life.

The investigation into the Burke County offenses began after an April 2013 incident in Catawba County was investigated by the Catawba County Sheriffs Office. It was determined the defendant went to the victims house while her parents were away and had sexual intercourse with her.

The sexual offenses in Burke County happened four years prior to the Catawba County incident, in June and July of 2009 when the victim was 11 years old.

During forensic interviews with the Child Advocacy Protection Center of Catawba County, the victim said Black touched her inappropriately and engaged in sexual acts with her on three separate occasions.

Isaac Propst investigated the case for the Burke County Sheriffs Office with assistance from Rick Younger of the Catawba County Sheriffs Office. Assistant District Attorney Michelle Lippert handled prosecution for the state.
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India awoke to freedom with the stirring Tryst with destiny speech by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the midnight of August 14, 1947. Indias cherished galaxy of freedom fighters, led by Mahatma Gandhi, attained independence for a nation that had borne the imprimatur of the British crown for nearly three centuries.

India that awoke to freedom on August 15, 1947, was home to one of every five people in the world. These 400 million Indians earned a meagre Rs 15 every month. 83% of them were illiterate. Thirty-eight thousand children were born every day but a quarter of them died before they could even reach the age of five. Three quarters of all Indians lived in abject poverty, struggling every day to survive death by starvation. Majority of Indians did not live beyond 32 years of age. Nearly 25,000 Indians died of malnutrition and under nourishment every day . The Indian subcontinent was one of the largest gatherings of impoverished humanity and divided sharply along religious and geographical lines. India was once a flourishing civilisation and a prized destination for trade and commerce that set Christopher Columbus on a discovery voyage. Between Columbuss failed discovery of India in 1492 and Indias independence from the British in 1947, India had been robbed of her prosperity and left in a state of utter penury.

It was against this backdrop that the members of the Constituent Assembly of India adopted a pledge on August 14, 1947, which resolved At this solemn moment when the people of India through suffering and sacrifice, have secured freedom and become masters of their own destiny, I, a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, do dedicate myself in all humility to the service of India and her people to the end that this ancient land attain her rightful and honoured place in the world and make her full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and the welfare of mankind. This resolution was moved by Nehru and seconded by Chaudhari Khaliquzzaman of the All India Muslim League. The great philosopher Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan reminded the members of the Constituent Assembly that Indias new-found freedom will be used not merely for the well-being of India but for Vishva Kalyana, world peace and welfare of mankind . The founding fathers of independent India undertook a resolve to dedicate themselves to return India to her rightful place in the world. Just seven decades later, India has indeed returned to her right honoured place on the globe.

With India afflicted by extreme poverty, illiteracy and social injustice, the first government under Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel laid out a clear vision for raising living standards of Indians equitably through a significant growth in national income which can be achieved by a high rate of investment. This vision formed the cornerstone of Indias economic and social policies in the decades to follow. Equitable growth and upliftment of living standards for all has been the canvas on which Indias development since Independence has been painted. This will continue to serve as the canvas for Indias development paradigm in the future too, regardless of political parties and governments.

Several institutions were built in the early decades after independence that still stand as the edifice of our Republic. The Atomic Energy Commission, Election Commission, Planning Commission, Central Statistical Organisation were all visionary institutions established within the first decade of Indias independence. For such a poor and illiterate nation, India punched well above her weight in global affairs. Nehru as Indias first foreign minister set up embassies and missions in forty countries within the first decade and articulated a Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. New temples of modern India were built at a frenetic pace  factories, dams, universities, irrigation projects and so on. Poverty alleviation and social justice through economic development was the mantra. This was complemented by the doctrine of agriculture self-sufficiency led by the Green Revolution.

India also joined a select club of nations in the world by launching her own satellites just as we were also making great advances in poverty alleviation. Indias rise to one of the world leaders in Information Technology was spurred by investments in science and technology with institutions such as Centre for Development of Telematics and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. Such remarkable progress in agriculture, industry and technology within four decades of Independence laid the foundation for Indias bold push to liberalisation and free markets. Economic liberalisation catapulted India to her current status as one of the worlds leading global powers. The results of the vision, hard work and dedication of all of Indias founding fathers and contemporary leaders are evident today.

Today, out of every 100 infants born, less than three die before they reach the age of five. In 1947, a quarter of them did not live to age five. Since 1947, we have made rapid strides in curtailing infant mortality from 25% to 3%. Similarly, in 1947, more than three quarters of all Indians lived in poverty. Today, less than a quarter of them live in poverty . Nearly half a billion Indians have been lifted out of poverty in the last seven decades, a feat that has few parallels in the history of humankind. In 1947, more than 80% of Indians were illiterate. Today, just 25% of Indians are. The average income of an Indian has increased nearly 500 times since independence. Every Indian today has access to three times more food than in 1947 . Less than 0.5% of our villages had electricity in 1950. Today, almost 100% of villages have access to electricity . At least 90% of Indians have access to water today compared to just 5% in 1947. It is unquestionable that the living standards of the average Indian have improved significantly in the last seven decades since Independence.

On the world stage, India is now a proud member of the G20, a group of the top twenty nations in the world. India is an invitee to meetings of the G7, the group of seven largest economies. India is also a peaceful nuclear power. We are one of only four nations in history to have successfully launched a mission to Mars with our Mangalyaan satellite programme.

We can be justifiably proud of our accomplishments since Independence. Our founding fathers will be proud too of the fact that this brittle nation born in 1947 has developed into a mature and well-grown adult with her place of pride in the world. But, to paraphrase the poet Robert Frost, we still have promises to keep and miles to go before we can rest.

We must strive to ensure that no child born in India dies of starvation, is malnourished and denied good education and healthcare.

We must strive to ensure that all entrants of our labour force are assured of a productive job.

We must strive to ensure that no Indian is treated with hostility for her religion or caste.

We must strive to ensure that our freedoms for which our freedom fighters laid down their lives are not impinged upon.

We must strive to ensure that our economic development is equitable, fair and just.

We must strive to ensure that our development is environmentally sustainable, ensuring adequate protection of our land, air and water resources.

We must strive to ensure we are a responsible and peaceful global power regardless of provocations.

All these will be possible only if we strive to ensure that our institutions continue to be robust with and maintain high standards of integrity.

I will not be present at the centenary celebrations of Indias independence but I dream of an India that stakes a strong claim to being one of the most peaceful, prosperous, safest and healthiest places in the world for everyone, regardless of their identity or class.

Jai Hind.

Manmohan Siingh is former Prime Minister of India

The views expressed are personal

(A version of this article was published in the National Heralds commemorative issue on July 1, 2017)
Amole Gupte considers himself more of a filmmaker than an actor. Yet he stunned everyone with his performance in Kaminey (2009) where he portrayed the role of Priyanka Chopras elder brother, Sunil Bhope aka Bhope bhau. As the film completes eight years of its release on August 14, Gupte reveals that he thought someone was playing a prank, when he got the offer for the film.

Honey (Trehan) was a casting agent back then, and he had called me for the role in Vishal Bharadwajs film. I thought someone was playing a prank. My first reaction was, Get off the phone! So he kept calling me, and I was ignoring it. But then finally we met, he laughs, recalling the incident.

Are you out of your head? You think I can act? I asked him. He then bought his laptop and showed me all the films I had done as an actor when I was in FTII. He said, I dont believe that you are just a filmmaker. You are a terrific actor, and we want you to work in the film, Amole adds.

Having played the role of the antagonist in Kaminey, the 55-year-old does feel that he has been stereotyped in the industry as an actor, but that doesnt bother him. It is a pretty stereotype-driven industry. But I am not bothered by that. I am primarily a filmmaker. I have played four or five roles of a villain, and I think Bhope bhau was one of the most well-balanced role that I have played till date. He was a typical gunda, from Maharashtra, so I didnt have to do much research for it. I know a few characters like Bhope in real life, so I based him around them, he shares.

A filmmaker himself, Amole learnt a lot from Vishal Bharadwaj on the sets of Kaminey. It was a great experience to see him in action as a director. The filmmaker in me was watching and looking for every small detail. Id see him testing himself, making ground-breaking cinema, and breaking stereotypes. I love that about him. Theres so much to learn from him, he says.

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Esha Gupta has finally hit back at the slut-shamers posting horrible comments on her recent Instagram posts. The actor, who shared several pictures from a lingerie photoshoot over the past few weeks, said her pictures were aesthetically shot and there wasnt anything vulgar about them.

In an interview to Times of India, she talked about why people were posting perverted comments on her photos and still shaming her for shooting in underwear. In our country, women are eternally blamed. They are accused when a girl child is born, they are even accused when they are raped. So, somewhere I knew that I will also have to face a lot of heat. After all, its easy for some faceless and redundant people to pull a celebrity down at the first opportunity. Ive done shoots like this one when I was a model. Ive gone topless and naked, too. No one ever asked me about that. And who are these people who have issues with my pictures?, she said.

All eyes on you A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 8, 2017 at 1:47am PDT

White shadows A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 5, 2017 at 2:50am PDT

Esha believes no one can say her pictures are indecent. Its my body and its been shot aesthetically. Theres a thin line, which if you cross, you look vulgar. No one can say my pictures are vulgar. I got more love than hate, but its better to be hated than to be forgotten. And right now, Im in my best shape. Although we knew where this could lead, we thought, If not now, then when?, she said.

The actor also called out the double standard of these commentors. Men tend to have a problem if a woman goes bold. Their manhood is challenged. They are prudes; they must have even saved these pictures on their phone. And here we are in the country of Ajanta and Ellora, and Kamasutra, objecting to a womans photo-shoot, which she has done on her own will. So, my attitude is, S***w them, and thats the point I wanted to make. The pictures turned out so beautiful that I didnt want to hold them back. The thing is that Ive been comfortable and confident about my body all along, she said.

Esha will be soon be seen with Ajay Devgn, Emraan Haashmi and Ileana DCruz in Milan Luthrias Baadshaaho where she plays a con-artist.

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The saga of Indian Central Board of Film Certification is 65-year-old. And, during this time, there have been countless interesting incidents. Earlier dominated by bureaucrats, it was in 1981 that CBFC got its first chairman from the film fraternity - Hrishikesh Mukherjee. This was followed by Shakti Samanta, Asha Parekh, Vijay Anand, Sharmila Tagore, Leela Samson, Pahlaj Nihalani and the most recent being Prasoon Joshi. Here are some noted CBFC chiefs who in their own way made a difference in the world of censorship of Indian films.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee

A highly successful director, editor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was highly respected as a censor chairman. Virtually none of his directed films ever faced trouble from the Censor Board. As a chairman, he was well versed with the 1952 Cinematograph Act. Even seniors, experienced filmmakers took his suggestions about censorship.

Asha Parekh

The superhit star of the 60s was the CBFC chairperson from June 1998 to September 2001. She had a traditional approach to censorship. Asha Parekh developed a big conflict with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur regarding the censoring of the film Bandit Queen (1996). It led to a lot of misunderstanding between the two. Ultimately the film was censored in favour of Shekhar Kapur.

Vijay Anand

Vijay Anand was the best CBFC chairman according to many film personalities like Kamal Hasan and Madhur Bhandarkar. The way he censored the film Mr. & Mrs. Iyer without any hue and cry remains a lesson in film censorship. He was the CBFC chief from September 2001 to July 2002. During his short tenure of ten months, Anand redrafted the entire 1952 Cinematograph Act with inputs from censors of USA, UK, France and Greece. He was the first to propose separate censorship of television.

Sharmila Tagore

According to many, she was one of the most accomplished CBFC chairpersons. Her study of the Cinematograph Act was thorough. During her tenure, she suggested many amendments in the act, but it wasnt payed heed to. Sharmila Tagore completed two terms as CBFC chairperson from October 2004 to March 2011.

Pahlaj Nihalani

Pahlaj Nihalani is perhaps the most controversial CBFC Chairman. Instead of being a friendly advisor to the film fraternity, he acted more like a moral police, which didnt go well with many filmmakers of the recent time. He suggested 14 cuts to Madhur Bhandarkars film, Indu Sarkar. He also censored words by Amartya Sen in a documentary on the Nobel laureate by Suman Ghosh. Ultimately, he was removed from the post in August 2017 and now adman Prasoon Joshi is the new CBFC Chief.

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Janmashtami is a holiday, and theres no better time to read up all the lores that surround Lord Krishna, his adventures and his triumph over evil. While mythological texts and books about his philosophies exist in abundance, what adds to his already epic tales are great illustrated visuals. True bibliophiles cant be stopped by festivities. So, heres a list of graphic novels, on Krishna, which you must add to your library this year. Happy reading!

KRISHNA: A JOURNEY WITHIN

We all know the god, his epics and all the glory that surrounds him, but not many know the human side of this avatar of Lord Vishnu. That is exactly what A Journey Within deals with, and that too beautifully. The mesmerising visuals take one on a journey that culminates in a confrontation between the fire of mans consuming greed to conquer all, and the supreme power of the divine spirit.

KRISHNA: DEFENDER OF DHARMA

A classic tale of good vs evil, Krishna: Defender of Dharma revolves around the return of evil rakshasa Kalanemi, who returns to Earth as Kansa  the tyrant king of Mathura. Seeing the new rise of evil, Lord Vishnu decides to descend to Earth as Lord Krishna  his eight avatar to vanquish Kansa, and his horde of evil monsters. The story deals with all of Krishnas adventures till the point where he becomes a councillor of the race of Yadavas, where he observes that the real struggle is not with magical monsters but with evil kings and warriors. This book is an easy read with some extremely aesthetic visuals.

GRANT MORRISONS 18 DAYS

If youve read All Star Superman, Batman and Robin, and The Invisibles by creator Grant Morrison, this one will definitely become your favourite! Re-imagining Mahabharata, the book 18 days follows the course of the climactic war, Kurukshetra. With Grant Morrisons creative-style and original illustrations by Mukesh Singh (the man behind the Devi series), this book dives into the epic scale of the war, Krishnas role in it and also provides a read thats worth adding to your collection.

AMMA, TELL ME ABOUT KRISHNA

This one is primarily for the kids and thus is mostly heavy with visuals. A series around Lord Krishna, the first part deals with his birth, the greater purpose behind it, his magical escape from prison and arrival to the home of Nand and Yashodha. The book uses cartoon like figures, unlike other books, on this list, which will make you read it no matter what your age is.

KRISHNA: THE DEATH OF KANSA

A book that is much like the Krishna animated series, this one uses a mix of colourful visuals and simple language to tell the tale of Lord Vishnus eighth avatar, Krishna. Starting from his birth in Mathura, growing up in Gokul and then moving to Vrindavan, the journey traces Krishnas growing years. Courageous, mischievous and lovable, Krishnas adventures with friends Balaram, Udho and Madho make this book worth cherishing. Krishnas love for Radha is another plot thats praiseworthy.

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In her review of the movie in The Guardian, Fatima Bhutto said the portrayal of Gandhi made her weep. The Sydney Morning Herald advised audiences to keep the salt shaker at hand. And this fascinating, infuriating, entertaining and at times misleading film has Shefali Singh, otherwise known as Rani Juni of Sarila, fuming!

We are talking about the recently released film Viceroys House, the Hindi version of which is titled Partition:1947. This is the newest film from Bend It Like Beckham (2002) director Gurinder Chadha, which is meant to be a historical film about the home of Indias last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten, the building which is now famously recognised as Rashtrapati Bhavan. But, says Rani Juni, When you are making a historical film, you cannot ignore the details. People will think thats how it was.

The film is the outcome of Gurinder Chadhas desire to make a movie about the Partition, a fact she reportedly mentioned to Prince Charles at a charity event a few years ago. Chadha approached Narendra Singh Sarila, ADC to Lord Mountbatten at the time of the Partition, reportedly on the Princes advice. Sarila had written a book on the Partition and the story behind it.

Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India (Getty Images)

We were in Switzerland then, and Chadha could not find Narendra, Juni, his wife says, recounting the events that led to the making of the film. But my son Samar heard that Chadha was planning a film on Partition, and during her visit to Mumbai, went to meet her with a copy of the book under his arm.

Chadha established contact with Raja Narendra and they met in London, where Chadha impressed him enough. He gave her the rights to base her film on the book. In fact, my husband went way beyond that. He would spend hours on research, getting letters, papers, material together to send to Chadha, to add to the material in the book; working late into the nights, even when he was ill.

(From left) Shefali Singh, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain and Raja Narendra Singh

Inside story

Sarilas inputs were valuable to Chadha. As one of the ADCs to Lord Mountbatten, he had enjoyed an insiders eye view of the events in the Viceroys house, which is what Chadhas film was to be about. Above all, Juni adds, He was very excited that many little known facts would be coming to light, and that his book was being directed by a London director.

Filmmaker Gurinder Chadhas newest film Viceroys House is meant to be a historical film about the home of Indias last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten, now famously recognised as Rashtrapati Bhavan

Sarila however, did not live to see the film. In 2011, the year he passed away, Chadha was still to get the script finalised. Chadha stayed in touch with Juni, finally meeting her in Switzerland while on her way back to London from a ski resort. Juni learnt from her that, unhappy with the version written by the BBC, Chadha was rewriting the script herself and it would soon get done.

Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson in Gurinder Chadhas Viceroys House

Chadha told me it was a love story against a historical background, Juni says. I had no quarrel with that. But when almost two years went by after the script had been finalised, she wondered why it was taking so long to get on the floors. I later came to know that Chadha was finding it tough to get actors to sign on for the lead role, she says. Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Grant, among the many approached, either had no dates or did not want the role. Finally, Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson were signed on. As was Om Puri, in what would be his last film.

Crossed connections

Juni continued what her husband had begun: helping the film in her own way. It was her connections that got Chadha permission to visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan with her photographer to shoot the interiors that she could replicate in her sets of the Viceroys House. There were many other instances of doors that may have remained shut being opened, thanks to Junis help.

Rani Juni of Sarila, also known as Shefali Singh

When the production decided to shoot in Jodhpur, I had to put in a word with the Maharaja to ease things for the unit. The production in charge had tried repeatedly, but in vain, says Juni. On Junis request, Chadha got a carte blanche from the Maharaja, who even threw a dinner for the cast.

Im glad my husband is not alive to see Gurinder Chadhas film. It would have given him a heart attack!

 Rani Juni of Sarila

It was in Jodhpur that Juni first realised things were really not quite right with the film. Invited to the sets to watch the shoot, she found herself disturbed by anomalies she could not help but notice. Juni had seen enough of Lord Mountbatten during her visits with her husband to Broadland, his home in Hampshire, in more recent years to know he was always impeccably fit and stood lean and tall. Unable to help herself, she asked Hugh Bonneville, at the royal dinner, how he could play Lord Mountbatten with a paunch. Bonneville is a lovely man, she says of that conversation. He smiled and said, I cannot be Mountbatten, let me be myself.

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Lord and Lady Mountbatten and their daughter Lady Pamela in their red Sunbeam-Talbot on May 17, 1948.

More disturbing was the love scene that Juni watched being shot. It delineated a secret liaison between a Muslim maid and a Hindu waiter. It was impossible, she says, outrage singeing her voice. The rules were very strict, and such a liaison was impossible, no interaction whatsoever was possible. There were no maids in the Viceroys house. There could not be a meeting, let alone a love story. I expected facts, this was fiction!

There were no maids in the Viceroys house. There could not be a meeting, let alone a love story. I expected facts, not fiction

To be doubly sure, Juni cross -checked the facts. And she found that she was right. As upsetting was the portrayal of the servants in the Viceroys household. They show bad behaviour, fighting and spitting, such things were absolutely not possible, would not have been tolerated at any level, she says. It is the directors imagination, and far from reality, and that is not allowed in a historical based on a time so close to the present.

Indignity and Ignominy

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all, Juni says, is the way the film portrayed Lord Mountbattens ADC. An ADC was among the most important people in the Viceroys house. He controlled the house, knew every move of the Viceroy; he was someone capable enough to be his Aide.

Oath being administered to Shri C. Rajagopalachari at the Darbar Hall of the Governor-Generals house on June 22, 1948

Juni had heard from her husband about the intensive training an ADC received to ensure he could handle everything from arranging elaborate, formal dinners, to overseeing perfect flower arrangements and table settings, to remembering every guest by name, to organising the Viceroys timetable or Lady Mountbattens day. She had seen photographs of her husband, standing beside the Viceroy, alert and ready at all times.

The photographs I have seen of Samar who plays the part of the ADC, she says, show him standing far away from the Viceroy, his hands clasped behind his back like a chaprasi! It is unjust to the ADCs to project them as ridiculous. It shows the laziness and ignorance of the director about the reality of the times she is portraying. When you are making a historical, details matter. And she has not looked into details.

Pope Saint John Paul II with Shefali Singh and Raja Narendra Singh (at the back)

Equally upsetting to her is the fact that Chadha has brought in a personal story at the centre of the film, using her grandmothers story to vindicate her stand as a victim herself. All of it has nothing to do with Narendras book or history, Juni says.

She has not seen the film yet, and Juni is not sure whether she will watch it at all.Chadha did not need Narendras book to make this film, she says. Though she acknowledges the book in the credits. Which is why I am glad my husband is not alive to see the film. It would have given him a heart attack.

The writer is a senior journalist and the former editor of Femina. She has also authored several books, including a biography on filmmaker Guru Dutt

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From HT Brunch, August 13, 2017

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China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Monday, following through on new UN sanctions after US pressure for Beijing to strong arm Pyongyang over its allys nuclear programme.

The decision was announced on Monday after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Uns regime, which has raised international alarm about where the crisis is headed.

Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions after the United States accused China of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour, which relies heavily on the Asian giant for its economic survival.

The Chinese commerce ministry said on its website that all imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood will be completely prohibited from tomorrow. Beijing had already announced a suspension of coal imports in February.

The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 that could cost the country $1 billion a year.

The sanctions were in response to the Norths two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the US.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed after the UN sanctions were approved that his country will for sure implement that new resolution 100%, fully and strictly.

China, which is suspected of failing to enforce past UN measures, accounts for 90% of North Koreas trade.

Trump complained in July that trade between the two nations had increased by nearly 40% in the first quarter.

Beijing has defended its economic ties with Pyongyang as normal commerce between neighbours and insisted the trade did not violate UN sanctions.

The suspension of coal imports deprives North Korea of massive income as it totalled $1.2 billion last year.

Among the latest banned products, China imported $74.4 million worth of iron ore in the first five months of this year, almost equalling the figure for all of 2016.

Fish and seafood imports totalled $46.7 million in June, up from $13.6 million in May.

The United States angered China in June when it imposed unilateral sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash.

Trump will today formally order a probe into Chinas intellectual property practices, though US officials said it was not linked to the North Korean matter.

Its not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep pressure on the other issue, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing.

Regional tensions have soared in the past week as Trump warned North Korea it would face fire and fury if it attacked the United States, while the North threatened to test-fire its missiles over Japan and towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

Japan has deployed Patriot missile defences in four prefectures in response.

We will do our best to prevent (North Korea) from taking such acts by stepping up pressure through the UN, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today.

The governments heaviest responsibility is to secure our peoples lives.

The war of words has sparked global concern, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides in a phone call with Trump over the weekend.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In, a left-leaning leader who has previously advocated dialogue with the North, joined the appeals for restraint today.

Moon called for an end to all provocations and hostile rhetoric immediately, instead of worsening the situation any further.

The governor of Guam, Eddie Calvo, defended Trumps rhetoric against Kims regime, saying in an interview with AFP that sometimes a bully can only be stopped with a punch in China has pleaded for a resumption of long-dormant six-nation talks to peacefully resolve the crisis.

But its proposal for North Korea to suspend its arms programmes in return for the United States to halt military drills in the region has been ignored.

The relevant parties should exercise restraint, in order to avoid aggravating the words and deeds of the tense situation on the Korean peninsula, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua said.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley held a meeting with other ministers and government officials on Monday for a review of the current Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, informed sources said.

Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman, power minister Piyush Goyal, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj attended the meeting, the sources said.

The official refused to give any details of the meeting.

The government has been considering further liberalising the FDI regime to attract foreign investments in various sectors, including 100% FDI under the automatic route for the production in India of tanks, armoured vehicles and military transport aircraft.

Allowing 100% FDI in single brand retail through automatic route is also said to be under consideration.

Currently, 49% is allowed through automatic route and investments above that have to meet the condition of 30% local sourcing though companies bringing in state-of-the-art technology have been given a relaxation from the proviso of local sourcing for a period of three years.

Increasing the FDI limit from 26% to 49% in print media is also said to be under consideration.

In 2016-17, the FDI inflows had hit a record $60.1 billion after the rules were relaxed in June 2016.

The government last year eased the foreign investments in aviation and defence up to 49% by automatic route and 100% through government approval. Seventy-four per cent FDI in pharmaceutical sector was allowed through the automatic route.
Indian traders are likely to import 25 tonnes of gold from South Korea in July and August, taking advantage of a recent tax change that allows importers to ship in gold without paying a 10% customs duty, industry officials told Reuters.

The cheap imports are putting pressure on local refiners and banks who cannot match the steep discounts being offered on bullion sales from the duty-free gold from South Korea.

Already 12 tonnes have been landed from South Korea since the implementation of GST. By the end of this month imports could be around 25 tonnes, James Jose, secretary of the Association of Gold Refineries and Mints told Reuters.

India, the worlds second biggest gold consumer after China, imposes a 10% import duty on gold, but this does not apply to countries with which it has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), like South Korea.

To avoid duty free imports from those countries, India previously imposed a 12.5% excise duty. However, this was scrapped along with other local taxes when a Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced from July 1.

Those who are importing from South Korea are reaping windfall gains, said Rajesh Khosla, managing director of MMTC-PAMP India, the countrys biggest refinery.

They are saving the 10% import duty. So they can give a $10 or $15 discount. Refiners are operating with a 0.65% margin. We cannot compete with someone who is giving a 1% discount, Khosla said on the sidelines of the International Gold Convention in Panaji, capital of Indias western resort state of Goa.

South Korea is favoured for importing gold over other countries that India has FTAs with because of its ability to deliver bullion in the form of coins or other articles, which do not attract the import duty.

Gold discounts in India widened earlier this month to $11 an ounce, the highest in more than 10 months.

The government is aware of the issue and we have asked industry associations to provide more data, said a government official, who declined to be named.

The government has asked traders who are importing gold under free trade agreements to fill in a questionnaire that asks them to specify whether the goods are manufactured in those countries, the official said.

Very soon this issue will be resolved by putting on a countervailing duty, he said.

In the first seven months of the 2017, gold imports more than doubled from a year ago to 550 tonnes, according to provisional data from consultancy GFMS.
The 15th of August is, in a very special day, the prime ministers day.

The Red Forts rampart waits for him, sees him unfurl the Tricolour from its sandstone majesty and then address his fellow citizens. And we must, on Independence Day, greet our prime minister with a Jai Hind!

But the Tricolours story atop the Red Fort started with one who never was prime minister but gave us something that outlasts all prime ministerships: The greeting Jai Hind! He had all that is needed in a leader, in a prime minister, but did not, could not, become prime minister. He has remained an unfulfilled aspiration, an unrequited promise  Netaji.

He stays indelibly etched in the popular imagination, all these seven decades and more since he was last seen, seven decades this year, this month and date, since the Tricolour was hoisted there, on that spot, by our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

But even before he did that, Nehru had become another link between Bose and the Red Fort. The INA personnel were tried in 1945 by court-martial, the first of which trials took place at the Red Fort, four leading lawyers defending the accused  Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Jawaharlal Nehru and Kailashnath Katju  Desai leading the defence skilfully on the basis of international law, and Nehru clearly shining in the proceedings. And there were three accused in this trial  Prem Sahgal, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Shah Nawaz Khan, one Hindu, one Sikh, one Muslim. There was a nationwide surge of support for the three as symbols of braveheart patriotism and brave-mind secularism. The national chorus fluxed into the cry: Lal Qile se aayee awaaz, Sahgal, Dhillon, Shahnawaz.

Sugata Bose, in his new book The Nation as Mother describes this passage in our history compellingly.

The INAs motto  Ittehad, Itmad, Qurbani  meaning Unity, Faith and Sacrifice shot through the country like a bolt of lightning. It bespoke, collectively, Indias future in unity.

Gandhi, Bose and Nehru were tough  tough on the colonial power and tough on the communal virus. They did not defend secularism. They proclaimed its criticality to India. India un-free is not India, India un-secular is not India.

The Raj could not mess with their nationalism. The bigot could not mess with their secularism. For the reason they were ready, with the innocents who did die as a result of Partition, to give their lives for it.

The Two Nations Theory says it all.

The Muslim Two Nationists, helped along with diehard Hindus taunting it, would have nothing to do with secularism. It wanted Partition. Adamant to the end, it succeeded in leveraging the departing Raj to give it what it wanted, Pakistan.

The Two Nations Theory, we must now remind ourselves, had Muslim and Hindu adherents. Pakistan slaked the thirst of the first. That of the second is now wandering over the Indian countryside looking for, thirsting for, disemboweling the Indian earth for, the aquifers of hate.

The Hindu Two Nationists, helped along with Islamic fundamentalists, will have nothing to do with secularism now. They want in India a partition of the mind within the partitioned nation. Dogged in their aim, they seek to leverage an India traumatised by terrorism, into what it wants, a Hindu Rashtra.

And as this Partition of the Indian mind, as between Hindu and non-Hindu, is being assiduously advanced, what secularists miss is the strategic toughness and philosophic anchorage of a Gandhi, Bose and Nehru in the cause.

Indian pluralism is not just about Sufi music, Iftar embraces and kebabs. It is about being tough. Lal Qile se aayi aawaaz

A formidable condemnation of Two Nationist divisiveness came from our former vice president Hamid Ansari in his convocation address at the National Law School University in Bengaluru. Speaking on the eve of demitting office he warned, in words that were made of steely resolve, that the illiberal form of nationalism which we are witnessing promotes intolerance and an arrogant patriotism.

His own ancestor, MA Ansari would have been proud.

What followed? Studied efforts at sarcasm and even rudeness aimed at Ansari when gratitude should have been offered, respect shown to his person, his office. So much for propriety, basic human decency.

Hamid Ansari should have become President of India.

Even as Dara Shukoh should have been emperor of Hindustan.

But then

Whom does history honour? That never-say-die prince of secularism or the bigotry that ruled from the Red Fort awhile?

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is distinguished professor of history and politics, Ashoka University

The views expressed by the author are personal

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DEHRADUN: BJP state president Ajay Bhatt referred the scuffle between supporters of Satpal Maharaj and Madan Kaushik to the partys disciplinary committee, after BJP leaders failed to bring a truce between the two senior ministers.

The disciplinary committee will submit its report in a fortnight. On August 10, supporters of the two ministers had come to blows over the removal of some structures outside Maharajs Prem Nagar ashram in Haridwar. Both sides had registered a police case against one another.

We decided to refer the matter to the disciplinary committee, which will submit its report after a fortnight. The decision was taken after both sides persisted with their allegations and counter allegations, Bhatt told Hindustan Times on Monday. He took the decision at the BJPs district committee meeting held in Haridwar on Sunday, which was attended by Kaushik, Maharaj and their supporters.

On Sunday at a meeting, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had entrusted Bhatt the responsibility to resolve the row between two ministers following the August 10 clash in Haridwar. Rawat reportedly urged the two cabinet ministers to resolve their differences as the episode was an embarrassment to his government.

Bhatt said the members of Sant Samaj, who was sitting on a protest outside the Prem Nagar ashram since Thursday, agreed to end their dharna on his request. We also tried to convince both sides to help us resolve their differences, he said.

But, the BJP state president added, the two sides persisted with their allegations and counter allegations. Since it is not fair to take a unilateral decision on such issues, we referred the matter to the disciplinary committee for investigation.

Earlier, Maharaj had demanded that the chief minister order an inquiry into the clashes so that those responsible for demolishing the boundary wall of his ashram and dumping garbage at its gate were removed from their positions. Later, Maharajs supporters and the members of Sant Samaj sat on a dharna outside the ashram. The minister said a dozen of his supporters were injured in the clashes, blamed Haridwar mayor Manoj Garg for inciting violence and dubbed the episode as an assault on the Sant Samaj.

On Saturday, Maharaj had told HT that the incident was an act of vendetta on the part of Garg. What annoyed him is that I got retendering of a car park in the Hari-ki-Pairi area done. The mayor had rented it out for Rs 1 crore but after retendering the rent went up to more than Rs 3 crore, he alleged. But Gargs brother Maneesh had refuted all the allegations made by Maharaj.

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Thick foliage and broken roads - perennial issues during every monsoon  have come in the way of tigers translocation in Rajaji Tiger Reserve.

The relocation is planned in western part of the reserve where there are two tigresses after receiving final nod from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in June.

No breeding is reported from the area that is divided by a narrow corridor buzzing through traffic and other hurdles from the eastern part. The eastern part comparatively has reported breeding.

The latest Phase IV monitoring in the reserve has listed 34 tigers - an increase of 18 tigers since the last monitoring of 2014.

As a first step towards relocation, the management has to radio collar two lone tigresses in the western part. This area is spread across 570 sq km - wider than the eastern part which is limited to 150 sq km.

The radio collaring would be done after tranquilising both the tigresses. So, officers do not want to take any chance during the rainy season which would mean the disappearance of the wild animals post tranquilising in the dense cover.

The tranquiliser takes at least 10 minutes. But, we cannot take a chance to tranquillise them during monsoon as they can easily elope in the thick foliage. Radio collaring is needed to study their behaviour, range, prey, pattern. We would be able to do it once monsoon bids farewell, Sanatan Sonkar, director Rajaji, told Hindustan Times.

Monitoring of both tigresses is presently being done with the help of field staff. But, radio collars will help in establishing their movement area.

Wildlife Institute of Indias two senior scientists - PK Mallik and Bivash Pandav - will be assisting the officers in the project with the support of World Wide Fund for Nature India.

Following radio-collaring of two tigresses, the officers will also identify two pairs of tigers from Corbett landscape for translocation. These identified tigers would also be radio-collared for certain duration, studied and thereafter, would be translocated.

After Sariska and Panna, Rajaji is the third project of the country where tiger translocation would be done to ensure healthy breeding of the big cat.

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Dehradun: Its been 70 years since the country became independent from the British rule. For a group of senior citizens of Dehradun, the historic day is etched in their minds and remains fresh even today.

Hindustan Times reached out to some of them for time travel to recollect the trials, tribulations, joy and despair that followed the historic day.

Recollecting memories from the momentous day, social activist Avdhash Kaushal, who was around 10 years old back then, said, We used to live in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) at that time and I remember how over 50-60 people had huddled in a small room in our locality to listen to Nehru jis (Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru) Tryst with Destiny speech on the radio. Some people said: angrez chale gaye, ab toh rail humari hai, abse koi ticket bhi nahin lagega (now that the British are gone, we wouldnt have to pay for the rail ticket), reminisced the Padma Shri awardee while adding how halwa was prepared in all households and sweets like bataashe were distributed to cherish the moment.

Filmologist Dr. R. K. Verma, who was around eight years old, recalled how Dehraduns iconic Paltan Bazaar was beautifully lit and decorated on the intervening night of August 14-15, 1947 to celebrate the countrys Independence. There was a lot of euphoria and enthusiasm all around. People were bursting firecrackers and embracing each other- shadi-byah ki tarah khushiyan manayi ja rahi thi (people were celebrating as if there was a wedding ceremony), said Verma, who has also penned a soon-to-be-released book on the history of the freedom struggle in Dehradun.

There were many families which shifted to Dehradun around the Indo-Pakistan Partition. Veteran journalist Raj Kanwar, whose family was originally based in Lahore, recalled the turn of events from around the time of Independence. Kanwar, who was around 16 years old then, said, We had come with a couple of suitcases for a family function to Jalandhar in June 1947. We had plans to return but had to extend our stay owing to the major unrest in Lahore due to the Partition. We, however, could never go back and eventually settled in Dehradun as my brother was in the army here. Recalling how the family was in an unsettled frame of mind at that time due to the unexpected relocation, Kanwar said, Locals took out processions under senior Congress leaders Mahavir Tyagi and Khursheed Lal (who were later inducted into PM Jawaharlal Nehrus government as deputy ministers) while tension prevailed in some pockets of Dehradun around that time.

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The 20-year-old woman who was allegedly raped and thrown off the fourth floor of an under-construction building at Begampur in outer Delhi is still battling for her life, doctors said.

The victim is still on life support. Her condition has improved marginally, but she is still not out of danger. A team of doctors, including those from gynaecology and neurosurgery departments, are monitoring and treating her, said Dr Puneeta Mahajan, medical director of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini.

Police have arrested a 24-year-old man, who works at a five-star hotel, for allegedly raping the victim and pushing her off the building. The victim works as an assistant chef at another city five-star hotel. The incident took place around 11pm on August 10.

According to police, the woman had gone out with the accused, and two other friends. The four were travelling on one bike and were intercepted by police at Punjabi Bagh. Their bike was seized as they did not have valid documents and the four then took an autorickshaw.

On reaching Begampur, the accused told the other couple that he was going to get his fathers car and took the woman with him. He, however, led her to an under-construction building while the two friends waited in the autorickshaw.

Police claimed the man sexually assaulted the victim and pushed her off the fourth floor when she tried to raise an alarm. Locals, however, raised an alarm when they found the woman lying in a pool of blood in a semi-clad state.

Police are yet to record the victims statements as her condition is still critical. She has suffered severe head injuries, said Dr Mahajan.

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It was a mistake to educate my daughter and send her to IIT. I should have saved all the money for her dowry, said Manoj Devak, waiting outside a mortuary on a hot summer evening in late May as doctors carried out an autopsy on his daughter, Manjula. Less than 24 hours ago, Manjula, a civil engineer and a PhD scholar at the coveted IIT Delhi, hanged herself from the ceiling fan of her hostel room.

Manjula was among 54 women in Delhi who died between January and June after allegedly being bullied for more dowry, a toxic custom of brides families being forced to give gifts such as cash, cars and property to the groom. India outlawed the dowry tradition in 1961 but it continues to be as much a social reality as it was five decades ago.

According to Delhi Police statistics, dowry harassment allegations, filed under Indian penal codes Section 498A almost doubled in five years, going from 2,046 new cases in 2012 to 3,877 last year. This is in contrast to the trend in other crimes such as murder, robbery, rape or dacoity, which decreased every year since 2012 or only had a marginal increase.

The number of unreported cases of dowry harassment could be sizeable too. Hindustan Times pored over all the 1,330 first investigation reports (FIRs) filed for such cases in the first six months of this year, and found that the tradition cuts across demographics.

Women as educated as Manjula are as likely to be harassed for dowry as a woman from an impoverished background married to a rickshaw puller. The spectrum of dowry allegedly sought  from a gas cylinder worth around Rs 1,500 to an Audi Q5 SUV and Rs 2.5 crore cash  suggests a womans economic status too did not make her any less likely to pressure.

Read more: Dowry harassment: Dont ask your daughters to adjust to abuse

A large number of complainants said the harassment over inadequate dowry began as early as during the honeymoon. One woman said she was assaulted in a taxi in Thailand. In over 50 cases, women claimed they were forced into unnatural sex and five complainants said they accepted torture because their husbands allegedly shot sex videos.

Common items demanded, according to the complaints, included gold jewellery (543 cases), refrigerators (566 cases), sofa sets (217 cases), LED television sets (26 cases), flats and land assets.

DELHIS DOWRY BAZAAR Intro: Insights from 1,330 allegations made by brides and their families in Delhi A CASH CUSTOM

Cash was the most commonly given dowry  The least sought: Rs 5,000

 The most sought: Rs 2,50,00,000

 Most commonly sought: Rs 5 lakh (151 cases) In 9 cases, the demand was for more than a crore.

57% of the complainants specified giving cash as dowry.

Rs 66.2 crore cash in 766 cases, where cash was specified, rest alleged they were harassed for other reasons. CAR CRAZE

Intro: A car was mentioned as the second-most sought dowry, mentioned in 441 cases

 Most commonly sought: Honda City (43 cases)

 Second favourite: Maruti Suzuki Swift (31 cases) Size-to-bullying ratio: Cheaper or smaller car triggered more harassment. In one case, woman was harassed for getting Hyundai Verna in dowry instead of an Audi Q5 Even autorickshaws: One of the complainants said her family was forced to give an autorickshaw in dowry. In another case, the dowry demand was for 2 buffaloes. FLATS TO FURNITURE

Common demands included a range of other fancies as well, such as:

 Gold jewellery (543 cases)  LED television  Refrigerators (566 cases)  Sofa sets (217 cases)  Flats and land assets QUICK TO CRIME

A large number of complainants said the harassment over inadequate dowry began as early as during honeymoon. One woman said she was assaulted in a taxi in Thailand. In 50 cases, women claimed they were forced into unnatural sex and 5 complainants said they accepted torture because their husband allegedly shot sex videos Source: Allegations made in FIRs filed between January and June, 2017.  The least sought: The most sought: Most commonly sought:In, the demand was for more than a crore.of the complainants specified giving cash as dowry.cash incases, where cash was specified, rest alleged they were harassed for other reasons. Most commonly sought: Second favourite:Cheaper or smaller car triggered more harassment. In one case, woman was harassed for getting Hyundai Verna in dowry instead of an Audi Q5One of the complainants said her family was forced to give an autorickshaw in dowry. In another case, the dowry demand was for 2 buffaloes. Gold jewellery LED television  Refrigerators Sofa sets Flats and land assetsA large number of complainants said the harassment over inadequate dowry began as early as during honeymoon. One woman said she was assaulted in a taxi in Thailand. In 50 cases, women claimed they were forced into unnatural sex and 5 complainants said they accepted torture because their husband allegedly shot sex videos

In nine cases, the cash demanded was above Rs 1 crore. Motorbikes were demanded in 198 cases, with the Royal Enfield Bullet being the most sought after. One of the complainants said her family was forced to give an autorickshaw in dowry. In another case, the demand was two buffaloes.

Read more: It is not wise to assume that all dowry complaints come from disgruntled women

The cases studied are in the trial phase, and recent observations from Indias top courts, legal experts and activists suggest that all may not be genuine since the laws misuse is common. Last month, the Supreme Court restricted automatic arrests under the anti-dowry law and in 2014, a separate SC bench called Section 498A a a weapon, not a shield used by disgruntled wives.

But, activists say, just as many cases may not be true, thousands of genuine cases are probably not being reported. Supreme Court advocate Rebecca John agrees there are false cases but says she is worried about the law being looked at from the prism of false cases. You look at law from the objective it serves. Dont look at women as revengeful human beings.

But beside the false-versus-true debate, officials believe a part of the blame is with growing materialism in society. Dowry is an ancient ritual where fathers helped their daughters even when they were not rich. Even a middle class or a lower middle class family gave dowry. Gradually, affluence grew and with it, so did the scale of dowry, said former Delhi Police commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma.

Read more: No immediate arrests in dowry harassment cases: SC rules to curb misuse of law

Sharma agreed that there are cases where allegations are exaggerated. You must have seen even grandmothers, some as old as 85, named in the FIR. It is unthinkable. What will an 85-year-old woman do? A silver lining, according to Sharma, is that the higher number cases over the years also points to more reporting.
Negligence and delay in payment to the company supplying oxygen led to the death of five patients on ventilators at Delhi governments Sushruta Trauma Centre in 2012. Five years later, nothing has changed.

The hospital still uses an obsolete gas pipeline system, the investigation into the role of six doctors is still pending with the state medical council and the company that supplied oxygen to the hospital still has contract with several government hospitals.

HT took a look at the Delhi incident days after 60 children reportedly died for the want of oxygen in Gorakhpurs BRD hospital.

In the 2012 incident, oxygen pressure in the central line had dropped and an alarm had gone off. But there was a delay by the technician in switching the cylinders during which the supply was cut off for nearly three minutes. The doctors on duty had at the time resuscitated the patients using Ambu bags for manual ventilation. But, due to the severity of their injuries, they succumbed later in the day, said Dr Ajay Bahl, medical superintendent of Sushruta Trauma Centre, who was not the chief back then.

A case of negligence had been registered against the company supplying oxygen and manpower to operate the central gas pipeline. There was delay in payments and the company had started sending only one person for each shift and the technician on duty was not qualified to handle emergencies, said a doctor who worked in the hospital at that time.

The technician on duty and the supervisor, both from the third party company that was in contract with the hospital, were arrested. The company, which was to be black-listed (meaning it could not do business with other government hospitals), was debarred for 18 months and is now back in business.

This decision was taken without any investigation and we had challenged it in the court. The fluctuation had happened because the hospital had a very old gas pipeline and we had suggested that it be replaced. This was in fact done by the hospital after the incident, said the company that was supplying oxygen and manpower to Sushruta Trauma Centre at the time. The person wished to remain anonymous as the matter is still sub-Judice.

Although the old gas pipeline was replaced after the incident, the hospital continues to use obsolete gas pipeline hooked to oxygen cylinders instead of liquid oxygen plant, which is more reliable.

The hospital, however, has started keeping emergency oxygen cylinders in the ICUs and wards now, in case, there is a malfunction.

Immediately after the incident, two specialists from the anaesthesia department, who were on contract with the hospital, had been terminated. They continue to work at other government hospitals as the enquiry on them by the state medical council is still pending.

The police had also recommended that the role of the head of the department of anaesthesia and three others on duty be examined to see whether there was a delay in resuscitation. Even that investigation is pending with the Delhi Medical Council. All four doctors are in service.

We will be releasing the final report in another ten to fifteen days, said Dr Girish Tyagi, Registrar and Secretary, Delhi Medical Council.

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Terrorism and sabotage are not the only threats that would keep Delhi Police on their toes during Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort on Tuesday.

Poisonous snakes and monitor lizards in the Mughal-era fort are also a concern for security agencies. And police are not taking any chances as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver his speech and VIPs will gather there.

For the first time, police have sought the forest departments help to catch these slithery reptiles if they surface.

We have been conducting checks and reconnaissance over the past few days. During our recce, we spotted some snakes and monitor lizards. We have sent a request to the wildlife officials to send in trained personnel so that these animals could be captured, said a senior police officer.

Not only could snakes bite unwary visitors, a mere sight of these animals could trigger panic. Snakes and other animals have earlier been trapped by forest officials and NGOs from various parts of the city including Parliament House, the prime ministers residence, airport and Delhi assembly among others

Forest department officials said similar requests to catch monkeys ahead of Independence Day celebrations had come earlier on a few occasions, this was the first time the police were worried about snakes and lizards.

This is the first time that we have received a request from the police. Our men would be there along with a few trained NGO personnel, said a forest official.

The forest department, which has just two wildlife inspectors left, has in turn got in touch with Wildlife SOS, an NGO dealing with wildlife rescue and rehab.

We would be honoured to assist the government and police and be a part of the Independence Day security arrangements, said Wasim Akram manager of Wildlife SOS (special projects).

The NGO would be sending a team of three to four trained personnel equipped with snake catching sticks and containers who would be scanning the area.

Experts in the Wildlife SOS said that if any reptiles or other animals are captured in and around the Red Fort, they would be temporarily shifted to ensure public safety. Once the celebrations are over, the animals would be restored back to their original habitats.
Theatre artist Ashutosh Tarate says, I feel, Im chosen by Him. The 32-year-old has been portraying Lord Krishna, in various productions, since the age of 17. And its not just in Delhi but across India that Ashutosh dons the role of Lord Krishna.

I feel fortunate to enact Lord Krishna, as I feel that its my duty to reach out to the masses, and educate them on the message of Bhagavad Gita.

 Ashutosh Tarate, actor

To enact to the best of his abilities, Tarate reads Bhagavad Gita, and has even learnt Sanskrit to understand the scriptures. Its important to read the scriptures, as your consciousness should be on that level, when you play the lord. Its not how a TV actor does it  ki aapne mukut pehen liya, make-up kiya, dialogue bola aur ho gaya. (Its not how TV actors do it by putting on make-up and crown, and deliver dialogues dramatically). Even while putting on my make-up, I listen to Dashavatar Stotra, which describes the 10 avatars of the lord. Tab jab make-up chadta hai toh chehre ke haav-bhaav change hote hain (Thats why when the make-up is put on, the facial expressions change). Every time I take to the stage, I feel the lord comes within me and helps me get the work done. Krishna means Bhagavad Gita. I feel fortunate to enact Krishna as I feel its my duty to reach out to the masses and educate them about the message of Bhagavad Gita, he says.

Ashutosh (L), with an actor portraying Duryodhana, rehearses ahead of a performance.

Born in Mumbai, Ashutosh, shifted to Delhi in 2007 to refine his skills in theatre and visit the holy places near the Capital. I thought Id stay in Delhi to learn theatre and ensure that my pronunciation of the shlokas is appropriate for the role. Moreover, Vrindavan is very near to Delhi, so I can go there and even visit places such as Dwarka (Gujarat), Gaya and Badrinath, he adds.

There is no bigger storyteller, artist and game changer than Krishna. It become difficult to lead a normal life once you read the deep shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita. I follow all ethics  I dont smoke or drink.  Ashutosh Tarate

Portraying Krishna, for a decade and a half, has altered the actors lifestyle, too. Krishna se bada kathakar, kalakar, aur yug pravartak koi nahi hai. (There is no bigger storyteller, artist and game changer than Krishna). Having read the shlokas from the Bhagavad Gita, normal life mein jeena bada khatin ho jaata hai (It become difficult to lead a normal life once you read the deep shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita). I follow all ethics  I dont smoke or drink either, he says.

Ask him about the reactions he receives from his audiences, and Tarate recalls a shloka from Gita: Avajananti mam mudha, manusim tanum asritam, param bhavam ajananto, mama bhuta-mahesvaram. It translates to  Fools deride me when I descend in the human form. They do not know my transcendental nature... The demons never took Krishna as God, but the devotees knew he was a God. While there are those who love what I do and greet me with Dwarkadheesh, kasie ho?; some dont understand and say Pata nahi kya kar raha hai (Dont know what is he doing).

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more

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The Delhi Police stepped up security ahead of Independence Day on Tuesday.

Police said they have deployed paramilitary personnel to complement the 80,000 strong city police in securing the city. Areas around the Walled City, especially around the Red Fort where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give his Independence Day speech will be closed for vehicle movement.

Police said NSG commandos and snipers of Delhi police commando unit will be posted atop buildings in and around Red Fort. At least 10,000 police personnel will be posted in Old and Central Delhi.

Police said the threat perception in the backdrop of alleged terrorists arrested last week is very high this year. Over the last few days, police have been conducting stringent checks across the city. Police have taken over 500 CCTV cameras on rent and installed across the Walled City. CCTV cameras have also been placed at the route, the Prime Minister and other guests will take on their way to the Red Fort.

A senior officer said that even the road dividers, where plants are kept on the Ring Road leading to the Red Fort, have been sanitised. Police said they have scanned each tree near the Rajghat, where the Prime Minister is likely to visit on Tuesday.

The traffic police have blocked most of the routes around Red Fort and parts of New Delhi, which will be used by Prime Minister and other VIPs for the celebration on Tuesday. Areas such as Connaught Place, India Gate C Hexagon will be closed past midnight.

All district heads and senior officers have been asked to report to Red Fort at around 3 in the morning. Anti-riot teams have also been posted across the city. The local police have been conducting checks at the local hotels across the city. Our beat constables have also checked the details of those who recently rented rooms in parts of the city. Mock drills were also conducted at shopping malls and market places, said a senior officer.
Today, Delhi is the largest centre of publishing books in India. But until 1947, it housed only a handful of distribution centres selling mainly religious books.

It was the refugees who established the books trade in the capital. The famous ones from Lahore  Atma Ram, Gurdas Kapoor, Uttar Chand, Rajpal and Sons  reached Delhi after Partition and started their businesses from Nai Sarak and Kashmere Gate.

Amar Varmas family ran a book-selling business in Multan. Before leaving for Delhi, his father met someone who promised to transport their books to Delhi at Rs 10 a carton. We sent 50 boxes to India. Much to our surprise, they got delivered, said Varma.

Struggling to make ends meet, the Varmas wanted to sell this stock at the book market in Old Delhis Nai Sarak. But for them, this was raddi (wastepaper). They wouldnt even pay for the binding, which they said had no value. That was a shocker. So we decided to open our own bookshop, recalled Varma, 82. In 1948, his father set up a 10x5 feet shop in Dariba Kalan called the Punjabi Pustak Bhandar.

By 1955, the Varmas had got into publishing, opening Star Publications, with low-priced paperbacks. They published Sahir Ludhianavi, Shakeel Badayuni, Firaq Gorkhpuri, Dutt Bharati, and sold the books for Rs 1 each.

Read: Curzon has left the building

By the 1960s, Delhis book market had a global imprint. In 1962, the US Library of Congress, the biggest library in the world, had opened an office in the city. They wanted Punjabi and Urdu books from us, said Varma. In 1972, the National Book Trust launched its first World Book Fair and by the late 1970s, foreign publishers had realised that India had a big market for English books and printing was also cheap. Many big publishers from the UK and USA arrived in Delhi.

Many publishers and distributors slowly gravitated to Ansari Road, Daryaganj. The number of book fairs increased, new libraries opened, and universities started buying locally. Publishers from India were participating in Frankfurt and London book fairs. With Delhi leading the way, India soon became the third largest publishing hub for English books after the United States and the United Kingdom.

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Three alleged members of Manipurs banned terror outfit Kangleipak Communist Party have been arrested by the Delhi Police.

Police said Laishram Ranjit Meitei,45, is the commander-in-chief of the KCP-Tamnganba faction, while Lamjanba Khuman,36 of the LK Faction is the member finance and the third accused was identified as Thoidam Chaothoi alias Chingsang,30.

The three were arrested on Sunday evening from outside the Tibetan monastery in north Delhis ISBT.

Police said the three were planning to set up base in Delhi. Police have recovered a laptop, tablet, two mobile phones with sim cards of Nepal and Manipur, a pen drive containing letterheads of the party and records of the extortion letters the party issued to schools, local businessman and other persons.

Police have also recovered personal diaries and documents of the party.

Police said that an officer received a tip-off about the KCP leader Laishram Ranjit Meitei, who was wanted in a case in Manipur. DCP Special Cell Pramod Kuswah said police had information Meitei had come to Delhi. He was hiding in a place close to the West Bengal-Nepal border. Meitei and his two associates were arrested from their meeting point, where special cell officers had laid a trap.

Meitei claimed he was evading arrest for the past five years

The three also told police that earlier they were operating from the Bengal- Nepal border. They were staying in Kakarbhitta, in Nepal for the last three years and were extorting money from businessmen and government authorities in Manipur threatening to blow them off if the money was not paid. DCP Kushwah said that the extorted money was distributed among different factions of the banned outfit and also sent to leaders hiding in Nepal.

Police said KCP (People War Group) was formed in the January, 2016 by a combined extremist group of KCP-Poirei faction, KCP-Tamnganba faction and KCP-Paikhomba faction by Laishram Ranjit Meetei.

In January 2017 special Cell had arrested the self styled convener of KCP PWG Ranjjet Singh Porai alias Rocky. Earlier this year, the banned terror outfit was involved in firing at oil tanker vehicles when they refused to give money. In April, they had also hurled a grenade at a school when the extortion money was not paid.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), through a public notice, advised homebuyers, employees and those falling under other categories of creditors in projects of the Jaypee Group to file their claims on or before August 24 with the Interim Resolution Professional (IPR).

Around 30,000 homebuyers who have booked flats in the Jaypee Groups Wish Town in Sector 128 and Aman housing project in Sector 151 are worried about their investment as the NCLT had on August 9 admitted an insolvency plea against Jaypee Infratech, the realty arm of Jaypee Group.

The Jaypee Group had failed to repay a loan of around Rs8,000 crore to IDBI Bank, after which the bank filed an insolvency plea with the NCLT.

Homebuyers are miffed that the IPR has taken control of Jaypee Infratech management as there is still no clarity on the delivery of flats for which they have made payments. Legal experts said the most important step for each buyer is to file their claim with IPR Anuj Jain.

Buyers who have booked flats and invested money in Jaypees housing projects should submit a proof of their claims. It will be better if they submit all documents such as booking slips, builder-buyer agreement, payment slips and any other supporting document. An individual buyer has the right to file a claim on his own but taking the advice of a legal expert in the matter will be better, Pawan Chaturvedi, an advocate in Delhi high court, said.

Buyers have been advised to submit their claims through electronic means only. Buyers can download forms on the website: www.ibbi.gov.in.

There are three categories of claimants and three separate forms: Form B for operational creditors, Form C for financial creditors and Form D for workmen and employees of Jaypee Infratech.

Buyers need to fill Form C as they fall in that category and there is no other particular form designed for them. Buyers should file claims through buyers associations and hire an expert lawyer so that they are properly represented before the NCLT committee. The NCLT will take a decision on the basis of arguments made by the lawyer of buyers, said Chaturvedi.

Finding an expert is of crucial importance as the case is a unique one and there are not many precedents.

Some homebuyers are confused whether they have a legal right to file claims or the bank will do that.

Because the loan is obtained by a buyer from a bank, the claim will have to be filed by the borrower itself. The bank will not file claim on behalf of a buyer, said Subash Kumar Bansal, chartered accountant and expert in financial issues.

A buyer, who has taken home loan to pay for a flat to Jaypee Group, has the right to file claim to the IRP under section 13. Then under section 13, IRP has the power to validate the claim, said manager (legal) of a government bank.

A creditor means any person to whom a debt is owed and includes a financial creditor, an operational creditor, a secured creditor, an unsecured creditor and a decree holder. It means that a buyer has right to file claims, said Sunil Kumar Mishra, advocate, Delhi High Court.

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With their motto of hearty eating and good living, the Punjabis also changed the food culture of Delhi. We were happy with our Paranthewali Gali, said OP Jain, but the refugees brought with them a whole new palate. Delhi discovered its appetite for eating out.

Dilli mein restaurant ka koi riwaaz nahin tha, remembers 93-year-old Kundan Lal Jaggi, who along with Kundan Lal Gujral and Thakur Das Mago, resurrected Peshawars Moti Mahal brand in old Delhis Daryaganj. Their amazing journey was a series of happy coincidences.

In Peshawar, Jaggi worked at Moti Mahal and decided to move to Delhi when the restaurant shut down just before Partition. I was to take a train from Sunam (near Patiala). But my brother fell ill so I stayed back. Later, I heard that the passengers on that train were massacred, he recalled.

Months after, he met Gujral, a former colleague at Moti Mahal, and Mago, a fellow Peshawari, at a liquor shop on Delhis Roshanara Road. We began discussing business. Dass got Rs 4,000 to buy a shop. Gujral and I brought our experience of running a restaurant. And we started, said Jaggi, the only surviving member of the trio that set up Moti Mahal in Daryaganj in 1947.

People ate Aaloo poori in Delhi. But the Punjabis missed their roti and naan (baked breads). We started with selling breads and tea. Then we got three tandoors (clay ovens) and began grilling chicken and fish, said Jaggi.

Luck by chance could be the tagline for some of their biggest gastronomic inventions.

A Bengali gentleman turned up at the restaurant and we served him tandoori chicken. When he asked for some gravy, our rather intrepid cook rustled up a curry made of tomatoes, cream and butter. That was how butter chicken came to be, Jaggi recounted.

Another guest catalysed their dal makhani recipe. Suchha Singh, a manager at Firestone Tyres, came to our restaurant late one night when we had already run out of food. So he prompted the cook to mix the leftover dal and rajma with butter. And that became our famous buttered dal, said Jaggi.

While the majority of Hindus in Delhi were vegetarian, those who came from Pakistan relished their chicken. People eating the two fares side by side and not taking offence was a new experience in Delhi, said Jaggis son, Rajinder.

By the 1950s, Delhi was breaking new grounds in gastronomy. Restaurants in Connaught Place passed into Punjabi hands. Dhabas selling tandoori roti, dal makhani and rajma chawal, and stalls selling kulche chhole mushroomed across neighbourhoods. Paneer, till then unknown to Delhis palate, became the citys staple vegetarian fare.

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A 22-year-old woman from Nepal, who was allegedly raped by at least 30 people over the past five months after she was sold to a brothel at GB Road in Delhi, managed to escape and lodge a FIR.

Based on the complaint, Delhi Police, Delhi Commission for Women and a NGO conducted a joint raid in the brothel on Saturday and arrested a woman, who allegedly forced the victim into prostitution.

According to the DCW, a woman approached the victim, Pinki (name changed), in Nepal and offered her with a job in Dubai. She was, however, trafficked to India and sold to a brothel at GB Road.

She was allegedly assaulted, kept hungry for several days and forced to sleep with around 30 customers over the past five months, said Bhupinder Singh, media advisor of DCW.

Pinki told DCW officials that a few days ago a rumour spread in the brothel that police could be raiding the place. The women were being shifted to a secure location by the brothel owners. She managed to escape taking advantage of the melee.

After her escape, the victim got in touch with some person from east Delhi whom she used to know .

Meanwhile, an NGO working on human trafficking was tipped off about this incident. The NGO traced the girl and sought the help of DCW to register a police complaint.

The DCW swung into action and helped the victim lodge a complaint against the woman who forced her into prostitution. The woman was arrested on the basis of the victims complaint.

This is the modus operandi of traffickers who work on GB Road. They lure women from small cities and neighbouring countries by promising jobs. The women are however sold to brothels and forced into prostitution once they land in Delhi, said Swati Maliwal, DCW chairperson.

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Patriotism appears to be the flavour of the Independence Day week. Governments in the Centre and states are creating a nationalist frenzy among the citizens, by way of instructions on hoisting the tricolour and singing patriotic songs. But as the nation turns 70, a disturbing new trend is expecting minority educational institutions to flaunt their patriotism and furnish evidence of the same. Last week, the Yogi Adityanath government instructed 8,000 madrasas affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Madarsa Shiksha Parishad to organise programmes on August 15 that pay a tribute to freedom fighters. The circular issued by the Parishad to minority welfare officers expressly stated that officers should ensure shooting of videos at madrasas and keep recordings as evidence. Just last week an influential Muslim preacher from Mumbai asked madrasas to fly the national flag on Independence Day. Also the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation made the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in civic schools. Yesterday, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray demanded that the Union government enact a law making the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory. Also, the Madras High Court ruled that Vande Mataram must be sung at least once a week in Tamil Nadus schools and colleges.

The idea has created a kerfuffle among Muslims since the lyrics of Vande Mataram deify the Motherland. Leaders of the community argue that Islam prescribes vandan (worship) only for Allah. Even when India became independent, Vande Mataram was among the songs considered for the status of national anthem but the idea was discarded when a section of Muslims perceived it inappropriate. The suggestion isnt just odious but also unconstitutional. In February, observing that the Constitution didnt have provision for the concept of a national song, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea that directed the Centre to frame a national policy to promote Vande Mataram. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said Article 51A (fundamental duties) of the Constitution required the promotion and propagation only of the National Anthem and the Tricolour.

States such as West Bengal have resisted the heavy-handed diktats of the government on celebrating Independence Day in the manner that New Delhi deems fit. Why should the voluntary expression of patriotism through singing Vande Mataram become a mandatory act? Also, do Muslims have to express their nationalism more loudly than the majority community and furnish proof of their patriotism on a day to day basis? This doesnt agree with the ideals of freedom or secularism that India set out with in 1947.
Chennai Tamil Nadu sent to the Centre on Monday a draft ordinance exempting state government colleges from a common national exam for medical and dental courses, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for a year. This comes a day after the Union government indicated it was likely to accept the longstanding demand. A senior health ministry official,however, said it was too early to say if the ordinance will be passed.

Official sources said the draft ordinance was sent to the Central government by a senior state health department official, keeping state government medical college seats outside the ambit of NEET that applies to the rest of India.

This came a day after Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in Chennai that the Centre was likely to cooperate with Tamil Nadu if it brought an ordinance. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan echoed her in Puducherry.

Tamil Nadu has been protesting against NEET for months, saying it was unfavourable to students from rural areas who usually wrote tests in Tamil and werent conversant in English. A system of reservation of medical seats in the state was also expected to be threatened under a common national system.

The Centre is ready to cooperate in case the Tamil Nadu government comes up with an ordinance seeking exemption from NEET for government colleges, Sitharaman said, adding the exemption was only for a year. Barring government colleges, NEET was already implemented for other institutes, the Union minister said.

Sources told HT the the draft ordinance had been crafted on the lines of a January legislation that pushed Tamil Nadu out of the ambit of a national anti-cruelty law of animals, thereby allowing the controversial bull-taming sport, Jallikattu, to go on. This came after huge protests that paralysed the southern state.

Terming Sitharamans remarks good news, state health minister Vijayabaskar said, I thank Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on behalf of Tamil Nadu government and students.

Despite the ministers comments, a senior health ministry official said it was too early to say whether the ordinance would be passed or not.

They must be trying to bring in an ordinance but that doesnt mean it will eventually be passed. There are various steps in between, said the official, requesting anonymity.

Officials fear that if Tamil Nadu has its way then other states would also demand exemption . This would defeat the health ministrys plan to conduct a common national medical entrance examination .

The health ministry has not seen the draft ordinance so far, and does not know what exactly Tamil Nadu wants. It is too early to fear that the ordinance will be passed, the official said.

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Researchers at Pennsylvania State University recently confirmed the anti-cholesterol benefits of almonds. Regular intake of a handful of almonds increased levels of mature HDL or good cholesterol particles, which are associated with cardiovascular health, by 19%.

According to a recent study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, almonds may not only increase blood levels of HDL (good cholesterol), but also boost the transport of bad blood cholesterol to the liver.

Previous studies have already shown that the small oleaginous fruit  which is not a true nut  has the capacity to reduce blood levels of LDL (bad cholesterol), which is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.

Over a period of six weeks, researchers at Pennsylvania State University monitored two groups of patients with high levels of bad cholesterol. The first group of patients consumed 43 grams of almonds per day, the equivalent of a generous handful, whereas the members of the second group were given a banana muffin.

A handful of ten almonds has approximately 100 calories. (Shutterstock)

At the end of the end of each study period, the researchers measured the levels and functioning of HDL cholesterol in each participant, and compared these results with blood counts established at the outset of the experiment.

HDL is very small when it gets released into circulation, study author Dr Kris-Etherton said. Its like a garbage bag that slowly gets bigger and more spherical as it gathers cholesterol from cells and tissues before depositing them in the liver to be broken down. On this journey, HDL particles grow bigger until they become mature.

The study highlighted a 19% increase in mature HDL particles in members of the group taking almonds. At the same time, participants whose weight was within normal ranges found their bodies ability to transport excess cholesterol to the liver improved by 6.4%.

Rich in magnesium (anti-spasmodic) and potassium (anti-fluid retention), almonds are a healthy and filling snack rich in fibre and protein. A handful of ten almonds has approximately 100 calories.

The results of this study have been published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
The NHRC criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for its gross callousness and demanded a report on the death of at least 64 children at BRD Medical College, even as five more children died at the state-run facility on Monday.

The deaths have caused nationwide outrage. The opposition is gunning for chief minister Yogi Adityanath, refusing to buy his argument that the children died of encephalitis and not because oxygen supply was cut by a private firm over non-payment of dues.

This indicates towards gross callousness on part of the hospital administration and the medical education and health departments of the government of Uttar Pradesh, the National Human Right Commission said.

Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddharth Nath Singh hinted at corruption in the payment for oxygen cylinders at the health facility.

As against the demand of Rs 68 lakh for the purchase of oxygen cylinders at the hospital...the government released Rs 2 crore on August 5. The hospital administration made a payment of only Rs 11 lakh --- which will be investigated, he said at an event in Allahabad.

For a population of 22 crore, health services in UP are not adequate. Please give me eight to ten months to improve the situation, he said.

Children receive treatment in the encephalitis ward at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur on Monday. (PTI)

Hindustan Times saw three children die at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College on Monday. Parents and relatives told HT that two more infants had died earlier in the day.

The deaths were not confirmed by the hospital as no one was willing to talk to media.

The NHRC, which took note of media reports, asked chief secretary Rajive Kumar to submit within four weeks steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as the action taken against the guilty officers.

The commission said deaths in such large numbers in a government hospital amounted to violation of right to life and health.

The deaths due to Japanese Encephalitis were discussed with the chief secretary and other officers but despite assurances, the situation had not improved, it said.

A mosquito-borne virus, encephalitis ravages eastern Uttar Pradesh every year and has killed more than 50,000 children in the last 30 years, including nearly 3,000 in BRD medical college since 2012.

A day after Adityanath visited the hospital and promised all help, two children, both diagnosed with acute encephalitis syndrome, were sharing a bed.

Flitting in an out of consciousness, seven-year- old Savan, a resident of the citys Taramandal area and Aradhya, resident of Campierganj, were on oxygen support.

I requested the staff for separate beds but they said no beds were vacant due to the large number of admissions. They asked me to take it or leave, Savans uncle Ajit said.

The opposition kept up the pressure on Adityanath and demanded his resignation.

Former chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav was in Gorakhpur, the Lok sabha constituency of Adityanath, and met some of the bereaved families. He announced Rs 2 lakh in aide to the families who lost their children and demanded action against the guilty.

UP Congress chief Raj Babbar staged a protest in Gorakhpur, where the oppositions bandh call didnt get much response. Most of the shops remained open as SP and Left leaders staged a joint demonstration while Congress activists sat in protest in front of Mahatma Gandhis statue in Townhall.

The state governments decision to sack Dr Kafeel Khan as the nodal officer of paediatrics department, too, came under fire. The resident doctors of AIIMS-Delhi alleged that Khan was made a scapegoat for the infrastructural lapses and failure of the government.

The Supreme Court refused to take up a petition asking for its intervention and asked the petitioner, a lawyer, to take his grievances to the Allahabad high court.

We saw on TV that the health minister has visited the place. Let them handle it, the court said.

With HTC, agency inputs
In a major boost to commuters in Gurgaon, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday inaugurated an underpass aimed at easing congestion in the city and facilitating smoother movement of traffic on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The underpass has been built by the National Highways Authority of India with support of the state government.

Along with the two-lane underpass connecting the Bhakhtawar Singh Road with Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway at Rajiv Chowk, the minister also opened the four-lane flyover at Maharana Pratap Chowk on MG Road to traffic. Gadkari also laid the foundation stone for upgrading and strengthening the NH-248A road from Rajiv chowk to Sohna, which will be built at a cost of 1,700 crore.

He also inaugurated the revamped T junctions near Dhaula Kuan Metro station and near defence area at a cost of 270 crore.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, union minister of state for planning Rao Inderjit Singh, Haryana PWD minister Rao Narbir Singh and senior NHAI officials and those from the district administration were among the dignitaries present at the inauguration event.

The event also saw participation from a large number of BJP workers and supporters, who hailed the announcements made by Gadkari and Khattar.

Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari announced that projects amounting to 35,000 crore have been approved for Haryana and these would be launched this year. I want the state government to deliver land and also shift the high power transmission line that will facilitate the construction of an access control highway from Gurgaon to Jaipur, Gadkari said.

Speaking on the occasion, CM Khattar said that he was extremely thankful to the union transport ministry for approving huge investments in road infrastructure in Gurgaon. This government has ensured the planned development of Gurgaon and Haryana. This never happened earlier. The projects on NH-8 and Sohna Road will help commuters greatly, Khattar said.

Badshahpur MLA Rao Narbir Singh hailed the union transport ministry for approving a large number of road and infrastructure projects in Gurgaon and Haryana, saying these are essential for the states growth. He also forwarded a list of demands pertaining to road infrastructure, including several flyovers and underpasses in Gurgaon and Mewat districts. Gadkari assured that these projects would be sanctioned and completed during his term as minister.

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Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari announced on Monday that Kherki Daula toll would be shifted eight kilometers towards Manesar from its present location on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The decision is likely to provide much needed relief to hundreds of commuters who cross the toll daily.

Like the one at Sirhaul ( now removed), the 23-lane Kherki Daula toll plaza has become a major bottleneck on the 27.7-km expressway. The toll was made operational in 2008.

HT had run a three-month campaign Kherki Daula takes a toll on Gurgaon to support the demand of residents and industrialists to remove the toll plaza. The campaign had garnered huge support and set a stage for discussions for removal of the toll.

Commuters remain stuck in long queues of vehicles every day. Office-goers and employees working in industrial townships of Manesar, Dharuhera and Bhiwadi, who pass through the stretch every day, find the toll very troublesome.

Speaking at an event at Badshahpur in Gurgaon on Monday, Gadkari said the Haryana government needed to provide land for setting up a new toll. He said the toll would be shifted within three months of the state government providing land.

Give me this land and I promise that a world class toll plaza would be constructed where latest technology for passage of vehicles would be introduced, said Gadkari while speaking at the inaugural function of an underpass at Rajiv Chowk and a flyover at Maharana Pratap Chowk.

Manesar industrialists claim that the 8-km distance means the toll would go beyond Manesar, providing a big relief to a large number of industry owners in Manesar. The industrialists have long been demanding removal of the toll.

It is a welcome move. A long pending demand of the area has been fulfilled. The toll was badly affecting industries and new sectors for which people has to cross the toll, Manmohan Gaind, vice president, Manesar Industrial Welfare Association, said.

Manoj Tyagi, general secretary, IMT Industrial Association, said the move is laudable and would spur growth of industries. The removal of the toll will connect Delhi to the rest of NCR in Haryana, Tyagi said.

Hailing the decision, Gurgaon MP and Union minister of state, Rao Inderjit Singh assured Gadkari that he along with chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar would ensure that land is made available for not only the toll but other projects as well.

Gadkari also asked the state government to shift a high tension power line to expedite construction of Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, which would be an access control road to be built at a cost of 40,000 crore. He also assured that work on the Dwarka Expressway would be commenced within next three months.

The decision is likely to bring relief to a large number of real estate projects located beyond the toll. The projects were finding it tough to get buyers as the toll became a bottleneck.

This move will substantially reduce the travel time to the new Gurgaon area and boost connectivity, said Anunpam Varshney, head sales and marketing, Vatika Limited, which has many housing projects in new sectors.

Decision will greatly benefit the residents of new sectors and give a boost to real estate industry. It will ensure speedier overall growth in the city, Dharmender Bhandari, managing director, Bestech, a realty firm, said.

The Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway was opened to commuters in 2008. The National Highways Authority of India in February 2012 issued a show-cause notice for termination of contract of the then concessionaire DGSCL for Sirhaul toll plaza at the Delhi-Gurgaon border, but the matter reached Delhi high court. In February 2013, the NHAI issued a contract termination notice to DGSCL after alleged financial irregularities and the toll was razed in February 2014.

HT had run a 53-day campaign Taking a Toll that highlighted the problems faced by commuters resulting in termination of the contract.

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Joe Bologna, the actor, director and writer known for his role in the 1982 film comedy My Favorite Year, died Sunday. He was 82. Bologna died in the Los Angeles area after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, his manager Matt Sherman told The Associated Press. He was married to actor Renee Taylor, who credited his doctors for prolonging his life so he could receive a lifetime achievement award at the Night of 100 Stars for the Actors Fund of America in February. He had a beautiful life, Taylor said in a statement.

Bologna in July attended a 35th anniversary screening of My Favorite Year, in which he played King Kaiser, the star of a TV variety show. Born December 30, 1934, Bologna was a native of Brooklyn, New York. After he graduated from Brown University with a degree in art history, Bologna served in the Marines.

Bologna and Taylor married in 1965. Joe was a loveable man, a kind soul, a good friend and always a pleasure to be with, Sherman said.

Bologna was nominated for an Oscar in 1971 for best adapted screenplay for Lovers and Other Strangers. He won an Emmy in 1973. He had a string of television appearances and was a voice actor for the 2006 animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown. He also had a role in the 1999 Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy.
Radesh Singhs grandfather was just 11 years old when he left his village in Indias Punjab to move to Peshawar, in the far northwest of Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.

The year was 1901 -- the British ruled the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan wasnt even a glimmer in the eye of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Peshawar held the promise of work and adventure.

Singhs grandfather would never return to his village, not even in 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, generating one of the largest migrations in modern history and unleashing a brutality that left few untouched as mobs of Hindus and Muslims turned on each other.

Singhs family is neither Hindu nor Muslim but Sikh, a religious minority in both countries. In the 70 years since Partition, they have waged a secessionist uprising in India demanding outright independence for Indias Punjab state where they dominate. They have felt increasingly less at home on either side of the border, but particularly so in recent years in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan as they too have become victims of local Taliban violence.

Singh said poverty kept his grandfather in Peshawar, located at the foot of the famed Khyber Pass and dominated by fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen. Its not easy to start over at zero when you have very little, he said.

The hostility in the immediate aftermath of 1947 was brief in the northwest, said Singh. It was followed by decades of peace. The decision to stay in the new country now called Pakistan seemed like a good choice at the time. The Sikhs had lived peacefully for centuries alongside their Pashtun Muslim countrymen.

After all, said Singh, Sikhs had a glorious history in the northwest. For a time in the 18th century they oversaw a dynasty. Their capital was Pakistans eastern city of Lahore. It was a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, who rebuilt Peshawars infamous Bala Hisar Fort, an imposing walled fortress that some historians say is as old as the city itself, which traces its origins back more than 2,000 years.

Today Sikhs are among Pakistans smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colourful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6% of Pakistans 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus.

Until 1984, Singh said, Pakistans Hindus and Sikhs lived as one in northwest Pakistan. Their children married, they even worshipped together. But then Indias Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

They (Hindus) cut all relations with us. They said Pakistani Sikhs are like all Sikhs everywhere. No difference. They said, From now on, we will be separate from you, Singh recalled.

Today, Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples or gurdwaras; while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of the buildings. Many were abandoned in 1947 and taken over by Muslims who arrived from India. The Pakistan government, which took over the buildings after 1947, allowed the squatters to remain.

In a congested neighbourhood in Peshawars old city, Singh stepped through large steel gates that opened on to a sweeping courtyard. It no longer resembled a house of worship, but Singh said it was once a vibrant gurdwara attended by hundreds of Sikhs. Now two families call it home.

Two clotheslines crowded with clothes drying in the blistering midday sun stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other. A childs plastic toy sat idle nearby.

Elsewhere in Peshawar, an armed guard, his rifle slung loosely by his side, stood guard at the citys largest Sikh temple, an ornate marble building that dates back 250 years. Inside a half dozen Sikh men sat on plastic chairs.

It is a short, bureaucratic-looking man, a Muslim, who has the final say about who enters the gurdwara. He works for the government body that oversees properties vacated by people who fled to India in 1947.

After phone calls made, names recorded, passports handed over and more phone calls made, the doors to the gurdwara were opened. revealing a cavernous carpeted room and ornate pillars decorated with hundreds of tiny mirrors. In a small room at the far end of the upper story, two students read the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhisms holy book.

Singh, who heads a council representing the Sikhs in Pakistan, said that since his homeland began to turn toward radical Islam, particularly in the Pashtun heartland, young Sikhs have been looking to leave.

They want to go to another country, not to India or Pakistan, he said, but every country eyes them with suspicion. Even Indians, he said, see his Pakistani passport and question his intentions, suggesting he wants to agitate for Sikh secessionism, the battle that resulted in Indira Gandhis death and a dream still held by many Sikhs on both sides of the border.

For Singh, Pakistans slide into intolerance began in the late 1970s with the former Soviet Unions invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan. Pakistans military dictator Zia-ul Haq set the country on the course of Islamic radicalisation as jihad became a rallying cry to defeat the communists in Afghanistan, he said.

Extremism worsened after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by a US-led coalition, he said. The tribal regions were gradually overtaken by Taliban and in 2013 several Sikhs were killed, their limbs severed. The brutality of the killings and the threats sent thousands fleeing Pakistan, said Singh.

He said today Pakistans intolerant use of blasphemy  a crime that carries an automatic death penalty  as a weapon against minorities and fellow Muslims alike.

That is why we have a fear in our hearts, that this law can be used against us, he said. The mere accusation of blasphemy can incite mobs to violence.

In the last nearly 40 years we have been facing the boom, boom (mimicking the sound of explosions) in every city of Pakistan, said Singh. In a long time we have not heard any sweet sounds in our Peshawar, but still we love our city.
INDIA INDEPENDENT : BRITISH RULE ENDS. That was the lead headline of Hindustan Times on August 15, 1947. The newspapers edition that day reported about a range of events--from governors being sworn in to homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Here is a verbatim version of the lead story.

(By Our Special Representative)

NEW DELHI, Thursday  At midnight tonight the Constituent Assembly consisting of the chosen representatives of the Indian people, assumed sovereign power and the members solemnly took the pledge to serve India and her people. We end today a period of all fortune and India discovers herself again, said Pandit Nehru in calling upon the members to take the new pledge.

Earlier the president of the constituent assembly, Dr Rajendra Prasad , said: To all we give the assurance that it will be our endeavour to end poverty and squalor and its companions, hunger and disease to abolish distinctions and exploitation and to ensure decent conditions of living.

After the assembly had sat for 75 minutes, during which it assumed powers of governance and endorsed the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Governor-general. Dr Rajendra Prasad and Pt. Nehru proceeded to the Government House to inform Lord Mountbatten of the assemblys decisions. Later, the National Flag presented to the Assembly by Mrs. Hansa Mehta on behalf of the women of India was hoisted amidst cheers of thousands who had gathered outside the council House

The climax was reached when at the last stroke of midnight there was blowing of conches and spontaneously the cry of Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai  went up. That these were the first words uttered by the representatives of Indian people on attaining freedom was an expression of the peoples

gratitude to the architect of the nation to whom both Pandit Nehru and Dr Rajendra Prasad paid glowing tributes in their speeches.

The birth of a free India was witnessed by diplomatic representatives of the nations representing more than half the population of the globe. Ambassadors of the U.S.A and China were there and also High Commissioners of Canada and Australia and diplomatic representatives of other countries.

It was the greatest hour for Delhi. This capital of many mighty empires became today for the first in its history the seat of Lok Raj, government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The Assembly Hall was full to capacity and appeared most impressive. The National Flag adorned the dozen large panels some of which formerly had life size portraits of British dignitaries. The flags provided the proper background for the momentous meeting. Loudspeakers carried the proceedings to the thousands who had thronged outside.

The visitors inside the hall were certainly in a select gathering, mostly wives of officials resplendent silks and relations of members of the assembly. It was a pity that the man in the street got little chance of seeing the function. Perhaps there was philosophic justice in the ceremony being observed mostly by those who were loyal to the former regime.

The most pleasing part of the function was that among members Khadi dress predominated and that even those ordinarily accustomed to European costume came in achkan. These included Ambedkar, Mr B. L. Mitter, Mr Panikkar and Mr Zaida. The assembly secretariat officials were all dressed in achcan only the deputy secretary, Mr Tayabji wore Pakistani turban. Many welcomed Mr Mavalankar, the president of the defunct Central Assembly who joined the house today. The new Ministers who will be sworn in tomorrow sat to the left of the President.
Terming the Siddarmaiah government in Karnataka the most corrupt that he had seen, BJP president Amit Shah on Monday asked why state energy minister DK Shivakumar had not been sacked following income tax raids on his properties for alleged graft.

No action has been taken against the minister, and instead, Congress behaves like this is a badge of honour, Shah, who was on a three-day visit to the state, said at a press conference.

When asked about the timing of the raids, as it was conducted when Shivakumar was entrusted by the Congress leadership to play host to 42 Gujarat MLAs to ensure the victory of Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections, Shah said: Raids against Congress leaders in the state have been happening for a while.

If this was an isolated incident, it would have been an issue. It is not important when the raids happened or why they happened. The issue is that the Congress has not demanded his resignation, Shah stressed.

On the stay of the Gujarat MLAs, he asked whether it was right for the Congress to hold its legislators hostage here when Gujarat was facing severe floods?

Shah said the Congress government was only interested in appeasing certain elements, and had not acted on the murders of activists associated with his party.

Why have cases against the Social Democratic Party of India been taken back? he asked.

Shah said 30 activists associated with RSS and related organisations had been killed during the tenure of the Congress. The Siddaramaiah government in only interested in pandering to vote banks, Shah said.

The BJP president also accused the Congress of hypocrisy. Siddaramaiah keeps talking about the welfare of the backward classes. Let him explain why the Congress did not allow the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, which aims to constitute a National Commission for Backward Classes, to be passed in Rajya Sabha, he said.

Shah also challenged Siddaramaiahs frequent claims that the Centre had not been disbursing adequate amount of funds to the state, which has been facing three consecutive years of drought.

Siddaramaiah has been spreading false news that the central government is not disbursing money. But after the fourteenth finance commissions report, all states have been given an increased share, Shah said.

Shah said under the 13th finance commission, Karnatakas share was Rs 61,691 crore, whereas through the 14th finance commission the share of the state was increased to 1,86,925 crore. Grants were increased from Rs 11,518 crore. We increased this to Rs 16,291 crore, he said.

Under the 13th finance commission Karnatakas total share was Rs 88,583 crore, which has now been increased to Rs 2,19,506 crore. I want to ask Siddaramaiah where is this money going. It isnt reaching the farmers, poor, tribals or resulting in development, he alleged.

The BJP MP also said that apart from the states share of the central funds, Rs 79,036 crore had been disbursed to the state. We all know where this money has gone. When raids are conducted, we get an account of this money, he said.

On the issue of a Karnataka state flag, Shah said the agenda would have been believable if it had been raised when the government was formed.

Who will believe them if they announce these things months before the Assembly elections? Why is the Congress partys central leadership silent on this? he asked.

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A Delhi court on Monday extended by six days the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of alleged hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani, arrested in connection with a decade-old money laundering case involving Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah.

Duty magistrate Pankaj Sharma allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Wani till August 20 after the agencys special public prosecutor NK Matta sought 10 days custody.

During the in-chamber proceedings, advocate MS Khan, appearing for Wani, opposed the plea and moved an application alleging that the accused was compelled to sign certain documents by the ED.

Wani was arrested on August 6 by the ED, after a sessions court here had issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him, and was sent to eight-day ED custody.

An open-ended NBW, unlike the NBW, does not carry a time limit for its execution.

According to an official, Wani, 36, was arrested from Srinagar by the ED with the help of the state police.

The agency had issued multiple summonses for his appearance in the case but he did not appear before it.

Shabir Shah was arrested by the agency from Srinagar on July 26.

The ED action against the two is in pursuance of an August 2005 case, in which the Delhi Polices Special Cell had arrested Wani, who allegedly claimed he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.

In 2010, a Delhi court had cleared Wani of terror funding charges but had convicted him under the Arms Act.

The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.

Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through hawala channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.

During questioning, he had told the police that an amount of Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission, it was claimed.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar left on an aerial survey of flood-hit districts of Purnia, Araria, Kishanganj and Katihar amid reports of flood situation worsening, with breach in embankments at Darbhanga, Katihar and Sitamarhi.

Kamlabalan river in Darbhanga overtopped its embankment in the wee hours of Monday, affecting many areas of Darbhanga district. There were also reports of breach in embankments at Kadwa and Shivganj in Katihar district.

Talking to HT, principal secretary, water resources, Arun Kumar Singh, said, The Kamlabalan overtopped the embankment at 2am on Monday. Against the danger level at 50.5 metres, the river was flowing almost two metres above it at 52.35 metres.

Around 13 of the 38 districts in Bihar had been affected by floods. These include West and East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, Khagaria and Muzaffarpur. Road communication in many districts was snapped as floodwater overtopped national highways.

Mahananda, Kosi, Gandak, Bagmati, Burhi Gandak and Kankai were among the rivers in spate due to heavy rains in Nepal and its catchment areas.

The Kosi was also on the rise. This was the river which had breached the Kusaha embankment in August 2008, causing massive devastation in north Bihar. Officials said the river was exerting pressure on the Saharsa embankment, threatening several villages on its eastern side.

Six additional teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which had been airlifted from Bhubaneswar, had been dispatched to the affected districts. While three teams of the NDRF had been sent to Sitamarhi, a team each was dispatched to Gopalganj, Bagaha (West Champaran) and Muzaffarpur.

Around 300 army personnel and two army choppers had joined 3,900 SDRF and NDRF personnel in evacuation and relief operations. Principal secretary, disaster management department, Pratyaya Amrit, said: Three columns of the army have already reached Darbhanga and has been dispatched to critical areas. He said the priority of the government was to evacuate the marooned expeditiously.

Amrit said the flood due to unprecedented rains was challenging, and district magistrates of the affected districts had been told to set up relief camps.

The chief ministers travel plan was delayed by 30 minutes due to heavy showers on Monday morning. He was scheduled to fly to Purnia air force base, after which he will take a chopper to undertake aerial survey of flood-hit areas.

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A disquiet anxiety has gripped the residents of Charlottesville, many of whom are Indian Americans, after a rally of white supremacists ended in clashes with counter-protesters and claimed the life a woman.

While normalcy seemed to have returned to the city by afternoon on Sunday, residents grappled with shock and fear following a day of violence when a car rammed into a crowd peacefully protesting against the rally by white supremacists, killing the 32-year-old woman.

The city in the US state of Virginia has a significant Indian and Indian-American population, but there was no report of anyone from the community being injured in the violence on Saturday.

Two police officers monitoring the demonstration died after a helicopter crashed near the protest site and 19 others were injured, though, unofficial figures could be high.

Its still difficult for us to understand and grapple with the reality that such a thing has happened. This is not what the city is about, said Sankaran Venkataraman, senior associate dean for faculty and research, MasterCard, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Venkataraman has lived in Charlottesville, about 190 kilometres southwest of Washington DC, for nearly 20 years.

His daughters friend had gone to the downtown area to take part in the counter protest to the white supremacist rally. She returned with a broken leg.

(The violence) doesnt represent any of the views or characters of the people here. We are progressive people who believe in diversity and inclusiveness.

For something like this to happen is a shock to us. The notions of racism, hatred, bigotry are completely antithetical to the views of most citizens of Charlottesville, said Venkataraman, who recently returned from Tamil Nadu.

The Virginia university, closed for summer, is set to open in two weeks and students, a sizable number from outside the US, including India, would start arriving next week.

I am sure theres a sense of anxiety among students here, Venkataraman added.

Vilas Annavarapu, an Indian-American and student of political science at the university, was among the few who stayed back at the campus to attend training classes.

Annavarapu is also an office-bearer of the Indian Student Association at the varsity which has about 300 active members.

While he did not leave the campus on Saturday, he had a scary encounter with white supremacists on Friday night when hundreds of them had a surprise rally inside the campus.

They came like right there, Annavarapu said, pointing to the place inside the campus where the gathering happened.

It was frightening, he said.

Frustration, I think, would be an accurate word to describe the general sentiment, Annavarapu said. From an intellectual standpoint, Ive always understood that being a person of colour, I will have to be more careful when I walk down the streets. But I dont think Ive ever felt as threatened as I have over these past two days.

The protesters were openly carrying guns, including AK- 47s, reports said.

Annavarapu feels the election of Donald Trump, who has a following among the white supremacists, has encourage far- right groups.

Its not like these views are anything new, its just that now people feel as if they have the authority to come into public and wave them around, as if theyre not doing anything wrong. I understand that they have free speech, but that doesnt give them the right to incite violence, he said.

For Larry Goedde Jr, a guitar technician by profession, it was a harrowing experience. His faced was banged on the street by one of the white supremacists on Saturday, causing several bruises to his face.

I was crossing the street and this pickup truck rolled up on me. And they slammed me down face first, stomped me and then just drove, he said.

Goedde, who recently returned to his hometown after 11 years in Montreal, said many others faced similar situation.

I wasnt the only one that described this scene. When I went to the ER (emergency room at the hospital) last night, it was full of people. Like with injuries. All of the staff were just, they were tired. They were covered in blood, he said.

Goedde, however, said city residents have maintained their cool. Its unbelievable. The only people that they (police) were willing to protect was the white supremacist. They had no intention of ever protecting any other... If you werent holding an assault rifle, and if you didnt have a swastika on you, they were not interested in protecting you. And thats not hyperbole. I just saw it over and over again.

For eminent Indologist and resident of Charlottesville Daniel J Ehnbom, it was a terrible experience. The primary blame is with the neo-Nazis, because they deliberately set up to make trouble and they did. Its a very sad thing for Charlottesville. People are still shocked, Ehnbom said.

The town and the university have a long way to go to heal this. There is a lot to be done about race relations, racism, he asserted.

The fact that this manifest itself in (Thomas) Jeffersons hometown is horrifying, Ehnbom said, referring to the third president of the United States and the main author of the Declaration of Independence. PTI LKJ ABH AKJ ABH
The Congress questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence on Monday over the Gorakhpur tragedy and asked him to apologise to the nation in his Independence Day address for the negligence that led to the deaths of more than 60 children in a state-run hospital.

The main opposition party also demanded the resignations of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the state health minister on moral grounds.

It is surprising that the PM tweets on every issue  be it some mishap in Turkey, the US, the UK or Europe. But he hasnt spoken a word about Gorakhpur tragedy. It is very sad, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said.

We hope that the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address to the nation apologises for the tragedy. He must apologise for the way the government has failed and the circumstances that led to this accident, he said.

Maken added that the chief minister and the health minister have repeatedly maintained that such accidents happen every year and there has been no negligence on the part of the state government. Then who is responsible? How was the oxygen supply cut? Why were funds not provided? he asked.

The Congress leader also demanded a thorough inquiry into the matter. He recalled Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis statement on September 7 last year during his visit to the encephalitis ward at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.

We, when in government, had sent and sanctioned funds for encephalitis treatment and control in Gorakhpur. People are now complaining that the funds which were sanctioned have been stopped. On the one hand, Modiji lays foundation stone of AIIMS and the other hand, funds are stopped, Gandhi had said during the two-hour long road show in Gorakhpur.
The influential Mannargudi family of Tamil Nadu politics on Monday fought back with 14 MLAs publically siding with deposed AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran, virtually putting spanner in the merger plans of two factions of the ruling party.

The legislators and five party MPs participated at a mammoth rally organised at Melur in Madurai as a show of strength of Dinakaran, nephew of jailed AIADMK chief VK Sasikala, who was convicted of corruption this February.

Earlier this month, Dinakaran was removed from the party post by a camp led by chief minister Edappadi Palanisami. The ouster was viewed as a move to placate the rival faction headed by former chief minister O Panneerselvam ahead of a possible merger.

With thirty ministers, you cannot run a government. Dont forget that it is cadres and supporters that help you win elections and form government, Dinakaran thundered at the rally, amid whispers that he has support of at least 20 ruling party legislators.

If the MLAs were given freedom of choice, many more would have joined the rally, Dinakaran said, adding some were prevented from coming to the meeting.

Dinakarans show of strength also held significance for the Palanisami government, which has wafer-thin majority as principal opposition DMKs recently threatened to move a no-confidence motion.

The chief minister earlier in February won a confidence vote securing 122 votes in a 234-member house. The OPS faction has the support of 11 MLAs.

The DMK-led alliance has 98 members  89 of its own, 8 of Congress and one IUML.

But Dinakaran was quick to add that he would not destabilise the Amma government. It must carry out the policies and programmes of Jayalalithaa, he added.

The AIADMK is besieged by infighting since the death of party supremo J Jayalalithaa last December. The merger is also crucial for the party to get back its two leaves election symbol that the poll panel had suspended after the split.

You cannot run the party from headquarters, but have to be with the cadres and people on the ground. You were made the chief minister by Sasikala, dont you forget that, Dinakaran said, alluding to the selection of Palanisami to head the partys legislature party.

Sasikala could have made me the CM when Jayalalithaa died, he added.

Sasikala whose family hails from Mannargudi in Tiruvarur district has allegedly infiltrated into politics, business, administration and police.

With the overwhelming response he got for the rally, Dinakaran proved that the family still has grassroots support and control over the party. Crowd cheered his every word and even prostrated in front of his vehicle as they used to do when Jayalalithaa visited them.

Dinakaran, speaking from a podium that looked like a replica of St Fort George, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu, demanded a judicial probe into the death of Jayalalithaa in a veiled attack to OPS, who was the chief minister at the time of her death.

Incidentally, he refrained from attacking the BJP-led central government even though the saffron party is said to be nudging the two factions to unite with a hope to piggy ride on the strength of the ruling Dravidian party in the southern state where it has negligible presence.

BJP leaders in the state are expecting the big merger announcement during the visit of BJP national president Amit Shah to the state on August 22. Union minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan told media persons that Shahs visit will change the contour of Tamil Nadu politics. But there will be no change in government, he said.

On Monday, Panneerselvam called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and reportedly briefed him on the progress of the merger move. He has been reportedly advised not to put impossible conditions for the merger.

The two AIADMK factions on their part put up a brave front saying Dinakarans rally would not have any bearing on their plan. The merger moves have gathered pace. You will hear the good news soon, said state finance minister D Jayakumar.

Supporters of Dinakaran however do not subscribe the optimism and not without reason. The support their leader received in Melur, if anything indicates the road to unity would be thorny for the ruling party.

There will be another Koovathur moment in TN politics with underhand exchange of money, said Prof Ramu Manivannan of Madras University.

It may be recalled that AIADMK MLAs were confined at a luxury sea-side resort at Koovathur by Sasikala and her men, till the Palanisami government won the trust vote.

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The new Governors of Indian provinces were sworn in at midnight on Thursday.

In the midst of recitals from Hindu, Jain, Budh, Christians, Muslim and Sikh Holy Scriptures, Mrs Sarojini Naidu was installed at Lucknow as the first Indian Governor of the U.P. in a free India.

The oath of allegiance and office was administrative by the chief Justice of Allahabad High Court in Hindi in the bail room of Government House which was fully packed. After the swearing-in ceremony Mrs. Sarojini

Naidu administrated oath of office and secrecy to the premier Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant and three other ministers, Mr Sampurnanand, Mr Hafiz Mohammad Ibrahim and Thakur Hukum Singh.

BIHAR

Mr Jairamdas Daulatram was sworn in as Governor of Bihar at Government House in Patna at midnight tonight. The ceremony took in all about ten minutes.

Mr Jairamdas entered the hall at 11-55 p.m. clad in Khaki sherwani and crust pyjama and wore a Gandhi cap. He was greeted with shouts of Jai Hind and swatantra bharat ki jai . He took the oath of allegiance in Hindustani and signed his name in Devanagari.

After the chief secretary read out the warrant of appointment in Hindustani, the Chief Justice of Patna High Court administrated the oath allegiance and office.

All the Ministers, the President of the Provincial Congress Committee and prominent officials and non-officials were present on the oath event. For the first time in the history of the province Government officers, except police officers attended a function at Government House in Indian Dress.

The Governor of West Bengal, Mr Rajagopalachariji and his Council of Ministers, headed by Dr P.C. Ghosh were sworn in at Government House in Calcutta at midnight today.
A medley of Indian and Pakistani national anthems has become a social media hit, bringing together thousands of people from the two countries who saw the mash-up as a message of love and peace amidst heightened acrimony between the rival nations.

The Peace Anthem features a series of artists from both nations singing the Indian anthem Jana Gana Mana and Pakistans Pak Sarzamin.

The video was published by the Facebook page Voice of Ram on Sunday afternoon. By Monday morning, it raked up 330,000 views, was shared by more than 9,000 people, and at least a thousand commented on the video.

Hope this goes viral in Pakistan. Some Of us Indians care for peace. The best independence day gift both countries can give each other. Peace, reads a comment by Kalpesh Patel.

This is gone viral already bro! Seeing it from Karachi, Pakistan :), said Umair Hussain in response,

The video begins with the words, When we open our borders to art, peace comes along and closes with, Lets stand together for peace.

An earlier video by Voice of Ram, posted on Facebook on August 11, has scored 468,000 views. It features an Indian a capella group, Voxchord, singing Pakistans national anthem - which it calls a song about faith, pride and grandeur, of power, progress and perfection.

Voice of Ram is headed by filmmaker and activist Ram Subramanian.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been hit over the past years after a fresh violence along the Line of Control  the de-facto border dividing Kashmir.
The coconut palm tree in Goa is standing tall again, having reclaimed its status as a tree a year after the state government downgraded it to grass.

The state assembly amended the Goa, Daman and Diu (Preservation) of Trees Act, 1984, last week following intense debates and immense pressure brought on the BJP-led government of the state to restore the coconut palms pride.

We were committed to make coconut as the state tree as it reflects the uniqueness of the coastal state. It was a complete wrong move to have stripped it of its status of a tree in 2016, said Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party.

Opposition parties and environmentalists alike had been opposed to the governments move to declassify the coconut palm as a tree from the very beginning. Tens of thousands of such trees dot the coastal state and critics alleged its declassification was to facilitate businesses to clear land for commercial projects. They said the move will result in mass massacre of coconut palm trees across the state.

Sardesais Goa Forward Party, now an ally of the BJP government, fought assembly elections earlier this year on the principal issue of restoring the coconut palms original status. The logo of the party is also the tree that was top on its election manifesto.

The Congress views the reclassification of the coconut palm as a victory of principles. I am glad better sense has prevailed. When you brought the amendment last time round, we said it was not right, legislator Digambar Kamat reminded the state government during last weeks assembly discussion.

The BJP-led government headed by chief minister Manohar Parrikar is reluctant to talk about its change of heart on the coconut palms status. But opponents say its push to facilitate business houses by sacrificing the trees was unpopular and had played a key role in bringing down its tally in the assembly from 21 to 13 seats. The BJP formed the government again only after it managed to scramble together a post-election alliance with other parties.

Critics say the restoration of coconut palms status is more rooted in political reality. Two assembly by-polls  including the election of chief minister Parrikar to the house  is due later this month and the government is out to rectify its image.

The BJP failed to get a majority in the assembly elections because people were unhappy with the commercial approach they developed by sanctioning the permission to projects including beer factories in Quepem and Sanguem. By making it the state tree, the party is simply trying to win back the trust of the people, said Miguel Briganza, an environmentalist and botanical expert.

Rajendra Kerkar, another environmentalist, agreed, saying the states love for the coconut palm was only skin deep. These amendments and assurances are just methods to fool the public. If a developer wants a parcel of land by doing away with the trees, he will still get his way. Agricultural officers vested with the authority to grant permission to fell trees are normally pliable, he said.

ends

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Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar charged chief minister Yogi Adityanath with trying to influence the ongoing probe into the death of 60 children in Gorakhpurs BRD medical college.

Even before the probe report is out, the Chief Ministers statement that the deaths have been caused due to encephalitis indicate that he wants to influence the ongoing probe, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief said on Monday.

Led by Babbar, the Congress workers demanded Adityanaths resignation during a dharna against large number of infant deaths in the Gorakhpur hospital.

The Congress leader said that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister expressing concern over the issue after 36 hours of the deaths of the children only proves his insensitivity over the matter.

The entire responsibility of the infant deaths is on the state government and its leader. Action is being taken against the doctors and officials only to divert the attention, he said.

The UPCC president said that soon after the deaths, the chief minister said that oxygen shortage was not the cause of the deaths...if that was so, then why raids are being carried out on the premises of the supplier.
New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday refused to take cognisance of the recent deaths of children at a government hospital at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) hospital in Gorakhpur.

The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

Police had said no case has been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint.

The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra.
Youth activists of the Gorka Janmukti Morcha (GJM) ended their hunger strike on Monday, the eve of the nations Independence Day, after Union home minister Rajnath Singh appealed to them.

However, the indefinite bandh in Darjeeling, which entered its 61st day, would continue, GJM assistant secretary Binay Tamang said, ruling out picketing on August 15.

Twelve Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha members had started the fast-unto-death agitation in Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik on July 21, as part of the stir demanding separate Gorkhaland state.

On Sunday, Rajnath Singh met members of the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) in Delhi and told them to end the strike and sit for talks.

The GMCC, which represents 14 political parties and organisations spearheading the Gorkhaland movement, decided to end the hunger strike after a meeting in Delhi.

GJM president Bimal Gurung said, The fast-unto-death was lifted from 4.30 pm to honour the request the Union home minister made.

The delegation that met Rajnath Singh comprised leaders of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) and Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha (GRNM), besides the GJM.

The Union home minister also asked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate a dialogue with the GJM and other stakeholders in the Darjeeling hills.

Internet services in the region have been snapped since June 19. Eight people have been killed in alleged police firings since June 17.

Miffed BJP Puts Ball in Mamatas Court

With the agitation leading nowhere in real terms, the GMCC has found itself in an awkward situation ever since the Centre washed its hands of the statehood issue, and put the ball in the Mamata governments court.

Agitators had been maintaining that they wont negotiate with West Bengal because statehood was a central subject.

Sources said the BJP government at the Centre is not in a mood to antagonise Banerjee and risk losing votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. Senior BJP members are also miffed with the GJM leadership over the manner in which it announced the indefinite bandh without taking them into confidence.

Though the GJM and the BJP have been alliance partners since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of the saffron party were unhappy with the way in which the protest unfolded in the region.

The Centre, for its part, has taken note of the widespread damage to public property in the last two months.

Violence can never be a solution to any problem. In a democracy, solutions are always found through restraint, mutual dialogue and legal means, the Union home minister told GMCC leaders on Sunday.

A Press Information Bureau release quoted Singh as saying that the government was aware of the strategic importance of the region and the challenges it faced.

The decisions to call the indefinite bandh and indefinite hunger strike should have been taken at a much later stage of the agitation, a senior member of the GMCC delegation told HT.

However, he described the meeting with Singh, which happened two months after the start of the pro-Gorkhaland agitation, as a welcome development.

Though no one from the GMCC said anything about the possibility of withdrawing indefinite bandh, sources said they will also consider Singhs appeal after the GMCC meeting after Independence Day.

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Hizbul Mujahideen named Mohammad Bin Qasim as its new operational chief on Monday, a day after its commander Yasin Itoo was killed in a gunfight with security forces in south Kashmirs Shopian that incurred a body blow to the homegrown militant outfit.

In a press statement, the Hizbul Mujahideen confirmed Itoo was its commander but like the last time did not give the real name of the new chief.

The death of 40-year-old Itoo alias Mehmood Ghaznavi, who was named the commander by United Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin four days after the killing of militant Burhan Wani in July last year, has come as a big blow to the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The time of Itoos killing is important as the militant outfit is left with only a few known commanders and is fighting the rise in popularity of their breakaway commander Zakir Musa, who claims to be fighting for the formation of an Islamic State. Musa was recently named as its local commander by global terror outfit al Qaeda.

Sources said Qasim could be either Riyaz Naikoo, the district commander of Pulwama, or Altaf Kachroo, commander of the outfit in Kulgam. Both are category A ++ militants and figure in the list of top 12 militants released by the Indian Army after Bhats killing.

Security establishment classifies militants as A or A++, ranking them in an order of notoriety with A++ denoting the highest.

Most intelligence sources agreed Naikoo, a resident Tokun Awantipore in south Kashmir, is more likely to be Qasim.

Naikoo has been releasing video statements and is a well-known militant who joined the organisation in December 2012.

The 30-year-old postgraduate is known to be ideologically opposed to the Islamic State slogan of Musa and has also appeared at the funerals of militants killed in encounters with the army and police.

Linking our (Kashmiri) struggle with al Qaeda and ISIS is a ploy to defame it, he reportedly said at one such funeral in July this year in Pulwama district. Naikoo also asked people not to support those who oppose the Pakistani flag and described their struggle as one of freedom from India.

The Hizbul Mujahideen statement on Monday also tried to reinforce that the killing has not weakened the organisation. Indian agencies thought that post-Wanis death ... the struggle for independence has been weakened but each sacrifice of militants proves otherwise, the statement signed by spokesperson Saleem Hashmi said.

Sources in security establishments, however, think otherwise. They said the organisation does not have a strong central command and operates in small modules.

Hizbul Mujahideen has been weakened as there are only a few hardened militants left, rest are all new recruits, said an official.

The killings of the militants, security officials said, can also bring a halt to new recruitments.

After Itoo, Mujahideen has lost another public face but his death did not see the kind of reaction Kashmir witnessed after Wani was killed. Wanis death sparked violent street protests that left nearly 100 people, most of them civilians, dead.

And, there was a spontaneous shutdown in the valley after Wanis successor Sabzar Bhat was killed in May.

Wani led to the resurgence of Hizbul Mujahideen and local militancy after he became the poster-boy of new-age militancy posting photographs of him and 10 gun-toting youths on social media in June 2015.

Wani was the first Kashmiri militant who was unafraid of revealing his identity and credited with the surge of local militancy while alive, and even after his killing by security forces on July 8 last year.

Most of the militants from that photograph have been killed. Musa, Saddam Padder and Waseem Shah are the only three militants still active from the Burhans boys photograph.

Padder, a category A+ militant is Shopian district commander of Hizbul, and Shah, another category A militant is now with Lashkar-e-Taiba. Musa has also formed an organisation called Ansar Ghazwat-ul Hind.

More than 110 militants have been killed in the valley between January and July this year. The militants, according to government sources, belong to all the organisations such as HM, LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Abu Dujana and Bashir Lashkari of the LeT were top category A ++ militants to have been killed recently.

In Mondays statement, Hizbul Mujahideen also warned locals acting as informers with dire consequences as they are responsible for the killings.

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INDIA INDEPENDENT : BRITISH RULE ENDS. That was the lead headline of Hindustan Times on August 15, 1947. The newspapers edition that day reported about a range of events--from governors being sworn in to homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Here is a verbatim version of the story on Mahatma Gandhi:

HOMAGE TO THE FATHER OF THE NATION

Eloquent tributes to Mahatma Gandhi , the Father of the Nation , were paid by Indias leaders during the transfer of the power ceremony in the Constituent Assembly on Thursday night .

Pandit Nehru in his speech, referring to Gandhiji said:  The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye.  In his Independence message to the nation Pandit Nehru said: ....Succeeding generations will bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humanity.

Dr Rajendra Prasad said:  Gandhiji represents that undying spirit in our culture and make-up which has kept India alive through vicissitudes of history. He  enabled us to stand up for justice to claim our birth- right of freedom and placed on our hands the matchless and unfailing weapon of non-violence, which without arms and armaments has won us the invaluable prize of Swaraj...

Sardar Patel said in his Independence message :  We are proud to have brought India to its goal and acclaim the glorious results achieved by a long sustained , peaceful and non-violence struggle under Gandhijis inspring leadership.

Acharya Kripalani said:  That this (Independence) has been possible is due to the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, who, if any man may so be called, is the Father of the Nation.
INDIA INDEPENDENT : BRITISH RULE ENDS. That was the lead headline of Hindustan Times on August 15, 1947. The newspapers edition that day reported about a range of events--from governors being sworn in to homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Here is a verbatim version of the story on Lady Mountabttens speech.

LIMITLESS FIELD FOR PROGRESS

LADY MOUNTBATTEN

During the past five months I have been able to see for myself what a valuable contribution the Press has made to the great events we are now celebrating and I have also been most impressed by the space and treatment given to all those activities affecting the health, education and social welfare of the people says Lady Mountbatten in a message.

She adds: There remains a limitless field for progress in which united efforts must be made to achieve an assured happy and full life for every man, woman and child in this vast country. On this depends largely her future security, prosperity and rightful place in the world Progress is not confined to one territory alone, but as with Indias lead in anti material work, is of worldwide significance. At this time when the eyes of the world are on this country. I look forward to the contribution India can make in the years to come to the well-being of humanity.
The banking system of Ukraine (solvent banks as of the reporting date) in January-June 2017 saw UAH 1.85 billion of net loss, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has reported on its website.

The NBU also recalled that in Q1 2017, profit of the banking system was UAH 4.1 billion (taking into account adjusting entries as of May 15, 2017).

"The main reason why the figures worsened was large growth in sending the funds to reserves by banks in Q2 2017, to UAH 12.5 billion. Two banks formed a lion's share of them  PrivatBank and Prominvestbank (PIB)," the central bank said.

The NBU said that in H1 2017, total loss of state-owned banks reached almost UAH 1.8 billion, while not taking into account PrivatBank, state-owned banks would have posted UAH 1.1 billion of net profit.

Banks with foreign capital saw loss of UAH 1.1 billion, while not taking into account PIB, these banks would have seen almost UAH 3.7 billion of net profit.

Total net profit of banks with private capital over the period exceeded UAH 1 billion.

As of July 1, 2017, 70 banks out of 90 solvent banks saw profit, being UAH 8.22 billion, and 20 banks saw loss of UAH 10.07 billion.

The NBU said that net commission income grew by 34% and net interest income rose by 3.5% in H1 2017.

The central bank said that net interest income grew thanks to quicker reduction of interest expenses compared to interest income for transactions of banks with individuals.

According to the NBU, the Ukrainian banking system in January-June 2016 saw UAH 9.183 billion of net loss. Then 108 banks were operating in Ukraine. Since early 2017, the new rules of assessing credit risks have been introduced.
INDIA INDEPENDENT : BRITISH RULE ENDS. That was the lead headline of Hindustan Times on August 15, 1947. The newspapers edition that day reported about a range of events--from governors being sworn in to homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Here is a verbatim version of the story in which Lord Mountbatten paid tributes to Indian Press for fair and accurate reporting.

Mountbatten Praises Helpful Attitude Of Indian Press

I send my greetings and best wishes to the Indian press and to all your readers on this historic day, says Lord Mountbatten Governor general of the Indian Domination, in a message.

He adds: It is good to know that paper restrictions have been relaxed to enable special Independence Day numbers to be produced and justice to be done to a great occasion.

I would like to pay my tribute to the constructive attitude of the Press during my brief but crowded term of office as Viceroy. Upon the Press has fallen the heavy responsibility for keeping the public well-informed about one of the most complex political and administrative operations in history. By upholding fair comment and accurate reports, it has an equally vital part to play in the future. There can be no other guarantee to a Nations welfare than a free Press in the service of a free Nation.
British Prime Minister Clement Attlees Greetings To Nehru in Hindustan Timess August 15, 1947 edition wished peace and prosperity for independent India. Here is a verbatim version of the report.

My colleagues in the United Kingdom Government joined with me in sending on this historic day greetings and good wishes to the Government and the people of India. It is our earnest wish that India may go forward in tranquillity and prosperity and in so doing contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world, says Mr Attlee, British Prime Minister, in a message to Pandit Nehru.

Pandit Nehrus reply to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom said on behalf of my colleagues in the Government of India and myself. I wish to our grateful thanks for your message of greeting on this historic day when India emerges into freedom. That freedom means much to us but also means much to Asia in the World. We hope to utilize that freedom for the advancement of our own people as well as for the furtherance of the peace and prosperity of the world.
For the first time, Maharashtra police have found horses from a Maoist hideout in Abujhmad region bordering Chhattisgarh, confirming their long-held suspicion that rebels use the animals in the rugged terrain.

Gadchiroli police said they recovered six horses from the Maoist hideout after raiding it on Saturday evening. Maoists opened fire on the police team, which retaliated. There were, however, no reports of injuries or deaths in the fire exchange.

The gun battle lasted for more than three hours. The Maoists fled under the cover of darkness, but could not take away their horses, said Maheshwar Reddy, additional SP of Gadchirolis anti-naxal operation squad. The fleeing Maoists also left behind three rifles and rebel literature, he added.

Police said the horses were for the use of senior Maoist leaders such as Mallojula Venugopal aka Bhupati and Kadari Satyanarayan Reddy aka Kosa.

Abhinav Deshmukh, Gadchiroli superintendent of police, said, These horses were being used by senior members of the banned CPI(Maoist) for movement in the dense forest and hilly areas of Abujhmad.

Police have suspected for some time that Maoists use horses in Abujhmad, about 400 km from Nagpur, in eastern Maharashtra.

About six years ago, police found pictures indicating the presence of horses at a Maoist training camp in the region. But prior to Saturday, police had never managed to lay their hands on horses used by the rebels.

The six horses are in police custody and will be assessed by veterinarians.

Parts of Gadchiroli district bordering Chhattisgarh and Telangana are known to be Maoist hotbeds. The district police have arrested 43 suspected Maoists and killed five wanted rebels since January this year. At least 16 Maoists have surrendered before the police this year.

Since 1998, about 150 Maoists and 129 police personnel have been killed in Gadchiroli. During this period, Maoists have killed hundreds of villagers after branding them as police informers. This year, the rebels have killed 18 tribals after branding them as police informers.
While the entire nation prepares to celebrate 70 years of independence on Tuesday, 12 families in Assam continue to mourn their loss suffered on that day 13 years ago.

Justice still eludes the families of 13 victims including 10 children who were killed in a bomb blast that rocked Dhemaji, nearly 500 km east of Guwahati, on August 15, 2004. Forty others were injured in the incident.

The blast during Independence Day celebrations at Dhemaji College was carried out by the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) as retribution for opposing its diktat to boycott the function.

The outfit, which initially denied any role, accepted responsibility five years later and sought apology from the Assamese people. But it is not enough to provide succor to the families of victims who are still awaiting justice.

As Independence Day approaches each year, we are gripped by sadness. But at the same time we feel proud that my son paid the ultimate price by opposing ULFAs boycott call, said Rajkumar Taid, a teacher in a government school.

Taids 11-year-old son, Sidhartha, a student of class IV, was among the 13 victims.

Padmeswar Borgohain, a 65-year-old retired railway employee, marks August 15 not by hoisting the tricolour, but by organising his daughter Manashis death anniversary. She would have turned 28 this year.

Like previous years, the state government has decided to observe Mourning Day (Shok Diwas) on August 16 to mourn the deaths at Dhemaji and also other victims of terrorist violence across the state.

The tricolour will be flown at half-mast at all government establishments. The state-wide programmes also include floral tributes to the departed souls, all-religion prayer meetings, a minutes silence and a pledge against terrorism.

But more than these annual rituals, families of those killed in Dhemaji would feel a sense of closure only when the perpetrators of the blast are arrested and brought to justice.

No one person has been arrested and we dont know if the perpetrators of the heinous crime will ever be brought to justice, said Tirtheswar Sonowal, a retired government employee who lost his 14-year-old son Bijit.

On being questioned about the status of the case, Assam Police DGP Mukesh Sahay could not provide details.

The families, who were given Rs 5 lakhs each as compensation, are still awaiting the promise of one government job to each family made by the previous Congress regime headed by Tarun Gogoi, to get fulfilled.

We visited Guwahati several times in the hope of getting jobs. Most of us are retired and our children are unemployed or completing their studies. Maybe the new BJP-government in Assam will fulfill the promise, said Borgohain.

Borgohains eldest son is unemployed and the younger one is completing a course in hotel management. Both of Sonowals sons are unemployed and Taids daughter is pursuing MSc from Dibrugarh University.

Seven years after the incident, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa came to Dhemaji and apologized to us. Theres no question of forgiving murderers of innocent children, said Taid.

As in earlier years, ULFA (Independent) and other terror outfits in the northeast have again given a call to boycott Independence Day. Security measures have been tightened to prevent untoward incidents.

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All of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the UN refugee agency, and the government aims to deport them, a senior government official told Reuters.

Junior interior minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament last week the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants including Rohingya, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India that it says help them prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation.

But Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modis government, said in an interview on the weekend that the UNHCR registration was irrelevant.

They are doing it, we cant stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees, he said.

As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported.

The UNHCRs India office said on Monday the principle of non-refoulement  or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger  was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports deportations were taking place.

The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as its most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

Procedure

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months, there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests.

Rijiju declined to comment on the deportation process, even as some human rights activists question the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

Theres a procedure, there is a rule of law, Rijiju said.

We cant throw them out just like that. We cant dump them in the Bay of Bengal.

India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan.

But deportation is likely to be difficult, given Myanmars position that all Rohingya need to be scrutinized before they can be allowed back in as citizens.

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment.

A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, has said India was helping it solve the crisis.

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Oct. 9 after an insurgent group attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.
In the 70 years since independence, India has made most progress in improving life expectancy, literacy, but has been slower in improving the level of income, and reducing infant mortality rates when compared to five other nations.

On the eve of independence day, we compared the progress India has made in improving income, health, education, and in preserving its forests, to five countriesChina, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Korea and Brazil.

Why we chose these countries

We chose China because it had roughly the same per capita income in 1960 as India did. Our analysis showed that even though China and India are constantly compared, until now, China has outperformed India across most wealth and health indicators.

We looked at South Korea to get a sense of how India performed compared to a country that has gone from being a developing to a developed country after 1947.

We used Pakistan to compare progress in a country that shares the same history and culture, and was formed at the same time as India.

Brazil, one of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, serves as a comparison with another emerging economy that is estimated to become one of the largest in the world over the next 30 years.

We picked Malaysia because it is, like India, multicultural and, although it was more prosperous than India when independence came, it has weathered significant ethnic tension and conflict. It represents the unique dynamism of a region, southeast Asia, in close proximity to India.

In 56 years, Indian income up 21 times, but progress slower than China, Malaysia

Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (current US$)which is the average income of each citizen and reflects the well being of the populationincreased 21 times from $81.3 ( 1,705) in 1960 to $1709.4 ( 1,14,530) in 2016, according to World Bank estimates. But India made slower progress as compared to China, Malaysia, Brazil and South Korea.

Source: World Bank

The GDP per capita is calculated by dividing the countrys GDP by its population.

In 56 years, the gap in per capita GDP has increased most between India and China, in our comparison. In 1960, Chinas GDP per capita ($89.5) was 9% more than Indias. In 2016, Chinas GDP per capita ($ 8123.2) was 79% more than Indias ($1709.4). This widening gap could be attributed to greater increases in productivity of the Chinese labour force and more capital per worker, according to an opinion piece published by The Hindu in January 2015.

Similarly the gap between India and South Korea in 2016 is nearly twice of what it was in 1960. South Koreas growth can be attributed to rapid industrialisation and emphasis on sectors such as steel, shipbuilding and electronics, according to an April 2015 article by Quartz.

Until 1991, when India liberalised its economy, per capita GDP is estimated to have grown by an average of 4.7% per year, compared to an average of 7.5% every year after 1991.

Indias GDP per capita in 1960 ($81.3) was 65% lower than Malaysia ($ 234.9), 61% lower than Brazil ($210), and 49% lower than South Korea ($158.2). Today Indias GDP per capita is 82% lower than Malaysia ($9502.6), 80% lower than Brazil ($8649.9) and 94% lower than South Korea ($27538.8).

Indias GDP per capita in 1960 was 1.5% lower than that of Pakistan ($82.5), which had progressed economically because of greater state capacity, investments in infrastructure and heavy industry and the agricultural revolution which started in Pakistan before it did in India, according to this September 2016 LiveMint article by economist Ankit Mital. But the situation has now reversed and Indias GDP per capita is 16.4% higher than its western neighbour.

Greater progress in improving life expectancy than Brazil, South Korea

In 55 years, Indias life expectancy at birththe average number of years a person is expected to survive if existing patterns of mortality stayed the same throughout their lifean indicator of the strength of the health system throughout the lifecycle of a citizen, rose by 65.8% or 27 years.

Source: World Bank

From 41 years in 1960, the average life expectancy at birth is now 68 years in 2015, the latest year for which data are available, according to the World Bank.

Among the five countries used for comparison, Indias progress in raising the average life expectancy at birth comes second to that of only China. In 1960, with an average life expectancy of 43 years, Chinas position was close to that of India. However, in the same period the average life expectancy in China rose 76.7% or by 33 years to an average expectancy of 76 years in 2015.

Pakistans progress was on a par with Indias; life expectancy there increased by 65% to 66 years in 2015.

Between 1960 and 2015, Brazils life expectancy rose by 38.8% to 75 years, the life expectancy in South Korea increased by 54.7% to 82 years, and in Malaysia by 27% to 75 years, compared to a 65.8% rise to 68 years for India.

Still, India needs to catch up with the higher life expectancy at birth in these four countries, as well as with the global average, which was pegged at 71.4 years in 2015.

Indias efforts to reduce child mortality led to a significant decline in the death rate by 3.7% between 1990 and 2013, and is one of the main reasons for the increase in life expectancy at birth, according to this Public Health Foundation of India study from 2015.

Infant mortality rate reduces 76% over 55 years, but other countries did better

In 55 years, Indias infant mortality rate (IMR)the number of babies per 1000 who died before their first birthdayan indicator of the strength of the health system, reduced 76% from 165 deaths per 1000 children in 1960 to 38 deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data are available, according to the World Bank.

Source: World Bank

Note: Figure for China is from 1969

But four of the five countries we used as comparison did much better than India, showing that though the IMR in India has fallen, progress in improving health systems has been slow.

Between 1960 and 2015, Brazils IMR reduced by 92%, the IMR in South Korea reduced by 96%, and in Malaysia by 91%, compared to a 76% reduction in India. Chinas IMR reduced 92% between 1969 and 2015, compared to 73% over the same period in India.

The IMR in Pakistan reduced by 65%, the only country in our comparison that did worse than India.

The infant mortality rate is a good indicator of child health, and a crude indicator of community health, poverty and socio economic status of a community and availability of quality health services and medical technology, according to the Association of Maternal and Child Programs, a United States-based public health advocacy organisation.

India made progress comparable with China, Malaysia on literacy

In 2015, seven of every 10 Indians, 15 years and above, could read and write a simple, short statement related to their everyday life, with understanding, according to estimates from the United Nations (UN). The share of literates in Indias population rose 30 percentage points since 1980the earliest year for which data are available for this indicatorwhen four of every 10 Indians were literate.

Source:UNESCO, Foreign Policy Research Institute

Note: South Korea data for 2013

UNESCO Definition: A person who can read and write with understanding a simple short statement related to his/her everyday life

(In 1951, only two in every 10 Indians, five years and above, were literate, according to independent Indias first Census, which defined literacy as anybody who could write a letter to a friend andread the reply.)

India has made equal or more progress than all other countries in improving literacy between 1980 and 2015the time period over which comparative data are availableshows our analysis of India and five other countries, based on data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

As India started off at a lower level of literacy in 1980, the scope for progress was much greater compared to, say, South Korea, where 94% of the population, 15 years and above, was literate in 1980, or Brazil where 74.5% of the population was literate.

The gap between India, and Brazil, South Korea and Malaysia is now lower than it was in 1980, showing that India is catching up with these countries literacy rates. The share of literates in India was 53 percentage points lower than in South Korea in 1980, 29 percentage points lower than in Malaysia, 34 percentage points lower than in Brazil. In 2015, Indias literacy rate was 22 percentage points lower than Brazil, 24 percentage points lower than Malaysia, and 27 percentage points lower than South Korea.

The gap between India and China (~25 percentage points) has remained about the same as has the gap between India and Pakistan (~13 percentage points).

Forest cover increased in India, but numbers might be an overestimation

In 25 years, Indias forest area, as a percentage of total land areaan indicator of a countrys ability to clean its air and water, conserve biodiversity and mitigate climate changeincreased from 21.5% in 1990 to 23.8% in 2015, according to data from the World Bank.

Source: World Bank

Note: Definition (FAO)  Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than five meters and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

India did better than four of the five countries we compared it with, in terms of preserving forest area, while China performed better than India, increasing its forest cover by 5.5 percentage points from 16.7% in 1990 to 22.2% in 2015. But the effectiveness of Chinas reforestation programme is questionable, with large swathes of planted trees dying prematurely. Forest cover includes lands under afforestation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization defines forest area as land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than five meters and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach these heights at maturity in that area. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

The Indian government might be overestimating forest area as its definition of forests includes agricultural plantations.

Between 1990 and 2015, Pakistan, South Korea, Malaysia and Brazil lost forest cover.

The forested area in Brazil reduced by 6.4 percentage-points from 65.4% of total land area in 1990 to 59% in 2015, South Koreas reduced by 2.6 percentage-points from 66% in 1990 to 63.4% in 2015, while the forest cover in Malaysia reduced by 0.5 percentage-points in the same time period.

(Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit/FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.)
The first time Apoorva and Chetana* met, it was magic. One lied to parents, concocted a job offer and flew down from Pune to Lucknow, the other financed last-minute tickets with her hard-earned savings. They had spent a restless month chatting online after navigating for years the crushing ennui that accompanies most LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) lives in small-town India.

They met at the airport, ran towards each other and hugged. In the taxi, they stole kisses. Apoorva couldnt stop smiling when they bunked up together in her house. They spent a euphoric week, eating, going out, planning their future together.

But life was determined to crush their dreams. The first shock was when they tried opening a joint account  bank after bank turned them away saying they needed a legal relationship, or a family connection, for any transaction.Many asked us if we were sisters because our glasses looked alike, Chetana says, laughing.

We are sitting in a coffee lounge in the older parts of Lucknow where the two had first met, and spent countless afternoons together planning their lives, recuperating from the agonizing negotiations with prospective employers, family and most importantly, society over the next three years.

The couple meticulously saved every penny, clawing their way to financial independence, building job skills. A mesh of lies, concealment and ingenuity kept them together but increasingly convinced them that their future didnt lie in a country that criminalises them.

Despite the pride, many LGBT people in the city face bias and threats. (Yadavendra Singh)

In five years, I want to move abroad to a country where we can legally marry and be employable I never wanted to move but maybe I became selfish, I want a comfortable life for us, says a visibly-conflicted Apoorva. I know that my family will force me to marry so I want to move away. She is studying to be a lawyer and her partner is an engineer.

LIFE IN LUCKNOW

In Lucknow, queerness hides in plain sight  in the shadow of the crumbling imambaras, the bustle of the chikan markets of Aminabad or the languid majesty of Residency. On a rain swept evening, we run into a same-sex couple on the banks of Gomti that gushes through the city, stealing a few hours of bliss before returning to their respective, dreary homes. The narrow galis of old Lucknow are imbued with stories of the decadent ways of the erstwhile royalty and same-sex desire is often understood as Nawabi shaukh. But everything is shrouded in secrecy.

A string of high-profile police raids and arrests in the 2000s on NGOs working with LGBT people sent the community in shock. Lurid media coverage fanned gossip and bias, forcing them to retreat to the shadows. As they claw back into the public view, a whole generation of queer folks are absent.

In Lucknow today, you will hardly find gay men who are 30-40 years old. A whole generation of people like me were lost, rues Yadavendra Singh, one of the organisers of Lucknow pride this April. That event, where hundreds of people came out onto the streets to demand a life of dignity and respite from the colonial-era section 377 that bans unnatural sex, was a milestone for the community.

Bias against same-sex desire starts early. In school, Apoorva was vilified for her orientation, often by her own friends and partners. Hormone-soaked gossip about lesbian threesomes soon ballooned into tales about 20 guys and two women, to the point where even teachers avoided her -- all because of a woman who was openly sexual. It was super harda boy I liked grew so insecure that he said asked how women could be so sexual? If women are like this, who will keep boys in check?

In the absence of physical spaces and pervasive social stigma, alienation grows roots. Apoorva remembers in her adolescence she didnt know a single queer woman in the city and would often be forced to rely on stereotypes. I would follow women with short hair, hoping against hope. In malls, on the way back from school, I would strike up conversations with random women.

SMALL-TOWN INDIA

Lucknow acts as the focal point for many smaller towns, and monthly gay parties attract people from as far as Gorakhpur, who travel in rickety buses for hours for a glimpse of the freedom they cannot imagine in the confinement of their homes. But access to public spaces is tricky, especially because of the fear around section 377. Ask any gay man and you will hear countless stories of blackmail, theft and physical violence.

There are other threats too. Many LGBT people carry other identities too -- of caste, faith and class  that render them vulnerable. We meet a gay couple  one partner Sikh and the other Muslim  who speak about the ripples of fear and apprehension running through their residence in old Lucknow since a new government was sworn in. Our biggest risk is that people think we are Hindu and Muslims staying together. Our Brahmin neighbours often throw taunts and questions.

But things are slowly changing, helmed by people like Apoorva and Chetana, who are nurturing a dream of a happy family despite the adversity. We want to adopt children, have a family. People think LGBT relationships are just sex, but thats not true. Its about companionship. Were co-dependent. Sometimes, it just fitsits perfect.

*Name changed. First names used on request.

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday lay down the markers for a New India, one that would be compassionate towards the disadvantaged and would not discriminate on the basis of gender or religion, as he pitched for a people-government partnership.

In his first address to the nation on the eve of the 71st Independence Day, Kovind, who was sworn in as Indias fourteenth President last month, hailed the governments demonetisation decision, peoples support in the battle against corruption and the roll out of goods and services tax.

New India must be a society rushing towards the future... A compassionate society where the traditionally disadvantaged, whether SCs, STs, or OBCs, are part of our national developmental process, said Kovind, the second Dalit to be the President after KR Narayanan.

In the year 2022, the country would complete 75 years of Independence and it is our national resolve to attain certain desired milestones for a New India by then, he said.

In his 30-minute speech, Kovind lauded the sacrifices made by countless freedom fighters as he specifically named Jawaharlal Nehru along with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh, Rani Lakshmibai, Ashfaqullah Khan and BR Ambedkar, saying the generation that brought Independence was diverse.

The Congress had taken strong exception to Kovind not mentioning Nehru in his maiden speech to Parliament after assuming the countrys top post.

The 71-year-old Kovind said New India must include integral humanist component that is in our DNA and which has defined our country and our civilisation.

The President stressed on the need for a robust partnership between the citizen and government, where every individual contributed to nation building.

The government had started the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign, created infrastructure and was promoting Beti Bachao Beti Padhao but it was for each one of us to ensure the success of these schemes, he said.

The government can frame laws and strengthen law enforcement  but it is for each of us to be a law abiding citizen, he said.

The government was pushing for transparency and eliminating corruption but it is for each of us to answer to our inner conscience in everyday life, he said.

Highlighting various steps undertaken by the Modi government to improve the economy and fight corruption, Kovind hailed citizens for their contribution.

He said partnership between citizens and government was crucial to the success of several flagship announcements of the Modi government such as giving up LPG subsidy, demonetisation, introduction of GST.

Your immense patience and understanding in the days following demonetisation  and your whole-hearted support in the battle against corruption and black money  reflected a responsible and enlightened society, Kovind said.

I am confident that a strong partnership between citizens and the government will allow us to meet the goals of New India.

The President said demonetisation boosted the governments effort to build an honest society. We must sustain this spirit and this momentum, he said.

Kovind also called upon the citizens to imbibe a spirit of selflessness, taking inspiration from the soldiers guarding borders, the police and paramilitary who brave death to combat terrorism and crime, and the farmers who labour under extremely tough conditions to grow food.
Investigators probing the multi-crore scam, involving transfer of government funds to an NGO in Bihars Bhagalpur district, have unraveled its modus operandi.

Working in cahoots with bankers and treasury officials, the NGO concerned  the Srijan Mahila Sahyog Samiti  used to surreptitiously divert government funds into its accounts by writing its account number on the reverse side of cheques, issued by district treasuries to different government departments.

To escape getting noticed, it developed a system to generate doctored e-statement of the bank. These statements, mentioning the correct account balance and interest accrued on it, were regularly sent to government offices for record keeping. However, the same did not reflect in actual bank records, as the NGO could not tamper the banking software.

Interestingly, the NGO also fudged bank passbooks and escaped government audit between 2007 and 2014.

The modus operandi of the NGO was to fraudulently divert government funds into its account and earn interest on the principal amount, while leaving it intact.

Inspector-general of police (IG), economic offence unit (EOU), Jitendra Singh Gangwar, heading the probe, told the Hindustan Times, We have seized the laptop using the fake banking software, printer, pen drives and purported copies of bank e-statements. Nine people have been arrested.

Murky deal NGO Srijan swindled government funds from 2007-14 without getting noticed Bhagalpur district administration believed forged bank e-statements Bank e-statements, which govt offices relied on, did not bear any signature Nine FIRs lodged so far; NGO operation also found in Kosi division Investigators have traced eight bank accounts of Srijan, suspect over 24

The scam could go past Rs 700 crore, as the investigating agencies were trying to trace the NGOs activities beyond Bhagalpur, as it also operated through self-help groups (SHGs).

The NGO also offered loans to villagers at exorbitant rate of interest. This ensured good returns though it also had an element of risk in terms of bad debt, said Gangwar. The scam continued for seven years between 2007 and 2014. Nine FIRs have so far been registered on the basis of statements by different departments, he added.

Srijan also operated in the Kosi region. We have so far discovered eight accounts with the Bank of Baroda and the Indian Bank. We suspect there are over 24 accounts of the NGO and trying to ascertain them, Gangwar said.

We detected that in 2012-13, the NGO withdrew Rs 150 crore from its Bhagalpur account and transferred it to its Saharsa account two years later. As of now, we do not know why the money was transferred, he added.

Officials believe that the ambit of the probe could go beyond Bhagalpur. They have reasons to believe that such an operation, in the name of SHGs, could be prevalent elsewhere too.

The NGOs operation floundered after its founder Manorama Devi passed away in February. Her son Amit Kumar and daughter-in-law Priya Kumar have already been arrested. The Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police has written to the regional passport officer, Patna, to confiscate their passports.

Chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh has now asked all district magistrates to get their accounts checked thoroughly, raising doubts that the government was also caught napping, even as it was the government, which eventually detected the scam.

Gangwar also expressed surprise how none took note of the fact that the doctored e-statements continued to arrive in government offices, even without anyone asking for it. The purported bank e-statements did not even bear any signature of bank official, he added.

A senior IAS officer was amused how the fraud escaped scrutiny, especially because inspection for reconciliation is a prerequisite whenever a change of guard takes place in a district.

The embarrassment the government now faces is in having to explain how, during all these years, the NGO circumvented its robust internal mechanism to prevent such frauds.

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Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) suspended 21 partymen close to former president Sharad Yadav on Monday, deepening the crisis in the ruling party days before the chief minister-led faction joins the NDA formally, against the wishes of the Yadav section.

JD(U) Bihar president Bashistha Narayan Singh suspended former minister Ramai Ram, former Sitamarhi MP Arjun Rai, former Vaishali MLA Raj Kishore Sinha and former MLC (Madhepura) Vijay Verma for anti-party activities.The list also includes the names of two district presidents and five block-level presidents.

All the suspended belong to north Bihar districts and are said to be close to Yadav. The decision to suspend them from primary membership was taken after they continued to support to Yadav during his three-day Jan Samvad Yatra.

Yadav said the suspended members were loyal party workers. The JD-U faction led by CM Kumar would lose the count of partymen they will have to suspend if he tours entire Bihar, he told IANS.

The action has set off speculation that suspension of the former president was just a matter of time.

Yadav was also backed by Lalu Prasads RJD during his four-day stay in Bihar. Ramai Ram was one of the few JD(U) leaders who accompanied Yadav on this trip.

On Saturday, the JD(U) removed Yadav as its leader in the Rajya Sabha after he continued to oppose the partys decision to ally with the BJP in Bihar. Yadav was replaced by RCP Singh, a trusted aide of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Earlier on Friday, the party had suspended its Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Read more: Amid signs of imminent action against Sharad, his faction to claim it is real JD (U)

Differences between Kumar and Yadav surfaced after the former snapped ties with the Congress and the RJD, and allied with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar last month. Yadav had maintained that he is a part of the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress.

The JD(U) is not just Nitish Kumars party, but also mine, he had said and had claimed that the real JD(U) was with him and the one with Kumar was sarkari (government).

Meanwhile, Yadavs camp is also gearing up to take action against Kumar and has claimed the support of 14 of 17 state presidents.

The Yadav faction has called a national convention in Delhi on August 17, two days before Kumar is scheduled to formally join the NDA. Among the issues that are likely to be discussed at the national convention include claiming the JD(U)s election symbol.

The Nitish-led group would be meeting on August 19 to announce its decision to join the NDA as the 29th party and it is assumed that the JD(U) will suspend Yadav on the same day. Kumar is also likely to be nominated the co-convenor of the NDA at the national level.

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A third vessel with 75,000 tonnes of anthracite from South Africa for Prydniprovska and Kryvy Rih thermal power plants (TPPs) of DTEK Energo has arrived to the Yuzhny port, the press service of DTEK has reported.

"The new batch of coal would expand stocks at the plants that are covering the summer shortage of electricity in the Ukrainian power grid and preparing for passing the autumn and winter period," the press service said.

DTEK recalled that since early August Kryvy Rih TPP operates with 600 MW loading at night and 735 MW loading during the day. Prydniprovska TPP operates with 150 MW loading at night and 200 MW loading during the day. Totally the plants burn around 10,000 tonnes of anthracite every 24 hours.

"Imported coal shipped earlier created a required stock at our TPPs to operate in summer period. Thanks to this, population and enterprises are stably receiving electricity. Next vessel from South Africa would arrive in the middle of September, which will be the start of the active phase of accumulating coal for winter," the press service said, citing DTEK Energo Commercial Director Vitaliy Butenko.

Under a contract DTEK has imported 225,000 tonnes of anthracite from South Africa to Ukraine. The first vessel with 75,000 tonnes of anthracite arrived to Ukraine on May 25, and the second on July 23. The company contracted a total of 675,000 tonnes of coal in South Africa.
Several intellectuals and activists staged a protest in front of the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Monday accusing the BJP government of intolerance and demanded apologies from state ministers for allegedly disrupting economist Jean Drezes speech on Sunday.

Dreze had, in his speech, criticised the Jharkhand government for targeting the Christian community through a recent government advertisement carried on the front page of several local newspapers.

He pointed out that Mahatma Gandhi was misquoted about religious conversions in the advertisement.

Dreze said the state government was misleading people by attributing the thoughts of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of BJP, to Gandhi.

He also condemned the state government over the rise of crime in the state and shared data on criminal records of Jharkhands legislators.

Drezes remarks did not go down well with Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, state agriculture minister Randhir Singh and urban development minister C P Singh, who stopped him from completing his speech, alleged the protesters.

The globally-renowned economist was also allegedly asked to apologise for his remarks against the RSS and the government.

This incident is yet another example of the growing intolerance and attacks on peoples fundamental rights to freedom of speech, expression, assembly and movement, the right to practice any occupation, the right to preserve ones culture and even the right to life and liberty in Jharkhand, a unanimous statement from the protesters said.

Social activists protesting against state minister Randhir Singh who disrupted the speech of noted economist Jean Dreze during a function in Ranchi on Sunday. (HT PHOTO)

Many protesters covered their mouth with black ribbon to mock the shrinking democratic space in the state.

The protesters at Raj Bhavan demanded an apology from members and supporters of BJP for not letting Dreze finish his speech and also from the organisers of the event for allowing the disruption.

They also demanded an apology from chief minister Raghubar Das for issuing the communal advertisement by his government.

They also demanded action against all the individuals and groups involved in communal violence in the recent past.

Dayamani Barla, a noted tribal rights activist, said, This is murder of democracy. A man who is respected and treated with utmost dignity across the world for his works was disrespected only because his views were in contradiction with the ideologies of the government.

The protest was also attended by activists such as Stan Swami, Balram, P P Verma, Kumar Varun, Nadeem and others.
Indicating it might refer petitions challenging the validity of the controversial Article 35A to a larger bench, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a fresh matter where a woman has assailed the provision on the grounds that it is gender discriminatory.

Article 35A accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of J-K and empowers state legislature to frame laws without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violating Right to Equality of people from other states under Indian Constitution.

If we feel that the challenge to the validity is to be entertained, then it has to go to a five-judge bench, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra told the counsel representing the petitioner  Charu Wali Khanna  in the new case. The court noted another bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar had last month referred the petitions to a three-judge bench, which is likely to assemble on August 29 to hear them.

Khanna has also questioned Section 6 of the J&K constitution that deals with the permanent residents of the state. Certain provisions deny property rights to a woman who marries a person not a citizen of Kashmir.

According to the law, women lose rights over property and this also applies to her children. The woman also loses employment opportunities in the state. Khanna  a Kashmiri  contended that the provisions restrict the right of women to marry a man of their choice. She is married to a non-Kashmiri.

Her children are denied a permanent resident certificate thereby considering them illegitimate  not given any right to such a womans property ... the plea said.

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Pakistan on Monday celebrated 70 years of independence at its High Commission in New Delhi, as acting high commissioner Syed Haider Shah urged New Delhi to work together with Islamabad for a peaceful subcontinent.

Shah hoisted his countrys flag to the tunes of the Pakistan national anthem, as dignitaries and other people joined in the celebrations.

Shah read out messages sent by President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a PTI report said.

Terrorism is the biggest challenge confronting the world in the 21st century, Abbasi said in the message, asserting that Pakistan has been fighting against this menace and working towards world peace.

Students of the Pakistan High Commission School presented a medley of songs.

The way Pakistan is celebrating its independence, we also congratulate the people of India for the independence of their country and we hope there will be peace in this region and both our countries, in fact all the others in this region, will work together for the creation of a peaceful region, Shah told ANI.

Palwasha Haider, wife of the acting high commissioner, gave away prizes and gifts to the teachers and children of the school.

Pakistan was created out of a partitioned Indian subcontinent on August 14, 1947. It came into existence as a result of the Pakistan Movement, which aimed for the creation of a separate Muslim state by partition of the north-western and north-eastern regions of undivided India. The movement was led by the All-India Muslim League under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Meanwhile, sweets were exchanged at the Wagah-Attari border near Amritsar on Monday on the occasion of Pakistans independence day.

Pakistans Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted the largest national flag in the history of Pakistan.

The 120 feet by 80 feet flag was hoisted on a 400-feet pole, making it the highest in South Asia and the eight highest in the world.
A farmer in Madhya Pradeshs Dindori district was forced to take the help of his sons to plough his field as the family did not have enough money to buy bullocks, barely a month after a similar incident was reported in the central states Sehore district.

Gohra Singh, a resident of Dindoris Mohini village that is about 415 kilometres south east of state capital Bhopal, started using his two sons in the field after one of his two bullocks died some time ago. Singh told the local media he had to use his sons in place of the bullocks as it was the paddy sowing season.

CR Ahirwar, sub divisional officer (agriculture), said the government scheme to provide a pair of bullocks to farmers was stopped long ago as they now use tractors to till their land.

There is a provision that a farmer in need can plough his field up to four hectares for which the department will make the payment, he said.

The states labour, food and civil supplies minister Om Prakash Dhurvey, who belongs to the district, directed Dindori district officials to arrange a meeting with Singh after he came to know about the incident. The minister handed over a cheque of Rs 20,000 to Singh so that he could buy a bullock.

In July, a video and photographs of the two tribal girls helping their father in place of bullocks for ploughing for removal of weeds in Sehore, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans home district, had gone viral.

Sardar Barela told local media he was taking the help of Radha and Kunti to till and level his small farm in place of bullocks as he didnt have the money to buy bullocks.

Madhya Pradesh saw an outburst of farmers over loan waiver and higher crop prices, which poses a challenge for Chouhan, the BJP chief minister since 2005, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has promised to double farmers incomes over the next five years.

Desperate farmers launched a mass protest in Mandsaur, which turned violent and six people died in police firing on June 6. Several farmers have committed suicide in the state over back-to-back droughts, freak hailstorms and mounting crop loans.
Two days after criticising the Centre for asking schools in all states to celebrate the Independence Day following the guidelines set by the human resource development ministry, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the state government never imposed restrictions on the event.

Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts. Dont mislead. In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom. All schools in Bengal are celebrating Independence Day as per their choice. In their own special way, Banerjee tweeted.

Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts.Don't mislead.In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom 1/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 14, 2017

On August 11, the state school education department issued a circular asking educational institutions to not adhere to the HRD ministry order. The order reportedly asked schools to make videos of the celebrations and send the recordings to the Ministry.

A senior minister said the state governments order was misinterpreted and a section of the media reported that the administration had directed schools not to celebrate Independence Day at all. We want schools to celebrate the way they want, rather than follow a specific format prescribed by the Union government. The state government order has been grossly misinterpreted. So, the chief minister had to issue a clarification, he said.
Former chief minister and working president of National Conference Omar Abdullah on Monday put the BJP in his line of fire, accusing it of taking legal recourse via an NGO to abolish Article 35 A of the Constitution which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The BJP, which realized that it wont be possible to get special status of the state revoked via Parliament and Assembly, adopted a discreet way to get it scrapped via an NGO in the Supreme Court. he said while addressing the partys district and block presidents here at the NCs headquarters.

But let me remind all that the Supreme Court in the past had twice stated that special status of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be scrapped, he said.

The petition, filed by a Delhi-based NGO, We the citizens, demanded that the Article 35A should be held unconstitutional as the President could not have amended the Constitution by way of the 1954 order, and that it was only supposed to be a temporary provision. The Article was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately.

Omar also apprised them about serious ramifications if the special status of the state under Indian Constitution ceased.

The younger Abdullah said that if Article 35 A was abolished then state subject laws introduced by the erstwhile Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927 and 1932 shall also cease.

People from outside the state will come here to settle down. They will take away government jobs at the expense of our children. They will acquire land in the state and they will be speaking a language that wont be understood by our people because they wont be speaking Dogri, Gojri, Pahari, Giddi, Kashmiri or other local languages, said Omar in a bid to project the scary picture.

Article 35A of the Constitution provides special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of J&K  a provision which came into effect in 1954 when the President used the powers conferred on him by Article 370 to introduce the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954.

Under the provision, which appears in the Constitution as an appendix  and not as an amendment  to the Article 35, citizens from other parts of the country are prohibited from acquiring immovable property in the J&K, taking up employment under the state government, availing of the state-sponsored scholarship schemes, or settling permanently anywhere in the state

Now, BJP has made it Jammu versus Kashmir issue by projecting before the people that 35A is beneficial to Kashmir but harmful to Jammu. Let me tell all that even if 35A is scrapped, no outsider shall go to Kashmir because of its situation. Even the people in Kashmir send their children to Jammu, Pathankot, Delhi, Mumbai, Madras and other parts of the country for their studies. The outsiders will come to Jammu. They will raise big hotels in Jammu, Katra, Reasi and other parts. They will purchase all your land, he said.

In an interview to a Srinagar daily last week, Omar had raised an alarm, saying the state governments defence for protection of the constitutional provision was extremely weak and had far too many gaps for other side to exploit.

I have gone through the counter-affidavit filed by the state government in the Supreme Court to defend the Article 35A. I believe that the affidavit is extremely weak. The arguments that could have been made and should have been made are not being brought out as forcefully as should have been done, he had said.

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An association of paramilitary veterans sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week urging him to mention in his Independence Day address the discrimination and injustices faced by both retired and current officials of the Central Armed Police Forces.

The group, called the Confederation of Ex-Paramilitary Forces Welfare Association, listed other demands. They asked the government to exempt Central Police Canteens from paying the GST, which was done in the case of retail stores for Indias defence forces. According to the Association, there are some 1700 canteens across the country that lakhs of troops and their families rely on.

Other demands included the establishment of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme for military personnel, the restoration of the pre-2004 pension program that included benefits for paramiltary servicemen, and the institution of hardship allowances, which currently are available only to the defence forces.

The Association was established in 2016. This year, they have already held five demonstrations in a variety of states. Their most recent protest occurred at Delhis Rajghat on August 9. In the memorandum to Modi, the Association threatened a demonstration at Jantmar Mantar from December 5 onward if their demands were not met.

We have sacrificed so much for our country, said Ranbir Singh, the groups general secretary. The least this government can do is to heed to some of our basic demands, such as OROP or the old pension scheme. Those appointed after 2004 will not be receiving pension. Will this not effect the morale of our forces?

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As India prepares to mark 70 years of independence from the British, and Pakistan the anniversary of its birth, we look at some of the numbers behind this defining event known as Partition.

190

The number of years the British ruled in India, first through the East India Company and then the Crown. The Company, however, had managed trading posts in India for more than a century before assuming more official control after 1757.

400 million

The population across British India -- including modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh -- at the time of Partition in 1947.

40

The number of days British judge Cyril Radcliffe was given to draw the new boundaries that would divide the subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

3,800

Miles (6,100 km) of new borders between India and Pakistan created by Partition. More than 1000 miles overland separated West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

0

The number of times British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Lord Louis Mountbatten, Britains final Viceroy, uttered the word Pakistan when publicly announcing plans for the Partition of India on June 3, 1947.

48

Hours after India declared independence on August 15 before British troops began sailing for home. Their withdrawal was completed the following February.

1 million

The widely-held estimate of the number of people killed in the brutal violence that followed Partition. Some estimates put the toll at double this figure.

83,000

Women and girls raped or abducted by both sides during the violence of Partition.

15 million

The number who migrated, often by foot, during Partition -- Hindus and Sikhs to India, and Muslims to Pakistan.

400,000

The number of refugees walking in a single column from modern-day Pakistan to India.

200,000

The number of miles covered by refugee specials -- trains carrying evacuees between India and Pakistan -- on the north-western line alone in 1947.

3

The number of wars fought between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh donated on Monday one months salary to a fund, which helps families of paramilitary personnel who laid down their lives fighting extremists.

The cheque of Rs 1.59 lakh was handed over by the home minister to Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi at a special function in Delhi, where Singh launched a social media awareness campaign regarding the BharatKeVeer fund, which so far gathered about Rs 15 crore, a home ministry official said.

Im launching a social media awareness campaign regarding #BharatKeVeer on @Twitter on the eve of Indias Independence Day (sic), he tweeted.

The security forces have made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and the people need to stand by their families to support them, he was quoted as saying in a home ministry statement.

Union ministers of state for home Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Ahir are also expected to donate their one months salary to the fund soon.

Singh also launched emoji of the BharatKeVeer fund and appealed to the citizens to support the martyrs families.

General public can visit the app and the website BharatKeVeer and make a contribution to support the families of the jawans who died in the line of duty.

The monetary contributions made on the website go straight into the bank account of martyred soldiers family.

The main objective of the portal (bharatkeveer.gov.in) is to enable the public to help the families of soldiers by donating money online directly to the individual bravehearts account or to Bharat Ke Veer corpus.

Bravehearts from the armed forces that are among the major forces included in the portal for the contribution are: Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP), Assam Rifles (AR), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF-India), National Security Guards (NSG) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
Deputy chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT) on black money Justice Arijit Pasayat said on Monday the SIT is now mainly targeting shell companies in the country, which are indulging in tax evasion and money laundering.

After a meeting with officers of government agencies dealing with economic and financial affairs here, he said the officials were instructed to locate the shell companies in the state and share information among them to launch a unified crackdown on these firms.

The agencies were sensitised to locate and gather information about the dealings of shell companies and how to attach their properties under the provisions of Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act of 2016, Justice Pasayat told reporters.

Sources said the Central government, by executing various schemes over the last three years, has so far detected around Rs 1 lakh crore in black money, a substantial amount of which is stashed abroad.

Most of the schemes introduced by the government were the outcome of recommendations made by the SIT during the last three years, they said.

The SIT is going to submit its next interim report to the Supreme Court in September this year, sources informed.
Germany investing $10 mln in development of small and medium enterprises in Ukraine

The German Society for Investment and Development (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, DEG) will contribute $10 million to the investment fund for small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, the German Embassy in Ukraine reported.

The Emerging Europe Growth Fund III (EEGF III) will facilitate the access of small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine to long-term financing, the press service of the German embassy reported.

"Through this participation Germany will strengthen its position as one of the most important countries investing in the Ukrainian economy. Germany's participation is a signal for other private and institutional investors," the embassy said.

The diplomatic mission told that the fund invests in export-oriented industries, in particular, in IT, light industry, food industry, as well as enterprises of electronic commerce and health.

The German embassy said that the financed fund primarily focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises that need capital for their own growth and, as experience shows, create a lot of new jobs.

German diplomats added that there are intentions to raise the capital of the Emerging Europe Growth Fund III (EEGF III) to $150 million.
The CBI told the Supreme Court on Monday that its probe into the murder of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan of Siwan, in which controversial RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin is one of the prime accused, is at an advanced stage.

The probe agency told a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar that they were likely to file a charge sheet in the case within two weeks.

The investigation in the case is at an advanced stage. A final report will be filed before the trial court within two weeks, the agencys counsel told the bench and requested it to defer the hearing in the matter for two weeks.

To this, the apex court asked the advocate representing petitioner Asha Ranjan, who is the wife of the slain scribe, whether he had any objection to the CBI seeking more time for hearing of the matter.

Advocate Kislay Pandey, appearing for the petitioner, said his only prayer was for registration of FIR against RJD supremo Lalu Prasads son Tej Pratap Yadav, whose photograph was published in media with an alleged sharp-shooter close to Shahabuddin, and superintendent of police Siwan district for purportedly not taking any action in the matter.

The CBI counsel said all these aspects would be looked into after the final report was filed before the trial court.

The court, which had earlier ordered shifting of Shahabuddin who is facing trial in around 45 criminal cases from Siwan Jail in Bihar to Tihar Jail in New Delhi, listed the matter for hearing on September 18.

The apex court had earlier said it would examine the plea seeking the lodging of FIR against Tej Pratap Yadav.

It had ordered shifting of Shahabuddin from Bihars Siwan prison to Tihar Jail to ensure free and fair trial in the cases lodged against him.

The petitioner, whose husband was murdered in Siwan in May last year, has sought a direction for registration of FIR against Shahabuddin and Tej Pratap for alleged conspiracy and harbouring and sheltering the proclaimed offenders in the murder case.

Her counsel had earlier alleged in the court that in September last year, she had seen the pictures of accused Mohammed Kaif and Mohammad Javed, who were absconding at that time, with Tej Pratap on news channels.
The Supreme Court stayed on Monday the Madras high court order that had put on hold the lookout circular issued by the Centre against Karti Chidambaram, son of former minister P Chidambaram, and others in connection with an alleged corruption case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and D Y Chandrachud also issued notice to Karti Chidambaram and others on an appeal filed by the Centre challenging the high courts order staying the look out circular.

The bench, during the hearing, repeatedly observed that Karti had not joined the investigation in the case and, moreover, he has not sought grant of anticipatory bail in the matter.

The bench, meanwhile, asked the high court to decide the petition seeking quashing of the FIR lodged by the CBI.

The case is related to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds when Kartis father was the Union finance minister in 2007.

The CBI had claimed that the FDI proposal of the media house was fallacious, but Chidambaram had cleared it.

The FIR dated May 15 was registered before the special CBI judge in Delhi. It was followed by searches at the residences and offices of Karti and his friends on May 16.
The main opposition Congress in Telangana urged the Karnataka government on Monday to release water from its reservoirs to meet the drinking water needs in the state.

Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy wrote a letter in this regard to Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, who also belongs to the Congress.

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee resolved in its full executive committee meeting yesterday to request the Karnataka government to release the drinking water in appropriate quantity, to overcome the shortage in Telangana now, Reddy said in the letter to Siddaramaiah.

The TRS government in Telangana has already requested Karnataka to release 15 TMC of water from Almatti-Narayanpur reservoir, to meet the drinking water needs.

Telangana irrigation minister T Harish Rao had written a letter last week to his Karnataka counterpart M B Patil.

Reddy thanked the chief minister of Karnataka for releasing water last year following a similar request.
The Viceregal Lodge that has stood a mute witness to history since the late 19th century, houses a table on which papers for Partition were prepared.

The carved table crafted from walnut wood is displayed in one of the rooms, which has a photo gallery displaying pre-independence pictures in general and that of Simla pact in particular. Not much is known about the table, but it is believed that papers for India-Pakistan partition were prepared on it during the Simla conference in 1945, Prem Chand, officiating secretary of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, told HT.

This building is rich in history. We never knew that the foundation of India and Pakistan table was laid on this table, marvels Rajat Sambhial, a tourist from Rajasthan.

A galaxy of leaders, including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Maulana Azad, Liaqat Ali Khan and Master Tara Singh had attended the conference. There is a dedicated photo gallery on the Simla Conference that was called by Lord Wavell to find out ways to carve out Pakistan after Mohmmad Ali Jinnah insisted on it. Mahatama Gandhi was also in Simla but he did not attend the meeting. Later, it was in May 1947 that Lord Mountbatten discussed the plan for Partition on the same table.

Number of visitors 2013 -2014 - 1.56 lakh 2014 -2015 - 1.69 lakh 2015-2016 - 1.82 lakh

Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who headed the commission, was given two months to chalk out the boundary between India and Pakistan. In Simla, Radcliffe was optimistic that all the differences would be resolved at the final meeting. But the four members of the Radcliffe Commission, who included two Muslims, a Hindu and a Sikh, disagreed so much that he took it upon himself to do the needful. The ballroom, which hosted the Simla conference, has now been converted into a library.

History of Viceregal Lodge

The Viceregal Lodge is a building from where the British ruled South Asia during the summer months. Located on the Observatory Hill, one of the seven hills of Shimla, it is just a kilometres drive from the old bus stand in Shimla. The Jacobethan style building was commissioned as a residence for Lord Dufferin, the then Viceroy of India (1884-1888).

It came to be known as the Rashtrapati Niwas after it began to be used as a summer retreat by the President of India. In the early 1960s, President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan decided to make it a scholars abode. Consequently, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) moved into the lodge in 1965. The drawing room, ballroom and dining room were converted into a library, while the Viceroys office became the IIAS directors office and the conference hall was turned into a seminar room for research scholars.

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Security forces on Monday arrested two Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) militants in a dramatic takedown in Handwara area of north Kashmirs Kupwara district.

The arrest comes a day after security forces gunned down three militants, including Hizbul Mujahideen commander Yasin Itoo alias Mehmood Gaznavi, in an encounter in south Kashmirs Shopian district. Two soldiers were also killed in the gun battle.

Police sources said after being tipped off about movement of militants in the area, they laid a check point, manned jointly by police, army and CRPF, at Bakihaker crossing in Handwara.

The two militants, approaching towards the crossing, tried to flee after seeing the forces from a distance, a police spokesperson said, adding the joint security team, however, noticed their escape bid and alerted their companions posted in civvies at a distance.

The second team pounced on the duo and soon overpowered them. Two pistols, two hand grenades and some incriminating materials were seized from them.

During interrogation, the two, told the police that they had joined the HuM only recently and were tasked to create disturbances in Handwara by indulging in violent activities.

The two arrested militants are from central Kashmir.

Police said they also revealed that despite a lot of efforts by the militant commanders based in Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, youth from Handwara by and large were not attracted towards militancy.

The two revealed that most of the militant organisations based in Handwara/Kupwara region are facing problems due to depleting number of local recruits. They further revealed that youth of the region are not ready to pick up gun, despite a lot of efforts by the militant commanders based in Kashmir and PoK, the spokesman added.

The official said that the militant outfits had succeeded in recruiting some local boys in Kupwara region recently but they either surrendered before police or were caught by security forces within a short span of time after joining militancy.

 It is because of this pressure upon the valley based commanders of militant outfits to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the region that they are making efforts to recruit militants from other regions and bring them to Handwara to create disturbance, the spokesman said.

The two were identified as Younis Ahmed Mir (19) alias Sarfaraz, a resident of Budgam district and Tahir -ul-Islam (21) alias Sajad Afgani, a resident of Shalteng in Srinagar district.
Britain will continue to stand with India and support it to fulfill its potential as a leading world power in the 21st century, a senior Indian-origin Cabinet minister has said in her Independence Day message.

Priti Patel, secretary of state for international development in British Prime Minister Theresa Mays Cabinet, said the UK was ready for a great future with India as it leaves the European Union (EU).

As India celebrates its 70th year of independence, it can be proud of the remarkable developments driven by the incredible passion and spirit of its people. India has grown into the worlds largest democracy, engaging people across the country in great political debate and securing Indias place as a global leader in the 21st Century.

Britain will continue to stand with India and support it to fulfill its potential as a leading world power, said the 45-year-old Conservative Party MP with her origins in Gujarat.

From investment and trade to academia and culture, the UK and India are more connected than ever before. Our powerful people to people ties are unparallelled among any other nation and the unity we show is a sign of our strength and an example for others to admire. We have a shared history and as Britain leaves the European Union (EU) and sets itself on a new course, we will share a great future with India, she noted.

Praising India for its phenomenal economic growth, the minister said the UK was keen to partner with India on all its plans for new infrastructure and investment to lift more people out of poverty.

Patel, who served as Indian Diaspora Champion in the previous David Cameron led UK government, made a special mention to the 1.5 million strong Indian Diaspora community as a cornerstone of the India-UK relationship.

As a champion for the UKs Indian Diaspora I want to mark this as an auspicious day of celebration for the Indian community here in the UK. The Indian Diaspora have played a proud and influential role in British life, making positive contributions to their communities, she said.

Indias 70th year of independence is being marked across the UK with a series of events, including special coverage in the mainstream media.

The BBC is airing its 70 Years On: Partition Stories series all of this month to coincide with Indian independence as well as the birth of Pakistan on August 14, 1947.
A joint team of economic offence unit (EOU) and special investigating team (SIT) on Monday raided the flat of the district welfare officer at Bhagalpur in east Bihar in connection with the more than Rs 700-crore government fund transfer scam.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar said the Shyam Kunj Apartment flat of Arun Kumar in Khanjarpur area of Bhagalpur, 229 km east of Patna, was raided after convincing evidences of his involvement in the scam was found by the EOU and the SIT, probing the financial irregularities.

It has been detected that the welfare officer and his wife had received property and jewellery worth crores of rupees as gift, Kumar said. The inquiry also revealed funds from the account of tainted non-governmental organisation, Srijan Mahila Sahayog Samiti, was transferred to the account of DWOs wife, the SSP said.

Meanwhile, sources said the probe teams had collected major evidences during the raid. The evidences could be significant in further digging out facts related to the scam, the sources added. The sources also did not rule out the arrest of the DWO. If taken into custody, he would be the first officer to be arrested in connection with the scam, the sources added.

The initial probe into the scam had detected that government funds for land acquisition, urban development, besides many other heads kept in banks were diverted to Srijan for private use in collusion with government and bank officials.

Earlier, Mahesh Mandal, nazir of welfare department, was picked up by the joint team of EOU and SIT from his house at Pista village in Jagdishpur block of Bhagalpur district late on Sunday night.

Mandal has been posted in the welfare department for quite a long time. Sources said property related documents and bank passbooks were recovered from the house of Mandal during the raid. On basis of inputs provided by Mandal, raids were conducted at some other places.

So far eight FIRs have been registered and eight persons, including bank officials and government employees, have been arrested in connection with the fraudulent transfer of government fund from different departments to the NGO..

Action is also likely to be initiated soon against some officials of land acquisition department, with the joint EOU-SIT team collecting evidences of their involvement in the scam.

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Jaipur: About 650 children below 14 years are working as labourers at various establishments in Jaipur 70 years after the country became independent, said a survey.

Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC), a child rights and protection wing of Pratham, an NGO, conducted the survey at roadside shops, eateries, garages and general stores, among others.

PCVC aspires towards creating a society where every child is educated, free from exploitation and protected, but still a large number of children are engaged as child labourers, said Krishna Kanwar of the council.

Despite 70 years of Indias independence, when will these child labourers be free? she asked.

Kanwar said 429 children up to 14 years were found working at 25000 shops in Jaipur in the first phase of the survey held between March and April this year. Many employers agreed to send the children back home after they were informed about the law.

A large number of shopkeepers are unaware about the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and on educating them, they agreed not to engage children in work, she said.

During a follow-up in May, it was found that 300 children were withdrawn from work, which was a positive sign of awareness among employers, Kanwar said.

In second phase of the survey held in July, 223 children were found working in 89,000 shops. The number was less because of Operation Milaap launched by the police department; under the drive, police rescued children by raiding shops and factories, and united them with their families.

PCVC city coordinator Mukesh Sharma said, A large number of children are working as labourers. When shopkeepers see a team, they would send children out for some time so that they are not seen during checking; many times, the team is not allowed access inside the shops.

PCVC suggested that police and the labour department conduct surprise checks and initiate action against shops and establishments, a task force be formed at the district level for vigil in child labour-prone areas and a signed undertaking be taken from shopkeepers during registration of their shops for not engaging child labour.

Child labour count

Out of 652 children identified in Jaipur, 370 were aged 14 or below, and 282 were 15 and above. Of 213 children found working in hotels and eateries, 129 were 14 years and below, and 84 were 15 years and above; 198 kids were found in general shops; 95 in garment shops; 132 in garage and 7 each in cosmetic and jewellery shops.
The Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) is likely to consider the Union governments appeal to withdraw the ongoing agitation for statehood that has crippled life in the Darjeeling hills for the last 61 days.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh reportedly asked a GMCC delegation to explore peaceful ways to achieve their objective during a meeting on Sunday evening. Its members will now discuss the situation in telephonic consultation with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung on Monday afternoon, said GMCC chief coordinator Kalyan Dewan.

The delegation that met Singh comprised leaders from the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) and Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha (GRNM)  besides the GJM. The Union home minister appealed to us to withdraw the ongoing agitation. We will consider it in todays meeting, Dewan told HT.

The Union home minister also asked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate a dialogue with the GJM and other stakeholders in the Darjeeling hills. Internet services in the region have been snapped since June 19.

Though the GMCC leaders were not happy with the outcome of the meeting, sources said they were likely to respect Singhs appeal by first withdrawing the fast-unto-death agitation launched by GJM youth wing members nearly two months ago. Twelve youngsters in Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik had launched the indefinite hunger strike on July 21.

The GMCC has found itself in an awkward situation ever since the Centre washed its hands of the statehood issue, pushing it into the Mamata governments court. The agitators had been maintaining that they wont negotiate with West Bengal because statehood was a central subject.

Sources said the BJP government at the Centre is not in a mood to antagonise Banerjee and risk losing votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Senior BJP members are also miffed with the GJM leadership over the manner in which it announced the indefinite bandh without taking them into confidence.

Though the GJM and the BJP have been alliance partners since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of the saffron party were unhappy with the way in which the protest unfolded in the region. The Centre, for its part, has taken note of the widespread damage to public property in the last two months.

Violence can never be a solution to any problem. In a democracy, solutions are always found through restraint, mutual dialogue and legal means, the Union home minister told GMCC leaders on Saturday. A Press Information Bureau release quoted Singh as saying that the government was aware of the strategic importance of the region and the challenges it faced.

The decisions to call the indefinite bandh and indefinite hunger strike should have been taken at a much later stage of the agitation, a senior member of the GMCC delegation told HT. However, he described the meeting with Singh  which happened two months after the start of the pro-Gorkhaland agitation  as a welcome development.

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Mondays bandh called by the Samajwadi Party, Congress and Left parties to protest the deaths of children at the BRD Medical College due to disruption of oxygen supply evoked a mixed response in Gorakhpur.

Most of the shops remained open in Golghar, Townhall, Betiahata and Sarrafa market at Ghantaghar.

While the leaders of the SP and Left parties staged a joint demonstration at the Collectorate, Congress activists observed a silent protest in front of Mahatma Gandhis statue in Townhall.

We have appealed to traders to keep their shops closed today (Monday) as a tribute to children who died for want of oxygen, said SPs district unit president Prahlad Yadav.

He said they were holding the protest to force the government to take action against the people responsible for childrens deaths.

Meanwhile, the traders leaders said closure of markets was not required at the moment.

Read more: Gorakhpur tragedy: SC refuses to take cognisance of hospital deaths

We are not supporting the bandh as it will cause inconvenience to people. To pay tribute to children, traders will take out a candle march, said Sharat Chand Agrahari, president of sarrafa association of jewellers and bullion traders.

The Gorakhpur police have already warned the protesters against forcing traders to shut their shops and disrupting traffic movement.

On Sunday, police detained five SP leaders who tried to show black flags to chief minister Yogi Adityanath during his visit to BRD Medical College. They were demanding the CMs resignation.
Education and Science Minister of Ukraine Lilia Hrynevych believes the amount of funding of higher education institutions from the state budget should depend on the quality of the education they provide.

"We understand that the system of financing universities needs to be changed, needs to be linked to the performances of these universities. Those who provide better education should receive more funds," she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

In her words, the ministry is currently working on relevant changes to the law on higher education in terms of funding universities.

In addition, this year the government scholarships in higher education institutions will be distributed based on the universities' performances.

In particular, legal studies, which are provided by almost every university, will this year be funded from the state budget only at the best universities.
Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq on Sunday advised Muslims not to protest if the Supreme Court, which has started hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, rules in favours of Hindus in the Ayodhya dispute. And Muslims should handover the land to the Hindus if they get judgment in their favour, Sadiq said.

Justifying his statement, the Shia cleric said, If Muslims handover the disputed land to Hindus they will win hearts of crores of Hindus.

Adding context to his seemingly controversial advice, Sadiq said that one receives thousands in return on giving away just one thing close to them.

Read more: Muslim clerics tear into Shia board for Babri affidavit

His comments come in the wake of the Shia Waqf Board telling the Supreme Court that a mosque could be built at a distance from the disputed land, as the latter on Friday commenced the cross-appeals hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, to look for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

In a 30-page affidavit, filed on August 8, the Shia Waqf Board asserted that the Babri Masjid site was its property and only it was entitled to hold negotiations for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

The board placed an affidavit before the apex court in which it stated that a mosque can be constructed at a place near birth place of Lord Ram.

(With agency inputs)
Come August and its time to remember freedom fighters, soak in the patriotic fervour and pay homage to martyrs. But the residents of a small village, Ashfaq Nagar in Shahjahanpur district, ask: Why only August?

These people hail from the village of legendary freedom fighter Ashfaqullah Khan.

All set to celebrate Independence Day like the rest of the country, they, and especially Khans family, assert that our freedom fighters deserve to be honoured throughout the year.

Its strange to see those in power wake up only on some special occasions. The rest of the time they are in deep slumber. It clearly shows how much respect they have for those who laid down their lives for the country, said Shahdabullah, Ashfaqullah Khans grandson.

The grave of Ashfaqullah Khan at Ashfaq Nagar in Shahjahanpur. (HT Photo)

The freedom fighter, also an Urdu poet, was hanged on December 1927 along with Ram Prasad Bismil and others for their involvement in the Kakori case.

Shahdabullah, who has just completed graduation, believes that the sacrifice went in vain. Barring August 15 and his death anniversary, nobody has the time to remember him, he said, pointing out the government apathy in the matter.

His brother, Ashfaqullah, who was named after the celebrated freedom fighter, said that even after 90 years the family had got nothing except for assurances. Recently, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh visited Ashfaqullah Khans grave and assured us of government support. But it has been almost six months and nothing has happened, he said.

Read more | India at 70: Uttar Pradesh on the freedom trail...

After Ashfaqullah Khan was executed, the British government confiscated all the property and left our family to die. But since our grandmother came from a well-off background, we managed to survive, said Shahdabullah.

He added that initially the government said it would construct the martyrs grave, but it turned out to be a hollow promise. It was the family that prepared his grave. There was no support from the government.

After Shahdabullahs father died in 1981, the freedom fighters pension that he was receiving was also stopped. At that time my father was drawing Rs 100 as pension. The government didnt transfer it to my mothers name. Its not a matter of money, but of pride -- to receive the pension entitled to a freedom fighter. Weve been waiting for over 36 years now. The pension transfer is still awaited, he said.

On the 70th Independence Day, Shahdabullah demanded beautification of Ashfaqullah Khans grave that has been lying neglected in Shajahanpur.

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A man had a narrow escape after a car plunged seven floors off the side of a parking garage and slammed into the street below in United States Texas.

A clip released last week by the Austin Police Department of the July 13 incident shows William Burchs Chevrolet Tahoe nearly missing being smashed under a BMW that fell on the ground on its front two wheels, before bouncing off the Tahoe and flipping over on its top.

Burch could have been fatally injured by the direct hit from the car flying down seven stories had the Chevrolet not edged forward. (Associated Press)

My window was down and I heard something really loud and abnormal so I just started driving forward and the vehicle landed on the backside of the Tahoe, Burch told Fox 7 Austin.

Burch could have been fatally injured by the direct hit from the car flying down seven stories had the Chevrolet not edged forward.

According to a Daily Mail report, the woman driving the BMW mistook the gas pedal for brakes and crashed through the parking garage barriers. She suffered serious injuries from the crash.

She was upside down. They had to pull her out from her seat belt and her head was bloody and they pulled her off to the side under the awning, Burch told the Daily Mail.

According to reports, this isnt the first time an incident like this has happened in the garage. In September 2016, another vehicle went over the garage but the driver escaped as it dangled by safety wires attached to the garage.

The garage company, Premiere Parking, released a statement after the July incident.

We regret the unfortunate accident that happened today in our garage and are thankful that no lives were lost ... We will work to ensure the safety of our parking guests, the statement said.
After spending almost a week at Child and Welfare Committee (CWC) destitute home, a 12-year-old rape survivor of Mumbai was released on Monday evening. Mother of the girl is most likely to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Supreme Court on Tuesday to allow her to abort her 27-week foetus, her lawyers said.

She was extremely uncomfortable at the destitute home and we had been requesting CWC to let her be with her parents in such a time of distress, said a family friend. The girl was shifted to Aasha Sadan, a state-run destitute home after her family filed a case against her fathers helper for allegedly raping her.

Dr TP Lahane, dean of JJ Hospital, said she was brought to the hospital on Monday. She has undergone necessary physical evaluation. If a psychological evaluation is needed, we will do it as per CWCs request, said Dr Lahane.

However, legal and medical experts were outraged at CWCs decision to keep the girl in custody for over six days. The accused was arrested within 24 hours of registering the case and since the girl was in no need of immediate medical attention, it was important to let her stay with the parents in such time of psychological distress. In such cases, even the childs decision is considered vital, said a medico-legal expert.

Sneha Mukherjee, one of the lawyers to represent the girl in Supreme Court, said they are hoping the petition will be filed by Tuesday evening. We are waiting for the vakalatnama from family, allowing us to represent them in the courts. As soon as we get that, we are positive to file the petition by evening, said Mukherjee.

The Mumbai girls pregnancy came to light after she gained weight. Her mother took her to a doctor, who referred them to gynaecologist Dr Nikhil Datar, who offers legal aid to women who want an abortion after the deadline. However by that time, the girl was already in her 27 week of gestation.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, does not allow abortions beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy, though courts have made exceptions if the foetus has a serious medical abnormality or if the mothers life is at risk.
While the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government over the death of nearly 60 children at a Gorakhpur hospital, the Dalai Lama advised the India and China governments to diffuse tensions.

Meanwhile, the city geared up to celebrate Krishna janmashtami and dahi handi. In good news for commuters, the civic body is set to resurface 731 roads to ensure that your ride is now smoother.

1. Krishna janmashtami, dahi handi celebrations: From govindas to temples in Mumbai, 10 things you must know

As the city gets ready to celebrate Krishna janmashtami and dahi handi, here are the 10 things you should know

2. India and China too powerful to defeat each other, must become bhai-bhai: Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has suggested that India use it soft power, including its Buddhist heritage and tourism, to diffuse tensions with China.

3. Heres how officials rescued golden jackal from 10-foot-deep well near Mumbai

A golden jackal, which fell into an uncovered 10-foot-deep well in Junnar, near Pune, around 4.30pm on Sunday, was pulled out two hours later.

4. Your ride in Mumbai to get smoother, BMC to resurface 731 roads

Heres some good news for motorists who travel on Mumbais pothole-ridden roads daily.

5. Gorakhpur tragedy: Shiv Sena raps Yogi Adityanath government for mass murder of children

The Shiv Sena on Monday criticised the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for the death of nearly 60 children at a Gorakhpur hospital, terming the incident mass murder.
The railway police arrested four men from a 10-member gang called Jadughar Company on Monday. The gang would steal valuables from train passengers and vanish.

Hitesh Shevantilal Wakaria, a resident of Malad, was the latest victim. On July 3, he was carrying his deceased mothers jewellery worth Rs12 lakhs to Zhaveri Bazaar when the gang intercepted him at Malad Railway station. Before this, the Borivli Government Railway Police had registered two cases against the gang on July 4 and 11.

After Wakarias complaint, Bandra GRP crime branch officers recovered CCTV footage of the station and saw Wakaria being surrounded by the gang. Baba Chavan, an officer with the crime branch, said, We then saw two men, on Wakarias sides lift their laptop bags and block his vision. Within seconds then a third man snatched his bag and fled. In a moment, the group dispersed, said Chavan.

The gang has been using this modus operandi for the past three years and have looted travellers on railway platforms where there are gold and diamond markets nearby, like Malad, Grant Road, LT Marg and Pydhonie. Gang leader Sufiyan, who is wanted in this case, would plan the robberies.

After the case was registered, the branch officers got information that the gang was gathering outside Malad station on August 8. They laid a trap and caught Sachin Kunchikarve, who led them to three others. Police have recovered gold worth Rs5 lakh from the arrested accused. The leader of the gang and five others are still wanted.
Mumbai police registered a case against two men for allegedly leaking episode 64 of popular television series Game of Thrones last week. No arrests have been made yet.

Police said they were acting on a complaint by a private company, for which the men work.

The firm owns the airing rights to the show, the seventh season of which is ongoing.A police officer from the Mumbai crime branchs cyber cell confirmed that a case had been filed, but declined to divulge further details.

He said police were in the process of verifying the allegations made against the accused and collecting evidence against them.

The channel came under fire after the low-quality leaked episode was found to be bearing its watermark.

Soon after, the firm initiated an internal inquiry and said it had found two of its employees guilty of the crime.

The company gave the MIDC police station in Andheri (East) a written complaint and also approached the cyber cell last week.

A case was filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for criminal breach of trust and computer-related offences.
The Shiv Sena on Monday criticised the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for the death of nearly 60 children at a Gorakhpur hospital, terming the incident mass murder.

In an editorial in the partys mouthpiece, Saamana, the Shiv Sena demanded that UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh be ousted for saying that children die anyway in August. Why does this happen only to the poor? Why does this phenomenon not happen to the ministers and the rich? asked the editorial.

If this minister was from the Congress or from the Samajwadi Party, political leaders would have thrown him to the gallows by now, the Shiv Sena said.

Children at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College allegedly died within a week owing to a disruption in the oxygen supply. The states health minister has, however, said the deaths were not oxygen-related.

The party said it was unfortunate that some leaders had dismissed the incident.

It added that the plight of the poor did not unsettle the countrys political administrators, terming it the biggest failure of Indias independence.

This despair is the real Mann ki baat, but instead of understanding it, it is made fun of, the Shiv Sena said in a veiled taunt at Prime Minister Narendra Modis public outreach radio programme.
The Narcotics Control Bureau is checking the finances and property details of the two Mumbai residents who were arrested on Sunday in the 1,500-kg heroin haul off Gujarat coast. This was the biggest single haul of narcotics in India.

The multi-agency probe will also delve into the Mumbai links to the massive drug bust. The NCBs Ahmedabad zonal unit arrested Suleiman Sadiq, 45, and Saud Aslam Patel, 23, both residents of Dongri area in Mumbai, from Porbandar. Sources said their job was to get a local buyer for the contraband and they were in touch with Irfan Shaikh and Vishal Yadav, two of the accused arrested earlier this month in the case.

The probe has revealed that Sadiq and Patel were negotiating with Yadav to buy the contraband, said a senior officer privy to the investigation. However, we dont know where were they going to get the funds for it. We are probing their financial strength and their properties. The agencies suspect they were looking for a financier or a bug buyer to purchase the contraband.

Sources revealed that the heroin was in its purest form and hence worth crores. The contraband is generally adulterated. At times, they dilute it so much that the quantity is 20 times more than the original form. The quantity increases and so does the money, said the officer.

The vessel was spotted around 380km off Dwarka through surveillance by the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a government intelligence-gathering agency. The Coast Guard pressed its ships and aircraft to observe and prevent the vessel from escaping. The Panama-registered vessel was finally intercepted on July 29 and brought to Porbandar.

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A golden jackal, which fell into an uncovered 44-foot-deep well in Junnar, near Pune, around 4.30pm on Sunday, was pulled out two hours later.

Officials from the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre (MLRC) in Junnar, said villagers informed the forest department about the trapped animal after they heard its cries.

We lowered a box into the well and slowly coaxed the jackal to enter it. We had to be careful while pulling the animal up as it could have jumped out easily, said Dr Ajay Deshmukh, senior veterinarian, MLRC. The villagers were supportive. They remained silent so the jackal would not be alarmed, he added.

The jackal pulled up safely. (HT)

Forest officers said they used a crate and a ladder to rescue the animal, which was submerged in two foot deep water. In recent years, due to loss of forest cover and depletion of prey base, wildlife animals such as this jackal have been forced to venture into human habitation in search of food and water. This, in turn, has resulted in increasing incidents of man-animal conflicts in this region, said forest officer Sanjay Gaikwad.

He said the animal, a one-and-half-year-old male, was released at the spot after a medical examination. The jackal had not suffered any injuries and was fit for release, said Deshmukh.

The rescue operation in progress.

Jackals are protected under schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and are found in thick forests and mangroves. There are more than 100 in the forests around Junnar, said MLRC officials. In May, an injured sub-adult male golden jackal was rescued from the staff quarters of Godrej at Vikhroli (East) in Mumbai after it was separated from its pack.

Open wells in areas around forests are hazard for wild animals.

Data from animal rescue group Wildlife SOS shows that about 1,500 animals including leopards, jackals, civets, jungle cats, wolves and hyenas died after falling into uncovered wells in Maharashtra over the past 11 years.

In the past five years, the group rescued 15 leopards and two jackals from wells. Wildlife SOS has started an online petition asking the Pune district collector to take cover or fence off the wells.

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Ukraine ranks fifth among European Union countries in terms of production of horticultural and berry products and has a great potential in this direction, according to a report on the business prospects of Ukraine in production, storage, processing and packaging of fruits and vegetables.

"The purpose of our research is to show the potential of the Ukrainian fruit and vegetable market to American suppliers of equipment and technologies. We should do this because the news about Ukraine in the U.S. news space is not very positive. The main goal is to give American companies the information so that they get interested in supplying technology and equipment and in investments," U.S. Embassy Commercial Officer in Ukraine Michele Smith told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to her, work on research of the fruit and vegetable market of Ukraine began in November 2016. The partners of the embassy on the project became the Ukrsadprom association and the USAID Agriculture and Rural Development Support Project.

According to the study, in 2016 Ukraine increased exports of vegetables by 57%, to $153 million compared to 2015, by increasing supplies to the EU. In addition, the new markets of South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and Africa (Kenya and Guinea) were opened.
Mumbai will celebrate Independence Day with various events lined up, ranging from environment to rights for transgenders. Here are some picks:

Freedom Run

Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha will inaugurate an exhibition on the 70 contributions India has made to the world. Achievements as well as failures will be displayed in a balanced way. A 6km-long Freedom Run will be organised in the morning in Matunga, in which 700 students from 10 Colleges, including Khalsa, Podar and VJTI, will take part. It will highlight programmes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Swachh Bharat and health in general.

Rally in Support of Transgender Rights

A rally supported by members of the Akhil Kinner Seva Samiti will march from August Kranti Maidan to Girgaon chowpatty and back to further the cause of Transgender Rights from 2pm to 5pm. It will demand shelter for senior citizens and the differently abled, and for HIV-positive people to be integrated in the community. Other issues like drug addiction and reservation under government schemes will be raised.

Juhu Beach Clean-Up

Lead by NGO Juhu  Soul of The City, residents will come together to clean up a 4.5km-stretch of Juhu beach. The event, which has been going on for the past 3 years, will see 300 participants for now, and is set to attract many more, according to Renu Hansraj, the secretary of the NGO. The clean-up will start at 6.30 in the morning and is to last for about 2 hours.

Aarey Chhodo Andolan March

At 10am, tribal residents and NGOs will hold a silent protest from Marol police station to Aarey picnic spot. They will protest against reservation of land for the Metro car shed and other construction activities at Aarey Colony. Since Aarey is a no longer a development zone, they will demand that its environment be preserved. Over 150 residents will join the protest.
The Dalai Lama has suggested that India use it soft power, including its Buddhist heritage and tourism, to defuse tensions with China.

The 14th Dalai Lama, who is in Mumbai to inaugurate a course on secular ethics at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said on Monday that India should arrange for Chinese Buddhists to visit holy places such as the Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh and Gaya in Bihar. There are 400 million Buddhists living in China. If India invites them here they will come closer to the country, he said.

The Dalai Lama said that despite border skirmishes, the two countries will have to coexist peacefully. India and China can only create troubles for each other every now and then, but they cannot defeat each other, as both have powerful militaries. You should once think about Hindi-Chini bhai bhai once again, he said, invoking the popular catchphrase used to describe relations between India and China during 1950s.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 as a 23-year-old, said that till 1951, Tibet had served as a buffer zone between the two countries. However, that changed after the Seventeen-Point Agreement, which affirmed Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, came into effect, he added.

Speaking at TISS, the spiritual leader also endorsed the secular approach to teach human values, instead of the traditional religious discourse. The world has more than seven billion people, of which one billion are atheists. And even among believers, many are not convinced by their faiths. We need a secular way to teach values, based on scientific findings and common experience, he said.

He also called for a more holistic education system. Humans are a combination of body and mind. While the modern education system is important from to meet our physical requirements, we need more knowledge about mind and emotions. In addition to their regular subjects, we can teach children how to achieve mental peace, he said.

The Dalai Lama also talked about bridging the caste and class divide in the country. Lower caste people must develop self confidence, while the upper caste people should provide them opportunities of education and training, he said.

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As the city gets ready to celebrate Krishna janmashtami and dahi handi, here are the 10 things you should know

1. The significance: Janmashtami  the eighth day of the Hindu month of Shravan  is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Krishna, considered Lord Vishnus incarnation. Devotees fast and pray at midnight, the time when the Lord was born.

2. The temples to visit: Devotees throng the ISKCON temple in Juhu, Shri Krishna Pranami Mandir, Kalbadevi and Guruvayoor Shri Krishna temple, Navi Mumbai at midnight. Temples get baby cradles with a small statue of the Lord in them.

A puja being performed on the occasion of janmashtami at ISKCON, Juhu. (File)

3. Dahi handi: Dahi handi is celebrated a day after the birth of Lord Krishna. According to Hindu mythology, Krishna and his friends used to form human pyramids to break pots hung from the ceilings of neighbourhood houses, in order to steal curd and butter in Vrindavan, a village in Uttar Pradesh. On this day, youngsters, called govindas, attempt to break the dahi handi by forming a human pyramids

Read: Mumbai dahi handis to go higher, grander: Height to age limit, its different this year

4. What is a dahi handi: A clay pot with curd, butter, and money

5. One fest, different names: In Gujarat and Dwarka, dahi handi is called Makhan Handi  an earthen pot filled with yogurt, ghee, almonds and nuts. It is called Uriadi in Tamil Nadu

A child dressed as Lord Krishna as part of the festivities. (HT FILE)

6. Rules: The Maharashtra government is likely to ease the 20-ft limit. The state told the HC it wont let children below 14 years participate in the event. The HC hasnt put curbs on revelry.

7. Safety: The state has promised to take steps such as providing cushion layers, helmets, safety nets and chest guards, among others

Read: How is Dahi Handi an adventure sport: Bombay HC asks Maharashtra govt

8. Prizes: From DJs and artificial showers to Bollywood celebrities and cash prizes, political parties across the city are making grand plans for the day (August 15)

A dahi handi celebration at Navi Mumbai. (HT FILE)

9. Political significance: For political parties, dahi handi is an important festival which helps them connect with youngsters, who help them during campaigning and influence voters in their localities. Political parties try to make the most of the opportunity by offering a range of goodies -- from T-shirts and refreshments to cash prizes and trucks to transport the revelers

10. No to noise: Dahi handi across the city and state could be a silent affair this year. A national body of sound and light professionals has decided its members will not issue 12,000 loudspeakers in Mumbai and over a lakh across the state on dahi handi and Independence Day, protesting against alleged police harassment, rude behaviour and the confiscating of their loudspeakers.

Read: Dahi handi injuries fell by 78% after height restrictions: Mumbai petitioner to SC
Farmers organisations from across Maharashtra resumed their protests over pending demands, including a blanket waiver for farm loans, support price for agriculture produce among others, today.

The organisations, headed by a state-level steering committee, blocked roads at various places including Rahuri and Puntamba in Ahmednagar districts and some places in Nashik and Parbhani districts.

The farmers organisations will hold rallies and road blockades across the state on August 15 too.

They also plan to stop ministers from hoisting the Tricolour at district headquarters on August 15.

Read: Maharashtra readies game plan for farm loan waiver

The organisations have turned down the conditional loan waiver announced by the state government and have demanded a blanket waiver without any cap on the amount for each farmer.

They have also been demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan commission recommendation in toto and want the cut-off date for the waiver to be extended to June 30, 2017.

The steering committee has claimed a huge response to the agitations since morning.

Aji Nawale, convenor of the committee, said, More than 10,000 students and children of farmers participated in a rally in Akole city in Ahmednagar. The road blockade, staged by the Committee at Akole, too, got good response from farmers.

Read: Maharashtra government expands scope of loan waiver, 3-4lakh more farmers to benefit
Amid a controversy over the Mumbai civic body passing a resolution to make the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in schools, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said the government should enact a law to make Vande Mataram mandatory.

Thackeray was speaking at the 57th foundation day of Marmik, a weekly founded by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. He said, There should not be such a big issue over Vande Mataram. If there is, the government should just make a law to make it compulsory.

Thackeray added, some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers also said there is no need to mandatorily sing Vande Mataram. A few BJP ministers said that singing Vande Mataram cannot be a measure of patriotism. I want to ask the BJP if it will send such ministers out of the country, Thackeray said.

The general body of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently passed a notice making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in all civic schools, kicking up a storm.
The recent decision by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to regulate the construction of buildings along the Metro-3 (ColabaBandra-SEEPZ) route has stumped residents and builders.

It has directed builders to seek Mumbai Metro Rail Corporations (MMRC) approval for redevelopement and construction within 50 metres of the Metro line.

Residents fear that the order will delay construction. There are thousands of dilapidated buildings between Kalbadevi and Andheri.

Rajesh Vardhan, managing director, Vardhman Builders, said, There are skyscrapers across the world near Metro lines with no restrictions. These Metros are for the residents of these buildings, said Vardhan. Such flip-flops will only make revamp difficult and the ultimate losers would be tenants living in old structures, he added.

In its letter to the BMC, the MMRC said, The objective is to regulate, control the development of land or building along the Metro alignment for timely construction of the corridor and also for the safety of building and the Metro line.

Residents of these buildings have expressed anger over the move. We are in the last stage of the redevelopment agreement. The BMC should realise that we are living in a constant fear as we are using scaffolding to support our building, said Nitesh More who lives in a 66-year-old structure at Girguam.

Rahul Shah, who lives in a chawl at Dadar, seconded Mores sentiment. First because of the Development Plan-2034, we have faced constant delays. Now, the BMCs order will worsen the situation.

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Acting on the long-pending demand of commuters to install global positioning system (GPS) and passenger information system (PIS) in its 3,700 buses, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) said it would do so by February.

BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde revealed this in a committee meeting on Monday.

PIS will provide real-time information about the arrival time, delay owing to traffic jam and different bus routes. GPS will help BEST authorities and commuters track buses in real-time. Commuters can also track buses using the BEST mobile application.

The BEST administration took the decision after studying the use of GPS and PIS in the country and abroad. We have studied the operation of the buses on GPS and PIS system throughout the country and will be introducing them in our fleet by February, said Bagde.

The administration believes the real-time tracking facilities will increase the number passengers.

The demand for real-time updates dates back to 2012.

The real-time update in BEST buses is highly required. There are times when we wait for more than 20 minutes for one bus. The passenger information system will help us determine the exact waiting time and we can plan our travel. said Kavita Deshmukh, a Byculla resident.
A cybercriminal posing as a bank official duped a 70-year-old woman of Rs1.67 lakh on the pretext of linking her bank account to her Aadhaar card.

Police said the woman approached them on August 2, saying the man asked her for her 16-digit card number, CVV and one time password she received on her mobile phone.

He said he worked for a bank in which I have an account, so I did not find his request suspicious. I dont know how he found out that I was a customer of that bank. He told me he needed to link my account to my Aadhaar card and so asked for my card number and details. He asked me for the verification number I received on my mobile phone. I didnt know that was a one time password, said the woman, who did not wish to be identified.

The DN Nagar police registered a case against the unidentified fraudster. However, they said they were struggling to solve cases of cybercrime, with as many as 391 being reported till July. This means an average of one case was reported daily.

Almost 90% of these fraudsters are still operating as only 44 of 391 cases have been solved  a detection rate of 11%.

We keep trying to make people aware, through the media and through social networking sites, that they must never share their card details with a stranger. A bank will never call you asking for your personal details. There is a need to ramp up awareness drives, especially among senior citizens, said an officer.

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The University of Mumbai (MU) set up a task force to expedite the results of students seeking admission to national and international universities. A member of the task force, which consists of four teachers and one official, said the team will synchronise the process of issuing results of such students.

The decision was taken following a sudden rise in number of students approaching the varsitys help desk at Kalina campus on Monday and seeking help while applying for universities other than MU. The desk was set up to help the students who wanted their results urgently to apply for higher education and job opportunities.

On Monday, we accepted applications from students. We will now categorise these students based on the organisations they want to join and the status of their answer papers assessment. Students whose papers have been assessed completely will get their results in a day or two, the member said.

MU has delayed results for the examinations due to its decision to adopt the on-screen assessment system. The delay affected thousands of students aspiring higher education and job opportunities.

In case a student needs result urgently, the varsity sends a sealed statement of marks, known as confidential results, to the potential employer or educational institute where the student has applied. So far, the varsity has issued about 250 confidential results and has requested 200 universities to admit its students, said a source.

The acting vice-chancellor (V-C) Devanand Shinde, who took charge from V-C Sanjay Deshmukh after he was sent on a leave, said was leaving no stone unturned to ensure timely declaration of results.

My aim is to declare results, without errors, at the earliest. I am taking feedbacks from the faculty members. I appealed them to work even on holidays. We have also approached colleges in remote places, Shinde said.

He added that technical glitches were affecting the pace of assessment owing to which results were being delayed.

We have resolved issues that were causing trouble while matching answer sheets with the students. The teachers are now able to download answer booklets much faster. Moreover, the time required to grant approval to teachers for evaluation has also been reduced, said Shinde.

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Bandra police arrested two chain snatchers on Sunday for attacking a 78-year-old on Wednesday morning. The senior citizen was out on a morning walk with her husband, when the bikers assaulted her and fled with her chain.

Bandra police formed teams to arrest the accused, Mohommad Danish Siraz Shaikh, 20, and a 17-year-old, who fled following the incident. While Shaikh is a resident of Nirmal Nagar, the minor is a Shastri Nagar resident.

Acting on a tip-off, they nabbed the two outside their homes. Police said the accused are history-sheeters and several cases of robbery have been registered against them.

They recovered valuables worth Rs1.47 lakh and a motorcycle.

Parvati Kinney and her husband go for a morning walk daily. At 6.55 am on Wednesday, they were at KC Marg when the two bikers snatched the gold chain. She lost her balance and fell, said an officer.

Kinney suffered minor injuries. She told us she doesnt usually wear jewellery during her morning walk, but she had attended a function the previous day and had forgotten to take off her necklace, said the officer.

Police said the gold chain was worth Rs75,000.

Police have registered a case under sections 392 (punishment for robbery), 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The two accused were produced in holiday court on Sunday and remanded in police custody.

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On Sunday, militants shelled the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 25 times, as a result of which two Ukrainian servicemen were wounded, the press center of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) headquarters reported.

"All in all, over the past 24 hours illegal armed formations violated the truce 25 times. Two Ukrainian fighters were wounded," the ATO headquarters reported on its Facebook page on Monday morning.

In the Donetsk sector, in the area of Avdiyivka industrial zone from 18.00 until midnight militants practically uninterruptedly shelled Ukrainian strongholds from mortars of various calibers, grenade launchers, small arms. As a result of one of these attacks, one Ukrainian serviceman was wounded.

In the Luhansk sector, in the evening and at night militants shelled the Ukrainian positions in the area of Krymske five times using 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers of various systems.

In the Mariupol sector, militants opened fire near the villages of Vodiane and Shyrokyne. In addition, they used mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to fire at homes of Maryinka residents. Luckily, no civilians were hurt.

"In response to almost every shelling of the enemy, the ATO forces covered militants with dense fire," the headquarters said.
The events that took place in Gujarat and New Delhi in the past few days are likely to have an impact on Maharashtra politics.

The bitterness between the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress is likely to grow in the coming days. It started with the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat, which saw senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel narrowly escaping defeat. While NCP insisted that one of its two legislators had voted for Patel (the other one told the media that he had voted for the BJP candidate), the Congress leaders in New Delhi said they did not believe so. Following this, Pawar skipped a meeting of opposition parties called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. It has (once again) started speculations that the NCP will soon join the BJP led National Democratic Alliance. Will Pawar do so after advocating secularism all his political life? This question is doing the rounds in states political circles though not many were surprised with the bonhomie between Pawar and the BJP.

It is not something new. In fact, when Pawar was forming the party in 1998-99, joining the NDA was one of the options before him. And there was a reason behind it: The NCP was as much a product of Pawars ambition as it was a fallout of Pawars tussle with some senior leaders in the Congress top brass in the late nineties. After the 1998 Lok Sabha elections brought the BJP government to power, Pawar was made the group leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha. He became Opposition Leader on the floor of the house, which started a tussle between him and his adversaries in the party top brass.. This tussle ultimately led to Pawar quitting the party a year later. Pawar had never hidden his prime ministerial ambitions and it apparently kept making the Congress top brass uneasy, say his aides. Ahead of every Lok Sabha election between 1999 and 2009, there used to speculations that Pawar would be the choice to lead a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition at the Centre. At the same time, he was not an enemy of the BJP. Late Pramod Mahajan was a good friend of Pawar and he was well aware of Pawars plans to quit the Congress and form his own party. Even after he split from the party, there were speculations that Pawar would join the Vajpayee government. Somehow, it didnt work out. According to BJP insiders, Pawar-Mahajan would have favoured a BJP-NCP alliance government in Maharashtra as well. However, 1999 Assembly polls threw such a mandate that NCP and Congress had no option but to come together to form the government. That also formed the base for his entry to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as a constituent. Pawar stayed with the UPA till 2014. The selection of Prithviraj Chavan as chief minister started the second spell of trouble between Congress and NCP. The NCP leaders blamed Chavan for various documents related to irrigation and Maharashtra Sadan scams reaching the hands of Opposition leaders as well as anti-corruption activists. On the other hand, Chavan has been maintaining that there were no secrets left in the government after the right to information law came into existence.

The bitter tussle reached such a stage that both Pawar and his nephew Ajit decided to end the alliance with the Congress ahead of assembly elections (I will ensure that Chavan doesnt remain CM before the assembly is dissolved, Ajit Pawar had told his close aides days before the decision was taken in 2014).

Ultimately, the two parties contested separately which turned out to be one of the reasons for their loss.Since then, the Congress has not made any efforts to ensure that NCP stays with them. On the other hand, after its 2014 victory, the BJP leadership has been nurturing Pawar. It also yielded results as the NCP often did not close ranks with the Opposition when BJP needed help in Rajya Sabha where it did not have the majority.

The BJP will be happy if the NCP floats a separate front to contest the next assembly elections, say people in both parties. That will reduce the Congress share of Opposition votes and prove to be advantage BJP.

Of course, a lot depends on what Pawar thinks. He has been hobnobbing with the BJP but has always been cautious enough not to join its front so that his traditional voters stay with his party. He will also wait for the outcome of the assembly elections in the next two years ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. If the NCP joins the NDA it wont be a bad news at all for the Congress since the latter can get most of the opposition space in the state. However, if NCP contests separately, it surely will hurt Oppositions prospects.

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Worried about taking that late train home? Dont be.The government railway police (GRP) has launched special teams of officers to keep you safe.

This comes after incidents of flashing and molestation were reported on Mumbais locals.Teams of five plainclothes officers are currently patrolling platforms from Ambernath to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and from Virar to Churchgate. They are also stationed inside the trains to nab such miscreants.

The teams mostly comprise women officers and staff.

The GRP squad will work with railway protection force (RPF) officers to act quickly in cases of sexual assault, especially those that occur during non-peak hours. They will record the incident and then arrest the accused on the spot. During peak hours, the squad will mingle among the crowds on the platforms and keep an eye out for trouble.

The squad recently arrested a hawker after an 18-year-old woman said he touched her inappropriately at Dadar railway station.

On hearing her screams, they rushed to the spot and found Balshamji Jaiswal, 25, trying to flee.Jaiswal, a Titwala resident, was held under section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code, said the police.

We want women to raise an alarm if they are molested, harassed or even if they are witness to such incidents. We will take care of the rest, said an officer, who did not wish to be identified. The GRP said it receives at least one complaint of molestation daily.

Squad members said they will also encourage women to raise an alarm if they notice their fellow commuters being teased. Police have complied a database of repeat offenders so they can be identified easily.

Samadhan Pawar, deputy commissioner of police, central railway, said that after a 28-year-old man was arrested for kissing a government staffer at CSMT, they increased patrolling four-fold.

We taking measures to keep women safe, said Pawar.

Machindra Chavan, assistant commissioner of police, CSMT, said that though the police are constantly vigilant, it is difficult for them to keep a check on every stations entry and exit points.
The parents of Arman Sehgal, a class 4 student of G D Goenka school who died after a fall inside the school premises, accompanied by a 51-member committee of local leaders, held meetings with senior superintendent of police and Ghaziabad district magistrate on Monday.

Members of various political parties, associations and other eminent citizens from Ghaziabad formed a committee under the banner of Justice for Arman.

Arman died after a fall at GD Goenka School on August 1. His parents had lodged an FIR against the school officials under IPC sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence.

We told the SSP that the police have been giving time to the school authorities so that they can take for legal remedy. We have no faith left in the investigation process. However, the SSP has sought four more days before revealing the details of the investigation. Whatever happens, I will fight till the end and get justice for my son, said Swati Sehgal, Armans mother.

It is strange that we know nothing about the case investigation despite us being the complainants. From their (polices) attitude since Day One, it seems that the police will close the case. We will resort to legal recourse against the laxity in investigation, she said.

The delegations also met DM Ministhy S and sought help. The DM explained them the process of the magisterial inquiry.

The DM told them to get their statements recorded before the inquiry officer. The school officials came to record their statements on Monday. The aggrieved parents should also come forward and they told us that they will come soon, said Rajesh Yadav, additional district magistrate (ADM), the inquiry officer.

I will also be conducting an inspection at the school and will inspect the site of the incident on August 18. Parents will also accompany me. The date for magisterial inquiry is also extended and will be completed soon, he said.

However, the school is shut since August 3 and the school management recently said it will reopen on August 16.

We told the officials that the investigation is not being done properly and no arrests were made. It is a case of lax investigation. They could have forced the school authorities to open the school premises to conduct an on-site inspection by the inquiry officer, said Satpal Chaudhary, a member of the committee.

In its interim direction on a petition filed by school principal Dr Kavita Sharma and four others, the Allahabad high court gave a temporary relief to the school and directed that coercive action be kept in abeyance till August 28. In the meantime, the police will also submit its report before the court.

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The deaths of more than threescore children at the BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, has horrified people across India. Not because other tragedies are less disturbing  but because childrens vulnerability calls for the highest standards of protection. Within that healthcare tops the list.

Once the children were admitted to the hospital it was the responsibility of the management to save their lives. The Gorakhpur Medical College Hospital is a tertiary level public health facility. It is said to be the only facility with wherewithal to treat encephalitis within a 300 km stretch. The disease has been endemic to Gorakhpur for four decades and the hospital serves not just Gorakhpur but Gonda, Basti, parts of Bihar and the terai regions of Nepal. Given all this one would have expected the highest levels of emergency preparedness and response. Instead, so many defenceless children had to die. Why?

This happened because in the pecking order, investment or a concern about healthcare does not bring visibility or active public endorsement  the way investment in infrastructure does. Health bureaucrats, like all public sector employees, take the cue from the seriousness with which governments view a subject. If a handful of hospital deaths are treated as normal and no questions are asked, the administration becomes careless. Monitoring of hospital management is rarely looked at by anyone besides the hospital. The contradictions and complexities that beset the health sector are several and the compulsions are unfathomable for newcomers.

The contending priorities of communicable vs non-communicable diseases, primary vs tertiary care, preventive management vs disease control can only be managed through measurement and monitoring. Health bureaucrats seldom give the bad news that affects peoples lives. No chief minister or health minister, least of all in a state the size of UP, can possibly keep track of trends, warning signals, local shortages of manpower, equipment or consumables; which is why they must administer by exception. This calls for data management to take stock of warning signals and to respond to those.

The tragedy and the truth is that government district hospitals are the last resort of the poor in times of emergency  whether caused by putrid water, poor sanitation, mosquito breeding or maltreatment by quacks, is irrelevant. The kids that were admitted to the Gorakhpur hospital were brought alive. Whatever caused their illness is of concern only to epidemiologists, now. Hospital emergency services were unequipped to handle the crises that led to the death of over 60 children. If they succumbed because of mismanagement of oxygen supply, it was atrocious; and, if it was because of delayed payments, it cannot be dismissed by holding one or two individuals responsible.

Why werent there checklists for oxygen supply as a top commodity in a hospitals inventory? Only measurement and management by exception would have rung alarm bells in time. Every modern hospital is run like that and a medical college hospital should have performed better  not worse.

Indeed it is paradoxical that the prices of tomatoes or onions can bring governments to their knees but not so the deaths of defenceless children. A lesson will only be learnt if the chief minister shows zero tolerance for needless mortality in government hospitals. He must direct district hospitals and medical colleges to publish monthly and annual data on in-patient admissions and personally look at monthly reports of mortality trends by hospital-related causes and also share this data publicly. Other countries have mortality and morbidity reviews or clinical peer reviews. This leads to better processes and systems. Punishment of a few players does not improve systems or a willingness to improve. Only systemic changes will work; but for that continuous data collection and medical audits are a must.

This Independence Day one would like to hear the prime minister and all CMs commit themselves to giving top priority to public health and hospital management. Through a commitment that hospital data of mortality would be declared by all district hospitals and uploaded every month along with the outcome of reviews conducted by third party peer review committees. If the CM shows no lenience towards medical or administrative apathy by simply glancing through the exception reports and peer reviews of hospital deaths, things could still change dramatically.

Shailaja Chandra is former chief secretary, Delhi

The views expressed are personal
The Adivasi Will Not Dance, a book of short stories by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, has been banned by the Jharkhand government on the grounds that it is offensive to the dignity of Santhal women. Some also allege that it is pornographic.

What does this episode tell us about social and political life in the 70th year of the Republic?

The story that has caused the greatest offence is entitled November is the Month of Migrations. A brief-but-powerful tale of power and powerlessness, it tells of a penurious Santhal family on its annual work-related migration from Jharkhand to West Bengal. The family is waiting for a train to take them away from their local misery to a distant one. Talamai, one of the daughters, is beckoned by a man  a non-Santhal policeman  who holds a bread pakoda in his hands. Talamai is hungry and her family has no food to offer. The policeman offers food in exchange for sex. Talamai endures the encounter as she has earlier learned to do. She eats the pakodas, tucks away a Rs 50 note that the policeman gives her and returns to join her family. A routine affair conditioned by the circumstances of power and powerlessness.

The longer The Adivasi will not dance is about why 60-year old Mangal Murmu refuses to dance at a government function. When the indigent Murmu first receives an invitation to perform, he is pleased. He soon learns that the occasion is the inauguration of construction activity for a privately funded thermal plant by the president of India. The land on which the plant is to be built is part of a village whose residents have been evicted through official diktat. Murmus daughter and her family is part of the evictee group and has been forced to move to her fathers house. You are making us Santhals dance in Pakur, Mangal Murmu wants to say to the officials who are organising the ceremony, and you are displacing Santhals from their villages in Godda. Isnt your VIP going to see that?....Doesnt your VIP read the papers or watch news on TV?

If coal merchants have taken a part of our lands, the other part, the hapless Mangal Murmu says, has been taken over by stone merchants, all Diku  Marwari, Sindhi, Mandal, Bhagat, Muslim. They turn our land upside down, inside out, with their heavy machines. They sell the stones they mine from our earth in faraway placesDilli, Noida, Punjab. Mangal Murmu continues: What do we Santhals get in return? Tatters to wear. Barely enough food. Such diseases that we cant breathe properly. We cough blood and forever remain bare bones. And this is why, Mangal Murmu  addressing the president  announces that the Adivasi will not dance anymore.

Shekhars stories are powerful narratives of multiple forms of violence towards Advasis: Dispossession from land and helplessness against the might of mining companies; the venality of politicians; the whimsy of missionaries and the hollowness of middle-class sympathies. They speak of Adivasis being treated as heritage-toys who perform for tourists to show the rich diversity of India, but are meant to forever stay as museum pieces, unable to access good education and health.

But the stories are not only earnest renderings of power and powerlessness. That would make for boring fiction. They also speak of love, intimacy and loss in the crucible of desperate economic and social circumstances: They are marked by the bracing touch of collapsed infrastructure, rapacious private interests and the erratic paternalism of the State. But, nevertheless, hopes, desires, aspirations and yearnings to escape an oppressive present break free from the flotsam and jetsam of what modernity has wrought for indigenous populations. It is this remarkable combination of creative and political sensibilities that make the collection worthy of admiration.

These stories of Santhal lives are unsentimental renderings of quotidian struggles and aspirations, as opposed to representations of Disneyfied noble savages, infantilised adults and promiscuous strumpets that populate the non-indigenous imagination. To ban such a book on the grounds of promoting immoral and pornographic images of Santhal identity is to completely miss the relationship between creativity and politics. The Republic at 70 deserves better.

Sanjay Srivastava is professor of Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi.

The views expressed are personal
The economics of coal-fired power generation is incredibly vulnerable, much more so than is recognised. Coal is particularly at risk from competition from low cost renewables, volatile commodity prices, growing concerns about air pollution, worsening water availability for cooling, the increasing incidence of heat waves that reduce operating efficiencies and, of course, necessary action to tackle climate change. These factors in combination are driving the structural decline of coal, led by China. According to Wood MacKenzie, coal use in China has dropped by 40% in the last five years.

According to Morgan Stanley, solar power in India has recently reached a tipping point, becoming more affordable than coal. Other Asian economies already seem to understand the dynamic of coal being highly risky. For example, South Koreas newly elected President Moon Jae-Ins is moving to phase out coal and shift into solar and wind. Taiwan is expanding its renewable energy plans whilst reducing its reliance on coal by a third, from 45% to 30% by 2025.

Analysts now argue that coal usage in India will peak in the next five to 10 years. India will join China, and other East Asian economies, in halting new coal growth. No new coal plants are set to be commissioned for the coming decade, according to the Central Electricity Authoritys draft plan. And 37GW of old coal could be shut down, while Coal India is set to close 37 mines. This is the right approach and should be futher accelerated, otherwise Indian utilities focused on coal could face significant stranded assets and financial underperformance. This is what happened to European utilities that bet big on coal.

While Europe and India are at different stages of development, the European experience shows how investing in coal can go badly wrong. Between 2005 and 2008, European power companies planned to build 65 new coal-fired power plants, with 49 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, but only 12 were actually built. More cancellations are expected.

In Germany alone, 20 GW has been cancelled. The economics of existing plants have deteriorated too. For example, in the UK coal use fell by over half in 2016 and the countrys power system now experiences coal-free days for the first time since the 1880s.

New analysis from the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment finds that unjustified optimism in the future of coal at a company-level combined with wishful thinking in sector-wide forecasting led to the proposed coal expansions that ultimately backfired.

The scale and pace of the decline in coals economic attractiveness is significant and provides a cautionary tale for Asian power companies, including those in India, and their investors.

Moreover, significant financial, human, and organisational capital was wasted taking forward so many coal projects through the development process. The proposed plants were also a major unwelcomed distraction for utilities just as the European power system entered an unprecedented period of technology, policy and market innovation.

European utilities completely misjudged the prospects for new coal-fired generation and have since paid a significant price for this mistake.

The implications for Indian power companies and their investors are crystal clear: Bets on new coal dont pay off whilst solar and other renewables are both cheaper and much more resilient to the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Dr Ben Caldecott is director, Sustainable Finance Programme at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

The views expressed are personal
The upgrade of nine government middle schools to high schools in June last year has proved to be mere eyewash with the schools not even meeting the high school requirements, leaving the students in the lurch.

The former SAD-BJP government had upgraded 162 middle schools in the state in June 2016, of which nine are in Ludhiana.

According to the norms, the schools being upgraded to high school need a headmaster, science, social studies and English teachers, a clerk, a sweeper and a watchman.

But of these nine upgraded schools in Ludhiana district, the post of headmaster/headmistress is lying vacant in eight. Besides, the science teacher is taking mathematics classes in all nine schools, and the non-teaching posts are yet to be filled in even one.

A visit to the Government High School, Kailash Nagar, revealed that the 337 students were accommodated in four classrooms. The school has 90 students in Class 6, 103 in Class 7, 84 in Class 8 and 55 in Class 9. Due to shortage of classrooms, the school authorities have adjusted two sections of each class in one classroom.

A teacher at the school, requesting anonymity, said, We have three classrooms on the ground floor where we have adjusted 282 students. The 55 students of Class 9 are sitting on the third floor in one newly constructed room. Managing such a large number of students in just four classrooms is difficult. When the school was upgraded, the number of classes were increased, but the number of classrooms and other facilities remained the same. Two schools  primary and high  are running within 362 square yards on the same premises.

Balwinder Singh, school in-charge, said, We have written to the district education office regarding requirement of more classrooms and for filling both teaching and non-teaching posts. We are trying our best to provide a conducive environment to the students in the limited resources we have.

At Government High School, Bhamian Kalan, 271 students were accommodated in six classrooms. The students of Class 7 were taking their classes in the same room that is being used for as a library and science room.

Amarjit Kaur, school in-charge, said, Students of two sections of Classes 6 and 7 are in one classroom. We have no choice in absence of enough classrooms.

The situation is worse at Government High School, Mattewara, where classes for students of Classes 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are conducted in a single hall on rotation basis. At Government High School, Raniyan, Class 6 students were sitting in an open verandah due to scarcity of classrooms.

District education officer, secondary, Swaranjit Kaur, said, I will visit these schools to understand their problems and share their concerns with the education department. It is imperative to ensure a proper teaching environment with adequate facilities.

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The joint checkpost between India and Pakistan at the border in Hussainiwala, 12km from district headquarters Ferozepur, deserves to be opened for traffic and trade between the two countries, said Punjab tourism minister Navjot Singh Sidhu after he paid tributes at the memorial dedicated to martyrs Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev there on Monday evening.

This border crossing was open to trade before the 1971 war. If we can have trade from Wagah-Attari (near Amritsar), then why cant from Hussainiwala? It will lead to prosperity across the fencing too, besides enhancing social-economic bonding between the two nations, said Sidhu, who is a former MP from Amritsar. He was accompanied by Ferozepur divisional commissioner VK Meena, and Congress MLAs Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and Satkar Kaur.

I will take this up with chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to further pursue the matter with the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, he said. Sidhu also asked deputy commissioner Ramvir to prepare a plan to develop the area as a tourism hub.

To Bring Hussainiwala memorial and other historically important monuments and places in Ferozepur on the tourism map, a special team from the state government will visit the area and prepare a comprehensive plan, he added. He further said the government will develop a tourism trail between Amritsar and Ferozepur via Harike.
The Chandigarhs administrations decision to ban commercial use of basements for purposes other than as godown has not gone down well with around 200 traders in the city who had filed fresh applications after getting no-objection certificates (NOCs) from various departments.

In its notification on August 10, the UT has stated that in view of fire hazards and with an aim to reduce disaster risk, habitable (commercial) use of basements in all categories has been withdrawn.

Traders are accusing the administration of following a pick-and-choose policy, as the notification is not applicable on those who had already sought permission from the administration after paying Rs 300 per square feet.

Allowed use sans permit in 2012

At present, all commercial building in Sectors 17, 34, 35 and 43 have basements.

In fact, those in Sectors 17, 34 and 43 are mandated to construct basements. In 2012, the UT even paved way for traders to use basements for commercial purposes without taking permission from the authorities concerned. They just had to comply with the rules, which included height of more than nine feet, at least two staircases and proper ventilation or central air-conditioning.

The sudden change in policy has the traders at their wits end.

The UTs decision is totally unjustified, said Vinod Joshi, chairman of the building bylaws committee of Chandigarh Beopar Mandal (CBM). Nearly 200 traders have already applied for permission (to use basements) after obtaining NOCs from various departments. They are being harassed for no fault of theirs.

Chandigarh Business Council president Baldev Goel said the decision will adversely affect both the owners of shop-cum-offices (SCOs) and their tenants.

While the administration has not paid any heed to their demand for additional floors, it has now started withdrawing the existing facilities, said Goel. The existing provision should be allowed to continue in view of paucity of commercial space.

Meanwhile, the UT administration is sticking to its stand.

We are implementing the bylaws finalised by the UT architect department, said UT assistant estate officer Manoj Khatri. The decision has been taken in wake of increasing fire incidents in the city, especially in basements of commercial buildings. Moreover, basements are meant for use as godowns only.

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After the march, comes a movement. And symbolism matters.

Taking forward the feminist spirit that came forth after the incident of stalking of DJ Varnika Kundu in Chandigarh, a petition to get Google to not use the name Geri Route for the Sector 8-9-10-11 inner road is gathering pace. The rename suggested is: Azaadi (Freedom) Route.

The new name comes from bekhauf azaadi or fearless freedom, the title of last Friday nights march to reclaim the streets, which saw women, with men and children, walk in solidarity on the route, says city-based teacher-storyteller Deeptha Vivekanand, who has started the drive on Facebook. That march had come exactly a week after Varnikas case started making headlines to turn eventually into a national wave. Accused Vikas Barala  son of Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala  and his friend Ashish Kumar remain in jail, charged with stalking and attempt to kidnap.

Deeptha Vivekanand, who has started the drive on Facebook. (FB Photo)

Janaki Srinivasan, a political scientist at Panjab University, also called for the name change in her speech at the conclusion of the march. The term geri was never innocent! Just because something is popular does not mean its innocent. Geri is a masculine assertion, of how men go after women. Ask anyone in Chandigarh if geri means women moving around freely. Does it? To women who are the subject of geri, it is harassment.

Actually, its not just about Google Maps the leader among search engines and navigation service  or any formal naming by the UT administration; its about changing the popular usage, which matters most, says Deeptha, whose FB post explains the term in context, No, not the freedom to do as you please, or to go unchecked, but the freedom to walk without fear. Bekhauf. The Azaadi Route will be, she quotes from a friend, the route where the free spirit of Chandigarh  defined best by the women who fear none and nothing in their assertion of equality  flows.

She paraphrases novelist Amandeep Sandhu who has described geri in a viral FB post: The term comes from gera, meaning the landlord going on horseback to survey fields. Calling it geri, the feminine, is to make it sound gentler. A sign of protection, gera encapsulates the political economy of farms where owner has serfs from landed castes and many from landless. The landowner has now moved to cities, changed the steed from horses to SUVs, and you are very mistaken if you feel geri means harmless men having some fun without harassing women. That is not how women feel.

Aman Deep, a research scholar at the department of English and cultural studies, Panjab University, was among the march organisers. (HT)

Aman Deep, a PU research scholar who was among the march organisers, endorses it as a step towards dismantling the patriarchal, regressive mindset that only knows to confine women. Renaming to Azaadi Route will challenge the status quo and the normative approach towards gender issues, she adds.

Deeptha explains how it can be done by contribution: Just open your Google Maps app or webpage, search for Geri Route and select Suggest An Edit. Enter the new name as Azaadi (Freedom) Route, follow the instructions and tap Send. Google will review it and keep the user posted on the progress. The more people suggest the edit, the higher our chances are of making it happen. She also plans to start a petition on Change.org to get Google to act.

Will the group also be petitioning the UT administration to give the route a name? Why not? A change in the gazette will truly seal the deal, Deeptha says.

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman will pay a working visit to Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday, August 15, according to the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

During the trip the prime minister will examine the construction of a road, the construction of the subway in Dnipro, and also hold a conference call on the preparations for the new academic year, the press service of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration told Interfax-Ukraine.
Police on Sunday booked a man for making calls, while posing as Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhus secretary, to several officials, directing them to conduct raids on some drug stores in the district.

The accused, identified as Mahesh Kumar, runs a tea shop in Moga.

Mahesh made calls to officials in the health department, police and its anti-narcotics cell in Moga.

Drug inspector Sonia Gupta, in her complaint, stated that she recently received a call from a person claiming to be the general secretary of minister Sidhu. The caller asked her to conduct raids at some leading chemist shops in Moga and Dharamkot sub-divisions.

Sources said the accused also made similar calls to the anti-narcotics cell in-charge Lakhwinder Singh and Dharamkot station house officer (SHO) Palwinder Singh.

Balwinder Singh, assistant sub-inspector (ASI)-cum-investigation officer (IO), said the police have registered a case against the accused under Sections 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 182 (False information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Dharamkot police station.

He said the police are conducting raids to nab the accused.
Kannada actor Guru Jaggesh, son of actor-politician Jaggesh, was stabbed on Monday morning at RT Nagar in Bengaluru, according to a Times of India report. The actor was said to have gone to drop his children to school when the incident happened.

According to reports, a man was speeding on his motorcycle and Guru Jaggesh is said to have questioned the man regarding this. Enraged, he stabbed the actor in the thigh. He was rushed to a hospital where he is now being treated. A case has been registered and police have started their investigation.

Gurus father Jaggesh later released a statement, Guru had gone to drop the kids to school on that morning. On the way, there was an altercation between my son and some miscreants which led to the misfortune. He also said that his son was doing fine and ruled out an enmity angle.

Guru, also known as Gururaj Jaggesh, was last seen in Mass leader that also starred Shivarajkumar and Vijay Raghavendra.

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The Kerala Womens Commission today suo moto registered a case against MLA P C George for his unsavoury remarks against a south Indian actor, who was allegedly abducted and molested by a gang in her car in February. The commission sources said the case was registered based on legal opinion and that Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan was informed about the development.

As per the legal opinion, Georges remarks during a recent press conference amounted to defaming the actress and hurting womanhood. Further course of action, including recording of the MLAs statement would be decided soon, the sources said. George is an independent MLA representing Poonjar constituency in the Kerala Assembly.

The actor, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films besides Malayalam, was abducted and molested inside her car for two hours by the gang after forcing their way into the vehicle on February 17 in Kochi. The culprits later escaped.

Popular actor Dileep and six others, including prime accused Pulsar Suni, have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.

The Kerala High Court has deferred the bail plea of Dileep, who is facing charges of plotting the abduction and assault, to August 18.

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Days after the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama cancelled his visit to Botswana, China said its ties with the African country will progress smoothly.

Beijing said it attaches great importance to Botswana where state-run Chinese companies are engaged in infrastructure building.

Botswana had invited the Dalai Lama to speak at the three-day human rights conference in the capital Gaborone, to which he had confirmed his presence. The event begins on August 17.

However, China was angry and warned Botswana against hosting the Dalai Lama, who has been demanding greater autonomy in Chinas Tibet.

On Saturday, the Dalai Lama said he was cancelling his Botswana visit due to exhaustion.

His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest, a statement said.

Reacting to the development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said: China firmly opposes the Dalai Lama to go to any country to engage in anti-China activities in any capacity or name.

China attaches great importance to its friendly cooperation with Botswana. We hope the bilateral relations will move forward steady and sound way, she said.

China slams any country that invites or maintains contact with the Dalai Lama who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising in Tibet. He has lived in India since then.
China has appointed a new special envoy for the North Korean standoff, the foreign ministry said on Monday, a relatively low-profile diplomat now in charge of Asian affairs, amid renewed international concern over Chinas nuclear-armed neighbour.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tensions in recent months, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning at the weekend that the U.S. military was locked and loaded if North Korea acted unwisely.

Chinas new envoy, Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, 58, is an ethnic Korean from the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, who has overall responsibility for Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, according to his resume.

He has held senior positions at the Chinese embassy in Japan and from 2011 to 2014 he was Chinas ambassador to Vietnam, two countries with which China has often troubled relations.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Kong had taken over from previous envoy Wu Dawei, but that there was no connection between the appointment and the current situation on the Korean peninsula.

There would be no change in Chinas policy towards the Korean peninsula because of the new appointment, she added. China has always urged dialogue to resolve the crisis.

A Beijing-based foreign diplomat who is familiar with the matter said that Wu, who turns 71 in December, had reached retirement age.

Kong worked alongside current Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi when Wang was Chinese ambassador in Tokyo from 2004-2007.

Asked whether Kong had any immediate plans to visit Pyongyang, spokeswoman Hua said she had no information about that.

North Korea has shown less and less interest in dealing with China diplomatically over its weapons programme or listening to Beijings pleas.

Wu visited Pyongyang in February last year, urging restraint after North Korea announced a plan to put a satellite into orbit with a long-range rocket.

Two days after his return to Beijing, North Korea launched the rocket, widely viewed as a ballistic missile test in disguise, further ratcheting up tensions.

Kong is a fairly low-profile diplomat, whose last public engagement was a visit to Mongolia last week.

Other official engagements in recent weeks have been a trip to Nepal and meetings with Sri Lankan and Japanese government officials in Beijing.

Tension on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Koreas president said resolving the Norths nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and key U.S. officials played down the risk of an imminent war.

China is North Koreas closest ally, but it has been infuriated by the Norths repeated missile and nuclear tests and has signed up for increasingly tough U.N. sanctions on the isolated nation.

However, China says sanctions are not the final way to resolve the issue, and has repeatedly called for a return to diplomacy and the restart of a six-party talks process with North Korea, which includes China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan and which collapsed in 2008.
Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant late Sunday in the capital of Burkina Faso, killing at least 17 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. Among the dead was at least one French national.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Fasos government.
Security forces in Burkina Fasos capital have killed two gunmen involved in a deadly attack on a restaurant, a security source said n Monday.

The toll is 18 dead, 14 of whom are still lying at the site of the attack. Among those 14 dead are two assailants, an army officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Police are seen on a street following an attack by gunmen on a restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, n this still frame taken from video August 13, 2017. (REUTERS)

Communications minister Remis Dandjinou later announced that the operation against the suspected jihadist gunmen was over.

The operation has ended but searches of the Ouagadougou neighbourhood around the restaurant are continuing, the minister, told a press briefing carried on social media.

Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began.

In addition to those killed, eight others were wounded, Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists. Two of the attackers were also killed, he said.

The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. At least one of the dead was French and another was Turkish.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armoured vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Three or four assailants arrived at the restaurant on motorcycles and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining Sunday evening, said police Capt. Guy Ye.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

In the 2016 attack the attackers were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for those killings along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalised and has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Fasos government.
A man said to have harboured Nazi sympathies as a teenager before a failed bid to join the US Army was due in court on Monday to face charges he plowed his car into protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia, killing a woman and injuring 19.

The bail hearing for James Alex Fields, 20, arrested on suspicion of murder, malicious wounding and hit-and-run charges, was set to unfold in Charlottesville as the US justice department pressed its own federal hate-crime investigation of the incident.

Authorities said Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when Fields car slammed into a crowd of anti-racism activists confronting neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sympathisers, capping a day of bloody street brawls between the two sides in the Virginia college town on Saturday.

James Alex Fields (left) is seen attending the "Unite the Right" rally in Emancipation Park before being arrested by police and charged with charged with one count of second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death after police say he drove a car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017. (Reuters)

More than 30 people were injured in separate incidents, and two state police officers died in the crash of their helicopter after assisting in efforts to quell the unrest.

The fatal disturbances began with white nationalists converging to protest against plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee, the commander of rebel forces during the US Civil War. President Donald Trumps reaction to the clashes  the first major domestic crisis he has faced since taking office  ignited a wider political firestorm at the weekend.

Democrats and Republicans alike criticised Trump for waiting too long to address the violence, and for failing when he did speak out to explicitly condemn white-supremacist marchers widely seen as sparking the melee.

Trump was specifically taken to task for comments on Saturday in which he denounced what he called this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.

Under mounting pressure to take an unequivocal stand against right-wing extremists who occupy a loyal segment of the Republican presidents political base, the Trump administration sought to sharpen its message the next day.

The White House issued a statement on Sunday insisting that Trump was condemning all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups.

Vice president Mike Pence took an even tougher line against white nationalists in remarks delivered late on Sunday during his trip to Colombia. We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-Nazis or the KKK, he said.

These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms, he said.

Map of the US state of Virginia locating Charlottesville, where hundreds of white supremacists held a rally on Saturday that deteriorated into violence. (AFP)

Virginia police at the weekend offered no motive for the man accused of ramming his car into the crowd.

Derek Weimer, a history teacher at Fields high school in Kentucky, told Cincinnati television station WCPO-TV that he remembered Fields harboring some very radical views on race as a student and was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler.

Weimer also recounted Fields being gung-ho about joining the army when he graduated.

The army confirmed that Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015 but was released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015.

The army statement did not explain how he had failed to meet training standards.

Fields was being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and a single count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, authorities said.
Chinas vice premier Wang Yang arrived in Nepal on Monday for a four-day official visit against the backdrop of the military standoff between New Delhi and Beijing at Doklam.

Wang flew into Katmandu after attending celebrations marking Pakistans Independence Day in Islamabad as the chief guest. He is leading a 21-member delegation that includes senior officials of Chinas Communist Party and the foreign ministry.

This is the first high-level visit from China in five years, and also the first visit by a senior Chinese official since the government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was formed two months ago.

The timing of Wangs visit is important and we will be keenly watching the visit, said a Nepalese official, who indicated the Chinese side is likely to raise the Doklam issue with Nepal during discussions.

Nepal and India have already agreed to adopt the same position on international issues, as reflected in the joint statement issued after the state visit of former premier Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda to India last year.

Nepal has maintained a neutral stance on the Doklam issue. Some private organisations in Nepal that are perceived to be close to China have expressed dismay at the countrys stance. They have described the standoff at Doklam as a bilateral matter between China and Bhutan while rejecting any role for India in the issue.

Though both sides have been tight-lipped about the agenda for Wangs visit, Nepalese officials said he is expected to push Nepal to execute some projects under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. Nepal has already become a member of the initiative but no discussions have been held so far to identify specific projects.

Wang is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with deputy prime minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar on Tuesday, according to a foreign ministry statement. He will also call on the President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Deuba on Wednesday.

Ahead of these meetings, he will also meet CPN-UML leader KP Oli and the CPN-Maoist Center chairman.

Wang is also scheduled to attend the opening ceremony for the Basantapur Durbar restoration project completed with Chinese aid and visit the National Ayurveda Research and Training Center at Kirtipur on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
Moldova will maintain neutrality and will not join NATO or any other military block, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said.

"Moldova should participate in military actions neither in the west nor in the east; we will not join NATO or any other military blocks. We are a neutral country. Moldova will not join any combat actions or regional conflicts," Dodon said at a briefing on Monday, commenting on his visit to a Moldovan National Army range in Bulboaca.

The Moldovan president also ruled out the possibility of a new conflict in Transdniestria breaking out. "I would like to say that there are currently no threats of destabilization of the situation or outbreak of conflict. As president and commander-in-chief of the Moldovan Armed Forces, I will not allow any actions that would lead to destabilization of the situation. I have enough powers to block any actions capable of resulting in destabilization," Dodon said.

He visited the military range on Monday to have a look at the situation on the ground, he said. "No actions capable of destabilizing the situation are ongoing there. I will inspect all military units in the Republic of Moldova in the next few days to make sure that everything is fine everywhere. I also intend to convene a session of the Supreme Security Council before the end of August in order to draw some conclusions following visits to military units and take measures, if necessary," Dodon said.

A number of media outlets said earlier that the U.S. Navy will build eight facilities in Bulboaca, including social facilities and a shopping center. The Moldovan Defense Ministry denied these reports, saying that work was being done under a grant, implementation of which has been ongoing for five years, rather than a new program for building facilities in Bulboaca.
Rufino Varela was a distraught, confused 12-year-old when he went looking for help from the school chaplain to tell him hed been sexually abused by a mason at his familys home.

Instead of aiding, Varela says, the Rev. Finnlugh Mac Conastair took off the boys pants, flogged him and fondled him in a room below the chapel at one of Argentinas most prestigious schools. Then, the Irish priest known by many as Father Alfredo, offered him candy and told him that they should keep it as a secret with God.

I had come looking for help, but I felt that it was a punishment from God, Varela said. I came back to the classroom, holding back tears, went home and never spoke about it.

The secret was kept for nearly four decades. But in recent months, Varelas decision to break his silence has led several other former students to denounce clerical abuse at a school that has educated President Mauricio Macri and many other members of Argentinas elite.

The case is one of several that have shown the church has not been spared sexual scandals even in the home territory of Pope Francis, who has pledged a zero-tolerance policy against abuses that have rocked the church around the world.

While the pope had no connection with the abuse at the time  he led the Argentine branch of the Jesuit order with no relationship to the school  Varela said he received a call from the pontiff this year after revealing the abuse publicly.

The Cardenal Newman school was launched in Argentina in 1948 by the Christian Brothers, a religious order founded two centuries ago to focus on educating disadvantaged youth. In recent years, it has faced abuse claims at many of the schools it has opened worldwide.

At the time of Varelas 1977 encounter with Mac Conastair, the socially conservative church school had evolved into something of a refuge for children of the rich.

Varela said he decided to confront Newman authorities about the abuse after he heard that the school planned to add a crown to the lion in its coat of arms in honor of Macri, a 1976 graduate who was elected president in 2015.

Instead of a crown, it would give me more comfort to see a whip or a crown of thorns, Varela said in a letter to the rector. This would be in remembrance of the aberrations that many others suffered.

In this July 4, 2017 photo, Rufino Varela, who attended the Cardenal Newman school where he says he suffered sexual abuse, gives an interview in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Frustrated at the lack of public acknowledgement of the abuse at the school, Varela spoke to Argentina's La Nacion newspaper in December 2016 and began writing about it on Facebook. He says about 20 other former students have contacted him to describe abuse similar to what he suffered. (AP)

Varela said Newmans rector, Alberto Olivero, then met with him, offered psychological treatment and tried to dissuade him from going public with the story. The school refused to comment and referred questioners to written statements.

Frustrated at the lack of public acknowledgement, Varela said, he spoke to Argentinas La Nacion newspaper in December 2016. He also began writing about it on Facebook.

In February, his phone rang and Pope Francis was on the line. The pontiff expressed his solidarity and apologized on behalf of the church. He told me that I needed to understand that I was a very important part of a broken link, Varela said.

The Vatican doesnt confirm or deny such calls, saying they are part of Francis pastoral activities.

Varela said about 20 other former students have contacted him to describe similar abuse carried out by Mac Conastair, a Passionist, and by at least one Christian Brother priest at the school. At least four of the ex-students repeated accounts of witnessing or suffering abuse to The Associated Press, though it is not clear if the others had reported the incidents earlier. Both of the priests have died.

Pedro Ellis told the AP he was about 14 years old when Mac Conastair called him into his room. With the excuse of giving him a sex talk, he asked him to get naked and lie down on his bed.

He touched my buttocks and then, he introduced one or two fingers inside my rectum, Ellis told the Associated Press.

Ellis, now 52, said that hes considering seeking compensation for the abuse.

Julio Castano said the chaplain hed seen as Gods representative on earth called him into his room in 1979 and fondled the then 12-year-old.

I decided it was now time to tell it, so we can get this off our backs, said Castano, who until then, had not told anyone else publicly or informed the school.

Another former student alleged that the Brother John Derham sat him on his lap in the school library and kissed him on the mouth. A fourth ex-student, Guillermo Newbery, 68, told the AP that he witnessed Derham make students sit on his lap during his class, saying he would caress students excessively, rubbed them and hugged them inappropriately.

Newbery said he told his parents in 1963 and they reported it to the schools Parent Association. Derham died in 1986.

After Varela spoke to the press, Olivero sent a letter addressed to the Newman community and acknowledged the abuse of at least one student 40 years ago.

A copy of the letter was posted on the school gate. Without naming anyone, it said that the Christian Brothers apologized for the abuse that all former students could have suffered as a result of the inadequate and unjustified behavior of the chaplain.

The head of the Christian Brothers for Latin America, Hugo Caceres, sent Varela a letter expressing solidarity and Christian compassion for all abuse victims.

At the time of Varelas abuse, the rector was John Burke, an Irishman who was in charge of Newman from 1979-1996. Burke was later named member of a Christian Brothers committee for safeguarding children in Europe.

Burke confirms he learned of the abuse in 1980, but said he didnt know the identity of the victim until Varela went public.

Towards the end of the school year of 1980, I was made aware of a complaint of inappropriate behavior by the college chaplain towards a pupil whose identity was not known or revealed to me, Burke said in a statement to the AP.

It wasnt clear how Burke had learned of the case, though Varela said that he once told lay brother Desmond Finnegan, who counseled him to remain quiet about the incident and pray for the elderly chaplain.

In an odd twist, Burke said he sought advice about the case from a lawyer who turned out to be Varelas father, a judge in charge of child protection cases.

I can understand your shock at hearing that I had spoken with your father concerning the priest, Burke wrote in a June 2016 letter to Varela. Varela said his father died without ever learning of the abuse of his son.

Burke told Varela that, I took immediate and what I judged to be appropriate measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all the pupils in the school and of every person who had contact with the chaplain.

The measures included immediate removal of the chaplain by his religious superior and the Bishop of the Diocese.

Records obtained by the AP show that Mac Conastair was transferred to the San Cayetano vicary, but its unknown whether he had contact with other children before he died in 1997.

Clerical abuse experts say Burkes action was significant because in the 1970s there were no church rules for reporting such crimes.

It sounds like at least John Burke took some action and the bishop forced the priest out of the school, said Maeve Lewis, executive director of victims group One in Four. That happened here (in Ireland) all the time and no one brought it to the attention of their bishop.

But Varela remained frustrated at the failure of Burke, the school and the Brothers to acknowledge the abhorrent sexual and psychological abuses in public.

I am not the only victim of Newman School. We both know it, Varela wrote in a letter to Burke in October 2016. He also criticized for former rector for failing to mention the abuse when he spoke at an annual alumni dinner attended by Macri that month.

A video published online by Newmans alumni association five years ago, shows Burke referring to Derham as his novice master and praising him as the most extraordinary person.

In this July 4, 2017 photo, Rufino Varela shows a portrait of himself on his cell phone when he was 9-years-old, during his first communion ceremony in 1974 at the Cardenal Newman school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP)

In March 2017, the church held a Mass to apologize to Varela and any other victims.

The church has asked for pardon and I renew that request here, in my diocese, to all those people who have been victims of abuse, whether as children or youths, by members of our hierarchy, San Isidro Bishop Oscar Ojeda said in his homily.

He said church leaders have a duty to bring such cases before both civilian and canonical courts  a reference to procedures adopted in response to an avalanche of complaints that church leaders had long been too slow in responding to abuse cases.

In Argentina, two priests and three other men were arrested last year and charged with sexually abusing more about 20 students at the Antonio Provolo Institute, a school for the hearing impaired. One of the priests had been accused of abusing students at Provolos Verona, Italy, school, and was even identified to Francis as an abuser in a letter in 2014, but no action was taken against him by the Vatican.

The Champagnat school founded by the Marist Brothers in downtown Buenos Aires recently reported that a lay brother allegedly abused a former student 38 years ago. The elite school, whose alumni include former Argentina President Fernando de la Rua, said the brother had carried out directorial duties at the school over the last decade. It said an investigation had been launched and that the person, who was not named, had been sent to a nursing home for old and sick brothers.

Varela said he expects more from the church.

You ask yourself: Why are these people still free? Varela said.
A German court has found a Syrian refugee guilty of attempting to defraud Islamic State, a court spokeswoman said on Monday, granting legal protection to a group viewed as terrorists by the European Union.

A judge in the district court in the southwestern city of Saarbruecken sentenced the 39-year old hairdresser from Damascus to two years in prison for trying to get Islamic State operatives to transfer him up to 180,000 euros ($212,400.00).

The judge ruled that the man used the false pretence that he would carry out attacks in Germany for Islamic State using explosives. The money was never transferred to the man.

The court rejected the prosecutions argument that the man was guilty of the more serious crime of planning to carry out attacks on behalf of the militant organisation.

Both parties have appealed the ruling to the Federal Supreme Court, the court spokeswoman said. The Syrian refugee was named only as Hasan A due to German privacy laws.
The local French embassy in Burkina Faso is in contact with local authorities regarding the attack on a restaurant and French citizens are advised to avoid the area, the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

Our embassy is being kept informed of the situation due to permanent contact with local authorities, the foreign ministry said in the statement.

Suspected jihadists killed at least 17 people and wounded eight during a raid on a restaurant in Burkina Fasos capital, the communications minister said, as security forces sought to free people still trapped inside on Monday.
Chinese vice premier Wang Yang, the special guest at Pakistans Independence Day celebration, said on Monday the two countries have always stood by each other and their friendship was stronger than steel.

Wang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of Chinas ruling Communist Party, is among the countrys top leaders. He arrived in Islamabad on Sunday on a two-day visit.

Addressing the Independence Day ceremony in Islamabad, he said China stands with Pakistan in its efforts to achieve progress and development.

China and Pakistan have always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations, he said, with Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi by his side.

Our friendship is stronger than steel [and] sweeter than honey, he said.

Wang is accompanying a high-level Chinese delegation and expected to sign a few bilateral agreements. He is also expected to inaugurate projects related to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor - a part of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said Pakistan is an important partner in the OBOR initiative and China wants to strengthen its multi-dimensional strategic cooperation with Islamabad.

He said China would support Pakistans efforts to pursue the fight against terrorism as per its national interest.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday urged the international community to play its due role in resolving the Kashmir issue with India.

It is incumbent upon the international community to play its role in the resolution of the regional conflicts, particularly the Kashmir dispute in conformity with the UN Resolutions on the subject with a view to ensuring durable peace in the region, Abbasi said in his address to the nation on the occasion of Pakistans independence day.

He said Pakistan desires to have positive and constructive relations with all countries of the world, especially with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality.

The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last 50 years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably, the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress, he added.

Praising the freedom fighters of the country, Abbasi said, We are greatly indebted to our ancestors for their sacrifices and we can repay that debt only by making Pakistan a free and independent country.

He noted that the recent transition of power through a democratic process was quintessential of the accelerated strengthening of democratic values in the country.

Abbasi stressed on strengthening and reinforcing the state institutions so that they can play their prescribed role within the limits of law and the constitution.

Asserting that a strong economy can ensure a strong defence, Abbasi said a moderate society guarantees stability of the state, where people enjoy all their fundamental rights and national resources are equitably and judicious distributed.

Pakistan was created out of a partitioned Indian subcontinent on August 14, 1947. It came into existence as a result of the Pakistan Movement which aimed for the creation of a separate Muslim state by partition of the north-western and north-eastern regions of undivided India. The movement was led by the All India Muslim League under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This was facilitated by the British parliament passing the Indian Independence Act 1947, thereby giving recognition to Pakistan.
August 15 has long been an occasion for the British media to remember the jewel in the crown, the empire and pass judgment on how India has fared since independence, but the current focus on Partition hasnt exactly enthused the Indian community here.

The BBC, in particular, has unleashed a series of Partition-themed programmes across radio, television and the internet, but newspapers are not far behind pillaging the Partition discourse, with much comment from leading writers and commentators.

Missing in the narrative and imagery is Britains role and responsibility for the Partition and its fallout. The British view of Partition presents another dimension to 2017, which is billed as the UK-India Year of Culture.

Im a little partitioned-out. We are celebrating 70 years of Indian independence and it seems like the only thing we have to show for it is Partition  look at the rash of films and programmes that have cropped up, said London-based writer Seema Anand.

Yes, Partition marred the advent of our freedom. Yes, it was the most tragic and awful event and should never be forgotten. But isnt it also time to get some perspective? Its been 70 years  both countries have established their identities, they have earned the right to call themselves independent nations, rather than just two halves of a broken state.

Some recent headlines in the print media were: Partition 70 years on: The violence that created Pakistan and India (Independent); Why Pakistan and India remain in denial 70 years on from partition (The Guardian); The terrible truth about my familys Partition history (The Daily Telegraph); The real bloody legacy of Partition (The Spectator); and Remembering Partition: 70 years since India-Pakistan divide (Daily Mail).

Several members of the Indian community told Hindustan Times the media focus on Partition almost seemed like a celebration of an event that resulted in one of largest movements of refugees. It was the same dominant theme during the 50th anniversary of independence in 1997 and the 60th in 2007, they recalled.

A BBC spokesperson said: To mark the anniversary, the BBC has commissioned a diverse range of programmes across TV, radio and online in a range of languages. The output utilises a wide variety of voices to provide fresh perspectives and ensure a balance between examining the impact of historical events and looking forward.

Along with programmes examining the things that unite the two nations today, there will be coverage of commemorative activity in India and Pakistan and a focus on personal stories to show how the events of 70 years ago still have an impact today, with many witnesses telling their stories now, for the first time.

However, according to Jasdev Singh Rai, director of the Sikh Human Rights Forum, it is interesting how BBC and the rest of British media seem to have revived the Partition by concentrating on perpetrators of violence and victims rather than those who managed the period.

This Partition focus is because they want to feel good about themselves. Why isnt the British media exposing British culpability and gross incompetence in the violence? The Partition violence is a greater reflection of the shambolic, racist and cruel colonial rule that thrived on dividing rather than co-opting local populations, he said.

Daya K Thussu, professor and co-director of the Indian Media Centre at the University of Westminster, said: Despite Britains direct responsibility for the Partition, the BBCs coverage  both in factual and fictional genres  has been to ignore the British role in what was one of the worst tragedies of the 20thcentury.

An imperial mindset still appears to influence the worldview of the elites of a diminishing power. By focusing on the Partition, the BBC has missed the bigger story about India  the third largest economy in the world (in terms of purchasing power parity) and its growing investment in Britain.

Visitors from India too have been intrigued watching and reading mainly about Partition here. Kolkata-based economist Kunal Bose said: India is bigger than Partition; why focus only on Partition? Why rake up the past and vitiate the present with images from Partition? Much has happened in the last 70 years; economic progress, for example; they should be focusing more on that than on Partition.

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The daughter of one of Malaysias most powerful sultans married her Dutch fiance Monday in a ceremony steeped in centuries of tradition during a day of lavish celebrations.

Princess Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim, 31, the only daughter of the Sultan of Johor, tied the knot with Dennis Muhammad Abdullah, 28, capping a romance of over three years.

The Dutchman, who has converted to Islam, and the princess wed according to Muslim Malay custom at the Serene Hill Palace, the royal familys residence in the southern city of Johor Bahru. The private ceremony was attended by close family and friends.

The groom wore traditional white Malay wedding attire and the bride wore a white dress. Dennis Muhammad placed the wedding ring on Tunku Aminahs finger in a special room in the palace, according to the royal press office.

In keeping with centuries-old wedding customs in the Muslim-majority southern state of Johor, he also gave her a dowry of 22.50 ringgit (about $5), and the couple kissed the hands of their parents, aunts and uncles as a mark of respect.

This handout photograph made available on July 23, 2017 by the Royal Press Office shows Johor princess Tunku Tun Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Ibrahim (L) and Dutchman Dennis Muhammad Abdullah (R) posing for a pre-wedding photograph at the Istana Bukit Serene in Johor Baru. (AFP)

An evening reception will be the main event which will feature a sitting-in-state ceremony, with some 1,200 guests due to attend and crowds expected to watch the event on a big screen in a city square.

There have been frenetic preparations in recent days, with the grounds of the main palace decorated with bunting and main streets adorned with flags.

I am taking my wife and two young children to the city square tonight to witness the live broadcast of the evening celebrations, Azim Mohamad Nurazim, a 34-year-old local salesman, told AFP.

It is a celebration for all Johoreans. My message to Tunku Aminah and her husband is long and healthy life, and may Allah bless the couple with lots of children.

The Dutchman, who now works for a property development company in Johor, was born Dennis Verbaas and adopted a Muslim name when he converted to Islam in 2015.

Johors royal family is rich and powerful and possesses its own private army -- the only state to have one.

Malaysia has a unique arrangement in which the throne of the Muslim-majority country changes hands every five years between the rulers of the nine states which are still headed by Islamic royalty.

The current king is Sultan Muhammad V, from the conservative Islamic northern state of Kelantan, who steps down in 2021.

But Dennis Muhammad is unlikely ever to assume the role since the rulers choose among themselves who the next king will be.
A Facebook post by Missouri resident Gregg Davis has been shared 223,279 times and has garnered over 10K reactions. Each photograph asks: Do you know me? Are you my employer? I was at the Nazi Rally at Charlotte, VA.

The post invites people to identify the far-right protesters who gathered at Charlottesville for a torch march that turned violent and led to the death of a 32-year-old woman.

Another social media user, who goes by the name @YesYoureRacist on Twitter and has reportedly exposed white nationalists in the past, has also requested anyone who recognises the men in the photos to out them publicly on social media.

If you recognize any of the Nazis marching in #Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and Ill make them famous, the user wrote.

If you recognize any of the Nazis marching in #Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and I'll make them famous #GoodNightAltRight pic.twitter.com/2tA9xliFVU  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017

The efforts to publicly shame the white national supremacists and neo-Nazis involved in the demonstrations appear to be successful. They have managed to identify at least one white nationalist, Cole White, fired from his job at Berkeleys Top Dog restaurant.

The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by Top Dog, the restaurant said in a statement to nypost.com. We believe in individual freedom, and voluntary association for everyone.

@YesYoureRacist has identified a number of other far-right extremists and neo-Nazis who were involved in the protest - putting out their names, professions, Twitter handles for the world to see.

These two torchbearers are Ryan Martin (L) and Jacob Dix (R) of Centerville, Ohio #ExposeTheAltRight #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/9AzH3qlAfM  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 13, 2017

Anybody have a name for this dope at the end of the @bakedalaska video in the ill-fitting white suit, tricorner hat, and Pepe lapel pin? pic.twitter.com/N9GflmY3SD  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 13, 2017

Here's a photo of the #Charlottesville killer marching w/ a neo-Nazi group (the symbols on the shield are fasces, the root word of fascism) pic.twitter.com/XJIl8AysOH  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 13, 2017

I live in North Carolina and am pretty active in political activism here, @YesYoureRacist told BuzzFeed news . I have friends who went to Charlottesville to counter-protest the Nazis, and once I saw the news of the car incident it was very worrying until I was able to get in touch with them and confirm they were safe. Im a white guy, but I feel very strongly that white people have a responsibility to fight racism and all bigotry whenever they see it. Otherwise, they are passively supporting white supremacy by doing nothing.

One of those identified, the angry torchbearer from the rally, 20-year-old Peter Cvjetanovic from Reno, Nevada , decided to explain himself in an interview with a local TV station after facing peoples wrath, reported nypost.com.

This angry young man is Peter Cvjetanovic, a student at @unevadareno pic.twitter.com/7rLGJkcT3o  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017

I did not expect the photo to be shared as much as it was, he told Channel 2 News. I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo.

Apart from the 32-year-old Heather Heyer who died following the car incident, 35 people were injured at the rally, 19 confirmed by the hospital in Charlottesville.

The driver of the car, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr was arrested shortly after the incident, and has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit-and-run.
Fourteen people were killed in a landslide in Nepal on Monday, taking the death toll in rain-related incidents across the country to 91 even as a group of stranded Indian nationals were rescued from a national park by using elephants.

Incessant rains over the past few days have resulted in massive flooding and landslides at several places, displacing tens of thousands of people. The monsoon rains have wreaked havoc since Friday in districts spanning the eastern, central and western regions of the country.

According to the home ministry, 91 people were killed and 25 more injured. Another 38 have been reported missing following landslides and floods over the past three days and the death toll is likely to rise, the ministry said.

The bodies of two Indian nationals were found in Parsa district of Nepal, according to police. Their identities have been established, officials said.

A group of 35 Indians stranded at Sauraha, part of Chitawan national park, were rescued by using elephants, an Indian embassy spokesperson told the media. Earlier reports had quoted authorities as saying that 200 Indian tourists were among some 700 stranded people but the Indian mission said only 35 of them were Indians.

A Nepalese woman carries her child in floodwaters in Janakpur, 300 km southeast of the capital Kathmandu, on August 14, 2017. (AFP)

The home ministry also said 50,000 houses were inundated across the plains and more than 22,000 people displaced so far. Nearly 3,000 houses were destroyed by floods that also killed an estimated 400 head of livestock. Another 3,700 structures, including schools, hospitals and government offices, were damaged.

The cloud burst stopped on Monday afternoon, according to the department of meteorology.

Some media reports in Kathmandu suggested seven bodies were swept away by the floods to the Indian side. They were found near Jogbini railway station in India.

According to Nepalese police officials in Morang district, the identity of three dead Nepali nationals had been established. They were believed to have swept away by flood waters after they left their homes near the border with India on Saturday.

Shrawan Ram, 17, walks through a flooded area to reach his inundated home in Saptari district, Nepal, on August 14, 2017. (AP)

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visited flood-affected areas on Monday and assured people that no stone will be left unturned during search, rescue and rehabilitation efforts by the government.

The government has mobilised more than 27,000 personnel for rescue and relief operations. Seven Nepal Army helicopters, motorboats and rubber boats are also being used.

In a statement, the home ministry said individuals and institutions wishing to help flood victims should follow the one-window system while distributing relief materials. Nepal has had negative experiences during the distribution of relief materials after the 2015 earthquakes.

Villagers ride a boat in a flood-affected area in Saptari district, Nepal, on August 14, 2017. (Reuters)

The ministry has assigned dedicated bodies to collect relief materials from individuals and institutions so that they can be effectively distributed among people affected by the floods, the statement said.
Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain assured his countrys firm support to China on Monday on issues concerning Beijings core interests as he met with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in Islamabad.

Hussain thanked China for sending a delegation to attend the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan, Chinas official Xinhua news agency reported on the meeting.

Pakistan and China are iron friends, he said, noting that Pakistans friendship with China forms the foundation of Pakistans foreign policy.

He said Pakistan will continue to firmly support China on issues concerning Chinas core interests, and enhance cooperation with China on international and regional affairs, the report said.

The Pakistani president also pledged that Pakistan will actively join the Belt and Road Initiative and promote the construction of the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. India has opposed the CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said the relationship between China and Pakistan has maintained sound and stable development and become a model of country-to-country relations since they forged diplomatic ties 66 years ago.

China is ready to make joint efforts with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, continue to deepen strategic mutual trust, and understand and support each other on issues concerning each others core interests, Wang said.

The Chinese vice premier also mentioned boosting cooperation with Pakistan on counter-terrorism, security, and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

Wang had met with Pakistans new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday.
The Ukrainian state-owned Pivdenmash (Yuzhmash) machine-building plant, Ukraine's leading rocket manufacturer located in the city of Dnipro, has denied allegations published by The New York Times that it may have covertly contributed to North Korea's missile program, describing the report as an attempt to discredit Pivdenmash and Ukraine.

"The speculation by the reports' authors and the 'expert' quoted by them concerning Ukraine's possible role in the DPRK's progress in developing its missile technology has nothing in common with reality: Pivdenmash has never had and does not have any relation to North Korea's space or defense rocket programs. As a state enterprise, Pivdenmash fully complies with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), in which Ukraine has participated since 1998," Pivdenmash said in an official statement shared with Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

"Pivdenmash has not manufactured and is not manufacturing military missiles or missile systems in the years of [Ukraine's] independence. The only serial engine that has been exported in the past several years - the RD-843 shipped to Italy for the European launch vehicle Vega - is designed to operate in outer space, and its features, including its thrust, makes it unsuitable for use in military ballistic missiles," it said.

"The information presented in the report is not consistent with reality: in particular, not only is Pivdenmash not a primary producer of missiles for Russia, but it also does not supply Russia with any missiles or its components or elements, including rocket engines," it said.

Pivdenmash said that, while it regretted the report, "provocative in its nature and based on an incompetent expert opinion," it said that "the position of a number of Ukrainian media outlets is also disappointing, in that they allowed the circulation of fantasies discrediting Pivdenmash and Ukraine without attempts to verify this information directly with the enterprise."

The New York Times reported on Monday with reference to conclusions by a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies that the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile launched by the DPRK in July may have been powered by an engine designed on the basis of the RD-250, which was developed for Soviet ICBMs in the 1960s.

The report names Pivdenmash, which The New York Times describes as "one of Russia's primary producers of missiles even after Ukraine gained independence," as the most likely supplier of technology for building the engine for the North Korean missile.

Pivdenmash is a key enterprise of Ukraine's space rocket industry, which manufactures launch vehicles and civil, research and military satellites.
A group of Twitter users will be indicted in Saudi Arabia on charges of harming public order for threatening the safety and moderate ideology of society through extremism, according to a statement on state news agency SPA.

The countrys chief prosecutor summoned the Twitter users on Sunday, the statement said, without naming them or specifying how many were accused.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Information had earlier tweeted that a radical Sunni cleric, Ali al-Rabieei, had been referred to a publication crimes committee for unspecified violations.

Ministry officials did not respond to requests for comment on whether Rabieei was among the group.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up efforts to muffle political dissent in recent years, using tough new cybercrime laws to sentence offenders to prison terms for online posts deemed insulting to rulers or threatening to public order.

In a separate statement, Public Prosecutor Sheikh Saud bin Abdullah al-Muajab said he respected freedom of opinion but asserted his offices power to pursue cases against those who promote hatred or sectarianism, or mislead public opinion.

Rabieeis tweets largely consist of broadsides against Shiites, a minority group in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia. One tweet refers to the core Shiite belief that the prophets son-in-law was his rightful successor as one of the Jews tricks.

He issued a statement on Twitter declaring his commitment to publication laws, if they are not contrary to the Quran, the Sunna, or statements made by senior scholars Bin Baz, Bin Uthaymin or the Council of Senior Scholars.

Religious scholars from the official Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, like those named by Rabieei, hold influential semi-legal roles in the kingdom. The Quran and the Sunna, or sayings of the prophet, are the countrys constitution.

Many members of the state-employed clergy have long taught that Shiism is heretical. Last year, Saudi Arabias grand mufti, the kingdoms top religious authority, said the leaders of Iran, Saudi Arabias regional Shiite rival, were not Muslims.

But as the kingdoms Shiites have come under attack by Islamic State jihadists since 2013, authorities have also made efforts to curb open incitement and sectarianism, including arrests for anti-Shiite social media posts.
A 39-year-old Sikh, who entered the US illegally through Mexico over a decade ago, will be deported to India as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Baljit Singh had crossed the border into Texas illegally 12 years ago. His attorney said being a Sikh, he had fled religious persecution in Punjab where he feared for his life.

Singh, who has no criminal history and is a father of two children who are US citizens, was required to go for periodic check-ins with immigration officials and during one such visit early this month, he was told he will be deported to India after 90 days, a report in the Los Angeles Times said.

After a week of detention, Singh has been released with an ankle monitor and will have to return to India at the end of three months.

With this new administration, the rules have changed everybody goes, his wife, Kate Singh told The Times.

It doesnt matter if youre a father and havent done anything to break the law, or if youre a criminal.Everybodys going. Its just a huge cleanup, she said.

President Donald Trump came into office promising to expel the estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally, who he says steal American jobs and fuel crime.

Most are from Mexico, and many of them have been here for decades, raising families, owning homes and businesses.

Singh has fought a lengthy legal battle to stay in the country. A judge had denied his asylum case.

The report quoted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Lori Haley as saying that Singhs immigration case has undergone exhaustive review over the last 11 years at multiple levels of the Department of Justices immigration court system.

The courts have consistently held that Singh does not have a legal basis to remain in the US, Haley said in the report.

Even though Singh has no criminal history, Haley said the head of the agency has made it clear that anyone in the country illegally may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by the immigration courts, as Singh was, removed from the United States.

Singhs attorney Elias Shamieh said in the report that while Singhs legal case went on, he was allowed to stay in the country as long as he checked in with his immigration officer every six months.

The human element has been stripped from the immigration service as it stands right now - there is no compassion, Shamieh said.

Its a really destructive approach to the immigration laws.

Singh must now return to India before he can begin the paperwork to return legally, a process that could take anywhere from six months to two years. If the paperwork is denied, he would have to wait 10 years before he can return.

Singhs wife questioned how she would survive financially without her husband, who as a gas station manager is the sole breadwinner of the household.

Im all for criminals, drug dealers and troublemakers to be sent back, Kate Singh wrote in a blog post.

...They are scooping up the good with the bad in their nets just like the destruction that takes place with net fishing. The inedible fish and precious coral get swooped up with the wanted fish. Habitats are destroyed with these nets, she wrote.
A Massachusetts police department is investigating a Facebook comment purportedly made by an officer mocking the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, that killed one person and injured at least 19 others.

Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri says he received a complaint about the comment Sunday and opened an internal investigation.

Democratic Mayor Domenic Sarno later released a statement saying There is no place for this in our society, let alone from a Springfield Police Officer.

Officials say the matter will be taken before a police review board if the investigation finds the officer did make the comment.

James Alex Fields Jr. is accused of driving through a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville on Saturday, killing a 32-year-old woman.
President Donald Trump will have the chance to turn a key campaign promise into reality with this weeks start of official talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

After threatening during the campaign to rip up the agreement, Trump has softened his stance a bit and spoken more recently of renegotiating the agreement as the most efficient course for the US, Canada and Mexico.

But talks to redo the controversial 1994 agreement, which eliminated trade barriers among the three countries, are expected to be thorny. The first round takes place from Wednesday to Sunday in the US capital.

Trump made NAFTA a defining issue of his campaign, frequently lambasting the deal as a disaster that sold out US workers and dismissing supporters who touted the deals benefits.

For Donald Trump this was so central in his campaign that he felt he has no choice but proceed, said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, a leading think tank.

I think at some point the President Trump has to walk away with something that he can call victory. I dont think he could just walk away.

In this April 21, 2008 file photo, national flags representing the United States, Canada, and Mexico fly in the breeze in New Orleans where leaders of the North American Free Trade Agreement met. (AP )

Trumps biggest gripe with NAFTA has been the dramatic shift in the US commercial balance with Mexico, which since the treatys inception has gone from a surplus of $1.3 billion to a deficit of $64 billion.

NAFTA has been a bedrock of the Mexican economy, with 80% of that countrys exports going to its Northern neighbor, an especially impactful relationship for Mexican manufacturers and farmers.

The agreement has significantly boosted Mexicos auto sector, which has grown because of its supply of cheap labor as US automakers have shuttered some factories in their home country.

A man on the top of a van waves a flag during a farmers' protest in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. Farmers marched to the Interior Ministry demanding the agricultural sector be removed from the North American Free Trade Agreement as the Trump administration prepares to renegotiate NAFTA with Mexico and Canada. (AP)

Too many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said last month.

The US trade balance with Canada is more even, but that trade relationship also has points of tension in some sectors, including dairy, wine and grains.

Long road ahead

While the US under Trump has been the party to force NAFTA back onto the agenda, all three countries agree there will be benefits to revisiting an agreement nearly a quarter of a century old that was crafted prior to the internet era.

Each country feels they have a lot to gain from pursuing these negotiations, said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank.

Trump administration officials have said they want a swift outcome to the talks, but experts think a speedy deal is unlikely. Next weeks opening salvo will be followed by a second round of talks beginning September 5 in Mexico.

The first round is basically to put forward some initial ideas and to explain them and probably the negotiators wont cover the most controversial issues in the first round, said Schott, who warned a strident America first push by the Trump team could cause problems.

All three countries are committed to successful negotiations that revise and improve the NAFTA, but there is a risk that if United Stated is pushing the controversial ideas too hard that the talks could run off, Schott said.

Farmers from different states, holding a banner, take part in a march against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks in front of the Angel of Independence Monument in Mexico City, Mexico July 26, 2017. The banner reads "Mexico is better without NAFTA". (REUTERS)

A consideration from the Mexican side will be the 2018 presidential election. But Alden, who predicts the talks will require about two years, noted it also has an experienced negotiating team, as well as a strong consumer market for some US sectors, such as agriculture.

Mexico has a lot of leverage too, Alden said.
Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republics conflict.

The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, whos fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 US election.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administrations growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in US-Russian ties. The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putins order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorization to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to US officials familiar with the plan. Its not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of US weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers. Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict.

While Obama was still in office, Trumps campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform.

Now, however, its under discussion by Trumps senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to talk about the matter publicly. While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as US and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.

Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give full visibility to all the parties that were not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way.

Russia hawks in the US and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATOs viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new US-Russian partnership. At one point, two years after Russias annexation of Ukraines Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would go into Ukraine.

Volker has proposed a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Putin ally Vladislav Surkov, before the end of the month. Lavrov said after his talks with Tillerson that the meeting would be in Moscow. US officials say no venue has been determined, with the neutral venues of Geneva or Vienna also in play.

Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO who is known as a Russia hawk, supports arming Ukraine. Such action, he says, would boost the US negotiating position in the east and offer Kiev the means to defend itself against any future aggression. Unsurprisingly, Russia opposes such assistance and warns of consequences.

I hear these arguments that its somehow provocative to Russia or that its going to embolden Ukraine to attack. These are just flat out wrong, Volker told an interviewer last month as he visited Europe on his first trip in his new post. He argued that arming Ukraine would help rather than hurt efforts to stop Russia from threatening or interfering in its neighbors territory.

All proposals in recent years have focused on arms that are deemed defensive in nature and none would appear to give Ukraine any strategic edge over Russias vastly superior military forces.

We have not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled out the option to do so, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Aug. 3. Thats an option that remains on the table.

A White House official would not comment on internal administration deliberations but noted that since the crisis began in 2014, the US has provided Ukraine with support equipment for its forces and training and advice to further defense reforms.

Some US officials say the idea is gaining currency because of Washingtons impatience with Russia and its start-and-stop implementation of a 2015 agreement designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Minsk Accords were agreed to by Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia with the goal of enforcing a cease-fire in the east and introducing political reforms to give the area more political autonomy.

While the Obama administration allowed Europe to take the lead on the Minsk process, Volker has been empowered to make the US a player in the effort.

The objective now is to change Russias strategic thinking, one official said, and providing defensive weapons to Ukraine would be one way to do that.
The first American B-17 raid on occupied Europe 75 years ago gave U.S. commanders the confidence to ramp up their daylight bombing campaign.

Early in the afternoon on August 17, 1942, the Wright Cyclone engines of a dozen Boeing B-17E heavy bombers coughed to life at Polebrook Airfield in Northamptonshire, England.

Ground crews made final checks on the big Flying Fortresses of Colonel Frank A. Armstrong Jr.s 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the U.S. Eighth Air Forces VIII Bomber Command. In the briefing hut, tension mounted among the young pilots, navigators, bombardiers and gunners. This was it, finally.

The crews had grown nervous and bored waiting for their chance to get into the war, with their morale worn thin from repeated dry runs and a surfeit of dismal weather. They flew several practice missions over England until August 9, when the units combat readiness was announced. The group had been activated on February 3, 1942, at MacDill Air Base in Florida, and trained there. It started its overseas movement on May 15, and the first bomber arrived in Britain on July 1.

Eighteen of the two-dozen available B-17 crews were ordered to prepare for the first all-American bombing raid on Nazi-occupied northwestern Europe. Targets had been selected and the operational machinery set in motiona prelude to a great American daylight offensive complementing Royal Air Force Bomber Commands nightly campaign. On August 5, Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, the 47-year-old commander of VIII Bomber Command, and Maj. Gen. Carl Tooey Spaatz, leader of the Eighth Air Force, had gone to the London headquarters of Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. Army commander of the European theater, and presented a plan for their first mission. Ike, who in July had visited Polebrook, the first B-17 airfield in England, quickly approved the plan.

The unpredictable English weather intervened, however, and two missions were canceled. While Eaker grew impatient and his crews nervous, there was restlessness in Washington. On August 14, Spaatz received a cable from General Henry H. Hap Arnold, the Army Air Forces chief of staff, wanting to know why Eakers bombers were still on the ground. Finally, on the evening of August 16, the 97th Bomb Group was alerted for the third time. The weather cleared, and it held.

At 11 the next morning, a relieved Eaker opened an operations conference at his headquarters in a former girls boarding school at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and ordered VIII Bomber Commands first combat mission for that afternoon. Their target was the railroad marshaling yards at Sotteville, near Rouen, in northern Francean important traffic center for the shipment of German supplies and personnel, and the site of a repair depot and rolling stock.

The American objective was only 35 miles inland from the English Channel, and therefore well within range of the RAFs Supermarine Spitfires assigned to escort the dozen Fortresses to the mainland. The groups six other B-17s were to make a diversionary sweep along the French coast and lure Luftwaffe fighters away from the Rouen area. Eakers conference was short because he and his staff had already planned the mission in detail.

Square-jawed, balding and soft-spoken, Ira Clarence Eaker had in just a few months earned the respect of his crews and their British allies. Although he had not seen combat, he was a courageous aviation pioneer. Born in Field Creek, Texas, on April 13, 1896, and raised near Durant, Okla., he was commissioned in the U.S. Infantry Reserve in August 1917 and detached three months later to undergo flight instruction at Penn and Kelly fields in Texas. He won his wings in 1919.

After earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his leadership as second-in-command of the Pan American Good Will Flight around Latin America in 1926-27, Captain Eaker was assigned as the operations and line maintenance officer at Bolling Air Base in Washington. While there, he was one of the pilots of the Armys Fokker C-2A trimotor Question Mark who attempted to establish a flight endurance record. The record of 150 hours and 40 minutes in the air was set near Los Angeles in 1929, and Eaker received an oak leaf cluster to his DFC for his participation in the flight.

Promoted to temporary brigadier general in January 1942, he took the helm of VIII Bomber Command in England on February 23. He established close relations with British leaders, including Prime Minister Winston Churchill and RAF Bomber Commands Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur T. Harris, and set about building an American striking force. According to an Army Air Forces citation, Eaker showed an unlimited display of initiative, energy, outstanding leadership, and untiring devotion to duty.

He built his command virtually from scratch. When he and a half-dozen USAAF officers arrived in England, they had no aircraft and no equipmentnot even paper clipsbeyond what the British supplied them. After the bombers and crews arrived, and when Eaker was confident that his modest force was ready for action, he sent a three-page letter to General Arnold on August 8 affirming his faith in the promise of American air power, specifically daylight precision bombing, which both the British and the Germans had abandoned after severe losses.

The B-17E was the latest Fortress variant then rolling off Boeings assembly lines. It featured a sweeping dorsal fin for improved high-altitude performance. It had two power turrets mounting twin .50-caliber machine gunsone just aft of the cockpit and a ball turret under the belly. There was a .30-caliber gun in the bombardiers nose position, twin .50s in the tail and a .50 in a waist position on each side of the fuselage. The B-17E was the most heavily armed strategic bomber in the world.

Spaatz and Eaker were eager to fly on missions. Eisenhower said they could, but not together. Eventually, persuaded by senior RAF officers that it would be hazardous to the untried American command structure for both him and Eaker to fly in combat, Spaatz backed down.

Eaker felt a strong obligation to see action, and announced that he would go on the first B-17 sortie. As he told actor Ben Lyon, star of the 1930 Hollywood epic Hells Angels and a popular wartime BBC radio program, I dont want any American mothers to think Id send their boys someplace where Id be afraid to go myself. He also called upon his staff officers to fly sufficient operational missions in order to be cognizant of the problems facing combat crews.

After his operations conference early on August 17, Eaker flew to Polebrook, where he was impressed by the nonchalance of the crews and their evident enthusiasm. At dispersal points around the windswept airfield that afternoon, the camouflaged Fortresses waited. Colorful names painted on their noses included Yankee Doodle, Peggy D., Big Stuff, Baby Doll, Butcher Shop, Alabama Exterminator, Birmingham Blitzkrieg and Berlin Sleeper. Ground crews completed their tasks, and all was ready.

Officers and crews grabbed maps, rode trucks out to the bombers and hoisted themselves aboard. Eaker climbed into the 414th Squadrons Yankee Doodle as an observer. At 3:14 p.m., the first engine of Colonel Armstrongs plane, Butcher Shop, emitted a puff of blue smoke. Armstrong would later become the model for the character of General Frank Savage in the classic novel and film Twelve OClock High. His copilot was Major Paul W. Tibbets, who would make history three years later at the controls of the famous B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay.

Engines thundering, the dozen B-17s rolled slowly to their takeoff positions, and the USAAFs first heavy bomber mission of World War II was in motion. Thirty British and American correspondents watched as the planes gathered speed along the runway, and pilots gave thumbs-up signals. The last B-17 had cleared the runway by 3:39 p.m. The bombers assembled over the airfield, climbed to 22,500 feet and headed southward and across the English Channel, escorted by new Mark IX Spitfires. The weather was perfect.

Eaker took a position in the radio operators compartment aboard Yankee Doodle, hoping that the mission would succeed. If not, it could inflict a fatal blow on the concept of daylight bombing.

As the bombers passed over the French coast and their escorts turned for home, a British listening post heard a German defense controller radio that 12 Lancasters were heading inland. Eaker was pleased that the B-17s were keeping good formation, though he felt it could be tighter.

Colonel Armstrong ordered his gunners to be on the alert for German fighters, and Eaker, who had undergone special training to qualify as a gunner, manned the .30-caliber machine gun mounted above his compartment. He had issued a directive earlier stipulating that no one should go on a mission unless he could handle a machine gun. Eaker swung the weapon around and scanned the sunny skies, but no enemy planes appeared.

All went well as the formation neared Rouen at 23,000 feet. The Americans saw no enemy fighters, and only a few desultory bursts of anti-aircraft fire peppered two bombers. The bombardiers could clearly see the complex of rail lines, machine shops and rolling stock from 10 miles out. Bomb bay doors swung open, and Eaker clambered into Yankee Doodles bomb compartment to see what it was like in the body of a B-17 in combat. He shivered in the rushing air approaching 35 degrees below zero.

Eaker watched a string of five 600-pound bombs from Yankee Doodle fall over the Sotteville rail yards and then scrambled to a side window to observe the resulting explosions. A high mushroom-like pall of smoke and dirt rose where each string of bombs hit. Eaker believed that the bomb patterns were good, considering the bombardiers inexperience. Two bursts flanked the Sotteville roundhouse, four were well spaced along the marshaling yard, two fell short of the target and two fell among the railroad buildings. About half of the formations bombs fell directly into the target area. Siding tracks were damaged, railroad cars derailed, two large sheds damaged and a workshop received a direct hit. The B-17s dropped a total of 18 tons of ordnance that afternoon.

Shortly after the Fortresses pulled away from the target area, three Focke-Wulf Fw-190s climbed up to harass them. Two fighters attacked Birmingham Blitzkrieg, the last bomber in formation. The ball-turret gunner, Sergeant Kent West, fired back and the German planes sped away. Neither side took damage in the half-hearted encounter, and it appeared the Germans were probably taking the measure of the well-armed B-17s.

As Armstrongs force approached the English Channel on their return to England, Eaker peered from the radio operators window and counted the bombers. All 12 were still in formation, though one was lagging and trailing smoke from its left outboard engine. The B-17s droned across the Channel, escorted by clipped-wing Spitfire Vs.

Eaker and Armstrong were elated. Their green crews had hit the target with no losses and only slight damage. The only casualties were a bombardier and navigator in the six-plane diversionary force, who suffered superficial cuts when a flock of pigeons shattered the nose of their B-17 as it headed back to the 97th Bomb Groups satellite field at nearby Grafton Underwood.

At Polebrook, meanwhile, Spaatz and a crowd of officers, ground crewmen and reporters clustered around the control tower and runway, waiting to welcome the returning bombers. Ambulances and crash crews stood by. Shortly before 7 p.m., an officer on the tower shouted that he could see black specks in the distant sky. The B-17s rumbled in over the field, circled gracefully and touched down one by one.

Grinning and relieved, Eaker, Armstrong and the crews were heartily congratulated before trooping off for a debriefing with welcome doughnuts, sandwiches and coffee. The mission was pronounced a success. All planes had returned safely after bombing their target with creditable accuracy, if not pickle-barrel precision. The concept of daylight bombing was alive, although the weather had been ideal and the opposition minimal.

It would be a year before U.S. bombers ventured against targets in Germany, but the August 17 mission was a promising start, heartening Eaker and his British allies, and heralded in the London newspapers. On the day after the raid, the general received a lighthearted telegram from his counterpart and friend, Air Marshal Bomber Harris. Congratulations from all ranks of Bomber Command on the highly successful completion of the first all-American raid by the big fellows on German-occupied territory in Europe, he said. Yankee Doodle certainly went to town and can stick yet another well-deserved feather in his cap.

Reconnaissance photographs showed that almost all the bombs dropped had caused damage. The German transportation network in northern France was hampered, though not critically. Eaker was cautiously pleased. The raid went according to plan, he reported, and we are well satisfied with the days work. But, he added, One swallow doesnt make a summer. He knew that future missions would face serious opposition, and he was aware that Harris and other RAF leaders still harbored doubts about daylight raids.

In a report to Spaatz, Eaker praised the B-17. I think it is a great airplane with excellent defensive firepower, he stated. It is too early in our experiments in actual operations to say that it can definitely make deep penetrations without fighter escort and without excessive losses. I can say definitely now, however, that it is my view that the German fighters are going to attack it very gingerly. The crews, he reported, were alert, though they needed more training in formation and gunnery.

On August 19, VIII Bomber Command launched its second mission. Escorted partway again by Spitfires, the Fortresses bombed the German fighter base at Abbeville, France, to keep the Luftwaffe pinned down while British Commandos and Canadian infantry struggled to breach the coastal defenses in the port of Dieppe. Twenty-two bombers hit Abbeville and returned without loss. The following day, in their third raid, a dozen B-17s bombed the marshaling yards at Amiens and returned safely.

All was going well for Eakers flight crews. The small formations hit accessible targets with minimal opposition, and the crews gained valuable experience. Nine missions were flown before a B-17 fell to German gunfire.

But hardship and sacrifices awaited Eaker and his bomber crews as they sortied farther across Europe. The British still advised against unescorted daylight raids, and Churchill tried unsuccessfully to talk Eaker out of the concept. But the British did not interfere; it was thought advisable to let their eager allies learn their own lessons. Meanwhile, they continued to assist by providing bases, equipment and hard-won knowledge.

Supported by General Arnold, Spaatz and Eaker adhered stoutly to the daylight doctrine, but losses mounted alarmingly and by 1943 it appeared that the strategic bombing campaign against Germany was in jeopardy. Disastrous results came when VIII Bomber Command planners aimed for the vital German ball-bearing industrial centers at Schweinfurt and Regensburg.

A complex, coordinated mission was launched on August 17, 1943, against both sites, including the Messerschmitt plant at Regensburg. Of the 230 bombers that attacked Schweinfurt, 36 were shot down. Only minimal damage was inflicted by the B-17s. The Regensburg strike force, led by Brig. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, heavily damaged the Messerschmitt factory but lost 24 planes.

And the situation worsened. A 420-bomber daylight raid against Schweinfurt was planned for October 14, but losses had been so high that only 291 Fortresses could be assembled. Escorted as far as Aachen, the limit of fighter cover, the unescorted bombers were ambushed by enemy fighters and 60 were shot down. Another 138 were badly damaged, and five crashed in England. The day became known as Black Thursday.

The Americans had caused a 50-percent drop in ball-bearing production, but the high cost in crews and planes could no longer be borne. Tactics had to be radically changed. Faith among American commanders in daylight missions held firm, but the strategists realized that the B-17s, while heavily armed, still needed long-range fighter escorts if German industry was to be destroyed. Fortunately the North American P-51 Mustang began to arrive in squadrons starting in December 1943, with dramatic results.

Fitted with long-range drop tanks, P-51s conducted their first long-range escort mission on December 13, flying 490 miles from England to Kiel and back. They escorted 228 Fortresses in a raid on February 24, 1944, and only 11 bombers were lost. The following month, P-51s accompanied the bombers to Berlin and back, a round trip of 1,100 miles. Proving to be the most effective U.S. land-based fighters of the war, Mustangs had permitted the resumption of daylight raids.

After laying the groundwork for the American bombing offensive, Eaker succeeded Spaatz as commander of the Eighth Air Force in December 1942. He was designated chief of the Army Air Forces in Britain in October 1943, and headed the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces in January 1944.

Besides the DFC and cluster, Eakers decorations included the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Service Medal and cluster, the Air Medal and 11 foreign awards. He died on August 6, 1987, and was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

Michael Hull is a former career journalist and British Army veteran. Further reading: Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, by Richard G. Davis; and USAAF Handbook, by Martin W. Bowman.

Yankee Doodle Goes to Town appeared in the September 2017 issue of Aviation History Magazine. Subscribe today!
V intage lovers rejoice. An Art Deco house in north London, virtually untouched since it was built in the Thirties, has been listed for sale.

The semi-detached house on the popular Willow Estate in Enfield Town is full of original features that recall the golden age of British house building.

Cheap land and slum clearances led to a housing boom in London during the Thirties and 1934 was the year it peaked with more than 80,000 homes built  including this one on the Willow Estate. By comparison, Savills predict the number of new homes built in London in 2017 will be 46,500.

1934 in numbers 350: the average price of a three-bedroom house 200: the average salary in the UK 80,600: the number of new homes built in London 8.6 million: the population of London (today it's 8.8 million)

However, while almost all the other homes built during the period have since been renovated or extended, the property currently for sale has been decorated with just the lightest of touches in the 83 years since it was built.

As a result, much of the three-bedroom house is a genuine Art Deco time capsule. Original features, from the geometric mantelpieces to the bathroom basin, are littered throughout the property, which has had only two owners since it was built.

My mother hated workmen in the house so its very much unchanged, structurally, explains photographer Elizabeth Whycer, who has lived in the home since she was born in 1958 and is selling up to downsize.

The Art Deco time capsule house 1 /13 The Art Deco time capsule house A vintage treasure trove This time capsule house in Enfield has been virtually untouched since it was built in 1934. Moving in day The house in 1957, when Elizabeth Whycer's family bought it from its original owner. All the houses on the Willow Estate would once have looked like this. Elizabeth Whycer Living room The original fireplace, cornicing and windows are all still in place Styling tips from the Sixties Elizabeth's father in the living room, fitted out to full Mad Men effect. Elizabeth Whycer Cook like Jagger The 1955 gas cooker bought by Elizabeth's mother is still in the kitchen. Apparently Mick Jagger had the same model in one of his flats. Pay attention to the taps... Brillo! ... they're the originals, as seen here in 1958 with Elizabeth's father, plus pinny. Elizabeth Whycer Dine in style Another Thirties fireplace in the dining room, which leads through into the large back garden. Mid-century modern The Whycers entertaining visiting family in the front room, full of mid-century furniture. Elizabeth Whycer The glass doors are one of the only structural changes made by the Whycers. They were added in the late Fifties. Palm prints and open banister The wooden banister and staircase remain from when the house was first built. The modish Sixties palm print wallpaper, seen here in a photo of Elizabeth and her mother, has sadly been replaced. Elizabeth Whycer

Her parents, Boris and June, bought the house in 1958 from a woman Elizabeth believes was the houses original owner.

The property is one of the last houses on the estate to retain the stunning, wide Crittall windows with their distinctive modernist curve.

The living room with its curved Crittall window and geometric fireplace

The staircase with its open wooden banister is also unchanged since the house was built and the doors have their original handles.

In the upstairs bathroom, the pedestal sink with Deco stepped edging like in an old cinema is original and Whycer suspects the fitted glass landing light must be from 1934, too.

In the Fifties  when the family moved in  some changes were made but even these have a vintage charm 60 years on.

The kitchen was handmade by a carpenter and there is a 1955 Main cooker, which still works. Elizabeth was stunned to discover at a recent photographic exhibition of the Rolling Stones that Mick Jagger once had the very same model in his flat. The Thirties larder has also been upgraded to a fridge.

The handmade Fifties kitchen with original windows and rare vintage oven

Boris Whycer was an optometrist who saw patients at the house as well as in his practice until 1979.

Although he had a successful business and was made President of the British Optical Society in 1975, as an East End boy he was not from a wealthy background. As a result he couldn't afford the down payment on a bigger house when June was expecting Elizabeth  a situation which will be all too familiar to todays second-steppers.

Another original fireplace, Seventies carpet and new wallpaper in the dining room

Junes grandmother, the proprietor of a successful grocers store in Bethnal Green, gave the young couple 600 for the deposit on the house, which cost 1,800 in 1957.

Now, Elizabeth is hoping to sell the home on eMoov for 550,000, ideally to an Art Deco enthusiast who can restore it with some period-friendly TLC.
The growing fear of Brexit is already having a negative impact on tourism in Ireland, with the latest figures showing a dramatic decrease in the number of UK tourists visiting our shores this summer.

Rapidly falling tourism visitors from the UK due to Brexit and sterling devaluation is "now becoming a reality".

The latest CSO figures shows that the overall visitor numbers continue to rise in Ireland, but alarmingly the numbers from the UK are down 6.4% on last year.

It's a massive decline of over 73,000-plus visitors from the U.K., if we go by the figures published in the Irish Times in 2016.

And it's an even bigger concern if we take into account the fact that tourism from U.K. had been on the raise during the last few years, increasing by over 9 percent alone last year prior to Brexit.

It's now feared that the decline this year could herald an even more substantial drop-off in UK visitors over the next two years, as Brexit chips away at consumer confidence among British would-be tourists.

Speaking following the release of the latest overseas visitor numbers, Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Transport and Tourism, Robert Troy says: Rapidly falling tourism visitors from the UK due to Brexit and sterling devaluation is now becoming a reality.

The decline in UK visitor numbers experienced this year is potentially just a taste of things to come.

Only in recent months have most consumer confidence surveys begun to show that Brexit is hitting the spending habits of UK consumers."

Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Transport and Tourism, Robert Troy has said that the failure of Minister Ross to develop a national mitigation plan for the tourism industry in light of Brexit is a dereliction of his duties as Minister.

What is deeply chilling for me is the clear sense, from Minister Ross and the Government in general, of self-satisfaction with the Tourism numbers.

Minister Ross just does not seem to get just how dangerous these trends could be for Irish tourism.

While overall tourism numbers are still marginally up on last year, the reality is that UK visitors are the bread and butter of the tourism sector, accounting for 41% of the total number of overseas visitors to Ireland.

Given the sheer number of visitors from the UK, they cannot be replaced quickly or easily by visitors from other countries.

Many smaller tourism businesses in particular will feel the pinch if numbers from the UK continue to decline at this rate.

"The tourism sector is crying out for a national mitigation plan to reduce the impact of Brexit and global uncertainty. Yet Minister Ross has done nothing to assure the sector that he has a plan that can protect jobs.

"The strategy of the Minister seems to be to hold endless conferences and press gatherings to boast of our success, gleefully ignoring the looming threat hanging over the sector."

He is calling on the Irish government to take immediate action. "We need a new overarching tourism policy to reassure the industry that there is a strategy in place for the consequences of Brexit and we need a support fund for areas that will be hit especially hard from a sharp decline in visitors from Britain, concluded Troy.
Sitting beautifully poised at a table in the salubrious upstairs bar of Berlins Soho House, South African-born actress Charlize Theron is recalling the one time in her life that she actually threw a physical punch at someone.

Ive only had one fight in my life, she admits, cringing at the memory. I cant even call it a fight. It wasnt really a fight. I, very clumsily, when I was young, I got into an altercation with a girl at a bar and, before I knew it, I threw a punch.

The 41-year-old Oscar-winner laughs. But it was not like Lorraine at all. In my head I thought it was that. No, I was shaking and can remember going, Did I just do that? But that was my only kind of young, stupid moment where I punched a girl.
WASHINGTON - After it came to light this summer that hackers had infiltrated the computer networks of two U.S. power companies - at a time the country was still reeling from Russian cyberattacks aimed at influencing the 2016 election - the possibility of hackers taking down the U.S. power grid and sending the nation into chaos suddenly seemed a very real possibility.

The companies pledged there was no danger. Senators called hearings and wrote letters to the White House demanding to know what it was doing about it.

But to the teams of cybersecurity analysts charged with protecting the world's industries from a rapidly evolving deluge of malware, viruses and other tools of the hacker trade, it was just the latest in an escalating cyberwar against power grids and other critical infrastructure around the globe.

"The message that I'd like to communicate, intrusions, spear-phishing and other (hacking attacks)," said Mark Bristow, deputy division director of the Department of Homeland Security's Hunt and Incident Response Team. "It happens every day."

The foundation around which the U.S. economy runs, the power grid makes an intriguing target for hackers - whether it's foreign governments, criminals looking for a big payday or hackers just seeing what mischief they can cause. And as attempts to infiltrate computer networks that control the grid and other industrial systems escalate, cybersecurity experts and some government officials are increasingly concerned that a large-scale, well-financed and coordinated cyberattack is coming, risking the sort of widespread blackouts that hit Ukraine in 2015 after hackers broke into the systems of three power plants.

Last year, members of DHS' Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team recorded 290 cases of hackers gaining access to systems at everything from power plants to telecommunications systems. Considering companies are not required to report such incidents unless they lose control of critical infrastructure - to date something that has never been publicly reported in the United States - that number is likely far lower than the reality. Still, it represented more than twice as many incidents as were reported in 2011.

"What the electric industry folks tell me is, 'We lay awake at home every night thinking about this,' " said a former top energy official in the Obama administration, who declined to be identified because those conversations were private. "Someone from one of the nation's largest utilities, and I can't say who, told me they had hackers trying to get into their system 3,000 times a day."

The break-ins disclosed by Burlington Electric in Vermont and the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Co. of Kansas - which the companies maintain did not breach the networks that control the grid - have begun to raise debate in Washington over whether the government is doing enough. Federal authority over the power grid essentially stops where transmission lines end, leaving security over the vast complex of neighborhood power lines, transformers, smart meters and other digital controls largely to utilities and power generators.

That has left the grid a technological patchwork, with some companies failing to meet the elemental standards for cybersecurity, nearly a dozen government and private-sector experts said.

"Something needs to change because right now we're sitting ducks," said Sujeet Shenoi, a computer science professor at the University of Tulsa who trains students for cybersecurity careers with the National Security Agency, FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Where once countries fought over land and waterways, the ability to control and protect the world's digital systems is fast becoming a new arms race. In countries like Israel, Shenoi said, cybersecurity standards for power grids, pipelines, telecommunications and other vital systems are set by the government's intelligence and security officials. And in leaving it in the hands of the private sector, he warned, the U.S. is falling behind.

Cyberttack in Ukraine

The cautionary tale is Ukraine, where in late 2015 operators at electric utilities watched helplessly as hackers took control of their systems, shutting down one breaker after another, knocking out power to some 230,000 customers for up to six hours. In the aftermath, a team from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigated the attack, finding the Ukrainians did not have basic cyberdefenses in place.

Computer systems that controlled the grid were not properly separated from those handling emails and other information technology functions, providing hackers easier access to the networks, the U.S. investigators discovered. On top of that, the Ukraine network was not using the latest techniques to verify users trying to log in from outside.

The U.S. grid is widely described as considerably more advanced those in Eastern Europe, but some of those same security failures in Ukraine could very well be found here, said Homeland Security's Bristow, who was part of the team that traveled to Ukraine.

"I've definitely seen some with very, very robust security postures, and I've seen some that definitely could use some improvement," he said. "It really depends utility to utility."

In his final weeks in office before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz urged Congress to consider expanding federal authority over cybersecurity for energy infrastructure, arguing it was "inherently a federal responsibility when one talks about a national security concern." That echoed recommendations made in 2014 by Gen. Michael Hayden, the former CIA and NSA director during the George W. Bush administration. Hayden called for a significant expansion of federal powers to dictate standards protecting the grid from cyberattack.

Democrats are demanding that Trump order a review of Russia's capability to launch a cyberattack against U.S. energy infrastructure, specifically looking at the malware CrashOverride, which is believed to have been used in the attack on Ukraine in 2015. But whether members of Congress of either party would go so far as advocate for the federal government to dictate cybersecurity standards on the power grid remains a sensitive topic, raising the prospect of an expansion of federal powers, which many state governments, including Texas, are bucking.

Even legislation to improve data sharing between utilities during cyberattacks faces opposition from utilities worried that they might have to raise rates to cover the costs of better cybersecurity, said Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., a sponsor of the bill.

"It would have pushback," he said. "(Utilities) want to have security, and privately they'll admit it's good to have standards. But they have to answer to ratepayers, and publicly they're saying they don't want it."

The industry argues that unlike foreign countries - where the grid is often controlled by a single state-owned utility - the U.S. grid is a kaleidoscope of hundreds of different utilities and power companies of varying size and wealth, making the creation of a single federal standard difficult to implement, said Scott Aaronson, executive director of security and business continuity at the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group.

"What happened in Ukraine is a lot harder to perpetrate here in North America," Aaronson said, adding utilities have an economic incentive to keep hackers out of their systems. "If our equipment's not spinning, were not making money."

To what degree utilities are taking adequate steps to protect themselves is difficult to assess. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the quasi-governmental agency that oversees utilities, performs regular cybersecurity audits, but those findings are kept private, as are the names of the companies it penalizes for not meeting its standards.

A nightmare scenario

Cybsecurity experts say utilities, particularly larger, publicly traded ones like Centerpoint of Houston and Oncor of Dallas, have made great strides strengthening cybersecurity in the past few years. But, they added, just as utilities improve defenses, hackers come up with new and ever more complex means of attacks.

Lately, Shenoi, the University of Tulsa professor, said he's thinking about smart meters, the digital electric meters installed at tens of millions of homes and buildings across the country over the past decade. They save the utility sending out crews to read meters, but also give hackers new and numerous avenues of attack, Shenoi said.

To explain the implications, he pointed to 2003, when a failure of a cluster of power lines in Ohio cascaded into a blackout across the Northeast, Midwest and parts of Canada, knocking out power to 55 million people.

"There were a few points of failure, but still it took six days to two weeks to restore power," Shenoi said. "Imagine if you have 2 million smart meters and imagine you were able to damage or destroy through cyberspace every one of those meters. Where are you going to get the millions of smart meters to replace them? It's going to take a year."

Such a scenario has long been taken seriously by the federal government. A 2013 report by the Department of Defense, imagining a cyberattack on the power grid and other critical infrastructure, predicted the following:

"In a short time, food and medicine distribution systems would be ineffective; transportation would fail or become so chaotic as to be useless. Law enforcement, medical staff, and emergency personnel capabilities could be expected to be barely functional in the short term and dysfunctional over sustained periods."

Utilities themselves are not writing off the possibility. During the cyberattack on the Ukraine, one of the saving graces was utilities were still digitizing control systems. When hackers breached their systems, utilities fell back on old-manual breakers and other controls to minimize the damage. Some U.S. utilities are developing similar plans in which they, too, could essentially abandon digital devices and fall back on old analog equipment, said Aaronson, of the Edison Institute.

"We operated the grid for the better part of the 20th century without smart infrastructure," he said.

Energy companies are also a constant target of hackers. Learn about their tactics, and what's being done to stop them, in our Hacked series.
As investigators continue to gather clues about the cyberattacks that hit computers around the world last week, some big companies and other organizations are still reckoning with the damage.

At Mondelez International, a giant maker of snacks, thousands of servers and computers were rendered useless and production lines at some factories ground to a halt. The company said Thursday that shipping and invoicing had been disrupted during the last four days of the most recent financial quarter, but that a "critical majority" of its systems were back up and running.

Hospitals across the United States have not been able to create electronic records for more than a week after the software maker Nuance Communications experienced significant problems with its computers. On Thursday, it was not clear when all of the company's systems would be working properly.

Investigators were still sorting through the digital crumbs left behind after last week's crippling cyberattacks, known as NotPetya or Nyetya. Early signs pointed toward Russia, although it was unclear who in particular may have been responsible.

The attacks initially targeted government agencies, banks and companies in Ukraine. About 2,000 organizations there were hit on the eve of Constitution Day, a Ukrainian national holiday commemorating the country's first constitution after breaking away from the Soviet Union.

But collateral damage from the attack took down computers across the world, including major multinational companies that do business with Ukraine.

"There's more to this story than what's been told," said Jaime Blasco, vice president and chief scientist at AlienVault, a cybersecurity company that has been conducting a forensic investigation of the intrusion. "Based on our analysis, this attack was really, really bad. Companies that weren't using best security practices were wiped out."

NATO officials last week questioned whether the attack would cause the alliance's mutual defense clause, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, to be invoked. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, told reporters that members agreed last year that such attacks could have that effect and pledged to help Ukraine bolster its cybersecurity defenses.

Officials in Britain took a harder line. Michael Fallon, the British defense secretary, said the country would consider retaliating against cyberattacks with military force.

In the United States, Thomas Bossert, the homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, said if the culprit was the Russian government or hackers working on its behalf, it was a foolish effort, because companies there - most notably Rosneft, the government-owned oil company - were also hit.
So, how worried should we be about dating apps?

It's a question worth considering given the recent news that the app Grindr, which is designed to help gay men meet, may have played a role in the deaths of Glenser Soliman and An Vinh Nguyen, two Houston-area men who disappeared earlier this year.

Harris County sherrif's investigators say both men may have been lured to a killer's apartment by a fake Grindr profile.

The news "should be a little bit of a wakeup call" for people using apps to meet partners, said John Wright, the editor of Houston's OutSmart magazine, which is published for the LGBTQ community. "I would certainly hope that cases like this would cause people to think twice."

Women almost always are urged to take precautions when meeting men they don't know. But men tend not to think of themselves as potential crime victims when they're meeting strangers for dates or sex, said Andrew Edmonson, a gay rights activist in Houston.

"As men, we are used to having the privilege of going where we want to and when we want to, not having to worry that our lives may be in danger or that we could be attacked," he said, adding that the news about Soliman and Nguyen "makes us realize how very vulnerable we might be."

Of course, dating apps aren't new, and this isn't the first time they've been used to hurt someone.

In London last year, a man was sentenced to life in prison for drugging and killing four young men he met through Grindr. And four Dallas-area men have been indicted on federal hate-crime charges for using fake Grindr profiles to target gay men, tying up their victims and stealing their property.

More Information CAN AN APP KEEP YOU SAFE? Most dating apps offer at least a few tools to help users protect themselves from a potential swindler or predator. But there's usually a catch. Here's a look at some examples. Match.com's matchPhone lets you talk on the phone without giving out your real phone number. Match issues you a new phone number, and when your potential date calls, it's forwarded through Match to your phone. The catch: To initiate a matchPhone call, you'll have to pay extra - it's a premium service. Tinder authenticates users by connecting to their Facebook profiles. That means the photos you see are probably legit, because they're the photos users share with their mom, their best friend and their high school basketball coach. The catch: Anyone can make a fake social media account. But if you look carefully, you can probably tell whether your potential love interest's profile reflects the life of a real person. eHarmony employs RelyID, which uses public information to verify your identity. It also offers Secure Call, which allows you to chat without sharing your real phone number. The catch: To get these safety features, you have to buy an eHarmony premium subscription. Hinge uses social media to make connections, so your matches are already in your extended social network. That means your potential mates are more likely to be real people. Besides that, you get the person's full name - which makes them searchable online. Hinge recently started letting users add video to their profiles; if this feature grows commonplace in dating apps, it'll become more difficult to build a fake profile. The catch: Many of Hinge's connections are pretty tenuous - the friend of a friend of a Facebook friend, for instance. And we all know people who have Facebook friends they don't know - so don't let the "friends of friends" concept lull you into a false sense of security. See More Collapse

"I think a lot of gay men do not really take any precautions when using these apps," said Wright, who has covered the issue and done some online dating himself. "It's pretty nonchalant, and people don't really consider the risks."

This doesn't mean we need to ban dating apps - or even the ones used mostly for hookups. There's not a killer lurking behind every dating profile, said Kristin Judge, director of government affairs at the National Cyber Security Alliance.

"You don't have to be paranoid," she said. "It's about doing your due diligence and taking time to trust but verify."

Of course, there's a big difference between using apps to find a relationship and using them for a quick, anonymous hookup. The "rules" are different, and so are the safety concerns. If you're trying to find a long-term relationship, the apps offer tips and tools for staying out of harm's way. If you want a one-night stand, you won't find as many safeguards.

The Hinge dating app, for instance, forged its identity by promising "no randos," or random strangers. It connects users with friends of friends online. Hinge displays each user's full name and pulls profile photos directly from Facebook.

Grindr, on the other hand, knows its users are often looking for a "rando." It tells members to be "careful about revealing your identity" and reminds them that "a photo can't always be trusted."

This is why it's important to be careful, Wright said. There's a lot of talk about taking precautions during sex, he said, but meeting people safely should be planned just as carefully. "It's really an extension of safe sex, in some respects.' "

Dating app safety tips

Whether you're looking for a relationship or a quick meet up, there are precautions that can be done to keep yourself safe.

"It's not like you have to conduct an extensive background check on somebody or research their whole history," Wright said. Here are what he calls some "little common-sense things that aren't that much of an inconvenience":

Do some research. "Don't assume (you're safe) because someone says 'this is who I am' online," Judge said. "You have to assume they may not be that person."

You don't have to stalk your date online, but take the time to check out social media profiles. Grindr gives you the choice to add social media links to your profile, Wright said. Apps such as Hinge and Tinder make social media an integral part of connecting.

Of course, people can set up fake social media profiles, too. But by poking around a bit, you can get a sense of whether or not the profile represents a real, live person.

If you're suspicious, request more photos. "If someone's using a fake profile, chances are they don't have many photos to go with it," Wright said, so when you ask for more they'll disappear.

Meanwhile, you can try to verify the photos you do have. Run them through a reverse search in Google Images. You might get you more information on your date - or it might reveal that the photo belongs to someone else.

Before you meet, get to know someone. If this is a hookup, you're not going to spend three weeks trading messages. But if you're looking for a relationship, Judge said, get to know each other before you give out your phone number or agree to meet. "This is advice I give to my 21-year-old daughter," she said: Look for red flags and details that don't add up. Use the site to talk until you feel comfortable enough to share your SnapChat or your phone number.

Find another layer of information. Even if you want to meet up right away, it doesn't hurt to ask for a little more information, Wright said. If your potential date hasn't put links to social media in his bio, ask for them. Or arrange a way to speak by phone. Asking for a little more proof will help scare away some of the fakes.

Meet up in a public place. Even if it's a hookup, you can meet first at a bar or coffee shop. This will give you a chance to find out whether your date is the person you expected - and whether you feel safe - before you go anywhere alone together.

Tell somebody where you're going. Get a friend to look out for you, Judge said. You can promise to check in when you get home safely - or you can share your phone's location with that person so that someone will always know where you are.

Don't carry extra valuables with you. Leave expensive jewelry and watches at home, and bring only the minimum cash and credit cards you'll need. If you run into trouble, you won't lose everything.

If something happens to you, report it. If you feel you can do so safely, tell the police, Wright said. "By reporting it, you're potentially preventing something as bad or worse from happening to someone else."
Its most compelling scenes happen elsewhere  gushing runoff from glaciers in Greenland, a mass grave in the typhoon-ravaged Philippines and nail-biting negotiations for a climate treaty in Paris.

But three cameo appearances by Houston highlight some of the most important take-home messages of Al Gore's new film, "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power."

Like most atmospheric scientists, the film accepts as established fact that the Earth is warming and man-made greenhouse gases are the dominant cause. But its focus is on the threats posed by that warming and what we can do about it.

Those threats take three main forms, all of which feature prominently in the movie: melt, drought and deluge.

After a record drought in 2011, Houston has seen more than its share of deluge. Gore spotlights Houston's Memorial Day flood of 2015, noting that this "100-year storm" was followed less than a year later by a Tax Day Flood that topped 1,000-year levels in some neighborhoods.

Michael Ciaglo/Staff

Climate change is making such extraordinary droughts and floods more ordinary, as warming accelerates evaporation and shifts rainfall toward more sporadic extreme events. Meanwhile, expansion of warming waters and melt from faraway glaciers are pushing sea levels ever higher up our coastlines.

The movie's graphic portrayal of damage from global warming refutes Texas' most prominent skeptic, House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith, who recently proclaimed the "benefits of a changing climate."

In fact, researchers recently projected that the benefits of climate change will be swamped by the harms, especially in southern states like Texas.

WARMING UP: How extreme could temperatures become in Texas?

But Texas conveys the film's hopeful messages, too. The movie opens with Gore presenting his three-day Climate Reality Project training to hundreds of eager listeners in Houston. The project has trained tens of thousands of people worldwide to provide local voices on the risks and solutions to climate change.

The movie ends in Texas, too, as the camera pans over the fumes from Houston's refineries before profiling Georgetown for its switch to 100 percent renewable electricity.

David J. Phillip/STF

Missing was the fact that Houston is the nation's leading municipal purchaser of green power and is helping jumpstart the market for electric fleet vehicles, while Mayor Sylvester Turner co-chairs the U.S. Climate Mayors.

Still, the visual progression from the Ship Channel to Georgetown symbolizes a needed shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.

Between these Houston highlights, the film provides a panorama of the hazards of climate change as well as glimpses of opportunities to address it. Gore travels the world to see Miami streets inundated by rising tides and Indian cities choked with smog. But he also shows African villages illuminated by solar power.

LEADING THE CHARGE: How electric vehicles can help cities like Houston fight climate change

Still, this isn't a film to convert the skeptical. Few of those are likely to watch a film that casts Gore as its narrator and protagonist. And that frees Gore to address his audience with unabashedly political statements. "In order to address the climate crisis, we're going to have to fix the democracy crisis," he says.

"If President Trump won't lead, the American people will."

But if his aim is to motivate a receptive audience, Gore largely succeeds, judging from a packed-house screening in Houston on Wednesday evening. The screening was peppered with applause for the Paris triumph, groans for Trumpian falsehoods and a surprising amount of laughter for a supposedly wooden narrator. Most in the audience stayed until the very end of a post-film session to discuss what they could do to combat climate change. Many of the comments came from graduates of Gore's Climate Reality Project trainings.

Now might be the time to preach inconvenient truths to the choir. Polls show Democrats rank climate alongside Trump scandals and health care as their top motivators for voting in next year's midterm elections, while bipartisan majorities wanted the United States to remain in the Paris Agreement.

With talk of a Democratic "wave election" in 2018, concerned citizens might find it easier to vote out fossil-funded skeptics than persuade them to act on climate. Challengers to Congressman Smith and other Texas incumbents are making the environment a centerpiece of their campaigns. That will keep Texas at center stage long after Gore's film departs the big screens.

Daniel Cohan is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University.

Bookmark Gray Matters. Most in the audience stay until the very end.


Nine men and three women are in custody after being accused of conspiracy and sex trafficking of children in two separate, but related indictments, U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez announced Friday.

The defendants apparently used sexually-oriented websites to advertise their business and employed four minors as young as 16-years-old, for commercial sex, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas. Young girls allegedly posed for pictures used in online advertisements for sex and also engaged in sexual acts for money, according to the charges.

In one online advertisement, the defendants photographed an adult prostitute performing oral sex on a 16-year-old runaway victim, the release stated. The victim also worked as a prostitute for the defendants.

Those charged include Joseph Church, 31, and Angela Marks, 23, both of Sweeney; Jamaal Crane, 25, of Angleton; Norris Moon, 23, and Christopher Walton, 23, both of Brazoria; Ronnie Beasley, 19, of Rosharon; and William Franklin, 18, of Wharton.

Jamier Coleman, 20, and Lurkesha Baugh, 35, both of Wharton, were previously in state custody on unrelated charges. They all apparently appeared in court earlier Friday afternoon.

Alisa Kimber, 24, of Freeport, was already in federal custody on earlier similar charges. Authorities arrested Stephanie Walker, 35, of Houston, in Beaumont on Thursday. The final 19-year-old defendant, Eric Page, was taken into custody on Wednesday for unrelated charges in Sherman. They are expected to appear in Galveston court soon.

All are charged, except for two people, with conspiracy to traffic children for the purpose of commercialized sex, sex trafficking of children and sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, the release stated.

Walker, from Houston. and Kimbler, from Freeport, were indicted for using an interstate facility to promote sex trafficking of children. Church and Marks, of Sweeney, also face a production of child pornography charge. While, Moon and Walton, of Brazoria, have an additional charge of carrying a firearm while engaging in the crime of sex trafficking of minors.

The defendants facing sex trafficking conspiracy charges could spend the rest of their life in prison if convicted. Walker and Kimbler could spend up to five years in prison for using an interstate facility to promote sex trafficking of children. Church and Marks could spend an additional 30 years in prison for their child pornography charge.

All charges carry up to a $250,000 fine.

The FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety conducted the investigation. Galveston, Sherman, Wharton, La Marque and the University of Texas Medical Branch police departments along with sheriff's offices in Brazoria and Galveston counties, also assisted with the investigation.
RICHMOND, Va. - In sight of one of the most notorious slave markets of the pre-Civil War south, the Rev. Sylvester Turner asked hundreds of people Sunday night to pray for President Trump to have a change of heart and heal the nation's racial divide.

Several hundred had people gathered with clergy and politicians for a vigil around the Slavery Reconciliation Statue, a towering stone figure that represents atonement for Richmond's role in the slave trade.

"Look over our president," Turner thundered in prayer. "He may not be all, Lord God, that he can be at this time, but I believe that you are a heart-changing God. I believe that when prayer and praises go up, lessons come down."

Activists throughout the country - including in Virginia and the Washington region - held vigils Sunday in response to the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on Saturday that erupted into violence and resulted in the death of one counterprotester and the injury of more than a dozen.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who spent Sunday morning visiting churches in Charlottesville, attended the Richmond vigil looking unusually somber. He had been angry on Saturday, he told the crowd, but now he was sad.

"It's been a rough couple of days for our beautiful commonwealth," McAuliffe said, adding that he had just been visiting with the families of the two state troopers who were killed when their helicopter crashed while patrolling the Charlottesville rally. "To go in the homes and talk to the children whose father, neither one are coming home tonight," he said, then paused as he grew emotional.

McAuliffe then spoke of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a driver rear-ended another car and pushed vehicles into a crowd of peaceful protesters. "She was doing what she loved, she was fighting for democracy, free speech, and to stop hatred and bigotry," he said, as someone in the crowd issued a soft "Amen."

Many of the multiracial crowd attending the vigil were from church groups. Several from local Unitarian Universalist churches wore yellow shirts that read, "Standing on the side of love." Others held signs, including "Stop pretending your racism is patriotism" and "No one is free when others are repressed," and one person waved a large American flag. Parents held up small children in the hot sun, straining to hear as cars whizzed by on a highway overpass.

"We thought it was important for us to come together at such a time as this," state Del. Delores McQuinn, who helped put together the vigil, told the crowd. Like many of Richmond's leaders, she is African-American. "We stand at this reconciliation statue as a symbolic gesture to remind us that we still have work to do. The battle to fight hatred, racism, prejudice and faces of evil is not over."

It's hard, she said, sounding both weary and angry, to know what to do next after a display of open bigotry such as the one that gripped Charlottesville over the weekend. The answer, she said, is not in violence or in political sniping.

"We battle evil by fighting for the heart and the soul of America. Democracy in this nation. We do not fight fire with fire," she shouted, her voice breaking, "but we fight fire with faith, and that's why we are here today. . . . We continue to walk in unity with the understanding that we are our brother's keeper."

Hundreds of people gathered in Charlottesville on Sunday for a vigil at the spot where Heyer was killed.

In Washington on Sunday, more than a hundred people marched down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, past the Trump International Hotel and toward the statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike.

Among those marching was 11-year-old Maya Schindler of the District of Columbia, who was attending with her parents and younger brother.

"It's not right what's happening," she said. "It's our duty to protest."

"It's unfortunate how many times we've done this," added her mother, Alison Auerbach. "This is Maya's eighth or ninth march. . . . We want to be a model for our kids but she's often leading us."

Sarah Kamins was one of those who arrived early Sunday for a march to the White House and demonstration.

The 31-year-old held up a sign that read, "This is not normal," and said she had just attended another gathering in Arlington, where she lives. She was soon joined by scores more marchers who filled Pennsylvania Avenue in front of Lafayette Square.

"I'm appalled we're letting neo-Nazis and white supremacists lead the conversation," Kamins said. "I'm really disheartened this is happening."

The marchers listened to speeches by progressive activists and chanted, "This is what democracy looks like."

In Richmond, the crowd and speakers alike seemed to struggle with how political to make the moment. Many spoke of the need to transcend partisan differences, but most also made reference to the need to start by calling racism by its name - a not-so-veiled reference to President Trump's failure to denounce the white supremacists in his tweets Saturday.

So when McAuliffe in his remarks said, "We gotta all figure out, how did we get to this place?" Someone in the crowd replied, "Trump," while someone else warned, "Stop!"

Rep. A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat, was blunt in his assessment. "We got here because we thought that someone who refused to disassociate himself with white supremacy could not get elected president of the United States. We were wrong!" he said, to cheers from the crowd.

After the speeches, though, the crowd sang hymns and heard prayers from several ministers, such as Turner, who said that while he didn't vote for Trump, it does no good to deny the president's vital role in society.

"I hear people say, we not gonna call him our president," said Turner, the minister of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Richmond. "We can't fix this country when we deny who is at the head of this country."

Afterward, the crowd held hands and sang "We Shall Overcome." McAuliffe hugged and shook hands as he made his way through the crowd to a waiting SUV and said he had not heard from the president on Sunday.

"It's sad," he said, then shrugged. "It is what it is. An opportunity to lead - but we know what we're dealing with."

In Washington, the tone at Lafayette Square near the White House was more raucous, as about a hundred marchers arrived before 7 p.m. chanting "No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!"

Many held signs denouncing Nazis and the Unite the Right rally that erupted into violence on Saturday in Charlottesville. Marchers also held a moment of silence for the three people who died on Saturday.

University of Virginia alums Mark Muir and Pamela Muir, of Arlington, met as freshmen living in the same dorm. They both graduated from the Charlottesville school in 1985; their now-adult children both decided to go UVA as well.

So when white nationalists held rallies in Charlottesville on Friday and Saturday, Pamela, 54, said she took it "personally."

"It's just heartbreaking that there's so much hate," she said while participating in the D.C. march. "Diversity is what made the university great."

Mark Muir, 54, was heartened to see so many other people marching.

"Tonight was uplifting," he said.

Elspeth Suthers, 34, of the District of Columbia, arrived holding a sign that read, "Nazis bad this shouldn't be that hard."

"I'm just disturbed there can even be a major white-power rally," she said. "It's incumbent on us to show people they do not reflect our values, our country's values."

The candlelight vigil at Lafayette Square was followed by a march, and another took place on the Mall. There were also several Facebook events for vigils in cities including Houston, New York, Philadelphia and numerous towns across Virginia.

"I saw hurt and anger in the D.C. community [groups] and wanted to create something organized we could rally behind," said Meredith Broadway, who planned the candlelight vigil at Lafayette Square. "I absolutely believe this needs to be a call to action as well as time of reflection. Voices from [people of color] in the community should be amplified."

Broadway, a 25-year-old D.C. transplant from Dallas, has attended numerous events supporting progressive causes, including the Women's March, Science March and protests against the Muslim ban at Dulles International Airport since moving to the area a year ago, but it was always as a participant and not as an organizer.

That changed Saturday night when Broadway logged onto her Facebook account and created the Charlottesville Candlelight Vigil event scheduled for Sunday night. As of early Sunday afternoon, more than 500 people had marked down that they are attending, with over 2,000 interested.

The vigil was originally planned for Saturday evening, but Broadway postponed it due to weather. The delay also gave Broadway a chance to reach out and partner with the Washington Peace Center and Showing Up for Racial Justice DC groups.

"If you aren't outraged, then you aren't paying attention," said Eugene Puryear of Stop Police Terror Project DC, who led the march toward Confederate Gen. Albert Pike's statue.

Far-right groups that included white supremacists and neo-Nazis at the Unite the Right rally gathered in Charlottesville starting on Friday night to protest the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials, including the proposed removal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee memorial in Emancipation Park.

"I hope that this serves as a learning opportunity, particular the Caucasian community in D.C.," said Broadway, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipient who is a fellow in Washington. "Hopefully, people will come away with a renewed energy to strengthen the community and push forward under the [Trump] administration."
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Heather Heyer was killed Saturday as she pushed back against hatred.

She left behind a dog - and an approach to the world that those who love her say needs nurturing now that she's gone.

The chocolate chihuahua's name is Violet, "because purple is Heather's favorite color," her mother, Susan Bro, said Sunday. She paused. "It was, was her favorite color," she said through the tears.

Her daughter was among those gathered to oppose the neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalists making a show of force in Charlottesville. Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 others were injured when police say an Ohio man barreled toward them in his Dodge Challenger.

"I'm not really surprised my child died this way, because she would stand up for what she believed in," Bro said.

Sitting at the kitchen table in her home north of Charlottesville, with Violet wandering by her feet, Bro said her daughter's last day reflected the way she treated others, including those she disagreed with.

Over the years, Heyer would ask people why they came to their beliefs. Heyer's friends told her mom she was at it again during the demonstrations Saturday, going up to people with opposing views and asking them "Why do you believe this?" or "Why do you think this way?"

"Heather has always stood for fairness and equal treatment of everybody," said Bro, 60.

And the anguished mother is trying to do the same, with the man who authorities say caused Heyer's death.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, was charged with second-degree murder after police said the Challenger he was driving "at a high rate of speed" rear-ended another car and pushed vehicles into a crowd of pedestrians. He then backed up and fled, they said. Fields was also charged with three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run.

A former teacher said Fields sympathized with Nazi views. Virginia's secretary of public safety called him a terrorist.

Every time Bro closed her eyes Saturday night, the tears would come. When she couldn't sleep, she tried busying herself doing laundry. "Who does laundry when their child's died? That's all I could do," she said.

Despite her pain, Bro said she doesn't want people to hate Fields. It isn't what her daughter would have wanted, she said.

"Our daughter did not live a life of hate, and hating this young man is not going to solve anything. . . . It's not that I think he should go unpunished for his crime. But hate only engenders more hate, and there's no purpose in hate," Bro said. "Heather's life was about, passionately about, fairness and equality and caring, and that's what we want people to take away from this."

Of the 19 people taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center in connection with the crash, nine were discharged as of Sunday afternoon, a spokeswoman said. Other injuries Saturday were also treated at the hospital, although no precise number is available, she said.

A childhood friend said she was inspired by Heyer's mix of backbone and heart.

Even as a quiet young girl, Heyer stood up for people being picked on while riding the schools bus, Felicia Correa said.

On Saturday, she was killed standing up for her country, Correa said.

"People will remember her name and remember what she died for," she said.

Correa said she recently was swamped with medical bills after complications related to her multiple sclerosis, so she went to a Charlottesville law firm. When Heyer, who was working as a paralegal there, walked out to meet her, she was ecstatic to see the friend she had known growing up in Greene County.

Heyer jumped in and guided Correa, who was uninsured and is a mother of six, through the daunting financial process. She was a "young white woman who died standing up not just for people of color in general but, also the people of color that I love, that I worry about," said Correa, who is biracial, black and Hispanic.

"She died for a reason. I don't see any difference in her or a soldier who died in war. She, in a sense, died for her country. She was there standing up for what was right," Correa said. "I just want to make sure that it wasn't in vain."

For Bro, Saturday's terror came home in a phone call.

Justin Marks, a longtime friend of Heyer, was sobbing and screaming on the line. Bro didn't understand what was happening. Then, finally, Marks said he understood that the hospital was trying to reach next of kin and needed a number.

Bro said she remembered telling her son, "Your sister is either dead or she's unconscious because . . . " She paused to cry while recounting her ride to the hospital Saturday. ". . . she would know my number."

Bro was in such shock she couldn't remember Heather's middle name when a hospital staffer first asked her. It's Danielle.

Marks said he and Heyer had previously agreed not to attend the protests, because they thought it would be too dangerous. Everyone was on edge about it, he said.

But the night before, Heyer texted Marks, 30, saying that she felt compelled to go, and who was Marks to say she shouldn't? "She talked about these things constantly. It weighed on her," he said.

Heyer was a challenge to raise sometimes because she was so strong-minded, but that didn't upset Bro. She always encouraged her to be independent and think for herself. "If she believed something was right, you could not dissuade her," Bro said.

The two would discuss their shared concerns about racism and hatred. They supported fighting for equal treatment, whether through Black Lives Matter advocacy or by tipping waitresses fairly.

Her daughter loved mac and cheese, cigarettes, scented candles and products for her curly hair. Bro has adopted Violet, who she calls her "grandpup."

"I'm very proud of my baby, but I do miss her," Bro said. "We would've talked about the rally together by now."

- - -

The Washington Post's Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.
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Damaris Gonzalez was anxiously waiting last week at an upscale Houston restaurant for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to arrive for a re-election fundraiser.

Gonzalez was very nervous, as she later said in an interview. Surrounded by the same glassware and contemporary art pieces at Tony's restaurant that have enlivened banquets for U.S. presidents and political power brokers, the 32-year-old woman sought to confront Paxton with a crucial question.

"Why do you want to deport me?" asked Gonzalez, who came to the U.S. as a 9-year-old with her parents and is now a so-called "dreamer."

Gonzalez says that what emboldened her to speak was to "feel that I was representing myself but also the (approximately) 800,000 young people like me in the United States" who are beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. On Tuesday, the program is observing its fifth anniversary while under threat of being dismantled by potential legal action sought by Paxton and other attorneys general.

DACA was created by an executive order from the Obama Administration. It temporarily offers protection against deportation to certain young people who entered the country as undocumented when they were minors, many of them brought by their parents through no fault of their own. It also allows them to work and study.

Paxton leads a group of attorneys general from several states who want to eliminate DACA.

On July 29, he sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting the immediate termination of DACA with a deadline of Sept. 5. If by then the administration has not complied with the request, Paxton said he would challenge the government in court over DACA with a coalition of attorneys general who also signed the letter.

"Why are you trying to separate my family?" asked Gonzalez in the restaurant, to which Paxton answered, "I am not, I am not. I am asking the president of the U.S. to follow the law."

The exchange was caught on video and went viral on social media. For many people commenting on Facebook and Twitter, the moment captures a dialogue where two parties are seemingly talking over each other. One reflected the emotions of thousands of dreamers, while the other the nuances of the law.

Paxton's office declined to comment for this story.

In the letter to Sessions, Paxton urged the White House to rescind the 2012 DACA program. DACA applies to undocumented immigrants that came to the country before they were 16 years old and were 30 or younger as of June 2012. It awards recipients a renewable, two-year work permit and a reprieve from deportation proceedings.

Paxton's coalition

As of August 2016, more than 220,000 undocumented immigrants in Texas had applied for a permit or a renewal of one under the program, and nearly 200,000 of those have been approved, according to government statistics.

"We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program," Paxton wrote. He was joined by the attorneys general of Arkansas, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, as well as Idaho Gov. C.L. Otter.

Paxton's position may not be in sync with the recent signals coming from the Trump Administration.

Although President Donald Trump said during his campaign that he would "immediately terminate" DACA as president, he has taken a more moderate position, saying in an interview with ABC that the recipients of the program "should not be very worried."

Despite the tightening of immigration policies and rhetoric in the country, DACA is a program that has remained largely supported by U.S. voters.

'Better opportunities'

Among registered voters, 78 percent believe that the dreamers should be allowed to stay in the country, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted in April. Only 22 percent of those who identified themselves as Republicans said that they would like to see them deported.

But if the program is eliminated, as Paxton and his coalition want, DACA recipients would be exposed to deportation.

This is one of the main concerns cited by Eliot Osvaldo Flores, an "A" student and athlete at the Yes Prep, Brays Oaks campus in Houston who is a DACA recipient.

Flores said he thanks his parents for bringing him to the U.S. when he was three "looking for better opportunities for me and themselves," Flores said. He added that he is hoping to become a neuroscientist.

Flores participated in Camp Neuro this summer at the University of St. Thomas, which "convinced me that I can be a good neurosurgeon: I am bilingual, I love psychology and medicine and this country is in need of medical providers," he said. To prep himself in the field, he volunteers two days a week at the Memorial Hermann Southwest campus transporting patients around the hospital.

Since July 15, 2012, when immigration authorities started receiving the first applications for DACA, many young people have been able to work legally as teachers, health care providers, IT workers and other professions.

To observe DACA's fifth anniversary, marches are planned around the country, including Austin, with a contingent from Houston, San Antonio and other cities.

olivia.tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet
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When the Ku Klux Klan emerged as a force in this country for the second time, its leaders required initiates to take part in a ceremony with distinctly religious qualities.

Prospective Klansmen a century ago had to kneel before an altar bearing a flag, a Bible, a dagger and a bottle of water, according to research by Houston writer Patricia Bernstein. After a lengthy ritual, the new member was anointed with a few drops of the water.

The Klan has a long history of appropriating symbols of faith, love and beauty to advance its agenda of bigotry, hatred and violence. This perverse tradition informed the Klan devotees who participated in a white supremacist rally over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., where a 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 were injured after a man who reportedly espoused Nazi ideals plowed a car into a crowd.

William J. Simmons, the founder of the second Ku Klux Klan, was a "failed preacher" who "had a lifetime habit of referring to himself in terms used to describe Jesus," says Bernstein, the author of "Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan."

"He made much of the fact that, on Thanksgiving Day 1915, as part of the ceremony to inaugurate the new KKK, he carried a big wooden cross up Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta, fighting against ice and strong winds, frequently slipping and falling," Bernstein wrote in an email to me. "This was clearly meant to evoke Jesus' struggle up the Via Dolorosa to Calvary carrying the cross."

The use of sacred or culturally important objects can impart a veneer of virtue to deplorable acts. This tactic came to mind when I read recently about some middle-schoolers in Galveston accused of using the ancient Japanese art of paper-folding to torment an African-American classmate.

According to a lawsuit filed in state district court, three students at Trinity Episcopal School gave the African-American student "origami resembling the hoods worn by KKK members" as part of a campaign of bullying and harassment.

The suit, which seeks more than $1 million in damages, alleges that the three students "stated that their fathers were 'dragon masters of the KKK' and generally bullied, harassed, and racially discriminated" against the black student, who came to feel unsafe at Trinity. His mother withdrew the seventh-grader, identified in filings only as C.R., in April 2016 after less than two years at Trinity, the suit states.

Trinity Episcopal is a well-regarded private school affiliated with a church of the same name whose members include prominent Galveston business and civic leaders. In their response to the lawsuit, Trinity's attorneys claim religious immunity under the First Amendment.

The response also states that the school and its then-headmaster, the Rev. David Dearman, dispute some of the factual allegations in the lawsuit. The filing withholds details "out of concern for protecting privacy rights of Trinity students."

My calls to the school and its attorneys were not returned. Trinity's website does not list Dearman as a current staff member.

Photos of the "KKK origami" given to C.R., provided by his mother to her attorneys, show a creased rectangle of paper with "KKK" written in one corner. Another view shows two slits apparently intended to suggest eyeholes in a Klansman's hood.

The three students who purportedly gave this item to C.R. may not have known they were mimicking an art form that began after Buddhist monks carried paper to Japan some 1,500 years ago. The folded figures were first used in religious ceremonies; later references describe origami butterflies representing the bride and groom during weddings.

The origami crane became a symbol of peace after a girl named Sadako Sasaki, who developed leukemia caused by radioactive fallout after the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, Japan, attempted to fold 1,000 cranes to save her own life. (A Japanese legend holds that one who folds 1,000 origami cranes will have a wish fulfilled.)

These Galveston kids, of course, probably didn't know any of this history. And there is no evidence that their parents really belonged to the KKK, says Daryoush Behbood, one of the attorneys for the woman who filed the lawsuit.

"My gut feeling would say they're not," Behbood said.

Sadako Sasaki died in 1945 at age 12. A statue of her stands in Hiroshima Peace Park.

It would be hard to imagine a more grotesque betrayal of this girl's memory than the use of origami as a tool of bigotry. And we should all hope that the kids accused of these acts don't grow up to contribute to the Charlottesville riots of tomorrow.

*******************

In Friday's column, I misidentified the department that includes the Harris County Transit agency. It's part of the Community Services Department.
A neo-Nazi group linked to the man accused of killing a counter-protester at a white supremacist rally targeted two Houston synagogues with fliers earlier this year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The group, Vanguard America, pasted hateful fliers on signs, doors and gates at two Houston-area synagogues in July and distributed flyers with similar messages at universities in Houston and other parts of Texas in January.

"We believe authorities should aggressively investigate this incident as a domestic act of terror and swiftly bring to justice the individual responsible for the death of one citizen and the injuries of dozens more," said Dayan Gross, ADL Southwest Regional Director.

Vanguard America has chapters in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, according to an ADL report.

Members or supporters of the group also left hateful stickers at two Louisiana synagogues in March, and hung anti-Semitic banner at a Holocaust memorial in New Jersey in July, according to the ADL. The group also posted fliers at several Texas universities - including Rice University - in January.

The violent clashes in Virginia come as organizations that track hate groups have warned of a sharp rise in hate crimes and other acts of racism. White supremacists had planned to hold a similar rally in College Station at Texas A&M University on Sept. 11 but was called off Monday afternoon.

In southern Texas, the ADL found a 50 percent spike in hate crimes this year compared to last year.

RELATED: Have you been the victim of a hate crime or bias? Please tell us.

Vanguard America "opposes multiculturalism and believes that America is an exclusively white nation," according to an ADL report about the group.

"Using a right-wing nationalist slogan, Blood and Soil, VA romanticizes the notion that people with 'white blood' have a special bond with 'American soil," according to the ADL.

The man accused of driving the car into a crowd of counterprotesters Saturday has been identified as a member of the group, although the group denies it.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, can be seen in photos and video taken before the car crashed into the crowd holding a "Vanguard America" sign and standing with other members of the group. He is charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

Vanguard America denies Fields had ties to their organization.

"The driver of the vehicle that hit counter protesters was, in no way, a member of Vanguard America," the group said, in a statement posted on social media Saturday. "All our members had been safely evacuated by the time of the incident. The shields seen do not denote membership, nor does the white shirt. The shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance."

Hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups assembled Saturday in a rally called "Unite the Right," to protest the decision of Charlottesville officials to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park.

Violence erupted between the protesters and hundreds of counter-protesters. At least 34 people were injured in the clashes and the mayhem of the car crash.

Thirty-two-year-old Heather D. Heyer, a paralegal from Charlottesville, was killed in the crash.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions launched a civil rights investigation.

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.
AUSTIN - Texas' controversial bathroom bill, championed by Gov. Greg Abbot and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, may have been declared dead, but some say it could be revived soon enough.

"Like Frankenstein, the bathroom bill could come back to life," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political scientist. "Because, in an election year, it's an issue that appeals to the Republican base that turns out to vote."

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said many lawmakers have kept their views on the controversial measure private, and there remains support.

"The bill may be dead, but the issue is not," he said.

Chalk up the bill's demise to Texas business leaders who support nondiscrimination laws and see the issue of which bathrooms transgender people use as a manufactured one. Nevertheless, both supporters and opponents agree the issue will be back -- either in a future legislative session or in the Republican primaries next March, when bathroom bill proponents hope to oust House Republican moderates they blame for derailing its passage into law this summer.

Concerns first arose about the bill in November 2015 when the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was repealed, and some business leaders in Texas began wondering whether other nondiscrimination laws might soon become targets.

By the next March, North Carolina had passed its so-called bathroom bill. And Patrick soon was railing about the threat to Texas from transgender bathroom policies after Fort Worth school officials adopted a new policy about the time the Obama administration mandated transgender protections.

"Business leaders were concerned about whether this would spread, whether it could affect nondiscrimination ordinances in several cities that had been put in place to attract corporations and business investment," said Eric Glenn, an Austin consultant who was involved with the early efforts. "A majority of Texans feel this is a distraction from more important issues. Business agrees."

Realizing that Texas' move to adopt its own version of the privacy law would hurt their corporate bottom lines, business leaders formed a new organization - Keep Texas Open for Business - and marshaled resources to fight the bathroom bill and other discriminatory laws, joining an already outspoken coalition of activist groups in a move that would put them on a dead-center collision course with Texas' top two Republican officeholders, their longtime allies.

By last week, their efforts had yielded a most unexpected result: The bathroom bill, championed by both Abbott and Patrick, was declared all but dead. There was much talk of late effort to attach it to another bill on Saturday, but nothing materialized.

Softening of support?

That success marked the first time in years that Big Business threw its considerable muscle into such a high-profile political fight against the ultra-conservative GOP bloc that has driven much of Texas' public policy in recent years, coming just months after the "sanctuary city" ban opposed by corporate interests was signed into law.

Three experts say the headline-grabbing throwdown over the bathroom bill also could signal a softening of business support for social-policy issues championed by the ultra-conservative wing of the GOP and a new push for state leaders to address more substantive issues such as improved funding for public education and health care, among structural changes to the way state government makes and spends its money.

"The Legislature has been focused for several years on issues that don't cost money - social issues like sanctuary cities, abortion, gay marriage and the bathroom bill," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, who said Texas is not much different from other states in that regard. "When you start talking about school-finance reform, among other issues, that's when you have to come up with additional money. Someone will have to pay for it. That's never fun."

For their part, Abbott, Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus insist they want to address those other issues - with Straus, generally thought of as more moderate than the other two leaders, leading the way during the special session for the Legislature to address more pressing issues than bathroom access and tree-cutting ordinances. Those were among the 20 issues Abbott demanded be approved.

By Saturday night, with only three of Abbott's issues signed into law and about as many more appearing heading to final approval, this question remained: Will the final tally at the end of the special session on Wednesday be good enough to keep the governor from calling lawmakers back into another special session?

The answer appeared to be yes. For now.

Opinions differ on whether the bathroom bill would have been derailed by the dozens of LGBT activists and groups and their supporters without the support of big businesses. Larry Keiler, an Austin opponent of the bill who attended several hearings and protests to oppose the bill, said that while he believes their voices eventually would have prevailed - perhaps in a court fight - the opposition from corporate and business leaders helped turn the tide two weeks ago.

That came in a letter signed by more than 50 Houston CEOs and business leaders, followed by letters from dozens more in Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and other areas.

"That got everyone's attention," Keiler said. "Before that, the letters from Apple and Microsoft and other corporations had been written off as the coastal liberals trying to tell Texas what to do. But ExxonMobil and Halliburton and the others are not liberal and they're not coastal. They're here in Texas."

Push for new special session

Within a few weeks, top officials of more than 50 Fortune 500 companies had weighed in against the bill. Middling support in the House for the bill began to evaporate. Even the 20 Senate Republicans who had voted for the bill a month earlier began to question whether they were on the wrong side of a trend.

Then came the announcement on Monday that the bill would not get a hearing in a House committee, meaning it could never come up for a vote by the full House. Scrambling by supporters to tack it as an amendment to another bill went nowhere.

By Friday, supporters including confidants to Abbott and Patrick conceded it was most likely DOA.

"It was largely a manufactured issue that will evaporate over time," said Rice University's Jones. "There is no crisis on transgender Texans for most Texans. But for Republican primary voters, it will still be around."

More than a dozen tea party and conservative Republican activists agreed, saying they plan to press Abbott to call the Legislature back into a special session early next year to remind GOP primary voters how much of the summer's conservative agenda did not get passed - including the bathroom bill.

"It's looking pretty dismal right now, all the priorities of Gov. Abbott that the House blocked, and I can assure you that people in Texas are not going to forget about that," said JoAnn Fleming, executive director of Grassroots America: We the People, an influential tea party group among conservative Texas Republicans. "An awful lot of bills have not been passed, and now they're trying to cut deals in the House at the very end to make it look like they're accomplishing something when they're not."

Other activists in Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio echoed that disdain, warning that the business leaders may end up sorry they fought the bathroom bill, when the Texans who support it successfully push it through in another legislative session.

Jeff Moseley, CEO of the Texas Association of Business, the lobby group that for decades has wielded considerable clout at the Capitol and threw its weight behind derailing the bathroom bill, disagrees. He said his group, facing a growing amount of legislation that is bad for business, plans to continue its legislative momentum.

After remaining relatively low-key in some recent sessions, lobbying for criminal justice reforms as lawmakers fought about conservative social issues such as abortions, Big Business took a higher profile last spring in fighting attempts to place new restrictions on eminent domain, to cut tax-abatement incentives and to kill the state's business-development fund - along with their fight against the bathroom bill that grew into a full-on throwdown this summer.

"We were ringing the bell during the regular session, and then the governor put it on the special session agenda, and we knew that our voice had to be heard strongly and loudly," Moseley said. "For Texas to remain globally competitive, we have to remain open for business. And laws like this are a disregard for the Texas Miracle, which wasn't some cosmic accident. It was a result of solid policies that encouraged business growth and economic development in Texas."

Group plans to stay active

Political scientists and campaign consultants in Austin said the entry of corporate America into the fight over the bathroom bill was significant because it signaled that executives will use their clout to protect Texas' business climate. That could prove a challenge to Republicans like Patrick, who has championed numerous issues like bathroom policies, sanctuary cities and abortion that appeal to social conservatives but don't cost the state money to address.

Jillson said business interests "could change the discussion" on other issues, including school finance reform.

Moseley made it clear his group intends to stay active with leaders of both parties in coming months.

"This coalition that we have put together is committed to growing in stature," he said. "This isn't just a one-trick pony."

For now, though, confidants of Abbott, Patrick and Straus insist the outcome of the fight over the bathroom bill will have few downsides for them with voters. Most expect that when the special session ends, all three will declare victory: Abbott for having tried to get his conservative - though controversial - agenda of 20 items approved, Patrick for burnishing his already strong standing with the conservative-right GOP base, and Straus for keeping a slew of what he viewed as bad bills from becoming law.

Abbott has remained mum about what might happen next, but he has hinted in recent interviews that he might get involved in primary elections "to elect the type of officials who are going to be reflective of conservative governance." Patrick, who blames Straus for defeat of the measure, has hinted he may do the same, even as Straus has encouraged Texans who share his views to run for the Senate.
Seven deputies with Special Emergency Response Team at the Bexar County Jail were placed on administrative leave after a hazing incident that involved county-issued handcuffs, shackles and a stun gun, Sheriff Javier Salazar said Monday.

The incident reportedly occurred at a Friday evening house party. Six deputies are accused of hazing a seventh deputy.

Salazar said he placed all seven on leave Monday, after he was made aware of a video of the incident.

READ ALSO: S.A. cop fired for attempting to feed fecal sandwich to homeless person, official say

He said they are "not welcome back at the sheriff's office" until after an internal investigation and separate criminal investigation conclude.

Now Playing: The Bexar County Sheriff's Office is investigating a hazing incident involving multiple department employees, Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Video: San Antonio Express-News

Though all the officers, even the one who was reportedly hazed, took the incident as a joke, Salazar said he's taking it seriously.

"It's not to be tolerated. It's not something I'm going to stand for," he said at a Monday press conference, surrounded by members of his command staff.

RELATED: Sheriff: Detention officer collected drug debts for inmate, had money deposited to commissary fund

At one point, even one of the officers' 4-year-old daughter took part in the hazing, Salazar said.

Criminal charges are possible against the deputies, including hazing, unlawful restraint and child endangerment.

"Had somebody not told me these were seven of my deputies involved ... and said this was video of a violent disturbance or even a murder, I would have believed it based upon what I saw," Salazar said.

Salazar said he could not release the names of the officers involved, but they included six men and one woman, he said.

Deputies are "hand-picked" to be part of the Special Emergency Response Team, Salazar said.

"It appears by all accounts that people from this highly elite team ... didn't feel the rules applied to them," Salazar said. "I think we proved otherwise today."

It's unclear whether this type of hazing was a routine occurrence for deputies in the office, Salazar said.

"I wouldn't rule it out," he said. "It's certainly something that may have occurred in years past, or months past, but it's not going to occur now."

Salazar also said placing this many officers on leave would put a strain on the department. Other deputies will work overtime to cover shifts and commanders may shift deputies from other parts of the department.

The Monday news conference came nearly two weeks after a Bexar County Jail detention officer, Rita Alvarez, was arrested and accused of collecting drug debts for an inmate and helping deposit the money into his commissary fund.

Alvarez is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and a charge of illegal barter, expenditures or investments.

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KIEV, Ukraine - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson assured Ukraine's leader on Sunday that the United States would not lift economic sanctions against Russia until it "reverses the actions" that prompted them and restores the country's "territorial integrity," appearing to set the same high bar for sanctions relief that the Obama administration did.

Tillerson's strongly worded statement issued at a news conference in Kiev alongside Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, who took office after one of Putin's acolytes was pushed from power, seemed to insist Moscow withdraw Russian troops and heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine and return Crimea, the Black Sea territory Russia annexed in 2014 - though Tillerson never specifically mentioned the disputed peninsula by name.

In a statement posted on Twitter minutes after Tillerson finished speaking, Trump wrote that "sanctions were not discussed in my meeting with President (Vladimir) Putin," and added, "Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian & Syrian problems are solved!"

Political reality

Tillerson's statement Sunday in Kiev was more definitive on the issue of sanctions than his boss' tweet, perhaps a reflection of the political reality in Washington, where the Senate voted, 97-2, last month to toughen sanctions because of Russia's continued intervention in eastern Ukraine, Moscow's attempts to intimidate former Soviet states and the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.

The administration has sought to water down the sanctions bill to give itself more leeway in dealing with Russia, an effort that was viewed by many Republicans and Democrats as a way to relax sanctions without congressional approval.

A few days ago, Tillerson announced he was appointing a new special envoy, Kurt Volker, to help settle the dispute in Ukraine in part at the request of Putin. And Russian officials believed they had made progress in Putin's meeting with Trump.

Volker sat in the front row as Tillerson spoke Sunday, and he was to remain in Kiev after Tillerson departed to discuss how to enforce the largely ignored Minsk accord agreed in 2015 that envisioned a way out of the Ukraine impasse.

Tillerson, who was the only other senior U.S. official in Trump's meeting with the Russian president, declined to say whether Trump accepted Putin's denials that Russia was involved in efforts to influence the 2016 election.

His Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, told reporters after the meeting in Hamburg, Germany, that Trump had been persuaded by Putin's arguments.

Election hacks

When pressed on the question, Tillerson used language he had used Friday night, calling the election hacks the "first topic for discussion."

"In all candidness, we did not expect an answer other than the one we received," he said Sunday. "And so I think that was about the way we expected the conversation to go."

Trump has frequently expressed doubts about Russia's involvement in hacking the servers of the Democratic National Committee and compromising the email accounts of prominent Democratic operatives, dismissing the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies as politicized in the Obama era.

"I don't know if we will ever come to an agreement, obviously, with our Russian counterparts on that," Tillerson said. "I think the important thing is how do we assure that this doesn't happen again."

The two sides last week in Hamburg announced a new effort focused on avoiding interference in elections and curbing cybersabotage, which Tillerson said will start modestly with discussions about "a framework under which we might begin to have agreement on how to deal with these very complex issues of cyberthreats, cybersecurity, cyberintrusions."
LAS VEGAS - The U.S. arrest of a young British cybersecurity researcher is raising major concerns among information security specialists, leading some to warn it could limit cooperation between the U.S. government and computer experts needed to help fight off future cyberattacks.

Marcus Hutchins was arrested in Las Vegas on Wednesday for allegedly creating and selling malicious software able to collect bank account passwords.

Many in the security community rallied behind the 22-year-old British hacker, whose quick thinking helped control the spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled thousands of computers around the world in May.

Others reserved judgment as they waited for more evidence that might justify his prosecution.

Computer law expert Tor Ekeland described the evidence so far as flimsy.

"This is a very, very problematic prosecution to my mind, and I think it's bizarre that the United States government has chosen to prosecute somebody who's 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. "This is just bizarre; it creates a disincentive for anybody in the information security industry to cooperate with the government."

Hutchins, who worked for Los Angeles security firm Kryptos Logic, was detained in Las Vegas as he was returning to his home in southwest Britain from Def Con, 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.

He was scheduled to appear at a Friday afternoon court hearing after two nights spent at a local lockup.

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, to sell the malware and to profit from it.

The indictment also accuses Hutchins of creating the malware.

The problem with software creation, however, is that often a program can include code written by multiple programmers. Prosecutors might need to prove that Hutchins wrote code with specific targets.

U.S. Justice Department officials on Friday declined to answers questions.

The FBI's Milwaukee field office, which led the two-year investigation, didn't return requests for comment.

Ekeland said it is notable the indictment doesn't allege any financial loss to any victims - or 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. "Which again is problematic because in my opinion of this, if the legal theory behind this indictment is correct, well then half of the United States software industry is potentially a bunch of felons."
AUSTIN - A bill that would require Texas' largest cities to hold a public vote before they annex surrounding property received final approval on Sunday.

Moving generally along party lines, senators voted 21 to 10 in accepting House amendments to Senate Bill 6. The changes mean the bill will cover only cities of 500,000 or more, instead of most mid-sized and smaller cities.

Those smaller cities could, however, opt to be covered by the new law, giving citizens whom they plan to annex a chance to vote.

"This is a great bill  a huge victory for property rights and Texas," said state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels.

A filibuster killed a similar bill - but without the 500,000 limit - during the final hours of the regular legislative session in May, amid opposition from San Antonio, Austin and other cities that contended it could limit their ability to grow.

The Senate-approved measure includes a provision that will allow cities to control development within a 5-mile buffer around military bases, a key concern of San Antonio officials as they seek to ensure that its large concentration of bases in the Alamo City.

Some senators questioned why all cities were not covered by the final version. The Senate earlier approved a bill without any limit, but the House added wording to cover only cities of 500,000 or more.

"The people of Texas deserve the same level of protection, and it's disappointing that not everyone will be covered," said state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood.

The bill now goes to Gov. Greg Abbott to be signed into law. Abbott earlier indicated he supported allowing public votes on annexation, and Senate supporters indicated Sunday he likely will sign it into law.

Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, opposed approving the bill with the House revisions, saying it will cause problems in his hometown. He was among those voting against the final version.

In other developments in the Capitol, the House on Sunday night delayed a final vote on a property tax overhaul bill until Monday, at the request of its lead sponsor, state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Angleton.

Bonnen said he and his House colleagues needed time to negotiate with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his chief of staff.

The House and Senate have different versions of over how much to cap the amount cities and counties can raise their effective tax rates.

State law enables cities and counties to raise the effective rate by 8 percent before voters can petition for a rollback election to block the increase. The Senate has proposed capping the rate at 4 percent and forcing local governments into an automatic election if they go beyond that. The House on Saturday gave initial approval to a 6 percent rate.

The House approved Bonnen's motion for a delayed vote after he clashed with state Rep. Matt Schaefer, a Tyler Republican who urged a no vote. He said it's likely the House and Senate will appoint a committee to try to resolve differences between the bills, and he said there was no reason not to take a vote Sunday night.

"Can't we walk and chew gum at the same time?" Schaefer asked. Bonnen replied that a final vote would imperil the negotiations with the Senate and he noted that House members traditionally have honored requests by a bill sponsor to delay action.

"This bill does not belong to you; it belongs to the people of Texas," Schaefer replied.

By a voice vote, the House also gave preliminary approval to a Senate bill that would extend the work of a task force that is examining why so many mothers in Texas are dying after delivering babies.

The House amended the bill to expand the Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Task Force from 15 to 17 members, adding a nurse specializing in labor and delivery, and a physician specializing in critical care.

The task force is set to expire in 2019, but the bill by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, would extend tits work to September 2023. The bill is aimed at addressing Texas' high death rate for women delivering babies. The state had 35.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014 compared with 23.8 for the rest of the country, according to a national report.
AUSTIN -- With just three days left before the lights go out on the current special legislative session, bills on school-finance and property-tax reform remain the final sticking points in a simmering fight that threatens to derail other issues.

Bottom line: The Senate is holding up passage of a key school-finance bill until the House passes its high-priority property tax overhaul, which the House is delaying until the school bill passes.

House leaders are concerned that the Senate might tack a bathroom-bill amendment onto the school bill, House Bill 21, a change they say will kill the measure in the House. Even though Senate Education Committee Chairman Larry Taylor has said he will oppose any such amendment, House members are wary.

Senate leaders want a a 4 percent-trigger for rollback elections in the property-tax bill, Senate Bill 1, and the House wants to stick with 6 percent.

The House delayed its vote on that bill from Sunday until Monday afternoon, and the Senate held off on voting out the school bill -- mostly because negotiations over how much funding should be approved to pay for the measure.

The House wanted $1.9 billion, the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday voted only $311 million -- setting off an intense back-and-forth behind closed doors over a final number. Leaders in both legislative chambers said they were optimistic the difference can be resolved by Wednesday.

At mid-morning on Monday, leaders in both chambers predicted here's how the final days of the session may play out: The school finance number will be agreed to, and the bill will then be approved by the Senate without the bathroom bill.

Feeling better about the Senate, the House will then vote on the property tax bill at the 6 percent rollback rate -- queuing up negotiations between the two legislative chambers on a final version.

The one-two-three progression between the two chambers that don't much trust each other would happen much like the state budget was passed in the last days of the regular session that ended in May, according to lawmakers involved in the talks in both chambers.

At the same time, other bills such as ones on maternal mortality and end-of-life decisions will then start being voted on, perhaps later Monday, that could result in up to at least four additional bills being approved during the special.

Abbott wanted bills on 20 priority issues approved. By Monday, five approved bills were on their way to his desk.
AUSTIN -- In a sign of unity, every member of the Texas House of Representatives circled around the front podium of the chamber to denounce violence that erupted in Virginia over the weekend stemming from a rally hosted by white nationalists who clashed with counter protesters, with one lawmaker vowing to oppose a similar rally planned at Texas A&M next month.

"Carrying torches on Friday night, on Saturday they filled the streets with venom, with bigotry and with violence," said Rep. Helen Giddings, a Democrat from DeSoto, as more than 100 members stood around her.

"We must make clear that the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, the white nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan and their enablers are not welcome here. Again, this is not Republican versus Democrat, or even white versus black. This is about right versus wrong," she declared.

The protests began over the city of Charlottesville's decision to remove a statute of Robert E. Lee, devolving into violence Saturday, including brawls between protesters a car ramming into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalists. One woman was killed and 19 people were injured from the crash.

Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, urged the leadership at Texas A&M University to find a way to stop a similar rally scheduled for Sept. 11 on campus.

Said Workman: "I wanted to add, members of this House who are Aggie Alumni strongly condemn the notion that they reduce our campus to further these bad ideas and we as Aggies in the House call for Chancellor Sharp to try to intervene and to try to keep this from happening on our campus and using our campus to try to further these kind of hate ideas.

"We will be having a letter that will be signed by the Aggies in this House to ask that to happen and to keep this from going on at our campus," he added.

Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Frisco, last month filed a bill offering civil protections to drivers "exercising due care" who hit protesters blocking traffic in the public right-of-way. Sunday, Fallon said the man who drove into the crowd in Charlottesville committed murder, and chastised people angry at his legislation.

"To the hundred or so alt left folks that contacted us with outrageous hate (so much for tolerance): What happened in [Virginia] was atrocious and yes it was murder,' read a comment he posted to his Facebook account Sunday. "Any leveled headed American would condemn it as I do."

Fallon continued: "We need to take care to be consistent and condemn all racism and hate. It's ugly, counter productive and pointless. We can love those we disagree with it. Unfortunately the media seems to have preferential victims depending on their agenda. That's sad. At the end of the day we are all broken-hearted that this young lady's life was taken far too soon and in such a horrifically evil way. Our prayers are with her family and friends."

The legislation -- House Bill 250 -- won't pass during the special session that is expected to adjourn Wednesday. Not only has the bill languished in a legislative committee, but it is not one of the 20 issues Gov. Greg Abbott directed lawmakers to tackle during the 30-day special session.

Andrea Zelinski covers politics and education for the Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com.
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"The union learned only last week that the cameras also record sound, and that NZ Post management has been downloading and secretly eavesdropping on the private conversations recorded without the knowledge of the employees."

Maynard also said the issue went beyond the workplace as any members of the public who interacted with posties or were talking near one of the new Paxster vehicles would also have been recorded.

"Householders standing on their own doorsteps may also have their conversations with their posties being recorded without their knowledge," he said.

NZ Post initially defended the recordings as industry standard but has since suspended the practice following a consultation with the companys legal counsel.

"Considering the impact this is having we have chosen to, as of today, to cease recording the audio, acting general manager matt Riordan said in a statement.
The youth demographic is on the rise. We cannot ignore the case in many parts of the world that the majority of the society is under 30. The youth are not just the future as the cliche goes, they are the present. This means that they need to be included and embedded in processes taking place now, not as token representations but with agency and influence. And it's not like they do not want that engagement.

The recent Varkey Foundation study is testament to this urgency. It exudes cautious optimism about the attitudes and opinions of the generation that will shape the next few decades. Despite the rise of populist movements which focusses on differences, the survey paints young people as wanting to bridge differences. The survey also points to young people having a greater commitment to doing something to contribute to their societies and their world. There is anger in our youth, impatient with the lack of progress being made on tackling this and also frustrated by being shut out. Surveys like this help to make the case for not only recognising the role of young people but also doing something about being part of the change. This is important as we consider the state of the world.

For all the relative calmness and progress of the second half of the 20th Century and the early years of the 21st, we still see a world that is hurting due to increased fragility - fragility that is globalising at the pace of our fast-evolving world.

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Figures show that the world has become less peaceful since 2008, largely attributed to the rise of conflicts within states, the rise of terrorism, and increasing levels of criminality. The battlefields of today are everywhere: they are not defined by geography; they are not places like Verdun and Waterloo and Solferino. The battlefields of today are on our streets, in our hospitals, in our schools, in our places of worship. There may not be a World War, yet we are still a world at war.

So in the lead up to International Youth Day this year on 12th August with its theme 'Youth Building Peace', it is important we re-dedicate efforts once again to seeing how youth are part of and take the lead in building peace. Young people are agents for peace, engaged in transforming the structures and institutions that hinder the socio- economic and political well-being of people living in fragile and conflict affected communities as pointed out by a recent report on the role of young people in peacebuilding. They are often first responders and disproportionately affected by conflict taking a long time to build back better.

So, we need to do more to invest and engage with them but this requires a holistic approach. First though, we need to remove the prejudice that many of us have when it comes to engaging young people. We must stop thinking that they are apolitical - more interested in following the latest instalment of a reality TV programme than in engaging with the serious questions of the world around them. We should channel their enthusiasm to express and get involved. However we must be honest about this approach. We need to give them the space to be innovative and shape or rethink new models for the communities and societies in which they live - maybe outside the globalised economic and "social" system that they will inherit from their elders and previous generations. In doing this, we have to answer some hard questions about whether we are ready for that and what it will take for each one of us to work together towards a fairer world for all of us. In short we have to be prepared for a hard shift in how we work and engage.

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In December 2015, the United Nations Security Council recognized the efforts of young people with a unanimous vote on UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security (UNSCR 2250). UNSCR 2250 sets guidelines for its member states, the UN and civil society to ensure young people's active, systematic and meaningful participation in institutions and mechanisms relating to peace and security.

However like many things, the devil is in the detail as well as in the will to get this participation.

A lot has to be done to ensure that we get the full engagement and investment. This is not only the responsibility of the youth to push for this as they inherit the problems that we create but also our collective responsibility to ensure that we do not hand something that we would not want to inherit.

Youth can no longer be 'represented' but have to be mainstreamed, included, nurtured, listened to, consulted and worked with in partnership with. This is the call that is most loud and one we need to support.
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The Taliban will not be defeated militarily. This is an unfortunate reality, but a reality it is. It does not mean that Afghanistan is 'lost'. It means that 'winning the war' can no longer be the guiding principle for policymakers. The collective commitment must now be 'winning the peace'.

Thankfully, most people finally recognise that there is no war to win - only one to lose. The eventual solution is now seen as a negotiated settlement, i.e. a peace process involving political engagement with the Taliban. Yes, a bitter pill to swallow but an important departure point on the path to peace.

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So what next?

The prevailing assumption is that the next step is getting face-to-face negotiations underway. The attempts of the 2015 Murree peace talks and the 2016 'Quadrilateral' format both failed but they were a step in the right direction because the logical extension of 'no military solution' is to get each side around a table and they'll thrash out some sort of deal, right?

Wrong.

A singular focus on 'the table' is a recipe for failure. Afghanistan is not ready for formal negotiations. Urgency is understandable but we are trying to jump straight from the 'no military solution' departure point directly to the final task of formal negotiations. We forget the critical interim steps. We forget that successful peace processes involve far more than negotiations. Peace, after all, is a process and not an event.

Look at Northern Ireland, Colombia, Indonesia or elsewhere. Formal negotiations were built on long, intense sequences of internal consensus-building, indirect communication, informal dialogue, talks-about-talks, ceasefires and confidence-building measures. Before parties negotiated peace, they built trust between negotiators. They negotiated frameworks and strategies for offsetting spoilers. They agreed seating, documentation, media engagement and many other pre-negotiation issues. Years of intensive preparation created environments where negotiations could a) happen and b) be successful.

Afghan peace efforts have lacked these foundational steps. We have been trying to press towards the endgame via a series of sensational 'table meetings' instead of establishing a structured process. This needs to change. Going forward, some 'process-builders' could be:

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Degrade the 'Surrender-Narrative': 'Peace' is currently synonymous to 'surrender'. It must be reframed as a process of change or enhancement for all - not a return to pre-war life. Increase Understanding of the Opposing Narrative: Since 2001 the Taliban have been demonised to the point where engagement is seen as betrayal. While understandable, this must change. The problem is not talking to armed opponents but giving in to them. Understanding their demands is not forgiving or forgetting the past but being pragmatic about the future. Acknowledge the Taliban's Political Legitimacy: A peace process requires creating a framework not to stop differences but to address them peacefully. The Taliban will have to be accepted as a legitimate political actor. This does not mean trusting them or committing to their worldview but accepting that they are entitled to have a worldview. If their narrative is dismissed, the signal will be that they will also be dismissed from other parts of a peaceful society - hardly a scenario that encourages them to rescind violence. Build domestic consensus: No actor can currently articulate what 'peace' actually entails. Unless the absence of a shared Afghan vision is rectified, peace will be elusive. Negotiators need to know what they are negotiating for. Formalise the Use of Intermediaries: The tribal/political landscape of Afghanistan provides considerable scope for using intermediaries. Many volunteers have and will continue to try and play that role. Yet to date they have neither been credible to both sides nor able to work in ways that appeal to the interests of both. Signal Intent with Indirect/Informal Dialogue: A cavernous trust-deficit exists in Afghanistan. The Taliban see the government's peace strategy merely as an extension of the war strategy, i.e. an effort to achieve military victory or surrender. This has to be overcome to have serious negotiations. Signals of peaceful intent via statements, position papers or press articles can reduce suspicion. Informal dialogue helps and already happens but it should be built into familiarisation, trust-building and eventually 'talks about talks'. Confidence-Building Measures: CBMs demonstrate that engagement and compromise is worthwhile. An option for Afghanistan is localised ceasefires. They can demonstrate that opponents are talking and that they can make agreements. Reductions in violence would inflate civilian belief that peace is possible. This can encourage reciprocal goodwill gestures from opponents and force politicians to commit to peace. Incentivise Engagement: Despite widespread calls for the Taliban to come to the table, the incentive remains unclear, especially with their increased battlefield gains. Nobody is currently able to put a proposal on the table, let alone one so attractive that they cannot afford to walk away. We need a better idea of what they actually want, beyond broad concepts. Otherwise it will remain difficult to convince them that their goals can be achieved at the table in a less costly manner than on the battlefield. Increase Robustness: Hyper-competitive Afghan politics means that peace efforts are easily derailed. Few, if any, Afghan leaders have the political space to stay-the-course in the face of extremists, atrocities and spoilers. Peace needs to be ingrained as the eventual - and only - way forward. It must monopolise the public mind-set so when negotiations begin, a step towards the enemy is a response to public demand and not desperation or surrender.

While not exhaustive, this list highlights ways that Afghanistan can start building a process. A focus on getting to the table is needed but peace is more than a singular event or a series of meetings. So while 'step 1' was recognition of no military solution and 'step 2' was recognising the need for political engagement with the Taliban, however well-intentioned or seemingly logical, 'step 3' is not direct negotiations.
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It's 2017 and I'm scared. If we didn't have enough to deal already with Brexit, Trump, North Korea's increasing threatening stance on Missiles, we now have to deal with a bunch of white supremacists declaring they are better than anybody else just because of the colour of their skin.

Doesn't it sound like we are going back in time rather than looking forward? What makes it possible for people to believe they are better than anybody else? When will the violence end?

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I'm White British and I have never believed that I am better than anybody because of the colour of my skin. If you have a Brummie accent, a lisp and wear hearing aids, you tend to come down to earth with a bump. Hell, having a Brummie accent tends to come with its own disadvantages. In fact, I believe if people believe they are better than anybody else, this tends to come with a stinking whiff of their own insecurities.

I'm not naive and I know violence will never end. There will always be someone inciting hatred for reasons often unknown (their insecurities, for fun, ignorance etc.) and you can never fight hatred with hatred.

The story of Heather Heyer has stuck a chord with me. If this event ever happened in the UK, it could have easily have been me or anybody else I know. From all of her friends accounts, they all say Heather stood up against all types of discrimination, often posted messages on Facebook promoting equality and love and activism meant for her to 'get out in your community and do things'. Heather sounds right up my street because in the fight against hate, we need more people like her. We need more people to speak out against all type of discrimination because if you don't call it out when you hear it, you are condoning it.

It doesn't matter if you aren't disabled, a POC, lqbt because we are all, in the end, human. We all have all the same feelings and deserve to be treated with respect regardless of our position in society.

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If your reading this, you might think I'm preaching and do I actually do it myself? I do attempt to call out discrimination but it can be still shocking when you hear it. I'm lucky, I've had a year abroad so I have a broader understanding and patience of different cultures. I can understand why people do believe their better than others because I believe this mainly comes down to ignorance as well. They have a fundamental lack of understanding of different cultures.

How many times have we heard that Islam supports violence every time there has been a terrorist attack? How many times has there been an increase in hate crimes against innocent Muslims? How many times has the Daily Mail/The Sun used sensational headlines exploiting Islam just to gain readers?

I have never read the Quran but after a quick five minute Google search, even I can understand that Islam does not condone violence. Yet, how many people still believe the Quran promotes violence even if all it would take is a quick Google search?

Ignorance and a lack of education is the fundamental reason why people believe they are better than others. I'm not going to pretend I know what the answer is to solve the issue other than calling out discrimination when I hear it.

There is always going to be violence but if we all call it out when we see it, we can all help to end it. As Heather Heyer's last Facebook post says, 'If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention'.

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Heather, I'm paying attention and I am outraged.
A couple of years ago I went on a fact-finding visit to Majorca. I had been approached by local people throughout the island, wanting to highlight the problems they were facing from tourism. As you leave Palma Airport, one of the first things you see is a large office block emblazoned with the logo of a major European Tour Operator. Throughout the island, you cannot escape the various logos of travel companies and their sponsorship of public events. Everywhere is a testament to one of the greatest industries on the planet and the logistical success of their operations. I subsequently and perhaps wistfully observed that the island had been colonised by an industry and that it was difficult to see its real possibilities.

This beautiful island however hid and continues to hide some uncomfortable truths. The effect of tourism was and continues to have a profound effect on those who live on the island, from crowded roads, housing, stresses on water supplies, concerns on the sustainability of the coastline and its waters, to the growth of mega-all-inclusive resorts and the very real presence of crime, seducing our young travellers through the industrial-scale operations of bars and clubs, offering hedonism by stealth.

For several years, local people throughout Majorca have been protesting about the lack of attention the authorities have paid to these very real problems, made even more difficult by a major influx of tourists whose choice of destinations have been limited by acts of terror.

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Whilst the island, and indeed Spain, enjoys this tourist boom, the pressure-points that local people complain about have become more evident. Their voice has been raised to a crescendo through the actions of a group called Arran. Whilst we can debate the rights and wrongs of their tactics and public statements, the real people who live in and around these tourist centres are still not being heard.

Take for example the words of Almundena Lopez Diaz, a resident of Barcelona, who cites the rise of illegally operating apartments, rising prices for food and drink and a sense that local people are being priced out of Barcelona in favour of the tourist. Despite these problems, she comments that "86.7 per cent of locals see tourism as a positive thing, but many think it needs to be further regulated".

The issue of 'tourist saturation' is however a point that exists closer to home on the Isle of Skye. This pristine island is now receiving calls for help from islanders, to deal with the massive surge in tourist numbers. Holidaymakers are attracted by the 'locations' used by film and television companies and its lost-world atmosphere. Complaints have ranged from clogged roads, pressure on housing, because of the rise of holiday lettings, and up to 30 cruise ships arriving in the small bay of Portree, disgorging their cargo for the next round of island tours. The VisitScotland's Regional Director points out the obvious financial advantages to the local economy but acknowledges that, "I understand these issues. They're very real for people and very immediate, and it does have an impact", supporting a call for solutions.

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The respected travel writer Simon Calder however highlights what I have been arguing for some time, that local and national politicians have it within their remit to control the excesses of cruises ships, drunken people, protection of their resources or a 'saturation' of crowds. He argues action could lead to a 'time-shift' of holidaymakers' habits, thereby leading to a more balanced visitor number. Where we perhaps disagree is on the claim that 'tourism is killing Mallorca' - Simon thinks that it has actually revived the island; I hold the view that the patient is on the critical list!

Simon Kettle also highlights the pressure-points in Venice, Dubrovnik, Skye and Barcelona and observes that "We may not be an infestation yet. But we are a problem. Travel can narrow the mind too". Elizabeth Becker astutely observes that "Only governments can handle runaway tourism...without serious and difficult government co-ordination, mayhem can follow".

For the people of Majorca and elsewhere, these are serious issues and in the face of political inaction, the likelihood of further protest is real and likely to capture a political agenda if not negatively affect the travel product. Tourism is however already a major player in the political agenda of the European Union; it takes centre-stage of the Lisbon Treaty, which embodies the ambition that European Tourism is a major growth industry that can lead to economic prosperity.
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Over the weekend the city of Charlottesville in Virginia, USA was plunged into a state of emergency thanks to a bunch far-right fanatics who dubbed their march 'Unite The Right'. The march which was organised by white nationalist movements was in response to plans to remove a statue of a US Civil War general, Robert E Lee who is widely reported to have been pro-slavery. The protests were met by a police presence and counter demonstrators.

There was a number of violent clashes with police launching tear gas and making a number of arrests, meanwhile, a vehicle was driven into a crowd of counter protesters. It was not immediately clear how many people had been injured. The far-right protesters arrived waving Confederate and even Nazi flags with some even brandishing shields, helmets and guns like pound shop soldiers.

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From a UK perspective, the scenes of the characters dressed up in military gear with big guns were particularly frightening, partly because if you walked the streets waving a gun on UK soil you'd be in a cell before you knew it. We've experienced minimal efforts at right wing marches from the likes of the EDL and Britain First in recent years but often, especially in Liverpool, they're run out of town or into a dingy, back street pub by counter-demonstrators pretty swiftly.

This isn't a new phenomenon, America knows it and Britain knows it. Donald Trump eventually appeared on twitter stating " We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one!" and later added "Charlottesville sad!" which was interesting given that the vast majority of the 'Unite The Right' protesters are Trump lovers.

Since entering the race to become the next President, Trump has not held back and much of it's been very much pandering to the kind of people found at the 'Unite The Right' rally. In fact, in the run up to the election, a leader of the Virginia KKK spoke in support of Trump claiming "The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes, we believe in" and for good measure here are 13 Examples Of Donald Trump Being Racist.

You would have to be pretty out of the political or current affairs loop to miss how Donald Trump has incubated hatred and the alt-right since he began his campaign to become president. His taking of office has been a huge blow to progress, freedom and tolerance which has been felt across the world. It's given figures across the right a new found confidence which has encouraged a rise in the alt-right and their activities. We saw similar effects following the EU referendum which saw reported hate crime soar by 23% in contrast to previous years which had seen hate crime drop as much as 17%.

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In what should be considered the worst news for the oil industry the IEA has announced that there are approximately 230 million more barrels of oil in storage than previously believed.

According to the IEA, China accounted for over 25 percent of a reassessment of non-OECD demand in 2016, slashing it by a heavy 420,000 barrels per day. Approximately 157 million barrels of oil were unaccounted for, which means they were placed in storage somewhere. The remaining inventory increase came from various demand reassessments the IEA made for 2015.

The IEA and most other analysts were focused on the OECD numbers and not accounting for the rest of the global oil market. The consequence is that more oil will need to be drawn down before the market rebalances.

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The revelation explains the weak response of the price to the cuts and flips the rebalancing strategy on its head. The process needs to start all over again when measuring production against the stockpile level of early 2014.

Bloomberg reports the miscalculation means there is "almost 25 percent" more inventory than was thought to be in place at the beginning of 2014. Another 1 million barrels per day in production cuts will have to be put in place to draw down that much in a six-month period.

With OPEC compliance faltering under the existing deal, and Russia showing little interest in cutting more production, it's dubious as to what will be done going forward, even if the terms of the deal are changed on paper and announced in the media.

Under normal market conditions, even with shale supply, there should have been a little more support for oil prices above $40 - 50 dollars. Demand has not been climbing because some countries are still drawing down excessive inventory which the market had not taken into account.

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The news will leave investors and NOCs reassessing their positions as prices will remain lower for longer. Companies in the upstream will need to focus on their debt, margins and free cash flow. Businesses in the downstream may have an advantage.

Decisions made on faulty data will need to be recalculated on an entirely different scenario. Instead of drawing down inventory and hoping for price rises, the market has been doing nothing much more than treading water.

If participants in the oil production cut want to balance the market quicker, the only way is to cut output at a higher and faster pace. This is happening at a time when the resolve of the participants is weakening, and oil production from Libya, which is exempt from the deal, has been soaring.

With its revisions, the IEA has cut the demand for oil in the current quarter by 800,000 barrels per day. This comes on the back of an increase in OPEC production of 200,000 barrels per day in July.

The IEA has now projected oil inventory to climb in this quarter and thinks there will be a modest draw in the last quarter. Taking it all into account, the second half for stockpiles will remain unchanged. With OPEC alone, current production levels would add another 170 million barrels to global oil inventories, representing six times what the drawdown will be for all of 2017.

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Today it has emerged that the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has had a 44,000 taxpayer funded bathroom installed in his London office. While Jeremy has denied these claims and said that he asked for the bathroom to be installed for the use of walkers and cyclists, read more in The Telegraph article here

Whatever the truth about the bathroom is, I remain angry. While Jeremy may have got his bathroom, my daughter who attends many NHS appointments does not have a toilet facility that she can use in her local hospital when attending outpatients departments or when visiting loved ones. The Department of Health are aware of this fact, and yet nothing, for us, has changed...

The problem for my daughter is that she needs a "Changing Places" toilet with adult changing bench, toilet and hoist. She is not alone. People living with many conditions need these facilities, people with cerebral palsy, people with cancer, people who have had a stroke, amongst many other different conditions. All of these people have the need to attend outpatients appointments on a regular basis. Therefore when I first emailed the Department of Health with our difficulties I rather naively thought that lack of amenities was due to a lack of awareness. However, the response I received from the Department of Health was as follows: "As hospitals are responsible for running their own facilities, the Department would not intervene in the provision of these facilities at hospitals. I can only suggest that you raise your concerns with individual hospital trusts." They also sent me a link to a list of all the English NHS Trusts.

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Now while Jeremy has got his own bathroom, we are still waiting for ours (I have emailed all the Trusts as directed by the Department of Health), but it is a long process of emailing, chasing up and then chasing up again... In 2016 there were less than 40 hospitals in the entire UK with a registered Changing Place toilet facility.

This means that in hospitals throughout the UK there are people sitting in their own urine/faeces while attending outpatients or visiting loved ones. Parents are changing their loved ones on toilet floors or other inappropriate places because there is no other alternative offered to them. I also have evidence of people self medicating to avoid toilet use when visiting hospital.

The really sad thing here is that people are being put at real risk all day, every day when using the NHS. Carers are being expected to use manual moving and handling techniques to lift their loved ones in hospitals using techniques that are prohibited for nurses and health care workers, in the same hospitals, because they are recognised to be harmful to the carer and the person being cared for. If a person with a disability is unable to be lifted by their carer then they are at a higher risk of gaining a pressure ulcer. Lastly the fact that people are having continence products changed in inappropriate places due to the lack of a real alternative, and yes we're talking toilet floors and the back of cars here, is that people are being put at a real risk of infection. All of the above is completely at odds with the hospital protocols that are in place to protect inpatients. While Changing Places toilets are so few and far between in our hospitals and clinics this will continue to occur on a daily basis. It is time for change and the NHS needs to lead by example.

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Sayulita in July is hot. Local expats take great delight in telling us this is nothing compared to August and September, when the rain really starts to fall and humidity levels sky rocket. It is not, we are told, for the fair of skin or the faint of heart. As an Irish girl with freckled skin and a body temperature that I'm convinced reads higher than the national average, I take heed and plan my voyage north. The daily struggle to meet the day with so much as a single iota of cool begins to wear thin pretty fast and besides the wedding of one of my All Star gal pals was due to take place in the Rockies. From surfing mecca to mountain extremities with mozzies as the only constant.

So it was with a stroke of great fortune I got to ride out the last of my Sayulita days cocooned within the quiet surrounds of the Kupuri Hotel, lounging poolside and rising early to avail of the complimentary continental breakfast spread. Cereal never tasted so good.

Cushioned between Emiliano's, where the lovable David serves up possibly the best fried fish tacos known to the hungry-man and the gringo party failsafe Su Casa, Hotel Kupuri is well situated for a more sophisticated Sayulita stay that allows for a convenient, laid back respite from a town that is known to get a little chaotic and steamy at times.

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"Kupuri" translates to "soul" in the Huichol language - the indigenous dialect of the people in the state of Nayarit on whose coastline Sayulita idly rests. Indeed, fewer things in life are more soul-fulfilling than that of a daily housekeeping service working to keep your en suite room spick 'n' span, the towels fluffed and the toiletry freebies topped up.

With room to breathe easy following a delicious sweat-free night's sleep (oh hi, air con) and a hot power-shower shooting jets of soothing agua, I get to thinking about what this little sliver of Mexican coastline has come to mean to me. I conclude that I can assuredly say, Sayulita I love you, but to my pre-beachside-dwelling self, here are just a few pointers:

1. Initiation into local Sayulita society can only mean one thing - Mexicution by way of the beach boy. There is zero chance of escaping scot-free from the surfer grasp so give up the good fight, succumb immediately, and promptly forget "the rules" as instructed by every glossy mag you've ever read for they don't apply here (these guys are masters). Simply go with it but accept when it abruptly ends; and end it will without so much as a word and you must gracefully move on. Hear that, simply move along now girl.

2. Rejoice in the fact that you will no longer have to applaud the highly-coveted avocado as is the custom at home and beyond, for here it is still simply considered a humble dip-concocting ingredient. Placing the word "smashed" in front of it does not translate to an instant 3 mark-up on the menu price to your poached eggs on a Sunday morning. Refreshing.

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3. Bid a sad farewell to bottles of red wine, far too taxing on the purse strings. Here the 1 Pacifico and tequila freebies reign supreme; hello jelly (beer) belly - sadly a fate not at all conducive to the bikini beach bod but such are life's battles.

4. Lament the absence of Superdrug and all its many lotions and potions but hail the food stall of "Mary Bridget". Why myself and my sister took to calling this Mexican matriarch Mary Bridget is anyone's guess but the woman sure knows how to sell her fare at a price that's pocket-smackingly pleasing.

5. Berate yourself for thinking that anything short of 27 bikinis in your backpack was acceptable. Fool.

6. Accept that you too will grow fondly acquainted with the high five/fist pump. Expect it to become second nature despite all initial resistance and cheesy 80's movies' flashbacks. Chido guey.

7. Understand and learn once and for all that music men are never, EVER, under any circumstances safe to go near. You are not Penny Lane. Their black magic will swallow you whole. Find other "friends" to band aid.

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8. Prepare to sport a new permanent all over physical glow. Your body will pump sweat at a rate you didn't think possible so go easy on yourself in those yoga stretch attempts, hot stuff. But also breathe a sigh of relief to learn that you will not reek like those post-5th-year-double-gym-class-changing-rooms. Small mercies.

9. You will meet oodles of folk only too happy to help you in your lifelong mission to speak Spanish like a local. Move beyond the "la cuenta, por favor", make the call and show up, always show up.

10. Sayulita may feel like it breeds a clash of cultures at times but be prepared to meet some of the best people of your life with stories so far removed from your own that you are humbled to be along for this joy ride. "Love us".

11. And finally, know that there will come a night when you will wake to a cockroach scuttling manically across the sole of your foot, hurling you out of your bed with the knowledge that you will never unfeel that feeling again. Take comfort in the fact it didn't nestle in your hair, the horror.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images

Charlottesville, Virginia is home to the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson; he was a slave owner, but today stands as a symbol of the US's egalitarian ethos and political myth. But on August 12, some seven months into Donald Trump's presidency, Charlottesville saw a far uglier side of the US on display: a Unite the Right rally bringing together people and organisations who resented the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate Civil War general, Robert E Lee.

On the eve of the rally, the university's Charlottesville campus became the site of a march of torch-bearing white supremacists, evoking the Klan rallies seen throughout the 20th century. Tense clashes between marchers and counter-protesters ensued, and the next day, the rally itself turned violent.

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Radical right marchers turned up along with citizen militia groups (their guns on full display thanks to open carry legislation) and clashed with anti-fascist and other groups who stood up to them. Then 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr ploughed his car into a group of protesters, and has now been charged with the second degree murder of Heather Heyer, who died after he ran into her.

The context for these events is as old as the US itself. The country was borne of violence: a revolution that overthrew British rule, violent suppression of the Native American population, a violent Civil War that took over 600,000 lives, and a philosophy of "manifest destiny" that expanded the American nation across a continent.

Much of this violence was social and political. The Civil War has been seen as the true American revolution; it pitted a social and political order based on rugged individualistic capitalism against one of plantation economics and strong social hierarchy, including the system of slavery. The southern model was defeated, the slaves emancipated, and Confederate leaders and sympathisers left to mourn their project as a "lost cause". But the culture of white supremacy was far from defeated, and radical right-wing social movements and organisations have troubled the US ever since.

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The most notorious group, the Ku Klux Klan, was borne of Southern Democrats' resentment of emancipation; over the years, it has been invigorated by other radical right groups founded on a powerful ideology of "Christian Identity", a commitment to the racial superiority of white people and a mission to secure white power and dominance. (The Southern Poverty Law Centre has spent decades documenting and mapping their prevalence, discourses and actions across the US.)

To this day, there are strong social elements in the south and elsewhere that resent the the outcome of the Civil War and the consequences of reconstruction. To them, those consequences include the enfranchisement of women, the Civil Rights movement, Supreme Court rulings such as Brown v Board of Education (which desegregated schools in 1954) and Roe v Wade (which legalised abortion in 1973), and the overall advance of a progressive social agenda - one that to them culminated in the election and presidency of Barack Obama.

This politics of resentment gathered steam during the Trump campaign, and as the events in Charlottesville demonstrate, it's now flourishing under his presidency.

Fanning the flames

During the 2016 campaign, Trump's rhetoric was caustic and divisive. He described differences between groups as if they were essential and irreduceable; he named Mexicans and Muslims as having special attributes, lesser qualities, and who were in need of special measures, such as a "complete shutdown" on Muslims entering the US and a 2,000-mile border wall to keep out Mexican "rapists and murderers".

His rhetoric also legitimised interpersonal violence more generally. He boasted that he could shoot someone and not lose votes, and encouraged participants at his rallies to use physical force against dissenters.

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Now he's president, Trump is trying to follow through on this rhetoric with executive orders and new legislation. This essentially gives licence to the US's radical right elements to pursue their ends more zealously - and tellingly, Trump's initial response to the events in Charlottesville was muted and non-specific.

Trump failed to name the right-wing violence as white supremacy, or to specifically condemn it; instead, he lamented the violence on all sides. The job of denouncing white supremacist racism was left to his daughter Ivanka and his vice-president, Mike Pence, who used much stronger language. After something of an outcry at his vague words, he finally took to Twitter to rail against "all that hate stands for".

Many asked why Trump did not unequivocally condemn the events. But to explicitly condemn these groups would alienate a significant portion of his electoral base - something specifically pointed out to him by former Klan leader David Duke.

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The protesters in Virginia, who came from across the US, closely resemble many who attended Trump rallies during the campaign - and much as he did post-Charlottesville, when asked by a journalist to specifically condemn the violence at those events, Trump declined.

While many of grievances Trump issued during the campaign are legitimate - the decline of the manufacturing, steel, and coal industries, decaying infrastructure, and so on - the rhetorical framing of the campaign galvanised a right-wing populism that had been in abeyance for much of the 1990s and early 2000s. In mid-2017, this dark side of populism is clearly very much awake.

Todd Landman, Professor of Political Science, Pro Vice Chancellor of the Social Sciences, University of Nottingham
Last year, my cousin (who is 10 days younger than me) got married. My friend announced that she was pregnant. And all while I was trying to figure out a way to cheat the system and keep my 16-25 Railcard.

In the UK, a so-called Young Person's Railcard allows people aged 16-25 to receive a third off travel. For so many years, my railcard was the way I traveled around expensive London at a very cheap price. When the realisation hit me that I had to surrender it, I literally felt like my whole world was crumbling around me. I know this may sound like a slight exaggeration, but hear me out.

From a young age I always knew that I wanted to be a performer. I did everything right. By age 14 I joined the prestigious BRIT school, by 16 I completed my training at the Royal Academy of Dance and received my grade 8 ballet certificate. By 18 I started my degree at Laban and by 21, I felt ready for the world - even if the world didn't feel ready for me.

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I worked hard to achieve all of my qualifications by 21, but felt so unequipped for the "real world"- especially as I wanted to enter into a career in the arts. Everyone around me told me how hard it was. But I felt determined. Audition after audition, year after year I got close- but not close enough. I wasn't enough. I wasn't tall enough, slim enough, well connected enough etc. I started to feel myself getting lost, stressed and really anxious about my future- especially as a lot of the great schemes were for 'young people aged 18-25'. By this point I was 24, and felt like I had spent three years doing the best of the unpaid work. Unsure of what to do, I turned to my mum and asked her

'When you were my age what did you?'

She responded, 'me and your father would split our days raising you'

Hearing this I was really blown away. By the time my mum and dad were my age (24) in the 1990s, they were raising a three year old; whereas I'm having an existential crisis about what I'm doing with my life. I'd love to say talking to my mum helped- but sadly I felt even more pressure to succeed.

I started asking other family and friends what their ancestors were doing by the age of 24/25, and heard stories like 'being freed from a concentration camp in Auschwitz', 'arriving to England from Jamaica on the Empire Windrush' and 'travelling the world opening churches'. So many of these stories resonated with me, because my ancestry is Nigerian and I know when my grandparents arrived in the UK their presence wasn't well received. The streets of London in the 60s were known for signs which read

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No Dogs

No Blacks

No Irish

I can't imagine living in a world where shops openly categorise my existence as though I were an animal. Can you?

The more I dug into my heritage, I found stories that brought me closer to Nigeria, rich stories which linked my name back to family's status in Africa. I found out that my name means 'the crowning'/'royality'. Hearing this changed my perspective on growing up, because I saw passing the threshold of 25 as a right of passage. I started to see it as a proof of my ancestors' strength. They battled so much adversity, which is well documented in history, and I have the ability to pass on that legacy to my children.

Creating my play Quarter Life Crisis, helped me feel more connected with who I am, where I have come from and where I am going. I may not be married (yet), or have a child (yet) but I appreciate that I get to fulfil the dreams of my ancestors who fought so that I can live the life that I have.
French soldiers patrol in armored vehicles, in the outskirts of Sevare, Mali, some 620 kms (385 miles) north of Bamako, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. The U.S. airlift of French forces to Mali to fight Islamic extremists is expected to go on for another two weeks, Pentagon officials said, as hundreds of African troops from Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso and Senegal are now joining the French-led intervention. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Refueling Wing KC-135 Stratotanker during an aerial refueling mission Sept. 10, 2012, over the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo Courtesy U.S. Air Force by /Senior Airman Ethan Morgan)

As reported here, the U.S. is providing strategic airlift support to the French military intervention in Mali -- lift that so far has delivered hundreds of French troops and hundreds of tons of supplies.

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The U.S. has also been providing intelligence data, including satellite imagery to the French.

One sticky point in American support to France has been "whether and how to supply American aerial refueling planes that would allow French jets to provide close-air support to ground forces moving north into territory held by the extremists."

French and American officials have been discussing this issue for several days and on Friday President Obama talked by phone with French President Hollande.

Following that call, Secretary Panetta spoke today to French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian to discuss U.S. support for the international community's efforts to deny terrorists a safe haven in Mali.

On Saturday, the Department of Defense announced that, after commending Minister Le Drian for France's strong leadership in the efforts to deny terrorists a safe haven in Mali, "Secretary Panetta informed Minister Le Drian that U.S. Africa Command will support the French military by conducting aerial refueling missions as operations in Mali continue."

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According to Pentagon Press Secretary George Little, "The leaders also discussed plans for the United States to transport troops from African nations, including Chad and Togo, to support the international effort in Mali. Secretary Panetta and Minister Le Drian resolved to remain in close contact as aggressive operations against terrorist networks in Mali are ongoing."

The aerial refueling issue is a specially sensitive one as it "would bring the American involvement to a new level, directly supporting military attacks" and "for Mr. Obama, who devoted part of his Inaugural Address on Monday to a celebration of the end of a war in Iraq and the winding down of the American commitment in Afghanistan, the prospect of getting involved in a conflict against a shadowy enemy far from the United States is unwelcome," according to the New York Times.

The Times adds:

Most of the reservations about whether Obama has the legal authority to engage in military operations were resolved, officials said, after it was determined that the main targets were linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. But the degree to which President Obama wants to get involved in Mali is still an open question, presenting the president and his national security team with the latest in a series of decisions about how heavily to intervene in remote conflicts.

The Washington Post, also reporting on this development, mentions that the French requests for more "robust support" from the U.S. raised a legal dilemma because "U.S. law forbids foreign assistance funds to leaders that came to power through a coup. Mali's military leaders, including some trained by U.S. troops, seized power."

But the Post adds:
Smart city, the new buzzword in the urban landscape, is expected to be a catalyst in transforming the way we live. What else do you call an integration of seamlessly connected systems, urban planning, smart infrastructure and operations in an environment geared to improve the quality of life for a citys population? Besides enriching the lives of its residents, a smart city should be sustainable and efficient at all levels. So, what is it that makes any city, a smart city?

Learning from some of the best smart cities in the world, lets look at, what we think are the 5 key pillars of any smart city:

Smart energy solutions: Smart cities make their energy consumption more efficient, reliable and green with the help of technology. They have well networked smart grids that not only reduce power consumption but also make it more cost-effective. The integration of IoT, automation and real-time demand response management systems hold the key to energy preservation.

Smart safety and security solutions: Rising population in urban cities has raised concerns about public safety and smart cities address them by adopting smart security measures. They are equipped with real-time monitoring systems and safety mechanisms like IP based video surveillance, drone based alarm systems, and rapid action team dispatch technology. Recent technological advances in advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and image processing can help in crowd monitoring and criminal identification.

Efficient infrastructure and transportation: Possibly the most important. A smart city cannot survive without a sound infrastructure. This includes connected modes of transport, modern road network and intelligent transport and traffic management solutions. Smart cities deploy IoT solutions for dynamic traffic management and to streamline movement for commuters, it provides tips on the best time to travel and alerts on the nearest available parking space.

E-governance: Smart cities utilize online services and greater community participation to bring about accountability and transparency. Mobile services and e-forums are used to reduce cost of services and provide faster services without actually going to government offices. Solutions like cloud-based applications may be used to provide on-demand services while ensuring data security.

Information and communication technology: Finally, none of the above is achievable without adoption of modern communication technologies. Smart cities utilize information and communications technology to scale up a citys workability, sustainability and livability. The proliferation of smartphones and 4G/5G technology has ensured that smart citizens are always connected and on the go, but the goal should be to make connectivity accessible to all citizens.

If you are wondering whether building a new smart city would be a better idea than revamping an old one  the answer is negative in the Indian context. Upgrading the existing cities using innovative technology is imperative and the synergy of public and private domains will play a key role in implementing the vision of modern urbanization. Cochin, one of the 100 cities selected as part of Smart Cities Mission in India, is hosting the IEEE Tensymp 2017 conference, with the theme of Technologies for Smart Cities. Another city from Kerala, its capital city  Thiruvananthapuram has topped the list of 30 new cities recently added to the Smart Cities Mission. The results are yet to be seen but we have taken the first step towards efficient and reliable infrastructure, enhanced quality of life and economic opportunitie
The presentation of startups under Lever's auspices draws a large crowd to Mass MoCA's Club B10. Nick Toronga, Sean Ninsing and Tafara Makaza of FamKeepa answer questions about their business that allows expatriates to send funds home. Jason Koperniak talks about B&B Micromanufacturing's growth since starting up its tiny house business in North County last year. Imran Khoja explains his app, Just Appraised, designed to help municipalities determine and track property values. Dr. Randy Anselmo, a Bennington, Vt., general practitioners, discusses his telemedicine portal, BeWell, for schools and other student and youth venues. PreviousNext

Entrepreneurs Make Pitches at Lever Demo Day



Scott Trafton explains his app, PoolShark H2O, which tracks data for commercial pool operators. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  It was not quite "Shark Tank," but there was at least one shark in the room on Thursday afternoon at Mass MoCA's Club B10.

Scott Trafton, the founder of PoolShark H20 , was one of eight entrepreneurs on stage to explain his or her new businesses at the third annual Lever Demo Day, a presentation of the North Adams non-profit Lever Inc.

Trafton, a software engineer and self-described serial entrepreneur from Bennington, Vt., created PoolShark, an app that allows commercial swimming pool operators to collect and track testing data from their pools, store it on the cloud and calculate precise chemical treatments to increase safety.

Trafton told the crowd that he has experience managing a public pool that has been in his family for years and that his "aha" moment came when he received a call from his brother.

"He said the health inspector was just here, and we couldn't find any of our records," Trafton recalled. "Can you find something that will allow my people to keep that information on their iPhones. Everyone carries an iPhone."

Trafton looked around, found there was not a suitable app and created one himself.

"I'm not sure why there weren't, but I'm happy we were here first," he said.

The maintenance of paper-based logs is time-consuming, inefficient and a particular problem for managers who are responsible for multiple pools on multiple properties, he explained. PoolShark H20 keeps all that information at the pool manager's fingerprints and even allows the operator to give local health inspectors a link that will allow them to review the documentation themselves.

To date, he has enrolled 35 customers  most with multiple pools  in 19 states. Currently, there are 300 pools whose data is being tracked on the app, a mere fraction of the 360,000 inspected pools nationwide, Trafton said.

Like everyone at Thursday's event, Trafton was in the early stages of building a brand.

Some, like him, came with a specific target for an investments, no doubt with hopes of attracting potential backers from the dozens who attended the three-hour presentation.

Unlike TV's "Shark Tank," there were no deals signed, no disputes over market valuation and no talk of "royalty deals." There were thoughtful questions from many in attendance and an opportunity for the entrepreneurs to network with potential backers both before they made their pitches and afterward, in the Bright Ideas Brewing craft brewery on the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art campus.

Networking is a big part of the mission of Lever, which "supports local economic development by creating and growing enterprises that leverage local assets, including the talents of young people from our region's colleges," according to its website.

State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, said the region has untapped potential for economic growth and thanked Lever for helping to foster innovation.

"It is phenomenal to be right here in the best of all worlds," Hinds said. "You look out your window, and you see we have unequaled access to nature. We have world-class cultural institutions.  We have higher ed institutions right here. And we have a lot of the underlying dynamics that you need to spur growth.

"So it's exciting that we have yet another element, which is innovation and entrepreneurship. Because, as Jack [Wadsworth] pointed out, there are a lot of studies that show that's often where you needed that needed injection of job growth. It's the innovators who have improved our lives.

"As a guy who comes from the government, there's a lot that we need to do, but first and foremost it's letting you all succeed and then, a lot of times, getting out of the way."

Trafton was joined by seven other success stories in the making, several with ties to Williams College and at least one the brainchild of three lifelong friends who grew up in Adams.

Jason Koperniak told the gathering about B&B Micromanufacturing, which he started with Mitch Bressett and Chris St. Cyr, and which has grown dramatically in 2017.

A manufacturer of quality, stylish mobile homes that are truly homes, B&B Micromanufacturing has entered the growing, high-profile "tiny house" market with the distinction of being the only Recreational Vehicle Industry Association member northeast of Pittsburgh, Pa.

With that imprimatur, B&B has gone from five employees producing .85 homes per month in February of this year to 35 employees on track to produce 11 homes this month.

"North Adams has been phenomenal," Koperniak said of the business's ability to attract qualified labor. "There are a lot of quality people who want to stay in the area. We have carpenters who were working in Springfield who gladly came to work for us for a little bit less [money] in order to work five minutes down the road."

Koperniak acknowledged that there are bigger producers on the market but explained that the tiny house movement is still growing with more potential markets, including the elderly, millennials, second-home owners and people who want an accessory building for extended family on their property.

"We still think we can grow and employ more people locally," he said. "We can continue to dominate the conversation in the Northeast and become a strong player nationally."

Another one of Thursday's presenters is thinking internationally in a big way.

Nick Toronga explained the problem faced by Zimbabwe natives like himself who are living in places like the United States and trying to send money back to family members in their home country.

The process is both expensive and inconvenient, and he and his partners think their new business, FamKeepa , is the solution. With their service, expats can send money home  in the form of gift cards  with a click of a button and for a fraction of the cost.

How much cost? Toronga said that of $35.2 billion sent each year to sub-Saharan Africa, $3.6 billion goes to the money transfer companies. FamKeepa has piloted its gift card-based system in Zimbabwe by partnering with a popular supermarket chain and plans to expand to neighboring countries before moving into new markets.

As with all of the startups on the dais Thursday, the potential for growth is sizable, with an estimated 247 million immigrants worldwide, Toronga said.

"We hope everyone wins  except Western Union and their friends," he joked.

Other businesses on display Thursday included: Marty's Local, a distributor of local food that serves 45 producers from the Pioneer Valley to Albany, N.Y.,'s Capital District; Just Appraised, which created an app to help municipalities more accurately determine and track property values; Be Well, a telemedicine portal that aims to serve small colleges, boarding schools and overnight camps; Valt, a password storage solution that claims it built a better mousetrap than better known apps like Dashlane; and FoodLove, an online portal that connects local producers with the restaurants, schools and institutions looking to use locally produced food.

FoodLove and Pittsfield-based Marty's Local found each other through Lever to create a better experience for their customers.

Nick Martinelli, who operates Marty's Local with Sandra Thomas, said his distribution company has seen a $500,000 increase in gross sales since May 2016 and has doubled sales month over month from July 2016 to last month.

"We can supply every kind of food," Martinelli said. "With the exception of citrus and avocados, you can get it all right here."
North Adams Downtown Celebration Set for Wednesday

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The 21st annual Downtown Celebration will fill downtown North Adams on Wednesday, Aug. 16, from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Downtown Celebration is sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union, MountainOne, and the city of North Adams. This event is free and open to the public. In the case of inclement weather, there will be an announcement on Wednesday morning to use the rain date of Thursday, Aug. 17.

The evening will be filled with music, food, vendors and booths with local organizations and businesses.

Points of interest:

JP Murphy will be performing at the Berkshire Bank Plaza starting at 6.

Terry A La Berry and Friends will perform at the bus stop near the entrance to the Kid Zone. Performance times: 6 to 6:50 and 7:10 to 8.

The Berkshire Rhythm Keepers will be performing African drumming on Eagle Street starting at 7.

Interns from Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art are planning something fun; you can find them under the Mohawk marquee

Performances

There will be performances throughout the evening by groups including the Berkshire County Line Dancers, Freedom Dance, J Star Gymnastics, Studio North Dance, and the Drury High School Junior Cheerleaders.

Eagle Street

Serenity Circles will be back performing with hula hoops and with plenty for attendees to try out. Johnny Mystic will perform magic and Mary Poppins may appear again or perhaps an ice queen. Friendly Berkshire Mountain Faeries will be waiting to help you create your own magic wand and try your luck at the Dragon's Breath putt-putt. Please note that parents must accompany children in these projects.

City Services

North Adams Fire and Police departments will to be at the top of Main near Eagle, with vehicles and demonstrations. The North Adams Ambulance Service will be offering free car-seat safety checks. (Please pull up to the area using the Ashland or American Legion entrances to the Steeple City Plaza parking lot.

Food

Downtown restaurants and cafes will be open and street food will be available from the Chuck Wagon, Marki's, Fat Boy's, CIAO, Boston Sea Foods, Mr. Ding-a-ling, SereniTea Parlor, Grazie, Christo's, and many bake sales by local nonprofits.

CCB Kid Zone is in the Steeple City Plaza Parking lot entrance

Child Care of the Berkshires, Elizabeth Freeman, Northern Berkshire Pediatrics, Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, UNO, The Family Place, South Bay Community Services, WIC, Berkshire Community Action Center, Headstart, Parents As Teachers, Berkshire Nursing Families, and the North Adams Ambulance Service will be participating in the Child Care of the Berkshires Kid Zone offering games, activities and free face painting. Berkshire Nursing Families offers a family area where families are welcome to rest, nurse, feed, or change their babies and relax.

There will be no parking allowed on Main or Eagle Street after 1 p.m. on the day of the celebration. Cars that remain parked on these streets will be towed at the owner's expense.
Community members were at Field Park on Sunday with signs to protest against racism and the events in Virginia. Numerous cars and trucks continued to beep in support as the rally wrapped up. PreviousNext

Hundreds Rally in Williamstown to Stand With Charlottesville



The rally was put together in a day. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Within 24 hours of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., more than 300 area residents circled Field Park to protest the actions of white supremacists.

The gathering swiftly organized by Greylock Together was one of nearly 800 known rallies against racism across the nation, including one at Park Square in Pittsfield by the Four Freedoms Coalition.

"A lot of people wanted to get to together and show support for our country against white nationalism, against domestic terrorism," Geraldine Shen said as a cacophony of horns blared in support as drivers entered the rotary. "I think people in our group are very action oriented and this was a good way to say this is an action that we could do."

Charlottesville was riven by protests as hundreds of neo-Nazis and white nationalist groups descended on the town over the weekend purportedly to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. There were small breakouts of violence between them and anti-racists and leftist groups; on Saturday, a 32-year-old woman was killed and more than two dozen injured when a car driven by an alleged white supremacist rammed through a march on a side street.

"We're just terrified at the state of the world right now," Christopher Thomas of North Adams, holding a Black Lives Matter sign, said.

He said the president hadn't seemed too concerned when David Duke, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, had endorsed him. Maybe that was just political ignorance at the time, Thomas said, but now someone has died and he felt the president had not taken a strong stand against racists but instead was talking about "many sides."

As 5 p.m. neared, the rally had dwindled to a few dozen people holding signs ranging from a simple "Love" to rainbows to "Change the system, save the world."

The local Greylock Together group formed in the wake of the last election to advocate for issues important to the community such as the environment, civil rights, health care and voting.

The group meets every other week and Sunday happened to be its regular meeting time.

"It was a natural extension to do something about what we saw happening in Virginia," Shen said. A notice and a Facebook post went out late Saturday afternoon, resulting in the high turnout on Sunday.

"It's important for people to feel like there is something they can physically do," she said. "Obviously this isn't solving the problem but it shows that our community is strong in our resolve."

Thomas was more direct in why he felt important to show up.

"I'm furious and I'm really mad and I don't know what to do and I'm trying to be peaceful," he said. "But I want to show I'm mad and I want to support the people who feel scared."
From left, Cancer Center's Wendy Petitt, manager; Dr. Matthew Vernon, interim medical director; Jenny Coutu, nurse manager; Christine Krenzer from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Upstate New York/Vermont Chapter; and General Sales Manager Isaac Simon and General Manager Mike Perry from Bennington Subaru.

Biz Briefs: Bennington Subaru Collects Blankets for SVMC

Blanket statement: Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, a department of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, accepted a donation of dozens of blankets from Bennington Subaru and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Upstate New York/Vermont Chapter. Representatives of Bennington Subaru also brought lunch boxes filled with art-making supplies for children who visit the center.



"Blankets are so comforting to patients," said Wendy Petitt, the manager of the Cancer Center at SVMC. "We know patients will appreciate both the blankets and the thoughtfulness Subaru and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society have shown them."







Career path: Hillcrest Commons Nursing and Rehabilitation Center will host a career fair for nursing positions and others on Wednesday, Aug. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 169 Valentine Road in Pittsfield.



Career opportunities are available for registered nurses, nurse management, certified nursing assistants, nursing scheduler and housekeeping/laundry. Hillcrest will offer on-site interviews that day and tours of its five specialty care units, including respiratory care, behavioral health, dementia care, long-term care and short-term rehab. Those completing applications that day will be entered in a drawing. For more information contact Brenda Stokes at bstokes@bhs1.org or 413-445-9718.



Hillcrest's benefits package includes a new wage scale; tuition assistance; paid meal breaks; 403(b) retirement plan with match; earned time program; comprehensive medical and dental insurance; staff recognition programs; weekly payroll; and continuing education opportunities.







No taxation without ...: The state government voted not to have a tax-free weekend, so Carr Hardware has decided to revolt and have their own tax-free holiday. Therefore, Carr Hardware announces the "Tax Free Revolution" this upcoming weekend, Aug. 19 and 20, at each of their four stores in the Berkshires.



For the second year in row, Massachusetts cancelled the No Sales Tax Holiday. For many years, consumers anxiously wait until the third weekend in August to make significant purchases and avoid paying state sales tax. The weekend traditionally not only saves money for shoppers but also gives them the pleasure of not having to pay the tax man in Boston.



Wait, there's more: The state may not be holding the annual Tax Free Weekend, but retailers in Lenox have banded together to still offer that great discount to shoppers this weekend. Many Lenox retail stores will be offering a discount equal to the state's sales tax of 6.25 percent on all purchases that are subject to the sales tax on both Saturday and Sunday.



The downtown Lenox businesses that are confirmed to be taking part include:

MacKimmie Co.

Scott Barrow Photography

Art and Chocolate

Lenox Print and Mercantile

Nejaime's Wine Cellar

Wit Gallery

Design Menagerie

Lenoxology Store

Berkshire Poster

Purple Plume

Casablanca

Shooze

Sweatrz

Willowbrook

More businesses may be added and an updated list can be found online.







Fine wines: The Red Lion Inn recently received a "Best of Award of Excellence" from the Wine Spectator Magazine. Wine Spectator's Annual Restaurant Awards this year honors 3,592 with candidates from 50 states and more than 75 countries. Awards are given across three categories honoring winners for their outstanding dedication to wine. Categories include: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and Grand Award.



The Red Lion Inn's third consecutive "Best of Award of Excellence" speaks to sommelier Daniel Thomas' "fine list of wine options from California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Italy." The inn currently offers more than 560 selections of both old and new world wines individually selected by Sommelier Dan Thomas.







Manage your money: Berkshire Community College is offering a free course to students that will help them achieve a level of financial independence, thanks to a partnership with Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. The free course will be offered this fall at the South County Center on Main Street in Great Barrington from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursdays or on the Main Campus in Pittsfield on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday from 8 to 9:15 a.m. Fall classes begin Tuesday, Sept. 5.



The three-credit course, called BUS 139  Money Management for Life, will cover strategies to help students manage budgets, expenses and debt; save and invest for the future; plan for the unexpected; and establish personal financial plans to achieve their goals. Through in-depth lesson plans and presentations, students are offered the chance to learn about key personal finance issues that could impact their overall financial health. The course helps educate and arm students with the critical skills and knowledge they need to manage their personal finances throughout the various stages of their lives. The course explores topics ranging from saving for retirement to insurance planning across life stages, among other important financial issues.



The course will conclude with students having a financial plan for the next 15 years and it counts as a free elective for students as well. For more information, conact the BCC Admissions Office by email or call 413-236-1630




iciHaiti - Diaspora : 2nd Edition of Haitian Cuisine Day





As part of the 2nd edition of the Haitian Cuisine Day, which will be held on Friday, August 18, 2017, at the Renaissance Convention Center in Montreal (Centre des Congres Renaissance), the Head of the Consular Mission of Haiti in Montreal, Justin Viard, met with the organizers of the event, Edner Cajusma and Mrs. Marie Aurore Colas respectively President and Secretary of the Haitian Cuisine Day.



The objective of the meeting was to finalize the preparations and to consider the contribution of the Consular Mission to this cultural event. Recall that the Day of Haitian cuisine was created in order to make discover the Haitian culinary art, bringing together in one place several restaurateurs and caterers of the Community.



This initiative highlights not only the rich Haitian cuisine, but also the talents, professionalism and creativity of the participants. It also opens for them of business opportunities in cultural communities in Quebec and Canada.



The Consulate General of Haiti in Montreal, gives its full support to this event and invites compatriots to participate in large numbers.



For more information visit : www.journeecuisinehaitienne.com/ or call to : +1 (438) 880-7402



IH/ iciHaiti


















A Chinese woman forced into front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II died on Saturday, bringing the number of surviving "comfort women," a euphemism for sex slaves, to only 14 on the Chinese mainland.

Huang Youliang died at the age of 90 at her home in Yidui Village in China's southern island province of Hainan.

In October 1941, 15-year-old Huang was raped when the Japanese troops invaded her hometown. She was later put into a brothel and forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers for two years.

In July 2001, Huang and seven other "comfort women" sued the Japanese government, demanding an apology, but the Japanese court repeatedly rejected their appeals over the past decade, claiming that individuals have no right to sue the state.

Women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II were called "comfort women." Research shows some 400,000 women in Asia were forced to be "comfort women" for the Japanese army during World War II, nearly half of whom were Chinese.

However, the Japanese government has refused to acknowledge legal responsibility for the "comfort women" issue so far.

Efforts by a total of 24 Chinese "comfort women" to sue the Japanese government in four cases since 1995 all failed. Huang is also the last victim to have sued the Japanese government over sex slavery on the Chinese mainland, according to Su Zhiliang, director of a research center on comfort women under the Humanities and Communication College of Shanghai Normal University.

Huang's passing means there are only 14 registered "comfort women" on the Chinese mainland.
The Fellowship Applauds Israels Aid to Venezuelan Olim

The Fellowship | August 14, 2017 The Fellowship Applauds Israel's Aid to Venezuelan Olim

Stand for Israel has kept you abreast of The Fellowships ongoing Freedom Flights rescuing Venezuelan Jews from the violence and instability in their country and bringing them to their biblical homeland. Now our friends at JNS report on the Israeli governments work to aid these new olim (immigrants), as well:

We are profoundly grateful to the Minister of Aliyah and Absorption Sofa Landver for agreeing to increase this critical support for these new olim, said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of The Fellowship. This additional aid will go a long way toward helping the Jews of Venezuela as they begin new lives in Israel and incentivize others to come on aliyah as well.

The Fellowship said it provides $800 per adult and $400 per child on top of the Israeli governments support for the immigrants. Additionally, the group conducts follow-up visits to assist families with needs such as food, appliances, furniture, day care, vocational training and dental care.

In late July, 26 Venezuelan Jews arrived in Israel. An additional 138 Venezuelan Jews have made aliyah during the last 18 months. The South American nation has recently been rocked by political upheaval and violence as President Nicholas Maduro has destroyed the countrys remaining democratic institutions and economy, essentially establishing himself as a dictator. The oil-rich country has seen skyrocketing murder rates, nearly continuous anti-government protests, and widespread food and medicine shortages. Around 10,000 Jews are believed to remain in the once-prosperous country.
Kaspersky Lab has launched a campaign in Asia Pacific to educate the public and spread awareness on Internet safety. Known as the Goondus Awards, the campaign is inviting submissions from the public on Internet mistakes and faux pas that have led to reputational, financial or property damage or loss for individuals.

Goondu is a Singlish (Singapore-English) word used informally to indirectly suggest that a person is dim-witted or senseless. The Goondus Awards website, which features the submissions anonymously, highlights real life incidents where a naive or ill-informed Internet practice led to some form of misfortune.

We want to educate people about safer Internet behaviors and to showcase real-world examples of missteps leading to some form of loss or damage. While some stories may be humorous and even incredulous, the repercussions and damage were real and in some cases severe, explained Sylvia Ng, General Manager, Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia. As our entries are entirely anonymous, were encouraging a community-led campaign to drive home the message that only safe practices will make the Internet safer for users.

The Goondus Awards showcases a wide array of stories ranging from humorous occurrences to unintelligent acts and sad episodes involving monetary or reputational loss. The campaign acts as an initiative to raise cybersecurity awareness in an engaging form through the sharing of personal stories. It also serves to help web visitors foster positive and pleasant online experiences.

With the ease of access to the Internet, users have developed a sense of complacency or even a mild form of naivety in their daily digital lives, potentially lending themselves to becoming victims of cybercrime.

The Goondus Awards aim to remind users that they are not completely safe from cybercriminals and that they need to be vigilant, practice and maintain Internet etiquette to protect themselves.

One classic example of an effective online trick in the Philippines is through valid-looking emails with a warning about an error on a users bank account. The letter, complete with bank logo and well-written sentences, contains a link that will then ask the victim to enter his bank information. Once the clueless victim encodes his details, his account will be put in jeopardy and will eventually lead to financial loss.

Submission and contest details

The criteria for the story entries are that they must be based on actual events leading to tangible or intangible losses concerning Internet use. The winning stories will be selected by a panel of judges where participants stand a chance of winning an iPad Mini or a Tablet and even monthly prizes like a Kaspersky Lab premiums hamper. The website also includes tips and advice from cyber security experts and elaborations on the different types of scams such as Internet love sex scams, credit for sex scams and phishing scams, to further inform users.

The latest cybercrime statistics from the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) revealed a rise in the number of online incidents in the Philippines which include online libel with 494 complaints last year as compared to 2015s 311.

Online scams are also alarmingly increasing with a new record-high of 444 reported incidents in 2016, 110 more compared to 334 of 2015. Among the top 5 reported online violations last year are identity theft, online threats, and violation of the anti-photo and video voyeurism act.

The Goondus Awards website can be accessed from the following link: http://goondusawards.com.

To submit a story, fill in the requested information such as your name, email address and contact number, along with the type of scam, story title and the full story on the website. The Tips section of the website features articles from the Kaspersky Lab blog and are categorized based on the various issues and forms of scams highlighted in the website. This educational content serves to advise users on how to prevent such incidents from occurring.
Cloudfone Lite Senior (Bar) and Cloudfone Lite Senior (Flip) phones deliver the awesome promise of peace of mind during times of emergency.

Countless times people would talk about stress, traffic rush, and all-day hassle around the metro. The nature of the recent safety issues is at the very least shocking especially if the ones close and dearest to us are concerned. At times, when an emergency threatens life and limb, it's critical that assistance be extended to the victim as swiftly as possible. No wonder, one of the things people long for in life is to have peace of mind.

Peace of mind is knowing that your loved ones are safe. Peace of mind is knowing that the people we hold dearly in our hearts are always within reach. Now, peace of mind can be in a button.

It is this fact that local mobile phone manufacturer Cloudfone recognizes as it launches its Cloudfone Lite Senior phones with S.O.S. Button.

Cloudfone Lite Senior (Bar) - Php799

Recently, Cloudfone, the mobile and tablet brand of the Cellprime Group announced the availability of the Cloudfone Lite Senior (Bar) and Cloudfone Lite Senior (Flip) in all trade channels at PHP799 and PHP1,299 respectively. The newest devices to join the Cloudfone line delivers contents and features suitable for the older users aged 60 and above.

Cloudfone Lite Senior (Flip) - Php1,299

As part of the CSR Give-Back Project of Cloudfone, 20 senior patients from the Martinez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City were recently treated to free Lite Senior phones during the Cloudfone Peace of Mind Activity on the hospital grounds. During the event, CellPrime executives demonstrated how the ingenious S.O.S. Button in these new phones can help people seek help during medical emergencies and times of distress.

In a non-life threatening situation, you can always text or call someone, explained CellPrime COO Jaime Alcantara. But if the situation is life threatening, you may not have the time or even the ability to turn on your phone, unlock the screen and look for a number to call. Youre not even sure if those you call can respond fast enough to help you. The S.O.S. Button in the Cloudfone Lite Senior can take care of all that and more.

As part of the CSR Give-Back Project of Cloudfone, 20 senior patients from the Martinez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City were recently treated to free Lite Senior phones during the Cloudfone Peace of Mind Activity on the hospital grounds.

Available in bar and flip versions, Cloudfones newest feature phones have an S.O.S. Button that automatically activates an alarm, sends emergency text messages and calls up to five (5) different emergency contacts with just one press. In the event of an emergency, a user simply presses on the S.O.S. Button on the Lite Senior. This first sends out a customized cry for help SMS message to the five emergency contacts. The button is placed in front of the flip variant and at the back for the bar variant. Once button is triggered, it will start making a loud alarm sound to signal that theres an emergency. After which, the Cloudfone Lite Senior will start making emergency calls and texts continuously, switching one registered contact number to the next registered contact number just in case the first person failed to receive the call. It wont stop alerting the pre-selected contacts unless the receiver answered the call.

This is a very simple device that our elderly loved ones, people who are close to our hearts, can appreciate in times of emergency as well as for everyday use, with big fonts and screen display, and large buttons in its keypad. Although we had our seniors in mind when we were developing this, we can also see how this could help with children of school age and other members of the family who can also have peace of mind by having this phone, said Alcantara.

Martinez Memorial Hospitals COO Dr. Elizabeth Martinez Del Rio shared her excitement with the rest of the Cloudfone Lite Senior recipients. When Cloudfone explained to me the features, I liked it. I explained to the recipients about the advantages in cases of accidents and distress. Ang galing. If I had that kind of phone when I had an accident, this phone could have helped. Maganda ito, declared Dr. Martinez Del Rio.

A few recipients have already responded well to their new phones. 68-year old Cornelio Estrada, hospitalized for experiencing chest pains, has already planned to put in the contact numbers of his children and grandchildren in his new Cloudfone Lite Senior for future emergencies.

Mrs. Dominga Martin, 71, recalled her difficulty in getting help when she accidentally slipped while at home. She also mentioned an instance when she was trying to ask for help when she was held up and robbed of her money during a trip in the city. She expressed her gratitude and happiness in receiving the phone.

Cloudfone Lite Senior was diligently developed within a span of one and a half years before its launch in the country last June. CellPrime, makers of Cloudfone, took into account how they could take available technologies to make something awesome for seniors. Here in the Philippines, a feature phone like the Cloudfone Lite Senior is a volume driver, meaning many people still look for this kind of phone. For every niche market, we want to develop something awesome for the Filipino customer and we make sure that the development of each feature in every phone is given enough time and thought, so we can reach that goal to be awesome. For the senior segment, we believe that the S.O.S. button is awesome because it serves as a lifeline to your family and loved ones, expounded Ray Caguin, Cloudfone Group Brand Manager.

The Cloudfone brand aims to continue giving awesome things to people that they normally wouldnt be able to enjoy. The company is steadfast in its commitment to the Cloudfone promise of providing better, quality, and awesome devices that Filipinos can afford.

The one thing we do is we look for the Filipino customers 'pain' and then find a way to take away that pain by offering them what they want and what is awesome. For smartphones, we have already started offering great selfie phones at affordable price points. As we always say, quality does not have to be too expensive. And then we will also continue to develop other products that will give awesome to the people, and if there are other things like this that we can involve ourselves with, then we go straight ahead, concluded Cloudfone Chief Marketing Officer Joey Oreta.




This Isnt Our Last Love Letter



Dear Don Don,

Way back in 92



I walked into the room and knew



Never felt this way before



I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes



And the feeling grew



As I took a seat I knew



A love that would have my heart



Forever



I knew



Way back in 92





They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true



We were the exception to that rule



Our love had no where to hide



A spark set fire



As if this is how the universe started





I never doubted our love or what we could do



Together we grew



Forming a bond everlasting



That became our glue



My euphoria was YOU



Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared



For how fortunate we were :



to have and to hold

through sickness and in health

Til death do us part



Until we are together again



This isnt our last love letter



I love you with all my heart and soul



Yours forever,



Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow)





Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.









A True American Hero

I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.



I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.



I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.



Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.

I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life.

No one will ever do what he did.

I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO





David Jurist

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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A report in The Independent last Friday relayed the findings from a new study that suggested almost a third of Remain voters would accept the expulsion of all EU workers in 2019.

The same study was also reported by a host of other media outlets (see here and here and here) as showing that an overwhelming majority of the British public are now in favour of a hard Brexit  meaning the UK leaving the single market and customs union  in less than two years time.

The first finding caused understandable distress to many Europeans living in Britain, since they were led to believe that even many people who had wanted the UK to remain in the EU now wanted them expelled.

And the second has been seized upon by Brexiteers as evidence that their hardline approach actually enjoys wide public backing.

But do these reports accurately represent what the study shows?
From 32 to 22: Comfort women remembered in China and around the world

(From left to right: Wang Zhifeng, Fu Meiju, Li Meijin)

For many Chinese, Aug. 14 marks the day when the Siege of International Legations left the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) in fire and ruins, but few remember it as International Memorial Day for Comfort Womenan euphemism for sex slaves.

Soon more will remember this group of special victims during World War II, as a documentary film featuring Chinese comfort women made a debut in China on Aug. 14.

The film, Twenty Two, got its name from the number of surviving Chinese comfort women in 2014, when director Guo Ke prepared to make the film. In 2012, Guos first short documentary was named Thirty Two.

The 90-minute documentary featured 22 comfort women in China, who peacefully shared their eyewitness accounts of history. As of July, only nine of the 22 women in the film remained alive.

The number of living comfort women in China has dropped to only 14 in the Chinese mainland, after another one passed away on Aug. 12 at the age of 90 in Hainan province. Huang Youliang and seven other comfort women sued the Japanese government in 2001, demanding an apology, but their appeals have been repeatedly rejected, claiming that they were not in position to file the lawsuit against the state.

(Photo of Huang Youliang)

The Japanese government has also refused to acknowledge legal responsibility for the comfort women issue so far.

It is not a movie that sells pain and tears. It is just enough to bring the audience to them, to see them, and to get to know them. Understanding them is the biggest help. They have their own way to take in the pain, Guo told Xinhua. In order to survive, they seldom recall those bitter memories.

Many famous Chinese actors and directors have called on the public to watch the film at cinemas to show support for Guo and to pay tribute to the women who are now in their 90s. On Sina Weibo, the hash tag Twenty Two has drawn some 100 million views and more than 63,000 posts. Some online celebrities even bought many tickets for Twenty Two and invited their followers to watch the film for free.

In Taiwan, where some 2,000 former comfort women lived, a campaign was launched on Aug. 14 at Ama Museum to once again press the Japanese government to apologize to this special group of females. The museum, which is dedicated to comfort women, offered cards for visitors to write their demands to the Japanese government and wishes for the comfort women, Xinhua reported.

Today, there are only two comfort women living in Taiwan.

Civic organizations and activists in South Korea also held a series of events in honor of the female victims on Aug. 14.

A total of 500 miniature statues of a girl went on display at Cheongye Stream Square in central Seoul. The exhibition began at 8am local time and will last for eight hours and 14 minutes to symbolize the date. Each statue has the name of a victim inscribed on it. The 500 statues represent 239 victims in South Korea and an unidentified number of victims in North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.

(Photo/Yonhap News Agency)
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A web hosting company has pulled a neo-Nazi website after it posted a scathing article about the woman who was killed at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

GoDaddy, which has hosted the domain name for The Daily Stormer since the site was launched four years ago, announced on Sunday it had given the white supremacist site just 24 hours to move its domain to another provider.

We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service, GoDaddy said on its official Twitter page.

The Daily Stormer post in question slandered Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed after a car drove at speed into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Virginia, for her physical appearance and what it said were anti-white male views.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

Ms Heyer was one of hundreds who converged on the city to protest against the largest gathering of white nationalists the US has seen in decades. The rally was attended by neo-Nazis, skinheads, and members of the Ku Klux Klan brandishing flaming torches, carrying assault rifles and wearing paramilitary clothing.

James Alex Fields Jr, from Ohio, is being held in a Virgina jail in connection with the deadly crash near the white nationalist rally. The 20-year-old was arrested on Saturday and charged with second-degree murder and other criminal counts.

In the post, the founder of the site, Andrew Anglin, claimed Ms Heyer has been killed in a road rage incident. He also launched into a vitriolic tirade about her appearance, saying she was a drain on society.

Despite feigned outrage by the media, most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness, Mr Anglin, the sites editor, said. A 32-year-old woman without children is a burden on society and has no value.

32-year-old paralegal was killed when a car ploughed into protesters (Go Fund Me / Heather Heyer)

Ms Heyer was born in Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia's main campus, and spent much of her personal and working life fighting injustice of all varieties. She worked at a law firm where she helped people who were trying to avoid being evicted from their homes or having their cars repossessed or who required help paying medical bills.

Amy Siskin, a Twitter user, made an appeal to GoDaddy to remove the site in a post which has been shared over 5,000 times, saying: You host The Daily Stormer - they posted this on their site. Please retweet if you think this hate should be taken down & banned.

GoDaddy, a domain registrar which has served approximately 17 million customers, has been accused of providing a platform for hate speech in recent months.

Recommended Why the Daily Stormer hack might not be all it seems

The Daily Stormer is an American neo-Nazi and white supremacist site which is associated with the alt-right - a political movement which has been accused of racism, antisemitism and misogyny and of sharing an ideology with far-right parties such as the French National Front.

The site, which calls itself The Worlds Most Genocidal Republican Website, has been identified as the the top hate site in America by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It endorsed Donald Trumps presidential bid in 2015, posting a story titled Heil Donald Trump  The Ultimate Savior after Mr Trump proposed introducing a total ban on Muslim immigration. The site publishes content denigrating Jewish people, Muslims, people of colour and women.

Violent clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascists on Saturday turned deadly, prompting the state governor to declare a state of emergency. Three people were killed in total  Ms Heyer and two policemen who died in a helicopter crash while trying to bring peace to the area.
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Elon Musk says artificial intelligence poses more of a risk than a potential nuclear conflict between the US and North Korea.

The CEO of Tesla issued the warning after an AI built by OpenAI, a company founded by Mr Musk, defeated the worlds best Dota 2 players after just two weeks of training.

If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea, he tweeted shortly after the bots victory, along with a picture of a poster bearing the slogan: In the end, the machines will win.

The poster, incidentally, is actually about gambling.

11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Clean up your News Feed Most of us are Facebook friends with some people we dont actually care about, and there are several ways to keep their updates off your News Feed. The easiest option is to head to the column on the left and open News Feed Preferences. From here, you can prioritise friends, unfollow friends, refollow friends you unfollowed in the past and even block specific apps. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Change ad preferences You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks youre into and tinker with your ad preferences. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so wed recommend doing this on a computer. Just open Settings and select Advert Preferences. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Manage notifications You can get notifications about pretty much anything on Facebook these days, and that can be seriously irritating. Choose what you do and dont want to be notified about by going into the Settings menu and selecting Notifications. You might be surprised by the number of sections you have to trawl through. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Save data Facebook automatically plays videos in your News Feed, and thats a problem if you arent on a generous data plan. You can change this by going to Videos in the Settings menu and disabling autoplay. On the app, theres feature in the left-hand column called Data Saver, which also does this, but reduces the size of pictures too. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Reorder your News feed You can choose to order the updates that appear in your News Feed by time or importance. Just hit the three buttons next to News Feed Preferences on the Facebook site and choose between Top Stories and Recent Stories. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Download your data Facebook lets you download all of the immense amounts of data it has on you, including the posts youve shared, your messages and photos, ads youve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. Its a lot of information, which youll want to get your hands on if you decide to quit the social network. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Find nearby places Nearby Places is actually a really handy tool, which lets you quickly find and research things like restaurants, hotels, museums and nightlife hotspots around you. It lives in the left-hand column, and also shows useful information like customer ratings, prices and distance. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Find free Wi-Fi Similarly, Find Wi-Fi is ideal for when youre bored, running low on data or lost. It shows you all the places in your vicinity that offer free Wi-Fi, so you can head over and either relax or get some work done. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Save things for later Facebooks ideal for killing time, but every now and again youll stumble across something youre interested in right as you need to put your phone away. Fortunately, you can save posts for later by hitting the arrow in the top-right corner and selecting the Save option. Everything you save goes straight to the Saved section in the left-hand column. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Control tags When people tag you in posts or pictures, they dont have to automatically appear on your profile. You can switch on Facebooks Review Tags feature by going to Settings and Timeline and Tagging. 11 useful Facebook features you didn't know existed Delete your account To permanently delete your Facebook account, you need to head to Facebooks Delete Account page. The site can take up to 90 days to process account deletion requests, but once your account's gone, its gone. You can deactivate your account instead, by going to Security and Login in the Settings menu.

Nobody likes being regulated, but everything (cars, planes, food, drugs, etc) that's a danger to the public is regulated. AI should be too, he added later.

Biggest impediment to recognizing AI danger are those so convinced of their own intelligence they can't imagine anyone doing what they can't.

A recent University of Oxford study concluded that AI will be better than humans at all tasks within 45 years, and many people, including Stephen Hawking, believe humans will be in trouble in the future if our goals don't align with those of machines.

However, following the exchange of increasingly heated words between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, some Twitter users pointed out that nuclear war might wipe humans out before AI even gets the chance to.

Mr Musk has spoken out about the potential dangers of AI on numerous occasions, and recently engaged in a war of words with Mark Zuckerberg, who has a very different outlook to him.

After Mr Musk called AI a fundamental existential risk for human civilisation, the Facebook founder branded his views as negative and pretty irresponsible.

Mr Musk hit back by saying Mr Zuckerbergs understanding of the subject was limited.

He wants the companies working on AI to slow down to ensure they dont unintentionally build something unsafe, and says it needs to be regulated.

I think we should be really concerned about AI and I think we should AIs a rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive, he said last month.

Because I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, its too late.
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Uber has been accused by the Metropolitan Police of failing to report its driver after one man on Uber's books was said to have sexually assaulted a passenger, only to go on and attack another passenger again.

In a letter obtained by The Sunday Times, Inspector Neil Billany, head of Metropolitan Polices taxi and private hire unit, said Uber was deliberately turning a blind eye to criminal activity carried out by its drivers by deciding what to report on the basis of what was less damaging to its reputation.

He said the ride-hailing app had been made aware of criminal activity and yet hadn't informed the police, keeping drivers who had committed offences on their books.

Recommended Uber accused of knowingly using faulty cars in Singapore

The Met Police inspector said it [Uber] could have prevented a second attack by a driver who had been allowed to stay on following an allegation of sexual assault. The driver was said to have carried out a second more serious crime in his car.

In a strongly worded letter, Mr Billany said he believed Uber had allowed situations to develop that clearly affect the safety and security of the public.

He said Uber had logged its criminal complaints with Transport for London rather than the police, which added up to seven months of delays for investigations to start.

TfL said: We have been in contact with the operator to ask them to respond to these concerns.

Among the severe crimes alleged to have been carried out by Uber drivers, but which the company has failed to report, was a road rage incident culminating in a driver bringing out pepper spray.

Uber responded to the letter, obtained by a freedom of information act request, saying: "Uber keeps detailed records of all bookings, licensed drivers and vehicles, as well as details of complaints, and these are all available upon request from any police officer."

Uber added that they believe "the choice of whether or not to make a police report should sit with the reporter/victim."

This is the latest in a string of concerns and controversies surrounding the ride-hailing company. One of Ubers largest investors filed a lawsuit accusing Ubers former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, of concealing problems from the Uber board of directors.

Mr Kalanick hit back last week, claiming the legal action was completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations.
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State school pupils are lowering their chances of winning a place at Oxbridge because they are more likely to apply for over-subscribed subjects, latest analysis suggests.

State-educated sixth-formers hoping to go on to the UKs most prestigious institutions are more likely to apply for the most popular courses than those who attend fee-paying schools, according to figures obtained by the Press Association.

Privately educated pupils are more likely to apply for the least over-subscribed, earning them a better chance of being accepted for an interview.

Responding to the statistics, one charity said that privately educated pupils may be gaming the system, while private school leaders argued that they offer a wide range of subjects that are useful to many Oxbridge subjects.

The figures show that last year, almost a third of applications (30.7 per cent) from UK state school students were for the five most over-subscribed subjects at Cambridge, compared to 28.4 per cent of private school applications.

The five most over-subscribed subjects were Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Psychological and Behavioural Studies, and Human, Social and Political Sciences.

By comparison, around a fifth (19.5 per cent) of UK independent school applications were for Cambridge's five least over-subscribed subjects (Classics, Music, Modern Languages, History and Geography), compared to around one in eight (12.4 per cent) of all state school applications.

The more niche subjects such as Classics are typically dominated by private school applicants, separate figures have shown, since they courses are rarely taught in state local authority schools.

Data published by Oxford shows that state applicants' success rate is affected by subject choice with UK students applying disproportionately for the most over-subscribed subjects.

QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Show all 10 1 /10 QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Cambridge University Flickr (Mihnea Maftei) QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Oxford University Picture: Getty QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions University College London University College London (Getty Images) QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Imperial College, London Imperial College, London Flickr/Andrew Crump QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Kings College London Kings College London iStock QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Edinburgh University Edinburgh University expects staff to report to their department whenever they leave the office Getty QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Manchester University Manchester University Rex QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions London School of Economics London School of Economics Rex QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions University of Bristol University of Bristol Ben Birchall/PA Wire QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Warwick University Flickr/Nicholas Smale

Between 2014 and 2016, on average, around a third (34 per cent) of UK state school applications were for the prestigious institution's five most over-subscribed subjects (Economics and Management; Medicine; Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE); Law and Mathematics) compared to just over one in four (28 per cent) of private school applications.

In addition, the university said, state school students apply in disproportionately low numbers for the least over-subscribed subjects (Classics, Music, Modern Languages, Chemistry and History).

Between 2014 and 2016, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of applications from UK privately educated students were for these courses, compared to just 17 per cent of all state school applications.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, said it was concerning that state school pupils are more likely to choose subjects that are oversubscribed, reducing their chances of getting in.

Students should choose the subject that's the best fit for them, rather than picking subjects to 'game the system', he said.

It may be that independent schools are able to give better information and guidance about which course their pupils are likely to get in to.

Universities and state schools have to work together to make sure all young people have the support they need to navigate the broad range of subjects on offer.

State school students should have the same advice and guidance as those from independent schools when it comes to deciding which subjects to apply to.

 Michael Palin university honour recognises work in geography

But Peter Hamilton, of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, which represents private school leaders, and head of Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hertfordshire, said that the figures are explained by the range of sixth-form studies that different schools can offer and the breadth of high-level attainment that each school achieves.

In independent schools we are fortunate to be able to offer students an exceptionally wide choice at A-level and Pre-U (specialist subject exams offered by one of Cambridge University's exam boards), as well as the International Baccalaureate, he said.

These sixth-form studies map onto the same wide range of traditional subjects offered by Oxford and Cambridge, such as classics, music and modern languages.

In recent years our colleagues in state schools have had to limit subject choice and increase class sizes because of austerity.

This has had the effect of concentrating high attainment in state schools in a smaller set of disciplines which, in turn, generates high numbers of applications per place in certain Oxbridge subjects.

Oxford University, which has the lowest proportion of state educated students in the country, said it saw a fall in applicants from state schools overall last year.

Despite government efforts to increase access to universities and improve careers guidance in schools, pupils from less affluent backgrounds are already significantly less likely to be accepted onto a university course, according to official Ucas figures.

The gap between rich and poor students being granted places reached a record high this year, prompting concerns over the lack of social mobility within higher education.

Dr Samina Khan, Oxford's director of undergraduate admissions and outreach, said: Students from the state sector do tend to apply for Oxford's most competitive courses, as well as the more vocational courses.

Much of our outreach work is aimed at giving state school students the best possible information and advice about both the Oxford admissions process and the range of careers open to Oxford graduates regardless of their chosen course.

Oxford received more than 19,000 applications last year and Cambridge around 16,750.

The figures come in the week that teenagers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level results.

PA
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British pensioners and people taking early retirement are flocking to settle in European countries ahead of Brexit, amid fears this will become more difficult once freedom of movement ends.

With the clock ticking on the UKs departure from the European Union, a company that helps those making the move to the continent said the number of enquiries it was handling each month about relocating to Spain, France and Portugal had doubled.

Blevins Franks, which offers financial advice for those moving to Europe, said it had seen overall business surge by 20 to 25 per cent following the referendum result last year.

Other companies reported similar surges from those determined to find their place in the sun before March 2019, when the UK is due to leave the 28-nation block.

Director of business development at Belvin Franks, Jason Porter, told the Guardian he was hopeful a deal will be struck that will allow Brits to carry on retiring abroad, regardless of Brexit.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

The feeling we are getting from our clients is that it is better to be in the country before Brexit than looking to do this after, he said.

But John Springfield, a migration expert and director of research at the Centre for European Reform, sounded a note of warning: The golden age of British retirees heading to the costas is probably over.

The thing about retirees is they are expensive. There is no way Spain would allow lots of Brits to retire there and use their health system unless young Spanish people could come and work in the UK.

If we dont have free movement, it is very unlikely we would have retirement rights.

Some financial advisers have cautioned that anyone wanting to retire to Europe should wait until the Brexit negotiations have concluded to see what the rules will be governing the transfer of pensions abroad and healthcare arrangements.

Currently British people visiting Spain receive free access to GPs and hospitals paid for by the NHS  but the Spanish government picks up the tab once people become permanent residents.

People of retirement age are a net drain on the economy because they pay less taxes and because of the high likelihood they will need health and social care, although in their case the majority of healthcare costs are currently reimbursed to the Spanish government by the UK.

The UK could strike a bilateral agreement with individual EU countries to allow mutually reciprocal relationships  something campaign groups such as Bremain in Spain hope to see for the benefit of all British and EU citizens currently living in uncertainty.

The organisations chair Sue Wilson said: On an anecdotal basis people are coming out  people who have had a dream for many years to retire to Spain are keen to do so while they still can.

There are an estimated 300,000 UK citizens currently living in Spain, with 40 per cent of them (around 121,000) aged over 65. In France, there are around 148,000 British citizens, of which about 20 per cent are pensioners.

Update. An earlier version of this article suggested that British expats in Spain have healthcare costs paid for by the Spanish government once they become permanent residents. In fact, most healthcare costs for British expats over retirement age in Spain are reimbursed by the UK. 25/8/17
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A convicted paedophile who encouraged a nine-year-old girl to expose herself over Live.Me has been jailed for four years, in the first case of its kind involving the popular livestreaming app.

Glen Friend from Walthamstow in east London, used the app to gain access to young children in a bid to groom them, the court heard.

The Live.Me app is one of the fastest growing of its type worldwide and unlike with websites such as Facebook, users have little control over who views their posts.

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Friend was arrested earlier this month as he left prison having served a sentence for breaching sex offender notification requirements.

The Sexual Harm Prevention Order that Friend was subject to prohibited him from communicating with anyone under 18 through social media or the internet, among other conditions.

But throughout May 2017, an intelligence-led operation revealed Friend was heavily involved, along with users, in encouraging the nine-year-old child to expose her private parts to them.

The video the girl posted online which proved his incitement of her was viewed by almost 300 users and remained available to watch until its removal by Live.Me following a police request.

Parents, schools and campaign groups have previously expressed concerns because those who use the site seek to gain "likes" and "electronic gifts" from other users.

The more they receive, the higher their status within that online community.

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

A forum on the Common Sense Media website warns: Parents beware! I downloaded this app and have come across multiple videos of questionable aged people taking their clothes off. The owners of this app seriously need to do something about their security!!

Detective Sergeant Fenton Davis, from the Waltham Forest Jigsaw Unit, warned parents to be vigilante.

This application is extremely well used by children. Parents should be ever vigilant of their child's activity on social media sites, particularly in regard to video streaming apps.

He said the young victim had been left traumatised by the abuse.

The amount of damage this type of encounter causes to these very young victims can be extensive. It became apparent from our talks with the girl in this case that she is easily upset and very sensitive after what she has gone through.

Issuing a warning to other paedophiles: Offenders who seek to hide behind an online username in an attempt to hide their identity will be relentlessly pursued by investigators. This conviction clearly demonstrates that people who use these streaming sites for criminal means, in particular to commit sexual offences, will be tracked down and prosecuted for their actions.

Friend was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Friend was also handed a two year extended supervision order.

Recommended Calls for longer sentences for grooming gangs who target white girls

Police said that enquiries continue to identify the two other users who participated in the incitement of the young girl.

Schools including the Bluecoat in Liverpool have sent warning notices to parents expressing concerns about the app.

The Liverpool Echo reported the warning message said: Live.me is the fastest-growing social media streaming application available at the moment and has approximately 20 million users. It allows the user to live-stream videos of themselves and also allows users to watch other streamed videos.

The app has limited security features and it is possible for users to potentially identify the location where a video was recorded. It is possible for any video to be recorded and shared without the permission or knowledge of the person who made the video.

Recommended Girl kills herself in live online video viewed by millions

A spokesperson for Live.Com refused to answer questions from the The ndependent as to how the indecent video of the little girl came to be viewed hundreds of times.

It said: "The safety of our users is a top priority for Live.me. Our community guidelines reflect our zero-tolerance policy towards any indecent or inappropriate behavior, and we take all allegations of violations against those guidelines very seriously.

"Beyond existing safeguards in our app, and strict protocols for our moderators to address any reports of violations, we also actively support law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting any users found to be endangering our community in any way.

Our automatic software detection and human moderators work 24 hours a day, but we also have tools for users to report and block people from their broadcasts, and we are continually improving those tools and resources for users."
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Baby boxes will be sent out to new parents across Scotland from this week, as the scheme is introduced across the country.

The delivery of the boxes, containing essential items such as clothes, books and blankets, will begin on Tuesday.

The national roll-out follows pilot projects in Orkney and Clackmannanshire which started in January.

The boxes, inspired by Finnish baby boxes, can also be used for babies to sleep in.

New parents are being urged to consider safe sleeping practices for their newborns ahead of the launch.

Boxes issued under the Scottish scheme meet the highest safety standards, and have been awarded British Safety Standard accreditation as a crib for domestic use, the Scottish Government said.

Safe sleep guidance is provided in a leaflet inside the box and safety guidelines are also printed on the box lid.

Chief medical officer for Scotland, Dr Catherine Calderwood said: All parents should think about sleeping practices at the earliest possible stage even before their baby is born.

Early evaluation shows the scheme is helping raise awareness of safe sleeping practices and we are committed to evaluating how the baby box is helping families across Scotland.

It is important parents make the safe sleeping choice that is right for them, and anyone needing more information should speak to their health visitor or midwife.

Lynsay Allan, executive director of the Scottish Cot Death Trust, said: Whilst the proven safest place for a baby to sleep is in a cot, crib or Moses basket, I also recognise that the box can be used as a safe sleep space for newborn babies, particularly where families may have no alternative and where they might otherwise unsafely share their bed or sleep on a sofa or chair with their baby.

The reassurances over the use of the boxes for sleeping follows concerns raised by cot death charity The Lullaby Trust.

Earlier this month, chief executive Francine Bates, said: We support all efforts to promote safer sleep for babies, however we do have concerns about the baby boxes being marketed as products which will reduce infant mortality and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon 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

It is also not possible for baby boxes to meet all current safety standards, as nursery furniture regulations only apply to traditional cots, cribs and bassinets, not boxes made from cardboard.

If parents choose to use the box to sleep their baby, we urge them to read and follow our advice, approved by our scientific and paediatric advisers.

Press Association
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Black workers do not get paid as much as their white colleagues with the same qualifications, it has been suggested.

Among those with A-levels, black workers earn about 10 per cent less than those who are white, missing out on around 1.20 an hour on average, according to an analysis by the TUC.

Those with degrees face a 14 per cent pay gap  about 2.63 less per hour. Black employees  those from Black, African, Caribbean or Black British backgrounds  with higher education certificates and diplomas are paid around 20 per cent less, equivalent to about 2.98 an hour.

In addition, black school leavers with GCSE grades of C or above take home about 12 per cent less than their white classmates, while those with no qualifications face a 5 per cent shortfall.

Regardless of qualifications, black workers earn around 8.3 per cent less  an average of around 1.15 an hour  than white workers, the TUC calculated.

The analysis used official labour force statistics to calculate hourly pay rates based on average gross hourly pay.

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

Frances OGrady, the TUC general secretary, said: Whether they have PhDs or GCSEs, black workers simply arent getting paid the same as white workers with similar qualifications.

Students get their A-level results this week. The harsh reality is that race will still play a huge role in how much they get paid.

Its time for the Government to require employers to publish pay data broken down by ethnicity. Then we can see where the problems are and put pressure on bosses to close the pay gap.

Press Association
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Thousands of landlords in just one London borough are believed to have avoided paying millions of pounds in tax, prompting suggestions that there could be up to 200m in unpaid levies across the capital.

Newham Council said up to 13,000 landlords had failed to accurately declare the income they receive from renting out properties  over half of the 27,000 landlords registered as operating in the borough.

The council said the 13,000 had not registered for tax self-assessment, which is a requirement for landlords receiving at least 2,500 a year in rent.

Recommended Third of private rented homes fail basic health and safety standards

It said a similar trend in the rest of London would mean the taxpayer is losing out on almost 200m in unpaid revenue. Applied across the country, the figure is likely to be much higher.

Newham Council was the first to introduce a compulsory landlord licensing scheme in 2013. It has now shared its register with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in an attempt to uncover landlords that are not paying their fair share of tax.

In a letter sent to Chancellor Philip Hammond, Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham, wrote: It is our understanding that, to date, up to 13,000 Newham landlords are of interest to HMRC, where there are discrepancies between declared income and our records, with potentially significant financial implication for the exchequer.

Our core grant funding has halved since 2010-11, thats less money for our schools, less money for social care, and less money for housing. I urge you to assess the additional benefits of Newhams licensing scheme in assisting the exchequer to address tax evasion by landlords.

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

The council is currently in a dispute with the Government over its landlord licensing scheme after ministers ruled that compulsory registration results in unnecessary costs for reputable landlords.

The vast majority of landlords provide a good service and the Government does not believe it is right to impose unnecessary additional costs on them, or their tenants, Brandon Lewis, the then Housing Minister, said in 2015. Such an approach is disproportionate and unfairly penalises good landlords.

Councils, however, say licensing is vital to allowing them to effectively clamp down on rogue landlords.

Newham says it has banned 28 landlords, issued 2,170 notices to improve properties and recovered 2.6m in unpaid council tax.

HMRC said it did not recognise the 13,000 figure.

A spokesperson said: "We are working with the London Borough of Newham as part of our UK wide Let Property Campaign.

"

This work has generated 115m in additional and previously unpaid tax and interest.

The Independent revealed last week that almost a third of privately rented homes do not meet the basic government health and safety standard, while close to a fifth contain the most dangerous type of hazard.

A spokesperson for the Residential Landlords Association said: We condemn any landlord that does not pay the tax that they are legally obliged to.
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The man wrongfully arrested for pushing a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge has reportedly hired a bodyguard after receiving death threats.

Eric Bellquist was detained by police after CCTV footage emerged of the shocking incident last week in which a jogger can be seen violently shoving a pedestrian into the path of a bus.

But lawyers representing the 41-year-old banker said they had irrefutable proof he was in the US at the time of the attack in May and he was subsequently released.

Mr Bellquist was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. He was initially released on bail and then cleared of all charges.

But he is now facing death threats as a result of his arrest, according to the MailOnline.

The Metropolitan Police said they did not check whether Mr Bellquist was in the country prior to his arrest.

Footage of the incident, which happened on 5 May, was released by police to appeal for witnesses.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters

The video shows a man jogging past one male pedestrian, before colliding with the 33-year-old woman, who is thrown to the ground and into the path of a bus.

The bus is then seen swerving to avoid the woman.

Police said that after the incident the bus driver stopped and passengers tended to the woman who had minor injuries.

Mr Bellquist was cleared of any involvement (Facebook)

The jogger then ran back the other way over the bridge, the Metropolitan Police said. When the victim tried to speak to her assailant, he did not acknowledge her.

Prior to his elimination from the investigation, Mr Bellquists lawyers, Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said: "Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident.

"Consequently, we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation."
A poster of the drama "The Story of Xiaoyi." (Photo/provided to People's Daily Online)

The Story of Xiaoyi, a drama meant to raise public awareness about the care of China's left-behind children, was staged in Beijing on August 11, 2017.

The drama is based on a true story that happened in July 2014. It is about a left-behind child named Xiaoyi who lives with her grandparents and young sister in rural Guizhou. Xiaoyi's parents could not return home from their place of work for the Spring Festival once again, leaving the family in disappointment and Xiaoyi in anger. Volunteers from Shanghai went to Xiaoyi's home and tried to cheer them up.

Different from traditional shows, all the performers are volunteers from Huidiji Public Psychological Care Center in Shanghai. In the past two years, the drama has been staged a total of 23 times in Shanghai and Chengdu. Nearly 50 celebrities have been involved as guest performers to help comfort left-behind children. Their diverse backgrounds and personalities have added to the performances.

This time, two guests, former CCTV host Liu Yiwei and news anchor Lang Yongchun, were invited to perform as volunteers visiting Xiaoyi's family. The guests had no lines, script, or rehearsals, so it was purely improvisational acting.

"The Story of Xiaoyi," a drama meant to raise public awareness about the care of left-behind children in China, is staged in Beijing on August 11, 2017. (Photo/provided to People's Daily Online)

With China's rapid urbanization over the last two decades, millions of villagers work in the cities, leaving their children at home. Statistics shows that in 2016, the number of left-behind children aged 16 or under and whose parents were not at home was 9.02 million in rural areas in China. That number is even larger when you take into account families with only one parent working outside of the village. These left-behind children are vulnerable to physical and emotional abuse, and often face challenges with personal safety and well-being.

How to help and protect left-behind children has long been a hot issue. Many NGOs and individuals have tried a variety of methods to solve the problem. However, there are also some people who are just using the situation to gain fame and fortune. Instead of providing material support, Huidiji focuses on the mental health of left-behind children. As shown in the drama, with the help of volunteers, love is passed on among family members, as well as between teachers and students, by telling them three simple words: "I love you."

The drama, no matter how good or bad the performance, has aroused public concern about left-behind children. "We hope to get more people involved in helping left-behind children and caring about the mental health of our whole society," said Liu Yang, host of the performance.
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Theresa May's spokesman has said Donald Trump's statements are "a matter for him" after the US President failed to condemn neo-Nazis protesters at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Ms May condemned racism, hatred and violence but he did not comment on the backlash over Mr Trump's response to the rally.

Asked whether Mr Trump's response had been robust enough, Ms May's spokesman said: "What the President says is a matter for him. We are very clear.... we condemn racism, hatred and violence. We condemn the far right."

President Trump was criticised for condemning "violence on all sides" rather than directly taking aim at the far-right protesters, some of who are his supporters.

The protest turned deadly when a car ploughed into a group of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The crash resulted in at least 19 people being injured and Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, declaring a state of emergency.

A White House spokesman said that Mr Trump did not explicitly condemn white supremacist groups after violence broke out in Charlottesville because he did not want to "dignify" their politics.

However, the US leader has been widely criticised for failing to single out white supremacist groups in his condemnation and he was forced to clarify his position two days after the events.

Mr Trump has subsquently declared that "racism" is evil and that the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and other hate groups are "repugnant".

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred bigotry and violence," he said. "It has no place in America."

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the violence "absolutely repulsive".

Her spokesperson told journalists: "The scenes at the right-wing extremist march were absolutely repulsive - naked racism, antisemitism and hate in their most evil form were on display. Such images and chants are disgusting wherever they may be and they are diametrically opposed to the political goals of the Chancellor and the entire government."

The spokesperson added that Ms Merkel supported "those who peacefully oppose such aggressive, far-right views."
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The Government has been accused of refusing to publish more than 50 secret studies in the impact of Brexit  for fear they could cause embarrassment to ministers.

Brexit minister David Jones confirmed in a letter that the Department for Exiting the European Union had conducted analysis of over 50 sector of the economy.

But ministers are so far resisting calls to publish the findings of the investigations in full  arguing that some findings would undermine the Governments ability to negotiate the best deal for Britain were they made public.

It comes after one leaked piece of research by the Department of Health found that Brexit could cause a shortage of more than 40,000 nurses by 2026.

Green Party MEP Molly Scott Cato, who wrote to ministers about the studies, said: The only reason they wouldnt publish these studies is because they reveal what they dont want people to hear: that a hard Brexit will be a disaster for our economy, for our environmental standards and for our workers rights.

I wrote to David Davis to highlight some of the deep concerns around the uncertainties facing the South West of England. I wanted to know what studies the government has commissioned on the impact of a hard Brexit on the livelihoods of the people living in this region, especially in regard to agriculture. What I got in response were platitudes and further evasion. This is completely unacceptable.

We know this government has undertaken studies, including the leaked Department of Health research that shows how our nursing provision will be devastated by a hard Brexit. We dont know what other studies the government have done because they wont tell us, but we do know they have carried out analysis of over 50 sectors.

It is time for the government to come clean and tell us what the results of these studies were. If they dont, it will just fuel the growing uncertainties and concerns people have over this governments hard Brexit folly.

Brexit Secretary David Daviss department commissioned the studies (AFP/Getty)

A spokesperson for the Department for Exiting the EU referred The Independent to comments by Brexit minister Robin Walker from June this year. Mr Walker had said that the impact of Brexit on certain sector was being examined and a list of the studies would be published  but not their contents.

The Department for Exiting the European Union, working with officials across Government, continues to undertake a wide range of analysis to support our negotiations, the minister had said.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

Our work covers the breadth of the UK economy, and we are looking in detail at more than 50 sectors as well as areas of cross-cutting regulation. Parliament has agreed that we will not publish anything that would undermine the Governments ability to negotiate the best deal for Britain.

Now, that the Prime Minister has initiated the Article 50 process and negotiations have begun in earnest, I can confirm that we will shortly be publishing the list of sectors we have been examining  though this of course does not mean that we have changed our position on revealing information which may harm our negotiating position.
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Britain will today propose keeping the same customs rules with the EU for an interim period after Brexit to avert border chaos, sparking fresh accusations that policy is mired in confusion.

Ministers will tell Brussels they want a temporary customs union for several years, amid evidence that businesses are already pulling investment because they fear the harm to trade from a cliff-edge exit in 2019.

They will then ask for alignment on customs  making clear that, although Britain would leave the EUs existing arrangements, the Government hopes little would change on the ground even in the long term.

The proposal will be greeted with relief by business leaders as a big step back from Theresa Mays threats that no deal is better than a bad deal, made before her election setback.

However, there are huge doubts over whether EU leaders will accept the plan  after two cabinet ministers insisted that Britain must also be free to seek trade deals with non-EU countries, from day one after departure.

Under the rules of the customs union  a free trade area, charging the same tariffs on imports from outside  members are barred from negotiating their own trade deals with other countries.

The Open Britain campaign immediately condemned the Government for wanting to have their cake and eat it.

Chris Leslie, a Labour MP and supporter, said ministers were promising smooth customs, but with absolutely no detail about how such a miraculous new system will be achieved.

It looks like the new unified position in the Cabinet is to return the Government to the territory of wanting to have their cake and eat it, Mr Leslie said.

It is a fantasy to pretend we can have the freest and most frictionless trade possible with our largest partner when the Government remain intent on pulling Britain out of the customs union.

 Tom Peck on Double Take: Parliamentary sketch writers are currently redundant in Brexit Britain

And Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader, agreed, saying: The only way to guarantee free and frictionless trade with the EU is to stay in the customs union and single market.

No matter how they try to dress it up, the Conservatives are currently heading for a chaotic Brexit that will leave Britain poorer.

In seeking identical customs rules for a temporary period, ministers are accepting there is no time to strike a permanent deal before 2019, after months of warnings from business groups.

Without a deal, there are fears of enormous queues at Dover and other checkpoints, huge disruption to trade and a need for many hundreds of extra customs staff.

Now the Department for Exiting the European Union will argue a temporary customs union can deliver the freest and most frictionless possible trade in goods between the UK and the EU.

It will say it can provide certainty for businesses in the UK and the EU and ensure that businesses only have to adjust once to a new customs relationship  at the end of the transition.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

In the interim, both sides would have time to implement technology-based solutions to make the customs regime as smooth as possible when permanent arrangements are introduced.

Brexit Secretary David Davis will also float an alternative plan for a highly streamlined customs partnership with the EU, to prevent the need for a customs border.

But, on Sunday, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, penned a joint article insisting on the freedom to sign bilateral free trade agreements immediately.

The article triggered accusations that Mr Hammond had come to heel and sided with the Brexiteers, who prize the alleged benefits from leaving the customs union.

In the same way, Brexit-backing Conservatives will flex their muscles if the EU insists there can be no new customs union unless Britain agrees not to seek outside trade deals.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the reactions of EU negotiators would be crucial and urged ministers to make striking an agreement their top priority  ahead of new trade deals.

Business needs to see the Governments resources focused on the conclusion of a successful customs deal with the EU, said Adam Marshall, its director general.

The future partnership paper will be released in Theresa Mays absence, after she stayed on holiday for longer than expected, only returning to Downing Street on Thursday.

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

Ministers will also argue that their customs union plan can also solve  at least temporarily  the dispute over the future border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Britain wants to use smart technology and spot checks to police the flow of goods between the two countries after Brexit, angering the Irish Government.

Dublin fears the impact on the peace process in the North and has pushed for the Irish Sea to become the post-Brexit border with the UK instead.

A separate position paper on Northern Ireland will follow later this week, as the Government seeks to counter the EUs criticism that its aims for Brexit are a muddle.

The documents are crucial to persuading Brussels that the UK is serious about meeting its tests on the divorce settlement  allowing negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal to begin.
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The German chancellor has condemned far-right white supremacist violence that took place in the US state of Virginia over the weekend as absolutely repulsive.

Angela Merkels comments come after a weekend of clashes between racist protesters and counter-demonstrators in the city of Charlottesville  which left one woman dead and 19 injured.

Donald Trump came under fire from members of his own Republican party for failing to fully condemn the white supremacists, instead initially criticising violence on many sides in a tweet.

Speaking on Monday a spokesperson for Ms Merkel told journalists: The scenes at the right-wing extremist march were absolutely repulsive  naked racism, antisemitism and hate in their most evil form were on display.

Such images and chants are disgusting wherever they may be and they are diametrically opposed to the political goals of the Chancellor and the entire German government.

The spokesperson added that Ms Merkel supported those who peacefully oppose such aggressive, far-right views.

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed after a far right activist allegedly drove a car into a group of counter-protesters. Pictures from the scene show the force of the crash throwing people into the air. Two police officers also died when their helicopter, which was monitoring the march, crashed.

Donald Trump has been coy to condemn the Nazi protesters directly (REUTERS)

The White House has said that Mr Trump was condemning all extremist groups including white supremacists but the President has yet to comment on them himself.

A spokesperson for Theresa May has said the British government stands with the US against racism, hatred and violence.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

The far-right rally in Charlottesville was called in opposition to the removal of monuments commemorating Confederate leaders  the side in the US civil war that fought to defend slavery.

The city has since however become a wider flashpoint for far-right violence and intimidation, with a vigil in memory of the late Ms Heyer having to be cancelled due to a credible threat against it.
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Scotland is on track to become the first country in the world to provide women with universal access to free tampons and sanitary towels.

Member of the Scottish parliament, Labour's Monica Lennon, launched a consultation on a members bill on Monday which if successful, will introduce a system of universal free access to sanitary products in the nation.

It would see schools, colleges and universities provide free sanitary items in their toilets.

The move is part of Scotlands crackdown on 'period poverty', after reports revealed young women in the UK were being forced to skip school during their period, as they could not afford sanitary items.

Some were having to fashion makeshift sanitary towels out of tissues or socks.

The Bill will place a legal duty on ministers to provide free sanitary products as a basic right.

Ms Lennon, Scottish Labours equalities spokesperson, said ahead of the launch: Scotland has the opportunity to be a world leader in ending period poverty.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters

Access to sanitary products should be a basic right but sadly in Scotland we know not everyone can afford or obtain what they need.

Thats why I intend to introduce a legal duty on the Scottish Government to develop a universal system in Scotland which will provide free sanitary products for anyone who needs them.

My proposal also includes a statutory duty on schools, colleges and universities to provide free sanitary products in their toilets. Having your period shouldnt result in anyone missing class.

This is a big step towards creating a fairer and more equal society and I hope to hear from people right across Scotland during the consultation.

In July, the Scottish government announced it was launching a six-month pilot scheme in Aberdeen to provide free sanitary items for women and girls in low-income households..

A funding appeal was launched earlier this year to research the issue of period poverty in the UK, after a police officer working at a school in Leeds found female pupils were having to rely on teachers to buy sanitary products for them, as they did not have the money to purchase the products.

Sara Barrie, safer schools officer for the West Yorkshire Police, told The Independent: A large number of students were asking us for sanitary products in school. A lot of teachers were buying them from their own pockets to give out.
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Theresa May will not be back at work until Thursday, No 10 has said  almost four weeks after she began her summer break.

The Prime Minister is expected to be still out of the country when crucial papers for the Brexit negotiations  on trade and Northern Ireland  are published, it has emerged.

Ms May had been expected back in Downing Street at the start of this week, after separate walking holidays in Italy and Switzerland.

Recommended The truth about the claim Remainers want to deport EU citizens

The next few days will be crucial to hopes of a successful resumption of the EU withdrawal talks, after Brusselss criticism that the UK position has been a muddle.

But the Prime Minister will be away for longer than expected, after interrupting her break to join the commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele at the end of July.

Ian Lavery, the Labour party chairman, criticised her continued absence, saying: With her Cabinet squabbling over the Governments position on issue after issue, it seems like shes given up on governing.

While the Prime Minister has taken a long break following her humiliating loss of authority at the general election, Jeremy Corbyn has been preparing to win the next election, campaigning in Tory-held marginals across the country.

The documents to be published over the next few days could be crucial to persuading the EU that the UK is serious about meeting its tests on the divorce settlement.

Only then will negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal  Britains priority  begin, the EU has insisted.

As well as uncertainty in the EU negotiations, Ms Mays holiday has also coincided with further strife in the NHS, where waiting lists are now their longest for almost a decade.

In the summer, demand for medical treatment is usually lighter, but four million people were queuing for treatment in June, underlining the services fragility ahead of another winter of financial squeeze.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has not spoken publicly on the crisis surrounding North Koreas missile tests or Donald Trumps promise to inflict fire and fury" on the rogue communist state.

Her spokesman indicated on Monday that she had not been in personal contact with Washington since the threat of nuclear war loomed, but insisted the Government was in constant contact.

Asked if Ms May was worried about the Presidents rhetoric, he replied: We have been absolutely clear in our condemnation of North Korea and its destabilising activity.

As the Foreign Secretary said at the weekend the regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it.
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An Argentinian man has been killed in Namibia after he was trampled by an elephant, local media report.

The Namibia Press Agency said the hunter, identified as 46-year-old Jose Monzalvez, was killed on Saturday afternoon in a private wildlife area 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of the small town of Kalkfeld.

Recommended British tourist trampled to death by elephant in front of daughter

The agency said Monzalvez, who worked for an oil company, was with another Argentine and three Namibians when he was killed. It says one of the elephants charged before the group was able to find a spot to aim and shoot.

The report says Monzalvez had a hunting permit with him and that relatives have been informed of his death.

A well-known South African hunter was crushed to death by an elephant in Zimbabwe earlier this year when the animal was shot by a member of his group.

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

Theunis Botha, 51, had been leading a hunting group in Gwai when they discovered a group of elephants, some of which were pregnant.

The hunter fired at the animals after three elephants began stampeding towards him. A fourth elephant then ran at the hunter and lifted him up with its trunk. A member of the hunting group then shot the animal, which collapsed on Mr Botha, killing him.

PA
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Barack Obama's message of unity after a far-right, white supremacist event in Virginia descended into deadly violence has become the third most liked tweet in history - and prompted renewed pining for the former president.

Speaking after a car hit a crowd of anti-fascist protesters, killing one, Mr Obama chose to quote iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela.

His tweeted, posted alongside an image of the former US leader speaking to No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, they can be taught to love. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.

For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

With over 2.2 million likes, the quote follows Ariana Grandes tweet about the Manchester bombing (first) and Ellen DeGeneres' iconic Bradley Cooper Oscars selfie (second) according to online service Favstar, which tracks Twitter and Twitter usage.

His comments have also been shared more than one million times, with many people mourning the fact that he is no longer leader of the free world.

One wrote: We miss you. We are in hell. We didnt vote for this monster! Please please help us. I know youre respecting the office but the fate of the world  the world you live in too  is at stake!

Another wrote: This guy played a big role in USA, long live MR President.

God bless you President Obama! Your legacy can never be erased because no trump or party can remove love & respect from hearts of people," a third lamented.

President Donald Trump on the other hand, has been criticised for not condemning white supremacists as the source of the troubles in Charlottesville.

In a press conference, he offered condolences to the family of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a suspected Neo-Nazi ploughed his car into peaceful demonstrators.

He said: We want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville. And we want to study it. And we want to see what were doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.

"My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens. But our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another.

 Charlottesville mayor: There's a 'direct line' between what happened here and Trump

"We must love each other, respect each other and cherish our history and our future together."

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

Michael Skolnik, an entrepreneur, said: Donald Trump will not condemn the Nazis directly. He will not condemn white supremacy directly. That should tell you enough.
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Anti-fascist vigilantes are naming and shaming the white supremacists which converged on Charlottesville in the hope of causing them to lose their jobs.

The efforts to identify the far-right protesters who engaged in violent clashes with anti-fascists over the weekend have already been successful and one of the far-right protesters is believed to have been sacked by his employer.

Gregg Davis, a Missouri resident, shared a Facebook post asking people to identify demonstrators at the far-right rally. The viral post, which has now been shared more than 219 thousand times, included close up images from the torch march that culminated in violence.

 Charlottesville: Moment man breaks legs saving his fiance's life by pushing her out the way

Each photograph plainly asks: Do you know me? Are you my employer? I was at the Nazi Rally at Charlotte, VA.

A Twitter account dubbed Yes, Youre a racist, which has made a name for exposing white nationalists in the past, has also called for anyone who recognises the men in the photos to out them publicly on social media or send anonymous tips.

If you recognise any of the Nazis marching in Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and I'll make them famous, it asked.

Cole White, a protester pictured on the account, has since been sacked from his job at a restaurant in Berkeley, California.

"Effective Saturday 12th August, Cole White no longer works at Top Dog," currently reads a sign on the fast-food restaurant's door. "The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by Top Dog. We believe in individual freedom and voluntary association for everyone."

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

The account has also named a number of the other torch-carrying far-right extremists, publishing their addresses, places of employment and universities.

Clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascists engulfed Charlottesville over the weekend. Two policemen died in a helicopter crash while taking part in efforts to restore peace and a 32-year-old women named as Heather Heyer was killed after a car ploughed into a group of anti-fascist protesters in a separate incident.

Twenty-five people were injured in the attack. According to police, James Alex Fields, a 20-year-old from Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that resulted in a death.

The mother of Ms Heyer has spoken out in the wake of the violence, saying she wants her daughters death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality.

Born in Charlottesville, Ms Heyer dedicated her life to battling injustice and worked at a law firm where she helped people who were in danger of being evicted from their homes, having their cars repossessed or who needed help paying medical bills.

A GoFundMe campaign set up in Ms Heyers memory managed to raise $225,000 (173,000) over the weekend alone. The campaign, which has since been closed, included a statement from her mother, Susan Bro, that said: She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her.
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The man accused of driving his car through a crowd of activists in Virginia  killing one and injuring 19 more  idolised Hitler and white supremacy, a former teacher of his says.

A former history teacher of James Alex Fields Jrs says that, in high school, his former pupil accused of second degree murder sympathised with Nazi views and espoused extremist ideals as a student. Mr Fields is 20-years-old.

It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler, Derek Weimer, the teacher, told the Washington Post.

Videos of the attack in Charlottesville show a grey car plowing through a crowd of demonstrators participating in a counter-protest to a gathering of white supremacists there. The car then reverses, quickly, as hit protesters looked on, stunned, while others attempted to hit the vehicle as it fled the scene.

Mr Fields had apparently driven to Charlottesville from his home in Ohio to attend the so-called Unite the Right rally, which brought together the self-described alt-right movement that has been recognised as a white nationalist group. The rally had been organised to protest planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee.

The rally quickly saw clashes between counter-protesters and the alt-right demonstrators, and police quickly had to disperse the demonstrations minutes after the scheduled start time at noon Saturday. Just the night before, a torch-lit pre-rally march had descended into violence.

In his first court appearance, via video conference, Mr Fields did not enter a plea in connexion to the crime he has been accused of. He told the court that he could not afford a lawyer. He was also denied bail, and given a return date.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

The alt-right movement has gained some national exposure after the unexpected victory of Donald Trump, who many see as sympathetic to the cause. The group is seen as part of a larger backlash against diversity and identity politics in the United States that was seen as a larger cultural backlash that propped up Mr Trumps campaign.

Other hate groups were also represented at the rally, including the more traditional white nationalist groups like the neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Efforts to remove the state of Lee resulted in city council members pointing out that Lee had no tangible connexion to the city, and therefore the existence of the statue on public grounds was just an indirect way to celebrate the Confederacy  the secessionist government that started the Civil War over disagreements with the northern states about whether slavery should exist in the US.

The issue of Confederate monuments in the US  they are predominantly located in the US South, but can be found all over the country  has been a point of contentious debate since at least 2015, when 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine black people at a historically black church in South Carolina. Pictures of Roof, who wrote in journals that he wanted to spark a race war, holding the Confederate flag later surfaced, leading to the removal of the flag form the state capitol grounds.

The removal of that flag was controversial, and preceded many efforts across the South to remove Confederate symbols from public spaces. A review of Confederate monuments in the US conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center has found that there are at least 1,503 Confederate place names or symbols in the US.
In the movie Alien, one of the hottest blockbuster movies in 2017, the characters can preserve their bodies in cryogenic capsules, a technology that has now been adopted by Chinese scientists to preserve corpses for future resurrection.

Zhan Wenlian, a 49-year-old female who died from lung cancer on May 8, donated her body for Chinas first scientific cryogenic project. The project, which was initiated by the Yifeng Academy of Life Science, a medical company in Jinan, Shandong province, aims to bring the dead back to life after preserving their corpses, waking them up when medical technologies are fully developed, according to Chengdu Economic Daily.

A special anti-freezing solution was injected into Zhans corpse, while special medical equipment such as respirators is being used to ensure the physiological functions of the body. The corpse itself rests on the worlds only cryogenic bed, which cools the bodys temperature to -190 degrees Celsius. Scientists from both China and U.S. have taken part in the project, collecting data and information for future research.

Gui Junmin, Zhans husband, told Science and Technology Daily that he has faith in cryogenic preservation technologies, adding that he hopes to donate his body for the same project in the future.

According to media reports, the company is covering most of the expenses. Right now, the cost of preparation and preservation exceeds 1 million yuan ($150 thousand).

Currently, we have no intention to commercialize the project. Zhan has devoted herself to science, receiving the hope of coming back to life in the future, Jiang Chunsheng, director of Yifeng Academy of Life Science, told Chengdu Economic Daily.
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When he was asked on CNN's State of the Union whether he would condemn the praise of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke last year, Donald Trump declined to disavow Duke's comments.

I dont know anything about David Duke, okay, Trump said. I dont know anything about what youre even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. I don't know, did he endorse me? Or what's going on. Because I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists.

In 2000, Trump declined to run for president as a member of the Reform Party because the Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr Buchanan, and a communist, Ms Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep. As Trump himself noted on Twitter, he also disavowed Duke in a news conference earlier this week.

But this incident also brings to mind another report, unearthed in September by the technology blog Boing Boing.

On Memorial Day 1927, brawls erupted in New York led by sympathisers of the Italian fascist movement and the Ku Klux Klan. In the fascist brawl, which took place in the Bronx, two Italian men were killed by anti-fascists. In Queens, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighbourhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested.

One of those arrested was Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Road in Jamaica.

 Charlottesville mayor: There's a 'direct line' between what happened here and Trump

This is Donald Trump's father. Trump had a brother named Fred, but he wasn't born until more than a decade later. The Fred Trump at Devonshire Road was the Fred C. Trump who lived there with his mother, according to the 1930 Census.

The predication for the Klan to march, according to a flier passed around Jamaica beforehand, was that Native-born Protestant Americans were being assaulted by Roman Catholic police of New York City. Liberty and Democracy have been trampled upon, it continued, when native-born Protestant Americans dare to organise to protect one flag, the American flag; one school, the public school; and one language, the English language.

It's not clear from the context what role Fred Trump played in the brawl. The news article simply notes that seven men were arrested in the near-riot of the parade, all of whom were represented by the same lawyers. Update: A contemporaneous article from the Daily Star notes that Trump was detained on a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so.

When news of the old report surfaced last year, Donald Trump vehemently denied his father's arrest. He was never arrested. He has nothing to do with this. This never happened. This is nonsense and it never happened, he said to the Daily Mail. This never happened. Never took place. He was never arrested, never convicted, never even charged. It's a completely false, ridiculous story. He was never there! It never happened. Never took place.

Given the politics and cultural constraints of 1927, the Klan wasn't the sort of thing that a politician would necessarily be asked to condemn. An article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from that December notes that the Klan would probably weigh in heavily against the potential presidential nomination of then-New York Governor Al Smith, given that he was a Catholic and a champion of 'alienism.'

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

It's worth noting that Trump's comments came one day after another Klan brawl, this time in Anaheim, Calif. Thirteen people were arrested and three were stabbed after a Klan rally turned violent. And it's worth noting, too, as did Jonathan Chait at New York magazine, that Trump's claim to know nothing about white supremacists echoes the language of the 19th-century Know Nothing party  a nativist group that supported only Protestants for public office.

The Washington Post
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Why doesn't President Donald Trump just unequivocally condemn white supremacists?

It's a jarring question to ask about an American President. But it's also one made unavoidable by Trump's delayed, blame-both-sides response to the violence that erupted on Saturday when neo-Nazis, skinheads and members of the Ku Klux Klan protested in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump has faced such a moment before  one that would have certainly drawn swift, almost predictable condemnations from his recent predecessors, regardless of party. As a candidate and now as President, when racial tensions flared or fringe groups rallied around his message, Trump has shown uncharacteristic caution and a reluctance to distance himself from the hate.

At times, his approach has seemingly inflamed racial tensions in a deeply divided country while emboldening groups long in the shadows.

On Saturday, as Trump read slowly through a statement about the clashes that left dozens injured and one woman dead, he condemned hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. The President was silent when journalists asked whether he rejected the support of nationalist groups.

That silence was cheered by the white supremacist website Daily Stormer: When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.

Trump denies that he's racist or sympathetic to such groups. Son-in-law Jared Kushner, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, are among those who have defended the President against those charges.

Still, he has a history of engaging in high-profile, racially fraught battles.

Early in his career as a developer, Trump fought charges of bias against blacks seeking to rent at his family-owned apartment complexes. He long promoted the lie that the nation's first black President, Barack Obama, was not born in the United States. As a candidate, he proposed temporarily banning Muslims from the United States. He retweeted a post from accounts that appeared to have ties to white nationalist groups. And he was slow to reject the endorsement of former KKK leader David Duke.

Some of the President's friends and advisers have argued that Trump is simply refusing to bend to liberals' desire for political correctness. A boastful, proudly disruptive politician, Trump often has been rewarded for saying impolite and impolitic things. Some supporters cheered him for being someone who said what they could not.

Democrats frequently assert that Trump sees a political advantage in courting the support of the far right. Indeed, he has benefited politically from the backing of media outlets such as Breitbart or InfoWars. They have consistently promoted Trump and torn down his opponents, sometimes with biased or inaccurate reports.

Charlottesville's mayor, Democrat Mike Signer, said on Sunday that Trump made a choice during his campaign to go right to the gutter, to play on our worst prejudices.

I think you are seeing a direct line from what happened here this weekend to those choices, Signer said on CBS' Face the Nation.

White House senior adviser Steve Bannon ran Breitbart before joining Trump's campaign, and several of the President's other aides believe Bannon continues to have influence over the website. In Devil's Bargain, a new book about his role in the Trump campaign, Bannon is quoted as saying that attempts by Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to tie Trump to the alt-right and nationalists did not move voters.

We polled the race stuff and it doesn't matter, Bannon said, according to the book.

But there no reliable public polling on the scope of Trump's support among those with white nationalist leanings or the percentage of the electorate they comprise. The reaction from Republicans following Trump's statement on Saturday suggests there may be greater political risks for the President in aligning himself with bigoted groups.

The President needs to step up today and say what it is, said Senator Cory Gardner, Republican-Colorado, who was one of several GOP lawmakers urging Trump to be more strident in calling out the nationalists and neo-Nazis that gathered in Charlottesville. Gardner said plainly: It's evil. It's white nationalism.

By Sunday, the White House was scrambling to try to clean up the President's statement. The White House issued a statement saying the President does condemn white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

The spokeswoman who issued the statement refused to be named. And the President himself remained silent.

That left Vice President Mike Pence, travelling in South America, to offer the kind of comment Trump's critics sought from the White House: We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK. These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.

Associated Press
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The mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, is pushing forward on plans to remove Confederate symbols from government grounds after the devastating attack in Virginia that left one dead and 19 injured in a clash over white nationalism.

Mayor Jim Gray said that the events in Charlottesville  where an individual plowed a car through a group of people protesting a white supremacist rally there  had accelerated the process to remove the symbols.

We have thoroughly examined this issue and heard from many of our citizens, Mr Gray said in a statement the day of the tragedy. The tragic events in Charlottesville today have accelerated the announcement I intended to make next week.

The mayor intends on asking the Lexington-Layette County Urban County Council to take a first step in the removal process by asking the state military commission for permission to remove two statues. Those statues portray John Hunt Morgan and John C Breckinridge. The vote, Mr Gray said, was already in the works.

The Kentucky Military Heritage Commission would need to green light the removal of the statues, and officials with the city and county have been warned that approval wouldnt be granted until the city decides where the statues would be moved. That commission was established more than 40 years ago, and is tasked with identifying and preserving historic sites and monuments in Kentucky.

Mr Grays relationship with the monuments, just as can be said for many in Kentucky and the United States, is one of competing narratives and heritages. All his life, Mr Gray has heard stories of three great uncles who fought in the Civil War  two who fought for the Union Army, and one who fought for the Confederate Army  and the complex legacy that creates.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

But, now as mayor, he is overseeing a transition of the old Fayette County courthouse in downtown Lexington. The city wants to create a new and welcoming center for visitors as a part of a $30 million renovation intending to position the city as a beacon of a new and progressive South. But, standing in the way of the projects success  which will have a planned bourbon bar, office space, and restaurant  are the two Confederate monuments that represent a history of slavery and racism for many, while at the same time representing an enduring heritage to others.

Its the right thing to do, Mr Gray recently told the Washington Post about his support for moving the monuments. But doing it right is just as important.

As the events in Charlottesville and elsewhere show, the removal of Confederate memorials and symbols can have deadly effects. White supremacists had originally decided to hold their rally in the Virginia town known more for being a quiet college town than political activism, as a result of plans to remove a statue of Robert E Lee there. That rally was quickly dispersed by police over violent skirmishes between the white supremacists and counter-protesters.

Other attempts throughout the country to bring down Confederate memorials have resulted in varying levels of violence, and frequently result in vocal opposition.

Lexingtons statues honour Morgan  a man known then as the Thunderbolt of the Confederacy  and Breckinridge  the former US vice president who was kicked out of the Senate for joining the Confederate army. Breckinridge served as the last Confederate secretary of war.

Mr Grays office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
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A student pictured chanting white nationalist slogans during a neo-nazi rally in Charlottesville has spoken out to insist he is not an angry racist".

Peter Cvjetanovic, a 20-year-old studying at the University of Nevada, claims he cares for all people.

He was pictured at the rally holding a torch in an image shared widely across social media.

I came to this march for the message that white European culture has a right to be here just like every other culture, Mr Cvjetanovic told Channel 2 News.

It is not perfect; there are flaws to it, of course. However I do believe that the replacement of the statue will be the slow replacement of white heritage within the United States and the people who fought and defended and built their homeland.

Robert E Lee [a top general for Confederate forces during the American Civil War] is a great example of that. He wasnt a perfect man, but I want to honour and respect what he stood for during his time.

Peter Cvjetanovic chants with neo nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville (Getty)

Mr Cvjetanovic said he was shocked at the coverage the photo of him at the protest has received.

I did not expect the photo to be shared as much as it was. I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo.

As a white nationalist, I care for all people. We all deserve a future for our children and for our culture. White nationalists arent all hateful; we just want to preserve what we have.

The University of Nevada released a statement acknowledging that a marcher photographed was one of their students but did not name Mr Cvjetanovic specifically.

"Racism and white supremacist movements have a corrosive effect on our society. These movements do not represent our values as a university. We denounce any movement that targets individuals due to the colour of their skin, their religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation, ability/disability, or whether they were born in our country, the statement said, according to Reno Gazette-Journal.

A petition has been shared online calling for Mr Cvjetanovic to be expelled from the university.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Cvjetanovic has released a statement in response to the petition.

"I do not think they have the right to expel me from a public university. I went to a legal political rally to express my freedom of speech.

"I committed no acts of violence, and dispersed when told that the rally had become illegal. Therefore I did nothing illegal at that rally. I am allowed to express my political beliefs and if UNR does expel me, then it is a clear violation of my first amendment," he said.
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Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to attack an African American CEO who stood down from a manufacturing council that advises the president, following the deadly clashes in Charlottesville.

President Trump has come under fire on all sides for his reaction to the violence in Virginia, in which a woman was killed and dozens injured when white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters clashed in the city.

In a press conference, the president condemned the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, without directly condemning white supremacists. The White House has since said the President condemns white supremacist groups.

Mr Trump took to Twitter to directly attack Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier after he resigned from the American Manufacturing Council however, claiming that the leader of Americas third-largest pharmaceutical company will now have more time to lower ripoff drug prices!

Mr Frazier resigned from council on Monday, apparently citing the presidents reaction to the events in Charlottesville as a reason, stating that he felt a responsibility to take a stand.

Mr Frazier said in a statement: Americas leaders must honour our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.

As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Drug makers have come under closer scrutiny because of rising drug prices, although Merck has not been one of the companies targeted by politicians or watchdogs.

Other executives who agreed to serve on councils advising the president have already resigned, citing separate stances taken by the Trump administration.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk resigned from the manufacturing council in June, as well as two other advisory groups to the president, after the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Walt Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger also resigned from a White House advisory council for the same reason.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
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Two openly gay students had their pro-LGBT quotes about coming out removed from their school yearbook.

Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz, pupils at Kearney High in Missouri, had left inspirational, positive comments underneath their yearbook photographs, only to find they had been deleted in case other students found them offensive.

Mr Slivinski had written: Of course I dress well. I didnt spend all that time in the closer for nothing.

Mr Swartz had added under his picture: If Harry Potter taught us anything, its that no one should have to live in the closet.

Yet where the quotes were supposed to appear, the space was left blank.

Speaking to local Kansas news outlet KCTV5, Mr Slivinski said: I went to find my quote in the yearbook but, nothing was there.

Recommended Trump team says Civil Rights Act should not stop LGBT discrimination

The students are planning to make stickers to insert the quotes into their friends yearbooks.

The schools principal, Dave Schwarzenbach, and the districts superintendent of schools, Bill Nicely, issued a statement apologising for removing the comments.

District administrators were made aware of concerns regarding the removal of senior quotes from the school yearbook," the statement said.

"Each year, graduating seniors are provided an opportunity to pick a favourite quote to be placed in the yearbook.

In an effort to protect our students, quotes that could potentially offend another student or groups of students are not published. It is the schools practice to err on the side of caution.

"Doing so in this case had the unintentional consequence of offending the very students the practice was designed to protect. We sincerely apologise to those students."
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One of the organisers of the far-right rally that descended into deadly violence in Charlottesville was chased away by protesters as he tried to give a press conference.

Before Jason Kessler fled the baying crowd, he blamed police in Virginia for not preventing the violent clashes between white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other far-right groups on one side and counter-protesters on the other.

Mr Kessler, a 34-year-old white nationalist from Charlottesville, organised the Unite the Right rally to protest against a vote by the citys government to remove a statue of a Confederate general, Robert E Lee, from a local park.

He returned to the town the day after the shocking clashes which left a 32-year-old Heather Hayer dead. A 20-year-old man from Ohio is facing murder charges.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

Mr Kesslers attempts to address the press pack were drowned out by chants of murderer, shame and thug.

Largely drowned out by jeers, he said: Today I just want to come before you, and I want to tell you the story of what really happened before this narrative is allowed to continue spinning out of control.

The hate that you hear around you? That is the anti-white hate that fuelled what happened yesterday. What happened yesterday was the result of Charlottesville police officers refusing to do their job.

He continued: I disavow anything that led to folks getting hurt. It is a sad day in our constitutional democracy when we are not able to have civil liberties like the First Amendment (free speech).

Thats what leads to rational discussion and ideas breaking down and people resorting to violence.

After a couple of minutes, the press conference descended into complete chaos as Mr Kessler was mobbed and chased away, protected by the riot police he had previously criticised.

Her name was Heather, sir! a man shouted at Mr Kessler as he was escorted to a police station.

Her name was Heather, Jason. Her blood is on your hands ... what do you have to say for yourself?

Mr Kessler serves as the president of Unity and Security for America, a grassroots organisation that claims it is dedicated to defending Western civilization. He describes himself as a journalist, activist and author.

Recommended Trump blamed by Charlottesville Mayor for inflaming racial tensions

Members of white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and from neo-Nazi and alt-right groups descended on Charlottesville for the rally, scheduled for Saturday.

Violence broke out on Friday, ahead of the planned protest, when hundreds of white supremacists marched through the universitys Emancipation Park.

Members of opposing groups came to blows in the street while pepper spray was released  with the police reportedly doing little to intervene.

As tensions rose, a state of emergency was declared by the authorities and the rally was declared to be an unlawful gathering, before the car was driven into the crowd.

Donald Trump was roundly criticised when he at first spoke of this egregious display of violence on many sides without condemning the neo-Nazi groups. He later explicitly attacked the far-right groups.
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Donald Trump has said he is seriously considering pardoning Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who was recently found guilty of criminal contempt for violating a court order that mandated his officers stop racially profiling Latinos.

I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio, Mr Trump told Fox News in an interview at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. Hes a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.

The President added that he might issue the pardon right away, maybe early this week. It would be his first pardon as President.

Mr Arpaio was convicted in July for defying a 2011 court order that required his officers to stop detaining people on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally. Several Latino citizens and legal residents had been detained under the policy.

Mr Arpaios lawyer argued that the court order was unclear, and claimed he had not intended to racially profile anyone. Judge Susan Bolton said he had shown flagrant disregard for the court order and willfully violated it.

The former sheriff is scheduled to be sentenced in early October, and faces up to six months in jail.

The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

In 2013, another judge found Mr Arpaios deputies had disproportionately targeted Latinos during traffic operations  a ruling that was largely upheld on appeal in 2015. Mr Arpaio is also known for allegedly forcing his prisoners to wear pink underwear, and housing them in hot, canvas tents.

Still, Mr Trump heaped praise on the controversial sheriff in his interview with Fox.

Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe? he asked. He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesnt deserve to be treated this way.

Mr Arpaio roundly endorsed Mr Trump in his presidential run last year, telling NPR that he had a gut feeling that the candidate was different, and my type of guy.

We kind of do the parallel, if you look at him and me," he said.

Still, Fox News reports he seemed surprised when informed of the Presidents comments.

I am happy he understands the case, Mr Arpaio said. I would accept the pardon because I am 100 per cent not guilty.

He added: I would never ask him for a pardon, especially if it causes heat. I dont want to do anything that would hurt the President.
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America is preparing military options in case sanctions imposed on North Korea fail, the most senior general in the US armed forces has warned.

Joseph Dunford said a "full range" of contingency plans had been drawn up in case diplomatic and economic sanctions did not deter Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman told South Korean President Moon Jae-in of the preparations during a 50-minute meeting on Monday, according to a US military spokesman.

It comes amid heightened tensions over fears Pyongyang is close to achieving its goal of putting mainland US within range of a nuclear weapon.

The two nations exchanged military threats last week, with North Korea warning it has developed a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam.

On Friday Donald Trump said military solutions to the crisis were "locked and loaded", days after vowing to unleash "fire and fury" if Pyongyang continued to threaten the US.

Mr Dunford is visiting Seoul to discuss the rising tensions in the region with President Moon Jae-in and Defence Minister Song Young-moo ahead of major joint US-South Korean military drills scheduled for later this month.

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

"He conveyed America's readiness to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the US homeland," said US military spokesman Darryn James.

Mr Dunford, who will also meet with leaders in Japan and China, "stressed that North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes threaten the entire global community," the spokesman added.

Mr Dunford had earlier told reporters he aimed to "sense what the temperature is in the region" and discuss military options in the event the "diplomatic and economic pressurisation campaign" fails.

"We're all looking to get out of this situation without a war," he added.

Mr Moon separately called for a peaceful solution to the nuclear stand-off, urging that "there must not be another war on the Korean Peninsula".

It comes as senior US officials attempted to provide assurances with that conflict with North Korea not imminent.

 North Koreans stage massive rally in show of defiance against Donald Trump

"We're not closer to war than a week ago but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," said H.R. McMaster, Mr Trump's national security adviser.

CIA director Mike Pompeo said "there's nothing imminent today," in response to a question from a reporter about how worried should people be over the escalating tensions.

North Korea, which is angry over new United Nations sanctions against its rapidly developing nuclear and missile programme, continued its tough stance on Monday.

It accused the US of mobilising a huge number of weapons and troops for annual military drills with South Korea that begin later this month.

Pyongyang, which claims the drills are preparation for war, claimed it would be ready to send its Guam missile launch plan to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for approval just before or as the drills begin.

"What matters is that if a second conflict [on the peninsula] erupts, that cannot help but lead to a nuclear war," the country's official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary. "We are closely monitoring every move by the United States."

The commentary claimed about 3.5 million young students and workers have volunteered to join or rejoin the army because of a possible confrontation with the US.

The deepening diplomatic crisis was sparked by North Korea's test launch of two tests of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) last month.

Pyongyang claimed that the range of the second missile meant they could now reach the US, which set officials on edge before an intelligence report indicated that North Korea had also successfully miniaturised nuclear weapons that would fit within one of their missiles.

Those actions prompted the UN Security Council to place severe sanctions on North Korea, leading the Asian country to vow revenge for the economic losses.

In the latest round of an escalating war of words, Mr Trump last week warned King Jong-un he "will truly regret it" if any US territory was attacked.

"This man will not get away with what he is doing," the President said. "If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat... or if he does anything with respect to Guam, or any place else that is an American territory or an America ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast.
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Health officials in Arizona have issued a public warning after fleas in the state tested positive for the plague, the highly infectious disease which tore through Europe and killed millions in the Middle Ages.

Navajo County and Coconino County district officials in the northern part of the state have confirmed that fleas in the area tested positive for the disease, ABC News reports.

"Navajo County Health Department is urging the public to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure to this serious disease, which can be present in fleas, rodents, rabbits and predators that feed upon these animals, a public health warning states.

Recommended Fears of deadly fire ants plague boost shares of pesticide maker

"The disease can be transmitted to humans and other animals by the bite of an infected flea or by direct contact with an infected animal."

The first case was reported in the beginning of August, and officials have warned people to take care, avoid areas known to contain fleas with the disease, and keep pets inside.

National Park Service advised that insecticides may be used here to kill plague-infected fleas.

According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC): Between 1900 and 2012, 1,006 confirmed or probably human plague cases occurred in the United States.

In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases is reported each year. Worldwide, between 1,000 and 2,000 cases each year are reported to the World Health Organisation, though the true number is likely much higher.

Plague tends to occur in rural and semi-rural areas in the west of the US, in particular New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.

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

Symptoms include fever, headache, chills, weakness and one or more swollen, tender or painful lymph nodes, called "buboes". In some cases victims may also develop blackening skin tissue.
(Photo/hsw.cn)

A psychological consultant from Chongqing municipality in southwestern China recently went viral for "mistress dissuading" business, Huashang Daily reported on Monday, earning as much as 1 million yuan ($150,195) for a single contract.

The consultant, Yu Feng, who majored in psychology at college, started a marriage counseling company in Chongqing years ago after acquiring a psychological consultant certificate in 2003.

The main service of the company was the mediation of family conflicts, Yu said. He told Huashang Daily that extramarital affairs have been emerging in recent years with the improvement of people's material life, and marriages are even facing the threat of home wreckers. As a result, Yu started the business to dissuade mistresses, hoping to save more families and marriages.

According to Yu, his business is not like what has been described in TV dramas, and the service is legal and practical. He said violence or anything that goes against the law or morality is not allowed, because the goal is to protect marriages.

The company has not been sued so far, Yu added.

They help couples focus on problems in their marriage and try to reason with third parties in order to get the faraway hearts back where they belong. In addition, the company has gained substantial experience in dissuading mistresses.

Yu said that the largest contract value of the company has reached 1 million RMB, and it took nearly a whole year to settle the case.

Instead of covertness, extramarital relations have become more and more overt in recent years. "Material improvements are making people more casual and relaxed," Yu explained, pointing out the noteworthy decline in social morality.

He suggested that couples enhance mutual understanding and respect, and improve themselves to reach the independence of both personality and economy. Only by doing this can the marriage stabilize and stand the test of external pressure, Yu added.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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A police officer has died of medical complications two weeks after being bitten by a feral cat.

Corporal Monty Platt, 47, suffered a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics prescribed to prevent infections after he was bitten while attempting to capture the wild animal.

He had been responding to reports of an injured feral cat in the grounds of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, where he had served on the campus police department for 21 years.

The officer received routine treatment after the cat bit through his thick rubber gloves and punctured his skin on 24 July.

He was discharged that day but began feeling ill nine days later and was admitted to intensive care at University Medical Centre. He was later transferred to a burns unit because of the severity of the reaction.

He was heavily sedated, placed on a ventilator, and treated for his wounds. But his condition rapidly deteriorated and he died on Tuesday after suffering kidney failure.

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

West Texas A&M University Police Department paid tribute a "remarkable police officer" after a memorial service for the married father-of-one on Friday.

"His dedication to this community will continue through the work of the officers he mentored during his time with UPD," the force added on Facebook.

About one in 15 people have some form of allergy to antibiotics, usually seeing mild reactions such as a skin rash or cough.

But in rare cases antibiotics can cause severe and life-threatening allergic reactions.
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The mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed during the anti-fascist protests in Virginia, has said she wants her daughters death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality.

Ms Heyer, 32, was killed in Charlottesville when a car driven by a suspected neo-Nazi ploughed into a crowd of people who were protesting against a white supremacist rally in the city on Saturday.

Twenty-five people were injured in the attack. James Alex Fields, 20, has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that resulted in a death, according to police.

Speaking to The Huffington Post, Susan Bro said: I dont want her death to be a focus of more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion.

During the emotional interview Ms Bro told the publication that her daughter had always been compassionate and had a strong sense of right and wrong.

No mother wants to lose a child, but Im proud of her, she added.

A GoFundMe campaign set up in Ms Heyers memory raised $225,000 (173,000) over the weekend. The campaign, which has since been closed, carried a statement from Ms Bro that said: She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her.

Social media users have shared Ms Heyers final Facebook post since her death. The message, from 2016, reads: If youre not outraged youre not paying attention.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

Donald Trumps response to the violence in Virginia received a torrent of criticism after he failed to directly denounce the actions of the neo-Nazis and KKK members who arrived in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Confederate Statue.

A state of emergency was declared in the city after the rally held by white nationalists, and the counter-protests held by anti-fascists, became violent.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides, he said after the protests.

The White House has since said the President condemns white supremacist groups. The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and that of course includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups, the statement read.

He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.

The statement from the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, about the violence was markedly different from the Presidents.

I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today. Our message is plain and simple: go home.

You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. Shame on you.

One of the organisers of the Unite the Right rally, Jason Kessler, attempted to give a press conference in Charlottesville following the violence, but he was chased away by protesters.

He attempted to blame the police for refusing to do their job and failing to prevent the violence at the protest, before chants of murderer, shame and thug broke out. He was forced to flee the area under the protection of the police as protesters chased him.
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A white nationalist who organised the rally in Charlottesville has vowed to carry on protesting, despite the violent clashes which left one person dead and 35 injured.

Richard Spencer, who heads up the white nationalist National Policy Institute, told the Daily Mail that he had the will to win in the battle not to pull down the statue of a Confederate General, Robert E Lee.

Were going to be back here and were going to humiliate all of these people who opposed us," he said. Well be back here 100 times if necessary. I always win. Because I have the will to win, I keep going until I win.

Mr Spencer took to Twitter to blame the Mayor of Charlottesville, Mike Signer, for the violence. He said the attempt to halt the protest was an attack on free speech, and claimed that Charlottesville was a total set-up.

Mr Spencer is a leading figurehead in Americas white nationalist movement and attracted worldwide attention after he chanted Heil Trump during a presidential election campaign speech in 2016. Some members of the audience responded with Nazi salutes.

The doctors son has claimed he invented the term alt-right which he considers to be a term about white identity rather than white supremacy.

A graduate of the University of Virginia, he has called for peaceful ethnic cleansing to stop what he calls the deconstruction of European cultures.

His promise flies in the face of the instruction from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, who told the white nationalists to go home after they descended on the usually quiet university town in droves.

You are not wanted n this great commonwealth, Mr McAuliffe told the protesters, who included members of the Klu Klux Klan as well as neo-Nazi and so-called alt-right groups, who clashed with counter-protesters and police.

You are not patriots. You came here today to hurt people and that is not patriotic. My message is clear that we are stronger than you. You will not succeed. There is no place for you here and there is no place for you in America.

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed after a man slammed his car into the protesters before reversing at speed, flinging bodies into the air and leaving another 19 injured.

A 20-year-old, James Fields, has been charged with her murder.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

It followed ugly clashes with fist fights breaking out in the street and pepper spray released onto the fighting crowds.

Authorities eventually declared the protest an unlawful gathering and later announced a state of emergency.

President Trump faced widespread criticism after he at first failed to explicitly name white supremacists as the aggressors in the clashes, blaming hatred on many sides.
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A teacher gave birth to her pupil's child after allegedly grooming him from the age of 14.

Laura Lynn Cross, 36, is said to have had a three-year sexual relationship with the boy and posed as his "mentor" so he could move into her home.

The pupil's father said he raised concerns with authorities about the pair being inappropriately close in 2012, but no action was taken.

Ms Cross resigned from her post as an English teacher at Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio, in January 2015.

She is alleged to have begun grooming the pupil, who cannot be named, while he was in the school's eighth grade.

She initially invited him to go swimming in her pool before he later began staying the night.

Ms Cross later convinced the pupil's mother to let her son move into her house in a court-approved "partial parental custody" arrangement.

The teacher said it would allow her to "mentor" her the boy.

She was arrested earlier this month after police learned she had given birth to the boy's baby in 2015.

The teenager's father contacted officers after being tipped off about the child. But he criticised the school and Tallmadge Police for failing to take action earlier.

"It was a straight failure from the system. From the school and the police, definitely," he told local TV channel News 5 Cleveland.

"Everbody I talked to I was frank with that my son was having sexual relationships with this woman, with a teacher.

"She had a hold on my son and [the police] told me he's not co-operating with us so we no can do nothing with it."

He added: "She's a schoolteacher. To get aroused by a child basically you have to be a sick individual."

Ms Cross has been charged with three counts of sexual abuse alleged to have taken place between August 1, 2013, and September 6, 2016.

She is being held in the Summit County Jail on a $100,000 (77,000) bond.
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Senator Bernie Sanders is relaunching his push for a government-funded healthcare system, but the move could further divide Democrats on a key issue as the party seeks to regain its footing at the state and national levels.

While defending Obamacare  which Republicans unsuccessfully tried to dismantle in July  the Vermont independent declared that the way forward in the long-term was a Medicare-for-all single-payer system, a federally administered programme that would abolish the role of private insurers in basic healthcare coverage.

Single-payer healthcare is a system in which the government, generally through taxes, covers basic healthcare costs for all residents regardless of income, occupation or health status.

Medicare-for-all ...will be saving middle-class families substantial sums of money, and it will be guaranteeing health care to every man, woman, and child in this country, Mr Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, told CNN.

Mr Sanders will soon be introducing a bill in the Senate that would create this system, a major plank of his 2016 presidential campaign, even if he knows it is unlikely to pass in the current political climate.

An Urban Institute study of Mr Sanders single-payer proposal during the campaign said implementing the plan would increase federal expenditures by $32 trillion over 10 years.

Look, I have no illusions that under a Republican Senate and a very right-wing House and an extremely right-wing president of the United States, that suddenly we're going to see a Medicare-for-all, single-payer passed, Mr Sanders recently told NPR. You're not going to see it. That's obvious.

But he said the point of the bill is to force conversation about the idea.

Senator Sanders has always believed that health care must be recognized as a right, not a privilege, office spokesperson Daniel McLean told the Independent. Like every other major country on Earth, every man, woman and child in our country should be able to access the health care they need regardless of their income.

The concept of a single-payer system is becoming increasingly popular in the Democratic party  senators including Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris have expressed some support, and, for the first time, a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives have now signed on to the single-payer bill that Congressman John Conyers has been introducing regularly for more than 10 years.

However, experts fear that supporting a single-payer programme could become a litmus test for Democrats, meaning members either support the bill or progressive political action committees, or PACs, try to prevent them from getting reelected.

In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour Show all 39 1 /39 In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud arriving for a reception ahead of a banquet at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud being welcomed at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a welcome ceremony with traditional sword dancers at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud with US President Donald J. Trump and wife Melania during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump adjusts the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal, after it was bestowed upon him by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud presents U.S. President Donald Trump with the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 Palestinians print posters depicting US President Donald Trump in preparations for his planned visit, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, before delivering his remarks to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump looks on as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef exchange a memorandum of understanding Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump shares a laugh with a child during a visit to the American International School in the Saudi capital Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers rest during preparations ahead of President Trump's landing in Tel Aviv, Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump makes her way to board Air Force One in Riyadh as she heads with her husband the US President to Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One for Israel, the next stop in Trump's international tour, at King Khalid International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers wait for the arrival ceremony of US President Donald Trump at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive aboard Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, Israel Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump disembark Air Force One on arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump and his wife, US First Lady Melania Trump are welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, in Lod outside Tel Aviv, Israel EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit during welcome ceremony in Tel Aviv AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump chats wife Sara Netanyahu as US President Donald Trump chats to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcoming ceremony to welcome Trump at Ben Gurion International Airport Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump delivers a speech upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference with Israel's President at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump watches as First Lady Melania Trump signs the guest book at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump walks with first lady Melania Trump in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalems Old City Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump stands next to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the plaza in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House senior advisor Jared Kushner leave notes at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Ivanka Trump, assistant and daughter of US President Donald J. Trump, touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump arrives in a vehicle to Saint Damaso's Court for a private audience with Pope Francis in Vatican City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis walks past Ivanka Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the occasion of the private audience with President Donald Trump, at the Vatican AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis exchanges gifts with US President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis meets US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania during a private audience at the Vatican Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis with US President Donald J. Trump EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis gets into is car after meeting with US President Donald Trump AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look at the frescoed ceilings during their visit to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump security vehicles are seen in front of Air Force One before take off from Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave to reporters before boarding the Air Force One to Brussels, at the end of a 2-day visit to Italy including a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, at Rome's Fiumicino international airport AP

Any Democrat worth their salt that doesn't unequivocally say Medicare-for-all is the way to go? To me, there's something wrong with them, Nina Turner, president of Mr Sanders' Our Revolution PAC, told Politico. We're not going to accept no more hemming and hawing.

While the progressive, and arguably most energetic, wing of the party has gotten behind the single-payer idea, it still remains a divisive issue for moderate Democrats. The proposal was notably excluded from Democratic leaders new economic agenda that was unveiled last month.

The party has been desperate to regain its mojo following its defeat last November, when it failed to win a majority in the Senate and Donald Trump triumphed over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

It will be a challenge for Democrats to retake a majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate during the 2018 midterm elections. The party needs a net gain of 24 to have a majority in the 435-member House. And while they only need a net gain of three seats in the 100-member Senate, they are also defending 25 seats  10 of which are in states that Mr Trump won.

Single-payer healthcare as an issue is a worthy debate for the Democrats to be having, said Jim Kessler, the senior vice president for policy for Third Way, a centrist think tank. But its a huge mistake to make it a litmus test for Democrats at this point.

Instead of pushing for a healthcare system overhaul in the US that Mr Trump will reject, some of suggested, all efforts should be focused on improving Obamacare  otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act  which still remains under attack by the President.

At the end of July, one vote prevented the Senates Republican leadership from passing a bill that would have repealed major provisions of former President Barack Obama's healthcare law.

We are one lousy election in November 2018 away from losing Obamacare, Mr Kessler said.

The stronger that Obamacare is, the great likelihood it will survive the next assault.

Republican members of Congress, as well as Mr Trump, campaigned for years on repealing and replacing Obamacare, which they say has driven up premiums and forced consumers to buy insurance they do not want or cannot afford.

In June, when asked why Democrats aren't countering Republicans with a single-payer plan, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said it isn't helpful to tinkle all over the Affordable Care Act right now."

The path to public option, single payer is in the Affordable Care Act, she said. It is not in distracting us from the focus of stopping what (Republicans) are doing to let people die..with their bill.
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There is a "direct line" between Donald Trump's "gutter" election campaign and the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville that erupted in deadly violence, the city's mayor has suggested.

Michael Signer said the US President "should look in the mirror" and condemn the white supremacist movement, which he warned had been "invited into the daylight" by the Republican's rhetoric.

He spoke out as demonstrations were held across the US on Sunday following the killing of anti-fascist protestor Heather Heyer, 32, in the Virginia city.

She died and 25 people were injured when they were mowed down by a car as they peacefully opposed the neo-Nazi rally on Saturday.

James Alex Fields, the 20-year-old accused of murdering miss Ms Heyer by deliberately ploughing into the crowds, was pictured earlier that day carrying the emblem of a hate group that took part in the Unite the Right rally.

Mr Signer said he did not "want to make this too much about Donald Trump," but urged the President to "say enough is enough".

"We have a lot of grieving and a lot of work to do as a city and as a country, but he should look in the mirror," the mayor told CBS News.

"He made a choice in his presidential campaign and the folks around with him to go right to the gutter, to play on our worst prejudices, and I think you're seeing a direct line from what happened here this weekend to those choices."

He suggested white nationalist groups had been "invited into the daylight" and felt emboldened after being "invited into basically a presidential campaign".

"That has to stop and it can stop now," he added.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

In another interview with NBC, the Charlottesville mayor called for Ms Heyer's death to be a "turning point" in the tide of white nationalism.

"People are dying, and I do think that it's now on the President and on all of us to say enough is enough. This movement has run its course," he said.

"The time has come for this to stop. This should be a turning point."

He told CNN that Mr Trump needed to denounce the white supremacist movement as "domestic terrorism".

This is not hard, he said. "There's two words that need to be said over and over again, domestic terrorism and white supremacy. That is exactly what we saw on display this weekend. And we just aren't seeing leadership from the White House.

The White House on Sunday insisted Mr Trump condemned white supremacist groups, after the President was criticised for an earlier statement that failed to directly denounce the actions of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups, a spokesman said. "He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.

The statement was not directly attributed to Mr Trump himself, who had previously condemned only "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."

The President's comments drew praise from the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, which wrote: "Trump comments were good. He didn't attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us... No condemnation at all."

The website had been promoting the Charlottesville demonstration as part of its "Summer of Hate".
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The CEO of a major American pharmaceutical company has resigned from Donald Trump's manufacturing council in response to the Presidents' failure to address "hatred, bigotry and group supremacy" stemming from a white supremacist rally.

Kenneth Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck & Co, announced his resignation in a statement on Twitter, saying: "America's leaders must honour our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal."

The President quickly shot back, sarcastically tweeting that the pharmaceutical company leader would now have "more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

Mr Frazier, who is black, previously served on Mr Trump's American Manufacturing Council, alongside prominent CEOs like Tesla's Elon Musk and Ford's Mark Fields.

His resignation comes days after a white supremacist rally in Virginia resulted in the deaths of three people, and the injury of dozens more. Mr Trump, addressing the situation on Sunday, decried the "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides".

The comments sparked outcry from those who believed the President should explicitly denounce white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

The White House attempted to clear up these comments later, saying in an unattributed statement that Mr Trump's condemnation of bigotry and violence "includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups". Mr Trump has yet to explicitly condemn any white supremacist groups himself.

Mr Frazier did not mention Mr Trump specifically in his statement, in which he spoke broadly of "American leaders". He said his resignation was a matter of "personal conscience," adding that he felt "a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism".

"Our country's strength stems from its diversity and the contributions made by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs," he said.

Mr Trump created the manufacturing council in January, as part of his pledge to create jobs and cut regulations. Restoring the American manufacturing industry was a key tenet of Mr Trump's campaign, and a theme of the White House's recent "Made in America" week.

Mr Frazier is the latest high-profile CEO to step down from one of the President's councils. Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger and Mr Musk both stepped down from the Strategic and Policy Forum in June, after Mr Trump announced he would withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement.

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down from the council in February, amid outcry over the administration's immigration policies.
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Just days before a white supremacist rally resulted in the death of three people in Virginia, a White House adviser claimed that white supremacists were not the problem in America.

Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president with a murky White House role and a controversial history, appeared on the Breitbart News Daily radio show to discuss the real threat to the US  radical Islamic terror.

Its this constant, Oh, its the white man. Its the white supremacists. Thats the problem. No, it isnt, Maggie Haberman, Mr Gorka said, referring to the prominent New York Times reporter.

He added: Go to Sinjar. Go to the Middle East, and tell me what the real problem is today. Go to Manchester.

Mr Gorka was responding to the backlash over his recent comments on MSNBC, in which he claimed there was no such thing as a lone wolf and insisted that there has never been a serious attack or a serious plot that was unconnected from ISIS or al Qaeda.

Mr Gorka's critics pointed to the 1995 Oklahoma city attack, in which two white men bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more. Mr Gorka dismissed this point as outdated, saying that the attack took place more than 20 years ago.

Talk to me about the last 60 years of hundreds of thousands of people killed in the middle east by jihadis, he told Breitbart Daily News.

Three days later, a man accused of being a Nazi sympathiser allegedly hit and killed a counter-protester at a white supremacist march.

The man, James Alex Fields Jr, was attending a Charlottesville, Virginia rally protesting the removal of a Confederate monument. Police claim he ran his Dodge Charger into a crowd of counter-protesters at the rally, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring at least 19 others.

The rally  in which attendees were seen carrying Nazi flags and chanting Jew will not replace us  devolved into violence after the Virginia governor attempted to shut it down. Police say 35 people were injured over the weekend.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the car attack as terrorism in an interview with ABCs Good Morning America on Monday.

You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought because this is unequivocally an unacceptable evil attack, he said.

A 2013 study from the United States Military Academy found right-wing extremists were responsible for substantially more domestic terrorist attacks since 9/11 than American Muslims.

The study concludes that a contentious political climate and ideological political empowerment play important roles in increasing the volume of violence.

Thus, it is not only feelings of deprivation which motivate those involved in far-right violence, the authors wrote, but also the sense of empowerment which emerges when the political system is perceived to be increasingly open to far right ideas.
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South Korea's President Moon Jae-in has called on the US to help bring about a "peaceful solution" to the deepening diplomatic crisis with its northern neighbour after days of threat and counter threat.

Donald Trump's recent comments that the US military is "locked and loaded" to deal with North Korea are part of an escalating war of words, with that warning coming in response to Pyongyang's threat to attack the US territory of Guam, a small Pacific island about 3,540 kilometres (2,200 miles) southeast of the Korean peninsula.

There must be no more war on the Korean peninsula. Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear situation must be resolved peacefully, Mr Moon told a meeting of senior aides and advisers. I am certain the United States will respond to the current situation calmly and responsibly in a stance that is equal to ours, he said.

Recommended US preparing military options in case North Korea sanctions fail

Separately, Mr Moon met with the top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, in Seoul, who said the US wants to peacefully resolve a deepening standoff with North Korea but is also ready to use the full range of its military capabilities in case of provocation and if a diplomatic push or sanctions did not work.

The comments by General Dunford  made during a trip that will also include visits to Japan and China  appeared to be an attempt to ease anxiety over tit-for-tat threats between Mr Trump and North Korea while also showing a willingness to back up The President's warnings if need be.

We are seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis, General Dunford told local reporters. He added he aims to use the Asia trip to get a sense what the temperature is in the region. He also will discuss military options in the event the diplomatic and economic pressurisation campaign fails.

He earlier told his South Korean counterparts that America is ready to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the US homeland, according to military spokesman Captain Darryn James.

That point was reinforced by US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis later in the day. If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly, Mr Mattis said.

Mr Mattis added the United States would know the trajectory of a North Korean missile within moments and if a missile is assessed to be hitting Guam, we will take it out.

The latest tension between the US and North Korea has been sparked by worries that the North's nuclear weapons programme is nearing the ability to target the US mainland. Pyongyang conducted two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July and there have been reports that US intelligence agencies belive the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have successfully miniaturised a nuclear weapon that could potentially fit on such a missile.

Seoul is within easy striking distance of Pyongyang. The US also has about 28,500 troops stationed there at any given time.

The North has accused the US of mobilising a huge number of weapons and troops for annual military drills with South Korea that begin later this month. Pyongyang claims the drills are war preparation and has signalled it would back down in the face of any action by the US..

What matters is that if a second conflict [on the peninsula] erupts, that cannot help but lead to a nuclear war, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary. We are closely monitoring every move by the United States.

The commentary said that about 3.5 million young students and workers have volunteered to join or rejoin the army because of a possible confrontation with the United States.

Scott Snyder, Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Programme on US-Korea Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations told The Independent that if Pyongyang attacks Guam, it would be "suicidal, and Kim Jong-un is not suicidal".

But, the threat is not an empty one despite the small chance of follow-through. "If you are a US security planner ... You still have to prepare for that possibility," Mr Snyder noted.

In pictures: North Korea military drill Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: North Korea military drill In pictures: North Korea military drill North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video

To that end, General Dunford said prior to his arrival in Seoul that "as a military leader, I have to make sure that the President does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurisation campaign fails".

Mr Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have also penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

They say they called the Trump administration policy a reaction to previous administrations' "failed policy of strategic patience, which expedited the North Korean threat".

They called the approach "strategic accountability" which essentially prompts China to exercise its economic power over Pyongyang as a method of avoiding military options.

Tuesday marks the anniversary of Japan's expulsion from the Korean peninsula, a rare holiday celebrated by both the North and the South. Mr Moon and Mr Kim, who has not been seen publicly for several days, are both expected to make addresses on their respective sides of the heavily militarised border.

US National Security Adviser HR McMaster and CIA Director Mike Pompeo have both said they do not foresee a war with North Korea despite the President's fiery rhetoric.

Mr Trump has repeatedly urged China, the North's main ally and trading partner, to do more to rein in its neighbour, often linking Beijing's efforts to comments around US-China trade. China strenuously rejects linking the two issues.

On Monday, Mr Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorising an investigation into China's alleged theft of American intellectual property, declaring it one big move.

The order directs US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practises that force US companies operating in China to turn over intellectual property.

This is just the beginning, Mr Trump added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying had earlier said that Beijing has made clear many times the essence of China-US trade and business ties is mutual benefit and that there is no future in any trade war between China and the United States.

The (Korean) peninsula issue and trade and business issues are in a different category from each other, Ms Hua added. On these two issues, China and the United States should respect each other and increase cooperation. Using one issue as a tool for exerting pressure on another is clearly inappropriate.

China's Commerce Ministry also issued an order on Monday banning imports of coal, iron ore, lead concentrates and ore, lead and seafood from North Korea, effective from Tuesday as part of sanctions recently agreed by the UN Security Council.
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China is to stop importing coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods from North Korea in a matter of weeks, as it brings its operations in line with sanctions imposed by the United Nations following the development of Kim Jong-uns nuclear and missile programmes.

China is North Koreas main trading partner but it last week supported the UN Security Council ban. The Chinese customs agency has said it will stop processing imports of coal, iron and lead ores, and seafood from the country at midnight on 5 September.

Any cargo already on its way to China will be cleared as usual by customs ahead of the sanction deadline, the Chinese government said.

Recommended US preparing military options in case North Korea sanctions fail

The UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang last week, in what the US Ambassador to the UN called the single largest economic package ever levelled against the North Korean regime.

The sanctions, which include banning $1bn (771m) in exports, have been levied in response to Pyongyangs nuclear programme and its testing of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.

North Korea has infuriated China, its closest ally, by continuing to test its nuclear and missile capabilities, causing Beijing to agree to the tough sanctions from the UN.

Tensions have escalated between Washington DC and Pyongyang in the past week, with Donald Trump warning Mr Kim that he will truly regret it if he attacks the Pacific island of Guam or any other US territory. It follows his comments that the US is locked and loaded and ready to unleash fire and fury if Pyongyang continued in its threats.

 What are the ranges of North Korea's missiles?

The strategically important US island of Guam has been at the centre of tensions since the launch of the ballistic missiles. An intelligence report has suggested that North Korea has managed to miniaturise its nuclear weapons to fit within one of its missiles, while its government has claimed its missiles now have the range to reach US territory.

Despite the tough sanctions imposed on North Korea, the US is said to be preparing military options in case the UN-imposed penalties fail.

General Joseph Dunford, the highest-ranking military officer in the US armed forces, said that while the US wants to peacefully resolve the escalating situation with North Korea, it is ready to use the full range of its military capabilities in case of provocation.

General Dunford is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and made the comments while on a visit to South Korea, Japan and China.

South Koreas president Moon Jae-in called for a peaceful solution, urging General Dunford for America to find a diplomatic solution to the heightened situation.

The president said there must not be another war on the Korean Peninsula, according to his office.

Additional reporting by agencies
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All of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the UN refugee agency, and the government aims to deport them, a senior government official has told Reuters.

Junior interior minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament last week the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants including Rohingya, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Burma.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India that it says help them prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation.

But Mr Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist government, said in an interview that the UNHCR registration was irrelevant.

Recommended Burma rejects allegations of human rights abuses against Rohingya

They are doing it, we cant stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees, he said.

As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal migrant will be deported.

The UNHCRs India office said on Monday the principle of non-refoulement or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports deportations were taking place.

The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Burma has emerged as its most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Burma and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalised and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Burma, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

Many have also headed to South East Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months, there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests.

Mr Rijiju declined to comment on the deportation process, even as some human rights activists question the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

Theres a procedure, there is a rule of law, Mr Rijiju said.

We cant throw them out just like that. We cant dump them in the Bay of Bengal.

India said last Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Burma about the deportation plan.

But deportation is likely to be difficult, given Burmas position that all Rohingya need to be scrutinised before they can be allowed back in as citizens.

Burma officials were not immediately available for comment.

Rohingya mothers face persecution Show all 10 1 /10 Rohingya mothers face persecution Rohingya mothers face persecution Ramida Begum holds her 10-day-old daughter in their shelter in Kutupalang, an unregistered refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. 'The military caught my husband and burnt our house down a week before I left Myanmar. Since then I don't know whether my husband is dead or alive' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Minara Begum sits inside the shelter, cradling her one-month-old son Ayub. Minara fled to Bangladesh from Nasha Phuru village in Myanmar with her husband and mother-in-law. 'My child doesn't get enough breast milk as I don't eat enough nutritious food. I have to buy milk powder from local market though it's not very good for my son' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Amina, pictured with her 16-day-old daughter Sumaiyin, is in a refugee camp Balukhali that neighbours Ramida and Minara's. 'One and a half months ago the military came to our village and kept firing their guns. I ran away with my neighbours to save our lives. You see us alive here only because the God was so kind. They caught my uncle and my younger brother and we don't know whether they are dead or alive' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Fatema sits beside her one-day-old daughter Aasma in Kutupalang. Fatema fled to Bangladesh from Jambuinna village in Myanmar two months ago after her house was burnt down by the military. She crossed Naf River by boat during the night. 'Our situation is better than many other refugees as my husband Mohammad Alom works here as a day labourer. Many of the new refugees have no work here, so they have to rely on relief' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Jamalida cradles her two-month-old daughter Shahida. Jamalida came to Bangladesh with her husband from Nasha Phuru village in Myanmar Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Rehana Begum lays her one-day-old daughter in front of her inside their tarpaulin shelter. Rehana fled her village of Jambuinna in Myanmar three months ago. 'We were in our home and suddenly the military came to our village and started shooting. When we heard the sound of gun shots we immediately went to our relatives. We walked for four hours without any food and water to reach the border at 1 a.m. We paid 25,000 Myanmar kyat (14) to a broker to cross.' Intercepted by Bangladesh border guards, Rehana's family narrowly escaped being sent home. 'They wanted to send us back, but then we heard gunshots from the Myanmar side and the guards released us, saying, "Stay in Bangladesh and save your lives"' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Noor Begum sits next to her one-day-old daughter Sumaiya as she stares into the camera. Noor came to the camp one-and-a-half months ago from Nagpura village with her husband Jahangir Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Rajuma Begum observes her one-month-old son Raihan. 'I fled to Bangladesh because of fear, because I needed to save my children. I was pregnant and suffering from fever while crossing the border. I also have an 11-month-old boy, so it was very difficult to reach the border from our village Wabek in Myanmar. I had to rest frequently. After six hours of horrible walking we finally reached the border at 2am and crossed after paying a broker' Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution Eighteen-year-old Asmot Ara rests her newly born daughter on her lap. Asmot said she came to the camp one month ago with neighbours from Nagpura village. In Myanmar her father-in-law was killed and their home burnt down by the Myanmar military Reuters Rohingya mothers face persecution As Marijaan holds her 25-day-old daughter Noor Habi, her son peers over her shoulder. Marijaan fled to Bangladesh from Khyeri Prang village in Myanmar one month ago after her house was burnt down by the Myanmar military. 'I reached the border at night and crossed by the boat. I paid the boatman to cross the Naf River' Reuters

A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, has said India was helping it solve the crisis.

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since 9 October after an insurgent group attacked Burma border police posts, prompting a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of the murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.

Reuters
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They used to talk about the Hindu rate of growth. This was the idea that the post-Partition, centrally planned Indian economy was destined to eke out a GDP expansion of no more than 3.5 per cent a year due to its stifling bureaucracy and, some said, the slovenliness of the population.

Adjusted for fertile Indias population growth this was translated into a miserable 1.5 per cent of economic growth a year.

While the economies of other formerly poor Asian Tigers such as South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong took off in the 1950s and 1960s, the sluggish giant of India seemed destined to remain forever in the slow lane  with most of its people languishing in poverty.

Or so it was thought. The Hindu rate of growth is now history  another silly stereotype exposed. For the past 25 years, the Indian economy has grown at an average rate of 6 per cent.

They used to talk of the new emerging market power houses of the BRICs  Brazil, Russia, India and China. But the economies of Brazil and Russia have slumped into crisis in recent years. And even mighty China has faltered  at least from its own ultra-high growth rates of recent decades.

The IMF estimates that India outpaced China in 2015 (7.9 per cent growth versus 6.9 per cent) and will continue to outstrip the GDP growth rate of its enormous eastern neighbour over the next five years as well. The Fund expects the raw dollar-size of the Indian economy to outstrip that of the UK  the old colonial master which delivered Partition  in 2018, making it the worlds fifth largest economy. And some now talk of the possibility of India, rather than China, emerging as the worlds largest economy later this century.

Beating the rest of the BRICS

IMF

Could it happen? India has unquestionably made great, and surprising, economic strides in recent decades. The economic reforms of Manmohan Singh, first as finance minister in the 1990s and then as prime minister between 2004 and 2014, are the primary reason India finally started to motor. (Singh, incidentally, was born in in Gah, now in Pakistan, but migrated to India at Partition.)

Unlike in China, where the population is ageing rapidly due to the baleful legacy of Deng Xiao Pings one child policy, demography looks likely to provide a powerful tailwind to Indian growth over the coming half century. Around a quarter of all the people entering the global workforce between now and 2025 are projected to be Indian.

There were hopes that Singhs successor as prime minister, Narendra Modi (who had a reputation as a friend of business) would take up the baton of liberalisation and take India to the next stage of economic achievement. But the Hindu nationalists record since 2014 has been disappointing overall.

Some fuel subsidies have been scrapped. A major new bankruptcy law introduced last year was welcome and may help the business environment  but the jury is still out. A new nationwide sales tax is certainly an improvement on what it replaced  but also a major missed opportunity for radical simplification. The elimination of most bank notes overnight was unquestionably bold, but has probably done less to rein in the black economy than the government claims.

Surpassing the old colonial master

IMF

Meanwhile, the land market remains unreformed. The national labour law is still a brake on hiring. Dominant state-owned banks are sitting on a mountain of bad loans. And, despite pockets of quality, the education system needs an overhaul. A fall in the global oil price (India is a major energy importer) has flattered the countrys growth rate in recent years  dulling ministers' appetite for politically difficult reforms.

On the surface India, the last "BRIC" in the wall, is standing tall and proud. But, beneath the facade, a great deal of maintenance and refurbishment, more than is commonly perceived, is needed if the country is to fulfil its economic potential, let alone reach the top spot in the global rankings.
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Several key North Korean ambassadors have been asked to return to the countrys capital Pyongyang, it has emerged.

Among the top envoys recalled were Ji Jae-ryong, Ja Song-nam and Kim Hyong-jun - ambassadors to China, the UN and Russia - according to South Korean news agency Yonhap News.

A South Korean government official said: North Korea seems to be hosting what appears to be a meeting of foreign diplomatic missions.

The number of ambassadors involved is not known, but South Korea believes the gathering could be used to discuss further military provocation by North Korea.

In a press meeting, the Ministry of Unifications spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said: North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors meeting in July 2015 and [the most recent meeting] seems to be in line with that.

Tensions between North Korea and the US have dramatically escalated after a missile test carried out by Kim Jong-un was met with a threat of "fire and fury" by Donald Trump.

North Korea threatened to attack Guam and other US territories in the Pacific region, with a government spokesman saying a strike plan was ready "to put into practise in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment" on Mr Kim's instruction.

The US president indicated that an armed response to the aggression was not off the table.

Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path, he tweeted.

Despite the bluster, it is unlikely the two countries will actually go to war. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said there was no imminent threat and that Americans should sleep well at night.

Experts speaking to The Independent largely agreed with that sentiment, arguing that while the rhetoric is getting out of control, it is highly unlikely the exchange of words, no matter how heated, will lead to a military conflict.

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

Tension in the region tends to reach its peak in March and August, when the US and South Korea undergo joint military exercises to simulate a response to a military invasion by the North.

In August 2016, North Korea threatened a nuclear attack in response to the military exercises between its neighbour and America.
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An elderly couple have died in each others arms after their wish to pass away together by euthanasia was given the go-ahead.

Nic and Trees Elderhorst, who were both 91 years old, gave each other a last kiss before they died in the company of family and friends in their home in Didan, in the Netherlands, on 4 June.

Nic had suffered a stroke in 2012 which greatly decreased his mobility and meant he was in constant pain. Trees health had also diminished, and it became harder to care for her husband. In addition, her memory had also declined, and she was worried that she could no longer provide him with the care he needed.

Recommended Paralysed DJ takes own life in Swiss clinic

The knowledge left them both bereft, and though they had the help of friends, family and neighbours, they were afraid that if one of them died, the others health would collapse in a care home.

Under current Dutch law, euthanasia by doctors is only legal under very strict circumstances. The patient has to prove their case is one of hopeless and unbearable suffering, and usually means a serious medical condition.

After Nics stroke, Trees was diagnosed with vascular dementia  a progressive form of the disease that attacks memory, language and decision-making abilities. The couple decided to sign a euthanasia will and looked at how they could end their lives under the law.

The geriatrician determined that our mother was still mentally competent. However, if our father were to die, she could become completely disoriented, ending up in a nursing home, something which she desperately did not want, a daughter told local news, Daily Mail reports.

Dying together was their deepest wish.

Despite the legality of euthanasia, the couple had to spend six months with an End of Life clinic where they were assessed separately by two teams of health professionals  including psychologists and psychotherapists as well as doctors  to confirm that they wanted to die.

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

According to local news outlets, this particular case is unique; couples are rarely in similar-enough health to both meet the conditions for euthanasia.

Dick Bosscher of the Dutch Association of Voluntarily Life Ending said: It must be a coincidence when both people meet the demands for euthanasia at the same time.

Dual requests are therefore rarely honoured.'

The Netherlands is looking at ways to make euthanasia available to anyone over the age of 75. In the UK, euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal. The former is regarded either as manslaughter or murder, and the latter is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment.
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A right-wing group that set sail on the Mediterranean to stop refugees reaching Europe is facing a cash crisis after a crowd-funding company cancelled their account.

Defend Europe had raised tens of thousands of dolalrs on payment website Patreon to fund their mission to obstruct NGO vessels from rescuing migrants who had set sail from North Africa.

But owners of the tech firm shut down the profile page for the right-wing activists amid a lobbying campaign, saying their venture was likely to cause loss of life.

Figures show more than 2,300 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean last year, often setting out in makeshift or crowded vessels, in their bid to reach the shores of EU countries including Italy.

The financial blow to Defend Europes campaign comes just days after their C-Star ship went adrift in the Mediterranean when its engine shut down, forcing nearby vessels to answer a distress call.

The group had raised $17,000 on the Patreon online payment website through three personal accounts belonging to members of Defend Europe and a page named European Identity.

Canadian right-wing commentator Lauren Southern set up the profile page which raised the funds for Defend Europe to set sail last month in their mission to stop refugee boats from leaving the coast of Libya.

The activist and self-styled independent journalist had promoted the organisation's Generation Identity fundraising campaign mission through a YouTube video.

A statement by Patreon to Ms Southern read: It appears that you are currently raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life. We have therefore decided to remove your page from Patreon, and paid out your final balance of $95.00 to you.

It added: We understand that this will come as a disappointment. Please know that we have come to this decision after a long review process and will not consider an appeal.

Executives at the crowd-funding platform investigated Ms Southerns profile after a lobbying campaign by groups including Hope for Hate.

Ms Southern claimed money she had raised through Patreon was related to her independent journalism work and no funds were diverted to the Defend Europe cause.

Patreon executives did not immediately reply to a query when contacted to comment further over its decision to shut down the activists profile page.

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

A separate crowdfunding webpage for Defend Europe on the platform WeSearchr remains active and has raised more than $200,000 through donations from some 3,000 contributors.

The right-wing group states on its profile page: Its a mission to save Europe, to stop illegal immigration, and end the dying on the sea.

The California-based website which hosts their profile page insisted it would not remove it despite the activists' pledge to block migrants from seeking refuge in the EU.

Company founder Charles Johnson told The Independent: "No, we will not. What Patreon did is illegal under California law. You can't discriminate politically against your customers."
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Emmanuel Macrons popularity has dropped faster than any previous French president, according to a landmark poll after his first 100 days in office.

Mr Macron is now more unpopular than his predecessor Francois Hollande  himself very unpopular  was after the same length of time in office.

The French Presidents first months have been dogged with allegations of financial irregularities among members of his government, as well as rows over planned cuts to housing support for people on low-incomes.

Recommended Macron suffers worst popularity drop for French president in 20 years

Just 36 per cent of the French public said they were satisfied with the Presidents performance, with 64 per cent saying they were not, according to the latest Ifop poll.

At the same stage in Mr Hollandes presidency the socialist was satisfying 46 per cent of the French public and lost the support of 54 per cent of them.

According to the same series of polls Mr Macrons rating was as high as 64 per cent in late June and 54 per cent in late July  meaning the biggest falls in his popularity have come most recently.

Christophe Castaner, a secretary of state in Mr Macrons government, said on the 100 day anniversary that Mr Macrons government was not exempt from difficulties.

He however said the President had seen a hundred useful days, undoubtedly, a hundred days of action which have laid the foundations for a profound transformation of our country.

The Conservative-leading Le Figaro newspaper, which commissioned the poll, said the French were falling out of love with Mr Macron.

Mr Macrons predecessor Francois Hollande also became unpopular quickly (Getty) (Getty Images)

Jerome Fourquet, the director of polling company Ifop, told Le Figaro that Mr Macron had lost his state of grace with the French electorate and that the figures were serious alert for the President.

However Mr Macrons satisfaction rate is still higher than the proportion of people who voted for him in the first round of the French presidential election.

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

There, he won 24 per cent of the vote  narrowly lead a four-way divided field split between the far right, centre-centre, left, and himself: a liberal centrist.

Mr Macron, Frances youngest leader since Napoleon, is pushing through controversial plans to strip away workers rights and labour market regulations.

The law passed through Frances upper house, the Senat, and is now set to be scrutinised by trade unions and employers.
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An elderly man who went missing from a care home has been found  with his girlfriend.

The 93-year-old was reported missing from his nursing home by his daughter in the coastal town of Pleneuf-Val-Andre in north-western France, Le Telegramme reports.

She entered the room and noticed he was missing during one of her regular weekly visits.

After notifying the staff at Les Jardins dArcadie, they searched the grounds and, when he was not found, they contacted the police.

He had been wearing jeans, a blue sleeveless waistcoat and a cap.

The police arrived at the scene and, after thoroughly checking the area, found the grandfather had not strayed far from the care home, France Bleu reports.

He had been in a park nearby, walking arm in arm with a woman reported to be his girlfriend.
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German prosecutors have launched an investigation into three people from Switzerlands intelligence agency on suspicion that they are spying on the German tax authority, according to the countrys media.

Switzerland, whose banking secrecy laws have long made it a refuge for tax dodgers, has been accused of trying to identify German tax investigators working on a crackdown targeting Swiss banks.

One Swiss national, known under German privacy laws only as Daniel M, 54, who is an employee of the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (NDB), has already been charged with espionage.

Recommended Secretive Swiss bank accounts face new crackdown

German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and two of the countrys public broadcasters, NDR and WDR, cite trusted sources saying the three new people identified by prosecutors are also employees of the Swiss NDB.

The German federal prosecutors office has thus far not commented on the latest claims, and the names of the three additional men have not been released.

Since 2006 state-level German tax authorities have procured disks and USB drives containing stolen private data leaked from Swiss banks  which have then been used to identify German tax cheats.

Switzerland issued arrest warrants for German tax inspectors in response  but Germanys government has said it will not comply with them.

The operations have led to a number of high profile apologies by wealthy Germans illegally stashing their money abroad.

Daniel Ms alleged mission was to identify the German tax investigators working on the anti-tax dodging project, it was reported.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel has described the ongoing episode as incredible and warned it could wreck the relationship between the two countries. He has also said he had discussed the affair with his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter.

Switzerland says monitoring of German tax authorities stopped in 2014.
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A trailer full of chocolate was stolen from the town of Neustadt in Germany.

The 20 ton cargo load, which included Kinder eggs, Nutella and other confectionary, was taken by thieves between Saturday evening and Sunday noon.

Police have said it was worth up to 70,000 (63,000).

Anyone offered large quantities of chocolate via unconventional channels should report it to the police immediately, the force said in a statement.

Whether the theft was planned or an opportunistic crime is unknown.

Officers are investigating whether the chocolate theft is related to another theft of an empty trailer in the nearby city of Weimar.

Elsewhere, investigators in the town of Wittenburg are on the hunt for a missing trailer containing around 30 tons of fruit juice, which is believed to have been stolen on Saturday morning.

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 isnt the first time thieves have stolen large quantities of chocolate in Germany.

In 2013, five tons of Nutella worth around 14,000 was stolen from a lorry in the town of Niederaula.
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The Portuguese government has asked for EU help to contain hundreds of forest fires which are threatening to ravage the country in the coming days as temperatures soar.

More than 3,000 firefighters have struggled to contain more than 250 fires over the weekend in the wake of Portugals worst fire disaster in living memory in June, which left 64 people dead.

Interior Minister Constanca Urbana de Sousa said the country sent an SOS message to the rest of European Union because of concerns rising temperatures and high winds could increase the number of fires as well as their intensity.

The request is for help with firefighting airplanes and firefighters and is part of a European mechanism for cooperation to put out major blazes.

Emergency services said 268 fires broke out on Saturday alone, the highest number for any single day this year, with 6,500 firefighters battling to extinguish them.

The central district of Coimbra declared a local state of emergency to deal with the fires, as did four smaller municipalities in the region.

While multiple fires have burned through the summer, none has had the tragic impact of the one in late June, as emergency services have gone to far greater efforts to evacuate villages and shut roads early in affected areas.

But the country could face many more weeks of fires before the end of summer.

More than 140,000 hectares of forest have burned this summer in Portugal, more than three times higher than the average over the last 10 years, according to EU data.

The EU helped France to fight forest fires in July after several blazes raged through the southern regions of the country and into Corsica in Italy.

The European Commission coordinates the voluntary offers made by participating states though the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, and can co-finance the transport of relief items and experts to the country requesting help.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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A young girl has been killed and at least 12 people injured after a car deliberately drove into a pizzeria in a small village to the east of Paris.

The car ploughed into the busy terrace of the restaurant in Sept-Sorts, a village of about 450 inhabitants in Seine et Marne.

A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said the young girl killed was 13-years-old. He added four people were in a critical condition and eight suffered from less serious injuries.

According to local media, the driver has been arrested. He reportedly attempted to commit suicide last week.

French police authorities have confirmed on Twitter that an operation is ongoing in Sept-Sorts and urged people to stay away from the area.

The public prosecutor's office in Meaux said this was "a deliberate act" which seems "to have nothing to do with a terror attack", Le Parisien reports.

One witness told BFMTV: "I had just paid and was about to leave the restaurant when a car drove straight into the terrace, it hit the bar and became wedged inside the restaurant.

"The driver wanted to reverse but some people who were nearby prevented him from doing by standing behind the car. The police was quick to arrive and they arrested him there and then.

"For me this was deliberate and it was a terror attack. There were about 20 people on the terrace of the restaurant and they were all mowed down by the car."

France has been rocked by a recent series of terror attacks, and anti-terrorist officers were quickly at the scene of the crash.
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Iraqi Kurds have decided to proceed with a referendum on independence despite a US request to postpone the vote.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had asked Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani to delay the 25 September vote because America fears it would detract from "more urgent priorities" in the region, such as defeating the Isis terror group.

The US is also worried that a vote for independence could spark renewed conflict in Baghdad and anger Turkey, Iran, and the Syrian regime even further amid a crush of refugees and continued military activity in Syria.

"On the issue of the postponement of the referendum, the President (Barzani) stated that the people of the Kurdistan Region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future," the KRG said in a statement.

Mr Barzani also used Twitter to make the announcement public.

The referendum secession from Iraq will be held in the three Kurdish region governorates.

It will also be held in areas of dispute between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments, which are currently under Kurdish military control.

Kirkuk, the province with oil-rich ground, is one of the disputed areas and is likely the one the US is most worried about inflaming tensions in Baghdad.

It is unclear at this time however, if a vote for independence - the expected outcome - will actually result in real independence. Iraqi Kurds have held similar referenda before with a "yes" victory, but no real change.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has supported the Kurds right to vote for independence but he, like the US, said he felt the timing was wrong in April 2017.

The US is also concerned about Turkey's opposition to Kurdish independence since Iraqi Kurds export "most of its oil via a pipeline leading to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, but also overland through Turkey by tanker truck."

Turkey has been playing a key role in the US fight against Isis and the Syrian conflict and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already opposed the US arming Kurds in dismantling the terror group.
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Yemen's Central Bank, based in the country's south, is accusing a Saudi-led coalition of blocking flights bringing cash to the country and strangling its economy.

Governor Mansr al-Qaiti says the blockade deprives Yemen's internationally-recognised government of the ability to pay salaries for 1 million civil servants.

He says the coalition, which is fighting Shiite Houthi rebels to restore al-Qaiti's government, banned 13 flights carrying cash to the southern port city of Aden since April, without justification or clear reason.

Sunday's statement expressed deep regret for such impediments, saying they undermine the bank's daily business and accusing the coalition of strangling Yemen's economy.

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

Since the Houthis overran northern Yemen and seized the capital, Sanaa, the government has worked from Aden.

Al-Qaiti's remarks reflect deep divisions between the coalition and the government.

Associated Press
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Theres something extraordinary about the sight of a mob in sportswear carrying store-bought torches. I saw the pictures and the videos: pleated khakis trundling bravely through a nearly deserted campus, chanting real actual Nazi slogans, giving confident and well-practiced Sieg Heils, unmolested by police; perhaps not defended by pundits from right or centre, but always carefully criticised in such a way as to make clear the other side has its trouble spots too.

They wore no hoods, emboldened perhaps by our countrys recent political lurch rightward. After all, much of what they seem to want also lurks on the agenda of the party in power, and perhaps even that of our President.

The cameras and microphones were there for them. The issue is being allowed to advocate for your interests as a white person, just like other groups are allowed to advocate for their interests politically, said the man who arranged the march, Jason Kessler.

Allowed. An interesting thing to say for someone clearly already being allowed.

It struck me what they were doing was borrowing language and appearances, attempting to stand on the shoulders of freedom fighters and martyrs for justice. They dont want us thinking hate group. They want us thinking we shall overcome.

 Mother of Charlottesville suspect says he told her he was going to rally

But overcome what? If, as Martin Luther King famously suggested, a riot is the voice of the unheard, then what could it be that a mob of the very much heard might desire? I remembered their chants. Apparently what a mob of the heard wants is to not be replaced.

Fascinating, extraordinary  to fight to not be replaced. It suggests this is where they think our culture is heading: the wholesale replacement of Biff and Skip and Chadwick. Which further suggests they believe the position they hold is one they are keeping others from. It necessarily follows that they think holding this position is as good and right as is denying it to others. Thus, privilege acknowledges its privilege even as it pleads oppressed inequality.

This is why villains are stealing the aspect and bearing of heroes: because the heroism and moral clarity of civil rights is something others have, which they do not, and they cannot bear for others to have something that might otherwise come to them.

The civil rights movement fought and bled and died, so that everybody might have a chair at the table. These venomous crybabies want to fight to make sure they sit in the only chair, and expect to have it credited to them as moral virtue.

If I were to name the sickness presently coursing through the national veins, I might name it this way: Too many of us have confused the idea of oppression with that of opposition.

 Sebastian Gorka before Charlottesville: White men and white supremacists are not the problem"

Ask yourself, if these well-fed fellows fail, who will strip their vote?

What statues and flags will fly commemorating their ancestors theft and rape and murder and enslavement?

Who will legally nullify their marriage?

What proposals have been made to keep bathrooms or bakeries safe from them?

Who will pack them into trucks and tear them from their homes and families?

What pipeline will be sent through their water table? No. The defeat for them is they will be prevented only from doing it to others.

Then ask yourself: to whom will those things happen if they succeed?

 Charlottesville: Moment man breaks legs saving his fiance's life by pushing her out the way

Imagine if these people faced real oppression. Nobody is trying to make them buy insurance for male healthcare. There is no history of centuries of bad science devoted to proving their intellectual inferiority. There is no travel ban on them because of their religion. There is no danger for them when they carry dangerous weaponry publicly.

Their lawns were never decorated with burning crosses. Their ancestors were never hanged from trees. The President has not set up a hotline to report crime committed by their hands.

When you see little Jason Kessler chased into the bushes, he is not being oppressed. He is being opposed. He doesnt like it. And so what?

Julius Goat is a pseudonym
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Obviously there are bigger things in the world right now  World War Three, the arrival of The Big British Family Cooking Showdown, Leicester City disappointingly losing 4-3 to Arsenal  but Ive just noticed that someones kidnapped the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

That's right. Philip Hammond, self-appointed leader of the reasonable squad in the Cabinet, friend to British business, reluctant leaver and supposed bulwark against hard Brexit, has been captured. There was a ransom note at the weekend, penned by himself and Liam Fox. It read as follows: We are both clear that during [the transition] the UK will be outside the single market and outside the customs union and will be a 'third-country' not party to EU treaties.

So not actually ransom note, seeing as theres no actual financial way to release him from being handcuffed to Liam Fox; more of a political suicide note. I suppose that just leaves Amber Rudd then.

Dont be taken in by the talk of transition. The transition to hard Brexit will have taken place  instantaneously  when the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. The rest is just another tiresome exercise in wishful thinking, such as the notion that somehow, because were all grown-ups and the Germans sell lots of cars here and we won the war after all, the EU is obliged to be, well, soft, and offer us more or less what we have now  minus the contributions to the EU budget, minus freedom of movement of labour, minus the European Court, minus those irritating Brussels bureaucrats, minus straight bananas and anything else the British happen to find irksome. Only for a couple of years, true, but quite a soft landing for the British.

 Philip Hammond: Transitional deal expected within three years of leaving EU

In the words of the Fox-Hammond Cerberus thing, the UK's borders "must continue to operate smoothly", goods bought on the internet "must still cross borders", and "businesses must still be able to supply their customers across the EU" after Brexit. In the coming days we are also promised some Position Papers on British policy towards the EU talks. These will be entitled: Having Your Cake and Eating It  Trading the UK Way, Why Europe Needs Britain More than Britain Needs Europe, Honest. So Do As Youre Told, Have You Not Witnessed the Iron Will of the British People? and Weve Got Nukes, You Know.

Its worth repeating: the EU is under no obligation to offer the UK any kind of transitional arrangements, sensible as it might be, solely on British terms. It is up for negotiation  and why would they give us a dream deal that the Swedes, Danes, Finns or Dutch (all secret Leave countries, Im sure) might fancy?

If Tony Blair is right and the Europeans all want to ditch freedom of movement anyway, then we could easily do a deal, or stay in on much better terms  but where are Blairs mysterious movers and shakers ready to devise a New Europe like he did New Labour? Its all gone a bit quiet, that.

The EU in fact has a clear negotiating mandate, given to chief talker Michel Barnier, that does acknowledge the possibility of a transitional arrangement, but it is quite tightly drawn, and, contrary to the Fox-Hammond line, requires the UK to agree to the acquis. The acquis is a piece of Euro-jargon which means the UK would continue to be bound by EU rules, presumably including the big ones on freedom of movement and the European Court of Justice. Heres how the EU sees it: Should a time-limited prolongation of Union acquis be considered, this would require existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures to apply. This approach will allow an efficient allocation of the limited time that Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union imposes for the conclusion of the Agreement by avoiding the need to address the same matter several times at different phases of the negotiations.

 Conservatives will never win power again after Brexit 'disaster', former Tory government adviser says

For the avoidance of doubt, the EU also states:

The Agreement should set a withdrawal date which is at the latest 30 March 2019 at 00:00 (Brussels time), unless the European Council, in agreement with the United Kingdom, unanimously decides to extend this period in accordance with Article 50(3) of the Treaty on European Union. The United Kingdom will become a third country from the withdrawal date.

Now, for those of us who voted Leave but who are rather concerned about the way Brexit is going, this is all turning rather ugly. Far from having our cake and eating it, the EU27 seems determined to shove into our face like a custard pie, and then send us the bill for cleaning the mess up. What is becoming increasingly clear is this:

The impetus on both sides of the Channel is towards hard Brexit; It will cause economic dislocation, and possibly a slump; The only way to make it work is via a Singapore of Europe model of a low-tax, low-wage, small state, free-trading enterprise economy; The British people are not up for that, being a mix of wet Tories and Corbynites these days; They also feel a bit misled about the 350m a week for the NHS and ending migration thing, which is all they thought that was at stake in the referendum; Therefore they have to be given a vote on what is about to befall them.

Logistically and logically, the UK-EU talks will not be completed by this time next year; indeed well probably still be playing the three-dimensional chess game of how to keep the free travel and free trading zone with Ireland when the UK is out of the single market and the customs union in March 2019, if not the end of time.

Thats because it doesnt matter how reasonable or tough both sides in the Brexit talks are  they wont be able to make two plus two equal five. I certainly think it will take more than goodwill on all sides and some automatic number plate recognition machines to solve that conundrum. One wonders if the right of the Tory party would be happy to let go of Northern Ireland completely for the sake of hard Brexit. Just a thought.

 Tom Peck on Double Take: Parliamentary sketch writers are currently redundant in Brexit Britain

The truth is that there will be no agreement on the Irish border, not even by 2019, and none therefore on trade, none on the divorce bill, none on transition arrangements and, thus, no way of answering the question Transition to what?

In such circumstances there is only one choice: hard Brexit and staying in (if Britains lucky). And for that to be resolved we need another referendum, which would not actually be a second referendum, but the first referendum on the actual terms of Brexit as they are agreed (or not agreed).

The people of Britain, as well as of Ireland and the rest of the European Union, deserve it. I wonder if Philip Hammond might extricate himself from the deadly embrace of the International Trade Secretary in time to advocate such a thing?
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Tomorrow India will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its independence from British colonial rule. Over in Pakistan, they will get into party mood a day earlier to mark the birth of a new Muslim nation carved out of Indias Muslim-majority states.

British diplomats in Delhi and Islamabad will duly line up to greet the natives. But amid the toasts, the fireworks and the pomp and ceremony, the ghost at the top of the table will be studiously avoided by all. Nobody will mention the P word: the bloody Partition of India and its lingering corrosive legacy which continues to poison Hindu-Muslim and India-Pakistan relations to this day.

It was a cataclysmic event in modern South Asian history in which up to two million people were killed in sectarian Hindu-Muslim riots, and some 12 million were displaced in the biggest mass migration in recorded history. But it remains shrouded in an official veil of silence both in India and Pakistan. Theres a collective amnesia about Partition: its not taught in schools, theres no memorial to its victims, no state-funded museum either side of the border, and no public debate.

Millions of young Indians and Pakistanis know little about one of the 20th centurys bloodiest episodes in which their near and dear ones died. Their knowledge of it comes from the biased accounts in which the one side portrays the other as villains. Indian and Pakistani perception of each other is still heavily coloured by their selective interpretation of what happened during Partition.

 India rolls out trains with solar-powered coaches to save thousands of litres of diesel

To countless Pakistanis, India is totally Hindu with all the abominable and derogatory characteristics, whereas to their Indian counterparts, Pakistan is a fundamentalist Muslim threat and a vivisection of a once united India, wrote Pakistani academic Dr Iftikhar Malik back in 2002 on the 55th anniversary of independence. Fifteen years later, nothing has changed. If anything the mutual prejudices have become more deeply entrenched, particularly in my own country, India, under a right-wing Hindu nationalist government.

Theres something uniquely South Asian about the silence around Partition: our indifference to history, particularly when it shines light on our own darker recesses. The argument is that what happened, happened; lets draw a line under it and move on.

In more historically aware societies, a tragedy of such magnitude would be constantly remembered, debated, taught to schoolchildren, and lessons sought to be learnt from it. Europe is dotted with memorials to historical events; theres even a memorial to the East Germans who died while attempting to scale the Berlin Wall. In Britain, reminders of its past are everywhere.

In South Asia, and especially on the subcontinent, theres an extraordinary lack of historical awareness. We do nostalgia rather well clinging to the idea of a mythical Golden Age. But contemporary history  whats that? Maybe it has got something to do with the fact that much of that history is so bleak. Whatever the excuse, a lack of debate and an unwillingness to confront the past has meant that we are condemned to repeating history. It has meant dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971  after the war which resulted in East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh  the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, the 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujarat, the persecution of minorities in Pakistan, and an ugly resurgence of Hindu and Muslim nationalism: all a result of failing to learn from the horrors of Partition.

Pakistan keeps truckin' on Show all 10 1 /10 Pakistan keeps truckin' on Pakistan keeps truckin' on Garland: possibly the most fabulous gear stick in the history of motoring, in a truck in Faisalabad, Pakistan Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Eyes on the road: a blue-eyed beaut stares out Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Where to look? This left-hand-drive long vehicle distracts from its core message Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Even the inside is pretty: washing down a truck in Peshawar Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Devotion: this truck pays homage to Islam Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Pitstop: drivers rest near their vehicles in Faisalabad Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Air con: a fan is flanked by speakers inside a drivers cab Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Glorious: truck art is said to have been started in the 1940s by Sikh drivers Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Time for reflection: a homage to Islams holy sites Reuters Pakistan keeps truckin' on Practical: while the trucks often nod to religion and even politics, they make great plastic-bottle holders Reuters

Theres a glimmer of hope, though: liberal voices in both countries are becoming more vocal in arguing for an end to the conspiracy of silence around partition. And, over the past year leading up to the anniversary celebrations, several private initiatives have been launched to create awareness about partition. Indias first Partition Museum, a project set up by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, a non-profit group, in partnership with the LSE South Asia Centre, will open in Amritsar next week. Similar projects are underway in Pakistan, including a high-profile Citizens Archives of Pakistan and The Oral History Project.

Laudable though these initiatives are, theyre no substitute for a collective national reckoning with this dark chapter in the subcontinents post-independence history. Seventy years after the event, its time to start talking about it, and the coming weeks celebrations offer an opportunity to set the ball rolling with baby steps like declaring a Day of Partition, a public commemoration on the lines of Holocaust Day and raising a suitable national memorial to its victims.

Next, it should be made a compulsory subject of study in schools, and state funding should be made available for research to challenge biased and divisive narratives around Partition. Theres a need for catharsis if Hindu, Muslims  and India and Pakistan  are serious about normalising relations. And though its 70 years too late, better late than never.
The imposition of a customs frontier on the Irish border would "play fast and loose" with both the economy and peace process, Sinn Fein has warned.

The republican party dismissed any suggestion trade movement between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic could be monitored by technology as "nonsense and impossible to deliver".

The UK government's vision of how its only land border with the EU will operate when it exits the Union will be outlined in a much-anticipated document on Wednesday.

There are more than 200 roads crossing the Irish border.

Critics of a technology-based solution, potentially involving CCTV cameras and number plate recognition systems, question how movement between the jurisdictions could ever be tracked without causing major disruption.

The Irish government has made clear its position that technology alone will not resolve the border conundrum.

David Cullinane TD, Sinn Fein's spokesman on Brexit, said: "It is clear that the British Tory party are in disarray over Brexit.

"They have no plan, no solutions for Brexit, only slogans."

He added: "The notion of a frictionless technological border has been dismissed as nonsense and impossible to deliver.

"What is clear is that Tories are prepared to use Ireland as collateral damage in their negotiations with the EU.

"What we need is a real solution that works for our economy, our communities, and delivers for all Ireland."

However, Democratic Unionist MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted only the main arterial routes needed to be monitored.

"If people want to export their goods they have to go through the proper process and clearly most of the cross border roads aren't used for trade purposes, they are used on a daily basis by local people," he told the BBC.

"It is the main roads that are used for haulage and trading.

"So we are confident that we can deal with this in a pragmatic way."

On Sunday, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood accused the UK government of drawing up its border plan on the "back of an envelope".

"It is almost laughable that it took the British Government over a year to come up with it," he said.

"Anyone who knows anything about the Irish border knows it's a non-runner."

He added: "Any border must be around the island of Ireland, not across it.

"This is the only position which recognises our unique circumstances and it is the only position which is actually enforceable.

"It is the only serious and credible solution to the Brexit problem which has so far been proposed."

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann has urged the Dublin government to kill off any suggestion that a customs border could be imposed in the Irish Sea, around the island rather than dividing it.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already said the proposal is not one he is tabling as a potential alternative.

Mr Swann called on him to go further.

"If he has any respect for the people of Northern Ireland, Leo Varadkar must come out and dismiss the idea of a post-Brexit border in the Irish Sea once and for all," he said.

Mr Swann repeated his concern that the Brexit issue was being pursued by republicans and nationalists to advance a united Ireland.

"Brexit negotiations should not be used as a Trojan Horse by those who seek to exploit the situation to further their united Ireland agenda," he said.

A spokesman for the Irish Government said it welcomed indications that the UK is providing "more clarity on its thinking".

He said the position paper on future EU-UK customs arrangements will be analysed in detail and will need careful consideration.

The Government said the immediate focus of negotiations would be on issues including citizens' rights, the financial settlement and Irish specific issues.

"In this regard, the Government welcomes the UK's intention to publish a second position paper, on Northern Ireland and Ireland specific issues, later this week," the spokesman said.

"Once sufficient progress has been made on these phase one issues, we will be in a position to commence phase two of the negotiations, where parallel discussions will take place with the UK on future relationship issues, including customs."
A Brexit deal to allow free movement of people between Ireland and the UK with a "light-touch customs regime" is to be proposed by the British government.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will this week publish a policy paper on Anglo- Irish relations which suggests the two countries could adopt a 'Schengen area'.

This would allow Irish citizens to work freely in the UK, and British citizens would work freely in Ireland.

Citizens of other EU countries could access the UK over the Irish Border but would not be able to work in Britain without a work permit.

The idea is being carefully studied by Irish officials but does create a Border which Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he does not want.

The UK's Brexit department said it will reveal more details of its favoured customs arrangement and a proposal on how to resolve the difficulties of a non-physical Border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"We've been crystal clear that issues around our withdrawal and our future partnership are inextricably linked," a source in Britain's Brexit department said.

Britain appears on track for a so-called 'hard Brexit' after chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox wrote a joint article saying the UK would not be staying in the EU by a "back door".

"We are both clear that during this period the UK will be outside the customs union and will be a 'third country', not a party to EU treaties," they said.

The contribution of Mr Hammond is seen as significant as he is believed to favour a soft Brexit that would have safeguards in place for businesses.

Along with a new paper on Irish issues, the UK government is preparing to release papers to address "continuity in the availability of goods for the EU and the UK" and "confidentiality and access to official documents".

It then wants the EU to move forward to the next phase of the Brexit negotiations which will deal with the future relationship been the UK and member states.

"We need to get on with negotiating the bigger issues around our future partnership to ensure we get a deal that delivers a strong UK and EU," Brexit Minister David Davis said in a statement.

Brussels has insisted that progress must be made on divorce arrangements first, including how much the UK will pay before leaving.

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier is due to meet Mr Davis for a new round of negotiations at the end of August.

Amid talks of in-fighting within Mrs May's cabinet, pro-Brexit Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed the joint article from Mr Hammond and Mr Fox, saying it was the "right way forward".
Lock your tractor or lose it - the cost of rural theft has risen sharply in the first half of 2017, despite some businesses turning their farmyards into fortresses, a new report has claimed.

New figures in the UK show a 20pc increase, prompting fears of a new wave of targeted crime in the countryside.

The insurer NFU Mutuals Rural Crime Report tracked a 4pc decrease in costs nationally during 2016, with successful joint initiatives involving several police forces and improved on-farm security playing important roles.

But the 39.2m claims total for 2016 will be outstripped by a substantial margin if the trend for January to June 2017 continues.

It found that being staked out is the biggest worry for country people, followed closely by longer police response times in rural areas, according to the leading rural insurer.

While the fall in rural theft in 2016 is welcome news, the sharp rise in the first half of 2017 is deeply worrying, said Tim Price, NFU Mutual rural affairs specialist.

Countryside criminals are becoming more brazen and farmers are now having to continually increase security and adopt new ways of protecting their equipment.

 In some parts of the country, farmers are having to turn their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from repeated thieves who are targeting quads, tractors and power tools. They are using tracking devices on tractors, video and infra-red surveillance in their farmyards and even DNA markers to protect sheep from rustlers.

He also said that the threat of becoming a victim of rural crime, and regular reports of suspicious characters watching farms is causing high levels of anxiety amongst farmers who know their rural location makes them vulnerable to attacks.

The report found that quads and ATVs are disappearing from farms in large numbers  thanks to being easy to transport and lack of registration plates.

Tractors

It found that when it comes to tractors, thieves are increasingly cloning the identity of tractors to make detection more difficult.

Thieves are stealing small, older tractors for export to third world countries as well as expensive large models.

Earlier this year an ICSA/WIT report on rural crime in Ireland showed that four out of 10 farmers were the victims of "chronic" and repeat attacks on their property, with the average value of the goods stolen in a single incident at 1,818.

That report found the financial costs of agricultural crime is likely to be underestimated and under-reported. And it put the cost of rural crime at 2.4m, or an average of 4,300 for each victim.
(Photo/West China Metropolis Daily)

A group wedding for three inmates and their spouses held on August 11 at a prison in southwestern China's Sichuan province. The special moment, witnessed by more than 200 prisoners, restruck hope in them for the future.

One of the inmates, Wang Lei, is serving a 10-year sentence for drug production. His girlfriend Jingjing, who is in deep love with him, persuaded her father to finally agree to their marriage.

When Wang started serving the sentence, he did not want Jingjing to wait for him because she was in her prime of life. However, the spoony woman never contemplated giving up. The two finally registered for marriage last June with the guidance of prison authorities.

According to regulations, Jingjing can visit Wang twice a month in prison as his wife. Though she has only half an hour every time, she is quite satisfied with this, saying her waiting was worthwhile. She promised to continue to wait for him till he finally returns home.

It was the first time in 60 years that the prison held a group wedding for prisoners. A prison employee, Zeng Hongbin, said they hope the wedding would encourage inmates to be more positive about their future.

The love stories of the three prisoners touched many of their cellmates, envisioning in them the eventuality of returning to family and society.

According to Zeng, the prison has also made efforts in other fields such as the education of prisoners' children, land acquisition and payment of relocation compensation.

"These measures reflect the prison's humane care of inmates. We hope they correct their mistakes and return to society earlier," Zeng said.
EU plans to negotiate on beef with the South American Mercosur bloc have prompted a backlash from MEPs and farmers groups.

Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness said that Brexit complicated the talks and that there was still work to be done before a beef offer should be tabled.

Any potential offer by the EU must take account of the sensitive nature of beef not just for Ireland but also for France and the EU in general, Ms McGuinness said.

There is the additional complication that the EU continues to negotiate for 28 member states until such time as the UK leaves the EU in March of 2019. This is another issue which will need to be take account of.

The Irish Farmers Association voiced concerns again last week following reports in the Farming Independent that the EU is ready to table a beef offer as soon as October.

The stark reality is that without the UK market, the EU beef sector would become 116pc self-sufficient and there is simply no room for any additional beef imports, said IFA president Joe Healy. The EU Commission must insist that beef is excluded from the Mercosur trade discussions.

Mr Healy also said that Brazil and other Mercosur countries fail to meet EU standards on traceability, food safety, animal welfare and the environment.

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has also said beef should be excluded from any Mercosur deal, while MEPs in the Parliaments agriculture committee have repeatedly voiced their concerns. A 2016 Commission impact assessment also found that beef farmers will be the biggest losers from future EU trade deals, particularly Mercosur.

We will be watching developments closely, although at this stage I understand that no beef offer has been agreed on and that Mercosur had been warned not to push too hard for concessions which would be unacceptable to the farm sector, Ms McGuinness said.

South American countries already have a substantial agricultural trade surplus with the EU, worth around 10 times EU agricultural exports to the zone.
Farmers have called on the Taoiseach to show strong political leadership in defending the beef and livestock sector which is the "heartbeat" of rural Ireland.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Joe Healy said the sector accounts for 6.6bn in overall output with its economic impact felt in every rural parish in the country.

As more than 60,000 descended on the Tullamore and AIB National Livestock Show, where the cream of the country's cattle and sheep were on display, Mr Healy warned there were major challenges facing the Irish beef sector, from Brexit to reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

"It has never been more important that our new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, along with Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, show strong political leadership in defending the sector. Equally, every section of the industry from farmers to factories, and all others involved in the business, must play their part in a united and responsible way to secure a viable future for the sector," said Mr Healy.

Speaking at the opening of the mammoth country show, MEP Mairead McGuinness warned many would see Brexit as the ideal opportunity to make radical changes to the CAP budget, which forms a key part of farmers' income as pressure for funding increases at EU level. The vice president of the European Parliament said a much deeper debate is needed on how to shape the future of farming.

The numbers making a beeline for the Co Offaly showgrounds had come from near and far, with brother and sister Luke and Jesca Vickery from the Carbery Pedigree herd in West Cork leaving at 3am to show their cattle.

Expand Close Anthony McLoughlin from Balbriggan, Co Dublin, waits to go into the parade ring with his heifer. Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook

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Whatsapp Anthony McLoughlin from Balbriggan, Co Dublin, waits to go into the parade ring with his heifer. Photo: Gerry Mooney

"We had no sleep, we were buzzing from the preparation. It is the biggest livestock show and it's a chance to see what the country has to offer," Luke said.

A few hundred yards away, TV chef Edward Hayden was mopping his brow as he got to grips with a fine ewe, except this time it was with a shearing clippers in hand. "That's definitely one off the bucket list," he quipped.

The inventions category was as usual pulling in the crowds, with 15-year-old Jack Nagle from Castlemaine, Co Kerry, scoring on the double in the agriculture and student category with his tractor safe lock that automatically engages the handbrake when the farmer steps out of the cab.

He told how his grandfather Patrick O'Sullivan survived after being trapped underneath the wheel of the tractor for hours after forgetting to apply the handbrake and stepping behind it. "I'm hoping the safe lock may save lives," he said.
Plans to build a massive 76-acre solar farm in Kildare have been rejected by Kildare County Council.

Harmony Solar Kildare Ltd had applied to build the farm which would consist of an area of up to 92,400m2 of solar panels on ground mounted steel frames within a site area of 31.24 hectares.

The site would also include fenced electricity substation compound, transformer units, underground cable and ducts and boundary security fence with CCTV and all associated site services and works.

Planning permission was sought for a period of 10 years at Furryhill and Kilteel Lower, but it was rejected. Planning had been sought in June for the solar farm.

It comes as figures show that 225 applications for solar farms have been made in Ireland in the past two years to local authorities. No applications were in the system before then.

Research from PHR - a planning and research consultancy that specialises in data analysis and visualisation.

"There is just over 1.5 gigawatts of solar energy within the planning pipeline," PHR director Colin Broderick said.

"The capacity in the pipeline has grown rapidly with the first application being submitted in Wexford in June of 2015. Since then, 224 other applications have been lodged to local and national planning authorities. The average size of schemes to date is around 10 hectares with a generating capacity of up to five megawatts," Broderick added.

He said that the uplift in activity has been fuelled by a drop in the price of solar technology in recent years.

The analysis, covering the period to the beginning of this month, shows that Cork is the county with the highest number of applications at 38. Wexford is second with 35, with Meath in third at 22.

The most active company is Highfield Solar, the figures show, with 27 applications. Elgin Energy has 21, Power Capital Renewable Energy has 17, and John Mullins' Amarenco has 14.

Of the 225 applications, 82 were granted by local authorities and seven refused. Of those that went to An Bord Pleanala, 13 were granted and three refused.

Thirty-one are currently under appeal and decisions are pending in 18 cases.

The largest applications are in Meath, with Highfield Solar having been granted permission for a 150-hectare farm.

That was subsequently appealed to An Bord Pleanala. Last week the Sunday Independent revealed that Lightsource, headed by Antrim man Nick Boyle has applied for a 129-hectare project, also in Meath.

Gaelectric - perhaps best known for activities in wind - is also active in the sector.

It has recently had an application for a project spanning 62 hectares, at Ballyboughal in North County Dublin, rejected by Fingal County Council.
The Central Bank is looking to compile a company-by-company database of the attributes and financial statements of the roughly 300,000 companies incorporated in Ireland.

The regulator said the information is required under new ECB regulations, and that the data set would also help it keep an up-to-date register of non-financial entities, as well as keep tabs on shadow banking operations.

Much of the information is already in the public domain via the Companies Registration Office (CRO), including detailed information on companies such as balance sheet and profit and loss data.

If it can't be found in the CRO, it can be sourced from private international corporate registers.

But the Central Bank said access to the CRO is currently on a case-by-case online query basis, and that the data is primarily only available in pdf format, and/or in hand-written scanned documents.

"Given that there are approximately 300,000 companies incorporated and registered with the CRO, the Central Bank is seeking the services of an economic operator that can extract, compile and furnish the required variables in a structured dataset format," the regulator said in a tender document.

The bank said it needed the information for a number of reasons, including to meet ECB regulations.

It referred to the AnaCredit project, a scheme to set up a dataset containing detailed information on individual bank loans in the eurozone. It involves the collection of a large amount of data relating to borrowing by legal entities from credit institutions.

The Central Bank said the dataset will help it by providing data on some of the attributes of these legal entities.

It also said the information will provide granular information relating to the non-financial sector's financial statements and attributes which will help with identifying vulnerabilities in the sector.

"The dataset will assist the bank in maintaining an up-to-date register of non-financial entities and shadow banking entities.

"It will also assist with identifying structures of complex corporations, such as the parent companies and subsidiaries of entities," the Central Bank tender document said.

It will also help with research projects carried out within the Central Bank, including an "analysis of NFC balance sheets over time by company size and NACE code; the examination of the role of trade credits as a source of NFC finance; and in researching questions such as the influence of financial variables on investment structures".

"The dataset will be used by the Central Bank internally in order to meet its functions and obligations as a national central bank, including to validate and supplement data collected from credit institutions," it added.

"While the reporting banks will be required to collect and report reference data relating to their borrowers, the dataset will provide a mechanism to the Central Bank to undertake quality assurance on the data submitted and to ensure appropriate coverage."

Details will be reported to the ECB as part of the AnaCredit project.
Ryanair has announced the purchase for cancellation a total of 586,500 ordinary shares of nominal value 0.006 each in the capital of the company.

Following the cancellation of the ordinary shares repurchased, the company will have 1.2 billion ordinary shares in issue.

"To the extent that further ordinary shares are repurchased under the programme, these will also be cancelled," the airline said in a statement released to the Irish Stock Exchange.

Read more: Ryanair out to be travel's Amazon - selling for rivals

These share purchases form part of the company's existing 600m share buyback programme, details of which were announced in May this year.

In respect of this programme, which will operate until no later than 31 October 2017, Citigroup and Davy will make trading decisions in relation to Ryanair's ordinary shares repurchased under the buy-back programme independently of Ryanair.

Speaking on BBC Newsnight last month, Mr OLeary said that the company was buying back 5pc of the stock every year.
Knock is a miracle that keeps giving. In just three years, this small shrine on the periphery of Europe has raised a whopping 13.4m in donations and pledges to finance a much-needed structural and spiritual revamp. Some 11.4m has been used to refurbish the 40-year-old basilica which had become dated and worn.

It now has comfortable seating, insulation against the western gales, and a massive mosaic depicting the 1879 apparition by the famed Irish artist PJ Lynch. It has also been future-proofed for technology for the decades ahead. And 1m has also been spent on marketing the Marian shrine at home and abroad, resulting in the first transatlantic pilgrimages from New York and Boston, in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Another million has been spent on a series of new pastoral programmes as part of Knock's outreach to the faithful in the 21st century. All of this formed the umbrella Witness to Hope renewal programme which was launched in 2014 and draws to a close at the end the year.

The brains behind this massive undertaking is 48-year-old Father Richard Gibbons, rector of Knock shrine. He hopes to have secured another 750,000 by the end of the year, which will mean the target figure of 14m set in 2013 will have been achieved.

The Louisburgh-native's quietly determined vision and drive has caused some to liken him to his predecessor, Monsignor James Horan, the charismatic parish priest who defied political and media scepticism in the 1980s and got an international airport up and running in what was then a rural backwater.

Knock Airport, or Ireland West Airport as it is now officially known, today employs more than 100 people and is in healthier shape than many other airports.

Knock shrine is another major employer in this region, providing work for 100 full-time staff. During the busy summer novena and pilgrimage season, that number swells to 170. Many hard-pressed students have, down the years, benefited from these temporary employment opportunities to fund their college expenses.

Salaries are paid out of the monies generated from the day-to-day operation of the shrine through Mass cards, Mass collections and donations. These costs are entirely separate to the 'Witness to Hope' programme. Everything, Fr Gibbons stresses, is carefully accounted for.

"We need everything to pay for itself and people need clarity that if they are donating to Witness to Hope, that it goes to Witness to Hope."

Knock's significant financial contribution to the local economy and to many local families is probably one of the reasons why the fundraising campaign has been supported so strongly locally. According to Fr Gibbons, roughly 75pc of the 13.4m collected so far has come from the West of Ireland.

"It is incredible. People see the benefit of Knock for the region. Knock shrine and the airport have been at the heart of the development of the west."

He is fulsome in his praise of the generosity of the people of Knock village, with a population of just 972, which raised over 500,000 for its holy site. "This small rural parish was outstanding," he enthuses.

The rest of the donations have come from Irish emigrants in Britain, the US and the faithful around Ireland, as well as dioceses, clergy, religious orders and all the bishops. He admits people thought he was "a little bit crazy" when he set 2017 as the deadline for 14m target.

There must have been many sleepless nights? "Yes - quite a few! It was not plain sailing, especially when we were in the middle of it. But I'm convinced that Our Lady played a part..."

But why would he have embarked on this when the Church was grappling with the fallout of the abuse scandals and the economy was still in the doldrums after the financial collapse? "That was the time to do it because we needed to give the Church here a bit of a boost. Knock has a role to play if we are ever going to renew the Church in Ireland. It was time to give people hope." Hence the title 'Witness to Hope'.

But there will be no resting on laurels for Fr Gibbons and his team. "We are not taking the foot off the pedal yet. There is still the remaining 750,000 to collect before the end of the year. Then there is the World Meeting of Families next year which we need to be prepared for." It might all seem like a bit of a headache but no doubt the novena numbers, which continue to hold up at 100,000, must give him some satisfaction. "People love Knock," he states simply.

Perhaps it's time to recognise the miracle that is Knock.
Older people could soon be incentivised to become landlords under changes to the Fair Deal nursing home scheme.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy believes a substantial number of houses are vacant because their owners have moved into care and have no motivation to rent out their home.

Under the Fair Deal scheme, people who take up residence in a nursing home have to give 80pc of their disposable income to the State to cover the cost of their care. Mr Murphy is now in consultations with the HSE and Department of Finance about changes to the terms and conditions of the scheme that could see some rental income exempted.

It's not known how many vacant homes owned by elderly people in care are dotted around the country, but sources said the minister believed the figure was substantial enough to justify incentives. There are an estimated 25,000 people in nursing home care.

A source told the Irish Independent making changes to Fair Deal will be "complicated but the minister wants to do it".

Mr Murphy hopes to include measures "to encourage and facilitate the use of vacant properties of those in nursing home care" in a new 'Vacant Homes Strategy' which will be launched next month.

Age Action Ireland this morning gave a "cautious" welcome to the suggested move.

Justin Moran, Head of Advocacy and Communications, said: Were going to have to see the detail of the proposal from Minister Murphy but we would certainly welcome any change to Fair Deal that encouraged nursing home residents to rent out their homes by allowing them to retain the rental income."

He added: Its important that any change must be an incentive that protects the choice of a nursing home resident to rent out their home. We would be worried if nursing home residents, already paying levies on their income, assets and family home, would also be targeted by any vacant property tax as they would simply be unable to afford it.

Minister Murphy will today announce a number of "key actions" aimed at bringing thousands of empty properties back into use. Census 2016 found around 190,000 vacant dwellings, with 65,000 lying idle for five years or more despite the housing crisis.

Read more: Families priced out of property market as a third of income needed for mortgage

"We're building new houses and we're going to build more, but with the pent-up demand in the system from years of little or no construction, we have to manage empty homes back into use," Mr Murphy said.

Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTE Radio One, Mr Murphy said: "The important piece of work that is being done right now at the moment is getting the vacant housing unit that is being set up in my department to work with the local authorities to drill down into that 80,000-90,000 number to establish what the true number is. And then establish with the owners of those properties what the reasons are for vacancy.

"We will come with an incentive and also a penalty scheme but also, I hope, an increased compulsary purchase order powers so we can get those properties back into use."

He wants to take a "carrot and stick" approach. Penalties are being formulated for homeowners who leave properties empty for a sustained period but any attempt at introducing a 'vacant property tax' will come under intense legal scrutiny.

Among the other measures being taken is the establishment of an empty homes unit to co-ordinate a national response and the activation of a website for individuals to anonymously highlight vacant properties. The local authorities in the country's five main cities, where homelessness is highest, have been asked to provide 'City Action Plans' by the end of October.

Mr Murphy intends to bring draft regulations before the Dail on its return that will allow the change of use of vacant commercial and over-the-shop premises to residential use without having to seek planning permission.

"As I've said before, there's going to be a carrot-and-stick approach to this, which will be finalised in the coming month or so. People with property interests need to be made aware that we are moving quickly on this," Mr Murphy said.

The minister is under intense pressure to deliver reforms after the latest figures showed the homeless crisis worsening despite the Government's much-heralded 'Rebuilding Ireland'. In June, there were 5,036 homeless adults, up from 4,922 in May. The number of homeless families rose to 1,365, including an extra 118 children.

Speaking about his Vacant Home Strategy, Mr Murphy said: "Increasing supply isn't just about building new homes, it's about managing the stock that we already have that's not being used. There is more to come under the strategy but this is the right start."

He said local authorities needed help from individuals to identify vacant properties.

"We need action taken at local level, with national co-ordination from my department. The new website being co-ordinated by Mayo County Council is crucial because we need individual people in communities up and down the country to help us develop and implement a targeted approach as quickly as possible. So we're asking for people's help to make this work.

"It's critical that we get a proper handle on the current vacancy levels, in terms of what's changed and come back into use in the last 16 months, where they are and who owns these vacant properties.

"Armed with this information, we can then prioritise and target those areas where demand is greatest and help to increase the choice and availability of new homes to buy or rent," he said.

Last week, homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry said the Government was "ideologically incapable" of addressing the homeless crisis.
The ESB Spark of Genius Award will see one Start-Up win 25k, free exhibition space at Web Summit and mentoring from ESB innovation and strategy experts

Entries are now open for the 2017 Spark of Genius Award, which recognises Irelands most high potential start-up company.

The award, which will be presented in November at the Web Summit in Lisbon, will see one Irish company win 25,000 and the opportunity to exhibit at Web Summit, along with mentoring support from ESB executives.

Now in its seventh year, the award is open to high potential technology start-ups who have been in operation for less than three years and have received under 1m in funding.

Read more: Web Summit announces 'return' of finance off-shoot to Ireland

Entrants will be judged on the uniqueness of their idea, their level of development to date, and their potential for future growth.

"We collaborate with cutting edge companies and are involved in start-up accelerator programmes, as well as hackathons, to drive innovation and support Ireland's start-up community in the development of future energy solutions," Paul Mulvaney, director of innovation at ESB, said.

Commenting on the launch of the 2017 Spark of Genius Award, Paddy Griffith, head of start-ups at Web Summit said that the standard of applicants over the last number of years has been "extremely high, and this year will be no different."

The closing date for entries for the award is Sunday 10 September 2017.

A shortlist of five will pitch live on RTE 2FMs Eoghan McDermott Show and three winners will travel to Lisbon for the live pitch at Web Summit.

More than 60,000 people from over 170 countries will attend Web Summit this year in Lisbon. Keynote speakers include Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia and Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel.

The Web Summit currently has a three-year deal with Portuguese authorities to host the event in Lisbon. The deal is extendable to five years.

Earlier this year it confirmed that it is to bring one of its Web Summit conferences, Moneyconf, back to Ireland.
Google has rewarded a high school student $10,000 after he exposed a security flaw which hackers could have used to access sensitive data.

Uruguayan Ezequiel Pereira explained in a blog post that he was bored one day so tried to find a bug on Google.

He said many of his attempts failed, however, one internal webpage didnt require a username or any other information to access.

The teenager said it had many links to different sections about Google services and infrastructure, but before I visited any section, I read something in the footer: Google Confidential.

At that point I stopped poking at the website and reported the issue right away, he added.

Googles security team replied saying they would look into the issue and Pereira was stunned when they eventually offered him a reward.

I thought to myself Cool, this is probably a small thing that isn't worth a dime, the website probably had some technical stuff about Google servers and nothing really important, he recalled.

I don't know what the website did contain, but some weeks later I got an email right after getting out of school that said my report was worth much more than a dime

Actually, it was worth $10,000. He added Google has now fixed the bug.

According to Google, the large reward was because they found a few variants that would have allowed an attacker access sensitive data, he concluded.

Google runs a Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP), offering monetary rewards to reporters who flag bugs.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
I filled out my Cavan Rose application form in a hurry. I wasn't sure why. It wasn't planned and yet there I was methodically filling it out. The phrase ''give it a go'' was trickling through my mind. ''Sure you might as well'' joined in. I might as well.

I am a former rose sceptic. A thorn if you will. And then this year something changed. Maybe it was some of the inspiring women who have gone before me to achieve great things through The Rose of Tralee. Maybe it was inspired by my friends and I discussing reaching our mid-20s. Or perhaps it was the fact that when I mentioned my thoughts to my father, there was a smile from ear to ear that surpassed anything my masters or achievements so far have managed.

''My daughter, a Cavan Rose.'' Beam beam. Oh God, heart melting. Anything I can do to make my dad's smiles a more frequent occurrence, I'll do it.

And so I filled it out. Months passed and with that the memories of an application I scribbled one evening drifted from my mind. Until one day my phone rang. "Hi Elle, we're wondering if you have a sponsor sorted yet?"

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''A sponsor?'' My confused brain tried to catch up.

"For The Rose of Cavan." This friendly voice sounds confused. "You're one of our final 12.''

"I'm what?"

I hung up the phone and rang dad to hear his chorus of glee. "No bether woman," he trills.

Oh dear. Some stomach-churning weeks later, and finally it was the day of the Cavan Rose selection. I awoke feeling the job interview fear that looms clammy and cold. I chastised myself for the deluge of emotion. This is supposed to be fun. I got up, got dressed and jittered around until it was time to leave.

Soon I was at the Hotel Kilmore walking into a room with nothing but a rail of evening gowns hanging on it. Oh, the pressure. The day would consist of a one-on- one interview with three judges, followed by a group interview and finally the big one: the stage.

Let me give a little context to my fearful state. The day of my undergrad degree conferral I was so nervous about walking on a stage that I promptly didn't. The kindly person actually stepped off the stage to a hum of chuckles to hand me my degree. That's who I was and now here I am just a few years on, willingly putting myself in a scenario which involves walking across a stage, speaking on a stage and navigating steps in an evening gown. All to see my dad thrilled. That's daughterly love.

The Rose of Tralee Festival has been considered by many as just a bit naff. But the women I met that day were anything but. One was working in finance; another works as a pathologist, another runs her own dance school. One had been entered by a family member and although terrified with nerves, she powered her way through that day with steely determination. One woman is heavily involved in organising the Rose of Cavan selection each year, and is greatly admired for the amount of work she has done in raising awareness and funds for Cystic Fibrosis Cavan.

Video of the Day

Her beautiful daughter lives with it, and said beautiful daughter took to the stage later that evening and stole the show and the hearts with a solo rendition of Hit The Diff'. They were the people I met. Ok, I'll lay off the love now, I can't help it. #cavanpride.

My walk on stage was terrifying - a chorus of ''don't fall over'' ringing in my ears but once that was over the rest was plain sailing, even maybe, just a little, enjoyable.

The MC questioned and I chirruped responses in that jovial manner that always seems to occur when listing one's achievements, half bowing when paid a compliment in the manner that we Irish have perfected.

My ''ah sure I don't know about thats'' and ''oh well you knows'' ringing across the room. Rose lesson number one really needs to learn to say ''why thank you''. Full stop.

The thing about that day was I surprised myself and I was surprised. These were accomplished, ambitious and supportive women. Many were doing it for different reasons. Some spoke with true pride in representing Cavan, others of travel opportunities and seeing the world. Then there were one or two like me who weren't quite sure, had a slightly wild-eyed deer-in-headlights look for most of it, enjoyed waving to their supporters, and clapped a little too loudly when they didn't get it.

I realised that day that maybe I'm not a Rose. Maybe more of a bog rose, just a little too scraggly to fit the bill. I enjoyed the excuse to put on a long dress although wished I'd been more prepared.

Maybe I need to do more, see more and achieve more. The woman who won, Paula McPartland, is a worthy winner and exceedingly talented as a world champion Irish dancer.

For now it is back to my original Rose experience, safely on a couch with a tea, not a sash in sight. The main thing for me was seeing my family's reaction and two friends who raced from Dublin to support me.

And my Dad's yells of delight.. "You're a winner in my eyes", all hugs and laughs and fatherly pride. Well, that I wouldn't change.
Ericka Roe and Thommas Kane Byrne in Say Nothin To No One at Theatre Upstairs at Lanigan's on Eden Quay, Dublin. Photo: Babs Daly

Maria Guiver and Daniel Monaghan in Talk To Me Like The Rain at Bewleys Cafe Theatre @ Powerscourt. Photo: Tomasz Olejnik

Tennessee Williams was a master of desperation; at his best he turned it into a votive offering, the flame flickering through shades of recognition, from the stupidity of hope through to the acceptance of annihilation. And both extremes feature in the juxtaposition of This Property Is Condemned and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen when presented as a double bill.

The first dates from 1946, and offers the eerie sight of innocence already destroyed, as 13-year-old Willie longs to emulate her sister, dead from venereal disease contracted as a prostitute in the family "boarding house". It is long condemned, but Willie manages to live there in hiding, scavenging along the railway lines of the neighbourhood, and tantalising 16-year-old Tom, who has heard from a school friend that she is "available".

Now Willie's hope, as she parades in the dead Alva's tawdry finery, is that her erstwhile "suitor" will learn from Tom that she has a myriad of "gentlemen friends" who have moved on from Alva to her.

In the meantime, she wistfully notes that Alva's death wasn't like it is in the movies: there were no violins and flowers, and Alva's gentlemen friends had disappeared.

The hopelessly sly and knowing defiance is stomach-churning, and while Maria Guiver and Daniel Monaghan, both leggy and rather beautiful adults, aren't physically convincing, their emotional impact in the production at Bewley's Cafe Theatre in Dublin packs a devastating punch.

And it is even surpassed by their performances in Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen (from 1953) in which a drunk wakes up in a poverty-stricken bedroom, with only a vague recollection of how he got home.

Man's last memory is of waking in a flophouse, naked in a bath of ice cubes. Back home, his Woman has been existing for days on instant coffee, moving on to water when that ran out. She welcomes the privation, because hope is dead: her longing is for emptiness, years of living detached from reality until it is all over and she sinks beneath whatever waves engulf her. The two have nothing to give each other but the sound of the rain

The two are beautifully directed by Bairbre Ni Chaoimh, and if it is a depressing offering for summer lunchtime, the power of the two small masterpieces offered with such talent is pure joy.

There is an impressively adaptable set design by Seamus O'Rourke, with an evocative backdrop painted by Sandra Butler, with splendid lighting by Colm Maher and music by Jack Cawley.

*******

Yes, but why? Why would a gangland grandmother with access to the proceeds of a successful drug business, need to have her granddaughter's dress for First Communion nicked rather than bought?

And why would she pay over half the cost of the dress to the shoplifter commissioned to provide it, if he could be intimidated into stealing it in the first place? And anyway, is five grand the going rate for a dress for a six-year-old, even in a flash department store?

Video of the Day

And why and why and why?

Say Nothin' to No One sets out to be one of those searing excursions into the horror of deprived-suburb living in Dublin, culminating (inevitably) in graphic and ghastly tragedy. Except that it's overly contrived, involving a bottle of sulphuric acid handily to hand when...well, you can probably guess its use.

Then there's the complicated unravelling of paternity across the genders, an equally complicated explication of maternity to allow a young gay shoplifter to revere the granny who reared him, while being equally devoted to a former schoolfriend who apparently terrorises the entire neighbourhood through being unloved by her own mother. (The mother prefers her older sister, you see, so the young one beats up her sister, breaking her nose in the process. And so on...)

Writing gritty and gruesome is of course fashionable. It's also legitimate as a theatrical form. But it requires credibility at its base, and Thommas Kane Byrne's piece is, quite frankly, not credible. As a rollercoaster ride through late-teen angst and rebellion it's a non-runner, and the motif of it all happening due to the two young tearaways getting out of their depth over a wide-eyed desire to go to London (in the age of Ryanair?) also doesn't wash.

Sadly, the final note is that the author (who plays Cian) and Ericka Roe (who plays Charleigh) should both accept the fact that shouting your head off and throwing yourself around doesn't amount to acting.

Directed by Amilia Stewart, this Breadline Collective production is at Theatre Upstairs at Lanigan's on Eden Quay in Dublin.
One of the country's most well-known pub owners has passed away.

Nan Brennan passed away yesterday surrounded by her loving family, friends and neighbours, according to the Donegal Daily.

The much-loved publican ran Brennan's Criterion Bar in Bundoran with her sister Patricia.

The famous pub has remained the same in style and set-up since it was opened in the 1900s by the sisters' grandparents.

Brennan's Bar became a landmark spot in Donegal and beyond, and featured in a Guinness advert earlier this year.

According to one local photojournalist, the sisters "ran the bar by themselves often refusing an offer to help change a keg."

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Matt Britton paid tribute to Nan Brennan on Facebook, writing; "As news emerged this afternoon that Nan Brennan had passed away there was deep sadness not only in the town but throughout the country.

"Nan along with her sister Patricia ran the legendary Criterion Bar, simply known as "Brennan's" which became famous worldwide as perhaps one of the most genuine Irish bars in the country. Though both in their golden years the sisters ran the bar by themselves often refusing an offer to help change a keg.

Sad news this pm that Nan Brennan from Criterion Bar in Bundoran has died. A beautiful + absolute lady. Condolences to Patricia.#endofanera  Tracy Ferguson (@TracyJoyF) August 13, 2017

"Nan will be deeply missed by those who were privileged to know her. Deepest sympathies to Patricia and her extended family - Bundoran has lost a truly great woman."

Nan Brennan's death notice reads; "Nan, along with her sister Patricia, ran Brennan's Criterion Bar in Bundoran for a lifetime, this famous pub opened in the 1900s by the Brennan family and in all those years remained more or less the same, run by the two famous sisters, it became a landmark place in Bundoran, where customers both local and visiting were always sure of a warm and friendly welcome. Nan, along with her sister Patricia, are regarded as highly esteemed members of the community, and as her family prepare to say goodbye to their beloved sister, we as a community prepare to say goodbye to one of Bundoran's much loved citizens.

"A lady that will be sadly missed, but fondly remembered by all."

Nan's family have requested family flowers only, but have asked that donations if so desired go to the Renovation Fund at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Bundoran care of Conlan - Breslin Funerals, Bundoran.
Irish judges are dramatically overworked, causing long delays to cases, a High Court judge has said.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said Ireland is "rock bottom of the European league" in terms of judicial representation and ranks alongside Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia.

There are currently 163 judges to cover a population of 4.8 million people.

"As the adage has it, justice delayed is justice denied. But a hearing within a reasonable time is only possible if there are enough judges, relative to the amount of litigation being undertaken, to all capacity in the system to deal with all cases and appeal promptly," Mr Justice Humphreys told the Parnell Summer School in Wicklow.

He said there is a "temptation" to blame judges and lawyers for delays in the system but that "any given judge or court can only do so much".

"There is a wider systemic issue as to the need for the Oireachtas to provide adequate staffing levels for the court system, both in terms of judicial posts and in terms of support staff," he added.

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Council of Europe member states have an average of 210 professional judges per million.

"Ireland was in the unfortunate position of having only 30 judges per million, putting us rock bottom of the Council of Europe apart from the special case of the UK.

"Again to emphasise, that puts us not just at the bottom of the table but massively so by some multiples. The average number of professional judges in European countries is 700pc of the Irish figure per capita," the judge said.

Mr Humphreys urged the Government to increase the number of judges.
A patient allegedly threatened to kill a female GP after he became aggressive during a consultation.

Kevin Ryan (43) is also accused of threatening to burn down a health centre in west Dublin.

Judge David McHugh adjourned the case to a date next month.

The defendant, of River Road, Castleknock, appeared before Blanchardstown District Court, charged with making threats to kill or cause serious harm to a GP.

He is further charged with threatening to cause criminal damage.

The incident allegedly took place at Roselawn Health Centre in Blanchardstown last May 30.

Gda Sinead Rowe said Mr Ryan made no reply to the charge after caution and he was handed a true copy of the charge sheet.

The officer asked that bail be extended to the new sheet.

VERBAL

The court heard that the DPP had directed summary trial of the charges in the district court, where the penalties on conviction are less severe.

Outlining the allegation for jurisdiction purposes, Gda Rowe alleged that Mr Ryan was in a consultation with a female doctor when he became aggressive.

Gda Rowe alleged that Mr Ryan threatened to kill the doctor and said he then threatened to burn down the health centre.

Judge McHugh said he would accept jurisdiction to deal with the charges in the district court, after confirming that the allegation was "a verbal threat".

The judge ordered the disclosure of any documents, including statements, in relation to the allegations to Mr Ryan's legal team.

Defence solicitor Simon Fleming was assigned on free legal aid.

Mr Ryan has not yet indicated a plea to the charges.

He was remanded on continuing bail to appear before the court again next month.
TWO men have appeared in court charged with conspiracy to murder a Dublin man last week.

Stephen Dunne (38) and Gary Gleeson (34) are also charged with possession of a semi-automatic pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition.

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Free legal aid was deferred in the case of Mr Gleeson, after the court heard that he has assets of a Rolex watch, worth 4,000, an Audi, valued at 14,000 and an Astra, worth 500.

Detectives claimed that Mr Gleeson is not working, not claiming social welfare and "appears to be living beyond his means".

Mr Dunne is on disability, the court heard.

The two men were arrested after gardai from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) stopped and searched a van in south Dublin last week.

Judge Alan Mitchell remanded the men in custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court on Friday.

The men must apply to the High Court for bail on a conspiracy to commit murder charge.

Mr Dunne, with an address at Meile an Ri Drive in Lucan, and Mr Gleeson, of Muskerry Road in Ballyfermot, appeared before Dublin District Court charged with conspiracy to murder Dublin man Michael Frazer on dates between July 28 and August 7 last.

They are also charged with possession of a 9mm Luger semi-automatic pistol and 10 rounds of 9mm calibre Sellier and Bellot ammunition with intent to endanger life at Naas Road in Crumlin on August 7 last.

Detective Garda Jonathan Griffin from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau gave evidence of arresting Mr Dunne at Crumlin Garda Station on August 12.

Mr Gleeson was subsequently charged in Gda Griffin's presence by Sergeant Niall Bright at 8pm.

Gda Griffin said Mr Dunne was handed a true copy of the charge sheets and he made no reply to the charges after caution.

Mr Dunne's solicitor Michael French applied for legal aid for his client, telling the court that the accused is not working and is on disability.

Judge Mitchell assigned Mr French on free legal aid.

In relation to Mr Gleeson, Detective Garda Val Russell, also from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Unit, said the accused replied "no comment" after he was arrested at Crumlin Garda Station at 7.24pm on August 12.

Gda Russell said Mr Gleeson was subsequently charged in his presence by Sgt Bright at 7.51pm.

He was also handed a true copy of the charge sheets and made no reply after caution.

Mr Gleeson's solicitor Geraldine McKenzie applied for free legal aid.

Gda Russell said the accused is not working and is not claiming social welfare. He also said he "appears to be living beyond his means".

In a statement of means to apply for free legal aid, Mr Gleeson revealed he has assets of a Rolex watch, worth 4,000, an Audi of 14,000 and an Opel Astra, worth 500.

Judge Mitchell deferred legal aid, for "more information on the assets referred to in the statement of means".

Judge Mitchell remanded both men in custody until Friday for DPP's directions and possible further charges.

The judge said he noted that the matters were "serious charges".

Mr Dunne, who was wearing a pale grey tracksuit, and Mr Gleeson, who was wearing a salmon pink t-shirt, grey patterned hoodie and grey track bottoms, did not address the court during the short hearing.
A mother-of-two was jailed on Monday for three years for what a senior judge described as the "horrific'' killing of pensioner Eddie Girvan in Co Antrim last year.

Margaret Henderson-McCarroll (31), formerly of Verner Street, Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Girvan at his Greenisland home on January 18, 2017.

Passing sentence at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice Treacy said the defendant would serve a further three years on licence as part of the determinant custodial sentence.

He said that he agreed with two consultant forensic psychologists that Henderson-McCarroll did not meet the dangerous provisions and that she did not pose a "significant risk of serious harm to the public in the future''.

The judge told the court: "This was an horrific crime and the deceased must have suffered terribly.''

The prosecution accepted her guilty plea to the manslaughter of the 67-year-old former plumber on the grounds of "diminished responsibility''.

A defence QC had told a plea and sentence hearing in June this year that at the time of the manslaughter her life had descended into a "heroin hell'' following the cot death of her infant daughter.

He told the judge that at the time of the killing, the defendant had an addiction to opiates and that she and another inmate at Hydebank Wood prison in south Belfast were currently in the process of mounting a judicial review against the Northern Ireland Prison Service to receive "appropriate care by way of opiate substitute therapy medication'' which was not currently available in the jail.

He said that in 2012, Henderson-McCarroll had been clean of drugs while pregnant and remained clean from drugs following the birth of her daughter Lily Rose.

However, Mr McCrudden said that six weeks after her birth, Lily Rose had died as a result of a cot death which he said had a "catastrophic'' effect on the life of Henderson-McCarroll.

"She thought that the birth of her daughter would be a fresh start for her but her life fell apart following the death of Lily Rose and she started to inject herion.

"Her life descended in a heroin hell, buying drugs from these drugs gangs operating in south Belfast who were well known to police.''

The defence QC added that Henderson-McCarroll "defended herself'' when Mr Girvan came at her with a stick sword during a row, saying the murder was not "pre-planned or pre-meditated''.
Gardai are investigating if a member of a well known criminal family is responsible for the murder of Trevor Deely who went missing almost 17 years ago.

Detectives recently received information which alleges that Mr Deely, who was 22 when he disappeared in December 2000, was shot before his body was dumped in west Dublin.

A three-acre wooded site in the Chapelizod area has been sealed off to facilitate an extensive garda search.

The information was received from an informant in recent months, who has alleged that a well-known Crumlin criminal is responsible for Trevor's murder.

Doubts

However, senior sources last night stressed that there were "certain doubts" in the statements they have received, while adding that the information had to be acted upon.

"While there are certain doubts in this case, gardai were given an account of what happened to Mr Deely and where his remains were buried," a senior source said last night.

Mr Deely was last seen on the morning of December 8, 2000, in the Haddington Road area of the city centre.

The information recently passed to gardai was not as a result of their public appeal earlier this year.

The individual who has given information to gardai has not supplied any motive for the alleged murder of Mr Deely, but claimed that he was killed after having an interaction with the Crumlin criminal on the morning of his disappearance.

The alleged suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a well-known criminal who has been involved in various forms of criminality over decades.

He is a convicted drug dealer who has operated in the south inner city and south Dublin areas.

His family has also been involved in a litany of crimes, including firearms offences and the sale and supply of drugs.

Two of his siblings, who were involved in criminality, are now deceased.

Associates of the alleged suspect were involved in running street prostitution in the Baggot Street area at the time of Mr Deely's disappearance.

This criminal gang have also been investigated for the unsolved murder of 21-year-old prostitute Sinead Kelly in the same locality in June 1998.

Ms Kelly, from Santry in Dublin, was brutally stabbed to death on the banks of the Grand Canal off Baggot Street on June 22, 1998.

Gardai believe that she was murdered because she owed IR800 to a Dublin drug dealer.

Two files, one on him and one on the man whom detectives believe he hired to kill Ms Kelly, were sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

However, the DPP decided that there should be no prosecution in the case.

Speaking at the Chapelizod search site sealed off over the weekend, Det Insp Paul Costello said that gardai would be keeping an "open mind" as the examinations developed.

"The reason for this is because we're conducting a search over the coming days, searching for evidence connecting to the disappearance of Trevor Deely," he said.

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"I'd like to take this opportunity to appeal to anybody who has not come forward to contact us at Pearse Street Garda Station or on the Garda Confidential Line. You will appreciate that this is a very stressful time for the Deely family, and I'd ask that their privacy is respected."

Dedicated

A number of specialist garda units are also assisting with the search.

Mr Deely's case was never closed and a dedicated unit operating from Pearse Street was set up last December to carry out a complete review of his disappearance.

In April, newly-enhanced CCTV footage was released showing Mr Deely talking to a man dressed in black outside the Bank of Ireland on Baggot Street.

Detectives believe this was the same man captured on CCTV following Trevor along Haddington Road afterwards.

The individual has never come forward to make contact with gardai.

Reward

Crimestoppers said they are now reminding the public that the 100,000 reward being offered for information on Trevor Deelys disappearance is still available.

Crimestoppers Chairman Tim Dalton commented today; "Members of the public can call Crimestoppers on 1800 25 00 25. Calls to Crimestoppers are completely anonymous. Callers do not need to leave their name or address.

"Crimestoppers is offering a reward of up to 100,000 for information as to the whereabouts of Trevor Deely.

"This is a once-off amount that is being offered by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. It is completely separate from the reward system that Crimestoppers normally operates. The reward will be given at the discretion of the Gardai.

"The Crimestoppers concept is simple - the call is free, there is no need to give ones name, the phone is answered by specially trained Gardai. The Crimestoppers model is a well tried and well developed model in many countries."

The Crimestoppers number is 1800 250025.
A book of condolences was opened for John Nestor at Patrickswell National School

Tributes have been paid to a popular vice principal who died suddenly over the weekend.

John Nestor (50s) from Ballymore, Askeaton, Co Limerick passed away from a suspected heart attack on August 10.

Mr Nestor was the vice principal of Patrickswell National School and had spent his career teaching at the school.

The national school paid tribute to Mr Nestor by opening up a book of condolences.

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He is survived by his sister Angela, brothers Martin and Gerard, sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, nieces, nephews, aunt Helen, grandniece, cousins, relatives, friends, colleagues and pupils from Patrickswell National School.

Limerick Mayor Sean Lynch paid tribute to the much-loved vice principal saying that he was "an absolute gent".

"He steered so many kids in a fantastic direction and he was loved by everyone.

"He has left a huge legacy in the school and will be hard to replace a man of his high calibre."

Mr Lynch passed on his condolences to John Nestor's family and friends.

Requiem Mass for Mr Nestor will be held on Monday, August 14 at 2pm at St Mary's Church with burial afterwards in Reilig Mhuire Cemetery.
The body of a hiker has been recovered by emergency service workers on the Derryveagh Mountains in Co Donegal.

It is believed the man died as a result of a fall.

A spokesperson for Malin Head Coast Guard said that the man's body was found by members of the Rescue 118 helicopter team yesterday.

The man was reported missing on Saturday night after he failed to return from his hike.

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He was last seen on Thursday when he set out on his hike.

He had told friends that he had planned to trek through the Sliabh Sneachta area.

His car was found parked at Loch Barra on the western outskirts of Glenveagh National Park.

A major search was launched with members of Donegal Mountain Rescue, Sligo-Leitrim Mountain Rescue, North West Mountain Rescue and a Rescue 118 helicopter.

The body was located by the Coast Guard helicopter crew and the victim's location was reported to gardai.

Meanwhile, the search for a missing diver off the coast of Co Donegal is expected to continue today.

The diver, who is a Canadian national, was part of a group diving around 17 miles north of Fanad Head Lighthouse on Saturday.

The group was taking part in a 65-metre deep dive to shipwrecks.

Malin Head Coast Guard Station received contact that the diver was missing before 4pm on Saturday.

Both the Lough Swilly lifeboat and the Rescue 118 helicopter from Sligo, supported by a number of local boats, took part in the search for several hours.

The search was stood down as light faded on Saturday night but resumed again at 6am yesterday.

A specialist dive vessel arrived on site at 2pm yesterday and a number of divers searched the area where the missing diver was last seen.

A further dive, co-ordinated by the specialist vessel, was taking place yesterday evening.

Spokesman for the Lough Swilly RNLI lifeboat Joe Joyce confirmed search efforts are ongoing.
A disabled mother says she felt a "criminal would be treated better" after she was forced to leave her crying toddler behind on a Ryanair flight and the airline remove her electric wheelchair from a plane.

Danielle McGovern (33), from Ballinalack, Co Westmeath, had flown without issue from Dublin to Birmingham for a weekend family break.

But when she was sitting on the return flight home to Ireland, on bank holiday Monday, the mother-of-one said she was told her electric wheelchair would have to be removed from the plane.

The mother said she was first asked by a disability assistance staff member on board what wattage her chair was, as the pilot had expressed concerns.

Ms McGovern, who has cerebral palsy, said she told the staff member that she didn't know but that her wheelchair had a safe "dry" battery.

Her husband John looked up the wattage online and the couple said they gave the information to the pilot.

"We'd never been asked what the wattage was before on a flight and the only concern usually for flights is if it's a wet or dry battery," Ms McGovern said.

Ms McGovern said that she had filled out all the appropriate paperwork to get the wheelchair on the flight but she was given an ultimatum: stay on the plane without the chair or leave the aircraft.

"It was awful," Ms McGovern said. "I've never had an experience like it ... I felt like a criminal wouldn't be treated any worse. It all ended with me having to leave the flight in tears with my little boy crying, as he saw me leaving the plane.

"My husband John's wheelchair is manual and it was allowed to stay on the plane."

Boarding

She claimed airline staff had a boarding card ready for her to get on another Ryanair flight at the airport.

"How could I not get on the flight I was on but there was a boarding card waiting for me to go on another flight?"

Ms McGovern's sister Sharon Weldon said: "The way Ryanair treated my sister was appalling. I was furious."

A Ryanair spokesman said: "A customer on this flight from Birmingham to Dublin was asked to provide information relating to her wheelchair battery, in line with standard safety regulations, but was unable to do so in time for the flight departure. They were provided with refreshment vouchers and transferred free of charge on to the next available flight to Dublin (which departed two hours later).

"While we regret any inconvenience caused, the safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority."
MOTORISTS will be banned from taking a right-hand turn across OConnell Bridge from Bachelors Walk from next Sunday.

Dublin City Council has confirmed that new arrangements across the north and south quays will take effect from August 20, which will give priority to public transport, taxis and bicycles.

Lanes for general traffic will reduce to one lane from Upper Ormond Quay to Eden Quay on the northside, and from the Rosie Hackett Bridge to Wellington Quay on the southside. An additional bus lane will be provided.

New bus priority traffic signals on Bachelors Walk, some 100 metres before OConnell Bridge, will control traffic flows and give priority to public transport.

The city council said the changes were being introduced to reduce delays experienced by public transport users, and ensure that Luas Cross City is subject to minimal delays.

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Head of technical services, Brendan OBrien, said the changes would help minimise delays and allow freer movement of public transport across the city as the number of commuters rises.

The additional bus lanes will alleviate the difficulties faced by public transport on the quays, where the worst delays for buses in the city are experienced, he said. At the peak morning time of 8am to 9am, over 7,000 people travel along the north quays on buses. This compares to round 500 cars and the same number of cyclists.

The council hopes the permanent traffic changes will lead to an increase in the amount of people using public transport, while still allowing access to the quays for general traffic.

Donal Keating, Head of Operations, Dublin Bus said: Dublin Bus welcomes Dublin City Councils and the National Transport Authoritys new traffic arrangements on the north and south quays.

The additional bus priority is important for public transport and highlights the importance of buses in tackling congestion in the city centre. We carry 400,000 customers per day and these new traffic arrangements will ease traffic difficulties on the quays and help our customers avoid potential delays to their journeys.
A warning has been issued to residents in a Dublin estate after children were spotted collecting for a charity walk that doesn't exist.

Alan Hayes, who is a member of his local Neighbourhood Watch in Palmerstown and runs a Facebook page about local issues, said that the alleged scammers were spotted recently.

He said: "The kids are being sent around by their abusive parents who sit in cars and watch them do it.

"They are collecting money for a charity walk that isn't happening, claiming they are walking for Palmerstown Community & Youth Centre."

He continued: "We know it's a scam. For me, at the end of the day, these are kids who are being told to go out and do this. There are parents sitting in the cars.

"It is not always the same children but they are almost always the same age range, 11,12, 13 and usually girls. It always seems to be for a sponsored walk."

Mr Hayes put a note about this alleged scam on Facebook and was contacted by dozens of others who had spotted the same thing.

"This is something that I have witnessed first hand. It is a regular scam that I have seen not just in Palmerstown. It is also happening in Lucan and other parts of Dublin."

He said it is eroding local trust in charities.

"They are getting money from some houses. They are taking advantage of the good will of people in Palmerstown and they are denying legitimate charities the opportunity to collect."

He advises anyone uncertain about a door-to-door collector not to donate and to contact gardai if they believe the person asking for cash is not legitimate.

Anyone who spots the scammers is asked to contact gardai in Ballyfermot on 01-6667200 or Ronanstown on 01-6667700.
I'm a slow thinker, so I've continued to mull over the issue of gender that I wrote about last week on the foot of the Kevin Myers article suggesting women are paid less than men because they don't really deserve it. And something Myers said subsequently in an interview on Sean O'Rourke stayed with me.

He sounded quite shook up and genuinely contrite about his piece the previous week. He denied any possibility he was misogynistic and when O'Rourke read back some of his own words to him, saying - "this sounds like you think women are inferior to men" - he denied that was what his writing implied. O'Rourke read a part where Myers asked: "How many mathematicians or chess grandmasters were women?" And Myers responded by saying, "well how many are there? There's one in the top 100."

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That's what stayed with me. If one in 100 are women, and I don't think he's wrong, and if I don't accept the reason for that is that women are inherently stupid or worse at chess - indeed if our Leaving Cert is a measure of academic ability, girls are actually far more academically capable than boys - then what's the reason? There must be one. And I think it's this - expectations. The powerful bonds of other people's expectations are what drive almost all of us. It's the hold our parents have over us and our life decisions. The reason almost all of us homogeneously choose to finish education, get a job, marry, have children, buy a house. It's part of the reason that it's hard to come out as gay. It's one of the reasons women have to constantly defend themselves if they choose not to have children. Other people's expectations.

In an American study, the University of California found that one of the single biggest reasons people went to college was because their parents expected them to. The weight of other people's expectations weigh heavily on all of us and that's particularly true of women, who are often dependent on others and their continued approval.

If we bring it back to chess grandmasters - those who do succeed were likely introduced to chess very young, by others who were also very good at chess. A bright boy who joined such a circle might do well and could indeed end up a grandmaster. But how many little girls are ever introduced to chess at all?

Expectations of women usually extend to snaring a man and producing children. If they have a career, it's expected they will state very clearly that it is secondary in importance to their role as a mother. If they were to suggest otherwise, they are considered less commendable as a woman. I know only two things about Enid Blyton - one is she wrote loads of children's books, the other is that she was a bad mother. I know almost nothing about the parenting skills of any male writers apart from John Banville, who suggested no writers were good fathers as they were slaves to their art. But Blyton's reputation as a writer has always been undermined by her reputation as a mother.

The expectations around the social conformity of women are myriad. Women are perceived to be more successful if they're more attractive to men - hence the drive to be thinner, prettier, more vivacious. We strive to meet these expectations, often feeling crap about ourselves in their pursuit - as we fail to be thin, pretty or vivacious enough. The expectation that we will play chess is virtually non-existent. So even if we're highly intelligent, mathematical, logical types, it's entirely possible that no one will ever introduce us to a chess board.

I know that it has taken me 40-odd years to consider what I actually want in my life, rather than just doing what was expected of me. It isn't easy to buck the weight of people's expectations - especially when they're imposed on you by people you love. There are expectations around men's behaviours and life paths that they too conform to, often without thinking. The main difference is, they are things like they will be strong and independent, so perhaps it's no coincidence that their life paths differ from ours in that context.

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Becoming a landlord sounds like a major hassle at the best of times.

Even before you find a trustworthy tenant, there's the paperwork and regulations to get to grips with. And then somebody has to look after the upkeep of the property.

It doesn't sound like the type of project many people would want to take on from their nursing home.

Yet such is the housing crisis that in the Ireland of 2017 a minister's proposal to encourage older people in care to rent out their homes isn't outrageous.

Figures from Census 2016 reveal that more than 65,000 houses have been left empty since 2011. That's two years' supply of houses and apartments that lay idle while a homeless crisis of emergency proportions was developing.

In total it's believed there are around 200,000 vacant units nationwide, many in towns and cities where demand is highest.

There are no figures for how many of these belong to elderly people who have packed up and checked into a nursing home but Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy suspects it's an issue worth investigating. Most of us know a house that is empty because its former resident had to accept they could no longer live alone.

It's a complicated time in somebody's life. They have to admit to themselves they are not as independent as before. They have to accept it's better to leave behind a home full of memories. And then they have to physically make the move.

Often older people tell themselves it's just a temporary change until they get properly back on their feet.

Very few will think about how they can turn their vacant home into a cash cow, especially if they are signing up to Fair Deal. Under the scheme, the State heavily contributes towards the cost of your nursing home care but you must agree to hand over 80pc of your disposable income. That would include rental income.

If Mr Murphy succeeds in convincing the Department of Finance that such income should be exempt from Fair Deal, it will be some achievement.

The idea the State would subsidise your care while you rake in tens of thousands of euro in rent is hard to reconcile.

Yet even if Paschal Donohoe agrees with the Housing Minister that the need for supply justifies the idea, there will be more challenges. The elderly landlord will need help to get their house in order and ensure the tenant is living up to their side of the deal. In reality they will need a relative or friend to do the heavy lifting.

It sounds like a lot of hassle even if Mr Murphy is able to ensure there's a financial reward.

But the minister has to try. As one of Fine Gael's 'young guns' he has been handed the tough portfolio because Taoiseach Leo Varadkar rates him. His predecessor Simon Coveney launched the 'Rebuilding Ireland' plan with much fanfare. It was heavy on promises but people need to start seeing practical solutions.
One week after 9/11, Martin Amis minted the phrase "species shame" to express the totality of his revulsion. Sixteen years on, that phrase echoes with the ugly brutality of the neo-Nazis in Virginia who, in league with their presidential demigod, bring it storming back to mind.

You cannot divide them, those neo-Nazis and Trump, and not only because those with Hitler quotes on the back of T-shirts were chanting "Hail Trump" (as if using the English rather than German pronunciation would cunningly disguise their intent). You cannot divide them from Trump because Trump is their enabler, just as they are his.

Creatures like these existed long before Donald Trump launched his political career by questioning the birthplace of the African-American who preceded him. He didn't make them. He brought them back out of the shadows, into the light of the flaming cross.

Whether his hiring of Steve Bannon means he shares the Breitbart ghoul's white supremacist world view isn't clear, though I slightly doubt it. Evidently, he is at the very least a casual racist. No one who wasn't would dream of making Jeff Sessions the US Attorney General. But Trump has no belief in anything other than the glorification of Trump, and white supremacy qualifies as a belief.

Being elected president is the high point of that glorification, of course, and to achieve that he needed the unreconstructed racists. No one knows how large a bloc that is. But at 9am yesterday, beneath Breitbart's report on the terrorist atrocity in Charlottesville were more than 52,000 messages - the massive majority joining Trump in declining directly to criticise those neo-Nazis in general, or specifically the man suspected of driving into anti-fascist protesters.

You can't glibly extrapolate that into anything like a precise number of American white supremacists, but you may assume from it that there are many, many millions, perhaps tens of millions, without whose support Trump would have no hope whatsoever of extending the glorification with re-election in 2020.

Which is the more repulsive - someone who genuinely admires Hitler, or someone who cynically courts that person for electoral advantage - is impossible to say when the choice is too bleak to contemplate. In this dark fairytale of the indescribable led by the unspeakable, they are all in it together. Time and again over the last two years, pundits have gazed in awe at a Trump outrage and declared the beginning of his end. Each time we have forgotten or wilfully ignored something far more chilling than the present nuclear brinkmanship with North Korea.

This is exactly what many millions of Americans want. They hunger and thirst for it. Some waited decades for the tangerine deus ex machina to descend on the Trump Tower escalator to make them feel better about hating brown and black-skinned people, Jews and gays. Some are too young to feel the phantom limb pain from losing Jim Crow, like the 20-year-old suspected of driving into those peaceably protesting the statue of the confederate general Robert E Lee.

In January, days before taking his oath of office, Trump spoke with his trademark insincerity about the document he was about to swear to protect. "I feel very strongly about our Constitution," he told Fox News. "I'm proud of it, I love it."

It hardly needs stating that the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech exercised in Charlottesville by a young woman at the time of her death. The time for painfully obvious observations about Trump has long since passed.

But one part of the Constitution for which he has discernible affection, in so far as it motivates the base, is the part known as America's Original Sin: that line about calculating an enslaved black person as having three fifths the value of a white.

By using his silence to enable, encourage and collude with those to whom that valuation is too generous, Trump's calculation is that it is to his electoral advantage to rally his troops behind General Lee's standard, and fight a modern version of the Civil War. ( London Independent News Service)
A "comfort women" statue is seen on a bus in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2017. Five buses installed with "comfort women" statues will be put into operation from Aug.14 to Sept. 30 to commemorate the ladies who were used as sexual slaves during the Second World War and remind people of that very history. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)
John Burke and Aoibhin Garrihy at the 2015 People of the Year Awards organised by Rehab and held in RTE. Picture: Robbie Reynolds

Acting is one of the world's most uncertain professions; nevertheless, its inherent vagaries have taught Aoibhin Garrihy numerous valuable life lessons: how to cope with stress, the importance of self care, and, not least, the importance of diversification - she recently graced our screens on RTE's Dancing With The Stars; she runs wellness workshops for women, and she's now the face of Knight & Day jewellery's Autumn 2017 collection, which is featured on our pages today.

"My career is so unstable and uncertain," Aoibhin says. "If you're not looking after yourself, you can fall into a real rut. Acting can be tough - it's not great for your mental health. So you need to find coping mechanisms. Waiting for the phone to ring is a horrible thing."

For Aoibhin, who is married to Clare hotelier John Burke, it was a case of identifying what was getting her down. "Saying, 'Look, this isn't making me happy. I need to find other outlets, and put my attention elsewhere. And put life first'. It didn't make career sense for me to move to Clare [where John is based]. But I knew that when I'd get on that Naas Road, that was probably when I was happiest. And I was in denial about that for a long time.

"A lot of people were saying, 'Oh god, you're really throwing in the towel. What are you doing?'"

Expand Close John Burke and Aoibhin Garrihy at the 2015 People of the Year Awards organised by Rehab and held in RTE. Picture: Robbie Reynolds / Facebook

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In fact, Aoibhin says, she was giving herself the chance to explore other avenues. "I think you need to be open-minded about certain things." The Castleknock native also recently dabbled in mountaineering when she accompanied her husband John to Everest Base Camp. He went on to summit Everest, becoming the first Clare man to reach the peak. The gruelling ascent fulfilled a long-held dream for John, and his momentous feat was also completed in aid of the couple's new charity, Elevate, more of which anon. The climb was completed over two months ago now, but you sense that for Aoibhin, things are only just settling down. It has been an intense period for the couple. Her popular turn on Dancing With The Stars was glamorous and fun, but also involved gruelling training of up to eight hours a day, seven days a week.

Aoibhin then accompanied John to Everest's Base Camp, before heading home to keep vigil, while he ascended. At one point, news broke of another hugely experienced climber having died on the mountain.

Aoibhin recalls: "This came through when I hadn't been speaking to John for a few days. You feel utterly helpless. That was one of the toughest moments. I ended up going into the Poor Clares in Ennis.

"I knew one of the nuns there, Sister Bernadine, had a nephew who climbed Everest a few years ago, and I knew she'd understand. She diffused my mad state when I went into her."

Expand Close Aoibhin Garrihy for Life Magazine, Sunday Independent. Image: Kip Carroll. Body, 49.95, H&M. Skirt, 39.95, Carraig Donn. Necklace, 54.95; ring, 24.95, both Knight & Day / Facebook

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As John made the final ascent, Aoibhin was able to monitor his progress with a tracker. Three hours before the summit, the signal was lost. "I knew that could happen," she says. "But it was tough for it to stop, and that was it then, for three hours, in the middle of the night."

Balance, she laughs, has been lacking in their lives for the past few months."I made a conscious decision that I was going to take June off, and spend it with him," she says. Much of that time was spent touring schools, giving talks about John's Everest experience. It set the tone for the work the couple are now doing with their new charity, Elevate.

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Elevate will offer wellness workshops to young people, initially in schools throughout Co Clare, from September. Courses will utilise the creative arts and mindfulness, and will also highlight coping strategies in relation to the pressures social media can impose on young people today.

"It's about encouraging young people to look after themselves," Aoibhin explains. "John's family was affected very deeply by a mental-health tragedy. I suppose he's witnessed it first-hand - the devastation that can be caused to families. I think we all need to keep ourselves in check. For John, the mountains were his outlet."

Expand Close Aoibhin Garrihy judged the Best Dressed Lady contest at the Galway Races this week. Photo: Tony Gavin / Facebook

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John has worked in the family businesses - Hotel Doolin and the Armada Hotel - since the age of 21. "It's high intensity, and you don't ever really switch off from it," Aoibhin reflects.

"It can be stressful. It was John's late 20s before he discovered he loved getting out on the hills. So his message in talking to a lot of young people when he came back was, it's never too late to find what you're good at. And there's something for everyone. I think that resonates with a lot of people. Especially in rural Ireland, where the amenities are just not there, and it might take someone a little bit longer to find what they love."

The last few months have allowed little room for the kinds of things Aoibhin has learned are essential to ensure a sense of contentment. "Luckily, I've kind of had the best of both worlds, in the sense that city life and work can be full-on, but then I have that outlet of running away to the country," she smiles.

"I didn't have that for the past few months, and I'm getting back into it. I'm really making a conscious decision to do what keeps me happy. Self-care is becoming more of a priority. I've just turned 30, and I think we need to mind ourselves a little bit more."

Expand Close Aoibhin Garrihy dancing a Foxtrot with Kai Widdrington on Dancing with the Stars / Facebook

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Diversifying her career is one of the things making Aoibhin happy, and her natural, unfussy beauty has found a perfect match with the Irish jewellery range Knight & Day. Now in its 10th year of business, owner Olive Hughes is, this season, taking the line in a new direction.

Moving away from sterling silver and more dramatic pieces, the emphasis is now on delicate pieces that also work well layered together. Costume jewellery, Olive terms it. "I would have gone for pieces that were quite different, initially," Olive explains. "At the moment, I've moved more towards a look of fine jewellery, in elegance and size. There's a general move in jewellery towards a more classic, minimalist look."

It's certainly true that we have reached peak statement-piece, and Knight & Day's autumn/winter collection reflects that general trend for a move towards a fine-jewellery look. "The pieces are small, with an emphasis on design," Olive explains. "It's a more understated look."

As the name Knight & Day reflects, this is jewellery that can be worn at any time, so a full-length necklace comes with an adjustable slider, meaning it can be worn at various heights, and works equally well on its own or layered with other pieces for dramatic impact.

Stars, in crystal and black, as well as geometric shapes, are used throughout, and can be worn separately, as just an earring set or necklace, or layered up.

"I have a lot of layering in the collection," says Olive. It was Aoibhin's performance on Dancing With The Stars that made Olive realise the actress was a perfect fit for the brand. "She has that natural beauty that fits in with the look we have this season."

Expand Close Aoibhin Garrihy welcomes home husband John Burke. Picture: Arthur Ellis / Facebook

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"I don't heavily dress up my jewels," reflects Aoibhin herself, who admits to spending as much time as possible on the beach, walking her dogs. "This collection suits me in that sense. It ties in with my lifestyle now."

Photography by Kip Carroll

Styling by Liadan Hynes

Words by Liadan Hynes

Fashion edited by Constance Harris
Argentinian hunter was among a group tracking a herd in Namibia

An elephant has trampled and killed an Argentinian hunter who was among a group tracking a herd in Namibia.

Local media reported that 46-year-old Jose Monzalvez was killed on Saturday afternoon in a private wildlife area 43 miles north-west of the small town of Kalkfeld.

Mr Monzalvez, who worked for an oil company, was with another Argentinian and three Namibians when he was killed.

One of the elephants is reported to have charged before the group was able to shoot.

Relatives have been informed of Mr Monzalvez's death.
The father of one of the participants in Saturdays white nationalist rally in Charlottesville has publicly disowned his son in an open letter.

Pearce Tefft, whose son Pete was among a group of white supremacists who marched in Virginia, said his son is no longer welcome at family gatherings unless he renounces his hateful beliefs.

I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my sons vile, hateful, and racist rhetoric and actions, Tefft wrote in an open letter on Inforum.

I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender, and creed.

I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same, he continued.

Tefft who is from Fargo in North Dakota, said he does not specifically know where his son learned these beliefs.

My son is not welcome at our family gatherings any longer, he wrote. I pray my prodigal son will renounce his hateful beliefs and return home.

The younger Tefft was photographed at the Charlottesville rally which swiftly turned violent on Saturday.

The son has previously admitted he is 100 per cent pro-white.

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Writing in an open letter on InForum before the Unite the Right march, the younger Tefft said: There was a time when I could see why pro-White speech was considered taboo; however, the left is now censoring something as banal as economic conservative speech through platform denial and even violent intimidation.

Being that the majority of conservatives are white, its crucial we advocate for our civil rights.

Maybe they secretly know we are correct but, in any case, if the right and its constituents dont speak up with an effective message its over for us thanks to the lefts plan for demographic displacement.

Other relatives of Pete Tefft are also publicly disavowing him, with his nephew Jacob Scott giving a statement to local station WDAY TV, saying: Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy nazi.

He scares us all, we dont feel safe around him, and we dont know how he came to be this way.

My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though he has failed as a father.
A string of Australian politicians have been rushing to check their citizenship status in recent weeks, as a constitutional rule which forbids dual nationality threatens their eligibility.

Section 44 of the nations constitution prohibits dual citizens from standing for election in the House of Representatives or the Senate.

Yet shockingly, in the midst of the fiasco stands Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister, who has been confirmed as a New Zealand citizen.

Some Twitter users wasted no time in mocking Joyces oversight.

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Former Green MP Scott Ludlam, who stood down after it was revealed he was born in New Zealand, chimed in with a friendly greeting.

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Twitter user Daniel Carosome pointed to Australias ban on same-sex marriage.

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Joyce told Parliament of his shock at finding out about his Kiwi citizenship, after he was contacted by the New Zealand High Commission. His nationality was confirmed by New Zealand PM Bill English on Monday.

Although he was born in Australia, it is believed his father was New Zealand-born. He is now taking his case to the High Court but remains in his post following legal counsel  a move which has been criticised by some.

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The constitution states that anyone who is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power  shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.

The 116-year-old rule is no joke: three MPs have been forced out of their jobs, including Green Party MP Larissa Waters, along with Ludlam, and Joyces colleague Matt Canavan, who holds Italian and Australian citizenship.

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Waters has since renounced her Canadian citizenship.

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Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull posted proof last month that he had renounced his British citizenship.

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But the future of the Australian government hangs in the balance as its majority of one is threatened by Joyces potential resignation.

Some 28.5% of Australian residents (6.9 million people) were born overseas, including 25 federal MPs, according to last years figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The latest attack brings back painful memories of a January 2016 attack at another cafe that killed 30 people

Suspected Islamic extremists have attacked a Turkish restaurant popular with foreigners in Burkina Faso's capital, killing at least 18 people.

It is the second such attack on a restaurant in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours of Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication minister Remi Dandjinou said at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll.

The victims were of several different nationalities, he said, including at least one French citizen.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armoured vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upmarket restaurant in Ouagadougou.

The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in west Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun.

But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly home grown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalised and has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians.

His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.
Danish police say they found nobody in the wreck of a home-made submarine owned by an inventor charged with the manslaughter of a woman who had been on board.

But they believe the vessel was deliberately sunk.

Police have said that Swedish journalist Kim Wall (30) is missing after taking a ride on Peter Madsen's homemade 17-metre sub, which sank on Friday morning.

Mr Madsen was rescued by the navy.

Mr Madsen (46) has been ordered to be held in custody for 24 days, accused of Ms Wall's manslaughter.

The vessel was recovered on Saturday from Koge Bay, south of Copenhagen, where it had been lying at a depth of seven metres, and taken into harbour. Police searched it late on Saturday and early yesterday.

"There are no persons in the submarine, dead or alive," revealed Jens Moller, head of Copenhagen Police's homicide unit.

But he said it appeared to have been deliberately scuttled, and was still being treated as a possible crime scene.

Mr Madsen, an entrepreneur, artist, submarine builder and aerospace engineer, went before a judge on Saturday behind closed doors for preliminary questioning. His defence lawyer Betina Hald Engmark said he denied the charges.

Police said on Friday the inventor had told them he dropped Ms Wall off from his submarine in Copenhagen on Thursday night. Yesterday, they said they had since been given another explanation by Mr Madsen, but declined to elaborate.

Police in Sweden said they had tried without success to contact Ms Wall by phone and that her family had not heard from her.

The submarine, UC3 Nautilus, is one of three constructed by Mr Madsen. It can carry eight people.
Police officers block the road approaching the scene of the incident. (AP)

A man who may have been trying to kill himself has rammed his car into a pizzeria east of Paris, killing a 13-year-old girl and injuring her younger brother and at least 11 others, authorities said.

The driver was immediately arrested. Police said the man's actions in the town of Sept-Sorts were deliberate, but not thought to be terrorism-related.

The 13-year-old girl and her brother were among the restaurant customers eating on the outdoor terrace of Pizzeria Cesena when a man in a BMW accelerated toward them, an official with the national gendarme service said.

The girl died immediately, while the boy's injuries are considered life-threatening, the official said.

At least three others were taken to hospital in a serious condition, and eight more sustained light injuries, said the official.

The incident reignited fears in France after a string of attacks in which a vehicle was used as a weapon.

An Algerian man drove his car into a group of French soldiers last week, and an Islamic extremist truck attack in the French city of Nice left 86 people dead a little more than a year ago.

The man arrested in Monday's attack is thought to have tried to kill himself last week, French Interior Ministry Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television.

Mr Brandet said the man, born in 1985, was not known to intelligence or police. He did not identify him.

Two police officials said the incident is considered over and authorities are not searching for accomplices, but to find out what motivated the driver.

A judicial official said on Monday night that the Paris prosecutor's office, which oversees French terrorism investigations, was not involved in the case because there was no proof of terrorism at this stage.

A security official echoed that there was no evidence of a political or Islamic extremist motive.

The targeted pizzeria is in a shopping area in the town of Sept-Sorts about 40 miles east of Paris near Champagne country.

Police cordoned off a large perimeter of the area.

AP
Photo taken on Aug. 13, 2017 shows the flooded river in Lalitpur, Nepal. Floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall since Friday have killed at least 40 people in Nepal by Sunday afternoon, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs. (Xinhua)

Floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall since Friday have killed at 40 people in Nepal by Sunday afternoon, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

At least 36 persons others have gone missing in the disaster in the low-lying areas, over 20 have been injured and thousands of families have been displaced.

In a latest tragedy, a pregnant woman, 27-year-old Sharmila Yadav, in labor pain along with five other family members who were in the same jeep died on her way to the hospital after the vehicle plunged into the floodwater in Nepal's eastern district Rautahat on Sunday morning.

Police recovered six bodies in total including that of her husband Chandan Kishor Yadav, three-year-old daughter Choti Kumar Yadav, mother-in-law, aunt and brother-in-law from the flooded highway.

The Yadav family was rushing towards the hospital located at Rajpur in the India-bordering district after the pregnant woman complained of labor pain.

Home ministry has mentioned that plain districts Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Dang and Banke districts are most affected by floods. The water level in many rivers has crossed the danger mark and changed their course, with a threat to houses and livelihood.

Security agencies including Nepal Police, Nepal Army and Armed Police force have been mobilized in Terai districts for the relief and rescue operation.

On Sunday, Home Minister Janardan Sharma inspected the flooded region and directed the concerned agencies to expedite the rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, many highway bridges which serve as the lifeline of the entire country have been damaged, obstructing the vehicular movement for relief and rescue programs. In many places, helicopters have been failing to operate due to bad weather.

The Meteorological Forecasting Division has forecast that monsoon would remain active across the country for the next few days.
People watch army soldiers and rescue workers recover bodies of landslide victims in Urla village, Himachal Pradesh state, India (AP)

At least 173 people have died and millions more have been displaced across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh after heavy monsoon rains unleashed landslides and floods.

Officials are still trying to determine the scale of the disaster, as weather forecasters predicted more rain for some areas and casualties were reported in multiple locations across the Himalayan foothills of South Asia.

Nepalese police are searching for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to police.

Many of those killed had drowned or been caught in collapsed houses or crushed underneath toppled trees.

The floods destroyed key rice crops in Nepal and drove thousands of farmers and their families to take refuge in schools or tents on higher ground, as water submerged roads and cut transport to affected areas.

Near the Nepalese village of Kunauli, on the border with India, people were sheltering in tents pitched along the main highway after the land on both sides became inundated.

Electricity and mobile phone services were cut off. Soldiers passed out clean water, grain and rice, which people were cooking on small, paraffin-fuelled stoves.

However, aid workers said some did not have enough food or water.

"The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop," Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for the US-based anti-poverty charity Heifer International, said.

"Making matters worse, large numbers of livestock have been swept away in the flash flooding."

Across Nepal's southern border, flooding swamped seven districts in the Indian state of Bihar and left more than half a million people homeless.

Officials said two people had also died.

Landslides and flooding are common across South Asia during the summer monsoon season, and have become more dangerous thanks to widespread deforestation and poor urban planning which makes it harder for the land to absorb rainfall.

Bangladesh was bracing for worse flooding on Monday, as weather forecasters predicted more rain.

At least 18 major rivers are flowing at dangerously high levels, according to the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.

Twenty-seven people have been killed over the last few days in the low-lying delta nation, while another 600,000 are marooned, according to Bangladesh's disaster management minister, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury.

Around 368,000 people have taken refuge in more than 970 makeshift government shelters, he said.

Bangladeshi soldiers were working to evacuate those who were stranded on rooftops or in trees, after floodwaters inundated hundreds of northern villages.

In the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes.

Officials said that at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps, and that 18 people had been killed.

With railway lines inundated, the remote region was largely cut off from the rest of the country.

Indian air force helicopters are dropping food and drinking water packets in the worst-hit districts, said Assam's chief secretary, VK Pipersenia.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said he was in contact with Assam's authorities.

He said on Twitter: "All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state."

Most of Assam's Kaziranga National Park was also underwater, forcing many of the wildlife reserve's endangered rhinos and deer to move to higher ground.

Dozens of deer were killed by cars after they leaped onto a nearby highway to escape the floods.

Farther to the west, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, soldiers recovered the bodies of 46 people who had been travelling in two buses buried in a massive landslide of rocks and mud on Sunday.

AP
Barack Obama's message of unity after a far-right, white supremacist event in Virginia descended into deadly violence has become the third most liked tweet in history - and prompted renewed pining for the former president.

Speaking after a car hit a crowd of anti-fascist protesters, killing one, Mr Obama chose to quote iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela.

His tweeted, posted alongside an image of the former US leader speaking to No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, they can be taught to love. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.

For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

With over 2.2 million likes, the quote follows Ariana Grandes tweet about the Manchester bombing (first) and Elene Degeneres' iconic Bradley Cooper Oscars selfie (second) according to online service Favstar, which tracks Twitter and Twitter usage.

His comments have also been shared more than one million times, with many people mourning the fact that he is no longer leader of the free world.

One wrote: We miss you. We are in hell. We didnt vote for this monster! Please please help us. I know youre respecting the office but the fate of the world  the world you live in too  is at stake!

Another wrote: This guy played a big role in USA, long live MR President.

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

God bless you President Obama! Your legacy can never be erased because no trump or party can remove love & respect from hearts of people," a third lamented.

President Donald Trump on the other hand, has been criticised for not condemning white supremacists as the source of the troubles in Charlottesville.

"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love..."  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

"...For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson Mandela  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

In a press conference, he offered condolences to the family of 32-year-old Heather Heter, who was killed when a suspected Neo-Nazi ploughed his car into peaceful demonstrators.

He said: We want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville. And we want to study it. And we want to see what were doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.

"My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens. But our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another.

"We must love each other, respect each other and cherish our history and our future together."

Michael Skolnik, an entrepreneur, said: Donald Trump will not condemn the Nazis directly. He will not condemn white supremacy directly. That should tell you enough.

(Independent.co.uk)
Katana Richley (13) has been named by her parents as one of the two victims

Two girls aged 12 and 13 were killed after a car driven by a 14-year-old boy crashed while he was reportedly being chased by police in Woodward, Oklahoma.

The boys mother said he was on a three-day break from a home for troubled youths when he stole his grandmothers car and picked up the victims and two other boys.

According to the accident report, the boy was trying to outrun police when the car flipped over, ejecting three of the five passengers who were not wearing seatbelts.

Katana Richley (13) has been named as one of the victims. Her parents said she had left the family home without permission.

We're pretty sick. We're pretty upset, heartbroken, just trying to figure it all out, said Katanas mother, Shyila Clugston.

She added: She was a very bright child. She was a good girl. She was just rebellious.

[Katana and her friend] were supposed to be spending the night at my house. And then they snuck out of my house and met up with them at Wal-Mart, said her father, Jason Richey.

The young driver has appeared in a juvenile court charged with two counts of manslaughter.

The boys mother, April Carmen, said: He regrets it. And he wants, he wants it to be him instead of them. He didn't do it on purpose.

He said he was scared. He said he didn't mean to miss the stoplight. He was just so scared. He didn't want to get locked up. He wanted to go back to the Boy's Ranch."

A police officer said he was trying to get the car to pull over after the driver ran through a stop sign just before 1am.

The driver, who escaped with minor injuries, and one of the male passengers, were both wearing seatbelts, according to the accident report.

The two other boys in the car, a 2009 Chevy Impala, were taken to hospital and were reported to be in a stable condition.

A full police investigation into the exact circumstances of the crash was underway.

District Attorney Chris Boring said the case would not be heard in public, as it involves juveniles.
A fugitive Romanian businessman sentenced to seven years in prison for real estate fraud has been detained in London.

Gabriel Popoviciu, who was sentenced on August 2 in Bucharest, turned himself in after Romanian police located him in London, Romanian authorities said.

Romania's justice minister Tudorel Toader said it would start extradition proceedings.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that officers from its extradition unit arrested Popoviciu. He was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court later in the day.

Prosecutors said Popoviciu, 58, obtained land in north Bucharest from a state university at a vastly undervalued price and used it to build the capital's best-known mall. The High Court for Cassation and Justice sentenced him for illegally acquiring the land from 2000 to 2004. He denied wrongdoing.

The ex-rector of the University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Nicolae Alecu, was sentenced in the same case to six years in prison for official misconduct.

AP
General Joseph Dunford told South Korean allies that the US is ready to defend itself and its allies from any North Korean provocation (AP)

America's top military officer has told his counterparts in South Korea that the United States is ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities to defend itself and its allies from any North Korean provocation.

Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting South Korea, Japan and China after a week in which President Donald Trump traded threats with North Korea.

Mr Trump had declared the US military "locked and loaded" and said he was ready to unleash "fire and fury" if North Korea continues to threaten America.

North Korea, meanwhile, has threatened to fire four intermediate-range missiles into the waters near Guam, a tiny US territory about 2,000 miles from Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.

This would be a deeply provocative act, from the US perspective, and there has been widespread debate about whether Washington would try to shoot the missiles down if they are launched.

The US-North Korean stand-off, which has simmered since the end of the Korean War in 1953, has grown more tense in recent months over worries that the North's nuclear weapons programme is nearing the ability to target the US mainland.

Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.

Gen Dunford, who met with senior South Korean military officials and President Moon Jae-in, "stressed that North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs threaten the entire global community," according to US military spokesman Captain Darryn James.

"He conveyed America's readiness to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the US homeland," Capt James said.

Mr Moon separately called for a peaceful solution to the nuclear stand-off, saying that "there must not be another war on the Korean Peninsula".

In a meeting with top aides at the presidential Blue House, Mr Moon said South Korea would work to safeguard peace on the peninsula in co-operation with the United States and other countries.

Mr Moon said North Korea must stop issuing menacing statements.

North Korea, which is angry over new United Nations sanctions condemning its rapidly developing nuclear and missile programme, continued its tough stance on Monday.

The North accused the US of mobilising a huge number of weapons and troops for annual military drills with South Korea that begin later this month.

Pyongyang, which claims the drills are war preparation, said it will be ready to send its Guam missile launch plan to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for approval just before the drills begin.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said: "What matters is that if a second conflict (on the peninsula) erupts, that cannot help but lead to a nuclear war.

"We are closely monitoring every move by the United States."

The commentary said that about 3.5 million young students and workers have volunteered to join or rejoin the army because of a possible confrontation with the United States.

Gen Dunford earlier told reporters that he aims to "sense what the temperature is in the region". He also will discuss military options in the event the "diplomatic and economic pressurisation campaign" fails.

He said: "We're all looking to get out of this situation without a war."

Chinese president Xi Jinping talked to Mr Trump by telephone this weekend and called for cool-headedness.

Mr Xi urged Washington and Pyongyang to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

Mr Trump has pushed China, North Korea's biggest economic partner and source of aid, to do more to stop the North's nuclear ambitions. Beijing insists its influence on Pyongyang is limited.

The US leader's recent threats followed a report that US intelligence indicates North Korea can now put a nuclear warhead on its long-range missiles.

For all his bluster, Mr Trump's words did not appear to be backed by significant military mobilisation on either side of the Pacific, and an important, quiet diplomatic channel remains open.

On Sunday, CIA director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt.Gen HR McMaster, Mr Trump's national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Mr Trump's tough talk.

They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

AP
RALEIGH: Albemarle Corporation, a global specialty chemicals company, will add 200 jobs in North Carolina, Governor Cooper announced today. In Cleveland County, the company will add 170 new jobs and invest $10.5 million over five years with a project facilitated in part by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG). The company also plans to continue to grow its corporate headquarters in Charlotte by adding 30 jobs and plans to increase its investment in Cleveland County to a total of $20 million.

North Carolina continues to be a leader in the chemical science industry because of our world-class workforce, said Governor Cooper. Albemarle Corporations decision to expand in North Carolina bolsters this thriving industry in our state.

Albemarle Corporation is a global specialty chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine and refining catalysts. Albemarle Corporation products power critical industries, from energy and communications, to transportation and electronics. The company currently has approximately 150 employees at its Kings Mountain operations center and approximately 130 employees at its Charlotte corporate headquarters.

Albemarle Corporation is a global leader and has made the right decision to expand in North Carolina, said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Anthony M. Copeland. I know Albemarle Corporation will continue to succeed with this expansion in Cleveland County.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. (EDPNC) led the states support for the companys expansion.

Albemarle Corporation will add a variety of job functions in Cleveland County with this project, including operations and engineering services. Salaries for the 170 new Cleveland County positions will vary, with an average salary of $78,225, once all positions are filled. The average salary in Cleveland County is $36,576.

Albemarle is pleased to build upon our recent corporate headquarters relocation to Charlotte and invest in expanding our footprint in Kings Mountain, said Luke Kissam, Albemarles Chairman, President and CEO. The functions we are adding at Kings Mountain will enable us to grow key business functions that support current global operations and position Albemarle to pursue future growth opportunities. We appreciate the strong support of the state of North Carolina, City of Kings Mountain and Cleveland County for this project.

Albemarle Corporations expansion in Cleveland County will be facilitated, in part, by a JDIG, approved by the states Economic Investment Committee earlier today. Over the course of the five-year term of this grant, the project will grow the states economy by an estimated $390 million. Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $4.3 million, spread over 12 years. State payments only occur following performance verification by N.C. Commerce and N.C. Revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets. JDIG projects result in positive net tax revenue to the state treasury, even after taking into consideration the grants reimbursement payments to a given company.

Because Albemarle Corporation chose to expand its existing operations in Cleveland County, the companys JDIG agreement also calls for moving as much as $479,300 into the states Industrial Development Fund  Utility Account. The Utility Account helps rural communities finance necessary infrastructure upgrades to attract future business. Even when new jobs are created in a Tier 2 county such as Cleveland, the new tax revenue generated through JDIG grants helps communities across the state. More information on the states economic tier designations is available here.

We welcome Albemarle Corporation's expansion here in Cleveland County," said Senator Warren Daniel. "These jobs and capital investment are a significant boost for our economy. Albemarle's success will yield great dividends for our workers and our community."

"I am excited to welcome Albemarles expansion in Cleveland County, said House Speaker Tim Moore. The North Carolina House is committed to providing an excellent business climate and economic investment tools that attract high-quality jobs like these to our local communities.

Our regions skilled workforce and economic infrastructure continue to attract well-paying opportunities like the Albemarle expansion, which represents a more than $10 million investment and 200 new jobs, said Rep. Kelly Hastings of Cleveland and Gaston counties.

Partnering with N.C. Commerce and the EDPNC on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, Gardner-Webb University, the City of Kings Mountain, Cleveland County and the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership.
There are now two early colleges in the Cabarrus County Schools district, Early College of Technology and Cabarrus Kannapolis Early College.

Carla Black, principal of Cabarrus Kannapolis Early College, said the first week was a blast filled with fun projects, visits from graduates and hard work from her amazing staff.

They love these kids and each other, Black said of her staff. They work as a team on everything and set such a great example for our diverse community of learners. They make this school what it is.
Jay, Inca, Boston, Vegas, Kane and Tokyo rushed over to the gate and lined up. A hand reached into the pile of tongues, tails and paws and pulled two dogs out of the pen. The pair wriggled with excitement as volunteers led them out for a stroll around a lake at Soi Dog Foundation in Thailand.

During the outing on a recent afternoon, the dogs stretched their legs, sniffed the plants and eyed the resident duck. But the walk also had another purpose: The street dogs needed to learn how to be pets, an important step as they moved from a life outdoors to the animal shelter to a permanent home, often in the United States.

On Aug. 19, the world will observe International Homeless Animals' Day, or IHAD. The International Society for Animal Rights created the event in 1992 to raise awareness about the millions of cats and dogs - like Jay, Inca, Boston, Vegas, Kane and Tokyo - that don't have a home or a human family to care for them. On this day, rescue centers, shelters and animal-welfare groups in more than 50 countries have organized such activities as dog dock diving, a dog/owner look-alike contest and pet photo shoots.

"Children can participate in IHAD by walking shelter dogs, grooming shelter animals and spending time with them," said Susan Dapsis, president of the International Society for Animal Rights. "This will bring much happiness to the animals and prepare them for their journey to a new home."

Of course, organizations and individuals devote their time and resources to stray animals every day of the year. At Soi Dog Foundation, on the tropical island of Phuket in Thailand, volunteers and staff members work with dogs and cats that have never eaten out of a bowl, worn a collar or curled up on a couch. To become adoptable, the animals need to learn such basic skills as how to bond with people and, for dogs, how to walk on a leash.

"The dogs will pull you in the lake if you're not careful," Soi Dog volunteer Ian Munday said during a guided tour of the facility.

Fortunately, many of the more than 560 dogs and 200 cats living at the shelter are quick learners.

On a hot day in early July, a kitten plopped down in a volunteer's lap as if it were a beanbag chair. A kitty with a black mustache played patty-cake with a guest's toes. In an outdoor dog run, an 8-month-old named Goody stood on her hind legs and opened her paws, as if asking for a hug. Marie-Ann, a chubby beagle, rolled on her back, hoping for a belly rub.

After a quick dip in a plastic pool, Chloe pranced over, her beige fur coat beaded with water. Her brother, Yoda, bounded after her. A few weeks later, the siblings would fly to Washington, D.C., just in time to celebrate International Homeless Animals' Day in their new homes.

---

DO SOMETHING

Make every day International Homeless Animals' Day by helping stray dogs and cats in your neighborhood or around the world. Here are a few suggestions:

- Volunteer at a local animal shelter or rescue center. Duties might include walking, playing with and grooming the dogs. At some organizations, such as the Baltimore Humane Society and the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, you can read to a dog or cat.

- If you are on vacation, such as in Thailand or Mexico, take a break from sightseeing and volunteer at a local shelter. If you are too young to volunteer, see if the staff leads tours so that you can learn about how they help animals.

- Lead a donation drive. Shelters always need food, cat litter, toys, treats and more. Make colorful posters to promote your event. Ask local businesses and your school if you can post your signs inside. Or pin a notice on a community bulletin board.

- If your parents approve, post a photo of a dog or cat in need of a home on Facebook or Instagram. (Contact a local shelter for cute candidates.) Or make fliers with photos of the animals and display them in your neighborhood. Include the name, age and gender of the dog or cat, plus the contact information of the animal shelter in charge of the adoption.

- Pay to sponsor a dog or cat in a shelter. At Soi Dog Foundation, you can pick your dog - Dreambun, Genius or Jamie, for example - and receive updates on your "pet."

- If you see a wounded or sick stray, snap a photo and note the location. Then reach out to an animal rescue league for help. Remember to never approach an unfamiliar animal.
Top U.S. general reassures South Korea in a visit to Seoul

The U.S.'s top general reassured South Korea that President Donald Trump is making a diplomatic solution to tensions with North Korea his priority, as administration officials sought to tamp down fears of imminent nuclear war.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to protect South Korea after a meeting with President Moon Jae-in, spokesman Park Su-hyun told reporters in Seoul on Monday. "Dunford told Moon everyone hopes to resolve the current situation without going to war," Park said.

While a U.S. military spokesman said Dunford "affirmed the ironclad commitment of the U.S. to the alliance" with South Korea, he indicated the general also made clear during his meetings in Seoul that military action against North Korea remains a possibility. "He conveyed America's readiness to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the U.S. homeland," Captain Darryn James said in a statement.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said in separate Sunday talk show appearances that there's no indication war will break out. Like Dunford, they walked a fine line in backing Trump's tough talk directed at Pyongyang, but not wanting to raise the alarm at home.

The comments suggest at least a temporary halt in the war of words between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which sparked fears of a miscalculation that could lead to an actual military conflict. Global stocks gained and volatility receded as the prospect of war between the U.S. and North Korea appeared to cool.

"I've heard folks talking about that we're on the cusp of a nuclear war," Pompeo said on "Fox News Sunday." "I've seen no intelligence that would indicate that we're in that place today."

Pompeo said that U.S. intelligence has a "pretty good idea" about North Korea's near-term intentions after monitoring recent intercontinental missile tests and the country's improved ability to manufacture nuclear weapons.

McMaster, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said, "We're not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago."

Following Trump's vow to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea, Kim's regime threatened to fire four Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan into waters near Guam, home to U.S. military bases in the region. The U.S. and its allies warned Kim against such a move, and Japan deployed four Patriot missile interceptors into the western part of the country.

Some analysts expect further escalation in the coming days as both North and South Korea celebrate the Aug. 15 anniversary of the end of Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula, and the latter conducts joint military exercises with the U.S. from Aug. 21. Japan is also holding annual military drills with the U.S. over the next few weeks.

The U.S. hasn't taken any public steps to prepare for hostilities, including evacuating Americans from Seoul, which is within range of North Korean artillery, or moving ships, aircraft or troops into position for an imminent response. The U.S. has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

Pompeo and McMaster defended Trump's sometimes personal message aimed at Kim.

Trump "made clear that the United States will not tolerate our citizens or our allies being threatened by this rogue regime," McMaster said. "Our response is we are prepared militarily to deal with this if necessary."

Pompeo said Trump's comments were designed to send an unambiguous message to the country that it needs to disarm its nuclear weapons and that the U.S. won't tolerate a first strike. When asked whether he was confident Kim would heed that message, he said: "It's a very difficult situation in North Korea."

Some former military and intelligence officials questioned whether the harsh rhetoric from the Trump administration is the right approach.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that it was unclear what would set off Kim. While Trump's goal of North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons may be appealing, it's unrealistic, Clapper said.

"That is their ticket to survival, and I don't see any way that they're going to give it up," he said. "Our thought process here ought to be on accepting it and trying to cap it or control it."

- With assistance from Gao Yuan Janet Ong Reinie Booysen Heejin Kim Nafeesa Syeed Kenneth Pringle Min Jeong Lee Takashi Amano Justin Blum Alan Levin Ben Brody Peter Pae and Tony Capaccio

nkorea-bg

Washington Post News Service (DC)

8/14/2017 12:30:31 PM Central Daylight Time
Trump trade push on China faces test as IP takes spotlight

President Donald Trump may be finding out that taking on China over trade is harder than it looks.

The White House is stepping up pressure over perceived intellectual-property abuses, and the administration has in recent days proposed fresh duties on imports of China's aluminum foil products. But gaining real leverage is proving elusive, as deep trade links mean that bold sanctions risk backfiring and targeted ones may end up yielding little.

The bid to use trade probes as a weapon may turn out to be less effective than using the tools of the World Trade Organization. Landing a blow against China would also be more complicated if the U.S. chooses to target sectors where the countries are connected along global supply chains, which make up a most of their bilateral trade.

"Trump really doesn't have many cards in his hand," said Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. He said the two economies are so closely linked that it's difficult for the U.S. to find a specific industry to assail without triggering repercussions from China.

On Saturday, administration officials said Trump will direct U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday to consider investigating China's IP policies, especially the practice of forcing U.S. companies operating in China to transfer technological know-how. If China is found to be flouting rules, the administration's options include imposing import tariffs, officials said. If USTR moves forward, the investigation could take as long as a year.

Read More: Trump Is Said Ready to Turn Up China Heat Over IP Transfers

The latest move, opening a new front of trade friction even as the countries try to work together to contain North Korea's nuclear threat, would possibly end up as just another example to show how trade policy isn't as simple as it sounds.

Chinese media poured cold water on the Trump administration tactics. Economic Daily, a state-run news paper under China's State Council, the cabinet, said in a Monday editorial that the intellectual-property probe will do more harm than good, whether it is being used as a new policy approach or negotiation tactic. It argued the two sides should explore new trade territory through negotiations to address the imbalance.

Trump's move to link trade with the North Korea issue will only "exacerbate the country's economic woes, and poison the overall China-U.S.relationship," the state-run English newspaper China Daily wrote in a commentary titled "Trump asking too much from Beijing on peninsula issue" on Monday.

The timing of the IP probe announcement was interesting, as it came after the phone call between Xi and Trump on North Korea, Jiang Shan, a former U.S. trade official at the Ministry of Commerce, said by WeChat. "Trump is again waving the stick to push for his 'deal', testing how China would respond. In the end, the two sides would go back to the negotiation table as always, both stepping back a little, and finding a way to pass this phase."

Liu Li-gang, chief China economist at Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong, said the countries are complementary in many sectors, especially those related to technology. Trade restrictions in such areas, whether higher tariffs or intellectual property probes, would therefore hurt American companies and the country's economy, he said.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration blames China's excess capacity of the metals for a global glut that's undermining U.S. producers. Yet steel and aluminum industries are hardly weak points for China, where most production is sold at home. Steel and aluminum shipments make up only 3.5 percent of total exports, and account for just 0.7 percent of gross domestic product, according to Fielding Chen, an economist at Bloomberg Intelligence in Hong Kong.

Even if the Trump administration "does decide to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, the most widely discussed measures, the impact on China's growth would likely be limited because they make up only a sliver of China's exports and GDP," Chen wrote in a recent note.

The U.S. aluminum foil production industry accounts for $6.8 billion in economic activity annually, according to a statement from the Aluminum Association, a trade group. That works out to less than 0.0004 percent of GDP.

The U.S. said last week it would seek to impose duties on aluminum foil imports from China, arguing that subsidies for the domestic industry unfairly disadvantage American producers. China can turn to the WTO after Commerce delivers its final ruling on the case in October.

trade-china

Washington Post News Service (DC)

8/14/2017 12:25:35 PM Central Daylight Time
Many of us have a 401-k plan, a pension or private investment portfolio. We often seek investment advice from stock brokers, money managers, newsletters, tips from friends or our own research, but none of us has a $93 billion investment portfolio like the Teachers and State Employees Retirement Fund, overseen by the State Treasurer of North Carolina.

Andrew Silton, former chief investment officer for the states pension fund, recently wrote an op-ed piece in which he advocated removing the sole investment authority from the Treasurer and vesting that responsibility with a board of trustees.

No one can argue that having one person with the ultimate decision-making authority for $93 billion is an awesome responsibility, but when you flesh out the concept of establishing a board of trustees to make investment decisions you can get into deep weeds quickly.

Would this board consist of full-time employees? If not, who would be chosen? Ideally you would desire that any trustee be someone with a great understanding about markets, investment categories, historical performance and persons who could assess risk potentials, rates of return and trends. Few laypersons would qualify and those with the requisite expertise would likely be private sector investment professionals. Conflict of interest risks, as well as the potential for undue political or other pressure could call into question decisions that were made.

If the board consisted of full-time professionals there would be further complications. Trustees, in good faith, should place their own investments in trust and sever any relationships with financial managers, so as to eliminate conflicts of interest or undue influence. Compensation would be problematic. Most willing to leave the private sector would demand high compensation packages. The recently departed chief investment officer for the state pension fund earned almost $400,000, one of the highest paid state employees. Perhaps each member of the board of trustees would not require such a large amount, but most anyone with the experience and expertise required would be making salaries greater than the Governor, Treasurer and all but a handful of state employees. Those salaries and the additional expenses incurred would be deducted from the investment returns earned. And what would happen when these trustees disagreed about investment decisions, as they no doubt would? Who would be the final decision maker?

Finally, there is the issue of accountability. When any committee makes decisions no one person can be held accountable. The State Treasurer, elected statewide, is currently personally accountable and can be removed by voters if not making good decisions.

When I served as Harlan Boyles Assistant Treasurer we examined other public pension funds to determine if any had a superior approach to North Carolinas. At the end of our study we concluded that our investment approach, while not perfect, was better than any we could find. There were no conflicts of interest, no corruption and as little politics involved in decision-making as could be found in any other state.

North Carolina has been fortunate that our State Treasurers have acted responsibly, avoided undue risks and have protected the retirements of current and retired state employees. Our current approach could possibly be improved, but changes must be carefully considered so as to avoid the traps many public pension plans have encountered.

Tom Campbell is former assistant North Carolina State Treasurer and is creator/host of NC SPIN, a weekly statewide television discussion of NC issues. Show airs in Charlotte on WCCB Sundays at 6:30 a.m.
GST Council finalizes e-way bill

At its 20th meeting held on August 5, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council approved the electronic way (e-way) bill, which mandates pre-registration of goods before transportation.

The e-way bill, which is likely to come into force by October 1, 2017, would be applicable for consignments worth more than US$780 (Rs 50,000) only. The Council has decided that the e-way bill will not apply to the inter-city movement of goods within 10 kilometers distance, as well as on items exempted from the GST.

The introduction of the e-way bill is expected to significantly reduce wait times at checkpoints, and will streamline the transportation process. The bill would be valid for a period between one day and 20 days, depending on the distance to be traveled.

RELATED: Tax Compliance Advisory

Revised GST rates on services

The GST Council, in its August 5 meeting, revised rates for 19 services and certain goods. Some of the revised rates are given below:

Job work for the entire value chain of textiles sector, including embroidery and weaving, will be subject to tax at 5 percent instead of 18 percent, to allow a seamless flow of credit;

Tractor parts will be taxed at a reduced rate of 18 percent instead of 28 percent; and

The rate for government works contract will be 12 percent with benefits of input tax credit.

Besides, rates on other services, including rent-a-car and job works in newspaper printing, were also reduced.

The next GST Council meeting is expected to be scheduled on September 9, 2017, where the rate of tax on several other items will be discussed and decided.

RELATED: GST in India: Key Terms and Concepts

CBDT issues clarification regarding non-resident tax filing

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued a clarification regarding the new provision in the Income Tax Return 2 form (ITR-2) that requires non-residents to disclose their foreign bank account details.

In its statement, the CBDT has clarified that it is not mandatory for non-residents to furnish their foreign bank account details in the ITR-2 form. The provision is only meant for non-residents who do not have a bank account in India and wish to claim income tax refund. Until last year, there was no such provision available for non-residents not having bank accounts in India, to receive refunds in foreign banks accounts.

Non-residents who do not wish to claim tax refunds or those who wish to claim tax refunds but have a bank account in India are not required to disclose their overseas bank account in the ITR-2 form.

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There was a time when Nawazuddin Siddiqui was barred from performing Ram Leela. He was all set to perform at his village in Budhana, but because Shiva Sena had raised an objection over he being a Muslim portraying a Hindu figure, he couldnt perform and was disappointed.

My childhood dream could not come true, but will definitely be a part of Ramleela next year.

Check the rehearsals. pic.twitter.com/euOYSgsm3F  Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) October 6, 2016

But now that his son Yaani Siddiqui got a chance to play the role of Krishna in a function, he was beaming with happiness and shared the same on Twitter. Not only that, he also thanked the school for giving his son this beautiful opportunity on Janmashtami.

I am glad to the school of my kid . Who gave him an opportunity to play the character of " natkhat nandlala" pic.twitter.com/pJ9V1MHffX  Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) August 13, 2017

In the recent time, Nawaz has been making headlines for all the discrimination he has faced in the industry. One of the casting directors reportedly made a racist comment against the actor, to which he replied with modesty on Twitter.

Later, Nawaz also opened up upon how he has been facing racial comments since the time he first thought that he would venture into the world of acting. But again, he says, he remains unfazed.

(Also Read: Nawazuddin Thanks Casting Director For His Racist Remark, Says He Doesnt Give A Damn About It)

Just keep doing the good work, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. People criticise anything and everything at all the times.
In one of the more deadly infectious attacks that the country witnesses every year, over 70 children succumbed to the lethal encephalitis virus at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur over the last five days.

alayam.com

The Baba Raghav Das Hospital Medical College Hospital has been at the helm of most encephalitis outbreaks that occur every year in the state of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). In a sorry state of affairs, some of the children admitted to the hospital died due to the lack of oxygen supply!

In fact, according to a report by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the first traces of encephalitis was recognised in 1955 in Tamil Nadu. Since 1972 the disease has spread to other regions, including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Pondicherry and Karnataka.

indianexpress.com

UP remains to be one of the hardest hit states by the disease. According to a report by the Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), there are been 26,686 cases of encephalitis between 2010 and 2017 in UP.

What is encephalitis and why is it so deadly?

Encephalitis is described as an inflammation of brain tissues, which is caused by viral infections, bacteria or fungi. The disease leads to a host of symptoms including fever, headache, stiff neck, vomiting, exhaustion, fever, confusion, drowsiness, hallucinations, coma, seizures, irritability, unconsciousness, disorientation and death. Inability to treat it within the first few hours increases the chances of death by around 30 percent.

hindustantimes.com

There are two types of Encephalitis that have been taking the lives of children in Gorakhpur, Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE).

According to the report by the Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), out of the reported cases 24,668 cases were related to AES and 2,018 were to JE.

AES can be caused by a wide range of factors including toxins from unripe lychee fruits, viruses, bacteria, fungi that originate from different strains of bacteria that are difficult to identify.

pratidintime.com

JE, on the other hand, is spread through the bite of infected mosquitoes of the Culex family and is related to dengue, chikungunya, bacteria such a streptococcus and West Nile virus that often lead to seizures.

What does the diagnosis involve?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that diagnosis for a patient suffering from an altered mental status with or without a seizure should be first tested for Japanese encephalitis. If the results are negative then it would be tested for AES.

newsfolo.com

Although ECGs, CT scans and MRIs can detect changes in the structure of your brain to help determine what kind of virus you have and blood tests can reveal the type of virus causing the AEC can be chaotic.

According to the WHO, around 100 pathogens can trigger AEC and around a three dozen can be narrowed down to India, which makes the diagnosis vague for AES, reported the Fountain Ink in a report.

Although the Japanese Encephalitis virus is of the most common viruses it accounts for less than a quarter of all reported cases in India, which explains why the number of AES cases are significantly higher than reported number of JE cases, states the report.

firstpost.com

61-year-old Ravi Vasanthapuram, a neurovirologist at NIMHANS calls AES a dustbin diagnosis; a label he uses to file every reported case of encephalitis for which you cant find an exact cause. For around 80 per cent of the patients who come here, we cant give a proper diagnosis, says Mahima Mittal, head of the department of paediatrics at the Baba Raghav Das Hospital (BRD), as stated in the report.

Is it treatable?

Since most types of encephalitis show similar symptoms, not only is difficult diagnose but also challenging to treat. A report from The New York Times stated that the Viral forms of encephalitis are not treatable. The idea is to diagnose symptoms being caused by the disease and provide medication accordingly.

sfgate.com

Antiviral medicines such as acyclovir and corticosteroids to reduce brain inflammation are prescribed during infectious cases of encephalitis.

In severe cases of infection, the patient can even be put on mechanical ventilation to assist them in breathing. Anticonvulsants and sedatives are used for patients suffering from seizures.

livemint.com

Instead of treating or along with the treatment of encephalitis doctors recommend measures to offer relief while the patient fights off the virus. This includes rest, lukewarm sponge baths and plenty of fluids (through IV if required).

Can encephalitis be prevented?

Although encephalitis isnt always preventable, you can protect yourself from the onset by getting vaccinated. This includes getting vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella.

asianage.com

Its also important to protect yourself from getting bitten by mosquitoes carrying the disease. Use repellent creams and cover yourself well to prevent getting bitten while moving out into mosquito-ridden areas.
As the floods situation worsens in multiple Indian states, the heroes of the National Disaster Relief Management (NDRF) bring relief efforts to rescue the affected.

AFP

The rescue and relief operations are in top form as more and more teams are deployed in the flood-hit regions. 10 NDRF teams were sent to Bihar where the rains caused the water level in rivers and tributaries to rise, flooding the northern part of the state.

The districts affected in Bihar include Supaul, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Betiah, Motihari, Purnia, Kishanganj, and Dedarganj. Four more teams of the NDRF are being airlifted from Bhuwneshwar in Odisha to Purnia in Bihar.

AFP

17 teams are catering to the flood-affected regions in Assam. Yesterday, the teams saved 249 people at Kokrajhar, 50 at Bonganigaon, and 108 at Biswanath.

In Tripura, the NDRF heroes have rescued 23 and evacuated 970 people. In West Bengal, 12 teams have been deployed where several teams in West Medinipur distributed 1,000 water pouches and other material to the victims.

PTI

Two NDRF teams are working effortlessly at the Padhar area in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh to search for and rescue any survivors of the landslide mishap.

The NDRF has also released a helpline number to help the victims contact the authorities at 9711077372. The agency's headquarters in New Delhi is closely monitoring the situation.
A herd of white-lipped deer feed on a slope in Baizha Forest Farm in Nangqen county, Qinghai province. WANGKA NYIMA/FOR CHINA DAILY

Imagine a place where, as an amateur nature lover, you have chance to see 17 species of mammals, 94 different kinds of birds and 230 types of plants in just four days.

It might seem like an impossible task, especially for anyone who is not a professional scientific researcher.

But that's exactly what those who took part in the 2017 Nangqen International Wildlife Watch Festival did, with many of their sightings substantiated by photographic evidence.

The event, held between July 20 and 23 in Nangqen county, part of Qinghai province's Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, was organized by the county government and Shanshui Conservation Center, a nonprofit organization based in Beijing.

Its stated aim: to celebrate the rich biodiversity of this unique part of China.

Hidden away in the border area between Qinghai, the Tibet autonomous region and Sichuan province, and about a four-hour bus ride from Yushu city, Nangqen offers a diverse habitat of grassland, forested hills and high mountains that provide sanctuary for a host of different species.

Some are endemic, like the Tibetan buntinga sparrow-sized bird that lives among bushes at an altitude of 4,000 meters or more in restricted areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateauand the magpie-sized Tibetan babax, which can be found in the area's hillside woods.

Nangqen is also known for some of the highest densities of large predators in the country, including the Eurasian lynx, Asian brown bears, wolves and elusive snow leopards.

For the festival, more than 50 wildlife enthusiasts from across China, Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States formed 17 teams and competed to see who could photograph the most species. The contest area mainly ranged from their base camp at 3,800 meters to 5,000 meterswell above the tree line.

Members of the local Tibetan community were hired as drivers, guides and to run the campsite where the participants stayed.

According to professor Lu Zhi, a conservation biologist from Peking University and a member of the festival's panel of judges, the area's rich biodiversity can be attributed to the locals' traditional awareness of ecological conservation. She said she expects the festival to help further promote a mode of development that prioritizes community-based nature experiences.

Terry Townshend, another of the judges and a conservationist from the UK, said on his English-language blog Birding Beijing that the festival was the best wildlife-watching event he had taken part in, demonstrating "citizen science at its best".

All of the photos chosen for this story were taken by the festival participants during the event.
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The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has condemned reports credited to the so-called Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators of its plan to attack oil facilities.

The PANDEFs condemnation came in a statement by its Coordinating Secretary, Dr. Alfred Mulade, on Sunday in Warri.

He said there was no basis for the threat by the faceless group adding that the statement was most irresponsible, and should be discountenanced.

According to Mulade, PANDEF met recently with the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on a number of problems bedeviling the Niger Delta region.

He wondered why some elements would want to truncate good efforts made so far by the forum for the attainment of peace and sustainable development in the oil-rich region.

He said the Forum had scheduled a meeting with relevant stakeholders in the next few days to discuss the various agreements reached with the acting President.

PANDEF condemns a media report credited to certain faceless Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators planned attacks of oil facilities by September 10, and asking Northerners and Yorubas to quit the Niger Delta Region before October 1, 2017.

This call is coming at a time when PANDEF leadership and stakeholders had a very useful meeting with Acting President, Prof. Osinbajo few days ago at the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Niger Delta.

Indeed, this group should know that there is no basis for this kind of action; it is most irresponsible, and should be discountenanced.

PANDEF therefore wishes to advise all law abiding persons from any section of the country, irrespective of tribe or political affiliation, to remain calm, and go about their lawful endeavours, Mulade said.

He urged the Niger Delta people to remain calm, patient and patriotic.

Source:( PM News )
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has embarked on an indefinite strike across the nation. This was revealed in a document titled: Strike Bulletin No.1, which was signed and issued by Ogunyemi, ASUU said the strike action was to be a total, comprehensive and indefinite action whereby no form of academic activities including teaching, attendance of any meeting, conduct and supervision of any examination at any level, supervision of project or thesis at any level should take place at any of the nations universities.

The unions President, Biodun Ogunyemi, declared the strike after deliberations at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the University of Abuja during the weekend.
Idara Inokon, Miss Nigeria USA contestant representing Akwa Ibom, has emerged winner of Miss Nigeria USA 2017 beauty pageant held on Saturday night into early Sunday morning in New York.

Idara, who was crowned by the former holder of the title, Miss Lola Adeoye, beat 13 other contestants to emerge winner.

The new Miss Nigeria USA, who was the fourth to be crowned in the pageant, carted home $10,000 in prizes, according to Ms Joy Fakhoury, the organisers of the annual beauty pageant.

She would also embark on a pet project that would impact on the less privileged back home in Nigeria.

Each of the contestants represented her culture in the pageant that was meant to promote the richness of Nigerian culture, the diversity of its people, the beauty and intellect of the Nigerian lady and to promote togetherness and unity among Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Miss Ondo  Ayoyemi Ajimatanrareje, emerged the First Runner-up, Miss Lagos  Susan Adeyemi, emerged the Second Runner-up, while Miss Rivers, Lucy Edosomwan, emerged Miss Congeniality, in the keenly contested pageant.

The contestants were tested on intelligence, carriage, beauty, knowledge about Nigeria, Nigerian culture, and planned contributions to Nigeria through a pet project during their reign.

Judges said that they had a hard time determining the winners as all the contestants performed outstandingly.

Fourteen contestants made the finals on Saturday. They were: Miss Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Rivers States.

The new Miss Nigeria USA expressed surprise at her emergence, pledging to devote her reign to impacting the lives of the less privileged in Nigeria.

I was very surprised, I felt very shaky in the whole competition, you know how nerves get to you but I just said Idara, whatever the outcome, you did your best and so I went out with a smile.

I see it as a moment to share women empowerment and to represent my culture, which is a perfect opportunity. I really want to start to get to work to see how I can serve my community.

My platform is to create awareness on prevention. As a registered nurse, I do health education on a daily basis.

It is something I am very passionate about and I believe that if people are educated about their health, they can live healthier lives. So that would be what I would pursue during my reign, she said.

Inokon, a registered nurse in the U.S., and born to a Nigerian father from Akwa Ibom, graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science and Psychology.

She also attended the Accelerated Nursing Programme at the University of Delaware and graduated in 2014. She is now a Masters Student in Family Nursing.

The event was attended by many Nigerians across the U.S.

Some Africans and others also attended the event.

NAN
Kayode Salako, husband of popular Yoruba actress Foluke Daramola, took to social media recently to criticize Charly Boy for his involvement in the resume or resign protest in Abuja demanding for the return of President Buhari from his ongoing medical trip to London. Salako questioned why Charly Boy, who he described as bored, did not organize any protests against the former government as they reportedly looted Nigeria without conscience.

There are intelligent and necessary protests, this one is unnecessary and unintelligent. May be the organisers are just bored and have nothing serious to do with their time at the moment. I think Charlie Boy is bored and needs a bit of more government attention or patronage. It is not all protests which makes sense. This one does not and sounds as if it is a piece of politically motivated social exercise just to kill bordomness and, may be, test his social relevance. Protests and rallies are necessary tools in social democratic engineering and re-engineering, but this one Charlie Boy is running is unnecessary, not well thought out and belittling of the age and education, while I know that what is personality is, does not matter any way, I think he is simply bored. At his age, he should be bored. When an active and troublesome man like him is over 60, that tendencies to be bored is inevitable or how many rallies and protests did he lead, organise or take part in when the immediate past government looted Nigeria without conscience and ran her like an animal farm?

Our social psyche as a people has been deliberately so affected and damaged by the political class that, up till now, many Nigerians wont even be able to know when they see the same good government and good governance they desire and clamor for any more. The same Charlie Boys who hobnobbed and drove the immediate past government who looted and ran Nigeria like an animal kingdom is the same man who is now coming out to keep protesting against this very responsible and disciplined government. I insist, on this protest, Charlie Boy is not doing it for the people ,but his own self seeking purpose or may be bordomness. He is merely protesting against a man who has not committed any offense against the constitution upon which our democracy runs. So, this Charlie Boys protest is unnecessary, unintelligent and uncalled for. I feel he is simply bored and needs attention just the way our grand parents agitate for it when they are bored, he said.
A former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said some of the projects that constituted the Paris Club debt were dubious and fraudulent.

Mr. Obasanjo also explained why he headhunted Nigerias immediate past finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who also held that role during his administration.

He made this known in his new book titled Making Africa Work, launched recently in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The book was co-authored by the former president and three others  Greg Mills, Director of Brenthurst Foundation; Jeffrey Herbst, President of NEWSEUM and Dickie Davis, a retired major general.

Mr. Obasanjo governed the nation as a democratically elected leader between 1999 and 2007.

According to the former president, on assumption of office, he realised that some of the projects that constituted Nigerias accumulated debt of $30 billion were dubious.

On assumption of office as president, I discovered that the accumulated debt of Nigeria to the Paris Club was some $30 billion. Some of the projects that constituted the debt were dubious, if not outright fraudulent, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

One typical example was a turn-key project for $8 million where the money was drawn out with no site clearance let alone the foundation being laid. And yet, there was a video of the purported commissioning of the project. This happened in Enugu state, one of the 36 states in Nigeria.

Obviously, it involved collusion and corruption between the state government and the lender and promoter of the project. All the same, the loan was a commitment and it had to be repaid. Such had become the practice of Nigerian debt to the international community.

Mr. Obasanjo explained further that he did not waste time on the merit or demerit and impropriety of any of the projects, which previous governments had accepted and on which interests and penalties were already being paid in the event of failure to meet interest payments.

I concentrated on seeking debt relief from the governments of creditor countries, which have bound themselves together as a cartel in what they called the Paris Club.

Nigeria was spending almost $3 billion annually to service all its debt. This was a heavy burden on the economy of the country. Yet, a failure to service the debt would incur penalties.

The most sustainable and prudent course was negotiation. But what sort of negotiation? Previous administrations had negotiated postponement of repayment and servicing terms, which kept increasing the quantum of debt, making it more and more burdensome and unbearable, especially with the price of a barrel of oil below $10 when I assumed office in 1999, he wrote.

The former president said he embarked on shuttle diplomacy, to clean up the image and perception of Nigeria in the eyes of the world and to seek debt relief.

I visited most Western capitals to present anew Nigerias case. One such visit was to Washington DC where I met President Clinton and the president of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn.

I raised the issue of debt relief with both of them and asked Jim for both support and advice. He advised that Nigeria should urgently embark on a comprehensive reform to impress its creditors. If Nigeria was doing well in its economic reform and management, it would get the World Banks support, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

Explaining further, he noted that the advice constituted his marching orders, which led to his decision to headhunt Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank.

In my first term, from 1999 to 2003, I visited many countries and world leaders, some more than once, to campaign for debt relief. There I got apparently sympathetic hearings, but not much action from political leaders.

After my first term, I realized that my talks at the highest political levels needed follow-up at the levels below. So, I head-hunted Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank, appointing her as Nigerias Minister of Finance.

My plan was that she would manage the follow-up at a lower level. Even then, the fact that Nigeria was the sixth largest oil-producing country in the world was regularly used as the reason to deny debt relief. I would then explain that Nigerias population of almost 150 million at the time and its stage of development should justify such relief.

The former president described the Paris Club debt relief as a breakthrough, which he said enabled Nigeria to negotiate debt relief from other creditors.

In the end, Nigeria obtained debt relief of about $18 billion and paid up about $12 billion to rid itself of this burden. It was a great breakthrough and the consequent savings were channelled to the Millennium Development Goals, one of the promises made to the creditors, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

With debt relief having been agreed by the Paris Club, Nigeria was in a strong position to negotiate debt relief from other creditors too.

Source:( Premium Times )
Childhood

I was born and brought up in the Surulere area of Lagos. My childhood was fun because I come from a comfortable family. We were not too rich but we were far from being broke.

Education

I attended Olu Abiodun Nursery and Primary School, Lagos, for my elementary education. For my post-elementary education, I went to Barachel Model College, Lagos. I also did a six-month course in theatre arts at the Lagos State University, Ojo. After that, I studied international relations at Houdegbe North American University, Benin Republic.

Acting

Getting into the movie industry wasnt that easy for me. While in secondary school, I had always wanted to act but I didnt know how to go about it. When I gained admission to the university, I met some friends who were into movies and they told me I have the physical qualities of an actor. After school, I met Kemi Korede who asked if I could act and I said yes. She then featured me in her movie, Omo Bewaji, in 2008. That was the first movie I ever acted in. Later, I met with Emeka Duru, who offered me a role in Emem Isongs movie, Through the Fire. In 2012, I travelled to South Africa on vacation where I met Tope Bali, who was there to shoot a movie. Coincidentally, the blonde hairstyle I was wearing at that time was in sync with a character she was looking to feature in the movie, Kafila Omo Ibadan, which she was shooting. In 2012, the trailer of the movie was released and that was how I became popular.

Challenges

The earliest challenge I encountered happened when I decided to become a full-time actress and different directors began to make advances to me. At some point, I wanted to give up on my dream of becoming an actress. Due to the pressure I was faced with then, I stopped attending auditions for some time. Apart from that, I havent really faced many other challenges because in everything that I do, I always put God first. I focus more on my job and I dont leave room for negativity.

Breakthrough

My career breakthrough was when I produced my first movie, Omoge Lekki. The movie paved the way for me in the film industry. My role model, Mercy Aigbe, wrote the script and till date, Im grateful to her. The movie portrays recent happenings among young girls in Lekki and its environs, who live fake lives. I produced the movie and even though I wasnt able to recoup my investment, I still made some money from it.

Movies

Honestly, I have lost count of the number of movies that Ive featured in, but the most recent one I took part in, Alakada Reloaded, by Toyin Abraham, got me more fans. I got almost the same kind of fame that Omoge Lekki gave me.

Personal productions

I have produced four movies. Two of them, Omoge Lekki and Fiditi have been released. The others, Church Girls and Don, would be released soon.

Being Igbo

I am from Abia State, but I am able to speak Yoruba fluently because I grew up in Yoruba land. However, I also act in English movies too. Some of the English movies Ive acted in include Unrequited, The Document, Weight of Guilt, When Hell Freezes, among others.

Poor pay

Its not like we dont get paid but we dont earn big. Im not in this for the money or fame. I love to act and see myself on the big screen; its my passion. I get paid whats commensurate with my level for now. I believe when I get to another stage of my career, I will earn better. I dont live above my means and I only show off what I have; I cant go broke trying to look rich. For now, acting is the only thing that I do.

Fashion

My style can be described as simple but very classy. I love shoes and the most expensive one Ive ever bought is a pair of Jimmy Choo high heels.

Relaxation

Im an indoor person. Whenever Im not on set, I am at home with my family.

Romance

Im single at the moment. I like a man who is God-fearing, caring and playful. Most importantly, he must smell nice to get my attention. I cannot date or marry anyone in the industry because Im a private person.

Source: Punch
In the late 1930s, when the generals and soldiers of the Communist Party of China (CPC) established a revolutionary base in Lyuliang in north China's Shanxi Province, they didn't know this mountain city would remain poor 80 years later.

Among the 13 counties in Lyuliang, 10 counties and 3,350 villages are still considered regions in "abject poverty."

With about 128,000 villages and over 40 million people in China still living in poverty, the country's fight against invaders and oppressors decades ago has now turned into a fight against poverty, as more than 120 CPC members have sacrificed their lives in the fight.

In the past 30 years, even with 700 million people lifted out of poverty, abject poverty remains one of China's top concerns.

It persists not only in areas around old revolutionary bases, but also in ethnic minority regions, border areas, and places with poor infrastructure, fragile environmental conditions and frequent natural disasters.

In late June, Chinese President Xi Jinping went to Lyuliang to visit poor families and talk with officials in charge of poverty alleviation work.

Xi called on the villagers to "roll up your sleeves and work harder, together with the CPC Central Committee."

A RACE AGAINST TIME

China has set 2020 as the target year to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society, which requires the eradication of poverty. The task has become more difficult and costly as the process approaches its end.

According to global experience, the most difficult phase in poverty eradication is when the population living in poverty accounts for less than 10 percent of the overall population.

As of the end of 2016, there were still 43.35 million people in China living below the country's poverty line of 2,300 yuan (344.30 U.S. dollars) of annual income as constant with 2010 prices, accounting for about 3 percent of China's population.

To achieve the target in 2020, China needs to bring more than 10 million people out of poverty every year, meaning nearly one million people per month or 20 people per minute.

China is in a race with time, and President Xi has put himself on the front lines.

In December 2012, Xi was in Fuping County of Hebei Province, while in November 2013 he went to Huayuan County of Hunan Province, and in June 2015, he visited Zunyi County of Guizhou Province.

Lyuliang was the last stop of Xi's tour to the 14 poverty-stricken areas in China since becoming general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in 2012.

He visited the poor, talked with local officials, studied the local conditions and reviewed the poverty-alleviation work.

It is fair to say that poverty reduction has been at the top of Xi's priority list in the past five years.

According to Xi, if rural China, particularly impoverished areas, is left behind, there will be no "moderately prosperous society."

MISSION A MUST

To win this fight against poverty, the CPC Central Committee has been leading Chinese people in the march toward victory in the battle against poverty since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

As Xi said during his Lyuliang tour, the CPC must put people first and use socialism to concentrate resources and accomplish major tasks, including fighting poverty.

Financial support has played a leading role in the process. So far this year, more than 86 billion yuan has been spent on poverty alleviation.

Another method has been dispatching Party cadres to lead the work in poverty-stricken areas. Nearly one million people have been sent to needy villages so far.

Luo Junyuan was one of them. Dispatched by the agriculture department of south China's Jiangxi Province, he is now the first secretary of the Party committee of Paitou Village, which has long been impoverished.

"I came as a total stranger to the villagers, but kept focusing on details concerning their livelihood ever since," he said. "Now they regard me as their good friend."

The notes on Luo's work log spoke for themselves. He wrote down details such as villagers' wishes for the agriculture department to fulfill, and plans to give 24 elderly villages cotton quilts and handwarmers.

More than 195,000 first secretaries like Luo have been stationed in impoverished villages, while 775,000 Party cadres have been sent to assist their work, including local officials, retired armymen and even college graduates.

For many people living in poverty, relocation remains a crucial method.

It was estimated that from 2016 to 2020, around 10 million people will move away from impoverished areas, most of which are "locked" in mountains.

Zhang Zhengying, 82, has been moved from an adobe house in south China's mountainous Guizhou Province. Before that, he and his family were too poor to furnish his home properly due to the extremely difficult conditions.

Things changed as the government worked with companies to set up 50 relocation areas in the county before moving Zhang's family and their fellow villagers out of the mountains to resettle in areas with a business project for each family.

"Since the mass migration 300 years ago, poverty has troubled generations of our villagers," wrote Zhang Daiquan, a village historian. "The relocation finally shed some hope upon us."

DESIRE TO WIN

Xi has called on Chinese people to work together to win the key battle of poverty alleviation within the targeted timeframe.

In Xi's 2016 New Year Message, he said that "the 1.3 billion Chinese should forge ahead in a concerted endeavor" to build a moderately prosperous society in all aspects.

His calls were widely answered by those who have yet to eliminate poverty across China.

Nearly forty years ago, Yan Jinchang and his fellow farmers in a village in central China's Anhui didn't have full control of the land they farmed on, as the implementation of collective system at that time, limiting their economic rewards and living standard.

Unable to live with the hardship, Yan and his villagers signed a contract with local cadres to be allowed to produce by household, so that after handing in the quota harvest to the government, they could keep the rest for themselves or sell it. The contract immediately boosted the village's production and started a wave of land reform nationwide that changed history.

Over 30 years later, riding another wave of reform, Yan stamped a contract yet again to transfer the land-use rights to agricultural cooperatives. As a result, the annual income of his family surpassed 100,000 yuan for the first time ever in the following year.

For many, the unfading faith in striving for better lives has driven them to overcome the odds.

During the Chinese New Year in 2011, Yang Wenxue returned to his home in Hetao Village, which is also in the mountains of Guizhou, with the 130,000 yuan he earned in the provincial capital of Guiyang.

Instead of spending the money on his new house, Yang decided to use it to build a road that would connect the village with those outside the mountains, after seeing the poor traffic conditions and hearing the villagers' complaints.

The story quickly spread across the mountain villages, inspiring 21 other young men to join him in traveling to Guiyang for more money. Villagers were inspired to make their own contributions to the project.

A thousand days of hard work paid off. The road stretches two kilometers across the valley and along the villages.

Today, more than 30 brand new houses have been built in the village since the road was put in to use, and many young men have returned to start businesses.

For Liu Zonglu, the key to battling poverty lies in a broader vision and the awareness of market demands.

An orchardman with deep roots in the Yimeng Mountains of east China's Shandong Province, Liu used to sell his fruit only to nearby villages, until he heard that peaches could be sold for a high price in Dubai, yet Chinese peaches couldn't arrive there fresh due to the long distance.

With the news about the Belt and Road Initiative in mind, he went to Shanghai to consult experts on fruit preservation, and modified customs formalities after visiting customs authorities.

Seventeen days later, 20,000 kilograms of Liu's peaches arrived in Dubai, generating profits many times higher than before, as the peaches sold for over 20 yuan per kilogram there, compared to less than 1 yuan back in Shandong.

Such is the spirit of China's neediest people. Stricken by poverty for years, they have refused to succumb to the difficulties, and instead blazed their own trails out of poverty under the Party's leadership.

"To meet the people's desire for a happy life is our mission," Xi said five years ago at the press briefing following the 18th National Congress of the CPC, sounding the horn for the final charge toward China's 2020 goal.

For that, the people are confident and determined.

"We can't allow any laziness if we really want to get rid of poverty," Li Guozhi, a pepper grower from a poor village in Sichuan Province said.

"We must win the battle against poverty, even if I'm the only one left in it."
Following the attack on former President Goodluck Jonathan image by Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, who asked him to apologize to Nigerians for failing woefully as leader of the Nation, the ex-President through his media aide Reno Omokri has replied the DG.

Osita who spoke at an event in Abuja said going by the financial records, the ex-president and his party railroaded Nigerians into abject poverty, food insecurity, and deficit infrastructure through lanlessness and squandermania.

Heres Jonathans statement;

My attention has been drawn to the statement by President Muhammadu Buharis former spokesman, Mr Osita Okechukwu, now the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), who has said that rather than plug the loopholes that allowed for corruption, former President Goodluck Jonathan opened them up further, contrary to his speech at the non elective convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, which held this past weekend.

Mr. Okechukwu also said that ex-president Jonathan and his party railroaded Nigerians into abject poverty, food insecurity and deficit infrastructure via planlessness and squandermania.

I would advise Mr. Okechukwu, to stick to facts.

Mr. Okechukwu should note that the premier global agency universally recognized to gauge corruption is Transparency International who release an annual Corruption Perception Index.

It may surprise Mr. Okechukwu and his boss to know that the last time Nigeria made progress on Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perception Index was in 2014 under former President Jonathan when we moved eight places from number 144 to number 136 under Goodluck Jonathan.

That year marked the most improvement Nigeria has ever made since Transparency International began publishing the annual Corruption Perception Index in 1995.

Transparency International took note of the Jonathan administrations e-wallet system that cut out the corruption in Nigerias fertilizer procurement system, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which weeded out 50,000 ghost workers from the Federal civil service, the cashless policy and the fact that the Jonathan government promptly fired two ministers (Professor Barth Nnaji and Stella Oduah) mentioned in corruption scandals.

Ever since 2014, Nigeria HAS NOT improved in Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perception Index ranking and has remained 136 in 2015 and are still 136 on the latest CPI ranking released in 2017.

In the most recent CPI Transparency International said and I quote Some other large African countries have failed to improve their scores on the index. These include South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya.

If it were true that the Buhari administration was really fighting corruption, why hasnt Nigeria made progress in the CPI?

The answer is because you can deceive some gullible Nigerians but you cannot deceive Transparency International.

With a Minister of Transport that admitted to spending $500,000 on a one day dinner for Professor Wole Soyinka in your government, with a suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation who was caught red handed looting funds meant for IDPs and who has not been fired, arrested or prosecuted and with a padded budget scandal that spends borrowed monies on luxuries for favored individuals, you cant pull the wool over the eyes of Transparency International.

And when Mr. Okechukwu talks about the economy faring better under this administration, one must wonder if he is also a drunkard like the Presidents spokeswoman, Lauretta Onochie.

I suggest he should go to Wuse Market, Abuja, or Mile 12 Market Lagos or even Rimi Market Kano and say that. If he survives the experience then I will agree with him.

The fact remains that under the Jonathan administration, CNNMoney projected that our economy was the third fastest growing economy in the world with only China and Qatar ahead of us.

Did President Jonathan railroad CNN Money? Or did he also railroad the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who said on October 12, 2012 as follows Yes, weve been hearing about China and India for years but its hard to believe whats happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too.

The fact remains that under Jonathan, Nigeria experienced unprecedented growth. I leave it to Nigerians to determine what they are experiencing today.

Reno Omokri (Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies) for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria 2010-2015.
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Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Sunday. [Photo: China Plus]

China and Pakistan on Sunday promised to deepen their pragmatic cooperation in various fields during a meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

Wang Yang is in Pakistan to attend activities marking the 70th anniversary of Pakistan's independence at the invitation of the Pakistani government.

Noting that China and Pakistan are "iron friends" and all-weather partners of strategic cooperation who always understand and support each other, Wang said Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit to Pakistan in 2015 has ushered in a new chapter of the relations between the two countries.

China would like to join hands with Pakistan to well implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and ensure that more fruitful results will be achieved in bilateral cooperation, he said.

With regard to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative, Wang expressed the hope that the two countries strengthen coordination and make good plan and design from a long-term and top-level perspective.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

While hailing fruitful cooperation in various economic fields over the past years, especially in the CPEC construction, Wang suggested that in the near future, the two countries put emphasis on ensuring early harvests in the CPEC project.

Based on the principle of jointly building through consultation to meet the interests of both sides, China and Pakistan should work together to further accelerate the construction of Gwadar Port, Wang said.

Furthermore, the two sides should push forward energy cooperation in the fields of thermal power, Hydropower, solar energy and clean energy, implement infrastructure cooperation projects such as highways, railways, urban rail facilities, deepen cooperation in industrial parks and strengthen personnel training, the Chinese vice premier said.

China and Pakistan should further tap the potential in bilateral economic and trade cooperation, maintain the growing momentum in bilateral trade so as to promote trade balance, he said.

The two sides should also boost cooperation in the fields such as education, science and technology, culture, health, youth and media in a bid to consolidate the social basis of the China-Pakistan friendship, Wang said.

For his part, Abbasi said Pakistan and China are brothers and the bilateral relations have withstood the test of time.

Pakistan has witnessed the sustainable growth in its economy in recent years and China has played an important role in it, he said.

Pakistan totally agrees with China's proposal to push forward the pragmatic cooperation between the two sides and is willing to work together with China to continue to press ahead wth the CPEC project, expand bilateral trade, deepen and broaden pragmatic cooperation in all fields, Abbasi said.

After their meeting, Wang and Abbasi attended the completion and inauguration ceremony of important cooperation projects between the two countries and the signing ceremony of bilateral cooperation documents.
Update 10/5/17  The Equator self-storage conversion project in Staten Island was listed among Septembers top 10 biggest real estate projects coming to NYC by The Real Deal magazine, which provides news on the New York City real estate market. The Veterans Road storage project was named No. 4 behind a 37-story commercial tower comprising 385,000 square feet in Brooklyn, a 473,000-square-foot apartment complex in the Bronx, and a 143,000-square-foot hotel in Manhattan.

Self-storage architect Frank G. Relf has been tapped to design the facility.

8/14/17  Equator Capital Management LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based private-equity group, is developing a self-storage facility in Staten Island, N.Y. The company signed a 99-year, $70 million ground lease to build a 136,000-square-foot building on a 2-acre property at 2601 Veterans Road W. The site is owned by A. Tranchina Inc., a supplier of construction materials, according to the source.

The lease pricing is the net present value of annual rent payments for the entire term of the lease, according to the broker, Eugene Rivera, director of the commercial real estate division for Pure Properties. The firm is the U.S. brokerage arm for Dixon Advisory, an Australian-based investment-management firm.

Equator developed a storage facility in Long Island City, N.Y., in 2015. The property at 29-01 Review Ave. comprises 143,700 buildable square feet. The site once housed a 24,363-square-foot, single-story warehouse, but was purchased vacant for an undisclosed amount.

The same year, Equator formed a joint partnership with NitNeil Partners, an Atlanta-based real estate development and investment firm, to develop another storage facility in Durham, N.C. The facility is managed by self-storage real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage Inc. and branded under its name.

Founded by CEO Mehul B. Patel in 2008, Equator was formed to pursue business investments that can hold economic value even during market fluctuations, according to the company website. The firm invests in a range of real estate classes, acquiring, developing and repositioning properties in various industries, including self-storage. It works with institutional partners, private investors and joint-venture partners.
PETERBOROUGH< ON (August 13, 2017)- Canadas Toughest 1/3-Mile Paved rolled the second event of the 2017 Hot August Night Series to the line, as the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup and Ontario Pro Challenge Series joined the home track Battlefield Equipment Rental 4Fun, Jiffy Lube Mini Stock and Organics & Glass Late Model divisions on Saturday, August 12 at Peterborough Speedway.

Feature race action kicked-off with 20 laps for the Battlefield Equipment Rental 4Fun teams, as Chris Tubman and Keith Parkes brought the field of 21 starters to the line. Tubman and former track champion Ryan Oosterholt battled side-by-side for the lead for a number of laps, before the pace was slowed for an incident in the fourth turn with four laps showing on the scoreboard. Oosterholt took control of the field in the restart and began working his way around some slower traffic near the halfway point. With some excellent battles throughout the field, Oosterholt took the checkered flag over Griffin Powell, Jeremy Kelly, Tubman and Jake Kelly.

With Tim Shanahan and Mike Johnson on the front row, the Ontario Pro Challenge Series hit the track for 30 laps of A main excitement. Johnson grabbed the top spot on the break, with Bryan Stevanus moving into second. There was a four-car battle for the lead, before Stevanus took the spot on lap seven, but surrendered the position to Kyle Batty a couple of circuits later. An incident in the second turn with 10 laps complete slowed the pace, but with the field back under green, Tim Norris was a man with a mission. After restarting at the back of the pack, he took the runner-up spot on lap 16 and took a lead hed never surrender on lap 25. Kyle Batty, Peter Hattin, Tim Batty and Stevanus rounded-out the top five. More information can be found at www.prochallengeracing.com.

Tyler Betts and Bryan Mercer paced the Organics & Glass Late Models around Canadas Toughest 1/3-Paved Oval for a 20-lap feature. Dan McHattie would move into the top spot with five laps complete, with Mercer grabbing the runner-up spot as the lap counter marked 15 down. The lead duo began working through the backmarkers a lap later, as McHattie showed his strength with another main event win. Betts, James Horner and Steve Powell chased the leaders across the line in the caution-free feature.

With 20 laps of action on the table, Andy McCann and Brad Lavalle occupied the front row for the Jiffy Lube Mini Stock main event. Almonte, Ontarios Nolan Gould moved into the lead with a trio of laps on the board, before Kevin Strutt marched around the front-runners on the outside line to take the top spot three laps later. The leaders caught the tail-end of the field with 11 laps complete, before a caution flag slowed everyones charge just four laps later. Noel Snow took the lead on the restart and added another win to his resume. Neil Hannah, Gould, McCann and Lavalle completed the top five.

Brandt Graham and Kevin Gallant brought the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series teams to the line for their 100-lap main event. Graham jumped-out to an early lead and had about an eight-car length advantage when the nights first yellow flag waved with 16 laps complete. On the restart, the reigning series champion again took control, but young upstart Connor James was marching toward the front. He moved into third spot on the 26th lap and set-off in pursuit of Graham from second place three laps later. Graham was close to lapping third place running Chad McGlynn when another caution slowed the field. There was no denying Brandt Graham his second win of the year, as the youngster went wire-to-wire for the victory. Connor James had the leader in his sights at the checkered flag, with McGlynn, Alvin McNicol and Doug Cathcart finishing the fast five. Brent Wheller, Gallant, Bob Merrifield, Brandon Huras, Bob Schulteiss and Adam Martin completed the running order. Follow the series at www.lucasoilsportsmancup.com.

All main event finishes are unofficial, pending post-race technical inspection.

Earlier in the show, qualifiers went to Griffin Powell, Rob Crick and Jeremy Kelly with a pair in the Battlefield Equipment Rental 4Fun. Dan McHattie took both Organics & Glass Late Model heats, with Kyle Batty and Tim Norris splitting the Ontario Pro Challenge qualifying rounds. Jiffy Lube Mini Stock heat races went to Noel Snow, Erin Kearns and Kris Khan with a pair.

Bullring bullet points: Jason Whyte of Port Hope, Ontario took home the winners share of $445.50 in the 50/50 draw, in support of the Millbrook LegionReigning Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series champion Brandt Graham set a new track record in qualifying, with a lap of 14.50, eclipsing the mark of 14.60 set by Josh Wood in August of 2015It was a rough night for Jack Horner. During pre-race practice, a car just in front of him had a coolant line come off and the #31 Late Model machine slipped in the fluid left behind and hit the first turn wall. He ran a pair of laps in the feature event, before retiring to the pitsKenny Ohno was the winner in King of the Hill timed laps.

Up next on the 50th Anniversary Season schedule is the years final Toonie Spectator Grandstand Admission/Fan Appreciation Night  presented by Pepsi  Saturday, August 19th. Action will include the Jiffy Lube Mini Stock, Trent Lakes Complete Plumbing Renegade Truck, Thunder Car, Organics & Glass Late Model and Ontario Modifieds Racing Series divisions. Pit gates will open at 2:00, with general admission grandstands unlocked at 4:00 and the first green flag at 5:00.

Schedule information and the latest news can always be found by logging onto www.peterboroughspeedway.com, by liking the Peterborough Speedway Facebook page or following the track on Twitter. Fans can also download the free app on their Smartphone.

Prepared by: Jim Clarke, Clarke Motorsports Communications/First Draft Media

clarkemotorsports@hotmail.com, www.facebook.com/clarkemotorsports

613.968.6410
It is a criminal offence if directors do not apply for their director ID on time
an overseas conference package valued up to $8,000, including registration to the 2018 Claims Conference and Insurance Services Expo held in Orlando, Florida, return flights, accommodation, and $500 spending money; or

$5,000 cash and registration to the 2018 AICLA/ANZIIF Claims Convention held in Australia, including return flights and two nights accommodation.

The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance ( ANZIIF ) and TurksLegal have opened submissions for the 2017 ANZIIF TurksLegal Claims Scholarship, designed to recognise excellence in general insurance and provide a significant career-development opportunity for professionals in the general insurance industry in Australia.Now in its 10th year, the scholarship is open to professionals who are residents or based in Australia and directly work in a capacity connected with general insurance. To qualify for the scholarship, eligible applicants must submit a 2,500-word paper addressing one of the five questions found in the application form.The winner will get to choose from the following prizes:The winner will also be invited to join senior industry leaders as a judge for the 2018 ANZIIF TurksLegal Claims Scholarship.We [in partnership with TurksLegal] are thrilled to again offer a member of the Australian insurance industry this great career development opportunity, said ANZIIF CEO Prue Willsford . This scholarship not only provides the winner the opportunity to develop their understanding of the industry, but will help them to develop their leadership skills. Representing Australia, the winner will grow their professional network among their international counterparts.Interested applicants have until Oct. 9 at 5 pm (AEST) to submit their entries, with the winner to be announced at the ANZIIF General Insurance Breakfast in Sydney on Dec. 6.
An Alabama State Farm employee has been accused of stealing thousands of dollars from clients at the insurance agency where she worked.Cindy Cuzzort Going, of Blount County, Ala., was arrested last week, according to the Alabama Department of Insurance. Going worked at a State Farm office run by insurance agent Holt Hathcock in Oneonta, Ala.Going has been accused of stealing about $38,000 from customers of the insurance office, according to a report by AL.com. Shes been charged with five counts of second-degree insurance fraud and five counts of fourth-degree theft of property. Few other details about the case were available.Going was booked into the Blount County Jail on a $75,000 bond. Yelp currently lists Holt Hathcocks Oeonta State Farm office as closed.
The Indiana Supreme Court has upheld the murder and arson convictions of a man serving life in prison for blowing up a house in an insurance scam.The court ruled unanimously to reject the appeal of Bob Leonard, 58. Leonard was convicted last year on 51 counts related to the November 2012 natural-gas explosion of a house owned by his half-brothers then-girlfriend. Authorities said that the three planned to blow up the house as part of an insurance scam.The explosion damaged or destroyed dozens of other homes, and two neighbors were killed in the blast, according to local NVC affiliate WTHR. Leonard received two consecutive life sentences without parole, plus an additional 70 years.Leonards appeal painted him as a bumbler who only wanted to burn a house for insurance money and couldnt do it correctly, according to WTHR. The appeal argued that the prosecution had never proved Leonard knowingly and intentionally hurt people. It also argued that Indianas sentencing rules for life without parole were unconstitutional.The Indiana Supreme Court, however, disagreed. The courts justices ruled unanimously to reject Leonards repeal. They found that there was sufficient evidence for the murder convictions, and that Indianas statute allowing a sentence of life without parole was constitutional.
Bolton & Company has been named as one of the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles for the fifth straight year in a row by the Los Angeles Business Journal and Best Companies Group.The award program recognizes small, medium, and large employers in the Los Angeles County area that do well in criteria such as leadership, corporate culture and other similar organizational areas. A total of 100 companies  for-profits, nonprofits, government entities, as well as publicly and privately-held businesses  made the rankings.Best Companies Group manages the annual program by conducting the surveys, analyzing the data, and determining the winners and rankings.Were honored to be recognized as one of the regions top employers, commented Bolton President and CEO Steve Brockmeyer. Our employees are the most important resource we have, and we are dedicated to providing an environment and culture that encourages professional growth and personal wellbeing through a number of internal initiatives and incentives.The companies selected for the annual program participate in a two-part survey process. The first survey takes note of a companys policies, practices, benefits and demographics, while the second one gauges employee engagement and satisfaction.Established in 1931, Bolton & Company is a major privately-owned insurance broker partnered with Assurex Global. The company is based in Pasadena, with additional offices in Orange County and Santa Clara.
Leader has "delivered on ambitious operational and financial objectives"
A northeast insurer has developed a new homeowners insurance product to improve the broken model, leveraging big data to quote and bind policies in less than five minutes.Plymouth Rock Assurance  based in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania  has launched its new product in Pennsylvania, where the company says an opportunity presented itself.The business hasnt really been approached with the same level of sophistication that personal auto or even small commercial lines has, so theres a lot of opportunity to do a better job in that segment, Bill Martin, chief executive of Plymouth Rocks Pennsylvania home business, told Insurance Business. In our opinion, the homeowners insurance market has been kind of broken.The company has used Big Data to pre-rate 3.92 million Pennsylvania homes for immediate quote and bind.We designed the ideal customer experience that offers a simple, fast, intuitive way for consumers and agents to immediately quote and bind insurance, Martin explained.For agents, the advanced rating and click-and-bind quoting system provides all the tools direct-to-consumer companies are using. Agents can target market to customers and focus advertising dollars on prospects most likely to benefit from the coverages offered.Martin said the homeowner space needed a makeover, having fallen behind other industry segments.Its not just the quote and bind process, which many carriers are shortening, weve shortened it to its absolute minimum, he said. Weve said, all right, you give me an address and Ill give you a rate for a package that most people buy. If you like that package, we can go right to binding, and that whole process  is five minutes.The Plymouth Rock technique has streamlined the process and been made available to consumers directly  but Martin said the product will also benefit the companys agent network.He explained that the process benefits agents in two ways: by providing the data to help them target their marketing and increase their odds of serving them well; and, because the process is so easy, they can focus their attention talking to the customer about coverage, rather than explaining the policy ins and outs.The agent can then really show their value and [provide] the advice of an expert, Martin said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry: No future in trade war with US

There is no future in a trade war between China and the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press conference on Monday, stressing trade and the DPRK issue should not be linked.

"I must emphasize that China-US relations should be based on mutual respect for each other's major interests and concerns," said Hua.

Hua made the remarks amid speculations that the US may launch an investigation into Chinese trade practices in an effort to pressure Beijing on the DPRK crisis.

"The Korean Peninsula and trade are different issues. The two nations should respect each other and enhance cooperation over these issues," said Hua. "It's highly inappropriate to use one issue to put pressure on the other."

US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday, calling for an investigation into allegations of forced Chinese acquisition of technology and intellectual property from US firms.

Trump has accused China of doing "nothing" but "talk" with the DPRK, and indicated a tougher stance on trade relations.

The possible inquiry will be under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the US president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect US industries from "unfair trade practices" of foreign countries.

'Interwoven interests'

Commenting on China-US trade relations, Hua underscored the extensive "interwoven interests" between the two countries, stressing that neither of them will emerge as the winner in a trade war.

The two countries enjoy mutual benefits and should engage in win-win cooperation, she said.

The first China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue was held in America last month and charted the course for bilateral economic cooperation, which Hua called the "most important outcome" of the dialogue.

The two sides agreed to be committed to the principle of win-win cooperation in trade, resolve differences through dialogue and consultation, as well as maintain communication on major economic policies.

Hua said China is willing to find a proper way to solve trade problems with the US on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, adding that the Chinese government always attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights and has made progress that is "obvious to all".

"A member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) should follow WTO rules when taking trade measures," she said.

Washington's Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 fell into disuse after the creation of the WTO.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commence announced on Monday the decision to ban DPRK imports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood, starting from Tuesday.
Residents of Clairton, Pennsylvania, have filed a class-action lawsuit against US Steel claiming that the companys Clairton Coke Works has lowered property values in the region through its air pollution byproduct.The mill violated its air permit 6,700 times between 2012 and 2015. Although the Allegheny County Health Department reached a new consent decree with US Steel to reduce pollution last year, the Mon Valley area continues to fail federal air quality standards for sulfur dioxide and fine particulates  pollutants which can cause lung problems, among other health issues.The coke plant was originally viewed as an economic boon to locals of the region, offering job opportunities for all. But the mill produced air pollutants, which worried residents who lived in adjacent wealthier communities such as Mount Lebanon and Upper St. Clair. When Clairton was approached regarding this matter, residents whose livelihoods were built around the mill ignored the protests and concerns of their neighbors.Over time, however, many Clairton locals became painfully aware of the potential health effects of the plants byproducts, and have since reconsidered their attitudes toward the business.In my own family, my dad died of cancer of the trachea, local Richard Ford told Public Radio International. I had a daughter that died at the age of 25 with scleroderma. My son passed away this past October from prostate cancer.Its an awareness now thats just sparked in us. And were ready to listen now and try to do something about it because its so apparent to us, Ford added.Although air quality around the area has improved since the plant opened, Clairtons cancer rates are some of the highest in the county. Alarmingly, the mills emissions also blow toward nearby Braddock (a community that also has its own US Steel plant), which has cancer rates twice as high as any other region in the county.While data suggests that there is a high correlation between the regions mounting cancer rates and the emissions coming from US Steels plant, it can be difficult to prove.Allegheny County Health Department deputy director of environmental health Jim Kelly says that there are so many reason people can get cancer, especially in low-income areas.You have high smoking rates. Youve got old housing stock, with lots of asbestos  lung cancer right there. You have low education. You have high unemployment. You have high obesity rates. All of these things are correlated with [increased cancer rates], Kelly explained.
Delaware State Police say more arrests are expected in an investigation involving a Philadelphia woman accused of distributing fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances.

Police said Thursday that 49-year-old Annette Scott stole blank prescription pads from a Wilmington-area doctors office where she worked and forged the doctors signature. Investigators say she then distributed 23 prescriptions to several individuals, who would fill the prescriptions at area pharmacies and use their Medicaid insurance to pay for them.

Scott was charged last week with 23 felonies and was being held in lieu of $43,000 secured bail.

Twenty-five-year-old Devon Hawkes of Bear, who police say tried to fill one of the fake prescriptions at a local Walgreens, has been charged with 19 felonies.

It was not immediately clear whether Scott or Hawkes has an attorney.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Fraud Law Enforcement Drugs
Six current or former employees have filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against The Plaza Hotel.

The bartenders, servers and hospitality coordinators say they were groped, catcalled and propositioned by managers and other co-workers while working at the New York City hotels Palm Court restaurant.

The suit says a manager cornered and forcibly kissed one of the women in a coat-check closet and shoved his hands down her pants during a performance review.

It says the womens complaints were ignored and they were subjected to retaliation.

Various claims involve a period from late 2014 until the present.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts manages The Plaza and says harassment has not and never will be tolerated.

The company also says it doesnt retaliate against employees who raise claims in good faith.

The employees are seeking damages to be determined at trial.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits New York Numbers
The European Union said Friday [July 11] that it plans to hold an extraordinary meeting late next month over a growing tainted egg scandal as it revealed that products contaminated with an insecticide have now spread to 17 countries.

Millions of eggs have been destroyed or pulled from supermarket shelves since July 20, when it was made public that the pesticide Fipronil, which is dangerous to human health, was found mixed with another treatment sprayed on chickens for ticks, fleas and lice, known as Dega 16.

Almost all lab tests show that only very low levels of Fipronil  seven to 10 times lower than the maximum permitted  have been detected in eggs from the treated chickens, although one test in Belgium was above the European limit. Poisoning by small doses has few effects and requires little treatment. Heavy and prolonged exposure can damage the kidneys and liver or cause seizures.

The scandal has caused major political fallout, with neighbors Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany squabbling over who is to blame, and who knew what and when. Poultry farmers have been hardest hit, and are blaming the chemical industry for compromising their business and exposing consumers to danger.

The EUs executive Commission said Friday that contaminated eggs have been found at producers in four countries: Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Eggs or egg products from those producers have reached Austria, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden, as well as Switzerland and Hong Kong outside the EU.

The Commission announced that it is aiming to hold talks between EU ministers and food safety agencies concerned on Sept. 26.

The aim is to draw the relevant lessons and discuss the ways to continuously improve the effectiveness of the EU system to deal with food fraud, Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.

She said the EUs priority remains to manage the situation, to continue to coordinate and to reassure our citizens.

In France, Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that tests on imported eggs contaminated with pesticide show no risk to public health.

Travert said on RMC radio Friday that some 244,000 eggs imported from the Netherlands and Belgium and sold in France were affected.

He said test results received overnight from the French food safety agency on affected eggs and egg products showed the level of contamination does not present a risk for the consumer.

France has also confirmed one farm in the Nord-Pas de Calais region was found to have used Fipronil, and is now blocked from selling eggs.

The Agriculture Ministry says the French farm reported on July 28, as the scandal was coming to light, that Dega 16 had been used on the farm by a Belgian subcontractor, and the ministry claims no eggs concerned have been sold.

Danish food safety authorities say 20 tons of boiled and peeled eggs linked to the pesticide scandal were sold in recent months to a distributor in Denmark, which in turn sold them to canteens, cafes and catering companies in the country.

The agency said Thursday the Danish distributor, Danaeg Products, has been ordered to recall the eggs because the content is illegal but not dangerous.

German Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman Jennifer Reinhard said Friday the facts need to be swiftly and fully investigated.

She noted that there are rapid alert systems that should be used if consumers are at risk.

There must be no compromises when it comes to food safety, Reinhard said. Information needs to be shared between (EU) member states without delay.

In Poland, Jan Bondar, a spokesman for the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, said that an estimated 40,000 potentially contaminated eggs have been imported but were not sold to consumers. He said the eggs came from the Netherlands and were delivered by a German company. Contamination hasnt been confirmed but they came from farms where contaminated eggs were found. He said the eggs would either be destroyed or returned to the producer.

Angela Charlton in Paris, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

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Topics Europe Agribusiness Pollution France
The parents of an 8-year-old Ohio boy who hanged himself from his bunk bed with a necktie want school officials held responsible, testing the issue of school liability in suicides blamed on bullying.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Gabriel Taye against Cincinnati Public Schools and school officials cites repeated examples of Gabriel and others being bullied at his elementary school. They contend school officials knew about the bullying but were deliberately indifferent, allowing a treacherous school environment.

Knowledge of harassment and failure to do something are among elements set out in a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling for school liability cases.

The deliberate indifference standard set forth (by the Supreme Court) sets a high bar for plaintiffs, a 2016 opinion by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says. It requires only that school administrators respond to known peer harassment in a manner that is not clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances.

The ruling rejected an appeal by a Tennessee family that sued a school district over two years of alleged relentless bullying that forced their son to change schools.

Cincinnati school officials have said that the boy told staff he fainted the day his parents say Gabriel was knocked unconscious at a school bathroom and that he never said he was bullied or assaulted. He killed himself two days later, on Jan. 26.

Legal experts say such lawsuits seem to be coming more common amid increasing public awareness campaigns on youth bullying. A 2015 federal survey estimated that about 21 percent of U.S. students, ages 12-18, said they had been bullied.

Federal authorities say they are still learning about the links between school bullying and suicide , saying bullying increases the risk of suicidal behavior but that the majority of bullying cases dont result in suicide, suicide attempts, or thoughts of suicide.

Courts have shown reluctance to increase the demands on school officials to quell bullying. The Supreme Court has urged courts against second-guessing school administrators disciplinary decisions, to allow them flexibility they need to deal with children who are still learning how to interact appropriately.

The federal cases often take years to resolve, unless the two sides reach a settlement. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by parents of a 14-year-old Missouri boy who killed himself in 2013 after being bullied was settled for $300,000 two years ago. Earlier this year, a Mississippi school district settled for undisclosed terms a lawsuit by parents of a seventh-grader who died of injuries from alleged bullying.

A 2015 lawsuit filed against nearby Fairfield City Schools in Ohio and officials by the parents of a girl who fatally shot herself after being bullied repeatedly, including frequent racial and sexual insults, is scheduled for federal trial in Cincinnati in early 2018.

Plaintiffs in such cases have often said that among their reasons for going to court is the hope it will bring changes that will protect other students from bullying.

We want to open a Pandoras box, we want to push against the hornets nest, said Bruce Nagel, attorney for the family of a 12-year-old New Jersey girl who killed herself in June, allegedly after months of bullying by classmates. We want to end this forever.

Mallory Grossmans family has said they plan to sue her school district.

AP News Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York and AP writer David Porter in Roseland, New Jersey, contributed to this story.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits USA Ohio
Plaintiffs suing General Motors Co. over faulty ignition switches and other alleged vehicle defects have reached a $1 billion settlement requiring the automaker to turn over that amount of stock, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said in a court hearing on Friday.

GM lawyer Richard Godfrey strongly criticized the agreement, telling U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan the Detroit-based company was given no say in the deal negotiated between the plaintiffs and a trust set up for creditors of old GM, which holds many liabilities predating the automakers 2009 bankruptcy.

Godfrey said the settlement was a result of collusion between the plaintiffs and the trust, and a complete surrender and sellout using new GMs money.

The ignition switch litigation consolidated before Furman stems from GMs 2014 recall of 2.6 million vehicles with defective switches. One type of switch has been linked to nearly 400 injuries and 124 deaths. The claims have expanded to include a variety of alleged defects in millions of cars.

GM said in a statement it would fight the settlement in court, calling it a contrived scheme doomed to fail.

According to Steve Berman, the plaintiffs lawyer, the settlement called for the trust to take on $10 billion of ignition switch claims, which would boost the total claims against the trust to more than $35 billion.

He said that would trigger a provision in GMs bankruptcy reorganization plan requiring new GM to transfer about $1 billion in stock to the trust, which would be used to fund the settlement.

In a phone interview after the hearing, Berman said the settlement would resolve about 11.9 million economic loss claims and between 400 and 500 personal injury and wrongful death claims. He added that he expected to ask the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan by Tuesday to set the deal in motion.

About 2.4 million claims, involving vehicles sold after GMs bankruptcy, would remain, Berman said.

The notion from new GM that this is somehow an inappropriate procedure is crazy, he said. They bargained for this.

Godfrey told the hearing the trust had $400 million in its own assets that could be used to fund a settlement, instead of requiring GM to turn over stock.

After the hearing, GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey said the automaker had been told the deal would include a $15 million payment from the trust releasing it from liability, effectively shielding that $400 million. That was not discussed at the hearing, and Berman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Tom Brown)

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American International Group Inc. has appointed Anita Williamson as global head of employee communications, effective today.

In this role, Williamson will develop and execute global programs to strengthen employee engagement and align with AIGs global business goals. She will report directly to Cindy Leggett-Flynn, senior vice president, chief communications officer.

Most recently, Williamson was vice president, global internal communications at Chubb where she led company-wide employee engagement and communications programs executed in the 54 countries where Chubb has operations. She also served as a strategic communications advisor for Chubbs business unit and functional leadership. Prior to joining Chubb, she served as SVP, corporate communications at Marsh where her responsibilities included digital internal and external communications and strategic communications for senior management. Earlier in her career, Williamson worked at the Consolidated Edison Company of New York where she established the companys video news program for employees and later became a media spokesperson. She was also executive producer for a series of company-sponsored broadcast television spots created to raise the profile of local organizations serving the needs of New Yorkers.

Source: AIG

Topics Chubb
Specialist insurance market Lloyds of London will host Lloyds Day Texas to welcome Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown to the United States. The event will be held in Dallas on Oct. 4, 2017, and in Houston on Oct. 5, 2017. Those interested may attend one or both events.

Attendees will have the opportunity to network with those in Lloyds market and the local insurance industry and meet with Lloyds senior personnel. Each event will begin with an educational session, followed by Meet the Market in the evening, where the famous Lloyds underwriting room will be recreated by syndicate underwriters in the market.

Lloyds Day Texas is open to all participants in the insurance industry.

Registration is available online, and should be completed by Aug. 25, 2017.

Topics Texas Excess Surplus Lloyd's Market
Newly released records show failed communication systems hampered the response to deadly wildfires in Tennessee last fall.

Records that Sevier County began to release Wednesday show that wind and fire on Nov. 28 combined to disable cell towers, melt fiber-optic cables and disrupt radio signals and phone lines, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported .

Autopsy reports were also released for 13 of the 14 people who died after the wildfires. The cause of death for nine victims was shown as smoke inhalation, WBIR-TV reported . One person was hit by a tree limb and then may have died of smoke inhalation, while two may have died due to health issues or a car accident. One died of cardiac stress.

WATE-TV reports dashcam videos, radio traffic and 911 calls show what dispatchers faced.

The whole mountain is on fire up here, one caller says. Were trying to make our way down, but I think were all going to burn up quick. Can you do something?

The communication problems also undermined efforts to send a mobile evacuation alert. Tennessee Emergency Management Agency officials said sending such a notice with no details would have created panic and done more harm than good.

So much was happening so fast, said Patrick Sheehan, TEMA director. We were getting conflicting reports. Our liaison was on his way to the scene and stuck in traffic on (U.S.) Highway 321 (outside town). At some point, the news stations told us there was a mandatory evacuation. We tried to re-establish contact with Sevier County. Every redundant system we had in place for a period of time was not working.

Sheehan finally reached Sevier County Emergency Management Director John Mathews by cell and offered to send an evacuation alert to every cellphone in the area _ but not without Mathews direction and approval.

We cant just say, `Evacuate. That would be irresponsible, Sheehan said. We dont know whether there are trees or power lines across which roads.

The only text alert from TEMA that reached anyone was a notice sent hours after the fire began, asking residents to stay off their cellphones. TEMA spokesman Dean Flener said that request helped and seemed to open cellphone access for emergency personnel.

Several people calling 911 in the early hours were told there was no evacuation at that time and that officers would come to their door if they were in danger. But the calls became more urgent as the fire spread, with callers reporting around 7 p.m. they could see widespread fire.

Dispatchers started advising callers to leave if they could, but there was no widespread mandatory evacuation order.

If you feel like youre in danger, you need to go, one dispatcher said. Weve got fires burning all over the county.

The fire began to pick up speed as 7 p.m. approached.

High winds had now pushed throughout the city, raining embers, causing trees and power lines to fall and fire to spread, the post-fire summary report states. Numerous calls were received from brush and structure fires in various parts of the city and county areas.

Officials were told to activate a flood warning siren system to get the publics attention. They also began widespread evacuations.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Tennessee
Geologists are studying a massive Florida sinkhole that destroyed two homes and rendered five others uninhabitable.

Experts might ever know exactly what caused Pasco Countys largest sinkhole in decades, but a team of University of South Florida researchers have descended upon Lake Padgett Estates to learn as much as they can about what happened.

The Tampa Bay Times writes that geologists want to know if anything might have predicted the devastation, such as way the lakefront neighborhood was developed.

If we can say where these things are likely to occur, said Lori Collins, an archaeologist leading the university team, smarter decisions and regulations may emerge from that.

The sinkhole opened July 14 in a suburb north of Tampa called Land OLakes. It now stretches about 260 feet (79 meters) at its widest point, and its estimated to be 50 feet (15 meters) deep.

There have been 336 reports of sinkhole activity in Land OLakes since the county started keeping track in 2003.

Lake Padgett Estates sits in the heart of a so-called sinkhole alley in central Florida. Like much of the state, the land sits atop porous limestone that groundwater flows through and over time can erode.

I dont want to sound alarming, but a lot of people who move here from up north may not be aware of this type of terrain, said Dave DeWitt, a chief geologist with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. And in this part of the state, you just dont know whats underneath you.

Collins team is studying the areas history, from its decades as an expansive orange grove to its conversion into a neighborhood. It grew from just 20 homes in 1967 to 300 in 1974, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and building continued there until the 1990s.

Three instances of sinkhole activity were recorded by the Florida Geological Survey in the 1980s along Lake Saxons northern shore, not far from the current sinkhole. Both the homes it destroyed last month previously had been fortified after experiencing settling.

Sinkholes occur naturally in Florida. But they also can be provoked by human activity, including intensive groundwater pumping for irrigation or residential taps, or by work above ground that destabilizes the limestone below.

Geologists are calling the Land OLakes crater a cover-collapse sinkhole, which occurs when soil above a void in the limestone gives way. They tend to occur abruptly.

Sinkholes caused by human actions are most often the cover-collapse kind, according to a 1999 report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Lake Padgett Estates sits between two large groundwater well fields. The day the sinkhole developed, groundwater levels recorded at the closest well to the neighborhood were within a normal range, according to water management district data. The agency said it was unlikely that pumping spurred the sinkhole, at least in the immediate sense.

But that doesnt mean water wasnt a factor: Florida had just emerged from a drought, and then welcomed consistent rainfall at the end of June. When water levels drop and then heavy rains suddenly pound the dry ground, the crust above a sinkhole is more likely to collapse, said DeWitt.

With its history of sinkholes, Pasco County passed an ordinance in 2008 requiring engineers to test for potential geological hazards before building new neighborhoods. If they detect a sinkhole risk, they make recommendations to avoid a problem.

County officials plan to revisit the ordinance after the Lake Padgett Estates sinkhole is emptied and stabilized, said Kevin Guthrie, assistant county administrator for public safety.

For now, he said, the county must clean up the hole and figure out what to do with prime real estate marked by a yawning chasm.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Florida
Transport Minister Hisham Arafat appointed Sayed Ibrahim Mohamed Salam to run the authority one day after the resignation of the body's former director

Egypt appointed Sayed Ibrahim Mohamed Salam as interim chief of the National Railway Authority on Monday, one day after the resignation of the authority's director following a train collision in Alexandria that killed at least 41 people and injured 179.

Salam, who was the deputy head of the railway authoritys safety and quality department, was appointed by Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

On Sunday, Arafat accepted the resignation of Medhat Shousha following the disaster.

On Friday afternoon, a train travelling from Cairo to Alexandria crashed into the rear of another train en route to Alexandria from Port Said. The stationary train was at Khorshid Station when the crash occurred.

Earlier on Sunday, the administrative prosecution suspended eight railway officials in relation to the incident. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Alexandria ordered the detention for 15 days of the drivers of the two trains, state-run news agency MENA reported.

Several deadly railway crashes have taken place in Egypt in years.

In 2012, a train ploughed into a school bus south of Cairo, killing 50 people, mostly children.

The country's worst train disaster took place in 2002, when a fire swept through a passenger train, killing some 360 people.



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The defense attorney for a teenage driver accused of driving drunk while livestreaming the crash that killed her younger sister says a mechanical problem may have caused the accident in California.

The Merced Sun-Star reported Obdulia Sanchezs lawyer told a judge Friday that he has reason to believe the crash was caused by wear and tear on a tire, causing it to blow out.

Sanchez was driving a car that veered onto the shoulder of the road on July 21. Authorities said she overcorrected, causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn, ejecting and killing her 14-year-old sister.

Prosecutors said Sanchez was live-streaming on Instagram while driving and the video shows her taking her hands from the steering wheel.

Sanchez has pleaded not guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California
Michael Charles Young, 30, of Sacramento, Calif., the reported leader of a large auto insurance fraud ring, was sentenced to more than 10 years in state prison for bilking insurance companies out of an estimated $500,000 by filing fraudulent insurance claims.

Detectives are seeking three at-large suspects with outstanding warrants and asking for the publics help finding themJazlyn Ladana Burrell, 20, of Vallejo; Lavina Louise Nunally, 26, and Desiree Patricia Vasquez, 22, both of Sacramento.

An investigation by detectives with the California Department of Insurance and the California Highway Patrol uncovered evidence that Young and several co-conspirators filed multiple insurance claims totaling an estimated $500,000 after crashing cars into each other or filing claims on vehicles with existing damageknown as paper collisions. The case is being prosecuted by the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office.

According to detectives, Youngs ring operated in the Sacramento area between 2014 and early 2016 filing dozens of claims ranging between $5,000 and $40,000 with a number of insurance companies.

In most cases, false identities were reportedly used to register and insure the vehicles used to file claims and accomplices were provided scripts to use when communicating with insurers. Some defendants allowed their identities to be used for compensation and then cashed checks issued in their names. The ring grew as friends and family members were recruited.

Young was arrested in April 2016, and charged with numerous felonies, including insurance fraud, possession of stolen vehicles, identity theft, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

Topics California Auto Fraud
The California Division of Workers Compensation is dismissing more than 292,000 unresolved liens.

The liens belong to claimants who did not properly file the required supplemental lien form and 4903.05(c) declaration form.

Senate Bill 1160, which became effective Jan. 1, required all lien claimants who filed a lien between Jan. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2016, and paid a filing fee, to file the forms by July 1. Lien claimants who failed to file the forms as required will have their liens dismissed.

Labor code section 4903.05(c) was amended as part of the bills reform measures to combat fraud in the workers comp system.

To comply with SB 1160s requirements, DWC made available an e-form declaration and the Workers Compensation Appeals Board promulgated regulations requiring the use of this form.

Related:

Topics California Workers' Compensation
Bernard David Thierry Bovier,

Luxembourg taxpayers had until June 30 2016 to benefit from the IP box regime that provided for an 80% exemption on income derived from certain IP rights. Because the IP box regime was not in line with the requirements of the OECD final report on Action 5 of the BEPS Project, it had to be abolished (subject to some transition rules).

The long-awaited draft bill on the new IP regime was issued on August 4 2017.

Proposed regime

The proposed rules will provide an 80% exemption on income derived from the commercialisation of certain IP rights, as well as a 100% exemption from net wealth tax.

Qualifying assets under the proposed law would include patents (broadly defined) and copyrights on software. Trademarks, designs and models are excluded, however. Qualifying income would include royalties, capital gains and embedded IP income from the sale of products or services directly related to the qualifying IP asset. The regime would apply on a net income basis, meaning that annual costs relating to the IP, as well as previous tax losses relating to the IP, would have to be deducted from the gross income.

The nexus ratio, the cornerstone of the new regime, would determine the proportion of net income entitled to the benefits under the new rules based on the ratio of qualifying expenditure and overall expenditure. Qualifying expenditure would include all research and development (R&D) expenditure incurred by the taxpayer for the creation, development or improvement of qualifying IP rights. It would not include interest and financing charges, the costs of acquisition of the IP, real estate costs or costs that cannot be linked directly to the eligible IP asset. The outsourcing of R&D would be permitted and included in qualifying expenditures provided it was carried out by unrelated parties. Overall expenditure would be the sum of qualifying expenditure, IP acquisition costs and outsourcing costs to related parties.

The nexus ratio and the net qualifying income would be cumulative and the taxpayer would be required to track income and expenditure by IP asset, group of IP assets or, alternatively, products or services arising from IP assets.

To remain competitive, Luxembourg would allow the 30% uplift on qualifying expenditure.

Finally, in an intragroup context, all transactions would have to be properly priced and documented according to the new transfer pricing guidelines deriving from BEPSActions 8-10.

Comments

Based on the draft rules, if a company incurs all of the expenditure to develop a qualifying IP asset, all income derived from the commercialisation of that IP would qualify for benefits, leading to an effective tax rate of approximately 5.2%.

This new IP regime, along with newly introduced R&D incentives, would be beneficial for Luxembourgs economic diversification objectives. We hope that it will be further enhanced after a first assessment period to include all options offered by BEPS Action 5 (e.g. third category of IP for SMEs) and offer more flexibility with regard to the organisation of R&D activities within a group of companies.

By Bernard David and Thierry Bovier, Deloitte Luxembourg.
E di almeno 18 morti e 8 feriti il bilancio di una nuova notte di sangue nellAfrica subsahariana: nel mirino di un commando terroristico, questa volta, e finito un ristorante turco di Ouagadougou, capitale del Burkina Faso, preso dassalto attorno alle 21 (ora locale) da un gruppo di uomini armati che, dopo aver raggiunto il locale a bordo di un pick-up, hanno aperto il fuoco sugli avventori nel patio, asserragliandosi in seguito nel locale assieme a degli ostaggi. Alcuni dei terroristi, secondo quanto riferito dalle autorita locali, sarebbero ancora allinterno del ristorante (assieme a gran parte dei corpi delle vittime), mentre almeno due di loro sarebbero rimasti uccisi in un tentato blitz da parte delle Forze dellordine che, dopo aver fatto irruzione e ridotto il numero dei terroristi, sono state costrette a ripiegare allesterno.

Le vittime

Inizialmente non chiaro il quadro della situazione: secondo quanto riportato, gli attentatori avrebbero tenuto sotto tiro alcuni ostaggi nei piani superiori delledificio, mentre i militari cingono la struttura dassedio allesterno, con uomini delle forze speciali e mezzi blindati. Il numero delle vittime e stato confermato alcune ore dopo lattacco dal ministro Remi Dandjinou, precisando che le persone rimaste uccise sono di diversa nazionalita: fra di loro ci sarebbero almeno due cittadini francesi. Nel frattempo, il guardasigilli degli Esteri francese, Le Drian, ha invitato i connazionali presenti in Burkina Faso (ex colonia francese) a tenersi alla larga dalla zona dellattentato. Nel frattempo, da Ankara e stato confermato che unaltra delle vittime risulta di nazionalita turca. Successivamente, a conclusione delle operazioni da parte delle Forze speciali, il numero dei terroristi uccisi si e fermato a due. Potrebbe trattarsi di affiliati al gruppo jihadista Al Qaeda.

Il precedente

Non e la prima volta che un commando di terroristi opera attacchi nella capitale dello Stato africano: nel gennaio 2016, infatti, un jihadista del gruppo di Al Qaeda del Maghreb isalmico aveva provocato 30 morti nel corso di un attentato, prendendo in ostaggio piu di 170 persone. In quelloccasione, il terrorista aveva preso come obiettivo il Cafe Cappuccino e lo Splendid Hotel, situati a pochissima distanza dal ristorante assalito in nottata, lungo la Kwame Nkrumah. Gran parte delle vittime erano di nazionalita straniera.
What Is a Severance Package?

Some job hunters may know how to negotiate salary and benefits when they are hired, but they may not realize they can negotiate such features when they depart from an organization. Most employers offer a severance agreement that outlines the financial terms on which the employee will leave the company. Negotiating a suitable agreement involves considering how to conduct yourself during discussions with the employer, the cash and benefits you need to survive, and whether to hire legal help.

Negotiating this accord can ease your transition to a new job, relieve stress, and possibly provide a nice financial cushion. However, a monetary arrangement isn't the only topic to discuss in these discussions; you should also consider continuing insurance benefits, assistance in finding another job, and other perks. Your power in this negotiation is that companies don't want you to bad-mouth them or sue. And they may not want you to work for, or share secrets with, their competitors.

Key Takeaways Most employers offer a severance agreement that defines the financial terms an employee will leave a company when their employment is terminated.

Severance agreements are not required by law, but employers tend to offer them as gestures of goodwill or to be competitive in their industries.

Continuation of insurance benefits, assistance finding another job, and other perks can also be negotiated as a severance agreement.

Typical severance packages offer one to two weeks of paid salary for every year worked.

You usually have 21 days to accept a severance agreement, and once it's signed, you have seven days to change your mind.

Planning Your Severance in Advance

If rumors of layoffs are circulating in your office, the option of quitting before the ax falls may tempt you, but staying may place you in a position to claim unemployment insurance and receive a severance package. Prepare in advance, whether you expect to be dismissed or not. Review your resources and your critical expenses to determine your financial needs. Create a list of the top benefits you want to negotiate. Examine the company's severance policy and make an effort to find out what former colleagues have received.

1:25 Click Play to Learn More About Severance Agreements

Steps You Should Take

If you are dismissed, take notes during the termination meeting and don't feel pressured to sign the severance agreement immediately. Stall for time to review the document and think it through. Typically, you will have 21 days to accept the agreement, and once it's signed, you have seven days to change your mind.

After an initial review of the agreement, you may decide to hire an employment law attorney, especially if you have evidence of discrimination, if the language in the package is too complicated or broad, or if the agreement is multiple pages long. Ask the lawyer which state laws govern severance agreements and if specific stipulations exist regarding timing and payment amounts. Also, talk to the local placement and recruitment agencies to determine how long it may take you to get a new job at the same level and salary.

What to Negotiate

Let's take a look at some of the terms you should negotiate once you've made sense of the agreement.

Severance Pay

The severance pay offered is typically one to two weeks for every year worked, but it can be more. If the job loss will create an economic hardship, discuss this with your (former) employer. The general practice is to try to get four weeks of severance pay for each year worked. Middle managers and executives usually receive a higher amount. Some executives, for example, may receive pay for more than a year.

If your lump-sum severance payment is considerable, it could push you into a higher tax bracket. If that's the case, you could ask that the payment be spread out over two years to reduce the tax bite.

Insurance Coverage

Try to extend your health, life, and disability insurance coverage. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) allows the continuation of the health insurance policy you had with your employer for 18 months (and longer in some months). The policy is usually costly since you now have to pay your employer's portion of the premiums as well as your own. However, as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the government has waived all premiums from April 1 through Sept. 30 in 2021 for people who have lost a job or had their hours cut.

Find out whether your employer can pay for your health coverage until you find a new job. You can also ask if the company can cover life insurance and disability income insurance for that period, or at least one month, before offering the continuance option.

Retirement/Pension Plans and Stock

What happens to your retirement plan, pension plan, and stock plan varies by state and by the employer. Request a copy of the policies and review them with your attorney.

Outplacement

Many employers provide outplacement services. Ask that the service remains with you until you find a new job and try to choose the service yourself. Specify what you'll need from the outplacement firm, such as one-on-one counseling services, retraining, a phone, an office, or secretarial support.

Announcement of Departure

Try to construct an agreed-upon announcement of your departure and a recommendation letter. Ask to draft the documents yourself, and make sure to include your major accomplishments. Attach the letters to the agreement.

Company Perks

Finally, find out if you can keep any company equipment, such as a laptop, and have the employer acknowledge this in writing. Some other perks to consider, if you've had them, include extending your use of the company car or your company-sponsored health club membership.

Unemployment Insurance

The Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program provides temporary financial assistance for unemployed workers. However, you must have lost the job through no fault of your own, and that's determined by state law. The benefits, which are taxable, usually last around 26 weeks, but a state may extend them when unemployment is high. Make sure your employer doesn't dispute your claim for this compensation.

While most companies offer a severance agreement, they are not always required to do so; laws can vary depending on the state.

Staying Ahead of the Game

One of the best times to alleviate the setback of a job loss is before starting the job. Stay prepared at all times for a job termination by keeping a track record of your performance and accomplishments to help in the negotiation process. When considering an offer, discuss whether the company offers severance and how it's provided. Also, stay informed of any updates to your employer's workplace policies, especially the severance agreement.

Finally, employees who are among a group reduction in force may or may not have more opportunities to negotiate the terms within the agreement. A standardized package may be offered in a mass layoff, and an employer is less likely to deviate from this contract. Still, numbers carry weight, and employees can band together to ask for a revision in terms.

What Is an Appropriate Severance Package? There is no single definition of an appropriate severance package, as they vary greatly by industry and company. However, severance packages typically include pay through the termination date and any accrued vacation time, unreimbursed business expenses, and an additional lump sum. By law, employers of a certain size must offer the opportunity to continue health care coverage under the company's plan at the ex-employee's expense.

Why Would a Company Offer a Severance Package? Companies typically offer severance packages as a gesture of goodwill and recognition of an employee's service. A severance package reduces the sting of termination. A company may also offer one to stay competitive in its industry. Finally, severance packages are provided to forestall lawsuits, as employees often sign a release, agreeing not to seek further compensation or pursue legal action, as part of the separation agreement.

How Are Severance Packages Calculated? Often, severance packages are calculated based on how long the employee has worked for the company. Employers develop their own formulas, using the time of servicefor example, two weeks of severance pay for every year of employment. Calculations may also be based on the employee's rank or position.

Should I Accept a Severance Package? Accepting a severance package is entirely up to the individual employee. Usually, it is the only way to receive any money beyond what you are owed in terms of wages, vacation pay, and expenses from your employer. Severance packages often demand you sign a release waiving any right to sue the company or pursue further claims against it. So you might not wish to accept a severance package if you think you have been wrongfully terminated or discriminated against, and you might want to take legal action in the future. You might also decline the severance package if you feel the terms are too onerous: It includes a non-compete clause, for example, preventing you from working for another firm in your field.

Never accept a severance package without examining it carefully, asking questions, and making sure you are fully satisfied with all the terms and conditions.

Can You Negotiate a Severance Package? You can always try to negotiate a severance package. You generally have 21 days to sign an agreement, so take your time to review all the provisions, to get a sense of what is standard in your industry in general and at that company in particular, and for those at your management level or with your years of experience.

Elements of a severance package that might be up for negotiation: Amount of severance pay

How severance is paid (installments or lump sum)

Coverage of healthcare plan costs

Exact date of termination

Vesting in a retirement plan or stock options

Outplacement or job-training services



The Bottom Line

If you are laid off from your job, it's just as important to negotiate on your way out as it is to negotiate on your way in. Because a former employer likely has an interest in making the process as civil as possible and maintaining its reputation as a good workplace, you'll often have some room to bargain.

Do some research to find out which severance benefits you can reasonably expect from your company, and then do your best to maximize them. (You also need to consider how most effectively to use any severance lump-sum payment, to avoid a large tax bite on it.) If you consult with an employment law attorney, it may help you get a sense of what is standard in your field or profession, or among employers of that size.

Don't hesitate to ask questionsor for more. Remember, you have nothing to lose, and you'll never know what you might get unless you request it.
What Is a Long Position?

The term long position describes what an investor has purchased when they buy a security or derivative with the expectation that it will rise in value.

Key Takeaways A longor a long positionrefers to the purchase of an asset with the expectation it will increase in valuea bullish attitude.

A long position in options contracts indicates the holder owns the underlying asset.

A long position is the opposite of a short position.

In options, being long can refer either to outright ownership of an asset or being the holder of an option on the asset.

Being long on a stock or bond investment is a measurement of time.

1:25 Long Position

Understanding a Long Position

Investors can establish long positions in securities such as stocks, mutual funds, or currencies, or even in derivatives such as options and futures. Holding a long position is a bullish view. A long position is the opposite of a short position (also known simply as "short").

The term long position is often used In the context of buying an options contract. The trader can hold either a long call or a long put option, depending on the outlook for the underlying asset of the option contract.

For example, an investor who hopes to benefit from an upward price movement in an asset will "go long" on a call option. The call gives the holder the option to buy the underlying asset at a certain price. Conversely, an investor who expects an assets price to fall will be long on a put optionand maintain the right to sell the asset at a certain price.

Types of Long Positions

In reality, long is an investing term that can have multiple meanings depending on in what context it is used. The most common meaning of long refers to the length of time an investment is held. However, the term long has a different meaning when used in options and futures contracts.

Long Position Holding an Investment

Going long on a stock or bond is the more conventional investing practice in the capital markets, especially for retail investors. With a long-position investment, the investor purchases an asset and owns it with the expectation that the price is going to rise. This investor normally has no plan to sell the security in the near future. In reference to holding equities, which have an inherent bias to rise, long can refer to a measurement of time as well as bullish intent.

An expectation that assets will appreciate in value in the long runthe buy and hold strategyspares the investor the need for constant market-watching or market-timing, and allows time to weather the inevitable ups and downs. Plus, history is on one's side, as the stock market inevitably appreciates over time.

Of course, that doesn't mean there can't be sharp, portfolio-decimating drops along the way which can be disastrous if one occurs right before an investor was planning to retireor needed to liquidate holdings for some reason. A prolonged bear market can also be troublesome, as it often favors short-sellers and those betting on declines.

Finally, going long in the outright-ownership sense means a good amount of capital is tied up, which could result in missing out on other opportunities.

Long Position Options Contracts

In terms of options contracts, a long position is one that benefits from a rise in the price of the underlying security. These include being long calls or short puts.

When a trader buys or holds a call options contract from an options writer, they are long, due to the power they hold in being able to buy the asset. An investor who is long a call option is one who buys a call with the expectation that the underlying security will increase in value. The long position call holder believes the asset's value is rising and may decide to exercise their option to buy it by the expiration date.

But not every trader who holds a long position believes the asset's value will increase. The trader who owns the underlying asset in their portfolio and believes the value will fall can buy a put option contract. They still have a long position because they have the ability to sell the underlying asset they hold in their portfolio. The holder of a long put option believes the price of an asset will fall. They hold the option with the hope that they will be able to sell the underlying asset at an advantageous price by the expiry.

So, as you can see, the long position on an options contract can express either a bullish or bearish sentiment depending on whether the long contract is a put or a call.

In contrast, the short position on an options contract does not own the stock or other underlying asset but borrows it with the expectation of selling it and then repurchasing it at a lower price.

Long Futures Contracts

Investors and businesses can also enter into a long forward or futures contract to hedge against adverse price movements. A company can employ a long hedge to lock in a purchase price for a commodity that is needed in the future. Futures differ from options in that the holder is obligated to buy or sell the underlying asset. They do not get to choose but must complete these actions.

Suppose a jewelry manufacturer believes the price of gold is poised to turn upwards in the short term. The firm can enter into a long futures contract with its gold supplier to purchase gold in three months from the supplier at $1,300. In three months, whether the price is above or below $1,300, the business that has a long position on gold futures is obligated to purchase the gold from the supplier at the agreed contract price of $1,300. The supplier, in turn, is obligated to deliver the physical commodity when the contract expires.

Speculators also go long on futures when they believe the prices will go up. They dont necessarily want the physical commodity, as they are only interested in capitalizing on the price movement. Before expiry, a speculator holding a long futures contract can sell the contract in the market.

Pros and Cons of a Long Position

Pros Locks in a price

Limits losses

Dovetails with historic market performance Cons Suffers in abrupt price changes/short-term moves

May expire before advantage is realized

Example of a Long Position

For example, let's say Jim expects Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) to increase in price and purchases 100 shares of it for his portfolio. Jim is therefore said to "be long" 100 shares of MSFT.

Now, let's consider a Nov. 17 call option on Microsoft (MSFT) with a $75 strike price and $1.30 premium. If Jim is still bullish on the stock, he may decide to purchase or go long one MSFT call optionone option equates to 100 sharesinstead of purchasing the shares outright as he did in the previous example.

At expiry, if MSFT is trading above the strike price plus the premium paid ($75 + $1.30), Jim will exercise his right to buy on his long option to purchase 100 shares of MSFT at $75. The writer of the options contractthe short positionthat Jim bought must sell him the 100 shares at the $75 price.

Taking a long position does not always mean that an investor expects to gain from an upward movement in the price of the asset or security. In the case of a put option, a downward trajectory in the price of the security is profitable for the investor.

Let's say another investor, Jane currently has a long position in MSFT for 100 shares in her portfolio but is now bearish on it. She takes a long position on one put option. The put option is trading for $2.15 and has a strike price of $75 set to expire on Nov. 17.

At the time of expiry, if MSFT drops below the strike price minus the premium paid ($75 - $2.15), Jane will exercise the long put option to sell her 100 MSFT shares for the strike price of $75. In this case, the option writer must buy Jane's shares at the agreed-upon $75 price, even if the shares are trading at less on the open market.

Where Can a Long Position Be Used? Investors can establish long positions in securities such as stocks, mutual funds, or any other asset or security. In reality, long is an investing term that can have multiple meanings depending on in what context it is used. Holding a long position is a bullish view in most instances with the exception of put options.
Egypt's Transport Minister Hisham Arafat said on Monday that Friday's deadly train collision was caused by manually operated systems and poor infrastructure

Egypt's transportation ministry aims to implement a EGP 3 billion project to equip trains with automated systems for making emergency stops without driver intervention, Transport Minister Hesham Arafat said on Monday.

Arafat announced the plan during a transport committee meeting in parliament to discuss Friday's train collision in Alexandria that killed at least 41 people and injured 179.

On Friday afternoon, a train travelling from Cairo to Alexandria crashed into the rear of another train en route to Alexandria from Port Said. The stationary train was at Khorshid station when the crash occurred.

On Saturday, Arafat said the collision was caused by the Egyptian railway's manual-operation system and poorly developed infrastructure.

During Monday's meeting, committee head Sa'id Ta'ima heavily criticized the minister, describing the collision as "an act of murder, not just neglect."

Arafat said he would not discuss the details or causes of the collision because the matter is still under investigation. However, he said the ministry is working to reduce reliance on the "human element", which he said is a key factor in train accidents.

Arafat said that Egypt's railway infrastructure has not been upgraded since the 1960s, and upgrading it was a "big responsibility".

"The ministry aims to develop 560 train crossings at a cost of EGP 2 billion, and a project to electrify railway signals costing EGP 2.4 billion," he said during Monday's meeting.

A total of EGP 45 billion will be spent on projects to develop Egypt's railway system in the coming years, he said, adding that the funding depended on investment from foreign companies.

On Monday, Egypt appointed Sayed Ibrahim Mohamed Salam as interim chief of the National Railway Authority, one day after the resignation of the authority's director after the deadly collision.

Egyptians have long complained that successive governments have failed to develop the countrys dilapidated transport network and guarantee basic railway safety standards.

Several deadly railway crashes have taken place in Egypt over the years. In 2012, a train ploughed into a school bus south of Cairo, killing 50 people, mostly children. The country's worst train disaster took place in 2002, when a fire swept through a passenger train, killing some 360 people.

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The issue of a customs border is expected to be tackled in Brexit discussions this week.

The British Government will reveal more plans about its exit from the European Union as British Prime Minister Theresa May returns from her summer break.
Two sisters believed to be missing with their father are thought to be in Northern Ireland, police in Scotland believe.

Eight-year-old Grace Elizabeth McKinney and Kara McKinney, five, are understood to be with their father Michael McKinney, his girlfriend Martina and Woody, three.
Two men have appeared before Dublin District court this morning charged with conspiracy to murder.

Steven Dunne (38) of Meile an Ri Drive, South Lucan, Balgaddy, Dublin and 34-year-old Garry Gleeson of 66 Muskerry Road, Ballyfermot have been charged with possession of a semi automatic pistol, ammunition and intent to endanger life.
Hundreds of people have gathered in an ancient forest in Poland to protest against widespread logging the government has ordered in the area.

The Bialowieza Forest, one of Europe's last primeval woodlands and a Unesco World Heritage Site, is the subject of heated political dispute over the logging ordered by Poland's conservative ruling Law and Justice party.
Jeremy Corbyn is hitting the Home Counties with a promise to tackle the housing crisis as he continues his blitz of marginal parliamentary seats.

The Labour leader is campaigning to unseat Tory MPs with slim majorities in Reading and Milton Keynes under a plan to keep his party on a general election footing.

Mr Corbyn will highlight rocketing house prices and attack the Government for "giving tax breaks to the wealthy".

At a rally in Milton Keynes, he is expected to say: "The Conservative Government has spent seven years giving tax breaks to the wealthy, who don't need them, while making it harder for most people in our country to make ends meet.

"Here in Milton Keynes, like so many towns and cities across the country, the cost of housing is sky-rocketing - house prices have gone up 50% in five years.

"The next Labour government will tackle the housing crisis.

"We will create a new Department for Housing and build 100,000 homes a year by the end of the next Parliament.

"Housing should be about homes for the many, not investment opportunities for the few.

"Commuters from Milton Keynes to London have seen rail fares increasing faster than their wages year in, year out.

"Labour will bring down fares by returning our rail system to public ownership, putting more money in people's pockets and making sure our railways are run in the interests of people, not profit.

"The Government has no plan to help people struggling to get by.

"The price of everyday goods keeps going up faster than wages.

"Labour will introduce a real living wage of 10 an hour, scrap the public sector pay cap and take action to reduce utility bills through bringing public services back into public hands, to keep household costs down.

"Labour is campaigning right across our country this summer, putting forward our plan for a country that works for the many not the few."

The Conservatives held Reading West with a majority of 2,876 and Milton Keynes North with 1,915 votes.

AP
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has urged his supporters to skip work on Monday to protest against what he claims were rigged elections that gave victory to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

But the government has denounced violent demonstrations as unlawful and urged Kenyans to return to their jobs.

Mr Odinga addressed a cheering crowd in Nairobi's Kibera slum, an opposition stronghold and a frequent scene of clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police firing live ammunition and tear gas since the August 8 election in which Mr Kenyatta was declared the winner.

Mr Odinga's defiance has fuelled continuing uncertainty in Kenya, an East African economic hub whose reputation for stability has been shaken by election violence and court challenges in the past.

"There is no work until Tuesday, when we will announce the next step," said Mr Odinga, who previously claimed that last week's vote was rigged and has unsuccessfully run for president on three previous occasions.

Kenya's election commission said its process was fair, and international observers praised its handling of the election.

Late on Sunday, machete-wielding members of two rival ethnic groups - Luos and Kikuyus - confronted each other in Mathare, another Nairobi slum, witnesses said.

A journalist in the area said he saw a Luo who had a deep machete cut in his head after he was attacked by Kikuyus.

While most of Kenya has been calm since the election, the possibility of an outbreak of ethnic violence has been a concern because many Kenyans vote along ethnic lines. Mr Kenyatta is a Kikuyu while Mr Odinga is a Luo.

More than 1,000 people died in ethnic-fuelled violence following Kenya's 2007 election. Mr Odinga was the losing candidate in that vote, and was later made prime minister in a power-sharing agreement designed to defuse tension.

The opposition leader's announcement about his "next step" left Kenyans wondering whether Mr Odinga will press his case that there was vote-tampering and even escalate the situation by calling for protests.

One of his deputies previously ruled out the option of going to court, recalling Mr Odinga's unsuccessful legal challenge after he lost the 2013 election. Some analysts believe it is unlikely that he would effectively acknowledge defeat at this stage.

Mr Odinga's call for followers not to work on Monday will test his ability to mobilise his support base; it could also lead to tension if some supporters try to stop other people from going about their daily business.

Police gunfire has killed at least 24 people since the election, according to the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, which monitors government institutions. However police denied the report on Sunday, saying police have killed six "criminals" who were looting, rioting and attacking police officers in the past two days.

AP
The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said on Sunday it was time for political leaders to accept the survival of Syrian president Bashar Assad's government.

Hezbollah general secretary Hassan Nasrallah, addressing a rally held in Lebanon's southern Marjayoun district, advised the Lebanese government to normalise ties with its war-torn neighbour.
Egypt will open its border crossing with Gaza for four days starting Monday, state news agency MENA reported.

Earlier today, Al-Ahram Arabic website quoted a Hamas delegation currently in Cairo as saying that the Rafah crossing would open for two days starting Wednesday, in one direction only, for Palestinians to enter the Gaza Strip.

According to the subsequent MENA report, the crossing will be open for four days, beginning on Monday, for Palestinian pilgrims to cross from Gaza to Egypt, in preparation for the hajj pilgrimage season in September.

There are also unconfirmed media reports that Palestinians will be able to cross into Gaza on Wednesday and Thursday.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Friday for talks with officials, according to media reports.

Egypt has kept its border with the Gaza Strip largely closed for security reasons since the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The crossing in northern Sinai is the only way for 1.8 million Palestinians living in Israeli-besieged Gaza to enter and exit the enclave, as it is the only terminal not controlled by Israel.

Cairo periodically opens the border to allow civilians with foreign passports, Palestinian students, and those with medical needs to travel back and forth.

The crossing was last opened temporarily in early July.

The border openings in recent months have come amid signs of improving ties between Cairo and Gaza's governing group Hamas.

In late January, Hamas leader Mahmoud El-Zahar said that Palestinian and Egyptian officials had reached a border control agreement.

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August is a quiet month. It can also be a cruel one, offering up bumper harvests for those of us hungry for hard news. After all, it was in the dog days of August 1914 that World War One was unleashed.

Several decades later, the skids were under the Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev and the USSR after coup plotters sent tanks onto the streets.

Almost exactly a decade ago, the Great Recession kicked off when, on August 9, the French bank, BNP Paribas, suspended three funds with major exposure to bonds backed by US sub prime mortgages.

It was followed in weeks by the run on the Northern English-based lender Northern Rock, the first, widely publicised at least, run on a UK bank in 150 years.

The sight of depositors lined up on the street outside its Dublin branch was unsettling.

Up to that point, it had been a standard enough year.

A student ran amok on the Virginia Tech campus killing over 30 people.

Helen Mirren bagged an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II. The first Apple iPhone went on sale. Rupert Murdoch snapped up Dow Jones, publisher of the the Wall Street Journal.

A bad drought in Australia pushed up global wheat prices.

But something more dangerous was stirring in the undergrowth.

Tremors began to be felt in the US housing market. Prices started to fall - by up to 15% in some areas.

In Ireland, house builders were beginning to feel the chill.

In January 2008, builders gathered in the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin to consider their predicament.

It was possible to smell the fear around the hall, that night.

Within months, our economy was in free fall.

Fast forward to mid-August 2017. Global growth looks solid enough.

The eurozone crisis has abated  for now. The pressure points are largely on the political side.

Could another financial crisis emerge? Of course.

According to Alistair Darling, the British chancellor in 2007 and 2008, the next crisis will probably come from where it was not expected, from causes that havent yet been identified. The lesson from 10 years ago is that something that starts as an apparently small ripple in the water can become mountainous seas very quickly.

As he told the BBC, the scariest moment for him took the form of a phone conversation, in September 2008, with Tom McKillop, then chairman of Ulster Bank-owner the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

The conservation involved RBS being a bank about the same size as the entire British economy.

Mr McKillop let it be known that his bank would run out of money early that afternoon. Not much notice, then.

There could be plenty of early warning signs.

Ireland ran a deficit on its current account of almost 6% in 2007. We were living beyond our means.

The annual budget deficit in the US was a sizeable 5%.

Diced up mortgages in the US were just part of a larger consumer bubble.

The Chinese balance of payments surplus at the time was around 10%. It has come down considerably since then.

We clawed our way back to recovery in Ireland, with balance of payments surpluses signalling progress.

The process was painful.

Meanwhile, the UK is currently running current account deficits and there is an overhang of personal debt.

Could a mishandled Brexit help to trigger a recession of the size of the early 1990s, triggering problems in Ireland, even in the event of an agreed UK departure from the EU?

Such a scenario is easy to envisage.

Former Goldman Sachs economist Jim ONeill believes that the global economy, at least, is much healthier than 10 years ago when he had warned of trouble ahead.

However, the Bank for International Settlements  which last time out failed to raise many red flags  this time has warned that we face a stiff test as central banks ease back on their quantitative easing policies which have helped to keep world interest rates at rock-bottom levels.

Interest rates are on the turn and recent dollar weakness may embolden the US central bank to act.

Fears about China, other fast developing economies, and Europes banks and struggling peripheral countries have abated for now.

Can we rely on this to continue?

Ireland has certainly rebounded since 2012, but the economy remains vulnerable to a broader based meltdown, where say, real interest rates rise as investors seek safe havens.

A year ago, Irish household disposable income was still 7% below the 2007 peak.

Ireland is still one of the most over- borrowed countries in Europe, in terms of the Government debt burden, indebted companies and households.

The national debt clock has ticked past the 203bn mark and when flattering official GDP figures are discounted, it stands, official figures show, still at over 100% of the real size of the economy.

Thanks to unsustainable mortgage debt, Irish home owners are around the third most indebted in the eurozone.

The long recession has also been accompanied by an accumulation in deficits in infrastructure, social and physical.

Then there are the psychological scars from the crash.

Ireland has moved forward, but remains highly vulnerable.

The economy is a bit like central Dublin at the moment  a rather messy work in progress.
Last year alone, 622,960 was spent on the cosmetic fat-removal procedures for 134 patients in state-run hospitals.

The treatment involves the surgical removal of fat from particular parts of the body  such as the thighs, buttocks, or abdomen.

The Health Service Executives website describes liposuction as a cosmetic procedure carried out to improve a persons appearance, rather than their health. The aim of the procedure is not to reduce weight but to improve your figure.

Records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal 4,562,524 was spent on liposuction and lipectomy procedures in public hospitals between 2009 and 2016. A total of 1,011 patients availed of the fat-removal procedures, reaching a peak of 159 in 2015 at a cost of 756,942 before falling last year to 134 and a total spend of 622,960.

The number of patients undergoing liposuction surgery has increased by 50 percent since 2011, when 89 people received the treatment at a cost of 437,799.

The HSE did not provide a comment in response to queries relating to the provision of liposuction in public hospitals. However, the agency has previously stated that procedures of this nature are carried out on the basis of a clinical diagnosis by a consultant.

The HSE provides and sometimes funds surgery aimed at correcting disfigurement or restoring function lost as a result of accidents, birth defects, or treatment of disease, or in some cases due to psychological distress, which would be diagnosed by a consultant plastic surgeon, it has said.

Most liposuction is performed under general anaesthetic unless the area being treated is confined to the lower body, in which case an epidural can be used.
The rebuke of the claims is contained in a series of emails between the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence, which has been seen by the Irish Examiner.

The State faces legal action from several former Air Corps technicians who claim the Defence Forces failed to adequately protect them from the harmful effects of the toxic chemicals they used on a daily basis.

Four whistleblowers have made protected disclosures on health and safety issues within the Air Corps  with two alleging that inspection reports show the Defence Forces were aware of safety shortcomings in the 1990s were deliberately destroyed as part of a cover-up.

However, Comdt Mark Donnelly, the Air Corps formation safety adviser, rejected these claims, and said the missing reports were misplaced with the passage of time.

AC Formation and former Formation safety personnel have already commented on their concerns regarding these allegations, Comdt Donnelly wrote in an email on March 8.

These allegations of deliberate destruction of such documents are completely unfounded. It is my opinion that these comments are intended to be inflammatory, vexatious and malicious.

The email is one of a number of correspondences released to Sinn Feins defence spokesman, Aengus O Snodaigh, who submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Defence seeking all documents relating to the departments attempts to find the documents.

The majority of the correspondences discuss a previous request from this newspaper for the release of the reports and detail the failure to locate the documents in question.

Responding to Mr O Snodaighs Dail query on June 20, junior defence minister Paul Kehoe said the reports may have been misplaced over time and ruled out an independent investigation into their disappearance.

However, correspondence between the Defence Forces and the department in May suggest the decision not to hold any such probe was made by the military authorities and not the minister.

Mr O Snodaigh said the content of the emails doesnt reassure him that all efforts have been made to establish what happened to the documents.

He said whistleblowers have provided him with copies they obtained of the missing reports, and that he has passed these onto Mr Kehoe and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
A review, last year, of the Irish Maritime and Energy Research Cluster, in Ringaskiddy, concluded that its operations were creating difficulties and would damage the original aim of its sponsors.

IMERC was established in 2010, jointly by UCC, Cork Institute of Technology, and the Irish Naval Service, to promote Ireland as a world-renowned research and development location. The aim was to unlock the countrys maritime and energy potential.

The review, commissioned by UCC and CIT, found the governance of IMERC was inadequate in providing direction to staff and guidance to key stakeholders, which include the National Maritime College of Ireland, a constituent part of CIT, and the Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI).

It warned that UCC, CIT, and the Irish Naval Service were being exposed to reputational and financial risk by poor public procurement, poor public relations, and poor financial management at IMERC.

The report said such deficiencies needed to be rectified to prevent damage to the reputation of Irelands maritime and marine sectors. Details of the report have only become public since the information about the operation of IMERC was sought by the Dail Public Accounts Committee. There was confusion about IMERC and its relation to the NMCI and MaREI.

The review group found that IMERCs mission and aims were too broad and vague, which had facilitated the development of a widely held sense of mission creep.

Key stakeholders expressed concern that the achievements of their distinct entities were often claimed by the institutional IMERC brand to the detriment of their institutions and the potential alienation of their funders, the report said.

UCC and CIT provided 750,000 per annum to IMERC, while the Irish Naval Service provided staff and collaboration.

The report said there was no shared understanding on the use of brand identities, and the lack of a coherent approach had fostered mistrust. The report warned that IMERC was having a potentially detrimental effect on MaREI, as it was causing confusion amongst potential collaborative partners.

Similarly, they believed IMERC posed a threat to the future of the NMCI.

The report claimed IMERC had become real estate-focused, with less attention on encouraging participation in research and innovation.

It found the role of IMERCs governing authority was unclear.

UCC president, Patrick OShea, said that IMERC no longer had any budget or staffing and its incubation facility, at Ringaskiddy, was now managed jointly by UCC and CIT.
We need to provide solutions beyond the hospital setting, said Aine Carrroll, HSE national director of clinical strategy and programmes division.

We use our hospitals as a default position for every health complaint, ranging from acute health episodes to domestic violence issues.

That is not the best solution for good sustainable healthcare. In fact, it can cause harm.

Dr Carroll was speaking to Health Manager, the journal of the Health Management Institute of Ireland.

Around the world, she said, 25% of patients suffered harm by being in a hospital system, so it was wrong for Ireland to continue with a hospital centric model.

Dr Carroll said Ireland faced real challenges with its ageing population, with chronic diseases, obesity and with a cultural attitude to alcohol consumption.

We have significant problems with health inequality... and we need to think societally about how we tackle these and the social determinants of health, she said.

We also have issues with a fragmented healthcare system and services that are often organised around the needs and demands of hospitals rather than patients and that is a real problem.

Patients have said... we are not providing patient-centred health care and we have listened to that.

However, slow incremental change was vital to sustain any desired change, and if they wanted a different performance, the system must be modified.

Change began with the National Clinical Programmes pursuing the quadruple aim  better outcomes, improved the clinical experience, lower costs, and better patient experience.

You cannot have improved patient experience without improved clinician experience, and I would say improved management experience also, said Dr Carroll.

More than 30 national clinical programmes had been established since 2010, and they were having a remarkable impact on the Irish healthcare system.

The work of the programmes had ensured that:
Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the low numbers  seven times fewer than the EU average  meant delays that threatened the right to a hearing within a reasonable time.

A hearing within a reasonable time is only possible if there are enough judges, relative to the amount of litigation being undertaken, to allow capacity in the system to deal with all cases and appeals promptly, he said.

Ireland has the lowest number of judges per head of population in Europe and among the lowest in the world. One has to respectfully ask is Ireland living up to the requirement of having enough judges to allow all hearings to take place within a reasonable time? Unfortunately I have to suggest not.

Mr Justice Humphreys was speaking in a personal capacity at the opening of the Parnell Summer School in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow.

There are, at present, 163 judges to cover a population of 4.8m people, or only 34 judges per million people, he said. That puts Ireland firmly in the bottom layer of the international league table and rock bottom of the European league table.

The average number of professional judges in European countries is 700% of the Irish figure per capita.

Irelands exceptionally weak position in terms of number of judges per capita seems to have passed under the radar of public consciousness. In my view the single biggest thing the Oireachtas could do to improve the quality of justice in Ireland is to legislate to provide for additional judicial posts.

Irelands low judicial headcount has been noted repeatedly in the reports of the Council of Europes European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice.

The Courts Service has also acknowleged a problem with waiting times, particularly in the higher courts.

In the last few years, several extra High Court judges have been appointed and a dedicated Court of Appeal and second Special Criminal Court were established to help speed up the process.

Outgoing Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, last month said court activity was up in some areas, with a 15% rise in personal injury cases in one year and a 125% rise in debt resolution cases over two years. However, waiting times were lower in the Supreme Court, Special Criminal Court, and Central Criminal Court.

Mr Justice Humphreys said the impact of the judge shortage was wide.

The real losers from the lack of an adequate number of judges are parties to litigation, and in that regard the State is the biggest loser of all from inadequate numbers of judges, he said.

He said his remarks were not a criticism but a consciousness-raising exercise.

I hope the other branches of government will take these remarks in the constructive spirit I intend and that there can be a beneficial dialogue between the judiciary more broadly and the legislature and executive so as to ensure the common goal of creating the infrastructure necessary to promote justice can be achieved, said the top judge.
Venezuela, which sits atop the worlds largest proven oil reserves, was once one of Latin Americas most prosperous countries. Though it was hardly a paragon of democracy, it did make strides toward building solid institutions.

Then, in 1999, the former tank commander Hugo Chavez came to power. And before his death in 2013, he selected his successor: Nicolas Maduro, a sorry, bloodthirsty Chavez clone, who assumed the presidency after a bogus election, and has ruled the country ever since.

Today, the world watches as the Venezuelan dream becomes a nightmare, as a mix of incompetence and stupidity brings everything  the political system, the economy, and society  crashing down. It watches as Venezuela is carved up by a Bolivarian oligarchy that is beholden to a Cuba that has itself been bled dry, and no longer believes in its own political model.

It watches as Maduro, the tinpot Liberator, appropriates revenues from the national oil company to finance his clientelism, and to top off opaque funds that are managed without oversight by his regimes satraps.

Under Maduro, Venezuela has joined the pack of countries headed for mass poverty. Its rate of inflation, to cite just one indicator, now rivals that of Zimbabwe.

One is reminded of Cockaigne, that mythical land where gold  the yellow oil  flows freely, or of El Dorado, that lost city of gold visited by Candide. But the myth of El Dorado  as recounted by Luis Sepulveda, Alejo Carpentier, and others  never ends well.

Venezuela  its own kind of El Dorado  will pay a heavy price, once Maduro has drained it dry. Already, it faces escalating violence that has brought it to the brink of civil war.

In just the last few weeks, 124 protestors have died. Opposition figures have been persecuted, dismissed, kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured in police stations and jails. Adding insult to injury, an electoral farce recently handed Maduro a deconstituent assembly with the power to dismantle the countrys fragile institutional balance.

In the face of this disaster, two questions come to mind. The first reflects my French perspective, but can also be applied to other Western countries. How long, one wonders, will Jean-Luc Melenchon  a contender in Frances presidential election last spring, who now aspires to lead the opposition as the head of La France Insoumise, a left-wing populist party whose name translates roughly as rebellious France  continue to sing the praises of Venezuelas murderous regime?

One wonders how many people have to die before Melenchon calls a spade a spade, and acknowledges that Maduros security forces are no different from those that sowed terror in Chile and Argentina not too long ago.

What would it take for Melenchon to accept that Venezuelas brutal regime was never a proper source of inspiration, or acknowledge that his presidential-campaign proposal to enter into a Bolivarian alliance  to cozy up to the heirs of the dear, departed caudillos, Castro and Chavez  was a really bad idea?

For the moment, it seems as though nothing will change Melenchons mind. Like Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, and Jeremy Corbyn in Great Britain, Melenchon and his rebellious followers seem to believe that bloody hands can be excused in the struggle against imperialism.

Worse, when they do speak out, it is either to blame the victims or to denounce disinformation. For example, Djordje Kuzmanovic, a sinister spokesman for Melenchons party, has compared peaceful Venezuelan protestors to the putschists who delivered Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in 1973.

Similarly, Alexis Corbiere, a newly elected far-left member of the French National Assembly, has layered shame on top of cowardice by insulting the Venezuelans who have died for democracy and the rule of law.

He has implied that they were merely young people from fancy neighbourhoods who got what they deserved; and he has dismissed the governments savage attacks on the opposition by musing that, sometimes people get burned. The statements from Melenchon and his confederates are unworthy of any party that wishes to be viewed as the opposition in France.

My second question is addressed to the international community, which has at least two reasons to take an interest in Venezuelas plight. The first is the responsibility to protect, as spelled out in the Charter of the United Nations. UN member states should uphold this principle by sending a strong signal to Maduros government to end the current violence.

To that end, the Security Council needs to muster the courage to issue a clear statement of condemnation against the regime. Venezuelan opposition leaders who still enjoy freedom of movement in Paris, Madrid, and Washington, DC, should be extended official welcomes.

French, Spanish, and American foreign ministries should express their solidarity with the Venezuelan legislature, which Maduros coup by constituent assembly threatens to dissolve. And, of course, the toothless warnings from Mercosur and US President Donald Trumps timid saber-rattling should be replaced with sanctions.

Second, the situation in Venezuela should concern all countries that have an interest in the fight against terrorism, and the money-laundering networks that finance it.

After all, what purpose was served by the Bolivarian alliance between Chavez and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? And where have the members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia gone? Just before his death, the FARC leader Ivan Rios told me that many FARC militants had been sent on a mission to the country of twenty-first century socialism.

More recently, certain leaders of the anti-Chavista opposition  now exiled to the wilderness, for the time being  have alleged that Maduros regime has deep ties to North Korea, Bashar al-Assads regime in Syria, and the freelancing militant group Hezbollah. Should we put stock in these claims?

These are all questions that must be asked  and answered. We know from past experience that no act is too depraved for a desperate regime. At a minimum, Venezuelas slow-motion coup detat warrants commissions of inquiry in the spirit of the Russell Tribunal, and greater interest from the Western media  not the embarrassed silence with which the international community has responded so far.

Bernard-Henri Levy is one of the founders of the Nouveaux Philosophes (New Philosophers) movement.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
For a while it seemed we were doomed, but turns out it was just the weather. Nothing to do with either climate or change. I will be reminding myself of this as we drive to the exact corner of the South of France that has just gone up in flames.

The very campsite where we are headed, which we visit annually like migrating wildebeest programmed to return to the same beach year after year, is the one recently evacuated as the weather turned the surrounding hills into a raging inferno more usually involving koalas with burnt paws. Not temperate, moderate France. And yet here it is, this extreme weather, burning down our holiday. Instead of immolated koalas, it was French-speaking Hermanns tortoises who perished, too ponderous to hoof it into the Med to save themselves.
A joint military Egyptian-Kuwaiti military exercise between the two nations air forces was concluded on Monday in Egyptian airspace, a statement from the Egyptian military spokesman read.

The Yarmouk 3 drills, which began last week, "aimed at supporting and strengthening cooperation and coordination between the air forces of both sides, measuring the readiness of the forces to carry out joint air operations against hostile targets, and sharing experiences," according to the statement.

The exercises included a series of lectures to unify combat concepts and exchange training experiences, carrying out offensive and defensive sorties, conducting aerial reconnaissance and flight formations, and defending vital targets via various aerial combat methods.

The training exercise was witnessed by commander of the Egyptian air force, Younis El-Masri, and the commander of the Kuwaiti air force, Abdullah Al-Foudri.

The final training session was attended by a number of leaders of the Egyptian armed forces.

The previous round of the joint Egyptian-Kuwaiti Yarmouk military exercises was held in April 2016 in Kuwait.

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The European Unions (EUs) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into full effect May 25, 2018, and it impacts any company, worldwide, that processes or stores personal data of EU residents.

The new rules grant people more rights regarding how companies handle their personally identifiable information (PII), and it imposes heavy fines for non-compliance and data breaches--up to 4 percent of a companys yearly revenue. The GDPR also requires that companies report data breaches within a 72-hour window. (See General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, deadlines and facts for more specifics on the regulation.)

Even if you dont do business with the EU, its likely to have impact on global security standards going forward. Consequently, companies working in the EU or with GDPR-impacted data are quickly trying to come into compliance ahead of time. For security teams, this means making sure that PII is adequately protected and that the proper reporting processes are in place.

As Brian Vecci, Technology Evangelist for Varonis says, Most companies arent prepared at all. Youve got companies sitting in the midwest of the United States, that because someone from the EU signed up for their newsletter, are suddenly subject to one of the most onerous privacy regulations ever. Thats what I so grand about the GDPR. It cuts across all verticals. It doesnt just impact financial organizations, or hospitals. If you have PII from one of the 28 member states, then it impacts your organization.

For good or bad, GDPR does not define any specific data protection controls that an organization must follow. Each organization is allowed to determine, for itself, the necessary security controls for the collected data, confidentiality and risk.

Olivier Van Hoof, Pre-Sales Manager of Europe for Collibra says GDPR starts with data governance, Youve got to put a data governance platform in place before you can really begin to secure the data. Its a lot more than just technically securing the data. Most organizations are beginning by looking at their business processes first, then looking at the logical processes that collect the data, and then to the physical data itself. GDPR is also about understanding that the data is really owned by the individual. Youre really just hosting the data.

What does GDPR mean by personal data?

The definition of personal data under the GDPR is very broad, far more so than most other countrys current or previously existing personal data protections. It includes any information relating to a specific individual, whether that data is private, public, or professional in nature. It applies not only to names, addresses and financial information, but anything that could identify an individual (e.g., IP addresses, logon IDs, biometric identifiers, geographic location data, video footage, customer loyalty histories, social media posts and photos). If it is identifiable to a specific individual, its included.

The impact of the GDPR means that you not only are going to have to protect more types of data in the future, but expend more effort in identifying existing data that perhaps wasnt considered PII before. Vecci says, Before even if you had PII from one of the EU states, what you had collected might not have been considered PII in that country. Now, all of sudden starting in May, it is PII.

GDPR-impacted companies will need to identify, to the best of their abilities, information that was not tracked or indexed before. For example, a recorded customer support call may need to be located, protected, tracked, and reported.

What are the new user rights for PII?

Documented opt-in consent must be given for every person (or their legal guardian). The consent must explicitly identify the data collected, what it is used for, and how long it will be kept. Further, participants can remove their consent at any time and request that their personal data be deleted (as long as they supply one of the approved reasons).

Under the GDPR, individuals may also control what happens with their PII. Besides the ability to request that it be deleted, they can get factual errors corrected, see what data of theirs is stored, and even export it for their personal review and use. These important rights are net new for most organizations.

Vecci sees most companies initially just trying to understand how big of an GDPR issue they have. They dont know what they dont know. They need to find out where the data is stored and whether it is covered by GDPR. Then they have to least-privilege protect it and track it. Luckily, my company Varonis has been doing exactly that since the beginning. We specialize in not only finding the data, but determining who has access to what, and whether they need access to the data. With other data protection regulations it was enough to keep the data safe from the outside. Now it has to be better secured on the inside, because Article 25 of the GDPR says the data has to be least privilege protected by design and by default. And you cant do that without first understanding where it is and who can access it.

What do consumers think about protecting their PII

Companies have consistently favored ease of use over security when designing online systems that interact with consumers. They understandably want consumers to have have a positive experience, especially during a transaction such as a purchase or accessing an account. They believed that consumers had the same priorities.

That might be changing. A recent study by identity verification company Trulioo found that more consumers are worried that companies prioritize speed over security. In fact, 71% of respondents said that security was the most important factor when opening a new account. Fear of being a victim of fraud is the main driving factor, as 76% percent of the respondents said they felt at greater risk than a year ago.

Only 49%, however, said transparency around the collection and use of their PII was now more important to them. This is despite the fact that 72% said they believed their personal information was for sale online.

Can hackers exploit GDPR rules around PII?

Yes! Security researcher and Oxford University student James Pavur demonstrated at the recent Black Hat conference how he was able to gather his fiance's PII from multiple organizations using GDPR requests (with her permission).

This bit of social engineering proved effective and not very challenging for Pavur. Of the 150 GDPR requests sent, 24% of the organizations accepted his fiance's email address and phone number as proof of identity. He was able to get her social security number, credit card number and expiration date, account passwords, date of birth, and mother's maiden name--enough to do some real damage.

How does the GDPR affect the structure of security teams?

The GDPR defines multiple roles with rules and responsibilities for each role. A data subject is an individual whose personal data is being collected. A data controller is the organization that collects the data. A processor is an organization that processes the data on behalf of a data controller. Controllers and processors must maintain written records of what data was collected, how it was appropriately collected, how it was used, and when it was disposed of.

Although great for data subjects control and privacy, most companies do not already have these types of data protection tracking systems. Security teams will have to not only protect the data against traditional threats, but do so in a way that is transparent, documented, and retrievable to possibly large numbers of data subjects, all while maintaining strong security of the data. Every computer security team member will have to be trained in GDPR compliance and what it means to the organizations existing and future security controls.

Many of the participating enterprises, private and public, must have an official data protection officer (DPO). The DPO is a key figure in not only maintaining legal compliance to the GDPR, but needs the technical knowledge or staff to secure data and ensure business continuity. The DPO is expected to operate independent of the organization that employs him or her. The EU felt the DPO position was crucial enough that they issued a separate, more detailed 18-page document about the position.

The DPO position might seem a natural fit for a CSO, and it might be. CSOs are certainly familiar with technical computer security requirements and controls, as well as interfacing with top management. But a DPO has to have a strong understanding of privacy and compliance requirements, which is typically better understand by chief privacy officers (CPO) or other privacy advocates. On the other hand, privacy officers may not understand the technical side of things. Smaller businesses, with much smaller management teams, may end appointing the employee with the best fit, like a comptroller, or even choose an external DPO, which may or may not work with other companies, as well. In all cases, the GDPR requires that the DPO be an independent auditor of compliance and be directly accessible to the data subjects, the complying organization, and GDPR supervisors. When data is collected from the subject, the contact details of the entitys controller and DPO must be given.

Van Hoof says, Most large European companies have already hired DPOs, but Ive seen outsourced DPOs or shared DPOs by smaller and medium-sized businesses.

Data protection and processing records must be kept and made available for routine and regular inspection, not only by auditors, but by individual data subjects. How will a complying entity ensure that the records are available for individual private inspection, while at the same time kept secure from unauthorized viewers? Will each individual subject require a new identity management tracking and access control system, for what could be potentially millions of data subjects? Probably, at the very least. Or could an organization meet the GDPR requirements by simply printing out an individuals records and mailing a hard copy to them? These are the important details the DPO, management and security team must work out.

[Related: What are the GDPR requirements?]

National data protection authority

Each participating country (also known as a member state) has a national data protection authority (DPA). DPAs are responsible for determining compliance and enforcing relevant laws at a national level, but are required to be very independent, even of their nations own government control. Tricky stuff.

Member states may have one or more national DPAs for complying entities to choose. Each entity can choose one DPA, which regulates GDPR compliance for the entire entity, regardless of how many member states the company operates in or derives its data from (something known as one-stop-shop). The lead supervisor authority has the ability to control data processing and protection happening in other member states. Some critics correctly note that companies operating in multi-member states may shop for the most flexible DPA with which to operate, much like they already do for lower taxation and organizational independence today.

Some experts arent sure how much benefit would be gleaned by DPA shopping. Van Hoof says, Youre going to see a lot of coordination and communication among DPAs from the different countries. Although there are going to be some differences among DPAs in each country because of their local laws and regulations, 95 percent of what they do will be general and the same no matter what country.

DPAs were established under a previous EU data protection law, but significantly strengthened under the GDPR. The DPAs are essentially the official regulators, and police in the GDPR scheme. The DPA helps decide on matters of law, and it can investigate companies for potential violations and hold controllers or processors legally responsible for GDPR violations and assess penalties. It also decides if an entity can transfer data outside of the EU, and if so, what protections must be applied. For a particular organization, their DPO is likely to be the primary contact to the DPA and vice-versa. Because of the inherent responsibilities, both the DPO, and especially the DPA, are likely to be composed of teams of people and not a single person.

If a data subject feels a violation has occurred they can contact either the DPO or DPA, which was selected by the involved company and communicated to the subject. This can be awkward in practice, as a controllers or processors DPO or DPA may not be in the same country or speak the same language, as the subject.

Data breaches must be reported quickly

Personal data breaches (including theft, data loss, destruction, or adulteration) must be reported immediately, or at least within 72 hours, to the lead supervisor authority (i.e., DPA). The impacted individuals must be notified if an adverse impact is expected. However, if the data is appropriately encrypted or anonymized, and that ultimate protection has not been breached, then the individuals do not have to be notified.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi praised bilateral relations between Egypt and Tanzania in Dar El-Salam on Monday and called for closer economic and trade cooperation.

"We aspire to reinforce relations between the two countries in order to combat corruption," El-Sisi said, speaking during a press conference with Tanzanian President John Magufuli in the countrys capital, where he arrived on Monday.

El-Sisi said Egypt aspires to increase mutual investments and trade, especially in fields of agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, metallurgical wealth, and sustainable development.

He also mentioned the developmental projects that Egypt is carrying out in Tanzania, including those of the Egyptian irrigation ministry, and those by the Egyptian private sector in the areas of construction and infrastructure.

"We are taking all required procedures to reinforce the exchange of trade between Egypt and Tanzania," El-Sisi said.

The Egyptian president has also praised the role Tanzania plays in several continental areas, such as support for Burundi and as a host of African refugees.

El-Sisi said he had invited Magufuli to visit Egypt in order to reinforce bilateral cooperation on the peace and security of the African continent, as well as consultation over regional issues of mutual concern.

Tanzania is the first stop for El-Sisi on a four-country African tour this week; he is also scheduled to visit Rwanda, Chad, and Gabon.

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Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano announced on Monday that an Italian ambassador would return to Cairo more than a year after the envoy was recalled in the wake of the killing of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni.

In a short statement published on the official website of the Italian foreign ministry, Alfano said that in light of the recent developments in the cooperation between Egyptian and Italian investigatory authorities regarding Regenis murder, the Italian government had decided to send Ambassador Giampaolo Cantini to the Egyptian capital.

The Italian foreign minister referred in his statement to a joint statement issued by the Egyptian prosecutor-general and his Italian counterpart on Monday regarding the developments in the murder case.

"The Italian government is still committed to finding the truth in regards to the murder of Giulio Regeni, he said.

Cantini was appointed as Rome's envoy to Cairo in May 2016, replacing Maurizio Massari, who was recalled by Italian government in April that year after an Egyptian delegation to Rome submitted a 2000-page report to Italian chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone on the Egyptian investigation into the killing.

Italian authorities expressed scepticism about the lack of transparency in the investigations, calling for the truth about the case.

Regeni was conducting research on trade unions before he went missing on January 25 last year. His body was found with signs of torture on 3 February on the outskirts of the capital.

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Johnson Leads Statewide Presidents Association

His one-year term began in July.

Dr. David N. Johnson, president of Johnston Community College, has been selected president of the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents (NCACCP) for 2017-18.

The purpose of the NCACCP is to foster and promote the growth, progress, and general welfare of North Carolinas community colleges through the unified efforts of the systems presidents. The NCACCP president is responsible for planning and conducting the associations monthly and quarterly meetings and advocating on behalf on the 58 colleges and presidents to the N.C. General Assembly, the State Board of Community Colleges, and the system office leadership.

Johnson said he has several goals for the association in the upcoming year, including the hiring of an executive director. Also, he said he would like the association to be involved in a statewide marketing and branding campaign as well as strengthen its relationship with the state board, system office and trustee association to better develop a strategic plan and promote the needs of the states community colleges. He also hopes the association can plan an orientation for new presidents in the upcoming year.

We are anticipating a year filled with accomplishments on behalf of community colleges across the state, Johnson said. I am honored to lead the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents during this time.

Johnson became JCCs third president in 2009. Before returning to his home state of North Carolina, Johnson served various community colleges in Virginia for almost 20 years. Immediately prior to coming to JCC, he was provost of the John H. Daniel Campus of Southside Virginia Community College. In addition, he held several positions at Wytheville Community College as well as executive director of the Crossroads Institute.

A native of Raleigh, Dr. Johnson received a bachelors degree in music education from Campbell University, a masters of divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a doctorate in adult and community college education from North Carolina State University.

Johnson served as the NCACCP treasurer in 2016-17 and secretary in 2015-16.

Cut line: Dr. David Johnson, JCC president, is president of the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents (NCACCP) for 2017-18.
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A top unsecured creditor of bankrupt Dynamic International Airways LLC is attempting to force the High Point charter airline into liquidating its assets.

Dynamic, which specializes in low-cost international service to the public, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 19. It is not clear how many employees Dynamic has.

The bare-bones filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of N.C. came about seven weeks after Dynamic lost a legal fight in U.S. District Court for the Middle District.

Since declaring bankruptcy, the airline has continued normal operations through funding from a credit facility.

PMC Aviation LLC of Greensboro is owed $1.19 million, representing an arbitration judgment reached in April that Dynamic disputes. Dynamic says its filing was prompted by recent arbitration judgments against the company that it is challenging under the International Commercial Arbitration Act.

PMC claims in its motion for liquidation that Dynamic is suffering from millions of dollars of continuing losses. ... The debtor has been grossly mismanaged.

Dynamic lists between 200 and 999 creditors, assets between $10 million and $50 million, and liabilities between $50 million and $100 million. The company projects funds will be available for distribution to unsecured creditors.

The losses are stripping the estate of any meaningful assets to be distributed to the non-insider unsecured creditors, PMC claims. There is no reasonable likelihood of rehabilitation.

PMC claims Dynamic officials have materially misrepresented its financial position to the U.S. Transportation Department, which it said has put Dynamics certificates for charter services in jeopardy.

PMC also claims Dynamics Chapter 11 filing is aimed at benefiting its financier, Kenneth Woolley, at the expense of unsecured creditors.

PMCs motion is being opposed by unsecured creditor Worldwide Flight Services Inc. of Jamaica, N.Y., which is owed $123,773.

Worldwide, a supplier of airport ground-handling services, said in its motion, filed Thursday, that it has reached a services agreement with Dynamic that has been maintained through Wednesday.

Worldwide said its opposition centers on concerns that if Dynamic is forced into liquidation, it will not be able or willing to meet its operational agreement with Worldwide. It is requesting payment and other protections from the bankruptcy court.

Paul Kraus, the companys chief executive, said in a statement that bankruptcy protection will enable us to continue to serve our customers, keep our team employed and work with our vendors while we navigate through the challenges presented.

Tony Plath, a finance professor at UNC Charlotte, said Dynamic likely opted for bankruptcy protection to delay the creditors ability to collect on the judgment and the manner in which collection is achieved.

How successfully the strategy may be, Plath said, depends on how receptive the bankruptcy judge is to their argument, and how willing the creditor is to agree to Dynamics proposal to change the remittance of payment against the judgment.

Dynamics largest unsecured creditor is Air India Inc. at $10.5 million from another arbitration award that Dynamic disputes. B.K.P. Enterprises & Expim International of Greensboro, was awarded a combined $3.49 million arbitration judgment in December that Dynamic also disputes.
Trying to make cognitive, emotional and spiritual sense of the latest violent tragedy in U.S. society led about 300 individuals to gather at a community vigil Sunday night in downtown Winston-Salem.

Billed on social media as hate has no home here, doses of reality and hope were shared like the votive candles lit to end the 50-minute event at Merschel Plaza.

The urgency of the event  put together in seven hours  came in response to the protest events in Charlottesville, Va., in which one left-wing advocate for disenfranchised workers was killed and at least 19 wounded from a vehicle assault. The man accused is a 20-year-old Ohio man described as a neo-Nazi sympathizer by those familiar with him.

The group of white supremacists was in Charlottesville for a Unite the Right rally.

The Winston-Salem Vigil for Unity was sponsored by the Young Democrats of Forsyth County, Winston-Salem Urban League Young Professionals and the Forsyth County Teenage Republicans.

Winston-Salem police said there were no disruptions and no safety concerns related to the local vigil. There were at least 22 similar events held statewide Sunday night, including in Asheville, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Raleigh and Wilmington.

The overarching message from local speakers is that the Charlottesville incident was just the latest in a series of violent acts that will reoccur unless and until Americans of all cultural, political and racial persuasions denounce and fight hatred rather than just ignoring it.

We no longer have the option to pretend things are OK, said Kenneth Pettigrew, pastor of Shouse Temple CME Church.

We have to wake up each day to the reality that we have a fight ahead of us. We have to recognize unity and work come at a cost, and that cost is truth, including telling the truth about what happened yesterday (in Charlottesville).

The main conservative voice at the vigil was Connor Groce, a rising senior at West Forsyth High School and the leader of the county Teenage Republican group.

Groce acknowledged that he and some vigil participants might disagree on every political point, but we can find common ground on unity.

I would hope that this is an Americans gathering, and not a Republicans or Democrats gathering, and that you are listening not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans.

Groce said the self-proclaimed patriots identifying as white nationalists represent the opposite of what the American dream and ideals look like.

My great-grandfather fought in World War II against the Nazis  that is what it means to be a patriot, Groce said.

What is not patriotic is someone (in this country) waving a Nazi flag and trying to carry out a Nazi agenda.

Chris Lutz, a left-wing socialist participant in the Charlottesville counter-protest, said there is a need to describe Saturdays tragedy for what it is, an act of white nationalism terrorism. It cant be ignored as that any longer.

N.C. Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, and a vigil speaker, said the fight against injustice is everyones fight so that all people are treated fairly.

What happened in Charlottesville is appalling and un-American. We have to come up with creative ways to work together to find common ground on those things that keep up apart as Americans.

Some attendees said they believe the Charlottesville events are just the byproduct of efforts to normalize bigotry, racism and sexism, and to make Americans feel numb and helpless to respond.

Were just in a bolder era these days when it comes to people speaking out about their hatred of people of color, of sex and gender, of religion, April Johnson said.

For those people, the president seems to be saying to them its OK to release their hatred, rather than depress it, when he doesnt come out and denounce it.

Mike Wakeford came with his wife, Leslie, and two young children to the vigil in part because he knows they are aware that something bad happened in Charlottesville, caused by bad people.

We wanted to show them how our community can respond in solidarity with those impacted by, and standing in opposition to, acts of violence and racism, Wakeford said.

When asked why he believes mostly young white males were involved in the white nationalist side of the Charlottesville events, Pettigrew said losing power feels like oppression to those who have never felt true oppression.

For those individuals, it can spark violence and anger.

The antidote, Pettigrew said, is to have a real sense of ones humanity so that you can no longer be numb to the concerns of others.

To me, it represents the loss of the image of God in ourselves.
An improvised bomb attack on a military vehicle killed two soldiers in southeast Turkey on Saturday, with state media blaming Kurdish separatists.

The blast came in the province of Batman, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, which said the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was behind the attack.

Turkey was already in mourning on Saturday for a 15-year-old killed by PKK militants on Friday in the northeastern city of Trabzon.

Kurdish-dominated southeast Turkey has been hit by near-daily violence since the conflict between the PKK and the government flared up in 2015, ending a fragile ceasefire.

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984, is classed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

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There are some images that instantly and indelibly define an era in history. Photographer Bob Jackson caught the moment when Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot President John F. Kennedys assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the basement of the Dallas police station, Oswald collapsing inwards on himself, his eyes closed, his mouth open in a wince of pain, or surprise, or both. In Saigon during the Tet Offensive, Eddie Adams took a photo precisely as a bullet from South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loans .38 revolver ripped through Nguyen Van Lems skull. In 1995, Charles H. Porter IV shot a photograph of firefighter Chris Fields tenderly carrying 1-year-old Baylee Almon out of the wreckage at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, where she and 167 other people were killed by domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh.

Now we have that image for our own era: Daily Progress photographer Ryan M. Kellys picture of James Alex Fields Jr.s Dodge Challenger slamming into a crowd of people who had come to Charlottesville to stand against the white supremacists who were rallying there. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed, and 19 others were injured, some of them critically.

Multiple people captured the incident on video. One clip, taken at a distance from the pedestrian mall where the protesters were struck, suggests the terrifying speed of the oncoming car as it whips down the street. Another, shot at the point of impact, shows a person being tossed onto the hood of a car before it crashes into the rear bumper of another vehicle, then accelerates in reverse. These videos are a short, sharp shock.

The intersection of culture and politics.

Kellys photo does something different, and perhaps even more vital. It gives us a moment when the world, quite literally, seems to be turned upside down.

Two men fly through the air, their feet swept out from under them. One falls towards the ground, his arms and legs akimbo, one of them bent at a sickeningly impossible angle. Another has been thrown up higher than the roof of the car, his shirt sliding down his back to reveal his tattoos. To the right, a woman is falling to the ground behind the bumper of a Toyota Tundra. Shoes litter the ground around her like autumn leaves. In the backdrop, limbs extend into the air among posters that read Solidarity and Love and Black Lives Matter.

This period in America is increasingly defined by violence and rage. And while Kellys photograph captures those elements, it gives us something more, too: The picture is a visual expression of simply how strange America feels right now.

I dont mean to say Im surprised that virulent racism still exists in this country. At best, the United States has been able to contain and marginalize racial hatred; weve never been able to eliminate it, and I doubt we ever will.

Instead, Im referring to the sense that there are no constants in American public life anymore. Victories, like those in the fight to secure voting rights for all citizens, prove to be dangerously ephemeral. The president of the United States is incapable of condemning white supremacy even in the most bluntly obvious situation. Our government is run by fools and zealots who are rebranded as the best people.

President Trump probably could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

And in Kellys photograph, the laws of gravity are temporarily suspended and human bodies arent oriented to the ground in the way we expect them to be. The rules do not apply, and anything is terrifyingly possible.
WASHINGTON  This is what we dreaded. Some international crisis was bound to flare up, and President Trump would make it worse. Now we can only hope that the mature adults surrounding him are able to cool things down.

Trump probably thought it was oh-so-clever to answer North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns nuclear provocations with a taste of the dictators own apocalyptic language, threatening fire and fury like the world has never seen. It sounded like a playground taunt, reflecting the presidents emotional immaturity. On Thursday, Trump said that maybe those words werent tough enough. Soon these two nuclear-armed leaders may be trading insults about the size of each others hands.

The fire and fury line was improvised, meaning Trump failed to warn anyone about it beforehand  not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, not Defense Secretary James Mattis, not chief of staff John Kelly, not national security adviser H.R. McMaster, not U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Wish these five officials well, because they stand between us and unthinkable disaster.

It is possible that fire and fury was, in Trumps mind, a bit of strategy. Perhaps he wanted to come across as a dangerous madman. If so, he succeeded in unnerving Americans and our allies  but not, apparently, the North Koreans.

Ironies abound. Before Trumps intervention, his administration was actually doing pretty well in orchestrating a global response to North Koreas development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. Haley managed to get the U.N. Security Council to approve tough new sanctions, which meant she had to win cooperation from China and Russia  a real diplomatic achievement.

Moreover, Trumps bombast may even have occasioned high-fives in Kims inner circle. Kim has long sought direct talks with the United States as a way of showing the North Korean people his exalted status among world leaders. A back-and-forth exchange of rhetoric fills the bill.

Dealing with this crisis will require patience and realism, both of which Trump totally lacks.

There is no quick solution. If there were, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama would have implemented it long ago. A U.S. military strike could cost millions of lives in South Korea and perhaps many thousands in Japan. Our nation, under Trump, would become an international pariah. We would have the blood of many innocents on our hands.

The reality is that Kim doesnt want to conquer the world  or provoke a U.S. attack that could end his regime. He wants to remain in power. He also dreams of someday reuniting the Korean Peninsula under his own leadership, but that is a much longer-range goal. Right now, his imperative is survival.

By developing nuclear weapons and advanced missile technology, Kim sought to ensure that he never faces the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Having gone to extraordinary lengths to obtain this insurance policy, he is not likely to give it up. Ever.

The Trump administration believes the Chinese government could do more to pressure Kim. It is true that China has the power to destroy the fragile North Korean economy, but Chinese leaders are not willing to confront the consequences of provoking a collapse of central authority in Pyongyang. And the Kim dynasty has shown a willingness to force the North Korean people to endure unspeakable hardship in the pursuit of national goals.

I see no way that Kim is ever going to be persuaded or coerced into giving up his nukes. Maybe he would do so under imminent threat of being deposed. But in any scenario I can imagine, he has more leverage with nuclear weapons than without them. I dont want to live in a world in which a nuclear-tipped North Korean missile can hit Guam or Hawaii or Los Angeles or Chicago, but we may not have a choice.

Deterrence does work, though. It worked throughout the Cold War. It worked during Maos Cultural Revolution, when China was at least as unhinged as North Korea is today. It works between India and Pakistan.

Trump once said he would be willing to meet with Kim. If the president can be kept from making further threats and the present crisis allowed to subside, perhaps we can eventually offer direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang  something Kim dearly wants  with the subject being a verifiable freeze on the North Korean nuclear program. After a freeze is in place for a while, it might be possible to negotiate reductions.

As I said, we need to be patient and realistic. Someone please distract the president with a shiny object for the next few years.
Havent weve learned yet that appeasement doesnt work?

Im not talking about when the weak-kneed leaders of Britain and France went to Munich in 1938 and essentially gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler to buy a brief period of peace before Europe and the rest of the world went to war. Im talking about our more recent dealings with Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Were in the trouble were in with North Korea today because of our continual policy of appeasing the thugs who rule that oppressed and starving Communist paradise.

Most people dont remember, but we started appeasing North Koreas dictators in the 1990s when Jimmy Carter was out of office and still felt he needed to play global peacemaker. Carter went to North Korea behind the back of the sitting president, Bill Clinton, and sat down to negotiate a deal to stop them from building nuclear weapons.

He promised North Korean leaders two nuclear reactors and $5 billion in aid if theyd agree to the no-nukes deal and Clinton, not wanting to embarrass a former Democrat president, approved the deal.

Of course it took the North Koreans about 24 hours to break their promises.

Theyve been working on their nukes ever since, and our presidents have been appeasing them ever since  when theyre not busy appeasing Irans religious thugs or Russias virtual dictator, Vladimir Putin.

Remember Iran and its nuclear program? Remember how President Obama and everyone on the left fell over each trying to appease the ayatollahs? Hows that been working out?

Obama basically told the Iranians We dont want you to have nuclear weapons today, but itll be OK for you to have them 20 years from now  when Im out of office and itll be some other suckers problem.

Now we have Iran and North Korea helping each other perfect their nuclear weapons programs.

And lets not forget how well our policy of appeasement worked with Russia. In 2009, President Obama pleased Putin by scrapping the Bush administrations proposed missile defense system in Poland. In 2014, the Russia army invaded Ukraine and Russia was becoming the regime in Syrias best friend and military benefactor.

Now were at a boiling point with North Korea and it makes for a very, very, very scary world.

You hope and pray we have the right people in office to make the right decisions and not go off the rails.

People are always praising my father for winning the Cold War without firing a shot or blowing up the world. But he was able to defeat the Evil Empire with diplomacy because when he was dealing the Soviets the word appeasement was never in his vocabulary.

His way of describing his negotiating policy vis-a-vis the USSR and its nuclear arsenal was, We win, they lose.

Im fearful, as many people are, of what might happen if we learn that the North Koreans truly have developed miniaturized nuclear weapons that could ride on their primitive ICBMs. But Im also concerned that well just appease them again and well find ourselves in this same scary spot next week or next year.

What we need to do is follow my fathers example and get appeasement out of our vocabulary. While we practice smart diplomacy, we need to start putting anti-missile defense systems in areas the Russians or Chinese dont like, like in South Korea  and too bad if it makes them nervous or mad.

As for President Trump, he needs to get off building a border wall and start building a homeland missile defense system that will protect us from the rogue powers our appeasers have turned into world powers.
With decades of teaching experience in several capacities in Texas and over the past three years with The Flowertown Blossoms in Summerville, Anicia D. Brown is dead set on handing youngsters the tools to master stage acting and production, while also imparting impactful life lessons along t Read moreFlowertown Blossoms preaching the value of teamwork
JURIST Guest Columnist Louis Rene Beres of the Purdue University College of Liberal Arts discusses President Donald Trumps recent antics and how they will affect the potential for nuclear action

Increasingly, Donald Trump is showing palpable signs of debility. Most worrisome, in this sobering display, is the presidents conspicuously proud disregard for science, history, diplomacy, intelligence, and jurisprudence. Less easily documented, perhaps, but still worth noting, is Mr. Trumps blithely disjointed and generally incoherent approach to affairs of state.

In just one hyperbolic talk dealing with North Korea on August 11, he managed to repeatedly thank Russian President Putin for helping to save US federal dollars (by his expulsion of many American diplomats) and also to announce a possible use of US military force against Venezuela. Venezuela?

In candor, these intellectual and emotional debilities are seriously concerning, especially when they are: (1) frequently intersecting and mutually reinforcing; (2) considered together with this Presidents persistently willing subservience to his more experienced Russian counterpart; and (3) assessed within the relevant statutory and Constitutional parameters of US nuclear command authority.

In principle, at least, such alarming personal traits are not distinctive to President Donald Trump. At a more expressly generic level, they represent certain continuously complex matters about which I have been lecturing and publishing for almost half a century. If I might now be allowed to share some closely related insights, they might help us better understand just how irremediably perilous the Trump presidency could rapidly become.

In essence, the cumulative security risks we face as a nation are potentially immediate and prospectively existential. Most obvious, in this regard, is the stubbornly bewildering problem of North Korea. Here, the presidents indiscriminate confusion of belligerent rhetoric with actual power can only lead us further away from indispensable national security. To be sure, even as quixotic an adversary as Kim Jung Un can tell the critical difference between meaningful military capacity and utterly shallow bombast.

Again, it is high time for candor. We live at a moment when certain minuscule escalatory misjudgments in Washington or Pyongyang could sometime create staggering and irreversible harms. Mr. Trump must finally understand that world politics are not analogous to commercial real estate, and that authentic national security is not generally subject to linguistic contrivance or artful deal making.

More urgently than any other specific hazard, the President must make himself suitably informed about all pertinent nuclear conflict matters. Correspondingly, both the Congress and the citizenry must keep a much closer watch on Mr. Trumps discernible willingness to take nuclear war seriously. In this connection, he will likely need to be reminded that no scientifically accurate estimates of nuclear war probability are logically possible. This is because true probabilities must always be based upon a determinable frequency of past events, and because there has never been a nuclear war event. Never.

The American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 dont count as nuclear war examples. It follows that in any upcoming nuclear crisis situations, a casually dismissive presidential stance on expected outcomes could produce unexpected and intolerable results. Quickly.

I have been studying nuclear warfare issues for a long time. After four years at Princeton in the late 1960s, long an intellectual center of American nuclear strategic thought, I first began to think about adding a modest personal contribution to the growing literatures of first-generation nuclear thinkers. Accordingly, by the late 1970s, I was busily preparing an original manuscript on U.S. nuclear strategy, and on certain corollary risks of nuclear war. At that time, moreover, I was already specifically interested in questions of presidential authority to order the use of American nuclear weapons.

Among other things, I learned that reliable safeguards had been carefully built into all American nuclear command/control decisions, but also that these reassuring safeguards would not apply at the presidential level. To a young scholar, this ironic disjunction didnt make any obvious sense, especially in a world where national leadership irrationality was assuredly not without precedent. For needed clarifications, I then reached out to retired General Maxwell D. Taylor, a distinguished former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In rapid response to my query, General Taylor sent me a detailed handwritten reply. Dated 14 March 1976, the Generals informed letter concluded presciently: As to those dangers arising from an irrational American president, the only protection is not to elect one.

Until now, I had never really given any extended thought to this disturbingly truthful but authoritative response. Instead, I had assumed that somehow the system would always operate precisely according to plan. Today, with the discordant presidency of Donald Trump coinciding with a North Korean nuclear standoff, General Taylors 1976 warning must take on greater and more compelling meaning. Now, however reluctantly, we must realistically assume that if President Trump were ever to exhibit profound emotional instability, irrationality, or patently delusional behavior, he could nonetheless order the use of American nuclear weapons, and do so without any calculable expectations of any official disobedience.

At this point, a core question should come immediately to mind. What should be done by the National Command Authority (Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Advisor, and presumptively several others) if it should ever decide to oppose a determinably inappropriate presidential order to launch American nuclear weapons? Could the National Command Authority reliably save the day by acting in an impromptu or creatively ad hoc fashion? Or should there already be in place aptly credible and effective statutory measures to (1) meaningfully assess the ordering presidents reason and judgment; and (2) promptly countermand the wrongful order?

In law, Article 1 (Congressional) war-declaring expectations of the Constitution notwithstanding, any presidential order to use nuclear weapons, whether issued by an apparently irrational president, or by an otherwise incapacitated one, should be obeyed. To do otherwise in such dire circumstances would be prima facie illegal; that is, impermissible on its face. Additionally, President Trump could order the first use of American nuclear weapons even if this country were not under a specifically nuclear attack.

Here, too, a further strategic and legal distinction must be made between first use and first strike. There exists an elementary but vitally important difference, significantly one that candidate Donald Trump had completely failed to understand during his 2016 campaign debates. This core difference has to do with distinguishing essential self-defense from aggression. Aggression is a codified crime under international law. It is, therefore, reciprocally prohibited by US law.

Where should American nuclear policy go from here? To begin, a coherent and comprehensive answer will need to be prepared for the following genuinely basic question: If faced with any presidential order to use nuclear weapons, and not offered sufficiently appropriate corroborative evidence of any actually impending existential threat, would the National Command Authority be: (1) willing to disobey?, and (2) capable of enforcing such seemingly well-founded expressions of disobedience?

In such unprecedented nuclear crisis circumstances, all authoritative decisions could have to be made in a compressively time-urgent matter of minutes. Needless to say, such chronological constraints could quickly become overriding.

The only time to prepare for such incontestably vital national security questions is now. This is the case whether or not President Donald Trump should incrementally prove himself to be a more-or-less stable and capable crisis decision-maker. Though we might all draw a huge sigh of relief when the current North Korean nuclear crisis subsides, there will inevitably arise other similar or even more portentous atomic emergencies. To then respond purposefully, as needed, this country will require more than a purely stream-of-consciousness or seat-of-the-pants prescription from the White House. Much more.

There is one last but still important point. Whether it is in reference to a proposed military intervention in Venezuela, or to a considered military action against North Korea, the American president is bound not only by US law, but also by international law. The latter, which is discoverable, inter alia, in various customary norms as well as in bilateral and multilateral treaties, is always an integral part of American law. Such incorporation is most prominently expressed at Article 6 of the US Constitution (the Supremacy Clause) and also at various major US Supreme Court decisions.

Looking ahead, Donald Trumps policies for dealing with North Korean nuclear threats must always be consistent with American military requirements and with US jurisprudential obligations. Striking the necessary and optimal balance between both coincident imperatives will inevitably confront this president with intellectual and ethical challenges of the highest order. For the moment, at least, it does not appear likely that he will be able to meet such bewildering and overlapping challenges. Not at all.

If there is to be any residual hope for effectively meeting these complex expectations, it will have to lie in substantially greater presidential familiarity with both American and North Korean military capabilities. Following ancient Chinese strategist Sun/Tzu in The Art of War: One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements. In the precipitous nuclear age, this sage advice has become more demanding and also more valuable than ever before. Should it be overlooked or disregarded in Washington, President Donald Trump could suddenly find himself committing an irrevocable and potentially catastrophic miscalculation.

This risk would be especially high during foreseeable circumstances of competitive risk-taking with Kim Jung Un, that is, in deliberative moments when each side is desperately seeking escalation dominance.

Louis Rene Beres is an Emeritus Professor of International Law at Purdue University and lectures and publishes widely on matters of terrorism, strategy and international law. He is the author of many books, monographs, and scholarly articles dealing with various aspects of military nuclear strategy.

Suggested citation: Louis Rene Beres, President Trump, North Korea and Nuclear War, JURIST  Academic Commentary, August 14, 2017, http://jurist.org/forum/2017/08/Louis-Rene-Beres-Trump-Nuclear-War.php

This article was prepared for publication by Ben Cohen, Section Editor for JURIST. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org
The Syrian army and its allies advanced in the central Syrian desert on Monday and could soon encircle an Islamic State pocket, part of a multi-pronged thrust into eastern areas held by the Islamist militant group.

A Syrian military source said the Syrian army and its allies had taken a number of villages around the town of al-Koum in northeastern Homs province.

This leaves a gap held by Islamic State of around only 25 km (15 miles) between al-Koum and the town of al-Sukhna to its south, which was taken by the Syrian government on Saturday.

If the army, supported by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, closes this gap they will encircle Islamic State fighters to their west in an area of land around 8,000 km square, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday that it had contributed to this advance by advising on an airborne landing of pro-government troops north of al-Koum on Saturday.

The operation allowed them to take the al-Qadeer area from Islamic State militants before proceeding to al-Koum, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

Islamic State has lost swathes of Syrian territory to separate campaigns being waged by Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran, and by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic (SDF) Forces, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia. The SDF is currently focused on capturing Raqqa city from Islamic State.

Syrian government forces advancing from the west have recently crossed into Deir Ezzor province from southern areas of Raqqa province.

Islamic State controls nearly all of Deir Ezzor province, which is bordered to the east by Iraq. The Syrian government still controls a pocket of territory in Deir Ezzor city, and a nearby military base.

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Turkey says a Turkish national was killed and another was wounded in the attack by suspected Islamic extremists at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry released a statement Monday condemning "in the strongest way" the attack on the upscale Aziz Istanbul restaurant which killed at least 18 people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday.

The ministry statement said Turkey would maintain its support and solidarity with Burkina Faso, which it said had become the target of international terror over the past years.

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Related 18 killed in Burkina Faso restaurant attack

At least one French national was killed in the suspected jihadist attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou that left at least 18 dead, Paris prosecutors said Monday.

The prosecutors' anti-terrorism unit has opened an investigation, they said.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday slammed as "disgusting" the role of white supremacists in a violent protest in Virginia and an "evil attack" against counterdemonstrators that left one woman dead, her spokesman said.

In sharply worded remarks, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert expressed shock at the weekend rally by Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists in Charlottesvillesupremacists.

"The scenes at the right-wing extremist march were absolutely repulsive -- naked racism, anti-Semitism and hate in their most evil form were on display," he told reporters.

"Such images and chants are disgusting wherever they may be and they are diametrically opposed to the political goals of the chancellor and the entire German government."

Seibert said Merkel stood in solidarity "with those who peacefully oppose such aggressive, far-right views".

He underlined "how much the chancellor regrets the death of a woman who fell victim" to "an evil attack" by a car driver.

Asked about possible links between German neo-Nazi groups and the Charlottesville marchers, Seibert said he was unaware of any connection and expressed confidence that US authorities would conduct a thorough investigation.

One woman died and 19 people were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of people after the rally by white supremacists turned violent. Two state police officers died in a helicopter crash near the area.

Some of the marchers used Nazi symbols, slogans and gestures that have been explicitly banned in Germany since World War II.

President Donald Trump has come in for virulent criticism after an initial failure to explicitly condemn the white nationalists for their role in the protest.

A full day after the violence erupted, the White House insisted Sunday that Trump's condemnation included all such groups.

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Russia's top domestic security agency said Monday it has thwarted suicide bombings in Moscow planned by the Islamic State group in Syria.

Four people have been arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks on Moscow transit system and shopping malls, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement.

Those arrested included two would-be suicide bombers along with an Islamic State envoy and an expert in explosives. One of them is a Russian national and three others are from ex-Soviet Central Asia, the FSB said.

The agency released a video in which its agents inspect a house used by the group to make explosives while two suspects lie down on the floor in handcuffs. It didn't say when the arrests took place.

The FSB said the attacks were planned by two senior militants who fight with IS group. The agency didn't give their nationalities, but their names given by the FSB appear to indicate they hail from the former Soviet Union.

In May, the FSB arrested another group of suspected IS members in May who were also accused of plotting terror attacks in the capital.

The arrests follow a suicide bombing in St. Petersburg's subway that left 16 dead and wounded more than 50 in April.

President Vladimir Putin said in April that some 9,000 militants, about half of them from Russia and the rest from ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, have joined the Islamic State group in Syria.

He emphasized that a key goal for the Russian military operation in Syria is to crush them there and prevent them from coming back home.

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Ahram Online visits with the Cairo Roller Derby Club - Egypt's first-ever women's roller derby team.

The team, which was founded in 2012, has been searching for local and international recognition.

Roller derby is a contact sport which involves a tug-of-war between two teams of five each competing to out-muscle one another while skating around a track.

Each team relies on a "jammer," an attack player who snatches a point for her side if she can slip through the opposing team's blockers and finish one full lap around the track.

Video by Rawan Ezzat
It was another tragic incident in Nebraskas prisons. An inmate at the Tecumseh State Prison, Daelan LaMere, 22, apparently had drugs slipped to him by a visitor. When guards went to strip search him, he put a blue pouch of drugs in his mouth and swallowed them, according to an inspector generals report.

LaMere later became ill and was found unresponsive in his cell. He died at a Lincoln hospital on June 6. It was ruled an overdose of the drugs Ecstasy and methamphetamine.

In a surprise to many, more and more prison incidents seem to involve drugs and alcohol. How inmates get access to drugs and alcohol while in prison is puzzling. A secure location such as a prison should be able to keep drugs out.

Its an issue that prison officials have pledged to address, strengthening safeguards against drugs and alcohol getting into the prison system.

The LaMere case and other incidents show that it is a major problem, and somehow this pipeline to behind the prison walls must be stopped.

A recent story in the Omaha World-Herald showed that intoxicant abuse violations in the states prisons increased 37 percent last year to 2,348. The Tecumseh State Prison, alone, saw 700 violations, an increase of 239 percent.

Its absolutely a concern, Nebraska Corrections Director Scott Frakes told the World-Herald. Any time you see a spike in misconduct reports around intoxicants or substances  violent activities, weapons, cellphones  any of those serious contraband things that can contribute to bad outcomes.

In fact, the March 2 takeover of a housing unit that left two inmates dead was sparked by the confiscation of homemade alcohol in inmates footlockers. The alcohol had been made from bread, sugar and fresh fruit.

Many inmates wind up in prison because of drug problems. Frakes said 80 percent of inmates have a substance-abuse problem. While many are forced by the fact that they are in prison to go drug-free, others make great attempts to obtain drugs.

Grand Island Independent
A recent issue of Newsweek has a picture of President Trump sitting in a recliner, with snacks and an iPad in his lap, pointing his TV remote at the viewer, blazoned with the headline, Lazy Boy.

Liberals only wish.

Last week, the president joined Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., to announce legislation that would make seminal changes to our immigration laws for the first time in more than half a century, profoundly affecting the entire country.

The media have chosen not to cover the RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment). This bill is their worst nightmare.

Instead of admitting immigrants on the basis of often specious family ties, the bill would finally allow us to choose the immigrants we want, based on merit, with points granted for skills, English proficiency, advanced degrees, actual job offers and so on.

Most Americans have no idea that we have zero say about the vast majority of immigrants pouring into our country. Two-thirds of all legal immigrants get in not because we want them  but under idiotic family reunification laws. Entire tribes of immigrants are able to bully their way in and, as legal immigrants, are immediately eligible for a whole panoply of government benefits.

Suddenly, theres no money left in the Social Security Trust Fund, and Speaker Paul Ryan is telling Americans theyre going to have to cut back.

At some point, American businesses are going to have to be told they cant keep bringing in cheap foreign labor, changing the country and offloading the costs onto the taxpayer. But thats not this discussion. Business owners want cheap workers  not the disabled parents of cheap workers.

In a sane world, merely introducing such an important bill  with the imprimatur of a president elected on his immigration stance  would force the media to finally discuss the subject they have been deliberately hiding from the public.

Has Trump personally endorsed any other legislation like this? He harangued congressional Republicans on Twitter to pass some Obamacare replacement, but he never endorsed a specific bill.

But, you see, theres a reason the media dont want to talk about immigration.

With a full public airing, Americans would finally understand why recent immigrants seem so different from earlier waves, why income inequality is approaching czarist Russia levels, why the suicide rate has skyrocketed among the working class, and why all our government benefits programs are headed toward bankruptcy.

As Stephen Miller, the presidents speechwriter, said, some legislative proposals can only succeed in the dark of night and some can only succeed in the light of day. This is a light-of-day bill.

In a recent Numbers USA poll of voters in 10 swing states with vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, only 22 percent of respondents thought immigrants should be allowed by right to bring in family other than spouses and minor children.

Make the senators vote, Mr. President!

Donald Trump was elected president, beating the smartest, most qualified woman in the world, by proposing to put Americans first on immigration. This bill makes good on that promise.

Theres a reason the media wont discuss it. If Trump were smart, hed talk about nothing else.

Andrews McMeel Syndicate
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

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Two-thirds of the trees in some forests around West Kelowna have been removed as part of a fire-mitigation plan, city council has been told. This aerial photo shows one of the thinned-out stands.
A scorpion is shown in a banana bag in Halifax in this recent handout photo taken from video. A weatherman says he got more than he bargained for during a recent trip to a Costco in Halifax after finding a live scorpion in a bag of bananas. Nathan Coleman, a reporter for The Weather Network, says he was unloading groceries when his 11-year-old daughter spotted something squirming in a plastic bag. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Nathan Coleman *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Workers unload goods in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Many residents of the Kenyan capital have returned to work despite a call by opposition leader Raila Odinga to stay at home to protest last week's disputed election in which President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
This photo provided by the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail shows James Alex Fields Jr., who was charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities say he rammed his car into a crowd of protesters Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va., where a white supremacist rally took place. (Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail via AP)
FILE - In this June 6, 2015, file photo, heavy machines move imported iron ore at the dock in Rizhao in eastern China's Shandong province. China announced Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, it will cut off imports of North Korean coal, iron ore and other goods in three weeks under U.N. sanctions imposed over the NorthAos nuclear and missile programs.(Chinatopix via AP, File)
A motorbike drives through a flooded area in Murkata village east of Gauhati, India, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, the floodwaters have damaged bridges, downed power lines and washed away thousands of homes. Officials said at least 2.5 million people had been affected, including some 200,000 now staying in 440 relief camps. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
PARIS  Authorities were investigating the scene of a triple shooting that turned deadly Sunday night at a festival that was being held at the Great Lakes Dragaway.

Three men were killed as they stood near a food vending area set up in a parking lot at the dragaway, located at 18411 First St. (Highway KR), according to Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth.

Witnesses report

Beth said that according to witnesses, the three had approached a food vendor when the gunman shot them. Authorities responded to a call of shots being fired at the site at 6:59 p.m., according to the sheriffs department.

Beth said two of the men who were shot died on scene. The third man died as he was being transported en route to the hospital. All three victims were from Aurora, Ill., according to Beth. Detectives were still in the process of identifying them.

Black vehicle

According to Beth, the shooter remains at large. The sheriff described the suspect as a black male in his mid 20s who was wearing a hoodie and jeans. A black vehicle was also associated with the suspect, however, authorities continue to comb the grounds, as well, looking for the man.

Beth said two friends of the men who were killed said they were not aware of what couldve have precipitated the shooting.

They have no idea as to what caused this, Beth said.

He said authorities were also not aware of any other injuries.

Beth said he did not know what kind of weapon was used in the shootings or whether the incident was gang related.

He said he wanted anyone who has information on the shootings to contact the Sheriffs Department at 262-605-5100.

Few incidents

Beth said while there have been some incident reports regarding the annual event at the dragaway last year, none were of the magnitude involving shootings.

Brian Mitchell, a manager at the dragaway, said the event, dubbed Larrys Fun Fest, brings thousands of car lovers and families each year and is a family-friendly event.

The people who do this wanted to do it here because they wanted to get away from the riffraff, he said. Weve never even had so much as a fist fight and one bad egg has to ruin it for them.

Traffic on Highway KR was rerouted for nearly three hours.
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'Britain First is not welcome here' - that is the clear and frank message from the Mayor of Ramsgate Trevor Shonk after the group announced plans to hold a demonstration in the town .

The far-right activists revealed they would be holding a rally in Ramsgate in relation to the conviction of four men who gang-raped a teenager.

Britain First and other far-right groups have been actively campaigning around the trial since the men were arrested after the horrific crime which took place above 555 Pizza and Kebab, in Northwood Road, in September last year.

But Cllr Shonk, UKIP, has slammed their latest plans to hold a rally in Ramsgate and said they would not be welcome.

Cllr Shonk said: "This is the problem with this country, people forget that the law is the law and it is final.

"Hopefully the law is upheld again and sentencing is significant in this situation.

"But people shouldn't be taking these things into their own hands.

"We have all read all the awful stories about that case, it is terrible but the law should be left to take its course without all this far right stuff."

Britain First announced plans to hold a gathering outside Ramsgate railway station on October 14, with a number of key figures from the group pipped to appear, including leader Paul Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen.

The leader and deputy leader were arrested earlier this year for "inciting religious hatred" during the trial, and are currently understood to still be on police bail as they await their trial date.

Just weeks ago Ms Fransen posted a live video from a police station in Kent, claiming that Mr Golding had been "taken into custody " again after they were called back by Kent Police as part of their bail terms.

A flyer announcing the Ramsgate protest reads: "Paul Golding, Jayda Fransen and Steve Lewis are being persecuted for exposing the Ramsgate migrant rapists."

The exact details of the gathering are not yet known, but the group is known for holding public rallies and marches  though they are often shut down by police.

The group has protested outside the takeaway before, banging on the windows and shouting at shop staff.

But Cllr Shonk said their protests do more damage to the country than good.

'Britain First is not welcome'

He added: "I'm not against protests, you can campaign in a nice way but Britain First don't do that.

"We seem to be a very divided country at the moment and this does not help anyone.

"I am not supportive of this protest in any way. The law of the country comes first.

"My doors are open to help anyone from all over. We are diverse here in Ramsgate and I'm proud of that.

"It is a wonderful place and the negativity of groups like Britain First is not welcome."


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Members of a far-right political group have announced plans to hold a rally in Ramsgate, following the conviction of four men who gang-raped a teenager.

Britain First has been actively campaigning in relation to the trial since the men were first arrested following the incident above 555 Pizza and Kebab in Northwood Road in September last year.

The group announced plans to hold a gathering outside Ramsgate Station on October 14, with a number of key Britain First figures slated to appear, including leader Paul Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen.

The leader and deputy leader were arrested earlier this year for "inciting religious hatred" during the trial, and are currently understood to still be on police bail as they await a trial date.

Just weeks ago Ms Fransen posted a live video from a police station in Kent, claiming that Mr Golding had been "taken into custody" again after they were called back by Kent Police as part of their bail terms.

A flyer announcing the Ramsgate protest reads: "Paul Golding, Jayda Fransen and Steve Lewis are being persecuted for exposing the Ramsgate migrant rapists."

It called on followers and "all patriots" to lend their support by attending the gathering, and says "good standards of behaviour" apply.

The exact details of the gathering are not yet known, but the group is known for holding public rallies and marches  though they are often shut down by police.

Britain First has posted a number of videos in relation to the 555 Pizza and Kebab rape trial

The group has protested outside the takeaway previously, banging on the windows and shouting at shop staff.

A licence review of the premises, which is still registered to one of the men convicted, is due to be held this week, after a new owner took over and rebranded the takeaway as YSY.

555 Kebab and Pizza owner Tamin Rahmani, 37, and workers Shershah Muslimyar, 20, of Hovenden Close, Canterbury and Rafiullah Hamidy, 24, of no fixed abode, were all found guilty of three counts of rape at Canterbury Crown Court in May.

Hamid Mohamadi, 18, was also convicted of the same offences.

All four will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on September 8.
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With the St James development in Dover just months away from completion, Kent Live has taken a look at the brands definitely coming to town.

And the units that are still empty.

It has been over a year since any new shops have been announced for the development.

14 brands have officially confirmed they are moving into the Dover development when it fully opens in early 2018.

But 10 units are still vacant on the site and two have been "under offer" for months, according to plans on the St James website.

Here's what we know so far about who is (and isn't) coming to St James:

Block A

M&S, Trespass, Poundland, Shoezone and Next make up a half full block A in Townwall Street.

Anchors, Next and M&S were among the first to be confirmed for the development.

While Trespass, Poundland and Shoezone were later revealed.

Artist imagery has previously hinted that brands such as TK Maxx, The Range and Argos could also be heading for the empty units in block A.

And the unit next to the M&S Food Hall has been "under offer" for months now - perhaps set to become one of the hinted stores.

However, Argos has previously said it has no plans to open a new store in Dover, despite appearing to feature in the promo artwork.

A spokesman said: "Argos has no current plans for a store at St James' Development."

Block B

Block B, which runs parallel with Woolcomber Street, is the only block in the development full with confirmed retailers.

Cineworld is one of the brands anchoring the project and will be opening a six screen multiplex at the development.

And if you fancy a bite to eat while on a cinema trip, Frankie & Benny's, Bella Italia and Nando's will all be located nearby.

The retailers in this block were among the first to be confirmed for the St James development.

Block C

Block C is perhaps the part of the development that has upset locals the most.

Some Dovorians have been frustrated that a handful of the St James outlets - mostly in block C - already have stores in town.

And businesses fear the project will suck shoppers away from Biggin Street, Canon Street and the Market Square  Dover's traditional epicentre of trade.

Costa was the first business to be confirmed for the C block on the other side of the car park, facing Dolphin Lane.

While Card Factory, Carphone Warehouse and Greggs were the last confirmed retailers to be joining the scheme, being announced for the development in August 2016.

In addition to the confirmed retailers, a spot above Costa Coffee is listed as "Gym  Under Offer" on the online map of the leisure complex.

An artist's impression also featured revealed the new gym to be nation-wide 24-hour gym Anytime Fitness, as Kent Live reported in February.

If the offer is accepted, Dover's new gym will be one of the 114 Anytime Fitness gyms in the United Kingdom and of 3385 across the globe.

Block D

Block D is the loneliest looking part of the St James development, with a two floor empty unit at a right angle to the fuller blocks A and C.

Block S

Travelodge is the only brand to confirm they will be moving into block S.

Three - currently empty - units will accompany the 108 bed hotel at the development. Whether they will be shops, restaurants or other leisure facilities is yet to become clear.
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Today, I hugged a stranger.

And I didnt know his name.

We had just operated on a young man, probably in his late teens. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, and was in critical condition. When he lost pulses in the trauma bay, we cut his chest open and spread his ribs. His lifeless body laid there as we held his heart in the palm of our hands, and pumped it  over and over again  to mimic life. We placed a clamp on his aorta to minimize blood loss, and to ensure that blood preferentially travels to the brain.

We pumped his heart tirelessly, afraid to let go, afraid to give up, afraid to say enough. And just when we thought we had lost him forever, a flicker of hope jarred us as his heart began to beat again. We rushed him to the operating room, and a team of anesthesiologists, nurses, and residents met us in the room. We worked together quietly and efficiently, all too well rehearsed.

Male in his late teens, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen. He has a left femoral cordis, and two large bore peripheral IVs. A resuscitative thoracotomy was performed in the trauma bay. Aortic cross-clamp time was 2053.

That was all the information they needed as we worked to put him on the operating table and prepare him for surgery.

In two hours, he had received multiple blood products, and we were not able to control the bleeding. When a patient receives massive blood transfusions, it often thins the blood so much that it very difficult  almost impossible  to control bleeding. He was in critical condition. We packed his chest, and temporarily closed it to assess the situation when his status improves. He would need massive resuscitation in order to survive more surgery.

I was unsure if we would save his life. I was unsure if this young man will ever grow to get married, have children, or see the colors that form when the sunlight meets the rain. I left the operating room, defeated.

And in the hallway, there he was, sobbing in a corner, alone.

He was in his mid-40s, wearing a grey shirt and muddy boots  I could tell he worked in construction. He had a muscular build, and by the smell of his shirt, I could tell he had worked all day. I walked up to him as he held his face in the palm of the callused hands, and I stared as tear drops fell onto his worn jeans. I grabbed his head and pulled him into my chest.

I embraced this stranger as he sobbed into my chest, leaving behind small little patches of despair and pain.

Today, I hugged a stranger.

I hugged him with the hope that I could lift some of this pain from his shoulders, with the hope that I could take on some of the burden of his hopelessness. And I felt my eyes well up from the same pain, as I thought of my patient  a male in his late teens with so much to live. As I held him, I felt his sobs slow to a whimper. I stepped back, wiped my tears, and walked away without saying one word, without looking him in the eyes.

I went to a nearby bathroom, and sat on the floor to let time pass. After a few minutes, I washed my hands, washed my face, and walked back to the operating room to check on the patient. The chief resident had re-opened his chest, and was massaging his heart.

He lost pulses, she said, as she motioned me to take over compressions.

I pumped his heart in the palm of my hands  over and over again  but his heart laid still.

Everyone went quiet.

We bowed our heads in understanding.

***

I stood behind as the team left to prepare for cases. The air was warm and thick in the operating room as I cleaned his motionless body of blood. The nurse and I moved his body onto a stretcher  his bloody Tommy Hilfiger boxers remained on the operating room table. We worked together somberly and efficiently, all too well rehearsed.

The phone rang  like an old, nasty alarm clock  and pierced through the thick air. A nurse was on the line. The family wanted to see their son.

We wheeled him to the recovery unit, and the nurses prepared the room with boxes of tissues and cups of water. I took one last look at him, and felt my eyes well up  another young victim of gun violence.

As I left the room, there he was walking toward me, toward his sons body  in his grey shirt and muddy boots.

He took one look at my tearful eyes, and embraced me. He pulled my head into his chest, and by the smell of my scrubs, he could tell that I had worked all day. He embraced me as I sobbed into his chest, leaving behind small little patches of despair and pain.

Today, I hugged a stranger.

Edwin Acevedo, Jr. is a general surgery resident.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Kilkenny Library has recently installed a new printing, scanning and copying kiosk which allows customers to print or photocopy on a self-service basis while on the go.

The devices were provided by the Thomastown based company SurfBox which has kiosk installations across the country, operating across a number of shopping centres, public libraries and airports in Ireland.

The service - which also allows customers to print from mobile devices - is frequently used to print documents such as CVs, payslips and boarding passes.

Mobile device ownership in Ireland is at a record high, with 86% of Irish consumers owning or having access to a smartphone, and 60% owning/accessing tablets.

SurfBox's ideas is that with desktop computers becoming less of a focal point in Irish lifestyle, this indicates a need for more diverse solutions than the traditional household printer, such as mobile printing services.

The company was founded in 2004 by Thomas Marry and Declan Lennon and currently operate from its Head Office in Thomastown, County Kilkenny.

SurfBox managing director, Thomas Marry, said: "With the continued shift towards smartphone technology, the idea of printing at home has become foreign to many households.

Our kiosks allow customers to print their documents in many of the most convenient places to them."

SurfBox also operate a number of kiosks across the UK, France and Belgium.

The automated service has recently introduced a 3D printing functionality in a selection of its library locations and aims to roll out this facility to further locations in the coming months, where it will prove useful to students, entrepreneurs, designers/artists and start-up businesses.

SurfBox has won a number of awards throughout the years, including the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce award for Best Small Business of the Year in 2008.
The dramatic fall in the uptake of a cancer-preventing vaccine requires urgent action for it to be addressed, the newly-formed HPV Vaccination Alliance has said.

The Carlow/Kilkenny region has seen one of the steepest drops in uptake of the HPV vaccine, which protects against the strains of Human Papilloma Virus which cause seven in ten cases of cervical cancer in women. In the 2015/2016 school year 208 Carlow and Kilkenny schoolgirls declined the offer of the free vaccine. This meant just 80.6% of girls eligible to receive the vaccine in Carlow and Kilkenny actually got it, down from 90.4% the previous year.

Provisional figures show that uptake fell even more sharply in 2016/2017, falling to as low as 50% nationally.

In response, more than 30 organisations, including leading health, children and womens groups, have come together to express their alarm at this dramatic and life-threatening fall in numbers.

This year alone, up to 420 people in Ireland will be diagnosed with a cancer caused by HPV infection. Almost 300 of these will be cervical cancer cases. A further 6,500 women will need hospital treatment to remove precancerous growths in their cervix caused by HPV.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of death due to cancer in women aged 25 to 39. In 2017, more than 90 Irish women will die from cervical cancer and those who survive will need intensive treatment, such as surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, to help them overcome this invasive disease. This treatment almost always results in infertility.

This new school term around 30,000 first-year secondary school girls will be offered the vaccine as part of a national vaccination programme which began in 2010. While national uptake of the vaccine reached a high of 87% in the 2014/2015 academic year, in just two years this has fallen to 50%, largely due to misinformation about the vaccine spreading on social media.

Last years low uptake will result in a minimum of 40 deaths. Another 100 girls will need life-changing treatment and 1,000 more will need invasive therapy.

In coming together, the HPV Vaccination Alliance is unequivocal: the HPV vaccine is safe and saves lives. To highlight this, Alliance member organisations have signed a Contract Against Cancer.

Under the Contract, the HPV Vaccination Alliance: endorses the HPV vaccine as a proven and safe way to protect from cancers which can destroy and end lives, realises its obligation to do all we can to protect health and wellbeing by ensuring the facts prevail when it comes to the HPV vaccine and pledges to raise awareness of the HPV vaccine and its benefits in stopping cancer and saving lives.

At the launch of the Alliance, Donal Buggy, Head of Services and Advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society, said:

When it comes to the HPV vaccine, the jury is in  the vaccine is safe and saves lives. The Irish Cancer Society has been vocal on this issue for quite some time.

Its only natural that parents are fearful when they hear claims about a vaccine. Its terrible that young girls get sick, but to link their illness to a life-saving vaccine when all the research shows no link is dangerous and threatens lives.

Large studies looking at 3-4 million women, vaccinated and unvaccinated, found no evidence whatsoever that HPV vaccination causes any immune or nervous system disorder. The World Health Organisation and the European Medicines Agency have concluded that the injection is safe and has no link to any serious illnesses.

All the evidence does show, however, that the vaccine prevents cervical cancer. Thats why the decision parents make now on the vaccine can have serious consequences for their daughters.

Orla OConnor, Director of the National Womens Council of Ireland (NWCI),added:

At our most recent AGM, NWCI members voted to fully support all efforts around increasing the uptake of the HPV vaccine. We see this issue as hugely concerning for womens health.

Not only does cervical cancer kill 90 women in Ireland each year, it leaves many more infertile due to the side effects of harsh and invasive medical treatment for the disease. These are lasting consequences which young women  and their parents  will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

No woman should have the choice of having a biological family taken away from them because they did not receive a safe and life-saving vaccine. Thats why its important that we do all we can to ensure the public know all the facts about the HPV vaccine.

Tanya Ward, Chief Executive of the Childrens Rights Alliance, added:

We are calling on the parents of Ireland to consent to the vaccine to protect the health of their daughters. The vaccine is free, safe and may save their daughters lives.

We have joined forces with the partners of the HPV Vaccination Alliance to encourage uptake in the coming school year and going forwards. We need to separate facts from fiction and ensure the message is spread that this vaccine is potentially life-saving.

For more information on the HPV Vaccination Alliance and its Contract Against Cancer, please see www.hpvalliance.ie
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One brick at a time, one party at a time/ Points on the curve
Editor's Note: Kitco readers, have your say! Check out our newest feature  KITCO CHAT!  where you can share your comments and ask questions directly to us.

(Kitco News) - The gold market had several bearish elements working against it Monday, yet prices finished just modestly down and up from the daily lows. All in all, the gold market bulls should still feel pretty good about their metal, at present. The psychologically important $1,300.00 level is within striking distance and will probably be struck in the coming days. December Comex gold was last down $3.50 an ounce at $1,290.50. September Comex silver was last up $0.05 at $17.12 an ounce.

Global stock markets were mostly higher Monday, with U.S. stock indexes solidly higher, on the easing of fears the U.S. and North Korea are headed toward military conflict soon. The U.S. secretary of defense and secretary of state, as well as other Trump administration officials, on Sunday said they are trying to achieve denuclearization of North Korea through diplomacy. Also, China on Monday said it has banned key North Korean imports. The reduced anxiety in the marketplace and the rallying world stock markets were negatives for the safe-haven gold market.

However, dont look for this major geopolitical situation to just get better and go away any time soon. This matter will continue to be near the front-burner of the marketplace for at least the near term. Such will at the very least limit selling pressure in the safe-haven gold market.

The key outside markets were also in a bearish daily posture for gold and silver markets today. The U.S. dollar index was higher. Trading has been choppy in the greenback the past week. Meantime, Nymex crude oi futures were lower. Crude oil trading has also been choppy and sideways the past week. Stiff overhead resistance at the $50.00 level is keeping the bulls in check, at present.

There were no major U.S. economic reports released Monday.

Technically, December gold futures bulls still have the firm overall near-term technical advantage. Bulls next upside technical objective is pushing prices above chart resistance at $1,300.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is closing prices below solid technical support at last weeks low of $1,257.10. First resistance is seen at last weeks high of $1,298.10 and then at $1,300.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,284.20 and then at $1,280.00. Wyckoffs Market Rating: 7.0

September silver have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a five-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. The next upside price breakout objective is closing futures prices above solid technical resistance at $18.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $16.25. First resistance is seen at last weeks high of $17.24 and then at $17.50. Next support is seen at $16.85 and then at $16.50. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0.
CAIRO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Egypt's Beltone Financial will launch a $1 billion investment fund in fixed income instruments in September, its chief executive officer told Reuters on Monday.

The investment bank aims to raise $150-200 million in the first phase of the investment fund, Bassem Azzab said.

Beltone aims to acquire brokerages in Egypt and frontier markets, Azzab said. He expects the company to manage the initial public offering of a pharmaceutical company worth over 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($56.37 million) on the Egyptian stock market before the end of 2017.

($1 = 17.7400 Egyptian pounds)

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Arwa Gaballa; Editing by Eric Knecht)
Editor's Note: Kitco readers, have your say! Check out our newest feature  KITCO CHAT!  where you can share your comments and ask questions directly to us.

(Kitco News) - As expected, hedge funds bearish on gold and silver felt the pinch once again last week, as they were squeezed out while the market remained resilient in the face of continued strength in the labor market, according to analysts.

The latest trade data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed that bullish sentiment in gold rose for the fourth consecutive week as prices hovered near two-month highs. The data revealed that bullish sentiment is at its highest level in two months.

The Disaggregated Commitments of Traders report for the week ending August 8, showed money managers increased their speculative gross long positions in Comex gold futures by 6,746 contracts to 164,828. At the same time, short bets fell by 10,781 contracts to 28,843. Golds net length now stands at 135,985 contracts.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank noted that in the past three weeks hedge funds have shed 71,000 short contracts, which is the equivalent of 7.1 million ounces of gold.

Golds net length increased almost 15% from the previous week; however during the survey period prices for the yellow metal declined more than 1%. The price drop came after economic data showed solid strength in the labor market after the U.S. Economy created 209,000 jobs in July, beating market expectations.

Although there was some profit taking in the gold markets, analysts remained constructive on gold as safe-haven demand started to pick up due to rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

Despite an impressive jobs report last Friday, which saw the metals selloff and some longs liquidate, spec positioning still increased as the recent flare up in tensions with North Korea saw more shorts covering, said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities.

It is likely net positioning will continue to grow moving forward as government shutdown discussions and North Korea tensions keep investors interested, while disappointing data such as a the CPI print for July suggest the Fed will have little impetus to lift rates as much as it had signaled, provide a positive environment for the precious metals.

Looking long term, Joni Teves, precious metals strategist at UBS, said that she expects gold to continue to grow as funds diversify into more defensive portfolio strategies.

We think that allocations to gold are currently low relative to historical levels, which suggests that there's room for exposures to grow up ahead. Investors continue to recognise gold's value in a diversified portfolio, she said in a recent report. Interest has been evident, especially in recent months, from more strategic players to slowly build positions in gold, taking advantage of price fluctuation.



Bearish silver investors also fled the marketplace last week as bullish positioning increased for the third consecutive week.

The disaggregated report showed money-managed speculative gross long positions in Comex silver futures fell by only 5 contracts to 66,456. At the same time, short positions fell by 4,491 contracts to 38,936. The silver markets net length now stands at 27,520.

Silvers bullish positioning increased more than 19% from the previous week, but prices dropped more than 2% during the survey period.
By Davide Barbuscia and Tom Arnold

DUBAI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Jabal Omar Development Co , one of the largest listed property developers in the country, plans to raise 4 billion riyals ($1.1 billion) with local currency sukuk issues, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The company, which has taken out bank loans over the past few years to back its flagship development in Mecca, may start issuing the Islamic bonds over the next few months, sources said. It was not clear whether all the sukuk would be issued at one time or over a period of time.

Bank Al Bilad has been hired to arrange the fund-raising, but other banks are likely to have leading roles too, the sources added.

Bank Al Bilad and Jabal Omar Development did not respond to requests for comment.

The developer's flagship project, Jabal Omar, is within walking distance of the Holy Mosque in Mecca. It includes commercial malls, residential units and hotels over an area of 230,000 square metres.

Saudi Arabia's real estate sector was hit hard last year, with prices declining 8.7 percent, according to a government study, as a result of the government's austerity measures after a slump in international oil prices. Jabal Omar missed in January last year the first repayment, worth 650 million riyals, on a 3 billion riyal loan that it had obtained from a government entity in 2012 to develop the Jabal Omar area.

It amended the terms of the loan in February 2016 to postpone the effective date of the loan settlement and extend its grace period. The first payment on the facility is now due in 2019 and the loan will mature in 2024.

Jabal Omar has also borrowed 4 billion riyals through an Islamic loan from a commercial bank signed in February 2015. The first repayment of that loan is due in March next year, while the last installment is in 2029, according to the company's latest financial report.

It also signed a syndicated loan with a credit limit of 8 billion riyals in September 2015 with two local banks. That loan has a 12-year maturity and a four-year grace period.

It is not clear whether the planned sukuk would be used as new funding or to refinance some of the company's existing debt, but it is very likely that the bonds will be absorbed by the company's existing relationship banks, the sources said.

(Editing by Andrew Torchia)
Aug 14 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0437 GMT.

August 14 USD/VND mid-point 22,441 USD/VND interbank 22,727/22,728 USD/VND unofficial 22,720/22,740 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.30/36.52

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.4-0.8

1 week 0.5-0.9

1 month 1.3-1.9

3 months 3.0-3.6

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
FRANKFURT, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Stada on Monday warned that even fewer retail investors have so far tendered their shares in the planned takeover of the German generic drugmaker than at the same stage during the previous, failed attempt to get a deal done.

"The tender rate among retail investor is much lower than during the first attempt and much lower than we expected. The activities that we have engaged in have not had the desired effect," a spokesman told Reuters by phone.

"It is now up to the hedge funds to make sure that the offer goes through," he added.

Stada, which is roughly 25-percent owned by retail shareholders, earlier on Monday said 34.1 percent of shares had been tendered by 1600 GMT on Friday.

Private equity groups Bain Capital and Cinven are making a second takeover offer for Stada after their previous 5.3 billion euro ($6.1 billion) bid fell through, giving shareholders until Wednesday this week to tender their shares.

The suitors sweetened their offer by 25 cents per share to 66.25 euros and lowered the acceptance threshold among shareholders to 63 percent of shares from 67.5 percent previously targeted.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
ZURICH, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening 0.2 percent higher at 8,901 points on Monday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer .

The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks:

COMPANY STATEMENTS * Alpiq said the Romanian tax authority ANAF has concluded it owes 175 million euros ($206.8 million) for value added tax, corporate income tax and penalties for the period 2010-2014 after a tax audit on the Bucharest branch of Alpiq Energy SE, Prague. The draft decision is not enforceable and Alpiq will now submit its arguments against the assessment, the company said, adding that a final decision may be issued once Alpiq has been given this right of defence against the position of ANAF. * Landis&Gyr posted $433 million in net revenue (unaudited) and $54.6 million in adjusted EBITDA (unaudited) for the three months ended June 30, 2017. The company also said Rudolf Maag now holds 10.17 percent of its voting rights * Evolva Holding posted a first-half net loss of 20.3 million Swiss francs compared to an 18.8 million loss a year earlier. * Orell Fuessli Holding said first-half net income was down 5 percent at 131.9 million Swiss francs. * lastminute.com announced a partnership with Telepass (Atlantia Group), a European company in the payment systems industry, to help grow URBANnext SA. * Gurit said it has successfully completed material qualification for a global aerospace manufacturer and added to its official supplier database. * Logitech International said it has closed its acquisition of ASTRO Gaming. ECONOMY The Swiss National Bank releases data on sight deposits at 0800 GMT.

($1 = 0.8465 euros)

(Reporting by Zurich newsroom)

Daily Swiss stock market report in German................ All SMI constituent stocks............................ News on major Swiss stock price moves.................. FTSE Eurotop 300 index................................ DJ STOXX index........................................ Top 10 STOXX sectors............................. Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors........................ Top 10 Eurotop 300 sectors....................... Top 25 European pct gainers... , losers... Swiss mid-cap index SMI futures Swiss all-share index Market statistics Swiss market digest Sector overview All Swiss news Swiss research news All equity news INTERNET ADDRESSES: Swiss Exchange / Eurex STOXX Ltd SPEED GUIDES: ))

Keywords: MARKETS SWISS STOCKS/
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Britain's government debt agency said on Monday it was seeking investors' views on which gilt with a maturity of more than 40 years it should sell via syndication in the first half of September.

The DMO said the syndication could be of an existing gilt or a new one which would "modestly" extend the maturities available to investors.

Investors meet the DMO on Aug. 21 and will also discuss gilt auctions for the last three months of 2017. The DMO said it planned to hold seven gilt auctions, including at least two sales of the 0.75 percent 2023 gilt and at least one sale of the 1.25 percent 2027 gilt .

It also plans to sell an index-linked gilt via syndication in the last three months of 2017.

(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce)
* STOXX 600 up 0.8 pct

* Banks lead relief rally

* Fiat Chrysler jumps on M&A chatter

* RWE gains after strong results, better outlook

(ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time on the Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)

By Helen Reid

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Monday after geopolitical tension had sent them to their worst weekly losses of the year.

The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.8 percent while euro zone stocks and blue-chips jumped 1 percent. Tension between the United States and North Korea sent them 2.7 percent lower last week, their worst weekly loss this year.

The banking sector , the worst hit last week, led gains, up 1.5 percent, with Deutsche Bank , Commerzbank and Standard Chartered Bank all up 2.7 to 3.4 percent.

"Financials are a high beta sector so whenever there's a market sell-off they do worse," said Caroline Simmons, deputy head of the UK investment office at UBS Wealth Management.

"You get these reversals afterwards: the pick-up in volatility is reversing and cyclicals are gaining. We're seeing a return to fundamentals, which we think are quite good."

The VSTOXX , Europe's main gauge of equity investor anxiety, was down 13 percent at 16.8 euros, erasing all of Friday's spike and still near historic lows.

M&A chatter boosted Fiat Chrysler and Danone .

Fiat Chrysler shares jumped 3.5 percent, leading autos stocks, with a trader citing an Automotive News report saying large Chinese automakers were looking to acquire the Italian company. Danone shares gained 1.5 percent after the New York Post newspaper speculated the firm could be a bid target. A spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. Shares in German energy group RWE rose 1.5 percent after it said 2017 profits would be near the top end of its forecast after first-half results were boosted by better gas plant performance. RWE has led European utilities this year, up 60 percent. Broker reports caused some significant moves as well.

UDG Healthcare fell 3 percent after Liberum analysts cut their target price on the stock, while travel company TUI jumped 4.3 percent after Credit Suisse upgraded it.

UK mid-cap Ladbrokes Coral was among a handful of fallers, down 2.7 percent after Credit Suisse cut the stock to "underperform" from "neutral".

With 82 percent of MSCI Europe corporates' quarterly results through, energy and basic materials stood out as the winners so far, while consumer cyclical and industrial companies have mostly missed analyst expectations, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Industrials were also a weak spot among euro zone companies, which Simmons said were on track to post more than 10 percent earnings growth this year. Many brokers had warned a stronger euro could dent performance for euro zone exporters.

"The currency has had a little bit of an impact, but I would not over-emphasise it," Simmons said.

"If the euro continued to strengthen it could be more significant, but for now there's enough growth going on to offset it," she added.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Stronger euro, eurozone equities and DAX ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Alison Williams and Susan Thomas)
(Adds quotes, background, updates prices)

* Japan growth could signal global recovery, tighter policy

* German 10-year yield rises 2.5 bps, back above 0.40 pct

* Easing Korea tension sees Italy-Germany spread narrow

* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields By Abhinav Ramnarayan

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields rose 2-3 basis points across the board on Monday, bouncing from recent lows following stronger-than-expected Japanese growth.

Japan's economy expanded at the fastest pace in more than two years in the second quarter as consumer and company spending picked up, highlighting a long-awaited bounce in domestic demand. The data further supports expectations that the global economy is on the mend and that central banks can start to unwind extraordinary monetary stimulus put in place in the wake of a series of financial and debt crises.

The yield on Germany's 10-year government bond , the benchmark for the euro zone, was up 2.5 bps to 0.41 percent in early trade, a move mirrored by most other euro zone 10-year government debt.

Japanese 10-year debt itself was flat on the day while 10-year U.S. Treasury yields were up 2.4 bps. "The question becomes how Japanese growth could impact the very expansionary stance of central banks," said DZ Bank strategist Daniel Lenz.

"With Fed and ECB minutes coming up and a speech from (Bundesbank member) Andreas Dombret, we may find out more this week."

The minutes of the July meetings of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are due to be released this week, on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, while Dombret is due to speak in South Africa later on Monday on the future of Europe and the euro.

Expectations that the ECB will follow other major central banks in unwinding stimulus have pushed yields higher since the start of the year.

However, over the past week, euro zone yields have dropped sharply as investors sheltered in the safety of euro zone government bonds with tensions brewing between North Korea and the United States.

With those concerns apparently easing a touch over this weekend, investors were able to focus instead on the Japanese data.

"The risk aversion has stabilised and investors have gotten used to the North Korea situation a little bit - as long as it doesn't escalate further," said Lenz of DZ Bank.

As of now, the calmer stance has reduced southern European government bond yield spreads over Germany's benchmark bond.

The gap between Italian and German 10-year borrowing costs, a key indicator of risk sentiment in the market, narrowed to 161 basis points on Monday, having gone as wide as 166 basis points last week. For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url= <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Decision Europe: Full election coverage cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=72745

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Alison Williams)

* Japan growth could signal global recovery, tighter policy

* German 10-year yield rises 2.5 bps, back above 0.40 pct

* Easing Korea tension sees Italy-Germany spread narrow

* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields (Updates with graphic, updates prices)

By Abhinav Ramnarayan

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields rose 2-3 basis points across the board on Monday, bouncing from recent lows following stronger-than-expected Japanese growth.

Japan's economy expanded at the fastest pace in more than two years in the second quarter as consumer and company spending picked up, highlighting a long-awaited bounce in domestic demand. The data further supports expectations that the global economy is on the mend and that central banks can start to unwind extraordinary monetary stimulus put in place in the wake of a series of financial and debt crises.

The yield on Germany's 10-year government bond , the benchmark for the euro zone, was up 3.5 bps to 0.42 percent in early trade, a move mirrored by most other high-grade euro zone 10-year government debt.

Japanese 10-year debt itself was flat on the day while 10-year U.S. Treasury yields were up 2.4 bps. "The question becomes how Japanese growth could impact the very expansionary stance of central banks," said DZ Bank strategist Daniel Lenz.

"With Fed and ECB minutes coming up and a speech from (Bundesbank member) Andreas Dombret, we may find out more this week."

The minutes of the July meetings of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are due to be released this week, on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, while Dombret is due to speak in South Africa later on Monday on the future of Europe and the euro.

Expectations that the ECB will follow other major central banks in unwinding stimulus have pushed yields higher since the start of the year.

However, over the past week, euro zone yields have dropped sharply as investors sheltered in the safety of euro zone government bonds with tensions brewing between North Korea and the United States.

With those concerns apparently easing a touch over this weekend, investors were able to focus instead on the Japanese data.

"The risk aversion has stabilised and investors have gotten used to the North Korea situation a little bit - as long as it doesn't escalate further," said Lenz of DZ Bank.

As of now, the calmer stance has reduced southern European government bond yield spreads over Germany's benchmark bond.

The gap between Italian and German 10-year borrowing costs, a key indicator of risk sentiment in the market, narrowed to 161 basis points on Monday, having gone as wide as 166 basis points last week. For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url= <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Italian-German bond yield spread ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Toby Chopra)
(Adds details, quotes, context)

MOSCOW, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Russia's largest gold producer Polyus on Monday reported a 10 percent increase in first-half core earnings as higher sales volumes compensated for a flat gold price.

First-half adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to $762 million from $691 million a year ago. Revenue was up 14 percent to $1.2 billion.

One-off non-cash items and forex gains supported its first-half net profit, which was up 21 percent year on year to $603 million. Excluding those factors, adjusted net profit was still up 17 percent to $475 million.

Polyus, controlled by the family of Russian tycoon Suleiman Kerimov, also said that it was on track to start production at its main greenfield project - the Natalka gold deposit in Russia's far east - by the end of this year.

The ramp-up of construction at Natalka was the main reason behind a 73-percent increase in capital expenditure to $322 million in the first half of 2017, Polyus said.

This project will drive Polyus' production growth in the coming years and is a major part of the company's strategy which helped it to sell a stake to investors in Moscow and London and also to reach an agreement on investment with China's Fosun earlier in 2017. "Polyus' flagship greenfield project Natalka remains on track to be commissioned by the end of 2017. This allows us to reiterate production guidance for 2017 at 2.075-2.125 million troy ounces," Pavel Grachev, Polyus chief executive, said in a statement.

Its production is expected at 2.35-2.4 million ounces in 2018 and at 2.8 million ounces in 2019. Polyus also said that its net debt fell to $3.1 billion by the end of June from $3.2 billion as of the end of 2016 mainly due to the sale of its stake in the deposit in the Nezhdaninskoye gold deposit in Russia's far east. Polyus shares in Moscow were up 0.4 percent on Monday, in line with 0.3 percent growth in the broader MICEX index .

(Reporting by Polina Devitt; editing by Jane Merriman)
(Adds stocks, credit default swaps, analyst quotes)

By Luc Cohen and Eliana Raszewski

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Argentine stocks rose, the peso strengthened more than 3 percent and credit default swaps fell on Monday after a mid-term legislative primary election was seen as favoring business-friendly President Mauricio Macri's reform effort.

With 95.68 percent of polling stations counted in crucial Buenos Aires province, Macri's favored candidate, Esteban Bullrich, had 34.19 percent of votes for a Senate seat, versus 34.11 percent for former populist leader Cristina Fernandez. Adrian Perez, head of political affairs in the interior ministry, which is responsible for overseeing the vote count, said on local radio there was a technical tie in the province that is home to 40 percent of Argentina's electorate.

Fernandez had been expected to win by several percentage points, according to the final polls last week, causing investors to fear a comeback in Congress could pave the way to her running for president in 2019 and ending Macri's reform agenda.

No matter how many seats Macri's "Let's Change" coalition picks up in October - when Argentines elect one-third of the Senate and half the lower house of Congress - Macri will still lack a majority and must build alliances to pass reforms. However, analysts said less support for Fernandez would strengthen his negotiating position.

"The government is still in a coalition and requires the support of other parties," James McCormack, global head of Sovereign and Supranational Ratings at Fitch, told Reuters. "That won't be changing, but maybe it gives that coalition a little more impetus."

JPMorgan's Argentina bond index showed yields tightening 27 basis points. Five-year credit default swaps fell 18 basis points to a nearly seven-week low and the Merval stock index rose 3 percent.

Argentina's peso had weakened around 9 percent as of Friday afternoon since Fernandez broke with more moderate factions of the Peronism movement and declared her candidacy on June 24.

"'Let's Change' has a favorable result on a national level, always 35 to 36 percent, a successful minority and facing a divided opposition," said political analyst Ricardo Rouvier.

Fernandez was president from 2007 to 2015 and was indicted for corruption last year.

Under Argentina's election system, the winning party in each Senate race gets two of the province's three seats, with the remaining seat going to the second-place finisher.

A second-place finish would still grant Fernandez, 64, a seat, which would give her immunity from arrest, though not from trial. She dismisses the corruption accusations as politically motivated.

(Additional reporting by Walter Bianchi, Hernan Nessi, Jorge Otaola; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Dan Grebler)
(Updates with details, share performance)

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Marta Nogueira

SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - B igger-than-expected shareholder backing for Vale SA's stock conversion plan could lead the world's No. 1 iron ore producer to speed up the listing of common shares in Brazil's strictest market to lure a broader investor base.

Chief Executive Officer Fabio Schvartsman told investors in a Monday conference call that the conversion plan, which ended last week, was "a success." A total 1.66 billion Vale preferred shares, or 84.4 percent of that class of stock in circulation, joined the plan, topping a minimum 54.09 percent threshold.

Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani said on the call that Vale was not considering cash incentives to buy back stock from investors who did not swap their preferred shares into common ones.

While the company expected to join the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange's Novo Mercado, the bourse's strictest chapter, by 2020, the move could come as early as this year, the executives said.

By merging Vale's different classes of stock into a single, common one, the company may become more attractive to Asian investors and specialized mining and metal investment firms, Siani told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit last week. "We are working with our legal advisers to do the Novo Mercado listing as quickly as possible," Schvartsman said.

The new share structure represents a milestone in a country long hobbled by corporate governance abuses and reorganizations that hampered minority investors. Reuters reported the plan on Jan. 19, citing people familiar with it. The plan limits politicians' involvement in Vale, something that weighed on the company's stock during former President Dilma Rousseff's five years in office. Still, the government will keep a golden share, allowing it to fend off hostile takeover attempts and shape strategic decisions.

Common shares of Vale were up 2 percent at 31.40 reais in late morning trading, extending the stock's gain this year past 26 percent. The preferred shares rose 1 percent to 29.02 reais.

Vale's common American depositary receipt added 0.9 percent to $9.775 in New York.

Schvartsman said Vale would absorb its former controlling entity, Valepar SA, on Monday. The takeover of Valepar is part of a reorganization aimed at transforming Vale into a company with dispersed share ownership.

(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
* Merkel signals diesel's days are numbered

* Says car industry must win back trust

* Tax breaks to remain in place for now

(Adds comment from Volkswagen)

BERLIN, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Germany must eventually follow other European countries in banning new diesel cars, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, conceding for the first time that diesel's days are numbered in the wake of the emissions scandals.

Her concession, in an interview with Super Illu magazine, followed mounting pressure over the summer on Germany's auto makers who concealed from regulators the true emissions level of diesel vehicles.

"I don't want to name an exact year," she said, but Britain and France's plans to phase out internal combustion-driven cars by 2040 "were the right approach".

The fate of the auto sector, Germany's biggest exporter and provider of some 800,000 jobs, has become a hot issue in the Sept. 24 election, when Merkel is seeking a fourth term. Politicians are accusing auto executives of failing to find an adequate response to the emissions scandal.

Agreement was reached at a summit of politicians and carmakers this month to overhaul engine software on 5.3 million diesel cars to cut pollution and repair the industry's reputation, battered by Volkswagen's admission two years ago that it had cheated U.S. emission tests. On the possibility of a second diesel summit, Daimler said: "We were and are always prepared to engage in a constructive dialogue."

A spokesman for Volkswagen pointed to the carmaker's strategy of restructuring called "Together 2025", adding: "We're addressing the issues of the future."

The Volkswagen spokesman also rejected suggestions that the decisions made at the diesel summit were insufficient, saying: "We think the measures are appropriate to avoid driving bans and to improve the air quality."

Ministers and government spokespeople had declined to commit to phasing out diesel cars. That was in August, when Merkel was on holiday in the Italian Alps. Her absence drew criticism from her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, who said he would have returned from vacation to "take matters in hand".

TRUST

Returning to a theme she aired in Dortmund at the weekend, Merkel said the car industry must win back trust, including by offering trade-in bonuses and software updates .

Consumers had been "deceived" and must get the environmental emissions performance they had been promised, she said.

But tax breaks favouring diesel cars would remain in place for the time being, since they emitted less carbon dioxide than petrol engines, she said.

Speaking at an election campaign rally in the western town of Gelnhausen, Merkel said it was important to acknowledge German carmakers had made mistakes. But she said employees were not to blame and it was important to preserve their jobs and ensure the industry's strength.

"The auto industry needs to ensure that the mistakes that were made are corrected," she said, and the diesel summit was the first step in doing this.

"But the second is that the country, the government needs to ensure that those who bought cars in good faith are not punished in the end with driving bans," she said.

Merkel said diesel cars were necessary to keep pollution under control and Germany needed to support the auto industry's transformation by promoting new technologies and ensuring the infrastructure was available.

"We need to organise a smooth transition into the new era so that people keep their jobs. That is the challenge that the CDU and CSU will meet," she said, referring to her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party - the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Merkel said her CDU would take a "measured" approach rather than an "extreme" one.

Though Germany's giant car industry has contributed to a stellar economic performance that looks likely to get Merkel re-elected, its auto makers have been slower than rivals to make the shift to electric traction.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Decision Europe: Full election coverage cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=72745

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting By Thomas Escritt and Noah Barkin; additional reporting by Jan Schwartz in Hamburg and Andreas Cremer in Berlin; Writing by Thomas Escritt and Michelle Martin; Editing by Andrea Shalal and Janet Lawrence)
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By Nam Hyun-woo





Cho Bong-hyun, deputy chief of the Industrial Bank of Korea's Economic Research Institute

Cho Bong-hyun, deputy chief of the Industrial Bank of Korea's Economic Research Institute, said Monday the recent tension between North Korea and the United States will ease.



Cho, known as an expert on the North Korean economy, did not rule out the possibility of the unpredictable regime's additional provocations. But he expected that the recent sanctions on its exports and financial activities will be quite effective.



"Tensions have risen on the Korean Peninsula following the North's provocations," Cho said in an interview with The Korea Times. "However, the bottom line is neither the U.S. nor China want worst-case scenarios. Thus, China adjusted its stance to some extent and the U.S. also showed its willingness to put forth efforts to avoid an extreme situation."



On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a peaceful resolution of North Korea issues during a telephone conservation. The call came after the North's series of intercontinental ballistic missile launches in recent months.



Some critics say Washington's move to investigate Beijing's trade practices is the former's tool to pressure the latter to get tougher on the North and the two leaders were in discord in the way of reining in Pyongyang. But according to Cho, the agreement shows the two superpowers share a common interest in successfully dealing with the bellicose regime.



"The agreement is based on the two countries' recognition that they don't want more tensions on the Korean Peninsula and they should do something to control the North," Cho said.





Effective sanctions



After the North's recent missile threats, the United Nations Security Council's unanimously adopted a fresh resolution on sanctions on the North earlier this month.



Resolution 2371 imposes a complete ban on exports of coal, while the previous sanctions allowed the North to sell limited amounts for livelihood purposes. It will also prohibit the North's other primary exports, including iron, lead and seafood products.



"It is estimated that about $1 to 1.5 billion out of the North's $3 billion annual export revenue will be gone," Cho said.

Many of the North's outbound financial activities were also forbidden.



Included in the sanctions were the Foreign Trade Bank of the DPRK and the (North) Korea National Insurance Corporation.



According to Cho, the trade bank is the regime's primary payment window for outbound transactions, having offices in China and Hong Kong. With the measure, those offices will stop their operation to block the regime's payments related to exports.



The insurance firm, which is the only North Korean insurer run by the Workers' Party of Korea, has been insuring cargo and ships. It is also suspected of having served as a channel of illegal funds for the North. Now, its assets outside of North Korea are frozen and its officials face travel bans.



On top of the above-mentioned measures, some asked for more powerful steps such as a fuel embargo on Pyongyang by China.



"A full-scale oil embargo is like severing the lifeline for the North," Cho said. "Not only its missile and military programs but also almost its entire industry could stop operating within three months."



According to him, North Korea imports about 1 million tons of crude oil a year and 70 percent comes from China.



Along with putting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the U.N. sanctions list, the fuel embargo is deemed as the last resort against the North's further provocations.



"Despite the new resolution, Kim will continue pursuing nuclear weapons and missiles," Cho said. "If additional sanctions are imposed on fuel supply, sightseeing and exporting workers, they would put great pressure on Kim. But such acts largely depend on China's determination and the country will not likely do this so easily."



He stressed that an alternative way to a breakthrough in this political deadlock is drawing economic changes inside North Korea.



"In recent years, markets have been growing in North Korea," he said. "Invigorating those markets would place long-term pressure on the North's leaders."
By Lee Hyo-sik



An interest group for Korea's five carmakers is found to have been "pressed" by the government to modify its press releases, which hinted at the possibility of the companies shifting production abroad.



The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) released a statement Thursday, suggesting domestic carmakers would have no other choice but to move their production facilities to foreign countries where they can manufacture cars at lower costs.



The association said its members, which are already grappling with high labor costs, will further lose their competitive edge if the court sides with unions by recognizing bonuses and other financial incentives as part of base salaries.



The five are Hyundai, Kia, GM Korea, Renault Samsung and Ssangyong.



It argued the court should not order carmakers to reimburse overdue wages retroactively, which would cost Kia 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) alone. It added that the companies would be left with no other choice but to take plants out of the country.



But several hours later, the association released a modified statement to retract its earlier claim, saying the carmakers were not considering moving their domestic plants abroad. It also asked media outlets to delete or revise their earlier reports.



A KAMA spokesman said the lobby group was never contacted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy regarding its controversial statement, stressing it decided voluntarily to amend it.



But a trade ministry official admitted to contacting KAMA and asking it to correct its statement to claim no local carmakers were considering moving plants out of Korea.



"As soon as I read articles about KAMA's press release, I called one of its officials and asked him to correct it," the official said. "When I asked him whether any of the five domestic carmakers plan to relocate their factories to foreign countries, he said no. Then, I asked him to correct the association's statement and release the revised one. All I did was correct misinformation."



The KAMA spokesman said the association decided to modify its statement, insisting media outlets focused on what it doesn't want them to.



"The purpose of releasing our statement is to inform the public that carmakers will face a crisis if the court sides with Kia's union on Aug. 17, ordering the firm to pay overdue wages retrospectively," the spokesman said. "But most media reports primarily dealt with the hypothetical situation we briefly mentioned. As far as we know, no local carmakers plan to relocate their domestic plants overseas. So we decided to ask media outlets to delete or correct their earlier reports."



But he said the trade ministry neither contacted nor pressed KAMA to modify its statement.




U.S. intelligence does not indicate an imminent nuclear war with North Korea, the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency said Sunday, after a week of bellicose rhetoric between the two sides.



In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," CIA Director Mike Pompeo said he would not be surprised if North Korea carried out another missile test to advance its missile and nuclear programs.



But he rejected talk of the U.S. being on the "cusp of nuclear war."



"I've seen no intelligence to indicate we're in that place today," Pompeo said.



North Korea, according to the director, has been moving at an "ever alarming rate" to develop nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.



"Each time they test another missile, or if they should conduct a nuclear weapons test, they develop expertise. They expand the envelope," he said.



U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear how the U.S. will respond to North Korea's provocations, and hopefully, the regime will understand, Pompeo added.



Trump warned last week that North Korea would be met with "fire and fury" if it continued to threaten his country. In response, North Korea announced a detailed plan to fire ballistic missiles towards Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.



"This administration has made our policy very clear. We've engaged the world to support that policy," Pompeo said, adding there will no longer be "strategic patience," the policy of former President Barack Obama, which centered on waiting for Pyongyang to return to denuclearization talks while increasing sanctions and pressure on the regime.



Pompeo described the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, as "rational."



"He responds to adverse circumstances," he said.



In a separate interview on ABC News, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, struck a similar tone.



He said he doesn't think the U.S. is closer to war than a week ago, but closer to war than a decade ago.



"Our response is we are prepared militarily to deal with this if necessary. But we're taking all possible actions short of military action to resolve this very grave threat to the United States and the world," the lieutenant general said, citing diplomatic efforts, increased sanctions and increased pressure.



He played down the gravity of Trump's tweet Friday that the U.S. military is "locked and loaded" to respond to North Korea's threats.



"The United States military is always locked and loaded," he said. "But the purpose of capable, ready forces is to preserve peace and prevent war. And George Washington said it. The most effective way of preserving peace is to be prepared for war."



On whether North Korea's threats alone could provoke a military response, he responded:



"Well, it depends on the nature of the threat, right? And so this is why what Kim Jong-un is doing is very, very dangerous." (Yonhap)




Key North Korean ambassadors overseas are currently back in Pyongyang for a joint meeting, officials here said Monday, as the communist country is drawing unprecedentedly intense condemnation for its nuclear and missile programs from the international community.

"North Korea seems to be hosting what appears to be a meeting of foreign diplomatic missions' chiefs after calling its ambassadors to major countries back to Pyongyang," a government official told Yonhap News Agency.

The ongoing meeting reportedly includes Amb. Ji Jae-ryong, Amb. Ja Song-nam and Amb. Kim Hyong-jun, North Korea's top envoys to China, the United Nations and Russia, respectively.

But how many more ambassadors are participating in the meeting is unclear, the official said.

The Ministry of Unification's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a press briefing that the meeting may be part of North Korea's regular gathering of ambassadors.

"North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors' meeting in July 2015 and (the latest meeting) seems to be in line with that," according to the spokesman.

Still, the top envoys' meeting may deal with the difficult international circumstance the country is currently handling after its two recent tests of what it called intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the mainland United States.

The meeting may also be linked with the country's purported preparations for further military provocations, possibly a nuclear test or more missile launches, as the country has warned more action. (Yonhap)


China said Monday it will enforce the latest United Nations sanctions on North Korea this week, banning the imports of resources and seafood from the country.

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2371 on Aug. 5 in response the North's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July. The new measures are aimed at slashing its annual export revenue of $3 billion by a third.

China's Ministry of Commerce said the embargo will apply to coal, iron, iron ore, lead and seafood. The ban will take effect on Tuesday, excluding products that have been shipped to ports and are awaiting domestic transportation.












Documents drawn up by Japanese police in 1938 indicate they considered the mobilization of sex slaves for the Japanese military as "abductions." / Courtesy of Kim Moon-gil



By Kim Bo-eun





Kim Moon-gil, Chief of Korea-Japan Cultural Studies Institute

Newly disclosed documents from Japanese police in 1938 indicate the police considered the mobilization of sex slaves before and during World War II as "abductions" and investigated the cases.

Kim Moon-gil, chief of the Korea-Japan Cultural Studies Institute and honorary professor at Busan University of Foreign Studies, unveiled the documents, Sunday. Kim found the documents at a state university in Japan.

The documents were drawn up by police of Japan's Wakayama Prefecture on Feb. 7, 1938.

Addressed to Japan's Department of Interior, the documents state that police came across three suspicious men in a commercial district of the prefecture on Jan. 6, 1938.

"You need not be suspicious. We have been ordered by military authorities to send women to brothels for the Imperial Army. We have been ordered to send 3,000 and so far we have put 70 on army ships departing from Nagasaki to Shanghai under the protection of military police," the documents state the men as telling the police.

The documents state the men "face charges of abduction," as they "told unsuspecting women they would be paid well, fed, clothed and provided a place to stay as long as they comforted soldiers."

The three men are referred to as "suspects," and their names and statuses are recorded.





Documents drawn up by Japanese police in 1938 indicate they considered the mobilization of sex slaves for the Japanese military as "abductions." / Courtesy of Kim Moon-gil

After the documents were sent to the interior department, the Nagasaki police _ which acted as an agent _ responded to the documents from the Wakayama police.

"The abduction case concerns the mobilization of comfort women for the imperial army," the response said. "This is happening not only in Japan but also in Joseon (Korea)."

At the time, the military held utmost authority, and police were ordered to follow their orders, Kim told The Korea Times, Sunday. "From these documents we are able to tell that before Japanese police knew about the military's involvement, they considered the mobilization of comfort women as criminal," Kim said in a telephone interview.

"Japan has been denying the forceful nature of the mobilization but the documents serve as concrete evidence of the coercion."

The unveiling comes in time for the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, which falls today, and Liberation Day, which marks Korea's independence from Japanese occupation on Aug. 15, 1945.

In December 2015, Korea and Japan signed a deal to put the issue of comfort women to rest, with the latter providing 1 billion yen in state funds for victims. However, it did not clearly state its legal responsibility in mobilizing the women for sex slavery.
Five hundred small "comfort women" statues are on display at Cheongye Stream Square in central Seoul, Monday, to mark international "comfort women" day. The day commemorates former Korean comfort woman Kim Hak-soon's first public testimony in 1991 about the wartime sex slavery. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



Civic organizations and activists held a series of events in honor of victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, including the display of hundreds of mini statues symbolizing the so-called "comfort women."

A total of 500 statues of a girl went on display at Cheongye Stream Square in central Seoul to mark the international "comfort women" day, which was created to commemorate the first-ever public testimony in 1991 by a sexual slavery victim, Kim Hak-soon.

It is also the eve of Liberation Day, which marks Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Kim's testimony drew international attention and set off outrage about the atrocity.

The display, organized by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, began at 8 a.m. and was scheduled to end eight hours and 14 minutes later, which symbolizes Aug. 14.
With President Moon Jae-in set to mark his 100th day in office this week, the geopolitical situation on the Korean Peninsula and Seoul's relations with major powers remain tricky, posing a grave challenge for the new leader down the road.

Moon came into office on May 10 with urgent missions to address North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile programs and find a way out of inter-Korean tension as well as untangle bilateral feuds with China which frets over Seoul's deployment of a U.S. defense system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

As Moon's 100th day in office falls on Thursday, his successful summit-level diplomacy figures prominently.

He flew to the U.S. in late June for his first summit with President Donald Trump less than two months after taking office. He then attended the meeting of leaders from the Group of 20 countries in Germany in July, putting South Korea's summit-level diplomacy back on track following a hiatus caused by former President Park Geun-hye's impeachment.

In their summit with in Washington D.C., Moon and Trump reaffirmed strong alliance between their countries and joint efforts to deter North Korea's threats, a security guarantee that came as North Korea's continued ballistic missile tests unnerved South Koreans and their surrounding regions.

Moon also had Trump's support for South Korea's "leading role in fostering an environment for peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula" written in their joint statement following the summit, gaining U.S. backing for his pledge to be in the driver's seat in dealing with North Korean issues.

The statement confirmed that "President Trump supported President Moon's aspiration to restart inter-Korean dialogue on issues including humanitarian affairs," extending U.S. support for Moon's initiative to use dialogue in denuclearizing North Korea, in addition to sanctions and pressure against the country.

He rallied international support for his approach during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany held from July 7-8.

During his visit to Germany, Moon unveiled the outline of his North Korea policy, later billed as the "Berlin initiative," in a speech in the German capital.

There, Moon said he is willing to sit together with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss cooperation and peace and will push for denuclearization of North Korea simultaneously with a peace treaty with the North.

"The Moon Jae-in administration unavoidably had some difficulties in pursuing new diplomatic policy after it came into a diplomacy inheritance that was in a mess," Hong Hyun-ik, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said. "But he was quite successfully in recovering South Korea's place through summit diplomacy in a short period of time and asserting his peace initiative," Hong said.












Five hundred miniature comfort woman statues are displayed in an exhibition at Cheonggye Plaza in central Seoul, Monday, marking the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women. The statues will be presented to people who donate 50,000 won or more. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



By Kim Bo-eun

At the 1,295th weekly Wednesday rally for "comfort women" held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Aug. 9, ahead of Liberation Day, three victims _ Kim Bok-dong, Gil Won-wok and Lee Yong-soo _ joined around 1,500 participants gathered to call for the discarding of a controversial deal reached between Korea and Japan in 2015 and for Tokyo to offer a "proper" apology.

Korea celebrates its liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) today.

"We cannot sit idly by. Korea now has a new president and we need to get an apology from the Japanese government to restore the victims' honor," Kim, 91, said at the rally in the summer heat.

In December 2015, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to put the sex slave issue to rest, with the latter providing 1 billion yen in government funds for victims. At the time, Japan offered an apology but its wording was unclear _ it did not take legal responsibility for its involvement forcing women into sexual slavery for the Japanese military; hence the nature of the fund is also seen as a form of humanitarian assistance, and not reparations.





Former wartime sex slaves take part in a weekly Wednesday rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul on Aug. 9. From left they are Kim Bok-dong, Lee Yong-soo and Gil Won-wok. / Yonhap



Sex slave issue



The issue of sex slaves for the Japanese military before and during World War II came to light in 1991 after the late victim Kim Hak-sun gave testimony of her experiences. The International Memorial Day for Comfort Women was designated as Aug. 14 in 2013, celebrating Kim's testimony.

The Wednesday rallies led by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan began in 1992, marking the visit of former Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Protesters urged Japan to clarify its role in the operation of military brothels and to take responsibility.

In 1993, Japan's former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono delivered a statement recognizing the Japanese military's involvement.

In 1995, the Japanese government founded the Asian Women's Fund, which collected private donations to distribute monetary compensation to sex slave victims in Asia.

Each victim received 2 million yen and a signed apology from the then Japanese prime minister.

However, the payments were criticized as the funds did not come from the government.

In the 2015 deal, Japan provided government funds, but did not give a clear definition of the nature of its apology and provision of funds.












By Yi Whan-woo





A statue of a Korean slave during the Japanese colonial era set up in Yongsan, Seoul. / Yonhap

Civil activists are installing statues symbolizing hundreds of thousands of Koreans who were forced into slave labor during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule.

The move is likely to trigger a fresh round of diplomatic tension between Korea and Japan amid their ongoing dispute over the statues of former Korean sex slaves for the Japanese military.

On Saturday, a civic alliance led by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the country's two largest umbrella unions, unveiled a statue of a slave worker in front of Yongsan Station, central Seoul. Participants of the unveiling ceremony included Woo Won-shik, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

The 2.1-meter sculpture is of a miner with a pickax in his hands, symbolizing those who, along with other slave workers, were forcibly taken to Japan and were asked to produce military goods and supplies under harsh conditions for the Japanese Army during World War II.

In separate efforts, an advocate group for Korean slave workers said Monday that it plans to hold a press conference in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Tuesday, to mark the 72nd anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan.

The National Association for Justice for Forced Laborers said it will reveal details concerning the three statues that it plans to build across the country by the end of this year.

Of the three statues, one will be installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and another in front of the Japanese consulate in Busan, according to the association's secretary-general Jang Duk-hwan _ the same locations where statues of a girl honoring former sex slaves have been placed. Japan has asked to have them removed, claiming they are against a bilateral agreement reached in December 2015 to resolve disputes over its wartime sex crimes.

The remaining statue will be established in front of Gwangju Station.

"We'll start with Seoul and will try to erect the statue there in October," Jang said.

It will be made of stone, with a width of 2 meters and 3-meter in height.

The statue will be aimed at showing how the Korean miners endured the risk of digging coal for the Japanese military while being brutally beaten and mistreated.

The statues are currently being built by Kim Un-sung and Kim Seo-kyung, the husband-and-wife artists who have made a series of sculptures symbolizing former sex slaves, including the ones by the Japanese diplomatic missions here.

"I'm aware of the ongoing sex slavery disputes and that our new statue concerning coerced labor will intensify the diplomatic row between Korea and Japan," Jang said. "That's exactly what we've intended. In particular, I hope our statues by the Japanese diplomatic missions will raise public awareness toward the slave workers."

Jang claimed that issues on forced labor received "less attention" than sex slavery and that he could not wait any longer considering the dwindling number of surviving victims.

"We've supported the advocate groups for sex slaves for years and now it's our turn to get support from society," he said.
By Rachel Lee

The ASEAN-Korea Centre will host the International Conference on the ASEAN-Korea Partnership at Lotte Hotel Seoul on Aug.30.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN and the ASEAN-ROK Cultural Exchange Year, the event aims to highlight developments in ASEAN during the past 50 years and discuss prospects for the next 50 years, the organization said.

It is also designed to share insights on how relations between the two regions will further evolve.

"We hope that this conference will help us to take another step forward in promoting mutual benefits, encouraging cultural and people-to-people exchanges and thereby strengthening the genuine partnership between ASEAN and Korea," ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-sun said.

High-ranking officials, including ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh, Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano are expected to speak at the event.

The conference is divided into two sessions: the 50th anniversary of ASEAN and prospects for ASEAN-Korea relations, and socio-cultural cooperation between ASEAN and Korea.

The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization established in 2009 to promote exchanges between Korea and the 10 ASEAN member states.
Ecuador's Ambassador to Korea, Oscar Herrera Gilbert, right, with artist Miguel Betancourt, center, and Superior Gallery Manager Kimmy Kim at the Superior Gallery in southern Seoul on Aug.10. / Courtesy of Embassy of Ecuador





By Rachel Lee

Renowned Ecuadorean artist Miguel Betancourt was in Seoul for an exhibition that marked his country's 208th National Day celebration on Aug. 10.

"Ecuador Through my Dreams" is on at the Superior Gallery in Seoul from Aug.1-31. Betancourt told The Korea Times the works represent his imaginative view of his country.

The exhibition is divided into five groups of paintings: trees, architecture, landscape, characters and assemblies. It features 34 paintings that were part of the exhibition "Strokes and Transparencies" held in Beijing in March.

The artworks have been painted on different artisanal papers, including traditional Korean paper.

At the opening ceremony on Aug. 10, Ecuador's Ambassador to Korea, Oscar Herrera Gilbert, hosted a reception to mark his country's National Day.

He spoke about the First Independence Uprising, when the patriots of Quito promoted a new form of government and claimed the right to freedom in 1809.

"This moment, of unique value for our history, started the beginning of independence movements in Latin America," Gilbert said. "For that, the city of Quito, the place of origin of this process, is known as the Light of America.'

"Today, the same enthusiasm for liberty is transmitted to us so we persevere in working for our country and for Latin America toward a harmonious development that combines economic growth and promotion of human values, guaranteeing a decent life to our citizens and an efficient and transparent public service."

The envoy said the exhibition was designed to express the "beauty of the colors of the Ecuadorian Andes and coastal zone, its dressings, the textures of the native materials and the natural atmosphere" of the country.

Betancourt, born in Quito in 1958, studied painting at the Milwaukee Art Center in the United States. When he returned to Quito to finish his studies in pedagogy and liberal arts at the Catholic Pontifical University, he rediscovered his native Ecuador _ the presence of pre-Hispanic civilizations, the wealth of colonial architecture and the grandeur of the baroque churches of Quito. He saw anew the color of the Andes and the beauty of the Ecuadorian countryside.

Betancourt has received recognition, including the Pollock-Krasner Award in 1993, conferred by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York.

Two of his paintings are part of the United Nations' art collections in Vienna and Geneva (UNIDO and UNAIDS). His artwork also can be found in private collections and at the Inter-American Development Bank (Tokyo), the Diners Club (Ecuador), Istituto Italo-Latino Americano (Rome), the Art Museum of the Americas, OEA (Washington, D.C.), the OPEC Fund for International Development (Vienna) and the Slade School of Fine Art (London).
President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford during their meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. / Yonhap



US top general supports diplomatic, economic measures



By Jun Ji-hye

President Moon Jae-in said Monday there cannot be another war on the Korean Peninsula and the North Korean nuclear and missile issues should be resolved peacefully.

Moon demanded North Korea immediately stop its bellicose rhetoric and threats that are aggravating the situation.

He said that if the North chooses the "right path," the South is ready to boost exchanges and cooperation with it, which will be beneficial for both sides.

The President made the remarks during a meeting with his senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.

He vowed that the government will make all-out efforts to resolve tension through close cooperation with major allies including the United States.

Stressing the top priority of South Korea is maintaining peace, Moon said North Korean issues should be resolved peacefully and that the U.S. government's position is the same.

"A tragic war can never be allowed to break out on the Korean Peninsula again," Moon said. "I am sure the U.S. will keep itself calm and respond to the current situation responsibly."

Moon added that peace on the peninsula will not be achieved through the use of arms.

The President's comments came amid an exchange of verbal threats between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Last week, Kim threatened to strike areas around Guam with four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles in response to Trump's warnings of "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Trump also tweeted that Washington's nuclear arsenal was "now stronger and more powerful than ever before" and that the U.S. military is "locked and loaded" to deal with the North's provocations.

Moon's comments were construed as putting the brakes on the North's young leader and President Trump, as well as some U.S. politicians' increasingly mentioning various military options including a pre-emptive strike or a war on the peninsula.

Moon meets Dunford

Later in the day, President Moon held a meeting with Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Gen. Joseph Dunford at Cheong Wa Dae to discuss how to deal with rising tensions and enhance the two countries' security cooperation.












North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Hwasong-14, is lauched at an undisclosed place, July 29. / AFP-Yonhap



By Kim Jae-kyoung

SINGAPORE  The rapid development of North Korea's missile and nuclear capabilities is disrupting the strategic balance on the Korean Peninsula and raising the risk of a military conflict, global credit ratings agencies warned, Sunday.

They said if tension builds up further, it will cause serious damage to South Korea's financial markets and economy.

"The way we generally view the tension on the Korean Peninsula is that it wouldn't be rational for either North or South Korea to start an outright war," Thomas Rookmaaker, director of Sovereigns and Supranationals Group at Fitch Ratings, told The Korea Times.

"However, the strategic balance is changing. North Korea continues to strengthen the ability of its weapons to reach U.S. territory and there is a risk that confrontation could be triggered by an unexpected event or a judgment error on either side."

He expressed concern that war would highly likely imply the end of the North's regime and massive destruction in the South.

"While the tension buildup has shown a cyclical pattern for years, the current tension level is higher than we have seen in the past few years and uncertainty has increased, with the potential for spillover in international relations," he said.

His warning comes as tension has significantly built up recently with the North Korean regime making progress in the development of its nuclear weapons, and escalating rhetoric on both sides.












By Jung Min-ho

Kim Kwang-soo





A 59-year-old lawmaker has been questioned after allegedly assaulting a woman that many suspect is his mistress.

Rep. Kim Kwang-soo of the People's Party was summoned for questioning by police Monday on suspicion of assaulting a 51-year-old woman at her house in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province.

"I apologize for what happened," Kim told reporters as he entered the Jeonju Wansan Police Station. "I will take this as an opportunity to reflect on myself. I also promise to cooperate with the investigation to find the truth."

Police officers took him to the police station, after her neighbor called them at around 2 a.m., Aug. 5, on suspicion of "family violence."

Kim initially did not identify himself, but police later found this out after questioning him.

Following media reports about the case, many accused the married man of having an affair, though it is not the focus of the investigation.

His wife and child currently live in the United States.

Kim later denied the accusations, saying the woman is just one of the people who worked on his election campaign last year.

But speculations about their relationship remain rampant as many of her neighbors claimed Kim visited her place frequently and they thought the two were husband and wife.
/ Courtesy of Uiryeong Police Station



By Woo Ji-won, Park Si-soo



Here is good news if you are foreigner living in Uiryeong and plan to obtain a driver's license.

Uiryeong Police Station has published license exam questions in English, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Taiwanese, Japanese and Chinese. The information is free.

The station will launch a five-week free driving license class for foreign residents in September.
A government official measures electromagnetic radiation from a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Saturday. The small-scale environmental impact study, conducted by the defense and environment ministries, found the electromagnetic radiation and noise levels were within legal limits. / Yonhap



By Kim Hyo-jin



The Moon Jae-in government is expected to accelerate the tentative deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in the southeastern county of Seongju, following positive interim results of a small-scale environmental impact study Saturday.



The defense and environment ministries conducted a joint on-spot survey of electromagnetic radiation and noise from the battery that showed both levels were within legal standards, they said.



According to the defense ministry, a momentary maximum level of electromagnetic radiation was at 0.046 watts, one-200th of the permissible level of 10 watts per square meter. The noise level was around 50 decibels  a legal standard allowed during daytime in a residential area.

The results could give momentum to the installation of four additional launchers of the THAAD unit because the results showed there uncovered no potential health risks, as protesters in Seongju had claimed.



Two rocket launchers and an X-band radar are operating at the deployment site after the former Park Geun-hye administration had them installed.



Citing procedural flaws, Moon halted the full deployment and initially planned to install the remaining four launchers after a full-scale environment impact survey.



But he ordered consultation with the U.S. for temporary installment after Pyongyang's intercontinental ballistic missile test late last month.



While the full-scale environment assessment will be conducted as scheduled, Saturday's survey results still would give the government legitimacy for temporary deployment, ministry officials said.



Meanwhile, in an apparent effort to mitigate residents' protests, Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, commander of the Eighth U.S. Army, who accompanied the ministry officials to Seongju for the on-spot assessment, apologized to residents on behalf of a U.S. soldier whose behavior caused controversy.



The unidentified soldier grinned while using his mobile phone to film residents protesting THAAD in April when part of the unit was being carried into the town. This angered the protesters more.



Meanwhile, Seongju residents said they could not accept the results of such a small-scale survey because the government did not make public the detailed measurement process. They also refused to accept Vandal's apology, saying that after four months, the apology was meaningless.



In response, the government said it was ready to redo the tests under residents' supervision if they wished. The protesters earlier declined to participate in the survey.



Despite ongoing protest, expectation is high that the government can wait no longer amid the increasing missile threats from North Korea, especially after its threat to launch a missile strike near the U.S. territory of Guam.



A ruling party official said, "The government, although it is seeking understanding of residents as much as possible, cannot postpone the deployment any longer given the situation. The efforts to persuade the protesters are in a near final phase."



The small-scale environmental impact study was to verify the results of an earlier evaluation by a local contractor submitted to the defense ministry, which also found no health risk.



If the environment ministry gave permission after an additional study as part of the small-scale assessment, the defense ministry will start reinforcing the ground for the existing two launchers and facilities for U.S. Forces Korea, Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk told reporters Saturday.
In less than 100 days since taking office, new South Korean President Moon Jae-in appears to have successfully turned the boat around, mostly for the better, but also with many challenges that include escalating tension with communist North Korea.

The changes initiated by Moon during his first three months have been many and wide, as he pushes for all-embracing reforms of the nation, starting with the way the head of state is treated.

Just before he was sworn on May 10, Moon visited the leaders of each and every opposition party to ask for their support in running the nation, becoming the first new leader to do so in the country's history.

Then on his way to move into the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, Moon made himself available to the public waiting outside his new office, highlighting his open door policy even when it comes to his own protection.

Such a humble and friendly approach has been witnessed on numerous occasions, distinguishing Moon from any other former president here who were often seen, apparently to their liking, as an all powerful, if not divine, ruler instead of an elected leader.

For instance, the new president surprised many when he refused the help of a secret service agent in taking his jacket off before the start of his first meeting with his top presidential aides.

Now, no one bothers to provide the president or other ranking officials at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae with the kind of pampering requested by former leaders, according to officials at Cheong Wa Dae.

Moon's attempt to remove such an authoritarian image from the country's top elected office may derive from his need to differentiate his government from what he and his supporters frequently refer to as a 10-year hiatus under the two former conservative administration of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.

Moon came into office after winning a rare presidential by-election caused by the ouster of Park in March over a series of corruption allegations that have also kept her detained since that month.

His efforts have apparently paid off so far.

His approval rating has remained over 70 percent since his inauguration with the latest survey putting the number at 71.7 percent despite two consecutive weeks of drop.

Such popularity may have been possible due to his new initiatives and policies that many say are "cider-like," but are now giving him the drive and support to introduce and implement those changes. Many South Koreans believe soda, especially cider, helps with digestion, a long-held belief formed during the developing era when the country did not have enough medicines to go around, including digestive aides.












By Choi Ha-young



Three opposition parties collectively called for the government to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system as early as possible, Monday.



The largest conservative Liberty Korea Party demanded apology from President Moon Jae-in and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) for "interrupting" the deployment, saying the country wasted too much time due to their "unreasonable" stance on the THAAD system.



The defense and environment ministries said Sunday that electromagnetic radiation and noise from the THAAD battery  0.046 watt and about 50 decibels respectively  were within legal standards.



The minor conservative Bareun Party echoed criticism Monday. "Now, there's no pretext to protest against the missile defense system," party chairwoman Rep. Lee Hye-hoon said.



"By shaking Americans, Pyongyang has pursued separation between Washington and Seoul, making the former abandon the latter. Under this severe circumstance, the easygoing government has not responded to our demand for a meeting with opposition leaders."



In the four-way talks between party floor leaders on the same day, Rep. Joo Ho-young of the Bareun Party blasted the administration for being "idle" amid an unprecedented security crisis.



"The foreign minister was on holiday and the President was watching a movie, while the people are shaking with anxiety," he said. "We will push for the House Steering Committee to summon the chief of the National Security Council."



The second-largest opposition People's Party has reaffirmed its approval of THAAD. The minor liberal party, which once spoke against the deployment, has overturned its official stance. "The society should not waste energy with groundless rumors about THAAD," party spokesman Son Kum-ju said in a statement, Sunday.



In the party's Monday morning meeting, members lashed out at the Moon government's "absence" in the diplomatic dynamics in Northeast Asia. "We should never lose control over the diplomatic affairs around the peninsula," party's interim leader Park Joo-sun said. "It seems like the government is just looking at China and the U.S. with vacant eyes."



In the face of the escalating military tension and opposition bloc's political offensive, the ruling camp's support rates declined slightly, according to a Realmeter poll issued Monday. The President showed 71.8 percent, decreased by 0.7 percent than earlier week, while the DPK stood at 49.8 percent, down 0.8 percent from the previous survey.



Meanwhile, the progressive Justice Party with six seats solely advocated for the protesters in the small farming town of Seongju.



"The government should fully complete the studies first, based on the residents' requirements. The controversy around THAAD also involves heightening military tension here," party spokeswoman Choo Hye-seon said Monday.




By Kim Sua





The late King Abdullah, who is known for his significant contributions to the improvement of women's rights in Saudi Arabia, died on Jan. 23, 2015. Among his significant gender equality reforms were allowing women to work as supermarket cashiers, appointing a woman as a deputy minister and allowing women to vote and participate in politics.

Despite this progress, however, women in the country are still not allowed to drive, which makes one wonder: How much difference does being able to participate in politics make when women are still deprived of one of the most basic rights, which in turn restricts their freedom and mobility?

It is now up to King Salman, the successor of King Abdullah, to eliminate this deep-rooted inequality in routine and let women to experience a more immediate improvement in their rights and in their lives.

At the root of the daily oppression of women's rights in Saudi Arabia is the male guardianship system, in which Saudi women have to gain permission from their male guardians (typically a father, husband, brother or even a son) to engage in not only important decisions such as marriage and employment but also in day-to-day matters such as going to a restaurant, traveling abroad and even going to the hospital for treatment.

Hence, the primary goal of any plan to improve women's rights in Saudi Arabia should be the abolishment of the guardianship system. On the guardianship system, there are conflicting opinions among Islamic societies and within the Saudi society. Abdelaziz Al Sheikh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, has criticized the demand to abolish the guardianship system as a "crime to Islam" and "threat to the existence of the Saudi society," while Sheikh Abdullah Al Monayea, a congressman in the prelate commission, has claimed the Muslim guidelines do not refer to the male guardianship system except for marriages.

King Salman has the responsibility to try and establish substantial changes in women's rights even in the face of the extremely conservative religious opposition. Rather than settling with employing a handful of female politicians, he should try and create changes with a more direct effect on women's daily lives. I believe allowing women to drive, which would give them freedom and mobility, would be a good start. It will send a significant signal to the women in Saudi Arabia of the big changes to come and give them the courage and hope to continue the momentum of change for a truly free and equal society.

Saudi citizens are informing the world of their hope to abolish discrimination. Saudi women taking pictures of themselves driving took the web by storm. Just this year, 14,000 Saudi women signed a petition to end the male guardianship system. The world is aware, and the world cares. The Saudi Arabian government should no longer ignore the efforts of their citizens who hope for equal rights.

Kim Sua is a senior in the Department of English Linguistics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Write to suang103@naver.com.
By Kim Tai-Jin





Last September, the region of Gyeongju was struck by the biggest earthquake recorded in recent Korean history, and since then, the citizens of Gyeongju have been subject to a series of aftershocks, which affect their daily lives.

North Korea conducted five underground tests at the Punggae-ri nuclear test site, which is made of Cretaceous granite. However, there are 4,380 venting holes in the Hupo Basin. It is assumed that the Yangsan and Ulsan Faults cause earthquakes to converge in Gyeongju to channel seismic energies through the Yangsan Fault until they are released in the Hupo Bank near Pohang through the venting holes in the cold seawater of the Hupo Basin.

During the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, the foreshock occurred presumably via a shortcut from the Punggae-ri nuclear test site through the East Sea with the North Korea Plateau, South Korea Plateau, Hupo Fault, Hupo Bank, Hupo Basin, Yangsan Fault and Gyeongju until it was blocked by the high mountains. The Hupo Basin near Pohang is spread along the Hupo Bank, which is 85 kilometers long and 2.5-16.5 kilometers wide and where snow crabs live 200-400 meters below in the Hupo Basin at 3 degrees Celsius.

Therefore, seismic energies from Gyeongju are continuously carried along the northern Yangsan Fault and eventually released in the East Sea through the 4,380 geothermal venting holes in the Hupo Basin, which may allow the well-known growth of the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) near the Uljin, Hupo and Ganggu estuaries and Youngduk near Pohang.

Although earthquakes of strong magnitude had occurred in Gyeongju a thousand years before, seismic impacts had passed over Gyeongju with the channeling of the northern Yangsan Fault until they were released through the geothermal venting holes in the Hupo Basin to the East Sea.

In the case of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake induced by the North Korean nuclear test, the direction of the seismic energy flow was totally opposite. That is, while the seismic sources are normally upward in the northern direction from Gyeongju to the East Sea, the source of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake went downward toward the southern direction from Punggae-ri in North Korea through the short course of the East Sea to the Yangsan Fault and Gyeongju with the foreshock.

The main shock came 48 minutes later through the Baekdu Great Mountains. Due to the two different propagating routes of the East Sea and Baekdu Mountains between Punggae-ri and the city of Gyeongju, most of the 450 faults on the Korean Peninsula might be activated to reserve their seismic energies in individual faults, which could be the reason for the many aftershocks of 611 earthquakes.

Such areas could be local reservoirs of seismic energies induced by the North Korean underground nuclear test, after which the stored energies can be slowly released in the form of aftershocks. A recent geothermal study revealed that the seismic energies that gathered in Gyeongju from the intersection of the Yangsan and Ulsan Faults could endure an earthquake with a magnitude of up to M 7.73 through the channeling of the northern Yangsan Fault and the 4,380 geothermal venting holes in the Hupo Basin. This may be why there had been no disastrous damages, except for 100 deaths, during with the magnitude M 6.7 earthquake a thousand years ago in Gyeongju, when it was the ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom in 779 AD.

Therefore, tourists can safely visit Gyeongju and do not have to worry about earthquakes. I believe seismic energies in the Gyeongju area could pass through the channeling of the northern Yangsan Fault and the 4,380 geothermal venting holes in the Hupo Basin and released in the cold East Sea without causing seismic damages to the Gyeongju region.

The writer is a professor of chemical engineering at The University of Suwon. He can be reached at tjkim@suwon.ac.kr.
By Lakhvinder Singh





Despite efforts made by both countries, India-Korea ties have been going through a rough patch lately. India and Korea fixed a trade target of US$40 billion by 2015. However, today in 2017 it is nowhere near the target and trade is struck around US$18 billion per year. The trade deficit is also growing against India. Although Korean companies are looking to diversify their business portfolios, no major investment project has flown to India in recent years. Why is it that even though a strategic partnership agreement was signed five years ago, nothing is happening on the ground? While it is difficult to answer these questions with certainty, available facts provide some initial hints.

India under the "Make in India" campaign has received more than US$60 billion dollars from international investment, yet no significant amount from Korea. Korean companies leaving China after the THAAD crisis are not going to India either. Mostly they are heading to Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. Common business logic suggests that India, being the fastest growing economy and one of the largest consumer markets, should be Koreans' first and natural choice; but Koreans are not investing in droves. Why?

To find the answers to these complicated questions we need to the look at how India-Korea relations are constructed at the policy level. A closer examination of the recent policies reveals that there are some serious gaps in the minds of Indian and Korean policy makers on how they perceive the future of bilateral ties. We need to narrow this gap.

Due to years of neglect and abandonment, today there is a serious lack of scholarship in the Indian-Korean bilateral relationship. As a result, most professors and academics invited to attend brainstorming conferences and to perform studies to find solutions for improving economic relations have no direct India-Korea ties. Despite their impressive resumes, their expertise and knowledge is merely skin deep. Naturally they are unable to make any serious contribution to the growth of this bilateral relationship.

Today the dearth of India-Korea scholarship is emerging as a problem in understanding each other's mind and needs. This needs to change. Focusing on the development of a meeting of minds is the way to go.

The lack of a dedicated Indian economic institution in Korea is also emerging as a factor in the slow growth of business ties. In the absence of the Indian Investment and Trade Promotion Center in Korea, the Indian embassy is the sole point of contact for Korean businesses interested in India. For many years, Korean businesses have complained about the deficiency of authoritative information available regarding investment and business opportunities in India. It is time India looks seriously into the Korean demand for setting up a separate and independent Investment and Trade Promotion Center in Seoul and for the Korean side to find why they were not able to make deep inroads into the vast and expanding Indian market.

Currently the core of Korean's economic activity in India is focused on short term engagement. For any meaningful and deeper ties to form, this needs to change. If Korea wants to succeed in India they need to understand and learn the concept and importance of "Strategic Investment" in India. Koreans must begin with those projects where India is seeking investments for national upliftment of the Indian people; Koreans need to blend themselves as partners in the growth story of India, not as profiteers from a far away land interested only in making big bucks. After Koreans first win the hearts and minds of the Indian people, the sky will be the limit for cooperation. They must come to India for the long haul.

As we both celebrate our Independence days on August 15 we need to rededicate ourselves to take this relationship to the next level. It is time we get real. Honest and sincere efforts must be made to solve the problems hindering the deepening of ties between our two countries. Strategic environment in the region is changing very fast. U.S. lead security structure is being challenged by China. We must act before it is too late. United we stand.

Happy Independence Day to both Korean and Indian friends.





The writer is a visiting professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, commander of the 8th U.S. Army, apologized Sunday to the people of Seongju over one of his soldiers using a smartphone to film a protest involving physical clashes, smiling as he did so.



The Seongju residents rejected Vandal's apology, saying it was four months too late.



First, Vandal and his superior officer, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander Gen. Vincent Brooks, should find a better way of dealing with this incident. The protesters should stop using the apology issue for political purposes.



The incident happened in the early hours of April 26 when a convoy of U.S. military vehicles pushed their way through to deliver equipment for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, a U.S. missile interceptor, to the site in the vicinity. Twelve people were injured. A GI in one vehicle was caught filming the scene with a snigger on his face.



For that, Vandal went down to Seongju and bowed at a press conference after the residents refused to meet him. He said the soldier's behavior was inappropriate and that he was fresh on his Korean tour and had not finished his orientation program.



The residents questioned Vandal's sincerity because his apology came four months after the incident, despite repeated demands. The residents claimed they felt ignored by Vandal.



Vandal should have apologized earlier. The USFK is often belated in dealing with accidents in relation to Koreans. One example is the 2002 Yangju Highway Incident where a U.S. military vehicle crushed two Korean girls to death. Then, the USFK dragged its feet, letting the incident grow out of proportion in a major PR fiasco.



At the same time, the protesters should stop trying to thwart the THAAD deployment. In a systemic anti-deployment effort, they rejected not just Vandal's apology but also the outcome of a government survey that showed little electric pulses emanating from the THAAD radar system.



The protesters should bear in mind that deployment is a decision for national security and trying to stop it runs against the national interest.




By Andrew Salmon





"Tensions are spiking" around the Korean peninsula  again. Global media are issuing dire Armageddon scenarios  again. Social media is alive with conjecture about what dire steps Pyongyang or Washington will take next  again. Anxious friends and relatives are calling Seoul and asking expatriates for reassurance  again.

Sigh. Given the frequency of "spiking tensions," it is time for an expat form letter. Allow me...

Dear Mum and Dad/Dear Son and Daughter/Dear Colleague (DELETE AS APPROPRIATE):

Thank you for your concern. Let me (yet again) reassure you: Nobody in Seoul is digging bunkers. Nobody is hoarding bottled water or instant noodles. There are no air raid drills or missile alerts. Neither US nor ROK troops are on full alert. Local capital markets  those hyper-sensitive indicators of risk  have barely moved. (In fact, as of this month, foreign ownership of Korean stock is at an all-time high of over 33 percent.) And the shops, bars and restaurants here are doing business as usual.

None of this indicates impending doom.

True: Extra US military assets have been deployed to the region. However, this is common in times of "spiking tensions." (Note: These "tensions" actually affect only a handful of politicians, generals, diplomats and journalists  barely a few thousand persons in a nation of 51 million.) It is not suggestive of imminent war. No advance combat indicators  major US reinforcements arriving in Korea, the evacuation of US civilian personnel; security lock-downs at US bases in Korea and region-wide  are being noted.

Please, stop giving credence to hysterical global and social media commentary. Do you remember the exact same fears in 2013? When  despite warnings of the 1953 armistice being rescinded; of a return to Korean War combat; of fiery apocalypse  nothing actually happened?

Yes, everyone has gone haywire over US President Donald Trump and his recent vitriol aimed at Kim Jong-un. Don't panic! He was merely stating what former US presidents have said  warning North Korea of US resolve, etc, etc. The only difference is he was using the bellicose rhetoric North Korea uses endlessly. Common sense should tell you: A war of words and a war of weapons are very different things.

Moreover, for both sides the risk-reward ratio regarding commencing hostilities does not add up.












Professor Edward Ng, centre, displays pictures of the new house with colleagues Wan Li, left, and Chi Xinan.



Team from Chinese University constructs rammed-earth structure using local clay that can withstand a magnitude 9 quake in hope of encouraging more such projects



By Naomi Ng





After a magnitude 6.1 earthquake reduced a small village in southwest China to rubble in 2014, its residents no longer thought clay houses were strong enough to withstand natural disasters.

That is until a team of architects from a Hong Kong university built a clay house with a modern construction technique that can withstand magnitude 9 earthquakes.

In earthquake-prone Yunnan province, the team from Chinese University made use of the mountains of red earth from collapsed homes to rebuild a house for an elderly couple who had been living in a makeshift tent in Guangming village for a year.

Unlike traditional earthquake-proof buildings made of bricks, concrete or steel, the salvaged materials allowed them to save the cost of importing expensive construction materials.

"After the earthquake, the demand to build houses pushed up labour and material costs. But how were these villagers going to be able to afford them? So we tried to think of ways we could use what was already existing to rebuild," team leader Professor Edward Ng Yan-yung said.

The design caught the eye of judges for this year's Architectural Review House Awards. The team placed first among 250 entries worldwide, even outshining renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, whose work portfolio includes the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, which is currently being built.

The 1,500 sq ft two-storey house, which took four months to build in 2015, cost HK$140,000  40 per cent less than what it would have cost if bricks and concrete were used.

The team tested out different ratios of clay, sand, straw and cement to improve the structural stability of the walls. The mixture was then repeatedly rammed and compressed between two panels using a mechanical pounder to form walls.

Using this rammed-earth technique with a specific mixture consistency meant that the walls were more structurally stable and less likely to crumble than traditional walls mixed with stone, which tends to give way.

The house eventually passed an earthquake simulation test of up to magnitude 9 carried out at Kunming University of Science and Technology.

The move to upgrade villages with earthquake-proof structures is crucial in a region plagued by tremors. Just last Tuesday, a magnitude 7 earthquake hit neighbouring Sichuan province, killing dozens and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Project convenor Wan Li said the construction method would be suitable only for rural villages in Yunnan and Sichuan that had this specific type of clay house built from local materials.

However, one of the biggest challenges was resistance from the community.

"The county chief thought it was ridiculous that we were still using clay to build houses. To them, they thought building with concrete or bricks was the symbol of modernity and progress. So he threw a brick at the house, but it broke and he was so shocked," Ng said.

Aside from its anti-seismic properties, the humble material has another added benefit. By using clay, a thermally sensitive material, houses are warmer than concrete buildings in winter and cooler in summer.

The house in Guangming is one of the first in a HK$35 million project that aims to help villagers in rural China rebuild affordable homes after an earthquake.

"It's important that villagers take part in the rebuilding process and that the methods are simple enough to learn so they can pass them on," Ng said.

Since the first prototype was set up in 2015, villagers have gone on to build four more houses of their own.

But Ng has more ambitious plans. "Maybe in two to three years when this method matures and we have more resources, we can expand it to more rural areas in mainland China. But what I really actually hope is that it can affect the country's policies.

"We can build maybe a few hundred more houses, but if the government can adopt our building methods into their formal policies, they can build hundreds upon thousands of these. That's the only way to help the country," Ng said.
Samsung and LG will unveil new smartphones in late August and put them on sale two or three weeks later.

Samsung said it is unveiling the Galaxy Note 8 in New York on Aug. 23 because the city leads the world's tech trends.

Samsung used to introduce its Note series of "phablets" at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin in September from 2011 to 2014. But since the company shifted the launch date to August in 2015 to get a head start on Apple's release of new iPhones in September, it began launching the handsets in New York.


Lotte Department Store will set up a prayer room for Muslim customers at the Avenuel store of its branch in Jamsil, Seoul, it said Sunday. This is the first prayer room for a religious group at a shopping mall in the country.

The prayer room segregating men and women opens on Wednesday and is furnished with copies of the Koran and a "qibla," which indicates the direction of Mecca. The department store built it based on the advice of the Korea Muslim Federation.

"We decided to make a facility for Muslim tourists because more and more of them come to the store," Kim Dae-soo of Lotte's marketing division said. "We'll also hold a promotion with halal foods and cosmetics in the second half of the year."

Some 980,000 Muslims visited Korea last year, up 33 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.
PRESS RELEASE

The Guns of August Risk is Very High...

Aug. 11, 2017 (EIRNS)"If you watch cable news or follow the Presidents Twitter feed, you might be under the impression that the United States is heading to war with North Korea. But somebody, it seems, forgot to loop in the U.S. military," reports the Navy Times in an article posted today. The fact is, there is no mobilization of the U.S. military currently underway, despite the white hot rhetoric flying between Pyongyang and Washington. In Yokosuka, Japan, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ronald Reagan is at pier side, along with the 7th Fleet command ship, the U.S.S. Blue Ridge. No Marines are being loaded aboard amphibious ships, no sailors are being recalled from shore leave, no ballistic missile defense ships have been sortied to the waters around Korea, Japan or Guam, and no evacuation orders for family members of U.S. military stationed in South Korea or Japan have been issued, according to three sources who spoke to the Times. And while theres been a lot of talk about B-1B bombers flying pre-emptive strikes against North Korea missile sites over the last few days, an Air Force spokesman told the Times that there have been no B-1 missions to Korea and Japan since Aug. 7.

What were seeing is the latest example of the war rhetoric far outpacing the facts on the ground, a U.S. official said on background this morning. "This may come as a shock, but the rhetoric doesnt match reality," he said. "[Im] worried about a Guns of August scenario, where we stumble into a conflict."

What the Times is attributing the whole scare of this week to, is the Washington Post report of Aug. 8 claiming that U.S. intelligence believes that North Korea can now fit nuclear warheads onto missiles.

"We went from 0 to 100 miles per hour because somebody decided it was a good idea to tell the Washington Post about an ... intelligence assessment and the President reacted to the story in the media,"

said one former Obama administration official who spoke on background. In fact, nothing has really changed. "Weve known for years that Kim Jong-un has sought to miniaturize nuclear warheads," the source said. "What we are seeing is how echo-chamber of hyperbole can spin out of control to the point where the entire Korean Peninsula is on the edge of a nuclear crisis. Thats the power these leaks have now."

The "Guns of August" risk is, in fact, very high, as the United States has not canceled military exercises with Korea and Japan that are scheduled for this month. Not only is the U.S.-South Korean joint exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian still scheduled to begin on Aug. 21, but Exercise Northern Viper 17 kicked off in on Hokkaido, Japans northern most island, on Aug. 10, involving 500 U.S. Marines and 18 U.S. F-16s from Misawa Air Base along with 3,000 Japanese troops. That exercise is scheduled to run through Aug. 28.
PRESS RELEASE

Chas Freeman Counters the Growing Rumblings About a Possible U.S.-China Conflict

Aug. 12, 2017 (EIRNS)An interesting article by former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman published in The Globalist is well worth reading today, when the level of the heightened political and strategic rhetoric is threatening to lead the world into a conflict by miscalculation.

Focusing on China, Freeman details how the Chinese policy in military matters has always been characterized by strategic restraint.

China clearly prefers to use measures short of war to protect itself but has shown that it is fully prepared to go to war to defend its borders and strategic interests,

Freeman writes.

Chinese uses of force have been notably purposive, determined, disciplined and focused on limited objectives, with no moving of the goalposts. During the Korean War, China settled for an agreement that left the Korean Peninsula as it had existed before the outbreak of hostilities. In their 1962 conflict with India they advanced far into Indian territory before withdrawing again behind the border again just in order to show to the Indians what they could do if provoked. In their conflict with Vietnam in 1979 they ceased fighting when they had convinced the Vietnamese that their moves for regional control in Southeast Asia together with the Soviet Union would not be acceptable."

Freeman also notes that China did not start construction on the islands in the South China Sea until well after other claimants had already started construction on islands to assert their claims. In addition, China

has not attempted to dislodge other claimants from any of the four dozen outposts they have planted in Chinese-claimed territories. China has been careful not to provoke military confrontations with them or with the U.S. Navy, despite the latters swaggering assertiveness.

In their conflict with Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, China has sent patrols of coast guard cutters rather than heavy Naval destroyers. They have also, Freeman writes, resolved all of their land border disputes with all of their northern neighbors.

These interactions between China and its neighbors demonstrate a high degree of Chinese competence at managing differences without armed conflict,

Freeman says.

They provide grounds for optimism. War, including accidental war, between China and its neighborsor China and the United States as the ally of some of those neighborsis far from inevitable.

This has also been the case with regard to Taiwan, perhaps the most sensitive of Chinas territorial claims, Freeman writes. But they will do everything to entice the island with ultimately accepting the ultimate goal of unification with China.

The bottom line is that, while Chinese warnings must be taken seriously, Chinese aggressiveness should not be overestimated. China tends to act militarily with prudence, upon warning, not rashly. Its wealth and power are growing, giving it an incentive to defer confrontations to the future, when its relative strength will be greater and new opportunities to win without fighting may arise. The record shows that China adheres to limited objectives, limited means, and limited time scales,

Freeman writes.
PRESS RELEASE

Trump and Xi Discuss Korea Peninsula Crisis

Aug. 12, 2017 (EIRNS)U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation on North Korea last night, an exchange which Helga Zepp-LaRouche considered as of the utmost strategic importance to derail the drive for World War III coming from the British Empire and allied circles. Taking note of the largely rhetoricaland not yet militarynature of the recent escalation of attacks between the United States and North Korea, Zepp-LaRouche nonetheless emphasized: "Dont kid yourself; the situation is extremely dangerous," since the British are trying to provoke an actual war on the Korean Peninsula, and globally.

Chinas CGTN television network reported that, on the call between Trump and Xi, both leaders stated their interest in maintaining peace and stability on a nuclear weapons-free peninsula. CGTN quoted President Xi saying:

"All relevant parties must now exercise restraint. The Korean nuclear problem needs to be resolved through political reconciliation and dialogue."

The official White House read-out on the call also noted that the two leaders agreed that it was urgent to take steps toward "achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," including the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The White House account then concluded with a very strong statement on the close working relationship between the two heads of state:

"President Trump looks forward to seeing President Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event. The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem."

In addition to this direct communication between the leaders of the United States and China, the United States reportedly also has a back-channel of communication with the North Korean government. According to a report published yesterday by the Associated Press, the so-called "New York channel" between the United States and North Korea, which had been broken off by then President Barack Obama in 2016, has been revived as of this year under the Trump administration. This involves Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, and Pak Song-il, a senior diplomat at the North Korean UN mission. Yun, who is also the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Korea and Japan, worked under the direction of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to secure the release from North Korea earlier this year of the American Otto Warmbier, who subsequently died upon his return.

According to AP, there is little substantive negotiating going on through the "New York channel" at this point, given the level of distrust between the United States and North Korea, but it remains open as a means of sending message and information. Both President Trump and the State Department refused to comment on the report, when asked by journalists.
But despite local fears, radiation levels were 0.01659W/, 0.004136W/, and 0.000886W/ at 100 m, 500 m, and 700 m from the radar. That is a mere 0.009 to 0.166 percent of the permissible standard 10 W/ and lower than the radiation from a cellphone searching for a mobile relay station, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Officials from the two ministries went to the site in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province by helicopter to avoid a clash with angry protesters who are blocking the road.

Based on the results, the Environment Ministry plans to provisionally conclude the environmental assessment within this month. That would clear the way for the U.S. to set up the remaining four launchers that have sat in storage so far pending a review, a plan already approved by President Moon Jae-in after North Korea's latest missile test.

Electromagnetic radiation from the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery stationed in southwestern Korea is virtually zero and has no harmful effect on people, tests by the environment and defense ministries show.

Noise levels including an emergency generator for the powerful X-band radar were 51.9 , 50.3 , and 47.1  at 100 m, 500 m, and 700m from the radar. The standard daytime noise level in residential areas is 50 dB. The spokesman said, "There is almost zero effect of noise on local residents since the nearest village is 2 km away."

But local protesters and civic groups refused to accept the findings, which they dismissed as "perfunctory" and only aimed at vindicating the Defense Ministry.

An Environment Ministry official said, "We've cross-checked the earlier provisional assessment. The only thing left now is for experts to review the figures and give their final opinion by the end of this month."

Once that is done, it will be possible to level the ground for the remaining launchers and build barracks and other facilities, including connecting to the power grid.

At the moment helicopters have to airlift fuel for emergency power generation every day over the heads of the protesters. The radar and the first two launchers were deployed on April 26 but run on a generator because there is no high-voltage power connection.

Originally, Cheong Wa Dae and the Defense Ministry had planned to put off full deployment until after a full-scale environmental study that is supposed to take about a year, a step which the previous administration skipped in its haste to deploy the THAAD battery. But Moon approved a temporary full deployment right after North Korea test-launched a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile on July 28.

The Defense Ministry spokesman pledged not to repeat the mistake of the last government, which deployed the first two launchers at dead of night, but try to persuade locals.
Ryder is moving into the electric-truck business, an early sign that a market for commercial electric vehicles is beginning to take shape.

Miami-based Ryder System Inc. announced a deal Monday with new Los Angeles company Chanje as the electric-truck makers exclusive sales and service partner.

We believe electric vehicles will play a major role in the future of commercial transportation, Dennis Cooke, president of global fleet management at Ryder, said in a prepared statement.

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Ryder, one of the nations largest medium-duty truck fleet management companies, will buy trucks from Chanje, then lease and service them through its extensive network. Leases will include fleet deals and one-off rentals to customers who want to try out the electric trucks.

Pricing will be revealed in a series of marketing launches over the next 60 days, Ryder said. The first group of EVs will go into California, followed by introductions in other states in the first quarter of 2018, with broader deployment from there, said Scott Perry, Ryders chief technology and procurement officer.

The company declined to say how many vehicles are involved or disclose the financial details of its deal with Chanje.

Medium-duty trucks are used mainly on delivery routes that run less than 100 miles, meaning they can run a full day using todays battery technology before needing a recharge. Think of UPS or FedEx parcel delivery vans, for instance, or smaller trucks at urban grocery stores delivering dog food or snack crackers.

Last week, Chanje showed off its first product: an all-electric delivery truck equipped to haul up to 6,000 pounds of goods in 580 square feet of cargo space with a 100-mile range. The company plans other vehicle configurations too.

Electric trucks like Chanjes exist, but almost all were designed for diesel engines and then customized for batteries and electric motors. Chanje trucks were designed for all-electric powertrains from conception.

The Chanje trucks will be imported from China until the company opens an assembly plant in the United States. Its scouting for a site in the Western states. When that plant opens, it will import kits of partially assembled truck parts from a factory in Hangzhou, China, for final assembly here.

The China factory is owned by FDG, a Hong Kong maker of electric vehicles, battery packs and battery cells. Chanje is a joint venture between FDG and Smith Electric Vehicles Corp., a U.S. company. Chanje vehicles will be sold in China under the brand name Chang Jiang.

About 300,000 to 500,000 new medium-size trucks are sold in the U.S. each year. Thats not a huge market, but successful penetration could be lucrative for a newcomer.

Electric cars are struggling to gain a foothold in the U.S. market. Companies such as Tesla are planning to introduce electric-powered big-rig haulers, which will need to overcome the issue of limited range.

Ryder stock rose 1.6% on Monday to $74.04 a share.

russ.mitchell@latimes.com

Twitter: @russ1mitchell

UPDATES:

1:35 p.m.: This article was updated with Ryders stock movement.

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Ryders Scott Perry.

This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.
The effort by congressional Republicans and the Trump White House to sabotage the Affordable Care Act reached another milestone Friday when the big insurer Anthem announced it will be pulling out of Virginias ACA marketplace next year.

Anthem has been the biggest insurer in the Virginia individual market. Its enrollment base of 165,000 in 2017 is nearly three times the size of the No. 2 insurer, Kaiser, which has 60,000.

In its statement announcing its flight, Anthem cited a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage. Anthem said it will leave the individual market in Virginia except for sales of off-exchange plans, which arent eligible for premium or cost-sharing subsidies, in Scott and Washington counties and the city of Bristol, which are on the border of North Carolina.

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Anthem...[cited] the Presidents threats to cut off cost-sharing reduction payments...and his deliberate efforts to dismantle the individual insurance market.  Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a released statement

The statement may have been couched in bureaucratese, but its meaning was unmistakable. The references are to policies and politics of the GOP Congress and the administration. Their dithering already has led to increases nationwide of as much as 23% in requested insurance premiums for next year, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The flight of insurers from Virginia and other states has occurred as Obamacares popularity is rising. The program notched its highest favorable reading ever, according to Kaiser Family Foundations ACA tracking poll, reaching 52% this month  its first such reading above 50% since July 2010, just after its enactment. (To check on demographic, political, and income breakdowns, see KFFs interactive chart here. The publics regard for the law has risen steadily since the November election, possibly because the Republican threat to coverage has become more tangible.

The cost-sharing reduction subsidies, as we have reported numerous times, are payments the federal government makes to ACA insurers to reduce or eliminate deductibles and co-pays charged to customers earning less than 250% of the federal poverty level, or $61,500 for a family of four this year. They were thrown into doubt when the House GOP sued to block them in 2014, arguing that because the money hadnt been specifically appropriated, paying the subsidies is illegal.

They won the first round in U.S. District Court last year, but the judge stayed her ruling pending an appeal. Since then the subsidies have been in limbo. Under President Trump, the government has continued to pay the subsidies, but he hasnt said whether hell continue the Obama administrations defense of them in the appeals court, and he constantly hints at shutting them off as a way of forcing the ACA to implode. On Aug. 1, the appeals court granted 17 states and the District of Columbia, led by California and New York, the right to defend the subsidies if Trump bails out. About $7 billion in payments to insurers with about 7 million ACA customers are at issue this year.

The other acts of sabotage include the soft-pedaling of the individual mandate by the Trump Department of Health and Human Services. HHS has indicated in word and deed that it wont be enforcing the individual mandate, which compels individuals to carry health insurance, as rigorously as the Obama administration. That would raise insurer costs by skewing their customer pool more toward older and sicker customers, who have greater incentive to buy coverage regardless of the mandate.

The administration reportedly also has cut back or eliminated outreach to community groups and affinity organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens which the previous administration counted on to get out the word and sign up lower-income customers eligible for premium- and cost-sharing subsidies under the ACA.

The harvest has been the departure of several major insurers, including Aetna, Humana and Cigna from the ACA marketplace, despite signs  noticed, among others, by the Congressional Budget Office and Standard & Poors  that the individual market was stabilizing and earnings improving in 2017.

After sticking with the individual market through this year, Anthem has recently stepped up its withdrawals, announcing its departure from all or portions of Wisconsin, Georgia and Nevada.

Virginias Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, released a statement saying that company officials were blunter about their reasoning in a conversation with him than in their public statement. Anthem leadership [cited] the Presidents threats to cut off cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers and his deliberate efforts to dismantle the individual insurance market, he said. Weve asked Anthem to comment on McAuliffes version, but havent heard back as of this posting.

Anthems abandonment of Virginia, where it had a 56% share of the ACA market, is a blow that will force state healthcare officials to scurry to find alternatives for residents. One insurer, Optima Health has said it will offer coverage in counties that otherwise would be left without insurers. But Optima already has revised its rate request for 2018 from an increase of 9.8% over 2017 rates to an increase of 19.3%, in part to reflect possible changes in federal policies and rules.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.
Ken Frazier, the CEO of Merck & Co., may not have meant it this way, but he managed to put 27 of his fellow corporate CEOs and other business leaders on the hottest of hot seats Monday.

Thats when Frazier resigned from President Trumps manufacturing jobs council. His aim plainly was to protest Trumps wholly inadequate response to the violent white supremacist rally this weekend in Charlottsville, Va. Americas leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, Frazier said in a published statement. As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Fraziers action raised a number of questions, but one stands paramount: Why havent the other members of Trumps jobs council followed his example?

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It is important for GE to participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and productivity in the U.S.  General Electric defends Chairman Jeff Immelts continued participation in a Trump advisory committee that has never met

The membership of the jobs council, which Trump announced on Jan. 27, is composed of some of the glitterati of the corporate world. Present are the CEOs of Dow Chemical, Dell, Whirlpool, General Electric, Intel, Boeing and 3M, along with not one but two officers of the AFL-CIO. As is the case with almost all such advisory bodies, getting their names on the list was pretty much the whole point. The council has yet to hold any real meeting, the AFL-CIO says, which is routine for such PR-driven fronts. Its crystal clear that even if it does meet, it will be advising a patron who doesnt listen to advice.

Nor is this panel the only such decorative White House chandelier CEOs are hanging from; theres a strategic council that includes Wall Street CEOs such as JPMorgan Chases Jamie Dimon and IBMs Ginni Rometty (who hardly needs to waste her time with Trump instead of working harder to keep her company from going down the tubes).

The longer any of these people remains on the council, moreover, the more Trumps policies and behavior will get hung around their necks. One of the first CEOs to act on this realization was Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, who resigned from the jobs and strategy councils council and the on June 1 after Trump announced Americas withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Musk tweeted, Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world  advice that Trump, obviously, ignored.

The longer any of these people remains on the council, moreover, the more Trumps policies and behavior will get hung around their necks. One of the first CEOs to act on this realization was Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, who resigned from the jobs council on June 1 after Trump announced Americas withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Musk tweeted, Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world  advice that Trump, obviously, ignored.

I reached out to 22 of the 25 companies still represented on the jobs council (the others didnt seem to have usable contact numbers or emails), as well as the AFL-CIO and the industry group Alliance for American Manufacturing, which is also represented on the council. As I write, eight corporations and the union have responded.

Whirlpool said its CEO, Jeff Fettig, is staying on the council to represent our industry, our 15,000 U.S. workers, and to provide input and advice on ways to create jobs and strengthen U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. Dell said theres no change in CEO Michael Dells membership. The steel company Nucor said it would remain on the council. Lockheed Martin said it had no comment. Whirlpool, Nucor and Dow, at least, coupled their responses with condemnations of bigotry and violence and nods toward their corporate cultures of inclusiveness and tolerance.

General Electric issued its own pro forma condemnation of hate, bigotry, or racism, but said its chairman, Jeff Immelt, will remain on the board until his retirement Dec. 31 because it is important for GE to participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and productivity in the U.S. It didnt say, however, how it can participate in the discussion through membership on a council that doesnt meet. U.S. Steel said that its representative on the council, Mario Longhi, retired as CEO on June 30, so hes no longer a member of the council, and left it at that. Boeing said its CEO, Dennis Muilenberg, will stay on the council

Late on Monday, Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of the sporting garb company Under Armour, said he would leave the council, although his statement was less pointed than Fraziers: Under Armour engages in innovation and sports, not politics, he said. In February, Plank took criticism for public comments that supported Trump, including from NBA star Stephen Curry, who endorses Under Armour products.

Also late Monday, Intels Brian Krzanich became the third CEO in a day to leave the Trump council. In a post on the companys blog, Krzanich said he resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing. He added: I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on all leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence.We should honor  not attack  those who have stood up for equality and other cherished American values.

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017

The AFL-CIO, whose president, Richard Trumka, is on the council, said its assessing our role and acknowledged there are real questions into the effectiveness of this council to deliver real policy that lifts working families. One must ask, how long could it possibly take to perform this sort of assessment?

What is demonstrated by these responses  and the silence from other council members  is corporate Americas devotion to totally vacuous gestures. But it becomes clearer with every passing day that lending their credibility to Trump is dangerous, to their own reputations, to the U.S. economy and to the health of the republic.

Its hard to believe that anyone who could rise to the summit of a major American corporation would be stupid enough to believe that he or she could influence Trump through membership on a sham committee, but thats the impression they and their companies are trying to communicate. The truth is, of course, that Trump has no jobs policy to be influenced, other than filling print columns and the airwaves with bogus business development projects that will cost taxpayers massively more than they return, such as the Wisconsin electronics plant I reported on last week.

Some of the CEOs on Trumps jobs council may be making a strategic decision that it pays to play footsie with this childishly unpredictable President as long as they can. Some of the members, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, could give a correspondence course in the presidential tweets that can erupt when a company ticks him off. Mercks Frazier felt his wrath on Monday, shortly after he resigned from the council, when Trump responded via Twitter that now that he had resigned, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES! (Emphasis in the original.)

Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017

One can understand a CEOs reluctance to expose his or her company to this treatment, just to wriggle off an advisory council that does nothing anyway. But weve reached the point where that facile approach will no longer do. Retaining membership in Trumps business councils makes a company complicit in everything he represents: his punitive immigration policies, his climate change denialism, and now his embrace of white supremacist and Nazi sentiments. His true feelings are expressed through the tenor of his public statements, his reluctance to take a stance of moral leadership, and his employment in the White House itself of personnel aligned with those sentiments.

Pro forma statements expressing dismay at racist violence and at hatred and bigotry are only the stuff of media relations. The day will come when American corporations will be asked what they did to fight back  not merely what they said. Until the companies still on Trumps business councils abandon him, the answer will be: We did nothing.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.

UPDATES:

3:10 p.m.: This post has been updated with Boeings statement that its CEO will stay on the Trump council.

6:35 p.m.: This post has been updated with the announcement that Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank also will leave the council.

8:03 p.m.: This post has been updated with Intel CEO Brian Krzanichs resignation from the council.

10:00 a.m., Aug. 15: This post has been updated to reflect that Ford has not been represented on the council since the retirement of CEO Mark Fields in May.
Four days after suing former Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick, accusing him of fraud, early Uber investor Benchmark told Uber employees why it resorted to legal action: Kalanick, it said, was getting in the way.

In an open letter sent to Uber employees and publicly shared on Twitter, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm  which also has a seat on Ubers board of directors  alleged that Kalanick had forced Benchmarks hand by undermining the Uber boards search for a new chief executive.

A spokesperson for Kalanick has disputed the claims Benchmark made in its lawsuit, describing the suit as baseless and riddled with lies, but Benchmark doubled down on its allegations Monday. Citing Kalanicks ongoing day-to-day involvement with the company (despite his resignation as CEO a month ago) and what the venture capital firm called his failure to make good on a promise to modify Ubers voting agreement to ensure that independent, diverse and well-qualified directors could be appointed to the board, Benchmark said Kalanick had created uncertainty for everyone.

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It has appeared at times as if the search [for a CEO] was being manipulated to deter candidates and create a power vacuum in which Travis could return, the letter said.

A number of people have asked why we took legal action before giving Travis the chance to sign these amendments. The fact is that we did give him a chance. We were asked to postpone any filing and assured that efforts would be made to get these changes made without a lawsuit, the letter said. We waited and waited, watching as things deteriorated even further. Eventually, we felt that we could no longer wait and took action.

Benchmark said the lawsuit also was intended to hasten the search for a chief financial officer and to bring about cultural change at the company.

Kalanick said in a statement Monday that he was disappointed and baffled by Benchmarks hostile actions, which clearly are not in the best interests of Uber and its employees on whose behalf they claim to be action.

Since 2009, building Uber into a great company has been my passion and obsession, Kalanick said. I continue to work tirelessly with the board to identify and hire the best CEO to guide Uber into its next phase of growth and ensure its continued success.

Benchmark filed its lawsuit against Kalanick last week, alleging that the Uber co-founder had defrauded investors by keeping unethical business practices secret. The lawsuit attempts to void the three board seats that the board of directors approved last year on Kalanicks insistence, a move that would effectively kick Kalanick off the board because he occupies one of those three seats. It also attempts to bar Kalanick from being involved in the day-to-day operations and decision-making of Uber and its board of directors.

In its open letter Monday, Benchmark reiterated that it believed Kalanicks ongoing presence at Uber was creating a governance and management crisis for the company.

Its easy to reduce this situation to a battle of personalities, it said. But this isnt about Benchmark versus Travis. Its about ensuring that Uber can reach its full potential as a company. And that can only happen if we get rid of the roadblocks and distractions that have plagued Uber, and its board, for far too long.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

Twitter: @traceylien

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UPDATES:

3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Travis Kalanick.

This article was originally published at 2 p.m.
A British cybersecurity researcher credited with helping curb the recent WannaCry ransomware attack pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges accusing him of creating malicious software to steal banking information three years ago.

Marcus Hutchins entered his plea in Wisconsin federal court, where prosecutors charged him and an unnamed co-defendant with conspiring to commit computer fraud in the state and elsewhere. Authorities arrested the 23-year-old man Aug. 2 at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, where he was going to board a flight to his home in Ilfracombe, England. He had been in Las Vegas for a cybersecurity convention.



For the record: An earlier version of this story misspelled attorney Marcia Hofmanns last name as Hoffman. It also described Marcus Hutchins as 22 years old; he is 23.

Hutchins attorney, Marcia Hofmann, said after Mondays brief hearing that Hutchins will fight the charges and that when the evidence comes to light, we are confident he will be fully vindicated.

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Marcus Hutchins is a brilliant young man and a hero, Hofmann said.

Hutchins left afterward in a white SUV with tinted windows and did not talk to reporters. During the hearing, he spoke only to say I do, when Magistrate Judge William E. Duffin asked him if he understood his rights.

Hutchins is free on $30,000 bail, but with strict conditions. His bond has been modified so he can stay in Los Angeles near his attorney and travel anywhere in the U.S., but he cannot leave the country. He was also granted access to use a computer for work, a change from an earlier judges order barring him from using any device with access to the Internet.

Hutchins has been working for Los Angeles security firm Kryptos Logic, and prosecutors did not oppose allowing him access to a computer for work.

Hutchins is required to wear a GPS monitor, but Duffin said the court will consider removing that requirement once Hutchins has found a home in Los Angeles and is complying with the terms of his bond.

The next hearing in the case was set for Oct. 17, with an Oct. 23 trial date, though the latter is expected to change due to the cases complexity.

The legal troubles Hutchins faces are a dramatic turnaround from the status of cybercrime-fighting hero he enjoyed four months ago when he found a kill switch to slow the outbreak of the WannaCry virus. WannaCry crippled computers worldwide, encrypting files and making them inaccessible unless people paid a ransom ranging from $300 to $600.

Prosecutors allege that before Hutchins won acclaim he created and distributed a malicious software called Kronos to steal banking passwords from unsuspecting computer users. In addition to computer fraud, the indictment lists five other charges, including attempting to intercept electronic communications and trying to access a computer without authorization.

The indictment says the crimes happened between July 2014 and July 2015, but the court document doesnt offer any details about the number of victims. Prosecutors have not said why the case was filed in Wisconsin. The name of Hutchins co-defendant is redacted from the indictment.

Hutchins faces decades in prison if convicted on all the charges.

Kronos  often distributed through document attachments in phishing emails  monitors consumers online browsing and leads them to fraudulent websites designed to look like legitimate banking services. The program then harvests usernames, passwords and other information from unsuspecting consumers. Sellers described Kronos as capable of evading antivirus software and snooping on the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The allegations from a two-year FBI investigation point to one of the cybersecurity sectors most distinctive traits: the revolving door between those trying to stop attacks and those launching them.

People often transition between hacking with malicious intent and working as well-meaning investigators. The mischievous work of the past can be an asset to companies and law enforcement agencies looking to get an edge on new waves of criminals. But it also can mar the reputation of the burgeoning industry.

Times staff writer Paresh Dave contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

10:30 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details.

This article was originally published at 9:40 a.m.
Contestants in Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Mirandas #Ham4All campaign were vying for a rare prize: tickets to opening night of the musical in Los Angeles, plus airfare, hotel accommodations and a chance to meet the man himself at the after-party Wednesday.

Miranda created the contest in conjunction with Prizeo to raise money for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition. The group is composed of 12 organizations that, according to contest organizers, provide services to immigrants, refugees and asylees, including legal representation, advocacy and awareness campaigns.

Contestants gave money to the coalition and got a number of entries based on the size of the donation. Miranda posted a video on Twitter encouraging contestants to post videos of themselves singing their favorite Hamilton songs labeled #Ham4All.

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And the winner, picked at random, has been announced: @majazja. For everyone else, at least they have all those #Ham4All videos, some of which you can watch below.

Look for news on the Hamilton national tour, behind-the-scenes features and cast interviews at: latimes.com/hamilton.

Ok @Lin_Manuel, I sang my #hamforall challenge to my favorite #immigrantwhogotthejobdone my 97 year young Grandma pic.twitter.com/hCmPvHxc7Z  Lisa Portale (@MsLalabelle) August 1, 2017

Guns and Ships 

Win Opening Night at Hamilton L.A. as the Guest of @Lin_Manuel in aid of @HispanicFed #Ham4All https://t.co/xKKVGAkjoZ pic.twitter.com/5mJm5WfbGQ  Mary Moipei (@MaryMoipei) July 31, 2017

1st tweet ever, only for #Ham4All and @Lin_Manuel. Too many favorite songs, finally chose our bloopers to show how much fun we had!  pic.twitter.com/SD3zeSyEov  Bianca Holland (@AdventureBink) July 31, 2017

And on the last day I get to add to the #HAM4ALL challenge @Lin_Manuel Say No to This! pic.twitter.com/h4h5bKP0Pk  Alex Lopez (@aman265) July 31, 2017

jessica.gelt@latimes.com

@jessicagelt
At Hauser & Wirth in downtown Los Angeles, Paul McCarthy puts the original kick of Surrealism back into action.

Started a century ago, Surrealism was a movement whose works startled viewers into a heightened awareness of what was going on around them  socially, politically and culturally. Today, surreal is a word so overused that it means little more than something unexpected, entertaining and forgettable  perhaps a pitcher nearly throwing a no-hitter or a criminal smuggling snakes in a potato chip container.

For Paul McCarthy, its a lot more than that. His incisively weird works are unforgettable. They turn cliched language into lively dialogues with lasting consequences.

To step into the big, theatrically lighted gallery that houses Paul McCarthy. WS Spinoffs, Wood Statues, Brown Rothkos is to be dwarfed by nine monstrous sculptures and 10 roughly textured tapestries.

Installation view of Paul McCarthy. WS Spinoffs, Wood Statues, Brown Rothkos at Hauser & Wirth. (Fredrik Nilsen) (Fredrik Nilsen /)

Polite visitors might say that McCarthys 12-foot-tall carpets coated with foam and polyurethane have the patina of weathered metal. But its more truthful to describe their palette as poop-brown. That captures the abrasive honesty of McCarthys fantasy-fueled Realism.

His figurative sculptures trigger even more conflicted emotions.

The first thing that hits you is their size, weight and the forceful authority of both. Standing 5 feet to nearly 15 feet tall, each has been cut from one or more humongous chunks of black walnut.

The wood is gorgeous, the workmanship exquisite. Both take you back to the Renaissance, when artists carved saints and kings to impress citizens with their superiority.

McCarthys subject matter is different. Dopey, Snow White and the Prince populate his sculptures. Occasionally, they look as if they have leaped from the folk tales collected by the Brothers Grimm  by way of Disney. More often, something appears to have gone wrong  very, very wrong  in the transmission from 19th century folk tale to 20th century movie to 21st century sculpture.

Details are lost. Faces ricochet from ecstasy to agony. Horses are transformed into multi-headed beasts. Figures fuse, as if dissolving into or rising out of  primordial soup.

Paul McCarthy, WS, White Snow Dopey Dream Double, 2015. (Fredrik Nilsen )

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In one, Dopey becomes a mutant totem pole, each of his faces bigger than the one below it. In another, a flower girl splits in two, like a cell undergoing mitosis. In two others, Snow White appears to be sick to her stomach.

The horror show that unfolds is not nearly as disgusting as it sounds. Part of that is because of the Old World elegance of the wood and the exquisiteness of the craftsmanship.

More important, McCarthys giant knickknacks come off as believable. Although they take visitors on a wild ride through several centuries and various forms of art, they have their feet firmly planted in reality, in times whose weirdness is deeper and more troubling than the arts.

Hauser & Wirth, 901 E. 3rd St., L.A. Through Sept. 17; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. (213) 943-1620, www.hauserwirthlosangeles.com

Installation view of Paul McCarthy. WS Spinoffs, Wood Statues, Brown Rothkos at Hauser & Wirth. (Fredrik Nilsen) (Fredrik Nilsen /)

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At the Pit, artists mine the emotions behind the machine

Part Picasso and pure catnip for fans of midcentury design
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
Nocturama, Bertrand Bonellos hypnotically unsettling new movie, has the artful, suggestive symmetry of a Rorschach blot. In the first half, several young Parisians coordinate and execute a series of terrorist attacks over one afternoon. In the second, they hide out for the night in a locked-down shopping mall, where their killer instincts give way to a sudden appetite for luxury brands.

At once an oblique thriller and a cool, mesmerizing provocation, the film dispenses with backstory, motivation and the other dramatic conventions that movies typically use to make meaning, especially on a subject as troubling in its real-world implications as it is here.

But what is the subject of Nocturama? Despite the movies attention-grabbing log line and its emergence at a state of heightened anxiety across Europe, Id submit that it isnt really about terrorism at all. You could say that its chief concern is with its characters moral vacuity, the banality of their particular evil. But Bonellos approach, always seeking to evoke rather than explain, doesnt allow us either the clarity of analysis or the comforts of condemnation.

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That uncertainty may explain the films polarizing effect on audiences since it opened in French theaters and began playing at film festivals last fall. Some of this, of course, is due to unfortunate timing: Bonello wrote the script in 2011, long before Al Qaeda gunmen attacked Charlie Hebdos headquarters in January 2015, and filmed it in Paris mere months before the Islamic State-backed killings that rocked the city that November.

Needless to say, the result is not the easiest picture to approach or, for that matter, to see; its unfortunate if unsurprising that one of the years most significant and aesthetically accomplished films should be receiving just one theatrical showing in Los Angeles (it plays at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Downtown Independent, courtesy of Acropolis Cinema).

But in addressing Nocturama, we should be particularly careful about confusing it with recent history, whether that means praising it for its uncanny prescience or damning it for deviating from events that Bonello never claimed as inspiration.

The story begins with its characters already in motion, and even those who go in cold will immediately sense, from the furtive precision of their movements and the play of blankness and anxiety on their faces, that something dangerous is afoot. As the cinematographer Leo Hinstin tracks several of them through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Paris Metro, then follows a few others along the upper floors of a skyscraper and the red-carpeted hallways of the Ministry of the Interior, Bonellos technique exerts a shivery, hypnotic power.

We watch as these good-looking ciphers plant plastic explosives in empty rooms and parked cars, then toss their burner phones in trash cans. One girl, Sabrina (Manal Issa), disguised as a city employee, applies a flammable substance to a bronze sculpture of Joan of Arc, her nervous eyes briefly meeting the statues inscrutable gaze.

Occasionally there will be a flashback to the planning stages, allowing us to observe the scale of the operation and the diversity of the participants. With a few exceptions  like Mika (Jamil McCraven), a soft-spoken black youth, and Omar (Rabah Nait Oufella), a brash kid of Middle Eastern descent  most of them are white, including the de facto leader, David (Finnegan Oldfield), and his girlfriend, Sarah (Laure Valentinelli).

Another flashback, in which a university student named Andre (Martin Petit-Guyot) unpacks his thesis that civilization is a condition for the downfall of civilization, is as close as Bonello gets to parsing the nature of their radicalization.

Stalking his characters with sinuous camera movements and split-screen surveillance footage, Bonello turns it into the stuff of a waking nightmare.

By 5:15 p.m., Paris is burning. Having targeted symbols of Frances revolutionary past and globalist future, the terrorists converge at the evacuated mall, where Omar, a security worker, has granted them secret access. Its here, in this multi-story consumer paradise, that Nocturama shakes off its controlled, simmering paranoia and, along with its characters, stirs to a different kind of life.

Like the abandoned mall in George Romeros Dawn of the Dead, one of several cinematic allusions in the offing here (Stanley Kubricks The Shining is another), this capitalist mecca is at once a wondrous after-hours playground and a hell of a loaded metaphor. Bottles of wine are cracked open; designer bathrobes are tried on. One of the self-styled rebels, Yacine (Hamza Meziani), comes face-to-face with an identically Nike-clad mannequin in the movies most startlingly surreal image.

In less assured or idiosyncratic hands, the notion of these killers suddenly transfixed  zombified, even  by Chanel, Fendi and Sonia Rykiel might have played as a cheap satirical dig, a facile reminder of the hypocrisy behind their anti-establishment rage. Stalking his characters with sinuous camera movements and split-screen surveillance footage, Bonello turns it into the stuff of a waking nightmare, complete with the occasional dreamlike apparition drifting into view. Are they specters of the already dead, or omens of the deaths still to come?

The ease with which the director navigates this high-end fantasyland comes as little surprise, considering the druggy, decadent style he brought to bear on his 2015 fashion-world biopic, Saint Laurent. But the movie actually feels closer in some ways to his little-seen 2008 feature, On War, much of which was set in a rural retreat for young people, who seek escape in a haze of communal self-exploration and slow-motion dancing. There is one brief, hypnotic sequence like that in Nocturama (set to the directors own techno score), whose story and visual style continually evoke the media obsessions of modern youth, effectively trapping the characters in a bubble of their own creation.

Occasionally, some of the conspirators tear themselves away from the malls wares to monitor their grim handiwork via a TV news feed, though any real information on the human toll of the attacks is curiously absent. Bored and in need of release, the kids blast Willow Smiths Whip My Hair over the malls speakers  not the only time the soundtrack will work in impudent counterpoint to the mounting tragedy of the situation.

The grimly attenuated final sequence is at once inevitable and frightening in a way that Ive never quite seen in a thriller before; its as if Bonello, reluctant to either rush his characters toward their fate or grant them a mercy they dont deserve, decided instead to linger and hold them close. In Nocturama, a haunting vision of the world gone beautifully mad, its the cruelest, most unsparing possible embrace.

------------

Nocturama

Not rated

In French with English subtitles

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Playing: Downtown Independent, Los Angeles

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The structure of director Michael Winterbottoms trio of pseudo-travelogues  The Trip, The Trip to Italy and the latest, The Trip to Spain, ( which opened in theaters Aug. 11)  are always similar: U.K. comedian Steve Coogan and friend/fellow laugh-getter Rob Brydon traverse a specific region  ostensibly on assignment  eating at top restaurants, hanging out and bickering. With the pair playing loose versions of their real selves, the movies overflow with bracing improvised wit, celebrity impression contests and lots of midlife crisis moping. And even though Coogan and Brydon have little to say about the impeccably prepared food theyre eating, cult followers of the films have been known to duplicate the pairs culinary journeys, matching them bite for bite.

That means whatever measure of gastronomic allure the Trip road pictures offer can be credited to the lush cinematography of director of photography James Clarke (whose U.K. resume is rife with cooking competition shows) and to Winterbottom, who assigned himself the enviable task of restaurant curator: Once the country of choice is selected, he compiles a list of the areas eating destinations, visits them multiple times, then begins figuring out which ones fit into his loose storyline. Its fun, all that research, says Winterbottom, who turns his Trip producers into mealtime companions. I try not to go alone. That would be too depressing.

Recently we tracked down Winterbottom in Puglia, Italy, to talk about the humor in Coogan and Brydons food ambivalence, the absence of paella and what it was like to taste the best Spain has to offer, from the Michelin-starred Etxebarris 15-course tasting menu to the sizzling gambas pil pil at El Refectorium in the southern port city of Malaga. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Besides Coogan referring to Etxebarris fresh goat butter as life affirming, thats about it for restaurant criticism. Why is that?

The idea of doing The Trip had come from having various lunches with Steve and Rob, thinking theyd make an enjoyable location for a film. But I knew they werent foodies, that they werent going to be obsessed. I did think that given that they were going to all these great restaurants they might occasionally mention the food. But I realized quite soon that they wouldnt. Ive given up trying to persuade them. Theres something funny about Steve and Rob eating great food while all these people are slaving away in the kitchen and all theyre interested in is talking about themselves and their careers.

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Each of the Trip films first premiere in England as a multi-episode television series. Is it true that a dedicated foodist might find the TV version is a better fit?

In the episodic version theres more meal, theres more of everything. Theres more time, so theres also more conversation, more journey. On the first film, the journey was actually quite short. It was going around the Lake District in England. Whereas on The Trip to Spain, they set off by ferry from London and drive their way all the way through to the Sahara desert.

As a director of narrative features like 24 Hour Party People and A Mighty Heart, how long did it take to figure out an approach to lovingly composed glamour shots of food?

We dont have one to be honest. The whole idea of the filming is that we shoot it as simply as possible. We shoot the food in exactly the same way as we shoot Steve and Rob, the restaurant and the countryside. Obviously were choosing restaurants with really great food. But we dont really try and make the food look good, we just try to capture the experience of what being in the restaurant and the experience of being at a lunch with Steve and Rob is like. So if the food looks good its purely by virtue of the food, rather than the filming. If the food looks delicious its because it is delicious.

Do you ever get pushback from your stars about your restaurant lineup?

Rob and Steve dont get any choices. But they dont mind. I just tell them where were going  and they dont care.

The first restaurant they go to, Txoko, is in a storybook fishing village where just-caught anchovies are grilled over an open wood fire. What led you there?

Initially we were recommended Getaria by a couple of chefs in London. Theres a Michelin-starred restaurant there thats really good but it didnt feel like the right place for filming. So we went down on the ports, and there was a whole string of restaurants. In the end, the one we chose was partly because the chef was really friendly and also its a good location because its close to the water.

The true no-brainer was Etxebarri, which was voted the sixth best restaurant in the world in 2015.

If you go to Spain, you should go to that restaurant. [The chef, Victor Arguinzoniz] does only one meal a day, a set menu. Its fantastic food. Apparently he used to be a carpenter, working in wood, then he started cooking. He has no formal training. In all the restaurants in Spain, they cook on wood on the street. But at Etxebarri, he has covered wood fired ovens and uses all different sorts of wood.

In this film youll see Spanish classics like chorizo casero, jamon iberico, and all manner of croquetas. Nowhere, however, is paella. Was that by choice?

It was a little bit of a choice. If Valencia was on our route in the end, maybe we would have included paella. But in England, the one cliche of Spanish [cuisine] would be paella. So it was quite nice to avoid it.

Talk about the scene where Steve meets a young traveling musician who airily opines that theyre eating in all the wrong places.

I just liked the idea of making fun of Steves pomposity. Hes like an earlier version of Steve, just as annoying but better looking. We thought thatd be quite funny. But all those places that he mentions? There were lots of great restaurants that in the end we had to cross off because they just werent on our route. So that was just our way of sneaking in references of places we didnt end up filming.

Will there be a fourth Trip installment?

When we did the first one we said, There will be just one, so who knows? I think enough time will have to go by so Steve and Rob will have grown and changed in some way. For me, Id like it to be in Sweden or somewhere in the Arctic Circle. It would be funny to deposit them somewhere cold.

food@latimes.com

@latimesfood

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Rumors are spreading that General Motors is planning to pull out of Korea. GM Korea posted a loss in the first quarter of this year and Korea Development Bank, which is the second-largest shareholder of the automaker, said it cannot stop it from pulling out.

GM's headquarters office in Detroit is apparently becoming extremely concerned about the labor union at the Korean subsidiary, which belongs to the militant Korean Metal Workers' Union.

GM has been shutting down operations around the world that were not generating revenues. It has closed plants in Australia, Indonesia and Russia since 2013 and announced in March of this year that it agreed to sell the Opel brand in Europe to France's PSA Group. It decided in May to pull out of India as well.

After acquiring the bankrupt Daewoo Motor in October 2002, GM pledged to manufacture cars in Korea for at least 15 years. That means it would be free to leave after October. GM owns a 76.96-percent stake in GM Korea.
A complicated effort to recover the bodies of two missing Thai exchange students who are thought to be trapped in a car that plummeted hundreds of feet into the raging Kings River has just become even more fraught.

The Fresno County Sheriffs Office announced this weekend that searchers have found evidence of another couple who disappeared recently from Sequoia National Park and may have also driven off the same section of Highway 180.

While watching a TV news clip on the missing Thai couple, a Fresno County search-and-rescue team member spotted a California license plate and car parts in some brush. Days later, the plate was linked to a missing husband and wife from San Diego.

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I think its a series of bad coincidences, said Fresno County sheriffs spokesman Tony Botti. That entire stretch of 180 is very winding. That curve is really no different than anywhere else on that entire drive.

The discovery has triggered a second, parallel investigation in the same area where University of South Florida exchange students Bhakapon Chairatanathongporn, 28, and Thiwadee Saengsuriyarit, 24, are believed to have perished in their red sedan. The wrecked vehicle was spotted July 26 in rapids at the bottom of a treacherous gorge some 500 feet below Highway 180.

Authorities say the stretch of river is extremely dangerous and inaccessible to helicopter crews. They have yet to determine a plan to reach the vehicle.

It was on Aug. 8, while watching a video clip about efforts to organize a recovery plan, that the search-and-rescue team member spotted the license plate and made a note of its number  6XMM431.

The team member checked records on the license plate, but that didnt turn up any reports of a missing or stolen vehicle or a crash, sheriffs officials said. But team members submitted the license plate along with some other car parts found in the area  about 40 yards upstream from the Thai couples vehicle  to the California Highway Patrol so it could create a report.

Three days later, the family of 31-year-old Yinan Wang and his 30-year-old wife Jie Song reported the pair missing. A relative explained that Wang and Song were last seen at Sequoia National Parks Crystal Cave on Aug. 6, and that they were expected to drive north and stay the night in Fresno before continuing on to Yosemite National Park.

The pair was due back in San Diego on Aug. 9, the relative told authorities.

But when Fresno County deputies followed up on the missing persons report Aug. 11 and called Sequoia National Park, they learned that the pair had been reported missing there, too, officials said. Wang and Song were last seen driving their white Ford Focus, license plate 6XMM431.

A flyover of the area where the license plate and other car parts were found turned up no signs of Wang or Song, officials said. No bodies have been found in the Kings River, but park officials down-river will continue to check. Skid marks that lead off the highway about 30 feet up from where the Thai couple is believed to have driven off the cliff may be connected to the San Diego pair, Botti said.

At the time, it really didnt mean much because we all thought it was related to that one car, Botti said, referring to the red vehicle.

In the meantime, authorities are assessing plans to recover the bodies of the Thai students.

The vehicles airbags deployed when their car crashed into the river, making it virtually impossible to see inside the vehicle from a distance.

The crumpled vehicle was first spotted in the river not far from Convict Flat Campground in Hume.

In a Facebook post last week, the Thai consulate explained its recent discussions with sheriffs officials, noting that the agencies involved were making the recovery efforts a top priority and would not allow any private agency or person to recover the bodies because such efforts could be fatal and illegal.

The recovery must be very careful, the Facebook post read. The torrents and rapids are about 30 feet away from the point where the car is stuck and there are three more rapids in the same manner.

Botti said authorities cannot use a helicopter to recover the car.

You might rip it in half and get part of it, he said of the car. Theres also a wind factor. The canyon zigzags and creates strange wind patterns, so if you send a helicopter, it can joggle the aircraft and make it dangerous for personnel.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.

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4 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from the Fresno County Sheriffs Office.

This article was originally published at 1:25 p.m.
A Virginia judge on Monday declined to set bail for James Alex Fields Jr., the 20-year-old Ohio man accused of second-degree murder and other charges after authorities said he plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters near the scene of a white supremacist rally that erupted into violence.

Meanwhile, the police chief in Charlottesville  under fire for his departments handling of the deadly violence that boiled over during and after Saturdays rally by white supremacists and their allies  expressed regrets but defended the performance of his officers.

We were hoping for a peaceful event, Chief Al Thomas told reporters in the university town.

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Absolutely, I have regrets, the police chief said of the tragic, tragic weekend during which a counter-protester was killed and two state troopers died in the crash of a helicopter helping to monitor the disturbances.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, declaring that we must learn from this tragic event to prevent a recurrence in our community or elsewhere, said he had ordered a broad review of the episode by state and local authorities.

In addition, the federal government must focus on the threat of domestic terrorism, especially when it comes from beyond state lines, the Democratic governor said in a statement.

The judges ruling earlier Monday means that Fields, whom news reports have described as fascinated by Nazism, will remain jailed at least until his court-appointed attorney requests bail.

The local public defenders office informed the court it could not represent him because of a potential conflict of interest; someone in the office has a relative who was involved in Saturdays protests.

Fields said he makes $650 a month and could not afford a lawyer. The attorney appointed to represent him, Charles L. Weber Jr., could seek bond before the next scheduled hearing, Aug. 25.

Amid the preliminary court proceedings, an increasingly troubled profile emerged of the young suspect. Citing transcripts of 911 calls, the Associated Press reported that Fields had been previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife.

Fields, clad in a black-and-white striped jail uniform, appeared via video link for Mondays hearing. He briefly responded to questions from Judge Robert Downer, replying, No, sir, when asked whether he had any ties to the Charlottesville community.

Saturdays car rampage killed Heather Heyer, 32, a Charlottesville paralegal who was among counter-protesters responding to the rally by white nationalists and others. Those groups oppose a plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park.

Fields was taken into custody soon after the attack.

Photos circulating on social media appeared to show Fields posing with members of Vanguard America, a white nationalist group, the day of the main rally. Fields held a black-and-white shield with the organizations insignia. The group said Fields was not a member and that the shields were distributed widely.

The hearing came soon after U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said the attack met the legal standard for an act of domestic terrorism. Speaking on ABCs Good Morning America, the attorney general called the car rampage, which injured 19 people, an unequivocally and unacceptable evil attack.

Sessions, who met Monday with President Trump, also defended the president against widespread criticism that he had not specifically condemned white supremacists in connection with Saturdays events, but instead blamed many sides for inciting the violence. Critics have called on the president to explicitly denounce the right-wing hate groups behind Saturdays march.

He said that yesterday, his spokesman did, the attorney general said in the ABC interview. He was referring to a White House statement, issued Sunday without a spokespersons name attached to it, that maintained Trumps previous comments had implicitly included condemnation of white supremacists and allied groups.

Other senior Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, on a trip to Latin America, have denounced by name various hate movements including white nationalists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Trump, returning to the White House on Monday from his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., did not respond to a volley of shouted questions from reporters about whether he condemns white nationalists.

But later, in a White House appearance that came 48 hours after the lethal violence in Charlottesville, Trump issued the specific condemnation his critics had sought.

Racism is evil, the president said in a televised statement in which he named the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as criminals and thugs.

Times staff writers Cloud reported from Charlottesville, Va., and King from Washington.

david.cloud@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidcloudLAT

laura.king@latimes.com

Twitter: @laurakingLAT

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UPDATES:

3:10 p.m.: This article has been updated with comment from the governor and a report of 911 transcripts showing that the suspect was previously accused of beating his mother.

2:48 p.m.: This article has been updated with comment from the police chief.

10:40 a.m.: This article has been updated with more comment from President Trump.

9:15 a.m.: This article has been updated with an attorney being appointed to represent Fields, President Trump returning to White House and other details.

8:40 a.m.: This article has been updated throughout with staff reporting, additional details and comments from Atty Gen. Jeff Sessions.

This article was originally published at 7:45 a.m.
As a gang of white supremacists was beating him bloody, DeAndre Harris thought he might not survive and wondered why police were not rushing to defend him.

A few moments before, the 20-year-old Charlottesville resident and four friends, all of them African Americans, were screaming curses at white nationalists marching along Market Street in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday and carrying neo-Nazi flags and yelling racial slurs.

The verbal confrontation soon turned ugly.

As Harris recounted in an interview Sunday, he suddenly found himself fighting as many as five of the marchers.

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Harris, a hip-hop artist and assistant special education teacher at a high school, said he did not know why the marchers singled him out, though he had tied a white towel around his neck on which he had scrawled epithets directed at the Ku Klux Klan and police. As he fled into a nearby parking garage, the men caught up with him, hitting with their fists and wooden poles.

But a group of police officers who were only a few yards away when the fight broke out did not attempt to break it up, according to Harris and another eyewitness.

They were trying to kill me out there, Harris recalled. The police didnt budge, and I was getting beat to a pulp.

In the garage, Harris fell against the garage entrance gate, snapping off the wooden arm and dropped to the ground. One of the marchers picked up the board and started hitting Harris with it, while others surrounded him and continued to pummel him with blows, video of the attack shows.

With blood pouring from his head, Harris tried to get back up but kept falling down under the continuous blows.

Vonzz Long, 23, who saw the attack on Harris, said that he implored police to come his friends help, but that they ignored him.

They looked at me and didnt say nothing, Long said.

Miriam Dickler, a spokeswoman for the city of Charlottesville, said she was aware of Harris claims that the police did not come to his aid, but could not comment further.

Our police officers, the Virginia State Police and other law enforcement agencies were around the area the entire day, responding to more than 250 incidents incidents and assisting people, she said.

Zach D. Roberts, a freelance photographer who photographed the beating, said police were nearby when it started and did not come to Harris aid. But he added that they may not have been able to see inside the darkened garage.

At least one of the marchers was also bloodied in the melee, photographs show. The identity of Harris attackers could not be determined.

Eventually, one officer did come to Harris aid.

Harris somehow made his way to a stairwell. Roberts said an officer with the Charlottesville Police Department arrived and blocked anyone from entering the stairwell, where Harris had taken refuge.

After five or six minutes, one officer showed up, Roberts said. The rest of them probably just went off with the march. They kind of just let it go.

Harris received medical treatment from two volunteer medics and was later transported to Martha Jefferson Hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. Harris said that in addition to the head wound, which required eight staples, he suffered a broken wrist, a chipped tooth and a cut lip.

On Sunday, Harris returned to the scene of the attack, carrying the white towel he wore the day before, now stained with his dried blood.

david.cloud@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidcloudLAT

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Americas far right usually shares a common goal: a quest for white power. But it is not a unified movement. Its filled with cliques and factions that have slightly different ideologies and inspirations, and which often signal their allegiances or send messages using flags, symbols, codes and Internet memes.

Most people are familiar with the swastika of Nazi Germany and the battle flag of Americas Confederacy. But here are some of the other symbols that were seen when far-right groups descended on Charlottesville, Va., last weekend.

The tiki torch

On Friday, multiple white nationalist groups march with torches through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Va. (Mykal McEldowney / Associated Press)

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The Ku Klux Klan had torches. The new far-right has tiki torches  which, like many other contemporary far-right symbols, is a somewhat ironic play on old imagery.

Weve really gotten into the tiki torch nationalism, weve embraced it, I love it, Richard Spencer, a prominent white nationalist, said in a video. Spencer believes in a separate nation for white people, and he says the movement is about our spirit and soul, I think these torchlight marches are fantastic to express that  its very evocative and mystical. A similar demonstration in Charlottesville in May also included tiki torches, to keep the parasites at bay, Spencers site AltRight.com said.

After white nationalists with tiki torches marched through the University of Virginia campus on Friday night, the company behind the torches, TIKI Brand, said it was deeply saddened and disappointed by the display, adding, We do not support their message or the use of our products in this way.

The Southern nationalist flag (turned into a shield)

White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. (Steve Helber / Associated Press)

In Charlottesville, some far-right ralliers arrived with white shields adorned with a black X  the symbol of the League of the South, a far-right Southern nationalist group. The groups website says it is not a neo-Confederate or Southern heritage organization, but a movement to promote the survival, well being, and independence of  Southerners of European descent who are committed to preserving the traditional culture of the South.

A blogger by the name of Marcus Cicero wrote at Occidental Dissent that he was one of the shield-men and that I was, still am, and will always be, honored to have been given the chance to stand and fight with men who proved that they represent the best part of the White Race in the struggle against beasts that fill their unholy prayers with calls for our destruction.

A symbol of fascism: A bundle of rods, tied to an ax

The European-style fascist group Vanguard America gained notoriety in Charlottesville when James Alex Fields Jr.  the Ohio man accused of driving his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters  was photographed carrying one of their shields. (Vanguard America denied that Fields was a member.)

On that shield: a logo of white axes with the handles wrapped in bundles. Strength through unity is the universal motto for Fascists throughout history, which is why their traditional symbol is a Roman fasces; a bundle of rods bound to an axe, Vanguard Americas site says.

Vanguard America is fascist, adopting an old Nazi slogan, blood and soil, as its Internet URL and as its anti-globalist ethos. According to its manifesto, A multicultural nation is no nation at all, but a collection of smaller ethnic nations ruled over by an overbearing tyrannical state. Our America is to be a nation exclusively for the White American peoples who out of the barren hills, empty plains, and vast mountains forged the most powerful nation to ever have existed.

The dragons eye triangle of Identity Evropa

Then why do you have a white supremacist logo on your shirt?

"Im Not The Angry Racist They See In That Photo https://t.co/e7qPXmV3i0 @TPM pic.twitter.com/1uF2Sawo6y  Oren Segal (@orensegal) August 14, 2017

Its not a cross, or an old Roman eagle -- just a triangle with three lines inside. Its the symbol of the Identity Evropa, which was founded by California-based white nationalist Nathan Damigo. The group describes itself on its website as a generation of awakened Europeans who have discovered that we are part of the great peoples, history, and civilization that flowed from the European continent.

The logo is that of an ancient European design, the Dragons Eye, the groups site says. The triangle represents the threat that we as a people are facing. The y inside represents the choice that we have to make between good and evil. It is a symbol of protection that will grant us succor against the ongoing evil that seeks to destroy truth.

One of the white nationalists who was photographed wearing a shirt with Identity Evropas dragons eye logo, Peter Cvjetanovic, 20, of Nevada, was heavily criticized after the Friday march on the University of Virginia campus. I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo, Cvjetanovic told a Nevada TV station.

However, he added, We all deserve a future for our children and for our culture.

Email: matt.pearce@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @mattdpearce

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Has there ever been a president as humorless as Donald Trump? Doubtful. Trump traffics in bombast, braggadocio and bluntness. He is a master of insults, self-praise, and mangled syntax. But he is no John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan  both presidents who were masters of the well-aimed witticism. The current occupant of the Oval Office is only funny unintentionally. He is a joke, but he doesnt make jokes.

Recall his remarks at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York on Oct. 20, 2016. These events are supposed to be a time for political leaders to be light-hearted and to poke fun at themselves. Trump barely managed to get off a couple of ghostwritten one-liners before veering into a cringe-inducing denunciation of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, who was sitting right behind him. He went on to accuse Clinton (inaccurately) of being so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate Commission, of being hypocritical (Hillary believes that its vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private) and, finally, of pretending not to hate Catholics. The audience reacted with boos rather than the more typical laughs.

Yet if you listen to Trump defenders, you would think that he is the Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari, all wrapped up into one rolling-on-the-floor package of hilarity.

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Last week, Trump thanked Vladimir Putin for expelling 755 personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow  Im very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll, the president said. Most observers interpreted this as further evidence of Trumps toadying to the Russian dictator, who helped him win the presidency. But Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) claimed to detect wit of a high order. Trump, he said, was speaking tongue-in-cheek.

This brand of lame excuse has actually become the go-to explanation for Trumps outrageous remarks. As noted by CNN and the Huffington Post, among others, the presidents apologists often detect unsuspected humor in his offensive and inane comments.

This kidding/not kidding routine is a way for Trump to preserve a shred of plausible deniability.

In July, for example, Trump endorsed police brutality, telling a convention of cops please dont be too nice when throwing suspects into the back of a paddy wagon. There was not a trace of a smile on his face as he spoke, nor did anyone laugh (although, disturbingly, a lot of the audience applauded). The next day, as police departments across the country condemned the presidents remarks, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered this defense: I believe he was making a joke.

A year earlier, in July 2016, Trump told the press he hoped Russia would hack and release private emails from Hillary Clintons private server: Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer later claimed, He was joking at the time. We all know that. We do?

Trumps humor apparently extended to telling then-FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating fired National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Comey testified to Congress under oath that the president told him: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. Hes a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, tried to excuse what looks very much like obstruction of justice by claiming that Trump was just kidding  it looks different on paper. The punchline, of course, was that Trump fired Comey for ignoring his instructions.

Trump himself has embraced the I was joshing defense. In August 2016 he claimed that President Obama was the founder of ISIS, and refused to back down when questioned about that ludicrous claim by radio host Hugh Hewitt. But later Trump explained that he had been kidding. So, too, in January 2016 he claimed was just kidding when he said that global warming was a Chinese hoax  a claim he had first made in 2012 and repeated many times without a hint of levity.

Trump also hides behind the cloak of humor when demeaning those around him. At a lunch with the Security Council, Trump solicited views of his U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley: Does everybody like Nikki? Otherwise she can easily be replaced. Ha ha, from a man notorious for actually firing aides right and left.

This kidding/not kidding routine is a way for Trump to preserve a shred of plausible deniability and for his spokesmen to walk away from his crazier comments. But if you think Trump isnt being serious, the jokes on you. Trump would actually be a little easier to take if he had a modicum of wit. But he doesnt. Hes about as funny as that notorious cutup Calvin Coolidge.

Max Boot is a contributing writer to Opinion and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook

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May you die in pain: California GOP congressman gets an earful at town hall

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) kicks off his Monday morning town hall in Chico. (Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times)

May you die in pain.

That was the nastiest moment of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfas early morning town hall in the Northern California town of Chico on Monday.

The wish was uttered by an older man who criticized LaMalfa for voting for the House GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. He was also holding a pink sign that read Lackey for the Rich!

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The open hostility and intransigence inside the Chico Elks Lodge came as the political divide in the country has grown more inflamed, with Trumps election unleashing a wave of both liberal activism and conservative empowerment.

As a result, Washingtons deeply partisan fights over issues such as health care, immigration and environmental protections have followed members of Congress home, turning once sedate town halls into in-your-face venting sessions that in left-leaning California have Republican House members on the defensive.

LaMalfa stood his ground on stage as person after person ripped into him for his votes and positions on healthcare and climate change, as well as for his unyielding support for President Trump.

A few speakers asked LaMalfa to resign, including one dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West Coast.

Heather Calun dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West Coast in protest. She wants LaMalfa to resign over his vote to repeal Obamacare. pic.twitter.com/rBZXAnjd2l  Phil Willon (@philwillon) August 7, 2017

Most comments and questions during the hour-long town hall were fairly cordial, although they were laced with plenty of boos and catcalls.

Norma Wilcox, a retired nurse who lives in Chico, also questioned LaMalfas healthcare vote. Wilcox told LaMalfa the House plan would take away healthcare for millions of Americans while providing tax breaks to the rich.

I am open to new ideas, LaMalfa told her, describing the House GOP bill as a placeholder that everyone expected to be improved during negotiations with the Senate. (The Senates healthcare efforts now appear dead.)

But the Richvale congressman, who represents Californias massive 1st Congressional District in the northeast corner of the state, said he will support only a new healthcare program that provides affordable coverage to middle-class Americans.

LaMalfa said Obamacare is quickly become unaffordable and unsustainable, with premium costs rising and the number of insurance companies offering coverage declining.

People across the board are being hurt by this, LaMalfa said.

When shouts and boos rained down on him, he chastised the crowd saying, I have the mic folks. Yep, boo away.

Ann Sisney of Chico told LaMalfa that her son, William, died of an opioid overdose two years ago. She held up a picture of the 19-year-old, asked the congressman to take it, and told him more people will die if GOP leadership in Congress gets its way on healthcare.

These are life-and-death decisions that you are making, Sisney told him.

LaMalfa assured her that Congress was working to find funds to address the nationwide opioid epidemic.

The Republican congressman also raised the ire of the crowd when he was asked about climate change and the degraded air quality in this stretch of Northern California.

I dont buy the idea that man-made activity is responsible, LaMalfa said bluntly.

The crowd of several hundred did include some LaMalfa supporters, though most stayed silent.

Ron Jones, 67, of Paradise said hes been to a few of LaMalfas town halls and all have been dominated by his critics.

Most of the time people want to ... complain, said Jones, a self-described conservative, after the event ended. The people who support him are quietly in the background.

LaMalfa does indeed have a lot of support in the district that also overwhelmingly voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton in last years presidential election. LaMalfa won his last election by almost 15%, and though he has attracted a few Democratic challengers, the district is not considered a battleground for 2018.

Unlike many California Republican members of Congress, LaMalfa hasnt shied away from holding town halls, though its rarely a pleasant experience for him. He held one in Nevada City in March and another in April in Oroville. No other California Republicans are scheduled to hold town halls during their August recess.

Near the end of Mondays town hall, a woman criticized LaMalfa for inviting only Christian pastors to provide invocations at his town halls and other events, and urged him to include religious leaders of all faiths.

If you want to have your own town hall, you can invite whoever you like, LaMalfa told her.
During the presidential campaign, about the only common ground between billionaire conservative Charles Koch and Republican nominee Donald Trump was a colorful disregard for each other.

Koch complained the choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton was like opting for cancer or a heart attack. And Trump bashed big-money donors, deriding his Republican rivals as puppets who went knocking on Kochs door for backing.



For the record: This article originally said the Koch network spent $750 million in the 2016 election. The network spent a total of $750 million on all operations, but just $250 million on the election.

Not surprisingly, the Koch network largely sat out the 2016 presidential election and, Trump went on to win without them. Normally such a high-profile snub would carry a steep political price, shutting doors to the new administration.

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But in recent months, Kochs sprawling network of conservative advocacy groups has exerted surprising influence in the Trump administration, scoring some early accomplishments and pushing its priorities to the top of the White House agenda.

It started with the quick rollback of a dozen Obama-era environmental and labor regulations  a to-do list orchestrated by Koch-backed groups even before Trump was sworn into office.

By spring, the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America was instrumental in passage of the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, a long-fought Koch effort to make it easier to fire employees at the beleaguered Veterans Affairs department, providing a blueprint for how to make an end-run around civil service protections that could be replicated across other federal departments.

In July, the Kochs celebrated the official demise of the border-adjustment tax, a tax-reform proposal backed by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan that was bitterly opposed by many business groups, including the brothers. GOP congressional leaders and the White House announced that idea would not be part of the upcoming tax-reform package.

MORE COVERAGE OF CONGRESS 

The networks job has been made easier by the administrations hiring of Koch-affiliated alumni to key positions at the White House to help shape policy for a president who arrived without his own deeply staffed bench.

The vacuum in Trump not having his own network is filled by people whove been cultivated for years by the Koch network, said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the UC Irvine law school and an expert in campaign finance.

Also helpful is a Republican-led Congress made up of many lawmakers who depend on the networks backing for reelection, and fear being attacked if they stray from the libertarian, small-government orthodoxy. Even without being active in the presidential race, the network spent $750 million during the 2016 election cycle, including $250 million on campaign ads, voter engagement and other efforts to advocate for issues and shape public opinion.

The early results show that Koch donors have remained a powerful force in politics despite not spending on Trumps presidential campaign.

As the 81-year-old Koch welcomed hundreds of wealthy donors to the networks annual seminar in Colorado Springs, Colo., this summer, he marveled at how far the group has come in the decade-plus since its founding.

When I look at where we are, at the size and effectiveness of this network, Im blown away, Koch said as guests and lawmakers mingled at the posh Broadmoor resort. We are more optimistic now about what we can accomplish than weve ever been.

To be sure, the failure of Congress to pass healthcare legislation stands as a glaring setback for the Koch network, which first made a splash on the national political stage during the 2009 fight to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

And many of their individual donors are so frustrated by the fumble after having spent millions to sweep Republicans to the House majority in 2010 and the Senate in 2014 that they are withholding campaign cash for the upcoming midterms until Republican lawmakers deliver.

But 200 days into the new administration, Charles and his brother, David  who are tied at No. 8 on the Forbes list of the worlds wealthiest individuals  appear as influential as ever.

MORE COVERAGE OF POLITICS AND THE WHITE HOUSE 

On Saturday, the network will welcome Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime ally, to deliver the keynote address at its annual activist summit in Richmond, Va. Pence met privately with the Koch team at the Colorado event.

Democrats have been furious, reviving the specter of what they call the Kochtopus, with its sprawling reach into almost every aspect of federal government policy and its secret donors whose millions of dollars keep lawmakers in line.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned congressional Republicans not to cater to wealthy donors priorities during the upcoming tax debate this fall.

Dont give breaks to the top 1%  everyone knows they dont need it, Schumer railed on the Senate floor. Have the courage to break free from the Koch brothers and the special interests.

Koch supporters relish such criticism. We enjoy getting attacked by the angry left, said Texas donor Doug Deason, who was among those attending the networks summer seminar. It means were getting something accomplished.

The coming battle over tax reform may prove the biggest test of the Kochs influence, but their early defeat of the border-adjustment tax provided momentum.

Trump spoke favorably of Ryans idea at an annual GOP retreat in January, viewing it as an extension of his own campaign promise of slapping tariffs on overseas goods as a way to promote domestic production.

But opponents argued it would increase prices for American consumers. Some Koch-owned companies in its conglomerate of oil, gas and other industries also would face higher taxes.

The network started attacking the GOP plan, running ads against specific House Republicans and criticizing the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, who spearheaded Ryans tax overhaul effort.

After months of intense campaigning by the Koch network  10,000 phone calls to lawmaker offices and $2 million spent on tax-reform ads and advocacy overall  the proposal was shelved.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was featured at a Koch-backed event in Washington with Marc Short, the White House legislative director, about the administrations tax plan moving forward. Short is a former aide to Pence and one-time president of Freedom Partners, a Koch-aligned group.

Through its vast array of think tanks, conservative groups and political operations, the network stitches together organizations around the Kochs libertarian-leaning small-government pursuits, funded by donations from more than 700 members who pay $100,000 annual dues to attend the summits.

As donors enjoyed drinks last June on a cool Colorado evening  first-time givers were marked with a silver star on their name tags  Koch brought his team to the stage to talk about their accomplishments. The group announced it intends to spend nearly $400 million for campaign ads and other efforts to advocate for issues and shape the public debate running up to the 2018 midterm election, an operation that at times can overshadow the work of the political parties.

I think were really going to start doing some good, where we see it every day now, Koch told those gathered under the evening sun.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

@LisaMascaro

ALSO

Their relationship at a low, Trump and Congress cast blame on each other heading into break

McCains surprise vote doomed GOP healthcare bill, but did it open the door for Senate bipartisanship?

Is this small-town congressman from New Mexico tough enough to win Democrats the House majority?

UPDATES:

9:25 a.m. Aug. 15: This article was updated with more details about Koch network spending.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m. Aug. 14
President Trump on Monday answered two days of bipartisan furor over his initial response to deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va., with a statement for the first time explicitly blaming white supremacists for the racist violence over the weekend.

Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans, the president said in a brief statement, reading from a teleprompter at the White House.

To anyone who acted criminally in this weekends racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered, Trump said.

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The presidents statement was a hastily arranged do-over that implicitly acknowledged the need to stanch the self-inflicted damage his first reaction had caused him and his administration. Criticism and outrage had continued to build, including among Republicans, to Trumps Saturday remarks blaming many sides, in effect lumping together for fault the anti-racism counter-protesters with the gun-wielding white supremacy groups Trump declined to name.

The episode has emerged as another defining moment in the young Trump presidency, one in which critics across the political spectrum faulted the president for failing to lead with moral clarity to unify the country amid civil strife. Trumps initial remarks had prompted stalwart conservatives such as Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch to distance themselves or rebuke the president outright, while the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer all but called the president a kindred spirit, praising him for saying nothing specific against us.

Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs...  President Trump

As candidate and president, Trump has often demanded that incidents of crime by Muslims be called out by the name radical Islamic terrorism. Yet, for at least 48 hours, he would not name the racist groups culpable in Charlottesville.

Adding to the pressure for the White House, just ahead of the presidents scripted comments, a Virginia judge in Charlottesville declined to set bail for alleged Nazi sympathizer James Alex Fields Jr. , 20, of Ohio, who is charged with murdering a woman and injuring at least 19 people by intentionally plowing his car into a crowd of counter-protesters and pedestrians Saturday.

Even before he belatedly spoke against the white nationalists, however, Trump drew more criticism for a tweet early Monday in which he attacked the African American chief executive of the pharmaceutical company Merck, Kenneth C. Frazier, within an hour of Fraziers resignation from a White House manufacturing council to protest Trumps initial failure to explicitly condemn the racists in Charlottesville.

The president had told reporters on Friday that hed hold a pretty big press conference on Monday, but after the weekends events no news conference was on his official Monday schedule. Instead, by midmorning the White House circulated word that Trump would make a statement on Charlottesville.

Once he came to the lectern with the presidential seal, the president first took some time to extol his administration as he often does for various economic gains. After segueing to roughly two minutes of remarks denouncing the hate groups, Trump pivoted and left, ignoring reporters shouted questions as he had Saturday, including several asking whether he regretted his delay in specifically blaming the racists.

Before his public statement, Trump met privately with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and new FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to discuss the civil rights investigation of the two days of chaos in Charlottesville that the Justice Department announced late Saturday.

Trump seemed eager to put the matter behind him. During an unrelated announcement on trade later in the day, a reporter asked why he had taken two days to condemn the hate groups by name. Theyve been condemned. They have been condemned, Trump snapped.

When asked about the canceled news conference, Trump insisted he had already held one, and then, when the reporter persisted, Trump labeled him fake news as he strode from the room.

After his Saturday statement, Trump continued to tweet through the weekend and into Monday, mostly on other subjects; those referring to Charlottesville did not denounce or even refer to white nationalists.

Yet on Monday the president quickly attacked Mercks chief executive after the company announced that Frazier had resigned from the presidents advisory council on manufacturing. Its statement said, Americas leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.

Frazier said he felt a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Trump responded on Twitter less than an hour after Merck posted Fraziers statement: Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from Presidents Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES! He attacked Merck a second time on Twitter on Monday evening, citing it for sending jobs overseas and high prices.

On social media, many critics noted the contrast between Trumps quick condemnation of Frazier and his failure  to that point  to denounce racist groups by name. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said Trump proves again hes capable of immediate and personal condemnation. Why not for white supremacists?

In New York, where Trump planned to spend the night in his first stay in Trump Tower as president, protesters converged for blocks around the high-rise, shouting No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said in a statement, It shouldnt take the president of the United States two days to summon the basic decency to condemn murder and violence by Nazis and white supremacists.

Pelosi, like many other Democrats, called on Trump to fire his embattled chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who has touted himself as a promoter of the alt-right movement, a term often used to describe white nationalists.

Some Republicans expressed relief that Trump had amended his remarks, but disappointment he hadnt done so sooner. The Senates only African American Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, said in a statement that the presidents latest comments were clear and specific but would have been more impactful on Saturday.

Ignoring such reactions, Trump in a tweet on Monday complained that the news media werent giving him credit: Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied  truly bad people!

Christopher Ruddy, a longtime Trump friend, said he believes the president was caught off guard by the controversy over his initial remarks.

Hes not a guy that will quickly change course when he sets course, said Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax, a conservative website.

The initial statement was incomplete, and he rectified it fairly quickly in my mind, Ruddy said. So I think it was a positive step.

Trumps hesitance to alter his course does not seem to be playing well with much of the country, however. His approval rating in Gallups daily tracking poll hit a new low, 34%. The survey was conducted over three days ending Sunday, meaning some who responded were aware of Trumps response to the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday.

As his poll numbers slump, Trump is depending increasingly on his core supporters.

Even as the controversy over Charlottesville festered, Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he was seriously considering a pardon for Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona county sheriff. Arpaio was convicted two weeks ago of defying a court order to stop his practice, while he was sheriff of Maricopa County, of racially profiling Latinos and bringing detainees to federal immigration officials. Fox reported on the comments Monday.

Arpaio, a figure widely loathed by liberals and immigrant rights advocates, is a folk hero to many on the hard right and served as a prominent Trump campaign spokesman. He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration, Trump told Fox. Hes a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.

The man accused of the Charlottesville attack, Fields, will remain jailed at least until his court-appointed attorney requests bail.

Photos circulating on social media appeared to show Fields posing with members of Vanguard America, a white nationalist group, the day of the main rally. Fields held a black-and-white shield with the organizations insignia. The group said that Fields was not a member and that the shields were distributed widely.

His bail hearing came soon after Sessions said the attack met the legal standard for an act of domestic terrorism. Speaking on ABCs Good Morning America, the attorney general called the car rampage an unequivocally and unacceptable evil attack.

Staff writers David S. Cloud, in Charlottesville, and Laura King and Jim Puzzanghera, in Washington, contributed. Special correspondent Matt E. Hansen in New York also contributed.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

UPDATES:

3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reactions, developments, background and analysis.

This article was originally published at 1:30 p.m.
Premier Li Keqiang has said the government should send a resounding yes to all law-abiding market entities and flash the green light of go ahead to all hardworking entrepreneurs and innovators.

The following are among the policies released by the State Council this year, introducing items encouraged by the government.

SOEs can innovate boldly

A fault-tolerant mechanism for State-owned enterprises (SOEs) will be established for them to invest in venture businesses. More incentives will also be released to encourage SOEs to increase investment in research and participate in national key sci-tech projects.

Details:>> China to optimize govt services for economic driving forces

Private healthcare services encouraged

To boost the social healthcare market, local governments should lower the access threshold and open the market to any qualified applicant, and carry out trans-department and whole-process reviews of private healthcare institutions for registration.

Private healthcare institutions should be treated the same as public ones, in an effort to build a fair business environment with multi-layered healthcare services.

Details:>>China to further support private healthcare services

Govt to boost private education

The State Council released guidelines to promote private education while encouraging more social support for education.

Governments at all levels are required to provide incentives to nonprofit private schools, such as government subsidies, government purchase services and a series of preferential tax policies.

Details:>>China to further promote development of private education

Innovation-driven development for counties

China will promote innovation-driven development and startups in county-level regions. Agricultural zones in the counties are asked to develop high-tech agriculture techniques while integrating traditional agriculture with tourism, education, healthcare and logistics.

Details:>>China to promote innovation development among counties

More social investment in the elderly care industry

Pilot projects will be established to promote reform in the elderly care sector, in which enterprises or social organizations are encouraged to run government-built elderly care institutions.

Details:>>State Council to boost more investment in social sectors

The following policies regulate behaviors and activities that are forbidden:

Regulation for agricultural chemicals

Farm chemicals containing strong poison cannot be used in the planting of vegetables, fruits, tea, mushrooms and herbal drugs, nor in pest control for aquatic plants.

Details:>>State Council releases revised regulation for agricultural chemicals

Zero tolerance for harmful behavior against students

Illegal behavior that harms the physical or mental health of students should not be tolerated. Any such behavior should be punished in a timely manner and those accused of such action be held accountable by law if necessary.

Details:>> State Council to strengthen safety in schools, kindergartens

Black list for employers that withhold workers salaries

Corporate management of building workers is urged, while their lawful rights should be secured. By 2020, all workers should be covered by labor contracts before starting work.

Enterprises that withhold workers wages should be blacklisted and given severe punishment.

Details:>>China to promote healthy development of construction

Ecological red line stressed

By the end of 2020, China should have a clearly defined red line that covers regions with important ecological functions, in an effort to safeguard national ecological safety.

Protected regions should not be ecologically degraded, and their acreage should not be decreased. If the red line needs adjustments due to national key infrastructure and livelihood projects, it should be reported to the State Council for approval.

Details:>> China to complete drawing ecological red line by 2020

Crack down on counterfeit and shoddy goods

Special action will be carried out this year to strengthen online trade management and crack down on e-commerce counterfeits. The government will improve the national mechanism to enhance product quality and the whole production and sale processes of online commerce.

Details:>>State Council highlights tasks against IPR infringement and counterfeits
Last week, Essential Politics opined on the potential for a slow week in news with the California Legislature, Congress and President Trump on vacation. Boy, was I wrong.

More provocation from (and toward) North Korea was only pushed lower in the headlines by violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., at a gathering of white supremacists.

In todays highly charged environment, the story quickly turned to the response from the president, who seemed uncharacteristically tongue-tied.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides, Trump told reporters.

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His full statement was 398 words, but as violence ripped through the Virginia college town, Trump was condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike for those specific three words and for not using the term white supremacists.

Our team has firsthand accounts of the beatings and how the political fallout evolved on the Sunday shows, with national security advisor H.R. McMaster saying Sunday on CNN: The presidents been very clear. We cannot tolerate this kind of bigotry, this kind of hatred.

LIGHTNING ROUND

With this newsletters two-year anniversary approaching, were using the summer to experiment. Thanks so much to those of you who shared your thoughts about our new, shorter format. Your feedback is helpful, so please continue to share.

-- Were not going to normalize these Nazis. Los Angeles responds to Charlottesville violence.

-- The Koch political network has exerted surprising influence in the Trump administration.

-- Trump is not going to rule out a military option in Venezuela.

-- Short-lived White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci went after Steve Bannons views in an appearance on ABCs This Week.

We will be following Trumps vacation and these major stories in real time on our Essential Washington news feed.

CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS DIVIDED

Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes support for Californias cap-and-trade legislation is threatening his ability to retain his leadership post, Chris Megerian and Seema Mehta report for our front page Monday.

The San Bernardino County Republican argues that his vote for the states signature climate change program was an effort to show Californians that he and his party are serious about a matter that is important to them, and to fight more restrictive efforts by the states Democratic lawmakers. But a growing drumbeat from conservative critics, who argue that was a betrayal of party principles and a tactical blunder, threatens to force him out of his leadership post.

This weekend Phil Willon covered a gathering of tea party leaders from across California. While ecstatic about Trump winning the White House, they were generally in a surly mood at their conference in Fresno. They had their talons out for Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, but their biggest target was what they called the Republican establishment.

Drawing the most ire was Mayes, whom Tea Party leaders vow to unseat. But he was not alone. California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte was accused of putting the party in the pocket of big money, kowtowing to Republican mega-donor Charles Munger. Still, Democrats were openly mocked, including Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters. Amid all of this, the top two GOP candidates for governor dropped by in search of support and pledging reverence for Trump.

DEMOCRATS DIVIDED

I shouldnt go into the district and talk about single-payer, right? Like, that word by itself is going to be something that just immediately turns off a lot of people, 25th Congressional District Democratic candidate Katie Hill told activists recently.

Sarah Wire has the story and the video, showing how single-payer healthcare is becoming a wedge issue in some Republican districts that Democrats are trying to flip in 2018.

And the debate over affirmative action has emerged in the governors race, threatening to inject a potentially volatile racial element into the 2018 contest after the issue divided California Democrats along ethnic lines three years ago.

THE BIG HOUSING DEAL WILL STILL LEAVE THE STATE SHORT OF HOMES

When lawmakers return from their summer recess later this month, at the top of their agenda will be the states housing affordability problems.

But the marquee housing measures currently under debate at the Capitol wont move the needle much, according to analyses from state officials and housing advocates.

Even if those bills pass, Liam Dillon reports, the state will need to find an additional $10 billion a year to finance housing for its neediest residents. Also, developers would need to build tens of thousands of additional homes annually just to keep pace with projected population growth.

DIALYSIS BRAWL COULD HEAD TO THE BALLOT

Healthcare workers have already been pushing in the state Capitol for a crackdown on for-profit dialysis clinics. Now, Melanie Mason reports, theyre looking to plan B: putting tougher regulations on the November 2018 ballot. The measures, filed by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, would impose strict rules on staffing and costs to treat Californians with chronic kidney disease.

A reminder you can keep up with our reporting in the moment via our Essential Politics news feed on California politics.

WHATS RIGHT FOR CALIFORNIA ON HEALTHCARE AND IMMIGRATION?

Its time to give up hope on single-payer healthcare in California, George Skelton writes in his Monday column. But Rep. John Garamendi, the states former insurance commissioner and a longtime advocate for healthcare reform, has an idea that could really work, Skelton says: Medicare for all.

When Brown appeared on NBCs Meet the Press on Aug. 6, and spoke out about what he called the balancing act in approaching immigration in the state, he discussed Californias so-called sanctuary state bill. It would limit the ability of state and local law enforcement to help federal agents enforce immigration laws. He said he believed the legislation needed some additional work, and hes right, Skelton writes, particularly when it comes to criminals who are in the country illegally, who Brown said have no business in the United States in the manner in which theyve come and conducted themselves subsequently.

POLITICAL ROAD MAP: WHO IS (AND ISNT) A REGISTERED VOTER

Overlooked in the debate over voter fraud is that the accuracy of all elections begins with knowing who is -- and isnt -- eligible to cast a ballot.

In his Political Road Map column, John Myers takes a look at the possibility of additional ways to ensure Californias voter registration records are accurate.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- Rep. Ted Lieu, popular with liberals because of his Trump trolling, on Sunday endorsed state Treasurer John Chiang for governor.

-- The FBI seized computers and documents in its investigation of Rep. Duncan Hunters campaign spending.

-- Despite Californias strict new law, hundreds of schools still dont have enough vaccinated kids.

-- What will Los Angeles transportation be like when the Olympics arrive in 2028?

-- A group thats hoping to unseat congressional Republicans in California is trying a new tactic: not mentioning Trump at all. An ad against Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) focuses on his vote to ease regulations on Wall Street instead.

-- California sued the EPA for documents to determine whether Administrator Scott Pruitt has a conflict of interest.

LOGISTICS

Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Miss Fridays newsletter? Here you go.

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox.
After weeks of escalating criticism, Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes still doesnt have any regrets over bucking his party to support Californias cap-and-trade program on climate change.

Theres just one thing Mayes would have done differently: He wishes he had attended the ceremony on San Franciscos Treasure Island where Gov. Jerry Brown signed the legislation.

For the record: An earlier version of this article reported that San Diego County GOP Chairman Tony Krvaric said Assemblyman Chris Mayes deserved to lose his legislative seat in addition to his leadership post. Krvaric only wants Mayes removed from his leadership position. It was conservative blogger Jon Fleischman who said he deserved to lose both.

The perception was, He didnt go because he was getting heat. Thats not how I operate, Mayes said, explaining his absence as a scheduling conflict. When you do the right thing, its a good idea to stand by that.

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Whether he did the right thing is a question that has engulfed Californias struggling Republican Party.

For Mayes and his allies, voting for the global warming legislation was a bid to show voters that Republicans are serious about tackling an issue important to Californians. The final law prevented more stringent regulations by extending the cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases.

But for conservative critics, the entire episode was a betrayal of party principles and a tactical blunder. In their eyes, Mayes did nothing more than help liberals increase costs for California businesses and then take a victory lap. They accuse him of providing political cover to Democrats in the state Capitol while ignoring the wishes of his caucus, the majority of which opposed the legislation.

Perhaps worst of all, they said, a grinning Mayes posed for chummy photos with Brown and top Democratic lawmakers after the vote. Shawn Steel, one of Californias two representatives on the Republican National Committee, called it repugnant.

What Chad has done is given us a big fat skunk on our plate, and hes really hurt the party, Steel said.

The dispute has led to the rare spectacle of top state Republican officials openly campaigning to oust a member of their party from a leadership position. County chairs, local committees and powerful donor groups have called on him to step down  including the GOP leaders of his home county of San Bernardino  and the state partys board of directors is expected to vote on the issue Friday.

At a weekend tea party gathering in Fresno, the partys most conservative activists called for Mayes to be challenged by another Republican in the 2018 election.

Tim Donnelly, a conservative former assemblyman who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2014, called on tea party members to take Mayes down.

I think every single Republican in the state of California should make it their business to make phone calls for whomever is going to primary Chad Mayes if he doesnt resign his seat, Donnelly said Friday night.

Mayes can be removed from his leadership post, which he has held for two years, only by a vote of his 25-member caucus. That could happen when lawmakers return from their summer recess on Aug. 21. He faces an internal challenge from Assemblyman Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear)  and maybe others.

Jim Brulte, the partys state chairman who held the same leadership post when he served in the Assembly and Senate, gave Mayes some advice: Once these challenges gain steam, theyre hard to stop. Mayes confirmed the conversation; Brulte declined to comment.

Obernolte and Mayes met Friday to talk about caucus leadership, according to sources with knowledge of the conversation, and Mayes left the meeting planning to remain in his position.

The acrimony over cap and trade has also complicated routine negotiations over extending a routine fundraising agreement between the state party and legislative Republicans, threatening an important tool for filling campaign coffers for next years races.

Gov. Jerry Brown, left, chats with Republican Assemblymen Heath Flora of Ripon, Jordan Cunningham of Templeton and Rocky Chavez of Oceanside on July 17. They were among eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to extend the cap-and-trade program. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Although Mayes has been the focus of criticism, some of the seven other Republicans who voted for the legislation have been under fire as well. Right-wing activists entered the district office of Assemblyman Marc Steinorth (R-Rancho Cucamonga) and didnt leave until the California Highway Patrol arrived. Assemblyman Devon Mathis (R-Visalia), who drew attention for his emotional speech before the vote explaining his support for cap and trade, faced angry comments from constituents during a town hall meeting last month.

The internal disputes could cast last months vote to extend cap and trade in a much different light. The bipartisan deal had been hailed by supporters as opening a new chapter in Californias environmental leadership, one that could enjoy broader support than in the past. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the rare Republican who has championed the fight against global warming, said his party had moved forward in a big step.

But the harsh criticisms could force lawmakers back into their partisan foxholes when it comes to climate change.

Its a familiar cycle for Californias beleaguered Republicans. Trapped in a shrinking legislative and electoral minority, their only shots at relevance have come through working with Democrats. That often leads to recriminations when Republicans cross party lines to support proposals that dont fit conservative orthodoxy.

There is historically a tension between being relevant as the minority party, and achieving success on the margins  as opposed to being 100% doctrinaire, said Rob Stutzman, a former Schwarzenegger advisor.

The bitterness in the Capitol deepened last week when Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore), who stepped down as Mayes deputy caucus leader last month to protest his handling of cap and trade, was booted out of her third-floor office. With one days notice, she was moved into a cramped fifth-floor space known as the doghouse, a common landing ground for lawmakers who run afoul of their leaders.

Mayes denied the move had anything to do with disagreements over cap and trade, but it sparked another outcry. Prominent conservative blogger Jon Fleischman said he deserves to lose his legislative seat in addition to his leadership post.

Despite the internal furor, the public blowback against Republicans who voted for cap and trade could be limited. Some of the deep-pocketed organizations that usually fund opposition to environmental policies, such as the Western States Petroleum Assn., supported this years legislation.

Mathis was flanked on stage at his recent town hall by business leaders who described his vote as courageous and called the legislation a hell of a deal. Dorothy Rothrock, who supports the legislation as president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn., described their presence as a show of force.

The response from the crowd, however, was mixed. One man accused Mathis of having stamped a D at the end of your name. A woman called the assemblyman mindless, spineless Mathis.

But its unclear how deep anger about the cap-and-trade vote runs with voters in the lawmakers districts. Rothrock noted that the town hall was sparsely attended.

There were many more seats than there were people, she said. I was expecting a line out the door.

 A breakdown of the cap and trade program.

More than half of Californians said they hadnt heard anything about the 5-year-old cap-and-trade program, according to a recent poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. But once the program was described to those polled, 56% said they were in favor, including 54% of voters who arent registered with a political party and 32% of Republicans.

Nearly three-quarters of Californians support last years law requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, according to the same poll.

Given the strong support for the states goals, some Republicans said its better for them to find a way to have a voice on the issue rather than simply opposing every Democratic proposal.

We have to be open-minded to these issues, said Assemblyman Heath Flora (R-Ripon), who also voted for the cap-and-trade legislation. We cant just say, Its a hoax, and move on.

Follow live coverage from the Capitol on Essential Politics 

Some Republicans who voted for the legislation have highlighted the concessions they extracted from Democrats in return for their votes. For example, the final deal includes a proposed constitutional amendment that will be on next years ballot. If voters pass it, Republicans would gain greater influence over how the state spends billions of dollars in cap-and-trade revenue.

Getting involved on global warming could pay political dividends, Mayes said, making his members more appealing to a broader swath of voters.

The Republican Party has to change in California, or were going to continue down the spiral were currently in, he said.

His staff has a cartoon in their Capitol office illustrating a corporate boardroom with charts showing plummeting profits and sales. One person in the cartoon pipes up, What if we dont change at all and something magical just happens?

It remains to be seen whether Mayes will follow in the footsteps of previous top Republicans by facing political consequences for controversial votes. The most notable example in recent years was when Dave Cogdill, the late Republican state Senate leader, joined with Democrats and Schwarzenegger to support temporary taxes during Californias financial crisis in 2009.

His caucus called a late-night meeting where he was stripped of his leadership position.

Mayes has hung onto his post so far, heading off a coup attempt shortly after the cap-and-trade vote. But he knows another challenge is possible.

I serve at the pleasure of our caucus, he said. As I know of today, the majority of people in my caucus want me to continue to be the leader. That could change in minutes.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Twitter: @chrismegerian

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATSeema

Times staff writer Phil Willon contributed to this report from Fresno.

ALSO

California Legislature extends states cap-and-trade program in rare bipartisan effort to address climate change

Arnold Schwarzenegger talks bipartisanship and climate change

Updates on California politics
Dreaming of a state-run single-payer healthcare system? Wake up and enter the real world. Want universal healthcare for all Americans? Medicare for all is the solution.

Not this year or next, but possibly in the future  when Democrats recapture the presidency and Congress.

Thats the clear-eyed, pragmatic fight to engage in, and one advocated by U.S. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), a longtime healthcare warrior.

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Medicare is far, far more efficient than private insurance companies, he said. Using the tax system to collect money for healthcare delivery is extremely efficient. No profits. No commissions. No advertising.

Garamendi, 72, earned his healthcare credentials decades ago. He has been fighting for universal coverage since Jerry Brown was governor the first time.

The congressman, whose mostly rural district covers the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and spreads into eight counties, was first elected to the state Assembly in 1974. Later, he moved to the state Senate, where he headed the Health and Welfare Committee.

Garamendi became Californias first elected state insurance commissioner and won legislative passage of a bill to create a commission that would have devised a universal healthcare system. But Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed the measure. Garamendis reform plan, however, became the model for President Clintons ill-fated healthcare proposal in 1993.

In 1994, Garamendi ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, advocating a top-to-bottom healthcare overhaul. He lost to then-state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, Jerrys sister.

After a stint as Clintons deputy Interior secretary, Garamendi again was elected insurance commissioner, later became lieutenant governor and left for Congress in 2009.

So Garamendi has paid his healthcare and political dues. A dawn-to-midnight workaholic who grew up on a cattle ranch in the Sierra gold country, he has won and lost but always spoken his mind.

And he believes California has virtually no chance of going it alone on a single-payer system with the state handling everyones healthcare coverage.

It would be very difficult, particularly given the present federal government, he told me.

Thats an understatement. It would require permission by the Republican-controlled Congress and President Trump for California to use federal Medicare and Medi-Cal money to finance its own healthcare system. Thats not possible.

Plus, lets face it, there are about 6 million California seniors on Medicare. Theyre frequent voters. Think theyre going to trust Sacramento to take over their Medicare coverage? Think again.

Dr. Steve Tarzynski, president of the California Physicians Alliance, agrees.

The reality is that at the moment, a single-payer bill cannot pass the Legislature, he wrote in a recent Times opinion piece. Fighting for one in the immediate term is a waste of time.

Maybe in the future, he continued. But for now millions of California voters with relatively good insurance coverage and those on Medicare are fearful of a radical change in their protections.

The state Senate blindly passed an exorbitantly expensive  $400 billion a year  single-payer bill June 1. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) wisely quashed it, calling the measure woefully incomplete. Now bellicose single-payer bullies are threatening to recall him.

Brown already had dismissed the measure.

Where do you get the extra money? the governor asked. I dont even get it.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is running for governor, called the bill snake oil.

Single-payer pushers in Sacramento  the California Nurses Assn.  tried to sell their skimpy proposal as Medicare for all. But in reality it was just the opposite. It would have wiped out Medicare in California, grabbed the federal money and forced seniors into the new state program.

Updates from Sacramento 

Garamendi wrote an op-ed piece for the Sacramento Bee advocating an eventual Medicare-for-all program nationally. It would be by far the simplest solution to achieving universal coverage, he said.

Medicare is one of our most trusted and popular government programs, he asserted. For more than 50 years, Americans have trusted Medicare to provide care to the elderly and disabled, funded by the payroll taxes of American workers. Medicare spending rises at a much slower rate than private insurance. It could be modified and expanded to cover more people.

It is an idea whose time is coming.

Its coming, but its not here yet  not with Trump and the GOP controlling Washington.

Unlike single-payer, Medicare for all would allow beneficiaries to buy supplemental private insurance, as many seniors do now.

Garamendi told me he wouldnt attempt to increase current benefits. Nor would he try to cover immigrants here illegally. Those would be poison pills politically.

For people fearful of government-run healthcare  the old socialized medicine bugaboo  Garamendi notes that much of America already is covered by government insurance.

There are more than 46 million seniors and 9 million disabled on Medicare. About 75 million are enrolled in Medicaid for the poor, called Medi-Cal in California. Roughly 22 million federal, state and local government employees benefit from government-funded healthcare. So do 1.3 million military personnel. That totals almost half the population.

In California, the main focus should be on pressuring Congress to retain and patch up the Affordable Care Act, which has reduced the number of uninsured in this state from roughly 7 million to less than 3 million. The GOPs repeal threat has been beaten back, but it isnt dead.

The governor and Legislature can keep making incremental healthcare improvements in California by continuing to restore Medi-Cal benefits that were severely cut during the recession.

But forget about single-payer. Awaken from the midsummer nights dream, truly a nightmare.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter

ALSO

Gov. Brown is right about the sanctuary state bill: Protect law-abiders and help boot the bad guys

Gov. Browns climate change deal was a lesson in compromise that should be studied in the White House

As cap-and-trade evangelist, Gov. Brown shows hes the most effective politician Sacramento has seen in a long time
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.
A 22-year-old San Diego woman was killed late Saturday while riding in one of three vehicles that crashed on the southbound 405 Freeway in Costa Mesa.

California Highway Patrol officers responded at 11:58 p.m. to a report of a three-vehicle crash on the freeway near the Bristol Street exit.

CHP officials said a 2012 Honda Civic was traveling south on the freeway when it struck the back of a 2010 Nissan Sentra in the same lane.

The crash caused the Nissan to veer left and spin into the path of a Nissan Altima that was traveling in the carpool lane, according to CHP officials.

A witness and an officer performed CPR on the female passenger in the Sentra. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her name was not released.

Costa Mesa fire officials took the driver of the Sentra, a 24-year-old man, to Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana for treatment of moderate injuries.

A 63-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman who were in the Altima were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange with moderate injuries, according to the CHP.

A 22-year-old woman who was driving the Civic declined treatment.

The crash is under investigation, authorities said.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
Doing Business 2017, a report released by the World Bank Group, saw Chinas ranking increased 18 places in the past three years, and especially in terms of convenience for enterprises, the countrys ranking climbed 31 places, a good illustration of the continuous efforts made by the central government in building a stable, fair business environment and an open economy.

In the past four years, 618 approval items were cut or delegated to lower levels by the State Council, and 283 items designated by the central government to local levels were cut.

Nearly 90 percent of approvals concerning investment projects at the central government level were canceled, and 87 percent of the pre-approvals in industrial and commercial registration were cut or changed to post-approvals. In addition, hundreds of reform measures have been released to improve the business environment in China.

Premier Li Keqiang said that building an international, legally-based business environment and expanding foreign investment have been significant to Chinas structural reform and its economic growth at medium to high speed.

Focusing on supply-side structural reform, China should take the integration of different business certificates into one as the central work in promoting business system reform. Meanwhile, institutional transaction costs for enterprises should be further reduced to create an international, legally-based and convenient business environment.

 In an instruction to a teleconference regarding advancing the reform of business certificate integration, May 26, 2017

The problem for private enterprises is that entrepreneurs do not know how to invest their money due to a lack of smooth channels. So the government should relax market access for private investment.

 At a State Council executive meeting on May 4, 2016

Chinas door is going to keep on opening wider, and China will keep working to be the most attractive destination for foreign investment.

 Delivering the Government Work Report on March 5, 2017

Now, many countries are releasing policies for improving their business environment. Against the global trend, we should further deepen the reform on administrative approvals, and improve the business environment in China.

 At a State Council executive meeting on April 26, 2017

The government will continue to enhance opening-up and optimize the business environment. China is a huge market and has abundant human resources, which makes it the best destination for investment in the manufacturing industries.

 During an inspection to Foxconn in Zhengzhou, Henan province, May 9, 2017

Create a better environment in terms of not only facilities but also policies, so that mass entrepreneurship and innovation can be promoted to a higher level.

 At a State Council executive meeting on June 7, 2017

Lower the threshold for market access, streamline business procedures, and implement policies to cut taxes and fees, so that enterprises can grow with fewer burdens, while China can still be a hot land for investment.

 At a State Council executive meeting on June 7, 2017

We will build a more convenient business environment to attract foreign investment. China, as a hot land for investment and a huge market for commodities, will stand out with more advantages and attractions.

 During a meeting of the Second Global Overseas Chinese Industry and Commerce Convention on June 12, 2017

Business environment is productivity. Local governments should strive to create a favorable environment while seeking projects and introducing preferential policies.

 At a teleconference on streamlining administration on June 13, 2017

As Chinas reform requires the participation of foreign capital, foreign businessmen and foreign intelligence, foreign enterprises are welcomed to participate in the mergers and reorganization of Chinese enterprises. China will provide foreign investors with easier access to Chinas service sector, implement the negative list management system, and treat Chinese and foreign companies on an equal basis in accordance with WTO rules.

 Meeting with entrepreneurs attending Summer Davos in Dalian on June 28, 2017

More regulations and rules should be introduced to further stimulate market vitality and create a fair and legal environment. Both domestic and foreign enterprises should be treated equally to promote the healthy development of private investment and attract more foreign investment.

 At a State Council executive meeting on July 5, 2017
Acapulco tourism officials have announced a large increase in the number of new cruise ship arrivals this year, with the port expected to welcome 32 ships, versus 18 for 2016  a 78% increase.

Nine cruise lines  Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas, V-Ships, Silversea, Oceania Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Global, Saga and Hapag Lloyd Cruises  currently are visiting the Mexican port, according to the announcement.

Once a popular resort that drew an international slate of A-list celebrities, Acapulcos fortunes turned when crime increased in the region.

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In the last few years the city, with a population of about 800,000, was plagued by killings and violence from drug cartels. Acapulco saw 903 murders in 2015, more than any other Mexican city.

The U.S. State Department has warned that travel to some areas of Mexico, including Acapulco, may be risky, and last year banned government employees from going there.

But Acapulco is working to improve its reputation internationally, according to Ernesto Rodriguez Escalona, secretary of tourism for the state of Guerrero.

Acapulcos port operations are assisted by the Center for Tourist Attention and Protection, which focuses on the safety of tourists. In addition, federal, state and municipal authorities say they are committed to collaborating with cruise lines and resolving their concerns.

Another piece of good news for including Acapulco is the recent announcement that a new Magellan Mexican coastal cruise is expected to depart from the citys port in 2018, making stops in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas before returning to Acapulco.

travel@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimestravel

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As protests erupted after Kenyas disputed presidential election, horrifying photographs and videos flashed across social media: a boy terrified by riot police in a Nairobi slum, a vehicle in flames and a bloodied man with a military boot on his neck.

Some of the images were genuine, but others failed a basic check: a reverse image search on Google.

The terrified boy was photographed in 2008 during ethnic violence that swept across the country after another disputed election in 2007, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

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The man with the military boot on his neck was stabbed and killed by soldiers in the Central African Republic in 2014.

And there have been no credible reports of protesters attacking and burning vehicles in recent days.

In a tinderbox atmosphere, where opposition supporters are convinced that their candidate, Raila Odinga, was cheated of victory in last weeks presidential election, the images spread on social media are incendiary.

Whirling conspiracy theories are propelled by opposition claims that the election was rigged in favor of the incumbent president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who won by a margin of 1.4 million votes, according to results released by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

The countrys authorities have warned that Kenyans who post images of bodies on social media could face prosecution for inciting violence.

We urge all Kenyans to avoid recirculating photos that are not verified as real, said police spokesman George Kinoti. They are being used to incite and undermine our security.

But there are reasons why many Kenyans are quick to believe what they see on social media. The police service has a record of using excessive force against protesters, including live ammunition, according to human rights groups. That coupled with the mistrust many Kenyans feel for the nations governing institutions adds fuel to the rumors.

Police spokesmen have denied accusations by witnesses and human rights groups that riot police fired live ammunition at protesters in recent days, although spent cartridges were recovered from some slum districts.

At least 24 people were shot dead and dozens more wounded, according to human rights observers. There are also reports of police harassing foreign and Kenyan journalists who were covering opposition protests.

Kenyas main opposition alliance contends that the election results were falsified in a conspiracy between the electoral commission and the Jubilee political alliance led by Kenyatta. It has also accused authorities of killing 100 people and secretly disposing of the bodies, and it has alleged that members of a notorious criminal gang called Mungiki were sent into Kenyan slums to kill opposition supporters.

Opposition officials have not provided evidence to support their claims and have said they wont be pursuing their accusations in court.

But several developments have fueled public suspicion, including the torture and killing of a key electoral official days before the Aug. 8 vote, a police raid on an opposition election center and the deportation of two foreign advisors employed by the opposition to help ensure a fair vote.

An American working for the Kenyan opposition describes his harrowing abduction and deportation 

The electoral commission initially denied opposition claims that its computers had been hacked, then acknowledged there had been an attempt to do so, although officials said it failed.

The circulation of false images on social media risks igniting ethnic tensions in a nation where political allegiances divide mainly along ethnic lines.

But social media can also act as a check on abuses, human rights advocates say, allowing private citizens to document violence in volatile slum districts that may be inaccessible to journalists, especially at night.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, which reported that 24 people were killed by police, has urged Kenyans to report election violence, including by posting photos and videos online.

Murithi Mutiga, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the circulation of false images purporting to show election violence had increased in recent days.

It can be argued that fake news in the lead-up to the elections was just aimed at boosting political support, he said. Now, when its a question of life or death, its much more dangerous.

Mutiga said some of the images shared on social media made people afraid to leave their houses or go to work.

Abbas Gullet, secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said that while there had been a surge in violence in Kenya, he too had noticed an increase in what we call fake news.

I hope common sense will prevail, and we will respect one another and at the same time be honest and not peddle incidents that are not true, Gullet said.

The alienation of opposition supporters stems in part from decades of ethnic favoritism and exclusion. Kenyas government has been dominated by the Kikuyu and Kalenjin people since independence from Britain in 1963.

In his first term as president, Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, awarded top government and civil service posts mainly to Kikuyus and Kalenjins, cementing ethnic grievances. Odinga, his rival, is a Luo.

Theres no question that Kikuyus and Kalenjin elites took the biggest share of the pie, Mutiga said. The fact so many people are willing to accept Odingas complaints shows its not just about the election, but abut a sense of belonging and exclusion.

I think trying to be more inclusive is going to be a big challenge of Kenyatta, if hes going to have a smoother second term, Mutiga said.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Twitter: @RobynDixon_LAT
In a tense standoff between nuclear-armed nations that threatens to destabilize Asia, both sides are digging in, with one warning of unspecified countermeasures and the other saying it wont be bullied.

In this case, its not the United States and North Korea  whose leaders exchanged bombastic warnings last week  but India and China, which are locked in an impasse over a remote Himalayan plateau.

An editorial last week in Chinas state-run Global Times tabloid warned that Beijing would use all possible means to get India to withdraw scores of troops from Dolam, a 34-square-mile bowl along the border that the two Asian giants share with the tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan.

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India has refused, arguing that the land claimed by China actually belongs to Bhutan, with which India shares a close relationship.

The face-off between Indian soldiers and Chinese border guards  positioned just a few hundred feet apart atop the 10,000-foot plateau  marks one of the most serious military confrontations since 1962, when the two countries fought a one-month war won by China that left more than 2,000 troops dead, most of them Indian.

That conflict also began with a border dispute in the Himalayas  and there is more at stake this time around.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping listen to a speech during a summit in Goa, India, in 2016. (Manish Swarup / Associated Press)

A growing rivalry between giants

China and India not only are the two most populous countries in the world, each with more than 1.3 billion people. They also are increasingly confident players in a battle for supremacy in southern Asia.

Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has constructed islands to extend its influence over the South China Sea, initiated the mammoth Belt and Road infrastructure-building project westward through Pakistan and cultivated closer ties with countries  including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan  that long have been in Indias orbit.

But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has displayed more willingness to confront China than his predecessors.

At his 2014 swearing-in, Modi irked Beijing by inviting the leader of the India-based government-in-exile of Tibet, which China views as part of its territory. New Delhi has opposed Xis signature Belt and Road Initiative, arguing that it encroaches on Indian lands and expressing skepticism over Chinese intentions.

India also has quietly built up its military capabilities by posting additional infantry troops, army reservists and tanks in the plains of Ladakh, site of two previous border standoffs with China in 2013 and 2014.

China is unquestionably stronger militarily, owning the worlds largest standing army of more than 2 million troops, twice as many as India. Beijing also possesses five times as many tanks and submarines and double the number of warships and military aircraft.

Fresh standoff in the mountains

The current crisis began in early June, when Chinese construction teams  escorted by Peoples Liberation Army border guards  arrived with bulldozers to extend a road running south through a Tibetan valley into Dolam.

The plateau is one of several disputed points along the Chinese-Bhutan border. The two sides have conducted 24 rounds of negotiations over the border, but Dolams status remains unresolved.

India has no claim on Dolam, but it backs Bhutans interpretation of an 1890 border agreement that the land belongs to Bhutan. On June 16, Indian troops stationed nearby came into Dolam and physically blocked the Chinese teams from working.

Two months later, India and China remain at an impasse, with hundreds of soldiers positioned in the disputed area while their governments trade barbs in the media.

A stronger China mocks its neighbor

Chinese state medias tone has alternated between condescension  belittling India for its ostensibly weaker military  and rancor.

India lacks strength compared with China, the state-run Global Times tabloid said in an editorial last week, adding that the outcome of the standoff is fixed.

If the Narendra Modi government continues ignoring the warning coming from a situation spiraling out of control, countermeasures from China will be unavoidable, it said.

Chinas Foreign Ministry this month issued a document that traced the countrys claim over the disputed area to a 1980 convention with Britain and accused India of violating international law by invading Chinese territory.

The standoff has triggered an outpouring of nationalism and patriotism on Chinese social media. Many Web users accused India of bluster and questioned why Chinese authorities hadnt responded more forcefully.

One commenter on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, wrote: Our central government and military commanders, why dont you put down India right now?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Indian soldiers deployed with the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon on July 6, 2017. (Jack Guez / Associated Press)

View from India: Standing up to a bully

The reaction in India has been more muted, perhaps owing to its status as the feebler power. Commentators have focused on Indias commitment to Bhutan and what New Delhi views as Chinese belligerence.

Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian foreign secretary, wrote on the Daily O website that China is baring the ugly face of its diplomacy more and more, using unbecoming language, adopting condescending postures, crowing about the disparity in power between it and others and unashamedly acting as a bully where it thinks it can.

Defense Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday made a veiled reference to the face-off when he told lawmakers that some people are targeting our countrys sovereignty and integrity, but I am fully confident that our brave soldiers have the capability to keep our country secure.

Bhutan has maintained a studied silence except for one statement issued by its Foreign Ministry in late June, saying China was in direct violation of its agreements with the kingdom and calling for a return to the pre-June 16 status quo.

Seeds of future confrontations?

Neither India nor China has anything to gain from a military confrontation. But with Modi readying for a likely reelection bid in 2019 and Xi preparing for the once-every-five-years Communist Party congress this fall, experts say both leaders are unwilling to be seen as backing down.

While neither country has commented publicly on the troop presence, Ajai Shukla, a retired Indian army colonel and commentator on security affairs, has quoted sources as saying that about 40 Chinese border guards are positioned across from roughly three times as many Indian soldiers, with both sides having stationed hundreds of reinforcements around the bowl.

Shukla wrote in the Business Standard newspaper this month that both countries have reached an understanding to mutually withdraw troops from the contested area, regardless of their public postures. But until now, there has been no overt sign of a de-escalation.

Still, some say Indias show of resistance to Chinese ambitions could foretell future skirmishes in southern Asia.

If China sees itself as an irresistible force today, India could well turn out to be that immovable object, C. Raja Mohan, director of the Carnegie India think tank, wrote last week in the Indian Express. There will be no happy ending for this confrontation.

Gaochao Zhang and Nicole Liu in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

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There was excitement in the air when Mexican negotiators sat down 25 years ago with their counterparts from Canada and the United States to hammer out what would become the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Negotiations were tough, but there was a consensus about the end game, recalled Antonio Ortiz-Mena, a member of Mexicos negotiating team. We knew we all really wanted this agreement.

That sense of collaboration toward a common goal will be missing when Mexican officials arrive in Washington this week to begin rewriting the terms of the landmark deal that abolished duties on goods moving across North America.

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The renegotiation process was triggered in April by President Trump, who has repeatedly blamed NAFTA for the hemorrhaging of U.S. manufacturing jobs, and whose chief trade representative says closing the roughly $60-billion trade gap with Mexico will be a top priority during the talks that begin Wednesday.

The problem is, theres a sense [in Mexico] that victory for Trump will have to come at the expense of Mexico, Ortiz-Mena said, noting that Trumps negotiators have threatened to pull out of the deal altogether if they dont get what they want. Theyve said: If were not happy, were withdrawing.

Despite that hostile backdrop and the fact that Mexico, like Canada, did not want to open up the treaty to changes, Mexican officials insist they will enter the negotiating room with clear goals, which, if achieved, could end up benefiting Mexico.

A list of objectives released by the government Aug. 2 called for incorporating energy, financial services and telecommunications into an updated agreement.

Those sectors were largely left out of the original trade deal because in Mexico they were still under government control when NAFTA took force in 1994. They have since been privatized, and Mexican officials and industry leaders hope to include provisions in the new deal that will encourage more foreign investment in those industries.

Mexican officials may also push for a guest worker program in the U.S.  a proposal likely to be fiercely opposed by labor-aligned members of the U.S. Congress  and to look for ways to include smaller companies in trade.

Those are the things Mexico hopes to achieve. Then there are the things it desperately wants to avoid.

Mexico will fiercely oppose any proposal to add tariffs to goods moving across the border  its economy secretary recently threatened to pull back on cooperation on migration and security matters if new taxes are imposed. Mexico also will seek to preserve the dispute resolution mechanism known as Chapter 19  a tool U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said he wants to eliminate.

Under Chapter 19, complaints about illegal subsidies or dumping  thats when a country exports a product at prices lower than what is charged in the domestic market  are heard by binational panels that issue binding decisions. The U.S. has frequently lost those cases, and wants the ability to independently sanction industries that it believes are violating fair trade rules. Mexico has said it is open to modifying the chapter but not eliminating it.

Mexico will also be paying close attention to Lighthizers stated efforts to strengthen the rules of origin that dictate how much North American content a product must have in order to cross borders duty-free.

One thing is certain. Whatever the deal is, it will have to appease Trump.

As was evident in the recently released transcript of his January phone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in which Trump acknowledged that making Mexico pay for a border wall was the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important, Trump is focused on the appearance of victory.

The [Mexican] negotiators understand that they must end up with something that President Trump can sell as a win, said Pamela Starr, a professor of international relations at USC.

A rally for President Trump in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. ((Scott Olson / Getty Images) )

While the talks will be difficult  Lighthizer is known as a tough-nosed negotiator who advocates for fair trade as opposed to free trade  there is a palpable sense in Mexico that things could have been much worse.

After all, as recently as April, Trump was threatening to withdraw from NAFTA completely. (Many legal scholars believe Trump would need congressional approval to do so.)

But Lighthizers July letter to Congress outlining the administrations intentions suggest Trump is now seeking a revision of NAFTA, rather than its destruction. Missing in the document was Trumps January threat of a 20% tax on imports from Mexico and other countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit.

Mexicos economy, which saw the peso plummet after Trumps election, has largely recovered in part because many have faith that an agreement can be made.

Its not as disastrous as people have feared, said Ortiz-Mena, now a senior advisor at the international business consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group. Still, he said, its difficult to brag about what you didnt lose.

The trade talks will take place over several rounds of negotiations held in each of the three countries. The final agreement will have to be approved by the legislative or parliamentary branches of each country.

Experts say winning the approval of the U.S. Congress may prove as difficult as hammering out terms of the agreement with Canada and Mexico because some Republicans and labor-aligned Democrats dont like it.

Mexicos Chamber of Commerce has hired a top Washington lobbying firm to help, and Mexican firms are working with the CEOs of major U.S. businesses for an upcoming media campaign promoting U.S.-Mexico ties.

Its a replay of the intense public relations campaign waged in the early 1990s, when Mexican officials toured the interior of the U.S., talking up the agreement at town halls and to newspaper editorial boards. Back then, NAFTA proponents in all three countries faced strong fears back home that the deal would hurt local economies.

In Mexico, agriculture producers warned that they wouldnt be able to compete with cheaper corn and other crops imported from the north. In the U.S., former presidential candidate Ross Perot said jobs would be lured south by lower wages in Mexico, creating a giant sucking sound. The quote was repeated by politicians and policymakers again and again.

Economists are divided on the effects of NAFTA. While Mexico lost nearly a million farming jobs during the first decade of the pact and U.S. manufacturing workers faced devastating loses of their own, some economists insist the overall benefits to the larger North American economy have outweighed damage to individual sectors.

In Mexico, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party strongly supports NAFTA, as does the right-leaning National Action Party. Together, they control enough of the Senate to ensure ratification of a new deal.

Some in Mexico have criticized the government for prioritizing the goals of big business over the needs of workers, who earn on average about $2 an hour.

Theyve talked to the upper echelons of economic officials and the heads of the private sector, and thats about it, said Carlos Antonio Heredia Zubieta, a professor of international relations at Mexicos Center for Research and Teaching in Economics.

Heredia said he was alarmed when Mexican officials said they would oppose potential U.S. efforts during the negotiations to raise Mexicos minimum wage, currently about $4.50 a day.

They are basically addicted to a low-wage economy, Heredia said.

While there is no deadline for an agreement to be reached, Mexico is under pressure to wrap up the NAFTA talks quickly, before campaigning for next summers presidential election gets into full swing. Front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors left-wing political party, the National Regeneration Movement, is opposed to adding other sectors of the Mexican economy to the free trade agreement.

Peasants march in Mexico City in August calling for the abolition of the agricultural chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement. ((SASHENKA GUTIERREZ / EPA) )

Mexicos aim during the negotiation will be to be move quickly under the guiding principle of do no harm, said Michael Camunez, the CEO of a consulting group called Monarch Global Strategies, who served as assistant secretary of Commerce under President Obama.

Camunez said he believes that all sides can reach an agreement they will be happy with while significantly modernizing NAFTA. After all, he said, Mexicos political and business leaders have long desired updates to the countrys trade relationship with its neighbors to the north. That is why Mexico eagerly signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-country trade deal that Trump pulled the U.S. out of on his third day in office.

The first NAFTA, it was like the 1974 Corvette, Camunez said. It was innovative then, but now is showing signs of age. The new agreements, he said, are like the Tesla.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum

Staff writer Don Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
A machete-wielding man caught inside a car slashed the car's owner on the neck during a confrontation on Sunday, Allentown police said.

The car's owner then stabbed Cristian Santiago Perez in the chest during the struggle between the two men, police said.

Both men were taken to an area hospital for treatment, Alsleben said.

On Monday, the 19-year-old Santiago Perez was charged with two counts of aggravated assault. The teen, who lives in the 800 block of North Ulster Street in the city, was sent to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Police said the owner of a black Mercedes Benz went to his car at about 7 p.m. Sunday in the 800 block of Godfrey Street.

The owner saw a man, later identified as Santiago Perez, inside the car and confronted him, according to police.

Santiago Perez slashed the owner on the neck, the two struggled and the victim stabbed Santiago-Perez in the chest, police said.

One of the men was found by officers bleeding at Graham and Allen streets, police previously said.

Santiago Perez reportedly told police he got into a fight with the victim, slashed the victim and was then stabbed.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Upward of 400 people rallied Sunday evening against violence in the wake of a car plowing into a peaceful protest in Charlottesville, Va., which led to three deaths.

James Alex Fields Jr. (AP Photo)

The group marched at Seventh and Hamilton streets in Allentown for hours Sunday. The event was sponsored by the Women's March Pennsylvania, POWER Northeast, Make the Road Pennsylvania, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, Planned Parenthood Keystone and Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates.

Many held up signs, stating, "White Silence is Violence," "End White Supremacy" and "Legislate Against Hate." Several community leaders and clergy members also turned out to speak.

It was the second anti-violence event scheduled in the Lehigh Valley Sunday.

A candlelight vigil was planned for 8 p.m. near the free bridge in Phillipsburg. That event, sponsored by the Green Party of New Jersey, also was expected to draw a good turnout.

"We'll stand in solidarity with the people in Charlottesville and take a stance against racism in our neighborhoods," said Aaron Hyndman, co-chairman of the Green Party of New Jersey. "Hate has no place in Phillipsburg, Warren County or New Jersey."

Violence struck in downtown Charlottesville Saturday afternoon when a car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white supremacist rally. Three people died, including a 32-year-old woman struck by the vehicle.

A Virginia State Police helicopter assisting with the rally later crashed outside Charlottesville, killing the pilot and a trooper. Several others were injured.

The driver later was identified by Virginia State Police as James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old from Ohio. He was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene.

Police also charged Troy Dunigan, 21, of from Chattanooga, Tennessee, with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, with assault and battery; and James M. O'Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, with carrying a concealed handgun.

The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead.

The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others arrived to protest the racism.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A house soon to be home to five Lehigh University students was a temporary residence for an 18-year-old homeless man looking for a place to "flop," Bethlehem police said.

Jarrett Berg, 18. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Jarrett Emmanuel Berg was seen by an officer about 2 a.m. Sunday coming out a second-floor window at 447 Montclair Ave., police said.

Officers were responding to a report of someone in what was supposed to be an unoccupied rental home, court papers say.

Berg confessed "he wanted to go home," police said.

He was taken into custody as he came down the stairs from the second floor, police said. In a backpack he had six small bags of marijuana, police added.

He was arraigned before District Judge James Narlesky on charges of criminal trespass, possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, records show.

Berg was sent in lieu of $10,000 bail to Northampton County Prison, where he remained early Monday afternoon, records show.

His preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. Aug. 25 in District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez's court in South Bethlehem.

Court papers didn't show an attorney for Berg.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A 24-year-old Bethlehem Township woman was arraigned over the weekend, the second person in two days to face charges in a July 28 robbery in Easton, court papers say.

Ashley Esprit Balshi, 24. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Ashley Esprit Balshi, of the 3200 block of Darien Road, surrendered just before noon Saturday at the city police station, Capt. David Beitler said.

Balshi appeared at 12:55 p.m. Saturday before District Judge James Narlesky on charges of robbery, theft and simple assault, authorities say. She was sent in lieu of $20,000 bail to Northampton County Prison, where she remained on Monday, records show.

About 5 p.m. July 28, a passerby told an Easton officer on patrol Downtown that she saw a "disturbance" at Fifth and Ferry streets, court papers say. Officers found the victim who told police two women -- Balshi and Michelle Blocker, 46, of Wilson Borough -- entered 55 S. Fifth St. and struck her several times in the face and body, police said.

Blocker, of the 100 block of North 16th Street, dumped the contents of the victim's purse on a bed and Balshi and Blocker went through the items, police said. They took a cellphone, a $50 bill and a gold cross, the victim told police, according to court papers.

In addition to a small laceration above her left eye, the victim had bruising on her left shoulder and left bicep, police said.

Michelle Blocker, 46. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Blocker, who was arraigned late Friday afternoon before Narlesky, faces the same charges, police said. She remained jailed on Monday morning in lieu of $20,000 bail, records show. Details of her arrest weren't immediately available.

Preliminary hearing's for both women are tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. Aug. 25 in District Judge Antonia Grifo's Downtown court.

Court papers didn't list an attorney for either.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
All 13 people charged in a $1 million a year heroin distribution operation in upper Bucks County have now been arrested after supplier Antoine Hakim Harris, 29, was recently taken into custody, authorities say.

Antoine Hakim Harris, 29. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Harris was picked up Thursday by U.S. marshals in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail in Davidson County Detention Center as he awaits extradition to Pennsylvania, the county district attorney's office said.

The case has progressed without Harris and all defendants tentatively face trial Oct. 12 in the county court of common pleas, the district attorney's office said.

Brothers Sheamus Patrick McCarthy, 27, and Casey James McCarthy, 22, originally from Richland Township, headed the ring that supplied heroin to the Quakertown area, authorities charge.

The enterprise "led to widespread addiction amongst young citizens of the Quakertown area" and resulted in "numerous overdoses" and at least two deaths, the district attorney's office said.

Casey McCarthy would travel every few days to West Philadelphia where he would typically buy 100 bundles of heroin -- each bundle contained 10 to 14 individual packets -- from Harris for $5,300 to $6,300, authorities said.

A county investigative grand jury in a 195-page presentment said Harris sold as many as 400 bundles a week that the McCarthys put out on the street through dealers, the district attorney's office said.

Harris is charged with three counts of corrupt organizations, one count of possession with intent to deliver heroin, five counts of conspiracy and related offenses, court papers say.

Quakertown police last week received a tip that Harris and his girlfriend had fled Maryland to a home in North Carolina, authorities said. Police contacted the marshals' office in Philadelphia, leading to the arrest, the district attorney's office said.

Harris doesn't have an attorney listed in Bucks County court papers.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Now that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is full staffed -- with two new appointees by President Trump filling out the five-member board -- the PennEast Pipeline Company is asking the commission to quickly approve its plan to build a 120-mile natural gas pipeline from northeast Pennsylvania to Mercer County, New Jersey.

The project, which would cut though Northampton and Hunterdon counties, remains controversial. PennEast says it's time for the agency to give its blessing, following a final Environmental Impact Statement that found it would have no significant impact on the region. The company says the pipeline will make gas prices more competitive and gas service more reliable.

Opponents say the project still faces major hurdles, and has yet to receive a permit from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. One opposition group, ReThink Energy NJ, asked FERC to deny PennEast's request and schedule an evidentiary hearing on the project. Even with FERC approval, PennEast would still need OKs from both states, the Delaware River Basin Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A spokesman for FERC said the commission's next meeting is Sept. 20, and could take up the issue then. But it also has the power to act on approvals outside a formal meeting.

What do you think? Now that the commission can assemble a quorum, should it move ahead and approve the PennEast project? Should it hold off and consider ongoing objections? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to join the conversation in the comments section.
New figures have revealed that at least 296 people with disabilities are on social housing waiting lists in Kildare, according to one of the countrys largest charities.

Rehab, Irelands largest independent charity for people with disabilities, says the Government is failing people with disabilities by not providing them with their basic human rights.

They claim that access to appropriate social housing remains a major stumbling block for people with disabilities.

Rehab has now reiterated its call for the Government to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Kathleen OMeara, Rehabs Director of Communications and Public Affairs has called on the government to prioritise people with disablities.

Ireland really needs to get to grips with how we support people with disabilities to live in their own homes. These figures show the Government is failing our most vulnerable members of society. The right to a home is a critical human right outlined in the UNCRPD.

She added that Ireland is the only country in Europe which has still failed to ratify this vital international agreement, which would afford people with disabilities the same basic human rights as everyone else.
The number of Kildare girls getting the HPV vaccine is in freefall, according to Irish Cancer Society.

The vaccine protects against the strains of Human Papilloma Virus which cause 70% of cases of cervical cancer in women.

In the 2015/2016 school year 329 schoolgirls in the Kildare/West Wicklow Local Health Office area declined the offer of the free vaccine. This meant just 81.2% of girls eligible to receive the vaccine in Kildare and West Wicklow actually got it, down from 95.9% the previous year.

Provisional figures show that the uptake fell even more sharply in 2016/2017, falling to as low as 50% nationally.

The result is that after almost steady decline in the numbers of women being diagnosed and dying of cervical cancer since the vaccine was introduced in 2010, the numbers are starting to rise once again.

Last years low uptake will result in a minimum of 40 deaths, a spokesperson for the Irish Cancer Society said.

Another 100 girls will need life-changing treatment and 1,000 more will need invasive therapy.

The figures come from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, a unit within the HSE.

This year alone, up to 420 people in Ireland will be diagnosed with a cancer caused by HPV infection. Almost 300 of these will be cervical cancer cases. A further 6,500 women will need hospital treatment to remove precancerous growths in their cervix caused by HPV.

The vaccine is recommended by the World Health Organisation, the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; the National Immunisation Advisory Committee says that HPV vaccines have been shown to be very safe.

The HSE says that for more than 10 years the safety of the HPV vaccine has been strictly monitored and frequently reviewed by many international bodies including: the European Medicines Agency (EMA); the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the World Health Organization; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US.

These international bodies have continually reported that the vaccine is safe with no known long-term side effects.

The vaccine can cause some short term side effects they say. These may include: pain, redness or swelling in the arm where the vaccine was given; headache; dizziness; nausea; and/or a mild fever.These can be treated with paracetamol or ibuprofen.Occasionally girls faint after getting an injection. The girls will be advised to sit down for 15 minutes after the vaccination. This helps prevent fainting. Rarer side effects include: wheezing (bronchospasm); or an itchy rash or hives.
The wages of members of the Defence Forces have come under scrutiny in recent days with the news that the Newbridge family of a corporal serving overseas has been made homeless.

The mans family have run into difficulty after their landlord informed them he intended to sell their Newbridge house.

The corporals income is so low that he and his partner qualify for a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), which means they could afford approximately 1,200 a month.

The family have been searching for an alternative since the end of July.

They have a daughter with a rare medical condition who needs to be near their GP, and therefore wish to stay in the general Newbridge area.

However the WPDF (Wives and Partners of the Defence Forces) organisation reveals the couple cannot find suitable accommodation in Newbridge.

Theyve gone to six viewings and things seem to go well until they mention HAP, a spokesperson for WPDF told the Leader.

They say Defence Forces families are suffering from income poverty, food poverty and child poverty, and that they have had to turn to organisations such as St. Vincent de Paul, AWARE, Pieta House and even the Simon Community for support.

In the same week, Deputy Fiona OLoughlin has said there is link between a failure by the Defence Forces to either grow its numbers or retain its current numbers and low pay and a lack of clear career paths for members.

She pointed out that with 20% of the families of Defence Forces personnel on Family Income Support, it was clear that they werent being look after properly.

If resources were put into providing good salaries and a clear career path for soldiers, and not just to cadets, then it would be easier to maintain numbers in the Defence Forces.

Speaking of the recruitment campaigns, she noted that there was no point in recruiting them if we cant keep them.

Its great to see young people with ambition going into the Defence Forces, but they need a clear career path.

On the issue of women joining the forces, Deputy OLoughlin who is Fianna Fails spokesperson on Equality, pointed out that of 7,254 Army personnel, only 476 are women.

I am very concerned that female participation is so low, despite the money being pumped into advertising campaigns to encourage women to join, she concluded.

WATCH: Seven young Kildare army recruits pass out at the Curragh
A new app will allow Leaving Certificate students to quickly and easily calculate their points when they receive their exam results and is available now through iTunes for both iPhone and iPad.

NUI Galway has relaunched its iPoints app, addressing the new Common Points Scale, which is now in effect for all Leaving Certificate students.

The NUI Galway iPoints app is available for all iPhone and iPad users on the iTunes store now www.tinyurl.com/ NUIGalwayApp

The app calculates the number of points attained in each subject, in line with the revised Common Points Scale, and indicates the total. The app calculates 25 additional points to be added for Higher Maths if relevant, and allows for Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) scores to be included.

The app also gives students the option to share their results by text message, or through social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, if they wish.

Commenting on the app, Stephen ODea, Admissions Officer at NUI Galway said: Unlike the old Leaving Certificate points, the new Common Points Scale is designed to minimise the impact of random points allocation as fewer individuals will end up with the same score. This has been achieved by using a non-linear scale. The downside of this of course is the points awarded for individual grades are slightly less memorable than before. As its the first year of operation, many will be unfamiliar with the new scale so the iPoints app will offer Leaving Certificate students an easy way to quickly calculate their total score.
Members of the Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team have been among volunteers thanked for their assistance in the recovery of the body of a man who went missing in the Derryveagh Mountains in Co Donegal.

It is understood the remains were found after 6pm yesterday, Sunday evening, during a search co-ordinated by the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team. They were assisted by mountain rescue teams from Sligo and Leitrim and local coast guard units.

In a short statement on the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team facebook page last night it was noted: "Missing climber has been located and recovered from the mountain. Sadly not the outcome everybody had been hoping for. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam."

The statement went on to thank everyone involved in the search: "A huge thanks must go out to Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team; Rescue 118 official Bunbeg Coast Guard; North West Mountain Rescue Team; An Garda Siochana; Malin Head Coast Guard as well as all the other Mountain Rescue Teams and agencies that were on standby to assist if needed Monday from the rest of Ireland. A huge effort by all involved."

The missing man who has not yet been named, was last seen on Thursday, August 10 when he was spotted walking in the Sliabh Sneachta area of the Glenveagh National Park.

It is understood the man, who is originally from England but had a home in Donegal, may have died as a result of a fall.
Like many others, I was horrified to see that our Federal Conference in Bournemouth was only going to have a consultation session on Brexit and our relationship with the European Union.

That, I felt, was an opportunity missed to make very clear and unambiguous policy. We were a bit too equivocal during the election. Had Tim Farron said on the day the election was announced that if he walked into Downing Street as Prime Minister, the first thing he would do would be to revoke Article 50 because the political earthquake that would had happened would justify it, people would have understood and been convinced that we are an anti-Brexit party. Our referendum on the deal is a good mechanism to stop Brexit but its not a good message.

Since the agenda was published, there have been a great number of behind the scenes representations to the party leadership and Federal Conference Committee saying that a consultation simply isnt good enough.

The good news is that there has been a rethink and Conference will now be given the opportunity if it wishes to have a debate rather than a consultation session. A motion will be published today on the party website. This motion will be amendable.

Because we are a democratic party, we dont just allow the agenda to be altered by anyone, so Conference has to give its consent. A vote will take place to enable the motion to be discussed in the very first session, at 9:05 am on Saturday 16th September, so those with sore heads from Lib Dem Pint will have to power on through and get in to the hall. If Conference allows the change, then the motion will be debated on Sunday 17th September between 10:45 and 12:30. If Conference votes against the change, the consultation session will take place as planned at the same time.

The motion itself will probably need amending. It calls for:

The Government to seek to reverse the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty at the earliest opportunity and for the UK to retain its current status as a member of the European Union. The Liberal Democrats to continue to campaign for Britain to remain a member of the European Union. The Liberal Democrats to commit to seeking to reverse the triggering of Article 50 in the event of a Liberal Democrat-led Government being formed prior to the UK leaving the European Union and to construe their election as a democratic mandate for doing so.

While many in the party will agree with the aims, for me the motion as it stands doesnt outline a process for carrying this out. There has to be some sort of way of getting the peoples consent for this so that referendum on the deal looks like the best mechanism for doing it.

We will probably see some sort of amendment from the leadership which sets all this out. It is good, though, that the starting point for this discussion is a motion that has come from members.

This is a very welcome development. It certainly fits with the much more robust exit from Brexit line taken by Vince Cable since he became leader.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Both nervous and determined, I stood to make my first speech at the full Oxfordshire County Council meeting on July 11th. In fact, I spoke twice.

First, I supported the motion for the County Council to move to a committee system of governance rather than the existing cabinet system. I spoke about working together, across party lines, for the common good. And how this could be best achieved through a committee system, encouraging round-table decision making, than the cabinet model of top-down governance. The motion, with amendment to investigate the options available and to change the structure as soon as practicable, was carried.

I also spoke in favour of a motion to invite all Oxfordshire MPs to come to a meeting of County Council to discuss how we can work together to better serve our local residents. When this happens, I plan on asking questions about school funding, local bus services and protecting the Green Belt, amongst other issues. All elected representatives have a duty to their electors. Integrating our local and national efforts to achieve the best outcomes for Oxfordshire residents makes sense.

My appetite is now whetted, and I have mental drafts of three motions I wish to put to full council in September. Of course, our Lib Dem Group will work through all of our ideas and choose the best ones to present to council. It is great to be part of a team of 13 Lib Dem County Councillors. Im learning a huge amount from my colleagues who have served for many years, and also enjoying the company of fellow newbies like the wonderful Liz Leffman, who brings a wealth of experience into the role.

Choosing our priorities and working as a team is definitely effective for political action. In the Lib Dem Group we each have our assigned committees and duties. Im serving on the Planning and Regulation Committee and on Corporate Parenting. Im also substituting for the Education Scrutiny Committee. A lot to learn, but what a difference we can make. Time well spent, from my point of view.

* Kirsten Johnson was the PPC for Oxford East in the 2017 General Election. She is a pianist and composer at www.kirstenjohnsonpiano.com.
COUNCILLORS in the Adare Rathkeale area will return to the table later this week in a bid to advance the 3km extension of the Great Southern Greenway from Rathkeale to Ballingrane.

When the plans for the extension were brought before a special meeting of the Adare Rathkeale councillors at the end of July, they did not give the green light to the project but instead asked for a further meeting. This is now due to take place on Tuesday, August 15, just before a planning deadline is reached.

Meanwhile, a resident close to the proposed route from Rathkeale to Ballingrane has warned of potential problems in the plans drawn up by Limerick City and County Council.

Philip Ruttle explained to the Limerick Leader point out what he believes is an error by the councils engineers. The planned extension is along the old Rathkeale to Tralee line, Mr Ruttle explained.

Just before Ballingrane, this line meets up with the Limerick to Foynes railway line and crosses over it to the north before continuing a short distance east to Ballingrane station. According to Mr Ruttle however, the maps for the greenway extension do not show this. Instead, the Limerick Foynes line is shown as running north of the greenway, when in fact, it is south.

The Limerick Foynes line is intact, Mr Ruttle said. If the plan to have it lie to the north of the greenway were to go ahead, the Foynes line would have to be radically re-aligned at enormous cost.

Mr Ruttle is also concerned at a possible waste of public money. Approximately 600-800 metres of the proposed greenway lie in the path of the new road from Limerick to Adare and any work on the greenway would have to be undone when the new road starts, he argued.

His solution would be to run a cycle/walking path along the shoulder of the existing N21, from Rathkeale, through Croagh and on to Adare. By bringing the greenway through centres of population with amenities, there would be economic benefits for the local area, he argued.

This, he believes, would also provide a viable alternative to continuing the greenway from Ballingrane along the Limerick/Foynes railway line to Limerick. It is his belief that there is not sufficient room to run a greenway alongside the existing rail line.

Meanwhile, Cllr Kevin Sheahan has welcomed the announcement that the European Greenways Network will be holding their conference in Adare next month. And he has welcomed the organisations continuing enthusiasm for what began as the Great Southern Trail. Some people have indicated we are maybe coming late to the greenway idea, Cllr Sheahan said.

Not at all. But we must proceed with our Great Southern Greenway by extending it, he said. Its potential for tourism cannot be ignored by any public representative, he said.
MOLLY and Tom make for a rare pair of murder defendants, outlined the voice-over in opening scenes of a televised interview with convicted murderers Molly Martens Corbett and her father Thomas.

The exclusive interview, which aired on Friday night, was recorded before Martens Corbett, 33, and Martens, 67, were convicted by a jury of the second degree murder of Mr Corbett, a 39 year-old father of two.

The pair were sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison for the Limerickmans murder.

Martens Corbett had never broken the law, while her father had made a career as an FBI agent for over 30 years, it outlined, before leading up to the horrific night of Corbetts death on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

Neighbour Tony Turner described Mr Corbett as very cordial and someone who was loved by everyone. He was a gentle Irish giant.

He said he could see no signs of any trouble in the relationship between Mr Corbett and his now convicted second wife.

While she refused to testify during the lengthy trial, Martens Corbett again claimed that she was subjected to physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband, and predominantly stayed with him because of the two children from his first marriage, Jack and Sarah.

I never would have left the children, she told the interviewer, during the 11-minute segment.

At first, when they moved to North Carolina from Limerick she said it was like a wonderland until Mr Corbett became very controlling, possessive and paranoid.

Addressing the early hours of August 2, 2015, her father said: Its horrible  a man died, but a man also attacked my daughter, and a man tried to protect his daughter.

On the wedding day I was excited for them. It was a delightful experience and a beautiful wedding, he said.

But, he claimed, that Mr Corbett would dictate what she should wear or what she should shop for, when she should be home, or text her repeatedly, or engage in various forms of controlling behaviour, demand to see her phone, look at her computer history  that sort of thing...I wasnt going to interfere in Mollys marriage. That was Mollys marriage.

No evidence was produced during the trial to support allegations of abuse, and Martens himself told the trial he did not witness any physical violence between Mr Corbett and his daughter prior to an altercation which he claimed had occurred on the night he was murdered.

She had sought to adopt the children, but Mr Corbett refused. After his death in August 2015 she had sought and was refused custody of the two children. Guardianship was awarded to the childrens aunt, Tracey Lynch, and her husband, David.
A LIMERICK daughter has written an emotionally-charged letter to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar after her 81 year-old mother who has Alzheimer's was left on a trolley for over 30 hours in University Hospital Limerick.

The woman, who does not wish to be identified to protect her mother's privacy, said that she was shocked at the scale of overcrowding in the hospital, and felt compelled to write to the Taoiseach.

As I lie here in my own bed tonight, Ive left my dear 81-year-old mother on a trolley in UHL for the last 33 hours without a bed in a hospital ward, she wrote.

I am ashamed to be a citizen of this country tonight to see what little respect and dignity the most vulnerable people in our society are treated with, not to mention the stressful working conditions these professionals and care workers are expected to work in, she wrote.

I cried tonight to think I cannot help my poor mother get the proper care and attention that she gets at home on a daily basis.

A bed was found a short time after that for her mother, who had suffered from a fall and arrived there by ambulance.

Her elderly husband, who is his wifes full-time carer, remained by her side for the first night, as she lay there crying on a trolley, but eventually he had to leave, along with their daughter.

The woman told the Limerick Leader that she had a horrendous experience as she felt as if they were continually pushed from pillar to post.

As a family, she said they were faced with the question: Is our mother, who has advanced Alzheimer's and other medical complications, safer at home than in A&E?

And that shouldnt be the case. She cant tell you if shes hungry or thirsty or needs to go to the bathroom, so if shes left on a trolley she will be forgotten about. What about people who dont have someone there fighting their corner for them?

She was among the most vulnerable people in A&E and yet they cant speak for themselves. Its cruel to leave a lady of that age on a trolley for such a long time.

We pay our taxes and all we want is for our elderly patients to be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

This is through no fault of the medial professionals or the healthcare workers who are doing their very best. But to see them having to push trolleys up and down narrow corridors of a brand new A&E was inexplicable, she said.

A new 24 million emergency department was opened by UHL this May, but it has yet to ease the level of overcrowding, which continues to persist.

She said she received a response from the Taoiseachs office, saying her letter was redirected to the Minister for Health Simon Harris.

The level of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick is the highest in the country to date this year, new figures reveal.

This Monday, 28 people were on trolleys or in wards in UHL  again the highest nationally  but down from a peak of 50 on one day last week.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) confirmed that a record number of 57,674 patients were admitted for care were on trolleys in the first seven months of this year.

The figure for Limerick, with 4,782 patients on trolleys, was the highest in the country, followed respectively by Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Galway, the Mater Hospital in Dublin and South Tipperary General Hospital.

However, the figures show that nationally there was a six per cent reduction for the month of July in comparison to July 2016.

The record levels of patients on trolleys, in the first seven months, is most alarming as we prepare for the autumn/winter period, said Liam Doran, general secretary of the INMO.

If our health service is to respond, appropriately, to both the emergency and planned admissions, additional bed capacity, and community nursing services, must be introduced.

This will only be done when we solve the recruitment/retention crisis facing nursing and midwifery in Ireland. If we do not have additional nurses and midwives then we cannot expand our capacity and overcrowding levels will continue to grow.
LEAVING Certificate exam results are out this Wednesday and the HSE is urging parents to be aware that direct promotions to their kids about drinking alcohol are already taking place.

They say that, "parents need to take steps to ensure teenagers have a safe night out" and to be aware of the risks of alcohol promotions specifically targeting young people.

"While we live in a country where alcohol promotion is pervasive, parents need to know that they are the most important influence in informing young people about the risks associated with drinking and substance use and in shaping their attitudes. It is vital to have open conversations with teenagers ahead of their celebrations next week," the HSE has stated.

The website, AskAboutAlcohol.ie, offers a resource and support for parents, with information, advice and the full facts to help your child stay safe and be smart around alcohol.

Some helpful advice on AskAboutAlcohol.ie for parents of teenagers includes 10 Tips for Parents (printed below) and Tips for Talking to a Teen.

Many students will attend Leaving Cert Party nights on Wednesday in nightclubs and venues across the country where they will be targeted with alcohol promotions.

Examples of these events pages online encourage attendees to celebrate your results or drown your sorrows with promotions such as 3 drinks, Vodka Boats, free shot of choice, glass of bubbly on arrival, a free bottle of champagne with tickets, 5 free drinks tokens or pints, bottles and Jagerbombs."

While many Leaving Cert students are over 18 and legally entitled to drink alcohol, drinking in this manner poses a significant hazard to their health and leaves them vulnerable to taking risks. Others will be under age and should not be put under pressure to drink alcohol.

Dr. Eamon Keenan, HSE National Clinical Lead of Addiction Service, advises:

When young people are targeted with cheap alcohol promotions, it can result in them drinking a lot of alcohol in a short period of time."

"This can cause rapid intoxication resulting in young people feeling disinhibited and leading to changes in their behaviour and taking risks they wouldnt normally consider," Dr Keenan continued.

"These include drug taking, unprotected sex, possible aggression and getting into fights. They may also experience lowering of mood and, in some cases, depression or anxiety can be worsened. We need to talk to our teenagers about the effects on their health of excessive drinking and how to avoid risk taking behaviour.

Parents can find more information by visiting the What are the risks of teenage drinking? section on AskAboutAlcohol.ie.

The HSE released this 'Top 10 tips' list to help parents manage their childrens' relationship with alcohol:

1. Know the facts about alcohol and young people  Understand why teens drink and know the risks. There are very good reasons why young people shouldnt drink. Your child will respond better to facts than vague warnings.

2. Let them know your values and what you expect  Give a clear message that you dont approve of underage drinking: I dont want you to drink until you are older and explain why. Using some facts about underage drinking can help you to explain why you feel this way.

3. Make sure they hear that you care about them  While your teen may not like your rules, deep down, no teen is unhappy to know that their parents care enough to keep them safe.

4. Challenge normal drinking  Everyone drinks We all went through this phase Its part of having fun. It can be hard to argue against the strong messages children get from the media, marketing messages, their friends and from what they see around them. You can feel like a lone voice in the crowd. But drinking alcohol puts young people at risk in lots of different ways. Dont miss the opportunity to teach your kids about the downsides of drinking.

5. Keep a close relationship with your child  It can be hard to find ways to stay close to your child as they grow older, but its important to try and keep a close relationship. Spend time with them  even being in the same room can help. Look out for moments when your child is willing to talk - during a car journey, over dinner, while watching TV  and give them your full attention. In a study of 400 adolescents, parent involvement and adolescents positive regard for their parents were related to less smoking and drinking.

6. Be the uncool parent  You might understand why your child is drinking - you probably drank or got drunk yourself when you were their age. But the evidence shows that the best way to keep your child safe is to check what your child is doing and to give a clear message of disapproval about underage drinking. It may make you unpopular, but while they are still developing, its best to help them avoid drinking situations.

7. Dont give your child alcohol  Some parents believe that giving their child some wine during dinner or a limited amount of alcohol to drink at a party will help them to become responsible drinkers. In fact, research suggests that children who are supplied alcohol by their parents may drink more, as they feel they have permission to drink and are more likely to drink in a harmful way.

8. Have rules and boundaries  Make sure your child knows what you expect and what will happen if they break the rules. Rules will probably work better if you explain to your child why they are needed and ideally get their agreement. Our Guide to setting rules around alcohol can help.

9. Set a good example  Children who see their parents drunk are more likely to get drunk, drink underage and binge drink. Be conscious of staying within the weekly guidelines and keep your drinking away from your children.

Avoid drinking at home before going out socially. Dont let them see you drunk. Be aware of the messages you are giving about alcohol - dont laugh about drunken exploits and hangovers in front of them or say things that reinforce the idea that drinking is the best way to relax, handle stress, take time out or enjoy yourself.

10. Keep an eye on your child  Knowing where your child is, what they are doing and who they are with is important. Research has found that young people who are not regularly monitored by their parents are four times more likely to use alcohol or drugs. They are also more likely to begin drinking at a younger age, tend to drink more and are more likely to develop harmful drinking patterns. Get to know their friends, check that they are where they say they are, insist they keep their phone on and charged, be available to collect them. Watch how much money they have, look for signs that they may be drinking  like taking rucksacks to parties or drink going missing from your home.
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Hero of Mollywood's first musical hit 'Thiramala' shares his Hollywood stint, directing Prem Nazir and more
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Oakland nurse Maria Mendoza-Sanchez didnt know what to expect, but as she approached Highland Hospital at midday Monday, she saw a growing crowd of familiar and unfamiliar faces who had come out to rally against her impending deportation.

Fellow nurses at the hospital were there, along with doctors, union members with Hands off Maria signs and protesters whod heard about her case. The head of the public health authority that operates the hospital showed up as well, telling the crowd that Mendoza-Sanchez was being stripped of her opportunity to achieve the American dream.

Barring a last-minute reprieve, Mendoza-Sanchez and her husband, who do not have legal status, will fly to their native Mexico on Tuesday with their 12-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen by birth, to start a new life after more than two decades in the U.S. They will leave behind three older daughters, all of whom have legal status.

The crowd at Highland, which quickly numbered in the hundreds, came to speak out against the action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which under President Trump has increasingly sought to deport immigrants  including those with deep ties to the country and no criminal records, like Mendoza-Sanchez and her husband, truck driver Eusebio Sanchez.

A spokeswoman for ICE defended the deportation order last week, saying the familys case had gone through a lengthy review in immigration courts and that neither of these individuals has a legal basis to remain in the U.S. On Monday afternoon, the agency said the order remained in force.

After pulling up to the demonstration, Mendoza-Sanchez walked slowly to a table set up by union workers. Im Maria, she told them, introducing herself before breaking into tears and hugging one of the workers. Im really happy to see you guys here. Im feeling really hopeful.

Delvecchio Finley, chief executive of Alameda Health System, which operates Highland Hospital, told the crowd that Mendoza-Sanchez had been a stellar employee in her two years at the facility.

We are an organization of caregivers, Finley said. So witnessing this situation befall a member of our community has been extremely difficult for many of her co-workers, managers and executives. And for me personally. AHS values diversity and depends upon people of various backgrounds, many of them, like Maria, immigrants or children of immigrants, to provide care in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the country.

We want a system, he said, that affords hardworking immigrants the opportunity to achieve the American dream.

After immigration officials said in May that the couple had three months to arrange their travel to Mexico, they decided that the best option was to take their son, Jesus, and leave behind their three daughters, who are 16, 21 and 23. The two younger daughters are U.S. citizens, while the older daughter, Vianney, is protected by the governments Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Daughters Melin, 21, and Elizabeth, 16, stood near a group of television cameras outside the hospital, watching their mother speak. Tears welled in their eyes.

I just feel like right now it feels too real  like they have to leave tomorrow and Im just shaking, Melin said as her sister grabbed her arm. They dont want this to happen, and I dont want this to happen. Im not mentally ready to see them leave.

The family made a last-ditch effort Friday, requesting a stay of their deportation, but as of Monday morning, they had not heard back. Their attorney, Carl Shusterman, said the case symbolized Trumps shift in immigration priorities  namely, that nearly all immigrants without documentation are now eligible for deportation.

As a former (Immigration and Naturalization Service) prosecutor, I am deeply saddened to see a family with three U.S. citizen children and no criminal record being targeted for deportation, Shusterman said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who met with the family last week after reading a front-page Chronicle story on the case, has called for the government to reverse its decision. The California Democrat said she would introduce a private bill in September to help the family gain permanent residence. However, such bills are rarely signed into law, and its unclear if that would help Mendoza-Sanchez and her husband.

This is a mistake, Feinstein said outside the familys home on Thursday. This shouldnt happen.

Mendoza-Sanchezs nursing colleague and close friend Sara Norton, 25, drove her to the hospital on Monday, wiping away tears as they approached the gathering.

Shes worked so hard to be where she is at now, said Norton. It is our job to be there for her  through all of this. We are losing our best nurse, and Im losing a close friend for who knows how long. Its something thats hard to swallow.

Beyond the rally, the familys last day brought a multitude of tasks they never imagined  not only packing and cleaning but transferring parental custody of Elizabeth to Vianney. Meanwhile, Jesus spent his day with two of his Oakland schoolmates, playing video games.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz
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Border Patrol Laredo Sector recently announced that it had canceled more than 600 commercial driver's licenses through its Texas Hold 'Em initiative, which was launched in June 2008.

The U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety joined in the multi-agency enforcement effort to improve border security.

The Texas Hold 'Em initiative is designed to reduce human and drug smuggling in commercial vehicles. Texas Hold 'Em features a public outreach campaign focused on informing the general public of the repercussions associated with commercial drivers convicted of human and narcotic smuggling.

READ MORE: Seldom-used insanity defense expected in Laredo murder case trial that starts Monday

The Texas Hold 'Em initiative uses existing state laws to permanently revoke the commercial driver's license of any person who is convicted of felony smuggling transportation charges while driving a vehicle.

An increase in communication and shared information between law enforcement agencies and transportation stakeholders has proven to be a great success for the program, Border Patrol said in a news release.

The Laredo Sector has canceled 620 licenses since the initiative's inception.

About 420 have been canceled due to human smuggling cases and 199 due to drug smuggling cases. During the 2017 fiscal year, 47 cancellations were submitted and canceled in cooperation with the Department of Public Safety.

RELATED: Laredo man admits to transporting, holding undocumented immigrants against their will

"While the vast majority of truck drivers are honest, hard-working people, there is a recognition that alien and drug smuggling organizations aggressively recruit truck drivers, using the promise of money, favors, and drugs to tempt drivers to transport illegal aliens or narcotics away from the border using their tractor-trailers," said Acting Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Joel Martinez.

This unified effort is a credit to the educational outreach that the Texas Hold 'Em initiative provides to the transportation industry, freight forwarding agencies, customs brokers and commercial drivers, Border Patrol said.

For more information on the Texas Hold 'Em initiative call 1-800-343-1994.
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A Mexican national arrested after law enforcement discovered over 330 pounds of marijuana inside his vehicle entered a guilty plea Wednesday in federal court, records state.

Juan Reyes-Lorenzo faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible $1 million fine after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana during a hearing held before U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana Song Quiroga.

An investigation in Reyes-Lorenzo began March 27, when Border Patrol agents identified him as the owner of a Ford Expedition seen leaving a known narcotics loading area near Boston and Ana street at a high rate of speed, court records state.

An agent reported a group of people were seen traveling across the Rio Grande river and placing items inside of the Expedition.

READ MORE: Laredo couple utilized local builder in scheme to conceal drug trafficking operation, documents show

Agents were able to run the vehicle's license plate and identify it as being owned by Reyes-Lorenzo before losing sight of the Expedition.

Laredo police were notified and dispatched to Reyes-Lorenzo's residence in the 3900 block of Convent Avenue in an attempt to locate the vehicle. Reyes-Lorenzo arrived at the residence shortly after officers.

During a post-Miranda interview, Reyes-Lorenzo advised officers he had parked the vehicle at Tacos Kissi Restaurant in the 4400 block of McPherson Road, a complaint filed against Reyes-Lorenzo states.

RELATED: Vintage photos show carefree Mexican vacation hotspots before cartel violence struck

He told authorities there were marijuana bundles inside the vehicle and that he was supposed to be paid $1,500 for transporting them, according to the complaint.

Officers said they located the vehicle and discovered five large marijuana bundles in the back seat.

Reyes-Lorenzo was remanded into custody pending his sentencing, records state.
On Wednesday, U.S., Canadian and Mexican trade officials formally begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact between the three nations credited with quadrupling trade since it took effect in 1994.

President Donald Trump originally threatened to abandon NAFTA, calling it economic undevelopment and one of the worst deals ever. Since then, agricultural and industrial trade groups as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been on a loud defensive, stressing that trade under NAFTA has ballooned to $1.3 trillion annually within the bloc.

Since Mexico accounts for 40 percent of Texas exports, the state has more at stake than any other. But as Russell Green, an international economist at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy, noted, Texans carry a lot of weight in the Trump administration.

Heres a primer on all you need to know going into the talks:

The chief negotiators

U.S.: John Melle, assistant U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere, will be responsible for the day-to-day negotiations. Melle has been with the agency since 1988 and has held a number of positions covering Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Central America.

Mexico: Kenneth Smith Ramos, director of the Trade and North American Free Trade agreement office at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, is a veteran trade expert who started his career working on Mexicos negotiating team for the original North American Free Trade Agreement.

Canada: Steve Verheul, Canadas chief trade negotiator since 2009, led Canadas dialogue during talks for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union and Canada, which was signed Oct. 30, 2016. His previous work in international trade policy at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada involved him in the original NAFTA negotiations as well as the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations  one of the largest trade deals in history involving 123 countries.

Some key issues affecting Texas

Trade deficit: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer touts the Trump administration as being the first to include reducing the trade deficit  the amount by which imports exceed exports  as a key objective for renegotiating a free trade agreement.

Since NAFTAs implementation, the goods balance with Mexico has gone from a $1.3 billion surplus to a $64 billion deficit. The deficit with Canada is $11 billion.

Kenneth Smith Ramos, who will be leading the negotiations for Mexico, argues that the deficit is modest considering the overall trade volume and integration of U.S.-Mexico production chains. Texas could have been hit hard with import tariffs floated early on as a way to tackle the deficit, but the tariff talk seems to have gone away. So is the deficit stress all bark? Its hard to see where the bite comes from, Green said.

Agriculture: Agricultural trade between the three NAFTA countries now totals about $85 billion a year. According to Texas A&M University, Texas in 2016 exported $833.5 million in plant and animal products to Mexico and $875.1 million to Canada.

Provisions for sanitary and phytosanitary measures, included in Lighthizers July 17 summary of negotiating objectives, would prevent NAFTA partners from using food safety and disease scares to gain market advantage by shutting down imports. China for example continued to use the 2003 mad cow disease scare to keep its markets closed to U.S. beef for 14 years. U.S. potato growers say Mexico has similar barriers against U.S. spuds.

Beef: Mexico is the second largest market for U.S. beef in terms of volume, Canada is the fourth. The cattle trade under NAFTA has gotten very fluid, with U.S. beef producers often sourcing young animals north and south of the border to save on grazing costs.

Corn: As Mexico raises production of cattle and pork, its importing more U.S. grain as feed. While Texas is outside the U.S. corn belt, corn is still one of the states top five agricultural products, with 323 million bushels produced in 2016. U.S. corn producers last year sent more than $2.5 billion in corn exports to Mexico, about 28 percent of total corn exports. Its no wonder farmers were alarmed when Mexico said it was in talks to buy corn from Argentina and Brazil. Still, economists note it would take a lot to match U.S. rail and barge shipping routes to Mexico.

Dairy: Trump has been on the attack against what U.S. producers say are unfair protections for the Canadian dairy industry. Canadas national ingredients strategy set low prices on domestic ultra-filtered milk, a product used in cheese and yogurt production that unlike other U.S. dairy products was not subject to Canadian tariffs. U.S. producers, now practically drowning in over supply, blame Canada for pricing them out of the Canadian market. Texas ranks seventh in terms of U.S. dairy production.

Lumber/coal: The U.S. and Canada have been sparring over softwood lumber, with Canada threatening to ban U.S. shipments of thermal coal through Canadian ports after Trump put tariffs on Canadian wood to offset Canadian subsidies. That hits Texas booming home construction industry hard, as a lot of their lumber comes from Canadian forests.

Cotton: Texas leads the nation in cotton production, and amid subsidized competition from China, India and other nations relies on NAFTA trade for stability. Between 2014 and 2016, the North American market accounted for about $2 billion in annual U.S. exports of raw cotton fiber and cotton textile products. Texas exports made up about $540 million of that.

Energy: Since NAFTA 1.0, Mexico has opened up its largely untapped oil and gas deposits to foreign exploration and investment. Green said the big win for U.S. companies would be in having NAFTA terms that would supersede political uncertainty in Mexico. Thats particularly true for U.S. natural gas exports that already power more than a quarter of Mexicos electricity. Its perfectly legal to export natural gas to Mexico today, Green said. The only problem is the federal government could deny your permit at any moment if they decided to. Whereas if you incorporate it as part of the agreement then you dont even have to get the federal permits to begin with  Businesses hate uncertainty.

Manufacturing: Automotive and electronic are the Texas manufacturing sectors with the most to lose, Green said, primarily because of the supply chains that have been built up. But Green thinks those supply chains would have happened regardless of NAFTA due to proximity to lower labor costs, much as Japan sent work to Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.

While rules of origin, which dictate the percentage of a product that must come from NAFTA countries, are part of the negotiating priorities, Green called the category a tough one.

If you tighten up the rules at some point it gets cheaper for you to just ignore the treaty completely, pay the higher tariff and be able to source wherever you want, he said.

Texas takeaway: A lot of what the U.S. aims to negotiate had already been hammered out in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation pact that Trump withdrew from his first week of office. For Mexico, the TPP would have brought access to the Japanese market. With that gone as a selling point, it might be harder to find a deal on difficult items, Green said.

If you think that the entire trade relationship is at risk, youre overstating it, because so much trade happens organically, he said. It still remains the case that Texas is the most exposed state to these negotiations. They matter much more for Texas than for any other state.

LBrezosky@express-news.net
Five people attending an outdoor vigil were hospitalized with gunshot wounds Sunday night after a drive-by shooting near Hillview Park in San Jose, police said.

The victims, three men and two women, were not identified. Their injuries were not life-threatening, police said.
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If you believe a narrative that Americans are nihilistic ids who are test-piloting themselves toward their own inevitable doom, then there is probably hard evidence to be found at county fairs, like this one in rural Virginia, where a bunch of us are dangling in metal cages off a ride called the Zipper.

It's twilight. The air is dense with five kinds of funnel cake. Here, the top of the ride looks out over the Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair's petting zoos and farm-themed magicians ("Agri-cadabra") - and toward the muddy parking lot. We are waiting in our welded cages, ready to be spun and flung, because this is what late summer is in the various heartlands: pony rides, win-a-goldfish games, innovations in fried dough and August boredom jolted away by a carnival ride. We are waiting for the drop.

Last month at the Ohio State Fair, 24 people boarded a ride called the Fireball. In the middle of one of its pendulum swings, a cluster of seats broke off and flew horribly through the air, passengers still inside. Someone put a video on YouTube. When news stations broadcast it later, they cut off the video before the inevitable crash, but viewers could still see the helplessness of flailing limbs, and people upside down where they shouldn't be. One person died, an 18-year-old bound for the Marines. Seven others were injured.

A week later, while officials were still mining the cause - "excessive corrosion," the eventual report said - thousands of people stood in line at carnivals around the country for all-you-can-ride wristbands.

So we went to talk to some of them. And to think too much about mortality.

Here in Fredericksburg, each Zipper cage is required to have two passengers. The ride operator has paired me with Victoria Lynch.

"I've been on this ride at least 20 times," Victoria says as our cage ascends. "They have it at Funland, too. That's where I'm having my birthday next week. I'm turning 13 . . .

"Wait a minute, we're about to flip upside down, you might want to scream."

Our cage flips upside down. We pitch forward. We scream.

"Do you have any other interview questions?" she asks.

Victoria has been warned that these rides can be dangerous. "My dentist told me while I was getting my braces tightened earlier. I said, I'm going to a carnival tonight. She said, someone just died on one of those rides. I said, 'Thanks, Dr. Zello, but I'll be fine.' "

We flip upside down again. We scream.

"I think these are actually safer than the ones at Kings Dominion," she says. "I'm probably going to go on it again right away."

We scream.

The horror of "excessive corrosion" is that it was apparently an internal problem. The Fireball ride had been manufactured in the Netherlands 18 years ago. It had been inspected at least three times since it was assembled in Columbus, officials said. Nobody could see that the internal beam was rusted out and useless until it snapped off.

It made the news because it was awful, and because it was awful in exactly the ways we have always feared. A thing the height of a four-story building should not be able to be assembled and disassembled overnight. There shouldn't be so much rattling when you climb into it. It shouldn't sound as if there's something loose inside.

"Do you just want to see it go?" Kati Kyler asks her boyfriend, Matt Harris, as they sit on a park bench in front of a ride called the Viper. "Maybe that would help."

"No, I've seen it. I've seen it." This is the problem for Matt. If he hadn't ever seen the Viper, then maybe it wouldn't seem horrible.

"But not from the beginning," Kati insists. "Not the whole way through."

He sighs. "Okay."

"Do you want to watch it sitting or standing? Let's watch it standing. See? It looks fun."

Matt does not think this looks fun.

This is Matt's first carnival and he has not yet fully learned how to carnival, to lean into it as a verb. Corn dog? Yes. Glow-in-the-dark bubble maker? Yes. Spiral-cut fries, topped with ranch dressing and chili? Yes. Please. Put onions on them. Fun is in the eye of the beholder.

Retailers have made a whole industry of flower-crowned festival wear, but those of us out here riding the Zipper in the middle of tobacco fields have fair wear: cutoffs and old 5K-race shirts, Father's Day trucker caps. You can be a hundred miles from the nearest Sephora and meet a herd of beautiful, contoured 16-year-olds at a carnival, whose hi-lited faces are the result of Kylie Jenner YouTube tutorials.

"Why does the floor drop out of this ride when it starts?" one asks her boyfriend as they wait for the operator to pull the start lever.

The boyfriend smiles: "Do you like having feet?"

"Jeremyyyy!" she howls.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission keeps a coded list of all injuries that lead to emergency room visits. In 2016, there were 30,000 injuries coded as "amusement park" (the CPSC's estimate for bicycle injuries: 460,000). Most of them are probably minor, but the ones that CNN compiles in its lists - a girl being scalped by a ride called King's Crown, a boy plummeting off a waterslide - are sickening. Earlier this summer, in June, another headline: a 14-year-old hanging off a Sky Ride gondola at an Upstate New York amusement park, while a crowd of terrified onlookers watched from 25 feet below.

She was saved by a man who encouraged her to let go and fall; he said he would catch her, and he did.

And amusement park season continued and people kept buying tickets, and going, and screaming on the rides.

"It was fine, wasn't it?" a mother asks her daughter after they emerge from a whirling ride. "Oh, you're fine. Come on, Emily. It's fun to be scared."

Another day, another carnival. This one in Glen Burnie, Maryland. A group of teenage boys are standing in line for a ride called Street Fighter: a tall, parabolic pendulum that swings passengers in a near-360-degree swoop while simultaneously spinning them in circles.

The ride has begun to look familiar to Will McCauley, one of the boys, and his certainty grows as they move forward in line.

"I told you guys," Will says. "I saw that video. I saw that ride. I told you guys that this was that ride."

The Street Fighter might have a different name, and this carnival might be produced by a different company, but there's no question that this appears to be a mechanical cousin of the Ohio State Fair's Fireball.

"Naw, but these guys are straight up," Will's friend James Boonk tries to assure him. "They know what they're doing. They check the equipment and stuff."

"They checked the other ride, too," Will protests.

Their friend Josh Michael stands on his toes and points at the ride. "Is that duct tape?"

"Where?" James asks.

"Holding that seat. It's a duct tape seat. I think."

"Now you're going to make me paranoid," James says.

"Well," Josh says reasonably, "just don't ride on Duct-Tape Seat."

They go on the ride, and while they are swinging back and forth overhead, a group of girls in the next group are having a similar conversation about safety.

"It's not bad. It's not bad," Kadijah Calliste says. "I've been on it before, lots."

When her turn comes to board, Kadijah, in a maternal and self-assured way, ushers her friends ahead of her. She rolls her eyes at their anticipatory squealing. And then the ride starts, and within nine seconds she is safely buckled into her seat but yelling: "I'm about to fall out and die, do you hear me? I am falling out and we are all going to die."

To go to a carnival in the summer is to assess how fun one thinks it is to be scared. Carnival rides are supposed to be safe fears, like horror movies. Things that will jolt you but not harm you.

When you are confronted with actual danger, like horrible screams in a YouTube video shot in Ohio, theoretical panic creeps toward real panic. Someone died at the carnival. North Korea has put a warhead on a missile. Nuclear war isn't out of the question.

We wonder if we are all falling out and we are all going to die. We are waiting for the drop.

"It's taking so long because those three seats at the end are broken," says the girl in the middle of the line for a ride called the Avalanche. It's near the end of the night at the Glen Burnie carnival. The line is moving slowly, and as people approach the front of it, they see the reason. "They're not letting anyone ride in those seats at the end."

"But I just rode on the seat on the end the other day," the girl's friend protests.

"I know. Me, too, but I guess I was taking my life in my hands."

The next group boards. After they have already handed over their tickets and buckled themselves in, the operator instructs everyone to buckle themselves out and get off the ride.

"He says he has to check something," one boy explains to his waiting father as he walks down the plank.

The operator says that as soon as he has checked the thing, everyone can get back on the ride. "I'm going to be honest," a de-boarding passenger says loudly and to nobody in particular. "If there is something wrong with the ride then I would just as soon not get on it."

"What the f---" says a boy who appears to be about 11, not angry so much as enjoying cursing. "What the f--- is going on?"

The operator could be seen pulling on a pair of rubber gloves and reaching in between two of the seats with a roll of paper towels.

"I guess someone just peed on it?" the boy says. "Is that it? Just pee?" He turns to the rest of the line.

"It's probably just pee," he says confidently, and the next group gets on the ride.
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Border Patrol agents seized 1,582.9 pounds of marijuana Aug. 5.

Agents at the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35 encountered a white tractor pulling a white trailer at the primary lane.

The driver was questioned regarding his immigration status and consented to further inspection. A non-intrusive inspection of the trailer revealed anomalies. A further search of the trailer resulted in the seizure of 65 bundles of marijuana.

READ MORE: Seldom-used insanity defense expected in Laredo murder case trial that starts Monday

The marijuana was estimated to have a value of $1,266,320. The driver, a Mexican citizen, was arrested. The driver, vehicle and marijuana were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

To report suspicious activity such as human or drug smuggling, contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free telephone number at 1-800-343-1994.
Chris Rock, without wasting a second, took direct aim at Donald Trump's condemnation of "bigotry and violence on many sides."

"There's so many!" the comedian quipped.

It was after sunset on Saturday, and Rock was joining billionaire Ron Perelman's annual party in East Hampton to raise money for Harlem's Apollo Theater. In a normal year, it's a celebration where Wall Streeters and other elites party into the night with actors and musicians, some of whom grace the stage inside Perelman's barn.

But this time, it happened to land hours after white supremacists and neo-Nazis descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, setting off deadly violence that left Gov. Terry McAuliffe, D, declaring a state of emergency.

Like the rest of America, most attendees were still processing.

At one point, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman questioned criticism of the president for not directly condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists in his response to the Charlottesville events. Schwarzman, who sits on Trump's business advisory council, had watched some footage on television and was struck by the chaos.

"I thought he was talking about the violence on both sides," Schwarzman said. "I don't think it was a far-reaching statement." (The White House later told reporters in a statement that Trump condemns white supremacists and neo-Nazis.)

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said he was still formulating his own remarks. "It was a bad day," he said. "I will tweet later." (On Monday morning, Blankfein sent a tweet quoting Abraham Lincoln: "A house divided against itself cannot stand" and added, "Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/those who bring us together.")

The man standing next to him, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, had already sent a tweet, calling the violence "an affront to everything this country represents."

"Oh my God, today's really the nadir -- it's a terrible thing for America," real estate billionaire Jerry Speyer said. "Shame on all the people that were involved. What's really awful is the divisions, Democrats and Republicans, East and West, North and South. We're better than that."

Speyer said he's hopeful politicians will find a way to convert it into something good.

Just after 11 p.m., former New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, concerned about both Charlottesville and North Korea, asked a reporter what the latest news was. "In the world that we live in, every hour it could totally change," he said.

Wes Moore, CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, called for moral courage, saying, "We can never let hatred become justified."

The party, meanwhile, went on, with fried chicken, brisket, brownies and three hours of live music.

Mavis Staples, a voice of the civil rights era, sang Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" with Jon Bon Jovi. Justin Timberlake slowed down "SexyBack" with help from The Roots. Patty Smyth sang "The Warrior" from her band Scandal. Gary Clark Jr., who said he knew of the Apollo as a kid in Austin, Texas, jammed on guitar. For sultry there was Alice Smith; for hippie, Citizen Cope; and for heart-stopping, Alicia Keys on "Empire State of Mind." Jamie Foxx brought John McEnroe, Robert Downey Jr. and Priyanka Chopra on stage to dance to '70s hits and his own.

The estimated 400 guests included Ruth Porat, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, Joseph Perella, Rashida Jones, Charles Phillips, Glenn Fuhrman, Kyle MacLachlan, Jimmy Buffett and Harvey Weinstein.

Some people gave as much as $250,000, raising a total of more than $5 million -- a record -- to help support the Apollo, including its education programs.

"You look at what happened in Virginia," Perelman told the audience. "It is events like this that bring us together."

Music is an especially powerful uniter, he added. "I hope you take away something that will make the world better."
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Charlottesville woke up early Sunday morning groggy and wondering, praying even, that the pitched battles in the streets, the full decibel race-based hate, the people crushed under cars and the helicopter that fell from the sky were all just mad scenes from a end-times nightmare.

But the truth was darker. The city had a body count. Heather Heyer, 32, was dead. She lived here and worked here. Virginia state troopers H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke M.M. Bates, who would have turned 41 Sunday, were dead. They served the people who live here.

The rally that almost no one in Charlottesville wanted and many here protested ended in death and sorrow and, for the time being at least, a fruitless search to make sense of it all for those who call it home.

How, they wondered, did their quiet and beautiful little city on the lap of the Blue Ridge Mountains become the focal point of so much anger and misery?

At 7 a.m. Sunday the groaning belch of a leaf blower sent plastic bottles and trash scattering down Market Street in front of Emancipation Park as cleanup crews worked to put Charlottesville's face back on. They picked up the refuse of a rally turned riot responsible for bringing news crews here from around the country and the world.

On the corner, television reporters prepared for their first feeds of the day. Overnight, Charlottesville had become known for something for which it never wanted to be known. America struggles with race everywhere, but here the full fury of its most committed racial antagonists had been displayed. It no longer hid in the shadows or barked from anonymous Twitter handles. It marched with torches at night and with shields, clubs and guns in broad daylight. It shouted out "Niggers!" and "Faggots!" and "Kikes!" and it raised its arms straight out in Nazi salutes.

There was brave and reassuring talk by the local politicians, who at times like this are supposed to be brave and reassuring. There were strong words from the governor, who told the hatemongers they weren't welcome in the Commonwealth.

But from the residents there was fear, anger, despair and above all else a deep desire to not let Charlottesville's story be shaped by the actions of others.

"I don't think it will define the city," said Chad Freckmann, who has lived here for the last two years and first came to Charlottesville as a student at the University of Virginia in 1978. "I think what's happened here is the result of the politics of the moment. These wackos are coming out from under the rocks because it's now politically acceptable to spew hatred."

Freckmann stood on the block where the day before 20-year-old white supremacist James Alex Fields allegedly roared his Dodge Challenger into a crowd, mowing down Heyer and injuring 19 others. A street sweeper scoured the asphalt, removing whatever hadn't been washed away by a heavy rain the night before.

Pamela Buckner is scared and angry. On Sunday morning she went to church worried, she said, about whether she would be attacked. Buckner, 54, has lived in Charlottesville for 27 years.

"Everything's not okay," Buckner said. "Everyone is on pins and needles in Charlottesville. It's a whole lot of these racists and Nazis and KKK, and it ain't over yet. There's going to be more tragedy and more death. I think it's crazy as hell."

For many here the desire is to put the last two days in the past and move forward. But they also know that the city's decision this year to change the name of Lee Park to Emancipation Park and to order the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the park has made it a lightning rod for white nationalists and extremists who see it as an attempt to erase white history.

"We'll get past it, but it isn't going to be easy," said Larry Sabato, who moved to Charlottesville in 1970 and is a professor at the University of Virginia and director of the university's Center for Politics. "That serpentine David Duke is right when he says, 'We'll be back.' He's right."

Sabato watched the white supremacists parade by torchlight through the university grounds and across the campus's vaunted Lawn on Friday evening and tweeted: "In my 47 years of association with @UVA this was the most nauseating thing I've ever seen. We need an exorcism on the Lawn."

In an interview Sunday, Sabato talked about how the events of the last two days have been an effort by the extremists to mar the city.

"I think of the beautiful name Charlottesville and how these people have now created a new image for Charlottesville and tried to turn it into this evil, horrible name," he said. "People have to wake up to what they're trying to do here."

The weather was perfect by Sunday afternoon. No suffocating August humidity. Sunny and breezy instead. Along the downtown mall, outdoor restaurants that had all been closed a day before reopened and filled with customers. Ice cream shops and used book stores and cafes were all back in business. There was a hint of normalcy in the music of a guitar duo and the shrieks of babies and the shake of coins in the cup of a homeless man. The day before felt almost unimaginable.

"Those of us who live here and love Charlottesville are just afraid that the rest of the world now sees Charlottesville as a hate-filled community, and we're not," said Amy McLeskey. "The things that happened yesterday are really not Charlottesville. Charlottesville is unity and love, and the people that came here are not from Charlottesville."

It wasn't ignorance of reality that residents here suggested for their city. They know they have problems here like every American city has. With racism. And gentrification. And poverty. And education. What they don't want is to allow a hate to come in and swallow everything.

Franklin Barbour, a 58-year-old landscaper who has lived in Charlottesville his whole life, watched his city come apart at the seams on CNN on Saturday. On Sunday, he came to Emancipation Park to take a look around and take stock.

"We walk up and down these streets, and we don't interact with each other like we should," Barbour said. "We need to be more together. We need to talk to each other. We need to love each other."

- - -

The Washington Post's Zoeann Murphy contributed to this report.
BERLIN - Much of the world looked on in horror and puzzlement as a demonstration by torch-wielding white nationalists in an American college town ended in violence and the arraignment of a 20-year-old man on charges of second-degree murder.

James Alex Fields Jr. is accused of ramming a car into a crowd of activists, leaving one dead and 19 injured. That the suspect was a Nazi sympathizer, according to his former teacher, made the weekend's events particularly wrenching in Germany, a nation still seared by the darkest chapters of its past.

Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Monday the violence that unfolded in Charlottesville was "sickening." He described the symbols and slogans employed in "the right-wing extremist march" - including swastikas and chants of "Blood and Soil," a Nazi-era motto - as "diametrically opposed to the political goals of the chancellor and the entire German government."

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said in a tweet, "We know Canada isn't immune to racist violence and hate." Nigel Farage, the former leader of the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party, observed on Twitter: "Cannot believe we're seeing Nazi salutes in 21st century America."

In countries such as Germany and France that have adopted strict codes policing hateful speech, there were also questions about why white supremacists carrying guns were allowed to assemble and propagate a message targeting racial and religious minorities.

"Most people in Germany have difficulty understanding that gatherings like in Charlottesville are possible in the U.S. because we have drawn a different lesson from history," said Matthias Jahn, chair of criminal law at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. "Our German law centers on the strong belief that you should hinder this kind of speech in a society committed to principles of democratic co-existence and peace."

That sense of shock was reflected in breathless media coverage, much of which focused blame on the Trump administration.

"President fails to blame white supremacists," observed the British newspaper the Guardian. Trump on Monday ultimately condemned neo-Nazis and other groups, saying, "Racism is evil."

A front-page headline in the French daily Liberation blared, "The White House," suggesting that the center of racial animus was the executive branch of the American government.

Chinese state media seldom misses a chance to train a harsh spotlight on American society and governance, and the China Daily newspaper opined of unrest in Virginia: "Sickness in U.S. society will not be easy to cure." Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency attributed the violence not to racism but to the growing gap between rich and poor, and blamed "the American political and media elites" for stoking the violence.

In a mostly isolated show of solidarity with white supremacist factions in Charlottesville, Greece's far-right group Golden Dawn praised the rally as a "dynamic demonstration against illegal immigration" by "American patriots."

While Jewish leaders in the United States expressed shock at the events in Charlottesville and criticized President Trump's response to the violence as half-hearted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of Trump's, remained notably silent. Meanwhile, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, warned in a statement: "The anti-Jewish ideology of the Nazis was a precursor to the eventual murderous policy and extermination of six million Jews."

Even in denouncing the message of neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members, free speech advocates, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, defended the right of these groups to stage the Unite the Right rally - at the site of a Confederate statue scheduled for removal.

"Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy," tweeted former president Bill Clinton.

For some Western democracies, the tension is not as acute.

Germany curtails speech in an effort to keep Nazi ideology at bay. The German constitution, approved after World War II, codifies individual rights such as equality before the law and freedom of speech, but postwar changes to the penal code prohibit a range of expression linked to the Third Reich.

The statute that would have criminalized the far-right demonstration in Charlottesville, said Jahn, the criminal law professor, is a prohibition on assembly that "disturbs the public peace in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims" by venerating Nazi rule. German hate-crime law, he said, was recently strengthened by a 2015 amendment requiring courts to consider racial motives as an aggravating circumstance.

In spite of these statutes, crime motivated by right-wing ideology has surged in Germany, according to a report issued this year by the Interior Ministry

Hajo Funke, a political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, said right-wing extremism crested last year - after months of anger over a seemingly limitless flow of asylum seekers into Germany - and has begun to abate in 2017.

"One factor is Trump, and people looking at the U.S. and saying, 'This is not the right way,'" Funke said. "The other factor is that the euro crisis and the refugee crisis are to a degree under control."

Like Germany, France criminalizes certain types of speech, largely designed to combat Holocaust denial.

The 1990 Gayssot Act limits an individual's ability to question the size, scope or nature of "crimes against humanity." While critics allege that the parameters of the legislation are too broad, - it also prohibits "any discrimination founded on membership or non-membership of an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a religion" - the measure has led to several high-profile convictions.

At the same time, French law has hardly done away with hate speech.

In 2013, in what would become one of the most high-profile cases in recent years, the Franco-Cameroonian comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala began encouraging a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute. Despite innumerable convictions and fines, he has continued with versions of these routines.

Another case is that of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 89-year-old co-founder of the far-right National Front. Since the late 1980s, the elder Le Pen has continually referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail" of history. Under the Gayssot Act, Le Pen has also been convicted and fined on numerous occasions - but has continued to repeat his remark. As recently as March, he told The Washington Post that he still did not regret the comment.

---

McAuley reported from Paris. Reporting was contributed by The Washington Post's Luisa Beck in Berlin, William Booth in London, Simon Denyer in Beijing, David Filipov in Moscow, Loveday Morris in Jerusalem and Brian Murphy in Washington.
An Arizona woman faces felony drug charges in Madison County related to a traffic stop during which drug agents allegedly found nearly 12 pounds of heroin inside the vehicle she was driving.

The Madison County States Attorneys Office has charged Martha Gamboa-Madrid with unlawful possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. The charge alleges that the vehicle she was driving was found to contain more than 900 grams of heroin.

Gamboa-Madrid is being held at the Madison County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

She was indicted by a Madison County grand jury on June 22 and has pleaded not guilty.

Gamboa-Madrid faces a tentative trial date of Sept. 5 at the Madison County Criminal Justice Center in Edwardsville.

Shortly after the arrest, agents with the Metropolitan Enforcement Group of Southwestern Illinois received permission from a judge to search her cell phone. Paperwork related to that search was filed this week at the Madison County Courthouse.

It contains a sworn statement from a MEGSI agent stating that on the morning of June 12, an Illinois State Trooper pulled over the silver Volkswagen CC near Marine for having an obstructed drivers view.

Gamboa-Madrid was driving, and another woman was in the passenger seat. The trooper gave Gamboa-Madrid a written warning and told her she was free to leave. But after a few additional questions from the trooper, Gamboa-Madrid agreed to allow him to search the vehicle, according to the sworn statement.

The statement notes that the trooper found what appeared to him to have been tool marks on the console bolts, and a rear vent was allegedly loose and missing screws.

The statement also alleges that the trooper looked underneath the vehicle and noticed fake mud had been sprayed and smeared underneath the vehicle below the center console area.

Because of that  and other signs of tampering noted in the statement - the vehicle was relocated to ADR Towing in Highland.

Six duct-taped bundles containing what was later determined to be heroin were allegedly found after the center console was removed.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Gunmen riding motorcycles roared up to a Turkish restaurant in the capital of the West African nation of Burkina Faso and opened fire, killing at least 18 people and battling security forces in a hostage-taking standoff that ended early Monday.

The country's communications minister, Remi Dandjinou, told reporters that security forces had killed both attackers. He said at least 20 other people were injured in the attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, a spot popular with foreigners in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Among those killed was two Canadians, two Kuwaitis, and citizens of France, Senegal, Nigeria, Lebanon and Turkey in addition to others from Burkino Faso, the country's Foreign Ministry said.

"This is a terrorist attack," Dandjinou told reporters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Burkina Faso has been hit by Islamist attacks before. Later Monday, a U.N. peacekeepers' compound in neighboring Mali came under fire from gunmen.

In January 2016, gunmen from the North Africa branch of al-Qaida attacked a hotel and coffee shop on the same busy avenue in Ouagadougou, killing at least two dozen people.

Al-Qaida's North African branch, in alliance with local extremist groups, has been aiming to spread its attacks beyond its base in the Sahara desert, with assaults on a beach resort in the Ivory Coast in March 2016 and on the Radisson hotel in Mali's capital in November 2015.

The group is under heavy pressure from a French-led coalition of forces targeting the militants' desert strongholds, killing a number of its commanders. The group has vowed to attack France's allies in the region.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France would remain committed to working with the countries of the region "in the fight against terrorist groups."

Burkina Faso, a landlocked, impoverished nation in West Africa, has largely been spared the terrorist attacks taking place elsewhere in the Sahel region.

Its president, Roch Kabore, condemned the attack, expressed condolences to the families of the victim and praised security forces for their prompt response.

"The fight against terrorism is a long term battle which is why I appeal for vigilance, solidarity and unity for the whole nation," he said in a tweet Monday.

The attack began around 9 p.m. local time Sunday when four gunmen arrived on motorcycles, pulled assault rifles out of their bags and opened fire on diners on the terrace outside the restaurant, according to Radio France Internationale.

The restaurant was known as a place where foreigners gathered and it was packed Sunday night with a birthday party, the radio report added.

Security forces arrived in armored vehicles and surrounded the area, eventually cornering the gunmen in an upper floor of the restaurant where they took hostages, said Dandjinou.

---

Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
In this series, The Fix, Entrepreneur Associate Editor Lydia Belanger shares her conversations with founders and executives whose solutions to inefficiencies can inspire others to find new ways to save themselves time, money or hassle.

Sometimes its busy, sometimes its slow. Such is the nature of running nearly any kind of business. Off-season lulls seem to drag on forever, and bad weather causes customers to change their plans and spend their dollars elsewhere.

Simply offering a coupon, sale, matinee price or happy hour doesnt always cut it. Even dynamic, demand-based pricing (think: fluctuating hotel and flight prices or Uber surge pricing), which has been around for years, doesnt always solve the challenge many companies face luring customers amid the doldrums.

Business owners are constantly looking for innovative solutions to excite customers, such as gamification. Promotional games have clear actions and rewards for users, contain elements of chance and mystery or could even feature a social component.

Game design varies based on industry and depends on the target customer and desired behavior. In experimenting with gamification, some are seeing some great results, including Scott Parker.

In the past five years, Parker has opened four bar-restaurant hybrids in Arlington and Alexandria, Va.: A-Town Bar & Grill, Don Tito, Don Taco and Barley Mac. Theyre destinations for the after-work drinking crowd, as well as places for friends to catch up or watch a big game. Parker says hed been looking for a way to not only fill seats during off-peak hours, but also put his businesses on the map as places to have a bite in addition to an adult beverage.

Related: Why This Restaurant Chain Has Started Using VR to Train Employees

Hed partnered with a couple of discount app startups in the early years, but he didnt see big returns. Nascent companies would often approach him with a pitch for his restaurants to be among their first test users, which was a difficult sell.

There are so many apps out there that are trying to launch in restaurants and bars. You really become almost numb to them, because so many people are hitting us up, Parker says, adding, And any time you do anything with discounts, it needs to be carefully thought out and understood how it affects all parts of the restaurant, from the service staff needing to know how it works and applying it, to what a reasonable expectation is in how it should perform and, obviously, how it impacts the bottom line.

Thats why, when Spotluck, a dining discount app that combines dynamic pricing with gamification by spinning a wheel, came knocking two years ago, Parker was skeptical. By that point, however, Spotluck had been around for more than a year and had already gained some traction in the Washington, D.C., area. He decided to give it a spin.

The fix

Spotluck sets itself apart from other discount startups because it employs dynamic pricing. Its premise is that eating at a restaurant on a sunny Friday evening shouldnt cost the same as eating there on a rainy Tuesday at 2 p.m. when foot traffic is low to nonexistent. Its software offers discounts that fluctuate based on day, time, weather and restaurant occupancy.

Its almost like a Hotels.com of restaurants, Parker says. People can really bargain shop and they can feel like theyre getting a good deal, it works well for the business and everyones happy.

Users download the free app and have the opportunity to spin a virtual wheel once a day. The wheel lands on a local restaurant and offers a discount up to 35 percent off. Landing on a discount doesnt guarantee a diner a reservation at that establishment, but to avoid overcrowding, Spotluck is programmed not to drive too many users to one place at one time. Discounts are available on an on-demand basis and cannot be saved -- they have to be used during that same day before conditions change. Diners also cant get the maximum discount at a restaurant if theyve claimed it in the past, but they can get lower discounts for their subsequent visits.

Related: When This Company Stopped Selling Directly, Its Customer Base Increased by 700 Percent

Merchants that use Spotluck are also able to track basic data about users, including gender, age and zip code. If users land on a discount they dont want to use, they can opt for 10 percent off at another participating restaurant nearby, and the app notifies restaurants when users do this so they can reflect upon why a competitor might have been more enticing.

Theres a one-time nominal sign-up fee of $150 to $300 for each restaurant, and every time the platform inspires a user to dine there, the restaurant pays Spotluck just $1. Getting people to stampede through the doors of participating restaurants is not the goal. The restaurants and Spotluck are playing the long game.

The results

Parker says that in the last two years since he first implemented Spotluck at his restaurants, he has seen nearly 2,500 Spotluck users come through.

For us, those are real numbers, Parker says. Thats not like one or two people used the app and then came in. Thats not only a great way to generate revenue, but a great way to get a bunch of fresh faces in the restaurant that might hopefully come back as a customer another time.

Spotluck also lets him see how many repeat customers Spotluck inspires. Across all four of Parkers restaurants, 19 percent of those lured by Spotluck have returned for at least one subsequent visit.

He also says he appreciates the demographic data. Across his four restaurants, Spotluck has attracted diners from 125 different zip codes. We see that people are coming from all over and were not just getting local people. We also want to get more in touch with people locally, so by breaking down those numbers, we change up our marketing strategy based on that.

To Parker, though, this is just part of the value Spotluck provides.

The best part for us by far has been the user feedback. Its almost like were getting an internal Yelp page where we can get great feedback from our guests thats not public, whereas so many review sites are, Parker says, noting that most of the useful comments been related to employee performance.

Another take

While gamification can be successful, business owners need to execute the strategy correctly.

Games in and of themselves arent fixes, explains Yu-kai Chou, an author and international keynote speaker on gamification and behavioral design. Not all games are fun and engaging, he warns. Some are downright boring.

Only a few really well-designed games that appeal to psychology are successful, Chou says. You have to understand how everything flows together to create a cohesive, fun experience. Designing with empathy is very important.

You have to think about the user, customer or even employee youre designing for and what kind of motivation youre trying to inspire in them, Chou says. Nail down that goal first.

The next step is to make people take the desired action by appealing to their intrinsic motivation (e.g. internal satisfaction, wanting to learn, happiness). People are intrinsically motivated when they feel like they have meaningful choices, when they can attain social influence and when something is unpredictable or piques their curiosity, Chou says.

After you make your gamified solution engaging through these methods, only then should you try to appeal to extrinsic motivation -- such as savings or praise -- with elements such as a progress bar, notifications about milestones, points, badges, rewards or other types of extra power.

Spotluck users can also accumulate points when they dine, review and share their experience on social media. If they get 250 points in a 60-day period, they earn Spotlucker Gold status, earning three spins a day, access to Spotluck events and more.

Most companies do it the other way around. They start off with a boring task and they say, If you do this boring task 1,000 times, you get a badge or a reward, Chou says. That design can temporarily bridge certain activities, but it is not sustainable. And in fact, extrinsic motivation is shown to kill intrinsic motivation.

Related:

How 'Gaming' the System Helped This Business Get Thousands More Customers

When This Company Stopped Selling Directly, Its Customer Base Increased by 700 Percent

Why This Restaurant Chain Has Started Using VR to Train Employees



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Considering renting your home out on Airbnb? Youre not alone. This platform and others like it have grown rapidly over the last decade. In fact, Airbnb now has more listing across the globe than the top five hospitality brands combined.

Related: Here's How You Can Actually Make Money With YouTube

Of course, letting strangers into your home can be nerve wracking. Home rentals arent legal in every municipality and while rare, nightmare guests do exist. But a new tool can help you better weigh your options and see if the potential hassle might be worth the extra cash. While Airbnb has long offered a built-in estimator, that tool doesnt take into account factors such as season or demand.

Related: What You'll Really Earn on Uber, Airbnb and TaskRabbit Every Month

The startup Eliot & Me recently launched an AI-powered calculator that will give you a more accurate renting price for your Airbnb and a better sense for what you could make.

Image credit: eliotandme.com

After inputting your address, Eliot & Me will automatically pull other details about your home, like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the maximum number of guests it could accommodate. Using data from historical trends, local competition, the busiest and highly-demanded dates and more, Eliot & Me will present the average daily, weekly and monthly renting prices over the past year and offer rate suggestions.

The tool isnt just a fit for potential hosts. Business travelers looking to plan a trip can check if a unit is overpriced. It could also help them save money or hassle by traveling around busy seasons that might not always be obvious, especially when travelling to smaller cities across the country.

Related:

Cuanto podrias ganar con Airbnb? Esta calculadora te lo dira

How Much Could You Make on Airbnb? This Calculator Will Tell You.

Can Yield Management Change the Future of Food & Beverage industry?



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


An Iranian drone made several passes by the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, the second such incident in a week and described by the Navy as unsafe, unprofessional and dangerous.

The unmanned aerial vehicle made the passes by the Nimitz while the aircraft carrier was in international waters and carrying out operations with jets on its flight deck, said Navy Lt. Ian M. McConnaughey, a service spokesman in the Middle East. The drone, an Iranian QOM-1, moved in despite the Navy making repeated radio calls to establish communications, and it came within 1,000 feet of U.S. aircraft, he said.

"The failure of the Iranian UAV to utilize standard, internationally-mandated navigation lights during a nighttime approach of a U.S. aircraft carrier engaged in flight operations created a dangerous situation with the potential for collision, and is not in keeping with international maritime customs and laws," McConnaughey said in a statement.

The incident came five days after another QOM-1 drone came within 100 feet of a F/A-18E Super Hornet flying off the Nimitz. In that incident, the drone nearly collided with the Navy jet while it was in a holding pattern and preparing to land on the Nimitz, the Pentagon said. The Super Hornet maneuvered out of the way, creating lateral separation of about 200 feet and vertical separation of about 100.

The drone is called a Sadegh-1 by the Iranians and was unveiled in 2014. It can carry up to two missiles, but U.S. military officials said the aircraft was unarmed in the first incident last week. The Pentagon did not immediately disclose whether the drone was unarmed again Sunday.

McConnaughey said Monday that there have been 14 incidents between U.S. and Iranian aircraft this year in which the U.S. military labeled something the Iranians did as unsafe and unprofessional. But the QOM-1 drones have only become a problem recently, officials said.

"While the use of UAVs has become more prevalent in the region, these two occurrences are the only UAV-related unsafe and unprofessional interactions that we are tracking," McConnaughey said.

There also have been several altercations between the United States and Iran at sea. Most recently, a Navy patrol boat, the USS Thunderbolt, opened fired in July with two machine-gun bursts near an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel as it made a quick approach in the Persian Gulf, Pentagon officials said. The Iranian craft got within 150 yards of the Thunderbolt.
Photo by Linda Davidson for The Washington Post.

Medical marijuana regulators in Maryland on Monday authorized eight companies to grow the drug and four businesses to process the plant into medicine.

The decision at a meeting of the state's medical cannabis commission comes one year after the panel chose 15 growers and 15 processors from a large pool of applicants. The winners in that preliminary round were given one year to pass inspections, background checks and financial vetting in order to get final licenses to start operating. The companies approved Monday have all gone successfully through the vetting process.
Free market forces reliably do one thing very well: they crush weak companies. That is good for the economy and scary for entrepreneurs. Thankfully there are a million books for entrepreneurs about how to cope with failure, but that is not what this article is about.

Creative destruction is changing the on-demand landscape. Creative destruction is the innovation mechanism by which old business models and products are replaced by newer, more efficient models. Creative destruction replaced Blockbuster Videos with Netflix and digital cameras with smartphones.

Related: 10 Traits of the Most Innovative Entrepreneurs

But it is not always so obvious that the process is taking place. Most often, the transition is iterative, taking a million small, nearly invisible steps. I draw our attention to the on-demand landscape because just a few years into the market-wide adoption of the model, it is already experiencing significant alterations that are hard to miss.

Related: Is a Pivot Imminent? These 5 Signs Say Yes.

These are three changes to the on-demand business model to watch:

1. Employment

Americas love affair with Uber is on the rocks. That is not to say Uber is going away, but the days of eagerly waiting for a clean car with nice air freshener and free bottles of water to pull up to the curb seems like a distant memory. Now the phrase experiences may vary seems more appropriate.

Related: 5 Entrepreneurial Lessons From Uber on Its 5-Year Anniversary

One major contributing factor is that Uber uses independent contractors, people working on 1099 contracts, to deliver their service. That practice may be going away. Scot Wingo, founder and CEO of Spiffy, an on-demand car wash service that was recently funded with $5 million. Wingo W2s all of their workers, conducts background checks and trains them to deliver better service.

If you look at the short history of on-demand companies, you can see how much damage has been done to various brands because of subpar service, explains Wingo. It is hard to foster an engaged and professional workforce if they are independent contractors.

That is why many of the on-demand companies are changing the model and using full employment contracts. Some VCs are calling this a full-stack model.

2. Targeted consumers.

Many on-demand services have failed to understand who their best clients really are. That challenge is understandable. You can imagine anyone using any number of services -- house cleaning, food delivery, pet grooming -- and that is what an on-demand smartphone app is for. But just because it is an app that can be on anyones phone does not mean that everyone is equally likely to use it.

Related: 10 Tips to Find and Win the Best Clients

Modern on-demand companies are positioning their brands to micro-target consumers. Instead of food delivery for everyone, brands are focusing on corporate clients, events, specific kinds of cuisine, and so on. This makes them the logical go-to in specific situations and prevents them from being lost in the litany of apps that clutter smartphones.

3. Focus on service.

Of course, the worst thing that can happen to a brand is an extremely negative interaction between an employee and a consumer. While not worth describing in detail, the horror stories are out there. And those stories are difference makers for many companies fighting to survive in a very competitive field.

That is why one of the changes occurring in the on-demand world is an increased focus on who is providing the service. Background checks are ubiquitous in most service industries that require people to visit clients in their homes or at their place of work, says Wingo. And that is for good reason."

"The client trusts the company to send a reputable individual to perform a service. On-demand companies should operate the same way and increasingly, they are. The old breed of company that only wanted to run a sexy Uber-of-something type of company is quickly dying out.

These changes are happening just a few years into the lifecycle of on-demand-model companies. It could be a signal that major shakeups are coming or that the industry is simply finding its feet.

Related: 4 Essentials for Growing an On-Demand Company

Either way, the creative destruction that is taking place is good for consumers because it is empowering real entrepreneurs to build quality businesses that deliver real value. That is how the free market is supposed to work.

Related:

On-Demand Companies Disrupted Entire Industries. Now They Are Being Disrupted.

These #5 Women Entrepreneurs are doing Their Bit for the Society

These TV Actors Have a Taste for Entrepreneurship. Checkout their Ventures



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


SEATTLE - This city known for its rain just went a record-breaking 55 days without any.

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had not measured any precipitation since June 18 until the wee hours of Sunday morning, when it drizzled. Barely. Some sprinkles also allowed Portland to break its own 57-day dry streak.

Climate change is leading to more extreme weather, and no other region has experienced that so much over the last year as the Pacific Northwest. Seattle got 44.9 inches of rain between Oct. 1 and April 30, the wettest such period ever. That means, even with the record dry streak, 2017 remains above normal for rainfall.

America faces many grave challenges. The horrifying events in Charlottesville this weekend highlighted several, including racism and the enduring stain of America's original sin. Climate change is another.

For long stretches last week, I had no cell service as I hiked around some of the most beautiful places in the world on vacation - from Mount Hood to Mount St. Helens. That meant that I missed real-time updates on President Trump's brinkmanship with North Korea and his suggestion that "a military option" is on the table to deal with Venezuela. But while Trump was threatening to unleash "fire and fury" against Pyongyang, I was adjusting my planned route to avoid real fires in central Oregon.

Burn bans are in effect, and signs warn of extreme fire danger. Local TV stations are extensively covering the poor air quality. And there are widespread concerns that wildfires around the region might lead to smoky skies during next week's solar eclipse.

-- Fires happen every summer, but they've been getting worse in these parts. "Wildfires in the western half of the United States, including Oregon, have been burning hotter, faster and twice as large over the last 30 years and a good heap of the blame belongs to climate change brought on by humans," The Oregonian reported last October, citing a study by the University of Idaho and Columbia University. The researchers found that "rising temperatures due to climate change have increased fire activity and burned an additional 16,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Maryland, that otherwise would have gone unscorched."

"Since 1984, about 4 percent of the land in Oregon has burned per decade. The changing climate is likely to more than double the area in the Northwest burned by forest fires during an average year by the end of the 21st century," the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report published last summer. "Higher temperatures and a lack of water can also make trees more susceptible to pests and disease, and trees damaged or killed burn more readily than living trees. For example, climate change is likely to increase the area of pine forests in the Northwest infested with mountain pine beetles in the next few decades. Pine beetles and wildfires are each likely to decrease timber harvests. . . . The combination of more fires and drier conditions may expand deserts and otherwise change the landscape . . . Many plants and animals living in arid lands are already near the limits of what they can tolerate. Warmer temperatures and a drier climate would generally extend the geographic range of the Great Basin desert."

-- The Pacific Northwest has also been experiencing record heat this month. "Salem, Oregon, topped its previous record streak of 90-degree-plus highs of 10 days set in 1967 and 1938 by reaching 13 days in a row. Oregon's capital city averages just 17 such days in a year, but has already recorded 23 this year," notes Jonathan Erdman, a senior meteorologist for the Weather Channel. "Spokane, Washington, has broken its record 90-degree-plus high streak of 14 days that stood since 1894, when Grover Cleveland was president. . . . The first nine days of August were the hottest such period on record in Seattle, Portland . . . Eugene, Oregon, and Yakima, Washington, according to data compiled by the Southeast Regional Climate Center."

Ironically, it would have been a few degrees hotter over the past few weeks if not for all the smoke from the forest fires, including some big ones in British Columbia. The haze reflects sunlight back into the atmosphere.

-- This is all happening as the Trump administration moves to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and rolls back Obama-era environmental rules. "A climate report based on work conducted by scientists in 13 federal agencies is under active review at the White House, and its conclusions about the far-reaching damage already occurring from global warming are at odds with the Trump administration's views," The Post's Steven Mufson reported last week. "The report, known as the Climate Science Special Report, finds it is 'extremely likely' that more than half of the rise in temperatures over the past four decades has been caused by human activity - in contrast to Trump Cabinet members' views that the magnitude of that contribution is uncertain. The draft report, which has undergone extensive review, estimates that human impact was responsible for an increase in global temperatures of 1.1 to 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1951 to 2010."

In Washington State, Oregon and Idaho specifically, the government report says that the average annual temperature has already gone up 1.51 degrees since 1901-1960 and is projected to rise another 4.67 degrees by midcentury and 8.51 degrees by the end of the century if carbon pollution continues unabated. "Extreme rainfall has increased 3 percent since the first half of the 20th century and is projected to go up 19 percent by the end of the century if carbon pollution continues unabated," the AP reported last week in its story on the draft. "If carbon emissions are somewhat reduced it would be 10 percent."

-- Almost every day, there are alarming new data points about the effects of climate change. Often these stories get short shrift because of whatever Trump tweeted that morning. Here are three examples that have appeared in The Post since just the start of this month:

"A flood of problems: Peru's glaciers have made it a laboratory for adapting to climate change. It's not going well."

"Study finds climate change altering Europe's river floods."

"59,000 farmer suicides in India over 30 years may be linked to climate change, study says."

-- The Post's Tim Craig has an important story from Montana on the front page of Monday morning's paper about conservative ranchers trying to get federal help after the state's largest wildfire in nearly three decades: "Hundreds of miles of meadows and scrub grass that feed tens of thousands of beef cattle are gone, replaced by the charred soil and smoldering prairie dog burrows . . . But after the massive multimillion-dollar firefight, another battle has emerged in the wide open spaces where there is often distrust of the government: What should the federal role be in helping Montana's livestock industry respond to, and recover from, the blaze. . . . After a lightning storm sparked the blaze July 19, FEMA's initial denial of the state's general request for disaster assistance while the fire was raging angered local officials . . . Montana's congressional delegation pressured FEMA to reverse its decision, and the agency says it agreed to compensate the state through its Fire Management Assistance Program four days later. . . .

"Local officials across the United States worry that it is becoming more difficult to secure help from FEMA for all sorts of natural disasters. Since January, members of Congress and state officials have protested initial FEMA denials following a tornado outbreak in Louisiana, flooding in North Carolina, and snowstorms in Pennsylvania and Oregon. . . . The Trump administration has been hinting that it might limit federal spending on disaster relief and preparation, and FEMA is considering whether to draft regulations to shift more responsibility for rebuilding to the states."

---

With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve
President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum Monday afternoon that will likely trigger an investigation into China's alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property, a measure that could eventually result in a wide range of penalties as the administration seeks a new way to deal with what it calls Chinese violations of the rules of international trade.

"The theft of intellectual property by foreign countries costs our nation millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars each and every year," Trump said, as he signed the memo surrounded by trade advisers and company executives. "For too long, this wealth has been drained from our country while Washington has done nothing... But Washington will turn a blind eye no longer."

Officials said the memorandum would direct their top trade negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, to determine whether to launch an investigation. The inquiry would give the president broad authority to retaliate if it finds that China is compromising U.S. intellectual property.

But senior White House officials said in a call with reporters Saturday that the investigation could take up to a year to conclude and that it was premature to say whether it would result in tariffs against China, a negotiated settlement or another outcome.

Despite the uncertainties, company executives and politicians widely greeted the investigation as an effort to address a problem that has bedeviled U.S. companies for decades: how to access the Chinese market without ceding their intellectual property to Chinese companies that might use it against them in the future.

It's an issue that has persistently troubled U.S. high technology industries of all kinds -- with companies disputing treatment in fields ranging from nuclear power to automobiles to telecom.

U.S. businesses have been hesitant to speak out about the issue for fear of drawing reprisal from the Chinese, negative press coverage or cyber security attacks. But privately, many American business leaders express frustration with a Chinese system that coerces them into transferring valuable U.S. intellectual property to Chinese companies, or allows it to be stolen outright.

China's Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday morning voiced "grave concern" over Trump's move to initiate an investigation into allegations that China has been "practicing intellectual infringement." The ministry stated that China will not sit on its hands "if the U.S.'s action inflicts damages on the bilateral trading relationships."

China has long required U.S. firms in many industries to form joint ventures with Chinese partners and manufacture some goods inside the country. Although the system forces U.S. companies to transfer some of their valuable know-how to Chinese partners that could become competitors in the future, U.S. companies including Microsoft and General Motors have made such deals to gain access to China's valuable market of nearly 1.4 billion people and a booming middle class.

Under a new Chinese cybersecurity law, technology firms including Amazon.com and Apple are required to store users' data within Chinese borders and turn over source code and encryption software to the government, potentially giving the Chinese government a back door into private data and proprietary technologies. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

U.S. companies also complain that China's enforcement of intellectual property violations remains lax and that theft of trade secrets through malware, phishing and cybermercenaries is rampant. Roughly 70 percent of software in use in China is pirated, though this figure is down from recent years, according to the Software Alliance, a trade group.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies have been pouring billions of dollars of investments into cutting-edge defense and technology firms around the world, including in Silicon Valley. The country has launched an initiative, called "Made in China 2025," which seeks to propel its companies to dominate high-tech industries including robotics, aerospace equipment, new energy vehicles and biopharmaceuticals in the next eight years.

While U.S. industry remains the most technologically advanced in the world, China is rapidly catching up. Some, such as Randolph Kahn, a consultant and adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law, say this could be detrimental for the U.S. economy. A 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce found that intellectual property accounted for nearly 40 percent of the U.S. economy in 2014.

"To the extent that we're not able to protect that, you're sacrificing millions or tens of millions of U.S. jobs, and U.S. companies should care a great deal about that," Kahn said.

In an emailed response early Sunday morning, the Chinese government denied the allegations and implied it might challenge a U.S. action in the World Trade Organization. "We want to emphasize that the Chinese government has always set great store by [intellectual property] protection and made achievements that are for all to see. Any trade measures to be taken by WTO members must conform to WTO rules," a press office spokesman wrote.

The administration's investigation, which is being carried out under a legal statute known as Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, is likely to have broad support across political parties. On Aug. 2, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to Lighthizer urging the U.S. trade representative to investigative forced technology transfer policies and take action to stop them.

But some Democrats criticized the measure for not going far enough. "President Trump's pattern continues: Tough talk on China, but weaker action than anyone could ever imagine. To make an announcement that they're going to decide whether to have an investigation on China's well-documented theft of our intellectual property is another signal to China that it is O.K. to keep stealing," Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D.-N.Y.. said in a statement Saturday.

A White House official said the measure had the support of Silicon Valley and areas damaged by trade under past administrations, such as the Rust Belt. "A lot gets said about the internal divisions in the White House on trade and economic policy, but this is an issue that has total unanimity inside the White House, in terms of this being something we want to address," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the White House's internal affairs.

Jamil Jaffer, the founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason University Law School and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the announcement was an important step toward fighting the "serious economic threat" of cyber theft and forced technology transfer.

"The reality is that U.S. government has long known about these aggressive Chinese efforts but until today has been reticent to consider serious trade measures," Jaffer said.

While the Obama administration also worked to combat Chinese cybercrime, the Trump administration appears to be trying to take a markedly different tack.

On his first Monday in office, Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country trade deal that the Obama administration saw as its key method of pressuring China on trade. The deal, which did not include China, had strict rules for intellectual property and it would have required Beijing to change certain laws and practices to join the pact.

The Trump administration, in contrast, has shown a preference for using unilateral measures, like the Section 301 investigation, which allow the United States to act without other countries or the World Trade Organization. Trump, Lighthizer and others in the administration have said that existing international trade rules under the WTO haven't been sufficient in policing these actions from China.

Section 301 was often used during the Reagan administration, when Lighthizer served as deputy U.S. trade representative, said Chad Bown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute. But other countries criticized such measures for making the United States the "police, prosecutor, judge and jury," he said.

Measures such as Section 301 have been used sparingly since 1995, when the United States joined the WTO and promised to settle its trade disputes through the international organization, Bown said.

In a call Saturday, senior White House officials did not specify whether the administration's actions would be taken under WTO rules or potentially violate them.

The officials also said that the trade action had no connection with the rising security threat from North Korea, which last week threatened a strike on the U.S. territory of Guam.

Yet analysts said the threat of trade action could potentially be a source of leverage over China, North Korea's only major ally. Trump has repeatedly said that the United States would consider extending better trade terms to China in return for help on North Korea.

The Chinese say their ability to influence Pyongyang's erratic government is limited. But while some in the Chinese government view North Korea as a dangerous distraction from Beijing's bigger role of seeking global leadership, many also see the country as an important geostrategic buffer between China and the U.S.-allied South Korea.

- - -

The Wadshington Post's Ashley Parker in Washington and Simon Denyer in Beijing contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump told Fox News he is "seriously considering" issuing a pardon for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last month of criminal contempt for ignoring a judge's order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

Trump told the news outlet during a conversation in Bedminster, New Jersey, that the pardon could come quickly, perhaps in a matter of days. The news outlet reported the conversation on its website Monday.

"I might do it right away, maybe early this week. I am seriously thinking about it," Trump said, according to Fox News. He said Arpaio was a "great American patriot" who had "done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration."

"Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?" Trump said, according to Fox News. "He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesn't deserve to be treated this way."

Arpaio, whose extreme stance and tactics on illegal immigration made him a household name, was convicted of criminal contempt last month by a federal judge in Arizona. He faces up to six months in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 5. Jack Wilenchik, Arpaio's attorney, said after Arpaio was convicted that the former sheriff would appeal to get a jury trial, and that the judge's conclusion was "contrary to what every single witness testified in the case."

"Joe Arpaio is in this for the long haul, and he will continue his fight to vindicate himself, to prove his innocence, and to protect the public," Wilenchik said.

Wilenchik did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment Monday. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately answer an email seeking comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman said she was not aware of the president's remarks but would wait until action was taken before commenting.

Arpaio told Fox News, "I would accept the pardon because I am 100 percent not guilty."

Arpaio, 85, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, has long been an advocate for Trump and spoke in support of him at the Republican National Convention in July. The men seem to share the same worldview when it comes to illegal immigrants and using harsh tactics against criminals or suspected criminals. Arpaio is well known in part for forcing his inmates to wear pink underwear and sleep outdoors in his Tent City Jail.

The legal saga surrounding Arpaio dates back years. In 2011, as part of a lawsuit, the then-sheriff was enjoined by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow from detaining people he thought to be illegal immigrants, when they were not charged with any other crimes. Prosecutors alleged that he continued to do so, and last year, the Justice Department decided to pursue a criminal contempt-of-court case against him.

Critics said his policy of detaining people on mere suspicion was racist and illegal, and his refusal to honor a court's order to stop was brazen. Wilenchik has said that the judge's order enjoining Arpaio was "not clear," and suggested that Arpaio was merely doing what others do routinely: turning over those in the country illegally to the U.S. Border Patrol.
TOKYO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to take a step back from the brink of nuclear war Tuesday, when state media reported that he would "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees."

But, as is often the case with North Korea, the message was mixed: Kim was inspecting the missile unit tasked with preparing to strike near Guam, and photos released by state media showed a large satellite image of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam on the screen beside the leader.

"The U.S. should stop at once arrogant provocations against the DPRK and unilateral demands and not provoke it any longer," the North Korean leader told his missile unit, according to a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency published Tuesday.

If "the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity," Kim continued, North Korea would "make an important decision as it already declared," he said.

Kim was visiting the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, the elite missile unit that - according to state media - is finalizing preparations to launch ballistic missiles into the Pacific Ocean near the American territory of Guam. A decision was due this week, a week during which the Kim regime is celebrating the ruling family with huge propaganda displays in North Korea.

Kim "praised the KPA Strategic Force for drawing up a close and careful plan . . . and examined the firing preparations for power demonstration," the report said.

"He said that he wants to advise the U.S., which is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula into the touch-and-go situation, running helter-skelter, to take into full account gains and losses with clear head whether the prevailing situation is more unfavorable for any party," the report quoted Kim as saying.

This came just hours after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told South Korean leaders Monday that the United States was ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities to deal with North Korea.

But Gen. Joseph Dunford, speaking in Seoul, just 30 miles south of the border with North Korea, stressed that diplomacy and sanctions were the first plan of attack.

"The military dimension today is directly in support of that diplomatic and economic effort," Dunford told reporters after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul.

"It would be a horrible thing were a war to be conducted here on the peninsula, and that's why we're so focused on coming up with a peaceful way ahead," he said, according to Stars and Stripes.

"Nobody's looking for war," the Marine general said, according to the newspaper. But he added that the military's job was to provide "viable military options in the event that deterrence fails."

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday afternoon in Washington that it will be "game on" with North Korea if it hits the United States, including Guam, but he left it much more ambiguous what will happen if Pyongyang decides to shoot missiles near Guam, without attempting to hit the U.S. island territory.

"That becomes an issue that we take up, and it's however the president chooses," Mattis said. "You can't make all of those kinds of decisions in advance. There is a host of things going on. There are allies we consult with, as the president made very clear last week when he talked about our allies repeatedly in his statement."

Mattis added that he needs a "certain amount of ambiguity on this, because I'm not going to tell [Kim] what I'm going to do in each case." But he warned pointedly: "You don't shoot at people in this world unless you want to bear the consequences."

Dunford was on the first stop of a trip that will also take him to Beijing on Tuesday and then to Tokyo, three capitals that do not want war to break out on their doorsteps.

China, meanwhile, signaled a potentially important break with North Korea as part of international sanctions. Beijing announced Monday that it would ban imports of iron ore, iron, lead and coal from North Korea, cutting an important economic lifeline for Pyongyang. The ban will take effect from Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce announced.

In the meetings with the South Korean president and other top officials Monday, Dunford appeared to offer a modified version of the threats that President Trump has issued over the past week.

Trump last week warned North Korea that it would face "fire and fury" if it tried to attack the United States or its allies. Then on Friday, after North Korea threatened to launch missiles toward Guam, Trump warned the regime that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded."

But top administration officials appear focused on trying to play down the prospect of nuclear war. Appearing on Sunday-morning talk shows, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, "An attack from North Korea is not something that is imminent." National security adviser H.R. McMaster said, "We're not closer to war than a week ago."

"The object of our peaceful pressure campaign is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote in a joint op-ed article published by the Wall Street Journal. "The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone. We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang."

Officials in the South Korean government have voiced surprise and confusion at Trump's tough talk of the past week.

Moon, elected as South Korea's president in May on a pledge to adopt a more conciliatory approach to North Korea, urged the United States on Monday to give diplomacy a chance.

"Peace will not come to the Korean Peninsula by force. Although peace and negotiation are painful and slow, we must pursue this path," Moon told his advisers ahead of his meeting with Dunford.

Calling the U.S.-South Korea military partnership "an alliance for peace," Moon said he was "confident that the U.S. will respond calmly and responsibly to the current situation." He even suggested that the gap between the allies was not large, as both are focused on peace.

Seoul, a vibrant metropolitan area of 25 million people, lies within range of North Korea's conventional artillery, stationed just across the border 30 miles to the north. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, including more than 28,000 U.S. troops, also live in South Korea.

After the meeting, Moon's spokesman said the president had "denounced" North Korea for disturbing the peace in the region with its repeated missile launches.

"The president noted the current security conditions on the Korean Peninsula constituted a more serious, real and urgent threat than ever created by the advancement in North Korea's nuclear and missile technologies," said spokesman Park Soo-hyun.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries next week are set to start their annual fall exercises, in which they practice responding to a North Korean invasion or the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang. North Korea always strongly objects to the drills, viewing them as a pretext for war.

Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said the exercises would go ahead as planned, starting Aug. 21. "The exercises remain important to us, and we'll continue to move forward," he said, according to Stars and Stripes.

- - -

Lamothe reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Simon Denyer in Beijing contributed to this report.
CARTAGENA, Colombia - Mike Vice President Pence opened his week-long trip to South and Central America here Sunday with a stern message for neighboring Venezuela's autocratic government to end "the tragedy of tyranny" and to restore democracy.

Pence vowed to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Venezuela and work with Colombia and other regional democracies to isolate the government of President Nicolas Maduro. He also sought to reassure the region after President Donald Trump warned last week of a "possible military option" in Venezuela, a comment that stoked anti-American sentiment by reviving dark memories of U.S. interventionism on the continent.

"Venezuela is sliding into dictatorship, and as President Trump has said, the United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles," Pence said.

Noting that the United States reserves "many options for Venezuela," Pence added, "President Trump is a leader who says what he means and means what he says, but the president sent me here to continue to marshal the unprecedented support of countries across Latin America to achieve by peaceable means the restoration of democracy in Latin America, and we believe it is achievable by those means."

Pence's comments came at a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday evening at the oceanfront presidential compound in Cartagena, where Santos later hosted Pence and his wife, Karen, for a casual dinner.

Colombia is one of the United States' closest allies in the Western Hemisphere, yet, as he stood next to Pence, Santos denounced Trump's threat of military action, and told the visiting vice president that such a possibility "shouldn't even be considered" and would be "unacceptable."

"Every country in Latin America would not favor any form of military intervention, and that is why we are saying we are intent on looking into other measures, some of which are already underway and others to be implemented in the future," Santos said.

Pence's six-day visit to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama is expected to be dominated by the turmoil in Venezuela, although he also is planning to highlight trade and security partnerships throughout the hemisphere.

Maduro's autocratic government seized power last month and has cracked down on dissent, precipitating an economic collapse and drawing international scorn.

Pence said he and Santos discussed during a private meeting additional economic sanctions and other measures to increase pressure on Venezuela.

Trump's bellicose threat, delivered Friday from his private golf course in New Jersey, generated banner news headlines across Latin America because it harked back to a generation of American imperialism.

"It is one thing for the U.S. president or vice president to discuss sanctioning the regime and our support for the return of democracy," said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "It is something else to discuss U.S. intervention, which only strengthens Maduro's hand and makes it harder for other regional countries to work with us."

Pence arrived in South America to add his voice to the coalition of nations trying to isolate Venezuela and pressure Maduro to change course. In a watershed development, 11 Latin American countries and Canada signed a hard-hitting resolution last week that calls the Venezuelan government illegitimate and demands a return to democracy.

"Vice President Pence now needs to assure regional allies that the United States respects their diplomatic efforts and will not engage in unilateral measures that are guaranteed to be counterproductive," said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America and a Venezuela expert at Tulane University.

Pence plans to spend less than 24 hours in Colombia. He will fly midday Monday to Buenos Aires, where he will meet Tuesday with Argentina's president, Mauricio Macri, and give a speech about regional trade and security partnerships to representatives of the Argentine and Latin American business community.

Pence then will visit Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday, where he will meet with President Michelle Bachelet and deliver remarks that evening to representatives of the Latin and Central American business community.

On Thursday and Friday, Pence will visit Panama City, where he will meet with President Juan Carlos Varela and tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.

This is Pence's first visit to South America, although he has previously talked with the four leaders, either in person, such as at the White House, or by phone. Karen Pence plans to meet with art therapists and observe art therapy sessions in some of the countries, as well as participate in cultural activities.

A senior administration official said the four countries the vice president will visit are "key partners and friends of the United States" - in marked contrast to Venezuela. Although the Venezuelan crisis is top of mind, Pence plans to highlight other issues as well.

For instance, Pence pressured Santos to curb the flow of drugs into the United States, including reducing the surging levels of coca production in Colombia, which he called "our greatest concern" about the country.

"This worsening crisis requires swift action to protect the people of both our countries," Pence said, standing next to Santos. "The drug trade is a wellspring of violence, crime and corruption victimizing the Colombian people. In the United States, illegal drugs coming from Colombia have poisoned our children, torn apart our families and devastated too many communities. Mr. President, this must end, and this must end soon."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday that the fatal car attack in Charlottesville meets the definition of domestic terrorism, echoing calls from Republican and Democratic lawmakers and former federal officials to characterize the violence as terror.

Since a car bulldozed through counterprotesters on Saturday, questions have swirled about whether the attack was a hate crime, terrorism or both, a determination that could impact whether federal charges follow a local prosecution in Virginia.

The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into the incident, which Sessions on Monday called "an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack." Sessions has also vowed that federal authorities will seek "the most serious charges that can be brought."

What those charges will be remains to be seen, given the nature of an attack that experts said might straddle the line between a hate crime and terrorism.

Police said James Alex Fields Jr., 20, drove a car into activists in Charlottesville on Saturday, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people. Local prosecutors charged him with murder, malicious wounding and hit-and-run.

While Fields has long sympathized with Nazi views, former federal prosecutors and investigators said his background did not necessarily mean he will face federal hate-crime charges because that depends on what officials conclude might have motivated him.

"If you're a racist and you kill someone, that doesn't mean it's a hate crime," said Timothy J. Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney in the Western District of Virginia, which encompasses Charlottesville. "There has to be an explicit connection between the two for it to be a civil rights offense."

Investigators will coordinate with local prosecutors to try to find any "linkage between the ideology and the criminal act," said Heaphy, who lives in Charlottesville. Such an investigation will include poring over Fields's history and social media accounts as well as interviewing people who know him. "Was this an impulsive act, or was it more intentionally directed at a particular group?"

Bill Nettles, the former U.S. attorney in South Carolina, said what could tilt any federal prosecution toward domestic terrorism versus a hate crime would be if investigators determine Fields was angry because of the counterprotesters and decided to ram them rather than specifically going after a group covered under hate-crimes law.

"For something to be a hate crime, it has to be more than you hate somebody," Nettles said. "It's got to be you hate somebody that is one of the groups of people, the narrowly defined groups of people, contained in the hate crimes statute."

Terrorism, by comparison, would entail someone becoming enraged by counterprotesters and using their car as a weapon against them, Nettles said.

"The point of terrorism is to spread fear," he said. "The point of a hate crime is to inflict hate on one of the specific groups that is narrowly defined in the statute."

Nettles said he agreed with Sessions that based on information available so far, the attack would appear to be domestic terrorism, adding that the investigation could also determine that it was both a terror attack and a hate crime.

The investigation could also find that the attack was meant to send a specific message, because a key part of terrorism is trying to send a message, said David Gomez, a former FBI counter-terrorism official and Los Angeles police officer.

"It goes back to motivation," Gomez said. "Either way, a hate crime in court, a prosecutor has to prove motivation, and for terrorism, he has to prove motivation. So for the investigator, they say, 'How do I prove that?'"

There have been cases that prosecutors determined were motivated by hate as well as terror. In New York earlier this year, where a white man from Baltimore stabbed a black man in what police say he admitted was a racially motivated assault, local prosecutors charged the attacker with murder as an act of terrorism and murder as a hate crime.

The violence in Virginia has prompted a torrent of criticism for President Trump, who for two days declined to denounce the white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville by name. On Monday, after mounting condemnation, Trump specifically denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. He also spoke of Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed when the car drove through the crowd, and the two Virginia state troopers killed in a helicopter crash while patrolling the Charlottesville area Saturday.

The Justice Department has had counter-terrorism prosecutors and FBI counter-terrorism agents involved in the case since Saturday, according to a spokeswoman. The FBI, Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia opened the civil rights probe into "the deadly vehicular incident" in Charlottesville on Saturday, federal officials said in a statement.

Labeling an attack as domestic terrorism can give the federal government increased authority to investigate what happened, as Susan Hennessey, a former attorney at the National Security Agency, wrote for Lawrfare in 2015.

Whether any potential federal charges following the Charlottesville attack could mention domestic terrorism is another question. While domestic terrorism is defined federally as something aimed at intimidating a civilian population or trying to influence government policy, Sarah Isgur Flores, the Justice Department spokeswoman, noted Monday that there is no specific federal charge for domestic terror.

"It matters a lot for public confidence in government and our ability to respond to attacks like this," Heaphy said. "If this is domestic terrorism, if this is hate based, it has to be called out as such."

He added: "It may not make a difference for the number of days this person may spend incarcerated, but it makes a huge difference for . . . our ability to hold people accountable for what they did."

Some domestic terrorism probes have led to other types of charges that carry criminal penalties. Last year in Kansas, after the FBI conducted a domestic terrorism investigation of a militia group, federal authorities charged three men they said were plotting attacks on Muslim immigrants with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. That charge came because the men plotted to bomb an apartment complex that housed a mosque and Somali people, officials said.

After some cases, including the Charleston church massacre in 2015, questions have swirled regarding what federal authorities will and will not describe as terrorism.

"The line between a hate crime and terrorism would fall into this space of, is there a political motive?" said J.M. Berger, a fellow with the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism at The Hague who studies extremism and terrorism.

Berger said it has long been an issue that there has not been an objective standard for examining and categorizing extremist threats and behaviors.

"The major problem we have in this realm is that there's a de facto assumption that when a Muslim does it, it's terrorism," Berger said Monday, describing the way extremist attacks and plots are characterized. "And when a white guy does it, it's mental illness or something else. Unsurprisingly, reality is more complicated than the categories we create for these things."

Berger said the Charlottesville violence could be a tipping point in the discussion about what is labeled terrorism, saying that there "is a critical mass of both officials and people in the public referring to this attack as terrorism." He noted that this includes politicians calling the attack terrorism who might not have done that before.

A part of how federal authorities proceed in Charlottesville might focus on what the Justice Department wants to say to the public about what happened, said Nettles, the former federal prosecutor who was involved in the Dylann Roof prosecution in Charleston before resigning last year. He said charging decisions by prosecutors in cases like this are mean to punish the person who committed the crime.

"But in cases like this, you do want to send a message to the community," Nettles said.

Roof was convicted of hate crimes for killing nine black parishioners in a Charleston church. He was sentenced to death earlier this year.
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Erin Orrison went to Kohls on a mission: to get her daughter some new clothes for school at a decent price.

We wanted to get here early so we dont have to wait in line. Because in a few hours its going to get crazy, said Erin Orrison at the Kohls on Bandera Road on Sunday morning.

Each year, families flock to the racks to buy back-to-school supplies and clothes for their children while taking advantage of the statewide sales tax-free weekend. this year, Texas is one of 16 of states hosting the weekend. The dates are set by the legislature each year; this years ended on Sunday.

It felt like Black Friday in here yesterday, said Deanna Morys, the store manager at the Kohls.

She said they see double the number of customers walk through her store during tax-free weekends. According to the states comptroller, shoppers save about $8 on every $100 they spend  not a huge deal, but it helps, Orrison said.

Total back-to-school spending in the U.S., for both schools and universities, is projected to reach about $84 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation. Thats a 10 percent increase from last year.

Families with children in elementary through high school will likely spend $687.72 each, totaling $29.5 billion nationwide, according to the NRF.

Jennifer Gemmill said she was glad Texas partakes in the tax-free weekend tradition because it helps families out in a small way. She wasa shopping at Kohls to buy gifts for three upcoming birthday parties.

I dont need an excuse to go shopping, but here I am, she sighed.

Meanwhile, Orrison was finding it increasingly difficult to complete her mission her daughter Mallori couldnt decide on what clothes she liked.

Oh, the joy of shopping with a preteen, Orrison sighed.

Her middle school-aged daughter giggled mischievously beside her.

She has no opinion on her clothing, Orrison said. The only opinion she does have is if I pick it up, then she doesnt like it.
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Boiling, baking, frying  whichever verb you use, its clear that everyone feels like food near a flame during what the Alamo City has come to know as summer.

Theres just too much summer, too much heat, said Emily New as she waded in the pool at San Pedro Springs Park on Sunday. This weather seems to go on and on, like it never ends.

After several days of 100-degree weather, the San Antonians brave enough to venture out from air-conditioned homes have headed straight to water. Sunday was the San Pedro pools last day open this year. But to the dismay of many, this summer of brutal heat beneath a beating sun is far from over.

Sunday reached a high in the low 90s, a slight respite from the week before. But the triple digits  though not record-breaking  could pick back up again this week, according to the National Weather Service.

More Information Tips for staying cool Drink water Drink sports drinks with electrolytes Wear light-colored clothing, ideally cotton Take frequent breaks in the shade or air conditioning Shield windows in homes and cars from heat Monitor yourself and others See More Collapse

High pressure is going to sit over Central Texas and leave us hot and dry, said Aaron Treadway, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office in New Braunfels.

He said late July to mid-August typically is the hottest time of year for San Antonio, and this year is proving to be right on track. Today is supposed to soar to 100 degrees, with a heat index of 104, and Tuesday is expected to reach 99 degrees, with a 105-degree heat index.

Typically, the heat drops a little to the mid-90s toward the end of August, Treadway said, but things dont start to really cool off until the end of September.

But despite the many complaints about the heat, there still are those who are undeterred.

Eloy Mena, who has lived in San Antonio his whole life, went fishing at Espada Park on Sunday, like usual.

Im not worried about the heat. Im used to it, he said. His brother, David Mena, was in the same boat.

Now, I dont like to work in the heat. But I can fish in the heat any day, David Mena said.

But just because you grew up here doesnt mean youre immune to the heat, said Woody Woodward, public relations manager for the San Antonio Fire Department.

His message to San Antonians: Dont forget youre still a human being.

Even though we always suffer through the heat here, dont forget you can still get heatstroke, Woodward warned. It doesnt matter how long youve lived in San Antonio. Your body does not become more tolerant  its just a personal comfort issue. But heatstroke is serious. You want to watch out for warning signs.

Signs that someone could be getting heatstroke include paleness, headaches or feeling nauseous or dizzy. If its bad enough, it can be fatal. Woodward said residents should be aware of their symptoms and look out for others.

San Antonios homeless population in particular should be looked out for, said Shanna Salazar, operations manager for Haven for Hopes courtyard.

The homeless shelter has seen an increase in families coming to it during the weekends. It has opened its doors so an additional 250 people can sleep in its facilities. Overall, Salazar said, about 800 homeless people sleep either inside or outside in the courtyard each night.

They come in Friday, so were having to move things around to find room for them, because we really dont want them to stay in their car. Thats just a huge risk in this heat, Salazar said.

She encouraged residents to call Haven for Hope if they see a homeless person in distress from the heat.

Theyre medically fragile. Being homeless, theyre not getting the care they necessarily need over an extended time, she said. The majority of patients we see coming into Haven for Hope have a mental illness thats untreated, so they dont know how to take care of themselves the way you and I know how to.

The shelter has installed enormous fans and water stations throughout the courtyard, and ombudsman Ron Brown travels throughout the city each workday to give water to the homeless. Salazar recommends that residents carry an extra water bottle with them in case they come across someone who looks dehydrated.

There are a lot of tips out there for how to stay cool. For starters, experts recommend wearing loose and light-colored cotton clothing. Regularly carrying water bottles, taking frequent breaks from the sun, and shielding windows in homes and cars from the suns rays also are recommended.

And of course, jumping in the water always helps.

Back at Espada Park, Mena said one thing that does change during these dog days is that sometimes hell jump into the San Antonio River  even if its not the cleanest.

Nasty is fine. Ive never had a problem with nasty. The smell  yes. But not nasty, he said. We do what we have to do to stay cool. You just hold your beer above your head, and go in.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net
The man who was shot after allegedly assaulting two Midland County Sheriffs Office deputies early Saturday has been identified as 20-year-old Edwin Jordan Soto-Contreras, according to Sheriff Gary Painter.

Soto-Contreras was fingerprinted after he came out of surgery at Midland Memorial Hospital Saturday, according to a press release. Soto-Contreras was shot after he allegedly assaulted the deputies, who were responding to a call that a naked man wearing a cowboy hat was trying to enter vehicles about 2 miles was of Farm-to-Market Road 1788 and State Highway 158.
Plainview police are investigating a reported sexual assault that occurred about 4 p.m. Saturday in the 1300 block of Nassau. The crime was described as a strong armed rape.

--A residence in the 1400 block of Wayland was burglarized between 4-10:45 p.m. Thursday.

--A known person reportedly discharged a firearm at or in the direction of another about 6:30 p.m. Friday in the 100 block of Southwest Ninth Street. The crime is classified as deadly conducted by discharge of firearm.

--A residence in the 4100 block of West 16th was burglarized between 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 6 and 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10.

--A 34-year-old woman was held in Hale County jail Monday on $1,500 bond on a charge of interference with public duties. She was arrested about 10 p.m. Sunday in the 700 block of I-27 west frontage road.

--Property valued between $50 and $500 was stolen from the 2800 block of Lexington about 9:15 p.m. Friday.

--A 26-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Monday on $2,500 bond for fail to identify fugitive intent on giving false information. He is also held without bond on six active municipal warrants, for speeding (47 mph in a 35 mph zone), $252.20 fine; fail to yield at stop intersection, $212.95 fine; fail to maintain financial responsibility, $347.43 fine; violate promise to appear, $346.81 fine; and two for unrestrained child under 5 years of age, $328.55 fine on each count. He was arrested about 11 a.m. Sunday in the 1000 block of West Fifth Street.

--A 49-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Saturday on $2,500 bond for assault causing bodily injury family member. Bond had not been set on a charge of obstruction or retaliation of report of a crime. He was arrested about 4:50 p.m. Friday in the 1000 block of Martinez.

--A three-wheeled Schwinn bicycle valued between $100 and $750 was stolen from the 800 block of West Eighth between 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday.

--Property valued between $100 and $750 was stolen from the 600 block of West 27th between 9 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

--A 26-year-old woman was held in Hale County jail Friday on $1,500 bond for theft of service between $20 and $500. She was arrested about 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the 1200 block of South I-27.

--A 52-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Friday on $200 for public intoxication. He was arrested about 9:50 p.m. Thursday in the 600 block of West Fifth Street. A 31-year-old woman was arrested at the same time. She was held for unauthorized use of a vehicle. Bond was not reported.

--Property valued between $100 and $750 was stolen from the 1400 block of Wayland between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday.

--A vehicle reportedly was stolen from the 2000 block of West 20th between 4-6 p.m. Thursday.

--Property valued between $100 and $750 was stolen from the 1200 block of South I-27 on June 15. The crime was reported Thursday.

--A 37-year-old woman was held in Hale County jail Saturday on $2,500 bond on an active out-of-county warrant for assault causing bodily injury. She was arrested about 4:30 a.m. Friday in the 900 block of West Fifth Street.

--A vehicle was vandalized in the 2000 block of West 10th Street. The crime was reported about 11 a.m. Friday. Damage ranged between $2,500 and $30,000.

--A 53-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Monday without bond on active Justice of the Peace warrants for illegal burning and failure to appear. Outstanding fines are the charges are $550 and $350, respectively.

--A 32-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Monday on $2,500 bond for assault causes bodily injury family violence. He was arrested about 6:30 a.m. Sunday in the 900 block of Austin.
Captain Martin Krippner, born in Mantau, Bohemia, in 1817, is a controversial character.

He is described by various sources as entrepreneurial, educated, a family man, courageous, foolhardy, a social climber, an adventurer or an opportunist. He was certainly a man of natural ability and personal charm.

Puhoi, as a Bohemian settlement, would not have come into being without him.

Mrs Emily Krippner, an English woman, is consistently shown as a charming, kind, capable, industrious and lovable woman, who swept about her dirt-floor whare in elegant gowns.

These two met in Frankfurt, where Martin rose to the rank of Captain, second class, serving in the garrison. Emily was living with her sister after the death of their parents.

Encouraged by Emilys brother, who was the postmaster in Orewa, Emily and Martin, with their three sons, a daughter and a niece, emigrated to Auckland in 1859. Krippner quickly became well known in government and military circles where immigration and the development of the country would have been discussed. He was granted permission to organize a settlement of Bohemian people at Puhoi, with the promise of a 40 acre grant for each adult immigrant and a 20 acre grant for each child over five years. The scheme was very attractive to the farmers of Mantau who had no chance of owning their own land there. About 30 families took up the offer. Krippner was criticised for bringing them to the isolated, bush-clad, steep hills of Puhoi. He had greatly exaggerated the quality of the land.

Krippner arranged markets for the firewood, shingles, fence posts, fungus, tanekaha bark (used in the tanning industry) and charcoal gleaned from the bush. He arranged for the river to be cleared of snags, enabling ships to transport their produce from Puhoi

Krippner was offered a commission if he could get 50 men to enlist in the Third Regiment of the Waikato Militia. Many Puhoi men joined him, depleting the much-needed manpower in Puhoi. A number remained in the Waikato on land granted there, while Krippner himself returned to Orewa.

Krippner used his government contacts to get approval for more immigrants to settle from Bohemia and to obtain a grant for roadworks in the district. Puhoi men formed co-operative parties to tender for the work, thereby supplementing their income. Krippner offered to take care of their money. Some families claim they did not get it back; others give him credit for enabling them to save enough to buy more land.

The Bohemians were handicapped by their lack of English. Emily Krippner started a school in 1869. When the state school eventually opened, Krippner became headmaster, but the English he taught was strongly accented. Krippner was also Puhois postmaster, chairman of the Highway Board and served on the Rodney County Council.

By the 1880s, Puhoi was beginning to get on its feet and had outgrown its need for the Krippners, who were now both well into their 60s and were no longer capable of adequately performing their teaching duties. The Puhoi School Committee asked to have them replaced and moved them to a home they had built for them in Pulham Road, Warkworth.

Hence the founders of both Puhoi and Warkworth rest in the Anglican Cemetery at Warkworth.

Jenny Schollum, Puhoi Historical Society
The High Court has ordered the newly-opened Auckland Shooting Club in Makarau to produce a contaminants report. This follows concerns raised over the potential level of lead on the site from discharged ammunition.

The Vipassana Meditation Centre, which is located within two kilometres of the shooting club, challenged the granting of the Code of Compliance (CoC) by Auckland Council that allowed the range to be built. The judge upheld the CoC, but required the club to produce a report on potential lead contamination on the property. Once the results are known, Council will make a decision on whether or not resource consent is required for operation.

Club president Chris Gee is confident that this process will have no effect on the club.

We have done contaminants level testing already on site and the results are within the legal limits, Chris says. We have catchers in place behind the targets so most bullets dont reach the ground anyway and those that do, we clean up.

Neighbour and Keep the Peace in Makarau Valley committee member, Stu Finch, is concerned about the potential accuracy of the report.

It would be very easy to manipulate the outcome of that report, Stu says. There is a stream that runs close to the range that connects to a household water source so its a real concern.

Stu is also concerned about the noise levels produced by gunfire. Legally the noise level is acceptable, but its intrusive and I disagree with the method of measurement that takes an average noise level rather than a peak level. Its misleading because Makarau Valley is almost silent, which brings the average down.

Chris says he is comfortable with the operating noise levels as they are below the legal limit for the area and the club will make sure noise remains below the limit regardless of growth.
No further cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Wellsford after four patients tested positive at the Wellsford Health Centre early last week.

However, Coast to Coast Health spokesperson Dr Tim Malloy emphasised this morning that there was at present a delay between tests being conducted and the medical practice being notified of positive results.

This meant those who were tested in the last few days were not necessarily free of Covid-19, unless they had received notification of a negative test result.

Anyone who had been tested but had not had a negative test result should be in self-isolation.

Dr Malloy said that the number of people presenting for testing at the temporary Community Based Assessment Centre (CBAC), located in the car park of the Wellsford Health Centre, had reduced in recent days, particularly over the weekend.

He said it was impossible to draw any conclusions from the fact that he was unaware of any new cases of Covid-19.

We are a long way from being out of the woods. You cant read anything into such small numbers, he said.

The CBAC covered the area between Warkworth and the Brynderwyns, and was currently testing between 10 and 30 people each day.

Dr Malloy said at this stage, the CBAC was coping well with the numbers presenting. As long as this continued, it was unlikely that there would be a need for another proposed CBAC facility in Morrison Drive, Warkworth.

Speaking more generally about healthcare in the current crisis, Dr Malloy said he was grateful for the level of community cooperation in the current difficult climate.

He said most Coast to Coast consultations were being done by telephone and smaller clinics at Paparoa and Matakana had closed.

However, clinics at Wellsford, Mangawhai and Maungaturoto continued to operate. People could visit the clinics, if necessary, but would be screened, before being allowed to enter, to assess their Covid-19 risk.

Patients suspected of having Covid-19 would be directed to Wellsford for testing.
Ruth Munro

Brendon Hart

Businesses come and go as trends change, communities evolve and the economy fluctuates, but in any town there will always be a handful of shops that manage to weather the storms and stay the course.

In Warkworth, Rae Ward has been at the forefront of several successful businesses for 26 years, first at the Kowhai Dairy, then selling hats and accessories at Peggys, which moved to the main street 11 years ago as Not Just Hats.

She has seen a lot of changes in the towns retail scene since then, but believes the key to success is ultimately down to one thing.

The difference in a small town is personal service. The ability to listen to people, to have a chat and be interested, Rae says.

Ruth Munro, who has sold lingerie at Intimate Apparel for 18 years, agrees.

With business, its the service. You have got to give 100 per cent, know your product, have good stock, and know what youre talking about.

These days, however, the need to adapt to new challenges, such as the growth in online shopping, also plays a part. While Rae and Ruth are eschewing any major moves into computerisation due to approaching retirement, Brendon Hart, who has been with Harts Pharmacy for 17 years, is embracing technology, not only with a website and online sales, but also with a fully-automated robotic medicine sachet dispensing system.

Youve got to be adaptable, he says. You need to create your own point of difference. Were trying to niche ourselves; we dont want to be the same as everyone else, so decided to go with our own brand and be independent.

There are external factors, however, which no amount of flexibility can address, as Rae points out.

Parking is the main problem in town, she says. And because of the traffic in the summer I dont get people coming up for one-day trips anymore; theyre not going to sit in traffic for two hours.

Brendon agrees, and says sympathetic town planning is required. We understand that were part of Auckland, but were a village, a town that has a lot of good history, the river, great green spaces and a lot of character. It should be like Whangarei Basin, with shops, cafe and bar life, but we need parking.
A lack of parking has been identified as the major issue facing local business districts who are concerned that the problem can only get worse as the area grows.

Wellsford Promotions Association president Stef Railey says car parking spaces were taken when the Gull station was built and now Auckland Council is selling the carpark in Harrison Street.

One Warkworth Business Association manager Murray Chapman says people raise the issue of parking with him about three times a week.

There is no simple answer, but we probably need another floor on the Baxter Street carpark, Murray says.

Construction vehicles parking in Queen Street add to the problem, but we do all manage to park on the Big Day Out at the Kowhai Festival when the whole of Queen Street is closed.

Mangawhai Business Development Association chair Richard Gunson says the association has developed a town plan with Kaipara District Council, which includes more cycle connectivity to get people out of their cars and put less strain on road infrastructure.

It certainly is an issue that will affect the income of local businesses if we dont deal with it now, Richard says.

Another issue for businesses is competing with large franchise stores.

Big box retail kills small enterprises and our main street would die if they came to Wellsford, Stef says.

Murray agrees that care needs to be taken not to ruin the feel of a township that attracts visitors.

Richard believes large outlets will not approach Mangawhai in the near future and hopes when they do they can co-exist with the existing businesses.
The Morrison Low (ML) report on Auckland governance referred to by Mahurangi Matters in its previous issue is a sham. It is largely based on Auckland Council figures and thus imports many of their inefficiencies and extravagances, witnessed on a daily basis, into the costings of the options. It appears to have been orchestrated as a clumsy attempt to discredit any practical alternative to the status quo.

The proposed ML model for North Rodney, under the Local Government Commissions (LGC) guidance, is not even close to the model proposed by the Northern Action Group (NAG), which is based on the highly successful Thames Coromandel (TCDC) model. This clearly shows not only a decrease in rates, 10 times lower debt and higher service delivery but, above all, a much higher level of community involvement in affairs that affect them through the devolved empowerment philosophy.

Their Community Empowerment philosophy is one of the reasons TCDC is lean and efficient, and enjoys such a high level of community satisfaction. Unlike Auckland Council, which we all know is at the other end of the satisfaction scale.

Why wouldnt anyone choose something as attractive as that? Its an absolute no-brainer.

However, the LGC has refused to even look at such a model in its evaluation.

As far as we can tell, instead of being the independent, objective and impartial organisation required of them by legislation, LGC is working to ensure the failed not-so-super city is kept together at all costs to avoid embarrassing the government.

LGCs actions to date do not pursue the stated objectives of the process, to achieve improved local governance through engaging with the community. They are much more aligned with pursuit of a political agenda. Submitters have been ignored or shut out of the evaluation of alternatives.

NAG prepared 11 pages of questions on the Morrison Low report and had hoped to get some answers at a meeting with LGC and ML on Friday August 4. That meeting was deliberately structured and truncated to prevent participants from contributing to the analysis. Consequently, the very few questions asked did not receive satisfactory answers.

We have now put these questions in writing to LGC, but with a very limited two week timeframe currently imposed by LGC for comments, we are not confident we will get all the answers in sufficient time to make use of them. ML maintains its data is proprietary and thus deny interested parties the opportunity to scrutinise them.

Needless to say, we have become totally sceptical that LGC will fairly and objectively evaluate alternatives to ACs failed governance model in this reorganisation process. So we have decided to have our proposed model independently costed by a respected specialist in the field. This model (unlike the ML models) will be publicly and openly available for all to see and comment on or question.

We have also asked all the major political parties to commit to running our model against the status quo in an independent localised binding referenda.

That, at least, would be democratic.

So far, only New Zealand First has committed to such a referendum. We urge voters to keep that in mind when casting their vote in Septembers election if they want to see truly democratic and community oriented future governance of North Rodney.

The process from here

The Local Government Commission is in the process of determining the reasonably practicable options for local government change in Auckland with a view to identifying the preferred option.

If the preferred option is the status quo, the process will come to a halt.

If the preferred option is not the status quo, the following steps will be taken:

1) The Commission will prepare a draft proposal describing the proposed new arrangements

2) It will consult on the draft proposal with the community

3) It may then decide to proceed to a final proposal

4) If there is a final proposal, the public can call for a poll. At this stage, the Commission is unable to speculate on whether that is a likely scenario or not.

5) If it decides not to proceed to a final proposal, the process comes to a halt.

The Commission has said since late last year that a decision on the preferred option would be available in the second half of this year.

At present, that remains the case. A spokesperson says the Commission cant be more precise because a number of unpredictable factors can impact on this timeline.

Read the Morrison Low report here.
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Help & Support
A group of seven environmental volunteers cleaned up 40kg of rubbish from the streets of Wellsford in just one hour.

Organiser Jerusha Tucker says if just 50 of the towns residents turned up to help at the next clean-up event, it could have an enormous impact.

She has started the Keep Wellsford Beautiful group on Facebook and hopes to hold clean-up days regularly on the third Sunday of every month, meeting for an hour at 9am.

Having seen first-hand the waste that the town is generating on the streets, the group has determined that Wellsford has a bit of a problem with rubbish at smoko time.

The most common items we found were cigarette butts, pie wrappers and glad wrap from sandwiches, Jerusha says.

Even right next to the public bins, we must have picked up 50 cigarettes.

Cigarette butts never break down and are one of the most important waste items to dispose of properly.

Jerusha hopes that as more people get involved with the clean-up days and residents take charge of cleaning up their town, more people will get the message about properly disposing waste.

With this platform, we want to create a waste-conscious community, she says.

Another environmental issue the group discovered was rubbish buried by the train tracks in Wellsford.

Down by the tracks its disgusting. Its like there was an old landfill there and they just planted bamboo over it.

I was shocked because all of that is breaking down and spreading micro plastics.

She believes it is possible to have a zero-waste Wellsford if the community puts pressure on local retailers not to give customers trash.

Even the sushi shop now uses cardboard for takeaways. Its been amazing to see the transformation since the plastic bag ban came in.

For the initial clean-up day, the group was supplied with hessian sacks from Rush Coffee for collecting rubbish and Cozy Coffee surprised them with cakes and drinks.

When they brought their sacks of trash to Mahurangi Wastebusters and explained they had collected it from the street, Wastebusters disposed of it for them for free.

Jerusha has a number of ideas for projects including community planting days, a communal garden and further clean ups.

She has a background in environmental management and is planning to collect statistics from the clean ups to create a waste profile for Wellsford.
It could be several months before Auckland Council releases details on the Expressions of Interest process for its two waste sites in the Mahurangi.

A Council spokesperson said she could not confirm how many EOIs had been received for the transfer stations at Lawrie Road in Snells Beach and Rustybrook Road in Wellsford.

We wont be able to provide this detail for some time as there is a process Council has to go through, she said.

Expressions of interest closed on July 24 with the current lease agreements due to expire at the end of September next year. Tenders will be assessed against the objectives of Councils Waste Management and Minimisation Plan, which include a 30 per cent reduction of waste to landfill by 2027 and zero waste to landfill by 2040.

A shortlist of suppliers was due to be confirmed by August 7 and they will be asked to submit a full proposal by mid-November.

The Lawrie Road station has been run by Northland Waste for the past 20 years.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has released the 17th edition of its Inspire magazine, in which the group calls on supporters to strike trains in the US and Europe.

The editors of Inspire say that followers can choose from one of three modes of attack. They can directly target the train from either inside or from outside, or target the rail itself so as to derail the train, or assault train stations, which are always crowded and cause major interruption towards the transportation system.

The latest issue of Inspire focuses mainly on the second means of attack, providing readers with step-by-step instructions for building a train derailment device. An 18-page guide to building a derail tool is included in the 97-page electronic magazine and signed by the AQ Chef, a name that has been attached to previous AQAP ideas, such as a how-to guide for building bombs that was published in Inspire years ago. The AQ Chef claims that the magazines train derail design is similar to the industrial tool used by the track management staff when they need to derail a train with faulty breaks.

The instructions begin with the building of a mold and end with the construction of a metal derail device. We will keep away from using any electronic tools or tools that are specially used in constructionso as to remove any traces for suspicion, the do-it-yourself guide reads.

This weapon has several advantages, according to AQAP. It is [e]asy to design and easy to hide your tracks from forensics after the operation. It will supposedly befuddle security agencies and leave the enemy confused and disoriented.

Interestingly, AQAP touts the fact that this type of operation does not require martyrdom and therefore can be repeated.

Hours after the new Inspire magazine was released online, the New York Police Department (NYPD) Counterterrorism Bureau responded with a series of messages on its official Twitter feed.

Weve known about the content & threats presented in the current issue of AQAPs Inspire 17 prior to its release, one NYPD tweet, seen on the right, reads. Our robust multi-layered counterterrorism apparatus is designed to protect our air, land, waterways and railways in #NYC, another tweet reads.

AQAP touts potential economic damage

Al Qaeda has long argued that its attacks and guerrilla warfare are intended to wear down the West, in part by driving up the costs of security and waging war. The adjustments made to airline security since the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings have been costly. Al Qaedas failed attempts to bring down airliners in the years that followed have also driven costs up.

In this vein, AQAP has repeatedly promoted the detrimental economic effects of its operations. In 2010, for instance, Inspires editors claimed that the $4,200 spent on an attempt to blow up cargo planes forced the West to spend billions of dollars in additional security. This made the operation effective even though no one was killed and the plot was thwarted, according to AQAP. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, AQAP releases a special issue of Inspire magazine.]

Similarly, Inspires authors tout the intended economic impact of their plan, pointing to the large numbers of passengers carried on commuter trains and the valuable freight that is often transported by rail. One page summarizes the main passenger train routes in America, while another displays a map of US railroad lines by ownership.

O Mujahideen, AQAPs men write, it is time that we instill fear and make them impose strict security measures to trains as they did with their Air transportation. Train derailments will [c]ontinue to bleed the American economy [with] more losses, increase the psychological warfare and make it worry, fear and weaken much more.

We have to expose more of their vulnerabilities in their security, Inspires editors explain. And when they spend millions of dollars to tackle a vulnerability we should be ready to open a new [one]  by the strength of Allah. In this manner, the jihadists claim, we can make their economy bleed and wage a psychological warfare by breaching vulnerabilities in their security.

AQAPs editors recognize that most derailments dont cause significant damage, but they argue that some accidents caused by train derails have been especially costly. Moreover, it is very difficult for authorities to protect the extensive railroad system, making it a prime target for disrupting the American economy.

To make their case, Inspires authors point to a 2004 report authored by the United States General Accounting Office (GAO). There are over 100,000 miles of rail in the United States, the reports authors noted. The extensiveness of the infrastructure creates an infinite number of targets for terrorists.

Even so, Inspires authors warn followers that railroad management staff still have some security measures in place, including the regular deployment of a rail inspection car on the railroad so as to inspect the rails. AQAP says the Lone Mujahid can overcome this security measure by placing the derail tool on the rails approximately 10 minutes before the train passes by. The jihadist should also be well aware of the timing and schedule of the train, including the route the targeted train will take. This information is widely and publicly available for all.

Al Qaeda has targeted trains in the past

Targeting trains is hardly a new idea, of course. On Mar. 11, 2004, al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists placed ten bombs in backpacks and bags on board commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding nearly two thousand more.

In 2009, US officials thwarted an al Qaeda plot against commuter trains in the New York City area.

In 2013, Canadian authorities arrested two men who were plotting to derail trains traveling between Toronto and New York City. Canadian officials determined that the two jihadists, who were subsequently convicted on terrorism charges, received support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran in the form of direction and guidance.

In addition to trains and planes, al Qaeda has also attacked other transportation nodes in the past. The July 7, 2005 London bombings, which are referenced in the new edition of Inspire, targeted commuters during rush hour.

Other al Qaeda figures promote Lone Jihad attacks in Inspire

Inspire features commentary from several prominent jihadist figures, including Hamza bin Laden, the son of the al Qaedas founder. The terrorist publication includes the text of Hamzas advice for martyrdom seekers in the West, which was released in May.

An essay by former Guantanamo detainee and current AQAP leader Ibrahim al-Qosi is titled, imminent threat Al-Qosi, who worked for Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11, praises the fear, terror and death caused by new creative and destructive Lone Jihad operations, which are executed by men from your own homeland. Al-Qosi explains the logic behind such attacks, saying that they are carried out by [m]en whose boots have not touched the lands of Jihad in Afghanistan or Sham and whose names have never been in the FBI or CIA black lists. In other words, Lone Jihad operations do not rely on jihadists who may have been detected by authorities because of their suspicious travels.

In another piece, Ibrahim Ibn Hassan al-Asiri, a senior AQAP leader and bomb maker, explains the importance of focusing on specific kinds of targets in the transportation sector. Al-Asiri is a notorious explosives specialist and is suspected of crafting some of AQAPs clever devices, including the underwear bomb used in a failed bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day 2009. Al-Asiri calls on his Mujahideen brothers everywhere, especially the Lone Jihad heroes to follow in the footsteps of various terrorists. Target America, he advises.

Inspire also includes a lengthy interview with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrebs (AQIM) emir, Abu Musab Abdul Wadoud (a.k.a. Abdelmalek Droukdel). Like the others, Wadoud stresses the efficacy and necessity of lone jihadist attacks. This method of jihad is one of the modes of conflict between us and the West  something both new and old  a way of hemming in the enemy and breaking its strength, and this mode of asymmetrical warfare was pioneered by our predecessors centuries ago, Wadoud says. The Lone Jihad has proven its effectiveness and ability to repel aggression.

As FDDs Long War Journal previously reported, the Islamic State has had more success than al Qaeda in inspiring or guiding Lone Jihad operations in recent years, despite the fact that AQAP was a key innovator in this regard. This has forced AQAP to praise a string of attacks carried out in the Islamic States name, even though AQAP opposes Abu Bakr al Baghdadis so-called caliphate. In the latest edition of Inspire, AQAP continues to laud operations claimed by the Islamic State and its supporters, such as the June 2016 Orlando massacre, the July 2016 truck assault in Nice, France, the September 2016 attacks in the New York-New Jersey area and Minnesota, as well as the March 2017 terrorist incident near the British parliament in London. In a number of cases, lone jihad terrorists were first exposed to AQAPs ideas but later claimed that they acted on behalf of the Islamic State.

Al Qaeda is attempting to regain the initiative with respect to lone jihad operations. In May, AQAP leader Qasim al-Raymi released a lengthy plea for more attacks in the West. Al Qaeda quickly followed Al-Raymis message with the aforementioned speech by Hamza bin Laden.

And the latest edition of Inspire is intended to further buttress these efforts, with multiple al Qaeda figures praising the lone jihad.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for 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.
The Afghan Taliban has again retaken control of the district of Ghormach in Faryab province. The remote district has changed hands several times since late 2014.

From the Taliban statement at Voice of Jihad:

Amid ongoing Operation Mansouri, Mujahideen launched coordinated assaults on Ghormach district administration center, police headquarter and all the surroundings defensive check posts overnight. Attacks of heavy and light arms that lasted intensively till midday today, overrunning 13 defensive check posts, police headquarter and district center entirely, inflecting serious tolls to enemy as well as seizing a sizable amount of war spoils. Enemy is currently under tight besiege of Mujahideen in a military base at a distance of 4 kilometers from the said district center.

The district chief of police is denying Ghormach fell to the Taliban, but that is likely because Afghan forces made a tactical retreat to a base outside the district center. From TOLONews:

Ghormach district of Faryab province fallen to the Taliban on Sunday, a source told TOLOnews. Faryabs police chief Dilwar Shah Dilawar denied the development but said security forces had made a tactical retreat from the district. Dilawar said that clashes between security forces and the Taliban started in the district on Saturday night and are ongoing. He also said so far there have been no reports of casualties.

Ghormach has traded leadership two times since the Fall of 2015. In Oct. 2015, the Taliban seized the district center and held it for one week before Afghan forces regained control. And again, in Oct. 2016, the Taliban took control of Ghormach and occupied it for a short period of time before Afghan forces re-entered the district center. The district has been contested ever since, as the Taliban kept its forces on the outskirts of the district center.

When Ghormach fell in Oct. 2016, FDDs Long War Journal noted the following:

The situation in Ghormach is not unique in Afghanistan. Scores of districts routinely switch between the Taliban and Afghan forces, which are struggling to fight the group on multiple fronts. The Washington Post noted last week that Afghan commandos, who have been trained to hunt jihadists leaders, have been pressed into service as regular infantryman and are fighting the battles that regular Afghan units cant or wont fight. The Afghan commandos are in short supply, and once they retake a district, they are redeployed to put out the next Taliban fire. The Taliban then moves back into the areas liberated by the commandos. This pattern erodes the legitimacy of both the Afghan government and its security forces.

Sadly, little has improved in the ten months since that was written. Afghan commandos continue to be tasked with serving as a quick reaction force that are quickly redeployed after liberating a district, leaving behind ill-equipped Afghan security forces that often buckle to the Taliban.

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.
The US military killed the leader of the Islamic States Khorasan province for Kunar in an air strike on Aug. 10. The commander, known as Abdul Rahman, was a primary candidate to take control of Khorasan province after the US took out previous emir Abu Sayed last month, according to US Forces Afghanistan.

USFOR-A announced the death of Rahman and said he was killed along with three unnamed senior members of the group in an airstrike in Kunars Pech district.

Khorasan province appears to be relocating some of its senior leadership from the eastern province of Nangarhar to the rugged, mountainous northeastern province of Kunar, which has served as a redoubt for the Taliban, al Qaeda and a host of allied jihadist groups.

Rahaman is the second senior Khorasan province killed in Kunar in the past two months. The US military killed Abu Sayed, the last overall emir for Khorasan province, in an airstrike in Kunars Watapur district on July 11.

USFOR-A later announced that it killed four top leaders of the group, including its mufti or religious leader, as well as a member of the shura or executive council. USFOR-A identified the leaders as mufti Sheik Ziaullah, shura member Assadullah, Watapur emir Mulawi Hubaib, and Haji Shirullah a commander who was a member of Gulbuddin Hekmatyars Hizb-i-Islami faction.

Khorasans previous two emirs were killed by the US in Nangarhar. The US killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, its first emir, in an airstrike in Nangarhars Achin district on July 26, 2016. Khan, a former leader in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, served as the groups emir for more than one and a half years before his death.

The US killed Abdul Hasib, Khans successor, during a joint US and Afghan raid in Nangarhar on Apr. 27. Two US soldiers were killed during the fighting.

In step with previous announcements of the deaths of Khorasan province leaders, USFOR-A said that Rahmans death is yet another blow to the senior leadership.

There are no safe havens in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, the commander of US Forces Afghanistan, was quoted in the press release as saying. However the quote appears to be canned, as Nicholson has made the exact same statements in previous announcements.

We will hunt them down until they are no longer a threat to the Afghan people and the region, Nicholson said. He made the exact same comments in a statement released on July 30.

However, the Islamic States Khorasan province  which has far fewer resources and personnel, and a smaller base a of support than the Taliban and its allies  has weathered a concerted US and Afghan military offensive in Nangarhar and the persistent targeting of its leaders for nearly two years. It hasnt slowed them down. Khorasan province has recently executed deadly suicide attacks in Afghanistan, including the July 31 suicide assault on the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul and the Aug. 2 bombing on a Shiite mosque in Herat.

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.
HADLEY -- When Poles get together, there is vodka on the table.

And most often families flavor that vodka, store-bought as it is, according to a treasured family recipe using fresh fruit the family has cultivated.

"It's called 'nalewka,' which means an infusion," said Paul Kozub, founder of Valley Vodka of Hadley and creator of the V-One Vodka brand.

There is "wisniowka," which is cherry, and "sliwowica," which is plum.

"If a family has always had cherry trees and the cherries are in season, they will place the vodka in a vat of cherries," he said.

Poles water down nalewka. Also, a polish shot glass is smaller than an American one. The idea is to enjoy the taste, he said.

Kozub will spend time this summer in Poland -- his 53rd trip there. It's both business and pleasure: He'll introduce his young family to the culture while picking up ideas and working on a major business announcement he can't detail publicly yet.

"I definitely take what I try there and put my American spin on it," Kozub said.

V-One, which is distilled in Poland to Kozub's specifications, is spinning in wider and wider circles these days.

Kozub founded the company in 2005, building on his polish heritage and a family history of entrepreneurship. He started off experimenting with a still in his basement and quickly hit upon using spelt, a type of primitive wheat, in his vodka. Partnering with a distillery in Poland, he brought V-One to market and sold just more than 1,000 cases the first year.

This year, he's on pace to sell 12,000 cases and plans to hit 50,000 cases a year within the next two years.

"The next two years are gong to be huge for us," he said. "In our business, its all about brand recognition and distribution."

Both those aspects of V-One will get a boost from a "seven-figure" infusion of investor capital Kozub received in the fall of 2016. That money is funding, among other things, an important new development in Poland and a $100,000 project to redesign the V-One bottle.

Prominent bottle designers -- working in Cognac, France, naturally -- are coming up with the new bottles, which will incorporate the spelt grain and Kozub's signature.

"It will really represent all the dreams I had for V-One Vodka," he said.

Those dreams were born of a great-grandfather who came from Poland and worked in the Uniroyal plant in Chicopee. Then a grandfather, Stan, who followed the earlier generation into Uniroyal and told a young Paul tales of prohibition moonshine. Paul's father, Edward Kozub, was the entrepreneur, having started Janlynn Corp. in Chicopee. Janlynn made needlepoint kits and other craft sets.

That family influence, Kozub said, is quintessentially Polish.

"It's pretty much everything," he said. "My Catholic faith and my Polish heritage."

Today Kozub has a full-time employee in Poland along with a dozen employees here. Valley Vodka distributes a dozen Polish brands in addition to V-One. These are hard-to-get Polish beverages, including Apple Paple, an apple wine.

"I met these two guys in Warsaw," Kozub said by way of explaining how he came to do business with Apple Paple. Poland is one of the world's largest producers of apples. But political differences between Poland and neighbor Russia cut off a major market. Making the apples into wine helped Polish orchard owners find a paying market for the crop.

V-One's headquarters is in a repurposed church, the old St. Johns on Route 9 in Hadley, where Kozub has his old still on display. It's where he tries out and launches new flavors, like the coconut with blueberry he debuted last month. It joins V-One's plain vodka, along with vanilla, lime, triple berry, grapefruit and hazelnut with Hadley maple syrup varieties.

Coming up with new flavors for his vodka is complicated for Kozub. He has to get the flavors, the recipes and the labels approved by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

"I'm definitely getting better at going through the process," he said. "What they are looking to do is put you in a category: this is a vodka, this is a tequila."

For example, if Kozub submitted a flavored vodka formulation with too much sugar in it, he'd have to call it a liqueur, he said.

He's also expanding V-One's distribution area here in New England. With a full-time sales rep, he's relaunching the brand in Connecticut.

Kozub also has V-One on the shelves in New Hampshire package stores. That's quite a feat because New Hampshire is one the few places that still has a state liquor store system.

"There is only one distributor, one purchaser," he said. "I was told to go to them with only one flavor. That their shelf space is limited."

Instead he went with four flavors. New Hampshire accepted three: the plain, triple berry and grapefruit.

The vodkas went on sale in New Hampshire in July and Kozub started making trips north to personally do product demonstrations, first at a store near the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, of which he is an alumnus.

"Ironically, I was almost kicked out of the school for having vodka on campus," said Kozub.
UPDATE, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017, 7:35 p.m.: The concert has been canceled because of an unexpected band deployment.

The stirring sounds of the 94th United States Army Band will raise the spirits of visitors at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site during a special concert on Saturday, Aug. 19.

The event, set for 2 p.m., will be held inside the museum in a concert setting with chairs. Admission to the museum is free and there is no charge to attend the show.

"The 94th Army Band is a perfect fit for the mission of the Springfield Armory that manufactured firearms for the Army for 174 years. Their concert will draw listeners into a musical world of pride and celebration," said Joanne M. Gangi-Wellman, chief of interpretation at the museum.

Based in East Windsor, Connecticut, the 94th Army Band - a unit of the Army Reserve assigned to the eastern United States - has a long tradition serving the nation since 1943.

The 94th Army Band's mission as stated on its Facebook page is "to provide music throughout the spectrum of military operations so as to instill in American forces the will to fight and win, foster the support of U.S. citizens, and promote national interests at home and abroad." With a variety of musical performance teams, they provide musical support for many types of venues and occasions, including parades, outdoor concerts, community outreach events and more.

"The band is a great way to combine our military service with our love of music, and it's a great way for us to see some or our nation's many historic sites like the Armory Museum," said Staff Sergeant Michael Deraleau.

Deraleau said some 14 band members, including several retirees, will perform at the Springfield show, which he noted will showcase the group's jazz combo.

"We also have a ceremonial group who will be playing marches like those written by John Philip Sousa and other popular composers, and our commander, Eric Flowers, will be performing on the bagpipes," Deraleau said.

The bands of the U.S. Army are the oldest in all of the military branches and have toured throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and the Far East.

Springfield Armory National Historic Site commemorates and preserves the site of the nation's first armory, established in 1794. The site offers Ranger-guided tours both indoors and outdoors, self-guided tours of the historic arms collection and industrial machinery, and self-guided walking tours of the buildings and grounds. There are also Junior Rangers activities for kids.

The stirring sounds of the 94th United States Army Band will raise the spirits of visitors at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site during a special concert on Saturday, Aug. 19.

The event, set for 2 p.m., will be held inside the museum in a concert setting with chairs. Admission to the museum is free and there is no charge to attend the show.

"The 94th Army Band is a perfect fit for the mission of the Springfield

Armory that manufactured firearms for the Army for 174 years. Their concert will draw listeners into a musical world of pride and celebration," said Joanne M. Gangi-Wellman, chief of interpretation at the museum.

Based in Windsor, Connecticut, the 94th Army Band - a unit of the Army Reserve assigned to the eastern United States - has a long tradition serving the nation since 1943.

The 94th Army Band's mission as stated on its Facebook page is "to provide music throughout the spectrum of military operations so as to instill in American forces the will to fight and win, foster the support of U.S. citizens, and promote national interests at home and abroad."

With a va riety of musical performance teams, they provide musical support for many types of venues and occasions, including parades, outdoor concerts, community outreach events and more.

"The band is a great way to combine our military service with our love of music, and it's a great way for us to see some or our nation's many historic sites like the Armory Museum," said Staff Sergeant Michael Deraleau.

Deraleau said some 14 band members, including several retirees, will perform at the Springfield show, which he noted will showcase the group's jazz combo.

"We also have a ceremonial group who will be playing marches like those written by John Philip Sousa and other popular composers, and our commander, Eric Flowers, will be performing on the bagpipes," Deraleau said.

The bands of the U.S. Army are the oldest in all of the military branches and have toured throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and the Far East.
A few weeks ago, I raved about several white wines from France's Loire Valley. I loved how dry, clean and refreshing all of the wines reviewed tasted. And best of all, many of the wines cost less than $15 a bottle.

This week, I wanted to focus on one particular grape from this versatile wine region - Sauvignon Blanc.

In recent years, this grape has grown in popularity around the world. I think that's partly because it's become the anti-Chardonnay grape in a way.

I love many Chardonnays but I also realize there's a very vocal group of people who hate Chardonnay. I think they simply don't like Chardonnays aged in new oak casks, which often give some Chardonnays (especially ones from the United States) an overpowering, oaky flavor.

Ironically, I bet these same wine drinkers would probably love Chardonnays not aged in oak, especially Chardonnays from France's Burgundy region. I'm especially fond of Chablis, white wines made with Chardonnay grapes from Chablis in Burgundy.

Instead, many people have gravitated towards Sauvignon Blanc in recent years. In particular, New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs have exploded in popularity.

I love New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs and their fresh, grassy flavor. But I also love variety when it comes to wine. And that's one of the reasons why I really enjoy the Sauvignon Blancs from France's Loire Valley. These crisp, dry wines have their own, distinct, flinty flavor. And best of all, many of them are very affordable.

Here are three Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs I highly recommend for under $11 a bottle.

2015 La Petite Perriere Savignon Blanc ($7.99 at Table & Vine in West Springfield)

2015 Les Deux Moulins Sauvignon Blanc ($9.99 at Table & Vine)

2014 Petit Bourgeois Herni Bourgeois ($10.99 at Table & Vine)

2015 La Petite Perriere Savignon Blanc

As I explained briefly a few paragraphs ago, these Sauvignon Blancs taste nothing like the ones many people normally drink from New Zealand. Instead of the grassy flavors often associated with this grape, Sauvignon Blancs from France's Loire Valley have much more toned-down flavors.

This wine in particular has a very flinty, almost sparkling quality to the wine. There are also hints of pear and lemon. But if you're thinking this wine's on the sweet side, think again. It's fruity flavors are very subtle, toned down and understated.

2015 Les Deux Moulins Sauvignon Blanc

My favorite wine of three reviewed this week, this one's also easy to spot in a wine store with its distinctive blue-and-white checkerboard patterned label. Of the three wines reviewed this week, this one is the driest of the three.

In fact, I would describe this wine as bone dry with hints of minerals and other crisp flavors you often find in wines grown in limestone-rich soil. I'm not positive if the soil where the grapes were grown for this wine were made of limetone. But the winery's website does describe the soils at the winery as being "composed of gravel and schist."

The result - one of my favorite, dry, white wines for under $10 a bottle. Highly recommend.

2014 Petit Bourgeois Herni Bourgeois

Like the first wine reviewed above, this one has a slight lemon taste and almost a sparkling quality to the wine. However, this one's a bit more tart that the other wines reviewed this week while still on the dry side overall.

As I was tasting this wine, I loved the way this one and the other two reviewed this week were so light and dry and refreshing, especially on a hot summer day. So if you love Sauvignon Blanc and you're looking for something different, try some of these affordable ones from France's Loire Valley, a treasure trove for affordable, dry wines.

Cheers!

Wine Press by Ken Ross appears on Masslive.com every Monday and in The Republican's weekend section every Thursday.

Follow Ken Ross on Twitter
Forty years ago this week, the "King of Rock," Elvis Presley died of heart failure. 80,000 of his fans lined up in front of his Memphis, Tennessee mansion for a chance to view the singer's body and pay their respects. Only 20,000 made it in for the viewing. Thousands more lined the streets for his funeral procession the next day. Elvis was 42.

From the August 19, 1977 edition of The Morning Union

Also this week, the 75-ton space shuttle Enterprise made an unpowered test landing at Edwards Air Force base in California. Enterprise was lifted to an altitude of 24,100 feet above the Mojave Desert by a 747 carrier plane before detaching for the landing. Astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton piloted the test flight. The test landing was a key step towards the return of manned space flight in 1979.

From the August 13, 1977 edition of The Morning Union

Ten years earlier, some 300 musicians from the Berkshire Music Center and the Boston Symphony Orchestra provided music for nine hours as a benefit for Tanglewood in Lenox. The "Tanglewood-On-Parade" event was held on a Thursday between 2:15 and 9:30 p.m. The gates opened at 2:00 to 300 music fans, and the audience swelled to 5,000 by 7:30. The event was broadcasted live nationwide to an estimated 20 million viewers.

These are some of the headlines you'll see from Page 1 of The Republican and its predecessors over the past fifty years for the week of August 13 - August 19. Each week I'll put together a slideshow of Page 1 images from selected years over the course of that week. We're starting with a look back at one, five, thirty, forty and fifty years ago, with Page 1s from each day of the week for those years.

The slideshow for August 13 - August 19 is embedded at the top of this article.

We'll also find some humor printed out on page one over the years. In 1967 'Dennis The Menace' could be found on the bottom of page one six days a week.

From the August 19, 1967 edition of The Springfield Union

Other newspaper comics from the archive can be found in the Featured Collection photo galleries on MassLive.

Five years ago this week, a story about an open house and tour of the Merriam-Webster company facility in Springfied. About 70 people heard the history of the company, which settled in its current location in 1940 after having a presence in the city since 1831.

From the August 19, 2012 edition of The Republican

Back 1n 1967 the Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft sent back photographs of planet earth from 214,806 miles away.

From the August 15, 1967 edition of The Springfield Union

And last year, "The Wall That Heals" memorial returned to Western Mass. The half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. was set up on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.

As you'll find with looking through the slideshow, that while many stories come and go, many of the issues and topics that affected lives in the past, continue to have an impact on our lives today.

Copies of these and other stories can be found in the online archives. The Historic Archive includes stories from 1824 to 1989, and the Newsbank Archive covers 1988 through the present day.
The body of a 16-year-old girl was found in the Merrimack River Monday morning after hours of searching by state and local authorities. One man has been arrested in connection to a jet ski crash that knocked the girl into the water, according to investigators.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan held a press conference near the search area in Chelmsford Monday and did not identify the teenage girl.

Douglas Dematos, 32, of Lowell, was charged with drunkenly driving a jet ski that crashed into a jet ski that the teenage girl was riding on late Sunday night.

Dematos, who was minorly injured in the crash, faces several other charges, including driving negligently, at night, without lights, too close to another vessel as well as use of an unregistered motorboat. He will be held overnight at the Chelmsford Police Department and will be arraigned on Tuesday at Lowell District Court.

At around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, officers were sent to the Merrimack River for reports of people yelling. Soon they learned of the jet ski crash and began a multi-agency search for the 16-year-old teenager. The search was suspended at 3 a.m. and picked up again Monday morning at 5 a.m.

D.A. Ryan announced authorities had found the teen's body before noontime on Monday.

The search for the girl was conducted by the Chelmsford Fire Department, Massachusetts Environmental Police, State Police and the Lowell Police/Fire Dive Team.
Organizers of a Boston Free Speech rally planned for Saturday on Boston Common said the group is not associated with the Charlottesville, Virginia rally and blamed a former Hillary Clinton spokesman for defaming them.

The rally is scheduled for noon on Aug. 19 in the Boston Common area. As the violence erupted in Charlottesville Saturday, former Hillary Clinton spokesman and now CNN political contributor Brian E. Fallon warned Boston residents that the Charlottesville rally organizer, Jason Kessler, has an event coming to the city.

Boston, beware: #Charlottesville rally organizer Jason Kessler's group is already planning an event next week in your city cc @marty_walsh pic.twitter.com/9sKIWcS4ao  Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 12, 2017

The Boston Free Speech group however blamed Fallon for spreading rumors and stressed they are not associated with Kessler's group.

"We are not in any way associated with the organizers of the Charlottesville rally," the group wrote on Facebook. "This was a lie and blatant attempt at defamation by Brian Fallon on twitter. There has been threats made against our lives already and we will be contacting Boston PD."

A rally organizer, who only released his first name of Steven to NECN, told the television station the group is not involved in white supremacy. The group cares about free speech, Steven said.

We are not in any way associated with the organizers of the Charlottesville rally. This was a lie and blatant attempt at... Posted by Boston Free Speech on Saturday, August 12, 2017

Boston Police Officer Rachel McGuire said the department is working on security plan in anticipation of the Aug. 19 rally.

"Incidents like those that occurred in Virginia will not be tolerated," she said. "We are here to make sure everyone demonstrates safely and responsibility."

The police spokesman urged people to be respectful and safe. The Boston Herald reports people gathered on the Common Saturday night to speak out against in Charlottesville. The newspaper reports people are prepared to return on Aug. 19 to protest against the Free Speech rally.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh condemned the violence in Charlottesville.

"There's no place for the hate that they're spewing," Walsh said at an event Saturday. "It's my understanding that they're scheduled to come to Boston. I know we probably can't stop it because of free speech, but they're spewing hate. We don't need that right now in our country."

Boston officials will meet to discuss the upcoming rally in the city, the mayor said.

The Boston Free Speech group posted on Facebook that "Anyone who starts violence will be swiftly arrested just like last time. We do not condone it in any way shape or form."

Massachusetts State Police said authorities are monitoring the situation in Virginia. As of Saturday night, no connection to any suspects in Massachusetts was found.

"We condemn the bigotry -- and those who preach it -- that sparked today's violence," State Police said Saturday. "Our prayers tonight are with the victims of this violence fueled by hate, as well as with the police officers and other emergency personnel who responded with professionalism and bravery to today's events."

The State Police Division of Homeland Security and barracks responsbible for patrolling in Boston have been in contact with Boston Police regarding the possible rally.

"Our Fusion Center -- part of our Homeland Security Division that is our criminal intelligence center -- will continue to monitor intelligence from all sources, including social media, about the planned rally and the size, history, and intentions of the groups participating," State Police spokesman David Procopio said. "The Fusion Center also will be in contact with federal law enforcement agencies to receive their intelligence as well."

Authorities from the Fusion Center will work with Boston Police at the Boston Regional Intelligence Center to compile assessments on any potential credible public safety threats from the event. It is similar to what authorities do for any expected large gathering.

Troopers patrolling Boston will be ready to deploy resources if needed, Procopio said.

White nationalists descended on Charlottesville Saturday to rally against plans to remove a Confederate statue. City officials agreed to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park.

Kessler, a blogger, had organized the "pro-white" rally.

Brawls erupted in the streets and three people were arrested, according to Virginia State Police. A state of emergency was declared.

One woman, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed when a car slammed into a group of counter-protesters. Two Virginia State Troopers also died when a helicopter crashed. Authorities said the helicopter crash is connected to the violence.
NORTHAMPTON -- As a 29-year veteran of the Northampton Police Department, Officer Michael Allard knows a thing or two about crime scenes.

Allard spent last week imparting some of that knowledge to others at the International Association for Identification (IAI) educational conference in Atlanta, Georgia, the largest forensics and crime scene professionals conference in the world.

The IAI, which has been a law enforcement resource since its inception in 1915, is a global organization, with over 6,500 members from 77 countries, according to its mission statement. The organization's annual conference brings forensic professionals together for a week to learn and network.

Allard spent the week teaching workshops covering a number of topics, including using forensics and other technology to map crime scenes, according to a statement from the Northampton Police Department.

Capt. John Cartledge said Allard is one of the most trained and well-rounded officers when it comes to crime scene investigations, and that the conference is a good opportunity to share some of that with the wider law enforcement community.

"He's one of our crime scene technicians, he's also one of our accident reconstruction people, as well as part of our drone unit," said Cartledge. "He's really one of our most well trained officers in those areas."

The IAI, which originally began at the turn of the 20th century as a small cadre of like-minded criminal investigators in Oakland, California, has grown into the world's largest conference dedicated to exploring new crime scene investigation techniques and practices.

Bill Schade, a spokesman for the conference, said that the IAI is a means by which crime scene investigators can keep ahead of the curve and consistently improve how they assist law enforcement officials. "It's a constant evolution," Schade said. "Science is always evolving and we need to keep up with it."

One of the newest technologies being used by police -- and one that Allard taught workshops on at IAI this week -- is unmanned aircraft systems, otherwise known as drones.

Cartledge said Allard helped to "spearhead" the Northampton Police Department's new drone unit, which is a fairly unique entity locally.

"We're one of the few, if only, agencies in the area that has such a unit," Cartledge said, adding that a lot of other local agencies have been using the Northampton police's unit as a model for their own.

Cartledge and Allard are both part of the small, four-person unit, and are two of a handful of local police officials licensed to fly drones, which Cartledge said are used for a variety of situations.

"We primarily have used it at fire scenes to help the Fire Department get aerial scenes of what they're doing to help them fight fires better," Cartledge said, noting that the technology has also been useful in missing person or search and rescue investigations as well as in assisting the Department of Public Works in mapping various geographic locations.

When it comes to integrating new technologies into law enforcement practices Cartledge said there is a well-researched process that goes into determining whether it will provide better service to the public.

"It's a matter of our Department and certainly individual officers and supervisors looking into things that might benefit our department and the community," Cartledge said.
The Massachusetts Probation Service has filed a motion with the court regarding the sentencing of Michelle Carter.

Carter was convicted of manslaughter in June for pressuring her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy to commit suicide on July 13, 2014. She was 17 years old.

The pair spoke over text messages and phone calls for years with Carter advising against Roy harming himself for many months. Then, weeks before Roy's death, her opinion on suicide swayed.

Carter encouraged him over text messages and phone calls to take his life. When he had second thoughts during a suicide attempt and said he was "scared," Carter told Roy over text to "F----- get back in" his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide.

The next morning, police found Roy's body in the parking lot of a Fairhaven Kmart. An autopsy determined that he died by suicide of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carter was sentenced this month in juvenile court to two and a half years in jail including 15 months to be served immediately and the rest suspended until 2022. The sentenced was stayed pending appeal, allowing Carter to remain out while her appeal is heard.

Regarding her stayed sentence, the probation service filed a motion, asking the judge to clarify on the stayed sentence.

"Undoubtedly, the court has the authority to stay a sentence - whether the sentence is one of imprisonment, straight probation or suspended," the motion states. "The court's ability to stay on a portion of a split sentence, however, is less clear."

What if Carter were to violate a condition set in the sentencing order, the probation department asked. "Would the court revoke probation and impose the suspended portion, despite the stay?"

The motion will be heard on Aug. 21.
Local astronomers and enthusiasts are among those traveling for a better view of the Aug. 21 solar eclipse.



Stephan and Jane Smith of Turners Falls are headed to North Carolina. They chose the town of Franklin because "it is in the area for the total eclipse and is one of the closest areas to go to since we will be driving to get there," Jane Smith wrote in an email.



"We will be staying at a cabin on a creek in the mountains which should make it even more interesting!" she said. "My husband gets into this stuff so why not go and experience it firsthand?!"



Some travelers said they made plans well in advance. University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomy professor Stephen Schneider will be in Idaho, staying in a house he booked a year ago because hotels were full.



Jim J. Zebrowski, president of the Aldrich Astronomical Society in Paxton, made his reservations more than 16 months ago.



Zebrowski and others decided to fly to Idaho "because historically it had the best chance for clear skies on Eclipse day in the morning. I have never observed totality before so our crew is headed to see this and share the event with people back home once we return," he wrote.

From the perspective of viewers in Massachusetts, the moon will only partially block the sun on Aug. 21. For a glimpse of the full eclipse, called totality, die-hard eclipse chasers will have to travel to a lower latitude.



In addition to North Carolina and Idaho, 12 states -- Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina -- are in the roughly 70-mile wide path of the full eclipse.

According to NASA, the eclipse will be visible in the U.S. starting at 9:05 a.m. Pacific time in Lincoln Beach, Oregon. Totality will begin there about 10:16 a.m. The total eclipse will move east across the U.S., ending near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. Eastern time.

The Aldrich Astronomical Society rented a lodge for six people, and five others are at a nearby condo. Zebrowski said the trip is as "costly as you want it to be." He bought new equipment about a year ago.

"Costs can add up for travel time, telescopes, filters and cameras unless you already own them," he said.



He said society members will need to get through eclipse traffic in Jackson, Wyoming, and be able to set up and test equipment the night before in Tetonia.



"It will be critical to watch weather reports to see if we need to move to catch the eclipse -- I hope we will be able to see it without having to move but one has to be prepared," he said.

In a press release, AAA said it anticipates cities in the path of the eclipse will see increased traffic from Aug. 18 through Aug. 21.

The agency warns people not to watch the solar eclipse while driving but instead find a safe place to park. People should drive with their headlights on and watch out for pedestrians.

"There may be many people standing in or along the roadway watching the eclipse. Be alert to the possibility of distracted drivers swerving into your lane," AAA said.

NASA, meanwhile, offers a plethora of information on its website.
"How are we supposed to recruit the numbers were supposed to recruit when theres no money  and I mean zero money  budgeted for the outreach?"

University of Montana http://www.umt.edu/

KEILA SZPALLER [email protected]

Full Story: http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/faculty-leave-growing-programs-at-the-university-of-montana/article_4e946b48-2beb-5a81-b715-d30d78495832.html
The town of Parker could become a national destination for film and television production, with more than 4,000 new full-time jobs up for grabs, if a project backed by Denver media company Redbarre becomes a reality, company officials said Friday.

At an event inside the Capitol building, Gov. John Hickenlooper, Parker Mayor Mike Waid and others joined Redbarre CEO Don Levy in touting the proposed Redbarre Digital Media & Technology Campus.

The privately-funded venture would occupy 1.9 million square feet of mixed-use space in the Compark Village subdivision, just north of E-470 and west of Chambers Road in Parker.

Full Story: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/11/redbarre-digtial-media-technology-parker-campus/
The Colorado Classic is more than a bike-racing festival. Its more than a four-day, tourist-luring commercial. The inaugural pro-cycling race, which wraps in Denvers River North neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday with a merry blend of bikes, beers and bands, also is serving as bait for big business.

By Jason Blevins | [email protected] | The Denver Post

Full Story: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/11/colorado-classic-business-investment-in-state/
A new venture capital firm will provide grants to Israeli water, energy and transportation firms.

In a unique international partnership, the Israeli government and a Colorado-based venture capital fund will start a new program to bring to Colorado Israeli startups that focus on water, energy and transportation.

The Israel-Colorado Innovation Fund is a venture capital firm established in April by Gili Elkin, an Israeli citizen but a native of Berkeley, Calif., who worked in Silicon Valley representing venture capital firms. After moving back to Israel for a short period of time, she decided to try her hand in Colorado, a place she believes is fertile ground for new companies.

By Erin Douglas | [email protected] | The Denver Post

Full Story: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/11/israel-colorado-innovation-fund-startups/
In this part of Montanas rugged eastern prairie, Erwin Weder and the other ranchers and cowboys are not used to feeling kicked around. But as Weder drives his pickup truck onto a bluff to gaze out over "Big Sky Country," he feels a bit defeated.

By Tim Craig

Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/massive-wildfires-turned-prairies-to-ash-leading-montanas-cowboys-to-weigh-federal-help/2017/08/13/a3b4464a-786a-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_montana707pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.c0c2081021b1
Portland General Electric officials entered a meeting in Salem this week intent on persuading state regulators that it makes economic and environmental sense to move quickly on a massive new wind farm to meet the states expanded green energy mandates.

The utility was already playing defense. Facing intense blowback from environmental advocates, ratepayer groups and regulatory staff, it had abandoned the centerpiece of the resource plan it had submitted to the Public Utility Commission in November. That would potentially have had it building two new gas plants in Boardman to replace the coal-fired plant it will close there in 2020.

By Ted Sickinger [email protected] The Oregonian/OregonLive

Full Story: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2017/08/regulators_reject_pges_plan_on.html#incart_river_index
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco have discovered that women who are diagnosed with sleep disorders during pregnancy, including insomnia and sleep apnea, are at a greater risk of preterm delivery.

Share on Pinterest Sleep disorders may increase a womans likelihood of having a preterm birth, suggest researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

Lead author Jennifer Felder, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), conducted the study with senior author Aric Prather, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry, and colleagues. Their findings were published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

UCSFs research is the first of its kind to explore the effects of insomnia during pregnancy. From a group of nearly 3 million women, 2,265 women diagnosed with a sleep disorder during pregnancy met the inclusion criteria for the study.

The selected participants were matched to controls with no such diagnosis of a sleep disorder, but with the same maternal risk factors for early delivery, such as high blood pressure, smoking during pregnancy, or having a previous preterm birth.

Dr. Felder explains, This gave us more confidence that our finding of an earlier delivery among women with disordered sleep was truly attributable to the sleep disorder, and not to other differences between women with and without these disorders.

The large sample size allowed Dr. Felder, Prof. Prather, and team to investigate the relationship between various sleep disorders and preterm birth subtypes. For example, the researchers could compare early and late preterm birth, or early induced deliveries and spontaneous preterm labor.

The new study focuses on sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea and insomnia, that might cause significant disruption to sleep, rather than examining the regular sleep changes that tend to occur during pregnancy. The authors say that the true prevalence of these disorders remains unclear because sleep disorders in pregnant women often go undiagnosed.
The discovery has implications for the treatment of asthma, eczema and other diseases.

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have made a significant breakthrough in understanding the regulation of immune cells that play a pivotal role in allergic diseases such as asthma and eczema. They have identified a 'checkpoint' manned by these immune cells that, if barred, can halt the development of the lung inflammation associated with allergies.

The discovery now provides a potential new target for drug developers to home in on. In theory, a drug that successfully regulates this newly pinpointed 'checkpoint' would better control overly aggressive allergic responses.

The team of scientists was led by Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Professor of Translational Immunology, Padraic Fallon, of the School of Medicine in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. The work has just been published in the leading peer-reviewed medical journal The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Allergic conditions, such as asthma or eczema, arise when the immune system misfires and sparks an uncontrolled response to common allergens, such as house dust mites. In asthma this aberrant immune response leads to immune cells infiltrating the lungs, where they cause inflammation that affects lung function and leads to difficulties in breathing.

One key cell that is an early initiator of this allergic inflammation is known as a 'type 2 innate lymphoid cell' (ILC2). These cells instruct others, known as 'Th2 cells', to drive the cascade of inflammation in the lungs that leads to the development of asthma.

In this study, using a mouse transgenic approach, the scientists demonstrated that ILC2s express a checkpoint molecule, known as'PD-L1', that functions to control the expansion of allergy-inducing Th2 cells and the development of allergic pulmonary and gut tissue inflammation.

Professor Fallon said: "This identification of an early stage cellular checkpoint that can act as a break on allergic responses has important implications for the development of new therapeutic approaches for asthma and other allergic diseases."

First author of the paper, Dr Christian Schwartz, a European Molecular Biology Organization Long Term Fellow in Professor Fallon's group, added: "It is fascinating that a small cell population such as the ILC2s can regulate the expansion of Th2 cells and thereby shape the whole outcome of an immune response - be it beneficial in case of parasitic infections, or detrimental as in the case of allergic responses."

"I believe the more we learn about these delicate cellular networks the more possibilities we will create for intervention."

Article: ILC2s regulate adaptive Th2 cell functions via PD-L1 checkpoint control, Christian Schwartz et al., The Journal of Experimental Medicine, doi: 10.1084/jem.20170051, published 26 July 2017.


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#World University Games Chuncheong named host of 2027 World University Games The South Korean central region of Chungcheong was named the host of the 2027 Summer World University Games on Saturday, bringing the biennial event to the country for the fourth t...

#first lady First lady visits home of Cambodian child with heart disease First lady Kim Keon-hee visited the home of a Cambodian child with a heart disease Saturday and comforted the family, urging them not to give up under any circumstances, the presid...
A fifth woman in the U.S. Air Force plans to attempt special operations training, an official said.

The female service member, who wasn't identified, is in Basic Military Training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas and wants to become a Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) specialist, according to Marilyn Holliday, a spokeswoman for the Air Education and Training Command.

If she becomes a TACP candidate, she will be the second in the pipeline. Another woman entered TACP training Aug. 6, Holliday said.

Three other women have tried to become special operators: One TACP retrainee ended up removing herself from training due to a leg injury last year; a combat rescue officer candidate passed the physical test but never completed the selection program application; and another non-prior service TACP candidate couldn't meet entry standards following BMT, according to Holliday.

Related content:

Since the Defense Department opened combat career fields to women in 2015, few female airmen have qualified and entered TACP training, a critical job in which airmen are assigned to infantry units to coordinate Air Force fixed-wing aircraft in close-air support against enemy targets, among other roles.

Then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter reversed longstanding U.S. military traditions Dec. 3, 2015, when he announced that all military occupational specialties would open to women. In the following months, the military services moved to amend their battlefield programs, but not diminish physical training standards.

Holliday said training for would-be special operators in the service begins at Lackland.

"Being brand new to the Air Force and enlisted, training begins at basic military training, which is under the 737th Training Group at JBSA-Lackland," she said.

Then candidates enter the Battlefield Airman "Prep Course, followed by the indoctrination course, which are both under the Battlefield Airman Training Group, also at JBSA-Lackland," she said. "Both of these groups are part of the 37th Training Wing" at Lackland.

From there, airmen are sent to their respective Air Force Specialty Codes in various commands.

The jobs include special tactics officer (13CX), combat rescue officer (13DX), combat controller (1C2XX), pararescue (1T2XX), special operations weather (1WOX2), tactical air control party (1C4XX) and air liaison officer (13LX).

Singing the praises of the Air Force program, Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, commander of AETC, told reporters in March, "We're forging the airmen of the future every single day.

"Last year, we stood up the Air Force's new battlefield airman training program, and ... it marked the first year we fully opened all seven battlefield airman career fields to female airmen," he said during the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

"It takes a lot of work," Roberson said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
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The Board of Directors of the Company held on Saturday, 12th August, 2017 :1. Adopted & approved the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended on 30th June 2017.2. Considered and approved the Boards' Report for the financial year ended 31st March 2017.3. Approved the Notice of the 25th Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held on Thursday, 28th September, 2017 at 01.30 P.M.4. Considered the appointment of Ms. Shraddha Jain, Practicing Company Secretary as Secretarial Auditor of the Company for the financial year 2017-18.5. Considered appointment of Ms. Shraddha Jain, Practicing Company Secretary as scrutinizer of the Company for the purpose of e-voting and voting by poll at 25th AGM of the Company.6. Fixed that the Register of members and the share transfer books of the Company (For the purpose of 25th AGM and Dividend) will be closed from Friday, 22nd September 2017 to Thursday 28th September 2017 (both days inclusive).Source : BSE

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Shares of oil & natural gas major Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) shed over 2 percent intraday on Monday hitting a low of Rs 472 with research and broking firm Motilal Oswal maintaining a neutral stance while Morgan Stanley has maintained an overweight rating on the stock expecting an earnings turnaround on counter cyclical capacity growth and product quality upgrade.

According to global research firm Morgan Stanley, BPCL's Q1 FY18 results trailed peers HPCL and IOC as refining start-up costs impacted margins, but believes that they should normalise by H2 FY18. BPCL's core earnings missed estimates due to higher than expected operating expenses. Adjusted for inventory losses and higher costs. It estimates that margins rose in both the refining and marketing segments.

Earnings of BPCL declined 60 percent QoQ due to one-off costs. While quarterly disclosure does not include refining inventory losses, taking cues from peers, estimating core EBITDA rising 30 percent QoQ. Reported GRMs of USD 4.9/bbl were in line with MSe. Assuming an inventory loss similar to HPCL's, core GRMs would have been at USD 7.6/bbl, up 25 percent QoQ. Morgan Stanley sees steady margin growth as its Kochi refinery (55 percent of total capacity) ramps up higher-margin products. Overall marketing volumes increased 5 percent with auto fuel growth at 14-15 percent, higher than industry growth of 12 percent, implying market share gains.

Morgan Stanley added that despite gaining market share, BPCL saw its marketing margins decline, compared to IOC and HPCL, which reported growth. Considering a 14 percent QoQ increase in other expenses, there could have been front-loading of overhead.

BPCL is pricing in almost no earnings growth for FY19, compared to 24 percent growth according to estimates due to higher capacity and margins in FY19, it said.

However, on the other hand, research and broking firm, Motilal Oswal has a neutral rating on BPCL with a target price of Rs 515, an upside of 6 percent.

According to the research firm, BPCLs reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of Rs 1,200 crore (-70 percent YoY, -45 percent QoQ) was lower than estimates of Rs 1,900 crore due to product inventory loss of Rs 730 crore during the quarter. EBITDA adjusted for product inventory loss stood at Rs 1,950 crore, ahead of estimates.

Reported GRM (inclusive of crude inventory gain/loss) stood at USD 4.9/bbl. The company reported forex gain of Rs 29.2 crore against gain of Rs 33.2 crore in Q4 FY17 and loss of Rs 170 crore in Q1 FY17. Reported profit after tax (PAT) stood at Rs 740 crore, partly benefiting from higher other income of Rs 660 crore.

Domestic sales volume grew 3 percent YoY (+8 percent QoQ) to 10mmt in Q1 FY18. Throughput in Q1 FY18 was 6.4mmt against 6.0mmt in Q4 FY17 and 6.2mmt in Q1 FY17.

Motilal Oswal values BPCL based on SOTP-based fair value of Rs 515/share, which includes Rs 343/share for its core business and Rs 171/share for investments. The stock trades at 11.7x FY19E EPS of Rs 41.3 and 2.3x FY19E BV. Exploration and production (E&P) still accounts for Rs 92 which has a risk potential because of ongoing delays in completion of FID at Mozambique and production in Brazil.

At 12:22 hrs Bharat Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 472.25, down Rs 12.00, or 2.48 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 485.15 and an intraday low of Rs 465.75.
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After facing initial GST hiccups, FMCG major Britannia is looking at increasing its distribution footprint and winning market share from local players.

The company, which witnessed de-stocking in trade channels due to migration to GST, said the new tax regime has brought a level playing field.

"Our key strategic focus area is to increase distribution footprint, grow rural and win (market) share from local players," Britannia said in a presentation to the analysts.

It said it would target local/regional players in specific category/geography.

The company also said its other key focus areas include entering one new geography every year and enter new product categories as it aspired to be a total food company.

Last year, Britannia, whose main business segments are bakery and dairy, had entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with Greece's Chipita SA to manufacture and sell ready-to-eat filled croissants. Currently, the work is underway to establish operations of the JV.

It is also scouting for profitable growth opportunities, especially in the bakery segment, to strengthen its position as a leading food company in the country.

In order to increase its international business, the company said it is also evaluating entry through local manufacturing in high potential markets, which are currently not accessible through exports routes due to high trade barriers.

Britannia is present in more than 70 countries, its key geographies being West Asia, Africa, Americas, Asia Pacific and SAARC.

Britannia is also looking at driving premiumisation through innovation and attain cost leadership through efficiencies and wastage reduction.

Britannia Industries had reported a 1.40 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 216.12 crore for the June quarter, impacted by the GST roll-out and subdued growth in international business.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 219.21 crore in the April-June period a year ago. Its net sales were up 6.41 per cent to Rs 2,300.93 crore as against Rs 2,162.16 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Mitessh Thakkar of miteshthacker.com told CNBC-TV18, "I have a buy on Hero MotoCorp with a stop loss at Rs 3,780, would look for a bounce to about Rs 3,950. Infosys did well in a falling market on Friday, so that is a buy with a very tight stop loss at Rs 975, look for a rally to about levels of Rs 1,010. Also a buy on Tata Global Beverage which had a very strong price action after the numbers. That is a buy with a stop loss at Rs 160, look for target of Rs 171."

"I have two sell calls as well. I will sell Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) with a stop loss at Rs 1,382, would look for declines to about Rs 1,310. Power Finance Corporation is a sell as well, keep a stop loss just above Rs 123 and look for targets of around Rs 108," he added.

"Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has opened half a percent gap up apart from Bank of Baroda (BoB). I would possibly start shorting these two stocks right now and then wait for the market reaction to take further trades."

"I have a sell on Larsen and Toubro (L&T) with a stop loss of Rs 1,162 for target of Rs 1,080. Tata Steel is a buy, I would keep a stop loss at Rs 601 and look for targets of around Rs 640."
business Buy HPCL, Balrampur Chini; sell Aban Offshore, BoB, Union Bank: Ashwani Gujral Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com is of the view that one may buy Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Balrampur Chini and sell Aban Offshore, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India.
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Tata Motors, India biggest automobile company, has appointed PB Balaji as its new group chief financial officer (CFO) who will take over the reins from CR Ramakrishnan.

Balaji, who will take over from November this year, has been working with Hindustan Unilever as its CFO since 2014. He started his career with Unilever in 1995.

Ramakrishnan who is set to retire next month will be the second high-profile exit in Tata Motors separated by a few months. Executive director (commercial vehicles) Ravi Pisharody quit the company in June.

N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors said, Balajis deep knowledge in all areas across finance and his global experience will be very valuable for the Tata Motors Group. He will be a great addition to the management team.

Balajis appointment comes at a time when Tata Motors is battling market share loss in commercial vehicles and competitive pressures in passenger vehicles. Tata Motors has decide to focus solely on returning to profitability (at the stand-alone level) and improving market share in both categories.

The company has shelved and postponed a few projects which it believed were cash guzzlers and not in line to achieve the desired objectives.

Tata Motors is delighted to welcome Balaji as the new CFO for the Tata Motors Group. He will play a very important role in our transformation journey and help us in our renewed focus on topline, market share growth, major cost reduction initiatives and efficiency improvements to deliver better financial performance and profitability in the future, said Guenter Butschek, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Tata Motors.

Balaji is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and has a post-graduate management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

CR Ramakrishnan, 62, joined Tata Motors in 1980; he handled corporate treasury and accounting function with management accounting/MIS for over 15 years.

Thereafter, he held a two-year company-wide Systems and Business Process project responsibility covering R&D, Manufacturing, Sourcing and Sales & Service.

Subsequently, he served in the Group Chairmans Office for 8 years before taking over as Chief Financial Officer in Tata Motors from Praveen Kadle. He had got elevated as Group CFO in July 2015.

The highlight of Ramakrishnans career was the successful takeover of UKs luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford which Tata Motors bought in 2008 for USD 2.3 billion. Tata Motors studied its chances of buying JLR for no less than four years.

Not only was the takeover done flawlessly Tata Motors turned around JLRs financial operations two years ahead of the targeted date with able help from managing director Ravi Kant.

While presently almost the entire profits of Tata Motors is generated by JLR the Indian companys stand-alone operations posted its second worst-ever loss in its 72-year history last year at Rs 2480 crore.
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PSU banking majors State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda extended losses in morning on Monday, falling up to 2 percent as brokerage houses slashed target price after disappointing earnings and bad asset quality performance in April-June quarter.

"SBI surprised negatively on asset quality in Q1 while loan growth was much weaker than expected. We expect return on equity to remain muted for the rest of FY18 in line with other corporate banks, turning the corner only in FY19," Jefferies said while retaining buy rating on the stock but lower target price to Rs 325 (from Rs 355 earlier).

The research house has cut its earnings estimates sharply on lower growth expectations, resulting in weaker growth in NII and fee income and consequently higher expense ratio.

For the merged bank, it has increased credit cost assumption in FY18. The weakness is somewhat moderated owing to the savings rate cut announced by the bank resulting in marginal net interest margin expansion, Jefferies said while estimating FY17-20 adjusted book value CAGR of 19 percent (consolidated basis) and 18 percent (standalone).

However, in view of elevated provisioning pressure, Motilal Oswal also cut its FY18 earnings estimates by 37 percent and recommended buy rating with reduced target price at Rs 341 (from Rs 375 earlier).

According to the research house, the larger part of asset quality clean-up is behind.

CLSA also reduced its target price to Rs 350 from Rs 360 following cut in earnings estimates but it has maintained buy rating, saying asset quality disappointed but better than PSU banks and the key disappointment was high non-performing loans reflecting stress in corporate, retail & agri loans.

SBI's total consolidated stressed assets were 9.94 percent of net advances. Both the gross and net NPA ratios saw a spike, being 9.89 percent & 5.91 percent versus 9.06 percent & 5.15 percent QoQ respectively. Net profit on standalone basis fell 20 percent and net interest income was down 3.5 percent YoY, led by weaker NIM of 2.36 percent versus 2.84 percent & flat loan growth of 0.5 percent YoY.

The deterioration in asset quality was largely due to associate banks that merged with SBI in April. The merged entity (SBI) has slippages of Rs 30,059 crore; assuming solo SBI maintained its run-rate of Rs 10,000 crore of slippages a quarter, the subsidiaries must have generated a fresh bout of slippages of Rs 20,000 crore.

Jefferies reduced target price for Bank of Baroda to Rs 155 (from Rs 180 earlier), saying risk of chunky slippages leading to lower net interest margins and higher credit costs continues to remain for the next few quarters.

"While management continued to highlight improvement in inherent processes and sharper business focus, confidence of translation of these efforts to higher return ratios in the near future remains low, with our estimates suggesting an return on equity of around 14 percent only by FY20," it said while retaining hold call on the stock.

According to Jefferies, downside risks are asset quality deterioration, NIM compression and growth slowdown while upside risks is pre-provisioning operating profit trajectory improvement.

Motilal Oswal also slashed target price to Rs 198 (from Rs 217 earlier) while maintaining buy call on the stock.

The research house expects stress addition and credit costs to moderate from FY19, and cut FY18/FY19 earnings by 48/8 percent to account for lower margins and high credit costs.

Near-term earnings volatility is likely to continue due to asset quality-related stress, it feels. Additional buffers like non-core financial investments among other options will lead to dilution-free growth in the near term, it said.

Bank of Baroda's total stressed assets increased from 10.8 percent to 11.7 percent sequentially. Net interest income was up 1 percent YoY and profit tanked 52 percent to Rs 203.4 crore in Q1.

At 10:36 hours IST, Bank Of Baroda was quoting at Rs 141.40, down 0.81 percent and State Bank of India was at Rs 278.50, down 0.77 percent on the BSE, on top of 3.91 percent and 5.4 percent loss on last Friday, respectively.
Employees and security staff work at the reception area of Cipla at its headquarters in Mumbai, India June 17, 2015. Cipla Ltd, India's fourth-largest drugmaker by sales, is planning to enter Latin America and Eastern Europe to tap into growing demand for generic drugs in emerging markets, Chief Executive Subhanu Saxena said. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTX1GUXV

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Cipla shares rallied 7 percent intraday on Monday after the company's outlook for current financial year 2017-18 and analysts maintained hold rating on the stock post Q1 earnings.

Company's chairman Y K Hamied on last Friday said even as the industry faces several hurdles, the government's new drug policy will boost the pharma sector. He is hopeful that the company will generate sustainable and profitable topline growth in FY18.

"In the US, we are eyeing over 20 ANDA filings, strengthening the execution of key launches and building our specialty focus in respiratory and CNS," said Cipla managing director and CEO Umang Vohra.

The company filed three products in Q1FY18 and filing is expected to intensity in the remaining part of the fiscal with a target to file 25 ANDAs in the full year.

Cipla posted 21 percent rise in net profit to Rs 409 crore on a year-on-year basis for the first quarter ended June 30 reigning in expenses and enhancing operational efficiency.

Revenues declined 3 percent to Rs 3525 crore while EBITDA margins stood at 18.3 percent gaining 6 percent YoY.

The results were above analysts' expectations on net profit and EBITDA margin front, while low on revenue. A CNBC-TV18 analysts poll estimated the net profit at Rs 324 crore and revenues at Rs 3650 crore. The poll also estimated the EBITDA margin at 16.4 percent.

"Despite the impact of GST on India business, we had a very healthy quarter from an operational perspective," Umang Vohra said, adding the quarter saw EBITDA margins expanding to over 18 percent driven by strong focus on enhancing operational efficiency and control on spends.

With stock trading at 19x FY19 PE and growth dependent on the challenging US business, Jefferies said it maintained hold rating with increased target price at Rs 510 (from Rs 480 earlier).

The research house expects growth for Cipla to improve from current levels led by recovery in India and launches in US market.

Pricing challenges, rising cost (led by R&D) though will limit margin improvement, it feels. While it expects 21 percent EPS CAGR over FY17-20, this is dependent on success in US business, where challenges are rising.

Most businesses disappointed in growth in Q1. South Africa and Europe were the only businesses that grew 10 percent YoY. India business was down 13 percent due to GST. US revenues were up only 2 percent YoY. Growth in Rest of World businesses was 4 percent YoY.

"Some of Cipla's most important investments in the past 3 years continue to face structural pressuresUS (competitive pressure & price erosion) and emerging markets (forex volatility, price decline in Middle East, rising competition). Moreover, the stocks rich valuation of 20.1x FY19 factors in the optimism, but not the challenging macro environment. Hence, we maintain hold rating on the stock," Edelweiss said.

Cipla has guided for a few limited competition launches like gVidaza, gDacogen and gRenvela in the US market in FY18/19. However, competition has started building up as 5 players have already launched gVidaza and 4 players gDacogen, and have become totally commoditised. Aurobindo has launched gRenvela and 3/4 more players are expected in next 2 quarters as all are sourcing the API from Strides. Ciplas R&D cost is poised to inch up as clinical trial for Advair kicks-off in FY18.

In the medium term, products like Nanopaclitaxel and Albuterol MDI (TAD for end FY18) will be critical, the research house said.

At 12:18 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 570.80, up Rs 28.10, or 5.18 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Sunil Shankar Matkar
business Expect robust gross refining margins in Q3 & Q4: BPCL In an interview to CNBC-TV18, K Sivakumar, Director-Finance of BPCL spoke about the results and his outlook for the company.
business Expect topline growth of 15-18% & profit growth of 20% in FY18: Uflex Uflex reported a steady quarter this quarter with improvement in margins and profits. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, RK Jain, Group President-Finance of Uflex discussed the company's Q1 performance.
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The earnings report from Tata Global Beverage revealed a continuation of improving profitability of its Indian operations and restructuring of the international businesses. Despite GST, the company witnessed growth supported by volumes.

In our view, Tata Globals latest initiatives on restructuring are directionally positive steps. We believe that the latest developments have the potential to unlock value for the shareholders.

Q1 results aided by better performance of branded business

At the consolidated level, the company posted sales de-growth of -2 percent, wherein underlying constant currency growth was at 1 percent driven by improved performance of its Indian operations. Branded business (Excluding EMEA region) posted sales growth of 5 percent. EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) region was impacted by currency volatility post Brexit. However, a major drag on sales was the weak performance of non-branded operations (-10 percent).

Earnings before exceptional item and tax improved 9 percent on account of nearly flattish growth in prices of raw materials, cost management initiatives (lower employee and finance cost) that were partially offset by higher promotional costs.

Positive volume growth in Indian operations

India operations (53 percent of Q1 2018 sales) witnessed sales growth of 9 percent YoY aided by new launches and improved tea volume, although muted volume growth for coffee was a drag. Operating margins benefitted from lower cost of goods sold partially offset by higher advertising cost.

Restructuring on the way

The management stated that company is closely reviewing business verticals and geographies that are not adding value to shareholders. Consequently, the company has made changes in its Russia and China businesses.

In case of Russian operations, Tata Global has decided to transfer ownership and operational responsibility to Skodnya Grand LLC. Post this transaction, a 5-year renewable licence agreement for its Russian brands would be granted to Tea Trade LLC. While the transaction amount is yet to be disclosed, Tata Global Beverage would receive royalties for the use of its existing brands by the new owner.

What drove this transaction was the muted performance of its Russian entity, difficult macro-economic context and the currency devaluation. It is noteworthy that the Russian business generated sales of Rs 266 crore in the FY17 and a loss after tax of Rs 29 crore.

The company has also sold its stake in its Chinese joint venture Zhejiang Tata Tea Extraction Company Limited. Gains from the disposal on the standalone books would be to the tune of Rs 19 crore.

Investment in greenfield plant in Vietnam

In the post result conference call, management gave an update about a mega project in Vietnam for Tata coffee. The company has invested USD 6 million for the freeze dry instant coffee facility.

The management reiterated its focus on building core brands, premiumisation and the non-black tea segment.

Overall, we find the results positive, particularly on the cost management and restructuring front. Tata Global trades at 24 x (12m trailing earnings) which seems reasonable in the context of the ongoing business restructuring and the dynamic new leadership at the group level hinting at maximizing shareholders value.
The June quarter earnings cycle is about to end soon. The Street will watch out for cues from the quarter and will set the course for it going forward.

So, how has India Inc performed? Have the earnings improved or is there a big dip? Max Life Insurance believes that the performance overall was a disappointment. It wasnt unexpected. It was seen to be better on the margin front, but even that is not taking place, Mihir Vora, Director & CIO, Max Life Insurance told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. The second half of this fiscal could see earnings growth of 15 percent year-on-year. In the first half of the current fiscal, earnings growth could more largely be in a single-digit number.

Further, he explained, that given these valuations against the earnings visibility, the market is taking a breather and that is happening right now, he told the channel.

Speaking on the markets movement ahead, he expects a sideways movement in the next three months. No big up move is seen currently, he told the channel.

Among sectors, Vora believes pharma is interesting. Though results are not supporting, there are good companies and issues will be resolved.

He also likes consumption theme due to multiple factors of execution on infra side, FMCG as a bet on rural growth and good monsoon and seventh pay commission.
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SP Tulsian

This was shelling of a new kind, leaving all on Dalal Street shell shocked!

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) left everyone bewildered when on August 7, 2017, doing its duty as watchdog, it acted on the letter issued on June 9, 2017 by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). MCA spelled out a list of 331 companies, in a letter sent to SEBI, which in turn directed the stock exchanges to move these to Stage VI of Graded Surveillance Measures. These companies were identified as shell companies and trading got suspended. Of these 331, 107 were unlisted and only 48 were listed on the NSE, and even out of the 48 listed ones, 10 had already been suspended much earlier on the orders of the NSE.

The Companies Act, 2013 has not provided a definition for a Shell company.

Webster's New World College Dictionary has defined a shell company as, A company existing as a legal entity but having no assets, independent business operations, etc., often owned or controlled by another company and used for various, often illegal, purposes.

These 331 companies were identified by MCA on the basis of common directors, common addresses and more importantly, saw huge cash deposits during demonetisation and even had links with some politicians. It may be noted that SFIO, I.Tax, ED, FEMA, MCA and PMLA have found in their independent and concerted investigations that thousands of multi-layered companies are formed, largely for round tripping of money, for conversion of black money and hawala operations, making it very difficult to track the trail of funds. A majority of these multi-layered companies are seen having its origin in Kolkata where newly-incorporated companies were seen issuing shares of FV (face value) of Rs 10 at a hefty premium of Rs 490 with such companies having got income tax assessment done for the first year, and with no records seen available thereafter with any of the authorities. Beneficiaries of such issue were then seen using this money, which was converted to Black money, being used perpetually. FM Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Friday has also said that the government will nab the beneficiaries of this fund, who have used and enjoyed these shell companies, at the last point of this round tripping and fund trail; these might have been received by some of these so called shell companies at some point of this round tripping.

In common commercial parlance, accepting Cash Credit or Entry is seen rampant, where loan is given by one company to another, on receiving cash from the receiving company or its beneficiary, while in reality, it is an accommodation or a sham transaction, as no actual flow of amount, fund or loan has happened, but only name is lent by the lender for the loan amount. It is also quite a common thing to see that few companies, to shore up their financials, show fictitious sales or commissions in their name. By doing this, such companies by showing higher income, either avail working capital from the banks or adjust income against their brought forward losses, which are about to get lapsed, or to meet eligibility criterion of threshold to participate in large government contracts or to jack up its share price on bourses by showing higher profits. A few of these shell companies that have been banned do have a genuine business, have their own large manufacturing facility, paying a huge amount as Excise, VAT and Income Tax, etc. like Prakash Industries, J Kumar Infra, Parsvnath Developers, Gallantt Metal, Lotus Eye Hospital, Adhunik Industries. Despite the fundamentals of these companies, there is no doubt that there cannot be smoke without fire. It is quite a certainty that many of these might have availed some cash credit or got some fictitious income in lieu of cash, having been given by them at some point of time, to some other shell companies.

Capital market, taxation and legal experts are now arguing, whether SEBIs move was harsh or whether it went against natural justice? It may seem so, but it is still certain that all 331 companies will not come forward to prove their bona fides, while many may get caught on irregular and illegal financial transactions, which might be covered under Benami, Prevention of Money Laundering, Hawala, Income Tax evasion or defrauding banks as well.

BSE is seen having 3,909 companies available for Trade in Equity, while 2,667 companies are seen traded now, excluding these 331 (224 on BSE) shell companies. It is most likely that hundreds of companies may also get covered in a subsequent list to be released by MCA and enforced by SEBI thereafter. Stock exchanges have already started investigations into the affairs and financials of these shell companies, which NSE might finish at the earliest since it needs to look into only 38 companies, while it might take much longer for BSE to do so. MCA may wait to see the findings and investigation outcome of the exchanges, before taking a call on the subsequent list of such shell companies.

The trading ban on shell companies has triggered off margin calls at brokers' end, as stocks of many of these companies were given as margin to the broker, by their clients, being shareholders in these shell companies. Prominent amongst them are Prakash Industries, J Kumar Infra, Pincon Spirit, Parsvnath Developers and SQS India; the amount estimated for margin funding having been provided for, is estimated at over Rs 800 crore. This has led to the liquidation of open trading positions of their clients by the brokers in the last week, which, now seems to have been resolved either on account of receiving matching alternative security or margin exposure getting reduced with the liquidation of open positions.

However, SAT has lifted the trading ban on Prakash Industries, J Kumar Infra, Parsvnath Developers, Signet Industries, Pincon Spirit, Kavit Industries, SQS India and Kkalpana Industries. SAT has also stated that this order shall not come in the way of SEBI as well as the stock exchanges to investigate the case of these companies and initiate proceedings it deemed fit.

So, is this just an interim relief, in common parlance, or actually it is seen just an interim relief only, in legal parlance?

MCA in the recent past had also de-registered 1,62,618 companies till 12-7-17 under section 248 of Companies Act,2013. These were seen as dormant, not complied with the filing of Balance Sheet and Annual Returns with MCA; there was also fear of same being used as sham companies in future for illegal activities. MCA as at 31-5-17 had 16,59,965 companies seen as registered and with de-registration of these 1.62 lakh companies, compliance ratio has improved, giving a better rating in the eyes of the global investors as well. It may be noted that notices are issued to about 4 lakh companies for de-registration and hence, second round may also see de-registration of close to 1 lakh more companies.

This move of shell companies trading ban may optically be viewed as quite harsh for the retail investors, but if few companies having genuine commercial existence, do get off the trading ban and instead get penalised under Income Tax Act for accepting fictitious loans or taking other benefits under law, it will actually go a long way in capital market and our economy, seen and making it quite healthy, giving it more depth, while sending a very stern message to the tax evaders.

If we want CORRUPTION FREE INDIA, this is a baby step in that direction.

Mera BHARAT Mahan. Happy Independence Day.
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Are you looking for undervalued stocks or stocks which can lead the next leg of the rally on D-Street? Well, Morgan Stanley in its latest report highlighted 7 stocks which are likely to enter the USD 10 billion club in the next three years, authored by Ridham Desai and Sheela Rathi.

Seven stocks which are likely to enter in the USD 10 billion include names like Cummins India, JSW Steel, Lupin, M&M Financial, Petronet LNG, UPL, and ZEE Entertainment.

Top stocks which are in Morgan Stanleys focus list and are already in the USD 10 billion club include stocks like Bajaj Auto, BPCL, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, M&M, and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

Morgan Stanley highlights three reasons why mega caps will be an important space to watch out for. Firstly, as Indian stocks gain weight in the MSCI EM index, the market will attract tourist money and bigger flows, which will look for large liquid names to invest in.

As India index weight rises, it will probably attract more non-long-term money, or what we can loosely call 'tourist flows'. Such flows will mostly look for large cap, liquid names through which to participate in the India story.

Secondly, as India's domestic institutions grow in size, they will no longer be able to rely on mid- and small-cap stocks to generate outperformance. Making the right mega- and the large-cap call may become crucial to generating alpha.

History suggests mutual funds have had close to 40-50 percent of their equity allocation towards mid- and small-cap stocks. This strategy has worked and has helped them earn excess returns over the benchmark, reflecting the underlying performance of mid- and small-cap stocks.

Since 2001, India's mid- and small-cap indices have risen at respective CAGRs of 18 percent and 16 percent, while the narrower market (Nifty) has appreciated at a 13 percent CAGR. Mid- and small caps will likely continue to outperform the market over the next 3-5 years.

Morgan Stanleys calculations show that domestic mutual fund assets could catapult to USD 1 trillion in the coming decade from USD 100 billion currently, underpinning the scale problem.

And, lastly, the reason to evaluate mega caps is the likely growth in domestic exchange-traded funds (ETF). The global investment bank believes that domestic ETFs' assets are likely to grow 30x in the coming decade to USD 200 billion.

The other large source of domestic flows will likely be retirement funds. On a combined basis, the global investment bank expects equity saving via these retirement funds could reach USD 170 billion by FY26.

Within the retirement saving pool, provident funds will drive the ETF boom. The initial equity allocation in FY2016 was 5 percent of incremental flows, which was increased to 10 percent of incremental flows in FY2017.

This flow is directed into equities via domestic ETFs. Over the past two years, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has invested close to Rs235bn in equities via the ETF route.

The labor ministry has increased the allocation to 15 percent for F2017-18. This could imply additional flows of Rs300bn into equities via ETFs, said the report.
An under construction high-rise residential tower is pictured behind an old residential building in Mumbai, India, February 8, 2016. The Indian government on Monday forecast annual economic growth to accelerate to 7.6 percent in the fiscal year ending in March 2016 after Asia's third-largest economy grew 7.3 percent in the quarter to end-December. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTX25Z75

After it failed to make payment on its debt to the Corporation Bank, one of the offices of Amrapali Builders will be auctioned. Three of its directors have also handed over their passports to the Gautam Budh Nagar DM.



Noida: One of the offices of Amrapali Builder to be auctioned after failing to pay back their debts to Corporation Bank

 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 14, 2017

According to ANI, the directors have assured that they will pay off the debt and won't flee the country. The Noida-based real estate giant was earlier held up in July for non-payment of labour cess.

The action comes after the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had recently hinted that strict action will be taken against builders engaging in fraudulent practices.

Last month, the revenue department had taken action against Amrapali Group CEO Hrithik Sinha for fraud and evading labour cess worth Rs 4.29 crore.

However, Sinha was later released after payment of the due cess.

Several projects of the Amrapali Builders are stuck in Noida. Recently, home buyers had carried out hunger strikes outside the company's corporate office in Noida.

The buyers were protesting against the delays in Amprapali projects like Dreamvalley, Silicon City and Leisure Valley, as per a report in News18.

Buyers have already paid 80-90 percent of the money for homes, but are yet to get the flats. While some flats are still incomplete, others lack basic infrastructure, the report said.

In another news, nearly 100 home buyers were also protesting against Jaypee in Noida last week over the insolvency suit by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
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Recovery in global trade aided Allcargo Logistics to post a good set of numbers in the quarter ended June 2017. The companys Multimodal Transport Operation (MTO) business, which accounts for almost 85% of the total revenue, clocked volumes of 1,38,479 TEUs thereby registering a strong 14% year-on-year volume growth. While this helped in clocking higher revenue, the segment profit declined 6% owing to a notional currency impact in its global operations.

This also impacted the overall profitability of the company considering that the contribution of the other two segments, namely container freight operation (CFS) and project and engineering, is relatively low. Thus, despite overall 6% growth in consolidated revenues, the company reported a flat net profit at Rs 63.57 crore.

The company's CFS business, which accounts for about7% of the revenues, saw flat growth in revenues at Rs 108.84 crore and reported a marginal decline in net profit at Rs 29.65 crore.

Several one-offs impacted performance

While the business environment is improving, which is also visible in the volume growth, certain business reorganisation impacted profitability.

For instance, in Q1FY18, apart from the notional currency impact, operating costs of managing Mundra CFS (which was not part of Q1FY17 consolidated financials) and consolidation of relatively lower margin ICD at Kheda had a bearing on the financials.

Business restructuring gathering pace

The project and engineering business, which is about 7% of the total revenue saw some sale of assets. This is a capital-intensive business earning a very low return on capital. In Q1FY18, on Rs 660 crore assets employed in the business, it generated segment loss of Rs 5 lakh. However, the capital employed in this segment is reducing. In the latest quarter, it was down by Rs 100 crore compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year. Allcargo is hopeful that with industrial activities picking up, utilisation of the existing assets in this business, like crane rental, will go up thereby resulting in better return.

The new initiatives

The big focus areas are scaling up of the contract logistic business, monetisation of its land bank (200 acre in Bengaluru, Nagpur, and Hyderabad) and the opening of logistics parks at some of the strategic locations.

The company has started working on developing the Jhajjar Logistic Park on 180 acres of land comprising of a rail linked freight terminal, warehousing and a facility to support the contract logistic business. This is located near the Dedicated Freight Corridor in Rewari and is expected to be a huge beneficiary post the completion of the corridor.

High growth segment  contract logistics

The company is aggressively scaling up its contract logistics business. Allcargo owns 62% stake in Avvashya, which undertakes contract logistics activities. Today, the contribution of this segment is a meagre 1% of revenue, but Allcargo is hopeful of the future of this activity. It is one of the top three players in India. This business is expected to benefit post GST with the share of organised players going up. The company is looking for organic and inorganic ways to grow.

This business provides complete client solution in terms of warehousing, pick-up, packaging and other end-to-end services and will be complementary to its existing businesses like global logistics and CFS.

Valuations

While Allcargos MTO and CFS businesses are cash cows, what we like is its focus on trimming the low yielding segments. The company plans to leverage resources (land bank and listing of foreign subsidiary). It is also venturing into high growth areas like contract logistics and logistic parks. While many of these initiatives may not have immediate earnings impact, they will, nevertheless, support earnings strongly in the long run.

At the current market price of Rs 159, the stock is trading at 13 times its FY19 projected earnings, which is reasonable for a company with decent returns on equity, dominant position in the industry and low leverage in the balance sheet.
CNBC-TV18 brings you a brand new week of Bull's Eye. It's the popular game show where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.

Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.

This week, Ruchit Jain, Rakesh Bansal and Vishal Malkan battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking

Buy UltraTech Cement with a stoploss at Rs 3830 and target of Rs 4048

Sell NCC with a stoploss at Rs 86 and target of Rs 78

Sell Castrol India with a stoploss at Rs 386 and target of Rs 356

Sell Engineers India with a stoploss at Rs 158 and target of Rs 137

Rakesh Bansal of RK Global

Buy Bata India with a stoploss at Rs 620 and target of Rs 658

Buy Axis Bank with a stoploss at Rs 480 and target of Rs 504

Buy Mahanagar Gas with a stoploss at Rs 968 and target of Rs 1013

Buy Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services with a stoploss at Rs 387 and target of Rs 447

Vishal Malkan of malkansview.com

Buy Reliance Capital with a stoploss at Rs 740 and target of Rs 795

Buy Yes Bank with a stoploss at Rs 1725 and target of Rs 1820

Buy Bank of India with a stoploss at Rs 141 and target of Rs 152

Buy PTC with a stoploss at Rs 107 and target of Rs 118
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The Nifty reclaimed 9,800 on Monday, rising nearly 1 percent mostly on short covering in beaten down stocks, after seeing a sharpest fall of 3.5 percent last week post its 9-month rally.

Among other things putting pressure on the market are geopolitical tensions, weak earnings, SEBI's action on 'shell' companies, and high valuations. But there are few companies where we can expect up to 50 percent upside in next 12-month.

The stocks include Hindalco Industries, CESC, TVS Motor Company and Strides Shasun which were come out with their June quarter earnings, which were mix bagged but broking house Motilal Oswal is expecting up to 50 percent return from these companies.

CESC | Rating: Buy | Target Rs 1360 | Upside: 50%

The companys PAT grew 2.3 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 178 crore, marginally below estimate of Rs 182 crore and sales grew 2.6 percent Y-o-Y to 2,853MU in the June quarter, after declining for the last few quarters.

Dhariwal PLF rose 24pp YoY to 54 percent in 1QFY18, led by the start of Noida PPA and sale in merchant market. The firm expect Dhariwals EBITDA to increase from Rs 10.9 crore in FY17 to Rs 281 crore in FY18 on full benefit of the PPA.

Its retail business under Spencer has shown slow growth rate as its same-stores sales growth decelerated from double-digit in the last few quarters to just 2 percent YoY.

The demerger into four separate businesses would drive value by unlocking the potential of the distribution and retail businesses. While, the distribution business valuation will get re-rated on reduced volatility in earnings, and thus, its cost of equity.

TVS Motor Company| Rating: Buy | Target Rs 612 | Upside: 14%

In the June quarter, the company has reported volumes growth of 12.2 percent and realisation rose 5.2 percent, Y-o-Y.

However, the increase in raw material cost has hurt the margins of the company, which came at 6.2 percent, down 80 bps, Y-o-Y due to one-time GST compensation of Rs 16.5 crore and pending discounts of BS3.

The management indicated that the cost increase due to BS-3 to BS-4 is not fully passed on to customers, so to compensate this, the company intends to take price increase of 1 percent by 2HFY18.

The company is targeting market share gain of 1-1.5 percent in FY18 to reach 15-15.5 percent led by product actions.

The firm has cut its EPS estimates for FY18 and FY19 by 12.1 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively, on increase in raw material cost and higher tax rates.

Strides Shasun | Rating: Buy | Target Rs 1300 | Upside: 48%

The broking firm has maintained positive stance on Strides Shasun despite muted performance of the company in 1QFY18.

The companys Q1 sales increased 10 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 840 crore in 1QFY18, led by higher regulated market formulation and API sales. However, the EBITDA margin shrunk sharply from 16.8 percent in 1QFY17 to 10.4 percent in 1QFY18 due to pricing pressure in some products in the US and an inferior product mix in anti-malaria.

The company has filed five ANDAs YTD and 29 are pending for approval. It maintained the guidance of 15-20 filings in FY18. Its partners are expected to receive approval for Sevelamer in the near term, which is driving API sales.

In Q1FY18, the company had four USFDA inspections, of which, three had zero 483. The Bangalore facility was issued 483 with three observations. However, there has been product approval post inspection, indicating minimal regulatory risk over the medium term.

The firm remain positive on the company, given its R&D capabilities, vertical integration, strong compliance culture and diversified presence.

Hindalco Industries | Rating: Buy | Target Rs 309 | Upside: 40%

According to Motilal Oswal the companys standalone 1QFY18 EBITDA grew 1 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 1150 crore, lower than estimate of Rs 1200 crore. Meanwhile, its adjusted PAT has increased 41 percent YoY to Rs 420 crore.

The Production of the company was strong at 109kt, but sales were lower at 105kt.

The company remains focused on deleveraging, cost reduction and asset sweating. The free cash flows of the company are rising rapidly and capital allocation is strictly towards the high IRR projects.

The author is Motilal Oswal. The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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Shares of Suzlon Energy added 10 percent intraday Monday as the company turned profitable in the quarter ended June 2017.

The company has reported net profit of Rs 63.7 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 (Q1FY18) against the loss of Rs 257 crore, in the same quarter last fiscal.

Revenue of the company increased 62.5 percent at Rs 2,676 crore versus Rs 1,646 crore.

The board approved the issuance of redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to the extent of Rs 900 crore on private placement basis in one or more tranches for replacement of existing debt subject to approval of shareholder in the ensuing annual general meeting of the company.

The company's 22nd AGM will be held on September 22, 2017.

The securities issue committee of the company has at its meeting held on August 12, 2017 approved allotment of 2,89,74,999 equity shares of Rs 2 each on conversion of 7438 USD 546,916,000 step-up convertible bonds due July 2019 of USD 1,000 each at a conversion price of Rs 15.46 per equity share with a fixed rate of exchange on conversion of Rs 60.225 to USD 1.

At 09:31 hrs Suzlon Energy was quoting at Rs 16.60, up Rs 1.30, or 8.50 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
Yoga guru Ramdev today said his consumer products company is in the process of acquiring land in Jammu and Kashmir to set up a unit there and would also offer jobs to youth in the state.

Speaking on terrorism in the country, Ramdev said, "Anyone who masters the art of Yoga can never become a terrorist. Not a single person who mastered Yoga ever became a terrorist in history".

Replying to questions on violence in the Kashmir Valley, he said children should be taught good things about all religions as it will bring harmony among religions.

"I believe Yoga can cure the thought process of those creating menace in the valley," he said while speaking at the India TV conclave.

Ramdev said Patanjali is in the process of acquiring 150 acres of land in Jammu and Kashmir, and would be offering jobs to Kashmiri youth.

He also called for a boycott of Chinese goods, saying that India is ready to counter China on every front.

"Even the idols of our gods are imported from China. As Indians, we should boycott Chinese products for the reason that it (China) supports Pakistan," he added.

The Yoga exponent, known for his airing his political views, said India should take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and support Balochistan's movement for independence.
Vijaypat Singhania

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Retired tycoon Vijaypat Singhania, who is engaged in a legal battle with son Gautam Singhania, said he is willing to resolve the differences.

Gautam Singhania too echoed the sentiment and said he is willing to talk out the matter with his father, reported Mumbai Mirror.

The father-son duo are engaged in an legal tangle over the possession of a disputed duplex in the 36-story JK House on Malabar Hill in Mumbai.

Gautam Singhania also said that he is 'pained' looking at his father's situation, but added that his father was being misled by 'vested interests'. He also claimed that he had invited his father to discuss the matter, but Vijaypat never showed up.

The 78-year-old Singhania had alleged the son of reducing him to live a 'hand-to-mouth' life. Senior advocate Dinyar Madon had affirmed Singhania's situation by saying that the veteran was broke and could not even avail a car, a driver or rent of his alternative accommodation.

Blaming his son, Vijaypat said that giving up control over the company was his 'biggest mistake'. Vijaypat had handed over to Gautam shares worth Rs 1,000 crore he held in Raymond along with the wealth, Madon told the court. Gautam is driving Vijaypat "out of everything" he said.

Vijaypat also said that he will withdraw the case if his son comes to the know and swear to Lord Tirupati Balaji that his allegations were false.

Clarifying his position, Gautam said that he has no hard feelings for his father. He also said that JK House could not be handed over as the company's board and shareholders' were not in favour of the transfer.
As many as 60 children have died so far in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply.

The hospital's oxygen supply was cut by the supplier after payments were not fulfilled.

What happened?

The oxygen supplier stopped the supply after an unpaid debt amounting to more than Rs 32 lakh.

Within 48 hours, starting August 10, 30 children died in the hospital across various wards. 17 children died in the neo-natal ward, five died in the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) ward while eight died in the general ward. On August 11, the death toll had risen to 60.

On August 12, the Government of Uttar Pradesh suspended the hospital's principal Rajeev Mishra for allegedly delaying the release of payment to oxygen supplier and "negligent behaviour". Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.

Where does the government stand?

The incident happened in Gorakhpur, which was the Lok Sabha constituency of CM Adityanath from 1998 until August 5, when he resigned.

The Uttar Pradesh government initially claimed that the deaths had happened due to encephalitis.

UP Health Minister Sidhartha Nath Singh, confirmed that the oxygen supply went down on August 10, but claimed that the situation was brought under control within a few hours. He also claimed that none of the deaths took place when the oxygen supply fell.

CM Adityanath announced that a team of key ministers had been formed to determine if the death of these children had actually happened due to oxygen supply disruption and assured to not spare anyone found guilty adding that it would be "heinous" if the children had died because of a disruption in oxygen supply.

He also claimed that the state government had cleared payment for the oxygen vendor on August 7 and that the hospital, had not released the funds till August 11.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) sent Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda to visit the hospital along with Adityanath. The PMO also sought a report on the matter.

The sacked doctor

On Sunday, Dr Kafeel Khan was removed as the nodal officer for the encephalitis ward. He was also accused of running a private clinic along with his government job.

He had been hailed as a hero on social media after media reports claimed that he paid out of his own pocket to get oxygen cylinders for the suffering children at the Gorakhpur hospital.

Dr Khan told The Times of India, "It's a smear campaign against me. I was only trying to help the children. I did everything from getting in touch with oxygen firms to ensuring prompt help to patients."

The Supreme Court of India has refused to take suo moto cognisance into the case.

JP Nadda announced setting up of an 85-crore regional medical centre in Gorakhpur for research on diseases that afflict children.
EVM election polls voting

The government is seriously considering taking up Prime Minister Narendra Modi's suggestion that India move to a simultaneous election cycle.

Towards that end, it is possible that government may postpone elections in some key states, due to to be held in late 2018, to have them coincide with Lok Sabha elections, due in May 2019.

A report in the Times of India says, quoting government officials in the know, says that that government may try to have elections postponed in four key states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, and Mizoram.

Barring Mizoram, BJP is in power in all states.

Current elections laws state that state elections due within the period of six months can be held together.

The debate on election syncing was first started by PM Narendra Modi who said that multiple elections spread through each year disrupt governance and result in significant financial costs to the exchequer.

The syncing will also result in reduced expenditure in terms of resourcesmachinery and manpower.

Earlier in May, the government think tank Niti Aayog had suggested aligning Lok Sabha and state assembly polls; it also directed the Election Commission to set up a working group comprising stakeholders to chalk out a blueprint for transitioning to the synchronised mode.

The TOI report even suggests the BJP may even consider trying to shorten the tenures of some state governments -- such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha -- which are poll-bound in May-June of 2019.

But among these states, BJP only has its hold on Andhra Pradesh where it is in alliance with Chandrababu Naidus Telegu Desam Party.

Thus, it may be a challenge to reach political consensus among stakeholders on the question of simultaneous elections if the incumbent state government is led by an opposition party.

From 1952 onward, India has had a 65-year long history of democratic elections, during which only early few elections saw simultaneous elections. If the process is restarted again in 2018-19, it will take 10 years for all states to be in sync.

Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C Kashyap told TOI that the process would be gradual as it would be hard to get opposition parties to give up their tenure in the state assembly, especially if the state is bound for elections in a year.
NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 31: Harpal Singh, who was the proud owner of the first Maruti 800 in 1983, poses with the car in New Delhi on March 31, 2010. The last of the 27 lakh units of Maruti 800 were driven out of showrooms in 13 cities on Wednesday, the company having decided that it was not worth pushing for a large investment to upgrade the engine to meet the stricter Bharat Stage IV norms that become mandatory from April 1. (Photo by K Asif/India Today Group/Getty Images)

Over the last seven decades, many Indian products and brands have been through the rough-and-tumble. Several once-iconic brands have faded into oblivion, edged out by competition, business busts and technological obsolescence.

Heres a list of a few once hugely popular brands that have now disappeared from the market place as well as public imagination.

Premier Padmini

Premier Padmini was a car manufactured from 1973 to 1998 by Premier Automobiles Limited, under license from Fiat.

It continues to be used as a cab in cities like Mumbai.

Rajdoot Motorcycles

By Cheemais, Wikimedia CommonsHero Majestic Moped

The Hero Majestic Moped was one of the initial two-wheelers manufactured by Hero MotoCorp.

Dyanora TV

The Dyanora TV with a big picture tube and two speakers on either side was the first television set seen by many Indians.

Ambassador Cars

The Hindustan Ambassador one of India's most iconic cars. It was manufactured by the Hindustan Motors of India from 1958 to 2014. On 11 February 2017, Hindustan Motors sold the Ambassador brand, including the trademarks, for a consideration of Rs 80 crore. The car was extensively used by bureaucrats and ministers.

Maruti 800

Maruti 800 is a small city car manufactured by Maruti Suzuki from 1983 to 18 January 2014. With over 30 years of production, Maruti 800 was the second longest produced Indian car after the Hindustan Ambassador.

Yezdi Motorcycles

Wikimedia Commons

The Yezdi Motorcycle produced in India by Ideal Jawa Ltd, in Mysore from 1978 to 1996.

Tata Sierra

By MartinHansV, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Tata Sierra, was a three-door sport utility vehicle produced by Tata Motors. With features such as adjustable steering, the car was far ahead of its time. The production ended in the year 2000.

Kinetic Luna

Cherubino, Wikimedia Commons

Kinetic Luna was a 50-cc moped produced by Kinetic Engineering from 1972 and to 2000.

Besides brands and scooter models like Vijay Super Scooters, Bajaj 150 Scooter, Big Fun Bubble Gum too perished with time.

Kelvinator refrigerators

Contessa Cars

The Contess was a car produced under the aegis of Hindustan Motors between 1984 and 2002. Contessa was popular among government officials, before the switch to Ambassador. The model also made it to a lot of Bollywood movies.

HMT watches

Founded in 1953 as a tool manufacturing company, HMT went to offer watches, tractors and more. The HMT watches were once symbolic of status and had a great fanfare. HMT watches shut down in 2014, after 53 long years serving as "timekeepers of the nation".

BSA Cycles

Illustrated Weekly

Illustrated Weekly once commanded a space in the best English-language magazine in India for over a century.

Wikimedia Commons

Onida TV

A leader in CRT television sets with tagline "Neighbour's envy, owner's pride", Onida failed to catch up with the changing times. It produces LED and LCD TV sets but none can match upto the calibre of the Onida TVs of the yore.

Gold Spot

The orange-flavoured aerated drink was one of the Parle products which gained popularity. It was as its tag line suggested "the Zing Thing" then.

An image of Gold Spot (beverage)

Campa Cola

Campa Cola dominated the aerated drinks market before opening up of the Indian economy brought in brands like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

Rush

Double Seven beverage

Bajaj Chetak

First launched in 1972, the Bajaj Chetak was at one point the largest selling scooter in India. Though the twoo-wheeler is no longer in production, its legacy continues to endure. Read more here.

WATCH MORE - Independent India Turns 70: A Look At Economic Milestones Over The Years
India has set in motion a plan to rapidly indigenise currency note production with improved security features under the Modi-governments signature `Make in India initiative as part of a focussed strategy to contain the spread of near perfect Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) called for fresh bids for supply of currency security features. It cancelled two earlier tenders invited in June 2015 and December 2015and now makes it mandatory for potential suppliers to set up domestic manufacturing units within two years.

The move, besides giving a push to the governments flagship `Make in India, initiative will also help prevent fake notes getting into the Indian banking system. Sources confirmed to Moneycontrol that Indian authorities are worried about possibility that organized international rackets may have access to the same source from where India imports materials for printing its currency.

For instance, the imported optically variable ink used in Indian currency notes is also being imported from the same source by Pakistan.

Sources, who did not wish to be identified, told Moneycontrol that one global firm have conveyed that it will set up a dedicated facility in Aurangabad for supply of security material for new Indian currency notes.

At present, the security features include watermarks, metal coated synthetic security thread and intaglio printing in the higher denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000. The RBI has now called bids for supply of different types of security threads, advanced watermark and micro perforation, among others, most of which will have to be made in India.

The RBI tender document clearly states that a bidder with any commercial links to Pakistan and China will be seen with caution. Operations of the bidder in Pakistan or China, if any, should be suitably firewalled from the contract / operations with India. The bidder shall also declare that no employee who has previously worked or been posted in Pakistan or China, in any capacity, will be engaged by the company for this procurement process, it said.

The central bank also makes it clear that no Pakistani national or person of Pakistani origin should be engaged by the company for the project. The company should not post an employee who worked in India operations in Pakistan or China. If the entity is found indulging in acts inimical to Indias national security, the contract will be terminated, it said.

Bidder may note that their acceptance of the Make in India...is a mandatory requirement for considering the bidder eligible, RBI said while inviting pre-qualification bids for supply of security features for Indian banknotes.

All these steps are being in the backdrop of large number of fake notes of good quality that have been traced back to Pakistan as the point of origin, especially from cities like Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar.

Certain West Bengal areas bordering Bangladesh and Nepal like Malda, Kalichuk and Murshidabad are emerging as hot spots for the actual smuggling and their distribution of FICN through smaller networks in India.

At present, one bank note paper line at Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad run by the Secruity Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) and two lines at Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited (BNPMIPL), a joint venture Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL) and SPMCIL, are operational and supplying paper for banknote printing.

The average paper required per year for producing currency notes is about 25000 million tonnes valued at around Rs.15000 crore.

Prospective suppliers, who have time till August 16, 2017 to submit their bid documents with the RBI bid documents, will have to clearly state their plans to set up manufacturing facilities in India within two years from the date of signing of the contract and increase the local content in planned manner from the third year.

It will also have to increase the domestic value addition to 35 percent in the third year, 40 percent in the fourth year and 50 percent or more in the fifth year.

Instances have also come to light that FICN are being injected into India through Nepal, Bangladesh and Thailand through air, land and sea routes. They are then deposited in Indian banks in these border districts along with Indian currency before being transported across the country mainly through trains for circulation.
Construction of buildings and related projects within 50 metres of the Metro III route, on both sides of the metro, will require clearance from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), reports the Times of India.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the authoritative body which sanctions building plans in Mumbai, has asked developers to first seek a no-objection certificate from the MMRC. MMRC Official C M Jadhav said that the NOC will be issued within three weeks.

Mumbai builders will be required to submit their design plans to MMRC. Sources told TOI that even after the metro is built, building developments within 6.5 metres, on both sides of the metro, will not be permitted.

The Metro III line is a 33.5 km long underground metro line which will connect Cuffe Parade and Andheri.

Experts told TOI that there are chances that the heights of the buildings, which are close to the metro, can also be restricted.

"The objective is to regulate, control the development of land or building along the Metro rail alignment for purposes of timely construction of the corridor and also for the safety of the building as well as the metro system," according to a letter received by BMC from the MMRC.

Guidelines for building construction along the metro is already issued by Maple, a consultant appointed by the metro authorities.

Maple recommended five zones - First Reserve, Second Reserve, Third Reserve, Safety Zone and Protection Zone.

According to the documents which were cross-checked by TOI, First Reserve is around 6.5 metres on both sides of the metro, and hence no construction projects will be allowed. The Second Reserve, around 33.8 metres on both sides of the metro, Maple has suggested: "No trench, excavation, pile or well deeper than 1m below the existing ground water level will be allowed..."

There have been many protests regarding the Metro III line. Activists have protested against the large-scale chopping off of trees, which is to make way for the project.
Suresh Prabhu

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu today inaugurated Antyodaya Express and Humsafar Express at Bandra Terminus here via video conferencing.

While Antyodaya Express is a fully unreserved service, Humsafar Express is touted as an affordable luxury train by the Railways.

"These express trains and host of other services for Mumbai suburban stations were launched by the Railways Minister through video conferencing," a Western Railway release said.

While Antyodaya Express will run between Bandra (T) and Gorakhpur stations, Humsafar Express between Bandra (T) and Patna.

"Antyodaya Express will leave Bandra terminus every Sunday at 5:10 am and will reach Gorakhpur at 5:35 pm the next day. It will leave Gorakhpur every Tuesday at 3:15 am and reach Bandra (T) at 4.15 pm the next day," it said.

Humsafar Express is fully air-conditioned train fitted with a GPS-based passenger information display system.

"It also has a passenger announcement system, a fire and smoke detection and suppression system, CCTVs, comfortable seats, mobile and laptop charging points. It also has integrated Braille display," the release said.

This is the second Humsafar service to become operational on the Western Railway.

"The first such train was launched recently between Ahmedabad and Chennai," it said.

The train will depart from Bandra (T) every Sunday at 12.55 pm and will reach Patna at 10.15 pm the next day.

"Similarly, the train will leave Patna at 11.10 pm every Tuesday and will reach Bandra (T) at 7.35 pm on Thursday," as per the release.

The regular services of both the trains from Bandra will commence from August 20.

Prabhu also inaugurated a lift facility at suburban Borivali station to facilitate the movement of specially-abled and senior citizens. He also inaugurated the wi-fi facility at suburban Vasai Road and Virar stations.
The government is planning to lodge Vijay Mallya in the cell which was home to 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab for four years, a report submitted by the Centre in a London court has revealed.

In the report on the living and security condition of Mumbais Arthur Road Jail, it is mentioned that Mallya will be put in Barrack 12 upon extradition from the UK where the liquor baron is currently taking refuge. Vijay Mallya is accused in a widely-discussed money laundering case.

"The report was prepared in detail by the jail department and handed over to the government, which, in turn, through the CBI, sent it to the Westminster Magistrates' Court which is hearing Mallya's extradition case," a The Times of India report quoted a source.

The jail currently holds over 2,500 inmates against the capacity of 804.

Last month, a joint team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visited London to brief UK prosecution, working on the extradition of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, and submit fresh proof in the case.

The ED chargesheet in the case names nine people including Mallya who has been called "prime mover of the entire plot." The chargesheet goes on to describe how funds obtained from the bank loan were allegedly routed illegally, including "substantial payments" being diverted to the Formula-1 car racing event abroad.

Mallya is wanted in India for Kingfisher Airlines' default on loans worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore and has been in the UK since March 2016 and was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18.

A United Kingdom court recently rejected Mallya's request to shift the final hearing date in his extradition case to next year and fixed it for December 4.
The feud between India and Pakistan now has a new frontier -- flag war at the border.

Just ahead of Indias 70th Independence Day, the tricolour flag was hoisted on Sunday at Attari border by Amritsar district administration after a break of over three months, as per a report in the Hindustan Times.

Incidentally, the hoisting on the Indian side was carried out the day preceding Pakistans Independence Day which is on August 14 (Monday). Today, Pakistan unfolds its own flag on its side of the border.

WATCH MORE  Independent India Turns 70: A Look At Economic Milestones Over The Years

Pakistan gave India competition by hoisting a 400-ft high national flag at the Wagah border on Monday. The flag, claimed by Pakistan to be the tallest in South Asia, and taller than India's Attari-flag which stands at 360 feet.

The Indian flag at Attari is said to be the tallest in the country at 360 feet. It was first hoisted on March 5 this year. But it had to be taken down after it was damaged four times mainly due to strong winds, as per media reports.

The large size of the Indian national flag-- 120ft x 80 fthad contributed to the problem further. Hence, this time, the authorities have made the flag smaller and it is currently 90ft x 60ft. Thus, it is now smaller than Pakistan's flag at Wagah which is 120 ft x 80 ft.

The Indian flag will fly high on the sky near Attari till August 16. Afterwards, it will be unfurled only on days of significance until authorities can find some solution to the wind-related problem.
Private aerospace company SpaceX is all set to launch a supercomputer to space on Monday. The cargo is intended to support astronauts in the International Space Station for deep space missions in future.

As per a report in NDTV, the liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon cargo ship is being planned at 12:31 pm (US time) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 2900 kg cargo in the ship includes Spaceborne Computer - the supercomputer made by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

The rocket will try to make a controlled landing back at the site around 10 minutes after the launch. This is seen as a part of the aerospace technology firm's attempt to reuse the same rockets for several launches. If the launch is delayed by any reason on Monday then the next launch will be conducted only after a week.

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) was founded by Elon Musk to handle aerospace manufacturing and space travel. The company has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for the supply of materials to astronauts living in space.

The current mission is the 12th official trip by SpaceX of the 20 trips it plans to make under the NASA contract.

The supercomputer will be tested for a year to see if it can operate in harsh conditions of space which is about the same amount of time it would take for astronauts to arrive at Mars.

Alain Andreoli, senior vice president of HPE , said that the aim is to provide "sophisticated on-board computing resources that are capable of extended periods of uptime".
If you are among those more comfortable with using Tamil over English for smartphone searches, Google has found you an answer. The search engine giant announced launch of eight more languages for voice search capability. The company will now support languages such as Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi and Urdu in India, in addition to English and Hindi.

The new feature can be accessed by the user through Gboard on Android and Search through the Google app. The user will have to set the language in the voice settings menu of Google app before performing a voice-based search.

Google is planning to roll this service onto Google Search in iOS as well as its other products and apps including Google Translate.

As per Google, using voice search is three times more efficient than typing to search. The company also said the quality of voice search will improve over time as more and more users start speaking in their native language.

Users can use voice search not only to search but also to dictate messages and also to respond to emails on the go.

According to a recent report from Google-KPMG, by the year 2021 regional language users in India are going to grow to 536 million. Interestingly, English language users for the same period will only grow to 199 million.
Vikas Dandekar

Obscured in the fast unfolding news of dozens of deaths of children at a Gorakhpur hospital due to unavailability of oxygen is a deeper malaise that points to the downright failure of the Indian healthcare system.

Last year, denied an ambulance, the picture of a man carrying on his head the dead body of his wife in a Odisha village as his daughter walked by his side is hard to forget.

A year before in 2015, botched up sterilization procedures that killed 13 women in Chhattisgarh drew international flak. These stories of agony do not send alarming signals; now they flag outrage and despondency. In serious question is the governments will to pull out the deplorable healthcare system from the deep abyss. Growth of a country that derides the healthcare needs of its people is an example of a myopic vision.

Political affiliations apart, Indias economic growth agenda ambitiously revolves around infrastructure like building roads and bridges, stimulating manufacturing or overhauling the financial and taxation systems.

Historically, healthcare, as part of social development objectives, has remained a low priority. At best, the budgetary allocations for healthcare sector have stayed in a close band of 2 percent to 4 percent of the GDP.

In the opinion of one healthcare expert, a part of the reason for the apathy is that positive healthcare outcomes is subtle and measurable over a longer time. Until then, the change is in small pockets and not clearly noticeable. It is deceptively buried under the veneer of emerging corporate districts in cities replete with glistening glass and steel buildings, or, put simply, the modern figures of economic prosperity.

But that approach can throw up challenges in the long term. Studies by health experts draw an inseparable link between economic performance and sound health parameters. A 2004 article in the OECD Observer shows how health performance and economic performances are closely interlinked.

While wealthier countries have healthier populations for a start, the study says, it is a basic truth that poverty, mainly through infant malnourishment and mortality, adversely affects life expectancy.

Over an hour-long discussion on CNBC TV18 on Sunday evening (August 13) titled Whats Ailing India, health experts shared concerns on the awful state of the government-run hospitals. K Srinath Reddy, a well-known authority on health issues and President at the non-profit Public Health Foundation of India said the Gorakhpur tragedy manifests deep-rooted issues at multiple levels. From faulty procurement systems, lack of technical and medical audits that can guarantee transparency, improper use of fund to inadequate use of digital technology, the list is long.

Another expert, a retired senior bureaucrat in the health ministry, suggested a closer scrutiny of the medical education system. On the one hand, while private colleges have sprouted in thousands, government-owned medical colleges have been woefully short in meeting the demands.

The disparity between cities and rural centers is created at this fundamental point. For students who pay lakhs of rupees for medical education, serving in rural areas do not make economic sense, not to speak of the mediocrity that is bred in those colleges.

The task to fix the broken healthcare system in India needs a determined political intervention. But that is amiss unfortunately. The buzz around the Gorakhpur health crisis will taper in a few days until news of a health disaster is back in the media.

(The writer is Chief Editor News, CNBC-TV18)
A general view shows a workshop of the factory Yuzhmash during Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's visit in Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk), Ukraine October 21, 2014. Picture taken October 21, 2014. Mykhailo Markiv/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. - RTS1BRD7

North Korea's recent rapid progress in developing a long-range missile appears to come after it procured Soviet-designed rocket engines from a plant in Ukraine, according to an expert report published today.

According to Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the missiles used in recent North Korean tests were based on the RD-250 engine once made at a plant in the city of Dnipro.

These could have been bought from corrupt workers and smuggled to North Korea by criminal networks, the report alleges, at some point between the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's current military crisis.

During the Soviet era, the RD-250 was produced at the Yuzhnoye design bureau's Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro, a city that is today in Kiev government-held central Ukraine, around 150 kilometres from a frontline held by Russian-backed separatists.

Both Ukraine and the company reacted angrily to The New York Times' account of the report, insisting that Yuzhmash has not produced military rockets since Ukraine's independence and has no links to North Korea's nuclear missile program.

But the IISS report itself does not contradict this, suggesting instead that the missile motors may have remained in storage, whether in what is now Russia or independent Ukraine after the Soviet Union broke up.

"A small team of disgruntled employees or underpaid guards at any one of the storage sites... could be enticed to steal a few dozen engines by one of the many illicit arms dealers, criminal networks, or transnational smugglers operating in the former Soviet Union," it said.

"The engines (less than two meters tall and one meter wide) can be flown or, more likely, transported by train through Russia to North Korea."

The report includes pictures issued by Kim Jong-un's North Korean regime which appear to show similarities between the latest missiles to be tested and the RD-250 design of a liquid-fueled rocket.

"This is not to suggest that the Ukrainian government was involved, and not necessarily Yuzhnoye executives," Elleman wrote in the IISS report.

"Workers at Yuzhnoye facilities in Dnipropetrovsk and Pavlograd were likely the first ones to suffer the consequences of the economic misfortunes, leaving them susceptible to exploitation by unscrupulous traders, arms dealers and transnational criminals operating in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere."

The Yuzhmash plant's marketing department said the company "has never before and does not have anything to do with North Korean missile programs of a space or defence nature."

And Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of Ukraine's national security and defence council, seized on the report to attack Moscow, saying: "We believe this anti-Ukrainian campaign was provoked by Russian special services to cover their participation in North Korean nuclear and missile programs." (AFP) .
nuclear_missile

A state of worry and uncertainty has engulfed the world as tensions across the US, North Korea, India and China build up.

North Korea, under the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un, has been actively testing nuclear weapons since the start of 2017 despite various warnings and sanctions issued from the West. This has further escalated the existing tensions between the country and the US.

Since 1945, North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests in comparison to US' 1,032.

Leaders of both the nations have already engaged in a war of words which spooked the globe last week. US intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has developed inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which can target major US cities.

After the news came, US President Donald Trump warned Kim Jong-un that he would unleash 'fire and fury' on North Korea if it does not stop issuing threats to the US.

If this was not scary enough, there's another nuclear warhead-possessing nation looking to assert its power in Asia. Relations between India and China have not been at their best since the 1960s. The relationship soured further after India accused China of constructing a road in the Doklam region  a disputed area which has strategic significance for both the countries.

Chinese state-run media houses have tried to intimidate and insult India, whereas India cautions Chinese leadership that it is not the same country it used to be.

In terms of nuclear arsenal, the chart below shows that all US, India, China, and North Korea are among the top 10 nations in the world.

Diplomatic talks can help settle difference among the four nations and it is in the best interests of the world.

NOTE: Nuclear warhead figures in the above chart are in the range in 120-130 for India and 130-140 for Pakistan, and 10-20 for North Korea.
Education

Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu.

Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu.

Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events:

International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu.

EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu.

Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale  an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s  will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets  June Homecoming: Participant  $18 per person; Sustainer  $25 per person; Benefactor  $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler  Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events:

SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available  for information call 610-275-1960

Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above)

SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m.

Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.

Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.  4 p.m.  computers are available during those hours.

Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863.

Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376.

Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com.

The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes:

Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at

other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020.

CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313.

The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events:

Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m.

Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30.

Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301.

For Kids & Families

The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443.

Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950.

Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required.

The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950.

Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus.

Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage.

Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun.

Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train.

Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world!

Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class.

Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org.

Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583.

Community Events at the Ambler Y:

-YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register.

Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org.

Health

Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot.

The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information.

Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245.

Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net.

Spring Aquatic Programs  UDHS Pool:

-Summer is just around the corner  Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required.

 Shallow Water Aerobics  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR.

 Adult Swim Instructions  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR

-Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21.

-Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday  Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m.

-Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons.

-Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates.

Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994.

SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com.

Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org.

Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs:

FITNESS CLASSES

Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month.

Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30  9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly.

SUPPORT GROUPS

Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000.

Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30  7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047.

New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m.  12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30  4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931.

Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325.

Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes.

Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com.

Librarytalk

Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744

www.upperdublinlibrary.org

APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS:

Storytimes: Please register in the library.

o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m.

o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m.

o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m.

o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6.

APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS:

North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee

APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS:

NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org.

One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register  contact info above.

Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744.

o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register.

Meetings:

Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m.

Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m.

Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org.

For children and teens at Blue Bell:

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m.

* May 14  Despicable Me

* June 11  Alpha and Omega

* Special Events

* April  watch for date of spring/Easter events

* April 14 at 4:30 p.m.  Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children.

* April 14 at 7 p.m.  Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided.

* April 16 at 1 p.m.  Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King.

* April 16 at 1:30 p.m.  Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes?

* April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button.

* April 30 through May 3  Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults.

* May  sign up for Science in the Summer

* June  sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children

* June  sign up for Summer Reading, all ages

For adults at Blue Bell:

* Daytime Book Discussion Group  fourth Tuesday, Jan  April at 1:30 p.m.

* April 26  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Night-time Book Discussion Group  third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

o April 19  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges

o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked?

*Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs

* Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class.

* Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class.

* Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m.

* Giant Book Sale, April 29  May 3

o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults!

o Held during library hours.

o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m.

o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join.

* Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series

o May 11 at 1 p.m.  Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society

* Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room.

* Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read.

* Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome.

* Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome.

*Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older.

* Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours

* Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours

* Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday!

Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library.

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* For adults:

* Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn.

* Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net

* Special Events:

* April 14 at 1:30 p.m.  Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian.

* April 19 at 7 p.m.  Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m.

* April 21 at 7 p.m.  Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades.

*May 2 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

*May 10  Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*May 12 at 1:30p.m.  Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

*May 17  Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*June 13 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

Meetings and Lectures

The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833.

The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200.

The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/.

LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings.

Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org.

Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org)

-Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them.

The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter.

For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps.

Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin.

Special Events

The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County.

The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065.

Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members.

Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex.

The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com.

The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348.

The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org.

Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163.

The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu.

The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com.

The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net.

Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages.

13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries.

Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family.

The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler.

JPRN  Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them  Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike.

Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies.

Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately.

Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways.

Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table.

Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp  Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall:

-Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store.

Music and Theater

The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220.

Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html.

Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free.

The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org

Religious News

The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276.

Reunions

St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net.

Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572.

Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779.

Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net

Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net

The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411.

Support

New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149.

PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931.

The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296.

Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656.

Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group  every other Wednesday, 7  8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support  second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner  Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers  Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information.

CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7  8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich,
Jarrett Coleman goes from school board to statehouse with win in 16th Senate District race
Letter to editor: Voting is necessary to protect democracy
August 14, 2017

Hyping North Korea To Relaunch Reagan's Star Wars?

Since Trump issued "fire and fury" threats against North Korea (the DPRK), sanity has taken over among serious people. The talk of preventive strikes on North Korea within the expert community has largely ended. It was never a seriously possibility. North Korea has many options to retaliate to any strike and all would come with catastrophic damage to South Korea and Japan and thereby to U.S. interests in Asia.

North Korea can be successfully deterred in the same way that all other nuclear weapon states are deterred from using their weapons. Unfortunately the National Security Advisor McMaster has not yet received that message:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But your predecessor Susan Rice wrote this week that the U.S. could tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea the same way we tolerated nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union far more during the Cold War. Is she right? MCMASTER: No, shes not right. And I think the reason shes not right is that the classical deterrence theory, how does that apply to a regime like the regime in North Korea? A regime that engages in unspeakable brutality against its own people? A regime that poses a continuous threat to the its neighbors in the region and now may pose a threat, direct threat, to the United States with weapons of mass destruction? A regime that imprisons and murders anyone who seems to oppose that regime, including members of his own family, using sarin nerve gase (sic) -- gas in a public airport?

Classical deterrence worked against the Soviet Union as well as against Mao's China. (Vice versa it also worked against the United States.) Both were arguably, like North Korea, brutal against internal dissidents, threatening to their neighbors and military opponents of the United States. If they could be deterred than North Korea can also be deterred.

To set the Trump crew straight. China re-issued its guarantee for North Korea's security. The Global Times, a party owned but unofficial mouthpiece, wrote in an editorial:

"China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral," [..]. "If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so."

Any unprovoked war against North Korea would thereby escalate into a war with China and no one is seriously interested in that adventure. The only reasonable course is to negotiate some new level of balance between North Korean and U.S. interests.

The U.S. continues to run large scale maneuver together in South Korea and to fly nuclear capable strategic bombers near the North Korean borders. These actions necessitate that North Korea's military stays in expensive high alert against potential surprises. One aim of North Korea's nuclear armament is to lessen the necessity for such conventional preparedness.

North Korea has offered several times to stop all missile and nuclear testing if the U.S. stops its large maneuvers near its borders. The Trump administration rejected that offer but North Korea increased the pressure with its recent tests.

Last week North Korea again offered to decrease its own actions if the U.S. stops some of its provocations. It announced a possible test of four missiles targeted into the vicinity of the U.S. base on Guam. The strategic U.S. bombers flying near North Korea usually take off from Guam. Few noticed that the announcement was conditional and came with an offer:

Typically, the nuclear strategic bombers from Guam frequent the sky above south Korea to openly stage actual war drills and muscle-flexing in a bid to strike the strategic bases of the DPRK. This grave situation requires the KPA to closely watch Guam, the outpost and beachhead for invading the DPRK, and necessarily take practical actions of significance to neutralize it. In the morning of August 8 the air pirates of Guam again appeared in the sky above south Korea to stage a mad-cap drill simulating an actual war.

...

[The US] should immediately stop its reckless military provocation against the state of the DPRK so that the latter would not be forced to make an unavoidable military choice.

In other words: Stop the overflights from Guam or we will have to test our missiles by targeting areas near to the island. The U.S. has no reliable defense that could guarantee to destroy four missile simultaneously coming towards Guam. If North Korea would indeed test near Guam the U.S. will lose face. If it tries to defend against the incoming missile and fails it will lose even more face. I am confident that the strategic bomber overflights from Guam will soon end.

Several commentators claimed that the U.S. is giving false alarm over North Korean abilities. That the intelligence confirmation of miniaturized North Korean war-heads is a lie, that the North Korean missiles can not reach the continental U.S. or that the reentry vehicle cap North Korea used in recent tests is not strong enough to protect its nuclear payload. But it was North Korea that showed off a miniaturized war-head in March 2016; the reach of a missile is variable and largely dependent on payload size and burn time, and the discussed RV cap failure was caused by the unusual trajectory North Korea chose for the test. The chance of North Korea being correct when it claims to be able to hit the U.S. is higher than 50%. For any practical consideration one thereby has to accept that North Korea is a nuclear weapon state that can successfully target the continental U.S. with multiple nuclear armed missiles.

The claim that the U.S. intelligence agencies are exaggeration North Korean capabilities is likely false. But it is also reasonable. The Trump administration, the Pentagon and weapon salesmen will of course use the occasion to further their aims.

One missile defense marketing pundit claimed today that the North Korean missile engines used in the recent tests were bought from factories in Ukraine or Russia. The usual propagandist at the New York Times picked up on that to further their anti-Russian theme:

Mr. Elleman was unable to rule out the possibility that a large Russian missile enterprise, Energomash, which has strong ties to the Ukrainian complex, had a role in the transfer of the RD-250 engine technology to North Korea. He said leftover RD-250 engines might also be stored in Russian warehouses.

But the engines in question are of different size and thrust than the alleged R-250 engines and the claimed time-frame does not fit at all. The Ukrainian government denied any transfer of missiles or designs. The story was debunked with in hours by two prominent experts. But implicating Russia, however farfetched, is always good if one wants to sell more weapons.

One Pentagon hobby horse is the THAAD medium range missile defense systems that will now be stationed in South Korea. This even as it is incapable to defend South Korea from short range North Korean missiles. It is obviously targeted at China.

The Reagan wannabe currently ruling in the White House may soon revive Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, aka "Star Wars", which was first launched in 1984. SDI was the expensive but unrealistic dream of lasers in space and other such gimmicks. Within the SDI the U.S. military threw out hundreds of billions for a Global Ballistic Missile Defense which supposedly would defend the continental U.S. from any incoming intercontinental missile. The program was buried in the early 1990s. One son of Star Wars survived. It is the National Missile Defense with 40 interceptors in Alaska and California. It has never worked well and likely never will. If NMD would function as promised there would be no reason to fear any North Korean ICBMs. Missile defense is largely a fraud to transfers billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers to various weapon producing conglomerates.

I expect that the North Korean "threat" will soon be used to launch "SDI - The Sequel", another attempt to militarize space with billions thrown into futuristic but useless "defense" projects. It will soothe the Pentagon's grief over the success North Korea had despite decades of U.S. attempts to subjugate that state.

Posted by b on August 14, 2017 at 17:51 UTC | Permalink

Comments
LINVILLE - Amateur and professional photographers can now register for the Grandfather Mountain Camera Clinic, a two-day seminar that offers presentations from outstanding photojournalists and opportunities for participants to improve their skills.

The clinic, set for Aug. 19-20, also allows participants the rare opportunity of photographing scenic Grandfather Mountain at dawn and dusk, along with chances to network with others interested in the craft. The 2017 speakers include:

 Scott Strazzante, staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, a former POY/NPPA National Newspaper Photographer of the Year, an 11-time Illinois Photographer of the Year and part of a Chicago Tribune team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for investigative journalism.

 Jennifer King, photographer, instructor and wildlife whisperer, with more than 20 years in the photo industry. Sponsored by Singh-Ray Filters and Hunts Photo & Video, her photos have appeared in multiple national and regional publications. King is also the founder of the nonprofit, Photography for the Fight Against Breast Cancer.

 Vinny Colucci, award-winning photographer and presenter, whos been working in the trade since 1979. He has photographed from North Carolina to the West Coast and north to the Canadian Rockies. Along with his wife, Annette, Colucci conducts nature and wildlife photography workshops throughout the year.

 Casey Mozingo, photographer for the Goldsboro News Argus. With a photojournalism career dating back to 2000, Mozingo has shot for the Henderson Daily Dispatch, Kinston Free Press and Macon Telegraph, while also photographing portraits, weddings, sporting events and more.

The Camera Clinic was originally organized in 1952 by the late Hugh Morton, developer of Grandfather Mountain and a distinguished photographer.

The Camera Clinic is definitely one of the highlights of the year for those who love not only photography, but shooting at Grandfather Mountain, said Frank Ruggiero, director of marketing and communications for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Linville nature preserve and attraction. Even those outside the photojournalism field will find these presentations enlightening and educational.

Admission to the event is free for working photojournalists and active members of the North Carolina Press Photographers Association. Admission for all others is $50 and includes a buffet dinner on Saturday. Online registration is available at www. grandfather.com.

Anyone wishing to secure a spot must purchase a $50 pass online; the charge will be refunded to those who show valid press credentials or a NCPPA membership card at check-in. A discounted two-day admission ticket is available for $30 for guests of Camera Clinic participants who wish to enjoy the park but do not plan to attend the seminars. This ticket allows guests to come and go as they please Aug. 19-20. Guests may also purchase tickets for the Saturday buffet dinner for $10.

Basic campsites are available in the Grandfather Mountain Woods Walk Picnic Area for those participating in the clinic. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2u9uyUK or call Frank Ruggiero at 828-733-2013. The not-for-profit Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation strives to inspire conservation of the natural world by helping guests explore, understand and value the wonders of Grandfather Mountain. For more information, call 800- 468-7325, or plan a trip at www.grandfather.com.
What have investors been reading over the past week? Income paying stocks remain top of the agenda  but investors are concerned about life post-Brexit. Also popular this week, back to basics education, sustainable investing and where to find investment trusts on the cheap.

Top 20 FTSE 350 Dividend Paying Stocks

UPDATED JUNE 2017: Dividend payments are expected to total 85bn in 2017. We reveal the top 20 dividend paying stocks in the FTSE 350

Top 20 FTSE 100 Dividend Paying Stocks

THE INCOME INVESTOR: The largest companies in the UK source their revenues internationally, meaning your dividend stream is boosted by global economic growth

Is the UK Doomed After Brexit?

Chaotic Brexit negotiations, a weak government and a flagging economy - are things really as bad as they seem for the UK? And what does it mean for investors?

Top Rated Trusts Going Cheap Despite Gains

Top rated UK smaller companies investment trusts are trading at discount despite double-digit gains year to date, thanks to a weaker UK economic outlook

What is a Fund?

Funds are suitable for investors who do not have the time or expertise to construct and monitor a portfolio themselves. We go back to basics and explain all

Your Guide to Sustainable Investing

Want to secure a sustainable source of income and returns? Look beneath the hood of your fund holdings to see how they score on environmental, social and governance factors

3 Flexible Funds for Multi-Asset Investors

Investors hunt for yield has buoyed sentiment towards flexible and unconstrained funds - we look at some of the biggest, best performing and newest on the market

Investors Spend 7bn on Alternative Income Trusts

Over the past 12 months to August 2017 investment trusts have raised 9.6 billion. Of this, 74% has been within what could broadly be termed alternative income

Morningstar's Adviser Centre

The latest news, views and analysis impacting professional investors, financial advisers and wealth managers

How to Make Money When Market Volatility Rises

Oyster Continental European Selection fund manager Mike Clements is preparing his portfolio for a rise in market volatility
Much stronger than expected Japanese economic growth figures dominated off the global business agenda at the start of the week. An easing in military tension between the US and North Korea helped restore some calm to trading on Monday.

Asia

Japans GDP was up 4% on an annualised basis, making it the best performing G7 country in the second quarter, beating forecasts of a 2.5% rise. The rise in domestic business spending was double forecasts at 2.4%. Nevertheless, the strong data did not impress the market too much: the Nikkei 255 closed nearly 1% lower at 19,537, at similar levels to the start of the year.

Chinas Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index responded better to domestic numbers, rising 1.3% to 3,694.68. July retail sales were 10.4% higher than in 2016, and industrial production was 6.4% higher in the same period  although both figures were below analysts forecasts. In Australia, scandal-hit Commonwealth Bank (CBA) said its chief executive Ian Narev will step down next year, and the shares rose 1% to AUD 81.31.

Europe European markets started the week in a more positive mood than last week. By 11am BST, the FTSE 100 was up 38 points at 7,348, helped by a rise in financial stocks such as Standard Chartered (STAN) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The 11 billion merger of Standard Life (SL) and Aberdeen Asset Management goes through today, creating a combined with combined assets under management of 670 billion. Standard Life shares initially rose by were down 2% by 11am at 416p. Eurozone industrial production was the standout economics headline in Europe  June saw a 0.6% fall in output, worse than forecast, and against a 1.2% rise in May. European markets took their cue from the global picture than domestic numbers, with the Euro Stoxx 50, Germanys Dax and Frances CAC all up 1% by midday CET. North America US economic data is light on Monday but the negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement will loom large over the global economic agenda. Canada, the US and Mexico begin their talks in Washington at the start of week, negotiations that will likely affect of the future of auto stocks such as Ford (F) and General Motors (GM). President Trumps war of words against North Korea are set to provide a backdrop to these fraught trade talks. Markets will be looking ahead to Tuesdays US retail sales numbers for July, which are expected to have rebounded after a drop of 0.2% in June.
New Ratings

Kenneth Lamont

Due to its low-cost broad beta exposure to the sector, this fund is a reliable option for investors seeking exposure to the European REITs and listed real estate equity market. The fund tracks an index that is highly representative of the available opportunity set in terms of size, sector and geography. It cut its ongoing charge from 0.40% to 0.33% in March 2017. Already significantly cheaper than the European indirect property category average of 1.05%, the lower fee makes it one of the cheapest ETFs available. Looking ahead, the cut in the ongoing charge should provide a boost to performance.

Kenneth Lamont

This ETF provides low-cost passive exposure to continental European REITs and listed real estate companies that have been screened by their one-year forecast dividend yield. Despite the word "European" in its name, it excludes UK-listed equities, which can account for around a third of the underlying market. Fund constituents must have a forecast dividend yield of at least 2%, which arguably represents a low hurdle given the obligation for global REITs to maintain high dividend payout ratios. In fact, at the time of rating, the index holds 59 of the 65 securities included in the non-yield-screened parent benchmark. This ETF has ranked in the top quartile against its Morningstar category peers, both active and passive, on a risk-adjusted basis over three, five and 10 years. However, the funds exclusion of the UK means that its relative performance largely depends on the fortunes of that market.

Kenneth Lamont

We have initiated coverage of this fund with a Bronze rating on the basis that it provides broad representative, low-cost beta exposure to global listed infrastructure. We look favourably on the change of index to the FTSE Global Core Infrastructure in March 2017, which more than doubles the breadth of fund holdings; 220 vs 100. The fund now offers the most comprehensive passive exposure to the segment. The funds historical category-relative performance  based on its previous benchmark  has been mixed. However, the new index has outperformed the category average over three, five and 10 years. Even accounting for the impact of fund fees, we are confident that the fund is now in better stead to deliver returns above the category average over the long term. With an ongoing charge of 0.65%, the fund is one of the cheapest in its category, which includes both active and passive funds, and comparable with other passive options.

Kenneth Lamont

By providing low-cost, representative passive exposure, this ETF represents a reliable option for investors in the global water sector. The fund has performed strongly, appearing in the top quartile when ranked against surviving category peers on a risk-adjusted basis over 10 years. With 50 holdings, the fund is the broadest and most representative index fund in the Morningstar Water Equity Sector. This funds expense ratio of 0.65% is lower than the fund sector median fee and similar to the only other passive option within the category.

Upgrades

Monika Dutt

We see this fund as a strong investment proposition. A low fee relative to its active peers and a soundly constructed and reasonably representative benchmark leave this ETF well-positioned to continue its long streak of producing superior risk-adjusted returns relative to its peers over the long haul. As such, we have upgraded this fund to a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold.

Downgrades

Germaine Share

We have downgraded Schroder ISF Asian Opportunities to a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver. Robin Parbrook is relinquishing his role as the lead portfolio manager of the fund following his decision to return to Schroders in London. We hold Parbrook in the utmost regard, and he has an unparalleled track record on Schroder ISF Asian Total Return, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold.

His successor is Toby Hudson, an experienced and proven outperformer who has worked closely with Parbrook on this strategy over the years. While we consider him an apt replacement, he has big shoes to fill, and we need some time to see how he fares without the immediate support of Parbrook. Hudson applies the same rigorous investment process as Parbrook, which focuses quality and growth, and he has gained much success on his Schroder Asian Growth and Schroder ISF Hong Kong Equity funds.

Nonetheless, the fund continues to gain assets and Hudson does not have a public track record managing a strategy of this size of $4.8 billion as of 30 June 2017. While we continue to like many aspects of the fund, we would like some time to gain comfort around this transition.
In a panel order released late last week, the B.C. Securities Commission ordered a Victoria mortgage broker to pay a total of $243,500 in fines, along with disbanding the brokers firm.



According to the Commission, CBM Canadas Best Mortgage Corp. will no longer be doing business, and Lance Sanford Cook has been temporarily barred from trading amid findings that he has illegally distributed securities from June 2010 up to December that year.



Cook and his firm received a total of $380,000 from various investorssome of which who were either retired or close to retirementin exchange for unsecured interest-bearing promissory notes. The Commission found no evidence that either Cook or CBM attempted to file a prospectus, which breached a section of the Securities Act.



We have found the respondents misconduct to be serious, the panel in charge of the case said, as quoted by the Times Colonist. They were careless or reckless with respect to compliance with security laws. For that reason, we believe that they represent a serious risk to our capital markets and that significant market prohibitions are appropriate in the circumstances.



[The] investors have little opportunity to recover their losses, the panel noted, adding that the investors received only interest totalling $161,500.



Cook has also been banned from trading in securities (with limited exceptions), serving as a director, officer, or promoter, or serving as a consultant or manager in securities markets and in investor relations activities. All the bans are effective for 5 years, or until Cook completes payment of the fines.
Luxury condos in Miami can sell for twice as much if they have an ocean view compared to a city view.A report from Ross Milroy, a Miami condo expert who specializes in the $2 million plus market, says that a city view unit on South Beach sells for $970 per square foot while a comparable unit with an ocean view sells for $1,950 per square foot.Property owners in South Florida are looking to immerse themselves in everything Miami has to offer, said Milroy, who has worked with luxury condo buyers in Miami for nearly 20 years. They are looking to escape the stresses and confines of everyday life by living in a home that gives them the open-feeling and vast views that never end. One of the best ways to do this is to come home to the tranquility and dynamism that water views provide.South Beach isnt the only Miami neighborhood where proximity to the water boosts condo prices. The Ross100 Condo Report reveals that properties adjacent to the ocean, Biscayne Bay and even the Miami River benefit from premium prices paid by luxury buyers.Buyers want to see the ocean, hear the water, feel the ocean breeze, and have a seamless experience of bringing the outdoors in and the indoors out, said Milroy.
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The City of Alpine has announced its seventh Annual #AlpineTXPhoto Contest.

Photographers from across the state and beyond are invited to share and showcase their talent by visually capturing Alpine and bringing out the personality of the town in an inspiring way. Online contest entry is already underway. The contest offers five cash awards with a top prize of $500.

The contest is free and open to the public. Entries will be accepted online until Sept. 30. Interested photographers will find rules, information and entry details at visitalpinetx.com/photocontest.

This year's photo contest will be judged by Terry Cockerham, a Dallas-based photographer whose current exhibit, "Big Bend and the Terlingua Project," is on display at Alpine's Museum of the Big Bend through Sept. 3. Cockerham's work can also be viewed at his web site, terrycockerhamphotography.com.

Alpine is located 165 miles (depending on your route) southwest of Midland in the foothills of the Davis Mountains in Big Bend.
GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here.
Originally posted on: 7:26 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017

Two people were hurt Sunday while transporting a gas grill when a woman lit a cigarette and their SUV exploded, police said.

SUV with gas grill inside explodes near Central Florida Fairgrounds

Police said woman went to light a cigarette inside the vehicle

2 people suffered non-life-threatening burn injuries

The crash happened at about 3:26 p.m. at the entrance of the Central Florida Fairgrounds near colonial Drive and Pete Parrish Boulevard.

The man and his wife had a gas barbecue grill in the back of their Kia Sorento, according to Lt. Cindy Lane, of the Orlando Police Department.

The grill was turned on and the propane tank attached to the grill was open and connected. Police said the wife went to light a cigarette and the SUV exploded.

The vehicle continued westbound and crashed into a pole. The driver and the passenger, who weren't identified, were transported to an area hospital with burns. Their injuries are non-life-threatening, Lane said.

Pictures sent out via the Orlando Police Department's Twitter account show severe damage to the SUV.

A gas grill being transported inside this car exploded when passenger lit a cigarette. 2 in car sustained burns; not life threatening. pic.twitter.com/76OaeJiCiv  Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) August 13, 2017

No other information was released.
Hale County will accept applications for the post of Precinct 1 Constable through Aug. 31. The position has been vacant since the July 12 death of 51-year-old Mark Mull, who died following a brief illness. Mull served as constable for 15 years.

During Mondays regular session, Hale County commissioners voted to take applications to fill the post rather than leave it vacant for 3 1/2 years, until the next regular election cycle. By filling the post now, whoever is selected will have to file to run in an election in November 2018 for the remaining two years of Mulls unexpired term.

Commissioners voted to list the job opening on the countys website as well as on the courthouse bulletin board. Applications will be available from both the County Auditors Office and County Treasurers Office from Aug. 15-30. Commissioners will meet Friday, Sept. 1, to screen the applications. They plan to begin calling in candidates for interviews beginning 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8.

County Judge Bill Coleman said Monday he will put together a list of qualifications based on a brief prepared by County Attorney Jim Tirey. Some of the qualifications, Coleman pointed out at Fridays work session, include being at least 18, a licensed peace officer or eligible to become a licensed peace officer, registered voter, no felony convictions, resident of Texas for the past 12 months and resident of the precinct for the past six months.

Coleman said Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Sheron Collins will be included in the interview process since the constable serves as her bailiff and handles legal papers generated by her court.

In other action Monday, commissioners:

--Approved current accounts payable of $616,018.69 for July 26 to Aug. 14.

--Tabled action pending review on renewing an interlocal agreement with South Plains Association of Governments on providing a 911 Public Safety Answering Point.

--Approved bids on three trust properties in the City of Hale Center generated through the Texas Community Group online auction service. The successful bids on the tax foreclosed properties include 602 Stevenson, $400; 301 Ave. H, $350; East First between Avenue A and B, $250.

--Tabled a request for $2,250 from Texas Plains Trail Region on marketing services for fiscal year 2017-18.

--Approved an addendum on a copier lease for the District Attorneys Office to include a three-hole punch attachment.

--Approved salary adjustments for four corrections officers at the Hale County Sheriffs Office in recognition of passing the state jail certification exam Aug. 3. They include Christopher Salinas, Sarah Flores, Jennifer Allen and Taylor McCaslin.

--Approved a new contract to house jail inmates from Ector County as needed at a cost of $52 per day.

--Authorized a request from Atmos Energy to lay a 2-inch natural gas pipeline along county right-of-way and to cross a county road in the vicinity of CR Y and CR 115.
The latest edition of Wang's book is released by Post Wave Publishing Consulting (Beijing).[Photo provided to China Daily]

A young woman looks deep into her lover's eyes as they scrunch together in a narrow bed, sharing one blanket, in a sleeping carriage of a train heading from Guangzhou to Chengdu.

The moment was captured in 1996 by Wang Fuchun, a photographer who's renowned for his book Chinese People on Trains, which features photographs capturing such moments in the lives of people traveling on trains.

Since 1978, Wang has devoted himself to photographing passengers on trains for nearly 40 years, and the 74-year-old photographer still sticks to this theme.

As time has passed, his collections of black-and-white images have formed a record of the changes in Chinese society and charted the transformation of China's railways as they have progressed the age of steam locomotives to diesel to the current era of electric bullet trains.

"His works show a strong sense of the times and display the spirit of the people," Yuan Zi, an author known for his young-adult fictions, said at a recent book event in Beijing to promote the release of the latest edition of Wang's Chinese People on Trains.
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California joined San Francisco on Monday in taking legal action challenging a Trump administration threat to withhold federal public safety grants from sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate in deportations.

A lawsuit filed by Attorney General Xavier Becerra makes California the first state in the country to take on the U.S. Justice Departments plan to pull the grant money. San Francisco filed its own lawsuit Friday, the second such legal action it has filed against the Trump administration.

Becerra said the states lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, was based on the same grounds as the citys  that President Trump and his administration cant withhold money from a congressionally approved program without Congress agreement

We abide by federal law. We respect the Constitution. The federal government should do the same, Becerra said at a news conference with San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera at City Hall.

Becerras lawsuit, if successful, could help lay the foundation for state legal efforts against the administration should the Legislature approve a sanctuary-state bill that would prohibit local police officers and sheriffs deputies from enforcing federal immigration laws. Gov. Jerry Brown has said he has concerns about the measure, which some law enforcement officials strongly oppose.

The Trump administration has repeatedly sought to compel sanctuary cities to cooperate with immigration authorities by threatening to withdraw their federal funding. In April, San Francisco and Santa Clara County persuaded a federal judge to block a key section of an executive order issued by Trump that would withhold federal funding for sanctuary cities, calling the measure unconstitutional and an overreach by the federal government. The administration is appealing that decision.

The new lawsuits concern the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which provides money that local governments use to buy equipment such as police cars and fund a variety of public safety efforts, including jail diversion initiatives, adult alternative courts and social work services.

Each year, San Francisco receives about $1.5 million from the grant program. About a third of that comes from the federal government, and the rest from the state.

Last month, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Justice Department would withhold Byrne grants to sanctuary cities unless their officials agreed to work more closely with immigration officers. Specifically, San Francisco and other sanctuary cities would have to grant jail access to federal immigration officials to interrogate suspects. They would also have to provide federal officials with 48 hours notice of the impending release of people wanted for immigration-related questioning.

In response to the latest lawsuits, a Justice Department spokesman said via email that San Francisco and other California cities have already experienced the devastating effects that sanctuary policies have on their citizens. He said it was especially disappointing that state leaders would take steps to limit cooperation between local jurisdictions and immigration authorities that are trying to keep Californians safe.

Trump made a campaign issue out of the 2015 killing of Kathryn Steinle, allegedly by a Mexican citizen who had been deported several times before being shipped from a federal prison to San Francisco to face possible prosecution for a marijuana charge. Prosecutors dropped the charge, and the Sheriffs Department let him go without turning him over to immigration officials.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said it was the Trump administration that was endangering public safety in the name of politics by threatening to withhold the grant money. San Francisco will not be intimidated by the federal governments threats, he said in a statement.

At Mondays news conference, Herrera called the administrations efforts to pressure sanctuary cities into complying with immigration officers an end-run around the Constitution that vilifies immigrants and punishes cities that prioritize public safety services over splitting up hardworking families.

The Department of Justice does not have authority from Congress to impose these conditions (on the grants), and for good reason. Herrera said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: DFracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Google Maps

Southbound Interstate 880 near San Leandro reopened on Monday morning after being closed for nearly eight hours while police investigated a shooting that left one driver critically injured with a head wound, the California Highway Patrol said.

The shooting was reported around 2:30 a.m. The victims car had apparently come to a stop in the center divider.
A majority of doctors nationwide now support a single-payer health care system -- an almost exact reversal of their stance nine years ago.

Fifty-six percent of the 1,033 physicians who responded to the Aug. 3 Merritt Hawkins survey said they either strongly supported or somewhat supported a single-payer system.

That compares with 58 percent of physicians who, in 2008, said they opposed such a system. Back then only 42 percent supported the concept.

The survey findings were released Monday,

The stark turnaround took many by surprise on Monday as doctors have often been among the most outspoken critics of single-payer health care, in which the government, rather than private insurers, pay for health care costs.

"I expected it would go the other way. We've always heard the opposite," admitted Phillip Miller, vice president of communications for Merritt Hawkins, one of the nation's leading physician search firms that often surveys doctors on their practices and opinions about the health care climate.

The one-question survey asked "What is your position on single payer healthcare?" It was emailed to 70,000 nationwide across all specialties. Miller said the survey was purposely held to one question to measure gut reaction and did not delve into how such a system would work or be paid for.

In the latest survey, 35 percent of respondents said they strongly opposed single-payer system while six percent said they somewhat opposed it. The margin of error was 3.1 percent. Three percent of physicians said they did not support or oppose the system.

Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University's Bakes Institute for Public Policy, also expressed surprise at the findings. But she said the administrative burdens, both from federal program changes and narrowing private insurance markets, have taken a toll on doctors. She suspected many, especially those in small practices, may now be turning toward what they hope would be an easier system to navigate.

RELATED: New federal rule to stabilize jittery insurance market may not be enough

While Miller said the survey did not ask for reasons behind the replies, he also suspects a growing weariness among doctors, especially amid the current uncertainty coming out of Washington D.C. about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

"Physicians are seeking some sort of clarity and support in which way the health system is going," Miller said, "Doctors, like everyone else, have been living on a yo-yo."

RELATED: Texas hospitals could lose billions of dollars under GOP health plan

Dr. Deane Waldman, a retired cardiologist and director for the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said Monday that he, too, thinks the nation's doctors may be changing previous positions out of desperation.

While he cautions against a single-payer system, which he believes will add even more regulation and bureaucracy, he understands why doctors may be changing their tune.

"They are just looking for relief," Waldman said of the politics coming out of Washington DC surrounding health care, "The uncertainty has had a huge effect on physicians. It scares doctor but it absolutely terrifies patients."

The new Merritt Hawkins findings are not dissimilar to a LinkedIn study earlier this year that found 48 percent of the 500 doctors surveyed said they would support a single-payer system if it provided health insurance to everyone.
Lopez Mexican Restaurant will introduce its Dulce de Lopez Dessert Truck offering $4 treats to benefit different charities and fundraisers.

The company will donate profits from sales of "Charitable Churros" to local charities. The dessert dish consists of churros with various ice creams and toppings.
Snap Kitchen, the Austin-based grab-and-go retailer for healthier meals, is laying off 101 employees in Houston and 65 in Austin as part of a "significant company-wide reorganization," the company has announced.

No stores will close, a spokeswoman said, but operations from kitchens in two Houston-area and two Austin-area locations will shift to a new 30,000-square-foot facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
AUSTIN  Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos was 8 years old when his father, a dentist in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, decided to bring the family across the bridge to El Paso, Texas so their children could be educated in U.S. schools.

Fast forward four decades, and Pablos now has four degrees that run the gamut  a biology degree from St. Marys University in San Antonio, an MBA from the University of Texas-San Antonio, a masters in hospitality management from the Hilton College at the University of Houston, and another degree, a Juris Doctor, from St. Marys. Hes married to Dr. Laura San Martin, an orthodontist, and lives Austin with her and their four children.
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The stalled Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act may have given a temporary reprieve to Medicaid and the federal insurance exchanges, but continued uncertainty in Washington is trickling down to employer-sponsored plans.

While the GOP healthcare overhaul didnt target insurance plans provided by employers, which insure the bulk of the nation, theyve been caught in the crossfire.

The continued uncertainty surrounding the federal insurance market, commonly called Obamacare, has insurance companies negotiating hard with hospitals and other providers on what employer-sponsored plans will cover.

Roughly 48 percent of all Texans get their health insurance through their employer, compared with just 7 percent who bought their own plans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The tension is mounting in a public fight in San Antonio, where two major insurers have threatened to pull out of Baptist Health System hospitals. After nine months of fractious negotiations, Humana and Tenet, Baptists parent company, came to an agreement that brought Tenet hospitals back under Humanas network of providers.

These are very uncertain times in healthcare, said Allison De Paoli, spokeswoman for San Antonio Association of Health Underwriters. She said the standoff was unusually long. There is a lot of change going on, and this causes people to be forceful in their actions.

At the time of the split last October, Baptist Health System CEO Graham Reeve blamed the separation on failed contract negotiations, saying, despite our repeated efforts to find common ground, Humana made it clear they would rather compromise their members access to our doctors and hospitals rather than work together to complete a contract.

Tenet was also involved in a public fight with Blue Cross Blue Shield, threatening to break ties with the insurer earlier this year. The companies have since come to a new agreement.

Any potential changes to federal health policy need to take employer-sponsored coverage into account, said James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, a trade group that represents mainly large employers.

Virtually all of this discussion is about the individual market that covers about 18 million people, Klein said. And we want to remind Congress and the White House that we have an employer-sponsored system covering 178 million people that is the most stable part of the system and not to mess that up in any way.

One thing that could change the calculus for health providers is if the number of uninsured people rises under a new plan. The Congressional Budget Office said every proposal by the GOP would have resulted in more uninsured people.

To the extent that there are more uninsured, that can lead to cost shifting by providers to those who are paying for coverage, like employer-sponsored plans and other individuals who are covered, Klein said.

Another sticking point is federal subsidies for individual plans. The Trump administration has been unclear on whether it would continue to pay its cost sharing reduction payments for poorer enrollees through next year.

Two of the three insurers on the individual exchanges in Bexar County have asked for statewide premium increases of more than 20 percent. Humana, which currently serves customers on the individual exchange in Bexar County, announced earlier this year that is pulling out of the insurance exchanges next year.

For now, Obamacare remains the law of the land  and so do many of the laws regulations. Some of the reporting requirements are hard on employers, said Michael Grossman, president of Bank of San Antonio Insurance Group and legislative chair for the underwriters association.

The Affordable Care Act brought in a heavy burden on employers to do these reports once a year that they provide to their employees, Grossman said. The employees dont really understand what they are, and they get another one from the insurance company, and its a huge burden financially and timewise for employers.

An early version of the House reform plan included a tax on employer-sponsored coverage, Klein said. That proposal, which would have raised taxes for employees by creating a cap on the amount of employer-provided insurance could be considered tax exempt, did not make it to the final House bill. However, Klein said the idea could reemerge if Republicans take up an overhaul of the federal tax code. Congressional Republicans have repeatedly said they want to do tax reform this year.

There is also the possibility that failure by Republicans to pass a popular health reform could lead to seismic changes in employer-sponsored insurance down the road. Several states, including California and Nevada, have explored the possibility of expanding government insurance options to approach universal coverage.

If Trump decides to let Obamacare fail, as he has repeatedly threatened, it could have consequences at the mid-term elections for Republicans. Some 60 percent of Americans say the Trump administration and Republicans are responsible if the ACA fails, according a poll released Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. If Democrats regain control of the White House and Congress, they are unlikely to take half measures, Klein said.

Theyre not going to re-enact the Affordable Care Act if its been repealed, you know what I mean, Klein said. Theres going to be a lot more pressure within the Democratic Party to push for something that looks like a single-payer system.

jpound@express-news.net

Twitter: @jesserpound
Kenneth C. Frazier, chief executive of Merck, the pharmaceuticals company, on Monday resigned from President Donald Trumps American Manufacturing Council after the president failed to directly condemn the white nationalist protesters at the center of violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

Americas leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal, Frazier said in a statement. As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against extremism.

Less than an hour later, the president took aim at the Merck executive.

Trump replied swiftly to Frazier on Twitter, suggesting that stepping down from the council would give him more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Later in the day, Trump explicitly condemned hate groups including neo-Nazis and the KKK, offering the kind of sharp denunciation of racism that many critics believed was lacking over the weekend.

But the presidents remarks came too late for Frazier, who resigned early Monday.

By midday, Frazier was joined by a handful of other executives as a voice of dissent in the business community, which has particular sway of the president, himself a businessman.

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, posted a cryptic message on Twitter, quoting Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln: A house divided against itself cannot stand. Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together, Blankfein wrote.

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, also posted a statement opposing white supremacy and racism.

Weve seen the terror of white supremacy & racist violence before. Its a moral issue  an affront to America. We must all stand against it, Cook wrote.

And at least one other chief executive  albeit of a foreign company  came to Fraziers defense. Paul Polman, the chief executive of Unilever, signaled his support for the Merck boss on Twitter.

Thanks @Merck Ken Frazier for strong leadership to stand up for the moral values that made this country what it is, Polman wrote.

General Electric said in a statement that it has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or racism, but added that its chairman and recently-retired chief executive, Jeff Immelt, will remain on the manufacturing council from which Frazier resigned.

Kevin Plank, Under Armours chief executive, who is also on one of the presidents advisory councils, issued a statement denouncing racism and discrimination. He stopped short of criticizing the president or his comments about Frazier.

With the exception of Frazier, no other major business leaders were explicitly distancing themselves from the presidents advisory councils, or criticizing his response to the events in Charlottesville. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized the presidents response, which some viewed as muted and equivocal.

Tom Glocer, the former chief executive of Thomson Reuters, offered his support for Frazier on Twitter and called for other chief executives to step down from the presidents advisory councils. Ken has stood up for true American values, he said.

This is not the first time the presidents actions have caused a chief executive to walk away from a seat on one of his advisory councils.

In February, as Trump began to implement stringent new immigration rules, Travis Kalanick, then the chief executive of Uber Technologies, left the presidents economic advisory council.

And after Trump said he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, Elon Musk, Teslas chief, and Robert Iger, Disneys chief, stepped down from the Presidents Strategic and Policy Forum.

Even after Musk and Iger walked away in the wake of the presidents withdrawal from the Paris agreement, most other chief executives stuck with Trump.

Today, the same dynamic appears to be playing out.
The profile of the U.S. immigrant farm worker is changing, with fewer chancing an illegal crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border to follow harvests and more settling in with the same employers and establishing roots here, a new study by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute found.

The August issue brief, which analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Labors National Agricultural Worker Survey, found that the percentage of undocumented agricultural workers dropped from 55 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2014.

Study author Philip Martin of the University of California, Davis attributes the decline to the Great Recession in 2008-09, stepped up border enforcement and better economic conditions in Mexico where about two-thirds of U.S. farm workers were born.

Some three-fourths of the nations U.S. farm workers are foreign-born, and about half arent authorized to work in the U.S. Farm and ranch employers are responding to the decline in undocumented workers with increased use of harvesting automation, incentives to retain workers and a sharp rise in using the once-unpopular H-2A visa for temporary agricultural workers. The H2-A visa program has increased twelvefold over the past two decades, from 11,000 visas issued in 1996 to more than 134,000 in 2016. Martin attributes the rise to producers need to guarantee a workforce amid the slowdown in Mexican migration.

Right now there is more or less a race between machines and migrant guest workers, Martin said in an interview. Which will come faster? The machine that can shake the apples off the tree or the migrant guest workers who will be willing to pick them? I dont know the answer. I dont know that anyone knows the answer.

About a third of U.S. farm labor is in California, which is the nations leading agricultural state and specializes in labor intensive crops such as tree fruits and berries that are too delicate for machine harvesting. Washington State, Florida, Texas and Oregon follow in the rankings, with hired-hand farm work making up between 3 percent and 8 percent of overall employment for each of the four states.

Farmers have long relied on undocumented workers, as their numbers have been plentiful and the H-2A program is seen as cumbersome. To qualify, farmers must prove that U.S. workers have declined the work, provide free housing for the workers and pay above the minimum wage.

Whats slowly emerging, Martin said, is a portrait of an older worker who had an average of 14 years of experience on the farm in 2014 as opposed to eight years in 2000. Median household income has risen from between $15,000 and $17,500 to between $20,000 and $25,000, thanks to both rising pay and dual-income families. As of 2013-14, 48 percent or crop workers were married parents, compared with just over 40 percent in 2000.

In the year 2000, one out of four workers on U.S. crop farms had been in the U.S. less than one year, Martin said. They were typically 25-year-old, unauthorized, what the government calls newcomers  They were willing by and large because they were here without families to go just about anywhere. It made the farm labor force very flexible.

Todays average immigrant farmworker is almost 40.

Still unauthorized, but most have families with U.S.-born children, he said.

As couples give birth to U.S. citizen children, a rising number of families  about half in 2014  are eligible for federal assistance programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which make them more able to stay put. They are also more likely to speak English well.

In 2000, less than a fifth were proficient English speakers, compared with about a third as of 2014. And they are more likely to hold semi-skilled jobs such as equipment operator than harvesting jobs in vineyards or lettuce fields.

Workers also are less likely to be migrants who follow the crop, moving from south to north along with the harvests. In 1991, 14 percent of the crop workforce were follow-the-crop migrants. By 2000, the percentage had declined to 10 percent. As of 2014, it was just 4 percent.

Of those who migrate 75 miles or more for farm jobs, 23 percent have two or more farm jobs 75 miles apart, and 37 percent are green card commuters shuttling to farms from homes in Mexico. Newcomers  workers in the U.S. less than a year before being surveyed  comprised 22 percent of crop workers in 2000 but less than 2 percent in 2014.

Farm employers are responding with what Martin terms a 4-S approach: satisfying current workers to retain them, stretching output with aids such as conveyer belts that make labor less back-breaking, substituting workers with machines such as harvesting combines and robotic milking systems, and supplementing the workforce with the temporary visa holders.

Immigration policy, he said, will dictate which strategy dominates going forward. Under the current trend, employers are likely to continue offering incentives like bonuses and health care and introducing mechanical aids to boost production.

But substituting machinery for labor  already the norm for row crops like cotton and corn  can involve significant investment and changes to the plant itself, such as keeping trees shorter. An easing of the H2-A policy requirements will likely push usage up even higher.

In the short term, farmers are trying to keep those 40-year-old workers from moving on by making their work easier in some ways. But if you look out 5 to 10 years, those workers will now be 50 and that will be harder, he said. Thats why in the sort of medium term of 5 to 10 years, its likely a question of how fast will the machines get. And the second part of that is what will the government do on a guest worker program?

LBrezosky@express-news.net
Domino's plans to open a "pizza theater" in Katy as the latest store in a new design that aims to bring elements such as indoor seating, a viewing area of pizza preparations, and free Wi-Fi to all 5,400 U.S. stores by year end.

The company-owned store at 3820 N. Fry Road will celebrate a weeklong grand opening beginning Aug. 21, with promotions and giveaways.
A six-hour manhunt for a gunman that left local residents in lock-down mode in their Lake County homes ended with the arrest of a 43-year-old suspect, according to the Sheriffs Department.

Joshua Buck Brown was taken into custody about 5 p.m. by SWAT teams who were searching his Kelseyville property.

Brown reportedly fired two shots at California Highway Patrol officers and Caltrans workers at about 10:30 a.m. on Hwy 29 near Cruickshank Road and Cole Creek Road and then more shots after a Sheriffs unit arrived at the scene.

The suspect reportedly fled on foot into an area of brush and trees.

Nearby residents were urged to remain indoors Monday afternoon while sheriffs deputies and California Highway Patrol officers attempted to find the gunman, authorities said.

Residents should shelter in place, a statement from the sheriffs office said, and others should stay clear of the area.

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Just after 3:30 p.m., Sheriffs officials identified Brown, who they considered armed and dangerous, as the suspect in incident.

A passing motorist, Dave Thompson of Lakeport, said he saw more than 20 officers on the scene, including police dogs and officers wearing protective gear. A police helicopter was overhead, he said. He said the house where the gunman was believed to be located displayed a Confederate flag.

Jill Tucker and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com and srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker and steverubesf
Lugou Bridge, also known as Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing, is the site of the Lugouqiao Incident (July 1937), which led to full-scale war between China and Japan. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The recent military parade and celebration of the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army has boosted interest in "red tourism". And the number of visitors who have traveled to historical sites has increased across the board, major domestic travel agencies report.

The tourism is related to historical sites and places that record the revolution led by the Communist Party of China from 1921 to 1949.

And those who traveled to such sites in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area rose by 30 percent around Aug 1, according to Lvmama, an online tourist service platform.

Last year, such sites in the country received roughly 1.15 billion visits, up 11.7 percent over the previous year, online travel agency Tuniu reports, and tourism income from such visits was at 306.10 billion yuan ($45.74 billion), up 17.2 percent.

Beijing and Shanghai, and the provinces of Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu are the top 10 destinations for travelers seeking red tourism experience, according to Tuniu.
As a teacher with 32 years of experience and as a mom, Sandy Weser knows a thing or 15 about getting children ready for a new school year.

Some of it  especially for little ones going to school for the first time  boils down to reassurance. A lot of it has to do with planning and establishing basic routines for the beginning and end of the day that will help carry them through to the end of the school year.

As much as possible, the bottom line is consistency, said Weser, director of the North Education Center for Pre-K 4 SA.

RELATED: Ranked: The best school districts in the San Antonio area for 2018

Weser, Our Kids magazine publisher Rudy Riojas and a few San Antonio-area teachers and parents graciously offered a slew of tips designed to take some of the chaos out of the start of the school year. The best news? Even if the first week of school takes you by surprise, routines can be introduced at any point during the school year.

Here goes:

Let first-timers know what to expect. To help allay first-day anxiety, make it a point to read books about school together. The School Library Journal recommends such titles as Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Going to School? by Billy Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson; Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? by Audrey Vernick; Monstergarten by Daniel J. Mahoney; and A Pirates Guide to First Grade by James Preller.

If theres a meet-the-teacher event before the first day, try to go, especially if its a new-school situation, Riojas said.

That can alleviate some of the first-day jitters, he said.

Let everybody in the family know what is expected. If summer has been a no-rules deal, Riojas said, its a good idea to sit down and make sure the children know thats over and what the rules will be once school starts. If homework is to be done as soon as they get home, they need to be reminded of that.

Attitude matters. That includes moms and dads. Kaitie Smith, who is a special education teacher for the Northside Independent School District, has noticed that children do better when their parents or caregivers make an effort to make school sound enticing. Smith suggested that instead of saying you have to go back to school, emphasize that they get to go back to school: Think of everything youre going to learn, and how much fun youre going to have!

Get them ready to work. Smith suggests giving them tasks that require some sort of focus for 15 or 20 minutes a few times a day so that the demands of the classroom wont be such an abrupt shock.

To that end, Ryan Wayment, a father of four who teaches reading, writing, and debate at DATA Middle School, enforces family reading time, during which all screens are off and everybody reads for 30 minutes or an hour.

Make sure theyre getting their zzzzzzs. Studies have shown that preschoolers in particular need between 10 and 12 hours of sleep each night in order to help them get through a busy school day.

That makes a big difference, Weser said. I think often we misinterpret how children are behaving; often its just that theyre tired. The day is busy  they have a lot that happens during the school day.

Older children need to get a good nights sleep, too. Getting a bed time routine established  especially if the children have spent the summer going to bed late and then snoozing the morning away  can be a chore, especially if its put off til the last possible minute.

Two weeks before school starts, start putting them to bed 10 or 15 minutes early every night so that by the time school starts, theyre not having a hard time getting up, Riojas said.

Get the medical stuff taken care of. If your children rely on any kind of prescription medication, make sure youve got doctor visits set up and all of the paperwork signed and ready to go before the first day, advised Shannon Jarrell-Ivey, a mom of three who teaches at Texas Lutheran University.

Plan, plan, plan. If the child will be carrying a backpack, stuff supplies into it the night before and put it by the front door so that theres no last-minute scramble to find it.

In that same vein, make wardrobe choices the night before, too, and have everything laid out and ready to pull on. It smooths things out for older kids and can be a fun big-kid task for pre-schoolers and kindergartners.

Sometimes, its giving them a choice between two outfits, Weser said. The child feels a little empowered in a way thats positive within appropriate limits.

In addition, writing up a to-do list that they can check off in the morning as tasks are completed  teeth brushed, bed made, breakfast eaten  can help children stay on track at the start of the day, Riojas said.

Get your own stuff ready to go, too. Weser advises parents to devote a little bit of time the night before the first day of school to getting their own ducks in a row for the next morning  put the car keys in their proper spot, for instance  so that the grownups arent harried, either.

That way, we can be attentive to our children and not feel like Im trying to get out in a great rush, Weser said. Its about making the morning go as smoothly as possible.

Create a goodbye ritual for dropoff. Kiss them, let them know you love them and that youll be there for them when school is over. Give them something small, such as a family photo, that they can carry with them to soothe them, Weser said.

Keep your own nerves in check, especially if the children are crying. If you convey confidence that things will be fine, theyll calm down, Weser said. On the flip side, if youre worked-up, theyll pick up on that, too, and they may decide theres a reason to be upset.

It can help to share your own first-day experience, Weser said: Tell them, I remember my first day. I was really nervous, but then I made friends and had fun. And that helps the child then say, OK, Im not the only one.

Dont forget about the end of the day. Be on time to pick them up. After-school rituals, including talking over the day, can help children wind down. Weser suggests avoiding broad questions such as What did you do today? Instead, she suggests paring the question down, asking about what stories they read, for example, or a specific part of the school day.

Its also good to set up a quiet area with a desk where they can work on homework after school, Riojas said.

dlmartin@express-news.net
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He may be the most romantic man in San Antonio, but sorry ladies, he's off the market.

Eric Martinez used a special vacation to Riviera Maya, Mexico, in June to pop the question to his then girlfriend Cammy Rynae Cuoco.

The San Antonio couple had been dating for about a year-and-a-half when Martinez decided it was time.

"It was going to be our first big trip (together)," Martinez said. "And I said to myself, I think this is the perfect time to do it."

RELATED: Photos show when San Marcos paid homage to its mermaid past

Now Playing: Eric Martinez enlisted photographer Polly Dawson of Del Sol Photography to capture a 'Little Mermaid'-themed marriage proposal under the sea. Video: JW Player

Martinez explained that he and Cuoco are big fans of the photography of Del Sol Photography, which the two discovered while perusing Instagram.

Among the company's specialties are weddings and engagements, another is underwater photography.

Martinez decided the two should be combined.

"I would always see these pictures from Del Sol and so I reached out to them on Instagram and set it up with Polly," Martinez said.

The work of photographer Polly Dawson of Del Sol Photography is among the couple's favorite.

Martinez explained to Dawson that Cuoco is a humongous "Little Mermaid" fan, and that she adores dolphins and mermaids. His plan for a "Little Mermaid" proposal took off from there.

"I told her, on the day we did it, that I had a day full of surprises for her," Martinez said.

For Cuoco, who hoped a ring would be part of the vacation but had no idea her girlhood fantasies were about to be realized, it was a day she will remember forever.

RELATED: San Marcos Mermaid Parade back for a second year

"I would be lying if I said I did not hope something like this was going to happen," Cuoco said. "As a little girl it is something you dream about.

"So many times I was like, 'Oooh is it today? Maybe it's today.' But I had no idea it would be like that."

Martinez explained how excited he was as their driver took them across an old dirt road through the jungle to the cave system where Dawson and her crew were waiting.

"We were on the worst kind of dirt road you can imagine," he said.

Cuoco said the experience was very spiritual. "After you go all the way through the jungle and then you get in the cave, it was super beautiful," she said.

Dawson met them at the cave and Martinez explained to Cuoco that part of her day of surprises was a photo shoot in the cave with Dawson.

"It was great and I was surprised," Cuoco laughed. "Then he got down on his knee."

"My cue was when Polly said the lighting was epic," Martinez said.

And Cuoco? "I was like, whoa, is this really happening!?"

But the special day got even better for Cuoco.

RELATED: A Texas mermaid swam with sharks off Belize

The bride-to-be explained that growing up, her favorite princess was always Ariel. And when Martinez explained her next surprise, the rest is social media viral history.

"I then told her about the mermaid suit Polly made and the idea of doing it (the proposal) again," Martinez said. Only this time it would be underwater.

So with a large Ringpop used in place of the actual engagement ring - as Cuoco was not about to lose her new ring in an underwater cave - the two submerged and Martinez proposed to his mermaid love.

"It was an amazing day," he said.

Video of the engagement and photos were later posted to Del Sol's Instagram and the couple's Facebook pages.

They have since gone viral.

Martinez and Cuoco say they plan to return to Riviera Maya and wed there, sometime next year.

However they have not said if the wedding will be on land, or underwater.
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Seeing more cat pics than usual on Twitter today? Then raise your paws for International Cat Day, the annual feline frenzy on the internets courtesy the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The animal rescue and wildlife protection organization launched International Cat Day in 2002 as a friendly Aug. 8 reminder to keep your domestic cats safe and keep them from hunting wildlife, too.

Of course, its also another great excuse to share your kitteh love with all the hashtagged cat pics, as youll see in tweets from San Antonio and beyond in the slideshow above.

RELATED: Parking at the San Antonio Zoo expected to get a lot easier

Cutesy pics aside, the message behind #InternationalCatDay is one of serious cat care.

Just like their much larger cousins, house cats hunting skills are the result of untold years of evolution, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said on its website, making them some of the most efficient and deadly hunters on earth. Unfortunately for our furry friends, their stellar hunting skills can cause real conflict in communities, and that often spells bad news for the cats themselves. On this International Cat Day, we celebrate our love of these incredible animals with some tips for keeping them, and our wildlife, safe.

Such tips include sterilization, collaring, cat-proof fencing and just keeping your kitty inside.

RELATED: New shark born at San Antonio Zoo without male fertilization

And speaking of loving cats indoors, the yarn ball is still very much rolling for the first-ever cat cafe in San Antonio.

Owner Casey Steuart did have to move the developing cafe to a new location, but its still in the same Broadway and Loop 410 area. She now figures on a fall grand opening instead of the summer, though she may have a soft, daresay cuddly opening in September.

rguzman@express-news.net

Twitter: @reneguz
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DANBURY  A day after a woman was killed and 19 others injured during clashes between groups of demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., more than 200 gathered at the Danbury Library to stand in solidarity with the victims and condemn the white supremacists responsible for the disturbances.

At a vigil organized in less than 24 hours by the Danbury Area Justice Network and other area activist organizations, local leaders called on the community to fight against hate.

Will Love, co-founder of the Justice Network, said the city must unite to ensure that kind of violence does not happen in the area.

It doesnt matter if theyre going to do it here, because were ready, he said. Theres no hate in Hat City.

Jackie Reizes, a Danbury resident, said her son, his wife and their children, 1 and 4, were on vacation in Virginia and supposed to stay in a hotel blocks away from the spot where a car plowed into crowds protesting a white supremacist rally. The family is safe and staying with friends outside Charlottesville, she said, be she expressed disgust with the hate infecting the country and what it means for her grandchildren and all young people.

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Its heartbreaking that [my son and daughter-in-law] have to explain to their 4-year-old son what a skinhead is, she said.

But she and her husband, Bill Shute, said they were heartened by the crowd at the library.

Protestors carried signs that said Hate is not an American value, Love unites us and Black lives matter. With candles in hand, the crowd prayed and held a moment of silence for Heather Heyer, who was killed in the attack.

Many of the speakers criticized President Trump for not strongly condemning white supremacy.

Our president has failed us, said Rabbi Ari Rosenberg from Temple Sholom in New Milford. Failure to unequivocally denounce white supremacists and anti-Semitic violence by name is a failure of leadership of catastrophic proportions.

The Rev. Stephen Tickner from Central Christian Church in Danbury described the darkness and anger he felt when watching a Facebook Live broadcast on the turmoil that began in Charlottesville Friday night.

But he said the community must not sink into this darkness.

We have to make a choice, he said. We choose light, we chose love and we choose hope. We are going to birth something new right here in Danbury that the world can make a copy of and can see and want to create themselves.
Members of the Greater Capital District Ride for Missing Children Central New York chapter gather at the Center For Hope in Ballston Spa on Sunday. The riders took part in a 40-mile bicycle ride to show support for the families of local missing children including Suzanne Lyall, Tammie Anne McCormick and Craig Frear. The 10th annual Greater Capital District Ride for Missing Children will be held on Friday, Sept. 29, beginning at the University at Albany.

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Fort Bend ISD announced Wednesday that the students displaced from Willowridge High School due to a severe mold infestation will start the school year at nearby Thurgood Marshall High School.

The announcement comes less than two weeks before the first day of school and three weeks after Willowridge Principal Thomas Graham sent a letter to parents explaining that an aggressive mold infestation had taken over the nearly 40-year-old campus.

According the district officials, the mold ravaged almost the entire high school destroying nearly everything in it when the school's air conditioning was turned off for several days during construction earlier in the summer. The district expects remediation efforts to cost upward of $2 million.

Willowridge staff has been housed at the Marshall campus since the mold was discovered in early July.

"Marshall High School has done a tremendous job of welcoming us into the campus and helping us in our time of need," said Graham in a video posted by the district Wednesday. "By having all of our students on one campus under one roof we can ensure that all of those educational needs are met during this very difficult time."

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Thurgood Marshall High School Principal Alfred Holland said in the district video that students of the two high schools, which are about five miles from each other in Missouri City, already interact with each other in the community.

"They hang out on weekends together; they go to church together," Holland said. "So I think that this opportunity will help to bring the students even closer together in that they will be under the same roof to interact even more so."

Graham added that the two student bodies will become one as long as the Willowridge students are housed on the Marshall campus.

"For this transitional time, we will not have Willowridge students and we will not have Marshall students," he said. "We will have students that we will all service."

Fort Bend ISD will hold a community town hall meeting and celebration to share further details about the remediation and transitional plan Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. at Marshall High School, 1220 Buffalo Run in Missouri City.

The district has created a page on its website about the Willowridge remediation and relocation that it is updated daily at 3 p.m.
BEIJING - China moved to tighten economic pressure on North Korea on Monday by implementing a new package of U.N. sanctions, but simultaneously had a warning for the Trump administration: don't spoil our new-found unity by starting a trade war.

The Commerce Ministry announced a ban on imports of iron ore, iron, lead and coal from North Korea effective Tuesday -- although China will continue to clear goods that have already arrived in port until Sept. 5.

But at the same time, Beijing warned President Donald Trump not to split the international coalition over North Korea by provoking a trade war between China and the United States.

Trump is expected to sign an executive memorandum Monday afternoon instructing his top trade negotiator to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property violations, a move that could eventually result in severe trade penalties.

In China, these proposed measures were seen as an attempt to pressure Beijing to act more strongly against North Korea and, at the same time, as an effort to shift the blame for the world's failure to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs onto China alone.

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"It is obviously improper to use one thing as a tool to impose pressure on another thing," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news conference Monday.

With the commercial relationship between the two countries becoming more intertwined by the day, a trade war is not a good idea. "There will be no winner," she said. "It will be lose-lose."

In an editorial, the state-owned China Daily newspaper said Trump was asking too much of China over North Korea, also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK.

Trump's "transactional approach to foreign affairs" was unhelpful, it said, while "politicizing trade will only exacerbate the country's economic woes, and poison the overall China-U.S. relationship."

That won't bring results when it comes to North Korea, either, it argued.

"By trying to incriminate Beijing as an accomplice in the DPRK's nuclear adventure and blame it for a failure that is essentially a failure of all stakeholders, Trump risks making the serious mistake of splitting up the international coalition that is the means to resolve the issue peacefully," it wrote.

"Hopefully Trump will find another path. Things will become even more difficult if Beijing and Washington are pitted against each other."

China accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade but moved earlier in February to suspend North Korea's coal imports until the end of the year. Coal normally accounts for about half of North Korea's exports, but despite the coal ban, overall trade between the two countries remained healthy.

Last month, China announced that imports from North Korea fell to $880 million in the six months that ended in June, down 13 percent from a year earlier. Notably, China's coal imports from North Korea dropped precipitously, with only 2.7 million tons being shipped in the first half of 2017, down 75 percent from 2016.

But iron ore imports had grown sharply this year, reaching 1.34 million tons, worth an estimated $68 million, a 60 percent jump in the first half of the year.

A 29 percent spike in Chinese exports to North Korea - North Korea bought $1.67 billion worth of Chinese products in the first six months of the year - also helped push total trade between the two countries up 10 percent between January and June, compared with the same period last year.

The latest move to stem imports of iron, iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as seafood products, will put significantly more pressure on Pyongyang. But it is unlikely to be enough to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, which it sees as essential to its own survival, experts say.

China is very reluctant to do anything that might destabilize the regime, which is a long-standing ally. It blames American hostility toward Pyongyang for forcing the regime to develop its nuclear program, and is urging dialogue to reduce tensions.

The move against China over trade was also seen here as an attempt to distract attention from Trump's domestic problems.

"Bashing China cannot solve U.S. economic problems, experts say," the state-run Xinhua news agency proclaimed.

The nationalist Global Times newspaper said a trade war with China could "boomerang" on Trump, because U.S. society and opinion could not withstand the losses that would result.

"If a China-US trade war starts, many of those who now support a hard-line stance toward China would turn against the Trump administration," it wrote in an editorial.

It even tried to link developments to violence and "racial hatred" that broke out in Charlottesville at the weekend.

"The source of global instability may not be North Korea's nuclear ambitions nor Europe's refugee crisis, but the chaos in the US," it wrote in a separate opinion piece. "The public is also concerned that Trump is using international disputes to divert public attention away from the domestic turmoil."

---

The Washington Post's Shirley Feng, Yang Liu and Luna Lin contributed to this report.
Such studies help prepare children for higher education abroad

Chinese students visit King's Coll countries. TAN XI/ FOR CHINA DAILY

When Chinese parents first sent their children to the UK for summer camps and courses, the kids stayed with host families and attended standard language schools. Now, some of the UK's most celebrated private schools are competing to attract Chinese children to their summer programs.

As the number and sophistication of Chinese customers has increased, so have their requirements. Most parents are looking for quality courses at a well-known school with on-site accommodations. Parents also are willing to send their children abroad at a younger age.

English language skills in China have improved in schools, leading to more Chinese parents considering enrolling their children in specialized summer courses or specific skill-development classes.

"Many young people in China want to ensure that their academic performances are supported by training in the personal qualities that will make them excel in the multinational workplace of the future," said Alexander Nikitich, founder of Carfax Education Group.

As a result, the group receives more requests from students who want to use the summer to develop their skills in areas such as interview training, presentation making, English language for math and sciences and career planning.

Talent development at summer camp is increasingly popular among Chinese students. "We had a student who has been the national math competition prize winner, and a student with a desire and ability to sing opera," said Nikitich, who has worked in the industry for over 20 years.

The demand from Chinese families has grown so much in recent years that Carfax opened a dedicated Chinese desk three years ago operated by UK-based Chinese-speaking education consultants.

Nikitich said Chinese participants in his school program come from very rich families, the majority of whom are from Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, but this year clients also come from other parts of China, such as Chengdu, Wuhan and Xiamen.

The recent trend also indicates that students who take part in overseas summer camps are getting younger as their parents are eager to equip them for further studies and potential emigration in the future.
A Spring man who allegedly pulled out a gun during a car crash investigation was indicted on two felony charges Thursday.

Lepreston Porter III, 32, is facing a first-degree felony aggravated assault against a public servant charge as well as a third-degree felony charge for illegally possessing a firearm after his May 26 arrest. Panorama Village police officers were assisting Porter after he claimed he was run off the feeder road on Interstate 45, according to Panorama Village Police Chief Joseph Scarborough.

"While they were standing there, (Porter) kept going around to the back of his SUV and opened the back of it rummaging around," Scarborough told The Courier soon after Porter's arrest, adding that officers eventually called Porter back to the front of the vehicle. "He's goes back around again, and this time he produces a handgun. They were able to subdue him and take the gun."

The gun was reported stolen from a Pearland gun owner, Scarborough said.

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"I don't know if he (pointed it toward the officers) or just had it in his hand pointing it in the general direction of the officers," Scarborough said. "You just don't pull a gun out when dealing with the police."

Scarborough said he was proud of his officers and their "excellent" job handling the situation.

Porter will be in Judge Lisa Michalk's 221st state District Court for an information hearing Aug. 22. He's facing up to life in prison.

Montgomery County grand jury indictments for Aug. 10:

Desteny Angel James, assault public servant

Cambra Darlene Tullos, DWI  third or more

Tina Louise Crenshaw, possession of controlled substance

Timothy Steven McLeod, assault causing bodily injury family enhanced

Christopher David Henrikson, DWI  third or more

Willie James Rooks, DWI  third or more

Charles Leon Weathers, possession of controlled substance

Joshua Lee Spinks, unlawful possession of firearm by felon and possession of controlled substance

Scott Andrew Armstrong, DWI  third or more

Bennie Ray Johnson, credit card abuse

Kelly Davis Pestka, possession with intent to deliver/manufacture controlled substance, unlawful possession of firearm by felon and evading arrest detention with vehicle

Danielle Christine Greer, possession of controlled substance

Chad Allen Johnson, unauthorized use of motor vehicle and criminal mischief

Dillion Michael Oguinn, unauthorized use of motor vehicle and criminal mischief

Michael Dean Wetch, possession of controlled substance

Johnathan Gonzalez-Zarate, assault family strangulation

Angela Marie Langford, possession of controlled substance

Robert Eugene Davis Jr., unlawful possession of controlled substance

William Edward Dreyer, possession of controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver/manufacture controlled substance and manufacture or possession with intent to deliver controlled substance

Cediria Deangela Cooksey, evading arrest detention with vehicle

Joshua Nathan Burke, possession of controlled substance

Corey S. Reaves, DWI  with a child

Cristi Margel, fraudulent possession of identifying items

Christopher Michael Dore, unauthorized use of motor vehicle

Kimberlie Lynne Walker, aggravated assault with deadly weapon and accident involving serious bodily injury or death

Dean Allen Cole, aggregate theft

Michael David Collins, aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of firearm by felon

Michael James Shell, unlawful possession of firearm by felon

David Michael Shell, unlawful possession of firearm by felon
ALBANY  A recent crackdown on speeding and aggressive driving has resulted in more than 21,000 tickets being issued to motorists across New York state.

While many of the tickets went to drivers caught exceeding the speed limit, nearly 350 were written for distracted driving.
The FBI has arrested an Oklahoma man on charges that he tried to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb outside a bank, acting out of a hatred for the U.S. government and an admiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, according to court papers.

Jerry Drake Varnell was arrested shortly after a Friday night attempt to detonate a fake bomb packed into what he believed was a stolen cargo van outside the bank in Oklahoma City, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
Lori Van Buren

ALBANY (AP)  A recent crackdown on speeding and aggressive driving has resulted in more than 21,000 tickets being issued to motorists across the state.

While many of the tickets went to drivers caught exceeding the speed limit, nearly 350 were written for distracted driving.
TOKYO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to take a step back from the brink of nuclear war Tuesday, when state media reported that he would "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees."

But, as is often the case with North Korea, the message was mixed: Kim was inspecting the missile unit tasked with preparing to strike near Guam, and photos released by state media showed a large satellite image of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam on the screen beside the leader.

"The U.S. should stop at once arrogant provocations against the DPRK and unilateral demands and not provoke it any longer," the North Korean leader told his missile unit, according to a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency published Tuesday.

If "the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity," Kim continued, North Korea would "make an important decision as it already declared," he said.

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Kim was visiting the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, the elite missile unit that - according to state media - is finalizing preparations to launch ballistic missiles into the Pacific Ocean near the American territory of Guam. A decision was due this week, a week during which the Kim regime is celebrating the ruling family with huge propaganda displays in North Korea.

Kim "praised the KPA Strategic Force for drawing up a close and careful plan . . . and examined the firing preparations for power demonstration," the report said.

"He said that he wants to advise the U.S., which is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula into the touch-and-go situation, running helter-skelter, to take into full account gains and losses with clear head whether the prevailing situation is more unfavorable for any party," the report quoted Kim as saying.

This came just hours after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told South Korean leaders Monday that the United States was ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities to deal with North Korea.

But Gen. Joseph Dunford, speaking in Seoul, just 30 miles south of the border with North Korea, stressed that diplomacy and sanctions were the first plan of attack.

"The military dimension today is directly in support of that diplomatic and economic effort," Dunford told reporters after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul.

"It would be a horrible thing were a war to be conducted here on the peninsula, and that's why we're so focused on coming up with a peaceful way ahead," he said, according to Stars and Stripes.

"Nobody's looking for war," the Marine general said, according to the newspaper. But he added that the military's job was to provide "viable military options in the event that deterrence fails."

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday afternoon in Washington that it will be "game on" with North Korea if it hits the United States, including Guam, but he left it much more ambiguous what will happen if Pyongyang decides to shoot missiles near Guam, without attempting to hit the U.S. island territory.

"That becomes an issue that we take up, and it's however the president chooses," Mattis said. "You can't make all of those kinds of decisions in advance. There is a host of things going on. There are allies we consult with, as the president made very clear last week when he talked about our allies repeatedly in his statement."

Mattis added that he needs a "certain amount of ambiguity on this, because I'm not going to tell [Kim] what I'm going to do in each case." But he warned pointedly: "You don't shoot at people in this world unless you want to bear the consequences."

Dunford was on the first stop of a trip that will also take him to Beijing on Tuesday and then to Tokyo, three capitals that do not want war to break out on their doorsteps.

China, meanwhile, signaled a potentially important break with North Korea as part of international sanctions. Beijing announced Monday that it would ban imports of iron ore, iron, lead and coal from North Korea, cutting an important economic lifeline for Pyongyang. The ban will take effect from Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce announced.

In the meetings with the South Korean president and other top officials Monday, Dunford appeared to offer a modified version of the threats that President Trump has issued over the past week.

Trump last week warned North Korea that it would face "fire and fury" if it tried to attack the United States or its allies. Then on Friday, after North Korea threatened to launch missiles toward Guam, Trump warned the regime that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded."

But top administration officials appear focused on trying to play down the prospect of nuclear war. Appearing on Sunday-morning talk shows, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, "An attack from North Korea is not something that is imminent." National security adviser H.R. McMaster said, "We're not closer to war than a week ago."

"The object of our peaceful pressure campaign is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote in a joint op-ed article published by the Wall Street Journal. "The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone. We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang."

Officials in the South Korean government have voiced surprise and confusion at Trump's tough talk of the past week.

Moon, elected as South Korea's president in May on a pledge to adopt a more conciliatory approach to North Korea, urged the United States on Monday to give diplomacy a chance.

"Peace will not come to the Korean Peninsula by force. Although peace and negotiation are painful and slow, we must pursue this path," Moon told his advisers ahead of his meeting with Dunford.

Calling the U.S.-South Korea military partnership "an alliance for peace," Moon said he was "confident that the U.S. will respond calmly and responsibly to the current situation." He even suggested that the gap between the allies was not large, as both are focused on peace.

Seoul, a vibrant metropolitan area of 25 million people, lies within range of North Korea's conventional artillery, stationed just across the border 30 miles to the north. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, including more than 28,000 U.S. troops, also live in South Korea.

After the meeting, Moon's spokesman said the president had "denounced" North Korea for disturbing the peace in the region with its repeated missile launches.

"The president noted the current security conditions on the Korean Peninsula constituted a more serious, real and urgent threat than ever created by the advancement in North Korea's nuclear and missile technologies," said spokesman Park Soo-hyun.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries next week are set to start their annual fall exercises, in which they practice responding to a North Korean invasion or the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang. North Korea always strongly objects to the drills, viewing them as a pretext for war.

Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said the exercises would go ahead as planned, starting Aug. 21. "The exercises remain important to us, and we'll continue to move forward," he said, according to Stars and Stripes.

- - -

Lamothe reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Simon Denyer in Beijing contributed to this report.
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
One person is dead and several other wounded after a shootout and possibly related drive-by late Sunday in southwest Houston - one a shootout between cars driving on Bissonnet, the other a drive-by on a nearby residential street. Police are investigating a possible connection between the two.

The chaos started around 10 p.m., when witnesses reported seeing a shootout between two cars driving along the 11100 block of Bissonnet.
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More than 100 people attended a vigil at Travis Park downtown to specifically to remember a woman killed Saturday when a car ran into a crowd, and injured at least 19 people in Charlottesville.

Members of various activist organizations in the Alamo City spoke at the event and urged those in attendance to engage in activism.

"It boils down to competence of culture," said Cheyenne Garber, 30, a U.S. Army veteran. "San Antonio is so diverse. Be the change you want to see."

RELATED: Rowdy but peaceful counter protesters converge on Travis Park Saturday

Karen Jensen, 58, said she decided to attend the vigil after being "shocked by the images" she saw coming out of Charlottesville. Her companion, Julie Miller, 53, said she "just had to respond," and decided to go to the event in the Alamo City when she saw it posted on Facebook.

The Travis Park protest came a day after competing rallies at the park regarding a monument honoring Confederate soldiers drew about 500 people, San Antonio police said Saturday. One person was arrested and a second person detained.

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"To the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis who came to our state yesterday, there is no place for you here," Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said, drawing an implicit contrast with President Donald Trump's refusal to single out the same groups for blame.

"Shame on you," said the governor, who spoke at the Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, blocks from the site of the clashes.
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San Antonio's population is rising. And so are its temperatures, a new study shows.

The recent study found San Antonio is among the fastest growing cities in the country. And that among those cities it's one of the hottest.
AUSTIN  Lawmakers are sending a bill to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that gives landowners power to vote on whether their communities are annexed by big cities such as San Antonio.

The Senate approved the measure 21-10 on Sunday evening, agreeing with changes made by the House to expand a military buffer zone meant to control development around base borders.

Its a huge victory, said the bills sponsor, Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. No longer will cities be able to forcibly annex anyone with the residents having a say.

Though municipal officials had worried the bill could hamper efforts to expand city limits and control growth, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg called the latest version an acceptable compromise.

We are extremely grateful to our memberswho fought hard to protect San Antonios military installations, which generate $49 billion per year for the State of Texas, he said in a statement Sunday.

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Still, not all city representatives were on board. San Antonios Sen. Jose Menendez voted against Senate Bill 6 over worries that it could hurt a land swap between Alamo City and Converse meant to aid neighborhoods in Northeast Bexar County, including Camelot II and The Glen.

It is critically important to me that The Glen and Camelot get services, he said. My concern is this bill could potentially cause problems for them to move forward.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott made annexation reform one of his 20 priorities for the special session that is set to conclude Wednesday. His office didnt immediately respond to questions about whether he will sign the bill into law. An overhaul of the states annexation laws failed in the regular session, when Menendez mounted a filibuster over concerns the bill didnt adequately protect military bases.

He and other city representatives pushed for the five-mile buffer zone included in the bill, a radius radius recommended in a military Joint Land Use Study of San Antonio bases.

I'm glad that the Senate did the right thing in supporting our armed forces and preserving their mission readiness, said Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, chair of the House Committee on Defense and Veterans' Affairs. Our current global security needs are too great to risk compromising our military's ability to project force globally at a moment's notice.

Landowners who live within five miles of a military base, such as Camp Bullis, will get to vote on whether they are annexed. But if they refuse, cities can still regulate development in the area so it doesnt interfere with base training operations. Building height and population density, among other factors, can negatively affect a military installations mission, officials have said.

Concern about encroachment has dialed up recently amid talk in Washington that a round of base realignment and closures, known as BRAC, could be on the horizon.

Only cities that fall in the states 10 most populous counties, those with more than 500,000 residents, must get approval from affected property owners before annexing new land under the bill approved Sunday. Residents of smaller counties could petition for a vote, though one lawmaker questioned why the reforms dont apply to all.

The people of Texas deserve the same level of protection, and it's disappointing that not everyone will be covered, said Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood.

AMorris@express-news.net
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San Antonio police arrested a Bexar County Sheriff's Office civilian employee Thursday night on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Noah A. Garcia, 35, is a records and identification supervisor with the sheriff's office. He has been with the agency for almost four years.

No further information on the circumstances of the arrest or Garcia's future with the sheriff's office were immediately available.

A similar arrest happened in July, when Deputy Michael Magana was arrested for the same charge.

Magana was stopped by San Antonio police around 2:30 a.m. on July 12 for a traffic violation. The officer preformed a field sobriety test after he thought Magana had been drinking.

READ MORE: BCSO releases mugshot of deputy arrested on drunk driving charge

In April, two San Antonio police officers, Gena Rodriguez and Harold Thomaston, were arrested on drunken driving charges in a span of about four hours.

"DWI is so preventable; I'm disappointed that these two officers would put public lives at risk by getting behind the wheel after consuming too much alcohol," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus in a written statement shortly after the officers' arrests.

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RELATED: 2 San Antonio police officers arrested on drunken driving charges hours apart

fsabawi@mysa.com

Twitter: @FaresInSA
AUSTIN - Lawmakers postponed votes on key property-tax reform and school-finance bills Sunday as Senate and House negotiators bickered over differences that could derail final approval if they are not resolved.

By late Sunday, lawmakers involved in the talks said they were making progress - racing against a Wednesday deadline when the 30-day special legislative session will end.

Both bills are must-pass priorities of Gov. Greg Abbott.

The House, which had been set to vote on Senate Bill 1, the tax-reform measure, put off its vote until Monday - just two days before the 30-day special legislative session will end.

The Senate, which had been slated to take action on a House school-finance bill, recessed late Sunday without a vote, just hours after its budget-writing committee approved a related House bill that will fund the proposed changes.

But the Senate panel, as expected, chopped the nearly $2 billion the House had wanted to just $311 million.

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That reportedly irked some House leaders, who had been looking for a Senate vote on their school-finance bill to ensure that an amendment was not added to resurrect the controversial bathroom bill.

State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, said the delay of a vote on the property-tax reform bill was needed because he and his House colleagues needed time to negotiate with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his chief of staff.

The House and Senate have different versions of over how much to cap the amount cities and counties can raise their effective tax rate.

State law enables cities and counties to raise the effective rate by 8 percent before voters can petition for a rollback election to block the increase. The Senate has proposed capping the rate at 4 percent and forcing local governments into an automatic election if they go beyond that. The House on Saturday gave initial approval to a 6 percent rate.

The House approved Bonnen's motion for a delayed vote after he clashed with state Rep. Matt Schaefer, a Tyler Republican who urged a no vote. He said it's likely the House and Senate will appoint a committee to try to resolve differences between the bills.

"Can't we walk and chew gum at the same time?" Schaefer asked. Bonnen replied that a final vote would imperil the negotiations with the Senate, and he noted that House members traditionally have honored requests by a bill sponsor to delay action.

"This bill does not belong to you; it belongs to the people of Texas," Schaefer replied.

Negotiations on the school-finance bill continued late Sunday to resolve the difference in funding amounts between the Senate and House, how local school districts would be affected and where those funds would come from. Lawmakers said progress was being made, but no deal was yet certain.

3 bills approved

Despite the delays, the Senate gave final approval Sunday and sent to Abbott to be signed into law three bills that are on his priority list.

One measure would require Texas' largest cities to hold a public vote before they annex surrounding property received final approval on Sunday. Senators, generally along party lines, voted 21 to 10 to accept House amendments to Senate Bill 6. The changes will cover only cities of 500,000 or more, instead of most mid-sized and smaller cities.

Those smaller cities could, however, opt to be covered by the new law, giving citizens who they plan to annex a chance to vote.

A filibuster in May killed a similar bill - but without the 500,000 limit - during the final hours of the regular legislative session, amid opposition from San Antonio, Austin and other cities that contended it could limit their ability to grow.

The Senate-approved measure includes a provision that will allow cities to control development within a 5-mile buffer around military bases, a key concern of San Antonio officials as they seek to protect the future of its concentration of bases.

Some senators questioned why all cities were not covered by the final version. The Senate earlier approved a bill without any limit, but the House added wording to cover only cities of 500,000 or more.

"I think the people of Texas deserve the same level of protection, and it's disappointing that not everyone will be covered," said state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood.

The bill now goes to Gov. Greg Abbott to be signed into law. Abbott earlier indicated he supported allowing public votes on annexation, and Senate supporters indicated Sunday he likely will sign it into law.

Abortion bill OK'd

Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, opposed approving the bill with the House revisions, saying it will cause problems in his hometown. He was among those voting against the final version.

The Senate also gave final approval to House Bill 214, which would require women wanting an abortion to buy additional insurance to cover the procedure. The vote was 20-10, mostly along party lines.

The Senate also gave initial approval to House Bill 215, which would impose additional reporting requirements on minors who seek an abortion, including confidential data on girls who become pregnant while in foster care and Child Protective Services custody. A final vote could come as soon as Monday.

Despite those successes, Senate-approved House Bill 7, which restricts local tree-cutting ordinances, was sent back from the House without action because of issues with wording. Senate sponsors said they doubted there would be time to fix the issue and the bill likely is dead.

One other bill on the governor's list remained alive: By a voice vote, the House gave preliminary approval to a Senate bill that would extend the work of a task force that is examining why so many mothers in Texas are dying after delivering babies.

The House amended the bill to expand the Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Task Force from 15 to 17 members, adding a nurse specializing in labor and delivery and a physician specializing in critical care.

Mortality rate

The task force is set to expire in 2019, but the bill by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham would extend its work to September 2023. The bill is aimed at addressing Texas' high death rate for women delivering babies. The state had 35.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014 compared with 23.8 for the rest of the country, according to a national report.

The House adjourned until 1 p.m. on Monday, the Senate until 4 p.m.
How did we get here? Why does it appear that were on the brink of a war in Asia, one that could involve nuclear weapons? North Korea has had nuclear-weapons capacity for at least 10 years now.

Have its recent advances been so dramatic and significant to force the United States to wage a preventive war? No. The crisis we now find ourselves in has been exaggerated and mishandled by the Trump administration to a degree that is deeply worrying and dangerous.

From the start, the White House has wanted to look tough on North Korea. In the early months of Trumps presidency, before there could possibly have been a serious policy review, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that the era of strategic patience with North Korea was over. Last week, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that North Koreas potential to hit the U.S. with nuclear weapons was an intolerable threat. Not North Koreas use of weapons, mind you; just the potential.

Trump, of course, went furthest, stating publicly last week that if North Korea did not cease its threats, it would be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

When pressed on Thursday, Trump doubled down, saying, If anything, maybe that statement wasnt tough enough. In other words, Trump has made clear that the United States would respond to North Korean nuclear threats with a massive military strike, possibly involving nuclear weapons.

Is this credible? Again, no. The United States is not going to launch a preventive nuclear war in Asia. But this is Trumps basic mode of action. For his entire life, Donald Trump has made grandiose promises and ominous threats  and never delivered on either.

He frequently threatened to sue news organizations for libel, but the last time he followed through was in 1984, Reuters found. Trump claims that he never settles cases out of court. In fact, he has settled at least 100 times, according to USA Today.

In his political life, he has followed the same strategy of bluster. In 2011, he claimed that he had investigators who cannot believe what theyre finding about Barack Obamas birth certificate, and that he would at some point be revealing some interesting things. He had nothing.

During the campaign, he vowed that he would label China a currency manipulator, move the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, make Mexico pay for a border wall, and initiate an investigation into Hillary Clinton. So far, nada.

After being elected, he signaled to China that he might recognize Taiwan. Within weeks of taking office, he folded.

He implied that he had tapes of his conversations with FBI Director James Comey. Of course, he had none.

When the United States watched as Stalins Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons, it was careful in its rhetoric. When it saw a far more threatening leader, Mao Zedong, pursuing nuclear weapons, it was even more cautious. Mao insisted he had no fear of a nuclear war because China would still have more than enough survivors to defeat Western imperialists. And yet, successive U.S. administrations kept their cool.

The world is already living with a nuclear North Korea. If that reality cannot be reversed through negotiations and diplomacy, the task will be to develop a robust system of deterrence, the kind that kept the peace with Stalins Russia and Maos China. Bluster from the president can increase the dangers of miscalculation or cause a downward spiral of words and deeds.

I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days, said Tillerson on Wednesday.

This was an unusual, perhaps even unprecedented statement. The secretary of state seems to have been telling Americans  and the world  to ignore the rhetoric, not of the North Korean dictator, but of his own boss, the president of the United States.

It is probably what Donald Trumps associates have done for him all his life. They know that the guiding mantra for him has been not the Art of the Deal, but the Art of the Bluff.

comments@fareedzakaria.com
In 2008, George W. Bush bequeathed to Barack Obama an economy on its deathbed. Despite Republican obstruction, Obama added jobs, making the economy vibrant again for large segments. Obama handed over this silver-lined economy to Donald Trump, and now Trump has the audacity to claim it as his own, having done nothing but sown dissension.

Hypocrisy is a common trait for a man known for cheating countless people at his infamous Trump University. And then there is the history of unpaid contractors and short-changed blue-collar workers who built his self-promoting pyramids and who he ensnared in litigation to evade paying. Litigation is the rich mans weapon of choice to evade financial obligations.

The art of the deal is a euphemism for skirting the law. The American people elected a man who won despite losing the popular vote by nearly 4 million. He also won with the help of Russia and other surrogates spreading countless lies through social media, Fox News and talk radio. These outlets are the real fake news.

Yes, America has succumbed to a fake president, now exposed by a very real, vigilant media. Meanwhile, the Obama economy continues to thrive.

Lawrence Kohler

Trump as father

Regarding the statement the president made about his son meeting with a lawyer and other Russians, his spokesperson announced it was his honorable self just being a loving dad.

I have been a dad as long as he has, and my children have also been in tough places with authority figures in times of reckless youth, and all have come to Dad for advice. I have never, ever crafted a response for anyone I love that began with a premeditated lie.

For the president to tell his son, whom he should love unconditionally, to lie says much about him as a father, our president and as a person. And the lie is so loosely constructed to beg the question, what is he really hiding?

I assure you it is not what we know but rather something far darker. Why else would he sacrifice his own son? Would you?

Rick Reyes, Boerne

Provincial stance

It may all be over now, but Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Republican legislators who pushed Senate Bill 4, the so-called bathroom bill, were elected to serve the people, not push provincial ideologies.

From now on, I entreat them to direct rational 21st century law-making skills to pressing issues such as fair school funding, accessible nonregressive/non-faith-based womens health care, and availing all Texas residents with affordable health care.

Carlos Valle, Jr., Laredo

This is not slavery

Re: A type of slavery, Your Turn, Aug. 4:

Your logic is flawed. Correct me if Im wrong, but I believe as a taxpayer in Hunt, you are paying for services you may not be using. If your house never catches on fire, does that imply that you neednt be liable for taxes that fund the fire department? Im assuming you do pay said taxes. According to your logic, you must be a victim of slavery.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization. Your slavery analogy suggests you have no choice, an erroneous supposition. You, do have the freedom of choice. You can choose to live in a civilized society, paying dues for services, or leave the organized community structure and live off the grid. The choice is yours.

Perhaps you should re-evaluate your definition of slavery.

Lauren Moffat, Boerne

Teen pregnancies

Re: Trump axes teen pregnancy prevention programs, Editorial, August 1:

Great that you focused on the short-sighted Trump administration decision to defund the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. I have joined our Texas Democratic delegation and led a national group seeking an explanation, but so far not even a Trump tweet in justification.

Teen pregnancy prevention programs bring life-changing education to our youth, helping those in our community avoid unplanned pregnancies and make healthy decisions.

Locally, the work of Dr. Janet Realini at Healthy Futures has been making a real difference in helping youth from becoming parents too early, and helping them complete school and achieve their full potential. There is probably not an education or social services initiative in Bexar County that will go undamaged if this appalling Trump budget is implemented.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio

Childs rights

Re: The abortion divide; Two Texas womens stories dramatize the crucial decisions at the center of their lives, front page, July 30:

A basic and important point was missed in this article. Does the unborn child have a right to life? Abortion, however legal it may be, is not moral and our Constitution guarantees the right to life to all.

Reproductive rights, it seems, are given more value than an unborn childs right to life.

Also noteworthy is that pro-life people were identified as anti-abortion while the pro-choice people are not called pro-abortion Why? Is there shame to that?

J.P. Watkins
President Donald J. Trump offered a flaccid initial response to this weekends race-fueled violence.

He did not immediately condemn the white nationalists and neo-Nazis who descended on Charlottesville, Va. with their bigotry and hate. He did not immediately speak for American values of inclusion and equality or honor the life of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed after a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters.

Trump has not called that act domestic terrorism, although Attorney General Jeff Sessions has done so.

No, Trump only initially offered false moral equivalencies.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides, he said.

Yes, there was mutual brawling, but one side - the white nationalists and neo-Nazis - were there to promote racism and the other side to protest it. We can bemoan violence whatever the sources, but we cannot confer moral equivalency between the sides.

For a president who has criticized others for refusing to use the term Islamic terrorists - so as not to tar an entire religion - Trump certainly has trouble saying the words, white supremacy.

It wasnt until Monday afternoon the president clearly denounced racism and white supremacists.

Racism is evil, Trump finally said. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

Perhaps this slow response is what is to be expected from Trump, whose political rise began by lying about former President Barack Obamas birthplace and who only belatedly disavowed David Duke, former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. But it is not what should be expected of the president, who serves all people and should unify and calm the country in times of chaos and strife.

The violence in Charlottesville, Va., erupted over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

San Antonio is no stranger to this sensitive topic. Members of San Antonio City Council and Mayor Ron Nirenberg are considering moving a Confederate monument at Travis Park.

That pending decision prompted dueling protests this weekend, but both sides stayed relatively calm with only one arrest. Thats a credit to the participants and the local police.

While passions are strong about the Confederate monument, its incumbent on everyone to keep the peace. As the debate continues, local officials should also plan for the possibility of demonstrators from outside the region descending on San Antonio.

These are tough community conversations to have, but we can conduct ourselves in a way that is respectful to others and honors the American values of equality, plurality and peace.

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are repugnant and must be denounced. Their bigotry has no place in America. It took Trump far too long to say this.

We grieve on a few levels these days  for those who lost their lives, including two officers on a helicopter; for their families; for the divisions besetting the land; and for the seeming loss of that ideal of unity and inclusion that has long shaped this country. Those who work against that ideal should be denounced.
THE remains of former President Robert Mugabe will now be buried in Zvimba tomorrow at the insistence of his family, though Government had started working on the mausoleum it had demanded earlier.

Mr Leo Mugabe, the family spokesperson, confirmed the new development to The Herald last night.

Yes, it is true, the former President will be buried in Zvimba on Saturday (tomorrow). I will let you know once I have the programme, said Mr Mugabe

Asked what would happen to the mausoleum, Mr Mugabe said he didnt know.

Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana said Government was committed to respecting the wishes of the deceaseds family.

The family of the late former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe has expressed its desire to proceed with his burial in Zvimba. In line with Government policy to respect the wishes of families of deceased heroes, Government is cooperating with the Mugabe family in their new position, he said.

Mr Mangwana said Government will render all the necessary support to give the former President a befitting send-off.

Zanu-PF Mashonaland West Provincial Chairman Cde Ziyambi-Ziyambi said Government had been consistent from the beginning that it would respect the wishes of the family.

The body of the late Mugabe left Harare for Zvimba, awaiting burial set for Saturday. The family indicated that they are happy with burial at Heroes Acre. We took them to identify the place and we agreed to have the mausoleum constructed. The two children  Chatunga and Robert Jnr  were part of those who went to the site. Today, they indicated that they want to go to Zvimba and Government agreed, said Cde Ziyambi.

He said the party will be guided by the family programme.

We await communication from the family on the programme, said Cde Ziyambi.

However, chiefs from Zvimba yesterday threatened to boycott the burial, insisting the former President will be buried as an ordinary person if buried in Zvimba.

Chief Zvimba  Katiza Gombo  Gibson Jenami said the new arrangement was through the instigation of the family.

It come as a shock to us. But from the word go there was conflicts between chiefs from Zvimba and his wife, Grace Mugabe, he said.

The chiefs had settled for the National Heroes Acre, since the former President spent most of his life as a nationalist. He worked closely with President Mnangagwa for 54 years. We had approached the Government and settled for the National Heroes Acre, he said.

It has also been learnt that Mrs Mugabe wanted the remains of her late husband to be interred at their Blue Roof residence but the idea was shot down.

Zvimba chiefs were on Friday kicked out of the late former President Robert Mugabes Blue Roof mansion by the ex-leaders widow Grace as the feud over the final resting place of her husband raged on.

Highly-placed family sources told NewsDay that Grace was livid after it emerged that it was the Zvimba chiefs led by Chief Zvimba who approached President Emmerson Mnangagwa pushing for Mugabe to be declared a national hero and interred at the national shrine.

The source said the chiefs who had camped at the Blue Roof since Mugabe died early this month were reportedly given their marching orders on Thursday night after a meeting between the traditional leaders, Graces sisters and Mnangagwa. They then left the lofty home on Friday morning.

Grace has not set foot at the national shrine where government was constructing a mausoleum for her husband.

 Herald/NewsDay

Breaking News via Email
USDA Food and Nutrition Service warns Illinois that implementation of Cook Countys beverage tax is in violation of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program regulations.

CHICAGO  The Chicago Tribune wrote last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service has warned Cook County that the collection of its new beverage tax is violating federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rules.

Federal regulations prohibit special taxes on food items purchased with SNAP benefits. However, writes the Tribune, Cook County has allowed retailers to tax such purchases and provide refunds as a workaround for stores that haven't been able to program their point-of-sale systems.

In a letter dated August 7, Tim English, regional administrator for the Midwest Region at the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, warned the Illinois Department of Human Services that it could lose federal fundingroughly $87 millionfor administering the tax.

"[Food and Nutrition Services'] strict interpretation that retailers may not charge the tax to SNAP recipients at any time and that providing an immediate subsequent refund  does not cure the problem or the violation of the law," said James Dimas, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, in a memo to Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle.

Cook County spokesman Frank Shuftan said in a statement that the county was unaware the USDA considered the county's regulation to be unacceptable after a June phone conversation, and that the county believed USDA was considering the policy and would follow up with any concerns.

"At this time, we believe we are in compliance with existing SNAP rules. We do however recognize that USDA's powers against the state in this regard are substantial and we will work collaboratively with both the state and USDA to address USDA's concerns," Shuftan said in the statement.

The Illinois Department of Human Services has until August 21 to submit a plan that details how the Cook County beverage tax will be fixed, or confirm a delay of the tax to allow retailers more time to program their point-of-sale systems for SNAP purchases.

The news source notes that it is not known how many Cook County retailers are applying the tax to SNAP purchases and then offering refunds.
(Natural News) Imagine if there was a natural remedy everybody was using to treat cancer, but then the FDA and CDC found out it actually caused more cancers to develop in the body, and scientific studies proved it. How fast would the FDA and CDC come in, shut it all down and make the treatment illegal? The news would be plastered all over mass media and everyone would know. There would be lawsuits for millions, if not billions of dollars, levied against the creators of the treatment. We would never hear the end of it. Consider, on top of that horror story, if thousands of doctors actually knew that the treatment method was a fraud, but kept using it on their cancer patients anyway because of the major revenue. How many of those doctors would lose their license to practice medicine and how many would serve time in federal prison for malpractice?

Thanks to scientific research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, we now know that chemo SPREADS cancer

A new study that was just published in the journal Science Translational Medicine reveals chemotherapy increases the number of cancer cells circulating in the body and in the lungs. The chemotherapy drugs not only created new cancers, but spread them to other parts of the body where they are nearly always lethal. Dr George Karagiannis, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York, discovered the horrifying fact that chemotherapy caused new cancers for 20 patients receiving two very common chemotherapy drugs. Dr. Karagiannis noted that women could be monitored during chemo to observe when the cancer starts circulating and doorways begin emerging. This would be accomplished by obtaining a small amount of tumor tissue after a few doses of the preoperative chemo.

Patients with breast cancer who are given chemotherapy drugs prior to surgery shrink their breast tumors in the short run while triggering the spread of deadly cancer around the body. Its like sealing up a wound only to find out later youre bleeding to death internally. What good is that?

Why do the chemotherapy drugs cause new cancers? The doctors and scientists believe the toxic medication literally switches on a mechanism in the body that ultimately allows cancer tumors to come back with a vengeance and kill the patient. Top that off with the discovery that chemotherapy increases the number of doorways on blood vessels that allow the cancer to catapult to vital organs and tissues in the body.

If you study the history of chemotherapy, you will find out that Nazi scientists invented it, and they learned back in the 1950s (when they went to work for Big Pharma in America) that chemotherapy only temporarily rescinded cancer tumors, but brought back the cancer even worse. This new scientific research only reaffirms what only a few elitist insiders already knew.

Chemotherapy induces breast cancer metastasis through what is termed a TMEM-mediated mechanism (tumor microenvironment of metastasis). Plus, breast cancer is one of the most common tumor types, so this type of metastasis greatly increases the risk of death from this cell disorder that is exacerbated and spread by more chemicals.

How many people does the cancer industry KILL every year? Meet two of the most evil doctors on the planet: Farid Fata and David Gorski

What would happen to the cancer industrial complex and the fake War on Cancer if every single American stopped falling for the tricky sales tactics of the for-profit cancer industry and found out that chemotherapy creates more cancer? After all, what proof is there that surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are the best chance cancer victims have of surviving? The answer is none. How many Americans are aware that chemotherapy, on average, fails more than 97% of the time?

As of this moment in time, chemotherapy is exposed as a repeat business model for pharma. Just like many convicts in prison, chemotherapy is a repeat offender, as are the doctors who know this and still administer it on their patients. That brings us to discussing two evil doctors who do know, one of whom is serving 45 years in federal prison for giving chemo to his patients who didnt even have cancer. In July of 2015, Detroit area oncologist Farid Fata, M.D. was investigated by the FBI and sentenced to prison for defrauding Medicare and private insurance companies, embezzling $17 million, and dosing his patients to death with lethal doses of chemo he called The European Protocol. He plead guilty in court, in case you were wondering. He also named several accomplices while on trial, but those names have been sealed and protected by the cancer industrial complex. They had to burn a scarecrow to make America believe that these types of crimes dont go unpunished. So who else did Farid the Fraudster Fata name in court as co-conspirators?

Another Detroit area oncologist and a breast cancer surgeon was also reported to the FBI for fraud and deception, but was never indicted. Who is that freak who knew Farid Fata and worked close to him at the same cancer industrial complex under the umbrella of Karmanos? That internet troll and atrocity to the cancer industry is Karmanos Cancer Center breast cancer surgeon David H. Gorski, who trolls the internet under his alias ORAC. Message boards on his virulently pro-vax and pro-chemotherapy website, Respectful Insolence, advocate fraudulently impersonating disease-injured families in the comment sections of medical freedom websites such as Age of Autism and Mothering Magazine. Gorskis sole intent is to discredit anything that casts doubt on his money-making, cancer causing and pseudo-scientific religion.

The truth about chemotherapy is out and its not some conspiracy theory either. Its been proven by science that chemotherapy creates new deadly cancers in the body. Are you convinced yet to contact your Naturopathic physician instead and learn about natural remedies that really do work, and dont have horrific side effects?

Learn more at Chemo.news.

Sources for this article include:

Telegraph.co.uk

STM.sciencemag.org

TruthWiki.org

AntiCorruptionSociety.com

NaturalNews.com

TheRefusers.com

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Google has published another update to its Quality Rater Guidelines that grades conspiracy theories as meriting a lower search results ranking. Some 10,000 search quality raters across the world work for Google on a contract basis to evaluate search results and algorithms after conducting real searches.

Join the upcoming March on Google this Saturday, August 19th, across nine U.S. cities.

Among other things, in furtherance of its anti-fake news agenda, the latest guidelines tweak addresses conspiracy theories and focuses primarily on international non-English results, according to The SEMPost.

Google wants the raters to look specifically at sites or pages where the conspiracy theories are presented as fact. Presents unsubstantiated conspiracy theories as if the information were factual.

And raters should rate them: Lowest quality MC: demonstrably inaccurate content.

Every responsible Google user wants to access content that is on the level, but as the Activist Post suggests, the free flow of information could be at risk with too wide-ranging a definition of conspiracy.

[W]ho decides what is and what isnt real? Who are the companies behind this valiant effort to police Googles search engine, and who watches the watchers?

Against that backdrop, Google has been accused of censorship within its organization (exemplified by this weeks firing of the software engineer who challenged its diversity-at-all-costs policy) and without.

Google critics maintain that the search engine giant has down-ranked independent journalism and natural medicine sites, including Natural News at one point, that dont share its progressive worldview and destroy their web traffic in the process. Pushing a website far down the indexing pecking order can essentially doom an otherwise viable web portal.

Some controversy over Google-owned YouTube demonetizing certain political videos has already emerged, effectively leading to a form of revenue-loss censorship. Google recently launched a commendable if not overdue effort to block terrorist training content using screening software and its human Trusted Flagger group, which presumably seems to be a cohort similar to the quality raters. Google also says it is getting tougher with inflammatory religious and supremacist content, but there are some concerns about how broadly the term inflammatory will be interpreted as a practical matter.

Last year, The Intercept reported that Google execs and lobbyists were regular visitors at the Obama White House on a weekly basis and that at least 250 individuals participated in revolving door employment between Google and the Obama administration. (Related: Read more about search engine manipulation at Journalism.news.)

In June 2016, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed that Google was actively engaged in trying to help Hillary Clinton become president. In a subsequently deleted video, SourceFed demonstrated that Google was allegedly manipulating auto-complete search results to bury negative information about Hillary Clinton.

Be sure to join the March on Google this Saturday, across nine U.S. cities.

Sources include:

SearchEngineLand.com

TheSEMpost.com

ActivistPost.com

TheIntercept.com

Inquisitr.com
Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the Top Dog employee had been fired. Top Dog has issued a statement saying the employee had voluntarily resigned and was not fired.



A Berkeley restaurant employee who allegedly attended a white nationalist rally Friday in Charlottesville, Virginia, resigned from the restaurant Saturday, restaurant officials said Monday.

Cole White resigned from Top Dog, a business with two locations in Berkeley and one in Oakland, after social media posts from the Twitter account @YesYoureRacist and others identified him as a participant of the "Unite the Right" rally.

White's father late Monday at the family's Clayton home did not want to comment and said his attorney will be releasing a statement.

Neighbor Larry Pietrelli said he does not know the Whites, but added Cole White's views are not a reflection of the neighborhood and must be condemned.

"We are all people. We have to support each other and embrace diversity of who we are," Pietrelli said. "That's what makes America great -- diversity."

Others in the neighborhood late Monday said they are shocked because White's parents are Democrats.

Following White's resignation at Top Dog, Berkeley police received information about a credible threat made against the business, Sgt. Andrew Frankel said.

Police kept their eye on Top Dog's three locations overnight and officers will be making extra patrols when they can, Frankel said Monday.

Top Dog, which has been in business since 1966, said in a statement that on Saturday "we spoke with Cole White. During that conversation Cole chose to voluntarily resign his employment with Top Dog and we accepted his resignation."

The company said, "There have been reports that he was terminated. Those reports are false. There have been reports that Top Dog knowingly employs racists and promotes racist theology. That too is false."

"We pride ourselves on embracing and respecting all our differences and every individual's choice to do as that person wishes within the boundaries of the law," Top Dog officials said. "We do respect our employees' right to their opinions. They are free to make their own choices but must accept the responsibilities of those choices."

"Individual freedom and voluntary exchange are core to the philosophy of Top Dog," the company said. "We look forward to cooking the same great food for at least another 50 years."

Meanwhile, Bay Area electrician John Ramondetta, who was scheduled to speak at Charlottesville, was also outed online.

His union, IBEW Local 6, released a statement condemning white nationalism, but defending Ramondetta's right to free speech.
A freeway shooting in the East Bay early Monday has left one driver hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

The shooting occurred around 2:30 a.m. on Interstate 880, near the Interstate 238 interchange in the San Leandro-San Lorenzo border. The California Highway Patrol said officers were responding to an initial call of a road rage incident.

The victim's car came to a stop on the fast lane of southbound I-880. Police are not sure if the confrontation began on Interstate 880 or on one of the side streets.

CHP said all they know is the passenger in a white car fired several rounds at the victim's car. The victim was shot in the head and the shooter remains outstanding, according to the CHP.

Three additional passengers were uninjured in the shooting, CHP said, adding the suspect's car also had three to four passengers.

CHP investigators said there are few witnesses with virtually no traffic on the road at the time of shooting.

The southbound lanes of I-880 were closed at 2:44 a.m. and a Sig-alert was issued a few minutes later, CHP officials said. Lanes didn't open until 9 a.m. due to the investigation.

The shooting comes on the heels of several other freeway shootings to take place across the East Bay over the past several months and years.

"Because of those incidents, we are taking this extremely seriously and with extra precaution, which is why we've had media so far back and this road closure for so long," CHP Officer Joe Fowler said while lanes were still blocked. "We want to collect every evidence that we can, all the pieces, all the information and get all the data that we can to help out this investigation."



The investigation is ongoing.

Bay City News contributed to this report.
A miscalculation may have led to the release of a man who is now suspected of murder.

Fantasy Decuir, 20, and Lamonte Mims, 19, face charges including murder, second-degree robbery and inflicting injury on an elderly adult in the July 16 fatal shooting of Edward French.

Both Decuir and Mims entered not guilty pleas in court on Monday.

Just five days before the murder of French, Mims was in court on a burglary charge and for being a felon in possession of a gun. He could have been held in jail, but instead Judge Sharon Reardon released Mims on a recommendation that is now being investigated.

The shooting that left French dead was on July 16 in San Francisco's popular Twin Peaks.

Prosecutors said they have surveillance video of Decuir shooting French. Mims was with her. Prosecutors also said the shooting happened as they were robbing French of his camera.

Outside of court on Monday French's sister blamed the judge for the murder.

"The judge is as responsible for my brother's death as the people that murdered him," said the victim's sister, Lorrie French.

Lorrie French is furious with Reardon for releasing Mims from jail before the murder. The judge was relying on a report from the pre-trial diversion project, a non-profit operating under the Sheriff's Office that calculates whether a suspect is a flight risk or is likely to return to court.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said it is better than a straight bail system.

"Although here Mr. Mims was released based on a recommendation from his pretrial assessment tool, it's impossible to predict the future," Adachi said.

The executive director of the diversion project and a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office both told NBC Bay Area they are recalculating the score that led to the release of Mims and investigating what might have been left out.

"And what we've learned, unfortunately is that in this case the scoring in this case there was actually a miscalculation that was done by the agency that does the pre-trial assessment score and actually creates the score to being with," said Max Szabo, a district attorney spokesman.

Sources tell NBC Bay Area what was left out was Mims' previous custody records, the number of times and the length of time he had spent behind bars for previous convictions.

If that information had been included in the calculation, sources said it would be a reasonable assumption that Mims would not have been released five days before French was murdered.

"This man was let out on the street and because of it my brother is dead," Lorrie French said.

While the pre-trial assessment investigation rampus up, the preliminary hearing in the murder case is set for Aug. 24 at San Francisco's Hall of Justice.
People across the Bay Area on Sunday gathered at a number of rallies and anti-hate demonstrations in response to Saturday's deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Multiple protests took place along city streets in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose as demonstrators decried the recent rampage and clamored for changes from those leading the nation.

The Warriors showed no signs of rust in their first game in a week as they led wire-to-wire and routed the Jazz in Game 1 Tuesday night.

In San Francisco, demonstrators flocked to a 2 p.m. rally in the Mission District. The protest was billed as an anti-hate, anti-white supremacist and anti-fascist event.

Protesters said the resurgence of hate groups and violence has enticed them to take action.

"I thought this is a time when we have to stand up," Alexandra Saul of San Francisco said. "We have to say something."

[NATL] Dramatic Photos: Violent Clashes at White Nationalist Rally in Virginia

In the South Bay, protesters were already outside San Jose City Hall before lunchtime taking part in an anti-hate demonstration. Soft patriotic music was followed by the loud echoes of megaphones calling for President Trump to condemn racist and facist groups.

Alan Caeser, who grew up in the southern portion of the United States and attended the demonstration in San Francisco, believes that the commander in chief has played a role in tension escalation.

"I definitely think they stirred the pot, and I think Trump was opportunistic in appealing to some of these hate groups," Caeser said.

North in Oakland, protesters stood in solidarity with Charlottesville during a 3:30 p.m. event in the area of 14th Street and Broadway, according to organizers.

Later Sunday, people are slated to attend a candlelight vigil scheduled for 7 p.m. outside city hall in San Jose.

The Bay Area events come on the heels of a white supremacist rally in the Virginia college town. Amid clashes between demonstrators, a car on Saturday rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring dozens more.
Chance the Rapper had a busy Saturday, as the musician served as the Grand Marshal of the Bud Billiken Parade and then hosted a free concert at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University.

At that concert, Chance was thanked for his efforts by a very special guest: former President Barack Obama:

I felt obliged to say congratulations to you on being the grand marshal of the Bud Billiken Parade, Obama said in a pre-recorded message. We want to make sure that we are nurturing and protecting and encouraging and loving the next generation of leaders all throughout the city of Chicago. So Chance, Im grateful for everything that youve done on behalf of the young people back home.

The former president, who now lives in Washington D.C., will base his new Obama Foundation in Chicago, while his presidential library will be housed at the University of Chicago.

Were going to do everything we can to make sure you have safe streets, strong schools, a loving community, and one that encourages you to achieve all of your potential, he said.

Chance served as the grand marshal of the Billiken parade on Saturday morning, and along the way he handed out 30,000 free backpacks that were stuffed with school supplies for area students.

Later in the day, the musician went around the Chicago area and handed out free tickets to a concert at the Auditorium Theatre, using social media to keep fans apprised of where he was at in the city.
A man was fatally shot during an altercation in north suburban Evanston early Monday morning police said.

Just before 3 a.m., authorities said they received a call of shots first on Howard Street near Chicago Avenue.

There, they found a 25-year-old man shot in the head.

Police said the man had been involved in an altercation with the shooter, who fled the scene northbound on foot.

The victim was taken to St. Francis Hospital where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

Several witnesses were speaking to investigators Monday morning, according to police.

The shooting and police investigation left Clark Street blocked at Howard and closed Howard from Clark to Wolcott. The Chicago Transit Authority reported no. 97 Skokie busses were being rerouted via Howard, Clark, Rogers, Ridge and Howard.

Check back for details on this developing story.
Officials at Starved Rock State Park say theyre seeing a rise in the number of emergency calls theyve been receiving this summer, and its all because of increasing numbers of visitors in the park.

The park, located in LaSalle County about 90 miles southwest of Chicago, had more than 400,000 visitors during the month of July alone.

With the rising number of emergency calls, park officials are pushing for more staff so that they can keep visitors to the park safe.

The calls for more staff come on the heels of a fatal accident where a 24-year-old Indiana man was killed after falling 60 feet from a restricted area.

According to authorities, the man fell from a cliff near Pontiac Canyon inside the park. Emergency crews performed CPR on his for about 20 minutes, but he was pronounced dead at the park by the LaSalle County coroners office.
Police in Texas acting on a tip found 16 immigrants locked inside a tractor-trailer parked at a gas station about 20 miles from the border with Mexico, less than a month after 10 people died in the back of a hot truck in San Antonio.

Edinburg Assistant Police Chief Oscar Trevino says the immigrants may have been locked inside the 18-wheeler in Edinburg for at least eight hours before being freed by officers late Sunday morning. He had earlier said there were 17 immigrants locked in the tractor-trailer before correcting the number on Monday to 16.

Trevino said none of the people inside the tractor-trailer required medical attention. He said they were hungry and thirsty and were given food and water at the scene.

Those found locked in the tractor-trailer included eight people from El Salvador, six from Mexico and two from Romania, said Manuel Padilla, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol sector chief for the Rio Grande Valley at Texas' southernmost point.

A man and woman who Trevino said are Cuban nationals were in charge of the rig and have been detained.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said no one has been charged yet in connection with the case but that the agency is working with state and local officials and talking to witnesses.

The discovery comes three weeks after 10 people died in a sweltering rig parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. Immigration officials say survivors estimated 100 people had been packed into the back of the 18-wheeler at one point. Officials said 39 people were inside when rescuers arrived, and the rest either escaped or hitched rides to their next destination. Nearly 20 of those rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heatstroke. The driver of that rig remains in federal custody, charged with illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death.

On Sunday, Edinburg police went to the gas station, a popular stopover for commercial truck drivers traveling through the region, after receiving an anonymous call from someone saying a relative was trapped inside the tractor-trailer. Officers began knocking on the sides of trailers parked at the station and eventually received return knocks from the one holding the immigrants, police said.

The San Antonio incident demonstrated how smugglers regularly use big rigs in an elaborate network of foot guides, safe house operators and drivers. The immigrants discovered in San Antonio had been divided into groups and marked with color-coded tape. Six black SUVs were waiting at one transit point to take some to their destinations.

Authorities have not said if similar arrangements had been made for the immigrants found in Edinburg, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of San Antonio.

Trevino said that they discovered the immigrants after one of the people locked in the tractor-trailer called a relative in Mexico. The relative then called authorities.

Padilla declined to say if Sunday's incident was related to the San Antonio case, citing the ongoing investigation. But he said authorities had stopped more than 30 tractor-trailers since October in the Rio Grande Valley. That doesn't include Laredo, the Texas border city where authorities say the driver of the trailer in the San Antonio case said he stopped twice on his journey.

"You don't know how many you miss," Padilla told The Associated Press on Monday. "But ... the use of tractor-trailers to smuggle people out of this area is higher in South Texas, to include Laredo, than any other area along the border. And it goes right back to a weak border."

Most people apprehended crossing the United States' southern border are caught in the Rio Grande Valley, which includes more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) of the Rio Grande, the river separating the United States and Mexico.

Border apprehensions have risen each month since falling in April to a 17-year low.

Tractor-trailers emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid a surge in U.S. border enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for illegal crossings. Before that, people paid small fees to mom-and-pop operators to get them across a largely unguarded border. As crossing became exponentially more difficult after the 2001 terror strikes in the U.S., migrants were led through more dangerous terrain and paid thousands of dollars more.
Connecticut officials will gather in Bridgeport to honor an aviator they proclaim beat the Wright brothers by two years to being the first in flight.

A ceremony is scheduled Monday to recognize Gustave Whitehead and the 116th anniversary of what state officials have called the "first manned, controlled flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft."

Connecticut officials say the German-born Whitehead, who lived in Bridgeport and Fairfield, took off in Fairfield on Aug. 14, 1901, and flew about a half mile at a height of about 50 feet. The Wright brothers' flight was in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

In the early hours of 14 August 1901, the Condor propelled itself along the darkened streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut, with Whitehead, his staff and an invited guest in attendance," according to an article on "Jane's All the World's Aircraft." "In the still air of dawn, the Condor's wings were unfolded and it took off from open land at Fairfield, 15 miles from the city, and performed two demonstration sorties. The second was estimated as having covered 1 miles at a height of 50 feet, during which slight turns in both directions were demonstrated."



Officials in North Carolina and the Wright brothers' home state of Ohio dispute the claims about Whitehead.

The Smithsonians position on whether Whitehead or the Wright Brothers were first is that the evidence that Whitehead beat Orville and Wilbur Wright remains unproven.

A replica of Whitehead's "Condor No. 21" aircraft will be displayed at the ceremony and political leaders will read proclamations.

The display will be from 10 a.m. to noon at the West End Park in Bridgeport.

Municipal leaders will read proclamations declaring today as "Gustave Whitehead Day."
People across the country gathered at rallies and vigils Sunday in response to the violence that broke out between white nationalists and counter-protesters at a rally in Charlottesville, Va. on Saturday.

Organizers, including those in Connecticut, are calling for emergency action in response to that violence.

More than 100 people showed solidarity with Charlottesville at one of those vigils Sunday in West Hartford.

"You're motivated to stand up to anti-Semitism, to racism, to terrorism of all kinds," one attendee said.

"I came out today because it's the right thing to do," Nicole Fromson of West Hartford said.

People wore signs with anti-hate messages, including one that read STAND AGAINST RACISM.

Many were outraged having watched the deadly violence between white nationalists and counter-protesters. A 32-year-old woman was killed when a man drove a car into a crowd, and dozens of others were injured in that incident and other skirmishes throughout the day.

"I'm doing my part, doing my part to stand up against hate," said Rebecca Mallett of Uncasville.

State leaders expressed disappointment with President Trumps initial response.

"It's abhorrent. It's a tragedy. And it's an embarrassment. The embarrassment mostly comes from the president of the United States who equivocates on this kind of violence on an on-going basis," Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) said.

Vigils also took place in Danbury, Willimantic, Bridgeport, and on the New Haven Green.

Many are concerned by what seems like rising levels of hate.

"I think America's a lot better than all of this. It breaks my heart to see people still feeling this way even after we've struggled against these fascists' thoughts for almost a century," said Abbie Saccary of New Haven.

Authorities in Virginia have arrested the man accused of intentionally driving his car into the crowd.
Two men walked away with only minor injuries after their plane crashed into a tree in Salisbury on Sunday.

Connecticut State Police said a single-engine plane crashed into a tree on Mount Riga Road in Salisbury around 5 p.m.

The occupants of the plane were able to escape and were found on the ground. They were transported to Sharon Hospital for evaluation.

Lakeville Hose Company Fire Chief Jason Wilson told NBC Connecticut two men were on board at the time of the crash. According to the men, they lost their engine and were looking for an open spot to land the plane, but missed a field and crashed into a cherry tree.

Wilson said the men were able to exit the plane with help from a neighbor and had cuts and bruises, but no serious injuries.

No information has been on released on the plane's make or model.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.

Sundays crash is the eighth airplane crash in Connecticut this year. While only minor injuries were reported Sunday, four of the crashes were fatal.

On Friday, a Cessna C-172 that left Danbury Municipal Airport crashed at the end of runway 17-35 at Candlelight Farms Airport in New Milford. A 57-year-old flight instructor, Anthony Morasco, was killed and two other people were seriously injured.

On July 30, a small plane crashed while taking off from the Danbury Airport. The 63-year-old pilot, Mark Stern, died.

Dr. Joseph Tomanelli, a Cheshire doctor, was killed in a plane crash at Meriden Markham Airport on April 24 and his 21-year-old son was seriously injured.

A student pilot, 31-year-old Pablo Campos Isona, of East Haven, was killed in a plane crash in East Haven on Feb. 22.
A Waterbury man is accused of fleeing police and causing an accident that sent one person to the hospital.

According to Connecticut State Police, troopers attempted to stop a vehicle driven by the suspect, 26-year-old Jeffrey Brown, on Pearl Lake Road in Waterbury for a motor vehicle violation around 9:20 p.m. Sunday. Police said that Brown drove off and police pursued him for almost 4 miles before the suspect hit another car on Southmayd Road.

He tried to escape on foot, but he was captured, police said.

A passenger in the vehicle that was hit was taken to St. Marys Hospital for observation. The driver of that vehicle and Brown were not hurt.

Brown was arrested and charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, engaging police in pursuit, interfering with an officer, theft and misuse of plates, and other motor vehicle violations.

Police said Brown also had an active warrant for his arrest on a failure to appear charge.

Brown was held on a $10,000 and is due in court on Monday.
Many Texas legislators are asking Texas A&M to denounce Preston Wiginton's planned 'White Lives Matter rally', which is scheduled to take place on Septemeber 11.

Members of the legislature held a moment of silence for the victims of violence in Charlottesville and denounced the hate that caused the unrest.

Representative Paul Workman, a former A&M graduate, said he and others hope Texas A&M's chancellor, John Sharp, will ban the rally. Rep. Workman added that several Aggies plan to write the chancellor to voice their opinions on the matter.

Mr. Workman also mentioned a petition of the rally was circulating among Aggie-grads in legislature, with the hope of keeping Wigington's rally off A&M's campus.

A Texas A&M spokeswoman voiced earlier this weekend that the rally is contrary to the University's values.

It is unclear whether the rally will take place; however some students have already begun preparing to counter-demonstrate on Twitter, using the hashtag #maroonwall.

Dallas Rep. Helen Giddings urged administrators to "unequivocally denounce and fight against" racist groups.

Texas House of Representatives member Rafael Anchia took to twitter to voice his pride in the legislature's response.
A few dozen people gathered at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas for a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of the Charlottesville violence.

The Democratic Socialists of America North Texas chapter hosted the event on Sunday evening.

The DSA says two members of the Virginia chapter were hurt in Saturdays violence.

Those participating in the vigil in Dallas held a moment of silence and sang songs for peace and unity.
For over 600 days, Hillary Clinton's pastor wrote daily inspirational letters drawn from Biblical scripture during the presidential campaign.

Hundreds of those letters have now been compiled in a book, "Strong For a Moment Like This." The collection features a letter sent in the aftermath of her election loss.

Rev. Dr. Bill Shillady, the New York-based executive director of the United Methodist City Society, has been a longtime friend and pastor to the former U.S. secretary of state, senator and first lady.

I wrote to her on a daily basis. If I was not writing then there was team of writers, Shillady said during a phone interview with NBC.

The collection, published by Abingdon Press, includes 365 of the more than 600 devotions written for Clinton, along with personal notes, portions of her speeches, and headlines that provide context for that days devotion.

On the difficult days, like the terrorist incidents, we dug deep and found gratitude for life, he said.

The day after the 2016 election, Shillady sent a letter beginning with the title "Sunday Is Coming" and ending with one of his cherished phrases.

"You know one of my favorite sayings is 'God doesn't close one door without opening another, but it can be hell in the hallway,'" he wrote in the last paragraph. "My sister Hillary. You, our nation, our world is experiencing a black Friday. Our hope is that Sunday is coming. But it might well be hell for a while."

Here is the letter "Sunday Is Coming":

According to Shillady, the post-election letter has been shared over 40,000 times on social media. The letter shares the struggle of disciples after the loss of Jesus Christ and the reminder that for Clinton there was more to be grateful for in life.

Most of the response has been positive and some thought I was comparing her to Christ  that is simply not true, he said. If you really read it then you will understand.

The book, "Strong For a Moment Like This," is due for sale in stores and online on Aug. 15.

Shillady and his team of writers came from different backgrounds, including Presbyterian, Baptist and a clergy of women. All the clergy writers, hopeful about the outcome of the election, used daily news headlines as a source of inspiration for the devotions.

A German theologian Karl Barth said something like 'a pastor is not worth their weight if they dont have a newspaper in one hand and a Bible in the other,' he said. [The devotions] reminded her that she was child of God and of her strength, qualities this campaign demanded from her.

NBC contacted the Clinton Foundation for a comment about the book and have not yet received a response.

Shillady said each chapter in the book is organized into 12 themes, such as forgiveness, doing good, courage, and women.

EDITOR'S NOTE (August, 15, 2017, 11:27 a.m. ET): The Rev. Bill Shillady acknowledged he plagiarized part of the "Sunday is Coming" devotional and apologized to Matt Deuel of Mission Point Community Church." We fully accept his explanation that he did not intentionally leave Matt Deuel's passages unattributed," Abingdon Press' editor in chief said in a statement. Read more here.
An overnight drop in temperatures and wind speeds helped firefighters gain ground on a 1,000-acre wildfire that forced evacuations Sunday in Riverside County.

The Riverside County Fire Department responded to 300 Blaine Street in Riverside shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday. At the height of the fire, more than 300 firefighters, four helicopters and eight air tankers worked to contain the blaze, dropping fire retardant that painted neighborhoods bright red.

https://twitter.com/sarahcarter87/status/896895822754750464

The Blaine fire was "burning at a rapid rate of spread" near homes. It had scorched nearly 1,044 acres as of Monday afternoon and was at 90 percent containment.

On live TV, homeowner Felix Minjarez grabbed his garden house in an attempt to douse the flames in front of his home. His palm tree caught fire from embers carried in the wind.

"Just to imagine losing it [his house] was a scary thought," Minjarez said. "My wife was in tears and for a second we thought we were going to lose everything."

The fast-moving Blaine fire was burning near homes in Riverside on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017.

The fire sent a smoke cloud visible between Riverside and Moreno Valley. Fire retardent was dropped from fire-fighting helicopters, blanketing the neighborhood in a sea of red.

"There's a mess in the community, but we did that purposefully so we could stop the fire," Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins said.

The firefighting chemical is usually red in color, allowing firefighters to see where it has already been dropped. The non-toxic chemical called Phos-Chek, can be power-washed off surfaces.

[la gallery] Firefighters Blanket Riverside Neighborhood in Red Fire Retardant to Protect Homes From Wildfire

An evacuation order for all residents west of Hidden Springs Drive from Greenridge Drive to Country Gate Road was issued around 6:30 p.m. That order was lifted around 9:30 p.m. and people were allowed to return home although the clean-up process is just beginning.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

[NATL-LA GALLERY UPDATED 12/20] 2017 California Wildfires in Photos

CAL FIRE reported more than 3,994 fires in California from Jan. 1 through Aug. 6 Those fires scorched more than 220,623 acres  nearly double last years acreage figure. During that same period last year, CAL FIRE reported 3,027 fires that burned 140,095 acres.

NBC4's Rick Montanez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dozens of South Florida residents held a candlelight vigil for Charlottesville victim Heather Heyer and gathered in song at Bayfront Park.

"I dont think it's fair that you have white supremacists that kinda rule and control situations and then you had a young woman who lost her life," said Bob Heimann.

Word quickly spread on social media about the Bayfront Park vigil and many brought signs expressing outrage over the white nationalist rally in Virginia that took place Saturday.

"Everyone had a right, but there's a fine line between right of what you believe in and when it's hatred and you're promoting swastikas. It's such a sensitive topic," said Virginia Mendez.

Earlier Sunday in Hollywood, a smaller group also condenmed the Charlottesville attack.

Several organizations hosted a "Light in the Dark" vigil at a park on Lee Street.

Many believe streets named after Confederate generals should be renamed.

"It's a time that we need to not honor people that did horrific things in our past," said Carolyn Siegelman.
A recent report indicates that one of the ranking members of Venezuelas ruling Socialist Party may have issued a death order against an outspoken critic of that government  U.S. Senator and Miami native Marco Rubio.

The Miami Herald reports Diosdado Cabello issued the order against Rubio in a memo. Both Cabello and Rubio have publicly feuded over the Venezuela crisis.

A security detail has been protecting Rubio both when he has been working in Washington D.C. and in South Florida over the past few weeks.

The news comes at the same time that Vice President Mike Pence spoke directly about Venezuela from neighboring Colombia just yesterday.

Pence emphasized how the Trump administration wants to see democracy restored in the country  something in question after recent moves by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

We have many options for Venezuela. But the president also remains confident that working with all of our allies across Latin America we can achieve peaceable solution to the crisis facing the Venezuelan people, Pence said.

The vice president is visiting four countries in Latin America. He spoke with Colombias president, Juan Manuel Santos, who condemned any suggestion of military intervention by the United States.
After the weekends deadly confrontations in Charlottesville, Virginia surrounding protests by white nationalists, eyes are on the University of Florida and whether a controversial speaker associated with the movement will be allowed to take the stage.

An outside group not affiliated with the university, the National Policy Institute, has asked to host the speaking event on campus that would feature Richard Spencer, a leader in the movement, next month.

A statement by the university's president, W. Kent Fuchs, says the speakers presence would be deeply disturbing and that the university is again not affiliated with the event.

Fuchs said the future of the event is being discussed and security plans are being reviewed.
Three young men made a YouTube exploit of climbing the new Tappan Zee Bridge -- and now face criminal charges for their trouble.

New York State Police said Monday three teens will face charges of third-degree criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, after their July early morning adventure surfaced online.

The dark, nine-minute video shows the men casually pass through brush, walk along a train track and then climb a ladder to access the $4 billion bridge, part of which is scheduled to open this month after four years of construction.

At one point they see a security guard and take off running.

"Go fast, go fast, we have to go fast!" one of them shouts as they run to evade detection.

The state police said they were notified of the video about 10 days ago. The teens were issued appearance tickets.
A leading neo-Nazi website continued to be accessible Monday despite efforts by website registration companies Google and GoDaddy to oust it after it mocked the woman killed in a deadly attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

Google said Monday that it was canceling the domain name registration of The Daily Stormer for violating its terms of service. The registration had moved there after GoDaddy tweeted late Sunday night that it had given The Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider, also because the site had violated the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company's terms of service.

GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race said the move was prompted by a post on the site about Heather Heyer, who was killed Saturday when a car plowed into a group of demonstrators in Charlottesville. The post, written by The Daily Stormer's publisher Andrew Anglin, called her "fat" and "childless" and said "most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness."

"Given their latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service," Race said in an emailed statement.

Shortly after GoDaddy tweeted its decision, the site posted an article claiming it had been taken over by hackers associated with "Anonymous" and would be shut down, and it was briefly down Monday before becoming accessible again.

One of The Daily Stormer's contributors said the post about the site being taken over was just a prank.

"We're a convivial publication. We have a lot of fun with it," said Andrew Auernheimer, a notorious hacker and internet troll who writes for the site.

Auernheimer, known online as "weev," said GoDaddy hadn't contacted The Daily Stormer to explain its decision. He said the site has an alternate domain name that it can use if GoDaddy cancels its service.

"We'll get it taken care of," Auernheimer said. "If we need a new domain, we'll get a new domain."

GoDaddy isn't The Daily Stormer's host, which means the site's content isn't on the company's servers, according to Race. "Only the domain is with GoDaddy," Race added.

However, canceling a domain name has the effect of making a website unreachable, regardless of where it's hosted.

Anglin's site takes its name from Der Sturmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda. The site includes sections called "Jewish Problem" and "Race War."

The Daily Stormer is infamous for orchestrating internet harassment campaigns carried out by its "Troll Army" of readers. Its targets have included prominent journalists, a Jewish woman who was running for a California congressional seat and Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist whom Anglin derided as a "Zionist Millionaire."

In April, a Montana woman sued Anglin after her family became the target of another Daily Stormer trolling campaign. Tanya Gersh's suit claims anonymous internet trolls bombarded Gersh's family with hateful and threatening messages after Anglin published their personal information in a post accusing her and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, of engaging in an "extortion racket" against the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer.

The Daily Stormer used a crowdfunding website, WeSearchr, to raise more than $152,000 in donations from nearly 2,000 contributors to help pay for Anglin's legal expenses.

Other internet services have taken similar action against The Daily Stormer since Anglin founded it in 2013. In 2015, Anglin said PayPal had permanently banned him from using the service. And he complained in January that a Ukrainian advertising company had banned them, leaving an Australian electrician as the site's only advertiser.

Mairs reported from Philadelphia and Kunzelman reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ryan Nakashima in Menlo Park, California, contributed to this report.
A Philadelphia rabbi traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to spread a message of love. What he encountered when he arrived however was a level of hatred that left both him and the entire country shaken.

It was a very frightening place and very chaotic, said Rabbi Mordechai Liebling.

Liebling, the son of Holocaust survivors, director of the Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstruction Rabbinical College, and founding member of Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, was among the clergy who were in Charlottesville Saturday. Neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacist groups had gathered in the city to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The clergys mission was to send a message to the town that white supremacy will not go unchallenged. Several other groups also gathered in Charlottesville to protest the white supremacist rally. Chaos erupted as the two sides clashed, with people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and unleashing chemical sprays.

On one side of us were the alt-right screaming racist, Anti-Semitic, homophobic slogans, Liebling said. And the other side of us were the anti-fascist groups that were screaming slogans opposed to the Nazis and the white supremacists.

The tensions boiled over when a driver, identified by police as James Alex Fields Jr., drove through a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and wounding at least 19 others. Liebling told NBC10 he didnt witness the attack but he did see the aftermath as people were loaded into ambulances.



Hours later, two state troopers were killed when the helicopter they were flying in as part of a large-scale police effort at the rally crashed into a wooded area outside the city.

It was not a situation where many people could feel safe, Liebling said. There was so much anger there that it was difficult to feel safe.

Despite the unsettling violence he saw firsthand, Liebling remains committed to stopping the spread of hatred.

It furthers my resolve that we have to act out of love, he said.

Lieblings work continues in Philadelphia Sunday night. He is set to speak on a conference call with other local faith leaders.




Philadelphia firefighters rescued a man who fell down an eight-foot sinkhole in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city.

Eugene Clarke, a Strawberry Mansion block captain, told NBC10 he was trying to secure a sinkhole on N. Patton and West Norris streets around 11:30 p.m. Saturday after residents in the neighborhood had first reported it to the Philadelphia Water Department Thursday.

When I asked them, I said, Are you going to fix this hole? They said thats not their job. They said you had to call Daryl, Clarke said.

After the report was made Thursday, the Water Department responded and determined the leak was on the sewer line connected to a private home. Clarke said they had taped the area off but there was nothing covering the hole.

It had fallen down, Clarke told NBC10. Weve got four or five kids who play a lot. So what I did is I tried to secure it.

As Clarke walked in the area late Saturday night, the asphalt gave way and he fell into the hole.

Sasha Clarke

Its like an eight-foot deep hole, Clarke said. So when I fell it was like my feet and butt at the same time.

Clarke said he was in the hole for 20 to 25 minutes before responding Philadelphia firefighters pulled him out.

Id like to thank the fire department, Clarke said. Again I dont know who this guy is but hes like Hercules and he brought me up out of that hole and I appreciate him.

He was taken to Temple University Hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

My hip and my back a little bit hurts, he said. Its just shocking. It was a shocking situation to be in that hole.

While Clarke is thankful for the rescue, he remains frustrated that the sinkhole hasnt been covered up.

The hole has been here about a week now, he said. Why would you come and patch up that hole and really not get somebody else? Even if it was the water department. They could have even put a cover, one of those steel plates that you can move them but nobody would have been able to fall in that hole there.

A spokesman for the Philadelphia Water Department told NBC10 they returned to the sinkhole after Clarke was rescued and set up more cones and yellow tape around it. They plan on reevaluating the hole and performing any potential repairs later this week.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that U.S. diplomats in Havana had been the victims of "health attacks" that left them with hearing loss  the most definitive U.S. statement yet on a series of mysterious incidents that have puzzled longtime observers of U.S.-Cuban relations.

His comments Friday came two days after the State Department issued a vaguely worded statement saying there had been "incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms." U.S. officials later revealed that American diplomats had suffered unexplained losses of hearing, and on Thursday Canada's government said at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba also had been treated for hearing loss.

"We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks on not just our diplomats but, as you've seen now, there are other cases with other diplomats involved," Tillerson said in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump and members of his administration spoke to reporters.

In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the case. Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, the officials said.

The officials told The Associated Press that the hearing loss appeared to have been caused by the deliberate use of some sort of sonic device operating outside the range of audible sound.

Former diplomats and students of U.S.-Cuba relations said they found it inexplicable that Cuba would have tried to harm U.S. and Canadian diplomats, particularly in the fall of 2016 as President Barack Obama was ending a second term marked partly by the reopening of diplomatic relations with the island.

U.S. officials familiar with the incidents said they began to be reported last October, when most domestic and foreign observers expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and continue Obama's policy of normalization with Cuba.

Attacking Canadian diplomats would be an inexplicable assault on one of Cuba's most important trading partners and the largest source of tourists to the island.

"There'd be no logic to the Cubans trying to deliberately harm U.S. or Canadian diplomats," said William LeoGrande, an American University expert on Cuban foreign policy. "It'd really be unprecedented."

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement Wednesday that "Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception."

Former U.S. and Canadian diplomats said they had been targets of low-level harassment and intimidation by Cuban agents in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, incidents that included attacks on diplomats' pets and intimidating maneuvers like tailgating and flashing bright lights into diplomats' cars as they drove with their families late at night.

"There were things like turning your electricity, turning off your water, entering your home, leaving little reminders that they were there. Things would be out of place," said John Caulfield, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba from 2011 to 2014.

In addition to harassment, Caulfield said U.S. diplomats in Cuba are under 24-hour surveillance during their assignments.

"Nobody does anything in Cuba without them knowing," Caulfield said.

A U.S. official said some American diplomats in Cuba had come home to find that someone had used their toilet and not flushed it, in what was interpreted as a deliberate attempt to disgust and unnerve. The official served at the then-interests section in Cuba in the 2000s and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity due to the possibility of a return to Havana.

The State Department's Inspector General wrote in a 2007 report that "life in Havana is life with a government that 'lets you know it's hostile.' Retaliations have ranged from the petty to the poisoning of family pets."

"All employees are fully aware that host government hostility extends to an elaborate, aggressive intelligence apparatus," the report said.

Caulfield said aggressive tactics largely stopped by late 2013 and 2014 as U.S. and Cuban officials secretly negotiated the diplomatic reopening announced in December 2014, after his departure from Havana.

He said he believed the likeliest explanation for the diplomats' mysterious deafness was "a new surveillance technique gone bad that had consequences. I do not believe they would randomly cause harm to this variety of people."

A former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, James Bartleman, said that during his 1981-83 tour in Havana, he and his staff were targets of a string of mysterious attacks.

"One morning in 1982 the butler came to say that our dog had been poisoned and was very sick and dying," Bartleman said. "My deputy ambassador called to say someone had poisoned his dog and his dog was dead. Then the head of the commercial section called to say that, 'Out of the blue we opened the door and a rat was nailed to it.'"

Bartleman said he complained to the then-head of the Americas section of Cuba's foreign ministry, who he quoted as saying: "Someone is trying to harm Canada-Cuba relations."

He said the Cuban government sent a veterinarian to his house, but he sent his dog back to Canada, where it died six months later.

"We were their bosom buddies back then," Bartleman said of Canadian-Cuban relations. "We were their largest trading partner and always their largest provider of tourists. Why would they do it? It made no sense then and makes no sense now."

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein reported this story in Havana and AP writer Matthew Lee reported from Washington. AP writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
Police say a drunken American man was punched by a passer-by as he gave the stiff-armed Nazi salute multiple times in downtown Dresden.

Dresden police said Sunday the 41-year-old, whose name and hometown werent given for privacy reasons, suffered minor injuries in the 8:15 a.m. Saturday assault.

Police say the American, who is under investigation for violating Germanys laws against the display of Nazi symbols or slogans, had an extremely high blood alcohol level. His assailant fled the scene, and is being sought for causing bodily harm.

Its the second time this month that tourists have gotten themselves into legal trouble for giving the Nazi salute.

On August 5 two Chinese tourists were caught taking photos of themselves making the gesture in front of Berlins Reichstag building.
Law enforcement and Massachusetts officials are stepping up security and speaking out against racism ahead of a planned "free speech" rally in Massachusetts that will follow the deadly, race-fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Violence will not be tolerated during the "Boston Free Speech" rally, planned for Saturday on Boston Common from 125 p.m.

"Boston does not welcome you here. Boston does not want you here. Boston rejects your message. We reject racism. We reject white supremacy. We reject anti-Semitism. We reject the KKK. We reject neo-Nazis. We reject domestic terrorism. And we reject hatred. And we will do every single thing in our power to keep hate out of our city," Mayor Marty Walsh said at a joint press conference that included Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. "We are a city that believes in free speech. But we will not tolerate incitements to violence. We will not tolerate threatening behavior. We will not have it. And we will stand in solidarity as a diverse community and a diverse nation as we do every single day."

"What happened in Virginia was a tragedy and an act of terror," Gov. Baker agreed. "A tragedy perpetrated by white supremacists that disturbed, as it should, Americans everywhere. As governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I want to be clear that there is no place here for that type of hatred. Period."

"We're all here, united, to stand against the hatred of what happened that day in Charlottesville," Evans said. "We're often, as police officers, sort of thrust in the middle of protecting groups that we don't necessarily agree with, and I think that, very much, can be the case on Saturday when this particular group wants to come to the Boston Common," "I'm very confident in our plan. I think we've handled major demonstrations in this city ... I'm confident that the people who do come down, and are going to march, are going to be safe."

Evans added that there will be a strong "uniformed presence" during the rally.

"All I ask, and I'll say, is we do anticipate large crowds, but we expect best behavior out of people," he said. We will not tolerate any acts of violence or any misbehavior or any vandalism whatsoever."

"State police, along with the Boston Police, and other state, local and federal officials, will work closely with community organizing groups and others to monitor the situation and take the necessary precaution to make sure that everyone plays by the rules, and that we have a safe weekend here in Massachusetts," Gov. Baker said.

One woman was killed when a man plowed a car into a crowd in Charlottesville, and dozens more were injured, prompting a federal civil rights investigation; two Virginia State Police troopers were also killed when their helicopter that was flying over the chaos crashed.

The Boston rally organizer, who would only give his first name of Steven, said his group is not connected to the groups responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, adding they are not white supremacists and are only interested in free speech.

State police say they are in contact with the state Division of Homeland Security, as well as Boston police, and are monitoring all sources, including social media. Federal authorities are also to receive this intelligence.

State officers and special operation personnel will be on standby to assist Boston police if necessary.

Earlier Monday, the ACLU of Massachusetts said its chapter "forcefully condemns racism, white nationalism and all forms of bigotry," but that it also condemns those planning to be violent "under the guise of exercising civil liberties.

"And we condemn President Donald Trump in encouraging  and in his recent comments and tweets, implicitly supporting  those voices of hate and violence."

President Trump had initially criticized violence on "many sides," prompting criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for failing to denounce the groups by name. But Monday afternoon, Trump condemned violent white supremacists as "criminals and thugs."

"Racism is evil," President Trump said, singling out the hate groups as "repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans."
Googles former HR chief, Jonathan Rosenberg recounts in his book How Google Works a story about CEO Larry Pages response to an MBA employees PowerPoint product plan. Page told the MBA, Go sit with the engineers.

Pages point: An effective new product plan can be created only if the engineering details are understood.

Along this line of thinking, I spoke with Joe Biron, Internet of Things CTO at PTC, because the company has staked its future on IoT, and Biron has a decade of IoT engineering experience. PTCs mature businesses, mechanical design, and product lifecycle management are closely related to the companys industrial IoT business, where the company is focused for growth.

PTC Joe Biron, IoT CTO at PTC

In the IoT field, PTC is best known for ThingWorx, a platform for the rapid development of applications designed for smart, connected sensors, devices and products. PTC has positioned ThingWorx as the necessary picks and shovels to the miners of the IoT gold rush.

Here is a summary of ThingWorx, which excludes the complexity of connectivity and the less than clear definition of IoT to keep it short. Both subjects are worthy of separate articles.

Connects the most of the industrial automation and industrial IoT devices. (Most is used here instead of all because the field of IoT connectivity is diverse with many specialized proprietary methods and fluid with evolving new methods.)

Serves as a framework for business analysts to create automated processes with the connected devices using a drag-and-drop UI.

Manages and optimizes the connected system.

Analyzes the data acquired with analytics for IoT. Think Google Analytics, but designed for IoT devices instead of web pages and smartphones.

Connects to cloud-based business processes.

ThingWorx is extensible with custom modules built by customers developers and third-party developers available through the ThingWorx Marketplace. The company partners with sensor companies such as Analog Devices and system integrators to expand the range of solutions. Further, PTC acquired Kepware for its servers and ability to connect the disparate devices and protocols that evolved during the proprietary evolution of industrial automation and that erupt regularly during this IoT gold rush.

+ Also on Network World: IoT meets augmented reality +

Putting ThingWorx in the middleware box would be a mistake for a business person and, likewise, a mistake for someone with technical domain experience to imagine a half-dozen Unified Modeling Language objects (UML) and move on. Connectivity, management, analytics and cloud connectivity are the problems that innovators encounter today. Different problems will present to IoT innovators next year or two years from now. But if IoT companies such as PTC are not engaged with lead users now, a product for implementers two years from now cannot be understood and built.

Because of PTCs IoT business, Biron understands what is hard to engineer right now, and he has a good sense of what is developing. His implementers perspective of the influence of the machine learning and the cloud on IoT are insightful.

Machine learning and the IoT

Machine learning is programming computers with data, lots of data instead of a programming language like Java and C#. IoT computational architectures will never be IoT devices and sensors connected to the cloud without computation resources in the control loop. The low and predictable latency constraints of control logic, especially safety-related systems, eliminate the cloud as an option. That would prevent, for example, the ability for a robot to turn off quickly because a workers hand is in the way. Simpler control logic can run on a microcontroller, but as the control logic becomes more complex, especially large machine learning models will need powerful multicore servers that are locally situated at the edge near the IoT control loop.

Biron used the example of detecting an anomalous condition in a robot for the purposes of preventative maintenance. In most cases, heuristics, the exact conditions that cause failure, are not understood  and not available. Machine learning, given enough data, could predict failures. Such a machine learning model would need to consume a couple thousand sensor readings per second. What Biron sees as dense multi-core edge compute node would run on a machine such as an HPE Edgeline 4000 that is ruggedized and hung on a wall.

An architecture like this has to be managed from the cloud because the administrators are usually not located at the IoT edge to manage virtual machines (VM), apply updates and monitor system operation. From Birons experience, the cloud will include the edge. He cited VMwares Pulse IoT Centers, which is evolving to manage VMs and deploy systems in containers from far away, and Microsoft Azure Stack as good examples of architectures for IoT hybrid clouds that have complex edge control loops such as machine learning models.

ThingWorx is used to acquire the data to train the machine learning models. In New Jersey parlance, training these models says easy, does hard. Biron returned to his industrial robot example. The use cases that have convinced people that machine learning works exist in narrow domains, such as natural language, language translation, object recognition, and recommendations, because these are the domains that academic and industry research has focused on to build large corpora of training data. The application of machine learning in IoT is at an earlier stage, but product teams that are building automation systems such as industrial robots are keenly interested.

A couple years of status and failure data from thousands of robots needs to be acquired first. In most cases, it does not exist. The first step is building a schema of the training data corpus made up of status and failure data. ThingWorx can be used to capture the data, but it needs to be the right data. Data scientists and domain experts  in this case, an industrial robot expert  would collaborate. The robot may be redesigned with new or more accurate sensors to complete the schema with the right status, as well as failure events to build the corpus of training data. PTC acquired Coldlight, a machine learning team that built the Neuron automated, predictive analytics platform to solve this type of problem.

The IoT, AR connection

IoT and machine learning are inextricably linked, likewise the link between IoT and augmented reality (AR) are inextricable. The reason AR and IoT are linked is these systems will collect enormous datasets, reduced to actionable information that serve managers and workers differently. ThingWorx Studio, which was built with PTC sister company Vuforias AR SDK, is currently available for customer trials to create IoT context through AR.

Take, for example, an industrial plant manager and a plant maintenance technician. A plant manager walking through the plant with an AR device such as a Hololens may want his tour of reality to be overlaid with actionable information about efficiency, quality and the uptime of the line. A maintenance technician might view a machine through the camera of a smartphone overlaid with preventative maintenance information, identifying the components that need to be replaced. The technician would be guided with an AR app created by the machine maker to guide the technician through maintenance procedures.

IoT hype cycle

IoT is in the Silicon Valley hype cycle vortex. In the vortex, to those who have suspended their disbelief, IoT and its benefits can be bought today with a credit card at Frys or the Microcenter. IoT is a development stage technology. People like Biron take account of the problems that have been solved to deliver solutions for innovators now, as well as the hundreds of open problems that will be distilled into a dozen scientific questions that, once answered, will bring IoT to maturity. This is the path of every new technology from research through development and finally maturity.

PTC is in a very interesting position, working with 500 or so innovative customers to build working IoT systems in diverse industries. To understand IoT, stay out of the hype cycle vortex and sit with engineers like Biron.
Data center REITs have returned more than 100 percent over the last two years. Crown Castle recently purchased Lightower for one of the highest per fiber mile prices ever. What is driving the growth? Isnt everyone using the cloud?

The data center is still the safest place to store and process your data. The data center is where the cloud resides. Cross connect capabilities like connections to financial markets, exchanges, Bloomberg, Reuters, and even cloud providers like AWS and Azure make data centers more functional for companies looking to take advantage of their geography.

Geography impacts latency as light can only travel between two distances within a set span of time governed by physics. Tony Soprano said it best when talking about Real Estate to his son Anthony Junior, Buy land AJ, cause God aint making any more of it. That couldnt be more true about data centers. Areas like Ashburn, Virginia, are data center hot spots because of low taxes, bandwidth availability, and proximity to Washington, D.C. and New York.

Appalachian areas like western North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are a great fit for data centers. Theres ton of land available in areas protected by mother nature much like Denver where key infrastructure lies. Power is easily accessible but more bandwidth needs to be built out to support the growth. There are good people looking for work with skills.

For companies looking for large amounts of data center space, new construction of your own facility makes sense. Local government is helpful and fiber runs are low cost in comparison to the city. In terms of strategy, keeping data geographically diverse from your center of business operations makes sense and the jobs are welcome. Facebooks facility in Forest City, North Carolina, resulted in 4,700 new jobs across the state while generating $680 million in economic output.

Counties like Polk and Madison County are close to great higher education like University of North Carolina, Mars Hill University, AB-Tech, Gardner Webb University, and the University of Western Carolina. The textile and furniture industry left a huge employment and skills gap. Not only were jobs outsourced, technology made it easier to manufacture both textiles and furniture. The vacuum left a logical win-win situation for Wall Street and Main Street. With low taxes, low build-out costs, skilled and trainable labor, along with pro-economic growth local governments

To put things into perspective, a 10x10 cage in a decent facility in New Jersey with power and bandwidth will run you $20,000 per month easily. Thats $1.2 million over 5 years on power, ping and space. With a little bit of sweat equity and planning, that money can be put to good use by companies looking for more data center space while being greatly appreciated by the locals.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The government is exploring if it was legally tenable to sell other assets of debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech to raise money to complete the pending housing projects of the company, a top finance ministry official said today.

Hundreds of home buyers had been left in the lurch after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted bankers' plea for initiating insolvency proceedings against the realty company for defaulting on a Rs 526-crore loan. "The government is looking at ways to provide relief to Jaypee Infratech home buyers," the official said.

"We will discuss with the corporate affairs ministry if bankruptcy code provides any legal ground for sale of other assets of companies to fund completion of pending projects." He said the option being explored is the possibility of appointing a receiver or state agencies for completion of the incomplete projects, where home buyers had paid money to book flats etc.

"We may have to take the legal way through NCLT, which can pass an order to appoint an authority - may be a state agency - to sell assets of Jayee Infratech and with the money from sale of assets, the pending projects could be completed," he said.

Insolvency proceedings, he said, can continue simultaneously.

Last week, the Allahabad-bench of NCLT admitted insolvency plea of IDBI Bank relating to default of Rs 526 crore loan by Jaypee Infratech. It appointed Anuj Jain the interim resolution professional (IRP) to carry out the proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Jaypee Infratech, a part of the debt-ridden Jaypee group, has defaulted on Rs 526.11 crore outstanding loan to IDBI. Jaypee Infratech is into road construction and real estate business. It has constructed the Yamuna Expressway, connecting Delhi-Agra. The biggest incomplete project of Japyee is the mammoth Wish Town project in Noida, on the outskirts of the national capital.

The company has reportedly handed over only 5,500 flats out of the proposed 32,000 flats and 3,000 plots across 800 acres along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. The project has 305 towers, of which 250 are incomplete.

Japyee Infratech is among the 12 big corporate loan defaulters against whom bankruptcy proceedings has been initiated under a new law. Other companies against whom such proceedings has been initiated include Bhushan Steel, Bhushan Steel and Power, Electrosteel Steels and Lanco Infratech, Alok Industries and Jyoti Structures.

NEW DELHI: The government is exploring if it was legally tenable to sell other assets of debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech to raise money to complete the pending housing projects of the company, a top finance ministry official said today. Hundreds of home buyers had been left in the lurch after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted bankers' plea for initiating insolvency proceedings against the realty company for defaulting on a Rs 526-crore loan. "The government is looking at ways to provide relief to Jaypee Infratech home buyers," the official said. "We will discuss with the corporate affairs ministry if bankruptcy code provides any legal ground for sale of other assets of companies to fund completion of pending projects." He said the option being explored is the possibility of appointing a receiver or state agencies for completion of the incomplete projects, where home buyers had paid money to book flats etc. "We may have to take the legal way through NCLT, which can pass an order to appoint an authority - may be a state agency - to sell assets of Jayee Infratech and with the money from sale of assets, the pending projects could be completed," he said. Insolvency proceedings, he said, can continue simultaneously. Last week, the Allahabad-bench of NCLT admitted insolvency plea of IDBI Bank relating to default of Rs 526 crore loan by Jaypee Infratech. It appointed Anuj Jain the interim resolution professional (IRP) to carry out the proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Jaypee Infratech, a part of the debt-ridden Jaypee group, has defaulted on Rs 526.11 crore outstanding loan to IDBI. Jaypee Infratech is into road construction and real estate business. It has constructed the Yamuna Expressway, connecting Delhi-Agra. The biggest incomplete project of Japyee is the mammoth Wish Town project in Noida, on the outskirts of the national capital. The company has reportedly handed over only 5,500 flats out of the proposed 32,000 flats and 3,000 plots across 800 acres along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. The project has 305 towers, of which 250 are incomplete. Japyee Infratech is among the 12 big corporate loan defaulters against whom bankruptcy proceedings has been initiated under a new law. Other companies against whom such proceedings has been initiated include Bhushan Steel, Bhushan Steel and Power, Electrosteel Steels and Lanco Infratech, Alok Industries and Jyoti Structures.
Swathi Nair By

Express News Service

Despite the ban on PoP Ganeshas, Bengaluru is keen on these colourful and glittering idols, and sellers say they have to refuse custom regularly. Traders say they make their profits from outside Karnataka; KSPCB laments over nominal penalty fee decided by BBMP.

BENGALURU: Despite the High Court order upholding the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board's prohibition on the use of plaster of paris (PoP) and painted idols in the upcoming Ganesha festival, demand for it has not died down in the state. Sellers in and around the city say they are refusing custom and making their profits from sales to clientele outside Karnataka.

Every year, Bengaluru buys around 5 lakh Ganesh idols, of which 75% orders are for PoP ones, informs M Srinivas, owner of Vinayaka and Co. Srinivas claims to be the biggest manufacturer of idols in the city. "I have 15,000 PoP idols left from last year," says the 60-year-old, who has two units at Gollahalli village, in Nelamangala Tehsil.

His son-in-law Guru Deva who is also in the same business says that he gets over 100 calls a day asking for PoP idols. "There are close to 5,000 Ganesh utsava manadalis in Bengaluru. I already have an order of 500 PoP idols from them," says Guru. He has around 400 PoP Ganesh idols on standby, to be sold to clients in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. He says that he will refuse customers from Karnataka but "if we don't sell it to them, then they will get it from Hyderabad".

Srinivas laments that last year he lost his profits to Cauvery agitation. "I couldn't send my idols to Tamil Nadu because the police had laid restrictions on the transport... and this year, we have this verdict. What am I supposed to do," he says.

Labour costs have gone up as well. Srinivas, who has been in the idol business for 72 years, had to get 500 workers from West Bengal to abide by the High Court's verdict

that insists on the sale of clay Ganesha. "I could not find craftspeople who know how to work with clay in this state, our employees knew only how to work with PoP," he says.

Guru informs that he has made 500 clay Ganeshas to be sold in Bengaluru. "I have no takers yet though," he says, insisting that despite the ban the demand on PoP is growing. "KSPCB tells us, don't put paint also on idols. Now, without colours, who will buy," adds Guru.

Srinivas insists that the colours he has used on clay Ganeshas are vegetable dyes and the touch ups on PoP idols too are eco-friendly. However, City Express noticed bottles of synthetic aluminium dye at the plant and use of gold sparkle on idols.

The 60-year-old manufacturer says that the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board informed him about the ban in January. "That was too late," he says. Srinivas also feels betrayed by the government. A source close to the manufacturer estimates loss to traders across Karnataka at `50,000 crore and unsold stock at 2 lakh PoP idols.

We won't allow another year of exemption

Lakshman, chairman of the KSPCB, says that manufactures were given "ample time" to clear stock last year. "We won't allow another year of exemption," he says. This year all deputy commissioners and gram panchayats have been notified of the strict implementation of the ban, adds Lakshman. Strict checks will be maintained at immersion points and only clay idols will be allowed to be dipped in the water bodies. When the Modi government put a beef ban, I didn't see any strict adherence to it. But this ban on religious idols is being implemented so seriously by officials, says Srinivas, adding that he is still waiting for permission to sell in Bengaluru.

Despite the ban on PoP Ganeshas, Bengaluru is keen on these colourful and glittering idols, and sellers say they have to refuse custom regularly. Traders say they make their profits from outside Karnataka; KSPCB laments over nominal penalty fee decided by BBMP. BENGALURU: Despite the High Court order upholding the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board's prohibition on the use of plaster of paris (PoP) and painted idols in the upcoming Ganesha festival, demand for it has not died down in the state. Sellers in and around the city say they are refusing custom and making their profits from sales to clientele outside Karnataka. Every year, Bengaluru buys around 5 lakh Ganesh idols, of which 75% orders are for PoP ones, informs M Srinivas, owner of Vinayaka and Co. Srinivas claims to be the biggest manufacturer of idols in the city. "I have 15,000 PoP idols left from last year," says the 60-year-old, who has two units at Gollahalli village, in Nelamangala Tehsil. His son-in-law Guru Deva who is also in the same business says that he gets over 100 calls a day asking for PoP idols. "There are close to 5,000 Ganesh utsava manadalis in Bengaluru. I already have an order of 500 PoP idols from them," says Guru. He has around 400 PoP Ganesh idols on standby, to be sold to clients in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. He says that he will refuse customers from Karnataka but "if we don't sell it to them, then they will get it from Hyderabad". Srinivas laments that last year he lost his profits to Cauvery agitation. "I couldn't send my idols to Tamil Nadu because the police had laid restrictions on the transport... and this year, we have this verdict. What am I supposed to do," he says. Labour costs have gone up as well. Srinivas, who has been in the idol business for 72 years, had to get 500 workers from West Bengal to abide by the High Court's verdict that insists on the sale of clay Ganesha. "I could not find craftspeople who know how to work with clay in this state, our employees knew only how to work with PoP," he says. Guru informs that he has made 500 clay Ganeshas to be sold in Bengaluru. "I have no takers yet though," he says, insisting that despite the ban the demand on PoP is growing. "KSPCB tells us, don't put paint also on idols. Now, without colours, who will buy," adds Guru. Srinivas insists that the colours he has used on clay Ganeshas are vegetable dyes and the touch ups on PoP idols too are eco-friendly. However, City Express noticed bottles of synthetic aluminium dye at the plant and use of gold sparkle on idols. The 60-year-old manufacturer says that the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board informed him about the ban in January. "That was too late," he says. Srinivas also feels betrayed by the government. A source close to the manufacturer estimates loss to traders across Karnataka at `50,000 crore and unsold stock at 2 lakh PoP idols. We won't allow another year of exemption Lakshman, chairman of the KSPCB, says that manufactures were given "ample time" to clear stock last year. "We won't allow another year of exemption," he says. This year all deputy commissioners and gram panchayats have been notified of the strict implementation of the ban, adds Lakshman. Strict checks will be maintained at immersion points and only clay idols will be allowed to be dipped in the water bodies. When the Modi government put a beef ban, I didn't see any strict adherence to it. But this ban on religious idols is being implemented so seriously by officials, says Srinivas, adding that he is still waiting for permission to sell in Bengaluru.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Dance couple Kokila Hariram and Gowtham Sundararajan are no strangers in the modern dance circuit in Chennai. The founders of the Academy of Modern Danse and their team will be participating in the 19th Asia Pacific Dance Competition this year in Malaysia. Participating for the fourth time in this competition, the team (25 students between 6 and 21 years) is taking part in 15 different categories like contemporary, jazz, ballet, tap, hip hop and more. It is being organised by CSTD Australia every year.

We are one of the two schools that represent India for this competition. It starts on August 17. The competition has over 2,500 students participating from about eight countries, says, Gowtham. We concentrate mostly on the Western dance form not because we dont like classical but because we dont have places which offer diploma certificates for western dance form here.

Started in 1998 with just four students, the academy has now students coming from all walks of life in and around the city. It is arguably the only dance school which is structured like a proper school. It has affiliations with CSTD Australia, UKA London and LA Dance Connection, USA. The main challenge we faced is to withstand it as a school. Most of such institutions survive on choreographing shows. We dont do it because it distracts us from the basic principle of teaching and training students, explains Kokila.

The teaching here is very structured. In most of the institutions, kids are allowed to go on points at a very young age. It is in fact very risky and people are ignorant about it, adds Gowtham.

One of the most interesting aspects of the academy is that whenever they go abroad for competition, it is the parents and the academy who fund the entire campaign since they dont have any sponsors. I dont know how to approach sponsors. I like explaining things genuinely but sometimes that is not enough. So, if I dont get funds, I dont so that makes me an egoistic artist. says Gowtham.

Here, the academics art conflict is actually dealt by students themselves. While Kokila agrees that sometimes parents are hard to convince, she also adds that they are very understanding and supportive of what their children want.They like Koki better because she is better with the kids. I have a different way of teaching. In fact, we have that conflict when it comes the way of teaching, laughs Gowtham.

Winning Streak

Academy of Modern Danse won the Bettey Tilley Cup in 2010 Asia Pacific campaign in Singapore. They won it for overall performance. It was the first time an Indian school won in a category in an international arena.

For details, call: 9840067123

CHENNAI: Dance couple Kokila Hariram and Gowtham Sundararajan are no strangers in the modern dance circuit in Chennai. The founders of the Academy of Modern Danse and their team will be participating in the 19th Asia Pacific Dance Competition this year in Malaysia. Participating for the fourth time in this competition, the team (25 students between 6 and 21 years) is taking part in 15 different categories like contemporary, jazz, ballet, tap, hip hop and more. It is being organised by CSTD Australia every year. We are one of the two schools that represent India for this competition. It starts on August 17. The competition has over 2,500 students participating from about eight countries, says, Gowtham. We concentrate mostly on the Western dance form not because we dont like classical but because we dont have places which offer diploma certificates for western dance form here. Started in 1998 with just four students, the academy has now students coming from all walks of life in and around the city. It is arguably the only dance school which is structured like a proper school. It has affiliations with CSTD Australia, UKA London and LA Dance Connection, USA. The main challenge we faced is to withstand it as a school. Most of such institutions survive on choreographing shows. We dont do it because it distracts us from the basic principle of teaching and training students, explains Kokila. The teaching here is very structured. In most of the institutions, kids are allowed to go on points at a very young age. It is in fact very risky and people are ignorant about it, adds Gowtham. One of the most interesting aspects of the academy is that whenever they go abroad for competition, it is the parents and the academy who fund the entire campaign since they dont have any sponsors. I dont know how to approach sponsors. I like explaining things genuinely but sometimes that is not enough. So, if I dont get funds, I dont so that makes me an egoistic artist. says Gowtham. Here, the academics art conflict is actually dealt by students themselves. While Kokila agrees that sometimes parents are hard to convince, she also adds that they are very understanding and supportive of what their children want.They like Koki better because she is better with the kids. I have a different way of teaching. In fact, we have that conflict when it comes the way of teaching, laughs Gowtham. Winning Streak Academy of Modern Danse won the Bettey Tilley Cup in 2010 Asia Pacific campaign in Singapore. They won it for overall performance. It was the first time an Indian school won in a category in an international arena. For details, call: 9840067123
By PTI

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police today arrested four persons for leaking online an episode of popular fantasy TV series "Game of Thrones".

Three of the accused are employees of Prime Focus Technology, while the fourth one is its former employee, police said. The company, which processes the series for online streaming service Hotstar, had lodged a complaint.

A court in Mumbai remanded them in police custody till August 21, Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told PTI.

Maharashtra Cyber police and the city cops started investigation after Prime Focus Technology lodged a complaint last week that the fourth episode of season seven of the series was available online before its scheduled release on August 7, DCP Pathan said.

The accused men's motive behind leaking the episode was yet to be ascertained, he said.

Police have registered a case under IPC section 408 (criminal breach of trust by an employee) and also under the Information Technology Act.

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police today arrested four persons for leaking online an episode of popular fantasy TV series "Game of Thrones". Three of the accused are employees of Prime Focus Technology, while the fourth one is its former employee, police said. The company, which processes the series for online streaming service Hotstar, had lodged a complaint. A court in Mumbai remanded them in police custody till August 21, Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told PTI. Maharashtra Cyber police and the city cops started investigation after Prime Focus Technology lodged a complaint last week that the fourth episode of season seven of the series was available online before its scheduled release on August 7, DCP Pathan said. The accused men's motive behind leaking the episode was yet to be ascertained, he said. Police have registered a case under IPC section 408 (criminal breach of trust by an employee) and also under the Information Technology Act.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Actor turned politician, Jaggeshs son Gururaj was on Monday morning stabbed after a road mishap turned ugly. Gururaj was on his way to drop his son to school when his car was rammed by another vehicle. He later drove to a private hospital for treatment.

Police said that around 8.30 am Gururaj was passing Matadahalli road near Military Center when a speeding Swift Dzire rammed his vehicle. The accused has been identified as Shivashankar who fled the scene immediately.



After a chase, Gururaj managed to stop the other vehicle and a heated argument ensued. Both threatened each other with influential contacts when Shivashankar tried to stab Gururaj who deflected his move and got hit on the thigh instead of his stomach.

After CCTV verification, police found the vehicle details and the assailant. The car belongs to Krishnegowda, a resident of Hebbal. Gururaj told police that does not know the person and had no enmity. Investigations are on.

BENGALURU: Actor turned politician, Jaggeshs son Gururaj was on Monday morning stabbed after a road mishap turned ugly. Gururaj was on his way to drop his son to school when his car was rammed by another vehicle. He later drove to a private hospital for treatment. Police said that around 8.30 am Gururaj was passing Matadahalli road near Military Center when a speeding Swift Dzire rammed his vehicle. The accused has been identified as Shivashankar who fled the scene immediately. After a chase, Gururaj managed to stop the other vehicle and a heated argument ensued. Both threatened each other with influential contacts when Shivashankar tried to stab Gururaj who deflected his move and got hit on the thigh instead of his stomach. After CCTV verification, police found the vehicle details and the assailant. The car belongs to Krishnegowda, a resident of Hebbal. Gururaj told police that does not know the person and had no enmity. Investigations are on.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: India's little neighbour, Bhutan, is known for its monasteries, fortresses (or dzongs) and dramatic landscapes that range from subtropical plains to steep mountains and valleys. Besides a breathtaking view of Himalayas, Bhutan has a lot to offer to its tourists.

Here, we list to you five reasons for visiting this Himalayan kingdom;

1. A visit to Punakha Dzong

Bhutans second largest Dzong and one of the most majestic structures in the country, Punakha Dzong lives up to its name that translates to "palace of great happiness".

The splendid dzong, constructed as an embodiment of Buddhist values, houses the sacred relics of the southern Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the sacred remains of Ngawang Namgyal and the terton Pema Lingpa. Today visitors can walk through its corridors, admire the exquisite murals that adorn its walls, and marvel at the original volume of the Kanjur, the holy book of the Drukpas that is stored in the Dzong.

2. Trek to Dochula Pass

Situated away from the capital city of Thimphu to Punakha, and at an altitude of over 10,000 feet, Dochula Pass is one of the most popular tourist spots, presenting a breathtaking view of the Eastern Himalayas to the trekkers. The snow-clad mountain pass is known for the 108 stupas that stand tall in the center of the pass. Built by Her Majesty the Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, the stupas honor Bhutanese soldiers killed in battle.

3. Discover peace at Paro Taktsang

A trip to Bhutan is incomplete without a trek to the most visited tourist destination, Paro Taktsang, more popularly known as Tigers Nest. Located in the upper Paro valley, the temple complex was the site where Guru Padmasambhava meditated for over three years in the 8th century.

4. Sneak-peek into Bhutans culinary heritage

A visit to the Folk Heritage Museum gives you a glimpse into rural Bhutanese life. For an authentic Bhutanese meal, unwind at a patio table set amidst fragrant fruit trees at this restored three-storey, timber building and indulge in traditional Bhutanese delicacies such as ema datshi (chillies in cheese), ezzy (red chilli chutney) and jasha maru (minced chicken curry with chillies).

5.Mountain Echoes Literary Festival

Held in the capital city of Thimpu, Mountain Echoes Literary Festival is one of the most awaited literary events of the year. Bhutan celebrates the eighth edition of the distinctive literary arts and culture festival this year.

With an aim to celebrate Untouched Beauty, Unexplored Ideas and Unstoppable Voices, the three-day festival will focus on globally relevant issues such as environmental conservation, natural history, spirituality, and the global evolution of textiles and design traditions.

Headline names set to appear at this years edition are Markus Zusak, His Eminence Kyabje Khedrup Rinpoche Ugyen Tenzin Thinley Lhendup, Padma Lakshmi, Pranay Lal, Devdutt Pattanaik, Francesca Beard, Phuntsho Namgyel, Lopen Sonam Bumdhen, Imtiaz Ali, Prayaag Akbar, Rebecca Pradhan, Palden Tshering and Neel Madhav.

NEW DELHI: India's little neighbour, Bhutan, is known for its monasteries, fortresses (or dzongs) and dramatic landscapes that range from subtropical plains to steep mountains and valleys. Besides a breathtaking view of Himalayas, Bhutan has a lot to offer to its tourists. Here, we list to you five reasons for visiting this Himalayan kingdom; 1. A visit to Punakha Dzong Bhutans second largest Dzong and one of the most majestic structures in the country, Punakha Dzong lives up to its name that translates to "palace of great happiness". The splendid dzong, constructed as an embodiment of Buddhist values, houses the sacred relics of the southern Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the sacred remains of Ngawang Namgyal and the terton Pema Lingpa. Today visitors can walk through its corridors, admire the exquisite murals that adorn its walls, and marvel at the original volume of the Kanjur, the holy book of the Drukpas that is stored in the Dzong. 2. Trek to Dochula Pass Situated away from the capital city of Thimphu to Punakha, and at an altitude of over 10,000 feet, Dochula Pass is one of the most popular tourist spots, presenting a breathtaking view of the Eastern Himalayas to the trekkers. The snow-clad mountain pass is known for the 108 stupas that stand tall in the center of the pass. Built by Her Majesty the Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, the stupas honor Bhutanese soldiers killed in battle. 3. Discover peace at Paro Taktsang A trip to Bhutan is incomplete without a trek to the most visited tourist destination, Paro Taktsang, more popularly known as Tigers Nest. Located in the upper Paro valley, the temple complex was the site where Guru Padmasambhava meditated for over three years in the 8th century. 4. Sneak-peek into Bhutans culinary heritage A visit to the Folk Heritage Museum gives you a glimpse into rural Bhutanese life. For an authentic Bhutanese meal, unwind at a patio table set amidst fragrant fruit trees at this restored three-storey, timber building and indulge in traditional Bhutanese delicacies such as ema datshi (chillies in cheese), ezzy (red chilli chutney) and jasha maru (minced chicken curry with chillies). 5.Mountain Echoes Literary Festival Held in the capital city of Thimpu, Mountain Echoes Literary Festival is one of the most awaited literary events of the year. Bhutan celebrates the eighth edition of the distinctive literary arts and culture festival this year. With an aim to celebrate Untouched Beauty, Unexplored Ideas and Unstoppable Voices, the three-day festival will focus on globally relevant issues such as environmental conservation, natural history, spirituality, and the global evolution of textiles and design traditions. Headline names set to appear at this years edition are Markus Zusak, His Eminence Kyabje Khedrup Rinpoche Ugyen Tenzin Thinley Lhendup, Padma Lakshmi, Pranay Lal, Devdutt Pattanaik, Francesca Beard, Phuntsho Namgyel, Lopen Sonam Bumdhen, Imtiaz Ali, Prayaag Akbar, Rebecca Pradhan, Palden Tshering and Neel Madhav.
Sanjib Kumar Roy By

Express News Service

PORT BLAIR: The Andaman administration has conducted the first trial of a sea-route to Baratang island, a popular tourist destination. The decision followed months of international pressure to open an alternate route to the existing Andaman Trunk Road, which cuts across the Jarawa Reserve forest, home to the protected Jarawa tribe.

The trial vessel departed Phoenix Bay Jetty en-route to Baratang around 8.00 am on Friday and reached around 11.00 am. The return journey took only 2 hours and 45 minutes, thanks to favourable currents.

Although the local administration has been monitoring the activities of the tourists inside the reserve, reports, including sexual abuse, have surfaced in the past.

In 2014, the district administration ordered an inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of Jarawa women by poachers.

Videos uploaded by tourists on YouTube showed exploitation by tourists. Videos showing tribals being asked to dance in exchange for food sparked international outrage. Previously a UN committee had asked New Delhi to close the Andaman Trunk Road. The new route will help protect the tribe from poachers.

The Association of Andaman Tour Operators has already welcomed the move of the administration to open an alternate route to Baratang though many cab operators are worried about the loss in their business, he said. Highly placed sources said initially only government boats will be allowed to ferry tourists to the Baratang Island.

PORT BLAIR: The Andaman administration has conducted the first trial of a sea-route to Baratang island, a popular tourist destination. The decision followed months of international pressure to open an alternate route to the existing Andaman Trunk Road, which cuts across the Jarawa Reserve forest, home to the protected Jarawa tribe. The trial vessel departed Phoenix Bay Jetty en-route to Baratang around 8.00 am on Friday and reached around 11.00 am. The return journey took only 2 hours and 45 minutes, thanks to favourable currents. Although the local administration has been monitoring the activities of the tourists inside the reserve, reports, including sexual abuse, have surfaced in the past. In 2014, the district administration ordered an inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of Jarawa women by poachers. Videos uploaded by tourists on YouTube showed exploitation by tourists. Videos showing tribals being asked to dance in exchange for food sparked international outrage. Previously a UN committee had asked New Delhi to close the Andaman Trunk Road. The new route will help protect the tribe from poachers. The Association of Andaman Tour Operators has already welcomed the move of the administration to open an alternate route to Baratang though many cab operators are worried about the loss in their business, he said. Highly placed sources said initially only government boats will be allowed to ferry tourists to the Baratang Island.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked all the states to identify illegal immigrants like Rohingyas and deport them as they allegedly pose a security challenge to India. In a letter sent to all states last week, Dilip Kumar, a joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, said illegal migrants are more vulnerable to getting recruited by terrorist organisations.

Besides being a burden on the resources of the country, the ministry said, infiltration of Rohingyas from Rakhine state of Myanmar into India in recent years aggravates the security challenges. These illegal immigrants not only infringe on the rights of Indian citizens but also pose grave security challenges, said the letter directing the state governments to set up a task forces at the district level to identify and deport illegally-staying foreign nationals.

India has said that only around 14,000 Rohingyas living in India are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, while about 40,000 are said to be staying illegally. The latter can be deported to Bangladesh and Myanmar, the letter said.

NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked all the states to identify illegal immigrants like Rohingyas and deport them as they allegedly pose a security challenge to India. In a letter sent to all states last week, Dilip Kumar, a joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, said illegal migrants are more vulnerable to getting recruited by terrorist organisations. Besides being a burden on the resources of the country, the ministry said, infiltration of Rohingyas from Rakhine state of Myanmar into India in recent years aggravates the security challenges. These illegal immigrants not only infringe on the rights of Indian citizens but also pose grave security challenges, said the letter directing the state governments to set up a task forces at the district level to identify and deport illegally-staying foreign nationals. India has said that only around 14,000 Rohingyas living in India are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, while about 40,000 are said to be staying illegally. The latter can be deported to Bangladesh and Myanmar, the letter said.
By IANS

DARJEELING: A day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and other hill-based parties to call off the two-month-long indefinite shutdown in northern West Bengal hills, GJM chief Bimal Gurung on Monday instructed his party's youth wing to withdraw their ongoing hunger strike.

The GJM leadership has also decided to withdraw the picketers from the roads in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts for 12 hours on Tuesday on the occasion of Independence Day, but said the shutdown would continue.

"The Home Minister has issued an appeal to GJM and other stakeholders in the Gorkhaland issue.I am also of the opinion that his appeal should be respected and the hunger strike of the Yuba Morcha should be withdrawn as a first step to achieving our goal of Gorkhaland. I therefore direct the Yuba Morcha to call off the hunger strike on the eve of Independence Day," Gurung said in a press release.

The GJM chief also revealed that the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), that was formed with representatives of 30 hill based parties, also urged him to call off the ongoing hunger strike.

A dozen activists of Yuba Morcha, the youth wing of GJM, have been sitting in hunger strike since last 23 days to press the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

"The health condition of all the 12 participants is critical. Two of them had to be hospitalised as their blood pressure got alarmingly low due to fasting," GJM General Secretary Binay Tamang told IANS.

He also said the picketers will be withdrawn from the hill roads for 12 hours on Tuesday.

"Keeping in mind the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day, the GJM has decided to withdraw the picketers from the roads of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and other adjoining areas from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday. However, the shutdown would continue until a positive response to the statehood demand is recived," he added.

Rajnath Singh on Sunday held a two-hour long meeting with the GJM leaders and members of GMCC in the presence of Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Union Minister and Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia, where he appealed to them to refrain from violence and look for mutual dialog within the legal ambit.

He had also appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate a dialogue with GJM and other stakeholders and asked the state government to restore all civil supplies and internet services and cable TV.

The picturesque northern Bengal hills, including the tourists' favourite Darjeeling town, has been on the boil for more than two months over the demand by GJM and several other local parties for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out to the hills and Terai-Dooars region.

The economy of the region - based on tea, timber and tourism - has been severely hit following the ongoing shutdown called by the principal hill party GJM since June 12. Several other local parties have endorsed the shutdown. Rallies and demonstrations are being held daily over the past two months triggering arso and clashes with the state administration.

Singhmari and Patlebas areas in Darjeeling have witnessed several incidents of violence involving the GJM activists and police in the last couple of months.

DARJEELING: A day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and other hill-based parties to call off the two-month-long indefinite shutdown in northern West Bengal hills, GJM chief Bimal Gurung on Monday instructed his party's youth wing to withdraw their ongoing hunger strike. The GJM leadership has also decided to withdraw the picketers from the roads in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts for 12 hours on Tuesday on the occasion of Independence Day, but said the shutdown would continue. "The Home Minister has issued an appeal to GJM and other stakeholders in the Gorkhaland issue.I am also of the opinion that his appeal should be respected and the hunger strike of the Yuba Morcha should be withdrawn as a first step to achieving our goal of Gorkhaland. I therefore direct the Yuba Morcha to call off the hunger strike on the eve of Independence Day," Gurung said in a press release. The GJM chief also revealed that the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), that was formed with representatives of 30 hill based parties, also urged him to call off the ongoing hunger strike. A dozen activists of Yuba Morcha, the youth wing of GJM, have been sitting in hunger strike since last 23 days to press the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. "The health condition of all the 12 participants is critical. Two of them had to be hospitalised as their blood pressure got alarmingly low due to fasting," GJM General Secretary Binay Tamang told IANS. He also said the picketers will be withdrawn from the hill roads for 12 hours on Tuesday. "Keeping in mind the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day, the GJM has decided to withdraw the picketers from the roads of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and other adjoining areas from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday. However, the shutdown would continue until a positive response to the statehood demand is recived," he added. Rajnath Singh on Sunday held a two-hour long meeting with the GJM leaders and members of GMCC in the presence of Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Union Minister and Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia, where he appealed to them to refrain from violence and look for mutual dialog within the legal ambit. He had also appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate a dialogue with GJM and other stakeholders and asked the state government to restore all civil supplies and internet services and cable TV. The picturesque northern Bengal hills, including the tourists' favourite Darjeeling town, has been on the boil for more than two months over the demand by GJM and several other local parties for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out to the hills and Terai-Dooars region. The economy of the region - based on tea, timber and tourism - has been severely hit following the ongoing shutdown called by the principal hill party GJM since June 12. Several other local parties have endorsed the shutdown. Rallies and demonstrations are being held daily over the past two months triggering arso and clashes with the state administration. Singhmari and Patlebas areas in Darjeeling have witnessed several incidents of violence involving the GJM activists and police in the last couple of months.
Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Amidst tension at the border, the Chinese military has not accepted Indias offer for Border Personnel Meeting (BMP), scheduled for Tuesday on the occasion of Indias Independence Day. Though an annual meeting of military commanders is ceremonial, but in view of the present scenario, such meeting becomes important.

We have not received any confirmation from the Chinese military regarding attending tomorrows Border Personnel Meeting (BMP), said a senior official in the south block.

There are five BPM points at Bum La and Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh, Daulat Beg Oldi and Chushul in Ladakh and Nathu La in Sikkim.

Indian and Chinese militaries are engaged in an eyeball to eyeball situation in the Dokalam plateau, close to Sikkim over the construction of a road by Chinese military since June 16. And there are over 300 troops stationed from Indian army side at the face off site and nearly similar numbers of soldiers were also from Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA). However, due to a strategical location of the Chumbi valley, the Indian army has strengthened its military assets close to the disputed site, in order to prevent any further escalation.

Indian Army has gone completely quiet on the issue, even as sources said diplomatic efforts are on to find a mutually acceptable solution to the standoff. An official expressed hope that a solution could emerge before the upcoming BRICS summit in China for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to travel next month in September.

In fact, due to ongoing stand off, annual bilateral military training exercise between Indian and Chinese army called Hand-in-Hand is also hanging in balance, as so far no formal communication between the two sides have initiated. Normally, Hand-in-Hand exercise between India and China happens in the October- November every year and process for it starts in June/

Till date, joint planning conference has not happened. And also so far there has been no formal communication on the cancellation of it. We are waiting from Chinese side to react, the source added. Six editions of the exercises have been held so far.

In view of continuous aggression by Chinese, Army has issued an Operational Alert for its formations guarding the area. Sukma based 33 Corps, which looks after Sikkim has advanced its annual training exercise, which including stocking of ration for winter, familiarising troops to the new area by acclimatization at higher altitude. However, the Indian Army has called the troop movement in the area a regular maintenance move.

China has been sending warning signals to India along with consolidating its presence close to the faceoff site. In fact on Wednesday, China Daily warned that the countdown to a clash between the two forces has begun.

China has been insisting that India withdraws its troops from Doklam where both sides have been locked in a nearly two-month stand-off. On the other hand, the New Delhi is a simultaneous withdrawal from Doklam, which, it says, belongs to its other neighbour Bhutan.

NEW DELHI: Amidst tension at the border, the Chinese military has not accepted Indias offer for Border Personnel Meeting (BMP), scheduled for Tuesday on the occasion of Indias Independence Day. Though an annual meeting of military commanders is ceremonial, but in view of the present scenario, such meeting becomes important. We have not received any confirmation from the Chinese military regarding attending tomorrows Border Personnel Meeting (BMP), said a senior official in the south block. There are five BPM points at Bum La and Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh, Daulat Beg Oldi and Chushul in Ladakh and Nathu La in Sikkim. Indian and Chinese militaries are engaged in an eyeball to eyeball situation in the Dokalam plateau, close to Sikkim over the construction of a road by Chinese military since June 16. And there are over 300 troops stationed from Indian army side at the face off site and nearly similar numbers of soldiers were also from Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA). However, due to a strategical location of the Chumbi valley, the Indian army has strengthened its military assets close to the disputed site, in order to prevent any further escalation. Indian Army has gone completely quiet on the issue, even as sources said diplomatic efforts are on to find a mutually acceptable solution to the standoff. An official expressed hope that a solution could emerge before the upcoming BRICS summit in China for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to travel next month in September. In fact, due to ongoing stand off, annual bilateral military training exercise between Indian and Chinese army called Hand-in-Hand is also hanging in balance, as so far no formal communication between the two sides have initiated. Normally, Hand-in-Hand exercise between India and China happens in the October- November every year and process for it starts in June/ Till date, joint planning conference has not happened. And also so far there has been no formal communication on the cancellation of it. We are waiting from Chinese side to react, the source added. Six editions of the exercises have been held so far. In view of continuous aggression by Chinese, Army has issued an Operational Alert for its formations guarding the area. Sukma based 33 Corps, which looks after Sikkim has advanced its annual training exercise, which including stocking of ration for winter, familiarising troops to the new area by acclimatization at higher altitude. However, the Indian Army has called the troop movement in the area a regular maintenance move. China has been sending warning signals to India along with consolidating its presence close to the faceoff site. In fact on Wednesday, China Daily warned that the countdown to a clash between the two forces has begun. China has been insisting that India withdraws its troops from Doklam where both sides have been locked in a nearly two-month stand-off. On the other hand, the New Delhi is a simultaneous withdrawal from Doklam, which, it says, belongs to its other neighbour Bhutan.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said the government should bring in a law to make singing of Vande Mataram compulsory.

He said the singing of the national song should not be restricted to certain days.

"What is wrong in singing Vande Mataram and why should it be sung only on select days? It should be sung every day.

Bring in a law for the same (to make its recitation mandatory)," Thackeray said.

He was speaking at the 57th anniversary event of Marathi cartoon weekly 'Marmik', founded by his father, Sena patriarch late Bal Thackeray. The event was held at Dinanath Auditorium in suburban Vile Parle last evening.

"There should be no display of false pride. There should be a stringent law for compulsory singing of Vande Mataram.

"Nationalism shouldn't be part of just January 26 and August 15 celebrations. It should become integral part of life," the Sena chief said.

Thackeray questioned the commitment of his ally BJP on the issue.

"Before coming to power, the BJP had said everyone must sing Vande Mataram if they want to live in the country. What happened now? How can you say an individual will decide whether or not to sing the national song," he asked.

Last week, the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation passed a proposal to make the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in civic-run schools in the city.

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said the government should bring in a law to make singing of Vande Mataram compulsory. He said the singing of the national song should not be restricted to certain days. "What is wrong in singing Vande Mataram and why should it be sung only on select days? It should be sung every day. Bring in a law for the same (to make its recitation mandatory)," Thackeray said. He was speaking at the 57th anniversary event of Marathi cartoon weekly 'Marmik', founded by his father, Sena patriarch late Bal Thackeray. The event was held at Dinanath Auditorium in suburban Vile Parle last evening. "There should be no display of false pride. There should be a stringent law for compulsory singing of Vande Mataram. "Nationalism shouldn't be part of just January 26 and August 15 celebrations. It should become integral part of life," the Sena chief said. Thackeray questioned the commitment of his ally BJP on the issue. "Before coming to power, the BJP had said everyone must sing Vande Mataram if they want to live in the country. What happened now? How can you say an individual will decide whether or not to sing the national song," he asked. Last week, the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation passed a proposal to make the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in civic-run schools in the city.
By IANS

DEHRADUN: Four persons were killed and 10 others, including six soldiers, went missing after a cloudburst triggered flash floods in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district on Monday, police said.

The disaster occurred near Malpa, washing away 14 persons. Four bodies have been recovered but the six soldiers and four others remained untraced.

"One JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) and five others have gone missing. Two vehicles are also missing," a military official said.

The incident took place near a Shiva temple at Malpa.

The Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage has been halted for now. Sashastra Seema Bal personnel have been rushed to the spot for rescue and relief operations.

Authorities in Nepal have been asked to help in the search operations.

The six soldiers were washed away near the Mangti canal along with some tents and mules.

Heavy rains have been lashing the hill state for some time now, causing landslides, flattening houses and damaging bridges.

DEHRADUN: Four persons were killed and 10 others, including six soldiers, went missing after a cloudburst triggered flash floods in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district on Monday, police said. The disaster occurred near Malpa, washing away 14 persons. Four bodies have been recovered but the six soldiers and four others remained untraced. "One JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) and five others have gone missing. Two vehicles are also missing," a military official said. The incident took place near a Shiva temple at Malpa. The Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage has been halted for now. Sashastra Seema Bal personnel have been rushed to the spot for rescue and relief operations. Authorities in Nepal have been asked to help in the search operations. The six soldiers were washed away near the Mangti canal along with some tents and mules. Heavy rains have been lashing the hill state for some time now, causing landslides, flattening houses and damaging bridges.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: After Yogi Adityanath promised "stringent" action against those found responsible for the Gorakhpur tragedy, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday said the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister should do something more serious rather than just making announcements.



Speaking to ANI, Dikshit said committee ordered by Chief Minster Adityanath to probe the incident should work with immediate affect so that such tragic incident is not repeated.



I am happy that at least he has visited his constituency.it is a very serious issue and it should be taken even more seriously. He has ordered some committee but the committee should work with immediate affect so that such tragic incident is not repeated, she said.

In a hospital where thousands of patients go such careless took place there. I think only talking about it will not work. He should work on it.rather than making announcements he should do something. And about the report, that should be done as soon as possible, before more incidents take place, she added.



Chief Minister Adityanath on Sunday said that he is tremendously affected by the death of over 70 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, while reiterating that a probe will be instigated and the guilty will be severely punished.



Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deeply concerned and has offered complete support, Adityanath said that nobody can be more sensitive than him in the regard.



"Nobody can be more sensitive towards those children than me. Prime Minister is very concerned and he assured complete assistance from the Centre. Prime Minister has also sent Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to take cognizance of the situation," said Adityanath.



"The state government has realized that a probe in the matter is necessary. Let reports of probe committee come. Assure you, if anyone's negligence caused death of a person, in any part of UP, he won't be spared," he added.



Further slamming the opposition and critiques for politicizing the issue, Adityanath said, "Those whose sensitivity has died are now trying to add salt to the wound by raising the sensitive issue unnecessarily. I will request you all to at least try and know real facts."



Tragedy continued to descend upon Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital, as another child succumbed to encephalitis today, taking the death toll over 70.



11 children died on Saturday and until Friday the death toll stood at 60.



Meanwhile, the Congress Party on Sunday noted that Gorakhpur Hospital tragedy clearly reflects the failure of the state government and demanded that Yogi Adityanath immediately resign as Chief Minister.



Talking to the media, UP Congress president Raj Babbar said, "This government is a murderer. These children have not died but killed. The more shameful about this case is the fact that it happened in Yogi Adityanath's constituency. If he can't take care of need of his constituency then how can he fulfill the responsibility of a state like Uttar Pradesh? He should immediately resign from his post."



The Congress leader further attacked state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh over his remark that August witnesses a high number of deaths, and told ANI that "Such excuses coming from him is shameful and he should resign as well."



According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths occurred in the hospital.

NEW DELHI: After Yogi Adityanath promised "stringent" action against those found responsible for the Gorakhpur tragedy, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday said the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister should do something more serious rather than just making announcements. Speaking to ANI, Dikshit said committee ordered by Chief Minster Adityanath to probe the incident should work with immediate affect so that such tragic incident is not repeated. I am happy that at least he has visited his constituency.it is a very serious issue and it should be taken even more seriously. He has ordered some committee but the committee should work with immediate affect so that such tragic incident is not repeated, she said. In a hospital where thousands of patients go such careless took place there. I think only talking about it will not work. He should work on it.rather than making announcements he should do something. And about the report, that should be done as soon as possible, before more incidents take place, she added. Chief Minister Adityanath on Sunday said that he is tremendously affected by the death of over 70 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, while reiterating that a probe will be instigated and the guilty will be severely punished. Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deeply concerned and has offered complete support, Adityanath said that nobody can be more sensitive than him in the regard. "Nobody can be more sensitive towards those children than me. Prime Minister is very concerned and he assured complete assistance from the Centre. Prime Minister has also sent Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to take cognizance of the situation," said Adityanath. "The state government has realized that a probe in the matter is necessary. Let reports of probe committee come. Assure you, if anyone's negligence caused death of a person, in any part of UP, he won't be spared," he added. Further slamming the opposition and critiques for politicizing the issue, Adityanath said, "Those whose sensitivity has died are now trying to add salt to the wound by raising the sensitive issue unnecessarily. I will request you all to at least try and know real facts." Tragedy continued to descend upon Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital, as another child succumbed to encephalitis today, taking the death toll over 70. 11 children died on Saturday and until Friday the death toll stood at 60. Meanwhile, the Congress Party on Sunday noted that Gorakhpur Hospital tragedy clearly reflects the failure of the state government and demanded that Yogi Adityanath immediately resign as Chief Minister. Talking to the media, UP Congress president Raj Babbar said, "This government is a murderer. These children have not died but killed. The more shameful about this case is the fact that it happened in Yogi Adityanath's constituency. If he can't take care of need of his constituency then how can he fulfill the responsibility of a state like Uttar Pradesh? He should immediately resign from his post." The Congress leader further attacked state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh over his remark that August witnesses a high number of deaths, and told ANI that "Such excuses coming from him is shameful and he should resign as well." According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths occurred in the hospital.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: It would be a despicable and criminal act if the cause for death of a total of 70 patients in Gorakhpur Baba Raghav Das Medical College was disruption in oxygen supply, said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Several questions have been raised on the undue delay by authorities in releasing funds to clear pending bills of the firm supplying oxygen despite repeated reminders, both by the owner of the firm and the principal of the medical college.

Adityanath, who visited the Medical College on Sunday along with Union Health Minister JP Nadda and State Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar, claimed he was kept in the dark about the oxygen shortage during his visit on August 9, just ahead of the crisis that claimed 30 lives in 36 hours.

The Chief Minister blamed the college principal RK Mishra for not raising the issue of supply shortage despite being asked repeatedly about the assistance needed to tackle. Mishra was suspended by Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon for negligence on Saturday.

However, sources tell Express there has been a major lapse in release of funds by the authorities sitting back in Lucknow. Its established through repeated correspondence between the gas supplier Pushpa Sales Company, Principal RK Mishra and authorities in medical education department (including Director General Medical Education) that they were alerted a number of times to release the funds for payment of bills. But no positive response or action came through.

The principal is believed to have written at least three letters  two in July and the last on August 1  to the government, added sources. He is also believed to have raised the issue during a video conference with senior officials at Lucknow. But the funds were released only on August 5. The payment, however, was made to the supplier only on August 11  six days after it came.

LUCKNOW: It would be a despicable and criminal act if the cause for death of a total of 70 patients in Gorakhpur Baba Raghav Das Medical College was disruption in oxygen supply, said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Several questions have been raised on the undue delay by authorities in releasing funds to clear pending bills of the firm supplying oxygen despite repeated reminders, both by the owner of the firm and the principal of the medical college. Adityanath, who visited the Medical College on Sunday along with Union Health Minister JP Nadda and State Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar, claimed he was kept in the dark about the oxygen shortage during his visit on August 9, just ahead of the crisis that claimed 30 lives in 36 hours. The Chief Minister blamed the college principal RK Mishra for not raising the issue of supply shortage despite being asked repeatedly about the assistance needed to tackle. Mishra was suspended by Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon for negligence on Saturday. However, sources tell Express there has been a major lapse in release of funds by the authorities sitting back in Lucknow. Its established through repeated correspondence between the gas supplier Pushpa Sales Company, Principal RK Mishra and authorities in medical education department (including Director General Medical Education) that they were alerted a number of times to release the funds for payment of bills. But no positive response or action came through. The principal is believed to have written at least three letters  two in July and the last on August 1  to the government, added sources. He is also believed to have raised the issue during a video conference with senior officials at Lucknow. But the funds were released only on August 5. The payment, however, was made to the supplier only on August 11  six days after it came.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: A day after its operational commander Mohammad Yaseen Yatoo alias Mehmood Gaznavi was killed in an encounter with security forces, militant group Hizbul Mujahideen on Monday named Mohammad Bin Qasim as its new operational chief commander in Kashmir.

Hizb command council met under the chairmanship of Syed Salah-ud-Din at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) today and named Mohammad Bin Qasim as new operational chief commander in Kashmir, Hizb spokesman Saleem Hashmi said in an emailed statement.

Mohammad Bin Qasim was named as Hizb operational chief after his predecessor Mohammad Yaseen Yatoo along with two of his associates was killed in an 18-hour-long gunfight with security forces at Awnira, Zainapora village in south Kashmirs Shopian district yesterday. Two soldiers were also killed and three others injured in the gunfight.

Police sources said Mohammad Bin Qasim could be the code name of Riyaz Naikoo, who is the top commander of Hizb and was also a close aide of Burhan Wani.

27-year-old Naik also figured in the hit list of 12 wanted militants issued by the army in June this year. Of the 12 wanted militants, four have been killed in over two months after the list was released by the army.

Naikoo, who had joined militancy in 2012, had released many video messages and also attended funeral prayers of some slain militants in south Kashmir.

Yatoo, 41, hailing from Chadoora area of central Kashmirs Budgam district was the longest surviving militant in the Valley. He had joined militancy in 1996 when he was a second-year graduate student.

He was arrested many times but after his release, he again used to join militancy. In 2015, he joined Hizb again and was appointed as operational commander of the outfit after some time.

Yatoo, who had addressed a public rally in Redwani area of south Kashmirs Kulgam district on August 14 last year and praised Pakistan, was laid to rest at his native village in Chadoora today amidst chanting of pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans.

Thousands of people braving rains attended his funeral prayer.

Police has termed Yatoos killing as a major jolt to Hizbul Mujahideen and a major achievement for the security forces.

He was brain behind some attacks carried by Hizb militants in the Valley. Besides, he was also luring youth to militancy and his killing is a severe jolt to Hizb, a police official said.

Earlier in May this year, security forces had killed Burhan Wanis successor Sabzar Bhat in an encounter in Tral area of south Kashmirs Pulwama district.

After Burhans killing in an encounter with security forces on July 8 last year, Hizb had named Zakir Musa as its new commander in the Valley. But after he talked of an Islamic caliphate and threatened Hurriyat leaders, Hizb disassociated itself from him and appointed Sabzar, who was a close associate of Burhan, as its Kashmir chief.

SRINAGAR: A day after its operational commander Mohammad Yaseen Yatoo alias Mehmood Gaznavi was killed in an encounter with security forces, militant group Hizbul Mujahideen on Monday named Mohammad Bin Qasim as its new operational chief commander in Kashmir. Hizb command council met under the chairmanship of Syed Salah-ud-Din at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) today and named Mohammad Bin Qasim as new operational chief commander in Kashmir, Hizb spokesman Saleem Hashmi said in an emailed statement. Mohammad Bin Qasim was named as Hizb operational chief after his predecessor Mohammad Yaseen Yatoo along with two of his associates was killed in an 18-hour-long gunfight with security forces at Awnira, Zainapora village in south Kashmirs Shopian district yesterday. Two soldiers were also killed and three others injured in the gunfight. Police sources said Mohammad Bin Qasim could be the code name of Riyaz Naikoo, who is the top commander of Hizb and was also a close aide of Burhan Wani. 27-year-old Naik also figured in the hit list of 12 wanted militants issued by the army in June this year. Of the 12 wanted militants, four have been killed in over two months after the list was released by the army. Naikoo, who had joined militancy in 2012, had released many video messages and also attended funeral prayers of some slain militants in south Kashmir. Yatoo, 41, hailing from Chadoora area of central Kashmirs Budgam district was the longest surviving militant in the Valley. He had joined militancy in 1996 when he was a second-year graduate student. He was arrested many times but after his release, he again used to join militancy. In 2015, he joined Hizb again and was appointed as operational commander of the outfit after some time. Yatoo, who had addressed a public rally in Redwani area of south Kashmirs Kulgam district on August 14 last year and praised Pakistan, was laid to rest at his native village in Chadoora today amidst chanting of pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans. Thousands of people braving rains attended his funeral prayer. Police has termed Yatoos killing as a major jolt to Hizbul Mujahideen and a major achievement for the security forces. He was brain behind some attacks carried by Hizb militants in the Valley. Besides, he was also luring youth to militancy and his killing is a severe jolt to Hizb, a police official said. Earlier in May this year, security forces had killed Burhan Wanis successor Sabzar Bhat in an encounter in Tral area of south Kashmirs Pulwama district. After Burhans killing in an encounter with security forces on July 8 last year, Hizb had named Zakir Musa as its new commander in the Valley. But after he talked of an Islamic caliphate and threatened Hurriyat leaders, Hizb disassociated itself from him and appointed Sabzar, who was a close associate of Burhan, as its Kashmir chief.
By Express News Service

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradeshs first woman doctor, Dr Bhakti Yadav died of age-related ailments in Indore Monday morning. She was 91.

Fondly known as Doctor Didi, Bhakti Yadav was honoured with the Padma Shri four months ago.

Born on April 3, 1926 in Mahidpur in Ujjain district, Bhakti Yadav was the only female student in the 1948 MBBS batch at the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Indore.

After completing MBBS she joined Nandlal Bhandari Maternity Home in Indore, which focused on providing health care to underprivileged women from textile mill worker families. Later, she established her own nursing home Vatsalya in Indore, also meant particularly for underprivileged patients.

Bhakti Yadav spent 68 years rendering free consultation to underprivileged women from central and western India.

Despite her age, Doctor Didi continued to see patients till November 2016 while suffering from acute osteoporosis herself.

She continued to live in the Indore locality of Pardeshipura, which is home to a large number of mill worker families.

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradeshs first woman doctor, Dr Bhakti Yadav died of age-related ailments in Indore Monday morning. She was 91. Fondly known as Doctor Didi, Bhakti Yadav was honoured with the Padma Shri four months ago. Born on April 3, 1926 in Mahidpur in Ujjain district, Bhakti Yadav was the only female student in the 1948 MBBS batch at the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Indore. After completing MBBS she joined Nandlal Bhandari Maternity Home in Indore, which focused on providing health care to underprivileged women from textile mill worker families. Later, she established her own nursing home Vatsalya in Indore, also meant particularly for underprivileged patients. Bhakti Yadav spent 68 years rendering free consultation to underprivileged women from central and western India. Despite her age, Doctor Didi continued to see patients till November 2016 while suffering from acute osteoporosis herself. She continued to live in the Indore locality of Pardeshipura, which is home to a large number of mill worker families.
Kumar Vikram By

Express News Service

Last few days have seen thousands of ideas for New India pouring in as people want their views to be part of PM Narendra Modis Independence Day speech. So far, over 12,000 people have posted their ideas as PM Narendra Modi recently invited citizens to share their ideas for his Independence Day Speech.

There are varieties of ideas and opinions people from across the country have posted which include suggestions for more job creation, saving environment, for better economy etc. Some want freedom from corruption which some other has advocated for skill driven training for Indian youths so that nobody should remain unemployed.

A lot of suggestions on black money and income tax have come from people as the government has put a major focus on these issues in last few months.

Rajesh Sharma has raised question over the use of black money in private schools. Another field which is becoming a den of black money is private schools. Nobody is regulating the private schools for their unbridled fee hike, yearly development charges and annual charges, selling books and uniforms in school premises. This is a big issue for middle-class families in the whole country. And, we cannot send the kids to govt schools for obvious reasons, he said.

A message from Ayaz Manjee reads, I propose removing of Income Tax and getting Bank Transaction Tax on each commercial transaction. This will boost the economy.

People also talked about facilities to politicians and lawmakers. Nitisha Aneja wrote, Please work on lowering the perks of MPs and MLAs. We don't deny that none of them works, but yes if some perks are reduced and used for better causes, it won't affect them. For example, telephone perks, etc.

People also wrote about providing a minimum income to every Indian. Nagendra wrote, Create Income Commission of India to ensure minimum sustainability income for every citizen. Scrap Pay Commissions. Incorporate Per Capita Income in fixing Salaries of public servants and likes.

Pallavi Bharti raised the issue of change in higher education system saying, We should change our higher education syllabus, as that are not changed from past 20 years in various university. We are still reading those things that are not required to get job, or also that does not help to improve our skill, as they are out of box.

PM invited suggestions from people for his Independence Day speech from Red Fort. On 15th August, I get the opportunity to address the nation from Red Fort. I am merely the medium. It is not one person speaking, the voices of 125 crore citizens echo from there, he had said in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat recently.

The PM had said that the suggestions can be sent through his website MyGov.in or through the Narendra Modi mobile application, where he personally reads them. Im happy to say that for the last three years, I get suggestions from every corner of the country on August 15, stating what I should speak about and what issues I should raise, he said.

Last few days have seen thousands of ideas for New India pouring in as people want their views to be part of PM Narendra Modis Independence Day speech. So far, over 12,000 people have posted their ideas as PM Narendra Modi recently invited citizens to share their ideas for his Independence Day Speech. There are varieties of ideas and opinions people from across the country have posted which include suggestions for more job creation, saving environment, for better economy etc. Some want freedom from corruption which some other has advocated for skill driven training for Indian youths so that nobody should remain unemployed. A lot of suggestions on black money and income tax have come from people as the government has put a major focus on these issues in last few months. Rajesh Sharma has raised question over the use of black money in private schools. Another field which is becoming a den of black money is private schools. Nobody is regulating the private schools for their unbridled fee hike, yearly development charges and annual charges, selling books and uniforms in school premises. This is a big issue for middle-class families in the whole country. And, we cannot send the kids to govt schools for obvious reasons, he said. A message from Ayaz Manjee reads, I propose removing of Income Tax and getting Bank Transaction Tax on each commercial transaction. This will boost the economy. People also talked about facilities to politicians and lawmakers. Nitisha Aneja wrote, Please work on lowering the perks of MPs and MLAs. We don't deny that none of them works, but yes if some perks are reduced and used for better causes, it won't affect them. For example, telephone perks, etc. People also wrote about providing a minimum income to every Indian. Nagendra wrote, Create Income Commission of India to ensure minimum sustainability income for every citizen. Scrap Pay Commissions. Incorporate Per Capita Income in fixing Salaries of public servants and likes. Pallavi Bharti raised the issue of change in higher education system saying, We should change our higher education syllabus, as that are not changed from past 20 years in various university. We are still reading those things that are not required to get job, or also that does not help to improve our skill, as they are out of box. PM invited suggestions from people for his Independence Day speech from Red Fort. On 15th August, I get the opportunity to address the nation from Red Fort. I am merely the medium. It is not one person speaking, the voices of 125 crore citizens echo from there, he had said in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat recently. The PM had said that the suggestions can be sent through his website MyGov.in or through the Narendra Modi mobile application, where he personally reads them. Im happy to say that for the last three years, I get suggestions from every corner of the country on August 15, stating what I should speak about and what issues I should raise, he said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to take cognisance of the recent deaths of children at a government hospital at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) hospital in Gorakhpur.

The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

Police had said no case has been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint.

The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to take cognisance of the recent deaths of children at a government hospital at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances. The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) hospital in Gorakhpur. The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned. Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor. At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neo-natal intensive care unit. Police had said no case has been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint. The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: Hours after Supreme Court hinted that five member constitution bench may hear plea against Article 35-A, which provides special privileges to residents of J&K, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and opposition National Conference working president Omar Abdullah said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured status quo on States special status to CM Mehbooba Mufti then why Centre was not defending the Article in the Apex Court as per the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Instead of defending Article 35-A, the Central government through the Attorney General has pitched for a larger debate on the Article, Omar said while addressing a party convention, here.

He had earlier visited Jammu, where he addressed a day-long convention of NC District and Block Presidents of Jammu Province and senior functionaries.

The conventions were part of a series of workshops and meetings by NC to mobilize public opinion over Article 35-A, which confers special rights and privileges on permanent residents of J&K and debars the non-residents from buying land or property, getting a government job or voting in State Assembly elections.

"What happened to the assurances PM had given to Mehbooba during her meeting with him in the national capital last week. Why was not the central government formally defending Article 35-A in the Supreme Court as per the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and as a custodian of the Constitution of India, Omar said.

Questioning the intention of BJP, he said whenever the situation turns against their anti-J&K strategies, they come up with sinister new agendas.

He expressed surprise over singling out of J&K in respect of the special provisions related to State Subject Laws notwithstanding the fact that several other states like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States, Lakshadweep etc were having almost similar laws regarding ownership of land and definition of domicile regulations, etc.

Alleging that BJP was hell-bent to trample the special status of J&K for a long time, Omar said, Once they came to power, BJP realized that their designs cannot be achieved politically and therefore a short cut of proxy judicial activism through various affiliated NGOs has been initiated by clandestinely challenging the Article 35-A.

The former CM cautioned people that repealing Article 35-A would not only squeeze jobs for local youth but our business sector too shall suffer tremors with the influx of traders from outside the State. All the local land owners will be deprived of their holdings".

If Article 35-A is repealed, we will traverse back to the unfortunate era of indignity, deprivation and oppression, he said and lauded the farsightedness of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh in bringing the State Subject Laws into effect in 1927.

Omar said if Article 35-A was scrapped, it will cause enormous and irrevocable damage to the interests of the people of the three regions Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh -- irrespective of their caste and religion.

He said BJP was wrongly claiming that Jammu would benefit if the law was scrapped. In fact, Jammu will be worst hit before such repercussions are felt in the Valley.

The former chief minister said the separatist groups like the Hurriyat Conference had right to raise the issue.

The Hurriyat, which does not believe in the Constitution of India, has no business to comment on Article 35-A, he said.

On the call of separatists, Kashmir had observed shut down on August 12 to protest attempts to abrogate Article 35-A.

Omar said those tinkering with Article 370 and Article 35A are threatening the concept of 'one India'.

The NC working president later told reporters that his party would discuss the options to join the legal battle against the scrapping of Article 35-A in the Supreme court.

"We would be discussing this option," he said.

SRINAGAR: Hours after Supreme Court hinted that five member constitution bench may hear plea against Article 35-A, which provides special privileges to residents of J&K, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and opposition National Conference working president Omar Abdullah said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured status quo on States special status to CM Mehbooba Mufti then why Centre was not defending the Article in the Apex Court as per the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead of defending Article 35-A, the Central government through the Attorney General has pitched for a larger debate on the Article, Omar said while addressing a party convention, here. He had earlier visited Jammu, where he addressed a day-long convention of NC District and Block Presidents of Jammu Province and senior functionaries. The conventions were part of a series of workshops and meetings by NC to mobilize public opinion over Article 35-A, which confers special rights and privileges on permanent residents of J&K and debars the non-residents from buying land or property, getting a government job or voting in State Assembly elections. "What happened to the assurances PM had given to Mehbooba during her meeting with him in the national capital last week. Why was not the central government formally defending Article 35-A in the Supreme Court as per the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and as a custodian of the Constitution of India, Omar said. Questioning the intention of BJP, he said whenever the situation turns against their anti-J&K strategies, they come up with sinister new agendas. He expressed surprise over singling out of J&K in respect of the special provisions related to State Subject Laws notwithstanding the fact that several other states like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States, Lakshadweep etc were having almost similar laws regarding ownership of land and definition of domicile regulations, etc. Alleging that BJP was hell-bent to trample the special status of J&K for a long time, Omar said, Once they came to power, BJP realized that their designs cannot be achieved politically and therefore a short cut of proxy judicial activism through various affiliated NGOs has been initiated by clandestinely challenging the Article 35-A. The former CM cautioned people that repealing Article 35-A would not only squeeze jobs for local youth but our business sector too shall suffer tremors with the influx of traders from outside the State. All the local land owners will be deprived of their holdings". If Article 35-A is repealed, we will traverse back to the unfortunate era of indignity, deprivation and oppression, he said and lauded the farsightedness of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh in bringing the State Subject Laws into effect in 1927. Omar said if Article 35-A was scrapped, it will cause enormous and irrevocable damage to the interests of the people of the three regions Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh -- irrespective of their caste and religion. He said BJP was wrongly claiming that Jammu would benefit if the law was scrapped. In fact, Jammu will be worst hit before such repercussions are felt in the Valley. The former chief minister said the separatist groups like the Hurriyat Conference had right to raise the issue. The Hurriyat, which does not believe in the Constitution of India, has no business to comment on Article 35-A, he said. On the call of separatists, Kashmir had observed shut down on August 12 to protest attempts to abrogate Article 35-A. Omar said those tinkering with Article 370 and Article 35A are threatening the concept of 'one India'. The NC working president later told reporters that his party would discuss the options to join the legal battle against the scrapping of Article 35-A in the Supreme court. "We would be discussing this option," he said.
Shankkar Aiyar By

Shankkar Aiyar Author of Aadhaar: A Biometric History of Indias 12 Digit Revolution, and

Accidental India

This August 15 India celebrates 70 years of Independence, a young nation nestled in an ancient civilisation yet wrestling with old problems in the new millennium. Indias leaders have used the occasion to pledge political power to take India to greater heights. The running theme is the vow to pave the way from penury to promise of prosperity. The question in 2017 is: were words translated into deeds? In 1947, Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru evocatively said, That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges and underlined ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The lofty ideas found reflection in the Constitution and in the Directive Principles of State Policy.

While Nehru succeeded in sustaining democracy against odds, the promise to end poverty was waylaid. In 1947, nearly seven of 10 Indians lived below the poverty line. Till as late as 1990s, four decades later, five of 10 were below poverty line. Fact is, seven decades later, in 2016, nearly one in five or over 270 million Indians lived below the poverty line (World Bank estimates). The persistence of poverty is located at the intersection of usurious politics and extractive economics. Ideally, India should have addressed agrarian distressit was a net importer of food since Independence and poverty was located in agrarian distress. Yet investment and technology was denied. The import-and-keep-prices-low theology crippled Indias food security. By 1960s, India couldnt pay for imports. Lal Bahadur Shastri had to call for Indians to fast once a week even as he brought in C Subramaniam to propel the Green Revolution.

His call to arms, Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, was about redefining national security. He said, I consider self-sufficiency in food to be no less important than an impregnable defence system for the preservation of our freedom and independence. India is no longer a ship to mouth economy, producing over 272 million tonnes. Yet in 2017, agrarian distress is starkly visible in farmer suicides and the demand for job reservations by the land-owning class.Indira Gandhis first Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in 1966 was a potent mix of idealism and ideology. She said that economic growth could be better and it can be done, urged farmers and workers alike to do their bit and exhorted Indians to reduce dependence on imports and go swadeshi. Socialism, she said, was the only way to reduce poverty.

The Garibi Hatao brand of socialism left India stranded. In the 1960s and 1970s, as other Asian economies grew at 5-plus per cent, Indonesia grew at 7-plus per cent, India was stuck at around 3.5 per centfor three decades, between 1950 and 1980, Indias per capita income grew at sub 1.5 per cent and slower than Malawi.The flaw lay in the distrust of Indians and misplaced trust in the theory of government knows best. Nehru is blamed for installing state-ism, but it was under Indira Gandhi that the number of PSUs rose from 69 to 121. The mistake was not so much with the adoption but in persisting with licence raj despite obvious failures. India is paying a high priceopportunity, scale, competitivenessfor persisting with a closed economy.

Soon after assuming power in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi made two critical observationsthe Congress party was infested with power brokers and that Indias economy needs to be opened up. His first Independence Day generated hope and headlineshe had struck the Assam deal a few hours earlier. He was in a hurry to take India to the 21st Centurya theme song with him. He promoted panchayati raj, recognised the potential of urbanisation, chanted the youth mantra, pushed for reduction in voting age from 21 years to 18, opened up sectors even if not in sync with fiscal conditions, promoted computerisation and access to teleconnectivity. By year three, his credibility dwindled, held to ransom by the very same middlemen he chided in 1985and by the time he demitted office in 1989, India was hostage to an unprecedented economic crisis.

V P Singh, the challenger, came to power and declared the coffers are empty. It took the sagacity of Chandra Shekhar to negotiate a bail out. P V Narasimha Rao surprised India and the world by taking the deal forward, dismantling licence raj to liberate the economy, and declared from the Red Fort: We have only salvaged the prestige of this country. Rao and his team, however, let permission raj prevailvisible even in 2017 in the poor rankings in ease of doing business and unending queue of stalled projects. By 1992, the slide to ignominy had begun the scams, the scandals and abdication took their toll.

Oratory and hope returned to Red Fort after decades in 1998. Atal Bihari Vajpayeepoet, nationalist, statesman and the great conciliatorredefined Indias place on the global stage. Having ensured the success of Pokhran II tests, he said in his first Independence Day speech: India is a great country and its people are powerful. It was a message to believers, naysayers and the neighbours.

There is much Vajpayee said and didconnecting Bharat to India, drafting a template for peace, welcoming dissent, setting the tonality of humanism in politics. His review of everything that was right and wrong with India at 51in a speech spanning over 4,000 wordsis valid two decades later. He was tripped from withinby revisionists and the India Shining hyper-bole brigade.

In 2004, the Congress anointed Manmohan Singh to the top job. Typical of the professor, in his first speech at Red Fort he asked Indians: What is the Bharat that we all wish to build? and went on to present his vision of India. Reticent, cornered by the civil war in Congress and hamstrung by coalition conditionalities, Singh saw his vision felled by vile politicsby the expansion of political entitlements that brought India back to the brink of an economic crisis.

In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected as the antidote to everything that was wrong. He has used every Independence Day since 2014 to unveil a slew of programmes and marketed it with force. Translating declared intent into results though needs more decentralisation and dismantling of the cosy power and pelf coalition.Every issue that confronted India in 1947, continues to haunt it in 2017be it child malnutrition, poverty, agrarian distress, job creation. Living up to the pledge calls for redesigning the structure of government. It requires enforcement of rule of law. Above all, transformation demands sustaining democracy by preserving the idea of inclusive India

The challenge is the opportunity, to craft a lasting legacy.

shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com

Shankkar Aiyar Author of Aadhaar: A Biometric History of Indias 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India This August 15 India celebrates 70 years of Independence, a young nation nestled in an ancient civilisation yet wrestling with old problems in the new millennium. Indias leaders have used the occasion to pledge political power to take India to greater heights. The running theme is the vow to pave the way from penury to promise of prosperity. The question in 2017 is: were words translated into deeds? In 1947, Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru evocatively said, That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges and underlined ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The lofty ideas found reflection in the Constitution and in the Directive Principles of State Policy. While Nehru succeeded in sustaining democracy against odds, the promise to end poverty was waylaid. In 1947, nearly seven of 10 Indians lived below the poverty line. Till as late as 1990s, four decades later, five of 10 were below poverty line. Fact is, seven decades later, in 2016, nearly one in five or over 270 million Indians lived below the poverty line (World Bank estimates). The persistence of poverty is located at the intersection of usurious politics and extractive economics. Ideally, India should have addressed agrarian distressit was a net importer of food since Independence and poverty was located in agrarian distress. Yet investment and technology was denied. The import-and-keep-prices-low theology crippled Indias food security. By 1960s, India couldnt pay for imports. Lal Bahadur Shastri had to call for Indians to fast once a week even as he brought in C Subramaniam to propel the Green Revolution. His call to arms, Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, was about redefining national security. He said, I consider self-sufficiency in food to be no less important than an impregnable defence system for the preservation of our freedom and independence. India is no longer a ship to mouth economy, producing over 272 million tonnes. Yet in 2017, agrarian distress is starkly visible in farmer suicides and the demand for job reservations by the land-owning class.Indira Gandhis first Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in 1966 was a potent mix of idealism and ideology. She said that economic growth could be better and it can be done, urged farmers and workers alike to do their bit and exhorted Indians to reduce dependence on imports and go swadeshi. Socialism, she said, was the only way to reduce poverty. The Garibi Hatao brand of socialism left India stranded. In the 1960s and 1970s, as other Asian economies grew at 5-plus per cent, Indonesia grew at 7-plus per cent, India was stuck at around 3.5 per centfor three decades, between 1950 and 1980, Indias per capita income grew at sub 1.5 per cent and slower than Malawi.The flaw lay in the distrust of Indians and misplaced trust in the theory of government knows best. Nehru is blamed for installing state-ism, but it was under Indira Gandhi that the number of PSUs rose from 69 to 121. The mistake was not so much with the adoption but in persisting with licence raj despite obvious failures. India is paying a high priceopportunity, scale, competitivenessfor persisting with a closed economy. Soon after assuming power in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi made two critical observationsthe Congress party was infested with power brokers and that Indias economy needs to be opened up. His first Independence Day generated hope and headlineshe had struck the Assam deal a few hours earlier. He was in a hurry to take India to the 21st Centurya theme song with him. He promoted panchayati raj, recognised the potential of urbanisation, chanted the youth mantra, pushed for reduction in voting age from 21 years to 18, opened up sectors even if not in sync with fiscal conditions, promoted computerisation and access to teleconnectivity. By year three, his credibility dwindled, held to ransom by the very same middlemen he chided in 1985and by the time he demitted office in 1989, India was hostage to an unprecedented economic crisis. V P Singh, the challenger, came to power and declared the coffers are empty. It took the sagacity of Chandra Shekhar to negotiate a bail out. P V Narasimha Rao surprised India and the world by taking the deal forward, dismantling licence raj to liberate the economy, and declared from the Red Fort: We have only salvaged the prestige of this country. Rao and his team, however, let permission raj prevailvisible even in 2017 in the poor rankings in ease of doing business and unending queue of stalled projects. By 1992, the slide to ignominy had begun the scams, the scandals and abdication took their toll. Oratory and hope returned to Red Fort after decades in 1998. Atal Bihari Vajpayeepoet, nationalist, statesman and the great conciliatorredefined Indias place on the global stage. Having ensured the success of Pokhran II tests, he said in his first Independence Day speech: India is a great country and its people are powerful. It was a message to believers, naysayers and the neighbours. There is much Vajpayee said and didconnecting Bharat to India, drafting a template for peace, welcoming dissent, setting the tonality of humanism in politics. His review of everything that was right and wrong with India at 51in a speech spanning over 4,000 wordsis valid two decades later. He was tripped from withinby revisionists and the India Shining hyper-bole brigade. In 2004, the Congress anointed Manmohan Singh to the top job. Typical of the professor, in his first speech at Red Fort he asked Indians: What is the Bharat that we all wish to build? and went on to present his vision of India. Reticent, cornered by the civil war in Congress and hamstrung by coalition conditionalities, Singh saw his vision felled by vile politicsby the expansion of political entitlements that brought India back to the brink of an economic crisis. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected as the antidote to everything that was wrong. He has used every Independence Day since 2014 to unveil a slew of programmes and marketed it with force. Translating declared intent into results though needs more decentralisation and dismantling of the cosy power and pelf coalition.Every issue that confronted India in 1947, continues to haunt it in 2017be it child malnutrition, poverty, agrarian distress, job creation. Living up to the pledge calls for redesigning the structure of government. It requires enforcement of rule of law. Above all, transformation demands sustaining democracy by preserving the idea of inclusive India The challenge is the opportunity, to craft a lasting legacy. shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com
B kartheek By

Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Ever wondered how many rowdies are on the prowl in the State? Given the frequent burglaries and of late, kidnappings for ransom, in different regions, it might appear as if more number of history-sheeters are popping up creating a headache for law enforcement agencies and insecurity among the people. As per official records, there are 28,381 rowdy-sheeters in the State. The figure might look scary but police officials assure that it isnt. Given the total population in the State, it isnt as alarming as it looks.

In Vijayawada, a series of unfortunate incidents in the recent past prompted the city police to wake up and conduct counselling for rowdy-sheeters as is being done in other districts every Sunday. The immediate trigger was the murder of a rickshaw-puller by the notorious Khal Nayak, a 55-year-old history-sheeter who has as many as 17 cases against him. Khal Nayak alias Katta Venugopal was in fact externed following several extortion complaints against him. But he stayed put in the city operating right under the nose of the city police and settle scores with a man with whom he had a long-standing rivalry.

A senior police official, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that their aim was to not only keep track of the movements of the history-sheeters but also reform them. We collect all the data pertaining to them such as fingerprints, phone numbers, present and permanent address, etc. We also conduct iris scanning in case of crime suspects, he explained.

He further said the history-sheets are revised from time to time and names of those aged above 60 or those with chronic ailments could be removed. According to the CM Core Dashboard, Krishna district (including Vijayawada city and GRP Vijayawada) top the charts with 4,235 history-sheeters followed by Guntur district (including urban and rural areas) with 3,954.

The opening of a rowdy-sheet is nothing but maintaining the record of movements of a crime suspect, said Guntur (urban) superintendent of police Ch Vijaya Rao. Asked if there has been a spike in the number of history-sheeters, particularly in the wake of the booming real estate in the last few years, he admitted that real estate and its accompanying crime was a new phenomenon but pointed out that the records of most rowdies were much older.

He clarified, history-sheeters who have wife and children, have to reform at the earliest as children look upon them as their role models. We alert them to this danger during counselling. East Godavari district SP Vishal Gunni, whose youtube videos, warning rowdies to fall in line, attracted over 2.5 lakh views, believes that regular counselling can help reform them.

Police have to clamp down on wrong-doers in public interest. To maintain law and order, we are revising the rowdy-sheeters list and intensifying police patrolling in crime-prone areas in the district, he said. Police will not hesitate to book preventive detention cases against persons who resort to serious crimes, he added. Interestingly, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts have the least number of rowdy-sheeters with 410 and 486 respectively in the State.

Will counselling work? It probably will. At least in the case of some rowdy-sheeters, it will work because reporting to the police every week isnt exactly they look forward to, another senior police official pointed out.

Who is a rowdy-sheeter?

The station house officer at a police station can open a history-sheet against a person who indulges in more than two bodily offenses (causing bodily harm) . The officer has discretionary powers to open a history-sheet on repeat offenders. A rowdy-sheeted person has to visit the police station every week to inform his activities to the station house officer. If he is relocating, he should take prior permission from the police.

VIJAYAWADA: Ever wondered how many rowdies are on the prowl in the State? Given the frequent burglaries and of late, kidnappings for ransom, in different regions, it might appear as if more number of history-sheeters are popping up creating a headache for law enforcement agencies and insecurity among the people. As per official records, there are 28,381 rowdy-sheeters in the State. The figure might look scary but police officials assure that it isnt. Given the total population in the State, it isnt as alarming as it looks. In Vijayawada, a series of unfortunate incidents in the recent past prompted the city police to wake up and conduct counselling for rowdy-sheeters as is being done in other districts every Sunday. The immediate trigger was the murder of a rickshaw-puller by the notorious Khal Nayak, a 55-year-old history-sheeter who has as many as 17 cases against him. Khal Nayak alias Katta Venugopal was in fact externed following several extortion complaints against him. But he stayed put in the city operating right under the nose of the city police and settle scores with a man with whom he had a long-standing rivalry. A senior police official, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that their aim was to not only keep track of the movements of the history-sheeters but also reform them. We collect all the data pertaining to them such as fingerprints, phone numbers, present and permanent address, etc. We also conduct iris scanning in case of crime suspects, he explained. He further said the history-sheets are revised from time to time and names of those aged above 60 or those with chronic ailments could be removed. According to the CM Core Dashboard, Krishna district (including Vijayawada city and GRP Vijayawada) top the charts with 4,235 history-sheeters followed by Guntur district (including urban and rural areas) with 3,954. The opening of a rowdy-sheet is nothing but maintaining the record of movements of a crime suspect, said Guntur (urban) superintendent of police Ch Vijaya Rao. Asked if there has been a spike in the number of history-sheeters, particularly in the wake of the booming real estate in the last few years, he admitted that real estate and its accompanying crime was a new phenomenon but pointed out that the records of most rowdies were much older. He clarified, history-sheeters who have wife and children, have to reform at the earliest as children look upon them as their role models. We alert them to this danger during counselling. East Godavari district SP Vishal Gunni, whose youtube videos, warning rowdies to fall in line, attracted over 2.5 lakh views, believes that regular counselling can help reform them. Police have to clamp down on wrong-doers in public interest. To maintain law and order, we are revising the rowdy-sheeters list and intensifying police patrolling in crime-prone areas in the district, he said. Police will not hesitate to book preventive detention cases against persons who resort to serious crimes, he added. Interestingly, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts have the least number of rowdy-sheeters with 410 and 486 respectively in the State. Will counselling work? It probably will. At least in the case of some rowdy-sheeters, it will work because reporting to the police every week isnt exactly they look forward to, another senior police official pointed out. Who is a rowdy-sheeter? The station house officer at a police station can open a history-sheet against a person who indulges in more than two bodily offenses (causing bodily harm) . The officer has discretionary powers to open a history-sheet on repeat offenders. A rowdy-sheeted person has to visit the police station every week to inform his activities to the station house officer. If he is relocating, he should take prior permission from the police.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: After weeks of speculation, the Centre on Sunday finally indicated it was okay with exempting Tamil Nadu from NEET-based undergraduate medical admissions this year. Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Centre was willing to make a consideration based on States submission that the new examination system would put rural students at a disadvantage.

The exemption is only for admissions to government colleges and government quota seats in private colleges. Private colleges in the State can admit students to fill the management quota based on the NEET score alone.

Since the past few weeks, the State government had intensely lobbied in Delhi for the NEET exemption. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami gave the final push when he visited New Delhi on Friday and took it up with Prime Minister Modi.

Soon after Sitharaman made her statement, Health Minister C Vijaya Basker met the Chief Minister at his residence. He later thanked Sitharaman and said the State Health Secretary would leave for Delhi on Sunday night to submit a fresh Ordinance to the Central government.

Last time, we gave Special Ordinance (seeking exemption) for two years. Now, the Union Health Ministry asked us to submit (ordinance seeking exemption) for one year, he told Express.

Hours later, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan along with two other senior officials left for Delhi. They are expected to submit the ordinance to Union Home Ministry officials around 10 am on Monday. The Home Ministry will take opinion from the Health, HRD and Law ministries and then give its assent, Vijaya Basker said.

After that, the Governor has to give his approval. Once the process is complete the State would set the UG admission process rolling. Asked to explain the delay in the Centres decision, which resulted in the engineering counselling being wrapped up before the medical one, Basker said it was due to legal complications.

On Sitharamans categorical statement that no permanent exemption is possible, he said from next year steps would be taken to avoid last-minute confusion. Predictably, a section of the students are upset as they feel the exemption would help only rural students.

CHENNAI: After weeks of speculation, the Centre on Sunday finally indicated it was okay with exempting Tamil Nadu from NEET-based undergraduate medical admissions this year. Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Centre was willing to make a consideration based on States submission that the new examination system would put rural students at a disadvantage. The exemption is only for admissions to government colleges and government quota seats in private colleges. Private colleges in the State can admit students to fill the management quota based on the NEET score alone. Since the past few weeks, the State government had intensely lobbied in Delhi for the NEET exemption. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami gave the final push when he visited New Delhi on Friday and took it up with Prime Minister Modi. Soon after Sitharaman made her statement, Health Minister C Vijaya Basker met the Chief Minister at his residence. He later thanked Sitharaman and said the State Health Secretary would leave for Delhi on Sunday night to submit a fresh Ordinance to the Central government. Last time, we gave Special Ordinance (seeking exemption) for two years. Now, the Union Health Ministry asked us to submit (ordinance seeking exemption) for one year, he told Express. Hours later, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan along with two other senior officials left for Delhi. They are expected to submit the ordinance to Union Home Ministry officials around 10 am on Monday. The Home Ministry will take opinion from the Health, HRD and Law ministries and then give its assent, Vijaya Basker said. After that, the Governor has to give his approval. Once the process is complete the State would set the UG admission process rolling. Asked to explain the delay in the Centres decision, which resulted in the engineering counselling being wrapped up before the medical one, Basker said it was due to legal complications. On Sitharamans categorical statement that no permanent exemption is possible, he said from next year steps would be taken to avoid last-minute confusion. Predictably, a section of the students are upset as they feel the exemption would help only rural students.
By AFP

OUAGADOUGOU: Seventeen people have been killed and a dozen injured in a "terrorist attack" on a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital, the government said Monday.

Witnesses said three gunmen arrived at a Turkish restaurant in a pickup truck on Sunday evening and opened fire on customers seated outside.

The government then launched a counter-assault, with gunfire heard into the night.

"A terrorist attack at Istanbul restaurant on Ouagadougou's Kwame Nkrumah Avenue claimed 17 victims, their nationalities are yet to be confirmed," a government statement said, adding that 12 people had been injured.

Communication minister Remis Dandjinou said it was not clear how many assailants were involved.

"They are confined to one part of the building they attacked. Security and elite forces are conducting an operation," he said on television.

A paramedic told AFP that one of the victims was a Turkish national.

"We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at hospital," the paramedic said, declining to be named.

Police evacuated civilians from the area before launching the counter-assault, with the heavy exchange of fire becoming more sporadic as the operation went on.

One soldier had said there were hostages on the first and second floor of the two-storey building housing the Turkish restaurant.

The mayor of Ouagadougou and government ministers were at the scene, he added.

Video footage posted on Twitter shows people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.

An AFP journalist at the scene said the gunfire stopped at around 3:00 am (0300 GMT).

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

In December 2016 a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

The worst recent attack was an assault on a hotel and cafe in central Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people including several foreigners.

Gunmen from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners, sparking a protracted standoff with security forces.

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people.

There have also been kidnappings -- of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda.



OUAGADOUGOU: Seventeen people have been killed and a dozen injured in a "terrorist attack" on a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital, the government said Monday. Witnesses said three gunmen arrived at a Turkish restaurant in a pickup truck on Sunday evening and opened fire on customers seated outside. The government then launched a counter-assault, with gunfire heard into the night. "A terrorist attack at Istanbul restaurant on Ouagadougou's Kwame Nkrumah Avenue claimed 17 victims, their nationalities are yet to be confirmed," a government statement said, adding that 12 people had been injured. Communication minister Remis Dandjinou said it was not clear how many assailants were involved. "They are confined to one part of the building they attacked. Security and elite forces are conducting an operation," he said on television. A paramedic told AFP that one of the victims was a Turkish national. "We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at hospital," the paramedic said, declining to be named. Police evacuated civilians from the area before launching the counter-assault, with the heavy exchange of fire becoming more sporadic as the operation went on. One soldier had said there were hostages on the first and second floor of the two-storey building housing the Turkish restaurant. The mayor of Ouagadougou and government ministers were at the scene, he added. Video footage posted on Twitter shows people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site. An AFP journalist at the scene said the gunfire stopped at around 3:00 am (0300 GMT). Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years. In December 2016 a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians. The worst recent attack was an assault on a hotel and cafe in central Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people including several foreigners. Gunmen from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners, sparking a protracted standoff with security forces. AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons. The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people. There have also been kidnappings -- of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
By AFP

OUAGADOUGOU (BURKINA FASO): At least 18 people including foreigners were killed and a dozen others wounded in a "terrorist attack" by suspected jihadists on a Turkish restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital, the government said Monday.

Two assailants were also killed by security forces who launched a counter-assault following Sunday night's attack on the restaurant popular with foreigners, Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said. It was not clear how many gunmen were involved.

The security operation "has ended" but searches are continuing in buildings in the Ouagadougou neighbourhood around the restaurant, Dandjinou told a press briefing early Monday carried on social media.

The Istanbul restaurant is just 200 metres (yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group.

A government statement described the latest deadly shooting as a "terrorist attack", while President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned it as "a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning."

"The fight against terrorism is a long-term struggle," he said in a Twitter message.

A police officer who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity cited witnesses as saying at least two assailants arrived on a motorcycle around 9:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Sunday armed with Kalashnikovs, and opened fire on the Istanbul restaurant.

A waiter also said he saw "three men arrive on a 4X4 vehicle around 9:30 pm, get off the vehicle and open fire on customers seated on the terrace".

Dandjinou had earlier said that "some people were held" by the assailants and that "some were released", but gave no further details.

He said the 18 victims were of different nationalities, both Burkinabes and foreigners.

Turkey said one of its citizens was among the dead, while Paris prosecutors said at least one French national died in the shooting, which French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as a "terrorist attack."

Security forces launched a counter-assault at around 10:15 pm against the assailants who were hiding in the building, the police officer said.

The shooting was intense at first and then sporadic, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.

Video footage posted on Twitter showed people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.

The gunfire ended around 5:00 am Monday, according to an AFP journalist who was near the restaurant.

'Overwhelmed'

The wounded were taken to Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.

"We are overwhelmed," one surgeon told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We have received about a dozen wounded, including three who have died. The condition of the other wounded is critical. Three of them are currently being operated on."

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

In December 2016, a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

In the January 2016 assault, AQIM gunmen attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners.

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people.

There have also been kidnappings - of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda.



WATCH VIDEO - Gunmen kill 18 in Burkina Faso restaurant attack

OUAGADOUGOU (BURKINA FASO): At least 18 people including foreigners were killed and a dozen others wounded in a "terrorist attack" by suspected jihadists on a Turkish restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital, the government said Monday. Two assailants were also killed by security forces who launched a counter-assault following Sunday night's attack on the restaurant popular with foreigners, Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said. It was not clear how many gunmen were involved. The security operation "has ended" but searches are continuing in buildings in the Ouagadougou neighbourhood around the restaurant, Dandjinou told a press briefing early Monday carried on social media. The Istanbul restaurant is just 200 metres (yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group. A government statement described the latest deadly shooting as a "terrorist attack", while President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned it as "a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning." "The fight against terrorism is a long-term struggle," he said in a Twitter message. A police officer who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity cited witnesses as saying at least two assailants arrived on a motorcycle around 9:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Sunday armed with Kalashnikovs, and opened fire on the Istanbul restaurant. A waiter also said he saw "three men arrive on a 4X4 vehicle around 9:30 pm, get off the vehicle and open fire on customers seated on the terrace". Dandjinou had earlier said that "some people were held" by the assailants and that "some were released", but gave no further details. He said the 18 victims were of different nationalities, both Burkinabes and foreigners. Turkey said one of its citizens was among the dead, while Paris prosecutors said at least one French national died in the shooting, which French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as a "terrorist attack." Security forces launched a counter-assault at around 10:15 pm against the assailants who were hiding in the building, the police officer said. The shooting was intense at first and then sporadic, an AFP journalist at the scene reported. Video footage posted on Twitter showed people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site. The gunfire ended around 5:00 am Monday, according to an AFP journalist who was near the restaurant. 'Overwhelmed' The wounded were taken to Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital. "We are overwhelmed," one surgeon told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We have received about a dozen wounded, including three who have died. The condition of the other wounded is critical. Three of them are currently being operated on." Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years. In December 2016, a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians. In the January 2016 assault, AQIM gunmen attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners. AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons. The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people. There have also been kidnappings - of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda. WATCH VIDEO - Gunmen kill 18 in Burkina Faso restaurant attack
By Associated Press

SYDNEY: Priests who fail to tell police about suspected child sexual abuse should face criminal charges, even when they learn of abuse during a confidential religious confession, Australia's most powerful investigative authority recommended on Monday.

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse  the nation's highest form of inquiry  recommended that all states and territories in Australia introduce legislation that would make it a criminal offense for people to fail to report child sexual abuse in an institutional setting. Clergy who find out about sexual abuse during a religious confession would not be exempt from the law.

"The right to practice one's religious beliefs must accommodate civil society's obligation to provide for the safety of all and, in particular, children's safety from sexual abuse," the commission wrote in a report released Monday. "Institutions directed to caring for and providing services for children, including religious institutions, must provide an environment where children are safe from sexual abuse. Reporting information relevant to child sexual abuse to the police is critical to ensuring the safety of children."

Current laws on reporting knowledge of crimes vary across Australia. In some jurisdictions, information received during religious confessions  which are considered highly confidential by churches  is considered privileged, and thus exempt from mandatory reporting requirements.

The royal commission has been investigating since 2013 how churches and other institutions responded to the sexual abuse of children in Australia over the last several decades. The reporting requirement it urged Australia to adopt was one of 85 recommendations it made in a report aimed at revamping the criminal justice system to ensure fairer treatment of victims of child sexual abuse.

The reporting mandate would apply to people who failed to tell police that they knew, suspected or even should have suspected that an adult associated with their institution was sexually abusing a child.

If such a law was actually imposed in Australia, priests would ostensibly have to choose between following criminal law or canon law, which forbids them from revealing anything they hear during confession.

In its report, the commission acknowledged the significance placed upon the confidentiality of religious confessions, particularly by the Catholic Church. But the commission also said it had learned of cases in which abusers had confessed to clergy that they had sexually assaulted children and then went on to reoffend, before seeking forgiveness yet again.

The issue of whether religious confessions should be considered privileged has long plagued governments and courts across the world.

In the United States, the Louisiana state Supreme Court ruled last year that state law does not require a priest to notify authorities after hearing evidence of child abuse from a child making a confession. That ruling came amid a lawsuit against Catholic authorities by parents who say their daughter was sexually abused by a parishioner at a local church.

Ireland introduced legislation in 2012 that made it a legal requirement to report knowledge of crimes against children, and made no exemption for priests who received information about crimes during confession. How that law has been applied since then, though, is unclear; Australia's royal commission noted in its report that the issue has yet to be tested in Ireland's courts.

Cathy Kezelman, president of the Australian victims' advocacy group, Blue Knot Foundation, applauded the commission's recommendations.

"The recommendation around religious confession is most welcome, as although Blue Knot Foundation respects the right of all religions to practice their religion, children must be protected from the insidious crime of child sexual abuse," Kezelman said in a statement. "There should be no exemption in that regard, the confessional included."

SYDNEY: Priests who fail to tell police about suspected child sexual abuse should face criminal charges, even when they learn of abuse during a confidential religious confession, Australia's most powerful investigative authority recommended on Monday. Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse  the nation's highest form of inquiry  recommended that all states and territories in Australia introduce legislation that would make it a criminal offense for people to fail to report child sexual abuse in an institutional setting. Clergy who find out about sexual abuse during a religious confession would not be exempt from the law. "The right to practice one's religious beliefs must accommodate civil society's obligation to provide for the safety of all and, in particular, children's safety from sexual abuse," the commission wrote in a report released Monday. "Institutions directed to caring for and providing services for children, including religious institutions, must provide an environment where children are safe from sexual abuse. Reporting information relevant to child sexual abuse to the police is critical to ensuring the safety of children." Current laws on reporting knowledge of crimes vary across Australia. In some jurisdictions, information received during religious confessions  which are considered highly confidential by churches  is considered privileged, and thus exempt from mandatory reporting requirements. The royal commission has been investigating since 2013 how churches and other institutions responded to the sexual abuse of children in Australia over the last several decades. The reporting requirement it urged Australia to adopt was one of 85 recommendations it made in a report aimed at revamping the criminal justice system to ensure fairer treatment of victims of child sexual abuse. The reporting mandate would apply to people who failed to tell police that they knew, suspected or even should have suspected that an adult associated with their institution was sexually abusing a child. If such a law was actually imposed in Australia, priests would ostensibly have to choose between following criminal law or canon law, which forbids them from revealing anything they hear during confession. In its report, the commission acknowledged the significance placed upon the confidentiality of religious confessions, particularly by the Catholic Church. But the commission also said it had learned of cases in which abusers had confessed to clergy that they had sexually assaulted children and then went on to reoffend, before seeking forgiveness yet again. The issue of whether religious confessions should be considered privileged has long plagued governments and courts across the world. In the United States, the Louisiana state Supreme Court ruled last year that state law does not require a priest to notify authorities after hearing evidence of child abuse from a child making a confession. That ruling came amid a lawsuit against Catholic authorities by parents who say their daughter was sexually abused by a parishioner at a local church. Ireland introduced legislation in 2012 that made it a legal requirement to report knowledge of crimes against children, and made no exemption for priests who received information about crimes during confession. How that law has been applied since then, though, is unclear; Australia's royal commission noted in its report that the issue has yet to be tested in Ireland's courts. Cathy Kezelman, president of the Australian victims' advocacy group, Blue Knot Foundation, applauded the commission's recommendations. "The recommendation around religious confession is most welcome, as although Blue Knot Foundation respects the right of all religions to practice their religion, children must be protected from the insidious crime of child sexual abuse," Kezelman said in a statement. "There should be no exemption in that regard, the confessional included."
By Associated Press

WASHINGTON: Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic's conflict.

The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, who's fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administration's growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in U.S.-Russian ties. The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorization to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plan. It's not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of U.S. weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers. Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict.

While Obama was still in office, Trump's campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform.

Now, however, it's under discussion by Trump's senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk about the matter publicly.

While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as U.S. and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

"The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.

Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give "full visibility to all the parties that we're not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way."

Russia hawks in the U.S. and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATO's viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new U.S.-Russian partnership. At one point, two years after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would "go into Ukraine."

Volker has proposed a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Putin ally Vladislav Surkov, before the end of the month. Lavrov said after his talks with Tillerson that the meeting would be in Moscow. U.S. officials say no venue has been determined, with the neutral venues of Geneva or Vienna also in play.

Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who is known as a Russia hawk, supports arming Ukraine. Such action, he says, would boost the U.S. negotiating position in the east and offer Kiev the means to defend itself against any future aggression. Unsurprisingly, Russia opposes such assistance and warns of consequences.

"I hear these arguments that it's somehow provocative to Russia or that it's going to embolden Ukraine to attack. These are just flat out wrong," Volker told an interviewer last month as he visited Europe on his first trip in his new post. He argued that arming Ukraine would help rather than hurt efforts to stop Russia from threatening or interfering in its neighbour's territory.

All proposals in recent years have focused on arms that are deemed "defensive" in nature and none would appear to give Ukraine any strategic edge over Russia's vastly superior military forces.

"We have not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled out the option to do so," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Aug. 3. "That's an option that remains on the table."

A White House official would not comment on internal administration deliberations but noted that since the crisis began in 2014, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment for its forces and training and advice to further defense reforms.

Some U.S. officials say the idea is gaining currency because of Washington's impatience with Russia and its start-and-stop implementation of a 2015 agreement designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Minsk Accords were agreed to by Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia with the goal of enforcing a cease-fire in the east and introducing political reforms to give the area more political autonomy.

While the Obama administration allowed Europe to take the lead on the Minsk process, Volker has been empowered to make the U.S. a player in the effort.

The objective now is to change Russia's strategic thinking, one official said, and providing defensive weapons to Ukraine would be one way to do that.

WASHINGTON: Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic's conflict. The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, who's fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administration's growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in U.S.-Russian ties. The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia. Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorization to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plan. It's not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of U.S. weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers. Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict. While Obama was still in office, Trump's campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform. Now, however, it's under discussion by Trump's senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk about the matter publicly. While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as U.S. and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years. "The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines. Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give "full visibility to all the parties that we're not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way." Russia hawks in the U.S. and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATO's viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new U.S.-Russian partnership. At one point, two years after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would "go into Ukraine." Volker has proposed a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Putin ally Vladislav Surkov, before the end of the month. Lavrov said after his talks with Tillerson that the meeting would be in Moscow. U.S. officials say no venue has been determined, with the neutral venues of Geneva or Vienna also in play. Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who is known as a Russia hawk, supports arming Ukraine. Such action, he says, would boost the U.S. negotiating position in the east and offer Kiev the means to defend itself against any future aggression. Unsurprisingly, Russia opposes such assistance and warns of consequences. "I hear these arguments that it's somehow provocative to Russia or that it's going to embolden Ukraine to attack. These are just flat out wrong," Volker told an interviewer last month as he visited Europe on his first trip in his new post. He argued that arming Ukraine would help rather than hurt efforts to stop Russia from threatening or interfering in its neighbour's territory. All proposals in recent years have focused on arms that are deemed "defensive" in nature and none would appear to give Ukraine any strategic edge over Russia's vastly superior military forces. "We have not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled out the option to do so," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Aug. 3. "That's an option that remains on the table." A White House official would not comment on internal administration deliberations but noted that since the crisis began in 2014, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment for its forces and training and advice to further defense reforms. Some U.S. officials say the idea is gaining currency because of Washington's impatience with Russia and its start-and-stop implementation of a 2015 agreement designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Minsk Accords were agreed to by Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia with the goal of enforcing a cease-fire in the east and introducing political reforms to give the area more political autonomy. While the Obama administration allowed Europe to take the lead on the Minsk process, Volker has been empowered to make the U.S. a player in the effort. The objective now is to change Russia's strategic thinking, one official said, and providing defensive weapons to Ukraine would be one way to do that.
By Associated Press

CHARLOTTESVILLE: A man accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia was denied bond Monday after the public defender's office said it couldn't represent him and the judge was forced to find a local attorney to fill in.

James Alex Fields Jr. was not present in the courtroom but appeared via video monitor dressed in a black-and-white striped uniform. Seated, he answered questions from the judge with simple responses of "Yes, sir" when asked if he understood what was being explained to him. Fields also replied "No, sir" when asked if he had ties to the community of Charlottesville.

Judge Robert Downer set an Aug. 25 hearing for the 20-year-old Fields, who has been charged with second-degree murder and other counts.

Downer said the public defenders' office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday's protest. He appointed local attorney Charles Weber to represent him. Weber couldn't immediately be reached by The Associated Press.

Fields is charged in the death of Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, who died after a car that police say Fields was driving slammed into a crowd of people protesting the nationalist rally Saturday. Fields was arrested shortly afterward and taken into custody.

Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race, a former high school teacher said Sunday. Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In high school, Fields was an "average" student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Weimer, who said he was Fields' social studies teacher at Randall K. Cooper high school in Union, Kentucky, in Fields' junior and senior years.

"Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy toward Nazism, that idolization of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy," Weimer said. "It would start to creep out."

Police say Fields drove his silver Dodge Challenger through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, killing Heyer and wounding 19 other people. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale police response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town and both troopers on board died.

Fields had been photographed hours earlier with a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that took part in the "take America back" campaign to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect.

Meanwhile, a message posted Saturday night on a leading neo-Nazi website called The Daily Stormer promised future events that would be "bigger than Charlottesville."

The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders of all political stripes, and activists and community organizers around the country planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups. They also urged President Donald Trump to forcefully denounce the organizations, some of which specifically cited Trump's election after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation of their beliefs. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced late Saturday that federal authorities would pursue a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

Weimer recalled that school officials had singled out Fields when he was in 9th grade for his political beliefs and "deeply held, radical" convictions on race and Nazism.

"It was a known issue," he said.

Weimer said Fields left school for a while, and when he came back he was quieter about politics until his senior year, when politicians started to declare their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Weimer said Fields was a big Trump supporter because of what he believed to be Trump's views on race. Trump's proposal to build a border wall with Mexico was particularly appealing to Fields, Weimer said. Fields also admired the Confederacy for its military prowess, he said, though they never spoke about slavery.

As a senior, Fields wanted to join the army, and Weimer, a former officer in the Ohio National Guard, guided him through the process of applying, he said, believing that the military would expose Fields to people of different races and backgrounds and help him dispel his white supremacist views. But Fields was ultimately turned down, which was a big blow, Weimer said. Weimer said he lost contact with Fields after he graduated and was surprised to hear reports that Fields had enlisted in the army.

"The Army can confirm that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015, said Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson. "He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015," she said.

Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, told the AP late Saturday that she knew her son was going to Virginia for a political rally, but she had no idea it involved white supremacists.

"I just told him to be careful," she said, adding she warned him that if there were protests "to make sure he's doing it peacefully."

CHARLOTTESVILLE: A man accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia was denied bond Monday after the public defender's office said it couldn't represent him and the judge was forced to find a local attorney to fill in. James Alex Fields Jr. was not present in the courtroom but appeared via video monitor dressed in a black-and-white striped uniform. Seated, he answered questions from the judge with simple responses of "Yes, sir" when asked if he understood what was being explained to him. Fields also replied "No, sir" when asked if he had ties to the community of Charlottesville. Judge Robert Downer set an Aug. 25 hearing for the 20-year-old Fields, who has been charged with second-degree murder and other counts. Downer said the public defenders' office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday's protest. He appointed local attorney Charles Weber to represent him. Weber couldn't immediately be reached by The Associated Press. Fields is charged in the death of Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, who died after a car that police say Fields was driving slammed into a crowd of people protesting the nationalist rally Saturday. Fields was arrested shortly afterward and taken into custody. Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race, a former high school teacher said Sunday. Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said in an interview with The Associated Press. In high school, Fields was an "average" student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Weimer, who said he was Fields' social studies teacher at Randall K. Cooper high school in Union, Kentucky, in Fields' junior and senior years. "Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy toward Nazism, that idolization of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy," Weimer said. "It would start to creep out." Police say Fields drove his silver Dodge Challenger through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, killing Heyer and wounding 19 other people. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale police response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town and both troopers on board died. Fields had been photographed hours earlier with a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that took part in the "take America back" campaign to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect. Meanwhile, a message posted Saturday night on a leading neo-Nazi website called The Daily Stormer promised future events that would be "bigger than Charlottesville." The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders of all political stripes, and activists and community organizers around the country planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups. They also urged President Donald Trump to forcefully denounce the organizations, some of which specifically cited Trump's election after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation of their beliefs. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced late Saturday that federal authorities would pursue a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash. Weimer recalled that school officials had singled out Fields when he was in 9th grade for his political beliefs and "deeply held, radical" convictions on race and Nazism. "It was a known issue," he said. Weimer said Fields left school for a while, and when he came back he was quieter about politics until his senior year, when politicians started to declare their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Weimer said Fields was a big Trump supporter because of what he believed to be Trump's views on race. Trump's proposal to build a border wall with Mexico was particularly appealing to Fields, Weimer said. Fields also admired the Confederacy for its military prowess, he said, though they never spoke about slavery. As a senior, Fields wanted to join the army, and Weimer, a former officer in the Ohio National Guard, guided him through the process of applying, he said, believing that the military would expose Fields to people of different races and backgrounds and help him dispel his white supremacist views. But Fields was ultimately turned down, which was a big blow, Weimer said. Weimer said he lost contact with Fields after he graduated and was surprised to hear reports that Fields had enlisted in the army. "The Army can confirm that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015, said Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson. "He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015," she said. Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, told the AP late Saturday that she knew her son was going to Virginia for a political rally, but she had no idea it involved white supremacists. "I just told him to be careful," she said, adding she warned him that if there were protests "to make sure he's doing it peacefully."
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.
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
In the series

As India turns 70, News18 reporters travel to four border states to get you stories from the Frontier Villages. From the golden sands of the Thar Desert to the snowcapped peaks of Kashmir to the lush paddy fields of Punjab and West Bengal  this is our ode to the mosaic that is India.Get a feel of being on the border through stimulating multimedia stories, including documentaries, 360 degree videos, photo essays, podcasts and, of course, text stories.
Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday dismissed the calls for heads to roll in the Uttar Pradesh government over the death of 63 children in a government hospital in Gorakhpur, saying this is not the first time such a tragedy has happened in our country.



Speaking at a rally in Bengaluru, Shah called the deaths an accident and said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has already ordered a probe into the incident. The state government has ordered a time-bound investigation into the deaths. We won't spare the guilty. We will fix accountability, he said.



The BJP chief also took pot-shots at the Congress, which has been demanding the resignation of Yogi Adityanath for the lapses at the hospital, saying that unlike the Congress, their government would not assign blame without a thorough probe.



It is Congresss job to ask for resignation. In a big country like India, there have been many such incidents in the past. This is not the first time, he said.



He also said that BJPs sincerity towards working for the poor should not be doubted based on just one incident. Our intention to serve the poor must not be doubted based on just this one incident, he said.



Sixty three children suffering from Japanese encephalitis have died at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur since August 7, including 30 kids within a span of 48 hours, allegedly over the lack of oxygen supply as the hospital failed to clear pending dues of Rs 68 lakh. The National Human Rights Commission has also sent a notice to the state government over the deaths.



An under fire Adityanath, as well as union health minister JP Nadda, had visited the hospital on Sunday and promised exemplary action against those found guilty. The government has sacked the hospitals principal as well as the nodal officer for the encephalitis ward.



To cool frayed tempers, the Narendra Modi government announced it would set up a regional medical centre at a cost of Rs 85 crore in Gorakhpur for conducting research on ailments that afflict children.
New Delhi: Taking the historic step, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the installation of CCTV cameras in all states and union territories to record proceedings in trial courts and tribunals across the country.



"Installation of CCTV cameras is useful to achieve objective of transparent judicial system," said a bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Uday U Lalit.



The Court observed it was time that every word uttered during the proceedings should be recorded.



"We are a court of records. Every word should be recorded. We don't see any problem with this," remarked the bench, as it asked all 24 high courts to initiate the process of installing CCTV cameras inside courtrooms and also in the court precincts.



The Court, which had in March started the exercise on a trial basis, gave its go ahead to expand it to courts as well as tribunals in the country. While only video recording was to be done in pursuant to the previous order, the bench on Monday said audio will also be recorded henceforth.



The Court asked high courts to devise modalities and complete the exercise as soon as possible. It gave one month to the Union Ministry of Information Technology and Department of Justice to come up with standards of technical specifications and pricing of these CCTV cameras.



"We however make it clear nobody will record the proceedings without authorisation from the high court concerned," said the bench.



It added that third party will not be given such recordings and that these recordings will be deleted after a specific time period.



The judicial order on cameras inside court rooms has come following several rounds of deliberations between the Central government and the top judiciary on the issue of audio-video recording of court proceedings.



Since August 2013, Union Law Ministers have written to the then Chief Justices of India at least thrice to consider recording the court proceedings in the interest of transparency and better case management.



But the Supreme Court judges demonstrated reluctance with the latest communication in August 2016 telling the government that the judges felt a wider consultation was necessary before a final decision could be made. Not just this, many PILs demanding audio-video recording of proceedings were been dismissed in the past even though Law Commissions have made recommendations favouring audio-video recording.
New Delhi: The government on Monday awarded CRPF commandants Chetan Cheeta and Pramod Kumar awarded Kirti Chakra, the second highest gallantry award in peace time.



Apart from them, 38 others security personnel were awarded gallantry medals for operations in Kashmir while 142 others received the award for anti-naxal operations.



Cheetah was wounded during a joint operation in the Hajin area of Bandipora district in North Kashmir on February 14 this year. He survived after nine bullet injuries and staying comatose for over a month.



CRPF Commandant Pramod Kumar who was killed in an encounter immediately after unfurling the flag at CRPF Srinagar office on august 15th last year, has also been awarded the Kirti Chakra Posthumously.



CRPF, in a statement, said that Pramod Kumars wife Neha Tripathy will be participating in Flag hoisting ceremony along with her daughter, to be organised at 49 Bn CRPF in Srinagar. "Mrs Tripathy wanted to observe 1st martyrdom anniversary of her husband on the soil where her husband was martyred," the statement said.



Including Cheetah, 40 policeman have been honoured for carrying out anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.



These includes policemen Mumtaz Ahmed, Zaheer Abbas, Davinder Singh, Sonam Stobgais and Mohammed Hussain Wani for killing dreaded Lashkar terrorist Abu Qasim in 2015. Qasim was wanted in connection with various terror attacks including the Udhampur attack of 5th August 2015 in which two BSF personnel were killed and Hayderpora- Srinagar bypass attack in which eight Army personnel were killed. Ahmed, SSP Kulgam, and others located Qasim in Khandipora village and killed him after a joint operation with CRPF.



Apart from them, 990 personnel have been awarded Police Medals on the occasion of Independence Day. Presidents Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) has been awarded to one personnel, Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG) to 190 personnel, Presidents Police Medal for Distinguished Service (PPMDS) to 93 personnel and Police Medal for Meritorious Service (PMMS) to 706 personnel.



Several awards have also been given to security personnel engaged in anti- naxal operations - 142 police medals and one President's Police Medal.



The President's police medal has been given to Shankar Rao posthumously. A Platoon Commander, Rao on 10th April, 2015 alerted his colleagues about the presence of naxal rebels in a village in Chhattisgarhs Sukma district. He got hit by a bullet but his alertness prevented any other loss of life.



Andhra Pradesh bagged the maximum police medals with 52 policemen awarded including three IPS officers. In total, 6 IPS officers have been rewarded including one each from Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Haryana.
Incessant rains and heavy release of water from neighbouring Nepal has led to devastating floods in 10 districts of North Bihar. 13 people have died, while approximately 1.5 crore people have been adversely impacted by the floods. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has sought the IAF's help for relief and evacuation.An Information and Public Relations Department (IPRD) release quoted Kumar as saying that due to rains in the catchment areas of Nepal and the Seemanchal districts, rivers like Mahananda and Kankai had swelled, causing the floods."I have talked to the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and Defence Minister over phone, apprised them of the flood situation in these districts and requested them to help the state deal with the situation. They have assured me of all possible help," the release quoted Kumar as saying.The chief minister also demanded an additional deployment of 10 companies of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in the state, besides deployment of the Indian Air Force's helicopters to carry out relief-and-rescue operations, it added.Talking to News18, principal secretary of the disaster management department, Pratya Amrit said, The rains are making it difficult to reach out to the affected areas. We are sending rescue teams by air. 16 NDRF teams, 13 SDRF teams and 300 army men have been dispatched so far.Two helicopters have been pressed into action, to drop food items to stranded populations in the affected districts.North and North East Bihar is the worst affected as heavy rains in Nepal caused sudden rise in water levels in all the rivers flowing from Himalayas. Koshi, Burhi Gandak, Kamla Balan, Baghmati, Mahananda, Ganga and tributaries of the rivers are flowing much above the danger mark.Rail and road connectivity also stood disrupted from Bihar to North East states as National Highway 31 is submerged. The Katihar  New Jalpaigudi railway line is also closed. In eastern Bihar, the raging water has swept away Railway tracks in Narkatiyaganj, forving authroties to stop traffic on the Betiah  Gorakhpur line.In Bettiah, one person is fighting for his life while rescue workers have not still been able to reach him.Prices of drinking water, bread, vegetable, kerosene oil, candle, beaten rice, jaggery, medicine and milk have sky rocketed as supply chains have been cut.Nitish Kumar, who is keeping a close tab on the situation in the flood-hit districts, held a high-level meeting on Monday to assess the scenario, besides reviewing the state government's preparedness and arrangements for the relief-and-rescue operations.After taking stock of the ground situation from Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and Disaster Management Department's Pratyaya Amrit, he directed the officials to carry out the relief-and-rescue operations on a war footing.The chief minister also asked the officials to seek the Army's help, the release said.Kumar said the NDRF and SDRF teams, which were stationed in the state, had been dispatched to the affected areas to carry out the relief-and-rescue operations.The chief minister talked to the people's representatives of the flood-hit districts and took feedback from them. He also asked the ministers in-charge of the districts to camp in their respective areas.Kumar issued necessary directions to officials to shift the flood-affected people to safer places.Briefing reporters, Chief Secretary Singh said the flood waters had entered seven relief camps, which were set up in Kishanganj district, and steps were being taken to shift those who had taken shelter in these camps to safer places.
Mumbai: The death of 63 children at a government-run hospital in Uttar Pradeshs Gorakhpur has become the latest flashpoint between the Shiv Sena and ally BJP in Maharashtra.



Terming the tragedy as a mass murder, the Shiv Sena, in an editorial in mouthpiece Saamana, said the Centre would have taken strict action if any of the opposition parties were in power in Uttar Pradesh.



The sufferings of the poor don't move our politicians. And that is the failure of our Independence. This suffering and pain is the Mann Ki Baat of the poor, the editorial said, taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modis monthly radio address.



Thankfully, the government has at least admitted that there are so many deaths in Gorakhpur. Otherwise, they would have said that these children have only stopped breathing, and will start breathing again once they hear the independence speech delivered from Red Fort, the editorial said.



If children really do die in August each year, how come children of politicians and local strongmen are spared? Death doesn't visit their homes? This is mass murder of children, it said.



The BJP and Shiv Sena have shared an uncomfortable alliance in Maharashtra with the latter taking on its ally over mob lynchings, demonetisation and GST implementation.



Its attack on the Yogi Adityanath government over the childrens deaths comes amid calls from opposition for the UP chief minister to step down.



Yogi, who is still a Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur, has warned of "exemplary" action against those found responsible for the horrifying tragedy, but maintains that the children died of ailments and not shortage of oxygen supply.



Sources have told CNN-News18 that a report by the District Magistrate admits that oxygen supply was disrupted for a few hours on the intervening night of August 10 and 11, but denied it as the cause of deaths.



To cool frayed tempers, the Centre has announced setting up a regional medical centre at a cost of Rs 85 crore in Gorakhpur for conducting research on ailments that afflict children.
Bengaluru: After targeting the Bengaluru Metro, nationalised banks and government bodies, the proponents of Kannada language have now set their eyes on global targets.



In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Kannada Development Authority, a government agency formed to promote the use of the language, has asked the US tech giant to adopt a more user friendly font of Kannada for its range of devices.



While the circulars issued by KDA to banks and other firms sound more like an ultimatum, the letter to Apple is more of a request. Apple had added the option of a Kannada keyboard on its devices in June this year after a concerted social media campaign by interested groups managed to convince the Cupertino firm.



The letter though will not reach Cook straightaway. While the letter has been addressed to him, it has been sent to the Chief Operating Officer of Apple India, who sits in the companys office at Vittal Mallya road in the city.



The Authority, in its letter, said that the font used by the company is cumbersome and it should shift to a font and keyboard layout that has been standardised by the state government. It says that the switch would be appropriate as most Kannadigas are already used to the font set by the government.



The KDA, while expressing gratitude to Apple for choosing Karnataka as its base for an assembly unit, also pointed out that 75 per cent of Kannadigas are tech-savvy.



We are receiving many concerns from kannada computing community regarding the usability of the language in Apple. Inc systems. We have many kannidiga software engineers who have chipped in to analyse the problem thoroughly, reads the letter signed by SG Siddaramaiah, chairman of the KDA.



So a more user-friendly font and keyboard layout would help in taking forward the idea of Digital India, for all people especially in villages to adapt electronic ways to access services such as banking, the letter added.



The authority has recently ramped up its efforts to establish Kannada supremacy. Last week, it had issued a circular to PSUs asking them to either teach Kannada to their employees in six months or terminate them from service. The KDA has also said it would soon instruct FM radio stations to play only Kannada songs through the day.
Guwahati/New Delhi: Death toll in the devastating Assam floods has crossed 100 so far with 16 fresh casualties in the past 48 hours. According to estimates, over 85% of the Kaziranga National Park is submerged under water and 22 lakh lives have been thrown out of gear in the 21 districts that have been badly hit with the incessant rainfall and landslides.



Railway connectivity in the North East region is completely cut off.



The annual floods hit the Northeastern state on August 10 this year and the situation is not likely to improve over the next few days. Before this, floods in June and July killed another 84 people across the state.



Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Bongaigaon in western Assam and Kaliabor, Dhemaji and Dibrugarh in Upper Assam are the worst hit districts. The Indian Army has been deputed in these areas to rescue thousands who are stranded in the rising waters.



According to data available with the Assam government, over two lakh people are living in 490 relief camps across the state. This comes even as seven rivers including Brahmaputra, Subansiri, Beki and others are still flowing above the danger mark.



The flood situation in western Assam is likely to worsen further even as the meteorological department forecasts very heavy rainfall in the neighbouring Meghalaya and other parts of the state till Wednesday. The Kokrajhar belt which is already inundated in water flowing down from Bhutan, will also have to bear the brunt of more water flowing in from Meghalaya.



Brahmaputra wreaked havoc in Koliabor sub-division in Nagaon district when the key Hatimura embankment was breached early on Sunday morning. It forced people to abandon their houses in the middle of the night.



With portions of National Highway 37, which passes through Koliabor and leads to Kaziranga, submerged, it stopped all vehicular communication between Upper and Lower Assam.



The rail link between Northeast and rest of the country snapped after railway tracks were hit at 12 different locations. While seven of them have been repaired, rest continue to remain inundated.



Railways spokesperson, Pranav Jyoti Sharma said the situation has worsened. With railway tracks near Dalkhola, Barsoi, Sudhani stations submerged and the main line connecting the Northeast with the rest of the country blocked, the danger level further went up.



Sharma added, As a result, a number of trains had to be stopped at various stations and some other trains had to be cancelled or rescheduled/short-terminated. Some of the trains had to be brought back to their originating stations or other convenient stations.



Assam has always been vulnerable to floods. With Brahmaputra valley being is one of the most hazard-prone regions in the country, more than 40% of the land in the state is susceptible to flood damages.



In the last 50 years, Assam has already lost 7% of its land to soil erosion in the state's 17 riverine districts. Despite knowing that Brahmaputra is chipping away at the land, response by successive governments, has been tardy at best. Over Rs 30,000 crore has been spent on making embankments, but most of it turns out to be either insufficient or at times even counterproductive.
A drive around BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur could be the much-needed eye-opener if one has to get a clear picture on what ails Indias healthcare system. Dogs and pigs inside wards. Patients being wheeled in on carts. Three or four children on one bed. Very few ventilators and a serious lack of oxygen supply. To top it all, doctors are too busy in their private chambers to bother about patients at the government hospital.The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday suspended Dr Kafeel Khan, the nodal doctor of the encephalitis ward, who was hailed as a hero in the aftermath of the tragedy, for running a private practice; a crime for which many other senior doctors here should also have been axed.Residential quarters for doctors inside the medical college campus have now become mini clinics.Every second house in the doctor's colony at BRD Medical College boasts of big blue boards with the names, degrees and chamber addresses of these doctors. (Shreya Dhoundial/CNN-News 18)A case in point, Dr RK Misra, the sacked principal of BRD college, is not just thriving on a private practice inside the campus but also is part of the Sri Ram Pathology Centre right outside the medical college. His job involved referring his poor patients from the medical college to this pathological laboratory. It made good business sense.Dr Misra's neighbour is the Mohan family. Five nameplates outside their house spell out the names of the three doctors who practice here. They are: Dr Renu Mohan, a gynaecologist, who just retired from the medical college, her husband Dr Lalit Mohan, a skin specialist who continues to serve at BRD and their son, Dr S Mohan, who is also a private practitioner.Signboards outside the Mohan household. (Shreya Dhoundial/CNN-News 18)The mini clinic at their official residence is equipped with a bed and a medicine rack. On Monday, while the hospital tragedy was still looming large, the family of doctors did not entertain a single patient.We are not cheats or goons. We do this private practice out of good will. People we know, even mediapersons come to us at odd hours. Where will we treat them if not here, said Dr Renu.Hundred metres from the Mohan residence is Dr Mukesh Shukla's residence and clinic. He is a nuerosurgeon at the same medical college. A close inspection of the blue board outside his residence also advertises a Ram Gyan Nuero and Spine Center. A passerby informs us he also works at the Buddha Hospital in Gorakhpur. That is four day jobs for one doctor.These are just three examples. Every second house in the doctor's colony at BRD Medical College boasts of big blue boards that prominently mention the degrees and achievements of the doctors in Hindi  a sales pitch no passerby can ignore.Outside the emergency ward, two young technicians of the radiology ward crib about doctors not showing up for work."If seven doctors are supposed to be on duty, two would show up. Everyone is busy with their private practices. When chief minister Yogi Adityanath came visiting on Sunday, they finally showed up," said a hospital staff.The two young staff members, who didnt wish to be named, talked about the lack of empathy that haunts the corridors of BRD."Poor patients are deliberately given appointments a month later even for something as simple as an ultrasound. This is done to ensure that they can be pushed to private MRI centres where these doctors practise," one of them revealed.So why do these things not come out in the open?When the Medical Council of India officers come for inspection, all of these doctors would show up and keep the inspectors so occupied with food and refreshments that they wouldnt bother going around the hospital to look for the attendance register or talk to patients, the staff member added.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take suo motu cognisance of the tragedy at government-run BRD hospital in Gorakhpur where more than 60 children died in five days due to alleged disruption of oxygen supply.



Lawyer Rajeshwari Reddy had mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and pressed for judicial intervention, contending that the criminal negligence of hospital authorities led to the loss of innocent lives.



The CJI, however, said: "We have seen the state Chief Minister and the Union Health Minister visiting the hospital and taking stock of the situation. They are taking interest (sic)."



CJI Khehar added that he was mindful of the situation, but the case ultimately relates to "one hospital in one state". The Allahabad High Court would be in better position to assess the situation and issue appropriate directives, he said.



"Why don't you go to the High Court concerned? File a petition there and it could look into it," the CJI told Reddy.



Before the Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance of an issue, it usually is vetted by the PIL committee of the court.



Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor. At least 30 children perished between August 10 and 11 alone.



While the Uttar Pradesh government warned of exemplary action against those responsible for the tragedy and have announced a high-level inquiry into the incident, the central government has also stepped in to cool the tempers. They have announced a regional medical centre at a cost of Rs 85 crore in Gorakhpur to conduct research on ailments that afflict children.
New Delhi: The Om tattoo on Sita Rani's left hand has faded over the years. Hers are hands where fate lines have defied odds, defied death. Sometimes her hands shake, the veins become pronounced and tears swell in her eyes.



It's hard for her to remember when the Aum symbol was etched on her hand  perhaps a few years before Cyril Radcliffe drew a line partitioning India and Pakistan. Sita was 15, the youngest in a wealthy family of jewellers in Narwala village of Sialkot in Pakistan. She was engaged to Chandra, a student of engineering in DAV Lahore. The marriage was to take place soon, but the summer of 1947 changed their lives forever.



As village after village burnt, including the house she grew up in, many like her family simply walked away from everything they had. When they started from Narwal village, they were a family of nine. Along the way, the father and brother were beaten to death by mobs. Her three sisters-in-law, one of them pregnant, jumped into a well. It was a death of honour, better than the possibility of rape, torture or murder that could be their fate before they crossed the border  a border that was still ambiguous.



Do you remember those months of 1947? Their eyes freeze just for a second, and then Sita utters, in slow halting words, "How can that ever be forgotten?"



Scared and shattered, Sita found shelter in a Muslim home. She converted to Islam for those days, sitting in an old haveli, her head covered, with a family unknown to her and reading the Quran often. It was the only way to survive till her brother found her and brought her home.



Her fiance, 18-year-old Chandra was to undertake a parallel journey to reach the Indian side. He grew up in the Gujranwala district of Pakistan and etched that name to the refugee colony in Delhi, where they finally settled and made home. Today, the town in north Delhi has big houses, a far cry from 70-years ago. But every door houses a story like that of Sita and Chandra.



Chandra was travelling in a convoy too. The Kafilla, a group of 10-15 people would walk, alert and silent, for days before they reached a refugee camp. "My aunt was carrying her 10-month old baby who would occasionally cry and make noises. People got angry and asked my aunt to leave the baby or all of them would get killed. For everyones sake, she drowned her baby into a river and said goodbye.



Chandra landed in Delhi and Sita in Amritsar. Both families had lost everything  money, family members and were now living on the footpath. Chandra began selling toothpaste and other small items by the road side in Delhi's Connaught Place and remembers asking every passing person if they had seen Sita or knew the whereabouts of the family. Finally in 1949, through an acquaintance the two families got to know about each other's existence. Sita and Chander were married under the dim lights of two bulbs on the footpath where they worked.



Today, their palatial house in Gujranawala in North Delhi has no dearth of light or happiness  children, grandchildren, a flourishing business and a home.



But then you only have to look closely at Sita's Aum tatoo, fading among her veins or how the husband-wife look at each other, to know what all they have lost to come this far.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday hinted at referring petitions against Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution  which give special provisions to Jammu and Kashmir  to a constitution bench.



The top court said all petitions that demand scrapping of the articles should be heard together. The SC is now likely to hear all cases on August 29.



Article 370 provides special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 35A gives powers to the state legislature to define permanent residents of the state and their privileges.



The Supreme Court last month had asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by NGO 'We the Citizens' seeking that Article 35A be struck down.



The PIL said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, has been discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.



Last month, Supreme Court lawyer Charu Wali Khanna also challenged Article 35A on the grounds that it was discriminatory towards women. Article 14 of the Constitution gives a fundamental right to equality before law. But 35A is heavily loaded in favour of males because even after marriage to women from outside, they will not lose the right of being permanent residents, she had told the court.



Speaking in favour of the articles, National Conference leader and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said the two provisions cant be scrapped. The central government should file counter-affidavits, he told reporters on Monday.



The legal challenge to Article 35A had led to yet another separatists-sponsored strike in the Valley on Sunday, with schools, colleges, shops, business establishments and private offices remaining closed.



The separatist camp, including the hardline and moderate factions of the Hurriyat Conference and the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), allege that the challenge is an attempt to change the demographic of the state.



Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week and said he had given 100% assurance that he would back the PDP-BJP government's Agenda of Alliance, which says that the status of Article 370 can't be "fiddled with".



The meeting had come a day after BJP spokesperson Virendra Gupta said time had come to bid farewell to Articles 370 and 35A as they created a "separatist psyche".
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the Centre's plea against Madras High Court order staying its lookout notice against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and others in an alleged corruption case filed by the CBI.



A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said it will hear the plea on Monday itself after it finishes hearing the listed matters.



Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, sought an urgent hearing of the plea saying that the order was passed recently and an appeal against it has been moved today itself.



The Madras High Court had on August 10 stayed the 'lookout circulars' issued against Karti Chidambaram and four others by the Centre over a corruption case filed by the CBI, holding that they were prima facie "unwarranted".



Besides Karti, his associates C B N Reddy, Ravi Viswanathan, Mohanan Rajesh and S Bhaskararaman had also got the interim relief.



Noting that the impugned circular had been issued just a day after the notice was sent under relevant CrPC sections asking Karti to appear on June 29 for questioning, the high court had said, "this...according to this court, is prima facie unwarranted".



The Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and the Bureau of Immigration, under the Union Home Ministry, had issued the circulars against Karti on June 16 last and against the four others on July 18.



In his petition, Karti has contended that the lookout circular was part of the central government's "political vendetta" and issued "arbitrarily" without jurisdiction to prevent him from travelling abroad.



He also said he had responded to the summonses issued by the CBI in connection with the case and there was "no absolute cause of action" for issuance of the circular.



The case is related to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds when Karti's father was the Union Finance Minister in 2007.



CBI had claimed that the FDI proposal of the media house was "fallacious", but Chidambaram had cleared it.



The FIR dated May 15 was registered before the special CBI judge in New Delhi. It was followed by searches at the residences and offices of Karti and his friends on May 16.
Kolkata: The Darjeeling impasse is likely to end soon as Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung on Monday appealed to all the youth morcha leaders to call off their hunger strike after his meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday.



Tomorrow is Indias 70th Independence Day and I am also of the view that the home ministers appeal should be respected and the hunger strike should be withdrawn. I, therefore, direct Yuva Morcha leaders to call off the hunger strike today, he said.



Gurung, however, made it clear that they will not accept anything short of their demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland.



On Sunday, we along with the representatives of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee had a meeting with the home minister. We gave our view point that nothing short of creating of a separate sate of Gorkhaland can help the people of Darjeeling hills, Dooars and Terai achieve their dreams, he added.



Rajnath Singh has also appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate a dialogue with the GJM and other stakeholders to end the deadlock in the hills.



The Bengal state government should restore all civil supplies and also restore internet services, Cable TV and local channels. I also appeal to the people of Darjeeling to display sensitivity, and also keep in mind their civic responsibilities. The problem can be resolved only through talk, he said.



I am concerned about the developments in Darjeeling and the loss of valuable lives and sufferings of people over the past 60 days which pains me immensely, Rajnath had said.



While highlighting the strategic location of Darjeeling, he had said, We all are aware of the strategic importance of the locality and the challenges that we face in the region. Keeping in mind the national, as well as the interest of Gorkha brothers and sisters, I appeal to GJM and all other stakeholders to call off the hunger strike, and also to withdraw the bandh call, allowing normalcy to return to the area. It is a move that will help to create an atmosphere for finding a solution to the current crisis.
A scandal involving eggs contaminated with insecticide spread to 15 EU countries, Switzerland and as far away as Hong Kong on Friday as the European Commission called for a special meeting on the growing crisis.



Ministers and food safety chiefs from around the European Union are set to meet on September 26 in a bid to get countries to stop "blaming and shaming" each other over the scare involving the chemical fipronil.



Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health, was made public on August 1.



The issue has sparked a row between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the three countries at the epicentre of the crisis, about how long they knew about the problem.



"Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this," Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, said as he announced the meeting.



"We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead."



European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that "this is not, let's be clear, a crisis meeting" and it is being held next month to get "distance to the events".



Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.



The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.



Dutch admit 'errors'



Brussels said the 15 affected EU countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark, along with non-EU Switzerland.



But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.



As well as dealing with the immediate food safety issue, the EU is also seeking to calm tempers over the egg row after a series of divisive crises in the bloc in recent years, from Brexit to migration.



Belgium earlier this week accused the Netherlands of knowing about the fipronil eggs since November 2016 and failing to notify other countries.



On Thursday Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers admitted the government had made "errors" but denied a cover-up.



"We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs," said Schippers.



A Dutch whistleblower separately said he had told the authorities that Chickfriend, the Dutch company at the centre of the scandal, was illegally using fipronil in the treatment of lice in chicken pens in The Netherlands.



"I am the anonymous whistleblower," Nick Hermens told the NPO public broadcaster.



A Belgian company, Poultry Vision, has said it provided Chickfriend with the chemical.



Dutch and Belgian investigators carried out coordinated raids on several premises on Thursday, arresting two people at Chickfriend.



However, Belgium itself has been forced to admit that it knew about fipronil in eggs back in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.





Fresh discoveries



Fresh discoveries of contaminated eggs have continued daily.



Denmark said on Friday it had found two tonnes of fipronil-tainted scrambled eggs, bringing the total of contaminated eggs to 22 tonnes, mainly from Belgium.



Poland said it had discovered about 40,000 eggs imported from Germany.



French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that since April the country had sold nearly 250,000 contaminated eggs, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, but the risk for consumers was "very low" given French eating habits.



The food scare is one of the biggest to hit Europe since the 2013 horsemeat scandal when equine meat was falsely labelled and mis-sold.



Previous food scandals include contamination of chickens and eggs by dioxin in 1999, which began in Belgium, and mad-cow disease -- cattle feed contaminated by the ground-up carcasses of animals infected with a deadly brain disorder -- which ran from roughly 1986-1998 and started in Britain.
When it comes to the final hurrah this summer, New York and Las Vegas are shaping up to be the busiest Labor Day destinations in the US.



That's according to the full-service online travel site Expedia, which also found that about a quarter of Americans will be marking the unofficial end of summer with a weekend getaway.



Labor Day has become one of the busiest travel periods of the summer, with more air travel in 2016 than other mid-year holiday weekends like Memorial Day and Independence Day.



But travellers should not be scared off by the popularity of a destination, say Expedia experts, who point out that while London -- a perennial favorite -- is 35 percent more popular this year, it's also roughly 15 percent less expensive than the year before.



Similarly, Las Vegas is twice as popular this year versus last year, but posting 10 percent cheaper rates.



It's the same story for Reykjavik which may have seen explosive growth in popularity, but is 25 percent cheaper this month than the same period last year.



Travellers looking for a last-minute deal to Paris and Barcelona on Labor Day weekend also stand to save 15 percent.



Here are the most popular US destinations for travel this Labor Day:



1. New York



2. Las Vegas



3. Los Angeles



4. Orlando



5. Chicago



6. Seattle



7. San Francisco



8. Denver



9. Dallas



10. Atlanta
New Delhi: Almost a week before the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) is to formally become part of the NDA, the Sharad Yadav-led faction says it has the support of 14 of 17 state presidents and has staked claim over the party.



According to a Sharad Yadav supporter, their faction has near unanimous support from senior leaders of the party, including a couple of its parliamentarians.



The Sharad Yadav faction has called a national convention in Delhi on August 17, two days before Nitish Kumar is scheduled to formally join forces with the BJP. Among the issues that are likely to be discussed at the national convention are the modalities regarding the JD(U)s election symbol. More importantly, when and how to claim it.



"We spoke to all our state unit presidents to get their views on Nitish's idea of alliance with the BJP. Except three, everyone agreed that it was a bad idea," said senior JD(U) leader Arun Shrivastava, who was recently sacked as the party's general secretary by Nitish Kumar.



Shrivastava, a close aide of Yadav, said the question of the election symbol will be discussed in the August 17 national convention of the party and the question of who the real JD(U) is will be settled by the people who attend the meeting.



Shrivastava claimed that the dissent over Nitish Kumar's decision to join forces with the BJP was not being challenged by just a few people.



"Take, for instance, our party's Kerala unit president and Rajya Sabha MP Veerendra Kumar who expressed dissent on the question of allying with the BJP. (Another Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar also spoke against it). Then it was Maharashtra party president and MLC Kapil Patil, who publicly defied Nitish by first voting for Meira Kumar (in presidential elections) and then criticising the tie-up with the BJP," Shrivastava said.



He cited the example of the party's eight-time MLA from Gujarat, Chotubhai Vasava, whose vote in the recent Rajya Sabha elections in the state proved crucial for Ahmed Patels victory.



"He also made his position against the idea of allying with the BJP pretty clear. Questioning Nitish, Vasava said that when he'd spent all his life fighting the communal forces of the BJP, how could Nitish expect him to participate in his decision?"



According to the Yadav aide, except the units of Bihar, Jharkhand and Silvasa, all other party units had pledged their support to Sharad Yadav.



"Nitish should remember that he was a guest in our party. It was Sharad Yadav who built the party units across the country. Bihar se baahar unhone 13 din nahi bitayein hain pure jeevankaal mein (In his career, Nitish has not spent even 13 days outside Bihar)."



It is not long before the question of who actually runs the party will be decided. Members of both factions and observers will now be looking at shows of strength by the two leaders later this week.
Bengaluru: Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday kicked off his visit to the state, declaring that the party stands united and said, 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar'(This time, a BJP government).



Shah, who is in Karnataka on a three-day visit to re-energise a faction-riven state unit, asserted that the party was ready for the electoral battle to win the assembly polls under the leadership of BJP state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa.



"Friends, our party stands united, and is geared up to take to the electoral battlefield under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji in coming days, and see to it that we form a BJP government in the state," Shah told party workers near the Kempe Gowda International Airport in Bengaluru.



Assembly polls in Karnataka are due early next year for which the party has a 150-plus seats goal to come back to power.



Shah is scheduled to interact with partymen at various levels and expected to give a pep talk to senior leaders to remain united, as the open bickerings between some of its leaders until recently had embarrassed the party.



Yeddyurappa has come under criticism from a section of partymen over his alleged "arbitrary style" of functioning with another senior leader K S Eshwarappa openly flagging the issue until both were told to shun open display of differences.



"I am hopeful that the way the party, for the last five years, has been fighting against the corrupt, oppressive and polarising rule of the Congress, the people of this great state of Karnataka have decided to vote the BJP to power," Shah said.



Addressing the party workers who gave him a rousing reception near the airport, Shah said he had come here to realise the goal of forming the next BJP government in Karnataka.



"I have come here amidst BJP workers to realise 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government) resolution," he added.



He said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Vijay Rath' (victory chariot) would reach Karnataka in next February-March, party workers should be ready with their quest to make inroads into the southern India by winning Karnataka.



BJP's first ever government in the South had ruled Karnataka from 2008-2013 that saw internal fights leading to change of chief ministers thrice and paved the way for return of Congress to power.



The ruling Congress is going all out to retain power but BJP has said it has a counter-strategy to fight its "polarisation politics."



The BJP would neither interfere in the Lingayat religion issue nor use Kannada language row as a political tool to counter the "polarisation politics" of the Congress in Karnataka, senior BJP leader Suresh Kumar said.



The Congress support to a separate religion cause of Lingayats, the largest community in the state, ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, is seen as an attempt to cause damage to the BJP, which enjoys considerable support from the community. The BJP also does not want to use the language issue as a tool to create hatred towards other communities and sections of the people, Kumar said.



Huge protests were staged by pro-Kannada outfits over the use of Hindi on 'Namma Metro' signboards, which also had forced Siddaramaiah to write to the Centre stating the government was compelled to ask Namma Metro to temporarily re-design signboards in stations without the Hindi language following a row over its use.



Shah's visit is part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party.



Shah's programmes during his three-day stay include interaction with intellectuals, meeting religious leaders, state functionaries, legislators, MPs, and leaders of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).



Tomorrow, he will take part in the Political Affairs Committee meeting of the party and visit Adi Chunchanagiri Math at Nagamangala in Mandya district and meet the seer, who is the religious leader of Vokkaligas, the second most powerful community in Karnataka.



He will also meet Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.



On the third day, Shah will address party "vistaraks" (volunteers) who had fanned out across the state to get feedback from the people.
Chennai: Beleaguered AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran on Monday put a show of strength with a large rally where he showcased the support of 20 party and independent MLAs.



The rally comes after the AIADMK faction supporting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) passed a resolution sidelining him and declared his post as deputy general secretary null and void.



Addressing more than 40,000 people in Melur, Dinakaran said, "When you have filed affidavits with EC stating that Sasikala is the general secretary and I am the deputy general secretary, why a resolution against me? It is not legal. It is done to confuse party cadre. Under whose pressure have you passed a resolution?



Attacking the EPS faction, he said ministers sitting in Chennai cannot decide the fate of the party. "Some people think they can rule the party sitting in the Secretariat. It is our duty to carry forward Amma's legacy. Let us take an oath to take the party in the direction of MGR, Amma and Chinamma," he said.



He also accused the state government of kidnapping a few MLAs who were trying to attend the rally. "MLAs have come here of their own accord. No one has compelled them and no money was given to woo them. I urge MLAs to not be afraid," he added.



Dinakaran took a dig at the allegations made by the faction supporting O Panneerselvam (OPS) and said that he is not afraid of a judicial probe into the death of J Jayalalithaa.



"Those who demand a CBI probe into Jayalalithaa's death must realise that they held important positions when she was hospitalised. Let there be a probe and let the truth come out," he said.



The rally comes at a time when both AIADMK factions are discussing the possibility of a merger.



Jayakumar, state finance minister, told the media, Merger talks have reached a final stage and very soon there will be a good decision. After meeting the Prime Minister, OPS has given a positive signal about the merger. We understand this was discussed in his meeting today with PM Modi."



He didnt offer any comment on Sasikala saying that the matter is subjudice before the election commission. But he reiterated that his camp has sidelined Sasikala and her family members from the party and the government.



Sources told CNN-News18 that the merger will happen sooner than later and that the talks are in the final stages. OPS met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and appraised him about the situation.
Patna: Union minister and LJP president Ramvilas Paswan on Sunday hailed Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar for leaving "poison" and drinking "nectar" which would take the state to greater heights of development.



"Nitish Kumar took a commendable decision to leave poison and drink nectar," Paswan told reporters in Patna. The union food minister was referring to Kumar's decision to quit the Grand Alliance of RJD, JD(U) and Congress over the issue of graft and join hands with NDA to form a government in Bihar.



Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party is a constituent of BJP led NDA, said, "We will make a clean sweep in Bihar in 2019 general election and Lalu Prasad and his associates would draw a blank."



With NDA government both at the Centre and Bihar, the pace of development would accelerate, he said. Paswan challenged RJD chief Lalu Prasad to prove his charge that he (Paswan) accumulated wealth worth crores of rupees and said it Prasad could do it, he would take retirement from politics.



"Except for a house in Patna which was bought out of bank loan when my son Chirag Paswan was acting in films, we have no other home either in Delhi or Patna," he said. "The piece of land purchased out of Legislator quota in Patna is lying idle and my bank account does not have more than Rs 5-7 lakh," he said.



Paswan said it was actually Prasad and his family members who are facing allegations of accumulating benami properties.
In helping solve the challenge for Indias next billion users, Google has announced the launch of voice search in eight additional Indian languages. Along with Hindi, the new languages include Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Speakers of these languages will be able to use their voice to dictate queries - both in Gboard on Android as well as in Search through the Google App. With this update, users can now use voice input in their local language to search for what they are looking for without the need of typing on a tiny keyboard, making the user experience that much faster and easier. In order to perform a voice-based search, users will need to set their language in the Voice settings menu in Google app. Using voice to dictate a message is not just convenient, but it is also up to three times faster than typing. The new language support will also enhance voice typing on Gboard, helping users to respond to emails on the go and send texts within messaging apps. To enable Voice Typing, users can install Gboard from the Play Store and choose their language from the Settings. Then all it takes is tapping the microphone to start speaking. Voice search in these new languages will be available in Google Search on iOS as well. While incorporating these new languages, Google has worked with native speakers to collect speech samples, asking them to read common phrases. This process not only helped train Googles machine learning models to understand the sounds and words of the new languages but also improved the accuracy when the system encountered more examples over time. Voice input for each of these languages is expected to get better over time, as more and more native speakers use the product. Earlier this year, Google had launched a set of new products and features to help create more language content and better serve the needs of the next wave of Internet users coming online. These new languages will be made available in the Cloud Speech API and will soon be extended to other Google apps and products, including the Translate app. Googles speech recognition now supports 119 language varieties in Gboard on Android, Voice Search and more.
Sydney: Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's political future was in doubt on Monday after it emerged he may be a dual citizen, placing the conservative government's slim parliamentary majority at risk.



Australia does not allow dual citizens to sit in parliament, meaning Joyce's revelation that he possibly holds New Zealand citizenship has major implications for the government.



The obscure rule was little known until recently but several lawmakers have fallen victim to it in recent months, leaving parliamentarians scrambling to clarify their ancestral ties.



"Needless to say, I was shocked to receive this information," Joyce told parliament about the news he may be a dual citizen.



"I've always been an Australian citizen born in (regional city) Tamworth. Neither me or my parents had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country."



The dual citizenship crisis kicked off in July when the minor Greens party's co-deputy leader Scott Ludlam resigned after revealing he had dual Australian-New Zealand citizenship.



The crisis soon claimed other victims, including Canadian-born Greens senator Larissa Waters and Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who left cabinet after finding his mother signed him up to Italian citizenship in his 20s.



Joyce said Monday he might have New Zealand citizenship, by descent, but did not quit cabinet or parliament and instead referred his election to the High Court.



"The New Zealand High Commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from the department of internal affairs... considered that I could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent," he said.



While Joyce -- the leader of the Nationals party -- is born in Australia, he told parliament his father was born in neighbouring New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1947.



The revelations could spark a crisis for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal-National coalition government, which won national elections last year with 76 seats in the House of Representatives -- a narrow one-seat majority.



Turnbull on Monday wrote to Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten to ask if his party wanted to refer any MPs over their citizenship status to the High Court so all the cases could be considered as a bloc, The Australian newspaper reported.



Canavan and minor party One Nation's Indian-born Malcolm Roberts have already had their elections referred to the court, with the judicial body to decide if they had taken reasonable steps to renounce their foreign allegiances.



Almost half of Australia's 24-million-strong population is made up of people born overseas or who had at least one parent born overseas, last year's census revealed. Indigenous people account for about three percent of the population.
Berlin: Police say a drunken American man was punched by a passer-by as he gave the stiff-armed Nazi salute multiple times in downtown Dresden.



Dresden police said on Sunday the 41-year-old, whose name and hometown weren't given for privacy reasons, suffered minor injuries in the 8.15 a.m. Saturday assault.



Police say the American, who is under investigation for violating Germany's laws against the display of Nazi symbols or slogans, had an extremely high blood alcohol level. His assailant fled the scene, and is being sought for causing bodily harm.



It's the second time this month that tourists have gotten themselves into legal trouble for giving the Nazi salute.



On August 5 two Chinese tourists were caught taking photos of themselves making the gesture in front of Berlin's Reichstag building.
Ouagadougou: Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.



There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began.



In addition to those killed, eight others were wounded, Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists. Two of the attackers were also killed, he said.



The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. At least one of the dead was French and another was Turkish.



Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.



Three or four assailants arrived at the restaurant on motorcycles and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining Sunday evening, said police Capt. Guy Ye.



Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.



In the 2016 attack the attackers were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for those killings along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.



The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.shortfall.
Lahore: Pakistan's banned militant outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which recently launched a political party, on Sunday fielded a candidate against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif's wife Kulsoom for the seat which fell vacant after the former premier's disqualification.



Headed by Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Jamaat-ud- Dawa (JuD) announced the formation of 'Milli Muslim League' (MML) in Islamabad on August 7 following weeks of campaign in Punjab's provincial capital Lahore.



Ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMN-L) party members Asif Kirmani and Captain Safdar filed the nomination papers of Kulsoom, who is in her late 60s, for the upcoming by-poll for the NA-120 seat at the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) Lahore office on Friday.



The National Assembly seat fell vacant after 67-year-old Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case on July 28.



"We will protect the people's especially women rights. Khidmat (service) committees will be set up at union council level to ensure serving the people at the grass roots," said MML President Saifullah Khalid at a large rally 'Istehkaam Pakistan Conference' held on the Mall Road in Lahore.



Khalid said his party would provide an "honest" leadership to the country and also announced launching of a movement to revive Pakistan's ideology.



"We will defend Pakistan's ideology at any cost. We will also defend the constitution of 1973. The MML will promote unity in the country," he said, adding that supporting Kashmir's freedom struggle "is part of our faith".



"We will defend Pakistan's ideology. Our rulers are incapable to rule," said Qari Yaqoub Sheikh, MML's candidate for the vacated seat.



As the MML is yet to be registered with the ECP, Sheikh has filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate.



Sheikh said the process of the MML registration as a political party was under way before the ECP.



Former federal information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said at the rally that the "MML is the party that wil guard Pakistan's ideology".



He said the MML would eliminate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's friends from Pakistan.



Head Political Affair and acting chief of JuD Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki said Politics of MML was "based on unity, and on texts of Quaid and thoughts of Iqbal".



The JuD is believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 deadly attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed by 10 terrorists who came from Pakistan.
Freetown: A mudslide killed more than 200 people on the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown on Monday, sweeping away homes and leaving residents desperate for news of missing family members.



The Red Cross said at least 205 bodies had been taken to the central morgue in Freetown. Police and military personnel were at the scene in the mountain town of Regent searching for people trapped in the debris.



Many people living at the foot of Mount Sugar Loaf were asleep when the mountainside collapsed, burying dozens of houses, including two-storey buildings, witnesses said.



Standing in the rain, residents sobbed as they mourned family members and waited for news of those missing. Adama Kamara wept as she described a failed attempt to rescue her 7-week-old child.



"We were inside when we heard the mudslide approaching. I attempted to grab my baby but the mud was too fast. She was covered alive," said Kamara, who escaped with bruises. She said she was not sure what had happened to her husband.



A man said he had left early in the morning to buy bread. When he returned, his wife, children, siblings and in-laws were all dead.



The death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered, Red Cross spokesman Abu Bakarr Tarawallie said.



Vice president Victor Foh told Reuters at the scene: It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble. He said a number of illegal buildings had been erected in the area.



The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken, he said. We're trying to cordon the area. Evacuate the people.



An excavator ploughed away at the mountainside and ambulances rushed back and forth to the city centre with bodies and wounded, but rescue efforts were hampered by bad roads and the weather, a Reuters witness said.



Community chief Fatmata Tarawallie said she had started calling for help at 4 am (9:30 am IST) but that it did not come soon enough. "Now our community has sunk," she said.



Mudslides and floods are fairly common during the rainy season in West Africa, where deforestation and poor town planning has put residents at risk.
Washington: Facing potentially deep budget cuts to US foreign aid, new USAID administrator Mark Green says he needs to do more with less and prove to President Donald Trump that development assistance can further his "America First" agenda.



In a first meeting with Trump back in January, Green made his pitch to the then president-elect, drawing from his experience in Central America to explain how US-funded programs there could help slow the number of immigrants trying to enter the United States illegally.



"I said 'Mr President-elect, I believe our development tools can help us achieve just about every one of your strategic priorities,'" Green told Reuters in his first interview since starting last week as head of the US Agency for International Development.



Green had previously worked on US-supported projects with indigenous mayors in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to improve living conditions "so kids hopefully don't go 1,000 miles through the worst conditions imaginable and jump the border."



"It works and is a great way to use development," he said, sitting in a still bare office at USAID headquarters blocks from the White House.



Green brings a unique resume to the job: a former four-term Republican congressman from Wisconsin who served as U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania under President George W. Bush. In his last job as head of the International Republican Institute, he helped promote governance and democracy overseas.



His time on Capitol Hill will be key to his new job. In a sign of his good standing there, Green's nomination had support across the political spectrum, as well as among aid groups.



Trump staked out his position on foreign aid on the campaign trail, casting it as a waste of US tax dollars. And now his administration has proposed slashing the budget for foreign aid by a third, which could gut programs across a range of issues including health, governance, gender and education.



But US foreign assistance has traditionally garnered bipartisan support in Congress, which controls the aid purse strings. Green has stronger relations with lawmakers than his predecessors, who battled Congress on funding and objectives.



"What's very different for Mark Green is that his strongest allies are on the Hill," said Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington. "Where he faces headwinds are with both the White House and the State Department."



"There is a real potential for conflicts in basic philosophy about what USAID does," added Morris.



Green is nevertheless sanguine about prospects for a downsized, budget-constrained USAID.



"We can't do everything," he said. "The resources are limited, so we have to prioritize."



Green takes over an agency that has already been through waves of reform in the last decade, adapting to shifting global development patterns featuring deep-pocket philanthropic groups, more private-sector investment in emerging economies, and the rise of China as a financier in the developing world.



New demands have emerged with an unprecedented refugee crisis from wars in Syria and Iraq, along with famine in Africa, and growing violent extremism.



"USAID's humanitarian work is unrivaled, it is mobilization of American generosity, and it will continue," Green said, adding that U.S. assistance should both help in times of crisis and prevent crises from occurring.



He wants US foreign assistance to focus on results to show Americans that their tax-dollars are being put to good use.



"I am going to ask every program to show me how it is moving us closer to the day when people can lead themselves," said Green. "If it is not helping, they're going to have to tell me why."
Prayers, dialogue, a candlelight vigil and silent contemplation  thats how 90 people at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg sought solace a day after violence erupted in nearby Charlottesville.

Sundays prayer service offered a chance for the Lynchburg community to discuss the tensions that exploded into violence in Charlottesville on Saturday after an alt-right rally fraught with white supremacists and neo-Nazis turned deadly, leaving 32-year-old Heather Heyer dead after James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio, allegedly plowed his Dodge Challenger into counterprotestors, leaving many others injured.

Charlottesville has recently been a hotbed of white nationalist activity after its City Council voted in February to remove a statute of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee from a park named in his honor. The city later changed the name to Emancipation Park, but the statute has not yet been removed due to a legal challenge. As the legal battle wages on, white nationalist have rallied around the statue.

Were here because we need to be here, because we ought to be here, said Peakland United Methodist Church Senior Pastor John Vest as he welcomed congregants. Evil in the world must be confronted. Sometimes the church needs to gather and light a candle amidst the darkness.

The service was led by Emma Johnston, associate minister of discipleship, who shared the parable of the Good Samaritan with the congregation before asking questions that prompted dialogue among those in attendance, who split into small groups throughout the sanctuary to share their thoughts.

I think its more important now than ever that we cross these pews, Johnston said. If we cant have this conversation here, we cant have this conversation at work, at school, in the community or with those that we love most.

Johnston posed several questions from the pulpit to guide the discussion:

- How do we identify the neighbor in our own lives?

- How do personal prejudices or cultural norms determine the actions you take?

- How can we encourage a response of hospitality to all those in and outside of our churches and communities?

- Where can we identify signs of hope as we begin to recognize the presence of God in those whom we have denied equal access? Johnston asked the mostly white crowd.

Throughout the discussion, small groups of parishioners discussed the importance of resisting the message of white supremacists and combating that mentality with different views, the frustrations of politicians latching onto the evangelical message when their actions do not support its core values and the need to engage with people of color and welcome them into the community.

Lynchburg resident Rachel Lloyd emphasized listening and reaching out to the less privileged.

I think that any time that youre in a position of privilege  whether it be white, male, or upper class  that you do have an obligation to reach out to those who are in pain or arent as privileged as you are, Lloyd said.

For David Dawson, of Campbell County, Sundays service and discussion offered him a chance to decompress. Dawson and nine friends observed the alt-right rally on Saturday.

Dawson described an energy of hate at the alt-right rally.

Though he said he felt overwhelmed at times, he never felt in physical danger. He said he was mostly unaware of the violence perpetrated but was close enough to cough from the tear gas.

Later he witnessed the scene after the car attack and saw people being treated in the street.

My understanding is that from the beginning they were promising violence, and they delivered that, Dawson said.

After Dawson heard news of the fatality, he said a sense of trepidation crept over the group he was with. He added he found it difficult to decompress as he returned to Lynchburg around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Dawson also observed the Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville in July. Both times he said he was close enough to smell tear gas, and described the two events as something he never had seen before.

To experience that firsthand is so different than reading about it, Dawson said.
In the face of a wave of criticism, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran defended how police handled last weekend's white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, which was marked by vicious street fights and a driver who rammed his car intentionally into a group of counterprotesters, police say, killing one and injuring 19 others.

Two state troopers also died when a Virginia State Police helicopter monitoring the scene crashed, the denouement of a dark day that thrust the college town into the national spotlight.

Moran and McAuliffe pointed instead at a judge's decision that prevented city officials from moving the rally from Emancipation Park in downtown Charlottesville, the site of the statute of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that the city wants to remove, to McIntire Park about a mile and a half away.

"We did not want to engage the rally attendees or others in an urban environment," Moran said, adding that the park was too small for the number of expected attendees at the "Unite the Right" rally of white nationalists and others associated with the so-called alt-right. "Locating this type of demonstration in the center of town posed significant public safety risks."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia joined a request for an injunction filed by Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, whose permit to conduct the demonstration was revoked by city government. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Glen E. Conrad granted the injunction allowing the rally to go forward at the Emancipation Park location.

"We were unfortunately sued by the ACLU, and the judge ruled against us. That rally should not have been in the middle of downtown: to disperse all those people from the park where they dispersed all over the city streets and it became a powder keg," McAuliffe said in a radio interview Monday with National Public Radio.

He said police did a "magnificent job."

We have to do a better job working with the judiciary. They need to listen to local city officials," McAuliffe said. "The judiciary needs to do better job working with us ... I am angry that this was not moved to McIntire Park where the city of Charlottesville requested."

Claire Gastanaga, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, fired back Monday.

"The situation that occurred was preventable and our lawsuit challenging the city to act constitutionally did not cause it," she said in a statement, adding that the city failed to present evidence justifying its "imposition of prior restraint on free speech."

Gastanaga, who was in Charlottesville Saturday, said the policing "was not designed to be or effective in preventing violence" and expressed those concerns to Moran and the head of the Virginia State Police.

"The lack of any physical separation of the protesters and counterprotesters on the street was contributing to the potential of violence," she wrote. "They did not respond. In fact, law enforcement was standing passively by, waiting for violence to take place, so that they would have grounds to declare an emergency, declare an 'unlawful assembly' and clear the area," she wrote.

Moran pushed back against the contention, as observed by journalists, rally organizers and counterprotesters, that police stood by while people, many of whom were carrying homemade shields and makeshift clubs, beat each other bloody in the streets.

"Whatever decisions law enforcement made were based on public safety concerns of the demonstrators as well as law enforcement officers," said Moran, who also got a glimpse of the ugly scene firsthand. "I've never seen anything like that and I hope to never see it again."

The white-nationalist rally was supposed to start at noon, but police on the scene declared an unlawful assembly before it began.

"We provided demonstrators time to disperse, approximately 11 minutes," Moran said. "Then we moved in with a tactical unit sufficiently protected with riot gear to clear the park."

Moran said Charlottesville police were in charge of the event but noted that the state response involved hundreds of police and National Guard members, though he would not provide specific numbers because of security concerns.

He noted "some irony" in the fact that activists, including the ACLU, criticized police for heavy-handedness during a July Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, though he added that the plan for last weekend was developed based on the circumstances of each individual event.

"The fact is we proceeded in the best interest of the citizens of the commonwealth and law enforcement. That's what we did on both occasions," Moran said. "We did everything we could. The plan was executed very well. You would hope that the death of a young woman and two state troopers will lead to nonviolent expression of opinion in the future."

The dispute comes as a Confederate heritage group says it plans a rally next month in Richmond, where Mayor Levar Stoney has empaneled a commission tasked with adding context to Monument Avenue's string of rebel leaders.

Rather than seeking to scapegoat the ACLU of Virginia and the Rutherford Institute for the devastating events on Saturday, it is my firm hope and desire that the governor and other state and local officials will learn from this past weekend how constitutionally to prevent events like the horror we saw in Charlottesville from ever happening again," Gastanaga said.

Moran said Charlottesville will "inform" how the state prepares for the rally in Richmond if it happens.

"We will be in communication with the city," Moran said. "It should be a very collaborative process."

McAuliffe said he convened an emergency Cabinet meeting Monday to discuss the "next steps we, as a commonwealth, must take in order to begin the arduous process of healing our community and confronting the racism that stubbornly remains in our nation."

The governor says he has called for a commission with members from community organizations, law enforcement and religious groups to "make actionable recommendations for executive and legislative solutions to advance our mission of reconciliation, unity and public safety."

He also directed his staff to conduct an extensive review on how rally permits are issued, law enforcement preparation and response and coordination between local, state and federal authorities.

"Finally, I commend our Virginia State Police and National Guard personnel, who worked in support of the city of Charlottesville, for their tireless work this weekend under very challenging and volatile circumstances. Without their extensive preparations and measured actions, we would be facing a far more grave situation today," McAuliffe said.
The Department of Livestock and Veterinary Services is experiencing challenges in vaccinating cattle for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) due to shortage of vaccines.

The departments principal director, Dr Unesu Ushewokunze-Obatolu, last week said supplies of vaccines for the past two years had been inconsistent.



This means that the virus has spread unchecked in the affected provinces of Midlands, Manicaland (south), Masvingo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South, she said.

Currently, we have active clinical infections going on in Chipinge South, Mwenezi, Chivi and Chiredzi. These are in our regular vaccination areas, which have gone for many months without regular vaccine cover.



Dr Ushewokunze-Obatolu said in a global context, Zimbabwe was an FMD-infected country, without FMD-free zones.



This is a situation we must work very hard to come out of through systematic reinforcement of Veterinary Services by recapacitation, infrastructural and budgetary support, she said.



Dr Ushewokunze-Obatolu said the department was faced with challenges, including a veterinary doctor establishment of less than 30 percent strength, with very poor coverage, weak logistical and financial support given the economic situation and weakened technical capacity.



Other challenges include abuse of police clearance to effect livestock movement, vandalism of veterinary infrastructure including game and cattle fences and absence of physical boundaries in many communal areas, she said.





Ineffective animal identification mechanisms and non-co-operation by wildlife conservancy operators is also affecting FMD control measures.





Control of the disease depends on the effectiveness of movement controls on livestock, the effectiveness of Veterinary Services in rapidly detecting and controlling outbreaks at their source through quarantine and vaccination of exposed and in-contact animals and the support that can be received from stakeholders.





These three elements have been compromised since the loss of FMD control zones due to loss of boundary fences in wildlife areas and cattle farming areas, said Dr Ushewokunze- Obatolu.





Cattle owners knowingly or unknowingly have been moving stock across the FMD control zones, thereby spreading the virus to formerly free areas.





With zonal control, it is possible to know and limit the population of cattle which require to be vaccinated periodically. Animals in vaccination areas require regular revaccination at six monthly intervals.





This population has in the past been approximately two million cattle.

Without zonal controls, as is the case presently, the population requiring vaccination increases variably as incursions occur outside the high-risk areas.





Following an outbreak, the vaccine must be administered repeatedly every four months to all affected and in-contact animals. herald
Mugabe allegedly beat up Gabriella Engels, 20, from Johannesburg, who was partying with her two sons in a Sandton hotel on Sunday.

Mugabe allegedly beat up Gabriella Engels, 20, from Johannesburg, who was partying with her two sons in a Sandton hotel on Sunday.

Harare - Zimbabwes first lady, Grace Mugabe, may face prosecution after allegations she assaulted a woman in Sandton at the weekend.

Harare - Zimbabwes first lady, Grace Mugabe, may face prosecution after allegations she assaulted a woman in Sandton at the weekend.

Engels, who says she is a model, took to Twitter on Monday to accuse Grace Mugabe of attacking her with an extension cord. She posted pictures of her injuries on her Twitter feed.

Her mother, Debby Engels, said via her daughter that she would be reporting the alleged assault to the police.





The whole party, including Grace Mugabe, was eventually asked to leave the hotel where the alleged assault happened, according to management of the Capital Hotel Group.

Social media in Harare and Johannesburg erupted after Engels posted her version of events online. Many Zimbabweans questioned whether the first lady would be charged or if she would get diplomatic immunity.





But Department of International Relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela told the Sowetan Grace Mugabe could not claim immunity.

She needs to be here on official business. It won't apply if she's here on holiday or for something else" he said.





"Secondly as a first lady she's not part of government or a government official. It doesn't apply just because she's the wife of a president" Monyela said.

Mugabe was in South Africa last week to receive treatment for her injured foot, and did not attend her husbands youth rally in Gwanda, southern Zimbabwe, on Saturday.

But sources in Harare claim she did return to Zimbabwe on Saturday, but only spent a night there, then returned to Johannesburg the next day to attend to her sons, who regularly attend the Taboo nightclub in Sandton, where sources say they spend a great deal of money on champagne.





The 25-year-old Robert jr is supposed to be studying at the University of Johannesburg.

Robert jr and Chatunga Bellarmine, 21, were recently evicted from their flat in Rivonia after they got caught up in a drunken brawl which resulted in a security guard being injured. Repairs were needed to the R70 000-a-month rented flat. Chatunga was previously expelled from his high school in Harare for bad behaviour.





The two Mugabe sons were previously studying in Dubai, but had to leave suddenly earlier this year, apparently after problems with their social life.
UFIC spokesperson Prime Kufa confirmed the prophecy, saying: Yes the video was played, re-living the service of the 9th of April wherein the man of God spoke about the need to pray for a prominent politician because he was seeing something entering his stomach causing him to vomit  food first and then blood and ending up in hospital. Though the man of God did not mention any names, you need to watch the footage in order to come up with your own interpretation.


Updates by The Herald

11:05- President Mugabe arrives at the national shrine amid wild cheers and the crowd shouts Gushungo! Gushungo! As the national Anthem is being sung, eight helicopters fly past in two diamond shapes.



11:07 - President Mugabe is now inspecting the guard of honour mounted by the Presidential Guard.

11:36 - President Mugabe takes to the podium and starts with salutations. He recognises the presence of Service Chiefs, mentioning them all by name. He welcomes all gathered here to commemorate the sacrifices made by fallen and living Heroes who delivered independence.



We are gathered here to pay tribute to all our Heroes, where ever they are. On this solemn occasion, we remember the men and women who sacrificed for our freedom and independence, says President Mugabe.



11:38 - These men and women should live forever in our memories and across generations.

11:40- This national shrine and many others dotted across and beyond our country, are our own way of institutionalisation our heroes lives. Beyond time and successive generations. In celebrating them, we affirm the ideals for which they laid down their lives.

While, as a nation, every year we set aside the second Monday in August to commemorate and celebrate the lives of our heroes, we should in fact remember them everyday of our lives.



11:43 - President Mugabe says the nation shall certainly remember thousands who perished in the battle fronts and those massacred at Nyadzonia, Tembwe Freedom and Chimoio bases.

As Father Mukonori eluded, even the masses endured torture and harassment at the hands of the colonialists, President Mugabe says.



He says, fed up with the inhumane treatment they were subjected to by the settlers, a lot of young boys and girls skipped the border to fight for their independence.



11:46 - Some of them were so young that we had to take them to school. We had to find out from among ourselves who the teachers were. We set up schools for them. We also needed doctors but they were not there. They later came after finishing training, the likes of Dr Sekeramayi, he says.

11:49 - Referring to Father Mukonoris Bible reading which spoke of a woman who committed adultery, President Mugabe jokingly asks what of the man with whom the woman committed adultery with, and the crowd bursts in laughter.



11:55 - President Mugabe has urged Zimbabweans to jealously guard the gains of the liberation struggle of which land is one of them.

11:58  Let us keep this land to ourselves and not bring back the whites because they are already talking, asking why we took back the land if we are failing to utilize it.

There are some who are coming back clandestinely saying we left farming equipment and are entering into agreements with black farmers, we do not want that.



11:59 - President Mugabe says it is not true that Zimbabwe chased away white settlers saying only land was repossessed. We did not touch any industry. They fled on their own, he says.

12:04 - President Mugabe has urged unity among Zimbabweans. Unity, means we have to share the same ideology. But there are some who are still crawling by night going to Britain and her allies pleading for sanctions.

We are appealing to those individuals to drop that kind of behaviour. Zimbabwe belongs to all of us.

We say Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe belongs to all of us. We say Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans.

12:14 - President Mugabe says at the end of the struggle, Zimbabweans reconciled with the colonisers and even South Africa copied the model at their independence.



His Excellency says the cabinet is divided over the issue of death sentence.

Some are saying let us forgive them, but some are strongly opposed to forgiving these criminals arguing that they are ruthless.

President Mugabe says local prisons have plenty of people who were sentenced to death but the job for a hangman has not find any takers for a long time.

If there are any who are interested in the job, please apply. But the ruthless killing was only being done by the white men. We as blacks are finding it hard to execute each other.



12:27  As we today gather at the national shrine, and shrines elsewhere, we would want to do so in a special way. I urge everyone to pause and reflect because if you saw what was happening during the colonialists era, you would feel pity for the blacks. They were not allowed to go into stores like Barbours. They were also restricted into getting to places like Highlands

We were only allowed to stay in areas like Mbare and Highfields.

President Mugabe says places like Highfields were also reserved for government employees but the rest were subjected to unpleasant conditions.



12:31  The freedom we have now, is the freedom for all. Let us use it to promote all of us in the country. Our institutions of development should work in unison. Our schools should work in unison. All children must go to school. That is what we agreed at independence. They must go to the highest level if their capabilities.



12:35 - President Mugabe says there is need for the country to have its own engineers who can spearhead development in ways that can make Zimbabwe catch up with the rest of the world

He says technology can be used for information gathering as well as to enhance learning at schools.



12:37  However, there are some people who use the Internet for selfish reasons. The opposition and our detractors post lies about us. You then hear them saying bad things about us. Total lies. They would have read on the Internet.



12:43 - President Mugabe says this morning, he learnt of the death of Minister Mahofa who was a member of the Zanu PF Politburo.

President Mugabe has also urged Zimbabweans to remain peaceful as the days towards our harmonised elections are drawing closer and closer.

We need peace. Peace has to be the guiding principle. Let us thank our security forces for the protection they have given us.



12:47 - As we organise ourselves in government, some elements are getting out of control. We have a bad incident of the members of the army who went into the streets to beat up police. I have discussed the incident with the commanders, says President Mugabe.

He says the army and the police serve one purpose and queries how they would handle the populace when they are at Cross purposes.



12:50  Let us always remember we are the children of the struggle by staying United.

As he concludes his address, President Mugabe counsels that the nation should always be guided by the principle the late VP John Landa Nkomo left with us.

The principle is that PEACE BEGINS WITH ME, PEACE BEGINS WITH YOU, PEACE BEGINS WITH ALL OF US.



12:56 - A gospel choir takes to the stage and sings a Ndebele rendition, Thixo Olothando (God of love).



12:59 - As the gospel choir finishes, the ZRP choir takes over. The ZRP choir master drives the crowd crazy with his choreographic skills on stage.

13:05 - According to Dr Chombo, His Excellency is going to lay the wreath at the East and West Wings.



13:07 - VP Mphoko, Senate President Edna Madzongwe and Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda have also laid the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
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A woman who accused a former Army colonel of raping her when they were both cadets at West Point in 1986 has been ordered to pay him $8.4 million. A jury in Virginia sided with Col. David "Wil" Riggins against blogger Susan Shannon in Riggins' defamation lawsuit, the Washington Post reports. Riggins was about to be promoted to brigadier general in 2013 when Shannon made the accusations on her Short Little Rebel blog. He was removed from the promotion list, despite the Army's Criminal Investigative Division concluding that it could not "prove or disprove Ms. Shannons allegation she was raped." Riggins retired soon afterward and sued Shannon, saying her account was "provably false."

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before ordering Shannon to pay $3.4 million in compensation for damage to his reputation and $5 million in punitive damages, the Post reports. The final settlement is likely to be reduced to $2.3 million under Virginia law. Shannon's testimony was so flawed that "we thought who was telling the truth was too obvious to be discussing," says juror Marshall Reinsdorf. "We held a vote, and everybody believed the colonel. The only argument was how big the damages were going to be." He says they decided on $5 million damages to make sure "nothing like this will ever happen again." Shannon, a mother of three, insists that she was telling the truth and says she now feels like she is Riggins' "financial slave for life." (Read more US military stories.)
A 62-year-old Canadian freed from a life sentence of hard labor in North Korea is back in his homeland, where he told his church Sunday about the harsh conditions he endured. Hyeon Soo Lim, who was freed last week on what Pyongyang called "sick bail," arrived back in Canada on Saturday, the AP reports. He had been held since 2015 after being accused of trying to use his Christian religion to overthrow the North Korean regime. In a statement in English released before he addressed the Mississauga church in Korean, Lim said he experienced "overwhelming loneliness" in captivity, eating a total of 2,757 meals in isolation. He lost more than 50 pounds during his imprisonment.

Lim said that in winter, he was forced to dig deep holes in the frozen ground, the CBC reports. "My fingers and toes were frostbitten. I also worked inside a coal storage facility, breaking apart coal," he said. "In the spring and summer, I worked outside, eight hours a day, in the scorching sun." He said the hard labor caused him to be hospitalized four times, once for two months. After Lim's safe return, his son, James Lim, thanked the governments of Canada and Sweden, which handles diplomatic issues in Pyongyang on Canada's behalf, for securing his father's release. "Now more than ever, he's never felt more Canadian," the son said. (North Korea says millions of people have volunteered to fight the US.)
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Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz are out and proud, and the high school seniors chose yearbook quotes to reflect that. So the students in Kearney, Mo., were less than thrilled when they opened up their new yearbooks to discover blank spaces under their names, reports KCTV5, instead of the quotes they'd submitted along with all their classmates. Slivinski wanted his quote to read, "Of course I dress well. I didn't spend all that time in the closet for nothing," while Swartz chose, "If Harry Potter taught us anything, its that no one should have to live in the closet."

District administrators have since issued a statement apologizing to the students for "our mistake," saying they'll "use it as a learning opportunity to improve in the future." They say they try to "protect" their students by erring "on the side of caution" with quotes that could "potentially offend another student or groups of students." Swartz and Slavinski, meanwhile, are planning to make stickers of their quotes that they can slap into their yearbooks and those of friends, per Fox News. "I'm comfortable in my own skin and with who I am," Slivinski says. "It felt like the district took that from me." (This high school senior was not censored for her sassy yearbook quote.)
A man who traveled from Berkeley, Calif., to attend the Charlottesville protests won't have a job when he gets home. The Top Dog hot dog chain fired Cole White after he was identified on social media as one of the white nationalist protesters in the Virginia city, the East Bay Times reports. "Effective Saturday 12th August, Cole White no longer works at Top Dog. The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by Top Dog," the company said in a statement Sunday, adding: "We believe in individual freedom, and voluntary association for everyone."

White was one of several protesters identified by the Twitter account @YesYoureRacist after users were asked to name people in photos from the Charlottesville rallies, reports the New York Daily News. "Cole White, the first person I exposed, no longer has a job," the user later tweeted. A legal analyst tells KPIX 5 that the firing is probably legal. The First Amendment "only protects you from actions by the government based on your speech," she says. "It doesn't protect you from actions by your private employer." She says it's also not a discrimination issue, because going to a rally like Charlottesville "doesnt make you a member of a protected class." (Read more Charlottesville, Va. stories.)
Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday, the AP reports. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began. In addition to those killed, eight others were wounded, the country's communications Minister told journalists. Two of the attackers were also killed, he said. The victims were of several different nationalities, he said. At least one of the dead was French and another was Turkish.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. Three or four assailants arrived at the restaurant on motorcycles and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining Sunday evening, police say. The landlocked West African nation shares a border with Mali. The border region is now the home of a radicalized preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government. In January 2016, an attack on a hotel in Ouagadougou left 30 people dead. (Read more Burkina Faso stories.)
Netflix has scored a major coup by landing one of the top producers in television. Shonda Rhimes, the force behind such hit series as Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, will jump ship from ABC Studios, reports the Wall Street Journal. Under the multi-year deal, Rhimes' production company, ShondaLand, will produce original content for Netflix, though Rhimes will continue to shepherd her ABC series still in production.

The deal follows another in which Netflix lured filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen and is another sign that the streaming company thinks its future is in original content, notes Variety. The financial terms weren't disclosed, but Rhimes is believed to have gotten a healthy bump from her current salary of about $10 million a year from ABC. (Read more Shonda Rhimes stories.)
Many are worried over North Korea's ICBM launch last month, which analysts say indicate its weapons can now reach the US. And what may be behind this apparent success: liquid-propellant rocket engines from a Ukrainian factory linked to Russia's missile program that were then scooped up on the black market, per the New York Times. This revelation comes via classified documents from US intelligence agencies and an analysis by Michael Elleman for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in which he notes the "astounding strides" of North Korea's missile program, including its upgrade from medium-range missiles to a Hwasong intermediate-range missile and ICBM in just two years' timewhich he says no other nation has ever done. Elleman says it seems Pyongyang was able to pull off this feat with a rocket engine based on Soviet RD-250 engines, which only a few Soviet plants made.

The state-owned Yuzhmash factory that's being eyed is in Dnipro, a plant the Times describes as "awash in unpaid bills and low morale." What Elleman says lends credence to his theory is that two North Koreans were busted six years ago trying to swipe data on these types of engines from there. The Yuzhmash website notes it "will not [participate] in any cooperation involving the transfer of potentially dangerous technologies outside Ukraine," though Elleman doesn't buy that. "It's likely that these engines came from Ukraineprobably illicitly," he tells the Times. "The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I'm very worried." No one's sure how the engines would've made it to North Korea, which the Times notes would indicate a "broad intelligence failure" on the part of all countries keeping an eye on Pyongyang. Elleman's in-depth take is here. (Read more North Korea stories.)
In a five-day span at a single hospital in India, 60 children have died, 34 of them infants. The rash of deaths, which the Independent reports began last Monday, has led to the suspension of the head of the hospital in Uttar Pradesh state, and it's also spurred a string of questions and finger-pointing. Reuters cites Indian media's take: that some of the deaths were due to a lack of liquid oxygen, with the hospital's supply having been cut off due to unpaid bills. Rajeev Misra oversaw the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur before his suspension, and he backs up that assertion, telling the media on Saturday that "I wrote at least three letters" to the government requesting money. A Home Ministry rep was quoted as saying 21 of the deaths were the result of the oxygen shortfall, reports the Washington Post.

But other officials and a hospital doctor cited by Sky News say the oxygen supply wasn't a factor. They claim mosquito-borne encephalitis was the cause of 35% of the infant deaths, with the rest being due to unspecified causes. State officials say they were able to bolster the oxygen supply after reaching out to area nursing homes. But parents tell Sky the oxygen supply dried up Thursday night and that parents were offered manual resuscitator bags. The Post obtained documents showing the hospital had been receiving letters regarding unpaid bills for six months, and that nearly $90,000 was owed to a medical supply company. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has pledged to get to the bottom of the situation: "We will know whether it was because of an oxygen shortage or due to a lack of proper treatment. Those found guilty will not be spared." (Read more India stories.)
There are far more questions than answers in the disappearance of journalist Kim Wall, who hasn't been heard from since she boarded Peter Madsen's now-sunken submarine Thursday night on Denmark's Refshaleoen island. The sub has since been raised, and Wall's body wasn't in it. Madsen isn't contesting a court decision to keep him in custody for up to 24 days as Danish police investigate, and while he has been charged with killing Wall by unknown means, his lawyer has denied he had anything to do with her vanishing. The Local quotes a Sunday press conference with the Copenhagen Police deputy chief inspector, who said Madsen's story has changed, from initially telling officials he dropped Wall off at 10:30pm Thursday night on the island to another unspecified explanation since.

The Guardian reports Madsen says they spent about three hours on his Nautilus sub, the largest privately made one in the world at the time of its 2008 launch; the Swedish journalist, who divides her time between New York and Beijing, was doing a profile on Madsen. The Local also picks up a report from a Swedish tabloid that cites a witness who said Madsen's sub was seen sailing without its lights on some two hours before Wall's partner reported the vessel as missing around 2:30am Friday. "There was very nearly a collision" between the sub and a freighter, per the witness. The Washington Post describes Wall as accomplishedthe London School of Economics and Columbia University grad wrote for the New York Times, Guardian, and Atlantic, among othersand recounts her travels to Pyongyang, Sri Lanka, and the Marshall Islands for stories. (Read more missing person stories.)
Critics of President Trump's response to racial violence in Virginia have been waiting to see whether he will condemn white supremacists on Monday. He may yet do that, but first he condemned one of those critics. "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!" Trump tweeted Monday morning. The tweet came less than an hour after Frazier, the African-American CEO of Merck, announced that he was resigning from the federal panel in protest of what he saw as a tepid presidential response to the weekend unrest in Charlottesville, reports the Hill.

In his statement, Frazier said that American leaders must clearly reject "expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal." That was a clear shot at Trump's Saturday afternoon response that condemned the "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence" but also said "many sides" were to blame for it. "As CEO of Merck, and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism," wrote Frazier in announcing his departure from the panel. He is one of only a few black CEOs in the Fortune 500 ranks, notes the New York Times. (Read more President Trump stories.)
A judge in Charlottesville, Va., has denied bond for an Ohio man accused of plowing his car into a crowd at a white nationalist rally, reports the AP. Judge Robert Downer said during a bond hearing Monday he would appoint a lawyer for James Alex Fields Jr. The 20-year-old is charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities say he drove into the crowd, fatally injuring one woman and hurting 19 others. Also on Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the attack that killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer "domestic terrorism."

"It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute," Sessions said on Good Morning America, per ABC News. "You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is unequivocally an unacceptable, evil attack." Sessions also defended President Trump's public response to the violence. The president, he said, "explicitly condemned the kind of ideology behind these movements of Nazism, white supremacy, the KKK. That is his unequivocal position, he totally opposes those kind of values." He predicted that Trump would address the nation on the subject soon. (Read more James Fields stories.)
A police officer far removed from the weekend violence in Virginia faces disciplinary action because of it. That's because Conrad Lariviere, a cop from Springfield, Mass., made what even he admits is a "stupid comment" online about Saturday's fatal car crash, reports MassLive. "Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldn't block roads," Lariviere wrote on Facebook in response to a story about the car plowing into counter-protesters. Someone who saw the comment complained to the city police department.

"Never would I want someone to get murdered," Lariviere told MassLive. He said he wasn't a racist and didn't support the white supremacist rally, adding, "I'm a good man who made a stupid comment and would just like to be left alone." Springfield's police chief says he has launched an investigation, and the matter will be brought before a police review board. Mayor Domenic Sarno doesn't sound sympathetic. "There is no place for this in our society, let alone from a Springfield police officer," he said, per CBS Boston. (Read more police officer stories.)
The FBI on Saturday arrested a 23-year-old man who authorities say attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank. Officials say Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Okla., was arrested around 1am after he twice dialed a number on a cellphone that he believed would detonate a 1,000-pound vehicle bomb in a van he had parked in an alley alongside BancFirst in Oklahoma City, reports KOCO 5 News. Except the feds were in on it all: A federal complaint says the FBI learned in December that Varnell wanted to blow up a building and that an undercover FBI agent posed as someone who could help. The alleged motivation? Extreme hatred of the US government, reports the Washington Post.

Officials say Varnell initially wanted to blow up the Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, DC, with a device similar to one used by 1995 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, whom he reportedly admired, reports the AP. He ultimately chose BancFirst at 101 N. Broadway as his target, assisted in building the bomb and putting it in place, and drove what he believed to be a stolen van himself, authorities say. Per the criminal complaint, he was not looking to cause mass casualties but rather to "somehow cripple the government." Varnell is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday afternoon on a charge of attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. (Read more bomb plot stories.)
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New Delhi:

A 20-year-old girl was allegedly thrown off by a 22-year-old man from the fourth floor of an under construction building after she resisted a rape attempt. The incident took place in Delhis Begumpur area on Sunday.

The accused Deepak was later arrested by the Delhi police under attempt to murder charges. The victim was admitted to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital and currently battling with her life. The doctors stated that she is in coma.

On being asked about the accused, the girls father said that it was not only Deepak who attempted rape but there were many more people.

A senior police officer said Deepak took the girl on his bike and told her that after getting his car from his house he would drop her at her house. Since the hotel and Deepaks house are in the same area, the accused, who was drunk, took the girl to an under construction building where he attempted to rape her. As she resisted, the accused tossed her from the 4th floor of the building.

ALSO READ | Mumbai: 16-year-old boy raped for 1 year by 15 men, one of them was his friend

ALSO READ: A law student in Kerala bites off tongue of a man as he tried to molest her
New Delhi:

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the Centre will cooperate with Tamil Nadu if it brings an ordinance seeking exemption from NEET for government colleges for one year.

In response, state Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said an ordinance in this regard would be submitted to the Centre on Monday morning.

The development in NEET was seen after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, state ministers and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai had multiple meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Central ministers over NEET.

Tamil Nadu, which had initially sought permanent exemption from NEET by passing two Bills in the Assembly, later made efforts to be out of its ambit for at least a year or two.

Sitharaman said although students who had qualified in NEET included those from the state board, students from rural Tamil Nadu were largely out of it.

"The Centre is ready to cooperate in case the Tamil Nadu government comes up with an ordinance seeking exemption from NEET for government colleges," she said adding the exemption was only for a year.



State School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan, in Coimbatore, said the government wanted total exemption fromNEET for the benefit of students, particularly from ruralareas.

However, efforts were on to prepare students for commontests in future, he said.

Sitharaman said although students who had qualified in NEET included those from the state board, students from rural Tamil Nadu were largely out of it.

"The Centre is ready to cooperate in case the Tamil Nadu government comes up with an ordinance seeking exemption from NEET for government colleges," she said adding the exemption was only for a year.

Barring government colleges, NEET has already been implemented for other institutes, the Union minister said. In Puducherry, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan said the Centre was inclined to accept a representation from Tamil Nadu on NEET.

Terming Sitharaman's remarks a "good news" Vijaya baskar said, "I thank Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on behalf of Tamil Nadu government and students."

Tomorrow morning the state ordinance seeking exemption from NEET would be submitted to the Centre. A government secretary would be leaving for Delhi tonight and the ordinance would be promulgated after consultations with the chief minister, he said.

The state health minister said the Tamil Nadu government was confident of the Centre's nod for the ordinance and under no circumstances had the Centre been "negative" about the proposal.

"We are seeking exemption only for seats in government colleges and government quota seats in self-financing colleges," he said, adding it was not sought for private institutes. Vijayabaskar said care was being taken to ensure that the proposed move does not face any legal hurdles and the government was confident of completing the admission process ahead of the month-end deadline.

In future, students would be well-prepared for NEET and the syllabus too would be oriented likewise, he said. Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly M K Stalin hit out at the centre and state governments accusing them of "staging drama" on the issue and "betraying" students.

He said if the BJP-led government at the Centre was truly interested in the welfare of Tamil Nadu students it should get presidential assent for the two Bills for permanent exemption of the state from NEET. Actor Kamal Haasan, meanwhile, in a tweet, asked the state government to "talk immediately" (with the Centre) on the NEET issue since the matter involved the future of students.

Earlier, a group of state ministers accompanied by senior party leader and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai called on Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi and took up the issue, over which the opposition parties have been attacking the state government.

Rebel AIADMK leader and former chief minister O Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital on the same issue.

The state ministers called on Singh and Jaitley days after some of their colleagues, including Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, met Modi and some other Union ministers on the NEET issue.

The ministerial delegation had on July 20 submitted a memorandum to Modi, seeking presidential nod for two bills passed recently by the state assembly aimed at exempting the state from NEET and pending with the Centre.

The bills would pave the way for the continuation of undergraduate medical admissions on the basis of Class 12 marks, exempting Tamil Nadu from the ambit of NEET.

With PTI Input
Melbourne:

Director-producer Karan Johar may have left a mark on the popular culture but believes he is yet to make a notable contribution to the Indian cinema.

The 45-year-old filmmaker wishes to direct movies like "Lagaan" and "Lage Raho Munna Bhai".

"I may have contributed to the pop culture but I don't think I have contributed to the brilliance of cinema as yet.

"I'm yet to make my 'Lagaan' or a 'Rang De Basanti' or a'Lage Raho...' which I believe are defining iconic films", Johar said at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2017.

The "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" director hosted a Master class on 'How to direct a big Bollywood dream' at the ongoing festival on Sunday.

Citing the example of "Baahubali", he said, "We need to reinvent... Dependence on stars has to reduce. Content has to take over."

The filmmaker said he believed he should have made more movies and that his 19-year-long career has been a terrible record.

"I think I should have made many more movies. You start believing that you are so important that you can't fail.

Nobody is that important. Cinema is bigger than all of us.

Read more: Rishi Kapoor greets Pakistan on Independence Day

"Last year, I promised myself to lessen the gap but I'mstill crackling with the idea of what to make because it's the same fear of failure, over estimation about the self that keeps popping up, which I have to fight out."

Commenting on his work as a director, Johar said he has never been given his due credit as he is judged for being frequently seen on the small screen.

"I'm a talk show host and then I'm dancing on reality shows which is embarrassing for my family too... So, Raju Hirani, Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar or Anurag Kashyap will be taken more seriously because they are serious filmmakers whereas I'm dancing on 'Jhalak Dikhla Jaa'.

"But I'm ok with that as long as I make that one feature film that I believe I have yet to make, which will supersede any perception or any observation on me and what I represent", he said.

Johar praised actor Aamir Khan, calling him as "the most intelligent cinematic mind" in the industry, especially after giving a blockbuster like "Dangal".

The director said he wants to work with the actor but nothing concrete has come their way. "I don't want to be the one who gave him the bad film... I'm over-nervous."

Johar's next film will be dedicated to his five-month-old twins, Yash and Roohi.

"My cinema has always been an extension of my state of mind... Whether it was 'My Name Is Khan' or 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil', it has always been resonant with my state of mind", he said.

Read more: Ajay Devgn to play Income Tax officer in Raj Kumar Guptas Raid

"It's not that I will make parental film but there would be layers in my next film that would actually explicitly portray my humongous level of excitement for having Yash and Roohi."

Johar said his new film venture, which features Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, will start shooting in October or November this year.

He also talked about writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi's appointment as the chairman of Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) and said that the move would bring the much needed change of certifying films rather than censoring them.

Johar was given the Leadership in Cinema Award at the fest and is likely to host the IFFM Awards night next year.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the 71st Independence Day from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Tuesday. His speech may include the achievements his government in the last three years and further prospects. It is also expected that PM Modi will talk about the Goods and Services Tax and the benefits the country will get from its implementation in the future. This time PM Modi's speech will be smaller than before.

Apart from this, he may also talk about the situation in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and eastern India, and the efforts being made by the central government to resolve such issues.

Terrorism and Kashmir issue

PM Modi can speak on terrorism and related issues as in recent times, it is seen that terrorists are being killed by Indian security personnel in many areas of Kashmir. This is a great achievement from India's point of view and at the same time, the Zero Tolerance policy has always been adopted by the central government against terrorism.

ALSO READ | 70 years of Independence: Young turks who can rule Indian politics

Demonetisation

The opposition parties have always targeted the central government over its demonetisation move. Recently, the Congress party had come up with two different sizes of Rs 500 notes in the Lok Sabha, terming it to be the biggest scam of the century. Hence, it is expected that the PM may also speak on this issue.

Swachh Bharat Campaign

Swachh Bharat Campaign is PM Modis one of the top most agendas. He may talk about the governments efforts to clean India in the last three years and the future prospects related to the campaign.

Pakistan and China issue

PM Modi may also speak on Indias relations with the two neighbouring countries. Indias ongoing tussle with China over Doklam issue and terrorism coming from Pakistans side are the two important issues that the country is facing right now.

Gorakhpur Medical College

More than 60 children died due to lack of oxygen in the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur on Friday. Till now, the Prime Minister has not discussed this issue on any forum. The Opposition parties are also targeting him and his silence on the issue. Hence, there is a lot of possibility that he could speak on this issue.

Watch | 70 years of Independence: Indian and Pakistani artists sing National Anthems

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New Delhi:

India has healthy and successful diplomatic relations with most countries and enjoys lucrative trade practices with nations both big and small.

In the last few years, India has further strengthened its relations with several powerful countries of the world. The newly developed relations are sure to enhance the economy and military power of the country in the coming years and help it to become a prominent voice in global affairs.

Countries with which India shares amicable relations include Russia, Israel, France, United States, and Japan.

The United States - India is a true friend

The United States has offered to train the Indian Army in modern warfare, at a time when China and India are engaged in a standoff on Doklam issue. US lawmakers have come up openly in support of India.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump had called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, India is a True Friend.

PM Modis visit to the US has further strengthened the bond between the two nations. Trump, in a joint conference with PM Modi, asked Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch any terrorist attack in India and other countries.

With the common goal of fighting terrorism, US has cleared the sale of 22 unmanned Guardian drones to India. The two countries have also agreed to share data on maritime traffic to keep a tab on the vast seas and oceans.

Japan - Extends help to achieve nuclear goal

PM Modis visit to Japan last year has cemented ties between the two countries. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to export sophisticated nuclear technology to India.

India aims to increase its nuclear capacity 10 fold by 2031 and Japan has extended help to achieve the goal.

Japan has also offered its help to provide expert support to India to build six nuclear plants.

Japan is also helping India with the much talked about bullet-train project.





France - Defence collaboration dates back to 1950

Like Russia, France has been a special friend of India during rough times. Trade between the two countries has grown from 5.13 billion in 2006 to 8.5 billion in 2015.

Indias relationship with the country has centred around three crucial areas including nuclear, space, and defence.

With the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France, the ties have only strengthened further. France will be constructing six EPR (nuclear reactors) of 1,600 MW each in India.

Defence collaboration of the two countries dates back to 1950. France was the first country to carry out joint naval exercise after India conducted the 1998 nuclear tests and was under sanctions. India is procuring state-of-the-art Rafale fighter jets from France.

India will be procuring six Scorpene submarines, 51 Mirage-2000s and 490 MICA missile systems from France.

Israel  Support each other on defence matters

India and Israel face the similar problem - terrorism supported by their neighbours. Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. During his visit, he had said, I for I. Which means India for Israel and Israel for India.

India and Israel have partnered up for: India-Israel Industrial Research and Development and Technical Innovation Fund, Increase cooperation on water conservation, State water utility reform in India, Israeli citizens of Indian origin to get Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), Direct flights between two countries and Sharing of weapons technology.

The two countries will extend support to each other on defence matters, particularly air force and navy. India is to procure Barak 8 air defence system from Israel.

Russia - Jointly developing fifth generation fighter aircraft

India and Russia have a strong strategic diplomatic, military, and economic relationship.

The Indo-Russian partnership has been built on five major elements which include politics, defence, civil nuclear energy, anti-terrorism cooperation, and space.

Politically, India and Russia closely collaborate on matters of shared national interest at the UN, SCO, BRICS and G20.

The two countries are jointly developing and producing fifth generation fighter aircraft and multi-role transport aircraft.

India and Russia have several joint military programmes which include BrahMos cruise missile programme, Sukhoi Su-30MKI programme (230+ to be built by Hindustan Aeronautics in India), and Ilyushin/HAL Tactical Transport Aircraft.

India and Russia have signed a deal worth $2.9 billion for 42 Sukhois, 230 Sukhois, 272 Sukhois, and medium-lift Mi-17 V5 helicopters.

Russia will also help India to build 20 nuclear reactors over the next 20 years.

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New Delhi:

Union Minister Rajnath Singh donated one months salary to a BharatkeVeer fund, which helps families of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel who laid down their lives on line of duty.

Singh handed over a cheque of Rs 1.59 lakh to Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi at the launching program of social media awareness campaign regarding the BharatkeVeer fund.

A home ministry official informed that the fund has gathered Rs 15 crore so far.

Singh tweeted, Celebrate #IndependenceDayIndia with the following hashtags and support #BharatKeVeer

A statement from the home ministry said, The security forces have made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and people need to stand by their families to support them.

Also Read: Compensation for disabled paramilitary jawans increased to Rs 20 lakh

During the event Singh launched emoji of the BharatKeVeer fund and appealed the citizens to support families of martyrs.

An government official said, people can visit the app or the website BharatkeVeer and make their contribution.

The official added that the monetary contributions made on the BharatkeVeer app or website will directly go into the bank accounts of martyred security personnels family members.

Also Read: Family of each martyred paramilitary jawan will get Rs 1 crore aid, says Home Minister Rajnath Singh

The motto of the portal Bharatkeveer.gov.in is to enable the public to help families of paramilitary personnel by donating money online.

CAPF commonly known as paramilitary force includes Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve POlice Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Assam Rifles (AR), Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP), National Security Guards (NSG), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF-India).

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Beijing:

India has taken up with China a complaint filed by an Indian passenger alleging misbehaviour with Indians at the Shanghai Pudong international airport by the staff of a Chinese airline, sources said on Sunday.

The matter has been taken up with the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Pudong airport authorities after it was brought to the notice of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, sources told PTI.

Meanwhile, China Eastern Airlines has denied the allegation saying that after checking related materials and the airport CCTV footage, it found news reports about the incident did not conform to the fact, state-run Xinhua news agency reported last night.

"Instead, the airlines employees offered meticulous service," the airline said in a statement.

The company claimed that it is dedicated to providing quality flight service for passengers around the world.

Earlier, media reports said that North American Punjabi Association executive director Satnam Singh Chahal wrote to Swaraj alleging that he noticed that at the exit gate of the airplane for wheelchair passengers, ground staff was insulting transit Indian passengers.

Chahal, who travelled on August 6 by China Eastern Airlines flight from New Delhi to San Francisco, had to stop at Shanghai Pudong to catch his next flight of the same airlines for San Francisco. He said when he complained to concerned Airlines he was shouted down by the official. "I noticed from their body language that they were frustrated from the rising border tension between India and China," Chahal was quoted as saying in the letter, apparently referring to the nearly two-month long standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam in Sikkim section.

Chahal even suggested to Swaraj to issue an advisory for Indian transit travellers to avoid transiting through China.

Last month, China had issued a safety advisory to its nationals in India to pay close attention to their safety and take precaution for their security to avoid being affected by prevailing anti-China sentiment.

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New Delhi:

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday visited families of BRD hospital tragedy victims in Belwar village of Gorakhpur.

Akhilesh Yadav attacked UP government for hiding the reason behind the tragic incident and not doing enough.

He said the government is hiding everything, it should at least tell what the reason behind deaths was? If there was a disruption in the supply of oxygen then who was responsible for that, he asked.

He said the families of victims have told him that their children were not provided with enough treatment and because of that died.

Also Read | Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: NHRC observes deaths violated right to life, seeks report from UP govt

Yadav also criticized Siddhartha Nath Singh for his August statements saying he looks a well-educated man. If this had happened during Samajwadi government, they would have made it a big issue.

Akhilesh has also demanded Rs. 20 lakh compensation for the families of deceased children.

Yogi Adityanath govt is under the attack of opposition after more than 70 children died in Gorakhpurs BRD hospital due to alleged oxygen disruption over unpaid bills.

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New Delhi:

Gorkhaland state stakeholders have ended their hunger strike on Monday, a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to them.

The indefinite bandh called by the Gorkhaland state stakeholders under the banner of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) entered its 61st day.

Members of Twelve Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha had started fast-unto-death agitation in the hill region of West Bengal on July 21 as part of their stir to press in demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.

On Sunday, Singh had met members of GMCC in Delhi.

We lifted the fast-unto-death from our stir to respect the request made by the union home minister, said Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurang to media.

The members of GMCC gave Singh a memorandum detailed with the demands.

On Sunday, Singh had also appealed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate talks with Gorkhaland state stakeholders.

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New Delhi:

Four Security forces personnel injured in a grenade attack by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmiras Budgam on Monday. Terrorists hurled a grenade at a road opening party of CRPF and police at Batpora in Magam area, 20 kilometres from Srinagar, reported news agency PTI.A

Three CRPF personnel and a local policeman were among injured in the attack. All the injured were taken to SKIMS Medical College hospital at Bemina for treatment.

The attack took place a day after security forces killed Yasin Itoo,A Hizbul Mujahideen's chief operational commander and successor of Burhan Wani.A

Security arrangementsA in the valley have increased in wake of terrorist activities ahead of Independence Day on August 15.

J&K: Four security personnel injured in a grenade attack by terrorists in Budgam's Kanihama. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/Uab1SMDgii a ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

More details are awaited.

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New Delhi:

BJP said it would scrap Article 370 but realized isn't possible through Parliament so they went to the court, asking others to fight the case, said Omar Abdullah, working president of National Conference (NC) as he inaugurated a seminar in Kashmir on Monday to educate people about the benefits of Article 35A.



The NC has alleged that the abolition of Article 35A will adversely affect people of Jammu region and has called for a referendum in Jammu on the same.



Abdullah added, Surprisingly, BJP has made issue of 35A a case of Jammu vs Kashmir. They say it will benefit Kashmir but adversely affect Jammu. People from outside will come and buy plots here, get government jobs, scholarships for their children and aids and relief.



National Conference has accused the BJP of trying to stoke the fire of communal division among the people. NC provincial president Devinder Singh Rana said the debate over Article 35A was neither Hindu versus Muslims nor Jammu versus Kashmir.



Abdullah reiterated if BJP succeeds in scrapping Article 35A through the court, the state subject laws will end. He said, Take it in writing that before going to Kashmir to buy land and look for jobs they will come to Jammu. Someone who wants to buy land in this state will he do that in Kashmir? Even people residing in Kashmir don't feel safe there.



Meanwhile, on the Section 35A matter, Supreme Court said matter may be tentatively heard by a 3-judge bench on August 29.



Whenever tax relaxation is needed CM takes off to Delhi. Whatever could have been decided here are decided in GST Council, added Abdullah.

Also read: Its time to revoke Article 370 and 35 A, says BJPs Jammu and Kashmir unit

Article 35A: J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti meets PM Modi

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New Delhi:

Monsoon floods and landslides unleashed by unprecedented rains have killed hundreds and affected lakhs across the country with places like Assam and Bihar being adversely affected. Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered all support to Assam and also spoke to CM Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday and Monday regarding the situation in the state.

Further, he also spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the flood situation in the state on Monday and assured him of all support from the Centre to mitigate the situation.

The situation is being monitored closely, the prime minister said. "My thoughts are with all those affected by floods inparts of Bihar," Modi said.

ALSO READ: 11 trains cancelled; PM Modi assures support to Bihar, Assam

"Centre assures all support to Bihar government tomitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work," the PMO tweeted.

All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state tweets PM Modi  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

Due to rains in the catchment areas of Nepal andSeemanchal district, rivers like Mahananda and Kankai in Biharhave swelled leading to floods in four districts.

Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely & constantly monitoring the situation tweets PM Modi  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

The chief minister had demanded an additional deploymentof 10 companies of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)in the state, besides deployment of the Indian Air Force'shelicopters to carry out relief-and-rescue operations.

PM Modi spoke to Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal yesterday & today regarding the flood situation in the state. pic.twitter.com/AR6MeaYK7b  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

PM Narendra Modi speaks to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar regarding the flood situation in parts of the state, says situation being monitored closely pic.twitter.com/liGxany4lG  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

With PTI inputs

READ: Assam deluge: Death toll reaches 89, 11 lakh people affected

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New Delhi:

Newly elected President of India, Ramnath Kovind on the eve of India's Independence day addressed the nation. It was his first ever address after becoming India's President. During his address, the President congratulated the people of India for Independence day. He thanked those who laid their lives for the freedom of India.

Also Read | President Ram Nath Kovind live: 'It is responsibility of each one of us to promote sense of pride in paying taxes'

Here are the top 10 quotes:

# As citizens of India  whether we live at home or abroad  we must ask ourselves how we can add to our countrys pride.

# There are some obvious parameters like a house for every family, better roads & telecom, a modern railway network.

# New India must include that integral humanist component that is in our DNA & which has defined our country & civilisation.

# Your wholehearted support in the battle against corruption and black money reflected a responsible and enlightened society.

# Government is building toilets or helping build toilets  but it is for each of us to make India open-defecation free.

# Government can frame laws and strengthen law enforcement  but it is for each of us to be a law-abiding citizen.

# We should work with unity and purpose to ensure that the benefits of government policies reach all sections of society.

# Contribution of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Bhimrao Ambedkar cannot be forgotten: Nehruji emphasised Indias age-old heritage & traditions could coexist with technology & quest to modernise our society while Babasaheb Ambedkar urged the virtues of constitutional governance, of rule of law  and of the vital need for education.

# Mahatma Gandhi emphasised the moral character of India and of Indian society. The principles that Gandhiji spoke about are relevant even today.

# It is crucial to understand that the dream for a free India was in the all-round development of our country.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed Madras High Courts order staying Centres lookout circular against Karti Chidambaram, four others in connection with graft case filed by the CBI.

The Apex Court would take up the matter for hearing on Friday. The Apex court also issued a notice to Karti, saying that the latter did not join the probe, and asked him to appear before the CBI.

The Supreme Court asked the Madras HC to decide Karti's plea seeking to quash of FIR in consonance with law.

On August 10, the Madras High Court had stayed the 'look out circulars' issued against former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram and four others by the Centre over a corruption case filed by the CBI, holding that they were prima facie "unwarranted".

Lookout notice against Karti Chidambaram issue: Supreme Court stays the Madras High Court order till Friday.  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

Justice M Duraiswamy had granted the interim stay when petitions filed by Karti and others seeking to quash the circulars came up for hearing and directed the central government to file its counter by September 4.

SC asked Karti Chidambaram to appear before the probe agency, CBI, in INX media Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance case  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

Karti's associates C B N Reddy, Ravi Viswanathan, Mohanan Rajesh and S Bhaskararaman had also got the interim relief.

Noting that the impugned circular had been issued just a day after the notice was sent under relevant CrPC sections asking Karti to appear on June 29 for questioning, the judge had said, "this...according to this court, is prima facie unwarranted".

Also Read: Karti Chidambaram moves Madras HC against 'look out circular'

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New Delhi:

Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that the latter should legislate a law to make singing Vande Mataram compulsory instead of making vague statements.

According to The Hindu, Thackeray, who was addressing a gathering in Vile Parle, said that Vande Mataram should be sung every day.

He said, The BJP MLAs, who warn others over Vande Mataram, cant sing even four lines. The party must introduce a law for the same.

Also Read: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray criticises Modi, says nation failed to get international support on Pak, China

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New Delhi:

In a peculiar move, a German startup has generated an idea to set up a communication tower. Part Time Scientists, commonly referred to as PTScientists are striving towards developing technology to transmit data back to the earth using Audi lunar quattro rovers.

Though rovers themselves have the ability to transmit feed but they consume a lot of power and need to remain still while doing so.

However, Robert Boehme, Chief Executive Officer of the startup has provided a fixation for that with the use LTE data connection that consumes far less power, as mentioned in an email he sent to BloombergQuint.

Read more: Scientists discover two potentially habitable 'Earth-like' planets

What makes this unique mission a possibility?

The German company has managed to secure a spot on a shared launch of a Falcon 9  the reusable rockets belonging to Elon Musks SpaceX.

PTScientists, just like SpaceX, aims to bring down the cost of future missions and enable greater access to space and lunar exploration. The spot is expected to open up in 2018, Boehme said.

The startup also has not given out details of funding it has received till date, and who its investors are.

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Kathmandu:

Around 600 tourists, including 200 Indians, were stranded in Nepal's popular tourist town of Chitwan due to flooding triggered by heavy rains that have claimed 49 lives, officials said on Sunday.

Heavy rains have lashed Nepal for the last three days causing flooding and landslides.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 13 persons were injured in the rain-related incidents and 17 others remained missing.

The latest data released by the ministry shows that 21 districts have been hit badly by the flash floods and landslides, The Himalayan Times reported.

Around 600 tourists were stranded due to flooding in Sauraha in Chitwan.

The trapped tourists include 200 Indians, 200 Nepalis and another 200 from various countries, the report said citing authorities. The swollen Rapti and Budhirapti Rivers have inundated many hotels in the tourist destination.

Chief District Officer Narayan Prasad Bhatta said efforts were on to shift the trapped tourists to safer places.

According to data by the ministry, one person was killed in Panchthar, four in Sindhuli, Jhapa and Banke each, five in Morang, eight in Sunsari, three in Sarlahi and Surkhet each and two in Bara and Dang each.

Similarly, seven persons died in Rautahat floods and landslides, two in Bardiya, one in Dhanusha, Makawanpur, Kailai and Palpa districts each. Jhapa, Morang Sunsari, Sapttari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Banke, Bardiya and Dang districts were the worst affected by flood.

Some 35,843 houses have been inundated, 1,000 houses are damaged and 397 livestock died in the floods, the ministry data said. Many cities in the Tarai region have been inundated while transportation along the East West Highway has been halted after a pillar of Dudhaura Bridge sank at Pathlaiya-Nijgadhroad section.

Yesterday, Nepal Cabinet had held an emergency meeting during which Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had ordered the local district administrations to intensify the rescue and release activities.

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New Delhi:

In a random gun-attack by Islamist terrorists, 18 people have been killed and several injured including three security personnel at a Turkish restaurant  Aziz Istanbul  in the Burkina Fasos capital Ouagadougou on late Sunday.

Burkina Faso security forces have gunned down two assailants after a seven-hour long gunbattle.

At this moment our forces have neutralized two terrorists and the number of casualties, still provisional, is 18 dead and several wounded, Communications minister and government spokesman Remy Danguinou told Washington Post.

Dangunou further added that the victims are mainly children and women.

The toll could rise as several people have suffered critical injuries in the firing. Three security personnel were also wounded during the assault, said Dangunou to media.

Burkina Fasos security forces cornered and engaged the Islamic Terrorists in a gun battle soon after the assailants started random firing.

Capt. Guy Ye, spokesman of the security forces told the media that the gunbattle between security forces and terrorists lasted for seven hours.

Till the time report was filed no militant organisation has claimed the attack.

The restaurant had come under terrorist attack last year in January. Then 28 people from 18 countries were killed.

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New Delhi:

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has announced that Ian Narev, its chief executive, will retire by the end of its 2018 financial year amid allegations the countrys biggest bank violated money laundering laws. Narev faced calls to step down last week after the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC launched a civil action against the bank alleging serious and systemic non-compliance with the laws more than 53,000 times.

The 50-year-old initially insisted he would stay on but Livingstone said on Monday that the bank wanted to end speculation over his future.Succession planning is an ongoing process at all levels of the bank. In discussions with (Narev) we have also agreed it is important for the business that we deal with the speculation and questions about his tenure, she said.

Todays statement provides that clarity and will ensure he can continue to focus, as CEO, on successfully managing the business.Shares in CBA, Australias biggest company by market capitalisation, closed 1.01 per cent higher to Australian dollars 81.31 in Sydney.

Im not really that surprised thats happened, said TS Lim, a banking analyst at Bell Potter.The good thing is theres a lead time of a year or year-and-a-half, so theres continuity, he said. I think it removes some of the volatility in the company.New Zealand-born Narev took over the top job at the Commonwealth in late 2011.

He had previously been involved in its private banking arm and before that worked as a corporate lawyer.His tenure has delivered bumper returns for shareholders, including a record Australian dollars 9.93 billion (USD7.86 billion) annual net profit unveiled last week.

But it has also been marred by scandals over poor financial planning advice, insurance payouts and now allegations of money laundering. In the latest case, the countrys corporate regulator ASIC said Monday the bank was refunding some Aus$10 million in total to more than 65,000 customers after selling them unsuitable consumer credit insurance.

The Commonwealth Bank is accused by AUSTRAC of failing to deliver on time 53,506 reports for cash transactions of Australian dollars 10,000 or more at its cash deposit machines between November 2012 and September 2015, with a total value of Australian dollars 624.7 million.

It also failed to report suspicious transactions on time, or at all, that totalled Australian dollars 77 million, and did not monitor customers or manage the risk even after becoming aware of suspected money laundering, AUSTRAC claimed.

According to AUSTRACs 583-page statement of claim, some of the allegations included suspected members of a crime syndicate using fake names and IDs to make separate cash deposits to CBA accounts.The moneytotalling millions of dollarswas then transferred to bank accounts in Hong Kong, the statement of claim said.

Several people had been arrested over the case, including three in Hong Kong, AUSTRAC added.Each breach of the laws could attract Australian dollars 18 million in fines, potentially running into the billions of dollars.

With PTI inputs

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New Delhi:

Hoisting the largest flag in its history at Attari-Wagah border near Lahore, Pakistan marked the 70th Independence Day on Monday.

Kicking off the festivities of the Independence Day across the country, Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted the flag at the border at 12 in the midnight.

The flag hoisted by Pakistan is reported to be the highest one in South Asia and 8th highest in the world. Made in Pakistan, the flag is 120-feet by 80-feet in size and 400-feet high.

Some 77 years ago, Pakistan resolution was passed in the same city (Lahore). Pakistan came into being on the night of 27th Ramadan - it was a blessed night, Gen. Bajwa said.

ALSO READ: 1971 Pakistan prison-break by Indian Air Force officers now made into a film

Today, the country is progressing on the path of the law and the constitution. All institutions are working properly. We will make Pakistan the country of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal, he further added.

We have rendered many sacrifices - we will never forget our martyrs. We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan. I want to tell our enemies, whether they are in the east or in the west, that your bullets will end but not the chests of our jawans [soldiers], Bajwa said.

Acknowledging Pakistans internal and external challenges Gen. Bajwa said, I assure you that we will never let you down. Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts.

Other speakers also paid rich tributes to those killed during migration to Pakistan.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ: Nawaz Sharif lashes out at Pak military, judicial structure; says will replace flawed system with new law

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New Delhi:

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Somalia polio free on Sunday after the country didnt record any cases of the disease in the past three years.

The UN health agency said that the last case of polio was recorded in Somalia in 2014 and since then the country has remained free of the deadly disease.

The organization, however, has warned that the country still remains vulnerable and hence called for continued vaccination campaign.

Mohamed Fiqi, who is the head of WHOs Eastern Mediterranean has been quoted as saying that the extensive vaccination campaigns and commitment from the side of government and international actors had played a key role in ensuring that the polio virus does not recur.

The WHOs declaration has kept Somalia outside of the group of countries where the disease is still affecting the people.

As a matter of fact, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the countries where cases of polio are still being reported. Fiqi has warned that Somalia still faces the risk of importation of the deadly virus from these three countries.

Somalian President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo lauded the efforts of the organizations concerned for eradicating the disease which has affected many children in the country.

Somalia continued to be a polio-free country for the third straight year. However, this comes in the midst of the worst measles outbreak it has witnessed in years. The country is also battling other diseases like diarrhea and cholera, which started in January this year.

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One man was killed and another was seriously injured over the weekend when they were hit by a roller coaster that was being tested at Kijima Kogen Park in Oita Prefecture, the police said.

According to the police, park employee Takashi Okubo, 44, and another employee were struck at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday while inspecting the tracks at the Jupiter, a wooden roller coaster. No one was riding it at the time, the police said.

According to KK Kijima Kogen Operations, which runs the park in Beppu, a famous hot spring resort, it was preparing to put a second roller coaster into service at around 3 p.m. to accommodate a growing crowd. The roller coaster is believed to have been going 40 to 50 kph when it struck the two men, knocking them to the ground some 2 meters below.

The Jupiter is Japan's first wooden roller coaster, according to the park's website. It was built from 60,000 Douglas fir trees.


Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 263 of the invasion Zelenskiy says Russian forces destroyed all of Khersons critical infrastructure before fleeing as work to restore power under way #forces #invasion #war...







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Developments in the Chinese technology sector, and cross-border investment, are opening important doors for U.S. startups. As the general manager of the first U.S.-China technology incubator platform and an observer of U.S.-China cross border investments and entrepreneurship, I'm often asked about key investment trends, issues and tips on how U.S. entrepreneurs can navigate their companies in this new reality.

Related: China's Effect on the U.S. VC Game

Here are some of the trends I see, and how American entrepreneurs can take advantage:

Trend 1: Chinese companies are seeking innovators for acquisition -- and looking beyond their own backyard.

After years of growth, Chinese venture capital and technology industries had a downturn in 2016 due to the failure of Online to Offline (020) businesses. O2O was supposed to create a plethora of unicorn companies, but that didnt happen. True, there were some successes: DidiKuaidi, LittleRedBook, and Yingke live-streaming.

But many new businesses failed to anticipate the time, money and resources needed to acquire users and compete with large internet and mobile companies, like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, which were also deploying O2O strategies.

With little competition from unicorn companies, theres now fierce competition among these giants to gain a leadership position in China and other regions. The result: I see this trend opening the door for more Chinese investment into the United States, as Chinas tech giants race to acquire companies that further strengthen their monopolies. Acquisition is, in fact, favored over building from scratch.

Related: China is Now Inviting Entrepreneurs to its Newest Investment Hub Guizhou

Tip: If youre looking for funding, you have more options than ever. Chinese investors are supporting innovators creating disruptive technologies. And theyre putting hard cash into those companies. Just look at unicorn companies like Zoox, Tesla, SpaceX, Hyperlook, Uber, and Airbnb -- their funding isn't coming just from U.S. investors.

Hot industries include augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous vehicle applications. And, of course, many of these technologies are being developed in Silicon Valley.

Trend 2: M&A teams and venture capital funds are taking hold at Chinas tech companies.

Beyond their growing U.S. presence, focused on R&D, business development and marketing, Chinese tech giants are investing and creating their own venture funds.

In 2013, Tencent invested $330 million in U.S. game developer Epic Games, and now owns 48.4 percent of the company. According to Forbes, the company also invested in four of Chinas largest technology venture deals, in 2014. More recently, Baidu announced Baidu Capital, a $3 billion investment fund focused on mid-to-late-stage deals in the internet sector. I believe these types of activities will continue, though they have slowed down in 2017.

Tip: While their overall approach is the same, Chinese investors operate differently: Chinese venture capitalists, I believe, are more practical than their U.S. counterparts because they come from a highly competitive domestic market. Their expectations are higher regarding a company's growth and the founder's ability to achieve healthy business metrics.

Chinese VCs possessing business backgrounds in banking and business similar to those of U.S. VCs also usually co-invest at Series A or B rounds, or later. They have more data about companies at later stages, making this an easier decision because it requires less work; that's important when youre doing deals remotely.

The exception is consumer technology. That's a field where some Chinese VCs are willing to take more risks. Many of these investors witnessed Chinese consumer tech companies that started with tiny or even negative margins, then became enormously successful. Those companies grew so fast they had to raise a huge amount of money right at the start.

This aggressive approach has carried over into how some VCs approach acquiring companies in markets beyond China. That, however, is starting to change based on the experiences investors are having.

Further, corporate and strategic investors from China take more risks. They look at their existing businesses, see whats lacking and find whats better in terms of innovation and technology. They are more likely to bet big on moon-shot projects regardless of the tremendous technological and market risks. Theyre also more likely to invest big in companies building new platforms without substantial near-term revenue. Magic Leap is such a company that raised a lot of money from China.

Chinese angel investors typically are high net worth individuals and successful entrepreneurs, themselves. They may do deals at early stages, but as is widely known, given the restrictions on investment flow, U.S. dollars are hard to come by, so participation may be limited at this time.

Trend 3: Cross-border investment is slowing with Chinese regulatory tightening.

An additional trend is that in the last few years, a large amount of cash has flowed out of China into real estate and technology. The Chinese government has taken greater steps to regulate these transactions, including temporarily forcing all applications of foreign deals to slow down. Applications are being looked at with more scrutiny, and big investments are being temporarily suspended.

Although its difficult for Chinese investors to get their RMBs (short for Renminbi, China's currency) out of the country right now, dont expect investment flow to completely shut down. Stronger policies to control the flow will lead to a healthier cross-border investment environment.

The inancial Times reported that more than $75 billion of overseas deals was canceled due to regulatory tightening and foreign exchange controls, resulting in only 30 Chinese acquisitions of European and U.S. companies. Canceled transactions in 2015 totaled about $10 billion and increased seven-fold in 2016.

According to the People's Bank of China and China Foreign Exchange Trade System, foreign exchange reserves fell $320 billion last year. To maintain reserve levels, Chinese-funded enterprises may find new obstacles to overseas acquisitions.

Yet, a caveat here: While so many deals were canceled, Rhodium Groups Baker McKenzie reported that China's investment in North America and Europe still reached a record $94.2 billion, with U.S. investments tripling.

Related: The Goldilocks Test: Why China Is Just Right

Investment interest, meanwhile, doesnt look to be dipping any time soon. I believe this tightening is temporary, as the government puts more sound processes in place to handle investment outflow and ensure foreign deal validity. In the long run, better transaction processes would benefit only cross-border investments.

Tip: Keep calm and go with the flow. How much such investment will slow down is tough to predict. Also, its unpredictable when the Chinese government will re-instate cross-border investment activity, given the state of U.S. and China trade relations with the Trump administration. As a best bet, my suggestion is that startups will do well to find investors with a footprint in both the United States and China.

Cross-border investment opens the door to a world of opportunities -- in China and globally. Chinas transnational companies are truly reshaping global business and competition. So, if yours is a company interested in Chinese investment, embrace the opportunity to see how those Asian transnational companies are innovating new business models and products. This will help you better compete in the global economy.

Related:

If You're a Startup Looking to Capitalize on U.S.-China Border Investments, Here's How

Silicon Valley? Try Silicon Worldwide.

A Woman Got Caught Allegedly Trying to Smuggle 102 iPhones Into China by Strapping Them to Her Body



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - BacTech Environmental Corporation ("BacTech" or the "Company"), (CSE: BAC, OTC Pink: BCCEF) today announced that it has closed its current debenture financing for total gross proceeds of $445,000 for the debenture and accompanied by 1,780,000 common shares, which are included as a Bonus Equity Interest. The debenture has a 2-year term and pays 12% interest yearly. The debenture included a 20% common stock bonus payment. For example, a $10,000 debenture would be accompanied by $2,000 worth of BacTech common shares priced at $0.05 per share. This would provide the investor with 40,000 common shares subject to a 4-month restriction on resale from the date of closing.

BacTech also announces a new non-brokered debenture financing, accompanied by 1,000,500 warrants and a 1.25% NSR (as more fully described below) is offered by private placement in accordance with applicable prospectus exemptions, for total gross proceeds of $300,000. The use of proceeds is to continue metallurgical test work on the Telamayu tailings near Atocha, Bolivia and for preliminary engineering of a proposed plant to be built at site.

The terms of the new debenture are as follows: the debenture is issued in denominations of $5,000 and must be repaid at the end of two years, interest is earned at a rate of 12% per year paid annually, it is accompanied by sixteen thousand six-hundred seventy-five (16,675) common share purchase warrants of the Corporation with each warrant having an exercise price of $0.05 for a period of 5 years (the "Warrants"). As an additional consideration for the subscription of the debentures, a 1.25% net smelter royalty ("NSR") for the life of the Antiguo tails estimated to be 5 years (the new debenture, the accompanying Warrants and the NSR being comprised in a unit (the "Units") of this new debenture offering). The NSR shall be paid on a pro-rata basis over the aggregate number of the new debentures. The NSR is only payable on BacTech's share of the revenue generated by the project. The debenture holder will close with three separate tranches of $100,000 (ie., 20 Units) with the initial tranche paid on the closing which occurred today for gross proceeds of $100,000 and the issuance of 333,500 Warrants. Each of the next two tranches will be closed within 30 and 60 days after this initial closing in order to complete this financing.

Finally, the Company announced that it has issued 4.05M shares for debt to certain management and suppliers of the Company. The deemed price of the issuance was $0.05 per share.

Company Profile

BacTech Environmental Corporation holds the perpetual, exclusive, royalty-free rights to use the patented BACOX bioleaching technology for the reclamation of tailings and mining waste materials. The Company's principal focus is a high-grade silver/copper/tin tailings project called Telamayu, located in Atocha, Bolivia, in association with COMIBOL, the state mining group. Investigation has begun to identify opportunities in Ecuador. The Company continues to field enquiries globally with respect to additional opportunities for remediation, including licensing transactions for the technology.

Follow us on:

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BacTechGreen

Twitter http://twitter.com/BacTechGreen

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/1613873

Vimeo http://vimeo.com/bactechgreen

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/bactechgreen



Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to future tailings sites, sampling or other investigations of tailing sites, the Company's ability to make use of infrastructure around tailings sites or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Shares outstanding 65,302,930

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release.

SOURCE BacTech Environmental Corporation

For further information: Ross Orr, President & CEO, BacTech Environmental Corporation, 416-813-0303 ext 222, Email: [email protected]; Bill Mitoulas, Investor Relations, 416-837-7147, Email: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.bactechgreen.com


POND INLET, NU, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and Shell Canada (Shell) welcome the news of an agreement on a final boundary for a proposed national marine conservation area encompassing Tallurutiup Imanga/Lancaster Sound. When completed, it will be the largest marine conservation area in Canada.

The joint announcement today by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and the Governments of Canada and Nunavut is the result of many years of hard work by all involved. Nature Conservancy of Canada president and chief executive officer John Lounds attended the event to offer congratulations.

NCC and Shell are pleased to see that the boundaries for the proposed conservation area have expanded in keeping with Inuit aspirations to protect their traditional territory, which has sustained them for millennia. The two organizations salute the collaboration that underpins today's announcement. The efforts of many have set the stage for the long-term protection of an important piece of Canada's natural and cultural heritage.

"The Nature Conservancy of Canada congratulates the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the Governments of Canada and Nunavut, and all the organizations that have contributed to this marine conservation initiative," said Lounds. "This is a positive milestone, and a key step towards conservation and Canada's target of protecting at least 10 per cent of our coastal waters by 2020."

In 2016, Shell voluntarily released 30 offshore exploratory permits near Tallurutiup Imanga/Lancaster Sound to NCC. Those permits covered more than 8,600 square kilometres (860,000 hectares) north of Baffin Island, at the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. NCC subsequently released the permits to the Government of Canada, thereby facilitating expansion of the marine conservation area.

"Establishing Canada's largest protected area is no small feat, and we congratulate the many people from the Nunavut Inuit, government and environmental organizations who helped make this achievement a reality," said Michael Crothers, Shell Canada president and country chair. "We are grateful that Shell and the Nature Conservancy of Canada had the opportunity to be a part of this journey through our contribution. We can achieve great things when unlikely allies find common ground, and the designation of this wonderful conservation area is a testament to that."

Tallurutiup Imanga/Lancaster Sound is home to marine mammals, including seal, narwhal, beluga and bowhead whales, walrus and polar bear. The surrounding shores are home to some of the Arctic's most important seabird breeding colonies, with populations in the hundreds of thousands.

"At almost 110,000 square kilometres, Tallurutiup Imanga / Lancaster Sound will be the largest protected area ever established in Canada, more than twice the size of Nova Scotia. This means Canada will more than double its protected waters, moving closer to attaining our overall goals," said environment and climate change minister Catherine McKenna. "Today's announcement is the result of years of collaboration and collective efforts toward a common goal by Nunavut Inuit and the governments of Canada and Nunavut. Together, we are taking a significant step to create a legacy for future generations."

Note to Editors:

The Nature Conservancy of Canada and Shell have a 30-year history of working together on conservation initiatives. During this time, Shell has contributed more than $6.5 million in financial resources, land and mineral rights to NCC, including rights to the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve and Haida Heritage Site and the Mount Broadwood Heritage Conservation Area in BC.

Nature Conservancy of Canada

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is the nation's leading not-for-profit, private land conservation organization, working to protect our most important natural areas and the species they sustain. Since 1962, NCC and its partners have helped protect 2.8 million acres (more than 1.1 million hectares), coast to coast.

Learn More:

Visit: natureconservancy.ca

Follow us on Twitter: @NCC_CNC & @NCC_CNCMedia

Find us on Facebook

Shell Canada Limited

Shell has been operating in Canada for 106 years and employs more than 4,000 people across the country. Our business is providing energy to Canadians and to people around the world, and we are one of the few integrated oil and gas companies in Canada. We do everything from explore for oil and gas to production, refining and manufacturing, and we deliver products to our customers at more than 1,300 retail stations across the country. Learn more at

www.shell.ca

Follow us on Twitter: @Shell_Canada

SOURCE Shell Canada Limited

For further information: For Media Inquiries: Shell Canada: [email protected] or 1-877-850-5023; Nature Conservancy of Canada: Andrew Holland [email protected] or 506-260-0469

Related Links

http://www.shell.ca


TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Posera Ltd. (TSX : PAY) ("Posera" or the "Company"), a leading provider of software solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced its financial results for the three and six-months ended June 30th, 2017.

During the three-months ended June 30, 2017, Posera recognized $4,392,224 in total revenues, an increase of $444,417 (11.3%) from $3,947,807 for the three-months ended March 31, 2017 and an increase of $54,309 or 1.3% when compared to the three-months ended June 30th, 2016 of $4,337,915.

The increase in revenues is primarily attributed to the successful launch of the Company's integrated POS solution for the international hotel industry. Posera's fully integrated POS solution for the hotel industry was launched in the last 270 days has resulted in more than 50 installations in prestigious hotel properties in Paris, Strasburg, Barcelona and more throughout Europe. Posera is expanding its hotel initiative to be a global solution, as sales to date have been European centric.

Posera experienced a normalized EBITDA loss(1,2) for the three-months ended June 30th, 2017 of $439,105, representing a decrease in the loss of $727,277 (62.4%), from a loss of $1,166,382 for the three-months ended March 31, 2017. The second quarter represented the second consecutive quarter where the Company reduced its normalized EBITDA loss. The improvement in the normalized EBITDA loss resulted from an increase in revenue in conjunction with ongoing operating expense reductions which is consistent with the Company's expense reduction plan that has taken place throughout the first and second quarters of fiscal 2017.

Net loss for the three-months ended June 30, 2017 was a loss of $924,709, a decrease in the loss of $872,524 (48.5%) from a loss of $1,797,233 for the three-months ended March 31, 2017 and represents an increase in the loss of $106,874 (13.1%) from the normalized loss of $817,835(3) for the three-months ended June 30, 2016.

Recurring revenues for the three-months ended June 30th, 2017 were $1,681,142, an increase of $20,032 (1.2%) from recurring revenues of $1,661,110 for the three-months ended March 31, 2017 and a decrease of $63,008 (3.6%) from recurring revenues of $1,744,150 for the three-months ended June 30th, 2016 and. Recurring revenue has consistently remained at +/- 40% of total revenues between the comparative reporting periods.

The Company's SecureTablePay (STP) product has been certified, or in final stages of certification with 4 major US based payment processors. Final pilot testing is progressing and commercialization, of this application is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2017. The US STP platform will be commercialized primarily on a recurring revenue model.

During the second quarter of 2017, Posera crossed a major milestone with the first installation outside of Canada of its Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Point-of-Sale (POS) technology. Posera successfully deployed its QSR POS solution in the Philippines, leveraging the International expansion of a major customer. Posera has thousands of QSR locations deployed worldwide, with concentrations in Europe and North America. This demonstrates that our POS products are well suited to International growth in the economies of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, as our products have been built from inception with a multi-lingual approach.

(1) EBITDA: Posera's management defines EBITDA as Net Income before interest expense, interest income, income taxes (excluding certain investment tax credits and other government assistance), amortization of capital and intangible assets, realized and unrealized exchange gain or loss, impairments and gains or losses on held for trading financial instruments, and other gains or losses on disposition of assets or extinguishment of liabilities.



(2) Normalized EBITDA: Posera's management defines Normalized EBITDA as EBITDA as discussed above less certain one-time non-recurring expenditures, and non-cash stock-based compensation expense.



(3) During the three-months ended June 30, 2016 the Company recorded a $1,959,794 gain on the disposition of Zomaron. The net loss for the three-months ended June 30, 2016 has been normalized for the gain on the disposal of Zomaron.

Conference Call

The Company will hold a conference call on Friday, August 18th, 2017 to discuss the financial results for the three and six-months ended June 30th, 2017, at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time hosted by Loudon Owen, Chairman, Dan Poirier, Chief Executive Officer and Kevin Mills, Chief Financial Officer. A question and answer session will follow the corporate update.

CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS

Date: Friday, August 18th, 2017

Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Participant Dial-in Numbers:

Local  Toronto (+1) 647-427-7450

Toll Free - North America (+1) 888-231-8191

Conference ID: 70074668

An archive of the conference call will be available by visiting the Company's website at www.posera.com/investor-relations. Please connect at least 10 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure time for any software download that may be needed to hear the webcast.

About POSERA

Posera has been a leading provider of hospitality technology for more than 30 years. It manages merchant transactions with consumers and facilitates all aspects of the payment transaction.

Posera's full service solutions include SecureTablePay, which is an EMV compliant pay-at-the-table application. Posera's Maitre'D and FingerPrintsTM restaurant management systems offer a robust and comprehensive solution including hardware integration services, merchant staff training, system installation services, post-sale software and hardware customer support. Posera's solutions are deployed globally including across the full spectrum of restaurants, from large chains and independent table service restaurants to international quick service chains and its products have been translated into eight languages.

Posera Ltd.'s shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "PAY".

More information about Posera can be found on the Company's website at www.posera.com or under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations, which involve risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business and the environment in which the business operates. These statements include, but are not limited to, the expected size and completion date of the Offering, participation in the Offering by certain insiders, and the use of proceeds from the Offering. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking, including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but reflect Posera's current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations, including general market conditions as they relate to the Company's Shares, and the matters discussed under "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Annual Information Form filed on March 31st, 2017 with the securities regulatory authorities and available on SEDAR. Posera assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, unless required by law.

SOURCE Posera Ltd.

For further information: Kevin Mills, Chief Financial Officer, 1.519.434.8017, [email protected], www.posera.com
The Holland America Cruise Ship Veendam shut down her diesel engines as she moored at the new Alexandra Cruise Terminal in Old Montreal, helping to eliminate all air pollution from the ship.

The Port of Montreal estimates that the shore power project will eliminate 2,800 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Schneider Electric Canada, a world leader in shore power technology, has announced the Port of Montreal Shore Power solution for the new Alexandra Pier is now successfully commissioned. On Saturday, August 12, the Holland America Cruise Ship Veendam shut down her diesel engines after docking at the new Alexandra Cruise Terminal in Old Montreal. The ship was connected to the electrical power grid to provide the necessary power to the ship while in port. In doing this, all air pollution caused by the ship's diesel engines was effectively eliminated.

The total cost of the project is $11 million with funding coming from the federal government, the provincial government as well as the Montreal Port Authority. The commissioning procedure was executed flawlessly."Working in concert with our various partners and improving air and water quality are among the MPA's main guidelines for sustainable development. Now completed, this shore power project will result in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, offsetting virtually all the GHG emissions for which the MPA is responsible," said Sylvie Vachon, President and CEO of the MPA.

Schneider Electric commited to sustainability at COP22 Marrakech as an official partner. Schneider Electric is fully committed to fighting climate change and is proud to be a key actor in the Port of Montreal shore power project. Creating a sustainable future is key to Canada's economic well being. Providing green solutions that help contribute toward the reduction of green house gas emissions is just one of the ways that Schneider Electric is helping Canada create a sustainable future. Juan Macias, President of Schneider Electric Canada said: "The Montreal Port Authority has demonstrated environmental leadership through the implementation of shore power at the new Alexandra Cruise Terminal in Old Montreal. With the support of the Federal Government and the Quebec Government, the Montreal Port Authority can be proud of this innovative and sustainable solution that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves the quality of life for port communities and the world at large."

The Montreal Port Authority estimates that the shore power project will eliminate upwards of 2,800 tonnes of green house gases annually. This is comparable to reducing the distance driven by passenger vehicles by over 10,000,000 kilometres or replacing upwards of 100,000 incandescent light bulbs with LEDs, according to the Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.

Schneider Electric is a world leader in shore power solutions, with over 50 deployments in North America alone. The Port of Montreal shore power solution represents the first cruise terminal deployment in Canada for Schneider Electric and is a significant demonstration of its capabilities to design and build a sophisticated solution incorporating international standards that enforce safety and interoperability for ships calling on the Port of Montreal.

About the Port of Montreal

Operated by the Montreal Port Authority (MPA), the Port of Montreal is the second largest port in Canada and a diversified transshipment centre that handles all types of goods: containerized and non-containerized cargo, liquid bulk and dry bulk. It is a leading container port served by the largest container shipping lines in the world. The Port of Montreal has its own rail network directly dockside. It is connected to the two national rail networks and a highway system. The Port operates a passenger terminal. All other terminals are run by private stevedoring firms. Port activity supports 16,000 jobs and generates $2.1 billion in economic benefits annually.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric is the global specialist in energy management and automation. With revenues of US$26 billion (~25 billion euros) in FY2016, our 144,000 employees serve customers in over 100 countries, helping them to manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. From the simplest of switches to complex operational systems, our technology, software and services improve the way our customers manage and automate their operations. Our connected technologies reshape industries, transform cities and enrich lives. At Schneider Electric, we call this Life Is On

www.schneider-electric.ca

SOURCE Schneider Electric

For further information: Media Contacts: StrategicAmpersand (For Schneider Electric Canada Inc.), Pedro Cabezuelo / Sarah Lysecki, Tel.: 416-961-5595, [email protected]
OTTAWA, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Pakistan's Independence Day:

"Today, we join Pakistani communities in Canada and around the world to celebrate seven decades of Pakistan's independence.

"Our two countries established a diplomatic relationship shortly after Pakistan was declared a sovereign nation in 1947. We continue to work together to advance shared priorities, including governance and democracy, regional security, poverty reduction, polio eradication, trade, defence, and the fight against climate change.

"The people-to-people connections between Canada and Pakistan are older still. People from what is now Pakistan first migrated to Canada well over a century ago and, since then, our connections have continued to grow.

"As we mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017, we honour the many cultures and communities that make Canada such a wonderful place to live. Pakistani-Canadians continue to make major contributions to our country, and help make Canada the prosperous, vibrant, and open place it is today.

"On behalf of the Government of Canada, Sophie and I offer our best wishes to all those celebrating Pakistan's Independence Day."

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

For further information: PMO Media Relations: 613-957-5555

Related Links

http://pm.gc.ca/


Several parts of the U.S.-Russia arms-control and nonproliferation architecture are cracking due to a combination of Russian misbehavior and American neglect. The question is whether the Trump team has the will and skill to repair those cracks before that structure comes crumbling down.

Complicating the effort is the fact that U.S.-Russia relations are at a historic low point, following Russian interference in our presidential election, the Russian intervention in Ukraine and an escalating cycle of sanctions and diplomatic retaliation. The arms-control community is urging the Trump administration to work with Russia to address big problems with our cooperation before its too late.

Some Republicans in Congress, however, are eager to confront Russia on arms control, ramp up U.S. retaliation and even push for withdrawal from these agreements. For President Donald Trump, who views the agreements as bad deals struck by his predecessors, saving them is a hard sell. But he should carefully consider the benefits of these deals before throwing them away.

The ongoing tensions with Moscow have increased the risk that the nuclear and arms control architecture built up by Bush, Reagan and Obama will collapse, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. We have to be careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face because we are upset with Russia.

One such troubled agreement hit the newspapers last week when unarmed Russian air force jets flew over the Pentagon, CIA and other sensitive national security sites, alarming many Americans. Even in Washington, most are not familiar with the Treaty on Open Skies, which has allowed the United States, Russia and 32 other countries to fly over each others territory since 2002.

Russia has been violating the treaty for years, according to the State Department, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Senate. Russia doesnt allow flights over key parts of its territory and takes other steps to keep the United States and other countries from realizing their treaty rights.

Some in Congress want the U.S. government to place tit-for-tat restrictions on Russian flights. Some military leaders would prefer to see the treaty go away altogether, because of the information Russia is able to collect, given technological advances.

I would love to deny the Russians having that capability, Marine Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a House committee in March.

Trump administration officials are looking at the Open Skies Treaty as part of their overall interagency nonproliferation policy review. They should keep in mind that it provides transparency on Russia not just for the United States but for Americas allies as well.

Congress is also planning to soon confront Russia on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or the INF. Russia has been violating the INF for years, according to the U.S. government, by developing and deploying a new cruise missile that violates the treatys range limits, threatening Europe.

Both the Senate and House versions of the defense authorization bill would provide tens of millions of dollars for the United States to develop its own new cruise missile, potentially putting America in violation. Senate Democrats are planning to fight that provision when the bill hits the Senate floor next month.

In November, Barack Obamas State Department met with Russia on the INF treaty. The talks were fruitless, but now efforts to reestablish U.S.-Russia negotiations are underway. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov in Washington on July 18 and agreed to hold Strategic Stability Talks in the near future.

Thomas Countryman, the State Department official responsible for the issue until January, told me that if Congress put the United States in violation, or if Trump pulled out of the treaty, the country would lose out.

Our current low point in relations was not caused by Russian misbehavior on arms control; it was caused by Russias interference in our democracy. But dealing with arms-control issues using tough diplomacy in conjunction with allies could provide Trump a way to achieve what he claims to want most - a path toward improving relations. In the process, he could also avoid another arms race.
NEW HAVEN >> A former student who accused a prominent rabbi of sexual assault told police that refusing to perform sexual acts with Rabbi Daniel Greer had been punishable by bad grades and threats of expulsion from the Yeshiva in New Haven, according to the newly released arrest warrant in the case.

The alleged victim in this case, Eliyahu Mirlis, told New Haven Police Department detectives in August that he had been forced by Greer, the founder of the Yeshiva in New Haven and the Gan School, to perform various sexual acts while he was a student at the Yeshiva School. The alleged abuse occurred between 2002 and 2005.

Mirliss lawyer, Antonio Ponvert III, confirmed Wednesday that Mirlis is the victim in this criminal case, though he is not named in the arrest warrant. The New Haven Register does not usually identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Mirlis reported through Ponvert that he wanted to come forward with the allegations. Mirlis is now 29.

Greer, 77, turned himself in to police Wednesday after the criminal charges of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury were filed. He appeared in court Thursday for an arraignment and is due back on Aug. 11, according to the clerks office.

Greer is free on a $100,000 bond.

A message left for Greers attorney William F. Dow III was not immediately returned.

According to the arrest warrant in this case, Mirlis alleged that the rabbi first kissed him when he was a sophomore in high school during a private meeting at 777 Elm St. According to Mirliss recounting of events to detectives, when Mirlis freaked out about the rabbis behavior, Greer told him I do it (referring to the kiss) to all my kids.

During these alleged private meetings at various school buildings, hotels and motels, or Greers residence, Mirlis told detectives the rabbi would give Mirlis a range of alcoholic beverages  Bloody Marys, scotch or wine  and then they would perform sexual acts.

The warrant affidavit states that over time the sexual encounters escalated in nature and included several times in which both Mirlis and the rabbi were in Greers bedroom and had sex. No condoms were ever used during these encounters, Mirlis told detectives.

The alleged abuse stopped in June 2005 when Mirlis graduated from the Yeshiva School, the warrant states.

Police stated in the warrant affidavit that a search-and-seizure warrant to examine the rabbis body corroborated Mirliss specific descriptions.

Allegations against Greer were first made public in May 2016, when Mirlis filed a federal lawsuit against the rabbi and the Yeshiva School, claiming he had suffered great emotional damage as a result of the alleged abuse that occurred when Mirlis was a teenager.

During the civil trial, Greer denied the allegations.

Mirlis was awarded $15 million in compensatory damages in May.
BRANFORD >> Michael Bartolomeo arrived at the Branford River Boat Launch over the weekend and found himself in the equivalent of uncharted waters.

Bartolomeo, of Durham, hadnt visited the launch since 2012, when he stopped to test-drive a boat. But this weekend he unknowingly became one of the first visitors to get a first-hand look at new launch here, which the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has reopened following extensive renovations.

Along with his wife, Kristine, and their daughter, Nicole, Bartolomeo stood atop the new dock to fish for blue crab. They had caught at least one by midday after arriving in the morning. He said if he had known there was a new landing, he would have brought his boat.

The dock, for one, is amazing, Bartolomeo said. Ill be back next week.

A DEEP official who asked not to be named was on-site Saturday afternoon. The official said state engineers did a great job of designing the new landing, which returns a shoreline launch to an area where the nearest state-owned launches are in Westport and Guilford.

A release from DEEP said the new launch includes a pair of lanes with grooved, concrete slab ramps with concrete pavers that help prevent erosion. The parking lot has been regraded and the turning area has been paved. The launch has an ADA accessible system. Its location in Greater New Haven will likely keep it buzzing with activity.

Its going to be quite a busy launch, the DEEP official said.

Upgrades to the launch were supposed to take four months but the project, with $1.5 million in federal and state funding, took about a year. One of the issues behind the delay was that inspectors discovered the base of the launch had moved due to settling in the soil underneath where the launch was anchored. The settling of the soil and movement of the ramp has forced the price tag of the project up from $1.2 million to $1.5 million and counting, and the timeline three times the initial 120 days of construction.

While Saturdays overcast weather during the afternoon likely kept some people from visiting the new landing, several drivers were seen swinging by the launch, checking out the new amenities. Bartolomeo said he had seen people driving up to the launch but staying in their cars.

Branford resident Lauren Laudano parked near the launch and walked along a dock before heading back to her car. An owner of a 13-foot Boston Whaler boat, Laudano said the launch has two new lanes that will help its accessibility.

Its really great, Laudano said. The new ramp is amazing. Its 1,000 times better than the old dock.

Laudano said the new launch is an improvement for the city and will help residents who had been driving to Milford for a launch. Upgrading the launch was necessary, Laudano said, and its return is welcoming.

A lot of people missed it, Laudano said.

The project was mostly federally funded through grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Dennis Thibodeau, chief of fiscal administrative services for DEEP. The federal grant money totaled $985,089 and state bonded funds totaled $297,000, he said.

Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901
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NEW HAVEN >> Members of the New Haven Democratic Town Committee held a candidate forum in the parking lot of the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School Saturday after they found the hall decorated and apparently booked for another event.

It turns out a Sweet-16 party was planned months ago and scheduled to take place later that day.

School officials said there was only one permit on file to use the hall that day and it was from a private individual.

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Vincent Mauro said they could have used the auditorium or the cafeteria as an alternative, but decided to stay outside.

The candidates for various offices carried on, using the threshold at the top of the steps as a platform to address dozens of members of the town committee and other residents with mayoral challenger Marcus Paca up first before Mayor Toni Harp took to the improvised stage.

The pair have appeared at ward committees around the city, but they have not engaged in a debate per se, although both took questions from fellow party members Saturday.

Paca has complained that at some ward meetings, questions were not allowed and Harp, on the WNHH radio show, said because Paca and his wife, Mendi Blue, have sued the city over their firings, the mayor didnt want to say something that would have a negative impact on our case. Paca called that ridiculous and said she can just say no comment on pending lawsuits.

Harp, who is running for her third term, Saturday said she will have a debate with Paca, run by the League of Women Voters, once there is a primary challenge for the office. The town committee nominates a candidate next week and Harp is expected to win.

On Saturday, Paca compared his and Blues lawsuits to the money the city, through the mayor, has spent challenging the alders or Board of Education on questions of policy or when Harps family sued the city over the decades.

He said, like himself, he assumes she feels the outcome of such legal challenges could improve the way New Haven is managed in the future.

He accused her of terminating workers for telling the truth or exposing wrongdoing and also criticized her for asking employees to sign a pledge of loyalty to her administration.

He criticized the actions taken against Nichole Jefferson, the former head of the Commission on Equal Opportunity, and the money spent by the city on legal challenges against her, even though she has won at various levels already.

Harp wouldnt respond to that, only that she is trying to protect the taxpayers by continuing the fight.

Paca, the former labor relations director, said in a democracy voters should be given full access to information. He added, democracy should inform and empower, not conceal and stifle.

Paca said he would not make himself president of the Board of Education, a position Harp held and will work more collaboratively with other BOE members to recruit a progressive superintendent. He promised to decentralize the school administration and eliminate high priced political patronage jobs.

In answer to a question about making all the schools excellent, Harp said, while I likely wont run for president of the Board of Education, but I will tell you, I will sit on that Board of Education and I will demand accountability.

Paca pledged to diversify the jobs in the city and to not only depend upon Yale University to help. Paca proposed a Green Marketplace Challenge to bring green tech jobs to the city. He asked why the Hill to Downtown project, the Live, Work, Learn, Play development and the Church Street South revitalization been not been actualized.

All three are in various stages of development.

He asked the crowd if they feel safe, given the home invasion in Wooster Square this past week.

The challenger, who is a former alder, said he would save money by cutting patronage jobs, but he also told them to prepare for shared sacrifice as state and federal revenues tighten. He agreed with others on the need for training in the trades for non-college bound students.

Given the city has 52 new schools, Paca said they should be able to dedicate one of them for this kind of training with the help of the unions.

Harp stuck mainly to economics, safety and education in running a stable city.

She said not long ago, battalion chiefs in the fire department earned $250,000 a year because of overtime, something that is boosting their pensions for life. The mayor said additional personnel have helped end that situation. While overtime was costing $500,000 a week, it is now down to $38,000.

The mayor said in working with other agencies, New Haven has taken 21 of the most violent criminals off the street. Our city is safer. Do things happen? Absolutely and thats why in my next term we are going to look at domestic violence, Harp said.

Of the murders that happened last year, she said one-third were because of domestic violence. She said this prompted her to start a Family Justice Center so there is one place for families to go who experience this problem.

To find the young people who will be prone to violence, Harp said the city started Youth Stat, which is aimed at disengaged students .

Young people who turn to violence or will be victims of violence have certain characteristics. She said they are over age, under credited and are chronically absent.

We reduced chronic absenteeism by 6 percent for everyone, higher than any other district in the state, she said, and by 7 percent for special-needs students.

The mayor said the law and public safety academy set up at Hillhouse High School works with Gateway Community College and the University of New Haven which helped one student graduate with 58 hours of college credit under his belt.

She said they also developed an after-school program with Eli Whitney Technical High School with 80 kids going there for certificates that help with construction jobs. At Hillhouse, 50 kids graduated with 200 hours in a pre-apprenticeship construction program.

On another issue, Harp said it used to be that 85 kids would be expelled a year; this year that is down to 14.

We have made progress in New Haven, she said.

The mayor said the city has added 160 subsidized housing units and New Haven is working on a evergreen project for cooperative employment where the participants will end up owning the businesses that will be part of the supply team for major businesses.

I have kept my promises. We have moved New Haven forward and I would say to you New Haven hasnt been as stable as it has been under my leadership, she said to cheers from the crowd.

Harp said she will look into New Haven Promise providing scholarships to students who want tech training.

Mark Furlow, from Ward 14, told her that the Board of Education and its policies very much seem like a black box. He wants to increase accountability and transparency there.

Harp said much of the energy on the Board of Education over the last year and a half was spent on trying to remove Gareth Harries as the superintendent without really thinking of the consequences of doing that. I think the Board of Ed needs to be more policy driven.

She said in the future, with a new board and a new superintendent, she hopes to do more of the (school) budgeting in public.

Harp said they continue to work on the 1 gigabit project for the city. She said they are looking at expanding WiFi from its schools and parks to the surrounding neighborhoods.

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect new information about the booking at the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School.
NEW HAVEN >> Jim Pettinelli, as the new executive director of Liberty Community Services, brings to the agency a three-decade background in behavioral health services and programs for the homeless.

He was introduced at a press conference Monday and will assume the position in September, replacing John Bradley, who led the organization for 10 years. Bradley left this summer for Poughkeepsie, N.Y. with his wife, Elizabeth Bradley, who is the new president of Vassar College.

Bradley will head Vassars Urban Education Institute at Vassar, where 100 college students there mentor 250 city children throughout the year.

Pettinelli has been the assistant director for the Community Research and Implementation Core at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University for the past eight years.

Before that, he was the vice president and chief operating officer for Victory Programs, a Boston-based nonprofit offering services similar to those at Liberty, part of a long career working in community outreach, behavioral health and housing.

Mayor Toni Harp said Liberty, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, stands out among the citys nonprofits for the range of services it offers and its ability to come through with new approaches in serving the homeless, persons with mental health and substance abuse issues, as well HIV-AIDS.

Liberty always steps up and says let us give it a try, the mayor said.

She said she was also happy that Pettinelli knows how to raise money from the private sector, which is increasingly important.

I have every confidence that they will be around another 30 years, Harp said. They will be nimble and able to provide the services these populations need.

The agency provided services and housing to some 800 persons last year, Harp said.

Jim Travers, president of Libertys Board of Directors, thanked Harp for her ideas that were picked up by Liberty, specifically the RESPECT program which places some 80 homeless individuals into community beautification jobs with the help of a $100,000 grant from Alexion with the aim that half of them will obtain long-term employment.

With private donations, the Sunrise Cafe serves 170 people a day, many of whom are homeless.

Travers said the agency thrives because of the support of the community, but particularly support from the mayor.

Pettinelli thanked the larger community for helping those who are looking for that next step up. It is an amazing community that we are all a part of ... really looking to provide an opportunity, an option.

Pettinelli emphasized housing as the platform that stabilizes our lives that makes us feel at home and safe and that opportunity really needs to be available to everyone.

Liberty Services has some 200 units of housing at Safe Haven on State Street and at other scattered sites.

Travers said the organization is secure in its funding for the next two years and in the meantime it will look for additional funds to expand its programs. I think what we have is a very secure base to build on, Travers.

As for expanding any programs, he said they will look at the needs and proceed accordingly.

Travers did say the Sunrise Cafe has been instrumental in establishing a relationship with people they can then work with on getting housing.

Several men, who attended the announcement at City Hall, complained about various services that they feel are inadequate.

Joseph Strain, who is recently out of prison, said he has been able to get $547 for a security deposit for an apartment, but he said that is not enough and Liberty wont give him any more.

The mayor said those funds come from the state, which caps the total. She said it is something they could take up with the state delegation.

Strain and Robert Dinuzzo both asked about using boarded up abandoned buildings in New Haven to house the homeless with the potential new tenants working on renovation.

This issue has come up before and the city has said putting untrained workers on a site is a liability, while it has no say on private property.

You makes us a liability, Strain said. I can do work.

To the degree that we can, we will. We will do whatever we can to get you the skills that you need, the mayor said.

I have the skills, Strain said.

We will do what we can, but its a competitive world we have out there, Harp said.

Petinelli said his greatest challenge will be identifying as many resources as possible to help as many people as we can.

Another individual, just out of prison, said they used to be able to get vouchers to do their laundry, but no more.

He suggested they start a laundry that released prisoners could use and run as a business and where canned goods and other necessities could be dropped off.

We are about innovative ideas, Travers said, as he connected the person with a case manager.

Another person released from prison eight months ago, said he had problems reapplying for Social Security Disability.

I have been on the street since December, he said. Im in no condition to be on the street. He also was referred to a case manager.
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HARTFORD >> A federal jury Thursday awarded a New Jersey man $15 million in his civil lawsuit accusing Daniel Greer, a prominent New Haven rabbi, real estate developer and founder of an Orthodox Jewish school of sexually abusing him for years while he attended Greers yeshiva.

The verdict was read at 3:40 p.m., with jurors in agreement that there was enough evidence to find Greer and the Yeshiva of New Haven legally liable over the victims accusations that Greer raped and sexually molested him over several years.

The jury was tasked with determining liability on civil counts against Greer and the yeshiva. The counts included negligence by the school, intentional infliction of emotional distress by Greer and the school, recklessness by the school and Greer and assault and battery against Greer.

The jury found there was sufficient evidence on each count.

The $15 million award in compensatory damages was announced at the time of the verdict. The victim also is entitled to punitive damages. By state law, punitive damages are calculated as one-third of the verdict, or $5 million in this case. As of late Thursday, the amount of punitive damages had not been determined. The judge asked the lawyers to file a memo about how they felt punitive damages should be determined and the amount would be discussed later.

Greer, principal of Yeshiva in New Haven and the Gan School, who also was a leader in the revitalization of the citys Edgewood neighborhood, was accused in May 2016 of repeatedly raping and molesting a former student, Eliyahu Mirlis, of New Jersey, over several years in the early- to mid-2000s. Mirlis attended the school from 2001 to 2005.

Greer has denied the allegations.

After the verdict was read and the jurors had left the courtroom, Mirlis lawyer, Antonio Ponvert III, pumped his fist in celebration as he gathered his belongings.

This completely justifies all faith in the justice system, Ponvert said. Even incredibly difficult ... cases can be solved fairly.

Neither Mirlis nor his wife, who had been present for some of the trial, were present for the reading of the verdict. Mirlis appeared in court to testify, but was absent for the rest of the proceedings.

What the plaintiff suffered and has been suffered by children for generations needs to stop, Ponvert said. Child abuse in all its forms is a plague that we should all work together to solve.

Greers attorney Bill Ward said they would appeal the verdict.

We feel the verdict is outrageous, especially in light of the fact that the jury was deadlocked a mere two hours before they rendered it, he said.

David Grudberg, who along with Ward was Greers trial counsel, said, We are deeply disappointed with the verdict and will pursue all possible options to challenge it, including an appeal.

Mirlis claimed in the federal lawsuit that Greer had sexually abused him in his sophomore, junior and senior years at the school, and that some of the abuse had occurred on school property. The federal complaint states that the abuse began when Mirlis was 15 and Greer was in his 60s. The alleged abuse included sexual acts and being forced to watch pornography while drinking alcohol. The suit also alleged these acts occurred in Greers home, motels in Branford, and other properties owned by the school.

The New Haven Register generally does not identify people who allege sexual abuse, but Mirlis wanted to come forward, his lawyer said. Mirlis, now 29, said the abuse has led him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as distress, humiliation, depression, low self-esteem, and an inability to maintain emotional relationships, according to court documents.

According to court documents, Greer invoked his right against self-incrimination at a deposition last year. He repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights last week when he was compelled to testify at the civil trial.

Greers lawyers asked a judge to bar Mirlis from calling Greer to the witness stand, but the request was denied.

Ultimately, the jury was asked to decide whether the Yeshiva of New Haven was negligent in hiring and supervising Greer and whether Mirlis claims of suffering a result of that negligence and if Greer did cause the emotional distress Mirlis claimed to have suffered.

Greer declined to comment Thursday.

The jury heard closing arguments Wednesday morning and began deliberations just before lunch. A conclusion was not reached and the eight jurors  four men and four women  returned to deliberate Thursday.

Thursday morning began with a replaying of the deposition of Aviad Hack, another former student of Greer, who also claimed to have entered into a sexual relationship while he was a student at the Yeshiva in New Haven. Hack has not filed his own case, but said that later as an employee for the school, he knew of the abuse Greer allegedly was inflicting on other boys and did not report it.

The video played Thursday showed Hack being questioned by both sides about his alleged relationship with the rabbi. Hack said that he believed his relationship with Greer began sometime in 1991 or 1992  he graduated in 1992  and had continued to about 2003.

After watching the tape, the jurors continued their deliberations for another three hours. At about 12:30 p.m., they reentered the courtroom and told U.S. District Judge Michael Shea, who had presided over the case, that they could not come to an agreement on the first charge in the complaint  whether the school was negligent. Shea instructed the jury to return to deliberations and take the questions out of order if they had to, to continue moving on. Shea also said the jury should not feel rushed or pressured into making a decision.

In a civil trial, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff. The threshold for civil liability is lower than in a criminal case, which requires guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. New Haven police have an open investigation involving the allegations of sexual assault by Greer.

Greer is one of the founders of the Gan School, which was founded as an experiment in blending religion and education in 1977.
NEW HAVEN >> Fellowship Place has been a community within a community that has offered a lift to people who are homeless or who have mental health issues, says its executive director, Mary Guerrera.

With cutbacks to social services in the state budget  reductions that have affected Fellowship Place as well  the agencys activities, meals, housing and, most of all, fellowship, are as important now as theyve been since the agencys founding in 1960, Guerrera said.

It really all comes down to creating a community where people feel safe, where they have positive things to occupy themselves with  and really feel productive and satisfied, she said.

Fellowship Place serves its 750 clients with a wide variety of activities: classes in art, music and writing, a softball team, a musical band, Zumba classes and others.

Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

What weve introduced are a lot of therapeutic activities that complement psychiatric care, Guerrera said. We really have become a one-stop shop for people, so people can come here and access a lot of different services that structure their day, help them gain skills and improve the quality of their life.

Support and someone to talk to

For many of the guests, Fellowship Place is where they go once their homeless shelter closes for the day.

Within Fellowship Place, those who are homeless are welcome to spend their day at the Fellowship Inn, where three meals are served five days a week (and lunch on weekends) and guests can wash their clothes, take a shower and use a computer. They also get to talk to caseworkers who help them get hooked up to services they need, such as appointments with a doctor, Social Security and the state Department of Social Services.

Tim Hamilton of New Haven, who stays at the Beth-El Center shelter in Milford, has been coming to Fellowship Place since October. Ive been homeless for about 10-11 months, he said. Things are getting better, but it was a struggle. It was pretty rough, mainly during the winter months.

I like the supportive part of it, he said of Fellowship Place. You can talk to them if youre having a bad day or depressed. To me, theyre willing to listen; they take time with you concerning your personal issues.

Charlie Jasinka, who lives in Fellowship Places supportive housing, has been coming to the agency for 10 years. The reason I like coming here is its structured environment and it gets me out of the house during the day and we have a lot of good meals here. Jasinka plays banjo and maracas in the band and also takes part in the art program.

David Firestone is also in the band, playing violin. This is one of the safe places I have to go to for companionship, food, meals, support, friends and socialization, he said. I depend on the groups here, like peer support and staff-run support groups.

The agency offers housing for 44 residents in four apartment buildings, three of them just off the Elm Street campus, subsidized by the New Haven Housing Authority, state and federal funds. Caseworkers help tenants with budgeting, apartment management, following through with their psychiatric and medical appointments and other aspects of daily living, Guerrera said.

Right now, for all of our clients, were working really hard to get them documented as chronically homeless to get them housed, said Bailey Orell, manager of homeless services. It will either afford them a spot in permanent supportive housing or another program called rapid rehousing.

We want to make sure that theyre put in the type of housing that theyll be successful in, he said.

Like all agencies that are supported by government funds, Fellowship Place has felt squeezed, Guerrera said. This year, $1.5 million of the agencys $2.5 million budget has come from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and for the last several years our funding from the state has been flat, which means that even though our costs go up  were getting the same amount from the state year after year after year, she said.

Another major service Fellowship Place offers is job placement, with dozens of clients working full or part time in places like Sams Club, Chipotle, ShopRite, Yale New Haven Hospital and Gateway Community College. The supported education and supported employment are evidence-based programs that follow models that have been tested and proven to improve the outcomes for people with mental illness, Guerrera said. But that program also has suffered from cuts in its subsidies, she said.

Guerrera also is concerned for her clients if Congress and President Donald Trump succeed in passing a health care bill that cuts money for Medicaid. The majority of our clients use Medicaid as their health insurance, she said. It may impact their access to the psychiatric and medical care that they need.

The guests at Fellowship Place feel the impact of such cuts directly, Guerrera said. Some of the problems that they would normally bring to their clinical provider spill over to the time that they spend here, she said. Clients become more anxious, more depressed, more apt to get into arguments with people or into arguments with their families.

But Fellowship Place offers plenty of opportunities to keep people active, including a 25-year-old softball league that includes agencies from all over the state and ArtShip, an artists cooperative in which clients can exhibit their work and enter juried competitions.

Beth Stannard of Madison takes part in ArtShip. You have to apply to be in it, and we show our artwork in exhibits and we go to museums, she said. ArtShip allows me to be creative because I cant do it at home because of trauma, so I get to express myself creatively.

Kyle Barreuther, who oversees the arts program, is dedicated, kind, compassionate, Stannard said. She gives you wise counsel and listens to your heart.

Art therapy is more mental health focused and we work on topics that wrap around the mental health theme, Barreuther said.

Rina Nimon, who lives in a Fellowship Place apartment, runs a book group. Its special because we can talk about our feelings too, she said. Its not like a normal book club where you have to talk solely about the book.

Nimon said she most appreciates the communication and involvement with staff and clients. If Im having a bad day, its accepted and I dont get shunned.

The clients are also advocates for their own needs. Nimon is a member of Fellowship Places consumer council, which meets every other week to talk about concerns. Firestone has gone to Hartford with the Keep the Promise Coalition to advocate for the needs of those with mental health issues.

All of Fellowship Places programs and services serve the goal of creating a community for those who have difficulty facing lifes challenges.

Those are just basic human needs that we all have, whether we have mental health issues [or not], Guerrera said. People need to feel like theyre treated with respect and dignity and that they have a say in what happens.

Call Ed Stannard at 203-680-9382. Editors note: Beth Stannard is not related to Ed Stannard.
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NEWTOWN - The town has answered the states gift of $50 million for the recently built Sandy Hook School with a gift of its own - coming in about $1.5 million under budget for the project.

It is small amount, given the magnitude of the gift, said First Selectman Pat Llodra. But we worked hard to demonstrate that we understand this is a burden to the taxpayers of the state, and we did our best to be respectful of that.

Llodra is referring to the $50 million the state pledged to rebuild Sandy Hook School after the horrific slaying of 20 first-graders and six educators at the old elementary school building in 2012.

Due to an unusual spirit of cooperation and a determination to finish the high-profile project on time, the town was able to save the financially strapped state government $1.5 million.

The figure became final recently when the books were closed on the project.

It would have been easy for us to say, Lets find ways to spend all this money, but we didnt do that, said Robert Mitchell, an architect who chairs Newtowns Public Building and Site Commission. The entire team was very cooperative, and everyone was working towards the same goal to make this successful.

The 88,000-square-foot Sandy Hook School opened last August on the same campus where the old building was razed following the worst crime in Connecticut history.

Of the 390 students who christened the new school, only a few dozen were old enough to have been in the old Sandy Hook School on the day of the massacre. Although the new building was designed with special reverence for those most closely affected by the tragedy, it was also an important symbol of renewal for Newtown and for everyone touched by the irreplaceable loss of Dec. 14, 2012.

More Information Sandy Hook School $50 million paid for by Connecticut 32 months from demolition of the old building to construction of the new school. 15 months from the beginning to the end of the new building construction. 88,000-square feet. 665 workers on the project. Source: Consigli Construction Corp. See More Collapse

We lost four children in our neighborhood, Mitchell said. But we also had a couple of new families move into the neighborhood specifically so their children could go to the new Sandy Hook School.

While the displaced children of Sandy Hook attended school in nearby Monroe, builders worked diligently on the most high-profile school building in Connecticut.

I attended the weekly building project meetings for 18 months, and it was a pretty remarkable process. Llodra said. Even the smallest spending item was debated with a discussion about whether we needed it. The team was very responsible.

The result was a school building with an inviting and safe feel - one which observers said had achieved a balance of warmth and security.

The state government, which is facing a $5 billion budget deficit over the next two years, had anticipated as recently as early 2016 that the school was coming in at least $1 million under budget.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy suggested at the time that the state would not borrow the final $2.3 million needed to finance the school construction but would find another way to pay the remaining bills.

We told the state we would do our best to stay under budget, Llodra said.

Mitchell said the esprit de corps during construction was inspiring.

Ive been an architect for over 40 years, and I never saw anything like that, he said.

rryser@newstimes.com; rryser@newstimes.com
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Hundreds of people turned out across Connecticut Sunday to express outrage at racially tinged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia that led to the deaths of three people and injuries to dozens of others.

From some of Connecticuts largest cities to quiet bedroom suburbs, a clarion call in opposition to the actions of white supremacists in Virginia and beyond was sent forth. Vigils were held in New Haven and other Connecticut major cities as well as in towns such as West Hartford and Cheshire.

It is our duty to fight back in the face of hatred, Jesus Morales Sanchez, an organizer associated with Unidad Latina en Accion, told a crowd of about 600 people gathered on the New Haven Green.

Many who attended the vigil carried homemade signs with slogans like Bigotry isnt Patriotic and White Silence = Violence.

Gov. Dannel Malloy participated in the West Hartford vigil, held earlier in the day. Malloy used his participation in the vigil to criticize President Donald Trump for failing to speak out definitively against the violence by white supremacists in Virginia.

A variety of statewide groups issued statements in support of the vigils being held around the state and against the violence and racism in Virginia.

This display of hate, bigotry, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism by white supremacists has no place in America, said Judy Alperin, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, which is based in Woodbridge. We are horrified and sickened by the messages spewed at the rally, and by the deaths and injuries sustained.

Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said people of good will across Connecticut are morally responsible to speak out against white supremacy and racism whenever it rears its ugly head. Dhaouadi spoke before the start of the vigil held in New London.

Amanda Skinner, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said the gathering of white supremacists in Virginia was not an exercise of free speech.

It was an explicit display of the racism that still exists in our nation, led by people who came prepared for confrontation, Skinner said in her statement. Planned Parenthood of Southern New England condemns the ideology of white nationalism and neo-Nazism, and its tactics of intimidation through racist violence, fear, and hate. Our strength and commitment to southern New England is built on the diversity of our staff, the patients we serve and the communities where we live and work.

The New Haven vigil also included a separate gathering for Marco Reyes Alvarez.

The Meriden man is seeking sanctuary in the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church from federal immigration officials seeking to deport him. The prayer vigil for Alvarez was held outside the church.

Alvarez spoke to the crowd via a microphone positioned inside the churchs vestibule.

Everyone being here gives me motivation, motivation to keep on fighting, he said.

Call Luther Turmelle at 203-680-9388.
HARTFORD >> A Bridgeport man faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on federal child sex trafficking charges.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jason Prawl, who pleaded guilty in May, is scheduled to go back before a U.S. District Court judge in Hartford today.
MILFORD >> Improved signage and more consistent lifeguard coverage near the popular sandbar  or tombolo  from the shore to Charles Island are a focus of changes that will occur at Silver Sands State Park in the wake of a July 21 drowning.

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman Dennis Schain said the changes came out of a meeting between DEEP and city officials in the wake of a drowning July 21.

State Rose, D-Milford, whose district includes the popular state park, initiated the meeting between DEEP, herself, city leaders and first responders after the drowning of George Swaby, 28, of Bridgeport.

In the days after the drowning, Rose wrote a strong letter to DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee seeking a meeting, writing in part: Unfortunately, this seems to be a tragic or near-tragic story we hear of all way too often. The 2,500-foot-long tombolo has been notorious for putting lives at risk, and its unusual for a summer to go by without at least several emergencies.

DEEP responded quickly to the call for solutions, Rose said.

Rose said they discussed several approaches to minimizing the danger, including the stronger signage (to possibly include the number of deaths that have occurred; posting signs in Spanish as well as English; posting an aerial view of the tombolo and island and tell clearly when its OK to walk; and putting netting and floaters in the area (although this would complicate boating).

Rose said banning the walk is not on the table and would be near impossible to enforce. About a quarter million people visit Silver Sands each season and the walk to the island at low tide is popular.

She said another issue is lifeguard staffing. Rose said the rule is there must be three lifeguards on per shift and DEEP couldnt find enough lifeguards to fulfill that on many occasions. She said Blake offered for the city to assist with lifeguard recruitment and the Fire Department offered to help with training.

Schain called the conversation positive and productive and said it was thought the presence of guards would help reduce the number of incidents at the sand bar even though it is outside the designated swim area and not the main focus of attention for guards when they are on duty. DEEP officials had maintained earlier that lifeguards werent a factor because the area in question is a no-swim zone.

There are no details yet on what the signage changes will be  or what other measures might be put into place  but Schain indicated they would be in place for next year.

Swaby was hit by a wave and sucked into a current while walking out to the island as the tide receded.

The strip that is usually cleared of water at low tide  allowing walkers to reach the island  is commonly referred to as a sandbar, but it is technically a tombolo because it connects land to the island that is full of folklore.

Rose said most of the people harmed or rescued in the walk are not from Milford and that, generally, Milford residents are aware of the dangers.

Prior to the drowning of Swaby July 21, the last fatality as a result of the walk was in 2011.

But there are many rescue and distress calls from Silver Sands State Park each year and since June 15, there have been seven 911 dispatch calls for open water rescues, according to data obtained by Rose from local police.

There are five strong warning signs from DEEP at Silver Sands State Park where the Charles Island tombolo begins at the shore.

The signs say, Danger, in big letters, and Sandbar floods twice daily with strong currents and undertow. The signs also say, Do not hike on water covered sandbar.

But the signs dont convey that lunar cycles change the depths of the water by 6 to 7 feet or that the water once it returns for the high tide cycle can come in quickly. That combined with the undertow can challenge even the strongest swimmers, officials have said.

DEEP officers have been patrolling the sandbar in a vehicle, advising walkers not to go beyond a certain point and telling them to consider they have a half-hour rather than an hour to make it out to the island and back before the tide comes in.

Schain has said people need to use common sense, good judgment and know your strengths and limitations.

The trouble arises when people wait too long and come back from the island when water is rising, according to the experts, or who start out to the island before the tide has receded.

Police spokesman Mike DeVito said recently the sandbar area to Charles Island has tricky natural elements and panic can set in for those who dont expect it and panic causes a host of reactions in the body that decrease the likelihood of survival.

DeVito has said anyone taking the trip should be a strong swimmer, as opposed to just being able to swim. Officials have said Swaby was a novice swimmer.

Schain has said unfortunately some people are drawn to natural attractions when theres risk, and DEEP sees that at some other locations, including Enders Falls in Granby and Squantz Pond in New Fairfield.
WILTON >> When Joan McCulloughs daughter was 8 years old, she developed a motor tic involving her fingers.

The Wilton mom noticed the involuntary movement was similar to that of her friends son, who had been diagnosed two years earlier with PANDAS  Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.

Though McCullough had been a registered nurse for more than 20 years, this was her first time hearing about the disorder that describes children and adolescents who have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and/or tic disorders with severe accompanying symptoms  such as anxiety, concentration problems and severely restricted food intake  that worsen as a result of untreated strep infections such as strep throat.

Even though her daughter showed no symptoms of the infection, her pediatrician found an active strain on her throat and diagnosed her with PANDAS. In fact, 85 percent of children present with PANDAS that have strep throat dont show signs of symptoms, McCullough said.

Her daughters tic went away after taking antibiotics for three months. Antibiotics are recommended as the best treatment for acute episodes of PANDAS because it eradicates the strep infections causing the symptoms.

Thats why its so hard to diagnose (PANDAS) because you never associate a psychiatric illness like OCD or even a tic with an infection, McCullough said. But its going down that road now where were starting to see more and more mental illness is from brain inflammation.

Dr. Susan Swedo and her team at the National Institute of Mental Health were the first to identify PANDAS in 1998, through studies that showed a strong association between untreated strep throat and the uptick in the number of OCD cases with varied psychological behaviors stemming from brain inflammation around the basal ganglia. Swedo and others modified the criteria in 2010 to describe PANS, a larger class of acute-onset OCD cases that didnt require prepubertal onset or association with just streptococcal infections.

Yet, despite 30 years of research that support the validity of PANDAS, it remains a controversial disorder treated and recognized by a relatively small number of U.S. providers  though that number has been growing quickly in recent years, Swedo said.

Swedo said the landscape of diagnosis and treatment had its turning point in 2013, when the conversation about PANS and PANDAS included a larger consortium of medical experts from multiple institutions, including Stanford, Mass General, Yale and Harvard, to name a few.

Then, in 2015, diagnostic guidelines were established and the initiative to open 10 PANS/PANDAS centers around the nation began.

The controversy should be over because of the strength of the evidence, Swedo said. And if it continues, I have no explanation because, honestly, we know more about PANS/PANDAS than about any other mental illness and the majority of physical illnesses.

Dr. Nancy OHara, a certified pediatrician at Center for Integrative Health in Wilton, is one of several physicians who treat patients with PANS/PANDAS in Connecticut. One of the biggest challenges for her is trying to get other practitioners to recognize and treat the disorder appropriately and early on. Even she approached the disorder with healthy skepticism at first, she said.

I was willing to try antibiotics, and once I saw improvement in that first child and the next five, 10, 20 and 100, then that certainly fortified my understanding of it, OHara said. And I think if pediatricians and physicians could start treating it, they would see the improvements in the kids and they would recognize that it is something that needs to be understood and treated appropriately.

OHara saw her first patient eight years ago and now sees several hundred with PANS/PANDAs, with one new patient a week. McCulloughs daughter was one of her patients.

I was lucky my pediatricians did know about PANDAS, McCullough said.

To help spread awareness among parents and in the community, McCullough leads a meet-up group at Coffee Barn every first Tuesday of the month, except during the summer. The group offers support to parents who have children with PANS/PANDAS or to those who have questions about the disorder. Sometimes, its simply lending an ear to a parent whos emotionally and financially drained, as insurance in Connecticut has yet to cover treatment for PANS/PANDAS.

The meeting is associated with the New England PANS/PANDAS Association, a group of parent and medical volunteers from the New England area focused on raising awareness of the disorder.

Gabriella True, president of the NEPANS, has a son who was diagnosed with PANS in first grade, several years after he was diagnosed with autism. Based on his progress over the years, with flares that are now far and few, she said shes optimistic about his future and the future of other children with the disorder.

Im hopeful for the future that we will have more and more doctors, especially after these treatment papers, and that care will be expanded, True said. The future may be slow, but its not grim.

Similarly, McCulloughs message to parents is the same.

I would say that there is hope and to listen to your gut as a parent, McCullough said. Weve learned so many stories over the years that we kind of know what works. But its really honestly for more like comfort of knowing that theyre not alone and their child can get better and will get better.

skim@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2568; @stephaniehnkim
The statue of Thomas Jefferson looked at them, those several hundred torch-waving men and women marching at the University of Virginia late Friday night in opposition to the city's plan to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The protesters and counterprotesters who violently clashed in Charlottesville on Saturday passed by Jefferson's monuments.

What would he think about the city and university he built becoming the decisive battleground over the monumental Confederacy in our time? What side of the battle would he join?

His ideas lend ammunition to both sides. He was a champion of human hierarchy and human equality. He was a defender of the freedom to oppress and the freedom from oppression.

Jefferson also had a complicated relationship to the Confederate States of America and their white nationalist defenders. Jefferson stood in history as both the inspirational relative and ideological enemy of the Confederacy.

In sum, Jefferson's legacy embodied the clash that snatched and harmed human life in the city of Jefferson over the last few days.

Confederate leaders revered Jefferson long before they seceded from the Union. To some he was a direct relative. He was the second cousin-in-law of Lee.

To others, he was an inspiration. Jefferson Davis was not just named after him. As a slaveholder, U.S. senator and then Confederate president, Davis shared Jefferson's values: states' rights, limited federal power over their property, extended federal military power over their captives, racist ideas and constitutional protections for slavery.

Although Confederate leaders traced their ideological and relational roots to Jefferson, they also knew that his most famous words threatened their plantations. The Confederates seceded from Thomas Jefferson when they seceded from his independent Union. If Jefferson's Declaration of Independence remains the soul of the United States, then Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens revealed what historian Henry V. Jaffa termed "the soul of the Confederacy" on March 21, 1861. Both justified their new nations and laid out their ideals.

In this speech, Stephens laid out the Confederacy's constitutional principles. We will have "perfect equality," Stephens declared. He did not lay out plans for redistributing wealth, landed or embodied, or empowering or enriching in any way the 4 million poor Southern whites. He just announced "honest labor and enterprise are left free" and other "changes for the better," before broadcasting "one other though last, not least" change.

"The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery," Stephens proclaimed. "This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."

Stephens was as unequivocal on that day about the cause of the Civil War as anti-racist historians are today. He admitted that the defense of slavery propelled the war, which defenders of Confederate monuments still unequivocally deny today.

Stephens harkened back to Jefferson's observation that slavery was the "'rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right," Stephens continued.

In his speech, Stephens complained that the founding fathers of the "old constitution" believed slavery violated "the laws of nature," a belief that assumed racial equality. "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

Every participant in the debate over Confederate monuments should know Stephens's speech intimately. It carefully formulates what the four-year Confederacy stood for. It clearly shares the racist ideas that Confederate monuments are still standing for in towns across the United States.

But does it give us any better indication as to what side of the battleground Thomas Jefferson would be standing on in Charlottesville? Would he defend his soul, the Declaration of Independence, as it has been reinterpreted throughout American history, as meaning racial equality? Or would he defend the Confederate soul of all white men are created equal?

Where would Jefferson side in our nation's debate over race? Would he stand on the racist side of white supremacy, or the anti-racist side of equality's supremacy? Or would Jefferson try to be a "non-racist" and remain "race neutral" only to realize a neutral center does not exist? We are all either anti-racists fighting for equality, or racists maintaining inequality by our actions or inaction.

Would Jefferson have defended Charlottesville's decision to remove his cousin's statue? Or would he have grabbed a torch, chanted "Unite the Right" and lectured reporters about white genocide - the rallying cry of white nationalists these days?

Matters of slavery and race deeply conflicted Jefferson. He despised slavery almost as much as he despised losing his luxurious lifestyle outside of Charlottesville. He seemed to like and dislike both freedom and slavery, and he never divorced himself from either.

His words could thrust him to either side of our current debate. He regularly responded to anti-slavery letters by saying "no body wishes more than I" to see the end of prejudice and slavery. But Jefferson also wrote in Notes on the State of the Virginia in 1785 that "incorporating [freed] blacks into the state" was out of the question, was suicidal. Because, he surmised, it "will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race."

These are the words that South Carolina legislators used when citing their reasons for secession on December 24, 1860. They expressed fears of abolitionists "inciting" contented captives into "servile insurrections" that harmed white people. And today, these ideas permeate the rhetoric of white nationalists who espouse fears that non-white immigrants, Muslims, antiracist policies and Black Lives Matter activists are exterminating the white race (and blue lives). White nationalists marched around University of Virginia late Friday night chanting: "You will not replace us."

Thomas Jefferson is everywhere and nowhere in Charlottesville. Truly, after all these years, Jefferson's beloved city and his beloved nation are suffering at the hands of his two warring children: the older child of bigotry and the younger child of equality.

He does not have a choice of sides. But we do. And history will one day judge us as history judges Thomas Jefferson today.

---

Kendi is a historian at American University and the National Book Award-winning author of "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America."
Abubakar Malami

Following the expiration of her 74-hours Ultimatum to the Acting President Yemi Osinbanjo to direct EFCC to cease the harassment and persistent invasions of homes of former Federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke(SAN) over the Malabu/Shell settlement, a Rights group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has headed to the United Nations.

The pro-Democracy and Non-Governmental Organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) in a statement to the media by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf said it has sent a team to Dakar, Senegal over the Weekend to submit a petition to Mr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN for West Africa).

HURIWA disclosed that the petition is being submitted to the UN to demand that the World body intervenes to get the Nigerian State to guarantee the security and safety of the life and safeguard the erstwhile Justice minister from incessant threats to the life of the immediate past Federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke(SAN) who due to credible fears for his life can't return to the Country from Europe where he has gone for a post- masters programme.

Besides, HURIWA also told the United Nations that the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) has persistently waged illegal invasions of the homes of the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke(SAN) leading to the destruction of his legitimately earned assets.

HURIWA said the presentation to the UN is titled: "PETITION ON INFRINGEMENTS BY NIGERIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE PERSON OF IMMEDIATE PAST FEDERAL ATTORNEY GENERAL AND MINISTER OF JUSTICE(AGF) MR MOHAMMED BELLO ADOKE(SAN) AND HIS FAMILY MEMBERS."

Excerpts from the petition states thus: "We write you this petition with the greatest respect and with the ultimate expectation that you would use you good offices and institutions to wade into the matter and demand that the Nigerian State provide remedial redress to the victims of serial human rights violations aforementioned."

"This petition is being written purely from an independent perspective as credible stakeholders in the Nigerian human rights community. "

"We have existed and worked actively to defend human rights in Nigeria of all classes since a decade ago."

"We at the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCAITION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) have followed with considerable shock and trepidation, the continuous harassment of the family members of the immediate past Federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Alhaji Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. There is also allegations of threats to the life of the immediate past AGF."

"The former Minister of Justice who has been in Europe for his post masters degree course has cried out on several occasions that the lives of his immediate family members are threatened by members of the cabal within the presidency in Nigeria because of the ongoing issues relating to the lawful action he took in his capacity as the nations Chief law officer in the business transaction over oil well involving such parties as Malabu and Shell."

"Sir, we will for historical purposes present the summary of the matter of Malabu and to show your good offices that in the entire scenario, the immediate past AGF is being wrongfully targeted may be because of his political persuasion or because he was a key kitchen cabinet member of the last government headed by the now opposition party- peoples democratic party".

"1. INTRODUCTION

The settlement between Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited (SNUD) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited (Malabu) over the ownership /right to operate OPL 245 which was facilitated by the Federal government of Nigeria through the office of the Attorney General of Federal and minister of justice commenced in April 2011.

We note that Adoke himself has written to explain his official role in all of these but the harassment has persisted especially by the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) even when the former minister who served Nigeria without blemish for five years had instituted litigation challenging the government wrongful persecution based on substantially unprovable and unsubstantiated and indeed baseless allegations.

Mr. Adoke has also submitted to the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on the transaction involving the federal government and Shell/Agip companies and MALABU Oil and Gas Limited in respect of Oil Block OPL 245.

Sir, may we inform you that in that submission to the parliamentary panel in 2013 he (Adoke) had stated amongst others thus:

"It is important to reiterate from the beginning that the settlement Agreement between Malabu and the federal government over the ownership/right to OPL 245 predates me in office as the terms of settlement upon which the settlement as predicated were executed as a far back as 30th November 2006 to amicably settle suit: FHC/ABJ/.CS/420/2003 and Appeal No: CA/A/99/M/06 brought by Malabu Oil and Gas Limited as Plantiff/Appellants against the president and Commander in chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria; the federal Government of Nigeria; the National Petroleum Corporation; the ministry of Petroleum Resources; the Department of Petroleum Resources and Attorney General of the Federation as Defendants/Respondents."

2. ATTECEDENTS OF DESPUTES BETWEEN MALABU AND THE FGN in the report goes thus:

"Records indicate that Malabu ,an indigenous oil and gas company was allocated OPL 245 in April,1998b by the FGN in furtherance of its indigenous exploration programme policy introduced in the early 1990s to encourage effective development of indigenous capability in the upstream sector of the oil industry.

Malabu and the other indigenous oil and gas companies were accordingly allocated oil blocks which they were expected to develop in partnership with international oil companies as Technical partners.

Malabu has in accordance with the terms of grant appointed to Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited (SNUD) as its technical partner.

The companies executed relevant Agreements as a joint operation agreement in 2001.

Malabu asserts that it proceeded to operate OPL 245 as a sole risk venture in conformity with Governments guidelines. Malabu also asserts that it negotiated with SNUD which took 40% participating interests in the venture in a farm in agreement and that SNUD agreement with Malabu as its technical partner for the venture.

Although, Malabu was issued a license for Block 245 on 9th April 2001,the FGN subsequently revoked the license on 2nd July 2001.Exxon Mobile and shell were then invited in April 2002 to bid the same Opl 245 as contractors on a production sharing contract(PSC) with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) despite the existence of subsisting contractual agreements between Malabu and SNUD with respect to OPL 245.Disatified with the revocation, Malabu contended among other things at the circumstances leading to the revocation of its license on Block 245 was less then transparent and smacked of inducement and connivance from SNUD, which at the material time was technical partner. It was also contended by Malabu that the subsequent re-award of OPL 245 VSNUD by the FGN was done under questionable circumstances.

Malabu then petitioned the House of Representative Committed on petroleum to look into the matter. It is important to note that the house of representative committee on petroleum found no rational basis for the revocation and reprimanded shell for its complicity. The committee also directed the federal government to withdraw the re-award, it made to shell and return OPL 245 to Malabu, the original allotee of the block. In addition to its recourses to the holder of representative committee on petroleum, Malabu also instituted suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/420/2003, before the Federal High Court (FHC) Abuja to enforce its claim to OPL 245.

Although, the suit was struck out by7 FHC, Malabu proceeded to lodge Appeal No.CA/A/99M/2006,before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, Division in 2006.

Sir, please note that during the pendency of the Appeal, an amicable settlement was entered into between Malabu and in compliance with the terms of settlement executed by the parties on 30th November 2006,OPL 245b was fully and completely restored to Malabu in consideration for its withdrawal of the Appeal.

It is instructive to note that the honorable minster of State Dr. Edmound Daukoru, communicated the restoration of the OPL 245 to Malabu vide letter dated 2nd December 2006 which is in the possession of relevant federal government oficials like the office of the Federal AttorneyGeneral and Minister of Justice.

Please Sir, kindly note that a principal government official prior to the appointment of Mr. Adoke, the then Petroleum Minister of State authored a letter also which clearly states that President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, had duly approved the restoration of OPL 245 to Malabu.

It is important to state that the terms of settlement were filed in Court as consent judgment and became binding orders of the court. The major clauses in the terms of settlement are reproduced below to show the issues, agreed upon by the parties.

(I) In the spirit of an amicable settlement and without any admission of liability for any alleged wrongful, unlawful, unjust or any like conduct, the Federal Government of Nigeria(hereinafter referred to as (FGN)agrees to re-allocate the oil block known as and covered by oil prospecting licence245 to Malabu oil and gas limited from the date of this agreement;

(II) The signature bonus in respect of OPL 245 shall be the sum of US$ 210,000,000(two hundred and ten US Dollars) payable by Malabu to the FGN .In this regard, the FGN acknowledges that Malabu had hitherto paid a sum of US$ 2,040,000(two million and forty thousand Us dollars)to the FGN in respect of its Oil Block which sum shall be deducted from the aforesaid signature bonus leaving a balance of US$ 207,960,000(two hundred and seven million, nine hundred and six thousand Dollars)to be paid by Malabu to the FGN within 12 (twelve) months from the date of the reinstatement of OPL 245 to Malabu.

(III) The parties agree that Malabu shall, if it so desires be at liberty to assign OPL 245 or any part thereof in accordance with the provision of the petroleum Act.

(IV) Pursuantly to this agreement and in consideration of the foregoing, Malabu hereby forever and absolutely discharges and releases the FGN, its officers, agents, agencies and privies howsoever described or any person acting for and/or on its behalf, from all claims or demands which Malabu has or may have from all actions, proceedings, obligations, liabilities, losses and damages brought, made, incurred, sustained or suffered by Malabu now or in the future relating to, arising from or however connected with the withdrawal or revocation by the FGN from Malabu of OPL 245;

(V) The parties agree that these terms of settlement shall be made the judgment if the court.

Sir, we invite you to note that a cursory reading of the above clauses in the terms of settlement would reveal that it as the agreement of the parties that OPl 245 should be fully restored to Malabu; Malabu was expected to pay the balance of the signature bonus in the sum of US$ 207,960,000 and Malabu was free to dispose the block by way of assignment.

From records available in the public space, Malabu accordingly released the FGN from liability on account of the actions taken in respect OPL 245.It is opposite to note that no other individual principal corporate body as a party to court action by Malabu or the amicable settlement with the FGN.

3. SNUDS RESPONSE TO MALABUS AMICABLE SETTLEMENT WITH THE FGN AND THE RESTORATION OF OPL 245 TO MALABU

SNUD apparently dissatisfied with the implementation of the terms settlement between the FGN and Malabu, commenced arbitration proceedings Against the decision of the FGN to restore/re-allocate OPL 245 to Malabu at the international center for the settlement of investment disputes (ICSID)in Washington Dc, and made representations to governments on the impending arbitration. It also commenced a suit against the FGN before the Federal High Court, Abuja.

It will be recalled that SNUD had entered into production sharing contract with the NNPC in 2003b upon their OPL 245 was anchored. SNUD has paid $1million US Dollars out of $210 million us dollars signature bonus to the federal government and kept the balance of $209 million us dollars in an Escrow Account with J.P Morgan pending the resolution of the dispute between Malabu and Federal Government.

4. EFFORT TO SETTLE THE LINGERING DISPUTE BY SIUCESSIVE ADMINISTRTIONS

It is important from the exchange of letters between the presidency, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, SNUD and Malabu, that several meetings were held between President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR and SNUD to resolve the dispute. The former president had proposed a middle courses solution to the dispute; whereby the interests of SNUD, Malabu and NNPC would be accommodated on OPL 245, i.e. SNUD would be contractor-operator, while NNPC and Malabu would be concessionaire equity right and concessionaire equity interests respectively.

Sir, while it would appear that SNUD was comfortable with the above arrangement. Malabu contended that the solution failed to take cognizance of its membership rights over OPL M245.Malabu asserted that the proposed solution amounted to a unilateral imposition of the back in regime, which did not apply in the circumstance. In general, was of the view that SNUXD was not a position to insist that it must be the contractor on OPL 245 and canvassed the full implementation of the terms of settlement proposals is enclosed as Annexure C.

To reconcile these conflicting positions, the Honorable Minister of State, Petroleum Resources had by a letter dated 11th may 2007 to President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR proposed that a committee made up of himself, the Attorney General of the Federation, Minister of Energy, GMD-NNPC, DPR with external solicitors serving as resource persons be constituted to enter into settlement negotiations with the affected companies.

However there is no indication on the records that the committee was able to arrive at any satisfactory outcome before the President Umar Musa Yaradua, GCFR was sworn in as President on 29th May 2007.

Sir from all tgat we have adduced, it has become clear that the current administration in Nigeria has embarked on the selective harassment of Mr Adoke for no other justifiable reason other than the perception that he was a key player in the immediate PDP government whereas the ruling pary now is APC which has deployed humongous public resources to demonize the now opposition PDP.

We say so because this Malabu matter's final settlement phase predates the immediate past government but commenced around 2006 with the then Federal government under chief Olusegun Obasanjo up until it was resolved out of court during the last administration.

In all of these the AGF is one of the over 5 key government officials including president Obasanjo, Yaradua /Jonathan, Petroleum Minister and then Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga who then headed the Finance Ministry. His predecessor in office under Obasanjo played also his lawful role.

Why isolate and select Adoke for persistent harassment when the FG hasnt been able to establish any evidence of wrong doing or show any bribery transaction linking the immediate past AGF?

The action of invasions of homes of Adoke in Abuja, Kano and Kogi State is illegal and unconstitutional and violates all known laws of civility and human rights including the following:

International Covenant on civil and political rights in Article 17:

1.Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Universal Declarations of Human Rights@ Article 1:All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscious and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood,

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it is independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person

Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile

The 1999 Constitution in sections 42(1) A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he such a person-

(a) Be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups places of origin, sex, religions, or political opinions are not made subject; or

(b) Be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizen Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religious or political opinions

36(1): In the determination of his civil rights and obligations, including any question, or determination by or against any government or authority, a person shall be entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal established by law and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence and impartiality

And, 36(5) Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty, provided that nothing in this section shall invalidate any law by reason only that the law imposes upon any such person the burden of proving particular facts.

We had few days back given the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbanjo 74 hours to officially and publicly direct the EFCC to stop the harassment of Adoke or failure which we will approach the UN Human Rights Council with a petition to declare ex justice minister of Nigeria as an endangered species in Nigeria but the Nigerian government has failed to so order EFCC and other armed agents of government.

Sir, we believe that the incessant invasions of private residences of the family of the immediate past minister Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) and the willful destruction of his property by agents of the Nigerian government amounts to the violation and negation of the fundamental obligations of the Nigerian State to protect and promote the human rights of Nigerians.

Nigeria being a signatory to several international human rights and humanitarian treaties, covenants and treaties, we urge you to use your good offices to compel the Nigerian government to comply with three basic State obligations arising from human rights namely the Obligation to respect; the Obligation to protect; and the Obligation to fulfill.

We write to inform you that although the Nigerian constitution is replete with sections that provide domestic redress and remedy, but the government of the day in Nigeria has become notorious violators of those mechanisms.

There are several judgments against violations of human rights of Nigerians by government from courts of competent Jurisdiction that have not being complied with such binding verdicts like that of the immediate past National security adviser to the president Colonel Sambo Dasuki, that of the leader of the Islamic movement of Nigeria Sheikh Elzak-zacky is well known as examples of judgments seeking to provide redress for gross human rights violations that the President Muhammadu Buharis government has disobeyed persistently.

We hereby make this submission believing that your intervention is necessary to compel the Nigerian Federal government to stop institutions being manipulated by the Presidency in pursuit of needless vendetta and political persecution of the past Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Mr. Bello Mohammed Adoke (SAN) and the members of his family living in Nigeria.

Sir, it may interest you to know that the immediate past Federal Attorney General has serious threat to his life making it impossible for him to return to his family members especially because the individuals who are behind his unconstitutional ordeals are powerful members of the cabal in the president Buhari-led government which is notorious for massive human rights violations.

Our objectives are;

v To deploy the members creative talents as writers to promote, protect and project the human rights of all Nigerians and other law abiding citizens resident within Nigeria;

v To organize periodic seminars and training workshops locally for human capital development specifically on the tenets and ideals of Human Rights and the rule of Law;

v To attend International Workshops and Seminars targeted at the promotion and protection of human rights;

v To conduct periodic studies on ways, means and strategies for promoting and protecting human rights of law abiding citizens;

v To highlight human rights challenges confronting the persons in conflict with the law and seek for constructive modalities for redressing such violations; and

v To recognize excellence and good governance standards in the polity through yearly award ceremonies for exceptionally good, tested and trusted leaders in both the corporate and public sectors. The process of selection would be by transparent mass participation strategies.

Be assured of our highest esteem and consideration even as we look forward to reading your swift response."
North Korea has recalled several of its key ambassadors back to the country for a joint meeting in the capital.

The meeting reportedly includes Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong, Ambassador Ja Song-nam and Ambassador Kim Hyong-jun, North Korea's top envoys to China, the United Nations and Russia respectively.

A government official told Yonhap News Agency that:

'North Korea seems to be hosting what appears to be a meeting of foreign diplomatic missions' chiefs after calling its ambassadors to major countries back to Pyongyang'.

The Ministry of Unification's spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a press briefing that the meeting may be part of North Korea's regular gathering of ambassadors.

He added:

'North Korea held the 43rd ambassadors' meeting in July 2015 and (the latest meeting) seems to be in line with that'.

However, there are rumors the meeting may be linked with the country's purported preparations for further military actions against the US and Guam, such as nuclear test or more missile launches.
Happy New Month Nigeria! Welcome to the month of June. As the world searches for a respite from all its troubles since 2020 began, one can ...
A young woman has revealed the details of her painful struggle with a condition that leaves her constantly sexually aroused.

A young woman has revealed the details of her painful struggle with a condition that leaves her constantly sexually aroused.Amanda McLaughlin, 23, from the United States, has lived with the problem for 10 years and says she has to beg her fiance JoJo for sex every day to relieve her symptoms.The condition, called persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), causes pain in her legs and pelvis that is so bad she is unable to work and rarely leaves her home.Now Ms McLaughlin has spoken of her ordeal as part of a documentary for BBC Threes Living Differently.Its not fun to be aroused all the time, she said. It feels like youre about to orgasm and then it never goes away.Ms McLaughlins symptoms began when she was just 13 years old but she was not diagnosed with PGAD until six years later.Her mother, Victoria, admitted that she and her family did not understand her daughters condition at first.When she first became sexually active, she was having sex a lot, she said. My whole family just thought she was a wh**e.I doubted her completely  I still feel guilty. Victoria is now very supportive of her daughter, as is JoJo.Amanda said: Relationships are really hard to keep with this problem. But he never once has judged me, he never made me feel bad about working. It was love at first sight.She added that her condition affects the couples sex life tremendously.Youd think that you could have sex and it would just go away, but it doesnt, she said.Sometimes I will be crying and begging him to have sex with me just to relieve some of the pressure that I have down there.JoJo said: When she first told me, I didnt know how to feel about it; but I liked her, so I was prepared to jump in.The more I can learn, the more I can help her. Ill help her so she can get anything she needs.Amanda currently takes 30 different types of medications to ease the pain caused by her condition. She also uses ice inserts to ease her pelvic swelling.Assistant professor of neurology at Michigan University, Dr. Priyanka Gunta, who is currently treating Amanda, said: Because its such a rare diagnosis and theres been such little research, we dont know exactly what causes it. We suspect its multifactorial.I dont have a quick cure for this, but were going to be trying a few different therapies.Im very hopeful that we can get her functioning better.Source: DailyMail
Former Al-Shabaab deputy leader, Mukhtar Robow has surrendered to Somalia security forces following a bitter fight with militants in Ab...

Former Al-Shabaab deputy leader, Mukhtar Robow has surrendered to Somalia security forces following a bitter fight with militants in Abal.Officials said Robow who is from the large Rahanweyn clan, which dominates many of Somalias most fertile areas, arrived in government controlled town of Hudur town in Somalia southwest State forces on Sunday.Minister of Internal Security for Southwest State, Hassan Hussein Mohamed confirmed that the groups former leader, Robow is with them at moment, according to a report by Xinhua.Al-Shabaab militants wanted to kill Robow but we gave him military help and repulsed the Al-Shabaab fighters. Robow is now in Hudur town with southwest State officials, Mohamed said.Robows surrender comes after weeks of deadly fighting between Al-Shabaab militants and his militia backed by Somalia security forces.He left the militant group in 2013 and retreated to his homeland over disagreement on using foreign fighters in the group.Robow was before his disagreement with the group declared wanted terrorist by the United States in June 2012 with a $5 million bounty placed on his head. But in June, the US State Department removed him from the terrorists list.He defected from Al-Shabaab in 2013 when he was deputy leader in 2012. The U.S. State Department announced in June quietly removed him from their list of sponsors of terror after five years.Robow who is also known as Abu Mansour is intelligent and was a main pillar of the Somali militant Islamist group.Analysts say his defection will deny Al-Shabaab vital manpower and intelligence. It is a big blow that Al-Shabaab will certainly lose all South of Somalia due to Robows influence there besides the tight noose by Kenya Defense Forces.Robows defection will likely enable pro-government forces to operate in the regions of Bay and Bakool, reducing the insurgents operational territory to two.NAN
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has said President Muhammadu Buhari cherished and held in high esteem the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the Peoples Republic of China.Adesina stated this at the weekend in Abuja when he received in audience the Vice Minister of Information of State Council, Peoples Republic of China, Mr Guo Weimin, who is on an official visit to Nigeria.He said the fact that the Nigerian President cherished the cooperation between both countries automatically meant there would always be areas of mutual cooperation between the two countries from which their media organisations should profit.In a statement signed by a Deputy Director (Information) in the Presidency, Abiodun Oladunjoye, Adesina reiterated the readiness of the presidential media team to build on the existing relationship while also exploring other areas of cooperation.He assured the visiting Minister that the presidential media office will work closely with the Ministry of Information to explore areas where the agreements signed during the visit will enhance the interests of the Nigerian media and the Nigerian government.Speaking earlier, Mr Guo Weimin informed Adesina that he led a team of the Chinese government officials to explore areas of exchange of ideas towards deepening the relationship between the Chinese and Nigerian media industry.He mentioned New Media, transparency in governance, broadcast communication and socio-cultural values as areas in which they hoped to share ideas with their Nigerian counterparts.He also acknowledged that Presidential spokesmen have a big role to play in deepening this relationship and, therefore, solicited the cooperation of Mr Adesina in that regard.Mr Gou Weimin also said that his delegation had interacted with a broad spectrum of Nigerian media professionals to hear first-hand from them their expectations from the visit of the Chinese.
A lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, has said President Muhammadu Buhari should be embarrassed at the manner the police treated protesters under the aegis of OurMumuDonDo protesters.The protest, which started last Monday, has seen the protesters asking President Muhammadu Buhari to either resume work or resign, following his over three months stay in London, United Kingdom, on medical vacation.The police, however, disrupted the protest on Tuesday, on the grounds that it would be hijacked by hoodlums.But Falana in a statement issued, yesterday, gave instances where the President led protests as a private citizen without harassment or assault from the police.He said: It is pertinent to remind the presidency and the Nigeria Police Force that President Buhari had, in the recent past, taken part in peaceful rallies in Abuja to protest alleged manipulation of election results and perceived injustice in the country.It is on record that as he exercised his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly with other Nigerians on such occasions he was never subjected to any form of assault or intimidation by the police.He also urged the Inspector General of Police to apologise to leader of the protest, Charles Oputa,aka Charly Boy.By providing adequate security for the pro-Buhari demonstrators while harassing the anti-Buhari protesters the police engaged in the violation section 42 of the constitution, which has prohibited discrimination on grounds of political opinion.To that extent, the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force should apologise to Mr. Charlie Oputa and other members of the our mumu don do.No doubt, the violent disruption of the anti-Buhari rally ought to have embarrassed President Buhari who had advised President YarAdua, in a similar situation, to step aside as he could no longer discharge the duties and functions of his office.He gave the example of a September 2003 protest by the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, which was disrupted.He said: The police authorities justified the disruption by claiming that the organizers of the rally did not obtain a police permit.Completely aggrieved by the action of the police, Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of the ANPP instructed our law firm to sue the inspector general of police to justify the legal validity of asking for police permit before protesting against the government.He said the presiding judge of the case had identified protests as a recognised form of expression in a democracy.
Boko Haram terrorists stormed a remote community in Borno State on Saturday night and opened fire upon the villagers, a vigilante source...

Boko Haram terrorists stormed a remote community in Borno State on Saturday night and opened fire upon the villagers, a vigilante source revealed on Sunday.According to the source, dozens of terrorists invaded Amarwa in Konduga local government area late at night and began looting homes and shooting residents. They proceeded to burn down the homes they looted.The source, a member of the local vigilante group, told SaharaReporters that villagers alerted the Nigerian Army in Konduga, but by the time the soldiers responded, the terrorists had already wreaked havoc in the community.Many people were killed and the whole village was razed down completely after they looted our food items, the vigilante said.We sighted them afar so we tried our best to stop them by engaging them, but they were better equipped.At the time of publication, the number of casualties remained unknown.
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, Monday warned that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu is deceiving Nd...

Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, Monday warned that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu is deceiving Ndigbo with the promise of the actualisation of Biafra.The Imo governor, said that any form of war now will cost the Igbo N3 trillion both in properties and assets.Okorocha who spoke while giving Staff of Office and Certificate of recognition to traditional rulers, lamented traditional rulers have kept mute while the cloud is gathering over activities of Biafra agitators.According to him, on IPOB, the cloud is gathering, nobody is talking, even our traditional rulers, Pastors and leaders, this is bad for our people. If you will remember vividly that few years ago, during the Civil War, it was a similar story. That was how it all started. At that time, we believed that the Ohafia warriors will be able to fight and disseminate the North.He continued Now we are been deceived that IPOB will drive away Nigeria and give us Biafra. Even our Pastors, men of God and some leaders in the rural areas, nobody is speaking out against this action and the song of war is coming gradually like a desert encroachment. We fought the war and it was believed that the Igbos will learn from it but they still went ahead and developing the resources of other regions.There are 5 million Igbo living outside the shores of Igbo region. Any form of war will cause the Igbos over 3 trillion naira loss in properties and assets. No sane person will spread the message of division and war because it does not benefit the Igbo in any way. I urge you traditional rulers to speak against it and educate your people on the true state of things. Igbo need to build bridge of unity across the nation.
Youths in their hundred, Monday, staged a peaceful procession in support of President Muhammadu Buhari who has been in the United Kingdom for more than 90 days on medical vacation.The Kaduna procession was coming few days after two groups, pro and anti-Buhari protesters, held similar rally in Abuja.The Kaduna rally allegedly drew youths from various states of the north and terminated at the Kaduna government House where they were addressed by government officials, led by the commissioner in charge of Stakeholder Affairs, Shehu Balarabe as well as governor Nasir El Rufais spokesman, Samuel Aruwan.They carried placards with the inscription, Kaduna Youths Network Support Buhari, We support Buhari to stay in office, not to step down,Budget Padding is corruption.The spokesman for the group, Ibrahim Garkuwa, said the rally was called to drum support for the president, adding that they are happy with the manner which President Buharis administration has governed the country in the last two years.Another member of the group, Muhammed Sani noted that in spite of repeated attempts to portray the present administration as not performing, the President has achieved far better than his predecessors.He said President Buhari has fulfilled his campaign promises to Nigerians, especially in areas of anti-corruption fight and security despite the challenges he met on ground.According to them, those calling for his resignation are enemies of the country who are not happy with the successes recorded by his administration in ridding Nigeria of corruption.The group maintained that the President has not violated the Constitution to warrant the call for his resignation after he had properly handed over to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.The commissioner for Stakeholder relations who addressed the youths on behalf of the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai thanked then for being law abiding.
The main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, says Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is not in charge of the country.It said actions taken by the Acting President had shown that power was not handed over to him contrary to the claim by the Presidency that ailing President Muhammadu Buhari ceded power to him (Osinbajo) before leaving Nigeria for London on medical trip more than 90 days ago.Spokesperson for the party, Dayo Adeyeye, who spoke with one of our correspondents on Sunday, wondered why the Acting President had refused to assign portfolios to the two ministers that were sworn in more than two weeks ago.Adeyeye, who was a former minister of state for works, observed that the action of the Acting President indicated that he was just a figurehead.He said, The Acting President is not in charge of the country. He is not in charge of anything. This is why nothing is moving forward.How do you explain a situation where two of the ministers who were sworn in after much pressure from the people and the National Assembly have not been assigned portfolios?He is not in charge. He is a mere figurehead and cannot do anything. The cabals are still in charge. That is why nothing is moving forward in this country.The two ministers are just idle. They have no offices, nowhere to resume to and nothing to do. What is the essence of their being sworn in then? They are ministers without portfolios.It is a constitutional breach on the side of the government because each state ought to have a minister each. Now, these two states had been without ministers for long and after you reluctantly appointed them, you refused to give them offices. The ministers are Prof. Stephen Ocheni from Kogi State and Mr. Suleiman Hassan from Gombe State.Twenty days after Osinbajo administered the oath of office on the ministers, they have yet to be assigned portfolios.Ocheni and Hassan were inaugurated on July 26, 2017, in Abuja.Their inauguration came after another long delay since May when they were screened and cleared by the Senate.It also took a resolution and an ultimatum issued by the House of Representatives for the ministers to be inaugurated.Adeyeye said it was apparent that the All Progressives Congress was not ready to rule, adding that it won the 2015 presidential election in error.He asked Nigerians to be patient, adding that 2019 would soon come when new elections would be held.
English Premier League side Southampton have entered into a partnership with Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng, the south coast clubs current owner Katharina Liebherr announced Monday.Following extensive and fruitful work, we are entering into a partnership with the Gao family and I am excited about what we will achieve together, said Liebherr in an open letter to Saints supporters on the clubs website.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretary, Ben Obi, has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of destabilizing th...





The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretary, Ben Obi, has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of destabilizing the solid foundation the PDP laid in for the unity and advancement of Nigeria in 16 years.

He stated this at the partys non-elective national convention held in Abuja on Saturday.





According to him, the APC has rubbished the efforts made by the PDP. We all know that the APC has nothing better to offer Nigerians.





In spite of our challenges, Nigerians still demonstrate their love for the party by voting the party in many by-elections.





Nigerians have witnessed another government and I am sure they can now testify that the PDP is the true democratic party.





The party has used this period to embark on stock taking. We are dedicated to delivering the dividends of democracy to Nigerians especially in these times of sufferings under the APC.




Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said some of the projects that constituted the Paris Club debt were dubious and fraudulen...

Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said some of the projects that constituted the Paris Club debt were dubious and fraudulent.

Mr. Obasanjo also explained why he headhunted Nigerias immediate past finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who also held that role during his administration.





He made this known in his new book titled Making Africa Work, launched recently in Victoria Island, Lagos.





The book was co-authored by the former president and three others  Greg Mills, Director of Brenthurst Foundation; Jeffrey Herbst, President of NEWSEUM and Dickie Davis, a retired major general.





Mr. Obasanjo governed the nation as a democratically elected leader between 1999 and 2007.





According to the former president, on assumption of office, he realised that some of the projects that constituted Nigerias accumulated debt of $30 billion were dubious.





On assumption of office as president, I discovered that the accumulated debt of Nigeria to the Paris Club was some $30 billion. Some of the projects that constituted the debt were dubious, if not outright fraudulent, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

One typical example was a turn-key project for $8 million where the money was drawn out with no site clearance let alone the foundation being laid. And yet, there was a video of the purported commissioning of the project. This happened in Enugu state, one of the 36 states in Nigeria.

Obviously, it involved collusion and corruption between the state government and the lender and promoter of the project. All the same, the loan was a commitment and it had to be repaid. Such had become the practice of Nigerian debt to the international community.

Obasanjo explained further that he did not waste time on the merit or demerit and impropriety of any of the projects, which previous governments had accepted and on which interests and penalties were already being paid in the event of failure to meet interest payments.

I concentrated on seeking debt relief from the governments of creditor countries, which have bound themselves together as a cartel in what they called the Paris Club.

Nigeria was spending almost $3 billion annually to service all its debt. This was a heavy burden on the economy of the country. Yet, a failure to service the debt would incur penalties.

The most sustainable and prudent course was negotiation. But what sort of negotiation? Previous administrations had negotiated postponement of repayment and servicing terms, which kept increasing the quantum of debt, making it more and more burdensome and unbearable, especially with the price of a barrel of oil below $10 when I assumed office in 1999, he wrote.



The former president said he embarked on shuttle diplomacy, to clean up the image and perception of Nigeria in the eyes of the world and to seek debt relief.

I visited most Western capitals to present anew Nigerias case. One such visit was to Washington DC where I met President Clinton and the president of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn.

I raised the issue of debt relief with both of them and asked Jim for both support and advice. He advised that Nigeria should urgently embark on a comprehensive reform to impress its creditors. If Nigeria was doing well in its economic reform and management, it would get the World Banks support, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

Explaining further, he noted that the advice constituted his marching orders, which led to his decision to headhunt Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank.

In my first term, from 1999 to 2003, I visited many countries and world leaders, some more than once, to campaign for debt relief. There I got apparently sympathetic hearings, but not much action from political leaders.

After my first term, I realized that my talks at the highest political levels needed follow-up at the levels below. So, I head-hunted Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank, appointing her as Nigerias Minister of Finance.

My plan was that she would manage the follow-up at a lower level. Even then, the fact that Nigeria was the sixth largest oil-producing country in the world was regularly used as the reason to deny debt relief. I would then explain that Nigerias population of almost 150 million at the time and its stage of development should justify such relief.

The former president described the Paris Club debt relief as a breakthrough, which he said enabled Nigeria to negotiate debt relief from other creditors.

In the end, Nigeria obtained debt relief of about $18 billion and paid up about $12 billion to rid itself of this burden. It was a great breakthrough and the consequent savings were channelled to the Millennium Development Goals, one of the promises made to the creditors, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

With debt relief having been agreed by the Paris Club, Nigeria was in a strong position to negotiate debt relief from other creditors too.


CAPE MAY -- Five people and a dog were rescued from a 25-foot boat that capsized Sunday afternoon off the coast of Cape May, officials said.

No one was seriously hurt, according to the captains of two ships who took part in the rescue.

The Research Vessel Explorer, a scuba diving boat, arrived first after a 25-foot HydraSports boat overturned around shortly after 1 p.m., according to Capt. Rustin Cassway.

The captain and three passengers aboard the Explorer tossed life vests and a life ring into the water before entering the ocean and brought two men, two women and a black lab to safety, Cassway said

Capt. Jack Moran of Sea Tow Rescue 1 arrived minutes later and rescued the final occupant, a man who was clinging to the top of the overturned vessel's hull.

Cassway was aided by three people he took out Sunday afternoon, a New York City firefighter as well as the firefighter's father-in-law and cousin.

The U.S. Coast Guard assisted in bringing the occupants of the HydraSports boat to shore, it confirmed.

Sea Tow 1 then righted the overturned boat and towed it to shore.

Posted by RV Explorer on Sunday, August 13, 2017

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
SECAUCUS -- Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. today delivered a blistering attack on President Trump, chastising him for his initial reluctance to criticize the white supremacists who organized rallies in Charlottesville over the weekend and blaming Trump for giving "a voice to these extreme separatists."

Pascrell, D-09, was joined by a Paterson minister and a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations as he led his attack on Trump. Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, also stood with Pascrell today and called the president "an accomplice to terrorism."

The press conference, held in front of town hall in Secaucus with the town's mayor and council members standing nearby, came as the nation reeled from the violence that engulfed Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday as white nationalists and counterprotesters clashed over the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. One woman was killed when a driver plowed into a group of counterprotesters.

Trump on Saturday read a statement saying "many sides" contributed to Saturday's violence, then this afternoon issued a more forceful response, calling racism "evil" and saying "those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

At his press conference today, held about a half-hour before Trump made his newest statement on the events in Charlottesville, Pascrell put the blame for the white separatist and neo-Nazi groups' behavior in that Virginia city at Trump's feet. The 11-term congressman cited the president's prior statements questioning whether Barack Obama was born in the United States and his hiring of Steve Bannon as a senior adviser. Bannon formerly ran alt-right site Breitbart News.

Trump "gave a voice for these extreme separatists," Pascrell said today. "His victory opened the door for these individuals to stand unmasked and in public."

Pascrell called for the White House to fire Bannon, adviser and former Breitbart editor Sebastian Gorka and policy adviser Stephen Miller, saying their rhetoric "validates" the racism of white nationalists.

Pascrell's comments were mild compared to Goldstein's diatribe.

"For the first time in American history the president of the United States is an accomplice to terrorism," Goldstein said. "The virus of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ageism and ableism has infected the Oval Office and that virus spread to Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend and that virus is responsible for the death of Heather Heyer."

Heyer was the woman killed after a car drove into a group of protesters on Saturday. An Ohio man authorities say was the driver has been charged with second-degree murder.

In his remarks today, Trump said those who commit violence in the name of bigotry "strike at the very core of America."

"As I have said many times before no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God," Trump said. "We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence."

The Rev. Kenneth Clayton, the Paterson minister who appeared with Pascrell today, asked Trump to "lead our country through this serious and sensitive moment."

"Martin (Luther) King's words are yet true that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," Clayton said.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson and Ewing Mayor Bert Steinmann made public statements about the mayhem and death that erupted Saturday during a white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Va.

Steinmann, on Monday, said:

"We are deeply saddened by the deaths and injuries that resulted from this weekend's tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn all acts of intolerance and denounce the racism, antisemitism, and bigotry that gave rise to the demonstrations and violence.

It is critical that we respect the dignity of all individuals and act with civility. There is no place in Ewing Township - or America - for the display of hate and violence that we saw in Charlottesville."

Jackson, in a Facebook post Sunday, wrote:

"I am deeply saddened and troubled by the deadly violence that broke out this weekend in Virginia. The car that plowed through a group of civilians appears to be an act of domestic terrorism. If that proves true, I fully support state and federal officials to pursue the offender with the full force and extent of the law.

My sincere condolences go out to the families and communities who experienced loss. In a sense, we are all suffering from the actions of the white nationalists who led the demonstration. Their racist behavior touches all of our lives and our hearts.

I want to reassure the residents of Trenton that my administration values every citizen of this great city. We reaffirm our commitment to respect, justice, and equality and denounce those rallying for hate and division and expressing bigotry.

As we continue to advance social and economic progress for people of color and women, we shall not be deterred by the evil deeds on display in the great state of Virginia. I am praying for those lives ended by the violence, and I am steadfast in my commitment to advancing racial equality and doing what we can to stand against and defeat hatred.

Are you with me?"

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
UPDATE: 5 hurt after boat crashes into rocks recovering as investigation continues

WOODBRIDGE -- Five people were injured Sunday evening after a boat crashed into the rocks in the Arthur Kill channel, including two people who are listed in critical condition, police said.

All eight people on board the boat were transported to an area hospital, but only five reported having injuries, according to New Jersey State Police Trooper Alejandro Goez, a spokesman for the agency.

The crash was reported to police at 5:41 p.m. at 1 Ferry St. in Woodbridge, Goez said. The Arthur Kill is a navigational channel bordering New Jersey and Staten Island, and connects the Raritan Bay to the Newark Bay.

Woodbridge U/D Perth Amboy fire coast guard FDNY NYPD state police boats all on scene pic.twitter.com/hjYZzaNUeO  NorthJersey FireNews (@NJFires) August 13, 2017

All of the people on the boat were taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Two people, including one who was flown to the hospital, are currently listed in critical condition as of Sunday evening, Goez said.

No additional information on the crash was available.

The crash remains under investigation.

This was at least the second boating incident in New Jersey on Sunday. Earlier in the day, a 19-foot speed boat caught fire in the Shrewsbury River in Rumson. The 10 people on that boat were able to jump to safety and did not receive any injuries, police said

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
The study looks at two smaller-scale projects that are in some ways predecessors to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the $2 billion plan to slow land loss erasing Louisiana's coast. Construction on that project could begin as early as next year, while a similar one on the opposite side of the river known as the Mid-Breton Diversion could follow.
From Florida Keys to Mandeville: 'House Hunters' comes to the North Shore
The latest drug epidemic to hit the Council Bluffs-Omaha metro area stems from a product that is legal and easily attainable.

Its also potentially lethal.

Last week, six people were treated at Council Bluffs hospitals after overdosing on a version of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid commonly used as a painkiller, according to local law enforcement and medical experts.

Council Bluffs Police reported on Aug. 1 that three people were found unresponsive in the parking lot of a gas station near North 25th Street, while another unconscious man was found in a house nearby around the same time. All four were found to have used the fentanyl, and they were treated and released.

On Aug. 2, two men were treated at area hospitals for the same reason, police said.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is a powerful analgesic, or painkiller, used in medical surgery. In the United States, it is a Schedule II controlled substance because it has a high potential for abuse and may lead to severe physical or psychological dependence, although it is accepted for medical uses, according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Forensic Chemist Christine Gabig with the Douglas County Forensic Services Division said many synthetic variants of fentanyl have made their way onto the streets in the metro area. Since the substances are not actually fentanyl but a slightly altered version of it, theyre not illegal and can be purchased easily on the internet without a prescription.

You can order it online and kill yourself right now, Gabig said. The goal is to stay ahead of the legislation by messing with the chemical structure of fentanyl to get around the law.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 91 Americans die every day from opioid overdose, including from prescriptions and heroin. Six out of 10 drug overdose deaths involve opioids. And more than 500,000 people have died from drug overdoses between 2000 and 2015.

The amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. has doubled since 1999, while deaths from drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone have quadrupled in the same timeframe.

The CDC said fentanyl is estimated to be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Roughly 9,500 people have died from overdoses involving synthetic opioids other than methadone in 2015.

An internet search by The Nonpareil turned up several websites offering fentanyl, ready to ship anywhere. Gabig said those selling synthetic opioids mixed in with heroin or other narcotics are playing off peoples addictions. Gabigs lab has seen 10 variations of fentanyl since 2015 make appearances in the area.

If you can make a product that gives a stronger high, people will want it. Theyll put it into heroin and sell it without telling their buyers what theyre getting, she said.

And it will kill you.

Effects and treatment

The emergency rooms at CHI Mercy and Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospitals in Council Bluffs are no strangers to treating those suffering from overdoses of various opioids, such as heroin.

But fentanyl is different, complicating treatment and frustrating medical providers because patients may not even know they had fentanyl mixed in with other drugs when taking it.

In other words, someone could turn up in an ER with a lethal dose of fentanyl and not even be aware they had been using the substance.

Its bad. And theres no silver bullet to this, Jennie Edmundson Emergency Services Director Courtney Schmid said.

The hospital has begun instructing staff on how to deal with these cases in the future, because the problem is not likely to fade anytime soon, he said.

Chris Acker, an emergency physician at Mercy, said fentanyl, similarly to other opioids, causes respiratory depression. The body suffers without enough oxygen and closed airways can cause a buildup of carbon dioxide, causing patients to aspirate or stop breathing all together, he said.

Whats worse, fentanyl is incredibly absorptive. Even getting some of the powder on ones skin is enough to be affected by it, Acker said.

The biggest issue is those putting it or using it on the street dont know its strength, he said. Its not regulated and dangerous.

Jennie Edmundson Medical Director Patrick Costello said the standard response to opioid overdose is to manage the patients airway and give them doses of Naloxone, commonly known and sold as Narcan. The medication blocks the effects of opioids to help patients survive overdoses.

But fentanyl binds to brain receptors tighter than heroin, meaning more Narcan is needed for treating its effects, Costello said.

After last week, we were running low on Narcan, Costello said. And, if this is going to be an ongoing issue, were going to need more of it.

When used illegally, people have mixed fentanyl with other substances  like cocaine or heroin  for a stronger high, but such actions lead to a more lethal concoction, Costello added.

Legality and legislation

As it currently stands in Iowa, the knock-off versions of fentanyl are legal.

Council Bluffs Police Sgt. Robert Christiansen said the drug is usually mailed in after ordering it online.

With the recent string of overdoses, he said it was a good thing victims were around other people or they might not have survived.

There is no recreational use with this stuff. If youre messing with it, youre looking to die, he said. It can be absorbed through the skin and make you go to sleep and not wake up.

The absorbing properties of the drug present a danger to law enforcement and first responders, Christiansen added. Those on scene of an overdose could come into contact with the powdery substance without realizing it and suffer its effects.

We have to have a protocol now when we suspect fentanyl is present, he said. Its nasty stuff.

Two lawmakers representing Council Bluffs in the Iowa Legislature  one a Democrat, one a Republican  said action is needed at the state level.

State Sen. Charlie McConkey said the Legislature needs to come together in a bipartisan effort to create measures to combat synthetic versions of drugs. He said tweaking the substance on a chemical level, so it no longer meets the definition of a controlled narcotic, is a complex issue legally.

We have to have a plan for it, he said. We know opioids are over-prescribed as is, but we can help a lot of people out if we put the effort in to crack down on it.

State Sen. Dan Dawson said that, in his 17 years in law enforcement and as part of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, fentanyl is probably the nastiest thing he has dealt with.

He said when the next legislative session begins in January, a proposal will be put together to address the issue of opioid abuse, including synthetic versions.

Were trying to get out ahead of the problem before it hits harder here in Iowa, Dawson said. The severity and quickness of this stuff endangers the safety of everyone who comes into contact with it.

Cedar Rapids Police Officer Al Fear told The Cedar Falls-Waterloo Courier in January that opioid abuse will be like cancer in two years: Everyone will know someone who has been affected.

A lot of people dont realize the extent of the problem, Fear told lawmakers and media at the Capitol in Des Moines, according to The Courier. Just like everyone has their own story about themselves or a family member being affected by cancer. Opioids are going to be the same way.

The police officer has been assigned to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Cedar Rapids, which oversees the Northern District of Iowa, including the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area, to help deal with opioid and heroin abuse. The problems in eastern Iowa are on the fringe of a growing opioid problem, he said, with the eye of the storm in Ohio and moving westward.

Unfortunately, its only going to get worse, said Fear, who is spearheading the Eastern Iowa Heroin Initiative.

The group uses prevention, treatment and enforcement to stop the rise of opioids in the area, according to the organizations website. Fear and the Area Substance Abuse Council provide information through community presentations, town hall meetings and forums, including to area law enforcement.

A path from opioids

Andrew Huff, an anesthesiology doctor at Bluffs Pain Management, said his clinic only prescribes fentanyl in a patch form to help control its use and to steer patients away from possible misuse. The opioid epidemic is very real, he said, but there are people who benefit from the use of opioids.

It shouldnt be our primary mode of treating peoples pain, he said. Unfortunately, what happened through the 2000s was it was overprescribed. Now its created this monster of a problem.

Some of those addicted to opioids become hooked to avoid withdrawal symptoms and pain brought on by a variety of conditions, he said. Others seek to abuse painkillers to get high or to sell for money.

We have people come in and try to trick us, saying they have pain just to get medication, Huff said. For those in actual need, we focus on injections or other types of therapy and medications that arent opioids.

Its a balancing act on an issue that is not black or white. Opioids have their place in the medical toolbox, but the issue must be handled with great care, he said.

Huff added that the former ease of getting prescribed opioids has come back to haunt us.

There were abuses, and now were paying for it, he said.
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Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) An alleged plan by the government to raise Taiwan's minimum wage by 5 percent has met resistance from major industry and commercial groups in the country, which contend that if wages are to be hiked, everyone in the country should be entitled to the same treatment.
Broncos lock Josh McGuire has marked Brisbane's loss to the Parramatta Eels as the wake-up call his side needed as they try and break the longest premiership drought in the club's history.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 24: Broncos vs Dragons

The Broncos were outplayed and out-enthused against the Eels in Round 21, going down by 14 points in a shock loss that had many questioning their credentials as title contenders.

Brisbane have since gone on to record back-to-back victories against the Gold Coast Titans and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, scoring 86 points in the process.

The victory over the Sharks on Friday night was particular impressive, with Wayne Bennett's men shutting down the defending premiers to leap into second position on the NRL ladder.

McGuire, who was one of the Broncos' best in that victory, told NRL.com that the loss to the Eels three weeks ago was the turning point in Brisbane's season.

"It was a disappointing effort from us as a team. We probably went into it a little bit too relaxed," McGuire said.

"It was the kick up the bum we needed at the right time of the year. As a forward pack especially, we knew it wasn't up to our standards. We've played a lot better footy than that.

"We probably had an easy game against the Bulldogs the week before and then kind of thought it was just going to happen. It was a good reminder to us that we need to work hard and keep on building as a team."

And Brisbane are building nicely, conceding just ten points over the past two rounds, frustrating their opposition into stupid mistakes in the process.

It makes their defence the third best in the competition and it is peaking at the right time with three games remaining in the regular season.

Many thought the loss of defensive rock Andrew McCullough to a season-ending knee injury would be the end of the Broncos' high standards in defence, but Brisbane's forward pack are proving the doubters wrong.

McGuire has been a big part of this resurgence, with the Brisbane enforcer taking it upon himself to lead the Broncos' defence.

"We know that if we can hold our own and have good line speed then we can hold teams inside their own end," McGuire said.

"We have a lot of players that can score points so we need to do this to give them that opportunity.

"We give away a lot in the size department so we have to make up for that in the enthusiasm side of things. It's about being quick in defence."

Brisbane will take on the St George-Illawarra Dragons on Friday night, with a victory all but sealing a top-four finish.



Perseverance key to unlocking Moga's best

Broncos v Sharks: Five key points


Northwest Indiana SCORE, a Valparaiso-based business mentoring nonprofit with a satellite office in Munster, will host a workshop on online presence and online marketing Aug. 30.

The free one-hour workshop will take place at 9 a.m., Aug. 30 at the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce at 162 Lincolnway in downtown Valparaiso.

"Worried about getting found by local customers, want to be found everywhere on all devices, want to know how to be found with online advertising, want to learn how to measure your online success?" Northwest Indiana SCORE said in a statement.

Seth Spencer of SERA Solutions will discuss how to tailor a company's website for mobile and search, how to advertise on Google, how to use Google My Business, and how to use Google Analytics to grow the customer base. A copy of Spencer's slide presentation and complementary coffee will be provided to attendees.

Though the event is free, registration is required because seating at the chamber is limited.

To register, visit northwestindiana.score.org.
INDIANAPOLIS  Members of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus are hosting a town hall meeting Saturday in Gary to review new laws enacted by the 2017 General Assembly and to set the group's agenda for next year.

The free, two-hour public event is scheduled for noon Region time at the Bergland Auditorium in the Savannah Center on the Indiana University Northwest campus, near the intersection of 33rd St. and Broadway Ave.

The Gary event is the last of the organization's seven public forums held this summer throughout the state.

"This is the second consecutive year that the IBLC has conducted these town halls, and we have found them to be very effective in helping us find out what the people of Indiana would like to see its Legislature do for them," said state Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, the group's chairwoman.

"We will be paying particular attention to legislation that impacts people on lower incomes and minority communities," she added.

Six of the 14 black caucus members represent Northwest Indiana legislative districts, including its most recent former chairman, state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago.
MUNSTER  The Redevelopment Commission has put the kibosh on a project that would have turned the Munster side of Lansing Country Club into an industrial park.

Though the plan had its fans, both on the commission and in the audience, the commission voted narrowly 3-2 not to give the go-ahead for negotiations between the town and the development group. That means the project known as Stateline Business Park has stalled, probably permanently.

Town Council members double as Redevelopment Commissioners in Munster. Stateline got its strongest support from councilmen John Reed and Andy Koultourides, both of whom voted in its favor. But Joseph Simonetto, Dave Nellans and Lee Ann Mellon voted no, and all three cited traffic snarls among their biggest concerns with the project.

Even Clerk-Treasurer Dave Shafer weighed in. Shafer is not a voting member and rarely gives his opinion, but said he had to point out the significant expense inherent in the project. Attorney fees, engineering and other costs would have to be borne by the town. Developer The Crown Group, and principal Matt Reardon, a Munster resident, said they would reimburse Munster some of its costs, but even that promise was not enough to summon support for going forward.

Stateline Business Park would have been on 140-plus acres on the Munster side of the state line, property which is already zoned for manufacturing. Reed said the project is the first of its type before the commission. Most potential developers have asked to put high-density rentals on that parcel, which the town doesnt want.

Reardon and his colleagues stated up front the parcel would be challenging because there is no direct access to it in Munster. Their plan was to extend Fisher Road through the parcel in a two-lane public road that would end at Wentworth Avenue. There would be a roundabout on the east side of the parcel and a signal light on the west side. The road would have been paid for via a private activity bond, a financing vehicle that would not have been guaranteed by the town of Munster.

Reardon and Crown Group said the business park would generate not only tax revenue but jobs.

Rita Traxler, of Margo Lane, was one of a handful present who showed enthusiasm for the project, saying it could lure Illinois businesses over to Indiana. Reed also supported the plan, saying an industrial park/business center would be a far better use than rentals.

Nellans, however, saw plenty of downsides to the plan. My biggest concern is traffic (in that area), he said. I dont want to do anything to make it worse.

Mellon said quality of life would be at stake as the project developed. Although it would expand the towns tax base and provide more revenue, quality of life is more than dollars and cents.
EAST CHICAGO  Residents say allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to store highly contaminated dredged sediments from the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in a local confined disposal facility would create unnecessary health risks and fail as a long-term solution to cleaning up the waterway.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said those risks will be mitigated by ongoing air monitoring, a cap at the bottom of the canal and storage of the sediments in wet conditions.

EPA recently said a decision could come within weeks on the Corps application for a permit to dispose of sediments containing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at greater levels than previously allowed at a confined disposal facility at 3500 Indianapolis Blvd. Both EPA and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management must sign off on the permit.

Residents say dredging is needed, but they object to the proposed disposal of the highly contaminated sediments in East Chicago. They want a deeper environmental dredge, not a navigational dredge to an authorized 22 feet.

Capping contaminated sediments limits future use and continues to leave the community vulnerable, said Thomas Frank, a member of the Community Strategy Group.

By leaving the contamination, we cannot bring this property to higher and better uses, he said. A comprehensive cleanup would create jobs and be a long-term solution.

According to the Corps' website, approval for dredging was limited to navigational depths. However, the site notes "IDEM, Indiana Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be investigating dredging below the navigation depths" as part of other projects.

The Corps estimated 60,000 cubic yards of highly contaminated sediment will be stored in the facility under this permit. Nearly 1 million cubic yards of sediment has been removed since 2012.

Frank and other community activists have said the proposed disposal of the most highly contaminated sediments at the confined disposal facility crosses a red line.

East Chicago is a predominately minority, low-income community already overburdened by more than a centurys worth of industrial waste, according to public comments released by EPA. The confined disposal facility is located less than a half mile from several East Chicago public schools and the Robertsdale neighborhood in Hammond and Whiting.

EPA responds to comments

IDEM initially denied The Times' request for copies of public comments. EPA released the documents in response to a subsequent request. IDEM later said it was aware EPA had released the comments and that its files mirror the federal agencys.

While IDEM said it would not release its responses to any comments until a decision has been made, EPA provided answers to written questions.

Written public comments were submitted by residents, University of Iowa researchers and a group including the Indiana Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Hoosier Environmental Council, Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations, Duneland Environmental Justice Alliance, Community Strategy Group, Southeast Environmental Task Force and Indiana State Conference of the NAACP.

Chief among the groups many concerns are that dredging will be too shallow to address the most highly contaminated sediments in the canal.

The Corps is culpable in creating a deep sediment trap in the canal, because dredging during World War II was nearly twice as deep as the authorized navigational dredging, according to public comments.

Comments written by researchers at the University of Iowa said PCB concentrations are much higher below the surface of the mud and sediments in the canal.

As a result, dredging will expose high concentrations of PCBs. Our work has shown that this will result in a major increase of release of these toxic chemicals to Lake Michigan and to the air of East Chicago, the researchers wrote.

EPA said navigational dredging in the canal is reaching a depth of 22 feet, and the Corps is dredging another 2 feet down for a cap to prevent contact between sediments containing PCBs and the environment.

The fact that the dredging will have reduced levels in the channel to below contact depth for deep draft barges, further assures that the PCB-contaminated sediments remaining will be isolated and protected from contact with ships that could disturb sediments and make them available in the environment, EPA said.

'Some emissions could occur'

Residents also have raised concerns that the handling and storage of the sediments could increase the risk of PCBs becoming airborne and contaminating areas outside the confined disposal facility. University of Iowa researchers wrote the confined disposal facility may be a new source of airborne PCBs to the region and asked EPA and IDEM to arrange for studies of the emissions of airborne PCBs from the facility.

EPA said it is possible some emissions of PCBs could occur from the surface of the disposed sediments.

An important environmental property of PCBs is that they remain tightly bound to the sediment particles," EPA said. "To reduce the potential for releases, USACE is keeping the disposed sediments in a ponded (wet) condition which essentially eliminates the airborne release and dispersion of particulate matter that could contain PCBs. In the wet condition, it is possible that some very small amounts of PCBs could enter the water phase and evaporate to become airborne."

Residents have criticized air-monitoring methods used by the Corps at the confined disposal facility.

EPA pointed to the air monitoring when asked if concerns about airborne PCBs were valid.

"No significant levels of PCBs in air have been detected to date at the CDF. Consequently, there is no current evidence that the CDF is a significant new source of PCBs in the region," EPA said.

No decision has been made on the University of Iowa researchers' request for further study of airborne PCBs from the facility, EPA said.

New technologies an option?

Residents and EPA also disagree about whether innovative technologies could be employed to reduce the toxicity, mobility or volume of dredging waste.

According to public comments, the Corps investigated 18 innovative technologies but dismissed all of them.

"The USACE gave up early and as often as possible on any treatment technology that cost more than simply open dumping in a CDF," according to submitted written comments. "Combinations of treatment technologies were never evaulated since individual treatment technologies were summarily dismissed as too expensive or unable to treat all contaminates in the dredged wastes from the IHC."

EPA said the Corps considered several technologies for the treatment of dredged sediments but found none would work in East Chicago.

"The contaminants in the sediment include not only PCBs but volatile compounds, semivolatile compounds, organic compounds, pesticides, oil and grease, fertilizer, human waste residue (from combined sewer overflows), dirt, minerals, water and very high concentrations of metals. This complex mixture means that the methods cited as possible treatment for PCBs wont work because there are too many interferences and side reactions," EPA said.

The Corps has continued to search for new technologies, but none have become available in the past 10 years, EPA said.
VALPARAISO  The city's fire department is replacing an aging firetruck that has seen little use.

The board of works gave its approval Friday to a request from Fire Chief Chad Dutz to order a 70-foot single axle aerial platform truck from Sutphen, Amlin, Ohio.

Cost of the new firetruck is $824,895 and will be purchased through a low interest, six-year loan, Dutz said.

Dutz said his department has money available for the purchase from the equipment replacement fund.

The new truck, which should arrive in Valparaiso in the next 11 to 12 months, will be housed at Station 1 and will replace an aging 102-foot aerial platform truck that has only gone out on calls five times.

The board allowed the single-source purchase, without going through the bidding process, because Sutphen is the only manufacturer of this type of fire equipment, Dutz said.

The board also tabled a request from First United Methodist Church to close Chicago Street from Franklin Street west to Washington Street on Oct. 7 for its fall festival. City Administrator Bill Oeding said he has concerns about closing Chicago Street because it's such a major corridor.

"Maybe at the next meeting we can come up with another way to resolve this," Oeding said.
In the wake of the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday and Saturday, some rallies were put together quickly, including one in Northwest Indiana, to show rejection of racism in a nonviolent way.

What a contrast these rallies were to the tragic events in Charlottesville.

White supremacists clashed with counterprotesters there on Saturday, and a car rammed into the crowd, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring at least 19 people.

The following day, nonviolent rallies were held across the United States in response to the Charlottesville tragedy.

At Wicker Memorial Park in Highland, an 11-year-old boy stood in front of about 125 people Sunday and told the crowd, "I'm Micah, and I want to talk about how racism is not good."

His adopted brother, who is black, has been subjected to racial bullying, Micah Jennette said.

It takes a strong person to stand up to hate, and young Micah showed how to do it.

No child should be subjected to the kind of taunting his brother has experienced.

Our society has come a long way in the past 50 years, when civil rights battles, especially in the South, dominated the news. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," the movie that was so controversial in 1967 when it came out, no longer carries the same punch for the audience.

1967 also saw the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the "Loving v. Virginia" case that struck down laws against interracial marriage.

Now it's not only legal for members of two races to intermarry in every state, it's also common. One in six marriages in the United States in 2015 involved marrying someone from a different race or ethnicity, compared to 3 percent in 1967. Among all married people in 2015, 10 percent are now intermarried, according to the Pew Research Center.

White separatist groups have the right to free speech, same as everyone else, but what they say is reprehensible and should be thoroughly denounced by every reasonable person across this nation.

At the same time, nonviolent rallies like the one in Highland should be praised.

Sunday's nonviolent rallies showed the best of what America is about  the ability to express views without resorting to violence, the ability to quickly coalesce in support of a common aim, and most especially the viewpoint that the United States must remain united, not divided by hatred toward fellow Americans.
One the city's biggest cultural celebrations made its way through the streets of Midtown on Sunday.

"I wanted to represent my culture, I wanted to represent my people as a Dominican myself  especially born in America," one parade-goer said.

Tens of thousands of people marched up Sixth Ave. for the 35th annual Dominican Day Parade.

The celebration featured plenty of bachata and merengue, as well as colorful floats and costumes.

This year's parade was also dedicated to Detective Miosotis Familia, who was fatally shot in the Bronx on July 5.

"We honor her, obviously," said Maria Khury, the chair of the board of directors for the Dominican Day Parade. "The strength of her uniform, the strength of being a single parent, the strength of being a Dominican."



Adriano Espaillat served as the parade's grand marshal.

He made history last year when he became the first Dominican-American and formerly-undocumented immigrant to be elected to Congress.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday.

The Mexican drug lord said he wants new representation in his American trafficking case.

He is looking to ditch his public defenders and hire private attorneys, including one who previously represented the son of organized crime boss, John Gotti.

Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges of running a drug trafficking cartel that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings.

He has escaped from prison twice in Mexico, and was extradited to the United States in January.
Police arrested the man they say is behind a deadly stabbing in Brooklyn, all over a parking space.

Djem Jean-Paul, 41, was caught at JFK Airport trying to escape to Haiti, according to the NYPD.

The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. Sunday on 73rd Street between Avenue L and Avenue M in Bergen Beach.

Police say 23-year-old Omari Dahan and his brother were arguing with Jean-Paul and another man about a parking spot when Jean-Paul stabbed Dahan in the chest.

Dahan's brother was stabbed in the arm.

Both were taken to Beth Israel Hospital where Dahan died.

His brother is in stable condition.

Jean-Paul is facing manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon charges.
Stewards rule NZ silks off colour

A puzzling decision that forced expatriate Kiwi jockey Michael Walker to dress down for the occasion at Flemington on Saturday didnt take the gloss off a New Zealand victory.

The Chris Waller-trained Alward impressively opened his Australian account for New Zealand syndication company Go Racing, but with Walker sporting the clubs silks.

Alward Photo: Darryl Sherer

The stewards deemed that our colours were too close to those of Lloyd Williams, which was a bit odd, but hopefully Chris will be able to sort all that out now, syndicate manager Albert Bosma said.

Alwards success signalled a change of fortune for the four-year-old, who is expected to make his mark in stakes company in the future.

Theres a lot of upside to him, hes a pretty smart horse, Bosma said. Not many horses that can stay can sprint like that at the end of 2000 metres. It was also a very good ride by Michael.

The horse had no luck in his first two starts over there. He got blocked in and couldnt get out all the way down the straight first-up and second-up there was an on speed bias. He had to go back from a wide draw and made up a huge amount of ground.

We certainly think that he is a Group horse and he can win a lot of money taking him through the grades before we look at the bigger races.

Hell probably go to Sydney now and theres a race in two weeks time at Rosehill or in three weeks at Randwick. He could be an outside chance for something like the Metropolitan later on.

Alward is Go Racings first foray into the European market and he was purchased on their behalf by Kiwi agent Guy Mulcaster for 35,000 guineas at the 2016 Horses in Training Sale at Newmarket.

He ran in some nice races in France and won his maiden there by four lengths, Bosma said.

We syndicated him in New Zealand and a couple of Australian owners have also bought into him.

Alwards victory continued Go Racings lengthy association with the champion Sydney trainer Waller.

Chris was our very first trainer and weve been with him since he was here in New Zealand, Bosma said.

Weve got three more horses we bought at Karaka heading over to him as well - a Savabeel colt, a Reliable Man filly and one by Shamexpress. Their breeding suggests they could be classic-type three-year-olds.

Go Racings New Zealand interests are split between Stephen Marsh, Lisa Latta and Andrew Carston and in Singapore with Marshs father Bruce.  NZ Racing Desk.
Two 16-year-olds, one from Auburn and one from Opelika, were arrested during the weekend in connection with the shooting death of another teen found dead in a yard late Friday night.

TyKeith D. Webb, 16, of Auburn, and Kevon T. Smith, 16, of Opelika, were arrested on Saturday by the Opelika Police Department, according to press statement released by the department Monday morning.

Ladarius Marquise Cardwell, 19, of Opelika was found dead during the early morning hours Saturday in the front yard of a residence in the 100 block of Easy Street after Opelika police received a 911 call at 1:22 a.m.

He was pronounced dead on the scene from an apparent gunshot wound, according to Lee County Coroner Bill Harris.

Both of the teen suspects are being charged as adults on a count of murder and are being held in the Lee County Jail, each facing a $150,000 bond.

Police would not release further details on the case Monday morning, and there was no explanation on why the delay in reporting the arrests.

Officers still are investigating the case, police Capt. Bobby Kilgore said.

The 911 caller reported an unresponsive person in the yard, and when officers and paramedics arrived, they found Cardwell with no signs of life, Harris said in a press statement Saturday morning.

The case marks the 17th homicide investigated by the Lee County Coroners office for 2017.

Authorities ask that anyone with information on this case contact the Opelika Police at (334) 705-5220 or the Opelika Police Secret Witness Hotline at 334-745-8665 or the Lee County Coroners Office Secret Witness line at 334-745-8686.
The city of Opelika will be given a new park as a gift from Opelika natives J. and Ginger Stern of the Henry J. Stern Family Foundation.

J. and Ginger wanted to donate the park as a way to honor their parents.

He was all Opelika all the time, J. said about his father. "Mom and dad were both engrained in the community. And Ginger and I just got very lucky they were our parents.

The property, which used to be citys social security building, was purchased by the Sterns in March 2016.

Ginger always wanted to have a dog park, J. said. Last March of 2016, I was riding downtown and saw that this lot was for sale and told Ginger to take a picture. We bought it and a year later we started working on it and this fall it will be a park.

Demolition of the property began in February.

The park, which will be located at the block of North Railroad Avenue and North Fifth Street, began construction on July 28.

A storied history

J. and Gingers father Henry came to Opelika from Germany in 1937 during the Holocaust.

Back then, the only way they allowed Jews to come to America was if they were sponsored, J. said.

Henrys sponsor was his Great-Uncle Julius Hagedorn, who owned a department store in Opelika, according to J.

He (Hagedorn) kept telling the family the Holocaust is coming and they didnt believe him, J. said. Finally in 1937, he brought them over to Opelika, rolled out the red carpet and treated my family like they were just regular people.

In 1961, Henry married his wife Roslyn, who founded the Arts Association and taught art at Opelika City Schools for 40 years.

Henry was a partner in a department store in downtown Opelika and a real estate agent prior to working in the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. He worked at the chamber until his retirement in 1988.

Henry and Roslyn started the foundation to do things privately to help people in the community.

After Henry passed in 2014, J. said he and Ginger were given the foundation with the mission of Make Opelika Better and Do Right.

First phase to be completed in September

Opelika resident Morgan Beadles, who is the parks landscape architect and the curator of Auburn Universitys Davis Arboretum, said Phase 1 of the parks construction is on track to be completed in early September.

The paths are almost fully in and theyll start building up the beds and putting in sot, Beadles said. The irrigation is already in, grading is already done.

Beadles explained the concept for the new park.

Its going to be a railroad themed park since its right on Railroad Avenue, Beadles said. Were going to try to use a lot of materials that they used on the railroad.

Beadles said the construction of the park will be done in three phases.

Phase 1 will be all the pathways and the plants, Beadles said. Phase 2 will probably be moving the caboose and Phase 3 will be the installation of the pavilion. Were hoping to work with the (Auburn University) Building Science Department on the construction of that pavilion.

The park will include walking paths, a dog run area, a pavilion and a little free library, according to Beadles. There will also be in ground lighting that will be low voltage LED.

Were just wanting to create a nice open greenspace and somewhere for the people that live around that area and the people that live in downtown to have somewhere to go that they can walk around, Beadles said.

Ginger said one of the main features of the park will be the caboose from the citys old train depot.

Keep Opelika Beautiful is giving the caboose to us, Ginger said. It will be in this park where it will be a little more visual.

Ginger said the site will be a nice pocket park.

They will be able to just sit, relax and enjoy, Ginger said.

Opelika resident Angela George, who lives near the property, said she is excited about the new park.

The new park that has been donated by the Henry J. Stern Family Foundation is going to be such an asset to our neighborhood and to the entrance to the historic downtown, George said.

Opelika Councilwoman Tiffany Gibson-Pitts said she is elated that the Stern family is creating a park and placing it in the Ward 2 area of town.

"The creation of this park fits nicely with our theme of promoting family," Gibson-Pitts said. "For those of us who were fortunate enough to go through the Opelika City School System years ago, Mrs. (Roslyn) Stern introduced us to the world of art. Knowing that she is still giving back to the Opelika community even in her memory is heart warming."
Two major elections have happened in East Africa in the last couple of weeks: one in Rwanda, where the incumbent won with 98 per cent and the just-concluded Kenyan general elections, marred with credibility issues.

The East African Community must address chronic election problems among its member states or else this will kill the integration spirit again.

Elections in sub-Saharan Africa bear unfortunate traits  either too easy to win, like in Rwanda, or so difficult to settle, like that of Uganda and Kenya.

Kenya holds a special place in the East African Community. Its strategic location and historical economic set-up makes Kenya a de facto leader of the region. Uganda, South Sudan and the vast parts of eastern DR Congo depend on Kenyas stability and economic health. If Kenya catches a cold, they all suffer.

In 2007, when Kenyas elections went bonkers, the riot that marred Nairobi suburbs severely curtailed Ugandas economy. Uganda depends on Mombasa for imports and exports.

Unfortunately, Ugandas own democratic credentials, and its chronic vote tinkering during elections, leave it in a remote position to demand for clean elections in Kenya. South Sudan, like Uganda, does not even deserve a mention in a discussion of elections or democratic governance.

The two most-affected countries with legitimate interests in Kenyas elections lack the legitimacy to enforce their interests, except in perpetuating the rigging itself.

The business community could now look up to Tanzania as a regional leader. However, Tanzania also has its own flaws. President John Pombe Mugufuli has increasingly demonstrated traits of intolerance to dissent.

Even then, Tanzanias ports are not favored as much as Kenyas for poor infrastructure, distance, and security in its vast hinterland.

In essence, the EAC is a bloc locked up in contradictions and democratic deficits. Rwanda is equally as dependent as Uganda and South Sudan on Tanzanias and Kenyas ports.

While we ponder on how the Kenyan elections impasse will resolve, the regional leaders ought to tap into this situation as a primer to formulate acceptable standards for the region to resolve the embarrassing deficits in its democratic profiles.

You cannot have an economic partnership with different election standards. The legitimacy and sustainability of the EAC depends on a stronger and more integrated region.

The disagreement over the Standard Gauge Railway project between Uganda and Kenya is one such example where two leaders from the same regional economic bloc disagreed on a basic principle.

If the EAC were a coherent entity, why would the cost of building the same railway be highly inflated and delayed in Uganda, and yet easily tested and operated in Kenya within an acceptable time-frame?



Morris Komakech,

Canada.



Special tribute to Raila Odinga



Dear Odinga, regardless of the outcome of this election in Kenya 2017, you have done a great part in shaping the politics of Kenya.

Your name will go down as one of the greatest sons of Kenya and East Africa. You pushed for a modern constitution and continuous reform of the electoral process. You may have not benefited, but the future generations will remember you.

For Kenya, you were not only a presidential candidate or master of alliances, you were a patriot. Those who call you a tribalist are ignorant of the fact that you said Kibaki Tosha a Kikuyu in 2002, and he ended up being president.

He betrayed you by refusing to implement a new constitution and you parted ways, but it never killed your determination.

Eventually, through ODM, you delivered a modern constitution to the country. Kibaki robbed you of victory in 2007 but you soldiered on. You managed to bring together many communities across Kenya. History will set you free.

Special tribute to your father Jaramogi Odinga Odinga, who refused to betray Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who was in prison then but was later paid by imprisonment by the same Kenyatta.

President Daniel arap-Moi jailed you for eight years under torture but you never gave up on the people of Kenya. Those of us who have followed you will always respect you.

Gerald Werikhe,

Patriot.



When everything fails, try prayers



Every problem can be solved if you pray. One psychologist said: Prayer is the greatest power available to the individual in solving personal problems. Its power astonishes me. If you find yourself with many problems and limited possible solutions, just pray.

You cant get a man physically healthy until you get him spiritually healthy. Many diseases which affect us physically first attack our spirits.

Therefore, as you seek physical treatment, first pray to God. Once your spiritual health is right, the physical health is guaranteed.

Slowly you will realise that through prayer, you will feel better, work better, and sleep better.

Herbert Ssekitto, hssekitto11@gmail.com.



Reduce taxes on solar power products



I recently read a story in one local daily that noted that the 18 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on solar invertors and batteries had increased the cost of solar power and some people had resorted to buying substandard appliances.

While I commend governments efforts in trying to raise revenue, it must urgently reduce taxes on solar products to help meet the energy needs of poor Ugandans.

Access to affordable energy is crucial in eradication of poverty. Initiatives such as the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goal seven and others highlight the need to have equal access to clean, affordable and reliable energy.

Although the government of Uganda is making heavy investments in the construction of hydro-power dams and extending the grid across the country, government needs to broaden its scope and focus more on investing heavily in other renewable energy sources particularly solar energy considering that Uganda is well endowed with sunshine.

Increased investment in solar energy would also help reduce carbon emissions from use of fossil fuels in especially urban centres.

Further, solar-powered water pumps would enable rural households to access clean water and would improve the quality of education and life of girls and women respectively.

With less household chores such as fetching water from wells, girls would better be able to stay in school and women would have a better life.

Angella Tusiime,

Kampala.





letters@observer.ug
Its been five years since we featured the touching story of Capitan, a loyal German shepherd who refused to leave the side of his owner, even though he had been dead for nearly six years. Well, believe it or not, the old dog still spends his days waiting by his deceased owners grave, 10 years after he passed.

Capitans undying loyalty for his master first made headlines in 2012, when local papers in the Argentinian town of Villa Carlos Paz reported that the dog spent every day waiting by the grave of his owner, Miguel Guzman, who had died in 2006. The dog disappeared from the family home a few months later, and Guzmans widow, Veronica, was shocked to find him by her late husbands grave, when she went to visit him at the cemetery. She and her son, Damian, tried taking him home several times, but he always ran back to be by Miguels side. Eventually, they understood that nothing they did could ever fill the void in Capitans heart, so they let him be with his beloved master.

Photo via Los Andes

Over the years, Capitan won the affection and respect of cemetery caretakers, who made sure that he was well-fed and vaccinated every year, but time has taken a toll on the aging canine. He is 15-year-old now, has lost his sight almost completely and can barely walk, but he still stands by his owners grave, as if waiting for the day when they will finally be reunited. He is still being taken care of, and receives medical attention when he needs it, but there is no antidote for time.

We have no idea how he found the tomb because his owner did not die in Carlos Paz, but in Cordoba, Hector Banegas, a retired caretaker at Carlos Paz Cemetery, recently told La Opinion. From there he was transferred to the village for the wake and from there directly to the cemetery, he did not return to his house and he did not see the dog again.

Photo via Los Andes

The big mystery is how Capitan didnt forget the scent of his masters scent for months after his death, Banegas added. I think he just sensed his spirit, that there was some communication between them that led him to the grave.

Aldo Cecchi, a canine trainer for more than 25 years, recently told Cadena 3 that Capitans story is proof that dogs are linked to their owners energy. Dogs detect electormagnetic changes and sound waves. If Captain intertwined his morphic field with that of his master, he was able to find the place he was buried in.

Photo via Los Andes

Whatever explanation youre comfortable with, one thing is for sure  Capitan is living proof of the loyalty canines are capable of towards their human masters. 10 years is basically a lifetime for some dogs, and he spent all that time waiting by his owners grave, hoping they would be together again one day.

The comment I posted in the first article about Capitan, five years ago, seems even more relevant today  A wait that lasts a lifetime. Cruel is the fate that allows a creature to yearn reunion but yet not understand the mortality which separates them.
Wi-Fi health advocates including Manhattan Neighbors for Safer Telecommunications fight refrigerator-size radiation devices near homes.

The Fifth Generation (5G) transmitters only work for short distances, requiring hundreds of thousands of bulky devices throughout the nation, say health advocates.

The Federal Communications Commission does not acknowledge harm from electro-magnetic radiation below the level in which body temperatures are raised. However, credible scientists say there is evidence that some harm does occur. At least 5% of people have been found to be overtly extra-sensitive to such radiation.

Two hundred and twenty scientists from 41 nations have expressed concern over the dangers of radiation and have proposed safeguards.

Advocates Target NY Leaders

Advocates are currently targeting Gov. Cuomo and New York Dept of Environmental Conservation, which is considering rule-making that would exempt from environmental review projects on existing structures including those with no transmitters.

The rule is 6 NYCRR Part 617.

It would strip cities of the power of review, advocate Deborah Kopald said in a detailed comment May 17 to James Eldred, environmental analyst for New York State. Kopald, who has a BA from Harvard and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, is the author of Legal and Health Problems of the Wireless Age.

The Dept. of Environmental Conservation and Cuomo are offering the wireless industry on a silver platter much more than was granted to the industry under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, she told Eldred.

The federal act encourages local governments to automatically approve additional transmitters on existing wireless facilities that do not substantially change their dimensions. The state proposal now is to exempt from SEQR review any transmitter that is going on any existing structure and not just structures with transmitters already on them, says Kopald.

5G Cells Are Not Small Says Kopald

The idea that 5G small cells are "small" is false, she told Eldred, supplying 10 photos of such devices and one of a group protesting them.

The photos were taken in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Williamsburg and Woodbury, Long Island, where residents were shown protesting the placement of 22 cell phone repeaters in front of their homes.

Photos show the size and complexity of the installations. Electromagnetic radiation much more powerful than earlier models is needed since 5Gs area of transmission is much shorter and penetration through walls is much less.

New cell transmitters are equipped with cooling fans and other parts that create noise and run the risk of falling or leaking, says Kopald.

They may require so-called soil sterilization, use hazardous batteries which can leak chemicals creating a hazmat situation, and are high enough to mar an historic or other scenic view or a neighborhood, she said.

One installation, provided to the Federal Communications Commission by San Francisco City Planner Omar Masry, shows a so-called small cell on a utility pole that looks like the industrial equivalent of an overloaded Christmas tree, she added.

A large cabinet the size of a refrigerator, with noisy cooling fans for the computers, may be mounted a few feet from a bedroom bay window in a dense area of town, said Masry.

Her further comments included:

The FCC put out a request for comment on standards in 2013. Four years later, they still have not acted on the over 900 comments many of which stated that the standards are grossly inadequate. In 2014, the Department of the Interior wrote a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration stating that transmitter emissions standards are now nearly 30 years out-of-date and inapplicable today.

The FCC should not be promoting any rollouts of more transmitters at this time. The State of New York should not allow the FCC to ignore another federal agency that has indicated that the FCC is grossly derelict by changing the States rules and regulations to promote more transmitter rollout.

Wireless Has Hidden Costs, Say Critics

Wi-Fi and other technologies using pulsed microwave radiation to communicate, such as "smart wireless utility meters", cell towers, smartphones, cordless phones, tablets and even wireless baby monitors, come with a hidden cost that the FCC and other business-friendly organizations and even governments, would prefer that people not know, say critics.

In May 2015, 190 international experts on the biological effects of exposure to this radiation, warned the UN, all member states, and the World Health Organization of the risks, calling on them to "...address the emerging public health crisis related to cell phones, wireless devices, wireless utility meters and wireless infrastructure in neighborhoods."

They noted that:

"Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines.

Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.

Also, in a recent paper ("Wi-Fi as a Very Substantial Threat to Human Health"), Dr. Martin Pall, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences at Washington State University, said:

"Neither Wi-Fi nor other devices putting out such EMFs are ever tested biologically for safety, not even one of them, not even once, before they are put out to irradiate the unsuspecting public. Such biological safety testing is the only way to say anything about their biological impacts.

Industry View Based on Old Data, Say Advocates



Assurances of safety by the industry are based on the belief that radiation that does not raise body temperatures is harmless. That theory has been shown to be false and should have discarded over 40 years ago, say EMF health advocates.

Professor Trevor Marshall, a Director of the Autoimmunity Research Foundation, said this in a recent paper entitled "Electrosmog and autoimmune disease":

"...it seems likely that signals a million times lower than those currently being used in research may be sufficient to elicit a tangible change in human biology.

There are many other scientific experts who are concerned about the health effects of exposure to Wi-Fi radiation, and especially to children, who are often exposed to industrial grade Wi-Fi routers all day long while at school.

The World Health Organization's own body, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in 2011 classified the radiation emitted by Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies as a possible carcinogen.
Anita Williamson has joined American International Group as global employee communications head, reporting to Cindy Leggett-Flynn, senior VP-chief communications officer.

Anita Williamson

Most recently, Williamson worked at Chubb, where she held the VP-global internal communications position in charge of engagement with staffers in 54 countries.

Williamson has experience with Marsh, senior VP-corporate communications, and at Con Edison, where she established the utilitys video news programming.
Agricultural News

Prospects for Grazing Cattle this Fall Begin to Improve with Cool, Wet Conditions Seen this August

Mondays, Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry. This analysis is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Dr. Glenn Selk. Today, Dr. Peel discusses how the recent cooler, wet conditions this August will help to improve the prospects of grazing this fall.





"Temperatures in Oklahoma have been unseasonably cool in the first half of the month. Temperatures are forecast to be higher late in the month but will still likely remain at or below seasonal levels. Most of Oklahoma has gotten significant rain in the past ten days, generally ranging from 1.5 inches to over 7.0 inches. More rain is likely in the next week or two.







"This type of late-summer moisture provides several opportunities for enhanced fall grazing. Warm-season introduced pastures, such as Bermuda, will get a boost from this moisture. Producers should consider a late-summer/fall fertilizer application to enhance forage growth and quality. This will allow a stockpile of grazing for the fall and early winter. This forage, perhaps combined with cool-season introduced pasture, such as Fescue, can significantly extend grazing thereby reducing hay use and reducing feed cost. Native ranges should also get a boost from recent rains to add to forage stocks for the fall.







"Producers thinking about grazing wheat will no doubt be anticipating the enhanced fall potential that comes with the current weather. Good moisture conditions and cool soil temperatures may allow wheat planting about as early as producers might desire. With other forage already available, producers may already be thinking about when to purchase fall stockers. An early start implies the potential for a longer than usual fall/winter grazing period. This may impact several stocker considerations including purchase weight, quality of animal, gender and the potential for two sets of stockers between now and next March or May.







"Enhanced fall forage may provide some additional marketing alternatives for cow-calf producers.







"Good forage may allow the possibility of pushing weaning a bit later than usual or retaining calves post-weaning to add weight. At the current time, the value of additional weight tends to be about $1.00 per pound of gain or higher. The value of gain depends on the beginning weight and the amount of weight added. For example, average Oklahoma prices for the last three weeks result in a value of gain for 475 pound steers of $0.91/pound for 100 pounds of gain based on beginning price of $175.18/cwt. and a price of $160.45/cwt for 575 pound steers*. However, starting with the 575 pound steers and adding 100 pounds results in a value of gain of $1.33/pound based on a price of $156.29 for 675 pound steers**. Calf prices will likely decline seasonally into the fall and prices by weight may adjust so producers should reevaluate the value of adding weight to calves closer to weaning time."









(5.75 x $160.45) - (4.75 x $175.18)

/100 = $0.91/pound of gain



(6.75 x $156.29) - (5.75 x $160.45)

/100 = $1.33/pound of gain













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Top Agricultural News
Make-A-Wish Iowa is giving cyclists something to taco bout...er talk about...on Thursday.

The organization will host its second annual Taco bout Wishes fundraiser bike ride.

It coincides with the weekly Taco Ride on the Wabash Trace Nature Trail. The scenic ride takes cyclists from Council Bluffs to Mineola. Many cyclists wrap up their ride with a taco dinner at Tobey Jacks Mineola Steakhouse.

While anyone can join the ride for free, cyclists who are feeling charitable can donate to participate in the Taco bout Wishes event.

Make-A-Wish Iowa grants wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Last year the group granted 192 wishes, which is about one wish every other day, said Jenny Schroeder, community development manager for the chapter.

Wishes the group has granted have included Disney World trips, vacations to Hawaii, shopping sprees and swim sessions with dolphins.

It costs about $7,500 to grant a wish, Schroeder said.

A $25 donation will land cyclists a T-shirt and light for their bike. A taco meal and drink get added into the mix for $50. For $150, cyclists will also have access to a VIP tent with frozen custard and beer.

Last years fundraiser ride drew 125 cyclists and raised $3,000. This year, organizers are hoping for 200 participants and $10,000.

Its a really fun group of people out there with the same goal  getting in a nice ride and eating cheap tacos. Thursday, they get to help raise money to grant wishes in Iowa, Schroeder said.

Participants can tackle the trail on their own or they can go with a group. Groups will leave the trailhead every 15 minutes from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m.

Along the route, signs will be posted displaying a local childs Make-A-Wish story.

The Taco Dude is ready to roll this year, too. The dude, a cartoon taco riding a bicycle, will appear on this years T-shirts.

Who could ever imagine a taco would ride a bike? People just love him, Schroeder said.

Online registration is open. Cyclists also can sign up the day of the ride at the trailhead, near Lewis Central High School, 3504 Harry Langdon Blvd.
WASHINGTON  Cyberattacks are accelerating worldwide, and the U.S. health care system is dangerously unprepared to defend itself, or its patients.

In the past two months, thousands of computers of the nations No. 3 pharmaceutical company, Merck, seized up amid a global cyberattack, cutting into production of medicines. The same rogue digital worm crippled a hospital system north of Pittsburgh.

Medical devices including insulin pumps, defibrillators, CT scanners and MRI machines are increasingly connected to networks. Patient medical records are online. When networks go down, physicians say it is like operating in the dark.

Its going to get worse, said Chris Wysopal, co-founder and chief technology officer at Veracode, a Burlington, Massachusetts, cybersecurity firm. Wysopal pointed to fallout from the WannaCry digital worm that swept the globe in March and the Petya malware that hit in June, leaving collateral damage in the health care sector.

Every time we see something successful like WannaCry and Petya, you see other actors learning from that rather quickly, and they are able to replicate that style of attack, Wysopal said.

Cybersecurity in the health care sector  which employs 9 percent of the U.S. workforce and represents a sixth of the nations economy  needs immediate and aggressive attention, a task force mandated by Congress warned in June.

Indeed, security experts expect that the quickening pace of hackers attacks will soon affect health care. And those who have studied health cares specific vulnerabilities worry that hackers  working for enemy states or cybercrime groups  could train their digital sights directly on U.S. hospitals, health care networks and medical devices.

Were going to have our digital D-Day, our cyber D-Day, if you will, in medical, and theres going to be patients that die. Its going to be a big deal, said Dr. Christian Dameff, an emergency room physician and expert on digital vulnerabilities.

Doctors like Dameff, who recently co-led a summit at the University of Arizona College of Medicine on medical device hacking, are gaming out scenarios of types of attacks that could affect the health care system. Among the scenarios that experts predict are possible:

 A malicious worm rockets through a particular type of medical device  say, an infusion pump  and hundreds if not thousands of patients will collapse.

 Hackers determined to collect ransom or sow destruction attack the networks of hospitals in an entire geographic region, depriving physicians of electronic medical records and forcing the evacuations of critically ill patients over hundreds of miles.

 A terror attack on a metropolitan area coincides with a hack against the citys hospitals. Just when emergency medical care is most needed to deal with victims, the health sector finds itself crippled.

The hacking of medical devices is literally the stuff of Hollywood. In the second season of the series Homeland on Showtime in late 2012, a U.S. vice president is killed by manipulation of his pacemaker. A year later, former Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged that hed disabled his pacemakers wireless capabilities to thwart any possible assassination attempt.

The plot twist reflected what security researchers already knew.

When Jay Radcliffe, an IBM senior threat intelligence analyst with Type 1 diabetes, looked into the security of his own insulin pump, what I found was really kind of shocking.

Operating remotely, he discovered that he could turn the pump off and on, and I could change all the insulin settings so instead of giving one dose of insulin I would give 10 or 50.

In short, Radcliffe discovered that hackers tinkering with the pump could kill him.

Recalling that early research in 2011, Radcliffe, speaking at a roundtable at a DefCon hacker conference late last month, said the threat against current generation insulin pumps is very low because they require hackers to be in close proximity to the devices. Manufacturers, worried about reports of vulnerabilities, have hustled to upgrade security.

But Radcliffe, who now works for Rapid7, a Boston cybersecurity firm, said medical and scientific advances continue to outpace the ability of companies to keep their devices secure.

The message right now is Yeah, this isnt going out and killing people like on Homeland, but it will in the next generation, Radcliffe said.

Still, manufacturers resist acknowledging any vulnerabilities. When St. Jude Medical, a St. Paul, Minnesota, maker of cardiac implants, was hit by short sellers last year over charges that its devices were vulnerable to cyberattack, it hit back with a defamation lawsuit.

Hospitals devices  monitors, infusion pumps, glucose meters, ventilators and scans  amount to an average of 10 to 15 medical devices per hospital bed in the United States, most of them connected to networks.

All of these devices are connected today and they are all giving readouts of patients, said Cathie Brown, vice president of governance, risk and compliance for Impact Makers, a Richmond, Virginia, consultancy.

Most devices are not interoperable, creating a mosaic of software challenges. Some machinery, like CT scans and MRIs that can cost upward of $300,000 apiece, use older, often vulnerable software. Replacing them is out of the question for cash-strapped hospitals.

Even large hospitals devote little to cybersecurity, often having only one or two techs to work with manufacturers on upgrades but who tend little to broader security challenges.

Many hospitals are interconnected now. And so an attack could be launched at one hospital, code could be planted, lying dormant, until a kill switch went off, and it would spread like wildfire, Brown said.

A hacking group may eventually seek to target a network of hospitals.

Cyberattacks are very scalable. You can go from one hospital to 500 hospitals with much less effort than it takes to attack 500 hospitals physically, said Dameff, the physician. You can see that these risks, they explode.
An investigation into sales of illegal steroids in Nebraska and Iowa covered three years and took authorities from China to Omaha to Iowa, a Drug Enforcement Agency official said.

The probe resulted in federal prison sentences for Jeffrey B. Lackas of Bettendorf, Iowa; Stanley Szeto of Iowa City; and Daniel Cruz-Bonilla of Fontana, California.

Lackas, 31, was sentenced in July to three years and 10 months of incarceration; Szeto, 39, received a sentence of two years and a month; and Cruz-Bonilla, 30, was ordered to serve three years and five months.

The three men were members of a drug trafficking organization that distributed steroids and human-growth hormone across the United States, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

The conspirators offered steroids, human growth hormone and certain pharmaceuticals over the Internet, said Darin T. Thimmesch, the assistant special agent in charge of the DEAs Omaha office. (Steroids were) sold to both users and drug dealers across the United States, including recipients in Nebraska, near Omaha, and in Iowa.

The drug traffickers imported raw steroids from China, Thimmesch said. They brewed and bottled them in Iowa, sold them via the Internet and shipped them all over the U.S. under the name Brinkkmann Pharma.

The investigation determined that from 2011 to 2014, the conspirators collected at least $459,352 in drug payments from more than 200 U.S.-based customers. The actual sales could be much higher.

The conspirators brewed steroids in the Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa, areas as well as in Iowa City, Thimmesch said. They bottled the drugs at a members home.

The investigation was part of a larger DEA national operation. As part of that effort, U.S.-based steroid organizations have been significantly affected, Thimmesch said.

But the demand for steroids continues to propel numerous additional underground labs, he said.

The task force that dismantled the organization was formed when the DEA observed multiple U.S.-based steroid laboratories selling online, Thimmesch said. The DEAs Omaha office first targeted two national labs, which led them to the final operation targeting the regional organization.

Local enforcement agencies each provided officers to work with the DEA task force. The Omaha Police Department, Douglas County Sheriffs Office and Nebraska State Patrol also provided evidence storage and processing, undercover personnel and information.
Omaha Public Schools officials are hoping for a smooth start to the new school year  and that means getting busing right.

Theyre trying to avoid a repeat of last year, when bus driver shortages led to delays and confusion.

The first day of school for most OPS students is Thursday. Officials say the districts transportation plan is in good shape, but changes to the OPS student assignment plan will add another wrinkle.

Heres more information on the busing changes that will go into effect this year and the districts efforts to avoid last years troubles.

What happened last year?

OPS handles special education busing in-house but contracts with Student Transportation of America to transport general education students. Shortly before the start of the 2016-17 school year the company realized it didnt have enough drivers to cover OPS routes.

The company was short about 65 drivers from the approximately 500 it needed. That meant some routes went unmanned and others experienced delays in pickups and drop-offs. Parents were frustrated and upset. Officials estimated that about 3,000 students out of the more than 17,000 who ride school buses were affected by busing problems.

In addition to those problems, in September, a preschooler, a refugee from Myanmar, was left for hours on a small school bus operated by Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership.

OPS and Student Transportation initially traded blame for the problems but ultimately agreed to work together to recruit drivers and improve communication.

A transportation audit commissioned by the district and conducted by the Council of Great City Schools found that there was insufficient planning leading up to the school year, that communication was spotty between the two entities and that too many buses had too few students.

What can be expected this year?

Officials say theyve been working through the summer to improve busing.

Due to changes in OPSs student assignment plan, general education bus routes decreased from 476 last year to about 330 this year. Student Transportation said it has plenty of permanent and substitute drivers. The company also is providing a monthly staffing and recruiting report to OPS.

Student Transportation received preliminary bus routes nearly two months earlier than usual. Drivers practiced their routes Aug. 9 and will do another test run today. Parents should have already received a letter outlining their route number, bus stop and pickup time. And OPS has contracted with a call center to have more representatives ready to answer questions and concerns. Parents can call one central phone number: 531-299-0140.

Some middle and high school routes have been combined, and some middle and high schoolers may face longer bus rides. OPS has also hired Chief Transportation again to cover routes on an as-needed basis.

What are the student assignment plan changes?

In 2015 the OPS board overhauled its student assignment plan, which dictates who gets a bus ride and to which school. Those changes  which affect only elementary and middle school students  go into effect this school year.

The goal was to make busing more efficient and less expensive. Students can still attend their neighborhood school or opt into any school with space. But the number of schools they can opt into and still receive a bus ride has been sharply reduced. Now OPS uses a partner zone system to determine which schools students can get bused to.

Officials estimate roughly 3,800 students have been affected by the changes and lost their bus ride. But walk zones also have been shrunk, so more elementary and middle schoolers may be eligible for busing this year.

For more information on the changes, visit sap.ops.org.

Will the changes affect transportation costs?

Parents, taxpayers and school board members have long complained about OPSs costly busing system. OPS budgeted $46.24 million for transportation last year.

By reducing bus routes and filling buses with more kids, officials estimate the changes will cut general education busing costs by roughly $6 million, from $26.7 million to $20.4 million for the upcoming school year.

OPS also received about $1 million back from Student Transportation related to last years problems. Student Transportations contract, which runs through 2019, allows it to be charged penalties for late buses or missed trips as long as the delays are not caused by traffic or misbehaving students.
After following news accounts of street violence in Virginia, Barb Davis felt compelled to do what she could from Omaha.

So the 62-year-old Benson-area resident painted a sign with a peace symbol and brought two plastic U.S. flags with her Sunday night to a vigil in central Omahas Turner Park.

We cannot let white supremacy have any place in this country, Davis said. Not while Im taking a breath.

She said she had five uncles who fought Nazism in World War II.

Davis was among about 300 people who gathered at the vigil hastily organized by Indivisible Nebraskans and other political groups that have formed in reaction to President Donald Trumps election and policies.

The vigil included a moment of silence and a series of speakers who decried fascism and called on people to speak up when they encounter racism, including in personal encounters.

Molly Walsh couldnt help but think of her grandchildren when she saw the racism and violence erupt in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Im sad that ... this is the world my grandchildren are growing up in, said Walsh of Omaha. Its just heartbreaking.

For Walsh, it was also personal: Her eldest grandson is biracial.

It scares me that people will treat him differently, she said. Hes the sweetest little boy.

Earlier in the day, University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds issued a statement condemning the violence in Charlottesville.
Bellevue traffic scofflaws, beware. A research project that put cameras on school bus stop-sign arms means the district knows when drivers ignore the sign.

Its the districts second year using the cameras, which are on 12 buses. The Bellevue school district was one of three jurisdictions in the country to participate last year in stop-arm camera research.

The cameras have already recorded dozens of drivers ignoring the stop signs.

According to preliminary results from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations research, Bellevue Public Schools had 187 stop-arm violations last school year, 94 of which would not have been captured without the stop-arm cameras. It would have been higher, the safety agency estimated, but the cameras software was down for three months because of glitches.

A full report will be published by the federal agency in the spring.

Rich Casey, Bellevue Public Schools transportation director, monitors the video clips and sends violations to the Sarpy County Sheriffs Office and the Bellevue Police Department.

Most of those involved have received warnings.

So far only one $500 citation has been given to a driver, who had repeatedly run the stop sign.

A precedent has yet to be set about using these videos in Nebraska court, which is primarily why warnings are handed out, said Bellevue Police spokeswoman Laurie Synowiecki. She said officers would feel more comfortable if legislation covered this specific type of video capture.

Casey plans to meet with Bellevue State Sens. Carol Blood and Sue Crawford about introducing legislation that would address officers concerns.

Id love, before I retire, to see a law on the books that makes people pay money when they put students lives at risk, Casey said.
President Donald Trump denounced the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis by name Monday, declaring racist hate groups repugnant to all that we hold dear as Americans, as he sought to tamp down mounting criticism of his response to the killing of a counterprotester at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville over the weekend.

Anyone who acted criminally in this weekend's racist violence, you will be held fully accountable, Trump said in brief remarks to reporters in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, where he returned after a week of vacation in Bedminster, N.J. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America.

Trump added: Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to all that we hold dear as Americans.

The statement came two days after the president failed to specifically condemn the white supremacist rally during which a woman was killed and as many as 19 wounded by a driver who reportedly espoused racist and pro-Nazi sentiments and had taken part in the Unite the Right march in Charlottesville. Trump, who met Monday with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, reiterated that the Justice Department has launched a civil rights probe into the death of Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed when a car allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio slammed into a group of counterprotesters.

On Saturday, Trump condemned the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, sparking sharp criticism from Democrats, civil rights proponents and some Republicans for failing to single out and condemn the white supremacists who sparked the violence.

On Monday, Kenneth C. Frazier, CEO of Merck, said in a tweet that he was resigning from Trump's American Manufacturing Council, saying he was doing so as a matter of personal conscience and that America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.

Trump's remarks, which were not on his daily public schedule, appeared hastily arranged in a bid to move the White House past the backlash to his performance over the weekend. Yet before addressing the Charlottesville situation, Trump opened his remarks touting the economy, noting that stock markets are near record highs and the unemployment rate hovering at a 16-year low.

And though he condemned racism, Trump did not refer to the attack on the counterprotesters as domestic terrorism, even as Sessions said that it met the Justice Department's definition of such.

White House aides had defended Trump's initial response to the Charlottesville unrest by saying the president was focused on uniting the country against all violent clashes. The white supremacist groups  carrying Nazi and Confederate flags and, in some cases, armed with shields, batons and firearms permitted under Virginia's open carry laws  clashed with counterprotesters, some of whom fought back with pepper spray.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday strongly defended President Donald Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, seeking to counter widespread criticism that the president did not go far enough in denouncing white supremacists and other hate groups.

"His initial statement on this roundly and unequivocally condemned hatred and violence and bigotry," Sessions said on ABC's "Good Morning America" as part of his appearances on morning shows. "He called on our people to work together in community and love and affection and not in hatred and violence."

Sessions also said that the violence in Charlottesville met the definition of domestic terrorism, a phrase that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been urging the president to use to describe the melees on Saturday.

The clashes left one woman dead after a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters. The alleged driver, James Alex Fields Jr., was described by one of his former teachers as a sympathizer of Nazi views. In a separate incident, two Virginia state troopers were killed in a helicopter crash outside Charlottesville.

"It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute," Sessions said. "We are pursuing it [at] the Department of Justice in every way that we can make a case. You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack."

Later Monday, after meeting with Sessions and FBI director Christopher Wray, Trump denounced the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and noted that the Justice Department had launched a civil rights investigation into the death of the counter-protester. The statement came after Trump was criticized for not explicitly criticizing white supremacists in the immediate aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville.

Sessions said on CBS's "This Morning" that people are making "too much out of" what Trump said in his first statement.

"Heather Heyer was out protesting racism and bigotry," Sessions said, referring to the 32-year-old woman killed in the car ramming.

"She has a right to do that. This individual had no right to drive a car into them and kill people, killing her and injuring others, some of them very seriously. This is absolutely unacceptable  The president has directed us to get after it," Sessions added on the CBS show. "Our FBI people are working on it assiduously. Our United States attorneys and civil rights division are focused on it. Justice will be done. We are coming after these people  It cannot be tolerated in America."

Sessions's meeting with Trump on Monday was their first since the president criticized him repeatedly for Sessions decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the election. Sessions said on NBC's Today Show that Trump has not apologized to him for the public criticisms he has made of Sessions in recent weeks.

"I believe in the president's agenda," Sessions said. "I believe in his leadership. He has a right to scold his cabinet members if he's not happy with them. And he has a right to have people in his cabinet that he believes will serve his agenda  I look forward to meeting with him today and talking about the issues that face us right now. And I appreciate the opportunity to serve in his administration."
LINCOLN  Two groups that provide services to Native Americans, Legal Aid and the Appleseed Center, have asked to intervene in the lawsuit over the future of beer sales in Whiteclay, Nebraska.

In legal requests filed last week, the two groups argued that the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay has created public health, safety and welfare issues that greatly affect residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is within walking distance of Whiteclay.

Alcohol has been banned on the South Dakota reservation due to the extraordinary costs it has on all facets of life, including high rates of alcoholism, alcohol-related crime and fetal alcohol syndrome, according to the request submitted by attorneys for the two organizations.

Legal Aid of Nebraska operates a Native American program that employs four lawyers across Nebraska and closed 350 legal cases in 2016.

The Lincoln-based Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest advocates for the poor, and stated that banning alcohol sales in Whiteclay will further a goal of providing a pathway for people out of poverty.

The Nebraska Supreme Court, as of Friday, had not yet ruled on the request by the two organizations. But an attorney for the beer stores has filed an objection.

Andrew Snyder, a Scottsbluff attorney, offered several reasons to exclude the two groups, including that the sole issue in the legal fight is whether adequate law enforcement exists in Whiteclay. Issues related to safety and public health are not to be considered, Snyder said.

The State Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the Whiteclay case on Aug. 29. A ruling is not expected for several weeks.

In April, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission ruled that law enforcement was inadequate in Whiteclay and declined to renew the liquor licenses of the four beer-only liquor stores.

The stores, which had operated for decades, sold the equivalent of about 3.5 million cans of beer a year. Almost all sales went to Pine Ridge Reservation residents, despite the ban on alcohol possession and sales there.

The beer stores argued that the liquor commission had no right to take away their licenses, and a Lancaster County judge agreed, spawning the appeal to the Supreme Court.

The beer stores have been closed since April, and both Appleseed and Legal Aid argued in their request that conditions have improved in Whiteclay and the vicinity because of it.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb.  A band of surveyors recently went digging for history and direction and found it.

About 30 members of the Professional Surveyors Association of Nebraska discovered two monuments in central Nebraska that were buried in 1893. The surveyors spent their summer seminar focused on uncovering monuments along the southern 12 miles of the 24-mile-long boundary between Sherman and Howard Counties.

The limestone rocks discovered in July were put in the ground by Robert Harvey, Nebraskas first state surveyor. Harvey placed a stone every 3 miles along the route to clarify the border between the two counties. The markers were buried 2 feet deep, but time and elements pushed some of the stones deeper.

Half of the surveyors found a rock at the 12-mile corner, which was well west of the county line road. The other half of the surveyors uncovered a stone 3 miles north of the county line road.

Surveyors wont make any changes to the county border.

Some association members said it was one of the best summer seminars theyve had, said Casey Sherlock, Hall Countys public works director and surveyor.

Lead surveyors located a third stone, the zero-mile monument, but efforts to find the 9-mile marker were unsuccessful.

The project was done partly because this year is Nebraskas 150th anniversary, as well as the 150th anniversary of the original survey.

Harvey put the markers underground to protect them from wind and the elements, as well as from people who would deliberately destroy or move them. Nebraska surveyors said they have a lot of admiration for Harvey.

When you follow his measurements, youre going to be close to wherever he says it was supposed to be, Sherlock said.
Americans should be united in revulsion at the horrors our nation witnessed in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

White supremacist and neo-Nazi marchers descended on that city, home of the University of Virginia, and indulged their appetite for repellent racial rhetoric and brutality.

The horrendous result: one person dead and many seriously injured when a march supporter rammed a crowd with his car; disturbing spectacles, including a Friday night torch procession in the style of Hitlers Nazi rallies; two Virginia state troopers dead after their helicopter over Charlottesville crashed.

A further result: a nation stunned that, in 2017, we would witness such carnage amid an abhorrent demonstration motivated by racial hatred and the embrace of Nazi symbolism.

President Donald Trump had the opportunity Saturday to directly condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and he should have spoken out clearly and forcefully. Instead, he issued a vague statement saying, We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.

The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website that promoted the demonstration, praised the presidents statement: Nothing specific against us. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in contrast, issued a strong, sharp response, calling out white nationalism by name and labeling the violence homegrown terrorism.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said: We should call evil by its name. My brother didnt give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.

These were the type of clear, morally resonant messages the White House itself should have issued from the beginning.

Sunday morning, Trump administration officials were on TV talk shows, saying the presidents Saturday statement was intended to include white supremacists and neo-Nazis. But its extraordinary and telling that administration leaders would have to clear up such uncertainty in the first place.

A White House statement on Sunday specifically stated that its condemnation of course ... includes white supremacists, KKK, neo- Nazis and all extremist groups.

The white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville proclaimed their hate-filled message to be the true American one, but thats a lie.

Liberty, our Constitution says, extends fully to all our citizens. This must always be an unshakable principle for our country.

In the wake of this weekends tragic events, we all should dedicate ourselves with renewed effort to the American proposition that all men  and women  are created equal.
1 constituency per MLA, 2 per MP: Amit Shah tweaks UP strategy to suit Karnataka

India

oi-Anusha

BJP is using its Uttar Pradesh strategy in Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections, albeit with some tweaking. BJP national President Amit Shah has assigned constituencies to MLAs, MLCs and MPs to concentrate on for the next few months. Every MLA and MLC has to work in one constituency each while every MP has to work in two constituencies.

Reports on developments in the constituency under each legislator have to be updated time to time and all records will be handled by Amit Shah himself. This is the BJP President's first task for MLAs, MLCs and MPs. In a series of meeting held in Bengaluru over the last two days, legislators, parliamentarians have been asked to sit with district-wise, ward-wise and panchayat-wise workers and leaders to effect change from the grassroots levels.

The move is aimed at capitalising on BJP's strengths and working on its weaknesses in every minute level of each constituency in Karnataka. In-charges have been asked to show improvement in the next two months. All energies will now be channelised on making inroads in places where the BJP is a non-entity and holding on to support in places where other parties pose a challenge.

What BJP did in Uttar Pradesh

Very similar to the assignment given to Karnataka legislators and parliamentarians, Amit Shah had chalked out constituencies for Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders ahead of the election. His strategy worked wonders and brought the BJP a massive landslide victory.

In Uttar Pradesh, each MLA was asked to spend five days in a month in two other constituencies apart from their own. Every MP was assigned the task of spending 10 days in two other Lok Sabha constituencies apart from their own. 40 MLAs went to assembly constituencies where the had BJP lost in the previous elections. 59 BJP MPs went beyond their Lok Sabha constituencies and campaigned for the party.

Lesser constituency, more impact in Karnataka

In Karnataka however, each MLA has been assigned just one constituency while an MP has to visit two constituencies. "Some MLAs said that they can do two constituencies at a time but Amit Shah had just one thing to say to them. "Concentrate, focus on one and bring me results". Starting now, all orders will be carried out and we hope to see some changes at the grassroots levels soon," said a source privy to the meeting where the decision was taken.

OneIndia News
Position about minimum wage sought

Secretary (Staff-Side) requested to know the present position on the basic demands made by the Central Government employees about minimum wages, fitment formula, reversion to the old pension scheme and the report of the Committee of Allowances, He recalled that when a notice for strike was given in 2016, the senior Cabinet Ministers in the Central Government had met the staff side representatives and assured a positive decision on the aforesaid demands. Although that strike was deferred on this assurance, the central govt. employees are still waiting. Consequently, it is getting difficult to make the central government employees understand the reasons for delay in fulfilment of the assurances then given by the Senior Cabinet Ministers. Hence Secretary, Staff-Side requested the Chairman to convey to the Cabinet Secretary and Chairman, National Council (JCM) the duty to meet the Government employees in accordance with the JCM Scheme to avoid an atmosphere of confrontation.

Huge uncertainty on allowances

On allowances, he informed that there is a lot of uncertainty on whether the allowances would become admissible prospectively or from 01.01.2016 i.e., the date of implementation of 7th Pay Commission.

The following points were also raised by Leader JCM (Staff-Side):

(a) The assurance given by Senior Ministers on 30th June 2016 on pay commission issues-mainly minimum wage and multiplying factor have not been fulfilled. Only one meeting was held by Addl. Secretary (Expenditure) with the Staff side and thereafter nothing is known with regard to progress made even though 10 months passed.

(b) On pay panel's recommendation for revision of pension on the basis of option the contents of the Committee's Report are not made available to the JCM (Staff Side). There is need to see that transparency is ensured for preserving healthy industrial relations.

(c) On Allowances, the Leader JCM (Staff Side) expressed disappointment as there has been no positive outcome even after lapse of several months. He requested the Chairman that the JCM (Staff Side) demand to revise the Allowances w.e.f. 01/01/2016 should be considered and Staff Side demand be taken to the level of Cabinet Secretary and the Government.

(d) Although Ministry of finance Resolution dated 25 July 2016 stipulates that 14.29% hike in the pay of Running Staff in the Railways be ensured, unfortunately, the same has not been complied with. The said hike has not been ensured. He requested the Chairman to kindly take appropriate initiative on the proposal sent by Ministry of Railways which is pending with the Ministry of finance. He also pointed out that the references made by different ministries to the DoP&T/MoF pursuant to the discussions held by the JCM Constituents with the respective Departments/Ministries are pending. He requested that speedy response be ensured by DoP&T/MoF.

No satisfied with 3 per cent calculation

The 7th Pay Commission, in its 900-page report, has mentioned many times that Annual Increment @ 3% of basic Pay to be granted to Central Government employees. But the Staff Association has not satisfied with calculation of increments in 7th CPC and reported that it has not been calculated properly in Pay matrix Evolving a Pay Structure to fit for 35 Lakh central Government Employees with a new format in the name of Pay Matrix is indeed a great wonder. But the assurance of granting of 3% of Pay for Annual Increment between two cells is not maintained at many places in the pay Matrix. First time in the Pay Commission history, the 6th Pay Commission had recommended that 3% of basic pay to be given as Annual Increment for CG staffs. As well as an innovative approach, also was adopted to calculate the Annual Increment.

Examples

Example for 100 to 110, Rounding off next ten was calculated as 100 up to 100.90 and from 100.90 onwards it was rounded off to 110. Due to this method of calculation, 99% of Cases of Govt Servants were ensured that Minimum 3% of Basic pay was granted as Annual Increment. There are 540 Cells in the pay matrix recommended by 7th Pay Commission. In which many cells are lesser that 3% of Basic pay. At the same time, it can not be denied that some cells are having more than 3% of Basic pay
Amidst Doklam standoff, is China building a bridge in Ladakh?

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Amidst the Doklam standoff, reports surfaced that China has started building a bridge in Ladakh. It was reported that a bridge was coming up at the no-man's land in Ladakh.

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However sources in the government said that no such activity has been reported. The Chinese are not building any bridge at the no-man's land in Ladakh, the source also informed OneIndia.

Meanwhile at Doklam there is a status-quo, the official also added. He said that there has been no build up or escalation of tension at the standoff point. It is status quo out there, the source further confirmed.

While there has been no solution at Doklam as yet, the Indian Army has been asked to stay on very high alert. The alert is not restricted to Doklam alone, but to the entire area where India shares its border with China. An operational alert has been sounded in Arunachal Pradesh with intelligence suggesting that China may try engage in a skirmish here.

Efforts to activate diplomatic channels have failed from both sides. China continues to insist that India pulls out of Doklam first. India has however rejected the demand and says that any pull out will only be simultaneous.

OneIndia News
With LOC in force, SC tells Karti to appear before CBI for questioning

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Supreme Court has stayed the Madras High Court order which had put on hold the look out circular issued against Karti Chidambaram, son of former union minister, P Chidambaram. The matter will be heard next on Friday. This would mean that Karti will not be allowed to travel abroad until the SC completes hearing the matter.

The Madras High Court had permitted Karti to travel abroad and he was scheduled to fly out on August 16. Karti wanted to prevent an SC stay and hence said that he was prepared to give an undertaking that he will not go abroad until the next date of hearing.

The court however said that it was not ready to take the risk of recording his undertaking and later find that he has gone abroad. We cannot risk it,the court said. The court also told Karti that he has to appear consistently before the CBI for questioning. The CBI only asked you to appear for questioning. Why is it that you have not appeared even once, the SC also sought to know. The SC also added that the CBI had the option of seizing Karti's passport and arresting him, but it did neither. You must take part in the probe. How will it be, if people of this country do not take part in investigations, the SC asked.

We have had very bad experiences in the past of allowing people to go abroad, the court said. They go abroad and never come back, the Chief Justice of India, J S Khehar heading the Bench observed. We are not on the issue of whether he is guilty or not. We are on a small issue and that is whether he has taken part in the probe or not. Has he taken part in the investigations? The answer is no, the CJI also said.

The CBI in its plea said that a stay on the circular would hamper investigations. We fear that he may leave the country pending investigation, the CBI also said in its plea. It may be recalled that the LOC had been stayed by the Madras High Court last week.

The circular against Karti had been issued to all airports to prevent him from travelling abroad.

Claiming that the CBI issued the summons when he was abroad, Karti told the court that his counsel duly informed about my stay abroad to the CBI through a letter dated June 20.

On July 4, the CBI once again issued a summons against which I have moved the high court and the petition is still pending adjudication he had said. I was always responding to the summonses issued by the CBI and that there was no absolute cause of action for issuance of the LOC, he also said The circular is a well thought out and meticulously orchestrated fraudulent plan of the CBI to stop me at the airport as and when I proceed abroad by springing an unpleasant surprise on me and leak it to the media that I am detained at the airport and cause embarrassment to me, he also said.

The look out circular against Karti Chidambaram was issued to prevent him from leaving the country like Vijay Mallya, the CBI's counsel had told the Madras High Court.

Karti's counsel however raised objection to the submissions and asked the CBI to withdraw the same. The Madras High Court directed the CBI to serve a copy of the circular with Karti. The matter has been adjourned to August 10.

OneIndia News
CEE Kerala: 5 year LLB course admissions begin today

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The CEE Kerala has released the first phase of allotment for admissions for the integrated LLB course (5years). The details are available on the official website.

The first allotment has been decided on the basis of the options given by candidates till 8 August 2017. Admission process for the 5 year LLB courses will begin on 14 August 2017.

CEE Kerala has asked principals of the allotted colleges to 'approve and submit the list of admitted candidates through Online Admission Management System (OAMS),' on 18 August 2017. Further details are available on cee.kerala.gov.in.

Candidates should report for admission till 18 August 2017 with their allotment memo and original documents (details of which can be found on the detailed notification available online). Failure to do so will result on loss of allotment.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 7:42 [IST]
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Four securitymen wounded in grenade attack by militants in Kashmir

India

oi-PTI

Srinagar, August 14: In a grenade attack by unidentified militants four security personnel were injured on Monday in central Kashmir's Budgam district, police said.

Militants hurled a grenade at a road opening party of CRPF and police at Batpora in Magam area, 20 kilometres from here, a police official said.

He said three CRPF personnel and one policeman were injured in the grenade blast. The injured personnel have been admitted to SKIMS Medical College hospital at Bemina here.

The attack came amidst stringent security arrangements across Kashmir valley for tomorrow's Independence Day celebrations.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 17:09 [IST]
Isn't the first big tragedy in India: Amit Shah on Gorakhpur hospital deaths

India

pti-Anusha

"There have been multiple tragedies in a big country like India, this is not the first time. Such incidents have happened during Congress' rule as well," Amit Shah said about Gorakhpur hospital deaths. When asked about the onus on Yogi Adityanath government, the BJP National President said that 'unlike the Congress, BJP believes in inquiring first'.

Shah was speaking in Bengaluru when he was asked about the unfortunate deaths in Gorakhpur hospital. Lashing out at the Congress for demanding Yogi Adityanath's resignation over the death of children in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's own constituency.

Gorakhpur tragedy: NHRC sends notice to UP govt, seeks report in four weeks

Distancing the Yogi Adityanath government from a circular encouraging people to celebrate Krishna Janmashtami in a 'grand manner', Shah said that festivals were a matter of personal choice and the government had nothing to do with it. "The death of children is very unfortunate and we are all sad but one can't stop people from celebrating Krishna Janmashtami. And as far as the circular goes, the UP government is not celebrating the festival. But likewise, the government cannot stop anyone from celebrating," he said.

"It is the Congress' job to seek resignation," he mocked while craftily refusing to acknowledge that the government communique asking for grand celebrations of Krishna Janmashtami was distasteful in the backdrop of unfortunate deaths of children in Gorakhpur hospital.

OneIndia News
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

Gorakhpur tragedy: NHRC sends notice to UP govt, seeks report in four weeks

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued a notice to Uttar Pradesh government over the deaths of several children at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur.

The commission sought a report in four weeks.

According to reports, viewing the tragedy as a "serious violation of Right to Life", the human rights commission has demanded a detailed report on the steps taken by the state government to rehabilitate the affected families.

Gorakhpur tragedy: Uttar Pradesh govt suspends BRD Medical College principal

The rights panel has taken suo motu cognisance of several media reports hinting at negligence in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital which resulted in the tragedy.

Earlier, the Supreme Court declined to hear a plea requesting it to take Suo moto cognizance of the death of infants in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das hospital. The plea has also sought a SIT probe into the deaths.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many allegedly for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

(With agency inputs)
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Gorakhpur tragedy: SC refuses to take suo motu cognisance

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a plea requesting it to take Suo moto cognizance of the death of infants in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das hospital. The plea has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths.

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The Chief Justice of India while hearing the plea asked the petitioner to approach High Court, saying "UP CM is personally taking interest".

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor. At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

Gorakhpur tragedy: Uttar Pradesh govt suspends BRD Medical College principal

The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra.

Gorakhpur tragedy: Incident not due to lack of oxygen supply says firm

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has promised strict action. "The guilty will not be spared and such strict action would be taken by the Uttar Pradesh government that it would set an example for people to work with discipline," he said.

(With agency inputs)
'Hamari Malayalam' textbook for migrants in Kerala

India

oi-PTI

Thiruvananthapuram, August 14: The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority is all set to release a textbook- 'Hamari Malayalam'- exclusively to teach migrant labourers Malayalam.

The state government initiative is expected to be a boon for around 25 lakh workers, who migrated to Kerala from other states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu.

Titled 'Hamari Malayalam' (Our Malayalam), the textbook will be launched by state Education Minister C Raveendranath at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, a town with largest migrant labour population in the state.

Literacy Mission Director P S Sreekala said the book has been designed in such a way that migrant labourers can interact with local people freely and fluently in their daily life. The textbook would be used under 'Changathi', the Mission's exclusive programme for migrant workers, she said.

"Our core objective is to make migrant labourers competent in reading and writing Malayalam. Many of them can already speak broken Malayalam," Sreekala told PTI. Though migrant workers have been playing a key role in many sectors in the state, they are still facing exclusion in society, she said.

"By teaching them Malayalam, we are aiming to end this social exclusion," she said. Detailing the features of the textbook, Sreekala said 'Hamari Malayalam' comprises 25 chapters dealing with various topics ranging from hygiene, health and technology to rights of workers and ethical values. The chapters would be in the format of dialogues, set in various backdrops like bank, school, market and so on.

"Our target is not just make them teach Malayalam but to inculcate among them the basic lessons of sanitation, health and values in a simplified manner. Majority of them are even illiterate in their own mother tongue," she said.

The Literacy mission would launch the initiative first in Perumbavoor and later extend it to selected places in all districts. A survey was conducted in 27 wards of Perumbavoor recently and 400 beneficiaries had been identified for the education programme in the initial phase.

"We are planning to identify the panchayats in other districts where most number of migrant labourers are living and extend the programme there also in the coming days," she added.

The classes would be conducted in their colonies, besides libraries, local schools and other state-run institutions, Mission officials said. The programme is targeted at those above 15 years.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 14:24 [IST]
How Burhan Wani's army fell like a pack of cards

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

10 down, 1 to go. Burhan Wani's gang of 11 has fallen like a pack of cards. On Sunday, the Indian Army gunned down Yasin Yatoo alias Mehmood Ghaznavi in an encounter at Shopian, Jammu and Kashmir.

When Burhan took over as the commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, he had formed a gang of 11 including himself. Out of the 11, Tariq Pandit has surrendered while Salim Padder is still at large. The rest of them have been killed in different encounters by the security forces.

The security forces managed to kill three terrorists including Yatoo after an 18 hour encounter. Police said three militants were killed in a fierce gunfight at Awneera village, 70 km from here. The encounter started after Army's 3 Rashtriya Rifle and special operations group (SOG) of police launched a joint operation at around 6 pm Saturday following a tip off about the presence of five militants. The slain militants were identified as Umar Majid Sheikh, Irfan ul Sheikh and Ghaznavi. In the encounter, two Army personnel however made the supreme sacrifice. The Army personnel have been identified as sepoys Ilayaraja P and Gowai SumedhWaman. Reports said as the encounter was going on, locals rushed out of their homes to pelt stones on the forces to help the holed up militants to escape. The police responded by firing tear gas shells and pellets, in which several protesters were injured.

Ghaznavi, 41, was the operational chief of the outfit in Kashmir and was one of the longest surviving militants in the Valley and had successfully mobilized the Hizbul cadres after the killing of Burhan Wani in July last year.

A resident of Budgam in central Kashmir, Ghaznavi first joined militancy in 1996 and was arrested several times. After his release in 2015, he went missing and a Hizbul statement declared him dead. However, after the killing of Burhan on July 8 Ghaznavi appeared in south Kashmir and addressed massive public rallies in different parts of the region. It was then that he again came on police radar.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 6:22 [IST]
The Western bias and why it cannot digest Indias success

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India@70: Glimpses of Independence Day preparations

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

India, the world's largest democracy will be celebrating the 70th year of its Independence in 2017 .

Capital city Delhi is all set to celebrate the Independence Day.School children, armed forces personnel carried out the full dress rehearsal of I-day celebrations ahead of the main event on August 15.

Security has been tightened around historic Red fort where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hoist the tri-colour and delivers his speech.

Formation of 'BHARAT' Schoolchildren create a formation during the full dress rehearsal for the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI Photo Recommended Video Indian Independence 70 years: Interesting facts | Oneindia News Rehearsal of flag hoisting Indian Tri-colour is hoisted during the full dress rehearsal for the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI Photo Tri-cloured bangles Women selecting tri-cloured bangles at a shop in Old Delhi on Sunday,ahead of Independence Day. PTI Photo Security beefed-up A security personnel keeps a watch with a binocular during the full dress rehearsal for the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI Photo Airforce Jawans' march Jawans march during the full dress rehearsal for the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI Photo OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 9:20 [IST]
Its a smear campaign, I was trying to help kids, says Dr Khan on Gorakhpur tragedy

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Lucknow, August 14: First, we witnessed a tragedy, where 63 children were "massacred" at a Gorakhpur hospital in Uttar Pradesh. It immediately triggered a "political blame game" and then emerged an inspiring story of a doctor who saved several children by ensuring supply of oxygen.

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However, the tragic saga that unfolded at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, did not end there.

On Saturday, Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan, the nodal officer for the Gorakhpur hospital's department of pediatrics, was hailed as a hero on social media, as he spent money from his pocket to bring oxygen cylinders, after supply of life-saving cylinders were allegedly stopped over non-payment of dues by a company, to save the dying children.

However, on Sunday, the authorities removed Khan from his post, without giving any reason. Prior to his removal, a "smear campaign" against the doctor started on social media where he was alleged for dereliction of duty, running a private clinic and for posting derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a few Bollywood actresses.

The doctor was also called a "traitor" because he belonged to the Muslim community.

Breaking his silence over the entire issue, Khan told reporters that he was targeted by vested interest groups.

"It's a smear campaign against me. I was only trying to help the children. I did everything from getting in touch with oxygen firms to ensuring prompt help to patients," he was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

However, officials at the hospital questioned his "intention" for helping the kids. "When we already had 52 cylinders in the hospital on the night of August 10 then what was the need to manage three cylinders from outside. The question arises why did he do it? Medical College did not declare him a hero. It was all created by media," KK Gupta, director general, medical education, said.

As per reports, after Khan realised that his hospital has ran out of oxygen cylinders on the night of August 10, he made frantic calls to his colleagues in private hospitals to ask them to arrange for oxygen cylinders.

Then he drove his car to fetch around 12 cylinders. He even spent Rs 10,000 from his pocket to buy the cylinders.

Speaking about being targeted for being a Muslim, Khan said, "I have seen campaigns on WhatsApp and Facebook targeting me for being a Muslim, I'd like to tell them, I am an Indian first, and what I did, I did because I am a doctor," he said.

BRD Medical College Dr Kafil, child specialist Statement In Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/s7Xsag6G81  Bahujan Samaj Party (@BspUp2017) August 13, 2017

On Friday evening, reports came in that at least 30 children in the hospital died within a period of 48 hours due to the non-availability of oxygen supply. On Saturday, reports added that at least 63 children, including newborns, died in the same hospital due to oxygen supply crisis.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 13:17 [IST]
FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

In J&K, 14,000 dropouts find their way back to schools

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J&K: Terrorists fire at police bunker, no one injured

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

A police bunker at Tengpora bypass in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, was fired upon by the terrorists on Monday evening. The terrorists fled after firing at the bunker.

No one was injured in the incident.

A search operation had been launched to find the terrorists.

On Sunday, two police personnel were injured after terrorists attacked a police search party in Bandipora's Hajin area of Jammu and Kashmir.

On the night intervening Saturday and Sunday, three terrorists were shot down while two soldiers were martyred in a gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian area. Five soldiers were injured in the gun battle out of which two succumbed to their injuries at an Army Base Hospital.

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Story first published: Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 0:23 [IST]
Monsoon 2017: Rain fury causes havoc, over 57 killed

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

With the rains lashing out at least 57 persons have been killed in different parts of the country. Heavy rainfall triggered landslides in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, where at least 46 people were killed, and caused floods in eastern and northeastern states, with 10 deaths being reported in Assam on Sunday.

In Uttarakhand, a girl was killed and her parents are missing following a landslide yesterday that buried their house.

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A massive landslide, triggered by a cloudburst, in Himachal Pradesh last night, buried two state roadways buses, killing at least 46 people and injuring several others at Kotpuri near Padhar on the Mandi-Pathankot national highway. According to officials, the toll may cross 50.

The highway have been closed stranding hundreds of vehicles, they said, adding the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army and the police were rushed to the spot.

Chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who visited the site, said the rescue operation would continue till all bodies were recovered.

State Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur announced financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased while Transport minister G S Bali said announced that Rs 1 lakh would be given to each bereaved family by the HRTC.

In eastern and northeastern states, rains caused havoc, triggering floods in Assam and parts of Bihar and West Bengal.

Ten more people died as the flood situation deteriorated in Assam, where 22.5 lakh people were affected in 21 districts and the Army has been called for rescue operations.

With today's deaths in the second wave of deluge in the state, the toll in this year's flood-related incidents has gone up to 99, Assam State Disaster Management Authority said, adding the situation is likely to worsen as waters of the Brahmaputra and 10 other rivers were flowing above the danger mark at 15 places.

Most of the forest areas in Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Lawkhua wildlife sanctuary were under flood waters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called up Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who toured various flood-affected areas in Dibrugarh district, an official release said.

The prime minister expressed concern and assured all possible help and support to the state government in handling the situation, it said.

Nagaon Deputy Commissioner Shamsher Singh said the waters of the Brahmaputra river breached a crucial dyke at Hatimura inundating vast areas of the district.

Dhubri was the worst-affected with 3.98 lakh people affected, followed by Morigaon with 3.14 lakh people.

Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway Pranav Jyoti Sharma said 22 trains have been cancelled while 14 others were stranded at various places as the tracks are flooded at places across the northeast.

Incessant rains in the past three days in Terai regions of Nepal coupled with heavy rainfall since yesterday in Seemanchal area have caused floods in Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria and Katihar districts of Bihar.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and discussed the flood situation in the state where nearly 320 NDRF personnel have been rushed.

"The Centre is rushing additional NDRF teams to Bihar to help the ongoing rescue and relief operations in the flood- affected region of the state," Singh said in a tweet.

Kishanganj district is the worst affected, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, adding that he has spoken to the prime minister, the union home minister and the defence minister over phone and requested them to help the state in dealing with the situation.

A home ministry official said seven teams of the NDRF have already reached the affected areas in the state.

Birpur in Supaul district received 45 cm rainfall, followed by Gaunaha and Bagaha in West Champaran 37 cm each and Bahadurganj in Kishanganj district 36 cm of precipitation.

Sub-Himalayan districts of West Bengal also received heavy rains causing floods-like situation in the region.

Due to the flood situation in Northeast Frontier Railway jurisdiction, many north Bengal-bound trains originating from Sealdah and Howrah that were delayed, have been terminated at various stations, the Eastern Railway said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the national capital witnessed partly clear skies with no rains, though overcast conditions prevailed in some areas.

The maximum and minimum temperatures were 34.9 degrees Celsius and 27.3 degrees Celsius respectively while relative humidity levels oscillated between 57 and 79 per cent.

Humid conditions prevailed in most parts of Punjab and Haryana with maximum temperatures hovering around normal at most places in both the states.

Chandigarh, the joint capital of the two states, recorded a maximum temperature of 34.4 degrees Celsius while Ambala in Haryana registered a high of 34.6 degrees Celsius and Hisar's maximum was 37.2 degrees Celsius.

In Punjab, Amritsar and Ludhiana both recorded maximum temperatures of 35.8 degrees Celsius.

Yavatmal in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region recorded a maximum temperature of 34 degrees Celsius.

Rainfall occurred in parts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha but there was no significant change in maximum and minimum temperatures.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 6:13 [IST]
NCSC reprimands police for trying to cover-up Shimla schoolgirl case

India

oi-PTI

Shimla, August 14: The Shimla police ahs been reprimanded by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for "trying to hush up" a case of alleged rape and killing of a schoolgirl and demanded that murder charges be slapped on the policemen for the custodial death of an accused.

NCSC member Swaraj Vidwan, who met the family of the victim at Kotkhai yesterday, alleged "gaps" in police probe indicated that there was a conspiracy to save the real culprits.

She claimed that all the people she met were of the opinion that the matter was being hushed up. Vidwan alleged that the police tried to cover up the case and that all the people she had met were of the same opinion and demanded that the real culprits be brought to the book and punished.

She claimed that people had lost confidence in the police and they maintained that the probe was in the right direction till it was being handled by the DSP but got derailed after the SIT was set up.

"The death of accused Suraj, a Nepalese national, in police custody further raised suspicion on the role of the police in the entire case," she alleged. She questioned how he died when policemen were present in the police station and said that murder charges be slapped on the policemen for the custodial death of an accused.

She alleged that "some top cops and politicians" tried to influence the probe and the real culprits were not arrested at their behest. Vidwan said she also met the parents of the victim yesterday and they were still in shock.

"Her parents want speedy justice and they are seeking the arrest of real culprits in the case," she said. She said now that the case has been handed over to the CBI, she was hopeful that the culprits would be brought to book.

She said that she has taken statements of parents of the victims and other persons and would soon submit the report to the central government. The 16-year-old girl had gone missing in Kotkhai area here after school hours on July 4 and her body was found in the nearby Haliala forest on July 6.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 10:06 [IST]
Nearly 2,50,000 cine workers to go on strike from Aug 15, big projects likely to be affected

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, August 14: Demanding redressal of various issues pending with the producers at the earliest nearly 2,50,000 cine employees and workers will go on an indefinite strike from August 15.

The spotboys, junior artistes and all the workers on film sets and in the television industry will take part in the strike under the aegis of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE).

"We are going on a strike with our long-pending demands. The workers are being made to work for over eight hours a day. There is a major issue of their safety. No provision has been made for the security of the workers," FWICE president Birendra Nath Tiwari told PTI.

He said the workers had raised a similar demand in 2015 and were then assured by the producers that their increments would be raised by 13 per cent in the first year, "which never happened".

"They (producers) said they were facing losses due to GST, demonetisation etc. and had settled for a 7.5-per cent hike for the workers of the elite unions. But, those on a monthly basis are suffering. They are being treated as slaves," he added.

According to Tiwari, the grievance of the workers was largely against the television producers and not the film producers.

"The workers do not get payments even after 90 days. By then, the producer says let's settle the matter because he is facing losses. We have always been supportive, but things are just not working now," he said.

Shah Rukh Khan's next film, which is being directed by Aanand L Rai, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmavati' and Amitabh Bachchan's 'Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 9' likely to be affected due to the strike.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 13:07 [IST]
No doctor on duty, patients die in Tamil Nadu hospital

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Two patients died in a government hospital in Ambur due to unavailability of doctors. A 13-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man who were in need of critical intervention died as the duty doctor was absent from the hospital. Patients who were rushed to the hospital lost their lives due to the negligence of medical staff on Sunday.

An elderly man who sustained injuries in an accident was rushed to the Ambur government hospital at around 1.05 PM. For one and a half hours the man lay writhing in pain but no medical attention was given to him. No doctor was available to treat the man identified as Santhanam. With no doctors to treat him and no medical help, the senior citizen succumbed to his injuries. The man's friends were waiting outside the emergency unit and thought that he was being treated. Half an hour later, one of the friends entered the emergency room only to see the senior citizen bleeding, unattended. Multiple requests and demands to the hospital authorities yielded no response. Santhanam's friends were told that no doctor was available at the hospital at the time. Rules mandate that a duty doctor is available at all times in every government hospital irrespective of time and day.

Around the same time, a 13-year-old girl who had developed breathing problems was rushed to the hospital. Vaishnavi, a resident of a nearby village was rushed to the hospital but was not even admitted to the emergency room. For half an hour, the girl continued to battle for breath but no medical help came her way. At 2.30 when a doctor finally arrived, she was declared dead.

Parents of the girl were asked to take her lifeless body out of the hospital. With no ambulance provided, the parents were forced to take her body back to the village, a distance of 13 kms, on a two-wheeler.

Learning of the absence of a duty doctor, pro-right wing group activists protested outside the hospital demanding justice. Officials from the Medical and Rural Health Services who visited the hospital said that the sanctioned strength of doctors in the hospital was seven, but only four doctors were working. "We will redirect two or three doctors to this hospital immediately," said A Shanthi, Joint Director of Medical and Rural Health Services (in-charge)-Vellore.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 17:23 [IST]
OPS-Modi meet: NEET, AIADMK unification discussed

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O Panneerselvam met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi on Monday. While the agenda for the meeting was the NEET issue, the two leaders also discussed the unification of the AIADMK.

The meeting took place on a day when when AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary T T V Dinakaran, who leads a third faction in the party, is set to hold an MGR centenary function at Melur near Madurai.

The meeting with Modi went on for about 30 minutes. While OPS raised the issue relating to NEET with the PM, the two also spoke about the unification of the AIADMK. Attempts are on to unify the two factions of the party led by OPS and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palanisami. It may be recalled that EPS had met with Modi recently.

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday had said the Centre would "cooperate" with the State Government to grant a one-time exemption from NEET-based admissions through the ordinance route. The exemption from NEET will be only for admission to government medical colleges and the government quota seats in private medical colleges.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 14:29 [IST]
Parents of dead children in Gorakhpur hospital, UP, describe horror in detail

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Lucknow, August 14: In a couple of days from now, the outrage over the tragic death of 63 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, would vanish, like all other human tragedies in the country.

While politicians would stop their blame games, the media would jump to another "big story" soon. But the scar of seeing their young ones dying due to "negligence on the part of the hospital authorities, bureaucrats, politicians and society at large" would haunt the parents of the dead children for long.

The children, including newborns, mostly suffering from the killer disease encephalitis, died allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply. While there are many versions cited by the authorities, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, regarding the cause of deaths, most parents alleged that the hospital authorities did not take necessary action to save their children.

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One father, who lost his four-year-old son, told NDTV that the hospital looked like a "slaughterhouse" as children after children were dying in the wards. He added that the doctors and nurses did not even give their 10 per cent to help the sick children.

One couple, who lost their twins (a boy and a girl), told The Indian Express that the hospital lacks basic facilities like cotton gauze and glucose injections. The father of the children, Brahmdev, 30, a farmer from Bagagada village in Gorakhpur, said that he was poor and could not afford the expenses of a private hospital and that was the reason why he had admitted his kids in the government-run hospital.

However, since the time he got his children, who were suffering from high fever, admitted in the hospital he was repeatedly asked to buy medicines and blood on his own by the hospital people.

Finally, both his children died because there was no oxygen supply in the hospital. Brahmdev told The Indian Express that it was on August 7 when for the first time he noticed the oxygen-level indicator outside the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the BRD Medical College hospital.

"There were three levels--normal, high and low. On August 7, the indicator showed low," says Brahmdev. The helpless parents of the dead twins, just 10 days old, could do nothing but cry relentlessly, now.

Similarly, a father of another dead boy told The Telegraph that policemen asked him to leave the hospital after his child's death. Mrityunjay Singh of Padrauna, whose son was in the neonatal ward, said, "Hospital staff pushed us out of the ward on Wednesday evening. A few minutes later, a ward boy brought out my son's body. The police then asked me to leave the hospital immediately."

Vijay Lal of Kushinagar told television channels, "My 16-day-old daughter died in the paediatric ward. Policemen dropped me at the railway station in an auto-rickshaw and warned me not to return. I was scared."

According to The Telegraph report, after the news of the deaths of 30 children were highlighted on Friday evening, around 5,000 police personnel were posted in the hospital to avoid any "rebellion" by the parents of the dead children.

Several parents alleged that they were "terrorised" by the police after they lost their loved one.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 8:29 [IST]
Pro-China terror groups call for Independence Day 2017 boycott

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Several pro-China outfits in North East have called for the boycott of Independence Day celebrations on August 15. In a joint statement, seven terrorist outfits said that India's plans to celebrate their 70th Independence Day in a grand way is a sign of nervousness due to the Doklam stand-off with China.

The joint call has been given by anti-talk Ulfa(I) and United People's Liberation Army from Assam, Coordination Committee (CorCom), the conglomerate of four outfits of Manipur, and Garo National Liberation Army of Meghalaya.

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This year, India under the premiership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who boasted that he confronts the world "Eye to Eye", is getting ready for the 70th Independence Day celebration with a grand display of its military power and hardware, perhaps attempting to outdo the Chinese PLA's 90th anniversary celebration on 30 July 2017 which was indeed very impressive. Or perhaps, it is also a sign of nervousness or apprehension of the Indian government at the border fracas at Drok La or Drong Lam, the tri-junction of our close international border with China; and hence to hide the same, the statement read.

India's policy towards neighbour China is now wide open as the facts of the Drong Lam (Drok La) impasse is vivisected by experts exposing her weakness and helplessness of the situation for the world to see, the seven terrorist groups also said.The government is working to saffronise the region with its slogan "One Country, One people, One culture," the statement further read.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 6:02 [IST]
India's stand on Rohingyas gracious so far but housing them would be risky

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Rohingya Muslim threat: States told to identify and deport

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

With the threat of terror looming large, the Union Home Ministry has directed states to identify and deport illegal immigrants. The decision comes in the wake of intelligence inputs suggesting that terror groups may use the Rohingya Muslims to further their activities.

These illegal immigrants not only infringe on the rights of Indian citizens but also pose grave security challenges. The rise of terrorism in last few decades has become a serious concern for most nations as illegal migrants are more vulnerable to getting recruited by terrorist organisations, the communication also reads.

Due to economic and political turmoil in the neighbouring countries, many enter into India.

Many are vulnerable and the chances of terror groups using them is very high. Hence a special task force be set up to identify such persons and deport them, the ministry also said.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 6:17 [IST]
Sahara's Aamby Valley up for auction: Reserve price at Rs 37,392 crore

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Aamby Valley city in Pune has been put up for public auction. The official liquidator has set the reserve price at Rs 37,392 crore. The decision came afterthe Supreme Court had last week refused to stay the auction.

A bench of justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri said, "The prayer of the contemnor (Subrata Roy) is hereby rejected." During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Roy, said that the auction process should be put on hold till September so that his client could arrange Rs 1,500 crore to be deposited into Sebi-Sahara account. The bench, however, said that it will pass orders at an appropriate time.

Roy had moved the Supreme Court seeking to put a hold on the auction process to sell the group's Rs 34,000- crore worth Aamby Valley property by the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court. The apex court had on July 25 asked the embattled Sahara chief to deposit Rs 1,500 crore in the SEBI-Sahara account by September 7 and said that it might then deliberate upon his plea seeking 18 months more time for making complete repayment.

The court had simultaneously approved the draft sale notice and terms to dispose of the property prepared by the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court. "The official liquidator shall publish the sale notice as given by him and the notice shall be published on August 14. The steps which are required to be taken for the publication of the sale notice, are allowed," the court had said.

The Sahara Group had earlier sought 18 months' time to repay around Rs 9,000 crore balance amount of the principal amount of Rs 24,000 crore. Sibal, however, had said that according to the group, the remaining amount was around Rs 8,000 crore and it had made all efforts to deposit the money. Roy, who has spent almost two years in jail, has been on parole since May 6 last year. The parole was granted the first time to enable him attend the funeral of his mother. It has been extended since then.

Roy and two other directors Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary -- were arrested for failure of the group's two companies -- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) -- to comply with the court's August 31, 2012 order to return Rs 24,000 crore to their investors.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 10:41 [IST]
Siddaramaiah government wears corruption like a badge of honour: Amit Shah

India

oi-Anusha

On the last day of his visit to Bengaluru, BJP National President Amit Shah accused the Congress government in the state of being corrupt and misleading the people on central government funds. Shah took potshots at Siddaramaiah's government which has failed 'to act even after IT raids against its minister'.

"I have never seen a more corrupt government than Siddaramaiah's. No resignation is sought, no action is taken whatsoever. Most parties are humiliated when allegations of corruption are made but the Siddaramaiah government seems to treat it like a medal of honour and pin it to their chest," Amit Shah attacked the Congress. He was addressing the press on the last day of his three-day visit to Bengaluru.

When asked about corruption allegations against the BJP's leaders in Kerala, Amit Shah said that the party had cracked the whip on those involved and suspended them immediately. "BJP has always and will always act upon any corrupt practices. We suspended those involved and ordered a probe but what has Siddaramaiah done. Has the Congress taken such a stand?" he asked.

"Sangh workers made targets of political killings"

Shah accused the Congress government of targeting Sangh and BJP workers in the state and eliminating them for political gains. "In the last four years, some 30 workers of the Sangh have been killed and attacked. What kind of appeasement politics is this? Will the government answer why it let off jailed PFI activists and revoked all cases against them?" he asked.

Shah reiterated that lakhs of crores have been sanctioned under various schemes and projects from the central government but none of the benefits are reaching the people. "The Congress is attempting to build a fake narrative of the union government neglecting Karnataka. The centre has revised 14th finance commission allocation to Karnataka by three times. The allocation is Rs 1.86 lakh crore, 300 per cent more than the 13th commission. But where is all the money going?" he asked.

In his capacity as the BJP's national President Amit Shah also spoke on the Gorakhpur tragedy and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed condolence already. "Tweet is not the only way to express condolence or sadness. The Prime Minister has already reacted to the unfortunate incident. Once the situation is assessed, next course of action will be decided," he said.

Amit Shah's visit and review of the BJP in Karnataka has given the state unit a direction. The BJP leaders in the state are now expected to launch massive protests, demonstrations against the Congress.

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 17:54 [IST]
The Luster-e-Tayibas of the Kashmir Valley

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

When Abu Dujana was killed in an encounter, Kashmir's Inspector General of Police had said, " now the women will sleep in peace."

Many terrorists of the Lashkar have love interests in the Valley. In fact many have even taken up arms to impress women in the Valley. Security forces have found that the likes of Dujana, Umar Majeed Mohammad Ishaq, Bashir Ahmed among others had love interests.

In this context one must visit the interrogation report of Danish Ahmed who had recently surrendered. Ahmed says that not all youth are living by the gun because they believe in Azaadi. It is to impress girls, he says.

Ahmed who had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen was seen at the funeral of terrorist, Sabzar Bhat who was gunned down by security forces in May. Ahmed's story is an interesting one. In 2016 he was arrested for stone pelting, but was let off after counseling. He however went on to join the Hizbul Mujahideen and was part of the camp run by Sabzar Bhat who succeeded Burhan Wani.

The police and the security forces who identified Danish Ahmed through the videos shot at the funeral of Bhat wanted him to surrender. Finally they spoke with his parents and coaxed him to surrender.

The Danish Ahmed story tells a tale of disillusionment. He speaks about a carrot that was promised which ultimately turned out to be a stick. His interrogation report states that he got in touch with militants in South Kashmir. He says that they instigated him to join the Hizbul.

However the most interesting part of his confession comes in the later half of his interrogation report. "Most youth pick up the gun to impress girls. He says that many local girls treat these youth as heroes. With a gun in hand, they feel strong and powerful and this impresses many girls," he says. He goes on to add that the likes of Reyaz Naikoo and Zakir Musa and Abu Dujana had multiple girlfriends.

He says that these persons project themselves as Robin Hood before the girls in a bid to impress them. He further says that not all the money looted by the militants goes into funding the terror organisation. He says that in most cases the money looted from banks or got from extortion is used to buy fancy gadgets and expensive clothes.

OneIndia News
Literary fest to be held in Kerala with tolerance as theme

Sense of insecurity has creeped into Muslims says Hamid Ansari in parting shot

Swami Vivekananda might get Agnivesh-like treatment if he were to come today: Tharoor

The West's portrayal of an intolerant India: Its all in the numbers

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

India's Turn Toward Intolerance

India's Battered Free Press

As India's Muslims are lynched, Modi keeps silent

Modi Government Tells The New York Times To Back Off

These are headlines of some of the many stories recently done by foreign media outlets, the likes of The New York Times, Washington Post and Huffington Post.

In its editorial, India's Battered Free Press, The New York Times says.

"Press freedom in India suffered a fresh blow on Monday when the country's main investigative agency raided homes and offices connected to the founders of NDTV, India's oldest television news station. The raids mark an alarming new level of intimidation of India's news media under Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Calling this editorial "one-sided", India's premier investigative agency Central Bureau of Investigation wrote to the Editor of The New York Times,

"The editorial doesn't consider the investigation history of the case against RRPR Holdings by different tax and law enforcement agencies in India since 2011."

Although The New York Times published the CBI's response, but it was not well-taken by West Liberal Media which labelled CBI's clarification as intimidation. Huffington post mentioned the CBI's response in its report under the headline 'Modi Government Tells The New York Times To Back Off'.

Propaganda in Reporting?

In a bid to prove their narrative, The New York Times in its another report on Yogi Adityanath 'Firebrand Hindu Cleric Ascends India's Political Ladder' quotes a journalist Manoj Singh to allege that Adityanath encouraged religious riots.

"During the first five years after the vigilante group was formed, 22 religious clashes broke out in the districts surrounding Gorakhpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, in many cases with Adityanath's encouragement, said Manoj Singh, a journalist."

This kind of insincere reporting raises few important questions. Who is Manoj Singh? Was he present on the occasion when Adityanath was allegedly encouraging riots?

Now, why these media houses in the West are indulging in provocative reporting on India, amplifying fault lines and distorting reality?

It's all in the figures

Figures suggest that these foreign media outlets have maxed out in terms of digital traffic in the West. Their numbers are going down and hence they are set to explore other markets with large English speaking digitally savvy population.

Their future growth will come from markets like India which is riding on a huge digital wave. Google is the most surfed search engine in the world today. According to Alexa rankings, after United States, India is the second country in the world where Google is visited the most. The Indian version of Google, Google.co.in, rank one in India, is the 7th most surfed search engine in the world.

Scope in India

This is when Internet penetration in India currently is just at around 30 percent. Thanks to the massive push to Digital India initiatives by the Modi government, various reports suggest that the internet penetration in India will double by 2021. A report by a renowned global networking body CISCO says,

"Digital transformation will take India's internet users from 373 million (28 percent of population) in 2016 to 829 million (59 percent of the Indian population) in 2021."

According to National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the number of Internet users in India will grow to 730 million (approximately 55 percent of India's population) by 2020.

A report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International says that for year-on-year period ending October 2016, the Internet user base grew by 7 percent in urban India and by 22 percent in Rural India.

Western media wants to tap this digital potential of India to grow their Digital traffic in future. India's rapidly changing political landscape, large English-speaking Cosmo urban middle class, and world's largest youth population which loves to argue makes India a favoured destination for these media houses.

Another factor which works in the favour of these media houses is absence of regulations restricting digital access to foreign media.

India - the only major destination

China, despite its large digital penetration, is not a market for these media outlets as there is no freedom for them to operate. Recently China has further tightened the screws,

"Popular online platforms such as Google, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are all blocked in China, as are the websites of some major international news outlets such as TIME, the New York Times, and the BBC."

Reporting on a Billion People Democracy like India requires a deep understanding of the country, its socio economic diversity and its regional complexities. Foreign Journalists who are issued visas in India should mandatorily undergo an orientation program on understanding India and on how to report on India. Visa renewal and new Visas should be made contingent upon such a mandatory certificate program which can be conducted by concerned higher institutions of the country.

OneIndia News
Will Congress campaign to attract professionals to politics work?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, August 14: Senior Congress leader and member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Shashi Tharoor, has recently launched a campaign to attract "professionals" to politics.

Are you a talented professional interested in politics? The All India Professionals' Congress (Professionals' Congress OR AIPC), a newly-formed department of the Congress Party, is your platform to contribute to the advancement of progressive politics in India,' stated the opening lines in the website for the new campaign-- www.professionalscongress.com.

"All your work on the AIPC platform will directly feed into supporting the Congress Party's political goals and objectives," added the next line in the website.

"My generation grew up in an India where a vast gulf separated those who went into the professions or the civil services, and those who entered politics. The latter, at the risk of simplifying things a bit, were either at the very top or the very bottom: Either maharajahs or big zamindars with a feudal hold on the allegiances of the voters in their districts, or semi-literate 'lumpens' with little to lose who got into politics as their only means of self-advancement.

If you belonged to neither category, you studied hard, took your exams, and made a success of your life on merit - and you steered clear of politics as an activity for those 'other people'," Tharoor wrote, stressing on the need of why India needs more professionals, in The Quint.

"This is changing, as is the public's expectations of what a politician should be like. An initiative like the Professionals' Congress will ensure that more professionals with skills and qualifications, but no political background, come into politics," he added.

On Monday, a day ahead of India's 70th Independence Day, the hashtag--#JoinProfessionalsCongress--trended on Twitter. A lot of working men and women expressed their interest to join politics.

Now, the question is will such an attempt work? A political expert, who did not wish to be named, said that the Congress definitely needs well-educated, smart and knowledgeable people to help in its revival.

"The grand old party is in tatters. It is a sinking ship with no one to lead the party. In such a scenario, professionals will add vim and vigour to the party. But, are professionals ready to leave their steady jobs to join politics?"

A techie in Bengaluru said that the campaign is noble, but unlikely to work. "Politics is not a profession, but a 24X7 commitment. Only those who are passionate about politics will join politics, no matter what. Moreover, politics is considered to be a 'dirty' game. That has always discouraged a lot of people to jump into politics," added the techie.

OneIndia News
Rahul Gandhi invites Siddaramaiah for sprint during Bharat Jodo Yatra and this happens next [watch]

Winning Karnataka election is not like ordering IT raid: Siddaramaiah hits out at Shah

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Karnataka Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah threw open a challenge to BJP's national president Amit Shah and said that his government in Karnataka cannot be dislodged. Shah may have succeeded in Uttar Pradesh, but will not be able to repeat that in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said.

We are not kids, we have been in politics for the past 40 years. It Shah was really a master strategist, then why did he fail in Punjab, Goa and Manipur, he also asked.

Siddaramaiah made the statement in Aland after laying the foundation stone for various developmental works.

Winning elections in Karnataka is not like ordering IT raids on some Congress leaders. This is the land of Basavanna, his divisive politics will not work in Karnataka ", the Karnataka Chief Minister also said.

On Yeddyurappa's Mission 150 for Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said, why would people elect a person who has been to jail. People will back my party as we have given them free rice, waived farmers loans and fulfilled most of the promises made before the last poll. The people will not betray the government which has provided them free food, education and other benefits", he said.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 6:32 [IST]
Udaipur killing: He had refused to open his shop for days, says wife of murdered

Udaipur killing: Accused went to Dawat-e-Islami in Karachi in 2014, says Top cop

Is Pak using new names to play old games in J&K?

Africa: 17 dead in Burkina Faso cafe attack

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

17 persons have died in an attack by gunmen on a Turkish restaurant, The attack was carried out on Sunday in the Burkina Faso, a West African country that has seen a surge in violence by Islamic extremists over the past few years.

It may be recalled that a cafe had been attacked in January 2016 in which 30 persons had died. The police suspect this incident to be the handiwork of jihadis.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou.

Police spokesman Capt. Guy Ye told The Associated Press the target of the attack was a Turkish restaurant known as Aziz Istanbul.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

OneIndia News
China-Pak friendship "stronger than steel", says Chinese vice premier

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad, August 14: Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, the chief guest of Pakistan's Independence Day celebration, said both China and Pakistan have always stood by each other and their friendship was "stronger than steel".

Wang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party, is among the country's top leaders. He arrived in Islamabad yesterday on a two-day visit.

Addressing the Independence Day ceremony in Islamabad, he said China stands with Pakistan in its efforts to achieve progress and development. "China and Pakistan have always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations," he said, with Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi by his side.

Pakistan PM seeks international community's role in resolving Kashmir dispute

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Sikkim standoff: How China incorporated Pakistan in its team against India | Oneindia News

"Our friendship is stronger than steel [and] sweeter than honey," he said. Wang is accompanying a high-level Chinese delegation and expected to sign a few bilateral agreements.

He is also expected to inaugurate projects related to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor - a part of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said China would support Pakistan's efforts to pursue the fight against terrorism as per its national interest. Pakistan is an important partner in the OBOR initiative and China wants to strengthen its multi-dimensional strategic cooperation with Islamabad.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 15:34 [IST]
DA hike: These states increase dearness allowance by 3% for government employees on Independence Day

Message from India to Pakistan: Happy Independence Day! Let peace, brotherhood, love prevail

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, August 14: It is the best time for India and Pakistan--the two neighbouring nations, currently at loggerheads with each other--to reignite "peace, brotherhood and love" among themselves, as they are celebrating their respective Independence Days.

Every year, India and Pakistan celebrate their Independence Days within a gap of 24 hours of each other. While Pakistan marked the "big day" on Monday, India is all geared up to celebrate its 70th Independence Day on Tuesday.

Both the countries embraced independent paths after they got independence from the British Raj in 1947. The bloodbath that saw the partition of Pakistan from India, back in 1947, is one of the most "horrific" moments witnessed in the world history.

Over the years, India and Pakistan fought several wars and saw multiple conflicts between themselves. Both the countries fought four wars--the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 (Bangladesh Liberation War) and Indo-Pakistani War of 1999 (Kargil War).

Kashmir is the main cause of conflict between the nations. While Kashmir joined India after Independence, Pakistan claims its "legitimate" hold over the Valley.

In recent times too, relationship between the two countries has reached a rock bottom as Pakistan continues to sponsor cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. Currently, all the talks between the two countries are on hold.

In spite of all these political and military differences, people-to-people connect has not yet stopped between the two nations. That is why on Pakistan's Independence Day, several Indians wished the neighbouring nation.

Bollywood veteran Rishi Kapoor tweeted on Sunday to wish Pakistanis a happy "Youm-e-Azadi", as the country's Independence Day is also known as.

The actor's family originally hails from Pakistan. His grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor, the pioneer of Indian cinema and theatre, was born in Punjab province of Pakistan.

"Wishing all my friends from Pakistan a Happy "Youm -e- Azaadi" ka din. Happy Independence Day! Let Peace, brotherhood and Love prevail!" tweeted Kapoor.

Wishing all my friends from Pakistan a Happy "Youm -e- Azaadi" ka din. Happy Independence Day! Let Peace, brotherhood and Love prevail! pic.twitter.com/Fi3dAZxDIG  Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) August 13, 2017

Other Indians too wished Pakistan on Twitter. Here is one of them:

Happy Independence Day Pakistan. We chose our two different paths 70 years ago. Do not know about the destination but the journey continues.  Sushant Singh (@SushantSin) August 14, 2017

The army of both the countries exchanged sweets at Wagah-Attari border on the occasion of Pakistan's Independence Day.

An Indian musical band--Voxchord--has released an A Capella version of Pakistan's national anthem, Pak Sarzamin, recently. You can watch the heart-warming musical dedication to the neighbouring country below:

OneIndia News
No one will benefit from 'trade war': China warns US

International

pti-PTI

Beijing, Aug 14: As President Donald Trump prepared to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property practices, China warned on Monday that nobody would win in a "trade war".

Trump was due to sign a memorandum directing US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies. The investigation could lead to sanctions against Beijing. Asked about the US move, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said any member of the World Trade Organisation must respect WTO rules.

"Fighting a trade war has no future. There will be no winner and everybody will lose," Hua said at a regular news briefing.

"I believe China and the US should continue to work together for the stable and sound development of China-US economic and trade relations," she said.

US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bluntly accused China on Saturday of "stealing our intellectual property" -- long a concern of Western companies seeking a share of the enormous Chinese market. The looming investigation follows high tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Trump has accused China of failing to rein in the nuclear ambitions of its ally North Korea. The US officials, however, said the North Korean issue and the investigation into China's trade practices are not linked. China today announced that it would ban from Tuesday imports of iron, iron ore and seafood from North Korea as it follows through on new UN sanctions approved earlier this month.

"I want to say that China-US cooperation should be based on mutual respect and mutual trust," Hua said.

"The Korean peninsula nuclear issue and the China-US trade issue are totally different and it's not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep pressure on the other issue," Hua added.

PTI
The Western bias and why it cannot digest Indias success

Explained: Why has US removed India from its currency monitoring list

Independence day speech: Pakistan PM seeks global community's role in resolving Kashmir dispute

International

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Interim Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in his first Independence Day speech on Monday called upon the international community to play role in resolving Kashmir dispute.

Neighbouring Pakistan is also celebrating 70th anniversary of Independence day, a day ahead of India. The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital along with a 21-gun salute in each provincial capital, reports The Dawn.

Abbasi in his message on the Independence Day said Kashmir dispute should be resolved ''in conformity with UN resolutions on the subject with a view to ensuring durable peace in the region''.

He said, '' It is incumbent upon the international community to play its role in the resolution of regional conflicts, particularly Kashmir dispute. ''

''Pakistan desires positive and constructive relationships with all countries of the world, especially with its neighbors on basis of sovereign equality, '' he said.

On peace and prosperity in the South Asia region, he said ''the people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until those conflicts are resolved amicably people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress.''

The main ceremony of the day was held at Islamabad's Convention Centre, where President Mamnoon Hussain hoisted the Pakistani flag. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang - who is the chief guest - and all three chiefs of the armed services are present at the ceremony.

President Mamnoon Hussain, in his address, called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan. He said it is time to forget "personal grievances" and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharif's ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was "pre-planned".

Shahid Abbasi, who held the position of Minister of commerce under Yousuf Raza Gillani's regime, was elected as the prime minister after the disqualification of former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court in connection with the Panama Papers. Pakistan celebrates Independence Day on August 14, a day before India.

(With agency inputs)
Imran Khan discharged from hospital, to resume long march from same point where he was shot

Why does Pakistan celebrate Independence Day on August 14?

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Why does Pakistan celebrate its Independence Day on August 14? In 1947, 15 August happened to be the Jummat-ul-Wida, the last Friday of the holy month of Ramzan, and Jinnah asked all Muslims across the world to come together at mosques and pray and seek His guidance to make Pakistan a great state.

In 1948, Pakistan changed the day of its independence, because it coincided with the 27th day of the Holy month of Ramadan.

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India hoists its highest Tricolour ahead of Pakistan | Oneindia News

Pakistan wanted an identity distinct from India, which led to the change. Even the India Independence Act of 1947 states that 15 August was the date when the two independent dominions were formed. The postage stamps of Pakistan released in July 1948 commemorating the day also mentioned 15 August 1947 as its Independence Day.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first Governor General of Pakistan told his countrymen, "It is with feelings of greatest happiness and emotion that I send you my greetings. August 15 is the birthday of the independent and sovereign State of Pakistan. It marks the fulfillment of the destiny of the Muslim nation which made great sacrifices in the past few years to have its homeland," he had said.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, August 14, 2017, 7:02 [IST]
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This is a good time to reconsider the thoughts of Richard Rorty, an American philosopher, who 20 years ago published this book: an insightful analysis arguing that the American left abandoned its working-class base and cleared the way for the far right to offer workers an alternative. After the 2016 election, some passages from his book appeared on Twitter and were endlessly passed along:[M]embers of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers  themselves desperately afraid of being downsized  are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for  someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots.One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past 40 years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion.... All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.Rorty argues that American socialism was a potent force a century ago, grounded in the optimistic national pride of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. Socialism might have become even stronger after the First World War, but the Russian Revolution offered a fatal attraction for the impatient. The American left broke up in a schism as momentous as Protestant and Catholic Christianity or Sunni and Shia Islam. National pride was out; international communism now set the terms of debate.Rortys parents first chose communism, but returned to the anti-communist left soon after his birth in 1931. He grew up, therefore, in an ignored splinter party while the communists got all the attention (and most of the blacklisting and jailings).In the 20 years after the Second World War, the trade unions were purged of their communist members, and often taken over by crooks and gangsters. Old-fashioned American socialists, with CIA funding, supported the Cold War and promoted a kind of cultural leftism that ignored the workers.But unionized workers made a lot of money in those 20 years, enough to buy their own homes and send their kids to college in a rapidly expanding post-secondary system. Long before Justin Trudeau started talking about people working hard to enter the middle class, American and Canadian workers children were moving into that class. They had a rare chance for social mobility  careers in teaching and other professions.more
by  Graham Pierrepoint



U.S. President Donald Trumps top team has seen colossal change and movement over the past six months  in a revolving-door fashion that is perhaps unparalleled at the top of US politics. The appointments, resignations and sackings that have come and gone have provided the mass media with a soap opera of sorts to follow along eagerly  with Trump all the while providing his own personal commentary via Twitter, the Commander in Chiefs app and soapbox of choice. In the time since he and his team has come to power, Trump has seen the likes of Sean Spicer, Michael Flynn, Reince Priebus and Anthony Scaramucci (who lasted a whole ten days in the top team) depart  and sources suggest that chief strategist Steve Bannon, once thought to be Trumps closest ally, could be next.

According to a number of sources such as CNN and Axios, it seems that the atmosphere surrounding Bannon has soured a little  with Scaramucci famously speaking out against the White House staffer before and after his removal from office. CNN reports that Bannons place at the top table could become shaky as a result of changes looking to be implemented by new Chief of Staff John Kelly, who took over from a departing Reince Priebus and who was ultimately responsible for removing Scaramucci from his post. Other sources such as Axios suggest that Trump is particularly concerned about leaking coming from the White House  and that Bannon could be in the frame. Such claims, of course, are as yet unsubstantiated.

Its thought that Kellys restructuring of the top team is at direct odds with Bannons own agenda, whom CNN describes as a political operative with his own modus operandi. Bannon is famous otherwise, of course, for having come from the ranks of Breitbart, having been the director of the conservative news outlet before his appointment to Trumps team. Scaramucci, still in the news after his short spell as White House Communications Director, advised that it is within Trumps best interests to move away from Bannon completely.

If Bannons head is the next on the block, it will spell an interesting and surprising diversion away from the original team set up to bolster Trump at the start of this year. Bannon and Breitbart have been seen as bastions for the alt-right movement, and if Trump chooses to distance himself from his advisor, it could spell further big changes for the White House staff and their operations. Will Bannon hang on in there? Stay tuned.
Newsy 24 Nov 2021

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[NFA] Apple Inc Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Thursday was the latest corporate leader to speak out against the state of..
, as the name suggests is

. It is the most common cause of severe diarrhea among infants and young children. The virus is transmitted by the faecal-oral route.

Rubella is also known as also known as German measles or three-day measles; it is also a viral disease. Rubella is a common childhood infection that can sometimes be fatal.

Of these diseases, rotavirus is the most widespread. The vaccine for this condition is called Rotavac and it will be made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.

According to the BBC , Mr Modi said: The introduction of four new life-saving vaccines will play a key role in reducing childhood and infant mortality and morbidity in the country. Many of these vaccines are already available through private practitioners to those who can afford them. The government will now ensure that the benefits of vaccination reach all sections of society, regardless of social and economic status.

Modis decision increases to 13 the number of free vaccines provided in India. The decision to vaccinate is not without controversy. Although the majority of the medical community believes they are an example of preventive medicine, there is a community of medical opinion that

. This is based on all vaccines being immune suppressing, which means they depress the natural immune functions of the body, potentially leaving the individual vulnerable to other diseases.

Newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that India will provide four new vaccines free of cost as part of a program to reduce child mortality.The four new vaccines will combat rotavirus, rubella, polio and Japanese encephalitis. Each of these diseases can be very serious. poliomyelitis ) is another type of virus. It is spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route. The virus causes inflammation of the spinal cords grey matter.is a disease caused by the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus . The disease causes fever, headache and malaise are other non-specific symptoms. Mental retardation can develop from this disease and this usually leads to coma.- See more at: India To Provide Four Free Vaccines To Children - NEWSWATCH | NEWSWATCH
In the week ending 11 August, 2017, in FinTech, hedge funds that are tied to cryptocurrencies are exploding, with over 70 launches in the pipeline. This meteoric rise of bitcoin is rippling through financial markets and is costing some investors billions. Finles Capital is anticipating oversubscription for the EUR100m ICO of FundCoin; YouTube said that AI is better than humans at removing extremist videos post-brand safety crisis. Chinese cryptocurrency NEO completed its rebranding from Antshares and is up 13000% this year; B2C2is suing Quoine over bitcoin trades that were allegedly wrongfully reversed, which resulted in proceeds being deducted. A much discussed letter by Neal Berger indicated that the robot takeover is postponed as quant funds are flattened in equities.

Arion Investment Management is planning to launch its first commodities hedge fund to trade base and precious metals.

The Lyxor Global Macro Index was down -0.8% fr......................

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Eton Institute Rated 'A' by the Dubai SME Rating Framework

Eton Institute Rated 'A' by the Dubai SME Rating Framework

www.etoninstitute.com

Eton Institute has been awarded an A rating from Dubai SME. The Rating Framework ranks companies on five criteria: business performance, both financial and operational; innovation; international expansion; corporate governance; and corporate social responsibility.Eton Institute, an international language training provider headquartered in the UAE, has been awarded an A rating by the Dubai SME Rating Framework. An extension of the SME100 awards, the system provides a comprehensive assessment of SMEs overall performance based on financial and operational criteria.The rating provides an independent assessment of SMEs that generate innovative ideas and create career opportunities, with the objective of increasing market productivity in the Emirates. Dubai Economic Department estimates that SMEs make up 95 per cent of the approximately 200,000 firms registered with it, which produce 40 per cent of its GDP.We are focused on empowering individuals through outstanding learning and strive to positively impact the lives of our learners. Founded in Dubai and grown internationally, our A rating is the recognition of our position as a key contributor to the language education community. Our bespoke solutions for regional learners with international aspirations are the result of our tireless dedication to the prosperity of the UAE, said Romina Mahtani, CEO at Eton Institute.Eton Institute has been recognized based on key areas of strength and improvement: Business Performance, Innovation, Corporate Governance and Excellence, International Expansion and Corporate Social Responsibility.To know more about our initiatives that provide world-class learning solutions, please visitEton Institute operates with the understanding that languages, communication and culture are fundamental to the human experience and necessary for individuals' and organizations' future success. Offering solutions in over 160 Languages since 2006, it has helped thousands of individuals and companies resolve communication challenges through customized solutions, with operations in the UAE, UK, USA, Hong Kong and India.Eton Institute has developed unique, proven engagement methodologies and techniques, and is proud to be associated with top international organizations, to successfully connect people and global businesses to opportunity.Eton Institute is an Approved Center for the delivery of Cambridge Exams, TOEIC, DELE, OSD, CILS and a test venue for the IELTS exam. Additionally, all language courses offered by Eton Institute are EAQUALS-accredited and meet Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) standards set by Council of Europe.PO Box 502499, Dubai Knowledge Park, Dubai, UAE
Global Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017

http://www.qyresearchglobal.com/

http://www.qyresearchglobal.com/

http:///www.qyresearcheurope.com/

http://www.qyresearchjapan.com/

SummaryThe Global Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Shirting Apparel Fabrics industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Shirting Apparel Fabrics market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Shirting Apparel Fabrics industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):Veratex LiningSarvoday TextilesRughani BrothersBombay Rayon Fashions Ltd.Tuni TextilesGinitexGhatte BrothersLutaiYoungorLianfaXinleDingshunALBINIALUMOMONTITESTAS.I.CAcorn FabricsKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Shirting Apparel Fabrics by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Shirting Apparel Fabrics by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Shirting Apparel Fabrics by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Shirting Apparel FabricsChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017India Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017China Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Shirting Apparel Fabrics Industry Market Research Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact meHebe | Sr. Manager  Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86-20-22093278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20-22093278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) |(JP)
Global Asphalt Plants Market Research Report- Segment, outlook, By Region, Forecast 2022

Asphalt Plants Market

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The Asphalt Plants Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Asphalt Plants industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.This report studies the Asphalt Plants market, Asphalt Plants is Asphalt Plants also known as Asphalt Mixing Plant is the plant that is used for mixing warm aggregate, soft materials & asphalt for similar mixture at the required temperature. It is used for construction of highway & city road.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Asphalt Plants in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Buy the complete Asphalt Plants report with Comprehensive table of contents @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSanyRoadyTietuo MachineryXRMCXinhaiLiaoyang Road Construction MachineryYalongLudaMARINIAmmannHuatong KineticsNikkoNFLGD&G MachinerySoutheast Construction MachineryYimaZoomlionJilin Road Construction MachineryLintecMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversBelow 30003000-4000Above 4000Market Segment by Applications, can be divided intoRoad ConstructionOther ApplicationInquire for discount for this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Asphalt Plants market.Chapter 1, to describe Asphalt Plants Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Asphalt Plants, with sales, revenue, and price of Asphalt Plants, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Asphalt Plants, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Asphalt Plants market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Asphalt Plants sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourcePartial list of Tables and Figures for this report include:Figure Egypt Asphalt Plants Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Saudi Arabia Asphalt Plants Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure South Africa Asphalt Plants Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Nigeria Asphalt Plants Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Table Sany Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and CompetitorsTable Sany Asphalt Plants Type and ApplicationsTable Sany Asphalt Plants Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Table Roady Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and CompetitorsTable Roady Asphalt Plants Type and ApplicationsTable Roady Asphalt Plants Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Table Tietuo Machinery Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and CompetitorsTable Tietuo Machinery Asphalt Plants Type and ApplicationsTable Tietuo Machinery Asphalt Plants Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)About Us:eMarketOrg.com aims to provide businesses and organizations market intelligence products and services that help in making smart, instant and crucial decisions. Our database offers access to insights from industry leaders, experts and influencers on global and regional sectors, market trends, user behaviour, for companies as well as products. With data and information from reputable and trusted private and public sources, our clients are never short of statistics and analysis that are up to date.Contact Details:Ronald Aldensales@emarketorg.cominfo@emarketorg.comeMarketOrg.com aims to provide businesses and organizations market intelligence products and services that help in making smart, instant and crucial decisions. Our database offers access to insights from industry leaders, experts and influencers on global and regional sectors, market trends, user behaviour, for companies as well as products. With data and information from reputable and trusted private and public sources, our clients are never short of statistics and analysis that are up to date.Starting with market research reports, eMarketOrg.com plans to add conferences, knowledge products, which can be periodically subscribed to, and more to its range of business offerings. Spread across the globe, our network of partners, in collaboration with our service specialists, ensure that our clients receive the right product, service and/or solution that meet their requirements in convenient timelines and within comfortable budgets that neither go underutilized nor dig a big hole into their monthly, quarterly and/or yearly spends.Get in touch with us to experience a new one-stop market intelligence and business service.F/3, 4A Bharat Pushpa Apt.,Subhash Nagar, Shukrawar Peth,Pune  411002
Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022

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This report studies the global Preventive Vaccine market, analyzes and researches the Preventive Vaccine development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeMerck & Co.GlaxoSmithKlineSanofiPfizerEmergent BioSolutionsTakedaAstellas PharmaAstraZenecaMitsubishi TanabeFill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Preventive Vaccine can be split intoLive, Attenuated VaccinesInactivated VaccinesSubunit VaccinesToxoid VaccinesConjugate VaccinesDna VaccinesRecombinant Vector VaccinesMarket segment by Application, Preventive Vaccine can be split intoPediatric VaccineAdult VaccineRead Comprehensive Overview of Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Preventive Vaccine Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Preventive Vaccine1.1 Preventive Vaccine Market Overview1.1.1 Preventive Vaccine Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.3 Preventive Vaccine Market by Type1.3.1 Live, Attenuated Vaccines1.3.2 Inactivated Vaccines2 Global Preventive Vaccine Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/ICT Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Merck & Co.3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, ICTs and Solutions3.1.4 Preventive Vaccine Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 GlaxoSmithKline3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview4 Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Preventive Vaccine in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Preventive Vaccine5 United States Preventive Vaccine Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Preventive Vaccine Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Preventive Vaccine Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Preventive Vaccine Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Preventive Vaccine Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Preventive Vaccine Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Preventive Vaccine Product ScopeFigure Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Preventive Vaccine Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Preventive Vaccine Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:
Global RFID Printer Market Become Dominant At CAGR Of 4.91% Till Year 2021

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Market research report on: Global RFID Printer Market | Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, ForecastsRadio-frequency identification (RFID) technology uses the electromagnetic signature that accompanies the radio frequency in a specific spectrum to communicate information, which is mostly one way. This process is carried out by RFID printers, RFID microchips (RFID tags), RFID readers, and RFID middleware components. The RFID label printer/encoder is used to print labels that have information such as a unique ID or an electronic product code (EPC), and labels are marked with a barcode and human-readable text by the printers.Technavios analysts forecast the global RFID printer market to grow at a CAGR of 4.91% during the period 2017-2021.Request For Sample Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global RFID printer market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated by RFID printers.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavios report, Global RFID Printer Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Key vendorsAvery DennisonHoneywell InternationalPrimera TechnologyPrintronixSATO AmericaZebra TechnologiesMarket driverIncreasing demand for better inventory management systemsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHigh cost of RFID solutionsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportView Sample PDF @Market trendRapid technological advancesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Semiconductor Advanced Packaging Market Booming At CAGR Of 8.45% Between 2017-2021

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Market research report on: Global Semiconductor Advanced Packaging Market : Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, ForecastsSemiconductor packaging is carried out to provide protection to the wafer or substrate. The casing (package) is built from materials such as plastic, metal, glass, or ceramic and contains one or more semiconductor electronic components. Semiconductor advanced packaging is a key component of the semiconductor manufacturing process. The package of a semiconductor device is usually made of materials such as plastic, metal, ceramic/glass. Packaging is undertaken to provide protection against impact and corrosion. It also has contact pins or leads used to connect external circuits to the device; the package also dissipates the heat produced in the device. Some of the advanced packaging technologies used in semiconductor device packaging are fan-out wafer-level packaging (FO WLP), flip-chip, fan-in wafer-level packaging (FI WLP), and 2.5D/3D.Technavios analysts forecast the global semiconductor advanced packaging market to grow at a CAGR of 8.45% during the period 2017-2021.Request For Sample Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global semiconductor advanced packaging market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sale of semiconductor capital equipment to end-use segments.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavios report, Global Semiconductor Advanced Packaging Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Key vendorsAdvanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE)Amkor TechnologySamsung Semiconductor (SAMSUNG)TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company)Other prominent vendorsChina Wafer Level CSPChipMOS TECHNOLOGIESFlipChip InternationalHANA MicronInterconnect Systems (Molex)Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET)King Yuan ElectronicsTongfu MicroelectronicsNepesPowertech Technology (PTI)SIGNETICSTianshui HuatianUltratechUTACMarket driverComplex semiconductor IC designsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportView Sample PDF @Market challengeRapid technological changesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendChanges in wafer sizeFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017

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The 3D Cameras and Sensors Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the 3D Cameras and Sensors industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The 3D Cameras and Sensors market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the 3D Cameras and Sensors industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.EMEA 3D Cameras and Sensors market competition by top manufacturers/players, with 3D Cameras and Sensors sales volume (K MT), price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingIntelARMNVIDIACEVALeap MotionThalmic LabsZ-LASERTyzxSICK, Inc.GoogleMicrosoftFacebookBaslerMESA ImagingStemmer ImagingPoint GreyCognexNational InstrumentsAllied VisionShapeGrabberMobileyeAutolivMercedes-BenzVizrtPerceptron.....Ask a complete & professional report sample, please send message to tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 3D Cameras and Sensors Overview2 EMEA 3D Cameras and Sensors Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application3 Europe 3D Cameras and Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application4 Middle East 3D Cameras and Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application5 Africa 3D Cameras and Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application6 EMEA 3D Cameras and Sensors Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data7 3D Cameras and Sensors Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders10 Market Effect Factors Analysis11 EMEA 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Forecast (2017-2022)12 Research Findings and Conclusion13 AppendixRelated Reports:Global 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017Europe 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017China 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017Japan 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017USA 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017Korea 3D Cameras and Sensors Market Report 2017Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersEmail: tinaning@qyresearch.com Tel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Web:QYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe District
PLATTSMOUTH  A Weeping Water resident will spend four years on probation for fraudulently obtaining state benefits totaling more than $7,700.

Alisha M. Ridge, 31, appeared in Cass County District Court on Monday morning for a sentencing hearing. She had pled guilty in June to one Class IV felony charge of obtaining public services unlawfully. The state dismissed a second similar charge as part of her plea bargain.

Ridge had applied for money from Medicaid and the Nebraska Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at various points from April to December 2016. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services provided Ridge with $7,771.17 through the two programs.

Applicants for SNAP and Medicaid must fill out a range of paperwork with information proving they are truly in need of financial assistance. The programs help low-income residents purchase food and other items for themselves and others in their households.

Deputy County Attorney Steven Sunde told the court in June that Ridge had lied about the amount of income her household was receiving. He said Ridge wrote on the forms that her husband was unemployed and that he did not live at home. Sunde said investigators discovered Ridges husband was employed at a local business and did live with the family.

Sunde told the court Monday that he had spoken with Ridge about her ability to repay the $7,771.17. He said she informed him that she would be able to fulfill that commitment over a four-year span.

Judge Michael Smith ordered Ridge to serve 48 months of probation. She must pay a minimum of $162 per month to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. She must also follow all other terms of a traditional probation sentence.
Strip Pack Market : Latest Innovations, Drivers and Industry Key Events 2017 - 2027

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In the course of recent years, there has been a sharp ascent in the interest for strip packs from the pharmaceutical companies. These packs are exceptionally received over the business attributable to their benefits such as toughness, tamper proof, protection against environmental factors, and inexpensive. Strip packs which are opaque in nature protects the object from UV radiations of the sun. Strip packs also increases the shelf life of the product by creating a barrier for oxygen and moisture due to multiple layers. Furthermore, the light weight of strip packs are also creating advantages for the market. Strip packs also reduces the spillage of the product, provides the feature of anti-counterfeiting, easy to open and improves the recognition of the brand. All these trends are the key factors for creating growth opportunities for strip packs market.Global Strip Pack - Market Dynamics:Global strip pack market is growing at a significant rate over the forecast period 2017-2025. The market for strip pack is basically driven by the expanding pharmaceutical industry as they are primarily used for packaging of tablets, pills and capsules. Strip packs are also gaining traction between the pharmaceutical packaging manufacturers due to the property of anti-counterfeiting. In addition, the market for strip packs are also accelerating due to various value added features such as cost effective and affordable packaging solution. Furthermore, strip packs are also available in customized packaging solution for different customers. The rising demand for light weight packaging solutions for pharmaceutical products are also one of the factors which are positively increasing the demand in strip packs market. Nevertheless, the arrival of bio based plastics are opening new opportunities for companies which are manufacturing strip packs. Moreover, the market for strip pack is restricted due to unsuitability of strip pack for heavy products. Digital printing on strip packs is a key trend prevailing in the global strip pack market and is expected to contribute to the overall market growth.Request Report Sample@Global Strip Pack - Market Segmentation:The global strip pack market can be segmented by the material type, by product type, by capacity, and by end user base.On the basis of material type, the global strip pack market is segmented into -PlasticPolyethylene Terephthalate (PET)Polyethylene (PE)Polypropylene (PP)OthersAluminumPaperOthersOn the basis of end user base, the global strip pack market is segmented into -MedicinesNutraceuticalsPowder & granulesFoodOthersGlobal Strip Pack Market  Regional Overview:The global strip pack market can be divided into seven major regions which are as follows -North AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding JapanMiddle East & AfricaJapanThe market for strip pack in North America region is expected to remain supreme due to high growth in the food & beverages market as compared to other markets in the region. North America is also represented by consumers who are willing to pay for convenient packaging. APEJ region is represented by economies such as India and China who are expected to witness considerable growth in terms of market revenue due to extensive developments in the food & beverage as well as pharmaceutical industry. The growth is expected to be driven by an increasing middle class population and rising disposable income of individuals in the region. Europe is expected to witness moderate growth during the forecast period with Germany, France, Italy, and the U.K. ranking high regarding demand for Strip pack packaging market. Latin America is expected to witness sluggish growth during the forecast period due to economic downturns.Visit For TOC@Global Strip Pack Market  Key players:Few of the key players in the strip pack market are Constantia Flexibles Group GmbH, Amcor Ltd., Wasdell Packaging Limited, Bemis Company, Inc., Mikart, Inc., ACG Pharmapack Private Limited, Svam Packaging Industries Pvt. Ltd., etc.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:
Tetrahedron Carton Market : Recent Industry Trends and Projected Industry Growth, 2017 - 2027

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In recent years, food and beverage packaging has been a major business segment in packaging industry. As a result of this demand for various packaging solutions for beverage are getting popularity. Similar such beverage packaging segment is aseptic packaging technology which have seen a tremendous growth in recent years. Due to convenience, tetrahedron carton for aseptic packaging have come into presence with a good success rates in terms of volume for beverage packaging. Tetrahedron carton contains several layers of packaging material which protects the product from various problems such as decaying of product, contamination, light, etc. and increases the shelf life of the product to a certain extent. Tetrahedron carton are advance packaging solutions which helps the product to sustain for several months without refrigeration. Due to all these above features, the market for tetrahedron carton is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period 2017-2027.Global Tetrahedron Carton - Market Dynamics:Growing demand from food industry during the forecast period and rising awareness about ready-to-eat processed foods without preservatives is expected to increase the demand for tetrahedron carton in next few years. Developing countries constitute the maximum rise in demand for such products while developed countries are already benefiting from these products from the last few years. Tetrahedron carton also offers manufacturers the freedom to produce different decor, shapes, and sizes of packages, thereby attracting the end use customers for their products not just nutritionally but aesthetically as well. Tetrahedron carton are an excellent substitute for these traditional products; as these (tetrahedron carton packages) not only impart extra shelf-life to the product, but are also environmentally safer as compared to PET and glass bottles used for packaging. Presently, the market for tetrahedron carton is highly polarized due to the uniqueness of the product supplied by the existing few manufacturers. Any new company planning to venture into tetrahedron carton market would require to focus on value addition through product differentiation. Economies of scale would be another key challenge for a company to remain competitive in the market for tetrahedron carton.Request Report Sample@Global Tetrahedron Carton - Market Segmentation:The global tetrahedron carton market can be segmented by the material type, by capacity, and by end user base.On the basis of material type, the global tetrahedron carton market is segmented into:PlasticPolyethylene (PE)Ethyl Vinyl Alcohol (EVOH)OthersPaperboardAluminumOn the basis of capacity, the global tetrahedron carton market is segmented into:50 ml to 150 ml150 ml to 250 ml250 ml to 500 ml500 ml & AboveOn the basis of end user base, the global tetrahedron carton market is segmented into:Food & BeveragesPharmaceuticalsDairy ProductsOthersGlobal Tetrahedron Carton  Regional Overview:The global tetrahedron carton market can be divided into seven major regions which are as follows:North AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding JapanMiddle East & AfricaJapanThe market for tetrahedron carton is expected to be dominate by North America in terms of volume due to high demand for aseptic packaging for beverage industry in these region. Europe region would also expect to witness a higher growth for tetrahedron carton market over the forecast period 2017-2025. The market in Asia-Pacific region for tetrahedron carton is expected to have the highest growth due to the expansion of food and beverage industry in these regions. Furthermore, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa region are expected to witness relatively slower growth over the forecast period for tetrahedron carton market.Visit For TOC@Global Tetrahedron Carton Key players:Few of the key players in the tetrahedron carton market are Tetra Pak International S.A., Sig Holding AG, Greatview Aseptic Packaging Co., Ltd., Elopak AS, Molopak Ooo, IPI srl; a subsidiary of Coesia S.p.A., Uflex Ltd, Caraustar Industries, Inc., etc.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:
Global Development Market Study on Polyphthalamide: Carbon Fiber Filled Product Type Segment Forecast to Witness Relatively High Growth Rates Through 2024

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"Global Market Study on Polyphthalamide: Carbon Fiber Filled Product Type Segment Forecast to Witness Relatively High Growth Rates Through 2024" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-Persistence Market Research analyzes the global polyphthalamide market in a new publication titled Polyphthalamide Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 20162024. The core objective of the report is to present insights on various advancements and dynamics impacting the global polyphthalamide market. To provide a better understanding of the market, the report also includes the analysis of regional value chain, drivers, restrains, opportunities, and regional trends, which are expected to influence the current market scenario and future status of the global polyphthalamide market over the forecast period (20162024).Get Sample Report With TOC @To understand and assess market opportunities and trends, the global polyphthalamide market report is categorically split into different sections based on market segmentation by product type, by end-use industry, and by region. The report starts with the market overview and provides a market definition and analysis about region-wise value chain and pricing, drivers, restraints, and opportunities in the global polyphthalamide market. The sections that follow include global polyphthalamide market analysis by product type, end-use industry, and regional/country level analysis. All the above sections evaluate the market on the basis of various factors affecting the market. Each section discusses the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the global polyphthalamide market. To give a brief idea about revenue opportunities for the product type, end-use industry, and region/country-wise segments, the report also provides volume (KT) data, absolute $ opportunity, and total incremental opportunity for each segment over the forecast period (2016-2024).Global polyphthalamide market segmentationBy Product TypeGlass Fiber FilledCarbon Fiber FilledMineral Fiber FilledUnfilledBy End-use IndustryAutomotive & TransportationElectricals & ElectronicsIndustry EquipmentConsumer & Personal CareOthers (Oil & Gas, Packaging etc.)By RegionNorth AmericaLatin AmericaAsia Pacific (APAC)EuropeMiddle East & Africa (MEA)In the final section of the report, a competitive landscape has been included to provide report audiences with a dashboard view of market players operating in the global market. Detailed profiles of manufacturers are also included within the scope of the report to evaluate their long- and short-term strategies, key offerings and recent developments in the global polyphthalamide market.Research methodologyFor market data analysis, we have considered 2015 as the base year, with market numbers estimated for 2016 and forecast made for the period 20172024. To calculate market size, the report considers the weighted average price of polyphthalamide, based on different product grades such as glass fiber filled, carbon fiber filled, mineral fiber filled, and unfilled, across key geographies on a regional basis. The forecast assesses the total revenue as well as volume (KT) of the global polyphthalamide market; for deducing the market size, sales of polyphthalamide compounded with filler material have been considered. In order to provide an accurate forecast, we have started by sizing up the current market, which forms the basis of how the global polyphthalamide market is expected to develop in the future. Critical market data, including the base number and segment splits, has been devised through in-depth secondary research. This data is then triangulated on the basis of different verticals, considering both supply side and demand side drivers and other dynamics of the various regional markets, along with primary interviews of manufacturers and industry experts operating in the global polyphthalamide market.Given the ever-fluctuating nature of the global economy, we not only conduct forecasts in terms of CAGR, but also analyze the market based on key parameters such as year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth rate to understand the market predictability and identify the right opportunities across the global polyphthalamide market. We have also analyzed the different segments of the global polyphthalamide market in terms of basis point share (BPS) to understand the individual segments relative contribution to market growth. This detailed level of information is important for identifying key trends governing the global polyphthalamide market.Another key feature of this report is the analysis of all segments in terms of absolute dollar opportunity. This is usually overlooked while forecasting the market. However, absolute dollar opportunity is critical in assessing the level of opportunity that a provider can look to achieve, as well as identify potential resources from a sales and delivery perspective in the polyphthalamide market. In addition to this, for assessing the key market segments in terms of growth, market potential, and adoption of polyphthalamide across the concerned regions, Persistence Market Research has developed a market attractiveness index, which will help the report audiences to identify real market opportunities in the global polyphthalamide market.Analyst SpeakThe adoption of light weight vehicle technology has increased across the globe. Polyphthalamide is the substitute for metal. Metals are heavier and are no more preferred for use in the automotive sector. Globally, polyphthalamide can be seen as a substitute for metal replacement in the automotive sector, which will help reduce the weight of vehicles. Germany is ahead in using polyphthalamide in its automotive sector. As polyphthalamide is high heat resistant, it is used in the manufacturing of housing parts particularly in the Asia Pacific region.Full Report @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Global Assembly-Line Robots Development Market 2016-2020

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"Global Assembly-Line Robots Market 2016-2020" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-Market outlook for the global assembly line robots marketTechnavios research analyst predicts the global assembly line robots market to grow steadily at a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period. The need for flexibility in plant operations is one of the primary drivers of the market. As most industries now serve their customers 24/7, employees are required to work round the clock. The adoption of robots has reduced the employee workload drastically. Monotonous jobs such as assembling are now carried out by robots in the production line with high productivity and consistent quality. With the use of robots, employees can focus more on supervising and decision-making roles. The use of collaborative robots has helped the automotive industry to a great extent. For example, BMW introduced collaborative robots in its human production lines in September 2013.Get Sample Report With TOC @The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that include contract manufacturers of auto components and machine tools are reluctant in making heavy investments on robots, but this trend is witnessing a change owing to the challenges they face in handling manual labor. This has led them to increasingly adopt collaborative robots that are easy and safe to operate on the assembly lines. For instance, Rethink robots offer robotics solutions for small industries starting at $25,000.End-user segmentation and analysis of the global assembly line robots marketAutomotiveNon-automotiveThe automotive segment accounted for nearly half of the assembly line robots market demand owing to their increased application in assembling heavy components like chassis, powertrain, and so on. All major companies such as BMW, Ford, and GM have adopted assembly line robots in their production lines to enhance and improve their production efficiency and to maintain consistent quality of their finished products.Geographical segmentation and analysis of the global assembly line robots marketAmericasAPACEMEAAPAC accounted for nearly 62% of the overall assembly line robots market in 2015 but the fastest growth is expected to be seen from EMEA during the forecast period. This rapid growth in EMEA can be attributed to the monetary stimulus package announced by the European Central Bank and investments that are planned by the automotive majors in the region.Competitive landscape and key vendorsThe assembly line robots market is facing stiff competition due to innovations in products and marketing strategies. Also, all major vendors are focusing on providing complete industrial robotic solutions. They are developing innovative technologies to provide better support services and superior quality robots enabled with IoT services. Technavios analysts expect the competitive environment in this market to intensify further with an increase in R&D investments and M&A during the forecast period.The leading vendors in the market are -ABBFanucKUKAYaskawaOther prominent vendors in the market include Apex Automation and Robotics, Denso Robotics, Epson Robotics, Kawasaki Robotics, Mitsubishi Electric, Nachi Robotic Systems, Rethink Robotics, TM Robotics, and Universal Robots.Key questions answered in the report includeWhat will the market size and the growth rate be in 2020?What are the key factors driving the global assembly line robots market?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the global assembly line robots market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global assembly line robots market?Trending factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, and EMEA?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the global assembly line robots market?Technavio also offers customization on reports based on specific client requirement.Full Report @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Macadamia Market : Segmentation, Industry trends and Development to 2026

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Macadamia nut was introduced in the early 1960s to the Kenyan highlands from Australia. Macadamia is a member of the family Proteaceae, native to Australia. Australia and Hawaii are the major producing areas of macadamia with others including eastern and southern Africa, and Central and Latin America. Several species of macadamia exist in Australia but only two species such as M. tetraphylla and Macadamia integrifolia and their hybrids are grown commercially. Production of macadamia nuts in Australia is mainly in eastern shore of Australia (northern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland). Currently, Hawaii is the largest producer of global macadamia, accounting for around 70 percent of total macadamia production worldwide followed by Australia, around 22 percent, rest is produced by other countries including Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Guatemala, Mexico, California, Costa Rica, Brazil, New Zealand and China.Tree nuts include almond, cashew, hazelnut, pistachio, walnut, macadamia, and pecan. Currently, macadamia accounts for around only one percent among all the tree nuts available across the globe. Almond nut dominates the nut segment, accounting for around 34 percent. Increasing health claims for macadamia have witnessed a surge in recent years, which if succeeded is expected to increase the consumption of macadamia nuts among consumers.Request Report Sample@Global Macadamia Market Segmentation:On the basis of application the global macadamia market is broadly segmented into food industry, and cosmetics industry. In food industry macadamia is widely used in confectionaries including chocolate bar, chocolate covered candy, ice cream and other baking products. In cosmetics industry it is used in shampoos, sunscreens, soaps and others.Geographically, global macadamia market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Currently, North America and Western Europe account for major market share for macadamia however, Asia Pacific excluding Japan is expected to grow significantly in the forecasted years.Global Macadamia Market Dynamics:Owing to increasing variety of applications of macadamia, various workshop are taking places in order to increase the international trade for macadamia and since capitalise the growing demand for macadamia. Adoption of macadamia in chocolate and ice cream among consumers is expected to drive the demand for global macadamia in the near future. The biggest restraint for macadamia market is increasing crop losses due to immature nuts and moldy / rotten nuts. The crop losses due to these type of nuts accounts for around 50 percent of the total macadamia wastage globally. Thereby, reducing inclination of crop growers for macadamia and thus, hampering the market growth.There is a high opportunity to increase the market share of macadamia in terms of revenue across countries such as Mexico, China, South Africa and others. Companies are investing in these countries through promotional activities in order to increase the footprint of macadamia worldwide.Visit For TOC@Global Macadamia Market Key Players:Some of the key players operating in the global macadamia market are Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp., Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company, MacFarms, Wondaree Macadamias, NAMBUCCA MACNUTS Pty Ltd, Golden Macadamias, Royal Macadamia (Pty) Ltd., Kenya Nut Company Ltd. and MWT Foods Australia.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:
Anesthesia Vaporizers Market Research Report by Key Player Analysis 2025

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Anesthesia is a medical term that means insensitivity to pain. Anesthesia is widely used during surgical procedures to bring unconsciousness to patients. Anesthesia vaporizers are devices that convert liquid inhalation agents into vapors. This vapor and oxygen are collectively delivered to the patient via inhalation route, primarily during pre-surgical procedures. An anesthesia delivery system typically consists of a machine that contains a breathing circuit. The necessity of these devices depends on the type of surgery performed. The concentration of dose differs in every case.With advancements in surgical procedures and technological improvements, the average life expectancy of individuals has increased significantly. Rise in the geriatric population worldwide is amongst the important drivers of the global anesthesia vaporizers market. The reasons behind them are, the geriatric population is highly prone to the degenerative diseases, infections and chronic illnesses which ultimately results in an increased in incidences of surgeries and therapeutics, as ageing peoples lacks immunity to fight against them. This requires continuous monitoring, which propels the global anesthesia vaporizers market. Newly developed anesthesia vaporizer devices come with an advanced decision-support system (DSS), which also supports the monitoring capabilities; for instance, end-tidal concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen, inhalation anesthetics, and transcutaneous oxygen saturation. These advancements provide data analysis to clinicians and surgeons, which can help them take decisions during surgical procedures or other therapeutic treatments. Consequently, a few of the side-effects involved such as cognitive disturbances and post-operative delirium related to anesthesia, primarily in elderly patients, act as restraints for the market. Rise in the cost of surgical procedures and instruments and poor reimbursement policies are also important factors likely to hamper the global anesthesia vaporizers market during the forecast period.This report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Anesthesia Vaporizers Market:The global anesthesia vaporizers market can be segmented on the basis of product, agent specificity, and end-user. Based on product, it can be segmented into plenum vaporizers and drawover vaporizers. Based on agent specificity, the anesthesia vaporizers market can be segmented into agent-specific and multiple agents. Based on end-user, the market can be segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, clinics, and nursing homes. Rise in the number of hospitals, clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, and nursing homes and the availability of advanced infrastructure are a few factors responsible for growth of the anesthesia vaporizers market. Additionally, presence of skilled personnel in hospitals has significantly fueled the anesthesia vaporizers market.Geographically, the global anesthesia vaporizers market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, Middle East & Africa. North America is a major market for anesthesia vaporizers, due to the rising number of surgeries in the region led by elevated awareness amongst surgeons about the benefits of anesthesia devices. Additionally, with widespread technological advancements and increasing competition in the market, demand for superior technological advancements for better results has been increasing. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness high growth during the forecast period, increased awareness about health care, unmet needs of the large population, rapidly developing health care network, rise in the disposable income, and favorable reimbursement policies in the region. These factors have also made the practice of advanced techniques in anesthesia monitoring easier in the region.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Anesthesia Vaporizers Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:Major players operating in the global anesthesia vaporizers market are Dragerwerk, GE Healthcare, Penlon, Meditec International England, Oricare, Spacelabs Healthcare, Beijing Siriusmed Medical Device, Baxter International, Inc., Intersurgical Limited, Medtronic, Inc., Mindray Medical International Limited, Nihon Kohden Corporation, Philips Healthcare, and Smiths Medical, Inc. New collaborative developments and new product techniques are some of the strategic initiatives taken by the companies to remain in the competition.Major players operating in the market are Biogen Idec, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene Corporation, ERYTECH Pharma, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Genzyme Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited, and Pfizer, Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
HIV-associated Lipodystrophy Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts 2017 to 2025

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Changes in body fat concentration, affecting people with HIV, is known as HIV-associated lipodystrophy. The exact causes of this condition is currently unknown, but research suggests that this disorder can occur either due to HIV infection or as a consequence of side effects associated with drugs used in HIV infection treatment, such as Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs), Protease Inhibitors (PIs), etc. The lipodystrophy condition is characterized by metabolic abnormalities, including insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. The HIV-associated lipodystrophy groups together different clinical conditions, which are lipoatrophy and lipoaccumulation. Lipoatrophy is associated with subcutaneous fat loss, whereas lipoaccumulation is the increase in visceral fat. In certain cases, HIV-associated lipodystrophy may occur as a combination of these two conditions; thus, its treatment and prevalence measurement are difficult.Obtain Report Details:The global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market is witnessing unprecedented dynamics. Several research studies are directed toward finding out the link between the two mechanisms of lipodystrophy in such a way that a single mechanism will can occur for redistribution of fat. Improving healthcare infrastructure and increasing incidence rates of HIV/AIDS patients globally are expected to drive the growth of the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market. However, lower adoption of therapeutic treatment and demand for constant nutritional supply from patients is anticipated to restrain the growth of the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market.The global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market has been segmented based on lipodystrophy type, therapeutic class, and distribution channels. On the basis of lipodystrophy type, the market has been classified into lipoatrophy and lipoaccumulation. In terms of therapeutic class, the market is divided into anabolism modulators, insulin resistance modulators, mitochondrial antioxidants (L-carnitine), and other miscellaneous metabolic agents. Anabolism modulators are further bifurcated into growth hormones and anabolic steroids. Insulin resistance modulators can be sub-segmented into metformins, thiazolidinediones, and others. Growth hormones are widely used for the treatment of HIV-associated lipodystrophy due to their efficacy. Based on distribution channels, the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market is categorized into hospital pharmacy stores, retail pharmacy stores, and online pharmacies. Hospital pharmacy stores are expected to account for higher market share due to their ease of connectivity, and trend of utilization of newly advanced products among end-users including physicians and patients.There is a lack of evidence-based strategies for the treatment of HIV-associated lipodystrophy. The treatment switch between the two lipodystrophy conditions, along with HIV drugs that possess lower mitochondrial toxicity, is an emerging trend in the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market. There is a large patient pool in emerging countries, where lower drug affordability is a major challenge for market penetration of HIV-associated lipodystrophy therapeutics. Thus, the introduction of affordable drugs by local manufacturers serves as a major opportunity in the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market. However, the other treatment options such as cosmetic surgeries also arrests the growth of the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:On the basis of geography, the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market has been divided into five regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a high CAGR owing to factors like large patient pool, increasing demand for low cost drugs, rising awareness of the treatment options for HIV-associated lipodystrophy, and adoption of better healthcare facilities. North America is projected to dominate the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market due to increasing adoption of new and technologically advanced products, high per capita health expenditure, and substantial investments in research and development for efficient treatment options.Key players in the global HIV-associated lipodystrophy market are Novelion Therapeutics Inc., Theratechnologies Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc (Viiv Healthcare Group of Companies), AbbVie Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and AstraZeneca plc, among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Single Tooth Implants and Dental Bridges Market Trends Overview, Future Analysis and Forecasts 2024

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Global Single Tooth Implants and Dental Bridges Market By Product ((Single Tooth Implants, Dental Bridges(3-unit bridges, 4-unit bridges, Cantilever bridges , Maryland bridges, Partial Bridges)), By Material (Porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM), All Ceramics and Metal Alloys), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024The single tooth implants and dental bridges market accounted to USD 3.5 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request for TOC@Single Tooth Implants and Dental Bridges Market  Market Segmentation:On the basis of product the market is segmented into single tooth implants and dental bridges. Dental bridges are further segmented into 3-unit bridges, 4-unit bridges, cantilever bridges, maryland bridges and partial bridges.By material the market is segmented into porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM), all ceramics and metal alloys.Browse Full Report with Details TOC @Based on geography, the market is segmented into five geographical regions: North America Europe Asia-Pacific South America Middle East and AfricaThe geographical regions are further segmented into 29 major countries such as U.S. Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, U.K., Belgium, Switzerland, Belgium, Turkey, Japan, China, Singapore, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa and others.Request For Sample:Some of the major players operating in this market are1. Nobel Biocare Services AG2. Zimmer Inc.3. Biomet 3i4. 3M ESPE5. Danaher Corporation6. AVINENT Implant System7. OSSTEM IMPLANT.CO., LTD.8. Institut Straumann AG9. Dentsply SironaInquiry before Buying @Related ReportGlobal Hemostats Market- Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Hemostats Market, By Product Type (Thrombin Based, Combination, Oxidized Regenerated Cellulose Based, Gelatin Based, Collagen Based Hemostat), By Indication (Wound Closure, Surgery), By End-User (Hospitals, Clinics, Ambulatory Centers, Community Healthcare, Others), By Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa)  Trends and Forecast to 2024About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Ankit SinghData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogData Bridge is an organization lead by well versed forecasters, analysts and researchers who indulge in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. Data Bridge aims to make your organization well acquainted with profound knowledge of the global and local market statistics.Office Number 317,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
Worldwide Mica Plates Market Forecasts to 2017 by Manufacturers, Region, Type and Application

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ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the Global Mica Plates Market Research Report 2017 The report focuses on global major leading players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Mica Plates in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. Global Mica Plates market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including ISOVOLTA Group, VonRoll, Pamica, Meifeng Mica, Chhaperia, Glory Mica, Nippon Rika, Spbsluda, Haiying Insulation, OKABE MICA, Electrolock, Jyoti, Cogebi, Sakti Mica and Ruby Mica.Get free sample copy of report atOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Mica Glass Plates, Mica Polyester Plates and Other. On 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 Mica Plates for each application, including Motors (Medium Voltage), Motors (High Voltage), Generator and Other.Get more information about this report atTable of Content1 Mica Plates Market Overview2 Global Mica Plates Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Mica Plates Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Mica Plates Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Mica Plates Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Mica Plates Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Mica Plates Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Mica Plates Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Mica Plates Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Mica Plates Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Mica Plates Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Mica Plates Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Mica Plates Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Mica Plates Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Mica Plates Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Mica Plates Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Mica Plates Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Mica Plates Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Mica Plates Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Mica Plates Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 ISOVOLTA Group7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Mica Plates Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 ISOVOLTA Group Mica Plates Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 VonRoll7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Mica Plates Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 VonRoll Mica Plates Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business OverviewGet discount on report purchase at8 Mica Plates Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Mica Plates Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and ConclusionContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Electrical Insulation Materials Industry Growth Analysis by Countries, Type, Application & Manufacturers Krempel, Pucaro , Elantas Electrical Insulation -Global Forecast to 2022

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A new research document with title 'Global Electrical Insulation Materials Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like North America , Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America , Middle East and Africa and important players/vendors such as Krempel, Pucaro , Elantas Electrical Insulation, 3M, Von Roll................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022SummaryThe main aim of Electrical Insulation Materials is to separate electrical conductors without passing current from one to the other and to safeguard individuals from electrically energized wires and parts. A complete knowledge of Electrical Insulation Materials and standards for safe working practices is required.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Electrical Insulation Materials in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversWeidmann (WICOR Group)DupontKrempelPucaro (ABB)Elantas Electrical Insulation3MVon RollTorayISOVOLTA AGNitto Denko CorporationSichuan EM TechnologyAxalta (The Carlyle Group)Suzhou JufengSuzhou TaihuZhejiang RongtaiMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversElectrical Insulating Resins & CoatingsElectrical Laminates and Moulded ProductsFilm and Composite MaterialsMica ProductsPrepregs and Impregnating Insulation MaterialsElectrical PlasticsOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoElectricity PowerElectrical and ElectronicsMotorAerospaceNew EnergyOthersBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Electrical Insulation Materials market.Chapter 1, to describe Electrical Insulation Materials Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Electrical Insulation Materials, with sales, revenue, and price of Electrical Insulation Materials, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Electrical Insulation Materials, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Electrical Insulation Materials market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Electrical Insulation Materials sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet customization & check discount for report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Electrical Insulation Materials Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Electrical Insulating Resins & Coatings1.2.2 Electrical Laminates and Moulded Products1.2.3 Film and Composite Materials1.2.4 Mica Products1.2.5 Prepregs and Impregnating Insulation Materials1.2.6 Electrical Plastics1.2.7 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Electricity Power1.3.2 Electrical and Electronics1.3.3 Motor1.3.4 Aerospace1.3.5 New Energy1.3.6 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....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
PLATTSMOUTH  A former Plattsmouth resident will spend time in the Nebraska Department of Corrections for violating her probation with a new drug offense.

Cheri A. Gehrke, 31, appeared in Cass County District Court on Monday morning for four hearings. Gehrke, who now lives in Bellevue, came before the court for an arraignment on a new charge and a time-pay agreement in a second case. She also appeared for sentencing hearings on a probation violation and a drug conviction. She pled guilty to one Class IV felony charge of possession of controlled substance-methamphetamine earlier this year.

Gehrkes legal issues began in 2016 when she pled guilty to one Class IV felony count of unlawfully obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. The federal SNAP program helps low-income residents purchase food for themselves and others in their households.

Gehrke had falsely reported on her SNAP application that a child was living with her in Plattsmouth in 2015. The child was residing with another person in Florida at the time. Gehrke received $1,680 in SNAP benefits for the child based on her false statement.

Gehrke was sentenced to 48 months of probation in October 2016. She had repaid $540 of the total restitution amount of $1,680 at the time of that hearing. The court ordered her to pay the remaining $1,140 of restitution. Gehrke was also ordered to obtain a chemical dependency evaluation within 30 days and abstain from all drugs and alcohol.

Deputy County Attorney Richard Fedde said Monday that Gehrke had not complied with many of her probation terms. Plattsmouth police arrested her Dec. 3 for possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arrested a second time in Cass County on Jan. 27 for possession of methamphetamine. She pled guilty to that charge earlier this year.

Fedde said Gehrke had been enrolled in a pre-trial services program in Sarpy County earlier this summer. She was arrested June 10 for allegedly possessing methamphetamine. She pled not guilty to that new charge during an arraignment hearing at the beginning of Mondays court proceedings.

Cass County probation officers learned in late July that Gehrke had been removed from a treatment program in Bellevue. The report from the treatment programs director said Gehrke had repeatedly left the on-campus facility when she was not supposed to.

Gehrke was transported to Cass County Jail on Aug. 4. Her enrollment in the pre-trial services program was terminated at a Cass County Court hearing on Aug. 8.

Fedde told the court the state was recommending a statutory sentence because of Gehrkes criminal history. He said she had been charged in 2008 with writing a bad check and received jail time in 2013 on a theft by deception charge. She had also been charged with theft in both 2010 and 2016. Her probation was revoked once in 2010 and she had not completed terms of her most recent probation.

Shes been given more than enough chances and shes not taken advantage of any of them, Fedde said.

Defense attorney Julie Bear said Gehrke had been struggling with substance abuse issues over the past year. She asked the court to place her client on an intensive form of probation that would deal specifically with drug addiction. She said that would help Gehrke achieve her goal of becoming sober through a new treatment program.

Judge Michael Smith told Gehrke he would issue a prison sentence because he did not feel she could safely and effectively be supervised on probation. He ordered Gehrke to serve one to three years in the Nebraska Department of Corrections for the probation violation. He also issued a sentence of one to two years in state prison for the Jan. 27 methamphetamine conviction. Gehrke will serve both sentences at the same time.
Biotech Flavors Market : Key Growth Factors and Industry Analysis | 2025

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According to a research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global biotech flavor market is highly consolidated and competitive in nature, with Naturex occupying the dominant position. The leading companies in this market mostly rely on mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships to improve their visibility and the trend is likely to continue over the forthcoming years, increasing the competition between the players, reports the research study.This 251 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Biotech Flavors Market. Browse through to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market @As per the report, the global market for biotech flavors, which stood at US$430.6 mn in 2015, is expected to proliferate at a CAGR of 9.70% during the period from 2016 to 2024, increasing the opportunity in this market to US$991.0 mn by the end of the forecast period. The market is projected to touch 23,980.3 tons in terms of volume over the same period of time. The demand for biotech flavors is higher in beverages compared to other end-use segments. On account of the surging consumption of flavored beverages, globally, analysts predict this segment to continue as the leading end user of biotech flavors over the period of the forecast.North America to Lead Market; Asia Pacific to Report High-paced GrowthThe research report further evaluates the worldwide market for biotech flavors on the basis of its regional classification. The Middle East and Africa, North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and is led by North America, thanks to the high awareness among consumers regarding the benefits of biotech flavors. In 2015, the regional market, followed by Europe, acquired a share of more than 32% in the overall market. Researchers anticipate the North America market for biotech flavors to retain its leadership over the forthcoming years.On the other hand, Asia Pacific is anticipated to exhibit a high-paced growth in its market for biotech flavors in the near future, thanks to the strong demand for biotech flavors from emerging economies, such as China and India. The health and wellness trend is also expected to support the growth of the Asia Pacific biotech flavor market and prompt manufacturers to apply innovative strategies across the supply chain to ensure wide availability of biotech flavors for consumers over the years to come. Apart from this, the increasing demand for beverages in this region is expected to create vital opportunities for the players in the global market.Rising Awareness among Consumers to Boost Growth of Global Biotech Flavor MarketThe rising health consciousness among consumers has augmented the demand for natural ingredients and biotech-based flavors in food products and beverages, which, resultantly, is boosting the global biotech flavor market, says a TMR analyst. The growing awareness among consumers in developed economies concerning the negative impact of artificially-produced food flavors and the increased knowledge of consumers pertaining to the nutritional advantages of biotech flavors is projected to propel this market in the years to come.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Biotech Flavors Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @Although the future of the worldwide biotech flavor market looks thriving, the low shelf-life of biotech flavors and issues related to their stability may hinder the growth of this market in the near future, states the research report.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Instant Coffee Market Growth, Share, Demand and Analysis of Key Players to 2025

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According to a new research study by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global instant coffee market demonstrates a highly consolidated competitive landscape. In 2016, the top five players, namely, Nestle S.A., Starbucks Corp., Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Unilever Plc., and Tata Global Beverages, collectively accounted for more than 90% of the overall market.This 139 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Instant Coffee Market. Browse through to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market @Over the coming years, the market is likely to witness a substantial increase in the rivalry between the leading participants, fueled by their rising involvement into mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships for their geographical expansion and better visibility, states the report.As per TMRs estimations, the overall opportunity in the global market for instant coffee was worth US$28.12 bn in 2016. Rising at a CAGR of 4.80% during the period from 2017 to 2025, the market is likely to reach US$42.5 bn by the end of the forecast period. Retail stores are the most preferred distribution channel for the sales of instant coffee and are expected to continue like this over the forthcoming years.Increase in Preference of Consumers for Instant Coffee to Ensure Asia Pacifics LeadThe research report also provides a comprehensive study of the geographical spread of the worldwide market for instant coffee. Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, Western Europe, and the Rest of the Europe have been considered as the key geographical segments of this market in this study. In 2016, Asia Pacific dominated the global market with a share of nearly 36%. Analysts expect this regional market to remain on top throughout the forecast period, thanks to the increasing preference of consumers for instant coffee, especially in China and India.The demand for instant coffee in the Rest of Europe is also increasing at a steady rate. Especially in Poland, Russia, and Bulgaria, the rate of demand is quite high and is projected to keep on increasing in the near future. Amongst others, North America, on account of a higher preference for filter coffee, is likely to experience sluggish growth in its market for instant coffee over the next few years. The Middle East and Africa, on the other hand, will show a healthy progress in the uptake of instant coffee, upgrading its market in the years to come, notes the research study.Changing Lifestyle of Consumers to Influence Demand for Instant CoffeeThe changing lifestyle of consumers, especially younger ones vigorously conforming .o western culture, is having a significant impact on the uptake of instant coffee, reflecting greatly on its sales, states the author of this research study. The shift in consumer preference from tea to coffee, particularly in emerging economies, such as India, China, Ukraine, and several Middle Eastern countries is, consequently, boosting the market for instant coffee considerably across the world.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Instant Coffee Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @Consumers, nowadays, are ever busy with their fast-paced lives and are seeking beverages that can be prepared easily in less time with no fuss. Instant coffee provides these comforts to consumers without being tough on pockets. This, as a result, has led to a rocketing demand for instant coffee across the world and the scenario is not expected to change anytime soon in the future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Fastener Industry Growth Analysis by Countries, Type, Application & Manufacturers Gem-Year, Boltun, Xingyi Fasteners, Jiaxing Brother -Global Forecast to 2022

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A new research document with title 'Global Fastener Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like North America , Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America , Middle East and Africa and important players/vendors such as Gem-Year, Boltun, Xingyi Fasteners, Jiaxing Brother, Ningbo Jinding................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022SummaryA fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Welding is an example of creating permanent joints.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Fastener in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversShanghai Prime MachineryGem-YearBoltunChangshu City Standard PartsXingyi FastenersJiaxing BrotherNingbo JindingZhejiang ZhapuTianbao FastenerTong HweiRuibiaoSHBCXinxing FastenersMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversSteel TypeCooper TypeAluminum TypeOtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoAutomotive IndustryMachinery IndustryConstruction IndustryMROOthersBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Fastener market.Chapter 1, to describe Fastener Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Fastener, with sales, revenue, and price of Fastener, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Fastener, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Fastener market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Fastener sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet customization & check discount for report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Fastener Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Steel Type1.2.2 Cooper Type1.2.3 Aluminum Type1.2.4 Other1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Automotive Industry1.3.2 Machinery Industry1.3.3 Construction Industry1.3.4 MRO1.3.5 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....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.Contact Us:CRAIG FRANCIS (PR & Marketing Manager)sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218HTF 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
International Award Winning Author Wayne Clark Announces Release Of New Historical Fiction Novel, 'That Woman'

Author Wayne Clark

http://www.wayne-clark.com

While there is a tremendous amount of information available regarding slavery in the Southern United States, slavery in the Northeastern U.S. is seldom discussed. Nevertheless slavery and indentured servitude were prevalent in the Northeast, especially in New York City. CNN has featured the subject on CNNInteractive, and a recent article on the Untapped Cities website neatly summarized the history of three of the largest slave burial grounds discovered in New York City. However little has been known about the day to day lives of slaves and indentured servants who lived in the Northeastern U.S. during that time period. Until now.Author Wayne Clark has announced the release of his latest historical novel, 'That Woman'.Illness suddenly deprives 17-year-old Sarah Da Silva and her older brother Jacob of a mother. Before Sarah has come to terms with that loss, her merchant father grows frail and increasingly desperate in the face of impending bankruptcy. On a rainy night while their father scours the docks of Bordeaux, France, to make his final bid to save his family, his children are kidnapped and forced onto a ship bound for New York City where they'll be separated and sold to the highest bidder as indentured labor.Purchased by a grotesque merchant whose wealth, backed by a team of henchmen, allows him to dominate the chaotic East River docks, Sarah strikes back the only way she can. Vowing to never allow him to put his hands on her again, she presses a knife to his fat neck. She demands her freedom, a roof over her head and the means to start a business. Her leverage? Knowledge obtained on the voyage that would bring the big man to his knees forever. He yields to her demands but privately swears to become her worst nightmare.The main idea in writing the book, Clark stated, was to tell a tale of a young womans survival against all odds in the raw mans world of New York Citys East River waterfront. As I researched the history of the city in the Colonial era it soon became apparent that racism and slavery were an inseparable part of the citys history. Slaves were bought and sold daily at the foot of Wall Street.On top of that, the immigrants who populated the city, and who were the ones to eventually build the country, were often little more than slaves themselves when tethered to multi-year contracts of indentureship. I married the two situations in the deep friendship between Sarah, the protagonist, and Noah, a free black who came to her aid.Wayne Clark is also the author of 'he & She'. 'he & She' was named as one of the best self-published books for 2015 by IndieReader. 'he & She' is an in-depth, fictional exploration of the subject of male midlife crisis.'he & She' took a 5-Star Silver Medal in the Readers' Favorite International Awards. In addition, Clark was chosen as a Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards for general fiction, and was named a winner in both the 2015 and 2016 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Awards.'That Woman' has received high praise from reviewers and readers alike. Kirkus Reviews called it a "... meticulously crafted ... engrossing story". Reviewer Grady Harp said Clark, "invites us into dark places but keep the focus on the frailty and durability of our humanity. There is much to be learned here and in the quality of fine prose and drama Wayne Clark offers another solid novel."Wayne Clark is currently featured on The Authors Show and is available for media interviews. He can be reached using the information below or by email at mtl1642@videotron.ca. Both novels are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and in all other digital versions at all major online retailers. More information is available at his website.Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. Woven through that time frame in no particular order have been interludes in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Holland and Mexico.By far the biggest slice in a pie chart of his career would be labeled journalism, including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer. The other, smaller slices of the pie would also represent words in one form or another, in advertising as a copywriter and as a freelance translator. However, unquantifiable in a pie chart would be the slivers and shreds of time stolen over the years to write fiction.PO Box 1613Shallotte, NC 28459
Monday Blues?

Monday Blues 30% off sale

www.whywatches.com

www.whywatches.com

We've taken 30% off all of our navy blue strap combo watches!24 hours into this sales and things have been crazy. We haven't seen traffic like this before, which means you guys are having some serious Monday blues!Jump online now and let us cheer you up!WHY Watches is an Australian enterprise which was founded by a graduate of Architecture.WHY Watches are designed with a purposeful reason behind every decision, hence WHY. Every decision made on each watch has a story behind it, every more importantly, an architectural principal embedded into it.WHY Watches is attempting to disrupt the industry, by proving that carefully thought out designs at an affordable price point are significantly better than any cheap $7 watch which has been marketed so heavily that it retails at over $200.WHY Watches6 Fulmar WaySeville GroveWestern Australia6112AustraliaPress contact: David TomicPress contact information, same as above.Website:
Tilhill Forestry wins record number of awards at Royal Welsh Show

www.tilhill.com

www.bsw.co.uk

(Tilhill, Powys, August 2017)  Tilhill Forestry staff are delighted to have won 22 awards across different categories in the 2017 Woodlands Competition at the Royal Welsh Show.The awards, which received a record number of entries this year, saw woodlands managed by Tilhill Forestry winning six Special Prizes including the coveted ICF Challenge Trophy for the Best Professional Management in all Woodland Classes for Rhyd-y-Felin, near Bala, owned by FIM Services Ltd.The planting scheme at Clegymant Farm, near Llanbrynmair, won three Special Prizes including: The Milford Silver Medal awarded to the Best Broadleaf Entry in Stand Classes A, B and C; The DJ Owen Cash Prize awarded for the Best Farm Woodland (Managed as Part of an Agricultural Business) in Stand Class H and the RC Williams-Ellis Perpetual Challenge Cup for the privately owned woodland gaining the highest cumulative number of points for the Stand Classes entered.Cwmbran Uchaf, near Llandovery, was described as demonstrating good management practices throughout which helped win The EFG Perpetual Challenge Cup awarded for the Best Entry in Woodland Classes 1, 2, 3 and 4.The Wilson Memorial Shield was awarded to Tilhill Forestrys Simon Graham as the Forester or Manager of a privately owned woodland in Wales gaining the highest cumulative number of points for the Stand Classes entered.David Edwards, District Manager, Wales & the Marches said: We are very pleased with the success in this years awards. Its great news for our staff including Iwan Parry, Simon Graham, Alan Wilson, Sam Brown and John Ferguson and the teams who work so hard at sites across Wales and also for our clients as the awards give third party endorsement of the services they are receiving.Other awards won by Tilhill included: a Gold for Cwmbran Uchaf in the Broadleaved, Conifer and Mixed Wood or Stand of Trees Class 2 Best Managed Woodland 11 to 50 Hectares. Clegymant Farm was awarded the Silver medal in the same category.In the Best Managed Woodland 51 to 200 Hectares Gwern-y-Bwlch, near Llanbrynmair, won Gold with judges saying that continuity of management is the key to success matched by good planning. Silver in the category went to Esgair Cloddiad North, Powys, for excellent forest practice with the judges saying Tilhill should be proud of their achievements.In the Best Managed Woodland Over 200 Hectares Rhyd-y-Felin won the Gold award with the judges describing the property as a fine example of commercial forestry at its very best.In the Stand Classes Clegymant Farm won the Gold Medal in Class A (Broadleaf planting or restocking under 10 years old), while Cae Heulen, near Pant-Glas, won Class C (Broadleaf woodland over 40 years old) with Yr Allt, Llanfaelog, taking Silver. In Class D (Conifer planting or restocking under 10 years old) Tilhill Forestry scooped all three medals with the Gold being won by Esgair Cloddiad North, the Silver by Rhyd y Felin and the Bronze by Bryn Coch, Llanddewi Brefi.. In Class E (Conifer Woodland 11 to 30 years old) the Silver went to Cae Heulen. Tilhill won joint Bronze with Esgairnantau Forest. In Class H (Area managed in conjunction with Agriculture Management) Clergymant Farm won the Gold medal.Silver in this category also went to Tilhill Forestry for Dinas Forest near Llanwrtyd Wells. The judges said the whole area had a feeling of being well managed and looked after with timber production being the major focus on this fertile site.ENDSPhoto shows: From left to right: Sam Brown, John Ferguson, Simon Graham and Iwan Parry from Tilhill Forestry with Shireen Chambers of ICF in between.For further information contact Suzi Christie PR Consultant for Tilhill Forestry on 01323 449744 or e-mail suzi@blueberry-pr.co.ukTilhill Forestry, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BSW Timber Group, was established nearly 70 years ago. It is a national company operating from a network of offices throughout the UK. The company provides a full range of consultancy and contracting services to the forest owner and forestry investor. There is also a complementary soft landscaping operation. Further information is available atBSW is the most technologically advanced sawmill company in the UK employing over 1,200 people. The Companys roots date back to 1848 and, with seven sawmills in the UK and one in Latvia, has a production capacity of more than 1.2 million m3 of sawn timber which is distributed throughout construction, fencing and landscape marketsTogether, BSW and Tilhill Forestry form a strong partnership in the forest industry that will deliver quality from beginning to end - from creating new forests through to producing timber end products.2, Dane CrossHellinglyHailshamEast SussexBN27 4ES
HMS II.3: HEAD acoustics artificial head measurement system fully capable for super-wideband testing

HMS II.3: Artificial head measurement system by HEAD acoustics

In more and more applications, super-wideband technology plays an increasingly important role: The upcoming generation of VoLTE mobile phones as well as already established voice messenger systems such as SkypeTM or Apple FaceTime support super-wideband. In order to test corresponding terminals accordingly, high-performance measurement equipment is essential. With HMS II.3, HEAD acoustics provides a high-quality artificial head measurement system, comprising ear simulator and artificial mouth, which is fully capable for super-wideband testing in sending and receiving direction. In its basic version, the artificial head is equipped with an artificial mouth and with an impedance simulator in the right ear  optionally also the left ear can be equipped with an ear simulator. HMS II.3 complies with all relevant international standards.Artificial head measurement system transmits real speech equalized up to almost 20 kHzThe artificial mouth of the HMS II.3 transmits real speech equalized at least up to almost 20 kHz. Considering the frequency range of real speech signals, the mouth of the artificial head measurement system is able to play back the complete spectrum of human voice for all relevant levels with low distortion. This is a main feature to enable super-wideband measurements in sending direction. With the help of the communication quality analysis system ACQUA, the artificial mouth can be comfortably equalized via a digital FIR filter which is tuned by an automated and fast equalization process.About HEAD acoustics  Telecom DivisionHEAD acoustics was founded in 1986 and has been involved in noise and vibration, electroacoustic and voice quality testing since its inception. HEAD acoustics is based in Herzogenrath, Germany, with affiliates in France, Great Britain, Japan, South Korea and USA as well as a world-wide network of representatives. The Telecom Division of HEAD acoustics manufactures telecom test equipment and provides consulting services in the field of speech and audio quality. Moreover, HEAD acoustics closely co-operates with DECT Forum, ETSI, ITU-T, 3GPP, TIA, CTIA, GSMA and other standardization bodies with regard to the development of quality standards for voice transmission and speech communication. In many partnership projects, HEAD acoustics has proven its competence and capabilities in conducting tests and optimizing communication products with respect to speech and audio quality under end-to-end as well as mouth-to-ear scenarios.HEAD acoustics GmbHEberstrae 30 a52134 HerzogenrathGermanySteffen Scholz (Marketing & PR Telecom)Mail: marketing-telecom@head-acoustics.deFon: +49 2407 577-0
Travelers Diarrhea Market | Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects, Key Opportunities, Trends And Forecast 2024

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Travelers Diarrhea Market: OverviewTravelers diarrhea refers to intestinal and stomach infection and occurs due to unsanitary conditions during handling of food. This disorder is characterized by frequent abdominal cramps resulting in loose stools and is usually caused by consumption of contaminated water or food. Travelling from one place to another where the sanitary conditions, social conditions, climate and other factors are different and hence presents high risk of developing travelers diarrhea.This is one of the most common condition affecting travelers every year, for example according to data enumerated by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 20% to 50% an estimated 10 million of the international travelers develop travelers diarrhea every year. This disorder occurs during the travel period or post return and also in some cases one can experience multiple episodes of diarrhea during one trip. Developing countries of Latin America, Middle East, Asia and Africa represent the areas for highest risk of contracting travelers diarrhea. Immunosuppressed individuals, young adults and individuals with inflammatory bowel disorders and diabetic patients constitute the highly susceptible patient population for contracting travelers diarrhea.View Report Intensity of infection varies depending on the type of eating establishment. For instance, there is low risk of infection if the food is consumed in private homes and poses high risk of infection in the food from the street vendors. Nausea, vomiting, fever, frequent defecate and abdominal cramps are some of the common symptoms of travelers diarrhea. Most of the cases are benign and resolve quickly but sometimes sign and symptoms persist for several days and can be more severe in cases where it is caused by other organisms other than common bacteria. In these cases, prescription medicines are recommended for the treatment. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is the most common causative agent of travelers diarrhea. Travelers can minimize the risk of developing travelers diarrhea by adopting several preventive measures such as use of bottled drinking water, avoiding consumption of raw or uncooked seafood and meat and raw fruits.Consulting a doctor than self medication is preferred for the treatment of travelers diarrhea and especially relevant to pregnant women and children. There are several medications prescribed for the treatment of diarrhea. For example, Pepto-Bismol tablet shortens the duration of illness and decreases diarrhea. This drug is not advised to take for more than three weeks at a time as it results in certain side effects such as temporary blackening of stools and tongue, constipation, nausea and others. Also, the consumption of this is not recommended for the patients who have aspirin allergy, gout, renal insufficiency and who are already taking anticoagulants. Other treatment options are replacement of fluids and salts achieved by the intake of oral rehydration solutions such as oral rehydration salts (ORS).Travelers Diarrhea Market: SegmentationThe market for travelers diarrhea can be analyzed by the various medications available for the treatment and the geographical landscape. Antimicrobial therapy is the most preferred one and fluoroquinolones are the most preferred. The geographical landscape elucidates the analysis of the market by four major geographies namely North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World. In addition, factors such as side effects of the drugs, introduction of alternate therapies, and increased focus on preventive care would impact the market growth.Furthermore, regulatory policies, marketing approvals for drugs and safety concerns would further influence the market growth. The major factors favoring the market growth are increasing cases of travelers diarrhea and growing tourism across the globe. On the other hand, factors such as side effects of the drugs and lack of accessibility to appropriate treatment might encumber the market growth.Bayer AG, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc. and Novartis AG are some of the companies operating in this market.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Travelers Diarrhea Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Interview Released with Pharmaceutical Pricing Pioneer, Anita Burrell Ahead of 23rd Annual Pricing and Market Access Summit

An Interview with Anita Burrell

http://www.smi-online.co.uk/goto/2017europricing.asp#tab_downloads

http://www.pharmaceuticalpricing.co.uk

http://www.smi-online.co.uk

SMi Group are thrilled to release an interview Anita Burrell ahead of her presentation on the constraints of RCT's at the 23rd annual industry summit on Pharmaceutical Pricing & Market Access this Autumn.With significant breadth of experience in establishing value evidence across the top 10 therapeutic areas and former senior roles in commercial operational effectiveness at Sanofi-Aventis, Anita is a market access pioneer renowned for promoting multi-functional interaction and consistently delivering products to launch in advance of schedule.Focusing on collaboration, the presentation will offer attendees with guidance into overcoming challenges presented by RCT constraints.Understanding the major decision points during development will be a key focus, as will hearing about putting commercial and market access issues into clinical development decision making. A selection of examples in what are others are doing to really impact the development process beyond patient centricity, will be just some of the highlights in her talk.In the run up to the event, SMi Group caught up with Anita to discuss the promises and challenges of Real World Data (RWD) and current industry developments.From the answers provided, it is apparent that RWD remains the bread and butter of health economists to interweave the promise of clinical effect into a potential impact on the real world when speaking to payers.The difference now is that we are willing to use RWE to inform clinical studies in a way that was not embraced before. We can use these observations to understand potential differences in outcomes and enhance the likelihood of success. Similarly, we have moved away from a simple signal of safety in post marketing to explore relative effectiveness and these are true advances. The challenge is the flipside of the coin since the data we are looking at is by nature likely to be confounded. Even worse we know that the way the healthcare system incentivises providers may have affected coding and of course coding is not outcomes. There are ways to account from these downsides but it is always worth considering the potential challenges before embarking on data collection in any sense.The full interview is available to read in the event download centre atSMis 23rd annual conference on Pharmaceutical Pricing & Market Access will take place on 11th & 12th October at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum in London, UK.Further details are available online atThe notable speaker line-up will also include senior representatives from Allergan, Mylan, Lundbeck Denmark, LEO Pharma A/S, Teva, Grifols, Shire, Sanofi, Hemofarm, Norwegian Medicines Agency, AstraZeneca.--- END ---About SMi Group:Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the worlds most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found atContact Information:For media enquiries contact Teri Arri on Tel: +44 (0)20 7827 6162 / Email: tarri@smi-online.co.ukFor all other enquires contact the team on Tel: +44 (0)20 7827 6000 or email events@smi-online.co.uk2 Floor Harling House47-51 Great Suffolk Street
Tropical Spastic Paraparesis Market | Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects, Key Opportunities, Trends And Forecast 2024

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http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Tropical Spastic Paraparesis Market: OverviewTropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) also called as HTLV-1associated myelopathy (HAM) is a type of tropical myeloneuropathies caused by the human T-lymphotrophic virus 1 (HTLV-1). Although initially described in tropical countries, TSP has also been found in temperate regions such as southern Japan. HTLV-1 virus belongs to the Retroviridae family, and preferentially infects CD4 lymphoid cells. The virus has been known to cause certain kinds of leukemia and lymphoma and is transmitted through exposure to infected blood, sexual contact, and use of illegal intravenous drugs. As the virus is also known to spread through breast milk, mothers infected with HTLV-1 virus must avoid breast feeding.According to an article published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology in 2012, the HTLV-1 virus is prevalent in certain regions including the Southwestern part of Japan, sub-Saharan Africa and South America, the Caribbean area, and certain areas of Middle East and Australo-Melanesia. The study also estimates that 5 million to 10 million individuals have been affected globally with HTLV1 virus, however various other publications estimate the global prevalence of 10 million to 20 million.HTLV-1-associated myelopathy mostly affects the spinal cord, and results in an upper motor neurone syndrome, that usually affects lower limbs. Spastic paraparesis or paraplegia is the main characteristic of the infection. Tropical spastic paraparesis results in demyelination, inflammation and necrotic lesions in spinal cord. The progressive disease is associated with degeneration of neurons in the spinal cord, and results in gradual paralysis of the lower limbs. Other rare symptoms include optic atrophy, reduced ankle reflex and cranial nerve lesions. An article published in journal Revue Neurologique in 2012, more than 90% of the tropical spastic paraparesis cases, the neurological features involved urinary bladder disturbance, spasticity and/or hyperreflexia of the lower extremities, and lower extremity muscle weakness.View Report Tropical Spastic Paraparesis Market: Product and Treatment LandscapeVarious immunoassay kits are available for diagnosis of HTLV-1 virus. Companies manufacturing such diagnostic kits include MP Biomedicals LLC, Fujirebio, Inc., Quest Diagnostics, DiaSorin S.p.A. Although the disease cannot be cured completely, medications are available for management of symptoms. Corticosteroids such as methylprednisolone are prescribed to decrease the inflammation of the spinal cord, while pain is treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.Symptoms of urinary dysfunction can be treated by prescribing darifenacin, oxybutynin, tamsulosin, terazosin, and other drugs which reduce the activity of bladder muscles. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is currently conducting phase I clinical trials for Hu MiK-Beta-1. The investigational drug is monoclonal antibody directed toward IL-2/IL-15R-Beta Subunit which blocks IL-15 action. Washington University School of Medicine in association with Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. is also conducting phase II trials for Raltegravir. Various other institutes are also conducting research programs for discovering new and effective treatment options for Tropical spastic paraparesis. Scientists have also tried antiretroviral agents for treatment of HTLV-1 infections. Gradual progress in the research activities is expected to launch more treatment drugs and expand the market in the future.Due to low and restricted geographical prevalence of the disease, the market for tropical spastic paraparesis is small. Government initiative for increasing awareness of the disease and its available treatment may curb the spread of infections. Lack of sufficient information on geographical prevalence, and epidemiology has restricted the research activities. These factors will also be responsible for a slower global market growth.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Tropical Spastic Paraparesis Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Aircraft De-Icing-2017

Aircraft De-Icing,REPORTSANDMARKETS,SIZE,ARMY,DEFENSE,AEROSPACE

https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/reports/global-aircraft-de-icing-market-professional-survey-report-2017-1518771

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Aircraft De-Icing MarketGet Access To Full Summary @This report studies Aircraft De-Icing in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringB/E AerospaceClariantDow ChemicalJBTUTC AerospaceGlobal Ground SupportContegoCryotechKilfrostSafeaeroWeihai Guangtai Airport EquipmentOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSnow Blower and SweeperDe-Icing Chemicals and FluidsDe-Icer TruckOtherGet Sample Report @By Application, the market can be split intoMilitaryCivilianBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Aircraft De-Icing Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Aircraft De-Icing1.1 Definition and Specifications of Aircraft De-Icing1.1.1 Definition of Aircraft De-Icing1.1.2 Specifications of Aircraft De-Icing1.2 Classification of Aircraft De-Icing1.2.1 Snow Blower and Sweeper1.2.2 De-Icing Chemicals and Fluids1.2.3 De-Icer Truck1.2.4 Other1.3 Applications of Aircraft De-Icing1.3.1 Military1.3.2 Civilian1.3.3 Application 31.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Aircraft De-Icing2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Aircraft De-Icing2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Aircraft De-Icing2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Aircraft De-IcingGet Customization & Check Discount For Report @3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Aircraft De-Icing3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Aircraft De-Icing Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Aircraft De-Icing Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Aircraft De-Icing Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Aircraft De-Icing Major Manufacturers in 2016...Continued...About usReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.The marketing research reports consist of market analysis with statistical and analytical information on the markets, applications, industry analysis, market shares, technology and technology shifts, important players, and the developments in the market.Do you want to know more on a specific company? Our Company Reports collection contains thousands of profiles of major industrial companies. These reports typically contain information like a company overview, business description, company history, major products and services, key facts, SWOT analysis, key employees, subsidiaries, and company locations.On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketing info@reportsandmarkets.com Ph: +44-020-3286-9338 (UK) +1-214-377-1121 (US)Office No: 206 Empress Mill Society Shree Nagar,Nagpur - 440015Maharashtra India
Vacuum Assist Biopsy System Market | Growth Prospects, Key Opportunities, Trends And Forecast 2024

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In a Biopsy procedure tissue samples are taken for study and diagnosis of the suspicious lesions in the for cytology or histopathology studies. Breast biopsies are done through various techniques like Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy, Core Needle Biopsy and Surgical Biopsies. Among which Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsies are the conventional ones. In case of Core Needle Biopsies tissue samples are collected through the core of the needle, this technique is currently used at many places. Vacuum Assist Biopsy is a type of core needle biopsy which uses Vacuum for collection of tissue sample. In Vacuum Assisted Biopsy the needle is introduced percutaneous to the lesion sight either by stereotactic or image assisted (Ultrasound or MRI) approach. Due to the clinical advantages of this technique for the sampling of nodular lesions, better samples combined with least procedure time, non-invasive, less scaring for patient Vacuum Assist Biopsy is gaining acceptance among the physicians. In this procedure the probe / core needle is inserted through skin under image assistance or stereotactic guidance to the lesion. One it reaches the lesion vacuum is applied which draws the lesion / tissue inside the core, after which the cutting device cuts it from the breast tissue by rotation. By repeating these steps multiple tissue samples could be collected. On required sample collection, radiologist / physician can take out the probe/needle and a small bandage can be placed on the insertion site. This procedure doesnt need a sterile setup and is performed under local anesthesia. Due to the availability of large core probes/needles these systems are finding the place in removal of small benign lumps and resection of palpable or non-palpable breast lesions.View Report Global Market for Vacuum Assist Biopsy Systems can be segmented based on the technique used for Guiding or Positioning Technique, End User and Geography:Segmentation based on Guiding TechniqueStereotactic Vacuum Assist Biopsy SystemImage Guided Vacuum Assist Biopsy SystemSegmentation Based on End UserHospitalsClinicsDiagnostic CentersPositioning and guiding of the probe / needle is the critical stage in any biopsy technique and for Vacuum Assist Biopsy it needs a skillful user. Based on the guiding technique these can be categorized into Stereotactic Vacuum Assist Biopsy Systems and Image Guided Vacuum Assist Biopsy System. For Stereotactic systems mammography is used as a reference for positioning the probe whereas image guided systems could be based on Ultrasound imaging or MRI. Among them Ultrasound guided systems are getting widely used and are having large acceptance in future. Due to some limitations like short availability of the procedure period window, difficulty in accessing the far lesions MRI guided systems got set back but with new developments they are getting acceptance for specialized procedures which are not possible with stereotactic and US guided techniques.As this procedure is non-invasive and is undertaken with local anesthesia, it doesnt need a complete sterile environment and so can be done in mini operating rooms or physicians office where the MRI Guided Vacuum Assist Biopsy System is a limitation. Due to the shorter procedure time and less complications involved these procedures are done on day care basis also. Based on the End Users the market can be segmented into Hospitals, Clinics and Diagnostic Centers.On the basis of regional presence, global Vacuum Assist Biopsy Systems market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Breast Cancer counts 25% of the lethal cancers female population face and overall it contributes to around 12% of the cancer cases in a year globally. In America it is estimated that around 12% of the female population with have the breast cancer in their lifetime. In UK and Belgium around 15% of breast cancer cased are diagnosed every year. As per studies females of age more than 45 Years are susceptible to breast cancer or some breast disease. Asia Pacific region comprising countries like Indian and Chine are among the most potential markets after North America and Europe due to growing population with mid or old age and rising awareness for healthcare.Some of the major players in global Vacuum Assist Biopsy System market are C.R. Bard Inc. Devicor Medical Products Inc.(Leica Biosystems), Hologic Inc., Etc.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Vacuum Assist Biopsy System Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cartilage Degeneration Market | Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2024

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Cartilage Degeneration Market: OverviewCartilage is the tough, complex but flexible living tissue that covers the bony surface of joints. Articular cartilage, fibro cartilage and elastic cartilage are the three different types of cartilage present in the body. Articular cartilage is the one which covers joint surfaces, elastic cartilage is found in the outer ear and fibro cartilage is present in the vertebral disc and knee meniscus. All these three cartilages in the body are distinguished by elasticity, structure, and strength. It is responsible for providing shock absorption, and thus enables the joints to bear the weight associated with the daily activities as well as in various kinds of sports.The most common type of cartilage damage is that of articular cartilage, and may be caused due to injury or degeneration. Articular cartilage cells may heal depending on the extent of degeneration, and location of injury, however only in cases where an injury penetrates into the bone beneath the cartilage. Self healing capacity of the cartilage reduces since the cartilage has no direct blood supply, so little or no capacity to repair itself.Cartilage is also responsible for providing shape and support to other parts of the body, such as nose, ears, and windpipe. Cartilage also provides protection to the bones by preventing them from friction against each other. Pain and restricted movement is observed in cases of injured, inflamed or damaged cartilage including joint deformity in some cases. There are several causes for cartilage problems which include genetic, trauma (injuries), nutritional, mal alignment and meniscus tear. According to a medical center in the U.S., more than 12 million people visit doctors due to knee pain each year, 50 % of them are diagnosed with cartilage damage.View Report Cartilage Degeneration Market: Treatment TrendsOsteoarthritis is a leading cause of cartilage damage. Osteoarthritis, which is also known as degenerative joint disease is characterized by a loss of cartilage, the bodys attempt to repair the cartilage and, ultimately the destruction of the bone underneath the articular cartilage. Since the cartilage tissue does not contain blood vessels or nerves, treating this degeneration pose a challenge and have a limited ability to re-grow. Various treatment options for cartilage degeneration, such as, arthroscopy, drug therapy and joint replacement, have yielded mixed results of regenerating the damaged cartilage.Medical researchers are also conducting various clinical studies in the U.S. of innovative stem cell therapy for repairing knee cartilage degenerated due to causes such as trauma, aging, or even arthritis. Cartistem is one such example by Rush University Medical Center which is developed from mesenchymal stem cells derived from allogenic umbilical cord blood. This Cartistem is administered surgically into the area of cartilage damage following an arthroscopic surgery. Studies and research on exploring various biological solutions to treat cartilage degeneration is currently one of the fastest growing area of research and development.Cartilage Degeneration Market: SegmentationThe global cartilage degeneration market can be segmented based on therapy type and pipeline assessment on the basis of target site, molecule type, mechanism of action and route of administration. Therapy type can be classified as monotherapy or combined therapeutics. Various drug molecules in pipeline for cartilage degeneration include sprifermin, chondrogen, and MSB-CAR-001 amongst various others. The alternative for the drug treatment includes minimal invasive procedures such as arthroscopy. The other regeneration procedures include autologus chonrocyte transplantation, cell based cartilage resurfacing, meniscus transplant, micro fracture, osteochondral allograft, and mosaicplasty.Calzada Limited, Merck KGaA, Mesoblast Limited, Sanofi and Thrasos, Inc., are some of the key players contributing to the global cartilage degeneration market.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Cartilage Degeneration Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Natural Language Processing Market 2017 - Apple Incorporation, Dolbey Systems, Google, Microsoft Corporation, 3M, HP

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Natural language processing (NLP) is the ability of a computer program to understand human speech as it is spoken. NLP is a component of artificial intelligence (AI).Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Natural Language Processing in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Request For Sample Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversApple IncorporationDolbey SystemsGoogleMicrosoft CorporationVerint Systems3MIBM IncorporationNetBase SolutionsSAS Institute IncHPOtherMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversRule-BasedStatisticalHybridAccess Full Report With TOC @Market Segment by Applications, can be divided intoWeb SearchLanguage TranslationCustomer ServiceThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Natural Language Processing market.Chapter 1, to describe Natural Language Processing Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Natural Language Processing, with sales, revenue, and price of Natural Language Processing, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Natural Language Processing, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Natural Language Processing market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Natural Language Processing sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.About Fior MarketsFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Acrylamide | Worldwide Industry Analysis and New Market Opportunities Explored

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Acrylamide Market. The study, titled Acrylamide Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Global Acrylamide Market: SnapshotThe global acrylamide market is projected to gain strength with municipal wastewater treatment applications promoting the consumption of acrylamide. A wide scope of industrial wastewater treatment processes that employ paper, breweries, leather, pharmaceuticals, electroplating, textiles, and petrochemical necessarily use acrylamide. Acrylamide also plays the role of a solid-liquid separator in municipal wastewater treatments for primarily treating sewages.Browse Market Research Report @According to seasoned analysts, the global acrylamide market could be segmented according to end use, where wastewater and water treatment is expected to secure a larger share.Buyers of the report are exposed to some of the critical elements of the global acrylamide market which could help them to rise above the odds and gain a foothold in the industry. Factors such as drivers and restraints, opportunities, and competitive landscape are comprehensively explained by the report authors.Global Acrylamide Market: Trends and OpportunitiesIn the next few years, the global acrylamide market is anticipated to invite a sturdy growth with the expansion of oil and gas activities coupled with the burgeoning demand for wastewater and water treatments. In respect of both revenue and volume, wastewater and water treatment is expected to be a larger segment of the global acrylamide market by application. Moreover, there are some strict laws pertaining to wastewater treatment penned down by the governments of developed regions, which makes the usage of acrylamide altogether more important. Across the globe, the extensive application of acrylamide for treating wastewater is predicted to lay a solid foundation of growth for the global acrylamide market.Unconventional gases can be recovered economically with the use of acrylamide via hydraulic fracturing. With the U.S. planning to invest around US$71.1 bn for new shale gas capacities by 2020, the demand in the global acrylamide market could propel at a telling degree with the need to perform hydraulic fracturing operations. Although Europe holds a notable number of shale gas reserves, there are still a myriad of them present throughout the globe. With fracking applications rising internationally, the consumption in the global acrylamide market is envisaged to inflate exceptionally, supported by the upsurge in shale gas extraction activities.Global Acrylamide Market: Geographical AnalysisThe consumption pattern in the world acrylamide market was almost similar to the production pattern in the recent past. Therefore, while Asia Pacific was a leader in the world acrylamide market in terms of production, its consumption also exceeded than that of the other key regions such as Europe and North America. Countries such as India and China could be the major acrylamide markets in Asia Pacific. As these countries further their economic development, the growth of the Asia Pacific acrylamide market is forecasted to increase even more.However, North America, including Canada and the U.S., is prognosticated to be a vital region that rakes in a heavy demand for acrylamide as it is researched to be one of crucial markets for wastewater and water treatment. The several regulations ordained by Europe regarding wastewater treatment are envisioned to be a weighty force driving the demand in the world acrylamide market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Acrylamide market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Global Acrylamide Market: Companies MentionedAmong the other prominent players in the worldwide acrylamide market, INEOS, BASF SE, Nalco, Kemira, and SNF Group are prophesied to make their presence known. Collaborations and agreements, new product developments, and mergers and acquisitions could be the go-to strategies adopted by leading companies in the worldwide acrylamide market.Market segmentation based on geography:North AmericaAsia PacificEuropeRest of the WorldThis report gives access to decisive data, such as:Market growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for the coming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Adhesive Resin | Emergence of advanced technologies and global industry analysis

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Adhesive Resin Market. The study, titled Adhesive Resin Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Adhesive resins incorporate several applications and objects as an adhesive layer to enhance the durability and optimize the integrity of the structure. It joins the surface of diverse materials, efficiently distributing the stress at the junction. The application of adhesive resin forms a strong bond very quickly to aid the adhesion process. Application of high performance adhesive resin improves the cohesive strength. Adhesive resins available in emulsion form offer the advantage of elasticity and resistance to moisture. In addition to the long term adhesiveness, application of resins provide toughness and resistance to aging, temperature, and chemicals. Adhesive resin is available in several forms: solvent-based, water-based, and hot melt. The major components used in adhesive resin include: vinyl acetate, ethylene vinyl acetate, polyvinyl acetate, and polymerized acrylic resin emulsion.Browse Market Research Report @Adhesive resin finds extensive application in numerous industries such as: packaging, oil and gas, plastic, construction, automotive, and transportation. Adhesive resin is most widely used in the packaging of food and beverages, consumer goods, sea foods and meat, tubes, and bottles. In the oil and gas industry, it is used to create linkage between pipelines and coating of pipes. In the plastic industry, the application of adhesive resin is recommended to act as a binding agent in order to enhance the tensile strength of plastic. In the automotive industry, adhesive resin is applied in automotive body parts such as door modules and front-end modules. In the building and construction industry, adhesive resins are applied as contact adhesives, flooring adhesives, and sealants. Due to the efficient sealing feature, adhesive resins find potential use in the transportation industry in manufacturing of abrasive and aerospace components.The broad commercial application of adhesive resins in several industries builds a rapidly growing global market. The market for adhesive resins has exhibited an enormous rise in the last few years and a similar positive trend is anticipated to be witnessed during the forecast period. The market of adhesive resin is currently dominated by the Asia Pacific region. The huge growth of end-user industries such as automotive, construction, packaging, and consumer goods in developing countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and India is propelling the demand of adhesive resins. In the next few years, the advancement of emerging technologies and rising demand of adhesive resin is estimated to fuel the market growth in the developing region of Asia Pacific. North America and Europe also possess a large share of the global market. Improved economy observed in these developed countries is a key factor for the market growth. The rising trend is predicted to continue during the forecast period. A prospective market for adhesive resin is expected to build up in the MEA region. Growing economy of this region is predicted to develop an emerging market of adhesive resins in the next few years.Increasing awareness of ecofriendly materials is likely to drive the demand for bio-based adhesive which will enable the end-user industries to minimize their environmental concern. Specially-engineered adhesive resins are being developed for the assembly of aircraft and automotive bodies. Epoxy resin holds a large share of the global adhesive resin market currently due to improved functionalities such as corrosion protection, mechanical strength etc. Increased demand from end-user industries is influencing the higher growth rate of adhesive resin in the global market.The major players that manufacture adhesive resin are companies such as: E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, LD Davis Industries, Inc., Exxon Mobil Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, Mitsui Chemicals America, Inc., Resinall Corporation, Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, and Ashland Inc. etc.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Adhesive Resin market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Sodium Permanganate | Advanced technologies & growth opportunities in global Industry

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Sodium Permanganate Market. The study, titled Sodium Permanganate Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Sodium permanganate is a purplish-colored, inorganic salt compound, which is primarily available in aqueous form as a monohydrate. It is miscible in water, ether, ethanol, and liquid chlorine. Sodium permanganate offers high concentration of permanganate ions. Owing to high solubility in water, it is used for etching of plastic parts, as etching requires high concentration of permanganate ions. Sodium permanganate is also used for water treatment and soil treatment, as it is capable of degrading phenols, BTEX, chlorinated ethenes, and PAHS and removing hydrogen sulfide. Moreover, since it readily dissolves in water, it is used in water treatment plants, for controlling the odor and taste issues. It is often used as an oxidizing agent in the manufacture of chemical intermediates. Other uses of sodium permanganate include metal surface treatment and metal cleaning. Sodium permanganate is a strong and better substitute for potassium chloride, in terms of chemical properties such as miscibility and chemical reactivity. However, it is comparatively costlier to produce.Browse Market Research Report @Sodium permanganate is available globally in 40% and 20% solution forms. The 40% solution is primarily used in electronics and for synthesis of fine chemicals, which requires concentrated permanganate solution. It is also used to manufacture toluene saccharin and refine O-toluene sulfonamide. The 20% solution is primarily used for purification of drinking water. It helps in regulating the taste and odor of water. Furthermore, the 20% solution is used for iron and manganese reduction, color reduction, and radium reduction. Other general uses of sodium permanganate include its application as an oxidant, fungicide, disinfectant, and phosphorous antidote. Usage of sodium permanganate solution as an etchant in printed circuitry is one of its most popular applications.Rising need for water treatment is projected to boost the demand for sodium permanganate during the forecast period. However, presence of a number of substitutes such as potassium permanganate and activated alumina for water treatment is expected to hamper the demand for sodium permanganate in the near future. However, its use as an etchant in printed plastic circuitry is anticipated to open new avenues for the sodium permanganate market.In terms of geography, the global sodium permanganate market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is likely to lead the market, due to the growing chemical industry in emerging economies such as China and India, as sodium permanganate is infamously used for the production of chemical intermediates. High consumption of sodium permanganate in Asia Pacific is also driven by increasing need for water treatment in the region. China is the leading manufacturer of sodium permanganate across the world. The sodium permanganate market in North America and Europe is expected to expand moderately during the forecast period, due to availability of substitutes. The market in Latin America and Middle East & Africa is projected to expand at a sluggish rate during the forecast period for industrial applications, owing to comparatively expensive nature of sodium permanganate. However, increasing demand for water treatment is estimated to be a major driver for the sodium permanganate market in Middle East & Africa.Some of the key players in the sodium permanganate market include Carus Group Inc., Hepure, Changsha Yonta Industry Co., Ltd., Nanjing Kaimubo Pharmatech Company Limited, RennoTech Co., Ltd., Aurora Fine Chemicals, Chongqing Changyuan Group Limited, Kingsfield Inc., and Guangdong Hangxin Technology Co., Ltd.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Sodium Permanganate market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Devices Market | Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2020

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HBOT is a technique of delivering pure oxygen (100%) to the tissues under higher atmospheric pressures. Due to its ability to enhance the activities of the white blood cells at the wound site and block the cytotoxic effects of cyanide and carbon monoxide, HBOT is gaining wide acceptance across the globe. It has been studied that HBOT saturates the circulatory system of a patient with oxygen, which results in augmented oxygen delivery to the tissues that produce therapeutic effect in a patients body.HBOT is used for various medical indications such as necrotizing soft tissue infections, thermal burn injury, decompression sickness, etc. for which they have an FDA approval, however it has been observed that apart from the approved medical conditions HBOT is also used as a viable treatment for many off-label indications such as brain injuries and cancer. Thus, due to the high preference of hyperbaric oxygen therapy among physicians and patients the market of HBOT devices is expected to grow significantly in the near future, across the regions.Within product segment that includes monoplace hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices, multiplace hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices and topical HBOT devices; monoplace devices emerged as the market leader in terms of revenue in 2013. The substantiating factors behind such strong growth of the monoplace chambers market are wide commercial availability, low-space requirement and easy installation procedures. Moreover, the monoplace HBOT devices market is expected to exhibit highest growth rate due to the rapid growth in demand owing to their portable design, easy operability of these chambers and low maintenance cost. The trend is expected to continue due to the increasing incidence of chronic wounds across the world.This exhaustive report includes 9 data tables and 17 figures to give readers a 360 view of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Devices Market. Browse through this 86-page report to know what factors will shape the market during the period 2014-2020Within the application segment, wound healing accounted for the largest market share of over 60% of the total hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices market. Moreover, due to the positive outcomes of clinical studies that were investigating the effects of HBOT in patients with diabetic foot ulcers coupled with high incidence rate of acute and chronic wounds are expected to substantiate the leading growth of wound healing segment in the overall hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices market.North America was the largest market for hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices in terms of revenue in 2013, followed by Europe. The contributing factor behind the dominance of North America are existence of large number of hyperbaric oxygen therapy providers, high preference for portable hyperbaric chambers among physicians, coupled with growing prevalence of chronic wounds in the general population.Moreover, perpetual product innovation policies and custom-made devices procurement procedures have driven the practice of hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices in the U.S., thereby making North America the market leader for hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices. Alternatively, in terms of growth rate, Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth due to the alarmingly rising incidence of diabetes and diabetes associated chronic wounds among population coupled with exponentially growing healthcare facilities in nations such as China, Malaysia, India and Singapore; that would contribute to the high growth of hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices market in the region.The global hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices market is highly competitive and oligopolistic at nature. Sechrist Industries, Inc., OxyHeal Health Group, ETC Biomedical System, IHC Hytech B.V. and SOS Medical Group Ltd. exhibit the widest geographical reach coupled with a wide range of hyperbaric oxygen devices and addressing to a large base of consumers across the globe.Their existence in developed and emerging nations along with vivid product offerings has made them successful providers of hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices or chambers in the global market. Other companies considered for this study are Fink Engineering Pty Ltd., Haux-Life-Support GmbH, Gulf Coast Hyperbaric, Inc., Hearmec Co., Ltd. and Hyperbaric SAC, etc.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Devices Market during 2014- 2020About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Interventional Cardiology Devices Market | Key Trends and Forecast Research Report 2022

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Interventional cardiology devices are minimally invasive devices used in the detection and treatment of coronary artery disease. This report on interventional cardiology devices studies the current and future prospects of the market globally. The report comprises an elaborate executive summary, which includes a market snapshot that provides overall information of various segments and sub-segments included in the study. This section also provides the overall information and data analysis of the global interventional cardiology devices market with respect to the leading market segments based on type of device, technique, and geography.The market overview section of the report comprises qualitative analysis of the overall interventional cardiology devices market considering the factors determining the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints and opportunities, along with Porters Five Forces analysis and market attractiveness analysis. In addition, various analyses such as value chain analysis, regulatory framework, market attractiveness analysis by geography and competitive landscape by key players has also been provided. Value chain analysis includes the study of major steps involved in the production and distribution of interventional cardiology devices. Regulatory framework includes the study of different regulatory norms and procedures that regulate the approval and commercialization of interventional cardiology devices and techniques. The market attractiveness analysis is provided in order to explain the intensity of competition in the market in different geographies. The competitive scenario between different market players is evaluated through market share analysis in the competitive landscape section of the report. All these factors would help the market players to take strategic decisions in order to strengthen their positions and expand their shares in the global market.This exhaustive report includes 12 data tables and 33 figures to give readers a 360 view of The Interventional Cardiology Devices Market. Browse through this 118-page report to know what factors will shape the market during the period 2014-2022The global interventional cardiology devices market has been segmented on the basis of device type, technique, and geography. Based on device type, the interventional cardiology devices market has been categorized into five major segments: stents, catheters, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) balloons, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) guide wires, and other accessories. Stents have been further categorized into three sub-segments: bare metal stents, drug eluting stents, and bio-absorbable stents. Catheters have been further categorized into angiography catheters, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) catheters, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) guiding catheters, and pulmonary artery catheters. Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) balloons have been subdivided into normal balloons, cutting balloons, scoring balloons, and drug eluting balloons.The imaging systems interventional cardiology devices market is subdivided into intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) systems, fractional flow reserve (FFR) systems, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems. Market revenue in terms of USD million for the period between 2012 and 2022 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2014 to 2022 are provided for all the segments, considering 2013 as the base year.Geographically, the interventional cardiology devices market has been categorized into six regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, and Rest of the World (RoW). North America comprises the U.S. and Canada. Europe comprises Germany, the U.K., and Rest of Europe. Asia-Pacific comprises China, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific. Latin America comprises Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America. Middle East and North Africa comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Rest of MENA. The recommendations section included in the report would assist existing players to expanding their market share and new companies in establishing their presence in the interventional cardiology devices market. The report also profiles major players in the interventional cardiology devices market on the basis of various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, product portfolio, and recent developments. Major players profiled in this report include Abbott Laboratories, Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Boston Scientific Corporation, Cook Medical, Cordis Corporation, Medtronic, plc, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Smiths Medical, and Terumo Medical Corporation.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Interventional Cardiology Devices Market during 2014- 2022About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market to Exhibit 14.20% CAGR Till 2020 Owing to Growing Prevalence of Chronic Diseases

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Transparency Market Research, a global market intelligence firm, has recently announced the publication of a new research report to their collection. The research report, titled Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, provides a detailed study on the global remote patient monitoring devices market.Browse the full Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market (By Types: Heart Monitors, Breath Monitors, Physical Activity Monitors, Hematology Monitors, Body Temperature Monitors, Multi-sign Monitors and Others & By End Users: Home Healthcare and Ambulatory Care Centers) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 report atAccording to the report, in 2013, the global market for remote patient monitoring devices was worth US$0.38 bn and is anticipated to reach US$0.98 bn by the end of 2020. The market is expected to register a progressive 14.20% CAGR between 2014 and 2020. The rising economic burden on medical clinics and hospitals for patient admission is the major factor propelling the global remote patient monitoring devices market in the forecast period. However, the inadequacy in maintaining the security and privacy of the data is the key factor hampering the growth of this market.On the basis of type, the global market for remote patient monitoring devices has been divided into breath monitors, physical activity monitors, heart monitors, hematological monitors, and multi-sign monitors. The growing prevalence of various chronic diseases that need constant monitoring, such as blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders, is driving the global market for monitoring medical devices. In 2013, the heart rate monitors segment led the overall market due to the rising prevalence of cardiac diseases across the globe.On the basis of end-use, the global market for remote patient monitoring devices is classified into ambulatory care centers and home healthcare. In 2013, the ambulatory care center segment held the biggest share in the global remote patient monitoring devices market. The dominance of this segment is due to the growing geriatric population, as aging people are at a greater risk of developing various infections and diseases. Nevertheless, the home healthcare segment is also expected to grow at a fast pace in the forecast period.On the basis of major geographies, the global market for remote patient monitoring devices has been segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Rest of the World. In terms of revenue generation, the North America region dominates the global remote patient monitoring devices market and is also anticipated to remain in that position throughout the forecast period. The dominance of this region is due to the growing geriatric population and increasing healthcare cost in the U.S., making the remote healthcare monitoring treatment option attractive.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.In addition, the rising incidence of diabetes in this region is another factor that is anticipated to boost the demand for hematology monitoring devices in the global remote patient monitoring devices market. On the other hand, the Asia Pacific remote patient monitoring devices market is projected to witness rapid growth due to several factors including the increasing costs of healthcare services and the booming medical tourism industry in countries such as Thailand and India.Furthermore, the research report analyzes the competitive landscape of the global remote patient monitoring devices market based on key criteria such as company profile, financial overview, business strategies, and recent developments. Some of the key players mentioned in the research report are Honeywell HomMed LLC, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., AMD Global Telemedicine, Covidien plc, Omron Healthcare, Aerotel Medical Systems, Smiths Medical, and Abbott Laboratories.Key Segments of the Global Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market:Global Remote Patient Monitoring Devices, by TypesHeart MonitorsECGHeart rate monitorsFetal heart monitorsBlood pressure monitorsBreath MonitorsRespiration rate monitorsSpirometersSleep apnea monitorsPhysical Activity MonitorsActivity level monitorsWeight monitorsHematology MonitorsBlood glucose monitorsProthrombin time monitorsBody Temperature MonitorsMulti-sign MonitorsOthers (remotely monitored infusion pumps, Ventilators, etc.)Global Remote Patient Monitoring Devices, by End UsersHome HealthcareAmbulatory Care CentersGlobal Remote Patient Monitoring Devices, by GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificRest of the WorldAbout UsTransparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactMr.Sudip S90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Worldwide Throat Lozenges Industry is Significantly Grow at a CAGR of 3.5% during 2017-2023

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Market Research Future published a half-cooked research report on global throat lozenges market, which is Expected to Reach at a CAGR of 3.5% during 2017-2023Throat lozenges are the medical or non-medical preparation intended for temporary relief from cold and cough. Due to changing lifestyle and increasing smoking has decrease the immune system of the people and make them more susceptible to get affected by virus and bacteria. Pediatric and geriatric population are also more susceptible to get affected by foreign organism. Increasing pediatric and geriatric population, changing lifestyle and increasing need for minimizing the healthcare expenditure are the major driving factor for the market. Whereas short term effect and availability of alternative therapies may hamper the growth of market.Global throat lozenges market is expected to grow at a steady CAGR of 3.5% during forecasted period.Get a sample report atSegmentation:Global throat lozenges market is segmented on the basis of ingredients types into menthol throat lozenges and non-menthol throat lozenges. Menthol throat lozenges is further segmented into eucalyptus oil, mint, peppermint oil and others. Non-menthol throat lozenges is further segmented into zinc gluconate glycine, pectin and other. On the basis of usage the market is segmented into pharmaceutical lozenges, antibacterial lozenges and others. And on the basis of application the market is segmented into cough and cold, throat soreness, throat diseases and other.The major key player for the global throat lozenges market are Bliss GVS Pharma Ltd (India) GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited (UK) Thornton & Ross Pfizer, Inc (US) Procter & Gamble (P&G) (US) united confections(US) August Storck KG (Germany) Roshen Confectionery Corp (Ukrain) Crown Confectionery Co. Ltd. (South Koera) CRM Group (Brazil) United Confections Throat lozenge (UK) Yildiz Holding (Turkey) Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd. (Japan) Perfetti (Italy) Hershey Foods Corp. (US)Global throat lozenges market is highly saturated due to presence of a number of local and multinational companies. Huge number of products are available in the market. Majority of companies are focusing on cost effective medication while some has adopted strategies of acquisitions and strategic alliances for the growth of the market. Currently market throat lozenges are composed of an anesthetic, benzocaine and eucalyptus oil. Various brands are available in the market for throat lozenges that include Lakerol, Pastilles Juanola, Butter-Menthol, Chloraseptic, Strepsils, Vicks, Victory V, Sucrets and many more.Bliss GVS Pharma Ltd. is an Indian pharmaceutical and company headquartered in Mumbai,India. Company primarily manufactures wide category of products. Company is trying to develop their market in other countries and in 2014 they are awarded by the Indian Government for outstanding exports performance for the FY 2012-13. The major product of the company is Fricks which is a herbal variant of lozenges. This products are exported across the different countries and are suitable for adults and children over two years old.Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) is an American consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, US. Company is primarily specializes in a wide range of cleaning agents, personal care and hygienic products. It is one of the leading company for the throat lozenges market. Vicks is one of the major brand of the company.Browse complete report atStudy objectives global throat lozenges market Detailed information about the present and forecasted market with its key players that influences the market on global scale. Detailed analysis of the market with respect to all the possible segmentation of the market. Detailed information about the factors affecting the growth of the global throat lozenges market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global throat lozenges Analysis of the market of the different factors like- Price Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis, Porters Five Force Analysis Etc. Detailed information on the possible segments and sub segments of the market. And regional analysis of the market- America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. Insights on the major countries/regions in which this industry is blooming and to also identify the regions that are still untapped Detailed information on trends and the opportunities in various regions.Intended Audience Throat lozenges manufacturing company Research and Development (R&D) Companies Contract Research Organizations (CROs) Medical Research Laboratories Academic Medical Institutes and UniversitiesRequest for Discount atThe report for global throat lozenges market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives a clear picture of the current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Global Contraceptive Drugs Market is Expected to Reach Till $ 22.15 Billion By 2023

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Global Contraceptive Drugs Market Research Report, By Type (Oral Contraceptives, Injectable And Others), By End Users (Hospitals, Clinics And Others) - Forecast Till 2023Contraceptive drugs has got a special attention from 20th century. These are the products that helps to avoid unwanted birth. These products help in preventing the pregnancy by blocking or altering the process of ovulation. The major driving factor for the growth of global contraceptive drugs market is increasing need to control the population. Beside this economic advances, increasing awareness different government initiatives are also responsible for the growth of the global contraceptive drugs market. On other hand side effects of the contraceptives, many religious and cultural opposition may restrain the growth of the market. The global market for contraceptive drugs is expected to reach $ 22.15 billion by the end of the 2023 form $ 13.9 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 6.5%.Get a sample report atSegmentation:Global contraceptive drugs market is segmented on two category by type and by end user. On the basis of type they are oral contraceptive, injectable and other. Oral contraceptives are further sub segmented into combined oral contraceptive pills and progestogen- only pills. On the basis of end user they are segmented as hospitals, clinics and others.The major key player for the global contraceptive drugs market are Merck & Co., Inc (US) Pfizer Inc (US) Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel) Bayer AG (Germany) Allergan plc. (Ireland) Janssen Global Services llc. (US) Mankind Pharma Ltd. (India) Piramal Enterprises Ltd (India) Reckitt Benckiser Plc (UK) Church & Dwight (US) The Female Health Company (US) Mayer Laboratories (US) Cooper Surgical (US)Global contraceptive market is contributed by many of the small and large companies. Major companies are investing in R&D so as to introduce more innovative and efficient contraceptives drugs as they are under constant pressure to launch new and technologically advanced products. Companies are launcing new product so as to withstand the competition and increase the market.Pfizer Inc one of the leading research and pharmaceutical company headquartered in US. In 2015, they has introduced SAYANA, first injectable contraceptive in UK which can be self-administered. Loette, Premarin and Ovral are some of the major products of Pfizer.Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Israel. In 2015, company has launched Beyaz which is a generic contraceptive drug. It is one of the most successful product of the company and in 2016 it has annual sales of approximately $133 million in the US. Recently, in March 2017 Company has announce to launch a new product Minastrin.Merck & Co., Inc is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world headquartered in US. Cyclessa, Desogen and Dificid are some of the major products of the company.Bayer AG is a multinational chemical, pharmaceutical company headquartered in Germany. Company has developed a new class of birth control pill QLAIRA. This drug has shown a well-tolerated and high satisfaction rate in studies.Allergan plc is the multinational company headquartered in Ireland. This company produces branded and generic drugs and performs pharmaceutical research and development. In 2016, company has announce to launch TAYTULLA, first and only oral contraceptive in a softgel capsule.Browse complete report atStudy Objectives global contraceptive drugs market Detailed overview of global contraceptive drugs market. Detail analysis of global contraceptive drugs market with all possible segmentation and key player of market. Detailed analysis of the historical and forecasted market on the basis of factors like- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global contraceptive drugs market. Detail analysis on the possible segments and sub segments of the market. And regional analysis of the market- America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. Insights on the major countries/regions in which this industry is flourishing and to also identify the untapped regions which could be the potential markets in futureIntended Audience Research and Development (R&D) Companies Contraceptive drugs manufacturers Medical Research Laboratories Academic Medical Institutes and Universities Government and Independent Research Laboratories Contract Research Organizations (CROs)Get a discount atThe report for global contraceptive drugs market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Angiography Market: Upcoming Demands And Growth Analysis 2025

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Angiography is a procedure of diagnostic imaging to detect abnormalities of blood vessels. The X-ray image obtained by the angiography procedure is called as angiogram. In angiography, a special dye, also known as contrast medium, is injected in the body through a thin tube of plastic known as catheter. The dye makes the blood flowing through the blood vessels visible in the X-ray image. The procedure thus detects the abnormalities of blood vessels such as blockage, narrowing, inflammation, and bleeding inside the blood vessels. Angiography assists in angioplasty procedure, wherein a stent is inserted inside an artery when the narrowing of the artery is detected in the angiogram. Angiography is generally conducted by a radiologist or a trained medical professional who operates the X-ray machine. This procedure helps to diagnose disorders which are related to blood vessels and determine the treatment of these disorders.View Report @Increasing prevalence of coronary heart diseases, and favorable reimbursement policies for the treatment of heart disorders are the major factors driving the growth of the angiography market during the forecast period. However, high cost of the procedure and fluctuating scenario regarding the upgradation of angiography devices are expected to restrict the growth of the market during the forecast period.The global angiography market can be segmented on the basis of procedure type, application, product, end-user, and region. Based on the procedure type, the market is segmented into coronary angiography, cerebral angiography, renal angiography, pulmonary angiography, and others. The coronary angiography segment held a significant market share in 2016 owing to increasing awareness about congestive heart failure and rising demand for precise diagnostic imaging techniques for better diagnosis of the disease conditions. This segment is anticipated to continue to dominate the angiography market during the forecast period due to the introduction of advanced diagnostic techniques by key players operating in the global market. In terms of application, the market is segmented into congestive heart failure, coronary artery disorders, kidney disorders, and others. The coronary artery disorders segment accounted for a high market share in 2016 owing to favorable reimbursement policies by various private and public players and rising global geriatric population. Increase in public funding to improve the health care infrastructure in developing countries and rise in the prevalence of cardiovascular disorders worldwide are projected to drive the growth of coronary artery disorders and kidney disorders segments during the forecast period.On the basis of product, the market is divided into angiography systems, catheters, incision closure devices, balloons, contrast media, and other accessories. The angiography systems segment captured a high market share in 2016 owing to its high cost. The segment is expected to continue to dominate the market during the forecast period due to increase in per capita expenditure of the population and launch of new products in the medical diagnostic field. Based on the end-user, the market is divided into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, clinics, and others. The hospitals segment held a significant market share in 2016 and is expected to continue to dominate the market during the forecast period owing to availability of trained and well-qualified health care professionals and technological advancements in diagnostic techniques.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Angiography Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Geographically, the market is distributed over North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominated the global market in 2016 due to rising adoption rate of modern and novel medical imaging techniques. However, Asia Pacific is projected to expand at a high CAGR during the forecast period due to rising geriatric population and government participation for the improvement of the health care sector in India and Japan. Rising demand for efficient medical diagnostic techniques and increasing prevalence of coronary heart diseases are expected to propel the market growth in North America by 2025.Prominent players operating in the global angiography market include GE Healthcare, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Shimadzu Corporation, Bayer Ag, Allengers, OSCOR Inc., Degania Silicone Ltd., and CathRx Ltd. among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Liposome Drug Delivery Market : Shares And Strategies For Key Industry Players By 2025

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Liposomes are small spherical-shaped artificial vesicles synthesized from phospholipids and cholesterol. They are colloidal carriers and range from 0.01 to 5.0 m in diameter. These are lipid bilayer vesicles having hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties. Due to these properties liposomes have an advantage of encapsulating hydrophobic as well as hydrophilic drugs and delivering them to the targeted site in the body. Thus, liposomes are promising systems for targeted drug delivery. Liposomes are successfully used for encapsulating various drug molecules such as acyclovir, tropicamaide, chloroquine diphosphate, paclitaxel, and cyclosporine. Many therapeutic agents such as antimicrobials, anticancer drugs, genetic materials, vaccines, macromolecules, and proteins can be encapsulated in liposomes. Liposomes are employed as drug carriers for targeted drug therapy for various diseases, as they are biocompatible and biodegradable.View Report @The classification of liposomes is based on its structural properties or on the method of preparation used. Structurally, liposomes are classified into the following groups: multilamellar large vesicles (MLV), oligolamellar vesicles (OLV), unilamellar vesicles (UV), small unilamellar vesicles (SUV), medium-sized unilamellar vesicles (MUV), large unilamellar vesicles (LUV), giant unilamellar vesicles (GUV), and multivesicular vesicles (MVV). In terms of preparation method used, liposomes can be classified into the following types: reverse phase evaporation method for single or oligolamellar vescile (REV), multilamellar vesicles (MLV) made by reverse phase evaporation method, stable plurilamellar vesicles, (FATMLV) frozen and thawed, vesicles prepared by extrusion method (VET), vesicles prepared by fusion (FUV), vesicles prepared by french press (FPV), dehydration?rehydration vesicles (DRV), and bubblesomes (BSV).Development in scientific research in recent years has led to the rapid expansion of the global liposome drug delivery market. Increased understanding of targeted drug delivery system has fuelled the liposome drug delivery system market. Advantages such as improvement and control over pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, decreased toxicity, and enhanced activity of drugs against intracellular pathogens are key divers for pharmaceutical companies to invest in the global liposomes drug delivery market. Currently, there are a number of liposomal products such as ambisome, myocet, doxil, depoCyt, etc., approved by the FDA for commercial usage. However, low solubility, short half-life and high production cost are key restraints of the global liposome drug delivery market.In terms of type of industry, the liposome drug delivery market can be segmented into pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food, and farming. The pharmaceutical industry segment led the global liposomes market due to rapid advancements in targeted drug delivery systems. In terms of product, the market can be segmented into liposomal doxorubicin, liposomal amphoteracin B, and liposomal paclitaxel. Liposomal amphoteracin B is used in the treatment of various fungal and parasitic infections. In terms of application, the global liposomes drug delivery market can be segmented into therapeutic and clinical. Therapeutic applications include occular and pulmonary applications, whereas clinical applications consists of cancer (antitumor) therapy and fungal and microbial infection therapy. Ongoing research and advancement in liposome design are leading to new applications for the delivery of new biotechnology products such as recombinant proteins antisense oligonucleotides and cloned genes.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Liposome Drug Delivery Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.In terms of geography, the global liposomes drug delivery market can be segmented into North America (Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Russia, and Italy), Asia Pacific (Japan, China, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia), Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is a leading market for liposomes drug delivery systems due to increase in novel technologies in targeted drug delivery systems. The market is anticipated to expand during the forecast period in other parts of the globe as well.Prominent manufacturers operating in the global liposome drug delivery market include Johnson & Johnson, Sun Pharmaceutical, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Novartis AG, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Kingond Pharm, and Celsion Corporation.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Drug And Alcohol Rehabilitation Market Outlook To 2025 Update 2017

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The process of combining medical and psychotherapeutic treatment to address the dependence on alcohol and drugs such as prescription drugs and street drugs is called rehabilitation. Addiction to alcohol and drugs is considered a chronic disease. If the addiction is untreated, it can have serious life threatening effects. Drug and alcohol addiction is treated with several steps such as detoxification, counselling, medication, and long term follow ups to avoid relapse. Withdrawal symptoms are serious such as sweat, nausea, and vomiting. Hence, addiction is considered treatable, but a complex process.View Report @The global drug and alcohol rehabilitation market is expected to expand at a significant growth rate during the forecast period. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 26.9% of people aged 18 and above were engaged in binge drinking in a month in 2015. Rising prevalence of alcoholism is likely to be a key factor driving the global market from 2017 to 2025. Increased usage of illegal drugs is another factor anticipated to propel the global market during the forecast period. Furthermore, rise in major depression disorders, surge in trend among youngsters toward drugs and alcohols, underage drinking, peer pressure, and self-medication are some of the factors projected to fuel the growth of the global drugs and alcohol rehabilitation market during the forecast period. Serious withdrawal symptoms of the treatment is a major factor anticipated to restrain the global market from 2017 to 2025.The global drugs and alcohol rehabilitation market can be segmented based on treatment, screening, end-user, and region. In terms of treatment, the global market can be segmented into counselling, medication, and behavioral treatment. The medication segment can be sub-segmented into opioid addiction, tobacco, alcohol, and others. The medication segment is expected to account for a significant share of the global market during the forecast due to increase in usage of illicit drugs, alcoholism, and self-medication. Based on screening, the global market can be divided into oral fluid drug screening, urine drug screening, breathe alcohol screening, hair analysis, and others. In terms of end-user, the global drugs and alcohol rehabilitation market can be segmented into rehabilitation centers and clinics, hospitals, and home care settings. The rehabilitation centers and clinics segment is anticipated to hold the largest share of the global market during forecast period due to factors such as increasing federal funding.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The global drug and alcohol rehabilitation market is projected to expand at a significant growth rate across regions. Geographically, the global drug and alcohol rehabilitation market can be divided into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the global market in terms of value. Factors attributed to the growth of the market in North America are increase in patients suffering from major depression, prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle, surge in drug trafficking, and peer pressure. Europe is anticipated to account for the second largest share of the global market due to highest number of alcoholism-related disorders in the region. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to experience high growth due to increase in alcohol usage.To maintain a significant position in the global drug and alcohol rehabilitation market, the key players are adopting strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, robust research and development, and geographical expansion. Major players operating in the global drug and rehabilitation market are Indivior, Inc., West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Corp., and Pfizer, Inc., among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Psoriasis Drugs Market : Share, Key Players And Growth Rate Report 2025

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Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease characterized by red, itchy abnormal skin patches. There are five types of psoriasis: inverse, pustular, guttate, plaque, and erythrodermic. Psoriasis is considered to be a long-term skin disorder that produces plaques of scaling and thickened skin. The most commonly affected areas on the body are around the scalp, knees, navel, and back of the forearms. Psoriasis is triggered by various factors such as environmental factors and genetic deformity. Psoriasis is considered to be a non-curable disorder; however, a few drugs are available that ease the symptoms. Psoriasis therapies include topical therapeutic drug, systemic therapeutic drug, and combination of two or more therapies. A report published by the Alabama Pharmacy Association stated that around 17 million people in North America and Europe are affected by psoriasis. According to the treatment report, the frequency of occurrence of the disease is low in Africans, Americans, and Asians, and higher in Caucasians. According to a WHO report, males and females are almost equally affected. According to the WHOs global report on psoriasis in 2016, the trends during 19792008 indicate that prevalence of psoriasis has increased from 4.8% to 11.4%.View Report @Rising number of psoriasis patients and FDA approval of new biologics are the major factors driving the companies to invest in R&D. The psoriasis drugs market is likely to become more competitive with the approval of new biologics. Several drug classes competing for the same moderate to severe patient population is expected to drive the psoriasis drugs market during the forecast period. Awareness about the disease is increasing in developing countries such as China and India through various campaigns by government and health care professionals. It has become easy to access physicians or dermatologists for drugs in developing countries. This is expected to increase the number of patients treated for psoriasis which in turn is likely to boost the growth of the psoriasis drugs market. Some of the psoriatic drugs shows adverse side effects upon administration. Common side effects include injection site reactions such as hardening of the skin, stabbing chest pain, feeling short of breath, cold symptoms, headache, tired feeling, diarrhea, or skin rash or itching. These side effects are hampering the growth of the psoriasis drugs market.The global psoriasis drugs market has been segmented based on product type, type of therapy, distribution channel, and region. In terms of product type, the global psoriasis drugs market has been segmented into tissue necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, vitamin D analogues or combinations, interleukin blockers, and others. TNF inhibitors is projected to be the largest segment in terms of revenue during the forecast period. In terms of type of therapy, the global psoriasis drugs market has been segmented into topical therapeutic drugs, systemic therapeutic drugs, combinations, and others. Topical therapeutic drugs constitute a key therapy of the psoriasis drugs market as it is a patient convenient process as well as conventional use of this therapy by patients and physicians is high. Based on distribution channel, the global psoriasis drugs market has been segmented into hospital pharmacy, retail pharmacy, and online sales.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Psoriasis Drugs Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The global psoriasis drug market has been categorized into five major regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominated the global psoriasis drugs market and is expected to be one of the highly attractive markets for psoriasis drug during the forecast period. This can be attributed to the growing disease prevalence as well as high cost of approved biologics in the region. Growth of the psoriasis drug products market in Europe is attributed to expected introduction of biosimillars during the forecast period. North America and Europe are anticipated to be key markets due to high consumption of psoriasis drug products as compared to other regions. Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to witness significant growth in the latter half of the forecast period due to the introduction of biosimillars.Key players in the global psoriasis drugs market are Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Amgen, Inc., Novartis AG, Eli Lilly and Company, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., AbbVie, Inc., LEO Pharma A/S, and Biogen.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Bone Growth Stimulator Market  Preventive Methods And Market Trends 2025

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Bone growth stimulation, or BGS, is a type of therapy which is often used to aid in the healing process after a fracture or spinal fusion surgery. BGS or bone growth stimulation can help in promoting quicker healing in fractures which make take longer duration to heal by the natural healing process. Bone growth stimulator also known as osteogenesis stimulators devices provide pain-free ultrasound or electrical stimulation and is generally recommended by orthopedists to help in faster bone healing. Human bones have an innate ability to heal on their own if there is any spinal fusion process, surgery, and injury. Bone growth stimulators devices work by releasing either a low-level pulsed ultrasonic energy or pulsed electromagnetic field. The energy field fuels bone growth process by helping repair the damaged body tissues and increase the cell formation and maturity process, leading to improved bone density.View Report @The major factor contributing to the growth of the bone growth stimulator market is the rising inclination of patients towards minimally invasive and non-invasive surgical treatments and growing population of obese and diabetic population. Elderly population is particularly vulnerable to bone related injuries and fractures. Globally the number of elderly population- people aged 60 years or over has grown significantly in most of the countries in the recent years and that this growth is anticipated to accelerate in the coming years. According to United Nations 2015 report, globally the number of people aged 60 years or more were 901 million in 2015 from 607 million observed in 2000. The elderly population is slated to increase by 56% to 1.4 billion by 2030 and is projected increase twofold from its size in 2015, reaching nearly 2.1 billion by 2050. Thus the growing aging population is anticipated to propel the growth of the market during the forecast period. Additionally, the cost benefits offered by the bone stimulation devices for bone fracture treatments are some of the key factors driving the growth of bone growth stimulator market. On the contrary, side effects associated with orthopedic treatment and legal litigations against market players are some of the restraining factors that could affect the growth of the bone growth stimulator market during the forecast period.The global bone growth stimulator market is segmented based on product type, by application, by end user type and by geography. In terms of product type, bone growth stimulator market is categorized into external and implantable devices. In terms of application, the market is classified into delayed nonunion and union bone fractures, spinal fusion surgeries, maxillofacial and dental surgeries. Based on end-user type, the bone growth stimulators market is classified into specialty clinics, homecare settings, and hospitals.Geographically global bone growth stimulators market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America & Middle East and Africa. North America accounted for the largest share of the market due to improved reimbursement policies and upsurge in the investments in healthcare-service sector. The region is projected to maintain its lead in terms of overall market share primarily due to the growing awareness levels among the population regarding chronic injuries and bone fractures, and the growing investments by major manufacturers in research and development of technologically advanced devices. Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth rate due to increasing elderly population in the region. The high percentage of elderly population in developing countries such as China and Japan are increasing the incidences of bone fractures & spinal fusion surgical procedures in the Asia Pacific regionGet accurate market forecast and analysis on the Bone Growth Stimulator Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.To maintain a significant position in the market the key players in the global bone growth stimulators market are operating strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, cost effective and efficient products, collaborative partnerships etc. The major players reported in the market include Orthofix International N.V, Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., Bioventus LLC., Synergy Orthopedics, ITO Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation, DePuy Synthes Spine, Inc., DJO Global, Inc Ossatec Benelux Ltd., and Orchid Medical.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Fibromyalgia Treatments Industry, Growth, Product Analysis, Market Outlook, Competitive Landscape and Predication to 2022

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Fibromyalgia Treatments Market Information, by Types of treatments (pain relievers, antidepressants, anti-seizure drugs, therapy) by end users (Hospitals and Clinics, Research Centers, laboratories) - Forecast to 2022Fibromyalgia is a disease which affects the soft tissues and the muscles. The symptoms for the following disease include fatigue, chronic muscle pain, sleeping problems, trigger points etc. Treatments include medications, therapy, lifestyle treatment and others.Get a sample report atStudy objectives of the Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 7 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the fibromyalgia treatments market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to the main geography and its countries - North America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by types of treatment, by end users, and its sub-segments. To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the market.Fibromyalgia treatments market has been segmented on the basis of types of treatments which comprises of pain relievers, antidepressants, anti-seizure drugs, therapy and others. On the basis of end users the market is segmented into hospitals and clinics, research centres, laboratories and othersRegional Analysis of the Market:Globally North America is the largest market for fibromyalgia treatments. Europe is the second-largest market and Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a rapid rate.Key Players for the Market: A&S Pharmaceutical Corp Leiner Health Products LNK International, Inc. Pharmaceutical Formulations, Inc. Bayer Healthcare Sanofi Endo International Johnson & Johnson Purdue Pharma Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Eli Lilly and Company Pfizer Inc. Merck & Co., Inc.Make an Inquiry atNorth America US CanadaEurope Western Europe Germany France Italy Spain U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsiaPacific Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificMiddle East& AfricaThe report for Fibromyalgia Treatments Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.Get a discount atTable Of Content1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope of Study1.3 Research Objective1.4 Assumptions & Limitations1.5 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Challenges3.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4 Market Factor Analysis4.1 Porters five forces model4.1.1 Bargaining Power of suppliers4.1.2 Bargaining Power of Customer4.1.3 Intensity of Competitors4.1.4 Threat of New Entrants5 Global Fibromyalgia Treatment Market, by Types of Treatment5.1 Introduction5.1.1 Pain relievers5.1.2 Antidepressants5.1.3 Anti-seizure drugs5.1.4 Therapy5.1.5 Others6 Global Fibromyalgia Treatment Market, by End Users6.1 Introduction6.1.1 Hospitals and Clinics6.1.2 Research Centre6.1.3 Laboratories6.1.4 Others7 Global Fibromyalgia Treatment Market, by regions7.1 Introduction7.1.1 North America7.1.1.1 US7.1.1.2 Canada7.1.2 Europe7.1.2.1 Germany7.1.2.2 France7.1.2.3 UK7.1.2.4 Italy7.1.2.5 Spain7.1.2.5 Rest of Europe7.1.3 Asia Pacific7.1.3.1 Japan7.1.3.2 China7.1.3.3 India7.1.3.4 South Korea7.1.3.5 Rest of Asia Pacific7.1.4 Middle East & Africa8 Company Landscape8.1 Introduction8.1.1 Mergers Acquisitions8.1.2 Collaborations8.1.3 Release/New Product Launches9 Company Profile9.1 Bayer Healthcare9.1.1 Company Overview9.1.2 Product/Business Segment Overview9.1.3 Financials9.1.4 Key Developments9.2 Eli Lilly and Company9.2.1 Overview9.2.2 Product/Business Segment Overview9.2.3 Financials9.2.4 Key Developments9.3 Merck & Co., Inc.9.3.1 Overview9.3.2 Product/Business Segment Overview9.3.3 Financials9.3.4 Key Developments9.4 Pfizer Inc.9.4.1 Overview9.4.2 Product/Business Segment Overview9.4.3 Financials9.4.4 Key Developments9.5 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd9.5.1 Overview9.5.2 Product/Business Segment Overview9.5.3 Financials9.5.4 Key Developments10 AppendixAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Global Skin Grafting Market Is Estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.5 % from 2017-2023

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Market research future has a half cooked research report on global skin graft market. The global skin graft market is growing at a rate of 13.5 % and is expected show a similar trend during the forecast period.The skin graft market is chiefly driven by rise in cases of accidents, burns, surgeries requiring removal of skin, skin loss due to infection such as necrotizing fasciitis or purpura fulminans and cancer etc. The rise in the number of plastic surgeries due to the growing influence of the fashion and media industry coupled with the development of tourism sector has led to the growth of the market. The global skin graft market represents a bipolar outlook with huge difference in the rural and metropolitan regions. The developed metropolitan regions especially with tourism and fashion industry sectors such as Bangkok, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles etc. have skin graft surgeries disproportionate to their population and needs.The skin graft market is led by the product development strategy which is being witnessed in the equipment section and most prominently the dermatome. Dermatome is a surgical instrument used to create thin slice the skin in skin grafting. Latest technological developments have led to the development of advanced dermatomes such as air dermatome which is more efficient and allows for greater control and accuracy in slicing skin of uniform thickness. As the use of dermatomes is dependent on the skill of the surgeons, scarcity of skilled surgeons is acting as a constraint on the global skin graft market.Get a sample report atGlobal Skin graft Market Players:Key players profiled in the report are Organogenesis, Inc. Specmed Medical Stratatech Corp Tissue Regenix Group PLC Avita Medical Convatec Inc Medrotonic Coloplast B.Braun Melsungen Zimmerbiomet Stratatech Corporation Zimmer BiometTest the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread over 80 pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content (TOC) & market synopsis on Global Skin graft Market Research Report  Forecast to 2023.Segmentation:The global skin graft market is segmented on the basis of graft type, graft thickness and applications. Based on graft type, the market has been segmented as autologous, isogeneic, allogeneic, xenogeneic and prosthetic. Based on the graft thickness, the market has been segmented as split-thickness, full-thickness and composite graft. Based on the applications, the market has been segmented as extensive wound, burns, extensive skin loss due to infection, skin cancers and others. Based on the equipment, the market has been segmented as dermatome (knives dermatomes, drum dermatomes, electric dermatomes, air dermatomes), general surgical instruments, consumables and others. Based on the end users, the market has been segmented as hospitals and clinics, academic and research and others.Browse complete report atStudy objectives: To provide a detailed analysis of the market structure along with estimated future growth forecast for the next six years about various segments and sub-segments of the global skin graft market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global skin graft market based on various factors - Price Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis, Porters Five Force analysis etc. To provide past and estimated future revenue of the markets segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries - the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific along with Middle East & Africa To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future growth prospects To provide country level analysis of the market which includes segmentation by graft type, graft thickness, applications, equipment and end users. To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape of the market To track and analyze developments which are competitive in nature such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments along with research and developments that are currently taking place in the global skin graft marketsIntended Audience Global Skin graft, manufacturers & suppliers Research and development (R&D) companies Market research and consulting service providers Academic institutes and universitiesMake an Inquiry atThe report for Global Skin Graft Market by Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain a deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives a clear picture of the current market scenario which includes past and estimated future market size with respect to value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides detail information about and strategies used by top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Offshore Decommissioning Market Report 2017 Analysis by Trends, Production, Consumption and Forecast 2025

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Decommissioning is the last phase of any offshore oil and gas project. The process of decommissioning involves safe plugging of the wellbore in the earths surface and disposal of equipment used in offshore oil and gas production. In the Gulf of Mexico, decommissioning of offshore oil and gas platform has become mandatory for oil and gas operator companies. Decommissioning operation helps maintain safety and sanity of the offshore environment. An offshore decommissioning operation requires 10 steps to be followed for successful completion of the project. These 10 steps are project management; engineering; and planning; permitting and regulatory compliance; platform preparation; well plugging and abandonment; conductor removal; mobilization and demobilization of derrick barges; platform removal; pipeline and power cable decommissioning; materials disposal; and site clearance. Companies operating in the decommissioning market either specialize in one of the aspects or may provide complete services mentioned above.Browse Market Research Report:The offshore decommissioning market can be segmented into two broader areas: decommissioning services or activities; and application in shallow water, deep water, and ultra-deep water.The major driver for decommissioning market is strengthen & mandatory legal guidelines for offshore oil and gas operations setup by the regulatory bodies of respective nations. Presence of the aging oil reserves and abandoned wells in matured offshore oil fields across the world is another factor driving the decommissioning market. Major potential risk of oil spill or leakage through these abandoned oil and gas wells may cause ocean water pollution, thereby threatening the marine ecosystem. This poses difficulty in cleaning and recovery of oil spill and then decommissioning the well after any such incident. The cost involved in decommissioning of such disturbed oil wells or platforms is high. Technically, this poses various challenges. Discovery and development of new oil reserves in offshore (mostly deep water) areas around the world is another factor boosting the global offshore decommissioning market. New discoveries of offshore oil deposits such as Liza field in Guyana, Offshore Kutch basin in India, and Tupi offshore oil field in Brazil indicate the future oil production opportunity in these offshore fields, which are likely to require decommissioning services after their abandonment.Recent downturn in prices of oil is expected to be a key restraint to not only exploration and development activities of oil and gas but also decommissioning operations. Decrease in oil prices has caused a continued decline in cash inflow and rise or hike in debt levels could challenge the future of oil and gas industry.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Offshore Decommissioning market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @The global offshore decommissioning market is expected to expand in the near future. North America is anticipated to be a major region of this market, owing to the presence of the Gulf of Mexico offshore oil reserves in the region. Europe is also estimated to contribute significantly to the offshore decommissioning market, as its North Sea offshore oilfields are & aging. Latin America has significant undeveloped offshore oil reserves in countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. Thus, the region is likely to be an attractive market for offshore decommissioning in the near future. Middle East & Africa has large fossil fuel wealth; thus, the region is expected to be a major contributor to the decommissioning market. The decommissioning market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a steady pace during the forecast period.Key players operating in the decommissioning market are Petrofac Limited, Aker Solutions, TechnipFMC plc., Ramboll Group, Deepocean Group Holding B.V., Amec Foster Wheeler, PLC., AF Gruppen, Claxton Engineering Services, Ltd., DNV GL AS, and Allseas.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
The Nebraska State Historical Society announced the winners of the 2017 NSHS Awards recently. Awards will be presented during the annual banquet in October.

The Nebraska State Historical Society annually recognizes Nebraskans that provide significant contributions to the organization and historic preservation with the Robert W. Furnas Memorial, Addison E. Sheldon Memorial Award, James L. Sellers Memorial and Nebraska Preservation Awards.

The Robert W. Furnas Memorial Award will be given jointly to the City of Lincoln/LNKTV and John Strope of Lincoln for their instrumental support of the NSHS Brown Bag lecture series.

The Robert W. Furnas Memorial Award, created in 1991, recognizes outstanding contributions or assistance to the Nebraska State Historical Society, in the form of either long-term service or a significant one-time contribution by an individual or organization.

A committee drawn from the current NSHS Board of Trustees, the Emeritus Trustees, and the NSHS staff nominates/selects the recipient. The award consists of a plaque and a one-year membership with the Nebraska State Historical Society.

The Addison E. Sheldon Memorial Award will be given jointly to Eugene Cromwell from Genoa, a 93-year-old man who has been restoring antique farm tools and equipment and has been educating area youth on the importance of and the value in restoring these items and continuing to use them.

He has also volunteered at the Genoa Indian School doing maintenance and restoration.

The second Sheldon Award winner is Paul Orman of Mayfield, who has been restoring and reserving old homesteads throughout the Mayfield area. Two homesteads that he has purchased and restored the buildings on have already been recognized by the Knights of the Ak-Sar-Ben for the Pioneer Farm Award.

The Addison E. Sheldon Memorial Award was created in 1973. The award consists of a plaque and a one-year membership to the Nebraska State Historical Society, and is given annually to an individual or organization for outstanding contributions to the preservation and interpretation in the field of Nebraska History. Individuals or organizations may qualify for the Sheldon Award for long-term contributions to history or for an important one-time accomplishment.

The James L. Sellers Memorial Award will be given posthumously to author Jim Potter of Lincoln for his Spring 2016 article, The Greatest Gathering of Indians Ever Assembled: The 1875 Black Hills Council at Red Cloud Agency, Nebraska. The award honors the best article in Nebraska History and is judged by the history faculty of a Nebraska college or university. The author receives a plaque and $1,000 from the NSHS Foundation, through the support of Catherine Sellers Angle. Potter joins Kingsley Bray and Dennis Mihelich as the only two-time Sellers winners. He won previously for his 2012 article on lynching in Nebraska.

The James L. Sellers Memorial Award was created in 1967. The award consists of a plaque and a one-year membership with the Nebraska State Historical Society, is given each year for the best article published in a volume of Nebraska History. The author receives a plaque and $1,000 from the NSHS Foundation, through the support of Catherine Sellers Angle.

The Nebraska Preservation Award will be jointly given to the Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud for the restoration of the Moon Block and Mark and Vera Mercer of Omaha who rebuilt the building occupied by Ms Pub in Omaha after fire destroyed it last year.

The Nebraska Preservation Award was created in 1988 to recognize significant achievements in historic preservation in Nebraska by an individual or organization. The award is given for one of two categories: brick and mortar projects, or individual or group achievements.
Oilfield Equipment Rental Market Size, Share 2017 Industry Trend, Growth and Forecast 2025

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Oilfield is a region with abundance of crude oil. Specialized machinery is required to perform extraction of crude oil by drilling a well into the subsurface. Various equipment are used to complete the task of drilling an oil well. These equipment are used for specific operations. A wide range of oilfield equipment is available in the market.Browse Market Research Report:Upstream oil & gas operations such as drilling, cementing, well completion, well logging, and well intervention require various set of equipment. Operating companies carry out drilling and production operations. On the other hand, service companies provide necessary services to operating companies. These services include technical manpower, consultancy, and oilfield equipment. Purchasing oilfield equipment can prove to be capital intensive for an operating company. Managing the handling part while shifting from one oilfield location to other can also be time consuming and expensive proposition. Thus, most operating oil companies prefer to hire the oilfield equipment on rent. After the completion of the desired job, the set of equipment can be returned to the owner company.Oilfield equipment can be broadly categorized into drilling equipment, pressure and flow control equipment, pumps & valves, and other equipment. Drilling equipment include drilling rigs, drill pipe and other tubes, drill bits, downhole drilling equipment, wireline tools, and stimulation tools. Pressure and flow control equipment comprise Blowout Preventers (BOP), valves and choke manifold, and others. Pumps & valves equipment include artificial lift systems and mud pumps. Other equipment are well intervention equipment, well completion equipment, fishing equipment, and geophysical or well logging equipment.Increase in demand for fossil fuels is the major driver of the oilfield equipment rental market. Products obtained from refining of crude oil such as gasoline, diesel, petrochemicals, and plastics are used in a wide range of applications. Oil exploration companies are shifting their focus toward unconventional reserves such as shale oil, CBM, oil sands, and heavy crude. This shift of focus is another driver of the oilfield equipment rental market, as unconventional reserves require specialized operations with specialized equipment.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Oilfield Equipment Rental market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @Advancement of technology in oil & gas drilling operations such as horizontal drilling and directional drilling require special set of equipment such as whipstock, mud motor, UBHO equipment. This is augmenting the oilfield equipment rental market.Increase in usage of renewable energy is the major restraint of the oilfield equipment rental market. Renewable energy is being adopted worldwide, as it is emission- and pollution-free energy. Natural gas, associated with hydrocarbons obtained from subsurface, is also one of the major energy sources. Rise in usage of natural gas offers immense opportunities to the oilfield equipment rental market.In terms of region, North America is expected to account for significant share of the oilfield equipment rental market owing to the presence of various players in the region. Of late, the region has been one of the key exporters of fossil fuels. Middle East & Africa may prove to be a lucrative market for oil field equipment rental. It is known for its oil wealth. Many oilfield are being developed in the region. This is creating opportunities for the oilfield equipment rental market. Latin America is likely to hold significant market share in the near future due to the existing oil reserves. Thus, the region is projected to offer lucrative opportunities to the oilfield equipment rental market. Asia Pacific and Europe do not possess major oilfields. However, the market in these regions is expected to experience growth owing to the development in the manufacturing industry.Prominent players operating in the oilfield equipment rental market are Schlumberger Limited, Tasman, Halliburton, Bois BV, B&B Oilfield Equipment, Weatherford, John Energy Ltd., Black Diamond Group, Great Plains Oilfield Rental, Stallion Oilfield Holdings, INC., and Precision Drilling Corporation.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
A masked man suspected of being involved in at least 20 burglaries in the Portland metro area was arrested last week in Gresham, Beaverton police say.

Cody O. Runyon remains in the Washington County Jail Monday on accusations of first-degree burglary. He is accused of breaking into four restaurants, a bar and a movie theatre in Beaverton between May and July, according to court records.

An investigation is ongoing to determine if Runyon will be charged in connection with other break-ins in the area that appear to be of a similar nature, said Officer Mike Rowe, a Beaverton police spokesman. Surveillance video showed the suspect in the six Beaverton break-ins wearing a mask with a very prominent nose, Rowe said.

Court records show Runyon is accused of breaking into Hillside Pub on Southwest Barrows Road and Mandarin Place along Southwest Allen Boulevard on May 30. Thai Bloom on Southwest Cedar Hills Boulevard and Fireside Grill on Southwest Hall Boulevard were burglarized the next day. The Century 16 Theatre on Southwest Hocken Avenue and Chang's Mongolian Grill were broken into on July 9.

Beaverton police released surveillance footage and photos in May from the burglary at Hillside Pub showing a man in a mask, beanie hat, gloves and a hammer inside the bar while it was closed. He smashed the glass on the front door to get in.

Beaverton investigators received information from another police agency that led to Runyon being identified as a suspect, Rowe said. Investigators found Runyon and discovered evidence in his car and a hotel room where he was staying that linked him to the Beaverton burglaries, according to Rowe.

Anyone with information on other burglaries involving Runyon is asked to contact the Beaverton Police Department.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
A Clark County Corrections Deputy accused of ejaculating on a female inmate was fired last week, the county sheriff's office announced Monday.

Christopher A. North's employment was terminated last Thursday. He hired as a Clark County Corrections deputy in January 2015 and was placed on paid leave July 13.

A 24-year-old woman reported North, 29, exposed his penis to her while she was locked in a changing room in civilian clothes awaiting transportation to the Clackamas County Jail two days earlier, according to a probable cause affidavit. North then entered the room, pressed his body against hers, ejaculated on her and left, the court papers said.

The woman was held in the changing room for two hours waiting for a transport van to take her to Clackamas County because temporary holding cells at the Clark County Jail were already occupied, the affidavit said. She reported the incident after she was brought to the Clackamas County Jail because she feared retaliation in Clark County.

North told investigators he stole the woman's pants from her property bag while on duty, went to his car during a lunch break, ejaculated on them twice and returned the pants to her property bag, the affidavit said. He said he didn't think she would know it was him who stained her pants, the court papers said.

North turned himself in to authorities on July 26. He is accused of second-degree custodial sexual misconduct and indecent liberties with forcible compulsion. He has since been released from jail after posting a portion of his $50,000 bail, Washington court records show.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
Rahmat Shoureshi spent his first morning as Portland State University's president riding the MAX and streetcar through downtown, and getting to know the three student tour guides who led him around his new city and campus.

By a quarter past noon Monday, the tour was finished and the welcome party started behind him at the university's urban plaza. The crowd mingled and snagged cupcakes with PSU green frosting. But Shoureshi, a soft-spoken mechanical engineer who's spent the past four decades in academia, lingered with the three students for one more picture.

It was a telling gesture.

Minutes later, Shoureshi stood at a podium under a white canopy and addressed a crowd of students, staff, faculty and donors. "We are all here for the students," the 64-year-old said to the crowd. "I, as the president, as well as the rest of the administration, faculty and the staff are all here to serve our students."

Shoureshi, the ninth president of Portland State, inherits a school that looks much different than the one his predecessor, Wim Wiewel, took over in 2008. Nine construction or renovation projects moved forward during Wiewel's nearly decade-long tenure, and two more campus-shaping projects are expected to break ground in the coming months.

But the climate on campus has changed, too, as Oregon's public universities emerged from a recession and watched state operating support stay largely stagnant while attendance costs soared. In the past few years, Wiewel's administration was at odds with a vocal segment of the student population on a number of issues: from the decision to arm campus police to increasing tuition costs.

Shoureshi arrives in Portland after briefly working as interim president of the New York Institute of Technology. Though he's never been a long-time leader of a school, Shoureshi has worked or studied at nine universities in the past 40 years, including stints at public institutions like Purdue University and the University of Denver.

In an interview with news media before hitting the campus tour with students, Shoureshi said the budget situation in Oregon is "not anything new to me."

While he glossed over specific questions concerning state support, he said he appreciates the backing PSU receives now. "We need to think about other ways of expanding resources so that instead of just relying on tuition and tuition increases we could look at other sources to support the education of our students," he said.

Rahmat Shoureshi, Portland State University's new president, toured campus on Aug. 14, 2017 with Marwa Al-Khamees, Rina Alazas and Troy Craine.

FITTING IN WITH STUDENTS

Marwa Al-Khamees, Rina Alazas and Troy Craine spent their morning showing the school's new president around campus.

In between perfunctory photo-ops for media at the school's bookstore, and to take selfies with the Umbrella Man statue at Pioneer Courthouse Square, the students and Shoureshi shared a fluid conversation that carried on through rides on a MAX train and streetcar and on a walk to tour the school's engineering building.

Shoureshi, who is Iranian American, asked the students why they chose PSU. He asked follow-up questions, and inquired about what the school could do better.

The students praised PSU's diversity, but said the school could improve.

Alazas, who is from Hillsboro, said that PSU needs to introduce cultural competency training for professors. But she also said she appreciates the effort professors make to get to know their students.

The students asked why Shoureshi chose PSU, which is the state's second largest university with an enrollment of more than 29,000 students. "I could give you a long list," he said, but he cited the school's embrace of its status as the state's most diverse campus, and he was drawn to the possibility of partnering with Oregon Health & Science University, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University on projects.

"No one university can do it all by itself," he said.

He also felt he'd seen it all from his past experiences at other schools. "Being able to take that know-how from those experiences and come to a great university that is intertwined with a great city is an opportunity that doesn't come too often," he said.

Toward the end of the tour, the students said they really liked what they saw from Shoureshi.

Craine said he seemed like a "hardworking and humble kind of guy."

Al-Khamees said she felt Shoureshi was making an honest effort to get to know them.

"He wants to listen to us as students," she said.

Rahmat Shoureshi, Portland State University's new president, started work Aug. 14, 2017 and toured the campus with three students before arriving at the center of campus for a celebration in his honor.

MOVING IN

Shoureshi's corner office on the eighth floor of the school's administrative offices is virtually. empty. The bookshelves are bare. The desk is a clean slate.

That'll soon change.

Shoureshi is already known among his staff as being a hard worker. When asked what he does in his off time, he said, "When I'm not working, which is really rare, I appreciate a great deal of art, especially the performing arts."

Under his new five-year contract, Shoureshi will be paid a base salary of $599,988, with $260,700 paid by the university and $339,288 paid by the school's foundation.

He and his wife, Azar, had lived near Lincoln Center in the heart of Manhattan for the past several years. They're choosing to rent an apartment in the Pearl District to acclimate to the city and stay in the urban core.

The couple is already trying to get out on the town. Their 27-year-old daughter is a surgical urology resident at OHSU. They've already dined out at a couple of Portland's famed restaurants.

He's excited to get started at PSU and "move it to the next level."

But he believes he's inheriting a great school that is poised for bigger things.

"You can never say that you are where you want to be," he said. "There's always room for improvement."

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen
Thomas Colbert, his wife Dawna and their team of searchers have dug up what they say is potential evidence that could lead to the true identity of famed 1970s hijacker D.B. Cooper.

Thomas Colbert, a longtime Cooper theorist and investigator, told Fox News the discovery "appears to be a decades-old parachute strap" and was found "right where a credible source claimed the chute and remaining money are buried."

On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a plane flying from Portland to Seattle. He forced the authorities to turn over $200,000 and, wearing a business suit, leapt from the plane somewhere over southwest Washington. He was never seen again. The hijacker has become a cultural phenomenon in the years since, the subject of books, songs, a 2011 convention of "Cooperites" held in Portland, and even an inventive theory about the TV series "Mad Men."

The recently discovered parachute strap.

The FBI pursued clues for more than four decades before finally announcing last year that it was abandoning the effort, having "exhaustively reviewed all credible leads."

Now maybe the FBI will reopen the case. The Colberts said they plan to let the bureau know the location of their dig site and other relevant information that led them to their latest discovery.

The Colberts believe a former army man named Robert Rackstraw might be D.B. Cooper. Rackstraw, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who's now in his 70s and lives in San Diego, was an FBI suspect in the 1970s. In 1979, a TV reporter asked him whether he was D.B. Cooper. Rackstraw's answer: "Could have been." He also said, with a sly smile: "I'm afraid of heights."

Despite his playful initial responses, Rackstraw has insisted for years he is not the hijacker.

-- Douglas Perry
BY LANA BUTTERFIELD

Oregon drivers pay an extra $285 annually to drive on roads and highways in need of repair, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. On top of that, 5.3 percent of Oregon's bridges are structurally deficient. The state of our infrastructure, like the rest of the nation, is falling behind.

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has laid out its plan for prioritizing statewide bridges, seismic resiliency and freeway congestion. The agency estimates that updating the state's bridges will cost $5 billion. That is real money, and just a drop in the bucket compared to the national infrastructure need. Tackling this problem will take leadership and bipartisan cooperation.

Given the current landscape in Washington, D.C., it is sometimes hard to believe that anything bipartisan is possible. Yet, when Congress last passed an infrastructure bill --smart public policy that benefited the country -- it was accomplished with broad bipartisan support.

The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which was passed in 2015, was the first federal law in over a decade to provide long-term certainty for surface transportation infrastructure investment and planning. And Oregon's Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio played a key role in getting the bill passed.

As the ranking member on the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, DeFazio knows the needs of the nation's infrastructure and he knows how to work with others to get things done. DeFazio also knows the power that private investments can have in creating public benefits.

Freight railroads, for example, have spent and invested $630 billion in infrastructure and operations since they were freed from government overregulation in 1980. This commitment by freight railroads has had dramatic results, including a 45 percent drop in rail rates and a 79 percent decrease in the train accident rate.

That's an impressive record and it's consistent with the fundamental principle that the user should pay for the infrastructure. Oregon comes much closer than most states in making sure that highway users pay their fair share of what it costs to build and maintain the highway network. Freight railroads do this automatically because they own, build and maintain their own networks. That saves taxpayers money, improves safety and helps lessen highway congestion.

DeFazio's leadership on transportation issues and his commitment to a productive, efficient and safe freight rail system is why he was recognized this week with a "Railroad Achievement Award" from GoRail, a grassroots advocacy group, and the Association of American Railroads.

Here in Oregon, 19 freight railroads operate over nearly 2,500 miles of track, ensuring that wood and farm products from Oregon get to market and that goods coming from ports like Seattle and Los Angeles are moved as efficiently as possible.

The freight rail example -- private investments that produce real public benefits -- is important to remember as all levels of government struggle to find funding for infrastructure projects. DeFazio is already ahead of the curve, he's a proven leader who already recognizes the value of smart rail policy.

Lana Butterfield is executive director of the Oregon Rail Users' League, which serves both public and private organizations that operate, use and support railroads in Oregon.
Members of Portland's Jewish community added to the criticism of President Donald Trump for waiting to denounce the KKK and neo-Nazi groups involved in the Charlottesville protest that turned deadly when a man plowed his car into counter-demonstrators, killing a Virginia woman and injuring 19 more people Saturday.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Portland released a statement Monday morning calling on Trump to "directly denounce, in no uncertain terms and without equivocation, the white nationalist marchers and to make fighting hate a number one priority of his administration."

A few hours after the statement was issued, Trump did come out with a more specific statement condemning the KKK and neo-Nazis and saying "racism is evil."

But threats from hate groups still stand, said Bob Horenstein, a spokesman with the Jewish council.

"The Unite the Right protesters are equal opportunity bigots," he said. "Jews, African-Americans, other people of color will always be the target of their hatred. ... Our community knows that where any one group is targeted  be it Jews, Muslims, African Americans, or LGBT people  it won't be long before others are targeted as well."

In the initial statement, members of the council took issue with Trump's initial response to the attack in which he referenced "violence on both sides."

"There is no comparison between the protesters, who brought hate and violence to the streets of one of the symbolic birthplaces of American democracy, and the counter protesters," Horenstein said. "The rally was one of the largest showings from a hate group in decades. We stand with people of goodwill from all walks of life who are speaking out against hate. We must drive it back into the underground and to the margins of society."

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted his response to the violence on Sunday, calling for unity against bigotry.

All are created equal. The events in Virginia should serve to unite all Americans against hate, bigotry, and White Supremacy.  Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) August 12, 2017

The NAACP Portland chapter also assembled a small group Saturday for an outdoor speech and Don't Shoot PDX followed with a rally Sunday afternoon. The largest of the rallies took place Sunday night outside City Hall, when about 300 people turned out for a peaceful gathering.

--Olivia Dimmer

503-708-8630; @DimmerOlivia
The Multnomah County Sheriffs Office on Monday announced that a sheriffs employee has been placed on administrative leave pending a criminal investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Sheriffs spokesman Lt. Chad Gaidos declined to provide more information, including the name the employee.

Sheriffs officials also wouldnt describe the allegations, the rank of the employee, how the allegations came to light, whether the employee is on paid leave and when the employee was placed on leave.

Gaidos cited a law allowing the sheriff's office to withhold such information because of the pending personnel investigation.

A news release states that the Washington County Sheriffs Office is conducting the investigation and that the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office is cooperating. After Washington County officials finish their criminal investigation, Multnomah County officials will start an administrative investigation.

MCSO will hold the employee accountable to investigative findings, the release states.

-- Aimee Green
Leading up to National Relaxation Day on August 15, Princess Cruises has released the results of its eighth annual Relaxation Report, which has revealed that when it comes to relaxation and sleep, many Americans are in need of a wakeup call.

According to results of the survey by Wakefield Research for Princess Cruises, Americans arent carving out enough time in their days for sleep or relaxation, with approximately half (49%) reporting they arent getting the sleep they need and 78% saying they dont set aside time to relax each day.

Relaxation and sleep go hand-in-hand, and the lack of both appears to be catching up with Americans. Rather than getting the most enjoyment out of their vacation, working adults take an average of four days off per year just to catch up on sleep. Whether its a full vacation or even just a few minutes of downtime, learning how to carve out more me time is clearly becoming a necessity. Even going on vacation doesnt guarantee better rest, according to the survey, which found that 63% of Americans frequently struggle to get a good nights sleep while on vacation.

As one of the worlds largest international premium cruise brand, Princess Cruises, is committed to ensuring its guests come back from vacation feeling refreshed, renewed and rejuvenated. As part of its Come Back New Promise, Princess Cruises partnered with leading experts in both the science and beauty of sleep to develop the Princess Luxury Bed. Together with board-certified sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus and designer Candice Olson, Princess Cruises now delivers its guests the ultimate night of sleep at sea.

The number one advice I give people is that sleep is a sensory experience and all five of your senses must be prepared for slumber in order for you to fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night long, said Dr. Breus. Im thrilled to have partnered with Princess Cruises and believe we have come up with a bed that will allow guests to achieve the ultimate in rest and relaxation.

The Relaxation Report revealed factors that Dr. Breus notes are causes for Americans to not get the sleep and relaxation they need, including:

 Consuming caffeine too late in the day - caffeine can linger in the system for up to eight hours, and yet 44% of Americans admit to drinking caffeine at 2 p.m. or later

 Indulging in a nightcap - Even though alcohol can prevent people from getting quality sleep, more than half (53%) of Americans age 21 or older admit to having had a drink within three hours of going to sleep in the past last two weeks

 Stress over current events - For 67% of Americans, todays political climate has made it harder for them to relax. Taking a break from the 24/7 political news cycle may be the prescription for more relaxation and better sleep

 Not sticking to a schedule - One in four Americans (25%) dont go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Setting a consistent alarm is an easy way to get more satisfying sleep

 The urban grind - The hustle and bustle of the city can take its toll on the body. Working city-dwellers are significantly more likely to take five or more days off per year just to catch up on sleep (45%) compared to just 25% of those who live in the suburbs and 24% of those who live in rural areas

 Not using time off - Among working Americans, about 1 in 3 (31%) didnt use all the time available to them. Among Americans who didnt use all of their paid time off, the top reason is they had too much work to get done (37%)

The Princess Luxury Bed is rolling out to more than 44,000 staterooms through 2019. The bed features a plush, two-inch thick pillow top, a nine-inch, single-sided medium firm mattress for enhanced support, individually wrapped coils for less partner disturbance, a European-inspired duvet and 100% luxurious Jacquard-woven cotton linens. The Princess Luxury Bed is also now available for guests to order for their homes via www.princessluxurybed.com.

To prepare guests for the ultimate night of sleep at sea, Princess Cruises and Dr. Breus optimized the staterooms for a sleep-friendly sensory experience. As an extension to the sensory stateroom offerings, we offer a SLEEP by Princess Kit which includes additional sleep-inducing items such as eye shades, earplugs, aromatherapy scents, Dr. Breus' Good Night app and more.
Israel Medical Convention took place at ICC Jerusalem last week. Among the important issues for discussion this year were latest developments in the field of cannabinoid research and medical policy related to it.

Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, a Hebrew University researcher widely regarded as the father of cannabinoid research, presented latest studies on the subject. Among the speakers were The Minister of Health Rabbi Yakov Litzman; Director General of the Hadassah medical Center Professor Zeev Rotstein and many more senior officials from various medical centers.

Last week the Hebrew University in Jerusalem announced that the International Symposium on the Cannabinoids will take place in ICC Jerusalem on 2021. The ICRS Symposium is considered the most important conference in the field of cannabinoids research. The conference brings together the leading researchers from the international scientific community and presents the latest and most up-to-date research in the field.

Last month at ICC Jerusalem Pharmaseed Company held an event titled as "Practicalities in Cannabis research and clinics". During this event recent clinical tests of cannabis have been reviewed and a discussion has been held on the means of monitoring on different plant species and methods of use for different populations.

Photo credit: Arnon Bossani
Delta College, thanks to a $1.18 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, has launched an initiative aimed at providing the types of assistance and guidance needed to help thousands of disadvantaged local adults become college-ready.

Delta has used the federal funding to create an Educational Opportunity Center for residents in Bay, Saginaw and Midland Counties.

The new center seeks to provide, annually, 1,000 eligible adults with counseling, admissions guidance and other support services as they pursue their GED or higher education. Enlightening participants on financial aid options also is a central component of the program.

The EOCs leaders, Director Elsa Olvera and Advisor Marcia Hulett, presented a compelling case to Deltas board on why having the tools in place to inspire more people to pursue postsecondary education is critical. Titled Providing Educational Opportunities for our Community, both Olvera and Hulett are first-generation college students who are intimately familiar with the challenges and obstacles low-income families face. In these scenarios college seems, at best, a distant thought, if on the radar at all.

When we tell students that Marcia and I are both first-generation college students, a light bulb goes on, Olvera said.

Im very passionate about education, Hulett said. Ive worked with many low-income, under-represented populations. Were really excited about this effort.

Why is the EOC needed? According to Olvera, alarming dropout rates and the rising number of jobs that require educational credentials beyond a high school diploma are but a few of the reasons.

Some 47 percent of working adults have never attended college, Olvera said. In our region 520 students have dropped out of high school in the last three years. In 2016, 64 students dropped out of the Saginaw Public School system, and 40 from the Bay City Public School system.

Locally, Midland has the lowest dropout number: 13 students dropped out last year.

Olvera outlined specific objectives of the EOC. They include:

 50 percent of participants receive a diploma or the equivalent.

 50 percent enroll in post-secondary education.

 70 percent apply for college admission.

 70 percent apply for financial aid.

This program is providing hope to the community, she said.

Veterans, low-income, homeless children, first-generation college students, disabled and those with a limited grasp of English are among the groups eligible for the program. Olvera calls the grant process very competitive.

Im confident were going to make a difference in the lives of 1,000 people who kind of fell through the cracks, said Jean Goodnow, Delta president. The data indicates this program is needed in this region.

Delta is one of only three colleges in the state to establish an EOC. Delta received a five-year grant to do so, but the program may be at risk due to potential cuts to education under the Trump administration. According to the Washington Post, the 2018 Trump administration budget proposes a $9.2 billion, or 14 percent, cut to the Depatyment of Educations budget. This would eliminate a slew of grants, after-school programs and aid to low-income and minority students, the Post reports.

Its not a certainty that the program will last because of budget considerations, said Russ Curley, dean of enrollment management, who will work with the EOCs three-person staff. The debate in Washington hasnt started, but the program could be cut.

Delta officials said thats why its important to convey the importance of the initiative to legislators.
State Rep. Brian K. Elder, D-Bay City, spoke Tuesday praising the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for its decision to postpone action on the Tobico Marsh in Bay County.

At the request of Elder, a public meeting took place to allow MDNR representatives to explain their plan and answer community questions. Due to the large turnout, which resulted in a last-minute venue change to accommodate all interested parties, the MDNR has now agreed to delay its decision on the project.

"I'm greatly appreciative of (MDNR) Director Keith Creagh granting my request to hold last night's public meeting, as it revealed that a lot of my people have legitimate questions about problems with the project," Elder said. "Many of those attending, myself including, are avid hunters and anglers, yet there was a lot of confusion about what exactly these changes would be, and why they were necessary. If the department cannot answer these basic questions, then postponing the decision on this plan is the right call."

The proposed plan would potentially expand hunting grounds in the Tobico Marsh area, yet at the public meeting on Aug. 7, residents expressed concern about the changes, and called into question whether an expansion of the grounds was either necessary or safe. As a result of public comment, the Natural Resources Commission has agreed to delay voting on the proposal until a later date.

"We care about the environment, we care about the community, and we care about each other," Elder said. "The people present at the meeting weren't there because they loved controversy -- they were there because they're invested in making sure that a decision of that size would have a truly positive outcome for all. The plan that the department showed us on Monday would not have accomplished that, so I am glad to see the commission is willing to regroup and gather more information before making a decision."
To help family caregivers, Senior Services is offering Powerful Tools for Caregivers, a six-week class that will be offered from 12:30-3 p.m. on Thursdays, Aug. 17 to Sept. 21, at the Trailside Center, 4700 Dublin Ave.

Participants will acquire a wealth of self-care tools to reduce personal stress, change negative self-talk, communicate their needs to other family members and healthcare providers, deal with difficult feelings and make tough caregiving decisions.

Research studies find high rates of depression and anxiety among caregivers and increased vulnerability to health problems. Caregivers frequently cite restriction of personal activities and social life as problems. They often feel they have no control over events, and that feeling of powerlessness has a significant negative impact on their physical and emotional health.

Data from class participant evaluation indicates that Powerful Tools for Caregivers improves:

 Self-care behaviors: (increased exercise, use of relaxation techniques and medical check ups.)

 Management of emotions: (reduced guilt, anger and depression.)

 Self-efficacy (increased confidence in coping with caregiving demands.)

 Use of community resources: (increased utilization of community services.)

Call 989-633-3700 to register for this program. There is a $25 suggested donation. Class size is limited to 12 participants. This program is supported in part by funds from the Older Americans Act.
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EUREKA  A Woodford County judge will consider a request to reduce the eight-year prison sentence of a Bloomington woman who confessed to killing her husband in October 2016.

Sarah Mellor was sentenced July 18, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her husband, Mark Mellor, at a campground near Carlock.

According to prosecutors, the two argued and struggled over a knife. During the altercation, Mark Mellor was stabbed in the chest. He later died at Advocate BroMenn Regional Medical Center.

Sarah Mellor was originally charged with first-degree murder, but in May, accepted a deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder. She faced punishment ranging from probation to 20 years in prison.

After four hours of testimony at her sentence hearing, Judge Michael Stroh sentenced her to eight years, saying sometimes good people do bad things.

Sarah Mellor was a teacher at Bloomington High School, but resigned after her arrest.

The motion to reconsider Mellors sentencing was filed earlier this month by her attorney, Stephanie Wong. Wong could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Mellors case will be heard Sept. 5 at the Woodford County Courthouse.

Mellor, who had been in the county jail since her arrest on the day of the stabbing, has been transferred to Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln and remains in the orientation program for Illinois Department of Corrections inmates.
NORMAL  Going to college is not just about academics; it's also about family, say Illinois State University officials as they prepare for the annual influx of students.

One of our big themes this year is 'Your Redbird Family,' said Stacey Mwilambwe, director of University Housing Services.

The family theme was part of Preview orientation sessions for students and their parents.

Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson spoke to those in attendance about what it means to be a Redbird, emphasizing values of family, pride, respect, inclusion, integrity and caring.

Mwilambwe said she would encourage year-round residents to take up the care perspective, too.

If someone looks lost or bewildered, reach out to them and ask if you can help, she suggested.

There could be a lot of bewildered people in town this week.

Residents of ISU's apartments have been moving in since the beginning of the month, but students living in residence halls begin their move-in Monday.

About 60 percent of the 6,100 on-campus residents will be moving in Wednesday and Thursday at Hewett, Manchester, Watterson, Wright, Wilkins and Haynie halls.

That means certain restaurants and stores will be more crowded than usual, as will many roads. Temporary changes in traffic patterns will be in effect through Friday near campus.

Updates on traffic and other issues that might arise will be posted on Twitter @ISUHousing and on the ISU mobile app.

More than 300 students and staff will help at the residence halls, including student athletes.

Move-in is a very exciting time, said Mwilambwe. Describing it as a rite of passage, she also called it a bonding experience for both parents as well as students.

You always remember it, she said.

Sometimes the good-byes can be harder on the parents than the students, according to Mwilambwe, based not only on her experience as a housing administrator but also on having a child entering her second year of college.

Rather than expecting to create this romanticized version of a goodbye, figure out what works for you and your family and accept whatever farewell you get from your children, advised Mwilambwe.

She isn't the only person in ISU's division of student affairs who is wearing two hats as administrator and parent.

The daughter of Katy Killian, assistant vice president for student affairs, will be a freshman at ISU this fall.

Killian's advice to other parents is: Be there as a support but try to allow them to figure things out themselves.  Provide them with the tools to solve some of the problems they may be facing.

But she admits, It's new to me as a parent of a student. I may have different advice next fall.

For Killian, Redbird family includes new friends her daughter, Emily, will make.

We look forward to having her friends here, some of whom will have family farther away, she said.

During the orientation sessions welcoming students, Johnson told parents, from the president of the university to the faculty and staff to the grounds crews, everyone is here to support our students.

One way they do that, especially for new students, is through a program named, House Calls.

Volunteers from across the campus, including faculty, take part, said Mwilambwe. They knock on every door in the residence halls, offering warm cookies or some other treat and asking what they can do to help, she said.

Sometimes it's the simple things, said Mwilambwe. Other times it may involve helping them find a job or a tutor.

Johnson said he told students if they remembered nothing else from his talk, they should remember this: Have each other's back. We are a community of care.
BLOOMINGTON  Local school officials say Sundays vote by the Illinois Senate to override Gov. Bruce Rauners veto of a controversial school-funding plan was expected but still hope that lawmakers can negotiate a plan that works better for downstate schools.

The Senate voted 38-19 to reject the Republican governors amendatory veto of the newly devised financing formula. Rauner argues it is too generous to Chicago public schools.

Ive been very clear that the governors amendatory veto as it stands is a terrible thing for public schools and not just here, but across the state, said District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly. I cant begin to tell you how disappointed I am in what was portrayed to some of us by the governors office as a Chicago pension issue that changed once he did his amendatory veto, into the point where he basically ripped apart the evidence-based funding model. This just isnt good for anyone.

Unit 5 Superintendent Mark Daniel agreed.

"Something has to happen in Springfield to assist our school children in Illinois. The first payment from the state for schools is already past due. This makes planning for the school year extremely difficult. We remain hopeful that our schools will receive the funding soon."

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, said lawmakers need to work quickly to find common ground on a compromise to fund schools.

A negotiated, compromise bill is the only way forward, Barickman said following the vote. My goal remains the same as it has always been, to put together a bipartisan school funding reform bill that can be signed into law, a bill that fairly funds all schools.

Arguing against the override vote, State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, also pleaded with lawmakers to negotiate a new deal.

This doesnt need to be personal, he said, But when we come to the negotiating table, this should be about parity. We want every child in this state to be adequately funded. By taking this action, it gives advantages to Chicago students at a cost to all other students around the state.

Rauner's amendatory veto removed hundreds of millions of dollars from what he calls a "bailout" for the nation's third-largest school system. It redistributed funds and Rauner is claiming that nearly every district would get more money under his plan.

Democrats argued that Chicago educates largely low-income students. They say the Rauner plan simply takes money from one needy district to fund another.

Before the Senate took up the veto override, the plan's sponsor, Sen. Andy Manar, called the Rauner plan "smoke and mirrors."

Democrats in the Legislature, which ended a two-year stalemate by approving a budget over Rauner's objections in July, included a provision in the budget about school funding. It prohibited disbursing money unless it was done through a newly devised "evidence-based" model aimed at getting more money to the neediest school districts.

That model is in the legislation Rauner vetoed. The governor said it was too generous to cash-strapped schools in heavily Democratic Chicago and leaves too little flexibility for future state funding.
Q: I served in the Army in the Korean War in the early 1950s. I have limited resources at my age and reside in a county nursing home. I know the state and county pick up a large portion of the cost. After seeing combat and experiencing the ravages of war for my country, I had hopes that I would have better living arrangements in my declining years. Are there nursing home-type facilities in Illinois for old veterans that honors their military service?

A: Yes! The state operates veterans homes in Anna, LaSalle, Manteno and Quincy. Quality nursing and health care services are provided to Illinois veterans with military service of one day or more who meet certain income guidelines. Preference in admission is given to veterans who served during a period of war, though peacetime veterans, spouses, surviving spouses, and Gold Star parents may be eligible. Monthly costs are based on income but are capped at $1,429. Contact your local Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs office at 309-827-5811 for more information.

Q: I am an unemployed veteran. I have job skills in several areas that would make me a good candidate for a job with the state. Is it true that Illinois has a veterans' preference in its employment practices?

A: Central Management Services gives preference to honorably discharged veterans who apply for the entry-level jobs that are under the governors authority. Other parts of state government do not have a formal program to give veterans preference. Contact CMS at 800-643-8138 to learn more about the program or to begin the process of state employment.

Alert!

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning about a new fraud that targets veterans who utilize the Veterans Choice Program. Scammers have set up a phony telephone number that is almost identical to the real VCP number. The fake lines message will indicate that you are entitled to a rebate if you provide a credit card number to which the rebate can be sent. There is no rebate and your account will be debited with nothing in return. The correct Veterans Choice Program number is 866-606-8198. The VA nor any other government agency will not ask for your financial account information.

Event reminder

The new memorial and flag pole in Bloomingtons Evergreen Cemetery will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Aug. 26 Join your fellow veterans and families at this commemoration ceremony.

Did you know?

On July 12, 1973, 16 million to 18 million official military personnel files were destroyed when fire ripped through the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Records lost were World War I Army with dates between Nov. 1, 1912-Sept. 7, 1939; World War II Army, Sept. 8, 1939-Dec. 31, 1946; World War II Army, Jan. 1, 1947-Dec. 31, 1959; and Air Force, Sept. 25, 1947-Dec. 31, 1963.

NPRC staff still are trying to piece together those lost records. The records recovery teams reconstruct 2,000 to 3,000 records per week. With information from files that were not destroyed, and working with other agencies and military branches, NPRC has reconstructed close to 6 millions records since the fire. About 90 percent of the reconstructed records are adequate to produce a document that can be used to obtain benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs and other benefits.

Records requested from the NPRC are free if the request is made to obtain VA benefits. Veterans who have had difficulty in obtaining their records due to the fire should fill out Form SF 180, Request for Military Records, which is available at the Veterans Assistance Commission, 200 W. Front St., Suite 400D, Bloomington.
BLOOMINGTON  Another week of comfortable temperatures is expected in Central Illinois, say forecasters with the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

Mondays high will be 83 degrees, forecasters say, under a mostly sunny sky. It will be slightly warmer Tuesday, with a high near 86 degrees.

There is a slight chance of rain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the NWS. The afternoon temperatures will be around 84 degrees on those days.

Rain is not expected for the coming weekend.

On this date in 1992, parts of Central Illinois were in the midst of a record dry month. Peoria only reported 0.25 inch of rain during the month, marking its driest August on record. Other records were established at Canton,with 0.55 inch, and Galesburg with 0.88 inch. Springfield's total of 0.46 inch was its third driest August on record.

Aug. 12 marked the 40th anniversary of the debut of NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) in Central Illinois. It was on that date in 1977 that station WXJ-75 in Springfield went on the air. This was followed in December of 1977 by stations WXJ-76 in Champaign, and WXJ-71 in Peoria.

The major expansion of NWR was driven by the April 1974 "Super Outbreak" of tornadoes, and the designation by the White House that NWR was the sole government-operated radio system to provide direct warnings into private homes, for both natural disasters and nuclear attacks.

By the late 1970's, the network had expanded to over 300 stations. Another large tornado outbreak, occurring over the southeast U.S. on Palm Sunday 1994, resulted in another renewed expansion. The network currently has over 1,000 transmitters across the U.S. and associated territories, and nearly all of Illinois is able to receive a NOAA Weather Radio broadcast.

The NWS office currently operates nine transmitters in Central and southeast Illinois.
Bloomberg reports this afternoon that Chris Lattner, a legend in the world of Apple software, has joined Alphabet Inc.'s Google, where he will work on artificial intelligence. Lattner announced the news on Twitter on Monday, saying he will start next week. His arrival at Mountain View, California-based Google comes after a brief stint as head of the automated driving program at Tesla Inc., which he left in June. Lattner made a name for himself during a decade-plus career at Apple Inc., where he created the popular programming language Swift. Lattner said he is joining Google Brain, the search giant's research unit.

Patently Apple's 'Snap News' is designed to provide our fan base with quick access to more Apple news that's being reported on around the blogosphere. It's a format that's brief, to the point and without graphics. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
In July Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple to Comply with China's Cyber Security Law by Partnering with 'Guizhou-Cloud' to Set Up new Data Center." I noted in the report that Apple was the first foreign firm to announce amendments to its data storage for China following the implementation of a new cyber-security law on June 1 that requires foreign firms to store data within the country. Apple was quick to point out that there are no backdoors into any of our systems. Today we're learning a little more about the arrangement that Apple has with the Ghizhou-Cloud service.

According to Reuters, China's Guizhou province plans to create a working committee chaired by communist party members to oversee the U.S. company's iCloud facility.

More specifically, the Reuters report notes that "The Guizhou government said on its website (www.gzgov.gov.cn) that the Apple iCloud working committee would be made up of around 10 members, such as Guizhou's Executive Vice Governor Qin Rupei, Deputy Secretary-general Ma Ningyu and other officials.

"The provincial government has decided to form a development and coordination working committee to quicken the setting up of Apple's iCloud project," it said in a Chinese language statement.

Patently Apple dug a little deeper and discovered the original Chinese press release. Using Bing's Translator, the letter as noted below states that "To accelerate Apple iCloud floor construction of the project, Apple iCloud project into full play to great leading role in the development of the cloud computing industry in the province, the provincial government decided to set up Apple iCloud project coordination leading group "

The press release further noted that "In accordance with the unified arrangements of the leading group, with Apple Dock maintain close contact, strengthen coordination, lead we will save the system, work within the terms of reference mandates in this area, promote projects accelerate the construction of landing, and timely submission to the Office of the leading group of projects to advance the situation."









About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
A few notes that I threw together quite a few years ago. Comments welcomed:

Similarities

Both religions worship the same deity. Allah is related to the word Elohim. Allah is simply the Arabic word for God, and is the term used in the Christian Arabic Bible as well as the Arabic Book of Mormon and other Latter-day Saint materials. [Incidentally because it is in the Quran and because Arabic is the sacred language of Islam, Persians or Iranians sometimes use the Arabic Allah, but they typically use the Persian word Khudawhich is related to the English word God.]

In both faiths, God intervenes or acts in history. In fact, his primary self-revelation comes in his interactions with prophets and peoples over the course of history. (As opposed to, say, Buddhism, where religious truths are sought in the mind, through meditation initiated by the person himself, and history is relatively unimportant.)

Mormonism and Islam share substantial history. Both recognize Gods creation of the earth, and, thereafter, a line of prophets commencing with Adam and running forward through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus.

Although doctrine is certainly important in the two faiths, Islam and Mormonism have both tended to focus, as Judaism also does, on history rather than on theology (in the sense that mainstream Christians do theology). It is in history that the claims of the two faiths stand or fall. And both Mormonism and Islam, like Judaism, have tended to define whether one is a good follower of the faith by asking questions about behavior and practicepersonal history, in a sense.

Both Islam and Mormonism are focused on scripture (much more so than Buddhism and Hinduism)again, much like Judaism and mainstream (especially Protestant) Christianity.

Both faiths place a high priority on evangelizing non-adherents.

Both Mormonism and Islam see themselves as working to build societies that will embody their beliefs more fully. Just as Latter-day Saints speak of building Zion and of the eventual coming of the New Jerusalem and the Millennium, and look back to the city of Enoch, Muslims are exhorted to command good and forbid evil and to seek to put the sharia, Islamic law, into effect. The inner circle of the Prophet Muhammad is the ideal age to which they look back. This is to say that purely private, purely individual, practice of the religion, without regard to building a better society or interacting with other people, is seen as defective. There is, the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said, no monasticism in Islam.

Both Islam and Mormonism see an end to history, which is moving in linear fashion toward a divinely-determined goal. There are many prophecies about the Last Days in both faiths, and these prophecies are, in a number of ways, rather similar. In Islam, Jesus will return and confront al-Dajjal, an anti-Christ figure. There will be earthquakes and great destruction and, finally, the Last Judgment.

All human beings will be resurrectedliterally, bodilyand brought before God for judgment, in both faiths.

When the Prophet Muhammad died, a dispute arose regarding the succession. The group that came to be known as the Shiites holds that his successor (the imam) must be his closest surviving male relative. The so-called Sunnis believe that the lineage of the successor (the caliph) is relatively unimportant, so long as there is a successor to enforce and interpret the law. There is obviously at least a superficial similarity here to the split between the Latter-day Saints and the Reorganized Church. (In practice, however, the line of Shiite imams seems to have died out in the late ninth century, and the Sunni caliphate was abolished by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the reformist founder of modern Turkey, in the early twentieth century.)

The Quran is a book of revelations received by the Prophet Muhammad over the course of his twenty-two year ministry. The revelations are arranged, roughly, according to chronological considerations. It is not a narrative about Muhammad, and was not written by him, but is believed to represent the actual voice of God speaking to his prophet (either audibly or by internal inspiration). In several respects, it can be compared to the Doctrine and Covenants.

Islamic culture, like Mormon culture, tends to be patriarchal and to place considerable emphasis on the family. Many of our values (e.g., chastity) are similar. However, Islam allows greater latitude to a double standard than Latter-day Saints can tolerate. (In other words, female chastity tends to be more vital in Islamic eyesin practice, although not in theorythan does male chastity.) And, while the family plays an indispensable role in Latter-day Saint doctrine and expectations for the afterlife, it appears to be more of a cultural matter in Islamic areas. (Illustration: Plural marriage was an innovation, mandated by revelation to Joseph Smith, in nineteenth century Mormonism. In Islam, although polygamy is permitted, it has no particular religious significance. Islamic law simply regulates a pre-existing practice.)

That said, however, it is clear (with all the talk of the houris, or the virgins of paradise) that Islamic expectations of the afterlife do include gender differentiation and continued sexual behavior. Although the parallel to Latter-day Saint doctrines relating to eternal marriage is only vague, it has been the object of considerable mockery among critics of the Church from the nineteenth century until today.

Differences

Islam and Mormonism conceive of God rather differently. Mormonism teaches an embodied God; at least officially (whatever ordinary, uneducated Muslims may believe, and though the Quran can easilyand, I think, shouldbe read otherwise), Islam teaches of a God without body or location. (There is overwhelming evidence that many early Muslims, probably including the Prophet Muhammad himself, believed in a corporeal deity.)

The line of prophets in Islam culminates with Muhammad, and the overwhelming majority of Muslims do not believe that any prophet can or will come after Muhammad. Mormonism has never recognized Muhammad as a prophet (though some Church leaders have been willing to describe him as inspired), but affirms the post-biblical prophethood of Joseph Smith and a line of successors.

The unforgivable sin in Islam is shirk. (The Arabic word means, roughly, association, but can be loosely rendered as polytheism.) To commit shirk is to worship or recognize any other deity beyond or instead of the one true God. Muslims are uneasy with the mainstream Christian view of the Trinity, despite Trinitarian protests that the Trinity is really just one God; they will, I think, tend to find Latter-day Saint references to the Gods (as in the Book of Abraham and elsewhere) rather disturbing. I see this as a potential flashpoint in our relations with Muslims. (However, historically, Muslims have learned to live more or less in peace with Hindus and other undeniably polytheistic groups, and even to evolve ingenious ways of considering them actually monotheists, so this can probably be managed. There is, obviously, as the Book of Mormon makes clear, a very powerful sense in which we too can truthfully say that we worship and believe in only one God. This will need to be emphasized in any theological discussions with devout Muslims, when and if they arise.)

Crucial difference: Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, even a very great one, but only as a prophet. He is not the Son of God, for Islam recognizes no children of God. Quran 112 reads as follows: Say: He is God, One. God, the Absolute. He does not beget nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto him. (It is just remotely possible that Muhammad is not responsible for this passage. But I know of no way to prove it, and he probably was.)

While both Mormonism and Islam speak of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, Latter-day Saints do so to insist that Jesus father was not Joseph but God himself, with all that that entails for Jesus capacity to save us in his role as Savior and Redeemer. Muslims, by contrast, insist that Jesus was the son of Mary. He had no father at all, but was a miraculous sign from the all-powerful God.

Related to this point is the fact that, for Muslims, we are not all brothers and sisters because we are the children of the same God. They understand what Christians mean when such words are used, and may even be sympathetic to the point a Christian might be trying to make, but, in their view, God does not have children. We are creatures of Godno more related to Deity than the light bulb was related to Thomas Edison.

Another absolutely crucial difference: In Islam, God is sovereign and free. He can forgive (or not forgive) anyone he wants. Accordingly, Muslims see no need for an atonement. And their prophetic but human Jesus lacks the innate capacity to effect an atoning sacrifice. Mormonism, on the other hand, speaks of a cosmic law of justice that has to be satisfied, which even God (in some sense) is not free to ignore, and of Jesus as the perfect and divine sacrificial offering who settled a debt on our behalf that we could not have taken discharged by ourselves.

The Quran is absolutely central to Islam and Islamic culture, in ways that go far beyond the centrality of the Bible and other scriptures among Latter-day Saints. Quranic recitationthe Quran is chanted, and there are experts who actually become popular stars because of their chanting abilities and the quality of their voicesbegins and ends each broadcast day on radio and television. Quranic verses are carved into stone on public buildings and sewn into tapestries and wall-hangings and inscribed by expert calligraphers on metal trays and framed parchments. Students learn to read and recite the Quran in Arabic, even if Arabic is not their native language. Great emphasis is placed on reciting the Quran properly, but relatively little is placed on understanding what it means. The words themselves are thought to be the words of God, and so there is power in simply saying them. But there are no study editions of the Quran, and it is unthinkable that anyone would ever take a MagicMarker to a Quran to highlight certain passages, or make notes in the margin. Muslims I have known have been appalled to see Latter-day Saints place their scriptures under a chair at a meeting; the Quran should never touch the ground, and readers should, ideally, have washed their hands and made themselves ritually pure before opening it. Some Western scholars have even argued that the best analogy to the Quran in Christianity is not the Bible, but the (mainstream) Christian view of the Son himself. Both Jesus and the Quran, they contend, can be regarded as the Word, as Gods eternal utterance, the tangible manifestation of God in this world. I think the comparison is apt. The same arguments that swirled around the relationship of the Father and the Son in the early apostate Christian church and culminated in the Nicene Creed were made, in Islam, about the Quran. (Was it created, or eternal? Etc.)

Evangelization, in the Islamic view, tends to be a one-way street. People can and should convert to Islam. If a person converts from Islam to some other (necessarily inferior) religion, many Muslims will deem that person worthy of death. The view that apostasy is a capital offense has been represented in Islamic law since roughly 800 A.D. That is, it is a post-Muhammadan development, but nonetheless very old and deeply ingrained. This represents an obvious problem for Latter-day Saints, who, by contrast, place heavy emphasis on religious freedom and agencywhich, in our view, was a primary issue in the grand premortal council. A related matter is the fact that Islamic cultures tend to emphasize social controls (for example, in segregating men and women, and covering women from head to toe), whereas Latter-day Saints are willing to pay certain costs (in allowing sin, to put it bluntly) in order to preserve the opportunity for freely-chosen virtue.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hierarchical and centralized. Authority flows, and direction is given, to local leaders from those holding the keys. Islam, in contrast, and especially in its majority Sunni form, is extremely decentralized. In fact, one cannot legitimately speak of a Muslim church or anything like it. There is no Muslim priesthood (although the several Shiite movements, notably the so-called Twelvers who dominate Iran, sometimes come close). Instead, in the absence of a living prophet or even an analogue to the pope, leadership of the Muslim community has fallen into the hands of the so-called ulama, whose authority flows from their knowledge of the Quran and the other authoritative texts of Islam. (They are roughly comparable to rabbis, in that regard.)

Authority, in Islam (and, again, particularly among its Sunni majority) resides in the past. Knowledge of that past, and of the legal and doctrinal precedents to be found therein the form of what are called hadith, or, roughly, traditionsgives the individual religious leader his power and authority. This means that there is little room for innovation within Islam. (The Arabic word bida means both innovation, or novelty, and heresy.) If innovation occurs, it requires a re-reading and re-interpretation of the already available canonical texts. This is quite different from authority among the Latter-day Saints, where changes in practice, etc., can come quite suddenly, as in the case of the 1978 revelation on priesthood. Islams solid base in the past, and the diffusion of interpretive authority among tens of thousands of rabbis from Indonesia to Morocco, from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria and Canada, makes it very difficult to hijackand very difficult to reform or adapt.

Islamparticularly in its Iranian Shiite formplaces considerable emphasis on the idea of martyrdom, while Latter-day Saints, by and large, do not. We do not believe, for example, that Joseph Smith went to heaven because he was murdered by an anti-Mormon mob.
The R3 book series is pleased to announce the publication of The Womanist Preacher: Proclaiming Womanist Rhetoric from the Pulpit by Kimberly P. Johnson. Pre-order your copy today!

About the Book:

The Womanist Preacher: Proclaiming Womanist Rhetoric from the Pulpit performs a close textual analysis of five womanist sermons to answer the question: how does womanist preaching attempt to transform/adapt the tenets of womanist thought to make it rhetorically viable in the church? And what is gained and lost in this. The sermons come from five women who are considered exemplars of womanist preaching: Elaine M. Flake, Gina M. Stewart, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Melva L. Sampson, and Claudette A. Copeland. This book takes the first step in womanist scholarship to dissect what is rhetorically going on in womanist preaching, to categorize womanist sermons under the four tenets of womanist preaching, and to then create four rhetorical models that reflect the rhetorical attributes of the four different categories or phrased tenets that Stacey Floyd-Thomas uses to represent Alice Walkers womanist definition.

Praise for the book:

In her groundbreaking work on womanist preaching, Kimberly P Johnson reveals how the unique experiences of African American women, marginalized by both gender and race, but strong and hopeful in their vision of what might be, leads to discourse that can liberate oppressed people through a social justice discourse. Womanist theory grounds Johnsons discussion of womanist preaching as a rhetorical genre, thus informing future discussions of womanist rhetoric more generally. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in African American studies, womens studies as well as rhetoric and social change. (Sandra J. Sarkela, The University of Memphis)

The Womanist Preacher: Proclaiming Womanist Rhetoric from the Pulpit breaks new ground while providing evolving homiletical strategies and lively rhetorical examples. Particularly noteworthy is Kimberly Johnsons invitation to liberated-minded preachers to move African American women from ecclesiastical margins to the sermons integral center. (Katie Geneva Cannon, Union Presbyterian Seminary)

With an unusual clarity and keen scholarly insight, Kimberly Johnson makes a major contribution to the understanding of the powerful Womanist preaching tradition of African American preaching. A book like this is long overdue and by the quality of her work, Kim Johnson proves that she is a young scholar to be watched and read. (Frank A. Thomas, Christian Theological Seminary)

*If you are seeking a publisher for your book, see our call for proposals.

About the book author:

Kimberly P. Johnson (PhD, University of Memphis, 2010) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Tennessee State University. She specializes in the areas of Political, Religious, and African American Rhetoric, Rhetorical Criticism, Cultural Criticism and Womanism. Dr. Johnson has presented her research at professional communication associations such as: National Communication Association, Rhetoric Society of America, Southern States Communication Association, and Tennessee Communication Association. Prior to teaching in academia, Dr. Johnson worked in ministry as an Associate Pastor, Associate Minister, Childrens Ministry Director, Childrens Pastor, and Church Consultant.

Donate to the Work of R3
The GCB Bank has acquired UT Bank and Capital Bank following the distress of the two banks, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said.



The development is in line Section 123 of the new Banking Act, which states that when a bank is in distress, the Bank of Ghana revokes their license, appoints a receiver and then look for a buyer.



So that is what has happened according to an industry expert who said those two banks are in serious distress.



This means that their licenses have been revoked and they cannot operate again.





Below is a copy of the press release from the BoG



GCB BANK LTD TAKES OVER UT BANK LTD AND CAPITAL BANK LTD



The Bank of Ghana has approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd.



The Bank of Ghana has revoked the Licences of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd. This action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital.



The remaining assets and liabilities will be realised and settled respectively through a receivership process to be undertaken by Messers Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).



The main offices and branches of UT Bank and Capital Bank will be under the control of GCB bank and will be opened at 1pm today for normal business transactions.



Customers of UT Bank and Capital Bank are now customers of GCB bank. All deposit customers will continue to have access to their funds. UT Bank and Capital Bank branches and ATMs will continue to operate as normal as GCB bank branches and ATMs. All staff in the interim will become staff of GCB bank and GCB Bank will negotiate the terms of their contract.



GCB was selected amongst 3 others on the basis of purchase price, cost of funding, branches to be retained, staff to be employed and impact on the acquiring banks capital adequacy ratio.



The Bank of Ghana assures the public that all customers can continue normal banking business at all UT Bank and Capital Bank facilities which are now branches of GCB bank.



The approval by the Bank of Ghana of this transaction is to strengthen Ghanas banking sector, ensure financial stability and protect depositors funds.



The Bank of Ghana reassures customers of UT Bank and Capital Bank that their money is safe and they can continue to do business at their respective branches which are now the branches of GCB Bank.



For further information stakeholders are advised to reach GCB through its website www.gcbbank.com.gh and on the following lines:



0501607001

0556615817

0501607002

0556615823

0501607003

0556615819

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghana Revevue Authority (GRA) has stated that it will begin processes to have tax evaders imprisoned beginning this year.



This forms part of measures to ensure the country shores up its finances and reduce the over reliance on loans.



Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)of Parliament on Thursday, August 10, 2017, Commissioner General of the GRA, Kofi Nti said the Authority was seriously considering such a move to deter companies and individuals from tax evasion.



In Ghanas history, there has never been a situation when somebody had gone to prison because of tax default but somehow from this year, we will be choosing that option, he told the committee.



This decision comes at a time the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is calling for a more rigorous approach in tax collection as government seeks to bolster its domestic revenue mobilisation.



Mr Nti is very optimistic the prison sentences on tax defaulters will sanitise the system.







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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Head of the Political Science department at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has said, he does not fear been killed by politicians in Ghana because it is too stressful living under their governance.



His comments come days after a politician friend sent him a text that reads' Good morning, Prof. Please be vigilant and take steps to protect yourself and family. This establishment is unhappy about your statements.



It could be remembered that Prof. Gyampo in a write up on Facebook accused the NPP government for deceiving Ghanaians for power and doing otherwise after they have been given mantle to govern the affairs of the country.



This may have won the lecturer some enemies.



But in a Facebook post, the lecturer indicated that, Politicians can do their worst by killing me but I am not afraid to die.



Read His Write up here:



A very respected NDC friend of mine sent me this:



Good morning, Prof. Please be vigilant and take steps to protect yourself and family. This establishment is unhappy about your statements.



My response:



Sir, thanks. Politicians can do their worst by killing me but I am not afraid to die. Its too stressful living under the governance of politicians in Ghana who do not mean well.



Note that I am referring to Ghanaian politicians, both the NDC and NPP!!!



Now to my NDC friends:



I am happy you are sharing my post and praising me all over. But I am not amused with your hypocrisy! You have refused to think and objectively analyze my write-ups. You have always tagged me as NPP. Now that some people in the NPP says I am in bed with your party. Are you going to accept me?



Please watch out for my write-up about the school you have established. I will speak my mind about it. Be careful to take my view as my view. Do not tag me as NPP when I criticize you.



For starters, please take note that the initiative to open a school at this time when the party is bleeding in opposition, and when there seem to be no ideological purity anywhere in the world, is a waste of time! I will expand on this in a detailed write-up shortly.



In the meantime, go to Legon Bookshop to get this book titled The Youth and Political Ideology in Ghanaian Politics authored by Ransford Edward Van Gyampo.









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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Operation Vanguard (OV) is not responsible for the killing of four small scale miners at a galamsey site in the Atiwa West District of the Eastern region, the Atiwa Youth Association (AYA) has said.



On Sunday August 13, four galamseyers were found dead near a mining site. Members of OV, a taskforce set by the government to deal with the illicit small scale mining in the country have been accused of killing the four but the taskforce has denied involvement in the killings.



The AYA, in a statement released on Monday, 14 August, 2017 said publications suggesting that OV had a hand in the murder of the miners are misleading and should be discarded.



The statement read: The attention of the Atiwa Youth Association has been drawn to publications circulating in the media (electronic and social media) concerning the death of four (4) galamseyers at Akukuso  a suburb of Kwabeng. Atiwa Youth Association is calling on the police to undertake a thorough investigation to fish out what killed them and who is behind their death. Publications circulating in the media have been given a twist of the issue by attributing their death to the Vanguard (anti-galamsey taskforce).



This allegation by the media is whimsical and was orchestrated by the opposition to government in order to win a political point.



The anti-galamsey taskforce operated in the Atiwa district about a week ago so, the perpetrators thought of doing that to Ghanaians and attribute it to the Vanguards. Fortunately, the taskforce has not operated in the district since three days. The Atiwa Divisional Police Command has cleared the vanguard of knowing nothing about it.



We are entreating the general public to ignore the claim that the death was caused by the anti-galamsey taskforce. When the mortal remains of the alleged galamseyers were found, there was no sign of gunshot (wounds) on their bodies.



Simple logic will tell us that, under no circumstances will an armed military officer lay down his ammunition to fight someone he deems a treat by hands. The quest by the government to halt galamsey must be deemed a national task. We need to protect the environment for generations to come just as our forefathers did for us.



Atiwa Youth Association is calling on the Police Service to do all it can to unearth the hidden truth of the incident. We share our condolences to the bereaved family.







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 Council of Elders of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is set to hold a crunch meeting with the leadership following recent happenings within the party.



Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, told Joy News the Council of Elders, which is the highest advisory body of the NDC will meet the Functional Executive Committee of the party on Tuesday over a myriad of issues.



The leadership will meet over many, many issues. I can say for sure that focus of conversation will be posted Kwesi Botchwey report, said Koku Anyidoho.



The Kwesi Botchwey report investigated the cause of NDC's abysmal performance in the 2016 general elections. Its detailed contents have remained a subject of speculation as the party has kept it away from the public.



Accusations and counter accusations by former Deputy Chief of Staff Dr. Valerie Sawyerr and former Attorney General Martin Amidu have caused a major stir in the party.



Dr. Sawyerr stirred controversy last week when she wrote a scalding article that condemned former President Rawlings and former Attorney-General and Mr. Amidu, for hypocrisy over their constant attacks on the NDC and former President John Mahama.



Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Amidu have both, in different ways, described the NDC under John Mahama as very corrupt.



That article received a strongly-worded rebuttal from Mr. Amidu and kick started an old debate about the appropriateness of assigning the NDC Founder status to Mr Rawlings.



Koku Anyidoho, however, told Joy News' Raymond Acquah that every issue worthy of discussion will come up in Tuesday's emergency meeting.



With regards to a petition to discipline Mr. Amidu for his attacks on the party, Mr Anyidoho revealed the NDC Disciplinary Committee has started its probe and will soon meet the parties involved and submit its report in 30 days.





Source: Joy News









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Featured Video
The National Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams says President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must be held responsible for the alleged killings of illegal miners by Operation Vanguard, an anti-galamsey task force.



He explained that, Since the President is the one embarking on this campaign, he must be held responsible for any unfortunate happenings. We cant blame former President Mahama for this.



The Defence Minister will be meeting with the task force today on this issue which is said to have reduced their morale to protect the environment.



There was unease and high tension at Kwabeng near Anyinam in the Eastern Region after four lifeless bodies were found near a mining pit filled with mud water.



Residents of the area have alleged that the anti-galamsey task force is to blame for the deaths of these men but the task force denies any such thing.



Speaking on NEAT FMs morning show, Ghana Montie Kofi Adams is of a view that The president lied to the miners during his campaign time. His own words are making it difficult for him to fight galamsey.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
An accused fentanyl dealer awaiting arraignment on felony drug charges at the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh hanged himself in a holding cell, rather than face justice on drug charges.

According to TribLive.com, the drug defendant, Gregory Japalucci, 38, of Westmoreland County, Pa., died Saturday at a local hospital following the hanging on Wednesday.

U.S. Marshals Service has offered few details about the incident, which took place in a federal courthouse holding cell while Japalucci was awaiting his appearance in court.

Background from TribLive.com:

A federal grand jury indicted Japalucci in June on felony charges of delivery and possession with intent to deliver fentanyl, as well as conspiracy.

The grand jury also indicted his wife, Autumn McClellan, 30, on charges of conspiring with her husband to deliver the highly addictive drug.

The pair had been "on the run" until Wednesday when federal authorities arrested them in Pittsburgh.

It was not immediately clear if Japalucci's jailed wife was permitted to visit him before his death.
Juanee Crawford was in the throes of an alcoholic blackout when she stabbed a paramedic in the chest on Thanksgiving Eve of 2015, her attorney told a Dauphin County judge Monday.

Yet the 28-year-old single mother from Harrisburg is successfully battling that demon, has given up drinking and is focusing instead on her work and her two kids, defense attorney George Matangos said.

Matangos' claims, and an apology from Crawford, helped convince Judge William T. Tully to accept a deal that will send Crawford to state prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years on her guilty plea to an aggravated assault charge.

Still, Tully modified Crawford's plea agreement, adding 5 years of probation to follow her jail term to ensure she continues to follow a law-abiding line.

Crawford's plea deal is largely the product of the mercy shown by her victim, Zachary Myers.

Myers wasn't injured when Crawford tried to plunge a kitchen knife into his chest as he responded to a medical call in the city's Hall Manor public housing complex. He was saved by the bullet-proof vest he was wearing.

Crawford was scheduled to be tried for attempted murder for the attack in June. Just before the jury was picked, Myers, through Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Rozman, agreed to allow Crawford to plead guilty to the lesser aggravated assault count.

Tully didn't accept that deal until Monday, however. He first wanted the probation department to probe Crawford's background to see if the break was warranted.

During Monday's hearing, Rozman said Myers, who didn't attend the court hearing, still favors the plea deal.

"Alcohol was a factor," Rozman said of the attack on Myers. "She's got to get a handle on that."

Matangos insisted his client has, especially by undergoing substance abuse counseling while serving three months in county prison after the attack on Myers.

"Alcoholism took control of what she was supposed to be focused on," he said, referring to Crawford's children. "She's been totally sober...and has shown no indication of ever wanting to go back to alcohol abuse."

Crawford has been working for a hotel that is willing to rehire her after she serves her prison time, Matangos said.

"She doesn't blame other people for her actions," he added. "I believe she was in a blackout state and did not know what she was doing during this incident."

"She's a different person now. She's sober, probably for the first time in six or seven years."

Crawford told Tully she is sorry for what happened and that she would never willingly hurt anyone. "I didn't know what I was doing," she said.

Tully told her he'd only accept her plea agreement if that 5-year probation tail was attached so she had extra monitoring. "My concern is she's got an alcohol problem and minor children," the judge said.

When Crawford agreed to the change, Tully told her, "I appreciate that because it shows you are willing to bet on your future as well."

Crawford's plea deal resolved two cases. Rozman also agreed to withdraw charges of aggravated assault and child endangerment from a July 2016 incident in Lower Paxton Township.

Police said witnesses reported seeing Crawford punching a 4- or 5-year-old boy in the parking lot of the Marshalls department store on Jonestown Road.

Matangos told Tully the child is Crawford's son, and that she was punishing him for disobeying her and running into the street. County Children and Youth Services investigated and chose not to open a case against Crawford for the incident, he said.
CARLISE - For two boys who died 130 years ago, a long journey is soon coming to an end.

Little Chief and Horse, who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, were disinterred last week and returned to their Northern Arapaho families today. They will soon be buried at their home in Wyoming.

When the team of archaeologists and anthropologists brought in for the disinterment realized the remains of two people had been placed in Little Plume's grave - the bones of neither matching the boy's approximate age - it was a difficult discovery.

"We sat under a tree, and I talked to them for an hour," Sonny Trimble, an archaeologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, described delivering the news to Little Plume's family. "At the end of the conversation, they were comforting me."

As a scientist, he was pleased with the discovery that the remains of the other two boys matched. But on a personal level, it was a somber finding that Little Plume's family would not have that same chance to say goodbye.

But he added that despite the cemetery being moved from its original location as the Carlisle Barracks expanded in 1927, the boys had been reburied with great care that conformed with the mortuary standards of the time.

Their remains were placed in small, pine boxes measuring 24 inches long, 12 inches wide, 10 inches deep, he said. Two of the containers were completely intact, the team found. The third was missing its top, which had decayed.

After years of requests from American Indian families, these were the first of the 180 American Indian children buried at the Carlisle Barracks to be disinterred. The three had attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which operated there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in an effort to assimilate American Indian children into the dominate white culture.

Many of the 10,000 children who attended did so voluntarily. Others, however, did not, and it was a traumatic experience for them as they were taken from their homes and stripped of their customs.

If there are future disinterments, Trimble said he's confident from what he has seen that most of the children had been reburied in properly-marked graves. However, record keeping then is not what it is today, and that makes it unlikely that all of them were, or that Little Plume's remains will be identified if they are found in another grave.

It was anthropologist Elizabeth DiGangi who examined the bones to determine their age and sex, and she was the first to see that Little Plume's remains were not among those found in his grave.

While working with human remains is always done respectfully, this was a special case since the family members were nearby, watching the process.

And the sad end to the short lives of the children was lost on no one.

"These were kids that went very far away from home and died thousands of miles away from home, and their families never saw them again," DiGangi said. "Each one of those kids was the most loved person in the entire world for somebody else."

The passage of time does not diminish those feelings for the families. Or for the team.

"That pain of their loss just doesn't go away. That pain is enduring, and that love is enduring," she said. "Enduring love is really what unites all of us as human beings."
Harrisburg police said Monday that they are looking for a man accused of displaying a pistol during an assault at North Fourth and Harris streets.

The suspect, Steven Lynch, 38, has criminal convictions that bar him from having a gun, police said.

They said the victim claimed Lynch came off a porch and grabbed him by the throat during an argument around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The victim claimed Lynch shoved him to the ground twice and threatened to kill him.

The victim claimed he saw a silver pistol in the waistband of Lynch's pants, police said. They said Lynch walked away when the victim ducked behind a car and said he was calling police.

A warrant has been issued for Lynch's arrest on charges of simple assault, making terroristic threats and illegally possessing a firearm, police said.
A map of the Canadian Arctic archipelago is shown as the Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica traverses the Northwest Passage, Monday, July 24, 2017. The federal government and Inuit groups are celebrating a deal on the boundaries of what will be Canada's largest national marine conservation area.Lancaster Sound on the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage teems with fish, whales and seabirds, and Inuit have fought to preserve it for decades.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/David Goldman
In this image made available by Society 4 Climate Change Communication - Sierra Leone, people survey the damage after mudslides in Regent, east of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monday Aug. 14, 2017. Mudslides after heavy rains and flooding killed scores of people in Sierra Leone's capital on Monday. (Society 4 Climate Change Communication via AP)
In this May 20, 2017 photo provided by Don Walter, Clemson University undergraduates Erin Thompson and Harrison Leiendecker practice using a Citizen CATE telescope during the South Carolina CATE training Workshop in Orangeburg, S.C. For the 2017 eclipse over the United States, the National Science Foundation-funded movie project nicknamed Citizen CATE will have more than 200 volunteers trained and given special small telescopes and tripods to observe the sun at 68 locations in the exact same way. The thousands of images from the citizen-scientists will be combined for a movie of the usually hard-to-see sunAos edge. (Don Walter via AP)
Bats over penguins. Thats how I describe things that defy expectations and leave me drop-jawed in surprise.

Years ago on a trip to Portland, my husband and I went to the Oregon Zoo mostly to see the penguins.

I love penguins. Theyre like toddlers on a sugar high from too much birthday cake  fun to watch, if you dont have to chase them. I could hardly wait.

So we saw them. They were great. Then we left to go eat. But a funny thing happened on our way to find food. We stumbled upon an exhibit of, yes, bats.

Bear in mind, I grew up in the South, intimately acquainted with all manner of jaw-dropping critters. But never in my life had I seen anything like those bats.

My husband, a California native/newspaper editor who prides himself on having seen it all, was duly impressed. But me? I was flat-out blown away. The point of that story is this: Sometimes we expect to see penguins. Then, out of the blue, totally unexpected, we get blown away by bats.

We cant make it happen. Its a gift, a surprise that surpasses anything we hoped for. All we can do is smile and be thankful and know weve been blessed.

This has been a bats-over-penguins kind of week.

My husband and I live in Las Vegas, a place with no shortage of jaw-dropping sights. But we were hungry to see family and friends in California. So we planned to stay for month by Monterey Bay, a place we once, and will forever, call home.

Our expectations are simple: To spend as much time as possible with people we love.

Its a good goal, dont you think, for a month or a lifetime?

Early this week, I got to pick up my grandson, Henry, from his first day of kindergarten. His mom, my daughter, is a teacher at his school. She needed to stay late, so she asked me to take him home. I met her outside his classroom and we waited with dozens of other mamas and daddies and nanas and papas.

Watching my daughter wait for her little one, I remembered how I felt waiting for her on her first day of kindergarten. Its such a joy getting to relive what its like to be a young mother, without doing any of the work.

When the bell finally rang, I wish you couldve seen all those little faces lighting up like the sun as they spotted someone waiting just for them.

It brought to mind a simple truth: Children are not races or nationalities or differences of any kind. Theyre just children. And they belong, not only to their families, but to us all.

Then I saw Henry flash me a grin as he hugged his mom and for a moment, I forgot my name.

Two nights later, Randy, my sons 6-year-old, was all set to spend the night with us  until he popped out his front tooth. But his mom told him the Tooth Fairy could find the house weve rented. Then she entrusted the boy and his tooth to our care.

That night, I told Randy this story. Long ago, when his dad lost a tooth, he left a note under his pillow: Dear Tooth Fairy, he wrote, Two teeth came out of my mouth but I lost one. Please give me double credit.

Randy liked that story a lot. Then I tucked him in bed with his tooth under his pillow. And after he fell asleep, I helped the Tooth Fairy do her thing.

The next morning, Randy flipped up his pillow and found five whole dollars. He was thrilled. Especially after I told him it was five times as much as his dad got for double credit.

Our month by the bay with people we love will be filled, I am sure, with surprises. But this week will be hard to top.

Henrys first day of school and Randys lost tooth were better than a zoo full of bats.

As my grandmother liked to say, its worth waking up every morning, and putting in your false teeth, just to see what on Earth will happen next.
In this Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, photo, a Border Patrol officer pats down several of the men that were found with a group of immigrants in a tractor-trailer in Edinburg, Texas. Police in Texas acting on a tip found the immigrants locked inside a tractor-trailer parked at a gas station about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border with Mexico, less than a month after 10 people died in the back of a hot truck with little ventilation in San Antonio. (Delcia Lopez/The Monitor via AP)
Lebanese army soldiers take pictures near military vehicles that were unloaded from a ship at Beirut's port in Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. The United State handed over the Lebanese army eight Bradley Fighting Vehicles part of 32 that will be delivered in the coming months. The U.S. has supplied the military with helicopters, anti-tank missiles, artillery and radars, as well as training. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
White nationalist demonstrators walk into the entrance of Lee Park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
FILE - In this April 1, 2015, file photo, GoDaddy signage and a race car announce the company's IPO, in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York. GoDaddy announced on Aug. 13, 2017, that has given a prominent white nationalist website that promoted a Virginia rally that ended in deadly violence 24 hours to move its domain to another provider because the site has violated GoDaddy's terms of service. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2017, file photo, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan responds to a question from a Republican voter during an employee town hall in Mukwonago, Wis. Ryan is planning to hold a town hall meeting Aug. 21, his first open to the general public in his congressional district in nearly two years. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File)
IOWA CITY  University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld made a pitch Monday to hike resident undergraduate tuition 41 percent over the next five years, but students and lawmakers pushed back  calling the plan a failure and urging the UI to go back to the drawing board.

It makes my heart beat a little too fast, Sen. Tod Bowman, D-Maquoketa, told an Iowa Board of Regents tuition task force meeting on the UI campus. Its irresponsible to ask that much of hardworking parents supporting their children.

The UI tuition proposal  the last of five-year pitches from Iowas three public universities  would increase resident undergrad rates 7.08 percent each year through 2022  raising rates from $7,486 this fall to $10,537.

The five-year plan also includes an annual 2.08 percent bump for non-resident undergrads  increasing this years $29,130 to $32,288 by 2022.

The proposed UI tuition increases also would extend to graduate students and those in costlier programs like medicine, engineering, dentistry and business.

Last week, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University presented their plans to the task force. ISU pitched a similar rate plan and UNI proposed a smaller 2.5 annualized bump for resident undergrads, provided the Legislature also appropriated enough money.

The regents would have to approve any tuition increases annually, making the university plans only suggestions. But if regents approve the proposed increases, they would usher in the first significant split in basic resident undergrad rates between the three public universities.

While the UI and ISU would push resident undergrad costs to around $10,500, UNIs comparable rate would rise more slowly to $8,237 by 2022.

Harreld said Monday he agreed with comments made last week by UNI President Mark Nook that the three institutions have different missions and needs.

'Weve been slipping

If the board approves the proposed increases, Harreld said, his university would use the estimated net $12 million in annual additional revenue to pursue its strategic plan. That plan  which is expected to cost between $154.5 million and $164.5 million in all  includes improving faculty pay and hiring more professors and research scientists.

Specifically, the UI hopes to use the additional revenue to hire 100 new faculty in the next five years, along with 25 research scientists.

The consequences of not doing so could be dire, according to Harreld, who cited mounting losses in top faculty and sliding national rankings. Over the past decade, the UI has dropped 18 places in U.S. News & World Report rankings to No. 82 among public and private colleges  near the bottom of what it considers its peers.

Additionally, the UIs four-year graduation rate at 51 percent is below its peer average.

Weve been slipping, Harreld said. Its time to put a stop to that and actually deliver. If you graduate from here, it needs to be world-class without any questions. Not eroding in U.S. News & World Report and other rankings. We owe that to the citizens of Iowa.

The board created its tuition task force and charged the universities with creating five-year plans after the state clawed back more than $20 million in base funding for the regent universities in the last budget year. The Legislature further cut its support by nearly $10 million in the current budget year.

Harreld said the proposed rates are based on seeing similar state appropriations over the next five years. But if the appropriations fall more, his institution would take another look.

Depending on any changes at the state level, Harreld acknowledged the university could even request a midyear tuition hike.

Regents President Mike Richards said last week he wants to stick with the tuition rates board members already have approved this year.

After hearing students and lawmakers criticize the UI proposal and urge the board and its universities to push harder for more legislative support, Richards said he and his colleagues will look at the whole picture  including the criticism  in deciding on rates.

7 percent is too high

With years of frozen tuition, the UI sits at the bottom of its peer group in residential undergrad tuition and fees, and near the bottom in non-resident undergraduate tuition and fees.

But those who spoke suggested thats not necessarily a bad thing.

State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said Harreld made a rational argument for more resources. But I have to say I strongly oppose the rate of increase, Bolkcom said. I recognize tuition is going up. I think 7 percent is too high.

The spike, he said, would increase student debt and decrease accessibility to higher ed.

This proposal throws in the towel on the people of Iowa who have helped build these intuitions, and I think it throws in the towel on the governor and Legislatures responsibility to support our public universities, Bolkcom said.

Of the seven lawmakers who attended the meeting Monday, none were Republicans although the GOP controls both chambers of the Legislature and the governors office.

UI Student Government President Jacob Simpson applauded the narrative of excellence Harreld has ushered in since arriving two years ago. But, he said, I believe this proposal is not one of excellence.

He, like some others, encouraged more fundraising, more penny-pinching and more advocacy for state funding.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos shake hands at the start of a meeting at the presidential guesthouse in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Cartagena is the first stop of Pence's weeklong trip to Latin America, that will also take him to Argentina, Chile and Panama. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Democrats seal control of Senate after Cortez Masto defeats Laxalt in Nevada

Democrats will retain control of the U.S. Senate after incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada defeated Republican Adam Laxalt.
Ocean View, Delaware, Aug. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Global Biometrics Market is forecast to cross USD 50 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.

High acceptance among various verticals including mobile banking and financial services owing to rising security concerns has enhanced biometrics market size. Government initiatives for biometrics implementation coupled with high deployment for criminal identification will remain the key factors driving industry demand.

Industry players focus on technological advancements and new product launches to cater to the customer requirements. Benefits offered including provision of precise and accurate validation as compared to traditional validation methods such as PINs and ID cards, are anticipated to increase the industry penetration across the globe till 2024.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/493

Increased smartphone penetration coupled with expansion of consumer electronics will favor the biometrics market share over the forecast timeframe. In addition, rising investment in military & defense due to authentication concerns is anticipated to offer high growth potential. Multimodal biometrics system is an emerging trend in public and private work space for stringent attendance recording purposes. However, high implementation cost and stored data uncertainty may hamper industry growth over the forecast timeframe.

Non-AFIS will account for the highest biometrics market share, surpassing USD 18 billion till 2024. This can be attributed to its high usage in various applications which include cashless vending and workforce management. Moreover, it finds use in various public areas that assure keyless entry and efficient security. Iris recognition will exhibit over 20% CAGR owing to wide integration of iris scanners mainly in smartphones.

Benefits such as unauthorized vehicle use detection, reduction of overtime expenses, and identification of billing anomalies will support the transportation & logistics segment growth from 2017 to 2024. Banking & finance applications will benefit from the rising demand from various financial institutions for precise authentication and streamlining of operations.

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North America biometrics market is expected to account for more than 30% share till 2024. Rising demand from government & security sector in U.S. coupled with the presence of major industry participants will escalate the industry growth. Moreover, favorable regulatory landscape in the U.S will help in fostering the industry demand. Asia Pacific is poised to grow at the highest CAGR owing to various government initiatives in the countries including China and India. National enrollment program (UIDAI Aadhar) in India, and China Resident Identity Card (CRIC) are among the implementation examples across the region.

Global industry share is highly fragmented with various participants across the globe. BIO Key International, David Link, EyeVerfiy, Iris ID, and NEC Corporation are among the prominent players in the biometrics market. Other notable players include Lockheed Martin, Green Bit Biometric Systems, FaceFirst, ZKTeco, and 3M Cogent.

Industry players focus on adoption of strategies including strategic alliances and partnerships to strengthen their position. For instance, in July 2017, Iris ID entered into a strategic partnership with Tongrentang for high revenue generation.

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Browse Related Reports:

ATM Market Size By Solution (Deployment [Onsite, Offsite, Worksite, Mobile], Managed Services), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Trends, Application Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2023

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Speech & Voice Recognition Market Size, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, China, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt), Application Development Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/speech-and-voice-recognition-market

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

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A potential Venezuelan crude ban has lobbying pitting refiners against Harold Hamm



Threat of Venezuelan oil ban pits oil boss Hamm against refiners

By Jennifer A Dlouhy, Bill Allison, and Meenal Vamburkar

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK

Petroleumworld 08 14 2017

The prospect of a U.S. blockade of crude oil imports from Venezuela has ignited fierce lobbying in Washington pitting domestic energy producers such as oil tycoon Harold Hamm, who favor a get-tough approach, against refiners that depend on those supplies.

Hamm said hitting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro where it counts would deter the socialist leader's moves to undermine democracy and consolidate power. In an interview, the Continental Resources, Inc. chief executive officer urged President Donald Trump to block the oil, a vital source of revenue for Venezuela.

"If the president wants to make an immediate impact on Venezuela to stop these human rights abuses and restore the situation, he's got the ability to," said Hamm, speaking as head of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance , whose members include producers, oilfield service companies and independent oil and gas associations.

Opposing the ban are refiners such as Chevron Corp. , Phillips 66 , and Valero Energy Corp., which have warned that choking off shipments of Venezuelan crude would starve refineries designed to process the country's heavy oil, leaving them searching for alternative supplies and driving up gasoline prices.

The stakes are high for both countries. Venezuela is the third-biggest supplier of oil imports to the U.S. -- more than 270 million barrels worth about $10 billion last year -- and that trade is a major source of revenue for the South American country.

Hamm was a vocal supporter of Trump's presidential bid, eventually agreeing to advise him on energy policy. Trump, in turn, repeatedly lavished praise on Hamm, during campaign stops in front of industry-heavy audiences in North Dakota and Pennsylvania.

When it is unified, the oil industry is a lobbying powerhouse in Washington, leaning on allies in the top ranks of the Trump administration as well as on Capitol Hill to advance its policy priorities. Oil and gas interests rank fourth among industry lobbying, with $64 million spent through the first six months of 2017, according to the not-for-profit Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes lobbying and campaign finance data.

Refiners have been pressing their case with the Trump administration since June, as the White House considers ways to pressure Maduro and discourage a rewrite of Venezuela's constitution. On Wednesday, the Trump administration froze the assets of eight Venezuelans, building on previous sanctions against 13 people associated with the Maduro regime.

White House officials have prepared a menu of possible additional sanctions against Venezuela but are divided over whether -- and when -- to take actions that could exacerbate the country's deteriorating humanitarian and economic situation. The progressive approach envisioned by administration officials includes blocking exports of U.S. oil to Venezuela followed by limits on oilfield service firms doing business in the country and, finally, restricting imports of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. Those restrictions could be phased in gradually.

The prospect has inspired frantic appeals by companies that spent billions optimizing at least 20 different refineries to process heavy crude from the country. The leading refining trade group, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, sent two letters to Trump last month warning that a blockade would destabilize crude markets, causing an increase in oil prices as refiners scramble to replace Venezuelan supplies with ill-fitting, higher-cost substitutes and leading to bigger gasoline bills for consumers.

Sanctions may not even work as intended, as Venezuela finds other outlets for its crude beyond the U.S., said AFPM President Chet Thompson.

"We think that the United States could take this action, and it won't have the desired effect, but it will have the unintended consequences of hurting consumers and refiners," Thompson said in an interview. "This is more than just a passing concern."

"Folks have spent many billions of dollars over the last several years to really optimize around Venezuelan crude, so any disruption of it could be a really big deal," Thompson said.

Besides Venezuelan-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp., the refiners most dependent on Venezuelan crude are Valero, Phillips 66, Chevron and PBF Energy Inc. They are also the most active in lobbying against a crude import ban, according to accounts by four people familiar with the activity.

Last year, Valero took in roughly 54 million barrels from Venezuela while Phillips 66 and Chevron imported 46 million barrels and 33 million barrels, respectively. And while companies are already working to pare their dependence on Venezuelan crude, that is a heavier lift at some refineries. For instance, Venezuelan oil accounted for 43 percent of Chevron's Pascagoula refinery's capacity last month, according to U.S. Customs data compiled by Bloomberg. It represented 62 percent at Valero's St. Charles facility.

Refiners have made direct appeals to administration officials and are courting Gulf Coast lawmakers, asking them to amplify their concerns with the White House. Those efforts paid off Thursday when the U.S. senators from Texas and Louisiana sent a letter to Trump arguing crude sanctions would be self defeating.

Sanctions targeting the oil sector would increase the likelihood of a disorderly default, hastening Russian consolidation of Venezuelan and Citgo oil assets, while diverting Venezuelan crude to China, harming the global competitiveness of U.S. businesses and raising costs for consumers, they said.

Asked about Chevron's lobbying on the issue, a spokesman said the company "engages with the administration and Congress to provide our perspectives on complex energy issues to help shape an effective and responsible U.S. energy policy."

Phillips 66 declined to comment. Representatives of PBF and Valero didn't respond to requests for comment.

Oilfield service providers also have been discouraging the Trump administration from imposing sanctions that limit their business in the country, including contracts with the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. That option had been presented by some refiners as an alternative to throttling down Venezuelan crude imports.

Excluding U.S. companies from working in Venezuela doesn't help further democracy there, the oilfield service firms argue; instead, it blocks their ability to recoup debt and gives competitors a chance to gain a foothold in the market.

The world's four biggest oil service providers -- Schlumberger Ltd. ; GE's Baker Hughes ; Halliburton Co. , and Weatherford International Plc -- have kept a presence in Venezuela in order to work for some large, integrated oil companies, James West, an analyst at Evercore-ISI, wrote Thursday in an email. None of the companies give specifics for how many wells they are drilling or the size of their crews there.

Hamm is advocating that the Trump administration also cut off Venezuela's access to light sweet, U.S. oil -- like the kind flowing from Texas and North Dakota, where his Continental Resources is pulling crude from the Bakken formation. Venezuela blends U.S. light oil with its heavy crude before shipping the mixture to foreign refiners.

Hamm said his recommendation has been conveyed to the White House, though he did not elaborate on how.

Oil companies are still reeling from their last lobbying fight -- a battle to weaken possible sanctions in legislation targeting Russia. The industry scored a partial win, when lawmakers agreed to set a threshold for Russian involvement high enough to remove the threat to some U.S. oil company projects around the world.

The threat of more sector-based regional sanctions is a disturbing trend, lobbyists said.

Citgo has made overtures to the Trump administration. It contributed $500,000 in December to the incoming president's inaugural committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. The company didn't contribute to inaugurations in 2005, 2009 or 2013.

Citgo has hired three lobbying shops, including Avenue Strategies, the firm co-founded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, paying it $80,000 from April to June. Lewandowski, who was not a registered lobbyist for Citgo, left Avenue Strategies in May. Two other veterans of the Trump campaign, senior adviser Barry Bennett and Arkansas state chairman Bud Cummins, represent the company.

They list the potential impact of "energy and foreign policy restrictions" on its client as a specific issue, and are lobbying the Treasury Department and the White House. Neither Bennett nor Cummins returned phone calls seeking comment.







Story by Jennifer A Dlouhy, Bill Allison, and Meenal Vamburkar; With assistance by David Wethe from Bloomberg .



bloomberg. com / 08 11 2017
Lozoya, former Pemex CEO denies receiving $10 million Odebrecht bribe



Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg



Emilio Lozoya. Media reports allege Odebrecht won refinery work after bribe, Lozoya says Odebrecht bribery claims are 'absolutely false'

By Christine Jenkins and Fabiana Batista

BOGOTA/SAO PAULO

Petroleumworld 08 14 2017

Former Petroleos Mexicanos Chief Executive Officer Emilio Lozoya denied media reports that he received $10 million in an alleged bribery scheme involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA in Mexico.

I have never participated in acts of corruption. These publications have lied repeatedly on this and other issues, and have never proven their allegations, Lozoya said in an emailed response to questions. I categorically deny the charges and the information that refers to alleged acts of request and/or acceptance of bribes directly or indirectly on my part from Odebrecht or its officials.

Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported that Odebrecht bribed Lozoya in exchange for being awarded a $115 million bid for works on a oil refinery based in Tula, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. Citing confidential documents related to the testimony of a former Odebrecht executive, O Globo said the alleged payments started in 2012, when Lozoya was one of the main members of the campaign committee of the current Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto and not yet working at Pemex. Mexico's Proceso and Aristegui Noticias also reported on the alleged bribes .

In the email, Lozoya said Pena Nieto's campaign didn't ask for or receive contributions from foreign companies, including Odebrecht. Officials may also have the incentive to lie to try to get reduced sentences, he said.

Pemex's press office declined to comment on the allegations against Lozoya, who ran the state-owned oil producer from December 2012 to February 2016.

Odebrecht is a key player in Brazil's sprawling Carwash probe , which revealed a massive, years-long kickback scheme involving the contractor that has implicated many of the country's business and political elite. Odebrecht signed a leniency agreement in Brazil and in some of the countries in which it operates, such as Panama, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.







Story by Christine Jenkins and Fabiana Batista from Bloomberg .



bloomberg. com / 08 11 2017
In its sixth acquisition so far this year, Axalta Coating Systems, the Philadelphia industrial coatings company spun off from DuPont Co. in 2013, says it has agreed to buy Plascoat Systems Ltd., which makes thermoplastic coatings, from its British owner, International Process Technologies Ltd., for an undisclosed sum.

The deal includes Plascoat plants in Farnham, England and at Zuidland in the Netherlands, plus Plastcoat products such as Talisman, which covers dishwasher baskets; PPA 571 Aqua, a coating for waterpipes; and PPA 571, used outdoors; among others. Michael Cash, Axalta's president for industrial coatings, called Plascoat, which was founded in 1952, a pioneer in its industry.

Other recent acquisitions by Axalta include the France and China plants of wire enamel maker IVA, from Superior Essex, last month; of Spencer Coatings Group in May; of Valspar Corp.'s industrial wood coatings business in April; of Century Industrial Coatings in February; and of Ellis Paint Co. in January.

In each case except the Valspar business, which Axalta acquired for $420 million as part of a deal designed to satisfy merger regulators, the price was not disclosed, implying the companies are small relative to Axalta.

Amid industry consolidation, Axalta, under chief executive Charles W. Shaver, has spurned takeover interest from would-be acquirers including European paint and materials giant AkzoNobel.

The company's sales are expected to top $4 billion this year, with after-tax profits exceeding $300 million for the first time. The company's debt, which totaled around $3 billion at June 30, has dropped each year since 2013.
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady covers the ears of a young rally participant as he uses adult language to describe the Republican members of Congress trying to repeal Obamacare at a January 2017 rally. Read more

The discussion about the "future of Philly politics" was more than halfway over before anyone mentioned U.S. Rep. Bob Brady.

The reform-minded, tuned-in crowd of more than 200 tittered.

It was not just because his name has surfaced in a federal investigation. One speaker in the panel discussion last Thursday is a potential challenger to Brady, who has been chairman of the Democratic City Committee since 1986 and a member of the U.S. House since 1998.

Another potential challenger was in the front rows of the audience.

Dan Pearson, a board member for the Philadelphia Federation of Young Republicans, praised Brady for his ability to get white and black ward leaders working together. But he knocked Brady for not pushing his party to select better candidates and for lacking vision for the city.

"His time is passed," Pearson said.

Another panelist, state Rep. Jared Solomon, pushed back, noting that Brady was instrumental in bringing to Philadelphia the 2016 Democratic National Convention and in brokering settlements of transit strikes over the years. Solomon, a Democrat, said Philadelphia Republicans blame his party for the city's woes rather than doing something to help fix them.

"The Republicans in this city do not organize, do not message well, do not register voters," Solomon said. "And it is certainly easier to blame the Democrats because we have outpaced you year after year."

Sitting next to Pearson and Solomon was Omar Woodard, whose face ran through an amazing gamut of expressions while his mouth uttered not a single word about Brady.

Woodard, a nonprofit executive considering a 2018 Democratic primary election challenge to Brady, just soaked it all up. Later, Woodard said he expects to announce his decision by early October.

"There are two questions here: Can I raise $1 million? And if I have to quit my job, can I afford to do that?" Woodard said.

Woodard is clearly gauging whether Brady is newly vulnerable due to a federal investigation made public last month.

In that case, the former campaign manager for a 2012 primary challenger to Brady admitted filing federal reports that did not disclose $90,000 the challenger received from Brady's campaign.

The campaign manager, Carolyn Cavaness, told the feds the money was meant to encourage Brady's challenger, former Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore, to drop out of the race. Brady's lawyer said the money paid for a detailed poll Moore's campaign had commissioned and to bring Cavaness on as a subcontractor to a political consultant.

Woodard is not alone in mulling a challenge.

Lindy Li, who was in the audience, had shared on social media earlier that day a Chinese television program that spent some time talking about her 2018 congressional ambitions.

Li planned to run in the Seventh District (in the suburbs) in 2016 but switched to the Sixth District (also in the suburbs) before dropping out of the primary amid a challenge to her eligibility to be on the ballot.

She lives in Philadelphia in the Second District, held by U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans.

Li on Friday said she knows which district she will run in next year. She just won't say. For now.

Consider this exchange, between Li and a guy playing a ukelele in City Hall's courtyard, filmed in May for the Chinese television show.

"I'm running for Congress," Li told the guy.

"Oh, OK. What district are you going for?" he asked.

"A Philadelphia congressional seat," Li answered.

Brady, as is his way, appears completely unconcerned about all this.

A spokesman said Brady intends to seek reelection next year and heard from Li "as recently as last month" that she will be supporting him.
Lois Fernandez, the iconic creator and visionary behind one of this city's most beloved events  the annual Odunde Festival  died peacefully in her sleep over the weekend.

Fernandez's daughter, Bumi Fernandez, discovered her Sunday morning. Fernandez's death, at age 81, came as a surprise, but Bumi told me she is at peace about the loss of her beloved "Precious," as she called her. "I'm at peace," Bumi declared, "because my mother is at peace."

So many events have come and gone over the years, but the Odunde Festival  with its ornately attired African dancers, stilt walkers, and vendors selling African jewelry along South Street every June  has endured and become a fixture. It's as much a part of this city as water ice and cheesesteaks and is something people look forward to every year and plan vacations around. I don't care how hot it is outside, it's not summer in Philly until Odunde.

Lois Fernandez, a former social worker, started the event back in 1975 with a measly $100 grant. She was inspired after a 1972 trip to Africa, during which she had witnessed a pilgrimage to a river by followers of the Yoruba faith honoring the goddess Osun. Fernandez returned home eager to start something similar here. Each festival begins with a similar procession. That first one attracted maybe 50 participants. But over the years, Odunde grew into what's believed to be the nation's largest African-oriented street festival.

"She brought African culture to the community," pointed out Robert Dickerson of Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble, a staple at Odunde since 1998.

"People from all over the world come to this," he continued. "That's what made it so beautiful and so powerful."

Not only did she pull it off, Fernandez kept it going for more than four decades. She did so despite numerous challenges obtaining permits and funding and also dealing with hostile neighbors who weren't keen on the festival  much less people traipsing from 23rd and South streets to the Schuylkill waterfront to make an offering of flowers and fruit to Osun, the goddess of the river.

"And they said, 'Ain't gonna let nobody go across that bridge, shut off that bridge and let y'all walk to the river,'" Fernandez says in Recollections, a 2016 book about her life that she wrote with the help of folklorist Debora Kodish. "And you think you gonna throw something in that river? You are out of your mind. "

She was truly a force, someone who didn't give up, even when people  black people, included  laughed at her for wanting to create something to celebrate African culture. Fernandez was an icon. She made Philly a better place because she lived here and cared about the rest of us. Her commitment and dedication won't be forgotten any time soon, if ever. Hers is a legacy that will live on as long as there's summer in the city, water ice, African dancers and drummers, vendors selling jewelry during the festival, and, of course, the festival itself.

"It's been a long 40 years," Fernandez told an Inquirer reporter earlier this year. "You can imagine what we had to put up with. That's why I say, 'Thank you, God, that you gave me the vision, the understanding.' Above all, my father told me we were African. He said we weren't Negroes, we weren't colored, we were African."

I wish I'd been there at this past Odunde. I'm not sure why I didn't go. I wish I had so I could have shaken her hand one last time  and also thanked her.

Fernandez had suffered for years with painful rheumatoid arthritis, which had left her debilitated and in a wheelchair  not that it stopped her from attending the festival. Who knew that this past June would be her last Odunde?

Funeral arrangements are pending. In lieu of flowers, people are being asked to contribute to Odunde 365, a year-round effort to keep the principles of Odunde alive for the city's school children. The mailing address is Box 21748, Philadelphia 19146.

"We lost, as a city, a treasure," said Bilal Qayyum, chair of the Philadelphia Anti-Violence Coalition. "She's one of our last heroes."

Her daughter, Bumi, told me on Sunday she feels as if "God said, 'Come on, Lois.' He said, 'We need Odunde up in heaven. Come on.' "

One can only imagine the kind of celebration that will be.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Japan Gold Corp. (TSX-V:JG) (OTCQB:JGLDF) (Japan Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Companys three compact portable diamond core drill rigs have arrived at Japan Golds base of operations in Ikutahara.



John Proust, Chairman and CEO of Japan Gold, commented, The arrival of our compact diamond core drill rigs at the base of operations in Ikutahara is a positive step towards becoming a fully operational explorer in Japan. The Company sees significant time and cost saving benefits in owning its own drill rigs. Our first drill program will commence upon receipt of the requisite drilling permits.

The Drill Rigs

As announced on June 1, 2017, Japan Gold purchased three portable diamond core drill rigs from PT. Promincon Indonesia. Due to the low levels of mineral exploration carried out in Japan in recent years, there is very limited availability of drill rigs suitable for mineral exploration in country. Acquisition of the two PMC400 drill rigs and one PMC700 drill rig will give the Company independence and flexibility on the timing and execution of its drill programs. The compact nature of these diamond core drill rigs allows for rapid set-up, move and the remediation of drill sites. They also have a smaller environmental footprint when compared to conventional equipment. The drill rigs have been proven and tested in similar geological environments. The PMC400 and the PMC700 drill rigs can core-drill to depths of over 400 meters and 700 meters in NQ core size respectively.

The Drilling Contract

As previously announced, Japan Gold has engaged Sumiko Resources Exploration & Development Co., Ltd. (SRED) to manage its drilling programs in Japan and operate the Japan Gold drill rigs. SRED is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., a major non-ferrous metal mining and smelting company based in Japan. SRED offers consulting services for resource exploration and environmental investigation using geological, geophysical exploration and related technologies including drilling. SRED was instrumental in the prospecting, development and exploitation of the Hishikari Mine, Japans largest and highest grade operating gold mine.

On behalf of the Board of Japan Gold Corp.

John Proust

Chairman & CEO

About Japan Gold Corp.

Japan Gold Corp. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused solely on gold and copper-gold exploration in Japan. The Company has applied for 180 prospecting rights licenses in Japan for a combined area of 59,606 hectares over twelve separate projects. Thirty-two of the applications have been granted as Prospecting Rights. The applications cover areas with known gold occurrences and a history of mining, and are prospective for both high-grade epithermal gold mineralization and gold-bearing lithocaps, which could indicate the presence of porphyry mineralization. Japan Golds leadership team has decades of resource industry and business experience, and the Company has recruited geologists and technical advisors with experience exploring and operating in Japan. More information is available at www.japangold.com or by email at info@japangold.com.

Cautionary Note

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, competition for qualified staff, the regulatory process and actions, technical issues, new legislation, uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, uncertainties resulting from working in a new political jurisdiction, uncertainties regarding the results of exploration, uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of prospecting rights, uncertainties regarding the Companys ability to execute and implement future plans, and the occurrence of unexpected events. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors.
Several hundred people filled the corners of a Collingswood-Haddon Township, NJ intersection Sunday in a demonstration of support for the victims in Charlottesville, Va. Read more

The day after the tumult in Charlottesville, several hundred people spontaneously but purposefully converged on the corner of Collingswood and Haddon Township.

They filled all four sides of the busy Cuthbert Boulevard-Haddon Avenue intersection, hand-lettered signs waving and spontaneous chants arising  a heartfelt display of anger and grief that elicited a mostly supportive cacophony of car horns.

Innocent blood had been spilled on the streets in Virginia, and ordinary folks in South Jersey wanted to take to their streets (or more accurately, the sidewalks) to be seen and heard.

And on a lovely summer evening in the leafy, neighborly, progressive bubble of what some call "Haddonwood," they could do so without fear. Or visible opposition.

"A lot of people who had basically been in their houses feeling very depressed had an opportunity to get out  and do a little bit of healing," Jen Rossi, who lives in Collingswood with her husband and 5-year-old daughter, said Monday.

I'm not sure that shouting "Love Trumps Hate" in unison against a backdrop of a Wawa, a Walgreen's and a Krispy Kreme (to name three of the corner's landmarks) is a balm for the spirit.

But the crowd certainly was exuberant, multi-hued, and energized; senior citizens waved next to the tattooed hipsters standing by the couple who looked like they'd just stopped by on the way home from the mall.

Several demonstrators had made posters that displayed a heartbreaking photo of earnest, idealistic Heather Heyer, the young woman killed when a car plowed into a crowd of opponents of the "alt-right" forces gathered in Charlottesville.

An allegedly Hitler-obsessed Ohio man identified as the driver of the car has been charged with second-degree murder, and the exhaustive media coverage of the awful incident  airborne bodies, fascist paraphernalia on parade through a picturesque American city's heart  was profoundly unsettling.

Like scenes out of The Handmaid's Tale, except that Charlottesville is not the setting for a dystopian TV drama.

"People needed a chance to talk to somebody else" face-to-face, said Rossi, a digital marketer, noted. "They needed comfort."

It's true: Sometimes simply hitting "Like" on yet another Facebook post isn't enough.

So despite being loosely and hastily organized  and lacking speakers, major political figures, or a program of any sort  the event drew far more people than organizer Michael Scheinberg expected.

"As an individual, you can't do anything," he said. "With a group, you can accomplish a lot."

Scheinberg credited months of grassroots and social media organizing in the wake of Donald Trump's presidential victory with helping create a network of organizations to support the Collingswood event. South Jersey Women for Progressive Change and the South Jersey Democratic Socialists of America were among the many with members participating.

"I'm heartened, of course, by the turnout," said Scheinberg, who described himself as a 40-year veteran of progressive causes.

"But it's going to be a process. The crux of the problem is that corporations and the very wealthy control almost everything, and people feel powerless."

One could argue that the power of standing on a street corner and holding up a poster is no match for, say, a Hitler wannabe with dead eyes and a weapon.

In other words, what difference can it make?

But I do remember some telling scenes from the '70s: Gathering with others of my tribe and our allies, marching along Fifth Avenue, making our voices heard on behalf of what was then quaintly referred to as gay liberation.

I vividly recall the strength our numbers gave me and the freedom that came from knowing I was capable of showing up, taking a stand, being counted  and being no longer alone.

I was reminded of all this on Sunday evening as I interviewed Jane Shelton-Yosko in Collingswood.

When the Cherry Hill resident brought up Heather Heyer, she suddenly became emotional.

But then she added, "I'm not afraid."

Me either.
Former Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who heads the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, has been named Temple University's new chief fund-raiser.

Temple announced the appointment of Cawley, a Temple graduate who also serves on Temple's board of trustees, as its new vice president of institutional advancement Monday.

His choice is unusual for Temple in that Cawley has no prior experience in fund-raising efforts at a college, unlike his predecessors. A Republican and a lawyer, he has spent almost all of his career in politics.

Temple president Richard M. Englert said Cawley's ties to and passion for Temple and his vast connections in the corporate and foundation world made him a clear choice.

"I thought it was fine to go outside the box here and think broadly," Englert said. "Jim is such a Temple backer and Temple booster. The more I got to know him, the more I appreciated his great appreciation for what Temple is all about."

His appointment is subject to approval by the trustees board on which he served from 2002 to 2006 and has been on again since 2014. He will resign his board post when he takes on his new role, the university said.

The university declined to release Cawley's salary for the vice president's job. At the United Way, Cawley earned $284,954 in the 2016 fiscal year, the most recent year for which tax forms were available.

Cawley, 48, will replace James Dicker, who headed to the University of Delaware this summer. Cawley obtained both his bachelor's in political science and law degrees from Temple. He was lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2015 under then-Gov. Tom Corbett and he joined the United Way in February 2015 upon leaving state office. He has been in that role, which includes fund-raising, for 2 years.

"I have always been drawn to Temple's mission to provide an excellent education to students who come from all walks of life," Cawley said in a statement. "I can think of no finer role than raising the funds that will keep Temple affordable, and provide students with the resources they need to thrive."

Cawley, a native of Levittown, previously was chief of staff to State Sen. Robert M. "Tommy" Tomlinson (R., Bucks) and before that volunteered on Frank L. Rizzo's 1987 Philadelphia mayoral campaign and former Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker's 1994 campaign.

A resident of Wrightstown, Bucks County, he also has held other political appointments, including serving on the Bucks County Board of Commissioners and as a member of the Bristol Township School District board.

In his new role, he also will oversee alumni affairs for the university, which has nearly 320,000 alumni.
Darvin Levengood walks the grounds of his Berks County winery. The spotted lanternfly arrived in Berks in 2014 and has spread to five other counties. Read more

Darvin Levengood can only wait.

On a bright Wednesday morning, at the Manatawny Creek Winery, which he co-owns in Amityville, there was an 8-foot metal fence around one of his vineyards to keep peckish deer from snacking on his grapes and nets draped over some of his rows to keep the birds' aerial assaults at bay.

For now, however, he has no recourse for an invasive species known as the spotted lanternfly, or Lycorma delicatula, an insect native to Asia that first arrived in the United States in Berks County in 2014 and has spread to neighboring counties. The pest is a potential threat to the state's $13.1 billion annual production of apples, grapes, peaches, and other crops, as well as $16 billion in timber and wood products, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

But Rich Blair, owner of Blair Vineyards in Kutztown, says the spotted lanternflies he first discovered on his property two years ago have multiplied exponentially.

"There're thousands of them," Blair said. "They've hatched maybe two or three months ago into nymphs; now they're transitioning from nymphs into mature adults, which fly." He said the hoppers are plentiful on their favored Tree of Heaven.

"You can see maybe a thousand insects on each Tree of Heaven," Blair said. "And each one of those will be a mature adult in a week or two." The Tree of Heaven is the bugs' preferred host for feeding and reproduction.

Blair said his vineyard is about two miles from where the bugs first arrived in the states. He said he has done what he can to control them, but containing the insects is tricky, delicate work because some insecticides can kill unintended targets.

And spraying can feel futile, considering the pest's prodigious reproduction.

"And so, you know, you just wait for the next episode," Blair said.

So far, damage from the inch-long, spotted black, red, and white lanternflies  now in Berks, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties  has been small-scale, giving farmers and state agricultural officials time to plan their fight. A quarantine of the affected areas has extended every year since the pest was first sighted. On Friday, the state Agriculture Department added an additional 21 towns in those counties to the quarantine list.

"Spotted Lanternfly has proven to be a tremendously destructive pest that spreads rapidly and can be devastating to our valuable grapes, hardwoods and hops," said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding in a statement. He urged anyone seeing the insects to report sightings to badbug@pa.gov.

"Last year, we saw a couple but nothing to really worry about," Levengood said. "This year, we have seen more [] but nothing here at our vineyard that I would term 'critical.' "

The insects feed on crops and release a viscous ooze known as honeydew, which coats leaves with a sheen and eventually provokes the growth of sooty ash, which blackens the leaves, preventing photosynthesis, according to Sven-Erik Spichiger, the entomology program manager at the state Agriculture Department.

"It's a very serious pest," Spichiger said. "We're not sure just how [bad] the impact is going to be, but the damage is certainly visible to the naked eye when you're in the area."

Though the Levengood family's 87-acre property near Douglassville in Berks County is not yet overrun with the pests, Levengood views infestations at growers to his north as harbingers of what may lie ahead for his winery.

No spotted lanternflies were visible Wednesday morning on a Tree of Heaven  which Levengood calls "their favorite haunt"  or on the neighboring wild grapevines that crawl along the base of the trees, another favorite of the pest.

"They're hiding really well," Levengood said. "I'm assured we have a few, but we are not inundated with these critters like some of the people to the north and east of us."

Levengood doesn't expect his luck to last.

"I absolutely anticipate it getting worse," he said. "It's gradually spreading more and more."

Those who live and work in the quarantined areas are directed to avoid moving outdoor objects like firewood, vegetation and yard waste, lawnmowers, and grills  anything that the insects could potentially hitch a ride upon. Vehicles, trailers, and other mobile equipment should be inspected before they are moved outside the quarantine areas.

Federal and state agencies have joined in the fight to contain the lanternfly's spread since December 2014, three months after the Berks sighting. The USDA has granted a total of $5.5 million for the state's containment efforts. Joining the state Agriculture Department are the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Penn State Extension.

Amy Korman, an educator with Extension's Montgomery County office, says public information is a key focus, along with working as "the interface between science and industry." As she explained, "We take science-based research and make it understandable to growers."

Before they can eradicate the pests, Korman said, researchers are having to get more familiar with the species.

"There's a lot about the biology of this insect that we don't really have a full grasp of," Korman said. "The big picture of what the total impact will be  they're still kind of sorting out those things.

"We're kind of peeling this back, layer by layer," he added.

Spichiger said initial U.S. research focused on South Korea's experience and research from 2006, two years after the insects landed on the peninsula from China, Vietnam, and India, where they are native. Officials said the lanternflies in South Korea have attacked 25 plant species that also grow in Pennsylvania.

Previous experience with other invasive insect species  including the brown marmorated stink bug and gypsy moths  is helpful to state agriculture officials dealing with the spotted lanternfly.

"We also weren't completely caught with our pants down, frankly, because we had something called gypsy moth blow through starting quite some time ago," Spichiger said. "In fact, this insect acts very similar."

Stink bugs in 2010 caused "severe losses" for some of Pennsylvania's peach and apple orchards. The pest  native to China, the Korean peninsula, Japan, and Taiwan  arrived in Allentown in 1998 and eventually spread to 49 Pennsylvania counties. They're still as much an issue as ever, Spichiger said.

For the lanternfly, current research is focused on the insect's anatomy in the hopes that a weakness in the pest can be found and manipulated. Scientists are working with various pesticides, predators, and parasitoids, Spichiger said, including a parasitic wasp that "might infest a spotted lanternfly and cause it not to reproduce."

In the meantime, control efforts are aimed at mechanical removal, including uprooting Tree of Heavens  itself an invasive species  scraping away lanternfly egg masses over the winter and wrapping trees with sticky bands to trap nymphs.

State agriculture officials in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey have expressed concerns about the insect's possible spread, a potential threat to their multimillion-dollar fruit crops. Maryland's peach and apple orchards were valued at $12.2 million in 2015, and in New Jersey, the two fruit crops were valued at more than $60 million in 2016, according to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

In Boyertown, Steven Frecon, the owner and orchard manager of Frecons Farm, was not in the quarantine area until this year. His farm grows apples, peaches, cherries, and berries. He saw his first spotted lanternfly this spring in nymph form.

Since then, "they have gotten to a level that I'm now concerned about the size of the population," Frecon said.

And he has doubts about the efficacy of a quarantine, especially because the bug can fly, albeit poorly, and hop from treetop to treetop.

"It's not going to stop the bug from continuing the spread in temperate climates, like Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, New York," Frecon said, "That's where it's headed, and it's going to keep moving in that direction."
Many parents are unaware that U.S. colleges are grappling with a mental-health crisis of epidemic proportions, and college counseling centers are struggling to meet the skyrocketing demand for services.

Almost half of all college-age adults have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder, and college students are seeking psychological help in unprecedented numbers. According to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health's (CCMH) 2016 Annual Report, there was a 5 percent increase in college enrollment, nationwide, accompanied by 30 percent increase in demand for mental-health services, between 2010 and 2016.

According to the CCMH report, of those students in treatment at college counseling centers, approximately:

1 in 2 has received psychological services in the last five years.

1 in 10 has been hospitalized before for psychiatric issues.

1 in 4 report engaging in self-injuring behavior (e.g., cutting).

1 in 3 has seriously considered suicide.

Many forms of mental illness first emerge during the college years, often coinciding with young adults' first time living away from home. Mental illness appears to be increasing in college-age adults, and more than 1 in 3 college students reporting about being "so depressed that it was difficult to function." This is a significant public health issue, particularly because suicide is the second most common cause of death among this age group.

It's much easier to have a plan in place before a mental-health crisis emerges while a student is away at college. Here are some tips for parents of new college students  whether or not they've had prior mental-health care:

For all parents

Make sure your child knows the crisis number(s) to call or text in case of an emergency. For example, New Jersey mandates that all residential colleges in the state provide students with 24/7 access to individuals trained in mental-health issues and suicide prevention, either by phone or in-person.

If your child will be out of state for college but still under your health insurance, review your insurance coverage in advance and familiarize yourself with out-of-network benefits. Learn what student health insurance options are available through the college, being mindful that your child may need coverage near home during the long winter and summer breaks.

Know whether your insurance plan has a preferred hospital near campus, should your child require urgent care. Share this information with your child.

Determine whom to contact at the college should you observe concerning changes in your child's behavior (dean of students, residence advisor?).

Educate yourself about consent, sexual assault, and substance abuse; talk openly about these issues before your child leaves home.

Familiarize yourself with the college's code of conduct and leave of absence policies.

Learn the state laws relevant to your child. States such as Illinois have laws to facilitate colleges' sharing mental-health information with parents.

Parents should also remember that the vast majority of college students are legal adults, which means they have a federal right to privacy of their health information. Many parents are surprised to learn that colleges do not generally share academic or health information with them  regardless of who's paying the tuition bill. Federal law generally permits colleges to contact parents in case of emergency but what constitutes an emergency isn't always clear.

A homemaker from New Jersey, who did not want to be identified to protect her daughter, discovered this first-hand. The woman said she was stunned when her daughter, who was at college out of state, admitted that she had recently been in the hospital for severe alcohol intoxication. "I was even more shocked to realize that the college had known all along, because it was the residence advisor (RA) in her dorm who had called the ambulance. Yet, as a parent, I was never notified. My daughter was under our health insurance, so she knew I would eventually find out when I received the 'Explanation of Benefits' insurance paperwork."

For the many parents whose children have had past mental-health treatment, leaving home presents a set of challenges, as they suddenly lose the ability to regularly observe and monitor their kids.

If your child has received prior mental-health care

If your child has received treatment in the last year, college may not be the best time to discontinue treatment, even if the issue appears resolved.

If college is close to home, strongly consider continuing treatment with the current provider. If college is hours away, find a treatment provider at school before, or soon after, your child leaves home. Brief treatment or "booster sessions" during the first year can focus on maintenance and relapse prevention.

For mental-health issues such as eating disorders, it may make sense to create a "contract," in consultation with your child and the treatment provider(s), preemptively spelling out what circumstances would necessitate medical leave or withdrawal from school (e.g., inability to maintain a minimum healthy weight). Present this in a caring and non-punitive way.

Talk to your child about signing a bidirectional release of information to facilitate communication between "home" and "college" therapists. Students can specify on the release what information they do or not want shared with their parents. Roger McFillin, a clinical psychologist and partner at Center for Integrated Health in Bethlehem, cautions that when a college student in treatment refuses to share information with a parent, "it's an important issue to address in treatment, as it may speak to something problematic in the parent-child relationship." Convey your respect for your adult child's legal right to confidentiality.

Consider transferring mental-health records to the center to facilitate continuity of care. Contact the counseling center for the best method and time to do this.

Mental illnesses can be "hidden disabilities." If your child's mental-health problem hinders academic functioning, know that your child is entitled to reasonable accommodations (e.g., quiet testing conditions) under federal law.

If your college student should need mental-health care while away at school, college counseling centers and/or off-campus clinicians can provide necessary treatment. Here's what you need to know about both facilities:

College counseling centers

Most colleges will have a counseling or wellness center with its own webpage offering detailed information. Find out what services they offer, including psychiatry, and what issues/disorders they do and do not treat. if there is a "session limit" (maximum number of sessions a semester) or a co-pay. If the college counseling center can't meet your child's needs, ask for a referral.

Come late September, many parents and students are surprised to learn that the college counseling center has a wait list that is weeks, if not months, long. Most college counseling centers are open during the summer. Students may have quicker access to services by scheduling an appointment before fall semester starts.

Off-campus treatment

If the counseling center isn't the best option, consider finding a private mental-health clinician near campus. If possible, schedule multiple appointments in advance to avoid scheduling difficulties that can disrupt ongoing care.

Make sure your child has reliable transportation to appointments. First-year students are commonly prohibited from having a car on campus. If public or campus transportation isn't an option, some colleges may grant parking accommodations for medical reasons. If applicable, contact the parking office to see whether they have a medical necessity policy, and what documentation they would need. Lyft or Uber may be feasible alternatives.

Finally, for all parents, communicate that your child's health and well-being take priority over academic achievement, always. Express your unconditional love; let your children know they can come to you with any mental-health and/or substance-abuse concerns. College isn't a race, and taking a break for needed care doesn't foretell an unsuccessful future.

To learn more about the soaring demand for college mental-health services, see the Center for Collegiate Mental Health 2016 Annual Report.

Get involved in protecting the mental health of teens and young adults at jedfoundation.org.

Stacey C. Cahn, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and clinical associate professor of psychology at Rowan University. David Rubenstein, Psy.D. is vice president for health and wellness at Rowan University.
Police released this photo of a man who urinated on a synagogue on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Northeast Philadelphia's Somerton section. Read more

A man gave the finger to a surveillance camera mounted on a synagogue in Northeast Philadelphia before he urinated on the building early Sunday morning, according to police. Now authorities are asking for the public's help in identifying him.

Around 12:30 a.m., the man was captured on video approaching the front doors of Congregation Beth Solomon on the 100 block of Tomlinson Road, police said. He is seen giving the finger to the camera and urinated on the synagogue's walls and the sidewalk in front of the synagogue's doors. While urinating, the man "continues to address the camera until finished," police said in a news release.

Surveillance footage shows the man getting into a white sedan and leaving the scene, authorities said.

In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League said the episode marked the third time the synagogue had been vandalized in less than a year. In September, a menorah was stolen from outside of Congregation Beth Solomon and in January, graffiti was spray-painted on the wall of a nearby shopping center where the synagogue's ritual bath is kept.

According to the ADL, anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise for three years in Pennsylvania. The state recorded 67 such incidents in 2016, the most in nearly a decade.

"We are revolted by this most recent display of anti-Semitism in Northeast Philadelphia," ADL regional director Nancy K. Baron-Baer said in a statement. "We've seen vandalism targeting Jewish institutions in the region before, but this latest incident turns the stomach. The amount of hate a person must feel to desecrate a house of worship in this way is incomprehensible and contemptible."

Authorities ask that anyone with information on the vandalism contact Philadelphia Police at 215-686-8477.
Washington, D.C., Aug. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will provide the opening and closing keynotes, respectively, at the 2017 Intelligence & National Security Summit on September 6-7 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

This is the fourth annual conference co-hosted by AFCEA International and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA). More than 1,300 professionals serving in the public, private, military and academic sectors in support of U.S. intelligence and national security attended the summit in 2016.

The 2017 summit theme is The State of U.S. Intelligence: A Time of Transition, Challenge, and Innovation and will foster dialogue and debate during six plenary and nine breakout sessions. In addition to keynotes from Bossert and Coats, plenaries will feature:

leaders of the six principal U.S. intelligence agencies, including the recently confirmed FBI Director Christopher Wray ;

; intelligence chiefs from the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Joint Staff;

leading members of the Senate and House intelligence oversight committees, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) ; and

and ; and senior counterterrorism officials from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany joined by U.S. National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen for candid assessments of evolving terrorist threats to the United States and its allies and to discuss strategies for combating terrorists separately and collaboratively.

The breakouts will cover a range of topics where public-private cooperation can strengthen national security, including cyber readiness, critical infrastructure protection, acquisition, innovation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and insider threat mitigation.

Complete agenda, speaker and registration information is available at www.IntelSummit.org.

Exhibition and sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact Wendy Moore at wendy.moore@spargoinc.com or 888-215-2241.

All sessions at the summit are open to press. To request a media credential, please consult the credentialing requirements or contact Maryann Lawlor at media@afcea.org.

About AFCEA

AFCEA International, established in 1946, is a nonprofit membership organization. The association provides forums for the ethical exchange of information and is dedicated to increasing knowledge through the exploration of issues relevant to its members. Join online.

About INSA

The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) is the leading nonpartisan, nonprofit forum for driving public-private partnerships to advance intelligence and national security priorities. INSA has more than 160 organizations in its membership and enjoys extensive participation from leaders and senior executives in the public, private, and academic sectors. Learn more at www.INSAonline.org.

###

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/30f277c3-2f83-4b19-9be5-a96193fea2ee
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Aug. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Department of the Army, National Guard Bureau, USPFO for New Mexico, released on Monday, August 14 a combined synopsis/solicitation in which it announced plans to build portable rock-climbing walls at 600 Wyoming Blvd. NE in Albuquerque.

The agency intends to award a firm fixed-price contract to a certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) that can provide the parts and equipment necessary to construct the portable rock-climbing walls.



The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 339920 - Sporting Goods Manufacture, and the size standard is 750 employees.



Interested and capable WOSBs must respond by no later than August 28, 2017 at 12 p.m. MST. Responses must be sent to Nickles F. Bonner at nickles.f.bonner.mil@mail.mil.



Businesses interested in bidding on and receiving contracts from the government must be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) database and have as part of the Registration all current Representations and Certifications.

US Federal Contractor Registration, the worlds largest third-party government registration firm, and a firm that not only helps companies survive but also thrive, completes the required Registrations on behalf of its clients. It also makes available information about opportunities like this, as well as training on how to locate, research, and respond to opportunities.

We also make available for our clients and for contracting officers our proprietary Advanced Federal Procurement Data Search (AFPDS). Our Advanced Federal Procurement Data Search (AFPDS) gives you in one place instant bid notifications, bid proposal prospecting, and information about government procurement officers. We make this search tool available to clients, as part of our commitment to helping each and every USFCR client succeed and thrive as a government contractor.

For contracting officers, the AFPDS gives them in one place access to a database of available contractors and also a place to post information about opportunities. Contracting officers get free access to AFPDS. We also provide interested contracting officers a list of contractors who may be able to provide a service and/or product that they need.

For more information, to get started with a SAM registration, to learn more about how US Federal Contractor Registration can help your business succeed, to find out how we can help you complete the processes necessary to become certified as one or more types of small business(es), to determine if your business qualifies for WOSB certification, and/or to speak with our federal training specialists about how to craft a memorable proposal, call 877-252-2700, ext. 1.
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There is renewed hope that jobs can be saved at beleaguered retail chain Wilko after initial fears thousands of workers could be made redundant.

Officials from the union GMB have met with bosses at the discount homeware empire and are now hopeful job losses can be reduced significantly from the thousands initially feared.

In early August 2017, Wilko confirmed it has entered redundancy consultation with nearly 4,000 staff  just weeks after bemoaning a rise in input costs as a result of the pounds Brexit-induced drop in value.

Wilko, which has 400 stores across the UK including a large outlet at Plymouths Armada Centre, saw pre-tax profits slump 80 per cent to 5.1million in the year up to January 28, 2017.

Wilko blamed uncertain economic and geopolitical events, including the fall in sterling and the introduction of the National Living Wage.

The discount chain said, following a review of its operating functions, that changes are required to ensure it is best placed to continue to thrive within an ever-changing retail landscape.

It began consulting with 3,900 of its store supervisory team about a new management structure.

GMB officials accept there will be redundancies, but are very confident these can be reduced significantly from the thousands initially feared.

GMB top brass met with Wilko bosses at the companys headquarters in Worksop on Monday, August 14.

Gary Carter, GMB national officer, said: This was the first of many discussions we will have with the company during the 60-day consultation.

We will be having further, difficult conversations during the process.

Weve had people on the phone to us in tears  people who have been with the company 20 or 30 years.

We all want to see Wilko as a thriving, sustainable business with a long term future.

It is vital GMB helps the company keep any job losses to an absolute minimum.

It is important to ensure adequate staffing levels in their stores to maintain an acceptable level of customer service  and to make sure Wilko staff are paid the living wage.

We are encouraging Wilko to look at alternative ways to save money, which protect existing job roles.

Its a hazy picture at the moment, but we will be looking at each store individually with Wilko.

There are going to be redundancies, but we are very confident these can be reduced significantly from the thousands initially feared.

Wilko has stressed that 1,000 new senior supervisor roles will be created as part of the shake-up, as well as a significant amount of customer service roles.

It is not the only large retailer which has suffered from post-Brexit referendum turmoil.

Tesco said earlier this year it is axing 1,200 jobs at its head office as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

Sainsburys and Asda have followed suit, with reports suggesting more than a thousand jobs are on the line at the supermarkets.
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A group of travellers face legal action after refusing to leave their illegal camp in Staddiscombe.

The encampment has grown to the size of a 'small town' according to local residents since a Notice to Quit was served to it on August 10.

The notice gave the travellers 48 hours to vacate the green space.

As they have failed to do so Plymouth City Council has escalated proceedings and is now applying through the courts to have the group removed.

(Image: Penny Cross)

A council spokesperson said: We are aware of further additions to the unauthorised encampment on Staddiscombe Road and our teams are visiting the site today to carry out further welfare checks.





Meanwhile, following the expiry of the Notice to Quit, our legal team are now preparing a legal Claim for Possession that will go before the Plymouth County Court today.

"This will include statements that confirm our land ownership and evidence that the unauthorised encampment has been asked to leave but has failed to do so.

(Image: Penny Cross)





When the court has issued the claim, it will set a hearing date which we expect will be next week.



"The Notice of Hearing and Claim for Possession papers will then be served on the unauthorised encampment."

Herald readers have taken to Facebook to express their concerns over the encampment.

Elsbeth Hallam, founder of the charity Hugs From Henry, expressed her disappointment.

'We have rented out this field for a charity fundraiser on August 27th,' she wrote.

(Image: Rachael Mower)

'Incredibly disappointed that they are there now... we had to get a massive amount of insurance and had to have a plan to 'protect' the field from being turfed up with cars etc and now it's all a mud pit!'

Other users spoke of loud generators, chickens, and motorbikes.

Marie Howard wrote: 'The noise is becoming unbearable, they have chickens clucking, dogs barking all night, generators running and the kids riding round on motorbikes, the bins that the council provide are over lowing already, so God knows what they are doing with the waste from their toilets in the caravan, I am living directly opposite and am at breaking point."

(Image: Penny Cross)

In the event that the camp remains until the Claim For Possession is served an eviction will be carried out by County Court bailiffs.

However, due to recent delays in the use of county court bailiffs (approximately four weeks rather than two weeks previously), Private High Court Enforcement Officers are sometimes used in cases that are more urgent due to a health and safety concern, or have a high level of community impact.

The Community Connections officers attend the evictions and a street cleaning team is then called.
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Luxury boat builder Princess Yachts will unveil yet another new model when the firm exhibits at the illustrious Cannes Yachting Festival.

The Plymouth company, which is predicting a return to profit on the back of soaring international demand for its opulent vessels, will launch the Princess 62 during the festival, taking place in France from September 12 until 17.

Based at Jetee 002, the Stonehouse-headquartered firm will be showcasing a selection of yachts from the V Class, S Class, Flybridge, Motor Yacht and M Class ranges.

The Princess 62 will headline the display, reinforcing the award-winning Flybridge range.

She encapsulates the shipyards meticulous design ethos and all the benefits of the latest infusion technology, enabling the inclusion of features normally possible only on much larger craft, a Princess Yachts spokesperson said.

The silhouette of the 62 is unmistakably Princess, from the vast sweeping deck saloon windows to the clean lines of the canopy.

New sculpted hull side windows, which are distinctive yet understated, give the exterior a dynamic appearance.

The Princess 62s optimised hull form allows greater efficiency and fitted with Twin Volvo D13-900 (2  900mhp) engines the 62 is anticipated to reach speeds up to 32 knots.

The Princess 62s flybridge inspires relaxation with a large dining area, a sunpad aft and a unique circular forward seating area that can be converted into an additional sunpad, the spokesperson added.

Boasting a walk-through foredeck entertaining space and a hydraulic bathing platform as standard she is an ingenious and compelling addition to the Flybridge range.

Her cavernous main deck saloon features a sociable aft galley arrangement that opens to the cockpit.

The helm position is located to starboard with additional forward facing guest seating opposite.

Below deck six guests enjoy three beautifully-appointed en-suite cabins all bathed in natural light from the elegant hull glazing, with the option of a further twin cabin aft for occasional guests or crew.

Bespoke furnishings include a handcrafted coffee table in the main deck saloon which beautifully blends the colour and textures of timber, glass and leather, combined with soft suede, bronze tint mirrors, hand stitched detailing and Japanese wallpapers to stunning effect and perfect harmony.

(Image: Paul Slater)

Princess Yachts will also unveil a bespoke design collaboration between the Princess Design Studio and Mulliner, Bentley's in-house personal commissioning division, the Bentley Continental GT V8 Convertible Galene Edition by Mulliner.

The Plymouth-based yacht brand will also launch Princess Lifeline, its unique new partnership with MedAire,  a 24/7 international SOS service.

Every Princess Yacht comes with two-year Princess Lifeline cover as standard. It provides access to medical and travel safety experts, real-time information and advice.

(Image: Paul Slater)

In July 2017, Princess Yachts revealed it made a loss of 7million  but was confident of returning to profit soon.

Figures for 2016 showed turnover of 216.7million and the firm stressed this was a strong positive turnaround on 2015, when the company posted an operating loss, before exceptional costs, of 18.1million on turnover of 201.2million.

And Princess Yachts bosses were confident about the future with the firms order book surpassing 500million, aided by the weakened pound sterling.

The company highlighted a multi-million pound investment programme which has boosted innovation and efficiency, and trumpeted an extended and improved product range which it said will bring even greater buoyancy to the business.

In 2016, the launch of four new highly successful models set the stage for a three-year 55million investment programme intended to significantly broaden and strengthen the Princess model range.

Following record sales at the Cannes, Dusseldorf and Ft Lauderdale boat shows, orders soared and 2017 is seeing a new model launched, on average, every two months, taking Princess into new markets and opportunities.

In June 2017, Princess Yachts revealed it is to take on another 100 workers after the boost in overseas sales.

Princess Yachts was acquired in 2008 by L Capital 2 FCPR, an investment group co-sponsored by LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) and Groupe Arnault.

In January 2016, L Capital merged with Catterton to become L Catterton, now recognised as the largest global consumer-faced investment firm.

(Image: John Allen)

That month Antony Sheriff, the Swiss-born, American-Italian former managing director of McLaren Automotive, became Princess Yachts new chairman.

His appointment has been followed by the arrival of other senior executives including Paul MacKenzie, as development director, Ian Balmforth, as operations director, and Adrian Bratt, as company secretary and general counsel.
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It was rocked by the sudden death of its chairman but Plymouth financial investment firm Succession has continued to grow and is now managing 5.6billion in funds.

The Plymouth Science Park-based company, a leading independent integrated wealth manager and investment platform business, has not allowed the unexpected death of chief executive and founder Simon Chamberlain to derail its success.

Mr Chamberlain, a well-known and respected figure in Plymouths business sector, died in March 2017 at the age of 51.

The company he launched in 2009, after relocating to Plymouth from London, is maintaining impressive growth, and is still swallowing other firms, acquiring nine businesses so far in 2017.

The company is also investing heavily in technology, infrastructure, and staff, with its workforce increasing by 16 per cent to more than 470 people.

Three additional regional offices have been established to support the businesss continued expansion, and Succession now has 143 qualified financial advisers.

Funds under management have risen to 5.6billion  a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34 per cent since the formation of advisory business, Succession Group, in January 2014.

It is predicting a revenue of 55million per annum, and said there is a year-on-year double-digit increase in operating margin growth.

Meanwhile IFA businesses continue to join Successions affiliated membership.

Ray Pierce, executive chairman at Succession Holdings Ltd, said: Succession has achieved outstanding H1 2017 performance following its excellent financial results in 2016.

With the support of our committed shareholders, we continue to execute our long-term strategy of creating the UKs largest privately-owned wealth management business.

Successions experienced management team has a track record of delivering long term value for employees and shareholders, with strong year-on-year growth and operational efficiency improvements.

Increased turnover and trading margins demonstrate the continued appeal of Successions unique proposition for clients, advisers and high performing IFA business owners, as the appetite for professional wealth planning advice and wealth management services increases.

He added: Previous years investment in building a sustainable business has resulted in an above 10 per cent increase in organic revenue growth as Succession continues to scale.

The strong momentum established in 2016 has continued through the first half of 2017.

Successions unique consolidation model provides a healthy pipeline of future acquisitions, and we are confident in our ability to deliver sustained and profitable growth.

The company, and Plymouths business community, was shocked when Mr Chamberlain died unexpectedly.

In 2016, he had told The Herald that he planned to float the company on the stock market in 2018, and predicting it would be worth in the region of 600million.

He said that by then he would have been in a position to launch his life plan and leave business life behind.

Among other business interests, Mr Chamberlain was chairman of Plymouths IU Energy.

In June 2017, Succession Holdings Ltd  the vertically integrated financial services business controlling its own advice, platform and fund management activities  appointed Ian Shipway as a non-executive director of its national wealth management advisory business: Succession Group.

James Stevenson, managing director of Succession Group, said: As a former President of the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP), Ians expertise and experience will be invaluable in refining our compelling wealth planning proposition.

Mr Shipway said: With technological developments enabling increasingly cost effective implementation of client strategies, the opportunities for the professional planner to add value and peace of mind is invaluable and a real service to the consumer.
South America: Divided, not Conquered

Nations are products of their environments, and not the other way around. They simply have to behave in certain ways if they want to remain nations, and more often than not their behavior is expressed not by what they can do but what they cant do. Nations cant move mountains or rivers. They cant create farmland from scratch. They cant produce more resources than what the ground allows.

Particularly bound by these kinds of constraints is South America. The geography of this often overlooked continent is oddly egalitarian: Some nations are stronger and richer than others, of course, but the preponderance is less pronounced than it is in other regions of the world. For this reason, South America may seem inconsequential, so uninvolved is it in the wars of the Middle East, U.S.-Russia sanctions, Islamic terrorism and the South China Sea. But its apparent complacency elides more pressing geopolitical imperatives. The following report explains why.

Confinement

The defining characteristic of South America is that its geography will not allow any nation to project power across the continent. Those that have come to power have been confined to either the Pacific Coast or the Atlantic Coast. Some were even able to hold power on both coasts, but none were able to form a seamless political entity.

Their separation is largely due to the Andes Mountains, which span the entire length of South America near the continents western edge. Other geographic features, however, accentuate the east-west divide. In the north, the vast Amazon rainforest prevents the movement of people from one population center to another and stunts urban development. The Amazon River and its tributaries, which flow from the west to the east, enable ventures farther inland, but upstream waters quickly become unnavigable to large ships.

Reinforcing the division of South America are the Gran Chaco, a semi-arid, sparsely populated lowland region roughly at the center of the continent; the wetlands of the Pantanal; and the Atacama Desert. They are as difficult to traverse as they are inhospitable to human settlement.

South Americas largest and most important cities are therefore found primarily on the coasts. Their situation is particularly pronounced on the Pacific Coast, where there is little room between the ocean and the Andes. Cities along the Atlantic Coast have a little more breathing room  people were able to settle in the Rio de la Plata Basin, which boasts fertile soil, useful river systems and hospitable climate and terrain  but they are nonetheless densest near the ocean.

Complexions Change

The inability to project power over the entire region has plagued South American empires and countries throughout history. Before Europe colonized the region, the Incan Empire was the predominant power in the Pacific region. At its height, it comprised Peru, Ecuador, large parts of Bolivia and Chile and smaller sections of Argentina and Colombia. The Incas were resourceful and formidable, but they could never really expand past the Andes. There was no single pre-colonial empire in the Atlantic region. Broadly speaking, the Tupi dominated Brazil, the Guarani controlled Paraguay and parts of the Plata Basin that extended into southern Brazil, and groups related to the Mapuche inhabited much of the southernmost portion of the continent.

European colonization, especially Spanish and Portuguese colonization, changed the complexion of South American power but could not escape its geographic constraints. Spain, for example, could govern the Viceroyalty of Peru easily enough but found it more difficult to govern the territory as a single unit as it added territory to the east. So it divided the area into three viceroyalties  Peru, New Granada and Rio de la Plata  that correspond with the continents natural geographic barriers.

The emergence of capitanias  autonomous territories controlled by high-ranking generals but still technically under the viceroyalty banner  likewise illustrate the limits of power projection. Chile had been lumped into the Peru Viceroyalty because it was on the same side of the Andes Mountains. But distance and desert obviated the need for a middle man in Lima, so Chile instead interacted directly with the Crown.

In the Atlantic region, geography pitted Spain and Portugal against each other. Portugal arrived in 1500 and began to colonize Brazil, focusing largely on coastal areas with good ports. It could not expand west because of the Amazon, Chaco and Pantanal, so it went south, to the Rio de la Plata Basin, a desirable tract of real estate in central South America east of the Andes. It is large, hospitable and arable, with natural irrigation systems. Spain, meanwhile, had arrived in southern South America and, having taken control of territory west and just east of the Andes, likewise turned its attention to the Rio de la Plata Basin.

Spanish and Portuguese interests thus collided in central South America. As it happens, the basin in which they fought was flat, unobstructed terrain, ideally suited for combat. Years after they fought there, subsequent wars waged in the same vicinity would eventually produce the modern states of Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, which served as buffer states between Argentina and Brazil.

A final example of obstacles to power projection comes from the Spanish colonies wars for independence in the early 19th century. Simon Bolivar led an independence movement in the north that included Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and eventually Peru, while Jose de San Martin led the independence movements in the south that included Argentina, Chile and initially Peru. Bolivar ambitiously tried to create a united Pan-American entity from the wars of independence but, when faced with the difficulty of unity in South American terrain, ceased to do so. Instead he ruled Venezuela, Colombia and Peru as separate entities, giving each of these countries the individual identities that exist today.



Contemporary Candidates

Modern South America is thus shaped not by what leaders of the past could do but by what they could not do. The geography is just as divisive today as it has ever been. Currently, neither the Pacific nor Atlantic region has a natural leader  but not for a lack of candidates.

The Atlantic Coast

In the Atlantic region, Brazil could be such a leader. It borders all South American countries, save Chile and Ecuador. It is the fifth-largest and fifth-most populous country in the world. It boasts the ninth-largest gross domestic product in the world at $1.8 trillion, according to the World Bank. With its low population density and ample mineral, hydrocarbon and agricultural resources, it has all the makings of an even stronger economy.

But Brazil faces two initial obstacles to realizing its potential. First, the government has yet to consolidate the country. The countrys core consists of the triangle formed by Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte. The remaining periphery can be divided into three regions  the South, Center-West and North-North East. To build national strength, Brazils core must have strong social, economic and infrastructural ties to these three regions. Presently, the South, which sits largely on uncomplicated, flat terrain, is the only one of the three firmly connected to the core. Inadequate infrastructure and economic development between the Center-West and North-North East and the core fuel economic and social disparities, making it all the more difficult to bring them into the fold.

Argentina is nearly as potent as Brazil but would struggle to subordinate its neighbor to the north. Though it is South Americas second-largest economy, it is just a third the size of Brazils (21st globally). It has the size and resources to help keep Brazil in check but not enough to overpower it.

The remaining Atlantic region nations are even less equipped to challenge Brazil. Paraguay and Uruguay are buffer states, fated to play their larger neighbors off one another as the situation warrants. Paraguay is particularly resigned since it is a landlocked nation wholly dependent on others for maritime trade. Venezuelas position on the southern rim of the Caribbean means that the United States will make sure Caracas is never powerful enough to challenge U.S. influence in the region, in turn limiting its influence in South America. (Venezuela admittedly isnt doing itself any favors right now.)

The Pacific Coast

In the Pacific region, Peru is best positioned to assume a leadership role. Peru was the seat of power in the pre-Columbian era. It still boasts mineral, metallurgical, hydrocarbon and agricultural resources that allow it to support a large portion of its domestic needs. It also has a burgeoning manufacturing sector. Eight of its 10 largest cities are along the coast, which facilitates trade and communication.

On the surface, Colombia appears to also be a potential candidate for Pacific power. The countrys economy is on the rise (it was especially so before oil prices dropped), and now that the countrys longest insurgency has come to an end, security has improved. But what helped shelter the insurgents for so long is precisely what hinders the construction of a viable regional power: mountains and jungles. Even before it was colonized, Colombia never had a great empire based there like Inca in Peru. This is because the terrain lends itself to poorly connected and uncoordinated population centers. And, like Venezuela, Colombia borders the Caribbean Sea, and though it is a strong U.S. ally, Washington would never allow it to challenge its power.

Other countries dont qualify. Chile is one of the most developed countries in South America, but it is so narrow, so dependent on energy imports and so far removed from the rest of the continent that it could never overtake it neighbors. Bolivia, another landlocked nation, is at the mercy of others for trade. Ecuador is even smaller in area than Bolivia, and only slightly less alienated.

The countries of South America have been too preoccupied with their own issues for the past half century to worry about projecting power abroad. In that time they have experienced dictatorships, rebuilt their governments after toppling the dictatorships, clashed with domestic militant groups and suffered economic crises. Competing for regional power or expansion was secondary to survival. But even if they dedicated themselves to regional hegemony, and even if they de facto led their respective region, they could never subsume the other.



Circumstance

As important to South America is its location. The continent sits in the Southern and Western hemispheres between two oceans, making it remote from major trade routes and seats of power. In short, it is a peripheral region and, as such, was a latecomer to the global economy. Consequently, economic development has come slow to South America, and its domestic issues are magnified.

Geographic barriers, an abundance of natural resources and a legacy of colonialism created an economic dependency on raw materials. From the European perspective, the purpose of the colonies was to provide wealth for the monarchies and ready-made markets for the consumption of manufactured goods. To this day, the production and export of commodities links South American countries to the rest of the world. They all but define trade ties to virtually every region, most notably China, India and other Asian nations. Growing demand for their resources only aggravates the problem.

In some areas of production  sugar cane, soy, corn, copper, iron ore  South American production can drastically affect commodity prices and supply. With other commodities  wheat, coal, beef, oil  these countries significantly factor into global supply but do not single-handedly affect the global market. In these cases, the commodities have a much larger importance and impact on the individual economies than on the global supply or price.

Production and control of these commodities has been a major source of social conflict in South America as government desires for economic performance ran counter to some local demands. In the area of agriculture, the government must balance the domestic consumption with the desire for export revenue  something that pits producers against government regulators, as is sometimes the case in Argentina. In mineral extraction, the profits of mining companies come into conflict with the health and livelihoods of underpaid workers and regional governments. It is little wonder, then, that Chile and Colombia, two major mineral-producing countries, have seen major mining protests throughout the years. Extractive industries and supporting infrastructure projects, moreover, create environmental concerns among indigenous communities and activists, as can be observed in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.

Other sources of friction are inevitable so long as South American countries adopt economic policies meant to reduce their vulnerability to commodity prices, develop domestic industry and shift away from an emphasis on raw materials. So far, they have experimented with various schemes of import substitution (a policy that replaces foreign imports with domestic production, which is often costlier), industrial subsidies, import tariffs and general protectionist measures. But most have not worked. Brazil and Argentina are now moving ahead with economic reforms while Ecuador and Venezuela still cling to failing policies. Peru, Colombia and Chile are trying to compensate by turning to free trade and finding areas of competitive advantage.
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Two women will be sentenced today for attempting to rob a Devonport convenience store.

Nikki Blank, 34, from Biggin Hill, and Stefanie Lake, 31, from Flora Court, appeared at Plymouth Crown Court via video link on Friday where they both pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery of the Premier Store, in Marlborough Street.

Sitting side by side they listened intently as Judge Ian Lawrie told their advocates in court it was inevitable their clients faced a "significant period of custody".

The court heard how Lake had entered the store on Thursday, July 29, with a weapon which the lone shop worker believed to be a screwdriver.

Judge Lewin said Lake's claim that it was just a set of keys was not accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service, and it was given that whatever the item was, it was intended as a weapon to frighten the shop worker.

The two women  both of whom have a number of convictions between them  are to be brought to court this afternoon where they will be sentenced.
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A sculpture is to be fixed to a Plymouth monument dedicated to remembering the war dead of the two world wars.

Poppies: WAVE is being installed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commissions (CWGC) Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper are set to unveil their poignant sculpture on Tuesday, August 22.

The display will be open to the public to enjoy from Wednesday, August 23 until Saturday, November 19.

Volunteers trained by the CWGC will be on hand from 10am to 6pm every day to tell the story of the WAVE, the CWGC and its memorial.

Wave is one of two sculptures taken from the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red  poppies and original concept by artist Paul Cummins and installation designed by Tom Piper.

It was originally at HM Tower of London in 2014 where 888,246 poppies were displayed, one for every British or Colonial life lost at the Front during the First World War.

The installation was by Paul Cummins Ceramics Limited in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces.

The iconic poppy sculpture, is part of the UK-wide tour organised by 14-18 NOW, the UKs arts programme for the First World War centenary.

So far, the poppies have been seen on tour by more than 2.7 million people.

The CWGC Plymouth Naval Memorial was built and is maintained by the Commission to commemorate almost 7,300 servicemen and women of the First World War who have no known grave but the sea.

In addition to commemorating seamen of the Royal Navy who sailed from Plymouth, the First World War panels also bear the names of sailors from Australia and South Africa.

The Memorial was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Henry Poole, and it was unveiled by HRH Prince George on July 29, 1924.

It is situated centrally on The Hoe, which looks directly towards Plymouth Sound, and it is accessible at all times.

Victoria Wallace, director general of the CWGC, has made it possible for the WAVE to come to Plymouth, and Jenny Waldman, is director of 14-18 NOW, who are responsible for the UK-wide tour.

The presentations by 14-18 NOW, gives people across the UK the chance to experience the impact of the ceramic poppy sculptures in a range of places of particular First World War resonance.
Adams County (CO) Sheriff's K-9 Lex was separated from his handler by a fence when his handler was fighting a suspect. The dog opened the gate with his paw and came to the aid of his handler. (Photo: Adams County SO/Facebook)

A K-9 with the Adams County (CO) Sheriffs Office saved a deputy who was fighting with a suspect.

According to a statement, which the sheriffs office also posted to Facebook, at 1 a.m. on Aug. 5, a deputy responded to a trespassing call.

While on the call, a man he was talking to jumped a fence to get away. The deputy ran after him, getting separated from his K-9, and began fighting with the suspect, CBS Denver reports.

As the deputy and the suspect fought, Lex (a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois) unlatched the gate with his paw, the sheriffs office said. Then Lex came to the assistance of the deputy and the suspect was apprehended.
Morris Township Police Sgt. Sean OHare (Photo: Morris Township PD/Facebook)

A New Jersey police officer saved the life of a drowning 2-year-old on Sunday afternoon while on vacation in Florida.

Morris Township Police Sgt. Sean OHare was on vacation in Clearwater Beach, FL, relaxing by the swimming pool when he was "called into action" upon seeing the commotion surrounding the drowning toddler, reports CBS Philly.

OHare initiated CPR and was able to resuscitate the child, who was reportedly blue and not breathing after being removed from the water.

The Clearwater (FL) Police Department posted on its Facebook page, "Sgt. O'Hare talked about always being on duty -- whether patrolling the streets back home or lounging poolside while allegedly being on vacation. 'That's the reason you take the job,' he said. 'To help people.'"
Expanding on its award-winning Direct Impingement rifle line, LWRCI has officially launched the IC DI 300 BLK. The IC DI 300 BLK model is the newest member of the IC DI family whose lineage and design was born out of the US Military M4 PIP program that called for longer barrel life, full ambidexterity, better reliability, and user configurable floating rail system.

Based on the continued popularity of the .300 BLK platform it was a natural line extension for LWRCI and our IC DI line, says David Ridley, LWRCIs senior vice president sales and marketing. The LWRCI-DI 300 excels on all counts, offering our customers an accurate advanced DI rifle at a price that will surprise you. It is truly a step up from the basic direct impingement rifles on the market now in 300 BLK

Built from the ground up the IC DI 300 BLK model, is a completely new Direct Impingement rifle chambered in 300 BLK, featuring many of the same performance attributes found in LWRCI's popular Gas Piston-Luxury AR line up.

The IC DI 300BLK delivers custom rifle features, including: Monoforge upper, modular one-piece free float rail; LWRCI cold hammer-forged Heavy Barrel; fully ambidextrous lower controls: Mag Release, Bolt Catch/Release and Selector switch; angled ergonomic Fore Grip; Mil-Spec 6-position buffer tube; and LWRCI proprietary advanced DI Bolt Carrier group with keyless gas key. The IC DI 300BLK is available, like all LWRCI rifles in a California Compliant model configuration.

The IC DI 300 BLK model is shipping now. It is available in LWRCI standard Cerakote colors, including Flat Dark Earth, OD Green, Patriot Brown and Tungsten Grey.
The United States Marine Corps has issued a notice that it plans to purchase more than 50,000 from Heckler & Koch.

In February, Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) issued a request for information (RFI), seeking companies capable of manufacturing the 5.56mm NATO M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, designed by German manufacturer Heckler & Koch and based on H&K's HK416 rifle. Based on internal evaluations, the Marine Corps had determined that it wanted to expand use of the M27 within its rifle squads.

Although several companies who manufacture 416 clones answered the RFI, MARCORSYSCOM evaluated those submissions, and determined that only H&K was capable of producing the weapon the Corps has adopted as the M27, SoldierSystems.net reports.

H&K has also won the French Armys rifle program with the 416 and has developed and is now offering the 433 for the German Bundeswehrs G36 replacement. In addition, the company is competing in the U.S. Army's testing of a 7.62mm infantry rifle.
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The NRA has used the example of a caustic Trump administration to raise their public profile from delusional to dangerous. No longer satisfied with having undue influence in our government, theyve resorted to threats on media and denouncement of other civil rights platforms.

The National Rifle Association has become a tone deaf, bully pulpit in the name of gun manufacturers. The NRA has ignored the growing gun and violence culture in America, to the detriment of the citizens it purportedly advocates for.

Gun related mass killings occur in America like no other country in the world, as does gun related domestic violence, suicide, and crime. The NRA has resisted common sense methods of gun regulations by claiming infringement upon second amendment rights. Their stance as a civil rights champion is drenched in hypocrisy.

NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch has plagiarized a page from the Donald Trump book of Leadership for Dummies, in a series of mind boggling alt right leaning ads, that paint a picture of the NRA as a deluded, constitutionally illiterate and potential provocateur of misguided violence.

Ms. Loesch is known for her stance as a mom with a gun. No one in their right mind would want to deny a law abiding, mentally stable individual the right to protect their property, business or family. But, within that framework, must be a keen sense of responsibility. We cant ever forget that Nancy Lanza, was once a mother with a gun too. She was killed by her child, along with 26 other innocent souls at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The Columbine shooters made their purchase through an unlicensed dealer. If the argument the NRA wants to use, is that criminals kill people, not guns, then it only makes sense that we remove the tools of the trade from the criminal. The fact is, not every person should be allowed to own a gun, and there should be regulations to ensure that those unfit, never acquire firearms. Common sense.

Loesch has embarked on a mission to attack the media, deride fake news, denounce protests, belittle former president Barack Obama and threaten retaliation. Sound familiar? The NRA is now acting like a deranged surrogate for a demented president.

Apparently, Ms. Loesch needs to be reminded that the right to protest is the First Amendment before even, the right to bear arms. America was born on the strength of civil unrest. Perhaps someone should pass a note to Ms. Loesch, that sheds light on the fact that the media has a constitutional duty to reveal government actions, inadequacies and potential corruption. The news that America has been afforded during the Trump presidency is not fake; its the harsh reality of a political calamity that threatens the founding ideology of America. Choosing to partner with and model their rhetoric in his image, is reprehensible and counterproductive.

Sadly, Ms. Loesch is not alone in the propensity for inflammatory conversation. Fellow NRA spokesman, Grant Stinchfield, went as far as to suggest that North Korea aim their weapons of mass destruction at the capital of California. Mr. Stinchfield can be seen in NRA ads bemoaning the so called violence of the left repeatedly. So the obvious question becomes, what exactly is calling for the nuclear annihilation of fellow Americans, other than extremist violence? Shame on you Mr. Stinchfield. Additionally, how is this advocating for the second amendment?

The NRA has voted against simple common sense measures as:

1. Locking guns at home

2. Reporting the theft of guns within 72 hours

3. Background checks of gun purchasers

4. Ban on assault rifle ownership

5. High capacity ammunition magazines

6. Closure of loopholes of gun show firearm purchases.

Each of these examples represents an opportunity to save lives and remove obvious dangers from the equation, yet the NRA has steadfastly resisted.

Undoubtedly the NRA holds an egregious amount of influence within the government through lobbying donations and even a grading system of political candidates. In the name of GUNS. The NRA will have you believe that our government wants to invade your home and confiscate your legal firearms. Nothing can be further from the truth. They recklessly throw around the idea of infringement of rights, while advocating abject ignorance.

They stood by in silence during the Philando Castile tragedy, before finally declaring their lack of support was due to Castile possessing marijuana at the time of his death. Marijuana played no part in him reaching for his identification and being murdered. It should also be noted, that the NRA is involved in the training of law enforcement agencies across the country, yet saw nothing wrong in the actions of the officer involved. Hypocrisy at its absolute worst.

As American citizens, we can no longer allow the government that serves us to be held hostage by a lone wolf group, that doesnt have the best interests of the entire country at heart.

We the people must make it our priority to elect representatives of humanity, unimpeachable integrity and high intellect. We must empower officials who will not accept donations from, reject the ideologies and are conscious of, the hypocrisy and obliviousness of the NRA. There is a debilitating gun culture in America, and we need leaders who will address this problem and not be extorted by a branch of alt right idiocy. Make your statement loud and clear in all elections from local to the federal level. RESIST
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A candlelight vigil for Heather Heyer who lost her life in the white supremacist domestic terror attack in Charlottesville, VA has been canceled after racists threatened more violence.

Organizers made the announcement in a statement:



This evenings candlelight vigil in remembrance of Heather Heyer scheduled to begin at 6pm the Rotunda at UVA has been canceled and moved to facebook live. The livestream program will feature local activists and clergy members. Organizers intend to hold a space for remembrance at a later date.

This event was designed to be a safe space for Charlottesville residents to gather, grieve, and support one another. A credible threat from white supremacists created a situation wherein we could no longer guarantee the safety of those who attended.

Various groups may be mobilizing around the city tonight to show their love for Heather, Solidarity CVille support them in doing so. Solidarity CVille intend on holding another event in the near future.

It is not safe enough to hold a vigil in Charlottesville because the President Of The United States sent a loud and clear message to the violent white supremacists that he has their backs. A strong leader and a human being with any moral compass would have made it clear that the United States government views the people engaging in violent acts as criminals. Donald Trump did the opposite. He emboldened the racists, which is one of the reasons why the city is not safe enough to hold a vigil for an innocent victim of the violence.

The fire of racial hate that Trump cultivated during his campaign has grown into an inferno, and it looks like it may be up to individual communities to remove the violence and hate because the President isnt interested in doing anything to help.
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions tried to defend Trump as condemning racists and white supremacists on CBS This Morning, but his whole argument fell apart when Charlie Rose pointed out that the President never said any of those things.

Video:

AG Sessions: "And yesterday, his own spokesman explicitly condemned by name"

Charlie Rose: "But that's the spokesman, not the president." pic.twitter.com/ySxo5kcA2C  CBS News (@CBSNews) August 14, 2017

Sessions stuck to the administration line that Trump was strong in his condemnation and added, And yesterday, his own spokesman explicitly condemned by name Nazis and the Klu Klux Klan. Charlie Rose shot back, But thats the spokesman, not the President.

The same attorney general who is using the civil rights division funds to investigate colleges and universities for discrimination against white people thinks that Trump did a great job. Sessions walked right into when he tried to pass the spokesmans words off as Trumps own. The White House was so reluctant to condemn racists and Nazis that they wouldnt attach a name to the statement so that the country could know who was speaking for the president.

Jeff Sessions was a complete disaster, and with his record on racial issues, he is the last person that any sane administration would want going on national television, but America is dealing with Donald Trump, not a logical, competent, and of sound mind president.

The White House has created a new crisis for itself because Trump is incapable of doing the simple and decent thing of condemning racial hate and violence
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First, GoDaddy booted the Nazi website Daily Stormer, and now Google has canceled the registration of the site after the racists tried to relocate there.

CNBC reported:

Google canceled the registration of a Nazi website soon after it moved its domain registration to the service, a Google spokesperson told CNBC. We are canceling Daily Stormers registration with Google Domains for violating our terms of service, the company representative said in a statement.

Googles swift action means that they have higher standards than the man occupying the White House who took nearly three days to denounce neo-Nazis. Daily Stormer will probably have to look overseas for a host or host the website on their own server because no reputable web host in the United States of America will touch their account with a 100-foot pole. Who knows? Maybe Putin has some left over space from the Russian election hacking that he would be happy to let the Trump supporting Nazis use.

The loss of their cyber home could happen to a more deserving group of racists, and any web host in the United States of America that even considers taking them on as a customer should immediately face a massive boycott.
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LONDON (Reuters)  Prime Minister Theresa May condemns racism and hatred, her spokesman said on Monday when asked about U.S. President Donald Trumps response to violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, which killed one woman.

On Saturday, a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the rally, killing one person and prompting criticism of Trumps response when he condemned violence on many sides.

Asked whether Trumps response had been robust enough, Mays spokesman told reporters: What the President says is a matter for him. We are very clear  We condemn racism, hatred and violence, he said. We condemn the far right.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
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Trump decided that subtle racism wasnt good enough, so he took it up another notch by announcing that he is considering a pardon for Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who was found guilty of illegally conducting anti-immigrant traffic patrols.

Fox News reported:

I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio, the president said Sunday, during a conversation with Fox News at his club in Bedminster, N.J. He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. Hes a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.

This great American patriot as Trump called him has one of the vilest records of bigotry and racial profiling one will ever see an elected public official. Arpaio has tormented and physically mistreated Latinos and immigrants for years, which has obviously made him a hero to Donald Trump.

It is almost as if Trump feels like he didnt make his views clear enough when he blamed the left for the racist violence in Charlottesville, and then a member of his administration said that the left was as violent or more violent than the racists.

Trump looked completely disinterested and disengaged while he read the statement condemning racism at the White House on Monday. A man who wants to pardon Joe Arpaio cant also be anti-racism. If Trump pardons Arpaio, it will be another nail in his coffin as the President with the worst poll numbers in history will take another step towards being run out of office.
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According to the latest Gallup Daily Tracking Poll, Donald Trumps approval rating has fallen to among the worst in the history polling after his bungled response to the racist domestic terror attack in Charlottesville.

Here is the poll:

GALLUP: President Trump's approval rating drops to 34%, the lowest of his presidency. https://t.co/7ehrauAXlN pic.twitter.com/c8azLX7zp0  Scott Bixby (@scottbix) August 14, 2017

Trumps approval is now at 34% with his disapproval at 61%. To put Trumps numbers into context, he is polling at the same level as George W. Bush after the Iraq war went south and Hurricane Katrina.

Donald Trump hasnt had a war or a hurricane. Trump has managed to become one of the least popular presidents on the strength of his own lack of character and behavior. A 34% approval rating is an indication that Trumps support has softened with Republicans and that his base is shrinking by the day.

The bad news for the President and his party is that 34% doesnt look like it is the rock bottom for Trump. This president is easily capable of falling into the low 20s. Never in the history of polling has a president began his term so unpopular and managed to get less popular.

The White House bungled the response to Charlottesville, and when combined with Trumps threats of war with North Korea has formed a powerful drag that is carrying the presidents approval ratings to even lower lows.

America is sending a clear message that they have had enough of Donald Trump.
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Trumps approval with whites is falling so fast that he now has the same first term approval rating white voters as former President Barack Obama.

Carrie Dann of NBC News tweeted the data from Gallup:

As of mid-August of 1st term: (Gallup) Obama approval

white: 46%

nonwhite: 73% Trump approval:

white: 46%

nonwhite: 15%  Carrie Dann (@CarrieNBCNews) August 14, 2017

There was much written and spoken in the media about Trumps support with white voters. Some Democrats fretted about how they had to get these white voters back into their column. It turns out that there are plenty of white voters out there who may have fallen for Trumps campaign con, but arent going along with his gutting health care while pandering to racists presidency.

These numbers come on the heels of Trump hitting a level of disapproval that has never been seen before for a first term president in the history of political polling. The odds are that his approval ratings arent going to get better. If white voters leave Trump, the Republican Party will be doomed. White conservative rural voters are all that the GOP has got. If white voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania reject Trump, Democrats will win back the White House.

Trump won the Electoral College by 78,000 votes in the above three states. If white voters continue to flee Trump and his party, it will mean the end of total Republican control of the federal government possibly as soon as 2018.

Obama struggled with white voters, so Trumps equaling of the former president represents a true crash and burn.
Our body is designed for a relationship between our brain and the sun. The internal clock is ideally synced for alignment with a sunrise, a sunset and a 24-hour day. Our watches, bedside clocks and smartphones often determine when we wake up, get to work or go to sleep. Has your body adequately adjusted to last weeks time change? Read morePeper column: The sands of time
Derryck Barentine had just turned 20 and was working as a welder apprentice through a contractor at Detyens Shipyards, a ship repair yard in North Charleston. In the sprawling industrial complex, deaths due to falls, crushing and electrocution have left coworkers like him  men and women scarred by the tragedies they witnessed and the friends they lost. Read moreShipyard deaths take toll on workers left to grapple with trauma, friends lost
The day after one woman was killed and dozens were injured after a man drove his car into a crowd during a gathering of the alt-right, Ku Klux Klan, and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, VA, thousands of New Yorkers gathered in Union Square to hold a vigil for those affected and to excoriate President Donald Trump.

"Hatred is not a Virginian value. It's not an American value," Virginia native Kinneret Ely, 27, told Gothamist. "Yesterday felt horrifying and sickening," said Ely, who is from Williamsburg, VA. "I felt so sick to my stomach. It hit me so close to home."

In speeches, chants, and homemade signs, demonstrators simultaneously denounced Trump's nationalistic campaign rhetoric and the white nationalists in his administration, and mourned 32-year-old Heather Heyer, a Charlottesville resident and activist who was killed in an ISIS-style terror attack Saturday when a driver rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators.

The man who police have identified as the driver, James Alex Fields, Jr., is charged with second degree murder and is being held without bail.

The Union Square vigil began late afternoon Sunday, with some choosing to remain in the park to hear speeches and songs while another hundreds-strong contingent set off marching through 6th Avenue traffic en route to Trump Tower. Three people from that group were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing government administration, and resisting arrest, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed. Police at the scene were observed using a military-grade LRAD noise canon to disperse protesters.

Across the crowd near 14th Street, Marianne Ibin, 89, held a sign that read "I ESCAPED THE NAZIS ONCE. YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME NOW." Ibin recalled how, as a young girl, she witnessed German Nazis attempting to break down the door of her family's home in the late 1930s and spoke with astonishment that now, over 80 years later, Nazi flags continue to fly in America.

"I can't believe it! I never thought it could happen again," Ibin said.
WASHINGTON  Get your insurance through your employer? The ongoing political turmoil around "Obamacare" all but guarantees you'll still be able to do that.

Ask Walt Rowen, whose business is etching glass but whose experience managing century-old, family-owned Susquehanna Glass makes him something of an expert on health care. He's provided coverage to employees, then canceled it, steering them to the health insurance exchange. But with those premiums rising, Rowen this year is again covering his 70 or so workers under the umbrella of employer-sponsored health insurance.

Employer-provided health insurance is so ingrained in the American workplace that people expect it to continue even as politicians thrash out the role of government in health care. That's according to polling, business owners and consumers. And in a nearly saturated labor market, employers don't want to give workers a reason to work somewhere else.

"I think a company  any size company  would be incredibly afraid to just cancel its insurance policy and say the hell with it," says Rowen, whose company is located in Columbia, Pennsylvania. He said that could result in employees fleeing, especially in states where the Affordable Care Act insurance markets are weak.

With the GOP crusade to repeal and replace "Obamacare" failing, the federal mandates that people have insurance and that employers with more than 50 workers provide it seem likely to stay in place in the foreseeable future. The Trump administration on Tuesday pledged to keep working with Congress on a rewrite. "Obamacare's mandates saddled many with health care costs they simply couldn't afford," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

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For now, the Trump administration is considering whether or not to continue paying the law's cost-sharing subsidies, which have helped lower premiums. Without those subsidies, it's estimated that premiums will rise and insurers will leave markets.

'AT A COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE'

The ACA requires companies with 50 or more full-time employees to provide insurance to employees and their dependents. The Kaiser Family Foundation says nearly 96 percent of companies of that size already were offering coverage before the law took effect in 2014. Nearly 35 percent of companies with fewer than 50 workers also were offering insurance.

Removing the employer mandate wouldn't sit well with a wide swath of the American public.

A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says 61 percent oppose revoking the requirement, including 58 percent of Republicans.

Workers have been getting their health insurance through their employers for decades, since the U.S. government exempted employer-paid health benefits from wage controls and income tax during World War II.

Nearly 90 percent of workers are in companies that provide health benefits, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/HRET annual survey in 2016. Taking into account dependents, roughly half of Americans are covered by employer-based insurance.

Large companies "need to attract and retain employees and they'd be at a competitive disadvantage if they stopped offering health benefits," said William Kramer, executive director for national health policy for the Pacific Business Group on Health.

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As a result, human resource consultants say it's likely that businesses will remain committed to offering coverage. Some experts question whether the ACA's employer mandate makes much, if any, difference when there's a solid business case for providing health care: With unemployment low and the labor market tight, benefits give employers an advantage in recruiting and retaining the best workers.

"What kind of message are you giving to employees if you say, 'I'm going to take this away?' Are you really willing to risk losing people?" asks David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, based in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Even if the employer mandate had been repealed, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that larger companies would have been hard-pressed to cancel their health benefits, although some smaller firms would have done so.

"As soon as you take it back, you cause massive employee dissatisfaction," said Jay Starkman, CEO of Engage PEO, a human resources provider whose clients include many small and mid-sized businesses.

'WE WERE FIDDLING ALL THE TIME'

Rowen, the glass business owner, says his health insurance decisions had less to do with the employer mandate than with cost and employee retention.

In the four years before the ACA took effect, Susquehanna Glass had fewer than 50 employees and saw its premiums rise between 15 percent and 20 percent a year. "We were fiddling all the time trying to keep our health care costs for our employees as affordable as possible," Rowen recalls.

He hired an expert to help his employees find insurance on the exchange in Pennsylvania. Lower-paid employees qualified for subsidies, while higher-paid workers could afford plans or went on their spouses' plans, he said. In some cases, Rowen gave bonuses or raises to help workers afford insurance.

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He says he owed a penalty of about $40,000 for not providing insurance  less than the six figures he thinks he would have paid to provide group insurance.

But by 2016, he said, his workers were complaining that their premiums were increasing. Susquehanna Glass by that time had grown to about 70 employees  enough to qualify for less-expensive group plans joined by medium-sized businesses. Many of his new employees were younger and less expensive to insure. He found that purchasing group health insurance would cost just over $100,000  not as much as he'd feared.

"If they were not able to get an affordable one with me and they found another company that does offer one," he says, "They might be forced to make the decision to leave me."
On the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, his brother Robert F. Kennedy was enjoying a swim and eating a sandwich at his home in Virginia.

This is how John Bohrer's "The Revolution of Robert Kennedy: From Power to Protest After JFK" opens, bursting into the event that marked the end of a president's life and the end of an era. For then-Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, it was the beginning of a transformation that was both personal and political.

With details about tuna sandwiches and dialogue ranging from the conversational to the congressional, Bohrer's biography spans the three years after JFK's death and culminates two years to the day from Robert Kennedy's own untimely passing at the hands of an assassin. It's logical that the first glimpse readers get of Robert Kennedy is at this particular moment, because to understand his close relationship with his brother is to fully comprehend the enormity of the vacancy JFK's death left behind. Not only did he lose a sibling, confidante and role model, RFK also lost his president and unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. He also lost his job security.

Bohrer chronicles RFK's initial weeks, months and years of personal grief over JFK's death, but the titular "revolution" is more than just one from heartbreak to healing: Robert "Bobby" Kennedy, who was often attacked and discounted as a calculating, ruthless behind-the-scenes force who would risk relationships and respect in order to get his brother what he wanted, had to decide what his next career move would be. Colleagues and constituents alike wondered for months: would he stay in politics, and could others do for him what he had done for John F. Kennedy?

And when Bobby decided to run for office  first seeking the vice presidency under Lyndon Johnson, his brother's successor and his longtime rival, and then running for a seat in the Senate  the ultimate question was whether the Kennedy name was a qualification or a liability. Because to Bobby Kennedy, his own political career was inseparable from his brother John F. Kennedy's legacy.

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Bohrer proves that the personal is political, showing readers how Bobby Kennedy's evolution from shadow to savior was, in fact, revolutionary. In the aftermath of personal and national tragedy, his last name was both a comfort and a promise to the American people. It was also a badge of entitlement as far as many were concerned. The cult of personality surrounding the Kennedy family was instrumental to the success of Robert Kennedy's early political career.

But the senator from New York came into his own, trading monikers like "the President's brother" for "ruthless" and "mourner" for "mountain climber" and, eventually, Democratic presidential candidate in 1968.

Bohrer balances the concentric circles of Bobby Kennedy's personal life, his career ambitions and his political friends and foes against the backdrop of national and international conflicts: uprisings in South America, the War on Poverty and the war in Vietnam are just a few.

The book is part political biography, taking readers through an unending series of strategic political decisions and the steps Bobby Kennedy took to make them. It's also an American history refresher, detailing the tumultuous domestic and foreign challenges of the era and placing Robert Kennedy's views and motivations in context.

In paying special attention to this brief window of Bobby Kennedy's life, the book chronicles details that a more action-packed biography might gloss over, making for a slower-paced read that at times can feel daunting. But the constant question of Bobby's identity is woven throughout, tying these minutiae together and providing an immensely satisfying conclusion at its end that proves the work was well worth the reward.

Between 1963 and 1966, a series of complex social and political events redefined the world. At the same time, Bobby Kennedy was redefining himself and the role he was to play in it. Often described as JFK's "echo," he learned that he possessed real power on his own, and increasingly used that power to try and make things right for others  even when the pundits and the polls turned against him in response.

Bobby Kennedy's revolution was a little quieter, a little more emotional and a lot more gradual than many others. What Bohrer presents is a zoomed-in snapshot of a relatively short period of time in what was the brief life of a man who had a lot more to give to his country, and to his family.

This book is the story of how Bobby Kennedy, who aged a lifetime in three years, grew from the president's brother to a man who might have become the president himself.

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Book notes

"The Revolution of Robert Kennedy: From Power to Protest After JFK," by John Bohrer, is available at Barnes & Noble at Apache Mall, through online booksellers and at the Rochester Public Library.
GRAPEVINE, Texas  The first time a stranger called Marilyn Morrison a girl, she beamed.

She and her mother were picking up doughnuts for breakfast. Marilyn, a bright, blue-eyed child with Southern charm, held the door open for an older man.

"Well, thank you, little lady," the man said.

He had no idea Marilyn was transgender.

By age 4, Marilyn already knew she was meant to live her life as a girl, her parents say, though she was assigned the male gender at birth. Her parents, Andrew and Chelsa Morrison of Grapevine, had seen the signs as early as Marilyn could talk.

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"Girl. I'm a girl. I'm a girl," she would insist to her parents by age 3.

If 3 sounds too early for a child to express such a profound feeling, the Morrisons say they got the message loud and clear from Marilyn, now 9.

"It's not like my daughter came to me at age 2 and said 'I'm transgender,'" Chelsa said.

Various signs that Marilyn exhibited from ages 3 to 5 showed her parents that she wasn't a typical boy. Putting boys' clothes on Marilyn was a sure way to produce temper tantrums. She had frequent questions about why she has a boy's body.

Experts say young children can begin to experience signs of gender dysphoria, a conflict between a person's physical gender and gender identity, as early as age 2 or 3.

The outbursts made Andrew and Chelsa wonder about their child's gender identity. The Morrisons consulted gender therapists to help them. When professionals confirmed that their young child was transgender, they thought they were alone.

"We thought we were the only ones with a kid this young," Chelsa and her husband recall.

In fact, they were far from it.

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Support groups for transgender kids and their families have expanded in North Texas. DFW Trans Kids & Families started with fewer than 15 families and has grown to a network of more than 200 families in the last two years.

When the Morrisons moved from Denver back to North Texas seven years ago for a job, they hoped it'd be a good place to raise Marilyn and her older brother, Miles.

But in those years, the Morrisons say, they've faced family rejection, bullying and public school bathroom debates. During a special session of the Texas Legislature this month, lawmakers are considering a "bathroom bill" that would restrict the public facilities transgender people can use.

Marilyn's parents didn't imagine raising their daughter would bring such backlash.

"I thought it would be so much simpler," Chelsa said, holding back tears. "But I will fight until I take my last breath."

COMING OUT

As a toddler, Marilyn reached for girly items every time she could. While at a family friend's house, she was fascinated with the daughter's dolls and the clothes. Hand-me-downs became Marilyn's favorite possessions, like her pink Ugg boots and a Ralph Lauren wool dress.

From ages 3 to 6, Marilyn would sometimes dress as a girl, except in some public settings and at school. She still went by her old name around grandparents and other extended family.

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Some parents of classmates and teachers empathized with the family's struggles. When Marilyn started school, Chelsa would let teachers know that their soon-to-be student was not a gender-conforming child, but more "girly."

A teacher, who knew exactly what Chelsa was trying to say, openly told her, "Don't worry, I have a transgender child, too."

Those moments brought relief during the beginning of Marilyn's transition.

Coming out to the extended family became another stress point for the Morrisons, and disagreements about what gender identity meant brought division with some relatives.

"I come from a family where it's 'Let's not talk about it. Let's not address the problem,'"Andrew said.

Friends, they say, have been the most supportive through the process.

"My friends are our family now. They're our tribe," Chelsa said.

Marilyn's transition became a larger, more public part of her life in 2015. She picked her new name, continued to grow out her hair and lived life as any 7-year-old girl would.

Public awareness of transgender children and young teenagers has risen because of celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner, Chaz Bono, LaVerne Cox and Jazz Jennings, and it's encouraged more families to speak out.

"Our families are no different than anybody else's. If people would just understand that," said Melissa Ballard, co-founder of DFW Trans Kids & Families. "I think a lot of the fear and rhetoric come from people who don't know someone who is transgender."

A FEAR IN SCHOOL

Coming out to the family was hard, but transitioning around classmates and teachers who had seen Marilyn as a boy made third grade especially difficult.

Kids on the playground would yell at her "You're a boy! You're a boy!" during recess. Restroom trips would be equally humiliating because the school's rules on the bathroom constantly changed, Chelsa said, depending on which administrator Marilyn encountered.

Sometimes, in front of the class, a teacher would ask Marilyn which bathroom she was going to. She'd go home crying and say she didn't want to go back to school.

"I don't think there was one day out of the school year that I wasn't calling the school, or emailing or writing about something," Chelsa said.

It didn't make school easier for Marilyn. She refused to use the "other" bathroom option.

A spokesman for Marilyn's old school, Cannon Elementary, declined to discuss Marilyn's experiences, saying he could not comment about specific students.

"The district follows all applicable laws and the GCISD [Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District] code of conduct in every student discipline situation," he said.

Meanwhile, the state's bathroom bill debate became more contentious in 2016. Ultimately, Marilyn's parents decided to withdraw her from school in fall 2016 and homeschool her, a move that made local TV news.

"She'll be bored, but at least she won't be bullied," her mom said.
Building a home is an exciting opportunity to create something from scratch that speaks directly to how you and your family will live, grow, and enjoy your home for many years to come. Its a chance to dream up the spaces that youll make memories in, and a way to create the best possible environment for your family to enjoy life to the fullest.

Lots of people are delighted at the idea of building their own brand new home, but when it comes to making that shiny new product a warm and inviting space, theres some design work to do. Here are a few ways you can bring warmth, character, and a classic style into your newly built home.

Shiplap

In the event you havent been living under a rock and you do in fact have access to the outside world, youve most definitely heard the word shiplap before. But what is shiplap, anyway?

Shiplap is a kind of board (usually made of wood) thats been used in the past to construct sheds, barns, and the like. To incorporate this into the inside of your new home, you simply affix it to the wall, usually in a horizontal pattern, and either white washed or painted in a white hue.

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In an effort to bring the rustic charm to the interiors of homes, the design world has even created an engineered shiplap called MDF board. Both natural and engineered options can be affixed directly to your drywall, kind of like paint. And if you love shiplap as much as the rest of the world loves shiplap, then you may treat it as such and put that stuff everywhere!

Shiplap isnt as economical as paint by any means, but there isnt a better way to bring texture and rustic charm into your home.

Reclaimed wood

Adding an extra dose of character to your home can easily be achieved by using reclaimed wood as a replacement for a newer or faux option. By choosing a piece of wood thats been used for another purpose, youre bringing that pieces story and history into your home.

Ways to bring reclaimed wood into your design could include a fireplace mantel made of a reclaimed rail road tie or a sliding barn door made of the scraps left behind from an old barn in your community.

Reclaimed wood can be found virtually anywhere, and there are hundreds of artists and craftsmen and women on Etsy, Craigslist, and the like that will make a custom piece for your new construction home.

Built-in storage

Built-in storage in the home is a timeless way to make your home warm and livable. Having shelving built into walls, corners, or niches that would otherwise go wasted is both functional and fashionable.

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Style the shelves with things that bring you joy when you look at them, like family mementos and photos, or fill them with books, plants, and bowls from your travels. This is the beauty of built-ins: they add character while making your home very, very functional.

Antique fixtures

More times than not, when building a new home your builder will provide you will a "lighting allowance" to help guide you in selecting fixtures that will keep you inside your overall building budget. That lighting allowance will allow you to go out and pick a mid range lighting package that many other homes in the area likely have.

Instead of shopping for faux antique pieces at big box stores, which youll over pay for because the style is high in demand at the moment, take your light allowance to Etsy, Ebay, and local antique shops or flea markets to find pieces with actual history.

Your new old piece will add much more character to your new home and youll know that you have a piece with a story, and youve supported a local small business in your community while doing so.

Lastly, shopping for lighting this way allows you to add a piece into your new home that no one else has or could have. Now thats customization!

Texture

The easiest way to give your new build home more character is to sprinkle in as much texture as possible. Whether its with faux furs, iron, stone, wood, or chunky fabrics, this will add dimension to the space.

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Dont be afraid to mix lots of different textures into the interior of your new home. For instance, a wood range hood combined with iron lighting and a natural stone countertop would be a fantastic way to create dimension through layered textures.

An easier way to jump into this would be to add texture with the decor and accessories in your home. A chunky knit throw combined with burlap pillows and a faux fur area rug would create a warm and functional living space.

Crown molding

The use of crown molding in structures dates back to the ancient Greeks. And although we no longer use heavy stone to achieve the look, crown molding has remained a choice among designers to accentuate elegant curves, and create a distinguished look. Nowadays, you can use wood or even foam to give your space a grandiose look.

Hopefully you can use this information to help you take a step outside the box when designing your new construction home because old world charm is all around you! Our city is rich with history and there is no shortage of options, resources, and places to find just what your new home needs to feel old.
It's not entirely clear what time President Donald Trump will touch down in New York City Monday, following a short-notice Washington D.C. detour this morning. What's obvious, though, is that New Yorkers will be out protesting this week following his initial refusal to denounce white supremacy and neo-Nazism on display at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

The two-day gathering ended in tragedy Saturday, when a participant mowed through a group of anti-racist protesters in a car, killing one and injuring nineteen. Trump initially criticized violence "on many sides." On Monday morning, in the wake of swift and harsh criticism, he held a brief press conference to announce a civil rights Department of Justice investigation into the driver attack. "Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and White Supremacists," he said. Trump did not take questions.

New Yorkers mourned the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer on Sunday, rallying at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and Union Square in Manhattan, and marching to Trump Tower. Below are actions planned for today and into the week.

COMING SOON TO A SIDEWALK NEAR YOU... Trump The Rat produced by #bravinlee #resist #donaldtrump #protest #publicart #inflatable #scabbytherat A post shared by BravinLee Programs (@bravinlee) on Aug 8, 2017 at 6:48am PDT



MONDAY

TUESDAY



Tomorrow, August 15th, marks the five year anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama legacy that protects children who immigrate to the United States from deportation for two years, with the option to renew. Major NYC immigrant organizations will rally in Midtown on Tuesday evening to defend the program, as well as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which offers protection and work permits to immigrants from countries in duress, including Haiti. Both programs have been criticized by the Trump administration. Groups including the New York Immigration Coalition and Make The Road New York will gather at 52nd Street and 5th Avenue near Trump Tower at 5:00 p.m.

All told, Trump Tower will be the focal point of actions this week. If yesterday is any indication, protesters in the thousands will be met with a labyrinth of barricades for blocks around the tower.

Drivers will also be met with roadblocks. According to an updated NYPD traffic advisory issued Monday, the following closures will be in effect from noon Monday through Wednesday: 58th Street between Sixth Avenue and Fifth Avenue; 56th Street between Sixth Avenue to Madison Avenue; 55th Street from Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue.

"While this is not his first visit back to New York City, it is the first time he's staying at his residence in Trump Tower. We've prepared accordingly," said NYPD Chief of Department Carlos Gomez at an unrelated event on Monday. "We've met with Secret Service. We prepared a sizeable detail... to ensure the area around Trump Tower is safe and secure with minimal disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic."

Starting at 7:00 p.m., the NYPD will also be instating bus and vehicle checkpoints around Trump Tower. According to Gomez, "Well be boarding the buses, inspecting them, before they proceed down Fifth Avenue.... They will be random. Well be checking inside the vehicle and the trunk before theyre allowed to proceed down Fifth."

"We're prepared for anything that happens," he added. "The detail is fluid."

Check back for updates.
Twin Cities developer Alatus LLCis ready to roll forward with its planned 13-story residential and commercial tower by Mayo Clinic's Saint Marys Hospital.

The plan is to build a $130 million luxury tower on the corner of Second St. Southwest between 14th and 15th avenues.

However, a lot has to happen before the unnamed tower will start to rise on Second Street.

The first step happened last week, when Alatus took control of The Brentwood on 2ndhotel and the Ray-Mar Motel , said Alatus Development Director Chris Osmundson.

A local group led by Rochester's Ed and Nick Pompeian, who have been working with Alatus since the start, sold the two closed hotels and some adjacent open land to the developer.

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On Friday, crews started work to prepare the hotels for demolition. Osmundson expects the work to remove toxic materials, such as asbestos, to start in earnest today.

The goal is to have the buildings demolished and the site prepped for construction by mid-October. Weis Buildersis the lead contractor on the project. Ironically, Weis originally built the Brentwood, then known as the Blondell Hotel, in 1972.

"It's coming full circle," Osmundson said.

One issue that could cause a hiccup is "some unexpected subsurface issues" originating from karst material under that corner, he said, noting the nearby Fresh Thymegrocery/apartments project ran into a similar problem.

Commuters shouldn't be too concerned about the coming months and months of construction on that corner. Osmundson says the busy Second Street Southwest that runs by the hospital never will be closed for the work, though the sidewalk might be re-routed a bit.
MINNEAPOLIS  Five members of a heroin trafficking ring operating in and around the Rochester area were sentenced to lengthy prison terms last week in U.S. District Court.

The group has been linked to two overdose deaths in Austin  Tyler Burkey, 23, and Jordan Jensen, 20  and accused of showing "callous disregard for human life" by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Paulsen, who prosecuted the case. All five were convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin.

Antonio Jermaine Snell, 36, and his half-brother Melvin Hunter, 23, were both sentenced to 14 years in prison and five years of supervised release. Snell, who is also known as "Fatty" or "Lord," is an Albert Lea resident described as the leader of the heroin distribution conspiracy that recruited others to act as distributors or runners within homes in and around Rochester.

According to testimony, Hunter supplied the heroin that killed Burkey on Dec. 18, 2015 and Jensen on March 27, 2016.

"You were selling poison  and it caused death," Senior Judge Michael J. Davis said while sentencing Hunter.

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The other three defendants all received at least six years in prison after playing lesser roles in the heroin operation: Randle Snell, 27, of Illinois, was sentenced to 92 months; Darrell Lenardo Smith, 44, of Rochester, was sentenced to 84 months; and Ernest Jerelle Thomas, 38, of Rochester, was sentenced to 77 months.

All three men will also serve five years of supervised release.

"These defendants brought large amounts of heroin from Chicago to southern Minnesota and sold it for $200 a gram," Paulsen said. "Even after two of their customers died from heroin overdoses, the defendants continued dealing these dangerous drugs. The imposed sentences appropriately reflect the defendants' callous disregard for human life."

Criminal charges were filed against the group of co-defendants on June 14, 2016, after a lengthy coordinated investigation that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, Rochester Police Department, Austin Police Department and the Southeast Minnesota Violent Crimes Enforcement Team.
What happened to the news on Page One?

We didn't run out of it, believe me, nor did we run out of ink. The Post Bulletin and more than 200 newspapers across Minnesota are joining forces this week to imagine, with snowy-white and disturbingly vacant front pages, how different our lives would be without a local newspaper.

How would you find out what really happened at the city council or county board? How long would it take to figure out what candidates you want to vote for (and those you absolutely don't want to vote for) without reporters checking it out?

Where would you find the stats and standings for your local teams? Who would shoot the photos of all the landmark events and interesting people in your hometown?

Then there's the crime report  would you go down to the courthouse or law enforcement center yourself to get those incident reports and criminal complaints? Would you have time to call the prosecutors and attorneys and investigators and get the real story?

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The short answer is, you wouldn't. You'd have to do without, aside from the headlines and brief reports in other media.

Without the Post Bulletin and our newsroom of two dozen journalists, with a combined experience of more than 200 years in the business, you'd lose the coverage, context, investigations and opinions, and all the basic records of your community's life, from cradle to grave.

This is leaving aside the Amish Kitchen column  seriously, don't you want to know what Lovina and her Old Amish family are cooking up this week? What about Jeff Kiger's Heard on the Street, Nature Nut, Boomer Grandpa, Steve Lange, Twins and Vikings, the puzzles, the comics? And don't even think about getting along without the Answer Man.

All this news and information isn't cheap. You can do some rough math and guess what it costs to run a newsroom of two dozen dedicated, trained, professional journalists to get the local news, photos and information you need and trust. Then multiply that by four to provide for the best advertising and marketing people in Southeast Minnesota, the first-class press crew, circulation and customer service employees -- the whole team, front office and back, that makes the Post Bulletin one of Minnesota's largest and most effective media organizations.

These are challenging times for newspapers. We're not complaining  it's no easier in the radio, TV and digital media worlds, any more than it is in farming, furniture making or health care. From now 'til doomsday, it appears we're all destined to enjoy a constantly accelerating process of transformation, driven by technology.

Soon there'll be smart cars, smart houses and smart-everything else to go with our smartphones, but will there be smart, well-informed citizens? That depends in part on whether your local paper can keep ink on the front page, and every page inside, while we grow our digital products.

There's plenty of news to report, exponentially more every day, and it's never been more important to have news you can trust, news that checks out for accuracy and balance, produced by local journalists you know and can share tips and feedback with. That's what we offer every day -- the most relevant, interesting and accurate news in the region, on your doorstep and into your digital device faster than anyone else.

You have a part to play as well. Thank you for reading the Post Bulletin and keeping news on the front page. You're helping to keep local journalism alive.

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Truly, it's more important than ever.

---

Learn more about Post Bulletin subscription options at www.getmypb.com
Will she or won't she run for Congress?

That's the big question for Sen. Carla Nelson as she mulls jumping into the 1st Congressional District race. If she does, she'll be taking on Blue Earth Republican Jim Hagedorn, who is making his fourth bid for the seat after running in 2010, 2014 and 2016. He came within less than a percentage point of beating 1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz last November. Walz is not seeking re-election. Instead he is running for governor in 2018.

That has set the stage for a fierce  and likely expensive  battle for the 1st District seat. Conservatives see a golden pickup opportunity since Donald Trump won the district by 15 points. But Democrats note that voters in this same district also voted for Barack Obama in the past.

Speculation surrounding a possible bid by Nelson has grown in the past week. Blois Olson, who puts together a daily tip sheet of top news stories called The Morning Take , recently focused on Nelson and growing buzz about her running.

In an interview, Nelson said she will make a final decision about whether to run very soon.

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"I definitely will be making a decision soon  certainly early this fall," she said. "I'm weighing very carefully where I can best serve."

Making Nelson's decision more complicated is Republicans' one-seat majority in the Minnesota Senate. If she were to win the congressional seat, it would trigger a special election to fill her Senate seat. The district is considered a swing seat, and the outcome of that election would determine which party has control of the Minnesota Senate. Nelson said she knows it is important that Republicans keep control of the Senate. She said if there needed to be a special election, "there are strong Republican candidates that can win that seat."

Two other Republicans are also weighing a run for the seat. Stewartville Rep. Nels Pierson said he is busy contacting people in all 21 counties in the district as he considers whether to run or not.

"I haven't made a final decision and had a lot of discussion with my family over this past week," Pierson said.

A third Republican, Luverne Rep. Joe Schomacker, has said he was considering running for the seat. He did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Seven Democrats are currently running for the 1st District seat  Rochester web developer Johnny Akzam, U.S. Army veteran Dan Feehan, former state Sen. Vicki Jensen, electronic pull-tabs sales Colin Minehart, Rochester activist Regina Mustafa, Mankato attorney Joe Sullivan and Rochester attorney Rich Wright.

Conservative veterans group targets Walz

Concerned Veterans for America has launched a digital ad campaign against gubernatorial candidate Walz after he voted against emergency funding for the Veterans Choice Program. That program allows veterans to get care outside of the VA system. The ad features unflattering photos of Walz and a narrator says, "Rep. Tim Walz let down our veterans  again. He voted against funding for the Veterans Choice Program right as it was running out of money."

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In a statement, CVA Policy Director Dan Caldwell said, "Unfortunately, Rep. Walz has a history of standing in the way of VA reform when it matters most. We will make sure voters in Minnesota understand Rep. Walz's actions against veterans' best interests. We will hold him accountable."

CVA is supported by well-known conservative brothers Charles and David Koch.

Walz is the lead Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. He is also a veteran himself, having served 24 years in the Army National Guard. In a series of recent tweets, Walz defended himself against "the absurdity of these attacks." He said the bill that CVA favored was opposed by major veteran service organizations. He worked to come up with a differed bill backed by veterans groups to fund the Veterans Choice Program.

Walz tweeted, "I'm proud of our work. We got a better deal. It passed the House 419-0. How often do you hear about something like that anymore?"

In a statement, Walz's campaign says the group is attacking him because he is the strongest candidate for governor.

"No other candidate in this race has been on the receiving end of these unprecedented Republican attacks, and there's a reason for that: no other candidate in this race is as strong a candidate for governor than Tim Walz."

Other Democrats running for governor include St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Rep. Tina Liebling, Rep. Erin Murphy, State Auditor Rebecca Otto and Rep. Paul Thissen. Republicans running include Rep. Matt Dean, former Minnesota GOP Chairman Keith Downey, Ramsey County Commissioner Blake Huffman and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson.

Feehan gets major endorsement

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Feehan's campaign for the 1st District seat recently got a boost when Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton announced he was endorsing the candidate. Moulton, a Marine who served in Iraq, is endorsing military veterans who are running for Congress. Last week, Roll Call reported that he endorsed three veterans  including Feehan. Why does that matter? Moulton has his own Political Action Committee called "Serve America PAC." That means dollars will likely be headed to Feehan's campaign for what is expected to be a costly campaign.
On the scene in Charlottesville, New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg noted on Twitter: ew York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg was on the scene yesterday. On Saturday she wrapped up her observations on Twitter: The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding antifa beating white nationalists being led out of the park (below).

2. The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding "antifa" beating white nationalists being led out of the park 2/2  Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) August 13, 2017

In this mornings story on what went down in Charlottesville on Saturday, Stolberg turns to ministerial trainee Brittany Caine-Conley, a protester at the alt-right rally (as Stolberg puts it): There was no police presence. We were watching people punch each other; people were bleeding all the while police were inside of barricades at the park, watching. It was essentially just brawling on the street and community members trying to protect each other.

At the Daily Caller, Scott Greer rounds up the troubling reportage on this issue including Stolbergs. He serves up this mind-boggling quote from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe on the day after (it appears in filtered form in Stolbergs story):

McAuliffe was asked about the criticism of law enforcements inaction Sunday, to which he offered an odd response  he blamed the presence of armed militia for why police didnt do more. They had better equipment than our State Police had, the governor said of why police stayed put and watched the violence unfold. But, according to ProPublica, the militia members seemed to be the only ones breaking up fights and trying to keep the peace in the tumult. It would have probably been more effective in suppressing the violence if the men and women paid to keep the peace for a living were out in the mix.

The ProPublica report cited by Greer is Police stood by as mayhem mounted in Charlottesville.

By contrast, Stolberg quotes Corinne Geller speaking on behalf of the State Police. It may have looked like a lot of our folks were standing around, because of the sheer number of officers on the scene, but there were other troopers and law enforcement officers who were responding to incidents as they arose. Can this quote be squared with McAuliffes?

Glenn Reynolds infers that the police were ordered to stand down. He wants to know who ordered the police to stand down in the face of mob violence, and why. A decision to allow citizens to be assaulted in the exercise of their constitutional rights is a federal felony.
The Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the violence that occurred in Charlottesville yesterday. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said:

The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated. I have talked with FBI Director Chris Wray, FBI agents on the scene, and law enforcement officials for the state of Virginia. The FBI has been supporting state and local authorities throughout the day. U.S. Attorney Rick Mountcastle has commenced a federal investigation and will have the full support of the Department of Justice. Justice will prevail.

But is federal involvement necessary for justice to prevail? I very much doubt it.

The violence in Charlottesville had two components: the street fighting between right-wing and left-wing extremists and the mowing down of protesters by a Nazi (or Nazi sympathizer). The second component looks like an open and shut case. Local investigators and prosecutors should have no difficulty handling it. The local population will demand that they do their job, which surely will include seeking the maximum penalty against the murderer/terrorist. In Virginia thats the death penalty.

Determining guilt in connection with the street fighting will be less straightforward. However, there is no reason to think the feds can determine it more accurately than local authorities can. My guess is that, if anything, they can do it more objectively, since they are probably less likely than DOJ civil rights lawyers to sympathize with the hard left.

In short, a federal investigation of the Charlottesville violence strikes me as a waste of resources for the purpose, perhaps, of grandstanding.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was asked three times today by Chuck Todd whether he can work with Steve Bannon, President Trumps chief strategist. Three times McMaster refused to say that he can. Each answer was more embarrassing than the last  to McMaster, to Bannon, and ultimately to their boss. You can read the details here.

It is the job of every member of a presidents staff to work with other staff members to the extent their jobs cause them to interact, as is the case with McMaster and Bannon. It may be that Bannon is on his way out, in which case McMaster wont have to interact with him any longer.

Even so, a member of the presidents staff, if asked, should be willing to say on the record that he can work with any other staff member. The refusal to say this fuels the narrative that the White House is dysfunctional which, of course, reflects poorly on the president. Given the prevalence of that narrative with this presidency, McMaster did Trump a significant disservice (whether Trump sees it this way now or not).

McMaster has been waging war against Bannon and the positions Bannon holds for some time. As we have discussed, McCaster purged three members of his staff who share Bannons views. (Meanwhile, he seems to get along quite well with the Obama holdovers and, indeed, has instructed his people not to use that word). McMasters target all along has been Bannon and the views he holds.

It is trite to say that no one elected McMaster (or Bannon for that matter) to any office. Both serve only because the American people elected Donald Trump. Whats significant is that when Trump ran for president, he took positions on key foreign policy that, if most reporting is to be believed, Bannon espouses and McMaster rejects.

McMaster reportedly favors stepped up U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and in the post-ISIS war in Syria. Bannon reportedly opposes both. His position is closer to what Trump advocated.

McMaster, as Andy McCarthy has argued, doesnt seem to grasp the challenge presented by what McCarthy calls sharia supremacism. Bannon is more attuned to it. So, it seemed, was candidate Trump.

Bannon reportedly wants to scrap the Iran deal immediately. McMaster apparently led the charge to grant the certification necessary to keep it alive for now. Candidate Trump denounced the Iran deal and said he would renegotiate or dismantle it as president.

Bannon and McMaster are both pro-Israel, as far as I can tell. However, McMaster hired Kris Bauman to work on the Israel-Palestine desk. Bauman blamed Israel and the Bush administration for undermining the peace process by failing to recognize Hamas moderation.

Candidate Trump never suggested that Hamas was moderate or that Israel and the Bush administration were to blame for the failure of the peace process. Its difficult to underestimate the amount of ridicule he would have heaped on the former suggestion.

Personally, I agree with Bannon on some of the areas of clash and with McMaster on others (assuming reports of their views are accurate). But even on the issues as to which I agree with McMaster (Iran and Syria), I dont want to see him carry the day by purging those who disagree with him. Let him win by persuading Trump on the merits (if he can), not by knifing those whose sins consist mainly of advocating the positions Trump ran and won on.
With pressure building on Governor Cuomo to unify the warring factions of the State Senate Democrats and regain control over the chamber, a top aide to the governor is now blaming the stalemate on Democratic Senator Michael Gianaris.

Gianaris, a Queens-based senator who recently helped Mayor de Blasio craft his millionaire tax proposal to fund the MTA, is "working to further the divide," an anonymous Cuomo aide told the Daily News.

The aide alleges that Gianaris has a personal beef with Bronx Senator Jeff Klein, the leader of the eight breakaway Democratic senators who make up the Independent Democratic Conference, which caucuses with Republicans and allows them to claim a majority in the chamber, thus acting as legislative gatekeepers. The IDC frequently frustrates the efforts of the Assembly, which is solidly in the hands of Democrats.

Cuomo's aide also alleges that Gianaris, a deputy leader of the Democrats, has worked to sink any deal with the IDC because he's concerned about losing influence under a unified Democratic majority.

"As long as this tension exists [between Gianaris and Klein], its nearly impossible to bring these two sides together," the aide said. The governor himself has repeated this talking point, according to four members of the state's congressional delegation who met with him in D.C. recently, the News reports.

The comments come as Governor Cuomo is facing increasing pressure from progressives on the state and national level to help Democrats take back control of the Senate. But the private meetings in service of that goal have reportedly been a disaster, with the governor reportedly offending Democratic Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who leads the mainline Democrats, by allegedly downplaying her understanding of suburban voters.

"You look at me, Mr. Governor, but you dont see me," Stewart-Cousins, whose district includes the suburbs directly north of the city, told him, according to the New York Times. "You see my black skin and a woman, but you don't realize I am a suburban legislator."

According to Gianariswho serves as Deputy Minority Leader under Stewart-Cousinsthe recent comments are intended to draw attention away from the recently inflamed tension between Stewart-Cousins and Cuomo.

"This is a poor attempt to distract people from asking the real question of why Andrea Stewart Cousins does not have her rightful seat at the table after voters voted for a Democratic majority," Senator Gianaris told Gothamist. "And it wont work."

Rich Azzopardi, a Cuomo spokesman, told Gothamist that "this has nothing to do with Senator Stewart-Cousins  the bottom line is Gianaris and his ego have continued to prevent unification so that he continue [sic] to be relevant in the minority rather then be irrelevant in the majority."

Part of the answer to that question, according to both Gianaris and anti-IDC activists, is that Governor Cuomo has at times seemed uncommitted to supporting his fellow Democrats in the Senate. "We've had a unified Democratic government in Albany," Cuomo told reporters earlier this year. "It wasn't extraordinarily successful. So I work with the Assembly and Senate that Ive been given and I do the best I can."

In the past, activists have accused the governor of intentionally working to keep the chamber divided for the sake of his own political self-interestan assertion echoed today by a mainline Senate Democrat, who requested anonymity so as not to further aggravate the situation.

"Andrew Cuomo needs to stop with his silly political moves, because no one is buying it. He's obviously had a very rough week caused by self-inflicted wounds, but he should stop making up stories to hide his true agenda of supporting Republican control."

A representative from Senator Klein's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Charlottesville, scene of a hate rally and of awful violence this weekend, was the home town of Thomas Jefferson. Virginias liberal governor Terry McAuliffe was among those who invoked Jefferson when condemning the alt-right. McAuliffe said:

Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. Shame on you. You pretend that you are patriots, but you are anything but a patriot. You want to talk about patriots, talk about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who brought our country together. . . .

But wait! Jefferson and Washington were slave owners. Jefferson, in particular, is anathema to many on the left. He knew slavery was wrong, but couldnt bring himself to free his slaves. We are told that he needed to exploit them to pay for his expensive tastes. Not only that, he made a mistress out of one of his young slaves.

To my knowledge, McAuliffe has never espoused this anti-Jefferson line. But what has he done (until Saturday) to uphold the status of Jefferson? As we have reported, Jefferson and Washington get short shrift in the College Boards guidelines for the teaching of AP U.S. History. In the original version, George Washington barely made an appearance and another great Virginia, James Madison, was completely omitted. The Declaration of Independence, written by Jefferson, was presented chiefly as an illustration of the colonists belief in their own superiority.

The guidelines were improved somewhat in response to criticism. However, the underlying flaws remained.

Did Terry McAuliffe ever try to determine whether Virginia high school students become acquainted with the greatness and patriotism of Jefferson and Washington? As governor of Virginia, has he done anything at all to make it more likely that these great Virginians get their due in the classroom, rather than being disparaged as slave-owning hypocrites imbued with a misguided belief in their own superiority?

It wont do to teach civic history and to preach patriotism and solidarity only after major civic breakdowns occur. These lessons need to be imparted early on and then reinforced. Instead, the only history most American students learn in the first few years of school is whats taught during Black History month every year. These lessons often entail vilifying America and, in some cases, its heroes like Thomas Jefferson.

We shouldnt really be surprised if the products of this educational system end up loathing their country, either because its racist or because its anti-racist.
As Scott has noted, President Trump has come under fire for not singling out white supremacists for condemnation following the violent clashes in Charlottesville. Trump has made several statements about those events, both orally and on Twitter. He condemned in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. He added: Its been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. Its been going on for a long, long time.

His tweets have mostly been calls for unity:

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Today the White House released an additional statement that specifically addressed white supremacist groups:

The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.

Trumps various statements have failed to satisfy just about everybody, including many RepublicansScott, for one. Trumps position may or may not be politically wise, but I am sympathetic to it. What his critics want him to do is denounce white supremacist groups to the exclusion of anyone else. The problem with his statements, in the eyes of critics, is they are too even-handed. Trumps denunciation includes both the white supremacists in Charlottesville and the fascist antifas who counter-protested, as well as other hate groups.

This seems entirely appropriate to me, as the Charlottesville violence resulted in large part from the fact that the antifas showed up, spoiling for a fight. The videos I have seen suggest that the antifas were at least as responsible for the violent clashes as the white supremacists. Both deserve to be repudiated, and fascists who riot and try to shut down other peoples speech are just as reprehensible as racists.

So why are the critics so eager to force the president to single out the white supremacists? Because they want to tie him to the alt-right. They want an implicit admission from President Trump that the nuts who marched in Charlottesville and the man who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters had something to do with him. The Associated Press says:

Trumps critics pointed to the presidents racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nations festering racial tension.

What racially tinged rhetoric is that? The AP doesnt say. It quotes one such critic, the Mayor of Charlottesville, who explicitly ties the president to the white supremacists:

Im not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what youre seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

This is, I think, an outrageous slander, and I am sure the president agrees.

The Democrats are eager to take advantage of the fact that James Fields, who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing at least one, was one of the white supremacist demonstrators. His act was reprehensible and those of us who still favor capital punishment would likely find him eligible for it. But where were the Democrats when James Hodgkinson tried to assassinate Republican Congressmen, grievously wounding Majority Whip Steve Scalise?

Hodgkinson wasnt a member of some obscure left-wing fringe group. Rather, he was a union activist, rabid Democrat and Bernie Sanders campaign worker. Did the Democrats tell us that his act was symbolic of life in Bernie Sanders America? No.

The reality is that there is far too much political violence. It is all unacceptablefascist antifas rioting at the inauguration of President Trump, left-wing students and hangers-on rioting and committing assault at places like Berkeley, Middlebury and Claremont, mainstream Democrats like James Hodgkinson trying to assassinate political opponents, murderers inspired by Black Lives Matter killing policemen, and fringe fanatics like James Fields similarly committing murder. I am evidently in the minority, but I think President Trump is right to condemn all political violence rather than singling out the one incident that Democrats want to talk about, while whitewashing the rest.

PAUL ADDS: Im with John on this one for the reasons I gave yesterday. In addition, as John says, the assertion that President Trump needs to condemn alt-right hate groups because some members have expressed support for him is basically a call, witting or not, for Trump to give credence to the slanderous narrative that these groups have something to do with him.
Burkina Faso security forces killed three suspected jihadist attackers at a restaurant in central Ouagadougou, Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou said on Monday.

The gunmen killed 17 people and wounded eight since attacking the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in the city centre late on Sunday.

Mr. Dandjinou said security forces are seeking to free people still trapped inside.

A Reuters witness saw customers running out of the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in central Ouagadougou as police and paramilitary gendarmerie surrounded it amid gunfire.

This is a terrorist attack, Mr. Dandjinou told a news conference.

He said the toll was provisional because the security operation was still underway.

Mr. Dandjinou said Burkina Faso security forces killed three suspected jihadists but there were still people trapped inside the building.

A woman said she was in the restaurant celebrating her brothers birthday when the shooting started.

I just ran but my brother was left inside, the woman told Reuters TV as she fled the building.

Burkina Faso, like other countries in West Africa, has been targeted sporadically by jihadist groups operating across Africas Sahel.

Most attacks have been along its remote northern border region with Mali, which has seen attacks by Islamist militants for more than a decade.

Thirty people were killed when gunmen attacked a restaurant and hotel in Ouagadougou in January 2016 in an incident claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

AQIM and related jihadi groups were largely confined to the Sahara Desert until they hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in Mali in 2012 and swept south.

French forces intervened to prevent them taking Malis capital, Bamako, the following year, but they have since gradually expanded their reach, launching high-profile attacks on Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

A new al Qaeda-linked alliance of Malian jihadist groups claimed an attack in June that killed at least five people at a luxury Mali resort popular with Western expatriates just outside Bamako.

African nations launched a new multinational military force to tackle Islamist militants in the Sahel in July, but it wont be operational until later this year and faces a budget shortfall.

Turkish national

A Turkish national was among those killed in the attack in Burkina Faso by suspected jihadists, Turkeys foreign ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said another Turk was wounded in Sundays raid on a restaurant in Burkina Fasos capital, which killed at least 17 people.

The local French embassy in Burkina Faso is in contact with local authorities regarding the attack on a restaurant and has advised its citizens to avoid the area, the French foreign ministry said on Monday.

Our embassy is being kept informed of the situation due to permanent contact with local authorities, the foreign ministry said in the statement.

(NAN)

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Two Canadians were among 18 killed in an attack on a Burkina Faso restaurant, Canadian Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, said on Monday.

She gave no information regarding the victims identities.

Suspected Islamist militants opened fire on patrons at a restaurant in the capital of Ouagadougou, killing at least 18 people and wounding several others.

The incident happened late Sunday when suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a popular Turkish restaurant in the countrys capital.

Ms. Freeland said the heartfelt condolences of our government go out to the loved ones of those targeted and the victims of this tragic attack.

She said Canadian consular officials are working hard to provide assistance to the families of the victims.

Local authorities say other foreigners killed include two Kuwaitis and one person each from France, Senegal, Nigeria, Lebanon and Turkey.

Seven Burkina Faso citizens were also killed and authorities said three other victims had not yet been identified.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours of Monday.

The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Six Canadians were also among those killed in that attack.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

Canada strongly condemns the attack, said spokeswoman, Brittany Venhola-Fletcher.

Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with those affected by the terror attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

(Reuters/NAN)

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Chinas Commerce Ministry on Monday issued an order banning imports of coal, iron-ore, lead-concentrates and ore, lead and sea-food from North Korea, effective from Tuesday, as Beijing moved to implement United Nations sanctions announced earlier this month.

The UN sanctions must be implemented 30 days after the resolution was approved in a vote on Aug. 6.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Koreas president said resolving Pyongyangs nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and key U.S. officials played down the risk of an imminent war with North Korea.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland U.S. within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tensions in recent months.

President Donald Trump warned on Friday that the U.S. military was locked and loaded if North Korea acted unwisely after threatening to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a regular meeting with senior aides and advisers saying there must be no more war on the Korean peninsula.

Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear situation must be resolved peacefully.

I am certain the U.S. will respond to the current situation calmly and responsibly in a stance that is equal to ours.

While backing Trumps tough talk, officials including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday played down the risk of the rhetoric escalating into conflict.

I think were not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago, McMaster told ABC News.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might well conduct another missile test but talk of being on the cusp of a nuclear war was overstating the risk.

Ive seen no intelligence that would indicate that were in that place today, Pompeo told Fox News.

North Korea reiterated its threats on Monday, with its official KCNA news agency saying war cannot be blocked by any power if sparks fly due to a small, random incident that was unintentional.

Any second Korean War would have no choice but to spread into a nuclear war, it said in a commentary.

South Korean Vice Defence Minister Suh Choo-suk agreed North Korea was likely to continue provocations, including nuclear tests, but did not see a big risk of the North engaging in actual military conflict.

Suh again highlighted doubts about North Koreas claims about its military capability.

Both the United States and South Korea do not believe North Korea has yet completely gained re-entry technology in material engineering terms, Suh said on Sunday on a Korea Broadcasting System show.

The U.S. and South Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July, tests that the North often conducts to coincide with important national dates.

Tuesday will mark the anniversary of Japans expulsion from the Korean peninsula, a rare holiday celebrated by both the North and the South.

Moon and Kim, who has not been seen publicly for several days, are both expected to make addresses on their respective sides of the heavily militarised border.

Trump has urged China, the Norths main ally and trading partner, to do more to rein in its neighbor, often linking Beijings efforts to comments around U.S.-China trade. China strenuously rejects linking the two issues.

Trump will issue an order later on Monday to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property, senior administration officials said on Saturday. (Reuters/NAN)

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The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen hit half a million on Sunday, with nearly 2000 people reported dead since the outbreak began to spread rapidly at the end of April.

The World Health Organisation in a press statement released on Monday said though the overall caseload has declined since early July, particularly in the worst affected areas, suspected cases of the deadly waterborne disease continue to rage across the country, infecting an estimated 5000 people per day.

According to the international health agency, Yemens cholera epidemic, currently the largest in the world, has spread rapidly due to deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to water supply across the country.

Millions of people are cut off from clean water, and waste collection has ceased in major cities.

A collapsing health system is struggling to cope, with more than half of all health facilities closed due to damage, destruction or lack of funds. Shortages in medicines and supplies are persistent and widespread and 30 000 critical health workers have not been paid salaries in nearly a year, it stated.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, said Yemens health workers are operating in impossible conditions.

Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water. These doctors and nurses are the backbone of the health response  without them we can do nothing in Yemen. They must be paid their wages so that they can continue to save lives, he said.

WHO and partners are working around the clock to set up cholera treatment clinics, rehabilitate health facilities, deliver medical supplies and support the national health response effort.

WHO said more than 99 per cent of people sick with suspected cholera who can access health services are surviving. Furthermore, nearly 15 million people are unable to get basic healthcare.

Mr. Tedros said to save lives in Yemen, WHO must support the health system, especially the health workers.

He therefore urge the Yemeni authorities and all those in the region and elsewhere who can play a role to find a political solution to this conflict that has already caused so much suffering.

The people of Yemen cannot bear it much longer they need peace to rebuild their lives and their country, he said.

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria, ASUU, says it has commenced a total and comprehensive indefinite strike due to the federal governments failure to fulfill the 2009 agreement made with the union.

Briefing journalists on Monday after an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council held at the University of Abuja, ASUU president, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the industrial action began Sunday, August 13.

He said during the strike period, there will be no teaching, examination or attendance of statutory meeting of any kind in any of ASUUs branches till the government meets the unions demands.

Among the issues ASUU has raised this time are the 2009 agreement and 2013 MOU are; funding for the revitalization of public universities; earned academic allowances; registration of Nigerian universities pension management company and pension matters; university staff school, fractionalisation and non payment of salaries among others.

The union called on Nigerians to prevail on owners of public universities to be alive to their responsibilities.

The ASUU president said the Wale Babalakin negotiation committee lacked powers to resolve the issue as there were unimplemented items in the 2009 Agreement.

Issues outside Babalakins negotiation committee are what we discussing. We are saying that government did not continue the implementation of the existing issues from 2009 Federal government ASUU agreement. Government have abandoned implementation, he said.

Mr. Ogunyemi said the government had ignored the education system, while the political class send their wards to private universities and universities abroad leaving public universities in Nigeria to collapse.

Primary and secondary school system has already collapse in Nigeria but not all Nigerians have the funds to send their wards to private schools, he said.

He said for continued productivity, employers must fulfill the minimal obligation of paying their workers salaries correctly and as when due.

Our members in state universities have experienced untold hardship owing to denial of salaries for several months in Ladoke Akintola university of Technology, LAUTECH, Ondo State University of Science and Technology, OSUTECH, Tai Solarin University of Education, TASUED, and Ekiti State University, EKSU, among several others, he said.

A deliberate attempt to turn Nigerian academics to beggars and people of unsure footing must therefore be resisted by all who care about the future of our children and the transformation of our country, he said.

Similarly, the immediate past president of the union, Nasir Fagge, said the re-negotiation agreement should have been done before now if the nation seeks to develop the education sector

Other countries invest lots on education. In Somalia for instance, the huge chunk of allocation goes to education. If the government is interested in the development of a country, it will be interested in education, he said.

He said the agreement was signed in 2009 but yet to be implemented.

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A former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said some of the projects that constituted the Paris Club debt were dubious and fraudulent.

Mr. Obasanjo also explained why he headhunted Nigerias immediate past finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who also held that role during his administration.

He made this known in his new book titled Making Africa Work, launched recently in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The book was co-authored by the former president and three others  Greg Mills, Director of Brenthurst Foundation; Jeffrey Herbst, President of NEWSEUM and Dickie Davis, a retired major general.

Mr. Obasanjo governed the nation as a democratically elected leader between 1999 and 2007.

According to the former president, on assumption of office, he realised that some of the projects that constituted Nigerias accumulated debt of $30 billion were dubious.

On assumption of office as president, I discovered that the accumulated debt of Nigeria to the Paris Club was some $30 billion. Some of the projects that constituted the debt were dubious, if not outright fraudulent, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

One typical example was a turn-key project for $8 million where the money was drawn out with no site clearance let alone the foundation being laid. And yet, there was a video of the purported commissioning of the project. This happened in Enugu state, one of the 36 states in Nigeria.

Obviously, it involved collusion and corruption between the state government and the lender and promoter of the project. All the same, the loan was a commitment and it had to be repaid. Such had become the practice of Nigerian debt to the international community.

Mr. Obasanjo explained further that he did not waste time on the merit or demerit and impropriety of any of the projects, which previous governments had accepted and on which interests and penalties were already being paid in the event of failure to meet interest payments.

I concentrated on seeking debt relief from the governments of creditor countries, which have bound themselves together as a cartel in what they called the Paris Club.

Nigeria was spending almost $3 billion annually to service all its debt. This was a heavy burden on the economy of the country. Yet, a failure to service the debt would incur penalties.

The most sustainable and prudent course was negotiation. But what sort of negotiation? Previous administrations had negotiated postponement of repayment and servicing terms, which kept increasing the quantum of debt, making it more and more burdensome and unbearable, especially with the price of a barrel of oil below $10 when I assumed office in 1999, he wrote.

The former president said he embarked on shuttle diplomacy, to clean up the image and perception of Nigeria in the eyes of the world and to seek debt relief.

I visited most Western capitals to present anew Nigerias case. One such visit was to Washington DC where I met President Clinton and the president of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn.

I raised the issue of debt relief with both of them and asked Jim for both support and advice. He advised that Nigeria should urgently embark on a comprehensive reform to impress its creditors. If Nigeria was doing well in its economic reform and management, it would get the World Banks support, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

Explaining further, he noted that the advice constituted his marching orders, which led to his decision to headhunt Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank.

In my first term, from 1999 to 2003, I visited many countries and world leaders, some more than once, to campaign for debt relief. There I got apparently sympathetic hearings, but not much action from political leaders.

After my first term, I realized that my talks at the highest political levels needed follow-up at the levels below. So, I head-hunted Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank, appointing her as Nigerias Minister of Finance.

My plan was that she would manage the follow-up at a lower level. Even then, the fact that Nigeria was the sixth largest oil-producing country in the world was regularly used as the reason to deny debt relief. I would then explain that Nigerias population of almost 150 million at the time and its stage of development should justify such relief.

The former president described the Paris Club debt relief as a breakthrough, which he said enabled Nigeria to negotiate debt relief from other creditors.

In the end, Nigeria obtained debt relief of about $18 billion and paid up about $12 billion to rid itself of this burden. It was a great breakthrough and the consequent savings were channelled to the Millennium Development Goals, one of the promises made to the creditors, Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

With debt relief having been agreed by the Paris Club, Nigeria was in a strong position to negotiate debt relief from other creditors too.

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The long delay in releasing the second tranche of the World Bank Growth and Employment in States, GEMS, project grant was because majority of grantees failed to meet agreed milestones prior to their selection to participate in the scheme, officials have told PREMIUM TIMES.

They also said that the federal governments decision to restructure the programme by reviewing its design to align with new policies and priorities also contributed to the delay.

However, indications are that the GEMS project office in Abuja is gearing up to commence payment of the second tranche of the grant to grantees who have satisfied the conditions to proceed to the next phase of the programme.

Officials familiar with the programme told PREMIUM TIMES the payment, which would be in batches, would be completed within the next two months.

The GEMS project

The $160 million grant project was approved by the World Bank Board on March 17, 2011 to help increase growth and employment in Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Jigawa and Cross River States.

The implementation timelines showed the project actually began in July 2013, while mid-term review was for June 15, 2016 and completion dateline for December 30, 2016. A revised schedule showed it actually began on October 15, 2014, with closing for September 7, 2018.

Since October 2016, grantees, mainly small and medium scale entrepreneurs, SMEs, under theYouWiN programme, got the first tranche of the grant, between 25 and 55 percent, capped at about N10 million, to help finance the setting up of various employment generating enterprises.

The release of the second tranche, between 45 to 75 per cent, was dependent on grantees successfully meeting agreed milestones, based on a monitoring and assessment report by KPMG, the projects independent monitoring and supervision consultants.

Months of delay

But, months after the first tranche, the long delay in releasing the second stirred speculations among anxious grantees about the fate of the project.

Some of the affected grantees said they left their paid jobs to enlist in the programme. Others said they were concerned with either the factory spaces they rented, or equipment they hired for the businesses, which have remained unused and piling debts they hardly anticipated.

But, PREMIUM TIMES investigations at the GEMS office at the Federal Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment in Abuja revealed only 25 per cent of the grantees were able to meet the agreed milestones.

It was a sad development when KPMG, our independent monitoring and supervision consultants, came back with its report at the end of its visit to the grantees project sites in the company of some World Bank officials, GEMS monitoring and evaluation specialist, Emmanuel Amile, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Most of the grantees either collected the first tranche grant and abandoned the scheme, or were not using the funds appropriately to execute the business plan they presented to the programme, he added.

Project details withheld

The officials were reluctant to give specific details about the current status of the project. The project coordinator, Kofi-Boateng Agyen, did not respond to a mail sent to him by PREMIUM TIMES for confirmation of the information provided by Mr. Amile on his behalf as at press time.

You cant come here and expect we give you all information, just because you asked for it. We can also tell you that its confidential. We also have to protect the grantees confidential information, one official told our reporter.

But, a June 30, 2017 project Implementation Status Report published on the Nigerian section of the World Bank website by the project coordinator, Kofi-Boateng Aqyen, showed a total of 274 grants were disbursed to SMEs, 225 new grants signed, with over 600 business plans under review for further financing.

Other achievements included 65,535 enterprises captured on the BIG platform, out of which 48,167 completed registration, while 5,674 entrepreneurs trained under YouWin programme.

About 2,195 SMEs were offered various interventions in consulting services, training, subsidies to hire accountant or marketer, grants to pay for accountancy or marketing firm services and small grants capped at $40,000, and training for 40 local consulting firms.

Mr. Amile said there was no room for any laxity by grantees under the project. He blamed the delay in releasing the second tranche grant to the time it took to properly scrutinize and audit the projects, to find out what the first tranche funds were spent on.

We are putting pressure on the grantees right now. We have told the monitors, if all the milestones are not met, we may not be able to process the second tranche payment.

Within the next two months, we should be in a position to complete the process to pay all those who met the milestones. The payment is going to be in batches. We are not going to wait till everybody has finished, he said.

Project restructuring

Further investigations revealed the delay to release the second tranche of grant followed the project restructuring by implementing agencies, namely the Federal Ministries of Industries Trade and Investment as well as Finance.

Although the GEMS project was aimed at increasing growth and employment in participating states, it was learnt that the government requested its restructuring, by reviewing the design, to realign with its new policies and employment initiatives to be funded by the loan.

In addition, the Finance Ministry also asked for the project to be adjusted, to support governments Agricultural Transformation Agenda, and theYouWin business plan competition.

A Project restructuring proposal published on the World Bank website on August 3, 2017 also indicated the level-two restructuring would allow for adjustments project components and costs as well as grant special drawing rights, SDR.

The first component, focused on improved investment climate, previously funded 100 percent by UK Department for International Development, DFID, would now benefit from $5 million funding from International Development Association, IDA, a World Bank agency.

Under the new arrangement, the SDR for improved investment climate, SMEs investment fund, non-consulting services, consultant services, training, workshops, study tours and operating costs would be reallocated.

Also, revised indicators would be modified to make them more realistic, measurable, and in line with the project activities.

Closing date extended

To speed up implementation and allow the new SME investment fund to be functional and achieve results, the project closing date would be extended by 12 months and 23 days, from September 7, 2018 to September 30, 2019.

The implementation status report showed that since mid-November 2015, the project encountered problems, due to serious implementation challenges, which resulted in very low disbursements and declining likelihood of realizing its objectives.

The report showed that as at July 19, 2017, four years after its implementation, only 39.04 percent of the total $160 million allocation for the project was disbursed.

Substantial operational risks

The World Bank risk assessment report found substantial risks in many of the projects categories, including political and governance, macroeconomic, technical design, institutional capacity for implementation and sustainability.

The assessment described as moderate risks associated with sector strategies and policies as well as environment and social issues.

Despite overall risk rating currently adjusted from moderately unsatisfactory to substantial on both development objective achievement and implementation progress, GEMS officials insist the project was on course.

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The Red Cross says 179 bodies have been brought to the central morgue in Sierra Leones capital, Freetown, after a mudslide in the outskirts of the city on Monday morning.

Red Cross spokesman, Abu Tarawallie, said by telephone that the death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Vice President of Sierra Leone Victor Foh said that 200 people have likely been killed in a mudslide in the outskirts of Freetown.

It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble, Mr. Foh told Reuters at the scene of the mudslide in the mountain town of Regent, adding that a number of illegal buildings had been erected in the area.

The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken, he added.

Were trying to cordon (off) the area (and) evacuate the people.

The mudslide happened in the early morning in the mountain town of Regent, where dozens of houses were submerged after a night of heavy rain.

A major rescue operation is now underway although emergency workers are struggling to reach the worst-affected areas.

Mudslides and floods are fairly common during the rainy season in West Africa, where deforestation and poor town planning put residents at risk.

(Reuters/NAN)

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Sport

Shoaib predicts blockbuster Pakistan-England T20 WC final

Pakistan were down and out right from the beginning. But now they have gathered the pace and made it to the final. I wish they extend their winning momentum and beat England in the final, said Shoaib, who was speaking on the sidelines of Bazm-e-Urdu, a cultural event which was held in collaboration with Sharjah International Book Festival (SIBF).
Eight Chinese nationals have been arrested in Plateau State for alleged illegal mining.

The National Security Adviser, NSA, Ali Monguno, ordered the arrest of the miners on Monday at Kampani Zurak village in Bashar chiefdom of Wase Local Government Area of the state.

Also arrested were 12 other Nigerians allegedly involved in illegal mining activities in the area.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, who was in the company of the NSA to the mining sites, said the foreigners and their accomplices would be taken to Abuja.

The minister also declared the alleged chief miner, Abdullahi Usman, popularly known as Dan China, wanted.

He said the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, had directed that illegal mine sites in the area be sealed up and the miners arrested.

The 20 illegal miners have been taken into the custody of the police in Jos.

Details later

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The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, on Monday said that six police officers were arrested for extortion, rape and attempted murder in the last two weeks.

Mr. Owoseni said that two of the suspects were arrested for defilement, two for misconduct and two others for extortion at gun point.

According to him, the police officers arrested for extortion have been dismissed.

The police commissioner said that the dismissed police officers were fond of raiding unsuspecting members of the public in the metropolis whom they falsely brand as internet fraudsters.

These policemen are tarnishing the image of the police by using weapons bought with taxpayers money to threaten, intimidate and extort the people, Mr. Owoseni said.

The four other police officers arrested were undergoing orderly room trial for attempted murder and defilement, Mr. Owoseni said.

Two of the police officers were arrested at Ajao Estate where they were shooting sporadically, he said.

Mr. Owoseni said that 24 robbery suspects, 19 suspected cultists and three kidnap suspects were also arrested in the last one month.

He said that two AK-47 rifles were recovered from the suspects while some dangerous weapons, including 88 different charms and 16 vehicles, were recovered from the suspected cultists.

The police boss added that a gang who specialised in robbing passengers in commercial buses, otherwise known as one chance, were also arrested and phones stolen from victims had been recovered.

We do not want to cover up any erring police officer; therefore, members of the public particularly victims should turn up when they are invited to testify against such officers; that way we will be able to sanitize the force, Mr. Owoseni said.

(NAN)

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The Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu and ex-President Goodluck Jonathans Special Assistant on new media, Reno Omokri, have been engaged in a media war over the former presidents speech at the Peoples Democratic party, PDP, Special Non-elective Convention.

While Mr. Okechukwu dismissed with a wave of hand the statement credited to Mr. Jonathan that his administration did very well in the fight against corruption, Mr. Omokri in a swift reaction advised him to stick to the facts

Mr. Jonathan at the PDP convention on Saturday was quoted as saying that though we didnt completely plug the loopholes in the fight against corruption, but we did well.

But the VON chief while speaking with reporters on Monday said Mr. Jonathan rather than plug loopholes widened it.

He should apologise to Nigerians whom he betrayed for being less than transparent. I was outraged when I heard him proclaim that PDP will return to power in 2019 because of the hunger and poverty ravaging the country.

Asked whether it is not true as the ex-president said that hunger and poverty are ravaging the country, Mr. Okechukwu said, Wait a minute, Nigerian economy could have collapsed if President Buhari didnt come to the rescue. Jonathan relied on Voodoo economic records which rated the Nigerian economy higher than that of industrialised South African economy. An economy with 40,000 MW to Nigerias less than 4,000MW. This is a hard fact, otherwise lets refer to our financial records to see how the ex-president and by extension his party railroaded Nigerians into abject poverty, food insecurity and deficit infrastructure via planlessness and squandermania.

According to Mr. Okechukwu, during the Jonathan era, Nigeria in 2010 made $70.7 billion from oil sale, $100.1 billion in 2011, $96.9 billion in 2012, $86.9 billion in 2013, $77.9 billion in 2014, and $21 billion from Jan-May 2015, compared to the Buhari era which got only $16 billion from June to December 2015, $26 billion in 2016, and $16 billion from January to July 2017

Mr Okechukwu further lamented the wastage of funds amounting to over $23 billion meant for building three greenfield refineries in Kogi, Bayelsa and Lagos in 2010.

Today, neither did we see the refineries nor the billions of dollars at a time Nigeria Excess Accounts hovered around $17 billion. The refineries could have saved Nigeria over $200 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products till date.

He said Mr. Jonathan should keep quiet especially now that the hunger and poverty he allegedly imposed on the country is getting too harsh. He also expressed regret at demonstrating on Abuja streets in 2010 as a member of the defunct Save Nigeria Group for the ex-president to be made an executive president.

Nor can one forget his melodious inaugural speech, 29 May, 2011, where he said, The lessons we have learnt is that the resolution of the Niger Delta issue is crucial for the health of the nation. Is the health of the nation not bleeding because of his planlessness and squandermania? With huge oil revenue cited above he stood a good chance of fixing the Niger Delta, but failed woefully.

He propelled his preferred Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and other cronies to loot dry our dear countrymen. Example, later day revelations are showing how $80 million was used by Mrs Madueke ally to purchase a luxury yacht, money which could have been utilized to build the best hospital in Yenogoa. Or is he not reminding us of the humongous foreign exchange used in buying choice estates locally and abroad?, the VON DG said.

Mr Okechukwu added, in sum the biggest headache of Buhari administration is the huge local and foreign debt amassed by the PDPs 16 years misrule. On bail out fund and Paris Fund refund, Buhari has spent over N1 trillion on salary and pension arrears. He has also paid over $7 billion on obligations to International Oil Companies (IOC) with the little he got.

But Reno Omokri in a statement wondered why the country has remained static in the Transparency international annual corruption perception index if indeed the President Buhari administration was fighting corruption.

Mr. Okechukwu should note that the premier global agency universally recognised to gauge corruption is Transparency International who released an annual Corruption Perception Index.

It may surprise Mr. Okechukwu and his boss to know that the last time Nigeria made progress on Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perception Index was in 2014 under former President Jonathan when we moved eight places from number 144 to number 136 under Goodluck Jonathan.

According to him, that year marked the most improvement Nigeria has ever made since Transparency International began publishing the annual Corruption Perception Index in 1995.

Mr Omokri said Transparency International in arriving at its decision took note of the Jonathan administrations e-wallet system that cut out the corruption in Nigerias fertilizer procurement system, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which weeded out 50,000 ghost workers from the Federal civil service, the cashless policy and the fact that the Jonathan government promptly fired two ministers (Professor Barth Nnaji and Stella Oduah) mentioned in corruption scandals.

He noted that ever since 2014, Nigeria has not improved in Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perception Index ranking and has remained 136 in 2015 and are still 136 on the latest CPI ranking released in 2017.

In the most recent CPI, Transparency International said and I quote Some other large African countries have failed to improve their scores on the index. These include South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya, he said.

If it were true that the Buhari administration was really fighting corruption, why hasnt Nigeria made progress in the CPI? The answer is because you can deceive some gullible Nigerians but you cannot deceive Transparency International.

With a Minister of Transport that admitted to spending $500,000 on a one-day dinner for Professor Wole Soyinka in your government, with a suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation who was caught red handed looting funds meant for IDPs and who has not been fired, arrested or prosecuted and with a padded budget scandal that spends borrowed monies on luxuries for favoured individuals, you cant pull the wool over the eyes of Transparency International, Mr Omokri wrote.

On the state of the economy Mr Omokri said when Mr. Okechukwu talks about the economy faring better under this administration, one must wonder if he is also a drunkard like the Presidents spokeswoman, Lauretta Onochie.

I suggest he should go to Wuse Market, Abuja, or Mile 12 Market Lagos or even Rimi Market Kano and say that. If he survives the experience then I will agree with him.

The fact remains that under the Jonathan administration, CNNMoney projected that our economy was the third fastest growing economy in the world with only China and Qatar ahead of us.

Did President Jonathan railroad CNN Money? Or did he also railroad the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who said on October 12, 2012 as follows Yes, weve been hearing about China and India for years but its hard to believe whats happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too.

The fact remains that under Jonathan, Nigeria experienced unprecedented growth. I leave it to Nigerians to determine what they are experiencing today, he added.

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The National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muiz Banire, on Monday shunned the invitation of a disciplinary committee set up by his wards leadership of the party.

The Ward C of the APC in Mushin Local Government Area had set up the committee to look into allegations of anti-party activities and misappropriation of campaign materials and logistics levelled against Mr. Banire.

The Committee had summoned Mr. Banire to appear before it by 10 a.m. at Bishop Aggey Memorial School, Ilasamaja, Mushin to defend the allegations contained in a petition written by two members of the party in the area, Tunde Olukayode and Ayodeji Adebayo.

Last week Friday, Mr. Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told PREMIUM TIMES the summon was another wasteful exercise and he would not dignify the panel with his presence.

After waiting till 11.30 a.m. and there was no sight of Mr. Banire, the panel began sitting with Bolaji Abass, the committee chairman, introducing the other members who included Laide Badru (Secretary), Wunmi Bewaji (General Counsel), and Muinat Mustapha (member).

Mr. Abass said the function of the committee was to examine the allegations against Mr. Banire by some members of the party, just as he assured that they would be fair in arriving at a decision which would then be submitted to the Ward Executive of the party for onward delivery to the Local Government and then the State Executive of APC.

After Mr. Badru called the petitioners and respondent and only the former was in attendance, he displayed copies of advertorials in two national dailies and evidence of receipt of courier letter inviting Mr. Banire for the sitting.

In his testimony, Mr. Adebayo, one of the petitioners, said the partys national legal adviser had committed acts of indiscipline against the APC, adding that it was such actions that cost the Peoples Democratic Party to lose the 2015 election in the area.

Party discipline and party loyalty made APC what it is today, Mr. Adebayo said.

Whatever the decision of the party is, it is binding on all members and if a member goes against the party, there must be sanction.

In the petition, the petitioners are asking that Mr. Banire be suspended from the party and barred from holding any party office as well as contesting office on the platform of the party for a period of 10 years.

They alleged that aside the fact that Mr. Banire had been continuously absent from ward meetings for more than two years, contrary to Article 9 (2) (iii) of the partys Constitution, he has also been engaging in unrestrained media campaigns against the party, its organs, leaders and functionaries, a development they said was deliberately calculated to embarrass the party and bring it into disrepute, contrary to Article 9 (2) (I) of the partys constitution.

The petition reads in part: That the member (Banire) has openly been encouraging and inciting Court actions against the party, its organs and functionaries when internal dispute resolution mechanisms have not been explored or exhausted contrary to Article 21 (A) (ii) of the Constitution.

The member (Banire) has been conducting himself in such a way and manner as to constitute a distraction to the good policies and programmes of the Government of President Muhammadu contrary to Article 21 (A) (ii) of the Constitution.

That the member (Banire) collected campaign materials and logistics  for the 2015 general elections and the recent Local Government Elections without deploying, disbursing or applying same for the benefit of the party. He has failed to pay, as at when due or howsoever, party dues and levies.

That the member (Banire) has been conducting himself and continues to conduct himself in such a way and manner as could jeopardize, endanger or damage the electoral fortunes of the party and the party brand contrary to Article 21 (A) (ii) of the Constitution.

Last month, scores of APC members from Mushin local government area and Odi Olowo local council development area marched to Governor Akinwunmi Ambodes office demanding Mr. Banires expulsionfrom the party for anti-party activities.

A few weeks later, the party executives in Ward C announced the suspension of Mr. Banire from the party, a decision that was swiftly overturned by the national executive on the grounds that only the National Executive Committee has the power to suspend a national officer.

Undeterred by the national bodys decision, the state chapter of the party continued its attempt to unseat Mr. Banire, with the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, dragging the lawyer before an Ikeja Division of the Lagos High Court over forgery of his purported withdrawal letter from the 2015 election into Lagos Island Constituency 1 of the House.

Mr. Banire has maintained that the moves to unseat him began after he criticised the practice of imposition of candidates for the local council election by the state chapter of the party.

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The United State Agency for International Development, USAID, and the Nigerian Ministry of Health on Monday inaugurated a medical facility that will provide medical authorities better access to lifesaving medicines and other essential health commodities.

USAID in a press statement said the Abuja Premier Medical Warehouse facility, also known as Warehouse in a box, was constructed in partnership with Nigerias Ministry of Health and Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The new state of the art medical storage facility costs $5.1 million.

Stephen Haykin, Mission Director of USAID, at the launch said the 3,500-square meter kitted structure was shipped to Nigeria for onsite assembly and features smooth dust-free floor surfaces, temperature regulating systems, security systems, thermal insulated ceiling and warehouse handling equipment.

We are proud to have been a partner in the warehouse in a box effort and with this new facility, the Ministry of health will now be able to provide safe storage for more medicine required to meet Nigerias annual needs for public health commodities for the foreseeable future, he said.

Mr. Haykin said the facility will provide storage space for public health commodities at the central level, enabling the ministry to ensure the provision of quality life-saving health commodities for Nigerians through a central facility.

The U.S Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, through USAID, and the Global Fund, with the Nigerian Ministry of Health approval, provided support for the construction of the warehouses in Abuja and Lagos.

The U.S. assistance in the area of medical storage began in 2014, followed by construction of the first warehouse in a box facility near Lagos the following year.

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A Pentecostal pastor in Nigeria, Abel Damina, has said that Christians who give money to churches and in turn expect to become rich were only living in a fantasy because, God does not multiply your money.

What multiplies your money is work, Mr. Damina said in a video which has been in circulation on Facebook and WhatsApp.

From the video, Mr. Damina appeared to have dropped the message in July during a sermon in his church, Power City International, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Giving in the church does not bring additional money to you. What brings additional money to you is work.

The congregation could be heard in the video shouting and cheering on the pastor.

You dont pray and fast to get money, he said. What produces money is work. Its called industry.

He that does not work should not eat. You dont faith work; you work (the) work.

The pastor said that the earth was already blessed with plenty and that Gods first commandment to man was that he should be fruitful, multiply, subdue and have dominion over the earth.

He explained what he considers as the appropriate reasons behind giving in the church.

Why do we give in church? We give because we are blessed? We dont give to be blessed. It is part of the goodness of God that kept you healthy. It is part of the goodness of God that woke you up in the morning. It is part of the goodness of God that took you to work and brought you back. But now you must engage yourself in work.

Theres no future for lazy Christians because hunger will take you away.

Somebody ask, does God perform financial miracle? Yes, he connects you to opportunities. But even if you see the opportunity you must do something. He connects you to ideas. He brings you before people that are willing to help. He brings you into favour with people that want to invest.

Some say but Papa you used to say receive money miracle? Yes, you can receive money miracle. God can move somebody to bless you. God can touch somebody to buy a car for you, but who will fuel it?

The congregation bursts into laughter.

The pastor continued: Its one thing to have a car, its another thing to buy fuel

Mr. Damina attacked pastors who exchange money for blessings in the church, calling it a fraud and an insult to God.

He (God) didnt supply you grace expecting anything in return. So, when a man of God says give money to be blessed it is an insult to the work of redemption.

Its an insult. Its an insult. Its an insult, Mr. Damina said repeatedly in the video.

Psalm 91! $91 for 91 blessings! Its an insult to the work of grace.

Psalm 91! $91 for 91 blessings! Its fraud!

If you could give $91 and that would appease the anger of God, Jesus wouldnt (have) died.

He said asking people to pay money for Gods blessings sounds like buying goods in a supermarket.

Pentecostal pastors in Nigeria and in the world over are known to be at home with prosperity messages which encourage congregants to give in the church so that they could, in turn, be blessed.

The message by Mr. Damina is, therefore, a surprise departure from the usual Pentecostal teaching.

I can feel that some people are very angry right now because I say Psalm 91for $91 blessings is fraud! Mr. Damina said. After you finish getting angry, I repeat: its a fraud.

The cleric said he didnt mean it was wrong to give money to advance Gods work.

Not to sound like I am boasting, the greatest portion of my income goes back to the work of God. I cant be a giver to that extent and preach against giving.

He said he wont allow merchandise in the church.

Even Jesus used a whip to stop merchandise (in the house of God), Mr. Damina said.

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The Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, on Monday called on Nigerians to focus on devolution of dams rather than restructuring the country.

Mr. Abubakar made the call at the Niger State Investment Submit in Minna.

The summit which attracted economic experts, industrialists and manufacturers as well as some state governors across the country, was organised to attract investors in various fields to boost the states economy.

He said the nation was blessed with human and mineral resources needed to achieve greatness.

He said the Shiroro Dam in Niger, Goronyo Dam in Sokoto and several others across the country should be used to start all-year farming.

He said proper utilisation of the nations dams would enable farmers too produce assorted food crops for both local consumption and export.

Rather than the clamour for restructuring the country, emphasis should be on Federal Government releasing dams across the country to state governments for massive participation of Nigerians in all-year farming seasons, Mr. Sultan said.

We have the ability and technical knowledge to feed the continent with what we can produce, with the required political commitment, through the provision of modern farming implements for our teaming farmers.

He also urged Federal Government to ensure early completion of Minna to Suleja road and Ilorin to Kaduna federal roads.

He said the poor condition of the roads was affecting smooth economic development of the state and the region.

He called on the state government to ensure proper analysis and smooth implementation of programmes put forward by individuals and corporate organisations during the submit.

He said Nigeria was one of the best countries in the world with various mineral resources needed to better the lots of the public.

Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State commended the acting president, Yemi Osibanjo, for providing a purposeful leadership for the political growth of the country.

He said the state governors would continue to support and cooperate with the Federal Government for peace, progress and political growth of the country.

We will continue to initiate people-oriented policies and programmes that will ensure rapid growth. 

Above all, various forms of security measures will be put in place to guarantee the safety of our farmers to ensure the production of assorted food crops for local consumption and export, he said.

(NAN)

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Despite pressure and threats from persons suspected to be agents of the Akwa Ibom State government, the Lagos-based rights activist, Inibehe Effiong, successfully mobilised people into the streets of Uyo on Monday to protest against Governor Udom Emmanuels plan to build a new governors lodge in Lagos.

Akwa Ibom State already has a governors lodge in Lagos.

But the state government is saying that the lodge is too old and dilapidated and that there is a need for a new one that could host potential foreign investors who may wish to meet with Mr. Emmanuel in Lagos.

Those who oppose the building of a new lodge argue that the government could renovate the old one and use the remaining money to tackle hunger and poverty back home, as well as the infrastructure deficit in the state.

In addition, they argue that with an international airport in Uyo, potential investors could fly into Akwa Ibom for a business meeting or go to the nations capital, Abuja, where the state has a state-of- the arts governors lodge.

The previous attempt by Mr. Effiong, a lawyer, to hold the protest in Lagos, in front of the Akwa Ibom Governors Lodge, was frustrated by thugs said to have been hired by the state government.

The thugs allegedly flew in from Uyo to Lagos at the expense of the government and molested Mr. Effiong and other protesters before TV cameramen and other journalists.

The Uyo protest saw a handful of young people defying the heavy downpour to march from the Four Town Secondary School, Abak Road, to Wellington Bassey Way which is about four killometres.

We are not myopic. N1.2 billion is not paltry, Our schools are dilapidated, Gov Udom, please what is your meaning of paltry were some of the inscriptions on the cardboards.

A little but dangerous drama occurred before the march began. Some persons suspected to have been sponsored by the state government had infiltrated the protesting group.

They infiltrators snatched the groups banner and ran into the bush with it as soon as the group was set to march into the road, causing uproar and commotion.

But that did not stop the march from taking place.

The protesters, protected by the police, were orderly and peaceful. They marched in the rain and into the city.

At Wellington Bassey Way, few metres away from Government House, they stopped to listen to Mr. Effiong who addressed them and others who had joined the march midway.

Mr. Governor, on the 29 of May 2015, you took an oath of office as the governor of Akwa Ibom State. You did not take an oath of office as the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Effiong said to the crowd.

You took an oath of office to protect Akwa Ibom people, not Lagos State.

Mr. Governor, you do not need another lodge in Lagos!

After Mr. Effiongs address, the march continued into Dominic Utuk Avenue and moved towards the State House of Assembly Complex, Udo Udoma Avenue.

It was the first time in the state that residents would pour out into the streets to protest against an alleged unpopular policy or programme of the state government.

Nothing of the sort has ever been done in Akwa Ibom before now. Its always been a regime of rabid sycophancy in Akwa Ibom, Fidel Albert, a lawyer from the state, wrote on Facebook. This is history.

Mr. Albert said, The danger of even remotely thinking that you can bring todays protesters to harm, whether by violence or a threat of it, is that a floodgate would be open to other protesters.

Kill Inibehe Effiong today and many more will arise tomorrow. You will have a thousand more of such characters to deal with by day break.

The era of holding (the) government to account, both at state and federal level is upon us. May God help Nigeria (to) arise from its ashes, he said.

It is yet unclear how much is the actual amount budgeted for the project. The opposition says it is about N9 billion, while the government officials give conflicting figures.

The Commissioner for Information, Charles Udoh, said it was N2 billion, while Governor Emmanuel said there was no such provision for a new governors lodge in the state supplementary budget.

The Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Onofiok Luke, said there was provision and that the amount was N1.2 billion. The governor later backtracked and admitted that a paltry N1.2 billion was budgeted for the lodge.

Akwa Ibom State, rich in oil and gas deposits, is among Nigerias richest states.

But poverty and unemployment levels in the state are amongst the highest in Nigeria.

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The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, has dismissed the assertion that the presidency sponsored a group of Nigerians that embarked on solidarity protests in Abuja support of the President Muhammdu Buhari-led government.

Mr. Ojudu said this while fielding questions from State House correspondents shortly after addressing the pro-President Buhari protesters at the Federal Secretariat/Supreme Court Junction of main entrance of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.

He said the presidency was not in the habit of hiring people for protest marches, saying that all those who participated in the pro-Buhari protest were die-hard supporters of the president.

I was working in my office when I was called to go and receive them, just the way we also received the BringBackOurGirls protesters last time.

This presidency does not give money to anybody. This is not our tradition, its not our culture to buy protest or induce people to do any.

You will be surprised the day President Buhari is coming back to see the millions of people that will go to the airport to welcome him, he said.

Mr. Ojudu denied that the presidency deliberately shunned the coalition of civil society organisations demanding that Mr. Buhari resumes duty or resigns.

The presidential aide, however, expressed the readiness of the presidency to talk to the coalition if they indicated interest to do so.

If they decide to talk to us we talk to them. This group has a special message for the acting president and they wrote to us that they were coming and we received them.

Those ones never informed us of anything. They were just doing their own protests and that was it, he said.

Mr. Ojudu charged the pro-Buhari protesters to join hands with other well meaning Nigerians to stand up against those elements who are bent on frustrating the ongoing developmental efforts of the federal government.

President Buhari stands for anti-corruption. Buhari is not selfish, is not fighting for himself and the elements who are selfish; who are greedy and corrupt they are standing up and are coming together against him.

You have to mobilise and educate people across Nigeria to stand up against these people, he said.

Mr. Ojudu, however, challenged members of the pro-Buhari group on the need to conduct themselves peacefully and shun any act capable of causing social unrest.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the protesters, who were in their hundreds, presented a letter of solidarity to the acting president through Ojudu.

(NAN)

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Pfizer in Nigeria is celebrating 60 years and marking this milestone with several exciting initiatives and programs. The anniversary is the perfect occasion to look back at the brands achievements and reputation for setting the pace in the pharmaceutical industry.

It is exciting to see Pfizer mark 60 years in Nigeria this year. As we honour the past 60 years, we are looking to the future and expect the remaining part of 2017 to be full of renewed vision, passion and commitment said Mark Wagstaff, Country Manager Pfizer. We have made substantial investments to strengthen our development and capabilities in order to better support our communities.

As part of the activities to mark this anniversary, Pfizer in Nigeria is pleased to announce that it has moved to a new, ultra-modern office to accommodate its growing business operations base. The new office is located at Heritage Place, 7th Floor, 21 Lugard Avenue, Off Alfred Rewanne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos state.

The office has been designed with advanced technology and green initiatives to better serve our clients and accommodate our staff more effectively and efficiently noted Margaret Olele, Corporate Affairs Director.

Committed to working together for a healthier world, Pfizer will continue to partner with relevant stakeholders to advance the medical community in Nigeria and drive advocacy in our markets.

About Pfizer Inc.: Working together for a healthier world

At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to improve health and well-being at every stage of life. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacturing of medicines for people and animals. Our diversified global health care portfolio includes human and animal biologic and small molecule medicines and vaccines, as well as nutritional products and many of the worlds best-known consumer products.

Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as the worlds leading biopharmaceutical company, we also collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us.

To learn more about our commitments, please visit us at www.pfizer.com

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News, analysis, and archives on the grassroots in Haiti. Nouvel, analiz, ak achiv sou baz yo an AYITI. Noticias, analisis y archivos sobre el pueblo de Haiti.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said on Monday that it has received a petition from constituents to recall Abubakar Kuki, a member of the Kano State House of Assembly representing Bebeji Constituency.

In a statement signed on Monday by Adedeji Soyebi, who is the Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, IVEC, of the commission, the electoral body said it had written to inform the lawmaker of the petition.

He also said a timetable and schedule of activities pursuant to the petition will be issued shortly.

This is the second recall petition the commission has received in about three months.

The first was from constituents of Kogi West senatorial district who signed the petition to recall the senator who represents the zone, Dino Melaye.

However, an Abuja high court had stopped the recall process of Mr. Melaye stating that status quo be maintained until it hears a motion for interlocutory injunction by the senators lawyer.

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A stalemate occurred on Monday as the Ondo State Government and labour unions disagreed on the request by the government to pay workers salaries in part due to the insufficiency of the Paris Club refunds.

The meeting was called after labour petitioned the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, rejecting his proposal to pay 80 per cent of salaries of all workers given that what was available was inadequate to pay full one-month salaries.

The government had in July confirmed that it received N6.7 billion as its share of the second tranche of the Paris Club refund.

The governments modalities for sharing was that 75 per cent of the funds would be spent in paying salaries and pensions, while the other 25 per cent would go for capital projects and other expenditures.

The workers are being owed five months of unpaid salaries inherited from the last government, which is between September 2015 and January 2017.

In the letter to the governor signed by union leaders, Bosede Daramola of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Sola Ekundayo of the Trade Union Congress and Sunday Adeleye of the Joint Negotiating Council urged the state government to make up the shortfall in the Paris Club money from other sources to pay workers.

They also said if the government would not get funds from other sources, then it should pay full salaries to workers that the funds could pay.

Modulated payment or fractional payment in whatever form is unacceptable to Ondo State public servants and pensioners, the letter read.

It is mandatory that the state government should look inward to augment and pay the September 2016 salary in full to all workers and pensioners in the state.

PREMIUM gathered that the state government represented its proposal to the unions at the meeting, and insisted it was the way forward.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES after the meeting on Monday, the chairperson of the NLC in the state, Mrs. Daramola, said nothing came out of the meeting.

According to her, the workers had already declared their position in the letter to the governor, and that remained the position.

She said Ondo workers would not accept the Osun experience where salaries were paid to workers in percentages.

It cannot happen here, we will not accept it here, Mrs. Daramola declared.

She also said the unions were prepared to continue to dialogue with the state government if calls were made for further discussions.

We are prepared to continue the discussions, we are waiting. If they call us we will be there to discuss the issues, she added.

The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Segun Ajiboye, confirmed that the meeting held, saying the government was still discussing with members of the organised labour in the state.

Mr. Ajiboye told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that it was the state governments position that all the funds would not be used in paying salaries as other sectors of the public needed to benefit from the funds.

The unions want the government to pay salaries with all the money, Mr. Ajiboye said.

But the government believes and is saying that other members of the public should also benefit.

He added that the government would continue the dialogue with the unions, saying the meeting might continue on Tuesday for further deliberations.

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No fewer than 62 juvenile offenders and 67 inmates with disabilities held at Kirikiri Female Prisons and Kirikiri Medium Prisons, Lagos, were on Monday released on the orders of the State Chief Judge, Olufunmilayo Atilade.

She said her intervention particularly at the Female Prisons was part of efforts to address the problem of underage offenders being locked up in prisons across the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Mrs. Atilade had on August 1 released 80 juvenile offenders held at Badagry Prison, Lagos, for sundry offences.

The juvenile inmates, who are below 18 years, were arrested and prosecuted by the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Various Offences such as hawking and breach of peace.

They are serving various prison terms after failing to pay fines imposed on them by the mobile courts across the metropolis.

During Mondays visit to the Kirikiri Prison, Mrs. Atilade released 13 underage girls from the female prison and 49 underage boys from the Medium Prison.

She said: I am here with my delegation comprising judges of the High Court, officials of the Ministry of Justice, Office of the Public Defender (OPD) and Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as well as other stakeholders.

We are here to address the issue of underage offenders in our prison, we need to look into the problem.

The Head of Family Court in the state, Justice Yetunde Idowu, in her address, restated the Lagos State Governments zero tolerance for children in prison.

It does not give us pleasure to be here, the Chief Judge as well as other women here are mothers and grandmothers.

The Lagos State Government has zero tolerance for children in prison, you should be home with your families, she said.

Mrs. Idowu admonished the underage inmates not do anything that will bring them back to the prisons.

The Head, Prison Decongestion Committee, Oluwatoyin Ipaye, decried the condition of the children serving terms in the adult prison.

Describing the situation as very sad, she noted that in instances where children break the law they should be dealt with a lighter hand.

The team is here, My Lady, the Honourable Chief Judge, has signed the release warrants and what is important is that we do not see you here again.

Funlola Odunlami, the Lagos State Solicitor-General, said the state government had enacted laws that prohibited putting children in adult prisons.

Mrs. Odunlami told the girls not to bow to peer pressure, pointing out that the state law forbids hawking.

Justice Atilade while releasing the 13 juveniles from the female prison, told the ecstatic girls to go and sin no more.

From the Kirikiri Female Prison, the Chief Judge made a stop-over at the Kirikiri Medium Prison to free more juvenile offenders and well as disabled inmates from custody.

NAN reports that the Kirikiri Medium Prison which has capacity for only 1,700 inmates, currently accommodates 3,816 inmates, of which 3,093 are awaiting trial, while 723 are convicted.

The chief judge said her visit was prompted by an `SOS from Modupe Olubanwo, the Head of the Legal Team of the Fountain of Life Church.

She noted that the names of 81 juvenile offenders were submitted to the High Court for screening for release with 49 certified for release from custody.

To the 49 underage boys, Mrs. Atilade said: Go and sin no more, and ordered the seven of the freed male juveniles be handed over to the officials of the Ministry of Youths and Social Welfare for supervision and rehabilitation.

While releasing the 67 inmates with physical disabilities, the chief judge said their release was on health grounds.

I have taken cognizance of the fact that 67 people living with disabilities are in the prison, I hereby release them on health grounds.

Those that have been convicted of their crimes will he handed over to the Ministry of Youths and Social Welfare for their empowerment and rehabilitation.

Earlier, in his address of welcome, the Deputy Controller of Prisons in charge of Medium Prison, Emmanuel Oluwaniyi, praised the chief judges efforts in decongesting the prison.

This is the second time the Chief Judge is coming here to release inmates, the first time she released 64 inmates and this time we are hoping for the release of over 100 inmates.

We thank you for the mother we have found in you, the release of the inmates has reduced the pressure on the prison, Mr. Oluwaniyi said.

NAN also reports that the release of the inmates is in line with Section 1 (1) of the Criminal Justice Release from Custody Special Provisions Act, Laws of the Federation 2007.

(NAN)

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A Macomb County businessman and his family are living in fear after his teenage son was falsely rumored to have been the driver who plowed a car into a crowd protesting a white supremacist rally in Virginia.

Jerome Vangheluwe of Bruce Township said his son was incorrectly identified by several right-wing websites as being the owner and driver of a Dodge Challenger that rammed through counter-protestors Saturday, killing a woman and wounding at least 19 others.

Vangheluwe says even though he sold the car years ago, the family was being targeted for death threats from people mistakenly believing the son, Joel, was responsible for the horrific act.

Im not the one, Im from (profanity) Michigan, you idiots, Joel Vangheluwe posted on Facebook Saturday afternoon. I drive a 2009 Chevy Impala, not a Challenger, (profanity) the internet.

Jerome Vangheluwe told WDIV-TV (Channel 4) that he sold the car to a dealership in 2012. Its not clear how the car was linked back to him, but according to a variety of Twitter messages and other online sources, it appears someone looked up the vehicle identification number (VIN) for the car, based on the license plate number included in media photographs of the car hitting the crowd.

The family was attending a wedding Saturday afternoon when Jerome Vangheluwe began receiving dozens of calls on his cellphone. Thats when his son informed him about online accusations linking him to the Charlottesville incident.

People began flooding the younger Vangheluwes Facebook page with threats, images and even an animated cartoon of a man driving into a crowd of people.

A woman who identified herself as Joels sister responded via social media by defending her brother. He is innocent and getting death threats, she said in a Facebook post.

Jerome Vangheluwe said international media representatives called for a comment.

It was the Canadian television news, a reporter from there asking if I wanted to comment on the fact that my son had been arrested for driving into a group of people in Charlottesville, Vangheluwe told WDIV.

Vangheluwe, vice president of a health care firm, called Michigan State Police about the hostile reaction. Honestly, I dont feel safe in my home right now, he said.

Michigan State Police tried to set the record state as it tweeted: A Michigan resident that used to own the car used in attack in Virginia is now receiving death threats after false accusation by website.

One of the online sites that incorrectly identified the driver, GotNews.com, later issued a retraction, misspelling Vangheluwes last name.

Because police have not identified the suspect, GotNews has retracted the article. GotNews regrets the error and apologizes to Joel Vangeheluwe and his family. Unlike the fake news media, the new media is nimble and responsible to its audience, Unlike the fake news media, the new media lives not by lies, the site wrote.

The Vangheluwes could not be reached Sunday.

According to the website Coed.com, Joel Vangheluwe graduated from Romeo High School in 2015. He attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and is pursuing a career in music and painting. The family formerly resided in St. Clair Shores.

Police in Virginia have charged James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, with second-degree murder and other crimes. He will be formally arraigned on Monday.

Fields was photographed hours earlier carrying the emblem of one of the hate groups that organized the Take America Back campaign in Charlottesville

The FBI announced the opening of a civil rights investigation into Saturdays car attack. White nationalists were protesting the citys decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, when they were confronted by counter-protestors.
Back-to-school shopping is often filled with anxiety and excitement. The annual ritual also can be a financial burden for parents, a new survey finds.

About 60 percent of parents say affording school supplies is a challenge, according to the survey from the education organization Junior Achievement. Often, parents receive school supply lists from teachers requiring a litany of items for the beginning of the school year.

Its more every year, said Michele Shillito, of Egg Harbor Township, whose 10-year-old daughter goes to St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Mays Landing.

Shillito said she spent an easy $100 to start off with on supplies for the upcoming school year, including typical pencils, pens and paper. She said some of the supplies requested, especially cleaning supplies and tissues, seem like they could be purchased by the district.

The National Retail Federation expects total spending for the upcoming school year to reach the second-highest spending level on record at $83.6 billion nationwide, noting an uptick in consumer confidence. That is a 10 percent increase from 2016.

The NRF annual survey found back-to-school shoppers plan to spend $4.9 billion on school supplies such as notebooks, folders, pencils, backpacks and lunchboxes, averaging about $114.12 per parent.

{span}With stronger employment levels and a continued increase in wages, consumers are spending more and we are optimistic that they will continue to do so throughout the rest of the year, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.{/span}

The NRF survey also found families are completing their back-to-school shopping earlier to take advantage of deals and avoid crowds.

Were all done, said Stephenie Perez, of Mays Landing, who was shopping at the Michaels at Consumer Square in Mays Landing on Saturday.

Perez estimated she spends $50 a school year, but admitted she is a bargain hunter.

So is Stacey McDonnell, of Exeter Township, Pennsylvania.

I look for sales, so I bought my school supplies at the beginning of July, McDonnell said.

McDonnell, who was visiting her sister in the area, said she has spent about $100 total between her two children this year on supplies.

They give me a very specific list of what they have to buy, she said, down to the size of the glue sticks and the types of markers.

McDonnell said sometimes the lists are excessive, but she believes teachers are using the extra supplies to help students who may not have enough.

Jonelle Scardino, who teaches science at Egg Harbor Township High School, said she asks students to bring pen, paper, a binder and five dividers for the school year.

The school provides us with a budget for classroom supplies, so I always order extra pencils, binders, paper and folders, Scardino said, noting there have been occasions when students could not afford the supplies.

A 2016 American Express survey found U.S. teachers spend an average of $487 out of pocket on classroom supplies, instructional materials, books and professional development due to school budget cuts. Scardino said she also asks students to recycle their binders or donate them for a future student to cut down on the cost of supplies.

If they are in good condition, I keep them for the following year. I think our school, or at least our department, has done a good job providing us with enough money to provide classroom supplies, she said.
ATLANTIC CITY  A community group wants to set up a fund to support stakeholders in the city.

ThisIsAC founder Evan Sanchez announced at Wednesdays City Council meeting that Atlantic City residents, volunteers and businesses are working to establish the Atlantic City Community Fund. The fund would collect philanthropic gifts and donations and award grants to organizations to support local efforts, Sanchez said.

Fund organizers are working with the Community Foundation of South Jersey and Creative New Jersey. The foundation would manage and house the fund.

The Atlantic City Community Fund was established to strengthen the community of Atlantic City for current and future generations, Sanchez said at the meeting.

The grants would be given to organizations that have a mission to improve the current and future quality of life in Atlantic City, he said. The Community Foundation and the Dodge Foundation agreed to start the fund with $30,000, organizers said. Any contribution made to the fund would be tax-deductible.

Elizabeth Murphy, the director of Creative New Jersey, said the fund is for the city, by the city and directed by people who live here.

The group is currently looking to build its Board of Advisors, which must be made up of at least 70 percent city residents. Anyone interested can apply to serve on the board at accommunityfund.org by Sept. 1.

Asked at the council meeting about why the board will be made up of only 70 percent Atlantic City residents, Sanchez said it would also involve other city stakeholders, such as business owners who dont live in the city. Fund decisions would be made by people who are in the community, he said.

Part of the work we want to do is help communities build capacity, Murphy said.
ATLANTIC CITY  The resorts casino industry saw gambling revenue decrease by 2.7 percent in July compared with a year ago, according to state gambling figures released Monday afternoon.

Overall casino gambling revenue, including internet gambling, totaled $267.8 million, compared with $275.2 in July 2016, according to the figures. The numbers include comparisons to when the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was open.

If you take the Taj Mahal out of the equation, the citys seven remaining casinos saw their overall gambling revenues, including internet gambling, increase by 3.9 percent. The remaining casinos took in $267.8 million last month compared with $257.7 million in July 2016.

While there are fluctuations in monthly revenue, it is encouraging that Atlantic Citys current operators casino win figures are up nearly 10 percent for the year so far, illustrating that overall, there is continued stabilization in the industry, said David Rebuck, director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Internet gambling grew by 18.5 percent. Revenues totaled about $18.5 million in July compared with $17.3 million a year ago.

Stuffing state and local coffers with over $100 million in tax revenue (since it was approved in November 2013) certainly drops the curtain on any lingering revenue concerns, said Steve Ruddock, lead analyst for PlayNJ.com. While states such as Pennsylvania drag their feet on legalizing online gaming, companies of all stripes are flocking to the Jersey Shore to grab a piece of the online gaming action.

Since it was approved, internet gambling has generated more than $619 million in revenue, according to PlayNJ, an internet gambling advocacy group.

It is clear that business is building for the seven operating casinos, and I am optimistic it will continue to grow in the months ahead, said Matthew B. Levinson, chairman and CEO of the state Casino Control Commission. Atlantic Citys seven operating casinos won 3.9 percent more last month than in July 2016  even though it had one less weekend day.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday they had no choice but to start work on the $63.3 million Absecon Island beach-replenishment project during the busy summer 2017 season, a move that has angered both businesses and residents up and down the island.

For the dredging industry, their safest and most efficient use of these dredges is often during the summer, because of calmer seas. So if we specifically exclude summer work, we again risk pricing ourselves out of the bidding market and not being able to build these projects at all, said Stephen Rochette, spokesman for the Army Corps.

For the past couple of weeks, both residents and businesses from Atlantic City to Longport have complained that the work and the standing water left at the project site in Margate has negatively impacted their summer.

Rochette said the scheduling of the beach projects is tied to a variety of factors, including real estate acquisition, legal proceedings related to the project, equipment availability and project size.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers understands the importance of the summer months to the residents, businesses and visitors along the Jersey Shore, Rochette said. We understand how inconvenient a 24/7 construction job can be, especially during the peak vacation season and can assure you we are working as fast as we can to complete projects.

Danielle Schurdich of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, and her friends walked along the Boardwalk in Ventnor from Dorset Avenue, searching for the next open beach. Lugging coolers, beach chairs and pushing a baby stroller, the group of women were frustrated to learn that the beach would be closed during their vacation week.

Its inconvenient. They should have done it after Labor Day, Schurdich said.

In Margate, the city has taken the corps and the state Department of Environmental Protection to court over the project. On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Renee Marie Bumb granted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers request to continue work on the dunes. The decision overruled Superior Court Judge Julio Mendezs order to temporarily stop the project in the city. Following Bumbs decision, Mendez ordered the DEP and Margate to work together on a solution.

The Army Corps project calls for the placing of 3.8 million cubic yards of sand on eight miles of beach on Absecon Island, from Atlantic City to Longport. However, on some beaches, visitors find construction equipment noise, pipes and machinery to pump sand.

Its also important to note there is a limited number of dredges that can handle beachfill oper-ations, Rochette said.

When completed, the project in Atlantic City will create a 200-foot-wide berm and a dune built to an elevation of nearly 15 feet above sea level, according to a statement from the DEP. In the Downbeach municipalities, a 100-foot-wide berm and a dune to an elevation of nearly 13 feet above sea level will be built.

They have to do some in the summer, Im sure. Its tough that it happens to be us, but we have to deal with it, said Chuck Carlino, a Ventnor resident.

Absecon Island municipalities are not the first towns in the region that have dealt with work being done during the summer. Over the past couple of years, municipalities along Long Beach Island have had to deal with a similar situation as the contractors completed work on a $128 million beach project.

Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini said the township had to deal with construction on their beaches during the past two summers.

Sure its a pain, and we had to move people off the beach, but it had to be done, Mancini said. If you put it off, there might be a chance that the money will be gone.
MARGATE  Residents and beachgoers gathered beside stalled construction equipment Sunday to voice their opposition to a federal judges ruling allowing dune construction to resume.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Renee Marie Bumb granted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers request to continue work on the dunes. The decision overruled Superior Court Judge Julio Mendezs order to temporarily stop the project in the city.

Rain early last week left a reported 4 to 6 inches of standing water between the bulkhead and the dunes. The same problem occurred the week before, prompting city officials to meet with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Following Bumbs decision, Mendez ordered the DEP and Margate to work together on a solution.

We have more than an issue of just drainage, said former Margate Mayor Vaughan Reale, co-executive director of the Margate Citizens Question the Beach Project group. We have an issue of swimmer safety, we have an issue of handicap access, we have an issue of policing and maintenance, so theres multiple issues.

With signs condemning the actions of Bumb and the Army Corps, the crowd joined in chants of we were right and tear them down, while residents described their struggle with the dune project.

I have a mother, who currently cannot  she will never be able to cross this, said Margate resident Jill Boughrum, pointing to the elevated pathway over the dunes. We cant get her up this mountain to a tiny ramp with a pipe running through it. They have ruined our beaches. I hope it stops right here.

Dan Gottlieb, executive director of the citizens group, said handicapped-accessible entrances to Margate beaches have been reduced from 20 to four due to the built-up dunes.

Wed like to see the quality of life, as it is linked to the beaches, improved, Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb told the crowd he has talked with city officials and believes the city intends to file an appeal to Bumbs decision Wednesday.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.
ATLANTIC CITY  Police are searching for a man who stole a police officers cellphone while she was chasing a drug suspect early Saturday.

Detectives Leah Giercyk and Juliann Schwenger observed two men in a narcotics transaction in front of a convenience store in the 1700 block of Atlantic Avenue, police said.

As the detectives approached, Thomas Wallace, 41, of Camden, walked into the store, police said. Schwenger attempted to stop Wallace inside the store while Giercyk stopped the other man outside, police said.

Wallace fled, shoving Giercyk to the pavement as he exited the store, police said.

Giercyk lost her phone while she and other officers chased Wallace, who was taken into custody after entering the Schoolhouse Apartments, police said. The man pictured above picked up the phone and did not return it, police said.

Wallace was in possession of a backpack that contained 609 individual bags of heroin, 24 grams of cocaine and marijuana, police said.

He was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, three counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance and three counts of possession with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substance, police said.

Anyone who can identify the man who took the phone is urged to call police at 609-347-5766. Information can be texted to tip411 (847411). Begin the text with ACPD. All texts are anonymous.
Three people are dead and two are injured after a two-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon near Helena.

The crash was reported around 1 p.m. on Highway 12 about 13 miles east of Helena.

The Montana Highway Patrol reported a pickup truck crossed the center line and crashed into a sedan, killing the male, female and infant in the sedan. The two people in the pickup were transported to St. Peters Hospital in Helena.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.
NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Residence, Inc., a world-renowned real estate brokerage firm, is pleased to announce that Mr. Richard Pino, Chief Financial Officer and Associate Broker, will be traveling to Italy and Croatia from August 24th through September 10, 2017 to meet with customers.

Mr. Richard Pino said this is his third trip to Italy and Croatia, and his second trip within the past year, to meet with existing and new customers. Over the last decade, Mr. Pino has traveled to Columbia, Panama, China, Hong Kong, Russia, and Ireland to meet with customers and represent New York Residence at international trade shows.

Richard added, "Real estate brokerage is still a relationship business. Real estate professionals need to be willing to travel to meet with customers at their request. Customers can easily find information by surfing many third party real estate websites, but in-person and phone communication is still the most important interaction to educate customers about potential real estate acquisitions."

Further, Richard believes the strong Euro has produced an uptick in inquiries about investing in New York. The Euro has increased against the US dollar from a 1.05 in January to 1.18 as of today, August 14th. The strong Euro provides an opportunity for Europeans to purchase a property at a discount using the strong conversion rate.

Private appointments for new customers may be arranged in advance by sending an email to Richard Pino at rpino@nyr.com.

New York Residence has ranked within the top five of Manhattan boutique real estate firms for the past three years, 2014-2016. In addition, New York Residence was ranked number 20 in closed transactions amongst all firm sizes. The 2016 independent ranking charts and articles can be seen in the May 2016, issue of The Real Deal, an industry real estate publication.

New York Residence is a real estate brokerage firm specializing in residential, commercial, and investment property sales and rentals to domestic and international buyers. It maintains five offices in New York, with international offices located in Korea, Seoul, and Singapore. New York Residence' corporate headquarters is located at 1501 Broadway, 26th floor, in the iconic Paramount Building in the heart of Times Square.

Media Contact:

Richard Pino

Chief Financial Officer / Associate Broker

New York Residence

+1-212-360-7000 x125

rpino@nyr.com

Related Links

http://nyr.com



SOURCE New York Residence, Inc.
The event, featuring 2,800+ exhibiting companies covering the entire supply chain, acts as an accurate barometer of the industry's overall growth patterns and future developments. Two major trends to emerge from Asia's largest pharma event were the increased interest and promotion of "intelligent manufacturing" systems as well as 'green manufacturing' approaches. The former emphasised a rapid shift within China's industry towards advanced facilities and product classes. However, the latter is a particularly notable change in light of the country's general reputation, and the first ever "China Pharma Environmental Forum" was an integral feature of this year's exhibition.

Another major development in 2017 was the introduction of the first edition of the CPhI China Pharma Week, which was a direct response to China's increased internationalisation. Across the entire week, CPhI and P-MEC China attendees had the opportunity to experience richer content than in any other previous edition. To mention a few: Plant visits in leading R&D and innovation companies, CPhI China River Cruise Networking dinner on Huangpu River that held over 250 overseas and domestic attendees, the CPhI Pharma Business International Program to help overseas companies solve problems they encounter when entering the Chinese market and many more.

As part of the CPhI China Pharma week, the show saw the launch of the Bluebook on Internationalization of China's Pharmaceutical Industry -- listing the largest Chinese companies operating internationally -- and "The 2017 Awards for Top 100 Internationalized Pharmaceutical Companies in China". Both influential regional lists that review and document the country's most prominent companies.

Finally, 2017 saw the arrival of another global trend sweeping through pharma with the first ever CPhI Women in Leadership Forum in China, which featured high level debates on how to advance female executive potential contributing to the fast development of Pharmaceutical industry in the country.

In total, 55,020 visits were recorded over the three-day Shanghai event, with 10,126 visits from international attendees, including representatives from more than 120 different countries, covering an enormous 165,000m2 of exhibition space at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, which makes it the biggest edition of CPhI and P-MEC China to date.

Rutger Oudejans, Brand Director Pharma at UBM added, "CPhI China has grown to be the single most influential meeting point for pharma suppliers and customers, and this year we observed a record number of international attendees and over 55,000 visits in total. The pharma economy has diversified rapidly in the last few years and new markets are emerging in bio and final dosage forms. In addition to the ingredients sector -- which represents some 40% of global production. This year's event was especially significant as we increased the range of insights and analysis across the changing business and regulatory environment. With sessions held on everything from the MAH pilot to formulation development strategies and international distribution. Next year we expect even stronger growth as domestic pharma economy cements its number 2 status and exports of new forms grow exponentially."

CPhI and P-MEC China will return with its 18 edition again in 2018. The event will be held from 20  22 June 2018 in Shanghai New International Expo Centre, alongside the 2nd CPhI China Pharma Week edition.

For more information visit: www.cphi.com/china.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Alex Heeley or Alex Allsop

De Facto Communications

T: +44 (0) 203 735 8168

E: a.heeley@defacto.com / a.allsop@defacto.com

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SOURCE Shanghai UBM Sinoexpo International Exhibition Co., Ltd.
LONDON, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EnergyNet will partner with the International Gas Union (IGU) for the upcoming 'Latin America & Caribbean Gas Options' (Panama City, Panama, 16-17 November 2017).

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IGU is known as the largest natural gas organization in the world, with more than 150 members, including industry associations and corporations, representing about 97% of the world gas market. As a non-profit company, its mission is to defend this resource as an integral part of a sustainable global energy system, promoting the political, technical and economic progress of the industry and fully covering the value chain of natural gas. IGU President, David Carroll is set to speak at the 'Latin America & Caribbean Gas Options' meeting.

"This partnership represents an enormous contribution to the meeting and to the region, as it will facilitate the meeting of large and significant public and private investors in the gas market, which will help increase investments in the sector, ensuring the success of projects in the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean," says Simon Gosling, Managing Director, EnergyNet

With non-conventional renewables increasing their share in the Latin American energy mix, the role of gas is growing in importance and in urgency across the region. Technological advances have changed Latin America's natural gas industry dramatically, from the uncertainty about the potential to use gas for power, to an excess demand and an urgent need for infrastructure upgrade.

The Latin America & Caribbean Gas Options summit, taking place under the aegis of the Secretary of Energy of Panama, will serve as an anchor for the multiple efforts being made by national, multilateral and private institutions to facilitate the advancement of a structured gas market at both national and regional levels.

Sector leaders confirmed to attend include:



Dr Victor Carlos Urrutia , Executive Secretary, National Secretariat of Energy, Panama

, Executive Secretary, Eng. Luis Alfonso Chang Navarro , Honourable Minister , Ministry of Energy and Mines, Guatemala

Honourable Minister Luis Bertran Rafecas Secretary General, International Gas Union

Secretary General, David Madero Suarez . Director General, Centro Nacional de Control del Gas Natural (CENAGAS) , Mexico

. Director General, Ariel Yepez , Chief of the Energy Division, Inter-American Development Bank

, Chief of the Energy Division, John A. Anderson , Director of the Office of Regulation and International Engagement, Office of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy

, Director of the Office of Regulation and International Engagement, Office of Fossil Energy, Matthew Cline , Director, Office of American Affairs, Office of International Affairs, U.S. Department of Energy

, Director, Office of American Affairs, Jorge Ciacciarelli , Executive Secretary, ARPEL

, Executive Secretary, Andres Schuschny , Director of Studies, Projects and Information, OLADE

, Director of Studies, Projects and Information, Michael Ratliff , Managing Director, Global Energy Group, Overseas Private Investment Corporation

, Managing Director, Global Energy Group, Jorge Gallon , Senior Investment Officer and Regional O&G Lead for Latin America , IFC

, Senior Investment Officer and Regional O&G Lead for , Puneet Sharma , Vice President, Atlantic Project Development, MODEC International Inc.

If you are interested in attending the Latin America & Caribbean Gas Options summit, please visit the forum website or contact LATAM@energynet.co.uk.

About EnergyNet:

For the last 24 years EnergyNet has supported governments across the globe, playing an advisory role in helping policy makers meet the very best private sector investors. Our role is not unique; however our approach is as individual as a thumbprint, highlighted by the trust of the World Bank, IFC, IDB, CAF, OPIC, DFID, JICA and many more place in our ability to deliver results. This supports our position as a market-shaper and leader when it comes to global energy development.

Jessica Longdon

Senior Marketing Executive

EnergyNet

E: jessica.longdon@energynet.co.uk

T: +44 (0)20 7384 8240

Related Links

http://www.energynet.co.uk/



SOURCE EnergyNet
NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Student Poets Program (NSPP) has announced its sixth class of youth poets. Five teenagers have been chosen from among thousands of award-winning poets to receive the country's highest honor for youth poets presenting original work. To be considered for appointment as a National Student Poet, students first must receive a national medal from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nearly century-old program known for its recognition and celebration of the country's creative teens. The National Student Poets Program is an initiative of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers which administers the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

The distinguished student poets will be appointed by the Librarian of Congress and the Director of the IMLS at a ceremony August 31 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Other appointment events during the National Book Festival weekend include public readings of the National Student Poets' work and a private workshop for the students with 21st US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. Throughout the year, the poets will serve as literary ambassadors and will share their passion for poetry and the literary arts with their communities and at libraries and museums throughout their regions. This will be done through service projects, workshops, and public readings. In addition, each poet will receive a $5,000 academic award.

The National Student Poets Program is open to high school sophomores and juniors who submit work to, and receive a national medal from, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. This year out of a pool of more than three hundred award-winning poets representing 40 states from Hawaii to Massachusetts, 35 semi-finalists were invited to submit additional poetry and performance videos to distinguished jurors for final selection as National Student Poets.

Representing five geographical regions of the nation, the 2017 National Student Poets are:

Annie Castillo , age 16 of Falls Church, VA , junior at George Mason High School

, age 16 of , junior at George Mason High School Kinsale Hueston , age 17 of Corona del Mar, CA, senior at St. Margaret's Episcopal School

, age 17 of Corona del Mar, CA, senior at St. Margaret's Episcopal School Ben Lee , age 16 of Edina, MN , junior at The Blake School

age 16 of , junior at Juliet Lubwama , age 17 of Downingtown, PA , senior at Downingtown STEM Academy

, age 17 of , senior at Downingtown STEM Academy Camila Sanmiguel , age 17 of Laredo, TX , senior at J.B. Alexander High School

All student submissions in consideration for the National Student Poets Program are judged by a jury of literary luminaries and leaders in education and the arts based on exceptional creativity, dedication to craft, and promise. This year's panel of judges included:

Jennifer Benka (poet and Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets)

(poet and Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets) Richard Blanco (United States Inaugural Poet)

(United States Inaugural Poet) Ann Burg (award-winning poet and fiction writer)

(award-winning poet and fiction writer) Kyle Dargan (poet and recipient of Cave Canem Poetry Prize)

(poet and recipient of Cave Canem Poetry Prize) Juan Felipe Herrera (21 st US Poet Laureate)

(21 US Poet Laureate) Edward Hirsch (poet and President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation)

(poet and President of the Memorial Foundation) Rickey Laurentiis (poet and recipient of Cave Canem Poetry Prize)

(poet and recipient of Cave Canem Poetry Prize) Robin Coste Lewis (winner of National Book Award for Poetry)

(winner of National Book Award for Poetry) Marilyn Nelson (award-winning poet and translator)

(award-winning poet and translator) Alice Quinn (Executive Director, Poetry Society of America)

QUOTES:

Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director, Alliance for Young Artists & Writers:

"The judges selected these 5 outstanding poets from among a record number of poetry submissions to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. That tells us not only that these are exceptionally talented poets but also that young people look to poetrywriting it, reading it, and sharing itas an outlet and an enduring form of expression during their teen years. The Alliance supports the National Student Poets and works to give greater visibility to their voice and to the perspective of today's youth. It's important for all of us to hear it."

Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services:

"IMLS is proud to provide support to the National Student Poets Program through the amazing work of these five talented individuals," said Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. "The efforts of the poets who will serve as ambassadors for their creative written form aligns with the work of museums and libraries across the U.S. that strive every day to promote learning, literacy and creativity."

John Abodeely, Acting Executive Director, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities:

"The President's Committee is excited to welcome a new class of National Student Poets. These exceptional teens have reached thousands of Americansboth young people and adultsover the last several years, illuminating the unique value of poetry and creativity in all of our lives."

Juan Felipe Herrera, former US Poet Laureate 2015-2017:

"It is time to celebrate our National Student Poets  let them call out the now verses of America. Welcome these unique visionaries. They will journey through our cities and lands with their hearts and hands brimming with the new idea. Moving, calling out  tender lightning  lighting who we are. Bravo!"

Michaela Coplen, National Student Poet Class of 2013:

"My experience with the National Student Poets Program was world-opening; I came to see how all things in life had a place in poetry, and poetry a place in all things. My term was both a platform to share what I wanted the world to hear and an opportunity to step back and listen to what the world said to me. The poems I read and the people I met profoundly changed me and continue to guide my path today. Through this experience I became an activist, ambassador, educator, and facilitator--and found that all of these were synonyms for 'poet'."

POET SELECTION:

The National Student Poets are selected every year from among students in grades 10-11 who submit work for and receive top honors in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the 95-year-old scholarship and recognition program for teen artists and writers. From this pool of national medal recipients, 35 semi-finalists are identified through blind adjudication as the most gifted young poets in their regions, based on their originality, technical skills and personal voice. These students then submit additional poetry and performance videos, and their work is reviewed by a distinguished jury for the final selection of five National Student Poets, determined by additional criteria of creativity, dedication to craft and promise.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

Since its inception in 2011, the National Student Poets Program has showcased the essential role of writing and the arts in academic and personal success for audiences across the country. All 25 National Student Poets have participated in community service projects, visiting more than one hundred cities, performing at more than eighty national poetry events, and mentoring hundreds of future poets. The poets have traveled to libraries, museums, youth centers, reservations, and hospitals; worked with military-connected youth, rural youth, special-needs children and recent immigrants. They have performed their work numerous times at Lincoln Center and the White House, have been honored six years running at Carnegie Hall, have been invited to attend and present their work at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and have attended private workshops and master classes with renowned poets, including US Poets Laureate, and literary leaders.

To learn more about the impact and history of the NSPP, watch this short video and visit the Scholastic media room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/artandwriting.

The National Student Poets Programa collaboration of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writersstrives to inspire other young people to achieve excellence in their own creative endeavors and promote the essential role of writing and the arts in academic and personal success. The program links the National Student Poets with audiences and neighborhood resources such as museums and libraries, and other community-anchor institutions and builds upon the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers' long-standing work with educators and creative teens through the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Poets' appointment events are hosted in cooperation with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and held in conjunction with the National Book Festival. More information on the NSPP can be found at www.artandwriting.org/NSPP.

Created in 1982 by Executive Order, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) is an advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues. The PCAH works directly with the Administration and the three primary cultural agenciesNational Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)as well as other federal partners and the private sector, to address policy questions in the arts and humanities, to initiate and support key programs in those disciplines, and to recognize excellence in the field. Its core areas of focus are arts and humanities education, cultural exchange, and community revitalization. Ex Officio, the First Lady serves as honorary chairman of the committee, which is composed of both private and public members.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's approximately 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums and related organizations. The agency's mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. IMLS's grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow IMLS on Facebook and Twitter.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, a nonprofit organization, identifies teenagers with exceptional artistic and literary talent and brings their remarkable work to a national audience through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Founded in 1923, the Awards program is the longest-running, most prestigious initiative of its kind, having fostered the creativity and development of millions of young people through recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. During the past six years alone, students have submitted well over a million works of art and writing, and the program has provided more than $30 million in scholarships and awards for top participants. To learn more, visit www.artandwriting.org.

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United Statesand extensive materials from around the worldboth on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services, and other programs, or plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

SOURCE Alliance for Young Artists & Writers
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New Jersey's online casinos blew past another important milestone in July, easily surpassing $600 million in combined gross revenue since online gambling was legalized and regulated in November 2013. Hitting $619.36 million in lifetime revenue was just part of a strong July, according to analysts from PlayNJ.com.

During a month in which two new online casinos entered the New Jersey market, playMGM and Scores, the state's regulated online casinos combined to collect $20.6 million in gross revenue, according The New Jersey Monthly Internet Gross Revenue Report. The total tax revenue generated since 2013 pushed higher, too, to $108.1 million after collecting $3.6 million in tax revenue.

"Stuffing state and local coffers with over $100 million in tax revenue certainly drops the curtain on any lingering revenue concerns," said Steve Ruddock, lead analyst for PlayNJ.com. "The momentum is building, too. While states such as Pennsylvania drag their feet on legalizing online gaming, companies of all stripes are flocking to the Jersey Shore to grab a piece of the online gaming action."

With 31 days in July, including the July Fourth holiday, the month's gross revenue total was up from $20.2 million in June.

Individual casinos posted milestone months, too. Golden Nugget Atlantic City pulled in $6.25 million in gross revenue to lead all operators, becoming the first licensee to surpass $125 million in lifetime revenue from casino games.

"The Golden Nugget's success is testament to the great equalizing power of online gaming," Ruddock said. "On the Internet, a small casino can compete with casinos two or three times its size."

For more analysis on regulated online gaming in New Jersey, visit PlayNJ.com.

About The PlayUSA Network:

The PlayUSA Network is a leading source for news, analysis, and research related to the market for regulated online gaming in the United States. With a presence in over a dozen states, PlayUSA.com and its state-focused branches (including PlayNJ.com, PlayNY.com, PlayPennsylvania.com, and PlayCA.com) produce daily original reporting, publish in-depth research, and offer player advocacy tools related to the advancement of safe, licensed, and legal online poker and gaming options for consumers.

Contacts:

Zack Hall, DVA Advertising & PR, 541-389-2411, [email protected]

SOURCE PlayNJ.com

Related Links

http://www.playnj.com


NESS ZIONA SCIENCE PARK, Israel, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Israeli biotechnology company Kadimastem (TASE: KDST) announced today an investment in the company by two senior scientists from the medical and biotechnology fields. The company signed two separate investment agreements, by way of private placement, with Professor Ruth Arnon and Professor Michel Revel, a controlling shareholder, director in the company and its Chief Scientist, in the amount of NIS 720K (NIS 360K each).

Professor Ruth Arnon, co-developer of Teva's blockbuster MS drug Copaxone, is a Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science and over the years has held various senior positions at the Weizmann Institute, including Head of the Immunology Department, Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Vice President; an Israel Prize laureate and past President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, she was a member of the steering committee for the World Health Organization and a member of UNESCO's panel of experts for biological materials.

Professor Michel Revel, developer of Merck's blockbuster MS drug Rebif, is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the former Head of the Virology Department at the Weizmann Institute; an Israel Prize laureate and past Chairman of the Israel National Bioethics Council, he was a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO and Chairman of the National Committee for Biotechnology in Israel.

The company sees the investment of the two scientists as a very important vote of confidence in the company.

Under the agreement, the company will issue each investor 167,442 ordinary shares of the company at a share price of NIS 2.15. In addition, each investor will be granted 167,442 non-tradeable warrants at an exercise price of NIS 3, such that the consideration for exercise of said warrants will be in an amount of around NIS 1M. The warrants will be fully vested upon grant and will be exercisable for a period of 18 months from the date of signing of the investment agreements.

About Kadimastem

Kadimastem (http://www.kadimastem.com) is a biotechnology company that specializes in the development of human stem cell-based medical solutions for the treatment of diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS and Multiple Sclerosis. The company was founded in August 2009 by Professor Michel Revel and Yossi Ben Yosef, and is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: KDST). The company's chairman is Dr. Eli Opper, formerly the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Labor and Trade. The company's investors, in addition to the founders, include Altshuler Shaham Investment House, foreign investors (Julien Ruggieri and Avi Meizler), and additional institutional investors.

Kadimastem was founded based on patent protected technology that was developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Based on the company's unique platform, Kadimastem is developing two types of medical applications: A. Regenerative medicine, which repairs and replaces organs and tissue by using functioning cells differentiated from stem cells. The company focuses on transplanting healthy brain cells to support the survivability of nerve cells as cell therapy for ALS, and transplanting insulin-secreting pancreatic cells for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes; B. Drug screening platforms, which use functional human cells and tissues to discover new medicinal drugs. The company has two collaboration agreements with leading global pharmaceutical companies.

Kadimastem has an extensive scientific advisory board, featuring prominent scientists and pioneers: in the embryonic stem cells field, Professor Benjamin Reubinoff, Director of the Hadassah Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center and Senior Physician at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hadassah University Medical Center; Professor Joseph Itskovich, world renowned expert and pioneer in pluripotent stem cell research and former head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at RAMBAM Medical Center; in the neurodegenerative disease field, Professor Tamir Ben-Hur, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hadassah University Medical Center; and in the diabetes field, Professor Shimon Efrat, professor of Human Molecular Genetics and Juvenile Diabetes at Tel Aviv University and a world renowned expert in cell replacement therapy for diabetes and Professor Eddy Karnieli, former Director of the Institute for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the RAMBAM Medical Center, and a world renowned expert in these fields.

Yehuda Feinberg

Tel: +972-73-7971604

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Kadimastem
ATLANTA, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AdCare Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE American: ADK) (NYSE American: ADK.PRA), a self-managed healthcare real estate investment company that invests primarily in real estate purposed for senior living and long-term care, today reported results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017.

Business Update

Observed sequential improvements in underlying portfolio operating metrics

Reduced general and administrative expenses to $822,000 for the second quarter, below stated target of $1.0 million of general & administrative expenses per quarter

for the second quarter, below stated target of of general & administrative expenses per quarter Extended the maturity of one mortgage loan totaling $1.2 million from 2017 to 2020

from 2017 to 2020 Reduced the number of professional and general liability cases from 44 to 41

Filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") a notice of special meeting and a definitive proxy statement for a special meeting of shareholders to be held on September 20, 2017 , to consider and vote upon an agreement and plan of merger pursuant to which AdCare would merge with and into Regional Health Properties, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AdCare formed for the purpose of the merger ("RHE")

"Operating metrics of our portfolio again showed improvement during the second quarter with increases in our occupancy rate and rent coverage ratios," commented Allan Rimland, AdCare's President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. "These continued improvements underscore the Company's rationale for transitioning from an owner and operator of senior housing assets to a property holding and leasing company, namely improved performance through partnering with regional operators with strong clinical, operational and financial capabilities. The Company's pipeline of potential acquisitions continues to strengthen, both in terms of the number and quality of potential transactions. Management is carefully evaluating these opportunities."

Management periodically monitors a number of facility performance metrics including rent coverages both before and after management fees. In the second quarter of 2017, excluding the impact of the recently acquired Meadowood facility, the Company's portfolio rent coverage before management fees was 1.76x (as compared with 1.71x in the first quarter of 2017) and rent coverage after management fees was 1.35x (as compared with 1.29x in the first quarter of 2017).

"We made significant progress during the quarter in reducing our G&A expenses to below our target through our continued efforts to streamline our overhead structure," added Rimland. "At the same time, we extended the maturities of a $1.2 million mortgage note and $0.5 million in other debt to strengthen our balance sheet and reduce refinancing risk. We are in the process of evaluating the refinancings of other senior secured mortgage debt."

Summary of Financial Results for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2017

Total revenues in the second quarter of 2017 were $6.3 million, down 12.0% from $7.2 million in the second quarter of 2016. Total revenues for the six months ended June 30, 2017, decreased by 12.7% to $12.4 million from $14.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016. The decrease reflects the sale of nine Arkansas facilities in October 2016 partially offset by rental revenues from the Meadowood facility and facilities operated by affiliates of Peach Health Group. The acquisition of the Meadowood facility closed on May 1, 2017. The Company generally recognizes all rental revenues on a straight-line rent accrual basis.

General and administrative costs decreased by $1.3 million, or 61.5%, to $822,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2017, compared with $2.1 million for the same period in 2016. For the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, general and administrative costs include stock-based compensation expense, net of restricted stock and warrant forfeitures. General and administrative costs for the six months ended June 30, 2017 decreased by approximately $2.2 million, or 47.7%, to $2.4 million, compared with $4.7 million for the same period in 2016. For the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, general and administrative costs include $154,000 and $720,000, respectively, of stock-based compensation expense.

Interest expense decreased by $745,000, or 42.5%, to $1.0 million for the second quarter of 2017 compared with $1.8 million for the same period in 2016. Interest expense for the six months ended June 30, 2017 decreased by approximately $1.5 million, or 43.0%, to $2.0 million compared with $3.6 million for the same period in 2016. The decrease is mainly due to the repayment of $36.0 million of debt in connection with the sale of nine Arkansas facilities in October 2016 and $6.7 million principal repayment of convertible debt on January 10, 2017 and the remaining $1.0 million on April 30, 2017, partially offset by $4.1 million in new mortgage debt financing for the Meadowood facility.

The loss from discontinued operations, net of tax for the second quarter of 2017 was $604,000, compared with $3.8 million for the prior-year period. Year-to-date, the loss from discontinued operations, net of tax was $1.0 million, compared with loss from discontinued operations, net of tax of $4.3 million for the prior-year period. The losses in the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2017 were lower compared with the prior year periods primarily due to lower bad debt expense.

Net loss attributable to AdCare common stockholders in the second quarter of 2017 was $1.9 million, or $0.10 per basic and diluted share, compared with $6.8 million, or $0.34 per basic and diluted share, for the second quarter of 2016. For the six months ended June 30, 2017, the net loss attributable to AdCare common stockholders was $4.7 million, or $0.24 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $10.5 million, or $0.53 per basic and diluted share, in the year-ago period.

Cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2017 totaled $2.0 million compared with $14.0 million at December 31, 2016. Restricted cash and investments at June 30, 2017 totaled $3.7 million compared with $5.5 million at December 31, 2016. Total debt outstanding at June 30, 2017 totaled $74.2 million compared with $80.0 million at December 31, 2016 (net of $2.1 million and $2.2 million of deferred financing costs at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively).

Conference Call and Webcast

AdCare will hold a conference call to provide a business update and discuss its second quarter 2017 results on Monday, August 14, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Date and time: Monday, August 14, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. ET

at Dial-in number: 1-888-811-5448 (domestic) or 1-719-457-1035 (international)

Reference passcode: 4606390

Replay number: Dial 1-844-512-2921 (domestic) or 1-412-317-6671 (international). Reference passcode: 40606390 to access the replay. The replay will be available until August 21, 2017 .

. Webcast link: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=125781

About AdCare Health Systems

AdCare Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE American: ADK) (NYSE American: ADK.PRA) is a self-managed healthcare real estate investment company that invests primarily in real estate purposed for senior living and long-term healthcare through facility lease and sub-lease transactions. AdCare currently owns, leases or manages for third parties 30 facilities. For more information about AdCare, visit www.adcarehealth.com.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Words such as "expects," "intends," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "likely," "will," "seeks," "estimates" and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Statements in this press release regarding future events and developments and our future performance, as well as management's expectations, beliefs, plans, estimates or projections relating to the future, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements regarding the special meeting of shareholders, the proposed merger of AdCare with and into a wholly owned subsidiary, target or anticipated improvements in our portfolio operating metrics (including occupancy rates and rent coverage ratios) and reductions in our general and administrative expenses, anticipated refinancing of certain mortgage debt and our ability in general to refinance our senior secured mortgage debt on favorable terms, the impact of the pending professional and general liability claims against us, portfolio growth, the operational risk of our tenants, the nature of our acquisition pipeline and our ability to make acquisitions, and the reduction of our overhead costs.

Forward-looking statements, by their nature, involve estimates, projections, goals, forecasts and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or contemplated by our forward-looking statements due to various factors, including, among others: our dependence on the operating success of our operators; the significant amount of, and our ability to service, our indebtedness; covenants in our debt agreements that may restrict our ability to make investments, incur additional indebtedness and refinance indebtedness on favorable terms; the availability and cost of capital; our ability to raise capital through equity and debt financings or through the sale of assets; the effect of increasing healthcare regulation and enforcement on our operators and the dependence of our operators on reimbursement from governmental and other third-party payors; the relatively illiquid nature of real estate investments; the impact of litigation and rising insurance costs on the business of our operators; the impact on us of litigation relating to our prior operation of our healthcare properties; the effect of our operators declaring bankruptcy, becoming insolvent or failing to pay rent as due; the ability of any of our operators in bankruptcy to reject unexpired lease obligations and to impede our ability to collect unpaid rent or interest during the pendency of a bankruptcy proceeding and retain security deposits for the debtor's obligations; our ability to find replacement operators and the impact of unforeseen costs in acquiring new properties; and other factors discussed from time to time in our news releases, public statements and documents filed by us with the SEC from time to time, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. These forward-looking statements and such risks, uncertainties and other factors speak only as of the date of this press release, and we expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained herein, to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any other change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except to the extent otherwise required by applicable law.

Additional Information

RHE has filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4 containing a proxy statement of AdCare and a prospectus of RHE with respect to the proposed merger. The registration statement became effective on August 1, 2017. AdCare filed with the SEC a notice of a special meeting and a definitive proxy statement/prospectus, which was mailed on or about August 3, 2017 to holders of AdCare's common stock as of the July 13, 2017 record date. INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ THE FORM S-4 AND PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS (INCLUDING ALL AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED MERGER. You will be able to obtain documents free of charge at the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. In addition, you may obtain documents filed with the SEC by AdCare free of charge if you write or call AdCare at the following address or telephone number: Corporate Secretary, AdCare Health Systems, Inc., 454 Satellite Blvd. NW, Suite 100, Suwanee, Georgia 30024, (678) 869-5116, or you may visit the investor relations section of AdCare's website at www.adcarehealth.com for copies of any such document.

AdCare, its directors and executive officers and certain other members of management and employees may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from holders of AdCare's common stock in connection with the proposed merger. Information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed Merger is included in the Form S-4 and definitive proxy statement/prospectus. INFORMATION ABOUT THE DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF ADCARE AND THEIR OWNERSHIP OF CAPITAL STOCK OF ADCARE IS ALSO SET FORTH IN ADCARE'S ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2016. INVESTORS MAY OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE INTERESTS OF SUCH PARTICIPANTS BY READING THE FORM S-4 AND DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS FOR THE PROPOSED MERGER.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. Investors should read the Form S-4 and definitive proxy statement/prospectus carefully before making any voting or investment decisions.

ADCARE HEALTH SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Amounts in 000's)



June 30, December 31, ASSETS 2017 2016

(Unaudited)

Current assets:



Cash and cash equivalents $ 2,001 $ 14,045 Restricted cash 1,361 1,600 Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $4,267 and $7,529, respectively 1,496 2,429 Prepaid expenses and other 1,554 2,395 Total current assets 6,412 20,469





Restricted cash and investments 2,308 3,864 Property and equipment, net 83,227 79,168 Intangible assets - bed licenses 2,471 2,471 Intangible assets - lease rights, net 2,420 2,754 Goodwill 2,105 2,105 Lease deposits 911 1,411 Other assets 9,398 7,244 Total assets $ 109,252 $ 119,486





LIABILITIES AND DEFICIT









Current liabilities:



Current portion of notes payable and other debt $ 2,639 $ 4,018 Current portion of convertible debt, net 1,494 9,136 Accounts payable 3,555 3,037 Accrued expenses and other 7,935 9,077 Total current liabilities 15,623 25,268





Notes payable and other debt, net of current portion:



Senior debt, net 62,887 60,189 Bonds, net 6,529 6,586 Other debt, net 628 41 Other liabilities 3,627 3,677 Deferred tax liability 226 226 Total liabilities 89,520 95,987





Preferred stock, no par value; 5,000 shares authorized; 2,812 and 2,762 shares issued and outstanding, redemption amount $70,288 and $69,038 at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively 62,434 61,446





Stockholders' deficit:



Common stock and additional paid-in capital, no par value; 55,000 shares authorized; 19,762 and 19,927 issued and outstanding at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively 61,610 61,643 Accumulated deficit (104,312) (99,590) Total stockholders' deficit (42,702) (37,947) Total liabilities and stockholders' deficit $ 109,252 $ 119,486

ADCARE HEALTH SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Amounts in 000's, except per share data) (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2017 2016

2017 2016 Revenues:









Rental revenues $ 5,945 $ 6,890

$ 11,720 $ 13,739 Management fee and other revenues 359 274

719 507 Total revenues 6,304 7,164

12,439 14,246 Expenses:









Facility rent expense 2,170 2,168

4,341 4,347 Depreciation and amortization 1,171 1,339

2,306 3,052 General and administrative expense 822 2,135

2,444 4,677 Other operating expenses 323 969

878 1,172 Total expenses 4,486 6,611

9,969 13,248











Income from operations 1,818 553

2,470 998











Other expense:









Interest expense, net 1,006 1,751

2,038 3,576 Loss on extinguishment of debt - -

63 - Other expense 188 9

283 51 Total other expense, net 1,194 1,760

2,384 3,627











Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes 624 (1,207)

86 (2,629) Income tax expense - -

1 - Income (loss) from continuing operations 624 (1,207)

85 (2,629)











Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax (604) (3,775)

(1,017) (4,303) Net income (loss) 20 (4,982)

(932) (6,932)











Preferred stock dividends 1,912 1,801

3,790 3,578 Net loss attributable to AdCare Health Systems, Inc. Common









Stockholders $ (1,892) $ (6,783)

$ (4,722) $ (10,510)











Net loss per share of common stock attributable to AdCare Health Systems, Inc.









Basic and diluted:









Continuing operations $ (0.07) $ (0.15)

$ (0.19) $ (0.31) Discontinued operations (0.03) (0.19)

(0.05) (0.22)

$ (0.10) $ (0.34)

$ (0.24) $ (0.53)











Weighted average shares of common stock outstanding:









Basic and diluted 19,766 19,907

19,795 19,896

ADCARE HEALTH SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATING METRICS (1)



Three Months Ended Three Months Ended Three Months Ended Three Months Ended Portfolio Operating Metrics (2) September 30, 2016 December 31, 2016 March 31, 2017 June 30, 2017 Occupancy (%) 82.6% 82.6% 82.6% 83.1% Quality Mix (3) 23.7% 23.1% 26.6% 26.5% Rent Coverage Before Management Fees 1.53 1.53 1.71 1.76 Rent Coverage After Management Fees 1.12 1.12 1.29 1.35





(1) Operator-supplied data



(2) Excludes nine Arkansas facilities (which were sold on October 6, 2016), three Georgia facilities previously operated by affiliates of New Beginnings Care, one assisted living facility recently acquired in Alabama, and three managed facilities in Ohio.



(3) Quality Mix refers to all payor types less Medicaid.

SOURCE AdCare Health Systems, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.adcarehealth.com


MADISON, Wis., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliant Energy showed its progress toward a sustainable future by reducing carbon emissions 34 percent since 2005 and increasing its investments in renewable energy. The company also cut fossil fuel generation water withdrawals by over 25 percent since 2005 with plans targeting a reduction of 75 percent by 2030.

Alliant Energy issued its 2017 Corporate Sustainability Report detailing the achieved results as it balances its energy portfolio to include even more clean energy resources and highlighting its collaborative stewardship efforts with customers, communities and employees. The report is available at alliantenergy.com/sustainability. Balancing economic, social and environmental factors remains an integral part of the company's operations and strategic plan.

"Sustainability means doing the right thing with an eye toward the long run," said Alliant Energy's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Patricia Kampling. "So our sustainability strategy looks into the future, promoting responsible company growth through the economic, social and environmental decisions we make today."

The company is transforming its generation profile to meet future customer needs in a sustainable way. Between 2005 and 2018, Alliant Energy will have permanently retired nearly 1,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation, and the company is planning to add over 1,000 megawatts of new, low-cost wind capacity by 2020. Cleaner natural gas facilities are also being brought into Alliant Energy's resource mix. Wind works hand-in-hand with natural gas facilities, which can adjust up and down quickly to provide reliable power as the wind increases or decreases.

In 2016, renewable energy made up 15 percent of Alliant Energy's rated electric capacity. By 2024, that is expected to nearly double as the company pursues new investments in wind and other renewable generation.

Key sustainability report highlights include:

Saving over 212,000 megawatt-hours of electricity and over 4.3 million therms of natural gas in 2016 through investments in energy-efficiency programs. This is the equivalent of removing the greenhouse gas emissions from over 36,000 passenger vehicles driven for one year.

Launching Iowa's largest solar project in Dubuque , which will include a pollinator-friendly prairie and have 20 beehives maintained by a local beekeeper.

largest solar project in , which will include a pollinator-friendly prairie and have 20 beehives maintained by a local beekeeper. Reducing the emission of sulfur dioxide by 83 percent, nitrogen oxides by 76 percent and mercury by 95 percent since 2005.

Earning the first-ever Envision TM Platinum Award in Iowa for the new Marshalltown Generating Station. Envision is a sustainability rating system that evaluates an infrastructure project from design through construction and maintenance.

Platinum Award in for the new Marshalltown Generating Station. Envision is a sustainability rating system that evaluates an infrastructure project from design through construction and maintenance. Partnering with a college to transfer building ownership of a former Wisconsin coal-fired facility to allow its redevelopment into a student union and recreational facility.

coal-fired facility to allow its redevelopment into a student union and recreational facility. Investing in land options to create the Big Cedar Industrial Center in Iowa to bring new jobs and investment to the communities Alliant Energy serves.

to bring new jobs and investment to the communities Alliant Energy serves. Giving more than $6 million in 2016 by the company and employees to support communities.

in 2016 by the company and employees to support communities. Contributing more than $2 million to the Alliant Energy Hometown Care Energy Fund to help keep families safe and warm.

to the Alliant Energy to help keep families safe and warm. Accomplishing gender parity on the Alliant Energy Board of Directors with 50 percent of members being women directors.

Other report areas include:

Safety: View information regarding employee safety performance and collaborative efforts to improve safety.

Workplace: Learn more about Alliant Energy's employee resource groups, worker volunteerism, training opportunities and diversity measures.

Reliability: Review planned investments to strengthen Alliant Energy's power grid and maintain safety in the company's natural gas infrastructure.

Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), headquartered in Madison, Wis., provides regulated electric and natural gas service to 960,000 electric and 410,000 natural gas customers across Iowa and Wisconsin. Alliant Energy's mission is to deliver the energy solutions and exceptional service customers and communities count on  safely, efficiently and responsibly. Interstate Power and Light Company and Wisconsin Power and Light Company are Alliant Energy's two public utility subsidiaries. Alliant Energy Corporation is a component of the S&P 500. For more information, visit alliantenergy.com.

Forward-looking statement

This news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified as such because they describe future energy resource plans, future water withdrawals and future air emissions reductions. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Actual results could be affected by such factors as: state or federal regulatory actions or local government actions; ability to obtain adequate and timely rate relief; plan design changes; changes in tax and other laws to which Alliant Energy is subject including the impact of changes to production tax credits for wind projects; future changes in environmental laws and regulations, including the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations for carbon dioxide emissions reductions from new and existing fossil fueled electric generating units, and litigation associated with environmental requirements; current or future litigation, regulatory investigations, proceedings or inquiries that could impede the implementation of Alliant Energy's plans; Alliant Energy's continued access to capital markets; political conditions in Alliant Energy's service territories; and economic conditions in Alliant Energy's service territory. These factors should be considered when evaluating the forward-looking statements, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The forward-looking statements included herein are made as of the date hereof, and Alliant Energy undertakes no obligation to update publicly such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Alliant Energy Corporation

Related Links

http://www.alliantenergy.com


CHANTILLY, Va. and PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Altamont Capital Partners (Altamont) today announced that it has sold OMNIPLEX World Services Corporation (OMNIPLEX), a leading provider of protective and investigative services to government and commercial customers, to Constellis, a portfolio company of Apollo Global Management, LLC. Altamont originally invested in OMNIPLEX in 2012.

Headquartered in Chantilly, VA., OMNIPLEX has approximately 2,100 employees and a network of 1,700 investigators operating across the U.S. OMNIPLEX has an established track record as a leading provider of physical security, investigative and risk management services to federal government customers, primarily within the intelligence community. Over its 27-year history, OMNIPLEX has developed an outstanding reputation within its core markets as a trusted operating partner to sophisticated customers with complex service requirements.

Randall Eason, Altamont Managing Director said, "We were pleased to continue OMNIPLEX's long history of providing the highest quality, mission-critical services to its customers and are excited to see the company's next chapter as part of Constellis."

Commenting on the transaction, CEO Mike Santelli said, "We thank Altamont for the guidance, partnership, and resources they have provided over the last five years. The merger is an excellent fit for both companies as OMNIPLEX and Constellis are known for commitments to the missions of our collective customers and high standards of excellence in the services each organization provides."

Alex Rolfe, Altamont Managing Director added: "It was a privilege to work with OMNIPLEX's outstanding management team during our investment and we wish them continued success going forward."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Bluestone Capital Partners served as financial advisor to Altamont in the transaction. Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel to Altamont and Arnold & Porter as counsel to OMNIPLEX.

About Altamont Capital Partners

Altamont Capital Partners is a private investment firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area with over $2 billion of capital under management. Altamont is focused on investing in middle market businesses with leading management teams, helping its portfolio companies reach their full potential. The firm's principals have significant experience building business success stories across a range of industries, including financial services, government services, consumer/retail, business services, industrials, and healthcare. For more information, visit www.altamontcapital.com.

About OMNIPLEX

OMNIPLEX provides protective services and background investigations to the Intelligence Community and federal government. It is managed under two operating groups, which include the Protective Services Group ("PSG") and Investigative Services Group ("ISG"). The company was founded in 1990 and has been majority-owned by Altamont Capital Partners since 2012. Throughout their 27 year history, OMNIPLEX has been a trusted provider of integrated security service solutions, delivering best-in-class background investigations, personnel security, and protective security services to the Intelligence Community, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal government agencies and commercial clients. Their national footprint of nearly 3,800 staff, Security Officers, and Investigators share a corporate commitment to providing integrity, quality, and service in support of each customer's unique mission. For additional information, please visit www.OMNIPLEX.com.

About Constellis

Constellis is the leading provider of risk management, humanitarian, social intelligence, training and operational support services to government and commercial clients throughout the world. Operating in over 45 countries, Constellis' 20,000 employees bring unparalleled dedication and passion for creating a safer world by upholding the highest standards of compliance, quality and integrity. Constellis' forward-thinking solutions span a broad range of synergistic services, including background investigations, social intelligence tools, advanced training capabilities, logistics and life support, UAV systems, global tracking technology, fire protection and medical services, information security and crisis response mitigation. At Constellis, our number one mission is to secure success for our customers. For more information, visit www.constellis.com.

About Apollo

Constellis is a portfolio company of certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "Apollo"), a leading global alternative investment manager with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, Bethesda, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Apollo had assets under management of approximately $197 billion as of March 31, 2017 in private equity, credit and real estate funds invested across a core group of nine industries where Apollo has considerable knowledge and resources. For more information about Apollo, please visit www.agm.com.

SOURCE Altamont Capital Partners

Related Links

www.altamontcapital.com


AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) (the "Company") today announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 10,000,000 of its Class A common shares of beneficial interest, $0.01 par value per share. The Company also plans to grant to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,500,000 Class A common shares.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay indebtedness under its revolving credit facility and term loan facility, to acquire and renovate single-family properties and for working capital and general corporate purposes, including repurchases of its Class A common shares pursuant to its existing share repurchase program. The foregoing application may be effected through the Company's operating partnership by the Company contributing a portion of the net proceeds to its operating partnership in exchange for Class A partnership units.

BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering and propose to offer the Class A common shares from time to time for sale in one or more transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, in the over-the-counter market, through negotiated transactions or otherwise at prevailing market prices, at prices related to prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful before registration or qualification thereof under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

The offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and only by means of a prospectus and prospectus supplement. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the offering and the final prospectus supplement, when available, may be obtained by visiting EDGAR on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or from BofA Merrill Lynch, Attention: Prospectus Department, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, North Carolina 28255-0001, or via email [email protected]; and Citigroup, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or via telephone (800) 831-9146.

About American Homes 4 Rent

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) is a leader in the single-family home rental industry and "American Homes 4 Rent" is fast becoming a nationally recognized brand for rental homes, known for high quality, good value and tenant satisfaction. We are an internally managed Maryland real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on acquiring, renovating, leasing, and operating single-family homes as rental properties. As of June 30, 2017, we owned approximately 48,982 single-family properties, in selected submarkets in 22 states.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements relate to beliefs, expectations or intentions and similar statements concerning matters that are not of historical fact and are generally accompanied by words such as "estimate," "project," "predict," "believe," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "potential," "plan," "goal" or other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to complete the offering and the intended use of net proceeds. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations and assumptions about future events. While the Company's management considers these expectations to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control. These and other important factors, including "Risk Factors" disclosed in, or incorporated by reference into, the prospectus from the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and in the Company's subsequent filings with the SEC, may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from anticipated results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Contact:

American Homes 4 Rent

Investor Relations

Phone: (855) 794-2447

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE American Homes 4 Rent

Related Links

https://www.americanhomes4rent.com


MANASSAS, Va., Aug. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurora Flight Sciences has been awarded a $499 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract from the U.S. Air Force in support of the ASAPTR program. The competitively awarded Aerospace Systems Air Platform Technology Research (ASAPTR) contract is to conduct research for affordable, revolutionary capabilities for the warfighter.

"ASAPTR builds on Aurora's work over the past decade as part of the AVIATR program," said Aurora Chairman and CEO John Langford. "Aurora's Research and Technology Division concentrates on the technologies of autonomy, electric propulsion, advanced manufacturing, multi-vehicle coordination, and advanced multi-dimensional optimization. All of these will be brought to bear for the Air Force through ASAPTR."

Contracted under the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia and other Aurora locations and is expected to be completed by 2025. For additional information on Aurora and its programs, visit www.aurora.aero.

About Aurora Flight Sciences:

Aurora Flight Sciences is an innovative technology company that strives to create smarter aircraft through the development of versatile and intuitive autonomous systems. Operating at the intersection of technology and robotic aviation, Aurora leverages the power of autonomy to make manned and unmanned flight safer and more efficient. Headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, Aurora operates production plants in Bridgeport, West Virginia and Columbus, Mississippi, has Research and Development Centers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dayton, Ohio and Mountain View, California, and a European office, Aurora Swiss Aerospace, located in Luzern, Switzerland. To view recent press releases and more about Aurora please visit our website at www.aurora.aero.

SOURCE Aurora Flight Sciences

Related Links

http://www.aurora.aero


DARIEN, Ill., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The arrival of another school year means that it's time for students to reset their bedtimes as the summer break comes to an end. To help identify the appropriate bedtime for children, teens and adults, the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project has created an online Bedtime Calculator that is available at www.projecthealthysleep.org. Project partners  including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS)  developed the calculator as part of the "Make Time 2 Sleep" campaign to help families adopt routines that fit each individual's unique lifestyle and sleep needs.

"Back-to-school time provides families with a perfect opportunity to re-evaluate their sleeping habits and establish healthy routines to ensure sufficient sleep," said AASM President Dr. Ilene Rosen. "No matter the age, children and adults report improved alertness, energy, mood and physical well-being when enjoying healthy, consistent sleep."

Personalized Bedtime Calculator

The online Bedtime Calculator allows schoolchildren, teens and parents of young children to enter an age and wake time to identify an appropriate bedtime based on the sleep duration recommendations of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine:

Infants 4 months to 12 months old: 12 to 16 hours (including naps)

Children 1 to 2 years old: 11 to 14 hours (including naps)

Children 3 to 5 years old: 10 to 13 hours (including naps)

Children 6 to 12 years old: nine to 12 hours per night.

Teenagers 13 to 18 years old: eight to 10 hours per night

Because everyone needs sufficient sleep, adults also can use the Bedtime Calculator to help them get the recommended seven or more hours of nightly sleep.

Later School Start Times

During adolescence a natural shift occurs in the timing of the body's internal circadian clock, causing most teens to have a biological preference for a late-night bedtime and later wake time. Early school start times can make it difficult for teens to get sufficient sleep, requiring them to adhere to an early bedtime that is unrealistic for their age.

A recent CDC analysis found that early school start times are prevalent, with only 17.7 percent of public middle schools and high schools in the U.S. starting school at 8:30 a.m. or later. CDC data also show that only 27 percent of U.S. high school students report sleeping 8 hours or more on an average school night.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine asserts that the school day should begin at 8:30 a.m. or later for middle school and high school students. Later start times provide adolescents a better opportunity to get sufficient sleep on school nights, which helps to optimize their daytime alertness, reduce tardiness and improve school attendance. A later school start time supports peak academic performance, more opportunities for learning, better mental health and reduced risk of injury.

Later school start times also can reduce the risk of motor vehicle accidents, which account for 35 percent of all deaths and 73 percent of deaths from unintentional injury in teenagers. One study found that crash rates declined by 16.5 percent following a school start time delay of 60 minutes.

To help raise awareness and improve teen safety, the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project has created a template letter for parents and community members to download from the "Make Time 2 Sleep" webpage. Parents are encouraged to send the letter to their local school boards and policy makers. The template letter, along with other information about healthy sleep, is available at www.projecthealthysleep.org.

About the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project

The National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project was initiated in 2013 and is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a cooperative agreement with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The project involves collaboration with the Sleep Research Society and other partners to address the sleep health focus area of Healthy People 2020, which provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. The sleep health objectives are to increase the medical evaluation of people with symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, reduce vehicular crashes due to drowsy driving and ensure more Americans get sufficient sleep. For more information, visit www.projecthealthysleep.org.

SOURCE National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project

Related Links

http://www.projecthealthysleep.org


DENVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Birner Dental Management Services, Inc. (OTCQX: BDMS), business services provider of PERFECT TEETH dental practices, announced results for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2017. For the quarter ended June 30, 2017, revenue decreased $1.1 million, or 7.0%, to $14.8 million. The Company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock grant, and stock-based compensation expense ("Adjusted EBITDA") decreased $961,000, or 118%, to $(145,000) for the quarter ended June 30, 2017. Net loss for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 increased $671,000 to $(901,000) compared to $(230,000) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. Net loss per share increased to $(0.48) for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 compared to $(0.12) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

For the six months ended June 30, 2017, revenue decreased $1.9 million, or 5.8%, to $30.4 million. The Company's Adjusted EBITDA decreased $1.2 million, or 65.3%, to $632,000 for the six months ended June 30, 2017. Net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2017 increased $795,000 to $(1.1 million) compared to $(331,000) for the six months ended June 30, 2016. Net loss per share increased to $(0.60) for the six months ended June 30, 2017 compared to $(0.18) for the six months ended June 30, 2016.

As previously reported, the Company believes much of the decline in revenue and Adjusted EBITDA has been driven by a decrease in the number of dentists in the network. The dentist count was 112 at March 31, 2016 and had declined to 98 at December 31, 2016. The Company's dentist count at June 30, 2017 was 99 but as of July 31, 2017 had increased to 105. The Company believes it has now achieved more stability in its affiliated dentists and should experience an increase in its dentist count in the near future. New patient visits were up 4.8% in the quarter ended June 30, 2017 versus the same quarter in 2016. As dentist count increases, management believes operating results will improve through increased revenue and Adjusted EBITDA.

During the six months ended June 30, 2017, the Company had capital expenditures of $326,000 and decreased total bank debt outstanding by approximately $954,000.

The Company incurred additional expenses of approximately $270,000 during the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 in connection with matters related to an activist shareholder group and $396,000 during the six months ended June 30, 2017 in connection with matters related to the activist shareholder group and the Board of Directors' evaluation of the Company's strategic options.

As previously disclosed in a Form 8-K filed on July 27, 2017 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, on July 21, 2017, the Company received notice of events of default and acceleration from its bank in connection with its bank credit agreements. The notice asserts events of default resulting from the Company's failure to produce EBITDA of at least $870,000 for the second quarter of the 2017 and to reduce the outstanding balance on the reducing revolving loan by at least $500,000 on June 30, 2017.

In the notice, the bank declares all obligations of the Company to be immediately due and payable and demands payment in full of all obligations by no later than July 31, 2017. As of June 30, 2017, $8.9 million was outstanding under the credit facility. The notice further states that, although the bank is not presently exercising its other rights and remedies available upon an event of default, it reserves its right to do so at any time in its sole discretion.

The Company is engaging in discussions with the bank regarding a resolution of this matter. The Company believes that any resolution with the bank would involve financing to raise funds to pay down the outstanding principal on the Credit Facility or to refinance the Credit Facility. The Company has commenced discussions with potential investors and lenders and is exploring several funding options, including the issuance of additional equity or debt and the sale of certain dental practices.

Birner Dental Management Services, Inc. acquires, develops, and manages geographically dense dental practice networks in select markets in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. As of June 30, 2017, the Company managed 68 dental offices, of which 35 were acquired and 33 were de novo developments. The Company operates its dental offices under the PERFECT TEETH name.

The Company previously announced it would conduct a conference call to review results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 on Monday, August 14, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. MT. In addition to current operating results, the teleconference may include discussion of management's expectations of future financial and operating results. To participate in this conference call, dial in to 1-888-695-0609 and refer to Confirmation Code 8309509 approximately five minutes prior to the scheduled time. If you are unable to join the conference call on August 14, 2017, the rebroadcast number is 1-888-203-1112 with Passcode 8309509. This rebroadcast will be available through August 28, 2017.

Non-GAAP Disclosures

This press release includes a non-GAAP financial measure with respect to Adjusted EBITDA. Please see below for more information regarding Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain of the matters discussed herein may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These include statements regarding the Company's prospects and performance in future periods, including improvement in operating results, revenue and Adjusted EBITDA and dentist hiring, the amount of bank debt, compliance with debt covenants and actions by the Company's lender, performance of de novo offices, the payment or nonpayment of dividends, dentist count, dentist turnover and recruitment, dentist productivity, new patient visits and patient flow and the impact of certain shareholder matters. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These and other risks and uncertainties are set forth in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

For Further Information Contact:

Birner Dental Management Services, Inc.

Dennis Genty

Chief Financial Officer

(303) 691-0680

BIRNER DENTAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(UNAUDITED)





Quarters Ended

Six Months Ended





June 30,

June 30,





2016

2017

2016

2017

REVENUE:

















Dental practice revenue $ 14,654,768

$ 13,753,775

$ 30,021,310

$ 28,372,479



Capitation revenue 1,230,372

1,025,443

2,295,063

2,067,419





15,885,140

14,779,218

32,316,373

30,439,898





















DIRECT EXPENSES:

















Clinical salaries and benefits 9,450,678

9,252,188

19,321,628

18,718,487



Dental supplies 732,657

672,187

1,457,930

1,300,592



Laboratory fees 908,029

931,760

1,779,644

1,812,901



Occupancy 1,553,800

1,652,889

3,120,605

3,203,149



Advertising and marketing 155,208

167,467

314,078

337,371



Depreciation and amortization 1,018,043

913,693

2,038,133

1,878,494



General and administrative 1,341,988

1,287,012

2,745,198

2,550,637





15,160,403

14,877,196

30,777,216

29,801,631























Contribution from dental offices 724,737

(97,978)

1,539,157

638,267





















CORPORATE EXPENSES:

















General and administrative 970,860 (1) 1,011,917 (1) 1,847,766 (2) 1,971,374 (2)

Stock grant -

175,000 (3) -

175,000 (3)

Depreciation and amortization 56,080

38,864

118,880

84,948





















OPERATING LOSS (302,203)

(1,323,759)

(427,489)

(1,593,055)

OTHER EXPENSE:

















Interest expense, net 75,550

94,414

114,873

166,838





















LOSS BEFORE INCOME TAXES (377,753)

(1,418,173)

(542,362)

(1,759,893)



Income tax benefit (147,324)

(516,899)

(211,522)

(633,561)





















NET LOSS $ (230,429)

$ (901,274)

$ (330,840)

$ (1,126,332)























Net loss per share of Common Stock - Basic $ (0.12)

$ (0.48)

$ (0.18)

$ (0.60)























Net loss per share of Common Stock - Diluted $ (0.12)

$ (0.48)

$ (0.18)

$ (0.60)























Weighted average number of shares of Common Stock and dilutive securities:

















Basic 1,860,261

1,866,580

1,860,372

1,863,746























Diluted 1,860,261

1,866,580

1,860,372

1,863,746























(1) Corporate expense - general and administrative includes $44,102 and $51,019 of stock-based compensation expense pursuant to ASC Topic 718 for the quarters ended June 30, 2016 and 2017, respectively.



(2) Corporate expense - general and administrative includes $90,809 and $86,255 of stock-based compensation expense pursuant to ASC Topic 718 for the six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2017, respectively.



(3) The Company issued 12,500 shares of Common Stock under a settlement agreement with an activist shareholder group. The shares were valued at $175,000 based on the closing price of the Common Stock on the date of the grant.

BIRNER DENTAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (UNAUDITED)



December 31,

June 30, ASSETS 2016

2017 CURRENT ASSETS:







Cash $ 157,923

$ 204,894

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of approximately $410,000 and $430,000, respectively 3,212,190

3,816,007

Note receivable 34,195

34,195

Income tax receivable -

46,992

Prepaid expenses and other assets 759,749

729,319











Total current assets 4,164,057

4,831,407









PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT, net 7,279,436

6,064,701









OTHER NONCURRENT ASSETS:







Intangible assets, net 6,721,084

6,298,335

Deferred charges and other assets 155,741

163,991

Note receivable 31,051

15,548











Total assets $ 18,351,369

$ 17,373,982









LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT)















CURRENT LIABILITIES:







Accounts payable $ 2,723,473

$ 3,972,215

Accrued expenses 925,776

865,762

Accrued payroll and related expenses 2,164,758

2,422,999

Current maturities of long-term debt 2,500,000

8,896,864











Total current liabilities 8,314,007

16,157,840









LONG-TERM LIABILITIES:







Deferred tax liability, net 1,174,416

587,847

Long-term debt 7,351,006

-

Other long-term obligations 1,081,655

1,063,087











Total liabilities 17,921,084

17,808,774









SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT):







Preferred Stock, no par value, 10,000,000 shares authorized; none outstanding -

-

Common Stock, no par value, 20,000,000 shares authorized; 1,860,261 and 1,872,761 shares issued and outstanding, respectively 1,615,001

1,876,256

Accumulated deficit (1,184,716)

(2,311,048)











Total shareholders' equity (deficit) 430,285

(434,792)











Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 18,351,369

$ 17,373,982

Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is not a U.S. generally accepted accounting principle ("GAAP") measure of performance or liquidity. However, the Company believes that it may be useful to an investor in evaluating the Company's ability to meet future debt service, capital expenditures and working capital requirements, and the Company uses Adjusted EBITDA for this purpose. Investors should not consider Adjusted EBITDA in isolation or as a substitute for operating income, cash flows from operating activities or any other measure for determining the Company's operating performance or liquidity that is calculated in accordance with GAAP. In addition, because Adjusted EBITDA is not calculated in accordance with GAAP, it may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss can be made by adding depreciation and amortization expense - Offices, depreciation and amortization expense  Corporate, stock-based compensation expense, interest expense, net, stock grant expense and income tax (benefit) to net loss as in the table below.









Quarters

Six Months







Ended June 30,

Ended June 30,







2016

2017

2016

2017 RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EBITDA:















Net loss ($230,429)

($901,274)

($330,840)

($1,126,332)

Add back:

















Depreciation and amortization - Offices 1,018,043

913,693

2,038,133

1,878,494



Depreciation and amortization - Corporate 56,080

38,864

118,880

84,948



Stock-based compensation expense 44,102

51,019

90,809

86,255



Interest expense, net 75,550

94,414

114,873

166,838



Stock grant expense -

175,000

-

175,000



Income tax (benefit) (147,324)

(516,899)

(211,522)

(633,561)





















Adjusted EBITDA $816,022

(145,183)

$1,820,333

$631,642

SOURCE Birner Dental Management Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bdms-perfectteeth.com


SAN DIEGO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BNBuilders is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the County of Orange's $4.3 million Mile Square Regional Park (MISQ) Multi-Purpose Facility. Located at 16801 Euclid Street, Fountain Valley, CA 92708, the new facility will house indoor recreation, meeting, and training space. The MISQ Multi-Purpose Facility is one of numerous high-profile projects underway by BNBuilders in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, including the UCLA Geffen Academy, Caltech Wang Laboratory Renovation, Telecare Tenant Improvements, UC Irvine Fire/Life Safety Upgrades, and UC Riverside BSL-3 Laboratory, among others.

For Orange County's MISQ Multi-Purpose Facility, BNBuilders will provide Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) services for both the preconstruction and construction phases. The project consists of constructing a 9,600-square-foot, semi-permanent, pre-engineered building which is manufactured by Sprung Instant Structures, Inc. The facility will be approximately 80 feet wide, 120 feet long, and 45 feet high. It will host indoor community recreation activities, such as badminton and ping pong, and feature a digital audio and video system for when it's used to host trainings, meetings, or other special events. The project was designed by Swift Lee Office. Construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2017 and be completed in spring 2018.

Jamie Awford, Principal at BNBuilders, states, "Our team is working closely with OC Public Works and Parks, as well as Swift Lee Office, to finalize design with careful construction planning required to build this new community building in Fountain Valley for the local residents and visitors of Mile Square Regional Park. We are pleased that the County trusted BNBuilders with one of their first CMAR building contracts to deliver this new facility that will add to the amenities and ongoing activities at the park."

About BNBuilders

Founded in 2000 in Seattle, BNBuilders is a West Coast general contractor that specializes in complex projects for clients in the life science, healthcare, education, commercial, public, multi-family residential, and office sectors. BNBuilders is known for their innovative solutions to highly technical issues, comprehensive preconstruction services, passion for sustainable construction practices, and commitment to safety. With multiple offices in Washington and California, BNBuilders is a leader and preferred contractor on the West Coast. Offices include Seattle, Irvine, and San Diego. For more information, visit www.bnbuilders.com.

Contact: Beth Binger

BCIpr

619-987-6658

[email protected]

SOURCE BNBuilders

Related Links

https://www.bnbuilders.com


HOUSTON, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP (NYSE: BWP) announced today that Stan Horton, Chief Executive Officer, President & Director, and Molly Ladd Whitaker, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, will meet with investors at the 2017 Citi One-on-One MLP/Midstream Infrastructure Conference on Wednesday, August 16 and Thursday, August 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Related presentation materials will be made available on the Company's website at www.bwpmlp.com under "Investor Relations  Webcasts and Presentations" prior to the start of the conference.

About Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP

Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP (NYSE: BWP) is a midstream master limited partnership that primarily provides transportation and storage of natural gas and liquids for its customers. Additional information about the Partnership can be found on its website at www.bwpmlp.com.

CONTACT:

Molly Ladd Whitaker, 866-913-2122

Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP

Related Links

http://www.bwpmlp.com


Boston Market Family Meals feed families of three, four or more and feature Rotisserie Chicken, Roasted Turkey, BBQ Ribs or home style Meatloaf, with sides and cornbread. In addition to feeding the whole crew with a delicious Family Meal, the $1.99 fresh, never frozen Boston Market whole rotisserie chicken can be used during the school week to create tasty school lunches, afternoon snacks or a variety of dinner recipes. Recipes can be found at BostonMarket.com.

"The school year can be a challenging time for any parent's schedule and wallet, so we wanted to make it a little bit easier for all, by offering our guests an opportunity to enjoy multiple Boston Market meals with their families and save some time and money in the process," stated Tim Hartmann, Vice President of Marketing at Boston Market. "With our quick-and-easy Family Meal and $1.99 whole rotisserie chicken promotion, moms and dads have a helping hand in serving up nutritious meals for their family and can feel confident easing back into fall routines." Boston Market whole rotisserie chicken is all-natural, fresh, never frozen, gluten-free and free of added hormones, steroids and antibiotics  perfect for any family.

The new Creamy Garlic rotisserie chicken dish features signature Boston Market rotisserie chicken with a rich cream sauce comprised of garlic, parmesan cheese and red bell peppers. Meal choices include Family Meals and Half Chicken, Quarter White or Three-Piece Dark with two sides and cornbread - pricing may vary.

Becky Davis, Executive Chef at Boston Market added, "The fall is a wonderful time to explore and experiment with different flavors. We carefully handpicked each ingredient in this new dish to bring a fresh, savory twist to our signature rotisserie chicken and indulge the taste buds of garlic lovers everywhere."

For additional information on Boston Market or to find a location near you, visit BostonMarket.com or follow us @BostonMarket.

About Boston Market

Boston Market Corporation, headquartered in Golden, Colorado, has given time back to busy families and individuals for 30 years with quality, home style meals at a convenient value in more than 450 U.S. locations. The expert in rotisserie cooking, Boston Market prepares its fresh chicken and all natural turkey in signature rotisserie ovens and features an extensive selection of home style sides and made-from-scratch cornbread. As one of the country's largest providers of catering services, Boston Market offers convenient, same-day orders and delivery for corporate and personal events of all sizes. In January 2017, Boston Market officially launched its "Quality Guarantee," which acts as a continued commitment to all guests that Boston Market will serve all-natural and fresh, never frozen, gluten-free, whole chicken with no added hormones, steroids, antibiotics or MSG. For more information, visit the company's website at www.bostonmarket.com. For the latest news and deals, follow @bostonmarket on Twitter or join us on Facebook.

Media Contact

Seth Grugle, ICR

646-277-1200

[email protected]

SOURCE Boston Market

Related Links

https://www.bostonmarket.com


BOSTON, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A report authored by economists at The Brattle Group and prepared for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) finds that adding a carbon charge into the wholesale energy market could improve the state's ability to meet its decarbonization goals cost-effectively. The study reveals that refunding collected carbon revenues back to customers results in minimal impact on customer electricity costs compared to current policies.

NYISO retained The Brattle Group to evaluate how pricing carbon emissions in NYISO's generation commitment and dispatch could complement existing policies under New York's State Energy Plan to help meet the state's decarbonization goals more cost-effectively, with a particular focus on customer cost impacts. NYISO and the New York Department of Public Service plan to use this study as a starting point for discussions with stakeholders on whether and how New York State environmental policies may be pursued within the existing wholesale market structure.

"A carbon price would harmonize wholesale electricity markets with New York's environmental goals by internalizing the cost of carbon emissions," remarked Brattle Principal Sam Newell, a co-author of the study. "A carbon charge would provide price signals that find low-cost sources of carbon emission abatement in combination with the state's Clean Energy Standard (CES) and other existing clean energy policies. New York has a special opportunity to do this because NYISO only covers the state, which reduces the need to coordinate with other states that have different environmental objectives."

The Brattle team analyzed the effects of a $40/ton carbon charge in 2025, consistent with the "social cost of carbon" already adopted by the New York Public Service Commission in its CES Order, compared to a "base case" that included only existing policies. The impacts of a carbon charge on market participants' behavior is difficult to fully predict, but the Brattle study modeled the following effects:

Changes in market prices for energy, Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), nuclear Zero-Emission Credits (ZECs), and capacity

Better investment signals for clean resources that generate where and when they displace the most carbon emissions

Increased energy efficiency and storage participation due to better signaling of avoided costs during hours with high emissions rates

Incremental investment in efficient gas-fired combined cycle capacity displacing higher-emitting peaking generation

Based on the assumptions made, the study found that the assumed market responses to a $40/ton carbon charge would provide incremental carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions savings of 2.6 million tons per year (8% of today's emissions). These changes would lower the total economic costs of meeting New York's emissions targets by approximately $120 million per year.

The study evaluates a key concern surrounding carbon pricing: the possibility that carbon prices would result in windfall gains for some generators and increased costs for customers. The study found that a $40/ton carbon charge would indeed raise wholesale energy prices substantially, by about $19/MWh, but that the net effect on customers is close to zero. Half of the wholesale price impact could be offset by returning carbon revenues to customers, and most of the remainder would be offset by reduced prices for RECs and ZECs and increased revenues on transmission congestion contracts (all due to higher wholesale energy prices), and by the dynamic effects of improved price signals for low-carbon investment. Sensitivity analyses show that the net impact on customer costs remains relatively small under a wide range of assumptions.

The study also examines options for border adjustments on import and export transactions to prevent "leakage" of carbon emissions by competitively disadvantaging internal resources relative to external ones.

The study, "Pricing Carbon into NYISO's Wholesale Energy Market to Support New York's Decarbonization Goals," is authored by Brattle Principals Sam Newell, Jurgen Weiss, and Kathleen Spees, with Associates Roger Lueken and Pearl Donohoo-Vallett and Research Analyst Tony Lee. It is available for download on the NYISO website.

The Brattle Group analyzes complex economic, finance, and regulatory questions for corporations, law firms, and governments around the world. We are distinguished by the clarity of our insights and the credibility of our experts, which include leading international academics and industry specialists. For more information, please visit www.brattle.com.

SOURCE The Brattle Group

Related Links

http://www.brattle.com


"We find that obesity-associated tumors have enhanced growth and increased expression of genes that metabolize nitrogen," said lead author Nada Kalaany, PhD , assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and associate in medicine at Boston Children's Hospital. "In particular, tumors of the obese are dependent on arginase 2 (ARG2), an enzyme that helps them get rid of excess nitrogen, a byproduct of protein breakdown that could accumulate in the form of ammonia."

Kalaany adds that, "Silencing ARG2 in human tumors grown in obese mice strongly suppresses tumor growth  representing a novel strategy to stop or slow disease progression."

In 2015, Kalaany received PanCAN's Career Development Award  a $200K grant funded by an anonymous foundation, which directly supported this groundbreaking research.

"We are thrilled to have played an integral role in Dr. Kalaany's pivotal research," said Julie Fleshman, JD, MBA, president and CEO of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. "Novel approaches like this will help move us closer to our goal to double survival by 2020 and ultimately, improve patient outcomes. We will continue to bolster young investigators to accelerate progress in the field."

Since 2003, PanCAN, with the support of its generous donors, has awarded a total of 159 grants to 158 scientists at 58 institutions throughout the country through its competitive peer-reviewed Research Grants Program. The organization's cumulative research investment is projected to be over $48.5 million, including internal research initiatives.

"Thanks to PanCAN's funding, my team and I were able to discover a way that tumors in obese patients  and other fast-growing pancreatic tumors  exhibit aggressive growth. The next translational step for our project would be to screen for and validate an inhibitor(s) that would be specific for ARG2 and could extend patient lives," Kalaany added.

Pancreatic cancer is currently the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the country and expected to become the second by 2020. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is a trendsetting pancreatic cancer organization attacking the disease on all fronts through research, clinical initiatives, patient services and advocacy.

To view our most recently awarded research grant recipients, click here.

To learn more about the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's impact on research visit pancan.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

About the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) is dedicated to fighting the world's toughest cancer. In our urgent mission to save lives, we attack pancreatic cancer on all fronts: research, clinical initiatives, patient services and advocacy. Our effort is amplified by a nationwide network of grassroots support. We are determined to improve patient outcomes today and to double survival by 2020.

Media Contacts:

Chastidee Davis

Manager, Public Relations

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Direct: 310-706-3376; Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Related Links

http://www.pancan.org


SAO PAULO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CCR S.A. (CCR), Brazil's largest road concession operator in terms of revenue, announces its results for the second quarter of 2017.

2Q17 Highlights

Consolidated traffic, excluding ViaRio, fell by 0.8%.

Adjusted EBITDA increased by 69.7%, with an adjusted margin of 88.4% (+28.4 p.p.). Same-basis adjusted EBITDA grew 4.8%, with a margin of 58.4%.

Net income totaled R$667.1 million , 357.9% up. Same-basis net income totaled R$287.5 million , 195.8% up.

, 357.9% up. Same-basis net income totaled , 195.8% up. On April 20 , we concluded the acquisition of control in ViaQuatro, reaching a 75% stake. As of 2Q17, the Concessionaire's results have been consolidated on a line-by-line basis rather than only as equity income.

, we concluded the acquisition of control in ViaQuatro, reaching a 75% stake. As of 2Q17, the Concessionaire's results have been consolidated on a line-by-line basis rather than only as equity income. On May 24 , the Company acquired an additional stake of 33.33% in ViaRio, totaling a 66.66% stake. The Concessionaire's results are still consolidated as equity income.



IFRS

Proforma Financial Indicators (R$ MM) 2Q16 2Q17 Chg %

2Q16 2Q17 Chg % Net Revenues1 1,599.6 1,842.1 15.2%

1,865.8 1,985.0 6.4% Adjusted Net Revenues on the same basis2 1,599.6 1,722.1 7.7%

1,725.4 1,844.5 6.9% Adjusted EBIT3 634.7 1,268.3 99.8%

738.5 1,327.4 79.7% Adjusted EBIT Mg.4 39.7% 68.8% 29.1 p.p.

39.6% 66.9% 27.3 p.p. EBIT on the same basis2 634.7 654.6 3.1%

684.6 707.8 3.4% EBIT Mg. on the same basis2 39.7% 38.0% -1.7 p.p.

39.7% 38.4% -1.3 p.p. Adjusted EBITDA5 960.2 1,629.3 69.7%

1,106.7 1,721.3 55.5% Adjusted EBITDA Mg.4 60.0% 88.4% 28.4 p.p.

59.3% 86.7% 27,4 p.p. Adjusted EBITDA on the same basis2 960.2 1,006.1 4.8%

1,042.2 1,088.5 4.4% Adjusted EBITDA Mg. on the same basis2 60.0% 58.4% -1.6 p.p.

60.4% 59.0% -1.4 p.p. Net Income 145.7 667.1 357.9%

145.7 667.1 357.9% Net Income on the same basis2 97.2 287.5 195.8%

97.2 287.5 195.8% Net Debt / Adjusted EBITDA LTM (x)6 3.3 1.8



3.1 1.8

Adjusted EBITDA / Performed investments (x) 1.4 2.7



1.4 2.5

Adjusted EBITDA / Interest and Monetary Variation (x) 2.3 6.0



2.6 5.8





IFRS

Proforma Financial Indicators (R$ MM) 1H16 1H17 Chg %

1H16 1H17 Chg % Net Revenues1 3,235.6 3,533.5 9.2%

3,775.6 3,878.1 2.7% Adjusted Net Revenues on the same basis2 3,235.6 3,413.5 5.5%

3,500.1 3,656.7 4.5% Adjusted EBIT3 1,339.8 1,979.1 47.7%

1,565.1 2,138.6 36.6% Adjusted EBIT Mg.4 41.4% 56.0% 14.6 p.p.

41.5% 55.1% 13.6 p.p. EBIT on the same basis2 1,339.8 1,365.4 1.9%

1,457.8 1,477.8 1.4% EBIT Mg. on the same basis2 41.4% 40.0% -1.4 p.p.

41.7% 40.4% -1.3 p.p. Adjusted EBITDA5 1,952.6 2,660.5 36.3%

2,264.4 2,888.3 27.6% Adjusted EBITDA Mg.4 60.3% 75.3% 15.0 p.p.

60.0% 74.5% 14.5 p.p. Adjusted EBITDA on the same basis2 1,952.6 2,037.3 4.3%

2,136.1 2,206.7 3.3% Adjusted EBITDA Mg. on the same basis2 60.3% 59.7% -0.6 p.p.

61.0% 60.3% -0.7 p.p. Net Income 393.2 996.1 153.3%

393.2 996.1 153.3% Net Income on the same basis2 295.6 601.7 103.6%

295.6 601.7 103.6% Net Debt / Adjusted EBITDA LTM (x)6 3.3 1.8



3.1 1.8

Adjusted EBITDA / Performed investments (x) 1.9 2.1



1.5 2.0

Adjusted EBITDA / Interest and Monetary Variation (x) 2.4 4.2



2.6 4.2





1 Net revenue excludes construction revenue. 2 Same-basis figures exclude: (i) one-off effects of the acquisition of stakes in ViaQuatro and ViaRio, as described in the costs section; (ii) ViaQuatro, which is controlled subsidiary as of 2Q17; and (iii) STP, ViaRio, VLT and ViaQuatro, in same-basis profit and same-basis pro-forma comparisons. 3 Calculated by adding net revenue, construction revenue, cost of services and administrative expenses. 4 The adjusted EBIT and EBITDA margins were calculated by dividing EBIT and EBITDA by net revenue, excluding construction revenue, as required by IFRS. 5 Calculated excluding non-cash expenses: depreciation and amortization, provision for maintenance and the recognition of prepaid concession expenses. 6 LTM 2Q17 adjusted EBITDA includes the sale of the stake in STP (R$1,307.7) and non-recurring effects of the acquisition of stakes in ViaQuatro and ViaRio (R$548.1 million). Excluding these effects on EBITDA, the Net Debt/EBITDA ratio came to 2.6x (2.6x in pro-forma figures) in June 2017.

Conference Calls/Webcast

Access to the conference calls/webcasts:

Conference call in Portuguese:

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

11:00 a.m. Sao Paulo / 10:00 a.m. New York

Participants calling from Brazil: (11) 3193-1001 or (11) 2820-4001

Access code: CCR

Replay: (11) 3193-1012 or (11) 2820-4012

Code: 1919344#

Conference call in English:

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

12:00 p.m. Sao Paulo / 11:00 a.m. New York

Participants calling from Brazil: (55 11) 3193-1001 or (55 11) 2820-4001

Participants calling from the United States: (+1) 888-700-0802

Participants calling from other countries: (+1) 786-924-6977

Access code: CCR

Replay: (11) 3193-1012 or (11) 2820-4012

Code: 8861393#

The instructions to participate in these events are available on CCR's website: www.ccr.com.br/ir.

IR Contacts

Marcus Macedo (+55 11) 3048-5941

Flavia Godoy: (+55 11) 3048-5955

Daniel Kuratomi: (+55 11) 3048-6353

Marcela Dias (+55 11) 3048-2108

SOURCE CCR S.A.

Related Links

http://www.ccr.com.br


SAN GABRIEL, California, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX) ("CIIX" or the "Company"), the premier financial information website for Chinese-speaking investors, today announces the launch of its cryptocurrency education and trading subscription service on Chinesefn.com, the Company's dynamic financial website that provides real-time market commentary, analysis, and educational related services to Chinese-speaking investors. The new subscription service will cover timely news and will provide analysis regarding all aspects of the emerging digital currency world, including coverage of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ethereum, industry trends, price movement, sector related stocks and ETFs, etc.

Cryptocurrency has attracted a lot of attention in recent years from the creation of bitcoin, the world's first decentralized digital currency to blockchain technology, which allows cryptocurrency to transfer value across the globe without resorting to traditional intermediaries such as banks. The ability to transfer value solely through software is a huge breakthrough. The cryptocurrency market has also created new phenomena such as currency mining, trading, tender, and storage. At the same time, it has significantly impacted industries such as cybersecurity, cloud computing and storage, and semiconductors.

"Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have become a global phenomenon," says Warren Wang, Founder and CEO of CIIX. "Since January 2015, the price of Bitcoin has increased 500% from $200 to $1,000 in January 2017, and just spiked to a record high over $4,000 as US-North Korea tensions escalated. Likewise, ethereum has surged from less than $10 to more than $300 this year.

With the use and trading of cryptocurrencies on the rise in Asia, it appears that a much wider adoption of digital assets may be right around the corner. With an estimated 85% market share, China is one of the dominant players controlling bitcoin volume, along with Japan (which recently legalized bitcoin as a form of payment) and the United States. While many see the unique opportunity that cryptocurrency poses for investors and desire to capitalize on this market opportunity, they may not have a full understanding of the concept of digital currency or how the system works. CIIX intends to provide fundamental knowledge to Chinese speaking newcomers to cryptocurrency, including straightforward explanations of the basics of cryptocurrency, how to buy it and straightforward trading guidelines. For those with cryptocurrency experience, the Company will provide more detailed information regarding currency mining, blockchain technology, stock trends and ETFs. Through its innovative cryptocurrency education and trading subscription service, the Company endeavors to be the leading Chinese educational site providing up to date news and information on digital currencies."

About ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX)

Founded in 1999, ChineseInvestors.com endeavors to be an innovative company providing: (a) real-time market commentary, analysis, and educational related services in Chinese language character sets (traditional and simplified); (b) advertising and public relation related support services; and (c) retail, online and direct sales of hemp-based products and other health related products.

For more information visit ChineseInvestors.com

Subscribe and watch our video commentaries: https://www.youtube.com/user/Chinesefncom

Follow us on Twitter for real-time Company updates: https://twitter.com/ChineseFNEnglsh

Like us on Facebook to receive live feeds: https://www.facebook.com/Chinesefncom; https://www.facebook.com/Chineseinvestors.com.english

Add us on WeChat: Chinesefn or download iPhone iOS App: Chinesefn

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.



Contact:

ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.

227 W. Valley Blvd, #208 A

San Gabriel, CA 91776



Investor Relations:

Alan Klitenic

+1-214-636-2548



Corporate Communications:

NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

http://www.NetworkNewsWire.com

+1-212-418-1217 Office

[email protected]



SOURCE ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.
EUGENE, Ore., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- College Choice, a leading authority in college and university rankings and resources, has published a ranking of the 50 Best Historically Black Colleges and Universities for 2017.

http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/best-historically-black-colleges-universities/

Many HBCU schools are celebrating over 100 years of existence. Attention to community, spirituality, African-American studies, tradition, and social justice drive and distinguish HBCUs. They have also been featured in the news over the past few months due to comments from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as well as a meeting between President Trump and a group of HBCU presidents.

"There are over 100 HBCUs in the United States, and they have had an outsized influence on the entire country," Christian Amondson, Managing Editor of College Choice, said of the ranking. "Luminaries like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. all attended HBCUs. But it's not by sticking only to an elite group that HBCUs have produced such amazing thinkers and leaders. In fact, half of all HBCUs have a freshman class with three-quarters of their students from low-income backgrounds."

College Choice developed its list by looking at traditional metrics of institutional excellence such as student-to-faculty ratio, incoming student test scores, and regional accreditation according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics and U.S. News & World Report. College Choice also incorporated data on return on investment, or the difference between tuition costs and expected early career salary, found on Payscale.

The ranking for the 50 Best Historically Black Colleges and Universities finds Howard University in the top spot. Spelman College is in second, and Hampton University rounds out the top three.

The entire ranking, listed in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Alabama A & M University

Alabama State University

Albany State University

Alcorn State University

Bluefield State College

Bowie State University

Claflin University

Concordia College Alabama

Coppin State University

Delaware State University

Dillard University

Edward Waters College

Elizabeth City State University

Fayetteville State University

Fisk University

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Fort Valley State University

Grambling State University

Hampton University

Howard University

Huston-Tillotson University

Jackson State University

Johnson C Smith University

Kentucky State University

Lane College

Le Moyne-Owen College

Lincoln University of Pennsylvania

Mississippi Valley State University

Morehouse College

Morgan State University

Norfolk State University

North Carolina A & T State University

North Carolina Central University

Oakwood University

Prairie View A & M University

Rust College

Southern University and A & M College

Southern University at New Orleans

Spelman College

Stillman College

Texas Southern University

Tougaloo College

Tuskegee University

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Virginia State University

Virginia Union University

West Virginia State University

Winston-Salem State University

Xavier University of Louisiana

College Choice is an independent online publication dedicated to helping students and their families find the right college. The site publishes rankings and reviews that make finding the best colleges for different interests easier and more fun, as well as resources to help students get into, pay for, and thrive at the college of their choice.

Contact:

Christian Amondson, Managing Editor, College Choice

Web: http://collegechoice.net

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (541) 255-3801

SOURCE College Choice

Related Links

http://www.collegechoice.net


"This process of renewing our hometown airport is immensely important to the people of Kansas City and we believe they have every right to review all the details of our proposal to the City," said Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO, Burns & McDonnell . "If we are fortunate enough to be selected, we will work with the City every step of the way to make sure Kansas Citians understand how the new KCI will be designed, built and financed."

The KCI HOMETOWN Team proposal includes the following key elements:

Preferred alternative:

Proposal is based on the airlines' preferred alternative, which includes 35 gates, 750,000 square feet and a 6,500-space parking garage.

Aggressive schedule:

If approved by voters on Nov. 7 , work can begin on the new-terminal on Nov. 8, 2017 .

, work can begin on the new-terminal on .

Completion and in-service date in 2021.

Competitive pricing:

The annual commitment could be as low as $58 million ; down significantly from the airlines' maximum annual debt payment commitment of $85.2 million .

; down significantly from the airlines' maximum annual debt payment commitment of .

Final pricing will be determined based on detailed scope of the project as developed in conjunction with the City and the Airlines.

Private financing:

An innovative privately-controlled financing plan could save more than $500 million , versus traditional public financing with Airport General Revenue bonds.

, versus traditional public financing with Airport General Revenue bonds.

Much of the savings via private financing will be achieved by an aggressive construction schedule that could be shortened by up to 33 percent, versus public financing.

Added convenience:

Average distance from curbside to security will be reduced from 190 feet to 150 feet.



Security will process 180 passengers per hour versus the current 120 passengers per hour.

More Amenities:

Restaurant space near secure boarding areas is quadrupled from 9,832 to 37,705 square feet.



More than five times as many restrooms per gate.



Three club areas (currently there are none).

Modernized gates:

All gates would be designed to accommodate new larger Boeing B-737-900 or Airbus A321 aircraft.

Minority and women-owned business opportunities:

Over a quarter-of-a-billion dollar in anticipated spend for minority and women-owned businesses.



To ensure local dollars stay in Kansas City , Burns & McDonnell and Americo have committed to spending more than $10 million of their own money to help build a diverse and local workforce and to ensure minority and women-owned business expansion. Programs include:

, Burns & McDonnell and Americo have committed to spending more than of their own money to help build a diverse and local workforce and to ensure minority and women-owned business expansion. Programs include:

A community-based workforce expansion program in partnership with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City , Urban League of Greater Kansas City , and community groups, such as the AdHoc Group Against Crime.

, of , and community groups, such as the AdHoc Group Against Crime.



An Enhanced Construction Technology Program in partnership with the Builders' Association, the Greater Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council and Manual Tech to create a pipeline of graduating seniors to commercial construction.





A partnership with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority to develop a KC Rides Airport Express used to transport workers from the urban core to the airport at no cost.





Partnership with Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business to bring an Ivy League education to Kansas City's minority and women-owned businesses focused on capacity building.

Tuck School of Business to bring an education to minority and women-owned businesses focused on capacity building.



Reduced or eliminated bonding requirements and quick-pay billing to promote local minority and women-owned business development.

Kowalik led the presentation team in the final stage of a competitive bid process for a new single-terminal at Kansas City International Airport.

"Our number one export in Kansas City is architecture, engineering and construction. The KCI HOMETOWN Team represents the best of the best in the industry," Kowalik said. "We are incredibly proud of what our KCI HOMETOWN Team presented today. It's a plan to makes sure KCI is done right  by Kansas Citians who know what special characteristics it needs to reflect our City's personality and continued Renaissance. This is about KC pride."

To review the complete proposal package, go to: www.KCILoveThisPlace.com.

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a Kansas City-based firm that's been committed to the people and growth of our hometown since we were founded in 1898. The 3,000 employee-owners based in Kansas City actively volunteer within the community and have donated millions of dollars to causes that support our great city from United Way to Science City. We are made up of more than 5,700 engineers, architects, construction professionals, scientists, consultants and entrepreneurs with offices across the country and throughout the world. We strive to create amazing success for our clients and amazing careers for our employee-owners. Burns & McDonnell is 100 percent employee-owned and is proud to be No. 16 on Fortune's 2017 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit burnsmcd.com.

Contact: Kristi Widmar, Burns & McDonnell

816-448-7379

[email protected]

SOURCE Burns & McDonnell

Related Links

http://www.burnsmcd.com


STAMFORD, Conn., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deloitte Foundation is proud to sponsor the Cook Prize Award, Wildman Medal and American Taxation Association Teaching Innovation Award in support of excellence in teaching and research. These awards were presented at the American Accounting Association ("AAA") Annual Meeting held Aug. 5-9 in San Diego, California.

"Educating future talent is paramount to not only the sustainability of the accounting profession, but to the broader economy," said Tonie Leatherberry, president of the Deloitte Foundation. "The Deloitte Foundation is proud to continue our tradition of honoring the superior work of high quality accounting educators. We congratulate all of the recipients for their efforts to bring innovative thinking to the classroom, which is necessary to develop the next generation of talent in an ever-changing marketplace."

Professors Edmund Outslay (Michigan State University), Susan M. Curtis (University of Illinois), and Cathy J. Scott (Navarro College) received the 2017 American Accounting Association/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize. The award recognizes up to three professors annually, one each in the categories of graduate, undergraduate and two-year accounting degree programs. Award recipients must consistently demonstrate the attributes of a superior teacher in the discipline of accounting. Edmund Outslay, Susan M. Curtis and Cathy J. Scott are the recipients of the graduate, undergraduate and two-year college awards, respectively. Each prize consists of a $25,000 cash award, a silver medallion, and a certificate.

Professors Dan Amiram (Columbia University), Zahn Bozanic (The Ohio State University) and Ethan Rouen (Columbia University) received the 2017 Wildman Medal in recognition for their research paper entitled, "Financial Statement Errors: Evidence from the Distributional Properties of Financial Statement Numbers." The Wildman Medal is named in honor of the late John R. Wildman, a partner of a Deloitte predecessor firm, a professor of accounting at New York University and the first president of the American Association of Accounting Instructors, which later became the AAA. In addition to receiving the Wildman Medal, which recognizes excellence in practical research, each academic recipient received a $2,500 honorarium.

Professors Kerry Inger (Auburn University), Mollie Adams (Bradley University) and Michele Meckfessel (University of Missouri - St. Louis) received this year's American Taxation Association (ATA) Teaching Innovation Award for their tax research case. Established in 1994, the ATA Teaching Innovation Award is presented annually to tax professors whose innovative teaching techniques encourage critical thinking and enhance the overall learning experience. The winners received a $2,500 award.

The Deloitte Foundation, founded in 1928, is a not-for-profit organization that supports education in the U.S. through a variety of initiatives that help develop the talent of the future and their influencers and promote excellence in teaching, research and curriculum innovation. The Foundation sponsors an array of national programs relevant to a variety of professional services, benefiting middle/high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and educators. Learn more about the Deloitte Foundation.

About the American Accounting Association

The American Accounting Association is the largest community of accountants in academia. Founded in 1916, the organization has a rich and reputable history built on leading-edge research and publications. The diversity of the organization's membership creates a fertile environment for collaboration and innovation. Collectively, the organization shapes the future of accounting through teaching, research, and a powerful network, ensuring its position as thought leaders in accounting. For more information about the AAA, please visit http://aaahq.org.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to deliver measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to make their most challenging business decisions with confidence, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

SOURCE Deloitte

Related Links

http://www.deloitte.com/us


DENVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- COHN Marketing, a full-service integrated marketing, brand, creative, digital, social media and public relations agency, is proud to announce the launch of COHNNABIS, the agency's division dedicated to supporting the brand and marketing needs of the cannabis industry. As one of Denver's top 10 marketing agencies, COHNNABIS will bring more than 17 years of experience across a variety of verticals  from real estate to retail, health care, non-profits, B2B, professional services and food & beverage to the cannabis industry.

Since Colorado began legal sales of adult-use cannabis in 2014, COHN has supported the brand, digital, marketing, packaging, social media and PR needs of dispensaries, products, venture capital backed start-ups, and allied companies that sell to the industry. COHN / COHNNABIS clients are both local and national, and are on the leading edge of innovation in the cannabis industry.

COHN has been a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) since 2014, and COHNNABIS is a cementing of the agency's commitment to the industry and the work being done to promote legal cannabis use.

In support of the agency's dedication to the industry, COHNNABIS has hired Taylor West, former deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, as senior communications director. By adding West's cannabis industry insight and in-depth strategic communications experience to COHN's long-established and respected expertise in integrated marketing, COHNNABIS is setting a new standard for companies serious about building a compelling, effective, and authentic brand within the industry.

"We are so excited to welcome Taylor to the COHN and COHNNABIS family and put her unique combination of skills and knowledge to work for our clients," said Jeff Cohn, president and CEO of COHN Marketing. "The cannabis industry is exploding with growth and intense competition. The companies aiming for true staying power need sophisticated partners who understand this space inside and out. Taylor brings that to COHNNABIS clients in spades."

Since January 2014, West has served as second-in-command at NCIA, the cannabis industry's largest trade association and the most valuable source for federal advocacy, education, and business development in the industry. During her time at NCIA, the organization has grown from approximately 300 member-businesses to nearly 1,400, and West has become a high-profile representative of the industry in global media, standing up for the respect and fair treatment of responsible, professional cannabis businesses across the United States.

"There is no community more interesting, exciting, or rapidly evolving than the cannabis industry, and I've been honored to contribute to that community through NCIA for the last four years," said West. "I'm excited to continue that work with an agency as respected and forward-thinking as COHN. The industry's businesses deserve the best, most professional strategic services, and that's what we'll be bringing to the table for COHNNABIS clients.

"It's especially meaningful to me that COHN and COHNNABIS are committed not only to great professional work, but also to supporting the advocacy and policy efforts that make our industry possible."

Prior to joining NCIA, West spent more than a decade in communications and leadership positions in the political, policy, nonprofit, and business arenas. In addition to her work for COHNNABIS, she will also provide high-level expertise to COHN clients across additional verticals including healthcare, business-to-business, and public-private partnerships. West joined COHN on August 7.

About COHN Marketing

Founded in 2000, Denver-based COHN Marketing is a full-service integrated agency that helps business and organizations achieve their objectives through collaborative brand development, digital and traditional marketing, communications and public relation strategies. Listed as one of the Denver Business Journal's Top 10 Agencies in Denver, COHN has a brand-centric philosophy that leads to winning results for clients in a variety of verticals including real estate, retail, healthcare, business-to-business and lifestyle brands. For more information visit www.COHNNABIS.com or www.cohnmarketing.com.

Contact:

Amy Larson, VP Marketing

303.839.1415 x138

[email protected]

SOURCE COHN Marketing

Related Links

http://www.cohnmarketing.com


LONG BEACH, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson America, Inc., a leading supplier of value-added Point of Sale (POS) solutions, congratulates its fellow winners and partners with the "Vendor of Excellence Awards" at RSPA RetailNOW 2017. EnvisionSM partners Touch Dynamic and APG Cash Drawer, LLC secured Gold and Bronze respectively, while Epson itself won the Silver award in the Hardware Manufacturer category. Envision partner Future POS won Gold and Envision partner MobileBytes earned Bronze in the Software category and Distribution partners BlueStar, MS Cash Drawer, LLC and Metropolitan Sales secured Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively in the Technology Distributor category.

"We couldn't be more pleased to win this prestigious award alongside our valued partners," commented Gregg Brunnick, director of product management & technical services, Business Systems Division, Epson America. "Together, we are committed to bringing the right products to retail and hospitality for continued success in 2017."

RSPA's Vendor of Excellence awards are the point of sale and retail technology industry's only awards recognizing excellence in channel service. RSPA conducted an electronic voting process for a 4 week time period in which all RSPA reseller members were called upon to vote for the channel vendors that they deemed "best in service and support" in six categories.

Epson is a certified, long-standing member of the RSPA. The RSPA Certification Program identifies companies in the retail technology industry who provide exceptional levels of competence and performance in a professional manner. RetailNOW is the retail technology industry's largest cross-vertical show, including leading vendors and distributors in grocery, food service, convenience and retail verticals.

About RSPA

RSPA is the trade association comprised of Resellers, ISVs, manufacturers, payment processors, card brands, distributors, and others in the point of sale and technology ecosystem. Our members provide service to the end user community primarily in the hospitality, grocery and retail verticals. RSPA accelerates the success of its members by providing knowledge and connections, including two annual events offering live, face to face education and networking. Other member benefits include professional development & certification programing, a legal hotline, webinars, discounted shipping and event access, industry advocacy, as well as several publications. Learn more by going to www.GoRSPA.org.

About Epson America, Inc.

Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Long Beach, CA, Epson America, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. For over 40 years, Epson's advanced technology has been at work in millions of POS systems around the world. Today Epson's Business Systems Division continues to bring industry-leading, open architecture, smart technologies to the point of service. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (http://twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/EpsonAmerica).

EPSON is a registered trademark and EPSON Exceed Your Vision is a registered logomark of Seiko Epson Corporation. Envision is a servicemark of Epson America, Inc. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Epson America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.epson.com


Get a sneak peek, featuring clips from all of EWTN's new shows, when EWTN President Doug Keck hosts the "EWTN Season Preview." Airs 4:30 p.m. ET, Monday, Aug. 14; 1:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday, Aug. 15; 10:30 p.m. ET, Friday, Aug. 18; and 6:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, Aug. 19.

This Season's highlights include:

"Called and Chosen  Father Vincent R. Capodanno ." This powerful 90-minute EWTN original docu-drama about a military chaplain's life and heroic death debuts at 10 p.m. ET , Wednesday, Aug. 30 . But be sure to tune in at 8 p.m. ET for a special "EWTN Live" interview with Director James Kelty ; Mary Preece , Vice-Postulator of Father Capodanno's Cause for Canonization; and George Phillips of the Capodanno Guild. Encores at 3 p.m. ET , Saturday, Sept. 2 ; and 3 p.m. ET , Monday, Sept. 4 .

." This powerful 90-minute EWTN original docu-drama about a military chaplain's life and heroic death debuts at , . But be sure to tune in at for a special "EWTN Live" interview with Director ; , Vice-Postulator of Father Capodanno's Cause for Canonization; and of the Capodanno Guild. Encores at , ; and , . "Beatification of Father Stanley Rother :" In the week leading up to this priest's Sept. 23 beatification, EWTN will air a special documentary about the life of the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified. This Oklahoma -born priest turned Guatemalan missionary was warned not to return to his mission while on a home visit  but this shepherd refused to leave his flock and was martyred. Father Charles Connor hosts the special as well as EWTN's live coverage of the beatification.

:" In the week leading up to this priest's beatification, EWTN will air a special documentary about the life of the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified. This -born priest turned Guatemalan missionary was warned not to return to his mission while on a home visit  but this shepherd refused to leave his flock and was martyred. Father hosts the special as well as EWTN's live coverage of the beatification. "The Message of Fatima": The conclusion of this popular EWTN original mini-series celebrating the 100 anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions at Fatima culminates this fall. The final two apparitions will air at 6:30 p.m. ET , Wednesday, Sept. 13 , and 8:30 p.m. ET , Friday, Oct. 13 , the 100 th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun! But don't miss the Nov. 4 episode, which recreates subsequent apparitions to Lucia dos Santos in which Our Lady requested the First Saturdays Devotion.

, , and , , the 100 anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun! But don't miss the episode, which recreates subsequent apparitions to Lucia dos Santos in which Our Lady requested the First Saturdays Devotion. "MASSterpiece Donut Shop:" This high-end EWTN's children's program with "Donut Man" Host Rob Wahl explains the Mass so children  and adults!  can learn to understand and love it. Airs 4:30 p.m. ET , Mondays, beginning Sept. 4 , with an encore at 9 a.m. Saturdays , beginning Sept. 9 .

, Mondays, beginning , with an encore at , beginning . A Force for Good: Enjoy on location interviews with business owners who rely on their Catholic faith to manage their businesses, their employees, and their lives. This EWTN co-production with The Catholic University of America , hosted by Dr. Jay Richards , debuts weekly beginning 10 p.m. ET , Friday, Sept. 8 . Encores at 5:30 a.m. ET Mondays , and 1 p.m. ET Tuesdays .

, hosted by Dr. , debuts weekly beginning , . Encores at , and . "Life on the Rock": This completely revamped weekly half-hour show, which debuts in October, features the priests of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word in different segments that help viewers rock the New Evangelization.

"Digital Catholics:" Sister Helena Burns helps young people use their social media prowess to become a force for good on the Internet.

helps young people use their social media prowess to become a force for good on the Internet. "An EWTN Holy Land Experience:" Travel to the Holy Land with Fr. Joseph and Fr. Mark in these special programs that will not only air on EWTN television, but live on EWTN's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ewtnonline. Join EWTN's Holy Land Facebook Group for behind-the-scenes photos, videos, and Q&A's with the hosts!

There's much more in store for viewers this fall! For a complete listing of programs, go to www.ewtn.com and search under the "Television" tab. Note: Times and dates are subject to change so please check for updates at http://www.ewtn.com/multimedia/weekly-schedules.asp)

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 36th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN's 11 TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 268 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN services also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including "The National Catholic Register" newspaper, and two global wire services; as well as a publishing arm.

SOURCE EWTN Global Catholic Network

Related Links

http://www.ewtn.com


FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA LLC has been ranked highest in the just-released J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction StudySM in the categories of Retail Credit-Luxury Captive (a combined category for retail lease and prime retail) and Floor Plan. The study measures dealer satisfaction with auto financing providers for both wholesale and retail products.

In 2017, J.D. Power changed the study methodology that reduced the number of categories in which Mercedes-Benz Financial Services was evaluated from three to two. In 2015 and 2016, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services was the top scoring company in the categories of Prime Retail, Retail Lease and Floor Plan.

"Being honored with top J.D. Power scores a third year in a row is a direct reflection of the unsurpassed service provided by our teams and the relationships we've fostered with our dealers, whom we view as the best in the industry. It is because of their partnership and honest feedback that we are able to develop and deliver improvements, retaining benchmark-level rankings," said Geoff Robinson, Vice President of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services.

The company received the highest numerical score among retail credit-captive luxury and floor planning providers in the study. The 2017 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study is based on just over 13,500 finance provider evaluations and measures the opinions of dealer principals, general managers and finance & insurance managers with their finance provider.

Earning a total score of 986, on a 1,000 point scale, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services maintained the top position in the Floor Plan segment for the seventh consecutive year, with 100 percent of dealers indicating that they definitely or probably will not switch to another floor plan provider.

In the Retail Credit-Luxury Captive segment, the company received a score of 972, and was ranked highest in each of the four components that comprise this category, including: provider offerings; application/approval process; relationship; and lease return.

"We are a business built on the people, relationships and experiences we provide and it takes the dedication of our talented team at Mercedes-Benz Financial Services who aim to provide remarkable experiences at every interaction to achieve this level of satisfaction," added Robinson. "While the recognition is welcome, the real value of participation is the areas of opportunity the results showcase, feedback that helps us identify where we can continue to improve in our quest to deliver exceptional service every day."

About Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA LLC

MercedesBenz Financial Services USA LLC, headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, with Business Center Operations in Fort Worth, Texas, provides brandspecific financial products and services for MercedesBenz and smart automotive dealers and their retail customers. In the U.S. trucking industry, it conducts business as Daimler Truck Financial and provides flexible financial products and services for Daimler Trucks North America commercial vehicles branded Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Bus and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America, Inc. MercedesBenz Financial Services USA LLC serves as the headquarters for operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, and has approximately 2,242 employees throughout the Americas. It is a company of the Daimler Financial Services Group, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, which does business in 40 countries and has an employee base of approximately 12,062 people worldwide. Daimler Financial Services is one of the leading financial services organizations worldwide and was ranked fifth out of 25 on the list of the World's Best Multinational Workplaces by the Great Place To Work Institute in 2016. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA LLC was also named one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials in 2015 and 2016, and one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women in 2016 by Great Place to Work and Fortune.com. For more information, please visit www.mbfs.com/corp or facebook.com/mymbfs. For more information about Daimler Truck Financial, log onto www.daimler-truckfinancial.com.

SOURCE Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA LLC

Related Links

http://corp.mbfs.com


Last year, Chera Little of Leander, Texas, beat out over 1,800 entries to take home the grand prize for her recipe for Miso-Maple Glazed Cod Wonton-Cho's with Crispy Bok Choy Slaw. This year, twelve semi-finalists will be chosen from all entrants to participate in three live cook-off events scheduled around the country that will culminate in the Glorious Bites Challenge Finals at Gloria Ferrer Winery in Sonoma, California. Tickets for all events are available now! Events include plenty of cookoff excitement, special guests, delicious Gloria Ferrer wines, savory bites and a cooking demonstration by Keynote Judge and Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company Executive Chef Jennifer Luttrell. Event details below:

Boston, MA  Glorious Bites Challenge Semi-Final Cookoff

Tuesday, October 3rd, 6-8pm

Divine Design Center

2 Battery Wharf, Boston, MA 02109



Minneapolis, MN  Glorious Bites Challenge Semi-Final Cookoff

Thursday, October 5th, 6-8pm

Kitchen Window

Calhoun Square, 3001 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55408

Denver, CO  Glorious Bites Challenge Semi-Final Cookoff

Saturday, October 7th, 6-8pm

BAC Appliance Center

1880 W. Oxford Ave. Englewood, CO 80110

Sonoma, CA  2017 Glorious Bites Challenge Finals

Saturday, October 14th, 6-8:30 pm

Gloria Ferrer Winery

23555 Hwy 121 (Arnold Dr.), Sonoma, CA 95476

Our Signature Bite from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company

Gloria Ferrer is happy to once again partner with its Sonoma County neighbor, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, for the Glorious Bites Challenge. The secret to all the cheeses made on the farm lies in the unique combination of 3 key ingredients: Grade A milk from a closed herd of Holstein cows that graze on the pastures overlooking Tomales Bay, the coastal fog and the salty Pacific breezes. Our three Glorious Bites Finalists will get to see the farm as VIPs and enjoy a five-course dinner the evening before the Glorious Bites Final Event prepared by Executive Chef Jennifer Luttrell.

Luttrell has been the Executive Chef of The Fork, a Culinary and Educational Center on the Giacomini family dairy at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company in Point Reyes, California, since 2011. For the second year in a row, she will serve as our Keynote Judge at each Gloria Ferrer Glorious Bites Challenge event and has created a delicious signature appetizer using the iconic Point Reyes Original Blue! Get inspired with her recipe for Point Reyes Original Blue and Caramelized Biscuits with Fig Jam here.

Special Guest Judges

In addition to our Keynote Judge, Gloria Ferrer has tapped three social media foodies from around the country to serve as special guest judges at each of this year's semi-finals events:

Susie Williams Glorious Bites Competition Semi Finals, Boston

Susie Williams started blogging to show the world that cooking and baking good food doesn't have to be difficult. Most importantly, it should be fun. She's been sharing original recipes for meals, baked goods, cocktails, and more on We are not Martha for ten years. Susie's recipes have appeared in publications such as The Huffington Post and Bon Appetit, and she has been a regular contributor to Parade magazine and PBS Food. Her culinary icon is Martha Stewart, of course! Her favorite guilty pleasure? Absolutely anything involving peanut butter. And cheese. Probably not together. But maybe.

Kim Ly Curry ---Glorious Bites Competition Semi Finals, Minneapolis

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Kim Ly Curry has two passions  capturing beautiful things on camera and a love of great food. She has successfully combined these two loves into one via social media. Kim scours the Twin Cities and beyond for the best eats and as her appetite for great food has grown, so has her following on her Instagram account, considered one of the city's best. Kim enjoys variety, engaging with an array of chefs, cuisines and cooking styles. I consider them artists, she says. I truly respect their craft and they are a constant inspiration."

Erin Sellin  Glorious Bites Competition Semi-Finals, Denver

Erin Sellin is a self-professed casual home cook that loves to feed people. A cooking enthusiast her entire life, she began her blog Dinners, Dishes, and & Desserts in 2011 as a source for deliciousness and every day meal planning. Today, Erin boasts hundreds of thousands of devoted followers and fans eager for her homemade, from-scratch sweet and savory recipes that take you from breakfast to happy hour and beyond. When she's not in her kitchen, you can find her traveling the world or exploring the mountains of Colorado with her family.

About Gloria Ferrer

Founded in 1986 in Sonoma, California, by the Ferrer family of Spain, Gloria Ferrer combines the best of sparkling winegrowing history with the bounty of the Carneros winegrowing region using time-honored methode traditionelle winemaking traditions and centuries-old sustainable practices. Gloria Ferrer produces the most awarded California sparkling wines that have won over 500 gold medals and received 50 outstanding 90+ point ratings in the last 5 years.

Images and Logos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gkzgj8f71frsvvy/AACijeuG3gJ8RpFBFa-4oPwYa?dl=0

Glorious Bites sizzle reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_rps1m86uk

Get inspired by our recipe database, including recipes from previous year's winners: http://gloriaferrer.com/recipes

Get tips on how to pair sparkling wine with food: https://www.gloriaferrer.com/blog/recipes-2/gloria-ferrer-the-perfect-appetizer-wine/

SOURCE Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards

Related Links

https://www.gloriaferrer.com


FLORA  An Olney man was taken to the hospital with serious injuries following a motorcycle accident two miles west of Flora, police said.

Around 4 a.m. Monday, Jesse J. Henry, 50, of Olney was traveling west on U.S. 50. According to Illinois State Police, he swerved to avoid a deer, which was standing in the road. Henry then fell off the motorcycle. The motorcycle didnt stop until it landed in a creek.
TSX:GPR

NYSE MKT: GPL

VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - GREAT PANTHER SILVER LIMITED (TSX: GPR) (NYSE MKT: GPL) ("Great Panther" or the "Company") is releasing results from the exploration drilling program conducted on the Coricancha gold-silver-lead-zinc-copper property in the central Andes of Peru. Great Panther held the property under option during the period May 2015 to May 2016 but terminated the option before the results could be released. The Company subsequently renegotiated and closed the acquisition of the mine and mill complex and now owns a 100% interest (see news release dated July 3, 2017).

The exploration program comprised 33 diamond drill holes, in 5,875 metres, from surface and underground in 2015 and 2016. Three main veins were targeted, Wellington, Constancia and Colquipallana, and one new exploration target, the Animas vein (see table of highlights below). Constancia was historically the main producing vein, followed by the Wellington vein. Highlights include Wellington hole Cori-15-003, which intersected 10.46g/t Au, 388g/t Ag, 1.64% Cu, 0.53% Zn and 2.86% Zn over a true width of 0.53 metres, and Constancia hole Cori-15-13 that intersected 22.64g/t Au, 83g/t Ag, 0.19% Cu, 1.12% Pb and 2.30% Zn over a true width of 0.41 metres.

"The initial drilling results at Coricancha demonstrate the potential to extend known zones of high grade mineralization," stated Robert Archer, President & CEO. "The high gold and silver grades, good continuity and significant exploration upside all underscore our optimism that Coricancha has the potential to be a new mine for the Company. While the veins pinch and swell, we have extensive experience in mining narrow widths at our Topia Mine in Mexico. Since closing the acquisition at the end of June, we have embarked on a comprehensive program of technical studies with the objective of returning the mine to production."

The intersections on the Constancia and Wellington veins represent extensions of known high grade areas and have added to the mineral inventory. Holes Cori-15-009 through 012 were drilled through pillars in old workings on the Constancia vein and these intersections have not been included below. Intersections on the Colquipallana vein were narrower but demonstrated high gold grades as evidenced by hole Cori-15-011, which returned 20.75g/t Au, 121g/t Ag, 0.52% Cu, 0.17% Pb and 0.05% Zn across 0.21 metres. Follow up drilling will initially concentrate on wider areas.

Only two holes were drilled on the Animas vein following up on encouraging surface channel samples. These are believed to be the first drill holes ever on this target and returned 3.64g/t Au and 417g/t Ag over 0.41 metres and 1.50g/t Au and 107g/t Ag over 1.20 metres, with minor base metals. Follow-up drilling is planned.

Highlights of 2015-16 Drilling at Coricancha:

HOLE ID FROM

(m) TO

(m) Au g/t Ag g/t Cu % Pb % Zn % TRUE

THICKNESS (m) Wellington















Cori-15-001 136.60 137.60 5.09 84 0.72 0.28 0.89 0.70 Cori-15-002 233.90 236.20 5.93 717 0.10 1.27 12.03 0.83 Cori-15-003 172.60 173.70 10.46 388 1.64 0.53 2.86 0.53 Cori-15-006 141.62 142.95 6.98 37 0.11 0.11 0.57 0.75 Cori-15-007 160.50 161.50 9.93 335 1.26 0.58 5.13 0.59 Cori-16-030 135.30 137.90 5.08 127 0.46 0.50 3.71 1.72 Cori-16-032 217.86 219.10 3.46 109 0.13 0.29 2.44 0.58 Colquipallana















Cori-15-011 54.34 54.60 20.75 121 0.52 0.17 0.05 0.21 Constancia















Cori-15-013 109.77 110.24 22.64 83 0.19 1.12 2.30 0.41 Cori-16-017 148.45 148.75 8.32 11 0.01 0.28 0.40 0.23 Cori-16-018 131.80 132.15 12.38 53 0.06 1.64 1.55 0.25 " 136.80 137.30 3.91 65 0.09 2.66 6.11 0.35 Cori-16-019 189.73 190.26 12.96 7 0.03 0.04 0.01 0.27 Cori-16-020 189.92 190.64 20.32 79 0.31 1.80 0.90 0.40 Cori-16-021 192.35 193.25 9.59 38 0.11 0.90 3.68 0.52 Cori-16-022 191.70 192.64 6.91 24 0.07 0.19 0.70 0.51 Cori-16-023 118.57 118.85 17.8 1096 0.27 4.18 6.47 0.18 Cori-16-024 97.27 97.48 3.20 644 0.09 0.42 1.04 0.17 Cori-16-025 119.80 120.07 5.84 664 0.12 1.37 1.15 0.21 Cori-16-026 130.13 130.26 1.92 104 0.01 1.34 0.80 0.08 Cori-16-028 163.45 165.27 4.20 1883 0.55 7.84 3.98 1.04 Animas















Cori-16-031 132.60 133.36 3.64 417 0.04 0.25 0.65 0.41 Cori-16-033 118.62 120.62 1.50 107 0.03 0.97 1.14 1.20

An updated mineral resource estimate is underway, incorporating all previous drilling and the results from all underground sampling undertaken by previous owners. While it is believed that this will increase the mineral inventory, the use of current (lower) metal prices compared to the 2012 historical resource estimate is expected to offset this to some degree. Additional drilling is planned, but the timing will depend on surface and underground rehabilitation and development required to support the program.

Engineering and environmental studies were also initiated during the option period and are being expanded in scope and detail to a Prefeasibility level in order to refine operating parameters. Infrastructure improvements and mine development are commencing to support underground drilling and the application for a surface drilling permit is being prepared. Further updates will be provided as work progresses.

The Coricancha Mine Complex (the "CMC") is a fully permitted polymetallic mine that includes an operational 600 tonne per day flotation and gold BIOX bio-leach plant along with supporting mining infrastructure. The CMC has been on care and maintenance since August 2013. The CMC property comprises more than 3,700 hectares in the prolific Central Polymetallic Belt of Peru and production at the mine dates back to 1906. Gold-silver-lead-zinc-copper mineralization (approximately 80% gold-silver by value) occurs as massive sulphide veins that have been mined by cut and fill extraction methods.

The Company's QA/QC program includes the regular insertion of blanks, duplicates, and standards into the sample shipments; diligent monitoring of assay results; and necessary remedial actions. Sample assaying was completed at the independent SGS lab in Lima, Peru. Gold was completed with FAA313 technique, with over-limits (10g/t) completed by FAG303. 50 element ICP (ICM12B) included silver, copper, lead, and zinc. Over limit assaying for silver (10ppm) was completed with AAS11B, while over limit assaying for copper, lead, and zinc (all at 1%) was conducted with AAS11B.

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Robert F. Brown, P. Eng., consultant to the Company, who is the Qualified Person (QP) for the CMC under the meaning of NI 43-101. Aspects relating to mining and metallurgy are overseen by Ali Soltani, Chief Operating Officer for Great Panther.

ABOUT GREAT PANTHER

Great Panther Silver Limited is a primary silver mining and exploration company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol GPR, and on the NYSE MKT under the symbol GPL. Great Panther's current activities are focused on the mining of precious metals from its two wholly-owned operating mines in Mexico: the Guanajuato Mine Complex, which includes the San Ignacio Mine; and the Topia Mine in Durango; and advancing the development of the Coricancha Mine Complex in Peru. The Company's activities also include the pursuit of additional mining opportunities in the Americas.

Robert Archer

President & CEO

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the timing and results of technical studies, potential changes to the CMC resource base, and the economic viability of the CMC; and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political risks involving the Company's operations in a foreign jurisdiction, technical and operational difficulties that may be encountered with reactivation of the CMC, uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, uncertainty in mineral resource estimation, physical risks inherent in mining and reclamation operations, currency fluctuations, fluctuations in the price of silver, gold and base metals, completion of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, permitting risks, the inability or failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016 and Material Change Reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedar.com and reports on Form 40-F and Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov. There is no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove accurate; results may vary materially from such forward-looking statements; and there is no assurance that the Company will be able to identify and acquire additional projects or that any projects acquired will be successfully developed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. The Company has no intention to update forward looking statements except as required by law.

SOURCE Great Panther Silver Limited

Related Links

http://www.greatpanther.com


RYE, N.Y. and FRISCO, Texas, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenbriar Equity Group LLC ("Greenbriar"), a private equity firm focused on making investments in the global transportation and logistics industries, and Transplace Holdings, Inc. ("Transplace", or the "Company"), a leading provider of transportation management services and logistics technology solutions, today announced a definitive agreement whereby TPG Capital ("TPG"), the global private equity platform of alternative asset firm TPG, will acquire the Company. The transaction is expected to close in late-September. Terms of the transaction will not be disclosed.

Transplace is the largest managed transportation service provider in North America, generating annual gross revenue in excess of $1.8 billion from more than 1,000 customers. As a non-asset based logistics services provider, it offers manufacturers, retailers, chemical and consumer packaged goods companies the optimal blend of logistics technology and transportation management services.

"As customer expectations for fast and transparent service and delivery increase, the supply chain is quickly becoming more complex. As a result, many companies have started to outsource freight spend in order to achieve better procurement at a lower operating cost," said Jack Daly, firm partner and global head of industrials and business services for TPG Capital. "Transplace is providing an expansive, high-quality, customizable solution for managing today's supply chain. The company's leadership and ongoing focus on innovation and customer service is unmatched, and we believe Transplace is well positioned to thrive from the immense technological change happening within logistics today."

Jill Raker, Managing Partner of Greenbriar, said, "We want to thank the entire Transplace management team for an outstanding partnership. It's been a pleasure supporting the Company through a period of tremendous expansion and we believe Transplace's future has never been brighter."

Transplace CEO Tom Sanderson added, "We have enjoyed working with the Greenbriar team, whose deep knowledge of our business and extensive network of industry relationships have helped create significant value for all stakeholders. Our partnership with Greenbriar enabled Transplace to enhance our capabilities through four successful acquisitions and has positioned the Company to capitalize on organic and strategic opportunities in our next chapter of growth."

Transplace and Greenbriar were advised by Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Hughes, Hubbard, & Reed LLP. TPG was advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

About Greenbriar Equity Group

Greenbriar Equity Group LLC, a private equity firm with over $2.5 billion of committed capital, focuses exclusively on the global transportation industry, including companies in logistics and distribution, freight and passenger transport, aerospace and defense, automotive, and related sectors. Greenbriar invests with proven management teams who are interested in being significant equity owners in their companies as well as with corporate partners who are interested in raising capital. Greenbriar's partners bring many decades of experience at the highest levels within the transportation industry. Additional information may be found at www.greenbriarequity.com.

About Transplace

Transplace is a North American non-asset based logistics services provider offering manufacturers, retailers, chemical and consumer packaged goods companies the optimal blend of logistics technology and transportation management services. The company is the premier provider of managed transportation, consulting & TMS solutions; and intermodal, truck brokerage, and cross-border trade services. With operations centers located throughout North America, Transplace delivers integrated solutions tailored to meet in-country and cross-border supply chain needs. The company is recognized among the elite 3PLs for its proven ability to deliver both rapid return on investment and consistent value to a customer base ranging from mid-market shippers to Fortune 500 companies. To learn more about Transplace's North American logistics services, visit www.transplace.com.

About TPG Capital

TPG is a leading global alternative asset firm founded in 1992 with approximately $72 billion of assets under management and offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, and Singapore. TPG's investment platforms are across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, growth venture, real estate, credit, and public equity. TPG aims to build dynamic products and options for its investors while also instituting discipline and operational excellence across its investment strategies and the performance of its portfolio. For more information, visit www.tpg.com.

Contact: TPG Capital Transplace

Luke Barrett Jennifer Cortez

External Affairs Director, Marketing Communications

(415) 743-1550 (972) 731-4525







Greenbriar Equity Group



Ross Lovern



Kekst and Company



(212) 521-4876



SOURCE Greenbriar Equity Group LLC

Related Links

http://greenbriarequity.com


WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. (DC Habitat) will be joined by 15 senior executive volunteers from PenFed Credit Union and other private sector and community leaders at a "Women Build: She Nailed It" construction site event in Northeast DC to promote affordable homeownership for working families on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 9:30 a.m.

The August 16 showcase will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a "sneak preview" and media tour of the Ivy City construction site. The tour will be followed by a brief program featuring DC Habitat President and CEO Susanne V. Slater; Debbie Ames-Naylor, Executive Vice President and President, Mortgage Banking, PenFed, City Council Members, DC Habitat homeowner Andrea Morgan, and others. Miss Shanel James, Miss US International 2017 and a graduate of Howard University (2012), will also make brief remarks.

The construction site is located at 1814 Central Place, N.E. (Ivy City), Washington, D.C.

Launched on International Women's Day on March 8, 2017, DC Habitat's "Women Build: She Nailed It" initiative shines a light on the ways that women are disproportionately affected by poverty and substandard housing. Women Build also highlights the contributions of women invested in bringing the DC community together to build and raise money for affordable housing. Currently, the campaign is on track to meet its fundraising goal of $500,000 to provide permanent, safe, decent homes for five local families.

On September 14, DC Habitat's "Women Build: She Nailed It" campaign will conclude with a celebration reception with V.I.P. headliners at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

"Women in the nation's capital, especially women who serve as the head of their family, often face obstacles that make escaping poverty seem impossible. DC Habitat focuses on helping local families build strength, stability, and self-reliance through affordable homeownership opportunities," said Susanne Slater, President and CEO of DC Habitat.

"For many, Washington, D.C. represents opportunity. Leaders from every state in the nation and from across the globe work here. With the city's many laudable distinctions come almost insurmountable challenges for our lowest income neighbors. DC Habitat's Women Build program is an exciting and innovative way for women  and the men who support them  to become actively involved in the program. I look forward to briefing everyone, particularly members of the media, on our progress on August 16," said Slater.

This week's event will be made possible by PenFed, which has supplied critical acquisition financing, and a $100,000 donation to make the timing on this project work. These contributions have been overseen by the leadership of James Schenck, President and CEO of PenFed, who has shown sustained interest and unwavering support of affordable homeownership in D.C. and PenFed Executive Vice President Debbie Ames Naylor, who serves as the chair of the Women Build Steering Committee, which has led the fundraising efforts for the 2017 Women Build campaign.

Since March, more than two dozen all-volunteer construction builds with DC Habitat's corporate and nonprofit partners have been scheduled. Those include PenFed, Avalon Bay, Edgewood, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Kiwanis Club, Leidos, and MidCity Financial, among others.

The groundbreaking ceremony for this Ivy City project to build 12 new affordable homes was October 11, 2016 and enjoyed the support of government, corporate and community leaders, including Mayor Muriel Bowser who headlined the event, David Franco, President, Principal and Cofounder of Level 2 Development, PenFed's Ames-Naylor, and Director Polly Donaldson, of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, and others.

This marks the seventh year of DC Habitat's work in Ivy City. Since 2010, the organization has completed and rehabilitated nearly 30 homes in the neighborhood, which were all built to LEED, Earthcraft, or Passive House standards to decrease environmental impact and energy costs, making the homes even more affordable for Habitat families.

"By working in partnership with families, we offer a hand up, not a handout. Families work alongside us toward the dream of homeownership that provides a path to the middle class and breaks the cycle of poverty. The work that DC Habitat does is transformative and allows families to stop struggling to get by and begin to thrive," said Slater.

According to Professional Builder magazine, 2015, Habitat for Humanity International was the 15th largest homebuilder in the United States. Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity is a true world leader in addressing the issues of poor housing conditions. It provides credibility and reach, operating in nearly 1,400 communities across the U.S. and in over 70 countries around the world.

Since DC Habitat's founding in 1988, 200 homes in Washington, D.C. and abroad have been built or rehabilitated, utilizing the help of 2,000 to 5,000 volunteers each year. Habitat DC currently has 44 new homes in its construction pipeline and plans to substantially increase the number of D.C. families served to 450 families through homeownership opportunities, critical home repair and counseling by 2020.

For more information, visit: http://www.dchabitat.org/events/women-build/

SOURCE Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C.

Related Links

http://www.dchabitat.org


SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced today that he had filed a second lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration, this time over the U.S. Department of Justice instituting unconstitutional new conditions on federal law enforcement grants.

"This president is bent on trying to vilify immigrants and punish cities that prioritize real, effective public safety over splitting up hard-working families," Herrera said. "Trump attacked sanctuary cities in January with his unlawful executive order. We stopped him in court. Then he tried to sneak through a change in the law by burying it deep in his budget. Now he's trying to have one of his departments rewrite the rules. So we're back in court once again, with allies by our side, to compel him to follow the law."

San Francisco's lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is part of a coordinated effort with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra who will file a similar lawsuit today on behalf of the state.

"The Trump Administration cannot manipulate federal grant fund requirements to pressure states, counties or municipalities to enforce federal immigration laws," said Becerra. "By placing unconstitutional immigration enforcement conditions on public safety grants, the Trump Administration is threatening to harm a range of law enforcement initiatives across California. This is pure intimidation intended to force our law enforcement into changing the policies and practices that they have determined promote public safety. It's a low blow to our brave men and women who wear the badge, and to the communities they serve. We will fight these unlawful federal actions that would make California less safe."

San Francisco's lawsuit was filed against U.S. Attorney General Jefferson B. Sessions III, Acting Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson and the U.S. Department of Justice. It seeks a court order declaring Sessions' new grant conditions unconstitutional and void.

By imposing these new conditions on law enforcement grants awarded to state and local governments, the executive branch is unilaterally giving itself power that belongs to Congress, violating the Constitution's separation of powers. It is also imposing conditions that even Congress lacks the power to impose, violating the Constitution's spending clause. The lawsuit notes, for instance, that one of the new grant conditions, which in practice would require detaining people past their release date, violates 4th Amendment protections against being jailed without probable cause.

"Once again, this president is attempting an end-run around the Constitution," Herrera said. "The Department of Justice does not have authority from Congress to impose these conditions, and for good reason. In the name of public safety, this president is undercutting law enforcement and trying to withhold money used to reduce crime. That's like burning a mountain of coal in the name of environmental protection. Maybe that makes sense to this White House, but it doesn't add up for most Americans."

The Department of Justice announced in a July 25 press release that it was adding new conditions to be eligible for Fiscal Year 2017 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants. These grants have been awarded annually for more than three decades. The department describes them as "the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions." In Fiscal Year 2016 the program provided $263.9 million in grants nationwide for programs ranging from a domestic violence shelter to police vehicles.

Sessions threatened to withhold the grant funding unless local governments agree to two unauthorized and unlawful conditions:

allow federal immigration agents unlimited access to local detention facilities to interrogate detainees about their immigration status, and



upon request, provide 48 hours notice to immigration agents before releasing someone that the federal government suspects  often wrongly  is in the country unlawfully. That means residents and U.S. citizens could be jailed without probable cause, and cities or states could face legal liability for holding someone past their release date to provide the federal government the required notice.

There is no federal law that requires local jurisdictions to provide advance notice to federal immigration authorities before releasing someone purportedly in the country unlawfully from their custody. Nor is there any federal law requiring local authorities to grant federal officials access to local detention facilities to interrogate people in custody.

Federal Coercion

"This is a backdoor attempt to coerce states and local governments to carry out federal immigration enforcement," Herrera said. "Immigration enforcement is the federal government's job. They can do it in San Francisco and every other city in the country. We're not stopping them. But our police and deputies are focused on fighting crime, not breaking up hard-working families."

The new grant conditions are part of the Trump administration's continued misguided assault on sanctuary cities. These jurisdictions limit their coordination with federal immigration officials and use their law enforcement resources to fight crime rather than perform federal immigration enforcement, which often involves jailing individuals who have not committed a crime and have only committed civil violations, like overstaying a visa.

"The Trump administration is vilifying immigrants while falsely claiming that sanctuary cities are havens for criminals," Herrera said. "The opposite is true. Sanctuary policies improve public safety by ensuring anyone can seek help if they are the victim of a crime. They can call 911 without fear that it will lead to them or someone they know being deported. This cooperation with law enforcement gets criminals off the streets and makes everyone safer."

Sanctuary Cities Have Less Crime

Not only does research show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native residents, a UC San Diego researcher found that sanctuary jurisdictions have lower crime and less poverty.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Major Cities Chiefs Association of police leaders have expressed public concern over Trump's earlier executive order on sanctuary cities, saying: "Cities that aim to build trusting and supportive relations with immigrant communities should not be punished because this is essential to reducing crime and helping victims."

"We're safer when all people, including undocumented immigrants, feel safe reporting crimes to authorities," Herrera said. "We're healthier when all residents access public health programs. We're economically and socially stronger when all children attend school. And our communities are strengthened when members of the public, including undocumented immigrants, can use transit, visit libraries, take their children to school or visit their neighborhood playground without fear."

More than 600 cities, counties and states have some type of sanctuary policy, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Money to Fight Crime

California faces the prospect of losing $28.3 million in Byrne JAG funds in fiscal 2017, with San Francisco potentially losing $1.4 million. The money is slated for programs spanning seven city departments, including the Police Department, Sheriff's Department, District Attorney's Office and Public Defender's Office. The grant would fund initiatives designed to reduce recidivism, deter drug use, provide services to at-risk youth, and supervise probationers with substance abuse and/or mental health issues. One program is Young Adult Court, where 18 to 24 year olds accused of certain crimes are put on a structured path to productivity. They are required to check in weekly with the court as they pursue therapy, life-skills classes and employment. If they successfully complete the program, they can have their charges dropped or reduced.

Herrera first sued the president on Jan. 31, 2017 to halt implementation of Trump's executive order denying federal funds to "sanctuary jurisdictions" that allegedly violated 8 U.S.C. 1373, a section of federal law that prohibits state and local governments from restricting their staff from communicating with federal immigration agents about someone's citizenship or immigration status. Other local governments followed San Francisco's lead and filed similar lawsuits, including Santa Clara County and the cities of Richmond and Seattle. A federal judge in San Francisco on April 25, 2017 issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the executive order nationwide, saying it violated "basic and fundamental constitutional structures."

The new grant conditions represent a different way to try to cut off certain funding to localities with sanctuary laws.

The case is: City and County of San Francisco v. Jefferson B. Sessions III, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case No. 3:17-cv-04642, filed Aug. 11, 2017. Additional documentation from the case is available on the City Attorney's website at: https://www.sfcityattorney.org

SOURCE City Attorney of San Francisco

Related Links

http://www.sfcityattorney.org


NORTHBROOK, Ill., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hilco Industrial, in a joint venture with Myron Bowling Auctioneers, Inc. and Cincinnati Industrial Auctioneers, announced today that they will begin the sale process of well control intervention equipment belonging to Wright's Well Control Services. Wright's is considered to be the definitive source for surface, subsea and ultra-deep water solutions in the United States. Hilco Industrial, along with the joint venture partners, is running a private treaty sale process that begins immediately.

"Wright's Well Control Services is a highly regarded company that provides customized solutions for the most challenging offshore environments," said a representative of Hilco Industrial. "Wright's Well Control Services has engineered and executed numerous, first-to-market services for clients, and we are fortunate to bring their brand of equipment and services to the market."

Services and related equipment include:

Cased Hole Logging System

Cement Blender

Chiksan Iron & Racks

Fluid Manifolds

Pressure Pumps

Continuous Work String Units

Dual Barrier Valves

Heave Compensated Wireline Systems

Hydraulic Power Tongs

Material Tanks

Mechanical Cutters

Modular Subsea Connector

Self-Contained Stabilization System

Subsea Gas Separator

Subsea Injection System

Subsea Flange Tool

Subsea Power Source

Wireline Units

The assets can be viewed at the following location by appointment only:

6072 Candice Ln. Lake Charles, LA 70615 USA

To arrange an inspection, access more detailed information about the assets being sold, or specific information about the private treaty sale process, visit https://www.hilcoind.com/en/sale/wrights or contact:

Jody Bacque  Senior Vice President  Asset Sales , [email protected], +1 251.404.2367

John Magnuson  COO Hilco Industrial, [email protected] +1 847.504.3204

About Hilco Industrial

Hilco Industrial (www.hilcoind.com) provides industrial asset acquisition and disposition services, specializing in machinery, equipment and inventory auctions and negotiated sales. It sells the broad range of industrial assets found in manufacturing, wholesale and distribution companies. Hilco Industrial buys and sells assets through on-site, online and combination webcast auction sale events as well as negotiated (private treaty) sales. In addition to providing services on a fee or commission basis, Hilco Industrial puts capital at risk and often acquires assets or provides guarantees. Hilco Industrial is part of Northbrook, Illinois based Hilco Global (www.hilcoglobal.com) , the world's leading authority on maximizing the value of business assets by delivering valuation, monetization and advisory solutions to an international marketplace.

About Myron Bowling Auctioneers

Myron Bowling Auctioneers (http://www.myronbowling.com/) started in 1975. The company was incorporated in 1985, and is now considered to be one of the nation's largest and most successful industrial auctioneering firms. We conduct approximately 80 auctions per year throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, serving privately and publicly-held companies, the United States Bankruptcy Court and other lending institutions and turnaround management companies. A founding member and former director of the Industrial Auctioneers Association, Myron is also a member of the National Auctioneers Association, Machinery Dealers National Association, and the Certified Auctioneers Institute. We are considered one of the most respected industrial auction companies in the nation.

About Cincinnati Industrial Auctioneers: CIA

(http://www.cia-auction.com) is a nationwide provider of asset disposition, auction and appraisal services. Our expert services are rendered to a variety of organizations including: business, industry, lending institutions, turnaround management, leasing companies, federal and local courts, and governmental agencies. A fifty year history with thousands of satisfied clients and customers, has afforded our company a reputation that is second to none in the industrial auction business.

About Wright's Well Control Services

Wright's Well Control Services provides cost effective and innovative oil and gas well solutions that put safety, health and the environment first. Wright's engineers and executes numerous first-to-market services and has become a definitive source for customized solutions for the most challenging offshore environments in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and beyond. It is Wright's' core values - Safety, Integrity, Collaboration, Innovation and Quality that drive the Wright's team to be leaders in innovative sustainable solutions. Wright's was founded in 2006 by David Wright and has over 25 years of offshore and onshore engineering experience including work at Halliburton, The Red Adair Company, and ATP Wright's is a privately held company with corporate offices in Houston, Texas and an operations facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

SOURCE Hilco Industrial

Related Links

http://www.hilcoind.com


DETROIT, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The former Berry Gordy Mansion has found a new owner, thanks to the well-executed marketing plan put together by local real estate agent Deborah Smith of the Family First Team at Keller Williams. Known today as the Motown Mansion, the sale of the Boston-Edison Historic District property, located at 918 W. Boston Blvd., closed today for $1.65 million. Current owner Cynthia F. Reaves, Esq. sold the home to a native Detroiter who is relocating back to the area from San Francisco.

The list price was $1.595 million. The sale price is higher than any sale in the Boston-Edison district in recent history and the second highest sales price for a residential property in Detroit this year, according to Smith of Keller Williams Realty - West Bloomfield Market Center.

Smith attributes the successful sale at above the asking price to the thoughtfully executed, award- winning restoration completed by Reaves, along with an aggressive marketing approach.

Reaves made a point to keep intact as much of the mansion's original architecture and structure as possible. Situated on a 2.2 acre lot, the stately property includes a 10,500-square-foot primary residence and adjoining 4,400-square-foot pool house. A carriage house on the property also has its own apartment. From stain-glass windows and multiple fireplaces, to black walnut paneling and a hand-crafted fountain, the home is truly a Detroit jewel.

The restoration was the perfect launch point for an international marketing plan crafted by Smith. "Using the Keller Williams international network, I was able to give the home the exposure that a property of this stature requires. In fact, it was through this marketing that the eventual buyer contacted me to request a viewing," noted Smith, who added that the marketing effort resulted in multiple offers that allowed the owner to sell for more than the asking price. Interest generated in the property once it came on the market was widespread, and included inquiries from potential buyers in London, Dubai and Brazil.

Smith concluded: "The process took two years and we went through several deals with several buyers before Ms. Reaves found the right buyer to protect the legacy of this iconic home and become its new steward."

Media Contact:

Deborah R. Smith

Keller Williams Realty

248-225-9441 Cell

www.YourFamilyMoves.com

SOURCE Keller Williams Realty - West Bloomfield Market Center
DUBLIN, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Indian Industrial Automation Market: Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, Trends, and Forecasts to 2023" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The Industrial Automation Market in India will witness a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period 2017-2023.

The Indian Industrial Automation Market is still evolving and its prospects are good due to increasing Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and sustained growth of the manufacturing sector. The country is expected to strengthen its manufacturing sector from its current share of 16.57% of the GDP in FY2017 to 25%-30% of the GDP by FY2030.

Indian industries are improving their automation capabilities bringing it at par with global standards due to the pressing need for operational excellence, improved productivity, quality and to maintain six sigma standards in the production processes. This is further supplemented by macroeconomic factors such as the burgeoning middle-class population, rising disposable incomes, urbanization, and focused government initiatives, which are expected to have a positive impact on the growth of the manufacturing industry.

The report contains an in-depth analysis of vendor profiles which includes financial health, business units, key business priorities, SWOT, strategy, and views and competitive landscape. The vendors covered in this report are Siemens Ltd., Schneider Electric, ABB Ltd., Rockwell Automation, and Honeywell International Inc. The report also includes a list of companies offering innovative industrial automation products, namely GreyOrange, Arkrobot, and Gixtronix Technologies.

Market Dynamics

Drivers



Rapid adoption of digital technologies

Reduced production cost

To stay competitive

Improved quality and reliability

Restraints



Requirement of high initial capital expenditure

Worker displacement

Lack of awareness

Opportunities



Establishment of smart factories

Cloud computing in industrial automation

Key Topics Covered:

1 Industry Outlook



2 Report Outline



3 Market Snapshot



4 Market Outlook



5 Market Characteristics



6 Industrial Automation Types: Market Size and Analysis



7 Technology: Market Size and Analysis



8 Verticals: Market Size and Analysis



9 Vendors Profile



10 Companies to Watch for



11 Competitive Landscape



Companies Mentioned



ABB Ltd.

Arkrobot (iFuture Robotics)

Gixtronix Technologies

GreyOrange

Honeywell International Inc.

Rockwell Automation

Schneider Electric (S.E.)

Siemens Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4stld8/indian_industrial

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


Participating startups will receive funding and have the opportunity to closely interact with the program's sponsors, investors and mentors who are successful industry veterans. InNEVator 2017 is designed to accelerate development of prototyping, creative thinking, commercialization, seed-funding, planning and operations, customer engagement and other aspects of business. The deadline to apply for participation is Aug. 28.

"The overall goal is to create more viable, fundable startups, as we also spur creativity, ideation and economic opportunity," Jim Sacherman, director of The Innevation Center and a successful serial entrepreneur, said.

Breadware and WaterShed Growth Ventures have joined The Innevation Center as hosts of InNEVator 2017.

Breadware is a unique hardware and software service that helps entrepreneurs and businesses seeking to develop products in the IoT space. Based in The Innevation Center, Breadware moved its headquarters and operations to Reno in March 2017.

"Our Breadware toolset provides a powerful and accessible solution to IoT development, reducing the time and money burdens of the development process," Danny deLaveaga, COO of Breadware, said.

WaterShed Growth Ventures is a specialized investor and consultancy organization focused on effectively managing, funding and building early-stage companies in northern Nevada. It was co-founded by Sacherman, who continues as a managing member, along with Dan Eckert and Scott Levy.

The Innevation Center is at the heart of Reno's emerging high-energy, entrepreneurial scene. It offers a collaborative environment where university students, faculty members and researchers engage with entrepreneurs, investors, commercialization experts and community leaders.

For more information about InNEVator 2017 sponsorship or to apply to participate, visit www.renoinnevator.com or contact Rosanne Catron at 775-682-8612 or [email protected]. For more information about The Innevation Center visit www.unr.edu/innevation.

 @unevadareno 

Media Contact:

Jane Tors

Director, Research Communications

University of Nevada, Reno

775-327-2359 office

775-240-8686 mobile

[email protected]

SOURCE University of Nevada, Reno

Related Links

http://www.unr.edu


CHICAGO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Greater Chicago is the third largest economy in the U.S., with dozens of Fortune 500 brands ranging from McDonald's to Walgreens calling the Windy City home.

With more purchasing professionals than most American regions, Greater Chicago is a hub for procurement activity, led by some of the profession's most innovative CPOs.

For that reason, Procurious.com the leading global online business network for procurement and supply chain professionals, has chosen Chicago as the first U.S. location for its digitally led procurement think-tank, the Big Ideas Summit.

Big Ideas Partner and Europe's leading procurement services provider, Proxima saw the importance of Chicago as a procurement hub early on, opening their first U.S. office here in 2012. Since then they have continued to support clients across all of the US.

"Chicago is headquarters to many large, multi-national companies--therefore an incredibly important market for the procurement profession. It is the key location for us to connect with the abundance of procurement talent and leading U.S. procurement and supply chain executives," said Dan Collings, Senior Vice President and Head of U.S., Proxima.

Basware, the largest open business network in the world, is also joining forces with Procurious to collaborate with more procurement and supply chain professionals from across the globe.

"Being a part of the Procurious conversation is another way for us to keep close to the changing needs of the modern procurement world, forecast trends and work with organizations to navigate their challenges," said Eric Wilson, Basware Vice President of Purchase-to-Pay.

Big Ideas Chicago will debate the latest, game changing issues: global economic and geopolitical shocks, Industry 4.0, harnessing innovation and cognitive technology.

"We are bringing together the top one percent, who are on the leading edge of the profession. We want to crowdsource ideas and push procurement and supply management from the past and into the future," said Tania Seary, Founding Chairman of Procurious.

After three successful years in London, Big Ideas will be held at the Wit Chicago on Sept. 28 with keynote presentations from:

Urbanist, futurist and Author Greg Lindsay will uncover why innovation today is fundamentally social and often the result of engineered serendipity

will uncover why innovation today is fundamentally social and often the result of engineered serendipity ISM  CEO Tom Derry , will talk through the five traits you need to be a truly agile and forward-thinking digital CPO

, will talk through the five traits you need to be a truly agile and forward-thinking digital CPO Sibylline CEO Justin Crump will build the case for procurement teams to transform into crack intelligence gatherers

will build the case for procurement teams to transform into crack intelligence gatherers Former Navy SEAL Andy Stumpf will provide strategies for making complex decisions under great pressure and without a full data-set

will provide strategies for making complex decisions under great pressure and without a full data-set Basware Vice President Purchase-to-Pay Eric Wilson will discuss why data is the alpha and omega of AI

Make your voice heard! With just 50 seats available at the invitation-only Chicago event, CPOs should register here. "Procurement's rising stars" can attend online for FREE by signing up with Procurious and joining the Big Ideas Digital Delegate Group.

About Procurious

Procurious (procurious.com) is the world's first online business community dedicated to procurement and supply chain professionals. It's a hub to advance your career, develop your skills and expand your global professional network. With 24,000+ members from around the globe, Procurious aims to empower procurement leaders to connect, collaborate and take a more innovative professional outlook. Think of Procurious as a professional network, news and knowledge hub, learning and career center, all in one place. Procurious Founding Chairman Tania Seary has been named by IBM as a Futurist, and by Supply Chain Dive as the 2016 Influencer of the Year.

Contact: Dawn Ringel, 781-449-8456, [email protected]





SOURCE Procurious

Related Links

http://www.procurious.com


NEW YORK and RENTON, Wash., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Hall Capital Partners ("Liberty Hall"), a private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in businesses serving the global aerospace and defense industry, today announced the appointment of Daniele Cagnatel to the role of President and CEO of AIM Aerospace ("AIM"), a leading supplier of composite ducting, structural and interiors parts for the global aerospace industry. Mr. Cagnatel is succeeding AIM's current President, John Feutz, who announced his retirement after more than twenty years of service.

"AIM Aerospace has served as a leader in the composite ducting industry for over 30 years, and as we continue to invest in the composite segment of the aerospace industry and in AIM's continued growth," said Rowan Taylor, Liberty Hall's founding Partner. "Daniele is an exemplary professional with a proven track record in operations, strategy, acquisition integration, customer management and managing complex business environments. We welcome Daniele to AIM Aerospace. We also want to thank John Feutz for his many years of exemplary leadership and service to AIM. John has led the company's tremendous growth over the past decade, as well as our purchase of AIM last year and AIM's acquisition of Quatro Composites this January."

Mr. Cagnatel, who has nearly two decades of experience in the global aerospace industry, will be based in the company's headquarters in Renton, Washington. He joins AIM from GKN Aerospace, a division of global engineering business GKN, where he has served in a number of management roles, including President and CEO of GKN Aerostructures North America, where he oversaw the division's $900 million annual business portfolio and managed four strategic businesses operating from 10 manufacturing sites across North America and Mexico. While at GKN, he has also served as Vice President and General Manager for GKN Advanced Composite Structures, Head of Operations at GKN Aerospace Filton, and Managing Director for GKN Aerospace GmbH. He began his career at GKN International's Leadership Development Program in 1999 and was appointed to GKN's Aerospace Executive Committee in January 2014. He received a M.A. in Mechanical Engineering with Management and German Language from the University of Nottingham, U.K.

Mr. Cagnatel added: "I am honored to take on this role at AIM. For decades, AIM has maintained a solid position in its segment, and I look forward to working closely with the management team and staff in realizing its growth potential in order to meet the increasing demand for composites to support next generation aircraft."

Mr. Cagnatel joins a senior leadership team of AIM that has expanded since Liberty Hall's acquisition in February 2016 to include Jim Naylor as SVP and CFO from Precision Castparts Corporation, Robert Murdock as SVP of Business Development from Orbital ATK, Steve Roesner as SVP of Strategy from Quatro Composites and, most recently, Patrick Russell as SVP and COO from Orbital ATK.

About Liberty Hall Capital Partners

Liberty Hall Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in businesses serving the global aerospace and defense industry. Liberty Hall's principals have a 25-plus year history of working together and have led the investment of $2.4 billion in equity capital in businesses serving multiple segments of the aerospace and defense industry and complementary industrial end markets. Liberty Hall develops actionable investment strategies for attractive segments of the aerospace and defense industry and then partners with entrepreneurs and management teams to acquire leading businesses serving these segments and, together with them, develops sound, long-term strategic plans to build these businesses through a combination of strategic investments and strategic acquisitions. For more information, please visit http://www.libertyhallcapital.com/.

About AIM Aerospace Corporation

AIM Aerospace Corporation is a leading supplier of composite ducting, structural and interior parts for the global aerospace industry based in greater Seattle, WA with four manufacturing facilities located in greater Seattle and Orange City, IA and a research and development center located in Poway, CA. AIM is currently executing a strategic plan to build its business through strategic investments in further capabilities, customers and platforms. For more information, please visit http://aim-aerospace.com/

SOURCE Liberty Hall Capital Partners

Related Links

http://www.libertyhallcapital.com


DECATUR  Illinois schools are one step closer to receiving state money after the Senate voted Sunday to override Gov. Bruce Rauners veto, but theres still a major hurdle ahead as the legislation heads back to the House this week.

I can only say that we will just have to wait and see, Decatur Superintendent Paul Fregeau said Sunday evening.

The Senate voted 38-19 to override significant changes the first-term governor made to the landmark legislation known as Senate Bill 1. The governor's changes, which came in a veto of a newly devised school-funding model, stripped Chicago public schools of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The motion to override the governor's veto also would have to pass with a three-fifths majority in the House, which is set to convene Wednesday.

The measure needs 71 votes in the House. With 67 Democrats, assuming they all vote to override, that means Republican help will be required to defeat Rauner.

The Senate vote is a step in the right direction, Fregeau said. But there is still a lot of work ahead in the House.

If the state money doesn't come through, Decatur schools are set to run out of reserves by mid-November. Fregeau has said district leaders would then consider other options, such as borrowing money against future tax revenue.

The Decatur superintendent has only been in the job for a month and said it's been an unusual and stressful way to start a school year. He doesn't know how the future will shake out if the override vote in the House fails and all parties go back to square one, leaving school districts with no funding until a new bill is drafted.

But Fregeau said Decatur schools will open for business as scheduled Wednesday and then handle things from there.

You can only worry about what you can control, he added. You continue to advocate for legislation that helps education but you focus on the kids and getting schools ready so the kids have a good experience that first day of school and beyond.

Ahead of the vote, Rauner promoted an Illinois State Board of Education analysis of the amendatory veto's impact that he said showed that "the vast majority of our neediest districts get millions" of dollars more.

But the argument did not sway Democrats who control the Legislature. They stuck with the "evidence-based" funding model they adopted in May. It's designed to determine funding levels for specific districts based in part on the number of students living in poverty, lacking English-language skills and other data-driven measurements.

Rauner's amendatory veto would have meant a nearly $3 million boost to the finances of Decatur schools, on top of $2.5 million more they would gain under Senate Bill 1. But Fregeau opposed it because, he said, longer term changes to assessed valuation formulas and enrollment counts would have hurt his school district financially.

The best thing for us and the state was Senate Bill 1, he said.

Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from Bunker Hill who sponsored the plan, said Rauner would rob Peter to pay Paul. Manar said his legislation ensures that no school district would receive less state aid than it did this past school year, a provision known as "hold harmless."

"Taking money away from one district  the largest in the state, which educates children in poverty  and giving it to other districts in the state which educates children in poverty, is not a solution that's going to lead to greater equity," Manar said. "Senate Bill 1 results in no red numbers, no losses."

Republican state Sen. Chapin Rose of Mahomet was among those who voted against overriding the veto, maintaining that a negotiated, bpiartisan solution could be better.

First it was a massive tax hike on the backs of every working Illinoisan, now its a bailout of Chicago Public Schools that takes money away from our local schools. Where does it end? he said in a statement.

The State Board of Educations independent analysis released Saturday proves that a better path forward exists for 98 percent of schools in Illinois. Make no mistake, any vote in supporting the override is a vote to bailout Chicago Public Schools ineptness on the backs of our local school children, our local teachers, and our local property taxpayers.

The dust-up prevented the State Board of Education from releasing the first state-aid payment, due Aug. 10. Many public school districts are scheduled to open this week or next week. None have indicated they won't open, but most say they can't hold class all year without state money.

A key to Manar's plan is the "hold harmless" stipulation, which ensures no less funding than last year. That includes a grant of $250 million for Chicago schools, the nation's third-largest school system, that lawmakers negotiated two decades ago. Rauner said the grant is a "bailout" for the cash-strapped school district and unfair to the other 850 school districts in the state.

Two hours before the Senate action to override Rauner, the governor implored lawmakers to embrace his changes and recognize "true fairness and equity." He extolled the state education board's analysis of his changes, saying it was "great news" for children statewide.

"The numbers bear out how broken our system is and how important our changes are. It shows that for years the state has been sending money to Chicago at the expense of the rest of the state," Rauner said.

Democratic lawmakers, who ended a two-year budget stalemate by approving a state budget over Rauner's objections in July, prohibited the state from disbursing school aid unless done through an evidence-based platform, such as the one in Senate Bill 1. Because neither the legislation nor any other evidence-based program has become law, the state can't cut any aid checks to schools.

No Illinois school has reported that it'll be unable to open on time, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. However, many say they'll only be able to last a few months.

Meridian Superintendent Dan Brue has said his district has frozen spending for everything but essentials, not even buying toilet paper and cleaning supplies in customary amounts.

Brue has created two budgets, one that includes state funding and one that does not, so he and the board can plan accordingly. They also had a spending freeze from December through the end of the school year because the state had not passed a budget at all then.

Cerro Gordo Superintendent Brett Robinson said his district would run out of money by early January.

Mount Zion Superintendent Travis Roundcount said the district has solid financial reserves, and added the districts administrators have not determined when their crisis point would be.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
BALLERUP, Denmark, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LiqTech International, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN: LIQT), a clean technology company that manufactures and markets highly specialized filtration technologies, announces today its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017.

Financial highlights for the three months ended June 30, 2017

Net sales for the three months ended June 30, 2017 were $2.9 million compared to $4.0 million for the same period in 2016, representing a decrease of $1.1 million or 27.5%.

The decrease in sales consisted of a decrease in sales of liquid filters and systems of $1.8 million offset by an increase in sales of DPFs of $0.7 million.

Gross profit for the three months ended June 30, 2017 was $0.2 million compared to a gross profit of $1.1 million for same period in 2016, representing a decrease of $0.9 million or 81.8%.

Included in gross profit is depreciation of $0.2 million and $0.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Total operating expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2017 were $1.2 million representing a decrease of $0.2 million or 14.3%, compared to $1.4 million for the same period in 2016.

Net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2017 was a loss of $1.2 million compared to a loss of $0.3 million for the comparable period in 2016, representing an increase in net loss of $0.9 million.

Total net loss of $1.2 million for the period ended June 30, 2017 includes non-cash charges for depreciation and amortization, bad debt expense, reserve for obsolete inventory and stock compensation expense charges for a total of approximately $0.3 million.

Financial highlights for the six months ended June 30, 2017

Net sales for the six months ended June 30, 2017 were $5.9 million compared to $7.6 million for the same period in 2016, representing a decrease of $1.7 million or 22.4%.

The decrease in sales consisted of a decrease in sales of liquid filters and systems of $3.3 million offset by an increase in sales of DPFs of $1.6 million.

Gross profit for the six months ended June 30, 2017 was $0.5 million compared to a gross profit of $1.9 million for same period in 2016, representing a decrease of $1.4 million or 73.7%.

Included in gross profit is depreciation of $0.5 million and $0.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Total operating expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2017 were $2.4 million representing a decrease of $0.7 million or 22.6%, compared to $3.1 million for the same period in 2016.

Net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2017 was a loss of $2.0 million compared to a loss of $4.1 million for the comparable period in 2016, representing a decrease in net loss of $2.1 million or 51.2%.

Cash on hand and restricted cash for the period ended June 30, 2017 was $1.3 million compared to $1.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016, representing an increase of $0.1 million.

Working capital for the period ended June 30, 2017 was $4.0 million compared to $3.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 representing an increase of $0.5 million or 14.3%.

Total net loss of $2.0 million for the period ended June 30, 2017 includes non-cash charges for depreciation and amortization, bad debt expense, reserve for obsolete inventory and stock compensation expense charges for a total of approximately $0.6 million.

Management Commentary

In discussing the second quarter 2017 results, Mr. Sune Mathiesen, LiqTech CEO, remarked:

"Our results for the second quarter were in line with our expectations. In the first half year of 2017 we have continued to invest significant resources in developing the marine scrubber market. We have been active in this industry for that past 3 years and following the IMO decision last year to implement a new lower global cap on sulphur emissions from international shipping, we now see that the pace of adoption of scrubber systems is picking up. To date we have delivered 7 systems for this challenging application  a number that we expect to be more than double in the second half year of 2017. We are encouraged by the rapid development in the marine scrubber market and we believe that our long-term commitment has positioned us well to be one of the market leaders for water treatment systems to this industry. We believe that we will see a further acceleration of the adoption of scrubber systems over the coming years, and we are ready to continue the ramp-up of our business to match the increased demand."

"We will also continue our efforts to establish our technology in the swimming pool-, oil & gas-, mining-, drinking water- and aquaculture markets. The long term goal is to see the same adoption of our technology as we now see in the marine scrubber market. We believe that we will see orders for some of these industries in the second half year of 2017."

"In May 2017 we completed a private placement of 7,300,000 new shares. The net proceeds of approximately $1.8 million has strengthened our balance sheet and allowed us to invest further in the acceleration of our marine scrubber business. This remains a focus area for us."

"We believe that our narrowed focus and the development of standardized systems has proven to be the right choice, and we expect an improvement of revenue and earnings in the second half year of 2017."

Conference Call Details

Interested parties may participate in the call by dialing (877) 407-8029 or (201) 689-8029. It is recommended to dial in approximately 10 to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. The conference call will also be available on replay starting at 3:00 p.m. EDT on August 14, 2017 and ending on September 4, 2017. To access the replay, please dial (877) 660-6853 or (201) 612-7415 and enter the conference id# 13662373.

Callers from Denmark can dial in using the following numbers: Denmark (fixed) ATT 80 25 21 64 Denmark (mobile) ATT 80 25 19 17

Financial Tables Follow

LIQTECH INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS





As of



As of





June, 30



December 31,





2017



2016





Unaudited









Current Assets:















Cash

$ 1,280,670



$ 1,208,650

Accounts receivable, net



1,566,057





1,111,759

Other receivables



331,375





306,177

Cost in excess of billing



727,034





642,700

Inventories



5,145,848





5,174,874

Prepaid expenses



139,436,





62,161



















Total Current Assets



9,190,420





8,506,321



















Property and Equipment, net accumulated depreciation



2,285,503





2,633,558



















Other Assets:















Investments at costs



5,716





5,282

Other intangible assets



4,469





5,614

Deposits



278,758





261,553



















Total Other Assets



288,943





272,449



















Total Assets

$ 11,764,866



$ 11,412,328



(Continued)

LIQTECH INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS





As of



As of





June, 30



December 31,





2017



2016





Unaudited









Current Liabilities:















Current portion of notes payable

$ 15,371



$ 15,034

Current portion of capital lease obligations



9,936





45,883

Accounts payable



2,066,925





2,262,688

Accrued expenses



2,727,721





2,385,586

Billing in excess of cost



14,727





106,375

Accrued income taxes payable



580





580

Deferred revenue / customers deposits



366,391





192,597



















Total Current Liabilities



5,201,651





5,008,743



















Long-term notes payable, less current portion



35,404





39,895

Long-term capital lease obligations, less current portion



20,882





93,942



















Total Long-Term Liabilities



56,286





133,837



















Total Liabilities



5,257,937





5,142,580























































Stockholders' Equity:















Common stock; par value $0.001, 100,000,000 shares authorized 44,229,264

and 36,835,514 shares issued and outstanding at June 30, 2017 and December

31, 2016, respectively



44,229





36,836

Additional paid-in capital



37,961,724





36,084,117

Accumulated deficit



(26,037,008)





(24,011,343)

Deferred compensation



(82,603)





(148,561)

Other comprehensive income, net



(5,379,413)





(5,691,301)



















Total Stockholders' Equity



6,506,929





6,269,748



















Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity

$ 11,764,866



$ 11,412,328



LIQTECH INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES (UNAUDITED) CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS





For the Three Months

Ended



For the Six Months

Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2017



2016



2017



2016

Net Sales

$ 2,926,200



$ 4,019,338



$ 5,894,274



$ 7,649,306



































Cost of Goods Sold



2,733,526





2,890,984





5,430,183





5,774,994



































Gross Profit



192,674





1,128,354





464,091





1,874,312



































Operating Expenses:































Selling expenses



534,359





512,179





984,742





1,103,247

General and administrative expenses



491,929





575,908





1,085,567





1,331,902

Non-cash compensation expenses



29,780





105,373





125,958





272,724

Research and development expenses



114,010





164,056





253,346





352,569



































Total Operating Expense



1,170,078





1,357,516





2,449,613





3,060,442



































Loss from Operations



(977,404)





(229,162)





(1,985,522)





(1,186,130)



































Other Income (Expense)































Interest and other income



77





-





303





-

Interest expense



(8,706)





(6,602)





(19,527)





(16,496)

Gain (Loss) on currency transactions



(206,362)





391





(27,687)





(12,159)

Gain on sale of fixed assets



-





-





6,768





-



































Total Other Expense



(214,991)





(6,211)





(40,143)





(28,655)



































Loss Before Income Taxes



(1,192,395)





(235,373)





(2,025,665)





(1,214,785)



































Income Tax Expense



-





94,003





-





2,868,286



































Net Loss $ (1,192,395)



$ (329,376)



$ (2,025,665)



$ (4,083,071)



































Basic Loss Per Share

$ (0.03)



$ (0.01)



$ (0.05)



$ (0.10)



































Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding



40,667,107





39,532,035





38,761,647





39,532,035



































Diluted Loss Per Share

$ (0.03)



$ (0.01)



$ (0.05)



$ (0.10)



































Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding

Assuming Dilution



40,667,107





39,532,035





38,761,647





39,532,035



ABOUT LIQTECH INTERNATIONAL, INC.

LiqTech International, Inc., a Nevada corporation, is a clean technology company that for more than a decade has developed and provided state-of-the-art technologies for gas and liquid purification using ceramic silicon carbide filters, particularly highly specialized filters for the control of soot exhaust particles from diesel engines and for liquid filtration. Using nanotechnology, LiqTech develops products using proprietary silicon carbide technology. LiqTech's products are based on unique silicon carbide membranes which facilitate new applications and improve existing technologies. In particular, LiqTech Systems A/S (www.provital.dk), the Company's subsidiary, has developed a new standard of water filtration technology to meet the ever increasing demand for higher water quality. By incorporating LiqTech's SiC liquid membrane technology with its longstanding systems design experience and capabilities it offers solutions to the most difficult water pollution problem.

For more information, please visit www.liqtech.com

Follow LiqTech on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/liqtech-international

Follow LiqTech on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiqTech

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Although the forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in the our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks that may affect our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release.

CONTACT:

LiqTech International

Aldo Petersen, Chairman,

+45 2390 0000, [email protected]

Sune Mathiesen, CEO

+45 5197 0908, [email protected]

SOURCE LiqTech International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.liqtech.com


PARSIPPANY, N.J., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Liquid Church, one of New Jersey's fastest-growing Christian churches, will host a night of free family fun with "Parsippany Movie Night," on Friday, August 25th. The outdoor movie night event will take place on the "great lawn" of the church's brand-new Broadcast Campus in Parsippany, in anticipation of the building's future Grand Opening.

The entire community throughout Parsippany and Morris County is invited to gather under the stars for a screening of the animated movie "Sing." Free popcorn and lemonade will be provided for all guests, and the evening will kick-off with fun games prior to the movie screening.

"As we look forward to the Grand Opening of our brand-new Broadcast Campus in Parsippany, this is one way of extending our sincere thanks to the community for welcoming us to the neighborhood," said Tim Lucas, lead pastor and founder of Liquid Church. "For Parsippany Movie Night, we'll have a 40 foot movie screen setup on our massive front lawn, with room for more than a thousand guests to join us. Whether our neighbors are looking for a budget-friendly family outing or a fun date night, they are welcome to join us!"

"Parsippany Movie Night" begins at 7:00pm with the opening of the free popcorn and lemonade stand, and the movie will begin at 7:30pm. For seating, guests are asked to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets.

In the event of bad weather, the rain date for "Parsippany Movie Night" is the following day, Saturday, August 26th. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.ParsippanyMovieNight.com.

ABOUT LIQUID CHURCH:

Liquid Church is one of New Jersey's fastest-growing Christian churches. Officially launched in 2007 by Lead Pastor Tim Lucas, the church's vision and mission is to "Saturate the State with the Gospel of Jesus Christ," with six campuses in Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, and Union Counties. Each week, more than 3,500 people experience Liquid Church's worship services in New Jersey and around the globe through Church Online. As part of its global outreach, Liquid provides clean drinking water to the poorest of the poor, with dozens of completed wells in several countries including El Salvador and Nicaragua  and most recently, Rwanda! Liquid Church's innovative approaches to outreach and ministry have been spotlighted by CNN and The New York Times.For more information, visit www.LiquidChurch.com.

Press Contact:

Brooke LeMunyon - [email protected], 732-421-8162

SOURCE www.LiquidChurch.com

Related Links

https://liquidchurch.com


EDISON, N.J., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LogicWeb Inc. (est. 2004), a leading global web hosting provider, announces new plans for location expansion, increased web hosting value and exponential year-over-year growth thanks to global satisfied customer base.

CEO and founder Chad Abizeid, states "The web hosting landscape is ever evolving and changing to new platforms and consumer options." LogicWeb plans to expand its cPanel web hosting offerings as well to offer greater value and performance, security and customer satisfaction as well.

LogicWeb has set plans to add additional locations in the U.S., U.K. and eventually Asia with the goal to accommodate global clients who demand the best speed, latency and uptime with their managed web hosting needs. Chad Abizeid says, "due to privacy concerns made known to people within the past two years, VPN services have dramatically grown in numbers and providers worldwide." Chad Abizeid explains that due to LogicWeb's unusually higher number off IPv4 addresses they contain in their pool, some of the top VPN and ISP companies worldwide utilize LogicWeb's massive quantity of IPv4 addresses for their services and to accommodate their clientele.

About LogicWeb: LogicWeb is a world-wide tier-1 web hosting provider collocated in Edison, New Jersey. LogicWeb was founded in 2004 by Chad Abizeid and continues to provide exceptional shared and managed web hosting services to small and large enterprises globally. Site: https://www.logicweb.com. Phone: 866-611-1556.

Chad Abizeid

LogicWeb Inc.

866-611-1556

[email protected]

SOURCE LogicWeb Inc.

Related Links

http://www.logicweb.com


BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With a focus on engagement and stewardship, Lynchburg College selected Campus Management as its student information system and enterprise resource planning partner. Using CampusNexus Student and CampusNexus Finance, HR & Payroll in the CampusNexus Cloud, Lynchburg College will be positioned to meet its Vision 2020 strategic plan.

Campus Management solutions will help faculty and staff reach students in a targeted, personalized manner to meet students' needs. Additionally, staff will be able to eliminate manual processes across the institution, creating more time to devote to students.

"Now more than ever we need a software partner to help us engage with students, families and staff, and automate and integrate processes that will help us modernize our IT infrastructure," said Jackie Almond, Director of Information, Technology and Resources at Lynchburg College. "We believe Campus Management's focus on culture, relationships and technology built for the future will enable us to engage our constituents throughout Lynchburg's branding process and help us prepare for the growth we see on the horizon."

In February 2017, Lynchburg announced its name change from Lynchburg College to University of Lynchburg for the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year. The partnership with Campus Management, as well as the name change, follows the adoption of the Vision 2020 strategy to strive for national leadership in student engagement.

"Leveraging CampusNexus solutions, Lynchburg College will modernize and enhance its technology and transform engagement with constituents for years to come," said Campus Management Senior Vice President of Sales and Professional Service Jim Brigadier. "We are excited to be a part of the strategy to enhance operational efficiency at the institution and help them achieve and exceed their goals for growth."

Built on Microsoft technology, Campus Management's CampusNexus solutions enable institutions to engage with their desired audiences at the right time to meet prospect, student and staff needs.

About Campus Management Corp.

Campus Management is a leading provider of technology solutions and services that transform higher education institutions. Its next-generation suite, CampusNexus, includes enterprise-wide Student, CRM, and Finance, HR & Payroll solutions. Today, more than 2,000 campuses in 20 countries collaborate with Campus Management to transform academic delivery, student success and operational efficiency.

About Lynchburg College

Lynchburg College is a private, independent, residential college located on 250 beautiful acres in central Virginia. The student body numbers 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students. Lynchburg College offers 40 undergraduate majors, 57 minors, 13 pre-professional programs, and 18 graduate degrees, all supported by a strong liberal arts foundation.

Media Contact:

Ashley Prince

Media Relations

Campus Management Corp.

954-249-1124

[email protected]

SOURCE Campus Management Corporation

Related Links

http://www.campusmgmt.com


RICHMOND, Va., Aug.14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel Corporation has announced the launch of its new trade credit and political risk operation in Chicago.

Christen Mizell will transfer to Chicago from New York to take on trade credit and political risk underwriting responsibility for the Midwestern states. Her role is to broaden Markel's geographic footprint across this increasingly important part of the country, with special focus on developing strategic broker relationships, supporting the existing client base and targeting new customer opportunities.

Christen's appointment follows Markel's recent trade credit expansion into Canada.

Since the establishment of the US trade credit and political risk operation in July 2014, Markel has successfully grown the business focusing on a broad range of specialist products. In 2016, the team expanded with two new appointments when Howard Lee and Arjan van de Wall joined the operation. It now comprises four underwriters led by Phil Amlot, underwriting manager for the Americas.

Policies can be written on an admitted basis across 40 states and Canada with tenors of up to seven years.

Christen joined Markel Corporation in 2013 and spent her early days with the trade credit team at Markel International in London. In 2014, she co-established the US operation with Phil Amlot. Christen holds both a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science in Commerce from the University of Virginia.





Philip Amlot said: "Christen has strong connections in the Midwest, which will be a huge asset to our organisation and to the continued development of our business across the Americas region."

Ewa Rose, managing director of Markel's trade credit, political risk and surety business, added: "Christen will be actively involved in further developing our broker and client relationships. She will help to shape our offering across this important part of the USA and we are delighted to have someone with her outstanding reputation in the trade credit market represent us in the region. Christen's new role is part of Markel's on-going investment in our operation, with physical underwriting presence in London, New York, Singapore, Dubai and now Chicago."

About Markel Corporation

Markel Corporation is a diverse financial holding company serving a variety of niche markets. The Company's principal business markets and underwrites specialty insurance products. In each of the Company's businesses, it seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader. The financial goals of the Company are to earn consistent underwriting and operating profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value. Visit Markel Corporation on the web at markelcorp.com.

SOURCE Markel Corporation

Related Links

http://www.markelcorp.com


SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) unveiled a banner at its corporate headquarters, located at The Sacramento Bee offices, to honor independent journalist Austin Tice. He has been held captive for 1,827 days.

For the summer of 2012, Austin traveled to Syria as a freelance journalist. He filed several stories for different media outlets, including McClatchy. August 13, 2012 is the last time Austin communicated with family or friends. He was travelling to Lebanon to file his final pieces and head home. But he never made it. Video emerged five weeks after his disappearance, showing him surrounded by armed men.

"Austin went to Syria to tell the stories of ordinary people in extraordinary situations and he found himself the subject of a kidnapping and unjust detention that has gone on for far too long. It is long past time for this detention to end," said Craig Forman, President and CEO of McClatchy. "On this very difficult anniversary, we honor his sacrifice and that of his family."

The banner at the headquarters of McClatchy, founded on the principles of a strong and independent local press 160 years ago in Sacramento, reflects the company's continuing commitment to Austin Tice's release.

About McClatchy

McClatchy is publisher of iconic brands such as the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and the (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram. McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 29 U.S. markets in 14 states, providing each of its communities with high-quality news and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.

SOURCE McClatchy

Related Links

http://www.mcclatchy.com


SAN DIEGO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC:MJNA), the first publicly traded cannabis company in the United States, today announced that its subsidiary HempMeds Brasil is holding a sold-out doctor symposium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, dedicated to providing the Brazilian medical community with information about the medical value of cannabidiol (CBD), how to legally import CBD into the country and prescribe it for patients and present CBD clinical study results.

The symposium, which will take place at the Renaissance Hotel in Sao Paulo on August 15, is part of the Company's goal to educate health professionals on the therapeutic uses of cannabis and will feature renowned medical experts and pioneers in the field like Dr. Saul Garza Morales, pediatric researcher and neurologist in Mexico, and Dr. Stuart Titus, Chief Executive Officer of Medical Marijuana, Inc. Both will share on the specific therapeutic benefits of CBD, as well as gaining access to medical cannabis for improving health and quality of life.

Dr. Garza will also share the positive results of a recent study he conducted on the effects of Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s Real Scientific Hemp Oil-X (RSHO-X) product in treating children with severe epilepsy, in which 86 percent of the 29 patients he studied experienced statistically significant (greater than 50%) reduction in motor seizures. Seventeen percent of the children were fully seizure free for a 4-month period.

"We are encouraged that this second doctor symposium that we are holding in Brazil is completely sold out, which means health professionals throughout the Country are becoming increasingly interested in how they can prescribe CBD hemp oil products to their patients and learn about the plethora of benefits that medical cannabis provides to treat several types of indications," said Medical Marijuana, Inc. CEO Dr. Stuart Titus. "We look forward to continuing educating and working with Brazilian doctors to strengthen the lives and livelihoods of those in Brazil who suffer needlessly in silence and to provide additional research on the therapeutic benefits of botanical CBD."

HempMeds Brasil is the first company to offer legal medicinal cannabis products to Brazil after receiving import approval to those suffering from specific medical conditions. Most recently in February 2017, for the filling of a prescription for the first time for the Company's hemp CBD oil product RSHO to treat patients in the Country suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Additionally, doctors in Brazil can prescribe RSHO for any condition and HempMeds Brasil has worked with several cases including patients suffering from:

Epilepsy

Psoriasis

Pain

Cancer

Parkinson's

Alzheimer's

Migraine

Diabetes

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

About Medical Marijuana, Inc.

Our mission is to be the premier cannabis and hemp industry innovators, leveraging our team of professionals to source, evaluate and purchase value-added companies and products, while allowing them to keep their integrity and entrepreneurial spirit. We strive to create awareness within our industry, develop environmentally-friendly, economically-sustainable businesses, while increasing shareholder value. For details on Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s portfolio and investment companies, visit www.medicalmarijuanainc.com.

Shareholders are also encouraged to visit the Medical Marijuana, Inc. Shop for discounted products.

About HempMeds Brasil

HempMeds Brasil currently has three cannabis products approved for importation into Brazil as a prescription medication for multiple conditions including; Epilepsy, Parkinson's, Chronic Pain, Psoriasis, Cancer, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis and Migraines. The company had the first-ever cannabis product allowed for import into Brazil and its products are currently subsidized by the Brazilian government, under their health care system, for all three medical indications listed above. HempMeds Brasil is working on additional approvals for multiple indications.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER AND DISCLOSURES.

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties. The statements in this press release have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. The Company does not sell or distribute any products that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act. The Company does sell and distribute hemp-based products.

CONTACT:

Public Relations Contact:

Andrew Hard

Chief Executive Officer

CMW Media

P: 888-829-0070

[email protected]

www.cmwmedia.com

SOURCE Medical Marijuana, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com


HELSINKI, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MeetingPackage.com, the global marketplace for booking off-site meetings & events, announces that it will enable, as the first marketplace in the world, direct integration to Oracle's Opera Sales & Catering. Oracle's system is widely used by hotels around the world. The first hotels have already started the integration process, and the users of MeetingPackage.com can soon book their offsite meeting spaces directly online with transparent pricing and availability.

Search meeting rooms and meeting packages easily online

"We are really proud and enthusiastic about finalizing the integration with Oracle's Opera Sales & Catering, a process that we already started years ago. We strongly believe the meeting booking market is moving towards greater transparency and less friction in customer transactions. In other words, the availability of meeting spaces will be 'genuinely online'. This development is beautifully in line with our own vision for 2020 when we believe the majority of meeting room bookings will be made through MeetingPackage.com and the venues directly," says Joonas Ahola, CEO and Founder of MeetingPackage.com. "Plus, quite frankly, it's pretty cool that a Finnish startup company achieves this ahead of the established global booking platforms."

A sought-after solution by both independent and chain hotels

"We are continuously exploring new ways to boost our revenues. Our guests and meeting bookers are online but as an industry, we haven't been able to offer the option of booking meetings and events online and in real time. We are happy to hear that MeetingPackage.com have been able to develop that functionality and we are eager to further explore this opportunity with them," says Christian Borg, Commercial Director at Scandic Hotels Finland.

"MeetingPackage.com has proven to be among the most advanced solutions when it comes to meeting room bookings. This is great news for the industry and truly a win-win for both the guests and hotels to make meeting room bookings faster and easier," says Markus Veikkolainen, Revenue and Distribution Manager at Primehotels.

White label option for travel market players

MeetingPackage.com also offers its platform as a white label product for the online players in the travel market to help their customers to book meeting rooms online. Convention Bureaus, TMCs and blog websites have already implemented this solution. Carlson Wagonlit Travel is one of the TMCs using the technology provided by MeetingPackage.com in the Nordics and Italy to offer their customers the possibility to book meeting rooms online. Hotels themselves can also utilize the new integration by implementing the white label booking engine on their own website.

"We have been partnering with MeetingPackage.com both through the marketplace and recently also by implementing the white label booking engine on our own website. An independent hotel like us must work hard to find new ways to offer our customers state-of-the art services and solutions. We want to differentiate with our service offering, including the latest digital solutions," says Paivi Laine, CEO at Hotel Haaga Central Park.

Media Contact

Joonas Ahola

CEO & Founder at MeetingPackage.com

Tel +358 50 514 3542

[email protected]

Available language versions of the website to visit:

meetingpackage.com/it (Italian)

meetingpackage.com/es (Spanish)

meetingpackage.com/sv (Swedish)

meetingpackage.com/da (Danish)

meetingpackage.com/fi (Finnish)

meetingpackage.com/fr (French)

meetingpackage.com/de (German)

meetingpackage.com/lv (Latvian)

meetingpackage.com/ru (Russian)

Related Files

MeetingPackage.com_validates_as_the_first_marketplace_integration_to Oracle_Opera.docx

SOURCE MeetingPackage.com
MALIBU, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Malibu Beach Recovery Centers (MBRC), a leading West Coast treatment center for men and women addicted to alcohol, opiates, prescription medication and other drugs, has announced that Melissa Smith, LCSW, has joined its staff as Clinical Director.

Smith now leads clinical programming at MBRC's medically supervised subacute detox center in Brentwood and residential treatment centers in Malibu, California, as well as comprehensive case management and coordination of continuing care.

At MBRC Smith, a licensed clinical social worker who has a Master of Social Work from University of Southern California, provides supervision and training for a multidisciplinary team of experts, conducts assessments and maintains the highest standards of care. She has more than a decade of experience providing individual, group and family counseling, case management, program management and clinical direction at all levels of substance abuse treatment.

Using an integrative, medical model of addiction treatment, MBRC helps individuals safely and comfortably withdraw from alcohol and drugs, and seamlessly transition into residential or intensive outpatient addiction treatment. MBRC's evidence-based therapies combine medical, clinical, experiential and holistic treatments to help patients build the skills needed to resist cravings; recognize triggers; develop coping skills; manage and overcome co-occurring disorders such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and trauma; and sustain sobriety.

MBRC integrates traditional therapies such as dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and group therapy with innovative experiential and holistic programming to heal the whole person. Experiential and holistic programs include yoga, meditation, wolf therapy and nutrition counseling, with healthy meals prepared onsite by chefs to restore brain chemistry and address vitamin deficits that can occur from substance use.

"We're excited that Melissa Smith has joined Malibu Beach Recovery Centers," said Edmund Bujalski, Chief Executive Officer of RiverMend Health, the parent company of MBRC. "Her experience working with clients and their families, as well as in program management and clinical direction, will help us to continue to enhance the recovery programming available for clients at MBRC."

Malibu Beach Recovery Centers is a member of the RiverMend Health network of recovery programs. Led by nationally known experts in addiction medicine, research and psychiatry, RiverMend Health is a premier provider of scientifically driven treatment for addiction and dual disorders.

About Malibu Beach Recovery Centers

Malibu Beach Recovery Centers is a leading provider of neuroscience-driven addiction treatment in Los Angeles. Offering detoxification, residential and outpatient care, our programs are designed specifically to repair the brain's reward system and provide clients with the tools to maintain long-term sobriety. Our experienced, compassionate and multidisciplinary team is dedicated to empowering our clients to achieve recovery from addiction, and overall better physical and mental health, that lasts a lifetime. For more information, visit https://www.malibubeachrecoverycenter.com or call (424) 203-2376.



About RiverMend Health

RiverMend Health is a nationwide provider of scientifically driven, specialty behavioral health services. Founded on the belief that addiction and eating disorders are the nation's most pressing healthcare challenges, the company brings together the world's preeminent experts and a nationwide network of recovery programs to provide neuroscience-driven treatment, research and education. To learn more about RiverMend Health, visit https://www.rivermendhealth.com or call (877) 879-3312.

Media Contact:

Amy Bernard [email protected]

(678) 813-0497

SOURCE Malibu Beach Recovery Centers

Related Links

https://www.malibubeachrecoverycenter.com


NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "We are urging any member of the US Merchant Marine or any maritime worker who has recently been diagnosed with mesothelioma to call us anytime at 800-714-0303 to ensure they are talking directly to the nation's most skilled and experienced mesothelioma attorneys. We are the top ranked source in the nation for the 'best possible financial compensation for a US Navy Veteran' and we are strongly encouraging members of the Merchant Marine or any maritime worker to call us to discuss top mesothelioma lawyers and why it is vital to have one for the best possible financial compensation results.

Merchant Marine

"We are especially focused on two particular groups of Merchant Marine members or maritime workers: those who were working prior to 1990 and those who provided support in the Vietnam War from US ports via the Military Sea Transportation Service." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

Military Sea Transportation Service took roughly 100 Victory ships out of the National Defense Reserve Fleet (mothball fleet), repaired them, and assigned them to private companies for operation to carry ammunition across the Pacific. MSTS carried guns, tanks, trucks, trains, riverboats, barges, helicopters, bombers, fighters, reconnaissance planes, food, fuel, and medical supplies. By 1965, MSTS had 300 freighters and tankers supplying Vietnam, with an average of 75 ships and over 3,000 merchant mariners in Vietnamese ports at any time.

The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "We are incredibly passionate about making certain that any person with mesothelioma receives the very best financial compensation for mesothelioma, especially if the person's exposure to asbestos occurred while they were serving our nation in the US Navy, or the Merchant Marine.

"If we had one vital tip for a member of the Merchant Marine or the US Navy it would be this:

Do yourself a favor and call us anytime at 800-714-0303. Let's make sure you are dealing with the nation's top attorneys as the best possible mesothelioma financial compensation typically requires one of the nation's most skilled and capable mesothelioma attorneys." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

For an historical account of the US Merchant Marine in the Vietnam War please review the US Merchant Marine's website: http://www.usmm.org/vietnam.html

For more recent information about the US Merchant Marine please review this recent news article: https://news.usni.org/2016/03/22/u-s-facing-looming-shortage-of-merchant-mariners

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. High-risk work groups for exposure to asbestos include Veterans of the US Navy, power plant workers, shipyard workers, oil refinery workers, steel mill workers, miners, pulp or paper mill workers, printers, factory workers, railroad workers, plumbers, millwrights, boiler technicians, electricians, auto mechanics, machinists, welders, pipefitters, insulators, firemen and construction workers. In most instances, a person who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma was exposed to asbestos in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

According to the CDC the states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon.

However, based on the calls the Mesothelioma Victims Center receives a US Navy Veteran with mesothelioma could live in any state including New York, Florida, California, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, or Alaska.

For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer: https://www.cancer.gov/types/mesothelioma.

Media Contact:

Michael Thomas

[email protected]

800-714-0303

SOURCE Mesothelioma Victims Center

Related Links

http://mesotheliomavictimscenter.com


MILWAUKEE, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC), the nation's first private mortgage insurer, announced today the availability of mortgage insurance through WEI Technology LLC's loan origination system (LOS), LendingPad.

Through the MISMO-based integration, originators utilizing the LendingPad LOS can order MGIC rate quotes and delegated mortgage insurance without leaving the platform. This automation of data exchange helps improve the loan origination process by saving time and increasing accuracy. MGIC is the first mortgage insurance company to integrate with LendingPad.

"Customers are going to see a dramatic increase in efficiency as a result of integrating MGIC with LendingPad. We've streamlined the process so users can go from quoting MI rates to obtaining a mortgage insurance certificate in just a few clicks," said Wes Yuan, Managing Member of WEI Technology.

"Our new integration with LendingPad addresses the growing demand for automation in the loan origination process," said Margaret Crowley, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience at MGIC. "Our partnership with LendingPad further demonstrates our dedication to offering automated solutions to our customers."

About MGIC

MGIC, the principal subsidiary of MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG), this year celebrates 60 years of serving the mortgage finance industry. MGIC serves lenders throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and other locations helping families achieve homeownership sooner by making affordable low-down-payment mortgages a reality. At July 31, 2017, MGIC had $188.6 billion of primary insurance in force covering over one million mortgages.

About LendingPad

LendingPad's innovative loan origination system (LOS) was created by mortgage professionals to modernize the complex loan origination process. The solutions LendingPad offers elevate the efficiency, compliance, and information security of brokers, lenders, banks and credit unions. LendingPad's unique features include customized dashboards, same-file multi-user capabilities and real-time loan updates. These solutions streamline the origination process, while lowering the total cost of mortgage lending. LendingPad is a product of WEI Technology LLC, headquartered in McLean, VA. More information is available at www.lendingpad.com.

SOURCE MGIC
JACKSON, Tenn., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, August 10, a jury in Jackson, TN found that Navistar Inc. committed fraud and violated the Tennessee Consumer Practice Act in connection with the sale of 243 Navistar International Prostars with Maxxforce engines. The jury awarded damages to the trucking company that purchased the trucksMilan Supply Chain Solutions (Milan) in the amount of $10,800,000 of actual damages and $20,000,000 in punitive damages.

Milan brought suit against Navistar alleging that Navistar misled them in the sale of the Navistar International heavy duty trucks and engines and failed to disclose that the Maxxforce 13 liter engine was launched with serious known defects in the engine and its components.

Milan also alleged that Navistar, while touting the quality of its testing program, knew that the testing had serious flaws, was incomplete at launch and put the trucks into customers' hands knowing that the customers would end up becoming the de facto test fleet for Navistar's new 2010 year model engine.

Milan purchased the Maxxforce powered Prostars in 2011 and 2012. The Maxxforce engine was Navistar's ill-fated Advanced Exhaust Gas Recirculation ("EGR") engine that was sold between 2010 and 2012. When Navistar could not obtain EPA approval for the Maxxforce engine after the expiration of its emissions credits, Navistar switched emission-control technologies using the same technology (Selective Catalytic Reduction- "SCR") as the entire rest of the heavy duty engine industry.

Navistar's decision to use Advanced EGR versus SCR led to numerous quality problems with the engine that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of warranty costs to Navistar and tremendous losses on the resale market for trucking companies like Milan.

During the trial, numerous executives testified either live or by deposition. Former Senior Vice-President of North American Sales Jim Hebe testified that Navistar "did not test s#@t", explaining that Navistar failed to follow industry standards and never tested the final version of the engine before selling it to customers.

In an email from Navistar's current Senior Vice-President of Engineering Dennis Mooney to the current CEO Troy Clarke, the former Vice-President of Quality Tom Cellitti (who was in charge of testing the Maxxforce engine) was quoted as stating over and over again prior to the launch to customers "we have no field testing" because the company only tested engineering development trucks rather than validation trucks.

In the same email, Mr. Mooney admitted that the customers ended up uncovering problems that Navistar would have uncovered with the Maxxforce had it followed the industry standard for design and testing.

It was also noted during trial that this was Navistar's first attempt at designing a Heavy Duty engine emissions system on its own. In another email exchange between Mr. Mooney and Mr. Clarke, Mooney admits the management had told the Board of Directors in 2013 "physics of the EGR strategy is (sic) not sound." None of these things were ever revealed to the public prior to trial.

The jury also heard evidence that Navistar knew when it launched the engine that critical engine components had serious quality problems and a shortened life span. Navistar knew one key component of the Advanced EGR engine (the EGR cooler)  that would cost customers like Milan huge problems and the company hundreds of millions of dollars in warranty claimshad a life span of less than 20% of the design requirement based upon testing done before the sale of the engines to the public. None of what the company knew about these problems was ever disclosed to customers who purchased the Maxxforce engine between 2010 and 2012.

Jack Allen, the former Chief Operating Officer and President of Truck Operations, was called by Navistar to testify at trial. Mr. Allen stated that in his opinion it was "normal business practice" for companies to not disclose to customers in advance of a sale about known defects in the products or to disclose to customers that they were buying a product that had not been fully validated or tested by the manufacturer.

"The jury seemed shocked to hear this testimony about the corporate culture and philosophy of Navistar from one of the company's top executives," stated Clay Miller of the Dallas law firm Miller Weisbrod, lead trial attorney for Milan. "It appeared the jury's punitive damage verdict was a message to Navistar that it is not acceptable for the company to cover up important defects in the engines and the engines' testing program in order to make a sale."

Over 60,000 of these engines were sold to unsuspecting trucking companies, added Miller.

Data published by the Used Truck Association demonstrates the Prostar with the Maxxforce engine has suffered a serious loss in resale value over each and every month since at least January of 2013. Milan presented the jury with evidence that it had lost over $35,000 per truck on trade-in values over the last several yearsthe basis of $8,200,000 of the jury's award for compensatory damages.

Miller noted that Navistar never made any serious effort to resolve the Milan case prior to trial.

"We at Milan are very pleased with the jury's verdict in our case against Navistar. We sincerely thank the citizens of Madison County who sat on the jury and listened carefully to the evidence over the past two weeks. We made every attempt to collaborate with Navistar to resolve these very legitimate engine issues, but rather than trying to sit down and work out a settlement, Navistar's current executive team instructed its lawyers to carry out a contentious litigation strategy against our company. The current executive team at Navistar continues to blame their past management for the Maxxforce engine. We need Navistar to stand behind their product and step forward to address the damages caused by these engines, and we hope the jury's verdict will lead to a change in Navistar's tactics," stated Kevin Charlebois, CEO of Milan Supply Chain Solutions, Inc.

"We have had the same experience with Navistar in our case," stated James "Bo" Keith, President of Nashville, Tennessee-based First Express, Inc., whose company is also involved in similar litigation against Navistar. "Rather than trying to resolve the matter, Navistar's present-day management has had its lawyers engage in scorched earth litigation against First Express. In my opinion, this shows that even today Navistar will not stand behind their product and step forward to compensate companies for very real losses. In my view, the lack of ownership from Navistar should raise a red flag to any company considering a current purchase of a Navistar product."

Milan was represented at trial by Clay Miller and Warren Armstrong of the Dallas law firm Miller Weisbrod and Adam Nelson of the Jackson, TN law firm of Rainey Kizer Reviere & Bell.

DROPBOX Link to images and jury verdict documents:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gud653f56up7n9s/AAAc97bF3cu5rRrjF-j0Yd8_a?dl=0

SOURCE Miller Weisbrod LLP
BILLERICA, Mass., Aug 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MRSI Systems, a leading manufacturer of fully automated, ultra-precision, high speed die bonding and epoxy dispensing systems, is launching a new High Speed Die Bonder, MRSI-HVM3, to support our photonics customers' high volume manufacturing requirements. The MRSI-HVM3 is in full production and we are shipping to customers worldwide.

Scaling Imperatives

Our customers need to scale up manufacturing to unprecedented levels for advanced applications such as data center, telecommunication upgrades to 100G+, 5G wireless, IoT, and advanced optical sensors. Today, high volume manufacturing of photonic, sensor, and semiconductor devices demands a die bonding system that can deliver industry leading speed without sacrificing high precision and superior flexibility. Our new MRSI-HVM3, a high speed, flexible, 3 micron die bonder, has been built to address this challenge. This new system leverages a well-defined set of MRSI's core competencies, built up over 30 years, in the areas of system design, software development, machine vision, motion control, industrial automation, and process solutions.

Customer Outcomes

As Dr. Yi Qian, Vice President of Product Management, states, "The new MRSI-HVM3 incorporates the latest hardware and software innovations. Equipped with ultrafast-ramp eutectic stations, it deploys multiple levels of parallel processing utilizing dual gantries, dual heads, dual bonding stages, and "on-the-fly" tool changes. Used across all products, MRSI's platform software makes it easy for users to change process settings on their own for new parts, new processes, and new products. These features provide our customers with best-in-class throughput for capacity expansion; high accuracy for high-density packaging; and unmatched flexibility for multi-chip multi-process production in one machine. Ultimately the system will generate great ROIs for customers. The MRSI-HVM3 high speed die bonder supports many applications including chip-on-carrier (CoC), chip-on-submount (CoS), and chip-on-baseplate or board (CoB)."

"MRSI Systems has been serving optoelectronic and microelectronic customers for the past 33 years and understands their requirement to scale efficiently in today's fast paced marketplace. MRSI is pleased to meet these needs with the launch of our new high speed die bonder for high volume manufacturing of photonics packaging," said Mr. Michael Chalsen, President, MRSI Systems.

Private Demonstrations at CIOE

MRSI Systems is exhibiting at CIOE with our Chinese Representative CYCAD Century Science and Technology (Booth #1C66) in Shenzhen, September 6-9, 2017. There will be private demonstrations of the MRSI-HVM3 performing CoC eutectic and epoxy bonding. Please reach out to your MRSI contact to ensure you have an opportunity to see the capabilities of this exciting new product.

About MRSI Systems

MRSI Systems is a leading manufacturer of fully automated, high-precision, high-speed die bonding and epoxy dispensing systems. We enable customers to optimize the performance of their process including yield, throughput, and uptime by building systems that use our unique expertise. In summary, this includes our proprietary software, proven hardware, deep process knowledge, state-of-the-art manufacturing, and a world-class customer service team. MRSI's systems are built on common platforms that can be configured to meet specific customer requirements. These platforms are designed to be scalable for R&D prototyping, pilot production and high volume manufacturing. Our solutions deliver the best financial returns in the industry while integrating seamlessly into our customer's production. Markets include Telecom/Datacom (Data Center), Aerospace & Defense, Medical Devices, Computers and Peripherals, and Industrial. Since 1984, we have been recognized as the standard of the industry, delivering our solutions to leading optoelectronic and microelectronic customers worldwide. Our headquarters is located in Billerica, MA in the greater Boston area. Our sales are supported by a global network of direct service and support professionals, located in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.

For more information visit: www.mrsisystems.com.

MRSI Systems Media Contact

+1 (978) 667-9449

[email protected]

SOURCE MRSI Systems
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Napatech (OSLO: NAPA.OL), the leading provider of reconfigurable computing platforms, today announced that Ken Way has joined the company as Chief Sales Officer. Ken is a recognized leader in the industry, with an extensive history of exceeding business goals while creating new revenue sources in high-growth market segments. Ken has successfully built and managed large-scale, global, direct sales organizations and channels. His career spans 20-plus years with specific focus on network and security manufacturers, cloud and data center operators, Fortune 5000 enterprise IT organizations and government networks.

Click to Tweet: [email protected] Appoints chief sales officer: https://tinyurl.com/y8xe462t #SmartNIC #FPGA

Ken will report directly to CEO Henrik Brill Jensen and is responsible for achieving Napatech's revenue growth targets. He will lead the worldwide sales organization, including pre- and post-sales systems engineering (SE) and field application engineering (FAE).

and is responsible for achieving Napatech's revenue growth targets. He will lead the worldwide sales organization, including pre- and post-sales systems engineering (SE) and field application engineering (FAE). Ken's executive sales management experience in the systems and semiconductor industries includes software, hardware, services and tools. He has repeatedly won the largest and most-coveted designs while at companies such as Agility Partners, Netronome, Tilera, Cavium Networks, Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor and Trinity Technologies.

Ken Way, chief sales officer, Napatech, said: "Cloud, 5G mobile, and the Internet of Things have forever changed the way people build, secure and manage their networks. These hyperscale operators have proven that a reconfigurable computing platform, based on standard server designs and enhanced with FPGA-based acceleration, is the preferred method for future networks. Napatech is a pioneer of FPGA-based SmartNICs for acceleration and has an immense opportunity to be the leading supplier of these solutions for every IT organization."

Henrik Brill Jensen, CEO, Napatech said: "Ken brings an unmatched combination of industry knowledge, insight to customer requirements and deep personal relationships. We are extremely fortunate to have him join our executive management team and look forward to helping him to win new business that now demands FPGA-based SmartNICs for network and security needs."

About Napatech

Napatech helps companies to reimagine their business, by bringing hyper-scale computing benefits to IT organizations of every size. We enhance open and standard virtualized servers to boost innovation and release valuable computing resources that improve services and increase revenue. Our reconfigurable computing platform is based on a broad set of FPGA software for leading IT compute, network and security applications that are supported on a wide array of FPGA hardware designs.

No Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements which are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to, business conditions, trends in the industry and markets, global economic and geopolitical conditions, macro-economic factors, and other risks and uncertainties set forth in Napatech's reports. The matter discussed in this release is based on current expectations and maybe subject to change. Napatech will not necessarily update this information. For details, visit us at www.napatech.com.

Media Investor Relations Shannon Tierney, Nadel Phelan Christina Bastius Thomsen +1.831.440.2409 +45.2363.8844 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Napatech

Related Links

http://www.napatech.com


NEWARK, N.J., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mohawk Global Logistics, a leading Customs broker and freight forwarder in the Northeast, announces unprecedented growth for its Newark-based office, which has doubled its Customs entry volume in one year's time. This achievement makes the Newark office the first location in company history to hit this mark its premiere year.

E-commerce is the company's fastest growing and most profitable sector, which has raised demand for Mohawk's highly skilled and experienced staff, as well as access to its powerful online reporting tools. The company has invested heavily in upgrading its web-based system, GlobalLink, within the past year, by adding modules to enhance shipment tracking and modernize collaboration tools for shipment documentation.

"Our strongest partnerships in the region are with online retailers and food importers," said Mohawk's President and CEO, Gar Grannell. "These industries rely on seamless clearance at the border, and having data-rich systems make this process more transparent. Having cargo delayed due to a Customs exam or an FDA inspection creates problems for their clients further down the supply chain. They turn to us to help them minimize the potential for disruption and allow them to see the full picture for their freight," said Grannell.

Seeking To Hire Newark Account Executive

The company is currently seeking candidates for a new Account Executive position to assist with growing the brand and strengthening established partnerships in the region. More information about this career opportunity is available at http://www.mohawkglobal.com/about-us/careers.

About Mohawk Global Logistics

Mohawk Global Logistics is a freight forwarder and Customs broker with offices in New York, Illinois, Ohio, and New Jersey. The company is headquartered in Syracuse, NY. For more information, visit http://www.mohawkglobal.com, connect with us on LinkedIn, and follow us on Twitter (@MohawkGlobal).

Contact

Mike Kuhn

Corporate Operating Officer

Mohawk Global Logistics

(315) 575-5590

[email protected]

SOURCE Mohawk Global Logistics

Related Links

http://www.mohawkglobal.com


SAN DIEGO, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- NewSchool of Architecture & Design (NewSchool) is excited to welcome world-renowned architects and visionary leaders as guest lecturers at its new, innovative Neuroscience for Architecture Summer Intersession Program. This special four-day executive course, which kicks off today and runs through August 17, 2017, provides American Institute of Architects (AIA) continuing education credits for attendees, but more importantly, examines the juncture of brain and the built environment.

Leaders in the field of neuroscience for architecture will discuss their work as it relates to building bridges between these two fields. Special guest lectures and panel discussions will be held, featuring renowned architect Steven Holl, FAIA and noted Finnish architect/author/critic Juhani Pallasmaa, Hon. FAIA. Joining them will be NewSchool neuroscience faculty members Gil Cooke, FAIA and Tatiana Berger, Assoc. AIA, along with guests Gordon Chong, Ph.D., FAIA and Alison Whitelaw, FAIA. Prominent neuroscientists featured in the program include Fred Gage, Ph.D., Thomas Albright, Ph.D., and Sergei Gepshtein, Ph.D. of the Salk Institute, and Eduardo Macagno, Ph.D., Founding Dean of the School of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego.

Special Guest Lectures:



Juhani Pallasmaa is a Finnish architect, professor of architecture, and dean at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland . Pallasmaa's approach to architecture and design is rooted in phenomenology, in which he allows the environment to inform his designs. As a leading international figure in contemporary architecture, design, and art culture, he has written and lectured extensively throughout the world on architecture and the visual arts, environmental psychology, and cultural philosophy for more than 40 years.

is a Finnish architect, professor of architecture, and dean at the in . Pallasmaa's approach to architecture and design is rooted in phenomenology, in which he allows the environment to inform his designs. As a leading international figure in contemporary architecture, design, and art culture, he has written and lectured extensively throughout the world on architecture and the visual arts, environmental psychology, and cultural philosophy for more than 40 years. Steven Holl , who leads an internationally renowned architecture and urban design office with locations in New York City and Beijing , is an American artist and award-winning architect. He is known for his organic design approach in which the site itself generates an "architectural idea," which he then applies. Holl is recognized for his ability to blend space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to utilize the unique qualities of each site to create a concept-driven design. He was one of the keynote speakers at last fall's Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture conference.

, who leads an internationally renowned architecture and urban design office with locations in and , is an American artist and award-winning architect. He is known for his organic design approach in which the site itself generates an "architectural idea," which he then applies. Holl is recognized for his ability to blend space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to utilize the unique qualities of each site to create a concept-driven design. He was one of the keynote speakers at last fall's Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture conference. Sergei Gepshtein is the founding director of the Collaboratory for Adaptive Sensory Technologies at the Salk Institute. With a background in neurobiology, psychology, and vision science, he brings a unique perspective on how visual systems organize information and shape our perception.

The Neuroscience for Architecture Summer Intersession Program will include studio work along with other guest lecturers and studio time. This unique course also features noted neuroscientists describing current research and discussing its implications for design. This course is intended for licensed architects, urban designers, planners, design professionals, healthcare industry professionals, doctoral candidates, and post-graduate students in architecture and related fields.

For more information on NewSchool of Architecture and Design, please contact Rachael Lighty at [email protected].

About NewSchool of Architecture & Design:

Located in San Diego's design district, NewSchool of Architecture & Design prepares students for career success in design fields through an emphasis on interdisciplinary and global design skills, industry collaborations and real-world projects. Programs include architecture, construction management, product design, media design, design studies, and interior architecture and design. NewSchool is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission. NewSchool's Bachelor and Master of Architecture programs are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). NewSchool is one of more than 70 institutions in 25 countries that comprise the Laureate International Universities network. Through collaborations with sister institutions in the Laureate network, including Domus Academy in Milan, Italy, NewSchool students are prepared to work in global and diverse organizations. For more information, visit www.newschoolarch.edu

SOURCE NewSchool of Architecture & Design

Related Links

http://www.newschoolarch.edu


CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: PACE OF EQUIPMENT DELIVERIES ACCELERATES

"The Moss Mine Gold/Silver Project Scheduled for Production in Q4, 2017"

VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Northern Vertex Mining Corp. (TSX.V:NEE) (OTC:NHVCF)(the "Company" or "Northern Vertex") is pleased to provide the following update on construction activities at its 100% owned Moss Mine project located near Bullhead City, Arizona.

Kenneth Berry, President and CEO, stated: "Our team continues to execute its development plan to become the next producing Arizona Gold Mine. I would like to recognize the contributions of Dr. David Stone (Project Manager), Joseph Bardswich, P.Eng (President, Golden Vertex), M3 Engineering, Golder Associates, N.A. Degerstrom, Goodfellow Crushers, KPI/JCI, Great Basin Industrial and the numerous other US based companies for their diligent efforts and fiscal responsibility toward achieving our goal of pouring gold in Q4, 2017."

Click the following link to view: https://northernvertex.com/projects/photo-gallery/

Moss Mine  Construction Progress

Concrete Work

Great Basin Industrial continues to make good progress in the concrete works for the Merrill Crowe and refinery areas. The columns for the refinery building have been poured along with the sumps under the filter presses. In the Merrill Crowe area GBI has completed the tank pedestals and containment walls for the solution tanks. The foundation ring for the fire water tank has been poured and it ready to receive the tank steel. The concrete foundations for the crushing plant are scheduled to commence next week.

Structural, Mechanical and Piping (SMP)

The SMP contract for the Merrill Crowe and Refinery areas has been awarded to Great Basin Industrial and this work is expected to commence in about 2 weeks.

Electrical and Instrumentation (E&IC)

The E&IC contract for the Merrill Crowe and Refinery areas has also been awarded to Great Basin Industrial and this work is expected to commence in mid-September.

Decommissioning of the Pilot Plant ("Phase I") Heap and Ponds

The decommissioning activities at the Phase I pilot heap and ponds are nearing completion. The spent ore from the Phase I pilot heap is 90% unloaded, and this material is now being incorporated into the leach pad as a liner bedding layer. The Phase I ponds have been completely dismantled and the liners have been disposed of. The ponds have been filled in and the area is now being regraded for Phase II.

Phase II Heap and Ponds

The heap leach earthworks are advancing in two areas: the west pad and the east pad. The west pad is essentially complete with final grading, and the liner bedding placement is well advanced. The east pad work consists of rough grading. The leach pad grading is expected to be complete in mid-September.

Liner Installation

American Environmental Group ("AEG") has finished the liner installation in the West Event pond with 81,500 sq/ft installed and QC is complete . The focus is now the leach pad liner in the west pad area. Progress to date is 112,000 of 310,000 sq/ft installed. AEG is expected to be onsite until the end of September. A QA/QC technician from Golder Associates is onsite to inspect the completed liner and earthworks.

Crushing Plant

Twelve truckloads of crusher components have arrived at the project site. The deliveries to date include 2 K500 tertiary cone crushers, a 115 ft long product conveyor, support frames, conveyor bents, decking, ladders, and ore chutes. Additional shipments are due weekly until the end of August.

The Westpro Manufacturing agglomeration drum arrived at site on August 7, and Westpro has advised the cement silo is ready to ship.

Moss Mine Optimization Program

Powerline & Infrastructure Optimization Program

The optimization program continues with emphasis on obtaining the Right of Way (ROW) permits for optimized power delivery and road improvements from the BLM. The BLM has expressed minor concerns with certain aspects of the project as proposed. The working relationship has been co-operative, and steps were undertaken by the company to address the concerns. Minor design changes were made by Civil Works Engineering for the Moss Mine Access Road Re-construction Project and by AMEC Foster Wheeler on the Powerline to lessen environmental impacts and to avoid certain areas.

Now that the powerline re-design has been completed, each pole location will be staked out in the field to assist in the background surveys required for the Environmental Assessment document. Westland Resources Inc. has already completed a substantial portion of the extensive work required for the Cultural Inventory Surveys and the Biological Surveys.

The company is very appreciative of the support shown by the local Community for the Moss Mine Re-activation and for the powerline and road re-construction projects. Most recent was the passing of a resolution by the Bullhead City Council on July 20, endorsing the two projects and encouraging the BLM to expedite the process.

Mine Life Extension

The Company is preparing an updated report which will analize the technical and economic viability of extending the Moss Gold Mine. The Moss Mine project is scheduled to commence commercial gold-silver production in Q4 2017. A Feasibility Technical Report (see news release dated July 23, 2015) estimated Capital Cost at US$33m, Annual Production of 42,000 AuEq ounces, gold equivalent cash costs of US$514.27, All-in Sustaining Costs of US$624/oz gold and an After-tax IRR of 44% (based on $1,250/oz gold and $20/oz silver).

Qualified Person

The foregoing technical information contained in this news release has also been reviewed and verified by Mr. Joseph Bardswich, P.Eng.,President, Golden Vertex Corp., and a Qualified Person ("QP") for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101 (Disclosure Standards for Mineral Projects). Mr. Bardswich is a director of the Company.

About Northern Vertex

Northern Vertex Mining Corp. is an exploration and mining company focused on the reactivation of its 100% owned Moss Mine Gold/Silver Project located in NW Arizona, USA. To the best of management's knowledge, Northern Vertex is the next publicly traded company to initiate gold and silver production scheduled for Q4 2017 in the USA. The Company's management comprises an experienced management team with a strong background in all aspects of acquisition, exploration, development, operations and financing of mining projects worldwide. The Company is focused on working effectively and respectfully with our stakeholders in the vicinity of the historical Moss Mine and enhancing the capacity of the local communities in the area.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF NORTHERN VERTEX

"Kenneth Berry "

President & CEO

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains statements about our future business and planned activities. These are "forward-looking" because we have used what we know and expect today to make a statement about the future. Forward-looking statements including but are not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work and analyses. Forward-looking statements usually include words such as scheduled, may, intend, plan, expect, anticipate, believe or other similar words. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, known and unknown, could cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We believe the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable. However, actual events and results could be substantially different because of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business or events that happen after the date of this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. To the best of management's knowledge, Northern Vertex is the next publically traded company to initiate gold and silver production scheduled for Q4 2017 in the USA. As a general policy, we do not update forward-looking statements except as required by securities laws and regulations. US investors should be aware that mining terminology used for Canadian mineral project reporting purposes differs significantly from US terminology.

SOURCE Northern Vertex Mining Corp.
TYSONS CORNER, Va., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Old Dominion National Bank announced the appointment of Howard Stein to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. The company also announced the appointment of Lauren Kohr to serve as Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer.

Stein, a 24-year financial services industry veteran, will oversee Old Dominion's information technology and operations functions, in addition to providing sales and other support to the company. He will report to President and Chief Executive Officer Mark S. Merrill.

"We are thrilled to have an experienced professional like Howard join our growing, customer-centric team," Merrill said. "His wealth of information technology and operations experience in financial services, including at community banks ranging from de novo to $5 billion in assets, will make him an integral member of Old Dominion's senior management team, as we work to grow our company into a high-performing regional financial institution."

Stein joins Old Dominion from My CU Services LLC, a leading provider of payment services and technology for credit unions, where he served as Chief Operating Officer for five years. Prior to that, he served as Chief Information Officer and Director of Operations at Graystone Tower Bank for more than six years. From 2000 through 2005, Stein served as Commercial Operations Manager at Waypoint Bank. He began his banking career in 1993 with Harris Savings Bank, where he worked for nearly 12 years. Stein earned his bachelor's degree from West Virginia University in 1992.

As CRO, Kohr will be responsible for Old Dominion's corporate-wide operational risk management program, including leading the bank's Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) policy and governance. She will report to the bank's new COO, Stein.

"Lauren is a highly experienced risk management professional who has been recognized by her peers in the industry for her excellence in administering industry leading BSA, AML and OFAC programs," Stein said. "As Old Dominion continues to grow, her leadership and oversight of our risk management programs will ensure we meet and exceed regulatory expectations and continue to foster a strong compliance culture throughout the company."

Kohr joins Old Dominion from Pentagon Federal Credit Union in Alexandria, where the Reston resident has served as Financial Intelligence Unit Senior Manager responsible for AML and BSA policy and governance. Prior to PenFed, she was based in Harrisburg, Pa. where she served Metro Bank as director of AML/BSA/OFAC and began her career with Financial Outsourcing Solutions. She earned her bachelor's degree in Accounting from Arizona State University in 2004.

Both of Old Dominion's newest executives will be based in Tysons Corner, where the bank moved its executive offices in late 2016 as part of its organic growth strategy. By positioning its senior management team near the Washington, D.C. metro area, Old Dominion has been better able to serve its growing number of consumer and commercial clients in the Greater Washington and Northern Virginia markets, who rely on the locally-owned bank to provide personalized and sophisticated financial solutions.

About Old Dominion National Bank

Old Dominion is an independent, locally-owned and managed bank with its executive offices in Tysons Corner, Va. and approximately $125 million in assets. Old Dominion's Tysons Corner full-service branch serves a growing number of customers across the Washington metropolitan area, and the bank's three full-service locations in the Charlottesville area serve Albemarle County and Central Virginia. Old Dominion offers a full range of commercial and consumer financial services in the communities it serves. Please visit the bank online at ODNBonline.com.

Media Contact:

Old Dominion National Bank

Mark S. Merrill

President and Chief Executive Officer

8601 Westwood Center Dr., Tysons Corner, Virginia 22182

(434) 284-5667

[email protected]

SOURCE Old Dominion National Bank

Related Links

https://odnbonline.com


CHICAGO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Olive Tree Escapes (https://otescapes.com/), a leading bespoke luxury travel company specialized in Italy and Croatia travel, is welcoming travel agents to apply for an educational trip through Italy's big three: Rome, Florence, and Venice.

Travel agents can gain first-hand experience and knowledge of Rome, Florence, Venice during a 9-day Olive Tree Escapes Italian trip discovering Italy's iconic cities.

Olive Tree Escapes' first FAM trip to Italy will start November 13, 2017 in Rome and end November 21, 2017 in Venice. During the 9-day FAM trip to Italy, travel agents will have the opportunity to acquire personal experience and knowledge of Italy's most visited destinations. The group of 10 selected travel agents will be led by Beth Rubin, Olive Tree Escapes' President, and Maja Gudelj, Director - Industry Relations & Croatia Travel Planning.

The itinerary includes unique accommodations like the renowned Brunelleschi hotel in Florence, site inspections, private tours and experiences, food & wine tastings, and more. The full itinerary is available at this link: https://otescapes.com/olive-tree-escapes-fall-2017-fam-trip-italy/

To be considered, please send an email to [email protected]. More information about the FAM trip is available at https://otescapes.com/olive-tree-escapes-fall-2017-fam-trip-italy/

Press Contact:

Beatrice Sartori

Olive Tree Escapes

877-272-2310

[email protected]

About Olive Tree Escapes:

Olive Tree Escapes has brought together a team of award-winning consultants with 30 years of combined experience, specialized in designing customized upscale itineraries to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro.

SOURCE Olive Tree Escapes
SYDNEY, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimizely, the world's leading Experimentation Platform, today announced its expansion into the Asia Pacific region with the opening of its first Australian base and regional headquarters in Sydney. The new Sydney office, in the heart of the CBD on George Street, is Optimizely's fifth global location outside of the U.S.

Optimizely enables businesses, across sectors, to completely personalise websites, mobile apps and connected devices using statistically-significant data. With Optimizely's technology and platform customers can experiment at scale on all parts of their business including marketing, product, engineering and customer service leading to faster and better decisions.

The new APAC office will be led by Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand, Dan Ross, who previously led the Customer and Sales Operations for Optimizely's Headquarters in San Francisco. Mr. Ross will play a key role in continuing to drive the company's international growth. The company is actively hiring a full go-to-market team - with roles in Sydney and Melbourne - to support its push into the region and to better accommodate the needs of its growing customer base.

Optimizely, which has raised a total of USD $146 million from investors including Index Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, is seeing continued momentum with leading Australian customers including Atlassian, Optus, AGL Energy, Chemist Warehouse and Fox Sports. The company has experienced 257 percent year-on-year growth in product usage in Australia alone, improving customer experiences for more than 28 million users a month - that's more than the Australian population.

The new regional office and local team will further this momentum and empower more Australian businesses to adopt an experimentation culture to drive innovation and exceptional customers experiences across all their digital channels, both on and offline. Optimizely's first APAC office will allow the company to provide greater support to local customers, while also enhancing its 24/7 global customer support offering.

Dan Ross, Managing Director of Optimizely A/NZ, said the company chose Australia to be its APAC home because of the increasing demand for innovation from business across sectors, strong organic growth in the market and talent density throughout the region.

"We are thrilled to launch Optimizely in the APAC region, a market where we have already been active for several years. This new home brings us much closer to our growing customer base where we already have strong relationships with businesses in the retail, media and travel sectors. We are also seeing considerable uptake by businesses in industries with more traditional business models such as, utilities, superannuation, health insurance and telecommunications. These industries are under threat by increased competition from new and more agile players, which is why they're turning to Optimizely in order to innovate at speed.

"Increasingly, we are experiencing what we call, 'the Amazon effect', which is resulting in a sharp lift in the number of experiments being conducted by local retailers to strengthen their position ahead of Amazon's arrival - a company whose culture is built on endless experimentation," said Mr. Ross.

Optimizely is seeing an increasing number of businesses who are using their products to experiment in multi-channel environments. One such customer is Fox Sports, who turned to Optimizely to help manage the customer experience across 54 digital touch points.

Optimizely's expansion into the region further highlights the success of the last 12 months in which the company has launched its Optimizely X platform, acquired Experiment Engine to enable enterprises to manage experiments at scale and been recognised for its superior products on lists such as Forbes Cloud 100.

Optimizely was founded by Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen in 2010, who conceived the idea for the product while working as Obama's director of analytics on his successful 2008 presidential campaign. Mr. Siroker saw first hand the power of experimentation, when a simple experiment he conducted helped raise $60M in fundraising dollars.

For more information visit optimizely.com

Images can be downloaded here

About Optimizely

Optimizely is the world's leading experimentation platform, enabling businesses to deliver continuous experimentation and personalization across websites, mobile apps and connected devices. Optimizely enables businesses to experiment deeply into their technology stack and broadly across the entire customer experience. The platform's ease of use and speed of deployment empower organizations to create and run bold experiments that help them make data-driven decisions and grow faster. To date, marketers, developers and product managers have delivered over 700 billion experiences tailored to the needs of their customers. Optimizely's global client base includes Atlassian, eBay, Fox, IBM, The New York Times, LendingClub, Hotwire, Microsoft and many more leading businesses. To learn more, visit optimizely.com.

Media Enquiries:

Melissa Shawyer [email protected] +61 412 066 048

George Garnham [email protected] +61 424 325 907

SOURCE Optimizely

Related Links

http://www.optimizely.com


ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past few years, market research firm Packaged Facts has emerged as a leading authority on the thriving and highly competitive meal kits delivery services segment of the U.S. food and beverage industry. Since 2016, Packaged Facts has released two market research reports on the topic, including the July 2017 study Meal Kits Delivery Services in the U.S., 2nd Edition.

Beyond market research reports, Packaged Facts has created a free all-in-one Meal Kit Delivery Services page through the company's website. The page includes industry insights, blog posts, infographics, press releases, videos, and multimedia all consolidated in one place for convenience. The curated page can be found by visiting: https://www.packagedfacts.com/Content/Featured-Markets/Meal-Kit-Delivery-Services.

About Our Report "Meal Kits Delivery Services in the U.S., 2nd Edition"

Packaged Facts' second edition of Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S. covers online meal kit delivery services, as well as the companies that offer and deliver to consumers' doors fresh ingredients for one or more meals. Packaged Facts examines meal kit delivery services in the context of both the retail grocery industry and the foodservice industry.

Meal Kits Delivery Services in the U.S., 2nd Edition examines:

The competitive environment among leading meal kit delivery services

Several new, up-and-coming entries in the meal delivery services industry

Past meal kit delivery services that were unsuccessful

More information about Meal Kits Delivery Services in the U.S., 2nd Edition, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports is available at Packaged Facts' website: https://www.packagedfacts.com/Meal-Kits-Delivery-Services-Edition-10975993/.

Find additional Packaged Facts food and beverage reports at: https://www.packagedfacts.com/food-beverage-market-c84/.

About Packaged Facts

Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services.

For essential insights from Packaged Facts, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Google+. For infographics, tables, charts and other visuals, follow Packaged Facts on Pinterest.

Please link any media references to our reports or data to www.packagedfacts.com.

SOURCE Packaged Facts

Related Links

http://www.packagedfacts.com


CHICAGO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo and Feed the Children are uniting today to provide eight hundred families in need with enough food and essentials to supplement meals for a week. This will allow recipients to focus on back-to-school preparations rather than worrying about where they'll get their next meal. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. at St. Sabina Church, 1210 W. 78th Place, Chicago, IL.

This is the sixth year PepsiCo and Feed the Children have partnered to help feed families in the Chicago area, where more than 25 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. This distribution event is part of a larger initiative between the two organizations to help feed communities in cities throughout the United States. The receiving families have been identified and preselected by St. Sabina Church.

"We're excited to partner with Feed the Children, Jewel Osco and St. Sabina Church helping our friends and neighbors in the Chicago community," said Ashley Kelly, sr. zone sales supervisor, Heartland sales, Chicago zone, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division. "Frito-Lay and PepsiCo are committed to giving back to our communities where we live and work, and providing enough food to supplement meals for a week is a small way we can help make a difference."

Each pre-identified recipient at today's event will be given:

One 25-pound box of nonperishable food items

One 15-pound box of personal-care items

One box of assorted AVON products

products One 20-count bag of Frito-Lay snacks

PepsiCo beverages

Life Original Cereal

Quaker Standard Oats

Chewy Granola Bars

Tropicana Orange Juice

Fresh produce and shelf-stable foods from Jewel Osco

Volunteers from PepsiCo, Jewel Osco and Feed the Children will be onsite serving families and assisting with distribution during today's event.

"Feed the Children is proud to partner with PepsiCo," said Travis Arnold, Feed the Children President and CEO. "We know that when we combine our efforts we will have a greater impact on the lives of families who need us mostright here in America."

About Feed the Children

Established in 1979, Feed the Children exists to defeat hunger. It is one of the largest U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education, essentials and disaster response. Domestically, it operates 5 distribution centers (located in Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Tennessee and Pennsylvania).

In fiscal year 2016, through its domestic and international programs, Feed the Children distributed 105 million pounds of food and essentials worldwide with a total value of $415 million, working with partner agencies to benefit 5.9 million people globally. It is accredited by GuideStar Exchange and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.

Visit www.feedthechildren.org for more information.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated approximately $63 billion in net revenue in 2016, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose  our fundamental belief that the success of our company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around us. We believe that continuously improving the products we sell, operating responsibly to protect our planet and empowering people around the world is what enables PepsiCo to run a successful global company that creates long-term value for society and our shareholders. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

SOURCE PepsiCo

Related Links

http://www.pepsico.com


NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Persistent Systems, LLC ("Persistent") announced today that it has released a Lower C-Band RF module for its MPU5 radio system, reflecting the company's commitment to a truly modular radio architecture. The new Lower C-Band module operates in the 4400 to 5000 MHz frequency band that is utilized by NATO Military Forces, Federal / Homeland Security (DHS, DOJ), and Public Safety organizations. The Lower C-Band frequency is also a requirement of multiple Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Programs of Record. Persistent's radio module provides 6W of transmit power via its 3x3 MIMO architecture, resulting in long range performance and high throughput.

"By following a modular approach to radio bands, we've basically made the MPU5 future-proof," said Nick Naioti, VP of Business Development. "As spectrum relocation continues, our customers' investment is protected. Compliance can be achieved by simply swapping the module as opposed to replacing the whole system."

The US Government alone spends billions of dollars every year migrating their communication systems to new frequency bands as the Federal Spectrum Relocation process auctions off bandwidth to commercial wireless carriers. Money raised through FCC spectrum auctions is often utilized to provide funding to Federal Agencies who must migrate to new frequencies as they are forced from those that have been auctioned. However, if Federal communication systems employed a modular frequency architecture, billions of dollars would be saved, and the money could be appropriated for other important initiatives. Persistent has been advocating for Federal agencies to require a modular frequency architecture in government procurements to future-proof Federal communication systems and reduce the burden on taxpayers.

"Persistent has proven that a modular frequency architecture is possible. The government should take notice and require its vendors to offer a better value to the American taxpayer," Nick Naioti added.

The new Lower C-Band Radio Module will also play a critical role in the Unmanned Ground Robotics (UGV) market, since this frequency band is a requirement for multiple programs of record that are actively being competed. Persistent, currently the largest provider of communication systems to the UGV market, has been working with many UGV platform providers to ensure that the Lower C-Band Module meets and exceeds all programmatic communication requirements.

"Radio modules with 6W of transmit power and 3x3 MIMO technology mean that soldiers can operate UGV systems from much greater distances. UGV systems are typically utilized to inspect or neutralize explosive devices. Every bit of range and performance that we can offer directly increases soldier safety, and we designed our modules with this in mind," commented Eric Stern, Director of Engineering.

Persistent has already begun accepting orders for the Lower C-band radio module for immediate shipment.

About Persistent Systems, LLC

Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC ("Persistent") is a global communications technology company which develops, manufactures, and integrates a patented and secure Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay. The company's R&D team has designed wireless networking protocols to support their cutting-edge Wave Relay system and technology. Wave Relay can transmit and receive data, video, voice and other application data under the most difficult and unpredictable conditions. Persistent's suite of products is field proven and utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Agriculture, Robotics, and Unmanned System markets.

Please visit http://www.persistentsystems.com to learn more. Follow Persistent Systems on Twitter to get updates on the latest developments @pswaverelay.

SOURCE Persistent Systems, LLC

Related Links

http://www.persistentsystems.com


 Continues to expand footprint with addition of 100 machines 

VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - POYDRAS GAMING FINANCE CORP. (TSX-V: PYD) (OTCQX: PYDGF) ("Poydras" or the "Company") today announced that it has signed a new agreement with a new customer for the addition of 100 machines. The Company will begin placing the machines towards the end of August with a target completion of September 2017.

"We are very pleased to work with this new customer as we continue to execute on our plan to expand our presence in our core markets," said Peter Macy, CEO of Poydras Gaming. "We also look forward to working with them as they grow their casino into an attractive gaming destination. Our strategy remains to focus on building a strong pipeline for growth through the addition of new customers, organic growth with our existing customers, and by making accretive acquisitions. In terms of new customers, we have already placed or will place by the end of the third quarter, games with four new facilities, bringing the number of total casinos we operate in to over 30."

About Poydras Gaming Finance Corp.:

Poydras Gaming is a regional slot route operator with approximately 2,600 gaming machines in operation across over 25 casinos in Oklahoma and Texas. The Company primarily derives its revenue from short- and long-term revenue share contracts with Native American casinos. It provides gaming equipment such as slot machines and electronic table games, and project financing to owners, operators, and managers of casinos and other regulated gaming venues. The company works with casinos, new casino developments, and gaming machine suppliers. In addition, it distributes casino and bingo equipment, and offers direct and online sales of gaming supplies for poker and bingo. Additional information about the Company can be found on the Company's website at www.poydrasgaming.com and on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding ForwardLooking Statements

Certain information in this news release is considered forwardlooking within the meaning of certain securities laws and is subject to important risks, uncertainties and assumptions. This forwardlooking information includes, among other things, information with respect to the Company's beliefs, plans, expectations, anticipations, estimates and intentions. The words "may", "could", "should", "would", "suspect", "outlook", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "plan", "target" and similar words and expressions are used to identify forwardlooking information. The forwardlooking information in this news release, including those statements relating to expected EBITDA impact, and the closing of the transaction, describes the Company's expectations as of the date of this news release.

The results or events anticipated or predicted in such forwardlooking information may differ materially from actual results or events. Material factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from such forward looking information include, among others, risks arising from general economic conditions and adverse industry events.

The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Company's forwardlooking information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forwardlooking information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors.

THE FORWARDLOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARDLOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME.

SOURCE Poydras Gaming Finance Corp.
CHICAGO, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Monday, August 21st, the United States will witness the largest total solar eclipse in nearly 100 years, and the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) and its Foundation are urging Americans to take sight safety seriously when viewing the event by offering a free safety tip sheet at asrs.org/eclipse.

Over the years, reports of patients developing vision loss while viewing solar eclipses have been documented around the world.

"On August 21, whether you are in an area that experiences a partial eclipse or along the 70-mile 'Path of Totality' where the moon will cover the sun completely for two minutes, regular sunglasses simply won't cut it. Proper eye protection is critical for preventing sight-threatening solar retinopathy," said Geoffrey G. Emerson, MD, PhD, Chair of the ASRS Research and Safety in Therapeutics Committee.

Viewing an eclipse without proper eye protection can damage the retina, the delicate, light-sensing tissue that is responsible for sight. Solar retinopathy occurs when the retina is burned and its light-sensing photoreceptors are destroyed. Depending on the extent of the injury, people can suffer residual blurring and/or distortion, temporary or even permanent vision loss.

Solar retinopathy occurs more commonly around the time of a solar eclipse, but can occur at any time due to incidents such as having a laser presentation pointer shined in the eye or from sun gazing due to psychiatric conditions or purposeful self-harm.

"As retina specialists, we work with patients who are robbed of sight by brutal and most often unpreventable disease. But vision loss due to solar retinopathy is preventable," said ASRS Foundation President Tarek S. Hassan, MD. "We want Americans to understand the potential dangers and have the information needed to enjoy this unique spectacle safely."

NASA recommends the use of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses or pinhole projection for viewing the eclipse.

The ASRS is the largest retinal organization in the world, representing over 3,000 retina specialist members, who are board-certified ophthalmologists with advanced fellowship training in the medical and surgical treatment of complex retinal diseases. The Foundation focuses on efforts to improve the lives of those with retinal diseases and to support the physicians who care for them.

Media Contact: Lydia Steck, VP of Communications, [email protected] or (847) 323.3893

SOURCE American Society of Retina Specialists

Related Links

www.asrs.org


In 2005, Revision Skincare helped to create the neck category by launching Nectifirm, a product designed to address aging skin of the neck and decolletage. Since its launch, Nectifirm has been enhanced five times, incorporating innovative new technologies and best-in-class ingredients as they were discovered. In 2017, Kline & Company recognized Nectifirm as the #1 Neck Product Recommended by Medical Professionals.

Revision Skincare is now expanding the Nectifirm collection with the introduction of Nectifirm ADVANCED, the first age-defying neck product to harness the power of the Microbiome - the ecosystem of microorganisms that live on the skin and perform and regulate a variety of imperative functions vital to maintaining skin health. Using the findings of the National Institute of Health's Human Microbiome Project, Revision Skincare has created next generation technology to fight the signs of aging on a whole new level, including incorporating active ingredients such as Diglucosyl Gallic Acid, which works with the skin's own Microbiome to enhance natural mechanisms for brighter, more even skin tone.

In addition, Nectifirm ADVANCED contains a proprietary blend of 8 distinctive peptides to lessen the look of fine lines and wrinkles. Lingonberry Extract utilizes "Smart Antioxidant Technology" by helping the skin enhance its own antioxidant system. An extract of Red Microalgae soothes and provides a lifting effect. Multiple other specialized ingredients slim and form the neck by addressing adipose tissue.

As a leading innovator of skin health and longevity, Revision Skincare has a full portfolio of products for the face, neck and hands to help deliver more youthful looking skin. The brand has achieved many industry firsts and has received numerous industry accolades including:

The first brand to widely incorporate bio-available peptides across its portfolio

The first brand to identify and adopt a more effective, stable and enhanced delivery form of Vitamin C - THD Ascorbate, and the only skincare brand to use THD Ascorbate at a 30% concentration

NewBeauty Beauty Choice Awards in 2014, 2015 and 2017

2017 recognition as the #1 Neck Product Recommended by Medical Professionals

"With Nectifirm ADVANCED, Revision Skincare is one of the first companies in the world to harness the power of the Microbiome to fight the signs of aging for the neck and decolletage," comments Maria Carell, CEO of Revision Skincare. "This is yet another demonstration of Revision Skincare's industry leading R&D capabilities and relentless focus on innovation. We look forward to introducing Nectifirm ADVANCED to our customers over the coming weeks."

Nectifirm ADVANCED will be available nationwide in September 2017, exclusively through dermatologists, plastic surgeons and medical spas. Please visit revisionskincare.com to find where to purchase.

About Revision Skincare:

For more than 30 years, Revision Skincare has provided dermatologists, plastic surgeons and estheticians with clinically-proven, highly-advanced offerings for skin health and longevity. The company's award-winning portfolio includes Nectifirm, Intellishade, D.E.J. (Face and Eye), Revox 7, Vitamin C 30% and Retinol Complete.

Obsessed with perfection and quality, Revision Skincare has the unique distinction of owning its R&D laboratories and manufacturing facilities, allowing for 100% oversight of every product made. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Revision Skincare products are proudly developed and manufactured in the USA. Revision Skincare: Relentless Innovation, Advanced Results.

Instagram: @revisionskincare

Twitter: @revisionskin

Facebook: @revisionskincare

SOURCE Revision Skincare
FELTON, California, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Global baby diapers market size was valued at USD 39.97 billion in 2014 and is expected to observe a rapid growth due to high birth rates in the developing countries over the forecast period. Rising consciousness towards baby health and affordability of the baby care products are the major driving force which is presumed to boost the industry in the coming future.

Advancement in science and technology has given rise to several outstanding products with various properties that have contributed to the market penetration, mostly in the developing region. A significant increase in the number of working women especially in developing parts of the globe has had a growing impact on product sales due to the easy to use the property as well as convenience factor of the product.

Consumer's increasing disposable income has resulted in higher buying power mostly in the developing region. Such increments are expected to raise the sales of premium products in the market which in turn will trigger the global baby diaper industry shortly. The high rate of birth in the developing regions such as the Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America is another major factor that is expected to impact the regional product sales positively.

Continuous exposure to chemicals caused by disposable baby diapers leads to skin rashes and many other negative health impacts. Increasing awareness towards these toxic chemicals and their negative impact on health are most likely to influence the baby diapers market negatively over the upcoming seven years.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Baby Diapers Market Size & Forecast Report, 2012 - 2022" at: https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/baby-diapers-market

Strict government regulation as well as private agencies to safeguard customer interest is liable to obstruct industry growth shortly. Initiatives taken by R&D to build superior products without adverse impacts on health assures some growth opportunities for the industry. Several markets in the developing region have little awareness about the baby diapers. Such markets are anticipated to provide many opportunities for the participants in the industry. Growth in e-commerce sector recently is expected to drive the market penetration opportunities over the forecast period.

The key products include disposable diapers, biodegradable diapers, cloth diapers, swim diapers and training nappy. The global market is dominated by the disposable ones among all the other products, and this trend is anticipated to continue over the forecast period. Cloth based products and training pants emerged as the third and second major segments in the recent past.

The global baby diapers market was dominated by Europe during the past few years, followed by North America and Asia-Pacific. Due to slow birth rate in the developed region such as Europe and North America growth rate is expected to be moderate in such regions. Developing economies such as India and China is anticipated to lead the market in the Asia Pacific region due to the factors involving high birth rates, easy affordability, increasing disposable income as well as Rising awareness towards baby health.

The major industry participants have captured more than 50% of the global market. These companies have been strategically planning the acquisitions, mergers, and partnerships with an aim to build superior products and enhance the production capacity and thereby increase the market penetration. Key players in the industry include P&G, Hengan, SCA, Cotton babies, Kimberly-Clark, KAO, Phillips Health care, Unicharm, The Honest Co, Drylock, OsoCozy, First Quality, Hain Celential, Ontex, SCA and Seventh Generation.

Browse related reports available with Million Insights:

Anti Acne Cosmetics Market - Global Anti Acne Cosmetics Market is segmented based on product type, therapy, application, and region. There are various types of cosmetics as anti-acne agents to treat the various causes of acne.

- Global Anti Acne Cosmetics Market is segmented based on product type, therapy, application, and region. There are various types of cosmetics as anti-acne agents to treat the various causes of acne. Facial Skincare Market - Global Facial Skincare Market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR in the upcoming years as the scope and its applications are increasing across the globe.

- Global Facial Skincare Market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR in the upcoming years as the scope and its applications are increasing across the globe. Baby Shampoo & Conditioner Consumption Industry - Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Consumption Market is classified on the basis of product type, distribution channel and geography. Baby hair care products consist of shampoos and conditioners that are used in order to get rid of dirt, oil and other particles.

- Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Consumption Market is classified on the basis of product type, distribution channel and geography. Baby hair care products consist of shampoos and conditioners that are used in order to get rid of dirt, oil and other particles. Hand Sanitizer Industry - Global Hand Sanitizer Market is classified on the basis of product type, distribution channel, end user and geography. Hand sanitizers are antiseptic hand solutions which are substitutes to washing hands with water and soap.

Market Segment:

Global Baby Diapers Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

- Cloth Diapers

 Flat cloth diapers

 Fitted cloth diapers

 Pre-fold cloth diapers

 All-in-one cloth diapers

 Other

- Disposable Diapers

 Ultra absorbent disposable diapers

 Regular disposable diapers

 Super absorbent disposable diapers

 Bio-degradable disposable diapers

- Training Nappy

- Swim Pants

- Biodegradable Diapers

Global Baby Diapers Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

 North America

 Europe

 Asia Pacific

 Latin America, Middle East & Africa (LAMEA)

About Million Insights:

Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive.

Contact:

Ryan Manuel

Research Support Specialist, USA

Million Insights

Phone: +1-408-610-2300

Toll Free: +1-866-831-4085

Email: [email protected]



Web: https://www.millioninsights.com/

SOURCE Million Insights
"Bob is well known in both the public and private sectors for his significant expertise in global security matters, most especially in the areas of defense strategy, advanced technologies, international studies and acquisition reform," said Thomas A. Kennedy, Raytheon Company Chairman and CEO. "In an era of rapid technological and geo-political change, Bob's vision and expertise will serve us well as we continue to shape our company for future success."

Work is a distinguished graduate of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Course at the University of Illinois, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1974. During his 27-year military career, he held a wide range of command, leadership and management positions. He commanded an artillery battery and a battalion, and was the base commander at Camp Fuji, Japan. His last assignment was as military assistant and senior aide to the Honorable Richard Danzig, 71st Secretary of the Navy. Work retired from the military in 2001 with the rank of colonel.

In 2002, Work joined the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), first as a Senior Fellow for Maritime Affairs and later as the Vice President for Strategic Studies. In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama to serve as the Undersecretary of the Navy, a position he held until 2013. From 2013 to 2014 he served as Chief Executive Officer of the Center for New American Security (CNAS), before returning to the Pentagon with his appointment as Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Work has served as an adjunct professor at George Washington University, where he taught defense analysis and roles and missions of the armed forces. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a Master of Science in systems management from the University of Southern California; a Master of Science in space system operations from the Naval Postgraduate School; and a master's in international public policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

In 2017, outgoing Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter presented Work with his second Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Pentagon's highest civilian award. Additionally, he has been awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Distinguished Public Service Awards from the Departments of the Army, Air Force and Navy, the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2016 sales of $24 billion and 63,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 95 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5ITM products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter.

www.raytheon.com

Media Contact

Dave Desilets

+1.781.392.7552

[email protected]

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com


WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Franchise Association's (IFA) Franchise Education & Research Foundation announced today that Shark Tank star Daymond John will serve as a judge for the 2018 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition during the IFA's Annual Convention in Phoenix, Feb. 10-13. NextGen is a worldwide program that engages millennial entrepreneurs seeking to grow their businesses through the franchise business model.

Hundreds of young entrepreneurs from around the world will submit their franchise business plans for a chance to be among the top 20 winners hosted at the IFA Annual Convention. Since the program's inception in 2015, over 1,000 millennial entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries have applied. Many NextGen winners have been featured in top business publications such as The New York Times, Inc., and Fast Company, among others. Daymond John will lead a panel of judges for the final round of the Global Competition on Tuesday, Feb. 13, when the top three finalists pitch their concepts for cash prizes and potential investments from judges and attendees.

"Millennials are known for their entrepreneurial spirit, and we are thrilled to have a seasoned entrepreneur such as Daymond on board as a judge for the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition," said David McKinnon, CFE, Foundation vice chair and chairman of the NextGen in Franchising Committee. "His experience as a businessman, company founder and investor makes him the perfect mentor for millennial entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses with the franchise business model in today's environment. We're confident his expertise and insight will be invaluable to the 2018 NextGen winners, and we look forward to seeing his impact on these young entrepreneurs and their businesses."

Daymond John is a serial entrepreneur, CEO, award-winning businessman, founder of billion-dollar company FUBU who can be seen on ABC's three-time Emmy Award winning series, Shark Tank. Beyond television, Daymond remains committed to working with entrepreneurs and served as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship under the Obama Administration. Next January, John will release his highly anticipated book, Rise and Grind, which is the follow up to his 2016 New York Times Bestselling book, Power of Broke. Additionally, John continues to run the day-to-day business of The Shark Group, a brand management and consulting company that helps transform businesses into iconic brands.

"It's always been a passion of mine to help aspiring entrepreneurs reach their business goals," said John, founder and chief executive officer of FUBU, presidential ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, star of ABC's Shark Tank and chief executive officer of The Shark Group. "There's immense entrepreneurial potential within the millennial generation, so I'm looking forward to sharing my experience building and advising businesses, and can't wait to see what these young entrepreneurs bring to the table during the final round of the Global Competition."

The NextGen in Franchising Global Competition is a worldwide program offered by the IFA Franchise Education & Research Foundation. Applications for 2018 will remain open until Sept. 15, 2017 and can be submitted through the competition's website at www.nextgenfranchising.org. Entrepreneurs must be between 21-35 years old with businesses that have been operating for 1-5 years. NextGen winners receive a trip to the IFA's Annual Convention in Phoenix from Feb. 10-13, 2018; a spot at the NextGen in Franchising Summit, a two-day educational and networking program for next generation entrepreneurs; an accelerator program with industry leaders and CEOs; an opportunity to participate in the final round of the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition for a chance to win cash prizes and potential investments to continue building their businesses; and opportunities to network with leading franchisors, franchisees and suppliers and with other young entrepreneurs. Winners of the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition also will have the opportunity to learn within The Shark Group's entrepreneurial training program called "Innovation Lab," which is led by a world-class expert in entrepreneurship.

The NextGen in Franchising program is made possible due to the generosity of its donors and sponsors, which include David McKinnon, the founding sponsor; the Stewart & Jane Bainum Fund; Lawrence "Doc" Cohen, Doc & Associates; Stephen P. Joyce Fund; Choice Hotels Foundation; J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation; Tariq Farid, Edible Arrangements; Charlie Chase, FirstService Brands; Aziz Hashim, NRD Holdings; Joe Bourdow, Valpak; Melanie Bergeron, Two Men & A Truck Intl.; Amit Pamecha, FranConnect; and the Fred DeLuca Foundation/Subway.

To apply for the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition, visit NextGenFranchising.org. For more information, please contact Ashley Davidson at [email protected] or call (305) 298-8022.

About the IFA Franchise Education & Research Foundation

Founded in 1983, the International Franchise Association (IFA) Franchise Education & Research Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and supported through the generous contributions of IFA members and others. The Foundation's mission is to advance franchising and the free enterprise system by increasing the knowledge and professional standards of all members of the franchising community; educating the next generation of franchise practitioners; increasing recognition of franchising's key role in the free enterprise system; and providing comprehensive information and research about important developments and trends in franchising.

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating 56 years of excellence, education and advocacy, the International Franchise Association is the world's oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the more than 733,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 7.6 million direct jobs, $674.3 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy and 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology and business development.

Contact:

Ellie Mannix

Fish Consulting

[email protected]

954-893-9150

Gionne Jones

IFA Franchise Education & Research Foundation

[email protected]

202-662-0772

SOURCE International Franchise Association (IFA) Franchise Education & Research Foundation
GUANGZHOU, China, Aug 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sino Agro Food, Inc. (OTCQX: SIAF | OSE: SIAF-ME), a specialized investment company focused on protein food including seafood and cattle, announces results for the quarter ending June 30, 2017.

Revenue

Results reflect the carve-out of aquaculture operations announced March 2, 2017. Income from Sino Agro's 36.6% interest in the carved-out company, Tri-Way Industries Ltd. is reported as "share of income from unconsolidated equity investee." Revenue from the sale of goods from the former aquaculture business segment is no longer reported.

Stripping out discontinued aquaculture revenue from Q2 2016, revenue from the sale of goods decreased USD 18.7M, or 28%, to USD 47.7M for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 year over year. Contrasted to Q1 2017, revenue decreased 17%.

Business Segment Overview

Negative Comparisons (vs. Q2 2016)

Integrated Cattle (SJAP): The combined results of SJAP (including QZH) in Q2 2017 decreased in sales revenue by $18 million, and gross profit by $7.4 million

Organic Fertilizer (HSA): Q2 2017 revenues decreased by $4.2M; gross profit decreased by $1.84M

Plantation Division (JHST): Q2 2017's revenues decreased by $4.7M; gross profit decreased by $2.7M

Import and Export -- beef only (Corporate Division): Q2 2017's revenues decreased by $3.7M; gross profit decreased by $0.42M

Project Development: Q2 2017's revenues decreased by $19.3M; gross profit by $5.8M

Positive Comparisons (vs. Q2 2016)

Cattle Farm (MEIJI): Q2 2017's revenues increased by $0.3 M; gross profits increased by 0$0.72M

Import and Export -- seafood only (Corporate Division): Q2 2017's revenues increased by $2.3M; gross profits increased by $0.18M

SIAF's On-going Strategy

Integrated Cattle (SJAP)

As reported last quarter, the Xining government engaged SJAP in discussions aimed to help the cattle and beef industry and promote economic development in the district, which boasts annual production of over four million head of cattle. SJAP was selected as the lead company to coordinate and carry out sweeping long-term regional plans.

This also reflects the local government's realization of the serious situation the cattle industry faces in the region, and is looking at various options to assist while waiting and working with the Central Government to produce a concrete revitalized plan to rebuild the industry.

The Company's plan in the interim is to:

restrict capital spending and to reserve its cash as much as possible to buy enough time while working through the interim planning process until such time as the Central and Local Government's revitalization plan is adopted and implemented,

continue limiting operations of the adversely affected aspects of its business,

continue discussions with other operators in wholesaling, logistics, value added processing, general trading, etc. to negotiate an overall plan/solution in line with the government's strategic plan, and,

supplant Australian beef imports with those from the USA that offer comparatively better value in price, quality, and selection

As previously noted, decisions are to be governed by stricter discipline on return on capital employed ("ROCE") in support of SJAP's advised carve-out and spinoff plans.

SJAP is fortunate to enjoy excellent working relationships with various government agencies. These private company/state agency relationships are perhaps more important in China than in western countries. For instance, SJAP has successfully created a local cooperative farmer network mutually beneficial for many years. Indeed, it is still viable; albeit, severely more challenging with the influx of highly competitive imported beef due to relaxed import restrictions.

Government agencies recognize the mutual benefit of public/private cooperation. Support for the beef industry awaits a full assessment of forces to determine market equilibrium, before likely indicating a proper and effective stimulation to be supplied to local markets in the interest of all parties.

Organic Fertilizer (HSA)

Plans to adapt to changing market conditions at HSA have been formulated with the restriction of incurring any further capital expenditure until available through self-generated cash flow. Sales are anticipated to pick up from Q3 2017 after completion of the retrofit of its production plant. Profits are intended to increase from this quarter onward, eventually exceeding past performance once raw material is in adequate supply, targeting sometime during Q4 2017.

Plantation (JHST)

There is no easy solution when disease sets in, except to replant the whole plantation with a new breed of disease-resistant HU plants that are currently available in China. However, the Company plans to restrict capital expenditure for the time being until such time as SIAF's cash position becomes strong enough to consider future capital expenditure plans and direction.

In the meantime, JHST will plan on growing seasonal cash crops that exhibit stable markets and steady prices to maintain its plantation operation for the remainder of this year until its able to consider various available options. The Company is confident in finding the appropriate solution.

Import and Export (Corporate)

The company projects that by sometime in Q4 2017 imported beef from the U.S. should find its footing in the China market, providing a better guideline to importers overall and helping to determine an appropriate direction.

In the interim, China is short in seafood supply with demand increasing each year. It is projected that China will become a negative importing country with a shortfall of over tens of millions of metric tons ("MMT")/year within the next decade based on its current consumption of over 50 MMT/year. The current shortfall is running at some 6-7 MMT/year. In this respect, the locally grown seafood and imported seafood trade has strong potential to increase the Company's sales revenue and profits, such that the plan is to increase import seafood trading starting in Q3 (to include frozen seafood), helping to offset some of the overall revenue decline Q2.

Project Development

Revenue and profit from this segment is expected to resume, returning to normal levels and above, once Tri-way secures its intended debt financing.

In the interim, CA has been exploring opportunities in Southeast Asia (i.e. India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries) with the aim to turn into a global operator outside of China. Since this is at an early stage, the Company is not in a position to provide a timeframe or potential chance of success. However, the Company can report that it has made progress in this area, and intends to provide updates as they occur throughout the remainder of this year.

Triway's COSO Exercises

Progress updates in this arena will continue over the coming weeks.

Sequential Comparison, Continuing Operations, Sale of Goods:

(USD M, except per share and margin data)



Q2 '17

Q1 '17

% Revenue



47.7 57.4 (17) Gross Profit



6.5 10.0 (35) Gross Profit Margin



13.6% 17.4% (3.8) Earnings Per Diluted Share (FD) (USD)  from continuing and discontinued operations



.03 .36 (94)

The Company achieved the following results, comparing the second quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2017:

Other Key Points

Q2 2017 income from unconsolidated equity investment was USD 1.3M . This figure was based on a 23.8% equity interest in Tri-way, prior to registration and finalization of SIAF's effective 36.6% interest, along with corresponding adjustments within the coming Q3 quarter, wherein some and there will be debt re-payments by Tri-way to SIAF will assist into improving SIAF's cash flow starting from Q3quarter of2017.

As of June 30 2017, the Company had net working capital of USD 313.9M , a quarterly increase of USD 16.4M .

Stockholders' equity increased in the quarter by USD 15.5M to USD 629.9M or USD 24.99 per share, based on the weighted average number of fully diluted outstanding shares in the quarter.

CEO Commentary

Sino Agro Food's Chairman and CEO Solomon Lee addressed the second quarter results and 2017 outlook:

"The Company is confident that we will see a rebound in the remainder of 2017. On a more strategic front, in consultation with our partners and advisors, the aim is to prudently address the spectrum of external agricultural market conditions to facilitate our carve-out and spinoff exercises, some of which are well underway."

"The growth in demand for seafood in China is set to rise to 39kg per capita in 2020. Whereas the Chinese seafood industry is heavily challenged by sea pollution and overfishing of wild fish, Tri-way's sustainable production environment produces healthy, safe and sustainable seafood all year round. Moreover, it produces premium quality seafood that can yield higher margins than competitors. We are encouraged by our business plan and the macro-trends that support our belief in this strategy. To further this strategy while minimizing risks and ensuring the long-term sustainability of its business model, Tri-way has decided to focus its near-term goals on securing financing to support the execution of this business plan before proceeding.

"Tri-way continues to make meaningful progress toward securing this financing to develop its infrastructure and grow the business. Recent achievements include the granting of a credit facility of RMB 100 million with the Agricultural Bank of China ("ABC"), the world's third largest bank based on reported assets, and being assigned the strongest credit rating, 5A-1, from Dun & Bradstreet, a reputable business services company headquartered in the U.S.A. These milestones confirm Tri-way's credit worthiness, clean balance sheet, and its risk averse approach, all of which support our confidence in Tri-way's ability to secure additional financing to complete the build out of Aquafarm 4 and to commence the construction of Aquafarm 5.

"Moving onto our beef sales, we experienced a decline in sales this quarter due to a shift in market demand toward newer sources of imported beef. We adapted to the influx of Australian beef by importing it to the Shanghai Distribution Center, and in Xining for value added processing. Now, new imports offer a further competition, offering us the same opportunities to embrace, after a transitional period.

"Having previously identified the trend of imported beef, we have been transitioning toward premium domestic beef, while maintaining the farmer's cooperative model, which promotes several missions. While we expect short-term headwinds related to increased competition from international beef farmers to impact sales, we are confident in our long-term strategy. We are fortunate to enjoy excellent working relationships with various government agencies, with which we are currently discussing new means to accomplish our mission, without SJAP having to continue businesses made unprofitable by the relaxation of import restrictions. These private company/state agency relationships hold greater significance in China than in western countries, and we are proud to have established a positive working relationship with the Xining Government in an effort to support our growth strategy.

"During the quarter we also implemented several initiatives aimed at improving financial discipline across the business to support a sustainable and cost-efficient business model, such as concentrating on increasing free cash flow at Tri-way by optimizing operations at each aquafarm in terms of product mix and APRAS performance, and retrofitting HSA's second production plant's fertilizer processor to adapt to poultry.

"I would like to thank our loyal shareholders as we implement these steps and work through this transition period toward building long-term value at the Company."

Q2 2017 Interim Report

For detailed segment operational performance and developments, please take the time to read our latest 10-Q filing, or refer to the Q2 2017 Interim Report posted to the Company website at http://sinoagrofood.investorroom.com/download/Sino-Agro-Food_Q2-2017-Interim-Report.pdf

Earnings Call Information

The Company will host an earnings call on Thursday, August 31, 2017 at 10:00 AM EDT/4:00 PM CET to discuss quarterly financial results.

Please submit questions by email to [email protected]. These will be organized and answered on the call.

To listen to the conference call please use the following information:

SIAF Q2 2017 Results Call Information

Date: August 31, 2017

Time: 10:00 AM, EDT/16:00 PM CET



Participant Dialing Instructions:



SE: +46-8-5059-63-06

UK: +44-203-139-48-30

NO: +47-23-50-05-59

CN: +86-400-681-54-21

US: + 1(866)928-7517



Conference Pincode 75442190# The earnings call will also be available over the web. To access, click the following link: Sino Agro Q2 2017 Earnings Call





Contact:

Peter Grossman

Investor Relations

+1(775)901-0344

[email protected]

Todd Fromer / Elizabeth Barker

+1(212)896-1215 / 212-896-1203

[email protected]

Nordic Countries

+46(0)8-120-558-30

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/sino-agro-food/r/sino-agro-food--inc--reports-q2-2017-results,c2325422

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/13869/2325422/709116.pdf SIAF Q2 Results PR http://mb.cision.com/Public/13869/2325422/84599d1859670e62.pdf SIAF 10-Q 2017-08-11

SOURCE Sino Agro Food
NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Surya Brasil, a Brazilian line of natural, organic and vegan lifestyle products that promote health, wellness and sustainability, celebrates 20 years in the United States with continued growth and development on the horizon.

"In our 20 years in the US and Canada, the brand has seen continued growth. In 2017 alone we have grown 92% and will continue to grow as we look to the future," says Clelia Angelon, Founder of Surya Brasil. "We are proud to now be available in our latest retailers, Thrive Market and Pharmaca and intend to continue to significantly increase our distribution over the next couple of years. We are also exploring the opportunity of going into mass market in 2018."

As the only cosmetic Brazilian company sold successfully across the US for twenty years, this milestone was honored by a celebratory event at the company headquarters in New Hyde Park, Long Island. Helping to celebrate Surya Brasil's success and mark the 20th Anniversary, Brazilian vegan ARTivist Nana Indigo has painted the front wall of Surya Brasil's Long Island headquarters. She also entertained guests with her artistic skills throughout the event.

"We are proud of the accomplishments we have made over the past 20 years. We look forward to our continued success in the natural beauty and lifestyle category, taking the brand to new heights in the coming years," says Angelon.

The company prides itself on incorporating exotic botanical ingredients from the Amazon and combining them with ancient plants and herbs like Henna to create its best-selling products. From hair care to color, to skincare, Surya Brasil reaches consumers who are seeking more sustainable, all-natural lifestyle products.

Join the Surya Brasil social media conversation on Facebook @suryabrasil and on Instagram @suryabrasilbeauty. For more information on Surya Brasil, please visit www.suryabrasilproducts.com.

About Surya Brasil

Surya Brasil is a Brazilian company leader in natural, organic and vegan cosmetics. Fully committed to environmental preservation, animal welfare and environmental responsibility, Surya Brasil is notably recognized for its vegan hair coloring, vegetable-based, with high performance and natural formulations sold in over 40 countries. Surya Brasil contributes with Whole Planet Foundation, a Whole Foods Market foundation that funds poverty alleviation worldwide. The products contain organic ingredients and are free of animal components and testing, with the aim of combining nature with technology to provide beauty with health. Its national and international certifications such as Ecocert, Cruelty Free, Vegan, Fair Trade ISO 22176: 2007 and Leaping Bunny confirm with transparency and credibility of the benefits and advantages of its cosmetics line. For more information, please visit www.suryabrasilproducts.com .

Contact: Alli Good/Arlene Benza

[email protected]

212-675.8555

SOURCE Surya Brasil

Related Links

http://www.suryabrasilproducts.com


"Marcos is an innovative drug hunter with a broad expertise across multiple disease and research areas, which has led to inspired breakthrough discoveries and unprecedented success in lead series drug discovery," said Jay Lichter, Ph.D., chairman and interim president and CEO of Synthorx. "In addition to his drug discovery experience, Marcos is a collaborative leader that will help Synthorx identify the most impactful opportunities to discover and develop important new therapeutics with our expanded genetic alphabet technology."

"When I first learned about the breakthrough research behind Synthorx's expanded genetic alphabet platform, I thought the technology had tremendous potential in drug discovery. Using Synthorx's technology to precisely add new functionalities to biologic therapeutics could greatly improve drug and pharmacological properties," said Dr. Milla. "I am also thrilled to join the talented team at Synthorx as we focus on making significant advancements in protein design to deliver highly-targeted therapeutic modulation in many disease areas, such as immuno-oncology, autoimmune and metabolic diseases, and pain."

Dr. Milla's expertise in drug discovery spans across the areas of autoimmunity and inflammation, neurosciences and pain, and immuno-oncology. He has held industry and academic appointments at GlaxoSmithKline, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Roche Palo Alto, Janssen Research & Development, and, most recently, Adaptive Biotechnologies.

He has previously directed efforts focusing on multiple intracellular and extracellular target classes, including cell surface and nuclear receptors, ion channels, kinases and proteinases. His work led to the discovery of a break-through series of small molecule modulators of cytokine-receptor interactions. He also explored novel ways of holistically reading pharmacological responses employing high content imaging and gene expression readouts.

Dr. Milla graduated with a B.S. degree from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru and a Ph.D. degree in cell and molecular biology from Saint Louis University. He did his postdoctoral training at MIT as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, and at Duke University.

About Synthorx

Synthorx Inc. is a biotechnology company using synthetic biology to discover and develop novel protein therapeutics. Synthorx's expanded genetic alphabet platform has the unique ability to drive the site-specific incorporation of multiple synthetic amino acids into proteins of any size, from small peptides to large biologics, and to manufacture these improved proteins at scale. Synthorx's unique platform expands the chemical and structural repertoire of protein therapeutics and uncovers new ways to modulate pharmacological properties of biologics, not possible with other technologies. Synthorx is working internally and in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies toward the design and discovery of first-in-class drugs for a variety of therapeutic areas. Synthorx's investors include RA Capital Management, Avalon Ventures, and Correlation Ventures. The company was founded based on important discoveries in Dr. Floyd Romesberg's lab at The Scripps Research Institute. The company is headquartered in La Jolla, Calif.

For more information, please visit www.synthorx.com and follow on Twitter @synthorx.

SOURCE Synthorx Inc.

Related Links

http://www.synthorx.com


PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TargetX, a leading provider of student lifecycle solutions for higher education, is proud to announce the winners of the "X Awards" for 2017. These clients were recognized at the 2017 TargetX Annual Summit along with the announcement of the company's bold new vision to reimagine the student experience, disrupt the status quo in higher education, and delight students throughout the recruitment, enrollment, and retention process.

"The X Awards are an opportunity for TargetX to honor clients who have taken our solutions to the next level," says Sasha Peterson, CEO of TargetX. "Higher education gets painted as an industry that still uses antiquated systems and tools, but increasingly, there are innovative colleges and universities stepping outside the box, and they are seeing the results in student yield and fit. The X Awards exalts those innovators and disruptors who have pushed themselves, and frankly, pushed us to be better."

The X Awards were given to three institutions under the theme of "Reimagining the Student Experience":

Towson UniversityGreater Baltimore's largest university was honored for its unwavering dedication to remove barriers in the graduate online application so that prospective students who rely on a screen reader can successfully apply to TU. This effort involved live screen reader testing to identify and remove blocks, consulting with vision-impaired students for user feedback, and partnering with TargetX to accomplish technical functionality.

"The effort to make TU systems accessible is about providing a productive and welcoming environment for the widest range of persons in our community. Every successful accessibility project increases access for some and productivity for many," says Matthew Wynd of Towson University's Office of Technology Services.

University of Texas, San Antonioan emerging Tier 1 research institution serving nearly 29,000 students was honored for its work to leverage new innovations and educate the higher ed community on how the TargetX Recruitment Suite works seamlessly with Salesforce's Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA).

"Being able to leverage Salesforce and all the innovations that come with the platform hand-in-glove with TargetX has been a huge help in our recruitment process," says Noe Vela, Information Technology Associate II at UTSA.

Western Connecticut State Universitya public state university with four campuses serving more than 5,700 students was honored for exemplifying what it means to disrupt the status quo and delight students through its adoption of a complete nuts-to-bolts student lifecycle solution.

"TargetX provides solutions that are designed to meet the needs of students today, not yesterday," says Jay Murray, Associate Vice President for Enrollment at WCSU. "We really have been able to expand to new markets and engage students more effectively. I'm happy TargetX has been our partner in that."

The next round of X Awards will be presented in Nashville, TN at the 2018 TargetX Summit, July 16-17. For more information visit targetx.com/summit.

SOURCE TargetX

Related Links

http://targetx.com


NEW YORK, Aug. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mark Hotel, located in one of Manhattan's most coveted and discreet locations a stone's throw from Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, received the top rating in Bilanz, Switzerland's leading business magazine, which gave the property its much anticipated and coveted #1 rating in The World's 100 Best City Hotels Award.

The Mark Hotel in New York The Mark Hotel in New York Inside The Mark Hotel lobby, designed by Jacques Grange The Mark Hotel Sailboat

"Our new winner is a beautiful, relaxed refuge on the Upper East Side" says Bilanz, "The Mark in New York sets the standard worldwide in terms of service; when checking out the receptionist asks, 'what can we do better for your next stay?'"

The Mark is an international leader in hospitality that has become the hotel of choice for a savvy clientele of global power players since it re-opened almost a decade ago after a bold renovation by French interior designer Jacques Grange; it was Mr. Grange's very first commercial project in the United States.

Bilanz's rating follows a long list of awards and accolades The Mark has received over the years since its re-imagination by Grange, including Conde Nast Traveler's Hot List and Gold List for several years in a row, Conde Nast Traveler's Reader's Choice Awards in 2014 & 2016, U.S. News & World Report Best Hotels list in 2014, 2015 & 2017, as well as Travel & Leisure's Gold List, to name a few.

"The Mark is elegance devoid of any pretension and luxury without ostentation" Le Point

"The Mark is a high point noted in a city known for stunning hotels. Higher praise we cannot really imagine" Esquire

"The Mark seems to know just how to sum things up perfectly. Maybe it's the in-room dining manned by Jean-Georges, or perhaps it's the stunning Jacques Grange-designed rooms and suiteseither way, this magical Upper East Side gem is a Central Parkcentric destination for the books" Time

"If you are looking for Upper East Side Chic you would be hard pressed to find a hotel more elegant than The Mark. Everything is so reassuringly confident about The Mark, including the bend-over-backwards service" Harper's Bazaar UK

The Mark Hotel guests have access to a unique range of amenities that include a 24/7 check-in, 24/7 room service by Michelin Three-Star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a Frederic Fekkai salon, a John Lobb shoe-shine, the opportunity to shop 24/7 at Bergdorf Goodman as well as The Mark Bikes & The Mark Pedicabs. In spring 2017, The Mark introduced The Mark Sailboat, a 70-foot Herreshoff S-Boat and one of the last of the iconic brand's original sailboats built in 1929 that guests can charter for a three-hour journey in the New York Harbor.

The Mark truly stands alone as New York's most boldly lavish hotel.

Exclusive imagery of The Mark can be found at this link

SOURCE The Mark Hotel
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 4, Americans will observe Labor Day, the holiday celebrating the nation's working men and women.

However, James A. Stuber asserts that America's leaders, and more importantly her consumers, have been undermining America's workers in pursuit of faulty free trade theories and cheap foreign products.

James A. Stuber What If Things Were Made in America Again: How Consumers Can Rebuild the Middle Class by Buying Things Made in American Communities (Current Affairs Press)

In his provocative new book, What If Things Were Made in America Again: How Consumers Can Rebuild the Middle Class by Buying Things Made in American Communities (Current Affairs Press), Stuber contends that the low prices of imported products have been more than offset by lowered American wages, job losses and resulting social ills including drug addiction and suicide.

Faced with competition from places like China and Mexico, where workers are paid one-tenth of U.S. wages, Americans have seen their wages driven down, and not just in manufacturing, as laid-off production workers line up to compete for the remaining jobs, Stuber says.

And he predicts that the future holds more of the same or worse: "Let's not kid ourselves; companies like Carrier, Nabisco and Ford are still sending entire production lines to Mexico and China," Stuber says. "And now, the high-skill jobs our leaders said we would keep are being swept offshore along with the blue-collar work."

Stuber asks, "When we have the conversation with our children or grandchildren about careers they should consider, what do we tell them? Do we try to figure out what jobs are tradable, and guide our children only to prepare for those that are not? And if we give away all the tradable jobs, are there enough non-tradable jobs left, or do we end up with a fierce competition for them? In the end, I concluded that we are trading away our children's future."

Fortunately, consumers have the power to solve the problem, as Stuber describes in his book's last chapter.

About James Stuber

James A. Stuber is an attorney and entrepreneur who formerly served as legislative assistant to a member of the United States House of Representatives. He holds a law degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor's and master's degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, respectively. Stuber lives in Berwyn, Pa., with his wife Susan and their four children. Building upon this book, he founded Made in America Again, a movement of consumers dedicated to rebuilding the American middle class by buying things made in American communities.

Contact: James Stuber; (610) 608-5074; [email protected]; http://www.themadeinamericabook.com/

SOURCE James Stuber
LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas, Conrad & Conrad recently resolved two motorcycle accident cases in which attorneys from the firm were able to obtain the maximum policy limits for their clients.

The cases - Gower in Northhampton County and Pena in Lehigh County - involved benefits from multiple types of insurance policies, including personal policies, third-party insurance and underinsured motorist coverage. Lawyers from TCC approached both cases with meticulous attention to detail and a focus on client recovery and well-being.

By looking for benefits in the at-fault party's insurance as well as the client's own coverage, TCC obtained a six-figure recovery for the estate of Richard Gower. The case wasn't straightforward or simple, but TCC lawyers' expertise in the field of insurance claims enables them to obtain benefits where others aren't able. Even when a specific benefit appears to be excluded from a policy, TCC's lawyers can find ways to get clients the funds they deserve.

In the case involving Armando Pena, complicated circumstances involved in the client's motorcycle accident made the prospect of obtaining maximum policy limits uncertain. The lawyers at TCC used their extensive case history and thorough research skills to find discrepancies in a commercial insurance policy that ended up providing benefits for the client despite language that appeared, on the surface, to exclude those benefits. Lawyers also obtained funds from the at-fault party's insurance and the victim's own coverage.

Both recent motorcycle accident cases handled by Thomas, Conrad & Conrad are further examples of the firm's ability to get maximum policy benefits for clients on a regular basis. Millions of dollars in recovery funds have been obtained from claims that insurance companies would have otherwise denied. Many clients seek help from TCC after going to other lawyers who are unwilling to take on their cases. TCC is able to tackle the most difficult policy disputes because they're willing to do the work when others won't -- including going to trial when necessary.

Motorcycle accident victims in Lehigh Valley or the surrounding areas who are having trouble getting representation from an attorney may find that contacting Thomas, Conrad & Conrad is their best option. The personal injury attorneys at TCC have been using all the resources at their disposal to maximize claims and discover benefits in hidden places for more than 25 years.

SOURCE Thomas, Conrad & Conrad
ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the American Trucking Associations released the latest edition of ATA American Trucking Trends 2017, the annual compendium of data about the trucking industry. Among the findings in this year's Trends is that trucking industry revenues in 2016 were $676.2 billion.

"The information in Trends highlights exactly what I tell elected officials, regulators and key decision-makers every day: trucking is literally the driving force behind our great economy," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "Safe, reliable and efficient motor carriers enable businesses throughout the supply chain to maintain lean inventories, thereby saving the economy billions of dollars each year."

"Trends is the only place where you can find a comprehensive look at the trucking industry in one place," said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. "From economic performance to safety to tax data, Trends is the one publication that contains it all."

Among the findings in this year's edition:

Trucking generated $676.2 billion , or 79.8% of the nation's freight bill.

, or 79.8% of the nation's freight bill. Trucks moved 10.42 billion tons of freight  70.6% of all domestic freight tonnage.

The nation's commercial trucks paid $41.3 billion in state and federal highway user fees and taxes. The average five-axle tractor trailer pays more than $5,600 in taxes annually.

in state and federal highway user fees and taxes. The average five-axle tractor trailer pays more than in taxes annually. There were 33.8 million trucks registered for business purposes, including 3.68 million Class 8 trucks. Those trucks burned 38.8 billion gallons of diesel fuel and 15.5 billion gallons of gasoline and traveled 450.4 billion miles.

7.4 million Americans are employed in trucking-related jobs, including 3.5 million as truck drivers. 6% of those drivers are women and 38.7% are minorities.

Trucking is an industry made up of small businesses: 91% of motor carriers operate six or fewer trucks and 97.3% operate less than 20.

"Trends is the only place to find all this information about the trucking industry, and more, in one convenient reference guide," Costello said, "which is why copies of Trends are found in the offices of CEOs, regulators, legislators and thousands of industry leaders."

American Trucking Trends is available for purchase at www.atabusinesssolutions.com or by calling 866-821-3468.

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

SOURCE American Trucking Associations

Related Links

http://www.trucking.org


ROUND ROCK, Texas, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TSS, Inc. (Other OTC: TSSI), a data center and mission critical facilities and technology services company, reported results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2017.

Second Quarter Highlights:

Second quarter 2017 revenue of $4.2 million compared with $7.0 million in the second quarter of 2016 and $4.4 million in the first quarter of 2017.

compared with in the second quarter of 2016 and in the first quarter of 2017. Gross margin of 42% in the second quarter of 2017 compared with 31% in the second quarter of 2016.

Reduced selling, general and administrative expenses by $0.5 million or 25% compared to the second quarter of 2016.

or 25% compared to the second quarter of 2016. Achieved operating income of $74,000 in the second quarter of 2017 compared to an operating loss of $60,000 in the second quarter of 2016.

in the second quarter of 2017 compared to an operating loss of in the second quarter of 2016. Net loss of $24,000 or $0.00 per share in the second quarter of 2017 compared to a net loss of $169,000 or $(0.01) per share in the second quarter of 2016.

or per share in the second quarter of 2017 compared to a net loss of or per share in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA of $223,000 compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $197,000 in the second quarter of 2016.

"We feel we have aligned our business properly and have now recorded five consecutive quarters of positive Adjusted EBITDA." said Anthony Angelini, President and Chief Executive Officer of TSS. "We anticipate increasing revenues and profits in the second half of the year as the focus on growth within our core services begins to play out. Our market opportunity remains large and we see positive underlying trends within the services we are focused on delivering."

Quarterly Conference Call Details

The Company has scheduled a conference call to discuss the second quarter 2017 financial results for Monday, August 14, 2017 at 4:30 PM Eastern. To participate on the conference call, please dial 877-691-2551 toll free from the U.S., or 630-691-2747 for international callers. The conference code is 45376153#. Investors may also access a live audio web cast of this conference call under the "events" tab on the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://ir.totalsitesolutions.com/events.cfm.

An audio replay of the conference call will be available approximately one hour after the conclusion of the call and will be made available until September 13, 2017. The audio replay can be accessed by dialing 1-888-843-7419 in the U.S. or 630-652-3042 toll free then enter conference ID number 4537 6153#. Additionally, a replay of the webcast will be available on the Company's website approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call and will remain available for 90 calendar days.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA is a supplemental financial measure not defined under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, impairment loss on goodwill and other intangibles, stock-based compensation, and provision for bad debts. We present Adjusted EBITDA because we believe this supplemental measure of operating performance is helpful in comparing our operating results across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding non-cash items that may, or could, have a disproportionate positive or negative impact on our results of operations in any particular period. We also use Adjusted EBITDA as a factor in evaluating the performance of certain management personnel when determining incentive compensation.

Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA, while providing useful information, should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income or cash flows as determined under GAAP. Consistent with Regulation G under the U.S. federal securities laws, Adjusted EBITDA has been reconciled to the nearest GAAP measure, and this reconciliation is located under the heading "Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation" following the Consolidated Statements of Operations included in this press release.

About TSS, Inc.

TSS provides a comprehensive suite of services for the planning, design, deployment, maintenance, refresh and take-back of end-user and enterprise systems, including the mission-critical facilities they are housed in. TSS provides a single-source solution for enabling technologies in data centers, operations centers, network facilities, server rooms, security operations centers, communications facilities and the infrastructure systems that are critical to their function. TSS's services consist of technology consulting, design and engineering, project management, systems integration, systems installation and facilities management. For more information, visit www.totalsitesolutions.com or call 888-321-4877.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" -- that is, statements related to future -- not past -- events, plans, and prospects. In this context, forward-looking statements may address matters such as our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "guidance," "prospects," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should," or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Particular uncertainties that could adversely or positively affect the Company's future results include: our independent registered public accounting firm's reports on our 2015 and 2016 financial statements contain an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern; we may not have sufficient resources to fund our business and may need to issue debt or equity to obtain additional funding; our reliance on a significant portion of our revenues from a limited number of customers; risks relating to operating in a highly competitive industry; risks relating to the failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting; risks relating to rapid technological, structural, and competitive changes affecting the industries we serve; risks involved in properly managing complex projects; risks relating to the possible cancellation of customer contracts on short notice; risks relating our ability to continue to implement our strategy, including having sufficient financial resources to carry out that strategy; risks relating to our ability to meet all of the terms and conditions of our debt obligations; uncertainty related to current economic conditions and the related impact on demand for our services; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

TSS, Inc. Consolidated Balance Sheets (In thousands except par values)









June 30,

December 31,







2017

2016







(unaudited)



Assets









Current Assets







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 1,026

$ 2,152

Contract and other receivables, net

1,195

2,389

Costs and estimated earnings in excess of billings on uncompleted

contracts

300

539

Inventories, net

122

59

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

383

252

Total current assets

3,026

5,391 Property and equipment, net

436

544 Goodwill



1,907

1,907 Intangible assets, net

633

704 Other assets



112

30

Total assets

$ 6,114

$ 8,576 Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity





Current Liabilities









Convertible notes payable, current portion, net

$ 100

$ 246

Borrowings under receivables factoring agreement

284

737

Accounts payable and accrued expenses

2,940

5,319

Billings in excess of costs and estimated earnings on uncompleted

contracts

3,088

2,818

Total current liabilities

6,412

9,120 Convertible notes, less current portion, net

845

825 Other liabilities

23

62

Total liabilities

7,280

10,007 Stockholders' Equity (Deficit)









Preferred stock- $.0001 par value; 1,000 shares authorized at June

30, 2017 and December 31, 2016; none issued

-

-

Common stock- $.0001 par value, 49,000 shares authorized at June

30, 2017 and December 31, 2016: 16,316 and 16,370 shares issued

at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively

2

2

Additional paid-in capital

68,559

68,522

Treasury stock 759 and 748 shares at cost at June 30, 2017 and

December 31, 2016, respectively

(1,533)

(1,532)

Accumulated deficit

(68,194)

(68,423)

Total stockholders' equity (deficit)

(1,166)

(1,431)

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity (deficit)

$ 6,114

$ 8,576

















TSS, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (In thousands except per-share values, unaudited)











Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,









2017

2016

2017

2016 Results of Operations:



















Revenue





$ 4,198

$ 7,029

$ 8,587

$ 14,704

Cost of revenue, excluding depreciation and

amortization

2,444

4,861

4,974

11,231

Gross profit, excluding depreciation and

amortization

1,754

2,168

3,613

3,473

Operating expenses:



















Selling, general and administrative

1,555

2,077

3,298

4,329

Depreciation and amortization



125

151

263

298

Gain on sale of business component



-

-

(321)

-

Total operating costs



1,680

2,229

3,240

4,627

Operating income (loss)



74

(60)

373)

(1,154)

Interest income (expense), net



(74)

(111)

(151)

(191)

Other income (expense), net



(3)

2

(3)

9

Income (loss) before income taxes



(3)

(169)

219

(1,336)

Income tax expense



21

-

(10)

-

Net income (loss)



$ (24)

$ (169)

$ 229

$ (1,336) Basic and diluted loss per Share:



















Net income (loss) per share



$ (0.00)

$ (0.01)

$ 0.01

$ (0.09)









































TSS, Inc. Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation (In thousands, unaudited)







Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,





2017

2016

2017

2016



















Net income (loss)

$ (24)

$ (169)

$ 229

$ (1,319)



















Interest income (expense), net 74

111

151

175 Depreciation and amortization 125

151

263

298 Income tax expense

21

42

(10)

61 EBITDA profit (loss) $ 196

$ 135

$ 633

$ (786) Stock based compensation

27

62

37

134 Provision for bad debts

-

-

2

5 Adjusted EBITDA

$ 223

$ 197

$ 672

$ (647)

SOURCE TSS, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.totalsitesolutions.com


PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), the world leader in radiotherapy and radiosurgery systems and software, will hold a meeting for investors on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego.

Varian will host a meeting with management, beginning with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. PT, and webcast presentations from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. PT on Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis, 333 W Harbor Dr. San Diego, CA, in North Tower, Ballroom C. Presentations by Varian management and leading clinicians will focus on new technologies and products being featured at the exhibit, as well as practice trends in treatment centers, and advances in radiotherapy and radiosurgery. The meeting will not include a booth tour, although investors are invited to visit Varian's booth during show hours.

The meeting and presentation will be webcast beginning at 8:00 a.m. PT. To access the webcast, click on https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1158621&tp_key=53022f6cb5

To RSVP for the meeting, e-mail: [email protected]. Please RSVP by: Friday, August 25, 2017.

To reserve a hotel room in San Diego, and to register for additional ASTRO seminars, please visit the ASTRO web site at www.astro.org or call (800) 541-6058.

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems focuses energy on saving lives and is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating and managing cancer. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Varian employs approximately 6,600 people around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com and follow @VarianMedSys on Twitter.

Press Contact

Mike Bruff

Varian Medical Systems

+1 (650) 424-5163

[email protected]

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems

Related Links

http://www.astro.org


PUNE, India, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- /MRFR Press Release/- Market Research Future published a half-cooked research report on "Global Workforce Management Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022"  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.

IBM Corporation (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), SAP AG (Europe), KRONOS (U.S.), Workforce Software (U.S.), ADP LLC (U.S.), WORKDAY (U.S.), Infor Global Solution (India), and ClickSoftware (U.S.) are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Workforce Management Market.

Workforce Management Market Overview

The Global Workforce Management Market is growing with the rapid pace majorly due to deployment of cloud and the rapid adoption of workforce analytics. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global market of Workforce Management is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The global workforce management market is prognosticated to value USD 9 billion by the end of 2022 with ~11% CAGR during forecast period 2016-2022.

The augmented demand for a minimized labour expenses, improved workforce utilization & business performances are some of the major factors contributing to the growth of the workforce management market. Increased focus on workforce optimization and mobile applications are providing impetus to the market growth. The growing number of medium and small enterprises in the emerging market is fostering the growth of the market in the years to come. Also, workforce management solution enables organizations to run complex analytics on workforce processes to spot problems and correct them and hence ensure better use of existing resources due to which the market for the workforce management market has augmented.

The trend of managing own schedules in mobile applications in particular is propelling the market growth of WFM solutions, enabling employees to view their own schedules on a smart phone or tablet.

Workforce Management technology is gaining traction because it is so closely linked to cost savings. Organizations are getting value from their WFM solutions, the challenges they faced, and their plans for the future.

Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2388

The two most common administrative benefits observed in the market are - an improvement in administrative efficiency and cost savings; and these of course are the main reasons for investing in WFM. However, other benefits such as improved compliance, customer satisfaction and employee productivity are also prevailing. The takeaway is that WFM is so closely linked to day-to-day operations that there are many places it can have an impact.

However, the market is projected to face some challenges such as the lack of awareness and availability of trained staff among small firms towards the benefits of the workforce management; this factor is likely to hinder the market growth for a long run. The bigger impact is in insights into managing short-term issues like absenteeism.

WFM is a multi-faceted subject, there are many problems it can address and which ones a company chooses to focus on will depend on individual circumstances. Workforce management can be defined as an integrated set of processes any particular institution uses to optimize the productivity of its employees on the individual, departmental, and entity-wide levels. In a company workforce management involves matching employee skills to specific tasks over time, quantifying the amount and types of labour needed to accomplish particular jobs on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis.

Global Workforce Management Market - Competitive Analysis

Workforce Management market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented due to the presence of a numerous large and small players operating in the market. The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, Acquisition and expansion. The study indicates large investments by multinational companies and start up emerging. The market demonstrates high growth prospect which is turn attracting to several new entrants to the market which is apparently anticipated to intensify the market competition. Most organizations will continue investing in both modest and significant improvements in the years ahead which is attributed to the various components the WFM solutions have.

Workforce Management Global Market - Segments

Workforce Management Market can be segmented in to 5 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;

Segmentation by Deployment Type: Comprises On-premises and on Cloud.

Segmentation by Component: Comprises Solutions and Service

Segmentation by End Users: Comprises BFSI, Healthcare, Retail and ecommerce, Manufacturing, Government, Telecommunications and IT, and others.

Segmentation by Organization size: Comprises SME, Enterprises, and others.

Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.

On the basis of organization size, the market can be segmented into SMEs and enterprises. Out of these, SMEs accounted for the largest market share majorly due to adoption of WFM solutions and technological transition. Also, workforce analytics solutions accounted for the largest market share majorly because companies are giving high importance to optimize workforce outcome and the growing demand for performance management.

Browse Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/workforce-management-market-2388

Workforce Management Market - Regional Analysis

Regionally, Europe accounted for the largest market share especially in the countries such as U.K majorly due to deployment of cloud and the rapid adoption of workforce analytics.

Africa and South America market accounted for demonstrating a sluggish growth due to the lack of awareness among small firms in and high training cost associated with workforce management solutions.

North-American region is expected to grow over the forecast period, 2016-2022 especially in countries such as U.S. and Canada majorly due to adoption of new and emerging technologies.

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

Contact

Akash Anand,

Market Research Future

+1 646 845 9312

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Market Research Future

Related Links

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoned Properties, Inc. (OTCQX: ZDPY), a strategic real estate development firm whose primary mission is to identify, develop, and lease sophisticated, safe, and sustainable properties in emerging industries, including the licensed medical marijuana industry, today announced its financial results for the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2017.

Recent Achievements

Signed a five-year commercial lease agreement with primary tenant in Arizona to establish their Corporate Headquarters at its Medical Marijuana Business Park in Tempe, Ariz. , adding 2,500 square feet of leased space.

to establish their Corporate Headquarters at its Medical Marijuana Business Park in , adding 2,500 square feet of leased space. Chief Executive Officer has been invited to two Executive Advisory Councils, and management expects to join additional, similar organizations, with goal of establishing position as a thought leader in the Strategic Real Estate Development industry.

Second Quarter 2017 Financial Results

Revenue increased 23% to $505,000 , compared to $410,000 for the second quarter of 2016.

, compared to for the second quarter of 2016. Operating expenses decreased 32% to $355,000 , from $524,000 for the second quarter of 2016.

, from for the second quarter of 2016. Income from operations was $150,000 for the second quarter of 2017, compared to a loss from operations of $(114,000) for the second quarter last year.

for the second quarter of 2017, compared to a loss from operations of for the second quarter last year. Net income was $118,000 , or $0.01 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $(173,000) , or $(0.01) per basic and diluted share, for the second quarter of 2016.

, or per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of , or per basic and diluted share, for the second quarter of 2016. As of June 30, 2017 , the Company had cash of $935,000 , compared to $366,000 as of December 31, 2016 .

Year-to-Date 2017 Financial Results

Revenue increased 27% to $1.0 million , compared to $823,000 for the first six months of 2016.

, compared to for the first six months of 2016. Operating expenses decreased 32% to $761,000 , from $1.1 million for the first six months of 2016.

, from for the first six months of 2016. Inclusive of the one-time gain of approximately $832,000 on the sale of a property in Tempe, Ariz. recognized in the first quarter, net income was $1.0 million , or $0.05 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $(410,000) , or $(0.02) per basic and diluted share, for the first six months of 2016.

on the sale of a property in recognized in the first quarter, net income was , or per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of , or per basic and diluted share, for the first six months of 2016. Net cash used by operating activities was $(121,000) for the first six months of 2017, as compared to $(13,000) for the comparable 2016 period.

"This has been a great year to-date for Zoned Properties, as we delivered our second consecutive quarter with positive net income, grew our revenue by 23% year-over-year and took steps to drive further growth," commented Bryan McLaren, Chief Executive Officer of Zoned Properties. "The expansion of our Tempe Medical Marijuana Business Park, to include the Corporate Headquarters of our primary tenant in Arizona, is a strong vote of confidence and a testament to the work we have done to create a sophisticated, safe, and sustainable property for this emerging industry. In the coming months, we will be providing details on our expansion plans at our Chino Valley Cultivation Facility, a development we anticipate will set a new industry standard. This project was only 15,000 square feet of operational space initially and has now been amended and constructed up to 35,000 square feet with plans to continue to 45,000 by end of 2017, with secured water rights for the entire acreage. I am excited to discuss our long-term master plan for Chino Valley in the coming months."

Supplemental Information Regarding Current Portfolio of Rental Properties

At June 30, 2017



Tempe,

AZ (a) Gilbert,

AZ Green

Valley, AZ Chino

Valley, AZ Kingman,

AZ Total Total Rentable Sq. Ft. 60,000 N/A 1,440 40,000 1,497 102,937 Sq. Ft. Rented (as of 6/30/17) 17,500 N/A 1,440 30,000 1,497 50,437 Vacant Rentable Sq. Ft. 42,500 N/A 0 10,000 0 52,500 Total # of Tenants 2 1 1 1 1

Annual Base Rent (2017) (b) $420,075 $15,000 $127,259 $695,000 $160,745 $1,418,079 Annual Base Rent (2018) (b) $630,600 $15,000 $133,619 $796,250 $168,782 $1,744,251





(a) In addition to base rent received from our tenants, we lease 800 square feet of property containing a cell tower located on the property to a third party for $1,450 per month, subject to 5-year extensions. (b) Annual base rent represents amount of cash payments due from tenants and differs from revenues to be recognized on our consolidated financial statements.

"We will continue to see increased rent over the coming quarters, as our annual rental escalators kick in and additional lease amendments are completed," added Mr. McLaren. "By the end of 2017, we expect to add up to 30,000 square feet in facility expansions, representing a significant increase in annualized rental revenue."

"With a stable, profitable baseline of business, Zoned Properties is moving aggressively to expand its existing portfolio in a sustainable and responsible manner to drive higher rental revenues and increased profitability while mitigating risk," added Mr. McLaren. "We believe that Zoned Properties is uniquely positioned in this rapidly emerging industry. With tangible assets and strong demand for rental properties zoned for use in the licensed medical marijuana industry, we believe we have the potential for strong growth and cash generation. Increasingly, we are being approached by prospective clients to utilize our expertise in strategic development advisory services, and we are positioned to be highly selective as we evaluate these opportunities."

Conference Call:

The Company will hold a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S.) time on Monday, August 14, 2017. To participate in the live conference call, please dial 1-866-682-6100 five to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled conference call time. International callers should dial 1-862-255-5401. Please reference Zoned Properties.

A replay will be available until August 28, 2017. To access the replay, dial 1-877-481-4010 or 1-919-882-2331. When prompted, enter Conference Passcode 18064.

The call will also be available live by webcast over the Internet and accessible at: http://www.investorcalendar.com/event/18064.

About Zoned Properties, Inc. (ZDPY):

Zoned Properties is a strategic real estate development firm whose primary mission is to identify, develop, and lease sophisticated, safe, and sustainable properties in emerging industries, including the licensed medical marijuana industry. The Company acquires commercial properties that face unique zoning challenges and identifies solutions that can potentially have a major impact on the cash flow and property value. Zoned Properties targets commercial properties that can be acquired and re-zoned for specific purposes. Zoned Properties does not grow, harvest, sell or distribute cannabis or any substances regulated under United States law such as the Controlled Substances Act.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors, risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Tables Follow

ZONED PROPERTIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited)





























As of

As of











June 30,

December 31,











2017

2016

















ASSETS









Cash





$ 934,834

$ 366,024

Rental properties, net

6,990,612

6,878,584

Rental property held for sale, net

-

1,140,891

Deferred rent receivable

-

16,462

Deferred rent receivable - related parties

1,359,138

1,006,171

Real estate tax escrow

-

39,487

Note receivable - related party

176,647

-

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

90,705

140,010

Property and equipment, net

39,305

40,212

Security deposits



2,890

8,158

















Total Assets



$ 9,594,131

$ 9,635,999

















LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

























LIABILITIES:











Mortgage payable



$ -

$ 2,100,000

Convertible note payable

-

500,000

Convertible notes payable - related parties

2,020,000

500,000

Accounts payable



5,769

78,311

Accrued expenses



68,383

96,748

Accrued expenses - related parties

33,300

85,541

Deferred revenues



4,250

4,750

Deferred revenues - related party

1,841

-

Security deposits payable - related parties

71,800

70,000

Security deposits payable

3,364

21,964

















Total Liabilities



2,208,707

3,457,314

















Commitments and Contingencies

























STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY:









Preferred stock, $.001 par value, 5,000,000 shares authorized; 2,000,000 shares issued and outstanding at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016 ($1.00 per share liquidation preference)











2,000

2,000

Common stock: $.001 par value, 100,000,000 shares authorized; 17,312,951 and 17,210,318 issued and outstanding at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively











17,313

17,210

Additional paid-in capital

20,552,344

20,352,528

Accumulated deficit

(13,186,233)

(14,193,053)

















Total Stockholders' Equity

7,385,424

6,178,685

















Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity

$ 9,594,131

$ 9,635,999

ZONED PROPERTIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited)

























For the Three Months Ended

For the Six Months Ended





June 30,

June 30,





2017

2016

2017

2016



















REVENUES:















Rental revenues $ 4,629

$ 58,200

$ 54,702

$ 119,080

Rental revenues - related parties 500,312

352,006

990,506

704,049





















Total revenues 504,941

410,206

1,045,208

823,129



















OPERATING EXPENSES:















Compensation and benefits 119,935

93,561

338,228

273,385

Professional fees 82,143

205,678

120,621

482,200

General and administrative expenses 41,207

52,679

86,581

104,300

Depreciation and amortization 49,505

41,673

108,185

82,771

Property operating expenses 41,086

15,568

62,359

31,028

Real estate taxes 21,206

27,691

45,282

55,869

Settlement expense -

87,500

-

87,500





















Total operating expenses 355,082

524,350

761,256

1,117,053



















INCOME (LOSS) FROM OPERATIONS 149,859

(114,144)

283,952

(293,924)



















OTHER (EXPENSES) INCOME:













Interest expenses (1,944)

(48,123)

(42,983)

(96,246) Interest expenses - related parties (32,245)

(8,750)

(68,688)

(17,500) Gain (loss) on sale of property and equipment -

(1,843)

831,753

(1,843) Interest income 2,483

-

2,786

-





















Total other (expenses) income, net (31,706)

(58,716)

722,868

(115,589)



















INCOME (LOSS) BEFORE INCOME TAXES 118,153

(172,860)

1,006,820

(409,513)



















PROVISION FOR INCOME TAXES -

-

-

-



















NET INCOME (LOSS) $ 118,153

$ (172,860)

$ 1,006,820

$ (409,513)



















NET INCOME (LOSS) PER COMMON SHARE:















Basic $ 0.01

$ (0.01)

$ 0.05

$ (0.02)

Diluted $ 0.01

$ (0.01)

$ 0.05

$ (0.02)



















WEIGHTED AVERAGE COMMON SHARES OUTSTANDING:















Basic 17,312,655

17,135,809

17,290,422

17,123,975

Diluted 17,924,989

17,135,809

18,132,734

17,123,975

SOURCE Zoned Properties, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.zonedproperties.com


New Delhi, Aug 9 : Indian independence literature, including from the Quit India movement of 1942, which the British had banned can now be read at the National Archives of India.

An exhibition tiled "Quit India and Azad Hind Fauj - 75th Anniversary (1942-2017)" was inaugurated by Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Mahesh Sharma on Wednesday.

The exhibition highlights public records, private papers, photographs, newspaper reports and some original papers that describe the intense phase of the Quit India Movement.

The exhibition also has large digital content which can be accessed through interactive mode. A film presenting the passing of the "Quit India Resolution", the arrest of independence leaders and the role of INA and Subhas Chandra Bose are also on display.

Spread over four sections -- 'The Prelude to Quit India Movement', 'The Actual Movement', 'The Impact of the Movement' and 'The Indian National Army and Azad Hind Fauj' -- the exhibition will continue till September 1.

"Quit India movement was an important milestone in the Indian freedom movement which made the entire nation determined to attain freedom from the British rule. Millions of Indians responded to Mahatma Gandhi's clarion call and the mantra of 'Do or Die'," Sharma said at the event.
Patna, Aug 10 : In a display of defiance against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, senior JD-U leader and former party president Sharad Yadav on Thursday declared he was still with the Grand Alliance of the RJD and Congress.

"I still stand with Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years," Yadav told the media after landing at the Patna airport from Delhi.

Hundreds of his supporters, including some JD-U leaders, welcomed Yadav as he came out of the airport, shouting slogans in his support.

Two former JD-U legislators, including former minister Ramai Ram and Rambadan Rai, were also in the crowd. Not a single JD-U legislator was present.

Without naming Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav said: "The decision to join hands with the BJP and form a government in Bihar was against the mandate given in the 2015 assembly polls against the BJP-led NDA.

"I was personally hurt and pained by (the decision)," he said. "I had also vigorously campaigned for the Grand Alliance."

Yadav is on a three-day visit to eight districts in Bihar including Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Supaul and Madhepura.

He said he won't speak any more on the subject. "I will speak more when I visit people."

Earlier, the ruling Janata Dal-United on Wednesday distanced itself from Yadav's visit.

"Sharad Yadav's visit to Bihar is his personal initiative. The JD-U has nothing to do with it," JD-U state President Vashisht Narain Singh said.

JD-U leaders started targeting Yadav since last week after he spoke out against Nitish Kumar's decision to embrace the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Apart from Sharad Yadav, two JD-U Rajya Sabha MPs -- Ali Anwar Ansari and Virender Kumar -- have also voiced their opposition to Nitish Kumar's decision to join hands with the BJP. Both are in touch with Sharad Yadav.
Chennai, Aug 10 : Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK on Thursday dumped its Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran, nephew of the jailed General Secretary V.K. Sasikala, in a move aimed at placating the rival faction ahead of a possible merger between the two groups.

The AIADMK decision was announced after a nearly one-hour meeting at the party office attended by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and some 30 ministers and party leaders.

While there was no immediate reaction from the rival faction led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, a furious Dinakaran hit back.

Dinakaran -- who was made the Deputy General Secretary by Sasikala before she was jailed for corruption -- and his small band of supporters refused to accept the decision.

A resolution passed at the AIADMK meeting declared Dinakaran's appointment as "improper, unacceptable and invalid", clearing the decks for a possible unification of the two factions.

An AIADMK statement said Sasikala's appointment itself was under scrutiny of the Election Commission, which was examining the issues raised by Panneerselvam who had challenged her leadership.

The AIADMK used to refer to Sasikala until recently as "Chinnamma". The Thursday statement called her "Respectable Mrs V.K. Sasikala" - a clear sign of her weakening hold in a party she tried to take over after the death in December of then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

The two factions will have to unite if they need to get back the party's popular "two leaves" election symbol that has been frozen by the Election Commission.

Minus the frozen symbol, AIADMK leaders admit they will have problems taking on the DMK in the upcoming local body polls.

The AIADMK meeting also nullified all the appointments of office bearers and other decisions made by Dinakaran.

The Election Commission had earlier rejected a letter written by him in his capacity as Deputy General Secretary.

According to AIADMK sources, Chief Minister Palaniswami and Panneerselvam are travelling to Delhi on Thursday to take part in the swearing in ceremony of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and may meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The sources say that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been nudging the two factions to unite -- and also join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance formally.

If a merger takes place, Palaniswami will remain the Chief Minister while Panneerselvam could become the General Secretary in place of Sasikala. The Panneerselvam faction insists on Sasikala's ouster for a merger to take place.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened at the AIADMK headquarters here to foil the possibility of Dinakaran and his supporters trying to take control over it.

An MLA close to Dinakaran, Vetrivel, who attended the AIADMK meeting, challenged the decision to dump Dinakaran.

"Sasikala and Dinakaran cannot be removed from the party," he said. "Nobody can remove the two leaders from their party posts."
Jammu/Srinagar, Aug 10 : The two ideologically divergent ruling partners -- the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- in Jammu and Kashmir are headed straight for a showdown as the debate over the abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution heats up.

The alliance between the PDP and the BJP which was called "the meeting of the North Pole and the South Pole" by the late PDP patron, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, seems to be cracking at the seams.

"Why are they doing it," a visibly disturbed Mehbooba Mufti asked as she warned that any tinkering with the special status of J&K would bring about a situation where "shouldering the national flag" in Kashmir would become impossible for pro-India parties in the state.

The Jammu-centric BJP and the Valley-centric PDP are politically "destined" to oppose each other over the highly sensitive issue.

A presidential order in 1954 brought into existence Article 35A which gives the J&K legislature powers to define the permanent residents of the state and their privileges.

A petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking abrogation of Article 35A pleads that the presidential order was not ratified by the country's Parliament which alone has the powers to amend the Constitution.

"The President of India cannot exercise the powers to amend the Constitution which is the sole prerogative of Parliament," says the petition, filed by an NGO.

The regional National Conference (NC) headed by Farooq Abdullah, who has been Chief Minister of the state thrice, called an opposition meeting, which was attended by the Congress, the NC and independent legislators of the state.

Abdullah told reporters after the meeting that abrogation of Article 35A would unleash an uprising that the government would not be able to handle.

A day after this statement, Mehbooba Mufti called on Abdullah to discuss ways and means to protect Article 35A.

A statement issued by the NC said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. Abdullah is learnt to have advised Mehbooba to meet other like-minded leaders to work out a joint strategy for the legal defence of the article.

Senior PDP leader and a minister, Naeem Akhtar, said it was a move intended to rise above party politics in the larger interest of the state.

"This is to underline the fact that the constitutional relation between the state and the centre is based on Article 370 and provisions like Article 35A. If anybody tries to weaken these, it will weaken the constitutional relationship between the state and the centre," Akhtar said.

He said the two leaders had agreed that it was time to rise above party politics in the interest of the state.

A meeting called by a citizens' forum in winter capital Jammu has vehemently advocated the abrogation of Article 35A to bring J&K closer to the rest of the country.

Speakers at the meeting in Jammu accused the NC president of trying to mount pressure on the Supreme Court judges by threatening an "uprising" if the article was held as null and void by the bench hearing the petition.

The separatists have also called for a protest shutdown on August 12 against attempts to do away with the state's special status.

It is generally argued in the Valley that abrogation of Article 35A would not only do away with the special citizenship rights of the people in J&K, but would also take to its logical conclusion the rightwing agenda of the state's complete merger with India.

As all eyes remain fixed on the decision of the apex Court on the petition filed before it, the political temperatures in J&K are rising to a point where the "meeting of the North Pole and South Pole" would become politically as impossible as it is geographically.

(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
Chennai, Aug 10 : Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK on Thursday sacked its Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran, nephew of the jailed General Secretary V.K. Sasikala, in a move aimed at placating the rival faction ahead of a possible merger between the two groups.

The AIADMK announced after a nearly one-hour meeting attended by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and some 30 ministers and party leaders that Dinakaran's appointment was "improper, unacceptable and invalid", clearing the decks for the unification of the two factions.

An AIADMK statement said Dinakaran's appointment was not done as per rules and declared as null and void all the appointments of office-bearers he had made. It added that Sasikala's own appointment as General Secretary was under the scrutiny of the Election Commission.

While there was no immediate reaction from the rival faction led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, a furious Dinakaran hit back.

Dinakaran, made the Deputy General Secretary by Sasikala before she was jailed for corruption, thundered at a press conference: "No one has the right to remove or expel me. Only Sasikala has the power.

"There are some AIADMK leaders who are scared because of the things they have done," he said, and added, in an oblique reference to the BJP: "Also they are scared because of some outside forces."

Panneerselvam have said Sasikala's expulsion was a precondition for the merger of the two AIADMK factions.

The AIADMK used to refer to Sasikala until recently as "Chinnamma". The Thursday statement called her "Respectable Mrs V.K. Sasikala" - a clear sign of her weakening hold in a party she tried to take over after the death in December of then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister D. Jayakumar said: "We will have the merger very soon,"

A Panneerselvam aide, K.P. Munusamy, said they were firm on their demand on the expulsion of Sasikala from the AIADMK, a CBI probe into Jayalalitha's death and withdrawal of affidavits submitted to the Election Commission naming Sasikala as General Secretary.

The two factions will have to unite if they need to get back the party's popular "two leaves" election symbol that has been frozen by the Election Commission.

Minus the frozen symbol, AIADMK leaders admit they will have problems taking on the DMK in the upcoming local body polls.

According to AIADMK sources, Chief Minister Palaniswami and Panneerselvam are travelling to Delhi on Thursday to take part in the swearing in ceremony of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and may meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The sources say that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been nudging the two factions to unite -- and also join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance formally.

If a merger takes place, Palaniswami will remain the Chief Minister while Panneerselvam could become the General Secretary in place of Sasikala.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened at the AIADMK headquarters here to foil the possibility of Dinakaran and his supporters trying to take control over it.

An MLA close to Dinakaran, Vetrivel, who attended the AIADMK meeting, challenged the decision to dump Dinakaran.

"Sasikala and Dinakaran cannot be removed from the party," he said. "Nobody can remove the two leaders from their party posts."
Gurugram, Aug 10 : Four people, including a man suspected to be involved in the killing of a property dealer to avenge a 23-year-old murder, have been arrested here, police said on Thursday.

The arrests were made when police were checking vehicles on Vatika Chowk on Sohna road on Wednesday night.

Gurugram Commissioner of Police Sandeep Khirwar told the media that two pistols were recovered from the four men who were travelling in a car. The four were identified as Bijender Singh, Ashok Kumar, Harender and Deepak.

"Deepak was involved in the gunning down of property dealer Rajkumar on July 25," Khirwar said. Police had already arrested Amit, Deepak's brother.

Rajkumar, 47, was shot dead to avenge the murder of Bhram Singh 23 years ago. Singh was also a property dealer.

Rajkumar was the main accused in the murder of Singh but was acquitted by a court.

Deepak and Amit, sons of Bhram Singh, along with four accomplices last month reportedly opened indiscriminate fire on Rajkumar's car when he was returning home.
Kabul, Aug 11 : At least 30 Taliban militants were killed in an accidental blast in Afghanistan's Farah province, an official said on Friday.

The explosion took place in Pewa Pasaw area of Bala Buluk district on Thursday before the militants tried to attack government security forces' positions, Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.

"As soon as the militants were getting ready for the assault, the jacket of a would be suicide bomber detonated prematurely, setting off a handful of explosive," he said.

Many militants were injured in the blast, the official said.

Taliban militants have been on the rampage since April when they launched an annual rebel offensive in Afghanistan, killing and injuring hundreds.

The province bordering Iran has been the scene of clashes between security forces and Taliban militants over the past years.

The Taliban militant group is yet to make comment.
Bogota, Aug 12 : Colombia's Supreme Court said on Friday that it has issued subpoenas to President Juan Manuel Santos and several of his top aides to testify in a corruption case involving a senator.

The case involves Senator Bernardo Miguel Elias Nader who is accused of taking bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, Efe reported.

Santos and the others had been called to testify as witnesses in the proceedings against Elias, a ruling-party senator representing the Caribbean province of Cordoba, who was arrested Thursday in Bogota by order of the high court.

Santos will not testify in person but rather by means of a questionnaire that he will send to the Supreme Court, source said.

Interior Minister Guillermo Rivera confirmed Friday that Santos and several of his Cabinet members would comply with the subpoenas.

The court agreed to hear the testimony of Santos and several of his ministers and former ministers at the request of Elias's defense team.

Those outlets said the court acceded to the request to learn the circumstances surrounding the signing of a contract with Odebrecht for construction of the OcaAa-Gamarra section of the Ruta del Sol II toll road.

Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin and the ministers of finance and agriculture, Mauricio Cardenas and Aurelio Iragorri, respectively, also will testify in the case, as will former Vice President German Vargas Lleras, ex-Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, erstwhile Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon and others.

Evidence provided to the court appears to show the senator, known as "AoAo" Elias, and his political allies received nearly $5.6 million in bribes related to Odebrecht contracts.

Odebrecht and petrochemical unit Braskem pleaded guilty last December and agreed to pay a combined total penalty of at least $3.5 billion to resolve charges with authorities in the US, Brazil and Switzerland arising out of their schemes to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to government officials around the world.

Odebrecht, which admitted in the settlement that the scheme dated back more than a decade and began as early as 2001, was initially believed to have paid $11 million in bribes in Colombia to win public-works contracts.

But Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said last month that corrupt officials in the Andean nation in fact received a total of $27 million in bribes from the Salvador, Brazil-based engineering giant.

The first person convicted in the Odebrecht case in Colombia was businessman Enrique Ghisays Manzur, who was sentenced to seven years behind bars last month for money laundering and illicit enrichment.

Other business leaders and several politicians also have been arrested.
Agartala, Aug 13 : The Government Railway Police (GRP) has arrested a Tripura militant in Assam who planned to incite violence ahead of Independence Day and recovered a large quantity of ammunition from him, police said here on Sunday.

"During a routine checking, the GRP personnel arrested the militant identified as Naresh Chakma, 34, at Badarpur railway junction on Saturday. Over 600 cartridges were recovered from the extremist," a Tripura police official said.

While the police were checking Chakma's bags, his associate Biswajoy Chakma managed to escape.

"Biswajoy was also carrying some arms and huge ammunition. Both are residents of Natun Bazar village in Gomati district," the official said, adding that Naresh confessed to the GRP officials that they had planned to incite violence before Independence Day.

However, it is not yet clear if the militants belonged to the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

"Naresh also told the GRP interrogators that he along with Biswajoy were staying at a hideout in Comilla (eastern Bangladesh). On August 1, they entered India though the Meghalaya border and went to Dimapur (Nagaland) to purchase the bullets of different sophisticated arms from a Myanmar arms smuggler," the official said NLFT cadres undergo arms training in several hideouts in Bangladesh, which shares a 1,880-km border with Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km).

Banned in 1997 by the Union Home Ministry, the outlawed outfit had sought Tripura's secession from India.
Islamabad, Aug 13 : Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang arrived here on Sunday to participate in the Independence Day celebrations of Pakistan, the media reported.

"Wang is undertaking the visit on the directions of President Xi Jinping as a special guest to participate in the 70th Independence Day celebrations of Pakistan," Dawn online cited a Chinese embassy statement as saying on Saturday.

The Vice Premier will attend the August 14 flag-hoisting ceremony and meet President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

According to the statement, Wang's visit is a reflection of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China.

Wang will participate in inauguration ceremonies of several China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects and witness the signing of bilateral memorandums of understanding between the two countries.
New Delhi, Aug 13 : The Congress on Sunday rubbished claims by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that the deaths of over 60 children in a Gorakhpur hospital were due to vector-borne diseases, and termed them as "murders" and a "massacre". The party has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the incident.

The Congress also alleged that the Adityanath government was running an "operation cover-up" in an attempt to bury the truth.

"According to evidences that have emerged till now, and looking at the comments of the officials and the kin of the victims, the unusually high number of deaths occurred due to neglect and mismanagement, and not due to any disease as being claimed by the BJP government in the state," Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told reporters at a press conference here.

"It has been proved that it was not just a tragedy but it was a murder and massacre," he alleged.

Attacking Adityanath, Shergill said, "The Chief Minister, the Health Minister, the principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College are all responsible for the deaths of the children in the state."

The Congress has demanded the resignation of state Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh over the deaths of 60 children in the government-run hospital in Gorakhpur, which is represented by the Chief Minister in the Lok Sabha for last two decades.

Initially, it was reported that the children died to to lack of liquid oxygen in the BRD college, but Adityanath has insisted that the deaths occurred due to encephalitis and other reasons, and not because of lack of oxygen supply.

Shergill said the hands of the Uttar Pradesh government were bloodied with the deaths. "Now they have launched an operation cover-up by ordering a Chief Secretary level-probe," Shergill said.

"We demand an independent probe, under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge," he said.

Referring to the probe ordered by the Uttar Pradesh government, the Congress leader wondered, "How can an accused probe allegations against himself?"

He also asked why the autopsies were not carried out on the children who died in the city hospital. "How can the government claim that deaths happened due to any disease without carrying out autopsies or any probe?" he questioned.

Firing salvos at the BJP-led government in the state, the Congress leader asked, "Why was no case registered against the hospital officials and why has not the Health Minister been sacked yet?"

Principal of the BRD Medical College R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness.
Los Angeles, Aug 14 : Actors Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Walter Goggins think Quentin Tarantino would be a great choice to direct the next James Bond film.

The 56-year-old thinks his "Hateful Eight" director, who is known for the strong violence in his films, would have the sharpest script, reports www.nydailynews.com.

Roth said: "What fun that would be and we would all be lining up for that one... It would also probably be the wittiest Bond ever."

While actor Daniel Craig is set to reprise his role as the suave spy for the fifth time with the next movie, Roth would love to be a Bond villain if Tarantino landed the director's job.

Speaking at a 25-year anniversary screening of "Reservoir Dogs" Tim said: "Oh yeah, I would love to do that."

Michael Madsen, who appeared in Tarantino's "Kill Bill" in 2003 and Bond film "Die Another Day" the following year, also thinks the director would be a great choice.

He said: "He would be good. I have got to make friends with Daniel Craig so I can get in it."
Los Angeles, Aug 14 : Reality TV personality Kourtney Kardashian is reportedly planning to go back to school to study law.

The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" thinks she finally has the time to study law, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"Kourtney probably doesn't have to work for the rest of her life, but that's not how she rolls. She already has a degree in Theatre Arts and Spanish but she's always wanted to go back to school and thinks now is the perfect time," source told heat magazine.

"She nearly signed up last year, but things were falling apart with Scott, so she put it off but really regrets it. She is in a better place to get her head in the books now," the source added.

The 38-year-old has opted to study law in honour of her father, late lawyer Robert Kardashian.

"Kourt is proud of her dad and knows he always wanted her to be a lawyer. She's already looking into doing an online course, so she can still be around the kids," said the insider.
Islamabad, Aug 14 : Pakistan on Monday celebrated its 71st Independence Day, with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang saying the Beijing-Islamabad friendship "is stronger than steel and sweeter than honey".

Wang, who attended the flag hoisting ceremony at Islamabad's Convention Centre, said China and Pakistan had stood by each other in difficult times and "this friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations", Dawn reported.

The ceremony began with a 31-gun salute here, after a flag hoisting event by President Mamnoon Hussain.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and all three chiefs of the country's armed services were present on the occasion that marked the day when Pakistan and India got freedom from British colonial rule.

A 21-gun salute was observed in the provincial capitals and commemorative ceremonies were held in all major cities, the media reported.

Hussain said on the occasion: "Let us join hands for development and prosperity of the motherland by keeping aside our differences. Let us promote love and harmony by overcoming hatred and misgivings."

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday midnight hoisted the largest national flag in the history of Pakistan at the Pakistan-India border at Wagah. The 120x80 feet flag was hoisted on a 400-feet pole.

He said: "We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan."

And in an obvious reference to Afghanistan and India, he said he wanted "to tell our enemies, whether they are in the in east or west," that Pakistani soldiers would never bow to them.

Acknowledging Pakistan's "internal and external challenges", he added: "Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Pakistan Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts."
Dehradun, Aug 14 : Four persons were killed and 10 others, including six soldiers, went missing after a cloudburst triggered flash floods in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district on Monday, police said.

The disaster occurred near Malpa, washing away 14 persons. Four bodies have been recovered but the six soldiers and four others remained untraced.

"One JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) and five others have gone missing. Two vehicles are also missing," a military official said.

The incident took place near a Shiva temple at Malpa.

The Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage has been halted for now. Sashastra Seema Bal personnel have been rushed to the spot for rescue and relief operations.

Authorities in Nepal have been asked to help in the search operations.

The six soldiers were washed away near the Mangti canal along with some tents and mules.

Heavy rains have been lashing the hill state for some time now, causing landslides, flattening houses and damaging bridges.
Gurugram, Aug 14 : A criminal involved in the killing of former Delhi MLA Bharat Singh and who carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head was arrested here on Monday, police said. Arms and ammunition were recovered from him.

Hemant alias Pradhan was arrested along with his accomplice Narender alias Mintu during checking of vehicles at night near Daultabad on Dwarka Expressway, Gurugram's Commissioner of Police Sandeep Khirwar told the media.

"Police signalled a car to stop around 4 a.m. but the driver accelerated. On being chased by our team, their car collided with a divider," Khirwar said.

"The criminal opened fire at the police vehicle but finally they were nabbed by the police. Fifteen pistols and revolvers were recovered from Hemant and Narender," Khirwar added.

Hemant hails from Dichaun village in Delhi's Najafgarh area while Narender hails from Delhi's Bijwasan area.

"Hemant was involved in the assassination of INLD's former MLA from Najafgarh, Bharat Singh, in March 2015. He also gunned down Vipin, an eyewitness in the case," Khirwar added.

Narender was also involved in Vipin's murder. He also kidnapped a businessman from Sector 23 in Delhi's Dwarka area.
Kabul, Aug 14 : At least 25 Taliban militants were killed and 10 wounded as fighting for the control of Mirza Olang district in Afghanistan continued on Monday, an official said.

"Some strategic areas have been re-taken in Mirza Olang and mop-up operations backed by air fire continue," Xinhua news agency quoted a military official as saying.

According to the official, Taliban district chief Mawlavi Amrullah was among those killed.

Both the Taliban and the Islamic State in a coordinated operation last week overran Mirza Olang district, killing over 50 civilians and forcing hundreds to flee their houses for safer places.

Meanwhile, 19 militants were killed and eight injured when government aircraft targeted Taliban hideouts in Aqcha district.

Taliban militants who have intensified activities and gained ground in Jawzjan and neighbouring Faryab and Saripul provinces are yet to comment on the situation in the region.
Whether you're a current retiree or a worker readying to retire in a few years or decades, odds are you'll be at least somewhat reliant on Social Security. As of this year, 55% of current retirees consider it a "major" source of income, compared to just 10% who didn't consider it a needed source of income at all, according to national pollster Gallup. Comparatively, 79% of non-retired adults in 2017 expect Social Security to be a "major" or "minor" source of income during their golden years.

While Social Security has long been a rock-solid foundation for retirees, the disabled, and even survivors of deceased workers for more than 75 years, that foundation is starting to crack. Namely, ongoing demographic changes in the U.S. could dramatically change the face of Social Security in less than two decades.

Social Security is less than two decades from a potential disaster

The latest Social Security Board of Trustees report, released in July, forecasts that in 2022, Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it's collecting in revenue from payroll taxes, interest income, and the taxation of benefits. By 2034, the nearly $3 trillion in asset reserves are expected to be completely gone. The blame for this lies with a confluence of factors including the mass retirement of baby boomers, a steady lengthening of life expectancies, and the longevity gap between the rich and the poor.

Long story short, it's pretty evident that a fix is needed for Social Security, and only Congress can produce one.

Unfortunately, progress on fixing Social Security is at a standstill in Washington. Part of the blame falls on President Trump, who has no intentions of touching Social Security, as per his campaign pledge. With Congress instead focused on healthcare and tax reform, there's simply no room on the docket for Social Security.

The other issue is the partisanship of Washington. Solutions to fix Social Security clearly aren't the issue. Both Democrats and Republicans have produced plans that would adequately address the projected $12.5 trillion cash shortfall through 2091. But herein lies the issue: Both parties have a workable solution, ergo neither side will back down and consider finding common ground with the other party. This is the primary reason why Social Security remains broken.

Steven Mnuchin has an idea -- and it's a bad one!

One figure within the Trump administration that you might expect to be a voice of reason regarding Social Security is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. After all, the program's Board of Trustees is a six-member panel, and Mnuchin is one of the six, by default. He, of all people, should understand how urgently Social Security's issues need to be addressed.

However, here's what Mnuchin had to say last month, shortly after the Trustees report was released: "To help make [Social Security and Medicare] more sustainable into the future, we should focus on strengthening the economy today. Compounding growth will help ease projected shortfalls."

Mnuchin's comments suggest that strengthening the economy will help boost wages and income for many Americans, thereby increasing the amount of payroll tax revenue collected by Social Security. In 2016, 87.3% of the $957.5 billion in income for the program was derived from payroll taxes. Mnuchin, along with Trump, believes that cutting individual and corporate income-tax rates will achieve a consistently higher GDP growth rate, and higher incomes along with it.

Unfortunately, Mnuchin's theory has two fatal flaws that he should plainly see as Treasury Secretary and as a member of the Board of Trustees. First, Mnuchin has wrongly implied that economic growth is consistent over time. History shows that peaks and troughs are a normal part of the economic cycle, meaning that any accelerated growth from tax reforms would only be temporary on a larger scale. In short, tax reform is a possible Band-Aid, not a permanent fix.

Secondly, as Mnuchin states in his comments, economic reforms "will help ease projected shortfalls." Not fix, but ease. Mnuchin is looking at ways not to fix Social Security, but rather to lessen the imminent cash shortfall of the program. That's not a smart strategy in this writer's opinion.

Mind you, Mnuchin is also the person who, in June, suggested that if the Republican-led Congress were to pass Social Security reforms, including benefit cuts, the White House may indeed sign it.

We need a bipartisan approach

In order to fix Social Security for the long term, there's a strong likelihood that we'll need to see a compromise between the major political parties. Imagine that -- Republicans and Democrats working together on Capitol Hill.

A strong Social Security solution would likely involve some of each party's core Social Security principles.

For Democrats, we'd be talking about increasing taxation for the wealthy. Currently, all earned income between $0.01 and $127,000 is taxed at a rate of 12.4%, with most workers paying only half (6.2%) and their employers covering the other half. However, for the roughly one-in-10 workers who earn more than $127,200 a year, income above this threshold is free from Social Security's payroll tax. Democrats want to reinstitute the payroll tax on earned income above, say, $250,000 or $400,000 so that the wealthy pay more.

Meanwhile, Republicans want to index benefits to account for increased longevity. When Social Security was rolled out in the 1940s, it was only designed to pay benefits for a few years. Today, many seniors collect benefits for two decades or longer, thanks to Americans' lengthening life expectancies. Republicans propose increasing the full retirement age (the age at which you can collect 100% of your retirement) to 68, 69, or 70, from the peak of 67 years that we'll reach in 2022. This would require seniors to either wait longer to collect 100% of their benefits or to accept a bigger reduction in their payout by claiming sooner.

These two proposals could strengthen Social Security for future generations, but Congress has yet to take the hint.

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New Delhi, Aug 14 : The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold a Madras High Court order staying the lookout notice against Karti Chidambaram so that he does not leave the country.

Staying the August 10 order till the next date of hearing, the bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed further hearing of the matter for Friday.

The apex court order came on a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which contended that the Madras High Court had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the plea and stay the lookout notice.

The investigative agency told the court that the lookout notice was only to prevent the son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram from leaving the country.
Kolkata, Aug 14 : The overall supply of both meat and beef in Kolkata has dipped by 25 to 30 per cent following the recent attack by cow vigilantes in Bihar, traders said on Monday.

According to the Calcutta Beef Dealers' Association, in the wake of attack on three men by alleged cow vigilantes on the suspicion of transporting beef in a truck in Bihar's Bhojpur district, traders in West Bengal are apprehensive about sourcing cattle from the neighbouring state.

"Earlier in the city's largest cattle trading hub in Ilambazar, we used to get around 30 lorries of cattle from Bihar every day... Now, if we get even three to four, then we feel lucky," said association's President Mohammed Ali.

He said the business was already on a downfall following the crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh.

"People directly employed in the cattle and slaughterhouse trade are now looking for other stable means of livelihood as any fresh incident brings uncertainty. The overall impact on supply to consumers is beginning to be felt now," said Ali.

"Since cattle are used for daily milk consumption as well, prices of cottage cheese (paneer) and milk have also increased in some places," he added.
Darjeeling, Aug 14 : A day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and other hill-based parties to call off the two-month-long indefinite shutdown in northern West Bengal hills, GJM chief Bimal Gurung on Monday instructed his party's youth wing to withdraw their ongoing hunger strike.

The GJM leadership has also decided to withdraw the picketers from the roads in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts for 12 hours on Tuesday on the occasion of Independence Day, but said the shutdown would continue.

"The Home Minister has issued an appeal to GJM and other stakeholders in the Gorkhaland issue.I am also of the opinion that his appeal should be respected and the hunger strike of the Yuba Morcha should be withdrawn as a first step to achieving our goal of Gorkhaland. I therefore direct the Yuba Morcha to call off the hunger strike on the eve of Independence Day," Gurung said in a press release.

The GJM chief also revealed that the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), that was formed with representatives of 30 hill based parties, also urged him to call off the ongoing hunger strike.

A dozen activists of Yuba Morcha, the youth wing of GJM, have been sitting in hunger strike since last 23 days to press the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

"The health condition of all the 12 participants is critical. Two of them had to be hospitalised as their blood pressure got alarmingly low due to fasting," GJM General Secretary Binay Tamang told IANS.

He also said the picketers will be withdrawn from the hill roads for 12 hours on Tuesday.

"Keeping in mind the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day, the GJM has decided to withdraw the picketers from the roads of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and other adjoining areas from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday. However, the shutdown would continue until a positive response to the statehood demand is recived," he added.

Rajnath Singh on Sunday held a two-hour long meeting with the GJM leaders and members of GMCC in the presence of Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Union Minister and Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia, where he appealed to them to refrain from violence and look for mutual dialog within the legal ambit.

He had also appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to initiate a dialogue with GJM and other stakeholders and asked the state government to restore all civil supplies and internet services and cable TV.

The picturesque northern Bengal hills, including the tourists' favourite Darjeeling town, has been on the boil for more than two months over the demand by GJM and several other local parties for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out to the hills and Terai-Dooars region.

The economy of the region - based on tea, timber and tourism - has been severely hit following the ongoing shutdown called by the principal hill party GJM since June 12. Several other local parties have endorsed the shutdown. Rallies and demonstrations are being held daily over the past two months triggering arso and clashes with the state administration.

Singhmari and Patlebas areas in Darjeeling have witnessed several incidents of violence involving the GJM activists and police in the last couple of months.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry said it will not sour its relations with the West Bengal government over latter's decision of not celebrating the Independence Day in the manner as instructed by it, ministry sources said on Monday.

"If the state is resentful over something with us, that does not mean we will adopt the same attitude. The dialogue (with the state) will not be broken off," a source told IANS.

The senior ministry official also said that the episode will not result in any curtailing of funding towards education to the state.

The Mamata Banerjee government on August 11 had issued a circular to the Sarva Shiksha Mission District Project Officers, among other officials, telling them that the Independence Day be not celebrated as per the guidelines issued by the HRD Ministry.

To commemorate the Independence Day and Quit India Movement anniversaries, the HRD Ministry had issued a number of instructions to educational institutions earlier in the month.

The institutions were instructed to conduct: a pledging ceremony on freedom from communalism, casteism, poverty, terrorism and unhygienic conditions; quiz competition on freedom struggle; visit to any martyr's memorial; and painting competition, between August 9 and August 30.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had earlier told reporters that there was nothing wrong with the instructions issued, nor was it a new thing to happen.

"These are secular agenda, national agenda, not political agenda... we are not imposing this upon anyone," Javadekar had told media on Sunday during a briefing.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : There is no split in the JD-U and that most MPs and MLAs are with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, party spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said on Monday.

Tyagi said that only rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties, was with senior leader Sharad Yadav.

"Since most of the MPs and MLAs are with Nitish Kumar, so the question of split does not arise," he told reporters here.

Ansari along with Sharad Yadav have expressed differences with party chief Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with Congress and RJD and form a government in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Tyagi added that only five state committees of the party are recognised by the Election Commission and all those five state units are with the Chief Minister.

The five state committees include Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, and Dadara and Nagar Haveli.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : A kurta with a bomber jacket -- that's the fusion style that veteran Indian designer Neeta Lulla is planning to create for the widely popular American DJs The Chainsmokers, who are set to debut in India next month.

Lulla is hoping to create an edgy yet casual ensemble for Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, who make up The Chainsmokers.

"It is a very young band and it has a very edgy kind of look towards dressing. It's edgy, but casual (the designs I am making). Keeping in mind that they are coming into India, I wanted to give something that would give them an Indian flavour and at the same time it should have that casualness and edginess that they have," Neeta told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

"We are giving them a kurta that is going to be of lycra. Then there will be a bomber jacket, giving it a fusion look which will be worn over the kurta," she added.

While the outfit will also have a bit of the Warli tribal art form on them, the jacket will have Lulla's trademark stamp of an abstract Ganpati in bright and electric colours.

Talking about it, she said: "I kind of relate to Ganpati. I think all idols can be seen on T-shirts today. You see quirky T-shirts -- be it Shiva, Om, Ganpati and even Laxmi. It is very relative to every person. Moreover, when I paint, I make a lot of abstract painting of Ganpati... So, it's like my mark on their outfit."

This will not be the first time Lulla will be associating with a global artist. In the past, she has designed for actors Steven Seagal and Tyra Banks.

The Chainsmokers, who have won the Grammy Award, will be headlining the Indian leg of ULTRA Worldwide, an independent festival brand, which will be making its foray into the country with two Road To ULTRA Shows in Mumbai and Delhi, on September 7 and 8, in association with Percept Live.

The duo shot to fame with their tracks like "#Selfie", "Kanye", "Closer", "Don't Let Me Down" and "Paris".

Road To ULTRA will be held at Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai, and at India Exposition Mart in Greater Noida. The Chainsmokers will be accompanied by dance music stars, including Slushii, Rezz, Getter, Sam Feldt and Mykris.
Paris, Aug 14 : French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday condemned the terror attack in Burkina Faso's capital, saying his country will remain committed to support the fight against terror.

At least 17 people were killed and eight injured on Sunday night in a terrorist attack by armed men on a cafA-restaurant in Ouagadougou.

In a statement released by Elysee Palace, Macron expressed his compassion and solidarity for the victims' families. The Foreign Ministry said a French national was among those killed in the attack by suspected Islamic extremists on the upscale Turkish restaurant.

The Ministry statement gave no details about the French victim but said the country's officials were in contact with the victim's family "to help it in these painful moments".

Macron will hold talks with his Burkina Faso counterpart, Roch Marc Christian KaborA, to assess the situation.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : To ensure there are no reptiles at Red Fort during the 71st Independence Day celebrations, Delhi Police has asked an animal welfare organisation to keep special vigil.

The police asked Wildlife SOS to station a team to assist them with the security arrangements after it spotted several snakes and monitor lizards in parks and the moat area in and around Red Fort during the recent anti-sabotage checks.

"A team of about four-to-five animal experts will be stationed around Red Fort to assist the security personnel. The main threats are snakes and monitor lizards," an official from Wildlife SOS told IANS.

If found in or around Red Fort, the reptiles will be shifted carefully to ensure public safety and restored to their familiar surroundings after the August 15 celebrations are over.

The Widlife SOS said its teams were already scanning the area as a safety precaution.

During monsoon, wild animals including snakes, monitor lizards, civets, nilgai and others are often spotted in Delhi. Recently, a snake was seen in Delhi's Legislative Assembly premises.

Delhi is home to about 13 species of snakes, of which only two -- the common cobra and common krait -- are venomous. The others include Royal Snake, Wolf Snake, Rat Snake, Common Sand Boa, Red Sand Boa, Common Kukri, Cat Snake, Rock Python, Bronze Back Tree Snake, Leiths Sand Snake, and Checkered Keelback.

Every month, some 200 to 300 incidents of snake spotting are reported in Delhi, while about 2,400 to 3,000 snakes are rescued in the city every year.

Places from where serpents have been rescued by the Wildlife SOS include 7, Race Course Road, the Prime Minister's official residence, and Rashtrapati Bhawan.

"Wildlife SOS has been working closely with the Forest Department and Delhi Police to address wildlife issues in Delhi. Snake bite are a concern and we shall deploy our teams in the interest of public safety," Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-Founder of Wildlife SOS, said.

He urged the people not to engage with snakes if they spot one and rather call 91-9871963535 after which Wildife SOS officials will reach for help.
Imphal, Aug 14 : Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Monday appealed to the voters in the state not to accept money from candidates during elections -- if they wanted to stop post-election bribery.

He was addressing a public meeting in his Heingang constituency in Imphal West district.

Voters take money from all candidates and some of the candidates, when they become ministers, demand bribes while making appointments, he said.

"If the people stop taking bribes from all candidates, ministers will also stop taking hush money at the time of appointments," he said.

The phenomenon of cash-for-jobs scams has existed for a long time, he said.

"My government is taking concrete steps to ensure that candidates do not have to grease official palms. We seek cooperation from all sections of people in this campaign."

During his interaction with members of the public, many persons requested him to help them recover the money they had paid to officials to get jobs.

They complained that they were not given the promised jobs and their money was also not refunded.

The Chief Minister said people should stop bribing senior officials since the government's policy was to appoint the best candidates.
Bengaluru, Aug 14 : BJP President Amit Shah on Monday rejected the demand of resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the wake of death of over 60 children in the past week due to lack of oxygen and other medical reasons in Gorakhpur hospital.

The BJP chief also said that after investigation ordered by Adityanath gets complete and the report is submitted, action will be taken against the culprits.

"Seeking resignation is Congress's work. In such a big country, many accidents happen. This has not happened for the first time. Such accidents happened during even Congress governments," Shah told reporters.

He was responding to a query that responsibilities can't be with the doctors and government officials only and should be fixed for politicians also for the deaths of children in Gorakhpur.

Responding to another query, Shah said that the BJP does not fix anyone like Congress does without conducting proper enquiry.

"The matter is being probed and Yogiji has ordered a time bound probe. The report will be made public after it is submitted," he said describing the deaths of children as an accident.

"It was a mistake...it might have happened at any stage," he said.

The BJP chief also justified Yogi's directions for preparations for a "grand Krishna Janmashtami celebration" at a time when the state is mourning the death of over 60 infants.

"Everyone is saddened by the deaths of children but Yogiji has not ordered celebration of Janmashtami in reference to the deaths. Janmashtami has its own place and is being celebrated every where in the country," Shah said adding that the Janmashtami is not a government festival.

"If some one celebrates Janmashtami in his house what can the government do," he said.

Shah branded the Karnataka's ruling Congress government as the most corrupt government of the country and also sought the details of the expenses of the grants given by central government from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

"I have never seen such a corrupt government after independence. It is most corrupt government of the country which has no shame left," he said.

He also accused the state government of targeted killings of its workers in the state and alleged that it was doing appeasement politics which will insecure the state.

Shah claimed that BJP will form next government in the state under the leadership of its leader and former Chief Minister B. S. Yeddiyurappa.

The BJP leader also refuted the media reports that the government can go for early Lok Sabha polls in 2018.

"There is no such plan. As far as simultaneous election is concerned, the matter is under consideration and a debate is going on in the country. After a consensus between all political parties and Election Commission, it can be considered," Shah said.
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New Delhi, Aug 14 : Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja on Monday termed the loss of lives in a state-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur incident is a murder of innocent lives and the state government should be ashamed of the tragedy.

"It is a massacre that has happened in Gorakhpur which claimed more than 60 lives of children. The RSS-BJP is taking the country backward instead of achieving progress. What kind of freedom are we celebrating if we cannot even provide basic medical facilities at government hospitals?" he asked.

Raja was speaking at an event organised by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) to mark 70 years of India's Independence and highlight the struggles faced by the citizens.

"Our country needs to unite and stand up against RSS-BJPs' fascism. This is the biggest challenge that we are facing today. We need to stop the dictatorial attitude of the party in power; liberate India from the RSS and fight against their ideologies," he said.
Islamabad, Aug 14 : China is ready to strengthen all-round strategic and economic cooperation with Pakistan, visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said here on Monday.

Wang, who attended the flag hoisting ceremony at the Convention Centre here on the occasion of Pakistan's 71st Independence Day, said Beijing and Islamabad had stood by each other in difficult times and "this friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations".

"We need to keep the tradition of close high-level exchanges, extend firm mutual support on issues concerning each other's major interests and strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs," Wang was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

He noted that China firmly supports Pakistani efforts to uphold independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to fight against terrorism in light of its own national conditions.

On the economic front, Wang said: "China sees Pakistan as an important partner in the Belt and Road Initiative and the two countries will take forward the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor by launching more early harvest projects to enhance Pakistan's capacity for independent development."

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

Wang said China is also ready to strengthen all-round people-to-people exchanges with Pakistan by expanding cooperation in education, science and technology, culture, health and sports.

The Chinese leader also said that Beijing wants to encourage exchanges between youth, think-tanks, media, universities, non-governmental organisations to promote China-Pakistan friendship.

Wang arrived in Pakistan on Sunday to attend the country's 71st Independence Day.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : The Supreme Court on Monday restored a CBI lookout circular against Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, to prevent him from going abroad and asked him to approach the central probe agency.

The apex court, in the process, put on hold Madras High Court's August 10 stay on the lookout circular issued against Karti Chidambaram, who is facing a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board approvals.

The top court made it clear that Karti Chidambaram would not leave the country till he cooperated in investigation to the satisfaction of the investigating agency.

"You appear (before the investigating agency), and satisfy them," Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar told senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, asking him to give a date when his client would like to be questioned.

"Give a date. If he is in Delhi, he will be questioned in Delhi. If he is in Chennai, he will be questioned in Chennai," the Chief Justice said.

The apex court order came on a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which contended that the High Court had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the plea and stay the lookout notice as the matter is before the Special CBI court in Delhi.

Staying the August 10 order, a bench of Chief Justice Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed for further hearing on August 18.

"We will say nothing but stay the High Court order," the bench told Subramanium as he sought to assure the bench that Karti Chidambaram would not be running away from investigation.

"You can take it from me that there will be no running away, I say it voluntarily," Subramanium said.

Not accepting the plea for continuation of stay on the lookout circular, the Chief Justice Khehar told the senior counsel: "We had a very bad experience when we allowed a person to go abroad and he never came back."

"First, you show your bona fides by going to the Investigating Officer", the Chief Justice said.

"The question is he is required to participate in the investigation and all that lookout notice says is don't travel abroad."

The agency had told the court that the lookout notice was only to prevent the son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram from leaving the country.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, said the FIR was filed against Karti Chidambaram and others on May 15 and searches carried out the next day.

The FIR alleges criminal conspiracy (Section 120B) and cheating (Section 420) of the Indian Penal Code.

The agency also invoked the Prevention of Corruption Act's Section 8 [taking recourse to corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servant], Section 13(2) [punishment for criminal misconduct by a public servant] and Section 13(1)(d) [abusing position by public servant for pecuniary advantage].

The agency said Karti Chidambaram was issued summons on June 15 to appear before the Investigating Officer on June 29 and the lookout circular issued the very next day to immigration authorities at airports.

Subramanium contended that at no stage had Chidambaram shied away from participating in the investigations but had moved the High Court for quashing of the FIR and stay on the lookout circular.

He said that on July 21, when the matter was heard by the High Court, Chidambaram and the Investigating Officer were both present in court.

"Your being in the court does not exempt you from going to the Investigating Officer," the Chief Justice told Subramanium.

"Can't you go to the Investigating Officer to ask when can I come (to be questioned)," Chief Justice Khehar added.
Kathmandu, Aug 14 : Massive floods following incessant rains in the past few days have claimed 80 lives in Nepal, while thousands of people have been displaced across the country, officials said on Monday.

According to the Home Ministry, at least 80 people have died while 36 are still reported missing in landslides and floods in the last three days.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visited the flood-affected areas on Monday and assured that no stone will be left unturned in the government's search, rescue, rehabilitation and support efforts.

The monsoon havoc, which started on Friday, has affected districts in the eastern, central and western regions of the country.

A total of 50,000 houses were inundated across the plains. More than 3,000 houses were destroyed in floods that killed an estimated 400 livestock. Over 22,000 people were displaced by the flood.

The ministry said the death toll is likely to rise, though according to the Department of Meteorology, cloud bursts have stopped since Monday afternoon.

Some media reports in Kathmandu suggested that seven bodies, swept away by the floods, have been found in India. They were found near Jogbani Railway station on the Indian side of the border. According to police in Morang district, identities of three Nepali nationals, who were swept away by the flood near the Nepal-India border, has already been established .

Similarly in Parsa district, bodies of two Indians have been found and their identities have been established, said the police.

Meanwhile, due to the harrowing experience of distributing relief materials during the 2015 earthquake, the Home Ministry urged individuals and institutions eager to help the flood victims to follow the one-window system while distributing relief materials.

The ministry has assigned some dedicated areas to collect relief materials from individuals and institutions for effective distribution, it said.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : There is no split in the Janata Dal United (JD-U) and that most MPs and MLAs are with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, party spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said on Monday.

Tyagi said that only rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties, was with senior leader Sharad Yadav.

"Since most of the MPs, party office bearers, state unit presidents and MLAs are with Nitish Kumar, so the question of split does not arise," he told reporters here.

"Out of 11 MPs, nine are with Nitish Kumar. Both Lok Sabha MPs and seven out of nine Rajya Sabha MPs are with Nitish Kumar. Ali Anwar Ansari is the only MP who is with Sharad Yadav. Ansari's term is ending in March next year," Tyagi said.

He added that only five state committees of the party are recognised by the Election Commission and all those five state units - Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, and Dadara and Nagar Haveli - are with Nitish Kumar.

"Except for Arun Shrivastava and Varghese George, all the party General Secretaries, a total of eight, are with Nitish Kumar. Among the Secretaries, only Virender Singh Bidhuri has gone with Sharad Yadav. The rest five are with us," Tyagi said.

Dismissing the news of most party units going with Sharad Yadav, Tyagi said only Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat have gone with Yadav.

Those who have pledged support to Nitish Kumar include Bihar, Jharkhand, Dadara and Nagar Haveli, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Manipur, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Chandigarh and Goa, he said.

"We have video tapes and letters written by them in our favour. We can produce the same before you (mediapersons)," Tyagi said.

"In Kerala, M.P. Veerendra Kumar has decided to remain neutral. He is set to resign from Rajya Sabha and join the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in his state. We have no objection to his move" Tyagi said.

He said only "one or two people" have "voluntarily" left the party or are about to leave it and it cannot be called a split.

"Sharad Yadav has voluntarily given up the party. He is the real 'tyagi' (ascetic), not me," he said.

Asked why Sharad Yadav has not been suspended or expelled from the party, like others going with him have been, Tyagi said it was "not an easy decision" for the party to make.

"Sharad Yadav is a very senior leader. We have immense respect for him. It is very difficult for us to take action against him. There is a difference between him and others," Tyagi said.

He said Nitish Kumar enjoyed "mass base, not caste base".

"In Bihar, we have 71 MLAs. Not a single MLA or Minister came to meet Yadav while he was touring Bihar. No district president welcomed him across 13 districts. So where is the split?" he said.
Kolkata, Aug 14 : Accusing a section of media houses in the country of "misrepresenting facts" about the impending Independence Day celebrations in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said every person in Bengal has the full freedom to celebrate the occasion.

"Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts. Don't mislead. In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom," Banerjee said on Twitter.

She also said all the schools in Bengal would be celebrating the 70th year of India's independence on Tuesday in "their own special way".

"All schools in Bengal are celebrating Independence Day as per their choice. In their own special way," she clarified.

Controversy erupted last week after the West Bengal government issued an "urgent" directive to all District Project Officers in-charge of the Sarva Shikha Mission in the state on August 11, instructing all schools and other educational institutions to "stop all preparations" for celebrating Independence Day 2017 in a format prescribed by the Union HRD Ministry.

Criticising the centre and BJP for trying to enforce their thinking on others, the state government said they do not need lessons on patriotism from the BJP and would celebrate the Independence Day "in their own way".

The Human Resource Development Ministry had earlier, issued a circular on July 25 to all state Education Secretaries specifying "additional activities" to be undertaken by schools under the Sarva Shiksha Mission to celebrate Independence Day in a "befitting manner".
New Delhi, Aug 14 : A gang of 13 women thieves who posed as rag-pickers were arrested here on Monday along with a male accomplice, police said.

The women were caught by locals in Siraspur in north Delhi around 4 a.m. when they were trying to break into a shop, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rishi Pal said.

Pal said the women committed thefts across the city. The male accomplice was an auto-rickshaw driver.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : The Supreme Court on Monday said a five-judge Constitution Bench would hear if the Constitutional provision barring a J&K woman from property rights and other privileges in the state on marrying a person from outside, if it decides this was violative of the Constitution's "basic structure".

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said "if we really feel that challenge (to the validity of the Constitutional provisions) is accepted, it would be heard by a five-judge Constitution Bench on two aspects -- whether it is violative of basic structure doctrine and whether it is procedurally ultra vires".

The bench said this while tagging, with an already pending matter, a petition by Dr Charu Wali Khanna challenging Article 35 A of the Constitution and Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution which dealt with "permanent residents" of of Jammu and Kashmir, providing them special rights and privileges.

The provision under challenge not only deprives the native woman of Jammu & Kashmir of her right to acquire or possess any property and other privileges in the hill State but it extends even to her children from such a marriage.

Pointing to the inherent gender bias in the provision, counsel Bimal Jad appearing for the petitioner told the bench that former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah married a foreigner but his son Omar Abdullah continues to enjoy all rights and privileges in the state.

Omar Abdullah in turn marries outside the state and his children continue to enjoy same rights and privileges but same was not the case with his sister Sara Abdullah who too had married outside the state, he added, this was not only discriminatory on the grounds of gender bias but also violative of right to equality under the Constitution's Article 14.

Earlier, the bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar had on July 17 referred to the three-judge bench the challenge to Article 35A dealing with special rights and privileges to the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi, Aug. : New Delhi, Aug. Aug 14 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking SIT probe into the death of more than 60 infants in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Asking the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court as matter was related to Uttar Pradesh, the bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud referred to the media reports about Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other Union and Uttar Pradesh Ministers including officials visiting the hospital after the tragedy.

Observing that state officials were looking into the situation and attending to the complaints, the bench said that if still something was left unattended, then the petitioner can move Allahabad High Court.

Over 60 children lost their lives in the hospital and many of them had died reportedly due to disruption of oxygen supply.
New Delhi, Aug 14 : The Congress on Monday rejected as "entirely false, baseless and fabrication" a news report that Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be named the party's Working President.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the report was a "mischievous instance of fake news and unnecessary speculation".

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the news report was "laughable" and "planted".

"This is laughable that the media takes planted news seriously. This is mischievous and a fabrication," he said.

"We reject it but let me caution the media, don't walk into a trap of planted news. This is to distract attention and focus from what is happening -- from the failures of this government, non-performance, non-deliverance, rising terror attacks and killings of soldiers and jawans."

Sharma added: "They don't want to discuss these issues and also what has happened in Gorakhpur."
Mark Hogan, CEO of Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation speaks during the public hearing on the Foxconn deal in August.
Bengaluru, Aug 14 : BJP President Amit Shah on Monday said the demand for a separate religion status for Lingayats is a political game of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Addressing a press conference here, he also refuted allegations that his party has no clear stand on the issue.

Of late there has been some discomfort in the Bharatiya Janata Party over Karnataka Congress's attempt to woo the Lingayat community by backing its demand for a separate religion status. The BJP has considerable clout among the Lingayat community.

Refuting Siddaramaiah's charges that the central government is showing step-motherly treatment to Karnataka, Shah branded the state's Congress government as the most corrupt in the country.

"I have never seen such a corrupt government after Independence. It is most corrupt government of the country which has no shame left," he said.

"I ask the Chief Minister where the hugely increased central grant to Karnataka by Modi government has gone, as it doesn't show in development."

Shah also accused the state government of targeted killings of BJP workers in the state and alleged that it was doing appeasement politics, while claiming that his party will form the next government in the state under the leadership of its leader and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddiyurappa.

Refuting the media reports that the government might go for early Lok Sabha polls in 2018, he said: "There is no such plan. As far as simultaneous election is concerned, the matter is under consideration and a debate is going on in the country. After a consensus between all political parties and Election Commission, it can be considered."
Washington, Aug 15 : A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida on Monday, sending the US space firm's last new first-generation Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station.

The Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft sitting on the top, blasted off from a launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Xinhua reported.

About eight minutes later, SpaceX successfully landed the rocket's first stage at the company's Landing Zone 1, just south of the launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, as part of its effort to develop fully reusable rockets.

Previously, SpaceX has successfully recovered 13 first stages, five on land and eight at sea.

Monday's flight was the 12th of up to 20 missions to the space station that SpaceX will fly for NASA under a multi-year commercial re-supply services (CRS) contract.

It also marked the last time SpaceX launches a brand-new Dragon 1 vehicle and the remaining CRS missions will fly only reused ones, an official from SpaceX said.

A variant of the Dragon spacecraft, called Dragon 2, is currently being developed for the US-based crew transport to and from the space station, the company said.

For this mission, Dragon was filled with over 2,900 kilograms of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during the next six months.

"I'm happy to say 75 per cent of that total mass is headed toward our research community," Dan Hartman, deputy manager of NASA's space station programme, said.

In addition, the cargo included a Hewlett Packard Enterprise supercomputer, which is part of a year-long experiment to test how a system like this would operate in deep space for about a year, which is roughly the length of time needed to travel to Mars.

If everything goes well, the Dragon spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Wednesday, where it is expected to stay for about one month.

Then, in mid-September, the spacecraft will return to Earth with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.
Beirut, Aug 15 : In the second phase of repatriation, over 3,000 Syrian refugees and militants have crossed the Lebanese border to return to their country where they will benefit from amnesty and return to normal life.

The repatriates, including 350 militants, were escorted on Monday by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah to nearby towns in Syria's Qalamoun region, the Guardian reported.

Earlier this month, more than 7,000 Syrian refugees, fighters and their families were transfered to Idlib province in northern Syria.

"Thirty-four buses transporting hundreds of Saraya Ahl al-Sham Brigades gunmen and their families left Lebanon for the Syrian territories," Xinhua quoted the Directorate of the General Security as saying.

"Patrols from the security agency convoyed the departing buses, in coordination with the Lebanese Red Cross," he added.

The security chief confirmed the departure of gunmen who had occupied parts of the Lebanese territories on the outskirts of Arsal, following deals made after negotiations between different factions in concern.

Hezbollah media said for its part that the vehicles took the same path as the ones that transported former al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front militants from a restive border area in the outskirts of Arsal early in August.

The evacuation of the militants was scheduled on Saturday, but it was delayed due to "logistical issues" related to the means of transport.

As part of the deal between Hezbollah, the Lebanese negotiator General Security Chief Abbas Ibrahim and the rebel group, the fighters would head to the government-held town of Ruhaiba, about 50km northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus.

There they will benefit from an amnesty by the regime and return to normal life.

The evacuation deal follows a military offensive by Hezbollah and Syrian troops during which they captured border areas between the two countries and left hundreds of Nusra fighters besieged in a small rugged mountainous area.

The battle ended with a ceasefire and an exchange deal that saw the release of three Hezbollah soldiers captured by al-Nusra militants.
Brenda Diaz-Castro, holds a sign during a candlelight vigil on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Harrisonburg, Va. The vigil was held for the victims of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. (Stephen Swofford/Daily News-Record via AP)
Next time you are looking for Donald Trump's tweets, look no further than TweetinTrump.com.

Tweetin' Trump.com is a simple website dedicated to the easy discovery of Donald Trump's tweets and information about them. There are many places online showing President Donald Trump's tweets already. TweetinTrump.com is a straightforward site dedicated to an unbiased listing of his tweets.

The website front page includes an over-sized zoomed in version of Trump's Tweets. This makes the site easy to read and allows for a more versatile scrolling of our President's twitter feed. Included on the site are links to various websites related to these tweets. 'News about Tweets' links to Google, specifically focusing on recent various news articles about our President's twitter feed. The entire site makes it easy to find and analyze our President's most controversial way of communicating.

There is a link to the 'Trump Twitter Archive', which is a vast collection of all of Donald Trump's tweets archived and listed. The Trump Twitter Archive has in depth search functionality as well as collections related to various topics over the past few years.

The next link is to 'TwitterCounter.com', a statistics based website showing demographic data about Donald Trump's followers, worldwide twitter rank, and other statistics related to the President's tweets.

A link to the official White House website is also provided.

Searching for Donald Trump's twitter feed online is easier than ever. Discover Donald Trump's tweets along with links to news, a twitter archive, and twitter stats. Next time you are looking for Donald Trump's tweets, look no further than http://www.TweetinTrump.com.
The new app released by Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy was designed to enhance the collection and organization of important information and photos during a time when the chaos can often lead to confusion and disorganization. The captured information and photos will be extremely helpful when filing an insurance claim or consulting an attorney.

The exciting new mobile app can be helpful to anyone. The law firm encourages clients and anyone else who might benefit to download the app to record details at the scene of any type of motor vehicle accident. It is completely free and available for both Apple and Android devices. The accident app includes many features that are helpful at the scene of a crash.

Features allow users to:



Record the details of an accident

Document vehicle, insurance, and witness information

Take and save pictures of the accident scene and vehicle damage

Locate emergency services

Integrate with Facebook Live to record traffic stops

Email information to the legal team

Access the Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy law firm website

Contact the firms car accident lawyers to discuss legal rights and options

Visit http://www.NJAdvocates.com/download-our-mobile-app/ to download this helpful tool.

Motorists and passengers who have experienced any type of motor vehicle accident can call Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy at 732-777-0100, or visit their website at http://www.njadvocates.com for a free consultation. The firms offices are centrally located in Red Bank, Toms River, and Edison, and they service clients throughout New Jersey.
National Housing Tides Index Infographic August 2017 This months Index update reveals an improvement in housing market health as 32 of the 41 markets tracked by Housing Tides saw improved conditions.

This week marks the release of the August Housing Tides Report, featuring an update to the Housing Tides Index, an objective and sophisticated approach to quantifying and comparing the health of U.S. housing markets. This months Index update reveals an improvement in housing market health as 32 of the 41 markets tracked by Housing Tides saw improved conditions.

Understanding the health of a housing market and its relationship to other top markets requires an aggregated, comprehensive view of the industry. The Housing Tides Index provides a succinct monthly measure of market health across the top 41 U.S. markets. Referencing 18 market indicators ranging from unemployment rates and housing permits to rental vacancy and mortgage foreclosure rates, the Tides Index helps users understand exposure at a deeper level than is currently possible.



Real estate brokerage Redfin reported that there were nearly 95k fewer homes for sale in the U.S. in June when compared to June 2016. At the current sales pace this inventory amounts to just 2.5 months of supply, a post-recession low and far below the six months of supply that is regarded as balanced between supply and demand. Consequently, the median price for homes sold reached $298k in June, its highest level since the company began tracking the data in 2009. Median sales prices have risen 7.6% from $277k in June 2016. The U.S. Case-Shiller Index of home prices also reached an all-time high in May per latest data from S&P and CoreLogic, and is up over 5.5% in the last year. Home price gains continue to exceed wage increases, as U.S. per capita personal income was estimated at just over $50k in 2017Q2 and had increased only 2.1% from one year ago.

Its clear that homebuilders have ramped up the pace of construction in an effort to satisfy the sustained demand for housing. Census data show that there were 81.8k U.S. single-family permit approvals in June, the highest monthly total since August 2007. This observation gives reason to be optimistic about new construction efforts helping to balance the market between buyers and sellers and ease home price increases. However, we should note that the Census Bureau estimates June housing permits at a 1.28M seasonally-adjusted annual pace, which remains lower than the approximately 1.5 million units the country needs per year. Using Census data, we estimate the long-run average pace of homebuilding was 1.45M units per year prior to the onset of the 2007-09 recession.

According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. rental vacancy rate has increased in the last four quarters and reached 7.3% in 2017Q2. In June we noted that the number of apartments under construction had reached a forty-year high and its apparent that the completion of these units has begun to put upward pressure on the vacancy rate. Its likely that the increased vacancy rate will suppress rental prices and as such may translate to lower demand in the purchase market as consumers incorporate these price effects into their buy-or-rent decisions.

Assuaging worries about the uptick in mortgage delinquency observed in April, latest data from Black Knight Financial Services showed that the delinquency rate resumed its long downward trend in May. The delinquency rate is now at 3.79%, still higher than the low of 3.62% in March 2017, but considerably lower than levels observed in recent years.

As noted above, single-family housing permits increased in June, with 42,500 permits approved across the 41 markets tracked by Housing Tides. This is the highest total in these markets since June 2007. Multi-family permits rose by over a third in June, totaling 31,800, and the six-month moving average increased to a rate of 24,400 per month.

Please reference the attached graph to view the Ten Healthiest U.S. Housing Markets - August, 2017.

Click here to view the complete Housing Tides Index of the top 41 U.S. markets.

Media Exclusive! Housing Tides Media Monthly Pulse

Subscribe to our email service exclusively created for media which delivers an updated infographic depicting the latest monthly Housing Tides Index, the complete Index as it appears in the Housing Tides Report, and a brief executive summary. All content can be shared in print and digital publications, with attribution to the Housing Tides Report.

Members of the media can subscribe to the Housing Tides Media Monthly Pulse here.

About Housing Tides

Housing Tides (Tides) is the only monthly report that provides a comprehensive measure and aggregated understanding of the health of the U.S. housing and home building industry. Designed to take the guesswork out of the vast amount of forecasting information published about this sector, Tides is a sophisticated report that delivers city-specific, updated information when market conditions change. It is the only report that uses natural language processing and machine learning to correctly understand and synthesize large volumes of data, making it more comprehensive, balanced, and reliable than any other report of its kind. For further information, please visit housingtides.com and connect on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Housing Tides is proudly partnered with IBM Watson.
A Canada-based natural medicine practitioner has released her easy-to-use resource designed to help readers achieve a more positive outlook in their day-to-day lives. Through Gratitude Keeper, Dr. Maxine McLean delivers a simple guide to reaping the benefits that come from practicing gratitude, ultimately promoting a greater sense of self and wellbeing.

Inspired by her own journey to finding inner peace, Dr. McLean crafted Gratitude Keeper in hopes of reaching out to those who are experiencing emotional aches or seeking a fresh perspective on joyful living. Comprised of inspirational quotes, gentle realizations and easy meditations, Dr. McLeans book offers an inspirational examination of the role gratitude plays in fostering the human spirit.

Ive been privileged to meet people from diverse backgrounds, and Ive listened to their stories of despair, disappointments, depression and anxiety, Dr. McLean said. I eagerly wanted to understand more of their influences and experiences that created their paths and then to discover ways in which to assist in their healing and to impart a positive effect in their lives.

Dr. McLean hopes to aid her readers in bettering their health and fostering success in their lives by way of positive thinking and spiritual education. The author also works with villages in developing countries to craft Gratitude Keeper kits, which provide their communities with sustainable income opportunities and assist in bolstering their education, health care and in building wells that provide them with clean drinking water.

Gratitude Keeper

By Dr. Maxine McLean IMD, DHS. Ph.D.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7821-5 (paperback); 978-1-5043-7822-2 (electronic)

Available at the Balboa Press Online Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and Amazon

About the author

Dr. Maxine McLean IMD, DHS. Ph.D. is a natural medicine practitioner, the owner of McLean Essential Care and the inventor of Sphere Therapy. In her free time, McLean enjoys painting, meditating and stargazing. She currently resides in Ontario, Canada. To learn more, please visit http://www.gratitudekeeper.ca.

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Ceterus, a technology company that provides automated accounting and benchmarked reporting to small business entrepreneurs, just announced that Sheila Marcello will be their new Chief Marketing Officer.

Marcello brings to the Ceterus team an extensive background in marketing technology products. She has a record of demonstrating strategic, results-based hands-on leadership in launching new products, incorporating marketing automation, and content management across all relevant media platforms. Marcello holds an MBA in International Marketing and Finance and a BS in Marketing and Psychology.

As Ceteruss new CMO, Marcello will report to Levi Morehouse, Ceterus Founder & CEO. We needed to bring in a marketer with extensive experience in the B2B technology marketing space to get our solution in front of more entrepreneurs, said Morehouse. Sheila has a great combination of drive, a willingness to roll up her sleeves and get the job done, and a ton of expertise in the area.

Marcello has held executive positions in several corporations including Serendipity Interactive, InVue, and ACN.

Im excited to join the Ceterus team and start building their marketing channels in order to get our solution in front of more small business entrepreneurs to better empower them to run their businesses, Marcello commented. Ceterus has been growing fast with significant sales, and Im looking forward to hitting the ground running with marketing that will fuel that growth, Marcello added.

This addition to the Ceterus leadership team follows the companys recent Series A-1 extension round. Ceterus was also recently named one of South Carolinas Best Places to Work.

About Ceterus

Ceterus, a Charleston-based technology and accounting company, empowers small business entrepreneurs by automating their accounting and providing benchmarked reporting. Pairing Edge, its proprietary, cloud-based technology with professional accountants, Ceterus delivers a complete accounting and analytics solution for small business owners. Ceterus operates from its headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, bringing together a growing team of top accounting and technology talent. For more information on the company and its solutions, visit http://www.ceterus.com.
A father-daughter duo have teamed-up to share their personal fiction stories with the public. The Empress Angelinas Quest, written by authors Charles & Irene Nickerson, is the third book an adventurous science fiction which focuses on the importance of honor, faith, friendship, love and the fighting of good against evil.

In Quest, Beary and his friends, Pompey, Artemus, Caesar and Ben team up to complete the construction of a new warship. Unbeknownst to the group, evil forces are plotting to invade the Bearilian Society, resulting in the team coming together in the ultimate battle of good against evil.

Nickerson began telling the story of Beary and his friends to his daughter, co-author Irene, at a very young age and developed the characters when he was a child. Ive been sharing these stories with my daughter since before she could read, the author said. Then, one day, she told me to write them down because she would forget them. After doing that, she helped me further develop the female characters and the stories kind of took on of life of their own.

The Empress Angelinas Quest is a well-written story full of adventure and romance, a reviewer wrote about the book. If you like science fiction, you will surely enjoy this book.

An action-packed science fiction full of adventure, The Empress Angelinas Quest: A Beary Maxumus Adventure is a fun read while teaching children and teenagers the importance of true friendship.

The Empress Angelinas Quest: A Beary Maxumus Adventure

By Charles & Irene Nickerson

ISBN: 978-1-5035-4405-5 (softcover); 978-1-5035-4355-3 (electronic)

Available at the Xlibris Online Bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Charles Lansford Nickerson has a Masters of Arts in History from the University of Northern Colorado and a BS in History from Iowa State University. He is also a Veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served as a Missile Combat Crew Member. He also taught History in Christian Schools for 10 years. He has previously published two acclaimed Poems. Irene Jean Nickerson is a graduate of Ankeny Christian Academy in Ankeny, Iowa. She is a graduate of Central College in Pella Iowa.

###

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Firecite.com is a new, online outsourcing platform designed specifically for attorneys. Attorneys can use the site to securely delegate projects to freelance law clerks, JDs, and paralegals. https://firecite.com

We created Firecite so that attorneys can quickly and confidently outsource legal projects to the perfect provider when the need arises, says Firecite co-founder Pete Castleberry. Additionally, a legal market place requires a uniquely sophisticated group of providers. We achieve this by seeking out our own freelancers and being very selective about provider qualifications.

To become a provider on Firecite, a freelancer has to be invited. Providers are hand-selected by the Firecite team and all provider applications are manually reviewed prior to approval.

When an attorney posts a project on Firecite, she wont have to sift through a large number of proposals from unqualified freelancers, Castleberry says. The high-quality group of freelancers on Firecite allows attorneys to outsource their projects quickly and with minimal effort.

When attorneys post projects to the Firecite marketplace, their names are kept confidential until they select a provider for the project. Firecite provides options for flat-fee payment, hourly payment, and an ongoing work feature for projects that have no clear end date. For example, if an attorney wants to hire a paralegal for various projects for 10 hours per week, Firecite seamlessly accommodates this kind of open ended relationship.

After the project is posted, providers bid on the project. When a provider submits a bid, the attorney can review the provider's profile and credentials and privately message the provider if she would like additional information or work samples. All providers must execute project specific confidentiality agreements and certify knowledge and understanding of basic ethical rules prior to issuing proposals on a project.

Once the attorney selects a provider, the two are introduced via encrypted messaging.

Firecite allows attorneys and providers to share documents via a project management feature. All document uploads are also encrypted.

We think attorneys will be really impressed with how easy it is to select a freelance provider and work with them through Firecite, says Castleberry. Firecite provides a user-friendly, secure solution for outsourcing legal projects.

Check out a product tour at firecite.com: https://firecite.com/howitworks
TextRecruit, the leading two-way text messaging provider for employers, has announced a strategic partnership with Avature that will enable recruiting teams around the world to leverage its messaging solutions to engage with candidates when using Avature ATS.

Avature has become a leader because of their focus on business-driven solutions that are flexible and socially-oriented, said Erik Kostelnik, co-founder and CEO of TextRecruit. Our partnership aligns strongly with their overall approach, and will have an immediate impact on customers by increasing candidate response rates, accelerating recruitment, and shortening time-to-hire.

As a result of the partnership, Avature and TextRecruit will each join their respective partner networks and offer an integration that will help recruiters:

 Improve candidate communication by increasing response rates and open rates, and accelerating time-to-respond;

 Personalize and automate text messages to assist in sourcing, recruiting, interview management, campus recruiting and onboarding; and

 Assist with compliance by preventing messaging to candidates who have opted-out of receiving text message communications.

"Avature is excited to welcome TextRecruit to its network of best-in-class partners, said Dimitri Boylan, CEO of Avature. "This integration will enable our customers to leverage the power of smart automation when communicating with candidates via SMS, streamlining data collection, and saving recruiters time and effort."

About TextRecruit: TextRecruit is a candidate engagement platform that leverages text message, live chat and artificial intelligence to help companies hire better people, faster. Powered by analytics, personalization, campaigns, and integrations, this is the most effective engagement software for recruiting and HR on the planet. Whole Foods, UPS, Kindred Healthcare and hundreds of other companies trust TextRecruit to get the talent they need. For more information, follow us at @TextRecruit or visit us at http://www.textrecruit.com.

About Avature: Avature is a highly configurable enterprise SaaS platform for Talent Acquisition and Talent Management, and the leading provider of CRM technology for recruiting globally. Founded by Dimitri Boylan, co-founder and former CEO of HotJobs.com, Avature brings consumer-web technology and innovation to the HCM software market. Avature provides a full suite of solutions for strategic HR including shared services sourcing, applicant tracking, campus & events recruiting, employee referrals, social onboarding, branded employee engagement, internal mobility, and performance management. Avature has 101 of the Fortune 500 as customers, and is used in 90 countries and 17 languages. Avature delivers its services from data centers in the US, Europe, and Asia, and has offices in Buenos Aires, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Munich, New York, and Shenzhen. http://www.avature.net @Avature.

TextRecruit Contact Name: Birch Faber

TextRecruit Contact Title: Marketing Director

TextRecruit Contact Phone Number: 323 440 4049

TextRecruit Contact Email Address: birch(at)textrecruit.com

Avature Contact Name: Maria Lorenzo Brisco

Avature Contact Title: VP Marketing

Avature Contact Phone Number: +1 212 380 4160 ext 6418

Avature Contact Email Address: press@avature.net
IndustrySafe Safety Management Software's OSHA 300A CSV File Generator At a time when safety professionals are often faced with limited resources, we feel good knowing that we can help our customers to save time, save money, and better comply with todays complex regulatory landscape.

TRA is pleased to announce that IndustrySafe safety management software has been updated to help organizations comply with OSHAs final rule requiring the electronic submission of recordkeeping data. Numerous organizations currently use IndustrySafe software to record, track, and analyze workplace incidents and generate accurate OSHA regulatory reports.

Issued in May of 2016, OSHAs final rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injury and Illness requires employers in certain industries to electronically submit their 2016 Form 300A data to OSHA by December 1, 2017.

With this submission deadline less than six months away, OSHA has officially launched its Injury Tracking Application (ITA), so that organizations can begin to submit their data using this secure website.

OSHAs ITA offers two options for submitting 300A data. EHS professionals can either choose to manually enter their required data, or can upload a CSV file to submit data for single or multiple establishments at the same time.

With IndustrySafes latest software release, users are now able to export their 300A incident data to a CSV file that meets the ITAs technical specifications.

The IndustrySafe team was granted early access to OSHAs ITA to help test its capabilities. We know first-hand that the process to manually submit your 300A data to OSHA is simple, but is also tedious and time-consuming. Depending upon how many establishments you need to submit data for, preparing a CSV file of your incident data can also require a lot of time and due-diligence, explains Gabe Tompkins, IndustrySafes Senior Product Manager.

To help simplify the process, weve updated IndustrySafes robust regulatory reporting tools so that you can easily generate a CSV file of your 300A data with just a few clicks of your mouse. Our software will also notify you if your file contains any errors or missing information before you submit your data to OSHA, he adds.

While OSHAs final rule does not require employers to adopt a software system, safety management software that allows users to export incident data in a CSV format that meets OSHAs specifications can significantly streamline the electronic submission process.

At a time when safety professionals are often faced with limited resources, we feel good knowing that we can help our customers to save time, save money, and better comply with todays complex regulatory landscape, says Clare Epstein, Vice President of IndustrySafe.

IndustrySafe is a perfect solution for EHS professionals striving to better track and manage their organizations incident data. Users can record and analyze a variety of incidents, including near misses, vehicle incidents, employee and non-employee injuries, environmental, and security incidents.

IndustrySafe also allows safety professionals to conduct detailed incident investigations, perform root cause analysis, and automatically calculate incident rates.

By collecting and analyzing relevant data on incidents in the workplace, organizations can better monitor their efforts to comply with safety regulations and ensure worker health.

Additional information about the features of IndustrySafe safety management software is available at http://www.industrysafe.com and by signing up for free webinars at https://www.industrysafe.com/webinar.html.

About IndustrySafe

IndustrySafe Safety Software is a web-based safety data management product developed by TRA so that organizations can track incidents, corrective actions, OSHA reporting, training, claims, inspections, hazards, behavioral based safety, and more. IndustrySafe clients include leaders in manufacturing, construction, government, and transportation.

Please contact us at sales(at)industrysafe.com for more information about IndustrySafe Safety Management Software.

To learn more about OSHAs final rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses and how it impacts your business, please review IndustrySafes latest whitepaper.
Milwaukee has been dubbed the Heartland of BioHealth Innovation. The Clinical Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI), a part of the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), was chosen by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to host the national 2017 Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (HHS SBIR/STTR) conference in 2017. The event will take place Nov. 7-9 in downtown Milwaukee at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.

The annual HHS SBIR/STTR convention welcomes a diverse audience, including small business professionals in the life sciences industry, principal investigators, grants and contracts administrators and industry partners and innovators. Attendees will discover how to successfully apply for these grants, learn about approaching partners and investors, the types of HHS assistance programs offered to awardees, and have a valuable opportunity throughout the 3 days, to meet one-on-one with 80-100 HHS SBIR/STTR experts and program officers who will fly in from Washington DC.

We are honored and thrilled to be chosen as hosts, said Reza Shaker, MD, director and senior dean of the CTSI of Southeast Wisconsin and director of the Digestive Disease Center at MCW. This extremely competitive award validates the CTSI as a national leader in building academic and research partnerships to address community, regional and national health needs. In addition, hosting the event in Milwaukee allows attendees to learn from us and our partners the robust opportunities within Wisconsins entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The conference helps small businesses in the life science sector learn about Americas largest Seed Fund - more than $920 million dollars of annual HHS funding, one of the largest sources of non-dilutive, early- stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States. These programs allow U.S.-owned small businesses forge academic partnerships and build businesses to engage in research and development that has a strong potential to deliver products and services to improve the health of Americans.

Sponsors of the event include the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC).

Wisconsins winning bid to host the 2017 HHS SBIR/SSTR conference affirms our states leadership in translating biohealth discoveries into scalable business models that address real-life health challenges, said WEDC deputy secretary and chief operating officer Tricia Braun. Federal SBIR/STTR funding combines with Wisconsins rich portfolio of start-up resources to fuel biohealth innovation and commercialization in our state.

One-on-one meetings, critical information sessions and networking opportunities greatly optimize the chances to secure seed funding," says Center for Technology Commercialization Client Services Director Dave Linz. "CTC and its clients have traveled all over the country to attend this conference, so we are thrilled to bring it close to home for tech entrepreneurs in Wisconsin and the Midwest to benefit.

This year, the keynote speaker will be Dr. Walter Koroshetz, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. There will be presentations from the NIH, Small Business Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, Administration for Community Living and HHS Office of the Inspector General.

Those interested in attending should register online.

######

About the Medical College of Wisconsin

With a history dating back to 1893, The Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in MCWs medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, 56 medical students enrolled at MCW-Green Bay, and 26 students matriculated to MCW-Central Wisconsin in 2016. MCWs School of Pharmacy will open in 2017. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY2015, faculty received more than $158 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,200 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,500 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 525,000 patients annually.
PAMA's annual conference provides superb networking and professional development opportunities

Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC will exhibit at the 2017 Pennsylvania Association of Municipal Administrators annual conference. Key representatives from Pennsylvania municipalities attend PAMA's annual conference for superb networking and professional development opportunities. Additionally, leading experts will speak about a broad range of issues that are affecting Pennsylvania municipalities. The conference is held August 16-19, 2017 in Mount Pocono, at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions.

Vanguard Modular Building Systems' display will provide information demonstrating the wide-ranging capabilities of modular buildings, from temporary relocatable building solutions of any size, to high-end turn-key permanent modular construction.

About Vanguard Modular

Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC is a custom modular building dealer supplying temporary and permanent modular offices, classrooms, and specialty buildings to industries including: government, education, oil & gas, commercial, industrial, healthcare, energy, corrections, and more. Our experienced team is uniquely equipped to provide clients with tailored solutions that solve their individual space needs. We offer the flexibility of lease, purchase, and financing options.

Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC

Contact

Mark Meyers

Vice President, Marketing Services

(877) 438-8627

mmeyers(at)vanguardmodular(dot)com
Social media has the maturity and reach to be an integral component of higher education marketing campaigns, says Michael Stoner, president and co-founder of mStoner.

mStoner, Inc. is proud to announce a new partnership with the Social Media Strategies Summit in sponsoring the EDU Hall of Fame award. The EDU Hall of Fame award honors colleges and universities that have achieved success in integrating social media into their marketing efforts.

In its inaugural year, the EDU Hall of Fame award recognizes social media success in the following six categories:



Most creative use of video

Best higher ed administrator using social media

Best showcase of faculty research and innovation through social media

Best use of a mascot in social media

Best overall social media presence

Best use of social media with a live event

Social media has the maturity and reach to be an integral component of higher education marketing campaigns, says Michael Stoner, president and co-founder of mStoner. Were thrilled to partner with SMSS to take a more active role in recognizing and celebrating institutions for their hard work in this medium.

mStoner has devoted years of research to exploring how colleges and universities can strategically use social media to build their brands and to engage their audiences. mStoners first book, Social Works: How #HigherEd Uses #SocialMedia to Raise Money, Build Awareness, Recruit Students, and Get Results, offers models and case studies proving that social media is an essential communications channel for recruitment, fundraising, and building awareness. #FollowTheLeader: Lessons in Social Media Success from #HigherEd CEOs addresses how higher ed leaders can effectively amplify their voice on social to engage constituents.

For the past seven years, mStoner has partnered with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) to conduct research with advancement and marketing professionals. The resulting white papers uncover trends and share in-depth case studies focused on social medias growing role in fundraising and alumni engagement.

mStoner also conducts annual mythbusting research with the National Research Center for College & University Admissions (NRCCUA) to identify the marketing and communication channels that are most effective in reaching prospective teen students. In each annual white paper, mStoner explores social media usage at each stage of the admissions cycle

Partnering with mStoner was an obvious choice, says Breanna Jacobs, SMSS conference organizer. Their commitment to exploring how colleges and universities can get real results with social media is unmatched.

Higher ed marketers can enter their institutions work or the work of another institution by 11:59 p.m. (PST) on Oct. 10, 2017. Winners will be announced at this years #SMSsummit on Nov. 2, 2017.
With the United States gradually reopening diplomatic relations with Cuba, it is more important than ever to look back at the past to understand the present and plot a path to a better future. Miriam Isidro shares her own familys story in Cuban Exile: A Young Girls Journey.

Isidro was born in 1953the same year that a revolution erupted in Cuba. Rebels wanted to overthrow then-president Fulgencio Batista, who left the island January 1, 1959, marking the end of the life that Isidro knew. Parades were held throughout Cuba, and many welcomed Fidel Castro as a bearded savior who would answer their prayers. Others, however, left as soon as they could.

I journeyed to America with my family in the early 1960s and grew up in a small town, where there were few people like me, and I had to embrace this new country, language, and culture in a short time, said Isidro. I wrote this book for my children, so that they would know the sacrifices made to ensure survival and to know what a blessing and privilege it was for our family to be allowed to come to this country.

Based on her experiences as a young girl who fled Cuba, this personal and touching story takes the reader through Isidro's tumultuous journey to her new life in an unfamiliar country and culture, eventually leading her to the American Dream.

Cuban Exile: A Young Girls Journey

By Miriam Isidro

ISBN: 9781483469713 (softcover); 9781483469706 (eBook)

Available on Lulu Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Miriam Isidro is a naturalized American citizen who was born in Havana, Cuba. After overcoming many obstacles, she became a teacher and an elementary school principal. A Roman Catholic, Isidro is married with three children. Most of her writing is based on her own experiences.

Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

Bryan Beach

480-306-6554

bbeach(at)lavidge(dot)com

General Inquiries:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

Chris Pena

480-306-7065

cpena(at)lavidge(dot)com
GSI believes that the best way for customers to realize the greatest value from their enterprise systems is through education

GSI, Inc. is pleased to announce it will be hosting the JD Edwards Super Session at the Quest JD Edwards INFOCUS 17 Conference, which is being held on August 14-16 at the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel in Denver, Colorado. During the Super Session, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.2 Transformational Upgrade  Domtar Case Study, Domtar and GSI will discuss the process that Domtar went through to redesign its business processes as well as its technical infrastructure, in order upgrade to the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.2. The Super Session will be held Monday, August 14 at 4:30pm in Plaza Ballroom BCEF.

Besides the Super Session, GSI will host 11 educational sessions as well as exhibiting in Booth 201. The sessions will include:



Case Study: Inheriting a World System in the Middle of an A9.4 Upgrade

Case Study: Implementing Dual Units of Measure for Inventory in JDE

Managing Inventory, In-Transit & RNV Through the Supply Chain in JDE

The Future of JD Edwards System Monitoring

Dealing with Security, Its a Whole New World A9.4

Whats New in Technical Tools Release E1 9.2.1 & the Object Usage Tracking Application

Are You Ready for FASB Changes & Lease Management in JDE EnterpriseOne?

Database Management with JDE Tools

JD Edwards : Database  Security, Performance & Protection Secrets Exposed

Magic Seasoning  Avoiding the Pitfalls When Upgrading to World A9.4

Sticking with or Stuck with JD Edwards World A7.3 Software

A complete list of GSIs sessions, times and locations can be found at GSI INFOCUS 17 Schedule or stop by the GSI Booth #201.

GSI believes that the best way for customers to realize the greatest value from their enterprise systems is through education," said Kevin R. Herrig, President and CEO of GSI, Inc. "In addition to our twelve (12) strategic sessions, GSI hosts a series of free nationwide JD Edwards 9.2 upgrade workshops as well as weekly webcasts on implementing, integrating, and managing JD Edwards, NetSuite, Oracle Cloud, and Salesforce.

About GSI, Inc.

As a certified Oracle Platinum Partner and a recognized industry leader, GSI, Inc. specializes in providing a broad spectrum of business, functional, and technical consulting services for Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle NetSuite, Oracle Cloud, Salesforce and other enterprise applications. The client-centric consultancy offers a comprehensive suite of solutions including AppCare, a 24/7 managed service; GENIUS, an advanced monitoring application; GENISYS, a solution for optimizing system performance; gShield, a comprehensive security solution; RapidReconciler, its inventory reconciliation software; as well as JDE Cloud9, a complete cloud-based hosted service. GSI consulting services are backed by its signature 100 percent guarantee. Founded in 2004, the rapidly growing company is headquartered in Atlanta with locations nationwide. GSI, Inc. has been named to Inc. Magazines Inc.5000 list of fastest growing companies for two consecutive years.
Srimanasi Javvaji, MD Mohs surgery not only gives me the ability to get to know and help an amazing patient population, but it also allows me to use my innate technical and artistic abilities in skin surgery to treat cutaneous cancers. said Javvaji

Dr. Srimanasi (Mani) Javvaji joins the Plano office of the Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery, now a part of U.S. Dermatology Partners, following a fellowship in Mohs Micrographic surgery and dermatology oncology at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif.

Dr. Javvaji attended the accelerated B.A./M.D. program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She graduated Magna Cum Laude for her undergraduate degree and earned the highest Latin honor of Summa Cum Laude for her Doctor of Medicine degree. During medical school, Dr. Javvaji was initiated into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society as a junior candidate, an honor given to only the top 4 students in her medical school class. She pursued a transitional-year internship at Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago. She completed her dermatology residency training at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

After completing her Ivy League training in dermatology, she completed a fellowship in Mohs micrographic surgery and dermatologic oncology at the renowned Scripps Clinic near San Diego. There, she mastered the skill of Mohs surgery under the direction of the distinguished Dr. Hubert T. Greenway, who was taught the Mohs technique by Dr. Fredric E. Mohs himself. In addition to Mohs surgery, Dr. Javvaji is also fellowship trained in minimally invasive vein procedures to treat varicose and spider veins, as well as cosmetic and laser procedures. Dr. Javvaji is a Diplomate of the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine.

She has authored and co-authored several publications and presentations and has been recognized for her work in her residency and preceptorships. Dr. Javvaji is particularly interested in vein procedures, including treatment of varicose veins, spider veins and venous leg ulcers, and Mohs surgery.

During my dermatology training, I was always astounded and humbled by the beauty of Mohs surgery and its ability to cure patients of skin cancer, she says. Mohs surgery not only gives me the ability to get to know and help an amazing patient population, but it also allows me to use my innate technical and artistic abilities in skin surgery to treat cutaneous cancers.

Dr. Javvaji loves her work because of the people she meets every day. It is a privilege to care for my patients, and they are the reason my job doesnt seem like work, she says.

Dr. Javvaji, who grew up in Tulsa, Okla., is thrilled to land in the Dallas area after living all over the United States. Shes a documentary fan and a wine enthusiast who also enjoys learning languages (shes proficient in Spanish), painting, travel and Indian dance.

About Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery

Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery is located in Plano, Texas, with additional locations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including McKinney, Flower Mound, and Grapevine. The well-respected group of specialists includes four board-certified physicians, five certified physician assistants, two phototherapy nurses, and one cosmetic laser specialist.

The Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery, led by Chief Medical Director Bryan Selkin, MD, has won numerous awards and accolades from patients and physicians, including the prestigious D Magazine Best Doctors Award for six years in a row. Comprehensive care is offered for patients of all ages, and preventative dermatology is an important foundation of care.

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

U.S. Dermatology Partners is making it easier for people to connect with a dermatologist and gain access to the very latest in dermatology care for the entire family and state-of-the-art treatment for diseases of the skin. As the 3rd largest physician-owned dermatology practice in the United States, patients not only have access to general medical, surgical and cosmetic skin treatments through its coordinated care network, but also benefit from the practices strong dermatology subspecialty thought leaders and medical advisory board. To be the best partners to its patients, U.S. Dermatology Partners is fervently focused on providing the highest level of patient-first care, and its team therefore includes recognized national leaders in sub-specialties including psoriasis and Mohs surgery. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com.
T&R Alarm Systems, Inc. an alarm systems installation company based in Clifton, NJ, has begun offering green energy installation to commercial and industrial clients throughout the Tri-State Area. These services include installation of solar panels and wind turbines to help reduce energy costs. These services are available alongside or independently from T&Rs usual security and alarm installation and monitoring services.

T&R Alarm introduced green energy installation as a value-added proposition for clients who were already taking part utilizing their alarm and security systems. Because of T&Rs expertise in understanding building construction and wiring necessary to hook up alarms and surveillance systems, green energy became a surprisingly plausible extension to their existing business model.

Four wind turbines and a small solar panel array installed as part of T&Rs green energy initiative could effectively power an average house in the United States. That means that the average business that adopts these initiatives would receive a households energy budget in savings. Because solar power and wind power are renewable resources, once installed, the wind turbines and solar panels would generate no additional costs over time.

We are a multifaceted company providing the latest technologies in both the security and electrical industries, said Andy Komisar, Vice President of T&R Alarm. We are pleased to be able to help companies reduce their overall energy consumption.

T&R Alarm plans to bring green energy to many clients, existing and new, in the coming months. With their low cost and lack of harmful atmospheric emissions, more and more companies are looking for green energy solutions and T&R is there to answer the call.

###

For nearly 50 years, T&R Alarm Systems, Inc. has become a formidable force in the Security Industry, particularly as a security system company in NJ. We are one of the largest alarm companies in the tri-state area, specializing in fire, security, surveillance systems and windowless basement fire alarms. We can accommodate a single-family home, a high-rise hotel, hospitals, schools and commercial buildings with equal expertise. We spend 24 hours a day working to meet your safety needs. We can design and install any kind of alarm system installation you desire.
Kinematics Manufacturing Incorporated (KMI) has become the first slew gear supplier to complete rigorous design verification testing with NEXTrackers stringent component lifetime reliability require The test protocol developed by NEXTracker was by far the most rigorous, comprehensive, and demanding set of testing we have seen..."

Kinematics announced today that Kinematics Manufacturing Incorporated (KMI) has become the first slew gear supplier to complete rigorous design verification testing in accordance with NEXTrackers stringent component lifetime reliability requirements. This achievement demonstrates that KMI is providing the most bankable and lowest risk actuation components in the industry.

NEXTracker is the global leader in solar tracking and works closely with its suppliers to maximize quality while continually innovating, said Mark Henderson, CEO of Kinematics. The test protocol developed by NEXTracker was by far the most rigorous, comprehensive, and demanding set of testing we have seen to evaluate every conceivable aspect of quality and long-term durability for tracker gears. We were very pleased that our current and prior generation of drive passed this test protocol, and customers should have comfort that these gears will be providing very long services lives for this important solar tracking application.

Testing was performed at KMIs Validation Lab (KVL), the worlds largest and most comprehensive slew drive test facility, with audit and review by senior NEXTracker engineers. KMI developed, and invested in, specialized facilities and equipment for the tests required by NEXTracker. The NEXTracker test protocol focuses on durability, ultimate and dynamic (wind load) strength and environmental survivability.

NEXTracker remains committed to producing the best performing trackers in the industry, said Alex Au, Chief Technology Officer of NEXTracker. By partnering with world class component manufacturers like KMI, we continue to uphold our legacy of delivering innovative trackers with high performance and availability.

KMI also announced it has delivered hundreds of thousands of gear drives to NEXTrackers projects worldwide since supplying drives to NEXTracker for their earliest prototypes.

About Kinematics

Kinematics is the leading innovator and volume manufacturer of integrated worm- and slew-gear drives globally. KMI sells to markets including tracking (PV and satellite), lifting devices (cranes, man-lifts, positioners) and specialized vehicle steering and actuation. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the Company sells directly to OEMs in North and South America, Europe, Australia and throughout Asia. For more information, visit: kinematicsmfg.com

About NEXTracker

NEXTracker, a Flex company, advances the power plant of the future with solar tracker and energy storage innovations to increase performance and reduce costs for power plants of all sizes. As the #1 tracker supplier worldwide with over 9 GW delivered, NEXTracker is globally recognized for delivering the most advanced photovoltaic solutions for hundreds of projects across five continents. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Company has offices in China, India, Spain, Mexico, South America, and Australia. For more information, visit: NEXTracker.com and follow the Company on Twitter @NEXTracker.

Media contact:

mhenderson(at)kinematicsmfg(dot)com
Healthcare staffing firms are joining the National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO) this week in recognizing locum tenens providers for the first-ever National Locum Tenens Week.

This is an opportunity for our industry to show our appreciation for locum tenens physicians and the difference they make in meeting the needs for healthcare across every community, says Stacey Stanley, NALTO President.

The locum tenens (Latin for to hold the place of) industry now exceeds $2.5 billion in annual revenue. More than six percent of doctors currently provide temporary coverage at hospitals, clinics, private practices, and other types of medical facilities throughout the United States.

Locum tenens providers play a prominent role in combatting the physician shortage, delivering care to underserved populations, and helping healthcare facilities meet their staffing needs in order to maximize revenue.

Last month NALTO released a digital toolkit of official marketing assets for healthcare staffing firms to use in showing their support for the promotion. National Locum Tenens Week will occur annually the second week in August.

Mike Gianas, Marketing Committee

National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO)

About NALTO: The National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO) is the official governing body of locum tenens staffing whose purpose is to provide industry standards, ethical guidelines, continuing education and a collective forum focused on meeting the needs for care at medical facilities nationwide.
Certrec Corporation, a leading licensing and regulatory compliance provider for NRC and NERC compliance, announced today it has successfully completed a Type 2 SOC 2 examination.

SOC 2 reports are attestation reports that opine on controls at a service organization relevant to the security, availability, or processing integrity of a system (security, availability, and/or processing integrity principles) or the confidentiality or privacy of the information processed for the user entities (confidentiality or privacy principles). Of the five Trust Services principles, Certrec was examined against the following principles for the review period of July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017:

Security - The system is protected against unauthorized access, use, or modification.

Availability - The system is available for operation and use as committed or agreed.

Confidentiality - Information designated as confidential is protected as committed or agreed.

By engaging an independent CPA to examine and report on a service organizations controls, service organizations can respond to meet the needs of their user entities and obtain an objective evaluation of the effectiveness of controls that address operations and compliance.

We take threats to the availability, security, and confidentiality of our clients information seriously, says Ted Enos, President of Certrec. We lead our Industries in Data Protection and Security by investing in third party examinations and certifications of our compliance to the most stringent standards and controls, says Enos.

Cyber security threats are becoming more prevalent in the industries we support. Our organization is committed to maintaining or exceeding our current levels of service and thus performing the Type 2 SOC 2 examination each year in the future.

Our clients are assured that our web-based tools, information storage solutions, and physical security are protected by comprehensive information security controls, risk management practices, and the prevention of IT architecture security risks, says Enos.

CERTREC

Founded in 1988, Certrec is an engineering and technology based organization providing regulatory support services in the electric power industry. With over 1,000 cumulative years of direct industry experience (including nuclear, fossil, and renewables), Certrec has developed exceptional capabilities to support regulatory activities emanating from regulatory entities such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), North American Electric Reliability Corporation and Regional Entities (NERC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other regulatory agencies. Certrec's Office of Licensing and Compliance (OLC), Office of Assessment and Recovery (OAR), Office of NERC Compliance (ONC), and Office of New Plant (ONP) services are used by utilities and entities across the United States to help manage the regulatory process to their advantage.

Certrec offers support from highly skilled and experienced industry professionals including degrees in a variety of engineering disciplines (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, and Nuclear). Additionally, Certrec's staff has multiple degreed personnel in physics, communications, a variety of MBAs, and information technology. This highly skilled team of personnel has direct working experience in all regulatory areas of licensing, compliance, and engineering including nuclear, fossil, and renewable generation and transmission.

For over 25 years, Certrec has been utilizing its hundreds of years of industry experience to help clients develop and manage solutions to complex regulatory issues. Combining this direct industry experience with Certrec's Information Technology assets has led to development of technology-based solutions and tools directly targeted to the electric power industry and specifically focused on helping clients manage regulatory issues.
TOWN OF PARIS  The three Illinois men assassinated in a triple homicide Sunday night at Great Lakes Dragaway were all members of a gang, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said in a Monday afternoon press conference.

The three victims were identified as David L. Watson, 30, of Oswego; Khalid R. Howard, 30, of Aurora; and Derek K. Edwards, 26, of North Aurora. They were shot at approximately 7 p.m. Sunday evening.

While it is not confirmed if the killings were gang related, evidence available thus far strongly indicates that it was, Beth said.

The fact that all three belonged to a gang, Beth explained, and they all seem to be quite well-known by gang officers in other locations where they come from leads me to believe this was gang related.

According to Beth, the shooter approached the three victims while they were going up to a food vendor and shot them at point-blank range. Edwards and Howard died on the scene, and Watson died while being transported to the hospital.

The suspect was believed to be a black man in his mid-20s wearing either a black hoodie or white t-shirt, with hair shaved on the sides of his head and grown out at the top. He was reportedly seen fleeing on foot through a crowd and may have left the Dragaway in a black vehicle, Beth said.

Family members of the victims were not cooperative at all with the entire investigation, Beth said.

The scene was processed until 4 a.m. on Monday. It took hours to clear the scene of the thousands of civilians who were attending the Larrys Funfest event, Beth said. He was unsure why the gunman chose Great Lakes Dragaway for the shooting.

I dont know if this is retaliation, I dont know if this is a family trouble, I really dont know, Beth said. The only thing Im positive of is the three people that are dead were involved with a gang in Illinois.

The shooting is under investigation by Kenosha, Milwaukee, Chicago and Aurora authorities in addition to the FBI, Beth confirmed.
HERS Breast Cancer Foundation today announced that registration and fundraising have kicked off for their annual 5k Walk, 5k/10k Run and Community Expo on Saturday, September 30 at the Quarry Lakes Regional Park in Fremont, California. This is the organizations biggest fundraiser of the year; proceeds will benefit services for Bay Area breast cancer survivors. This event, now in its 18th year, brings together breast cancer patients and survivors from all over the Bay Area, along with their families and supporters, to celebrate life and raise funds for services that help those healing from breast cancer treatment. Runners of all ages and skill levels enjoy the gorgeous 5K and 10K racecourses.

On the event website at http://hersbreastcancerfoundation.org/walk-run/, walkers and runners will find all the information they need for registering and participating. Donors, sponsors, and expo exhibitors can find event details and contact information as well. This website also helps participants set up their personalized online fundraising page through the Crowdrise site. Many walkers and runners form teams and wear fun costumes or special group outfits to show their love and support.

HERS Breast Cancer Foundation is again partnering with the East Bay Community Foundation. EBCF will be matching online donations up to $15,000. HBCFs enthusiastic participants and their supporters helped exceed this goal last year. This years event sponsors include Fremont Bank Foundation, Beverly Hagan CPA, Washington Hospital Healthcare System, UCSF, Carol Dutra-Vernaci EA, Stanford Health Care-ValleyCare, Sutter Health Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and many more generous Bay Area organizations. A complete list is available on the event website.

On Saturday, September 30 at Fremonts Quarry Lakes, registration and check-in will open at 7:00 a.m. The opening ceremony at 8:00 a.m. is a special time to join together in celebrating survivors and those who have passed on. After this inspirational moment, participants take to the course trails at 9:00 a.m. to walk, run or race for this great cause; 10K runners start first. Following the race, participants will enjoy live music, nonprofit and vendor exhibits at the Community Expo, and a BBQ lunch hosted by Dutra Enterprises. Premier Subaru of Fremont is sponsoring the parking at Quarry Lakes.

Heather Holmes, KTVU newscaster, will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the days events. On Your Mark Events, a professional race event management company, will post race results online within minutes of completion. Awards will be given to the top three male and female runners in each age group for each event (5K and 10K). Every participant (walkers and runners) will receive a medal for completing the course as well as a T-shirt at check-in.

The 18th Annual Walk/Run fundraiser supports the HERS Breast Cancer Foundations mission: supporting women healing from breast cancer by providing post-surgical garments, wigs, and fitting services regardless of financial status. All proceeds from the event will be used for HBCF programs and services. Those interested in sponsoring, donating, participating, or volunteering will find detailed information online (and photo albums from past events) on the Walk/Run website: http://hersbreastcancerfoundation.org/walk-run/.

About HERS Breast Cancer Foundation (HBCF)

HERS Breast Cancer Foundation believes in restoring beauty and dignity to breast cancer survivors at an extremely vulnerable time of their lives. Every day, we bring Hope, Empowerment, Renewal and Support, because every woman deserves to look and feel whole. We support all women healing from breast cancer by providing post-surgical products and services regardless of financial status. HBCF is the only nonprofit organization in the Bay Area that provides appropriate products (such as bras, prostheses, lymphedema garments, and wigs) for breast cancer survivors in a safe, comfortable, and understanding environment.

HBCFs services for breast cancer survivors are provided at our program stores at Washington Hospital in Fremont and Valley Care Health Library in Pleasanton. For more information on services, locations and hours, see:

http://hersbreastcancerfoundation.org/hers-breast-cancer-foundation-program-stores/.
Bass River Marina of Dennis, MA, is proud to be the official stocking dealer of New England for Blackfin Boats, an iconic brand and legendary name.

Built on the motto of a tradition of toughness, the brand has a storied history in New England but had been out of the market in recent years. Robert Bratton, general manager of Bass River Marina, noted how thrilled he is that his company is the first Northeast dealership selling the brand designed by fishermen, but built for life.

Bass River Marina is very excited about this partnership, said Bratton. The boat line continues with its legendary performance, durability and fishability and is now enhanced with the latest boat building technology. This high-quality boat line certainly fits the marinas model of delivering a quality product at a fair price. Stand-by...this is going to be huge.

Blackfin, a classic name in fishing boats, is now part of a $100 million company with more than 30 years experience in boat building. These all new yacht-grade fishing boats are built in a state-of-the-art facility in Florida by a team of craftsmen and engineers. The line features Advanced Carbon Fiber Technology, solid composite running surfaces, Core Rigid Technology and more.

For more information, visit http://bassrivermarina.com/

or http://www.blackfinboats.com/
Jude Gibbs new book Gifts from the Ashes ($29.99, paperback, 9781498496728; $9.99, eBook, 9781498496735) testifies to the truth that God is a God of redemption, and that He is very much alive and active in our daily lives and circumstances. Although this book centers on the grief journey the author has travelled after the loss of her beloved son, it also encompasses the grief she has had to embrace resulting from much abuse, rape, barrenness, and pregnancy loss.

Gibbs writes, It is my Hope that by sharing my testimony of Gods humbling redemption, along with what He has revealed to me along the way, it will enable the reader to embrace the joy that is set before them which Jesus Himself embraced. It is my desire that God be glorified in all things.

Jude Gibbs had once been a Pastor's wife. For nearly a decade, she worked as a counselor for victims of abuse, rape, and incest. She was a board member of a Rape Crisis Center in a major city for three years. In addition, Jude has been a victim herself, and the mother of a victim. She has personally had four pregnancy losses and has had to bury her 20 year old son. She has also been an ordained minister since 2/12/06. Judes experience is both personal and professional. Readers can view her work at: https://wordpress.com/posts/bereavedparentsblog.wordpress.com and https://themighty.com/author/jude-gibbs/.

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 12,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order Gifts from the Ashes through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. The book is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

Media Contact: Jude Gibbs

Email: judegibbs53(at)gmail.com

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Christiangrief/
Capital Construction Software for Owners We are excited to be selected to help Collin College manage their capital construction projects and provide Projectmates to make the handling of the $600M bond easier. Projectmates is dedicated to creating an intuitive workflow

After Collin County voters approved a $600 million bond referendum to facilitate the college's master plan, Collin College chose Projectmates Construction Program Management Software to manage its "2020 Vision Master Plan." AECOM was also selected to manage the bond program. The colleges master plan will provide more programs and facilities to accommodate the countys projected population growth in the next two decades.

AECOM wanted to be partnered with a software vendor that could get them up and running quickly but still be flexible enough to modify as they hire their design professionals and CMARs. Projectmates has an average implementation time of 2-4 months.

We are excited to be selected to help Collin College manage their capital construction projects and provide Projectmates to make the handling of the $600M bond easier. Projectmates is dedicated to creating intuitive workflows that make it easier for everyone to communicate transparently and know instantly where the project is for each phase. Moreover, we are especially excited to work with a close neighbor in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Stated Hemant Bhave, AIA, Vice President for Systemates.

Collin College will be utilizing Projectmates for its powerful capital improvement project software capabilities. With capital improvement project software (CIP), Collin College and AECOM will be able to strategize and track their capital projects over multiple years and through all four phases. Utilizing the intuitive design and workflows Projectmates prides itself on, CIP will make a typically complex process for reporting magnitudes simpler with a graphical report of projects, costs, and expenditures.

Several new facilities being built include a new campus in Wylie, a technical center in Allen, educational centers in both Celine and Farmersville, and an IT center at the Preston Ridge Frisco campus. Projectmates will be utilized for the $600M bond management and capital construction project management throughout phases I-IV.

About Collin College

Collin College, formerly known as the Collin County Community College District, CCCCD, or CCCC, is a community college district which serves the Collin and Rockwall counties, located north and northeast of Dallas, Texas. Since offering its first classes at area high schools in 1985, Collin College has expanded to serve about 53,000 credit and continuing education students each year. The only public college in the county, the college offers more than 100 degrees and certificates in a wide range of disciplines.

About Projectmates

Today, Systemates has an expansive client base  from traditional construction companies to Real Estate Trusts, from Healthcare facilities to modern Educational Institutes and from Public Sector groups to leading Retail companies. Projectmates' collaborative platform dramatically improves project execution, cuts costs and delays, increases accountability, and reduces risks.

With its cutting edge technology, Projectmates creates one seamless platform for managing the complete lifecycle of construction from planning, bidding, and building to maintaining the facilities. Over 100,000 projects from organizations such as Retailers, Real Estate developers, Educational and Government agencies rely on Projectmates to manage billions of dollars in capital construction programs. Projectmates has been trusted by construction owners for over 20 years and is SOC 2 TYPE II certified.
Fiona Davis and Jennifer D. Port (left to right)

Attorney Jennifer D. Port, of Ivey, Barnum & OMara, LLC, has been acknowledged as a Research Aide for her role in Fiona Davis newest novel The Address. The novel follows the lives of two women living 100 years apart at The Dakota in New York City, and their involvement in the life and death of the man who built it, Theodore Camden. Ms. Port offered her expertise in estate planning and descent to Ms. Davis to ensure the accuracy of legal concepts utilized throughout the novel which were critical to the resolution of the storyline.

About Jennifer D. Port

Ms. Port practiced law in New York City for 14 years before she joined Ivey, Barnum & O'Mara in 1995. Her areas of practice include estate and tax planning, trust and estate administration, estate and trust litigation and tax exempt organizations. She serves as an officer and a director of many charitable foundations and manages their day to day administration. Ms. Port is a past member of the Board of the YWCA of Greenwich and was the Vice Chair of its Governance Committee. In addition, she is Counsel to and a Director of the Greenwich Scholarship Association and has served as a Trustee and Director of The Jewish Guild for the Blind and as Director for J.G.B. Health Care Facilities, Inc. and Transportation Association of Greenwich. Ms. Port was a recipient of the 2012 Brava Award from the YWCA of Greenwich which acknowledges women for their professional and charitable achievements.

About Ivey, Barnum & OMara, LLC

Ivey, Barnum & OMara, LLC is a general practice firm which was established in Greenwich, CT in 1950. It is the largest Greenwich-based law firm, with additional offices in New Canaan, CT and New York City. The firm has more than thirty attorneys who handle a wide range of legal matters in areas such as Trusts & Estate Planning, Residential and Commercial Real Estate, Corporate, Employment, Litigation and Personal Injury.

Visit our websites at http://www.ibolaw.com and http://www.ibopersonalinjurylawyers.com.
Summit County Courthouse The first rule in jury selection is not to rely on stereotypes. While stereotypes can provide a good starting point, the potential juror needs to be questioned as to his or her particular beliefs and biases.

Ohio jury selection can be a daunting task. Approximately 35 people who live within the jurisdiction of that court walk into a courtroom. In a short time, an attorney must determine which potential jurors would be fair or favorable to his or her client's case.

The blog written by Attorney Daniel Gigiano discusses how to pick a better jury. The first rule in jury selection is not to rely on stereotypes. While stereotypes can provide a good starting point, the potential juror needs to be questioned as to his or her particular beliefs and biases. Stereotypes just do not work, as they are merely assumptions. A certain experience may shape one person, while being insignificant to another. One's occupation may not tell the whole story, either. One person's beliefs may have driven him or her to a job where they help people, and that they found that they absolutely adore helping people. Another person may have reached the conclusion that they really do not like the people they have been helping in their chosen profession. It is not difficult to see how those two different outlooks on the same profession can lead to very different viewpoints.

The second rule is to get right at what drives that person. Get right at the persons experiences and beliefs. Most of the time, an attorney only gets a few questions per juror to determine this. This is usually divided into logical and emotional beliefs. Potential jurors will not only apply such logic to the facts of a case, but will also be driven by their emotions.

The third rule is ask jury questions that hit on values related to the case, without describing the case they will be hearing. The judge may not allow questions that are too similar to the facts of the case. Sometimes, an attorney can elicit feelings about a particular subject area or a piece of the case. The key is to try to hit the themes of the case or certain emotionally charged pieces of the case.

The Author: Attorney Daniel Gigiano.

Attorney Daniel Gigiano was admitted to the practice of law in Illinois in 1993. He immediately began practicing as an assistant prosecutor working in a courtroom that focused on major traffic cases, such as DUI and driving under suspension, spending over one year focusing on the many issues in these cases. Attorney Daniel Gigiano then spent the next five years of his government practice working on misdemeanors, felonies, grand jury and preliminary hearings, juvenile delinquency cases, and abuse and neglect cases. In 1999, he was admitted to practice in Ohio. In 2000, he took his experience to a private practice in Wadsworth, Ohio. Attorney Daniel Gigiano has tried over forty criminal and civil jury trials to verdicts.
Sandra Pansini Souza MLO # 1625542 joins New Fed Mortgage to help foster multi-cultural mortgage lending opportunities in Massachusetts.

Sandro has always possessed a passion for helping people to increase positive experiences amongst his sphere of influence in the community, of friends and family. Always a self learner, he felt the need to assist others particularly of Portuguese speaking heritage in attaining mortgage financing, the American Dream of home ownership. Sandro speaks a variety of languages including Portuguese, Spanish and English which has helped him to be an effective communicator in all the languages he speaks.

Sandro came to the United States to go to school over 20 years ago in Kentucky where he went to both Campbellsville University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the founder of the Just Fellowship Foundation, a non-profit to advance media exposure to other non-profit organizations and also serves as a Minister of Christian Education at the First Brazilian Baptist Church of Greater Boston. Sandro is a devoted family man to his wife Luciana and his beloved son David as well to his community church in Peabody, Massachusetts.

His curiosity over the years to learn new endeavors led him to mortgage lending and commitment to delivering a positive mortgage experience in the Portuguese community. President and CEO Brian DAmico commented, We are proud to enhance our presence in the community with Sandro as part of our team and are looking forward to a successful partnership.

NewFed Mortgage, locally based in Massachusetts has specialized in residential retail mortgage lending since 2001. Licensed in seven states, NewFed offers a multitude of mortgage programs, including Conventional, FHA, VA, Mass Housing, and USDA along with access to various portfolio products.

To contact Sandro Pansini Souza he can be reached at spansini(at)newfed.com or at 857-615-0836 or at the New Fed Mortgage website http://www.newfed.com
Over 30 countries were represented this year at the annual World Yoyo Contest this past weekend in Iceland on August 10-12, 2017. San Francisco area native Tessa Piccillo, competing in the womens division, brought home the sole US win. Iceland has been pretty awesome so far, the crowd was really excited. Ive been practicing for months, the most I've ever practiced for a contest... 2 hours, I think, every day.

Tessa is well known and respected in the yoyo community. She is sponsored by Canadian yoyo company, CLYW, and she has taught several of her unique tricks on the yoyo tutorial website YoYoTricks.com. It was really difficult to make the tutorials, but theyre super important to the community, to keep the kids learning.

Watch all the World Yoyo Contest winners here.

Modern yoyoing has several divisions of competition, including two dual-handed divisions, and one style where the yoyo comes off the string. Winners are judged by a panel of veteran players who rate them according to nine criteria, ranging from technical execution to showmanship. A champion must know how to move both the yoyo and the audience to win. While people have been swinging yoyos for thousands of years, several revolutions in yoyo play and design have turned this national pastime into a bonafide sport.

About YoYoTricks.com

YoYoTricks.com is a gold sponsor of the 2017 World Yoyo Contest in Iceland. They have also worked extensively with many professional yoyo players, including Tessa Piccillo, to create tutorial videos to teach their unique tricks to the next generation of yoyo players.

Contact

To learn more about Tessa Piccillo, the World Yoyo Contest, or YoYoTricks.com please contact:

Adam Bottiglia

(248) 935-7203

adam(at)yotricks.com
John Clark Clark's considerable expertise and years of industry experience bring new depth and breadth to Alera Group resources and capabilities. As we continue to grow and expand, we look forward to welcoming more talented professionals like John to our team.

Alera Group, a national employee benefits, property/casualty, risk management and wealth management firm, appointed John Clark as the national Employee Benefits Practice Leader.

Clarks responsibilities will include directing the organizations employee benefits practice. He will leverage Alera Groups resources by coordinating employee benefits services and support, as well as identifying additional capabilities with Alera Group firms.

Were excited to welcome John to Alera Group, said Alan Levitz, CEO of Alera Group. His considerable expertise and years of industry experience bring new depth and breadth to Alera Group resources and capabilities. As we continue to grow and expand, we look forward to welcoming more talented professionals like John to our team.

Formerly the Senior Vice President and Benefits Practice Leader for Assurex Global, Clark has gained extensive agency and carrier experience through working with some of the most prominent independent insurance agents and brokers in the world.

Im excited to leverage the employee benefit resources of Alera Group across each individual firm, said John Clark. Our continued development of a wealth of employee benefit resources will allow us to provide unparalleled services and support to each of our firms and, as a result, our clients.

This step furthers Alera Groups goal to continue growing since its formation in December 2016. For more information about partnering with Alera Group, visit Partnership Opportunities at http://www.aleragroup.com.

About Alera Group

Based in Deerfield, IL, Alera Groups over 750 employees serve more than 20,000 clients nationally in employee benefits, property and casualty, risk management and wealth management. Alera Group was created by merging 24 high-performing, entrepreneurial firms across the U.S. It is the 14thlargest independent insurance agency and the 7th largest independent employee benefits firm in the country. For more information, visit http://www.aleragroup.com or follow Alera Group on Twitter: @AleraGroupUS
RACINE  The grandmother of the 3-year-old Racine boy shot to death last month is pleading with the county to return his two young brothers to her after removing them from her home last week.

Racine resident Lisa Thomas, 53, who is on disability, said shes trying to pull the family together in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

The county should be offering to help me, not treat me like a criminal, Thomas said.

Child Protective Services placed 2-year-old Saonee Pitt in her care on July 12 when his brother JereMiah Pitt was found dead with a bullet wound to the chest in a duplex in the 1800 block of Howe Street.

Their father, 30-year-old Jeffrey L. Pitt Jr., is accused of taking shots of alcohol before falling asleep with Saonee and JereMiah with a loaded gun in his waistband. Sometime overnight, police suspect the 3-year-old shot himself.

Pitt is charged with first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety and possession of a firearm. Pitts brother-in-law, Laquan L. Russell, 27, was also charged in the incident. He is facing charges of resisting/obstructing an officer and harboring or aiding a felon. Thomas said shes raised 12 children of her own so it was natural for Child Protective Service to place the toddler in her care.

Kerry Milkie, manager of the Youth and Family Division of the countys Human Services Department, said she is unable to discuss case specifics due to confidentiality laws.

Under Wisconsin State Statutes and with the guidance of the States Access and Initial Assessment Standards, children are removed from their homes if the conditions are unsafe and/or there is not a protective parent who can provide care and the department is unable to develop a protective plan with the family to ensure safety.

Milkie said that according to policy, if a parent or caregiver is not around and unavailable it could be considered neglect. Thomas said rather it is CPS who is neglectful.

Right now its neglect on the part of CPS. If you cant reach someone on the phone the next step is to pay them a visit, Thomas said. I did not get a warning or a final warning. They showed up and I was playing with the kids. They said we tried to call you numerous times and got no reply. I showed them my phone and they were not on there (the call log).

From July 12 to when they were taken on Aug. 4, Thomas said she only had three interactions with CPS; when they originally placed the toddler, to inquiry about his mother Lakia Russell and when they came with Racine Police officers to take the child back.

Why did they need to have police officers here? They were trying to intimidate me, Thomas said.

According to Racine Police Sgt. Adam Malacara, officers dont always accompany CPS when removing children from a home.

We respond when requested by CPS. They usually request us if they feel there may be a problem so we go to there to perform our main function, keep the peace, Malacara said.

Second child taken

Thomas said CPS informed her that they were not only taking the toddler, but also Russells other son, 4-year-old Ayden Oliver, who is no relation to Jeff Pitt.

Ive had him since February and hes not a part of the situation ... CPS told me they were taking Ayden because hes at risk of being a fatality. Thats why they said they snatched him, Thomas said.

CPS ignored her teenage children at the home at the time of the interaction including Thomass 12-year-old granddaughter from Madison who was staying for the summer.

I think its deceitful, Thomas said. They should be trying to keep these children with their families.

Thomas said the frivolous seizure of her grandchildren is one reason why the county is facing a foster parent crisis.

How can they say they need foster parents when they do this to me so quickly without warning? Thomas said.

According to county data, 366 children are currently placed in licensed foster homes. That number is up from last month when they averaged 259 children daily in the foster care system.

About 30 percent of our current placements are out of county, Milkie said.

Thomas said that her two grandchildren are also out of county and are now an hour away living with two different families.

Mothers return

Lakia Russell, 23, is now living in Racine, but believes her history of domestic violence with the father may have lead CPS to consider her an unfit mother, she said.

The Pitt family is accusing me of doing drugs but the (authorities) made me take a drug test and it was negative, Russell said.

In June, Russell was found guilty of disorderly conduct in Racine County Circuit Court but she said shes changing her life to focus on her children.

Russell said she misses her boys and is now enrolled in a GED program, is looking for a job and takes a parenting class to prepare to get her children back someday.

Moving forward

On Thursday, Thomas visited JereMiahs unmarked grave at Graceland Cemetery in Racine where she found a Paw Patrol figure in the grass left over from his cartoon-themed funeral.

Hes buried a couple of rows from my father. Hes watching over him now, Thomas said. The last time I saw JereMiah he said good-bye and gave me a kiss. The little boy never gives me kisses. He held me tight and kissed me right here on the cheek. The next time I saw him they were taking his body away.

Thomas hopes an attorney might take up a potential lawsuit against CPS so she can pull her family back together.

Ive grown all my kids up and I was willing to take on two more little ones, Thomas said. I havent asked the community for help. Im determined to do it on my own.
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But one solution to a labour shortage could be "neglected workforces," such as ex-offenders and the elderly.

According to George Koureas, who specialises in immigration law at Fragomen law firm, companies in the UK are "paralysed by uncertainty" about what post-Brexit agreements may look like, and are not yet planning for the changes, even if they have high numbers of foreign workers.

Businesses should start thinking now about how their workforces will be affected, since "in the blink of an eye we'll be another four months down the line." One thing employers could do, he says, is look at more "neglected workforces," like ex-offenders, the elderly and unqualified school-leavers.

Lower skilled and lower paid jobs in particular are already starting to feel an immigration pinch, and the shortage of NHS nurses has been well reported. In the immediate months after Brexit, says Koureas, sectors like logistics and hospitality will be the ones that "really suffer," and may struggle to source enough low-paid workers during peak times especially.

Employing ex-cons

Although employers often squirm at the thought of hiring ex-offenders, they cannot legally turn someone down for a job if a conviction is spent  which happens after a set rehabilitation period  unless the job requires a criminal record check, and the check shows them to be unsuitable.

According to charity Unlock, over 10 million people in the UK have a criminal record. In 2016, 1.24 million offenders were sentenced across all courts, but more than half (54%) of these sentences were for motoring offences, and 74% of all sentences were fines.

Despite this, a YouGov poll of 1,849 companies found that half would not consider employing offenders or ex-offenders, and a further 12% were unsure. Only 7% said they currently employed either, although only 11% said they had received such applications and a further third were unsure.

Here's how that looked:

The most common worry about employing offenders or ex-offenders was that they may be unreliable, followed by the concern that such a hiring policy could damage the public image of the business.

In a smaller survey of 1,291 employers, 58% said they thought very few comparable companies employed people from disadvantaged groups (including ex-offenders).

Nevertheless, a small number of companies, such as Virgin Trains, are actively running programmes to hire ex-offenders, and the government last year removed the criminal record disclosure section on initial job applications for most civil service jobs.

The cost of not hiring - money and manpower

In a letter to the Financial Times in 2011, Founder of the Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson said prisons held "a large number of potential superstars who get ignored by employers because of their criminal record."

In 2012, 28% of all Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants, and 20% of all Income Support claimants were individuals with cautions or convictions (the total spend for the year across both benefits types was 11.83 billion). This group made up 22% of all out-of-work benefits claimants, although only 4% had been in prison.

In 2016, a Work and Pensions Committee report found that only about 26.5% of prisoners enter employment upon release, and that the average prison leaver spent "much longer on benefits than the average claimant of JSA." However, of the nearly 68,000 individuals who entered prison in 2016, 71% had been convicted of a non-violent crime.

Here's the chart of claimants:

"Currently, there is no clear strategy for how different agencies, in different prisons, should work together to achieve the common goal of getting ex offenders into work," the report said. "Employers need to be encouraged to change their recruitment practices, and be given the support to do so."

It suggested the government pilot a scheme to reduce national insurance contributions for employers actively employing ex-offenders, and that prisons be required to provide education and training courses.

The elderly could also help plug a labour shortage: earlier this year, PwC released a report saying more should be done to encourage people over the age of 55 to stay in work. It said "harnessing the economic power of older workers," and women in particular, could boost the UK's economy by 80 billion.

According to Koureas, the current conversation about workers and employment is missing more open communication channels between businesses, policy-makers and educators. These channels are needed in order to create a clear roadmap for the future, and for working out where new sources of workers are and how best to train them.
Buhari spoke while receiving his media team to his residence in London. The team , led by Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed also included Femi Adesina,special advisor on media and publicity,Mallam Garba Shehu,senior special assistant on media and publicity and Lauretta Onochie.

.

The latest photos of Buhari holding a large get well soon card,shows the former military strong man looking better and should alleviate some pressure,with several protests,some of which have turned violent in Lagos and Abuja asking him to return home or resign.

Buhari in the statement also thanked African countries that had prayed for him during his ailment.
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The survey labeled Surface devices as "significantly less reliable" than other laptops, which prompted Microsoft to respond to the claims and back up the supposed reliability of Surface devices (Business Insider's own Matt Weinberger, a long time Surface user, chimed in as well).

"We stand behind Surface" is the title of the blogpost issued by Panos Panay, Microsoft's vice president of devices. Consumer Reports' findings suggested that over 25% of Surface devices' owners encountered problems within 24 months of ownership, while the Redmond company claimed that numbers "are significantly lower than 25%."

The internal memo Thurrott got hold of, however, may paint a clearer picture. The leaked chart that accompanies the memo mentions a 17% return rate for the Surface Book around the launch period, which dropped in the following weeks, but remained over 10% for six months.

The Surface Pro 4, too, launched with a close to 16% return rate, but that one got below 10% in about a month. Both devices were in fact among the buggiest and less reliable Microsoft put on the market, and it took the company months before finally getting them fixed for good.

Thurrott's report says that, some time last year, CEO Satya Nadella met with executives at Lenovo. They reportedly remained "confused" about Nadella's claims of problems with the Intel Skylake chips (the ones that power the two Surface devices in question).

"No one was having any issues," Thurrott says Nadella was told. This prompted Microsoft to look more closely at its devices, whose issues primarily generated because of the custom software and drivers the company used on the products rather than Intel's chips.

Panay and his team "worked tirelessly" to make sure that all bugs were ironed out, something that was seemingly not reflected in Consumer Reports' essay. "These improvements were unfortunately not reflected in the results of this [Consumer Reports] survey," Panay wrote in the memo.

"We take quality seriously, conducting rigorous reliability testing during development to forecast failure and return rates, which are then continually viewed against [real world data] post-launch," the VP wrote. "We also regularly review other metrics to understand the experience we are providing to our customers and our findings show our products are in a much healthier place than noted by Consumer Reports."

Microsoft sent over the following statement on the story when contacted by Business Insider:
The company is courting three sets of investors who want new or larger stakes by buying shares from existing investors, according to The New York Times.

That might look like a boon, given the company looks like a bonfire right now, but all the offers would involve Uber selling a large amount of shares for the same or less than its current $68.5 billion (53 billion) value for the first time.

Uber's board has voted to move forward with two of the three proposals so far.

The first is from an investor coalition led by Dragoneer Investment Group, whose portfolio includes Spotify. General Atlantic, which has invested in Airbnb and Snapchat, is also part of the group. The group has offered to buy shares from existing investors at a discount.

Uber is also planning to take the next step on an investment from Japanese internet giant SoftBank, which has long been rumoured to be interested in the firm. SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son said in a recent earnings call that the firm was talking both to Uber and its direct rival Lyft.

According to the report, SoftBank also wants discounted shares. But it would inject a small amount of money into Uber at its current valuation, so the company can save face.

Uber is still thinking about a third offer, from a group led by existing investor Shervin Pishevar. He's offered to buy shares at current valuation, and specifically wants to buy out 75% of the shares held by another investor, Benchmark Capital. Benchmark is suing Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick for alleged fraud, and Pishevar's group described the action as "ethically dubious". A share sale would remove Benchmark from Uber's board.
He was speaking at a press conference in Accra to address some concerns on the collapse and subsequent takeover of UT Bank and Capital Bank.

Dr Addison said the rest of the banks in Ghana have a solid capital investment.

READ ALSO: GSE suspends UT Bank from listed entities

We only have two insolvent banks in Ghana which is UT and Capital banks. So this talk about they are not the only banks is really unfounded. These are the only insolvent banks that we have in the system and those are the ones that we have resolved.

His comments follow claims by a Deputy Finance Minister Kwaku Kwarteng that some more banks are facing financial challenges and may also collapse if strategic measures are not taken by management to salvage the situation.

READ ALSO: GCB Bank rebrands UT and Capital banks

Dr Addison at the press conference also said the Central Bank will sanction stakeholders and management who caused the collapse of both banks.
This comes after the Bank of Ghana approved the takeover of Capital Bank and UT Bank by the GCB Bank Ltd.

The Central Bank in a statement said that it has approved the Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd.

READ ALSO: GCB takes over UT Bank and Capital as BoG withdraws licenses

The statement added that the Bank of Ghana has revoked the Licenses of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd. This action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital. The remaining assets and liabilities will be realised and settled respectively through a receivership process to be undertaken by Messers Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The main offices and branches of UT Bank and Capital Bank will be under the control of GCB bank and will be opened at 1 pm today for normal business transactions. Customers of UT Bank and Capital Bank are now customers of GCB bank.

READ ALSO: UT workers locked out

However, some customers of the two banks who fear that they might lose their monies have told Pulse Business Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh that they will withdraw their monies from the banks.

A businessman at the premises of the Cal Bank at Osu said he is withdrawing 10,000 cedis from his account.
Most of them are still carrying their bags and other items. A possible indication that they have not had access to their offices yet.

READ MORE: GCB takes over UT Bank and Capital as BoG withdraws licenses

The staff of the Bank who spoke to Pulse business say they are yet to be briefed by on happenings in the institution.

There is heavy security presence at the bank.

Below is the press release from the BoG

PRESS RELEASE

GCB BANK LTD TAKES OVER UT BANK LTD AND CAPITAL BANK LTD

The Bank of Ghana has approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd.

The Bank of Ghana has revoked the Licences of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd. This action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital.

The remaining assets and liabilities will be realised and settled respectively through a receivership process to be undertaken by Messers Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).The main offices and branches of UT Bank and Capital Bank will be under the control of GCB bank and will be opened at 1pm today for normal business transactions.

Customers of UT Bank and Capital Bank are now customers of GCB bank. All deposit customers will continue to have access to their funds. UT Bank and Capital Bank branches and ATMs will continue to operate as normal as GCB bank branches and ATMs. All staff in the interim will become staff of GCB bank and GCB Bank will negotiate the terms of their contract.

GCB was selected amongst 3 others on the basis of purchase price, cost of funding, branches to be retained, staff to be employed and impact on the acquiring banks capital adequacy ratio.

The Bank of Ghana assures the public that all customers can continue normal banking business at all UT Bank and Capital Bank facilities which are now branches of GCB bank.

The approval by the Bank of Ghana of this transaction is to strengthen Ghanas banking sector, ensure financial stability and protect depositors funds.
Nana Bonsra Afriyie II contends many brilliant students have had their education cut short after Junior High School because they could not pass one or two subjects at the basic level, even though they are excellent at other subjects.

He believes all pupils should be allowed to progress to the Senior High School level where they can study courses of their choice, instead of having to pass over 10 subjects, some of which they have no interest in, before making progress in their education.

The Chief was speaking during a town hall meeting organized by the information ministry on Tuesday, August 08, in the Adansi North District.

Nana Bonsra Afriyie II advised government to complement such a policy with more day Senior High Schools which are easier to manage and have the capacity to admit many students.

READ ALSO: Ghana Registered Nurses Association agrees to reintroduction of quota system

He added, If the constitution states that every child is entitled to free education, then what is the use of the B.E.C.E; thus it should be eliminated.

The call is in line with a similar one by the 2016 flagbearer of the Progressive People's Party, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom who advocates that there should be no exams for pupils until the second cycle level.
Earlier reports suggested that he had used criminal means to defraud the lady to the tune of $13,000 promising the unsuspecting lady with hopes of a union between the two.

Lilian Efya was reported to have admitted several months back that, Toosweet Annan is one of the best players Ive ever met. I was withhimfor a yearand he toldmany lies. He told me he would marry me. He lied to me that he needed $13,500 for his business and that he would later use the money from the business for our wedding. After I sent the money, I later got information that he used the money for the pub of his so-called baby mama.

The actor, on a latest episode of gave his version of events.

He disclosed to host, Zionfelix, that he initially kept mute over the entire issue because he wanted to make his own investigation.

Toosweet Annan revealed that though his own personal investigation he discovered that the telephone number the said Lilian Efya used to call journalists to make the claim belonged to a doctor in the USA which indicates traces of malice to tarnish his image.

He further indicated that he only knew the lady by name Lilian Efya and thus was dumb-founded by the accusation.

The actor then dared any female who felt defrauded to step forward and disclose her story to the public.
Okoro says she had to find other sources of income because the Ghanaian movie industry has ceased to be as lucrative as it was before.

In a recent interview with Peace FM, the Contract actress revealed that her entrepreneurial life is not something she wants the public to know of but she admits the entrepreneurial work has yielded favorable results.

READ ALSO : Samini calls Becca 'witch' on live radio

Yvonne disclosed that she has a transport company, a public relations and events firm called Desamour Company Limited which specializes in providing advertising, public relations, media consulting, event management and real estate development. She also owns a catering service.

READ ALSO : Maame Serwaa actress reportedly dating Starboi Mingle

Addressing rumours regarding the sale of narcotics, the actress vehemently denied any involvement in drug sale.

Okoro also gave a listing of her academic achievements talking about her degree she got from University of Ghana. She also studied press civilization, Drama and Marketing in the Universite De Nantes in France.
The suspect who is said to be a client of the deceased mechanic, Yaw Boadi was on Monday charged with murder at the Abeka District court.

Lawyer for the suspect during the hearing of the case prayed the court to grant their client the opportunity to be given medical care as according to them his health was deteriorating.

The plea, however, was granted by the court.

The shooting occurred following a misunderstanding over a parking space after which deceased was sent to the Greater Accra Regional (Ridge Hospital) Hospital Tuesday afternoon in critical condition.

Eyewitnesses said that the mechanic had asked the car dealer to move his vehicle away from where it was parked to make way for others moving into and out of the warehouse.

READ ALSO: Mechanic shot at Alajo dies

But the suspect got furious and had a heated exchange of words with the mechanic and the other artisans.

In the midst of the misunderstanding, the suspect fired a warning shot before aiming at the mechanic.
The transfer which takes effect from October 1 this year, is contained in a letter dated August 7, 2017, and signed by the General of the GHS, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare.

The affected directors in the reshuffle include Dr. Kofi Issah, who is moving from the Upper East region to Brong Ahafo; Dr. Timothy Letsa, reposted from Brong Ahafo to the Volta region; Dr. Joseph Teye Nuertey, transferred from Volta to the Upper West region and Dr. Winfred Ofosu, reassigned from the Upper West to the Upper East region.

READ ALSO: Woman suspended for breastfeeding at work recalled

The others affected are: Dr. Jacob Mahama, who has been moved from the Northern region to the Western region; Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, the Western Regional Director, now shifted to the Ashanti; Dr. Alexis Nang-Baifubah, Ashanti Regional Health Director, dispatched to Central region and Dr. Samuel Kwashie, the Central Regional health boss, is going to the Northern region.
There was tension in the area on Sunday following reports that the four who were transporting an excavator to a mining site fled and abandoned their equipment upon seeing a team from Operation Vanguard.

READ ALSO: Four dead in galamsey pit

But in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, the Commanding Officer of Operation Vanguard, Colonel William Agyapong said I dont know where the story is coming from.

Only last week there was another story that Operation Vanguard had killed somebody at Juaboso district. If its propaganda it will fail because the good people of Ghana will see through it. I have crosschecked with the patrol team that went to Akukuso yesterday and they had no activity in the town, it is falsehood, it has nothing to do with our operation, he said.

Meanwhile, the police in its preliminary report said their attention was drawn to the death of the four on Sunday morning by one Isaac Annor.

One Yaw with three others was in charge of a low loader vehicle which was carting an excavator machine to extra gold mining concession at Akukuso near Kwabeng. That on reaching a section of the roadthey were reported to have encountered personnel of the operation vanguard taskforce, so the operator and other occupants all abandoned the vehicle with the engine running but found no one onboard and still could not be traced. Police proceeded to the scene of the incident, combed the area and found an abandoned mining pit filled with water. Divers dived into it and retrieved four bodiesall wearing T-shirts and pair of trousers. Police found blood and foam oozing from their mouth and nostrils.
But what has been happening this past week within the rank and file of the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is a cause for great concern.

There has been a war of words between those at the top all the way down to the loyalists within the party.

And it all began when the founder of the party, Jerry John Rawlings opened his mouth again to talk about his predecessors and condemn some of the ills within his own party.

Right after his boom, a former deputy chief of staff, Valerie Sawyerr who was not too pleased released a counter ntomtom or nwansena statement, where he called the former president Rawlings a hypocrite over his continuous attacks on the party and his predecessors.

A former Attorney General, Martin Amidu was not spared in the epistle, as he was reminded that his Achilles heel will always be his downfall.

Well, the citizen vigilante who is always battle-ready for such criticisms did not disappoint and replied the John Mahama loyalist, practically schooling her on how to write such long pieces, and describing hers as having the tone of a drunkard. But even before his rejoinder, a petition emerged calling for disciplinary action against him.

But those calls are neither here nor there. After all, are his actions not in line with the ideals of the NDC, to always speak up on issues without any fear or favour?

Moreover, where is the justification for all the abuses being rained at Rawlings? Is he wrong for talking about some corrupt activities within his own party? He sometimes goes overboard though with some of his comments, but should that be the reason for some party faithful to go as far as abusing the very person whose ideals brought into existence a party which has made some of them who they are now?

Theres now the argument that he is not even the founder of the party. But truth be told, the NDC must ceasefire; they are talking too much. Whether they like it or not, Rawlings is revered by the foot soldiers more than any other person and hence he is needed for rebuilding the party. Besides, the governing New Patriotic Party is watching and would gladly rejoice if things get out of hand within their main rival party.

But the governing NPP must not forget its own internal issues. Some Ghanaians seem to be getting angry day by day with some of its decisions, and the latest was when it emerged that the Senior Minister had enrolled his own children into the public sector while telling everyone else that the sector is full and cannot employ.

For many, this is not acceptable and goes to confirm the belief that politicians are all the same. As a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof Ransford Gyampo puts it: Politicians in Ghana would lie and deceive to get political power and when power is granted by the people, they would use this same power to inflict hardships on the people.

Can one, therefore, say that the government lied to trainee nurses when it was in opposition? Does the NPP governments reintroduction of the quota system a move to enable it to fulfil its promise of restoring the nurses trainee allowance withdrawn by the previous NDC administration?

READ ALSO: Government cuts intake of nurses

The argument that the cut in the intake of nurses is to improve the quality we have does not hold.

The decision is rather going to create a shortage of nurses and the effect of that is obvious. Instead of cutting admission, why cant we scrap the allowance for trainees and bring out a policy that will enable them to access the student loan? What is even wrong with doing away with the bonding and rather training more nurses, where we could export some of them for foreign exchange?

Mr president! Did the trainee nurses vote for allowance or quota system? Its sad that the dreams of some young people are about to be cut short with this development.

And its equally sad when citizens ignore pressing issues but rather spend all their time discussing whether the president, Nana Akufo-Addo was standing on the Ghana flag or not.

Meanwhile, a closer look at the situation shows that the president was standing on a rostrum decorated with a red cloth or woolen carpet on top and the Ghana Flag by the sides.
The opposition party has been bedeviled with lots of controversy following its unexpected loss to the New Patriotic Party in the 2016 elections.

There were accusations and counter accusations among both the grassroots and the top hierarchy of the party as to who should take the blame for the partys defeat.

A high-powered fact finding Kwesi Botway led committee set up by the partys leadership to figure out what could have amounted to the abysmal performance of the NDC, submitted its report blaming among other things, disregard for the elders of the party and disgruntlement of grassroots supporters.

The latest turmoil has been rekindled by Former Deputy Chief of Staff, Valerie Sawyerr in her article published couple of days ago attacking Founder, Former President Rawlings and Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu for constantly criticizing the NDC in public even when it was in power.

Valerie Sawyerrs article and the attendant controversy has renewed debates of whether former President Jerry John Rawlings is the founder of the NDC or not, with some doubting his loyalty and calling for his expulsion from the party.

The disciplinary committee of the party has also reportedly begun looking into a petition it received from two members of the party asking it to sanction Martin Amidu and will submit its report to the party in 30 days.

Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho told Accra-based Joy Fm the leadership will meet over many, many issues. I can say for sure that the focus of the conversation will be post Kwesi Botchwey report, he said.
He said it will be unfair to leave out Rawlings, as many believe the utterances of these two caused the party in the 2016 general elections.

"I think the founder can speak in house, he doesnt have to go on public platform to speak about what it is with the NDC party that worries him. I think that is not in order, if youre a founder youre the father of the party, if youre not happy about something therere channels that you can use and not to go public. I dont think theres anybody with the NDC whos above the laws that govern the party," he said in an interview on Accra-based Kasapa FM.

Some members of the NDC have petitioned the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party to sanction Martin Amidu for his recent statements in the party.

The petitioners, Evans Amankwah, 2016 Parliamentary candidate for Adansi Asokwa in the Ashanti Region and Abigail Elorm Mensah, a 2016 Parliamentary candidate for Fanteakwa South in the Eastern Region in their petitioned dated August 7, 2017 said Mr Amidu has brought the party into disrepute.

They said contrary to Article 46(8) of the partys constitution, Martin Amidu has brought the NDC in to public ridicule as well.

But Victor Smith speaking on the development in the NDC said "Personally, I think it will be difficult that the party leadership will summon Martin Amidu over his utterances that bring the party into disrepute without calling on ex President Rawlings. You cant call one party stalwart and leave the other, that will be really bad. We need to look for a better way of dealing with this situation.
According to a press statement signed by the Communications Director Paa Kow Ackon and copied to Pulse.com.gh, some have misconstrued a statement made by Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom on a programme on August 10 and read a different meaning into it. Dr Nduom in the said programme spoke against the attitude of Ghanaian voters in rejecting "candidates who are into politics for the right reasons, but rather vote for politicians who will lie and promise heaven".

The statement added that Ghanaians get what they vote for and the PPP "abhors the hypocrisy of the many people who vote for others but keep running to him (Dr Nduom) for support and jobs after elections."

It however, stated that the Party has not even opened nominations for the standard bearer position and thus cannot say who will play that role.

Read below the full statement:

A REJOINDER TO FALSEHOOD IN THE MEDIA AGAINST DR PAPA KWESI NDUOM

The attention of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) has been drawn to rumours widely circulating on social media that Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom will not contest the 2020 election.

Strangely, the anonymous people behind the circulation of this fabrication have cited their source from the interview Dr Nduom granted on a GN Media platform on Thursday, 10th August, 2017.

We would like to state categorically that this report is absolutely false.

On the said programme which took place on Thursday, 10th August, 2017, Dr Nduom never stated that he will or will not contest elections again. Rather he bemoaned the usual attitude of Ghanaians in not paying attention to candidates who are into politics for the right reasons, but rather vote for politicians who will lie and promise heaven.

Dr Nduom called on Ghanaians to elect leaders who will represent the Ghanaians' interests, and not their individual interests nor the parochial interests of a political party. He reiterated that our taxes pay the wages of our elected representatives and contribute, in part, to the bank accounts of political parties.

The Progressive People's Party wishes to put on record that Dr Nduom literally challenged the Electoral Commission of Ghana to enforce the Political Parties Law; in order to ensure that we do not reach a point where unethical, even illegal, means are used to achieve ends that benefit the few and disadvantage the many.

From the recent acerbic disclosures at the Electoral Commission, it is obvious we need to have a Commission which is capable of delivering free, fair and trustworthy electoral outcomes for all citizens.

We share the commitment of Dr Nduom to continue educating Ghanaians to vote for competence, truth and justice so that the unwarranted burden of joblessness, which he is forced to carry after every election, particularly from those who do not vote for him, would be reduced.

In addition to failed electoral promises, we abhor, like him, the hypocrisy of the many people who vote for others but keep running to him for support and jobs after elections.

Without doubt, this confirms Dr Nduoms and the Progressive People's Party's belief that Ghanaians get what they vote for; especially when it is an open secret that since 2008, Dr Nduom has always been the best candidate Ghanaians are yet to elect as President.

For the benefit of doubt, the PPP has not yet opened nominations for a flagbearership position. We therefore do not know the names of those who might be interested in that enviable position. However when dates are fixed by the National Committee and the various interests are indicated, we shall communicate same to Ghanaians and about our plans for the 2020 election.

We are calling on all Ghanaians especially sympathizers of Dr Nduom to take no notice of the false statements currently being orchestrated.

Let us pray for the good health and long life for Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom and indeed for all beloved countrymen and women.

AWAKE GHANA!

Signed,

Paa Kow Ackon
Mr. Amidu has been at the receiving end of backlash together with former President Jerry John Rawlings following certain critical comments they both have consistently made against the NDC which in the views of some party members cast doubt on their loyalty to the party.

READ MORE Martin Amidu is on NPP payroll  Koku Anyidoho alleges

The latest controversy for which reason the Council of Elders of the party is expected to meet today for deliberations was fueled by an article written by former deputy Chief of Staff, Dr. Valerie Sawyer attacking Martin Amidu and Mr. Rawlings.

The latest statement released by Mr. Amidu is in response to a claim reportedly made by National Organiser of the NDC, Kofi Adams on Kasapa Fm that Martin Amidu is being remote-controlled by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)."

Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho is also reported to have said that the incessant attacks by Citizen Vigilante is borne out of envy, jealousy and hatred for Former President John Mahama because he was not given another opportunity as running mate of the party.
Not necessarily the most followed accounts on Instagram, these ones have been able to get followers' attention with their makeup techniques/inspiration, creativity and colourful posts that highlight different looks that cater to beauty enthusiasts/bloggers, makeup artists and even the greenhorns.

ALSO READ:5 raved Nigerian owned makeup products of 2017 so far

These brand's pages are owned/managed by makeup artists, by beauty retailers, beauty brands and so on they are raved as ones who share tips that make life easier amongst other bits.

If you are looking to follow makeup brands on Instagram, look out for these ones too.

1. Yangabeauty (@yangabeauty)

Yangabeauty is a Nigerian owned makeup brand who regularly showcases the works of different makeup artists as inspiration and to highlight how her products (Yanga Beauty Browlution and Yanga Beauty Liquid Matte Lipticks) are used by artists.

2. BM Pro (@BMPro)

BM Pro is the go to for subtle glam. Though with vested interest in bridal artistry, BM Pro is the go to page for inspiration and a healthy mix of glam colours, there's something about BM Pro's finished look that's effortless and breathtaking.

3. Iamdodos (@iamdodos)

Iamdodos is one to follow for makeup tips, inspiration and skincare do's. The page shows off picture perfect finished looks, highlights a healthy glow on different looks as well as makeup tutorials and more that keeps followers glued.

4. Bibyonce (@bibyonce)

Bibyonce has been able to garner a following with her unique barbie doll-ish finish and exaggerated tear duct details on her finished look. Her take on 'highlights' come impressive as well for inspirations.

ALSO READ:5 ways to make your fragrance last all day

5. Anita Brows (@anitabrows)

Anita Brows is a celebrity artist who does minimal glow. She does a rich mix of colours in the most subtle way and what she does with highlights is perfection.

6. Jojos Touch (@jojostouch)

Jojos Touch's raved dewy finish is one of the brand's strength. Perfectly airbrushed makeup looks and short videos are shared to keep followers glued to the page.

7. Doranne Beauty (@dorannebeauty)

Doranne Beauty is strictly inspiration for flawless finish and glow. She highlights how to make any look perfect without overdoing it. With Doranne Beauty, the overall look is fresh, soft and sophisticated.

8. Flawless Faces By Jane (@flawlessfacesbyjane)

FlawlessFacesByJane employs subtle tones and understated glam for the looks shared on her page. She 'beats' faces to perfection.

9. Jide St Ola (@jidestola)

Jide St Ola is a brilliant makeup artist and his Instagram page shows just this. With Jide St Ola, any look can be fired up and he does this flawless. The page is one to follow.

10. Mamza Beauty (@mamzabeauty)
The newspaper reported that the Queen has told "her inner circle" that should she still be on the throne at the age of 95, she will ask for a "piece of legislation called the Regency Act to come into force  granting her eldest son full power to reign even while she still lives."

This would effectively be a softer version of abdication, which the Queen has vowed never to do.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the report when contacted by Business Insider, and an inside source cast some doubt on the idea.

However, royal commentator Robert Jobson  who claims to have once been called the "Godfather of Royal Reporting" by the Wall Street Journal  said: "I have spoken to a number of high-ranking courtiers who made it clear that preparations for a transition are moving ahead at pace. They have all confirmed that a Regency with Charles taking the lead is now, at the very least, a real possibility."

Jobson added that a former member of the Royal Household told him: "Out of the profound respect the Queen holds for the institution of monarchy and its stewardship, Her Majesty would want to make sure that she has done everything she can for her country and her people before she hands over. She is dutiful to her core."

The member added: "Her Majesty is mindful of her age and wants to make sure when the time comes, the transition of the Crown is seamless. I understand the Queen has given the matter considerable thought and believes that, if she is still alive at 95, she will seriously consider passing the reign to Charles."

Members of staff responsible for communications at the Palace have been ordered to be "'up to speed' on the 1937 Regency Act, which grants power to the heir apparent 'in the event of the incapacity of the Sovereign through illness, and for the performance of certain of the Royal functions in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign in certain other events,'" according to the Mail.

In order for a Regent to be implemented, a decision has to be made by at least three of the following: The Sovereigns consort (who in this case is Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip); Lord Chancellor David Lidington; the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow; the Lord Chief Justice, the incoming Sir Ian Burnett; and Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton.

Jobson said Clarence House has yet to comment on "Plan Regency."

Jobson's prediction comes despite the fact that the Queen has repeatedly stated that she would not abdicate the throne.

The first instance being on her 21st birthday in 1947, when the then Princess Elizabeth said in a radio broadcast: "I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening, I should like to make that dedication now. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."

Her Coronation Oath on June 2, 1953, reflected the same sentiment.
Kessler had called the press conference for 2 p.m. local time behind the Charlottesville City Hall along with Richard Spencer and other participants of Saturday's rally, but was greeted

Multiple news outlets, protesters, and bystanders caught the moment on video:

"Indict for murder now," one protester can be heard yelling. "He invited these people!"

The protester was likely referring to the scores of white nationalists who arrived to rally in Charlottesville in response to the city's plans to remove a confederate statue honoring Gen. Robert E. Lee.

"Get the f--- out of here," another protester is heard yelling in the background.

Saturday's rally took a deadly turn as white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters, ultimately resulting in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer when apparent white supremacist James Fields rammed his car into a crowd of demonstrators. Two members of the Virginia State Police force were also killed in a helicopter crash outside Charlottesville as they were monitoring the protests.

Protesters quickly turned rowdy during the press conference. As Kessler attempted to leave, one protester appeared to try to punch Kessler before being restrained, according to video footage. Kessler is then seen ducking through bushes and trees in an attempt to safely leave the area, all while being followed by protesters.

At one point, Kessler had to be escorted by a member of law enforcement, who can be heard saying to Kessler, "Come with me, come on," while ushering the man away.

As Kessler was leaving, a protester can be heard shouting, "Her name was Heather, sir," referring to Heyer, the woman who died Saturday. "Her name was Heather, Jason. Her blood is on your hands."

Another protester can be heard saying, "Jason, what do you have to say for yourself? What did you try to tell the president?"
"I have both a vision for how the country can govern itself better, because we've basically gotten to the point now as a federal government where we can't do anything, and I think there is a very high cost associated with doing nothing, which is where we are," Delaney said in an interview with Business Insider this week.

In an era when populist outrage often dictates the discourse in political parties, Delaney is a peculiar politician to become the first Democratic presidential candidate.

He's a self-made banker who proudly touts his bipartisan bona fides, offers full-throated endorsements of market solutions, and has one of the highest ratings from law-enforcement groups.

In the interview, the Maryland congressman laid out his vision for breaking the Washington fever and offered criticism of his party's attempt to reach voters disenchanted with gridlock and posturing.

"The Democratic Party as a whole is in a really bad spot," Delaney said.

"We've basically become a regional party," he added. "And that's really the issue to focus on, and I think making sure people understand what our policies are and our values are consistent with what they care about is much more important."

The three-term Maryland congressman believes that by getting a head start on the competition, he can raise his national profile and win over voters exhausted of the pitched partisan battles dominated by the political fringes.

"I think particularly after Trump, people are going to look at someone who has actually done things with their lives that people want out of their leadership," he said. "I went into Congress, and I was one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and I think I came up with lots of ideas. And I'm going to be in it. You can't win the race unless you're in it, and I'm going to be in it."

Business Insiders full interview with John Delaney:

Maxwell Tani: Why are you running, and why now, so early?

John Delaney: The reason I'm running is I think I have both a vision for how the country can govern itself better, because we've basically gotten to the point now as a federal government where we can't do anything, and I think there is a very high cost associated with doing nothing, which is where we are.

And secondly, I think we're having entirely the wrong conversation. The debate right now in politics is very backwards-looking, and I think the most important thing to do is focus on the future. If you go outside federal politics and outside the Beltway, if you will, and talk to people about what's really going on in the world, about how technology, automation, and global connections are fundamentally changing work, jobs, risk, resources allocation, etc., there's almost no conversation about that at the federal government.

We're basically not preparing our country and its citizens for the future. So the reason I'm running is I want us to govern differently, and I want us to focus on issues that are important to the American people.

Tani: When did you decide you were going to run?

Delaney: We made the decision in the spring, and then we wanted to kind of live with it and think through some of the specifics, and then into the summer we started to then focus on "This is what we're going to do" and try to figure out the right time to do it.

The timing question, which is your second question, is based on my view that this is the most important job in the country, and arguably in the world. And it just strikes me that the right answer is to spend more time working on it, spend more time listening to people, hearing what their concerns are, getting a sense of what they're looking for in new leadership. And give them an opportunity to get to know me and understand my background and my experiences and my vision.

Time struck me as an asset, not a liability. I also have never liked the cat-and-mouse games that some politicians play about running  running, not running, running when everyone knows they're running. So my view is I came to the decision to do it. I'd like to spend a lot of time working to achieve it, and I felt that was the right thing to do to achieve that.

Tani: You were rumored as potentially a gubernatorial candidate in Maryland, and you could've climbed the House leadership ladder. And you thought those weren't the avenues you wanted to pursue this time around  you wanted to pursue the presidency?

Delaney: That's exactly right. We  when I say we, my wife and I  we talked about this extensively as a family. When I first ran in 2012, I'd been in business, I'd started two companies, taken them public, had a successful business career. And we really thought about this next step as about public service and trying to make, as we like to say, a disproportionate difference and less as a career, and more as that.

So when we really went down and said "Where do we have the most to add?" this came up as the work that we should be doing. And while I was deeply appreciative of the support we had in Maryland  we won the recent straw poll and stuff like that  it didn't feel like the thing for us to do.

Tani: You've mentioned in other interviews that you're running as a progressive. You've highlighted your positions on raising the minimum wage. But you've also said that one of the big problems is the partisanship that has calcified Congress. So I'm curious, though, how you square some of your more moderate positions in terms of tax repatriation and your support for TPP with this progressive left that thinks that Bernie Sanders would've had a better shot against Trump.

Delaney: What I've said is that my instincts are progressive, but I come about trying to achieve them in a different way. The only label that I fully embrace is that of a Democrat. I think my instincts are progressive  the way I try to get things done in a bipartisan way makes me moderate or centrist. I think these labels move around a little bit depending on the issues you're working on.

So the only label I'm really comfortable with at the end of the way is a Democrat. But I definitely think I'm a different kind of Democrat. I work to achieve things that are consistent with the values of my party, but I have two pretty big distinctions.

The first is I really do try and work in a bipartisan basis, and I think if you spend any time studying the history of our country, you quickly realize it was designed so you kind of have to do that. And it seems somewhat pointless to me to try to do things on a partisan basis, because it's very hard to do, and even if you get them done, they never live a healthy life.

So that's the first thing. The second thing is I'm a big supporter of the private sector and the private economy. I'm, in a sense, pro-business, which doesn't mean I don't think business from time to time needs to be more just. And kind of trying to create a more just and inclusive form of capitalism is really important to this campaign, and I have some really specific ideas for how to do that.

But I'm pro-jobs, so I've got to be pro-business. But I think that market forces really work. So whenever I can find a solution that involves a market-oriented mechanism, I think that's the right answer, because I think that market forces are the drivers of change and innovation. So if you want to deal with climate change, for example, do it with a private solution. So if you want to do more with communities, increase impact investing and pay for success.

So I definitely think of how to get things done very differently.

Tani: There are a lot of different types of progressivism. And one of the things that people are also very concerned about, particularly minority voters and people of color, is progressiveness on civil rights and law-enforcement issues. You've got a 92% rating from the National Association of Police Organizations. You recently voted in favor of the Probation Officer Protection Act. I'm curious what you would say to people who think you've got tough-on-crime stances.

Delaney: Here again, I think it's important to talk about the facts when I'm campaigning. And that's going to be one of the themes of my campaign is to talk honestly and openly about what's going on. So yes, I do support law enforcement. The American people want us to be safe, and I think law enforcement have a very tough job, and they need to be supported and have the resources to do it.

But I, like everyone else, think it's an utter tragedy when someone is killed when they shouldn't have been killed or when they were innocent. Or when law enforcement shoots some unarmed person. I mean, these are things we need to eliminate in society. And the way to do it is to go at that problem, and a lot of that problem is economic in some of these communities, and it is also making sure that we have the relationship between law enforcement and communities that allows both to be the most successful, if you will.

And obviously, there's a criminal-justice-reform component here, and like so many of these issues, one of the things that's important to how I think about the world. I'm an active Catholic, and the social-justice aspect of my church is really important to how I think about the world. And these issues  making sure people aren't incarcerated for crimes they didn't commit, or overly harsh punishments, or individuals being killed who didn't do anything and weren't a risk  these are really important issues, but we need to solve them by working with law enforcement, not by attacking law enforcement.

Tani: One of the other things that people have been debating in the Democratic Party recently is the idea of having a litmus test for abortion for candidates. What's your stance on that? Do you think there should be a litmus test for 2020 presidential candidates or congressional candidates?

Delaney: I think the voters decide at the end of the day. I think it's very important for the Democratic Party to stand up for reproductive freedom, which I certainly support. But in my personal life, I would follow the teachings of my church. So I don't think we should tell people how to live their personal lives. I think most Democrats  certainly those in elected office and Democratic voters  are supportive of reproductive freedom, supportive of organizations like Planned Parenthood.

And the other thing that is important here, and I say this to my Democratic colleagues, is that if we win, we're not voting on any of these things. The only reason we vote on defunding Planned Parenthood is because Republicans control the Congress. If Democrats control Congress, the chances of voting on defunding Planned Parenthood are zero. So if people have different perspectives on this issue personally, it's never going to be an issue that anyone ever votes on.

Tani: I guess what groups like NARAL or Emily's List would say is that Trump has appointed judges who  Neil Gorsuch, for example, on Roe v. Wade is somewhat unclear.

Delaney: And if Democrats controlled the White House or Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch wouldn't be on the Supreme Court and Merrick Garland would.

Tani: Right. I guess it's a question of values.

Delaney: Successful Democratic candidates will support women's reproductive freedom because that's where the voters in the party are. I think in terms of, like, litmus tests, things like that, voters decide.

Tani: It's an interesting question to me, whether or not the party should be more diverse, accepting candidates who have other views in conservative areas.

Delaney: There are some people who would probably say Joe Biden's view on this issue makes him someone they couldn't support, but I don't look at it that way, for example.

It's a relevant issue. The Democratic Party is wrestling with a lot of issues right now. I think that's healthy. I think what's most important for our party is to have a debate on all these issues, and I think what we are going to figure out when we're done with it is we are more together than we think, but we disagree on how to achieve those goals.

Tani: Speaking of issues the Democratic Party is focused on, do you think that Democrats have been too focused on Russia? There are some people out there  Gavin Newsom, the front-runner for governor in California  thinks it's a losing issue.

Delaney: I don't think we're too focused on it, because I think it's an important thing to focus on. I just don't think every Democrat needs to focus on it. In Congress, we have intelligence in the House and Senate which are very focused on this, as they should be, and I think those members should be enormously focused on it. Should Adam Schiff be really focused on this? Absolutely. Do I support him in every respect in doing that? Absolutely. Do I have opinions on it, and will I comment on it? Of course. But will I spend all my time commenting on Russia? Of course not.

It's one of those things we should be focused on, but not everyone should be focused on it all the time.

Tani: It seems it would be kind of strange to me if the investigation was still going on fully into the next campaign cycle. Do you think that would be kind of distracting or strange for you?

Delaney: Assuming Robert Mueller isn't fired.

Tani: Which is a big assumption.

Delaney: Which is a big assumption. Wouldn't surprise me if he was, which would be terrible, obviously, because we have to get to the bottom of this. I think the American people want an answer to this question, and I think that guy is going to get an answer to this question, and I don't think it'll take by the next election.

That's my point: I want to support him not getting fired, because he's going to get to the bottom of the Russia investigation; I'm not. See what I mean? But I want to support him getting to the bottom of it.

Tani: I think it would be a weird, surreal thing to me if I was a candidate and I was up there at the Iowa steak fry or whatever  you're campaigning in New Hampshire in 2019 and people are coming up to you and asking you about the things that happened in the 2016 election.

Delaney: Did you read my op-ed in The Washington Post?

Tani: Of course.

Delaney: A few people have pointed out to me, and this was not intentional. I wrote the op-ed I should write. I never mentioned Donald Trump's name.

Tani: That's interesting.

Delaney: The truth of the matter is I didn't actually sit down and have that as a goal. I said: "You know, The Washington Post is giving me 800 words because that's the way they work. But in 800 words, I have to say what I really want to say." To me, that wasn't something I wanted to say.

Tani: There have been some Democrats who say Nancy Pelosi has bogged down the electoral chances. Other people say that's BS. Where do you come down on that? Would you support Nancy Pelosi staying on as Democratic leader, and do you think she has hurt Democratic chances in Congress or otherwise?

Delaney: Obviously, Nancy has been a terrific leader of our party in the House, and I think it's ultimately up to the Democratic caucus to decide our next leadership. The bigger issue is the Democratic Party as a whole is in a really bad spot.

Tani: Why do you say that?

Delaney: Everyone is responsible for that, including people in leadership positions. We've basically become a regional party. And that's really the issue to focus on, and I think making sure people understand what our policies are and our values are consistent with what they care about is much more important. The leadership stuff flows from that in some way.

And that's part of the job I want to take on, because I look at what's happened in my party. We've lost 1,000 state legislative seats in the last five to 10 years. We only have 16 governors today.

Tani: I think it's 15 now, after West Virginia.

Delaney: We don't have the House, the Senate, or the White House. It's like Nolan Ryan at his best striking out at 20. And we've got to confront that. And my own personal view is I don't believe it's because of what we're trying to achieve, because the party at its high-level core is trying to accomplish what's in the best interest of the American people. But we are not coming up with ideas that excite people about our ability to get it done or being respectful of people about how they think about the world or just exciting them with how we're planning on leading. You can't conclude anything otherwise.

Tani: There are some pretty big heavy hitters that people are looking at that are going to join, and it's going to be a pretty crowded field. How do you plan on standing out  how do you plan on navigating an environment where there are people further to the left of you and there are probably big-name candidates that are maybe going to run toward the center? How are you going to distinguish yourself in a field with your Bookers, you Harrises, people of that nature?

Delaney: I think the Democratic primary voter understands what I just said to you a few minutes ago, which is that we're not doing a great job. I think by the time that the Democratic primary comes around in 2020, we're going to have a Democratic primary voter in 2020 that is open-minded and wants to do what's best for their party and, most importantly, their country. And as someone who is going to run a campaign that is optimistic about our future  and I wouldn't say singularly focused on our future, because you have to be dealing with what's going on in the world today  but has very strong views on what's happening in the world, and I'll have the most thought-out perspective on that. And as someone who is going to talk a lot about civility and bipartisanship in government, and how we need to bring ourselves together so we can actually get things done to help the American people, my view is that that's going to be a conversation the American people and Democratic primary voter wants to have.

I know I'm going to be in this for the long run. I know I'm going to have the resources that are needed so I can endure the primary. And I think my message and my vision and my personal experiences  I think particularly after Trump, people are going to look at someone who has actually done things with their lives that people want out of their leadership. I'm self-made. I come from a blue-collar family. I started two businesses that were very admired in my community. I used my success to do good things, as opposed to what Trump has done. I went into Congress, and I was one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and I think I came up with lots of ideas.

And I'm going to be in it. You can't win the race unless you're in it, and I'm going to be in it.

Tani: That's true. And that's why I guess it makes sense to come out first.

Delaney: And not just first, but a campaign that is going to be in it until the end.

Tani: Have you started thinking about political strategy at this point? What's your political road map look like?

Delaney: We have. The road map clarifies as you get closer and you understand who is running, etc. What we do have is a strategy for getting through the key primary states and being well-resourced and running a competitive, on-the-ground social-media campaign. So we know what our message is.

Tani: How do you plan on outlasting? Martin O'Malley, your former governor, dropped out immediately after Iowa. You'd imagine a Democratic primary after Iowa  candidates are going to be dropping out if there are, like, 20 people running.

Delaney: If you do terribly in the early states, the chances of you being successful in the long run are low. So you have to have a plan to do well in some of the early states, which we believe we will. We'll have a very different kind of campaign infrastructure and, I think, message that Gov. O'Malley did.

Tani: Where do you think that Hillary Clinton went wrong in 2016? Why do you think she lost?

Delaney: To be honest with you, there's a lot of theories as to why she lost, and I haven't found one I can put my finger on. What I'm focused on is my campaign and the future. And I think Secretary Clinton would've been a good president, which is why I supported her. You could point to 20 reasons why she lost, because if one thing would've gone differently in 20 scenarios, she would've won.

Tani: Are you preparing to run against Trump, or are you preparing to run against another potential Republican candidate?

Delaney: One of my favorite Abraham Lincoln expressions is you can only paddle to the next bend in the river, and the bend in the river I'm paddling hard towards is winning the Democratic nomination. When I do that, I'll turn the corner and focus on that next bend.

Tani: Who is your political hero? Who do you admire politically and you'd want to model your presidency and campaign after?

Delaney: I'll just give you characteristics: I admire people who put country ahead of party, who do the courageous things when it's needed, and work to build bipartisan support for ideas, because those become enduring achievements, as opposed to things that remain subject to political fights.

Tani: What's the response been like so far to your campaign from family members, from colleagues?

Delaney: From my colleagues, it's been terrific.

Tani: Anything people have mentioned?

Delaney: I think people believe that what I want to talk about desperately, desperately, desperately need to be talked about in our political debate. I think people know me as a person of character and someone who has the resources  who can run a campaign and make sure that message gets out there.

Tani: Did you consult many other members of Congress before announcing a run?

Delaney: Yeah, a whole bunch.

Tani: Did they all say you should do it?

Delaney: They all said it was a great idea.

Tani: Really? Everybody thought you should?

Delaney: They really did. You have to realize if you're a member of Congress right now what you really want, most of them, is a really good debate. Because we understand, particularly those of us who have run in competitive districts, we have to do a lot better as a party if we're going to start winning. People look at me as someone who is not sticking their finger in the wind and figuring out which way it's going and getting on board with that.

I learned this from business. What matters is that Gretzky saying: You don't go to where the puck is  you go to where it's going. And I think they view me as someone who is going where the puck is likely to go, which is a different conversation. If you listen to the stuff I'm talking about, as you rightly identified, that is not necessarily what people view as the conventional wisdom for a Democrat.

My view is everything changes, and you make your decisions and your bets based on where you think things are going to be, not where they are in the moment, because things change.

Tani: Have you heard other members of Congress in the House who are thinking about running? Because everyone is looking at the Senate, but there are a lot of pretty prominent people in the House.

Delaney: There are some good people in the House. I think the reason a lot of people in the House haven't run is that they don't want to give up their seat. Because, by definition, a House member has to give up their seat to run for president. And I think there's a lot of terrific members in the House, and I don't think there's really any reason why a House member can't run any more than a senator, because it's the exact same job. Sure, if you're a senator from a huge state, by definition, more people know you, because your state's big. But a lot of people are from states that aren't any bigger than congressional districts.

I'm fully supportive of House members running  that's a little institutional pride coming through. But remember the reason they don't do it is because they have to give up their seat. You can't find a lot of evidence of senators or governors running when they're up for election in their underlying seat. They all run in their off years. That's the correlation that has to be made. People look at the correlation and say, "Oh, House members never run, so therefore you can't run from the House," but they're missing the correlation. That's not the correlation  the correlation is to run from the House, you have to say, "I'm putting my career on the line."
Bill Gates joined the photo-sharing platform on Friday morning under the username thisisbillgates. The account already has over 150 thousand followers in just a weekend after opening it.

His first post was a gallery of three images from Tanzania where he is seen sharing a meal with kids at a local school.

The Microsoft Founder is following 25 people right now, including his wife Melinda, as well as Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Roger Federer, NASA, Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Bloomberg and more.

While in the East African country, Gates also met President John Magufuli.

According to Forbes, Bill Gates is worth an estimated $89.5 billion. That does not include the $31.1 billion that he has given to his charitable foundation.
Creating a billion-dollar company isn't the only thing the founders of Reddit, Quora, Dropbox, Venmo, Airbnb, Instagram, Palantir, Pinterest, Lyft, Wish, Sofi, and Facebook have in common.

The 17 people who make up that list also happen to be men who were born within three years of each other, between 1981 and 1984.

The question of why, exactly, seven of the top 10 billion-dollar-plus unicorns by guys who could have been in the same high school class doesn't come with just one answer. But there are clear events throughout history that offer clues.

Going back to the 1970s

The arc of the early-30s techie actually began in the 1970s, with the prior generation of computer programmers, according to technology consultant Tim Bajarin. "The Bill Gateses of the world were actually the precursor to this," Bajarin told Business Insider.

People like Gates and Steve Jobs began working in the 1970s, alongside lesser-known luminaries like Mitch Kapor of Lotus and Fred Gibbons of Software Publishing. They mostly worked on mainframes and mini-computers, and they spent thousands of hours doing so. When the first personal computer debuted in 1975, these small-time programmers were poised to strike it rich.

As Malcolm Gladwell noted of this tech generation in his book 2008 "Outliers," they came of age in a special time. If they were slightly older, they would have left college to work for a large corporation, like IBM, and their career would have been set in stone. On the other hand, if they were born after the window, the wave would have already passed them by.

What's important about the latest generation is that they were born right when the PC was becoming available to the masses, in the early 1980s, which meant that many grew up with one in their home.

"That was huge," Bajarin said. "They already knew how a PC works, and in a lot of their cases they had PCs in their homes because their parents had PCs in their homes; whereas the generation before them, the production of digital technology was more of a product in the toy category."

The gender gap persists

However, the PC wasn't marketed to everyone across the board. In 2014, NPR used data from the National Science Foundation, American Bar Association, and American Association of Medical Colleges to show that computing companies stopped marketing their machines to girls around 1984.

It's had dramatic effects on female representation in computer science fields to this day. Women earn 57% of all undergraduate degrees but only 18% of all computer and information science degrees.

Underrepresentation is only the start, though. Sexism and sexual harassment scandals have plagued the industry for decades. Women also have a much harder time earning venture capital money. One study found that even if there was just one woman on a company's executive team, the company tended to receive less funding.

A recent manifesto written by a now ex-Google staffer that criticized the company's emphasis on diversity is only the latest example of how women can be dissuaded from staying in the tech world.

The factors come together

The mobile explosion was starting to take off. And the opportunity was very large.

"You could write a program to print all the prime numbers, and come back to school the next morning and the computer's run all night, and it's gotten to like to prime number a million-something," he told Business Insider. "And you think it's so cool."

"During the dot-com bubble, when so many people are starting companies, you say to yourself, 'Well, that's not an aberration,'" which is how many viewed Gates' and Jobs' rise to prominence, he told Business Insider. Instead people said, "That's a career track."

That mixture  years of preparation as a kid combined with a budding tech landscape on the verge of tectonic change  ended up sending a slew of young tech geeks into a field that would write history books.

"The mobile explosion was starting to take off," Tim Bajarin said. "And the opportunity was very large."

Finding the next big thing

Not all of today's most prominent tech founders are in their 30s. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is 46. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is 53. Likewise, a number of younger founders born after that early 1980s wave are rising to the top. Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, the cofounders of Snap, are 27 and 29, respectively.

Nor did every founder between 33 and 36 launch their company at the same time. Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in his college dorm in 2004, for example, while John Zimmer didn't cofound Lyft until 2012.

More important are the experiences they had growing up, and the relationships they formed to technology at the time. Altman says he grew to have such a fascination with computer programming specifically because he could write simple code that would print out strings of prime numbers. It didn't matter he wasn't creating super-smart apps  the seeds of inspiration were getting planted at the right time, with tech that was sufficiently hackable.

"If you give a kid an iPad today, they'll have a great time," Altman said. "But if you want to go make an app for an iPad it's a lot of work. A 7-year-old is not going to figure that out for him- or herself."

According to Saffo, the same wave Gates and Jobs rode and which resurfaced for Zuckerberg and many others is poised to happen a third time in the field of genomics. He said technologies like CRISPR, a gene editing tool, are ripe for innovation in the coming decade.
Mr Enyeribe Anyanwu, Head, Media Communications of Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd., disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos on Sunday.

Anyanwu said that the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Stuart Symington, who disclosed this during the official signing of the agreement in Lagos, commended the initiative of Eko Petrochem and Refining Companys management.

Symington expressed the hope that the proposed 200, 000 bpd production refinery would attract more investments to the country and develop host communities.

The grant was meant for detail engineering design and development of the proposed refinery in Tomaro Industrial Park in Lagos."

I feel honoured to be part of the success story. I also promised to support the projects to actualisation, he said.

The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria commended the Chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, for his commitment to the project.

He said Iheaneacho noted that the investment was coming at a time when the country needed it most.

He also praised the Federal Government for believing in the power of the individual citizens and entrepreneurs to undertake laudable projects for the nations development.

He is doing it at a time with a government that believes Nigeria can do what can be done anywhere in the world.

Capt. Iheaneacho said the Eko Petrochem and Refining Company would complement efforts of the Federal Government in providing lasting solution to the problems of importation of refined petroleum products into the country.

He said that the U.S. Government, acting through the USTDA, has accelerated the process of the planned economic investments through the industrial development grant of one million dollars, which it had seen fit to bestow to us.

The grant is to be specially used to finance the completion of the detailed analysis of supporting technologies and engineering for the implementation of 20,000 bpd crude oil refinery.

The chairman stated that in making the proposal, it was reasoned that the localisation of refining capacity if realised, would facilitate the conservation of scarce foreign exchange whilst generating major export earnings.

He said that there would also be enhanced economic value added opportunities to be realised in terms of jobs, profits and technology transfer which would become manifest.

We are delighted by the USTDA award as it seems the U.S. Government and the trade agency have by this gesture, recognised the economic and development potential of our ongoing modular refinery project and the Tomaro Industrial Park/Free Trade Zone which today comes into formal existence.

By delivering this grant, the agency has demonstrated its commitment to the infrastructure development and economic growth of Nigeria, especially in the areas of export technologies and services that promote the countrys refining capacity, he said.

Iheanacho said that the company would continue to celebrate the delivery of the support assistance from the USTDA.

We also need to source investment funds, to fully actualise the built-up project. The scale of the cash investments required is of the order of $250 million."

We expect to raise this huge sum from borrowing or from equity investment committed to the project. For any potential investor, please contact me and trust me it will be money well spent."

The vision of Eko Petrochem and Refining Company is to develop a modular scalable 20,000 bdp greanfield refinery/topping plant."

Several studies including the as well as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies have been completed.

He added that, the study for the Detailed Engineering Design will soon be ready, prior to applying for the Approval to Construct (ATC) from Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) as well as other regulatory approvals required.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, commended the commitment of Iheanacho to the project.

He noted that finance was one of the major challenges facing most of those that had been licensed to build refineries in the country.

Kachikwu was represented by Mr Rabiu Suleiman, the Executive Director/Coordinator, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Refinery, Downstream and Infrastructural Development.

He promised that the Federal Government would provide all the necessary support required by the company to make the refinery a reality.

According to him, we all know it is very difficult to raise funds.

When you hear that the USTDA is extending its hands of fellowship and support to provide the initial seed funding required to go beyond the detailed engineering design; that also shows that behind him (the vision of this project), there is a partner that is likely to support and provide the financing required to establish the refinery."

For him to be able to bring down to this island the U.S. Ambassador is another demonstration of the commitment and determination to do whatever is necessary to see this project come on stream.

Kachikwu said he was working hard to see how the company could be granted a pioneer status and secure various duty waivers, import facilitation of equipment and engineering review.

He urged the company to take the host communities along in order to create a harmonious relationship with them.

The Managing Director, VFuels, Mr Souheil Abboud, said the company was proud to partner the USTDA to actualise the fruition of the refinery.

According to him, we believe very strongly in our commitment to serving the Nigerian people and are enthusiastic that the USTDA shares the same vision and commitment.

He said the refinery would be a model for those looking to improve Nigerias local refining capacity and would contribute to the growing demand for fuel and electricity.

The USTDA helps companies to create the US jobs through the export of the US goods and services for priority development projects in emerging economies.
He wrote,

''Im usually not the type to rant, but today I am beyond upset, this gross Nonchalance & general misconduct by service providers in Nigeria has gone on for too long it needs to STOP, you cant keep treating paying costumers with reckless disregard, & expect them to remain silent forever. Rampant delays & Sporadic cancellation of scheduled flights without concern for the travellers engagement has now become a Norm in our Aviation Sector.

So yesterday my colleagues & I were booked on the 7:40 am flight to Owerri, only for them to announce by 9am that due to operational reasons a term airliners now carelessly use, that the flight was moved to 12:30 pm, pls note that our engagement was billed to start by 11 am, long story short, calls were made top staff were woken up & a plane Miraculously surfaced to evacuate us by 10 am, we narrowly made the event on time.

Now, today our departure back to Lagos was set for 8:45 am then for operational reasons it was moved to 12 pm then for another operational reason it was moved to 2 pm then 4 pm then eventually we left by 5:30 pm which leaves me wondering whether they were operationally assembling the plane in the backyard.

Also Note that all this while NO member of staff from DANA AIR came to address us or comfort us or even offer us water, all these information you had to go & get from their desk, when I asked the man behind the counter he said that FAAN (Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria) would not allow them come to the departure lounge to address the passengers.

Interestingly we found out that the Md & GM of DANA AIR who was scheduled to be on the same flight as us after a while of delay flew off on AIR PEACE, wow! How cool is that? Perhaps they had more important things to do in Lagos than little ol me.

Ive come to the logical conclusion that the management of DANA AIR are insensitive, nonchalant, carefree, unperturbed & unbothered of their customers well being & prior engagements.

As an Entertainer all I have is my voice & I've decided to speak forth on an issue that affects all & sundry.

Finally, If I cant change the situation I wish I spark the Brain that does.
The monarch said in an interview with Sun Newspaper that it was until he returned from South Africa as a very rich man that he knew the man popularly called Bishop and had to give him chieftaincy titles due to his philanthropic works in the community.

HRH Oruche said it was when Bishop took it upon himself to give succor and help to the downtrodden that he became impressed with him and his kind gestures.

In the interview, the traditional ruler, however, debunked rumours that Bishop was a drug baron, adding that a man with such a large heart could not possibly be a criminal.

Read excerpts from the interview here:

"I didnt know Aloysius Ikegwuonu until he returned from South Africa as a rich person. The truth is that everybody in Ozubulu is my subject.

So, I will say that Chief Aloysius Ikegwuonu is my brother. He is a well-known philanthropist in this town and beyond.

He had started helping the downtrodden, the less privileged and paying hospital bills of people before I met him. He had also started building projects like churches before we met.

In all honesty, I will say that he is a very good person. He is not a bad man at all. He has a good heart and he is always ready to help people."

On whether he knew what Bishop did for a living in South Africa, the Igwe said:

"How can I know what he does when he is based abroad? He does not live in Ozubulu. He told us that he does some business abroad. He is not the only person from Ozubulu who lives abroad.

We have many sons and children of the community who live overseas especially in South Africa.

I was not in the church when the incident occurred. Somebody called me on the phone to tell me about it. St Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu, where the incident occurred, is a bit far from the palace.

I was told that gunmen invaded the church and opened fire on people who had left their various houses to worship God. I was told that lifeless bodies littered everywhere.

I was saddened by the report because those who died were all my subjects, my brothers, and sisters. I quickly called my council head and informed him of the horrifying development.

I dont know of any drug deal as being reported. But I know that about three years ago, the Ozubulu Development Union in South Africa, was having serious leadership tussle.

Our children who are living there were having a disagreement over who becomes the chairman of the union.

They didnt agree and couldnt resolve the issue among themselves. Mind you that we have the Ozubulu Development Union all over the world. The union is for peace and development of our community.

So, when they couldnt resolve the issue among themselves, all of them, numbering hundreds returned to the country from South Africa.

The issue was brought before the President General of Ozubulu Development Union, Chief Nobert Anigbogu. Anigbogu tried his best but couldnt solve the contentious issue.

The factions insisted that the matter must be brought before me as the traditional ruler of the community. Before then, some people disagreed that they would take a peace covenant in any shrine.

The day the matter was scheduled to be heard in my palace, the crowd was overwhelming. I cannot recall the number, but we took minutes of the meeting including names of the attendees.

The meeting was a heated one but it wasnt anything except a disagreement between brothers over who occupies the position of Ozubulu Development Union in South Africa.

After ensuring peace, we invited the bishop of the Catholic Church diocese and a reverend father who came and prayed for us.

The Blessed Sacrament was used as a covenant oath for everybody. The crowd was over two thousand people. We admonished them to be peaceful and live in harmony.

All I know is that the disagreement was over the leadership of the Union and not a drug war as people are saying."
While launching the new campaign, the coordinator of the group, Solomon Adodo, said the group decided to step up the campaign to silence the ongoing calls by some persons on the President to either return to the country or resign.

Speaking at the launch of the group in Abuja on Sunday, Adodo described the clamour for the resignation of the President as a mere distraction, saying the calls were championed by few Nigerians who have no idea of what governance entails.

Addressing newsmen at the launch, Adodo said:

These are the people that have attempted staging protests both in Abuja House, London, and on the streets of Abuja.

Their excuse for this show of shame is to ask for the absurd; they are demanding that cut short his medical vacation and immediately resume duties or resign.

This charade is absurd for those of us who recall clearly that Nigerians prevailed on President Buhari to take time off and attend to his health while strictly following his doctors' instructions."

Adodo recalled that it was equally well documented that the President followed due process by properly notifying the National Assembly of his medical vacation while also in line with the Constitution, handed over to his number two, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as the Acting President.

The #ReturnOrResign protesters, #OurMumuDonDo protesters and any other franchise under which they gather to foment trouble, are therefore aware that their real goal is to precipitate instability since nothing about their demands are logical.

It may well be a way of starting nationwide mayhem that is definitely sponsored. Being that Nigerians were the one that pressured President Buhari to seek treatment, we believe that Nigerians will also not keep mute while some mischievous elements use the medical vacation as a cover to cause instability.

As a first step we are launching, 'Remain and Restore' with the hashtag #RemainAndRestore, as a series of nationwide protests in Lagos and Abuja. The objective of this action is to remind Mr. President that Nigerians want him to stay back for his treatment, continue his medical leave and recover while he continues to issue instructions on how to restore Nigeria. This is the ideology of #RemainAndRestore.

The rallies which are to commence in Abuja and Lagos over a period of several days will feature dance drama and songs by participants to itemize the President's achievement particularly in the area of insecurity and economic prosperity.

We, therefore, urge Nigerians and of course, President Buhari, not succumb to the antics of self-professed professional protesters that have decided to make themselves into a nuisance.

We should all endeavor to come out en masse and show that they have given their mandate for Mr. President to heed his doctors' advice and recover further before resuming duties," Adodo concluded.
"On the 31st of July, 2017, we received a letter inviting us to appear before the Senate Committee in relation to allegations of involvement in the N30 trillion revenue believed to have been lost within the import and export value chain.

"British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN), as a responsible company, has since been officially communicating with the Senate committee in order to comply with their invitation and regulations to ensure a resolution of the issue through extensive engagements, verification and reconciliation exercises.

"Over the years, British American Tobacco Nigeria has always maintained a healthy relationship with government agencies, including customs. In 2016, Nigerian Customs service commended the British American Tobacco Nigeria for its contributions to Nigerias treasury.

"We also have a history of ensuring 100% custom duty payments are disbursed on time and in full to secure an incessant flow of required materials. We also ensure we abide by Central Bank of Nigeria and Customs guidelines in relation to import and export processes as required and demanded by the law.

"We appreciate the efforts of the government to block all revenue leaks and as good corporate citizens we will continue to comply with the Nigerian regulations. We also intend to work with the government, within the confines of applicable laws, to create an environment where businesses will thrive and harness amicable working relationships through constructive discussions and engagements to ensure Nigeria remains attractive for foreign direct investments in the long run."
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity (Office of the Vice-President), Mr Laolu Akande, made this known in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.

He said the expenditure was in fulfillment of the Federal Governments plan to ramp up the Social Investment Programmes, this year.

According to him, the Buhari administration is now close to its target of feeding three million primary school pupils this year under the Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

Specifically, at the last count, a total of N6, 204,912,889 has been paid out to 14 states during the school year ending August 2017.

The 14 states that have been covered under the School Feeding Programme are: Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba and Kaduna.

So far, a total of 2,827,501 school children are currently benefiting from the School Feeding Programme, which is well on course to achieve the Federal Governments projection to feed over three million pupils this year, he said.

According to the presidential aide, 33,895 cooks have been engaged in the communities where the schools are located across the 14 states.

Akande gave the breaking of the payment to each state and the number of school children being fed under the programme.

He said that Anambra received N693, 013,300 while 103,742 children had been fed thus far, with 1,009 cooks paid.

Enugu state got a total of N 571,877,400 and 108,898 children have been fed so far, with 1,276 cooks paid.

In Oyo state, a total of N490,296, 800 was released by the Federal Government for the feeding of 107,983 children, with 1,372 cooks engaged.

Osun state received a total of N1,000, 394,888 for the feeding of 151,438 children. A total of 2,863 cooks were engaged in the state.

Similarly, Ogun received a total of and N1,042,217,400 for the feeding of 231,660 schoolchildren, while a total of 2,205 cooks were paid.

Akande further stated that Ebonyi received N344,633, 100 for the feeding of 163,137 pupils so far, with a total of 1,453 cooks paid while Zamfara received N402,295,600 for the feeding of 107,347 school children while 1,127 cooks were engaged.

He also disclosed that Delta received N225,896,300 for the feeding of 141,663 pupils and 1,364 cooks engaged in the state.

Akande also said, Abia and Benue received a total of N128,763,600 and N337,157,800 respectively to feed a total of 61,316 and 240,827 pupils.

In Abia, a total of 750 cooks were engaged, while 3,344 cooks were paid in Benue.

Plateau and Bauchi states received a total of N133,187,600 and N214,909,101 for the feeding of a total of 95,134 and 307,013 pupils respectively in the states.

Also, 1,418 cooks have so far been engaged in Plateau state, with 3,261 in Bauchi state.

The presidential aide also said Taraba received N120,284, 500, adding that 171,835 pupils had been fed while 2,596 cooks were paid.

He said that Kaduna state received N499, 985, 500 while 835,508 pupils had been fed so far and 9,857 cooks were paid under the programme in the state.
He said there was no basis for the threat by the faceless group adding that the statement was most irresponsible, and should be discountenanced.

According to Mulade, PANDEF met recently with the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on a number of problems bedeviling the Niger Delta region.

He wondered why some elements would want to truncate good efforts made so far by the forum for the attainment of peace and sustainable development in the oil-rich region.

He said the Forum had scheduled a meeting with relevant stakeholders in the next few days to discuss the various agreements reached with the acting President.

PANDEF condemns a media report credited to certain faceless Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators planned attacks of oil facilities by September 10, and asking Northerners and Yorubas to quit the Niger Delta Region before October 1, 2017.

Ozubulu church re-opens a week after gunmen attack

This call is coming at a time when PANDEF leadership and stakeholders had a very useful meeting with Acting President, Prof. Osinbajo few days ago at the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Niger Delta.

Indeed, this group should know that there is no basis for this kind of action; it is most irresponsible, and should be discountenanced.

PANDEF therefore wishes to advise all law abiding persons from any section of the country, irrespective of tribe or political affiliation, to remain calm, and go about their lawful endearvours, Mulade said.
The parents of the 19-year-old Spring Green student who died in Rome last year filed a federal civil lawsuit against the university where their son was about to take classes there for failing to warn him about recent deaths of young adults that occurred near the campus.

Beau Solomon, who had just completed his freshman year at UW-Madison, drowned in the Tiber River after he was robbed and assaulted hours after arriving in Rome on June 30, 2016, to take summer classes at John Cabot University. His death was reported around the world and drew the attention of Pope Francis, who met with Solomons parents at the Vatican during a private meeting days after Solomons death.

The lawsuits complaint, filed Monday by Nick and Jodi Solomon, claims that John Cabot University was negligent and acted with reckless indifference when it failed to warn their son, or anyone from UW-Madison, that four young adults had died from suspicious circumstances within 350 yards of the campus between 2014-15.

One of the young adults was a student attending John Cabot from the University of Iowa, who, like Solomon, died after he was robbed during his first night in Rome. His body was found near the Tiber River.

The Solomon family is contending that when foreign universities recruit our students to study abroad under their wing, they have a duty to warn them of known criminal elements and prior deaths that are occurring right next to their campus, Solomon family attorney Bob Gingras said.

John Cabot University, a limited liability company incorporated in Delaware, is a four-year liberal arts university with campuses in Rome that offers undergraduate degrees and study abroad programs to English-speaking students from around the world.

The Solomons, who are seeking punitive and compensatory damages, included John Cabots insurer, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, as a defendant in the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuits complaint:

After the student from Iowa died in January 2015 and a yellow orientation bracelet identifying him as a John Cabot student was found on his wrist, a John Cabot employee questioned whether the school should continue recruiting American students because they were targets. But university president Franco Pavoncello dismissed talk of doing more to prepare American students, saying that Americans need to learn to take care of themselves.

Back in Iowa City, University of Iowa officials discussed suspending its program with John Cabot because the area around the campus had become too dangerous. It ended its program with the school after it learned of Solomons death.

Hours before Solomon died, a John Cabot staff member who drove Solomon and two other UW-Madison students from the Rome airport to their campus residences offered them some advice if they ever got lost in Rome: Follow the Tiber River and it will get you back to campus. The staff member did not mention that the area along the river was extremely dangerous and was where the four young adults had died of suspicious circumstances during the previous two years.

After Solomon attended a welcome reception that evening where nobody from the school warned students that the area around campus was dangerous, Solomon left the campus with some other students. He visited the same establishment the Iowa student had visited before he died. He also was wearing two bracelets: the yellow orientation bracelet identifying him as a John Cabot student and one with the inscription, USA.

Later, Solomon was walking along the Tiber River when he was attacked. He suffered two head wounds but was conscious before he was forcefully shoved into the river. His body was found three miles downstream on July 4, 2016.

Since Solomons death, John Cabot hired a guard to stand at the campus entrance with a loaded gun. It also implemented a curfew and ordered students to attend a safety session during their first day in Rome where the focus is on how the first few days (in Rome) are especially dangerous, according to a John Cabot employee. Organized nightly events are held for students during their first days in Rome.

A homeless man, Massimo Galioto, was jailed on an initial charge of manslaughter in connection with Solomons death after Galiotos then-girlfriend, Alessia Pennacchioli, told police she saw Galioto push Solomon into the river after the two men had argued. Galioto was released in early December by a Rome magistrate after Pennacchioli offered uneven testimony during a court hearing, according to Rome newspaper reports.

There are no other suspects, but Italys mobile and scientific police teams remain assigned to the case, Rome police official Monteleone Marcello said in May.
THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Military, UN end rift as Boko Haram kills four

In a move to resolve its disagreement with the United Nations (UN), the Nigerian military has declared support for the global bodys operations in the insurgency-ravaged north-east region.

MASSOB, Arewa youths dare FG to re-arrest Kanu

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and aggrieved members of the Arewa youths yesterday said that any attempt by the Federal government to re-arrest Nnamdi Kanu, for alleged violation of bail conditions would fuel the agitation for Biafra independence.

Local insurers lose 90% of big risks to foreign firms

The nations insurance sector may be far from meeting the local content objectives of the Federal Government as it is currently losing about 90 per cent of the big risks in the economy to foreign underwriters.

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VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

One week after Ozubulu killings: Panic, as gunmen kill two near Onitsha church

There was panic among worshippers of Assemblies of God Church, Oguta Road, Onitsha, Anambra State, yesterday, as gunmen shot dead a policeman and civilian at a checkpoint within the precincts of the church.

LASSA FEVER: High alert as Ogun confirms 1 case

Surveillance officers and health workers in Lagos and Ogun States have been placed on high alert, even as Ogun State confirmed 1 case of Lassa fever and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, assured that confirmed cases in the institution are responding to treatment.

LASTMA arrest 8 officials over bribe taking

In continuation of efforts to stem the tide of corruption among the state traffic officials, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, has arrested eight of its officials for collecting bribe from motorists and other corrupt practices.

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THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER

PDP attacks Osinbajo, calls him a figurehead

The main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, says Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is not in charge of the country.

FGs school feeding programme gulps N6.2bn in 14 states

The Federal Government has so far spent N6.2bn on its National Homegrown School Feeding Programme during the academic year that ended in August.

Economic legacy: APC chief, Balarabe Musa tackle Jonathan

The National Vice-Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (South-East), Chief Emma Eneukwu, and a former governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, have berated former President Goodluck Jonathan over his claim that his government had good economic programmes.

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THISDAY NEWSPAPER

Atiku in Secret Talks With PDP Over Presidential Run

With the 2019 electioneering season about to kick off in the next few months, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, whose ambition remains undiminished to rule Nigeria, has opened secret discussions with some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to return to the party and contest on its platform in the 2019 presidential election, THISDAY has learnt.

European Museums Plan Summit on Return of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

A bronze sculpture of a cockerel that adorned a Cambridge University dining room is among a huge haul of looted antiquities that may now be returned to Nigeria and neighbouring Benin Republic soon.

Saraki Promises Swift Passage of Petroleum Industry Bill Components

The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has said that the passage of the Administrative and Fiscal Policy Bills for the petroleum industry will be key issues for the Senate when it resumes after its annual recess.

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THE BUSINESSDAY NEWSPAPER

Investors, exporters FX market hits over $1bn turnover in one week

Investors & Exporters (I&E) FX window grossed a total of $1.10 billion in trade for the week ended August 4, 2017, 33.16 percent increase from $822.73 million recorded the previous week, data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange show.

Hope dashed as $700m East-West gas pipeline suffers setback

The desire of Nigerians to enjoy a significant mark up in electricity supply to their homes and businesses has again suffered a setback, following the failure of cotractors handling the 123 kilometre East-West Obiafo/Obirikom to Oben (OB3) gas pipeline to meet the project completion deadline.

Inaugural AIG scholarship recipients announced for PG study at Oxford
She's been accused of diverting state funds, awarding multi-billion naira contracts without regard for due process, as well as recklessly spending government funds.

There's no way to tell for sure, but it could well be that some of the figures of her alleged loot are loot inside a loot inside another loot and everything is just one giant loot pyramid.

Whichever way it falls, Nigeria has taken one too many big Ls from Madam D.

1. $153.3 million - On Friday, January 6, 2017, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos ruled that a certain $153.3 million,allegedly stolen by Alison-Madueke, be forfeited to the Federal Government.

According to documents filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in court, four banks: Sterling Bank, First Bank, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank, aided Alison-Madueke in siphoning Nigeria's money from the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The EFCChas been able to chase down the sums of N23.4 billion, $5 million and another N9.08 billion out of the $153.3m.

On August 9, a Federal High Court in Lagos state ordered the interim forfeiture of the sum of N7,646,700,000 that's also part of the loot stashed away in Sterling Bank.

2. $1.7 billion - Between 2011 and 2015, Chief Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko allegedly paid bribes to Alison-Madueke in exchange for billion dollar contracts, to lift Nigeria's oil, getting awarded to shell companies owned by both of them.

Through shell companies, both men laundered billions of dollars accruing from Nigeria's crude into the US and Europe. They did this by doing little financing of exploration and production operations of eight on-shore oil and gas blocks. Sometimes, they did no financing at all.

The kickbacks here were used by both men to purchase properties worth millions of dollars for Alison-Madueke.

They conspired to purchase properties at Flat 5 Park View, 83-86 Prince Albert Road, London NW8 7RU ("Flat 5 Park View") for 3,750,000; 58 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HL ("58 Harley House") for 2,800,000; 9 Chester Close North, London NW1 4JE ("39 Chester Close North") for 1,730,000 and 11,530,000 worth of London real estate for the benefit of Alison-Madueke.

They used a series of shell companies and layered financial transactions to conceal the nature, location, source, and/or ownership of the proceeds of their illicit transactions. The illegal loot of state fund between this period pooled up to a staggering $1.7 billion.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently seeking to recover $144 million in assets from the loot.

According to US authorities, the former minister lavished millions of her illicit wealth on landed properties, furniture and artworks.

3. $115 million - In March 2017, the EFCC amended a five-count charge, and joined Alison-Madueke as an accused person in a N450 million money laundering suit involving Mohammed Belgore (SAN), and Abubakar Sulaiman, a former Minister of National Planning.

A prosecution witness, Timothy Olaobaju, told the court that sometime in April 2014, about $115 million was lodged into the account of Alison-Madueke.

It was revealed that Belgore and Sulaiman took direct possession of the sum of N450 million after Alison-Madueke issued payment instructions that the sums be converted into naira, and paid to some beneficiaries.

4. $20 billion - Even though she was cleared by a Senate committee, it is incredibly naive to dismiss allegations that Diezani diverted around 20 million of revenues from the NNPC while she was minister, especially in light of the allegations that have followed.

Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, had, in 2014, initially alleged that around that sum had been diverted under the supervision of Alison-Madueke.

While the current Emir of Kano was sacked for his public outing of the minister, an audit report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the alleged missing $20 billion oil money established that the gap between the NNPC's oil revenues between January 2012 and July 2013 and cash remitted to the government for the same period was $18.5 billion.

Even though the government never admitted that this much was missing, it did admit that it could not account for an outstanding $10.8 billion, before it later claimed the money formed part of subsidy payment for petrol and kerosene, and cost for oil pipeline maintenance.

Alison-Madueke's defence

In a robust response against the accusations in January 2017, Alison-Madueke shot down claims of her loot and accused the EFCC of engaging in a "media trial".

She said, "I have up till now chosen to maintain my silence and not to respond to inaccurate press reporting. However, given the level of deliberate inaccuracies, I am now forced to respond because it is clear that the EFCC is taking advantage of my silence to try me by media and to convict me in the eyes of the public on false reports.

"I am deeply disturbed and bewildered by recent media reports claiming that by virtue of an order of the Federal High Court, I have forfeited to the Federal Government the sum of $153.3m which I purportedly stole from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

"First and foremost, whilst the reasons for my being out of the country are public knowledge, the principle of fair hearing demands that I should have been notified of formal charges if truly there was a prima facie evidence or indictment against my person linking me with the said issue, so as to ensure that I had adequate legal representation. This was never done.

"I wish to state that I cannot forfeit what was never mine. I do not know the basis on which the EFCC has chosen to say that I am the owner of these funds as no evidence was provided to me before the order was obtained and they have not, in fact, served me with the order or, any evidence since they obtained it.

"I do not, therefore, understand how the EFCC can in the same breath say that the monies in question are mine. If they had evidence that the monies were mine, then they would not should not, have used the procedure which applies only to funds of unknown ownership. If indeed they used this particular legal procedure because they did not know who owned the monies, then how can they now be falsely attributing the ownership to me.

"Let me restate categorically as I have always maintained, for the record, I have not and will never steal money from or defraud the Federal Government of Nigeria.

"As a Christian, it is my sincerely held belief that in the coming months, history will be the judge of exactly who Lied and who told the Truth. By the Grace of God, I shall be here to see the day when truth prevails."

According to the EFCC, at least N47.2 billion and $487.5 million in cash and properties have been traced to the former minister.

According to the agency, she has at least 12 luxury buildings scattered across the country. One of such, a Banana Island estate valued at $37.5M, was recently permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

Alison-Madueke was arrested in 2015 by the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom and will stand trial with four others for alleged bribery, corruption and money laundering.
At the non-elective national convention of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja on Saturday, August 12, 2017, the former president said that though his administration failed to plug all the loopholes in battling corruption, he did well nonetheless.

While responding on Sunday, August 13, Okechuckwu dismissed the former president's claim and accused him of allowing widespread corruption to take place under his nose.

He said, "My own sincere assessment is that our dear ex-president, rather than plug loopholes of corruption, opened it wide. He should apologize to Nigerians whom he betrayed for being less than transparent.

"I was outraged when I heard him proclaim that the PDP will return to power in 2019 because of the hunger and poverty ravaging the country.

"He propelled his preferred Minister, Mrs Deziani Alison Madueke and other cronies to loot dry our dear countrymen.

"Example, later day revelations are showing how $80 million was used by Mrs Maduekes ally to purchase a luxury yacht, money which could have been utilized to build the best hospital in Yenogoa.

"Or is he not reminding us of the humongous foreign exchange used in buying choice estates locally and abroad?"

Jonathan had also said at the convention that claims that the country's economy would have gotten worse if he had won reelection were false, because he had a sound economic plan in place.

In response, Okechuckwu said President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has had to battle with Jonathan's administration's practice of keeping "voodoo economic records" that wrecked the country.

According to him, "The biggest headache of Buhari administration is the huge local and foreign debt amassed by the PDP's 16 years misrule.

"On bail-out fund and Paris Fund refund, Buhari has spent over N1 trillion on salary and pension arrears. He has also paid over $7 billion on obligations to International Oil Companies (IOC) with the little he got."

He accused the former president of failing in his bid to fix the Niger Delta and concluded by saying he regretted ever backing the Bayelsa native.
The group through it's chairman, Boye Falonipe released a statement following the death of innocent worshippers who were killed by yet to be identified gunmen that attacked St Philip's Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Anambra State.

The statement which was titled Ozubulu Killings; When values die, stressed that the killings has shown the extent to which we have strayed from our values as a people who revered hard work, patience, integrity and honour.

"From the accounts in the media, the statements of the Anambra State Government and the police, the events leading up to this heinous act only reveal the extent to which we have strayed from our values as a people who revered hard work, patience, integrity and honour.

"Sadly, as our society continues to move away from the values and moral standards that ensured our human dignity and underscored our national identity and pride, we draw ever closer to total self-destruction through insatiable quest for wealth without sweat.

"Our youths no longer appreciate the need for hard work, honesty and dignity but instead lust for instant wealth beyond ability and effort, and celebrate indiscriminate flaunting of riches with no desire to rationalize its source.

"Religious and community leaders no longer ask the hard questions as to the source of the money people display with reckless abandon, donate to charity, worship centers and the community. Parents no longer question the source of assets acquired and displayed by their wards."

Continuing, the group said: "We have all abdicated our responsibility as society watchdogs to act as moral compass for our society which would in turn protect all of us from the dangerous consequences of unchecked illicit money. We have collectively failed Nigeria our country in this role as much as the public servants who betray the trust of their constituents as seen in the many cases of corruption in our public service.

"As a country, we need an urgent restructuring of our value system before it is turned into a place where life is brutish and short. We call on the various governments to quickly initiate programmes and policies that would restructure our value system, away from this endemic greed and desperation for quick riches.

"The various leadership of the different faiths as well as community leaders and parents have a big role to play in this. We also recommend that the government should immediately commence the audit of illicit wealth that may have found their ways into this country as they constitute real and apparent danger to security of lives and properties.

"We strongly appeal to the Nigeria Police to thoroughly investigate and apprehend all the culprits in this Ozubulu massacre expeditiously in order to serve as deterrence to any other person especially our vibrant youthful population who may be nursing the ambition to get rich quick through crime. No nation can survive unchecked inflow and laundering of proceeds of crime into its society.

"Our strong commitment to the Nigerian DREAM inspires us to believe that we will, someday, pull ourselves from the brink of this moral decadence and start again to cherish and celebrate high moral standards, love and the sense of responsibility to be our brothers keeper."

In conclusion, the Nigerian DREAM posited that "Our hope is that "someday" will be soon. We have a Nigerian Dream where everyone is safe and where everyone is accepted, and valued on the strength of values of morality, love and hard work.

ALSO READ: Death toll rises to 11 as police links attack to community members abroad

"The Nigerian DREAM wishes to express its profound sadness at the unfortunate loss of innocent lives by the dastardly and wicked act of the gunmen who invaded the Catholic Church at Ozubulu community in Anambra State.

"This was a mindless and callous act of mass murder fueled by greed and desperation which are fast becoming standard value system in Nigeria.

"We sympathize and commiserate with the families and friends of those who have lost their loved ones in this unfortunate and shocking incident.

"We pray God to console them in this very traumatic period. We also sympathize with Nigerians whose sensibilities have been offended by this Ozubulu massacre among many other dastardly acts that have become a regular features in the news media."
Pulse Movies has put together seven moments from the episode which aired on Sunday, August 13, 2017.

Check them out;

1. The Drogon and Jon Snow moment

Drogon shares an intimate moment with Jon Snow after he got back from the battle with Daenerys.

While Drogon tries to intimidate Jon Snow, the latter fearlessly reaches out, touches him and calms him down.

Dany seems surprised watching the usually intimidating Drogon share such moment with Snow.

2. Rhaegar was married to Lyanna Stark

At the Citadel in Oldtown, Gilly is going through some books. She comes across a certain Prince Rhaeger, who annulled his marriage and then remarried in Dorne.

They just have to be talking about the same Prince Rhaegar, who is supposedly Jon Snows father.

This new revelation means he annulled his marriage with Elia Martell and secretly married Lyanna Stark. This also means Jon Snow is not a bastard, but the legitimate heir to the throne.

3. The Ser Jorah and Dany reunion

Ser Jorah Mormont aka Ser Friendzone finally returns to Dragonstone after Sam healed him of his ailment at the Citadel.

"I return to your service, my queen. If you'll have me," he says, bending the knee.

It would be my honour, Dany responds with a smile on her face.

The two share a long hug with Jon Snow hovering around like a jealous lover.

4. Cersei is pregnant

After Jaimies meeting with Tyrion, who told him that Dany wants to call a truce to enable them fight the army of the dead, Jaimie meets with Cersei, explaining his meeting with their little brother.

Cersei doesn't seem to buy the idea. According to her, if she bends the knee, she dies. If she doesn't, she still dies. She would rather fight for her throne and die anyways.

She tells her brother that she is ready to fight for their family name, for the both of them and for their unborn child.

5. Littlefinger is still manipulative

If theres one person who isnt happy with the Stark reunion, its Littlefinger. The manipulative Lord Baelish set a trap which he hopes would drive a wedge between the Stark sisters.

Arya thinks shes spying on him when she finds Baelish receiving a letter. She breaks into the room in search of the letter and finds the old letter Sansa was forced by Cersei to write in season one.

6. Sam quits the citadel

Tired of reading stories about other great men, Sam Tally quit the citadel, but not before packing books that we all hope would be instrumental in solving several Westeros mysteries.

He is still not aware that his father and brother were burnt by Dany when they refused to bend the knee after the Loot Train atack.

7. Eastwatch

While Dany is gradually believing that theres indeed an army of the dead, she isnt ready to leave her throne for Cersei.

Tyrion suggests that they bring a white walker to Cersei in order to convince her to focus on the more important war for now.

Before leaving, Jon Snow tells the queen that if he doesn't return, he won't have to deal with the King in the North.

"I have grown used to him," Dany responds.

Jon Snow, Jorah Mormot and Gendry arrive Eastwatch where they meet Tormund, who has Beric Dondarrion, Thoros, and The Hound captive.
The medical doctors were received at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Saturday, August 12, 2017, by a state government delegation led by the Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Engr Remi Omowaiye and Special Adviser to the governor on Higher Education, Bursary and Scholarship, Prof. Grace Akinola.

They returned home after graduating from the the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkov, Ukraine and certified as medical doctors. About 15 of them stayed back in Ukraine for future pursuit.

50 of the 85 students recently graduated and were inducted as qualified medical doctors after passing the 2017 KROK 2 Ukraine National Medical Exams in June.

The students were sent to Ukraine by the Aregbesola administration to complete their medical studies in Ukraine in 2013 as a result of non-availability of teaching hospital for their clinical studies.

One of the medical students, Ms Latifat Abiola Oyeleye, was declared the overall best medical student of the Karazin Kharkiv National University as well as the 2017 overall best student in the entire Ukraine with an outstanding score of 95.6% in KROK 2 Exams.

Receiving the young doctors at the Government House, Osogbo, Governor Aregbesola welcomed them and urged them to let their skills, knowledge and education speak for them.

He explained that sending the students to Ukraine was not about nationalism but about justice and fairness, stating that the students were admitted for medicine and it behoved the university and government to fulfill their obligations.

He said: "We had advertised the medical course and admitted the students, it is the obligation of the government to see the students through the program. A human being will only succeed when he upholds justice and fairness. So, what informed our decision on these students is justice and fairness."

The governor, who said education is not about one's discipline but also about having skills, motivation and knowledge, said he was happy and proud for the success in the students' academic programme.

The governor urged the young doctors to be professional, humane and godly in discharging their duties in hospitals and everywhere they find themselves.

In their remarks, the students attributed their academic success to Aregbesola's commitment to promoting functional education and concern on their plights when they were stranded in UNIOSUN.

They promised to embark on service to humanity and give back to the community, particularly Osun state, in appreciation of their free medical studies.

Oyeleye said, "I am one of the beneficiaries of Aregbesola's gesture, I am one of the 85 medical students sponsored by his administration to one of the best universities in the world.

"We have studied and graduated. We thank God that today, we have been made medical doctors through the support of Osun government. It is a dream come true for me and my family.

"Osun government has made history through this. Governor Aregbesola has done excellently well in our lives to attain this giant feat in academic because if not for him, we might not be celebrated like this today."

Another beneficiary, Dr. Oluwasayo Motunrayo, said, "I will forever be grateful to Aregbesola for making our dreams come to pass. He has done well to ensure that we did not fail in meeting up with our medical career in life."

Ezekoye Maria, an indigene of Anambra state, is another beneficiary and said, "We had lost hope when there was no teaching hospital to proceed to for our medical studies at UNIOSUN, we were all stranded.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The American comedian took to Instagram on Sunday, August 13, sharing memories from their 2016 nuptials in California and expressing just how glad he is to have Eniko, 32, as his "rib."

"Happy one year anniversary to this unbelievable wife of mine. Thank you for all that you do.

"Thank you for loving me & supporting me at the highest level...Thank you for loving & embracing my kids and the way you do.

"Thank you for turning my house into home...Thank you for simply making me happy...

"You are and will forever be my "Rib"...

"One year down and the rest of our life to go... Our family and our union is getting bigger and stronger and I love it!!! #Harts"

Eniko, expectant with the pair's first baby is full of love, too, taking to Instagram to share photos from their wedding with her 1.9million followers.

"I'm Grateful to God every day for putting us together. When it's real, no love/bond can ever be faked nor broken." she writes.

My partner in life, My other half that makes me whole, My soulmate. Thank you for always keeping a smile on my face.

I love you more every day. Eight years together One year married. Forever to go! #HartilyYours

Happy 1 year anniversary babe! We made it!

Kevin Hart and Eniko Parrish had their wedding on August 13, 2016 and despite recent rumours alleging that Kevin might be cheating on his wife, the pair are apparently untouched and unbothered and just living their best lives.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan will hold a televised town hall meeting with constituents live from Racine next week on CNN, his office has announced.

The town hall will be at 8 p.m. Monday It will be hosted by CNNs Jake Tapper and held at the Racine Theater Guild.

A CNN press release says Ryan is expected to outline House Republicans priorities for the fall. It notes the event comes amid looming deadlines on the 2018 federal budget and the need to address the debt ceiling.

Ryans critics have pressed him, especially in 2017, to hold town hall meetings in his district that are open to the public.

For this event, CNN will be in charge of attendance ... and is inviting people of Wisconsins First District to fill the audience, according to a release from Ryans office.

It will be Ryans second independently moderated town hall this year; the other was in January and also moderated and televised by CNN.

Ryan, R-Janesville, represents the 1st District, which runs along the Illinois border from Lake Michigan, including Racine and Kenosha, west through southern suburban Milwaukee and on to Janesville.
The leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said drivers should not have to pay for the mistakes made by "irresponsible managers" with six-figure salaries.

"The problem is that we are in a situation where managers worth millions, at Volkswagen, at Daimler, have slept through the future... and did not invest where they should have," he said in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF.

Germany's crucial automaking sector is facing an unprecedented crisis following Volkswagen's admission in 2015 that it installed software in 11 million diesel engines to cheat emissions tests and make the vehicles seem less polluting than they were.

The scandal has deepened on recent revelations that a group of carmakers for years colluded on technical specifications, including emissions technology.

The growing controversy has fuelled public anger and intensified calls to get dirty diesels off the road, making it impossible to ignore on the campaign trail.

Schulz, whose party is trailing Merkel's conservatives by 14 points according to the latest poll, said diesel drivers should not have to "foot the bill" for software updates and trade-ins.

He has also proposed an EU-wide quota for electric cars.

Merkel on Saturday also slammed car executives, accusing them of "gambling away incredible trust".

But she dismissed the idea of quotas as too difficult to implement.

With six weeks to go until the September 24 vote, the latest Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper put support for Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU block at 38 percent, followed by the SPD at 24 percent.

- 'Till the last minute'-

Schulz, the former European Parliament president, has fallen far behind in the polls despite an initial surge of popularity after joining the race in January.

Observers say there seems to be little appetite for change in Germany, putting Merkel firmly on track for a fourth term as chancellor.

But Schulz, who is campaigning on the promise of a fairer Germany, insisted he was still in the race.

"The campaign battle lasts until the last minute," he told ZDF. "I still think I have a good chance to lead the next government."

Asked whether he would be interested in another left-right coalition with Merkel, he said: "I have nothing against a grand coalition under my leadership if the CDU wants to be the junior partner."

In a second appearance on German television Sunday, a townhall-style event on RTL television, Schulz told the audience he would stick to his principles.
The fire in Kalamos, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of the Greek capital, was burning across a wide front for a second day and had already burned a number of homes.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A force of more than 200 firefighters with over 100 fire engines, water trucks and a handful of aircraft had been mobilised, the fire department said.

"It's a strong fire in an area full of summer homes," civil protection official Ioanna Tsoupra told ERT television.

The local municipality of Oropos had earlier urged residents to evacuate for their safety, and a monastery was also emptied.

The fire service said they were battling two additional blazes on Monday, one near Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city, and another in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.

"The fire near Thessaloniki is almost under control but we are worried about the new fire in the Peloponnese, around Amaliada, because it's very close to a village of 150 inhabitants," a spokesman told AFP.

Overall, 91 fires had broken out in Greece since Sunday, the fire department said, though most were quickly brought under control.

The other flashpoint is the tourist island of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea, where emergency crews have struggled to put out a wave of fires since last week, and officials suggest arson is at play.

"Such a situation is unheard of," regional fire chief Vassilis Matteopoulos told ERT.

"We had 22 fires on Zakynthos just in the last 24 hours."

Greece is routinely hit by wildfires at this time of year, fanned by strong winds and high temperatures, and authorities have warned that the risk remains high.
"We had predicted they will steal the election and that's what happened. We are not done yet. We will not give up. Wait for the next course of action which I will announce the day after tomorrow," he told a heaving crowd of supporters in Nairobi's largest slum, Kibera.

"But for now I want to tell you not to go to work tomorrow (Monday)."

Residents of Kibera climbed on to roof tops and hung off trees to catch sight of Odinga, who was speaking for the first time since his rival President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor Friday in a poll he claims was massively rigged.

The decision sparked immediate protests in Odinga's strongholds in western Kenya and Nairobi slums including Kibera and Mathare, which have left at least 16 people dead.

"This is a failed regime that is resorting to killing people instead of addressing the real issue. The vote was stolen. There's no secret about that," said Odinga.
Malian troops repulsed the attackers, who lost two of their own men in the raid, he added.

"The terrorists targeted the peacekeepers of MINUSMA," said another local official, using the acronym for the UN force in Mali.

A Malian military source, confirming the attack, said reinforcements had been sent to bolster security in the town, he added.

Last week, UN peacekeepers accused former rebel fighters and a rival pro-government militia in the north of the country of having used child soldiers in recent clashes.

On Friday, nine child soldiers aged 15 to 17 were handed over to UN peacekeepers in the northern city of Kidal.

In 2012, key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.
The missionary finally returned home on Saturday, with his captors citing clemency on medical grounds.

He appeared slightly frail but in good spirits as he returned to his congregation at the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Mississauga, a Toronto suburb.

Wearing a black suit and tie with a white shirt, the pastor sat alongside his son in the first row of worshippers. His granddaughter, who was born while he was away, perched on his knees.

He told the congregation: "From the first day of my detainment to the day I was released, I ate 2,757 meals in isolation by myself. It was difficult to see when and how the entire ordeal would end.

"During the winter, I had to dig holes that measured one meter wide and one meter deep. The ground was frozen. The mud was so hard that it took two days to dig one hole.

"It was incredibly challenging. My upper body was sweating, my fingers and toes were frostbitten. I also worked inside a coal storage facility, breaking apart coal."

The Canadian government has also thanked Sweden for its role in securing Lim's release, which comes as the United States and North Korea are engaged in a standoff after Pyongyang successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

US President Donald Trump raised the stakes this week by vowing to rain down "fire and fury" on the authoritarian state, which is presently holding three American citizens.

At the time of his arrest, members of the close-knit circle of ethnic Korean missionaries in Canada and the United States called Lim one of the most influential Christian missionaries operating in North Korea.

He had visited the country dozens of times, working with orphanages and nursing homes.

But some projects he worked on, including a noodle plant and flour mills, were linked to associates of Jang Song-Thaek, the purged uncle of leader Kim Jong-Un. Jang was arrested and executed for treason in December 2013.
On Sunday, life appeared to slowly be returning to normal with businesses opening and deadly protests that erupted Friday night after the election result fizzling out as Odinga's supporters await his next move.

At least 16 people have died in protests in Odinga's strongholds, according to an AFP tally, many shot dead by police.

"We are not done yet. We will not give up. Wait for the next course of action which I will announce the day after tomorrow (Tuesday)," Odinga told a crowd of thousands in Nairobi's slum Kibera on Sunday.

"Do not go to work tomorrow. Let us mourn the innocent people killed by police."

It was his first appearance since the election commission (IEBC) on Friday declared President Uhuru Kenyatta the victor of a vote that Odinga says was rigged.

The 72-year-old and his National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition believe he was the rightful winner, and that results which came in via an electronic tallying system were hacked and manipulated.

Foreign observers praised election day as peaceful and credible and expressed confidence in the IEBC, but have not commented on the counting process.

The United Nations, Britain and the European Union have beseeched Odinga to send out a message to restrain his supporters from protesting, and instead use legal means to address his concerns.

In asking his supporters to stay home, he also urged them to avoid police, but many are hanging on for instructions come Tuesday.

"It was quiet and we were worried, because we did not know the plan. Now, we're very ready for whatever will come," said Duncan Nyamo, an Odinga supporter in Kibera

"We are ready to die."

'Zero-sum game'

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal divisions.

Three of Kenya's four presidents have been Kikuyu and the other Kalenjin, leaving Luos and other major ethnic groups feeling excluded from power and marginalised for over half a century.

In 2007, Odinga and his allies claimed an election was stolen by Mwai Kibaki -- a Kikuyu. Foreign observers agreed there had been irregularities.

Political grievances -- over land and access to power linked to old ethnic fault lines -- burst into the open, leading to two months of violence which left 1,100 people dead and 600,000 displaced.

"The reason elections have become a trigger for violence is the relationship between power and prosperity. It is a zero-sum game and winning becomes a life and death matter, hence losing is not an option," the Daily Nation wrote in an editorial.

Odinga, who scored nearly 45 percent of the vote, has a huge following notably among the poor who are drawn to his platform of more equitable economic growth.

While calm had largely returned to Odinga's strongholds on Sunday, a clash broke out in Mathare, one of the poorest slums in the capital, between his Luo supporters and members of Kenyatta's Kikuyu group.

An attack on a Luo man -- who an AFP photographer saw with bloody head injuries -- prompted a backlash in which Kikuyu businesses were burned and a Kikuyu man beaten with sticks and rocks. It was unclear if either survived.

The election was Odinga's fourth failed shot at the presidency, and many believe his final.
Tensions have flared since US President Donald Trump, responding to the North's latest missile tests, warned it of "fire and fury like the world has never seen".

The North in turn threatened to test-fire its missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The war of words has sparked global alarm, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides.

Moon, a left-leaning leader who has previously advocated dialogue with the North, urged it to "stop all provocations and hostile rhetoric immediately, instead of worsening the situation any further".

He also indirectly urged the US -- the South's key ally and security guarantor -- to resolve the crisis peacefully.

"Our top priority is the national interest of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and our national interest lies in peace," Moon told advisers in a meeting.

"We cannot have a war on the Korean peninsula ever again," he said. The 1950-53 conflict cost more than a million lives, left cities in ruins and perpetuated the division of the peninsula.

"I am confident that the US will respond to the current situation in a calm and responsible manner in line with our policy direction," Moon said.

Moon Monday also met General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is visiting Seoul as part of a trip which will also include China and Japan.

According to Moon's spokesman, Dunford said in the meeting that the US would only consider military action against North Korea if all diplomatic and economic sanctions failed.

"He said everyone was hoping to solve the current situation without a war," spokesman Park Su-Hyun said, adding that Dunford stressed Washington would closely coordinate with Seoul over any future action.

The latest US and North Korean sabre-rattling has sparked concern that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a catastrophic conflict, although many analysts voice doubts over such a prospect.

Any conflict between the North and the US could have devastating consequences for Asia's fourth-largest economy, with Seoul within range of Pyongyang's vast conventional artillery forces.

Also within range are many of the 28,500 US troops stationed in the South.

The latest bout of tension was sparked by the North's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, which appeared to bring much of the US within range.

The tests are seen as a milestone in the North's quest to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
But his split with former Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane four years ago led him to seek safety in his hometown in Somalia's southwest Bakool region, though he never formally renounced the insurgency.

"Muktar Robow defected from Shabaab and he is now in Hudur meeting with government officials," district commissioner Mohamed Moalim told reporters, referring to the Bakool district capital.

Godane was killed by a US air strike in 2014, but the bad blood between the militants and Robow appeared to have continued.

A security source told AFP Robow's surrender came after Islamist militants attacked him last week.

His name also no longer appears on the US's Rewards for Justice wanted list.

The defection is a blow to Shabaab, which remains deadly in Somalia despite the presence of a 22,000-strong African Union force dedicated to fighting it and supporting the internationally backed government based in Mogadishu.

Uganda's military last month said 12 of its soldiers had been killed in Somalia in an ambush claimed by the group.
But talks to redo the controversial 1994 agreement, which eliminated trade barriers among the three countries, are expected to be thorny. The first round takes place from Wednesday to Sunday in the US capital.

Trump made NAFTA a defining issue of his campaign, frequently lambasting the deal as a "disaster" that sold out US workers and dismissing supporters who touted the deal's benefits.

"For Donald Trump this was so central in his campaign that he felt he has no choice but proceed," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, a leading think tank.

"I think at some point the President Trump has to walk away with something that he can call victory. I don't think he could just walk away."

Trump's biggest gripe with NAFTA has been the dramatic shift in the US' commercial balance with Mexico, which since the treaty's inception has gone from a surplus of $1.3 billion to a deficit of $64 billion.

NAFTA has been a bedrock of the Mexican economy, with 80 percent of that country's exports going to its Northern neighbor, an especially impactful relationship for Mexican manufacturers and farmers.

The agreement has significantly boosted Mexico's auto sector, which has grown because of its supply of cheap labor as US automakers have shuttered some factories in their home country.

"Too many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said last month.

The US trade balance with Canada is more even, but that trade relationship also has points of tension in some sectors, including dairy, wine and grains.

Long road ahead

While the US under Trump has been the party to force NAFTA back onto the agenda, all three countries agree there will be benefits to revisiting an agreement nearly a quarter of a century old that was crafted prior to the internet era.

"Each country feels they have a lot to gain from pursuing these negotiations," said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank.

Trump administration officials have said they want a swift outcome to the talks, but experts think a speedy deal is unlikely. Next week's opening salvo will be followed by a second round of talks beginning September 5 in Mexico.

"The first round is basically to put forward some initial ideas and to explain them and probably the negotiators won't cover the most controversial issues in the first round," said Schott, who warned a strident "America first" push by the Trump team could cause problems.

"All three countries are committed to successful negotiations that revise and improve the NAFTA, but there is a risk that if United Stated is pushing the controversial ideas too hard that the talks could run off," Schott said.

A consideration from the Mexican side will be the 2018 presidential election. But Alden, who predicts the talks will require about two years, noted it also has an experienced negotiating team, as well as a strong consumer market for some US sectors, such as agriculture.
"I have given the order to the armed forces' joint chiefs of staff to start preparations for a national civil-military exercise for the integrated armed defense of the Venezuelan nation," he told thousands of supporters in a Caracas rally.

The drill was to take place August 26 and 27.

Maduro's government has seized on Trump's warning last Friday that he was looking at a range of scenarios against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary."

The Maduro administration says Trump's move bolsters its oft-repeated claim that Washington has designs to grab control of Venezuela's proven oil reserves, the largest in the world.

Trump's threat, in response to Venezuela's deepening economic crisis and Maduro's moves toward what the US labels a "dictatorship," was rebuffed by all of Latin America -- even countries opposed to Venezuela.

The US Defense Department said Monday it had received no orders from Trump to ready any sort of military action against Venezuela.
A boat with seven people aboard crashed into a concrete navigational marker on the Mississippi River Saturday, killing two and injuring five.

The crash happened at about 6 p.m. in the main navigation channel in the town of Bergen in Vernon County, the Sheriff's Office said.

The 32-foot, 10-passenger pleasure craft was going south on the river and hit the day marker, sending the boat's stern underwater while the bow went vertical.

Diana Klankowski, 56, of Spring Grove, Minnesota was taken to the shore by a private watercraft and was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m.

Kevin Hanson, 47, of Mabel, Minnesota, was missing in the water after the crash, and his body was recovered on Sunday.

Five other people were injured, including an unidentified woman who was flown to Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, and an unidentified man taken to Gundersen via ambulance.

Other injuries include Gerald Ladsten, 57, Robert Klankowski, 52, and Tracy Peterson, 50, all of Spring Grove.

"A number of personal flotation devices were on board the boat but were not in use," the Sheriff's Office said.

Other boats in the area immediately went to the scene of the crash to help the injured get out of the water.
In a fresh report, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention voiced concern over soaring detention rates as President Donald Trump's administration cracks down on illegal immigration and works to deport legal immigrants with criminal records.

"The Working Group is of the view that the mandatory detention of immigrants, especially asylum seekers, is contrary to international human rights and refugee rights standards," the five independent experts said.

The report, based on visits to a range of US detention facilities late last year, found that non-criminal immigrants were subjected to "punitive conditions that were often indistinguishable from those applicable to persons who had been sentenced to punishment in the criminal justice system".

The report also highlighted the difficulty for detained immigrants to access legal representation, unreasonably long incarceration -- including of children -- and the separation of family members during detention.

"Immigration detention should be the exception rather than the rule," the experts said, insisting that the current "excessive use of immigration-related detention" could not be justified by necessity.

They warned that current system "appeared to be implemented to deter individuals from continuing their immigration claims and could result in asylum seekers revoking their legitimate immigration claims."

Monday's report also examined the broader rights situation in US jails and prisons, pointing to "several areas where systemic problems in the criminal justice system are resulting in the arbitrary deprivation of liberty."

The panel listed lengthy pretrial detention, the lack of effective legal representation, economic and racial disparities, disproportionate sentences and the practice of treating minors in certain cases as adults.

They voiced concern that some states are increasing their use of the death penalty, especially in light of the problems they had seen in guaranteeing fair trials, arguing: "Imposing the death penalty after a trial at which the defendant was not afforded all necessary safeguards constitutes arbitrary deprivation of life".

The experts also decried the continued operation of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, urging Washington to close the facility.
US Vice President Mike Pence met in a church in Cartagena, Colombia with Venezuelan families who have fled their country's deadly crisis, as he wrapped up the first stop on a Latin American tour.

"We will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles, but it's important to note, as the president said, that a failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of the hemisphere," Pence told reporters.

He told CNN in an interview that Venezuela risked becoming "a greater problem for narcotics traffic" and "greater migration" -- both of which he said directly threatened the security and economy of the US.

Pence later boarded his plane to fly to Argentina, the second stop on a tour that will also take him to Chile and Panama.

On Sunday, Pence stood by Trump's threat, saying the US president "says what he means and means what he says."

But he expressed hope a "peaceable solution" could be found on Venezuela.

'Possible military option'

Trump on Friday said he was mulling a range of scenarios for crisis-hit Venezuela -- "including a possible military option if necessary."

Caracas condemned the comment. On Monday, Venezuela Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino called it "crazy" and showed America had "dropped its mask" in terms of wanting to attack his country.

The rest of Latin America -- even countries that condemn President Nicolas Maduro's attacks on Venezuela's democratic institutions -- have strongly rejected the threat.

China, which is owed billions in debt by Venezuela, also spoke out against foreign interference in other countries.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos had told Pence on arrival "that the possibility of a military intervention shouldn't even be considered."

Many Latin American countries have bitter memories of past US adventures in the region. Those include invasions, gunboat diplomacy and the propping up of military dictators.

Washington has already imposed unilateral sanctions on Maduro and nearly two dozen of his officials.

The sanctions were in response to their establishment of a new loyalist body, an all-powerful Constituent Assembly, that supersedes the legislature controlled by the opposition.

No orders to Pentagon

Trump's stated possibility of a US military operation looked likely to shadow Pence at every stop, eclipsing bilateral issues, especially trade, that he was raising along the way.

However the US defense officials at the Pentagon said on Monday they had not received any orders from the White House on a military option against Venezuela.

"I can't speculate what that is because we haven't been asked to provide any options," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said.

Maduro's regime has nevertheless seized on Trump's threat as proof of its claim that the United States wants to topple the current leftist government to get its hands on Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in the world.

The Venezuelan opposition coalition on Sunday also rejected "the use of force, or the threat of applying such force, by whatever country against Venezuela."

The coalition is seeking to oust Maduro through early elections.

Venezuela's economy is heavily reliant on its oil exports. Shipments to the United States -- its biggest customer -- account for 40 percent of its crude production, but only eight percent of US oil imports.
"Some of his doctors are in South Africa," health minister David Parirenyatwa told reporters in the capital Harare.

"He is well. He is much better, he is almost jovial. He was vomiting with diarrhoea and he became dehydrated. He has done a battery of tests."

With Mugabe, 93, in increasingly frail health, speculation over his successor has focused on Mnangagwa, a veteran regime loyalist.

Mnangagwa's main rivals within the ruling Zanu-PF party are the younger "Generation 40" or "G40" group, which is seen as supported by Mugabe's wife Grace, who could herself be a potential presidential candidate.

Mugabe, who oftens travels abroad for medical treatment, has refused to name a successor and repeatedly denounced factionalism in the party.

"Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is not yet back from hospital in Johannesburg," Mugabe said in a speech on Monday without giving details.

Zimbabwe is due to hold elections next year, with opposition parties in talks to try to unite and field one candidate to oppose Mugabe.

Past elections have been tainted by violence and intimidation by ZANU-PF operatives.

"We hope the election exercise will be done in peace," Mugabe said.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  The Illinois Senate overturned Gov. Bruce Rauner on public education funding Sunday, voting to override an amendatory veto despite the Republican governor's contention that his changes would mean millions of dollars more for school districts statewide.

The Senate voted 38-19 to override significant changes the first-term governor made to the landmark legislation. The governor's changes, which came in a veto of a newly devised school-funding model, stripped Chicago schools of hundreds of millions of dollars. Both local senators Chuck Weaver (R-Peoria) and Neil Anderson (R-Andalusia) voted against the override.

Ahead of the vote, Rauner promoted an Illinois State Board of Education analysis of the amendatory veto's impact that he said showed that "the vast majority of our neediest districts get millions" of dollars more.

But the argument did not sway Democrats who control the Legislature. They stuck with the "evidence-based" funding model they adopted in May. It's designed to determine funding levels for specific districts based in part on the number of students living in poverty, lacking English-language skills and other data-driven measurements.

Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from Bunker Hill who sponsored the plan, said Rauner would rob Peter to pay Paul. Manar said his plan, known as Senate Bill 1 , ensures that no school district would receive less state aid than it did this past school year, a provision known as "hold harmless."

"Taking money away from one district  the largest in the state, which educates children in poverty  and giving it to other districts in the state which educates children in poverty, is not a solution that's going to lead to greater equity," Manar said. "Senate Bill 1 results in no red numbers, no losses."

The dust-up prevented the State Board of Education from releasing the first state-aid payment, due Aug. 10. Many public school districts are scheduled to open this week or next week. None has indicated it won't open, but most say they can't hold class all year without state money.

This bill was held for 60 days before it was sent to the governor. Theres no reason we should be dealing with this now, when we could have taken care of it in June," Sen. Anderson said Sunday.

"Senate Bill 1, in its original form, is not the answer to our education funding problems. A bill that bails out Chicago at the expense of children in the rest of the state is not the answer. There is nothing fair or equitable about sending 67 percent of new funding to Chicago where only 19 percent of students in Illinois are educated. The 36th Senate District shouldnt settle for table scraps when steak is an option, said Sen. Anderson.

Our job is not finished," said Sen. Anderson. "The veto override on Senate Bill 1 still has to be voted on in the House where its future remains uncertain. We must continue to push for bipartisan, good-faith negotiations to provide schools throughout Illinois with the best funding possible.

The Governors veto made this legislation into a fair system of funding for all needy schools, said Sen. Weaver. His changes would have prioritized equitable funding for all schools instead of sending hundreds of millions of dollars in special deals to Chicago.

Despite a recent campaign of misinformation waged by Chicago Democrats on the effects of the veto, particularly in regard to Peoria, data from the Illinois State Board of Education proves that the veto created a better funding formula for the schools in my district, said Senator Weaver.

Now the only fair way forward is to put together a compromise bill in the House on Wednesday to make sure our schools are funded this fall, said Sen. Weaver. We need our Democrat colleagues to work with us in good faith on a real solution that makes sure all students have the same access to a quality education.

The motion to override the governor's veto now moves to the House, where it also would have to pass with a three-fifths majority. Override is less certain there.

A key to Manar's plan is the "hold harmless" stipulation, which ensures no less funding than last year. That includes a grant of $250 million for Chicago schools, the nation's third-largest school system, that lawmakers negotiated two decades ago. Rauner said the grant is a "bailout" for the cash-strapped school district and unfair to the other 850 school districts in the state.

Two hours before the Senate action to override Rauner, the governor implored lawmakers to embrace his changes and recognize "true fairness and equity." He extolled the state education board's analysis of his changes, saying it was "great news" for children statewide.

"The numbers bear out how broken our system is and how important our changes are. It shows that for years the state has been sending money to Chicago at the expense of the rest of the state," Rauner said.

Democratic lawmakers, who ended a two-year budget stalemate by approving a state budget over Rauner's objections in July, prohibited the state from disbursing school aid unless done through an evidence-based platform, such as the one in Senate Bill 1. Because neither the legislation nor any other evidence-based program has become law, the state can't cut any aid checks to schools.

___

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BETTENDORF  The Antique Automobile Club of America is holding a national meeting and car show next week in Bettendorf.

Activities will kick off Thursday and run through Saturday. Nearly 200 vehicles will be on display at the Waterfront Convention Center, 2021 State St., on Saturday.

"The show field opens at 8 a.m., so those who want to see these cars in action should come before the event starts at 11 a.m.," said Mary Bartemeyer, co-chair of the event.

"It's a very educational event because there aren't very many places to see the history of the automobile right in front of you anymore. It's free to the public, so we encourage everyone to come out."

Vehicles that will be featured include a 1939 Studebaker Champion business coupe, a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado coupe, a 1910 Sears Buggy, a 1947 Doodle Bug 24 scooter and a 1948 Seagrave pumper fire truck.

To be considered an antique, a vehicle must be 25 years or older. The AACA does not accept hot rods or any kind of modified vehicles that are not true to the original design.

"It's kind of crazy, but a 1991 or your old college beater is considered an antique. The driver participation class is where the owner drives their car every day rather than having it sit in, say, a heated garage, but there are 117 different classes to compete in," said the AACA's Stacy Zimmerman.

"I have worked here for three years, but I grew up with cars because I swear my dad had every car under the sun," she said. "The people in this hobby are just the best people. They are so passionate about their hobbies and their cars. We love to see families and kids at the show. At a lot of our meets, we have events geared specifically for the kids such as an educational or hands-on activity."

The AACA was formed in 1935 in Philadelphia, and the Mississippi Valley Region chapter was founded in 1961. The national organization boasts over 60,000 members in 52 countries and hosts 15 to 20 tours and meetings each year. The largest car show and flea market in the world is held in Hershey, Pa.

According to Ms. Bartemeyer, this is the sixth time the region has hosted the national meeting.

"We apply every year and usually get it every four to five years," she said. "They really enjoy the Quad-Cities because of the Midwest hospitality."

Only those who are members of AACA are able to show their vehicles. Membership costs $40 a year and includes a subscription to the Antique Automobile magazine. For students ages 13 to 25, membership is $12 a year, and for youths 12 or younger, it is $10. Those interested will be able to sign up at the event.

For more information, visit aaca.org.
DAVENPORT  Day-old history collided with history of more than 160 years ago Sunday along the Mississippi riverfront as a unique reader's theater presented some of history's unlearned lessons.

Months after Rock Island's Chuck Oestreich wrote 14 pages of reflections on local historical sites  notably concerning slavery, Native Americans and Abraham Lincoln  the unspoken shadow of Charlottesville hung over the hour-long event.

"It's amazing, how relevant it is," said Mr. Oestreich, an author, bicyclist and river enthusiast, after the reading of "A Bridge to the Future" in which students talk about writing an extra-credit essay about these important locations near downtown Davenport.

At a violent white-supremacist rally Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., a man was charged with second-degree murder after he drove a Dodge Challenger through a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and wounding at least 19 others.

One character at Sunday's Davenport "walking drama" said that today we need to heed Mr. Lincoln's words about "malice towards none, with charity for all," and binding the nation's wounds after the Civil War. "Sometimes I think we've gone a long way from being charitable to each other," one said.

"We've got to do more to solve the problems with African-Americans  with how we deal with differences," another character said.

In introducing the free event to readers and audience members, Mr. Oestreich said that it was not about history, but about emotions and our response to history. It was suggested to him by River Action executive director Kathy Wine.

"We're dealing with ordinary people  students, adults  and their feelings, what they get out of going to historic sites, for our lives today," he said. "The main idea is what's happening in our lives now."

"It's so relevant today," Ms. Wine agreed. "I was a theater major in college. I always thought reader's theater was a wonderful way of introducing history. ... With the art we have, we'd thought we'd do it outside."

"We have the opportunity to create a sense of place here, everyone who understands what went on here has that. We preserve some of the most important sites," she said of River Action.

"The first bridge berm which we own, that's really part of our history. We hear all the time how important our trails are to the area; we enliven them with public art," Ms. Wine said. "It's important to talk about our heritage and the value of these sites."

The group started at River Heritage Park, off River Drive across from the Quad-City Times. Along the trail, there's a small white wooden replica of the first railroad bridge (1856) to cross the Mississippi, erected by River Action. The Davenport-based nonprofit is working to raise money to build a 255-foot footbridge over River Drive, from the first bridge's original berm near Federal Street.

Sunday's drama addressed the importance of that bridge, and the influence of the trial in which Mr. Lincoln helped to defend the bridge and railroad owners after that bridge was destroyed by a steamboat crash.

On May 6, 1856, the Effie Afton  on its maiden voyage  struck a pillar of the Rock Island Railroad bridge. Mr. Lincoln was on the Chicago team that defended the railroad owners against a claim the bridge hindered river traffic and navigation. The 1857 trial ended with a hung jury. The judge dismissed the case, resulting in a victory for railroads and bridges across the country.

Sunday's group admired the larger-than-life bronze Lincoln statue at Bechtel Park, next to the Government Bridge, which honors his role in the case. "It was considered Lincoln's greatest case," Ms. Wine said.

Mr. Oestreich said the site was one that "no one is really sure about," in that instance whether Lincoln really visited the Quad-Cities. Another is where the Black Hawk treaty was signed, and whether slave Dred Scott ever lived at a home built by his owner, John Emerson, on Davenport's 2nd Street.

The drama discussed the value of Native Americans, how they survived, and how terribly they were treated by the U.S. government. Mr. Oestreich addressed a similar theme with African-Americans and the horror of slavery. Many black Americans still don't feel entirely free, he wrote, and that "we still have a lot to learn. How do we deal with people of a different color? A different religion?"

One story character said many people take the river for granted and Sunday gave us "a new appreciation" for it. "It was important in all these things we've been looking at and talking about."

"This was great," said reader Mark Hendricks of Moline, who participated in a reader's theater Mr. Oestreich held at Credit Island last month, inspired by the characters of the "Sunday in the Park" statues. He bikes along the river to work in Riverdale, and takes part in the annual Tweed Ride, which raises money to maintain the statues there.

"I'm really big on local history," Mr. Hendricks said.

"I love it. He loves doing it," Ms. Wine said. River Action will have a Sept. 24 fundraiser at the LeClaire House, 630 E. 7th St., Davenport, to benefit the planned footbridge. The Iowa Department of Transportation will be asked for about $800,000 to support the project, she said.

Part of the original bridge embankment, on which train tracks would have rested and the bridge would have projected from, still exists at the site.
Heres a question to ponder: Are there too many wolves in America or not enough? For most of our history since Europeans arrived on this continent, the question was rarely asked. Most thought wolves were a vicious menace to humans and livestock, and ought to be wiped out.

The wolfs enemies nearly succeeded. At one time, some 2 million wolves roamed across North America, including almost the entire territory of what is now the continental United States. But thanks to a relentless extermination campaign, the beasts nearly disappeared. By 1960 there were only about 300 in the lower 48 states, confined to remote reaches of northern Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Thanks in large part to the federal Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and its successor, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, wolves were saved from extinction in this country, and they began a difficult, painstaking recovery. In the following half-century, the number of gray wolves gradually rose to some 4,500. They are now also found in Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. In all, they are present in just 5 percent of their original habitat. By historical standards, its small progress.

But there are still people who think we have more than enough wolves. And they have managed to persuade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove some of the protection the animals have depended on. But the agency has had only limited success in that endeavor. On Aug. 1 the wolves in our part of the country got a reprieve thanks to a federal appeals court. But a bill advancing through the U.S. Senate could prove devastating. The back story:

The Fish and Wildlife Service has tried repeatedly to de-list the gray wolf in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, which would free those states to allow hunting and trapping of these animals. But the courts have intervened on behalf of Midwestern wolves.

In the latest ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that in stripping the wolves of their protected status, the agency turned its back on the implications of historical range loss and ignored the effect this change would have on wolves outside the western Great Lakes region. This effort to circumvent the Endangered Species Acts explicit de-listing standards, wrote Judge Patricia Millett, was the essence of arbitrary-and-capricious and ill-reasoned agency action.

For now, the Great Lakes wolves will be shielded from humans who want to shoot or trap them for fun or out of misplaced fear. There is no actual need for hunting. If we have learned anything from the return of these awe-inspiring creatures to the Upper Midwest, its that they are very good at coexisting with people.

In the lower 48 states, there are no known cases of humans being killed by wolves, and attacks on humans are virtually unheard of. Wolves occasionally prey on livestock, but far less often than ranchers suggest, and the owners are paid compensation for those rare losses.

None of which deters Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, who wants not only to again remove protections but to block courts from reversing that removal. Defenders of Wildlife and other respected environmental voices condemn Barrassos diabolical HELP Act  which stands for Hunting Heritage and Environmental Legacy Protection. ... Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., citing unrelated provisions, voted for the bill when it cleared a committee vote two weeks ago. We hope she and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., vote no if the measure comes to a floor vote.

If you think there are too many wolves, lifting the protections that have facilitated their comeback makes sense to you. If you find pleasure in killing these animals for sport  even though no one eats wolf meat  you will want to have that right.

But wed bet that most people in the Upper Midwest, as well as the rest of the country, think America would be a better place if wolves were able to expand their numbers and territory. ... Sens. Duckworth and Durbin, let the courts word be the final word.
With the recent increase in income taxes in Illinois, our state is once again among the top eight or so in state and local tax burden, while our state services to taxpayers are among the lowest.

For example, state financial support for public schools as a percentage of total school spending is lowest among the 50 states.

Why, you might ask? Its all about the pension albatross, friend!

Moodys Investor Services reports the states five public employee pension systems are $251 billion short of assets adequate to meet guaranteed future obligations. That works out to about $20,000 in debt equivalent for every person in our state. (By the way, State of Illinois agencies put the underfunding at about half the Moodys figure, but I tend to go with the worst figure when it comes to Illinois fiscal problems.)

The state is paying $7 billion each year to address the underfunding  and will do so until 2045. This is more than the revenue generated by 2 percentage points in the rate of the individual income tax. In other words, if our pensions were fully funded, as they are in Wisconsin, we could have an individual tax rate of 2.95 percent or less, rather than the new 4.95 rate.

Or we could spend the $7 billion to reduce the local property tax big time. Or, my preference, we could use the money to invest in infrastructure, schools, universities, but I guess that thinking is out of fashion right now.

But we arent Wisconsin. The Badger State can, by the way, reduce pension payouts to retirees if the income from its trust fund is insufficient. Illinois cannot.

Here is the briefest tutorial on pensions from a non-expert:

A bedrock principle for pension experts is that benefits for retirees be generated by contributions made earlier into a trust fund nest egg by those retirees when they were working, matched by their employers. Makes sense.

This principle is, however, honored in the breach more than in fact. Our revered Social Security system is, for example, a prime example of intergenerational, pay-as-you-go coverage of benefits. The US Government uses current payments by workers to cover most benefits often earned earlier by others.

But in Illinois, we are also trying to rebuild our trust funds, which should of course have been funded across earlier decades.

At todays low rates of return on investments, however, I seriously doubt we will ever be able to amass a trust fund adequate alone to fund future obligations. Social Security doesnt even try to do so.

It should be noted that a few years ago Illinois sharply reduced future pension benefits for new employees, but we still have the problem of moving the pig through the python of often large benefits for all other employees and retirees.

The state of Illinois makes its required pension payouts of $10 billion annually. This comes from $5.8 billion in investment income (in 2015) from our $80 billion in pension assets, plus employee contributions of $1.6 billion, and state appropriations of $9 billion.

A huge chunk of the excess of state contributions each year go to rebuild the trust funds, so that by 2045 there should, theoretically, be enough in the funds to cover fully the anticipated payouts to retirees.

This excess in state payments over payouts is obviously unavailable for spending on education, social services and infrastructure.

Thats why we have high taxes, low services.

Instead of trying to amass gargantuan trust funds, I think we should continue to build the trust funds, but more slowly, and consider them as rainy-day funds to be drawn upon only in the event of a major Depression.

By doing so, we could shave $2 billion or more off our annual appropriation, make full payments to beneficiaries, and still grow the trust funds. There is no magic in meeting a Year 2045 goal. The $2 billion could go toward meeting current needs.

Some retort that would simply be kicking the can of our fiscal mismanagement farther down the road. Wrong. We would be meeting our obligations to retirees fully. And the Illinois Constitution and the state Supreme Court guarantee all pension benefits promised. There is no weaseling out.

Its the pension albatross, friend, and we need to rethink it.
G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
Aurizon has signed a binding agreement to sell its 1067mm-gauge Queensland intermodal operation linking Brisbane and Cairns to a consortium of Linfox and Pacific National. Aurizon has also signed a separate agreement with Pacific National to sell its Acacia Ridge Intermodal Terminal in Brisbane.

The transactions, valued at $A 200m, include the transfer of around 380 employees as well as assets, commercial and operational arrangements. Both deals will be finalised by the end of June 2018, subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment and Review Board.

Aurizons loss-making interstate intermodal business which runs around five return services per week between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, will cease operations with the loss of approximately 250 jobs. The intermodal businesses carried 2.9 million tonnes of freight in the 2017 financial year, up 4% on 2016.

The interstate business was reportedly on the market earlier this year, but it appears no serious bids have been forthcoming from competitors or potential new market entrants.

Aurizon managing director and CEO Mr Andrew Harding said a review examined future opportunities including divestment, joint venture, retention of the business, or closure of parts that did not offer a sustainable commercial future.

In making the decision to exit, we considered the significant financial losses that have been sustained year on year by Aurizon Intermodal, Harding says. The business has not been able to establish significant scale and a customer base to support a profitable business in a highly-competitive market.

Closure of the interstate business is expected to take effect by December 2017, contingent on finalising transitional and commercial arrangements with customers. Competing interstate freight operators Pacific National and SCT Logistics would be expected to gain additional traffic as a result.

Aurizon says it will cascade standard-gauge rolling stock to other parts of its business and the company will also launch a disposal process for surplus rolling stock and other assets.
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Investigators seek to detain suspects in plotting terror attacks in Moscow

MOSCOW, August 14 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Investigators have asked the Lefortovsky District Court to detain four individuals suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Moscow, the courts spokesperson Yekaterina Krasnova told RAPSI on Monday.

The motion will be heard later today, the courts representative added.

According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the arrested persons are coordinator of the planned attack, namely emissary of the Islamic State organization banned in Russia, explosive device maker and two suicide bombers. Moreover, FSB officers neutralized an explosive production laboratory in the Moscow Region.

Investigators believe that the planned terrorist attacks were organized by the Islamic State leaders and emissaries based in Syria.

The Islamic State, an organization which is prohibited in Russia, is currently one of the major threats to global security. Within the last few years, these terrorists have managed to seize large areas of Iraq and Syria. The organization is also attempting to spread its influence on North Africa  particularly, Libya.
Khrunichev Space Centers $6 mln embezzlement case returned to prosecutors

MOSCOW, August 14 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  The Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow has returned a criminal case over embezzlement of 360 million rubles (about $6 million) at the Khrunichev Space Center, to prosecutors, the courts press service told RAPSI on Monday.

According to the courts spokeswoman Yevgeniya Gorokhova, the decision was made today but reasons were not specified.

In December 2016, the court began hearings in a criminal case against other high-ranking managers of the center over embezzlement of 360 million rubles (about $6 mln). Charges were brought against Vladimir Nesterov, former director general of the space center. Investigators believe that Nesterov organized a criminal group to embezzle government funds from the center in 2007. It included Mikhail Yakushin, the centers chief accountant, Dmitry Dyakonov, head of the Ekopravo economic and legal consultancy, and several other unidentified persons.

Investigators believe that the criminal group members signed fraudulent contracts with Ekopravo, paying the organization 22,000 each month for services that were not actually provided. As a result, more than 360 million rubles were allegedly embezzled from the Center's funds, and numerous false financial and accounting documents were made to conceal the fraud.

The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is one of the country's leading space enterprises. Currently the research centers main priority is construction of Proton and Angara space rockets. In 2014, it was revealed that enterprise faced financial troubles.
The horrific images of a car plowing into a group of counter-protesters Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, will be viewed by millions of Americans in the coming days and weeks, once again prompting national soul-searching about racism, hate and freedom of expression.

A protest billed as the largest gathering of white nationalists in recent years drew hundreds of people carrying Confederate flags and chanting Nazi-era slogans.

As they neared a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesvilles Emancipation Park, they were surrounded by counter-protesters. An ugly brawl soon broke out, but police and National Guard members eventually were able to restore order.

Any sense of calm was shattered, though, when the driver of a sedan hit another car before backing up, careening through counterprotesters in the process. One person was killed, and many more hurt.

President Donald Trump condemned what he called an egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. Trumps critics were quick to seize on his reference to many sides and questioned the sincerity of his call for calm.

There should be no debate on this point: White supremacy is a disease that threatens to weaken an increasingly diverse but divided nation.

Hate crimes are on the rise across the country, and that should concern all peace-loving Americans.

President Trump told reporters that he spoke with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and we agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now.
Russian ex-banker Gitelson appeals arrest warrant in $334 mln embezzlement case

ST. PETERSBURG, August 14 (RAPSI)  Ex-chairman of Inkasbank Alexander Gitelson has filed an appeal against an order to put him on the federal wanted list on charges of embezzling 20 billion rubles ($334 million), RAPSI learnt in the Vasileostrovsky District Court of St. Petersburg on Monday.

Gitelson failed to appear before investigator for bringing charges on July 11. Therefore, an arrest warrant was issued for him.

Later, he was put on the international wanted list. Investigators claim that Gitelson has fled to Austria. In June 2017, the Austrian authorities agreed to prosecute Gitelson, the Investigative Committee said.

From March 2007 to October 2008, the defendant acting as the Board Chairman of Bank of East-European Finance Corporation (EEFC) conspired with Deputy Chairman of the Board Ivan Bibinov to embezzle the banks funds in the amount of 20 billion rubles under the pretense of credit granting to companies controlled by Gitelson.

Bibinov was given a 4-year suspended sentence with a 5-year probation term in May 2015.

In March 2015, Gitelson was convicted and sentenced to three years for embezzling over 2 billion rubles ($33 million at the current exchange rate) in public funds from Inkasbank. A court in St. Petersburg also fined the banker 500,000 rubles ($8,400).

In April 2011, Moscows Meshchansky District Court sentenced Gitelson in absentia to five years in prison and a 1 million-ruble ($16,700) fine for embezzling 495 million rubles ($8.3 million) from his acquaintance, MP Adnan Muzykayev.

Later, the court ruled to combine punishments for both crimes and extended prison sentence to five years.

In May 2016, the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg granted Gitelsons petition for his own bankruptcy.
When you are in Macedonia, the landlocked Balkan nation works hard to remind you that Macedonia is where you are. Assertions of Macedonian identity can be as beautiful as its flag, an exuberant two-tone sunburst known as the Sun of Liberty. They can be as garish as Skopjes obscenely expensive, Las Vegas-style remake of its historic center. They may also take feathered form, like the peacock kept on the grounds of a border-crossing from Greece. The bird struts through the idyll between the distant misty mountains of lakes Ohrid and Prespa and the concrete ribbon where customs officials inspect vehicles. (The peacock is a national symbol, or something just short of it.)

Where the trappings of independent statehood are most fragile, the symbols of nationhood often shine brightest. You learn that in the Balkans, and especially in Macedonia -- a speck of a state whose territory has always been contested. As centuries of Ottoman imperial control began to fray in the 19th century, the so-called Macedonian Question was among the most bloody and intractable, with pitched ethnic battles eventually joined to the manipulations of outside powers such as Britain and Germany. Nowadays, Albania in a strained circumstance could challenge Skopjes territorial control; Greece actively challenges the countrys name, leading to its awkward official appellation, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; and in the 1990s, Athens protestations compelled Skopje to change its flag.

All of this is a lot to handle for a country of 2.1 million. The countrys history is disorienting, and it is easy for a traveler to understand why Skopjes expressions of self tend toward the exuberant. It is in a sense celebrating what it still yearns to create: a stable nation-state on a level with its European peers.

To do that, Macedonians know they need outside help. But regional disputes have held Macedonia back, and those disputes cut to the very core of a nations identity: Greece, displeased with the countrys name, closed the door to NATO right when an invite to begin the accession process seemed nigh, and along with Bulgaria put the brakes on the EU process as well. A decade later, virtually all of its neighbors are farther ahead than Skopje in accession to NATO, the European Union, or both, in a region where some form of Euro-Atlantic integration is seen as vital to national consolidation.

And then Macedonia began to hold itself back. In power for nearly a decade starting in 2006, the government of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski degraded the countrys institutions, packing its courts and laying siege to the free press while bloating the national bureaucracy to create loyalty to his party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, or VMRO-DPMNE. However, after a dramatic turnover of power to a new government this summer, Skopje suddenly appears better positioned than at any time in the last 10 years to push that process forward. The West has shown that it views it as being in its interest to work with Skopje.

A Winding Path

The newly installed government of the staunchly pro-West Zoran Zaev, of the center-left Social Democratic Union, took a winding path to a fragile hold on power.

Macedonia a decade ago fit snug inside the frame of the poster child for progress in the Balkans, and yet it was rejected. Having narrowly avoided the civil wars that afflicted its neighbors as Yugoslavia collapsed, Macedonians elected Gruevskis government on a reform-based platform dedicated to EU and NATO accession. A former minister of finance who had been known as a technocrat, Gruevski turned to a model of patronage-fueled, party-based power politics seasoned with nationalist fervor. Analysts I talked to in Skopje described a situation in which private enterprise was coerced into the hands of elites -- a fate that has also befallen popular news outlets, leaving most independent journalism to be funded from the outside. Debt has risen sharply: The most vivid illustration of VMROs reckless spending is the 21st-century pantheon of kitsch at Skopjes Macedonia Square, where modernist buildings have been given bizarre neo-classical facades at great expense.

The former government may well have continued on its course unimpeded had it not been interrupted by a scandal involving recordings reportedly leaked by intelligence service personnel to the Social Democrats, then in opposition. Among other things, the tapes appear to indicate that the government engaged in election fraud. The leaks in 2015 led to widespread protests, the appointment of a special prosecutor, elections, and finally, the appointment of a new government led by the Social Democrats with the support of a coalition of ethnic Albanian parties. After a sensational attack by pro-VMRO protesters on parliament, Macedonias vacillating president, Georgi Ivanov, this May approved the mandate of a new Cabinet. Zaev took the Social Democrats into power, and Gruevski is now left to fend off charges that could see him face up to 27 years in prison.

A New and Dangerous World

None of the above is meant to stake a side in Macedonian domestic politics -- rather it shows how quickly things can go wrong. Skopje had narrowly averted civil war between its ethnic Macedonian and Albanian populations by working with outside partners to forge the Ohrid Agreement in 2001. Its major parties had willingly turned over power to each other after elections. Macedonias intrinsic interest in joining the Western consensus comes from a need to solidify its institutions and to modernize its economy. Western institutions seemed to offer an exit path for transitional states like those in the Balkans.

When Macedonias appeals to NATO and the European Union were stalled, Europe was in a different era -- an era when it seemed like the peaceable borders of democracy would only progress. It was in this same era that Turkeys efforts to accede to the European Union were treated with derision and when countries like Ukraine and Georgia were told they could eventually accede to NATO, enraging Russia, without however being given firm plans for membership. (As Michael OHanlon points out, this only made those states doubly vulnerable.) Mistakes were made that could have been avoided with a minimum of thoughtfulness.

Now the Western Balkans loom anew as a security challenge for Western leaders to address, and with Macedonia in worse condition than it was a decade ago, some truly bad ideas are being thrown about. The Macedonian Question recently re-emerged, stripped of all historical context and geographical consequence, in the words of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who told an Albanian television station in February that the country is not a country and should have its territory fed to its neighbors along ethnic lines. Academic iterations of this deeply flawed argument have also been recycled in recent months.

The way ethnicity overlays the Balkan map is by no means simple, in either a political or topographical sense, but its manifestation is strongest where its powers are most in question. The deep red of the Albanian flag blankets the roads of villages in Northwestern Macedonia, where ethnic Albanians are the majority -- far more than you tend to see in Albania itself. Likewise in Bosnias Republika Srpska, where the flag of that Serb-dominated constitutional entity drapes highways right up to the perimeter of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Such are the micro-realities of life on a civilizational fault line.

Its too easy to draw the wrong conclusion from this. Ethnic partition has a chthonic draw, always rising anew from the deeps to offer a fresh epiphany, as if identity were set in stone and as if ethnic lines were drawn neat and straight on the map. The last thing this region needs is yet another redrawing of borders.

Indeed, in Macedonia there is at least as much reason to believe that what the ethnic Albanian population wishes is to participate in the existing state, more than forging an alternate union with Albania. It wants its rights guaranteed in such a state, which helps explain why in 2001 the Ohrid Agreement stopped a growing conflict. Similarly in Montenegro, the government was able to recognize Kosovos independence despite broad initial opposition, recognizing that the act would advance its interests. (Behind the nationalist rhetoric it is probable that Serbia would like to do much the same thing.)

Aspirations need a political context for success if they are not to spill over into conflict. Macedonia has experienced a prolonged period of transition from Communist rule, a transition in which economic elites have behaved as kleptocrats while the mass of the population remains poor, and in which weak institutions have limited democracy to zero-sum struggles for dominance between political parties. Failure to begin the accession process to NATO and to engage with the European Union risk creating a growing disappointment and disillusionment that can make all of this worse.

There Is No Easy Answer

The European Union is in little position to enlarge, and as it deals with its own internal problems, it will also need a new model to engage the countries on its periphery. The problems in the EUs own east help elucidate this: The last thing Brussels wants right now is to bring into its membership countries that might turn around and send another Orban, another Szydlo, a future Gruevski, to its Council. It will remain as such so long as the European Union views itself as an all-encompassing civilizational project. In the same way Berlin clashes with Budapest on immigration, many of the normative tenets the Union wants to require of its members go down poorly in places like Skopje. Still, even if the accession process is slow, the long-term tutelage it can provide is considerable.

NATO can move more quickly, though its scope for helping members is more limited. A membership action plan for Macedonia was already in place years ago, and Macedonias military is considered highly competent -- probably more capable than that of Montenegro, which joined the alliance earlier this year. As OHanlon also pointed out, NATO has shifted from its earlier, purely self-defense role, to a function where it helped create a space for a number of states to improve governance and solidify transitions to post-communist polities.

There is no easy path. But an opportunity has opened up for the West in Macedonia, a country within Europe, 600-odd miles from Vienna. If the West doesnt figure out its act in the Balkans, plenty of other outside actors already are.
When India and Pakistan became independent 70 years ago, they were at the same level of development, with both equally poor and wretched. But the economic gap between them is growing.

Persistent underdevelopment has afflicted the Indian subcontinent since the region was unshackled from the chains of British colonial domination seven decades ago. South Asia's growth and development have been underwhelming compared to those of places like Northeast and Southeast Asia.

The region's independence from British rule was marked by its partitioning along religious lines, giving birth to a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan as two independent countries. At the time of their independence in 1947, they both found themselves at a similar level of socio-economic development. The two newly formed nations were desperately poor and desiccated, home to hundreds of millions of destitute, illiterate and malnourished people.

India started its independent journey with an advantage by inheriting public institutions set up by the British during their rule. It also had a bigger share of the urban population, industry and transportation infrastructure. Pakistan, on the other hand, had the upper hand in agriculture, as the nation's territory composed of a huge tract of the alluvial, irrigated land of Punjab.

The two countries dreamt of rapid economic advancement, in the hope that it would uplift millions of their impoverished citizens.

Similar paths

There was significant convergence in their economic policies in the 1950s and 60s. Inspired by the Soviet Union and skeptical of capitalism, both sides designed centrally planned, state-led economies. The focus was on import substitution and self-sufficiency. Unsurprisingly, it was accompanied by their governments executing protectionist and interventionist policies, holding down growth and sustaining widespread poverty.

Read: Indian PM Narendra Modi launches sweeping tax reform

Inequality was as much a problem then as it is now. In the 1970s, redistribution of wealth came to dominate political discourse in both countries. While India's then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi captured public imagination with her "gharibi hatao" (eliminate poverty) call, her Pakistani counterpart Zulfikar Ali Bhutto popularized the slogan "Roti, Kapda aur Makan" (food, clothing and shelter).

Gandhi's radical approach to economic management was epitomized by her drive to nationalize a number of industries, including banking, insurance, coal and steel. Across the border, Bhutto, too, was committed to a strong state control over the economy. He also nationalized financial institutions as well as a number of other sectors.

The stated intention behind the nationalization drives in both nations was to reduce inequality and share economic prosperity more widely. But the policies slowed down growth, drove away foreign investment and discouraged entrepreneurship. Economists claim they actually increased inequality rather than decreasing it.

In Pakistan's case, political and security risks also grew in the 1980s. The rise of sectarian conflict and the emergence of religious political parties were compounded by the proliferation of extremist ideologies and violence emanating from Pakistan's involvement in the Afghan War. These factors, too, had a negative effect on the Pakistani economy and people's well-being.

Opening up

The growth-crippling policies ultimately caused myriad and complex dysfunctions in both economies, hurt development efforts and sparked severe crises by the late 1980s and early 1990s. The large deficits and balance-of-payments difficulties forced the two nations to knock on the door of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help. Pakistan went to the IMF in 1988 and India in 1991.

Both nations had to implement some radical free-market reforms, liberalizing and opening up their economies. But while India approached the IMF only once for help in 1991, Pakistan has sought assistance from the fund 12 times since 1988.

It reflects the diverging paths the two nations' economies have taken since then.

"Since 1990, as India has moved ahead with economic liberalization and major reforms, Pakistan has become mired in episodes of political turmoil and economic crises," said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific Chief Economist at IHS Markit, a global information and analytics firm. "India's economy has outperformed Pakistan during this time, and the country has achieved a more balanced and sustained macroeconomic performance."

Read: Will Modi's Germany trip give thrust to free trade?

This striking progress by India has drawn the attention of the global investor community and magnified the economic gap with its neighbor. Still, experts point out that despite India's relatively better performance, per capita GDP levels are still broadly at the same level. "India's per capita GDP has reached an estimated $1,930 in 2017, while Pakistan's per capita GDP is estimated at $1,560," Biswas told DW.

Energy-sector crises have contributed significantly to Pakistan's economic problems, with large power-sector debts and inadequate electricity-generating capacity resulting in severe power shortages. They have acted as a key bottleneck for industrial development, prompting the government in Islamabad to make power infrastructure a key focus.

Undertaking reforms

Both India and Pakistan continue to remain notorious for red tape and cumbersome barriers for private sector investment flows, with India still ranked 130 out of 190 countries in the 2017 World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index, while Pakistan is slightly worse with a ranking of 144.

Read: Indian PM Narendra Modi launches sweeping tax reform

That's why they have been focusing their efforts on pushing through critical reforms aimed at easing infrastructure bottlenecks, accelerating growth and spreading prosperity, with mixed results.

India's economy is expected to show sustained rapid expansion of around 7.5 percent per year over the next five years, boosted by the government's initiatives to streamline the nation's clumsy tax regime, accelerate infrastructure investment and bolster manufacturing. The Pakistani economy, meanwhile, is estimated to grow at a pace of around 5 percent per year over the next five years.

Islamabad pins its growth hopes on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a joint multibillion-dollar project, which is expected to channel tens of billions of dollars in Chinese investment into Pakistan. Experts reckon the initiative could give a fillip to expansion over the next five years.

Less integration

Political and border tensions between Pakistan and India over the past seven decades, and the ensuing deep-seated mutual mistrust and hatred, have spilled over into the economic arena, hindering any meaningful commercial partnership between them. The bitterness and suspicion between the two sides have also contributed to their committing enormous financial resources toward defense and national security, thus resulting in far lower resources available for other areas such as education and health in a region where millions still live on less than 2 dollars a day.

Furthermore, they have pushed South Asia behind others in terms of economic integration. The region is plagued by high trade barriers, underdeveloped transport infrastructure and regulatory hurdles, among a slew of other problems. And it remains much less integrated into global manufacturing supply chains.

For the situation to improve, analysts say, both countries need to find a more peaceful coexistence built on bilateral trade and investment flows.

"The EU example, whereby Germany's relations with other European nations have been built on peace and stability with steadily improving economic and political ties in the aftermath of two devastating world wars, should serve as a role model for future India-Pakistan relations," said economist Biswas.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/14/2017



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/14/2017



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

Former winner, Vienna Girardi , has suffered a miscarriage after revealing her pregnancy with identical twin girls was high risk.Vienna was 18 weeks into her pregnancy when her twin girls "went to Heaven on August 5" as a result of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.Vienna, 31, shared the news of her devastating loss in an emotional Facebook post on Sunday, August 13."This is the hardest thing I have ever had to write. On Aug 3rd, I went in for an ultra sound bc the Perinatologist noticed one of my twins had more fluids than the other which was the first sign of TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome) this is when one twin takes more nutrients than the other," wrote Vienna, who won the heart of Jake Pavelka on : On the Wings of Love."They said that it did look like it had improved over the last week though. Unfortunately, that was not the case and that evening my water broke due to the amniotic sacs rupturing. I spent the next 2 days in the hospital trying everything to save them."Vienna had announced her pregnancy in June by posting an ultrasound photo on Instagram accompanied by the caption, "Twice the Blessing, Twice the Fun."According to her representative, Richard Harlow, Vienna celebrated a gender reveal on July 30, only four days before she was admitted to the hospital on August 3 when her water broke.Vienna continued in her Facebook post: "The doctors had warned me that if I did not go into labor and deliver the babies, I was taking the chance of risking my own life and causing an infection in my uterus but they could not survive at only 18 weeks.""They also said that there was a very slim chance under 5% that the babies could survive and the fluids in their amniotic sacs replenish themselves so as any mother would do I did everything to save them but their hearts stopped beating on day two which is also when I went into a septic shock with 104 fever," the former reality TV star wrote."My little angels went to Heaven on Aug 5th and I was rushed into the OR for emergency surgery and was in the ICU for 4 days."Vienna apparently has a heavy heart, and her representative told People she still has "a long and arduous journey to recovery.""I don't know why this happened and I pray the Lord gives me strength to understand why he needed my little girls. After days of laying in bed heartbroken and trying to piece what happened back together a doctor asked me if I would consider donating my little girls to science so they can also understand why this happens and be able to save another women who has twins with TTTS," Vienna revealed in her post."This was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my life but I knew my little girls were in Heaven already and the pain I feel I would never want any mother to ever feel. RIP My Sweet Angels. Your mommy will never forget you and I loved you both with my entire heart."Vienna additionally thanked her fans for their support and prayers, asking everyone to respect her privacy at this time and allow her to grieve.Vienna never publicly announced the identity of the twins' father.Vienna was previously engaged to NASCAR driver Todd Allen, whom she dated for three years prior to his August 2016 marriage proposal. However the pair broke off their engagement and split only a few months later in November, Us Weekly reported at the time."If he's stupid enough to walk away, be smart enough to let him go," Vienna captioned a November Instagram photo of herself out with a girlfriend.Vienna was known as the villain from Jake's : On the Wings of Love, 's 14th season, because she clashed with most of the women in the house.The couple had called off their engagement in June 2010, just three months after the finale aired on ABC. Their split was very volatile, as both individuals made unflattering accusations and claims about each other in the press.Shortly after her breakup with Jake, Vienna began dating sixth-season ette contestant Kasey Kahl . The couple, along with Jake, all appeared on Bachelor Pad's second season together in 2011, which sparked endless drama.
"Vanderpump Rules" star Stassi Schroeder says her boyfriend dumped her on their anniversary.

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The 29-year-old television personality announced Saturday on Twitter that Patrick Meagher broke up with her on their fourth anniversary as a couple.

"Broken up with on our anniversary after I planned a trip for us to Mexico. Call me Carrie Bradshaw," she wrote, referencing Carrie's trip to Mexico following her split from Big in the Sex and the City movie.

"@rachaelnobrien you're coming w me now."

Schroeder followed up by sharing a photo of herself FaceTiming with her dog while in Mexico on Monday.

She later tweeted about missing the latest episode of "Game of Thrones."

"AND @hbonow doesn't work in Mexico, because... of course. Cool. See you next week Game of Thrones," the star wrote.

Schroeder had dedicated a since-deleted post to Meagher on Instagram on their anniversary Friday.

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E! News reported the star shared a photo with Meagher and poked fun at their on-again, off-again relationship in the caption.

"I met this gangster 4 years ago. And we've been together consistently without one disagreement ever..." she wrote.

Schroeder and Meagher had appeared to reconcile in May following a split in mid-2016.

The reality star addressed the breakup on her podcast, Straight Up with Stassi, at the time, acknowledging she and Meagher have "broken up and gotten back together so many times."
'As India progresses and takes an increasingly hardline approach to Pakistani hostility, the young and restless population of Pakistan, sooner than later, will demand Gazwa e Hind (conquest of India),' warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).

For someone born on the cusp of Indian Independence and in the evening of one's life, the prospects of peace between India and Pakistan is a legitimate aspiration for the people of that generation.

Recently, a prominent Pakistani lobbyist in the US, of similar vintage, asked this same question of me. Unfortunately, the answer to this is question is negative.

In the foreseeable future there is no chance for peace between the two countries. This brief essay is an attempt to explain why the logic of why this is likely to be so.

The first and the foremost reason is the military domination of the politics of Pakistan.

Even the most ardent and patriotic Pakistani will agree that their politics, policies towards India, Afghanistan, US and China are under firm control of the military.

The Pakistani military has successfully sold the canard that there is constant threat to Pakistani security from India. This is a lie.

With its conventional forces half of India's size and with stockpile of modern American and Chinese weapons, Pakistani armed forces are very capable of defending themselves against a conventional attack by India.

In addition, the nuclear dimension means that even the Indian conventional threat is of a limited nature so as to not trigger a nuclear war.

Keeping the bogey of the Indian threat alive is necessary for the Pakistani army so that it can maintain its iron grip over the country's politics.

Countries do not go to war just because they have the armies; every war is fought for political aims.

India can achieve no conceivable objective by going to war with Pakistan.

Modern history tells us that it is virtually impossible to rule a country that has a hostile population.

Conquest of Pakistan serves no interest of India. But it has to be accepted that anti-Pakistan rhetoric is quite common in India, with overt threats of use of force.

The simple reason for this is that knowing fully well that Pakistan does not pose any viable security threat to India, the rhetoric is a no risk political gambit to show off for politicians. It fetches votes in India.

Domination of the army in Pakistan is not the only reason for hostile relations between the two countries.

Even if the Pakistani army was to turn the corner and put the welfare of its people above its institutional interests, peace will elude Pakistan.

Demography is destiny.

Like geography, it influences politics, economics and issues of war and peace.

Though demography (population numbers, composition and density) is not permanent and certainly changes, yet the rate of change is very slow and there is a certain inevitability about its effect.

Pakistan is a classic case where the demography of the country in combination with its geography makes a combustible mixture that has the potential to blow up the region in mid-term future.

So how many Pakistanis are there?

The true answer will be only be known this year after the result of the current census are out. It is the first census being carried out in Pakistan after 19 years.

As per the last census in Pakistan -- conducted in 1998 -- its population was 130 million. The next census was due in 2008, but was never carried out due to opposition from various quarters.

Even the present census is being undertaken with the help of the Pakistani army. Nearly 200,000 soldiers have been deployed for this task.

Census figures are crucial since the distribution of resources as well as seats in the federal parliament will be decided based on the numbers.

Provinces other than Punjab accuse the dominant province of over counting itself and undercounting the rest, particularly Sindh.

Then there is the problem of large number of Afghan refugees settled in Baluchistan and Karachi.

The Baluchis fear that the census will show that they have become a minority in their own province.

One should expect great internal turbulence once the results of the current census are out.

Irrespective of the internal effect, the population explosion on India's doorstep bodes ill for the region.

The demand for lebensraum in in the East (India) is waiting to happen.

Various agencies of the United Nations have been monitoring the population of Pakistan based on sample surveys. Some of the findings are that by 2025, in less than a decade's time, Pakistan's projected population is expected to touch 210 million.

Already, over 40 percent of the population live officially under the poverty line. This comes to almost 72 million abjectly poor and desperate individuals.

Add to this the fact that over 65 percent of the population is under 25 with barely 16 percent being literate.

The explosive impact of the simmering rage of the young and the disfranchised human bomb becomes fairly clear.

Add another 30 million (we are talking minimum projections here) to this boiling cauldron of social discontent over the next decade and the consequences should not be difficult to fathom.

No wonder, the agitating mobs are getting bigger and bigger in size and turning more violent.

There are simply too many, too angry at being squeezed into a suffocating socio-economic environment, and too young to fear anyone in taking down any system that does not deliver change.

Pakistan has no serious population control programme.

UN statistics also shows that the per woman fertility in Pakistan is 5.2 children. This is in a sense misleading since the middle class is not part of it.

Thus, the really poor and the illiterate are the ones who are adding more than 6 children to the pool of the poverty-stricken multitude.

At this rate of growth of population, Pakistan in a decade will become the world's third most populous country after India and China, overtaking the US.

With a meagre fertile landmass, no minerals, rudimentary industry, Pakistan is destined to implode.

Far from developing, Pakistan may also not be able to exist in its present physical form unless it makes a serious commitment towards population control.

Pakistan is unable to provide resources to its present population, let alone cater for the coming human waves. Whatever development plans are made by whoever are laid asunder by population.

Historically, Europe also saw this kind of population growth in the 16th and 17th century. But those were the days of fluid national boundaries and colonialism.

The European hordes decimated the populations of America and Australia and usurped the resources of Africa to get over this crisis.

This luxury is not available in the 21st century.

In some ways, a similar situation exists in India as well. Our northern states have similarly high human fertility rates. But the south and west of India, that has reached demographic stability, provides an outlet for the surplus population of the north.

The north to south labour movement has been noted in Indian census reports. For some years, the Gulf boom provided a similar outlet for the Pakistani population. But with a dramatic fall in oil prices, the Gulf boom is over.

The restive population of Pakistan is being kept under control by the ruling elites with the help of religious mobilisation.

'Jihad' is not merely a religious concept in Pakistan, but an avenue of employment.

To keep the fires of jihad burning is thus a political necessity.

A permanent state of enmity with India is thus a necessary precondition for keeping the country together and also keep resources flowing to the military.

As India progresses and takes an increasingly hardline approach to Pakistani hostility, the young and restless population of Pakistan, sooner than later, will demand Gazwa e Hind (conquest of India).

A beleaguered Pakistani government and the military will then be forced to adopt the path of a military adventure.

The Pakistani womb bomb is deadlier than its nuclear bomb and its chain reaction is unstoppable.

India would do well to take into account the challenge posed by the demographic implosion in Pakistan that has the potential to trigger nuclear explosions in the subcontinent.

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a military historian and coordinator of the Pune-based think-tank Inpad.

IMAGE: Indian soldiers near the border with Pakistan.
'Can the US be persuaded to embark on a path of calibrated and stronger sanctions on Pakistan?'

'India will have to realistically base its strategy on getting the US to reduce/end its financial aid and supply of military equipment to Pakistan,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, former high commissioner to Pakistan.

When 250 Indians perished in the bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai in March 1993, it soon became clear that the entire episode had been executed by Dawood Ibrahim's notorious 'D Company', aided by Pakistan's 'Deep State' and the Inter-Services Intelligence.

The Bill Clinton administration made some private protestations to Pakistan, drawing attention to the involvement of the then ISI chief Lieutenant General Javed Nasir in motivating and supporting Dawood.

But American protestations ended there. The United States returned to 'business as usual' with Pakistan.

This American indifference continued even after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, with US oil major UNOCAL seeking to strike a major deal on a gas pipeline through Afghanistan with the country's then Taliban ruler Mullah Omar.

Once it became clear that the Taliban had knowledge about and backed the 9/11 terrorist strike, the US invaded Afghanistan, overthrowing the Taliban regime.

Washington, however, made it clear that the prime terrorist group targeted was Al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. The Taliban was and is primarily viewed by the US as an 'insurgent' group.

Ever since then, Osama and the Taliban and Al Qaeda leaderships and cadres were treated differently. Osama and other Al Qaeda leaders were sought out and marked for elimination as terrorists.

The US knew the residential addresses of Taliban leaders in Quetta and elsewhere, but mounted little pressure on Pakistan to seek out and eliminate the Taliban leadership, with the exception of those affiliated to the autonomous Haqqani Network.

Individual Taliban leaders were, however, targeted in drone strikes in thew Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan.

A decade later, the Americans accorded international legitimacy to the Mullah Omar-led Taliban, by facilitating the establishment of a Taliban 'Office' in Qatar, to enable them to interact with the outside world.

This opened the floodgates for countries all across the world to deal directly with the Taliban.

It also led to the Taliban entering into negotiations, more or less as on an equal footing with the Afghan government, at different forums, where the other participants have included the US, China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, India and the Central Asian Republics.

China and Russia, who have close ties with the Taliban, are key players in this process.

With scant knowledge of these realities, some media houses and even a member of the Rajya Sabha, wanted proceedings initiated for India to declare Pakistan as a State sponsor of terror, evidently in the unrealistic hope that the Americans could be persuaded to follow suit.

It was a move that would have left us isolated and ridiculed across the world, which was rightly rejected by the Narendra D Modi government.

There has also been talk in India of getting the US to declare Pakistan as a 'State sponsor of terrorism'. The US secretary of state has been empowered to declare a country that has repeatedly provided support for terrorism as a 'State sponsor of terrorism'.

Such a declaration would involve American restrictions/bans on foreign economic assistance, and a ban on defence exports and controls on export of dual use items.

While countries like North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, Libya and South Yemen figured earlier in this category, only three countries -- Iran, Sudan and Syria, today face sanctions as declared 'State sponsors of terrorism'.

The US has fought shy of declaring Pakistan as a 'State sponsor of terrorism' primarily because a significant section of the American establishment feels that it has to remain 'engaged' with Pakistan, not only because supplies for its forces in Afghanistan are routed through Pakistan, but also because Washington cannot remain totally isolated from the only Islamic nuclear power in the world.

There is concern that bereft of the US having any influence in Pakistan, that country can again become the focal point of jihadi terrorists worldwide, like it was just prior to 9/11.

Moreover, the US has painted itself into a corner, where any move to isolate Pakistan significantly will be opposed not only by China, but also by Russia.

In these circumstances, India will have to realistically base its strategy on getting the US to reduce/end its financial assistance and the supply of military equipment and spares to Pakistan.

The US has ample evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the 26/11 attack in Mumbai, in which a few American nationals were also killed. It has, however, not acted against those responsible for the attack.

It is futile to expect, for the present, that Washington will suddenly cut all assistance to and contacts with Pakistan.

The question really is whether the US can be persuaded to embark on a path of calibrated and stronger sanctions on Pakistan and also use its leverage and influence to persuade international financial institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank and its allies like the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan to follow suit.

Chinese aid alone cannot bail out Pakistan from its current economic woes, involving a growingly adverse balance of payments situation.

Prime Minister Modi's summit in Washington, DC with President Donald Trump gives some cause for optimism on getting the Americans and their allies to move forward progressively to turn the screws on Pakistan.

The United States Congress could be quietly persuaded that, as a first step, there should be a slowdown in supplies of spares and ammunition for US supplied equipment like F-16 fighter jets.

This could be complemented by stronger conditions on assistance from international financial institutions, where the US and its allies wield overwhelming influence.

The joint declaration by Modi and Trump and subsequent actions by the Trump administration have already caused nervousness and concern in Islamabad and in the Army GHQ at Rawalpindi.

The declaration, for the first time, listed organisations like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and even Dawood Ibrahim's 'D Company' as terrorist outfits, while welcoming the US state department's announcement as declaring Kashmiri terrorist leader Syed Salahuddin of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen as a global terrorist.

Pakistan was also told that it has to act against the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks and the attack on Pathankot air base.

There has been subsequent follow-up action, with the US department of defence cutting reimbursements for security assistance to Pakistan substantially.

There are prospects of further cuts in the future. The Pentagon is also considering drone strikes within Pakistan, in areas from where the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network operate.

In its annual country report of 2016, the state department has averred that Pakistan did not take sufficient action against groups like Lashkar and Jaish that acted against India.

But action against Pakistan will only be escalated in a carefully calibrated manner.

In a recent book on the saga of Osama bin Laden's decade-long stay in Pakistan, authors Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy have given an insight into how Pakistan hid Osama, the world's most wanted terrorist, barely a mile away from its prestigious military academy in Abbottabad.

The book is a riveting account of the role of successive military chiefs and chiefs of the ISI ranging from Lieutenant General Hamid Gul in the 1990s to Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha during the 26/11 attack on Mumbai, in promoting terrorism in India and Afghanistan.

There is nothing to suggest that the Pakistani military intends to change its priorities, unless it finds the blowback unbearable.

IMAGE: Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, left, with his predecessor General Raheel Sharif. Photograph: Inter Services Public Relations/Pakistan
'I think we have had these periods of standoffs with China.'

'And there is enough knowledge, enough experience, enough wisdom still available to be able to retrieve situations.'

IMAGE: Then vice president Hamid Ansari visits a photo exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the 'Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence' in Beijing in 2014.

Photograph: Wang Zhao/Getty Images

Before he became vice president, Hamid Ansari was India's ambassador to Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; high commissioner to Australia; and India's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.

Experience that makes him perfectly suited to tackle questions on India's ability to tackle the Kashmir and China problems.

In the concluding part of his exclusive interview with Karan Thapar, Ansari also discusses his future plans.

You have been a very successful diplomat. You've been an ambassador or high commissioner to six countries, including the United Nations, before you became vice president. And it's in that light that I want to raise briefly, two issues of deep concern.

The first is the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking in Bangalore you said, and I am quoting 'the political immobility in relation to Jammu and Kashmir is disconcerting'. Are you suggesting that the governments both in Srinagar and Delhi ought to be taking more initiatives and are not.

Is that the immobility that you are talking about?

Yes. Yes. The problem is and has always been primarily a political problem. And it has to be addressed politically.

And politicians today are ducking it?

That's my impression. And I'm not the only one in the country.

So, when you look at the trajectory of developments from say the killing of Burhan Wani in July last year and the way things have escalated, are you worried about what is happening in Kashmir?

Are you apprehensive that the situation may be passing beyond a point of control?

Well, when young boys and girls come out on to the streets and throw stones day after day, week after week, month after month, it's something to worry about because they are our children, they are our citizens.

Something is obviously going wrong. What exactly?

I am not the final word on it, but I think there are enough people in the country who are worried about it. Eminent people belonging to different political persuasions and their worry must be taken on board.

And in your speech when you said this immobility is disconcerting you were actually saying to those in authority, be they in Delhi and Srinagar, you got to respond and act. You can't not do so?

Those are my words. I have expressed my worry in my own terms. Now whether someone reads it or not is not my business.

***

Losing a generation of Kashmiris

***

The second issue that is problematic today is the India-China standoff at Doklam.

The Chinese newspaper the Global Times quoted a Chinese expert who said that a small-scale military operation is possible, may be even likely, in two weeks.

Speaking of the apprehension in India, are you apprehensive about this situation?

Not really. I think we have had these periods of standoffs with China. And there is enough knowledge, enough experience, enough wisdom still available to be able to retrieve situations.

This is a very interesting answer that you are giving because the point made repeatedly by the government or the MEA spokesperson is that the present standoff is not substantively different to those we have seen in the past.

The Chinese, as you know, have vigorously and strenuously denied that.

You are relatively sanguine about the handling of the situation.

You are not worried even though many in the newspapers and television are beginning to express anxiety and fear. You don't fall into that category.

The totality of Indian experience in dealing with China is very considerable, and makes me think that we will handle it.

And you are confident or at least not apprehensive, at the moment, that we are handling it properly?

No, I think that the government will manage it.

***

The value of diplomacy in Beijing

***

My last question. What next?

That time will tell.

But have you any plans in mind? Have you decided how you will spend your years of freedom? Because uptil now job restraints, responsibilities and protocol have weighed down upon you.

You will still not be a free man. You will still be surrounded by security. But have you any idea what you want to do?

Do all the things that I wanted to do and have not been able to do in sufficient measure.

Does that include writing your memoirs?

No.

So, the wonderful stories and anecdotes will remain a secret with you forever.

Probably.

Probably?

Secrets will because I am bound by the Official Secrets Act.

But what about the lovely stories and anecdotes? Would you be tempted if an intelligent publisher were to come knocking on your door to write them down?

I don't think I have that many stories to tell.

So, all you know you will keep to yourself.

Maybe not. But they will not be put down in book form.

But we can look forward to hearing you in more discussions like this one?

You won't have the time, and I won't have the inclination.

But for today, Mr Vice President, I am deeply grateful for the honour -- the pleasure of doing this wonderful interview. Thank you very much indeed.

It's been great talking to you, Karan. All the best.
'The national anthem and Vande Mataram deserve to be respected, but binding people by rules can't ensure patriotism.'

Former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian tells Veer Arjun Singh that while he respects the spirit of the Madras high court ruling that Vande Mataram should be played in educational institutions and workplaces, he does not believe patriotism can be forced.

What are your views on the Madras high court ruling for Tamil Nadu?

While I respect the spirit of the ruling, I am critical of its application.

Such a directive from the court should have been for the whole country, if at all, and not just for Tamil Nadu.

We have the national anthem that is sung and respected across all states, while Vande Mataram is unofficially the national song.

By asking to play it regularly in every classroom and every office, the court is certainly overdoing it.

The court in its ruling said 'Patriotism is an essential requirement for every citizen of this country'.

This comes after the Supreme Court's ruling that mandates playing the national anthem in cinemas.

Are such rulings forcing people to prove their patriotism?

I believe that most people in India are patriotic, while they may not be overly demonstrative about it.

Love for one's country is something that comes naturally and can't be forced.

The national anthem and Vande Mataram deserve to be respected, but binding people by rules can't ensure patriotism.

In my view, it is not to be brought to the bazaar by saying that every shop and every courtroom will sing it every morning.

There have been cases where people who refused to stand up for the national anthem were branded anti-national and beaten.

Do such directives encourage vigilantism?

Maybe a person who did not stand up for the national anthem was injured, physically incapacitated or hard of hearing.

People who do it out of disrespect should be socially ostracised, and, in worst cases, even reported to the authorities. But their actions should not be seen as a criminal offence.

A fellow citizen can express his or her disapproval, but by no means should people take the law in their own hands.

If a person shouts slogans against the country from the rooftops of Jawaharlal Nehru University, he or she should be charged with sedition, no question about it, but vigilantism should be strongly criticised.

Do you think influential people in high posts are invoking patriotism to suppress opinions, criticism and humour?

Is it anti-national to criticise a ruling government, the army or the judiciary?

The army that protects us and the judiciary that empowers us should be dealt with utmost respect.

While I have the highest respect for the judiciary, I criticise its delayed judgments and I write about the need for judicial reforms.

Similarly, there has been corruption in the armed forces and reports of scandals involving high-ranking officials.

Every Indian has the right to criticise the country's highest institutions.

Transparency and public scrutiny is important.

The Philippines recently passed a bill making it illegal for its citizens to not sing the national anthem.

Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who was critical of the Chinese government, died in prison.

Can deploying fear of the law ensure love for one's country?

Nothing can be ensured by using force.

I will despise a person who is unpatriotic, but taking harsh action against people who are criticising their country is a sign of weakness.

India is a strong country and should stand against such acts.

In an opinion piece on education in India, you said 'Politics is permeating every aspect of educational administration'.

Do you think making changes to invoke patriotism in the younger generation is taking the focus away from real educational reforms?

I think that a debate on patriotism or Vande Mataram, per se, is not required.

There are insufficient debates on what is affecting the country like poverty, preventive medication and education.

Our government, Parliament, media and judiciary are not paying attention to these vital subjects.

How would you define nationalism?

Nationalism or patriotism is the respect for a country that people have in their hearts.

I believe that most Indians are patriotic, while they may not show it all the time. But there are also people in the country who are not very patriotic.

We can't control every mind and we can't expect everybody to think in the exact same way.

We should accept and accommodate different views.

IMAGE: School boys in Jammu participate in Independence Day celebrations. Photograph: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters
Heavy rains in the last three days triggered flash floods in parts of Bihar, where 41 people have died so far, and inundated large areas in Assam and North Bengal, paralysing normal life and snapping rail link to the Northeast from the rest of the country.

IMAGE: A villager carries grains on a banana raft as he shifts from a flooded village in Araria district of Bihar. Photograph: PTI Photo

In Arunachal Pradesh too, the flood situation continued to be grim in several districts with recurring landslides disrupting road traffic.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit areas, told reporters that Araria was the worst effected district and water has entered the district headquarters.

Flood waters have engulfed areas in Kisanganj, three blocks of Purnia and one block of Katihar damaging roads.

He said heavy rains in Nepal and Bihar in last three days have led to the situation and the state government is carrying out relief operations in flooded areas on a war-footing.

Forty-one people have died in floods in Bihar so far, said the Principal Secretary, disaster management department, Pratyay Amrit.

IMAGE: The heavy rain has led to to cancellation of all incoming trains from various parts of the country towards northeast region. Photograph: Rediff.com

While 20 people died in Araria, six in Sitamarhi, five in Kisanganj, three each in East Champaran, West Champaran and Darbhanga districts and one in Madhubani.

The State weather office forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places in northern and southern parts of the state on Tuesday.

An estimated 65.37 lakh population of 12 districts are affected by flood, Amrit said.

The CM thanked the Centre for prompt response in providing assistance to the state after he telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

Kumar said he also spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence minister Arun Jaitley on the flood situation.

IMAGE: Assam has received heavy rainfall in the last 72 hours. Photograph: Rediff.com

The chief minister said that besides the army column (around 50 personnel) which was sent to Purnia, four teams of National Disaster Response Force had arrived in Bihar on Sunday and six more NDRF teams landed on Monday to assist the state.

The Railway Board has decided to cancel all incoming trains from various parts of the country towards northeast region, which were to reach either Katihar or Malda town till 10 am of August 16, 2017, North Eastern Frontier Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma said in a statement.

Heavy rainfall in the last 72 hours in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and other NE states had resulted in railway operations being severely hampered as rain water has inundated railway tracks at several places in Katihar and Alipurduar division of NF Railway, Sharma said.

IMAGE: People wade through a flooded road, along with their belongings, after heavy rain at Balurghat in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal. Photograph: PTI Photo

In view of the prevailing condition, 11 outgoing trains have been cancelled by NF Railway, Sharma said adding four other trains have been short terminated at various locations, he added.

On Sunday, 22 trains were cancelled, while 14 others were stranded at various places as tracks were flooded.

While many rivers in Alipurduar and Katihar divisions were in spate, NF Railway authorities have been keeping a close watch and continuously monitoring the situation of nearby railway bridges and tracks, taking all precautionary measures for safe running of the trains, he said.

The emergency control was being manned by senior officials at the headquarter and divisions, Sharma said adding train tracks were affected at as many as 12 locations initially, of which seven have been repaired and restored.

Sharma, however, said that train connectivity from New Jalpaiguri to Guwahati, Guwahati to Dibrugarh and Murkongselek continued to be normal.

IMAGE: A truck gets washed away owing to the heavy rain in east Champaran, Bihar.

Photograph: PTI Photo

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, We are concerned about the flood situation across the country. Earlier floods had affected south Bengal. Now north Bengal was also affected. We are monitoring the situation round-the-clock for relief and rescue operations.

State government sources said that Phulahar river had crossed its danger level, while 20 villages, mostly under Harischandrapur Block-II and Ratua block in Malda district were inundated.

Situation was similar at Bhutni Island, while erosion was was taking place at Pardeonapur village near Farakka also in Malda district.

Eastern Railway chief public relations officer R Mahapatra said that a number of trains originating in the state were cancelled as water is flowing above the railway tracks in North East Frontier Railway jurisdiction.

IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar takes an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas.

Photograph: PTI Photo

The next announcement would be made only after the situation improved, he said.

East Central Railway said that rail traffic has been hit between Kisanganj and Hatwar due to flood water flowing above the danger mark at pillar number 117 under Katihar division.

An ECR statement released by Chief Public Relations Officer Rajesh Kumar said 33 trains have been cancelled and 11 short-terminated.

In Arunachal Pradesh, flood situation continued to be grim in several districts with reports of disruption of surface communication pouring in from various parts of the state.

Remote Anjaw district remained cut off from rest of the state for the past seven days as the main road to the district from Lohit are blocked in several places by landslides triggered by incessant rains, officials said.

Food shortage was looming large in Anjaw district following disruption in surface communication. Intra-district road communications were also badly affected due to landslides.

Though the Border Road Task Force has deployed men and machines to clear road blockades, recurring landslides were hampering restoration work, officials said.

Rhino habitats Kaziranga, Pabitora flooded again The second wave of floods in Assam have submerged rhino habitats KazirangaNational Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary forcing the animals there to take shelter on highlands. KNP Divisional Forest Officer Rohini Ballav Saikia said over 85 per cent of the 430 sq km KNP, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is under water that came from Difloo river. Saikia said that water was also rushing in as a portion of an embankment breached at Hatimura on the southern side of KNP. Over 78,000 people of 57 nearby villages were also affected and two persons died there. The Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Morigaon district near Guwahati was also under water coming from the Brahmaputra river and the one horned rhinos and other wild animals were forced to take shelter on highlands outside, forest department officials said.

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Central Reserve Police Force commandants Pramod Kumar and Chetan Cheetah have been awarded Kirti Chakra, the second highest peacetime gallantry medal, on the eve of Independence Day for their brave exploits against terrorists in Kashmir.

Kumar, commanding officer of the Srinagar-based 49th battalion of the paramilitary force, has been decorated with the military medal posthumously.

He was killed in an encounter with terrorists at Nowhatta Chowk in Srinagar soon after he unfurled the national flag at his camp on August 15 last year and rushed to help his troops who were engaged by two armed, foreign terrorists.

Forty-four-year-old Kumar suffered a fatal bullet injury in his skull and succumbed to it, not before inflicting severe injuries on the terrorists.

Cheeta, CO of the 45th CRPF battalion, was shot nine times during an operation against terrorists in the Hajin area of Kashmir Valley on February 14 this year.

He made a miraculous recovery after suffering such fatal injuries.

Cheetah, who hails from Rajasthan, bore the initial brunt of the terrorists when a joint team of the army, CRPF and state police had laid siege following intelligence inputs that two foreign terrorists were hiding in the area.

The brave officer was initially taken to the base hospital in Srinagar where he was operated upon and given primary treatment, after which he was flown to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

While Home Minister Rajnath Singh had praised Cheetahs courage, will and determination, Army chief General Bipin Rawat had visited him while he was in the hospital.

Cheetah had joined the CRPF in Jaunary, 1998.

Two other troops of the about three lakh-strong paramilitary have been decorated with military medals on Monday.

Assistant Commandant Chandan Kumar and Constable Amarnath Mishra have been awarded the Shaurya Chakra, the third highest peacetime gallantry medal.

The force, designated as the lead force for operations against Naxals, also won the maximum -- 53 -- Police Medal for Gallantry this year.

Image: CRPF commandant Chetan Kumar Cheetah with his wife Uma and Doctors after he was discharged from AIIMS Hospital in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI Photo
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Monday dismissed the Congresss demand for resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the death of several children in a Gorakhpur hospital, saying such tragedies had happened during that partys rule also.

Its the job of the Congress to demand resignation. Many such big tragedies have occurred in this big country. This has not happened for the first time. Such (tragedies) have happened during Congress governments too, Shah told reporters in response to a question about the main opposition partys demand for the chief ministers resignation.

Replying to a query, Shah said that unlike the Congress, BJP does not hold anybody guilty without investigation.

Several children have died at Baba Raghav Das medical college hospital within a span of a week in the Uttar Pradesh chief ministers hometown and parliamentary constituency.

The BJP chief said Adityanath had announced a time-bound probe into the tragedy and a report in this regard would be made public after the team submitted its findings.

Investigations are on. Yogiji has fixed a time-bound investigation. Once the investigation report is submitted, the government will make it public, he said.

This is an incident and a mistake, at whichever level it may be. All said and done, you cannot deny the partys and BJP governments intention for development of the poor. There is no link between the tragedy and governments intention, he added.

Asked why Narendra Modi had not tweeted on the tragedy, Shah said the prime minister had already expressed his grief over the incident in the media.

The prime minister has already expressed his grief over the incident, and tweet is not the only medium to convey a message. He has already made a statement in the press, Shah added.

On a reported directive of Adityanath on preparations for a grand Krishna Janmashtami celebrations when the state was mourning the deaths of infants, he said that everybody is grieved over the death of children in UP.

Everybody is sad that children have died. But Krishna Janmashtami has its own place as is August 15. Yogi ji has not said in this reference that you celebrate the festival even though children have died. Krishna Janmashtami is being observed. It will be observed across the country and in the same manner it will be in UP too based on peoples belief. It is not a government festival.

To a repeated query if it shows the UP governments insensitivity, he asked that if people celebrate it at their homes then what can the government do.

Image: A woman looks into the intensive care unit at the Baba Raghav Das hospital in the Gorakhpur district. Over 60 children have died at the hospital, sparking nationwide outrage. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to take suo motu cognisance of Gorakhpur child death case.

The plea was filed by petitioner Rajeshwar Reddy, who has sought for a Special Investigation Team probe into the matter.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar, refused to interfere in this regard and has asked him to approach the high court.

CJI Khehar, while hearing the plea, observed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is personally taking interest and had also visited the patients in the hospital.

Tragedy descended upon Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital, as over 70 children succumbed to encephalitis allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply at the hospital.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission has sent a notice to the government of Uttar Pradesh over the deaths of children in BRD Medical College, while observing that it amounted to 'gross callousness' on part of the health administration of the state government.

The NHRC has sent the notice to the UP Chief Secretary, and sought a detailed report in four weeks on the steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as the action taken against the guilty officers, the NHRC said on Monday.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many allegedly for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

The rights panel has taken suo motu cognisance of several media reports hinting at negligence in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital which resulted in the tragedy.

IMAGE: Children receive treatments in the Encephalitis Ward at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo
Six more children have died from encephalitis since Saturday at state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where the death of nearly 70 of them, including infants, has set off a nation-wide outrage and political recrimination.

Many of these deaths were alleged to have been caused by shortage of oxygen, a claim dismissed by the government.

Even as the authorities grappled with the situation in the aftermath of the tragedy which continued to unfold, additional director health Pushkar Anand said these fresh deaths occurred between August 12 and 14.

In the past three days -- from August 12 to August 14 -- six encephalitis patients, mostly children have died. In the same period, as many as 21 patients were admitted for treatment. At present nearly 75 encephalitis patients are undergoing treatment in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, he said.

In state capital Lucknow, UP Congress leaders including state party chief Raj Babbar staged a protest over the tragedy and many of them courted arrest. The Congress has been demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and registration of a case of murder over the massacre of children.

Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, who is in Bengaluru, rejected the demand for Adityanaths ouster, saying such incidents had also happened in states governed by the Congress.

It is natural for the Congress to ask for Yogijis resignation. This is not the first time such an incident has taken place in this large country of ours. Such incidents have taken place during Congress rule in many states, he told reporters.

Congress, meanwhile claimed it had warned the government about the resource crunch at the hospital.

Party vice president Rahul Gandhi had warned about funds to the hospital having been stopped in September, 2016, and also visited the encephalitis wing, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission of India has sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the tragedy, observing it indicated gross callousness on part of the health administration.

The NHRC asked the states chief secretary to submit a detailed report in four weeks on steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as the action taken against those guilty.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav visited Gorakhpur and met family members of deceased infants, consoled them and announced an assistance of Rs two lakh each to the families of the victims.

The former chief minister visited two villages and met three bereaved families.

Moved by the Gorakhpur tragedy, BJP Lok Sabha member Varun Gandhi on Monday pledged Rs 5 crore from his MP local area development fund to build a state-of-the-art paediatric wing in Sultanpur district hospital.

The human tragedy in Gorakhpur has left me jolted, he said.

Image: Relatives carry a child at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital where over 60 children have died over the past one week in Gorakhpur district. Photograph: PTI Photo
This is the biggest action taken against rebel leaders close to Yadav by the JD-U in Bihar. M I Khan reports from Patna.

Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United has suspended 21 party leaders, including one former minister and several MLAs, on Monday for supporting the party's former president Sharad Yadav during his three-day visit to the state.

Yadav has repeatedly said that he opposed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to walk out of the Grand Alliance and join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government in the state.

Kumar is now the JD-U national president, replacing Yadav.

This is the biggest action taken against rebel leaders close to Yadav by the JD-U in Bihar.

JD-U state president Vashsisht Narain Singh said in Patna on Monday that the party has acted against these 21 leaders for anti-party activities.

"The party has suspected 21 leaders from the party for six years," Singh said.

According to Singh, the JD-U has suspended minister Ramai Ram, MP Arjun Rai, MLA Rajkishore Sinha and 18 other senior party leaders, all considered loyal to Sharad Yadav.

Ramai Ram and Arjun Rai were seen with Sharad Yadav during his recent visit to Bihar to meet people.

JD-U also suspended its Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

Yadav during his visit to seven Bihar's districts said the decision to join hands with the BJP was 'unfortunate' and the mandate given by the people was being violated.

"The trust of 11 crore people who gave the mandate to form the grand alliance government in Bihar was broken. The agreement of the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) was for five years which was broken... I am hurt by this. I continue to stand for the grand alliance," he had said.

Yadav even claimed that the original party is with him as he termed Nitish Kumar's joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party as 'betrayal of the people's mandate'.
Pakistans new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhis expansionist designs was the main hurdle in constructive relations between the two neighbours.

IMAGE: Pakistans new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all countries based on sovereign equality. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters

Addressing the nation on its 70th Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.

Indo-Pak ties nosedived after a series of attacks last year, including the Uri strike, carried out by the Pakistan-based terror outfits. Following the attacks, India boycotted the SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in November last in Pakistan.

Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard, Abbasi said as Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang attended the celebrations as a special guest of the country.

Yang arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for the event.

Abbasi said that China and Pakistan have always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations.

He called on the international community to play its role in resolving regional conflicts, particularly the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan in conformity with the UN resolutions to ensure durable peace in the region.

IMAGE: A man on the motor bike holds a national flag as he watches an air show to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Islamabad. Photograph: Faisal Mahmood/Reuters

Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistans 18th prime minister on August 1 after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.

The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress, he said.

He termed terrorism as the biggest challenge confronting the world in the 21st century and highlighted Pakistans unparalleled sacrifices in the fight against this menace.

In his address, President Mamnoon Hussain called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan.

He said it is time to forget personal grievances and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharifs ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was pre-planned.

The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital Islamabad along with a 21-gun salute in provincial capitals to mark the official Independence Day celebrations.

IMAGE: Pakistan airforce pilots demonstrate their skills during an air show to celebrate the 70th Independence Day in Islamabad. Photograph: Faisal Mahmood/Reuters

Major public and private buildings, roads and avenues have been decorated with national flags, portraits of the national leaders, banners and buntings to give a festive look.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted a huge national flag at the Attari-Wagah border with India soon after midnight on Sunday, kicking off the day-long celebration.

The flag flew at 400 feet, the highest in South Asia.

The 120x80 feet flag is also the largest in the history of the country, Pakistani media reported.

Bajwa was apprised of the recent ceasefire violations from the Indian side and effective response by own troops.

Theres no better way to celebrate independence than defending the country, he told soldiers.

He also said that Pakistan will always stand with the Kashmiri people in their just struggle against repression.

IMAGE: Attendees wave Pakistan's national flag while singing national songs at a ceremony to celebrate the country's 70th Independence Day at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

Pakistan air force organised an air show in Islamabad to mark the 70th Independence Day celebrations.

Aerobatic teams from Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia performed before a huge crowd of people who flocked the Fatima Jinnah Park in the heart of the city to witness the show.

The special appearance of Solo Turk, the famous aerobatic team of Turkish Air Force, and the internationally acclaimed Saudi Hawks of Royal Saudi Air Force alongside PAF aircraft were the main attraction of the show.

Pakistan air force also displayed JF-17 Thunder aircraft, indigenously built with the Chinese assistance.

Tri-Services free fall display of Special Services personnel was another salient feature of the show.

In Karachi, a similar air show by PAF was organised to mark the Independence Day festivities.
Four Kashmiri separatists, including the son-in-law of Hurriyat leader S A S Geelani, were sent to judicial custody on Monday by a Delhi court in a terror funding case.

Duty magistrate Pankaj Sharma sent Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Nayeem Khan to jail for 14 days.

The court's order came after the National Investigation Agency submitted that they were not required for further interrogation.

The agency had arrested seven persons on July 24 in the case of alleged funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley to fuel unrest.

The other three separatist leaders -- Shahid-ul-Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar and Mohamad Akbar Khanday -- were sent to the judicial custody till September 1.

The money was being raised to fund separatist and terror activities in restive Jammu and Kashmir, NIA had alleged, claiming that the accused were waging war against the country and were involved in various offences punishable under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

It had also alleged that the accused were involved in creating unrest by way of anti-India demonstrations and bandhs, which were done on their and others' instructions.

Shah was in the custody of Jammu and Kashmir Police, which had put him under preventive detention immediately after Eid last month.

Geelani's close aides, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah, were arrested by the NIA from the Valley.
Last updated on: August 14, 2017 21:43 IST

A human catastrophe that indicts the pathetic state of healthcare in India.

Uttam Ghosh grieves for the 63 children who lost their lives in a Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, hospital, a human catastrophe that indicts the pathetic state of healthcare in India.
United States President Donald Trump on Monday denounced racism as evil as he slammed white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups for the weekend violence in Charlottesville, describing them as criminals and thugs.

IMAGE: People gather for a vigil outside the White House in response to the death of a counter-demonstrator at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

All those who engaged in racist violence over the weekend in Charlottesville will be held fully accountable, Trump said in a televised address from the White House.

We will spare no resource in fighting so every American child can grow up free from violence and fear, Trump said in his remarks that lasted for a few minutes.

He did not take any shouted questions from the pool of reporters at the White House.

Hundreds of white supremacists clashed with counter demonstrators as a car rammed into the crowd and a police helicopter crashed on Saturday, killing three people and injuring 19 others in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans, Trump said.

IMAGE: Flowers and a photo of car ramming victim Heather Heyer lie at a makeshift memorial in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photograph: Justin Ide/Reuters

The Department of Justice, he said, has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American, and wounded others.

To anyone who acted criminally in this weekends racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered, he said.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America, said the US President.

Observing that those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America, he said two days ago a young American woman, Heather Heyer, was tragically killed.

Her death fills us with grief, and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers and our love, Trump said. He also mourned the death of two Virginia state troopers in the helicopter crash near the protest site.

IMAGE: A protester holds a sign reading "Racism is not Patriotism" at a march against white nationalism in New York City, the day after the attack on counter-protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally organised by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photograph: Joe Penney/Reuters

As a candidate, Trump said, he promised to restore law and order to the country.

Our federal law enforcement agencies are following through on that pledge. We will spare no resource in fighting so that every American child can grow up free from violence and fear, he said.

We will defend and protect the sacred rights of all Americans, and we will work together so that every citizen in this blessed land is free to follow their dreams, in their hearts, and to express the love and joy in their souls, Trump said.

Earlier, Trump had condemned the violence but said many sides were involved, inviting criticism from across the political spectrum for not specifically denouncing the far right.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Kenya: Investigate police killings of pro-opposition protesters

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 12 August 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Kenya: Investigate police killings of pro-opposition protesters, 12 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59916d484.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Kenyan authorities must investigate reports that police shot dead demonstrators protesting against the outcome of the presidential election last night, said Amnesty International today as protesters started gathering again in opposition strongholds.

As celebrations began in pro-government areas after Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the presidential election, supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga poured onto the streets in parts of Nairobi and Kisumu to protest the outcome.

"The Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA) must immediately launch an independent and effective investigation into reported killings and where there is credible evidence of crimes, those responsible must be brought to justice," said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

The Kenyan authorities must investigate reports that police shot dead demonstrators protesting against the outcome of the presidential election last night, said Amnesty International today as protesters started gathering again in opposition strongholds.

As celebrations began in pro-government areas after Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the presidential election, supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga poured onto the streets in parts of Nairobi and Kisumu to protest the outcome.

"The Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA) must immediately launch an independent and effective investigation into reported killings and where there is credible evidence of crimes, those responsible must be brought to justice," said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Egypt: Rampant impunity for security forces illustrates dark legacy of Rabaa massacre

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 14 August 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Egypt: Rampant impunity for security forces illustrates dark legacy of Rabaa massacre, 14 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59916ddb4.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Four years since security forces violently dispersed two sit-ins at Rabaa al Adawiya and al-Nahda squares in Greater Cairo, leaving at least 900 people dead and thousands more injured, Egypt is experiencing an unprecedented human rights crisis, said Amnesty International.

Not a single person has been held to account for the events on 14 August 2013, widely known as the Rabaa massacre. Instead, hundreds who attended the protests, including journalists and photographers who were covering the events, have been arrested and are facing an unfair mass trial. This vacuum of justice has allowed security forces to commit serious human rights violations, including using excessive lethal force and carrying out enforced disappearances, entirely unchecked.

"President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi's regime has been determined to wipe out all memory of the massacre of the summer of 2013. The dark legacy of this failure to bring anyone to justice is that Egypt's security forces today feel that they will not be held accountable for committing human rights violations," said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty International.

"The Rabaa dispersal marks a defining turning point for human rights in Egypt. In the years since then, security forces have stepped up violations and varied their methods, carrying out enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions on a scale never seen before."

Since 2015, at least 1,700 people are estimated to have been "disappeared" by state agents for periods ranging from a few days to up to seven months. Most victims are abducted from the streets or their homes and held incommunicado for months, cut off from their families and lawyers. Egyptian security forces have also carried out dozens of extrajudicial executions.

The Egyptian government's efforts to erase all memory of the 2013 massacres appear to have had some impact. In August 2013, following the excessive use of lethal force by security forces at Rabaa, the EU Foreign Affairs Council agreed to suspend export licenses to Egypt of any equipment which could be used for internal repression. Despite this, many EU member states have continued to supply the country with arms and policing equipment. The latest EU country report published last month also makes no mention of the Rabaa massacre or the impunity security services still enjoy.

Grossly unfair trials

Since the Rabaa massacre, the Egyptian authorities have led a bitter crackdown against political dissidents, rounding up thousands and sentencing hundreds to life in prison

or death, after grossly unfair trials. In many cases defendants were convicted in mass trials based on scant or dubious evidence. Most faced charges including participating in unauthorised protests, belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, damaging state and private property, possessing firearms and attacking security forces.

The prosecution authorities, who have an obligation to bring those responsible for the 2013 tragedy to justice, have proven unwilling to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these crimes. Instead of offering justice and remedy for victims, they have helped shield perpetrators from prosecution.

"The level of disparity between the rampant impunity enjoyed by security forces who took part in the Rabaa dispersal on one hand, and the mass persecution of Muslim Brotherhood supporters who participated in protest as well as journalists reporting that day, is shocking," said Najia Bounaim.

According to official statistics, six security officers were killed during the Rabaa dispersal and three during the al-Fateh protest two days later, also in Cairo. At least 1,231 people are being prosecuted in two mass trials collectively charged with their killing.

At least 737 people were charged for participating in the 2013 sit-in in what is known as "Rabaa dispersal case". Among them is the journalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as "Shawkan" who was arrested for taking photographs during the sit-in at Rabaa.

Many of those detained are held in appalling conditions including prolonged solitary confinement amounting to torture. They have frequently been beaten and denied access to lawyers, medical care or family visits.

In another emblematic case, known as the "Fateh mosque case", at least 494 people are on mass trial for participating in a protest on 16 August 2013, while no investigation was conducted into the use of excessive lethal force by security forces that day that killed 120 protesters.

Those on trial include the Irish Egyptian national Ibrahim Halawa. The group are facing charges including participating in an unauthorised protest, belonging to a banned group, as well as murder and attacking the security forces. The prosecution failed to investigate claims by defendants that they were tortured by police to "confess" to crimes they did not commit.

The "Rabaa operations room case" involving four journalists from the RASSD news network - Youssef Talaat, Abdallah Al-Fakharany, Samhi Mostafa and Mohamed El-Adly - is another case that exemplifies the blatant injustice characterizing such trials.

The journalists were sentenced to five years in prison on 8 May 2017 after being convicted of charges including creating and overseeing media committees at the Rabaa sit-in to spread "false information and news". During the trial, their lawyers were unable to attend several crucial court sessions leaving them unable to prepare a proper defence. The court's judgement also relied primarily on investigations by Egypt's National Security Agency that were not substantiated by material evidence.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Journalists in new wave of arrests in Turkey

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 10 August 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Journalists in new wave of arrests in Turkey, 10 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59917dc54.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Turkish police carried out a new wave of arrests this morning under a combined warrant issued today for 35 journalists and media workers suspected of installing the encrypted messaging app ByLock on their smartphones.





The authorities are now treating installation of this app as proof of membership of the movement led by the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, which is accused of masterminding the July 2016 coup attempt.





Turkey's Court of Cassation nonetheless ruled on 16 June that "use of [ByLock] would constitute incontestably incriminating evidence in the event that it was technically and indisputably established that communication took place at the behest of the [Gulen] organization and with the aim of exchanging secret messages."





In practice, the judicial authorities tend to criminalize any link with ByLock users, as they have in the case of Cumhuriyet columnist Kadri Gursel.





"Lumping together all ByLock users and anyone who contacts them as criminals is totally illegal," said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. "The judicial authorities cannot accuse journalists on the basis of this app alone, without establishing a specific and individual link to criminal activities."





Nine journalists and media workers have so far been arrested under this warrant. They include Burak Ekici, the editor of the online edition of the left-wing newspaper BirGun.





They also include Muhsin Pilgir of Cihan (and formerly Zaman), Omer Faruk Aydemir of IHA, Sait Gurkan Tuzlu, Cuneyt Seza Ozkan (formerly of Samanyolu), Yusuf Duran, Ahmet Feyzullah Ozyurt, Mutlu Ozay and Ahmet Sagrl (who was fired last week from the weekly Turkiye).





Ranked 155th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index, Turkey is the world's biggest prison for professional journalists, with more than 100 currently detained.
Persecution of Azerbaijan's last independent media outlet

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 11 August 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Persecution of Azerbaijan's last independent media outlet, 11 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/599181a54.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the Azerbaijani government's use of tax evasion allegations to harass the Baku-based Turan news agency, the last independent media outlet still operating within the country.

Turan reported yesterday that the tax authorities accuse the news agency of under-declaring profits since 2014 and are demanding more than 37,000 manats (18,000 euros) in back taxes and other charges. They began a criminal investigation on 7 August and sent a tax inspector to Turan's offices the next day to begin an audit.





Turan denies the allegations and has referred the matter to a Baku economic administrative court, pointing to many irregularities in the investigation including the fact that the tax authorities omitted to mention a recent audit in response to similar allegations, one that exonerated Turan.





"It was just a matter of time before the authorities targeted the last independent media outlet still operating in Azerbaijan," said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.





"These proceedings are designed to cripple a respected news agency financially. We call on the authorities to end this systematic harassment of the last independent media voices and to drop the investigation into Turan."





Created in May 1990 by a group of journalists who did not want to work for the state media, Turan was one the Soviet Union's very first independent news agencies and produces dispatches in three languages - Azerbaijani, English and Russian.





Thanks to the professionalism of its reporters, who dare to cover the most sensitive subjects, it is an essential news source in a country whose president, Ilham Aliyev, is on RSF's list of press freedom predators. It was nominated for RSF's Press Freedom Prize in 2014.





The Azerbaijani authorities have gone all out to eliminate media pluralism in recent years. As a result of being throttled financially, the daily newspaper Zerkalo was forced to stop publishing in May 2014, while Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Baku bureau was forcibly closed at the end of 2014.





The last opposition newspaper, Azadlig, was forced to stop producing a print edition in September 2016. Its senior staff have had to flee the country and its financial director, Faiq Amirov, was sentenced last month to three and a half years in prison on trumped up charges. The leading independent news websites are all blocked.





Azerbaijan is ranked 162nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Shawkan completes fourth year in prison for taking photos

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 11 August 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Shawkan completes fourth year in prison for taking photos, 11 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/599183714.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reiterates its call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Abu Zeid, a freelance photojournalist also known as Shawkan, who completes his fourth year in detention without due process on 14 August.

Mahmoud Abu Zeid was arrested while on assignment for the British photo agency Demotix in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square on 14 August 2013, covering the use of force by the security forces to break up a demonstration by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.





Now aged 29, he has been held ever since although he has not been convicted.





"Four years of constantly extended provisional detention is not an act of justice, it is an excessive political punishment that is typical of the oppressive climate for journalists and bloggers in Egypt" said Alexandra El Khazen, the head of RSF's Middle East desk.





"Shawkan's only crime to have wanted to do his job as a news photographer. Four years in prison for trying to cover a protest is an unacceptable price. Shawkan has no place in prison. He must be freed unconditionally at once."





His treatment has been marked by irregularities right from the time of his arrest. Two foreign reporters who were arrested with him, US journalist Michael Giglio and French journalist Louis Jammes, were freed a few hours later with the apologies of the police. But Shawkan was immediately imprisoned.





Shawkan has been held in violation of article 143 of Egypt's code of criminal procedure, which limits pre-trial detention to a maximum of two years. His trial did not start until March 2016.





He is being subjected to a mass trial with 738 other defendants, mostly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been regarded as a terrorist organization in Egypt since December 2013. Despite the lack of any evidence against him, he is facing a possible death sentence.





In this highly sensitive case, some ten charges have been brought against him, including murder, attempted murder and membership of a banned organization (the Muslim Brotherhood). Now suffering from hepatitis C and anaemia, he is also in very poor psychological shape.





Egypt is experiencing a dramatic decline in the freedom available to civil society, media freedom is in the process of disappearing, dozens of news websites are blocked, and journalists are harassed and threatened, when not unjustly sentenced to long prison terms.





As a result, Egypt is now ranked 161st out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Congratulating Kenyan people on peaceful elections, UN chief stresses dialogue to ease tensions

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 12 August 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Congratulating Kenyan people on peaceful elections, UN chief stresses dialogue to ease tensions, 12 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/599195e04.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated today the people of Kenya for their peaceful participation in the presidential elections, and, stressing the importance of dialogue to defuse tensions, called on the political leaders to send clear messages to their supporters urging them to refrain from violence in the wake of the polls.

A statement issued by UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the Secretary-General has taken note of the results of the presidential election in Kenya, and of the announcement by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Uhuru Kenyatta as President-elect.

He calls on those political leaders disputing the elections results to address election-related disputes through the relevant constitutionally mandated institutions, said the Spokesman, adding that Mr. Guterres also called on the political leaders to send clear messages to their supporters urging them to refrain from violence.

According to the statement, the UN, in close collaboration with the African Union and other multilateral and bilateral partners, is fully engaged with Kenya's political leadership and relevant stakeholders to facilitate the successful conclusion of the electoral process.
UN rights office 'deeply concerned' about deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights office 'deeply concerned' about deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, 11 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5991964e4.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The United Nations human rights office today expressed deep concern about the steadily deteriorating humanitarian and human rights conditions in Gaza, especially the restrictions on the enclave's power supply.

At the height of summer, with soaring temperatures, electricity provision has not risen above six hours per day since the beginning of the current crisis in April, and has often been under four hours, Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR), told the regular media briefing in Geneva.

This has a grave impact on the provision of essential health, water and sanitation services, she added, noting that power outages threaten the life and well-being of vulnerable groups, particularly those needing urgent medical care.

The lack of transparency in the use of resources, and the continuing suppression of freedom of speech and assembly by the authorities raise further concerns for the protection of fundamental rights of the population in the occupied Palestinian enclave, the spokesperson noted.

Israel, the State of Palestine and the authorities in Gaza are not meeting their obligations to promote and protect the rights of the residents of Gaza, she said, urging them to uphold their human rights.
After four years of conflict, uncertainty lingers for displaced Ukrainians  UN refugee agency

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2017 Cite as UN News Service, After four years of conflict, uncertainty lingers for displaced Ukrainians  UN refugee agency, 11 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/599196c24.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

As the conflict in Ukraine enters its fourth year, nearly 1.6 million internally displaced people are struggling to find safety, adequate housing and access to employment, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Sporadic exchanges of fire in areas near the line of contact continue to damage civilian infrastructure, leading to new humanitarian needs and creating risks of displacement, said Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at today's regular press briefing in Geneva.

Safety and security remain major concerns for nearly 800,000 people living near the Line of Contact in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the country's east, he added.

In June, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine recorded more than 1.1 million crossings of the dividing line in eastern Ukraine  sparking UNHCR's concern about difficulties over civilians' freedom of movement, particularly while crossing the conflict line.

There are frequently long queues and subsequent delays at checkpoints. Those waiting to cross have limited access to basic services, such as drinking water, latrines, weather shelters and medical care, the spokesperson noted.

Mr. Mahecic pointed out that this creates additional hardships for those with limited mobility and specific needs, especially older people and mothers with children making the journey.

Since the beginning of 2016, nearly 586,000 retired and elderly people residing in the conflict zone lost access to their pensions as a result of verification procedures introduced by the Government of Ukraine. This has affected the most vulnerable groups, as many of them depend on pensions and social payments as their sole source of income, he stated.

Those living in non-Government controlled areas are required to register as internally displaced persons with the Ukrainian authorities in order to have access to their rightful pensions and social payments, he continued.

UNHCR and partners advocate for displaced people to have full access to Government services and payments, and de-linking pensions and social benefits from residences.

The agency also maintains that at least 40 communities near the dividing line have limited access to medical services  with some 150 healthcare facilities damaged since the start of the conflict  and medical personnel have left the area.

Noting that in 2017, UNHCR helped to repair 89 schools, Mr. Mahecic stressed that children in affected zones have limited access to education due to the security situation and damaged school buildings with at least 700 damaged since the conflict began, including 55 schools this year alone.

Earlier this year UNHCR received first-hand testimonies of displaced people while conducting focus groups with conflict-affected population  including women; orphaned children; persons with disabilities and medical conditions; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex people throughout 10 regions of Ukraine.

Along with problems of security, access to basic services, and livelihoods, residents of frontline communities told of civilian houses being used for military purposes.

The stationing of combatants and weapons in residential areas places civilian populations at risk during fighting, Mr. Mahecic underscored.

In conclusion, the spokesperson stressed that UNHCR continues to call on all conflict parties to protect civilians and their communities from fighting and shelling, and to restrict the use of civilian homes for military purposes.
UN rights expert urges restraint in security operation in Myanmar's Rakhine state

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights expert urges restraint in security operation in Myanmar's Rakhine state, 11 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/599197c84.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

This development, which reportedly took place yesterday, is a cause for major concern, said the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, in a press release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The Government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine state, she added.

In Kachin and Rakhine states, some 100,000 and 120,000 people, respectively, have remained displaced for more than five years following the eruption of inter-communal conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya.

The Special Rapporteur acknowledged the State's responsibility to provide security and protect people from attacks by extremists, but said this responsibility had to cover all residents, and the authorities could not afford more security to some than others.

Ms. Lee recalled the allegations of serious human rights violations which followed security force operations in the aftermath of attacks against three border guard police facilities in Maungdaw and Rathedaung in October and further clashes in November.

There have been increasing reports of incidents affecting the local population, including the killings of six Mro villagers on 3 August, she said. I share the concern of the Myanmar Government and its people regarding the safety and security of those living in Rakhine state in the light of these incidents.

The expert stressed that the use of force must always be in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality to ensure full respect for human lives.

The expert's call has been endorsed by the UN the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Iraq: UN refugee agency steps up humanitarian support for families returning to Mosul

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Iraq: UN refugee agency steps up humanitarian support for families returning to Mosul, 11 August 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/599198204.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The United Nations refugee agency has been stepping up its assistance for people, including thousands of returnees, in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which had until recently been the scene of a fierce battle for control between terrorist fighters and the Government forces.

Our field assessments show that the returning population of Mosul needs assistance of every kind, but the shelter needs are the most pressing, particularly in the western part of the city,' said Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at the press regular briefing in Geneva.

Many neighbourhoods in the west have been extensively damaged or totally destroyed during months of fighting, he added.

Mosul was liberated from control by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) terrorist organization in July.

UN partners say that of the 54 residential districts in west Mosul, 15 suffered destruction or heavy damage, another 23 areas are moderately damaged, while further 16 neighbourhoods sustained light damage.

Mr. Mahecic said that mines, unexploded ordnance and related devices pose massive risks for the city's residents, especially children, welcoming the ongoing mine clearing efforts by the authorities and the UN Mine Action Service.

Returning families also face challenges in accessing basic services and utilities  accessing water, electricity or fuel in parts of Mosul can be difficult and very expensive, he added.

So far, according to government figures, some 79,000 people returned to battered west Mosul  one out of every ten people who were forced to flee from this part of the city. Also, the government says, more than 165,000 people have now returned to the considerably less damaged east Mosul, where day-to-day life is gradually resuming.

However, managers in the camps for internally displaced persons in east Mosul estimate that at least 200 families have moved back to the camps after finding living conditions difficult in Mosul.

Reasons cited for their return a include lack of shelter; high rental prices; a lack of livelihood opportunities and limited basic services such as electricity and water.

Since the end of the military campaign to retake the city, UNHCR has distributed shelter kits to more than 3,200 families in east and west Mosul while also providing cash assistance to some of the most vulnerable displaced Iraqi families.

Large numbers of IDPs and returnees are also missing key civil documents. UNHCR and partners are providing legal assistance and supporting local authorities to reissue civil and identity documents to displaced families in the camps, including birth and marriage certificates.

Given the scale of the destruction in Mosul, particularly in the western sector, humanitarian needs will remain high, the spokesperson said.
The Afghan Province Where Women Are Slaves

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Sahib Daad Hamdard Publication Date 11 August 2017 Citation / Document Symbol ARR 576 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, The Afghan Province Where Women Are Slaves, 11 August 2017, ARR 576, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59919bf74.html [accessed 13 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Dressed in tattered, dirty clothes, 23-year-old Roshana crouches to weed her vegetable plot. The young mother-of-four says that her life in the village of Zhunia, in the Doab district of Nuristan, is one of constant struggle.

When she was just 15, her father married her off to a local man, Mir Zaman, against her will. Ever since then, she has slaved to raise crops on their small plot of rented land.

Each year she grows wheat, corn, beans, and vegetables that she says is worth at least 1,000 US dollars. But their landlord takes half of it.

Roshana has sole responsibility for all farming and domestic tasks. She plows the land, goes out in the cool of the night to irrigate the fields, and looks after the animals in addition to hauling firewood from the mountain and taking care of the house.

The cost to her health has been punitive. Soon after she married, she lost a child after spending a cold winter night working in the fields.

"I fell in the ditch and got wet," Roshana recalled. "Suddenly, I felt labour pains. I went towards home. It was a dark night and I fell and got up several times before I got there. My child was born at home, but it died. This is one of my worst memories."

Her husband Mir Zaman, 35, said that local tradition dictated that women took on all such chores.

"It is the custom in Nuristan that women do the farming, look after the animals, bring wood from the mountain, and even when someone builds a house, the women bring the stones, bricks, and soil," he said, adding that local feuding meant that men feared attack if they strayed too far from their own villages.

"I have enemies myself," he continued. "I can only go to the areas surrounding my village and not far beyond, because people are after me and will kill me."

Nuristan, a province in the east of the country famed for its wild natural beauty, is one of the county's most inaccessible areas. Daily life revolves around animal husbandry, farming, and hauling wood from mountains heavily forested with pine, oak and spruce.

The province was known as Kufristan - land of the infidels - until a mass conversion to Islam in the late nineteenth century, when it was renamed Nuristan or land of the enlightened.

Residents have kept many traditions from the pre-Islamic era, including a division of labour between the sexes that means it is customary for the women of the household to be tasked with all the household's heavy work.

Qudratullah, the director of Nuristan's Doab Hospital, said that local women suffered many health issues as a result of this heavy labour.

Orthopedic problems were widespread, with the vast majority of women treated at the hospital complaining of severe musculoskeletal pain.

"Very bad customs from the past have persisted here," he explained." If a man brings wood from the mountain, looks after or feeds the animals, other men taunt him and call him his wife's servant. So it's considered shameful for men to do such work."

Women often spend whole days chopping timber and loading it into giant baskets. Each woman will carry between 40 and 60 kilogrammes of wood home, sometimes with disastrous results.

Guljana, 54, has been blind for the last 16 years after an accident while gathering wood.

The Nurgram resident said, "We've inherited this tradition of heavy labour from ancient times, but the really difficult part is that despite the work we do, men are still not happy with their wives and often beat them."

POOR EDUCATION, LITTLE MEDICAL CARE

With Nuristan one of the most underdeveloped provinces in Afghanistan, women are particularly hard hit by lack of access to healthcare.

Ismail Stanikzai, the director of public health in Nuristan, said that a major problem was the lack of female doctors. Despite their best efforts over the last 16 years, local health care officials had failed to induce a single female doctor to work in the remote province.

The province had 35 midwives, all high-school graduates who had been sent to study in Nangarhar, he continued, but healthcare provision was patchy. The eight clinics in the provincial capital Paron, for instance, had 10 personnel each, but a further 20 in more remote regions only had four members of staff each.

Women and girls also suffer from particularly poor educational provision.

Ghulam Hussein, the local director of education, said that out of the 223 schools across Nuristan, 100 were set aside for girls. More than 22,350 female pupils were registered at these schools.

However, he acknowledged that these figures did not show the full picture, as more than half of those girls enrolled had never come to school and attendance amongst the rest was patchy at best.

Of the 395 students who graduated from high school last year, only 53 were girls. The 200 who went on to take university entrance exams included just 15 girls. There are no higher education establishments in Nuristan, whether state or privately run.

Families routinely took daughters out of school to work or get married, often selling them into marriage for a few thousand dollars.

In Doab, Nurgram, Waigal and Kamdish districts, bride prices are around 4,000 dollars, rising to 7,000 dollars in the centre of the province. In Mandol district, a girl can be sold into marriage for 200 goats, three Kalashnikovs, 35 kilogrammes of animal fat and 35 kilogrammes of dried yoghurt.

In such conditions, women frequently turn to narcotics to ease their days.

Shakira, 18, is from Khas village in Barg-e Matal district and one of the very few local women to continue her education. She is now studying to be teacher, but she said that the bleak lives of most women she knew meant that at least a third of them turned to drugs.

"After having to carry out heavy work women use hashish, and opium to relieve their fatigue and soothe their pains," she said. Both drugs were easily available as marijuana was locally grown and opium imported from the neighbouring province of Badakhshan.

"Most women in Barg-e Matal are addicts," she added.

Sahira, 40, has three daughters and two sons. Her husband, Mir Gul, is a shepherd but Sahira farms their land and returns home late each night.

Exhausted after a day spent in the fields, she smoked a dollar's worth of opium every night to relax her and relieve her aching muscles.

Her husband Mir Gul said that he never used opium himself, but that it was just a fact that most local women were addicts.

A HANGOVER FROM THE PAST

Locals attribute the situation in Nuristan to the legacy of previous centuries. A local religious scholar, Mawlawi Mohammad Sharif, said Islam did not mandate the division of labour common in Nuristan.

"Islam gives women a special position," he said. "It made it obligatory on the man to support his wife and children. Women are only responsible for looking after their homes and children, not farms and agriculture, irrigation, taking animals to pasture, bringing wood from the mountain and other such activities."

"Back when Nuristan was still called Kufristan, men would take part in wars and also work as shepherds when necessary, but gathering wood and working the farmland was women's responsibility," agreed tribal elder Mohammad Shah Rahimi, the head teacher of Nangraj Girls High School in Nurgram district. "Most shepherds in Nuristan are men, and women have kept their previous role of working in the fields and gathering wood."

Rahimi said that virtually nothing had been done to address the rights of women in the province since the fall of the Taleban 16 years ago.

The only solution, he continued, is to provide girls with proper schooling. But local and national officials, despite paying lip service to women's rights, had failed to do anything to encourage this.

Deputy governor Mohammad Hashim Faizi said that it was hard for the government to change such deep-rooted traditions, but that they were trying to draw national and international attention to the situation in Nuristan.

One of the reasons local communities were so resistant to change, he continued, were particularly low levels of literacy, a view supported by local women's rights' organisations.

The director of women's affairs in Nuristan, Zahida Faizan, said that problems were so deep-rooted that she sometimes despaired of ever making progress.

"We have had numerous meetings with tribal elders, religious scholars and young people in Nuristan," she explained. "We've informed them about women's rights and problems, but it has been futile, because everyone here, from administrators to religious scholars, has the same problem; it suits them that the women in their families work.

"The tribal elders and religious scholars do not participate in these programmes as they should. It is also beyond the capacity of the government."

Abdul Ghafoor Ahmadi, the chairman of Nuristan's civil society coordination council, also said that local officials had failed to have any impact on women's' lives in the province.

Over the last two years, his organization had managed to form a 10-member committee of women to try and raise awareness about women's rights, but they were very limited in what they could do.

"The security situation as well as the harsh traditions in Nuristan have restricted our activities only to the centre of the province, Paron," he concluded.

Sabrina Hamidi, the director of the eastern branch of the Afghanistan Independent Human rights Commission (AIHRC), said that perilous security conditions presented them with the same problem.

Until ten years ago, AIHRC delegates had repeatedly travelled to central and western Nuristan to meet with local woman and help educate them about their rights. Since 2007, however, the security situation had deteriorated to the point where they could not even travel to the centre of the province.

The AIHRC could now only obtain information about the situation in Nuristan from local volunteers.

Yet despite the challenges, local activists and officials said they saw some hope for optimism.

Faizan said that her department had organised a number of public meetings with local women so as to better inform them about their rights.

"These activities can be effective when women have a little bit of knowledge and education," she continued, adding that their current plan was to request support from the Kabul government and international organisations for small-scale projects such as poultry farming and carpet weaving for women. This was one way of providing them with a level of independence, she said.

"We are planning to organise vocational courses for women in cooperation with the department of women's affairs, which will include handicrafts training," added deputy governor Faizi, noting that a small minority of women had obtained permission from their families to study, pointing to the province's 90 female teachers as a small victory for progress.

Mariam is one of the lucky few who managed to complete high school and is now attending teacher training college as well as working with the provincial committee of the Red Crescent.

"From childhood, I wished to become a teacher," she said. "I study at the teachers' training centre as well as working with the committee. My dreams have come true."

She is painfully aware, however, that hers is an unusual story.

With tears in her eyes, she said, "All women hoped for positive change and to leave their problems behind them after the Taleban regime fell, but I think in Nuristan this wish will never be fulfilled."

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
. To do so, first type the original number into the text box. Then click on the "Scientific Notation" option located at the top of the floating window. Finally, click on the "Standard" button found beneath the text box to display your result. This program is useful for scientists and engineers working with decimal-based numbers. It provides easy access to those who need to convert those numbers into more compact forms without having to do heavy math calculations first.

Scientific notation is a way to express very large or very small numbers. It is used in physics, chemistry and other fields where large numbers are common. Those numbers are written as a power of 10 followed by a number with an exponent. For example, 1,000,000 (one million) is written as 1  103. The exponent shows how many zeros are after the first digit. For example, 1,000,001 is written as 1  102. Scientific notation is a useful tool for making calculations easier. You can use it to write down very big or very small numbers in one step instead of writing out both the large and small numbers separately. You can also use it to express large or small numbers in terms of other units like centimeters or millimeters.

Scientific notation solver is an online tool that can be used to convert any number into scientific notation. Simply enter any number to the left of the decimal point and it will automatically convert it into a scientific notation equivalent. This web tool can be very helpful when you need to convert a large number into scientific notation. However, please note that this online tool can only convert numbers that are in scientific format. For example, it cannot convert a non-scientific number like "1,085" into a scientific notation equivalent. It is also important to keep in mind that this web tool only works when converting numbers from one particular format to another. For example, if you want to change a non-scientific number like "1,085" into standard format, then you will have to use another online tool like NumberFormatting.com.
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
Chinese workers of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) install pipes at a natural gas gathering station in Puyang, central China's Henan province, July 31, 2016.

Prospects for a new Central Asian gas route have resurfaced nearly five months after they were declared dead as China sends mixed signals about demand for the clean-burning fuel.

In a surprise statement on July 25, a Tajik government official told reporters in Dushanbe that China's work on a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) pipeline from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan was already underway.

"China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC's) subsidiary, which is involved in implementation of the project, has already begun its activities," said Tajikistan's minister of energy and water resources, Usmonali Usmonzoda, according to the ASIA-Plus Information Agency.

Usmonzoda said that CNPC's Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company Ltd. had "started supplies of equipment and machinery ... for the construction of tunnels" through mountainous Tajik regions, Azerbaijan's Trend News Agency reported.

The project to carry up to 30 billion cubic meters (1 trillion cubic feet) of gas annually through the 410- kilometer section is expected to be completed in two years, the minister said.

Word of progress on the project, known as "Line D," follows an Interfax report in early March, quoting an unnamed official of Uzbekistan's oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz as saying that the pipeline had been "postponed indefinitely with the agreement of the Chinese side."

The reported suspension caused analysts to write off the fourth branch of China's Central Asia Gas Pipeline (CAGP) system, with some suggesting that the route plan was "dead."

The network's three existing lines from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have a combined capacity of 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year.

The Line D plan to bypass Kazakhstan with the new route through the region's two poorest countries sparked doubts since it was announced in 2013. Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan rely on imports for gas, raising risks for diversion and energy security.

Chinese officials have not commented on either the reported suspension or the startup reports.

Analysts continue to view the Line D project skeptically.

"My guess is that the Tajik minister does not want the project to be declared dead and the Chinese, for their own reasons, decided not to dispute this by remaining silent," said Edward Chow, senior fellow for energy and national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The Line D plan has given rise to a host of questions about China's goals and motives in Central Asia.

Did Beijing hope to reduce its risks by diversifying routes and building a detour around Kazakhstan? Or was it seeking a hegemonic role in the region by trying to tie all of Central Asia's countries together with pipelines? China hasn't said.

A need for more gas?

But aside from strategic issues, there are questions about whether China needs more Central Asian gas in any case.

China's National Energy Administration (NEA) recently reported a return to strong demand growth for gas in the first half of the year with consumption of 114 bcm, an 11.7-percent increase from a year earlier, Argus Media said.

But growth before that was sluggish for two years, falling far short of previous performance and bullish forecasts for the Chinese market.

Last year, consumption rose 6.6 percent to 205.8 bcm while domestic gas production of 137.1 bcm edged up only 1.5 percent, according to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) data.

In 2015, consumption increased only 3.4 percent, BP Statistical Review of World Energy said. The NDRC estimated the growth at 5.7 percent, but that rate was the lowest in 10 years, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Stronger forecasts have pointed to the government's environmental push to reduce reliance on coal and boost the natural gas share of total energy to 10 percent by 2020 and 15 percent by 2030 from about 6 percent now.

During the past two years, the gas market has been hampered by pricing issues as gas charges struggled to find a "sweet spot" that would encourage both output and demand.

Wholesale gas prices in China last year were nearly three times more than those in the United States, according to an International Gas Union survey cited by Bloomberg News.

On top of that, consumption growth has been weighed down by high distribution costs.

In June, the NDRC tried to address the problem by issuing a guideline that limited the after-tax total return on investment by distributors to 7 percent.

The new rule "should encourage gas companies to lower costs and improve efficiency," the NDRC said.

"In the short term, it should lower what many deem to be the current overpriced gas distribution costs in some cities," Xinhua quoted the NDRC as saying. In the longer term, the agency said the rule will lead to "more reasonable prices" on all links of the supply chain.

But also in the longer term, gas growth may depend on promised policies like carbon taxes that the government has yet to implement.

The liquefied natural gas carrier Cesi Beihai docks at the Beihai LNG Terminal in Beihai, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 10, 2017. Credit: ImagineChina Competition from coal

In the meantime, coal continues to pose stiff competition as the dominant fuel, undercutting gas when prices are low and forcing the government to order more production when supplies shrink and prices are high.

The challenges for Central Asian gas have been compounded by concerns that CNPC has never made a profit on the imported fuel after investing heavily in infrastructure and field development in Turkmenistan.

In an apparent effort to tweak CNPC into action on the Line D project, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov talked up an alternative route during a visit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Ashgabat on July 4.

"In addition, it is possible that the move to establish gas supply to China via Afghanistan is to replace an earlier discussed planned route through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan," Interfax said.

Last year, Turkmen gas deliveries to China rose 6 percent to 29.4 bcm, far short of an agreement to supply 65 bcm per year by 2016, according to Interfax.

Ashgabat will be eager to increase supplies to China as its only remaining export market before 2019, when Russia's deliveries from its massive Power of Siberia pipeline are scheduled to begin.

Uzbekistan may also squeeze existing CAGP capacity by pressing its three-year agreement with China to increase exports up to 10 bcm per year by 2020.

China reportedly took no deliveries from Uzbekistan in the first quarter, sparking speculation that Beijing may have been angered by the Line D suspension report.

Central Asia pipeline gas may face pressure from both domestic production and imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

China's first-half production rose 8 percent from a year earlier to 74.1 bcm while total gas imports climbed 16.2 percent to 41.7 bcm, the NEA said.

LNG imports jumped 38.3 percent during the period to 15.89 metric tons, the equivalent of 21.9 bcm, according to customs data. Including LNG from the United States for the first time, imports of the super-cooled fuel by ship accounted for more than half of the total gas volumes from abroad.

Last week, China's General Administration of Customs reported that total gas imports rose 20.7 percent in the first seven months with a 55.4 increase from a year earlier in July, supporting bullish views.

Gas production of 11.7 bcm in July gained 14.7 percent from a year before, pushing seven-month output of 85.8 bcm up 8.8 percent, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data said Monday, according to Reuters.

End of a slump?

But it remains to be seen whether the first-half recovery of gas demand growth marks the end of China's two-year slump.

Recent forecasts suggest that China could be in a condition of significant oversupply for the next several years.

In its Gas 2017 report for the medium term, the Paris- based International Agency (IEA) noted that China has targeted 365 bcm of supplies in 2020 under its five-year gas plan presented in January.

The IEA study forecasts China's demand in 2020 will be just 292 bcm, potentially putting 73 bcm, or 20 percent of supplies, in surplus.

The figures suggest that China's gas glut may be growing substantially.

Last November, a senior economist at CNPC's Research Institute of Economics and Technology estimated that China could have a surplus of 50 bcm in 2020, in part due to contracted LNG supplies, Platts energy news reported at the time.
Lao soldiers occupying an area south of the Sekong River claimed by both Laos and Cambodia have pulled back from the disputed zone following a meeting Saturday in which the prime ministers of both countries promised to work to reduce tensions, Cambodian media and other sources said.



The Aug. 12 meeting between Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen and Lao prime minister Thongloun Sisolith came after Hun Sen on Friday threatened military action against the neighboring country if its troops were not withdrawn by Aug. 17.



The contested area between Cambodias Stung Treng province and Attapeu province in Laos is part of a small stretch of border still not clearly marked, and tensions flared earlier this year after Lao troops crossed the river to block Cambodian construction of a road through the area.



Laos agreed to withdraw the dozens of troops remaining after Hun Sen pledged to stop construction of the road, Lao prime minister Thongloun Sisolith said in a press conference following their meeting in the Lao capital Vientiane on Saturday.



Samdech [honorific] Hun Sen and I have agreed that the Lao side will pull back all troops remaining in the area following his promise to stop building the road through the [conflict zone], and I have ordered the relevant officials to withdraw by no later than tomorrow morning,  Thongloun said.



Secondly, Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the withdrawal of all [Cambodian] troops being deployed to that area so that the situation can be returned to normal, and so that the people of both our countries can be assured that unwanted incidents will not occur, he said.



Both Laos and Cambodia will now move forward to resolve outstanding border issues as soon as possible, Thongloun said.



Troops from both sides have now pulled back from the Huay Thanau area of Phouvong district in Attapeu province in Laos, and from Ratanakiri province in Cambodia, a senior military and public security official in Laos's Champassak province told RFA's Lao Service on Monday.



"[We] coordinated yesterday evening," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



'Not a negotiation'



Speaking on Monday to students at a commencement ceremony in Cambodia, Hun Sen said that he had gone to Vientiane not to bow to Laos while being subject to their aggression but only to ask that their forces be withdrawn, calling the meeting normal diplomatic practice and not a negotiation.



Political commentators calling Hun Sens threat of war against Laos a political move aimed at gaining votes will not be tolerated, the prime minister said, adding that one criticKhmer Power Party president (KPP) Sourn Serey Rathahas already been arrested for insulting Cambodias army in an Aug. 12 Facebook post.



A Cambodian war with Laos would be a war fought to build up the face and status of those thieves who disguise themselves as heroes to mislead us, the opposition party politician wrote.



Speaking to RFAs Khmer Service, KPP spokesperson Tep Virak said that Sourn Serey Ratha had not intended to attack the countrys army in his post.



He just wanted to say that the real victims [in a war] are the rank-and-file soldiers, he said.



He was referring only to the commanders, who are the children of societys higher ranks and are powerful individuals who assume power and enjoy benefits because of personal connections and patronage.



Sorn Chey-executive director of the Cambodia-based Affiliated Network for Social Accountability-East Asia and the Pacificmeanwhile dismissed Hun Sens warnings, saying that the voicing of political opinions in a democratic country should not affect military morale.



The government should pay more attention to providing resources and better pay. These are the things that motivate the military, he said.



Points raised by political commentators will not affect the armys reputation or morale, he said.



Reported by Thai Tha and Savi Khorn for RFAs Khmer Service and by Ounkeo Souksavanh and Bounchanh Mouangkham for RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo and Ounkeo Souksavanh. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Being included alongside 31 other neo-Nazi and black separationist groups as an "anti-LGBT" hate group is "morally indefensible" and "intellectually dishonest" of the Center, IFI writer Laurie Higgins wrote in an email.

CAROL STREAM - The Illinois Family Institute's traditional values principles were once again smeared Monday when an Illinois-based Reuters reporter gave credence to the list of Southern Poverty Law Center's list of 32 Illinois-based "hate groups."

Spurred on by the weekend's violent clash between white supremacists and black separationists in Charlottesville Virginia, newsman Dave McKinney thought it helpful to tweet:

Which was shortly thereafter followed with:

Higgins, who is a key opinion piece contributor for Illinois Family Institute, said IFI unequivocally denounces racism. Two members of IFI and its sister organization Illinois Family Action are black.

"It is both morally indefensible and intellectually dishonest of the ethically impoverished Southern Poverty Law Center to include the Illinois Family Institute on its list of 'hate' groups alongside repugnant Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups," she said. "IFI is included on this list because we espouse theologically orthodox views of homosexuality, marriage, and the intrinsic and profound meaning of objective, immutable biological sex."

IFI holds the same views on LGBT issues as the Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church in America, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, Evangelical Free Church, Evangelical Covenant Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Christian Reformed Church, Southern Baptist Church, Anglican Church in North America, Assemblies of God, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church), Seventh Day Adventist Church, scores of non-denominational churches, the Bible and over 2,000 years of church history, she said.

"Curiously, the SPLC hasnt included them on its 'hate' groups listyet," Higgins said.
News that Hong Kong government broadcaster RTHK will cease rebroadcasting the BBC World Service on AM radio has prompted calls for its reinstatement, after the station said it would be replaced by programming in Mandarin from China's state broadcaster.



BBC World Service programming, which has been rebroadcast in the former British colony since 1978, will be replaced with China National Radio Hong Kong Edition from Sept. 4, ending nearly four decades of continuous broadcasting in the city, the station said.



The decision was taken to "enhance the cultural exchange between mainland China and Hong Kong," RTHK spokeswoman Amen Ng said.



BBC World Service programming will still be available after the nightly shutdown of RTHK Radio 4, however.



The move comes as media watchdogs cite growing influence wielded by the ruling Chinese Communist Party over the formerly freewheeling city's political life and media, saying Chinese money is largely behind self-censorship on the part of Hong Kong news organizations.



Ng told RFA the move wasn't politically motivated, however.



"I don't accept that this was a political arrangement," she said. "Otherwise, why would we have worked so hard to keep international broadcasters like the BBC? This entire decision has been RTHK's."



"We only have so many channels, and now that we no longer have digital channels, RTHK has been left with just three FM and four AM channels, seven in total," Ng told RFA. "We had to think of a way to include all important services in the mix, and ... China National Radio's Hong Kong Edition is tailored to our audience."



She dismissed claims of self-censorship at the flagship station.



"A lot of people have been asking me if we still have editorial independence at RTHK, and of course I tell them that we do," Ng said.



Growing influence



Earlier this year, the International Federation of Journalists said the city's media industry has effectively abandoned the last of its editorial independence, just 20 years after the 1997 handover agreement promised Hong Kong the maintenance of its existing freedoms for at least 50 years.



The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also warned against growing Chinese influence, pointing out that more than half of the city's media owners have roles in mainland politics, which means they are unlikely to want to upset Beijing.



U.S. lawmakers have also warned that Hong Kong has seen continual erosion of the freedoms and autonomy it was promised by Beijing under the terms of the handover treaty.



Democratic lawmaker Claudia Mo slammed the decision as a step backwards for Hong Kong, however.



"This is yet another step in the 'mainlandization' of Hong Kong," Mo said. "It is a huge step backwards, and clearly represents an attempt to wash away Hong Kong's colonial past, and bring in [Beijing's] own form of colonialism."



"This is about brainwashing, because ... Hong Kong has been wayward when it comes to ideology, so they are trying to make us more Chinese with their Mandarin-language channel from CCTV," she said.



Last year, a Hong Kong television station was swamped with complaints after it stopped using the city's lingua franca, Cantonese, on its prime-time news show, opting instead for Mandarin and subtitling it with the simplified Chinese characters used in mainland China.



'National strategy'



Political commentator To Yiu-ming dismissed Ng's comments as RTHK making excuses.



"This is the sort of policy we have had since [President] Xi Jinping came to power five years ago," To told RFA. "It makes no difference whether anyone was watching or listening to this stuff: there is now far more [Chinese state] programming available in Hong Kong than there was 10 years ago."



"They now have a direct line of communication to the people of Hong Kong, and it's clear that this is part of their national strategy," To said. "It's also noteworthy that Hong Kong didn't dare to refuse this, didn't dare to reclaim a channel that was ceded to CCTV."



Bruce Lui, senior journalism lecturer at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said the move would damage public trust in RTHK.



"It's not very normal behavior for them to cancel a channel that has been operating for so many years," Lui said. "CCTV certainly doesn't have that long a history [in Hong Kong]."



"The loss of the BBC World Service will also erode trust in Hong Kong as a global city, so I think it will have some impact."



"People who want to listen to CRI [state-owned China Radio International] have other ways to do that, including online."



A petition on the campaign website Avaaz calling for the reinstatement of BBC World Service said its impending removal makes the city feel "more parochial and inwardlooking."



"RTHK is ignoring the fact that thousands of people in Hong Kong regularly enjoy the BBC World Service, and will be deeply saddened by its axeing," the text of the petition, which had garnered several hundred signatures on Monday, said.



"We therefore call on RTHK to provide the China National News Hong Kong Edition with an additional AM radio wavelength to broadcast on in Hong Kong, thereby allowing the BBC World Service to keep being heard on AM 675," the petition said.



Reported by Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin have detained at least 20 supporters of detained rights activist Wu Gan, known by his online nickname "The Butcher," who stood trial behind closed doors on charges of subversion on , fellow activists said.



Wu, 43, was initially detained in the eastern province of Jiangxi in 2015 and handed a 10-day administrative sentence before being placed under criminal detention on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," "libel," and "incitement to subvert state power."



"Wu Gan's subversion trial opens in secret ," rights activist and Wu supporter Zhang Xuezhong wrote in a post to social media. "Everyone is predicting that he will receive a heavy sentence, owing to the fact that he has refused to capitulate since being detained."



Video shot outside the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court showed dozens of people milling around on the street, flanked by security personnel.



Ding Yu'e, a supporter of Wu's, said there was a heavy police presence outside the court building.



"They are on high alert, and the state security police are everywhere," Ding told RFA. "There are traffic controls in place outside the gates of the court compound, and the buses have stopped running there."



"The entire place is surrounded by iron fencing, and they are stopping pedestrians at intersections a long way from the court," she said. "We were walking [near Kaide Square] and were questioned by them."



An eyewitness outside the court said he had counted more than 100 plainclothes police officers.



"There is a large group of police officers surrounding a bunch of foreigners," he said. "I can also hear someone chanting 'Free the Butcher!'"



Rights activists Wang Yi and He Jiawei were also detained at the court, yelling "Release Wu Gan!" as they were put into a police vehicle, he said.



About 20 supporters detained

Ding said she was among those detained.



"We hadn't done anything, but they took us down to the police station, where we couldn't even take out our cell phones, because they would be confiscated," Ding said. "I counted, and there were about 20 people all told."



"The waiting room was completely packed when we got there," she said of the Guijiasi police station.



Rights activist Zhu Chengde said another detained supporter, Wang Lihong, had been taken to hospital with heart problems from the same police station.



"We were in the Guijiasi police station in Tianjin, when Wang Lihong had a heart attack," Zhu said. "Two women wanted to board the ambulance to help her, but they wouldn't let them."



Ding said she and her friends had been forced to wait around in the police station all morning, before she was sent to the Hongshunli police station in her home district of Hebei.



"They got in touch with them and they came to pick me up," Ding said. "I am on the way back there now, and the duty police officer is watching me."



An employee who answered the phone at the Guijiasi police station declined to comment.



"If you have questions about cases or anything else you will have to speak to the external communications team at the Tianjin city police department and go through all of their procedures," the employee said. "We don't take queries over the phone."



Wu Gan's case was transferred from the southeastern province of Fujian to Tianjin as part of the nationwide crackdown begun on lawyers and rights activists on , 2015 with a raid on the Beijing Fengrui law firm, his lawyer has said.



Refusal to confess

He has reported suffering torture while being held under investigation in a police detention center.



While police in Wu's home province of Fujian recommended state prosecutors formally arrest him, and critical articles about him have appeared in China's tightly controlled state media, his case may have been transferred in a bid to put further pressure on him after he refused to "confess," lawyer Wu Kuiming has said in previous interviews with RFA.



Fengrui lawyers Wang Yu and Bao Longjun were released on "bail" following Wang's televised "confession" to subversion charges against her, and her repudiation of two overseas rights awards, which she wrote were acts of hostility towards the Chinese government.



Activists say such "confessions" are now a common tactic used by police under the administration of President Xi Jinping. Prominent journalist Gao Yu has said that she made a similar televised "confession" after the authorities threatened to retaliate against her son, and later retracted it.



Beijing-based rights activist Gou Hongguo said Wu Gan's trial is being held in secret because the lack of such a confession makes the authorities look bad.



"They have lost a lot of face with this case already," Gou told RFA. "It has had a very negative impact for them both at home and internationally."



He said the Tianjin authorities, who have prosecuted all of the cases linked to a crackdown on rights lawyers and related activists, are doing the central government's dirty work for it, and had been stymied by Wu's refusal to plead guilty or accept their treatment of him.



"Wu Gan has taken the attitude all along that he will not cooperate, he won't recognize their laws and he won't recognize the authority of any of the regime's actions," Gou said. "This is their worst nightmare, and this tactic of non-cooperation is very effective."



Wu's initial detention came as he staged a performance protest he titled "selling my body to raise funds" in Nanchang city, Jiangxi province.



He was trying to help finance a legal defense for four men who rights campaigners say were wrongly jailed by a court in Jiangxi's Leping city in 2000 for robbery, rape, and dismembering a corpse.



A article in the state-run news agency Xinhua attacked Wu Gan for his criticism of the police killing of a man at the Qing'an railway station in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang earlier the same month.



Rights activists say Wu likely first drew the ire of the authorities when he posted online his doubts about the credibility of the governments investigation of the shooting.



Reported by Ng Yik-tung and Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A Chinese state-owned enterprise said on Saturday that it will build a U.S. $40 million elephant conservation and breeding center in northwestern Laos Sayaboury province and develop it into a for-profit tourist attraction by the end of the year.

At a celebration of the first World Elephant Day in the province on Aug. 12, the Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company Ltd., announced its plans to build the center in Sayaboury city for a species that has become increasingly scarce in the Southeast Asian country.

Company manager Mu Yian Yu told attendees through an interpreter that the company will invest $40 million in building the conservation center during the upcoming dry weather season which begins after October.

The Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company will develop the center this year, he said, adding that provincial officials have granted the firm a 50-year land concession for the center.

In two years we will have boats, hot air balloons, and elephant shows, he said.

A Sayaboury official, who requested anonymity, said the Chinese firm is building the elephant center as a tourist attraction.

They are developing a tourist attraction in Sayaboury about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from here, he said.

It will be a big business, he said. The Chinese investor has already done some publicity. Its all business nowadays. They are doing it for profit. Now they are spending U.S. $900 to feed a single elephant each month.

The company rented about 50 elephants from Sayaboury residents for an event that attracted about 500 people to mark World Elephant Day, which was established on Aug. 12, 2012, to call attention to the plight of Asian and African elephants at risk because of illegal poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and mistreatment in captivity.

Every year we will mark this day and organize some activities to call on people to protect elephants and their habitat, Mu Yian Yu said at the ceremony.

A Sayaboury resident who attended the event said he believes the Chinese are building the center in order to protect elephants in Laos and not to export them back home.

The Chinese are doing business in our country, said the Sayaboury resident who declined to be named. Their purpose is to convince people to protect the elephants. These are all Lao elephants. I believe they will not sell these animals to China. They have a conservation center that can train them.

Officials of Sayaboury province and the Chinese company estimate that there are about 850 elephants in Laos, half of which are domesticated elephants. In Sayaboury province alone, there are 250 domesticated elephants and 150 wild ones.

Not to everyones liking

Not everyone is a fan of wildlife conservations centers like the one the Chinese will build in Laos.

Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told RFAs Lao Service that wildlife conservation efforts need to be backed by law enforcement to be effective at increasing animal populations.

I never agree with the breeding programs for domestic elephants, he said. For instance, in Thailand  the population of elephants always increases because of real conservation [efforts] and enforcement of the law.

Though Laos does have such a law, poachers continue to kill elephants for their tusks and hides, which they sell illegally, mainly to China.

We have the law, but we do not implement it, he said It is not because of the law but the problem is that it is not enforced.

Lao is now considered a global market for wildlife, he said, adding that the trafficking of wildlife has been increasing in the country.

Wiek said if there is no further deforestation and elephant hunting in Southeast Asia, future elephant populations might increase because of areas along the Thailand-Myanmar border where elephants can roam freely and breed naturally.

To talk about elephant conservation, we must make laws to protect against deforestation and the illegal ivory trade, he said.

Furthermore, Wiek questioned the motives behind centers that breed elephants in captivity.

In fact someone may think that breeding elephants to have many calves is called conservation. That does not increase the number of elephants in the forest, but rather it is only breeding for business.

Laos became a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a multilateral treaty protecting endangered plants and animals, in May 2004. The convention banned the ivory trade in 1989.

Though deforestation, particularly from illegal logging, is the main reason for the declining elephant population in Laos, pachyderms are also hunted and killed by poachers who smuggle their ivory tusks and hides outside the country.

Lao officials are known for the lax implementation and enforcement of laws prohibiting illegal logging and the smuggling of illegal wildlife, and border officials can easily be bribed to look the other way, experts say.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh and Max Avary. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
A Tibetan monk jailed for two years in western Chinas Qinghai province for subverting the state has been released with restrictions placed on his movements, according to Tibetan sources.



Gomar Choephel, 48, was freed from the Ho Min Xian prison in Qinghais Menyuan Hui Autonomous County on or around July 10, and returned to Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (in Chinese, Tongren) county in Qinghais Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, said a source inside Tibet, who spoke to RFAs Tibetan Service on condition of anonymity.



Chinese authorities warned the monks and relatives in advance not to organize any kind of reception to mark his release, the source said.



Rongwo monks and his relatives did go to receive him, but they were not allowed to put up any significant reception, including taking photos related to his release and arrival and so on, he added.



The authorities also imposed restrictions on his movements from the monastery.



According to the source, Choephel was detained on July 10, 2015 when police in Rebgong raided his room at Rongwo and found a photo of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.



Beijing rejects the Dalai Lama's call for a "middle way" solution of a semiautonomous Tibet under Chinese rule, and accuses him and his supporters of campaigning to split Tibet from the rest of China.



Choephel was held without being charged until Feb. 17 last year, when the Marlo Peoples Intermediate Court tried him for circulating a statement that read no stability without equality, possession of a photo of the Dalai Lama, and commission of acts aimed at subverting the state.



He was sentenced to two years in jail and returned to Ho Min Xian prison, where he worked 15-hour days producing army uniforms and erecting fences, the source said.



A second source, who also asked to remain unnamed, told RFA that Choephels relatives were only permitted to see him once a month during his incarceration.



If they spoke in Mandarin [Chinese], they could converse for 30 minutes, but if the conversation was in Tibetan they were only allowed to speak for five minutes, the source said.



Gomar Choephel is the son of Lojang and a resident of Gomang village, he added.



County targeted



In March, sources told RFA that authorities in Rebgong were strengthening security forces amid official concerns that the anniversary of the 1959 national uprising against Beijings rule might trigger further protests.



The source said that armed police and security officers in civilian clothes could be seen near Rongwo monastery, at major road crossings, and in the front courtyards of government buildings, and emergency personnel stationed in the area had been equipped with fire extinguishers to prevent self-immolation protests by Tibetans.



Earlier that month, monks from Rongwo had appealed for the return of property formerly leased to a teachers college but seized by local authorities after the college moved to a new location.



The property, comprising one third of the total estate of the monastery, was confiscated in 2016, prompting monks to petition for its return, but Chinese authorities locked and sealed it.



In March 2016, authorities imposed sweeping new restrictions on Rongwo and other Rebgong monasteries, directing them to strictly follow the leadership of their management committees and strengthening a ban on the display of photos of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, sources in the region and in exile told RFA in earlier reports.



Chinese authorities set up the management committees in early 2012 in most Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, placing them under the direct control of government officials permanently stationed there, sources said.



The policy was enacted to ensure that monks and nuns do not participate in activities calling for an independent Tibet or disturb the social order by engaging in self-immolations or other protests, they said.



Reported by Sangye Dorjee and Lhuboom for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
UPDATED at 11:05 A.M. on 2017-08-15



Authorities in the capital of northwest Chinas Xinjiang region have banned the sale of books by an ethnic Uyghur who served as the regions first chairman, according to local sources, despite his avowed support for the countrys ruling Communist Party.



Observers said the banpart of an internal party order issued in April last year, but only recently learned of by RFAs Uyghur Servicehighlights the Chinese governments mistrust of Uyghurs, regardless of their professed loyalty to the party and state, and suggests an official effort is underway to erase Uyghur history from the region and the collective national conscience.



Books by the late Seypidin Aziz, including A Collection of Poetry, his memoir The Epics of Life, and a biographic memoir of Abdulkeri Abbasof The Eagle of Tengritagh," have been removed from bookstores in Urumqi following a special directive by authorities, sources at several shops in the Xinjiang capital recently told RFAs Uyghur Service, although they were unable to explain the reason for the ban.



The directive came despite years of service to the Communist Party by Azizi, who served as the first chairman of Xinjiang from 1955-1978 and as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee from 1993-1998 before his death in 2003.



All the books by Seypidin Azizi have been removed from the shelves and dealt with, said the ethnic majority Han Chinese director of the sales center at the official Xinhua Bookstore in Urumqi, speaking on condition of anonymity.



You cant buy his books from any bookstore. This is a universal directivewe received a special directive on this matter. I dont know if the books were recalled for political reasons, but we removed them upon receiving the directive.



A Han Chinese staff member at the Urumqi New City District Xinhua Bookstore said that A Collection of Poetry, The Epics of Life, and The Eagle of Tengritagh" had been removed from the shops sales database, as well as all of Azizis other books.



I checked the list of books in the Uyghur language, but his books are not listed, he said.



I dont know the reason for why his books were recalled.



Another Han Chinese employee at the Urumqi International Book Market sales center told RFA that the books are not here anymore and can no longer be purchased, but said he was unaware of why they had been banned.



Staff members at the sales office of Xinjiang International Book City and two other branches of the Xinhua Bookstore on Urumqis Friendship Road and Yanan Road also confirmed that Azizis books had been taken off the shelves and could not be found anywhere.



Chinese versions of the books are also no longer available in the capital, sources said.



It was not immediately clear if the ban extended to other parts of the country, but the director of sales for the Beijing-based Publishing House of Minority Nationalities, under the central governments State Ethnic Affairs Commission, confirmed to RFA that it had stopped publishing Azizis books.



The Seypidin Azizi books you have asked about are currently not allowed for sale, the director said, adding that while his group had previously published the books, it had stopped because Xinjiang authorities are currently reviewing the books contents.



Yes, he was the former vice-chairman [of the CPPCC], but his books were recalled and put under political review.



Ties to Beijing



Azizis books have typically been sought out by readers interested in the history of the Uyghur people, and particularly by those researching the second of two short-lived Uyghur republics known as East Turkestan in what is now Xinjiang under Chinese rule.



Azizi was born in 1915 in what was then the Republic of Chinas Xinjiang province. After living in the then-Soviet Union, he returned to Xinjiang and helped to instigate the Soviet-backed Ili Rebellion in 1944, which gained control of three key districts in the northwest of the province.



After serving as the Minister of Education in the East Turkestan Republic (ETR) and Commissioner of Education in a coalition government administered by the Ili rebels and the nationalist Kuomintang party from 1945-1948, Azizi joined the Communist Party of China at the end of the Chinese Civil War, ahead of Mao Zedong proclaiming the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing on Oct. 1, 1949.



He is widely believed to have helped deliver the ETR to the Peoples Republic of China in exchange for positions of leadership in the Communist Party, and is largely dismissed by the Uyghur community for his ties to Beijing.



Whitewashing history



Justin Rudelson, an expert on Uyghur issues and a lecturer at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, told RFA that the decision to ban Azizis books despite his pro-party stance signaled Beijings intention to whitewash the history of the Uyghur people and their region.



The main goal is to get rid of Uyghur history, no matter what the content, Rudelson said.



Erasing [Azizi] seems like not the first step, but a major step, in erasing Uyghur history. People cant study their own history if the books are not available.



Rudelson called Azizis books pro-PRC and said that banning them was part of a bid by the Chinese government to control knowledge.



These books no longer serve the Chinese governments current purpose in Xinjiang, so they have no use anymore, he said.



[Azizi] was essentially a state-sponsored writer, but there must be something in the books that China is afraid of about the Uyghurs that caused [Beijing] to ban one of the people most loyal to the Communist Party.



Dumped and buried



Ilshat Hassan, president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, called Aziz a traitor who hand-delivered the independence and sovereignty of East Turkestan to Chinas communist dictator Mao Zedong on a golden plate, and said he is responsible for the persecution Uyghurs currently endure in Xinjiang.



Once we were the founders and citizens of a republic, but these days we cant even defend our own language, religion and culture in the fake Uyghur Autonomous Region, he said.



Uyghurs regularly complain of pervasive ethnic discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule in Xinjiang.



Hassan said that the ban on Azizis books unquestionably proves that the Communist Party is unwilling to trust Uyghurs and only uses them for political advantage.



After using them, the party just dumps them and buries their memory, he said.



China is trying to wipe out the memory of East Turkestan in his books, even though the content is highly pro-PRC and pro-Communist Party.



Reported by Eset Sulaiman for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff and Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Vinh Diocese Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop led a delegation this month from his coastal region of Vietnam to Taiwan, home to Formosa Plastics Group's headquarters to seek redress for local fishermen affected by a marine disaster of April 2016. The toxic spill from a Formosa steel plant in central Vietnam polluted more than 125 miles of coastline along four coastal provinces and killed an estimated 115 tons of fish and left fishermen and tourism industry workers jobless. He spoke to RFA's Vietnamese service about his visit to Taiwan.



RFA: Tell us about your recent visit to Taiwan.

Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop: Our Marine Disaster Victim Support Committee has three or four people and there are also some others who currently live in Taiwan. In Taiwan, we met some lawyers, professors and members of civil society who are also in the process of litigation over the environmental disasters that Formosa caused in Taiwan itself over the years. I was so excited and happy about that trip. I also visited some villages which looked desolated and abandoned. Most of them are directly affected by the smoke from Formosa. What a tragedy when you actually get to see it! There were Taiwanese people, who perhaps were misinformed by Formosa. that the Vietnamese government forced Formosa to pay $500 million to people in Ky Anh, Vung Ang. Formosa tried to turn themselves into a victim. We explained that the Vietnamese government is cooperating with Formosa to alleviate the impact, moreover that many times the government has repressed supporters of the victims of Formosa.

RFA: Many people in the central provinces said that they have not received compensation. Did you mention that in your trip to Taiwan?

Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop: It is not right to say that most people have not received any money yet. The many victims who have already received compensation outnumber the ones who have not. The problem is that the state and Formosa decided that only the four provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien Hue would receive compensation, while Nghe An where people suffered a lot of impact, is not on the list. What is that list based on and why did the state and Formosa decide straight away the amount of compensation, and who would get compensated? We have raised the issue of justice to Nghe An authorities. Fortunately, the Nghe An authorities have acknowledged they owe Nghe An people, but they have no money to compensate yet. The problem is to ask Formosa as well as the authorities to pay compensation based on the specific damage analysis. In addition, the compensation is supposed to cover to the end of 2016, so then the question is what about after 2016?

RFA: When you talked about these matters with the people you met in Taiwan, did they give any comment?

Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop: We have learned a lot from the experience of the team of lawyers, and the professors, especially those at Taiwan University. They have spent years together with their students studying sea water, and smoke, to produce a scientific profile. I found that their profile is very well done, but Formosa is a really sly company. They hire lawyers who also use tricks to ask questions about the evidence Taiwanese scientists put out to continue the lawsuit. By mentioning this, I mean there are many things we cant bring to court because Vietnam does not allow or facilitate any formal scientific research. Even now the state only claims the water to be clean or unclean using their own words for political benefits, which is not based on any scientific analysis. In a society where peoples freedom of expression is not recognized, its very hard to sue against a state-sponsored company. We are in a very unfavorable situation.

RFA: Going abroad to seek justice for Formosa victims in Vietnam, is that an order from your superiors? Why were you urged to do that?

Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop: There were no orders, but there is always a call from Catholic doctrines, especially from Pope John Paul. He calls on us to accompany the victims and the poor. Moreover, being the leaders of Vinh diocese, we cant sit by and see people suffer. Thats why we went abroad to raise our voice, hoping that we can help with something. Moreover, I repeat that Formosa is very sly, they have a lot of money and power. Therefore, the issue is not whether we succeed or not, but that we can raise our voice for justice and help the victims realize that there is always someone standing by their side, desiring to do something for them.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman.
Our current school funding formula is broken. If it we dont replace it with an evidence-based model, our schools will lose out on the majority of their state funding," McCann said in a statement after his vote with the Democrat majority.

SPRINGFIELD - Only one Republican member of the Illinois Senate voted to override Governor Rauner's amendatory veto of SB 1 - this year's school funding bill: State Senator Sam McCann of downstate Jacksonville.

Rauner had argued that a $250 million bailout of Chicago Public Schools' faltering teacher pension system was unfair to other districts throughout the state.

McCann didn't mention Rauner's objections to Chicago getting so much of the available funding in his statement. Schools opening on time this year was more of a concern to him.

"I cant in good conscience vote against funding our schools, without a real, viable backup plan in place. I would encourage the continuation of negotiations on a better, bipartisan solution, but we have to move forward as best we can so all of our schools will open on time, and stay open through the full school year.

McCann did not mention whether his district's schools would lose or gain funding under SB 1, but McCann's caucus colleague State Senator Jim Oberweis (R-North Aurora) explained his vote to uphold the governor's veto by saying his district's schools would suffer.

Batavia, Community High School District 94, West Chicago, Yorkville, Oswego, Plano. All the schools I represent receive less new funding under what the Democrats passed compared to the Governors amended version of Senate Bill 1," Oberweis said.

All those school districts and school districts across the state are all taken advantage of under Senate Bill 1 with crucial dollars that should be going to them, instead going to bailout Chicago Public Schools. That is the opposite of fairness and equity," he said. These partisan games have to stop. Lets sit down and solve this problem together. This go-it-alone approach from the Democrats is not the right approach.

After the vote Sunday afternoon in the specially-called session at the Capitol, State Senator Kyle McCarter (R-O'Fallon) said the funding is not fair. "...Bottom line is SB1 gives steak to kids in Chicago and my kids downstate get hotdogs."

McCarter provided these example from his district: "Germantown gets $6,769 per student. Chicago Schools get $15,378. A difference of $8,609. SB1 gives Germantown $75!!! I will not bail out Chicago on the backs of the children and parents of downstate Illinois."

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan has called state reps to Springfield Wednesday to side with either Governor Rauner or the Illinois Senate.
A company that provides software for transportation and logistics management is expanding its local operations and expects to double its employment in Hanover County during the next year.

Florida-based BlueGrace Logistics has leased 7,400 square feet of space at 7443 Lee Davis Road, in the Brandy Hill Plaza, off Mechanicsville Turnpike. It also has an option to expand to 15,000 square feet, the Greater Richmond Partnership said Monday.

The company moved into the space several weeks ago, said Tim Salavejus, regional vice president for BlueGrace.

The company opened a small office in Henrico County last year and already employs about 20 people in the Richmond area. It expects to double its employment within the next year, Salavejus said. He said there is potential for growth beyond that.

The company plans to hire people for sales, customer support and management positions, Salavejus said.

Founded in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics is based in Riverview, Fla. It uses web-based technology to help its customers  primarily manufacturers and commercial transportation companies  with analysis of data to reduce transportation costs and streamline processes.

The company chose the Richmond area because of its central location on the East Coast, Salavejus said.

Virginia is a business-friendly state, he said. There is a good pool of talent for what we are looking for.
The patriarch of Richmond-area craft breweries, Legend Brewing Co., has opened its first satellite location in Portsmouth.

Legend held an official grand opening for the new restaurant and brewery on Monday, with Gov. Terry McAuliffe in attendance, though the new brewpub actually has been serving customers for about two weeks.

It has been good, said Dave Gott, Legends vice president of operations. People are excited about it.

Legend has operated a brewery and restaurant in Richmonds Manchester area since 1994. It announced plans last fall to open the second spot, called the Legend Brewing Depot, in the Seaboard Coast Line building, a historic former train station along the Elizabeth River in Old Towne Portsmouth.

It is the first of what will be several satellite brewpubs, Gott said.

He said the brewery also is considering locations in the Williamsburg area and Northern Virginia, and its managers have looked at several properties.

For now, the Portsmouth brewery is only serving beer made at Legends Richmond site. The Portsmouth site is expected to start brewing its own specialty beers in September specifically for that location. It will have a three-barrel brewing system, or about one-tenth of the capacity of the Richmond brewery.

The idea is to have two or three proprietary brews there, Gott said. Those beers might include an Oyster Stout, a Kolsch, and an IPA.

About 45 people are working at the Portsmouth brewpub including managers, kitchen and serving staff. Beer brewers in Richmond will rotate duty at the Portsmouth site.
Measured concretely, Gravel Hill is a tranquil, rural community contained within a short stretch of eastern Henrico County. Just two buildings  a nondescript brick church and a former schoolhouse converted into a recreation center  form its epicenter, hemming either side of a section of Long Bridge Road.

But the history  and legacy  of Gravel Hill are much grander than simple appearances.

More than two centuries ago, a Quaker named John Pleasants, who had grown wise to the cruelty of slavery, ordered in his will that the slaves he owned become free. A lengthy court case ensued as his son, Robert, carried out his fathers wish.

Father and son ultimately got their way, freeing 78 slaves and setting them up with 350 acres of farmland to establish one of the nations earliest settlements of freed slaves.

For the descendants of those former slaves, the measure of Gravel Hills influence courses deeply.

What grows out of Gravel Hill is hope, said Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, whose forebears were among those set free. At the General Assembly this year during Black History Month, he spoke lovingly of the community, declaring that the legacy of the Pleasants slaves perseverance lives on through descendants.

As with most reared in the community, Gravel Hill Baptist Church was where life was centered  it was the site of Sunday worship, of momentous life events such as family weddings and funerals. Today, several hundred people attend the church, Bagby said.

The community instilled the values of church and school, he said, which shaped his growth into a local and state leader. Indeed, the community has proven somewhat of a wellspring for local political power. In addition to Bagby, its progenies include Henrico Supervisor Tyrone Nelson.

It was in the recreation center, which was once a school for African-American children, that Nelson, who is the pastor at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, launched his local run for office in 2011.

He reflects, wondering of his great-great-grandparents: Could they really see a time where  the first African-American to represent this area would come out of people raised up in this community?

Nelson grew up in Richmond but memorized the car trip  25 minutes, without traffic  into the Varina area. On Sundays, he arrived by 9:30 a.m. for the morning service and, before the afternoon worship, would congregate with up to a dozen family members at his grandmothers house, where she lavished them with meals of turkey, ham or chicken with spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and green beans.

My grandmother was 80 years old, still cooking meals like that, he said. Most of it was about just keeping us together as a family.

Driving up Carters Mill Road one afternoon, Nelson pointed to the ranch-style home where his grandmother lived. The barbecue pit and the shed his grandfather built still stood. Another family moved into the home a few years ago, Nelson said, and he wept when it was sold.

Bill Anderson, who retired as a psychologist from the University of Virginia, was the communitys history keeper until he died in 2016. Now more of the Gravel Hill clan has become attuned to the significance of its history.

Its a history that includes scarring from the Civil War. The Battle of Glendale devastated Gravel Hill farmland, leaving property owners to later file claims with the Union for damages to their homes, livestock and crops.

It's a history that was, at times, uneasy.

In a Henrico County Line article from the late 1980s, a reporter encountered a group of older women at the Gravel Hill Community Center, who recalled memories at what was once the Gravel Hill School. During the struggle to integrate, the women recalled, terrorists would burn and bomb places where black people met, burn crosses and explode dynamite. The adversity, the women said, drew the community closer.

In Anderson's absence, lifelong resident Wilhelmina Greene and her husband, James, have assumed the responsibilities of neighbor-historians. For Thanksgiving, Greene rented and filled the recreation center with family members. And as time moves and the community's history recedes further, she is confident that, regardless of how far those with roots here travel, Gravel Hill will remain close.
Michael Smith's face should be familiar to anyone who follows Richmond dining. A lifelong restaurant person, Smith has run the front-of-house for restaurants all over town, including The Roosevelt on Church Hill and Amuse inside the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

And if you missed him inside restaurants, Smith took the stage at the Altria Theater in February to accept the Employee of the Year honor at the 2017 Elby Awards, which spotlight Richmond's restaurant industry.

Smith, who is from Portsmouth, came to Richmond in 2008 after earning his degree in art history from the College of William & Mary. These days, he can be found at Laura Lee's (3410 Semmes Ave.), where he serves as general manager  and as self-appointed floral arranger.

We caught up with him to get his take on all things Richmond dining.

How did you get into the industry?

Ive only ever worked in food and beverage. I started as a short-order cook at a local cafe when I was a teenager. Even from that young age, it seemed to just come naturally, especially when I started learning how to barista and began working the front-of-house exclusively.

Soon after that cafe job, I began waiting tables and truly got bit by the industry bug. Its been nothing but uphill from there!

What's a typical Saturday night like?

I thrive when its busiest! The weekends are always fun, because its when the most people come out  which for me means having to get as creative as possible to make sure that everyone who walks through the door can find a spot to enjoy themselves.

I like to think of myself as an air traffic controller, often directing people where to stand and situate their group so we can pave a way to clear a spot recently vacated by diners, clean it, reset it and quickly move on to the next guests waiting in the relatively small host area. Sometimes the phone might be ringing during all of this, too, with guests expecting to know what the wait times may be.

I try to set a clear expectation to everyone before and upon entering a busy Saturday or weekend shift. ... When we are packed, things run a little differently than when were slow. If I set that expectation with the guest  and they trust that I've got their back, and we can both just roll with the punches  everyone will have a good time. Guaranteed.

What's one thing diners should know about managing a restaurant?

If you cant accept that things will fall off the track every now and again, you shouldnt get into the restaurant industry. Thats the magical aspect of the restaurant that keeps us lunatics in the business.

Some of the biggest mistakes that Ive made have been the best learning experiences. Theres also a thrill from being able to recover from these slip-ups that may happen during a busy night.

What does it take to be in the hospitality industry?

A genuine desire to make peoples experience dining with you special. Key word here is genuine.

What do you look for in your servers?

Im looking for many qualities to hopefully manifest themselves simultaneously in one individual, but that rarely takes form. Fortunately, you can usually build a team of strong individuals with a collection of talents. But professionalism goes a long way, as does a good understanding of the industry from all angles, full-time availability and a willingness to take on learning every position in the front-of-house.

Too many people only want to be bartenders. Not enough people recognize the importance of all the other areas of the restaurant. I've been assuming the role of hosting and managing the reservations at restaurants for the past seven years. The first impression, like they say, is easily the most important, and that starts before anyone even steps into the restaurant.

The best servers and bartenders in this town realize the importance of what's happening at the front door, at the expo line, during inventory, etc.

What's your biggest pet peeve on the serving side?

When separating checks by items results in a minuscule difference (like pennies apart) from simply splitting it down the middle.

What's your biggest pet peeve on the diner side?

When a guest is genuinely ungrateful from the get-go for no apparent reason. General unpleasantness bothers me a lot and can affect my mood if its unwarranted and somehow gets directed at me.

What's the best part of your job?

Taking care of our plants at Laura Lees and creating all of the flower arrangements every couple of weeks. Its my quiet time and I get to flex a creative muscle.

What's the worst?

Sometimes I dont get out of work until really late at night, and that can be sort of tough after a while. Food service equals long hours.

How has the local scene evolved in your time here?

Richmonders have always liked an exclusive, small neighborhood joint with a groovy bar scene and creative food. Id say the biggest evolution Ive seen is in the decision of the neighborhoods where restaurateurs choose to house their newest dining concepts. Kudos to those branching out and establishing roots in the gorgeous parts of our city that have been neglected or forgotten.

And bigger thanks to the customers who themselves branch out of their own neighborhoods to check these spots out, too. Thats the most positive change Ive recognized in the nine years Ive lived in Richmond.

You've worked all over town  are there differences in neighborhoods when it comes to dining?

Every neighborhood in Richmond has its own personality, and the successful restaurants within those neighborhoods definitely recognize this and play to their neighbors. The type of clientele affects the style or pace of service, something that Ive been aware of working at different restaurants in different locations.

Its hard to distinguish between the culture of the neighborhood regulars and the culture of the restaurant. Sometimes the two are intertwined.

What went through your mind when you won the Elby?

Disbelief. I let all the whiskey I had consumed prior to that moment do all the talking once I got on stage.

It was odd not being able to see everyone I was thanking  I really wanted to see my friends and colleagues smiling back up at me, but it was so bright from the spotlights, you couldnt see anything! It was pretty terrifying, but I was over-the-moon excited nonetheless.

What's a cool part of Laura Lee's menu right now?
A 17-year-old gang member pleaded guilty Monday to fatally shooting and attempting to rob a Chesterfield County man last year in a botched drug robbery after the teen and three accomplices traveled here from North Carolina.

Jamaria S. Chop Crawford, who was 16 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty in Chesterfield Circuit Court to second-degree murder, felony use of a firearm and attempted robbery in the Nov. 1 slaying of Jon-Eric R. Schwarz V, 30. Schwarz was gunned down after the four co-defendants hatched a plan to rob him in a drug and money ripoff scheme, according to evidence.

In an agreement between prosecution and defense, the teen pleaded guilty to all three offenses in exchange for his murder count being reduced from first-degree murder to second-degree.

Defense attorney G. Russell Russ Stone told the court that Crawford candidly acknowledged pulling the trigger in an interview with police after his arrest with his mother present.

As part of his summary of evidence, Chesterfield prosecutor Ken Chitty said Crawford told investigators he fired a single shot in fear after Schwarz rose to his feet as Crawford confronted the victim at the doorway of a storage shed where Schwarz was living behind a home in the 2900 block of Galena Avenue, about a block west of Jefferson Davis Highway.

Chesterfield Circuit Judge David E. Johnson accepted Crawfords pleas and set sentencing for Nov. 15. He faces up to 53 years in prison.

Crawford is the second of the four defendants to be convicted in the killing.

On Aug. 7, Darrius A. FreshyBeatz Ellis, 22, an L.C. Bird High School graduate who moved to North Carolina, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and a felony firearm offense in the slaying. Ellis essentially devised the plan to drive to Chesterfield to find someone to rob of drugs and/or money.

The co-defendants ended up targeting Schwarz because he was once Ellis partner in selling marijuana in Chesterfield. Schwarz was convicted of distribution of marijuana in 2009, a charge that was later reduced on appeal to possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

Schwarz was found with a gunshot wound to his stomach about 5:30 a.m., resting against a riding lawn mower near where he was living in a shed with many amenities, including electricity, a television, video games, air conditioning and furniture.

In his summary, Chitty said the four accomplices met on Halloween last year at the Salisbury, N.C., home of a third co-defendant, Daeshun R. Ghost Hargrave, 17, where Ellis first proposed that they all drive to Virginia to hang out with some girls.

But in subsequent interviews, the defendants told police that Ellis said he wanted to jug someone  slang for rob  after driving to Virginia. All four defendants then got into Ellis vehicle and made the 3-hour trip from Salisbury to Chesterfield, arriving shortly before midnight.

They initially checked into a motel on Jefferson Davis Highway and called various people in an attempt to set up a marijuana deal, but it was their intention to rob anyone who agreed to meet them at the inn.

The defendants gave up on the plan after no one would meet with them, so they drove to a residence in the 2700 block of Perlock Road, about a block from the victims home, and hung out there for about five hours with three teen girls, one of whom was Ellis former girlfriend.

The girls told Ellis where Schwarz was living, and Ellis instructed one of the girls to call Schwarz. After getting no answer, two of the girls walked to Schwarzs shed along with three of the co-defendants, and the girls went inside and talked with him. The girls and co-defendants left and returned to Schwarzs shed several times before the four young men got into Ellis car and began circling the neighborhood.

During the drive, Ellis egged on Crawford, who was carrying a handgun he jointly owned with Hargrave, to carry out their robbery plan, Chitty said.

With Ellis staying behind in the car, Crawford, Hargrave and the fourth co-defendant, Najee T. G Palmer, 18, got out and approached Schwarzs shed. When Schwarz saw them, rose to his feet and began walking to the door, Crawford opened fire, hitting Schwarz in the abdomen  severing his aorta.

Without obtaining any drugs or money, the four then fled back to North Carolina, where they were arrested eight days later. Police said all four were affiliated with the Grape Street Crips in North Carolina.

Hargrave and Palmer are expected to enter guilty pleas during hearings on Oct. 18 and Nov. 6, respectively.
Federal civil rights investigations are looking into whether the school systems in Chesterfield County, Henrico County and Richmond discriminate against African-American students.

The U.S. Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into Chesterfield schools several months ago. Henrico is the subject of two ongoing investigations, while a review of Richmond schools launched in April. Its unclear when the probes might conclude.

At least one of the inquiries  the one in Chesterfield  followed U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachins request in March for an investigation into disparities in student treatment within his 4th District. The district encompasses 16 localities, including Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico.

The Democratic congressmans call came the same day that a Richmond Times-Dispatch article detailed higher suspension rates and over-identification of African-American students with disabilities within several local school divisions.

All of the federal investigations are looking into whether the disciplinary policies and practices of the school divisions discriminate against African-American students. One of the investigations in Henrico is looking into whether the district excludes African-American students from college and career readiness programs as well as higher-level courses.

The Richmond investigation also includes a review of whether the school division discriminates against students with disabilities.

This past school year, the Virginia Department of Education cited Henrico and Chesterfield for suspending black students with disabilities at a disproportionately high rate over several years. Chesterfield, Henrico and Richmond are among seven Virginia school districts mandated to set aside federal money received under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act this year to combat the pattern.

In the 2014-15 school year, an African-American student with disabilities in Chesterfield was nearly four times more likely to be suspended long-term compared with other students with disabilities. During that period, Henricos African-American students with disabilities were 6.7 times more likely to be suspended long-term.

The state Department of Education cited Richmond because the citys African-American students with disabilities have been more likely to be identified as having an other health impairment  defined by the federal government as having limited strength, vitality or alertness  than other students with disabilities.

McEachin called the statistics disturbing and frustrating and has asked the Office of Civil Rights to keep him apprised of the progress of the investigations.

McEachin and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., recently spearheaded a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos  signed by more than 60 members of Congress, including Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.  urging her to take steps toward reducing excessive discipline in schools.

The federal office contacted Chesterfields school district several months ago, informing officials that they were going to conduct a divisionwide investigation. The division provided the office with contact information for individuals within the school division, but Chesterfield officials havent heard back from the federal office.

The school division looks forward to providing our data, practices and policies to (the Office of Civil Rights) for review, Chesterfield schools spokesman Shawn Smith wrote in an email. We feel confident that our work is in compliance with the law and our data is significantly improving each year. We will work closely with OCR on any suggestions or requirements for improvement.

Henrico schools spokesman Andy Jenks said his district looks forward to continuing to cooperate with the Office of Civil Rights and demonstrating its continued commitment to equal opportunities for all students. He added that the school system was recently recognized for reducing student suspensions by the National School Boards Association.

We know there is more work to be done, and building on this momentum will continue to be one of our top priorities, Jenks said.

The federal Education Department did not immediately provide information about the percentage of complaints the Office for Civil Rights agrees to investigate.
Teresa Mull, School Reform News -

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Missouri government cannot reject a churchs application for a state grant because of the institutions religious character. Education choice advocates are hailing the ruling as a victory for school choice.

READ MORE
Facing a wave of criticism, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian J. Moran defended how police handled Saturdays white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, which was marked by vicious street fights and a car plowing into a group of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring 19 people.

Two state troopers also died when a Virginia State Police helicopter monitoring the scene crashed, the denouement of a dark day that thrust the college town into the national spotlight.

Moran and McAuliffe pointed instead at a judges decision that prevented city officials from moving the rally from Emancipation Park in downtown Charlottesville  the site of the statute of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that the city wants to remove  to McIntire Park about a mile and a half away.

We did not want to engage the rally attendees or others in an urban environment, Moran said, adding that the park was too small for the number of expected attendees at the Unite the Right rally of white nationalists and others associated with the so-called alt-right. Locating this type of demonstration in the center of town posed significant public safety risks.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia joined a request for an injunction filed by Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, whose permit to conduct the demonstration was revoked by the city government. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Glen E. Conrad granted the injunction allowing the rally to go forward at the Emancipation Park location.

We were unfortunately sued by the ACLU, and the judge ruled against us. That rally should not have been in the middle of downtown: to disperse all those people from the park where they dispersed all over the city streets and it became a powder keg, McAuliffe said in an interview Monday with National Public Radio.

He said police did a magnificent job.

We have to do a better job working with the judiciary. They need to listen to local city officials, McAuliffe said. The judiciary needs to do better job working with us. ... I am angry that this was not moved to McIntire Park where the city of Charlottesville requested.

Claire Gastanaga, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, fired back Monday.

The situation that occurred was preventable and our lawsuit challenging the city to act constitutionally did not cause it, she said in a statement, adding that the city failed to present evidence justifying its imposition of prior restraint on free speech.

The ACLU added that is was horrified by the violence in Charlottesville.

We do not support Nazis. We support the Constitution and laws of the United States, the group said. We would be eager to work with the governor and the attorney general on efforts to ensure that public officials understand their rights and obligations under the law.

***

Gastanaga, who was in Charlottesville on Saturday, said the policing was not designed to be or effective in preventing violence and expressed those concerns to Moran and the head of the Virginia State Police at the scene.

The lack of any physical separation of the protesters and counterprotesters on the street was contributing to the potential of violence, she wrote. They did not respond. In fact, law enforcement was standing passively by, waiting for violence to take place, so that they would have grounds to declare an emergency, declare an unlawful assembly and clear the area.

Moran pushed back against the contention, as observed by journalists, rally organizers and counterprotesters, that police stood by while people, many of whom were carrying homemade shields and makeshift clubs, beat each other bloody in the streets.

Whatever decisions law enforcement made were based on public safety concerns of the demonstrators as well as law enforcement officers, said Moran, who also got a glimpse of the ugly scene firsthand. Ive never seen anything like that and I hope to never see it again.

The white nationalist rally was supposed to start at noon, but police on the scene declared an unlawful assembly before it began.

We provided demonstrators time to disperse, Moran said. Then we moved in with a tactical unit sufficiently protected with riot gear to clear the park.

Moran said Charlottesville police were in charge of the event, but noted that the state response involved hundreds of police and National Guard members, though he would not provide specific numbers because of security concerns.

He noted some irony in the fact that activists, including the ACLU, criticized police for heavy-handedness during a July Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, but he added that the plan for last weekend was developed based on its own unique circumstances, not past criticism.

The fact is we proceeded in the best interest of the citizens of the commonwealth and law enforcement. Thats what we did on both occasions, Moran said. We did everything we could. The plan was executed very well. You would hope that the death of a young woman and two state troopers will lead to nonviolent expression of opinion in the future.

***

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas told reporters at a Monday news conference that his officers went out to police the rally in their usual uniforms but had to put on protective gear after the violence erupted.

We were hoping for a peaceful event, Thomas said, denying the police were intimidated by rifle-toting militia members who attended. We urged leaders from both sides to engage in a nonviolent demonstration.

Thomas said officers endeavored to keep the battling sides separate but were unable to do so, partly because the Unite the Right attendees did not follow the proscribed police plan for entering the park. Police broke up fights throughout the weekend, he said.

Absolutely I have regrets, Thomas said, though he did not elaborate on what police might have done differently. We lost three lives this weekend.

He was asked by a reporter whether, at a planning meeting for the rally, officers were instructed not to make arrests without the permission of Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer.

That is simply not true, Thomas said.

Moran said he could not comment on that allegation.

Signer called that contention ridiculous.

It represents the same conspiracy thinking and fact-free zone that we see in the alt-right everywhere, he said. The mayor in Charlottesville has no operational authority over the police department, has no operational authority at all over the police department. This is a city manager form of government.

***

Richmond could be bracing for a similar spectacle, with a Confederate heritage group petitioning to hold a rally here next month in response to Mayor Levar Stoneys move to empanel a commission tasked with adding context to Monument Avenues string of rebel leaders.

Rather than seeking to scapegoat the ACLU of Virginia and the Rutherford Institute for the devastating events on Saturday, it is my firm hope and desire that the governor and other state and local officials will learn from this past weekend how constitutionally to prevent events like the horror we saw in Charlottesville from ever happening again, Gastanaga said.

Moran said Charlottesville will inform how the state prepares for the rally in Richmond if it happens.

We will be in communication with the city, Moran said. It should be a very collaborative process.

McAuliffe said he convened an emergency cabinet meeting Monday to discuss the next steps we, as a commonwealth, must take in order to begin the arduous process of healing our community and confronting the racism that stubbornly remains in our nation.

The governor says he has called for a commission with members from community organizations, law enforcement and religious groups to make actionable recommendations for executive and legislative solutions to advance our mission of reconciliation, unity and public safety.

He also directed his staff to conduct an extensive review on how rally permits are issued, law enforcement preparation and response and coordination between local, state and federal authorities.

Finally, I commend our Virginia State Police and National Guard personnel, who worked in support of the city of Charlottesville, for their tireless work this weekend under very challenging and volatile circumstances. Without their extensive preparations and measured actions, we would be facing a far more grave situation today, McAuliffe said.
Richmonders filled the plaza around the Slavery Reconciliation Statue on Sunday night to mourn the victims of violence in Charlottesville, encourage political action, and pray for President Donald Trump.

The battle to fight hatred, racism, prejudice and faces of evil is not over, said state Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, a pastor.

She and the Baptist Ministers Conference of Richmond and Vicinity joined Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Mayor Levar Stoney and other political and religious leaders for an hour-long vigil in the hot sun at the statue  which was unveiled in 2007 in the former capital of the Confederacy to signify Richmonds key role in the international slave trade.

There needs to be legislation and there needs to be other things that speak to what we have witnessed, McQuinn said.

Stoney lifted the volume of his voice to reach the large crowd and compete with nearby traffic.

There are people who endeavor to take us back ... to a time of domestic terrorism, when people feared for their lives, he said. If such hate showed up in the city of Richmond, he said, he would protect people from it.

U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-4th, blamed Trump for the rise in Nazi ideology in America.

What do we do from here? We go straight to the voting booth, he said.

Yet the ministers still prayed for the president to find an appropriate response.

The Rev. Sylvester Turner asked, Uplift him Lord God ... because he needs to know you as a servant of you, not just as president of the United States.

Give us the willpower that we might lift him up in prayer.

McAuliffe, in a speech without notes or prepared text, said he was angry Saturday and sorrowful Sunday. He honored Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed when anti-racist protesters were hit by a car in Charlottesville. He honored the two State Police pilots, Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, who both died when their helicopter crashed.

These state troopers were very close to me, McAuliffe said.

And he had strong words for the those who held the rally. He asked how the country got to a point where people are walking down the street with swastikas and Confederate flags and spewing hate.

They get out of bed every day to hate people and divide our country. As I said yesterday, Go home. The crowd applauded.

But lets be honest. They need to leave America.

I call upon every elected official ... weve got to call it out for what it is. It is hatred, it is bigotry and our leaders have got to be very frank and unequivocal  we will not tolerate that.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
CHRISTIANSBURG  A judge added 11 years to Michael Lashawn Browns prison terms Monday, bringing the Blacksburg mans punishment for sexually abusing a child to a half century behind bars.

Brown, 35, was charged in Montgomery and Pulaski counties with abusing a young girl over a period of years until she reported him and he was arrested in 2013. Mondays hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court was the most recent in a long series of court proceedings.

In March, with potential jurors waiting to hear the case, Brown resolved the Montgomery County charges by entering Alford pleas to two counts of raping a child under the age of 13. In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains his innocence but admits that there is enough evidence to support a conviction.

On Monday, Judge Robert Turk sentenced Brown to 30 years on each rape charge but said the terms would be suspended after Brown serves 11 years.

But Turk added that this sentence is to run consecutively with a 40-year prison term that Brown already is serving for convictions in Pulaski County involving the same victim. Brown may not contact the victim or her family and will be supervised by the probation office for 10 years after his release, Turk said.

The Roanoke Times does not identify victims of sexual assault without their permission.

The victims mother testified Monday that her daughter suffered many ongoing effects from Browns actions and would carry memories of what he did forever. An entire familys ability to trust has been damaged, she said.

Brown took the stand to say that he had been wrongly accused and that he had been made a pawn in a custody struggle that he said had taken place in the victims family.

In 2014, a Pulaski County jury acquitted Brown of two charges of raping a child younger than 13 but convicted him of two charges of aggravated sexual battery against a child younger than 13. In 2015, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison and fined $200,000 in the Pulaski County case.

Also in 2014, in another case with the same victim, Brown pleaded guilty in Pulaski County Circuit Court to an amended charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and received a 12-month jail sentence.

Defense attorney Ryan Hamrick of Christiansburg on Monday urged Turk to make the sentence in the Montgomery County case run concurrently with the Pulaski County cases so that Brown could serve both sentences at the same time.

Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Dean Manor noted that the various charges against Brown had resulted from separate acts and said the severity of the sentence in Pulaski County should not lessen his punishment in Montgomery County.

These are bleak circumstances that have a bleak resolution, Manor said.

Turk said that he might have made a different sentencing decision if Browns case had gone to trial and he had heard testimony about Browns actions. But since Browns plea prevented that testimony, Turk said that he was relying on sentencing guidelines that recommended an 11-to-23-year prison term.
On Nov. 6, 2010, Ronnie Clayton Thomas celebrated his 35th birthday with friends.

Then just one hour into the following day, prosecutors say, he ambushed and fatally shot a passenger of a blue Honda that was sitting at a red light on Church Avenue, facing the YMCA building in Roanoke.

Monday morning in Roanoke Circuit Court, as a large panel of potential jurors waited one floor down, Thomas, now 41, waived his scheduled week-long jury trial and pleaded no contest to murder and two firearm offenses.

Through his agreement, he received a sentence of life plus five years, which will be suspended after he serves 30 years. He will be on probation for 10 years after he is released.

Another man charged in the shooting, Timothy Price Jr., pleaded guilty in February to murder and to two gun charges and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 24.

The man who was killed, Tushawn Wray Drew, was also 35 years old the night of the shooting. He left behind six children, and prosecutors say the attack that killed him came as the result of mistaken identity.

No one really had anything bad to say about Mr. Drew, Roanoke Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Sheri Mason said earlier this year. He wasnt fighting with anyone.

On the night he died, Drew had been at a party  not Thomas birthday celebration  and was getting a ride from two strangers he had met, a husband and wife. Around 1 a.m., the three of them were sitting in the couples Honda, waiting at a traffic light in the 500 block of Church Avenue.

At the same time, Thomas was in the area, arguing with someone on his cellphone, when that person told him, I see you at the red light.

Price has told investigators he and others then attacked the Honda because they thought the man Thomas was arguing with was inside it.

Mason said the female passenger had her window down as the car sat at the intersection, and she recalled hearing voices behind their car. Within an instant, the Honda was shot through with gunfire. Police later recovered nearly a dozen shells from three different types of handguns: a .38-caliber, a .40-caliber and a 9 mm.

Neither the male driver nor his wife, who was pregnant at the time, was injured. But Drew, who was sitting in the back seat, was shot in the back of the head. The bullet exited just below his left eye, Mason said in court Monday.

It was later determined that the person Thomas had been fighting with had been in another part of town, and the lack of a direct connection between Drew, Price and Thomas was one reason the investigation stretched across years, Mason has said.

The initial detective on the case, Lin Manning, also died in 2014 after battling cancer for more than a year, and the investigation was passed on to another detective.

The case caught traction after ties were discovered between handguns that were seized after Price and Thomas were arrested on unrelated offenses. Price had a .38 and Thomas a .40-caliber.

It took a while to get there because of all the ins and outs of the cases, Mason told Judge Charlie Dorsey.

Thomas maintained a casual demeanor during Mondays hearing, mostly keeping his left elbow on the defendants table and resting his chin and cheek in his left palm. He presented no evidence and made no statement.

In April 2016, court records show that Thomas spoke to police at length about the incident, giving two separate interviews that, in transcript form, total more than 100 pages.

In those conversations, Thomas said other people had been involved in the phone argument that led to the shooting. He claimed that he had carried a .357 Magnum that night, not a .40-caliber, and he said that when the shooting started, he had aimed and fired above the Honda, so as not to hit it.

Forensics investigators did not recover any evidence of a .357 Magnum having been involved, Mason said Monday.

At Prices plea hearing in February, his defense attorney, Seth Weston, said his client would provide more information about the shooting at his sentencing. He described Price, 19 years old at the time of the crime, as a man following others.
The defendant in a stabbing attack in Roanoke County is asking federal authorities to turn over any records that corroborate he was dealing with a mental illness.

The defense believes that federal investigators could possess supporting evidence on that point because the defendant, Wasil Rafat Farooqui, came under FBI investigation last year after taking a trip to Turkey, according to a motion filed Wednesday in Roanoke County Circuit Court.

The four-page motion, which appears to be the first confirmation of a prior FBI inquiry, doesnt elaborate on any details of the March 2016 trip.

It does state that investigators were notified by Farooquis parents that their son was mentally ill and had boarded a plane to Turkey.

Farooqui was stopped by agents when he returned days later and a federal grand jury investigation was opened, according to the motion filed by defense attorney Neil Horn.

Federal authorities gathered information, testimony and records concerning the defendants actions and mental illness, Horn wrote.

The current status of any federal inquiry into Farooqui wasnt immediately clear. An FBI spokeswoman said she couldnt comment.

Horn, who couldnt be reached Monday afternoon, wrote that access to federal files could be valuable because Farooquis sanity is expected to be the key issue weighed when the Roanoke County case goes to trial.

Farooqui, 21, was arrested in August 2016 and charged with slashing a couple with a butcher knife at an apartment building on Banbury Lane.

The attack, which the victims survived, appeared to be random, local officials said. Witnesses told authorities that Farooqui had been shouting Allahu akbar or Arabic for God is great.

Farooqui told a detective that he had been hearing voices urging him to attack someone, according to a search warrant.

The case drew national attention and at least two news outlets, ABC and CBS, cited unnamed sources who said Farooqui had been on the FBIs radar and may have tried unsuccessfully to go to Syria.

Attorney Sheila Moheb, who initially represented Farooqui before Horn took over the case, said Farooqui had no ties to extremist organizations.

He traveled to Turkey in early 2016, but the events in Roanoke County were fueled by his mental illness, she told Newsweek in a December article. She filed notice that winter of plans to present an insanity defense.

Roanoke County Commonwealths Attorney Randy Leach said Monday he couldnt comment on the case.

Farooqui, whos facing two charges of aggravated malicious wounding, is currently set to go to trial Aug. 28.

A pre-trial motions hearing has been scheduled for Friday. In his motions, Horn asked that the prosecution share any exculpatory evidence  including any information that tends to prove the existence of [Farooquis] mental disease and his resulting behaviors  held by the federal government.

Local prosecutors are already in possession of some of Farooquis treatment records going back to February 2016, he wrote, and he asked that they be required to disclose how those records were obtained.

If federal authorities supplied them, he argued, a fuller disclosure of the federal files would be required.

Horn also submitted a proposed questionnaire that would survey potential jurors on their feelings toward Muslims, mental illness and other issues.
Officials from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy got to show off a new communications and rescue vehicle at last week's Mine Rescue Contest in Blacksburg.

The state purchased a $30,000 rescue ride, or R-2 vehicle especially made for disaster conditions in a mine and had it available for inspection at the contest grounds.

Through a grant from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, the R-2 was outfitted with a $200,000 wireless communications system, according to VDMME spokeswoman Tarah Kesterson.

The equipment allows rescuers to communicate with each other and with an outside command center from up to six miles underground and "will reduce response time and be available to any mine rescue team that responds to an emergency in the Commonwealth, a department news release stated.

It can also monitor mine air quality, track the location of rescuers and carry first aid and other equipment, according to the release.

The vehicle and communications system can be deployed for mining emergencies in Virginia and neighboring states by the states mining rescue team, which was established last year. Team members are trained and certified to respond to mining emergencies. Private mining companies also assemble rescue teams.

Every mine in the commonwealth is required to have a certified rescue team and a backup team within a one-hour drive of the mine site.

The last major mining disaster in Virginia happened on Dec. 7, 1992, when an explosion at Mine No. 3 of the Southmountain Coal Company in Norton killed eight miners.
Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea and other local leaders did not mince words when they spoke Sunday night on the violence in Charlottesville over the weekend.

Several hundred people in Roanoke gathered at First Baptist Church of Gainsboro, a historically black church, on Sunday for a peaceful vigil to remember the people who died and were injured on Saturday, after hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members clashed with counterprotesters in the streets of Charlottesville.

While praising the words and actions of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Lea was critical of the remarks of President Donald Trump, who yesterday said, We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.

[McAuliffe] came forward and called it what it was  bigotry, evil, hatred  for what happened yesterday, Lea said to the crowd. And its time for all of us as elected officials and appointed officials to stop using deceptive rhetoric and call it as it is.

He said Trumps quote on many sides was particularly deceptive.

I wanted to assure you as mayor of the city of Roanoke, were going to continue to go forward to work together, to stay together because we are stronger together, Lea added.

Lea was joined by several other members of the Roanoke City Council, state Sens. John Edwards and David Suetterlein and other officials at the vigil. Many in the crowd, which consisted of mostly white people, said they were disgusted by the scene unfolding in Charlottesville and wanted to do something  anything  to help encourage peace and unification.

Laura Godfrey handed out candles for the vigil on behalf of local group Roanoke Indivisible, which encouraged people to attend on social media. After the officials spoke, dozens of people went to the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. just a few blocks away to reflect on the weekends events.

We are all horrified, Godfrey said.

There are good people with a voice and we are here to use it, said 18-year-old Deven Musselman, who came with friends from his church in Oak Grove.

A few people brought signs condemning violence and racial hatred. One said, Rest in Power Heather Heyer, to honor the 32-year-old woman who was killed on Saturday when a car driven by James Alex Fields Jr. plowed into a group of counter protesters, police said. A sign with Heyers face also appeared at the vigil.

Self-described rabble-rousing millennial Victoria Myers of Franklin County came Sunday night with a sign lamenting that everyone bleeds the same color.

Her husband is Mexican, she said, and she sees racial hatred on a regular basis. She found the words of Brenda Hale, president of the NAACP branch in Roanoke, especially inspiring.

Hale delivered a quick message of unification in spite of all the different races and religions that make up the country.

Hale also said what happened in Charlottesville makes it evident that people are still plagued by so much race-based hatred, even in Roanoke.

Quoting the NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson, she said these actions are not surprising because of the presidential administration, which has given permission for bigots to have a platform to stand on.

The vigil elicited a lot of hugs, hand-holding and cheers from the crowd. Roanoke City Councilman Bill Bestpitch even led the crowd to join in singing a rendition of the gospel hymn, This Little Light of Mine.

However, Hope Trachtenberg-Fifer said she was disappointed with the vigil because there was no specific mention of the widespread anti-Semitism at the Charlottesville rallies. The vigil was also held at a Baptist church and Christian clergymen held prayers, which didnt feel welcoming to her or possibly to people who werent Christians, she said.
Roanoke Planning Commission

Regular meeting

When: 1:30 p.m. Monday

Where: City Council Chamber, Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building, 215 Church Ave. S.W.

On the agenda: Details available online at www.roanokeva.gov.

Bedford County Board of Supervisors

Work session and regular meeting

When: 5 and 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Bedford County Administration Building, 122 E. Main St., Bedford

On the agenda: Details available online at www.co.bedford.va.us.

Botetourt County Planning Commission

Regular meeting

When: 6 p.m. Monday

Where: Room 102, Old General District Courthouse, 5 W. Main St., Fincastle

On the agenda: For more information, visit www.botetourtva.gov.

Franklin County School Board

Regular meeting

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Franklin County School Board Office, 25 Bernard Road, Rocky Mount

On the agenda: The school board will get an update on career and technical education feasibility study and also hear a presentation on extending the school day for the solar eclipse.

Rocky Mount Town Council

Regular meeting

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Rocky Mount Municipal Building, 345 Donald Ave., Rocky Mount

On the agenda: Council will discuss management options for the town farmers market.

Salem City Council

Regular meeting

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday

Where: Council Chambers, Salem City Hall, 114 N. Broad St.

On the agenda: For more information, visit www.salemva.gov.

Franklin County Board of Supervisors

Regular meeting

When: 1:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Franklin County Government Center, 1255 Franklin Street, Rocky Mount

On the agenda: The board will discuss Western Virginia Water Authority utilities and the county broadband project in a work session after the regular meeting.

Roanoke County Planning Commission

Work session

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Fourth Floor Conference Room, County Administration Center, 5204 Bernard Drive S.W.

On the agenda: For more information, visit www.roanokecountyva.gov/pc.

Vinton Town Council

Regular meeting

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Council Chambers, Vinton Municipal Building, 311 S. Pollard St.

On the agenda: For more information, visit www.vintonva.gov.
A Roanoke millennial will oppose Rep. Bob Goodlattes 2018 re-election bid.

Democrat Peter Volosin plans to run against Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, who is serving his 13th term in the House of Representatives.

Volosin, 31, has never sought office before. He moved home to Roanoke in May after living in Washington, D.C., for about seven years.

Dozens of Democratic candidates have entered Virginias 2017 House of Delegates races and next years congressional races as a reaction to President Donald Trump and his policies, but Volosin says hes not running because of the Trump factor.

Tired of partisan politics in Washington, Volosin said he is seeking the 6th District Democratic nomination because hes fed up with political gridlock at the federal level.

With the way government is these days, with nothing getting done, I felt like that its time that we get somebody in there who wants to build collaboration, build partnerships and nobody else has come up so why not do it myself, he said.

Goodlatte, 64, plans to seek re-election, spokeswoman Beth Breeding said Friday.

She declined to comment further.

The 6th District has been in Republican hands since Goodlattes election to Congress in 1992. In 2016, Goodlatte, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, beat his Democratic opponent with 66 percent of the vote. At the end of June, Goodlatte had close to $1 million in cash on hand for his 2018 re-election bid, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Volosin is an independent contractor whose work revolves around urban planning. He earned his bachelors degree from Brown University and obtained his masters degree in urban and regional planning from Georgetown University.

He has worked a number of jobs over the years, serving as a desk clerk at a San Diego hotel, a paramedic and nurse in Washington, D.C., and eventually, consulting on regional planning efforts for various cities in Indonesia.

Volosin is an avid swimmer who qualified for the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials.

Hes also the son of Jimmy Volosin, who owns Jimmy Vs restaurant in Roanoke.

While Volosin is still forming his campaign platform, he believes health care is a right for all citizens, and he aims to reform the countrys immigration system so it is more welcoming to immigrants and refugees. Volosins husband, Malcolm Quigley, is from Ireland and a U.S. green card holder working toward full citizenship.

With the 2018 election still a distant glimmer on the horizon, Volosin will go on a listening tour this fall to hear from 6th District residents.

Im willing to listen to anybody because we need to have everybody at the table and come up with these creative solutions, he said.

Democrat Kai Degner, who opposed Goodlatte in 2016, conducted numerous listening tours while on the campaign trail. After losing the election, Degner has been raising money to form a super PAC devoted to unseating Goodlatte.

He recently started manufacturing Beat Bob bumper stickers and promises to refund the $3.99 shipping and handling fee for anyone who receives a sticker within 30 days of Goodlatte losing an election or retiring.

Democrats are lining up in record numbers to challenge Virginias Republican congressional representatives.

Seven Democrats oppose Rep. Barbara Comstock of Fairfax, six oppose Rep. Dave Brat of Henrico County and five oppose Rep. Tom Garrett of Buckingham.

Several Democrats are mulling a challenge to Reps. Scott Taylor of Virginia Beach, and Rob Wittman, of Westmoreland County.

No Democrats have emerged to challenge Rep. Morgan Griffith of Salem.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  The day after a white nationalist rally ended with three dead  a 32-year-old paralegal from Greene County and two Virginia State Police pilots from the Richmond area  its organizer fell flat with an attempt to reclaim the spotlight in a city fed up with the turmoil he helped to create.

Jason Kessler, organizer of the Unite the Right rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, tried to speak at around 2 p.m. on Sunday in front of City Hall. Hundreds of counterdemonstrators greeted him with chants of shame and say her name, referring to Heather D. Heyer, who was killed Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters on Fourth Street.

Kessler kept speaking through the chants, but his speech was largely inaudible. As he departed, the crowd rushed behind and a woman tackled him, prompting police to step in for his protection.

We still got to live in this town, Charlottesville native Katris Scott said, fuming with frustration over the turmoil left behind by white nationalist and supremacist groups drawn here for the rally. We just want our town back.

Virginia State Police charged Robert K. Litzenberger, 47, of Charlottesville, with misdemeanor assault and battery after a trooper saw him spit on Kessler, according to a city spokeswoman.

A rally ostensibly held to protest the citys proposed removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee turned into a street battle between protesters and counter-protesters at war over direly different visions of America, but the aftermath left Virginia in mourning and political shockwaves trembling across the country and around the world.

It was a local event with strategic, international implications, said George W. Foresman, an Albemarle County resident who formerly served as Virginias top homeland security official and undersecretary for preparedness under President George W. Bush.

The dead included Heyer, who was hit by a car driven by a 20-year-old Ohio man who had rallied with an organization associated with white supremacist, anti-Semitic ideology. The vehicle rampage injured 19 other people who, by Sunday, had either been released from hospital care or upgraded to good condition.

Charlottesville city officials said in a statement Sunday that Heyer was struck down by a vehicle while exercising her peaceful First-Amendment right to speech. This senseless act of violence rips a hole in our collective hearts.

Heyer worked as a paralegal for a Charlottesville law firm, said Felicia Correa, a friend from Greene.

People will remember her name and remember what she died for.

Correa, who is biracial, described her friend as a young white woman who died standing up not just for people of color in general but, also the people of color that I love, that I worry about.

She died for a reason, I dont see any difference in her or a soldier who died in war, she said. She, in a sense, died for her country. She was there standing up for what was right.

James Alex Fields Jr., of Maumee, Ohio, who allegedly drove the gray 2010 Dodge Challenger at high speed into a group of counter-protesters on Fourth Street, has been charged with second-degree murder in Heyers death, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident that resulted in a death.

Fields was pictured standing at the rally behind a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center identified as Neo-Nazi. The organization issued a statement that said the driver was, in no way, a member of Vanguard America, but was handling a shield that the group distributed to people at the rally.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Fields had espoused Nazi ideals in high school, according to Derek Weimer, a history teacher, who said he taught Fields during his junior and senior years at a Kentucky high school.

It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler, Weimer told The Post. He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff.

In an appearance on Sunday morning on NBCs Meet the Press, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer called the vehicle rampage a terrorist attack with a car used as a weapon.

John Fishwick, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia before resigning following Trumps election, commended the Department of Justices decision to open a federal investigation into the events in Charlottesville. The investigation will be conducted by the FBI, the departments Civil Rights Division, and Rick Mountcastle, acting U.S. attorney for Western District.

Fishwick said a federal investigation will allow for it to extend beyond the actions of the driver and whether others were involved in planning the attack.

Foresman said it is too soon to label the incident as terrorism because it is still under investigation by the FBI, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia. Thats a decision for a federal prosecutor, he said.

However, the homeland security consultant compared Fields to a young, Islamic jihadist who blows himself up in an American city. Hes a young man who came here with a purpose and who to some degree had been indoctrinated, Foresman said.

Weve got a generation of youth who are susceptible to radicalization, he said.

Three people were arrested by state police on Saturday during the planned rally at Emancipation Park, where the Lee statue stands, and what police described as the continued unrest following the declaration of an unlawful assembly.

They are Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tenn., who was charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, who was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery; and James M. OBrien, 44, of Gainesville, Fla., who was charged with carrying a concealed handgun.

Police did not characterize their roles in the confrontation.

The aftermath of the rally was filled with sorrow for state police, who lost two pilots, one of them the commander of the Aviation Unit, in the crash of the helicopter that had been circling above the city on Saturday to spot confrontations breaking out in a widening radius around the park and relay them to law enforcement on the ground.

Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, 40, of Quinton, died at the scene of the crash, which occurred at 4:44 p.m. on Saturday in a wooded area near a residence on Old Farm Road in Albemarle County.

Cullen had served in the 33-year-old Aviation Unit since 1999 and had been promoted to commander in February. Bates had joined the unit in July after serving in the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He had been a member of the Executive Protection Unit that guards Gov. Terry McAuliffe and his family.

McAuliffe and his wife, Dorothy, issued a statement on Saturday night expressing their sorrow over the deaths of the troopers, whom they knew personally. Cullen and Bates routinely flew the governor and other administration officials on state business, but McAuliffe had traveled to Charlottesville from Northern Virginia on a Fairfax County police helicopter.

The governor, who declared a state of emergency on Saturday, attended two church services in Charlottesville on Sunday and told reporters that he had spoken with President Donald Trump the previous day. Twice I said to him we have to stop this hateful speech, this rhetoric, McAuliffe said he told the president.

McAuliffe said protesters were emboldened to walk around our street with weapons and to spew hatred.

In televised remarks on Saturday, Trump condemned the violence in Charlottesville on many sides, but did not directly address the behavior of white supremacist groups drawn to the rally. The White House clarified his remarks on Sunday to include white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

But the presidents campaign organization also announced a new television advertisement on Sunday morning that trumpeted the administrations achievements and scorned Democrats and the news media for attacking him.

The presidents enemies dont want him to succeed, the ad states, but Americans are saying let President Trump do his job.

The timing of the announcement so soon after the violence in Charlottesville dismayed Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Its completely inappropriate, Sabato said.

Foresman faulted political leaders on both sides of the aisle for failing to take steps to de-escalate the rhetorical march to violence in the weeks leading to the rally and the months following the beginning of the debate over removing the Lee statue.

I am stunned by the level of political rhetoric that is still going on, he said.

More than 90 minutes after Kessler spoke on Sunday, John Allen was listening to demonstrators outside City Hall on his birthday after driving here from his home in Alexandria the previous night.

Allen, a pastor who had returned to the U.S. after living in South Africa for more than a decade, said he had watched Saturdays events unfold on television and social media before deciding he wanted to be on the scene.

I sensed a need to make the trip to stand up for what is right, he said.

Allen had squeezed as close as he could to Kesslers podium. His feelings alternated between uneasiness that things could get out of hand, and a level of comfort at the large presence of law enforcement. He didnt chant through Kesslers speech. He wondered if it would have been better to let the rally organizer speak and then respond with counter speeches.

Elsewhere in the mall, Nicole Curry, a resident of Charlottesville for more than 40 years, said she never had seen anything like the events of the weekend here.

Its not a good feeling: racism, Curry said. We got to deal with this all over again.

Staff writer Amy Friedenberger contributed to this report.
Which would Democrats rather win  the White House or the House of Representatives?

Thats not a parlor game question. It lies at the heart of how Democrats are trying to define, or perhaps redefine, themselves now that they find themselves out of power in Washington.

Losing parties always go through a period of hand-wringing about what went wrong. Republicans at least had the good sense to commission a formal autopsy of the 2012 election results. They didnt necessarily follow the advice that emerged from forensic political scientists, but it still seemed a business-like way to analyze things. Democrats arent wired quite the same way, so some of them are still re-fighting the 2016 election the way that some Southerners still re-fight the Civil War. If only Lee hadnt ordered Picketts Charge . . . The problem with that, of course, is becomes purely a question about tactics, and not a larger conversation about the very nature of the battlefield, from Manassas to Appomattox. Or, in the case of the Democrats, from Arizona to Wisconsin.

For Democrats, the usual soul-searching after an election defeat becomes: Did we lose because we were too liberal, or because we werent liberal enough? History suggests parties that move too far from the political center tend to lose, but that still doesnt stop ideological purists on both sides from urging their parties to paint in bold colors.

Remarkably, there are some Democrats who think they lost that special election in Georgia because their candidate wasnt a true progressive  as if a suburban House district in the South is ever going to elect a Bernie Sanders clone. Earth to Democrats: Hello?

At least this time around, Democrats have some interesting variations to think about. One is: Should the party be focusing on regaining the blue-collar voters it lost or energizing young, college-educated millennials who voted for Barack Obama but not Hillary Clinton? Those two goals are not necessarily in opposition to one another, although they can be, depending upon the issues being stressed. The unemployed factory worker may not be moved by a Democratic candidate focusing on LGBQ rights; the 20-something software worker whose job depends on clients overseas may not be impressed by a Democratic candidate skeptical of free trade.

Heres another way to frame that question: If the party is trying to win the White House, which is to say capture 270 electoral votes, is it more productive to focus on trying to win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania  or Arizona, Florida and North Carolina? The first three are industrial states with slow-growing populations that may actually start to decline; the latter three are younger, fast-growing Sunbelt states.

The problem with focusing on the former is its essentially a bet on the past. On the other hand, older voters turn out. The problem with the latter is that younger voters often dont. To be fair, those advocating the party focus on younger voters  especially younger votes of color  contend that getting more votes from them would have helped Hillary Clinton in all those states.

In any case, thats the debate that Democrats are now having. Its also essentially a debate about how they could recapture the presidency and, perhaps, the U.S. Senate. It doesnt necessarily address how the party can win back the U.S. House of Representatives or state legislatures.

The difficulty that Democrats have there isnt that seats are gerrymandered, usually in favor of Republicans. They are, of course, in some states, but the effects of gerrymandering are overrated. The real problem Democrats face is that their voters are clustered in urban areas  the big sort, its been called. That means Democrats can produce enough votes to win statewide elections, but arent distributed efficiently enough to win enough seats for their party to control state legislatures, or a majority of U.S. House seats.

Look at Virginia: Democrats win, and sometimes win big, in the urban crescent, but they have completely lost touch with rural voters. At one point, the 5th, 6th and 9th districts were all represented by Democrats. Now theyre all held by Republicans  Tom Garrett, Bob Goodlatte and Morgan Griffith, respectively.

Democrats might be able to regain the House of Representatives or the Virginia General Assembly without rural representation, but their chances would be enhanced considerably if they could win some rural districts. Is that even possible anymore?

The last Democratic congressman from west of the Blue Ridge  Rick Boucher, who won the 9th District seat in 1982 and held it until his loss to Griffith in 2010  recently offered some advice to his party. Those familiar with Boucher will not be surprised that he proposes what amounts to a third way between the two competing philosophies.

The dominance Republicans now enjoy across rural regions is based more on cultural than policy differences, Boucher writes in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Republicans would agree with the cultural part, but still insist their conservative economic policies are more in line with the sentiments of rural voters. Boucher disputes that; he believes rural voters would agree with Democrats on economic issues if only they could get over the cultural disconnect.

So what is that cultural disconnect? Boucher contends its not as broad as Republicans would insist. Part of it is that Democrats need to demonstrate a lot more interest in rural areas than they typically do. The reason [Republicans] dominate elections is that theyre highly visible and constantly communicate that were on your side and the Democrats are not. They win the argument by default because Democrats arent around to offer a rebuttal.

Then he comes to the part that will be controversial among many Democrats: Guns.

In a region where crime rates are low and firearms are in a high percentage of homes, there was no more culturally central issue than guns, Boucher writes. In fact its pretty much a litmus test for whether rural Democrats are acceptable to voters. Boucher says if a Democrat is right on guns in the eyes of rural voters, then he or she has leeway to take more conventional liberal stands on other issues. Thats how Democrats can win more seats, Boucher says. So heres the real question: Are Democrats willing to accept that?
There are no words strong enough to properly condemn the vile ideology of the white supremacists who converged on Charlottesville this weekend  a condemnation warranted even if the racists had peaceably gone about their repugnant business and then left without incident.

Instead, we now have death.

Let us speak plainly about what happened, and what ought to happen, especially since our president was unable to.

 President Trumps condemnation was weak and insufficient. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides, he said. It has been going on for a long time in our country  not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.

Trump is, of course, right that hatred, bigotry and violence have been going on for a long time. And he is right to say it has no place in America. But to speak of hatred, bigotry and violence happening on many sides, on many sides misses the point. One thing happened this weekend: White supremacists, carrying torches that conjure up images of the Ku Klux Klan, marched in an American city. Some said was the largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States. And it ended with violence.

This is not the time to engage in some academic discussion about all the many strains of hatred, bigotry and violence that have run through history. It is a time to speak specifically and directly to condemn white supremacy. Why could the President of the United States not bring himself to say those words?

Trump likes to project strength; this is weakness. Whenever some jihadist overseas drove a vehicle into a crowd of people, Trump ridiculed President Obama for refusing to utter the words Islamic terrorism. Here we have a car ramming into a crowd of counter-protestors at a rally of white supremacists. Why cant Trump call this what it looks like? This looks like domestic terrorism, and it ought to be condemned just as clearly and forcefully.

So what should happen next? It was always tempting to ignore extremists, lest we give them the attention they crave. What happened in Charlottesville, though, is too big an event to be ignored. Just as many call on all Muslims to condemn violent acts carried out in their name by some fringe sect, all Americans  but especially white Americans  have a special duty to denounce the despicable racists who claim to be acting in their name. Here are some ways to do that.

 Governor Terry McAuliffe should call a special session of the General Assembly so that it can pass a resolution condemning white supremacy. This may seem merely a symbolic act, and it is, but this whole chain of events in Charlottesville began with a debate over a symbol  the statue of General Robert E. Lee.

Many politicians were quick to issue statements on Saturday condemning the events in Charlottesville. Good for them. However, calling the legislature into special session would be a dramatic opportunity for Virginias leaders to speak in unison. This should not cost a thing; what legislator would file a per diem for travelling to Richmond to condemn bigotry and violence?

There are other symbolic acts that could be taken. We have a governors race underway. Lets see Ralph Northam and Ed Gillespie, the Democratic and Republican candidates, lock arms and walk together through Charlottesville. Lets see their entire tickets do so. Again, thats a symbolic act that does nothing to purge hatred from the hearts of some people, but one that would dramatically underscore to the world that Virginians want nothing to do with racism in any form.

 Conservatives have a special interest in rebuking these racists who claim to speak in their name. The white nationalist rally in Charlottesville was billed as Unite the Right. This smears everyone on the right wing of political spectrum. The chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia  John Whitbeck  was quick to push back against that attempt to tar every conservative: We condemn the hatred and racism on display today in Charlottesville and note that there is nothing conservative about messages of that nature.

Its worth pointing out that many of the statements issued by Virginia Republicans on Saturday were indistinguishable from those issued by their Democratic counterparts. Vile hate. Vile display of racism. Thats what the Republican candidates for governor (Gillespie) and lieutenant governor (Jill Vogel) had to say  which is why its all the more noteworthy that Trump could not bring himself to say something similar.

 The real losers here are those who support keeping Civil War statues in place. The problem with symbols is that they can change over time. The swastika was a perfectly fine artistic symbol that came out of the Indus Valley of Asia in the Bronze Age, until the Nazis appropriated it for their own use in the 1930s. Now it can never be redeemed.

We can have a spirited discussion over what Confederate monuments mean, but this much is clear: If they become lightning rods for modern-day white supremacists, they will come to mean only one thing, and then they will come down  just as the Confederate battle flag came down from the South Carolina statehouse after the mass murder in a Charleston church by a man who posed with such an emblem.

Thats why those who support such statues need to purge their ranks of the so-called flaggers who insist on flying Confederate battle flags  flags that were very much in evidence in the hands of white nationalists in Charlottesville. They undermine the cause they purport to support. After what happened this weekend, there will be those who dont just want to move Confederate statues to museums but melt them down entirely.

The white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville chanting you will not replace us resent the demographic changes that are turning the United States into a country that is less white and more ethnically diverse. Some talk openly of fomenting a race war.

Years ago, there was a Virginian who had something powerful to say about how we should reconcile ourselves to a changed world. I think it the duty of every citizen ... to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony.

Who said that? Robert E. Lee, in the summer of 1865.
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BlueRock Diamonds said it raised 860 000 from 68.8-million shares issued at a price of 1.25p each to further develop mining operations at its Kareevlei mine, in South Africa.

These funds will enable us to complete some minor modifications to our plant designed to increase production volumes further and provide the working capital to put us in a position to achieve our short-term goal of 25 000 t/m production, company chief executive Adam Waugh was quoted as saying by Mining Weekly.

We will soon be mining the sub-20-m level of kimberlite where we expect to see an uplift in our grade of diamonds recovered and a move to profitable mining.

This will put us in a good position to optimise our known resource at Kareevlei and explore new opportunities.

The companys blast programme at the mine had completed the removal of the calcrete cap from the entire kimberlite pipe.

It was planning to finish blasting and processing of the entire first level of kimberlite by mid-August.

The company was also evaluating the entire 3 000 ha of land covered by its mining right and would soon start test drilling certain anomalies identified.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Signet Jewelers Limited, the worlds largest retailer of diamond jewelry, has been recognized for its corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts by being named as a component of the FTSE4Good US and Global Indices in 2017. Signet joins this group of other publicly traded companies with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.

Signet is proud of our commitment to reducing our energy consumption and raising our efficiency levels across our business. Our responsible sourcing efforts have lead the industry as 1 of 4 US companies to have reported a conflict-free gold supply chain for 4 consecutive years, said Lynn Dennison, Chief Legal, Risk and Corporate Affairs Officer at Signet Jewelers.

Signet operates approximately 3,600 stores primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, H.Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples and Piercing Pagoda.



Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels




Petra Diamonds said the C-Cut Phase 1 expansion programme at its Cullinan mine, in South Africa is now 89 percent complete.

Mining Weekly quoted company mining executive Teon Swanepoel as saying that the project was three months ahead of schedule.

The C-Cut project, he said, would increase production at the mine from 729 496 carats to 2.2-million carats by the 2019 financial year and could extend Cullinans life-of-mine (LoM) to 2030.

At acquisition, the LoM was [extended to] 2014, so it was critical that we accessed the ore at a deeper elevation and start a new mine, said Swanepoel.

Cullinan commenced production in 1903 as an openpit operation to 1946, when the mine switched to underground operations.

Petra Diamonds acquired a 37 percent stake in the mine from De Beers in 2008 and upped the shareholding to 74 percent, a year later.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Kennady Diamonds Inc. has recovered 1,259.16 carats (+0.85mm) from the 2017 bulk sampling program at its Faraday kimberlites at the 100 percent-controlled Kennady North project located in Canada's Northwest Territories, including five diamonds weighing from two to seven carats.

The stones were sent to WWW International Diamond Consultants (WWW) in Antwerp for valuation. WWW reported an average value of $109 per carat for the entire parcel.

High value white gem quality stones were noted in all three of the Faraday bodies, including a 7.78 carat sawable diamond recovered from Faraday 3 valued at $2,967 per carat.

President and CEO of Kennady Diamonds, Dr. Rory Moore commented: "Our previously reported grades that range between 1.67 and 2.91 carats per tonne for the three Faraday kimberlites, combined with these valuations, provide a strong foundation on which to build a high-value resource at the Faradays. It is also gratifying to see strong prices for larger white gems represented in the parcel, as evidenced by the $2,967 per carat value assigned to the 7.78 carat gem recovered from Faraday 3."




Garrard, Britain's crown jeweller for over 160 years, has opened its first boutique in Shanghai says a news report in diamonds.net.

Garrard, which has been in business for nearly three centuries has unveiled a number of diamond jewelry pieces that will be exclusive to Shanghai including an Emerald Ivy suite, a necklace that can be worn in three different ways, and the Eternal Fringe suite which is a necklace and earrings containing more than 40 cts of diamonds.

The new store will offer new collections, bridal jewellery, tiaras and rare stones, and will continue to carry out bespoke orders for clients in collaboration with the London-based design team.

Garrard, which has been expanding internationally in recent years to reach out to growing luxury markets, plans to open two more flagship stores next year.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished




Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN)said that a Phase 3 study evaluating suptavumab or REGN2222, an antibody to respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, did not meet its primary endpoint of preventing medically-attended RSV infections in infants. Suptavumab did show signs of efficacy in a subgroup of patients. Adverse events were generally balanced between suptavumab and placebo. The company plans to discontinue further clinical development of this antibody.

In the Monday's pre-market trade, REGN is trading at $454.95, down $11.64 or 2.49 percent.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled global Phase 3 NURSERY Pre-term study enrolled 1,149 healthy pre-term infants. Patients were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to one of three study groups: suptavumab 30 mg/kg as a single dose; suptavumab 30 mg/kg administered as two doses 8 weeks apart; or placebo. Assessment of the primary endpoint occurred through Day 150 of treatment.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Netflix lured popular television producer and screen writer Shonda Lynn Rhimes of ABC studios. She signed a new multi-year agreement with Netflix.

Her company Shondaland will function as an in-house studio. Any financial details are yet to be disclosed.

Rhimes has been acclaimed for her famous shows such as "Grey's Anatomy," "How to Get Away with Murder," and "Scandal." She is also a well known writer.

Grey Anatomy has been rated as the best watched drama on ABC. It has been the longest running television medical soap.

Netflix has been trying to create its own productions and reduce its dependence on other production houses. Walt Disney Co. ,which owns ABC, has stopped selling movies to Netflix.

Though Rhimes is moving to Netflix, the popular shows "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal" as well as "How to Get Away with Murder" will continue on ABC. Grey's Anatomy season 14 will be aired on September 28.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Gold futures levelled off Monday, but held near 3-month highs despite rebounding U.S. stocks.

The DJIA re-claimed 22,000 as of lunchtime, denting gold's safe haven appeal.

Tensions with North Korea are on the the backburner as President Donald Trump handles criticism of his response to racial hostilities in the U.S.

Over the weekend, a group of white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters. One person was killed and dozens injured.

Gold was down $3 at $1290 per ounce, but silver added a few cents to $17.12.

There were no top-tier U.S. economic reports Monday, but retail sales data is out tomorrow.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
(Agencia CMA Latam) - The political coalitions Cambiemos and Unidad Ciudadana, which represent the Argentinean government and opposition, respectively, had a technical tie in the primary elections for Congress in Buenos Aires province, the main district of the country.

The primary elections in Argentina seek to define the political parties that will compete in the October 22 legislative elections, which will renew a third of the Senate and almost half of the House of Representatives chairs.

The result was in line with market expectations, which considered the result a victory for Argentina's President Mauricio Macri.

With 95.68% of the votes counted, the provisional result of the primary election in Buenos Aires showed that Esteban Bullrich, the government's pre-candidate for the Senate, had 34.19% of support, followed by the former president Cristina Kirchner, from the opposition, with 34.11%.

Cambiemos also secured victories the provinces of San Luis, Neuquen, and La Pampa.

Investors believe that Cambiemos has a more market-friendly set of policies and after the primary election results went public, the Merval stock market index rose 3.47%, to 22,383.71 points.

The result soothed market fears that Cambiemos could lack the strength in Congress to move forward with economic reforms and increased bets that Mauricio Macri could be reelected in 2019.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Canadian stocks rose Monday, rebounding from last week's losses amid diminished concerns about the conflict between the U.S. and North Korea.

Geopolitical tensions took a back seat to domestic issues in the U.S., although President Donald Trump explicitly denounced white supremecists at a press conference this afternoon.

The TSX Composite was up 86.53 points to 15,119.91, led by financial and consumer staples.

Lumber stocks fell after a downbeat assessment of the U.S.-Canada trade situation from BMO.

Energy stocks also lagged as crude oil prices fell. WTI light sweet crude oil was down $1 at $47.88 barrel, easing from 11-week highs.

Health care stocks also fell, dropping 1.3%.

In corporate news, Canada's Husky Energy (HSE.TO) will acquire the Superior Refinery, a 50,000 barrel per day permitted capacity facility located in Superior, Wisconsin from Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. for $435 million US in cash.

WSP Global Inc. (WSP.TO) will acquire UEM Edgenta's 61.2% in Opus International Consultants Limited.

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Colombian government gained a license to sell fresh hass avocado to the United States, said the U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence, after a bilateral meeting with the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos. The Colombian government has been working for more than a decade to reach such an agreement.

"I announce that the United States has reached an agreement for Colombia's hass avocado to enter the U.S. market," Pence said at a press conference.

According to the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the U.S. market, in 2016, imported about $ 2 billion in avocado, being almost 90% was bought from Mexico.

Meanwhile, with the agreement, Colombians will be able to double exports, which by June of this year reached US$ 25.2 million, and were entirely destined to Europe.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - The United States government does not rule out a military action against Venezuela, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, calling the country's current situation "dangerous chaos."

The statement was made after Washington imposed sanctions to the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Latin American countries repudiated Trump's statement.

"We have many options for Venezuela, including military action," the U.S. president told reporters after a meeting with his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the United States ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. "The Venezuelan people are suffering and dying in the middle of the chaos."

Trump's remarks were rejected by some Latin American countries, who argued that a military intervention would not end the crisis in Venezuela.

"The crisis in Venezuela can not be solved by military action, internal or external," wrote the Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso on Twitter.

The Bolivian President, Evo Morales, also posted his position on Twitter: "We condemn the U.S.' armed interventionist hurry towards Venezuela, a country that seeks peace through a Constitutional dialogue and regional elections."

The Foreign Ministry of Colombia also released a statement rejecting "military actions and the use of force in the international system."

Meanwhile, the Mercosur economic bloc considered that the "only acceptable tools to promote democracy [in Venezuela] are dialogue and diplomacy."

by Agencia CMA Latam

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that the ties between his country and the United States "are growing stronger" after a meeting with the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who is visiting Colombia. Pence is on his first visit to Latin America and will also travel to Panama, Chile, and Argentina.

After meeting with Santos, Pence said that Colombia represents the future of Latin America.

"Under your leadership, Mr. President, Colombia today represents the future of Latin America. It is a future of freedom, security and prosperity, and the United States are with you," Pence said in a joint statement with Santos in Cartagena.

Pence also announced US support for Colombia's aspirations to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The visit is part of the strategic partnership between both countries and involves the support of the United States in post-conflict and peace-building in Colombia, cooperation in the war on drugs and organized transnational crime, deepening trade ties, and investment opportunities.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Peruvian government expelled the Venezuelan ambassador in Lima, Diego Alfredo Molero Bellavia, from the country while expressing its condemnation to what it called a "breach of the democratic order" in Venezuela.

The decision came after the Venezuelan government formally protested over last week's Lima Declaration, in which foreign ministers from 12 Latin American countries met at the request of the Peruvian foreign ministry to discuss the crisis in Venezuela.

"The Government of Peru has decided to expel the Ambassador Diego Alfredo Molero Bellavia and a maximum term of five days to leave Peruvian territory has been granted," said the Peruvian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Foreign ministers from 12 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean condemned the installation of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) in Venezuela and deemed it as a "breach of democratic order" in the country. The foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru have affirmed: "their decision not to recognize the ANC or the acts that emanate from it because of its illegitimate character."

by Agencia CMA Latam

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The Samoa Government has collected revenue of $64,276.03 of their 5% commission for the Leasing of Customary land for the last budget year.

This is according to the Annual Report 2015-2016 for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment that was obtained by the Samoa Observer.

The Customary Land Lease Section has been in place, since March 2012 and the government is responsible for the management of customary lands through the leasing and licensing mechanisms.

The revenue of $60,000+ is a slight increase in the revenue earned in this current fiscal year 2015  2016 compared to the last financial year 2014  2015 which earned $59,412.01.

This is significantly due to the effective enforcement of timely payment of leases from the lessees and, some of the leases that had already been paid in advance are due for payment in this current financial year.

Another indication of the increase is relatively due to the additional number of new leases currently valid and are paid for in this financial year compared to the last financial year, according to the Annual Report.

There were 33 new leases advertised in the Savali newspaper for this financial year 2015  2016 and 22 were confirmed without objections while 11 remain at the Lands and Titles Courts for hearing and determination of the rightful beneficial owner of customary lands to be leased.

According to the report, in the month of July 2015 the government received $20,561.09 which was the highest collection compared to other months where revenue was between; $1,000 to $6,000.

In July 2014 the government collected a significant amount of $14,593.20, and the other months saw the same trend of $1,000 to $6,000.

The Annual Report says the Land Management Division (L.M.D.) was established to focus solely on the effective and efficient administration of customary lands on behalf of the Minister who by statutory mandate is the sole trustee for beneficial owners of customary lands in accordance with the provisions of the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965.

According to the Act, the Minister may grant a lease or license over a customary land in accordance with the purpose of usage and more importantly in accordance with its Samoan usage and customs.

This shall be favorable and advantageous to the interests of customary land beneficial owners and public interests in general for the following purposes. The authorized purpose that is approved by the Minister includes, religious, business or for plantation purposes for 20+ years lease.

Regarding hotels or industrial purpose the leases are 30 or more years of the lease.

The annual report also highlighted that works carried out during the financial year included 28 site inspections of new and current customary leases in both Upolu and Savaii.

A total of 33 new leases were published in the Savali Newspapers and meetings with new lessees and new land owners were conducted to determine the conditions of lease agreements for Lessors endorsement.

The government is also involved in preparing legal documentation for new leases while the current ones without documents are passed on to the Legal Division and the Lessor for endorsement.

Also the government is collaborating with the Customary Land Advisory Committee in publicizing the need for the economic use of customary lands in Samoa.

According to the report, there is a marked difference in the number of new leases for Upolu compared to Savaii.

This is fairly explained by the concentration of infrastructure developments on Upolu.

This contributed to improved welfare of people and the increased attraction or pull of people and groups to move geographically from their physical area of comfort zone to build churches and initiate developments in areas of where new infrastructure developments exist.

This trend is apparently reflected in 18 new leases for Upolu compared to the 4 from Savaii.

In this regard, there is a greater need for infrastructure developments to be pulled to Savaii in order to attract investors, companies and businesses to similarly operate there under the same mode as it had done for Upolu.

The CLAC serves as the main focal point in promoting customary land as the vehicle for improving the economic well-being of the country by opening up these lands for development purposes that will eventually help sustain the economy and increase the livelihoods of the people.

In this regard, the CLAC primarily deals with the direct marketing of customary lands through the leasing mechanism in order to benefit the landowners which in event enhance the economic development especially of the rural community, says the Annual Report.
The Samoa Water Authority Managing Director, Seugamaalii Jammie Saena wants the community to know that they are serious about responding to their water issues.

As a result she wants the public to contact their office whenever they have water concerns.

Most of the families that have contacted the Samoa Water Authority for an extension so far are mainly living inland, she told the Samoa Observer.

In fact she urges the community to take heed of the Authoritys call to bring their issues into the office.

According to Seugamaalii, S.W.A. is very serious about the concerns of the people in the community.

She said the Authority [does] not take it lightly whenever we receive any complaints - we work towards what is best for these families to be connected.

She said that 85 per cent of Samoa's population is under the government water scheme. This means their water system is provided under the S.W.A.

The other 15 per cent is either under the independent schemes or their own scheme. she said.

In that case, she confirmed water systems that run under independent or family initiatives dont come under their watch.

If independent, then that belongs to the Alii and Faipule of districts.

But she did not hesitate to speak out about the importance of families under the government scheme to pay their water bills.

She said it is this money from the payment of bills that helps [with our] operations.

She explained that setting up water systems to ensure that families are connected to water supply from S.W.As system isnt a cheap task.

It is a very expensive project that utilizes huge amounts of money and often S.W.A. is required to look into other funding possibilities to assist in the upkeep of the operation altogether including the Authority and its staff.

Thats why we dont have enough to buy new equipment to extend our services but we have to ask other people for (funds).

But despite this, she wants to assure the community that S.W.A. is prioritising their needs for proper and safe connection to water supply.

According to the S.W.A Annual Report 2015/2016, the Authority had continued its coverage to areas without access to piped water supply as well as improved infrastructure through many of its capital investments.

Approximately 83% of the population was estimated to be receiving SWA water supply at the end of this fiscal year, an increase from 81% in June 2015.

This expansion is mainly attributed to increased new connections distributed throughout Upolu and Savaii . This is continuously updated on the customer database.

An improved water supply scheme at Falelauniu has also increased coverage to over 150 residents for this area.

Furthermore, close to 400 connections have been identified and metered for Vailoa, Vaitoomuli and Faala Palauli further reflecting improved services.

Each year the Authority encounters multiple issues and challenges which are also common in all water utilities in the Pacific region.

Some of these issues and challenges are within the Authoritys control but most are caused externally from natural factors and social impacts.
Suspended Police Officer, Aiolupotea Laauli Talataina has vehemently denied the three criminal charges that have been laid.

The hearing for Aiolupotea was held last week before District Court Judge, Fepuleai Roma Ameperosa.

The defendant is represented by Leiataualesa Komisi Koria while prosecuting is Ofisa Tagaloa of the Attorney Generals Office.

Initially the Attorney Generals office filed 10 charges against the suspended officer.

However during the case, Tagaloa made a motion to withdraw seven of the charges, leaving three for the prosecution to prove beyond the courts reasonable doubt.

The charges are in connection with a training session held for members of the Tactical Operational Unit up in Malololelei.

It is there that it is alleged the defendant shot at one of the Police Officers.

Aiolupotea took the stand where the court heard firsthand, that he asked for permission to take his gun along, so they could shoot birds after the training.

This gun is a 22 rifle bolt action single shot firearm and its registered under my name, he said.

During the training, he said the gun was left in the Police vehicle.

According to Aiolupotea there were two teams.

His team he said got lost on the way and when they caught up with the Police vehicle he saw his gun.

I retrieved it and our team leader inquired as to why I had it.

He then asked me to hand over the gun and the bolt was removed and we carried on with our training.

Following the training, thats when I put the bolt back in and put a bullet in it.

Then I targeted a Fau tree to look for birds at the same time, other Police Officers came and joined in the search for birds to shoot.

I took one shot, then the gun was handed over to other Police Officers whileI fetched water.

The other police officers took turns shooting at the Fau tree and they also took photos with the gun.

Not long after, one police officer said the scope of the gun was cracked.

I took the gun back and placed it in the Police vehicle, said Aiolupotea.

He further informed the court that it was in September 2016 when he was informed by former Assistant Commissioner, Michael Afamasaga about an investigation launched against him regarding the gun that he had taken to Malololelei during training.

Aiolupotea told the court that he was saddened by the testimony ofConstable Lene.

I was not aware he was under the Fau tree, he said.

I am highly concerned about safety when it comes to weapons and I strongly deny the allegations he has made against me, said Aiolupotea.

The complainant, Constable Lene Epa told the Court two weeks ago that on 01 January 2016, they had held a training session at Malololelei.

It was alleged there that Laauli was armed with a firearm.

Constable Epa claims he was in the field when he saw Laauli aiming the firearm and discharging it towards where he was standing.

I was scared so I walked up to where Laauli was standing and asked him why was he shooting towards where I was standing, said Constable Lene.

Laauli didnt say anything he just smiled and then he started shooting at the birds.

Constable Lene also told the Court of another incident involving Vaioleti Telesia.

I remember this day. It was the 1st of January 2016, we came back from responding to a call and we went straight to Apia headquarters and inside our office (T.O.S.).

Not long after we were in the office, Laauli walked in with a bag that had the gun inside."

He opened the bag and brought out the gun and he cocked the gun as Vaioleti Telesia walked in through the door.

Laauli then walked towards Vaioleti and he pointed the gun at her head and asked what she wanted.

He asked her if she wanted him to shoot her.

Inspector Koko Kema then told Laauli not to do such a thing and Laauli responded that he was just playing."

Then Inspector Koko Kema told Laauli not to play around with the gun and thats when he turned around, put the gun in the bag and walked out.

The hearing continues.
The Minister of Prison and Correction Services, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt has defended the weekend parole programme for prisoners claiming it is common sense law.

Tialaveas comments was made during an interview when he emphasized the importance of weekend parole, not only for the Ministry, but also for the inmates.

Lets say if an inmate is incarcerated for 10 years without any release, and upon release, he or she will be lost.

Its like you left a dark room that youve been sitting in for 10 years, they are ready to see the outside world again, because the inmate has no idea whats going on.

According to the Minister, prior to releasing the inmates to their families on the weekends, the families are contacted to see if they will allow for the inmate to stay with them.

We dont release the inmates just based on their good behavior. There are requirements including the input of the inmates family.

Some families dont want their family member to come home for reasons the Prison Services are not privy to.

This was one of the issues the Court has had about weekend parole.

I understand the law but we are using the common sense law.

He gave an example.

There are inmates who are trustworthy and are obedient and their good work has to be rewarded.

And that is why they conduct themselves as law-abiding citizens, so they can visit their families on the weekend.

Now say you have been on your best behavior and been a good inmate. The time comes for you to be released for weekend parole, and that privilege has been taken away, how would you feel?

We are all human beings... so the end result is that this inmate will go back to being that careless person who will not bother to be a law-abiding citizen knowing there is no reward for good behaviour.

These are the issues that we are dealing with at the prison, said Tialavea.

The Minister believes the authority of releasing the inmates should be a task allocated to the Commissioner of Police and Commissioner of the Prison and Correction Services.

Under the current law, the Police Commissioner has the authority to release any inmate, using a warrant.

This is for inmates to be allowed on restricted release, for family funerals, and other significant family events.

However the law disallows any inmates, to be eligible for weekend parole if they are convicted of murder, rape, robbery and burglary.

But I think that part of the law should be revisited and the weekend parole should be left to the discretion of the Police Commissioner and the Prisons Commissioner.

Tialavea pointed out the process for eligibility for weekend parole is a lengthy one and we dont just release anyone

As I said, the last say goes back to the Police Commissioner and the Prisons Commissioner and we only recommend those who are at a low risk of reoffending.

Last month, Supreme Court Justice Leiataualesa Darryl Clarke expressed his disappointment with the Samoa Prisons and Correction Authorities, over the weekend parole.

From the bench, he openly criticised the system, threatening to hold the Prisons Commissioner in contempt of Court if this continues to happen.

The Judges comments were made during the case of a convicted murderer who was released less than three years after his sentencing.

Lilo Lilo, was convicted in October 2013. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he is not eligible for parole until 2023.

But that was not the case.

When Lilo was released on weekend parole, he was re-arrested and charged with possession of marijuana.

Back in Court, Lilo pleaded not guilty to the drug charge. A hearing on the matter was held and he was found guilty. This was when Justice Leiataualesa found that he was not supposed to have been released at all.

Inmates who serve life imprisonment are eligible for parole upon serving 10 years. Tialavea at the time took full responsibility for the actions of his staff.

If the court is looking at holding anyone in contempt it should be me. The Commissioner of Prison Authority is under my watch, so its me that the court will hold in contempt.

And I want to thank the Supreme Court Justice for his keenness on the matter, said Tialavea. This issue was an oversight by our staff and we have made the appropriate corrections.
A recent Water Conference was held in Samoa highlighting its importance and the S.W.A. Managing Director is urging people to contact her organization about water problems. This has left the public confused. On the other hand, there are frequent stories each day in the Village Voice feature where citizens complain of no access to water or water tanks and little help from authorities. Lizzy Hunt had the chance to talk to a few people from rural areas and around Apia and these are their opinions:

Simati Samoa, 47, Toamua Uta

Water is one of our basic needs to survive and if we dont have a good source of water or even have water, life will be so difficult because you can live without everything else but you cant live without water. In my village, our water sometimes goes off and that sometimes lasts for weeks, In my opinion its a must to have a good source of water everyday use by our families and the government should always help the people with their need for water.

Doreen Doreen, 26, Papauta

By now everyone should have no more problems with water because Samoa is such a small island and it should be easy for the government to check every family and village as to whether their water supply is OK or not. My village has no problems with our water but there are other families who are in need of water and are still struggling to find ways to get it. Without a regular rainfall they just borrow water from our taps or that of other families. Yes, water is life.

Noramaneta Iopu, 70, Aleisa

Where I come from, theres no water and we rely on the rain for water to fill up our water tanks for the family use like food, washing and baths. As one of the important basic needs in life, water is a must to have every time and right now we dont have any connection with the water. So my request to the government is please hear us out.

Julien Stowers, 47, Sinamoga

Its just a simple answer, without water we cant survive. We can live without electricity or food but without water, it will be too difficult to live. In my own village, the water is ok except for a few families who have water problems. I suggest that the government must offer help for them.

Fati Walter, 77, Aleisa

In the side where I reside, this is one of the issues that we are facing at the moment, we are having a problem with our water supply. There was this time when the government set up water pipes and we thought then the water system was going to work. However everything turned out differently than we expected. There was no water and apparently they wanted to set up a water meter but we didnt accept that because how can they set up a meter when there was no water for this long? My advice to the government is to bear in mind that not all the people in Samoa have a connection to the water supply We need water, especially during the dry season and when our water tanks are empty.
Hes been on the job only about a week but Richard V. Spencer, the new Secretary of the Navy, faces the tough job of determining the fate of an American war hero.

Navy Lt. Craig R. Becker stands accused of pushing his drugged and sleeping wife out the seventh-floor window of their Belgian apartment building in late 2015, dashing out her life on the pavement of Mons, a sleepy city in the French-speaking portion of the northern European nation.

Becker maintains his innocence, saying the death was a suicide. He accuses the Navys Sixth Fleet of abandoning him to Belgian authorities.

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Becker, once stationed in San Diego and still linked to Naval Special Warfare in Coronado, wants his prosecution transferred to the American militarys court system  a right almost always afforded in such cases.

Adm. Michelle Howard, commander of Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, has not taken jurisdiction, expressing concerns to lawmakers about Navy investigators not being able to use the evidence collected by Belgian authorities in military court.

The four-star admiral did not return messages seeking comment from The San Diego Union-Tribune. Navy spokeswoman Cmdr. Pamela Rawe said that the United States respects the justice system of Belgium and is cooperating with Belgian authorities in accordance with international agreements.

Saying the probe is ongoing, she declined further comment on Beckers case.

Its pretty unfortunate and frustrating, said Becker, 36. You dont expect, as a U.S. service member on active duty, to find yourself confined to your apartment building. I really dont have any support from the Navy and its been like that for a significant period of time. I spend a lot of time thinking about when its all going to end. When is someone going to come and assist me?

Interviewed by telephone, Yvonne and John Hove of Jacksonville, Florida, are urging Spencer to keep the case in Belgium because they believe its the most likely place to find justice for their daughter, Johanna, who was 32 when she died.

All of this is just to find the truth and we believe the Belgians, in this case, are the best equipped to find the truth, said John Hove, 63, a former judge in Sweden before becoming a successful businessman in Florida three decades ago. They seem very thorough. They seem very hesitant to jump to conclusions. They want to turn over every stone they can to find everything they can thats pertinent to the case.

A rare case

All parties in the Becker case concede its highly unusual.

Under Article VII of the NATO Status of Forces Treaty, both Belgium and the United States have concurrent jurisdiction, but the American armed forces can assert primary jurisdiction because the alleged victim was married to a sailor. A letter from Beckers criminal defense attorney in Belgium, Jean Philippe Mayence  included in the evidence file presented to top Navy leaders  claims that the Belgian investigation is concluded.

The letter suggests that the Belgians are awaiting a U.S. determination on jurisdiction, although officials there did not respond to a request for comment.

In an April 21 letter to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, Adm. Howard in Italy defended her decision to refuse jurisdiction.

First, she wrote, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service  NCIS  lacks the authority to conduct an independent homicide probe off-base in Belgium. If the Navy asserted control of the case, Belgium would drop the investigation and NCIS would be stuck with nothing, Howard suggested. NCIS officials in the United States declined comment.

The other problem involves evidence, Howard said. More than 2,000 pages compiled by Mons detectives would be challenged in an American military courtroom. Belgian witnesses also cant be compelled to appear at American court-martial proceedings.Howard said that the Belgian justice system would afford Becker similar protections to what he would find in an American courtroom.

His Mons attorney disagrees. In an April 3 letter to the admiral, Mayence pointed to a vast difference between the systems. Belgian courts lack a speedy trial and theres no right to a trial by jury. Defendants cant confront or cross-examine witnesses or contest hearsay testimony. The judge has requested that witnesses be hypnotized to try to recover memories.

Mayence told Howard that the soonest Becker would stand trial in Belgium is 2020.

The Belgians have stated in every one of my 16 hearings that theyre waiting on the United States to make a formal request for jurisdiction and they have not done that, Becker said. Theyve been pretty happy sitting down in Naples, drinking cappuccinos, without caring anything about whats going on with my case up here. And thats unfortunate because Ive bled for this country. Absolutely bled for it.

In addition to Mayence, Becker has a San Diego attorney, Jeremiah Sullivan III, and a pair of Navy attorneys. Attempting to bypass Navy commanders in Europe, they appealed directly to Spencer to intervene and assert American jurisdiction.

Bronze star citation

Born in Stockholm, Johanna Hanna Elizabeth Hove-Becker died on Oct. 8, 2015. She was a licensed psychologist who served as an adviser to the court in Norfolk, Virginia. She moved with her husband to Mons in 2013 when he was transferred to NATO headquarters and gave birth to their daughter, Isabelle Louise, in 2014.

The girl now lives with Beckers family in Massachusetts, following a Belgian civil court decision to keep custody with her father. Hove-Becker wed the sailor, an emergency ordnance disposal expert, in 2008 in Destin, Florida. Their marriage was dogged by allegations of domestic violence.

According to her family, military police in Mons investigated Becker in 2013 for allegedly choking and beating his wife because of a telephone text message from another man but say authorities dropped the case when she recanted in order to preserve his Navy career.

Sullivan confirmed that authorities closed that case and said hes prepared to address it at court-martial, if necessary.

With 17 years in uniform, Becker is a war hero. A Bronze Star citation recalls his valor in Afghanistan in 2012, when elements of his strike force were pinned down by a fierce firefight with many insurgents.

After swapping rounds with the Taliban, he crawled across a high ledge to leap atop a rooftop, where he shot a guerrilla and then covered the movement of American troops sweeping into the area.

His battlefield courage has been cited in Belgian decisions about his custody, his attorneys say.

Im told that Im confined because Im a danger to society as a Navy specially trained individual, Becker said. That they cant control me if they release me.

Although he receives his full pay and benefits from the Navy, Becker performs no job for the military while he is confined to his apartment, which he rents. Belgian police officers bring him his food and he wears an ankle monitor to prevent his escape.

He claims the Belgian judge in his case, Pamela Longfils, speculated that President Donald Trump could fly the sailor home in his personal jet, another reason to bar his return to the American armed forces.

Initially, Belgian authorities ruled the 2015 death of Johanna Hove-Becker a suicide, although no note was found.

A forensic toxicology report indicated that her last meal included one or two glasses of wine. Blood samples indicated the presence of a high level of opioid pain reliever, plus smaller amounts of a sleeping aid, anti-agitation medication, a headache pill and atropine, a substance used to treat nerve gas exposure, slow heart rate and inflammation of the eyeballs.

In a series of letters sent to Secretary Spencer and U.S. Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the supreme commander of NATO and Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas J. Kassotis  director of the Navys International and Operational Law Division  Beckers attorneys alleged that his wife suffered from previous bouts of mental illness.

The Hoves told the Union-Tribune that their daughter was briefly held for three days of observation as a teenager because she suffered from the eating disorder bulimia. She was never committed for treatment, it never recurred and she went on to earn two psychology degrees, they said.

A Belgian crime scene reconstruction concluded that Hove-Becker could not have committed suicide but rather was pushed, unconscious, through the window to her death.

Forensic experts contacted by Beckers attorneys challenged that, asserting that it would have been impossible for the sailor to have done it the way Belgian authorities theorize.

Anyone falling from the seventh floor window would have slid down a shingled roof before plummeting toward a balcony lined with flowerpots. If a body flipped inward on the ledge, the fall would have caused serious injuries but not death, Sullivan said.

Sullivan believes Hove-Becker climbed atop the roof much as jumpers do when contemplating suicide. She could have changed her mind but lost her balance, slid down the roof, tumbled away from the ledge and fallen to her death, he said.

If Becker wanted to kill her, he would have used the window on the opposite side of the apartment because it was a straight drop to the pavement, Sullivan added.

But these are evidentiary issues and were not there yet, he told the Union-Tribune. First lets get Becker into the right courtroom. He belongs before a military judge.

Life insurance payout

Sullivan and Beckers Navy attorneys have alleged numerous other problems with the Belgian investigation.

They say that Belgian detectives didnt reopen Hove-Beckers death until her father pressed the issue, and that the elder Hove tampered with crime scene by touching the shingles near where his daughter fell. They also claim that he had a significant seven figure life insurance policy on his daughter, which was put in jeopardy by the initial suicide finding.

Hove said he had nothing to do with the decision by Belgian authorities to reopen the case. A witness walked into a police station and raised questions about the death, apparently about medications that were in the home when she died, he said.

Hove is the president of parts supplier Buffers USA. Florida property records reviewed by the Union-Tribune show that the Hoves and his Buffers combine to control at least $4.3 million in real estate in Duval County alone.

The insurance payout actually was $32,000, Hove told the Union-Tribune, and it was tied to a State Farm automobile policy his daughter got when she was 16. The family didnt even realize that they would receive a check and have already deposited it.

The lingering suspicion that financial gain would have spurred them to tamper with evidence or agitate detectives to get Becker arrested is absurd and offensive, Hove said.

Several weeks ago a surprise witness  Belgian nurse Jade LeJeune  came forward and spoke to Belgian authorities and Beckers defense team. She says she watched a conscious Hove-Becker climb onto the roof and then fall, screaming. On July 28, LeJeune signed an affidavit in both French and English indicating that she would testify in military justice proceedings.

It is unclear why LeJeune was never identified sooner by either Belgian or NCIS agents during a probe thats gone on for 1  years.

Becker said that chaos in the criminal investigation mirrors a fractured and often incompetent government. He pointed to his initial incarceration in a Belgian prison, which was wracked by a jail guard strike. Conditions deteriorated during the labor unrest and that helped to trigger his release to home confinement.

I sat in that prison for 124 days, and 55 of those days were under strike conditions, Becker said. The Belgians checked out. The hygiene was horrible. It made international headlines for the human rights abuses.

Government inertia partly stems from deep divisions between French-speaking Mons and the richer Flemish sections of the northern European nation, Becker said.

They dont play nice with each other and that thread plays out in the rest of society. Becker said. Nobody talks to anybody else and everythings fractured. And Im sitting in the middle of it, unfortunately, in the judicial system, which is no different than anything else in this place.

The Navy has given no timeline for Spencers decision in the Becker case.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
Navajo Code Talkers took part in every U.S. Marine Corps assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They transmitted messages by telephone and radio in their native language  a code the Japanese never broke.

The idea came from Los Angeles resident Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran raised on a Navajo reservation as a missionarys son. He took his concept to the Marines at Camp Elliot in San Diego, now Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Afterward, at Camp Pendleton, this group created the Navajo code for military terms.

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Welcome to The Intel, a blog examining the hot military news of the day

From 1942 to 1945, an estimated 375 to 420 Navajos served as U.S. Marine Code Talkers.

The Code Talkers were credited with playing a pivotal role in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima, said Maj. Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer.

Six Navajos worked around the clock for two days during the Battle of Iwo Jima, handling over 800 messages  all without error.

Until 1968, the Code Talkers and their code remained secret.

In 2001, the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers received the Congressional Gold Medal. Subsequent Code Talkers received the Congressional Silver Medal.
A fast-moving wildfire that erupted near UC Riverside on Sunday afternoon and briefly triggering mandatory evacuations was 30% contained early Monday, as optimal weather conditions aided firefighters, officials said.

The blaze was reported about 4:10 p.m. Sunday near the 300 block of Blaine Street before it raced up Box Springs Mountain toward Moreno Valley.

In less than two hours, the blaze grew from 250 acres to 850 acres, burning uphill through dry brush.

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Residents west of Hidden Springs Drive from Greenridge Drive to Country Gate Road in Moreno Valley were ordered to evacuate, authorities said. An evacuation center was opened at Canyon Springs High School at 23100 Cougar Canyon Road in Moreno Valley.

By 9 p.m., evacuation orders were lifted.

The blaze had charred 1,044 acres as of Monday morning, said April Newman, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County Fire Department. The fires containment was listed as 44% overnight, but was reduced to 30% early Monday because firefighters were better able to map it in the daylight, she said.

Conditions were good this morning, Newman said Monday. We had cooler temperatures, as well as a foggy layer that was around the area.  Theres very little wind right now, so morning weather conditions are optimal as far as us getting better control over the fire.

Amazing work by aircraft on #BlaineFire https://t.co/zDmzYotT08?ssr=true  Eric Vetere (@SBSOESevetere) August 14, 2017

About 404 firefighters, 35 engines and several water-dropping helicopters battled the blaze, Newman said. Crews were in place in Moreno Valley to prevent the fire from encroaching on homes.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation, authorities said.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson

ALSO

Two hikers found dead in the Mojave Desert

Demonstrators gather in downtown L.A. to protest Charlottesville violence

70-year-old man killed after getting struck by boat propeller in Newport Beach, authorities say

UPDATES:

8:05 a.m. Aug. 14: This article was updated with new information from Cal Fire.

10:25 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect that evacuation orders were lifted and that the fire was partially contained.

7:30 p.m.: This article was updated with information about an evacuation center.

6:13 p.m.: This article was updated with more information about the size of the fire.

This article was originally published at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 13.
World-renown surfer and shark attack-survivor Bethany Hamilton is scheduled to appear at The Academy of Our Lady of Peace in October to give an inspirational talk to students and meet the public.

This partnership with Bethany supports our mission to empower young women, said Lauren Lek, head of the Catholic academy, the only all-girl high school in the county.

She inspires, fosters community and serves as an excellent role model of what it means to be a woman of faith, courage, heart, and excellence. Lek said about Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack while surfing at age 13 in 2003.

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Despite the injury, Hamilton continued as a professional surfer and wrote about her experience in the autobiography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. The film Soul Surfer based on the book was released in 2011.

The Oct. 10 event at the school is free to current students, while tickets are being sold to the public to cover the cost of Hamiltons appearance. A question and answer session for 300 people is $75, and lunch for 75 guests is $150. Four $5,000 tickets also are being sold for guests to spend 15 minutes with Hamilton, her husband and son.

The Q&A session will be moderated by the conversation series Maria Shrivers Architects of Change, which will post the talk later on the website https://mariashriver.com/aoc. People attending the lunch will have an opportunity for one-on-one photos with Hamilton.

Hamiltons appearance will end with a free public event at the campus, 4860 Oregon St., San Diego, where community members will be invited to share their own inspirational stories of choosing courage over fear. The session will be hosted by Friends of Bethany Organization in support of the Beautifully Flawed Retreat.

Doors will open at 5:15 p.m. for access to the vendor marketplace and the event will officially begin at 7 p.m. and conclude at 9 p.m.

Tickets to the event can be purchased at https://www.aolp.org/BethanyHamilton.

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Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
The U.S. did not respond by last Thursdays deadline to allegations in a case before an international tribunal that say border officials carried out an extrajudicial killing at San Ysidros port of entry.

The lawyers and activists who asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to take on the case have criticized the governments lack of response and said that it may hurt the U.S.s ability to hold other governments accountable for human rights violations. The State Department, which handles communications with the commission, requested an extension until mid-October to file a response, according to Jennifer Gabris, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection.

What happens with the U.S.s failure to respond is that there are high political costs for that failure, said Roxanna Altholz, one of the attorneys in the case. One need only look at the newspaper to understand how regional leadership in human rights is particularly important right now.

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Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was killed about seven years ago after he was beaten and zapped with a Taser while being deported, and videos from eyewitnesses waiting in line to cross the border thrust the case into the spotlight. The Department of Justice investigated and determined there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute the agents involved.

His family reached a $1 million settlement in February with the U.S. government in a civil suit, but his wife, Maria Puga, does not feel theyve achieved justice yet.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agreed to take on the case in May. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the case now before the commission.

Puga said she hoped that bringing the case to an international tribunal would keep similar tragedies from happening to other families.

The U.S. supports human rights, so why is this happening in the case of my husband? Why this silence? she said.

If the U.S. does not respond in the case, the commission may find a default judgment in favor of Hernandez Rojas and his family.

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Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

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The Holding Company music hall is holding a fundraiser to help the historic Ocean Beach Womans Club raise money to install a new floor for its clubhouse.

On Aug.17 the venue will host a benefit concert with the San Diego reggae band Big Mountain, with proceeds benefiting the club. Doors to the event open at 7 p.m. and the concert starts an hour later. The band is known for its 1994 cover of Peter Framptons Baby, I Love Your Way.

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VIP Tickets cost $30 and include access to a hosted bar from 8 p.m. until 9 p.m. during the concert, with proceeds from this ticket benefiting the club. Regular tickets are $20, but the proceeds do not go to the club. The venue is at 5046 Newport Avenue and tickets are available on The Holding Companys website, www.thcob.com.

The fundraiser is in addition to the Woman Clubs annual ongoing campaign to raise money for the community. The nearly 100-year-old civic organization runs community events and serves as a neighborhood booster and social organization.

The clubhouse on Bacon Street is used for the groups numerous events, but is also rented to other people and organizations to help fund club business. Without the new floor, the Womans Club said on a GoFundMe page, it will no longer be able to rent the facility.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society, scholarship funds, music organizations, childrens programs, and animal welfare groups and others have received financial support.

So far the Womans Club has raised just over $6,500 of a $10,000 goal through the website. Steve Yeng, the owner of The Holding Company and OB Noodle House, donated $2,500.

The Womans Club, which formed in 1924, has advocated for paving of Ocean Beach streets, public libraries, trees alongside neighborhood roads, garbage disposal (it runs its own waste electronics program), schools, tree plantings, public infrastructure, and other community improvements.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
A San Diego man and his wife, who have been missing for more than a week, are believed to have crashed off a Sequoia National Park cliff in nearly the same spot where two foreign exchange students plunged to their deaths last month, officials said.

A trail of car parts led investigators to the Kings River, 500 feet below a Highway 180 bend, where at least part of the couples car was located. Tony Botti, a spokesman for the Fresno Sheriffs Department said the car is mostly submerged in white-water rapids, so they havent been able to determine if the vehicle is intact or if bodies are inside.

He said theyre not ruling out the couples possible escape, but it isnt likely.

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Being as how we havent heard from them, it would be a blessing if they were just naive to the fact that we were looking for them, he said.

Jie Song, 30, and Yinan Wang, 31, were reported missing Friday. A family member said the husband and wife were last seen at the Crystal Caves in Sequoia National Park on Aug. 6.

They had planned to stay in a Fresno hotel that night before continuing on to Yosemite National Park the next day. The couple was supposed to start their return trip to San Diego on Aug. 9. They never arrived.

Wang, a Chinese national, has lived in San Diego for about a year. Song lives in China and visits her husband several times a year. The couple has few family members in the United States.

After they were reported missing, law enforcement agencies learned of a clue spotted days earlier by a sheriffs deputy.

The deputy was part of the search-and-rescue team assigned to recover a red car that went through a guard rail into the Kings River in late July, Botti said. Two Thai exchange students who were attending the University of Florida died in that crash, according to the Fresno Bee.

A team has been working to retrieve their bodies, but their vehicle is in a precarious spot, making the recovery mission difficult.

While watching news footage of the crash site, the deputy spotted a license plate, Botti said. It didnt belong to the car of the exchange students, so she reported it to the California Highway Patrol. At that time, authorities didnt know of the missing couple.

Once a missing persons report was filed, investigators learned of the license plate and discovered it belonged to the couples Ford Focus.

Botti said the crashes appear to be a strange coincidence, and that there is nothing particularly dangerous about that stretch of road. The crashes occurred about 50 feet from each other. Investigators arent sure why either crash happened.

Weve never thought of this as a trouble spot, at least not that were aware of, he said. That road is really so windy -- its just as bad before and past that spot.

Caltrans plans to conduct an investigation to determine if the stretch of highway is unsafe, the Fresno Bee reported.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com
About 1,000 people gathered for a unity vigil at the County Administration Center Sunday evening  one of thousands to take place across the country in the wake of a white supremacist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Va.

Many were holding signs, but one slogan that peppered a number of posters stood out: If youre not outraged, you arent paying attention.

The quote was the last thing Heather D. Heyer publicly posted to Facebook before her death. The 32-year-old woman was run over by a suspected white nationalist during a counter-protest.

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Organizer Kathy Stadler said Heyers death, and the death of two state troopers whose helicopter crashed while they were keeping an eye on the protests sent shock waves through the country.

People were looking for a place to come together in solidarity and make it very clear that we wont put up with this, " Stadler said. There are more of us that believe in the power of love, goodness and equality and are willing to fight for it.

About 1,000 people joined in song together at a vigil held after the violence in Charlottesville, Va. (Lyndsay Winkley / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Turmoil in Charlottesville began Friday night when a group of white nationalists marched onto the University of Virginia campus to protest the removal of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Lee commanded the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.

It escalated on Saturday morning when hundreds of counterprotesters clashed with demonstrators attending the Unite the Right rally  an event that promised to be one of the largest gatherings of white nationalists in recent times.

The scene soon exploded into violence and police declared unlawful assembly. After the crowd had dispersed, a 20-year-old Ohian man rammed a group of counterprotesters with his car. Heyer died, and at least 19 others were injured.

Sundays free-form gathering included a moment of silence for the lives lost, speeches by faith leaders, community organizers and politicians, and performances by choirs that led the crowd in songs like This little light of mine and Lean on me.

One of the speakers was Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, who said that Heyer gave her life for the fight against hate. It wears us out, but it is not over. We have to continue to fight, Peters said. Be awake, be aware, be engaged, be present, because we have work to do.

For the exuberant crowd, Yousef Miller, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in San Diego, had a message.

Resistance needs persistence, he said. Dont pat yourself on the back tonight until you see what you do tomorrow.

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com
Some have forgotten in the decade since the massive Cedar fire roared through central San Diego County that other huge, destructive and deadly fires were burning elsewhere nearby.

Monday night, about 50 people gathered at a fire station in Valley Center to remember one of those blazes, the Paradise fire, which killed two people, destroyed 221 houses and consumed 56,700 acres.

The Cedar fire was the largest fire in California history. Paradise was not. But for me and this community, 2003 was the Paradise. It doesnt seem like 10 years. This is still burned in all of our minds, said Cristina Williamson, a Cal Fire battalion chief who lived on The Yellow Brick Road the morning of Oct. 26, 2003. It was The Yellow Brick Road where one of Williamsons neighbors, Nancy Morphew, 51, died while trying to save her horses from the flames.

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The Paradise blaze, one of the 10 most destructive in county history, altered the lives of thousands. It also brought a community together and showed that love and hope can show the way, Chaplain Bill Trok told the gathering.

One miracle, he said, was standing in the back of the room. There Allyson Watson, formerly Allyson Roach, was cradling her 15-month old son, Aydhan. Allysons sister, Ashleigh, died in the Paradise fire and Allyson was burned over 85 percent of her body. But she survived more than 30 surgeries, married in 2009, and had a baby boy last year.

I feel like tonight is an opportunity for the community to get together and bring a little bit more closure to what has happened, she said. Theres been a lot of healing in the past 10 years.

The fire began at 1:30 a.m. Oct. 26, 2003, in Valley Center on the Rincon Indian Reservation just south of Harrahs Rincon Casino. Winds were blowing then about 35 miles an hour.

It was started, investigators always believed, by an arsonist, but no one has ever been publicly identified or brought up on charges.

It was a crazy with a lighter, Trok said Monday night, that took so much from all of you.

By 6 a.m. things had gotten far worse. At one point winds were clocked at 70 mph and for 20 minutes a firestorm cut visibility to only a few feet. Spot fires were starting over one mile ahead of the main fire and the flames moved faster than evacuations could be ordered.

Within an hour the fire had grown to 500 acres, was burning on both sides of Valley Center Road, and was spotting up to one-quarter mile ahead of the main fire.

The Santa Ana winds subsided that night. Still, full containment of the fire was not declared until Nov. 6.

According to a multiagency report prepared in 2004, the environmental conditions were ripe for a fire. At 1 a.m. that day it was 78 degrees and relative humidity was under 10 percent. East winds were blowing at 35 miles per hour, with gusts to 45.

During Mondays vigil, Aydhan squealed with glee as his mother gently swung him up and down in the back of the station to keep him quiet.

She wasnt supposed to live, Trok said smiling, and she has given life.
By PTI: Dhaka, Aug 14 (PTI) Flash floods triggered by incessant rainfall has left at least 13 people dead and thousands of others marooned in nearly a dozen districts across Bangladesh, officials said today.

The unrelenting onrush of water from upstream, even though rain has stopped, has flooded as many as 10 districts in northern Bangladesh, and the flooding is spreading to the central region of the country.

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The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre forecasts if there are more rains at the end of August, at least 25 districts will be affected by floods by September.

"We are taking all precautionary measures keeping the forecast in mind," Department of Disaster Management Director General Reaz Ahmed was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com.

At least seven people have drowned in floodwaters in Dinajpur and six others died in Kurhigram.

Around 60,000 families in Kurigram and at least 400 families in Nilphamari have been marooned, the report said.

In mid-July, nearly 600,000 people were marooned in nearly a dozen districts which were flood-affected.

However, the floodwaters receded very quickly at that time, Ahmed said.

After a brief pause, 10 districts became submerged again in August due to incessant rains and water from the upstream.

Some 400,000 people are stranded in Kurhigram. The vast areas of Gaibandha and Naogaon have been hit by floods now.

"If we are affected again, it may prolong," Ahmed said.

The Water Development Board said the level of water rose at 77 of its 90 observation points. There are forecasts for more rains this month, and it will deteriorate the situation.

"All the affected districts will get relief materials gradually," he said.

Bangladesh experienced the worst floods in decades in 1998 when 68 per cent areas of it went underwater.

The flooding in 2007 was less severe than those of 1988 and 1998, affecting 40 per cent of the country.

To combat the situation this year, the government has cancelled regular holidays of all the officials as well as field workers involved with disaster management and relief activities. PTI KJ ABH KJ

--- ENDS ---
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New excavations of a cave site in western Sumatra called Lida Ajer indicate modern humans reached Southeast Asia between 73,000 to 63,000 years ago  up to 20,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously thought. The findings, published in the journal Nature, also suggest humans could have potentially made the crossing to Australia even earlier than the accepted 60,000 to 65,000 years ago.

Lida Ajer was originally excavated by Eugene Dubois, a Dutch paleoanthropologist of Java Man fame, in the late 1880s and revisited one hundred years later by Jon de Vos and Randy Skelton.

Despite their claims for antiquity and the significance the site, it has often been ignored in models of human dispersal out of Africa and through Southeast Asia due to problems of dating and tooth identification.

Dr. Kira Westaway of Macquarie University and colleagues re-discovered the site over two decades later, with the intention of establishing a firm chronology for the evidence and testing the modern human attribution of the teeth.

The cave can now be reclassified as a key piece of evidence in the theories of modern human dispersal.

The study stood on the shoulders of brilliant Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugene Dubois, famed for his discovery of Java Man, said co-author Dr. Gilbert Price, from the University of Queensland.

He visited a series of caves in Sumatra in the late 1800s, and in one in particular, recovered some human teeth, which is quite interesting in itself, but no one had spent much time trying to determine their significance.

The hardest part was trying to find the site again, Dr. Westaway said.

We only had a sketch of the cave and a rough map from a copy of Duboiss original field notebook  we stumbled across the cave almost by accident  but the minute I saw a large calcite column in the entrance I knew we had found the cave dug by Dubois over 120 years earlier.

The human teeth from Lida Ajer were identified as modern human 70 years ago by Hooijer, a Dutch paleontologist studying orangutan fossils, and while the study was convincing it lacked comparative studies of contemporaneous human fossils.

The teeth were reanalyzed using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, allowing insight into enamel thicknesses and junctions between the enamel and dentine, critical for distinguishing human from other primate teeth.

The analyses confirmed that the teeth are anatomically modern human, indicating that they were present on the Sumatran landscape at that time.

As a result of thorough documentation of the cave, reanalysis of the specimens, and a new dating program, it was confirmed the teeth were Homo sapiens, but dated to as old as 73,000 years ago, Dr. Price said.

A barrage of dating techniques were applied to the sediment around the fossils, to overlying and underlying rock deposits in the cave and to associated mammal teeth, indicating that the deposit and fossils were laid down between 63,000 to 73,000 years ago.

This cave has been shrouded in doubt since it was first excavated, Dr. Westaway said.

The modern human presence in Sumatra between 73,000-63,000 years ago occurred when the region was dominated by a closed canopy rainforest ecosystem similar to that found there today, the researchers said.

Thus, these teeth provide the earliest unambiguous evidence of occupation of rainforest conditions by anatomically modern humans. Successful exploitation of rainforest environments is difficult, and requires the capacity for complex planning and technological innovations to secure adequate resources.

Our study indicates that such innovations and capacities were in place in Asia by at least 60,000 years ago.

Southeast Asia is a key region in the path of human dispersal from Africa round to Australia, as all hominins would have had to pass through this region en route to Australia. A change in the date of arrival in this region has huge implications for debates on when the first Australians reached our shores, Dr. Westaway said.

Sumatra is not on the known dispersal route through Southeast Asia so the fact that we find an early modern human presence there and so far inland is surprising.

_____

K.E. Westaway et al. 2017. An early modern human presence in Sumatra 73,000-63,000 years ago. Nature, published online August 9, 2017; doi: 10.1038/nature23452
By PTI: (Eds: Updating toll, additional inputs)

By Anisur Rehman

Dhaka, Aug 14 (PTI) Flash floods triggered by incessant rainfall has left at least 20 people dead and thousands of others marooned in nearly a dozen districts across Bangladesh, officials said today.

The unrelenting flow of water from upstream, even though rain has stopped, has flooded as many as 10 districts in northern Bangladesh, and the flooding is spreading to the central region of the country, officials said.

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A spokesman of the Disaster Management Ministry in Dhaka confirmed 20 people have died in the floods and most of them are from northwestern region.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) forecasts if there are more rains at the end of August, at least 25 districts will be affected by floods.

The water levels will keep rising as Indias northeastern states will see "heavy to very heavy" rains, it said.

"We are taking all precautionary measures keeping the forecast in mind," Department of Disaster Management Director General Reaz Ahmed said.

Around 60,000 families in Kurigram and at least 400 families in Nilphamari have been marooned.

Railway officials said train services in several internal routes in the region were suspended in the past two days as water washed away soil and stones underneath the railway tracks.

Onrush of waters in the major Brahmaputra and its tributaries coupled with heavy monsoon rains in the district submerged railway tracks forcing authorities to suspend train services in Dinajpur district.

Leading water expert Professor Ainun Nishat said gushing waters from three sides of the upstream region were heading towards central Bangladesh and feared that particularly the unprotected eastern part of the capital Dhaka could be submerged for a prolonged period.

"The full moon phenomenon is to worsen the situation coinciding with the bursting water level but all we need to do is to protect in particular the flood protection embankments which are in place to evade damage as much as possible," Nishat said.

TV footages showed people were moving in boats in northern districts as swollen river waters inundated flood plains and submerged infrastructures.

The FFWC officials said the water level in Brahmaputra, having its origin in China and entering northern Bangladesh from India, exceeded the records of past 100 years.

It said continued and simultaneous rise of waters in the three major basins in the northeast, north and northwest region posed the threat of major flooding in lower riparian Bangladesh criss-crossed by 230 rivers, 54 major ones being originated from upstream India.

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The Teesta basin water level also surpassed the 98 years record and the rest of the three basins ? the Ganges ? this year saw the highest level of waters in the past 75 years.

The Water Development Board said the level of water rose at 77 of its 90 observation points.

Bangladesh experienced the worst floods in decades in 1998 when 68 per cent areas of the country went underwater. The flooding in 2007 was less severe than those of 1988 and 1998, affecting 40 per cent of the country. PTI KJ/AR ABH AKJ KJ

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Ahead of Independence Day, three alleged members of different factions of Manipur-based terrorist outfit, Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP-PWG), including its commander-in-chief were arrested here, the police said today.

KCP (People War Group) was formed last year in January by the members of KCP-Poirei faction, KCP-Tamnganba faction and KCP-Paikhomba faction under commander-in-chief of KCP- Tamnganba faction Laishram Ranjit Meitei (45).

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The KCP-PWG had allegedly carried out attacks on oil tankers in April and June after the oil tankers association refused to give extortion money to it.

The three men, Meitei, finance secretary of KCP (Lamjanba Khuman (LK) faction) Khumanthem Naobicha Singh (36) and a member of KCP-LK Thoidam Chaothoi (30), were arrested yesterday, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) PS Kushwah.

They were on the run and had come here to identify a base around Delhi to coordinate their anti-national activities. A team of Delhi Polices Special Cell was working on inputs that Meitei was hiding somewhere in Delhi, said the officer.

It was learnt that he had been staying in Kakarbeta area near the West Bengal-Nepal border but had plans to set up a hideout here to carry out the organisations anti-national activities, he said.

On the basis of a tip-off, Meitei was arrested near Tibetan Market, ISBT, here along with two other members.

During interrogation, Meitei said that he was the commander-in-chief of the organisation and had earlier been arrested by the Manipur Police. He was on the run for five years, he said.

The second accused, Naobicha, had recently come in contact with Meitei. He also had a police record and was earlier associated with other banned organisations of Manipur.

Prior to coming to Delhi, they were operating from their base at Kakarbeta area near the West Bengal-Nepal border, said the officer.

They were living in Nepal for the last three years to evade arrest from Manipur Police. They used to extort money from government authorities, local businessman, private schools, leaders of political parties, operators of oil tankers etc by sending them threatening letters, said Kushwah.

The cadres based at Manipur used to collect extortion money which was later it was distributed between different wings of the outfit. A part of the money was also received by the Nepal-based leaders of these outfits.

In January, the Special Cell had arrested the self-styled convener of KCP PWG Ranjjet Singh Porai alias Rocky. PTI SLB AAR

--- ENDS ---

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While announcing plans for his massive rally, TTV also asserted that he will 'expose Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami' in the roadshow today.

AIADMK merger plans have been derailed mainly due to uncertainty of support of MLAs to either of the three camps.

The stage is set for yet another show of strength in Tamil Nadu to stir the power corridor- this time by expelled AIADMK (Amma) deputy secretary TTV Dinakaran.

Today, he is scheduled to hold rally at 5pm in Madurai's Melur district along with the MLAs who stand in support with him in hope to grab the power straddle in the state.

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While announcing plans for his massive rally, TTV Dinakaram also asserted that he will 'expose' Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami' today.

'SUPPORT OF AT LEAST 20 MLAs'

According to reports, Dinakaran boasts of support from 16 MLAs out of 233 and is expecting some more to join him on stage today. Dinakaran's family said, "We have information that at least 20 MLAs will come for our meeting."

TTV Dinakaran needs minimum 15 MLAs on his side to breathe back life into his political aspirations.

PANNEERSELVAM MEETS PM MODI

Meanwhile, O Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today and discussed the hurdles he would face if the two factions of the AIADMK merge.

AIADMK merger plans have been derailed mainly due to uncertainty of support of MLAs to either of the three camps.

THE NUMBER GAME

As TTV Dinakaran claims support of 16 MLAs, Pannerselvam has 10 MLAs and E Palaniswami has the support of 107 MLAs. It takes a majority of 118 MLAs in the legislative assembly to form the majority. If MLAs choose to jump to the Dinakaran camp dropping EPS' numbers, then an AIADMK merger is inevitable.

Recently, TTV Dinakaran, after receiving news of his removal, had called Palaniswami a cheat and added that only general secretary Sasikala could remove him from his post.

Also read: BJP's Mission South: Will AIADMK join NDA government? Talks on

Also read: Sasikala's nephew Dhinakaran, brother Dhivakaran patch up to tighten grip over AIADMK

Also read: DMK not functioning under Stalin, he is helping AIADMK: MK Alagiri

--- ENDS ---
20 MLAs and 4 MPs from the AIADMK attended the rally in Melur in Madurai district.

Even as PM Narendra Modi's BJP attempts to umpire a merger between the two factions of the AIADMK, 20 MLAs and 4 MPs from the party today attended a 22,000-strong rally addressed by VK Sasikala's nephew TTV Dinakaran in Madurai district.

Dinakaran called Sasikala, now an inmate in a Bengaluru jail, a "sacrifice queen". The former Jayalalithaa aide was convicted by the Supreme Court in a disproportionate assets case in February.

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Throughout the speech, he kept reminding cadre that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and former CM O Paneerselvam had been handpicked by his family. The two men lead the rival party factions between whom the BJP is trying to catalyze a reconciliation.

Dinakaran had earlier threatened to expose Tamil Nadu CM Palaniswami

"On that day at Koovathur our family sacrificed. Sasikala could have become CM on December 5th when Amma died. She didn't make an attempt to make me or our family members as the CM. If we had left the MLAs in the lurch, these people would not be going around in convoys," he said.

"Koovathur" is a reference to a resort near Chennai where AIADMK MLAs loyal to Sasikala stayed after Panneerselvam rebelled against her. That happened when she was made legislature party leader, just weeks before her conviction.

Dinakaran also alleged that Palaniswami had used government machinery to prevent more cadre from attending his event. He even alleged that three MLAs had been abducted by the 'EPS' camp.

NO DIRECT ATTACK ON SAFFRON PARTY

Dinakaran didn't hit out at the BJP directly, and played it safe.

"Senior AIADMK members were not consulted before passing the resolution to remove me as the Deputy Secretary. You had filed affidavits for Chinnamma (Sasikala). On whose pressure did you pass the resolution?" he asked, referring to Palaniswami.

He issued an ultimatum to Palaniswami faction, asking them to mend their ways and consider the repercussions. He pointed out that preparing the AIADMK for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was crucial, and stopped short of directly threatening to topple the government - knowing very well that losing power wasn't an option.

He acted smartly in pointing out that the AIADMK government should work together with the Modi administration to get developmental work done, and use Tamil Nadu's 50 MPs.

TTV Dinakaran was arrested earlier this year - and later released on bail - after he was accused of greasing the palms of an Election Commission official in an attempt to get the AIADMK's iconic 'twin-leaf' symbol for the Palaniswami faction. The symbol had been frozen ahead of the now-cancelled bypoll in Chennai's RK Nagar, Jayalalithaa's former constituency. JAYALALITHAA HONOURED

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Dinakaran today didn't fail to ensure that Jayalalithaa was remembered in every way, repeatedly bringing up how Sasikala and her family had worked under 'Amma.'

When his car entered the rally venue, cadre could be seen diving to wish him and folding their hands - like they used for Jayalalithaa.

Similarly, the stage resembled the AIADMK headquarters - a message meant to show that Dinakaran and his supporters would capture it.

LIST OF ATTENDING MLAs, MPs

Here's a list of AIADMK (and Independent) MLAs and MPs who either attended the rally or sent Dinakaran their wishes.

MLAs (Constituency - Name)

1. Aravankurichi - Senthil Balaji

2. Andipatti - Thangatamizh Chelvan

3. Pappiredypetti - Palaniappan

4. Perundura - Thopu Venkatachalam

5. Tanjore - Rengasamy

6. Srivilliputhur - Chandiraprabha

7. Sathur - Subramaniam

8. Manamadurai - Kennedy Mariappan

9. Cumbum - S T Jekkiappan

10. Ottapidaram - Sudar raj

11. Nilakottai - Thangadurai

12. Periyakulam - Kadhirkamu

13. Perambur - Vetrivel

14. Paramakudi - Dr Muthiah

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15. Poonamalle - Elumalai

16. Shollinganallur - Parthiban

17. Gudiyatham - Jayanthi Padmanabhan

18. Vilathikulam - Uma Maheshwari

19. Arur - Murugan

20. Ambur - Balasubramaniam

21. Thaiyarasy (Independent - sent wishes)

22. Thameem Ansari (Independent - sent wishes)

23. Sethu Karunas (Independent - sent wishes)

MPs

1. Sivagangai - Senthilnathan

2. Coimbatore - AP Nagarajan

3. Virudhunagar - Radhakrishnan

4 Thenkasi - Vasanthi Murugesan

MERGER SOON?

Meanwhile, O Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi this morning.

Sources told India Today that the meeting was political. The two men discussed the hurdles Panneerselvam would face if a merger took place between AIADMK factions led by him and CM Palaniswami.

Modi met Palaniswami yesterday. The senior AIADMK leader is reported to have briefed the PM on plans for the merger, which is likely to be concluded by this weekend.

ALSO READ

Can TTV derail AIADMK merger? Will expose EPS, thunders Dinarakan ahead of Melur rally

Exclusive: BJP-EPS pact on the cards in Tamil Nadu to end political stalemate?

AIADMK merger: Now, ex-Tamil Nadu CM O Panneerselvam knocks on PM Modi's door

ALSO WATCH

TTV Dinakaran to play spoilsport in AIADMK-BJP merger?

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--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Tibri Cantonment (Pb), Aug 14 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will be staying at an Army camp of the 3rd battalion of the Sikh regiment here for the night on the eve of Independence Day.

Excited over the presence of Amarinder, a former army man, the troops of 3rd battalion had a pleasurable time interacting with him.

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"I will never forget this night. It has revived all those memories of the yonder when I was part of the force. And at the same time, it has created many new memories which will remain etched in my heart and mind till my last breath," the chief minister said.

He will be unfurling the tricolour tomorrow in Gurdaspur as part of Independence Day celebrations.

As the soldiers erupted in joyful euphoria, Amarinder wondered if he had been transported back in time to days when he was an active soldier like the rest of them.

Earlier, after a brief introduction about Captain Amarinder, soldiers performed a combat training display and a battalion presentation for the chief minister.

"This is a special day in more ways than one. Captain Amarinder has made it a memorable occasion for us," said one of the soldiers.

Amarinder, who belonged to the Sikh regiment when he was in the army, gave all credit to the soldiers for making it a special occasion for him.

"It was like reliving history," he said, adding the Army continues to be his first and last love.

Amarinder (75) also enjoyed a pipe band display and a Bhangra performance by the soldiers. PTI CHS DKS HP ASV

--- ENDS ---
Assam government has set up 678 relief camps and relief distribution centres across the affected districts, according to the Assam Disaster Management Authority.

By Indrajit Kundu: At least 15 people have died in the last four days due to incessant rains that have worsened the flood situation in Assam. Twenty one districts, which account for more than 60% of the state remain affected in what is being termed as the worst deluge that the state has faced in decades.

Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Lakhimpur, Dhubri and Dibrugarh are the worst hit areas in the state. The mighty Brahmaputra continues to flow above the danger level across several districts while other rivers like Subansiri, Dhansiri, Burhidehing, Beki, Sankosh, Puthimari are also on alert.

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Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed to assist the state administration in rescuing the stranded in Kokrajhar and Nagaon districts. The Indian Airforce has also been put on standby for rescue operations and for dropping relief material.

"All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state," tweeted the Prime Minister's Office.

All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state: PM @narendramodi- PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

The Assam government has set up 678 relief camps and relief distribution centres across the affected districts, according to the Assam Disaster Management Authority (ADMA). More than 22 lakh people are reeling under these floods with 1.83 lakh given shelter in relief camps.

"Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely & constantly monitoring the situation," tweeted PMO India.

Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely & constantly monitoring the situation: PM @narendramodi- PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

The floods have ravaged the Kaziranga National Park with 83% of its area inundated. ADMA states that 13 of the 148 anti-poaching camps that were present in the park have been evacuated.

Earlier this month, prime minister Narendra Modi had visited the state to take stock of the flood situation and held a high level meeting with chief ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The prime minister had also announced a relief package of Rs 2350 crore for the North East.

CM Shri @sarbanandsonwal interacted with flood affected people as he visited a relief camp & erosion site at Kundil bridge over Kundil river pic.twitter.com/dG2p8OlS3O- Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) August 13, 2017

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday visited Dibrugarh to review the condition of embankments in the district and met inmates at a relief camp. "Nothing matters more to the government than giving relief to people, particularly children, in these trying times," Sonowal said.

Also Read:

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Assam flood situation worsens, 4500 families homeless in Tripura

Heavy rains trigger flash floods and landslide in north Bengal, 3 dead

Also Watch:

Assam flood toll climbs to 60, over 10 lakh affected

--- ENDS ---
Dubai-listed GulfNav reported a first half profit of AED19m ($5.2m) compared to AED14m in the first six months of 2016.

As the company continues to get back on a even keel current assets now exceed liabilities by AED115.4m compared to a negative AED90m at the end of 2016.

GulfNav has undertaken a course of expanding the scope of its business. We have also succeeded in achieving many goals, starting by addressing the outstanding legal, financial and administrative issues, to launching our new brand that reflects the strategy of the company to enhance our position in the market, said Khamis Juma Buamin, md and group ceo of GulfNav.

This will contribute in increasing our profits by 300% in 2021. As well as, increasing our fleet size to include additional 20 ships of multiple tasks by the second half of 2020.

GulfNav plans to issue a $250m Islamic Sukuk to secure funds to cover its expansion strategy.
By PTI: generations Kochi, Aug 14 (PTI) Indira Gandhi had the capacity to carry three generations of Congress workers and leaders with her, senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said today, lamenting none of its present day protagonists could that now. "I can say only this... she (Indira Gandhi) had the capacity to carry three generations with her. None of us have the capacity to carry even one generation with us," he said. Recalling his association with Gandhi as a Youth Congress leader and a minister, and referring to her contributions to the country and the Congress party, he asked the "demoralised" party workers and leaders to seek inspiration from the remarkable life of the former Prime Minister.

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Azads remarks came close on the heels of another senior leader Jairam Ramesh saying Congress was facing an "existential crisis".

"Old slogans dont work, old formulas dont work, old mantras dont work. India has changed, the Congress party has to change," Ramesh had told PTI in a recent interview. Azad said Congress was now in opposition at the Centre and in many states, and unlike Kerala, most places he visited he found them "very demoralised, very upset". The leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha said he urged them to seek inspiration from the life of Indira Gandhi. "She had the capacity of working with three generations. None of us have that capacity," Azad told a function organised by Ernakulam District Congress Committee to mark the birth centenary celebrations of Gandhi. Azad said Gandhi had worked with her father, his ministerial colleagues and party office bearers before working with her own generation and the then the younger generation comprising youth Congress leaders like him.

He praised Congress workers and leaders in Kerala for their role in building the organisation. "We in Delhi always see Congress in Kerala as an exception. The organisation (in Kerala) cannot be compared to (any other unit), the leaders cannot be compared to those in the rest of the country," he said. PTI TGB APR SK SK

--- ENDS ---
Press Release

August 14, 2017 Sen. Bam: IRR key to effective implementation of free college education law Sen. Bam Aquino stressed the need to engage and consult stakeholders before the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act is finalized. "There are still a lot of details to iron out before the Commission on Higher Education's IRR is finalized. Umiikot kami sa mga state colleges and para kunin ang panig ng mga estudyante at administrators ng mga paaralan," said Sen. Bam. "It is important to engage with all the stakeholders and come up with a most effective implementation plan," added Sen. Bam, the principal sponsor and co-author of the measure in the Senate during his stint as chairman of the Committee on Education. As a revolutionary reform in education, Sen. Bam underscored the need to hold healthy discussions on how to craft an IRR that will ensure effective implementation, based on its original intention of the law. "Mahalagang mapag-usapan ang bawat detalye ng batas sa pagbuo ng IRR. Masasayang lang ang napakalaking repormang ito sa edukasyon kung hindi matututupad ang pangunahing layunin nito," added Sen. Bam. Sen. Bam said other important issues such as summer and make up classes, residency issues, and grade requirements should be tackled. "Though we are not part of the group finalizing the IRR, we are committed to sharing the comments, concerns and suggestions we've collated from students, parents, teachers and other concerned citizens," the senator said. The law will provide free education to students in SUCs, local universities and colleges (LUCs) and vocational schools under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Aside from tuition fees, the government will shoulder miscellaneous and all other mandatory fees. Scholarship grants will also be made available to students of both public and private college and universities. Plus, it provides a new and improved student loan program, where students can apply for financing for other education expenses. If fully implemented, Sen. Bam said the law will benefit around two million students in all state universities and colleges and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)-run technical-vocational institutions in the country. In addition, students taking post-graduate studies can avail of the new and improved student loan program and scholarships under the law. The measure was languishing in the legislative mill for years before it was passed during Sen. Bam's time as chairman of the Committee on Education in the 17th Congress. This was Sen. Bam's 19th law in his four years as senator.
Press Release

August 14, 2017 Slow project implementation casts pall on 'build, build, build' -- Recto Government's capacity to "build, build, build" infrastructure will be tested by a review of how fast it is building the roads, classrooms, irrigation, hospitals funded by the current year's budget, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto said. Recto said the Senate review of the Duterte administration's proposed 2018 national budget for 2018 of P3.7 trillion will "center on its ability to utilize the appropriations for public works. " "What projects have been delivered? What are delayed or derailed? 'Yan yung mga tanong na dapat sagutin ng mga ahensya," Recto said. He revealed that "there is a bipartisan intention to demand an accounting from agencies which have been given large funds for infrastructure, as well as those who have been allocated funds to hire critical personnel like teachers and policemen." "In short, is underspending a thing of the past? Or is it a continuing concern?" he asked. "Now that the shoe is on the other foot, have you solved the problem you have accused your predecessors of doing?" Some officials of the current administration have been quoted as saying that the Aquino administration had failed to spend or delayed the spending of an estimated P1 trillion in appropriations. But a preliminary Senate estimate circulated among senators pegged at P185.8 billion the amount of unreleased appropriations in 2016, on top of unobligated allotments of P410.8 billion. For senators, "agencies of interest," Recto said, include the Education, Health, Transportation, Agriculture, and Public Works and Highways departments. "In the case of DepED, how many of the new classrooms funded in last year's budget have been completed?" Recto said. For 2017, DepED was given 109.3 billion to build 47,492 new classrooms and P2.47 billion to buy 66,492 school desks, furniture and fixtures, Recto said. For 2018, there is a proposed P106.1 billion for 47,000 new classrooms and P3.47 billion for 84,781 school desks, furniture and fixtures. Another agency plagued with slow-moving projects is the Department of Health, Recto said. For this year, the DOH'S Health Facilities Enhancement Program was given P24.19 billion. In its 2018 budget, there is a provision of P29.03 billion for the same program. "In both DOH and DepED, they still have inherited backlog of deliverables from 2016," Recto said. Recto said the fund absorptive capacity of the National Irrigation Administration, an office under the Cabinet Secretary, will also be scrutinized. "This year may budget ito na P38.4 billion. Next year, may request for P41.9 billion. Ang tanong: Ilan na ang natapos nila? O nasimulan man lang," Recto said. He said the Department of Transportation will be quizzed if it had been able to wipeout the logjam of projects left by the previous administration. "Yung procurement hurdles ba, naayos na? Or is it still a slow train to procurement?" he said. In this year's a national budget, its rail sector was appropriated P22.1 billion. For 2018, the amount of P25.99 billion is proposed as the administration tries to jumpstart multiple stalled projects, he said. Recto said the "pace and scope" in the hiring of important frontline personnel will also be scrutinized. "Sa teachers, we have created 53,831 positions this year. Ilan ba sa kanila ang nag-log-in when classes opened in June? Sa pulis, 10,000 ang target i-hire, how many of them are now pounding their beats?" Recto said. Recto reiterated his statement that the agencies' "fund absorptive capacity" would also impact on the Senate debates on the administration's mixed bag of proposed tax cuts and increases. "We will be examining both ledgers. Income and spending. Bakit ka hihingi ng ganito kalaking bagong revenues kung hindi mo naman nagagasta?" Recto said. Recto said knowing "spending humps" would explain why programs are "slow-moving" programs. "It will serve a dual purpose. First, identify the fat which can be rechanneled to good programs like free public college," Recto said. "Second, we can cut overhead and frivolous expenses, so we can in turn reduce the number of new taxes the government is asking Congress to impose," he added.
By PTI: Kolkata, Aug 14 (PTI) Prominent film makers of Bengal today welcomed the appointment of eminent lyricist and screenwriter Prasoon Joshi as Censor Board chief and hoped it would bring the much needed change in its functioning.

Internationally acclaimed director Buddhadev Dasgupta told PTI, "former chief Pahlaj Nihalani had virtually turned the Censor Board into his own office. He had forgotten that the primary role of Censor Board is not to edit frames but show responsibility to the art of cinema."

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Coming down heavily on Nihalini, the Bagh Bahadur maker said, "From day one he started creating problems and forced film makers and other sections to follow his political thoughts. It is good that he was ousted."

Dasgupta, whose recent release Tope has got laurels in different film festivals, said "Joshi will certainly make a positive difference with his progressive views and Censor will not court controversies like the way it did in recent times."

Director Goutam Ghosh, whose last film Sankhachil had been acclaimed in the country and internationally, said, "As a film maker my first and foremost wish will be the implementation of the report of the Shyam Benegal committee in which I was one of the members."

"We had worked so hard for days to draft the recommendations for the committee. We had suggested certain amendments to the present Act but there was no follow-up action," the Paar director said.

The Shyam Benegal committee was set up on January 1, 2016 to lay down rules and regulations for film certification giving sufficient and adequate space for artistic and creative expression. It submitted its report on April 29, 2016 but there has been very little progress on it so far.

Ghosh also hoped the change of guard would ensure documentaries like the one on Amartya Sen, made by young film maker Suman Ghosh, would not face the same problem any more.

The Centre replaced Nihalini, who had hogged headlines for his controversial decisions, with Joshi in a surprise announcement on Aug 11.

Director Suman Ghosh, whose The Argumentative Indian on Amartya Sen had faced Censor hurdle with Nihalini asserting the documentary cant be passed with beeping of six words/phrases, said, "I hope under Joshis tenure the work of me or other film makers will be definitely judged cinematically and meet better fate at the CBFC." PTI SUS RG PR PR

--- ENDS ---
The ding, ding, ding of a railroad crossing hits you outside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at the Howard Street entrance. The ringing is just loud enough to cause you to look both ways when here comes the roar of a passing locomotive blasting its horn.

But there is nothing to see, and the sound only lasts 30 seconds, then stops for a minute. You can miss it if you are talking to someone on the way in. Thats the signature of Bill Fontana, who has been recording the sounds of industry since 1968 and playing them back in public places to blend with all the other noise.

Its a way of getting people to notice the fact that their ears are working and that they are perceiving sound, says Fontana, who is 70 and speaks in a voice as quiet as his art can be. Most people living in urban environments tend to ignore what they hear, so its a way to be provocative.

Fontanas work is conceptual. The idea is the art. Any sound engineer can record a high-speed train rolling by a crossing gate. The genius is in the notion to record it in the first place and then to place it outside a museum.

Wall text in glass that is nearly invisible identifies it as Sound Sculpture With a Sequence of Level Crossings, 1982. It was the first sound installation acquired by SFMOMA, and it has taken 35 years to find a perfect location, out on the sidewalk where the only thing a patron has to pay is attention.

Erik Kreider, a visitor from New York, was lighting a cigarette when he heard the train, and instinctively looked down to see if he was standing on the tracks.

Im not sure if thats a real train or something else, Kreider, 29, said before being informed it was part of the museum. I can see how people wouldnt notice it.

This is exactly how Fontana likes people to experience his work.

Its out of context and there are always these gaps or silences so you dont know when you are going to encounter it, he says. Then when it happens, it is very fleeting. Its a sensory tease.

Fontana does not claim to have invented the idea of audio art, though he may have been the first to call it sound sculpture. This is his 40th year of practicing it in San Francisco, which he was exposed to on a trip from his hometown of Cleveland to visit a girlfriend. She took him on a romantic walk to Fort Point in a heavy summer mist, where he heard the foghorns howling on the Golden Gate Bridge.

It just blew my mind that a sound like that existed here, he says. His love for that outlasted the relationship. Fontana ended up marrying a different woman, Nina Hartunian, whom he met on a train from Germany to Paris in 1991. They live in a 1907 Edwardian on Russian Hill, a block from the San Francisco Art Institute, where Fontana has taught.

But a short commute was not the attraction. He bought the place because from the roof deck he can hear those beloved foghorns to the west and the clanging of the cable cars to the east.

He has recorded both warnings, along with the laughing parrots of Telegraph Hill and the chimes of SS Peter and Pauls Church. His mashup of those sounds can be heard at the entryway to the North Beach branch of the public library.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

That is Fontanas only permanent installation in San Francisco. Soundtracks is part of a major group show that features the work of 21 international audio artists on four floors, and runs until the end of the year.

When I started, nobody was doing it, says Fontana, who has another piece in the show, Sonic Shadows, which is also hard to find and hear. But if you stop mid-span on the fifth-floor footbridge and listen, you can hear a drip, drip drip that echoes the ding, ding, ding of the railroad crossing.

This is a real-time amplification of the machinery groaning in the SFMOMA boiler room. Fontana rigged up 12 sensors so you can hear the heating and plumbing broadcast through rotating speakers attached to the bridge.

I was interested in having a live sound element of the buildings internal organs, he says. I use everything I hear.

When you visit his darkened studio, in a reclaimed apartment on the first floor of his house, the hope is to find birds in cages, frogs and toads in terrariums, maybe a rattler coiled in a corner. But it is not that kind of studio. What he has are six computer screens to mix sound stored on 50 hard drives.

Close at hand is the sound of the clock ticking and Big Ben ringing in London. He also has the silence of a bell that is not ringing at a Buddhist temple in Japan. He has a sound recording of a total eclipse of the sun, made in an Australian rain forest in 1976. (SFMOMA owns this piece and will exhibit it at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21, in the Phyllis Wattis Theater, to honor that days eclipse.)

To get these, he flies with three high-quality digital recorders in a carry-on bag. This year has been his busiest travel year yet, to the point that he had to miss the opening of Soundtracks and the adulation of 20 young sound artists at SFMOMA.

Hes just back from Portugal and Iceland on separate commissions. One is an audiovisual portrait of the 25th of April Bridge in Lisbon. Called Shadow Soundings, it opens Oct. 3 at MAAT, a new contemporary museum.

The other project is for an international renewable-energy agency. Hes recorded the sound of wind turbines in the north of England, rushing river water in Austria, and the machinery of geothermal and hydroelectric power plants.

I feel like after 50 years of doing this, I understand the tools and how to do sound sculpture better than I ever have, he says.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art

To hear a sampling of Bill Fontanas favorite sounds: http://bit.ly/fontanasound

Soundtracks: Through Jan. 1. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St. Admission $25 for adults. (415) 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org
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Bay Area residents held vigils across the region Sunday to protest the weekends violent white-supremacy rallies in Virginia that led to the death of a social-justice activist and murder charges against the man who drove his car into her.

As evening fell, several hundred people gathered at Civic Center Plaza at San Francisco City Hall. They sang folk songs, lit candles and spoke despairingly of the violence in Charlottesville, Va.

It was very upsetting to see the violence, and the atmosphere in this country that the president has inspired, said Sarah Hodgdon, 45, of San Francisco.

At Latham Square in downtown Oakland, a similar number of people gathered peacefully and quietly  as organizers Our Family Coalition and Hip Hop Caucus had hoped. Their Facebook announcement invited people to a family-friendly vigil and asked them to bring poems on a theme of unity, peaceful transitions and overcoming white supremacy.

We need to send a louder message of love than the prevailing narrative of hate and discrimination, said Renata Moreira, 41, of Oakland, executive director of Our Family Coalition, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family group.

Now Playing: One day after a counterprotester was killed at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., anti-racist demonstrators march in San Francisco. Video: JW Player

Oakland police said they increased staffing for safety. Yet as speaker after speaker quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, sang a few songs in Hebrew or joked about Trump Traumatic Stress Disorder, the crowd of hundreds sat rapt and remained peaceful well into the night.

Among those who spoke was Cephus Uncle Bobby Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant, who was killed by BART police in 2009.

Its going to take a mass movement to effect systemic change ... and knock the head off and the brains out of white supremacy, Johnson said.

Numerous other antiracism gatherings were scheduled throughout the day in Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Point Reyes Station, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Mill Valley, Albany, El Cerrito, Castro Valley, Mountain View and La Honda, many of them organized by Indivisible, a progressive political group.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In San Francisco, the rally started with an organizer criticizing the American Civil Liberties Union because that group had called for the right of the white nationalists to have their say in Virginia.

But many participants yelled that they were not there to bash the ACLU, only to condemn racism and mourn the death of Heather Heyer, who was struck and killed in Charlottesville when a suspected neo-Nazi plowed his car into a group of counterprotesters. Nearly everyone in the San Francisco crowd then walked across the plaza and began their separate vigil for that purpose.

On Saturday night, a rally that drew some 450 protesters in downtown Oakland temporarily shut down a portion of Interstate 580, but police reported no arrests, vandalism or injuries.

Chronicle staff writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this report.

Carolyne Zinko and Nanette Asimov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: czinko@sfchronicle.com, nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CarolyneZinko, @NanetteAsimov
Now Playing: One day after a counterprotester was killed at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., anti-racist demonstrators march in San Francisco. Video: JW Player

In the wake of the death of a woman at a white supremacy rally in Virginia over the weekend, more than a half-dozen vigils were being organized across the Bay Area in solidarity against race-related violence.

On Saturday, a rally that drew some 450 protesters in downtown Oakland temporarily shut down a portion of Interstate 580, but police reported no arrests, vandalism or injuries.
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Once Jaz Cameron gets his hands on it, a dirty old cardboard box isnt a dirty old cardboard box anymore. Its potential.

Cameron snatches up any old cast-off box he can find, carefully takes it apart, lays it flat and begins painting on it. The other day he found a box outside a body shop that once held a car bumper and a smaller box outside an adult novelty shop that once held, well, adult novelties.

Cameron did what he does with most scrap cardboard he comes across. He began painting large, sweeping pastel designs on it. Its not only art, he said, its therapy.

Cameron is a 41-year-old part-time bootblack who was one of three people flung into the street and injured last year when a taxi slammed into a Market Street shoeshine stand. Painting on scrap cardboard helps him feel better, he said, even if sidewalk art pays even less than sidewalk shoeshining.

In recent days, the street artist has been working on the sidewalk next to the Old Mint at Fifth and Mission streets.

Its outdoor work, he said. I like working outdoors.

He taped the flattened cardboard onto the wrought iron fence beside the 143-year-old granite building and began to cover it with brown stars and blue and yellow squiggles. He acknowledged that its meaning is hard to figure out.

Two blocks east, Cameron said, a lot of art that is also hard to figure out hangs on the walls of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His cardboard panels, Cameron acknowledged, will probably always be found outside of museums instead of inside.

You cant get in that building without a masters degree, which I dont have, Cameron said. Anyway, its just a bunch of rich guys deciding whats art and whats not art. Who needs that? I like what Im doing.

Cameron said the painting on the car bumper box hed be willing to part with for $60, and the painting on the adult novelty box probably less. The bumper box painting measures 15 feet by 5 feet. So that comes to less than a buck per square foot of art. He acknowledged that he has painted a lot more cardboard than he has sold.

The market value of art is no harder to fathom than the odd piece of fate that got him his latest apartment in a nearby South of Market building.

Last year, Cameron  whose given first name is Cornelius  was shining shoes at Market and Sansome streets when a taxi jumped the curb and slammed into his stand. Cameron spent many days at San Francisco General Hospital being treated for head injuries. Surgeons cut out a piece of his skull to relieve pressure.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

When the word got out that Cameron was homeless, he said, he suddenly got an offer from the city to move into the subsidized housing unit, which means that his bad luck was also his good luck. Being inside is better than being out.

When he isnt painting, Cameron plays jazz clarinet tunes on street corners and writes 30-page entries in his journal that he hopes to turn into a book about life on the streets, with a special focus on what can happen to a man while shining shoes at the wrong place and time.

Cameron grew up in Los Angeles and studied art at the University of Nevada, Reno, until he could no longer afford the tuition. He worked odd jobs up and down the West Coast, and occasionally decorated buildings and walls with cans of spray paint, if he thought they would benefit from it and if there were no cops to express their reservations.

Graffiti costs a lot of money to remove but it also costs a lot of money to install in the first place  Cameron says he has spent a small fortune on paint. He buys only high-quality paints, because he wants his stuff to last.

Its definitely art, its possibly vandalism (especially works from his pre-cardboard period) but what it is, mostly, is therapy, Cameron said.

It makes me feel better, he said. Its an outlet. It reworks the muscles in my brain.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
UC Berkeley has just hired a $92,000-a-year social worker  not to help students, but to deal with the intractable homeless problem at Peoples Park.

The block-long park just off Telegraph Avenue was born out of the radical politics of the late 1960s antiwar movement. The university acquired it by eminent domain and cleared it for future development, but after the upheavals of those times, it became untouchable ground.

These days, however, the 2.8-acre plot of land is better known for its vagrants and violence than its politics, and locals avoid it. Now, newly promoted Chancellor Carol Christ, under pressure to deal with a campus housing shortage, has embraced a task force recommendation to explore building on several university-owned sites that include Peoples Park.

Shes running into resistance from activists who promise a fight to preserve the parks counterculture legacy. So Christs vision for the park includes not only student dorms, but also supportive housing for the homeless  plus open space and some sort of memorial honoring the parks historical past.

But first things first, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. He said Christ has made it clear that the universitys first obligation is to work with the city to address ... safety and the homeless situation in the park.

And that starts with the social worker, who quietly began his two-year assignment July 17. According to Mogulof, hes in the process of assessing the needs of the parks homeless population in hopes of connecting them to social and health services.

Behind the plan is architecture Professor Emeritus Sam Davis, the chancellors newly appointed adviser on homeless issues.

Its the mission of a public university to help deal with social problems, and chronic homelessness is an issue not just afflicting our community, but the nation as a whole, Davis said.

It was Davis who proposed hiring the social worker. He also makes no secret of his goal to eventually turn a portion of the park into supportive housing for homeless people  the kind of housing he designed during his long career as an architect.

I always think Berkeley should be way in front of everyone else, he said.

Whether the effort does anything to curb the crime that is afflicting the area remains an open question.

According to UC police, at least nine violent crimes were reported at the park in the past year. The most recent was on Aug. 6, when a young man was confronted by a man who punched him several times, then dragged him out of the park and stole his cell phone, a police bulletin says.

Earlier in the month, an assailant clubbed a man in the park with a piece of wood, then stole his backpack. A man in a nearby car who saw what was happening tried to help the victim, only to be clubbed in the head himself. Both were treated at hospitals.

In June, a 23-year-old student at UC Berkeley watching as several people fought in the park was hit in the head, apparently by someone wielding a crowbar. The same month, a woman was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide  a charge later changed to felony child abuse  after she allegedly force-fed methamphetamine to a 2-year-old who was at the parks play structure with his nanny. The child was treated at a hospital, and the woman was taken to a psychiatric facility, where she allegedly assaulted and injured a deputy.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

University officials say its not necessarily the homeless people in the park who are committing the crimes. The major challenge in that regard appears to be people who transit through the park, not those who sleep there, Mogulof said.

But UC Berkeley police Lt. Marc DeCoulode said the number of park incidents speak for themselves, which is more than we would like to see.

Regardless of whos responsible for such mayhem, those are hardly the kind of headlines the university likes to see  especially as thousands of freshmen and transfer students move into their dorms this week.

Chrissy Roth-Francis, director of new student services, told us her people talk to the new arrivals about safety throughout the orientation ... but no specific place, on or off campus, is highlighted.

If the chancellors new vision for the park is the start of a turnaround for the neighborhood, shes already received a key endorsement from Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who praised the idea of using it both for student and homeless housing.

Many students feel unsafe walking in and around the park, Arreguin said. We need to re-envison the space  make it both open and functional.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross
In the midst of this crisis, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday conducted aerial survey of the flood affected Seemanchal regions where four districts Araraia, Purnea, Katihar and Kishanganj have been reeling under flood.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: At least 16 people have died in Bettiah and Motihari districts after floods continued to wreak havoc in 12 districts of Bihar. Bettiah was one of the worst affected districts with 12 deaths as flood water entered several villages after 6 lakh cusec water was discharged from the Valmikinagar barrage on Monday afternoon. The situation is likely to deteriorate as the discharged water will further swell the Gandak river leading to water making way into new areas affecting thousands of people.

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Neighbouring Motihari too witnessed similar situation as the district administration continued to reach out to flood victims to evacuate them to safer places. Speaking to India Today, Sunil Kumar Yadav, Deputy Development Commissioner of Motihari said that almost 30 per cent of the population (15 lakh) in the district was badly affected by the floods. Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force were deployed in the area to carry out rescue and relief work.

"We have also sought the help of the Army to deal with the crisis. We are expecting the Army to reach Motihari by tomorrow morning to assist us," said Sunil Kumar Yadav.

In the midst of this crisis, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday conducted aerial survey of the flood affected Seemanchal regions where four districts Araraia, Purnea, Katihar and Kishanganj have been reeling under flood.

"We are carrying out relief and rescue work in the flood affected areas. I thank the Centre for the timely assistance provided to the state to deal with the crisis," said Nitish Kumar.

Also Read:

Floods ravage east, northeast states, snap rail link; 41 die in Bihar

Watch Video: Bihar: Flood situation worsens, CM Nitish Kumar conducts aerial survey

--- ENDS ---
The envelope that snail-mail-using reader Bill Quist sent was emblazoned with a big fake Trump stamp (created by Don Sachs and picturing the president wearing a witchs hat, the words witch hunt and Forever USA). Next to that was a real stamp, one of a new USPS set focused on Disney villains.

It was that series that was the focus of Quists note: Why, in a series of 10, are six of the villains women? (Two are animals, two are men. The others: The Queen from Snow White, Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians, Ursula from The Little Mermaid.) The gender issue continues, writes Quist.

When Danny Nicoletta was curating works for his new book, LGBT San Francisco: The Daniel Nicoletta Photographs, were there ones  among more than 300 images made over the past 40 years  that he hadnt remembered?

There were not only the sleepers that I thought might be good, he said, by phone from Grants Pass, Ore., where he lives nowadays, but lots of surprises along the way, of finding things that ended up speaking to todays issues. ... I was definitely newly touched by a lot of material, but its always subjective because I think I lived my life fully as a vessel for the ghosts.

As a young man, I was naturally drawn to androgyny, and thats on everybodys lips now with transgender rights. ... I think that having been a gender-fluid kid and being drawn to that tribe really kind of paid off. Forty years later, were having very serious conversations about it.

Nicoletta describes a shot with a kid with a tattoo that says David on his arm, wearing a long skirt. ... It was an idea whose time has come. When I took it, maybe I just thought it was a cute person. ... It wasnt a big talking point at the time.

Nowadays, Nicoletta, whose involvement in San Francisco gay history began when he worked in Harvey Milks camera shop, is silver-haired, part of the gay establishment. When we talked, he was just back from World Pride Madrid, the mother ship of Pride celebrations, he said. I am so proud of my movement. Its been such a successful movement on so many levels. To pay tribute to it just leaves me with joy and pride. It doesnt mean that the struggle is over, it just means were right-minded about it, making great strides. And we will transform the world.

Nicoletta will talk at the San Francisco Library Main Branch on Aug. 24 at 5:30 p.m., and afterward Juanita More is hosting a party at the Veterans Building Green Room.

Former Chronicle colleague/outdoor writer/novelist Paul McHughs new book is The Blind Pool, a thriller about a Russian crime ring that makes its way into the United States and conducts business out of a Texas prison. (This is not an acccount of Vladimir Putins vacation.)

Dan Rather calls it a tight, taut thriller by a terrific storyteller. The political headlines of today make it timely as hell. A blurb from anyone as well-known as Dan Rather is sought-after, to say the least. So I asked McHugh how he got it.

When McHugh published a journalism murder mystery, Deadlines, in 2010, he asked a friend on Rathers staff if she could show it to him. He was just heading to Africa for a story and needed something to read on the plane. Which led to a very positive blurb that began with, Every reporter worth his or her notepad is a sleuth at heart.

A few months later, McHugh learned that Rather was appearing in South San Francisco, he bought tickets and a box of Sees dark chocolate marzipan to give to Rather as a thank-you. The gift begat a sporadic correspondence. But as Dorothy Parker once said, candy is dandy, the climax of the book happens to be set in rural West Texas, Rather country.

The author will read at Books Inc. in Palo Alto on Sept. 8 at 7 p.m.

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

Enjoy it now because there are none of these in Berkeley.

Grandmother to granddaughter carrying an oversized whipped cream confection from Starbucks, overheard at LAX by Ann Barry
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump moved Monday to quell growing public outrage over his tepid response to the weekend violence in Charlottesville, condemning the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis by name and declaring racist hate groups "repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

In a hastily arranged appearance at the White House, Trump vowed that his administration would hold the perpetrators of violence at a white supremacist rally fully accountable and said that such displays of hatred and bigotry have "no place in America."

"Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups," Trump said in brief remarks in the Diplomatic Reception Room.

Trump's statement came two days after he did not specifically condemn the "Unite the Right" rally Saturday, when a driver who had espoused racist and pro-Nazi sentiments killed a woman and injured 19 others by slamming his car into a crowd. Trump's apparent reluctance to single out white nationalists in Charlottesville contrasted sharply with his frequent eagerness to highlight violence in cases involving minorities, including Islamist terrorists and illegal immigrants.

In his initial public comments Saturday, Trump characterized the objectionable behavior in Charlottesville as coming from "many sides" - prompting fierce blowback from Democrats, civil rights groups and some Republicans, who said his failure to single out white supremacist organizations was tantamount to a presidential endorsement of their intolerance.

Senior aides said Trump has long chafed at expectations to bow to political correctness, but they acknowledged that he was frustrated by how he was being characterized by the media. Trump's reluctance to admit he had erred - and his grudging discomfort at having to clarify his position - were clear from the tenor and optics of his remarks.

Entering the Diplomatic Room, the president opened by touting the health of the economy, noting that stock markets are near record highs and the unemployment rate is hovering at a 16-year low. And though Trump has regularly employed the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism" to describe other attacks in the United States and the Middle East, he chose not to echo Attorney General Jeff Sessions's conclusion that the violence in Charlottesville met the Justice Department's definition of "domestic terrorism."

"As I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God," Trump said. "We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence."

Trump's political rivals said the president had undercut the effectiveness of his public message by waiting so long to deliver it. And they continued to press him to take stronger actions to distance his administration from the alt-right, a loose coalition of conservatives and fringe groups that promote a nationalist agenda that critics have said operates in service of a racist and xenophobic ideology.

As Trump's approval ratings have fallen over his first seven months to well under 40 percent, the president has sought to consolidate support among his base.

"From the beginning, President Trump has sheltered and encouraged the forces of bigotry and discrimination," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement calling on Trump to fire senior adviser Stephen Bannon, a self-proclaimed alt-right leader.

Pelosi said that Trump's "failure to immediately denounce white supremacy is well in line with the unmistakable conduct of his administration toward immigrants, Muslims, and communities of color."

Inside the West Wing, a battle for influence over Trump has been waged since the beginning of his presidency, between alt-right forces and more moderate ones. National security adviser H.R. McMaster has been a recent target of character attacks from Bannon's allies outside the White House.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., issued a statement Monday citing the "disgraceful" attacks on McMaster from the alt-right and linking the movement to "the same purveyors of hatred and ignorance who precipitated the recent violence in Charlottesville."

White House aides had defended Trump's handling of the Charlottesville violence as a good-faith effort to tamp down anger on all sides and rejected accusations that he has sought to mollify white supremacist groups.

But pressure mounted even among Trump's allies. On Monday morning, Merck chief executive Kenneth C. Frazier, who is black, announced his resignation from Trump's American Manufacturing Council, saying it was a "matter of personal conscience" and calling on the nation's leaders to "honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred."

Trump - who returned to Washington on Monday after a week of vacation at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., to sign an executive action on trade - lashed out at Frazier on Twitter, calling on his company to lower drug prices. The president then met privately with Sessions and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to discuss details of the federal investigation into Charlottesville.

The Justice Department has launched a civil rights probe into the death of Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed when a car allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio slammed into a group of counterprotesters. White supremacist groups - carrying Nazi and Confederate flags and, in some cases, armed with shields, batons and firearms permitted under Virginia's open-carry laws - clashed with counterprotesters, some of whom fought back with pepper spray.

"There's no bigger case right now that we're working on," Sessions said on "CBS This Morning." "Every resource that's needed will be dedicated to it."

The civil rights investigation could take months, according to Justice officials. One department official said the probe will not be limited to the driver of the car and will examine whether others were involved in planning the attack.

Federal agents and prosecutors will have to find "proof of motive" to bring a federal hate crime charge, and they will interview friends and relatives of the suspects and examine any associations they might have with extremist organizations.

"We need to watch closely to see whether Sessions follows through," said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Other Trump critics worried that significant damage has already been done.

"While today's delayed words are welcome, they should have been spoken on Saturday," Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in reaction to Trump's remarks. "This unconscionable delay has undermined his moral credibility as our nation's leader."

Trump called Heyer's death tragic and said that it "fills us with grief, and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers and our love."

He also praised the service of two Virginia state troopers, H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates, who died Saturday in a helicopter crash while on duty monitoring the march.

"These three fallen Americans embody the goodness and decency of our nation," Trump said. "In times such as these, America has always shown its true character, responding to hate with love, division with unity and violence with an unwavering resolve for justice."

But during another photo-op in the afternoon, Trump bristled when a CNN correspondent asked why he had waited so long to condemn the white supremacist groups and had refused to answer questions from reporters.

"I like real news, not fake news," the president said. "You are fake news."

And in a tweet several hours later, Trump complained: "Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied . . . truly bad people!"

- - -

The Washington Post's Ashley Parker contributed to this report.
Bombay High Court on Monday put up the beleaguered Sahara Groups prestigious 'Aamby Valley city in Lonavala for a public auction

By Indo-Asian News Service, Press Trust of India: Three days after a Supreme Court directive, the Bombay High Court on Monday put up the beleaguered Sahara Groups prestigious 'Aamby Valley city in Lonavala for a public auction.

The Official Liquidator for the Aamby Valley city -- considered the jewel in the crown of the Sahara Group -- has put up a reserve price of Rs 37,392 crore. The Sahara group pegs the market valuation of this project at over Rs 1 lakh crore.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday had rejected the Sahara Group's proposal to repay the investors till July 2019 terming the proposed plan of payment too long.

WHAT DID SUPREME COURT SAY

The apex court told Roy that his proposal of paying Rs 1,500 crore, if the auction process was halted or postponed, was unbelievable.

"Your proposal is making us to make a statement that it is willing suspension of belief," a bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, said.

It said the auction process will go on according to the schedule and if Rs 1,500 crore is paid by the contemnor (Roy) into the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-Sahara refund account by September 7, then it may pass an appropriate order.

"We are not inclined to entertain the prayer of the contemnor. The prayer is hereby rejected. If any agreement is reached by the group to raise money, then appropriate orders will be passed," a bench also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri said.

SIBAL'S DEMAND

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that the auction process of Aamby Valley which would start with the publication of a notice on August 14, should be postponed at least till September 16 to enable Roy arrange the money.

He said that hotels in New York have been sold and soon money would be coming into the Sahara account after which Rs 1,500 crore would be deposited into the SEBI-SAHARA refund account by September 7, as had been directed by the court.

"Our request is that the auction process for Aamby Valley, which will be initiated by way of publication of a notice should be postponed till September 16, as the value of property will fall drastically once it is put on sale in public domain," Sibal said.

He said that Sahara has been on verge of entering an agreement with a Mauritius-based company to raise money, but for that purpose, the auction process has to be postponed for the time being.

"We are negotiating a deal of subscription agreement whereby an investor will invest 1.67 billion dollars in Aamby Valley out of which around Rs 5000 crore will given to the SEBI-Sahara refund account," he said.

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Senior advocate Arvind Datar, representing the SEBI, opposed the proposal of the Sahara chief saying that every time a process starts, the group came up with some objection in order to delay the process.

He said that it was a global auction and interested parties from across the world would participate and Rs 4.4 crore hasd already been spent in initiating the process.

"It will not be appropriate, if the auction process is stalled," he said and added that according to SEBI's research, the said Mauritius-based company, named by Sahara, did not exist.

Also Read

Sahara's Subrata Roy warned by Supreme Court: Pay Rs 2050 crore by June 19 or go to jail

Supreme Court orders auction of Sahara's Aamby Valley after Subrata Roy fails to pay refund money

--- ENDS ---
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WASHINGTON  The images and sounds were sickeningly derivative of times when racism reigned unchecked and unapologetic. The torches, the chants, the Confederate flags, the raw violence, the unalloyed hate on the faces of white supremacists.

I turned off the television, where reports from Charlottesville, Va., dominated cable news, and headed to the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the foot of the Washington Monument.

It was not a spontaneous visit. The Smithsonian Institutions 19th museum is one of the hottest tickets in town. Reservations are required months in advance.

Before I reached the entrance, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville. There was no escaping the context of this Saturday excursion into American history.

President Trump had toured the museum in February.

Honestly, its fantastic, he exclaimed.

He obviously missed one of the recurring themes of how a nation founded on such lofty principles could have allowed human slavery at its inception, countenanced segregation for nearly a century after the Civil War, and rationalized inequities to this day in voting rights and the justice system:

He failed to grasp the shame and the cost of equivocation.

As I was overhearing African American parents patiently explaining exhibits on the Ku Klux Klan or the 1957 showdown at Little Rocks Central High to their curious children, the current president of the United States was unwilling or unable to call out the latent evil that brought us this past.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, Trump said in a four-minute statement. In words that would bring comfort to the forces of hate, he added for emphasis, On many sides.

Even after an act of terror left dead a woman protesting for American values, the president who so readily and routinely slanders a religion of nearly 2 billion people for the acts of a few who torture its teachings could not bring himself to condemn the white supremacists who were rallying to take America back.

He passed on the opportunity to dissociate himself  in the strongest possible terms  from rally-goers who wore his trademark Make America Great Again cap or claimed his victory as their own.

It was the most disgraceful moment yet in Trumps toxic presidency.

Meanwhile, in the museum, visitors paused at the reminders of other times when American leaders decided that many sides must be accommodated when reaching a crossroads of right and wrong. There was the deal of 1787 that counted a slave as three-fifths of a person for calculating presidential electors, congressional representation and taxes. There was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that drew a line between free and slave states. There was the landmark 1896 Supreme Court case that legitimized segregation into the next century on the inherently flawed principle that separate but equal can ever be equal.

President Trump needs to go back to this exhibit, but not on a private tour. He needs to see the pride and the pain of families absorbing the details, the triumphs and the tragedies, that too often get short shrift in American history books. He needs to walk among the visitors and note how many came here with multiple generations to share the experience. He needs to realize how important, how personal  and how unfinished  this history is to the nation he was elected to lead.

He needs to think about whether that Saturday in August 2017 will merit mention in the evolution of this American narrative on display.

President Trump needs to know:

Many sides is the wrong side of history.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. E-mail: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron
Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks worried in the Washington Post last week that the battles over provocative speech that defined the end of his tumultuous tenure were part of a broader assault on the idea of the university itself. He argued that this especially threatens public universities such as Berkeley that already grapple with precipitous declines in state funding and contributes to a loss of faith ... in values and institutions.

Speaking of precarious faith in and financing of public universities, it also emerged last week that Dirks will receive the bulk of his half-a-million-dollar administrative salary during a year off before resuming his work as a history and anthropology professor.
According to Union ministry data, more than half of those who found placements under the Udaan skill development scheme are from Kashmir.

By Maneesh Pandey: Contrary to the images of stone-pelting mobs creating "perennial unrest" in Kashmir, here is a nugget of hope. In the last two years, over 13,000 youth from the Valley have enrolled in a Central skill development initiative, Udaan, and more than 8,000 found placements after training in sectors ranging from tourism and hospitality to information technology, aviation, logistics and apparel.

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According to official figures (up to March 2017) with the Union ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, of the 22,237 youth from Jammu and Kashmir who received training under Udaan, 13,203 have been from the Valley. And of the 14,694 who were recruited by various PSUs, multinationals and corporate groups countrywide, 8,248 are from Kashmir.

"The number of placements could have been higher, even 100 per cent, but political instability in the Valley is not allowing industries to come up locally," Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy told Mail Today. "Girls do not prefer to go out of the Valley for work; hence their employment options are limited. But we are trying to help the maximum find suitable placement as this is Prime Minister Modi's special thrust programme to bring Valley's youth into the mainstream."

Rudy said the ministry's initiative listed nearly 84 corporate groups, PSUs and MNCs as recruiters while "another 48 potential entities have showed interest in the next phase of Udaan". There are 32 streams of the training programme, ranging from six-month terms to one year.

The training is held in 26 cities across the country and the placement can secure a recruit monthly income from Rs 15,000 to Rs 70,000.

"A rare case among those who found employment is Aamer Shah, who was trained as an ethical hacker and is now employed with a Sweden-based software firm, earning Rs 13 lakh per annum," a senior official from the ministry said. "Other cases in point are Srinagar-based Adnan A Bhat, who was trained by Bajaj Allianz in marketing, and is earning a monthly salary of Rs 70,000; and Md Iqbal, who was trained by Rooman Technologies and is placed in Microsoft, where he earns over Rs 65,000 a month."

The official said students often disclosed that they used to earn Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 a month in seasonal stone-pelting but the payments were dodgy and irregular. "In contrast, the skills and training given by Udaan are fetching them respectable income and social status," the official said, adding that many of the trainees came from terror-hit districts of Shopian, Baramullah, Kupwara and Pulwama.

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"Although the initiative was launched in 2011 under the UPA rule, it got real impetus after the NDA came to power. While barely 2,000 had enrolled and trained up to 2014, in the first 30 months of the Modi government, the enrollments swelled to 23,000," pointed out the official. The cost to train and eventually find placement for one person has come to about Rs 1.84 lakh. "But the cost must be seen not in economic terms but its social and political background," the official said.

Manish Kumar, MD and CEO of National Skills Development Corporation, said, "We are targeting school students from classes 9 to 12 and have tied up with nearly 350 schools to put their talent to constructive use... We have allocated Rs 73 crore to train 45,000 Kashmiri youth by 2020 under the Prime Minister Kaushal Vikas Yojna."

ALSO READ | Decrease in number of stone pelting incidents in Kashmir: MHA

ALSO WATCH | Operation Stone Pelters: Kashmir's scariest admissions caught on camera

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Bay Area residents held vigils across the region Sunday to protest the weekends violent white-supremacy rallies in Virginia that led to the death of a social-justice activist and murder charges against the man who drove his car into her.

As evening fell, several hundred people gathered at Civic Center Plaza at San Francisco City Hall. They sang folk songs, lit candles and spoke despairingly of the violence in Charlottesville, Va.

It was very upsetting to see the violence, and the atmosphere in this country that the president has inspired, said Sarah Hodgdon, 45, of San Francisco.

Now Playing: One day after a counterprotester was killed at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., anti-racist demonstrators march in San Francisco. Video: JW Player

At Latham Square in downtown Oakland, a similar number of people gathered peacefully and quietly  as organizers Our Family Coalition and Hip Hop Caucus had hoped. Their Facebook announcement invited people to a family-friendly vigil and asked them to bring poems on a theme of unity, peaceful transitions and overcoming white supremacy.

We need to send a louder message of love than the prevailing narrative of hate and discrimination, said Renata Moreira, 41, of Oakland, executive director of Our Family Coalition, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family group.

Oakland police said they increased staffing for safety. Yet as speaker after speaker quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, sang a few songs in Hebrew or joked about Trump Traumatic Stress Disorder, the crowd of hundreds sat rapt and remained peaceful well into the night.

Among those who spoke was Cephus Uncle Bobby Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant, who was killed by BART police in 2009.

Its going to take a mass movement to effect systemic change ... and knock the head off and the brains out of white supremacy, Johnson said.

Numerous other antiracism gatherings were scheduled throughout the day in Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Point Reyes Station, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Mill Valley, Albany, El Cerrito, Castro Valley, Mountain View and La Honda, many of them organized by Indivisible, a progressive political group.

In San Francisco, the rally started with an organizer criticizing the American Civil Liberties Union because that group had called for the right of the white nationalists to have their say in Virginia.

But many participants yelled that they were not there to bash the ACLU, only to condemn racism and mourn the death of Heather Heyer, who was struck and killed in Charlottesville when a suspected neo-Nazi plowed his car into a group of counterprotesters. Nearly everyone in the San Francisco crowd then walked across the plaza and began their separate vigil for that purpose.

On Saturday night, a rally that drew some 450 protesters in downtown Oakland temporarily shut down a portion of Interstate 580, but police reported no arrests, vandalism or injuries.

Chronicle staff writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this report.

Carolyne Zinko and Nanette Asimov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: czinko@sfchronicle.com, nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CarolyneZinko, @NanetteAsimov
A wildfire burning Sunday at the southern end of Yosemite National Park prompted the closure of a popular trail and put residents of the small Mariposa County community of Wawona on guard.

Firefighters attacked the blaze, which had scorched 400 acres by nightfall, by air and foot with the hope of containing it to the wilderness west of Wawona, according to fire officials.
Posting an article that mocked Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed in Charlottesville, Va., wasnt exactly a smart business strategy for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacy website. Web hosting company GoDaddy gave the site 24 hours to find another domain provider. After it shifted to Google Domains, the Daily Stormer was booted out again. Ben Butler, director of GoDaddys digital crimes unit, said in a statement that his company has supported a free and open Internet, but Dailystormer.com crossed the line and encouraged and promoted violence.

Number of the day

$4,000

Thats the milestone that bitcoin passed, at least temporarily going over $4,300 on Monday, on growing optimism that faster transaction times will hasten the spread of the cryptocurrency. The price has gone up more than 300 percent this year.

Netflix, welcome

to Shondaland

In a blow to ABC and Disney, prolific television hitmaker Shonda Rhimes has signed an exclusive overall deal with Netflix, the Los Gatos streaming company said Monday. Rhimes, the creator of such hits as Greys Anatomy and Scandal for ABC, will bring Shondaland to Netflix in a multiyear deal. Rhimes has been with ABC for more than a decade and has long been one of the biggest names at the network.

Compiled from staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle
Social Finance, a startup that specializes in refinancing student loans, is being sued by an employee who claims that he was fired for reporting sexual harassment and fraudulent actions by managers.

Brandon Charles, a senior operations manager at the San Francisco company known as SoFi, said in a lawsuit that he witnessed his female colleagues being harassed by managers. He also said he saw SoFi managers canceling loans to cover up mistakes and therefore keep their bonuses high.

Mr. Charles took a stand against inequity and misogyny; he was fired for it, the lawsuit said. No woman should be forced to endure sexual harassment from a male superior because he holds her job and financial security in his hands.

A SoFi spokesman, Jim Prosser, said that the company is familiar with Charles allegations, and that they were investigated in depth by the company and found to have no merit. We will vigorously defend ourselves against any claims otherwise.

Charles said he saw a male manager subjecting female employees to unwanted, overtly sexual conduct that included the interjection of explicit sexual innuendo and statements into normal workplace communications. The lawsuit says that Charles emailed several people in human resources about the harassment. He was told that the complaints were devoid of merit, and that such complaints were outside his appropriate duties to report to management, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit also alleges managers were mishandling loan applications to enhance their quarterly bonuses, which could be as much as $15,000 a quarter. The managers were canceling applications that had internal errors, rather than reporting those issues, which would have decreased performance metrics and quarterly bonus awards, the suit says.

SoFi started in 2011 by refinancing loans taken out by high-earning graduates from top universities. It has since pursued a much more ambitious vision, expanding into products from personal loans, mortgages and wealth-management to life insurance. It was valued at $4.3 billion in its last fundraising round in February.
Ubers board has voted to move forward on proposals by two investment groups to buy shares in the San Francisco ride-hailing service and is considering a third offer, with any decision set to affect who gains the upper hand at the company.

Over the past week, the privately held companys board voted to take the next step on investment interest from SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate. It is still considering an offer from a consortium led by Shervin Pishevar, an early investor in the company, to buy Uber shares from an existing investor. The board also earlier voted to go forward with a proposal from a coalition led by the Dragoneer Investment Group to buy stock from Ubers existing shareholders.

The three proposals were described by four people close to the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The offers  which are mostly focused on buying Uber stock from current shareholders, rather than issuing new shares  are preliminary. At this stage, the investment groups will begin a due diligence process that could eventually lead to formal investment terms.

The offers have emerged at a delicate time for Uber, which currently has no CEO and is dealing with board and investor infighting. Travis Kalanick, Ubers co-founder and CEO, stepped down in June under pressure from investors. Since then, various factions of investors, board members and Kalanick have all battled to advance their own interests.

For some of Ubers existing shareholders, selling stock now could help lock in a hefty profit at a time when the companys future is unclear. One of the proposals could also lead to the ouster of one investor whose firm  Benchmark  has an Uber board seat and who some other board members believe is deliberately damaging the company.

One concern has been whether a share sale could end up negatively affecting Ubers valuation, which stands at $68.5 billion and has made the company the most highly valued private startup in the world.

Two of the three proposals include buying shares at a discount to Ubers valuation, but also provide a face-saving way for the company to maintain its $68.5 billion value. Dragoneers investment coalition wants to buy out shareholders at a discount to Ubers current valuation, and SoftBank is offering to buy shares at a lower valuation as well. But both groups would also purchase a small amount of new shares at Ubers current valuation to keep the companys value propped up on paper.

The group led by Pishevar said it would purchase the shares at the current valuation. Whichever deal ultimately gets approved, this would be the first time that Uber has sold a large chunk of shares at a price that was the same on paper as a previous round of financing.

A spokesman for Uber and a spokeswoman for Ubers board declined to comment, as did SoftBank, and a spokeswoman for Pishevar. Dragoneer did not respond to a request for comment.

Ubers board has been wary of the SoftBank proposal because of investments by its founder and CEO Masayoshi Son in Ubers rivals in Asia. But Son and SoftBank could offer Uber strategic help in Southeast Asia, where the service has been spending heavily. The two sides have quietly worked for weeks to test whether there is enough interest from sellers to make a deal work.

An investor coalition led by Dragoneer, which includes private equity firm General Atlantic, would make the bulk of the investment through buying out existing shareholders at a discount via a Dutch auction  an auction that begins with a high price that declines until a buyer says yes.

Ubers board voted a little more than a week ago for the Dragoneer deal to move forward.

The deal was complicated by the emergence last week of another investor consortium led by Pishevar. The group made a straightforward offer to buy Uber shares from an existing investor at the companys $68.5 billion valuation.

But as a condition of the sale, Pishevar wants to buy out 75 percent of the shares held by Benchmark, one of Ubers earliest and largest investors. That would cause Benchmark to step down from its seat on Ubers board.

Benchmarks relationship with Uber has deteriorated in recent months after the San Francisco venture capital firm became one of the key players to push for Kalanicks resignation as CEO. Last week, Benchmark sued Kalanick to force him off Ubers board.

In an open letter to Uber employees that was publicly shared Monday on Twitter, Benchmark alleged that Kalanick had forced Benchmarks hand by undermining the search for a CEO.

Citing Kalanicks day-to-day involvement with the company (despite his resignation) and what the firm called his failure to make good on a promise to modify Ubers voting agreement to ensure that independent, diverse and well-qualified directors could be appointed, Benchmark said Kalanick had created uncertainty for everyone.

It has appeared at times as if the search (for a CEO) was being manipulated to deter candidates and create a power vacuum in which Travis could return, the letter said.

Benchmark said the lawsuit also was intended to hasten the search for a chief financial officer and to bring about cultural change at the company.

On Friday, Pishevar issued a letter to Benchmark demanding that the firm surrender its seat on the Uber board and sell its shares to outside investors. His investment proposal would reduce Benchmarks stake in the company to the point that it would remove itself from Ubers board.

In a statement to the Axios news site Monday, Kalanick said he was disappointed and baffled by Benchmarks hostile actions, which clearly are not in the best interests of Uber and its employees on whose behalf they claim to be acting and that he would work tirelessly with the board to find a new CEO.

On Twitter last week, Benchmark said that it was incredibly optimistic about Ubers future, and that it believed the company could someday be worth $100 billion. Benchmark also said that Uber would have to have the correct chief executive and be accountable to its riders, drivers and employees before it could be one of the defining companies of our time.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

Mike Isaac and Katie Benner are New York Times writers.
WASHINGTON  Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday that the evil attack in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend meets the legal definition of an act of domestic terrorism, an early declaration in an investigation after a car plowed into a crowd of protesters.

It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute, Sessions said on ABCs Good Morning America, referring to a fatal attack on Saturday when a vehicle drove into a crowd protesting white nationalists, killing one woman and injuring others. A 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged by Virginia authorities with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  The man suspected of ramming his car into a crowd here, an attack that authorities said left one person dead and 19 more injured, was denied bail during his first court appearance in a downtown courtroom on Monday.

You are charged with a number of felonies, including murder and malicious wounding, Judge Robert Downer told the man, James Alex Fields Jr., who was not in the courtroom but was seen on a small video screen sitting with his shoulders slumped in front of a dark cinder block wall and a filing cabinet.

A statement by city officials said Fields, 20, was the driver of the Dodge Challenger that drove into a group of counterprotesters Saturday, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, after a rally of white nationalists in a city park spun out of control, resulting in melees in the streets.

Downer said he would not grant bond to Fields, at least until he met with a court-appointed lawyer, Charles Weber. Fields answered Downers questions simply, saying, Yes, sir and No, sir. Fields told the judge he worked at Securitas, a national firm that employs more than 88,000 security officers.

Fields, who officials said was from Ohio, has expressed radical views in the past, according to acquaintances who recalled him yelling about Hitler or racial slurs.

In other developments:

 Fields was previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife, according to police records released Monday. The records from the Florence Police Department in Kentucky show that his mother had called police in 2011. Fields mother, Samantha Bloom, told police he stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife. Bloom is disabled and uses a wheelchair.

 Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, whose department has come under criticism for its response to the violence, said alt-right rally attendees had failed to follow an agreed-upon plan on entering Emancipation Park. The attendees were gathering to protest plans to remove a Confederate statue.

 A spokeswoman for a hospital in Virginia says 10 patients treated there after a car ran into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally have been released. Nine others are in good condition.

 A message posted Saturday night on a leading neo-Nazi website called the Daily Stormer promised future events that would be bigger than Charlottesville.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jess Bidgood is a New York Times writer.
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Aug 14 (PTI) The violence in Charlottesville in which a suspected white supremacist rammed a car on a crowd of protesters fits the definition of "domestic terrorism", US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said today.

The Trump administration has been on defensive after the weekend violence by hundreds of supporters and members of the various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who converged in Charlottesville to protest against the removal of statue of Robert Lee, an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

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Sessions was referring to the incident of a white supremacist allegedly driving his car into a crowd of counter protestors that resulted in the death of a woman and injuries to 19 others.

"It (violence) does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute. We are pursuing it with the Department of Justice in every way we can make it a case," Sessions told ABCs Good Morning America.

"You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America, so absolutely that is a factor that we will be looking at," he said.

Sessions said by such acts, neo-Nazi groups were trying to legitimise themselves.

"They are simply attempting to legitimate themselves in any way possible. They are going to find out we are going to come after them for any violations of the law," he said.

Various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have been praising President Donald Trump, saying that they voted for him. This has come as a major embarrassment for Trump who returned for a day to the White House from his more than a fortnight-long working summer vacation at his gold course resort in New Jersey. The White House has defended Trump.

"The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK (Ku Klux Klan) Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

The FBI is investigating the incident and Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the violence by these groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, a University town about 193 kms southwest of Washington.

Sessions said he is confident that the American people will reject this kind of evil ideology.

"We need to take it seriously. Amazingly, Nazism remains alive out of all the evil it has incurred or caused in the world, so I think we take this seriously. We go at it directly, morally, legally, politically, legitimately, in any way possible to reject this kind of ideology that causes division and hatred in America. It is just not part of our heritage," the Attorney General added. PTI LKJ CPS AKJ CPS

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Achim Prill/istockphoto

A Canadian weatherman says he was stunned after he shopped at Costco and discovered a live, black scorpion inside a bag of bananas purchased in store.

Nathan Coleman from the Weather Network, visited a Costco located in Halifax, Nova Scotia (eastern Canada) and said that his daughter found the eight-legged creature while she helped unpack groceries, a story by the BBC News wrote.
If you're willing to dig past the layer of high-end dining options and four-star restaurants, San Francisco still maintains a level of kitsch and quirk for those ready to look for it.

It's San Francisco's "unique and incredible" feel that has made it a perfect place for unique venues and bars, said David Quinby, owner of Mission District vinyl store-bar-music venue, Amado's.

"I think there's an incredibly strong pioneering spirit, because this was the end of the Transcontinental Railroad and it was the last stop before the Pacific Ocean," Quinby said. "People work so hard in the city to bring it back from disasters and that's kind of in our bloodstream now.

FOODIE BUCKET LIST: All the Bay Area dishes you must try whether you're a newcomer or native

"I think amazingly creative people are drawn here and the type of people that don't give up  and those people have historically built very cool places," Quinby said. "Some of my favorite places are Vesuvio's, Specks, the Big 4 in the Huntington Hotel. I go to other places in the world ... and it wakes you up to how unique and incredible [San Francisco] is."

Where else can one go for some of the best Korean food in the converted garage of a suburban home? Or go for a soak in a Japanese-inspired bathhouse, followed by dinner? Want to time travel  or feel like you have  to a 1920s speakeasy?

We've found some of those unique places for you.

SFGATE collected together some of the most eclectic places to eat or drink in the city, with the express purpose of finding a place that inspires adventure or fun. Maybe you can rediscover a spot in San Francisco that's all of the things you love (or had forgotten you love) in the city.
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Employing pepper spray and pepper-filled stun grenades, Seattle police kept hundreds of counter-protesters from reaching a smaller, hard-right rally in Seattle one day after a deadly attack on counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Both the rally, organized by a Portland-based pro-Trump conservative group known as Patriot Prayer, and a counter-protest aimed at standing against hate were previously planned for Sunday.

Hundreds gathered at Seattle's Denny Park around 1 p.m. for the "Solidarity Against Hate" march to protest the Patriot Prayer event, which was scheduled for an hour later near the city center at Westlake Park. The counter-protesters' diverse messages were apparent in the signs they brought to the march, which ranged from "Love not hate" to "Kill your local neo-Nazi."

The demonstrators' numbers were bolstered by people shocked by Saturday's attack on counter-protesters in Virginia.

"After what happened yesterday, we are going to use our strongest weapon -- which is solidarity -- against these fascists," an organizer said before the march. "We need to stand together, protect each other. We will not be policing each other in this crowd. We will be standing side by side, protecting each other."

The mood was light and peaceful as the crowd set out on Westlake Avenue North, then turned southwest on Lenora Street.

Things became tense after police in riot gear blocked streets that led toward Westlake Park. A small group of black-clad marchers at the front of the line attempted to circumvent police lines by darting down an alleyway between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, but they were met on the other side by police and pepper spray.

Protesters tried to break through the police lines again at Fourth Avenue and Lenora Street, where they were met with more pepper spray as the crowd chanted, "Who do you serve? Who do you protect?" and "Cops and Klan, hand in hand."

The march eventually made its way to Second Avenue, but was stopped again at Pine Street by police. Protesters taunted police with Silly String and glitter, and after a group of marchers attempted to break through again, they were met with pepper spray and two large bangs from the blast balls, non-lethal grenades used to disperse crowds that can injure protesters if misused.

Afterward, the crowd milled around the intersection. Some shouted at the police while a group of interfaith leaders sang "This Little Light of Mine" under a sign reading "Love wins." Police eventually issued a dispersal order around 3 p.m. and organizers of the march turned it around and headed back to Denny Park, taking the vast majority of the marchers with them.

Seattle police announced a 40-year-old man was arrested for obstruction and a 37-year-old man and 25-year-old man were arrested for assault.

The Patriot Prayer rally went as planned, but the group was outnumbered by protesters watching leader Joey Gibson and supporters. Gibson invited some protesters to share their thoughts on stage. The rally concluded just before 5 p.m.

"These people are fascists, let's not split hairs," Cliff Cawthon of affordable housing organization SAFE in Seattle said of the group before the march. "We have to counter them everywhere, whether it's at a punk dance party or at a legislature, whether it's city hall or whether it's on your block. There can be no shelter for fascists."

On Saturday, a man drove his car into a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville after a white-supremacist march on Friday. One person was killed and 19 were wounded. The driver of the car was identified as a 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Seattlepi.com reporter Stephen Cohen can be reached at 206-448-8313 or stephencohen@seattlepi.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @scohenPI.
Big Boi's unannounced 30-minute set put on by Heineken House on Sunday afternoon may have been a surprise to most Outside Lands fest-goers, but East Bay hip hop fan Damon Johnson was prepared. After hearing rumors that the Outkast star would be the day's surprise guest, Johnson arrived an hour ahead of time to stake out a spot along the front railing.

"I've seen (Big Boi) more than ten times between him and Outkast, so I know he does an 80-20 split," Johnson says, referring to the ratio of the rapper's performance of solo songs and his famed hip-hop bangers.

Big Boi, who played in a similar set last year, was accompanied by Sleepy Brown and didn't hold exactly true to that division of songs. This year, he played a more even mix of his own songs and a number of Outkast hits from 1998's "Aquemini" ("Rosa Parks"), 2000's "Stankonia" ("Ms. Jackson"), and 2003's "Speakerboxxx" ("The Way You Move"). Pulling from his own recent album, June's "Boomiverse," Big Boi also performed "Chocolate" and "In the South." Additionally, notably, Big Boi also rapped to 2006's "Kryptonite," featured on the movie "ATL." For that one, however, Big Boi instructed the audience to take some novelty with the lyrics.

"We're gonna change it up," he said. "Instead of saying, 'You can find me in the A,' say, 'You can find me in the Bay.'"

To close, Big Boi feigned an exit before returning, telling the crowd they'd be doing one more. The finale was perhaps what everyone came to hear: "B.O.B."

"The Bay Area always shows their love," said Big Boi, looking at the crowd. "This is beautiful," added Brown. "Look at this culture."

In the crowd, Johnson said he hopes that the large audience attending Big Boi's set will herald the booking of more hip-hop acts for the San Francisco festival. "They need some better hip-hop representation like this because this festival (lineup) is really esoteric."

Suggesting that a large number of attendees this year came to Outside Lands for another (unfortunately canceled hip-hop act) A Tribe Called Quest, Johnson adds that if they don't begin to book more rappers, "there will be a lot of egg on their face."

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


The Trump administration has illegally rolled back rules for regulating toxic chemicals in food, drinking water and work sites, environmental groups said Monday as they asked a federal appeals court in San Francisco to intervene.

The rewritten regulations, overseen by a former high-level chemical industry official with head-spinning conflicts of interest, will leave children, communities and workers vulnerable to dangerous chemicals, Eve Gartner, a lawyer with the environmental legal group Earthjustice, said after filing the legal challenge last week in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Other advocates have filed separate challenges to the rules in federal appeals courts in New York and Richmond, Va. The suits will be consolidated in a single nationwide case.

The rules implement changes that Congress passed last year to broaden the scope of the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 40-year-old law regulating uses of tens of thousands of chemicals sold in the United States. The new law increased the Environmental Protection Agencys authority to review the safety of all chemicals in the marketplace, to restrict or ban chemicals found to pose serious threats, and to require new products to meet safety standards before being sold.

According to Earthjustice and the groups it represents, however, rules drafted by President Barack Obamas EPA before he left office in January have been substantially weakened by the agency under President Trump.

Among the changes, their legal challenge says:

The EPA can now decide which uses of a chemical it should study. The Obama draft rules would have required the agency to examine all known, intended, reasonably foreseen ways in which the chemical is used and all populations it could affect.

The EPA will have broad authority to classify a chemical as a low priority for analysis and regulation. The draft rules would have limited that authority and would have classified all chemicals as high priority unless the agency expressly made a contrary finding.

Chemical companies will get a big say in deciding which chemicals receive priority in undergoing federal scrutiny.

The new law allows manufacturers to ask the EPA to analyze specific chemicals. The Obama administration proposed requiring those manufacturers to provide all information about a chemicals uses and the people who would be exposed, and required the agency to first consider substances that posed a high risk. The revised rules allow companies to request analyses of chemical uses that are of interest to the manufacturer, and allow the agency to consider them in the order they were received.

The EPAs new rules fail to protect consumers by exempting key sources of exposure to risky chemicals, said Melanie Benesh, a lawyer with the Environmental Working Group, one of the plaintiffs in the Ninth Circuit case. Others include the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Benesh said the Trump administration agency, in overhauling the earlier draft of the rules, acceded to complaints from the major industry organization, the American Chemistry Council. Its former senior director for regulatory science policy, Nancy Beck, is now a high-ranking EPA administrator.

Beck has removed herself for a year from specific cases involving her former employer, but not from rule-making that affects the chemical industry, according to her statement obtained by Beneshs organization.

At the chemistry council, Beck was personally writing comments and letters to EPA about these rules, appeared at a public hearing and told EPA what she wanted to see, said Gartner, the Earthjustice attorney. Then, lo and behold, shes the person with authority to finalize these rules.

Asked for comment on the court cases, EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said the agency is still reviewing the substance of the challenge, but is prepared to vigorously defend these important rules. We welcome working with all stakeholders in a constructive way.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  Charlottesville was on edge Sunday as police and residents tried to piece together how a white nationalist rally turned deadly when a man rammed his car into counterdemonstrators in an act described by a member of the Trump administration as terrorism.

Makeshift memorials dotted downtown streets where bloody brawls took place the day before. Police in riot gear stood at the ready in case of more clashes as antiracist activists gathered near City Hall, holding signs that said, No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA.

Antiracism activists questioned why Charlottesville police, who had several weeks to prepare for the permitted rally, seemed caught off guard by events. Video clips shared on social media showed police standing by in some cases as brawls broke out in the morning before the rally was officially set to begin.

Its a joke, said Larry Engel, a local business owner, who faulted police for not separating white supremacists and anti-racist groups that repeatedly clashed before the car attack. There was no buffer zone between opposing groups that gathered on downtown streets and in a city park that has become an ideological battleground because of the presence of a Confederate statue.

Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College who studies policing and protests, said the strategies used by law enforcement in Charlottesville played a role in how quickly tensions escalated.

Vitale said it looked as if large numbers of police were assigned to guard fixed barriers in heavy riot gear, which may have prevented them from moving quickly into the street and making arrests.

They assumed that the crowds would just have their rallies and keep separate, Vitale said.

Others defended the efforts of law enforcement. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, referring to the man accused of driving his car into the protesters, said, You cant stop some crazy guy who came here from Ohio and used his car as a weapon. He is a terrorist.

Rallies were taking place around the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, in support of the dozens injured in Charlottesville and the three who died, including two state police officers whose helicopter crashed Saturday.

To the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis who came to our state yesterday, there is no place for you here, McAuliffe said, drawing an implicit contrast with President Trumps refusal to single out the same groups for blame.

On Sunday afternoon, angry protesters chased down one of the rallys main organizers as he attempted to address a throng of reporters outside Charlottesville City Hall.

Members of the crowd shouted murderer and shame at Jason Kessler, a blogger based in Charlottesville, as a police sniper watched from a nearby rooftop. One man spat on Kessler before he darted away with the help of a police escort.

Clashes broke out in the city Saturday between antiracism activists and far-right protesters, many of whom carried shields, weapons and Nazi and Confederate battle flags. One woman was killed when a driver plowed a sports car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators.

On Sunday, city officials identified the woman as Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville. A memorial vigil for her was planned for Sunday evening before it was postponed because of safety concerns. Flowers, cards and a photo of Heyer were spread on the street where she was struck along with a sign that read, No place for hate!

The driver  identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, from Ohio  was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that ended in death.

The suspects mother, Samantha Bloom, who lives in Toledo, Ohio, said she didnt know that her son was attending a white supremacist rally.

I thought it had something to do with Trump, she told the Toledo Blade, saying she avoided getting too involved in her sons political views.

Derek Weimer, who was Fields high school history teacher when he grew up in northern Kentucky, told WCPO-TV in Cincinnati that Fields had been infatuated with Nazis and had radical ideas on race.

Photos circulating on social media appeared to show Fields posing with members of Vanguard America, a white nationalist group, on the day of the rally. Fields held a black-and-white shield with the organizations insignia. The group said Fields was not a member and that shields were distributed widely.

More details also emerged about the two state troopers killed when a State Police helicopter crashed near the city after monitoring the chaos.

H. Jay Cullen, 48, was a veteran of the force who spent years flying the governor around the state. Berke M.M. Bates, 40  he would have celebrated his 41st birthday Sunday  was just beginning a career as a helicopter pilot that he had dreamed about for decades.

Dozens of others were injured Saturday, including 19 people hospitalized after the car attack. Ten of those people were listed in good condition Sunday at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and nine had been discharged.

At the church service Sunday, McAuliffe praised police for preventing more deadly violence the previous day, saying he was told that 80 percent of the white nationalist protesters were armed.

What Im asking you to do today is put aside the anger, as I did when I got up today, McAuliffe said. Let us show these people that we are bigger than they are, we are stronger than they are.

You cant stop some crazy guy who came here from Ohio and used his car as a weapon. He is a terrorist, McAuliffe said.

Others, however, were quick to cast blame, including on Trump  who many demonstrators said ran a campaign that emboldened white supremacists  as well as on police.

Michael Signer, the citys Democratic mayor, accused Trump in television interviews of taking part in intentional courting of white supremacists.

In a statement, Kessler, the rally organizer, deflected blame and pinned responsibility on city officials. He said the violence was primarily the result of the Charlottesville government officials and the law enforcement officers which failed to maintain law and order by protecting the First Amendment rights of the participants of the Unite the Right rally.

Kessler, who organized the demonstration in response to the citys efforts to take down a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in a park, also accused police of not doing enough to keep the two sides apart.

David S. Cloud and Jaweed Kaleem are Tribune News Service writers.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with fresh inputs)

By Sajjad Husaain

Islamabad, Aug 14 (PTI) China is ready to enhance all- round strategic cooperation and economic ties with its "all weather" ally Pakistan, Vice Premier Wang Yang said today as he attended the countrys Independence Day celebrations here.

Wang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of Chinas ruling Communist Party, is among the countrys top leaders.

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Addressing the Independence Day ceremony as the special guest, he said China stands with Pakistan in its efforts to achieve progress and development.

"We have forged an all-weather friendship that is higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey, and engaged in all-round cooperation, setting a shining example of friendly state-to-state relations, he said, with Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain and the new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi by his side.

China is ready to strengthen all-round strategic cooperation with Pakistan. China is ready to strengthen all- round economic cooperation with Pakistan, Wang said.

"China sees Pakistan as an important partner in the Belt and Road Initiative," he said, referring to the pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He said the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would enhance Pakistans capacity for independent development and deliver tangible benefits to the people along the route and all the people in Pakistan.

India has opposed the CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang praised Sino-Pakistani ties, saying, "What we have between China and Pakistan is a friendship based on shared aspirations and tested in adversity. It will not only last a lifetime, but also be passed on from generation to generation.

"No matter how the international environment may evolve and how China may grow, we will always be a good neighbour, a close friend, a trusted partner and a true brother for Pakistan," the senior Chinese leader said, amidst the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area.

Wang is accompanying a high-level Chinese delegation and expected to sign a few bilateral agreements. He is also expected to inaugurate projects related to the CPEC - a part of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.

He said China would support Pakistans efforts to pursue the fight against terrorism as per its national interest.

He also noted that over the past seven decades, the Pakistani people have "resolutely defended their national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity against hegemony, power politics and external interference," achieving success in safeguarding the countrys core interests and national dignity. PTI SH ABH AKJ AKJ

--- ENDS ---

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By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) today posted 23 per cent decline in consolidated profit at Rs 2,351.2 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, due to higher expenses.

The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 3,065.2 crore in the year-ago period, Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in a filing to BSE. However, CILs consolidated income during April-June quarter was at Rs 21,774.4 crore, registering an increase of 4.5 per cent.

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The firms consolidated expenses increased to Rs 17,836.7 crore in April-June this year, over Rs 16,197.8 crore in the year-ago period. The production of the countrys largest coal miner was at 118.8 million tonnes (MT) in the first quarter of FY2017-18 against 125.6 MT in the same quarter of previous fiscal. The companys off take for the April-June quarter was at 137.4 MT, over 133.2MT in the same quarter of previous fiscal. On standalone basis, Coal India posted a profit of Rs 32.18 crore for April-June 2017 against that of Rs 3.6 crore in the year-ago period. However, standalone total income declined to Rs 187.8 crore over Rs 189 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. PTI SID MR

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Aug 14 (PTI) At least 12 people were killed in a landslide in Nepal today, taking the death toll in floods and rain-related calamities to 78, while thousands remained displaced across the Himalayan nation, officials said.

Heavy rainfall has lashed Nepal for the past four days, swelling several Himalayan rivers beyond the danger mark and causing flooding and landslides at many places in the country.

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The river Rapti, which flows through a large part of Nepal towards the southern plains, flooded human settlements and hotels popular with tourists in the Chitwan Valley.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), in the latest incident at least 12 people were killed by landslide in Morang district today, taking the death toll in the district to 17 and overall to 78 and 35 went missing in the last four days.

The monsoon havoc which started on Friday has affected 27 districts spanning from the eastern, central to the western regions.

The latest data released by the MoHA showed that one person was killed in Panchthar and Ilam each, five in Jhapa and Morang each and eight in Sunsari.

Nine persons were killed in Rautahat, eight were killed in Sunsari, four each in Sarlahi, Sindhuli, Bara, Makawanpur and Banke districts, five persons were killed in Jhapa, three killed each in Dang and Surkhet, two each were killed in Bardiya and Chitawan and nine persons were killed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Nepals Energy Minister Mahendra Bahadur Sahi has claimed that the highways built along the no mans land on the Indian side of the border are the major reasons behind the floods in the Terai.

"The highways made by elevating the land next to the Nepal-India border have restricted the natural flow of water, leaving Nepals Terai plains submerged during the rainy season," Shahi said.

The government will take up the issue with India during Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deubas India visit slated for next week, Shahi said yesterday.

A total of 34,843 houses were inundated across the plains. More than 1,000 houses were destroyed in floods that killed an estimated 400 livestock, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The government has mobilised Nepal Police, Nepali Army and Armed Police Force personnel for rescue and recovery work.

While rainfall is likely to continue in the next few days, as predicted by the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD).

Weathermen have said the extreme rainfall, starting from eastern Nepal, witnessed in the last few days was caused by the formation of a low pressure zone over the hills. The monsoon, it added, was gradually getting weaker in the east and moving towards the west. PTI SBP AMS AKJ AMS

--- ENDS ---

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By PTI: (Eds: Updating with info about Indian tourists)

By Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Aug 14 (PTI) At least 12 people were killed in a landslide in Nepal today, taking the death toll in floods and rain-related calamities to 78 across the Himalayan nation, even as all the 35 stranded Indian nationals have been rescued, officials said.

Heavy rainfall has lashed Nepal for the past four days, swelling several Himalayan rivers beyond the danger mark and causing flooding and landslides at many places in the country.

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The river Rapti, which flows through a large part of Nepal towards the southern plains, flooded human settlements and hotels popular with tourists in the Chitwan Valley.

All the 35 Indian nationals, who were stranded in Sauraha, a part of the Chitawan National Park, have been rescued, an Indian Embassy spokesperson said. They were rescued to safer place by using tamed elephants.

Although earlier reports quoting local authorities, said that 200 Indian tourists were among the 700 stranded people, the Indian Embassy official said only 35 of them were Indian nationals.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) at least 12 people were killed by landslide in Morang district today, taking the death toll in the district to 17 and overall to 78. Thirty five people were also missing since Friday.

The monsoon havoc has affected 27 districts spanning from the eastern, central to the western regions.

Nine persons were killed in Rautahat, eight were killed in Sunsari, four each in Sarlahi, Sindhuli, Bara, Makawanpur and Banke districts, five persons were killed in Jhapa, three killed each in Dang and Surkhet, two each were killed in Bardiya and Chitawan and nine persons were killed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Nepals Energy Minister Mahendra Bahadur Sahi has claimed that the highways built along the no mans land on the Indian side of the border are the major reasons behind the floods in the Terai.

"The highways made by elevating the land next to the Nepal-India border have restricted the natural flow of water, leaving Nepals Terai plains submerged during the rainy season," Shahi said.

The government will take up the issue with India during Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deubas India visit slated for next week, Shahi said yesterday.

A total of 34,843 houses were inundated across the plains. More than 1,000 houses were destroyed in floods that killed an estimated 400 livestock, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The government has mobilised Nepal Police, Nepali Army and Armed Police Force personnel for rescue and recovery work.

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While rainfall is likely to continue in the next few days, as predicted by the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD).

Weathermen have said the extreme rainfall, starting from eastern Nepal, witnessed in the last few days was caused by the formation of a low pressure zone over the hills. The monsoon, it added, was gradually getting weaker in the east and moving towards the west. PTI SBP AMS AKJ AMS

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) Delhi Police has arrested the alleged sharpshooter of a Delhi-based gang, who was wanted for a broad daylight murder, after a shootout in Uttarakhand.

A team of Special Cell officers nabbed Jarnail Singh, carrying a reward of Rs one lakh for his arrest, yesterday from village Bichai in Rudrapur area after a shootout in which he was injured.

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He had tried to evade arrest by refusing to surrender and firing at the police team which returned fire in self-defence.

A .32 bore pistol and three bullets were recovered from Singh who is presently undergoing treatment at a super speciality hospital in Uttar Pradesh, police said.

The police had received specific information that the murder accused was spotted in Rudrapur and thereafter, a Special Cell team along with local police had raided the village.

However, Singh had sensed presence of the police in the area and tried to flee.

According to the police, he belongs to a gang led by one Jitender and was the prime accused in a 2015 murder case.

Apart from that he and his gang leader are also accused of and wanted for firing at police officials last year in Haryana.

In that incident, while Singh had managed to escape, Jitender was arrested and a huge cache of country-made weapons and ammunition was recovered from the vehicle they were travelling in, police said.

Jitender, for whose arrest there is a reward of Rs two lakh, had later escaped from police custody with the help of his gang while being taken to court, police said. PTI HMP KUN

--- ENDS ---
A 20-year-old woman is battling for life after being thrown off the fourth floor of a under-construction building by a man who attempted raping her.

By Mail Today Bureau: A 20-year-old woman, who works in a five-star hotel, has been thrown off the fourth floor of an under-construction building in Begumpur area of the Capital, as she had resisted an attempt of rape by her colleague, police said on Sunday.

The victim has been battling for life at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital and is currently stated to be in coma. The accused, identified as Deepak, 22, has been arrested.

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Deepak has confessed to the police that on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, the victim along with her two friends were returning home in a TSR, when he proposed them to stop over at Connaught Place.

Deepak was on his bike and he asked the victim to accompany him to his house as he wanted to bring his car.

He promised the trio that once he brought the car, he would drop all of them while returning from Connaught Place.

The accused asked victim's friends to wait at the roadside in the TSR.

The victim set off with him following this. However, the man took a de-tour and ended up reaching an under-construction building along with the victim. He took her to the fourth floor and tried to rape her. When she resisted the attempt, he threw her off the building.

However, he failed in his attempt to flee, as locals nabbed him. Driven by the commotion, the friends of the victim rushed to the spot and to their shock, found the 20-year-old lying in a pool of blood.

She was reportedly in a semi-nude condition when they spotted her. Following this, she was rushed to the hospital, where she is currently battling for life.

Rishi Pal, deputy commissioner of police, Rohini, informed that the accused was a resident of Rama Vihar and was arrested. A case has been registered under IPC sections 307, 366, 511 and 376 at the Begumpur police station.

ALSO READ | Delhi shocker: Rape victim forced to carry body of her child in Metro to Gurgaon

ALSO WATCH | Delhi shocker: Nepalese woman jumps off building after gang rape

--- ENDS ---
The Delhi University administration has informed Delhi government that it will set up governing bodies in 28 colleges by this week. The Delhi government had earlier ordered a stop in funding citing an absence of such bodies.

Citing corruption, deputy CM Manish Sisodia had stopped the flow of fund to these govt-funded colleges.

By Arpan Rai: Delhi University (DU) colleges expecting a cut in financial aid, ordered by Delhi government earlier this month, can heave a sigh of relief as DU administration has responded to Delhi government's notice.

"Delhi government can expect us to form governing bodies in 28 fully and partially funded colleges by this week," confirmed Devesh Sinha, Dean of colleges for Delhi University, bringing relief to colleges fearing shortage of funds to run the college.

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"We have expedited the process of formulating governing bodies and communicated it to Delhi government as well," Sinha told Mail Today.

Citing unchecked the breeding of corruption in the university in absence of governing bodies in the colleges, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia tweeted the guideline on August 1.

"Have ordered Finance department to stop funding for Delhi government-funded 28 Delhi University colleges, as DU is not willing to form governing bodies for last 10 months," Sisodia tweeted.

"I can not allow unchecked corruption and irregularities to be sustained on Delhi government funds in the name of education," Sisodia tweeted, sending a wave of panic across DU colleges relying on the government for funds.

Talking to Mail Today, Atishi Marlena, education advisor to Sisodia said, "Delhi government is clear with the fact that public money should be utilised in a manner which is monitored. As a custodian of public money, we cannot allow it to be used for irregularities."

This move is expected to bring relief to 28 colleges, including top colleges like Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who feared tumult on campus owing to shortage of funds to run their college.

ALSO READ | Tamil to be offered as an optional language in the five-year integrated journalism course at DU

--- ENDS ---
The two armies held a flag meeting at Nathu La was held last week to sort out the Doklam crisis. The meeting, however, ended with no resolution.

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen: With the standoff between the Indian and Chinese army in Bhutan continuing for the 9th week, the ceremonial meeting between the two armies on August 15 - India's Independence Day - looks uncertain.

The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in a face off at Doklam Plateau in Bhutan. China wants to construct a road through the Doklam Plateau - claimed by both Bhutan and China. India has objected to the road and has deployed the army to prevent the road from being built.

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Every year the two armies meet at the BPM huts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on pre-designated days like August 15, Jauanry 26 - India's Republic Day, PLA Day on August 1, as a goodwill gesture.

This year India didn't attend the August 1 PLA Day ceremonial meeting.

There are five BPM points along the LAC where these ceremonial meetings are hosted - Depsang in sub-sector north and Sappangur Gap (both on eastern Ladakh), Nathu La in Sikkim and Bumla and Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh.

The BPM points are also used by local commanders for flag meetings to sort ground level differences.

The two armies held a flag meet at Nathu La last week to sort out the Doklam crisis. The meeting, however, ended with no resolution.

Although the level of the meeting was raised with each side nominating a Major General level officer, both sides stuck to their stated positions. China demands that Indian Army withdraw whereas India asked China to stop the road construction and withdraw their army.

Also Read:

India behaving like mature power in Doklam standoff, says US expert

Doklam standoff: Indian, Chinese Army officers meet at Nathu La to resolve row

Watch Video: Centre decides to flex muscles, prepares itself to become war ready amid Doklam standoff

--- ENDS ---
"Appreciate the warm felicitations," Prime Minister Modi tweeted. The two men, leaders of the world's two largest democracies, met face-to-face for the first time earlier this year in Washington.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today thanked US President Donald Trump for calling him to convey Independence Day greetings.

The two men, leaders of the world's two largest democracies, met face-to-face for the first time earlier this year in Washington.

Appreciate the warm felicitations from @POTUS, who called this evening to convey Independence Day greetings. Thank you @realDonaldTrump.- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 14, 2017

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In a televised address, President Ram Nath Kovind earlier told his compatriots that it was the nation's resolve to achieve several milestones for a New India . PM Modi called the speech "wonderful."

Rashtrapati Ji perfectly summed up Indias rich past, our vibrant present & roadmap for a New India in his address today. @rashtrapatibhvn- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 14, 2017

Indians are gearing up to celebrate seven decades of freedom from British rule tomorrow. Buildings on New Delhi's Raisina Hill and Mumbai's iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj terminus have been beautifully lit up ahead of the big day.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation building & Bombay Stock Exchange lit up on eve of #IndependenceDay pic.twitter.com/fyobOK1BdN- ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

Tomorrow, it will be PM Narendra Modi's turn to address the nation from the Red Fort in New Delhi.

ALSO READ

Full speech of President Ram Nath Kovind: New India should be tolerant and sensitive

FYI | 70 years of independence: 10 events that shaped today's India

ALSO WATCH

First address of President Ram Nath Kovind: Full speech

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 14 (PTI) Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said the government should bring in a law to make singing of Vande Mataram compulsory.

He said the singing of the national song should not be restricted to certain days.

"What is wrong in singing Vande Mataram and why should it be sung only on select days? It should be sung every day. Bring in a law for the same (to make its recitation mandatory)," Thackeray said.

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He was speaking at the 57th anniversary event of Marathi cartoon weekly Marmik, founded by his father, Sena patriarch late Bal Thackeray. The event was held at Dinanath Auditorium in suburban Vile Parle last evening.

"There should be no display of false pride. There should be a stringent law for compulsory singing of Vande Mataram.

"Nationalism shouldnt be part of just January 26 and August 15 celebrations. It should become integral part of life," the Sena chief said.

Thackeray questioned the commitment of his ally BJP on the issue.

"Before coming to power, the BJP had said everyone must sing Vande Mataram if they want to live in the country. What happened now? How can you say an individual will decide whether or not to sing the national song," he asked.

Last week, the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation passed a proposal to make the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in civic-run schools in the city. PTI ND RSY AAR

--- ENDS ---
Abu Mansoor Mukhtar Robow, an elusive, charismatic militant who was once a senior commander of al-Shabab in Somalia, surrendered to government forces on Sunday in a surprise move that could weaken the countrys Islamist militants.

More than any deep change of heart, Robow may have turned himself in simply to save his skin. According to Somali security officials, hard-line elements within al-Shabab  in which Robow had been a stalwart before falling out in 2013 with its leader at the time  had turned against him, wiping out many of his soldiers.

For the past several months, Robow  who once had a U.S. bounty on his head  had essentially been on the run from his own group, setting up a base in Abal Village, in southwest Somalia. In the last few days, government officials had been trying to help him and his forces escape.

We contacted him many times, and we understood each other, said Moalim Ahmed, the mayor of Hudur, a small town in the area where Robow operated.

Robow arrived in Mogadishu by plane on Sunday afternoon.

Somalia has suffered various degrees of bloodshed and chaos since 1991, when the central government collapsed and warlords took over. In the mid-2000s, a grassroots Islamist group rose up to restore order, and Robow was one its leaders.

He always seemed more moderate than many of his comrades, and he enjoyed sitting for interviews with Western reporters and speaking of his dream to turn Somalia around.

We dont have a problem with Americans, he said during an interview in the fall of 2006.

Look at you. Youre here, weve been protecting you all week  maybe you didnt even know it, he said then. We want peace; we crave it more than you could ever understand, to get out of this darkness, to stop killing each other, to stop being the laughingstock of the world.

After Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006, the Islamist group that briefly controlled Somalia went underground, and Robow with it, orchestrating hit-and-run attacks on Ethiopian forces and Somalias weak government.

Jeffrey Gettleman is a New York Times writer.
CARTAGENA, Colombia  Seeking to highlight the growing plight in Venezuela, Vice President Mike Pence on Monday met with people whove fled the country to neighboring Colombia.

Pence visited the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, where he met with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before planning to depart to Buenos Aires. His wife, Karen Pence, helped to lead a prayer circle, where she prayed for comfort to the Venezuelan refugees.

The vice president and his wife also spent time speaking with the migrants, listening to their emotional stories. Reporters were not able to hear their conversations, but watched the vice president comfort several women, including at least one who was seen wiping away tears.

He said he heard heartbreaking stories of their struggle for food.

President Trumps made it very clear we will not stand by while Venezuela collapses into dictatorship, Pence said, arguing that a failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of our entire hemisphere and the people of the United States.

Pence is trying to rally the region against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros attempts to consolidate power. Pence on Sunday denounced Maduros tactics and said the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles.

Venezuelan officials have been firing back in a series of statements, with Information Minister Ernest Villegas denouncing U.S. meddling in Venezuelas affairs as hypocritical on Twitter on Monday.

The US and its satellite in Bogota are trying to give classes in democracy to Venezuela while it provides cover for neo-Nazis in its own territory, Villegas wrote, linking to photos of the recent deadly march in Charlottesville, Va., involving far-right groups.

Meanwhile, thousands of government supporters took to the streets of Venezuelas capital, Caracas, Monday to denounce Trumps talk of a military option to resolve the countrys political crisis.

Asked whether the U.S. would commit additional financial aid for those migrating from Venezuela, Pence said only that the U.S. has a long and storied history of generosity with regard to refugees populations and its happening here in Colombia.

The Trump administration has pushed to reduce the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. as well as money spent on foreign aid.

Jill Colvin is an Associated Press writer.
By all accounts, Li Ao, an 18-year-old man in Anhui province, was well-behaved but for the fact that he had seemingly lost interest in everything except the Internet, according to his mother.

So when Liu Dongmei read about an Internet addiction treatment center in Fuyang city and the success stories it touted, she was hopeful it would help her son. This center promised gentler approaches, such as physical activity and psychological counseling, instead of the extreme treatments for which some of Chinas other Internet addiction boot camps have gained notoriety.

On Aug. 3, Liu and her husband checked their son into the center. They had agreed to pay nearly $3,500, so Li Ao could stay for 180 days.

Two days later, they received a phone call. Li Ao had been taken to the hospital, where he died.

Several days after his death, the distraught parents appeared on Anhui Television to describe what had happened to their son  and the shocking discovery they made when they saw his body at the mortuary: scars and bruises over his torso, arms and legs.

His entire body was bruised, Liu told AHTV, weeping uncontrollably.

Li Aos father sat stone-faced on the edge of the bed during the interview, clutching a single tissue.

It hadnt even been 48 hours since we dropped him off, Li Tao told the news station. After a day and a half, our child was gone.

Chinese media outlets have said that the Fuyang center has been shut down while authorities investigate how the teenager died, according to BBC News. But Li Aos death is the latest high-profile incident involving Chinese Internet addiction boot camps and the controversial measures some have taken to try to break teenagers Internet habits.

In 2009, a 15-year-old in Guangxi province died two days after checking into an Internet addiction center, having been beaten by his trainers, according to the South China Morning Post. In 2014, a 19-year-old girl named Guo Lingling died at a center in Henan province after suffering head and neck injuries; her training had consisted of being repeatedly picked up, dropped and kicked on the ground, the newspaper reported.

In 2008, China formally declared Internet addiction a clinical disorder. Chinas Web Junkies, a 2014 short documentary published by the New York Times, went into the Daxing Internet Addiction Treatment Center and found staff there using military-style tactics to treat the uniform-clad patients.

Amy B. Wang is a Washington Post writer.
WASHINGTON  Vice President Mike Pences visit to Latin America comes amid unrest in Venezuela and concern by its neighbors about a possible American military role.

Pence planned to meet with Colombias president, Juan Manuel Santos, later Sunday at the start of a weeklong trip likely to be dominated by conversations about the crisis in Venezuela. The United States accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of a power grab that has sparked deadly protests and condemnation across the region.

President Trump on Friday said he would not rule out a military option in response to Maduros moves.

That statement drew quick condemnation, including from the Colombian Foreign Ministry, which opposed any military measures and the use of force, and said efforts to resolve Venezuelas breakdown in democracy should be peaceful and respect its sovereignty.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump, by raising the prospect of possible military action, was trying to give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored. Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that Venezuela could very much become a risk to the U.S. if it descended into further chaos.

Yet a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who calls himself a pretty hawkish guy expressed skepticism about the idea of American troops in Caracas.

Im open-minded to a reason, but at the end of the day, our military should be deployed when theres a national security interest that can be articulated to the American people, South Carolinas Lindsey Graham told Fox News Sunday, adding: I dont see one in Venezuela in terms of the military force.

Trumps national security adviser said the Trump administration wants to get a handle on the current situation under Maduros embattled government and understand better how this crisis might evolve.

Venezuelas chief opposition coalition issued a restrained criticism of Trumps talk of using a military option. The coalition rejected the use of force or threats of applying the same in Venezuela on the part of any country. But the coalitions statement didnt directly mention Trumps remarks.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions against Maduro and more than two-dozen current and former officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of a pro-government assembly given the job of rewriting the countrys Constitution.

When you look at contingencies, when you look at what if  what if the suffering of the Venezuelan people increases by orders of magnitude  what more can we do with our partners in the region to protect the Venezuelan people and prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe? Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trumps national security adviser, told ABCs This Week.

Pence has scheduled other stops in Argentina, Chile and Panama, giving speeches and meeting with leaders. He will tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.

Jill Colvin is an Associated Press writer.
Summerset Group, New Zealand's second-largest retirement village developer, posted a 45 percent gain in first-half underlying earnings and reiterated that full-year profit may increase by a third as it ramps up development.

Underlying earnings, which excludes property revaluations, increased to $35.7 million in the six months ended June 30, from $24.7 million a year earlier, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. The company reiterated its forecast for annual earnings of $72 million to $75 million, up from $56.6 million in 2016.

Summerset added 171 retirement units across eight villages in the first half of its financial year and said it expected to ramp up activity in the second half, bringing the total new units at the end of the year to 450, ahead of the 409 units it delivered last year.

"We are on track to build approximately 450 retirement units across our villages in 2017 and expect new sales levels over each half of the year to reflect this," said chief executive Julian Cook.

First-half net profit jumped 78 percent to $90.3 million, as the value of the company's investment properties increased by $87.1 million to $1.62 billion, ahead of the $50.2 million gain recorded a year earlier. Revenue rose 27 percent to $50.7 million.

New Zealand retirement village operators are acquiring land and preparing for a record building spree in anticipation of increased demand as people born in the country's post-war era reach the target age for operators, including Summerset and its larger rivals Ryman Healthcare and Metlifecare. Summerset has a land bank of about 2,670 retirement units and expects the population aged over 75 to grow 254 percent from 2017 to 2068, it said today.

In the first half, sales of occupation rights increased 6 percent to 323, driven by a 17 percent jump in resales of occupation rights to a record 144, while new sales of occupation rights slipped 2 percent to 179. The company booked a record $10.8 million gain in the value of resales, which it said was driven by higher sales volume and strong sales price growth.

Summerset lifted its development margin to a record 28 percent from 20.3 percent a year earlier as it benefits from taking management and design of its construction sites in house.

Cook said the margin increase was "particularly pleasing" given the cost pressures in the Auckland construction market.

The company will pay a first-half dividend of 3.9 cents per share on Sept. 11, ahead of the 2.6 cent interim dividend a year earlier. Its policy is to pay 30-to-50 percent of annual underlying profit in dividends and payments will likely continue to be at the bottom of the range given the growth opportunities for the business, it said.

Summerset shares last traded at $4.90 and have slid 4.4 percent in the past 12 months.

(BusinessDesk)

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The New Zealand dollar barely budged from where it started the day after a brief lift following strong retail sales was short-lived as attention remained focused on events surrounding North Korea.

The kiwi rose as high as 73.31 after the retail sales and was trading at 73.07 US cents as at 5pm in Wellington from 73.09 cents as at 8am and from 73.18 cents in New York on Friday. The trade-weighted index rose to 76.93 from 76.82 last week.

Government figures today showed the volume of retail sales rose 2 percent in the June quarter, underpinned by increased spending during the World Master's Games and the British & Irish Lions rugby tour.

"It jumped on retail sales numbers but when you looked at the detail, it was the Lions tour," said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional foreign exchange sales at ASB Bank. "Otherwise, it has been a reasonably quiet day in Asia."

Looking ahead, Kelleher said the market is watching for further developments over tensions on the Korean peninsula, although some risk appetite has returned with the Dow futures pointing to a positive day. The greenback benefited, bouncing slightly against the yen despite Japan's gross domestic product data being stronger than expected. The greenback was at around 109.07 yen per US dollar before the data and was recently at 109.50 yen.

Late Sunday, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote that the Trump administration was continuing to seek diplomatic solutions to seek the "irreversible denuclearisation" of North Korea. "The US has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea," the two wrote in a commentary published in The Wall Street Journal. The US also has no desire to station troops north of the Demilitarized Zone, they added.

"We are waiting for headlines," said Kelleher.

Closer to home, Kelleher said investors will be watching for results from the GlobalDairyTrade Auction tomorrow night. Nigel Brunel, director of financial markets at OMF, said whole milk powder and skim milk powder are holding premiums over the last GDT auction "suggesting a small rise in the index led by whole milk powder."

The kiwi slipped to 4.8682 yuan from 4.8747 yuan on Friday in the US, declined to 61.81 euro cents from 61.91 cents and decreased to 56.15 British pence from 56.24 pence. The kiwi was at 92.53 Australian cents from 92.67 cents. Both the kiwi and the Australian dollar may also have been weighed down by data showing China's industrial production and retail sales slowed in July.

New Zealand's two-year swap rate was unchanged at 2.14 percent while 10-year swaps rose 1 basis points to 3.12 percent.

(BusinessDesk)

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By PTI: Washington, Aug 14 (PTI) Consuming caffeinated energy drinks regularly can put young adults at the risk of alcoholism and drug abuse later in life, a study warns.

Researchers at University of Maryland (UMD) in the US recruited participants when they were enrolled as college students, and were surveyed at regular intervals to track changes in various health and risk-taking behaviours, including energy drink consumption and drug use.

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They found evidence that individuals who regularly consumed highly caffeinated energy drinks, and sustained that consumption over time, were significantly more likely to use cocaine, non medically use prescription stimulants (NPS), and be at risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD) at age 25.

"The results suggest that energy drink users might be at heightened risk for other substance use, particularly stimulants," said Amelia Arria from UMD.

Previous studies have shown the relationship between energy drink (ED) consumption and high-risk drinking behaviours, as well as the likelihood of other accompanying drug use.

The new study is the first to examine the unique effect of different trajectories of ED consumption on likelihood of later substance use, researchers said.

The team found that more than half (51.4 per cent) of the 1,099 study participants fell into the group with a "persistent trajectory," meaning that they sustained their energy drink consumption over time.

Members of this group were significantly more likely to be using stimulant drugs such as cocaine and prescription stimulants non-medically and be at risk for alcohol use disorder at age 25, researchers said.

The study singles out ED consumption as the contributory factor because they controlled for the effects of demographics, sensation-seeking behaviours, other caffeine consumption, and prior substance use at age 21, they said.

Those in the "intermediate trajectory" group (17.4 per cent) were also at an increased risk for using cocaine and NAPS relative to those in the "non-use trajectory" who never consumed energy drinks (20.6 per cent).

Members of the "desisting trajectory" group (those whose consumption declined steadily over time) and the non-use group were not at higher risk for any substance use measures that were tested, researchers said.

The study was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. PTI APA MHN SAR MHN

--- ENDS ---
(Recasts, adding comment from WSP's L'Heureux throughout, updates shares)

WSP Global Inc, a Canadian listed consultancy firm, has made a "very full" offer of more than 10 times 2016 earnings for Opus International Consultants, in what it calls "a very transformative acquisition for the region".

Opus shares soared 73 percent to $1.71, a three-year high after WSP offered $1.78 a share for the Wellington-based engineering and design consultant. The offer, an 87 percent premium to Opus's 99 cent closing price on Friday, comes after extended negotiations with Malaysian Stock Exchange-listed UEM Edgenta Bhd, which owns 61.2 percent of the company, and has entered a lock-up agreement to sell into the offer, subject to shareholder approval. UEM's 69 percent owner, UEM Group Bhd, has already given an irrevocable undertaking to vote in favour of the offer, WSP said in a statement.

Opus reported a loss of $29.9 million in calendar 2016, which it attributed to the impact of weak oil prices on its Australian and Canadian units, and WSP today acknowledged the target company's performance had been "negatively impacted by offshore challenges." Opus is scheduled to release its first-half results tomorrow and analysts at First NZ Capital expect them to include redundancy costs. The stock has retreated from as high as $2.34 in May 2011.

But WSP chief executive Alexandre L'Heureux says Opus "has a very strong brand in our industry" and that coincides with his company's increased focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

"The New Zealand market ticks all the boxes - strong economy, strong government, good engineering backbone," he told BusinessDesk. "What's attractive is what Opus can do for us in New Zealand and what we can do for them in other countries. We have no presence in New Zealand. This (deal) is hand in glove - a perfect fit."

So far this year WSP's acquisitions have been in Europe, the US and South America, while of eight major acquisitions in 2016, only one - Australia's AWT Consulting Engineers - was in the region.

WSP shares rose 0.5 percent to C$49.07 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and have advanced about 13 percent in the past 12 months, outpacing the TSE 300 Composite's 1.6 percent gain.

The offer values Opus at $263 million compared to WSP's market value of C$5.02 billion. L'Heureux says his company typically funds its acquisitions from existing debt facilities and the occasional rights offer.

Asked whether WSP would retain the Opus brand, L'Heureux said there hadn't been any discussion of such details yet. Opus was "headed in the right direction" but in that sector "status quo isn't an option. We're always looking at how we can improve."

He said WSP expects to reap revenue synergies out of the acquisition and the deal isn't about cost synergies. Acquisitions "are part of our DNA. We're very entrepreneurial and it is an industry that is consolidating."

Last year, Opus restructured its business last year along sector lines of buildings, water and transportation instead of country-based divisions, which it said was "essential to ensure a viable future for the business."

In response to the offer, Opus's board has named a subcommittee of independent directors who will commission an independent appraisal of the proposal. It urged shareholders to do nothing until the subcommittee reports back. However, in a sign that the proposal has been favourably received, Opus has agreed to give WSP access to "certain non-public information" to carry out due diligence.

In addition to the $1.78 a share offer, WSP says Opus can declare a fully imputed dividend of 7 cents a share, taking the total on offer to shareholders to $1.85 per share.

(BusinessDesk)

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Infratil investment Canberra Data Centres has inked a deal with Microsoft to deliver hyper-scale cloud services for government data and has approved the construction of a new data centre.

Wellington-based Infratil has a 48 percent stake in the CDC, which will provide services to handle both unclassified and protected government data, according to a press release from Microsoft. Those services will be available in the first half of 2018 and will "offer unprecedented opportunity through advanced data analytics, sophisticated data protections and artificial intelligence," it said.

CDC currently has two Canberra-based data centre campuses, the only private data centre facilities in Australia with the security controls and accreditations appropriate for the handling of top secret government data. This contract will lift utilisation of existing facilities to 73 percent. As a result, it will develop the 20MW Fyshwick 2 data centre to support growth, Infratil said. Construction is expected to begin in September, following final development approvals.

Infratil spent $411.5 million on CDC, a purchase that was completed in September last year. At the time, 48 percent was also acquired by Infratils partner, Australia's Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, with the remaining 4 percent rolled over by existing CDC management shareholders. Taking net debt into account, CDCs enterprise value at the time of purchase was A$1.075 billion.

For the period from acquisition to March 31, CDCs net surplus resulted in Infratil reporting net income of $10.6 million.

According to Infratil's annual report, CDC has 43 federal government departments and agencies as customers, including nine of the 10 largest and more demand is expected from outside of the government sector as companies that provide services to government agencies seek to co-locate their services.

Separately, Infratil reiterated guidance for underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and fair value adjustments to be in a range of between $460 million and $500 million in the year ending March 31, 2018. It will provide more detail at its annual meeting on Aug. 24. Underlying ebitdaf was $519.5 million in the year to March 2017.

Infratil's shares recently rose 0.5 percent at $3.135 and have lost 3.5 percent over the past year.

(BusinessDesk)

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Auckland-based wi-fi service provider Tomizone has nixed plans to buy Philippine-based Social Light and will look to enter a technology purchase arrangement, it said in a release to the Australian stock exchange, where its stock is listed.

Late last year, Tomizone announced plans to acquire 100 percent of the issued capital in Social Light through the issue of up to 24,500,300 ordinary shares at a notional issue price of 13.27 Australian cents per Tomizone. In February, it said the two companies had already started technical cooperation and had plans to shortly launch new products developed with Social Light. Today it said that following a final review of the Social Light business "both parties have mutually and amicably agreed not to proceed with the acquisition."

Chairman Ian Bailey was not immediately available for comment but according to Tomizone, the same result can be achieved by the two businesses remaining independent. The aim is to now ink a technology purchase and IP transfer agreement, which will see Tomizone owning the software, source code and intellectual property of the software required by Tomizone for its customers. Social Light will also continue as Tomizone's development partner for the maintenance and ongoing development of its software, it said.

According to Tomizone, the deal is less dilutive as it no longer has to issue the ordinary shares. It retains access to Social Light's technology products and capabilities through agreed procurement terms. It said there is a resulting quarterly overhead saving of A$100,000 and less time commitment managing a business with operations in the Philippines.

"We can retain all the value that Social Light would have delivered through the acquisition, but it is being achieved through a simpler and more flexible technology acquisition arrangement," said Bailey.

While Tomizone opted to not buy Social Light, Bailey said it has commenced "an aggressive acquisition campaign to grow the business and expand its customer base and market reach." He said it is looking for potential acquisition targets that provide value by way of both vertical and horizontal integration.

According to the company "a number of revenue generating operations have already been identified and are being carefully assessed by the board."

Tomizone joined ASX through a reverse listing on June 1, 2015, but faced significant challenges due to delays with product feature launches and organisational readiness, and has reported consecutive losses.

It last traded at 1.2 Australian cents.

(BusinessDesk)

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A Hong Kong-listed travel company has bought three parcels of land in Auckland for $9 million, where it plans to build accommodation units for Chinese tourists and to take advantage of the "critical housing shortage" in New Zealand's biggest city.

Orient Victory Travel Group Company, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, sells plane tickets, travel services, jewellery and financial services. The company has been "exploring opportunities to expand its travel related business in order to add momentum to the growth of the group", it said in a statement published to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The three parcels of undeveloped land, totalling about 15,700 square metres, are adjacent to each other in Auckland's Silverdale, and the company said it is a good investment opportunity for it to boost revenue and increase profitability.

"The land is located in a tourism hub in North Auckland with close proximity to motorway, public transport, local amenities and popular tourist attractions," it said. "Identifying critical housing shortage in Auckland, the board believes that the property market of the nearby location where the land is situated has significant growth potential."

It intends to build self-serviced units on the land, with around 62 percent of the units to be used for accommodation for Chinese tour groups organised by the China Comfort Travel Group Company, of which Orient Victory Travel owns half.

"The acquisition will bring synergy effects to the travel business of the group's invested entity, and will also provide an additional source of income for the group through the daily operations as Auckland tourist boom rolls on, which is in line with the group's long-term strategy," it said.

(BusinessDesk)

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Contact Energy is looking to tighten electricity supply, saying it will seek better prices for roughly half a terawatt hour of its total annual generation either from commercial and industrial customers, wholesale spot market sales, or simply not selling it.

At a briefing on the company's profit result for the year to June 30, chief executive Dennis Barnes said the company would be running a less aggressive hedging policy in future, reducing the amount of electricity it needs to buy each year either from its own high cost gas-fired power stations or from other generators on the wholesale market.

While fully renewable peers such as Meridian Energy were only willing to contract 70-to-85 percent of their total mean renewable generation, Contact had been contracting at around 125 percent.

"We've back-calculated this," said Barnes. "As far as we can go back, this results in a better earnings and cashflow outcome on average over time" but meant "every now and again, you're going to have a crappy quarter. We've had it this year."

The Wellington-based electricity generator-retailer reported a 10 percent fall in underlying earnings to $141 million for the year to June 30, largely reflecting a complete turnaround in the amount of water available to put through its hydro dams on the South Island's Clutha River in the last quarter of the financial year.

That required Contact to run usually idle gas-fired plant to meet peak winter load because of an unusually dry winter in the South Island.

Resulting spikes in wholesale market spot prices for electricity knocked $32 million off earnings before interest, tax depreciation, amortisation and changes in the value of financial instruments, which fell 5.5 percent at $523 million.

While longer term futures market prices were not yet indicating an end to this decade's protracted period of generation over, Contact was rethinking its previous hedging strategy, said Barnes.

"We are seeing a tightening of supply and demand conditions. We think the reduction in thermal capacity has been masked somewhat by high hydrology over the last few years and it may now be appropriate to take a less hedged position and we've got probably six or seven months to think about that for our next commercial and industrial customer contracting round," he said.

Contact had some 660 terawatt hours of annual production available to re-contract, which Barnes described as "the discretionary part of the discretionary part of our portfolio".

"We think with tight supply and demand that might be better placed in wholesale markets, which should allow us to be more re-selective on C&I (commercial and industrial) re-contracting, which in (and) of itself should result in better prices for us," said Barnes, although "this last half a TWh of thermally backed sales is pretty marginal".

Contact also signalled an increase in dividend payouts in future years, the prospect of share buybacks from time to time and a cost-out focus that yielded $11 million in annual corporate cost savings but pushed $5 million of redundancy and restructuring costs into the last financial year. Another half a million dollar annual saving looms as Contact's slimmed-down head office will relinquish one floor of its recently renovated head office in central Wellington.

The share price rose 1.5 percent to trade at $5.46 by mid-afternoon, an increase of 14 percent this year.

The unchanged final dividend of 15 cents per share, fully imputed in the hands of New Zealand shareholders, takes total distributions for the year to 132 percent of underlying profit. The company said a new dividend policy would be based on payouts of 80-to-90 percent of free cash flow, once net debt falls to below 2.8 times ebitdaf. It currently stands at 3.1 times.

In FY18, Contact will target an ordinary dividend of 32 cents per share, an increase of 23 percent on FY17, said Barnes. At the new payout rate, that target would have been between 34 and 38 cents per share. The interim dividend payment date will shift from March into April to assist with imputing dividends to the greatest extent, although full imputation would not be possible for dividends paid against a free cashflow metric rather than tax-paid earnings, said Barnes.

Asked whether the company had considered share buybacks, Barnes said the weight of shareholder opinion appeared slightly to favour unimputed dividends, but there was scope for share buybacks in tranches of up to $100 million at a time, and the board kept the subject live.

The final dividend will be paid on Sept. 19, with a record date of Aug. 31. On a statutory net profit basis, Contact showed a $216 million turnaround for the year, mainly because the costs of closing its Otahuhu-B gas-fired power station washed out of the figures. Net profit after tax was $150 million, compared with a $66 million statutory loss declared in the previous period.

Barnes said Contact was "playing catch-up" with its current round of tariff increases to all its electricity customers, who fell by 2,000 over the year to 423,000, although Barnes said there was little sign of customer switching as a result of raising the energy component of the average power bill by up to 1.5 percent.

Customer switching rates were lower among the 50,000 customers who had taken up the company's shift from the Fly Buys to the AA Smartfuel rewards programme, which occurred in April, said Barnes. Contact previously had around 250,000 customers on Fly Buys, which Genesis Energy is now offering exclusively to electricity customers.

The company also showed marked improvements in staff engagement - a rough guide to internal morale - and a large jump from a negative to a positive 'net promoter score' - a measure of the likelihood that customers will recommend a brand.

(BusinessDesk)

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In the meeting presided by ACP Anil Yadav, the RWA at Essel Towers' Pilot Court agreed to release a new set of guidelines which will "not consist of any kind of guest restrictions related to time, gender and/or marital status".

By Shreya Biswas: "I will tell him [your landlord] that you are supporting prostitution."

That is what a member of Essel Towers' Residential Welfare Association said to a tenant on August 4, during a heated tussle over unmarried tenants being allowed to bring friends / relatives into their homes.

After over a week-long standoff, the residents of this posh society in Gurugram's MG Road have met an understanding, thanks to the police.

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Tenants of Pilot Court (the complex at Essel Towers where the brawl took place) had approached Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar on Friday, who suggested a "joint conciliatory meeting" between the RWA members and the tenants.

"We had met the commissioner and he had arranged a mediation session. We discussed our terms following which the RWA has agreed to lift the restrictions on guests. Additionally, we will be issued ID cards and greater security measures will be put in place," a tenant of the Pilot Court told IndiaToday.in.

In the meeting presided by ACP Anil Yadav, the RWA / managing committee agreed to release a new set of guidelines which will "not consist of any kind of guest restrictions related to time, gender and/or marital status".

The meeting also pointed out facts like the role of the RWA, which is "a voluntary association and not a statutory authority to make laws."

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN TENANTS AND RWA AT ESSEL TOWER?

Earlier this month, the RWA issued a notice to the tenants of Pilot Court with a new set of rules. One of the rules snipped a tenant's right to bring in guests of opposite gender that were not their immediate family after 10 PM and before 8 AM.

The rules also specified that a flat can only be occupied by people of the same gender and that "no mixing of boys and girls or men and women would be allowed to live / remain in the same flat,".

This, of course, did not go down well with bachelors living in the society, but things took a turn for the worse on the evening of August 4.

"We came home to see some disturbance happening at the gate of our block in Pilot Court. The RWA members had been standing there since around eight or nine in the evening in order to prevent 'bachelor' tenants from bringing in visitors of the opposite gender," a tenant of the Pilot Court told IndiaToday.in.

"They were telling us things like 'we know what goes on here,'. I was trying to reason with some of them, on behalf of my colleague whose sister was visiting him, when one of them said 'you are trying to justify these things?'"

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"He [my colleague] was willing to submit his ID proof but they still would not budge."

It was somewhere around this time when one of the RWA members threw that nasty 'prostitution' remark at a female resident. The RWA member has been identified as Ajay Bagga, a former finance director of Philips India Healthcare, and the video of his misconduct has gone viral.

"When they cited prostitution as their reason for such rules, we asked why they hadn't taken the case to police then. They had not response to that question," said another resident of Pilot Court who wishes to remain unnamed.

"We also wanted to know how were they certain that whatever it is that bothered them so much was done by the bachelors living in the block. They didn't have any response for that either." he added.

A few videos of the argument at the gates of Pilot Court were posted on social media, which show RWA members shouting at the tenants, threatening, crying "prostitution", and in one particular video, physically assaulting a tenant.

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Some tenants told IndiaToday.in that the security guards at the complex were given "lathies" to be used "on the residents who are misbehaving and not abiding by the rules". They also said the RWA had fired security guards who were not following the orders. We could not confirm that.

IS THE MATTER RESOLVED NOW?

The RWA and tenants have reached an understanding with help of police, but the tenants are still a little uncertain.

"We are still waiting for the RWA to issue a circular with the new rules in writing. For now, it's a little bit of an uneasy peace," said the female tenant.

WHAT IS RWA's SIDE OF THE STORY?

IndiaToday.in has made multiple attempts to reach out to members of the RWA, including Mr Bagga, and hear their side of the story, but we were disconnected.

We were able to get in touch with Essel Tower's office, but they refused to comment on the matter but said, "Too much is happening, please stay away for now."

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) The issue of Article 35A, which provides special rights to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, seems to be heading into a major controversy with the Supreme Court today saying a constitution bench may examine whether it is gender-biased and violative of the basic structure.

Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, accords special rights and privileges to J and K citizens and deny property right to a woman who marries a person from outside the state.

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The provision, which makes such women from the state to lose rights over property, also applies to her heirs.

The apex court indicated that if Article 35A relating to special rights and privileges of the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir violates the basic structure of Constitution or if it is ultra vires, the issue may be dealt with by a five-judge constitution bench.

It tagged a plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution with a similar pending petition to be heard by a three-judge bench.

"We really feel the issue should go to five-judge constitution bench but that has to be decided by a three-judge bench. If Article 35A violates the basic structure of the Constitution or if it ultra vires to the procedure, then the issue may be dealt by a five-judge bench," a bench headed by Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar said.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha informed the bench that a similar prayer challenging Article 35A exists in another plea filed by a Delhi-based NGO We the Citizens which has been referred to a three-judge bench.

He submitted that the present plea filed by one Dr Charu Wali Khanna should be tagged along with the pending writ petition, which will be heard by a three-judge bench.

Advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the J and K government, said the issue has already been "prima facie settled" by the High Court in its verdict in 2002.

He said that in Dr Susheela Sawhney versus state of Jammu and Kashmir, this issue has been settled by a full bench of the High Court in 2002.

In that case, the full bench of High Court in its majority view had held that a daughter of a permanent resident marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of permanent resident of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The submissions were opposed by petitioners advocate Bimal Jad, who said that no formal notice has been issued in the matter to the state government and it cannot put forth its view at this juncture.

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He said his plea challenges Article 35A on two grounds, that it is gender biased and is volative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 (equality before the law and equal protection within the territory of India).

Narasimha said the three-judge bench will hear the matter tentatively by August 29.

The bench said the matter will be listed before a bench of three-judge bench, adding that if the issue required to be heard by a five-judge constitution bench, then the three-judge bench may refer it.

The petitioner has also challenged Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution which deals with the "permanent residents" of the state.

The plea has challenged certain provisions of the J and K Constitution which deny property rights to a woman and her children who marries a person from outside the state.

Article 35A, empowers the states legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution.

"Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution restricts the basic right of women to marry a man of their choice by not giving the heirs any right to property if the woman marries a man not holding the Permanent Resident Certificate.

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"Her children are denied a permanent resident certificate thereby considering them illegitimate -- not given any right to such a womans property even if she is a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir," the plea, filed through advocate Bimal Roy Jad, said.

The petitioner said that as per the provisions, if a woman marries a person outside Jammu and Kashmir, then she loses property rights as well as employment opportunities in the state.

While Jammu and Kashmirs Non-Permanent Resident Certificate holders can vote in Lok Sabha elections, the same individual is barred to vote in local elections in the state.

In a related matter filed by the NGO We The Citizens challenging Article 35A of the Constitution, a bench headed by the Chief Justice on July 17, had referred the case to a larger three-judge bench for final disposal. PTI MNL SJK ABA RKS ARC

--- ENDS ---
Despite the BJP winning handful of seats from Poorvanchal in Assembly elections and also in Lok Sabha polls, the party has failed to do enough for the region. The region's long cherished dream of AIIMS is far from reality.

By India Today Web Desk: Addressing a rally at Kashi Vidyapith in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi in March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said development of Poorvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh) has been his 'dream'. PM Modi also came down hard on successive state governments for not enough for the region while asking the people of the region to vote fo the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a change.

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The BJP returned to power in Uttar Pradesh a few days later after PM Modi's massive rally. The party won an overwhelming majority in the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

People of the region entrusted their faith in the BJP giving the party 111 seats out of 141 in 25 districts of Poorvanchal. The region has always been BJP's stronghold. This can be understood from the fact that no other party could even open its account in 10 of the 25 districts in the Assembly elections.

Even in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, people voted for the BJP in large numbers. Apart from Azamgarh, which went to Samajawadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, the party won all Lok Sabha seats.

Now, when the region is in news for death of over 60 kids at a hospital in CM Yogi Adityanath's home constituency Gorakhpur due to shambolic infrastructure at a major hospital, questions are being asked what the BJP has done for Poorvanchal?

ENCEPHALITIS - POORVANCHAL'S AGE OLD AILMENT

Every monsoon, hundreds, particularly the kids, get affected by encephalitis. Districts like Gorakhpur, Basti, Dewaria, Azamgarh, Balia, Bahraich, Ghazipur remain the worst hit. The deadly disease has also spread its tentacles in Bihar. Areas like Siwan, Chhapra have seen scores of people falling ill due to encephalitis.

Gorakhpur has been in the grip of Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) for four decades. Both kinds of encephalitis are viral infections that affect the brain, lead to coma and cause death. At times survivors are left with serious disabilities - mental and physical.

Gorakhpur is the epicentre of encephalitis induced deaths. According to official figures, around 25,000 children have died since 1978 due to the two types of encephalitis. And, these are only recorded deaths. Independent figures put the toll around 50,000 as many kids die without reaching hospital.

A DREAM CALLED AIIMS

CM Yogi Adityanath has been fighting to get an AIIMS-like medical institution in Gorakhpur which would help people of the region affected by encephalitis get better medical attention.

Despite coming to power in 2014 with full majority, the BJP has failed to do enough for Poorvanchal. In 2016, the Modi government approved construction of a 750-bed hospital in Gorakhpur. However, the super speciality hospital is unlikely to be completed before 2019. Until then, the 950-bed BRD Hospital, where over 60 kids died due to lack of oxygen supply, is the only option that people of Gorakhpur and Poorvanchal have.

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ALSO READ:

Gorakhpur has a history of children's deaths, 25,000 kids have lost lives to encephalitis

Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan no hero? Allegations of stealing oxygen cylinders for his private clinic abound

Dr Kafeel, who rushed to get oxygen for BRD patients, removed from hospital duties

Yogi Adityanath breaks down in Gorakhpur, says guilty will not be spared

Gorakhpur tragedy: Questions that need our attention

WATCH: India Today exposes reality of UP hospitals

--- ENDS ---
Facing severe criticism over poor medical infrastructure at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, his home constituency, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has promised exemplary action against those responsible.1

By India Today Web Desk: The Supreme Court today refused to take sou motu cognizance of death of over 60 children at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur, the constituency of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Facing severe criticism for the poor infrastructure at Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College and Hospital, Yogi Adityanath warned of 'exemplary' action against those found responsible for the horrifying tragedy.

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HERE ARE THE LATEST UPDATES:

The Supreme Court resfuses to hear petition calling for a sou motu cognizance of the incident. The plea also sought SIT probe in the matter. The Supreme Court has asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court over the issue. Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor. At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neonatal intensive care unit. The deaths set off protests from Gorakhpur to New Delhi with the Opposition calling for Yogi Adityanath's immediate resignation. Describing the incident as 'massacre', the Congress demanded murder case to be registered against those responsible for the negligence. Adityanath, who visited the hospital on Sunday, said parties should refrain from playing politics over the tragedy. "We have formed a high-powered committee under the state chief secretary to probe the reason of the deaths of children in the BRD Medical College and the (lack of) supply of oxygen. Stringent action will be taken against the guilty, whether in Gorakhpur or elsewhere," Adityanath said. Adityanath also slammed the media over putting out 'fake' news about the deaths and asked them to visit the wards to see for themselves if treatment (upchar) or massacre (narsanhar) was happening there. Earlier speaking to reporters, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Raj Babbar said, "70 children were murdered in the last four days (since August 10). The state government is responsible for their murder. This government is a killer and I want to ask how many more children will be killed".

Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan no hero? Allegations of stealing oxygen cylinders for his private clinic abound

Dr Kafeel, who rushed to get oxygen for BRD patients, removed from hospital duties

Yogi Adityanath breaks down in Gorakhpur, says guilty will not be spared

Gorakhpur tragedy: Questions that need our attention

WATCH: Inside Gorakhpur's BRD hospital, the scene of a heartbreaking tragedy

--- ENDS ---
In an incident which highlights the pathetic medical infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh, 68 kids died at a hospital in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: The Shiv Sena has slammed the Centre over the deaths of over 60 children at a Uttar Pradesh government-run hospital in Gorakhpur terming the incident a 'mass murder'. Shiv Sena in its editorial mouthpiece Saamna said the Gorakhpur tragedy is an insult to the nation's Independence Day.

Coming down heavily on its ally, BJP, the Shiv Sena asserted that despite a change in the government at the Centre, 'achhe din' hasn't come for the poor.

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While commenting on the tragedy, an Uttar Pradesh minister said that children always die in the month of August. Shiv Sena questioned, "Why do the only the children of the poor die in August? Why not the children of the rich?"

WHAT HAPPENED?

In an incident which highlights the pathetic medical infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh, 68 kids died at a hospital in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur.

Reports said the kids died due to lack of oxygen supply. The contractor who used to supply oxygen cylinders to BRD Hospital had stopped his services over non-payment of dues. The hospital had not cleared his bill of Rs 69 lakh, sources said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath yesterday warned that exemplary action would be taken against those found responsible for the deaths of children at a state government-run hospital in Gorakhpur.

He visited the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College hospital along with Union Health Minister JP Nadda and later, while addressing a press conference, Yogi promised exemplary action against the guilty.

Facing sharp criticism from the Opposition parties, the Yogi Adityanath government sacked the principal of the BRD Medical College Dr Rajeev Mishra and ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Also Read:

Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: CM Yogi Adityanth promises 'standard-setting' action

30 kids die in 48 hours at a hospital in Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur

Also Watch:

Inside Gorakhpur's BRD hospital, the scene of a heartbreaking tragedy

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Gorakhpur/New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) A row has erupted over shunting out of the nodal officer of paediatric department of Gorakhpurs BRD Medical College where over 60 children have died over the past one week, with resident doctors of AIIMS- Delhi alleging he was made a "scapegoat".

Dr Kafeel Khan was hailed as a hero after he reportedly bought oxygen cylinders with his own money when its shortage led to a crisis last week at the state-run hospital. However, hours after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the hospital, Khan was removed as the nodal officer. Efforts by media to get in touch with him proved futile. Officials at the hospital said he has proceeded on leave.

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A top source in the medical college said Khan has been accused of "fabricating stories" to back his claim of having made frantic efforts to save the lives of children as many of them were left gasping for breath for want of oxygen, the supply of which was disrupted by the vendor over alleged non- payment of dues.

Many of the children were claimed to have died in the hospitals neo-natal intensive care unit for want of oxygen.

The government, however, has been insisting Japanese encyphalitis was a major cause of the tragedy. Gorakhpur and areas surrounding it are prone to the disease which has claimed hundreds of lives over the past two decades. Khan is also alleged to be running a 50-bed hospital for children by proxy. The owner of the hospital, the source claimed, was his wife, a dentist. Private practice by government doctors is banned in Uttar Pradesh. He was also a member of the purchase committee of the medical college and had complete information about pending dues of the Lucknow-based company that supplied oxygen cylinders to the medical college, the source claimed.

Hours after the tragedy struck, Khan had said, "All the doctors were on the job for the past few days. We walked the extra mile. Some people are running a smear campaign on the social media because I am a Muslim.... They should not do so. I want to clarify that I am an Indian first, and I have done everythig as a doctor."

President of the resident doctors association at AIIMS, Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti alleged that once again a doctor has been made a "scapegoat for the infrastructural lapse and failure of the government".

The association has written an open letter condemning Khans removal and has also accused the Uttar Pradesh government of "gross neglect of public health".

"If oxygen, gloves, surgical instruments and basic medicines are not available in the hospital, then who is responsible? According to the government, the doctor is responsible.

"I request politicians not to spoil this relationship between the patient and the doctor to hide their incompetency," Bhatti said in the letter. PTI PTI COR NAV PLB SMI RT SK SK

--- ENDS ---
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By PTI: at AIIMS

(Eds: Rptng after changes in para 1,4 )

New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Resident doctors of the Delhi AIIMS today condemned the removal of Dr Kafeel Khan of Gorakhpur-based BRD Medical College Hospital, alleging that he had been made a "scapegoat" in the tragic incident in which 30 children had died within a span of 48 hours.

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Khan, who was the nodal officer at the state-run hospitals paediatric department, had been hailed as a hero after he reportedly bought oxygen cylinders with his own money during the crisis.

"With great pain we have to say that once again a doctor has been made a scapegoat for the infrastructural lapse and failure of the government," President of the resident doctors association at AIIMS, Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, said.

The association has written a letter condemning Khans removal and has also accused the Uttar Pradesh government of "gross neglect of public health."

"If oxygen, gloves, surgical instruments and basic medicines are not available in the hospital, then who is responsible? According to the government, the doctor is responsible.

"I request politicians not to spoil this relationship between the patient and the doctor to hide their incompetency," Bhatti said in the letter.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at the BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7 and at least 30 children were reported dead till yesterday.

Many of the victims were infants admitted at the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit. PTI PLB ANB

--- ENDS ---
If you roll back the calendar a decade, tri bike geometries were all over the map. Stack and reach  metrics first coined and described here in 2003  quickly became the way that bike manufacturers, bike fitters, retailers, consumers identified how a frame would fit. These metrics exposed frames that fit oddly or badly, or size runs that were badly scaled.



Over the past 5 years tri bike makers have solved this by coalescing around an orthodox geometries. But that doesnt mean there is orthodoxy in how tri bikes fit. Now the frames fit but the aerobars dont.



Lets take a frame with a stack and reach of 540mm and 425mm respectively. This is a Quintana Roo PR 3/5/6 in size 54cm; its within 3mm of stack of a Felt IAx in size 56cm; its a Trek Speed Concept in size L; a Dimond Marquise in size M; and several other frames. See the chart below? The colored circles, squares, triangles in the lower left show where the head tube top terminates (where stack and reach are measured). As you see, 3 of these frames are identical, one has a bit more stack and a little less reach (the Scott) and the Giant has just a little less frame reach. The point is, theyre all close to each other.



What this should tell you is: That there is a consensus around frame geometry; an orthodoxy; and secondly, that you should pay no attention to the stated size! Stack and reach are truth tellers.



But this doesnt mean all these bikes fit the same. Its just that the blame or credit for how expansively they fit; and whether they fit long, short, high, low; now belongs to the front end that protrudes from the frame.

Frame geometries have converged. What is very different is in how these 5 bikes fit. The colored rectangles show the fit range rectangle. The pads can sit anywhere inside of those rectangles (the color of the frame corresponds with the color of the rectangle). QR's frame terminates where the tiny green (obscured by the other bike's icons) square is, and the square rectangle is its pad range. And so on.



As you see, the Trek (blue dot, blue rectangle) has the most expansive range of pad placement (and Im normalizing everything to pad-center); the QR is way up there in fit range and Felt is pretty good too. You should also note that even though the Giant, even though its geometry is pretty similar to the other bikes, had almost no overlap with any of these bikes except the Trek.



In other words, a Giant Trinity Advanced Pro with the same frame stack as a QR, a Felt or a Scott Plasma will fit an entirely different person than anyone riding these other bikes.



Can I back up for one short paragraph? For those who are lost? For those who havent been reading along over the past several years, this cartesian graph above shows the rise and run of the head tube top of the frame from the bottom bracket (the place on the frame where the crank attaches). This rise and run is called stack and reach. Then theres the rise and run from the BB to the armrest, on the top of the pad, midway between the leading and trailing edge of the pad. This is important because this is where you contact the bike.



Superbike companies that make their own aerobars



Giant makes its own aerobars. Scott kind of does, for its Plasma Premium. I have found as a general rule that if a company makes its own aerobars that these aerobars lack the sort of adjustability youd find in a bar made by Profile Design or Zipp.



Yes, the Plasma Premium uses a bar that Profile Design makes for it, but there are some mods on that bar that make it a bit less fore/aft adjustable than standard PD bar. But it does have great up/down range. Giants aerobar has the opposite: pretty good fore/aft, but a very narrow 30mm range of up/down.



Quintana Roo simply puts a PD bar on the bike. Wise move.



Trek & Felt



Felt has a pretty long history making its own bars and part of the reason it feels it can do this effectively is that one of its excellent engineers  Anton Petrov  spent several years engineering at Profile Design. Its bar has quite a bit of adjustability to it, both fore/aft and up/down. This allows Felt to (so far) offer only a single 93mm long stem for its IA10 thru 16. Id like to see Felt offer a second stem eventually, maybe in the 60mm range, but its the expansive bar range that allows this bike to fit a lot of people.



Trek is in its own genus. It makes excellent aerobars and its fit range is so broad that I struggle to make a chart big enough to house it. But there is one downside to Treks system: The range is much, much, much smaller if you restrict yourself to the single pedestal and stem that might come with a particular bike. Its quite difficult, techie and time consuming to lower or raise the pads 10mm on a Speed Concept, versus the prior, original (2011) edition of the Speed Concept that simply pedestaled the pads. Still, you have to hand it to Trek  it made a bike with an extremely adjustable front end.



Its the aerobar, stupid



This is the tri bike analog to Its the economy, stupid. By far, the thing that matters today, versus a decade ago, is the adjustment scheme of the front end: the stem, and the bar, anything that protrudes above and in front of the head tube top. This is now how you choose a tri bike to fit; and this is why all the superbikes (bikes with integrated front ends) have these Pad x and y solvers, to help you choose the config that matches your position.



Because of this, if you say, Im going to choose my next tri bike based off stack and reach, youre a very wise man! But your wisdom is 5 or 10 years old. Now you should be saying, Im going to choose my next tri bike based on my Pad x and y. (Or pad stack and reach if you prefer.)



This wisdom started with superbikes, however more and more were able to calculate your best size and config from Pad x/y even if its a pretty standard tri bike with standard stems. Pad x/y are now the most important pair of metrics for choosing a bike that fits you well.
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70 children have reportedly died in Gorakhpur in the past few days. Here are the questions that need our attention.

BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur is a nodal site for treatment of encephalitis | Photo: PTI

By India Today Web Desk: According to reports from Gorakhpur, the death toll of children dying has reached 70. The lack of amenities and the deplorable condition of authorities in Gorakhpur has raised many questions around the country.

A local news outlet, Gorakhpur Newsline, reported on August 10 that the supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College has been stopped due to failure of authorities in paying the company. The report also stated that the liquid oxygen will run out by the night, an issue of concern as many lives will be at stake.

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A statement released by BRD Medical hospital on August 11, said that 30 children had died due to the unavailability of oxygen.

#UttarPradesh A total number of 60 deaths have occurred in the past 5 days: Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/K8yBBRkrFV- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 11, 2017

Another letter was released by ANI on August 12 which shows that a letter was written to authorities informing them about the shortage of oxygen in the hospital.

Looking at the figures and reports that are coming out of Gorakhpur, here few questions about the Gorakhpur tragedy that still needs to answered.

1. What are the causes of death?

The government, in its statements, are saying that the deaths weren't caused by the unavailability of oxygen.

Children have not died due to disruption of gas supply: UP Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/XVDYUQgDmC- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Whether it was lack of oxygen or encephalitis, how can death of 23 children in one day be explained?

2. Why did the hospital sit on the bills sent by Pushpa Sales?

BRD Medical College owes Pushpa Sales (the company responsible for delivering oxygen to BRD Medical college) Rs 63 lakh. The company said that despite constant reminders the payment was not made due to which they decided to cut the oxygen supply.

A partial payment was made on the night of August 11, reports say, but why did the hospital authorities let the bill mount up to Rs 63 lakh? Where did the money for the payment of Rs 21 lakh that was made to the oxygen company on August 11 come from?

Repeatedly communicated about pending payments to concerned authorities but never got response: Meenu Walia, HR Pushpa Gas Agency #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/DL3ItYW2xA- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Why did the hospital authorities not respond to the repeated reminders sent by the oxygen supplying company?

At the same time, there have also been reports that BRD college had asked for funds in May 2017, which have not yet been released by the central government. BRD college is one of the primary centers for treatment of encephalitis in the area.

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3. Why have no constructive measures been taken to deal with encephalitis in Gorakhpur?

There have been reports of deaths due to encephalitis in the area, yet no constructive steps were taken to deal with the issue. BRD college being the nodal agency for treatment of encephalitis in the area, then why did the local authorities not pay special attention to its demands?

Data reveals that encephalitis has been the cause of several deaths since 1978 in Gorakhpur.

Yet, the rising amount of deaths caused by encephalitis in not a cause of concern for the authorities?

--- ENDS ---
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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612eed5b370)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612efe77d90)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612eed5b370)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612efe77d90)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe520f0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612efe77d90)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612efe77d90)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e8e98818)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0202f40)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0202f40)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f011d5f0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011daa0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f011d5f0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011daa0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f020e420)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011daa0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011daa0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e8e982f0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f011d578)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f011d578)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
The ACT Opposition will introduce a bill to make it easier to punish the owners of dogs that attack people or pets after two serious maulings in one weekend.

The Canberra Liberals are drafting legislation to make it much tougher and more expensive to own a dangerous dog amid what they described as government inaction.

Vanessa Giannasca visiting her dogs Lucky and Lady at Greencross Vets at Calwell after they were mauled by three dogs on August 5. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Urban services spokesman Steve Doszpot said the bill would clarify when a dog could be declared dangerous or seized and write into law the victim's right to be kept informed of the process.

While city services minister Meegan Fitzharris earlier this month flagged upcoming changes to domestic animal laws, Mr Doszpot said the government continued to double-down on the line existing dangerous dog laws were "adequate".
Future residents of Taylor will have to keep their cats locked up, after the new suburb was declared Canberra's 12th cat containment area.

The rare pink-tailed worm-lizard and the golden sun moth are two species that will be protected under the rules, which require cats to be confined to their owner's property at all times.

City Services Minister Meegan Fitzharris said Taylor had been ruled a cat containment area because of its close proximity to the Kinlyside Nature Reserve.

While residents are yet to move to Taylor, developers must now put up cat containment signs in the area to remind residents of their responsibilities as cat owners, she said.
Canberra police have identified a man found in Hawker in serious condition, and located his family.

Earlier, they called on the public to help identify the man, who was found about 8.30am by a passer-by in Woolner Circuit in Hawker. Ambulance crews were called and took the man to hospital.

An ACT Policing spokesman said he had been carrying only a set of keys and had no identification.

"Police believe the man may live around the Hawker area, and may have been out for a walk this morning," they said in a statement.
The departure of Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev has failed to stave off the political heat on the bank over a money laundering compliance scandal despite winning praise from corporate governance experts.

Amid fierce public scrutiny of CBA over alleged breaches of anti-money laundering laws and speculation about Mr Narev's future, chairman Catherine Livingstone on Monday said Mr Narev would retire from the bank by the end of this financial year. Last week the board had already announced it would scrap short term executive bonuses.

Experts said the move showed there was accountability at the bank, which last week faced a rare blast of criticism from the corporate watchdog, the Treasurer, and the Reserve Bank.

But Labor did not let up in its pressure on CBA, with shadow assistant minister for Treasury, Matt Thistlethwaite, pushing for Mr Narev to be hauled before a parliamentary committee in the coming weeks to explain the alleged breaches.
Australia's biggest gold miner Newcrest Mining has unveiled a new policy for rewarding shareholders after posting a 22 per cent jump in underlying profit.

Newcrest recorded an underlying profit of $US394 million ($498 million), and EBITDA of $US1.4 billion for 2016-17 in its results released on Monday.

Newcrest Mining's managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas. Credit:Carla Gottgens

The company declared a final dividend of US7.5 cents per share (70 per cent franked)  for a full-year dividend of US15 cents  and outlined a policy under which its dividend payout would be at least 10-30 per cent of that financial year's free cash flow.

In a statement to the ASX Newcrest said that under the new policy, the dividend would be "no less than US15 cents per share on a full-year basis".
Electronics suppliers value how JB Hi-Fi "brings their products to life" in the eyes of shoppers, and that affection will be an important buffer if Amazon unleashes a price war in Australia, the retailer's boss says.

The company's shares have joined a sector-wide slump in recent months as predictions mount that the e-commerce giant, which could launch locally by the end of the year, will capture market share, drive down prices and crimp retailers' profits.

But JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray said the company was committed to remaining the cheapest player in the market and it had significant leeway with suppliers.

"Suppliers see us as the destination for 'new'," Mr Murray told Fairfax Media on Monday after handing down the company's full-year results.
By PTI: Berlin, Aug 14 (PTI) The defeat of the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca - considered one of the greatest military commanders in history - in the Second Punic War led to the rise of Rome from a regional power to an Empire, say scientists who studied ancient Roman coins.

The Second Punic War from 218 to 201 BC, where Hannibal famously marched his elephants across the Alps in a failed attack on Rome, has been regarded as one of the pivotal events of European history.

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Rome entered the war as the dominant power in Italy, but emerged an empire. The war led to the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, with the Romans gradually gaining control over the lucrative Spanish silver mines from around 211 BC.

Revenues from the rich Spanish silver mines coupled with booty and extensive war reparations from Carthage - located in present-day Tuninia - helped fund the expansion of its territory.

Now the application of geochemical analysis techniques has provided proof of the importance of the Spanish silver to the Roman conquest.

Scientists led by Fleur Kemmers and Katrin Westner from the Goethe University in Germany analysed 70 Roman coins dating from 310-300 BC to 101 BC, a period which bracketed the Second Punic War.

Using mass spectrometry, they were able to show that lead in the coins made after 209 BC has distinctive isotopic signatures which identified most of the later coins as presumably originating from Spanish sources.

The changing origin of the coin bullion is mirrored by differing ratios of the lead isotopes 208Pb, 207Pb, 206Pb and 204Pb, which serve as geological clocks recording the formation age of the ores used to extract the silver.

After 209 BC, the lead isotope signatures mostly correspond to those of deposits in southeast and southwest Spain or to mixtures of metal extracted from these districts.

"Before the war we find that the Roman coins are made of silver from the same sources as the coinage issued by Greek cities in Italy and Sicily," said Westner.

"In other words the lead isotope signatures of the coins correspond to those of silver ores and metallurgical products from the Aegean region," she said.

"But the defeat of Carthage led to huge reparation payments to Rome, as well as Rome gaining high amounts of booty and ownership of the rich Spanish silver mines," she added.

"From 209 BC we see that the majority of Roman coins show geochemical signatures typical for Iberian silver," said Westner.

This massive influx of Iberian silver significantly changed Romes economy, allowing it to become the superpower of its day.

"We know this from the histories of Livy and Polybius and others, but our work gives contemporary scientific proof of the rise of Rome," said Westner.

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It shows that the defeat of Hannibal and the rise of Rome is written in the coins of the Roman Empire, she said. PTI MHN SAR MHN

--- ENDS ---
Malcolm Turnbull's government is hanging by a thread after dramatic revelations that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is a dual citizen, potentially ruling him ineligible to remain in Parliament and putting the Coalition's slim majority at risk.

Despite his bombshell announcement, Mr Joyce is refusing to step down from cabinet or abstain from votes in the lower house - where the Coalition has a one seat majority - claiming he is confident the High Court will clear him to stay on.

However the Nationals leader is also taking urgent steps to renounce his New Zealand citizenship, paving the way for him to run again in case the court rules him ineligible and orders a byelection in his NSW seat of New England.

Mr Turnbull is also confident the court will clear his deputy, declaring: "The Deputy Prime Minister is qualified to sit in this house and the High Court will so hold."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has acted irresponsibly by giving the United States a "blank cheque" commitment to aid Australia's ally in a conflict with North Korea, former prime minister Kevin Rudd has said.

After a week of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula, Mr Rudd said multiple scenarios could still play out and Mr Turnbull's promise to support the US was "irresponsible in terms of our core national security interests".

"You never, as an Australian prime minister, as an ally of the United States, give the Americans before the event a blank cheque," he told ABC radio from New York.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has been forced to disown modelling released by the Turnbull government that claimed Labor's tax plan would put a $150 billion tax bill on families and small businesses.

On Monday, Treasurer Scott Morrison seized on the figures to claim that Labor's tax plan would hit retirees, businesses, negative gearers, and those benefiting from capital gains tax.

"There is a tax winter coming under Bill Shorten if he ever becomes Prime Minister," Mr Morrison told Sky News.

But in a rare public intervention, the independent office issued a statement that it had nothing to do with modelling released by the Treasurer's office on Monday morning.
New Zealand's Foreign Minister and the head of the nation's citizenship branch attend an emergency meeting with the New Zealand Prime Minister.

PM: Hurry it up, chaps, I have a meeting about the future of the Bledisloe Cup. Damned Australians want to call it off unless we let them win from time to time.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce at Parliament House last month. Credit:Andrew Meares

Foreign Minister: Very underarm of them, if I may say so, Prime Minister. But we have a slightly more ticklish problem to deal with.

Citizenship branch head: Name of Joyce.
NSW public hospitals have been graded by their doctors in training in the Hospital Health Check Survey report published Monday. No NSW hospital scored an "A" mark for their overall performance in the report published Monday by the Alliance NSW (AMA NSW and Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation). Among greater Sydney's hospitals, the following scored an overall C: Bankstown-Lidcombe, Blacktown, Campbelltown and Camden, Concord and Canterbury, Liverpool and Fairfield, Nepean, RPA, St George and Sutherland, St Vincent's, The Childrens Hospitals, Prince of Wales and Westmead. Only The Royal North Shore, and the North Sydney LHD hospital grouping of Hornsby, Manly and Mona Vale hospitals scored an overall "B" mark. The two measures with the most C and D grades were "rostering and overtime" and "wellbeing", with no NSW hospital scoring A and only a handful scoring B.

RPA, St Vincent's, Bankstown-Lidcombe, Westmead, and St George and Sutherland hospitals each scored two D marks, one for "rostering and overtime", and the other for "wellbeing". The Childrens Hospital Westmead was the only hospital to get a B for wellbeing, and the NSLHD grouping of Hornsby, Manly and Mona Vale hospitals were the only hospitals to score B for rostering and overtime. A spokesperson for NSW Health said the survey "highlighted some areas of concern at individual hospitals and these hospitals will need to review the results and respond to the issues identified". All five D-graded hospitals have implemented a range of measures designed to improve the safety and wellbeing of staff, including RPA's BPTOK program, JOM complaints officers at Western Sydney LHD and South Western Sydney LHD, and mentoring program at St Vincent's hospital. While there was some variation between individual hospitals, the report showed the issues hampering junior doctors were evident across the network and demanded a system-wide response, Dr Pham said.

"These types of problems are deeply etched into the fabric of our profession and there is not easy glue we can use to slip into the cracks," Dr Pham said. "It's going to take a steady, sustained effort from all stakeholders and parties involved." Overall, the survey of 1107 doctors in training found 71 per cent had been concerned they would make clinical errors, and 68 per cent said they were worried about their personal health and safety due to fatigue caused by hours worked. Only 3 per cent of respondents worked a normal 80-hour week and almost 90 per cent were not paid all their unrostered overtime. Almost one third of respondents said they were bullied but did not report the incidents, and 46 per cent said they witnessed bullying but did not report it.

Two thirds said they feared the negative consequences of reporting inappropriate workplace behaviours. "They were things we would only talk about in hushed tones behind closed doors with none of our seniors around," Dr Pham said. "Now we have this data on paper to say this is what we are dealing with means we have a baseline and work to improve and make things better." Health Minister Brad Hazzard at the JMO wellbeing forum in June. Credit:Louise Kennerley The study also found several positives, including 56 per cent of respondents rating their overall experience as a DIT good or excellent, and 80 per cent said they would recommend their hospital to other doctors.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was well aware of the high degree of concern surrounding untenable work conditions and mental health problems through conversations with young doctors and the JMO wellbeing forum in June. "We need to take these issues seriously ... hospital management need to pick up their game in some instances, but part of the fault lies with the colleges and the government and health system generally," Mr Hazzard said. "The challenge now is to get 15 separate local health districts to work with the central ministry of health to try and improve what are long-term systemic issues," Mr Hazzard said. NSW Health was currently finalising a "JMO Wellbeing Support Plan" based on feedback from the forum and expert advice, and has launched a review of hospitals roster patterns. "The new rostering system that is being rolled out across NSW Health provides support to those developing rosters and managers to ensure rostering meets best practice," a NSW Health spokesperson said.
Government lawyers battling terrorists, child sex offenders and other serious criminals fear their jobs are to be outsourced as their bosses trim employee numbers, according to the public service union.

The prosecutors and other staff at the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions have been given little detail about the potential outsourcing, but their union says the plan could see the most sensitive and vital court cases being handled by staff from labour-hire agencies.

The office confirmed on Monday that it was considering hiring some "junior prosecutors" through "third party providers" in an effort to manage the numbers of public servants on its books.

The Community and Public Sector Union says the CDPP, like other federal agencies and departments, is being pressured by the Turnbull government to slash its numbers of public servants.
Suong Nguyen was "scared" of a woman wearing a niqab when she banged on her car door, told her to take off her mask, and called her a terrorist.

The victim, Semaa Abdulwali, filmed the racist attack in the car park at Macquarie University on January 20, and the footage was watched by millions of people when her husband Ramzy Alamudi posted it online.

Nguyen was on Monday handed good behaviour bonds and a fine, after pleading guilty to intimidation and causing damage.

Magistrate Suzanne Seagrave said Nguyen displayed an "unexplainable prejudice that has no place whatsoever in our multicultural society".
Every time a toilet is flushed in Brisbane's south and west it could be contributing to the fuelling of Australia's first poo-powered car.

Queensland Urban Utilities is saving millions of dollars every year as it uses the city's toilet waste to power up to 50 per cent of two of its largest sewage treatment plants, and now one of its fleet cars.

Every time Brisbane residents flush their toilet they could be helping run Australia's first poo-powered car. Credit:Paul Edmondson

QUU spokeswoman Michelle Cull said one day the sewerage and water provider hoped to have an entire fleet of cars that could run on human waste.

"At the moment we just have the one car, but yes, we do have plans to hopefully one day power our entire fleet by poo," she said.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) Following are the top stories of

New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) Following are the top stories of the northern region at 2100 hrs:

DEL51 JK-LD CEASEFIRE

Jammu/Srinagar: Pakistani troops violate the ceasefire four times along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir, injuring three Army jawans, officials said.

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DES24 INDIA-TURKMENISTAN

New Delhi: India and Turkmenistan will hold talks tomorrow on ways to enhance trade and boost scientific and technological cooperation.

DES29 RAMDEV-KASHMIR

New Delhi: Yoga guru Ramdev says his consumer products company is in the process of acquiring land in Jammu and Kashmir to set up a unit there and would also offer jobs to youth in the state.

DES22 UP-CHOUHAN-BHAJAN

Mathura (UP): Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was on a two-day pilgrimage to the temple town of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, sings devotional songs at a shrine.

DEL10 BSF-NEW FENCING SYSTEM

New Delhi: India is deploying along its volatile border with Pakistan a smart Israel-developed fencing system having a quick response team mechanism which strikes when the CCTV- powered control room detects an infiltration attempt. PTI8_13_2017_000008B

DES26 POL-CONG-PATEL

New Delhi: The dramatic Rajya Sabha win of Congress chief strategist Ahmed Patel is being widely hailed in internal circles as the booster shot the party needed and a turning point in its fortunes.

DES11 HRD-EDU-SINGLE-REGULATOR

New Delhi: The governments plan to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with a single higher education regulator seems to have hit a roadblock with the HRD ministry putting the idea on hold.

DES27 DL-CHILDREN-PRINCIPAL-IMA

New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) demands revocation of the suspension of the principal of Gorakhpur- based BRD medical college, where 30 children died within a span of 48 hours.

DES10 AVI-FAMILY UNIQUE

New Delhi: Crisp whites, peak caps, flight bags, four stripes on their shoulders -- and the love for flying -- are the constants for three generations of Bhasins, a unique aviator family. By Jagriti Chandra

DES12 UP-IDAY-MADRASSAS-CLERICS

Lucknow: The decision to record Independence Day celebrations in madrassas (Islamic Schools) of Uttar Pradesh for the first time evokes a mixed response from Muslim clerics.

DES5 JK-MILITANCY-RECRUITMENT

Jammu: Seventy young men have joined militancy in the past seven months this year with most of the recruits from three districts in south Kashmir: Senior official. By Anil Bhatt

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DES23 RJ-WIDOW-WITCH

Jaipur: A 40-year-old widow in Rajasthans Ajmer district was allegedly made to eat faeces, tortured and beaten to death by her relatives, who accused her of being a witch: Police. PTI DIP

--- ENDS ---
Two former university students have taken the federal Information Commissioner to court to find out exactly what went on when a racial discrimination complaint was brought against them.

Calum Thwaites and Jackson Powell were unsuccessfully sued by Queensland University of Technology staffer Cindy Prior for $250,000 under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Three ex-QUT students are taking the Information Commissioner to court. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Ms Prior complained to the Human Rights Commissioner about the pair and a third student, Alex Wood, after they posted comments on social media about the university's Indigenous-only computer lab in 2013.

The students were not told about the complaint against them until 14 months later, just three days before a conciliation conference in court.
Most people think of small business as the local store or service provider selling goods or services to local people.

The fact is that many small businesses are exporting and the number is increasing, which is good for Australian employment and the economy.

Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell says there is support available for small businesses to export. Credit:Andrew Meares

In 2013-14 there were nearly 20,000 small businesses exporting goods, representing 44 per cent of all exporters.

In recent years there has been an increase in small firms that are "born global", meaning that they are exporting from the outset.
Amazon is exploring a technology first developed for the US military to produce tasty prepared meals that do not need refrigeration, as it looks for new ways to muscle into the grocery business.

The world's biggest online retailer has discussed selling ready-to-eat dishes such as beef stew and a vegetable frittata as soon as next year, officials at the start-up firm marketing the technology said.

The dishes would be easy to stockpile and ship because they do not require refrigeration and could be offered quite cheaply compared with take-out from a restaurant.

If the cutting-edge food technology comes to fruition, and Amazon implements it on a large scale, it would be a major step forward for the company as it looks to grab hold of more grocery customers shifting toward quick and easy meal options at home.
"It wasn't easy to sue the Education Department, but there have to be consequences for putting a known paedophile in a classroom of little kids." "I'm proud of standing up for myself and for other survivors. I'm glad I did it and I urge other survivors, if they can, to do the same  talk to police, talk to the lawyers. Make sure this never happens again." A Department spokesman said it was a tragic case with a heartbreaking impact. "We apologise unreservedly for failing to protect the victims of this teacher when they were students in the 1970s," he said. Rightside Legal's Michael Magazanik, who represented the 10 men and another three who have sued, said the Education Department could have stopped it at the beginning.

In 1967 a mother reported Morris to the Education Department for abusing her son, he was reported to at least two principals in the 1970s and, damningly, he was allowed to return to the same school in Ringwood in 1979 despite being charged and acquitted of abusing six boys. It's understood one principal put him in a classroom opposite his office to keep an eye on him. But still he continued to assault students, Mr Magazanik said. Much of the abuse was public; in classrooms, on crowded school buses, at school camps and in playgrounds. Jailed last year for at least four years, the County Court heard in one instance, Morris made a seven-year-old boy sit on his lap in front of his class and masturbated him from behind a book.

One of the boys, the court heard, now suffers from a debilitating compulsion to wash himself over and over. The civil claims for Morris' abuse were settled before trial, except for one victim, for whom the compensation amount was contested. Government lawyers argued the man, who was able to work full-time, suffered mild anxiety that did not prevent him for leading a secure life. Justice Rita Zammit awarded the 51-year-old $717,000 in damages, future losses and medical costs in the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Friday. Justice Zammit said the abuse - which he experienced weekly through his grade 4 year at a Ringwood school - insidiously affected all aspects of his life. "The abuse was prolonged, gross and public and it had a profoundly damaging effect," Justice Zammit said.

It is believed the government is considering counter-suing Morris to recover some of the pay-out. Police are also understood to be investigating claims from further victims. Morris was jailed last year for a maximum six years, with a minimum of four behind bars, for abusing six boys at two schools in Cranbourne and Ringwood. He lost an appeal against his sentence in December. Morris, who was a Cub leader in Melbourne's east, left teaching in 1980 after he pleaded guilty to the indecent assault of a student. Loading He went on to teach international students in Sydney and China from 2001 to 2008 before his arrest in Canberra last year.
Vlado Micetic was shot dead in August 2013. "Do as you're told, I don't want to use force," Mr Baker says in the recording. Mr Micetic questions why he is being arrested and at one point asks: "What are you doing this for?" He is also heard telling Mr Baker the policeman would get in "trouble" and would lose his job. "I don't think so," Mr Baker replies.

After one handcuff is put on, there are sounds of a struggle and then three gunshots. In the 22 seconds after the last shot, the jury was told, Mr Baker does not speak but sounds can be heard before another police car pulls up. Outlining the Crown's case, prosecutor Andrew Tinney, SC, said there was a metallic sound in those 22 seconds which prosecutors allege is the sound of Mr Baker opening a flick knife and dropping it on the ground. Mr Tinney said a sound expert identified the sound of the knife being opened, 15 seconds after the first shot. The shooting was not captured by the camera in Mr Baker's car as the struggle happened in front of Mr Micetic's car, which was parked in front of the police car.

A woman was in the car with Mr Micetic when they were pulled over, the trial heard, but she got out and waked away while Mr Micetic was being arrested. She did not see the shooting, Mr Tinney said. Mr Tinney told the jury Mr Baker later said Mr Micetic pulled a knife on him and that he shot him in self-defence. He told investigators Mr Micetic "took a swipe at me" with the knife. Eight months after the shooting, the trial heard, the accused man said in a statement: "I went for my gun thinking I was about to be stabbed."

Mr Baker said he feared he would have been killed, the statement said, and that after the shooting he moved the knife away from Mr Micetic as a precaution. But prosecutors allege Mr Baker had the knife with him and planted it as evidence. Mr Tinney labelled the self-defence claim as "no more than a sham". "The claim of self-defence made by the accused was a fabrication," he told the jury. During his opening address, the prosecutor showed the jury a police vest and the various items officers carry, demonstrated how the locking mechanism on a police holster worked, and showed jurors a firearm safety flag, which is put in the barrel of a pistol to denote there is no bullet in the chamber.

Mr Tinney said a flag, flick knife and Mr Baker's keys were all found on the ground near where Mr Micetic was shot. Police found knives in Mr Micetic's car and home, the court heard. Mr Micetic, Mr Tinney said, had past convictions for violence but was entitled to the protection of the law. Despite his job as a policeman, Mr Baker was not above the law and shot Mr Micetic without any lawful justification, when he lost control of the situation and became angry, the prosecutors said. Defence counsel Ian Hill, QC, is set to address the jury on Tuesday.
Two Victorian mental health patients have taken their fight against compulsory electro-shock therapy to the Supreme Court.

A man named as "PBU" has received six electroconvulsive therapy sessions against his will while hospitalised for mental health issues in Melbourne, and is fighting an order for more, Victoria Legal Aid says.

Both patients say they retain the capacity to make informed decisions about treatment.

A woman, "NJE", who is receiving treatment has also been ordered to undergo 12 sessions against her will.

"Each of my clients understands this procedure and is terrified of it," barrister Emrys Nekvapil told the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday.
A woman who was rescued after a wall collapsed on her vehicle in North Fremantle is in a stable condition in hospital.

Her injuries are not considered to be life threatening.

The incident occurred just before 1pm on Monday at The Matilda Bay Brewing Company on the corner of Stirling Highway and Coventry Parade.

A Department of Fire and Emergency Services spokesperson has told WAtoday the collapsed wall fell onto one vehicle which had one person, a woman, inside.
Most shoppers love a gift with purchase but preferably not one with eight legs and a sting in the tail.

A Canadian weatherman got a nasty surprise as he unpacked his groceries, discovering a live scorpion in a bag of bananas.

Canadian man Nathan Coleman discovered a scorpion in a bag of bananas he bought from Costco in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Credit:Nathan Coleman

Nathan Coleman was alerted to the squirming creature by his 11-year-old daughter.

"It was as scary as it was shocking," Mr Coleman told Huffington Post Canada. "It's just such a strange bug. It's actually very surreal. I cover all of Atlantic Canada, but I didn't have to go very far to find this story. It was right in my kitchen."
Even as a child, Charlottesville protest victim Heather Heyer had a strong sense of social justice with her mother saying her death was not in vain.

Susan Bro remembered her daughter as a person who knew right from wrong and would always choose love over hate.

"I don't want her death to be a focus for more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion," Ms Bro told the Huffington Post.

"No mother wants to lose a child, but I'm proud of her. I'm proud of what she did."
China has announced it will cut off imports of North Korean coal, iron ore and other key goods in three weeks under UN sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear program.

China, the isolated North's main trading partner, has been reluctant to push leader Kim Jong-un's regime too hard for fear it might collapse. But Beijing is increasingly frustrated with Pyongyang and joined in approving a UN Security Council ban on August 5 on coal and other key goods.

The Chinese customs agency said on Monday it will stop processing imports of North Korean coal, iron and lead ores and fish at midnight on September 5.

The latest sanctions are intended to block exports valued at more than $US1 billion ($A1.3 billion) - a significant loss to total exports valued at $US3 billion last year.
A resident of Chadoora Budgam in central Kashmir, Ghaznavi joined militancy in 1997 and was arrested and released several times, last known being 2011.

Ghaznavi was the chief operational commander of the terror group and mastermind behind several cop killings.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Dreaded terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen received yet another death blow on Sunday when forces gunned down its top most commander in Kashmir, Mehmood Ghaznavi aka Yasin Itoo.

Ghaznavi was the chief operational commander of the terror group and mastermind behind several cop killings. In the recent past, he had successfully mobilised and recruited Hizb cadres. Incidentally he was also a man who was behind the release of several viral videos of Kashmiri militants mostly in Kulgam.

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Two other militants and two soldiers were also killed in the encounter that lasted close to 20 hours. Sources said a group of six militants, including Gaznavi, were trapped by forces, who also had to endure massive stone pelting by locals under the cover of darkness.

"Top HM commander Yasin Itoo @ Ghaznavi among the killed terrorists in Shopian encounter," Deputy Inspector General of Police (DGP) south Kashmir Swayam Prakash Pani tweeted.

Three of the militants had managed to flee. Incidentally, the end was dramatic for Ghaznavi. Police initially believed him to be top Lashkar commander Adil Malik, but when his family was called to take the body, they refused. Later, his brother identified the body. Ghaznavi took over the guard of HM after the killing of Sabzdar Bhat in July this year, said CRPF I-G Zulfikar Hassan.

A resident of Chadoora Budgam in central Kashmir, Ghaznavi joined militancy in 1997 and was arrested and released several times, last known being 2011. I-G Kashmir Muneer Khan said, "In 2015, Ghaznavi staged his death. A Hizb statement declared his death... a namaz-ejanaza was held."

But his continuous public appearances blew his cover. The other two killed terrorists have been identified as Umar Majeed, a resident of Kulgam and Irfan Sheikh, a B-tech student from Islamic University of Pulwama.

Also Read:

Big setback to Hizbul Mujahideen as security forces kill its chief operations commander Mehmood Ghaznavi

Kashmir: 3 terrorists killed, 2 jawans martyred in Shopian; 2 cops injured in Bandipora

--- ENDS ---
Protesters against the US hold up defaced images of Donald Trump during a rally opposing the THAAD near the US embassy in Seoul on Saturday. Credit:AP The US Pacific Command referred all questions on Dunford's schedule to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Nobody at the office picked up the phone after regular working hours. A tweet from the joint chiefs on Sunday showed him arriving at Yokota Air Base in Japan. The US hasn't taken any public steps to prepare for hostilities, including evacuating Americans from Seoul, which is within range of North Korean artillery, or moving ships, aircraft or troops into position for an imminent response. The US has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea. Staff at the Guam Homeland Security office monitor news and co-ordinate with agencies on Saturday. Credit:AP Following Trump's vow to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea, Kim's regime threatened to fire four Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan into waters near Guam, home to US military bases in the region. The US and its allies warned Kim against such a move, and Japan deployed four Patriot missile interceptors into the western part of the country.

Pompeo and McMaster defended Trump's sometimes personal message aimed at Kim. Trump "made clear that the United States will not tolerate our citizens or our allies being threatened by this rogue regime," McMaster said. "Our response is we are prepared militarily to deal with this if necessary." Pompeo said Trump's comments were designed to send an unambiguous message to the country that it needs to disarm its nuclear weapons and that the US won't tolerate a first strike. When asked whether he was confident Kim would heed that message, he said: "It's a very difficult situation in North Korea." Some former military and intelligence officials questioned whether the harsh rhetoric from the Trump administration is the right approach. Retired Admiral Mike Mullen, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Democrat and Republican presidents, said on NBC's Meet the Press that Trump's rhetoric "eliminates manoeuvre space" in how the US might respond to North Korea.

"I'm really concerned because I don't know where this goes in terms of a peaceful solution," Mullen said. Still, he said that Kim knows if North Korea were ever to use nuclear weapons, "that basically is an act of suicide from him, because we would eliminate him and his regime immediately." James Clapper, director of national intelligence under president Barack Obama, said "we don't understand exactly what the decision-making mechanisms are, processes, surrounding Kim Jong-un in North Korea or what would set him off." "That's why I think many people, myself included, would argue for more temperate language than the fire and fury," he said on CNN's State of the Union. While Trump's goal of North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons may be appealing, it's unrealistic, Clapper said. "That is their ticket to survival, and I don't see any way that they're going to give it up," he said. "Our thought process here ought to be on accepting it and trying to cap it or control it."

Some analysts expect further escalation in the coming days as both North and South Korea celebrate the August 15 anniversary of the end of Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula, and the latter conducts joint military exercises with the US from August 21. Japan is also holding annual military drills with the US over the next few weeks. North Korea's state-run media on Sunday condemned the planned military drills and said the US is "letting out dangerous war rhetoric." The North's Korean Central News Agency added that Trump's "wild remarks" are causing concern and anger in South Korea. Moon's administration has pushed to start talks with North Korea even while looking to strengthen its defences after North Korea test-fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. On Sunday, Deputy Unification Minister Chun Haesung said South Korea was seeking to ease tensions and the door for dialogue with North Korea was still open. Recent comments from Trump have raised concerns that the US would be willing to accept collateral damage among its Asian allies. Loading
Jakarta: Gurdip Singh was number five on the list of men due to be executed by an Indonesian firing squad on the night of July 29 last year.

Four had already been taken out into the killing fields in the torrential rain at Indonesia's notorious Nusakambangan Island, and Singh was next.

"They came, I said 'Let me take a shower first'," he tells Fairfax Media.

"After I was ready, they prayed for me. The officer placed the handcuffs on one of my hands when suddenly the power went out."
Freetown: Local media have reported more than 350 unidentified bodies are now in the morgue of the city's largest hospital.

The death toll is expected to rise after more than 1000 homes were buried in mud after a hillside collapsed in heavy rain on Monday with residents believed to be trapped inside, the Sierra Leone Telegraph reports.

A Health Ministry source spoke of up to 500 deaths, while vice president Victor Foh told journalists, "It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble."

Red Cross spokesman Abu Bakar Tarrawellie had earlier said the initial death toll stood at 205, but it was likely the number would climb, with rescue efforts ongoing and 600 people missing.
Cartagena, Colombia: United States Vice-President Mike Pence touched down here on Sunday afternoon amid a deepening crisis in neighbouring Venezuela, beginning a week-long trip to South and Central America during which he plans to reinforce US trade and security partnerships and increase pressure to restore democracy in Venezuela.

Pence's six-day visit to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama is expected to be dominated by the turmoil in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro's autocratic government seized power last month and has cracked down on dissent.

Maduro's actions have precipitated an economic collapse and drawn international condemnation, including from President Donald Trump, who on Friday warned of a "possible military option" to confront Maduro's government.

Trump's aggressive threat stoked anti-American sentiment by reviving dark memories of US interventionism on the continent - including here in Colombia, whose foreign ministry denounced Trump's rhetoric, despite being one of the United States's closest allies in the Western Hemisphere.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle has donated sixty-five bibs to Marc Smoorenburg of Keijzer. In branding for their Welcome Baby Bag project, Mid Isle had ordered baby bibs. Unfortunately, when the bibs arrived they were not up to spec, hence the manufacturer sent us a second perfect batch.

Mid Isle was reluctant to see these bibs go to waste, so they decided to look around to see where they could best be used. Marc Smoorenburg has been sending required items and goods to Haiti twice a year. We learned that Marcs father is a pastor and has been a missionary for thirty-five years. Marcs father has set up a mission in Haiti that has a home for the elderly, an orphanage and a school. They presently have 18 babies at the mission and told us the bibs would be very useful.

Even though the mission has suffered disasters back to back, with the funding they have been able to keep the mission going.

The Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle meets Tuesday at 7 pm at Marys Boone in Simpson Bay. For more information please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit our face book page Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle.
GREAT BAY:---- Art helps us to imagine, even create our possibilities. Literature, the word, gives us license to put pen to paper, to creatively express our thoughts. The wedding of both genres in books from House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), was recently celebrated with an art exhibit in St. Martin at the intimate gallery of the elegant Sheer Restaurant.

The HNP exhibition, entitled Art & Words  A Marriage, showcased 27 prints and original art of mostly book covers linked to the indie press for the last 39 years. A number of the pieces were on loan from their owners.

Among the not well known and famous artists featured were Roland Richardson and Ruby Bute (St. Martin); Virgilio Mendez (Dominican Rep.) and Danielle Boodoo-Fortune (Trinidad/Tobago); Keith Mallet (USA); Fay Helfer (St. Martin/USA); Angelo Rombley (St. Martin); Fernando Botero (Colombia); and Romare Bearden (USA).

The styles and media of the 18 artists in the exhibit ranged from traditional oils to bronze sculpture and digital art. The pieces were diverse as the artists and sometimes influenced by the movement of history and culture.

The marriage of art and the word in the book allows the reader to join in a relationship of imagination and expression. It also reflects a founding principle that continues to guide book design at HNP.

The courtship that led to the marriage between art and the word for HNP was first expressed in 1978 on the cover and pages of Moods for Isis  Picture poems of Love & Struggle. That self-published book was the first poetry collection by a teenager who had just taken the name Lasana Mwanza Sekou. He was then a student at the High School of Art & Design in New York City.

In 1982, Lasana founded House of Nehesi in his dorm room at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From the very beginning, an emphasis on original art for the book cover and content pages became a creative building block of the publishing project.

Last May, I interviewed Lasana for the exhibition, which I curated with Marcus Kwame-Anderson. Lasana said that when his seminal manuscript was ready to layout for the printer, he had some kind of an idea that art would help to bring people to the book and into the book; that original art would help to illustrate the poetry and the reading or interpretations of it; that art would help to convey meaning, that it could move the word.

In 2017, as projects director of HNP, which has been based in his Caribbean homeland of St. Martin since 1984, Lasana admits to long being inspired by artists and their work. He still thinks that, book cover art conveys ideas that inform or inspire how readers may enter and engage the published text. Art may be an implicit conspirator of the narratives published in St. Martin in book form, no matter where the authors published by HNP may hail from.

At the foundation of this artistic collaboration were New York City artists who enthusiastically provided artwork for the first four books linked to HNP between 1978 and 1983. Among these co-conspirators of Lasana M. Sekou  themselves teenagers or in their early 20s  were Gary Jefferson, Isis Rochelle Curry, Margaret Matz, and Cozbi Sanchez.

The exhibit of Art & Words  A Marriage, between May 31  June 4, 2017, was the highlight of the Authors Reception at the 15th annual St. Martin Book Fair. I hoped that as the guests experienced the non-textual collection, and viewed the center table display of selected HNP books, that they would consider books as hands-on media to continually bring both literature and fine art into our lives, into our homes.

As for the guests who owned one or more of the books that featured the art on exhibit, I also could not help but wonder what images were being conjured up as they viewed especially the original art for the first time.
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India will be celebrating its 70th Independence Day on august 15, 2017. Here are ten important events in the Indian history that shaped how our country evolved over the years.

By India Today Web Desk: On the 70th year of India's independence, here's a look at the watershed moments in the history that shaped today's India. These events hold importance in Indian history not only because of the important political or social issues they targeted but also because of the magnitude of effect these events had on our country.

1. Partition

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British ruled India was divided into two separate states, India and Pakistan. The partition saw bloodshed and killings on both sides of the border, and left an everlasting impact on the minds of the people.

2. Accession of Kashmir

The ruler of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh signed an agreement of accession as a result of which Kashmir became an integral part of India. The decision had widespread impact, with some people supporting the decision and many against it. Kashmir has become a hotbed of militancy since then. The decision of Raja Hari Singh to make Kashmir a part of India has led to four wars between India and Pakistan and has also led to a special status for the state of Kashmir under Article 370.

3. Formation of the Union of India

At the time of British rule, India was an amalgamation of more than 500 princely states. These princely states were annexed into the Union of India, eliminating the chances of small rebellions emerging from the Indian heartland. Indira Gandhi also introduced a 26th amendment in 1971 which abolished privy purses of the princely rulers.

4. Five Year plans

Five year planning was introduced in India in the year 1950. The main aim behind implementing five year plans is to draw out a blueprint for India's future, fighting hunger and poverty that was caused as a result of crumbling economy because of partition.

5. Reorganisation of States

The states were reorganised on the basis of linguistic identities in various parts of the country. Andhra Pradesh was born in 1956, Gujarat in 1960 and Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in 1966.

6. Indo-China War

The Indo-China war of 1962 was a blow to India's belief in China being its strategic partner. The 1962 war also led to the shattering of Jawaharlal Nehru's image of being invincible. 52 years later, Indo-China border dispute is still a burning concern for both sides.

7. Creation of Bangladesh and India-Pakistan war

India intervened in the uprising in East Pakistan. The relationship with Pakistan was already tensed after the 1965 war. Also, the defeat of India in 1962 at the hands of China had weakened India's position in the region, thus helping in the creation of Bangladesh has re-established India as an important power in south Asia.

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8. Emergency

The infamous emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975 is a one of its kind event in Indian history. The press was gagged, protestors were sent to jail and there was a feeling of paranoia around the country.

9. Liberalisation

The economic reforms of 1992 can be undoubtedly listed as one of the events that shaped India. The economy was failing, India was suffering from a stagnant GDP. The License Raj which was imposed to protect the local businesses was not benefitting the economy. The economy was opened to the foreign investments, changes in tax regimes and public sector holdings saw the rise of a new economic era for India.

10. Kargil War

Pakistan sent its troops to capture Kargil in 1999. What followed was three months of rigorous fighting from both the sides that led to loss of lives. US Diplomatic intervention was sought to ask Pakistan to withdraw from Kargil. Cross border terrorism took the central stage in India's foreign policy.

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Also Read:

12 issues which may find mention in PM Modi's Independence Day speech from Red Fort

On the eve of Independence Day, India-Pakistan's flag war at Attari-Wagah border

This Independence Day eve, school children to take 'New India pledge'

15 issues India wants to hear from PM Modi on Independence Day

ALSO WATCH | Mann Ki Baat: GST not merely tax, promotes honesty, social reform, says PM Modi

--- ENDS ---
Everything you need to know about No. 20 Notre Dame's game vs. Navy Saturday in Baltimore
Up to a dozen people from his village were killed in the madness, Santa recalls, that he carried his injured brother across the border after he was shot through the head.

By Reuters: India's independence from British colonial rule coincided with the partition of the subcontinent into two separate countries, setting off unprecedented communal carnage on both sides of the hastily created border.

A mass migration followed, marred by violence and bloodshed, as about 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, fearing discrimination, swapped countries in an upheaval that cost more than a million lives.

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During the chaotic transition, train cars full of bodies arrived at railway stations in the twin cities of Lahore and Amritsar in the province of Punjab, which was split roughly down the middle at partition on August 14, 1947.

As India prepares to mark 70 years of independence on Aug. 15, families who witnessed the death and destruction during partition recall the tales of horror.

Brothers Santa and Niranjan Singh were lucky to survive the migration from their village of Bhasin on the Pakistan side of the new border to their current home in Sarangra in India.

Santa, then aged 15 or 16, says everyone was baying for blood. People were running around with knives, swords and guns.

Up to a dozen people from their village were killed in the madness, Santa recalls, saying they carried an injured brother across the border after he was shot through the head.

THE RAWNESS OF CARNAGE

"The bullet went in from one side and went out from the other side of his head," said Santa, reminiscing at a gathering of his extended family. "We carried him all the way and he died after reaching this side."

His younger brother, Niranjan, was barely 5 years old but still remembers the sight of houses being burnt and people being massacred, and hearing stories of women and girls being raped.

Now the brothers live with their children and grandchildren, tending their lush green farmland located just three kilometres from the troubled border.

The separation based on border lines created by the British at the end of their colonial rule came into effect at the stroke of midnight on the eve of August 14, 1947.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947, and relations remain tense, particularly when it comes to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in parts.

Even as the rawness of the carnage that marked partition fades into history, the nuclear-armed neighbours re-enact their hostilities in ritual form in a colourful flag ceremony staged as the sun is setting over the Wagah border post that lies midway between Amritsar and Lahore.

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Thousands of supporters from each country come to witness a parade of patriotism from their border guards who, in a mock confrontation, goose-step up to each other, stomp their feet and shout their lungs out during their daily retreat.

"Amazing, amazing feeling about my country, about my army," said Phalguni Zaveri, who came from Mumbai with her husband Rahul to witness the parade.

Also read: Rajasthan: Dalit woman branded witch, beaten up, stripped, made to eat faeces in Ajmer

Also read: On the eve of Independence Day, India-Pakistan's flag war at Attari-Wagah border

Also read: 15 issues India wants to hear from PM Modi on Independence Day

--- ENDS ---
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. Much cooler. High around 60F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 38F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
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Algiers, August 14, 2017 (SPS) - Western Sahara ambassador to Algiers and representatives of Algerian and Sahrawi women's associations and organizations, said Sunday that the Sahrawi question was going through a "sensitive and crucial" stage.

This stage requires regional and international measures to put pressure on Morocco and bring it to comply with international legality, while calling for new mechanisms to make known the resistance and the struggle of the Sahrawi woman.

Speaking at a meeting in support of the resistance of Sahrawi women organized by the commune of Algiers, in collaboration with the commune of occupied Al-Ayun, in the Larbi Ben M'hidi cultural center, Sahrawi ambassador Bouchraya Hamoudi Bayoune stressed the need for regional and international measures, particularly from the UN and the Security Council to put pressure on Morocco and bring it to comply with the international law."

"As a member of the African Union (AU), Morocco is obliged to implement its resolutions," said the ambassador who called on the African organization to "take coercive decisions by imposing economic and even military sanctions to bring the occupation authority to apply international law and engage into peace negotiations without preconditions." (SPS)

062/090/APS
The HRD ministry has asked schools across India to administer a 'New India' oath to their students on the eve of Independence Day. The pledge is aimed at ridding India of five problems - poverty, corruption, terrorism, communalism and casteism.

Schools & colleges across India will administer oath for 'Sankalp se Siddhi Pledge for New India Movement 2017-2022' as part of I-Day celebrations as instructed by Centre (Picture for representation)

By Arpan Rai: In a first, your child will now participate in an oath ceremony at her school, in order to rid the country of five problems identified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi - poverty, corruption, terrorism, communalism and casteism on the eve of Independence Day.

Schools and institutions of higher education across India have been instructed by the Human Resources and Development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar to administer the oath for 'Sankalp se Siddhi Pledge for New India Movement 2017-2022', aiming to rid India of the five major challenges it is currently facing.

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The "New India Pledge" to be taken by students will be recited in the manner, as directed by the Prime Minister to the HRD ministry.

"Let us together pledge for a New India. In 1942, our freedom fighters took a pledge of 'Quit India' and in 1947 India achieved independence. Let us together pledge that by 2022 we build a New India. Let us together pledge towards a clean India. Let us together pledge towards a poverty free India. Let us together pledge towards a corruption free India. Let us together pledge towards a terrorism free India. Let us together pledge towards a communalism free India. Let us together pledge towards a casteism free India. Together let us strive wholeheartedly to accomplish this pledge for a New India," reads the oath issued the ministry

The guidelines have been issued to education secretaries of all Indian states and Union Territories, NCERT, CBSE, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan amid other educational institutions.

This is in order to ensure that the 70 years of India's independence are celebrated in a befitting manner. Schools across India have been directed to organise Sankalp Programme from August 9 to August 30 on the premises of a nearby Shaheed Smarak.

"Students will have to take a pledge near the memorials of freedom fighters, who gave their lives to keep the movement of independence alive," Union minister Prakash Javadekar said.

The circular further added that in case there is no such landmark in the vicinity of the school, the programme may be organised in the school itself.

It has been specifically mentioned that in this programme, an oath is to be administered to all the teachers and students to make the country clean and rid the country of the five problems identified by the Prime Minister in the next five years, as the nation would complete 75 years of its independence in 2022.

"It is unfortunate that West Bengal has decided to not comply with the circular issued by MHRD. The school education department has further decided to not celebrate the programme in this manner," the minister added.

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However, Javadekar added that people have always voluntarily supported the ideas of the ministry and that the ministry has not imposed this idea of celebration on any authority.

Terming the issues on which the oath will be administered as real, Javadekar also said, "The issues flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi are the real ones, which include poverty, corruption, terrorism, communalism and casteism. The country should be united against these issues as they are not some political agenda, but national ones indeed."

ALSO READ | Javadekar slams Mamata over I-Day programme for PM Modi's New India vision

ALSO READ | 15 issues India wants to hear from PM Modi on Independence Day

ALSO WATCH | The base for new India is opportunity for all, says PM Modi

--- ENDS ---
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With a prognosis for more growth, a local health care practice has written a new prescription for its executive teams structure.

Orthopaedic and Neurosurgery Specialists, which has offices in Greenwich and Stamford, has picked its finance director of the past three years, Jyotsana Jodie Sahota, to fill its new chief financial officer position. As ONS continues to expand its infrastructure and patient base, its leaders are looking to Sahota to help keep the organizations strategy on solid financial footing.

We have grown to a size now that we have to face a lot of competitive challenges in the market  I think that was the basis for why this position was created, Sahota said in an interview last week at ONS offices at 6 Greenwich Office Park. Theres a focus on making sure strategically were making the right moves. Thats where finance comes in and helps the organization do that.

The planned opening at the end of this month of 15,000-square-foot offices in Harrison, N.Y. represents the next milestone for ONS. About 30 percent of the groups patients come from Westchester County, N.Y.

We want to make sure the whole billing and collections aspects of that and being credentialed and contracted with the insurance companies and making sure were ready to function there is all in place, Sahota said.

ONS expansion to Harrison follows the addition earlier this year of about 3,500 square feet to its offices and physical-therapy center in Stamfords High Ridge Park complex that launched in 2015. The Greenwich offices opened in 1998. Last year, ONS received about 120,000 patient visits.

As it has enlarged its operations, ONS has remained profitable, Sahota said. ONS officials declined to provide specific financial statistics.

Not affiliated with any local health system, ONS generates its referrals from outside health-care providers. When patients arrive, Sahota said they can expect to receive as much care as they need, but no superfluous treatment. Only 10 percent of ONS patients undergo surgery, according to the organizations data.

We make sure when they come in theyre going to the right doctor and getting the right care, Sahota said.

As ONS finance chief, Sahota also tracks the impact of structural changes such as the potential repeal or reform of the Affordable Care Act.

Its an uncertain market right now and has been for the last few years, she said. We see these fluctuations, and we just have to manage to them.

While taking on a more strategic role, Sahota will maintain the operational responsibilities of her former position.

Jodie has been very successful and has redesigned the functioning of the ONS business office to perform more efficiently, increasing productivity in all areas, from billing to collections to assisting patients with insurance processing, said Sally Frank, ONS chief operating officer. She is very well liked and has built a very supportive and enthusiastic team.

Sahota, 35, joined ONS in 2014, after previously working as the director of finance and division support at Valley Medical Group in Ridgewood, N.J.

A native of New Delhi, India, Sahota completed her undergraduate studies there and then earned an MBA from Cleveland State University in Cleveland.

Being in the industry over 12 years now, and working with a lot of different, larger medical groups prior to coming here, this was a nice change, Sahota said. Being with a freestanding practice was something new for me. What I found when I came here was a fascinating model.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
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A Valentines Day gift for a former girlfriend has grown into a successful business venture and given classically trained artist Rory Mackay the reputation of go-to dog painter guy. This week, the Palm Beach, Fla.-based artist will take appointments with pet owners in Greenwich to photograph and paint their companions.

You paint enough dogs and then youre the go-to dog guy, Mackay said, adding his portfolio includes a range of animals such as cats, a gerbil and several horses.

Mackay plans to spend Thursday and Friday meeting with customers at Greenwich boutique pet shop Raleigh & Co., where his pet-themed stationery line has been popular with customers for several years, according to co-owner Betsy Kaminski.

We like to carry gifts for pet owners in the store, and his stationery has been a good fit, she said. We jumped at the chance to host him since hes already really popular with customers.

Mackay grew up in London and studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design before moving to the United States, where he now lives with his wife and children. He describes being typecast as the dog guy as a happy sort of accident, and his clients include numerous notable names such as Ivana Trump, Australian model Kristy Hinze and the Jane Goodall Institute. Buyers of Mackays portraits, bespoke letterpress stationery and embossed leather notebooks come from all financial demographics, according to the artist.

The concept for Mackays brand began more than a decade ago when he painted his then-girlfriends Jack Russell terrier and gave the portrait to her as a gift. That prompted others to ask for him to paint their dogs, and it didnt take long for it to turn into a thriving business, Mackay said.

Previously, he had produced many portraits of people and was frequently commissioned to work on abstract paintings for interior designers. As an artist, you build a niche whether its an accident or not, Mackay said of his pivot to pets.

Mackays style represents a balance of traditional and contemporary, and he prides himself on his ability to replicate the expression in his subjects eyes.

Its what I manage to capture in the eyes thats the heart and soul of my pieces, Mackay said. I have more license to play with fur because fur is fur. But I have to capture that glint in the eye, cheeky lift in the muzzle and dull gleam in the nose.

Unless customers want a specific backdrop for their pet, Mackay also infuses his own stylistic preferences into his work through the background, he said, adding his favorite pet portrait is one of an enormous greyhound with a very graphic, pop-art background with photo montage.

Like the way Mackay fell into painting dogs, the artist accidentally discovered the demand for bespoke pet stationery.

That level of fine stationery is a niche product within a niche, but Im working on expanding it so its more affordable, he said, citing future plans for his brand that include an array of pet-themed human accessories.

What I try and do with the stationery and leather notebooks is harmonize a pet lovers obsession with their pet with everyday luxury lifestyle accessories, he said. By blending those two things I have all sorts of wacky ideas.

Mackay will be available Aug. 17 and 18 at Raleigh & Co., from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for appointments and walk-ins to photograph pets with the opportunity to turn their images into portraits, stationery and notebooks.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter @Macaela_
STAMFORD  A city woman has been accused of trying to cut open her former sister-in-law with a box cutter Saturday afternoon.

Victoria Secret Robinson, 33, of Lillian Street, was charged with third-degree assault, reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a child.

Sgt. Simon Blanc said police responded to Lillian Street about 3 p.m. Saturday for a report of an aggravated assault.

A New York woman was among about a half-dozen people who were in the driveway when police arrived. The woman told officers she was there with her 12-year-old daughter and husband to pick up a relative at Robinsons home. The woman said Robinson is her ex-sister-in-law.

The woman said Robinson came out of her home yelling and screaming at her, Blanc said. The woman said Robinson grabbed her hair and tried to throw her to the ground, Blanc said.

The woman said Robinson punched her several times in the face and kicked her before she fell to the ground, Blanc said.

As the woman tried to get up, someone gave Robinson a box cutter that she tried to use to cut the victim, Blanc said.

Others got involved to end the fight and the victim waited for police inside her vehicle.

Jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com;
By PTI: Bhopal, Aug 14 (PTI) The five-day long India-Asean Youth Summit stated here today with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan calling upon the participants to work for eradication of terrorism, poverty and drug menace.

Chouhan also urged them to work for women empowerment and environment protection.

"Fight the scourge of terrorism. Most importantly eliminate the mentality that begets terrorism," Chouhan said inaugurating the summit.

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The Chief Minister spoke about the poverty alleviation programmes being run in India and Madhya Pradesh.

Chouhan said there was a need to empower women and listed his government endeavours on the issue.

Besides, he said the youth should protect environment following global warming and work to rid the society of the drug menace.

The summit with the theme - "Shared Values, Common Destiny" - has been jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs, India Foundation and the state government.

Over 200 delegates from Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and India are participating in it. PTI LAL NRB

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid O Meredov today reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relationship and decided to give a fresh push to boost two-way trade and investment.

Swaraj and Meredov, co-chairing the sixth meeting of the inter-government commission, felt that there was scope for both countries to expand cooperation in a number of areas, including energy and education.

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Officials said the two leaders resolved to work towards exploring untapped opportunities.

In the meeting, Meredov handed Swaraj congratulatory message from the Turkmenistan President to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Reviewing the full spectrum of a multifaceted partnership. EAM and Dy PM & FM lead the 6th IGC between India and Turkmenistan," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted along with a photograph of the meeting.

Meredov also met Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and discussed possible cooperation in areas of defence and security. PTI MPB SMN

--- ENDS ---
An Indian music band sang a stirring rendition of the Pakistani national anthem as a symbol of peace and love.

By India Today Web Desk: It is a well-known fact that India and Pakistan celebrate their independence from British rule on consecutive days--14th August for Pakistan, and 15th August for India. While we may have shared a common history, our futures were quite different from these dates in 1947.

So are our national anthems, and that's just what an Indian band picked on to send Pakistan a gift of peace, goodwill and love.

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Also Read: Vikas Khanna to represent India at the United Nations on Independence Day

Indian A Capella band, Voxchord, created a soul-stirring rendition of the Pakistani national anthem, Pak Sarzamin, to mark our neighbouring country's 70th birthday.

Members of Voxchord sing the Pakistani national anthem. Picture courtesy: YouTube/Voice of Ram

The two-minute-long video begins with the members of Voxchord holding up placards that read out their message: "This Independence Day, we'd like to dedicate a song to our neighbours. A song about faith, pride and grandeur, of power, progress and perfection."

Members of Voxchord sing the Pakistani national anthem. Picture courtesy: YouTube/Voice of Ram

Also Read: Zayn Malik is Asia's Sexiest Man, but it's the Pakistani Chaiwala who's the real winner

The group, which has seven members, then goes on to sing Pakistan's national anthem, which is primarily in Urdu. The video is doing the rounds on social media, and has received appreciation from people on both sides of the border. Here are some of the Twitter reactions:

Reaction to the video on Twitter. Picture courtesy: Twitter/#Voxchord

Reaction to the video on Twitter. Picture courtesy: Twitter/#Voxchord

This beautiful version of the Pakistani national anthem sends across a very powerful message, one loaded with faith in peace and respect for our shared history. Watch the full video, here:

--- ENDS ---
Heavyweight torpedoes are critical for submarines and the Indian Navy has an acute shortage of these torpedoes.

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen: The Indian Navy has approached a select few global manufacturers to buy heavyweight torpedoes for submarines. Heavyweight torpedoes are critical for submarines and the Indian Navy has an acute shortage of these torpedoes.

India will be getting its Kalvari Class submarines - conventional diesel- electric boats made by DCNS of France - soon after a gap of three decades. These submarines, however, won't have any heavyweight torpedoes. Without the heavyweight torpedoes, the new submarines will be almost "toothless." The next of the Kalvari class - INS Khanderi - is expected to join the Indian Navy by end 2017.

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This May, India cancelled its previous contract to buy 98 Black Shark heavyweight torpedoes at an estimated cost of $200 million. The manufactures of the torpedo - Whitehead Alenia Systemi Subacquei (WASS) - is a subsidiary of Italian arms manufacturer Finmeccanica. The Italian arms manufacturing giant was blacklisted after it was alleged that another subsidiary of the company - AgustaWestland - had paid bribes to secure a contract to sell 12 medium lift helicopters to India.

Sources told India Today, that the select foreign manufacturers will have to choose their Indian partners and that torpedoes will be manufactured using the Strategic-Partnership (SP) route.

The Modi-led NDA government is keen to reduce India's dependence on foreign equipment manufactures. It has opened up defence manufacturing to Indian private sector.

The SP route envisages that the Indian private companies will tie-up foreign manufactures to get technology and in return the government will assure orders and allow exports as well.

ALSO READ |

Malabar Exercise: India, US, Japan to focus on anti-submarine warfare, launch of expeditionary forces

INS Khanderi, Indian Navy's second Scorpene-class submarine, launched in Mumbai

India to fire self-made torpedo VARUNASTRA from our submarines, says DRDO

Contract for 98 Black Shark torpedoes scrapped, Indian nuclear submarine programme further delayed

--- ENDS ---
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Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence.

By AP: Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant late Sunday in the capital of Burkina Faso, killing at least 17 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

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Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. Among the dead was at least one French national.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.

Also read: After criticism, White House says Trump condemns KKK, neo-Nazis

Also read: Egypt: 44 killed, nearly 180 others injured after 2 trains collide in Alexandria city

--- ENDS ---
LONDON  The chief executive and founder of Telit has resigned after the London-listed technology company confirmed on Monday he had been indicted for an alleged mortgage fraud in the United States more than 25 years ago.

Telit, whose products and services connect devices to apps and enterprise systems, said in a statement that Oozi Cats's involvement in an alleged "land flip" scheme that bought and sold properties at inflated prices had been "knowingly withheld" from the board.

An arrest warrant for Cats was issued under an alternative spelling of his name, Uzi Katz, but he was never detained, according to Boston federal court documents seen by Reuters.

"It is a source of considerable anger to the board that the historical indictment against Oozi Cats was never disclosed to them or previous members of the board and that they have only been made aware of its existence through third parties," Telit said.

Cats did not respond to requests for comment.

Shares in the firm were up 17 percent following the announcement, but are still down 45 percent in the last week.

Financial director Yosi Fait will continue as interim chief executive until a replacement for Cats is found.

Telit also said it plans to appoint three new board members who will be based in Britain. It will also replace chairman Enrico Testa, an Italian businessman and former politician who has held the position since 2007.

Telit listed in London in 2005 after a company called Dai Israel bought the assets of an Italian business in 2002. Its board, including venture capitalist Davidi Gilo and former Caribbean Petroleum Corporation managing director Gad Zeevi, is predominantly Israeli.

Fait will conduct a preliminary review of Telit's activities, but a source close to the company said it would not include a review of its subsidiary accounts audited by Ernst & Young, or its a network of more than seventy third-party distributors it uses to resell its products.

Shares in the company fell by a third on Aug. 7 after it reported a shock loss and a sharp reversal in its cashflow.

It breached a debt covenant set by one of its banks just eight weeks after raising 39 million pounds ($51 million) from investors.

In its statement on Monday Telit said there was "no substance" to speculation over the company's financial health.

Telit also responded to "speculation" over its involvement in a bankruptcy being investigated by Italian authorities, adding any action against the company would be "without merit."

Reuters reported in March that 13 people, including Cats, are under investigation for a complex series of transactions before the failure of an Italian electronics manufacturer called BAMES.

Cats told Reuters at the time that Telit had won all 12 court cases previously brought against it in Italy.
SPANISH LAKE  Prosecutors have charged a man with murder after a shooting on Saturday outside a hair salon.

Keith Isabell, 20, of the 1300 block of Taos Drive in north St. Louis County, was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was being held without bail.

Police identified the victim as Evan Robinson, 24, of the 12000 block of Cato Drive in north St. Louis County.

Three others were also shot and injured in the incident, but no charges have been issued in connection with those victims.

St. Louis County police responded to the 12300 block of Bellefontaine Road about 1:36 p.m. Saturday, where they found Robinson suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot of the Edge Up Hair Studio. He died shortly after arriving at a hospital, police said.

Police said that after an argument with Robinson, Isabell shot him three times in the side and back.

Police said the three other shooting victims were expected to survive.

The incident remained under investigation on Monday. Police were asking anyone with information to call 636-529-8210 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477.
SPANISH LAKE  One man was killed and three others were shot outside of a hair salon Saturday afternoon.

St. Louis County police responded to the 12310 block of Bellefontaine Road at about 1:36 p.m. Saturday, where they found a man believed to be in his mid-20s suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot of the Edge Up Hair Studio. He died shortly after arriving at a hospital, police said.

Three other men were found suffering from gunshots on the parking lot, but are expected to survive. Officers from the North County Precinct have a suspect in custody, police said.

Police have not released how the victims knew each other or whether they were targeted, and are awaiting notification of relatives before they release the victim's name.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 636-529-8210 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477.
"Horses can be traded later. This is about students' future," the veteran actor said in a tweet - an apparent reference the BJP's efforts to effect an AIADMK merger.

By Ganesh Radha-Udayakumar: Kamal Haasan on Sunday asked the Narendra Modi government and the Edappadi Palaniswami government in his home state of Tamil Nadu to discuss the contentious issue of NEET (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test).

But he didn't say it in as many words, opting instead to use a slightly more provocative style in his Tamil tweet. The 'horse-trading' jibe appears to be a reference to the BJP's efforts to effect a merger between the Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam factions of the AIADMK , which split earlier this year.

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"It seems the Centre will cooperate to postpone NEET. Horses can be traded later. This is about students' future. Kindly discuss this immediately," Kamal Haasan wrote.

?????????? ?????????? ?????? ???? ???????????????.????????? ?????????? ????? ???????. ?????? ?????????? ????????. ??????????? ???? ?????????- Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) August 13, 2017

His plea came on a day when Union Minister of State Nirmala Sitharaman said the Modi government's cooperation with Tamil Nadu on NEET was incumbent on its submitting an ordinance seeking a one-year-long exemption for its public colleges, PTI reported.

Kamal Haasan is known for being an outspoken commentator on political issues, and often uses Twitter to express his views.

He recently backed Nobel Laureate Kailash Sathyarthi after the latter called for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's "decisive intervention" following the deaths of scores of children at a hospital in Gorakhpur.

Children of UP die. @k_satyarthi's request to UP CM is the best course. See that it never happens again. India mourns its loss.- Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) August 13, 2017

"See that it never happens again," he wrote.

ALSO READ

AIADMK merger: Now, ex-Tamil Nadu CM O Panneerselvam knocks on PM Modi's door

AIADMK merger plans move on, E Palaniswami meets PM Modi in Delhi

ALSO WATCH

How Modi-Shah duo make BJP's lotus bloom in Tamil Nadu

--- ENDS ---
ST. LOUIS  A states witness at a murder trial in St. Louis last week who changed her story on the stand was charged Monday with a felony count of perjury.

Dominique L. Williams, 20, of the 6400 block of Wells Avenue in Wellston, testified last week during the murder trial of Darryon Rowell, 24, of Berkeley, and Erick Ivory, 21, of Pagedale. A jury acquitted the men of murder and armed criminal action in the May 12, 2015, shooting death of Markus Jones.

Police have said Williams stole a gun from her brother, then planned to sell it to Jones for $225. Court records say she told police Rowell and Ivory were there for the meetup and robbed Jones of cash while sitting in a car, then shot him as he tried to escape.

Williams, who was charged with murder as an accomplice with Rowell and Ivory, was expected to testify against them last week as part of a deal with prosecutors that would have reduced her charges. Instead, she testified that she wasnt present during the botched gun sale and didnt see the shooting.

As a result, Assistant Circuit Attorney Morley Swingle played for jurors Williams recorded statement to police in which she identified Rowell and Ivory as the shooters. On Thursday, the jury found Ivory and Rowell not guilty. Prosecutors rescinded the deal with Williams, who had been released on bail in April.

In the perjury charge filed Monday, authorities say Williams gave two directly contradictory statements under oath regarding whether she saw Erick Ivory and Darryon Rowell shoot Markus Jones. Charges say she testified under oath at an April 27 deposition that she saw them shoot Jones, then recanted that statement on the stand last week.

Strongly corroborating circumstances exist that the testimony of Dominique Williams at the murder trial was false, Jennifer Miles, an investigator with the circuit attorneys office, wrote in a probable cause statement filed Monday.

Miles wrote that cellphone records and text messages place her near the shooting in addition to a recorded interview with homicide detectives in which Williams said she witnessed the killing.

Bail for Williams on the perjury charge was set at $100,000 cash.
JEFFERSON CITY  Republicans who control the Missouri Legislature moved with lightning speed this year to send a long-sought right to work law to newly minted GOP Gov. Eric Greitens.

But by sending the anti-labor measure to the governors desk in early February, they gave unions more time to try to stop it.

On Friday, the effects of the GOPs quick action will be on display when a coalition of labor groups led by the Missouri AFL-CIO submits an estimated 300,000 signatures of people who want to put a question on the November 2018 ballot asking voters if they want the new law.

Had Republicans waited until the end of the legislative session in May, the unions would have had three fewer months to collect the required number of signatures needed to put the right to work law on hold.

Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, was among those bemoaning the early winter rush.

We gave the opposition more time to collect signatures and put it on the ballot for a vote because we got in a hurry. And now weve shot ourselves in the foot, Dixon told his colleagues during a speech on the Senate floor last month.

Under the new law, workers cannot be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or to pay dues to a labor union. Greitens has claimed the change as a signature achievement in his brief political career.

While the governor says it will bring jobs to Missouri, union members say right to work will result in worse wages, benefits and workplace safety for the states middle class.

A spokeswoman for the We Are Missouri coalition that backed the signature drive, Laura Swinford, acknowledged Monday that the extra time may have benefited their cause.

If that gave us a few extra weeks, Im sure it didnt hurt, Swinford said.

But she added that she believes enough signatures would have been collected if the time frame had been shorter.

If it had been smaller, I think we would have been as successful, Swinford said.

The move to hold a referendum on right to work is a seldom-used tool in Missouri law that allows residents to block legislation before it goes into effect.

A historical review of the maneuver shows it could be successful if it goes forward.

The last time Missouri voters faced a similar ballot initiative was in 1982 when they rejected a proposed law that would have allowed larger trucks on the states major highways.

In the 26 similar referenda dating to 1914, voters rejected all of the laws but two.

On Friday, We Are Missouri is planning to hold a rally in the Capitol and then march to the secretary of states office to drop off the petitions.

A legal battle has been underway between pro-business groups and labor over the wording of the referendum. Right-to-work supporters have asked the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene.

Money also is pouring into the effort on both sides. Greitens nonprofit, for example, recently gave $100,000 to a political action committee that is working to upend the referendum.

One of the organizations receiving money to fight the unions dismissed the effect of the timing of the legislative action.

Whether they have six months or six days, national labor groups will stop at nothing to obstruct Right to Work because it takes power away from union bosses and empowers Missouri workers, said Kristin Davison of the Kansas City-based Liberty Alliance. Missourians elected a pro-Right to Work governor and Legislature who kept their promise to begin passing pro-jobs, pro-worker reforms on Day One.

Unions representing the Teamsters, carpenters and plumbers have pitched in to We Are Missouri with five- and six-figure contributions.
In his petition, Karti contended that the look out circular was part of the central government's "political vendetta".

Madras HC had stayed the look out circulars issued against Karti Chidambaram and four others by the Centre.

By Anusha Soni: The Centre has appealed against a Madras High Court order staying a lookout notice against Karti Chidambaram over a corruption case filed by the CBI. The Supreme Court is to hear the matter at 1 pm today.

Madras High Court had stayed the look out circulars issued against former union minister Chidambaram's son Karti and four others by the Centre under the Passport Act over a corruption case filed by the CBI.

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Madras High Court granted interim stay when petitions filed by Karti and others seeking to quash the circulars came up for hearing and directed the central government to file its counter by September 4. Others who got the interim relief are Karti's associates C B N Reddy, Ravi Viswanathan, Mohanan Rajesh and S Baskar Raman.

The Foreigner Regional Registration Officer and the Bureau of Immigration under the Union Home Ministry had issued the circulars against Karti on June 16 last and against the four others on July 18.

In his petition, Karti contended that the look out circular was part of the central government's "political vendetta" and issued "arbitrarily" and without jurisdiction to prevent him from travelling abroad. He also said he had responded to the summonses issued by the CBI in connection with the case and there was "no absolute cause of action" for issuance of the circular.

"The circular is a well thought out and meticulously orchestrated fraudulent plan of the CBI to stop me at the airport as and when I proceed abroad by springing an unpleasant surprise on me and leak it to the media that I was detained at the airport and cause embarrassment to me," he alleged.

He said he had responded to the summonses issued by the CBI in connection with the case and there was "no absolute cause of action" for issuance of the look out circular.

The case related to alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds when his father was the union finance minister in 2007.

(With inputs from PTI)

Also Read:

Karti Chidambaram moves High Court against CBI's lookout notice for him

More trouble for Chidambaram son Karti as multi-agency probe intensifies

Also Watch:

Karti Chidambaram leaves for London while under CBI scanner

--- ENDS ---
The headlines concerning the situation in North Korea are extremely worrisome. I am concerned about both the legality and the morality of a possible military action on the part of the United States.

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress and no other branch of government the power to declare war. From a legal standpoint, the last clearly constitutional declaration of war occurred on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Congress, with only one dissenting vote, formally declared war, which President Franklin Roosevelt signed the same day.

Some presidents have interpreted the Constitution as giving them authorization to use force in certain circumstances, but the War Powers resolution of 1973 was passed to curb the presidents power to use force without consulting Congress.

On the moral side, have the tenets of just war theory been carefully examined in the present context? The principle of last resort requires that every possible economic and diplomatic solution be attempted before resorting to force.

Currently, an even stronger moral imperative is the principle of proportionality, that is, the proposed military action must result in more good than harm. Estimates vary about how extensive the loss of life would be. South Koreas capital, Seoul, has a population of 26 million people in its metro area. It is 35 miles from the demilitarized zone where much of North Koreas conventional military capacity is.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, a second Korean War could mean 200,000 to 300,000 South Korean and U.S. military casualties within the first 90 days, in addition to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. A South Korean simulation put the figure as high as 2 million civilian casualties. These are frightening projections. We must ask, will the good we are seeking outweigh the human catastrophe?

Margaret P. Gilleo  Ladue
With efforts to move towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, sustainability has become a very hot topic. While there are many events and conferences that focus on sustainability around the globe, there are few that create a space for early career scientists and professionals to voice their perspectives and share insights.

An online conference taking place this week, will aim to fill this gap, as it will solely focus on perspectives of early career researchers working with global sustainability challenges, and in particular the relationship between society and the environment. This conference, Early career perspectives on Future Earth: Ecology and civilization, will take place 14-18 August 2017 for any young scholar interested in participating. Registration to the conference is free, and can be completed on Future Earths Open Network platform.

This conference will give an overview of the latest and highest-quality early career research insights on the future of sustainability and human interaction with the planet. This topic is inherently an intergenerational issue, which is why contributions from leading early-career researchers and practitioners are crucial in providing a sense of direction  for science and society in future.

Ecology and civilization as a conference also aims to reduce its carbon footprint, and keep costs low in how its set up: online. While traditionally meetings are held face-to-face, conference organizer Peter Sgaard Jrgensen sees this as a, step towards implementing online communication tools for the international community of sustainability researchers to share ideas, all while minimizing their environmental footprint.

The Ecology and civilization conference programme will hold a total of eight sessions, with topics ranging from the future of biodiversity in the Anthropocene, to the role of law in ecology and civilization.

Stockholm Resilience Centre, a co-host of the conference, will hold a session on 15 August at 16:30 (UTC), with centre researchers Steven Lade and Andrew Merrie speaking about resilience science and solutions for planetary stewardship. SRC-affiliated PECS programme will also be hosting a session on placed-based research and stewardship on 16 August at 11:00 (UTC), with centre PhD candidate Megan Meacham.

The conference is also jointly hosted by Future Earth, the International Association for Ecology (INTECOL), the International Network of Next-Generation Ecologists (INNGE), and the Early Career Researchers Network of Networks (ECR NoN).

Read more about the conference and register here
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is targeting Kerala RSS supporters by getting them socially boycotted in so-called 'party villages' dominated by the CPM.

By Rakesh Ranjan: It has emerged that the ongoing violence against BJP-RSS workers allegedly by CPM men in Kerala has more to do than just killing. Mail Today has found that social boycott of victims' families is the new tool adopted by the CPM to sustain its dominance in what they call "party villages".

More than 100 party villages exist in Kannur district alone with the CPM ruling them all. With their robust ground-level intelligence network, the CPM cadres identify the BJP/RSS supporters and force them out of the villages by denying them basic amenities.

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As locals put it, one has to either live as per the party diktats or leave the village. The social atrocity against the families has only aggravated in the last five years with a gradual increase in the votes for the BJP-RSS combine in Kerala. The party does not allow the villagers to cooperate with ostracised families. Those who attend any events such as marriages and funerals in the houses of such non-members are marked out, said C Chandrasekhar, RSS head in Kannur district.

"In party villages, nobody is allowed to have a different political ideology. If anybody is found to be supporting or sympathising with the opposition parties, he is socially rejected. This means no supply of milk, vegetable, fish or any other daily household needs," he added.

RSS INITIATED KILLINGS: CPM

"The BJP leadership is indulging in doublespeak on the clashes between CPI(M) and BJP-RSS workers in Kerala. It is the RSS which has initiated killings in the state. 13 CPI(M) workers have been killed by the RSS men," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement.

Last week, when Arun Jaitley visited the families of slain RSS workers in Kerala, senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had slammed the BJP saying it was the saffron party's propaganda to create unrest in the state.

Baby, the widow of E Santosh who was hacked to death in Andallur village near Dharmadom in Kannur this January, narrates her ordeal. "I had to leave the village with my 13-year-old daughter after they (CPM activists) killed my husband. Nobody in the village was ready to help," she said.

Santosh's daughter Vismaya Santosh was admitted to another school fearing the CPM activists. The family has no source of livelihood; education of the girl and family's financial needs are taken care of by the BJP and RSS.

Abhilash, a local BJP worker in Dharmadom, and a neighbour of the family told Mail Today that Santosh was killed because he had contested a local body election wherein he secured nearly 100 votes in Andallur village which is fiercely dominated by CPM.

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"Santosh had been actively associated with the BJP for many years but the CPM workers were furious over his contesting the elections. He was killed on the night of January 18 when he was alone in his house," Abhilash said. Similarly, an autorickshaw driver and three other members of his family were brutally attacked in another CPM stronghold Kodiyari village after he transported a BJP worker to hospital who was attacked by CPM men.

"His limbs were chopped off and his family wanted to take him to Bengaluru for limb transplant. My father transported the victim to railway station in his autorickshaw. Enraged over this, the CPM men attacked our house and severely injured all in the family," said Sajesh and Sarosh, two brothers who were axed by attackers in 2009.

'LAW UNTO THEMSELVES'

"Kannur's party villages are a law unto themselves. Here the party controls the lives of the people. It is the CPM leaders who decide who buys or sells properties or who gets to attend marriages and funerals and who marries whom," said O Rajagopala, the lone BJP MLA in Kerala state Assembly.

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A BJP leader in Kannur said CPM workers had killed an old woman for attending the funeral of Uthaman, who was murdered by the CPM men in 2002.

The woman, who hailed from the party village at Kalathodu, was a relative of Uthaman. His son Remith was stabbed to death at Pinarayi recently. Incidentally, Pinarayi is the native place of the incumbent Kerala chief minister P Vijayan.

ALSO READ | Kerala: How cult of political violence became new normal in God's own country

ALSO READ | Arun Jaitley condemns RSS man's murder in Kerala, says even enemy of India not this barbaric

ALSO WATCH | Kerala government not doing enough to stop violence: RSS Joint General Secretary

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Residents have told how they had to evacuate their terrace homes after arsonists struck at a neighbouring property.

Firefighters were called to King William Street, Tunstall, after smoke was seen billowing from the house yesterday afternoon.

The flames then spread across the roof to next door.

An investigation has since revealed the blaze was started deliberately. And police have confirmed a 34-year-old man, from Stoke, has been arrested on suspicion of arson .

Thirty-year-old Catherine Siegercsz, who lives in the house next door with her partner and son, said: "I heard a loud banging on my door and neighbours shouted at me to get out.

"The house has been empty for a few weeks so I don't know what's happened. I really want to know how it started but the main thing is that we got out safely."

Callum Lythgoe, who lives two doors up from the house, first realised something was wrong when he smelt smoke.

The 22-year-old said: "I saw the smoke and thought someone was burning something the backyard.

"I went back inside to feed the dog and the next minute one of my neighbours was banging on my door.

"I don't know who lives there and I've never known anything like this to happen around here before.

"People sometimes burn rubbish out the back."

Mother-of-two Snaila Hussain, aged 32, who lives five doors down, said: "I'm relieved the fire hadn't spread to my house. I don't know who lives there. I've lived here for 10 years and I have never known a fire in this street."

Dave Hughes, aged 56, has lived in the street for 10 years.

He said: "I saw the flames coming out of the upstairs window and then the next minute someone knocked on my door to tell me to get out."

Crews from Sandyford, Hanley and Longton were sent to the scene at 3.13pm.

A cordon was then set up while the firefighters tackled the blaze with the help of the aerial platform.

Station manager Ed Case said: "We received multiple calls. In total 19 firefighters attended the scene. Two put out the flames  the main fire was in the back bedroom. Another four checked out neighbouring properties.

"The fire had spread to one neighbouring property through the roof void.

"The aerial ladder platform was used as we were struggling to gain access to the loft space in one of the houses.

"The main fire was out by 4pm, but we remained at the scene to make sure it was completely extinguished.

"There was nobody in the property and the investigation is ongoing as we try to identify the cause."

Police are now appealing for witnesses to come forward.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "We attended a house in King William Street to reports of a blaze in the loft or upper storey.

"We have arrested a 34-year-old man on suspicion of arson."

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting incident 570 of August 13.
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Council leaders are calling on the Government to back multi-million plans for an HS2 hub station.

The controversial high-speed railway is set to reach Crewe by 2027, slashing journey times to London from 96 to 55 minutes.

But Cheshire East Council and HS2 Ltd believe the projects economic benefits will be maximised  for Crewe itself and surrounding areas, including Stoke-on-Trent  by transforming and expanding the existing station.

Their vision includes improved connections with other forms of transport, such as the West Coast Mainline, and new shops and office space.

And increasing the platform length to 400m would allow longer HS2 trains to split at Crewe  resulting in Stoke-on-Trent gaining an hourly high-speed service.

It is not yet known how much the Crewe Hub will cost, but it will require financial support from the Government, Cheshire East Council and Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership.

The Department for Transport is currently carrying out a public consultation to gauge support for the scheme, with three options for the hub currently on the table. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling could then make an announcement early next year.

Colette Carroll, HS2 Ltds phase 2a director, says the hub proposal offers the best solution for connecting HS2 to Stoke-on-Trent.

She said: With this consultation we are looking at what will come beyond phase 2a and further into the future, were looking at phase 2b and other opportunities. Were talking about how Crewe can help us increase the connectivity of HS2, including to places such as Stoke-on-Trent.

Cheshire East Council have been looking at the idea of a Crewe Hub station. Theyve been talking with Network Rail about how HS2 can be better connected to destinations across the area, and looking at how the station can be better integrated in the town centre.

This would free up capacity to allow an HS2 service to Stoke-on-Trent. We have been working together on this and we believe this is the best solution, but there will be other options for improving connectivity to Stoke-on-Trent. Network Rail are doing separate work on this.

Cheshire East Councils original vision for the HS2 hub involved building an entirely new parkway station south of Crewe at Basford.

But council chiefs now believe rebuilding the existing station will offer greater economic benefits.

Frank Jordan, executive director of place at Cheshire East Council, said: We are trying to influence Network Rail in the design of the station. We think its important to have the right design in order to maximise the benefits of HS2. It has to be more than just a train station. This is going to be a big opportunity for the local area.

We anticipate Cheshire East Council and Cheshire LEP paying for the new commercial space at the station, while we believe the Government should pay for the upgrades to the rail infrastructure. We wouldnt expect our other partners to have to contribute.

Under the current HS2 proposals, Crewe would be served by two high-speed trains an hour, in each direction. But under one of the options being considered, involving a new junction between HS2 and the WCML north of Crewe, this would increase to six trains an hour, with a greater range of northern destinations possible.

The Crewe Hub consultation will run until October 12. To have your say, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/crewe-hub-options-for-building-on-existing-connectivity
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A woman has been jailed and faces deportation for her part in a money laundering scam.

Sindhu Chandras account was used to deposit cash which had been taken from bank customers after she was caught up in a much larger operation.

Now the 27-year-old, of Conway Street, Shelton, has been locked up for 26 weeks after she was arrested at Heathrow Airport as she tried to leave the country.

North Devon Magistrates Court heard men posing as bank officials would phone victims to say their accounts had been hacked.

Large sums of money would then be transferred several times with 1,500 ending up in Chandras account.

Prosecutor Richard Parkhouse said a man repeatedly called a couple in Plymouth claiming to be from their bank.

Mr Parkhouse said: "As a result money was transferred into three bank accounts.

"Following these transactions the money was then transferred into another account and then transferred further.

"The money was distributed to several other accounts in the UK. One of those accounts belonged to the defendant."

The court heard that Chandra was a layer two receiver of funds and that her account showed various payments and transfers had been made.

Chandra was detained at Heathrow Airport on November 4, 2015 and her passport was seized.

She told police she had received 1,500 from an unknown source and had left it in her account. She also claimed she moved money from accounts to stop her from spending it.

Mr Parkhouse added: "She said it was dishonest and should have notified the bank that she had money that she didn't know anything about.

"She said she withdrew 5,500 in cash and gave it to another man but didn't know him well."

The defendant, who is originally from India, went on to admit two counts of becoming concerned in an arrangement involving criminal property, namely 8,575 and 6,850. She also pleaded guilty to concealing criminal property, namely 1,500.

The offences were committed between August 1, 2014 and April 10, 2015.

Parts of the victim personal statements were read out in court.

One said: "I feel as though I have been mugged, I can't trust anyone. I feel violated."

Laurence Overend, mitigating, said Chandra was one of a number of suspects who were being investigated and she had been caught up in a much larger operation.

Mr Overend said: "It is accepted on the crown's case that Miss Chandra played a lower role in the chain. It isn't suggested that she was involved in a plan to defraud. She had money passed through her account that she knew was the proceeds of crime.

"It is not part of the prosecution case that Miss Chandra gained from the money passing through her account. The benefit she had from the offences personally was 400."

Magistrates told Chandra that they didn't accept she was unaware she was involved in criminal activity.

They handed her a 26-week custodial sentence for each offence which will run concurrently. She must also pay 115 victim surcharge.

Magistrates made a recommendation for deportation on release.
By Akshaya Nath: In times when most of the states in India are working towards development, the Union Territory of Puducherry seems is stuck between the disagreements between state government under chief minister Narayansamy and the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi.

India Today's Akshaya Nath spoke to chief minister Narayansamy about the ongoing power struggle and the development projects lined up to fulfil the goal of making Puducherry a smart city.

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Every time we start with a conversation on Puducherry we have to start with who is the real head of Puducherry?

When there is an elected government existing here as far as the administration is concerned the elected government runs it. The Lt governor has power on the concurrent subject and the state is taken care of by the elected government in the state and the central subjects by the central government. The ultimate power is with the President.

You have approached the Ministry of Home Affairs twice before and there was a clear indication on each of your powers but there is a power struggle between the two of you - the Lt Governor and you and the Cabinet minister

I didn't go to the home affairs first and it was Ms Bedi who approached them. And the first opinion given by the home ministry was wrong, so I sent a letter to them and then a second letter that they sent was also wrong. They were equating Puducherry with Delhi. The Union Territory of Delhi is under Article 239A while in Puducherry first provision of 239, 239A and 240 are applicable. The home affairs has confused itself by comparing union territory of Delhi with Puducherry therefore the trouble arose because of this comparison.

Will you approach the court, keeping the present situation in mind?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Secretary all agree with my view. Under article 240 it is very clear that the president can bring regulation in Puducherry in absence of the assembly, but once the Assembly is constituted it they who are responsible. There is no question to the representative of the President claiming they have got absolute powers.

What is the power struggle? Are the cabinet ministers in sync with the demands Kiran Bedi is making like WhatsApp communication and others or are they completely against it?

Under Rule 6 of the business rules, the administrator should work on the aide and advice of the counsel of ministers but unfortunately our administrator wants our counsel of ministers to work on her advice. By the rules, the position is entirely different. The power of the day to day administration is with the elected representatives and the official communication should not be revealed outside and I have taken an oath of office as the chief minister, I have also taken an oath of secrecy and she has too. But she doesn't bother about anything, any kind of information I communicate with her or the government of India she puts it in Whats App, Twitter and Facebook. There is a guideline of the government of India, the ministry of information or India, that the whatsapp twitter and Facebook the main server is in US. Therefore secret information should not be shared. There is also another controversy going on that. They said use NIC but she does not bother and she does everything illegally and puts the blame on our government.

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Do you think she is working on behalf of the BJP. This is a Congress dominated UT.

I don't think she is an agent of BJP. If she acts as an agent of BJP why would she raise voice against Haryana BJP president and his son in the Chandigarh stalking case? There are certain norms, procedures and systems that need to be followed by governor and Lt governor and help the government develop, assist the counsel of ministers. But instead of assisting she is blocking every development scheme and is functioning as an NGO and a sub-inspector of the state.

Talking about the development projects, Puducherry is going to get a new airport, a port and you are also reviving the beach. But again we see that the Lt governor is criticising certain aspects of the projects

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If there are any complaints, she is more than welcome to write to us and she can tell her views it is for the elected representatives to accept or not. There is only one difference between the state and the union territory of Puducherry, leave alone Delhi. When there is a difference of opinion between the counsel of ministers and administrator the subject will be sent to the president. She thinks that the President has to sign and that the Lt Governor has to sign.

How is it constitutionally differentiated on what are the powers of the Lt Governor and the elected representatives?

In article 239 and 239a and 240 first provision are specifically for Puducherry and Union territory rules and business rules are put in place. The person who is using it is the problem. Whatever she says and writes is right (is her notion). Any file comes to the director, secretary, CS, minister and me and then her. She wants to decide everything. She wanted the council of ministers to be non existent. One letter I wrote to the Health minister on exemption on Neet for Puducherry and she put it on her twitter. What does this mean?

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Do you think her social media presence is being used against your government?

The people of Puducherry have understood her. The free rice scheme she wanted to block and old-age scheme, the money for the engineering college student, we give Rs 2.5 lakh to a medical student and Rs 25,000 for engineering students and she has delayed the file with new conditions. It is for the elected government to give the people what they have been assured. Bring port development and that is delayed by using the NGO, the flight service she delayed it and like that every scheme of the government of Puducherry and she writes to the national green tirbunal and wants us to be punished. She is the administrator and I am also party to it and she wants us to be punished. Without knowing or whether she is doing it intentionally or wantedly, I do not know. First of all she should know that the elected government has the priority for everything and she has to act as a figure head and only guide for the development and by fighting with us she is not helping us develop the state, she is trying to ruin the state.

So you are saying that all the development projects brought in by the government are being blocked by her?

The port development, bringing container here, is being delayed. Apart from that the flight service which could have started three months back, it is the Government of India that wanted us to give 50 lake per month for three month to the operator and it was me who decided. Whether she is blaming the government of india on this? All these are government of india scheme and we are only implementing it. The container scheme, the udaan scheme, the smart city, safe water supply scheme is all government of india, and thinking of creating problem for us she is blocking the central government schemes.

Tamil Nadu is also going through a lot of political turmoil, what is your opinion on that.

We will overcome everything it is only a temporary phase, Centre understands the situation in Puducherry. Tamil Nadu is being pulled under extraneous people and I don't want to name them. The people from outside are pulling the strings because they are riding on three horses that is what is going on there. As far as Puducherry is concerned that is not the case. There is a stable government in place with an alliance with the DMK.

Do you think a DMK government in Tamil Nadu will be a better option?

Ya! When Kalaignar was the chief minister there were many developmental schemes and Tamil Nadu was on the industrial map and Jayalalithaa focussed on welfare schemes. The present government is surviving and fighting for its survival.

Fighting for survival, there is always this allegation that Rahul Gandhi has not been able to bring the Congress to the forefront and there is a talk that the party would be better off with Priyanka Gandhi?

A far the Congress party is concerned I am very clear about it. Because our performance up to 2014 as a government of india and I was part of the government as a minister between 2004 and 2014 our performance was excellent. But there was mudsling on the government and that is starting for the Narendra Modi government on the Demonitisation and trying to disturb the elected government's be it Goa, Manipur, Utharakand, targeting the Congress and non BJP government and using money power and muscle power and entire official missionary on Gujaratfor the Rajya Sabha seat where Ahmed Patel was contesting the election and where he ultimately won. This was a shame on the part of the BJP therefore the BJP's plan is to blackmail people and they have been doing it and they won't succeed in the long run. The growth has come down. They were expecting 7.6 percent but it has come down to 6percent, during the congress time it was 9 percent. The industrial production which was 7.1 percent last time had come down to 1 percent. Demonetisation totally removed money from the market and real estate business has gone. People are not having money in the market. When we are going and talking to business men they are all crying, industrialist are crying who will vote for BJP today at the all india level? Threatening will not work.

What are the next projects for Puducherry. What is the government planning?

I am only concentrating on law and order and it is under control now and tourism is flourishing here. Our government is the only government that in five months we brought new industrial policies, we have got land ban, we are giving electricity concessions, we are giving support to the people who are investing in non polluting industry lot of inquiries are coming from Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and within the country as well. Lot of industries are coming to place and French government is interested in investing here. 30-40 French investors are coming here in October. The smart city project will be in place around 2000 crore is invested in it. Then drinking water and drainage water scheme which 1400 crores and thus itself is coming to 3400 crores and out entire budget is 8000 crore. The population is some 15 lake people and if these projects come then we will see a new face of Puducherry.

Let's hope that the power tussle comes to an end and the progress of the state becomes the main focus.

There is no power tussle, everyone should work within their parameters, within their assigned works and should not encroach into the powers of the others.

Also Read

Poster by Puducherry Congress unit shows Kiran Bedi as Adolf Hitler Bedi pledges to ensure financial prudence in Puducherry

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Butter's number one fan was born on Janmashtami, and you should churn up this age-old Indian recipe to celebrate.

By Shreya Goswami: We have all grown up listening to stories about a little baby Krishna stealing butter from Yashoda's dairy. These stories have always been charming, and full of the image of natkhat Gopal we all love.

There's no denying that Lord Krishna is butter's number one fan, and all the rest of us foodies who love this dairy product can barely match his appetite for it! But we do have this everlasting love for butter in common, and that's something we should celebrate every day.

We Indians love white butter on top of our paranthas. Picture courtesy: Instagram/atishay.indian

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Also Read: These infused white-butter recipes are all you need for your weekend binge

The one thing that's changed is that unlike our dear maakhan-chor, we now depend on shop-bought butter, especially white butter. It's one product that's used every day, and can actually be made at home very easily.

Don't you just love the old stories about Lord Krishna stealing butter from Yashoda's dairy? Picture courtesy: Instagram/homemade.flavours

The technique itself is age-old and well-known across the globe. Would you believe it if we say that people in the West churned white butter the very same way that Yashoda did? It is quite true. In fact, the same principles, but modern gadgets, can be used to make white butter today.

All you need is heavy cream, a whisk (manual or in a food processor), and a few other things easily available at home. Here's the recipe.

Butter churning techniques are the same all over the world, and they can be learnt very easily. Picture courtesy: Instagram/bands.n.trashh Butter churning techniques are the same all over the world, and they can be learnt very easily. Picture courtesy: Instagram/bands.n.trashh

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup ice cubes

Also Read: Craving crunchy kachoris? Head to these 5 places in Delhi for the most scrumptious ones

Method:

1. Take the cream in a large bowl, and start whisking it. Keep whisking till the cream starts curdling.

2. Add some water and ice cubes, and continue mixing till the solid and liquid parts separate. The solid part is the white butter, the liquid is buttermilk.

3. Use a large sieve to get rid of the liquid part. You can also use a muslin cloth to make sure that not a single drop of buttermilk remains.

4. Transfer the pure white butter in a container. Refrigerate to store for at least a week.

Try out this easy recipe, and you'll have enough white butter to go with your favourite dishes. Picture courtesy: Instagram/harphanmaula

Yes, making white butter really is that easy. And think about all the dishes you can put it on, from paranthas to dal makhani and chicken curry!

Forget all about cholesterol and the side-effects of rich food. Because Janmashtami is here, and it's the perfect time to celebrate with pots full of white butter.

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Making womens work count By Bharati Sadasivam, exclusive to the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka View(s): View(s):

ISTANBUL  Over the next few months, the 12,000 employees based at Apples headquarters in Cupertino, California will complete their move to an extravagant new campus. The spaceship, covering 2.8 million square feet, includes a two-story yoga studio, running paths, and even revolutionary pizza boxes that keep slices crisp. One thing it does not have, however, is daycare.

When it comes to ignoring the importance of childcare for working parents, Apple is far from unique. And that omission places a powerful drag on parents ability to achieve their economic potential, with women suffering the most. Worldwide, women carry out twice as much unpaid domestic and care work  including raising children, caring for sick or elderly family members, and managing the household  as men do. In Mexico, India, and Turkey, women do three times more care work than men.

This gender chore gap limits womens choices, as it impedes their ability to obtain formal education, secure good jobs, and achieve equal pay. Indeed, though women around the world actually work more than men in total (including both paid and unpaid work), they earn one quarter less, on average, hold only one quarter of executive positions in the private sector, and occupy less than one quarter of all seats in national parliaments. Only half of working-age women worldwide are in the paid labour force, compared to more than three quarters of men.

This situation is slowly beginning to change. Unpaid household and care work is gradually shedding its reputation as womens work, and men today are assuming more household responsibilities than their fathers and grandfathers did. Some countries, particularly in Europe, are revising traditional leave policies so that parents can choose how to allocate time off after the birth of a child.

More broadly, the value of unpaid household and care work  not just for children and family members, but also for the long-term health of societies and economies  is increasingly being recognised. Efforts to measure the contribution of care work to national economies have produced estimates ranging from 20% to 60% of GDP.

In 2015, United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which call for recognising, reducing, and redistributing unpaid care work  a measure long proposed by feminist economists and gender-equality advocates. The question now is what can actually be done to meet this objective.

The responsibility will lie, first and foremost, with governments. After all, while businesses or neighborhood associations may offer childcare options to working parents, costs and quality vary widely. Government action is needed to ensure that care services cover all who need them  from preschool children to the sick, the disabled, and the elderly  and that they are universally accessible and affordable.

Beyond services, however, achieving the SDGs targets will require policy change. Most important, governments must establish requirements for parental and family leave programmes. Together with private companies, they can also provide monetary incentives for men and women to share household and care work more equally. Such policies have proved effective not only in Northern Europe  the most commonly cited model  but also in Eastern European countries like Lithuania, Estonia, and even Hungary, demonstrating that they can be applied anywhere.

At a time when many governments, particularly in the developing world, are faced with severe fiscal constraints, such interventions may seem farfetched. But spending on the care sector should be viewed as an investment, not a cost. A recent study in Turkey showed that one dollar of public money invested in the care sector could create 2.5 times as many jobs as a dollar invested in the construction industry. More than half of those jobs  decent jobs that could raise incomes and living standards, particularly for poor households  would go to women.

International institutions can play an important role in helping governments to seize the opportunities presented by investment in the care sector. In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the United Nations Development Programme undertook an initiative that helped women who had mostly worked at home their entire lives to find jobs in the care sector, enabling them to make use of their skills, by caring for children and for young adults with disabilities, while earning an income.

As populations grow and age, the care sector will only increase in importance. Adapting to these new circumstances now will give countries a considerable advantage, as it bolsters womens rights and freedoms, generates jobs, and make societies more equal. So what are we waiting for?

Bharati Sadasivam is the United Nations Development Programmes regional gender adviser for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.

www.project-syndicate.org
By Kiran Tare: The Maharashtra BJP will hold its two-day long meeting in Mumbai against the backdrop of imminent change of guard in the state unit as well as reshuffle in the cabinet from Thursday.

The state BJP executive will meet at Prabodhankar Thakare Auditorium at Borivli on Friday, a day after meeting of its core committee at Dadar. Sources in the state BJP, while speaking on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the state president Raosaheb Danve might soon be replaced either by education minister Vinod Tawde, revenue minister Chandrakant Patil or MLC Sujitsinh Thakur. However, they added that the shake-up in both the state party apparatus as well as the state cabinet will take place once a similar reshuffle takes place at the Center which is long overdue.

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The executive meeting is likely to adopt resolutions on current political situation in the state and on agriculture, behind the scenes talks are bound to centre on the appointments of new state president and state party organisation secretary.

Sources disclosed that Danve's name is once again doing the rounds in the union cabinet reshuffle. They argued that Tawde's name is doing rounds as successor of Danve because of his dismal handling of chaos in the First Year Junior College (FYJC) online admission process. Patil, who is also in the talks as a likely successor to Danve, has taken a backseat as the party needs someone like him to strongly defend the government in the legislative council.

First time MLC Sujitsinh Thakur is likely to emerge as a dark horse. He could be tipped to become the next state president as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis would want someone at the helm of affairs in the state unit with whom he can gel with. Besides, the state BJP president, the party needs to also consider filling up the vacancy of state organisational secretary. The post fell vacant after incumbent Ravi Bhusari stepped down citing reason that he had crossed the retirement age limit of 60 years set by the party.

Sources disclosed that besides the debate on current political situation and the agricultural scenario, the state executive is also likely to take stock of the progress made in the program of expanding the party's support base in the state. The latest issue of party mouthpiece 'Manogat' apparently seems to have set the agenda for the party.

The latest issue favours 50 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Ironically, the magazine carries an article on BJP president Amit Shah arguing that the BJP government at the Center has not faced any charges of corruption. Whereas the BJP government in the state has faced a slew of corruption charges of late from the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led opposition.

ALSO READ |

After facing flak, Maharashtra BJP president Danve expresses 'regret' over anti-farmer remarks

BJP planning early election in Maharashtra? Amit Shah sounds warning bell for alliance partner Shiv Sena

Maharashtra: BJP alliance partners threaten to march against government for farm loan waiver

--- ENDS ---
The judges have been announced for the 2018 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D, which will be presented by the Whakatane Museum and Arts.

Dunedin-based artist Scott Eady and 2016 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D winner Jasmine te Hira will the judge the pre-selection panel and arts professional Deborah Crowe will be the overall judge.

Deborah will be the sole guest judge in the final stage of judging and will select the $10,000 Major Award, sponsored by the Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust.

This is a valuable and significant national award with a focus on nurturing and promoting three dimensional work across a range of practices. It is a pleasure and an honour to be invited to contribute to the selection and judging process. she says.

Deborah, who originally trained at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, has contributed to the fields of art, craft and design in New Zealand and to international conferences and exhibitions for over 25 years.

Her work includes objects, installations and complex imagery, which challenges her audience to keep pace.

Some of her collections are held at the Te Papa Tongarewa, Glasgow School of Art and the Dowse Art Museum.

Pre-selection judge Scott Eady is a senior lecturer of sculpture at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic.

His work is represented in public and private collections throughout New Zealand, Australia and Russia.

Jasmine te Hiras work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with her collection The Beauty of Invisible Grief being the joint major winner of the 2016 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 3D.

Jasmine currently works in the museum and gallery sector at Tamaki Makaurau and is also working on establishing a community research archive at Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.

These awards have been made possible through the generous support of the Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust, established by Frank Canaday in memory of his wife, Molly Morpeth Canaday.

The trust has been a major supporter of the arts in Whakatane for over 25 years.

Pre-selection judge Scott Eady.
Parents are being warned to stay vigilant of a Facebook scam thats been doing the rounds on several buy/swap/sell pages.

A man has been offering free passes to Waimarino Adventure Park, but only to people with children  and only if he can visit their house to drop the tickets off.

Concerned parent Meagan McIlroy-Hoff says she was messaged by the man  Tom Matthews  after responding to his post offering the free tickets on the Buy Swap Sell Tauranga/Mount Facebook group.

He private messaged me within minutes after I put my name up for the tickets, she says.

Then he asked who I would take and what their ages were.

He then offered to drop the tickets around to Meagans home, but she refused. After some more back-and-forth  in which he claimed the tickets were part of a Nickelodeon promotion  Meagan eventually agreed to pick the tickets up at a McDonalds.

When she said she planned on checking with the manager of Waimarino first, however, Tom admitted the tickets were fake.

Meagan says his account has since been deleted, but she thinks it was probably fake as well.

His page said he worked for McDonalds and Footlocker, but there wasnt a lot of information. I think it was probably a bogus account.

After her dealings with Tom, Meagan posted their Facebook conversation publicly, along with a warning about his behaviour.

A screenshot of the last part of Meagans conversation with Tom.

She says others in the buy/swap/sell group began sharing their own run-ins with the same guy.

There were people who didnt have children, and as soon as they said they didnt have any he would stop communicating and block them, says Meagan.

Some people also said they had seen a similar thing on a Taupo page for DeBretts, which is a water park down there.

The biggest concern for Meagan is how insistent he was on dropping the tickets around to her house.

Hes trying to get your address, and that combined with do you have kids is a massive red flag to me.

Waimarino Adventure Park manager Charlotte Anderson says theyve reported incidents like this to police before.

Its been a while now, but weve had this happen before. A couple of months ago we reported a guy to police for doing this sort of thing. But we always recommend people to give us a call first so we can confirm whether tickets are valid.

Police advise whenever purchasing goods online, there is a risk the person selling the goods is not who or what they say they are.

Many online retailers and auction sites operate a trust system to help the public identify who is and who is not verified and/or reliable, says a police spokesperson.

Those sites also often have their own trust and safety staff who can provide advice and assistance in dealing with suspicious dealers. New Zealand online trading sites also work with police to deal with fraud and stolen goods sold on their sites. However, there will always be some people who try to use online sites to scam and rip people off for money so care must always be taken.

If you are concerned about safety during a face to face meeting or trade always tell someone where you are going and who you are meeting or take someone with you. Likewise, if you are the seller and are concerned about the buyer, you may want to meet in a public place rather than behind closed doors.
Six terrorist cadres, including four women cadres, have surrendered before Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh

By India Today Web Desk: As many as 68 members of six terrorist cadres have surrendered before Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, the news agency ANI reported today.

They include four women cadres.

This comes two days after an IANS report said Biren Singh had welcomed talks between leaders of former militant groups with New Delhi's interlocutor.

He also said feelers had been sent out to insurgents still fighting the state.

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Debendra Sharma, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau, has started talks to settle issues, including the demand for a homeland and rehabilitation, with those who have come overground in the state, Biren Singh said.

Singh recently said in an interview with India Today's Kaushik Deka that the time had come to review AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in the state.

The Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-led Art of Living (AOL) was instrumental in helping bring about the surrenders of the terrorist cadres.

The 68 cadres surrendering befor the Manipur CM. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living, was also present at the time.

Manipur CM Biren Singh meets one of the surrendering terrorist cadres. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of Art of Living which played a crucial role in the negotiations, was also present at the event.

The 68 cadres after surrendering. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living, was instrumental in organising the surrender.

(Inputs from agencies)

ALSO READ

It's time to review AFSPA: Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh

KNLF general secretary killed in Manipur

ALSO WATCH

CBI to investigate extra-judicial killings under AFSPA in Manipur

--- ENDS ---
On the opening day of his first ever exhibition in Spain, at the Galeria de Bellas Artes in Competa, Ray Murphy learned that his entry had been chosen as this years Competa Noche del Vino poster.

Ray is from Essex, where he lives and runs a business with his wife looking after children, which they have done for over 20 years. They have been visiting Competa regularly since 2009 and although they have never lived outside the UK, Ray says that he would consider Competa.

Despite never working as a full-time artist, he hopes to be full-time in the near future. I am a self-taught artist and have painted from a young age, he says.

Ray says that his inspirations come from landscape, seascape, wild animals and beautiful women and that the artists that most inspire him are professor Ken Howard, because of his mastery of tone, and Joaquin Sorolla, because of his mastery of colour and light.

First competition

The poster designed by Ray. / SUR

Ray explains that a good friend, who he met on his first visit to Competa, suggested that he should design a poster for the Noche del Vino competition after hed seen some old posters on the walls of a bodega in Competa and Ray asked him about them.

I was delighted to have my work chosen as it is a great feeling to have ones work appreciated and acknowledged, Ray says of his success. It is the first competition that Ray has entered.

As for the poster design, he says: I wanted to create a story. I wanted to combine the wine, the grapes, something traditionally Spanish and a little bit of magic, hence the creation of the flamenco dancer dancing the fruit into wine.

Ray returned to Competa on 5 August for the official presentation of the poster. However, the event was postponed until Wednesday at the last minute due to the death of a relative of one of the organisers, meaning Ray was unable to attend. Due to prior commitments he wont be at this years Noche del Vino either, to which the artist confesses he has never been.

Although the exhibition has now finished, much of Rays work can be found on his website: www.paintthemouse.com.

Competas Noche del Vino will be taking place on Tuesday 15 August. As well as being the day of the towns patron saint, Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, who is said to look after the vineyards, it also marks the time when the town traditionally waved off the grape harvesters, who would be away for up to three months picking the fruit in the fields around Competa.

The first Noche del Vino

In 1974 the first Noche del Vino was a spontaneous party which started when local resident, Aurelio Fernandez Navas, gave away free wine to locals and the event has taken place every year since then.

It has become known as one of Competas most important local fiestas and takes place around the Plaza de la Vendimia during the day, before moving to Plaza Almijara for a concert in the evening.

Free wine is still provided and music and dancing is the order of the day, going on well into the night.
Samajwadi Party leader Maviya Ali said the Uttar Pradesh government's notice regarding holding celebrations on August 15 in madrasas was anti-Islamic.

Samajwadi Party leader Maviya Ali said madrasas should not celebrate Independence Day as asked by the UP government.

By India Today Web Desk: Samajwadi Party leader Maviya Ali has just added fuel to the already raging debate over Uttar Pradesh government's controversial circular asking madrasas across the state to celebrate Independence Day record video of the event.

Maviya Ali, who lost Assembly election from Deoband against BJP's Brijesh Singh, said the UP government's notice regarding holding celebrations on August 15 in madrasas was anti-Islamic.

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"We are not ready to abide by the instructions given by the UP government. I want to reinstate that we are Muslims first and Indians next. If any situation leads to a rift with Islam then, we will not stand by the constitution. We would stand by Islam," Maviya Ali said.

Ali is not new to controversies. In 2015, he had said that there was no harm if VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi was killed. Ali's remark was in response to Sadhvi Prachi's equally poisonous statement on Dadri lynching. Prachi had said 'that beef-eaters deserve such fate.'

UP GOVERNMENT'S CONTROVERSIAL ORDER

The Uttar Pradesh government has directed all madrasas in the state to hold celebrations on Independence Day and videograph the event, UP Minority Welfare Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary had said last week.

Chaudhary's junior Baldev Aulakh even warned of action against madrassas which do not follow the order.

Aulakh, who is Minister of State for minority welfare, said, "We have asked for videography of all programmes. We can check at random as to which madrassa has celebrated it or not".

"If any madrassa does not celebrate it, action will be taken against it," he said, without elaborating.

All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahli, however, questioned the need for the directive and whether it was only for madrasas or for all schools.

"If it is only in madrassas, does it mean that our patriotism is being suspected?" he said.

The event to be held on August 15 should include hoisting the tri-colour, singing the national anthem and paying tributes to freedom fighters, an official circular said.

MINISTER DEFENDS ORDER

Defending the move, Chaudhary said that the celebration will inspire students and they will learn more about the contribution of the freedom fighters.

He said the children can treasure the memories of the Independence Day celebrations through the photographs and videos which will also act as a source of inspiration for others.

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UP's Yogi Adityanath wants madrasas in state to record August 15 celebrations on camera

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Madrasa scam in UP: Over 100 institutions getting govt funds exist only on paper

Mid-day meal to be provided in madrasas imparting mainstream education

WATCH: UP madrasas told to celebrate Independence Day, event to be videograped

--- ENDS ---
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rapper DMX was ordered confined to his suburban New York City home Friday by a judge who said he repeatedly violated bail conditions on tax fraud charges.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff also said the rapper must wear an electronic bracelet and ask his permission at least a week in advance if he wants to travel.

"A very strong argument could be made for keeping him in jail," Rakoff said, but he added that judicial authorities are sometimes too quick in the United States to incarcerate people before trial.

The judge described several times DMX has been convicted of drug or gun possession crimes since 2002 but said he has largely avoided jail time and maybe only learned that "he's free to thumb his nose at the court" and Pretrial Services officers because he knows that his lawyer, Murray Richman, will always get him out of trouble.

Rakoff said he was told DMX, 46, traveled to St. Louis and Chicago without permission and tested positive for cocaine since his arrest last month. The judge said DMX then rejected a Pretrial Services officer's offer of drug treatment, telling the officer he would remain drug-free on his own. In subsequent tests, he also tested positive for marijuana and opiates, the judge said.

"The violations are very troubling," the judge said. "In addition, it sounds like he's a liar."

DMX's lawyer demurred and said the drug tests weren't telling the whole story.

"He's a very rational, decent, human being," Richman told Rakoff. The lawyer said that drugs can linger in the body for a month even after someone stops using them and that DMX had an opiates prescription for pain relief.

He also asked Rakoff to let his client remain free so he can continue to perform and support his 15 children. One of the mothers of his children lives in Upstate New York.

DMX, whose given name is Earl Simmons, hugged friends outside the courtroom and called it a "blessing" that he was free as he walked away from the courthouse to a hot dog stand, where he ate a hot dog and posed for pictures.

When he was asked how he would celebrate his freedom, the multiplatinum hip-hop artist said: "That's a celebration right there. Just being in there and being able to walk out."

Prosecutors say DMX owes $1.7 million in taxes. They say he moved hundreds of thousands of dollars in music royalty income into his managers' bank accounts, letting them pay him in cash so he could hide it from the Internal Revenue Service. He has pleaded not guilty and declined to comment on the charges outside court Friday.

His songs include the 1999 hit "Party Up (In Here)" and 2003's "X Gon' Give it to Ya."
Photo courtesy of Michael B Studios

Meet the 15 newest state police dogs and their handlers

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) Trooper Peter F. Bizjack and canine Versa stand for a photo at graduation. The New York State Police held a graduation ceremony Friday for the 2017 Canine Handler Basic School. Fifteen dogs and their handlers graduated.



The canines and their handlers underwent 20 weeks of training at the New York State Police Canine Training Facility in Cooperstown. During the training, students and their partners received instruction in basic obedience, agility, handler protection, building searches, explosive or narcotic detection, tracking for fugitives and lost or missing persons, basic veterinary care and land navigation and grid searches.



The current strength of the State Police Canine Unit is 103 teams, including those who graduated Friday. During the first eight months of 2017, the members of the Division Canine Unit responded to 5,835 calls for service.



Canines that are part of the Division Canine Unit are donated by breeders, private individuals and humane societies. All canines are put through extensive testing and evaluation prior to assignment in the Canine Basic Handlers School. State police canines are named after members who have died in the line of duty.

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Michael B Studios

Meet Cotter in Troop F

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) Trooper Christopher S. Alberts and canine Cotter, from Troop F, stand for a photo. Canine Cotter is named for Investigator John F. Cotter. Inv. Cotter died Nov. 21, 1979. He was killed in an automobile accident on Route 17, in Sullivan County, while returning to the Middletown Station after testifying in a trial.



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Provided by State Police

Meet Versa in Troop F

Trooper Peter F. Bizjack and canine Versa, of Troop F, graduated basic school. Canine Versa is named for Investigator Joseph T. Aversa. Aversa, 31, was fatally wounded and two New York City Police Department detectives were shot in an exchange of gunfire with an armed assailant who attempted to rob one of the officers during a narcotics operation. Investigator Aversa, a member of the New York City Drug Enforcement Task Force, was engaged in a "buy-bust" operation that involved the purchase of a large quantity of cocaine.



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Provided by State Police

Meet Raya in Troop NYC

Trooper Atiba M. Celestine, from Troop NYC, talks about canine Raya. Canine Ray is named for Trooper Raymond J. Chippendale. Chippendale, 27, was fatally injured in 1932 while operating his motorcycle on the Watertown-Carthage Road near the village of Carthage.



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Michael B Studios

Meet Lock in Troop C

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) Trooper Jamie M. Gockel and canine Lock, of Troop C, stand for a photo. Canine Lock is named for Sgt. John H. Lockhart. Lockhart died in 1937. He was responding to a burglary call at a local drugstore when he slipped on ice and struck his head on a frame-brace on the top of his patrol car. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage five days later and died, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

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Provided by State Police

Meet Graydon in Troop K

Trooper Louis E. Godfroy IV, of Troop K, talks about canine Graydon. Canine Graydon is named for Trooper William T. Graydon. Graydon died on March 19, 1938 at the age of 22 as a result of a motor vehicle accident, according to state police.



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Provided by State Police

Meet Dillon in Troop T

Sherron L. Jones, of Troop T, talks about canine Dillon. Canine Dillon is named for Trooper Emerson J. Dillon. Trooper Dillon was shot and killed in 1974 after stopping a suspicious vehicle on the New York State Thruway near Canastota, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.



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Michael B Studios

Meet Wheeler in Troop NYC

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) Trooper Don J. Kim and canine Wheeler, of Troop NYC, pose for a photo at graduation. Canine Wheeler is named for Sgt. Harry J. Wheeler. Trooper Wheeler was killed in a motorcycle accident in the town of Sherrill in 1927 during a thunderstorm, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

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Provided by State Police

Meet Myer in Troop G

Trooper Thomas E. Lansing Jr., of Troop G, talks about canine Myer. Canine Myer is named for Cpl. Harold F. Myers. Myers was killed in 1950 when the patrol vehicle he was a passenger in was stuck by a vehicle that had crossed the yellow lines into oncoming traffic for an unknown reason, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.



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Photo courtesy of Micahel B Studios

Meet Kenny in Troop NYC

Superintendent George P. Beach II, Trooper Joseph C. Leworthy and canine Kenny, of Troop NYC, at graduation. Canine Kenny is named for Trooper Kenneth N. Devitt. Devitt died in 1937 at the age of 28 from influenza and complications of an accident that severely damaged his left leg. The 1931 accident occurred when Trooper Devitt was stopped on Route 5 near the Canastota Airport and a vehicle operated by a 15-year-old boy struck him, according to state police.

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Photo courtesy of Michael B Studios

Meet Ria in Troop NYC

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) Trooper Brady K. Ng, of Troop NYC, and canine Ria stand for a photo at graduation. Canine Ria is named for Trooper Charles S. Dorrian. Dorrian died in 1965 when his motorcycle slid off a wet roadway and struck a concrete guidepost on Route 22, near Kenisco Dam.

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Photo courtesy of Michael B. Studios

Meet Del in Troop NYC

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) takes a photo at graduation with Trooper Michael M. Pappas and canine Del, of Troop NYC. Canine Del is named for Sgt. Jeffry T. Edelson. Edelson, 34, was killed in 2003 in Sullivan County, when his vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree while he was pursuing a speeding vehicle, according to state police.

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Michael B Studios

Meet Gleason in Troop NYC

Superintendent George P. Beach II, (left) Trooper James R. Redden, of Troop NYC, and canine Gleason at graduation. Canine Gleason is named for Trooper Lawrence P. Gleason. Gleason was shot and killed when he responded to a domestic disturbance call in Crown Point, in 2002, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

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Photo Courtesy of Michael B Studios

Meet Theo in Troop NYC

Superintendent George P. Beach II (left) Trooper Dermont A. Summers and Canine Theo, of Troop NYC, at graduation. Canine Theo is named for Cpl. Theophilus Gaines. Gaines, 32, and another member died in 1932, when their plane crashed a few miles east of Cazenovia. Gaines was conducting routine inspections of troop communications sections and was being transported from troop to troop by aircraft at the time of his death, according to state police.

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Photo courtesy of Michael B Studios

Meet Deejay in Troop H

Superintendent George P. Beach II (left) takes a photo at graduation with Trooper Scott M. Usmail, of Troop H, and canine Deejay. Canine Deejay is named for Trooper Donald R. Fredenburg Jr. Fredenburg suffered a fatal heart attack in 2015 while participating in a morning training run at the New York State Police Academy.



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Meet Arnie in Troop A

Trooper David A. Ziemba talks about canine Arnie, from Troop A. Canine Arnie is named for Trooper Arnold T. Rasmussen. Rasmussen, 23, was shot and killed in 1927 by a subject he and his partner had arrested for petit larceny, according to state police.


SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Katie Feyh remembers the screams.

The Syracuse woman was in Justice Park in Charlottesville, Va., one block from where a car plowed into a group of people protesting a white supremacist rally Saturday.

Feyh, there with the International Socialist Organization, said other protesters ran toward her, yelling that a car had plowed into them and that someone was probably dead and others were injured.

"It was bad all day," she said. "You had roving bands of armed and armored fascists riding around town on the backs of pickup trucks, assaulting, harassing people."

After witnessing the aftermath of what she called a horrific day, Feyh drove 7 1/2 hours back to Syracuse.

Sunday evening, Feyh and about a half dozen others spoke to a crowd in downtown Syracuse about what happened in Charlottesville and how they need to fight white supremacy, racism and ethnocentrism.

An estimated 400 to 500 people attended the rally organized by the Syracuse Black Lives Matter chapter. They gathered around the Jerry Rescue statue in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse, chanted and held posters that read: "No Trump. No KKK. No Fascist USA," "Syracuse stands united against white supremacy" and "We are Heather."

Heather Heyer was the 32-year-old woman killed in Charlottesville this weekend.

"We are here to remember Heather Heyer and to continue the fight she was engaged in," said Herve Comeau, a Black Lives Matter organizer who led the Syracuse rally.

Comeau told the crowd that before Heyer died, she wrote on Facebook: "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention." He then encouraged everyone to pay closer attention and said, "this country looked away. We haven't confronted the history of racism and slavery in this country ... this fight isn't one weekend a year; it's every day."

During the rally, Comeau yelled "Black Lives," and the crowd chanted, "Matter."

"No justice," Comeau shouted. "No peace," the crowd responded.

"What do we want?" Comeau asked. "Justice," the crowd replied. "When do we want it?" Comeau asked. "Now," the crowd said.

Comeau asked the crowd to bow their heads in a moment of silence to remember Heyer, as well as other murder victims.

"Violence is not the answer," said 16-year-old Logan Rood, a junior at Nottingham High School who attended the rally with her mother and grandmother. "We all need to stand together."

Rood said she warned her mother, Brigit Burt, not to read the news after she read about what happened in Charlottesville this weekend.

"It's disgusting," the teen said.

But by Sunday, her mother had read the news and they joined hundreds of others at the rally. Black Lives Matter organizers said about 15 people wearing yellow bands served as security observers; police officers stood nearby; and another eight to 10 people wore green hats to let the crowd know they were legal observers.

As Comeau told the crowd that there were "undocumented people" in the audience "who came out in solidarity, even though they knew there would be police officers," a woman in the audience could be heard shouting.

Comeau continued speaking about the undocumented audience member: "That is in the spirit of abolition we want to fight for," but then the shouts became louder.

As the crowd chanted, "No Trump. No KKK. No Fascist USA," the woman yelled at a man taking pictures to "get out" and "put the camera down."

Later, organizers said a Libertarian known to take photos of demonstrators in an attempt to harass them was at the event. Within moments, the man walked away and the rally continued.

During the rally, Black Lives Matter organizers told the crowd that Feyh, a Syracuse University assistant professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, had gone to Charlottesville for the counterdemonstrations Saturday.

Feyh said she was visiting family in North Carolina the week prior and had heard white supremacists were heading to Charlottesville, Va. So before she returned home, Feyh said she joined other socialists from Washington, D.C., Greensboro, N.C. and Athens, Ohio in Charlottesville.

"As soon as I got there, I thought, 'Wow, they're not playing. This is going to be dangerous,'" Feyh said of the white supremacists in Charlottesville. "I saw a pack of fascists with shields in the back of a pickup truck and others in paramilitary gear carrying assault rifles."

But Feyh and the other demonstrators weren't about to back down, she said.

Feyh told the Syracuse demonstrators Sunday that they didn't have enough people to rout the white supremacists, which she believes created a dangerous situation in Charlottesville.

"But the prevailing non-strategy of ignoring them and they will go away will not work," she said. "We will only be safer if we have the numbers to overwhelm them."

Feyh and other speakers encouraged attendees to organize against racism and confront fascists.

"This is not a debate and this is not a dress rehearsal," Feyh said. "It was terrifying yesterday."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the Bihar and Assam governments of all support for mitigating the flood situation.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spoke to the chief ministers of Bihar and Assam - Nitish Kumar and Sarbananda Sonowal, respectively - regarding the flood situation in parts of the two states. He also assured the two governments of all support for mitigating the flood situation, and said that the situation was being monitored closely.

"My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely," he said in a tweet, adding that the Centre has assured all support to the state government.

Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work: PM- PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

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The Prime Minister spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal yesterday and today regarding the flood situation in the north-eastern state.

He tweeted that the Central Government has been closely and constantly monitoring the situation and that all possible support was being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state.

Ever since Assam has witnessed flooding, the Central Government has been closely & constantly monitoring the situation: PM @narendramodi- PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

"All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state." the Prime Minister said.

ALSO READ

Assam floods: 15 dead in four days as situation worsens due to incessant rains, rescue efforts on

Heavy rains in Nepal and Seemanchal cause floods in four Bihar

ALSO WATCH

Crops damaged, homes lost, lakhs displaced: Flood fury hits India east to west; What you must know

--- ENDS ---
Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man was found guilty Friday of murdering an 18-year-old woman on Christmas Eve 2011 -- the second time a jury has convicted him of the same crime.

Craig Owens, now 43, stood trial again last week in Latisha Hayes' beating death after an appellate court threw out his first conviction due to a judge's error in handling a jury note.

But the appellate court also noted that, given the evidence against Owens, finding him not guilty would have been unreasonable.

Friday, after a week-long retrial, a jury agreed with the appellate court's conclusion.

Prosecutor Jeremy Cali, who assisted in the first trial, said the jury deliberated for most of the day Friday before finding Owens guilty. Cali was lead prosecutor in this trial.

Defense lawyer Nicholas DeMartino maintained that someone else beat Hayes to death and pointed to Owens' actions -- doing CPR, talking to police -- as evidence that he was innocent.

But other witnesses maintained that Owens beat Hayes to death, though none of them saw the actual beating, DeMartino said.

As in any retrial, prosecutors had to start their case from scratch before a new jury. But a dead witness, a deleted 911 call -- and even bed bugs -- threw wrinkles into this retrial.

Owens beat Hayes to death with his fists inside a Steuben Street residence on the city's North Side. Numerous other people were in the residence during the assault. One of those people died between trials.

The case against Owens made headlines for another reason: his police statements were suppressed after police continued an interrogation despite Owens' repeated references to a lawyer. That led to District Attorney William Fitzpatrick's strong rebuke of police administration in 2013, with city officials defending the interrogation.

Owens' statement was not used at the retrial, either. He had been serving 25 years to life in prison.

That's what he faces again -- minus time served -- when sentenced in October.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Two cases of Legionnaires' disease that may be related to bacteria found in drinking water are under investigation at James Square Health and Rehabilitation Centre in Syracuse.

The state Health Department said it recommended James Square restrict water use after water samples tested positive for Legionella, a type of bacteria that can cause Legionnaires,' a serious lung infection.

The department visited the facility to make sure it is in compliance. It said the nursing home is providing alternate supplies of water to residents. The department and James Square are collaborating on the investigation.

Water restrictions will remain in place until additional testing show the water is clear. James Square has hired a consultant to treat the water system with hyperchlorination and install filters.

The Legionella problem comes at the same time James Square, which has a history of poor quality, is under investigation by the state Attorney General's Office for patient care. James Square officials are hiring more staff and taking other steps to improve the nursing home.

Legionella is found naturally in lakes and streams. But it can become a health problem when it grows and spreads in man-made water systems like showers and faucets, air conditioning cooling towers, hot tubs and large plumbing systems.

St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse had an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in 2015 caused by Legionella in its drinking water. Three hospital patients, one of whom died, contracted Legionnaires.' At least three of those patients caught the disease in the hospital.

Two other area nursing homes -- The Nottingham in Jamesville and The Commons on St. Anthony in Auburn -- imposed water restrictions last year after finding Legionella in their water systems.

Instead of being transmitted from person to person, the bacteria is spread through the air in water droplets or vapor. The disease often goes undetected because it has many of the same symptoms as pneumonia and flu.

About 6,000 cases of Legionnaires' disease were reported in the United States in 2015.

Most healthy people do not get sick from Legionella. People at risk of getting sick are elderly people with weakened immune systems. About one of every 10 people who get sick with Legionnaires' dies due to complications from the illness, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- For more than two years, a small team in city hall has been using data and technology to seek innovative solutions to timeless problems.

The Office of Innovation -- commonly called the i-team -- is responsible for things like installing sensors on water mains, mapping road quality, creating the Cityline portal and analyzing and releasing large chunks of data.

The innovation department is funded by a three-year, $1.35 million grant that runs out early in the next mayor's administration. With that in mind, we asked each mayoral candidate the following:

Next year, the Bloomberg Philanthropies grant that funds the Innovation Team will run out. Will you seek funding elsewhere to support the department, or will you let its tenure expire? Will you continue to focus on the kind of data-driven that team does in another way?

There are three Democrats in the race, as well as a Republican, a Green, an un-affiliated candidate on the Reform line and a candidate attempting a Libertarian line. Click on a candidate to jump to his or her response or scroll through all responses below.

Chris Fowler (I)

Howie Hawkins (G)

Laura Lavine (R)

Marty Masterpole (D)

Joe Nicoletti (D)

Juanita Perez Williams (D)

Ben Walsh (I)

The candidates' written answers to the question are given below, in order of party affiliation. They are provided as submitted, with minor editing for style. They were asked to limit responses to 250 words.

Look for a new candidate question each week. Have something you'd like to ask all the candidates? Email Chris Baker at cbaker@syracuse.com with the subject line "weekly question."

Juanita Perez Williams (D)

As Mayor, I will support and build upon existing efforts that seek to transition the Innovation Team's focus into one that centers on the economic empowerment of Syracuse residents. A similar transition occurred in the city of Nashville, TN where their Bloomberg-supportive innovation team morphed into the Office of Economic Opportunity and Empowerment (OEOE) whose efforts focus on reducing poverty in that city through financial empowerment services.

In Syracuse, I envision this office to be located within the Finance Department where many people go to pay their property taxes and water bills. Each transaction is an opportunity to interact and understand the financial constraints facing individual households. These interactions would aim to ensure that the household is receiving the assistance they are qualified to receive such as the various STAR exemptions offered by New York State and the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal program supplementing the income of households in poverty, to name a few.

These economic empowerment efforts would also include income-stretching assistance to make sure that each household is aware of, and connected to, the supports that currently exist in this community. These range from the myriad of social service programs administered by Onondaga County to homebuyer education and foreclosure prevention classes offered through Home HeadQuarters.

City government must be proactive in helping its residents, especially those who are struggling, achieve financial stability for themselves and their children which will in turn stabilize our neighborhoods and improve our quality of life.

Joe Nicoletti (D)

As mayor, I will have the director of the Management and Budget office provide an assessment of the Innovation Team's work product and value to city operations. I will increase staff in the Research Department so that Syracuse will more actively apply for and secure federal, state and foundation grants to support current operations along with new innovation to better perform our mission.

SyraStat was a very successful program that identified millions of dollars in savings for the City of Syracuse by exposing waste and inefficiencies. SyraStat often proposed a more effective and efficient way to deliver city services. Unfortunately, this award winning program was not continued under the current administration, I will bring it back to mine data that will have concrete results to the city's bottom line.

Funding innovation in city government will be essential in all 21 century cities to maximize the impact of our limited funds, and it must be a part of each department's method of operation. The SyraStat program allowed the Mayor and senior staff to review the operations of city departments on a weekly basis. Each department head presented facts and figures to support their operations. In some cases it was easy to identify efficiencies by simply having a fresh set of eyes examine the operation. It also allowed Syracuse senior management to look at the entire service operation and break down the artificial walls created by each department operating in a silo, rather than a cooperative sharing model.

With good management Syracuse can and will vastly improve city services in our neighborhoods.

Marty Masterpole (D)

It would be a mistake not to seek further funding. Syracuse is a city with a small budget and large and looming problems. We cannot afford costly mistakes that could have been avoided.

It's true that things like the Innovation Team cost money, but data that means we get things right the first time, that means we put money where it is most needed? That is money well spent. Nothing costs as much as having to go back and fix something because it wasn't done right the first time. And here, I'm not speaking of cost just in terms of money, but also in quality of life, and at the extreme, in lives. You only have to glance back at some of the previous questions in this series to see that that's not hyperbole. We have issues with lead, with infrastructure more generally, with crime and police resources, with community services.

It can seem frivolous to spend money on these things indirectly, by having an Innovation Team, but in reality - even in the short term - it will save the city, and the people of the city, money.

Take the "Dig Once" policy as an example. It's a straightforward idea: use data to minimize the number of times we dig into our roads to make changes to the underlying infrastructure. It may even seem like a small idea, but it stretches dollars, it saves time and reduces aggravation to local communities.

Making a smart decision will always pay for itself.

Laura Lavine (R)

The use of data for decision-making, goal-setting and evaluation seems like a novel concept for City Hall. It is difficult to imagine that collecting, analyzing and reporting quantitative and qualitative data are not long-established practices for our city's administration, and it invites the question, "What took so long?" Thankfully, the Bloomberg Philanthropies grant seems to have provided the impetus for such practices.

As mayor, I certainly would continue to expect the accomplishment of data-driven work. As a school leader, I utilized data to create strategic plans, increase literacy and graduation rates, develop and pass budgets, create long-term facilities plans and for numerous other purposes. The difference will be in how it's done.

In reading the i-team's reports, it appears that one of their accomplishments was to bring together department heads for collaboration and problem-solving. That is the mayor's job. As mayor, I will have data-informed expectations for the department heads who will report the attainment of established benchmarks to me and to each other collectively. I would not, however, use taxpayer money to support a wholly separate department that does what department heads should be doing as part of their daily practice. We have schools that are in such disrepair that students are not permitted to use the drinking fountains and we had a record number of homicides last year. All available resources should be directed toward improving our underperforming schools, reducing crime and returning the quality of life to our neighborhoods.

Howie Hawkins (G)

I would put the Innovation Team into the city operations budget and continue obtaining additional funding and in-kind services from partners as was done during the grant. This progression to public funding is what the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Teams grants envision. It's what the original five big city recipients did.

The i-team should remain its own department, developing new innovations and helping other departments adopt and coordinate their work with data-driven innovations.

Baseline city funding equal to the grant would be $450,000 a year - less than 1/6th of 1% of the city budget. The i-team has more than justified that expenditure.

The i-team's first project on infrastructure employed sensors for water pipes and road quality mapping by city trucks. This innovation brought the emerging "Internet of Things" to city management, resulting in clear labor savings and better prioritization of work based on better information.

The i-team's second project is the DataCuse public data portal. Partnering with the Sunlight Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Center for Government Excellence on open data and performance practices, the project is developing user-friendly dash boards and performance metrics and targets to help both city departments and the general public understand and monitor progress on road, water main, and housing conditions. As it expands, this data portal should include social, economic, and environmental indicators such as minority and city resident employment with city departments and contractors and progress toward 100% clean, renewable energy.

The i-team's third project is improving economic opportunity. Good choice.

Ben Walsh (I)

Not only do I fully support the Innovation Team (i-team) and their efforts to bring data-driven solutions to city hall, but, as mayor, I will double down on this important work.

By committing to a culture of innovation we will increase efficiency, cost savings, and service delivery. Most importantly, we will send a strong message that Syracuse is a smart, progressive city on the rise.

Since my time at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, where I earned my master's in public administration (MPA), I've always sought out innovative strategies to help Syracuse rise above. As deputy commissioner of Business Development, I assisted with the implementation of Integrated Property System Software. This created a web portal for constituent service requests and automated the permit approval process.

The i-team has accelerated city hall's shift towards innovation, taking data-driven approaches to community-wide issues like infrastructure and economic opportunity, and most recently through the launch of DataCuse, a central online location for open data. As mayor, I'll use the i-team's resources to address challenges within city government.

With the demise of SyraStat in 2009, the City of Syracuse hasn't had a comprehensive, data-driven approach to improving internal operations. Using models like the Denver's Peak Academy and Cincinnati's CincyStat Program as guides, I will task the i-team with developing a new, cutting-edge performance management system for Syracuse.

The residents of this great city can count on my administration to establish a culture of innovation and creativity throughout city government that helps everyone in Syracuse rise above.

Chris Fowler (I)

What a blessing to be among the 55 cities awarded the Bloomberg "What Works Cities" grant. The Innovation Team has provided a glimpse into the future of how city government works. Across the globe governments have been investing resources in modernization and innovation for years it's time we do the same at home.

Syracuse is ready to join the 21st Century as a truly smart city.

Looking to the next 50 years we must be thinking about ways to be more connected, welcoming, and sustainable. Data and the effective use of data plays a central role to ensure greater quality of life and opportunity for our residents, businesses, institutions, and visitors. Data can reveal patterns, suggest potential solutions, and validate the experiences of people often overlooked. That is why my administration will continue to focus resources on the data-driven work of the Innovation Team.

But it doesn't stop there. My administration will be reorganizing our current structure and create the new Department of Transformation which will house the Innovation Team, Design, Placemaking, and Complete Streets Team. This department will work across all departments to better develop programs, policies and goals, break down old silos by using data to deliver services and experiences that exceed expectations.

How do we become a smart city?

Create a vision that includes community input. Establish targets. Be efficient with resources.

My objective is to make Syracuse more livable, more sustainable, and a place where people want to be. My commitment to you is to make Syracuse a cleaner, safer, vibrant place to live.

Read the candidates' answers to questions about:

Sunny weekends

The next police chief

Lead paint

Making the city a better place

Consolidation

Blodgett repairs

Mayor Miner

Poverty

Deer

Their best idea

Property taxes

The Land Bank

Sanctuary city

Crime

The NYS Fair gondola

More on the mayor's race:

Snitches, privilege and neophytes: Takeaways from the 2nd forum

Which candidates have kids in city schools?

Syracuse's next mayor will inherit a city on the brink of financial disaster
By Suhani Singh: It will be a while before Nitesh Tiwari will be able to move on from Dangal, the 2016 blockbuster he directed and co-wrote. "It's impossible for me to separate myself from Dangal," acknowledged Tiwari. "It will always remain as one of the most memorable chapters of my life." He shared some moments from that three-year long journey at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

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Produced by Aamir Khan and Disney India, Dangal became the highest grossing Indian film in China, earning more than it did in India where it ranks second after Baahubali: The Conclusion. The makers were well aware of Khan's popularity in China but still labelled the performance as "unexpected and overwhelming". The success, says Tiwari, can be attributed to their collective intent which "was to make a sincere film. Going ahead, that's what my intention would always be."

Up next is Bareilly Ki Barfi, written by Tiwari and Shreyas Jain and directed by Tiwari's wife, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari (who also directed Nil Battey Sannata). Starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon, the film is Tiwari's first shot at writing a romance. Said Tiwari, "Me and Shreyas had a ball writing it. We have tried to keep it casual, funny and unpredictable. Hope people would love watching it as much as we have loved making it."

Inspired by the novel The Ingredients of Love, the film features Bitty (Sanon) as a young woman who seeks the help of Chirag (Khurrana), owner of a printing press, to meet her favourite Hindi author (Rajkummar Rao). Also starring Pankaj Tripathi and Seema Pahwa, Tiwari said the "characters are quirky and memorable".

Asked about working with his wife, Ashwini, he said, "We understand and respect each other's work and know where to draw the line. That's what has been working very nicely for us."

Tiwari's name has been linked to an adaptation of Varun Agarwal's novel How I Braved Anu Aunty And Started A Million Dollar Company. Varun Dhawan was being considered for the lead role. Tiwari didn't confirm or deny the news. Instead he suggested that it'd be a while before we see another film directed by him. "I usually take a long time to write," said Tiwari, adding, "And only after I finish writing I decide whether it excites me or not. So only time will tell if one of these will get made or I might get down to writing something absolutely fresh."

VIRAL VIDEO: Dangal's China run ends, Aamir Khan gets a moving tribute

ALSO READ: 5 reasons we cannot wait for Kriti-Ayushmann-Rajkummar's Bareilly Ki Barfi

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ALSO WATCH: Decoding the success of Dangal in China

--- ENDS ---
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Microsoft initially blamed Intel for the reliability issues found in its Microsoft Surface devices, but the real problem could very well be within the company itself.

The reliability issues of certain Microsoft Surface devices were brought to light over the weekend as Consumer Reports withdrew its recommendation for the Surface Book and Surface Laptop due to "poor predicted reliability."

Consumer Reports Withdraws Surface Device Recommendation

Consumer Reports recently pulled out its recommendation for the 128 GB and 512 GB Surface Book and the 128 GB and 256 GB Surface Laptop. The action comes as new studies that it carried out revealed that 25 percent of the owners of these tablets and laptops experience issues with the devices within two years from buying them.

Microsoft denied Consumer Reports' findings of poor reliability for the Surface devices, as the company claimed that the results are not a good representation of the real-world performance of the Surface Book and Surface Laptop. In addition, CNET said that owners of the Surface devices should not panic, as it pointed out some flaws in the study carried out by Consumer Reports.

Is Intel The Cause For Surface Reliability Issues Or Microsoft Itself?

According to Paul Thurrott, a veteran Microsoft watcher, Microsoft blamed Intel and its Skylake processors for the initial problems that plagued the Surface Book as well as the Surface Pro 4. Microsoft stated internally and told Intel that the Skylake chips were filled with bugs, causing problems in the reliability, performance, and battery life of the Surface devices.

Microsoft even asked Lenovo for help on designing around the reliability issues of Skylake, which confused Lenovo engineers, as they were not having such problems.

Thurrott's sources, meanwhile, place the blame for the issues on Microsoft itself, particularly on the custom drivers that the company created for its Surface devices. The drivers are said to be causing the problems that Surface users have experienced.

Microsoft released 11 firmware and driver updates for the Surface Book over its first six months since it was launched and another dozen updates since then. Microsoft has also been very silent in its support forums on complaints made by Surface users, with most cases not getting an acknowledgement nor a fix.

The company's problems with its drivers is also said to be the cause of delays in Microsoft's more ambitious devices and also why USB-C and Thunderbolt ports have not yet been adopted in its Surface devices.

The Consumer Reports withdrawal of its recommendation for Surface devices might be based on disputed data, but it has apparently placed the spotlight on Microsoft and its internal problems. A significant percentage of customer listen to Consumer Reports' recommendations, which is why Apple fought for one for the 2016 MacBook Pro, so Microsoft should take this issue seriously to regain momentum for its Surface devices.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Former chief minister O Panneerselvam today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the situation in Tamil Nadu

By Shalini Lobo: Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and leader of one faction of the AIADMK O Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today morning.

While Panneerselvam told the media that the meeting was nothing but a courtesy call, sources told India Today that this meeting was a political one.

Panneerselvam met the Prime Minister to discuss the hurdles he would face if the two factions of the AIADMK were merged.

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"We updated PM Modi about the political crisis in Tamil Nadu," Panneerselvam said.

BJP and the ruling NDA government has been pushing for an AIADMK merger between the OPS and EPS factions for day now.

According to sources Panneerselvam has been offered the post of Deputy chief minister, but he wants to hold the Home and Public Works Department portfolios too - two powerful portfolios currently held by the chief minister.

Another factor keeping both camps of the AIADMK on the edge is the rally being held by TTV Dinakaran in Madurai later today.

TTV Dinakaran claims that he has the support of 16 MLAs, Panneerselvam has 11 MLAs and E Palaniswami has the support of 123 MLAs. It takes a majority of 118 MLAs in the legislative assembly to form the majority. If MLAs choose to jump to the Dinakaran camp dropping EPS' numbers, then an AIADMK merger is inevitable.

Moreover, sources told us that the BJP has been pushing for a united AIADMK to greet BJP chief Amit Shah when he reached Tamil Nadu at the end of this month.

Also Read

AIADMK merger plans move on, E Palaniswami meets PM Modi in Delhi

Exclusive: BJP-EPS pact on the cards in Tamil Nadu to end political stalemate?

Also Watch:

AIADMK merger: O Paneerselvam knocks PM Modi's door ahead of AIADMK-BJP merger

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Aug 13 (PTI) With eight people dying of swine flu and two others due to dengue in Odisha, the state government today said all necessary steps have been taken to tackle the situation and there is no need to panic.

"The situation is completely under control and there is no need to panic. Most of the swine flu cases in Odisha happen to be migration cases as the disease is reported in some other parts of the country too," Health Secretary P K Meherda said.

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A review meeting was held here to take stock of the situation following spread of the two diseases in the state.

Emphasising on the need to make people aware of the disease, Meherda said the government is taking all possible steps to deal with the situation arising out of swine flu as well as dengue. Necessary measures are also being taken to create awareness among the public.

While swine flu has so far claimed the lives of eight people, two others have fallen prey to dengue, Meherda said. More than 100 people have been affected by swine flu, while around 370 people are suffering from dengue.

He said vaccinations are now being given only to doctors and other para medical staff engaged in the handling of swine flu patients. People were advised not to take vaccines without consulting doctors.

Regarding dengue, the health secretary said 370 people have been tested positive to the disease which has claimed the lives of two persons so far this year. Most of the patients have come from outside the state, he said.

Around 70 per cent of the dengue cases this year have contracted infection from other states, said Meherda.

Sources said that highest number of dengue cases was reported from Bhadrak district. Around 47 people have so far tested positive for the disease. Many of the patients have come from places like Mumbai, Surat and Bengaluru.

The health secretary had earlier inspected the SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack and Capital Hospital at Bhubaneswar to see the arrangements made for patients.

Officials said steps have also been taken for purchase of necessary equipment, ventilators and other gadgets for proper functioning of special wards for treatment of swine flu patients. PTI SKN RG

--- ENDS ---
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
Blaming India for impasse in bilateral ties, Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said New Delhi's "expansionist designs" was the "main hurdle" in constructive relations between the neighbours.

Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said New Delhi's expansionist designs was the main hurdle in constructive relations between the neighbours.

By Press Trust of India: Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhi's "expansionist designs" was the "main hurdle" in constructive relations between the two neighbours.

Addressing the nation on its 70th Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan "desires positive and constructive" relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.

Indo-Pak ties nosedived after a series of attacks last year, including the Uri strike, carried out by the Pakistan-based terror outfits. Following the attacks, India boycotted the SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in November last in Pakistan.

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"Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard," Abbasi said as Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang attended the celebrations as a "special guest" of the country.

Yang arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for the event.

Abbasi said that China and Pakistan have "always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations."

He called on the international community to "play its role" in resolving regional conflicts, "particularly the Kashmir dispute" between India and Pakistan in conformity with the UN resolutions to ensure durable peace in the region.

Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistan's 18th prime minister on August 1 after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.

"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he said.

He termed terrorism as the biggest challenge confronting the world in the 21st century and highlighted Pakistan's "unparalleled sacrifices" in the fight against this menace.

In his address, President Mamnoon Hussain called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan.

He said it is time to forget "personal grievances" and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharif's ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was "pre-planned".

The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital Islamabad along with a 21-gun salute in provincial capitals to mark the official Independence Day celebrations.

Major public and private buildings, roads and avenues have been decorated with national flags, portraits of the national leaders, banners and buntings to give a festive look.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted a huge national flag at the Attari-Wagah border with India soon after midnight last night, kicking off the day-long celebration.

The flag flew at 400 feet, the highest in South Asia.

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The 120x80 feet flag is also the largest in the history of the country, Pakistani media reported.

Bajwa was apprised of the recent "ceasefire violations from the Indian side and effective response by own troops".

"There's no better way to celebrate independence than defending the country," he told soldiers.

He also said that Pakistan will always stand with the Kashmiri people "in their just struggle against repression".

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) organised an air show in Islamabad to mark the 70th Independence Day celebrations.

Aerobatic teams from Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia performed before a huge crowd of people who flocked the Fatima Jinnah Park in the heart of the city to witness the show.

The special appearance of "Solo Turk", the famous aerobatic team of Turkish Air Force, and the internationally acclaimed "Saudi Hawks" of Royal Saudi Air Force alongside PAF aircraft were the main attraction of the show.

Pakistan air force also displayed JF-17 Thunder aircraft, indigenously built with the Chinese assistance.

Tri-Services free fall display of Special Services personnel was another salient feature of the show.

In Karachi, a similar air show by PAF was organised to mark the Independence Day festivities.

ALSO READ |

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Shahid Khaqan Abbasi elected as Pakistan's interim prime minister after Nawaz Sharif's exit

On the eve of Independence Day, India-Pakistan's flag war at Attari-Wagah border

Independence Day: This beautiful version of the national anthem is India's gift to Pakistan

ALSO WATCH | Shahid Abbasi takes over as Pakistan's interim Prime Minister

--- ENDS ---
Framestore has promoted Helen Hughes to the newly-created role of Head of Advertising, London.

Hughes has worked in Framestores Production department since 2010, leading a growing team of producers across Framestores core VFX work on major campaigns and a string of James Bond title sequences.

Hughes will continue to report to Helen Stanley, Managing Director, and Lottie Cooper, Deputy Managing Director, as part of the global management team overseeing the outputs of Framestores Advertising and Content divisions.

Helen Hughes is supported in her new role by the appointment of Jordi Bares and Ben Cronin as Creative Directors in Advertising. Bares joined the company from Glassworks in May 2017 and Cronin joins the Advertising leadership team from within Framestore, having risen the ranks from junior to VFX Supervisor during his tenure at the company.

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In 1947, the Indian subcontinent was divided into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, generating one of the largest migrations in modern history.

By AP: Radesh Singh's grandfather was just 11 years old when he left his village in India's Punjab province to move to Peshawar, in the far northwest of the country on the border with Afghanistan.

The year was 1901: The British ruled the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan wasn't even a glimmer in the eye of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Peshawar held the promise of work and adventure.

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Singh's grandfather would never return to his village, not even in 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, generating one of the largest migrations in modern history and unleashing a brutality that left few untouched as mobs of Hindus and Muslims turned on each other.

Singh's family is neither Hindu nor Muslim but Sikh, a religious minority in both countries. In the 70 years since partition they have waged a secessionist uprising in India demanding outright independence for India's Punjab state where they dominate. They have felt increasingly less at home on either side of the border, but particularly so in recent years in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan as they too have become victims of local Taliban violence.

Singh said poverty kept his grandfather in Peshawar, located at the foot of the famed Khyber Pass and dominated by fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen.

"It's not easy to start over at zero when you have very little," he said.

AFTERMATH OF 1947

The hostility in the immediate aftermath of 1947 was brief in the northwest, said Singh. It was followed by decades of peace. The decision to stay in the new country now called Pakistan seemed like a good choice at the time. The Sikhs had lived peacefully for centuries alongside their Pashtun Muslim countrymen.

After all, said Singh, Sikhs had a glorious history in the northwest. For a time in the 18th century they oversaw a dynasty. Their capital was Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. It was a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, who rebuilt Peshawar's infamous Bala Hisar Fort, an imposing walled fortress that some historians say is as old as the city itself, which traces its origins back more than 2,000 years.

Today Sikhs are among Pakistan's smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colorful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus.

"UNTIL 1984, PAKISTAN'S HINDUS AND SIKHS LIVED AS ONE"

Until 1984, Singh said, Pakistan's Hindus and Sikhs lived as one in northwest Pakistan. Their children married, they even worshipped together. But then India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

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"They (Hindus) cut all relations with us. They said Pakistani Sikhs are like all Sikhs everywhere. No difference. They said, 'From now on, we will be separate from you,'" Singh recalled.

Today Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples that they call gurdwaras; while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of the buildings. Many were abandoned in 1947 and taken over by Muslims who arrived from India. The Pakistan government, which took over the buildings after 1947, allowed the squatters to remain.

In a congested neighborhood in Peshawar's old city, Singh stepped through large steel gates that opened on to a sweeping courtyard. It no longer resembled a house of worship, but Singh said it was once a vibrant gurdwara attended by hundreds of Sikhs. Now two families call it home.

Two clotheslines crowded with clothes drying in the blistering midday sun stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other. A child's plastic toy sat idle nearby.

Elsewhere in Peshawar, an armed guard, his rifle slung loosely by his side, stood guard at the city's largest Sikh temple, an ornate marble building that dates back 250 years. Inside a half dozen Sikh men sat on plastic chairs.

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It is a short, bureaucratic-looking man, a Muslim, who has the final say about who enters the gurdwara. He works for the government body that oversees properties vacated by people who fled to India in 1947.

After phone calls made, names recorded, passports handed over and more phone calls made, the doors to the gurdwara were opened, revealing a cavernous carpeted room and ornate pillars decorated with hundreds of tiny mirrors. In a small room at the far end of the upper story, two students read the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy book.

A TURN TOWARDS RADICAL ISLAM

Singh, who heads a council representing the Sikhs in Pakistan, said that since his homeland began to turn toward radical Islam, particularly in the Pashtun heartland, young Sikhs have been looking to leave.

"They want to go to another country, not to India or Pakistan," he said, but every country eyes them with suspicion. Even Indians, he said, see his Pakistani passport and question his intentions, suggesting he wants to agitate for Sikh secessionism, the battle that resulted in Indira Gandhi's death and a dream still held by many Sikhs on both sides of the border.

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For Singh, Pakistan's slide into intolerance began in the late 1970s with the former Soviet Union's invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's military dictator Zia-ul Haq set the country on the course of Islamic radicalization as jihad became a rallying cry to defeat the communists in Afghanistan, he said.

EXTREMISM WORSENED AFTER 2001

Extremism worsened after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by a US-led coalition, he said. The tribal regions were gradually overtaken by Taliban and in 2013 several Sikhs were killed, their limbs severed. The brutality of the killings and the threats sent thousands fleeing Pakistan, said Singh.

He said today Pakistan's intolerant use blasphemy - a crime that carries an automatic death penalty - as a weapon against minorities and fellow Muslims alike.

"That is why we have a fear in our hearts, that this law can be used against us," he said. The mere accusation of blasphemy can incite mobs to violence.

"In the last nearly 40 years we have been facing the boom, boom (mimicking the sound of explosions) in every city of Pakistan," said Singh. "In a long time we have not heard any sweet sounds in our Peshawar, but still we love our city."

Also Read:

On the eve of Independence Day, India-Pakistan's flag war at Attari-Wagah border

This Independence Day eve, schoolchildren to take 'New India' pledge

--- ENDS ---
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By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 14 (PTI) Former police officer Pradeep Sharma, one of the famed `encounter specialists of Mumbai police, would be reinstated soon, a source said today.

Inspector Sharma had been dismissed in 2008.

The state home department has cleared his reinstatement, and he will join the force after some formalities are completed, a senior police official said.

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Sharma, who joined the police force in 1983, was credited with several `encounter deaths in Mumbai before his dismissal from the service in 2008 for alleged links with the Dawood Ibrahim gang and his role in the Lakhan Bhaiyya fake encounter, the official said.

Sharma was arrested in Lakhan Bhaiyya case in 2010 alongwith 21 others.

While 13 policemen were convicted in the case in July 2013, Sharma was acquitted by the court. PTI DC KRK

--- ENDS ---
Dr. Ben Carson, the U.S. housing secretary, made plenty of cuts and incisions during a renowned career as a neurosurgeon.

But it's blockages of another type  regulations Carson said are holding up federal flood aid  he's looking to slice.

Shortly after visiting a Denham Springs couple whose home remains a work in progress a year after taking on several feet of water, Carson told reporters that federal money earmarked for flood victims only trickled out over the past year in part because of "a labyrinth" of federal red tape.

"There is no question that the money that's been allocated is going to be well spent," Carson said while standing alongside Gov. John Bel Edwards, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy and Rep. Garret Graves. "But there still remains a lot of hurdles in the system that slow down the process."

Exactly what regulations are in Carson's cross-hairs wasn't spelled out  "there's a long, long, long list," Carson said when asked before pointing to President Donald Trump's executive orders on cutting down on federal rules  but his comments echoed complaints from Louisiana politicians, officials and homeowners who've griped about the slow pace of delivering some $1.7 billion in special appropriations from Congress.

Edwards said the partnerships with Carson's Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies have been promising.

"We've got a lot of work to do in Louisiana and we're going to get it done," Edwards said.

Carson is scheduled Tuesday to visit two housing developments in New Orleans  Bienville Basin and Columbia Parc  that were rebuilt using federal HUD money following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

State officials, meanwhile, are aggressively pushing for flood victims to fill out homeowner surveys, the first step in qualifying for additional aid and a key tool in measuring how much additional money might be needed to complete the rebuilding work. Workers are canvassing door-to-door, and the state has launched advertising campaigns to encourage those hit by the floods to take the survey.

The response so far has been less than state officials hoped, with thousands of flooded homeowners yet to respond.

Kennedy, a first-term Republican senator and former state treasurer, said he suspects frustration with the slow pace and accompanying stacks of paperwork for other federal programs are discouraging many.

"I know people are disgusted with government at all levels," Kennedy said.

The governor and his staff also have highlighted a number of regulations and quirks in federal law that have stymied some of their efforts, including a ruling by HUD that bars Louisiana residents who received Small Business Administration loans from using recovery dollars to pay down those loans, a point of particular aggravation for impacted homeowners.

Graves, whose congressional district includes much of hard-hit Livingston and East Baton Rouge parishes, called conversations with Carson on Monday "incredibly refreshing." The cabinet secretary, Graves said, asked probing questions during closed-door meetings earlier Monday about the kind of "bureaucracy and red tape we're trying to cut through."

Among the beneficiaries of federal recovery funding have been Charlotte and Buddy Rimes, both 68, who tidied up their Denham Springs home as best they could to host Carson and the accompanying delegation. The couple, who had no flood insurance, rebuilt their home with help from relatives and some money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They're now looking to finish some of the work with money from the Restore Louisiana program, a state-run homeowner assistance program fueled by federal dollars.

Some of the work is done  Charlotte Rimes chatted with Carson in her partially refurbished living room, the hardwood floors replaced with carpet to cut down on costs  but a lot remains to be done. While walking a reporter through her home after Carson departed, Rimes pointed to missing doorknobs, makeshift kitchen counter tops and unfurnished bedrooms that haven't yet been tackled.

The politicians "thought it looked nice," Rimes said of her home, "but it's not even done yet!"

The Rimeses said the flood, which filled their home with between 19 and 42 inches of water, only kept them out for a couple of days. They've been living amidst the rebuilding ever since  and both complained of discomfort after spending most of the last year sleeping on an air mattress.

The biggest hurdle still facing the couple? Lining up someone to do the remaining work for the $16,000 budgeted in the program.

"Finding a contractor has been a thing," Charlotte Rimes said.

Louisiana officials and representatives largely agree that far more money is needed to help the area bounce back from the destruction of the floods.

But lining up additional flood relief money in Washington hinges in part on disbursing the money already allocated, according to Kennedy and Graves.

"It's not as much as we need, but it's not chopped liver," Kennedy said. "We've got to get that money into the hands of the people  even if we've got to go door-to-door and beg people to fill out the forms.

"I can't go back and ask for more until this is spent. It's that simple."
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy says a sweeping proposal to overhaul health care he's co-sponsoring with two Republican colleagues is "about the only game left in town" to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Cassidy, a physician and Louisiana Republican, said he hopes to push forward the plan  which he's working on with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller  by the end of September.

The Cassidy-Graham-Heller legislation, which hasn't yet been scored by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, would scrap the ACA's individual and employer mandates to buy health insurance while largely block-granting Medicaid funding for states.

Speaking at the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday, Cassidy called Medicaid "a black hole" for government spending  at both the state and federal levels  and blamed the health care program for rising tuition at public universities, infrastructure spending and other needs because Medicaid costs crowd out other priorities.

Medicaid's impact on the state budget is disputed. State officials have described the cost of the Affordable Care Act's expansion as sustainable, citing in part corresponding drops in the number of poor, uninsured patients showing up at hospitals.

Cassidy on Monday said he was referring to the cost of the program as a whole, calling the traditional Medicaid program "a huge problem."

"There is no free lunch," Cassidy said. "At some point, you have less ability to address other needs."

Cassidy has continued to push to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare, despite the dramatic failure of earlier Republican efforts in the U.S. Senate. The latest attempt, which would've passed a stripped-down bill in a bid to continue negotiations with House Republicans, went down in defeat earlier this month when Republican senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in voting against it.

President Donald Trump has blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, over the failure and urged him in a series of stinging tweets to return to work on the issue. Both Cassidy and Louisiana's other U.S. senator, John Kennedy, voted in favor of each previous repeal bill.

Cassidy said he's been in regular touch with the White House and the administration's healthcare officials on crafting his plan, meeting "two or three times per week."

Following his address at Press Club, Cassidy said pressure from Trump is helping drive the continued debate on repealing Obamacare.

"I think the president is impatient and the president is kind of jamming the agenda a little bit, rightly so," Cassidy said. "He's afraid momentum will dissipate."

A prime component of Cassidy's plan would cap most federal Medicaid funding to states and shift the appropriations to a block grant. The senator said Monday those changes would allow each state flexibility to tailor healthcare programs as each sees fit while protecting taxpayers from rising costs.

Critics of Cassidy's proposals, though, said that amounts to a substantial cut in the Medicaid funding that would jeopardize care for the elderly, disabled and low-income residents in Louisiana.

Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates on behalf of low- and moderate-income families in the state, said the cuts in the Cassidy-Graham-Heller bill would leave states scrambling to cover inflating costs.

"This would rip a large and growing hole in our state budget while eliminating all guarantees of assistance for low-income residents," said Moller, whose group has actively opposed other recent Republican proposals to replace the Affordable Care Act.

More than 430,000 Louisiana residents gained healthcare coverage when the state expanded Medicaid under the ACA in 2016, shortly after Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards took office.

Cassidy expressed some optimism Monday that certain provisions in his proposal  especially what he termed a "fairness principal" to even-out the federal healthcare funding going to each state  might win some Democratic support. Louisiana would break roughly even under the proposal, Cassidy said.

He added that he plans to participate in hearings on some "narrowly limited" proposals to shore up the individual health insurance marketplaces.

Moller disputed the idea that the plan being pushed by Cassidy, Graham and Heller might win bi-partisan support.

"Sen. Cassidy and his colleagues should focus their energy on strengthening the individual marketplaces, rather than wasting precious time on yet another hyper-partisan bill that guts Medicaid, roils the marketplaces and eliminates protections for people with pre-existing conditions," Moller said.

Rolling back the Affordable Care Act, the signature legislative achievement of former President Barrack Obama, was a key pledge in the campaigns of many House and Senate Republicans, including Cassidy, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2014 run against then-Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

The senator said he wasn't certain whether the proposal would gain enough traction to make it out of the Senate  but said he intends to keep pushing for what he views as a responsible, conservative alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

"One thing I will guarantee is that I'll continue to fight to come up with a plan that fulfills President Trump's campaign pledges and returns power to patients, returns power to states and is both fiscally sustainable for the individual as well as for the taxpayers," Cassidy said.
Jeff Sadow gets it exactly wrong with his August 6 column endorsing a federal program (know as 287(g)) that deputizes local law enforcement officers to perform immigration enforcement actions  in addition to their already substantial work loads. His main rational for justifying 287(g) programs is the disturbing spike in murder rates in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, even though near zero immigrants have been charged with any of those crimes. As a social scientist he must know that crimes rates among immigrant populations is one-fifth the rate of native-born Americans, and that low immigrant crime rates has been the conclusion of studies and commissions since social scientists began examining the issue since the turn of the last century. But why let facts get in the way of the scapegoating of immigrants?

Jeff Sadow: Cities and law enforcement offices can learn from Sid Gautreaux on immigration enforcement East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux set an example to keep in mind as Baton Rouge 

Communities have found the hard way that 287 (g) programs are expensive, do not target serious criminal offenders, have resulted in widespread racial profiling, and threaten community safety by poisoning the relationship between law enforcement and immigrant communities.

New Orleans and Baton Rouge police are already stretched too thinly trying to do their difficult, dangerous work. Community policing that understands that relationships of trust between residents and law enforcement officers are essential in stopping crime should not be undermined to satisfy alluring political narratives that attempt to blame societys problems by pretending they came from immigrants.

Sue Weishar

research fellow, Jesuit Social Research Institute, Loyola University

New Orleans
The carnage in Charlottesville, Virginia, as protesters clashed over the planned removal of a Confederate statue resonated deeply in Louisiana, which has faced its own controversies over Confederate monuments.

Over the weekend, during dueling demonstrations by white supremacists and activists against racism, 20-year-old Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio, plowed his car through the crowd of anti-racism protesters, killing one and injuring dozens of others. Fields, whos been arrested and charged in the incident, is an avowed white supremacist and admirer of Adolf Hitler. In a related tragedy, two Virginia state troopers who were monitoring the protests from the air died when their helicopter crashed.

The Virginia tragedy had eerie echoes to protests before the recent removal of Confederate statues in New Orleans, demonstrations that also drew hate-mongers from out of town. Luckily, no one was hurt during the New Orleans protests.

The New Orleans Police Department worked hard to establish and maintain a buffer zone between opposing demonstrators. The departments long experience with crowd control, developed through years of managing Mardi Gras revelers, surely helped, too. NOPD deserves credit for helping to maintain order.

But the sad truth is that even with the best-laid security plans, just one malignant soul can wreak havoc. Baton Rouge residents learned that firsthand last summer, when a lone gunman from Missouri came to the city and shot six local law enforcement officers, killing three of them.

Our politics are a petri dish of discontent these days, the rawness of our rhetoric emboldening evildoers with a sick sense of validation. Its up to all of us to do what we can to honor our differences, not demonize them.

Last year, a summer soured by violence in Louisiana strengthened our resolve to affirm what unites us as citizens, even when we disagree. What happened in Charlottesville underscores the breadth of the breach in civil society, an issue thats obviously a national, not a narrowly Louisiana, problem.

New Orleans is home to the National World War II Museum, which honors the brave warriors who fought against fascism in Europe and Asia. Those who wear swastikas in public parades and spout racial intolerance dishonor those veterans, and they dishonor America.

Its also ironic that continuing controversy over the legacy of the Civil War should lead any American, in 2017, to kill another American. In the aftermath of that terrible conflict, a nation resolved to reunite. Bloodshed on our streets doesnt ennoble the wars legacy. The violence in Virginia is, quite the contrary, a civic sacrilege.
As another summer reading season begins to recede, one thing seems clear. Despite its name, The Gulf, a new history of the Gulf of Mexico by Jack E. Davis, wasnt an ideal book for the beach.

Its too heavy for vacation tote bags, coming in at nearly 600 pages, but the size is understandable. The subject is a big one, just like the Gulf itself. And Louisiana residents cant help but cheer what Davis, a professor of environmental history at the University of Florida, is trying to do.

Davis argues that mainstream American history has often overlooked the Gulf of Mexico and its role in national life, a bias that those of us in Louisiana know plenty about. It frustrates our ability to get federal help when we need it. Put simply, most Americans dont know how important the Gulf is to the rest of the country.

Our Views: Setting a dead zone record in Gulf Much of Louisiana was built by the sediments brought down over millennia by the great Missis

The Gulfs history, Davis points out, is Americas history; the energies of one are shared with the other. Our school books taught us that there were 13 British colonies caught up in the war for American independence, yet in truth, there were 15: the forgotten two were the Gulf colonies of East Florida and West Florida.

After the revolution, as the new nation grew, the Gulf fed its progress.

The Gulf, Davis tells readers, was on the frontier line that advanced the original U.S. states, delivered opportunities to Americans and immigrants searching for a better life, and nourished the nations coming-of-age  doing so not just in western woodland, mountain, and river valley, but on the southern sea itself.

In the 19th century, Davis notes, an angler trying his luck on a little back bay in Texas discovered oil beneath his boat. Wildcatters eventually converged offshore searching for a foul gummy substance below the water deep in the earth, ultimately turning the Gulf into the countrys most important oil and gas repository.

In addition to its oil wealth, the Gulf boasts abundant fisheries, too. Biologists say that the Gulfs fish biomass density and species diversity are among the highest in the world, Davis writes.

Throw tourism into the mix, and the Gulf of Mexicos stature as a national treasure is undeniable. With every new train line that reached the coast, Davis writes of Americas early years, every new hotel than opened, and every new craving for a marketable resource, the region drew closer to the furious pace of change and consumption that possessed the rest of the nation  and then surpassed it. The Gulf had become Americas sea.

We like the sound of Americas sea. Its a timely reminder that the gulf just off the coast of Louisiana is central to the success of the nation and, in a real sense, to the rest of the world.
It takes just 24 characters to type out the simple sentence, "That's not what I meant." The sentiment "he doesn't speak for me," is just as concise. A president who, say, favors Twitter as a rapid-response vehicle could easily have typed in both of those sentences and still had 92 characters to spare.

That, of course, is not what President Donald Trump did Saturday as David Duke, the one-time Ku Klux Klan leader, unabashed anti-Semite, former state representative and way-too-close-for comfort candidate for Louisiana governor, emerged as a willing focal point of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Duke's heyday in Louisiana was a quarter century ago, long before he went to prison for ripping off his supporters to pay his gambling debts, and before his various tries for a political comeback fell far short. But Trump's rise has given Duke a new platform, because he's been out there claiming that the president's racially inflammatory language proves his moment has finally come and even more because the normally quick-triggered Trump is so reluctant to call him and his ilk out.

It happened during the campaign, when Duke made waves by telling his remaining supporters that voting against Trump would amount to "treason against your heritage." Rather than quickly reject the sentiment, Trump spent an uncomfortable stretch dodging questions and feigning ignorance before finally issuing a defensive disavowal.

It happened again Saturday, before the violent march took a deadly turn when a participant plowed his car into a crowded street and a state police helicopter crashed. Never one to run away from a microphone, Duke was widely quoted crediting the show of ugliness and intolerance to Trump's rise.

"This represents a turning point for the people of this country," Duke said. "We are determined to take our country back, we're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump, and that's what we believed in, that's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back and that's what we gotta do."

+4 Pressure mounts on Trump to condemn white supremacists after violence in Charlottesville WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump is facing pressure from both sides of the aisle for

Think of how easy it would have been for Trump to take to Twitter and shut that down. Rather than waiting around and eventually issuing a statement that never mentioned the white supremacist, pro-Nazi underpinnings of the violence but did somehow implicate "many sides," Trump could have whipped out his phone and made a statement by distancing himself from Duke. That he didn't, again, makes you wonder how much he agrees with Duke's take on things, or is simply reluctant to criticize those who support him. (Monday, after two days of criticism, the president did finally issue a forceful statement denouncing "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.")

It's not like Trump would have been going out on a limb. When Duke was a force in Louisiana politics, top fellow Republicans, all the way up to President George H.W. Bush, forcefully renounced him.

Saturday he would have had plenty of company as well, among many Republicans who didn't tiptoe around what was going on in Charlottesville. They include U.S. senators like John McCain, of Arizona, who declared that "white supremacists aren't patriots, they're traitors," and Orrin Hatch, of Utah, who tweeted out that "we should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home." There was also this from Tom Cotton, of Arkansas: "These contemptible little men do not speak for what is just, noble, and best about America."

In that number was U.S. Rep. and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, of Metairie, who wrote in from recovery from the gunshot wound he suffered earlier this summer, and who has never supported Duke but has been caught courting Duke supporters. Scalise put his full support behind defeating "white supremacy and all forms of hatred."

Hopefully, such talk out of the party's top echelons will take, and perhaps even translate into kinder and gentler policy priorities. Regardless, good for them calling things as they see them.

As for those, like Trump, who still can't or choose not to see what's right in front of them, here's a handy rule of thumb that might help sort through the "many sides" confusion: If David Duke is on one side, you belong on the other.
Slidell Police: Mississippi man ends up in ditch after driving truck, doing "donuts" on Slidell airport runway
The local panchayat tried to hush up the matter as it asked the accused to take a dip in the Pushkar waters and arrange fodder forcows to absolve themselves of their sins.

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: A 40-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly branded a witch, stripped, beaten up mercilessly and made to eat faecal matter in Rajasthan's Ajmer district.

Kanya Devi died on August 3, a day after the alleged assault by her relatives in Kadera village of Ajmer. She was forced to walk on embers which were shoved into her eyes that blinded her. The woman was mercilessly beaten up with hot iron rods.

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The horrific incident took place while the woman and her 15-year-old son were sleeping inside the house. The accused dragged Kanya out of the house by her hair and forced her to eat faeces and drink sewer water. Therafter, she was whiplashed with hot iron rods and forced into walking on a bed of embers which were then shoved into her eyes.

After the woman died of the torture, the local panchayat allegedly tried to hush up the matter as it asked the accused to take a dip in the Pushkar waters and arrange fodder for cows to absolve themselves of their sins. The five members of the panchayat committee that issued the diktat have gone missing.

ARRESTS MADE SO FAR

Out of the six accused, the police has so far arrested five people in the case, including three men and two women. Those among the accused include Kanya's nephew Mahaveer, her niece Pinky and neighbour Sonia.

The other accused in the case have been idenitified as Gopi and Chandraprakash. Mahaveer is the main accused in the case, who, alongwith his sister, Pinky, hatched the conspiracy to torture Kanya which eventually led to her death.

"We have arrested five people out of the six who were accused in the matter. She was beaten up on August 2. No one came forward then, the matter did not get reported at that time. We are enquiring into the matter. If there are any lapses, we will take action.", said Rajendra Singh, SP, Ajmer, while speaking to India Today.

The accused have been booked under the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch Hunting Act, 2015 and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

WOMEN BRANDED AS WITCHES TO USURP PROPERTIES

Tara Alhuwalia, a social activist, tracking the case, told India Today, "There is a property angle to this case. The victim's husband died last month. She has a minor son. Mahaveer, who is the main accused in the case, had hatched the entire conspiracy alongwith his sister Pinky to torture Kanya Devi in this manner. We have demanded that five member committee of the panchayat that was involved in trying to absolve the accused of their crime be made co - accused in the case. They had allowed the accused to get away by merely putting a fine of Rs 2500 on Pinky and Sonia and asking the accused to arrange fodder for cows."

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There have been numerous cases of women bring tortured, beaten up and even killed in Rajasthan after being branded as witches.

In many of these cases, there has allegedly been a sinister angle of trying to usurp property behind the garb of the claim that a witch has entered inside the woman's body.

Also Read:

Jharkhand: Man stripped, thrashed for being in love with woman of other religion

Agra: Suspected of being a hair-chopping witch, 62-year-old widow beaten to death

Also Watch:

UP: Gangrape survivor attacked for the fifth time

--- ENDS ---
ACT Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr has delivered a balanced budget for 2016-17, the first in five years.

Mr Barr would not release the June quarter financial statements for 2016-17, saying they would be released on Tuesday. But late on Monday the results were posted on Treasury's website.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr delivering his 2017-18 budget in June: Now has good news on the 2016-17 result. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

They show a deficit of just $11 million for the year, a big improvement on the $74 million deficit forecast at budget time in June and a bigger improvement still on the deficit expected when the 2017-18 budget was released, of $182 million.

The last balanced budget was in 2010-11. While this year's results are interim and yet to be audited, the big improvement on forecasts will surprise economists who cast doubt on whether a surplus was achievable.
Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann has called for a respectful debate ahead of the Turnbull government's postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage, after receiving abusive and angry calls to her office.

The Labor MP said staff and volunteers had been upset by a series of inappropriate calls from both sides of the debate on same-sex marriage, as well as people questioning the $122 million price tag and method for the non-compulsory vote.

Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann says her office has received offensive calls.

"I was concerned when I was in the office to hear my staff had been taking calls from the "no" campaign side and also the "yes" side that were quite abusive and willing," she said.

"I wanted to underscore the need for respectful debate on this from both sides. I understand that people across the community have very strong opinions on this issue, and very passionate opinion but if people are imparting their views, they should be respectful of others."
You might think it's all car dealers and furniture shops out Fyshwick way but head to the northern end of Kembla Street and you'll happily discover - as I did - a little room packed full of Christmas magic.

From giant bon-bons (featuring tiny hip flasks inside as 'the gift') to Waterford crystal ornaments and vintage train sets, the new Christmas Emporium at Hang Ups Picture Framing is a little piece of holiday enchantment smack bang in the middle of industrial Fyshwick.

Mike Welch, owner of the new Christmas Emporium in Fyshwick, with a Kurt Adler snow globe. Credit:Karleen Minney

But you won't find 'Stop Here Santa' signs or fairy lights here - the store is packed wall-to-wall with collectible glass ornaments from locations like Rome and Frankfurt. Think the Faberge egg, but with a tiny sculpted Christmas village inside.

Hang Ups Picture Framing Director Mike Welch opened the Christmas Emporium last month and said customers were already wandering in and spending up to an hour browsing rare ornaments from across the globe.
The directors of Network Ten knew for at least four weeks before the company's collapse that James Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings was not going to guarantee a new company loan but failed to pass this information on to shareholders.

Fairfax Media has confirmed Ten was advised in early May that Mr Packer was not willing to guarantee future financing options crucial to the network's survival.

Mr Packer's news arrived just days after directors had told shareholders there was a "material uncertainty" about Ten's ability to continue as a going concern unless it could secure a new loan facility.

Shareholders have called for regulators to examine this lack of disclosure, while experts say it could be grounds for a class action.
Parramatta is set for a new $230 million office tower as part of its $6 billion transformation with the appointment of architects Fender Katsalidis at 32 Smith Street by the owner GPT Group and a Parramatta City Council Design Competition jury.

GPT bought the site which encompassed 93-95 Phillip Street and 32 Smith Street, in February from the Salvation Army and is in the process of preparing the development approval for what will be a 20 storey-plus commercial and cultural centre.

GPT joins Dexus, Charter Hall, Walker Corporation and the Scentre Group, in developing a swath of new towers in the area for tenants including KPMG, Western Sydney University and government departments. The Parramatta City Council launched the transformation with its billion-dollar Civic Square project.

In the latest office market report from the Property Council of Australia, for the first six months of 2017, there was a zero vacancy rate for A Grade office space in Parramatta and that the total vacancy rate for office space was 4.3 per cent. This compares to the 5.9 per cent vacancy rate in the Sydney CBD.
For doomsday preppers, the end of the world is good for business

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If a report on youth employment released by Unions ACT on Monday is to be believed many Canberra employers have no qualms about ripping off some of the already lowest paid and most vulnerable workers in our community.

According to the study, which surveyed workers aged between 15 and 25, more than three quarters of the respondents said they had been underpaid.

More than half reported having to work for free on so-called trial shifts before they were offered paid employment.

With youth unemployment in the ACT running at more than 11 per cent compared to just 3.5 per cent for adults, the competition for entry level jobs in hospitality and tourism and retail and sales is intense amongst high school students, school leavers and university students.
Just over 150,000 Australians will die this year, about half in hospital. The average age for men will be 79 and women 85. The leading cause of death will be heart disease followed by dementia, stroke and lung cancer. Some will drift off peacefully in the easy embrace of opioids, many will pass quickly and quietly, more than a few in the stubborn end stages of dementia and some poor souls in dire pain and discomfort. None of this is surprising; it's the reality that hums in the background of our everyday lives, which is where most of us are happy to leave it.

In a world that expects you to have an opinion on every issue, the bills to be debated shortly in Victoria and NSW will force us to face something most of us have been happy to avoid or leave to others.

We pretty much know now how the debate is going to run. State MPs, relieved to be dealing with an issue that doesn't involve late running trains or overcrowded hospitals, have set the ball rolling with committee reports and parliamentary debates.

High-profile advocates for change have deemed it a campaign to achieve "dying with dignity". In politics everyone loves a catchy slogan and the advocates for change have got a beauty. How could anyone oppose dignity in death? Of course what we should be asking is what the slogan means and how will it be put into practice. Simplifying complex, multilayered and important matters to three-word slogans has not served us well in recent years.
Bayswater power station in the Hunter Valley is being investigated after reports its blended coal to hide its emissions. Credit:Glen McCurtayne 'Simplified' readings Victoria's Environment Protection Authority, for instance, has been investigating EnergyAustralia's Yallourn plant for admitting it "simplified" pollution to claim it was operating within pollution limits even when it was not. "They say 'at times of excessive pollution, we simplify our report by telling you we are operating at the limits'", Ms Rivers said. "The EPA pollution abatement notice said there was no reliability in their reporting." "We are always open to improvements suggested by the EPA," an EnergyAustralia spokeswoman said. "We've completed the review as directed and are implementing the agreed improvements."

A spokesman for EPA Victoria said the agency had issued three pollution abatement notices to the company. Two of them addressed "the calculation procedures for air discharges, which could have led to a potential breach of condition LI_G5 of the EPA licence". "All notices have been complied with and no further action is anticipated," he said. Unexplained drop NSW's EPA is conducting its own investigation of reporting breaches. These include claims reported by Fairfax Media, that the Bayswater power station had deliberately masked emissions by burning better quality coal in the part of the plant being monitored. The EJA report also highlighted what it called "enormous discrepancies" in emissions reported by a range of NSW power stations compared with previous years. For instance, emissions of fine particulates at the Mount Piper plant  also owned by EnergyAustralia  sank 92 per cent between 2014-15 and the following year.

Eraring  Australia's biggest power station  similarly cut its emissions of PM2.5 particulates (measuring 2.5 microns or smaller) by 60 per cent even as electricity generation grew. Vales Point also reported a big drop. "None of these companies reported installing new pollution reduction technologies that could explain this drop," the report said. No fudging Ms Rivers said the public needs to know what's coming out of the stack in real time. "That way you could really see what the are emitting and whether they were breaching their licences," Ms Rivers said. "They would find it much harder to fudge any of their reports."

"All power stations must meet strict environment protection licence emission concentration limits designed to protect the environment and health of the community," a spokeswoman for the NSW EPA said. Its own review suggested "the blending of coal is not undertaken at NSW power stations" because of the logistical difficulties and costs, she said. Fairfax sought comment from the energy and environment ministers in NSW and Victoria. "The NSW government has been caught out yet again with lax rules for big polluters," Mehreen Faruqi, the NSW Greens environment spokeswoman, said. "They need to get serious about air quality and give NSW the strongest air quality protections in the world." Both EPAs in NSW and Victoria said power plant operators were required to meet strict environmental protection standards.

"Normal operations are usually well below maximum limits set," the EPA Victoria spokesman said. Pollution scrubbers The EJA's Ms Rivers, though, said none of the plants surveyed in the three states had pollution-reducing devices that could remove dioxide and nitrogen oxides because regulators didn't demand them. "Because their emissions limits are so high, you can easily meet your emissions limits without putting those pollution-reduction technologies on," she said. On each of the major pollutant gauges, such as particulates (see below), the 10 plants lagged some or all of the three overseas markets used for comparison, the EJA said.

Particulates can enter the lungs or even the blood stream if small enough, damaging the inhaler. Power stations were also Australia's biggest source of dioxide, accounting for 47 per cent of the 491,000 tonnes omitted annually. AGL's Bayswater and Loy Yang power stations were the largest two sources (see chart below).

For oxides of nitrogen, power stations account for just over a quarter of Australia's total emissions of about 363,000 tonnes a year, edging out motor vehicles in scale, the report said. Bayswater is the largest of the emitters among the 10 surveyed, the EJA said. (See chart below.) In Europe, only Germany placed a limit on mercury. China matches that level, while most US plants had stricter standards, especially for black coal. (See chart below.) The mercury limits vary for NSW power plants but neither Victoria nor Queensland impose them.

Ms Rivers noted that so-called high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) power plants are often touted by proponents of coal for having lower emissions of greenhouse gases than Australia's aging sub-critical power stations. But without additional pollution reduction devices, their emissions of toxic pollutants would be little better than existing plants based on coal burnt. Loading She noted that a Minerals Council report backing the economics of a HELE plant to support a new coal-fired station implied none of the scrubbers or other costly pollution-cutting technologies.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today donated one months salary to a fund, which helps families of paramilitary personnel who laid down their lives fighting extremists.

The cheque of Rs 1.59 lakh was handed over by the home minister to Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi here at a special function, where Singh launched a social media awareness campaign regarding the BharatKeVeer fund, which so far gathered about Rs 15 crore, a home ministry official said.

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"Im launching a social media awareness campaign regarding #BharatKeVeer on @Twitter on the eve of Indias Independence Day (sic)," he tweeted.

"The security forces have made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and the people need to stand by their families to support them," he was quoted as saying in a home ministry statement.

Union ministers of state for home Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Ahir are also expected to donate their one months salary to the BharatKeVeer fund soon.

Singh also launched emoji of the BharatKeVeer fund and appealed to the citizens to support the martyrs families.

General public can visit the app and the website BharatKeVeer and make a contribution to support the families of the jawans who died in the line of duty.

The monetary contributions made on the website go straight into the bank account of martyred soldiers family.

The main objective of the portal (bharatkeveer.gov.in) is to enable the public to help the families of soldiers by donating money online directly to the individual bravehearts account or to Bharat Ke Veer corpus.

Bravehearts from the following armed forces are among the major forces included in the portal for the contribution.

They are: Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP), Assam Rifles (AR), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF-India), National Security Guards (NSG) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). PTI ACB IKA

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Two of Australia's leading medical groups have rubbished claims by opponents of same-sex marriage that children are worse off in same-sex families, as "no" campaigners target the so-called "consequences" of any change to the law.

The Australian Medical Association and the Australian Psychological Society told Fairfax Media there was no scientific evidence that children of gay and lesbian parents had poorer outcomes than those with heterosexual parents.

Ahead of the upcoming postal survey, conservatives have raised concerns over same-sex parenting, arguing that allowing same-sex marriage would license families they regard as sub-optimal.

Former defence minister and Tony Abbott ally Kevin Andrews used a television interview on Monday to assert "the best environment for raising children" was a family with a mother and a father.
Ita Buttrose's troubled niece Elizabeth "Lizzie" Buttrose has been arrested for drink driving - allegedly for the fourth time.

It is believed that the eastern suburbs socialite, 48, had been arguing with her fiance, Zoran Stopar, at her plush Vaucluse home, and the police were called.

Buttrose is said to have left the property, and by the time she got back, police were present to observe her parking a vehicle at Hopetoun Avenue just before 11pm on Saturday.

NSW Police told Fairfax Media she was given a breath test, which was positive. She was arrested and taken to Waverley police station for a further breath analysis, which came back with a reading of .214, police said
A man who was pictured feasting on an extravagant cheese platter while watching an AFL match at the MCG has spoken up, revealing he even had some smoked trout hidden in his bag.

While most AFL fans were tucking into meat pies and hot chips, Melbourne man Ned Trumble said he and his friends decided to "take it up a level" and feast on a stadium of snack of culinary delights including soft cheeses, baguettes and smashed avocado.

The group of distinctively-dressed friends, believed to be former students of Geelong Grammar School, were pictured in the exclusive MCC stand while supporting the Melbourne Demons.

"It was a bit of a smorgasbord, some semi sun-dried tomato, some green olives, some de Beaux -French Blue, avocado, some nice baguettes... we did actually have smoke trout in the bag but we didn't want to take it out because we thought it might be a bit smelly," Mr Trumble told Triple M on Monday evening.
Australia 108 is one of a number of towers being built with foreign capital. Credit:Daniel Pockett Among the towers under construction are Australia 108, a giant residential building being built in Southbank by a Singaporean developer and the 92-level Aurora which Malaysian interests are putting up in the CBD. A Chinese developer is building Swanston Central on the edge of the central city, which will have more than 1000 apartments. Malaysian interests are behind the the 92-level Aurora at 224 La Trobe Street. Credit:Daniel Pockett

The extent to which international housing investment is contributing to the current housing affordability crisis is debatable, with inadequate data a problem. But the figures do coincide with census figures that show home-ownership falling to levels not seen since the 1950s. Melbourne and Sydney are what's known among some economists and geographers as a "hedge cities", places where cashed up foreign investors (mostly Chinese in Australia's case but Americans, Russians and others elsewhere in the world) park excess wealth. "Globally, we see that housing is now being seen as an asset class attractive to increasingly mobile capital," said Mr Papaleo. "Australia has been, in some respects, the path of least resistance to international capital seeking to invest in real estate."

But unlike other international cities targeted by foreign investors  notably Vancouver and London  Australian foreign investment rules limit overseas purchasers to new housing (with some exceptions). So any impact on housing prices is likely to be in new housing, apartments in particular. Foreign Investment Review Board data indicates the overwhelming amount of foreign investment in Australia goes into NSW and Victoria. Much of it is from China and south-east Asia. A December 2016 Treasury paper found the effect on prices was small. Research by Griffith University academic economists estimated that a quarter of the price growth in Melbourne and Sydney, between 2004 to 2014, was due to foreign investment.

Professor Peter Phibbs, head of urban and regional planning and policy at University of Sydney, said foreign investment was becoming more significant and having some impact on affordability. But tax policy was the big problem. Generous tax breaks from negative gearing and on capital gains were "like fuel on the fire" driving property prices higher. In Victoria, the Foreign Purchaser Additional Duty (FPAD) took effect in mid-2015 and applies from when the contract is signed. The number of transactions caught by the tax rose 44 per cent in 2016/17 to nearly 4000. Part of that increase is explained by a lag in the tax taking effect but strong demand is also a big driver. While the tax is already a healthy revenue-raiser in Victoria, analysts expect it to raise even more in the coming years after its rate was more than doubled and more transactions are captured by it.

In NSW, a similar tax was levied on 2663 foreign purchasers until April, its first 10 months of operation, government data released to Fairfax Media shows. Slightly more than 77 per cent of buyers in NSW were from China. There is no comparable data for Victoria. Professor Phibbs said the investment was changing inner and central Melbourne in other ways, with "canyons" of large towers detracting from a city that had revived itself in recent decades and become a magnet for tourists. "As a planner I ask, are we making good places to live? I think in some parts of Melbourne there's a question mark." Along with education, investment in property is seen as pathway to residency by some foreign investors.
Victoria Police is refusing to give the alleged Mafia boss at the centre of the Matthew Guy lobster dinner scandal access to the intelligence it has used to ban him from Crown Casino.

Victoria Police has refused to provide its dossier to Antonio "Tony" Madafferi, telling him only that it details allegations about his "substantial and close involvement with serious criminal conduct including drug importation, murder and extortion".

Alleged Melbourne Mafia boss Antonio Madafferi. Credit:Jason South

Mr Madafferi is seeking access to the 21-page report ahead of his attempt to have the Supreme Court overturn the casino prohibition order.

However, that legal bid is now also in doubt after the Supreme Court heard on Monday that Mr Madafferi had failed to file his application in time.
Kathmandu: Torrential rain battered Nepal on Sunday, causing widespread flooding and landslides and raising the death toll from three days of severe weather to 49 people, according to officials.

The toll could go higher as three dozen people were reported missing. Another 17 were injured.

The heavy rain, which mainly hit the country's southern plains, led to the evacuation of 5000 people, a Home Ministry official said.

More than 30 people were reported dead on Saturday.
Islamabad: A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle rammed into a military truck near a busy bus station in south-western Pakistan, killing at least 15 people, including eight soldiers, and wounding at least 40 others, military officials said on Sunday.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province in the southwest. A military spokesman said the attack had been aimed at sabotaging Independence Day celebrations, as Pakistan will mark its 70th anniversary on Monday.

Pakistani volunteers help an injured person awaiting an ambulance to take them to a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, on Saturday. Credit:AP

Active-duty troops in the Pakistani army have rarely come under attack in Quetta, although paramilitary forces and police officers have repeatedly faced assaults by militants in the city.

The explosion, which was heard far away and set off a fire that engulfed vehicles nearby, left several people critically injured. The wounded were taken to Civil Hospital and Combined Military Hospital.
Washington: It should not have taken the death and injury of innocents to move our nation toward moral clarity.

It should not have taken President Donald Trump's disgraceful refusal to condemn white supremacy, bigotry and Nazism to make clear to all who he is and which dark impulses he is willing to exploit to maintain his hold on power.

Those of us who are white regularly insist that the racists and bigots are a minority of us and that the white-power movement is a marginal and demented faction.

This is true, and the mayhem in Charlottesville called forth passionate condemnations of blood-and-soil nationalism across the spectrum of ideology.
By Reuters: All of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the U.N. refugee agency, and the government aims to deport them, a senior government official told Reuters. Junior interior minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament last week the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants including Rohingya, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India that it says help them "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation". But Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government, said in an interview on the weekend that the UNHCR registration was irrelevant.

"They are doing it, we can't stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees," he said. "As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported."

The UNHCR's India office said on Monday the principle of non-refoulement - or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger - was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports deportations were taking place. The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as its most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India. Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

'PROCEDURE'

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months, there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests. Rijiju declined to comment on the deportation process, even as some human rights activists question the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country. "There's a procedure, there is a rule of law," Rijiju said.

"We can't throw them out just like that. We can't dump them in the Bay of Bengal." India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan. But deportation is likely to be difficult, given Myanmar's position that all Rohingya need to be scrutinized before they can be allowed back in as citizens.

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Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment. A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, has said India was helping it solve the crisis. More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Oct. 9 after an insurgent group attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.

Also Read

Who are Rohingya Muslims and why govt wants to deport 40,000 of them?

Fate of 40,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar to be sealed soon

--- ENDS ---
V Divakaran, the brother of jailed AIADMK leader Sasikala, hinted during a speech that AIADMK cadre is unhappy with how Chinnamma has been treated by the Palaniswami faction.

By Pramod Madhav: Facing off against team EPS and team OPS, TTV Dinakaran, who was contentiously removed as disputed deputy general secretary of the AIADMK, plans to hold a massive event to celebrate party founder MG Ramachandran's birth centenary year at Melur, Madurai.

While talking about the event, V Divakaran, the brother of jailed AIADMK leader Sasikala and who is associating himself with Dinakaran, subtly put forth the message that party cadre is not happy with the how CM Edappadi K Palaniswami is handling the merger of the two party

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"Ministers and MLAs alone don't make the party. All cadres are with Sasikala. Without power, ministers are nothing but airless balloons," he said when asked if ministers would participate in the event. Divakaran said that history has shown that the party's victory and defeat depends on the way its ministers act and several times, ministers have almost brought down a great party.

"During such scenarios, it is the second and third-level party leaders who strenuously work to bring the party back its glory," he said, indirectly stating that ministers have caused a debacle and that it is time for second-in-line leaders like TTV Dinakaran and Divakaran to take charge.

Dinakaran presently claims the support of 18 MLAs, a number he was able to reach after joining hands with Divakaran.

ALSO READ | EC's not acknowledging Sasikala's nomination as AIADMK general secretary setback for Dinakaran

ALSO READ | DMK not functioning under Stalin, he is helping AIADMK: MK Alagiri

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) The Supreme Court was today categorical that Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram, would not be allowed to leave India without subjecting himself to investigation in a corruption case.

The apex court, which stayed the Madras High Court order putting on hold the look out circular (LOC) issued by the Centre against Karti, repeatedly sought to know when he would make his appearance for questioning before investigating agency CBI.

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"We are only on one limited issue. Has he participated and cooperated in the investigation? The answer is no," a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, adding, "you (Karti) must show your bonafide."

"They must show up to investigation by going to the investigating agency. We are not on whether he is guilty or not. We are on a very small issue. They asked you to appear for investigation and you did not appear. First, you said you are abroad, but on coming, you did not appear," it said.

The bench, which wanted to know from senior advocate and Kartis counsel Gopal Subramaniam when would Chidmabarams son report for investigation, also said there was neither any order for his arrest, nor was there any intention to arrest him, but he had kept himself away from questioning.

It also said that he was not worried about approaching the courts with a plea for anticipatory bail.

"You are not worried about your arrest. There is nothing on anticipatory bail and only you have sought quashing of the FIR. You are not worried about the arrest which an accused thinks and files for anticipatory bail. Why have you not done (that)," the bench said.

The apex court, which issued notice to Karti and four others in the case and posted the matter for hearing on August 18, asked Subramaniam that he should "give a date and appear for questioning".

Subramaniam, on his part, said he would take instructions from his client (Karti), but wanted an assurance from the apex court that there should be some protection.

However, the bench said it has had a "very bad experience" of granting liberty to "reputed people" to go abroad as they never come back and referred to some high- profile cases.

"These Malaysian people did not come back," it said in reference to Malaysia-based persons, accused in the Aircel- Maixis case.

The bench said there was an order of the High Court against which the petition has been filed and an order has to be passed.

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"We will say nothing but stay the high court order," the bench said and accordingly passed the order staying the High Courts decision to put on hold the LOC against Karti and others.

It also asked the High Court to decide another plea of Karti seeking quashing of the FIR "in consonance with law".

Before passing the order, the bench said that there was another option for Karti that he should pursue the petition for quashing the FIR and get a final order on it.

"If you succeed, it is another matter, if you do not succeed, you go for investigation. But till then dont go abroad.

"If you succeed in quashing the plea, we will defer the investigation, but dont go abroad. Our business is only one, you must go for investigation," the bench observed.

Subramaniams argument that Karti has been present alongside CBIs IO in the proceedings before the High Court did not impress the bench which asked whether he went to the IO and said that he would join the investigation.

Additional Solictor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, mentioned the appeal in the forenoon for urgent hearing saying that the accused may leave the country if the High Court, passed on August 10, was not stayed.

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He said the Madras High Court lacked the territorial jurisdiciton to hear the issue as the FIR was registerd at New Delhi by the CBI.

The High Court stayed the LOCs issued on June 16 and July 18, without even considering that it lacked territorial jurisdiction to entertain the petition, Mehta said.

The case lodged by CBI in Delhi is related to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of almost Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Kartis father was the Union Finance Minister.

The CBI had claimed that the FDI proposal of the media house, cleared by Chidambaram, was "fallacious".

The FIR was registered on May 15 before the special CBI judge here and the registration of the case was followed by searches at the residences and offices of Karti and his friends on May 16. PTI SJK MNL RKS ARC

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Citing safety concerns, Texas A&M officials said Monday that a white supremacist group will not be permitted to host a rally on campus next month.

The move follows pleas made Monday by state legislators and former Texas A&M students to university officials for them to prevent the group from staging the demonstration in the free speech area of campus outside Rudder Tower.

The event - which had been planned for Sept. 11 - was announced Saturday within hours of a white supremacist rally called Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Va., which turned violent, leaving dozens injured and one counterprotester dead after a driver plowed into the crowd.

Richard Spencer, who was behind the weekend event in Virginia, was met with overwhelming opposition - and police presence - when he delivered a speech inside the Memorial Student Center on campus in December. Texas A&M changed its policy after so that no outside individual or group could reserve campus facilities without the sponsorship of a university-sanctioned group. Spencer was invited to A&M by a man who briefly attended the college.

"None of the 1,200-plus campus organizations invited Preston Wiginton nor did they agree to sponsor his events in December 2016 or on September 11 of this year. With no university facilities afforded him, he chose instead to plan his event outdoors for September 11 at Rudder Plaza, in the middle of campus, during a school day, with a notification to the media under the headline 'Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M,' according to a statement released by A&M that announced it was canceling Wiginton's reservation.

"Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville with the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus. Additionally, the daylong event would provide disruption to our class schedules and to student, faculty and staff movement (both bus system and pedestrian)," according to the statement.

State Rep. John Raney, R-Bryan, announced from the floor of the house of representatives at the Texas Capitol late this afternoon that A&M System Chancellor John Sharp canceled the rally. A statement from the university did not specify who made the decision.

Raney and Rep. Kyle Kacal, also a Republican from Brazos County, said they were frustrated by the effort to bring such an event to Aggieland.

Kacal said in a statement it is "disgusting that the same white supremacist groups which caused the tragic violence in Charlottesville are now planning another hate rally," and that the ideals espoused by the event's supporters "are counter to the very ideals that we believe in and hold dear as Aggies and Texans."

Raney said he respects the freedom of speech afforded to "assemblies of this abhorrent nature," but he encouraged support for the counter rallies planned by students to oppose the event.

"I urge all Aggies and citizens of Bryan-College Station to unite in showing this group that they are not welcome in our community," Raney said in a statement before hearing from A&M officials.

Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner expressed his concerns over the weekend.

Schwertner said although the First Amendment protects the group's right to assemble in a public space, he counted himself among those who plan to be be vocal about his opposition to the message of the event.

"The racist and bigoted hate speech promoted by these groups does not reflect the values of Texas A&M University or the people of Texas and it should be loudly and consistently condemned by all responsible voices of our society," Schwertner said Sunday on Twitter. "While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of these groups to assemble and espouse their hateful and narrow-minded worldview, it also protects my right to publicly speak out against it -- and thats exactly what I plan to do when these groups come to College Station next month."

State representatives from Bryan-College Station weren't the only ones expressing disappointment that the hate group planned to return to campus - alumnus of Texas A&M have been reaching out to The Association of Former Students to make their opinions known.

Kathryn Greenwade, vice president of The Association, said as of Monday afternoon, the alumni organization has received between 50 to 100 phone calls and emails from former students expressing concerns about the event.

"They don't want this group associated with Texas A&M," Greenwade said.

She said while most "understand the limitations of a state university" in dealing with situations such as this, there are some who are unaware of the restrictions.

Adam Key, a graduate student who was organizing one of the two counter protests planned so far, applauded the decision by A&M officials.

"Preston Wiginton claims that the university did so because they do not care about white people," Key said. "In truth, the university cares about the safety of every student. It is clear that the event posed a danger to the student body and Texas A&M did the right thing to protect its students.

"We would like to thank every person that signed up, donated and volunteered. Even though we weren't needed, it shows a great deal of character on the part of our Aggie community that so many were willing," Key said in a statement.
Richard Spencer is expected to return to Texas A&M next month, this time for a "White Lives Matter" rally put on by the same organizer who brought the self-proclaimed white supremacist to campus in December.

At least two counter-demonstrations led by A&M students are being planned.

"I thought they got the message last time -- we don't want them here," said doctoral student Adam Key, who organized last year's "BTHO Hate" protest in response to the alt-right event eight months ago that had little visible support.

Preston Wiginton, a white nationalist who briefly attended Texas A&M, announced the upcoming rally on Saturday, within hours of a car plowing into a crowd of counterprotesters at a "Unite the Right" event in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a woman. On Sunday, Wiginton confirmed Spencer -- who was at the event near the University of Virginia over the weekend -- will attend and speak at the Sept. 11 rally.

The last time Spencer came to College Station, the event drew national media attention as A&M officials, faculty and students organized an "Aggies United" rally that drew more than 7,000 to Kyle Field, where there was music and a few speeches. Meanwhile, across the street, well over 1,200 protesters and scores of others participating in a prayer vigil gathered outside the Memorial Student Center, while inside Spencer gave a speech to about 400 people -- of whom roughly 100 or so seemed to support his beliefs.

It wasn't known late Sunday whether the university will again put together such a large-scale event. A&M officials told The Eagle on Saturday that Wiginton's views and those of the group he represents are counter to the core values of A&M.

Key's group is calling for the second BTHO Hate counter-protest to coincide with what Wiginton said will be a White Lives Matter rally. The White Lives Matter movement has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks extremists groups in the U.S.

Key said the exact location of the event will be announced once details are coordinated with the university but that it will be as close as possible to Wiginton's rally without disrupting pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

The White Lives Matter event, the purpose of which Wiginton says is to "protest the liberal agenda of white guilt and white genocide that is taught at most all universities in America," is scheduled for between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Rudder Fountain. The second protest Key has helped plan that day will be an effort to block the rally and its message from view.

Key said students will form a "Maroon Wall" from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., forming a circle around the rally as a visual reminder that members of the Texas A&M community are turning their backs on white nationalists.

The silent protest is inspired by the similar maroon wall Aggies formed when members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested at a 2012 military funeral in College Station. Key said both events will be peaceful, non-violent protests, and that the goal is that "everyone get home safely that day." Key said he was appalled by the timing of Wiginton's announcement of the rally Saturday, which proclaimed "TODAY CHARLOTTESVILLE TOMORROW TEXAS A&M" at the top of the press release.

Wiginton said he anticipates that "various groups" -- he did not name them -- concerned with the "political status of whites in America" will be attending the event.

Republican Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner, whose District 5 includes Brazos County, weighed in on the situation with a statement released Sunday that said the "racist and bigoted hate speech promoted by these hate groups" does not reflect the values of Texas A&M or Texans and should be "loudly and consistently condemned by all responsible voices of our society."

"While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of these groups to assemble and espouse their hateful and narrow-minded worldview, it also protects my right to publicly speak out against it ... and that's exactly what I plan to do when these groups come to College Station next month."

Key said that the counter-protest welcomes people from all groups and is non-partisan: "This is about standing up for your fellow human beings."

"Staying silent in the face of oppression is not what Aggies do," Key said. "It was 100 years ago the one time they canceled graduation because 100 percent of our student body back in 1917 was fighting in World War I. In World War II we gave 20,000-plus of our student body to go fight the Nazis."

A heavy law enforcement presence surrounded various protests during Spencer's last appearance at Texas A&M. While Spencer spoke inside the MSC, Texas Department of Public Safety officers with riot gear pushed protesters out of the building and away from the entrance. Key said there was miscommunication with campus and state police over whether protesters were allowed inside the building, and that he'll be communicating with the agencies early and often in September.

In an interview Saturday with The Eagle, Wiginton said Spencer's first speech at Texas A&M was a success for the "alt-right" movement, which embraces an ideology of white nationalism and is also anti-Semitic and anti-feminist.

"I think that was a stepping stone for white people to realize that there are issues, and they feel comfortable enough now to talk about them," Wiginton said.

The event is "anti liberal" and "primarily for whites in that their identity matters," Wiginton said in his press release.

Wiginton's December event prompted the university to develop stricter guidelines for visiting speakers on campus. Previously, the university didn't require groups or individuals wishing to rent space to have a campus sponsor. That's how Wiginton, a former College Station resident who attended Texas A&M in 2006 and 2007 with no current ties to the university, was able to bring Spencer to campus. Now, outside speakers or groups must be sponsored by a recognized student organization to rent space in campus facilities.

Common areas on campus like Rudder Fountain, however, are still public spaces where speakers can share their views without approval.
Update: Bryan Police have reported that Texas 21 has reopened and traffic is no longer being diverted.

Authorities said one person was killed when a truck flipped over on Texas 21 near Pleasant Hill Road in Bryan.

Traffic is being diverted onto W. 28th Street and police are asking motorists to avoid the crash site as an investigation is underway.

The name of the person who died in the one-vehicle wreck has not yet been released pending notification of family members. It wasn't known whether anyone else was in the truck or what prompted it to roll.

The accident, which was reported at about 10 a.m. Monday, is near JM Portable Buildings and U-Haul. The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating.

The Eagle will update this story as it develops.
Christina Richardson tears up a little while talking about leaving the close-knit school she essentially started with grant funding.

Designed to funnel "at-risk" students into post-secondary institutions, Bryan Collegiate High School celebrates 10 years this summer. Richardson, who has been principal of she school since it opened, said she sometimes can see herself in the students as they walk down the hall.

Richardson is the daughter of a single mother who put herself through college while Richardson was in high school in the San Antonio area.

"Her college degree hangs in the living room -- it's huge for her," she said. "So when you are talking about helping kids who aren't likely to go [to college], you're not just helping that student -- you are helping a generation, because now that student is more likely to go."

But Richardson said there's a difference between wanting to go to college and knowing how to make it happen. Unaware of how to start the paperwork journey of going to college, she remembers learning what the SAT test was when a high school friend inquired about when she was signed up to take the required college entrance exam.

She views Bryan Collegiate, as well as the AVID college readiness class she taught before taking over as principal, as a tool of empowering students and bridging that gap.

The school was the second of 10 Early College High Schools started in 2005 with state funding. To get in, students apply and are considered on the basis of their family's income, whether their parents went to college, an essay and interview.

"Nobody knew how to do this yet: How do you get at-risk kids to be in all pre-advanced placement and dual-credit courses at the age of 14 and stick to the mission, not go for those cream-of-the-crop kids?" she said. "There was a lot of learning every single year, and it was very hard."

Richardson is preparing to move to Bryan school district's administrative offices, where she will again pave the way in a newly created position -- director of advanced academics.

Her mission in the new post is to help advanced education programs across the district set goals, find resources and develop partnerships, she said. She added that she's excited to get started but said it's bittersweet.

She said she can recall how surprised the first 100 students at Bryan Collegiate were by the size of the school when it opened.

"These kids are coming from Jane Long and these huge middle schools, and I said, 'You see that door over there? That's the other end of our school. This is it,'" she said.

Those working at the school -- which is off Villa Maria Road and now has 470 students and 22 teachers -- have learned their own lessons along the way.

Richardson described she and other staffers as being naively optimistic about how easy it would be to motivate students going through the campus' application process.

"What we all had to come to terms with is they are still kids, and they are still 14, and saying, 'I want to do something' and doing something are very different things," she said, adding that part of the challenge was to find systematic ways to fight off discouragement and show kids that they are capable of the task.

"That's what these past 10 years have been, really -- just building and building and building. That's what we are doing in the other room right now."
I spent the weekend dog-sitting for a very frisky, very robust black Lab named Chance, as in there wasnt a Chance in hell he was going to obey me.

Were taking a walk, and he decides that he wants to smell the flowers on the neighbors lawn. I say no; he gives me the same look President Donald Trump gives his advisers, then proceeds to drag me 30 yards toward the hydrangeas. I end up with bruises on both arms, big ones that dont hurt but look fierce.

Chance and I have long since made our peace with each other, but I now appear to the outside world like an abused woman. On the subway, I catch riders glancing at my arms with surreptitious sympathy. At the Wawa convenience sto, the clerk gives me a knowing look, as if to say, Dump the bastard, honey, he aint worth it. And one of my feminist friends (I have a few, close your mouth) told me that maybe now Ill have some empathy for the women who donned pink hats to express their disgust with Trump.

I was shocked she could make that sort of comment. And then, after a brief moments reflection, I realized that this is exactly what we can expect in the post-sexist society of knitted headwear, overwrought activists and the rush to wage an assault on the patriarchal fortress.

If I were a man and had the same misfortune to be yanked all over somebodys landscaping, no one would even suggest that my bruises had been inflicted by an abusive partner. And yet, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, more than 1 in 3 women and more than 1 in 4 men in the U.S. have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. But we have come to a place in society where we reflexively view women as an endangered species.

Nowhere is that more in view than on college campuses. For the past decade or so, we have seen an increase in allegations of sexual assault made by female students against their male counterparts. Some of these claims obviously are legitimate and deserve to be treated as rape. In fact, they should be reported to the police, instead of being adjudicated by college administrators with warped priorities.

Campus dating has gone from the process of creating actual relationships to the sort of hookup that would have made a resident of Sodom and Gomorrah blush. Alcohol and drugs also have complicated the whole getting-to-know-you scene to the point that one inebriated half of a hookup might think hes gotten lucky, until the next morning, when he gets a call from a college administrator telling him hes been accused of assault.

Up until recently, the momentum, sympathy and benefit of the doubt have been with the accuser, who overwhelmingly tends to be female. Under Title IX, an accuser must prove only by a preponderance of the evidence that an assault has occurred. This is the classic standard used in civil  not criminal  cases and means that if someone can prove its just more likely than not that a rape occurred, the accused will be found guilty.

In most of these cases, the punishment is expulsion from the Ivory Tower and a large dose of character assassination that will follow the fellow throughout his life.

To the type of person who immediately believes a woman whenever she claims to have been victimized, this makes perfect sense. To lawyers, civil libertarians and anyone who doesnt hate men, this is an outrage. Title IX does not require that an accused party be given access to the evidence against him. It does not give him the right to legal counsel. It is, for all intents and purposes, an academic Star Chamber that sacrifices due process to some squishy idea that we need to protect our women.

This rush to throw fairness out the window picked up speed under President Barack Obama, who essentially forced colleges to adhere to these constitutionally suspect policies and use the preponderance standard.

Fortunately, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has indicated that she wants to rescind that mandate.

And you know whod applaud her on that? Armaan Karim Premjee, a student at the University of Southern California who was accused of raping a woman who later was proved to have initiated the sexual encounter. Hed be joined by Michael Cheng, an Amherst student who, while drunk, had oral sex performed on him by a woman who then amazingly accused him of raping her. The frat guys at the University of Virginia might be clapping, along with the Duke lacrosse players. And the guy at Columbia who was defamed by the woman with a mattress would be happy, too.

Protecting victims is important, but no more important than due process.

Its about time we took the blinders off and treated all victims equally.

Christine Flowers is a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Email her at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
It is fashionable to undermine the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru, but a quick run-through of his speeches can restore faith in one of the founding fathers of the Republic. Here is Nehru in 1956, at the first convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, built on the site of an erstwhile British Raj detention camp: "The people of my generation joined ourselves to the great purpose of freeing India. Because we allied ourselves to a mighty cause, something of the greatness of that task fell on us also." He then exhorts the young graduating engineers to "dare and go in for the really big things of life" because the higher you act, the higher you think, the nobler your enterprise. India's first prime minister was a great builder of enterprises and creator of institutions, unlike his daughter Indira.

The story of India's iconic institutions is as much of brick and mortar as it is of the adventurous men and women who built them, and who ensured that these outlasted them. From Vikram Sarabhai, who created the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Space Research Centre, forerunner of the Indian Space Research Organisation, among others, to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who steered the establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and was a fierce protector of its autonomy; from Pupul Jayakar, who founded the National Institute of Fashion Technology after establishing a series of cultural organisations ranging from the National Crafts Museum to Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, to E Sreedharan, who went from Konkan Railway to establishing city metros, there have been men and women in government who have ensured that buildings are more than mere brick and mortar.

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The story of independent India is also of public-private partnership, of giant corporations such as the Tatas, Birlas, ITC or Infosys, which have done more than generate revenue for their shareholders. They have created empires which have boasted of India's finest hotels, most efficient public transportation systems and best-known academic institutions. Some of these have been necessitated by pure self-interest - Infosys created its centre because it needed a particular skill set in its engineers. Others have been formed for altruistic purposes - the story goes that JN Tata founded Taj Mahal Palace in Bombay in 1903 because he was refused entry on account of his nationality at the Watson's Hotel in the city.

The visionaries behind these iconic institutions fought against odds in their path to find a way to fulfil a dream. It could be Verghese Kurien, who set up the Anand Milk Cooperative, or Dr Prathap C Reddy, who persuaded Rajiv Gandhi to enable setting up India's largest private healthcare network. In the 70th year of Independence, india today pays tribute to the building blocks which now have the global seal of approval, whether it is the IIT graduates who now run the world's most cutting-edge corporates, or the National School of Drama graduates, who topline some of cinema's biggest blockbusters, or National Institute of Design alumni, who are blitzing runways from Paris to New York.

There is a lesson in each of these 70 icons india today has chosen to celebrate 70 years of freedom - a list that is representative of industries and ideas. These institutions have bred generations of leaders, they have contributed to society more than mere economic value, they have kept the bar high on excellence in public life, and they are widely admired. It is easy to make showy gestures and instal glittering schemes. It is difficult to create an imprint that lasts. In the following pages, you will see institutions that have spurred revolutions, expanded markets, elevated the quality of education and healthcare, connected Indiansbetter, and sallied boldly into areas where others have walked in trepidation.

--- ENDS ---
Richard Spencer is expected to return to Texas A&M next month, this time for a "White Lives Matter" rally put on by the same organizer who brought the self-proclaimed white supremacist to campus in December.

At least two counter demonstrations led by A&M students are being planned.

I thought they got the message last time  we dont want them here, said doctoral student Adam Key, who organized last years BTHO Hate protest in response to the alt-right event eight months ago that had little visible support.

Preston Wiginton, a white nationalist who briefly attended Texas A&M, announced the upcoming rally on Saturday, within hours of a car plowing into a crowd of counterprotesters at a Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a woman. On Sunday, Wiginton confirmed Spencer  who was at the event near the University of Virginia over the weekend  will attend and speak at the Sept. 11 rally.

Spencer's last visit to College Station drew national media attention as A&M officials, faculty and students organized an "Aggies United" rally that drew more than 7,000 to Kyle Field where there was music and a few speeches. Meanwhile, across the street well over 1,200 protesters and scores of others participating in a prayer vigil gathered outside the Memorial Student Center, while inside Spencer gave a speech to about 400 people  of which roughly 100 or so seemed to support his beliefs.

It wasn't known late Sunday whether the university will again put together such a large-scale event. A&M officials told The Eagle on Saturday that Wiginton's views and those of the group he represents are counter to the core values of A&M.

Key's group is calling for the second BTHO Hate counter-protest to coincide with what Wiginton said will be a White Lives Matter rally. The White Lives Matter movement has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks extremists groups in the U.S.

Key said the exact location of the event will be announced once details are coordinated with the university, but that it will be as close as possible to Wigintons rally without disrupting pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

The White Lives Matter event, the purpose of which Wiginton says is to protest the liberal agenda of white guilt and white genocide that is taught at most all universities in America, is scheduled for between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Rudder Fountain. The second protest Key has helped plan that day will be an effort to block the rally and its message from view.

Key said students will form a Maroon Wall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., forming a circle around the rally as a visual reminder that members of the Texas A&M community are turning their backs on white nationalists.

The silent protest is inspired by the similar maroon wall Aggies formed when members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested at a 2012 military funeral in College Station. Key said both events will be peaceful, non-violent protests, and that the goal is that everyone get home safely that day. Key said he was appalled by the timing of Wigintons announcement of the rally Saturday, which proclaimed TODAY CHARLOTTESVILLE TOMORROW TEXAS A&M at the top of the press release.

Wiginton said he anticipates that various groups  he did not name them  concerned with the political status of whites in America will be attending the event.

Republican Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner, whose District 5 includes Brazos County, weighed in on the situation with a statement Sunday, saying the "racist and bigoted hate speech promoted by these hate groups does not reflect the values of Texas A&M or Texans, and should be loudly and consistently condemned by all responsible voices of our society.

While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of these groups to assemble and espouse their hateful and narrow-minded worldview, it also protects my right to publicly speak out against it ... and thats exactly what I plan to do when these groups come to College Station next month.

Key said that the counter protest welcomes people from all groups and is non-partisan: "This is about standing up for your fellow human beings.

Staying silent in the face of oppression is not what Aggies do, Key said. It was 100 years ago the one time they cancelled graduation because 100 percent of our student body back in 1917 was fighting in World War I. In World War II we gave 20,000-plus of our student body to go fight the Nazis.

A heavy law enforcement presence surrounded various protests during Spencers last appearance at Texas A&M. While Spencer spoke inside the MSC, Texas Department of Public Safety officers with riot gear pushed protesters out of the building and away from the entrance. Key said there was miscommunication with campus and state police over whether protesters were allowed inside the building, and that hell be communicating with the agencies early and often in September.

In an interview Saturday with The Eagle, Wiginton said Spencers first speech at Texas A&M was a success for the alt-right movement, which embraces an ideology of white nationalism and is anti-Semitic, as well as anti-feminist.

I think that was a stepping stone for white people to realize that there are issues, and they feel comfortable enough now to talk about them, Wiginton said.

The event is anti liberal and primarily for whites in that their identity matters, Wiginton said in his press release.

Wigintons December event prompted the university to develop stricter guidelines for visiting speakers on campus. Previously, the university didnt require groups or individuals wishing to rent space to have a campus sponsor. Thats how Wiginton, a former College Station resident who attended Texas A&M in 2006 and 2007 with no current ties to the university, was able to bring Spencer to campus. Now, outside speakers or groups must be sponsored by a recognized student organization to rent space in campus facilities.

Common areas on campus like Rudder Fountain, however, are still public spaces where speakers can share their views without approval.

Richard Spencer is confirmed to make a return to Texas A&M next month, this time for a "White Lives Matter" rally put on by the same organizer who brought the self-proclaimed white supremacist to campus in December.

At least two counter demonstrations led by A&M students are being planned.

I thought they got the message last time  we dont want them here, said doctoral student Adam Key, who organized last years BTHO Hate protest in response to the alt-right event eight months ago that had little visible support.

Preston Wiginton, a white nationalist who briefly attended Texas A&M in his 40s, announced the upcoming rally on Saturday, within hours of a car plowing into a crowd of counterprotesters at a Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a woman. On Sunday, Wiginton confirmed Spencer will attend and speak at the Sept. 11 rally.

The last time Spencer came to College Station, the event drew national media attention, but not necessarily for reasons Spencer's group had hoped. A&M officials, faculty and students organized an "Aggies United" rally that drew more than 7,000 to Kyle Field where there was music and a few speeches. Meanwhile, across the street well over 1,200 protesters and scores of others participating in a prayer vigil gathered outside the Memorial Student Center, while inside Spencer gave a speech to about 400 people  of which roughly 100 or so seemed to support his beliefs.

It wasn't known late Sunday whether the university will again put together such a large-scale event. A&M officials told The Eagle on Saturday that Wiginton's views and those of the group he represents are counter to the core values of A&M.

Key's group is calling for the second BTHO Hate counter-protest to coincide with what Wiginton said will be a White Lives Matter rally. The White Lives Matter movement has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks extremists groups in the U.S.

Key said the exact location of the event will be announced once details are coordinated with the university, but that it will be as close as possible to Wigintons rally without disrupting pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

The White Lives Matter event, the purpose of which Wiginton says is to protest the liberal agenda of white guilt and white genocide that is taught at most all universities in America, is scheduled for between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Rudder Fountain. The second protest Key has helped plan that day will be an effort to block the rally and its message from view.

Key said students will form a Maroon Wall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., forming a circle around the rally as a visual reminder that members of the Texas A&M community are turning their backs on white nationalists.

The silent protest is inspired by the similar maroon wall Aggies formed when members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested at a 2012 military funeral in College Station. Key said both events will be peaceful, non-violent protests, and that the goal is that everyone get home safely that day. Key said he was appalled by the timing of Wigintons announcement of the rally Saturday, which proclaimed TODAY CHARLOTTESVILLE TOMORROW TEXAS A&M at the top of the press release.

Wiginton said he anticipates that various groups  he did not name them  concerned with the political status of whites in America will be attending the event.

Republican Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner, whose District 5 includes Brazos County, weighed in on the situation, saying the racist and bigoted hate speech promoted by these hate groups does not reflect the values of Texas A&M or Texans, and should be loudly and consistently condemned by all responsible voices of our society.

While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of these groups to assemble and espouse their hateful and narrow-minded worldview, it also protects my right to publicly speak out against it ... and thats exactly what I plan to do when these groups come to College Station next month.

Key said that the counter protest welcomes people from all groups and is non-partisan: "This is about standing up for your fellow human beings.

Staying silent in the face of oppression is not what Aggies do, Key said. It was 100 years ago the one time they cancelled graduation because 100 percent of our student body back in 1917 was fighting in World War I. In World War II we gave 20,000-plus of our student body to go fight the Nazis.

A heavy law enforcement presence surrounded various protests during Spencers last appearance at Texas A&M. While Spencer spoke inside the MSC, Texas Department of Public Safety officers with riot gear pushed protesters out of the building and away from the entrance. Key said there was miscommunication with campus and state police over whether protesters were allowed inside the building, and that hell be communicating with the agencies early and often in September.

In an interview Saturday with The Eagle, Wiginton said Spencers first speech at Texas A&M was a success for the alt-right movement, which embraces an ideology of white nationalism and is anti-Semitic, as well as anti-feminist.

I think that was a stepping stone for white people to realize that there are issues, and they feel comfortable enough now to talk about them, Wiginton said.

The event is anti liberal and primarily for whites in that their identity matters, Wiginton said in his press release.

Wigintons December event prompted the university to develop stricter guidelines for visiting speakers on campus. Previously, the university didnt require groups or individuals wishing to rent space to have a campus sponsor. Thats how Wiginton, a former College Station resident who attended Texas A&M in 2006 and 2007 with no current ties to the university, was able to bring Spencer to campus. Now, outside speakers or groups must be sponsored by a recognized student organization to rent space in campus facilities.

Common areas on campus like Rudder Fountain, however, are still public spaces where speakers can share their views without approval.
Tree-planting project will be moved to the start of the school year.

For the last two school years, Franklin County Public Schools has worked with the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide fourth-grade students the chance to help the environment by improving the water quality and preventing soil erosion in areas that need restoration.

Streamside Trees in the Classroom (STIC) allows students to learn the importance of taking care of their environment and natural resources in a hands-on way.

Participating students work as teams in small groups. Each group is given a jar and a tree and is able to track the progress of their tree. The groups will spend four weeks inside the classroom watering and observing the growth. Then they will plant their trees in designated locations needing erosion control.

In the past, STIC started working with the children in the spring, but this year they will begin their project in September and will have approximately three planting days throughout October.

We are still planning to plant Black Willows, DRBA Education Manager Krista Hodges said. They are really good because they like water, they grow fast and they are native. After you plant them the care is also very minimal.

Previously STIC received help from Franklin County High School students in AP Chemistry and AP Environmental Science classes. If those students are willing to help again this year, Hodges and Dan LaPrad with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers welcome the assistance.

The goal is to plant at Booker T. Washington National Monument again this year; if there is an area at the monument with a lot of erosion, that is where the trees will be planted.

Trees along streams aid in keeping the water clean by filtering out pollution like chemicals and litter. They also help to control flooding, said Hodges.

In fourth grade, the students learn about Booker T. Washington, so they would obtain knowledge toward the science and history Standards of Learning guidelines by participating in STIC.

We are getting these students outside and giving them hands-on experience, LaPrad said. The kids will also get to participate in a number of different presentations from our partners on planting day.

STIC has also partnered with Every Kid in a Park, a national organization that allows every fourt-grade student the opportunity to visit any federal park for free.

They really get to enjoy a nice day outside, aside from their normal schoolwork, Hodges said. They are getting to learn about the natural resources and whats going on in their community.

Once the trees are planted, the students will be able to mark their work with their name, school and teachers name, if they so choose. Marking the trees helps protect them from being cut down in the future.

We are working as much as possible to obtain a grant for the program, Hodges said. However; we are in serious need of donations. At this point the grant will not cover all of the costs.

Donations have been made in the past in order to assist STIC with the costs of the trees, jars and snacks and water for the children on planting day.

Anyone interested in making a donation or obtaining more information can reach Hodges at khodges@danriver.org.
There were no injuries, and operations to nab the terrorists are under way.

By India Today Web Desk: Terrorists today opened fire on a police bunker at Srinagar's Tengpora bypass and managed to flee, ANI reported.

There were no injuries, and operations to nab the terrorists are under way, the news agency added.

(More inputs are awaited)

--- ENDS ---
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BROOKFIELD  Tony Luis has turned his fascination with the Civil War into a career, and now its landed him on television.

The 2005 Brookfield High School graduate owns and manages Mason Dixon Militaria in downtown Gettysburg, Pa., the site of the famous Civil War battle. At 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Luis and his store will be featured prominently on an episode of Haunted Towns, a new reality television show on the Destination America network.

In the episode, the Haunted Towns ghost-hunting team, known as the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, investigates Gettysburg and visits Luis store. Luis greets the crew and tells the stories behind some of his Civil War memorabilia. He also points out to the crew significant sites within the town.

Luis, 29, is a former Civil War re-enactor and has been studying the war since he was a kid.

This is my dream job, he said. I didnt expect it to go this far and now Im even on TV.

Mason Dixon Militaria features memorabilia and artifacts from the Civil War, World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War. It also has some celebrity memorabilia.

Luis said the war artifacts creates a perfect storm for paranormal occurrences, which attracted the Destination America network to his store. The network is owned by Discovery Communications.

Im good at talking so they said Id be good on TV and youre what we need, Luis said. While we were filming some things did happen  big time.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought between July 1 and July 3, 1863, resulted in about 50,000 casualties, the most of any single battle during the Civil War. The Union won the battle and stopped northward momentum by the Confederate forces. It is considered one of the most important battles of the Civil War.

Ive been interested in Gettysburg since I was 8 or 9 when we visited there for the first time, Luis said. The Civil War really piqued my interest.

His mother, Lori Luis, still lives in Brookfield and recalls her sons fascination with the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg in particular.

Im proud that he is living his dream, she said. Hes always wanted to live in Gettysburg and hes doing it.

Luis and a business partner opened Mason Dixon Militaria in July 2015. It recently relocated within Gettysburg as the store expanded. Its memorabilia are also available through its website www. masondixonmilitaria.com.

The episode will air at 10 p.m. on the Destination America digital cable channel. It is also available online at www.destinationamerica.com. Gettysburg is the premiere episode of Haunted Towns, which will also visit towns such as Salem, Mass.; Cape May, N.J.; and Savannah, Ga.

Luis said family, friends and random people have watched the episode already and have blown up my phone. He said he has been too busy to watch the entire episode.

Its kind of weird seeing yourself on TV so Im not really looking forward to it, he said.

cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3383
In 1994, my grandmother was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. She went from being a vibrant 83-year-old woman to losing her life in only a few short months. In the last 23 years very little has changed to prolong survival in pancreatic cancer patients. Fortunately, the tide might now be turning.

The pancreas is an organ located in the middle part of the upper abdomen. When functioning properly, it aides in regulating both digestion and hormone balance. However, patients with certain pancreatic conditions may suffer from diabetes, malnutrition, malabsorption syndromes and acute or chronic inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis). Causes of pancreatic dysfunction may arise from alcohol abuse, infection, gallstones, and/or from taking certain medications. Patients with pancreatitis often complain of abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and fatty stools. While pancreatitis can be a painful and severe, pancreatic cancer is a much more serious and life-threatening disease.

Although cancer of the pancreas is less common than lung or colon cancer, it is considered to be one of the most deadly forms of cancer. The diagnosis is often confirmed well after the disease has spread to other organs in the body resulting in very high mortality rate. This year alone, over 50,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease and over 40,000 will die. Although the disease can affect all ages, the average age at the time of diagnosis is 71.

The exact cause of pancreatic cancer is still unknown, but risk factors including cigarette smoking, age over 45, family history of the disease, alcohol abuse and chronic pancreatic inflammation. Additionally, patients who are newly diagnosed diabetics also carry an increased risk of developing the disease.

There are virtually no early signs or symptoms of pancreatic cancer. However, as the cancer progresses, patients may complain of abdominal pain radiating into the back, nausea, vomiting, weight loss and painless jaundice (a yellowing of the skin). Unfortunately, by this point, the disease has often spread outside of the pancreas and is more difficult to treat.

The survival rate for the most common form of pancreatic cancer is very low with only about 7 percent of patients living five years after diagnosis. More disturbingly, however, is that lifespan once diagnosed is often measured in only a few months. Since cure is based on early detection, most treatments are not effective as the disease has usually progressed too much by the time a diagnosis is confirmed. The disease does not discriminate who it affects regardless of race, religion, gender or financial success. Many famous people including Steve Jobs, Patrick Swayze, Joan Crawford and Count Basie have lost their lives to this devastating disease.

As early diagnosis is the best hope for cure, diagnostic tests and tools are needed to identify the disease before it spreads. Dr. Richard Frank, director of clinical cancer research for Western Connecticut Health Network has developed a study to investigate a link between diabetes and pancreatic cancer. According to Frank, New-onset diabetes diagnosed within the past 12 months has emerged as a potential harbinger of the disease ... It is now estimated that the risk of pancreatic cancer is seven-fold higher in the first two to three years after a diagnosis of diabetes, and that 1 out of 100 individuals diagnosed with diabetes will develop pancreatic cancer.

Frank, who expresses his frustration by the lack of progress in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, hopes to enroll 800 individuals with new onset diabetes into the clinical study.

Basically, if we find the cancer early, it will be removed; the smaller the tumor, the lower the stage, the better the chances for survival, he said.

The clinical trial will enroll individuals between 50 and 80 years of age who have been diagnosed with new-onset diabetes. Subjects accepted into the study will undergo contrast-enhanced pancreatic MRI/MRCP (utilizing a novel protocol) at study entry and annually for three years.

Frank emphasizes that no costs will be incurred by participants and no bills will be submitted to insurance. He ultimately hopes the study can help physicians diagnose pancreatic cancer at its earliest stage, given patients the best shot at treating this deadly cancer.

There have been significant advances in early detection that form the basis of this study. Interested patients are encouraged to contact Tammy Lo at 203-807-6350 or at tammy.lo@wchn.org.

As early diagnosis seems to hold the key to a successful cure of the disease, a recent research report has suggested that there may be a way to detect pancreatic cancer in its early stages utilizing two blood tests: CA19-9 and thrombospondin-2. When both are elevated, it was shown to be extremely sensitive in detecting the disease. Along with this early detection blood test, another study has determined that survival is significantly improved when surgery is performed to remove the tumor in its earliest stages. Whether these blood tests will be adopted as a useful widespread screening tool remains uncertain at this time.

Another encouraging study has identified why pancreatic cancer cells spread so quickly and why these cells are able to move to so many areas in the body. Research has discovered that pancreatic cancer cells are pre-programed to revert to an immature cell type which are then actively directed to move to different parts of the body causing metastatic disease. Discovering the mechanisms that allow the cancer cells to accomplish this will provide another targeted approach in treating this deadly disease.

As deadly as pancreatic cancer is, recent advances may now enable doctors to determine ways to diagnose and treat the illness before it spreads. Using novel approaches, we may finally be able to beat this horrible disease before it claims more lives.

Dr. Michael Schwartz is board certified in internal medicine and is affiliated with Soundview Medical Associates with a private practice in Darien. For comments or questions, visit his web site at drmichaelbschwartz.com.
NORWALK  Jung Courville, a Korean immigrant who was told to purchase a one-way ticket out of country by the end of August, received some welcome news Monday afternoon.

Her New Haven-based attorney Sung Hwang told her that an immigration judge in Pliladelphia has granted their motion to reopen her immigration case.

Courville, who has lived in the U.S. for 18 years and has been married to a U.S. citizen for 14 years, was told to purchase a one-way ticket out of the country by Aug. 28, during an annual check-in with immigration officials.

Her order of deportation was received in absentia so we were able to file a motion that she didnt receive notice of a hearing, Hwang said Monday.

Hwang said his office sent notice to ICE in Hartford and that should stop her removal right now.

She has good cause to receive a green card through her marriage, Hwang said. I spoke to her husband and they are ecstatic right now.

Hwang said that community support and more than 100 letters were a significant factor in the granting of the motion.

Fairfield-based attorney George Markley on Monday sent a letter to the Philadelphia Immigration Court and the Immigration Services office in Hartford with 80 signed letters from people urging that Courville not be deported.

The case for allowing her to remain in this country is compelling, he wrote.

On Aug. 7, CONECT, a multi-faith organization of 28 southern Connecticut congregations, held a prayer vigil in support of Courville and her family at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Norwalk, where Courville and her family regularly attend services. Courvilles children attend All Saints Catholic School.

Matt McDermott, CONECT executive director, said Courville is a mother of two with no criminal record. One of her children has significant disabilities, and she serves as the primary caregiver, he said.

When a new couple gets married, there is some skepticism, McDermott said. But she has been here for 18 years, shes been married for 14 years, she has two kids. There is no doubt this is a true marriage. We hope that she can get another deferal, and hopefully some relief and some status.

McDermott said Courville was given bad legal advice early on in her move to the U.S., and thus never gained her citizenship. He said she was flagged while traveling in 2010, and has been meeting annually with ICE ever since. The meeting last month was the first time she was given any indication she would have to leave.

The case comes on the heals of another Norwalk mother, Nury Chavarria, who was ordered deported after 24 years in the U.S. Chavarrias deportation order was stayed after she sought sanctuary in a New Haven church for a few days. Like Courville, Chavarria had no criminal record and had been meeting annually with ICE officials when she was told to purchase a one-way ticket to her home country of Guatemala.

Were trying to see if we cant push for a stay for Jung as well, and really a reversal of the deportation order, McDermott said. Were also hopeful to get her some status as a citizen. Shes a mother of U.S. children and the wife of a U.S. citizen and has no criminal record of any kind. She has no reason to be deported. Of course the family is devastated, and the community is reaching out with a lot of support for this family who have been members of the St. Jerome parish for a long time.
Laura Kelsay put her random knowledge from her self-proclaimed velcro brain to use in the spring, which Americans will get to witness Sept. 11 on Jeopardy!

Kelsay, 42, has been a longtime fan of the famous game show hosted by Alex Trebek. She watched it every day since she was in junior high, she said. She latched to the random facts on the show, as well as in school and her extracurriculars. Books were a popular pastime for her, which helped advance her thirst for knowledge even more.

Im a geek, Kelsay said proudly. I have a velcro brain.

Kelsay graduated from Grand Island Senior High and grew up in Grand Island. In fact, she said everything she knows about Shakespeare she credits to Jeopardy!.

By the time I started high school, people told me I needed to be on Jeopardy!,the Grand Islander said.

Well, in 2011 Kelsay actually thought about it. She was watching Jeopardy! like every other day, and heard an announcement saying that the online test was coming up. She thought about it and decided to take the test, which is 50 questions that are timed to have 12 seconds to answer each question. Kelsay said the Jeopardy! people say its seven minutes that can change a persons life. She took the test at her dads house with him there, for moral support.

In March 2012, Kelsay got an email inviting her to one of several cities for an in-person interview to be on the show. She traveled to Chicago via Amtrak with her mom for the opportunity. She said she thought she did well, but she never heard back. After taking the test and doing the interview, Kelsay was locked out of taking the test again for another 18 months. In early 2014, she took the online test again. She got another invite for an in-person interview, but didnt have the funds to travel to it. She declined the invitation.

In late June 2015, Kelsay took the test again before ageing out of the contestant pool (she said Jeopardy! keeps people in the contestant pool for a limited time after they complete the interview and test).

Kelsay didnt hear anything back after she took the test the last time. Her dream was seemingly not going to happen this time around.

Little did she know, Jeopardy! was trying to reach her to be on the show for real. She just never saw the email or answered the strange number that called. Her best friend from work, Lisa, ended up calling Kelsay, saying that a lady from Jeopardy! called work looking for her.

Kelsay was ecstatic and went to California for taping in April. She got the call mid-March 2017 and taped her episodes April 17 and 18. She booked flights with her friend Lisa and family, flying out on a Saturday and coming back on Wednesday.

She said getting that news and being in the Jeopardy! studio was surreal.

She took multiple outfits with her for the taping, not knowing how far shed make it. Jeopardy! tapes multiple episodes on taping days. She wore a special necklace, which she hid under her jacket when taping. The necklace held the ashes of her grandmother, Ardie Gilliland. Gilliland, who died a few weeks after Kelsays 2015 audition, watched Jeopardy! with Kelsay, as did all of her other grandparents that have since passed. She said her grandparents along with her parents always encouraged her and never hesitated to indulge my curiosity.

Ive got a ravenous curiosity, Kelsay said.

Kelsay said Jeopardy! isnt something she could study for, since the questions could be anything. She read books written by other Jeopardy! contestants to help prepare for the experience.

This isnt quite like a midterm you can cram for, she said.

The unknown, however, didnt seem to phase Kelsay during the taping of the show.

Ive never been so focused in my entire life, Kelsay said.

The lights, the other contestants, the fact that Alex Trebek was standing in front of her: none of it shook her up. Initially she was excited and in awe, but she knew what she was there for and she zoned in. Kelsay said the people from Jeopardy! from the makeup and casting crew to the sound guys and the hosts were so kind. She said her experience was very fun, and the people helped make it great.

She said shes excited to watch her episode with many of her friends and family members. Representing Nebraska on television, she said, was really quite honoring. Kelsay said not many Nebraskans or mid-westerners appear on TV, so it meant a lot to her to represent her hometown and state.

This was something Ive wanted to do the majority of my life, Kelsay said, adding that she can now relax for a little bit after accomplishing a big life goal.

Kelsays episode will air as the Jeopardy! season premiere on Sept. 11 at 4:30 p.m. central time.
This years Husker Harvest Days, Sept. 12-14, will be observing its 40th year in Grand Island. How Husker Harvest Days started more than 40 years ago was the Voices of the Past program Sunday at the Burlington Station in Grand Island. The program was sponsored by the Hall County Historical Society.

Some of the pioneers of Husker Harvest Days origin were part of a panel discussion lead by another person involved directly in bringing the farm show to Grand Island, Doyle Hulme. Hulmes panel consisted of Don Reynolds, Ken Gnadt, and Tom Corkle.

Husker Harvest Days was an outgrowth of the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce Committee. Dick Good, the chambers executive director at the time, had a vision of a working farm show where the University of Nebraska and equipment manufacturers would exhibit and demonstrate the latest ideas and equipment to farmers to determine whether what they should incorporate into their operations.

At the heart of the Sundays panel discussion was how a group of visionaries fought against naysayers, financial difficulties and other problems, but persevered to get the first Husker Harvest Day show going on Oct. 10-12 in 1978. Because that date interfered with the area harvest, the next year it was moved to its now traditional mid-September start.

It was a team effort, said Hulme. A lot of people put in their time and effort to get Husker Harvest Days going.

One of those individuals was Reynolds, who said efforts to get the farm show started was in 1974 with Goods dream of having a working farm show.

A number individuals were responsible for getting the show started including Leonard Fleisher of Fleisher Mfg. of Columbus who was who dissatisfied with the cost of displaying farm equipment at the Nebraska State Fair when it was in Lincoln.

He said plans were drawn up by local organizers and various ideas were suggested, such as expanding the Grand Islands Ag Committees farmers appreciation program to include field demonstrations.

Reynolds said there was a proposed budget, but support was minimal.

Reynolds was chairman of the chambers ag committee at the time and he and Ken Gnadt and Jack Martin traveled to Fort Dodge, Iowa to visit the Farm Program Show there.

It was a big thing, Reynolds said as the trio was impressed by the huge crowds that attended the show and the economic impact the show had on the community.

The idea of a working farm show in central Nebraska began to gain momentum, including the involvement of Nebraska Farmer, which lent their expertise and financial assistance to the project.

Reynolds described the work that went into finding a site for the show, which still had many people dismissing it as something that wouldnt work.

Finally, a piece of land was located at the former Cornhusker Ordnance Plant near Grand Island for the show.

Reynolds said momentum continued for the project. The non-profit Agriculture Institute of Nebraska was formed to organize and run the show and Nebraska Farmer provided $300,000 in development costs.

According to notes provided to the audience by Hulme for the program, Nebraska Farmer became responsible for the show and Agriculture Institute of Nebraska became responsible for farming the ground for its field demonstration. Ernie Dobesh farmed the site for several years before Roger Luebbe took over the responsibility, which he continues today with his son.

In those early days, Gnadt said he helped to organize the many volunteers needed to operate the three day show, which he said was critical to the success of the operation. Without the volunteers, it would have been cost prohibitive to run the show because of employment costs.

We also got a lot of support from our local businesses, too, Gnadt said.

He said local youth groups, such as the Wood River FFA also got involved with the show. Every year, thousands of FFA students come to Husker Harvest Days from throughout Nebraska and neighboring states to learn more about agriculture.

Over the years, Husker Harvest Days has continued to grow and has gained an international reputation as the worlds largest totally irrigated working farm show, which features the latest equipment, supplies and technologies available to producers, along with field demonstrations and crop technology exhibits and the newest tractors, combines and harvesters, grain-handling equipment and irrigation technologies.

At Sundays presentation was Colby Collins, who is a board member of the Agriculture Institute of Nebraska. He told the group about the continued expansion of the show each year. For example, this years show will feature more than 600 vendors.

He said the economic impact of the three-day show is estimated at more than $7 million.

But as the show is entering its fourth decade of existence, Collins said to guarantee its future and grow the shows international reputation, a substantial investment must be made into improving the shows infrastructure, some of which, like the electrical system, dates back to the shows origins forty years ago. Other infrastructure improvements included better parking, paved streets and sidewalks and improved drainage.

Collins said that cost is estimated at $7 million, which the local community will be responsible for $5 million of that cost, with the organizers picking up the rest of the infrastructure expense.

He said work is underway, much like it was more than 40 years ago to organize and start the show, to raise the money through both public and private funds to improve the Husker Harvest Days site.

With this years Husker Harvest Days celebrating 40 years in Grand Island, work is under way to have a 1978 IH 1460 combine to run in the demonstrations prior to the current day models.

Husker Harvest Days have been a favorite of both farmers and non-farmers for its 40 years in Grand Island. During Sundays presentation, Hall County Historical Society member, Susan Hauptmeier commented that she obtained a Nebraska Farmer yardstick in the early years of the show and how she valued receiving it.

After the program, I came home and looked to see that same Nebraska Farmer yardstick in a closet, she said. It is the best quality yardstick Ive ever gotten and it was free.

To learn more about the Hall County Historical Society at www.hallchs.com. To learn more about this years Husker Harvest Days, visit their website at www.huskerharvestdays.com.
The apex court said it will hear the objections to the provisions of Article 35A in the next six weeks, and a five-judge bench can decide whether it violates the basic structure of the constitution.

By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court has agreed to look into the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution, which grants special status to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The apex court said a three-judge bench will hear the objections to the provisions of Article 35A in the next six weeks, and may decide on referring the matter to a five-judge bench.

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The petition challenging the Article claims it has a gender bias and does not grant the same status to women in Jammu and Kashmir.

In defence, the Jammu and Kashmir government has told the Supreme Court that the Article 35A issue has been "prima facie settled" by the High Court in its 2002 judgment.

HERE'S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW Article 35A came into being through a presidential order in 1954 and gives powers to the state legislature to define permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and their privileges. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accused the BJP, which in alliance with Mehbooba Mufti's PDP currently runs the state government, of trying to scrap Articles 35A and 370. "If the BJP succeeds in scrapping Article 35A through court, our state subject laws will end. People from outside will come and buy plots here, get government jobs, scholarships for their children and aids and relief," Abdullah said today. Abdullah claimed the Hindu-majority Jammu would be more affected than the Muslim-majority areas of Kashmir if Article 35A is scrapped. "Someone who wants to buy land in this state, will he do that in Kashmir? Even people residing in Kashmir don't feel safe there. Take it in writing that before going to Kashmir to buy land and look for jobs, they will come to Jammu," he said. "The BJP said it would scrap Article 370, but realised it is not possible through Parliament. They went to court, asking others to fight the case," he said. Mehbooba Mufti had rushed to New Delhi on Thursday after a series of meeting with opposition leaders in the state - including Abdullah's father and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and chief of state Congress GA Mir - to discuss ways and means to protect Article 35A that has been challenged by an NGO through a petition in the Supreme Court. After her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mufti had on Friday said that he has given an assurance that there will be no compromise on the agenda of the PDP-BJP alliance on Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution that give a special status to the state. However, the opposition National Conference expressed doubts over Mufti's announcement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured her on protecting the Constitution's Article 35A. On Saturday, life in the Kashmir Valley and parts of Jammu was affected due to a shutdown called to protect Article 35A. Shops, businesses, educational institutions and public transport remained shut in response to the shutdown called by separatists.

ALSO READ

--- ENDS ---
It's not over. Thousands of uncounted ballots remain in Bucks, Montco

Bucks County officials do not anticipate all ballots cast Tuesday will be counted - or not - until next week. Leaving House key races in limbo
It has also given one month to the Union Ministry of Information and Technology, and Department of Justice to come up with standards of technical specifications and pricing of these CCTV cameras.

By Anusha Soni: Supreme Court has ordered installation of CCTV cameras in all states and union territories to record proceedings in trial courts and tribunals across the country.

The apex court has asked High Courts to devise modalities and complete the exercise as soon as possible.

It has also given one month to the Union Ministry of Information and Technology, and Department of Justice to come up with standards of technical specifications and pricing of these CCTV cameras.

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The SC also said that it too should be open to audio and video recordings.

A bench led by Justice Adarsh Kumar Gorl and Uday Lalit observed: Installation of CCTV cameras is useful to achieve objective of transparent judicial system. It was time that every word uttered during the proceedings should be recorded. We are a court of records. Every word should be recorded. We don't see any problem with this. SC asked all 24 high courts to initiate the process of installing CCTV cameras inside courtrooms and also in the court precincts. We make it clear nobody will record the proceedings without authorisation from the High Court concerned. Third party will not be given such recordings and that these recordings will be deleted after a specific time period.

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In 1982, seven people died in the Chicago metropolitan area after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been deliberately contaminated with potassium cyanide. Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer, responded by pulling 31 million bottles of tablets back from retailers, stopped all production and advertising of the product, got involved with the Chicago Police, FBI, and FDA in the search for the killer, and offered up to a $100,000 reward for information on the culprit, all while permanently discontinuing the capsules and developing tamper-resistant gel caps.

The crisis cost the company more than $100 million, but Tylenol eventually regained 100 percent of the market share it had before the crisis. The media appreciated the lengths the company went to and its concern for the public interest, so the company was portrayed generally in a good light. This is a textbook example of how to respond to a public relations crisis. Unfortunately, many in higher education have yet to learn from this case.

In July of this year the Los Angeles Times published a report that the dean of the medical school at the University of Southern California, Carmen A. Puliafito, had used illicit drugs and consorted with a prostitute before resigning from his administrative post in 2016. Video footage and pictures of him engaged in these activities in a hotel room supported the papers story.

The news was shocking for many reasons. Puliafito, age 66, was a renowned eye surgeon and is married with three grown children. He obtained his medical degree from Harvard University and had been the founding director of the New England Eye Center and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Tufts University in Massachusetts before becoming dean at USC. He had also been the director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Miamis medical school. The newspaper review of public records in the states where he had practiced showed no malpractice lawsuits or disciplinary actions against him. However, it was later revealed by The Chronicle of Higher Education that while in Miami Puliafito had settled an assault lawsuit and faced sexual harassment allegations.

At USC Puliafito oversaw hundreds of medical students, thousands of professors and clinicians, and research grants totaling more than $200 million. He was credited with raising more that $1 billion for the school and other causes. He was also a regular at star-studded USC fundraisers with the Hollywood elite. His yearly salary was $1.1 million.

Yet, he resigned under suspicious circumstances. Not only was he forgoing a very high salary and a very prestigious position, but also his resignation took place in March, in the middle of a semester, a rarity in higher education. The official explanation from his university was that he went on sabbatical.

The real explanation was that the video footage and photographs started to circulate in social media. In one videotaped scene Puliafito, wearing a tuxedo, shows an orange pill on his tongue. "Thought Id take an Ecstasy before the ball," he tells the camera, then swallows the pill. Ecstasy is a psychoactive drug. The newspaper reported that a 21-year-old woman who overdosed last year in his hotel room in Pasadena, Calif., Sarah Warren, met Puliafito in 2015, when she was working as a prostitute, and that they had become frequent companions. She told the newspaper that she had offered him methamphetamine, which he accepted. After her overdose, the police found the drug in the hotel room where the two of them were reportedly staying together, but no one was arrested, the newspaper said.

There was incredulity by journalists and over social media that USC officials could have been unaware of their deans extracurricular activities given the photos, videos, and other evidence that had been floating around. USCs response to the Times story evolved rapidly. From a no comment, to minimal comment, to acknowledging that the university had received a number of complaints before Puliafitos resignation last year.

The university response was unsurprising given the culture of many institutions of higher education that like to keep things under wraps until it is too late. Initially C.L. Max Nikias, the universitys president, stated in a public letter dated the same day the newspaper article was published that Dr. Puliafito was on leave and not seeing patients. The letter wished Dr. Puliafito a full recovery if the articles assertions are true, and that This specific issue is, of course, complicated by privacy rights. Four days later the USC president released a statement saying We are outraged and disgusted by this individuals behavior, and that the university had hired Debra Wong Yang, a former state judge and federal prosecutor, to conduct a thorough investigation into the details of Carmen Puliafitos conduct, the universitys response, as well as our existing policies and procedures.

At the same time Michael Quick, the university provost, released his own statement, suggesting that the university received first-hand information about the former deans substance abuse and that USC had initiated a process of firing Puliafito and stripping him of tenure.

Interestingly enough, the Los Angeles Times published days later an article detailing the newspapers efforts over the course of 15 months to get university officials to comment on Puliafito, for which they received no response. Later the university president acknowledged that over the course of his nearly 10 years as dean, we received various complaints about Dr. Puliafitos behavior, which were addressed through university personnel procedures.

That all this happened for so long and with someone taking illegal drugs who was responsible for patients well-being is beyond comprehension.

Apparently, the university leadership never understood that the best way to deal with scandals is to confront them head on, showing transparency, decisive action, and full recognition of errors made. But, instead, they retreated into secrecy and cover up in the false hope that their actions would protect a person whose fundraising abilities had brought so much money to the coffers of the institution.

At the end of the day the leaders of the institution were the ones who really looked bad by the way they managed the whole affair.

Dr. Aldemaro Romero Jr. is the Dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College-CUNY. He can be contacted through his website at: http://www.aromerojr.net
The Hoedowners Square Dance Club will begin classes in September for anyone interested in learning how to dance.

The classes will begin on Sept. 7 and will be offered on Thursday nights from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Wood River Roundhouse at 633 North Wood River Ave. The classes cost $5 each, and the first class is free.

Bo Semith and his wife Agnes Semith have been square dancing for almost 50 years. Bo Semith has been calling square dances for 48 years. They are active in the Hoedowners Club and the classes.

The classes meet every Thursday except Thanksgiving.

We hold the class open for three weeks for new people, Agnes Semith said. The class meets year-round. There are a lot of calls to learn, Bo Semith said. He said that the club follows a 12-week program. The first 12 weeks are basic, then it moves on, he said. Well probably do three of the 12-week programs.

Experience is not necessary. If youve never danced in your life, thats OK, Bo Semith said of the classes. It is also fine to come alone or with a friend. You dont need a partner, he said. Members of the club are there to fill out.

In addition to the classes, the Hoedowners also host dances every second and fourth Saturday of each month. The dances are also held at the Wood River Roundhouse.

Were one of the oldest clubs in the state, Bo Semith said. It was started by Ring Ring Ring in 1949.

The Saturday dances are open to all. We have people coming from all over, Bo Semith said.

We have a caller coming from Omaha next time, said Agnes Semith. Were expecting a big crowd.

The dances typically draw from 20 to over 100 people. Well have 10 or 12 squares with eight in a square, Bo Semith said.

The Semiths said they enjoy several things about square dancing.

I like the people, Agnes Semith said about square dancing. Its a good time with a lot of nice people. I like the friendship and exercise.

In addition to the dancing with the Hoedowners, Bo Semith calls for a group that dances on Tuesdays at the Main Street Community Center. This is a workshop, he said. Everyone here knows how to dance, but they want to practice or want help with something.

Square dancing is the state dance of Illinois. There used to be over 50 clubs in the area, Bo Semith said. Now there are about nine. Each club hosts dances, he said. Over 500 dancers recently attended the state convention in Springfield.

Square dancing has changed over the years, Agnes Semith said. There used to always be fluffy skirts or prairie skirts, she said. Now, people come in all sorts of clothes to the Saturday dances. A lot still wear the skirts. Thats kind of the fun of it for some. You get to wear a costume. The only requirement is that the dancers wear comfortable shoes. You need something that wont grip the floor when you move, Agnes Semith said. There are square dance shoes, but you dont need them, she said.

Another change is the music, Bo Semith said. The music we use is not like in the past. We use Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, he said.

Square dancing used to be a family activity, Bo Semith said. Kids are welcome at the classes, and we offer a reduced rate for families.

Bo Semith said that people who come will enjoy the classes. We see a lot of times that a wife is dragging her husband in for the first few weeks, Bo Semith said. But by the third week, hes ready to go.
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Linkedin Setiono Sugiharto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 09:41 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac721b0 4 Art & Culture #essay,Literature,writing,reading Free

Teaching English academic prose and supervising students in writing their theses has been a really rewarding and intellectually engaging experience, at least to me. Not only could I learn how students struggle painstakingly to pour out their ideas, to structure their thoughts from their own perspectives and to assemble those from other writers they are quoting, but I could also feel how desperately they forayed into high-stake literary activities like academic writing.

No less an intriguing episode in the students experiences was when they grappled with fathoming convoluted writing conventions that were employed to satisfy the expectations of the invisible audience.

This experience has told me one important thing: writing is more than just a cognitive activity; it is a social activity as well. This is to say that in writing, you cant rely exclusively on your individual knowledge at the expense of the social forces that shape the ways you structure and pattern your ideas.

Surely, for both undergraduate and graduate students, writing in an academic genre and for an academic community or audience is of paramount importance if they are to succeed in their learning. In fact, their academic fate is determined by whether or not they are dexterous in their scholarly writing. This is especially true, given the looming government regulation that obliges university students to write and publish in scholarly journals.

With this imminent regulation, students have no other option for graduating unless they actively engage in academic literacy. It is publishing their scholarly works that will matter at the end of their studies, rather than simply defending their theses before their examiners, as has been a customary at higher learning institution of late. In other words, they will be confronted with the publish or perish dictum.

Yet, as a teacher of writing who has been in the profession for quite a long time, observing (and at the same time sympathizing with) the students arduous and painful intellectual efforts invested in the meaning-making process of writing is a much more momentous experience than simply being complacent about the products of writing (how titillating and intriguing they appear to the audience) they have accomplished.

This is because writing in academic genres for an academic audience involves relatively more cognitive and rhetorical efforts than writing in other genres; say poetry writing and short-story writing.

It seems to be an axiom that academic writing is infamous for its detachment (the authors from the object of the writing), objectivity and impersonality  a literacy practice not particularly common for students who come mainly from a culture where oral tradition is highly valued.

What is really revealing to me when I closely follow the ways the students produce an academic piece is how they deal with tension and conflict, which occur often in the writing process.

On the one hand, students insist on displaying their personae in writing because they feel comfortable in doing so. On the other hand, the characteristics of academic genres dictate otherwise, demanding students to distance themselves from their writing and to present their ideas as objectively as possible.

For most of the students that Ive been engaging with, theyve no courage to flout what has been prescribed to them by their teachers, fearing that their teachers will give them a bad grade or even fail them.

Yet, I sense that theres a sort of pretentious moral certitude on the part of these students to obediently follow what their teachers implore them to write. For the sake of pleasing their teachers, they submissively do what they are expected to do. Resisting instructions runs a risk for them.

But in reality, students cannot hide their conviction in what they believe to be the truth in writing. For most of them, writing  irrespective of its diverse genres  is always a personal and expressive activity. They can express what they want to say in writing without necessarily conforming to rigid or formulaic conventions that limit their latitude in communicating their ideas.

Quite interestingly, I found that rather than overtly resisting the established academic conventions, students collaboratively construct an alternative space in the classroom where they can oppose and defy the instructions that exhort them to obediently follow the institutionally desired conventions.

I personally managed to document (through an informal talk with students) how they subvert their identities in writing through such acts as false compliance, parody and even lying  all of which are kinds of overt resistance to the imposition of one-sided instruction.

In another case, this identity subversion may find its realization in cyberspace, where students can freely share ideas with their peers without the surveillance of authority figures.

These spaces constitute a safe place for students to exchange with their peers their anger and frustration at the pressure they experience during the process of completing writing assignments. As they are relatively surveillance-free and hidden from the real world, students can unleash their frustrations by using sarcasm and taboo words intended to mock the unequal power distribution they experience in classroom settings.

Cyberspace is also a safe zone for students to celebrate their subjugated identities, and could have the potential to be used as a space where they may reflectively develop solidarity in challenging and opposing the imposition of a dominant mode of communication that may not always be congruent to their preferred identities.

On a positive note, this alternative communication space offers students ample opportunities to creatively and critically construct their own identities vis-a-vis the imposed identity desired by their teachers and institutions which they consider oppressive.

In fact, these subversive identities displayed both in the real world (i.e. the classroom) and virtual world (i.e. cyberspace) enable students to critically question the imposed mainstream perspectives and thinking.

The valuable lesson that I have learned from these creative ways of developing alternative identities is that in the context of digital communication and information technology, students should not be treated as merely passive recipients of knowledge, but as critical beings who have the potential to construct their own perspectives and knowledge in unprecedented ways.

***

The writer teaches at the graduate school of Applied English Linguistics, Faculty of Education and Language, Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta.
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Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 10:33 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac76b8b 4 People Karlina-Supelli,life,writer,cyber-bullying,Internet,social-media,child-abuse,gender-equality Free

While some people have had enough of the negativity, scams and hoaxes spread on social media and have abandoned such sites, philosopher Karlina Supelli has decided not to do so.

The lecturer at the Driyakarya School of Philosophy in Jakarta said that despite rarely updating her Facebook account, she cannot quit social media because she teaches the philosophy of technology, which requires her to monitor what is happening on social media.

Social media sites have become a place for people to spread hatred, Karlina said during a talk at the recent ASEAN Literary Festival in Kota Tua, West Jakarta.

She said what concerned her most was online bullying on social media, which puts children at risk of being victimized.

Karlina is not only a noted thinker on philosophy, but also the first Indonesian female astronomer and a human-rights activist. She has taken to the streets to defend the rights of victims of the May 1998 riots and was once arrested and interrogated for 23 hours for holding a peaceful rally to promote justice at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

Born 59 years ago in Jakarta, she said she has experienced life under the authoritarian New Order regime and in the Reform era, which gave people the freedom to speak.

Karlina said prior to the era of smartphones and before people knew what they could do with the internet and social media, people were mostly engaged in face-to-face interaction, so they would think first before throwing out comments to their counterparts.

However, social media has set people free from such direct interaction, making them insensitive about what they express, including hate speech. According to her observations, the situation has got worse in the last 10 years.

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has detected a rise in the number of crimes perpetrated against children that take advantage of social media activities, from 100 cases in 2011 to 322 in 2014.

One of the recent cases was the cyber bullying of Afi Firda Nihaya, 19, who has been accused of plagiarism in her Facebook posts about inter-religious tolerance.

Read also: Plagiarism: What can we learn from Afi's case

Karlina is worried about netizens growing insensitivity on social media sites, as seen in the content of their posts, which show that they throw out comments without preceding them with critical thinking. A lack of interest in reading is one of its causes.

Indonesia ranks 60th out of 61 countries in terms of reading interest according to a report from Central Connecticut State University. It puts the country below Thailand, which sits in 59th place and above Botswana in 61st position.

Modern thoughts: Karlina Supelli (right) talks with moderator Rike Amru in a discussion during the recent ASEAN Literary Festival in Kota Tua, West Jakarta. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

We should educate our emotions. We have to train ourselves to use our sensitivity, Karlina said.

She believes that bad things occur because of the confluence between intention and lack of critical thinking.

The importance of critical thinking is also the driving force that motivated Karlina to study philosophy in 1992 after completing her studies in astronomy at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in West Java and University College London in the United Kingdom in 1989.

I studied cosmology, about how the universe was formed and evolved. But, after the emergence of the Big Bang theory, it was stuck. Then, I studied philosophy to find the answers [to questions about cosmology], she said.

She accidentally fell in love with philosophy while attending Professor Toety Heratys class in the University of Indonesia. At that time, her friend could not attend and asked her to attend the professors class to take notes.

[After the class ended], I phoned Bu Toety, telling her that I wanted to study, she said.

Karlina, who liked to sit on the porch of her house at night to look at the sky while musing on the creation of the universe when she was little, then delved deeply into philosophy until she earned a PhD in the subject from the University of Indonesia in 1997. Her dissertation was entitled Wajah-Wajah Alam Semesta: Suatu Kosmologi Empiris Konstruktif (Masks of the Universe: an empirical-constructivist approach to cosmology).

Read also: Confessions of a millennial: Job-hopping and burning bridges

For Karlina, gender equality still has a long way to go both in Indonesia and abroad.

When I was accepted at the Astronomy Department in ITB, my seniors first question was why have you entered a mans field? she recalled.

It was no different when she was studying in the UK. When she was able to answer a very difficult question, her supervisors comment was, You have a mans brain.

For her, loving and caring for each other regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion and social class is a way to celebrate life.

Having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and witnessed the passing of two fellow sufferers, Karlina has become more motivated to encourage people not to easily give up in the fight for life. Since January this year, she has stopped taking medicine after her doctor assessed her progress as positive.

Being a cancer survivor, she says, is not easy. She once lost her appetite because of the side effects of chemotherapy. However, she has never given up and adheres to medical advice and has adopted a healthy lifestyle by routinely working out and consuming nutritious foods.

I love my life very much because it deserves to be fought for, she said.
By India Today Web Desk: He is one of the few actors in Bollywood whose stint in the film industry has grabbed as many eyeballs as his stint on the small screen. A regular face on one of the popular shows on television, Sushant Singh Rajput bid adieu to the small screen at the peak of his TV career and decided to take a leap of faith with Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Che in 2013. And since then, there has been no looking back for Sushant.

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In a recent interview to Mumbai Mirror, Sushant talked at length about his upcoming films, his first crush, his equation with Kriti Sanon and the Raabta debacle.

This is what he said:

On link-up rumours with Kriti Sanon

It was last year that Kriti Sanon and Sushant were added to the long list of Bollywood's rumoured lovebirds. It all started during the shooting of Raabta, and since then the rumours of their affair have spread like wildfire. While the two have time and again rubbished the rumours of their link-up, their frequent public appearances have grabbed many eyeballs. However, the 31-year-old actor says that these stories haven't changed his equation with Kriti. "Sometimes, there is a series of stories about me which are untrue and I feel misunderstood. That's not a great feeling! As an actor I can condition myself to ignore the rumours, but I hold on to the vulnerability and the emotions these rumours evoke because it makes me a better actor. The stories often affect me but they never change my friendship with any co-star," said Sushant.

On being called 'player', 'arrogant'

Sushant Singh Rajput is definitely not one of the most loved actors in Bollywood. If his rumoured affairs with co-actors have earned him the tag of a 'player', his straight-forward answers at press conferences haven't gone down too well with the media. But the actor is unperturbed by how he is perceived by people. "People are constantly finding ways to explain how I've continued to survive in the industry. That's their problem, not mine. I'm not trying to prove a point, I'm not in the race to be No. 1 because I have no plans of living a rat's life. I'm not obsessed with the future and at the same time I'm neither hiding something nor trying to earn a particular reputation," said the 31-year-old actor.

On the Raabta debacle

After the super success of MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, all eyes were on Sushant's next release Raabta. The songs were already chartbusters, and Sushant and Kriti's chemistry only added to the hype. But the film failed to live up to expectations. In its first week itself, it was declared a flop. However, Sushant has decided to not mull too much over his past.

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"We view life as a cause-and-effect-theory. If a film doesn't work, we try to find reasons and add to our disillusionment. I've read every book on what's necessary to write a great script and make a hit film. They clearly haven't helped. So now, I've conditioned myself in a way that no matter what happens on Friday, I'll be okay on Monday. I can't screw up six months of work on my next by thinking of my last film," added the Kai Po Che actor.

On his first girlfriend

Sushant Singh Rajput, who is often referred to as a player, made a confession. He said, "My first girlfriend dumped me because I was too boring. I've tried to be more interesting ever since."

On Amrita Singh's interference in Kedarnath

It is no secret that Sara Ali Khan's Bollywood debut Kedarnath has Sushant as the hero. And the two were spotted with director Abhishek Kapoor and Sara's mom Amrita Singh during one of their meetings. When asked if Amrita was interfering too much with her daughter's Bollywood debut, Sushant said, "Untrue, the script hasn't changed a bit from the one I was given and said yes to the first time. I'm honest and 100 per cent professional. So, there's absolutely no interference from any parent or friend. Everyone involved is trying to do their best."

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ALSO READ: Sara Ali Khan meets Sushant Singh Rajput, Kedarnath to go on floors soon

ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput denies being Kriti Sanon's boyfriend. What's cooking between the two?

ALSO WATCH: Sushant Singh Rajput felt cheated at engineering college because there were no girls

--- ENDS ---
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 08:52 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac712a3 1 Business Lion-Air,plane,passengers,Juwata-Tarakan-Airport Free

The Transportation Ministry has announced that 120 passengers, who were left behind at Juwata Tarakan International Airport in North Kalimantan by a Lion Air pilot, following a check-in system failure, have now left on another flight.

Initially, the passengers were to fly to Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Friday morning, but the airline check-in system was down, resulting in late boarding.

The pilot decided to depart with only 86 of the 206 passengers on board.

"I think the pilot has shirked the responsibilities of a transportation [company], leaving behind the passengers, who were still in the middle of being manually checked-in," the airport head, Hemi Pamuraharjo, said in a statement.

He said the flight could not be categorized as delayed, it was simply a reckless decision by the pilot.

Lion Air flew the passengers at 12.55 p.m. local time and gave the passengers compensation. Meanwhile, the passengers who were originally to be flown out at 12.55 p.m., left at 4 p.m. (bbn)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam, Riau Islands  Mon, August 14, 2017 21:26 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac948d3 1 National Kitabah-Gonggong-Rebus,Batam,Riau-Islands,terrorism,deradicalization,IS,radicalism Free

Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, a former high-ranking official in Batam, Riau Islands, who reportedly joined the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Syria, has been enrolled in a compulsory deradicalization program in Jakarta.

Along with 17 other Indonesians who also had allegedly joined the IS, Dwi, as well as his wife and three daughters, arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport last Saturday.

The case of Dwi, a former director of the one-stop integrated service (PTSP) at the Batam Free Trade Zone Body (BP-FTZ), was handled by the National Polices Detachment 88 counterterrorism squad and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), Riau Islands Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Saptono Erlangga said Monday.

We have prepared a deradicalization task force to monitor [Dwi and his family] once they are returned to Batam, he said.

Read also: Batam terror group chose nearest island to strike Singapore: Police

BP-FTZ spokesman Purnomo Andiantono said Dwi had been returned to the Transportation Ministry, his former employer, after he had gone missing in 2015. It was a disciplinary measure. He was considered to have committed a violation. His civil servant status has since been in the hands of the ministry.

Apparently falling for IS propaganda, Dwi and his family sold all of their assets to go to Syria.

According to the police, their departure was facilitated by radical group Kitabah Gonggong Rebus, which once allegedly plotted to strike Singapore with a rocket from Batam.

Dwis daughter, Nurshadrina Khairadhania, 19, appeared on international media saying her family had been tricked and regretted their decision to go to Syria. She said IS' promises on the internet had not been met. (bbs)
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) South Tangerang, Banten  Mon, August 14, 2017 15:08 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac8035d 1 Business astra,building,inauguration,BSD,South-Tangerang,Banten Free

Publicly listed diversified conglomerate PT Astra International (ASII) launched its second Astra Biz Center in BSD City, South Tangerang, Banten on Monday in a bid to boost sales in the premium township.

The business center, located on 6.2 hectares of land, is comprised of seven buildings  six showrooms and another building for Astras supporting businesses.

The total investment for land, building and repair centers reached Rp 777.25 billion (US$58.3 million).

The six showrooms serve as sales and repair centers for Honda motorcycle and five car brands: Toyota, Daihatsu, Isuzu, BMW and Peugeot.

Other supporting businesses in the location are Federal International Finance, Toyota Astra Finance, Astra Credit Company, Asuransi Astra, Marga Trans Nusantara and Astragraphia.

The first Astra Biz Centre was been built in Bandung, West Java, with showrooms for Daihatsu, Isuzu, UD trucks and United Tractors heavy equipment as well as for financing businesses.

This area [BSD City and its surrounding] is a fast emerging market for premium motorcycles [as well as for passenger cars], said Sigit Prabowo Kumala, chief executive for Honda sales operation, during a press conference.

Separately, Astra International president director Prijono Sugiarto said in a statement, the firm plans to open similar business centers in other cities across the archipelago to strengthen its grip on Indonesias automotive industry. (bbn)
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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi  Mon, August 14, 2017 20:49 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac932ba 1 National rattan,smuggling,Palu,central-sulawesi,customs-and-excise,CustomsOfficials Free

The Pantoloan Customs and Excise Office in Palu, Central Sulawesi, have thwarted an attempt to smuggle hundreds of tons of rattan to Malaysia.

The rattans were carried by two vessels, KLM Bunga Madinah and KLM Karya Bersama.

In total, they carried 293 tons of rattan; 158 tons were on KLM Karya Bersama and the remaining 135 tons were carried by KLM Bunga Madinah, Pantoloan Customs and Excise Office head Trimulyo Cahyono told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He added that the two vessels were caught last Tuesday in the Makassar Strait, around Tanjung Mangkaliat, Berau, East Kalimantan, as they were sailing to Tawau, Malaysia.

Pantoloan Customs and Excise officers also arrested the captains of both ships, as well as six KLM Karya Bersama crew members and seven crewmen from the KLM Bunga Madinah.

The ship captains were identified as MU and MA, and have been named suspects.

They have been detained [] at Maesa Penitentiary in Palu, where they will wait for the completion of their [case] documents before starting trial, Trimulyono said.

The two suspects are charged with Article 102 of Law No.17/2006 on Customs, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of Rp 10 billion (US$ 749,120).

Both vessels and their cargo have been secured at the Pantoloan Customs and Excise base in Palu. (ebf)
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Linkedin Omar Mohammed (Bloomberg) Dar es Salaam  Mon, August 14, 2017 08:00 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac7017e 2 World #BillGates,#USA,#USAID-PRIORITAS Free

The US will probably maintain its current levels of aid to Africa despite President Donald Trumps proposals to slash funding, according to Bill Gates, the worlds richest man.

Trump said in May his government would no longer allocate funding for family planning, a move that has the potential to undermine aid programs in the poorest countries in the world. However, with Congress in control of the budget, its unlikely that all cuts proposed by the Trump administration will go ahead next year, Gates said in an interview in Dar es Salaam, Tanzanias commercial capital.

Its quite clear that they wont make those drastic cuts, Gates said. Im hopeful they wont make any cuts at all, but thats still subject to debate.

Gates said he talks with US representatives, senators after he returns from visits to the continent and was left optimistic after meeting Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. They continue to think long-term and see the US relationship in Africa as being pretty important, he said.

At the same time, the administrations focus on domestic issues and challenges in the Middle East make it unlikely that new aid programs will emerge under Trump, he said, referring to examples such as George W. Bushs anti-AIDS project Pepfar and Barack Obamas Power Africa initiative.

The chance of some new additional programs coming out of this administration, I wouldnt want to rule it out, but I dont think its that likely, Gates said. So I hope I am surprised and Africa gets more attention than its gotten to date.

The 61-year-old billionaire philanthropist visited Tanzania as co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has given away more than US$34 billion since its creation in 2000 and become an important sponsor of health and anti-poverty programs in Africa. While the charity funds projects ranging from nutrition to curbing neonatal deaths, almost half of its health money goes toward funding the development of vaccines for infectious diseases, most of which could be eradicated in the next 25 years, Gates said.

The foundation is by far the biggest funder of developing vaccines for malaria and tuberculosis, and together with the US government is the main provider of HIV vaccine financing. Still, more money is necessary to speed things up, Gates said.

Europe puts some money into these things but not a huge amount. And the rest of the world, hardly anything, he said.

Fortunately, weve got science on our side and the understanding of human biology including things like the microbiome, how the immune systems work, is advancing at quite a rate.



While the foundation is perhaps best known for its work in health, Gates also funds agriculture programs worldwide and is an advocate of genetically-modified seeds to improve productivity on African farms. Another priority is fertilizers, he said.

We do a lot of soil sampling to understand in all of Africa what types of fertilizers should we do and where, Gates said. Getting exactly the right fertilizer for the right place, and getting those at a reasonable price is a huge challenge. Of course it varies from crop to crop. But its key to the economy.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 13:08 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac7bf2c 1 Politics e-ID,graft,graft-trial,setya-novanto,KPK Free

A Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutor told the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday that graft defendant Andi Narogong, who stood trial for his alleged role in the e-ID graft case on Monday, was a representative of House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto.



Andi held several meetings with House members, particularly Setya Novanto, Anas Urbaningrum and M. Nazaruddin as they were considered representatives of the Golkar Party and the Democratic Party that could push the Houses Commission II to approve the e-ID [project], KPK prosecutor Irene Putri said while reading Andis indictment.



The defendant, Setya and Anas then reached an agreement that Golkar and the Democratic Party would ensure that the House would approve the 2010 budget plan for the e-ID project, which was Rp 5.9 trillion (US$440 million), the prosecutor said.



In return, Andi would give fees to House members and some Home Afairs Ministry officials, she added.



The defendant, as someone representing Setya Novanto, Nazaruddin and Anas Urbaningrum, had made a deal on how to spend the e-ID budget, Irene said, adding that they agreed to spend only 51 percent of the budget on the project.



The KPKs incriminating statement on Setya came only days after Johannes Marliem, a key witness in the high-profile graft case, was found dead in the United States. Marliem claimed to have recordings of the projects negotiations involving some lawmakers and government officials.



Setya, who has been named a suspect in the case, has repeatedly denied involvement in the case. (kuk/ary)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14 2017

Jakarta Police investigators have detained Tri Sutrisno, 25, an English teacher at a private senior high school in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, for allegedly sending pornographic photos to his students.

Tri was arrested near the school compound on Thursday, Kelapa Gading Police chief Comr. Ari Cahya Nugraha said. Tri allegedly sent photos of a naked woman along with profane texts to at least four female students through smartphone messaging application Line.

Through private texts in the app, Tri allegedly also gave advice to the students on how to give sexual pleasure to a woman.

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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 18:42 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac8fe6d 1 Politics House,house-of-representatives,budgetary-allocations,budget-allocation,Banggar,Golkar,GolkarParty Free

The House of Representatives budget committee (Banggar) has claimed ignorance over an alleged plan to increase the Houses annual budget allocation and use some of it to construct a new building despite protests.

Banggar head Aziz Syamsuddin claimed he had no any idea about a plan to use part of the proposed Rp 7.25 trillion (US$543.11 billion) 2018 budget allocation to construct a new building.

Ive never heard about the proposal, he told journalists at the House complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

The Golkar Party politician was referring to a recent statement by Anton Sihombing, the head of the Houses Ways and Means Committee (BURT), on the allotment of this years proposed budget, which is also almost double last years Rp 4.2 trillion allocation.

In a proposal submitted during a plenary meeting on April 6, BURT proposed that Rp 4.87 trillion of the Rp 7.25 trillion budget be used to support the work of lawmakers while the remainder would be allocated to improve the Houses secretariat.

Anton revealed that some of the funds earmarked to support the work of lawmakers was for the construction of a new legislative building, including better offices for the 560 lawmakers.

Anton claimed that BURT had informed Banggar, which is tasked with approving budget proposals.

Commenting on Antons statement, Aziz said BURT had not discussed the matter with the committee. Aziz declined to respond when asked if Banggar would pass the budget proposal if it was presented before the committee. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 19:10 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac918b6 1 City traffic-management,crackdown,violation Free

The Jakarta Police traffic directorate is stepping up its attempts to discipline errant motorcyclists in the capital by carrying out more raids against traffic violators, a police officer has said.

The operation, called Lintas Jaya, will be carried out at certain spots deemed to be prone to traffic violations, such as on Jl. Abdul Muis and Jl. Cideng in Central Jakarta, and on Jl. Tanjung Duren Raya in West Jakarta, Jakarta Police traffic director Adj. Sr. Comr. Budiyanto.

We are targeting those who violate rules by riding on sidewalks, driving counter to the traffic and on overpasses, he said on Monday as quoted by Tempo.co. He added that most motorcyclists found to be driving against the flow were on Jl. Lt. Gen. Suprapto in Central Jakarta and on Jl. Kalibata, South Jakarta.

He said that police personnel would be deployed at the Casablanca elevated road in South Jakarta to ticket motorcyclists using the road.

The operation has been ongoing for the past month and we are intensifying it, Budiyanto said. (fac)
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Linkedin Haeril Halim and Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Jayapura  Mon, August 14, 2017 21:00 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac93d6a 1 National Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,Raimuna,Pramuka,Cibubur Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has called on Indonesian Scout Movement (Pramuka) members to come up with innovative and creative ideas to face global competition against young people from other countries.

Jokowi said that they must try to step out of their comfort zones to explore their hidden potentials that could they use to face the fast-growing competition.

We have to educate our Pramuka members not only to be able to march, erect tents and use coil ropes, but also to be disciplined in using social media positively and productively, Jokowi said in front of 15,000 Pramuka members who attended its 11th national meeting, known as Raimuna, in Cibubur, East Jakarta, on Monday. The event coincided with the celebration of the 56th anniversary of Pramuka.

Jokowi said all Raimuna participants were part of the millennial generation, also known as generation Y, whose ways of thinking were sharply different compared to the previous generation.

Pramuka members have to use creative and modern ways to solve problems. As part of the millennial generation, they must develop a sense of pride in their country. Fill your young ages with productive things, Jokowi said.

Pramuka members from Papua attending the meeting brought 1,500 traditional bags, locally known as noken, as souvenirs that they will distribute to Pramuka members from other provinces across Indonesia.

We will give the noken to visitors of our exhibition booth at the Cibubur camping ground as memorabilia from us, members of Pramukas Papua chapter [Kwarda], said Kwarda Papua head Chistina L. Mano in Jayapura. (ebf)
By India Today Web Desk: Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan may be among the most sought after actors in B-Town, but Taimur always steals the spotlight from them. Netizens can't stop gushing over the toddler, whether it's pictures of him playing on a swing or nestling in his parents' arms.

Taimur, who recently returned from his first international vacation in the Swiss Alps, was clicked accompanying his mother, Kareena, to visit his grandmother, Babita Kapoor.

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The seven-month-old looked too adorable for words, dressed in a red t-shirt and light grey bottoms. Kareena, meanwhile, was dressed in black from head-to-toe.

Photo: Yogen Shah

Photo: Yogen Shah

Photo: Yogen Shah

Photo: Yogen Shah

Photo: Yogen Shah

Taimur has been the paparazzi's favourite for a while now, and at a recent event, Kareena said that she did not mind him being snapped wherever he goes. "The culture today has changed. Anywhere you go, you're getting photographed. Taimur is as normal as anybody else, so why should he be treated otherwise? It's absolutely okay," she said.

ALSO SEE: Taimur is all smiles on his Swiss vacation with Saif and Kareena

ALSO SEE: Saif and Kareena's li'l cutie Taimur is making our hearts melt

ALSO SEE: This photo of Kareena with her bundle of joy Taimur is breaking the internet

ALSO WATCH: Saif-Kareena become proud parents to a baby boy, Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi

--- ENDS ---
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 15:16 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac8123e 1 Business Jember,Airport,expansion,President-Jokowi Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has promised to kick-off next year the expansion of Notohadinegoro Airport in Jember regency, East Java, for completion by 2019, said a press statement released on Sunday.

We are ready to renovate the airport. We will extend the runway and expand the terminal, said the President during his visit to the regency on Aug. 13.

Jokowi said separately that the central government was preparing funds for the project and had already allocated between Rp 300 billion and Rp 400 billion in the 2017 draft state budget.

I have told the regent that we have prepared the budget. There is no problem. We are only awaiting the implementation of the project, he added, as reported by tribunnews.com

Jokowi said renovating the airport was expected to boost investment and tourism in Jember and its neighboring cities.

During his visit to Jember, President Jokowi and First Lady Irina also attended the 16th Jember Fashion Carnival 2017's Wonderful Archipelago Carnival Indonesia (WACI), which was organized by the Indonesian Carnival Association.

The annual event has become more popular in recent years, as it presents the unique fashions of this country. This year, it presented the carnival on a 3.6-kilometer runway featuring 10 national themes: the Sriwijaya Empire, Bali, King of Papua, Mystical Toraja, Siger Crown Lampung, Borneo, Chronicle of Borobudur, Mythical Toraja, Wonderful Betawi and Unity in Diversity. (bbn)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Geneva, Switzerland  Mon, August 14, 2017 18:40 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac8fe42 2 World Syria,war,refugee,UN,aleppo Free

More than 600,000 displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of the year, with most of them heading to Aleppo, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.

Between January and the end of July, 602,759 displaced Syrians returned to their homes, many of them citing an improved economic and security situation in the areas they had fled from, IOM said in a statement.

A total of 84 percent of those who have returned had taken refuge elsewhere within the war-ravaged country, while the remaining 16 percent returned from neighbouring countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

More than a quarter of returnees said they did so to protect their assets and properties, while nearly the same number referred to the improved economic situation in their place of origin, and 11 percent cited the improved security situation there.

Fourteen percent meanwhile pointed to the worsening economic situation in their place of refuge, IOM said.

But while most of the returns had been spontaneous, it warned they were "not necessarily voluntary, safe or sustainable," it said.

Aleppo Governorate, the scene of the harshest battles of Syria's bloody six-year war, had received 67 percent of all returnees so far this year, IOM said.

And within the governorate, Aleppo city, which was recaptured by the Syrian army last December after a suffocating five-month siege, has received most returnees, it said.

Many of those returning meanwhile must struggle to get bare necessities, with only 41 percent having access to clean water and 39 percent with access to health services.

This "is dangerously low as the country's infrastructure has been extremely damaged by the conflict," IOM said.

And even as returns from within Syria especially appear to be on the rise, the agency warned that the war-torn country is still seeing high rates of fresh displacement.

"From January to July 2017, an estimated 808,661 people were displaced, many for the second or third time, and over six million in total currently remain displaced within the country," it said.

Topics : Syria war refugee UN aleppo
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 14:30 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac7f723 1 World #Indonesia,#Indonesians,#IndonesianCitizen,#USA,#Charlottesville,#casualty,#riots Free

No Indonesian nationals were harmed in the violent, bigotry-laced riots that upended Charlottesville in the United States over the weekend.

Indonesian Ambassador to the US, Budi "Soni" Bowoleksono, ensured that the situation in Virginia's metropolitan center "had calmed down" and that no Indonesians were among the victims in the clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters, in a rally that has claimed at least one death and left more than a dozen injured.

"The Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC has issued a notice for Indonesians, particularly to those in Virginia [to stay alert and refrain from approaching possible areas of conflict]," he said in a short message on Sunday.

"No Indonesian citizens fell victim."

According to embassy data, there are 80 Indonesians living among Charlottesville's 150,000-strong population, and a total of 3,207 Indonesian citizens registered in the entire state of Virginia.

Read also: White House defends Trump's response to Virginia violence



Footage of a car speeding up and slamming into a crowd of protesters on Friday swamped social media and cable networks, raising the specter of domestic terrorism.



At least one woman in the car's path died and several people suffered critical injuries.



US President Donald Trump has been heavily criticized by his own party for failing to "call evil by its name," as one Republican senator tweeted.



Trump first addressed the matter  through a tweet  on Saturday afternoon, after the planned white-supremacist rally, which saw fights break out and a state of emergency declared, had been dispersed.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 17:45 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac8e13d 1 City school,pornography,Line-app Free

A school foundation has promised to carry out psychological tests on all teachers at its junior high school in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, following a nude picture scandal involving an English teacher that sparked outrage.

Tri Sutrisno, 25, the teacher in question, was arrested by the police near the school compound on Aug. 10, following a report filed by parents that he allegedly sent photos of a naked woman with profane text to at least four female ninth graders through instant messaging service Line.

We have discussed it and every teacher will have to undergo a psychological test, which is aimed at preventing a similar occurrence in the future, Elika Dwi Murwani, a deputy director at the Christian Education Foundation (BPK) Penabur Jakarta told a press briefing on Monday.

She said she hoped the incident would not tarnish the schools reputation, adding that the schools students had made many achievements.

She said the school had dismissed Tri, tribunnews.com reported. (fac)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 17:19 1916 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac8d65a 1 City accident,school,victim Free

A 2-year-old, identified as Afkar, died on Sunday night after falling from the third floor of SD 4 state elementary school in Ciputat, South Tangerang.

Afkar, who went to the school with his grandmother to visit his sibling on Saturday, went to the schools third floor unnoticed before failing to the ground.

The victim passed away at Sari Asih Hospital in Ciputat. We were notified last night, Sidup Usman of the school said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

The third floor of the school was under construction and was not fenced off, Sidup said.

Afkar was rushed to a community health center (Puskesmas) after the incident and referred to Sari Asih Hospital to receive intensive treatment.

He died at the hospital. (fac)

Topics : accident school victim
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Linkedin Francis Chan (The Straits Times/ANN) SINGAPORE  Mon, August 14, 2017 11:03 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac773fb 2 SE Asia #singapore,#ASEAN,#ASEANCommunity,#bilateral,#Indonesia Free

Singapore is committed to a long-term relationship with Indonesia, and much has been done by working groups on both sides to ensure that the agenda for the Leaders' Retreat on Sept. 7 will take bilateral ties forward, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.

"Hence, what I came here for was basically to tee up for the very important Leaders' Retreat, which we will be having on the 50th anniversary of our bilateral relations," said Teo, as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Jakarta.

Teo had arrived in the Indonesian capital last Thursday, and attended a National Day reception hosted by the Singapore Embassy, followed by a meeting with President Joko Widodo, during which he conveyed Singapore's greetings for Indonesia's 72nd Independence Day, which falls on Thursday.

Both Teo and Joko affirmed their commitment to the bilateral partnership, and to deepen cooperation in areas such as digital economy and skills upgrading, which will be discussed further at the Leaders' Retreat in Singapore.

Other agenda items include exploring more ways to cooperate on economic and regional development, and to continue collaborating in social and cultural exchanges, as well as security.

"We are very close neighbours and we have built up this relationship of trust over the past 50 years," said Teo. "Therefore the theme for this year's retreat is Trusted Partners, Rising Together."

He also said it is good for Singapore to see a united, stable and prosperous Indonesia, which also augurs well for ASEAN as a region.

"Indonesia also sees many advantages in working with Singapore. We have been Indonesia's largest investor for several years now, a major trading partner, and we are also a very strong interlocutor on issues such as security, which affects both of us and the whole region."

Accompanying Teo on the visit were Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Industry and Education Low Yen Ling, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (Defence and Foreign Affairs) Vikram Nair and other officials.

Tan had spent time in Jakarta as an army attache from 2003 to 2004. He said while ties are strong, relations still need to be tended to, and he hopes to see more people-to-people exchanges.

At the Singapore Community Day event Sunday, Teo called on Singaporeans in Indonesia to help nurture bilateral relations.

"You yourselves play a major role here, you have business, you have lived here in Indonesia, and you also are ambassadors for Singapore, letting Indonesians know how Singaporeans are, what we stand for, what our country really is," he said.

Teo also gave an update on developments at home, including the upcoming presidential election.

"We have not had a president from the Malay community for 47 years... and we have made constitutional changes this year to reinforce the importance of multiracialism in Singapore," he said. "My hope for the presidential election is the hope of all Singaporeans - that we have a president who is able, a person of integrity... who will uphold the principles of multiracialism, multi-religionism... and a president whom all communities can be proud of."

Topics :

This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin News Desk (The Daily Star/ANN) Dhaka  Mon, August 14, 2017 11:45 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac79123 2 SE Asia #Myanmar,#MyanmarRohingya,#Rohingya,#UN Free

The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee has expressed deep concern over reports that an army battalion has been flown into the country's Rakhine state to help local authorities boost security in the region.

This development, which reportedly took place on Thursday, is a cause for major concern, reads a UN press release issued in Geneva on Sunday. She said the Myanmar government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine.

I am particularly reminded of the allegations of serious human rights violations which followed security force operations in the aftermath of attacks against three border guard police facilities in Maungdaw and Rathedaung in October and further clashes in November last year".

Myanmar officers on Sunday said the government had deployed a fresh batch of troops in Rakhine after a recent spate of murders, reported AFP. They said soldiers have been sent to a mountainous area where a band of militants is actively training.

Many battalions with hundreds of soldiers from central Myanmar were deployed to the Mayu moutain range, a military officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.

State media also reported that the government had imposed new curfews, to be set "in necessary areas" as the army beefs up its clearance operations".

I have noted from the summary report of the investigation commission for Maungdaw in Rakhine state, publically released last Sunday, that many allegations of human rights violations are being investigated or have been recommended for further investigation, said Yanghee Lee.

The Presidential Commission admitted it was not able to verify many of these alleged violations or crimes including torture, rape and arson, and asked that these be properly addressed by the relevant authorities, the human rights expert added.

There have been increasing reports of incidents affecting the local population, including the killings of six Mro villagers on Aug. 3, she said, adding, I share the concern of the Myanmar government and its people regarding the safety and security of those living in Rakhine state in the light of these incidents.

The special rapporteur acknowledged the Rakhine state's responsibility to provide security and protect people from attacks by extremists, but said this responsibility had to cover all residents, and the authorities could not afford more security to some than the others.

She reminded that the use of force must always be in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality to ensure full respect for human life. Any measures security forces take or any operations they undertake to secure the areas concerned must be carried out in line with international human rights norms and standards, Lee stressed.

Special rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff.

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when militants attacked police posts, sparking a bloody military crackdown that the UN believes may amount to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority Rohingya.

More than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fled across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers.

The major part of the military campaign ended several months ago, but fear continues to stalk the region amid sporadic bouts of violence.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services.

Topics :

This article appeared on The Daily Star newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 13:01 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac7b752 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Jember-Fashion-Carnival,Jember,Hotel,hospitality-industry Free

The five-day Jember Fashion Carnival (JFC) 2017 held in Jember, East Java, in early August is said to give a positive contribution to hospitality industry, especially the hotel sector.

Almost every year, the hotel occupancy in Jember increases during JFC, which automatically improves the regional economy. Neighboring areas such as Banyuwangi also reaps the benefit since Jember cant accept all these visitors, said Jember Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Teguh Suprayitno.

Teguh said the occupancy rate started increasing on the first day of JFC and peaked on Aug. 12 since the grand carnival of JFC was held on Aug. 13.

A total of 2,000 rooms in Jember were fully booked for the event, an increase by up to 600 rooms from 2016.

Read also: People who travel are more interesting, study suggests

There are a lot of new hotel this year. Last year there were only 1,400 rooms; now there are 2,000 rooms yet its still not enough, Teguh said.

A new hotel named Dafam Lotus Jember that hadnt had its soft opening yet was also overwhelmed with visitors.

We havent yet had a soft opening but since theres a high demand throughout JFC we then offer 52 of our 131 rooms on Aug. 9-14, said the hotels sales and MICE manager, Olly Aulia Hasan.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya previously said that Jember provides a great destination but still lacking in accommodation.

I once suggested that the locals use this opportunity to rent their room as a homestay for four days, which will provide them with a higher income than to lease it for a month, said Arief.

He also encouraged Jember to create more attractions, especially since the regency has been named a carnival destination. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 14:17 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac7e770 1 News Jokowi,Madame-Tussauds,Hong-Kong,tourism Free

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong is now wearing Indonesia's signature batik. The costume change was announced over the weekend with the museum posting a photo on its official Instagram account.

"The use of a batik shirt will further familiarize batik to the international community and [introduce] the fact that batik has been established as a UNESCO world cultural heritage," Tri Tharyat, Indonesian Consul General in Hong Kong, said in Beijing on Saturday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

When it was first unveiled three months ago, Jokowi's wax figure wore a white shirt, which is one of the President's common work outfits. The President recently donated his personal batik shirt for his effigy, following discussions of the change between the museum and the Indonesian government.

"During his visit to the Madame Tussauds museum on May 1, President Jokowi expressed hope that his statue could become a means to promote Indonesian tourism abroad," Tharyat said, who revealed that he was part of the discussion process.

In addition to the classic Indonesian shirt, behind Jokowi's sculpture is a large LED screen showing images of the archipelago's infrastructure, people and tourist destinations.

An image of Borobudur Temple was also shown during Jokowis visit, during which he unveiled the figure with his family in tow.

Read also: Jokowi unveils own wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong

The consulate has previously revealed that since the figure of Jokowi went on display, Madame Tussauds has seen an increase in visits by Indonesian citizens.

To accommodate the high numbers of visitors during the summer holidays, the museum is currently working together with the Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Hong Kong by offering a 50 percent discount on tickets to visitors from Indonesia.

By showing coupons from the consulate, Indonesian visitors will only have to pay half the regular price of HKD 265 (US$34).

According to the consulate's data, as many as 464,406 Indonesians visited Hong Kong in 2016.

Meanwhile, the number of Hong Kong residents who visited Indonesia last year stood at 90,000. (liz/asw)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Mon, August 14, 2017 12:06 1917 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac79eb6 2 News Wonderful-Indonesia,Jember-Fashion-Carnival,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia Free

On Sunday, August 13, the 16th Jember Fashion Carnaval (JFC) 2017 held Wonderful Archipelago Carnival Indonesia (WACI) event that was initiated by the Indonesian Carnival Association.

The event presented 10 national themes such as Sriwijaya Empire, Bali, King of Papua, Mystical Toraja, Siger Crown Lampung, Borneo, Chronicle of Borobudur, Mythical Toraja, Wonderful of Betawi and Unity in Diversity on a 3.6-kilometer runway.

There were also special performances from Situbondo, Bondowoso and Riau Islands.

This cultural carnival that is initiated and facilitated by tourism ministry and the Indonesian Carnival Association has been taking part at Jember Fashion Carnaval since 2014, said the ministry's archipelago marketing development deputy, Esthy Reko Astuti.

Read also: Six eco-friendly accommodation options for green travelers

A group showcasing the theme Sriwijaya Empire appeared on stage in golden costume and then followed by Mystical Toraja with traditional Toraja music playing in the background.

The performance was then followed by Wonderful of Betawi with colorful wardrobe, accompanied by Ondel Ondelsong. Also seen on the runway was Miss Tourism International (MTI) 2016 Dikna Faradiba in a Betawi traditional costume.

Chronicle of Borobudur followed the performance, and the show continued with Siger Crown Lampung which showcased a female performer portraying as a queen inside a golden chariot accompanied by a knight.

Performances from Situbondo, Bondowoso and Riau Islands also wowed visitors, especially the show from Riau that that highlighted the many forests in the province.

One member of the audience named Suwardi said that he and his family have been watching the carnival since day one.

Im bringing my family to see the unique carnival outfits as well as taking some leisure time. Even though it was raining yesterday, thankfully its a sunny day today, said Suwardi.

Another visitor named Margaret who came from the Netherlands with her husband Peter said she has been attending JFC since 2012.

Weve been watching this since 2012, its very fantastic. Especially today, I feel like Im witnessing so many greatness from different parts of Indonesia, Margaret told.

Read also: Kei Islands still a hidden gem waiting to be explored

The Grand Carnaval finale was held at 01:00 p.m. and attended by President Joko Widodo and first lady Irina Joko Widodo.

Prior to attending the festival, the President handed over a land certificate for a national strategic program at New Sari Utama Convention Hall in Kaliwates district and Indonesia Smart Card to middle school students in Patrang district.

Before flying back to Jakarta, the President was scheduled to give a public lecture at Muhammadiyah University Jember.

Tourism minister Arief Yahya said that the President is very supportive of JFC. He also mentioned that Indonesia Cultural Carnaval is set to become an annual event and is currently being prepared to perform at the ASIAN Games 2018.

The Indonesia Cultural Carnaval will be performing in Jakarta in the near future. Its a trial for the opening of ASIAN Games 2018 that will be held around Monas in August. The president wants this kind of event to be held twice in a year, said Arief. (asw)
Her story is less of courage and more of helplessness because as a contractual worker - she can't take any more leaves.

Jahan had an inter-caste marriage that rendered the couple ostracised from their community and family alike.

By Ashish Pandey: 25-year-old Alia Jahan is a working mother like many others, but there is something that sets her apart- she brings her eight-month old baby to work everyday.

A conductor with the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), Jahan is often seen issuing tickets to passengers in the bus with her baby strapped on her shoulders.

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But her story is less of courage and more of helplessness because as a contractual worker - she can't take any more leaves.

While speaking to mediapersons, she said, "I am expecting the government might pass orders for regularisation of services of all contract workers soon. As of now, I can't take leave...I had requested for office work but as it was not available I joined and continued as conductor."

A Bcom graduate, Jahan has been working with the TSRTC Sangareddy depot for the past two years. Her daughter was born on December, after which Jahan took her six-month maternity leave and an additional month before re-joining, but along with her child.

Jahan had an inter-caste marriage that rendered the couple ostracised from their community and family alike.

Her ordeal came to light after some passengers took her pictures and shared it on social media, urging authorities to help her. Soon after, the District RTC officials reached out to the young mother and sanctioned her leave.

Also read: At 16 a convict, at 19 a football coach: Juvenile offenders restart their lives

Also read: 70 years after Pakistan-India split, Sikhs search for home

Also read: Delhi: Man tries raping 20-year-old, throws her off 4th floor when she resists

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Charlottesville, Aug 14 (PTI) US President Donald Trump is under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for his muted response to the violence unleashed by white supremacists during a rally in Virgina in which a woman was killed.

Trump yesterday condemned violence by "many sides" - but stopped short of explicitly condemning far-right groups. The White House has since clarified in a statement that his condemnation included white supremacists.

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A woman was killed and 19 were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville.

"Id like the President to come out today, as I asked every elected official in this country. Dont hide. Be strong and do the right thing. Tell white supremacists, tell the neo-Nazis, tell the Ku Klux Klan members, tell them all. Weve had enough of it. Get out of our country. You are not wanted here. You are dividing us," said Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Governor.

McAuliffe expressed his frustration over the top leadership not being vocal and specific in condemning the white supremacist groups responsible for this.

He has declared a state of emergency in Virginia.

The city has a population of about 50,000, according to 2010 census, where many Indian-Americans also live. The University of Virginia campus has a significant number of Indian students.

"I would call upon the President, the next opportunity he has to speak, to call out the white supremacists for who they are, for their hatred, for their bigotry, for the Nazis," said McAuliffe.

"We have got to work together on reconciliation to come together. This isnt politics. This is about who we are as a nation, and I call upon every elected official to join us together, to come up with constructive ways of healing, of reconciliation and just telling these people to stop," the Virginia Governor said as the White House spent most of the day in defending Trump.

"The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo- Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together," a White House spokesperson has said in a statement.

"When he condemned bigotry and hatred on all sides, that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis. I know its clear in his mind and it ought to be clear to all Americans," National Security Advisor Lt Gen H R McMaster was quoted as saying by the NBC news.

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Democrats as well as some Republicans were quick to call out Trumps language and apparent failure to single out white nationalists, who had organised Saturdays "Unite the Right" rally.

Republicans also spoke out, and used the words white nationalism or white supremacy. House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted: "White supremacy is a scourge. This hate and its terrorism must be confronted and defeated."

Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie condemned the "racism and violence of white nationalists" and said, "Everyone in leadership must speak out."

However, his political opponents were not satisfied.

"It is an even more horrifying day when these acts take place and the President of this country refuses to acknowledge or condemn white supremacy and domestic terrorism. Instead, he painted a picture of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," said Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

Thousands of protestors gathered in New York and Washington to protest Trumps response to violence in Charlottesville.

Congressman Bennie G Thompson, Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, said that theextremist activity in Charlottesville was terrorism.

"With his weak words in the wake of yesterdays terrorist incident, it is clear we cannot count on President Trump for action...," he said. PTI LKJ AMS AKJ AMS

--- ENDS ---

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From directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk comes An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, a film which weaves together heart-breaking stories of climate-change-induced disasters alongside news of sustainable innovations and environmental progress.

Standing out from the seemingly endless stream of hopeless climate news we hear on a daily basis, this new release makes a strong case for hope and optimism despite the odds - a must-see for anyone concerned about the well-being of our planet and the survival of humanity.

When An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006, it sparked an unprecedented level of climate change discussion and there was hope that the film would inspire a fresh wave of environmental activism around the world. However, despite its success, the film faced a backlash from many climate sceptics, particularly from within the US Bush administration. Al Gore himself, the central figure of the film, was accused of walking the road of hyperbole and his findings labelled absurd.

The first film comprised mainly of Gore listing shocking statistics, and the major predictions of climate change science, in a lecture-style presentation; this new release presents Gore amid the action, up to his knees in flood waters, interviewing climate refugees and recruiting climate activists around the world. Surrounded by his evidence, Gore provides hard-hitting proof which his critics will struggle to challenge.

From images of pedestrians stumbling across roads in India, their shoes melting on the hot tarmac, to scenes of flooding in Miami and wildfires in Australia, Gore reveals a fresh sense of urgency to climate action. In a particularly alarming series of clips, we see the devastation of the 2013 flooding in the Philippines, concluding with a shocking panorama of row upon row of white crosses, against an idyllic palm tree back drop.

The scenes grow in drama and devastation  a crescendo building to an outburst from Gore himself, revealing a crack in his optimistic facade. Gore grows frustrated as he questions why the mainstream media and the public cannot connect the dots between these increasingly frequent disasters.

There are fantastic stories of progress interspersed through the film  including the incredible success of the solar energy market gaining traction across the world  but Gores overwhelming positivity surrounding the Paris Agreement seems to contradict the disappointment felt by many environmentalists.

But perhaps Gores optimism is exactly what we need. Amongst an endless stream of heart-breaking climate disaster reports, we may need some positivity to fuel our action. As Gore explains, despair can be paralysing - we need hope to drive us forward.

This new release is the perfect summary of todays most pressing problem and will leave you concerned, yet optimistic, shocked, yet determined. With climate change acting as the forgotten factor in many of the worlds conflicts (including the war in Syria) and causing increasingly worse disasters, we need to act now.

here
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A fab fab fab #francesloominthewild moment from @prairie_home_styling! I looooove me a rug in the kitchen. #francesloom A post shared by Kelly Vittengl (@francesloom) on Jul 23, 2017 at 10:00am PDT

Back at my favorite place in Copenhagen... A post shared by Emily Katz (@emily_katz) on May 23, 2017 at 9:26am PDT

Large scale comfort for days, the sofa I styled for @joybird is a lot like sitting in a giant pillow. #joybird #ad A post shared by JENNIFER (@amerrymishap) on May 19, 2017 at 7:30pm PDT

Every person has their own style and likes certain items or themes for their home, but if you haven't developed your own yet or you're in limbo - have no fear. Searching hashtags on Instagram, resulting in your 'explore' page being full of home decor, truly gets my creative mind flowing.Lisa Dawson is a UK interior designer and blogger, her Instagram shows snippets of her own home as well as others that fit the similar style and encourages inspiration. Mostly, her account fits a minimalist backdrop that can be filled with personality. Think photographs all over bold blank walls, or crazy amounts of colourful cushions and throws to make a home cute and bursting with colour.Where Lisa's account throws in colour and cutesy qualities that probably give more of a feminine look, Tobias follows the similar minimalist Scandinavian look, incorporating bamboo, wooden floors, plants and a consistent white wash. This look is perfect if you aren't sure what you want yet, as it gives a base to build on or to just cram plants and artisan/industrial furniture.Shauna's account is similar to Lisa's, as it incorporates her own home and others in the same style, with bold colours in furniture and ornaments on a white washed background. But a few key items featured in this account have spurred on my own style with patterned, decorated furniture such as drawers and dressers. They're such a cool way to spruce up an old piece and turn it into a key feature of a room.Sally and Anna's Instagram account covers a lot of different styles, their account definitely inspires a variety of people in one place. Covering trends such as minimalist, colour blasts, retro, 'bachelor pads' andthemed rooms.Kelly's look is a lot more homely than others. Her furniture is old fashioned yet with a modern twist, full of vintage traditional rugs all over the house. Additionally, items are worn down and made homely giving a stylish use of old antiques and modern qualities.Like Emily's friend's home in Copenhagen, a lot of her account is focused on bohemian style interior, home made decorations from wool and wood and unique finds from around the world. The style is very raw and natural, with dark and softer colours amongst light backgrounds and woods along with plants everywhere. Basically, plants are a must in any home.Jennifer's Instagram is the epitome of minimalist: white, grey, black and a dash of pale wood. The minimalist style has been adapted in many ways but Jennifer sticks true to the concept and focuses on what it means. There is a lack of colour and items, everything is stylish and well placed and extremely aesthetically pleasing to scroll through.Shabby chic is a style that comes in waves, soft tones of grey and white combined with French antiques and rustic-like storage units and coffee tables. Grand bed frames and up-cycled furniture are a massive part of this look, rejuvenating old pieces into a fresher style.
By PTI: (Eds: Adding a word in para 5)

Chandigarh, Aug 14 (PTI) Haryana Police today said it has arrested two persons for allegedly killing a former MLA in Delhis Najafgarh area two years ago.

Fifteen pistols and 62 live cartridges were recovered from the two accused, who were nabbed last night, a spokesman of the police department said.

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During checking on Dwarka Expressway near Daulatabad in Gurgaon district, the police tried to stop a speeding car but its occupants opened fire on them in a bid to flee, the spokesman said.

After a brief chase, the police apprehended the persons travelling in the car, who were identified as Hemant alias Pradhan and Narender alias Mintu, both residents of Delhi.

During interrogation Hemant confessed to killing Bharat Singh, a former MLA, and a witness of Singhs murder case named Vipin Singh, the spokesman said, adding a bounty of Rs 1 lakh was announced on the accused after the killings.

Bharat Singh was gunned down in southwest Delhis Najafgarh in 2015.

The other accused, Narender, was involved in a case of a loot in Gurgaon and abduction of a businessman in Dwarka Sector 23 two months. He also confessed to be an accomplice of Hemant in the killing of the former MLA.

A case has been lodged against the two accused and they were produced in a court today, the spokesman said. PTI CHS ASV

--- ENDS ---
Google boss Sundar Pichai has called off a meeting with staff to address sex discrimination after employees questions were leaked online from the companys internal messaging service.

In an email to staff, sent just an hour before the meeting was to start on Thursday afternoon, chief executive Mr Pichai said several Google employees became fearful for their safety and concerned about being outed for speaking up at the town hall-style meeting.

(Yui Mok/PA)

He said the company aimed to create several other forums where people can feel comfortable to speak freely.

The meeting was meant to hear employee grievances over a flare-up that has consumed Google for much of the week.

It began last weekend after engineer James Damore circulated a memo that claimed biological gender differences helped explain why women were under-represented at the internet giant, and was sacked on Monday.

The engineer has claimed he had a right to voice concerns over workplace conditions and filed a labour relations board complaint before being fired.

(Yui Mok/PA)

Googles internal Dory system allows employees to ask questions and then vote on questions posed by other employees so managers can address the most pressing ones.

Wired magazine published some of the questions verbatim online on Thursday.

Screenshots of the questions with names attached had been leaked, although none with names had been published as of Thursday night, a Google spokeswoman said.
Charity Teach First has compared official child poverty data with university participation rates and confirmed that a massive wealth gap remains in the sphere of higher education.

The study revealed that young people in some of the wealthiest regions of England are 18 times more likely to attend university than their counterparts in the poorest regions.

In some areas of Derbyshire only one in twenty teenagers entered into higher education, compared to over 80% in parts of Buckinghamshire.

The extremes were found in North West Derbyshire, where just 4.8% of young people started university in 2015, and Gerrards Cross North in Buckinghamshire, where the number was 87.2%.

In the most deprived 10% of post codes around one in five young people progressed to university in 2015, whilst in the least deprived 10% it was half.

Les Ebdon, Director of the Office of Fair Access to Higher Education said:

"The grades young people get at school have a huge impact on their ability to access higher education. So it is a real cause for concern that the gap in attainment between pupils from different backgrounds can be seen from such a young age."

Images courtesy of Joe Hall and Kit.
There are some news on the internet that are hard to confirm, today more than ever. Others however, like the tragedy that befell a woman in Virginia last week during a far-right rally, are not.

Heather Heyer, 32-year-old, was a legal assistant with a law firm who repeatedly championed civil rights issues on social media. She was brutally run over by a car driving into a group of people protesting against the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

The events connected with the rally have rippled through the internet, sparking debate and causing several parties to move.

greatly offensive article Among them, the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer published aabout the victim on Sunday, with a listicle of facts aimed at insulting her memory.

The internet responded heavily.

This is HORRIBLE. Really how awful can these idiots be? @godaddy The domain DailyStormer dot com is abusive & in violation of your contract  JustFurKids TN (@justfurkids) August 14, 2017

Andrew Anglin of the Daily Stormer. A Nazi loser so scared about his inadequacies that he wrote a hate piece about murdered #HeatherHeyer pic.twitter.com/wMLEXHQYBe   Sunny (@SunScot) August 14, 2017

To know what true hate is.. this person needs to be exposed. Andrew Anglin from

Daily Stormer. I am without words.. hackers unite, find him  Theodore Kerabatsos (@t_kerabatsos) August 13, 2017

Almost in response to the last Tweet above, something happened last night. Upon waking up today, people who, outraged, went to the extremist website to protest could see a new post, allegedly left by the infamous hacking group Anonymous.

The post stated that the website had been taken over in Heyers name, stating she was a victim of white supremacist terrorism.

For too long the Daily Stormer and Andrew Anglin have spewed their putrid hate on this site, it said. This evil cannot be allowed to stand. It took a united force of elite hackers from around the world to breach the systems and the firewall.

The events of Charlottesville alerted us to the need for immediate action. We want you Nazis to know: your time is short.

The immediate response of the public was then one of relief. Justice was being executed against these ruthless extremists, and their website was going to be taken down soon.

However, something did not add up.

The Anonymous official Twitter account did not claim responsibility for the attack. Anonymous is a fragmented group on the internet, with its members often acting independently from one another in order to reach the same goal.

In this particular case though, no confirm was issued by the hacking group. On the contrary, a tweet from them claimed the post could be a stunt organised by the Daily Stormer itself.

We have no confirmation that "Anonymous" is involved yet. Looks more like a DS stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host. https://t.co/ikXXRBfC5p  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017

But why would they do that?

The answer is fairly simple. Following the horrific article about Mrs

Heyer, GoDaddy, the website hosting provider, announced that

Anglin

had violated its terms of use and that his website was going to be taken down in 24 hours.

We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service.  GoDaddy (@GoDaddy) August 14, 2017

The stunt would have therefore be pulled by the Daily Stormer to get as more coverage as possible before being shut down.

Anonymous' answer to that was predictable, but it summarised quite well what the internet thought on the matter.

If goal of Daily Stormer was to get us to celebrate a BS claim, it backfired. Seriously, suck less.  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017
Nordic Noir, of course, started in Scandinavia, but became such a popular premise for crime shows that other countries starting following their example. In Spains case, it hasn't worked out so well.

Se quien eres, or I Know Who You Are, starts with a man, Juan Elias, walking down a deserted road, 28 Days Later style. Hes just had a car crash and consequently developed amnesia. He soon learns that hes a successful lawyer, but things get complicated when he is accused of the murder of his niece Ana - whom he cant remember.

For starters, Spain just doesnt have the right atmosphere. Part of what makes Nordic Noir is the cold, gloomy, often snowy surroundings of Scandinavia. It brings a solemn mood that corresponds well to crime scenes.

Plus, Spain has a habit of making extremely long episodes. Sometimes it works (check out Gran Hotel and El internado, which I've previously talked about here), sometimes it doesnt. While most dramas have an average episode length of 40-45 minutes, Spain like to make television last over an hour - I Know Who You Are runs for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes per episode.

Unsurprisingly, it can be difficult to keep an interest for that long, and the plot has to be consistently engaging enough to maintain your attention (especially if you dont speak the language and have to concentrate on the screen all the time to read the subtitles).

As a speaker of Spanish, I was able to half-watch the episodes, but most English people wont have that capability. As such, the show just isnt interesting enough to make it worthy of the effort.

The pilot is tedious, and I would have given up there and then if I didnt have to review the whole season. The acting is mediocre, the characters have no personality, and I couldnt care less whether Juan was innocent or guilty. Hes utterly bland, and spends the entire season frowning.

Martino Rivas, who had a good role in El internado, also seems to have lost his acting ability since every time he appears on screen as Anas brother Marc, he is either yelling or hitting something.

The show tries to build suspense over the ten episodes before we find out what actually happened to Ana, but it just ends up being painfully slow, distracting from the main storyline with unnecessarily complicated, seemingly incestuous love affairs. Too many relationships are tangled up together as if this were a telenovela, and both Elias and Ana seem to have slept with everyone.

Admittedly, the last episode was good, but still the rest was so boring that I wouldnt care enough to watch the next season. It is also worth noting that the show was originally broadcast in Spain as a single, 16 episode season, but for some reason the UK have split it, assumedly making us wait unnecessarily for season two.

Theyve done this before with Spanish shows such as Gran Hotel, randomly ending a season on a cliffhanger episode, even though that wasnt the original finale.

Either way, I wont be wasting any more of my time with I Know Who You Are.

I Know Who You Are is now available on DVD Box Set via Nordic Noir & Beyond.
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By PTI: By Aditi Khanna

London, Aug 14 (PTI) Britain will continue to stand with India and support it to fulfill its potential as a leading world power in the 21st century, a senior Indian-origin Cabinet minister has said in her Independence Day message.

Priti Patel, secretary of state for international development in British Prime Minister Theresa Mays Cabinet, said the UK was ready for a great future with India as it leaves the European Union (EU).

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"As India celebrates its 70th year of independence, it can be proud of the remarkable developments driven by the incredible passion and spirit of its people. India has grown into the worlds largest democracy, engaging people across the country in great political debate and securing Indias place as a global leader in the 21st Century.

"Britain will continue to stand with India and support it to fulfill its potential as a leading world power," said the 45-year-old Conservative Party MP with her origins in Gujarat.

"From investment and trade to academia and culture, the UK and India are more connected than ever before. Our powerful people to people ties are unparallelled among any other nation and the unity we show is a sign of our strength and an example for others to admire. We have a shared history and as Britain leaves the European Union (EU) and sets itself on a new course, we will share a great future with India," she noted.

Praising India for its "phenomenal economic growth", the minister said the UK was keen to partner with India on all its plans for new infrastructure and investment to lift more people out of poverty.

Patel, who served as Indian Diaspora Champion in the previous David Cameron led UK government, made a special mention to the 1.5 million strong Indian Diaspora community as a "cornerstone" of the India-UK relationship.

"As a champion for the UKs Indian Diaspora I want to mark this as an auspicious day of celebration for the Indian community here in the UK. The Indian Diaspora have played a proud and influential role in British life, making positive contributions to their communities," she said.

Indias 70th year of independence is being marked across the UK with a series of events, including special coverage in the mainstream media.

The BBC is airing its "70 Years On: Partition Stories" series all of this month to coincide with Indian independence as well as the birth of Pakistan on August 14, 1947. PTI AK AJR AKJ AJR

--- ENDS ---
The secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defence Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Ukraine "has never supplied rocket engines or any kind of missile technology to North Korea".

Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: Ukraine denied on Monday that it had ever supplied defence technology to North Korea, responding to an article in the New York Times that said North Korea may have purchased rocket engines from Ukrainian factory Yuzhmash.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has raised global tensions in recent weeks. The United States is a key backer of Ukraine.

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The secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defence Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Ukraine "has never supplied rocket engines or any kind of missile technology to North Korea".

State-owned Yuzhmash said it had not produced military-grade ballistic missiles since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

"In the years of independence, Yuzhmash has not produced, and is not producing, missiles and military missile systems," it said in a statement published on their company's website.

President Donald Trump warned at the weekend that the US military was "locked and loaded" if North Korea acted unwisely after threatening last week to land missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam.

North Korean officials in turn have accused the US leader of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

On Sunday, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency said he would not be surprised if North Korea tested another missile, after it conducted two tests in July.

--- ENDS ---
Six persons were killed and one army jawan went missing in two separate cloudbursts in Dharchula sub division in the early hours today.

By Press Trust of India: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today flew to the rain-hit areas of Dharchula in Pithoragarh district where six persons were killed and an army jawan went missing in two separate incidents of cloudbursts in the early hours.

Accompanied by state Finance Minister Prakash Pant, Rawat said the affected areas of Dharchula of the border district were extremely disaster-prone and the disaster management department has been asked to prepare an action plan to deal with recurring landslides and other rain-related incidents in the area.

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However, the chief minister said there was no need to panic as the administration was fully alert and prepared to tackle any situation.

Relief and rescue operations have been launched on war footing in the affected areas by the Army, NDRF and SDRF personnel and people in areas along the banks of rivers and rivulets and other locations prone to landslides were being evacuated to safety, he said.

The road from Malpa to Gal and the Lamadi-Chudi road was badly affected by the landslides, Pant who accompanied the chief minister to take stock of the situation, said.

People and devotees were also stranded in the Vyas Valley and were being evacuated to safety by choppers, Pant said.

Six persons were killed and one army jawan went missing in two separate cloudbursts in Dharchula sub division in the early hours today.

According to the district administration, the first incident occurred at Mangti Nullah near Tawaghat in Dharchula sub division when swirling waters of Mangti Nullah which was in spate after heavy rains hit some shops and an army camp below the Nullah.

The army, NDRF and SDRF teams have recovered two bodies from the spot while one army jawan is missing, Pithoragarh District Magistrate Ashish Chauhan said.

The second cloud burst occurred at Malpa, where an overflowing local rivulet swept away four persons.

Disaster mitigation teams later recovered four bodies while one person has been saved.

"We have pressed into service rescue and rehabilitation personnel from the NDRF and SDRF beside ITBP and army jawans and a massive search operation has been launched to trace the missing," district disaster management officer Pithoragarh RS Rana said.

--- ENDS ---
The intense conversation regarding dual citizenship reminds me of the Liberian proverb, Teeth and tongue may fight; they cannot separate. Indeed, how many times during their occasional battles in our mouths havent we felt an excruciating pain? You see, when God created man, by design, God intended each part of His handmade to work together. One may ask, why? The answer is found in that aforementioned proverb. And, for example, organs such as the mouth, cheek, tongue, teeth and throat need each other like links on an assembling line in a manufacturing plant. Thus in order for them to perform as Our Almighty Father stipulated they have to cooperate. Basically, thats how their main function of processing a drink or food is achieved; and unless fed intravenously, without that cooperation, it results to starvation, dehydration, and expiration  death.

Well, one can say confidently and conclusively that similar inseparability and interdependency characterize the relationship between Liberians at home and in the larger Diaspora, never mind the murmurings and machinations of a mean - spirited minority. Circumstances caused the separation, and not to recognize it is like telling biblical Israelites to have remained in Egypt. After all, it is worth remembering that the same God who made us all took them out of the bondage.

This brings me to the timing of this significant topic. I did not take a position on the Dual Citizenship discussion when it got started by the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) because; at the time I felt there were more pressing and existential issues at the fore in Liberia. With their abatement, I have decided to contribute to the debate for I find most of those opposed to be either misinformed or worse disingenuous about the socio-economic history of our country, Liberia.

First of all, one cannot claim to be a Christian without knowing and accepting Christ and being baptized in His name. So to truly appreciate the predicament of the Liberian Diaspora one ought to understand Liberian History from the late 1950s onward. The curious desirous of serious data on which to base informed judgment must learn about the past. For instance, those successive waves of Liberians had traveled abroad seeking opportunities due to the fact that opportunities at home were reserved for a select few. Put another way, the Diaspora became the Equalizer. It morphed into the support base for dependents at home, which ironically includes some who now oppose dual citizenship. Needless remittance from the Diaspora sustained the Liberian economy and many during the darkest days of the civil war, and still supporting some at home under relative peace.

Additionally, not only that Diaspora Liberians have been resilient advocates for the human and constitutional rights of the voiceless and powerless at home, but also lobbied American senators, representatives, officials, etc. to intervene in stopping the genocidal civil war. There is a saying that every barrel contains few rotten apple, so with every society, and so too in the Diaspora. To stereotype then that Liberians in the Diaspora are crooks cut both ways.

Obviously, there is a disconnect in the debate. It is unfathomable that those who oppose Dual Citizenship seem bent on poisoning the hearts and minds of innocent Liberians at home against their own sons and daughters in the Diaspora. And strangely our friends including few government officials are reportedly members of the anti  Diaspora clique too timid to support it openly.

Factually, there are two groups of Liberians living in the Diaspora. The first group is comprised of students working to support themselves here and families at home. Whereas, the second group is made up of Liberians who sought safe haven abroad due to the civil war; and then there is the third group which returned to Liberia and now strutting the corridors of power determined on disenfranchising Diaspora Liberians. But Diaspora Liberians are not aliens; they too are sons and daughters of the soil! Can any member of the third group claim never to have benefitted from Diaspora Liberians contributions to the country? We dont think so. Truth be told, the evolving democracy, and other grudgingly granted rights like freedom of speech being exercised were made possible by the efforts of Liberians in the Diaspora and the Progressives at home.

Perhaps, it would be helpful to know who these dual citizens Boogeymen or Devils that some Liberians at home are afraid of. How did all the scaremongering begin?

For that lets peel off few layers of the past: On December 8, 2012, Dr. George Klay Kieh, Jr. presented a paper at a conference in Washington, DC sponsored by ULAA. The topic was Dual Citizenship in Liberia. It was there he made a compelling case for Dual Citizenship as follows:



Until 1956 or more than a century (109 years) after declaration of political independence as a Republic (1847), there was no written law in Liberia for or against dual citizenship. As has been the case, almost, all of our laws, indeed, the 1956, Liberian, Alien & Nationality Law was borrowed from and modeled on the US, 1952 Law of similar title. This law was enacted not only because of Liberian, political/national infidelity and rampant dishonesty that gave rise to the nations continuous (up to this day), socio-economic and political under-development, but also because almost all other nations, including the United States, have adopted such legal conventions designed to protect and preserve the vital interests of the nation and its citizens. However, noting hypocrisy, disobedience and blatant violations of the new law, mainly, by prominent personalities and officials of the Liberian government, some of whom were dual citizens, the 1956 law was amended and approved in 1973 to its present form, in order to provide specificity and diligent enforcement. After the 1980 Event, the 1986 Constitution followed with Article 28, reinforcing earlier prohibition against dual citizenship. (Alien & Nationality Law)

In Africa, Liberia is known as America's stepchild. Those who have the means and understand and know what benefits stepchildren get from their stepfathers and stepmothers, make use of those benefits. People from all over Africa come to Liberia with the hope of eventually benefiting from that stepchild connection that Liberia has with America. It is a unique relationship buried in history. The relationship is not going away or ending just now, whether dual citizenship natural-born Liberians is a reality or not

"National/political infidelity" of Liberians was/is not because they are America's stepchildren. It is because they are just mean and selfish, sectionalists and tribalists, and if I may add, troublemakers. They are not real revolutionaries. They hate paved roads, pipe-borne water, and most of all, they hate to see Liberia lit up. They love to be in the dark where corrupt activities flourish without end. Not only that. These awful and myopic people hate progress and will do everything to discourage meaningful advancement of the people whose children were driven out of Liberia and want to come back home with new experiences and new ideas for growth and a better future for everyone.

It was from this law, the - They and Us tactics got introduced into the Liberian Dual Citizenship Debate taking place today. The divisive method is not new. President William V. S. Tubman used it to his advantage to rule Liberia for twenty - seven years. Coincidentally, it is same number of years the late Nelson Mandela spent in prison fighting for the rights of the majority in South Africa.

But unlike Mandela, Tubman used the tactics on the ruling Americo-Liberian elites to play them against the indigenous population who were left out of the political and economic affairs of the country. Prior to his administration, the country people were invisible people. Tubman changed that at the expense of his own kind for his despotic purposes. He was the first president who did not come from Rock Town. Rock Town was a euphemism for being part of the power - structure in the country. Where is this Rock Town, one may ask? It is Montserrado County, the epicenter of political and economic hegemony held securely by powerful families and Masonic members.

Thus, it is this divide and rule strategy those who are against Dual Citizenship have resuscitated. They dragged it into the Dual Citizenship debate for one purpose only. To not be held accountable knowing that the voice and direct political participation of Diaspora Liberians will break the tenuous hold on power of some ushering in stiff competitiveness. Of course, the strategy is detrimental to the progress that is needed for the Liberian people, but reactionaries care less.



They argue as if Liberians from the Diaspora are sons and daughters of the soil, and are returning home specifically to take away their jobs and land. This is not only naive but rather a silly way of thinking. Even the current President of Liberia Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her children and some of the people currently working for the government came from the Diaspora therefore, it is hypocritical to deny the current Diaspora Liberians of the same birth right.

As for the question, Where you were when the civil war was fought? is simply a resurrection of Tubmans They and Us Strategy. These new players, many of whom have indigenous backgrounds and parents are being used, not knowing they are mere pawns on the chess boards of their users. It is about time those who are against dual citizenship to be for real! Their main motive for opposing Liberians in the Diaspora is simply selfish. They are standing in the way of the forward march of our country, and, definitely on the wrong side of history.

It seems that those at home who are against dual citizenship are being deliberately misinformed about the meaning of Dual Citizenship. For example, a person who has Dual Citizenship is a citizen of two countries at the same time. He/she has legal rights and obligations in connection with both countries. While dual citizenship gives certain advantages, such as easy residency in multiple countries and access to government programs; also it can make life more complicated. A dual citizen may have tax obligations in more than one nation, or may need to fulfill residency requirements between two homelands.

Simply put, those at home who are against Dual Citizenship want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to disenfranchise Liberians in the Diaspora yet need their support on national issues; and are wickedly prepared to sacrifice the most vulnerable segment of the society in furtherance of selfish aims and hidden unaccountable agendas.

Just imagine that in a period of twelve months (FY2016-2017), Liberia is spending over US$10.2 million on just six (6) public offices, namely: President, Vice President, Speaker, Senate Pro Tempore, Deputy Speaker and Chief Justice. The budget of these six offices far exceeds the two biggest referral hospitals in Liberia: JFK Medical Center (US$5.3 million) and Jackson F. Doe Hospital (US$2.9 million). Where does the interest of the people lie? The budget of these six offices in 12 months could pay 571 medical doctors per annum (a doctor currently receives US$18,000 per year in Liberia.

President  US$3,943,030 Vice President  US$2,431,003 Senate Pro Temp  US$1,369,423 Speaker  US$1,000,370 Deputy Speaker  US$930,132 Chief Justice  US$616,374

Total  US$10,290,332

From Martin K. N. Kollie, Liberia and every Liberian could prosper if public finance is managed in the most disciplined way, Says IMF Christine Lagarde (The Perspective, May 10, 2017)

For almost 12 years, these heartless Executive and Legislative branches of the government have been concerned for Me, Myself and I. They do so at the expense of the Liberian people. This is one of the reasons healthcare, education and other essential services are neglected by the Sirleaf/Boakai Administration.

Find below is Compensation Package for a Liberian Senator



Unbelievably and despite such bonanza compensation packages in the midst of life  denying poverty, the quality of health care services, under one of the most internationally supported postwar state, declined due to lack of essential services such as safe water supplies, electricity, adequate sanitation facilities, appropriate government policies regarding health and environment care. The healthcare policy of the Sirleaf/Boakai dysfunctional regime is deplorable. Imagine again that some Liberians didnt die at JFK because their illnesses couldnt be cured; instead, they died because they had no money on them.

Anyway, what do you expect from irresponsible political leaders who and their family members can afford to take annual health trips abroad for medical checkups and leave the downtrodden to die of preventable diseases?

A classic example is the deplorable condition at JFK for which the Liberian people refer to the hospital as: Just For Killing.

Recently, a Liberian gentleman described JFK in such manner: If you get cut on your hand and you go to JFK for treatment, you will die; if you have fever and you go there, you die; dont be an accident victim and they carry you to JFK, they will want payment first before attending to you; they will put you in the corner and after some time, you die. For this reason JFK has acquired a new name: A place of no return (APNO).

Conclusion: As a warning to our HEARTLESS leaders, history will judge them harshly. Therefore, those who subscribe to corruption  like the sophists in Liberia who are against Dual Citizenship - should take a peek into our recent past. Kangaroo justice, and the VIOLATION and MISINTERPRETATION of the CONSTITUTION may someday come home to roost.

Liberia must rid herself of an ugly recent history. Too many dedicated citizens lost their lives for the living to reap the benefits they are enjoying today. We owe it to their memory to ensure that we do those things that will help us complete the transition from war to peace. This is why our international partners must work with us for some semblance of stability and peace to prevail by engaging the Sirleaf/Boakai Administration to administer a peaceful and fair elections come October 10, 2017 Elections. More than ever, this will be Liberias defining moment; a point in our history when we finally have the chance to show the world that we are capable of transferring power peacefully.

Let me end with the immortal words of our late cultural icon, public servant, writer, poet, Hon. Bai Tamia Moore.

This poem below is prosaically, yet profoundly defines the purpose of a worthy citizen. The moral arch leans towards substance instead of symbolism, reality rather than pretense; tellingly, what seems terribly lacking in the Liberia of our Iron Lady. The effect of the poem may be received by like-minded individuals like me as a rallying cry for our communities everywhere to maintain their oneness despite a Diaspora divide - regarding Dual Citizenship - in the collective victorious quest for stability and peace through national unity.

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It reads:

It is not the dress we wear that counts

But what we are and what we mean

For men will soon or later change

But what we do will here remain.

Men care not where we come

But watch to see what we have done

And when weve gone and turned our leaf

The watch the victory we have won.

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


The below article is a response to a public letter written by Ibrahim Kurtulus, criticizing my previous article about the plight of the Kurds in Turkey. Kurtulus is a member of the Federation of Turkish American Associations, Inc. You can find a link to his letter in full here.

Given the plight of the Kurds in Turkey and the need to find a solution to the 40-year-old violent conflict between the PKK and successive Turkish governments, I thought it was critically important to respond to Mr. Kurtulus criticism of my previous article and bring to light the terrible mistreatment of the Kurds under Erdogans reign of terror. Kurtulus resorts to sweeping absurdities and dishonesty to rebut my position, but to no avail. His blind biases and hypocrisy shine throughout his counter-arguments, which are on display for all to see. Meanwhile, the Kurds continue to suffer, and it is they who are paying the price.

To put things in perspective, it is important to identify who Mr. Kurtulus is and highlight his suspect behavior, which raises serious questions about his credibility and integrity.

This is a man who openly colluded with Michael Flynn, the disgraced former National Security Advisor for President Donald Trump. Flynn, a paid lackey of the Turkish government, omitted Kurtulusin [a] section of the form requiring more specific disclosures for income sources in the last year, according to the Washington Post. Kurtulus funding of Flynn as a quasi-spokesman on behalf of Turkish interests makes him complicit in the actions of a man who exhibited deceitful behavior while in high office.

Kurtulus qualifies himself as having nothing to do with the Turkish government, but a cursory glance at his public record reveals his connections to Erdogan loyalists and even members of Erdogans own family. There are numerous instances of Kurtulus appearing at public functions alongside Hilal Mutlu, an activist and cousin of the Turkish president, and Kurtulus leveraged his relationships with Mutlu to convince General Flynn that Fethullah Gulen was the primary plotter of the failed July 15, 2016 coup.

His first claim that I am either a friend of the Kurds, or a hater of the Turks, or both is irrational. In which way does my sympathy for the Kurdish cause mean that I am a hater of the Turkish people? Similarly, my respect for the Turkish people does not translate to hatred of the Kurds. In my article, I equally blame both the PKK and Erdogan for the ongoing cycle of violence that is devastating southeastern Turkey, and killing scores of innocents Kurds and Turks alikehardly an endorsement of one side versus the other.

Acknowledging the reality of the deadly cycle of violence does not make me a propagandist on behalf of the Kurds, as Kurtulus claims. No one in todays Turkey can voice any dissent against Erdogan and do so with impunity. But no one is deserving of more piercing criticism than Erdogan for inflicting so much pain and agony on millions of innocent Turkish citizens, while assuming dictatorial powers and dismantling the foundation of Turkeys democracy.

The Turkey-PKK conflict has been long and bloody, and one cannot attribute the killing solely to the PKK, as many thousands have been killed on both sides. The focus needs to be on preventing further bloodshed, and this can only be achieved if both commit to the resumption of well-intentioned peace negotiations. The PKK is indeed recognized as a terror group by many countries, but how does Kurtulus reconcile that with the fact that Erdogan himself negotiated with this terror group?

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurds, has indicated time and again that he is ready and willing to resume negotiations, and it is Erdogan who is refusing to restart the peace talks which he abruptly ended in 2015. In fact, his own Prime Minister at the time, Ahmet Davutoglu, beseeched him not to do so for the sake of the country and its future stability. When will Erdogan and people like Kurtulus understand that the Kurdish problem in Turkey cannot be simply wished away? Erdogan will fail, like his predecessors, to fight the PKK until the very last rebel is killed.

The Turkish Kurds have every right to live their lives as they see fit and still be loyal citizens of their country. What gives Kurtulus or Erdogan the right to dictate the way the Kurds should live, and deprive them of their cultural heritage? In which way would that infringe on Turkey, especially when hypocrites like Kurtulus claim that Turkey is a democracy?

Let me be abundantly clear, and I quote directly from my article: I do not support, and I condemn any individual or group who uses brutal force for political or social gains regardless of its source, motivation, ideology, or belief. Thus, I am not turning Ocalan into some sort of a hero, as Kurtulus suggests. Nevertheless, Ocalan remains the leader of the Kurdish cause in Turkey and is the best conduit for achieving a peaceful settlement, especially given his past and present willingness to engage in serious negotiations to end this endemic conflict.

To be sure, the designation of the PKK as a terror group is arbitraryMandelas ANC was listed as a terrorist group until 2008, and Mandela himself languished in jail for 26 years. Who today views Mandela as a terrorist? Again, I refer to my above comments regarding the very notion of what a terror group is in this contextErdogans engagement with the PKK would make him a terrorist sympathizer, according to Kurtulus logic.

Kurtulus says that my comments on the discrimination faced by the Kurds leave me a step away from claiming the Kurds are wearing yellow stars [emphasis added]. I condemn in the strongest terms Kurtulus knee-jerk evocation of Nazi-era practices, which demonstrates how ignorant and blind he is to historic events, especially of that era.

There is a long history of discrimination against Kurds in Turkey that persists today and would simply take too long to enumerate here. The Kurdish language was suppressed for decades, Kurdish-run schools were not allowed to operate, there was forced relocationKurtulus flippant treatment of this well-documented history is astonishing.

Kurtulus calls into question the loyalty of 14,000 Kurdish teachers who were recently removed from their posts due to unfounded claims of terroristic association. We are talking about innocent civilian teacherswhile Kurtulus is making the extraordinary claim that all of them are PKK terrorists or have related affiliations, he does not produce a shred of evidence about the teachers culpability. Instead, he turns a blind eye to the consistent abuse of and discrimination against the Kurds, and worships Erdogan for jailing thousands of breadwinners and leaving their families in utter despair.

Democratically-elected Kurdish MPs have been marginalized and their party was all but ejected from the parliament. It is clear why Erdogan targeted themthe growing electoral strength of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) was an obstacle in his quest for dictatorial powers. As Erdogan himself shamelessly said, the failed coup was a gift from God, which he seized to realize his sinister dream of purging anyone that stands in his waywith a special focus on the Kurds and the followers of his arch enemy Fethullah Gulen.

Kurtulus suggests that I was advocating for Kurdish independence, which I have not. I have spoken to scores of Kurdish parliamentarians over the years; none has ever implied they seek independence, and certainly they are not demanding the surrender of any part of Turkish territory. Here again, Kurtulus chooses to level charges that have no semblance to reality. In which way would the Kurdish demand to have some freedom to run their own domestic affairs translate to surrendering land? Only people who wish to distort reality will read into what the Kurds aspire for as tantamount to political independence.

Let me repeatthe Kurds loyalty to Turkey and their desire to have the freedom to enjoy their culture and language is not an oxymoron. In fact, they complement each other, as in any genuine democratic country cultural diversity enriches rather than undermines social cohesiveness. The US provides an exemplary case attesting to this fact.

Like all his misstatements of fact, Kurtulus equates the PKK to ISIS, which is as absurd as the rest of his argument. The whole world, including myself, has condemned ISIS in every which way, as they have usurped lands from sovereign states and employed brutal force in the areas where they governed. In which way do Turkish Kurds resemble ISIS? Kurtulus sweeping analogies are consistent with his sweeping denials as he seems to revel in illusions, where fools find comfort.

In another section of his invective letter, Kurtulus deviates into an absurd non-sequitur that merits a response only because of the sheer absurdity and falsehoods he joyfully spat out. I have never said that the Turks do not belong in the human race and would never make such a degenerate and depraved statement when in fact I have tremendous admiration for the Turkish people. Kurtulus simply reaffirmed his analphabetism of my work and his addiction to lies and misstatements.

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His foray into denial of the Armenian Genocide speaks volumes to the shaky intellectual ground on which he stands. At no point in my article did I address the Armenian Genocide and I will not engage in a historical debate on this dark chapter in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. All I can say is that todays new Republic of Turkey and the Turkish people cannot and should not be blamed for the sins of their forefathers, just as no one in his right mind should blame todays Germany and its people for the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany three generations ago.

Kurtulus cannot claim that Turkey is still a democracy and expect to be taken seriously. I can point to the firing of thousands of civil servants without a shred of evidence of involvement in the failed coup; to the dozens of journalists in jail only for doing their jobs; to the sham referendum that was held during a state of emergency; to the lifting of parliamentary immunity in order to target Kurdish members of the Assembly; to the laws criminalizing offensive speech against Erdogan; to the evisceration of the Turkish judiciary system in order to install his cronies; to the witch hunt of anyone suspected of having any affiliation with the Gulen movement; and so on. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it illustrates the sad state of Turkeys reality todayone that has become completely subsumed to Erdogans cult of personality.

I stand by my position that the Turkish Kurds have the right to enjoy freedom and security as loyal citizens. It is time that all Turkish citizens recognize this reality, and demand the resumption of peace talks to end the continuing death and destruction, which is tearing the social fabric of their country while depriving 15 million Kurds of their basic human rights.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

alon@alonben-meir.com Web: www.alonben-meir.com

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


A huge group of white supremacists marched in the University of Virginia which eventually led to clashes in the city resulting in three deaths and dozens being injured.

By India Today Web Desk: Disturbances erupted in the state of Virginia in US after a group of white-nationalists took out a march holding tiki torches in the University of Virginia on August 11.

Slogans of "white lives matter", "you will not replace us" and "blood and soil" could be heard during the march. After receiving backlash from the media and the public, US President Donald Trump condemned the violence caused by the clashes between white-nationalists and counter protestors.

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Below is a roundup of events as they unfolded:

August 11

White nationalists take out a march in the University of Virginia holding tiki torches and chanting slogans like "white lives matter", "you will not replace us" and "blood and soil".

Some clashes take place between the people participating in the march and counter-protestors.

The rally was a result of blogger Jason Kessle requesting whites to march in a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a downtown park.

August 12

Protestors pour in for the rally against the removal of Robert E Lee's statue.

As clashes break out at the site of protest and a few people are injured, a state of emergency was declared in Virginia by Governor Terry McAuliffe. Several arrests are made after police declares the rally as "unlawful assembly".

Violence breaks out in the streets of Virginia.

The University of Virginia, meanwhile, suspends all campus activities.

Amid the violence, a driver tries to run over a group of counter-protestors with his car, killing a girl and injuring 19. After the incident, US President Donald Trump appeals to the people to maintain peace.

Around 4:50 PM the same day, local police uses a helicopter to manage situation in Charlottesville clashes killing two people.

Several arrests are made including 20-year-old Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, in relation to the fatal crash that killed a girl earlier in the day.

August 13

After a chaotic weekend, around 300 people gather at Turner Park in a peaceful rally condemning the violent clashes that shook the state of Virginia over the past few days.

--- ENDS ---
The Delhi Police has shelled out Rs 2.5 crore to rent CCTV cameras in order to fulfill security needs for the Independence Day celebrations. Notable, the AAP government has failed to install the 15 lakh surveillance cameras the party promised in its election manifesto.

By Chayyanika Nigam: Ahead of Independence Day celebrations in the city, the Delhi Police seem to be bearing the brunt of the Kejriwal government's failure to install CCTVs as promised in their manifesto.

Cops have had to shell out more than Rs 2.5 crore to arrange 600 CCTVs on rent for around two weeks for security purposes in view of I-Day celebrations.

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Senior police officials said that if the Delhi government had installed adequate CCTVs, then there was no need for the department to rent the large number of cameras and divert funds. The AAP, in its election manifesto, had promised around 15 lakh CCTVs in the city.

"If sensitive areas would have been adequately covered by CCTVs, then the department would have had to arrange a small number of cameras on special occasions when the terror threat is much high," said a senior officer, requesting anonymity.

Sources told Mail Today that from the past few years, in order to keep a tight vigil during I-Day and Republic Day events, Delhi Police have been arranging the cameras on rent.

"The amount spent in paying the rent twice a year would be sufficient in setting up a full-fledged security system elsewhere. We are totally wasting the money on rent," said the officer. "These 600 CCTV cameras are arranged with the help of open tender."

It is worth mentioning that earlier the high-end cameras used to cost around Rs 50,000. They are now available for Rs 15,000.

RISE IN THREAT PERCEPTION

According to police, this year there has been a three-fold increase in the threat perception and therefore, apart from a seven-layer security, the number of CCTVs has also been increased compared to previous years.

Senior officers confirmed that a bulk of the cameras has been installed in and around Red Fort from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the nation. The cameras will also cover the route followed by the PM. The cameras include high-end ones, normal cameras, night vision and pan cameras.

Mail Today had earlier reported that a centralised control room has been set up as part of the security cover for Independence Day. Specialised units such as quick reaction teams, bomb squads and dog squads are also being deployed, along with commando units of Delhi Police, at sensitive points.

87 CCTV CAMERAS INSTALLED IN 2016

It is worth mentioning that in the past eight years, more than 4,000 CCTVs have been installed at various locations in different phases in the national Capital.

In 2016, Delhi Police managed to put up just 87 surveillance cameras despite the crime rate going up by over nine per cent as against the previous year.

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"As the Delhi government failed to fulfil its promises, the police department is planning to integrate over 1.8 lakh CCTVs that are already installed by the residential and market association with local police stations," the officer said.

Mail Today had also reported earlier that to make the national Capital more secure, police are likely to make it mandatory for all residents and shopkeepers to install good quality cameras outside their buildings.

ALSO READ | Seven-layer security cover to guard Capital ahead of Independence Day

ALSO READ | Delhi Police likely to make CCTVs mandatory outside buildings, commercial spaces

ALSO WATCH | Chandigarh stalking case: CCTV footage shows Vikas Barala's car behind Varnika Kundu's

--- ENDS ---
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
The Assam government has asked a delegation of different faiths to suggest measures to prevent recurring floods and mitigate the sufferings of the victims in the state.

The second wave of floods that came in July has claimed 84 lives and affected over 25 lakh people in 29 districts in the state.

Deaths occurred mostly due to electrocution and drowning, said Rajesh Prasad, Revenue Secretary and CEO of the State Disaster Authority.

Two more flash floods are expected before October, Prasad warned in an interaction with the representatives of the Inter Faith Group., Rajesh Prasad, Revenue Secretary and CEO of the State Disaster Authority, said that

The team headed by Professor N Vinod Chandra Menon, founder member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), included Father Frederick D Souza, executive director of Caritas India, Swamini Adityananda Saraswati of Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh, Brother Arun Kumar of Brahma Kumaris, Mount Abu, and Sibghatullah Ahmed of Islamic Relief India.

Prasad urged the delegation to visit a location in the most-affected districts of Lakhimpur and Majuli and create awareness among the affected about the after-effects of floods like water-borne diseases. He assured them the governments all support.

Since it is an annual occurrence, the government always warns people about the floods and advise them to move to upper areas, but they often ignore it, Prasad said. He added that the disaster is more when the floods come at night, endangering the life and property of the people. What people then need is immediate help.

In order to get the efforts successful, Prasad advised the team to involve local communities in the work. He said if the efforts are fruitful, these can be replicated in other districts and in states like Gujarat, Bihar etc. The villagers should be taught about the dos and donts during floods and post-floods, he said.

Prasad also that in the most-affected areas, river comes to the level of land due to siltation, deforestation, ecological imbalance, way of life, change of farming methods, etc. He also stressed the need of early procurement of foods for distribution among the affected. He added that Rs.5,000 crore to Rs.10,000 crore are spent yearly on floods.

He suggested the group to propose a permanent solution so that this amount can be saved. The state has 5,000 km of embankment. He also said that Majuli district is a UNESCO heritage site.

Prasad said due to communication problems, even central relief cannot be distributed in the worst-affected districts. As roads are damaged and electrical posts are fallen, contacting relief workers too becomes difficult.

The team members offered their expertise in training villagers, civil society members, government staff and women at district as well as state level. They said after the training they people can easily become trainers to other volunteers. The team also called on Chief Secretary Vinod Kumar Pipersenia.

The delegation also distributed water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) kits donated by Caritas India, the relief arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, to 1,600 families in the worst-affected villages of Moregaon district. The kit consisted of bucket with lid  2 (20 lit), plastic mugs  2 (1 lit), Savlon antiseptic  1 (100 ml,) Lifebuoy bathing soaps  5 (125 grams), Rani washing soap  4 (150 grams), soap case  1, NCDCC tablet strips  5, cotton coloured clothes  4 meter, toothpaste  2 packets, toothbrush  5, making cloth  1 meter.
At least 28 people are feared killed in landslide triggered by flashfloods following cloudburst at Mangti Nalla and Malpa in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. A Junior Commission Officer, five jawans and seven porters were reportedly killed when cloudburst struck their camp at Mangti Nalla.

Three injured soldiers were admitted to the Army Hospital, Dharchula. Due to damaged roads, the search and rescue teams struggled to reach the affected area.

However, there was no official confirmation about the deaths.

The cloudburst at Malpa reportedly killed 14 villagers. Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat said, There is no clarity on the number of death suffered at Malpa.

The CMs attempt to do an aerial survey of the affected area didnt materialise due to low visibility and bad weather. The cloudburst struck the area at 2.40am, leading to landslides.

Due to heavy rainfall, Sinkhola bridge got washed away, affecting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Officer on Special Duty (Tourism) of Kumoan Mandal Vikas Nigam, DK Sharma, said, We are looking for alternative route.

Two batches of Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims are on the Indian side at Sirkha and Nabhidhang.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Monday appealed to the voters in the state not to accept money from candidates during elections  if they wanted to stop post-election bribery.

He was addressing a public meeting in his Heingang constituency in Imphal West district.

Voters take money from all candidates and some of the candidates, when they become ministers, demand bribes while making appointments, he said.

If the people stop taking bribes from all candidates, ministers will also stop taking hush money at the time of appointments, he said.

The phenomenon of cash-for-jobs scams has existed for a long time, he said.

My government is taking concrete steps to ensure that candidates do not have to grease official palms. We seek cooperation from all sections of people in this campaign.

During his interaction with members of the public, many persons requested him to help them recover the money they had paid to officials to get jobs.

They complained that they were not given the promised jobs and their money was also not refunded.

The Chief Minister said people should stop bribing senior officials since the governments policy was to appoint the best candidates.
The Uttar Pradesh government late on Monday night formed a committee headed by Chief Secretary Rajeev Kumar to probe the death of children at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur over the past one week.

Notification of the committee has been issued by the state government. The panel has been mandated to complete its investigation within five days and submit a report to the Chief Minister on August 19.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had two days back announced formation of such a committee.

The points of reference of this high-powered committee include the incident involving death of children, including infants, the background in which it happened, reasons and causes behind the deaths, fixing responsibility and accountability of people for the tragedy, propose action against such errant officials and employees, and recommendations  both immediate and long term  so that such incidents are not repeated in future.

Members of this committee include Alok Kumar, Health Secretary; Mukesh Mittal, Finance Secretary; and Dr Hem Chandra, Medical Superintendent of the Sanjay Gandhi Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), Lucknow.

More than 60 innocent lives have been lost at the BRD Medical College in a week allegedly due to disruption of liquid oxygen supply.

The state government has denied disruption of liquid oxygen supply as the reason for deaths and sacked two senior officials of the hospital, including the Principal and the in-charge of the Encephalitis Ward.
Activists of the All India Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar Memorial Trust (AISSTMT) carrying the Tricolor to Kashmir for hoisting it on the Independence Day were on Monday stopped by the state police from stepping into the territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The march was brought to a halt at Lakhanpur.

A strong contingent of armed police was deployed to stop the nearly 200 activists at Lakhanpur in the Kathua district that is the entry point to J&K from the Pathankot district of Punjab.

About 100 activists had started their journey to Srinagar from Ludhiana (Punjab) on Sunday for the purpose and were joined by nearly 100 more at Pathankot and places enroute. However, police barricaded the entry into J&K and did not let them enter the state.

A group of tricolor carrying youth squatted outside the excise and taxation office at Lakhanpur to seek entry in the state.

Ashok Thapar, a descendent of the martyr Sukhdev who was secretly hanged alongwith Bhagat Singh and Rajguru by the British rulers on 23 March 1931, lamented that the Modi government at the centre talks of one India, but we are not allowed to proceed to Srinagar to hoist the National Flag in the Lal Chowk.

Thapar said it was unfortunate that the government was cowed down by diktats of the Kashmiri separatists and terrorists and not allowing hoisting of the tricolor in the valley. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev got themselves hanged for prestige of the country and seventy years after the Independence we are not being allowed to proceed to Kashmir which is an integral part of India, he added.

However after lot of arguments the police allowed five activists to climb the excise and taxation office at Lakhanpur and hoist the flag on its roof, he said.
What is education? A rather challenging concept to describe, thanks to different, everchanging perceptions. Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think ~ this quote by Albert Einstein is relevant in todays scenario.

In India, generally speaking, a lot of focus is placed on education. The first 5-6 years of the childs life, where stimuli play an important role in overall development, may tend to get missed out, with introduction to learning the basics of reading and writing being done a bit too early. This could lead to a situation where children are exposed to longer sitting and learning durations, rather than to their most basic right of playing, which is so intrinsic to their development, including their emotional and social quotients.

This is where Papagoya steps in: An interesting journey of two Indian women who started a Norwegian kindergarten in Bangalore. So whats special about the Norwegian methodology? Says Helen Issar, one of the co-founders, When we spent time in Norway, we got to see first-hand, the benefits of the Norwegian kindergarten model ~ secure, confident and gentle children.

Issar has 11 years of experience in marketing and social media. Having worked and lived in Norway and Denmark, she witnessed how the Norwegian Barnehage programme allowed women to get back to work while complete development for their children was assured, a concept she knew India could greatly benefit from. Papagoya is the marriage of her long-term passion to work with children and her understanding of the support a woman needs to be able to don the hats of a career woman, mother and wife.

Issar adds, The objectives of Papagoya are multi-pronged: Creation of a safe and welcoming environment for children, where they are met with the recognition and respect for who they truly are; sustaining a space where the intrinsic value of childhood can be appreciated; and supporting working parents, particularly mothers, to pursue their ambitions and passions, thereby encouraging gender equality through a more active involvement by fathers.

Darshana Rajaram, cofounder, who spent 15 years in corporate jobs in Canada, Belgium and Singapore, recalls her most memorable and fulfilling job: teaching children to swim. Inspired by all things Scandinavian, Dash-O, as she is lovingly referred to by her little fans across the globe, says that Papagoya is her quest at creating a meaningful world for toddlers and adults alike. She elaborates on the relevance of the Norwegian pedagogy: This model is constantly adapting itself to the environments around, making the overall approach to education very relevant as regards todays needs and preparing children for the way the world is and will be tomorrow, both from a skills perspective and also the kind of human beings we want them to be.

Another important element of Papagoya is the playbased outdoor approach. With adult to child ratios being 1:3 for the kids less than three years old and 1:5 for 3-6 age-group, it is now possible to ensure learning via play, as educators have the time and bandwidth to ensure interventions during play, and find learning opportunities therein.

Why the name Papagoya? The name is inspired by papegye, the Norwegian word for parrot. A parrots character traits are amazingly similar to those of a toddler: They come in all shapes and sizes, love to imitate, are musical and colourful, they need environmental enrichment, where play forms a large part of their learning! Much like toddlers, we thought, elaborates Issar.

Actually, it is a win-win situation for all involved. As Nils Ragnar Kamsvag, Ambassador of Norway to India aptly explains, It is a pleasure to know that this form of learning is gaining interest in India. The Nordic model of education aims at a holistic development of children in a setting that is comfortable and enjoyable for them. In Norway, the best interests of the children are top priority. Of course, in the long term, we are happy if such initiatives also create Norway lovers in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and assured him all support to mitigate the flood situation in the state.

Honble PM Sh @narendramodi has spoken to Bihar CM @NitishKumar regarding the flood situation in parts of the state, tweeted Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work, he said in another tweet.

The flood situation in Bihar continues to be grim. On Sunday CM Nitish Kumar sought the help of the Army and the Indian Air Force in relief and rescue of thousands of people affected by the deluge.

Nearly half a dozen districts in Seemanchal and Koshi areas in the state were the worst affected following heavy rains during the past three days.

All major rivers in Bihar are in spate after heavy rains in their respective catchment areas in Nepal and Bihar.

Floodwaters have submerged hundreds of villages, affecting thousands of people. So far, no casualty has been reported due to Bihar floods, officials said.
Amid intelligence alerts about possible terror attacks, security was beefed up in the national capital and around 47,000 personnel were deployed ahead of Independence Day celebrations, officials said on Monday.

Around 25,000 security personnel will be deployed in and around New Delhi, north Delhi and major central Delhi areas, a police official said.

The Red Fort and its surrounding areas within a five-km radius will be taken care of by about 90 companies of security forces (over 9,000 men).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 71st Independence Day on Tuesday.

Officials said anti-aircraft and anti-drone guns have been deployed in and around Red Fort. An additional 500 closed-circuit television and high-resolution cameras have been placed in and around Red Fort.

Anti-social elements or terrorists could pose a threat to the safety of people and vital installations by using unconventional aerial platforms. All neighbouring states have also been alerted and security beefed up on Delhi borders, an official said.

Besides Delhi Police, personnel of paramilitary forces and National Security Guard will be on duty.

The official said that after the killing of several top-rung militants in Jammu and Kashmir, there are reports that outfits in that state could be looking at carrying out terror attacks.

Delhi Police Spokesperson Madhur Verma told IANS: Security personnel will look out for flying objects like para-motors, hang-gliders, unmanned aerial vehicles, microlight aircraft, and remotely-piloted and small-powered aircraft.

Flying of aerial vehicles like quadcopters, paragliders, and hot-air balloons has been banned in Delhi in the run-up to the Indpendence Day.

Police officials said Metro rail services on the Blue Line will be run as usual. However, boarding and de-boarding at the Red Fort and Jama Masjid stations on the Violet Line will not be allowed after 6.30 a.m. till the Independence Day function at Red Fort ends.

Officials said security personnel in plain-clothes will be deployed in several areas. NSG snipers too have been deployed on rooftops and strategically important points.

Police have carried out security checks at hotels and guesthouses, specially in areas around Red Fort.

Roads leading to Red Fort  Netaji Subhash Marg, S.P. Mukherjee Marg, Chandni Chowk Road, Nishad Raj Marg and Link Road  will be out of bounds for traffic for four hours from 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Garima Bhatnagar told IANS that people can use the Delhi Metro and alight at Delhi Gate, Chandni Chowk, or Kashmere Gate stations to reach Red Fort.

She appealed to the public not to touch any suspicious object and report any unidentified/suspicious object or individual or vehicle to the nearest security personnel.
The largely unregulated British cosmetic surgery industry is a cause for serious concern, especially for children targeted by advertising and online plastic surgery games, health experts have warned. A new report from the Nuffield Council of Bioethics highlights increasing concerns over anxiety related to unachievable appearance ideals  with young people said to be bombarded by promotion of breast implants, nose jobs, and non-surgical procedures such as botox and laser hair removal.

The think tank called for all cosmetic surgeons to be properly trained and certified, for a ban on non-medical invasive procedures for patients under 18, and for evidence of safety and effectiveness to be required for dermal fillers and implants.

It said treatments such as lip and skin fillers, which can currently be offered by practitioners who have no formal training, have grown in popularity but should be regulated in the same way as tattoos and sunbeds. Under 18s should not be able to just walk in off the street and have a cosmetic procedure, said Jeanette Edwards, professor of social anthropology at the University of Manchester, who chaired the enquiry.

There are legal age limits for having tattoos or using sunbeds. Invasive cosmetic procedures should be regulated in a similar way.

The council said there should be better regulation of the materials used in procedures such as dermal fillers, used to plump up cheeks and lips or fill out wrinkles and creases in the skin, which can currently be bought in Britain without a formal safety or quality approval. It also said the Government must bring forward legislation to make all dermal fillers available on prescription only.

The report urged app stores to better regulate makeover apps and online plastic surgery games aimed at children as young as nine, with names like Plastic Surgery Princess, Little Skin Doctor and Pimp My Face. Marketing these games encouraging children to play at having cosmetic surgery makeovers is clearly inappropriate and irresponsible, it said. Such games and advertising on social media may be contributing to an epidemic of mental health problems among young people fuelled by the relentless promotion of unrealistic and often discriminatory messages on how people, especially girls and women, should look, warned Professor Edwards. Social media companies should collaborate to carry out independent research looking at the extent to which their apps contribute to appearance anxiety, and to act on the findings, said the report. Cosmetic surgery is big business, with one market research estimate putting the size of the UK market at 3.6bn in 2015.

However, there is little information available publicly about the size and value of the industry and the number of procedures performed. An estimate from 2009 suggested that around 1.2 million surgical and non-surgical procedures took place each year in Britain. Products and procedures previously used in medicine are now being re-purposed for cosmetic use without evidence to support their effectiveness, the report pointed out.

These include blood plasma injected into a patients face and breasts in a so-called vampiretreatment, fat freezing as an alternative to liposuction, and fillers and botox in new areas of the body, such as the ears, knees and feet.

The Royal College of Surgeons warned of the risks of botched plastic surgery and said it was particularly concerned by the fact that there is little to stop any doctor  surgeon or otherwise  from carrying out cosmetic surgical procedures. Most cosmetic surgeons perform their surgery with diligence and care but the RCS has still been long concerned by some practice in the UK, said Stephen Cannon, the organisations vice president.

There are still too many tragic stories of patients receiving botched cosmetic surgery at a cost to the patient, if not the NHS. The RCS has previously called for new legislation allowing regulatory body the General Medical Council to note on its medical register, which surgeons were certified to perform cosmetic surgery, allowing patients to check which doctor to use. Mr Cannon said the report highlights that the industry is often at its worst when dealing with younger patients  particularly for non-surgical procedures.

GMC guidance makes clear that under-18s must only undergo a cosmetic surgery intervention if it is in their best interests, for instance if they are being bullied at school and wish to have an operation to pin their ears back or correct a cleft lip, he said. The RCSs own guidance on cosmetic surgery also makes clear that patients of all ages should wait at least two weeks between an initial consultation and consenting to cosmetic surgery.

Increasing numbers of young people are suffering anxiety, depression and low self-esteem as a result of a society-wide obsession with body image and celebrity culture, said the experts. In 2015- 16, the NSPCCs ChildLine service received nearly 1,600 contacts from girls worried about body image, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year.

According to a 2017 survey from the National Citizen Service, 27 per cent of late teens cared more about their appearance than their physical health. Summing up the reports findings, Professor Edwards said, Weve got largely an unregulated industry thats exploiting people including children by promoting often untested and unproven products and procedures.

We need better regulation of the quality and safety of these procedures, the people who carry them out, and where they are carried out.

(The Independent)
The statistics with respect to Indias justice system tell a very sad tale. There are more than 3 crore cases pending before Indian Courts. It can take a litigant anywhere between 10-15 years to get his case adjudicated by a Court, with a further 10-15 years in appeal before the higher courts. For all practical purposes, justice exists in India only in name.

One can safely conclude that the third pillar of Indias democracy, the judiciary, is for all practical purposes dysfunctional and this is taking a phenomenal toll on Indias economy. There is contempt for the law, contracts cant be enforced, it is perpetrating a culture of dishonesty, leading to a decay in moral values, etc.

The debate within the different arms of the Government of the need to implement judicial reforms has been going on for long. India needs more Courts, more Judges, greater transparency, improved procedures, e-courts, simpler laws, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, etc. However, ushering in reforms is no simple task. The different stakeholders have to be brought on board, checks and balances have to be maintained, infrastructure has to be created, and thousands of crores of rupees of investments are required.

During the time required to implement badly needed judicial reforms, there are a few procedural steps that India can implement in the short term which have the potential of transforming Indias justice system, work as force multipliers in clearing the backlog, improve Indias record in contract enforcement, give a boost to GDP, and ensure that the rule of law prevails.

Crackdown on Perjury

Perjury is rampant in India. People make false claims, put up false defenses, lie under oath, fabricate evidence, etc. In many cases, litigants are assisted by their advocates in committing perjury.

The Indian procedure codes provide for strict punishment for perjury. But Indian Courts do not hold litigants accountable for perjury. Furthermore, the stage to hold a litigant accountable for perjury arises after the trial is over, by which time 10-15 years have gone by. The reward for committing perjury is high and the cost is virtually nil.

An analysis of court statistics from the United States shows that less than five per cent of the cases filed in the United States proceed to trial, i.e. they are settled or resolved before the trial commences. In states such as Florida, the incidence of cases that proceed to trial is as low as 0.2 per cent.

An overwhelming majority of cases in the US are settled or resolved before the trial commences because Courts come down very heavily on litigants who indulge in perjury, and penalise lawyers who suborn perjury or encourage their clients to indulge in unethical acts.

The system in the US is fairly simple. If a litigant puts forward a false claim or false defense, and the opposite party has documentary evidence showing that the same is false, the Advocate will raise the issue with the opposing Advocate and request the opposing Advocate to get his client to amend the plaint. If the party who has been warned fails to rectify the wrongdoing, the opposing Advocate can move an application for perjury, and the Court comes down very hard on the party who has lied. If the court finds that the advocate has suborned perjury, i.e. knew that his client was lying, the advocate is also punished.

The implementation of a similar system in India would deliver similar results, i.e. more 95 per cent of the cases will disappear, as they will be settled or resolved before going to trial. The system has to be simple, i.e. one counsel writes to the other pointing out the documentation which shows that the other partys claim is false. If the other party does not rectify its stand, the party can approach a Judge for permission to move an application for perjury, and in such cases the Judge should come down heavily on the party committing perjury.

The benefits of adopting this procedure is that if there are 3 crore cases pending, 2.85 crore cases should get settled or resolved. It will free up the time of the courts to deal with genuine disputes, establish the rule of law, discourage dishonesty, give a boost to Indias GDP, etc.

Consider the following example. In 2007, a manufacturing company sent a part of its machinery to the original manufacturer in Italy for refurbishing and servicing. It insured the shipment for Rs 1 crore. The carrier damaged the shipment in transit and it cost Rs 27 lacs to repair the damage. The insurance company denied the claim that the insurance policy was issued under restrictive clause ICC(B). The case has been pending before the State Consumer Commission since 2007. The insurance policy does not carry any endorsement that the policy was issued under restrictive clause ICC(B). The insurance company has committed perjury and in the process hurt the economy. Rs 27 lac of the manufacturing companys working capital has lain blocked in litigation for 10 years.

Under the procedure that is being proposed, this matter would have gotten sorted out within a few days of the insurance company making the false claim. The advocate of the manufacturing company would have written to the advocate of the insurance company pointing out that it needs to rectify its false stand, failing which it would move an application for perjury. The insurance company would have had no option but to rectify its false stand and resolve the matter.

Every claim or defense must be substantiated with citations to the Administrative Record

In the US, a litigant is required to assemble an Administrative Record of the annexures on which he is basing his case, each page has to be numbered, e.g. AR 001  025, and each pleading has to be substantiated by a citation to the page # of the Administrative Record on which the claim is based.

For example, a summary of the claim that the manufacturer in the example above who filed an insurance claim would be as follows:

The machines were shipped from New Delhi to Italy vide airway bill # 12345 refurbishing (AR 001). The consignee had quoted an amount of Rs 2 lacs for servicing and refurbishing (AR 002). The machines were damaged in transit and the consignee informed Company A that the boxes were delivered in a damaged condition (AR 003) and he provided photographs showing the boxes being delivered in a damaged condition (AR 004). Company A had taken an insurance policy from XYZ Insurance Company for an amount of Rs 1 Crore (AR 005). Company A informed the insurance company of the damage to the consignment (AR 006) but they refused to get the survey done as they claimed that the insurance policy was issued under restrictive clause ICC(B) (AR 007), whereas the policy does not carry any such endorsement (AR 005). The carrier of the cargo provided a damage certificate stating that the machinery was damaged in transit (AR 008). The consignee fixed the machines and raised a bill of Rs 29 lacs (AR 009), thus the extra cost incurred in fixing the machines was Rs 27 lacs. The machines were reimported into India and customs duty of 10 lacs was paid (AR 010). The duty on Rs 2 lacs of refurbishment would have been Rs 1 lac, and thus the company incurred Rs 9 lacs extra on customs duty on account of the damage to the machinery. We lodged a claim of Rs 36 lacs with the insurance company (AR 011) but the insurance company denied the claim on the grounds that the policy was issued under restrictive clause ICC(B (AR 012)), whereas there is no such endorsement of restrictive clause ICC(B) on the policy (005). We request the Honble Court to award Rs 36 lacs to the Company.

As in the example above, every single pleading should be substantiated by a citation to the page number of the Administrative Record on which the proof can be seen by the Honble Judge. There is no scope for misrepresentation on facts and it is less taxing for the Honble Judge to adjudicate the dispute.

The judgment must be substantiated with citations to the Administrative Record

A summary of the judgement in the above example would be documented as follows:

Company A took an insurance policy from XYZ Insurance Company for an amount of Rs 1 Crore (AR 005). Companys As machinery was damaged in transit (AR 003, 004, 008).Company A informed XYZ Insurance Company of the damage to the consignment and requested it to get the shipment surveyed (AR 006), but XYZ Insurance Company refused claiming that the insurance policy was issued under restrictive clause ICC(B). Company A incurred a total cost of Rs 36 lacs in getting the machines repaired (AR 002, 009, 010). Company A filed a claim of Rs 36 lacs with XYZ Insurance Company (AR 011) but XYZ Insurance Company denied the same claiming that the policy was issued under restrictive clause ICC(B) (AR 012). Whereas, the insurance policy does not carry any such endorsement that it has been issued under restrictive clause ICC(B) (AR 005) and therefore the claim of XYZ Insurance Company is false. A decree of Rs 36 lacs in favour of Company A is passed.

As in the above example, every part of the judgment is referenced to the page number of the Administrative Record and there is very little scope for error, thus there is very little scope for an appeal. There is also very little scope for foul play.

Costs should be awarded to the party that prevails

It should be mandatory for Courts to award costs to the party that prevails in the suit. A party that has to litigate to enforce a contract should be compensated for its costs. This provision will improve access to justice for the small party, as they often cant afford to litigate. Advocates will be motivated to accept briefs from small parties who have a good case knowing that they will be able to recover their fees when they win the case.

The imposition of costs will act as a deterrent for litigants who have a false claim or a false defense to settle the matter. In order to encourage litigants to settle their disputes through an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, costs may be awarded in favour of the party that proposed a settlement, but the settlement was rejected and the final award was less than 25 per cent of the settlement offer.

The benefits of incorporating these procedures would be phenomenal. In light of the data available from the US justice system, the adoption of similar principles should deliver similar results. The potential that more than 95 per cent of the cases that are pending before the Honble Courts can be settled, withdrawn, or resolved is too huge to pass up. This would reduce the pressure on the justice delivery system and enable it to focus on the reforms that it needs to implement. It would give a big boost to Indias economy, it would add a couple of percentage points to Indias GDP, establish the rule of law, deter wrongdoers, and enable the common man to access justice.

The writer is a distinguished scientist and can be reached at [email protected]
I had lived and and worked in India for years, but the turning point came when there was a flutter in my heart. I missed somebody I had met in Kolkata, who lived in Washington and wanted me to join her there.

When I mentioned the idea to my parents, who liked her, they supported the idea.

It took me a lot more time to discover that my father, to whom I was close, was upset at the idea of my living so far away from him.

Over dinner one night, when he remarked that Heaven alone knew when he would see me again, I chose to tackle the subject head on.

Even while I am in India, I said, I travel a lot, and you dont always get to see me. Travel to the US is no greater barrier. I can always come and visit you in India. You too can visit me in Washington.

That is true, he conceded, but you are leaving your home here. You may not find it that easy to stay in touch.

He was right. I got busy with my new job in the US, my travels were mostly in North America and the plan to visit India kept getting deferred. To tell the truth, settling down in my new life also seemed a higher priority than a nostalgic visit to my friends and family.

I tried to make up for it by writing long letters to my parents and making expensive long- distance calls to my father. He always said he missed me, but never asked when he would see me again. He was always a thoughtful and considerate man.

He was also an active and healthy person. So it was quite unexpected that a cable came to say that a surgery he had to undergo suddenly had gone badly and his condition was getting worse. I was travelling and never knew about it. Nor did I know about a second cable from my brother suggesting an immediate visit because my fathers condition was cr itical. When I returned to my apartment Saturday morning, a third cable had just been delivered. He had passed away the night before.

Suddenly all my immediate priorities seemed quite meaningless. I found I could not think clearly. I felt helpless, at a loss to know what to do next. I ambled out of the apartment building. I hadnt even noticed that it was snowing. My glasses soon became opaque. I trudged on pointlessly, the realization slowly dawning that the past that I had so complacently taken for granted had forever slipped out of my reach.

I had irrevocably left home.

The writer is a Washington-based international development advisor and had worked with the World Bank. He can be reached at [email protected]
The customary criticism of a new organisation to tackle every new crime would only be partially valid in respect of the proposal under the consideration of the home ministry to establish a Coastal Border Police Force. For there can be no denying that a critical gap persists on the shoreline ~ there is little to back up the two outer security rings manned by the Coast Guard and the Navy (farther out to sea). Local police forces have yet to acquire adequate proficiency to thwart activity like the terror strike on the nations financial capital, or the landing of explosives on the western coast that resulted in the Mumbai blasts soon after the vandalism at the Babari Masjid in Ayodhya. After the terrorist attack an elaborate plan was formulated for coastal security with the Navy at its apex, unfortunately it has not been translated into action essentially because the third tier has remained fragile. Though some vessels were procured for coastal police stations, only a few are still afloat, and reportedly inadequate funds were provided for their fuel and maintenance. That only underscores the need for the home ministry to ensure that its job does not end with merely raising the CBPF ~ selecting and training of personnel, top-quality equipment, and ensuring a future for its top personnel need sustained attention.

The importance of the CBPF cannot be over emphasised. A coastline of 7,516 kms and 1,197 islands need protection. A series of recent events, few of which attract public attention, point to considerable clandestine activity on the maritime frontline: smuggling, drug-running etc. A complication could arise because the force would have to interact with its counterparts in 13 states and Union Territories controlled by different political parties. The onus on the home ministry to promote positive cooperation among all the various agencies will be heavy.

For inter-state cooperation among police forces remains a distant dream, and there is always a resistance from state governments to what they perceive as the Centre encroaching on their rights thus impacting the concept of federalism. Considerable experience has been gained by Central forces in managing land borders; translating that expertise and experience to a coastline policing agency will require quality leadership. It is often forgotten that the roots of the Border Security Force are strong because of the sterling qualities of its founder, KF Rustamji. Without casting aspersions on anyone, it must be noted that the prolonged teething troubles of the Coast Guard resulted from the Navy considering the service a poor relative. The CBPF must be spared such agonies, and North Block will have to excel itself if the desired goal is to be achieved: the top talent from various security agencies needs to be drawn into the effort to create a fruitful effort to keep the coast clear.
US researchers have discovered two previously unknown areas of the brain that help humans process familiar and unfamiliar faces differently.

Working with rhesus macaque monkeys  primates whose face-processing systems closely resemble our humans  Winrich Freiwald and Sofia Landi from the Rockefeller University in the US, identified brain areas that are capable of integrating visual perception with different kinds of memory.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, they measured the animals brain activity as they responded to pictures of other monkeys faces.

Those faces fell into three categories: personally familiar ones belonging to monkeys that the macaques had lived with for years; visually familiar ones whose pictures they had seen hundreds of times; and totally unfamiliar ones.

Unexpectedly, the macaque face processing network showed more activity in response to the faces of long-time acquaintances. Faces that were only visually familiar, meanwhile, actually caused a reduction of activity in some areas, the researchers said.

Further, the faces of animals whom the macaques had known for years prompted the activation of two previously unknown face-selective areas  region of the brain associated with declarative memory, which consists of facts and events that can be consciously recalled, and area associated with social knowledge, such as information about individuals and their position within a social hierarchy.

This is a specific form of memory, that is highly developed in primates, and certainly in humans, Freiwald said.

When the researchers showed the macaques blurry images of personally familiar faces, which gradually became sharply defined over the course of half a minute or so, the activity of previously known face-processing areas increased steadily over time.

But the new areas first showed little or no initial increase in activity, followed by a sudden surge  an all-or-nothing response that evokes what Landi calls the sudden aha moment we experience when we recognise a familiar face.

The new findings opens a window to explore the interaction between face perception, memory, and social knowledge, Landi said.
In an effort to highlight places of interest in countries across the world, their varied culture, economy and history, The Statesman brings to you a Weekly Focus on countries with which India shares diplomatic ties and friendship. This weeks focus is on Chile. Know all about the country.

Capital: Santiago, Currency: Chilean peso, Language: Spanish 99.5 per cent (official), English 10.2, indigenous 1 (includes Mapudungun, Aymara, Quechua, Rapa Nui), other 2.3 per cent, unspecified 0.2 per cent (2012 est.), Religion: PRoman Catholic 66.7 per cent, Evangelical or Protestant 16.4, Jehovahs Witness 1, other 3.4, none 11.5, unspecified 1.1 per cent (2012 est.) Ethnic groups: White and non-indigenous 88.9 per cent, Mapuche 9.1, Aymara 0.7, other indigenous groups 1 per cent (includes Rapa Nui, Likan Antai, Quechua, Colla, Diaguita, Kawesqar, Yagan or Yamana), unspecified 0.3 (2012 estimates).

CLIMATE

Due to its long coastline, Chiles weather is extremely diverse and unpredictable. Summer runs from December to February, and winter from June to August. Temperatures are variable. In the dry, arid Atacama desert in the north, temperatures reach a maximum of 32C and can drop to -2C. The central region has a Mediterranean feel with a cold, wet season from May to August, while it is usually always cool and damp in the south. Easter Island has its own humid subtropical temperatures, while much of the south has very high annual rainfall.

QUITE A LONG JOURNEY

It takes 27 hours to fly from Delhi to Santiago. Doha, London, New York, Paris, and Miami are the major layover airports. The Indian community has been present in Chile since 1905. Around 1,500 Indians living in Chile of whom 60 per cent have obtained Chilean nationality. One-third of them live in Iquique and the rest are in Santiago, Valparaiso, Vina del Mar and Punta Arenas. The majority are from the Sindhi community and are engaged in business. In addition, there are always about 500 professionals from India, working mainly in the ICT sector and also in Indian companies represented in Chile. Some Indian labourers are also present in Chile.

Healthy trade ties

While exports from India increased in 2015 and 2016, Chilean exports to India fell due to declining copper prices which is Chiles main export item to India. High value-added items such as commercial vehicles, motor cars, two-wheelers, and bulk pharmaceuticals have entered the Chilean market. Other traditional items being imported by Chile are garments, handicrafts, textiles, carpets and handtools. Indias imports from Chile are copper, iodine, chemical wood pulp, molybdenum concentrates, and apples. There are 24 Indian companies based in Chile. From 1974 to 2012, India has invested a total of $27.1 million in Chile, basically in mining and IT.

Many Indian companies have recently entered Chile through acquisition of Chilean companies or via joint ventures. These include Jindal Steel Works, TCS, Oracle Fine Services, Wipro, Godrej, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto.

Cuisine with European flavour

Chile is blessed with an abundance of natural produce. Its cuisine is likewise fresh and hearty, less spicy than most of Latin America, and with a mix of Spanish, French and German influences. Outside of Santiago, options are limited for vegetarians. Seafood, red meat, and chicken dominate the menu. For carnivores, a leisurely asado (barbeque) or curanto (shellfish stew) is an opportunity to participate in a cherished Chilean tradition. Some specialities are Empanada, Cazuela de ave, congrio (conger eel), centolla (king crab), Bifea lopobre, Pastel de choclo and Pebre. Chilean wine is very good, especially the Carmenere, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec varieties.

EASTER ISLAND & OTHER EXOTICA

Easter Island

Despite being more than 3,500 km away from mainland Chile, this fascinating island with its remarkable stone sculptures remains the countrys most recognisable attraction. All told, 887 of these statues, known as Moai, created by the islands early Rapa Nui population, have been identified, most of them now protected by Rapa Nui National Park (the island itself has been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site). The most impressive collection is at Ahu Tongariki.

Torres Del Paine National Park

More than 100 km north of the city of Puerto Natales in southern Patagonia, this stunning area encompasses mountains, glaciers, and countless lakes and rivers. The most important region of the park is the Cordillera del Paine. The most notable features is the three 2,850m tall granite peaks of the Paine Massif. Hiking is one of the parks most popular activities.

Compiled by Kunal Jain ([email protected])
Senior US security officials have said that an attack from North Korea is not imminent but also cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo told CBS News in an interview that the Trump Administration has done a fine job of not drawing red lines that it is not prepared to enforce.

An attack from North Korea is not something that is imminent. The American people should know that this administration is doing everything with its power.

The President has enabled the intelligence community and the Department of Defence, to be sure, that were protecting America from this threat, Pompeo said.
China is ready to strengthen all-round strategic and economic cooperation with Pakistan, visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said here on Monday.

Wang, who attended the flag hoisting ceremony at the Convention Centre here on the occasion of Pakistans 71st Independence Day, said Beijing and Islamabad had stood by each other in difficult times and this friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations.

We need to keep the tradition of close high-level exchanges, extend firm mutual support on issues concerning each others major interests and strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs, Wang was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

He noted that China firmly supports Pakistani efforts to uphold independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to fight against terrorism in light of its own national conditions.

On the economic front, Wang said: China sees Pakistan as an important partner in the Belt and Road Initiative and the two countries will take forward the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor by launching more early harvest projects to enhance Pakistans capacity for independent development.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

Wang said China is also ready to strengthen all-round people-to-people exchanges with Pakistan by expanding cooperation in education, science and technology, culture, health and sports.

The Chinese leader also said that Beijing wants to encourage exchanges between youth, think-tanks, media, universities, non-governmental organisations to promote China-Pakistan friendship.

Wang arrived in Pakistan on Sunday to attend the countrys 71st Independence Day.
China on Monday warned of a possible trade war with the US if Washington begins investigating alleged Chinese trade practices in bilateral commerce.

US President Donald Trump had notified his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that the investigations could begin on Monday, Efe news reported.

China and the US have intertwined interests, trade war has no future, the only result would be a lose-lose (situation), Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference.

She urged the US to continue working with China for stable economic relations and asked it not to use the conflict in North Korea as a means to pressure Beijing in trade matters.

Trump is expected to order US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to start an investigation into possible unfair trade practices by China, such as patent infringement and forced transfer of intellectual property.

Chinese experts cited by the state-run Global Times newspaper on Monday also warned of the dangers of such investigation.

This may worsen trade friction between the two countries and jeopardise the results of the first comprehensive economic dialogue, said Huo Jianguo, Vice Chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organisation Studies.

If the US uses Section 301 (of the Trade Act) to pressure China, countries in Chinas export chain, including the US, Japan and South Korea, would be affected, said Liu Ligang, Chief Economist for China at Citigroup.
Arrests of passengers suspected of being drunk at UK airports and on flights have risen by 50 per cent in a year.

A total of 387 people were arrested between February 2016 and February 2017  up from 255 the previous year, BBC research showed on Sunday.

The Home Office is considering calls for tougher rules on alcohol.

Trade body Airlines UK said it should be made illegal for people to drink their own alcohol on board a plane.

Meanwhile, a total of 19,000 of the Unite unions (UKS biggest trade union) cabin crew members were surveyed and 4,000 responded, with one in five saying they had suffered physical abuse.

A former cabin crew manager with Virgin, Ally Murphy, quit her job in October last year after 14 years. She told the BBC: People just see us as barmaids in the sky.

In July 2016, the aviation industry introduced a voluntary code of conduct on disruptive passengers, which most of the big airlines and airports signed up to.

The codes advice included asking retailers to warn passengers not to consume duty-free purchases on the plane while staff are also asked not to sell alcohol to passengers who appear drunk.

World Duty Free said it was committed to dealing with the issue and that it displays clear advisory notices at till points, on till receipts and on carrier bags that remind customers that alcohol purchases cannot be opened until their final destination is reached.

Airlines UK, which represents carriers such as Virgin, British Airways and EasyJet, wants the government to amend the law to make consumption of a passengers own alcohol on board an aircraft a criminal offence.
Iraqi forces on Sunday killed 12 Islamic State militants in Iraqs province of Salahudin after fierce clashes, security sources said.

The clashes erupted before dawn when dozens of IS militants attacked the military bases after heavy mortar barrage and machine gun fire in Zuwiyah area, about 250 km north of here, a source told Xinhua news agency.

The troops fought back and foiled the attackers from storming their bases, but the militants managed to block the main road between Salahudins province capital Tikrit and the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, the source said.

In the morning, reinforcement troops and helicopter gunships reopened the main road after defeating the extremist militant, who withdrew to Makhoul mountain range in the northern part of Tikrit, the source added.

After the withdrawal of the extremist militants, the troops found 12 of their bodies and two destroyed armoured vehicles, three trucks along with large amount of weapons and ammunition left in the battlefield, the source said.

The clashes also resulted in the killing of three soldiers and the wounding of eight others, the source added.

Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units freed Tikrit and other key cities and towns in the predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin from the extremist IS group in June 2014.

The incident came as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Mosuls liberation on July 10 after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.
Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania Laimonas TalatKelpsa studied International Relations and Political Science at the University of Vilnius. Before being posted in India, he was Ambassador-at-large, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Pacific Department in his countrys Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he held several other posts for eight years. In 2011- 2012, he worked as Adviser to the Prime Minister of Lithuania. He is proficient in seven languages including Russian, Norwegian, French, and Polish.

In this interview with Sarah Berry, he hopes that India will rediscover the Baltic region. Excerpts:

India and Lithuania established diplomatic relations in 1992. What have the two countries achieved during the last 25 years?

First, we have established a legal framework for our cooperation. All major treaties regulating our trade and investment have been signed. Our governments agreed to open diplomatic missions, which Lithuania did in 2008. Our relations in science, education and culture have expanded significantly. In a nutshell, we have developed both an institutional platform and an amicable atmosphere for a major leap forward, and it is up to us to decide when and how this leap would happen.

How do you see the relationship developing?

Lithuania wants a strong and powerful partner in India, one we can trust and lean on in an increasingly turbulent global environment. A democratic and economically strong India is an asset for all. So if India grows, if she continues to reform, Lithuania will benefit too. We also believe that in the years to come, India will rediscover the Baltic region, where Lithuania is located, as this region is the most dynamically growing part of the European Union.

Does Lithuania support Indias candidature for a permanent seat on the UNSC?

Lithuania supports the reform of the UN Security Council, which would include the expansion of its both permanent and non-permanent membership. It is hard to imagine this major revamp taking place without considering Indias application. We also underscore that any reform should bring more efficiency to the Councils proceedings, not less.

Lithuania is a member of the European Union (EU).How do you look at the future of the grouping and why do you think a Free Trade Agreement between India and EU has not materialised even after a decade of negotiations?

As a representative of a country which ranks among the most enthusiastic supporters of the EU (65 per cent according to the latest Eurobarometer Survey), I am optimistic about its future.The EU has been into many crises before, and has always come out stronger and more consolidated. This time we see the EU regaining confidence and starting debating options of even closer integration. The EUs ranks may shrink, but its importance will not. And a Free Trade Agreement between India and EU is an opportunity that shouldnt be missed. Yes, we have been negotiating this treaty for over a decade now, but some other agreements, like the bilateral IndiaLithuania Extradition Treaty, have been in the pipeline even longer. If we both agree that is taking too long, lets get back to the table and get the job done.

Lithuania is emerging as an attractive country for higher studies.What is the reason and how are you promoting it?

In 2012, we had 53 Indian students in Lithuania. Last year, the number reached 800. In our universities, Indian students find good-quality education at a reasonable cost. One-year tuition fee varies from 3,000 to 8,000 euro. And the cost of living is 3-4 times less than, say, London. So there is a good package deal for those who seek a graduation certificate from a European university. Lithuania has developed a special website, www.studyinlithuania.lt, to promote these opportunities. Our universities also participate in education fairs.

What is the level of bilateral trade between India and Lithuania and what are the major exports from Lithuania to India?

Last year, our trade volume crossed 130 million euro. It has more than doubled since 2014. Lithuania massively exports wheat and green peas to India ~ in fact, almost 20 per cent of all peas India last year bought in foreign markets were purchased from Lithuania. So whenever you are having your matar paneer, think that every fifth pea in your plate is of Lithuanian origin. India also buys our lasers and other sophisticated technologies.

What, according to you, are the commonalities between India and Lithuania?

Lithuanian is the closest surviving sister of Sanskrit. We have so many common words that a dictionary of such words was compiled. Because of Sanskrit, India has always had a special place in our hearts. For generations, it has inspired our scholars, travelers and artistic community. Today, this positive energy may play a significant role in facilitating our political and economic cooperation, thus it is our duty to tap into it.

Is there any high-level exchange between the two countries in the offing?

Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar visited Lithuania recently. We expect Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius to pay a return visit in October, when Lithuanian National Symphonic Orchestra will be performing in Mumbai. It will be an important part of the centenary celebrations of the Republic of Lithuania.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

A few showers early with overcast skies later in the day. High 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 28F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
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 October 2017, pedestrians are banned from texting or looking at their mobile phone while crossing a road in Honolulu, Hawaii. Anyone caught doing so will face fines of up to $99 (76) although first-time offenders will be hit with a warning $15 (11) fine.

Like the UK, most states in the USA ban texting while driving. Honolulu  which has a population of around a million  will be the first to fine those who cross the road while staring at their smartphones.

The measure is designed to tackle the problems of distracted walking and will apply to the island of Oahu, which is home to 80 per cent of the Hawaiis population.

The concern about the dangers of distracted walking is not new and was mentioned in 2013 in the Journal of Safety Research in an article called Ambulatory cellphone injuries in the United States: An emerging national concern.

The article observed a rising number of distracted pedestrians being injured with at least 1,500 being taken to Accident and Emergency in 2012.

Authorities say they want to reduce injuries and deaths from distracted walking.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell said:

We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the country.

However, pedestrians will still be allowed to make and receive calls, because it is assumed that they are looking where they are going at the same time. And anyone making calls for emergency services will be exempt from the fine.

What do you think? Is this ban justified? Leave a comment
Three days after a Supreme Court directive, the Bombay High Court on Monday put up the beleaguered Sahara Groups prestigious Aamby Valley city in Lonavala for a public auction.

The Official Liquidator for the Aamby Valley city has put up a reserve price of Rs 37,392 crore. Aamby Valley city is considered the jewel in the crown of the Sahara Group.

In a jolt to Sahara chief Subrata Roy, the Supreme Court had, on August 10, rejected his plea to put on hold the auction process of the group's Aamby Valley property, valued at Rs 34,000 crore.

Soon after, a Mauritius-based investor, Royale Partners Investment Fund, said it has offered to invest $1.67 billion (over Rs 10,700 crore) in the project.
BJP President Amit Shah on Monday rejected the demand of resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the wake of death of over 60 children in the past week due to lack of oxygen and other medical reasons in Gorakhpur hospital.

The BJP chief also said that after investigation ordered by Adityanath gets complete and the report is submitted, action will be taken against the culprits.

"Seeking resignation is Congress's work. In such a big country, many accidents happen. This has not happened for the first time. Such accidents happened during even Congress governments," Shah told reporters.

He was responding to a query that responsibilities can't be with the doctors and government officials only and should be fixed for politicians also for the deaths of children in Gorakhpur.

Responding to another query, Shah said that the BJP does not fix anyone like Congress does without conducting proper enquiry.

"The matter is being probed and Yogiji has ordered a time bound probe. The report will be made public after it is submitted," he said describing the deaths of children as an accident.

"It was a mistake...it might have happened at any stage," he said.

The BJP chief also justified Yogi's directions for preparations for a "grand Krishna Janmashtami celebration" at a time when the state is mourning the death of over 60 infants.

"Everyone is saddened by the deaths of children but Yogiji has not ordered celebration of Janmashtami in reference to the deaths. Janmashtami has its own place and is being celebrated every where in the country," Shah said adding that the Janmashtami is not a government festival.

"If some one celebrates Janmashtami in his house what can the government do," he said.

Shah branded the Karnataka's ruling Congress government as the most corrupt government of the country and also sought the details of the expenses of the grants given by central government from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

"I have never seen such a corrupt government after independence. It is most corrupt government of the country which has no shame left," he said.

He also accused the state government of targeted killings of its workers in the state and alleged that it was doing appeasement politics which will insecure the state.

Shah claimed that BJP will form next government in the state under the leadership of its leader and former Chief Minister B. S. Yeddiyurappa.

The BJP leader also refuted the media reports that the government can go for early Lok Sabha polls in 2018.

"There is no such plan. As far as simultaneous election is concerned, the matter is under consideration and a debate is going on in the country. After a consensus between all political parties and Election Commission, it can be considered," Shah said.
After casting doubts over Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured that the BJP was committed to J&K's special status, the National Conference on Monday started its campaign to inform people about the dangerous consequences if the Supreme Court declared Article 35A,which bars outsiders from settling in the state, as illegal.

''If the assurance given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is true why a counter affidavit hasn't been presented before the Supreme Court by the Centre to defend Article 35A,'' asked party's working president Omar Abdullah at a day-long conference on Article 35A, also called the J&K state subjects law. ''Instead of defending the Article, Attorney General of India has sought a larger debate on it, he said.

The conference was attended by NC's district and block presidents of Jammu division.

The convention is a part of a series of the workshops and meetings initiated by NC to mobilise public opinion in defence of the state subjects law.

The Article has been challenged by an NGO ''We the Citizens', an RSS proxy, on the contention that the Article was a Presidential Order and not an Act of Parliament and should be struck down for its discriminatory nature.

The Article has also been challenged by Charu Wali Khanna, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, married outside, on the grounds that the law bars her children to inherit their property after their death.

Omar stressed that Jammu will be the worst hit. Not only will jobs squeeze for local youth but our business sector too shall suffer tremors with influx of traders from outside the state,'' he warned. ''Whosoever intends to push local businesses out of competition will find the Jammu region feasible because of its close proximity to neighbouring states apart from the relatively more conducive security scenario.

He said if Article 35A is abolished, they will traverse back to the unfortunate era of indignity, deprivation and oppression from where Sheikh Mohammed Abdulah had steered out the people of the state.

Maharaja had brought these laws into effect to save the interests of those locals holding land and to find representation in the state administration as there were apprehensions of non-state subjects usurping the locals, Omar said. ''Laws enacted 90 years ago have withstood the test of time in preserving the identity of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh besides preserving their legitimate rights.

He said the state's counter affidavit has been condensed to just eleven pages. The affidavit, for some odd reasons, is reported to be without any substance or any depth. He said the state government is putting up a weak case, perhaps intentionally.

The former chief minister said the move was part of a conspiracy to rob J&K of its special status and rights.

BJP has been hell-bent to trample the special status of Jammu and Kashmir for a long,'' he said. ''But once they came to power, they realised their designs cannot be achieved politically, and therefore (they found out) a short cut of proxy judicial activism through various affiliated NGOs .

Meanwhile, artists and filmmakers took to streets in Srinagar against scrapping the state subjects law.

Holding placards in support of Article 35A, top filmmakers, performing artists and musicians asked the government to preserve the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Defence experts on Monday said that the continuous ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) by the Pakistani troops shows their extreme frustration as their sponsored militants are being killed by the Indian Army and they are not being able to push fresh terrorist into Indian territory.

Defence expert Major General (Retd.) P.K. Sehgal told ANI that with every inch closer to India's Independence Day, the ceasefire violation will increase in both magnitude and intensity from Pakistan.

"Pakistan is extremely worried and frustrated that Pakistani sponsored militants are being killed and they are not being able to push fresh terrorist. For these reasons, the ceasefire violation is increasing. However, the response from our side is extremely punitive," he said.

Resonating similar views, another defence expert Qamar Agha said the attempts to infiltrate are increasing because the Pakistani Army is under terrible pressure as large number of militants has been killed in the last three months.

"It has become quite frequent in past three-four months. They are finding it more difficult to infiltrate. The Pakistani Army is also under terrible pressure because large number of militants has been killed in the last three months. The number of militants has decreased. So their attempt is to how to overcome and how to send more terrorist. There is need to take more pro-active step," he added.

Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire four times along the LoC in Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. At least three jawans were injured after Pakistan violated the ceasefire in the Bazz area of Uri Sector in Baramulla.

Pakistan Army invoked heavy mortar shelling and firing of small arms yesterday, in the Naushera sector of Rajouri.

Earlier, five army jawans were injured and two others seriously hurt in an encounter with terrorists in the Shopian district late Saturday night.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking SIT probe into the death of infants in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Asking the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court as matter was related to Uttar Pradesh, the bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud referred to the media reports about Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other Union and Uttar Pradesh Ministers including officials visiting the hospital after the tragedy.

Observing that state officials were looking into the situation and attending to the complaints, the bench said that if still something was left unattended, then the petitioner can move Allahabad High Court.

Over 60 children lost their lives in the hospital and many of them had died reportedly due to disruption of oxygen supply.
It was a cold November night of 1980s that changed my life.

My husband had left for Banaras (or Varanasi) two days ago to resume work after our doctor said the delivery of my twins was expected only in the last week of December. My husband was posted with a state government department there and used to visit us in Gorakhpur almost every week.

"Yes, it should be around Christmas," the doctor had told us. I remember seeing my husband off with those teary eyes. I also remember those words from my husband, "Don't worry! I will be back in no time."

All this was all the more emotionally overwhelming for this then 20-odd year old lady with a toddler daughter in arms and two babies in the womb. But then I was excited too. I wanted to surprise my husband and finish off a task I had already started before he arrives next. The task was to knit sweaters for my twins.

But then I was in a joint family set up with my old in-laws around. Day-to-day household work and managing my baby daughter meant I got even lesser time to complete something which was dear to me.

That's how nights were best friend. As soon as my daughter would sleep in our room in the modest brick-and-mortar landed house, my knitting would start.

It was just the second night after my husband left. Well past midnight. One of the sweaters was coming into shape, enough to keep me going a bit more. And probably that's where I erred.

After a tiring day, I overworked myself and slept after mid-night. I woke up just before dawn and realised that my clothes and the bed is wet. I told myself, something's seriously wrong, as I could now feel the discomfort within. I woke my sister-in-law up and told her that I need to be taken to the doctor. The discomfort was steadily getting better of me.

My sister-in law realised the urgency and with the help of another lady of the house, took me to a government hospital in a rickshaw. Two male family friends also joined us later.

By that time I was not even in the position to tell that they should ring our regular doctor who has been examining me. The discomfort had turned into excruciating pain.

I think it was not even the sunrise when the ladies were jostling for a place there for me. I remember being rushed into the labor room and a relative telling me that "be mentally prepared for the delivery."

The night shift doctor was around, accompanied by a midwife. I remember the midwife more as she confirmed that my water bag (amniotic sac) had burst and I need to push harder to get the kids out as the passage would be mostly dry.

With the help of the midwife who used a forcep, I delivered my first baby boy. My second one was also on the way but my condition was terrible. The midwife guided me while I heard someone mocking me and saying "Is there a third one as well."

I pushed harder and my second one came out with bottom portion first. (It was a breech birth but through normal delivery and not caesarean section)

The midwife packed and gave my first baby to relatives but were not giving the second baby, saying he's too weak and won't survive. "Sans nahi hai bachche ki" (The baby is not breathing).

I am told, on insistence of relatives, my second son was also cleaned and handed over to them.

There was no facility to provide oxygen to the baby. Later, someone said the oxygen box was used like a sort of a table.

My second one was weaker and needed immediate medical attention and oxygen. He did not immediately cry neither did the the doctors do something to make him cry.

I was still howling in pain and there was no medical care. I pleaded for help and a midwife told me that the shift is changing and asked me to wait for the new doctor. On my repeated requests, she checked and realised that something has gone bad.

A doctor came and asked me who did the delivery and informed me that the placenta is still inside. "You would have been dead in two minutes. The placenta has gone up." She then cut the placenta piece by piece and pulled it out.

After the labor room, a make-shift arrangement was made on the passage and I was told I will be shifted to a ward or room when there's availability. My sons were then brought to me--for the first time. I remember the first cry of my second son when a ray of sun light hit him.

And just as luck had turned my way, my father had come visiting us from our village. He rushed to the hospital when he got to know of the delivery. Now I gained in some confidence. It was reassuring to see him. He ran from pillar to post to get us a room and then the doctors also queued up with initial medications to both my kids and they were even put in front of a heater. I was shivering as well and doctor asked someone to give me a coffee to make me feel better.

I was in the hospital for eight days and my husband had also joined us after a couple of days after being informed about the delivery via telegram.

My second one was weaker and the early signs weren't encouraging. Like his first moves on the bed didn't happen even after s months of delivery. Doctors in Gorakhpur checked both the kids regularly and did acknowledge something abnormal with my second son. And finally, we were advised to go to Banaras Hindu University hospital for further checks.

BHU doctors confirmed that my second son had cerebral palsy. (This was some 18 months after the birth.) They told us it was lack of supply of oxygen at the time of birth which has led to brain damage and thus cerebral palsy.

I am not the only one who has met this ill-treatment at a government hospital. A couple of years later my sister-in law delivered a still child at the same hospital. The doctors had acknowledged the error on part of midwife who had applied pressure on her stomach to push out the baby. There were complications but the pressure on the stomach killed the baby, I am told.

It seems the condition of government hospitals and general mindset hasn't changed a bit in the last 30 years or so.

Whenever I hear that doctors are gods, I am reminded of that cold, winter night and the following day and the words "the second one won't survive" echo in my ears.

(As told to Shweta Thakur Nanda. The narrator is a homemaker based in Delhi and requests anonymity)
The Sri Lankan Navy on Monday apprehended four Tamil Nadu fishermen along with a country boat near Punkudi Island. They all have been taken to Kankesandurai Navel camp for probe.

On August 10, 12 Indian fishermen, who were apprehended by Sri Lankan Navy earlier in the week, had been sent to remand till August 23 by a Sri Lankan court. The 12 fishermen have been lodged in Sri Lanka's Jaffna Jail. These fishermen were arrested near Delft Island by the Sri Lankan Navy.

All the fishermen were taken to the Kankesanthurai Naval camp by the Sri Lankan Navy for interrogation. Meanwhile, the fishermen in Tamil Nadu's Pudukottai district announced indefinite strike on Wednesday, urging immediate release of fishermen and their boats by Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Navy arrested 49 fishermen from Tamil Nadu on August 8 and detained their 12 fishing boats.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapady K. Palanisamy, in a letter, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and secure the release of 64 fishermen from Tamil Nadu lodged in a Lankan jail and 125 mechanised boats detained by Lanka.
Investigative journalist Alexander Sokolov has been jailed for three and a half years by a Russian court yesterday. Sokolov has been convicted with involvement in a banned extremist group.

As reported by the International Federation of Journalists, the IFJ/EFJ joins its affiliate the Russian Union of Journalists in condemning the ruling which is being used to silence and intimidate Sokolov and other Russian journalists.

Sokolovs conviction is a blatant attack by the authorities on transparency and the truth in Russia, said the IFJ/EFJ. We demand his immediate release.

Journalist Sokolov maintains his innocence, stating the actual intent behind the prosecution is in retaliation for a report he published 2 weeks prior to the charges detailing alleged government embezzlement of 93 billion rubles from the Vostochny Cosmodrome project.

Sokolov has been charged with involvement in a group called For a Responsible Government which campaigns for a referendum on legislation making government officials more transparent and accountable. The journalist had created and administered the groups website, according to news agency RBK. Prosecutors claimed For a Responsible Government was a cover for a militant left wing group called the Peoples Will Army, which advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and was banned for extremism in 2010.

According to this decision, the idea itself of a referendum is seen as extremist, said Sokolov.

Prior to his conviction yesterday, Sokolov had been in pre-trial detention for over 2 years. Nearly 300 journalists have signed a letter of support and solidarity for Sokolov.

Sokolov had also previously written dissertations on corruption and budget theft in Russian state-owned companies and had worked for RBK since 2013. RBK is a well-known investigative media group now recently acquired by the owner of pro-Kremlin newspaper.

Numerous human rights groups have called on the Russian government to review its anti-extremism laws, which according to Human Rights Watch are vague and overly broad and often misused to persecute critics.
Rajiv Kumar | Getty Images

The NITI Aayog vice chairman designate comes with ideas that Indian middle class may like. My mother who retired as college teacher gets barely 4 per cent on her pension that is deposited in the bank. Is this fair? asked Dr Rajiv Kumar in a tweet on April 20. A few days earlier, he had described as the craziest suggestion I must have heard in a long time the governments idea of fixing food portions in restaurants. Lets not take a legislative/admin view of everything, he wrote.

Arvind Panagariyas successor in the governments think tank has straddled the corporate world, the academia and the civil society, and is all too familiar with Lutyens Delhi, its culture and its denizens way of working. This understanding should help him push work at NITI Aayog, which is mandated to throw up ideas, conduct pilot projects and evaluate them before implementation by the state governments as well as the Centre, and drive the transformation of India.

A senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, Kumar is an unabashed Modi fan, but far from a blind one. He first met Modi in the winter of 2011, over a 90-minute interaction that the Gujarat chief minister had with a gathering of businessmen, and was impressed with Modis sharp focus on economic development. The first impression stayed, but many more impressions were formed because of Modis quicksilver quality. And it was to examine, with an open mind, the strengths and weaknesses of the newly elected prime minister and his ability to seize the opportunities for taking India forward towards good times that Kumar wrote the book Modi and His Challenges, in 2016.

And he has not gone gung-ho about anything major. But in talking about one undeniable structural reform by Modi, Kumar mentions the abolition of the Planning Commission and its replacing by NITI Aayog. Kumar believes that the focus of NITI Aayog will be on supporting and promoting cooperative federalism, and that it will infuse innovation into economic and technology policy formulation.

Kumar believes that for real economic growth, India cannot hope to rely on global economic growth. This requires that Indian companies, suitably supported by focused government measures, achieve global competitiveness in selected sectors and strive to increase their market shares in a somnolent global economy. The government and the corporate sector have to work in tandem for it, which he says is not yet visible as the government remains overly cautious of being seen to be working with private industry.

ADVICE TO MODI

* Modi (and Amit Shah) will have to rethink the extremely centralised and intrusive style of governance that characterised Gandhinagar.

* Modi cannot also hope to be in de-facto control of all imprortant ministries through the PMO. This will sooner rather than later result in a paralysis of decision making.

* Modi will have to restrain his ambitions for a global role until he has addressed the formidable and more urgent domestic agenda.

* Modi will also have to rethink his touching reliance on the existing or former bureaucrats. The steel frame has rusted to some extent.

* Modi will have to recognise that an India trapped in the morass of communal conflicts and ethnic violence could not possibly hope to achieve its economic and development goals.

* Operationalise and strengthen the Inter-State Council because state governments now handle nearly 80% of action required for improving business climate and raising welfare levels of people

* A second green revolution is badly needed.

(From Modi and His Challenges)
Rewards credit cards split into three camps - free cards, those with an annual fee of around 25 to 35, and 'Premium' cards which carry fees of around 150.

As you would expect the most eye-catching rewards come with the most expensive deals, offering 'exclusive' perks, generous sign-up bonuses, and more points per pound on your spending.

But are they ever worth it?

We have broken down the numbers to see how much you would have to spend to make one of these cards worth your while and rounded up the top deals.

Sky high: Some of the most rewarding airline rewards cards come with annual charges of 150 or more

After an EU-wide cap on interchange fees  the amount card companies can charge bars, restaurants and shops for processing card payments  in 2015, decent rewards schemes are few and far between.

Many credit card companies claimed this ate into the profits they used to fund their lucrative cashback and reward deals, and subsequently scaled back or scrapped their top deals completely.

But if you hunt around there are still a few good deals which, if you make sure to clear your balance each month, can earn you a little extra from your spending.

The most eye-catching deals however come with hefty annual fees typically around 150, but some cost as much as 450 per year.

Of course the first thing to think about is whether you will make the most of the rewards points  there is no point signing up to a credit card offering airline points if it doesnt fly from a nearby airport, or for a supermarket rewards card which doesnt have a shops for miles.

To make the most of these cards you need to use them for as much of your spending as possible, which means you will clock up a fair balance each month.

Arguably the most important rule therefore is, you MUST clear the balance each month.

If you dont repay the amount you have spent, interest is applied to your debt typically around 23 per cent on purchases.

This would mean 19.08 in interest each month on a 1,000 balance  which quickly eats away at the value of your earnings in rewards.

Where do you get the most bang for your buck?

The best deal for you will depend on where you shop, what type of rewards you want and whether you will actually make use of the points on offer.

However, we have put together a table of the accounts which come with higher earning power and better perks.

PREMIUM REWARDS CREDIT CARDS Card Fee Perk APR % (Purchase rate) BA Premium Plus Amex 195 Earn 1.5 Avios per 1 and collect double on BA holidays and flights. 25,000 bonus Avios after 3k spend within 3 months. Free companion voucher each year after 10,000 spend, British Airways Executive Club membership. 76% (22.9% p.a) Preferred Rewards Gold Amex 140 (0 in first year) Earn 1 point per 1, or 2 points per 1 on flights or in a foreign currency and 3 points per 1 with American Express Travel. Get 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend 2k within 3 months and 10,000 bonus after 15k annual spend. Plus 2 Lounge visits per year, 10% off with Hertz. Must be paid off each month Virgin Atlantic Black Credit Card 140 Earn 2 miles per 1 you spend with the American Express credit card from MBNA, and 1 mile per 1 you spend on the Visa credit card. Card comes with 0% on balance transfers for 6 months plus earn 18,500 miles the first time you spend on your card in the first 90 days. 57.4% (22.9% p.a.) Platimum Amex Annual Fee 450 Earn 1 point per 1. 30,000 Membership Rewards after 2,000 spend within 3 months. Access to airport lounges, worldwide family travel insurance, Platinum Concierge service. Must be paid off each month Emirates Skywards Elite MBNA 150 2 miles per 1 spent on Amex, 2 miles per 2 on the Visa. Double points for spending with Emirates. 0% interest on balance transfers and money transfers for 6 months, 10,000 Skywards Miles after first purchase within 90 days. 0% on Emirates flight purchases for up to 12 months. 60.5% (22.9% p.a.) Tesco Premium Credit Card 150 1 month 0% on balance transfers and purchases. 50 Tesco Gift Card until 31 August, 5,000 points with 5,000 annual spend, worldwide family travel insurance for those under 70. 56.5% (19.9 p.a.)

Are they worth your while?

Firstly work out how much each point is actually worth and what they earn you.

Below are a few examples of what a 1,250 monthly spend could earn you, and how it compares to any lower fee options.

Remember though these deals are only worth anything at all if you are going to use the points and you don't let them hit you with interest, by making sure to repay your balance each month.

British Airways Premium Plus Amex

The 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus is enough to get you a return flight to most European destinations and even as far as Cairo.

This compares to just a 5,000 Avios bonus if you take out the no-frills version of the card, the BA Amex credit card.

Spending 1,250 a month would earn 22,500 BA Executive Avios, in a year (47,500 including sign-up bonus) while the same spending on the free option gets you 15,000 points (20,000 including sign-up bonus).

Using 40,000 of the points earned from the Premium Plus card gets you a return ticket to New York

If you stump up the 195 annual fee for the Premium Plus card, Amex also gives a free companion flight if you spend more than 10,000 on the card, compared to a harder to achieve 20,000 threshold on the standard BA Amex.

Using 40,000 of the points earned from the Premium Plus card gets you a return ticket to New York, and if you cash in your companion voucher you get double the value.

When This is Money checked, if you paid for a pair of tickets yourself, you would handover 1,400.94 booking six months in advance.

However you still need to pay taxes, which cost 367.47 per person on this flight.

After your 195 annual fee you effectively therefore save 471 using the BA Premium Plus Amex.

But remember in the second year you won't receive the 25,000 Avios bonus, which makes it less lucrative.

Using the free version, you could use 15,000 of your points to fly to Rome, paying 35 in taxes or 70 for two people. Booking two return tickets six months in advance would cost a total 227.00.

More rewarding: Tesco offers a premium version of its Clubcard credit cards which could prove a better way to earn airline rewards points

Tesco Premium Credit Card - best after the first year and free travel insurance

If you would prefer supermarket rewards, Tesco offers its own Premium Credit Card with a 150 annual price tag, or 100 in the first year with the 50 sign-up bonus.

A 1,250 spend each month (including 500 spent at Tesco), plus the 5,000 annual bonus once you spend 5,000 on the card would mean a total 19,250 points.

You can use your points in stores, and one point is worth 1p - meaning a total 192.50 off your shop.

Or you can swap them for up to four times their value with Clubcard partners, which include restaurants, days out and travel.

You can also swap your Tesco points for Avios and Virgin Flying Club points. After a year the above spending example would earn you 46,200 Avios or 48,125 Flying Club miles.

Tesco however also sweetens the deal with free family worldwide travel insurance for anyone under 70.

Tesco Bank has a free version which would earn 8,625 point per year, it comes with no insurance but it has an option giving 30 months 0 per cent interest on purchases or a low rate card with interest of 5.9 per cent.

Preferred Rewards Gold Amex - free for the first year

The Preferred Rewards Gold Amex may be a better option. At 140 per year it is still expensive, but it offers the ability to buy points from several other schemes with your rewards, making it more flexible.

You won't be charged the fee in the first year, but this is a charge card, so you will have to pay the money off at the end of each month.

A 1,250 monthly spend on the card in the first year earns 15,000 Membership Rewards points (but you could earn more if you are spending on travel or foreign currency). Plus you get the 20,000 sign up bonus - a total points pot in the first year of 45,000.

You can swap these points for the same value to airline reward schemes including BA Avios, Virgin Flying Club and Emirates Skywards.

Or you can use points to buy retailer gift cards, to help pay off your balance and to spend in the Membership Rewards shop.

There is a cheaper Membership Rewards Amex card, costing 60 per year, which comes with a 10,000 point sign up bonus which pays the same 1 point per 1 spent.

The same monthly spend would earn you 15,000 points, or 25,000 in the first year.
Britain's insouciance about overseas takeovers is legendary.

There is nothing in the UK not up for sale, from nuclear power stations to emblematic consumer brands and fintech pioneers like Worldpay.

No one wants Britain to be like France where yoghurt maker Danone was once labelled a strategic industry.

But it is hard not to sign up to the European Union's moves towards taking more powers to scrutinise the efforts by China and other foreign powers to win control of high-tech manufacturing, energy and infrastructure.

We are meant to be assured that despite being major financiers of Britain's vast new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset, Chinese engineers and investors will have no access to the advanced technologies used in the plant or communications traffic to and from it. So they shouldn't.

Prime Minister Theresa May meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in September last year. The EU wants more powers to scrutinise takeovers by China and other foreign powers

The Silicon Valley giants have been forced to severely curtail social media in the People's Republic of China, whose public relations might be smarter than Washington and led some commentators to suggests Beijing's leaders are worthy advocates of free markets.

Don't believe it.

As matters stand, some 13 of the EU's 28 countries have in place systems for scrutinising takeovers for national and economic security concerns. The US already has such measures in place through its Committee on Foreign Investment and is considering extending the reach to cover intellectual property.

Australia and Canada have frequently demonstrated willingness to challenge overseas takeovers of strategic assets even when the bidder, as in the case of the London Stock Exchange tilt at its Toronto counterpart, is a close ally, with a governor of the Bank of England imported from Canada.

One of the great strengths of the UK economy has been openness to foreign investment.

The recovery of the car industry is almost wholly down to the commitment of Tata, BMW, Nissan, Honda and now Peugeot to Britain.

What is acceptable in traditional manufacturing is unacceptable when it comes to high-tech and intellectual property.

Allowing companies like Worldpay to surrender to overseas ownership is a bit like drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline allowing new medicines, which take billions of pounds to develop, to be given free to generic rivals.

For once the EU is heading in the right direction and the Government must do the same.

Passive power

Barclays did several foolish things to avoid an injection of Government capital after the financial crisis, but among the most stupid and ethically flawed was the 8.2billion sale of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) to BlackRock in 2009.

It was bad business because BGI, as the inventor of iShares (the first exchange-traded funds) has turned out to be a goldmine.

Barclays crossed a governance barrier because the then president of the bank Bob Diamond was a personal shareholder in BGI and pocketed 20million from the sale, benefiting from an intra-company transaction generally viewed as a no-no.

BGI has been a good investment for BlackRock and its boss Larry Fink.

Indeed, it has arguably been the making of BlackRock, as in the years since the purchase savers have turned away from over-priced active managers in preference for low cost passive funds after active gains were gobbled up by management fees and charges.

Indeed, data shows that BlackRock iShares outpaced Vanguard, the granddaddy of low cost investment, over the last year attracting 122.2billion of new funds.

This at a time when traditional managers such as Aberdeen suffered four consecutive years of outflows.

Fund management fashions move in cycles and it may well be the craze for ETFs and iShares has reached its peak or will be undermined by financial stability concerns.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that Barclays panicked and transferred a huge amount of shareholder value to BlackRock. Then, after all, it made quite a few duff moves.

Standing up

No one could ever accuse Donald Trump of holding back.

Merck chief executive Ken Frazier, one of a handful of African-American CEOs, has quit a White House manufacturing advisory group over Trump's mealy mouthed response to the Charlottesville hate clashes.

Trump's riposte was to threaten Frazier over failure to 'Lower rip-off drug prices.' It would be nice to think that other CEOs drawn towards Trump, including JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon, would show some solidarity with a US corporate hero.

Why are they waiting?
A 40 million merger which would see British parcels firm DX Group take over the distribution arm of Scottish logistics firm John Menzies has been scrapped.

The two businesses first announced plans of a joint venture in March and in June, a proposal looked at DX acquiring Menzies Distribution for a cash payment plus new shares worth 65 per cent of the enlarged company.

But Menzies said in a stock market announcement that, following an in-depth audit on DX Group following a July trading update, it 'became apparent' that any deal would require revised terms and in the meantime proceedings have been 'terminated'.

A 40 million merger which would see British parcels firm DX Group take over the distribution arm of Scottish logistics firm John Menzies has been scrapped

The firm continued: 'Despite further discussions with DX following the DX announcement of 14 July 2017, the John Menzies board does not believe it is currently possible to agree a revised set of terms with DX for the combination which would be in the interests of John Menzies shareholders.

'John Menzies has therefore terminated discussions with DX.'

The announcement comes just over a month after City of London Police dropped plans for a probe into DX Group on allegations relating to its collection and delivery service DX Exchange which supplies dozens of top legal firms across the country.

DX Group said it had co-operated with the police's preliminary investigation and made changes to internal business processes in the unit.

It also underwent a management overhaul as a result.

On Monday it announced further plans to make a number of changes to the board and was in advanced talks with individuals for potential new appointments, including proposed chairman designate Ron Series, who recently served as the chief restructuring adviser at Lonmin Plc.

Putting further pressure on the deal was the fact the company had said full-year earnings growth would be flat following what had been an 'exceptionally challenging year'.

Despite the chain of events, DX Group's largest shareholder, Gatemore Capital Management, expressed its optimism about the company's ability to go it alone.

Liad Meidar, Gatemore's managing partner, said: 'We are excited about the prospects for DX as a stand-alone company, especially under the leadership of the new board.

'Each of the four new directors brings significant sector experience. Ron Series and Lloyd Dunn can in fact be directly credited with the remarkable turnaround of Tuffnells, DX's main competitor in freight.

'We strongly believe that, with leading positions in document exchange, secure delivery and IDW freight, DX is well positioned to thrive on a stand-alone basis.'

DX is one of several big operators in the crowded parcels market, where DHL-owner Deutsche Post has bulked up by buying UK Mail, and Amazon has started its own deliveries.
Inspections: New boss Marco Gobbetti plans to visit each of Burberrys 498 retail stores

Burberry's boss has begun a secretive world tour of every single shop as rumours spread that he may be about to axe failing outposts.

Marco Gobbetti, who took over the fashion brand last month and has been chief executive for just 37 days, plans to visit each of Burberrys 498 retail stores to determine what changes are needed to revive its fortunes.

The little-known 57-year-old earned a reputation for being ruthless while at high-end rival Celine, where he closed more stores than he opened.

At Celine he focused on making each shop reflect Celines high standards. By contrast, in recent years Burberry has pushed ahead with store openings around the world to cater for Chinese demand.

Gobbetti is currently in America scoping out Burberrys 74 stores, according to a source.

The firms US business has been hit by a downturn in department stores  with the firm in May reporting that profits for the year to the end of March have fallen by 5 per cent amid weak wholesale trading in the region.

It is in the middle of a turnaround program in the US, and has refurbished stores, reduced its range from three labels to one and cut back discount sales.

Its not yet clear what Gobbettis plans for the stores are but at Celine he oversaw double digit sales growth.

He became Celines chief executive in 2008, and quickly revamped the brands product offering with the help of creative director Phoebe Philo.

A particular success had been Celines bags, which sell for 1,500. This area is considered a weakness at Burberry.

British style: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and James Bay in Burberry. The firms US business has been hit by a downturn in department stores

Luxury fashion veteran Gobbetti holds a degree in business administration from the American University in Washington.

He was chief executive of quirky designer brand Moschino from 1993 to 2004 and then headed LVMH-owned fashion house Givenchy.

He has been at Burberry since the beginning of January  heading up the firms business in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East and reporting to outgoing chairman John Peace.

A further Burberry strategy which may be targeted is digital marketing and the internet. At Celine, these were shunned because Gobbetti believed it is important to touch clothes.

Much of what is special is lost in e-commerce, he has said.

But Burberry has been innovative in its use of social media in some regions  tapping particularly into popular social tools to boost popularity among young South Asian customers.

It has over 48million followers and is present on 20 social platforms.

Luca Solca, a luxury goods analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said: Digital is the shape of things to come and I dont think Burberry will be making a U-turn on that.

Burberry shares crept up 0.6 per cent, or 10p, to 1747p.
Tom and Ruth Chapman founded Matches in 1987

A couple who launched a luxury fashion retailer from their boutique in Wimbledon could pocket 600million by selling the firm.

Private equity giants Apax Partners, KKR and Permira are expected to bid for Matches Fashion, the brainchild of Tom and Ruth Chapman who founded the firm in 1987.

The retailer reached sales of 204million and 587,000 orders last year, with the average customer spending 511.

The website had more than 55m visits during the 12 months to January 23.

The business, which sells more than 400 brands including Gucci and Burberry, is also planning to open a photo shoot and design studio in East London, creating 150 jobs.

Justine Simons, the Mayor of Londons head of culture and creative industries, said the investment showed that London is open to business, talent and creativity.
Oozi Cats yesterday resigned as the chief executive of Telit Communications

A chief executive ousted over allegations he was on the run from US law enforcement made 24.5million from the tech firm he founded.

Oozi Cats yesterday resigned as the boss of Telit Communications after he and wife Ruth were linked to a string of so-called 'land flip' scams carried out in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1990s by an Uzi and Ruth Katz.

The 56-year-old's resignation was announced to the stock market yesterday after a swift internal probe, with bosses claiming they knew nothing of historic allegations of fraud made against him.

The Mail can reveal that Cats took 24.5million pay and bonuses from Telit over 13 years. Over that same period Telit only made 65million profit.

The Cats were accused of trying to scam lenders with bogus mortgage applications which vastly overvalued properties, according to court documents.

HOW HE WAS RUMBLED Claims Oozi Cats was in fact 'Uzi Katz', a fugitive of the US justice system, first emerged in an Italian newspaper last week. The paper is thought to have been investigating Telit Communications and Cats due to an ongoing probe by Italian prosecutors into the collapse of electronics manufacturer Bames. It is thought this led to investigators digging in to Cats's past and discovered lawsuits filed in Boston in 1992 under the name Uzi Katz and his wife Ruth. The allegations linking the two names together sent Telit Communications's share price tumbling.

The alleged fraud in 1991 attracted the attention of special agents from the FBI and was due to be examined in a trial involving 20 witnesses.

But only Ruth Katz ever appeared in court  pleading not guilty  and the couple later fled the States.

Telit yesterday said solicitors had concluded Cats and Katz were the same person.

Cats' wife has the same birth date as the Ruth Katz named in court documents, the Mail understands, and he has not denied he is the person named in an indictment.

Professor Anne Hassett, who teaches law in New York and said she represented Katz, told the Mail the case ended because her client was 'no longer in the district'.

Cats has only spoken to Telit executives by phone in the past week.

He is understood to have returned to his home in Rome. He could not be reached for comment last night.
Advertisement

A hat-maker is hoping to raise 1 million for her business by raffling off her stunning country home.

Tricia Hamilton is selling her 19th century cottage near Bristol by charging buyers just 2 a ticket, after finding it hard to find a buyer.

Roselands was built in 1829 and has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two reception rooms, a number of outbuildings and sits on an acre of land.

Tricia Hamilton is selling her 19th century cottage near Bristol by charging buyers just 2 a ticket, after finding it hard to find a buyer

Mrs Hamilton said: 'The house has been up for sale for a year but we just haven't found the right buyer.

'It's unique, which works well for such an unconventional sale.

'It's not a typical four-bedroom and I'd describe it as a 'Tardis,' as it's much more spacious than it first appears.'

The milliner is originally from Surrey, and her children and 91-year-old mother are still based there in the town of Oxted.

As well as her family ties, Mrs Hamilton explained that business opportunities in Surrey are also an attraction.

She added: 'I'd love to move back home and be near my family. I'm also developing business opportunities in the area, which I'd like to build on.'

The retired schoolteacher, who runs Tricia Designs, has sold her hats to customers around the world and currently displays them at Amulet Boutique in Bristol.

Roselands was built in 1829 and has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two reception rooms, a number of outbuildings and sits on an acre of land.

Buyers can enjoy comfortable surroundings in this spacious living area in the property, which also boasts garden views

As well as relaxing in the home's reception rooms, guests can be entertained in the property's large kitchen and dining area

She will need to sell a whopping 500,000 tickets to meet her 1 million asking price - although the house is currently on the market with Knight Frank for 875,000.

Her intention is to raise the funds from the raffle and reinvest it in Tricia Designs so hats can be manufactured in the UK.

Details of the competition are yet to be finalised but it is against gambling laws to raffle off anything over a certain value unless there is some test of skill involved.

As a result, she is having to consider a variety of different ways to sell tickets - including a history quiz.

Mrs Hamilton has six months to sell her home through the contest, with an option to extend. If the asking price is not reached, a winner will take all the money collected - minus the costs.

Under the terms and conditions of the competition, the winner will have all the fees and stamp duty paid for them.

Mrs Hamilton is selling the property (pictured, one of its bedroom) so that she can move closer to her family in Oxted, Surrey

For those who love to shop until they drop, the property boasts a walk-in wardrobe which is attached to one of its bedroom's

The quaint cottage near Bristol has a sprawling lawn in its back garden, perfect to relax in and entertain guests in summer

Peter Ellis, director of Accommodation Unlimited, said: 'It sounds like a brilliant way to sell your property and in some cases it has worked - whereas in others it has failed spectacularly.

'It can involve selling a lot of tickets - in this case to nearly one per cent of the population. We could be talking around a thousand tickets a day for the next six months.'

The transaction could also have tax implications, as the income would be from proceeds of a competition rather than the sale of their property.

Rebecca Cave, of Taxwriter Ltd, said: 'Contracts would have to be drawn up very carefully to ensure that liability to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is met by the correct person.

'As for Capital Gains Tax (CGT), many factors could be relevant to this tax, such as if the property was used for business purposes or let out while the current owner held it.'

Tricia added: 'This is a chance for someone to win a life-changing mortgage-free house.

'I would love to see someone with a family win it as it's a great place to raise children. Everybody I've spoken to has said they would be interested in buying a ticket. But I want to make sure it would be legal and above board before going ahead.'
EZULWINI  The Miss Cultural Heritage pageant has grown so big that a total of 26 corporate sponsors pulled their weight in support of this years event.

Sigeja Curios, a traditional fashion clothing outlet in Mbabane, and Swazi Mobile were unveiled as some of the new sponsors for this years event, slanted for October 28, 2017.

Sigeja Curios led the pack with giveaway prizes for dignitaries and attendees during the Swazi Arts and Culture Fair, elegant traditional clothing designs plus E1 000 food for attendees.

The new traditional fashion clothing outlet went on to showcase a wide range of traditional fashion line, in a fashion show that saw many flocking their stall to place orders.

Mhlonishwa Motsa, who was the events programme director described Sigeja Curios as the concept that was needed to sustain and speak of our culture and heritage.

The Culture Fair was held at the newly established, yet to be launched, Emfuleni Resort, at Ezulwini near Mvutshini.

Arts and Culture CEO Stanley Dlamini described the Saturdays Culture Fair and Fashion Show as a new branding for our arts and culture, with the corporate sector giving much and unexpected support. Sponsoring companies had pitched their stalls at the venue while networking was the order of the day.

When you see the corporate sector giving so much support to the Miss Cultural Heritage pageant, it goes to show how arts and the Swazi culture are developing in line with vision 2022, Dlamini said.

Models from the South African Development Community (SADC) also took to the runway during the second fashion show, which also left many panting for more.

The Miss Cultural Heritage 2017 pageant will also be broadcast live on Swazi TV, with the winners sponsored to take courses of their choice in Degrees and Diplomas.

If you havent invested in culture, you havent done the right investment, the SNCAC CEO said. Dignitaries who attended the event included MP Frans Dlamini and MP Michael Masilela, who also received prizes from Sigeja Curios.

Roman Chowdhury, owner of Sigeja Curios, said he was more than pleased to join the lists of sponsors and partners of the Miss Cultural Heritage, as this was the main idea behind the whole concept.

We are about culture and heritage, and partnering with Miss Cultural Heritage and the Arts and Culture community is a vision realised and meant to be taken further, Chowdhury said.

The store also announced that they will be opening shop in Nhlangano and that Swazi Culture is going beyond vision 2022 as loved by all nations.

We will be witnessing the Umhlanga Reed Dance ceremony and we will be taking the world centre stage with our cultural heritage, said the proud owner of Swazi and African Designs.


MBABANE  Former Councillor Nganono Manyatsi formed part of the list of 87 people who were arrested for alleged driving while under the influence of alcohol this past weekend.

Manyatsi is facing four counts of traffic offences and he informed the court that he would be pleading not guilty to all the charges.

Manyatsi (43) of Mahwalala appeared in court on Saturday after he was nabbed at Hilltop in Mbabane for driving while under the influence of alcohol, among other charges and he applied for bail, stating that he would engage the services of a lawyer when the matter goes for trial.

His first charge was that of allegedly driving while under the influence of alcohol and the second count is that of allegedly refusing to take a breath specimen.

In count three, he is said to have stopped the vehicle in the middle of the road and the last count was that of allegedly failing to comply with police instructions.

Manyatsi appeared before Senior Magistrate Nonhlanhla Dlamini who granted him bail fixed at E1 000.

He was then warned by the court to appear in court when he was ordered to do so and not to commit a similar offence while out on bail.

Meanwhile, Mbabane motorists contributed about E15 400 in fines this past weekend.
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By Bill Parry

Powerhouse Gym, a fitness industry leader for more than 40 years, is coming to Long Island City.

The company has signed a 10-year lease for more than 10,000 square feet in the newly renovated Apple Building at 30-30 Northern Blvd. at Queens Plaza South.

Recent development in the neighborhood includes 8,600 residential units built since 2006 with 27 hotels currently operating in the area.

Powerhouse Gym choosing to sign a 10-year lease in Long Island City demonstrates a strong commitment to the community and is a great sign for the neighborhoods future, Alma Realty Corp commercial property manager Peter Kosteas said. The demand for this type of retail shows that Long Island City is attracting a healthy living residential population to go along with the growing office space market. Such amenities are what bring people to the neighborhood, fueling the local economy and attracting more investment.

The new location will open this fall. Power House Gym operates in Flushing and has 300 licensees in 39 states, The chain also operates in 17 countries.

Combined with the lower rents and available economic incentives, Long Island City has become an escape valve for tenants seeking cool space without paying the premium of being in Manhattan, said Cushman & Wakefields Joe Grotto, who helped broker the deal.

But the neighborhood is still lacking in retail. For the first time ever, the Long Island City Partnership surveyed area workers and residents about their retail wants. Restaurants, pharmacies and grocery stores were the top three requests, garnering 54 percent of responses from more than 1,300 people surveyed.

Despite the 133 dining establishments currently in the ares including five that just opened  there is an appetite for more. The survey found that more than a third of respondents eat out one or two times a week.

Long Island City is the fastest-growing neighborhood in New York City with a developmental pipeline of more than 3.5 million square feet of retail, 22,000 residential units, and 4,600 hotel rooms.

Long Island Citys location, mixed-use character, cultural vibrancy and interdependence among the diverse business and residents are this neighborhoods greatest assets, which creates a perfect recipe for diverse retail, LIC Partnership President Elizabeth Lusskin said. We hope our survey findings help retailers and real estate decision makers explore opportunities in the area.
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By Merle Exit

The High School to Art School program  an annually, fully subsidized portfolio development program  opened its studio doors to the public, displaying students accomplishments from their summer program.

The HS2AS program provides qualified high school juniors and seniors with art skills training, mentorship, essay writing techniques, college application assistance and financial aid planning, helping them to earn acceptance into competitive art colleges.

HS2AS sessions are scheduled in the spring, summer, and fall. They take place at QCA headquarters, located in the Kaufman Arts District in Astoria. In the past three years, students were awarded over $2 million in scholarships. Instructors are graduates of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art as well as being practicing artists living and working in New York.

Fern Vargas is one of the instructors. The summer program is made up of mostly high school seniors preparing to enroll in art schools such as Cooper Union.

This is the work of the past summer, Vargas said. We take on artists from every gamut of skills, from those who are used to drawing to students with an interest. One hundred percent of the students get into schools.

Alika Feldman usually works in black and white, using pen and ink. She was part of QCA last year as well.

My section of the exhibit was mostly an assortment of smaller, inked works, Feldman said. Like many art students, I was very nervous working in a larger scale, worried Id either mess up or lose interest. However, this year I decided to tackle large rolls of paper and work in what used to be my most hated medium, oil pastel.

After completing her two main works, Feldman said that she grew to love pastels and has even started a large series that branches off of her largest work from the exhibit, the close-up of her hands and feet. As for her joining the program for almost two years, it is all about the teachers.

They really know how to motivate students and help enrich their art style, Feldman said. Throughout the summer, not only has my art changed for the better, but my attitude towards it changed, too. I started to enjoy the working process, no matter how long it took.

Feldman mentioned that she began to go out of her comfort zone, experimenting with medium that she hadnt used.

Most importantly, Ive started challenging myself instead of waiting for others to challenge me.

The whole program is made up of only 15 students, which gives the instructors one-on-one time with every person.

Ive watched not only myself grow this past month, but every single student around me, Feldman said. Im so thankful for this program for guiding me and introducing me to another artistic side of myself that I wouldnt have been able to uncover without them.

Another student, Esther Oh, drew a life-size self portrait, which she said was based on an adversity she had struggled with for a long time, and still does from time to time.

As any other human, Ive gone through difficult seasons in my life, and sometimes in those moments all we want to do is run away from them, Oh said. In doing so, an embedment of issues, whether I recognized at the time or not, had started manifesting within myself. In the portrait, I am reaching out to something, but am looking back. The position of myself is an embodiment of my struggle between trying to move forward, but not being able to because of the past that I had never healed from, because I ran away from it.

Oh used oil pastels for her portrait, which melded together to create a movement on her body.

That was to not only represent the certain shadows and highlights on my body, but also to symbolize my desire to want to change for the better, through that movement. I am posed as if I am reaching out towards something in the light, which depicts my aspiration to grow in my faith. But on the left corner, clouds are drawn in order to show my past thats holding me back.

As for the program, Oh said that it helped her develop and learn as an artist in a multitude of ways.

It was something that I loved doing, but never invested into until now. Many, or even all, (of) the things that had been taught and assigned in this class were very new to me, Oh said. The materials, the techniques, the perspective of art, it was all very challenging, yet enjoyable to learn and see. I am sincerely grateful for this opportunity, because it has helped me stir my interest in art even more, while still stimulating me to learn in new ways that I had never expected prior to this program.
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By Gina Martinez

Community leaders announced details about the upcoming third annual Flushing Night Out.

The annual community night market, hosted by Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, will take place on Aug. 18 -19, and run from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. both days. This year the event will take place at the Flushing Meeting House on 137-16 Northern Blvd.

District Leader Peter Tu, Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing), and John Choe, executive director of the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, made the announcement.

Every year Flushing Night Out takes place at a different location to highlight the unique historical landmarks in the area and bring the community together to experience the world heritage unique to Flushing. In previous years the event was held at Flushing Town Hall and the grounds of Flushing High School. According to Choe, the landmarked Flushing Meeting House location was chosen this year so that visitors have the opportunity to explore the historic site, which is the oldest house of worship in New York, and its beautiful grounds while enjoying artisanal food, crafts, and music from local artists.

Legends of Motown Revue and Session Band will headline the event. Choe said the music played will be an explosive mix of local musicians playing everything from R&B to punk rock.

Flushing Night Out offers a unique mix of arts and culture from around the world as well as delicious food from our diverse community, Choe said. We want to showcase the fantastic community and are proud to partner with the Flushing Meeting House to provide an unforgettable summer weekend of history mingled with food and music.

The food featured at the market will come from Flushing restaurants and businesses, including Dumpling Galaxy, Sams Fried Ice Cream, Joey Bats Sweets, New Asian Foods, In Patella, Cat Mint Wheel, Lezzetlis Ice Cream, Gi Hin Mama Food, Karls Balls, John B Cafe and others.

Flushing Night Out is currently nominated for the Best of the Boro Award for Best Annual Festival.

Koo said Flushing Night Out is the best example of Flushings limitless potential.

This is a night for the best attractions of our community to come together and show themselves off, he said. If you havent been yet, youre missing out. Thanks again to the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce for organizing another innovative community event in our community.

There will be a special preview from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. with $5 admission at the night market. Proceeds from the preview will go towards the preservation fund of the Flushing Meeting House. From 7 p.m. onwards, the night market will be free and open to the public.

Assemblyman Kim thanked John Choe for organizing the event.

Flushing Night Out is an opportunity for all of our residents to come together and showcase the innovation, diversity, and vibrancy of our growing community, Kim said. I highly encourage anyone who has never been before to come see what a place like Flushing has to offer, and I am sure that previous attendees are eagerly looking forward to this years edition.

Tickets are available on Eventbrite. Details on the event are posted on the Flushing Night Out Facebook event page and website.
By Mark Hallum

Mayor Bill de Blasio echoed state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) Monday, proposing a levy on the citys elite that would establish a steady and long-term revenue stream for the MTA through what he is calling a fair fix tax. The move would raise about $700 million by 2018, the mayor said.

City Hall would raise income tax rates from 3.876 percent to 4.41 percent on individuals making salaries of $500,000 and married couples earning a combined income of $1 million. The increase is only projected to apply to about 0.8 percent of New Yorkers, or 32,000 total residents. The proposal is similar to legislation from Gianaris, who also called on a tax on the wealthy and a surcharge for tourists.

Rather than sending the bill to working families and subway and bus riders already feeling the pressure of rising fares and bad service, we are asking the wealthiest in our city to chip in a little extra to help move our transit system into the 21st century, de Blasio said. Instead of searching for a quick-fix that doesnt exist, or simply forking over more and more of our tax dollars every year, we have come up with a fair way to finance immediate and long-term transit improvement and to better hold the state accountable for the systems performance. Our subways and buses are the veins that make life in the greatest city in the world possible. This fair funding source will provide immediate help to straphangers  and it will help New Yorkers get around our city reliably for the next generation and beyond.

The proposal would also give 800,000 lower-income New Yorkers access a reduced fare rate.

But the mayors proposal is not far off from a piece of legislation introduced by Gianaris in June called Better Trains, Better Cities. The bill would create a temporary, three-year surcharge on personal income taxes for those in the MTA region earning more than $1 million annually, as well as on New York City hotel and motel taxes. Gianaris estimated that the two levies combined would raise more than $2 billion annually, which would be dedicated exclusively to maintaining and upgrading the MTA system at the discretion of an emergency manager.

Im glad support is growing for this idea and hopefully well get to the point where we can get it in action soon, because everyone agrees the subway just needs an infusion of resources to make the repairs it needs to make. It seems to make sense that the ones who can most afford it are the ones who have to chip in for it, Gianaris said, adding that although the plan was slightly different from his own proposal, he was happy with the mayors announcement. It now only applies to city residents. It also includes the Fair Fares program, which I think is a good improvement, so Im comfortable with the way it came out.

Councilman I. Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans), a member of the Transportation Committee, said the tax would not only fund the subways, but also improve ridership in his district where public transit options are scant.

My constituents and many other New Yorkers live in transit deserts and endure longer rides that adequate resources will help address. Through the resources the mayor seeks to commit, many New Yorkers will realize improved bus service that will reduce travel times. And the mayor identified revenue, if this tax is passed by Albany, that my district and others will have better connections to the rail and the subway, and enjoy an overall higher quality of life, Miller said.

De Blasios announcement was preceded in recent weeks by a heated debate between the mayor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and newly re-appointed MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota about how much the city should contribute to the state agency for a short-term stabilization plan of the citys subway system. Cuomo and Lhota pressed City Hall to pay half of the projected $836 million for the short-term plan while de Blasio took a skeptical stance that the money would be spent wisely by the state.

The good news is that Mayor de Blasio has acknowledged New York Citys significant ownership of the New York City Transit Authority and the fact that new funding is needed to modernize the subway system, Lhota said. The bad news is that the mayor has not acknowledged that the MTA needs funding today. You cant delay an emergency plan to stop delays. The challenges the subways are facing today need immediate resources and solutions right now, not years from now.

In late June, following an epidemic of delays, breakdowns and a derailment, Cuomo announced a state of emergency for the subways. The move suspended bureaucratic processes to expedite repairs. Cuomo said the state would allocate an $1 billion to the MTAs capital funds for upgrades to the infrastructure.

News of de Blasios proposal was leaked to the press Sunday and informally revealed during a new conference in Brooklyn. Cuomo responded to the first reports of the proposal by stating the next tax cycle is too far away to consider an adequate response to the struggles of riders.

The state is currently evaluating a range of dedicated revenue proposals for the future to be discussed and advanced in January when the Legislature returns, Cuomo said. There is no doubt that we need a long-term, dedicated funding stream. But there is also no doubt that we cannot wait to address the current crisis. Riders suffer every day, and delaying repairs for at least a year is neither responsible nor responsive to the immediate problem, or riders pain.

Lhota said in press conference late Monday that the transit agency had already started on the aggressive cleanup of tracks to prevent fires and signal repairs were moving forward as part of the short-term plan to stabilize subway service.
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By Naeisha Rose

Six juniors and seniors from Queens who are heading back to college in the fall received $2,000 each in scholarships from FPWA, a nonprofit, Monday at a breakfast and networking event in Manhattan.

FPWA has awarded college scholarships to students who have overcome hardship and exhibit financial need for over 30 years, according to Antoinette Jones, an FPWA spokeswoman.

Each of the students demonstrates financial need, good academic standings, but has also overcome adversity and obstacles and thats the heart of the FPWA scholarship program, Jones said.

Naudia Arkward, 20, is a junior at SUNY Old Westbury and faced bullying in her tweens and teen years.

In middle school and high school I dealt with physical abuse, mental abuse, and verbal abuse from my mom and classmates, Arkward said. I didnt grow up with money.

Now that she has distanced herself from those that harassed her she is pursuing a major in Childhood Education.

Im capable of doing a lot and enduring a lot, but this will give me more peace to have that financial support, Arkward said.

Arkward will use the money towards textbooks for school and use her spare time on developing ideas for her own daycare.

I will be able to focus on studying hard and just enjoying college, said the Far Rockaway resident.

Farzana Parveen, who is studying Biology at Brandeis College in Massachusetts was amazed she won the scholarship.

That was a surprise at first, Parveen said. I was pretty shocked.

As a Bangladeshi-American woman from a traditional family, pursuing a post-secondary education was not easy.

My father does value education, but he has a traditional view about what women are supposed to do, Parveen said. I want to show him that woman can do as much as men, said Parveen, who created a robotics club that includes information about mechanical engineering.

She has applied to medical school and is leaning towards a future as a cardiologist, but her living arrangement was on her mind.

The scholarship is going to help me pay for my monthly rent, Parveen said. This definitely gave me more confidence to focus on other things.

At the breakfast ceremony Parveen gave advice to Aura Rivera, a fellow Biology major attending Fairfield University.

A junior in college who is also applying to medical school asked me how Im doing, Rivera said. She said that I should do this [to apply to medical school] and not this, said the Jamaica Estates resident.

Rivera is originally from Colombia and came to the United States when she was 9.

I went to school, but I didnt know any English at all, Rivera said. It was kind of like drown or swim.

While attending high school, Rivera went to an internship where she saw an open-heart surgery and immediately knew she wanted to pursue medicine.

I want to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, Rivera said.

The scholarship will help her avoid steep loans for her final year and pay fees to apply for medical school the following year.

Yuan Chen, from Briarwood is a senior at SUNY New Paltz with a major in Graphic Design and spent five years in foster care, but decided to not let that keep her from going to college.

Although I still often see my parents, theres a certain amount of disconnection, Chen said. I have channeled my energy into my academics rather than focusing on the disconnection. Its been a journey of becoming more independent, while remembering there are many people willing to help if I ever needed it.

She will use the scholarship to pay for art materials for her thesis project.

Manuella Yushuvayeva, 20, from Forest Hills is a junior at Arizona State University and wants to pursue a career in social work, but without the scholarship she would also have to work full-time to pay for tuition.

This scholarship will be a tremendous break from constantly working and stressing, Yushuvayeva said. This award gives me that power of saying that education is hard, and maybe its really not for everyone, but quitting is not an option when things like this are possible.

The last recipient for the scholarship was Ali Karimzacla from Flushing and he is studying Biochemistry at Hunter College. He was not available for an interview.
ALBANY  After a weekend of violence in Virginia, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on Monday that adds community centers to the list of public places where people who commit certain crimes, including making a false bomb threat, can face stiffer penalties.

The legislation was introduced as a response to bomb threats against Jewish community centers, including some in New York, in recent months. Cuomo said violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend at a white supremacist rally "demonstrate that now, more than ever, we must stand united against bias and hate in all of its forms and this new law is one more step toward a more just and more equal New York for all."
COHOES  It was City Court Judge Andra Ackerman's first day on the bench when a teenager, who was homeless, drinking and now facing three criminal charges, appeared before her. The teen's angry, but troubled look, struck Ackerman deeply.

"He did not have a father. His mother had taken off. He was homeless," Ackerman said Monday at Cohoes City Hall.

Ackerman knew about the hurdles created in the situation the young defendant faced. She had been in and out of foster care for eight years, surviving to graduate from Hudson Valley Community College, Siena College and the state University at Buffalo School of Law with the help of mentors.

From that initial experience as a judge and drawing upon her own foster care experience, Ackerman developed the first-of-its-king program in the state  "U-CAN," the acronym for the United Against Crime-Community Action Network  to provide mentoring to young adults, 16 to 21 -years old.

"It's from my heart and my head. My heart reached out to them. My head said, 'What are we going to do to help them?'" the 46-year-old Ackerman said.

The judge said she never knew her biological father and she doesn't know where her alcoholic mother is. Growing up in Averill Park, Ackerman lived with three different foster families. She said she found support from school guidance counselors. That's when she realized how important a mentor, someone to talk to about problems and life can be for a teenager.

Cohoes and Albany County leaders are participating in the mentoring program that Ackerman developed and sold them on. She drew on assistance from John Caher, senior adviser for strategic/technical communications at the state Office of Court Administration. The hardest moment, the judge said, was recruiting the first set of mentors.

"I see it as building a family, a community coming together to do the right thing," said Mayor Shawn Morse at the City Hall event announcing U-CAN. He said that as a mentor he'll draw upon his own experiences of getting into trouble to build a rapport with the teen he's helping.

The first group of teenagers and young adults entered the yearlong program last week. They've conditionally pleaded guilty to a nonviolent crime they faced. If they successfully complete a year of mentoring and staying out of trouble, the guilty plea will be dropped and they will not have a criminal record.

District Attorney David Soares said U-CAN shows Cohoes' commitment to helping young adults, and County Executive Dan McCoy said programs such as U-CAN "make a difference in people's lives."

U-CAN also is supported by the Cohoes City School District. Superintendent Jennifer Spring said the district has developed mentoring at Cohoes High School and will work with the courts, she said.
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SCHENECTADY  Trent Griffin-Braaf has two-framed photos of his young daughters sitting on the desk of his downtown office, the epicenter of a burgeoning shuttle service he started to coincide with the opening of Rivers Casino and Resort.

But a decade ago, the only space he could survey with his eyes was a jail cell.

Griffin-Braaf's life is the same herculean task that many kids from disadvantaged backgrounds face. In his case, his father's death when he was 8 years old, followed by his own mother's struggles with drug addiction. His mother moved him to Schenectady from downstate following his father's death.

By the time he was 19, Griffin-Braaf was already in state prison on a conviction of selling cocaine. He had to attend the funeral of his primary caregiver, his materal grandmother, in shackles.

Years later, and still on parole, Griffin-Braaf would be behind bars again for another seminal family moment  the birth of his oldest daughter, Tatiana, in April 2008. That case, in which Griffin-Braaf was facing another drug charge, was ultimately dismissed.

"After that happened, I said 'I believe in the higher power. I think he has a better plan for me,'" he said. "'I said whatever it is, I'm going to figure it out.'"

Griffin-Braaf, now 33, struck out applying for many jobs because of his felony record - ultimately finding low-pay warehouse work with a temp agency. But it was a job he found in 2009 as a cleaner at an East Greenbush hotel that opened up his eyes to the hospitality industry. He soon got a similar full-time position at the Albany Marriott earning about $8.50 an hour.

Griffin-Braaf struck up a friendship with a woman working the front desk who gave him a heads up she was leaving and began to informally train him in the job during his breaks. Once she left, he was promoted to the front desk position in late 2010 and six months later became the front desk manager making about $15 an hour.

Working late one night by himself, he had an epiphany.

"I was like, 'I'm the only one here in this hotel, so why can't I run a hotel ' and it was like a light bulb, and after that moment, I just started foreseeing myself in different positions," Griffin-Braaf said.

Various jobs followed: general manager at a hotel in Clifton Park, property management in Latham, and a three-year stint working for Bobby Mallozzi at Belvedere Inn in Rotterdam.

"His motivation and his desire to constantly motivate his team was always evident and we weren't surprised one bit when he decided to venture out and we're also not surprised he's found success in what he's doing," Mallozzi said.

Griffin-Braaf started networking, and saw a business opportunity when he realized that none of the hotels in Schenectady offered a shuttle service for guests to and from the airport. He also figured he could cash in on the opening of the casino earlier this year.

The idea for Tech Valley Hospitality was born.

In December, he started gathering all the required paperwork to do business and enlisted the help of a community-based local non-profit group in drawing up a business plan.

On February 6, the same day the casino opened, Tech Valley started off with one 12-passenger van, three drivers, and eight hotels as clients.

Today, that number has grown to three vans, a dozen part-time employees, and the shuttle service offering a variety of services in Colonie, Saratoga Springs and Schenectady, including to sporting events and weddings.

"We're doing corporate work, we do team builder events, site tours," he said, adding they have a business relationship with many major companies and are working on an app so customers will be able to track the van and its estimated time of arrival.

He's looking to expand into places like Clifton Park and Amsterdam because they don't have any mass transit service.

"I believe that when I went to prison, I allowed someone else to dictate my growth," he said. "They put me in there to teach me a lesson so now it's more about I'm going to teach myself a lesson. I'm going to make sure I push myself harder than you would ever be able to push me."
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If you've spent any time near the lunch carts around the Capitol in Albany there's a good chance you know Kim Muse-Comtois.

Related: 20 things you don't know about me: Subrina Dhammi

OK, so maybe you don't know her by name, but you know her face -- and have gotten a dose of her humor that's on display each weekday on the sandwich board outside the Healthy Cafe truck.

Muse-Comtois was born and raised in Delmar and graduated in 1999 from Bethlehem High School (no, she does not know that other well-known Bethlehem High grad, Megyn Kelly).

More for you 20 things you don't know about me: Angelo Mazzone

She left the Capital Region for college and holds a degree in broadcasting and theater from SUNY Brockport.

She had trouble finding a job that could become a career until stumbling upon The Healthy Cafe Food Truck. That venture worked -- well -- and Muse-Comtois has been working with Healthy Cafe since 2005 and managing the business since she was 24.

Click through the slideshow above for 20 things you may not know about Kim Muse-Comtois.

Get more updates on Kristi's blog.
ALBANY  Seven people are applying to fill a vacancy on the Albany school board, including the man whose resignation created the vacancy in the first place.

Kenny Bruce resigned from the board in May after the board accused him of violating a confidential superintendent search by providing a list of candidate names to one of the applicants, who was later identified as interim superintendent Kimberly Wilkins. The resignation allowed Bruce to avert a misconduct hearing  a process he says would have been unbalanced and unfair.

"I did what I believed would be best for all and chose to resign," he said in a July 31 letter to board clerk Paula Tibbitts stating his interest in filling the vacancy.

Now that the superintendent search is over  the board named longtime Nevada educator Kaweeda Adams the district's next superintendent last month  Bruce contends the accusation against him is "now irrelevant."

"I would like to return to serving the people of Albany as a member of the school board," he said in the letter. "I am Albany's duly elected representative for this position. Further I proudly represent several underrepresented demographics and given my recent tenure on the board, I am the most qualified candidate for this appointment."

It's highly unlikely, though, that Bruce's bid for the job will be taken seriously.

Although it started amicably in 2014, his tenure grew contentious after Bruce accused his fellow board members of seeking to cover up improprieties within the district  namely, the unauthorized construction of a theater inside the district's Abrookin Career and Technical Center.

Tensions escalated in March when Bruce filed a complaint with the state Education Department accusing fellow members of holding an illegal meeting without him present and district officials of lying about how and why the theater was approved. An independent audit of the theater construction found no wrongdoing.

When asked if the board would consider Bruce for the seat, which will run through June 2018, Board President Sue Adler declined to comment.

Bruce himself concedes he's a long shot for the job.

"Their desire to remove me was basically manufactured, so I figured I'd give them another opportunity to do the right thing," he said. "My expectation that they'll do that is very slim."

Here's a bit about the six other candidates for the job (you can read their resumes and letters of interest here):

Edith Leet served on the Albany school board from 2009 to 2013, and is currently a coordinator for the Capital Region Ecumenical Organization. She also does editing, writing and graphic design work for her own firm, EHL Editorial Services.

Denard Cummings works in the state Department of Health as director of bureau housing and partnership for long-term care, overseeing budgetary matters. He also serves on the board of Green Tech High Charter School, an all-boys school in Albany.

Vaneilya Goodwin-Harden is currently a member of the Excelsior Service Fellowship Program, serving as a liaison for psychiatric centers and helping individuals with criminal backgrounds and mental illness return safely to their communities. She is also a domestic violence and sexual assault counselor in Troy.

Lisa Nolan taught Spanish language and literature as a visiting professor and lecturer for a number of area colleges over the years. She is a mother of two who attend Albany schools, including one daughter with special needs. Her experience as an advocate for her daughter "relating to issues in education, medical, mental health and developmental disabilities" would be an asset for the board, she said.

Adam Stewart will teach middle school math and science at Doane Stuart School this fall, and has worked as an environmental education assistant for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, running afterschool and other programs for "urban youth from all around the city" to further their knowledge in the natural environment and applied sciences.

Tabetha Wilson works for the state Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, helping low-income residents receive child support services. An Albany High graduate and volunteer on the high school's community engagement team, Wilson says she's an asset as a member of the millennial generation, which will have a long-term impact on school board budgets and must stay "active, informed and engaged."

Each candidate will deliver a presentation to the board at one of two upcoming board meetings on Aug. 17 and Aug. 31. The board hopes to make a decision by its Sept. 14 meeting, Adler said.

The person named to the seat will serve through the end of the 2017-18 school year, and will have an opportunity to run for another term during regular school board elections in May.
GLENS FALLS  City police say the man they believe slashed the throats of Crystal Riley and her 4-year-old daughter in their home last week knew the woman, but the nature of their relationship  and his alleged motive  will remain a mystery.

"I don't believe that we're ever going to know why," Glens Falls Police Chief Anthony Lydon told reporters at a press briefing Monday in City Hall.

Riley, 33, was found slain in the home at 148 South St. about 10:30 a.m. Friday. She and her daughter, Lilly Frazier, suffered fatal knife wounds to their throats and necks, the chief said. Police reported recovering a knife they believe was used in the crime.

The alleged killer, 21-year-old Bryan Redden, is a former West Virginia man who was living in the area for about a year. He told police he had a personal relationship with Riley, according to Lydon.

"We're never going to have that story completely told because we're only getting one side," the chief said.

"I guess it doesn't matter what kind of relationship they had. It appears at this point that he brutally murdered her and her child," said Detective Lt. Pete Casertino, who joined the chief at the briefing.

Riley, a mother of two other children who worked in day care, was "just a hard-working single mom," Lydon said.

People close to Riley were unaware of any relationship between the woman and Redden "or even who Mr. Redden was," he said.

The chief said the killings were not the result of a burglary or robbery, and were not drug-related. He also said it did not appear to be a crime of passion. He said Riley appeared to have allowed Redden into her residence.

"I don't think anyone in this room can begin to explain how you commit such a horrific act against a child," Lydon said. "I don't think we'll ever be able to understand that."

Police arrested Redden within two hours of the discovery of the victims. A city police officer spotted him in Riley's car on Bay Street. The chief said police believe Redden left the area after the killings and was four or five exits away from Glens Fall, then returned.

"This was a senseless act, but I do not believe it to be a random act," the chief said. "This isn't somebody that we think was just going to just pick somebody off the street and go to this level of violence. Obviously we believe that they were acquainted with one another. We just don't know the extent of that relationship."

Lydon said Redden asked for an attorney during his brief questioning by police, ending the interview Friday.

The brutality of the killings was not lost on the chief. He spoke of the way police address it.

"It's very difficult to see this type of violence committed against a mother and a child," Lydon said. "I think that in the beginning, officers go back to their what training is and so we go into work mode for the most part."

He said that once the initial public attention to the crime had subsided, the department had to "make sure officers have a line of communication to discuss those things openly to be able to work through those. Because this isn't an easy job and those things  they're not easy to see."

Redden is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The top charge carries a possible sentence of life in prison without parole.

The chief said police were awaiting the results of autopsies on the victims performed Saturday at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

The investigation remains open. Redden is being held without bail in the Warren County jail.
The videos that rolled across the television screen were startling: Americans beating each other with clubs and sticks on the streets of a quiet college town. White supremacists with torches; anti-fascists pushing back. An improvised flame thrower fashioned from an aerosol can. Bottles of frozen water hurled like bricks at one another's skulls.

Kevin Boyle, an American history professor at Northwestern University, watched it unfold, the feeling in his gut both horror and a sense that the racial tension bubbling for years had finally, almost inevitably, begun boiling over.

"Given our political moment, I'm not surprised that we've come to this point," he said. "I'm terribly depressed we've come to this point but I'm not surprised. It didn't come out of nowhere."

Historians and political scientists have been warning that American politics had become a pressure cooker, full of racial tension building once again to the point of a deadly clash, like the one in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday that claimed three lives.

White supremacy has always lurked in America's shadow, said Boyle, whose teaching focuses on the history of racial violence. Then, he believes, President Donald Trump was elected and emboldened their hate.

"Donald Trump gave them permission to come out into the real world," he said. "As long as they were existing in this kind of sad little shadow world where they were just talking to each other, it was disturbing, but it's not as profoundly dangerous as when they feel they can take the public square."

Saturday's chaos erupted around what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade  more than 1,000 neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members who descended on the city of Charlottesville to "take America back" by rallying against plans to remove a confederate statue.

The violence had been building for months during a series of confrontations between members of the "alt-right"  a loose collection of white nationalists, racists and anti-immigration populists  and people who oppose them. It began the very day Trump put his hand on a Bible and took the oath of office. Skirmishes broke out at his inauguration between his supporters, some of them white nationalists, and those against him. More than 200 were arrested.

It was on that day that Richard Spencer, among the nation's foremost white nationalists, realized that something had fundamentally shifted in American political discourse. He was giving a media interview when someone ran toward him and punched him in the head on video.

"We're in a totally new world," he remembers thinking. "Political violence is a real thing."

Days later, anti-fascists hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and ignited a massive bonfire at the University of California at Berkeley to protest a planned speech by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. Violent clashes have piled up since: 11 arrested after fights broke out at New York University when the founder of a right-wing men's organization was scheduled to speak; clashes outside one of Spencer's appearances at Auburn University; a shouting match between the two sides in Pikeville, Kentucky; confrontations in New Orleans when the city moved to remove a confederate monument; police opening fire with stun grenades and arresting more than a dozen during conflicts in Portland. Spencer, and others who support white nationalism, blame the other side.

"With Trump's election, the radical left of this county has come unhinged," said Kyle Bristow, the founder of a law firm dedicated to alt-right legal advocacy.

But both sides agree on the general narrative of how the widening racial and ideological divide took root: Some white Americans began feeling left behind by progress. The decline of the white working class coincided with drastic cultural changes, like quickly diversifying demographics and the election of the nation's first black president.

Now white supremacist groups are actively trying to move into the mainstream. The Daily Stormer, a popular alt-right website, published a story in the run-up to the Charlottesville gathering, calling on followers to leave white hoods or Nazi costumes at home, and go for fitted shirts and suits instead, to attract recruits. They needed to look sexy, the author wrote.

Whether they might be successful in spreading their message depends a lot on how American leaders respond, said Boyle.

Trump quickly came under fire for his response. He said "we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."

The "on many sides" emphasized at the ending drew the ire of his critics, who pushed back on his statement as failing to specifically denounce racism and equating the white supremacists with those who came to protest their hate.

"The bottom line is if it weren't for a bunch of neo-Nazis marching around it would have been a regular peaceful day in Charlottesville," said Kyle Kondik, with the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "Whether he likes it or not, the president, the person that holds that office, is supposed to act as the person setting a moral standard for the country, and I think he's been falling far short in that regard."
According to The New York Times, Gov. Andrew Cuomo deployed close to 200 troopers from upstate New York to New York City airports, Penn Station, and other transportation hubs in the New York City areas.

The New York State Police was established in 1917 specifically to provide a reliable measure of police protection for citizens in rural areas of New York state. The cause was championed by two women who had witnessed a brutal robbery/murder near their residence. Their endeavors had to overcome the objections of organized labor; yet, the bill was passed specifically channeling the troopers' duties into rural areas.
The announcement that the HSE has secured a site beside Nenagh Hospital for a new nursing home has been welcomed by locla TD Alan Kelly.

'I'm absolutely delighted that this state of the art 50-bed facility which I announced 9m funding for while a Government Minister in January last year, will be built beside Nenagh Hospital, he said,

The HSE has secured a 3.5 acre site beside the hospital for the facility and Deputy Kelly thanked them for their tireless work and perseverance in delivering this site.

The new facility will not just double the bed capacity of St Conlon's but will also provide a range of other services, including respite and rehabilitation beds and facilities.

It is absolutely necessary that this purpose built facility advances over the coming years in order to meet HIQA requirements, he said.

Deputy Kelly said that the facility's proximity to the hospital will greatly benefit the residents of the nursing home with the co-location allowing for patient treatments more seamlessly.

St Conlon's Home is a great facility with wonderful staff. A number of years ago, we had a fight to save the current facility and we did through extra funding and staff being provided. Now we will have a state-of-the-art, purpose built facility in the perfect location in Nenagh that will benefit people for decades to come. The project will go to planning and design stage next, he said.

The current St Conlon's site in the centre of the town will remain in HSE hands and, Deputy Kelly said that he understood there was much demand and discussion regarding using it in the future to provide better mental health services in the North Tipperary area.
The 34th annual Kickham Country Weekend Mullinahone enjoyed a larger than usual opening attendance on Friday, due in part to a fresh panel debate format chaired by RTE broadcaster and Drangan native Mary Wilson.

The topic of debate was 'Rural Ireland 2017,' with five panellists drawn from different walks of life, followed by a lively Q&A session with members of the audience.

The five panellists, John Bermingham, Jimmy Brett, Sinead Carr, Richard Morrissey, and Isabel Cambie, have a combined wealth of experience in business, media, and local government.

As the popular presenter of RTE's 'Drivetime' Ms Wilson was guest speaker, and paid tribute to local organiser Sheila Foley for keeping the cultural festival going for over 34 years. Ms Wilson said the Drangan she left in the late 70's had several shops, pubs, two schools, a butcher's, a busy Co-Op. But the Drangan I return to now, has one shop, one school, one pub... you could cry about the shrinking village, and the erosion of local trade, but villages are about communities, and local people.

The sense of place described by Charles J Kickham, isn't enough to keep young people in rural Ireland, and we are now in the 'last chance saloon' for rural Ireland. Mr Bermingham received a round of applause when he spoke on supporting local business. It's up to villagers to support their local shops, rural post offices, or Garda Stations, and people can't complain about shops closing in Mullinahone, if they do all their shopping in Clonmel or Kilkenny, he said There is an onus on all us to try and spend those few extra pennies locally, stressed Ms Cambie.

Shallow political slogans such as 'keep the recovery going' at the last election, also highlight the disconnect between Dublin and rural Ireland, the panel heard.

Jimmy Brett said the reality is that modern retailing involves large multiples and we can't ignore that. What we need are vibrant communities in our villages in particular. We should be planning to create a more suitable environment for people to live in. Government could for example run services through the Post Offices to support them, added Mr Brett. Sinead Carr of Tipperary Co. Council said there was no point in looking at returning to an era 20 or 30 years ago but instead we should look ot the future and ask how can we build a strong network of local businesses to connect people to place.

Friday's Q&A session was followed at 9.30pm by music from Sheehans in the Stack of Barley bar nearby.

*Saturday August 12th: 2.30pm - Historical walk around the village of Mullinahone guided by Richard Sheehan, meeting at the gates of Killaghy Castle. Refreshments in Knocknagow Community Centre at 4pm. 8pm - Variety Concert in Knocknagow Community Centre. Special Guests Cairdeas (Kilkenny Parkinsons Choir). 9.30pm - Music by Vincent Vaughan in TJ Macs

*Sunday August 13th: 11.30am Annual Mass for CJ Kickham and James Maher followed by oration at both gravesides delivered Dr. William Nolan. 3pm - Music and poetry by the Anner at Croc an Oir, Ballycullen, Mullinahone, 9.30pm Music in Lynchs bar. Photographic exhibition of Mullinahone faces & places in Knocknagow Community Centre ran throughout the weekend.
Duncan Morgan (left), of New Zealand, and Paul Hilborn, of North Dakota, visited the Queen Cutlery knife show on Friday, at Timber Lake Lodge, in Titusville.
[August 14, 2017] InVision Opens Utah Office; Whitney Rose Hired as Account Manager

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Utah has a robust economy, with more than 100 direct selling companies founded in the state. It also has more than 5,000 technology companies, a sector in which InVision has a legacy. With an abundance of experience across industries and an interest in growing their direct selling business, InVision is excited to announce their entrance into Utah. Direct selling is a unique industry, with vastly different audience and business challenges compared to many of our technology and health sciences clients. We believe there is an opportunity to provide direct selling companies with measurable results that increase distributor retention and improve their overall image. We can concentrate on a holistic view of their business and develop strategic plans across the entire year, including large-scale events. And our in-house technology team can help innovate the attendee experience like never before. Co-Founder and Chief Culture Officer, Drew Hagen wants to bring the best of InVision to the marketplace. "We know from our experiences with Shaklee and Amway direct selling companies look to create events that are exciting and fun, while establishing an environment of learning and appreciation. We believe we can provide direct selling companies measurable increases in distributor retention and sales. InVision looks forward to building lasting relationships in the Utah area."



InVision is also excited to have hired Whitney Rose as Account Manager for Utah. With more than 10 years in the direct selling industry, she began her career at Nu Skin Enterprises, where she gained experience understanding how to best support distributors in their business and their journey inside and outside of events. Whitney's relationship with InVision began in 2014 as a consultant, where her knowledge of multilevel marketing distributors resulted in attendee journeys that increased engagement. "If we can bring the same holistic solutions InVision offers to the direct selling industry, it will be a win-win for the direct sellers and their distributors," says Chris Dalton, Group Executive of Business Development and Client Services. "Whitney joining our team is additive to the breadth of expertise we can provide across direct selling companies."

InVision, launched as an event production company in 1991, has grown into one of America's leading, privately-held, corporate engagement agencies. We're focused on providing best-in-class business communication solutions by way of Communications, Engagement and Event Strategy; Experience Design and Creative; and Experience Delivery production. We're proud to be a trusted partner by many of the strongest, most dynamic brands and businesses in the world; designing and bringing to life business-critical engagements such as sales meetings, user conferences, employee engagement campaigns, product launches and more. For more information, please email [email protected]. www.iv.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/invision-opens-utah-office-whitney-rose-hired-as-account-manager-300503283.html SOURCE InVision Communications

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[August 14, 2017] SESCO Lighting expands reach in Alabama, acquires G2 Lighting

MAITLAND, Fla., Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SESCO Lighting is pleased to announce it is expanding its reach with the acquisition of the G2 Lighting Agency, based in Birmingham, AL. According to Todd Langner, President/CEO of SESCO Lighting, "Today more than ever, this acquisition helps support our growing sales efforts. This opportunity creates a unified specification and contractor support structure over our entire footprint. From a geographical standpoint, our now contiguous footprint bolsters our presence in both the greater Atlanta and Gulf Coast markets. This opportunity creates a unified specification, contractor and distributor support structure over our entire footprint." It has been a goal of SESCO Lighting to expand into Alabama, and the buzz and excitement over theannounced acquisition in the Birmingham market is something that is embraced by the growing SESCO Lighting team. Marshall Graham, SESCO's Chairman, says, "When looking at this acquisition, it quickly became apparent that Shannon Godwin and the team at G2 Lighting were an extraordinarily good fit for SESCO. The fact that SESCO and G2 Lighting are both specification driven companies made Shannon's team the obvious choice."



When the contract was finalized, Shannon Godwin, President of G2 Lighting added, "I sincerely appreciate the opportunity the SESCO family has provided G2 Lighting Agency and its employees. I am very thankful to the outstanding manufacturers and staff who supported G2 Lighting Agency over the last several years. I owe a debt of gratitude to the specifiers, distributors and contractors who supported G2 and we all look forward to a new beginning as we join the SESCO family!" The G2 Lighting Agency and its employees will be integrated into SESCO over the next month. Today, SESCO Lighting is the nation's largest and most successful lighting manufacturers' representative company, with more than 250 employees and annual sales approaching $300 million. Founded in 1967 by Mike Segal and this year celebrating 50 years in business, SESCO Lighting, an ESOP, is now 100% employee owned with 14 branch offices and 8 support divisions.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sesco-lighting-expands-reach-in-alabama-acquires-g2-lighting-300504100.html SOURCE SESCO Lighting

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[August 14, 2017] Michael Ngai, Chairman of The Red Group and Former Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank Joins Cloudwith.me Advisory Board

Cloudwith.me $300 million ICO creates the Cloud Token for ready use to access cloud services at 50% of the current cost

Cloudwith.me creates basis for a distributed blockchain payment ecosystem DUBLIN, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloudwith.me, the managed cloud services company, today announced the appointment of Mr. Michael Ngai to its Advisory Board. Mr. Ngai is a financial industry leader in Asia Pacific and will advise Cloudwith.me on its "Cloud" cryptocurrency Initial Coin Offering (ICO), and on corporate governance and business strategy. Michael Ngai has a wealth of experience in international finance. He is currently the Chairman of The Red Group and was previously the Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank. Mr. Ngai is also Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference ("CPPCC"), a Standing Committee Member of CPPCC Heilongjiang Province, China, and a Fellow Commoner and Development Advisory Council Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. "Mr. Ngai is a valuable addition to our company and will be instrumental in helping us achieve both a successful ICO and to create a more accessible, lower cost decentralized cloud," said Asaf Zamir, Cloudwith.me's Co-Founder and CTO. "His experience will also be key in advising our management team an assisting with our global corporate development."



Commented Mr. Ngai: "The blockchain revolution has the potential to bring disruptive change that will drive commoditization of cloud services costs and make the cloud accessible to millions of more people, especially in developing countries. Cloudwith.me's technology and vision is distinguished from almost every other ICO as providing immediate application and a real value proposition. This is an exciting ICO with a specific focus that can take the cloud to the next level." Cloudwith.me was founded in 2015 to offer its customers a managed hosting solution for hyper-scale cloud services. It currently has over 22,000 server deployments globally servicing SMBs worldwide with strong partnerships with the leading providers of cloud services today.

Cloudwith.me's ICO is focused on delivering immediate value for Cloud Token buyers. Most notably, the Cloud Token is the only cryptocurrency token that can be used shortly after the close of the ICO to benefit from and pay for cloud services from the world's largest cloud providers at 50% of the current cost. The target of $300 million from Cloudwith.me's ICO will be invested in cloud infrastructure and software development. Cloudwith.me's ICO campaign will finish on August 25th, 2017. During the ICO, accredited investors can buy the Cloud Token using Bitcoin or Ether or make purchases with regular bank transfers and credit cards. For more information on the Cloud ICO please visit: token.cloudwith.me About Cloudwith.me Cloudwith.me, founded in 2015 by Asaf Zamir and Gilad Somjen, provides a managed hosting solution for access to AWS and Azure cloud services. Cloudwith.me provides improved efficiency for individuals and business owners, from SME to enterprise, by simplifying the process and minimizing the amount of time and complexity required to set up and maintain their cloud servers. Media Contacts:

United States

Amanda Drain

Montieth & Company

[email protected]

+1-646-864-3263

Europe

Zarna Patel

Montieth & Company

[email protected]

+44-020-3865-1947

Asia-Pacific

Monica Qu

SPRG

[email protected]

+86(10)8580-4258 x 251

SOURCE Cloudwith.me

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[August 14, 2017] Web Werks Awarded for Best Cloud Data Centers and Internet Exchange at Zee Business Worldwide Achievers Summit 2017

MUMBAI, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Web Werks announced that it has been the 'Best Cloud Data Center and Internet Exchange Company of the Year' in the 7th Business Leader Summit and Awards 2017 held at The Leela, Mumbai on 7th August 2017. "With the competition so high in this web hosting industry, being appreciated and rewarded as the 'Best Cloud Data Center and Internet Exchange Company of the Year' is surely an achievement. We always try to suggest the best solution to our clients when it comes to their hosting needs. We as being in this industry for 20+ years pay a lot of attention to customer service. That is one of the reasons that we are one of the best in the industry. We are obliged that our customers are happy with us and we are getting recognized for it," said Nikhil Rathi, CEO, Web Werks. About Business Leaders Awards 2017 Business Leaders Awards, organised by Zee, are the authoritative awards praising the soul of magnificence in business leaders in India. The eneficiaries of the awards are visionaries behind the present extraordinary businesses. They are stellar people who embody quality, inventiveness, information, foreknowledge and who drive the development of their businesses with vision and motivation.



Worldwide Achievers Business Leaders Awards 2017 respect the practitioners and pioneers in breath-taking style as the business and services industry participate to encourage India's best banking sector, telecom industry, manufacture industry, service, and technology provider, education service provider, healthcare and well-being, hospitality, leisure and tourism, real estate companies and that's only the tip of the iceberg. About Web Werks

Established in 1996, Web Werks is an ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 20000 - 1 and Uptime Institute Certified Cloud Data Center Service Provider in India. Web Werks has been awarded with 'The Best Web Hosting Award 2017', 'Retailer Of The Year For Best Cloud Data Centers And Internet Exchange', 'Great Indian Workplace Award (GIWA) 2017' and many more. Web Werks focuses on quality-driven, self-managed and fully-managed hosting services that include cloud solutions, dedicated servers and VPS hosting services on linux and windows operating platforms. They also deliver disaster recovery services, Innovative Rapid Cloud backup technologies, work area recovery services, CDN services, etc. They have collaborated with more than 1000+ organizations globally that include Fortune 500 companies across various business verticals. This also includes Government sectors as well, such as Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation, NABARD, NPCI, etc. For more information, kindly visit, http://www.webwerks.in

Media Contact:

Priti Shetti

Corporate Communications

Data Center News

[email protected]

+91-8828335555





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[August 14, 2017] CRN 2017 Annual Report Card: StorageCraft Takes Top Spot, Sweeps the Data Protection Software Category

DRAPER, Utah, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- StorageCraft, whose mission is to protect all data and ensure its constant availability, today announced it won the Data Protection Software category of the CRN 2017 Annual Report Card (ARC) awards. The Annual Report Card summarizes results from a comprehensive survey measuring solution provider satisfaction across product innovation, support and partnership for the hardware, services and software vendors they team up with. StorageCraft swept the category, meaning it received the highest marks in each of the three criteria used to determine the category winner: partnership, product innovation, and support. It is possible for a vendor to win the category without winning on all three criteria. StorageCraft not only took the overall category, but also won all three subcategories. The vendors with the highest ratings are named to the prestigious Annual Report Card list of winners and celebrated as best-in-class by their partners. The results also provide the IT vendor community with valuable feedbackdirectly from their solution providersthat can be used to refine product offerings, enhance support offerings and improve communication with partners. "We feel especially honored by, and grateful to, our outstanding partner community," said Matt Medeiros, chairman and CEO of StorageCraft. "Winning the Data Protection Software category is an amazing achievement on its own. To sweep the categorywow. The results underscore the loyalty and dedication of our partners, the dedication of our employees who go above and beyond for them, and last but not least, our continued power to innovate the industry with unique solutions to address pressing business needs." StorageCraft equips its vast network of channel partners with innovative solutions that solve their clients' data management and data protection problems. StorageCraft solutions include flexible and reliable on- and off-prem recovery options, an industry-leading file and folder backup application with smart file analysis, infinite scale-out storage solutions, and cloud backup for hosted data (Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite by Google)with more game-changing soluions on the horizon.



Last year, StorageCraft unveiled a new partner program and a revamped Partner Portal. The program provides profit-margin benefits and deal registration that reward productive channel partners, a redesigned training and certification curriculum to help partners stay current on our new solutions, and more. StorageCraft understands that in order to be successful, its partners must be successful. This year's group of honorees was selected from the results of an in-depth, invitation-only survey by The Channel Company's research team. More than 3,200 solution providers were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with more than 60 vendor partners in 22 major product categories. The winners will be honored throughout The Channel Company's XChange 2017 conference (http://www.thechannelco.com/events/xch17/about), taking place August 1315 in Kissimmee, Fla.

"An ARC Award is a truly meaningful honor, representing direct affirmation from channel partners of the quality and ingenuity of a vendor's product, support and partnership," said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company." CRN's Annual Report Card project gives solution providers an opportunity to provide their unique perspective on vendors' offerings and partner programs, and in turn gives technology suppliers valuable, actionable feedback. I extend my sincerest congratulations to each of this year's ARC Award winnerswe look forward to celebrating them at this year's XChange Conference in August." The 2017 Annual Report Card results can be viewed online at www.crn.com/arc and will be featured in the October issue of CRN. Click to Tweet:

@TheChannelCo recognizes @<Company> in 2017 @CRN ARC #CRNARC crn.com/arc About StorageCraft

The StorageCraft family of companies, founded in 2003, provides award-winning backup, disaster recovery, system migration and data protection solutions for servers, desktops, laptops and SaaS applications in addition to powerful data analytics. StorageCraft provides business continuity and data management market services through software products that reduce downtime, improve security and stability for systems and data, and lower the total cost of ownership. For more information, visit www.storagecraft.com. StorageCraft and ShadowProtect are trademarks of StorageCraft Technology Corp. Other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. O 2017 StorageCraft Technology Corp. All rights reserved. Contact Information: Jock Breitwieser

StorageCraft Technology Corp.

+1 408.800.5625

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crn-2017-annual-report-card-storagecraft-takes-top-spot-sweeps-the-data-protection-software-category-300503484.html SOURCE StorageCraft

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[August 14, 2017] The American Journal of Managed Care to Host the 2017 Patient-Centered Oncology Care Meeting

The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), the No. 1 ranked journal in managed care by Google (News - Alert) Scholar, announces the Patient-Centered Oncology Care (PCOC) meeting on November 16 -17, 2017, at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel in Philadelphia, announced Jeff Prescott, PharmD, senior vice president of Managed Markets. In making this announcement, Dr. Prescott said, "AJMC is proud to host the Patient-Centered Oncology Care meeting which presents an exciting opportunity for managed care and oncology professionals to gather and discuss the impact they have on patient care. We are honored to be joined by an expert faculty at this year's conference." This patient centric meeting will feature the following thought leaders from across the nation: Jonas A. de Souza, MD, MBA , medical director, Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Humana

, medical director, Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Humana Brenton Fargnoli, MD , director of Product Marketing and Strategy at Flatiron Health

, director of Product Marketing and Strategy at Flatiron Health Torrie K. Fields, MPH , senior program manager of Palliative Care Design and Implementation at Blue Shield of California

, senior program manager of Palliative Care Design and Implementation at Blue Shield of California Jason Harris , manager of Public Policy at National Health Council

, manager of Public Policy at National Health Council Jonathan Hirsch, MSc, president and founder of Syapse

president and founder of Syapse Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, associate drector (Acting) at CDER, FDA, and founder and director of Information Exchange and Data Transformation, FDA

associate drector (Acting) at CDER, FDA, and founder and director of Information Exchange and Data Transformation, FDA Felice H. LePar, MD, MPH, of Abington Hematology/Oncology Associates, Jefferson Health

of Abington Hematology/Oncology Associates, Jefferson Health Kathy Lokay, president and chief executive officer of Via Oncology

president and chief executive officer of Via Oncology Stacey McCullough, PharmD , senior vice president of Pharmacy at Tennessee Oncology

, senior vice president of Pharmacy at Tennessee Oncology Lalan Wilfong, MD, medical oncologist and medical director of Quality Programs at Texas Oncology



For more information or to register, please visit: www.ajmc.com/meetings/pcoc17#register.

About The American Journal of Managed Care: The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) is a peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed journal that keeps readers on the forefront of health policy by publishing research relevant to industry decision makers as they work to promote the efficient delivery of high-quality care. AJMC.com is the essential website for managed care professionals, distributing industry updates daily to leading stakeholders. Other titles in the AJMC family include The American Journal of Accountable Care, and two evidence-based series, Evidence-Based Oncology and Evidence-Based Diabetes Management. These comprehensive offerings bring together stakeholder views from payers, providers, policymakers and other industry leaders in managed care. To order reprints of articles appearing in AJMC publications, please contact Dr. Jeff Prescott at (609) 716-7777, x331. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005645/en/

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[August 14, 2017] EQT Foundation Awards Nearly $4M During First Half of 2017

The EQT Foundation awarded grants and scholarships during the first and second quarters of 2017 totaling nearly $4 million. Approximately 44 non-profit organizations throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia received funding for programs that focus on education, diversity, community & economic development, environment, and arts & culture throughout EQT Corporation's operating areas. Additionally, through the Foundation's EQT Scholars program, scholarships are providing children from the Pittsburgh community with access to outstanding Pre-K through 12 educational opportunities. As the charitable arm of EQT Corporation, a Pittsburgh-based energy leader, the EQT Foundation helps communities prosper by supporting education - especially STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines; encouraging development of diverse neighborhoods; supporting the environment and preserving local natural resources; and sponsoring programs that foster an appreciation of arts and culture. A partial list of EQT Foundation grant recipients for the first half of 2017 include: Pennsylvania :: American Heart Association - 10 th Anniversary of EQT's Hav A HeartSave A Life program

10 Anniversary of EQT's Hav A HeartSave A Life program City Theater Company, Inc. - EQT Young Playwrights Contest

EQT Young Playwrights Contest The Pittsburgh Trust for Cultural Resources - EQT Bridge Theater Series

EQT Bridge Theater Series St. Francis University - STEM Summer Academy

STEM Summer Academy Winchester Thurston School, Shady Side Academy & The Ellis School - EQT Scholars Program

EQT Scholars Program Corner Cupboard Food Bank - Kid's Bags Program & Community Garden

Kid's Bags Program & Community Garden Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank - Produce to People



West Virginia :: Operation Outreach - Literacy Program, McDowell County Schools

Literacy Program, McDowell County Schools Doddridge County Family Resource Network - Kids Art Camp

Kids Art Camp American Heart Association - 10 th Anniversary of EQT's Have A HeartSave A Life program

- 10 Anniversary of EQT's Have A HeartSave A Life program WVU Foundation, Inc. - Energy Express Summer Program

Energy Express Summer Program Mountaineer Creative Arts Council - Theater performances in Doddridge County About EQT Foundation:

Since the EQT Foundation was established in 2003, it has donated more than $44 million throughout EQT's operating areas. EQT Corporation and the EQT Foundation are committed to the social and economic vitality of our operating regions. Together with a variety of non-profit organizations, the EQT Foundation develops strong partnerships that enrich the diversity and viability of our communities, sustain the principles of continuous learning, and focus on environmental protection efforts. For more information, please see https://www.eqt.com/our-communities/eqt-foundation. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005686/en/

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[August 14, 2017] New Mexicans Would Spend Tax Dollars on Water Only Before Welfare

90.1% would spend on expenses other than life sustaining water system SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - While slightly cooler summer weather in New Mexico may have cooled concern over the state's water system, New Mexico may be taking their clean water access for granted. An abundance of drinkable tap water could be creating apathy for water-related environmental concerns. According to a survey by FluksAqua, a free water and wastewater utility forum, New Mexicans were luke-warm when asked about water and how vital it is to their everyday lives. Key Findings of the Survey: Water  only after Welfare: Only a small number of New Mexicans would choose to invest in water systems with their tax dollars (9.9%) and only after education (30.9%), healthcare, (21.2%), infrastructure (13.6%), security (11.5%) and roads and highways (10.3%.) In fact, the only tax dollar spend they would choose to avoid more is wlfare (2.7%).



New Mexicans overwhelmingly rely on water first when it matters: When asked what is the most important item when prepping for a natural disaster, a definitive 67.2% of New Mexicans would secure water first compared to communication (11.2%), food (10.8%,) money (4.4%), batteries (4.0%), and lighting sources (2.5%).

New Mexicans drink a lot of water: 46.6% of New Mexicans drink three to six 8 ounce glasses of water a day. But they may not care about keeping the water flowing: 90.1% of New Mexicans would spend their tax dollars on other industries before spending on the water system.





of New Mexicans would spend their tax dollars on other industries before spending on the water system. 42.3% believe that education is a more undervalued public industry than water and wastewater operation (14.2%). New Mexicans would rather be water operators than lawyers: When asked to reveal their childhood dream job, water operator (6.3%), took second-to-last place, before lawyer (1.0%). "Everyone is concerned about water when your grass is brown or fire risks are high but they quickly forget about it when the grass is green and the water is flowing," says Dr. Hubert Colas, President of FluksAqua Americas. "We need to prioritize the water system year-round, not just in drought season, for it to remain in good health." About FluksAqua:

FluksAqua (www.fluksaqua.ca/en/) is the world's largest online community created by a dedicated group of water and wastewater professionals to facilitate a constant and interactive flow of information between operators and professionals on issues of water safety, infrastructure, conservation and optimization. SOURCE FluksAqua

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[August 14, 2017] eClinicalWorks Supports National Health Center Week with Its 700+ Health Center Customers Nationwide

eClinicalWorks, a leader in healthcare IT solutions, announces that it is a proud supporter of National Health Center Week (NHCW), which aims to inform the American public, state and federal policymakers, and the media about the nation's 1,200+ community, migrant and homeless health centers. This year's theme is "Celebrating America's Health Centers: The Key to Healthier Communities" and to further demonstrate our support and commitment, we are proud to be a sponsor of National Health Center Week. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005882/en/ eClinicalWorks Supports National Health Center Week with Its 700+ Health Center Customers Nationwide (Photo: Business Wire) "Health Centers are vital for providing medical services to underserved populations," said Rick Diaz, HealthNet's President/CEO. "At HealthNet, we are dedicated to improving lives with compassionate healthcare and support services, regardless of ability to pay. We are honored to celebrate the accomplishments of America's Health Centers dring NHCW."



Over 700 health centers nationwide utilize eClinicalWorks technologies to deliver affordable, evidence-based care to effectively treat patients across settings. Community Health Centers serve more than 25 million Americans, and eClinicalWorks takes pride in making a dramatic impact in traditionally underserved communities. The eClinicalWorks cloud-based 10e EHR solution provides health centers with the only software that includes an Electronic Medical Record, Electronic Dental Record, and behavioral health module. Together, they provide a comprehensive community care record fully integrated with each patient's records. To date, nine health center customers have been awarded the HIMSS Davies Award for outstanding achievement in substantially improving patient outcomes and value, while utilizing eClinicalWorks technology. "As a non-profit FQHC that serves Central Florida, we realize the importance of raising awareness and celebrating NHCW," Margaret Brennan, CEO of Community Health Centers, Inc. "Health centers are the backbone of our country's diverse populations. Community Health Centers, Inc. is committed to providing high-quality, outcome-based healthcare to our patients and to implementing the necessary tools in order to achieve that goal."

NHCW events are scheduled across the country, including health fairs, visits by members of Congress and state officials to local health centers, press conferences, back-to-school drives, community breakfasts, patient appreciation events, free health screenings and dental cleanings, and much more. To learn more about NHCW and the list of events please visit: www.healthcenterweek.org. "eClinicalWorks is proud supporter of National Health Center Week," stated Girish Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks. "eClinicalWorks has developed strong partnerships and continued collaboration with a variety of health centers and are committed to providing evidence-based care to medically underserved populations." About eClinicalWorks

eClinicalWorks is a privately held leader in healthcare IT solutions. With more than 125,000 physicians and nurse practitioners using its solutions, customers include ACOs, physician practices, hospitals, community health centers, departments of health, and convenient care clinics. During the past eight years, 16 eClinicalWorks customers have received the prestigious HIMSS Davies Award, honoring excellence in Electronic Health Record implementation. The company is second largest in the country for e-prescribing. Based in Westborough, Mass., eClinicalWorks has additional offices in Austin, New York City, Chicago, California, Georgia, London, India, and Dubai. For more information, please visit www.eclinicalworks.com, Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter or call 866-888-6929. eClinicalWorks is a trademark of eClinicalWorks, LLC. All other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005882/en/

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[August 14, 2017] UrtheCast Announces the Signing of a Contract exceeding $100M for the Delivery of a SAR-XL Satellite as an "Accelerator Mission" for the OptiSAR Constellation

VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - UrtheCast Corp. (TSX:UR) (the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a contract with a confidential customer for the development and delivery of a dual-frequency stand-alone Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operational-class satellite as an "accelerator" for the OptiSARTM Constellation. The exact amount of the contract is not being disclosed at this time for confidentiality and competitive reasons, but the Company can confirm that it is a substantial contract worth in excess of one hundred million Canadian dollars. The contract is for the delivery of the SAR spacecraft, key elements of the ground segment, namely the mission control and planning system and the SAR processor, and in-orbit operations support, but does not include the price of the launch or insurance (which are the customer's responsibilities). This confidential customer has previously signed an MOU with the Company for the OptiSAR Constellation. The contract is subject to the customer obtaining final government appropriation approval and to UrtheCast and its suppliers obtaining technology transfer export permits on terms agreeable to the customer. Subject to these conditions being met, work on the program is anticipated to begin in early 2018, for launch in late 2020. Payments by the customer to UrtheCast under the contract are conditional on the Company successfully reaching various program delivery milestones. As part of the deliverables under the contract, UrtheCast has also agreed to provide elements of the satellite ground segment and post-launch maintenance and operational support, each to be further detailed and extended in separate definitive contracts. Using the same SAR technology that the Company has been developing for the OptiSAR constellation, this contract will allow UrtheCast to accelerate both the operationalization of its SAR technology and the start of our SAR data services business. The contract enables the Company to build and launch a SAR satellite as a precursor mission (or "accelerator") to the OptiSAR Constellation and to thereby demonstrate its high-capacity, high-throughput, fully-operational class capability with an unprecedented range of imaging modes and scientific-grade data quality. Under the contract, the parties have agreed to enter into a separate definitive contract to provide UrtheCast with the exclusive commercial distribution rights to the customer's unused satellite imaging capacity outside specified regions on a shared 50/50 net revenue basis, allowing the Company to sell the SAR-XL data and SAR-derived services in advance of the deployment of the OptiSAR constellationthe date of which is now pushed out by at least a year. "This contract is a big win and a huge opportunity for us," stated UrtheCast's President and CEO, Wade Larson. "The execution of the accelerator program will demonstrate to prospective OptiSAR customers that the technology is build-ready and give them the confidence that we are able to carry out programs of this scale. Building and delivering this accelerator SAR satellite will validate our technology, substantially reduce our financial, programmatic and operational risks, and get us into the business of selling SR-XL data sooner than we were anticipating. Subject to final approvals, we'll soon be customer-funded to build our first operational-class SAR mission."



As previously disclosed, UrtheCast believes its SAR technology, for which it has filed multiple patents, will be the world's first "5th Generation" space-borne SAR technology. Both multi-frequency and fully-digital, the Company's SAR technology allows for significant operational flexibility. With six independent apertures, the accelerator SAR satellite is expected to be the first SAR satellite ever to fly more than two independent apertures. Having six apertures will provide several advantages over existing systems, including improved data quality and spotlight-class higher resolution in full stripmap mode, which enables significantly more coverage capability at high resolution than is currently commercially available. The Company today is also disclosing that the OptiSAR technology, which is now in its third design iteration, could be configured in future missions to image simultaneously in three bands (for example, X, S, and L), which is believed to be another world's-first achievement and is covered in our patent filings.

Funding for the development of UrtheCast's SAR technology has to date come from our own funds and from our customers, including the Government of Canada: the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Department of National Defence (DND), and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). About UrtheCast Corp. UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that serves the rapidly evolving geospatial and geoanalytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. The Company operates Earth Observation (EO) sensors in space, including two satellites, Deimos-1 and Deimos-2, to produce imagery data that is displayed on UrtheCast's cloud-based web platform and sold to partners and customers. Through its subsidiary, Deimos Imaging, UrtheCast processes and distributes imagery data and value-added products on behalf of the PanGeo Alliance, a network of eight satellite operator s with a combined 15 medium- and high-resolution EO sensors. UrtheCast is also developing and expects to launch two EO satellite constellations: the world's first fully-integrated constellation of sixteen multispectral optical and SAR satellites, called OptiSAR, and an eightsatellite constellation designed to capture high-quality, medium-resolution optical imagery of the Earth's entire landmass (excluding Antarctica) every day, called UrtheDaily. Together, the Company believes these constellations will revolutionize monitoring of our planet with medium- and high-resolution, high-coverage and high-revisit imagery in all weather conditions. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker 'UR'. Forward Looking Information This release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" and certain "forward-looking information" as defined under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans" or similar terminology. Within this release forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to UrtheCast's future plans, strategies and objectives, timing of milestones, including in respect of the planned OptiSAR and UrtheDaily satellite constellations; the potential precursor program to the OptiSAR Constellation; projected revenues, future trends, opportunities and growth in UrtheCast's industry; UrtheCast's ability to maintain and enhance its competitive advantages within its industry and in certain markets; new product functionality and suitability; projected operating expenses and capital expenditures. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Company's actual results, performance, timing, milestones or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, including, without limitation, any delays or failures in the design, development, construction, launch and operational commissioning of the proposed UrtheDaily and OptiSAR constellations; the Company being unable to adequately finance the development, building, launch and commission of the UrtheDaily and OptiSAR constellations, uncertainty on whether any unused capacity from the precursor SAR satellite will be available to UrtheCast; interruptions to or failures of UrtheCast's infrastructure; legal and regulatory changes or the prevention of the export of certain technologies related to the OptiSAR Constellation by government regulators with jurisdiction over UrtheCast; the ability of UrtheCast to obtain qualified employees, contractors and subcontractors, as well as those factors and assumptions discussed in UrtheCast's annual information form dated March 27, 2017, (the "AIF"), which is available under UrtheCast's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information is developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, in the AIF, and as disclosed from time to time on UrtheCast's SEDAR profile. UrtheCast undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by Canadian securities laws. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. SOURCE UrtheCast Corp.

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November 2022 is Subscriber Appreciation Month

We're launching a full month of surprises to say thank you to our most loyal subscribers!
Tensions over the Jackson County jail continue to mount. Attorneys for former inmates filed a class-action lawsuit last week that would force authorities to address the detention center's dangerous, dirty conditions. Today, we speak with two Jackson County legislators about what they'd do to improve the facility.
AND WE'RE BACK!!!

EPIC Kansas City Hideaway Pix

Hyde Park Gem Built in 1909 this home has been completely renovated. And is quite charming. Being in Hyde Park is a great bonus. 3918 Cambell http://www.reecenichols.com/homes-for-sale/3918-CAMPBELL-Street-Kansas-City-MO-64110-211066192 A perfect example of how an older home can be brought up to date without losing it's original style.

The Agenda This Week

Hot town, hot music ahead for Downtown KC: Aug. 14-20 Here is the highlight reel of what's happening in Downtown KC from Monday to Sunday, Aug. 14-20: Candice Hill will play her steel pan (steel drum) from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday aboard the KC Streetcar, as part of the Art on the Line series presented by Art in the Loop.

Tribute After Tragedy

Man dies nearly a month after fiery crash on I-435 The man badly burned in a fiery crash on I-435 in Overland Park last month has died as a result of his injuries. Willie "Darryl" Wilson, 54, had been in critical condition at an area hospital since the July 17 crash.

Bad Start For KCPS

University Academy evacuated, classes canceled due to freon leak KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- More than a thousand students evacuated University Academy Monday after sensors detected a freon leak in their building. Administrators at the school, located at 68th Street and Holmes Road, quickly decided to cancel classes for the day.

Help Fight JoCo Crime

Shawnee in need of 911 dispatchers Breaking News Shawnee Police say they have a shortage of emergency dispatchers, and the department is hiring. The stress and hours are difficult, but dispatcher Amber Merritt says the job is rewarding. "I'm somebody that likes the adreneline that you get with the high-intensity calls," Merrit said.

KC Music Man Crime Report

KC's $14 million Music Man scammer caught running a new fraud The Kansas City area's Music Man is back - and back in trouble - right here in River City. He's Michael Burnos, perpetrator of a $14 million musical instrument scam that took in 1,342 victims across Missouri, Kansas and other states. It was an elaborate scheme that ran for nine years.

Locals Decorate Urban Blight

Work By Kansas City Artists Enhances KU Medical Center's New Education Building Amid its ultramodern lecture halls, the University of Kansas Medical Center's new health education building is also a showcase for several Kansas City artists. University leaders say the $82 million facility at the corner of 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard, designed by Helix Architecture + Design, was shaped with student engagement in mind.

Internationalinspires this look at all of the afternoon links worth a peek in this informative pool. Checkit:And this is theright now . . .
For Those Who Survived The Weekend

Two taken to an area hospital following a shooting in the 3200 block of Linwood The Kansas City Police Department is investigating after two people were shot Sunday evening. That incident happened just before 6 p.m. in the 3200 block of E. Linwood. Police said two people suffered non-life threatening injuries. There are no suspects in custody. No additional details are available at this time.

Rock Chalk Guv House Party Probs

At The Kansas Governor's Mansion, Confusion Lingers Over Concealed Carry After four years of planning for concealed carry in Kansas government buildings, you might expect that officials would have the wrinkles ironed out -- that they would have considered all the possibilities. But there is still confusion, and it starts at Cedar Crest, the stately governor's mansion on the west side of Topeka.

Rock Chalk Luxury Lockup

Next prison built in Kansas would likely be fully air conditioned TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas corrections officials expect the next prison built by the state to be fully air-conditioned, including the cells for inmates.They view climate control as a way to lessen problems with inmates and to help combat high employee turnover.

The Left Against Sen. McCaskill

Claire McCaskill faces 2018 challenge from within Democratic Party Sen. Claire McCaskill already was anticipating a tough fight from Republicans as she seeks a third term, but her path got even trickier this month when she found out she now faces a challenge from her left as well.

The August Warm-Up

A few stray showers possible Monday Monday afternoon will feel a little more like August.

Streaking Kansas City

Yost says Royals have momentum: 'It's hard to get, it's easy to stop' | FOX Sports After a rough patch just a few games ago, Ned Yost says the Royals are back on track.

Candice inspires just a few quick links to start the day. Take a peek:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
DID CONGRESSMAN CLEAVER CROSS THE LINE WITH HIS ATTACK ON PREZ TRUMP AMID THE N. KOREA NUKE CRISIS AND SO MUCH DIVISIVE DISCORD???

The top ranking politico in town offered a direct criticism via social media that is rougher than than most laymen realize amid an increasingly course public conversation.While Internets geeks and oversharing digital exhibitionists regularly ruin their job prospects and family relations via social media, the dislike from the Congressman isand reaching across the aisle to recognize the humanity in the political opposition.To be fair, even JoCoAnd so, to start the morning we ask our blog community . . .You decide . . .
Greek Alternate Labour Minister Rania Antonopoulou expressed her certainty that the unemployment rate will fall under 20 percent in 2018 "breaking the psychological barrier of 1 million unemployed" in an interview with the Sunday edition of Avghi newspaper.

She calculated that the growth rate will move at 2 percent in 2017 which will create new job positions.

"The turn of page in the economy and the Labour Ministry's intervention constitute the main factors of the increase in the employment rate" she noted adding that ministry's priority is "the tackling of the long-term unemployment".

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: EahJoseph License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ANA-MPA
Greek president on Sunday was declared honourary citizen of the municipality of Anogeia on Crete

The Greek people's sacrifices, that in order to remain in Europe did many things, were recognised at last, stated President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos addressing representatives of the local authorities and mayors of the island of Crete on Sunday.

Referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement on Saturday on Greece he noted: "I believe that it was recognition of the Greek people's battle to remain and struggle for the European idea.

Greek president on Sunday was declared honourary citizen of the municipality of Anogeia on Crete.

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: License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ANA-MPA
Saudi Arabias budget deficit halved in the first six months of this year, compared to the figures last year, following sweeping spending cuts and improved oil revenues.

The deficit in the first half of this year amounted to SR72.728 billion ($19.38 billion), a decrease of 51 per cent compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of Finance said.

Total revenues for the first half amounted to SR307.982 billion, an increase of 29 per cent compared to the same period last year. Total expenditures for the H1 was SR380.71 billion, a decrease of 2 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Social sectors such as education, health, social development and municipal services accounted for 46 per cent of the first half budget expenditures.

The Ministry of Finance announced that total revenues for the second quarter of the fiscal year amounted to SR163.906 billion, registering a rise of 6 per cent over the same quarter last year.

While non-oil revenues reached SR62.916 billion, oil revenues for the second quarter were SR100.9 billion with a growth rate of 28 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, driven by improved oil prices in international markets.

Commenting on the financial results for the second quarter, Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan said: "The financial figures announced for the second quarter reflect the improvement in the performance of the State's general finance, in addition to confirming the progress achieved on a financial performance being characterized by balance in the medium term."

As for the challenges, he said: "Although the economic challenges are still existing, we are confident that we can meet our expectations for the fiscal deficit for 2017. The second quarterly report shows the effectiveness of economic reforms and measures in the National Transformation Program within the Kingdom's vision 2030. These reforms have contributed to creating more non-oil revenues and the improvement of spending efficiency leading to a fiscal balance as a strategic objective in the medium term which is positively reflected on the economy of the homeland and the welfare of its citizens."

Assistant Minister of Finance for Technical Affairs Hindi Al-Suhaimi, revealing the figures, said there was positive growth in revenues, improvement of general spending efficiency, and a decrease in fiscal deficit, while maintaining the level of basic services being provided to citizens in the priorities of government spending.

He said the total expenditures during the second quarter amounted to SR210.42 billion with a decrease of 1.3 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. The actual expenditures rate during the second quarter was about 23 per cent from the total budget estimated during the year, while the deficit in the second quarter reached SR46.517 billion with a decrease of 20 per cent compared to the deficit recorded in the same quarter last year; and the public debt increased from SR316.580 billion to SR341.4 billion, driven by successful sukuk issuances.
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, recently closed the application for its second cohort of the ADGM FinTech Regulatory Laboratory (RegLab) programme.



For its second batch, the ADGM RegLab attracted 22 local and international FinTech start-ups and innovators, doubling the number of applications as compared to its first cohort. The applicants solutions cover an array of innovation from virtual currency applications and payments solutions, to crowd funding, robo-advisory, InsurTech and RegTech.



With ready solutions for testing, the 22 applicants seek the opportunity to be accepted into ADGM RegLab programme to advance and launch their innovations and become part of the FinTech community in the UAE and the region.



The applicants hail from various markets, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, India, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.



Richard Teng, CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of ADGM said, "We are very encouraged by the strong interest and pipeline of advanced solutions that the ADGM RegLab has attracted from the local, regional and international community. We have maintained an inclusive approach but robust assessment of FinTech solutions that have the most potential to contribute to the efficiency, growth and well-being of our financial sector and marketplace.



As the leading inclusive FinTech Hub in this region, the ADGM RegLab serves as a key innovation platform for co-creation and collaboration between innovators and financial institutions. The launch of ADGMs first FinTech Innovation Challenge programme further sets the stage for our RegLab firms and FinTech start-ups in this region to interact with local and international leaders for guidance and further business opportunities.



In November 2016, ADGM launched the FinTech RegLab  the first tailored regulatory regime for FinTech participants in the region. The RegLab was designed to foster innovation within the UAE financial services market for both new market entrants and existing financial institutions. The first cohort of ADGM RegLab programme comprises Now Money, Titanium Escrow, CapitaWorld, Rubique, and Finalytix.



Since the programme started in May 2017, each ADGM registered RegLab has received dedicated regulatory guidance by the ADGM FinTech team, as well as focused mentorship and support by ADGM FinTech ecosystem partners.  TradeArabia News Service
The Conserving Bounties Society has launched a large-scale food donation drive across Bahrain to support families and labourers with well-balanced meals sourced from large-gathering events and venues.



Many of the low-income individuals, as well as families with young children, have limited access to adequate, nutritious food; coupled with unfortunate statistics of 10,000 meals wasted on an average day on the island. Through its initiative, the Bahrain-based society reaches out to more than 1,500 individuals on a daily basis across various neighbourhoods, with ready-to-eat freshly prepared meals that are quality-assured and immediately distributed to people who need it the most.



The society has made significant progress in reaching out to the local community and has garnered extensive support from Viva Bahrain, Yousif & Aysha Y.K. Almoayyed charity foundation, Al Zayani investment, Bahrain Credit as logistic and financial supporters.



Food is donated by the Gulf Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Downtown Rotana, Alosra supermarket and Paul Cafe (Seef Mall and Bahrain City Center) for collaboration on this program and have successfully raised an incredible number of 90,000 meals, within just first few months of their collaboration.



Moreover, through its partnerships, the initiative is run out of Vivas corporate headquarters which includes a dedicated office space with IT facilities and storage area with a fully-equipped station. Vans donated by Yousif & Aysha YK Almoayyed charity foundation and Zayani Investments to transport food manned by six full-time fully trained staff and volunteers.



In Ramadan alone, the initiative reached out to over 200 families in Budaiya, Hamad Town, and Muharraq; and 1,500 blue-collar workers across four labour camps in Sitra, Muharraq and Manama, to distribute over 11,903 food parcels gathered through 150 events.



Abdulatif Al Rajhi, chairman of Conserving Bounties Society said: The Conserving Bounties initiative was launched with the purpose of generating much-needed awareness on food wastage and its impact on the local community while helping families and individuals gain access to balanced meal and nutrition they need. Over the past few months, we have received an overwhelming response to our program, thanks to our esteemed partnerships with Viva Bahrain, Yousif & Aysha YK Almoayyed charity foundation, Al Zayani investment, Bahrain Credit as logistic and financial supporters.



Food is donated by the Gulf Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Downtown Rotana, Alosra supermarket and Paul Cafe (Seef Mall and Bahrain City Center) who have extended their full support to help us work towards reducing food hardship and reach out to more community members. This has reinforced our commitment to the cause and continue to work towards contributing to the local communitys well-being, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
Norway-based DNO, a leading oil and gas company, has proposed to develop a major oilfield in Ira, a report said.



National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had received the proposal from DNO to develop Changuleh oilfield in Lorestan Province, Gholamreza Manouchehri, NIOCs deputy managing director for development and engineering affairs, reported Iran Daily, citing Press TV.



Several other international companies including Thailand's PTTEP and Russia's Gazprom have also signed agreements to study the same field and present their proposals for its development.



Changuleh is located close to the border with Iraq and is among NIOC's priority development projects.
The signs, data, and remarks made by regimes officials and experts about the new cabinet appear to be that it has not been formed to respond to the countrys contradictions and problems, but, instead, to address the demands of regimes rival bands. Even regimes own experts acknowledge that the current problems are too serious to resolved through a cabinet reshuffle.

According to Fararoo state website, July 31, 2017, one expert said, I have no hope for the 12th cabinet, adding I believe that as long as we have an infected economy which is widely influenced by capital, it wont be significantly affected by anyone. An efficient cabinet is the one with a strategy and plan, the terms governments in Iran have nothing to do with.

As well, according to Afkarnews website, July 25, 2017, a political expert of the regime declared that economic recession is not an issue that can be resolved by merely replacing ministers. Likewise, having 6-8 million unemployed is not going to be over by replacing the labor minister. The economic slowdown wont be fixed by replacing the economy minister. Even if the very Adam Smith was the minister of such economy, he wouldnt be able to fix our economic problems.

Regarding the governments budget deficit problem, experts are saying when a ministry is not adequately funded, what the minister is capable of doing?

An article published by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says, Another important obstacle is the deep, widespread corruption which has totally engulfed the regime. The dimensions of the corruption are so huge that even if the current budget is raised 10 or 100 times, it still wont be able to fix any part of this economic mess. As a matter of fact, the countrys revenues from selling oil alone reached an incredible 700 billion dollars during Ahmadinejads two terms in office, surpassing the countrys total oil revenues ever since oil exploration and extraction began a century ago. Meanwhile, what Iranian people got out of these huge revenues was nothing but more deprivation and a deteriorated economic situation.

In the Velayat-e-Faqih system, the issue is rooted in the nature of the regime, which bears little resemblance to Iranian societys historical characteristics or the requirements of the current era. The regime uses the countrys facilities and wealth to preserve its own existence and maintain its security. Meeting its peoples needs and resolving problems are regarded as minor issues.

Rouhanis new cabinet and some of its ministers proves this.

Domestic and international opinion forced Rouhani to replace Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was revealed to be one of 1988 massacres main executioners. Rouhani gave Pourmohammadis seat to Alireza Avayee. However, Avayee was also actively involved in the 1988 massacre as Khuzestans Revolutionary Prosecutor General. Many of the other cabinet members are veterans of regimes intelligence ministry.

Meanwhile, we see how Khamenei sets out conditions in his validation decree for Rouhani and his cabinet, with Khameneis head of judiciary Amoli Larijani also stressing on those same directives, including paying attention to peoples livelihood and having widespread interactions with the world, as a roadmap not only for president and his colleagues, but for all regimes bodies and forces as well, writes the NCRI, and adds, It goes without saying that making such useless generalized comments are not going to resolve any issue or put forward a way out of regimes dangerous situation, to which Khamenei refers as decisive days while speaking at Rouhanis validation ceremony. In his speech, Khamenei even refused to once again point to his useless resistance economy nonsense, on which he used to repeatedly emphasize in the past.

Khamenei raises the issue of peoples livelihood, while knowing that the countrys economy is collapsing and production is being devastated. He, himself, acknowledged in March 2016, that more than 60 percent of the countrys production capacity has been shut down. Now, with new US sanctions in place, transferring money through international banks will be impossible.

Rouhani highlights the nuclear deal as the only resolution to regimes crises. Khamenei speaks of peoples livelihood, interaction with the world, and regimes internal unity. Meanwhile, neither one has a plan.
Its time to start your next adventure. Plan your vacation at Holiday Expo in Vadodara starting from 18th of August to 20th of August at Kabir Banquets & Convention, Sevasi-Bhimpura Road, Vadodara, Gujarat.



(TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - August 14th, 2017 - Vadodara will be hosting the 9th edition of Holiday Expo, a travel trade exhibition providing B2B and B2C visitors an inroad to striking new destinations. Building on the success of the previous editions, team Holiday Expo is all prepared and enthusiastic about creating a cutting edge and bespoke platform for new participants as well as taking their loyal partners to a whole new level of business networking and client acquisition. The Exhibition will commence in Vadodara followed by Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam and conclude its 2017-18 journey in Coimbatore.

Holiday Expo will provide a comprehensive platform to domestic and international buyers and professionals from across the travel, tourism and hospitality industry to congregate and conduct business, arrive at solution-driven innovation and promote inbound, outbound and domestic tourism in India.Apart from the B2B buyer Holiday Expo is a One Stop Shop where the consumers interact with Tourism Board, Travel Partners and Affiliated Service providers, thus promoting the beauty and the benefits of the destination. The Event is organized keeping in mind the consumer's Travel & Leisure needs.

In an era when Domestic Tourism is on the increase, Holiday Expo showcases destinations from the length and breadth of the country with destinations as diverse as Lakshadweep in the South to the vibrant Gujarat in the West and the Himalayan destinations of Jammu & Kashmir in the north.

Medium sized Indian cities like Vadodara have emerged as one of the fastest growing markets for quality leisure products and Holiday Expo is just the perfect Travel Exhibition to reach out to this very market. Thus ensuring the product profits to its optimum potential. A growing economy, a tremendous increase in spending capacities and a will to see the world have catapulted this very market into a league of its own. It has become new marketing horizon for sellers from travel and tourism industry.

The participating companies will be from wide range of Tourism and Hospitality industry including National Tourism Organizations & State Tourism Promotion Boards, Destination Management Organizations, Airlines, Charters, Railways, Passenger Transporters, and Car Rentals, Shipping, Cruise liners, Travel Agents and Tour Operators, Holiday Packages & Holiday financiers, Technology Providers, Hotel Reservation Networks, Hotels & Resorts, Wild  life Resorts, Health Spas and Ayurvedic Centres, Time - Share Resorts, Eco  Clubs and Adventure Sports, Education Institutions in the field of Hospitality and tourism studies.

###
His trial was completely unfair and unjust as it relied on confessions that authorities got from him after periods of torture. It is unthinkable that officials in Iran will use medieval methods of torture such as floggings, beatings and suspension from the feet and arms as a way of getting a prisoner to confess.

However, despite how unthinkable this is to many of us in the West, this is something that happens on a daily basis in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The media has portrayed this and human rights organisations have condemned Iranian authorities for it.

Woman and minors are not even spared this harsh treatment. In fact, Iran is one of the last few countries that still executes minors.

Amnesty International has commented on the execution of Alireza Tajiki, saying that Iran is defying its obligations according to international law and is ignoring the massive opposition from home and abroad. The organisations Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Magdalena Mughrabi, said that the Iranian regime is, once again, showing that it has no respect whatsoever for the rights of children. She said: This shameful act marks a critical turning point for Iran, and exposes the hollowness of the authorities claims to have a genuine juvenile justice system.

She added: This execution is a flagrant violation of Irans obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it ratified two decades ago. By putting Alireza Tajiki to death, the Iranian authorities have demonstrated their appalling commitment for continuing with this abhorrent practice and shown they do not even have the will to implement their half-hearted reforms to save the lives of those convicted as children.

Iran is no stranger to using the death penalty, even for minor offences. The regime has morality police that will enforce the regimes idea of suitable dress and will arrest, fine or punish people carrying out activities that they class as crimes. Some examples include not being veiled properly, women who ride bicycles, women who participate in sports, etc.

The Iranian regime is so fearful of the people of the country that it tries to keep them under control with harsh punishments like this. However, the people will not be silenced and will never back down to such oppression. The regime will be taken down by the will of the people who want nothing more than peace and freedom.
During the Iran-Iraq war, Mohammad Jafari Sahrarudi was one of the IRGC commanders whose team is said to have assassinated Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Dr. Abdul Rahman Qassemlou and two of his companions. It was ironic that this event occurred on July 13th 1989, during talks regarding Kurdish rights in Austria s capital, Vienna. Sahrarudi was wounded and arrested at the scene of assassination, but he and two others were returned to Iran five months later, through a deal with by Austrian government. An international arrest warrant was issued for these individuals, for participating in a terrorist operation.

He was then appointed as the commander of the IRGCs Ramadan headquarters, which is the main headquarters of the IRGCs 1st Corps, affiliated with the notorious Quds Force. The Ramadan headquarters are located in Tehran.

Sahrarudi played a major role in suppressing student protests in July 1999 in Tehran, and served as the deputy of Ali Larijani, then Secretary-General of Supreme National Security Council, during former president Ahmadinejads tenure.

US troops attacked the Iranian Consulate in Erbil, in January 2006 intending to arrest Sahrarudi, but he escaped and returned to Iran. Four months later, he traveled once again to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, as a member of the Iranian regimes negotiating team on Iraq. The two-day conference, held to discuss the necessary mechanisms for the stability and security of Iraq, in cooperation with neighboring countries and member states of the Security Council. U.S. Secretary of State, at that time, Condoleezza Rice sat down at the negotiating table with the Iranian regimes then foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, and Sahrarudi.

After Ali Larijani became speaker of parliament, Saharaudi was appointed as the head of his office, despite the existence of an international prosecution order for him. Sahrarudi continues to travel abroad, and recently attended the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany. He also participated, along with Ali Larijani, in the Geneva talks between the Iranian regime and the five countries on Irans nuclear deal in 2013.
Ravi Chandel

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 13

Jia Bagga village in Lahore district of Pakistan still haunts the memory of Bagha Singh (86), a resident of Arya Nagar, who was a witness to the Partition and its aftermath.

Singh said, Our village was one of the most popular villages of Lahore. My father was one of the few persons who didnt believe in violence. However, my uncles were rowdy. My mother died after my birth. We were four siblings and I was the youngest.

We were living a happy and satisfactory life over there. People of all faiths and castes lived in harmony at the village. As the speculations about Partition grew, people started moving to India. Things were largely peaceful at our village, he said.

But, when a train came from Bengal to Lahore in which breasts of Hindu women were cut, everything changed overnight. Mobs of Hindus and Muslims started killing innocent commoners. But nobody dared to enter our village, he added.

I remembered a police officer called Cheema, who was very cruel. He started killing Hindus and Sikhs in their villages. He also tried to unleash his wrath at our village but didnt succeed, Bagha Singh said.

A little later, mobs attacked the village again. We gave everything to them but still during our journey from Jia Bagga to the border, they kept attacking us. By the time we reached Amritsar, half of the Hindus and Sikhs were killed, Bagha Singh added.

After coming to Amritsar, people started going to their relatives houses. We also went to our kin in Amritsar. From there, we started our life from zero. As I was able to bring two buffaloes safely from Pakistan, we started selling milk, he said.

Later, somebody told me that the cost of milk was high in Bathinda. So, in order to make a little more money and better livelihood, I shifted to Bathinda, said Bagha Singh.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 14

Six police personnel, including a Home Guards volunteer, who acted promptly and rescued 29-year-old Varnika Kundu, daughter of an IAS officer, while she was being stalked, will be awarded commendation certificates by the Administrator on Independence Day. The two accused in the case were nabbed by the police at the Housing Board light point.

Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, and his friend Ashish Kumar (22), were held on the night intervening August 4 and 5 for trying to block Varnikas way with their SUV while she was heading home. The accused also chased her. In the meantime, the victim informed the PCR following which the accused were nabbed by the police.

They were later released on bail since the offence they were booked for was bailable. They were re-arrested on August 9 after an attempt to abduction was added to the FIR.

Those who will be awarded are SI Vijay Kumar, duty officer at PCR; ASI Ishwar Singh, assistant duty officer at PCR; Head Constable Devinder Singh, wireless dispatcher; Constable Ajay, who received the call, and Head Constable Satish Kumar and volunteer Baisakhi, who nabbed the accused.
Nirmal Sandhu

Nirmal Sandhu

Even though we have demonstrated adequately that we are incapable of a meaningful, civilised debate on any issue  be it in Parliament, television studios or a public forum  we need to decide whether the size of the government needs to shrink. Despite administrative reforms, automatic clearances and availability of technology, an elephant-size government, whose maintenance cost shoots up with every pay commission report, has become a liability.

Politicians need a large government to accommodate every possible loyalist. They have no incentive to shed administrative fat. The US Republic Party believes in having a minimum government and consequently lower taxes, something Narendra Modi once believed in. The Democratic Party, though broadly follows similar economic policies, takes motherly care of the working class and immigrants. In India political parties have no ideological commitments to having a small or large government. They stretch their government to the maximum permissible limits.

After the Soviet meltdown and the retreat of socialism, the Western model of small governments is generally preferred. Punjabi ministers from Canada travel in Punjab like ordinary citizens. Wondering at the spread of ministerial paraphernalia, they are appalled by the level of bad governance. In India, we waste resources on inessentials. We expect a government to do everything and take blame for everything that does not work. As a nation we are less watchful of how our tax money is spent.

Since the government interferes so much in every sphere, including agriculture and business, it is natural for farmers and businessmen to demand incentives and even loan waivers as a matter of right if things go wrong. Protectionist policies have robbed people of self-respect, entrepreneurial spirit and the will to take risks and responsibility for their actions. We disown failures and expect a government rescue if our decisions go bust. Politicians pander to every whim of every section that matters in elections, thus inviting more unreasonable demands. We fully deserve the politicians we have.

A democratic government has a responsibility towards citizens in distress. Providing a social safety net is a laudable goal of a welfare state. In our country while there is no social security worth the name, the concept of welfare has been extended to absurd levels. That politicians' sole purpose of being in politics is to gain and retain power is obvious. So when they seek votes, they make all sorts of promises, say whatever voters want to hear. Sometimes to keep their faith, they deliver also.

If limited resources are diverted to appease this or that section, it affects the quality of governance, the delivery of services like health and education, the functioning of institutions and the over-all well-being of people as Punjab has seen. A bankrupt treasury has a demoralising effect and the pile-up of heavy unproductive debt imposes a cost on the generations to come.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had successfully played welfare politics to her advantage. What stopped Tamil Nadu from ending up in bankruptcy like Punjab was the overall expansion of the economy and efficient delivery of services. Though Tamil Nadu has been dubbed "the number one corrupt state in India", Jayalalithaa ensured that freebies did reach the needy.

If free power can win Badal an election, he would not mind bankrupting a government treasury or taking loan after loan to keep that promise. That would force every political opponent to do the same. Competitive populism has ruined Punjab. Inheriting an empty treasury, Capt Amarinder Singh does not know from where to start work on innumerable promises he has made. Remember what an American journalist, PJ ORourke, has said, "A politician who portrays himself as 'caring' and 'sensitive' because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money."

The latest convert to those using public money to buy themselves public goodwill is Narendra Modi. If he can win an election in Uttar Pradesh by offering free gas cylinders apart from playing communal politics, he would do the same in every next State that goes to the polls. Then he has the justification to deny the gas subsidy to the middle class and raise the tax on petrol and diesel.

If a culture of freebies has to be sustained, which helps politicians more than the marginalised, sacrifices are required from better-off sections. Then there can't be complaints about a state's taxes or/and debt shooting up. We need to settle this debate whether "pro-poor" politics is doing the nation any good. Are we blindly funding schemes that the corrupt benefit from and buy politicians public goodwill. Or do we want our government to get off our backs and do the minimum possible?

If we approve of a government running hotels, airlines and banks that keeping making losses because of political interference, corruption and lack of a professional work culture, or extending financial bailouts to this or that failed business, then we should happily pay for all the taxes and levies demanded of us.

There is growing discontent among various sections because large amounts of resources are diverted from development - infrastructure, education and healthcare. Children dying for lack of oxygen in a UP hospital reveal the state of government healthcare in the country. The Maratha march in Maharashtra, the Jat reservation agitation in Haryana, the Patidars hitting the streets in Gujarat and peasant unrest in Punjab and elsewhere -all point to economic aspirations remaining unfulfilled. This is partly because money which should have gone into agriculture has been used to fund politics of populism.

There are two ways of overcoming deprivation. One is to spend more on education and healthcare so that every Indian is empowered to participate in the effort for higher growth and better living standards. The other is to focus on growth first and let benefits trickle down to the people at the bottom of the pyramid. The second model has not shown very encouraging results. Politics of appeasement makes a mockery of every growth model and is now pursued both at the Centre and in states.

We had some world-class economists at the helm but were rendered helpless in the pursuit of power. The UPA had a good team in Dr Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Raghuram Rajan, but the excessive focus on "inclusive growth" and the political priority of winning elections did not give them a free hand to carry out reforms they wanted.

If a government ceases to be a savior of all and a provider of everything, and just limits itself to the essentials  just a lean, mean and efficient machinery to do the chosen things then we can perhaps breathe easier and be spared a whole lot of financial burden that chokes us now.
Rajmohan Gandhi

Rajmohan Gandhi

THIS valued newspaper asks me to write for free India's 70th anniversary, but I must begin with recent matters.

After that call was made for a tank on the JNU campus, artillery in fact moved. It moved to Karnataka, where Congress MLAs from Gujarat had secluded themselves to make poaching difficult. Big investigative guns confronted the MLAs' rich host, a Congress minister in Karnataka.

In the opening days of this month, August 2017, about the only person in all of India to be publicly targeted for alleged black money was the afore-mentioned Minister, DK Shivakumar.

The timing too may have been well-considered. Since Ahmed Patel, Gujarat's Congress leader, had shown the temerity to stand up to Amit Shah, the BJP president, shouldn't Patel be prevented from re-entering the Rajya Sabha? Why not immobilise Shivakumar and liberate Gujarat's MLAs for the market economy?

We live in no-nonsense times. A day or two before the raids on Shivakumar, this is what Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told Parliament, during a debate on lynchings:

When India's name is shining in the eye of the globe, when people the world over respect our Prime Minister, at this moment to ruin the image of our Prime Minister, our government is as bad as ruining the image of our country I am ending my comments with a warning... As many times as you raise issues like this, those many times we will expose you. Wishes are not facts. India's name does not necessarily glow in the world today. Yes, India's global footprint has steadily expanded over the last 25 years. Persons of Indian origin play more visible roles on several continents. But farmers' suicides, violence against women, and lynching of humans in the name of the cow invite critical international coverage on TV, in print and on social media.

The world also rightly wonders about the media's independence in India. Our always-visible Prime Minister is also, unfortunately, wholly inaccessible. He is possibly the first Indian Prime Minister who does not hold press conferences or give interviews to probing journalists. When was the last time anyone read a candid interview with Mr Modi? Or watched such an interview on television?

Our Prime Minister tweets, launches projects, meets world figures, addresses election rallies, gives a monthly radio talk. He reaches us. Sometimes he makes constructive points. But we cannot reach him or ask him questions. A one-way torrent of words, even of eloquent words, is not democracy.

Mr Rijiju was right to refer to world opinion. We do not know whether the lynchings would have secured a debate in Parliament but for the international dismay aroused. Leaving out exceptions like North Korea's rulers, few regimes can wholly disregard international opinion. During our 1975-77 Emergency, Indira Gandhi kept, in a drawer near her South Block desk, a few small journals that had criticised her. If a foreign caller asked her about the freedom of the press in India, she would show the articles.

The journals preserved in Mrs Gandhi's drawer did not represent the state of India's conformist Press in 1975-77. Likewise, newspapers questioning the central government today do not speak for India's big media. Possessing a much wider reach, our TV channels seem unwilling to hold Modi and his team to account. When Opposition parties become weak and primary media is fearful, only Caesar may save us from Caesar and his supporters. However, Mr Modi, who has the platform and megaphone to reach millions, who expounds a great deal on chosen goals, refuses to address the nation on life-and-death matters.

A brief statement that the Prime Minister condemns lynching was not half enough. From a TV screen, Mr Modi must directly condemn culprits and their supporters. He must tell India's policemen, with the whole nation watching, that they must protect every person on India's soil.

He must assure India's women, Dalits and Muslims, specifying them, that their safety is his commitment. Publicly and privately, he must insist that state governments bring the guilty to justice. His record, unfortunately, does not suggest that Mr Modi will do any of this.

Following Independence, a far-from-perfect yet precious house of democracy was created in our land. Behind it lay the sacrifice of countless people, including the forebears of many who may read this.

In this piece, I cite only from two or three of them, but what a team of heroes we had. I marvel at all of them, thank God for all them, and do not compare them with one another. At that mid-August midnight 70 years ago, this is what Jawaharlal Nehru said:

We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest... All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations.

And here are BR Ambedkar's challenging words: Political tyranny is nothing compared to social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies government.

Narendra Modi himself often speaks of Babasaheb Ambedkar. He also often speaks of Mahatma Gandhi. The Swachh Bharat campaign has Gandhi, or at least Gandhi's spectacles, as its icon.

But the dirt that Gandhi sought to remove was more than physical. It was more than financial. Gandhi was above all an enemy of the arrow of hate between Hindus and Muslims that many of Mr Modi's supporters openly and repeatedly launch. Some of them also openly proclaim the goal of a Hindu Rashtra, the mirror image of an Islamic Pakistan.

Such a change in the Constitution and ideology of India would amount to a brutal reversal of Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru and all those who fought to replace foreign rule with an Indian polity that assured liberty of thought, religion and speech, equality and respect for diversity. Whether their effort has Mr Modi's support or not, the forces that want such a reversal have made solid progress, at least in preparing the political and social ground for it. Will their partial success grow into bigger triumphs? Will dissent and opposition be suppressed with the aid of state agencies and a pliant media? Will thought be controlled through universities and schools? Will it become increasingly hard, dangerous and finally impossible to mount a strong opposition? Hard enough to write, history is impossible to predict.

It may be a mistake, however, to count on the long-term gullibility or inertia of the Indian people, or to dismiss as old-fashioned the instincts passed on to the Indian people by the remarkable movement that saw success 70 years ago. Rousing India against the British Empire but refusing to hate the Englishman, hating Indian society's cruel injustices but refusing to condone ill-will towards any Indian, Gandhi knew he had invited enmity. He fully expected to join the ranks, large in number, of the subcontinent's victims of hate.

Equally, he expected his ideas to continue the fight. Alluding 10 days before independence to the possibility of being eliminated, Gandhi wrote in his weekly Harijan:

I shall be alive in the grave and, what is more, speaking from it (Harijan, 7 Aug. 1947; Collected Works 96: 202).

Similar was the confidence of a great many others who offered their lives for a free India where citizens would be free to think, believe and speak as they liked, and where they loved fellow-Indians, no matter of what kind.

The hand holding it may be old or young, weak or strong, but the torch of national and individual freedom will be held, passed on, and held again, and again, no matter how fierce or long the storm.

The writer, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, is a historian dividing his time between India and the United States.
Charlottesville (US), August 14

A disquiet anxiety has gripped the residents of Charlottesville, many of whom are Indian Americans, after a rally of white supremacists ended in clashes with counter-protesters and claimed the life a woman.

While normalcy seemed to have returned to the city by afternoon on Sunday, residents grappled with shock and fear following a day of violence when a car rammed into a crowd peacefully protesting against the rally by white supremacists, killing the 32-year-old woman.

The city in the US state of Virginia has a significant Indian and Indian-American population, but there was no report of anyone from the community being injured in the violence on Saturday.

Two police officers monitoring the demonstration died after a helicopter crashed near the protest site and 19 others were injured, though, unofficial figures could be high.

"It's still difficult for us to understand and grapple with the reality that such a thing has happened. This is not what the city is about," said Sankaran Venkataraman, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, MasterCard, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Venkataraman has lived in Charlottesville, about 190 km southwest of Washington DC, for nearly 20 years.

His daughter's friend had gone to the downtown area to take part in the counter protest to the white supremacist rally. She returned with a broken leg.

"(The violence) doesn't represent any of the views or characters of the people here. We are progressive people who believe in diversity and inclusiveness. For something like this to happen is a shock to us. The notions of racism, hatred, bigotry are completely antithetical to the views of most citizens of Charlottesville," said Venkataraman, who recently returned from Tamil Nadu.

The Virginia university, closed for summer, is set to open in two weeks and students, a sizable number from outside the US, including India, would start arriving next week.

"I am sure there's a sense of anxiety among students here," Venkataraman added.

Vilas Annavarapu, an Indian-American and student of political science at the university, was among the few who stayed back at the campus to attend training classes.

Annavarapu is also an office-bearer of the Indian Student Association at the varsity that has about 300 active members.

While he did not leave the campus on Saturday, he had a scary encounter with white supremacists on Friday night when hundreds of them had a surprise rally inside the campus.

"They came like right there," Annavarapu said, pointing to the place inside the campus where the gathering happened.

"It was frightening," he said.

"Frustration, I think, would be an accurate word to describe the general sentiment," Annavarapu said. "From an intellectual standpoint, I've always understood that being a person of colour, I will have to be more careful when I walk down the streets. But I don't think I've ever felt as threatened as I have over these past two days." The protesters were openly carrying guns, including AK- 47s, reports said.

Annavarapu feels the election of Donald Trump, who has a following among the white supremacists, has encourage far-right groups.

"It's not like these views are anything new, it's just that now people feel as if they have the authority to come into public and wave them around, as if they're not doing anything wrong. I understand that they have free speech, but that doesn't give them the right to incite violence," he said.

For Larry Goedde Jr, a guitar technician by profession, it was a harrowing experience. His faced was banged on the street by one of the white supremacists on Saturday, causing several bruises to his face.

"I was crossing the street and this pickup truck rolled up on me. And they slammed me down face first, stomped me and then just drove," he said.

Goedde, who recently returned to his hometown after 11 years in Montreal, said many others faced similar situation.

"I wasn't the only one that described this scene. When I went to the ER (emergency room at the hospital) last night, it was full of people. Like with injuries. All of the staff were just they were tired. They were covered in blood," he said.

Goedde, however, said city residents have maintained their cool. "It's unbelievable. The only people that they (police) were willing to protect was the white supremacist.

They had no intention of ever protecting any other... If you weren't holding an assault rifle, and if you didn't have a swastika on you, they were not interested in protecting you.

And that's not hyperbole. I just saw it over and over again".

For eminent Indologist and resident of Charlottesville Daniel J Ehnbom, it was a terrible experience. "The primary blame is with the neo-Nazis, because they deliberately set up to make trouble and they did. It's a very sad thing for Charlottesville. People are still shocked," Ehnbom said.

"The town and the university have a long way to go to heal this. There is a lot to be done about race relations, racism," he asserted.

"The fact that this manifest itself in (Thomas) Jefferson's hometown is horrifying," Ehnbom said, referring to the third president of the United States and the main author of the Declaration of Independence. PTI
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, August 14

Jat reservation stir leader Yashpal Malik was among 12 persons injured in a clash between rival factions at an All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) rally in Samain village of Fatehabad today.

Malik, who was in the village to address a meeting, had barely been felicitated when he was attacked by a group carrying sticks and stones. He was hit on the head and chest. His supporters hastened to form a ring around him and took him to safety.

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It was a free-for-all thereafter with rival factions throwing stones at each other, even as Malik was rushed to Hisar for treatment. The police, deployed in large numbers, were taken aback. It blamed some people sitting in the audience for the trouble. But organisers had another version.

They alleged 50 outsiders had attacked Malik and his men. Malik, speaking to The Tribune, accused Sarva Khap spokesperson Sube Singh Samain of engineering the attack at the instance of a BJP leader in connivance with some police officers. He did not name the BJP leader. Samain village is part of the Tohana Assembly segment which is represented by BJP state president Subhash Barala.

We have given a 72-hour notice to the government to arrest Samain and others and to initiate action against policemen who connived with them. If the government fails to act, we will hold a state-level meeting and decide our future course, Malik warned. He said they had filed a police complaint.

Addressing a press meet at Hisar, he claimed the assailants intended to kill him. There were over 100 policemen led by a DSP and an SHO at the site. Strangely, the assailants came in vehicles with pink badges and simply walked out of the venue after the attack. It is obvious the police had prior information about them. It smacks of a political conspiracy.

The Jat leaders supporters blocked the Hisar-Chandigarh road near Kanheri village for well over two hours, demanding action. Kuldeep Singh Yadav, SP, said the police had so far received the medico-legal report of only one of the injured. He claimed at least four policemen had been injured too.

Samains cellphone was switched off, but speaking to mediapersons at Tohana, he denied any role in the attack.

JK Abhir, officiating Deputy Commissioner, Fatehabad, said with Samain apprehending violence, the authorities had made elaborate arrangements at the rally. He claimed the police had acted promptly.

Sukhbir Singh Hooda, vice-president of the All-India Jat Mahasabha, said there was widespread resentment against Malik for bungling funds collected during the quota agitation and that may have been the reason for the attack.
Ambala, August 14

Haryana Waqf Board chairman and Punhana MLA Raheesha Khan said today that Independence Day would be celebrated on a grand scale.

Students of schools under the management of the board would perform on patriotic songs and present cultural programmes on the occasion, he said, while reviewing the arrangements being made for Independence Day celebrations at the boards headquarters here.

Talking to mediapersons, Khan said: As a citizen of the country, it is our duty to celebrate Independence Day and this time, it will be celebrated on a grand scale at the boards headquarters. Members of the board, Imams, students and other people of Ambala and Rohtak divisions will celebrate Independence Day at the headquarters in Ambala. He said, Independence Day used to be celebrated in the past too, but on a small scale. It is being done to send out a clear message across the country that Muslims have no issues in celebrating the day and singing the National Anthem.

Lashing out at the Congress, Khan said: Some anti-social elements and the Congress have disturbed the atmosphere. It has always used the Muslim community as its vote bank and did nothing for its welfare. The Congress has instilled a sense of fear in the Muslims that the BJP is anti-Muslim and you will be thrown out if the BJP comes to power.

The Congress and some other political parties have been politicising every issue by giving them religious colours, he added.  TNS
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, August 14

Jat reservation stir leader Yashpal Malik was among 12 people injured in a clash between rival factions during a rally of All India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) at Samain village of Fatehabad on Monday.



Malik, who had come to the village to address a constituency-level meeting of his AIJASS, had barely been accorded felicitations by offering him turbans by his supporters when some people armed with sticks and stone attacked the dais where he was sitting.

He was hit on the head and chest with sticks before his supporters provided him cover and took him to safety.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

A free-for-all was witnessed after this as the rival factions clashed pelting each other with stones and using lathis.

Though police were deployed in large numbers, it took some time for the cops to realise what has happened.

The police said the disturbance was started by some people sitting among the audience, while the organisers alleged that a group of 50 to 60 people came from outside and attacked Malik and others.

Malik alleged while speaking to The Tribune that it was a planned attack on him at the instance of a senior BJP leader.

He accused Sarva Khap spokesperson Sube Singh Samain of engineering the attack at the instance of the BJP leader and has also named some police officers posted in the district to have allegedly helped the attackers.

He said at least 50 of his workers have sustained injuries in the attack and added that a formal complaint has been given to the police.

Though he did not name the BJP leader behind the attack, Samain village is part of Tohana assembly segment represented by state president of the party Subhash Barala.

We serve 72-hour notice on the government arrest Sube Singh Samain and others involved in the attack and also take action against the cops who connived with them by their inaction. If the government fails to act, we will hold a state-level meeting to decide the future course of action, Malik said.

Malik and other injured persons were rushed to Hisar for treatment after the incident.

His supporters blocked Hisar-Chandigarh road near Kanheri village for over 2 hours demanding action against the attackers.

SP Kuldeep Singh Yadav, however, said the police have so far received medico-legal report of only one person suggesting injuries.

He claimed that at least 3 to 4 cops have also been injured.

He said no FIR has been registered so far as the police were busy in diffusing the situation.

Sube Singh Samains mobile was in switched off mode, but speaking to mediapersons at Tohana, he denied any role in the attack.

JK Abhir, officiating deputy commissioner of Fatehabad, said the authorities had made elaborate arrangements for the rally in view of the apprehensions of violence as expressed by Sube Singh Samain and claimed that the police acted promptly to bring the situation under control.

Sukhbir Singh Hooda, vice-president and spokesperson of All India Jat Mahasabha, said there was widespread resentment against Malik due to bungling of funds collected during agitation and the attack could be a result of that anger.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 14

Amid tight security ahead of Independence Day functions, four security men, including three CRPF personnel, were injured in a grenade attack in central Kashmirs Budgam district.

Sources said bike-borne militants hurled a grenade at a security patrol deployed for law and order duty at Batapora Magam, over 15 km from Srinagar, injuring three CRPF men and a policeman today.

The grenade exploded and splinters hit at least four security men, including an officer. They were immediately shifted to a Srinagar hospital for treatment, a police officer said.

The injured were identified as Sub-Inspector Bhoop Singh, Head Constable Riyaz Ahmed, Constable Vijay, all from CRPFs 181 battalion, and policeman Nazir Ahmed.

The forces cordoned off the area to trace the militants. However, sources said the militants managed to escape. Militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed the responsibility for the grenade attack.

Meanwhile, two suspected militants of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen were arrested in north Kashmirs Handwara. The police identified the two militants as Younis Ahmed Mir, alias Sarfaraz, of Galwanpora, Budgam, and Tahir-ul-Islam of Muloora Shalteng, Srinagar.

They were tasked to create disturbance in Handwara by indulging in violent activities. Two pistols, two hand grenades and other incriminating material were seized from their possession, a police spokesman said.

The security forces are on a high alert to tackle any bid to disrupt the Independence Day functions. There is a high threat that militants may try to disrupt the functions.

Two militants held
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 13

Hizbul Mujahideen operational commander Yasin Yatoo, alias Mehmood Ghaznavi, was among three militants killed in a gunfight in south Kashmirs Shopian district that ended on Sunday.

Two soldiers were also killed and three others were injured in the gunfight that erupted Saturday evening.

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Police said three militants, including Ghaznavi, were killed in a fierce gunfight at Awneera village, some 70 km from Srinagar, in a joint operation that was launched at around 5 pm Saturday after a tip off about militant presence.

During the search operation, militants hiding in the area fired upon the joint search party. The fire was retaliated leading to an encounter. Three Hizbul militants, including Hizbul commander Ghaznavi, were killed in the encounter, a police officer said.

The other slain militants were identified as Irfan-ul-Haq, resident of Maldara Zainapora, and Umar Majeed Mir, resident of Kulgam.

Ghaznavi (41) was the operational chief of the outfit in Kashmir.

Two soldiers were also killed in the gunfight late Saturday.

The two slain soldiers killed in the Shopian encounter last evening were identified as Sepoy Ilayaraja P of Kandani Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu, and Sepoy Gawai Sumedh Waman of Akola, Maharashtra.

The locals tried to disrupt the operation by pelting stones at the forces. Over a dozen protesters were injured in these clashes.

Bandipore encounter

Meanwhile, two policemen and a soldier were injured in a separate gunfight in Bandipore north Kashmir.

Police said a cordon-and-search-operation was launched this morning in Hajin Bandipore after an input about militant presence.

As the cordon was being laid, militants fired at the joint party of the forces resulting in injuries to two policemen and an Army jawan, a police officer said.

The condition of the injured is stated to be stable. Intense clashes broke out in the area to disrupt the anti-militancy operation.

The officer said militants managed to escape taking advantage of heavy stone-pelting.

The CASO has been called off, he said.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 14

Maintaining that India has achieved notable development since Independence, Governor NN Vohra observed that for the past many years now, J&Ks growth and progress has been retarded by protests and agitations at the behest of separatist elements.

In his Independence Day message, the Governor said besides causing loss of lives, the recurring disturbances had adversely impacted tourism, trade, business and economic activities. The shutdowns and strikes had also resulted in disrupting the functioning of the governmental machinery, public delivery systems, difficulties in the movement of goods and services and prolonged delays in the implementation of growth and development programmes in the state, he said. Other states were forging ahead on the path of growth and development and J&K must not continue to lag, he said.

The Governor said while there was continuing disturbance in the hinterland caused by the activities of separatist groups, Pakistan had maintained its strong support to subversive and terrorist activities. He added that in the recent past also, there had been significant stepping up of ceasefire violations and attempts to infiltrate a much-larger number of terrorists into Kashmir. For the past over a year now, the security forces have remained perennially engaged in carrying out counter-terrorist operations, particularly in south Kashmir, he said.

Referring to the prolonged sufferings of the people of the state, the Governor said the time had come for political parties in the state to critically assess the net outcome of the policies they had followed in the past and what exactly they wanted to achieve in future. It is a sad reality that in the past years, when the state witnessed recurring turmoil, members of the various parties, whether in or out of power, failed to muster courage for venturing out of their secure habitats to meet, hear and talk even to their own electors! The mainstream parties in the state need to accept the challenge of reaching out to people in the villages and towns and winning the hearts and minds of our youth, the Governor said in his message.

He appealed to the leaders of all political, social, cultural and religious organisations, civil society and all other stakeholders in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions to close ranks and work together for restoring a positive environment in the state. This, he said, was necessary for the state to achieve peace and normalcy and embark on the path of progress and prosperity. Side by side, various public services cadres, which comprise the governmental machinery, must also not be found wanting on any count, the Governor said.

He lamented that the educational system suffered irreparable damage due to the recurring agitations.
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 14

Amid growing political unease in Jammu and Kashmir over alleged attempts to do away with Article 35A of the Constitution, the Supreme Court on Monday hinted at sending petitions challenging the controversial provision to a Constitution Bench for a definitive finding on its validity.

Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and debars rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state.

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Petitioner Charu Wali Khanna alleged that it also discriminates against women.

Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution restricts the basic right of women to marry a man of their choice by not giving the heirs any right to property if the woman marries a man not holding the permanent resident certificate.

Her children are denied a permanent resident certificate thereby considering them illegitimatenot given any right to such a womans property even if she is a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Khanna alleged in her petition.

A Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra tagged Khannas petition with another already pending in the top court and said now it would be heard by a three-judge Bench.

If this matter requires to be heard by a five-judge Constitution Bench, the three-judge Bench may refer it to a Constitution Bench, Justice Misra said.

The petitioner alleged that if a woman marries a person outside Jammu and Kashmir, then according to Article 35A, she loses property rights as well as employment opportunities in the state.

Also, a non-permanent resident certificate holder can vote in Lok Sabha polls but he/she cant vote in local elections in the state.

The top court had on July 17 referred to a larger Bench another petition challenging Article 35A of the Constitution.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar had sent it to a three-judge Bench after Attorney General KK Venugopal said it was a very sensitive matter which would require a larger debate.

Interestingly, the Centre has been shying away from filing its response to spell out its stand on Article 35A.

The Attorney General had then told the Bench that the government didnt want to file its affidavit in response to the petition filed by Delhi-based NGO We the citizens, which has challenged the constitutional validity of Article 35A on the ground that the President could not have amended the Constitution by an Order in 1954 and it was to be a temporary provision.

The Supreme Court is also seized of at least one petition challenging the validity of Article 370 of the Constitution that confers special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

But in its affidavit, the state government has defended Article 35A terming it a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution.

The 1954 Presidential Order granting special rights to permanent residents of the state had been recognised, accepted and acted upon since its enactment, it added.
Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 14

Maintaining that removal of Article 35A will hurt the interests of Jammu people the most, National Conference (NC) working president Omar Abdullah today hit out at BJP leaders for launching a misinformation campaign without knowing its consequences.

He said if the BJP was able to win the fight in a court through its proxies, before reaching Kashmir, businessmen and people from outside would settle in Jammu and Ladakh.

Going by the present situation in the Kashmir valley, where locals are moving out and sending their children to different parts of the country for studies, no one will go there. It is not like that removal of Article 35A will snatch employment of Kashmiri youth and their land will be taken away. However, Jammu will be affected the most, Omar said while addressing a party function here today.

Big hotel chains will come and they will not go to Gulmarg, Sonmarg or Pahalgam first but they will buy land at Ladakh, Katra, Bhaderwah, Reasi and other parts of Jammu, Omar said.

Talking to mediapersons after the function, Omar said it was a historic fact that Maharaja Hari Singh had introduced the state subject law in 1927 on the demand of a few people, who were land owners and Kashmiri Hindus to save their land and jobs, respectively. The state subject laws were protected after the accession. These are historic facts and cant be changed, Omar said.

The NC working president said he had come to counter the propaganda of the BJP which was trying to divide people by saying that Kashmir was being benefitted by retaining Article 35A while Jammu and Ladakh were affected by it. No region will be benefitted by the removal of Article 35A but the immediate brunt will be borne by Jammu, he added.

He also rejected the notion that once Article 35A was removed, it would pave way for industrialisation in Jammu. The lack of industrialisation is not because of the special status but because of the conflict. Before 1990, there were industries in Kashmir and Jammu, but once the militancy started, the industry was affected as J&K was perceived to be unsafe destination for investment. There are other things also responsible for lack of industrialisation. We dont have raw material, we have a very small market and we have a huge locational disadvantage, he said.

Commenting on Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis statement of getting an assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on protecting the special status, Omar said, If the assurance has come from the PM, then the Central government will have to associate itself with the case on Article 35A and submit a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court but they havent done it so far.

Replying to a question on the alleged discrimination with women who marry outside the state, Omar said, Domicile is determined by husbands name after marriage in the country. J&K is no different. Before marriage, it is determined by fathers name and after marriage it is determined by husbands name.

Slams separatists

NC working president Omar Abdullah on Monday hit out at separatists for muddying the water by jumping in for protecting the special status of J&K under the Constitution of India. The Hurriyat Conference which doesnt believe in the Constitution of India has nothing to do with Article 35A. Either you say that you believe in the Constitution and then say tampering is being done with it or you should keep quiet on the matter. The Hurriyat has the habit of getting into these issues and muddy the water. It was exactly the same on the GST. They divided the trading community in Kashmir and Jammu groups, Omar said.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 14

Constable of the J&K Police Manzoor Ahmed Naik was awarded Shaurya Chakra posthumously for displaying exemplary courage while fighting militants in south Kashmirs Tral sub-district this year.

A resident of Dachina village at Salamabad, Uri, close to the Line of Control, Constable Manzoor was killed on March 5 in a fierce gunfight in Tral, Pulwama, which also left two militants, including a local commander, Aqib Bhat, an aide of Burhan Wani, and a Pakistani militant, dead.

Deputy Inspector General of Police SP Pani said:Very rarely is Shaurya Chakra awarded to a policeman. It is a great honour for the J&K Police.

A senior police officer said Constable Manzoor (37), a member of the J&K Polices elite counter-insurgency unit, had shown exemplary bravery during the gunfight, especially when security forces had decided to blast the house in which two militants were hiding and giving a tough fight to the forces.

The security forces were in a hurry to conclude the operation as protesters were trying to march to the encounter site to help the militants escape.

He voluntarily came forward and placed explosives around the house despite heavy firing from the militants. The blast brought down the house partially. He again came forward voluntarily and decided to place explosives. While doing so, he was hit by bullets, but did the job despite getting injured, the officer said. He later succumbed to his injuries. Constable Manzoor, who had joined the police in 2002, was the lone bread earner for his family.

By awarding Constable Manzoor, we think the government remembers his services. For us, he is still alive and watching, said the slain policemans brother-in-law Zahoor Ahmed.

DGP Shesh Paul Vaid congratulated the family of the slain Constable. It is a great honour for the J&K Police that martyr Constable Manzoor Ahmed has been decorated with Shaurya Chakra.

A valiant fight

In a gunfight in Tral, Pulwama, on March 5, Constable Manzoor Ahmed Naik voluntarily came forward and placed explosives around the house where the militants were hiding. Despite heavy firing from the militants, he placed the explosives, which brought down the house partially. He again came forward voluntarily and decided to place explosives. While doing his job, he was hit by bullets and later succumbed to his injuries.
Patna, August 14

At least 41 people have lost their lives and around 65.37 lakh hit by floods in 12 districts in Bihar, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying heavy rains in Nepal and parts of the state in the past three days have resulted in the deluge.

The chief minister also conducted an aerial survey of the worst-hit districts of the state's Seemanchal region to take stock of the situation.

Principal Secretary of the Disaster Management department Pratyay Amrit confirmed that so far 41 deaths have taken place due to floods.

While 20 people died in Araria, six in Sitamarhi, five in Kisanganj, three each in East Champaran, West Champaran and Darbhanga districts and one in Madhubani.

The State Weather office forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places in northern and southern parts of the state tomorrow.

An estimated 65.37 lakh population of 12 districts is affected by flood, Amrit said.

The affected districts are Kisanganj, Araria, Purnea, Katihar, East Champaran, West Champaran, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supual and Madhepura.

A total of 22 NDRF teams, seven Army teams and 70 boats are engaged in flood relief-and-rescue-operation, Amrit said.

He said that 1.82 lakh marooned people have been brought to safer places and a total of 48,120 people put up in 254 camps in flood-hit areas.

Meanwhile, after conducting an aerial survey of Purnea Kisanganj, Araria and Katihar districts, Kumar said that heavy rains in Nepal and parts of Bihar in the past three days have triggered floods in the state.

"It's akin to flash floods," he told reporters after conducting the aerial survey.

Araria district was the worst-hit as flood waters have entered the district headquarter town. Flood waters have also entered areas in Kisanganj, three blocks of Purnea and one block of Katihar, Kumar said.

Officials of disaster management, road construction and rural development departments would make an aerial survey tomorrow to make a report on damage caused by flood.

The Bihar CM thanked the Centre for its prompt response in providing assistance to the state after he spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone yesterday.

"I thank the Centre for timely help to the marooned people of Bihar. Besides, Army column sent to Purnea, four teams of NDRF have arrived in Bihar yesterday and six more NDRF teams landed today to assist state to take up relief and rehabilitation work on a war footing," he added.

He said he also spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on the situation.

Kumar also directed district magistrates of flood-hit areas to make an aerial trip to assess the problem and arrange effective relief and rehabilitation accordingly.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi also thanked the Centre for help to marooned people of Bihar.  PTI
Mumbai, August 14

A Supreme Court-ordered auction process began on Monday for Aamby Valley resort town of embattled Sahara group at a reserve price of Rs 37,392 crore.

The official liquidator of the Bombay High Court published an auction notice on Monday inviting prospective bidders for the integrated hill city township spread near Lonavala, located between Mumbai and Pune.

A Mauritius-based investor, Royale Partners Investment Fund, last week said it had offered to invest USD 1.67 billion (over Rs 10,700 crore) in Sahara groups Aamby Valley project.

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Sahara group pegs the market valuation of this project at over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Replying to emailed queries about its proposed deal with Sahara group, RPMG Investment told PTI, As deposed by Sahara before the Supreme Court, Royale Partners Investment Fund Ltd and its Limited Partners have agreed to invest USD 1.67 billion in the Aamby Valley Project.

Saharas advocate Gautam Awasthi had said in a statement that the group had moved an application before the Supreme Court seeking permission for entering into an agreement with Victor Koenig UK Limited, with the nominee Royale Partners Investment Fund Limited, for inviting an investment of USD 1.67 billion into its Aamby Valley project.

....Saharas had also prayed for stopping the auction process. After hearing counsels for Sebi, amicus curie and Kapil Sibal, senior advocate for Sahara, the Supreme Court has opened a window for Sahara by permitting them to enter into the negotiations and deposit the amount before this court, and that is Rs 1,500 crore to be deposited before the next date, he said.

Awasthi had said that it was said by the judge that if Rs 1,500 crore was deposited, then auction order would be withdrawn.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said the auction process would go on according to the schedule, but if Rs 1,500 crore was paid, as proposed by the group, into the Sebi-Sahara refund account by September 7, then it might pass an appropriate order.

The group had asked the court to postpone the auction, which was scheduled to start with publication of a notice on August 14, till September 16 to enable Sahara group chief Subrata Roy to arrange the money.

Sahara lawyer told the court that hotels in New York have been sold and soon money would be coming into the Sahara account after which Rs 1,500 crore would be deposited into the Sebi-Sahara refund account by September 7, as had been directed by the court.

Sahara has been engaged in a long-running battle with the capital market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India).

The apex court had on July 25 asked the embattled Sahara chief to deposit Rs 1,500 crore in the Sebi-Sahara account by September 7 and said that it might then deliberate upon his plea seeking 18 months more time for making complete repayment. PTI
Kathmandu, August 14

At least 14 people were killed in a landslide in Nepal on Monday, taking the death toll in floods and rain-related calamities to 80 across the Himalayan nation, even as all the 35 stranded Indian nationals have been rescued, officials said.

Heavy rainfall has lashed Nepal for the past four days, swelling several Himalayan rivers beyond the danger mark and causing flooding and landslides at many places in the country.

The river Rapti, which flows through a large part of Nepal towards the southern plains, flooded human settlements and hotels popular with tourists in the Chitwan Valley.

All the 35 Indian nationals, who were stranded in Sauraha, a part of the Chitawan National Park, have been rescued, an Indian Embassy spokesperson said. They were rescued to safer place by using tamed elephants.

Although earlier reports quoting local authorities, said that 200 Indian tourists were among the 700 stranded people, the Indian Embassy official said only 35 of them were Indian nationals.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) at least 12 people were killed by landslide in Morang district today, taking the death toll in the district to 17 and overall to 78.

Thirty five people were also missing since Friday. The monsoon havoc has affected 27 districts spanning from the eastern, central to the western regions.

Nine persons were killed in Rautahat, eight were killed in Sunsari, four each in Sarlahi, Sindhuli, Bara, Makawanpur and Banke districts, five persons were killed in Jhapa, three killed each in Dang and Surkhet, two each were killed in Bardiya and Chitawan and nine persons were killed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Nepals Energy Minister Mahendra Bahadur Sahi has claimed that the highways built along the no mans land on the Indian side of the border are the major reasons behind the floods in the Terai.

The highways made by elevating the land next to the Nepal-India border have restricted the natural flow of water, leaving Nepals Terai plains submerged during the rainy season, Shahi said.

The government will take up the issue with India during Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deubas India visit slated for next week, Shahi said yesterday.

A total of 34,843 houses were inundated across the plains. More than 1,000 houses were destroyed in floods that killed an estimated 400 livestock, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The government has mobilised Nepal Police, Nepali Army and Armed Police Force personnel for rescue and recovery work.

Rainfall is likely to continue in the next few days, as predicted by the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD).

Weathermen have said the extreme rainfall, starting from eastern Nepal, witnessed in the last few days was caused by the formation of a low pressure zone over the hills. The monsoon, it added, was gradually getting weaker in the east and moving towards the west.  PTI
Guwahati, August 14

With the flood situation in Assam deteriorating, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spoke to Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal for the second time in as many days and said all possible support was being provided to the state.

The PM said the Centre was closely monitoring the flood situation in Assam. PM @narendramodi spoke to Assam CM @sarbanandsonwal yesterday & today regarding the flood situation in the state, the PMO tweeted.

All possible support is being provided to Assam for overcoming the flood situation prevailing in parts of the state, Modi said. The current flood fury has claimed over 20 more lives and rendered over 12 lakh homeless.

The entire north-eastern region has been cut off from the rest of the country through the rail link due to heavy rain in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and N-E states over the past 72 hours.

Deluge in Bihar

Heavy rain in Nepal and parts of Bihar over the past three days has triggered floods in the state, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said after conducting an aerial survey of the affected areas on Monday. He was accompanied by Disaster Management Minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav and Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh. Araria was the worst effected district, he said.

Nitish thanked the Centre for its promptness in providing assistance to the state after he spoke to PM Narendra Modi over phone yesterday. I thank the Centre for extending timely help for the marooned people of Bihar. Today, an Army column was sent to Purnea, while six NDRF teams also landed to assist the state.  TNS & PTI
Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Maharajganj, August 14

Time has come to a standstill at six-year-old Jyotis house. Mother Saroj keeps asking where she went wrong. She had rushed her daughter to the well-equipped Baba Ram Das (BRD) Medical College Hospital within two hours of her daughter falling ill. She is among the 23 children who died on the fateful night of August 10 reportedly because of lack of oxygen cylinders.

Sitting in the verandah of her kutcha house in Nagabari village in Maharajganjs Shyamdewra block, 30 km from the BRD Hospital, Saroj recalls how the doctor monitoring acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) cases had pushed her away as she kept rushing to him to report her daughters laboured breathing.

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I dont recall his name, but he was a senior doctor and was very angry when I kept asking him to explain why my daughter, whose condition had become stable, had suddenly gone into distress late in the night. Father Vinod Chaurasia, a tailor at nearby Bardawa Churaha, said they were handed an Ambu bag (manual resuscitator) which he kept pumping as instructed by the doctor.

Saroj recalls that her daughter, a Class II student at the local primary school, was fine and had attended school on August 9, played in the courtyard in the evening, watched her favourite cartoon Motu-Patlu and they fallen asleep, like any other day.

At 4 am on August 10, she was up and asked her mother for water. She then went back to sleep. At 6 am, Jyoti got up with a start and fell unconscious. That is when the parents rushed her to the hospital. By 8 am the paper work was done and she had been admitted. Vinod says he spent abound Rs 1,000 on the initial blood and other tests. But the hospital did not give them any papers save the death certificate.

As Jyotis condition worsened, I rushed to the doctor who gave her four injections. Before he returned to his seat, she was gone. The doctor refused to admit she was dead. He made me hear her heartbeat through his stethoscope. But I told him this was the Ambu bag being pumped, recalled Saroj.

The parents fought with the doctors for two hours for their daughters body. Other attendants similarly pleaded for the bodies of their dears ones, but the doctors said this would be done once the oxygen cylinders arrived, said Vinod, adding they were clearly trying to cover their tracks.

6 more children die at BRD hospital

Gorakhpur: Six more children have died from encephalitis since Saturday at state-run BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where the death of nearly 70 of them has set off a nation-wide outrage. Additional Director Health Pushkar Anand on Monday said these fresh deaths occurred between August 12 and 14. In the past three days  from August 12 to August 14  six encephalitis patients, mostly children, have died. In the same period, 21 patients were admitted for treatment. At present, nearly 75 encephalitis patients are undergoing treatment, he said. PTI

NHRC notice to UP

New Delhi: Taking suo motu cognisance, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government over the death of children in Gorakhpur, observing it indicated gross callousness. It asked the state Chief Secretary to submit a detailed report in four weeks on the steps taken for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected families as well as action taken against the guilty officers.The reported deaths, in such a large number at a government-run hospital, amount to serious violation of the right to life and health of the innocent victims, it said.  PTI

Yogi wont quit: Shah

Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday rejected the demand for resignation of UP CM Yogi Adityanath in the wake of the death of over 60 children in the Gorakhpur hospital. In such a big country, many accidents happen. This has not happened for the first time. Such accidents also occurred during the Congress regimes, he said. It was a mistake...it might have happened at any stage. IANS
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 14

INDIA WAKES TO LIFE & FREEDOM was the headline of the lead story on the front page on August 15, 1947, in The Tribune.

Other stories that appeared were Birth Of Pakistan An Event In History, GOODWILL AND FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN BRITAIN AND HINDUSTAN apart from others.

Following is a reproduced version of the lead story from that day.

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INDIA WAKES TO LIFE & FREEDOM

Nation takes pledge of dedication to service of motherland

Historic Session Of Consembly

NEW DELHI, Aug. 14.Great enthusiasm and scenes which could hardly be forgotten were witnessed tonight when the Constituent Assembly held its midnight session for the assumption of power.

Members attended in full strength. The hall was brilliantly flood-lit and the empty panels of the portraits on the walls were covered with bright national flags. Few of the members wore European costume and all were in Dhoti and Kurta or Achkans.

While the members exchanged cordial compliments, great crowds streamed to the vicinity of the Council Hall where arrangements had been made for them to hear the speeches of the leaders carried by loud speakers.

There were traffic jam in Parliament Street and other main roads leading to the Council long before the House met at 11 P.M.

At 11 the President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, dressed in white Khadi, took the chair. There was hushed silence and members took their seats.

Above on the Galleries, visitors were crowded while on either side of the President sat the members of the Diplomatic Corps with their wives and members of the Government, who will be sworn-in tomorrow morning.

The lobbies of the House were crammed with distinguished visitors and while a battery of cameramen moved about; flashlights played. The House was filmed and at 11-55 P.M. Mrs. Sucheta Kripalani and Mrs. Nandita Kripalani sang the Bande Matram. The House and visitors stood to attention.

An image of page 1 of The Tribune dated August 15, 1947, carrying the news of Indias Independence and related news stories can be seen below. For a larger image of the page, click here
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 14

It is unlikely that the Peoples Liberation Army of China will attend the ceremonial border personnel meeting with the Indian Army tomorrow.

The two countries are locked in a military standoff at the Doklam plateau since June 16.

As per the laid down protocol, the Indian Army, on August 15, hosts the Peoples Liberation Army of China for a ceremonial border personnel meeting at five designated meeting points along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Top sources in Delhi confirmed tonight that Beijing might not send the PLA troops as this could indicate a thaw. By not attending the meeting, China would indicate a status quo in terms of the standoff.

The previous such ceremonial meeting that was to be held on August 1 did not materialise. China was to host the meeting.

Ceremonial meetings are not like the usual flag-meetings, these are events to know each other socially, there is lunch hosted and a cultural show. There are five such meeting points along the LAC and ceremonial meetings are hosted at all these points, Depsang in sub-sector north and Sappangur Gap (both on eastern Ladakh), Nathu La in Sikkim and Bumla and Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh. The last flag-meeting between two high-ranking military officers of India and China failed to end the stalemate on August 11.

A Major General-rank officer was leading the Indian team and was matched by an equal rank officer from the Chinese army.

The two sides stuck to their stated stands. India asked China to end its road construction activity and China asked India to withdraw from what it said was its territory. India fears Beijing is aiming to make a road to cross east of the Torsa nullah and reach the Jampheri ridge from where it gets a clear view of the Siliguri corridor, the narrow sliver of land that connects North-East with mainland India.
New Delhi, August 14

President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday pitched for a partnership between citizens and the government to create a New India by 2022 that is a "compassionate society" and includes the "humanist component integral to the nation's DNA".

In his maiden address to the Nation on the eve of 71st Independence Day, Kovind remembered the role of leaders of Independence struggle, including Jawaharlal Nehru.

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He said the generation that brought us to freedom was diverse which included men and women from all parts of the country and a variety of "political and social thought".

Asking people to draw inspiration from freedom fighters, Kovind said there was a need to invoke the same spirit today for nation building.

"The stress on the moral basis of policy and action, belief in unity and discipline, faith in a synthesis of heritage and science, and promotion of the rule of law and of education  all of it is located in a partnership between citizen and government," he said.

Kovind said is how India has been built -- by a partnership between citizen and government, between individual and society, between a family and the wider community.

"Today, in big cities we may not even know our neighbours. Whether in cities or villages, it is important to renew that sense of caring and sharing. This will make us a gentler and happier society and help us understand each other with greater empathy," he said.

Kovind said this spirit of empathy and of social service and volunteerism is very much alive in India.

"There are so many people and organisations that work quietly and diligently for the poor and the disadvantaged.

We should also work with unity and purpose to ensure that the benefits of government policies reach all sections of society," he said.

He said partnership between citizens with government remains crucial to the success of several flagship announcements of the Narendra Modi government like voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy, demonetisation, introduction of GST besides schemes like 'beti bacaho beti padhao', 'Swachh Bharat' among others.

"I am happy that the transition to the GST system has been smooth. It should be a matter of pride for all of us that the taxes we pay are used for nation building -- to help the poor and the marginalised, to build rural and urban infrastructure, and to strengthen our border defences," he said.

The President said in the year 2022, the country will complete 75 years of Independence and "it is our national resolve to attain certain desired milestones for a New India by then".

He said a New India means some obvious parameters  like a house for every family, power on demand, better roads and telecom, a modern railway network, rapid and sustained growth.

"And yet there is more. New India must include that integral humanist component that is in our DNA, and which has defined our country and our civilisation. New India must be a society rushing towards the future, but also a compassionate society," Kovind said.

He said it is only with all this that we will build the New India we can cherish  where every Indian is equipped to fulfil his or her potential and do so in a manner that leaves each one of us content and happy.

"I am confident that a strong partnership between citizens and the government will allow us to meet the goals of New India," he said.

Kovind lauded "immense patience and understanding" of the citizens in the days following demonetisation and "whole- hearted support" in the battle against corruption and black money. He said it reflected a responsible and enlightened society.

"Demonetisation has boosted our efforts to build an honest society. We must sustain this spirit and this momentum," he said.

Appreciating the families which gave away LPG subsidy, Kovind said, "Each of us must find a way to give back to society. Each of us must choose one thing we can do to help another, less fortunate Indian".

The single most critical factor for building our nation is to equip our coming generation. We need to ensure that not one child is left behind. As such I would urge you, as fellow nation builders, to help educate underprivileged children in our society, he said.

The President urged people to help at least one child other than their own get educated by enrolling in school, paying their fees and buying them books.  PTI
Indore, August 14

Padma Shri awardee nonagenarian gynaecologist Bhakti Yadav, fondly called Doctor didi, passed away here on Monday. She was 91, family sources said.

She breathed her last at her home on Monday morning, Dr Yadavs son Raman told PTI.

She was suffering from osteoporosis and other age-related ailments. Over the past few months she was continously losing weight, he said.

Raman claimed that she treated over one lakh women patients free of cost during the past six decades and also offered free medicines to poor patients.

She was the only girl in the 1948-1953 batch of MBBS course in Indores Government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College.

In April this year, the then district collector P Narhari had presented the citation and medal of the fourth highest civilian award in the country, to Dr Yadav at her residence.

Due to her poor health, she could not attend the function organised in New Delhi. PTI
Islamabad, August 14

Pakistans new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhis expansionist designs were the main hurdle in constructive relations between the neighbours.

Addressing the nation on its 71st Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.

Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard, he said as Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang attended the celebrations as a special guest of the country.

Yang arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for the event.

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He said China and Pakistan had always stood by each other in difficult times and their friendship will stand the test of time and grow with coming generations.

Abbasi called on the international community to play its role in resolving regional conflicts, particularly the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan in conformity with the UN resolutions to ensure durable peace in the region.

Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistans 18th prime minister on August 1 after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.

The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress, he said.

President Mamnoon Hussain, in his address, called for unity among the people for a developed Pakistan.

He said it is time to forget personal grievances and stand by the Constitution, apparently referring to Sharifs ouster as prime minister and his charge that his removal was pre-planned.

The day began with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital Islamabad along with a 21-gun salute in provincial capitals to mark the official Independence Day celebrations.

Major public and private buildings, roads and avenues have been decorated with national flags, portraits of the national leaders, banners and buntings to give a festive look.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted a huge national flag at the Attari-Wagah border with India soon after midnight on Sunday night, kicking off the day-long celebration.

The flag flew at 400 feet, the highest in South Asia.

The 120x80 feet flag is also the largest in the history of the country, Pakistani media reported. PTI
New Delhi, August 14

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed Madras High Court's order suspending a lookout notice against businessman Karti Chidambaram in a corruption case after the central government appealed the order.

A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud, which heard the central government's urgent appeal against the lower court's order, also issued Chidambaram a notice for not joining investigations and said it would hear the case on Friday.

The Madras High Court had on August 10 stayed the 'look out circulars' issued against Karti Chidambaram, son former finance minister P Chidamabaram, and four others by the Centre over a corruption case filed by the CBI, holding that they were prima facie "unwarranted".

Besides Karti, his associates CBN Reddy, Ravi Viswanathan, Mohanan Rajesh and S Bhaskararaman had also got the interim relief.

Noting that the impugned circular had been issued just a day after the notice was sent under relevant CrPC sections asking Karti to appear on June 29 for questioning, the high court had said, "this...according to this court, is prima facie unwarranted".

The Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and the Bureau of Immigration, under the Union Home Ministry, had issued the circulars against Karti on June 16 last and against the four others on July 18.

In his petition, Karti has contended that the lookout circular was part of the central government's "political vendetta" and issued "arbitrarily" without jurisdiction to prevent him from travelling abroad.

He also said he had responded to the summonses issued by the CBI in connection with the case and there was "no absolute cause of action" for issuance of the circular.

The case is related to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds when Karti's father was the Union Finance Minister in 2007.

The CBI had claimed that the FDI proposal of the media house was "fallacious", but Chidambaram had cleared it.

The FIR dated May 15 was registered before the special CBI judge here. It was followed by searches at the residences and offices of Karti and his friends on May 16. PTI
Rameswaram, August 14

Four fishermen from Nagapattinam district were arrested on Monday by the Sri Lankan Navy when they were allegedly fishing near the Lankan coast.

Police said the fishermen along with their boat had been taken to Kangesanthurai.

The fishermen from Aakkarapettai in Nagapattinam districts were allegedly fishing near Paruthithurai when they were arrested.

With this, 65 fishermen from the state have been arrested in the past seven days.

On August 8, 49 fishermen from Pudukottai and Jagadapattinam districts were arrested by the Navy of the island nation for allegedly poaching in Lankan waters while on Thursday, 12 fishermen from Rameswaram were arrested.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday last, stating that the action was totally unacceptable.

He had also urged the Prime Minister to direct the Ministry of External Affairs to secure the immediate release of 113 fishermen along with 137 boats from the Sri Lankan Navy along with the latest fishermen who were apprehended. PTI
New Delhi, August 14

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to take cognisance of the recent deaths of children at a government hospital at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) hospital in Gorakhpur.

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The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, had to be raised before the high court concerned.

Over 60 children have reportedly died at BRD Medical College Hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

At least 30 children were reported dead in the last two days alone. Many of the victims were infants who perished in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

Police had said that no case had been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint.

The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra. PTI
Beijing, August 14

A trade war seems to be looming between India and China after New Delhi imposed anti-dumping duties on 93 Chinese products amidst a military standoff in Doklam area, two state media reports here said on Monday.

An article in The Global Times, part of the ruling Communist Partys publication group, urged Chinese firms to reconsider the risks of investing in India and warned New Delhi to be prepared for the possible consequences for its ill-considered action.

The article said that China could easily retaliate with restrictions on Indian products, but added that it doesnt make much economic sense for the country.

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It cited figures from the Indian embassy in China to show that Indian exports fell by 12.3 per cent year-on-year to USD 11.75 billion while Indias imports from China rose by 2 per cent to USD 59 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of USD 47 billion.

According to the Indian Commerce Ministry, the trade deficit with China last year mounted to over USD 52 billion when the bilateral trade stood at USD 70 billion.

A trade war between China and India seems to be looming after the latter moved last Wednesday to impose anti-dumping duties on 93 products from China, the report said.

If India really starts a trade war with China, of course Chinas economic interests will be hurt, but there will also be consequences for India, it said.

The report on trade comes as India and China have been locked in a tense military standoff in Doklam in the Sikkim sector.

India has protested against the construction of a road by the Chinese military in the area claimed by its ally Bhutan, fearing it would allow Beijing to cut off Indias access to its northeastern states.

The Global Times report warned that given the tense bilateral trade ties, China may consider temporarily suspending investment or economic cooperation projects in India to ensure the security of these investments.

Another article in China Daily said boycotting Chinese goods would harm India.

Referring to the calls of boycott of Chinese products, it said the ongoing standoff in Doklam seems to have spilled over into bilateral exchanges.

Suffice to say, calling for the boycotting of Chinese products and those related to Chinese investors is not just a fools errand but also risks backfiring, it said.

It is the Indian economy that will suffer because of the boycott, it said.

Any attempt to keep Chinese cell phone companies at bay or shut down Chinese-invested factories will hurt the Indian economy and cost Indian jobs, it said. PTI
Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, August 14

High drama was witnessed at Sabhra village, 40 km from here, last night when an ASI, incharge of the village police post, and his paramour were held captive by villagers who accused them of indulging in adultery inside the official accommodation of the police official.

The mob held both of them captive at the spot and they could be freed this afternoon on the intervention of higher police officials when both of them were booked under Section 294 of the IPC.

A video of the incident went viral, in which the ASI and his paramour were manhandled by villagers.

The DSP, Patti, Sohan Singh, said ASI Sanjeevan Singh and his paramour Navdeep Kaur were held captive by villagers on the officials premises last evening.

Rajinder Singh, village sarpanch, and Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra, leader of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee called the villagers, who remained outside the residence of the ASI the whole night.

Villagers called up ASI Sanjeevan Singh on his cell phone. He told them that he was in Patti.

The ASI tried to flee by jumping over the wall but was nabbed by villagers, who beat him up. The mob asked the woman about her relation with the ASI. She told them that she was having an illicit relationship with him.

The DSP said the ASI and the woman were arrested and produced in the Patti court. The ASI was suspended, said the DSP.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 14

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today announced several development projects worth Rs 556.9 crore for the holy city. These included construction of roads, ROBs, railway under-bridges and a flyover.

The Chief Minister also finalised Rs 3,000-crore World Bank-aided project to fulfil the rising demand for potable water in the city. The surface water scheme will replace the existing groundwater-based supply scheme. The project will address a serious concern of the region, which is facing severe depletion of the groundwater. Besides, the region is witnessing a surge in vector-borne diseases.

The establishment of a Directorate of Fire Services at the state level in Amritsar, with 50 per cent reservation for women, is also the cards.

Addressing a press conference here, the CM said the homeless would soon be given houses in both rural and urban areas. He said shamlat land in villages would be used for raising dwellings and pockets of lands in urban areas were being identified.

Major industries coming

On the governments promise of providing jobs to youth, he said 20 major industrial houses would soon kick off the process to set up industries in the state. The government would assist them in providing land and a job fest would also be held. He said a Chinese firm and Mahindra & Mahindra would soon establish electric car manufacturing units in the state.

He was accompanied by Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP Gurjit Singh Aujla and leaders OP Soni, Raj Kumar Verka, Sunil Dutti, Harminder Singh Gill and Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bandala.

SAD to blame for farm crisis

On suicide by farmers, Amarinder expressed regret and held the previous SAD-BJP government responsible for farm distress in the state. Amarinder claimed that about 7,000 farmers committed suicide during the 10-year rule of the previous government.

The Chief Minister said there was a need to break the vicious paddy- wheat cycle to rescue the state's farmers. To achieve the objective, constant efforts are being made to learn techniques and technologies from Israel, he said.

Minorities safe

Amarinder refused to endorse the statement of former Vice-President Hamid Ansari that the minorities were unsafe in the country. He said minorities were not insecure either in Punjab or in the rest of the country.

State holiday on Saragarhi Day

Gurdaspur: The state has declared a holiday on the occasion of Saragarhi Day on September 12 to commemorate the Battle of Saragarhi. This was announced by the CM while addressing troops of the 3rd battalion of the Sikh Regiment at Tibri Cantonment. Amarinder had dinner with the jawans. Earlier, the CM witnessed a pipe band display, bhangra and "gatka" performance and battalion presentation. He is in the city to participate in the state-level Independence Day celebrations on Tuesday. TNS

Focus on holy city
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 14

Having already raised concerns over lack of strategy in his party to deal with the BJP, former Congress Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today said it was the Congress which was losing and not that PM Narendra Modi is winning.

Interacting with the media on the sidelines of a seminar, In quest of peace India, Pakistan bilateral ties and South Asia, at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall today, Aiyar clearly pointed out, Hum haar rahe hain, yeh Modi nahi jeet raha. This is not the feeling of just me and former minister Jairam Ramesh but the entire party. We are looking for steps to eliminate the communal powers in the country in the next two years.

Aiyar said, For the same reason, we are looking for a grand alliance. We had a rainbow alliance in 2004 and we won. It broke off and we lost in 2014. Eyeing the same again, our party president had recently called a meeting of 18 opposition parties. Barring the NCP, all other parties came over. We are looking forward to support from Mayawati, who has got 22 per cent vote share. If she joins us, we can get more seats in UP than were coming from Bihar before CM Nitish Kumar backed out. Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav had already offered Maya to join our alliance ahead of polls.

Regarding leadership of the new alliance, the former MP said, That will be cleared around October when the organisational setup of the Congress, which is underway, will be done. It will be between Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. We are not in a position to judge the leadership qualities of Rahul. I can see elements of leadership in him but it can be tested only after he becomes the president of the Congress.

During his speech, Aiyar, who has been a former Counsel General at Karachi, said he was born in Lahore and had been to Pakistan over 35 times. I have more friends in Pakistan than my enemies in India, he laughed.
Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, August 14

Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today alleged that the state government was not responding to her letters regarding setting up industry in the state with her ministrys help.

My ministry usually receives numerous applications from other states for new projects, but my own states farmers and industrialists are hardly applying. Their presence is negligible as the Congress government is not spreading awareness about our projects and incentives, Harsimrat said after attending a seminar organised by her ministry here.

Of the Rs 6,000-crore projects, I want to give the maximum to my state. But the Chief Minister, Finance Minister and the bureaucrats are not taking my letters seriously due to political reasons. Participants from all over the world are keen to attend World Food India-2017 in November, but Punjab has not applied yet despite my repeated reminders, she said.

She said PAU officials were misleading the CM by claiming that the crop losses were meagre. She demanded action against Vikas Barala, main accused in the Chandigarh stalking and abduction bid case, but didnt reply when asked whether Vikas father, Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala, should resign.

Former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa and other SAD leaders were present at the seminar. No Congress leader attended the event, even as district party president Raja Beerkalan said they were not invited as SAD leaders didnt want their participation in Central Government functions.

Fix responsibility for whitefly attack

Budhlada: Harsimrat asked the government to fix responsibility for the whitefly infestation in the Malwa region. She told the state government to take action against officials responsible for it and also demanded that farmers be given immediate compensation for the losses suffered by them. TNS
Tribune News Service

Tibri Cantonment (Gurdaspur), August 14

Punjab will observe September 12 as Saragarhi Day to commemorate the historic battle of Saragarhi, held on this date in 1897, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh announced on Monday.

He was addressing the soldiers of 3 Sikhs, with whom he was spending the Independence Eve.

A state-level function will be held on September 12 at the Saragarhi Gurdwara in Ferozepur to mark the occasion, which will be presided by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, in the absence of the chief minister.

Capt Amarinder will be in London for the launch of his book on Saragarhi, as part of the Saragarhi battle celebrations.

The chief minister announced a state holiday to mark the day, which will be celebrated every year on September 12 from this year onwards.

The Cabinet had in April decided to hand over the management of the Saragarhi Memorial Gurdwara to the administration of Saragarhi Memorial Management Trust, Ferozepur.

The Trust comprises of serving Army men as well as ex-servicemen. The site is located at Ferozepur Cantt in district Ferozepur.

On this date, under the command of Havildar Ishar Singh, 21 jawans and one NCO attained martyrdom after killing hundreds of tribesman, who had attacked the Saragarhi outpost.

The British government had conferred the 21 soldiers with the highest battle honour  Indian Order of Merit grade II.

This day is celebrated on September 12 every year in Gurdwara Saragarhi Sahib to commemorate the sacrifices of these men.
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, August 14

Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today demanded that the Hussainiwala-Lahore border, which was closed after the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, should be reopened for trade and transit.

Sidhu, who was accompanied by Congress MLA Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and other party leaders, said the revival of economy of this border region hinged on the vital trade link.

At present, most of the trade takes place through Mumbai or Dubai, which means a considerable increase in export costs said Sidhu.

Let the people have makki di roti in Hussainiwala and then biryani in Lahore, he said.

The minister also promised to bring the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala and the Anglo-Sikh war memorials on the international tourist circuit.

We will soon come up with a blueprint to develop and beautify these places, which will include a light-and-sound show, a museum and other facilities for tourists, he said.

Sidhu said the hideout of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades in the Turi Bazaar would be developed at the earliest. He said he would soon take up the matter with Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and send a high-level team from the Tourism and Culture Department to chalk out a plan for the development of war memorials.

Sidhu also visited the Indo-Pakistan joint check post at Hussainiwala and witnessed the retreat ceremony performed by BSF jawans and Pakistani Rangers. He also visited the BSF museum.
NEITHER the people of India nor the powerful section of the Anglo-Indian press seem to be convinced of the plea by the Bengal Government that for six months in the year when its chief officers remove to the hills and conduct the administration from there, they may be considered to be in full touch with the wide country and the people, because the posts and telegraphs and the newspapers keep them duly informed. Commenting on Sir Henry Wheeler's defence of the hill exodus in the Bengal Legislative Council, the Englishman writes:-"If this is the kind of contact with public opinion that the Government relies upon, the sooner it realises its inadequacy the better. It is a second-hand contact. It is not always a reliable contact. The sound and conscientious administrator does not rely on second-hand reports of what the public say and feel and how the public live." It is seldom that the Indian and the Anglo-Indian press join to condemn the defects of the Government, and when they do, no further proof is required to conform to the unanimous opinion.
Tribune News Service

Pithoragarh, August 14

Six persons were killed and nine another reported missing after two separate cloudbursts in Dharchula sub division of the district early today. Army sources maintained the toll could rise to 16.

Sources said the first incident occurred at Mangti Nullah near Tawaghat in Dharchula sub division when the local rivulet Mangti Nullah overflowed due to heavy rains at its basin and hit some shops and an Army camp below the nullah.

The Army, NDRF and SDRF teams have recovered two bodies form the spot while an Army jawan is missing, said Ashish Chauhan, District Magistrate, Pithoragarh.

The second cloudburst occurred at Malpa, where an overflowing local rivulet swept away four persons.

Disaster mitigation teams later recovered four bodies while one person has been saved.

We have pressed into service rescue and rehabilitation personnel from NDRF and SDRF beside ITBP and Army jawans and a massive search operation has been launched to trace the missing, said RS Rana, district disaster management officer in Pithoragarh district.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today flew to the rain-hit areas of Dharchula in Pithoragarh district.

The CM said the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra had been halted due to cloudburst that occurred in Malpa in Pithoragarh district last night.

The district administration will allow the pilgrims to move only when the route is safe, the CM said.

He said that villages in the border areas of Malpa, Taluka, Mangati and Bangapani had been cut off after the roads were washed away.

Significantly, only two groups of pilgrims have reached China, while the remaining six groups have been halted for now.

Since mobile connectivity has also been disrupted, we will request the Government of Nepal to increase the frequency level so that the border villages in Pithoragarh district are covered, he said.

Rawat said that adequate food supplies and ration stocks are being maintained. Accompanied by state Finance Minister Prakash Pant, Rawat said the disaster management department had been asked to prepare an action plan to deal with recurring landslides and other rain-related incidents. He said people in areas along the banks of rivers and rivulets prone to landslides were being evacuated to safety.

The road from Malpa to Gal and the Lamadi-Chudi road was badly affected by the landslides, Pant said.

(With PTI inputs)
Beijing, August 14

China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Tuesday as it implements new UN sanctions after US pressure for Beijing to strong arm Pyongyang over its allys nuclear programme.

The decision was announced today after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Uns regime, which has raised international alarm about where the crisis is headed.

Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions after the US accused China of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour, which relies heavily on the Asian giant for its economic survival.

The Chinese commerce ministry said on its website that all imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood will be completely prohibited from tomorrow. Beijing had already announced suspension of coal imports in February.

The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 that could cost the country $1 billion a year.

The sanctions were in response to the Norths two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed after the UN sanctions were approved that his country will for sure implement that new resolution 100 per cent, fully and strictly.

China, which is suspected of failing to enforce past UN measures, accounts for 90 per cent of North Koreas trade.

Trump complained in July that trade between the two nations had increased by nearly 40 per cent in the first quarter.

Beijing has defended its economic ties with Pyongyang as normal commerce between neighbours and insisted the trade did not violate UN sanctions.

The suspension of coal imports deprives North Korea of massive income as it totalled $1.2 billion last year.

Among the latest banned products, China imported $74.4 million worth of iron ore in the first five months of this year, almost equalling the figure for all of 2016.

The US angered China in June when it imposed unilateral sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash.  AFP
CHARLOTTESVILLE (Virginia), August 14

A man said to have harbored Nazi sympathies as a teenager before a failed bid to join the US Army was due in court on Monday to face charges he plowed his car into protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia, killing a woman and injuring 19.

The bail hearing for James Alex Fields, 20, arrested on suspicion of murder, malicious wounding and hit-and-run charges, was set to unfold in Charlottesville as the US Justice Department pressed its own federal hate-crime investigation of the incident.

Authorities said Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when Fields' car slammed into a crowd of anti-racism activists confronting neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sympathisers, capping a day of bloody street brawls between the two sides in the Virginia college town on Saturday.

More than 30 people were injured in separate incidents, and two state police officers died in the crash of their helicopter after assisting in efforts to quell the unrest. The fatal disturbances began with white nationalists converging to protest against plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the commander of rebel forces during the US Civil War.

President Donald Trump's reaction to the clashes  the first major domestic crisis he has faced since taking office  ignited a wider political firestorm at the weekend.

Democrats and Republicans alike criticised Trump for waiting too long to address the violence, and for failing when he did speak out to explicitly condemn white-supremacist marchers widely seen as sparking the melee.

Trump was specifically taken to task for comments on Saturday in which he denounced what he called "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides". Under mounting pressure to take an unequivocal stand against right-wing extremists who occupy a loyal segment of the Republican president's political base, the Trump administration sought to sharpen its message the next day.

The White House issued a statement on Sunday insisting that Trump was condemning "all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups".

Vice-President Mike Pence took an even tougher line against white nationalists in remarks delivered late on Sunday during his trip to Colombia.

"We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-Nazis or the KKK," Pence said. "These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms."

Virginia police at the weekend offered no motive for the man accused of ramming his car into the crowd.

Derek Weimer, a history teacher at Fields' high school in Kentucky, told Cincinnati television station WCPO-TV that he remembered Fields harboring "some very radical views on race" as a student and was "very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler".

Weimer also recounted Fields being "gung-ho" about joining the Army when he graduated.

The Army confirmed that Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015 but was "released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015". The Army statement did not explain how he had failed to meet training standards.

Fields was being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and a single count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, authorities said. Reuters
Islamabad, August 14

Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today blamed India for the impasse in bilateral ties, saying New Delhis expansionist designs was the main hurdle in constructive relations between the two neighbours.

Addressing the nation on its 70th Independence Day, Abbasi said Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all countries based on sovereign equality.

Indo-Pak ties nosedived after a series of attacks last year, including the Uri strike, carried out by the Pakistan- based terror outfits. Following the attacks, India boycotted the SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in November last in Pakistan.

Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard, Abbasi said.

Pakistans national flag today flew at 400 ft, the highest in South Asia, at the Attari-Wagah border with India to mark the countrys 70th Independence Day.

The 120x80 ft flag is also the largest in the history of the country, the Pakistani media reported.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa hoisted the flag near the border after midnight, kicking off the Independence Day celebrations across the country.

The flag is said to be the highest in South Asia and the eighth highest in the world.

Gen Bajwa said: Some 77 years ago, Pakistan resolution was passed in the same city (Lahore). Pakistan came into being on the night of 27th Ramadan. Today, the country is progressing on the path of law and constitution. All institutions are working properly. We will make Pakistan the country of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal.

He enunciated the many challenges Pakistan faced, but also tried to drum up the nationalistic sentiment.

We have rendered many sacrifices  we will never forget our martyrs. We will execute each and every terrorist in Pakistan. I want to tell our enemies, whether they are in the east or in the west, that your bullets will end but not the chests of our jawans, he added.

I assure you that we will never let you down. Any power that will aim to weaken Pakistan, the Army and all other institutions will foil their attempts, he said.

Other speakers at the event also paid tributes to those killed during migration to Pakistan.  PTI

Our friendship stronger than steel: Wang

Islamabad: Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, special guest at Pakistans Independence Day celebration, said on Monday that the two countries have always stood by each other and their friendship was stronger than steel and sweeter than honey. Wang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of Chinas ruling Communist Party, is among the countrys top leaders. He arrived in Islamabad on Sunday on a two-day visit. AFP
Charlottesville (US), August 14

A disquiet anxiety has gripped the residents of Charlottesville, many of whom are Indian Americans, after a rally of white supremacists ended in clashes with counter-protesters and claimed the life of a woman.

While normalcy seemed to have returned to the city by yesterday afternoon, residents grappled with shock and fear following a day of violence when a car rammed into a crowd peacefully protesting against the rally by white supremacists, killing the 32-year-old woman.

The city in the US state of Virginia has a significant Indian and Indian-American population, but there was no report of anyone from the community being injured in the violence on Saturday.

Two police officers monitoring the demonstration died after a helicopter crashed near the protest site and 19 others were injured, though, unofficial figures could be high.

Its still difficult for us to understand and grapple with the reality that such a thing has happened. This is not what the city is about, said Sankaran Venkataraman, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, MasterCard, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Venkataraman has lived in Charlottesville, about 190 km southwest of Washington DC, for nearly 20 years.

His daughters friend had gone to the downtown area to take part in the counter protest to the white supremacist rally. She returned with a broken leg.

(The violence) doesnt represent any of the views or characters of the people here. We are progressive people who believe in diversity and inclusiveness. For something like this to happen is a shock to us. The notions of racism, hatred, bigotry are completely antithetical to the views of most citizens of Charlottesville, said Venkataraman, who recently returned from Tamil Nadu.

The Virginia University, closed for summer, is set to open in two weeks and students, a sizable number from outside the US, including India, would start arriving next week.

Vilas Annavarapu, an Indian-American and student of political science at the university, was among the few who stayed back on the campus to attend training classes.

Annavarapu is also an office-bearer of the Indian Student Association at the university which has about 300 active members.

While he did not leave the campus on Saturday, he had a scary encounter with white supremacists on Friday night when hundreds of them had a surprise rally inside the campus.

Annavarapu feels the election of Donald Trump, who has a following among the white supremacists, has encouraged far- right groups.  PTI

White nationalists should leave America: Virginia Guv

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has said white nationalists should leave America after 32-year-old woman Heather D Heyer was killed when a driver intentionally plowed his car into a crowd. Lets be honest, they need to leave America, because they are not Americans, CNN quoted McAuliffe, as saying. They get out of bed every day to hate people and divide our country, he added. ANI

Accused driver had wanted to join US army

A man said to have harboured Nazi sympathies as a teenager before a failed bid to join the US army was due in court on Monday to face charges he plowed his car into protesters opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia, killing a woman and injuring 19. The bail hearing for James Alex Fields, 20, arrested on suspicion of murder, malicious wounding and hit-and-run charges, was set to unfold in Charlottesville as the US Justice Department pressed its own federal hate-crime investigation of the incident. Reuters
Trucking and logistics interests are keeping a close eye on talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement begin this week  particularly those involved in the automotive industry.

Talks are scheduled to start Wednesday and expected to last six or seven months.

President Trump, who on the campaign trail called NAFTA "the worst trade deal signed maybe anywhere, has blamed the 23-year-old trade agreement for the lost of American jobs in car factories. The United States had a $74 billion trade deficit with Mexico in autos and auto parts last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

However, theres a complicated supply chain involved in the current automotive manufacturing system, with parts crisscrossing NAFTA borders. The top commodity category transported between the U.S. and Mexico in May 2017 by value was vehicles and parts, of which $4.1 billion or 46.6% moved by truck. The top commodity category transported between the U.S. and Canada also was vehicles and parts, of which $5.5 billion, or 55.8%, moved by truck.

As the Detroit Free Press reports, The automotive industry wants to be able to ship parts and vehicles back and forth across the border with less red tape, wants negotiators to understand that billions of dollars have been spent to develop a highly efficient North American manufacturing supply chain and is fighting to block any changes to the percentage of parts made in the originating country to qualify for tariff-free trade.

Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, told the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette that people throughout the industry are concerned that rapid changes could ripple through supply chains before anybody has time to adapt. "The industry has anxiety over change, and it's not necessarily that the way we are doing it is the best way," Newton said. "It's that the way freight currently flows is dependent upon the methodologies that are currently in play."

The auto industry, notes the Freep, also argues that by giving the industry a location for low-cost production in Mexico, NAFTA has ensured that North America is competitive with other leading automotive regions globally.

Mexican officials have been meeting with officials in border states, reports Tucson.com, emphasizing that cross-border trucking must remain part of the deal, and that language should be added that includes intellectual property rights and digital trade  something that has grown substantially since the agreement went into effect in 1994.

Originally posted on Automotive Fleet
OKLAHOMA CITY  Some patients who get their care at Integris are scrambling to find other options as the hospitals and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma remain locked in a contract battle.

Sharon McDonald, of Guthrie, said she wants to stay with the Integris doctors who have managed her melanoma and related conditions since 2015, but will be forced to find another provider if BCBS and Integris can't come to an agreement. She said she has looked into transferring to Stephenson Cancer Center, but the hospital doesn't accept all patients, and she'd rather stay with the providers she knows.

They know every little thing that messes me up, so they don't give it to me anymore, she said. Everybody's body reacts differently to cancer.

BCBS customers still could go to an Integris facility even if they don't reach an agreement, but would be charged a higher rate for out-of-network care. McDonald says that's not something she can afford, particularly since the effects of her cancer treatment forced her to stop working.
One week after fire destroyed three buildings in the downtown Wagoner business district, the bravery and professionalism displayed by emergency services personnel and others during the crisis was applauded by Wagoner City Council.

At their Aug. 7 business meeting at the Wagoner Civic Center, city leaders honored the men and women who fought valiantly to contain the fire and keep it from claiming additional historic buildings.

They also recognized many others who served in supportive roles.

During my eye witness account of that moment of terror, we all came together  not only to save our town, but to save the first incorporated city and the eyes to the soul of the city, Mayor Albert Jones said. Fire trucks were there, volunteers were running up and it became a surreal five hours. I saw a lot of great things, I really did. I saw a lot of humanity.

I am proud to say that together we were enough. We are kinder and gentler to the people around us and kinder and gentler to ourselves.

Unit Valor Citations were awarded to firefighters Captain Kelly Grooms, Mike Cagle, Darrell Watkins, Louis Sowers, Jimmy Cagle, James McMahan, Jeff Hamilton, Roger Schilling, Thomas Sweeney, David Morrison, Nathan Morrison, Chris A. Hughes, Jarred Edwards, Tommy Applegate, Rusty Harris, Brett Sowers, Dalton Self, Dalton Grooms, Orangel Suarez-Perez and Corey Travis.

The firefighters also received medals of valor.

These citations are for your bravery, heroism and courageous actions exposing you to great personal risk during the downtown Wagoner fire, Jones said. Your professionalism and outstanding performance reflects great credit upon yourself, the citizens of Wagoner and the City of Wagoner.

It also honors your actions contributing to the safety and welfare of the citizens of Wagoner  especially with regards to the exceptional confinement and extinguishment efforts and the emergency needs of citizens on July 30, 2017.

Citations of Valor were presented to Chief Bob Haley, Deputy Chief Tony Ponds, Officer Tyler McFarland, Officer Raquel Reed and Officer T.J. Ponds with the Wagoner Police Department, T.J. Caudill and Glen Roark with Emergency Medical Services and Lance Lancaster with the Wagoner Public Works Authority.

City employees receiving Citations of Honor for their support to the efforts during the downtown fire include Captain Brad Harding, Lieutenant Mike Hammons, Lieutenant Ben Blair, Officer Jamie Powell and Dispatcher Bethany Goodwin with the Wagoner Police Department.

Others were EMS Personnel Jim Roberts, Jeff Patterson, Shawn Goodwin, Matt Rafalco and Jason Smith and city/public works officials Rob Ferguson, Billy Barnett, Jake Trester, Ron Phillips, M.C., Kim Dorr, Rhonda Hash, Gordon Goins and Janie Barnett.

Citizen Citations of Honor were presented to Doug Hall with the water plant, Dennis Dorr Jr., Cindy Scott and Chad Scott for contributing to the needs and welfare of emergency personnel.

The mayor and council also offered their thanks to firefighters from Rolling Hills, Toppers, Whitehorn Cove, Pryor, Chouteau, Porter, Tullahassee and Redbird, to personnel with Wagoner County Emergency Management and Muskogee Emergency Medical Services for their assistance and support.

In other business on Aug. 7, the Wagoner Public Works Authority:

 Approved to hire Matthew Brown as an electrical apprentice, moving him from the brush department to the electric department.

 Approved to enter into a contract with Holloway, Updike and Bellen, Inc. for the Coal Creek Wastewater Pump Station and Force Main Evaluation and Report.

 Offered thanks to staff who helped with clearing at the airport and made water line repairs just in time for when the city needed it to fight the downtown fire.

During the city councils regular meeting, Mayor Albert Jones commended Superintendent Dwayne Elam for his efforts since taking on additional job duties beginning July 1.

He also directed staff to form a committee that includes council members to make the citys Fourth of July celebration bigger and better in 2018. Council members Anthony Wagoner and Phillip Sullivan will serve in that capacity.

The mayor also offered his appreciation to Wagoner City Attorney Ken Hicks, Wagoner County Economic Development Authority Chairman Pam Stephens-Karnes and Wagoner County Commissioners James Hanning, Chris Edwards and Tim Kelly for their progress and work on the DMI roof. The funding issue was settled at a recent county commissioners meeting.

It is good that the county and city are working together, Jones said. DMI is a very viable company and a ribbon cutting is tentatively set for Sept. 19. Governor Mary Fallin should be there.

The mayor also mentioned the McDonalds project as the new facility is expected to be open in October.

Through staff reports, Police Chief Bob Haley reported that the Wagoner Police Department will begin taking online payments for citations.

A lot of times people are just passing through. It would be more convenient to pay online than to have to come back to Wagoner, the chief explained. Also, people who are arrested could contact family members who could get them out (of jail) online.

There will be no fee to the department, but the customer will pay a convenience fee for using the online payment option.

Haley said approximately 75 Oklahoma communities use the online payment system.

Wagoner Community Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Leopard made note that Dr. John Belk has joined the hospital as a new family practice physician in town and Dr. Richard Allen has retired.

We are glad to have him (Dr. Belk), he is doing very well, Leopard reported. He saw 28 patients on his first day with the practice.

In other business, the council:

 Approved to enter into a contract with BM Construction, LLC for the construction of an equipment shed to replace one lost last summer.

 Approved to hire Gordon Goins as a part-time city inspector. He previously served in an interim role.

 Approved ending the probation period on Wagoner Police Department employee Lowell Wilcoxen

 Approved extending the probationary period for WPD employee David Metz for two months.

 Approved moving WPD Officer Travis Potts from part-time to full-time status with the department. Potts has worked with the department for six to eight months and is full time C.L.E.E.T. certified.

 Approved task orders to perform hydrologic analysis and hydraulic sizing of new culvert at 6th and McKinley and of a new ditch behind the ballfields near Maple Park.

 Approved the purchase of three 2014 Dodge Durango police vehicles and waive competitive bidding.
BARTLESVILLE  Serious budget cuts have forced the Oklahoma Historical Society to give up operation of the Frank Phillips Home, one of the states most significant historic homes.

It led to a yearlong effort to avoid one of the provisions of the original deed  the demolition of the home to build a green park.

According to the deed, if the Oklahoma Historical Society could no longer operate the facility, ownership was to be transferred to the city of Bartlesville. If the city was unable to operate the museum, the deed called for the demolition of the significant historical site.

That was about 18 months ago, and after talking with officials with the city of Bartlesville we were not going to let that happen under any circumstance, said Bob Fraser, CEO of Woolaroc. If we let that happen to the house, Frank would have come down from heaven and kicked our tails.

No need for Frank Phillips to come back to life and kick anyone.

The Frank Phillips Foundation, owner and operator of Woolaroc, is taking over a lease on the historical home in Bartlesville and is actively working to fund an operating endowment to preserve it for future generations of Oklahomans.

The foundation also operates the fabulous Phillips ranch and museum about 12 miles southwest of Bartlesville.

Construction on the Frank Phillips Home, at 1107 S. Cherokee Ave. near downtown, was finished in 1909. The original 26-room neo-classical mansion has been remodeled twice, the last time in 1930. The interior of the home is filled with original furniture, decorations and personal effects.

The Oklahoma Historical Society had owned and operated the home since 1973.

However, the group has been hit hard by state budget cuts in recent years. It recently transferred ownership of Sequoyahs Cabin to the Cherokee Nation and has been working with local entities to find additional funding to keep other historical sites open.

Bob Blackburn, director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, told the Tulsa World earlier this year that the groups state funding has been slashed by more than 40 percent in the past eight years.

Bartlesville officials were notified over a year ago that the Frank Phillips Home was one of the facilities that would need additional funding and support or it would be closed.

So, this has been in the works for a long time, because once we looked at the deed we knew we had to find a different solution, Fraser said.

The city of Bartlesville and Woolaroc worked out an agreement whereby Woolaroc would take over the operation of the facility.

It was a natural for us, Fraser said. But, there were still quite a few details to work out, legally and financially, to make it work.

Woolaroc has embarked on a $1 million fundraising effort in the past year to fund an endowment for operation of the Frank Phillips Home.

The expected transfer of ownership of the Frank Phillips Home to the Frank Phillips Foundation will be decided in Washington County District Court in the near future.

The state has been dealing with funding issues in the past few years, so we knew this day was coming, Fraser said. If it wasnt going to be us (Frank Phillips Foundation), then who? It was the perfect mission for us.

I dont think anyone ever felt like bulldozing the facility was going to happen. We just have to work through some things. It is a great fit and addition to the history we have at Woolaroc.

Fraser said the group hopes to stabilize the situation and start finishing work on securing the future for the facility in the next year.

Theres no doubt this is a very significant part of the history of Phillips 66, Bartlesville and our state, Fraser said. This will allow us to move forward and market the Frank Phillips Home as part of the tremendous history we have in this part of Oklahoma.
When it returns to Washington after Labor Day, Congress will have less than four weeks to decide whether to increase the debt ceiling, a topic that divides some Oklahoma Republicans.

The federal government routinely spends more money than it takes in, forcing it to borrow money to make up the difference. For the past century, Congress has self-imposed a limit on this borrowing  known as the debt ceiling. When it wants to borrow more, it must raise the debt ceiling.

Lawmakers have three options: a so-called clean debt ceiling increase, which does not cut the budget; a debt ceiling increase with budget cuts; or no debt ceiling increase at all. The political alliances necessary to pass a debt ceiling hike are often strange.

Read the rest of this story online at Newsok.com. A subscription may be required.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP)  The Latest on incidents related to violent clashes between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left three dead (all times local)

8:20 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence is responding to the violence during a march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying "these dangerous fringe groups" have no place in American public life.

Pence was asked about the violent clashes this weekend in the Virginia college town as he spoke Sunday during a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia.

Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump's initial remarks about the violence in Charlottesville. Trump did not single out any group but blamed "many sides" for the violence.

On Sunday, Pence said, "We have no tolerance for hate and violence, by white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK."

Following his remarks about such fringe groups, Pence added, "We condemn them in the strongest possible terms."

___

7:25 p.m.

A Nevada college student who was photographed marching in Virginia before a deadly white supremacist rally says he's not an "angry racist."

KTVN-TV interviewed 20-year-old Peter Cvjetanovic after he was identified online in a photo showing white nationalists marching through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches Friday.

On Saturday, a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters as tensions turned violent at a related rally.

Cvjetanovic says he didn't expect the photo to spread but that he's a white nationalist who cares for all people and wants to "preserve what we have."

Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, after a recent photo of the two reportedly surfaced, condemned the events and said he didn't know Cvjetanovic.

The University of Nevada, Reno, also denounced the movement as corrosive to society.

___

6:15 p.m.

A former teacher of the man accused of plowing his car into counter protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia says the suspect had a keen interest in military history, Hitler and Nazi, Germany.

Derek Weimer on Sunday said that he taught social studies to 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. during his junior and senior years in Kentucky, calling him an average student.

Weimer recalled that school officials had singled out Fields in 9th grade for his political beliefs and that he had made comments that alerted his social studies teacher at the time to "deeply-held, radical" convictions on race and Nazism.

Weimer said Fields was a big Trump supporter because of what he believed to be Trump's views on race. Trump's proposal to build a border wall was particularly appealing to Fields, Weimer said.

___

3:55 p.m.

A Charlottesville hospital says many of the patients injured after a car drove into a crowd of protesters at a white nationalist rally are improving.

A spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Health System said in a statement Sunday afternoon that nine of the patients the hospital treated have been released. Ten others are in good condition.

A day earlier, the hospital said five patients were in critical condition, four were in serious condition, six were in fair condition and four were in good condition.

The statement also says the hospital treated additional patients related to Saturday's events but that the hospital can't give an exact number.

___

3:35 p.m.

Virginia State Police say the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are assisting in the investigation into a fatal helicopter crash that claimed the lives of two state troopers.

The helicopter crashed shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday in a wooded area while assisting in law enforcement activities related to the clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville.

The pilot, 48-year-old Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen of Midlothian, and 40-year-old Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, died at the scene.

White nationalists were in Charlottesville on Saturday to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

___

2:40 p.m.

The man who organized a rally in Charlottesville that sparked violent clashes between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters tried to hold a news conference a day after the deadly event, but a crowd of several hundred booed him and forced him away from the lectern.

Jason Kessler is a blogger based in Charlottesville, and as he came out to speak Sunday afternoon near City Hall, he was surrounded by cameras and people. Some people chanted and made noises with drums and other instruments. Among the chants: "You're wearing the wrong hood," a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.

Kessler mimicked looking at his watch and indicated he'd wait to speak.

A few people approached, crossing the line of TV cameras.

One man pushed Kessler. A woman tackled him.

Kessler asked officers on the scene for help. Eventually they escorted him off. No arrests were reported.

___

12:55 p.m.

A friend of the woman killed when a car rammed into a group of protesters in Charlottesville says she's no different than a casualty of war.

Felicia Correa said Sunday that her friend Heather Heyer died standing up for people of color.

Correa says Heyer and other counterprotesters put their lives on the line to confront hateful bigotry. She says she doesn't see the difference between Heyer or someone who died in the Sept. 11 attacks. She says the vehicle that plowed into a group of peaceful protesters was a terrorist attack as well.

Correa says she grew up with Heyer, who was 32. She says she was a sweet person. She has set up a fund to raise money for Heyer's family.

___

12:30 p.m.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is calling on President Donald Trump to more strongly condemn the bigotry and violence that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend.

Democrat McAuliffe told reporters at First Baptist Church in Charlottesville on Sunday that angry political rhetoric needs to stop.

He says the Republican president "needs to come out stronger" against the actions of white supremacists. The governor says "they are Nazis and they are here to hurt American citizens, and he needs to call them out for what they are, no question."

McAuliffe spoke to Trump on Saturday about the violence in downtown Charlottesville. He says "twice I said to him we have to stop this hateful speech, this rhetoric."

The governor says protesters were "emboldened to walk around our streets with weapons and to spew hatred."

___

12:05 p.m.

The man accused of ramming a car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville was photographed that morning holding a shield with the emblem of a white supremacist group.

Vanguard America denies that James Alex Fields Jr. is a member of its group and says it handed out shields to anyone in attendance who wanted them. The Anti-Defamation League says Vanguard America believes the U.S. is an exclusively white nation, and uses propaganda to recruit young white men online and on college campuses. Vanguard America confirmed via Twitter account that members were in Charlottesville on Saturday morning, part of what's believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade, to rally against plans to remove a Confederate statue. Hundreds of others came to protest against the racism.

In the photo, taken by the New York Daily News , Fields stands with a handful of men, all dressed similarly in the usual Vanguard America uniform of khakis and white polo shirts. The men hold white shields with a black-and-white logo of two axes. The Confederate statue of Robert E. Lee is in the background. The Daily News says the photo was taken about 10:30 a.m. Charlottesville officials say the car crashed into the crowd, killing one, at 1:42 p.m.

____

10:15 a.m.

Federal law enforcement authorities have started a civil rights investigation into a deadly car crash in Charlottesville that left one protester dead and several others injured.

The FBI said in a statement late Saturday that it is collecting facts and evidence in an ongoing investigation.

Heather Heyer died when a car rammed into a group of people who were protesting the presence of white supremacists who had gathered in the city for a rally.

The car's driver, James Alex Fields Jr. was charged with second-degree murder and other counts. He could also face federal charges, depending on the outcome of the FBI's investigation.

___

9:30 a.m.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer called the killing of a 32-year-old woman and the injury of others by a vehicle at a rally in the city a "terrorist attack with a car used as a weapon."

He made the comments in an interview Sunday with NBC's "Meet the Press."

Heather Heyer died when a car rammed into a group of people who were protesting the presence of white supremacists who had gathered in the city for a rally.

The car's driver, James Alex Fields Jr. was charged with second-degree murder and other counts.

The rally's purpose was to condemn a decision by the city to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

___

7:23 a.m.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will visit two Charlottesville churches and speak to congregants following violent clashes in the city between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters that left three dead.

The governor's office says in a release that Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam will join McAuliffe at both Sunday services.

McAuliffe and Northam are scheduled to visit Mount Zion First African Baptist Church and First Baptist Church.

Three were killed and dozens were injured amid what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade to protest the city's decision to remove a Confederate monument. A car rammed into a crowd of protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, and a state police helicopter crashed into the woods, leaving two troopers onboard dead.

President Donald Trump criticized the violence and called for a return to law and order. But his critics say his racially-tinged rhetoric has exacerbated the nation's political tensions and emboldened racists.

2:21 a.m.

The mayor of Charlottesville blamed the nation's intensifying political divisions for the violent clashes between white supremacist groups and counterprotesters that left three dead.

Mayor Michael Signer on Saturday bemoaned the "very sad and regrettable coarseness in our politics."

Three were killed and dozens were injured amid what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade to protest the city's decision to remove a Confederate monument. A car rammed into a crowd of protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, and a state police helicopter crashed into the woods, leaving two troopers onboard dead.

President Donald Trump criticized the violence and called for a return to law and order. But his critics say his racially-tinged rhetoric has exacerbated the nation's political tensions and emboldened racists.

__

This story corrects the name of the church in the second entry to "First Baptist Church."
[August 14, 2017] Knightscope VP of Software Engineering Mercedes Soria to Receive 2017 ABIE Award for Leadership

Knightscope, developer of advanced physical security technologies focused on significantly enhancing US security operations, announced today that the Anita Borg Institute has named Knightscope Vice President of Software Engineering Mercedes Soria the recipient of the "2017 ABIE Award for Leadership." The annual recognition recognizes a woman who has "served in a significant leadership role in advancing technology, with a strong focus on increasing women's representation and success in the field." An awards ceremony will be held as part of the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, October 4-7, 2017 in Orlando, Florida with an expected 18,000 people in attendance - the largest gathering in the world of women technologists. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005350/en/ Knightscope VP of Software Engineering Mercedes Soria to be the recipient of the "2017 ABIE Award for Leadership" (Photo: Business Wire) "Anita Borg paved the way for women across the globe who were interested in following their dreams and pursuing careers in technology," said Mercedes Soria, VP Software Engineering, Knightscope. "It is an absolute honor to receive this esteemed award and will only fuel my ongoing efforts to inspire the next generation of women technologists." Mercedes Soria has a rich history in the technology field with over 15 years of experience. She currently leads the Knightscope team focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence and user-interface applications and aims to increase the number of women working in security and robotics. Earlier this year Mercedes received the 2017 "Silicon Valley Business Journal Woman of Influence Award," spotlighting the 100 most influential women in Silicon Valley from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. "The Anita Borg Istitute is thrilled to honor Mercedes with the 2017 ABIE Award for Leadership," said Telle Whitney, the organization's CEO and President. "From her time mentoring dozens of other female Deloitte (News - Alert) engineers to her contributions to the U.S. Department of State's TechWomen initiative, Mercedes serves as a role model for all women technologists."



For more information on Knightscope, including investment opportunities in purchasing preferred stock in the Company's Reg A+ "mini-IPO" as well as the Investor Perks, please visit www.knightscope.com. Information about the offering, as well as the offering circular, can be found here. About Knightscope, Inc.

Knightscope, Inc. is an advanced security technology company that utilizes Software + Hardware + Humans to provide its clients with new groundbreaking anomaly detection capabilities. In an increasingly volatile world, we are developing one of the most important technologies to come out of Silicon Valley that will empower the public and private sectors to proactively build stronger, safer communities, ultimately saving money and lives. Crime has a $1 trillion negative economic impact on the U.S. every single year and our long-term mission is to cut it in half. Learn more at www.knightscope.com About the ABIE Award for Leadership The ABIE Award for Leadership recognizes a woman who has served in a significant leadership role in advancing technology, with a strong focus on increasing women's representation and success in the field. Winners serve as industry role models by advocating, mentoring, and inspiring other women technologists. SEC (News - Alert) Disclaimer An offering statement regarding this offering has been filed with the SEC. The SEC has qualified that offering statement, which only means that Knightscope may make sales of the securities described by that offering statement. It does not mean that the SEC has approved, passed upon the merits or passed upon the accuracy or completeness of the information in the offering statement. You may obtain a copy of the offering circular that is part of that offering statement here. You should read the offering circular before making any investment. Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding projected business performance, operating results, financial condition and other aspects of the company, expressed by such language as "expected," "anticipated," "projected" and "forecasted." These statements also include estimates of the pace of customer adoption of the Company's products, engineering developments and prototype capabilities. Please be advised that such statements are estimates only and there is no assurance that the results stated or implied by forward-looking statements will actually be realized by the company. Forward-looking statements may be based on management assumptions that prove to be wrong. The Company's predictions may not be realized for a variety of reasons, including due to competition, customer sales cycles, and engineering or technical issues, among others. In addition, transitioning from proof of concept to working prototypes and then to production involves an inherent amount of uncertainty, and there is no guarantee that the Company will be able to successfully make these transitions for any of its developing technologies. The Company and its business are subject to substantial risks and potential events beyond its control that would cause material differences between predicted results and actual results, including the company incurring operating losses and experiencing unexpected material adverse events. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005350/en/

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OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma City federal judge has ruled that a teenage boy's emotional distress from a highly publicized sexual relationship with his English teacher is worth $1 million.

U.S. District Judge Robin J. Cauthron awarded the judgment against former middle school teacher Jennifer Caswell, 31.

The boy and his father sued Caswell and the small western Oklahoma school district of Hollis in 2015 over the inappropriate relationship, which included sex in her classroom.

"(The boy) reports feelings of depression, isolation, and self-blame for the events that transpired," Cauthron wrote. "He experienced humiliation when members of his community publicly chastised him and when strangers recognized him and questioned him about the scandal."
When Beard & Blade shop owners on Jenks Main Street got a shipment of shirts with the proposed Tulsa flag on them, they just thought it looked good.

Now its hanging front and center in their storefront window and has become their hottest selling item.

This is the only shirt that weve had people come in and ask for by name, said Beard & Blade co-owner Jason Kearney. We get one to two calls a day of people asking, Are you guys carrying the new Tulsa flag shirts? Its a cool deal.

The proposed new flag for Tulsa has become a hot item for small businesses inside and outside Tulsa while the effort to adopt it officially is on hiatus at City Hall.

Kearneys shop caters to a mostly-male crowd, offering mens grooming supplies, shirts, sunglasses, knives and coffee, among other kitsch.

Kearney said he wouldnt ban a shirt with the current Tulsa flag on it but doesnt think it would sell as well.

The new one is definitely more aesthetically pleasing, he said. It lends itself well to print and looks good on a shirt.

In fact, Kearney said hes looked into printing the flag design on actual flags to add to his selection of Oklahoma state, American and police Thin Blue Line flags already offered in the store.

Kearney and Beard & Blade co-owner Felix Archibeque are playing directly into the new Tulsa flag proponents hands  even though Joey Wignarajah, one of the leaders behind the effort to adopt the flag, didnt even know about Beard & Blades sales until last week.

Wignarajah said his group has been pushing support for the flag all over town but that learning that a store in Jenks is carrying T-shirts from a completely independent source was a happy surprise.

The city and the council have a lot theyre focusing on right now, Wignarajah said. We wanted to focus on the fun part, which is enjoying people making this their own.

Wignarajah said that after the original plans to get the crowd-sourced flag design affirmed by the City Council stalled, his focus has turned to showing bottom-up support.

Right now we just want to focus on getting it out there, he said.

Stickers have been the biggest, most readily-available items with the new Tulsa flag design on them. Wignarajah and effort co-leader Jacob Johnson have placed them in coffee shops and next to cash registers across town in recent weeks.

But theres more coming.

Wignarajah said an order of 200 flags  most of which have already been claimed  is due to arrive soon.

A mural on private property downtown is in the works, and other groups have asked to adorn a variety of other items with the design, he said.

From inception, the flag was designed to be free use, so Wignarajah has seen it pop up in places he didnt expect.

Downtowns Decopolis, a gift store that celebrates art deco design, has owner and artist William Franklins take on the Tulsa flag design as a top-selling item for weeks.

Some people were confused, thinking mine was a replacement for the flag, Franklin said. It was just a variation on it. Its like, I kind of like it. See what you can do with it. 

He said that for him, it wasnt exactly love at first sight with the proposed Tulsa flag design. He had submitted several designs of his own that werent selected.

But he quickly came around and is now a fan.

Franklin said the citys current flag wouldnt fit in at his store.

Our flag wouldnt really sell from a marketing perspective or just, you know, trying to make money.  This would. And it does.
OKLAHOMA CITY - A man accused of attempting to set off a bomb in downtown Oklahoma City claimed ideological support for The Three Percenters, a national anti government organization with a presence in Oklahoma, according to the FBI.

Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, of Sayre, initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., but settled on attempting to detonate a bomb at the BancFirst building at 101 N Broadway in downtown Oklahoma City, according to a complaint filed Sunday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Authorities arrested Varnell when he attempted to set off a fake explosive device he obtained from an undercover agent.

During a meeting with a confidential informant at an Elk City restaurant, Varnell "admitted to holding III% ideology and wanted to start the next revolution," according to court documents.
More than 40% of those voting in this week's general election marked the "straight party" box on their ballots, with 70% of those votes going to Republicans, the State Election Board said Thursday.
It wasnt until after several V-J Days had come and gone that Bob Brasel finally learned what he had missed.

And it only made him that much more grateful to be alive.

It wouldve been a fiasco, Brasel said, recalling a proposed operation to invade Kyushu, Japan, the casualty rate for which was projected at 50 percent.

What was worse, he added, his unit was going to be part of the first wave.

But thankfully, the plan  details of which werent released until years after the war  never had to be carried out. With the dropping of the atomic bombs, Japan was forced to surrender, rendering an invasion unnecessary.

Thank you, bomb, Brasel said.

Announced on Aug. 14, 1945  72 years ago Monday  Japans surrender officially brought to a conclusion the greatest conflict in human history.

Every year since, when V-J Day, as its known, rolls around, Brasel finds himself thinking back.

At the time, he said, the historical implications werent what was on the minds of he and his fellow troops.

We just wanted to know: When do we go home?

So close I could

see his eyes

Standing on his ships deck waiting to go ashore, Brasel was looking across the water at another ship just 100 feet away when he saw it.

It was between our two ships  a Japanese fighter with a torpedo flying about 20 feet off the water. He was so close I could see his eyes. If I had my rifle, I would have shot at him.

Newly arrived on the island of Morotai, Brasel, 20 at the time, had just gotten his first good look at the enemy.

And the opportunity to shoot back wouldnt be long in coming.

Brasel, who welcomed the Tulsa World to his home last week for an interview about his war experience, served in the Pacific on an Army antiaircraft gun crew.

The bulk of his service came in the battle for Japanese-held Morotai.

Disembarking the day after the invasion had begun, Brasel and his crew set up their guns, providing cover from aerial attacks while landing strips were built.

From there, theyd helped defend the strips themselves, as Japanese fighters and bombers tried to take out Allied facilities and aircraft on the ground.

One roger sugar, one roger sugar, this is Red Able King. Red alert! Red alert!  those words still ring in Brasels ears, he said.

Warning of incoming enemy aircraft, red alerts mostly came at night, he said. His crew was the designated alert gun and responded immediately. We elevated our gun to 45 degrees and shot three times, which served as a warning for everyone in the area to take cover.

I hated to hear the alerts, Brasel added. Because that meant somebody might get hurt.

Gun crew

Born and raised in Tulsa, Brasel graduated from Will Rogers High School in 1941, a member of the new schools second graduating class.

It wasnt many months afterward that the news broke that changed everything.

I think we were all stunned, really, Brasel said, adding that he was in a car with some friends when the Pearl Harbor attack was announced over the radio.

Brasels turn to serve wasnt long in coming. He was drafted into the Army, then inducted in January 1943.

He was assigned to a gun crew with the 389th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, which would be attached to the 13th Air Force.

An antiaircraft gun crew had 15 members, he said, and operated two weapons: a 40-mm antiaircraft gun and an M51. The latter featured a rotating turret sporting four 50-caliber machine guns that fired in unison.

Brasel and his unit shipped out of San Francisco and, traveling without a convoy, made straight for New Guinea.

After a training stint there, during which he was hospitalized for a week with dengue fever, Brasel arrived on Morotai on Sept. 16, 1944.

Red alert

Throughout its time on Morotai  about 10 months  Brasels crew sounded 82 red alerts. Most of them were at night.

The 40-mm gun had a range of 10,000 feet, and enemy planes tried their best to stay above that.

The situation was frustrating, Brasel said: All we could do is sit in our gun pit and watch.

He remembers three different times when high-flying Japanese aircraft successfully bombed American planes on the ground.

You never have seen anything like those exploding planes on any Fourth of July celebration, he said.

Another time, he recalled, an enemy plane dropped a string of bombs that ended just shy of his own gun section.

If hed had one more (bomb), there would be a hot time in the old town tonight, Brasel noted wryly.

Sometimes, though, the enemy strayed within range of their guns.

Brasel remembers well one morning when, with barely enough light to see it, an enemy plane came in at only about 30 feet off the ground.

Brasels crew immediately shot at it.

We saw the explosions where we hit it, he said.

The plane crashed nearby but didnt burn.

When Brasel went to look at it later, he found two dead bodies lying just clear of the wreckage  the pilot and copilot, he assumed.

They looked normal  except both of them were missing lower left legs, he said.

Brasel decided he wanted a souvenir from the plane.

Taking out his knife, he cut out some of the thin metal of the wing.

It was a piece of the Japanese red sun emblem. He kept it and later brought it home with him.

Homeward bound

It took two weeks to secure Morotai, the invasion of which had been well-disguised and caught the Japanese off guard.

Now, the island would be used to support the invasion of the Philippines.

From his gun pit at the end of the air strip, Brasel watched in awe as one bomber after another took off, headed out on raids to the nearby island chain.

Brasels unit remained on Morotai until July 1945, then moved on to the Philippines.

Thats where they were, preparing to invade mainland Japan, when the news broke in August of the atomic bombs.

With the war now over, the port of Batangas, Philippines, became quickly crowded with servicemen waiting for ships home.

There were a lot of mouths to feed, Brasel said. I saw the biggest pile of hamburger there that Ive seen in my entire life.

I could eat a hamburger any time of the day, he added, smiling.

After several weeks of waiting, his unit finally shipped out for San Francisco.

His military service finished, Brasel attended college on the G.I. Bill and went on to a long career as a civil engineer with Flint Steel Co.

Summing up his war experience, Brasel said he hopes his generations sacrifices wont be forgotten.

What we did was give everyone the opportunities they have today, he said.
proxima

Video: Ninos palestinos juegan a dispararle a la policia israeli con armas de juguete
The ABC Board held its second Community Forum in the NSW Riverina last Thursday, attended by more than 90 people.

The event, which was also attended by members of the ABC Leadership Team and the Advisory Council, followed a similar event in Alice Springs in July.

Topics for discussion included the trustworthiness and independence of the ABC, the value of localism and the need to balance regional and national content, and the role the ABC plays in informing communities during emergencies.

ABC Managing Director, Michelle Guthrie, said The Community Forums enable us to hear what audiences value about the national broadcaster and the areas that can be improved. They also allow us to hear from Australians who do not consume the ABCs content or use its services  so its valuable to hear different perspectives.

One of the key things that we keep hearing is that Australians value and trust the ABC.

We have also learnt that our audiences needs and expectations differ  and thats why the ABC must continue to evolve  to ensure that we remain relevant to all Australians for generations to come.

A third Community Forum will be held in October 2017.
As part of Childrens Book Week, 2017, ABC KIDS premieres Story Time, a Play School series featuring celebrities reading picture books written by Australian authors, accompanied by Big Ted, Little Ted, Jemima, Humpty and Joey.

The 6 x 5 minute series includes 2017 Gold Logie winner Samuel Johnson, comedian Rove McManus, yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins, Family Feud host Grant Denyer, 7.30 host Leigh Sales and writer and actor Nakkiah Lui.

During each episode, the Magic Story Drawer will pop open to reveal a special clue leading to the book of the day. Following this discovery, each presenter will then make themselves comfy on the couch next to their favourite Play School toy and begin to read.



The seven books, selected from The Childrens Book Council of Australias Notables Book List include Zeldas Big Adventure by Marie Alafaci and illustrated by Shane McG, Pig the Winner by Aaron Blabey, Snail and Turtle Rainy Days by Stephen Michael King, Ducks Away! by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek, Goodnight, Mice! by Frances Watts and Judy Watson, Wombat Big Puggle Small by Renee Treml and Where is Bear? by Jonathan Bentley.



Episode 1: Rove McManus

Join comedian Rove McManus and Play Schools Little Ted as they read a story about a cheeky pug dog in Pig the Winner by Aaron Blabey. What mischief will Pig the Pug get up to next?



Sunday August 20 at 5.45pm on ABC KIDS.
Media Watch last night exposed a bit of apparent editing from the Nine Network after its own Nine News website questioned an association between Australian Ninja Warrior host Ben Fordham and underworld identity John Ibrahim.

It noted a number of industry faces accompanying Ibrahim on the eve of the launch of his autobiography, Last King of the X.

Last Wednesday 9News.com.au asked why does the head of a crime family seek to surround himself with these guys? And why would they hang about with him?

Ibrahims friendship with another radio host Ben Fordham is perhaps slightly more of a surprise.

The article had no byline, identifying the author.

But as Media Watch revealed not long after the story went up, referring to the Today regular, the story then disappeared. A Facebook post and tweet referring to it also both vanished.

We asked Nine and Ben Fordham but, despite repeated attempts, they refused to comment, ABC reported.
| By Mary T. Phelan

In an open letter Aug. 14 to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) community, UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, denounced the hatred that led to deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12. Here is the text of that letter:

To the UMB Community:



Of course we condemn the hatred that led to deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend. But because some have thus far refused to condemn the hate groups by name, I will: The KKK, the neo-Nazis, and the white supremacists diminish us as Americans. Their vile ideologies, which strive to divide us, will fail.



But this is easy outrage. It's easy to condemn bigotry and stubborn ignorance. It's easy to champion love over hate. What's harder is the work we undertake every day in our community to show what love looks like, to secure equality and enact justice, to defend the principles on which this country was founded and which it struggles still to honor. The only valid response to evil is not more words denouncing it, but sustained action that renders it weak and, in time, irrelevant. And so I thank you for that work, and I thank you for the powerful love that feeds it.



Sincerely,



Jay A. Perman, MD

President
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A ruinous B-listed Borders castle is set for a new lease of life with proposals for its full refurbishment as a palatial home..

Glasgow Academy is to erect a new sports building at its Kelvinbridge campus to mark the centenary of the school's re-establishment following the First World War..

Gleneagles Townhouse, Edinburgh is the result of a five year project to convert the former Bank of Scotland headquarters at 37-39 St Andrews Square into a hotel and private members club as part of an expansion of the Gleneagles Hotel brand.

Phase two plans for the redevelopment of Ocean Terminal in Leith have been filed by Am...

Painstaking restoration has seen the 18th-century Merchant House on Castle Street ,...

A corner plot bungalow on Great Western Road is to be replaced by a substantial tw...

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UW Librarians Book Reveals Business Icons Impact on Rural America

UW agricultural research Librarian David Krugers book about James Cash Penney explores how the department store icon and his company shaped rural America throughout the 20th century. (University of Oklahoma Press)

A University of Wyoming faculty members new book about James Cash Penney explores how the department store icon and his company shaped rural America throughout the 20th century.

I wanted to wrap my mind around the scope of Penneys extensive involvement in agriculture and rural America and, ultimately, understand why a successful department store icon would choose to pursue such activities while living and working in New York City, says David Kruger, UWs agricultural research librarian.

J.C. Penney: The Man, the Store, and American Agriculture provides a biographical account of the business mogul and a historical view of his company and rural America.

Although he was born and raised on a farm in Missouri, Penney had strong connections to Wyoming. He married his first wife, Berta, during Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1900. He lived in Evanston and then in Kemmerer, where he opened his first store in 1902. He left Wyoming for New York in 1907, but frequently returned to the state from 1933-1962 to visit his Wyoming stores and friends. In 1945, he received an honorary doctoral degree from UW.

Penney traveled to the Cowboy State for the last time in 1962 at the age of 87, when he accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Wyoming Council of Retail Merchants.

Despite his stature as a national businessman, Penneys last day in Wyoming was humbly spent waiting on customers at the J.C. Penney store in downtown Casper, Kruger says.

Penney intentionally built his stores in agricultural regions, where they became fixtures of small-town main streets. According to Penney, Small towns were where I was at home. I knew how to get close to the lives of small-town people, learning their needs and preferences and serving them accordingly.

A benevolent and religious man, Penney embodied the Golden Rule and instilled in each store the philosophy of mutual respect among customers, employees, suppliers, competitors and communities.

Despite his companys growing success, he didnt lose sight of his agrarian roots. In fact, he developed and administered numerous agricultural projects while overseeing his company as chairman of the board. One of his interests was to breed a higher quality of cattle, working specifically with Guernsey dairy cattle, and Angus and Hereford beef cattle.

His philosophy was to use his wealth and his expertise (he was basically a well-read and self-taught animal scientist) to make improvements to cattle for the benefit of the common farmer, Kruger says.

James Cash Penney opened his first department store in 1902 in Kemmerer. (UW Photo)

Among his other agricultural endeavors, Penney funded an extensive horse and mule breeding operation on his birthplace farm in Missouri; he sought to improve 4-H organizations nationwide; and he donated money -- along with his herd of prize-winning Guernseys -- to create a dairy research center at the University of Missouri. Additionally, Penney applied his Golden Rule philosophy to personal farming partnerships he developed in his home state. He bought and improved farms; the tenant farmers provided the labor; and he split the profits among them.

Behind J.C. Penneys homogeneous shopping mall facade lies a much deeper story about the company and the man who created it, a history innately tied to rural America and a Golden Rule spirit that is often lacking in the business world today, Kruger says.

In addition to researching historical archives for his book, Kruger interviewed more than 50 people, including Penneys last surviving child, daughter Mary Frances Wagley, five of Penneys grandchildren and former J.C. Penney CEO W.R. Howell. He also has written 12 academic articles on the history of the J.C. Penney Co. and its founder.

The 360-page book, published by the University of Oklahoma Press, is available in hard cover or as an e-book. It can be purchased at www.oupress.com, from online retailers or at bookstores.
UW President Taps Native American Advisory Committee

University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols has assembled a seven-member committee to advise her on Native American affairs.

The advisory committee will work to develop a strategic Native American plan with the university and Wind River Indian Reservation communities for education, research and service that will benefit UW, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, and Wyoming.

I appreciate the willingness of these individuals to provide broad advice and input to me on our work to develop a more open, inclusive and positive environment for Native American students, says Nichols, who has made it a priority to connect with the tribes, including several trips to the Wind River reservation. I also anticipate this group will help us facilitate a positive and productive relationship with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.

As outlined in the universitys new strategic plan, Breaking Through: 2017-2022, the university aims to increase its enrollment and graduation of Native American students, while expanding partnerships with both tribes.

Chairing the advisory committee is James Trosper, former UW trustee and director of the universitys High Plains American Indian Research Institute (HPAIRI) and the new Native American Education, Research and Cultural Center.

Other members are:

-- Affie Ellis, of Cheyenne, state senator, attorney, UW graduate, enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and the first Native American woman elected to the Wyoming Senate.

-- Jason Robison, associate professor in the College of Law, whose research and writing focus primarily on transboundary water law and policy in the American West, including that involving indigenous people.

-- Ken Gerow, professor of statistics, whose research has included extensive statistical analysis regarding natural resources. His paternal grandmother hails from the Tsil Kaz Koh First Nation in northern British Columbia, Canada.

-- Debra Littlesun, UW Student Financial Aid associate director; enrolled member of the Crow Tribe and descendant of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe; adviser for Keepers of the Fire, the universitys Native American student organization; and endowment administrator for the Northern Arapaho endowment and the Chief Washakie Memorial Scholarship.

-- Lay-nah Blue Morris-Howe, assistant professor in the counseling program in the College of Education and co-chair of the College of Education Advisory Council on Diversity. As a student at UW, she was a member and council member of Keepers of the Fire.

-- Angela Jaime, associate professor of educational studies in the College of Education and an enrolled member of the Pit River and Valley Maidu of northern California. She specializes in American Indian education, the study of Native women and their experiences in higher education, multicultural education and womens studies.

The advisory committee met for the first time last week.

Under Nichols leadership, the university is working to update its memoranda of understanding with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.

Additionally, UW is preparing to open a Native American Education, Research and Cultural Center in the former home of the UW Honors Program at 10th and Ivinson streets. Classes, lectures, research, performances, exhibitions, meetings, collaborative work, traditional meals and traditions of Native peoples will be celebrated in the facility, which will be home to HPAIRI and the American Indian Studies Program.

And, earlier this summer, UW hosted the Native American Summer Institute, which brought 28 Native students to campus for a week of activities focused on college preparation; academic, career and cultural exploration; personal and community development; and recreational and other activities.

The university has a unique opportunity to work with the tribes on important research, and to recruit and graduate more Native American students, says Trosper, the son of a Northern Arapaho father and an Eastern Shoshone mother. Our group hopes to help President Nichols move forward in these relationships so that the tribes know and understand UW has their best interests in mind.
PARIS -- The Gaslight Art Colony presents its August art show, "Paint and Steel," featuring artwork from Nancy Nichols-Pethick and Philip Dees.

According to a press release, Nichols-Pethick was born in Alaska and grew up in rural Maine. She received her BFA in drawing from the University of Southern Maine in 1996, and her MFA in Painting from Indiana State University in 2000. She teaches painting and drawing at ISU, and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including, most recently, an Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant for 2017/18.

Dees is a sculptor residing in Terre Haute, Ind. He works out of his backyard studio on North Ninth Street not far from Indiana State University, the same location that he and his wife, Gemma, have lived for10 years. He received his bachelor of arts from Southern Illinois University from his hometown of Carbondale in 1984. His emphasis at that time was solely drawing and painting.

In 1988, with a recently acquired background in welding and fabrication obtained at a nearby trailer plant, he directed his energies toward sculpture. He worked the first two years of his sculpture career on his parents patio. It was a particularly rich, fruitful and rewarding period for Dees. In 1990 he moved to Terre Haute in pursuit of a masters of fine arts degree from Indiana State University with a major emphasis being sculpture and minor in painting. In 1995 he earned his master of fine arts.

The show opens with a reception from 5-8 p.m. Saturday and will be available for viewing until Sept. 9.
Desmond Sewell, 12, receives his vaccinations from Medical Assistant Jessica Reyes at the Lou Colen Childrens Health and Wellness Center in Los Angeles on Aug. 4. Sewell received vaccinations for TDAP, against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis, HPV (Human Papillomavirus) and MCV4 against meningitis.
Feds try to seize dinosaur skull, but doctor says he bought his fair and square
URBANA -- For the majority of college students, having enough food is not on the list of challenges they face in their education. However, a recent study shows that, for some college students, hunger is definitely one of the problems they face and this can impede their ability to succeed in college.

Consistent with what most people probably believe intuitively, food insecurity is not a major issue at elite four-year campuses, University of Illinois agricultural economist Craig Gundersen said in a press release. For example, here at Illinois, the median family income is $109,000 and only 6.1 percent of the entire student body are from the bottom twentieth percentile of national income levels. In fact, over half of the students at U of I come from the top 20 percent. I dont mean to say that none of the students at U of I has this problem, but it is quite rare.

This, however, is not a rare problem at two-year colleges and vocational schools, Gundersen says. The data show students who attend these schools are generally from poorer households. They dont have to live on campus in dorms with required meal plans in dining halls. In fact, they are more likely to be still living at home with their parents. If their parents are food insecure, then so are they.

There is also a greater percentage of students at two-year and vocational schools who are going back to school later. They are perhaps 25 years old and already heads of their own households, working to pay for their own tuition as well as their own familys needs, Gundersen says.

Gundersen believes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is the best social safety net to combat food insecurity in the United States. And this effort should be extended to college students, especially community college students.

Nearly one in five two-year college students live in a food-insecure household, but eligibility and take-up rates among college-age students are low, Gundersen says. Policy makers may want to consider lowering the minimum number of off-campus work hours that are necessary for otherwise-eligible students to receive SNAP benefits.

Gundersen says previous studies on this topic surveyed college students visiting food pantries and through voluntary online surveys. Not surprisingly, those studies found much higher percentages of students, as high as 60 percent, being food insecure on four-year campuses.

With a rigorous study like the one my colleagues and I conducted, the numbers are not as dramatic, but they are more descriptive of whats actually going on, Gundersen says. Some 13 percent of college students at four-year schools are food insecure, which mirrors the national average of the entire population. And 21 percent of students in two-year and vocational schools are food insecure. These data tell a more complete story.

For this study, Gundersen and his colleagues use data from the October and December supplements to the Current Population Survey. It is a survey conducted by the Census Bureau that gathers information from questionnaires from approximately 60,000 households nationwide. The October supplement includes questions about education and members of the household who are enrolled in school. The December supplement addresses questions about SNAP benefits and food insecurity.

Gundersen adds that people on four-year campuses who are really struggling with food insecurity are not the students. its the people cleaning up after our students, cooking, and serving food in the dining halls. Those are the people with low incomes who are at severe danger of food insecurity and have high rates of food insecurity.

The study, Assessing food insecurity on campus: A national look at food insecurity among Americas college students, is written by Kristin Blagg, Craig Gundersen, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and James P. Ziliak. It is published online by the Urban Institute. This report was funded in part by the Lumina Foundation and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Gundersen is the Soybean Industry Endowed Professor in Agricultural Strategy and professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois and a member of the Division of Nutritional Sciences.
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(FILE PHOTO) LowCarbon Crossings cyclists posed for a photo during their 2016 trek across the United States. This photo was taken while they passed through Montana.

On the left is Mindy Ahler of Edina, MN. She is Co-Director of Cool Planet, creating neighborhood fun and action for our planet. She is also a Regional Coordinator for Citizens Climate Lobby, creating the political will for a livable world.
Lego event set at Charleston library

MATTOON -- Charleston Carnegie Public Librarys monthly Lego My Library will be from 4-5:15 p.m. Wednesday in Rotary Room A for grades K-8. Kids under 8 should attend with a parent or guardian.

Build together, take on challenges, and show off building skills. Builders will have the opportunity to Show and Tell between 5-5:15 p.m. to admire everyones skill and imagination. All Legos are provided.

This free program is open to the public. A library card is not needed to attend. For further information, please call 217-345-1514 or visit www.charlestonlibrary.org.

Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society to meet

SULLIVAN -- The Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society will hold their monthly general meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Heritage Center in Sullivan.

Charlie Steck, the societys program chairman, will present a DVD on the Hayloft Gang and its WLS Barn Dance. This program was broadcast every Saturday night on WLS-AM out of Chicago and was a variety show that brought traditional folk music and country humor to entertain folks across the countryside.

From its first broadcast in 1924 to its last in 1960, the National Barn Dance served as a special treat to rural folk who at times were very unsure what the future held for them.
Claws Avalanche Season 1 Episode 10 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next  Previous Episode Next Episode  Photo: Doug Hyun/Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc.

What a ride this season has taken us on. Yall, that last shot of the episode? It took everything from me. I gasped no fewer than three times. My edges? Gone. I dont know how Desna could stand it. Lets go!

The episode starts with Desna at the abandoned amusement park as the Russians are chasing her and Roller. The Nail Artisans gang along with Dean have tracked her cell phone and theyre racing around in the van to find her. They find her cell phone in the car along with one dead Yuri. Things arent looking good. They race around the park trying to find her and just as they give up, Desna spots them and takes off running behind the van. Unfortunately for Desna, Roller sees her taking off after the van. The gang pulls her inside and speeds off.

The gang heads off to Jens house in case the Russians are trying to kidnap her kids, but Jen is waking up next to Jews for Jesus Hank and trying to avoid the wet spot. Jen. Her phone is blowing up, but shes in a sex haze. Riva is at home with a random baby and one of her enforcers tells her that Yuri died. She assigns Yuri to another thug and says shes ready to show them how they do it in the other Georgia and thats a fucking great line.

Roller warns Uncle Daddy about the Russians coming, and tells him to go protect Bryces girls. Uncle Daddy calls Juanda, who is watching the girls while Jen is off having a straight-up affair, and says the Russians are about to start a war. Juanda is excited about the prospect of a war! How fun, I guess. She packs up the girls and grabs her gun and puts them in the car. She goes back into the house and one of the Russians is inside. She raises her gun to shoot him, but her gun is empty and he attacks her. She ends up beating him to death with a statue, but another Russian is on the patio and shoots her. I GASPED. THIS WAS GASP NO. 1.

Uncle Daddy and Bryce head to the house because something doesnt feel right and they discover Juanda bleeding on the floor. Bryce heads outside to get the girls and Brianne, the black one, is missing. The other daughter is sitting in the backseat with BRING US ROLLER written on her forehead. Meanwhile, Uncle Daddy sits with Juanda while she bleeds out. They have a surprisingly emotional scene that almost pulled real tears out of me. She tells him to hurt them really bad before she drifts off into the afterlife. Uncle Daddy is PISSED.

Desna and the gang head back to her house and Dean demands to know why Roller was trying to kill her. When she wont say, he tells her that shes making stupid life decisions and she needs to do better. Everyone is trying to find Jen. Virginia knows that Jen has been spending time with Hank, so Desna heads over to his house. She tells Jen whats happened and Jen blames Desna. Back at the strip club, we finally get some answers out of Roller. He slept with Rivas niece after she told him she was 25, but she was really 17. Also, he got her pregnant so hes been sending her $30,000 a month.

Then a giant fight breaks out: Bryce jumps onto Roller and Uncle Daddy jumps into the fray when suddenly I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney the Voice Houston kicks on. I GASPED AGAIN. This was amazing. The three men are rolling around punching each other and Uncle Daddy is arguing with Todd to turn the music off while Desna just watches. Then all three men start crying and hugging each other. Can a scene win an award? Just the whole scene? This was the best scene on television all week. I dont care what Game of Thrones does. Roller finally tells Uncle Daddy that Desna and Virginia tried to kill him, but she talks herself out of being shot in the face and Uncle Daddy knows he needs her to get Brianne back.

The Russians want to meet with Desna and shes been deputized to offer them $250,000 in exchange for Brianne. When Riva isnt satisfied, Desna offers her 25 percent of Uncle Daddys businesses and Riva counters with 100 percent. Desna offers 50 percent and shell launder the money for all the businesses in her salon. Meanwhile, Polly meets with Dr. Ken and theyre going to have a strange afternoon once Polly hears her friend trying to sell her daughter, Marnie, to an Elvis impersonator. Polly takes all her money and buys Marnie back for $800 and a few Gucci purses. She cradles Marnie while she cries, but tells her that this pain is all the disappointment about her former life leaving her body. Shes going to teach her everything she knows and Dr. Ken joins in on the comforting. This is one messed-up little family.

Desna presents the offer to Uncle Daddy and he recruits one of his weird turtle business partners to come along and protect them during the deal. Roller rejects the deal, but Uncle Daddy says theyre in this mess because of his dumb ass. They head to a neutral country club with tons of old people. The Russians drag Roller away and give Brianne back to Jen. Riva insists on 100 percent and Uncle Daddy knows that hes gotta sign it away. BUT UH-OH! The weird business partner comes in and points a gun at Riva and  WAIT, WHAT?! He points the gun at Uncle Daddy! Hes switched sides! Bryce and Dr. Ken manage to take down the goons holding Roller outside, but theyre no match for every old person in the country club, who are all suddenly pointing guns at Uncle Daddy and Bryce. All of you work for me now, Riva purrs as she sends everyone out except for Desna. They need to talk.

Desna and the gang are moving into Glint Nails, but she reveals that Riva wants to keep her to launder the money through Nail Artisans because not enough people use cash at Glint. Everyone else agrees to stay with Desna and go back to Nail Artisans.

IM SORRY, WHAT? Were just supposed to deal with 1) Desna giving up everything for another white crime boss, and 2) everyone being like YEAH! to going back to Nail Artisans. Cmon, give us some more forward movement with Desnas goals.

Before this infuriating little moment, Virginia pops into the bathroom and we learn that shes pregnant. Is there a name for this plot device? Finding out youre pregnant in the last episode of a season? Especially if you dont tell the father? There should be a name for this.

Im sure well deal with that train wreck next season, but for now Uncle Daddy goes to see another local crime boss at his trap-warehouse. He tells him that the Russians have upset the whole order of things and its going to affect his business. The crime boss turns around 

 AND ITS THE SUPER-FINE HAITIAN DOCTOR. AND THATS THE THIRD GASP.
Have you ever seen an episode of television so propulsive, so biting, and so outright fun that you want to watch it again moments after you finished it? Thats how Hella L.A., directed by showrunner Prentice Penny and written by Laura Kittrell, left me feeling. Insecure has leveled up with this episode by pushing its characters into bold new directions while interweaving deft commentary on police, code-switching, and the fetishization of black male bodies that seems ripped straight from a D.W. Griffith nightmare.

About halfway through the Kiss n Grind party that Issa attends with Molly and Kelli, she comes face-to-face with Daniel, whom she hasnt seen since their blowup last season. Up until that point, Issa is feeling herself. Shes cracking jokes about creating a rotation of men and reveling in the confidence shes gained in her casual hookup with her neighbor. But theres something performative about this version of Issa, which is clear when she decides to step to Daniel in order to clear the air at the party and awkwardly busts into a brief rendition of the Living Single theme song. This moment puts into focus how cleverly Insecure excels at exploring the aftermath of when fantasies meet reality. It isnt pretty. This is never truer than when it comes to Lawrence.

Lawrence is fully embracing the single life, gearing up to pregame with Chad before a wild night out. His plans go awry when hes pulled over for making an illegal U-turn to bypass traffic. (To be fair, he does this following two other drivers.) Panic seizes Lawrence. He flips his music to classical. He notices that the younger cop gets out to wait near the tail end of his car while the older one comes to his window. Theyre both white. Is this your car? the cop asks spitefully. Lawrence leaves unscathed, but the prickly politics of this scene rest just underneath the surface  the way black people circumscribe themselves in order to survive, hoping that being a bit more respectable can save us. But where Lawrences story gets truly interesting is when he hits the grocery store.

The moment the two girls offered to buy his alcohol, since his card fell out when handing his license to the officer, I knew this episode was going to take a left turn. They eventually come up to him in the parking lot looking at Lawrence like hes a literal snack theyd devour alive. But apparently, less than $50 of alcohol is enough for Lawrence to throw caution to the wind.

Back at their place, things get heated. First, the brunette white girl  who is clearly feeling Lawrence  puts on the Weeknd and starts doing a dance for him. It isnt just lust they feel for Lawrence. Theyre specifically into him because of the noxious stereotypes they project onto his body, which are intrinsically linked to his blackness. Once the flirtation gives way to a threesome, this becomes undeniable. The brunette, who is on top of Lawrence, yelps, Your black cock feels so good in my white pussy! He looks a bit shocked by the statement, but keeps rolling with the moment. He doesnt care that theyre actively dehumanizing him, treating him like a toy in ways that go beyond the usual dynamics of a hookup. (Im going to be completely honest right now: Lawrence deciding to still have sex with those women after their fetishization becomes clear is troubling. Love yourself, Lawrence.) Lawrence takes a step back after he and the brunette orgasm, and her blonde friend jumps on top of him exclaiming, My turn. Lawrence apparently doesnt have the stamina for this threesome, and the night goes sour. Whats the problem? Weve been with a bunch of other black guys that can cum and keep going, the brunette says. This sequence brings up a lot of thorny topics  about the fetishization of black bodies; about the ways some black men treat white and Asian women as prizes, even as they disregard their humanity; and Lawrences inability to reckon with his emotional present.

In the wake of their breakup, Lawrence has spent time with women who prove to be Issas antithesis. Tasha was bubbly, more traditional in looks and intent, and praised him for doing what amounted to the bare minimum. When her cheerleading proved to have its limits, the relationship went south. These women are even farther from Issa, given that they cant even acknowledge his humanity. Hookups need not have long, in-depth conversations, but basic respect should be a given. Thats why its unsurprising that the episode ends with Lawrence looking at Issas apartment building, musing over whether to reconnect or not. Lawrence is not used to the single life that Chad imagines as ideal. He doesnt even seem built for it. But his threesome in Hella L.A. proves that for all the fun the single life can provide, theres also harrowing dilemmas that can be tricky to navigate and heal from, too. Meanwhile at the Kiss n Grind, Molly and Issa are learning very different lessons about living single.

It isnt just the presence of Daniel that becomes a problem for Issa. She has a very casual meetup with someone from Tinder at the party, named Felix (Broderick Hunter). What confidence Issa had left completely withers under Felixs gaze. He isnt just uninterested, hes an asshole. I didnt recognize you at first. Your hair is different than your picture, Felix says, before asking if she ever changes it back. Felix, you should know that a lot of black women love switching up their hairstyle on the regular. He doesnt stop there. Does your voice always sound like this? Felix asks before harshly dropping any pretense of interest and leaving to find his friends. Its easy to criticize Issa for deciding to hook up with her neighbor and getting curved by one very attractive dude after another. Its also easy to blame a lot of things on her awkwardness. But I dont think thats a bad thing. Any man who is meant for her wont find that an issue, but recognize thats part of the hilarious, down-to-earth tapestry of Issas personality. While Issa nurses the momentary knocks on her self-esteem, Molly is having to face how she conceives relationships should be.

Dro, who we met last week with his wife, Candice, happens to be at Kiss n Grind. Candice, of course, is out of town on some yoga retreat, giving Dro room to play. At first I thought nothing of the easy shorthand he and Molly share. They grew up together, after all. But the flirtatious edge to their conversation grows harder to ignore once they get on the dance floor. Their dancing starts off as a friendly trip down memory lane, but the sexual tension is obvious. Once Slow Motion comes on, they start grinding on each other, and he wraps his hands around her waist. Molly decides to nix the dancing, bringing up that she knows Candice wouldnt be cool with this. Candice and I are open, Dro admits. Molly needs to talk to Candice about this first. How does she know Dro isnt lying? Would Candice even be okay with him having sex with a longtime friend he already has a strong emotional bond with? Open relationships have boundaries. This sends Molly into a bit of a panic. Is anyone married like my parents anymore? she wonders when she admits what happened to Issa and Kelli. That Molly even considers becoming a sidepiece to Dro while she ignored Lionel (a man actually interested in commitment) says a lot about her own confusion.

After Kiss n Grind, Kelli decides to link up with some dude she met who she calls Sweetie, since she cant remember his name, at a food joint. Issa and Molly tag along. While Molly fends off text messages from Dro, Issa finds herself sitting next to Kelli and Sweetie when things take an unexpected turn. Kelli sort of reminds me of acquaintances I have who can be fun to hang out with in small doses, but are too extra to be anything more than that. Case in point: Sweetie starts fingering her under the table. It isnt subtle, but it is hilarious. Issa locks eyes with someone across from her: Daniel. He sends her a text since he surmises whats going on with Kelli and Sweetie. Daniel and Issa share a laugh before she moves to sit by him. Everyone ends this week at different turning points  reconciliation, heartache, personal examination. No matter where the characters go, Insecure proves that its one of the most emotionally layered and audacious shows on television with Hella L.A.

Other Gossip

 I love that Syd was the DJ at Kiss n Grind.

 So Issa has all these pricey new clothes yet has a running tab where Molly covers things for her? Okay.

 Looking at the Kiss n Grind scene, I couldnt help but think about that behind-the-scenes video in which Beyonce complained about the lighting during her run-through for the 2006 MTV VMA Awards. You cant put blue lights on a black girl, she said. Are there exceptions?

 Issa calling a woman trying to jack their table at Kiss n Grind a Fashion Nova ass bitch is my favorite line of the night.

 I love the way Insecure incorporates texts and GIFs into the visual language of the series.

*An earlier version of this piece mistakenly stated that both women in the threesome are white, when in fact one is white and the other is of Japanese descent.
Along with a duct-taped copy of Donna Tartts The Goldfinch, Mackenzie Davis toted a glass bottle of green water around with her on set of Halt and Catch Fire. Recently I was like, I smell bad, Davis said as she took a swig. She used to put droplets of chlorophyll into her water, but when she stopped, she noticed her body odor, so she started up again. If you drink it for like a week and a half, you smell like sweet cut grass, she said. It also increases cellular respiration and allows you to have more oxygen in your bloodstream, but I can only vouch for the sweet cut grass.

Were lounging on a couch in Donnas (played by her co-star, Kerry Bishe) living room, which has been retrofitted in a palette of salmon pink to reflect the interior-decorating tastes of the early 1990s. Davis is taking a break between scenes while shooting the series finale of a show she started on five years ago playing Cameron Howe, the coding savant who can best relate to people through technology. Since then, Daviss career has moved forward at a fast clip with roles in That Awkward Moment, The Martian, a beloved episode of Black Mirror, and an upcoming part in Blade Runner 2049. Four seasons later, perhaps the most concrete acknowledgment of her ascent (as well as a changing industry) is this: AMC offered her and Bishe a salary commensurate to their male co-stars Lee Pace and Scoot McNairy for the final season.

Davis, 30, who studied English at McGill University in Montreal and didnt pursue acting professionally until she graduated, maintains the demeanor of someone who thinks of herself as a lifelong student. She loves books, ideas, and the cultural conversation. So when I bring up The Martian, where she played engineer Mindy Park, she knows immediately what Im talking about. Are you talking about the whitewashing thing? she says. Ive actually wanted somebody to ask me about this. What follows is an engrossing, thoughtful conversation about the things most people dont like to talk about: money, race, and feminism.

My understanding is that the Halt and Catch Fire cast had wine readings at Lee Paces house. How did that come about?

Lee started it, and Im so grateful that he did. We didnt have table reads for the show because of our schedule, which is hard, especially because we dont work with the whole cast every scene, so you dont get the whole shape of the episode or pick up on dramatic subtleties if youre working in isolation like that. So wed go to Lees house and make dinner and drink wine and just have a table read and bitch about what we needed to. If somebody had to complain, it was really nice, because you got to hear other peoples point of views about your character. Youd go, Im super frustrated over this! and theyd go, Thats not how we experience you at all, which can be helpful and not helpful because youre like, All that matters is whatever this person thinks of themselves. But sometimes its nice to have a read from somebody without your particular sensitivities for your character voice. It just bonded us so well. Were not from L.A., we dont know anybody, it was super lonely, and then we had this thing every Sunday where we got together, read the script, worked it out, and had a laugh and got drunk. It really felt like we came here in this concentrated theater camp for four months every year and devoted ourselves to this thing and went our separate ways. I think the show would have been so unbelievably different if we hadnt done that.

I really like how Cameron and Donnas relationship has become the engine of the show.

Me too. Its so beautiful. I feel like it happened really organically, and I love working with Kerry. Shes just such a fucking good actress. I love what they write for us together, and I like working with her. Everybody on this show is so amazing, but there are some people who just perform at you, and theyre not really speaking to you. Theres no sense of both of you figuring out what this is in the moment, and each line feeling new in some way. She always does that, so its been, for me, extremely nourishing and satisfying.

The show also feels like a commentary on itself in some ways, through your partnerships. Like, when the characters talk about making something new, it also feels like the show is talking about remaking itself.

I think its super fucking meta, specifically with our show where its no secret that the first season was just us all getting our sea legs. Then we did; we reset in season two, and that was so unbelievably satisfying and fun and felt like never-never land. And then, even though that felt so great, we reset for season three in a new space, with a new thing. It feels unusual that the shows been going on four years, and the core cast members havent changed at all, and it hasnt expanded. We just shift partnerships all the time, and sometimes Im like, Oh god, do we not know anybody else? Why do we not have other friends and learn our lessons? But I kind of believe it. Karyn [Kusama, who has directed one episode each season] said something really lovely, that the reason these people stay in each others lives is because theyre the only people who they can be their ugly, true, awful, embarrassing, lovely selves with. And they can, too. Weve seen so many features of each other, and so many awful things, and so many beautiful things, and shared in such huge, monumental memories together. It does make sense that we all stick together.

Kerry Bishe and Mackenzie Davis in the final season of Halt and Catch Fire. Photo: Tina Rowden/AMC Film Holdings LLC.

When season two started again, what was different for me wasnt that the story was more focused on Mutiny and Donnas and my partnership than before  even though it was  but it felt like the energy of the show was really different. Shooting in the Cardiff Electric offices, [they] were so  brown! [Laughs.] And like, I was living in this sex dungeon! The tone of the show felt different, but because were always isolated in separate partnerships, I didnt know until the show came out and people began commenting on it. So it felt more organic to me than this idea that there was some overhaul to the whole structure of the show.

I guess the lynchpin in a lot of ways, to me, was bringing Donna to the fore. I think at the beginning she did feel like 

Like a wife.

Yeah, she felt like a Skyler White copy.

Exactly. It changed the whole thing. Maybe it was episode three or four, where Cameron fucks something up and Donna comes in and fixes it, and it was such a nice, electrifying thing. All of us worked at Cardiff Electric, but I never saw Donna. I knew she had her own story line, and we would have dinner once in a while as a cast, but I didnt really know what was going on. We were kept completely separate  it was like we worked on different shows! And then she came in and we had a brief moment, and then this brief interaction in the parking lot, and it just felt so good. I dont have anything really eloquent to say other than, Oh, this new person around all the men, and all the men I love! I live with all the men! I think theyre great! But theres a really interesting story about feminism told through Donna and Cameron, and about second- and third-wave feminism, and the heirs to second-wave feminism, and the second-wavers who are the grandmothers of all of the liberties and rebellions Cameron expresses and inhabits. Thats such an interesting story to tell, because its not just two powerful women, but two powerful women who are separated by enough of a generation gap to have grown up in pretty different ways, even though theyre only maybe ten years apart.

What do you think they represent in terms of feminism?

I guess Donna represents a very realistic, pragmatic, unentitled kind of feminism  especially at the beginning of the first season  where shes worked so hard for the respect shes garnered and has accumulated in small steps forward: this middling career, which is pretty good for a woman, but her true ambitions and her true talents arent being recognized at all. Cameron, for whatever reason, hasnt been forced to recognize her own femaleness, because I dont think she presents super-female, which is a big deal  how much femininity you lead with or how much of it they read on you. Because she doesnt broadcast as, like, a super-female person, I think she doesnt get treated in a super-female way. So shes been able to not recognize the experiences and the work that somebody like Donna and her generation have had to claw their way towards, and just takes a huge bite out of life and thinks she deserves it. Through their experiences as partners in Mutiny, I remember the first meeting they have with a sexist VC who asked Donna and Cameron, what if one of them got pregnant? I think that was one of her first true moments when she realized that people looked at her differently for being a girl. It wasnt just that people looked at her differently for being a genius. She identified as a mind before a body, and then recognized in that moment that some people recognized her as a body before a mind.

Donna did a lot of emotional labor in that partnership, and that feels like in part it was because she was of an older generation, just as she had done in her marriage with Gordon.

Yes, and shed just stomach it. I think Cameron asked her to do that implicitly, and never allowed, because of her behavior, anybody to ask that of her. She wasnt in a position to even recognize the labor Donna was performing for her and how much weight she was really carrying, because Cameron didnt make herself available to have the same experience.

Halt and Catch Fire has always been a show about reinvention, and I wondered if moving to New York City from Canada, you felt like you had to be a different person?

No, I always liked to think about it like, You can change your style, and I did do that. When I first moved to New York, my sister worked at Alexander Wang and she gave me a bunch of clothes and I was wearing, like, combat boots and leggings, and I got my nose pierced within the first week. I took out the nose piercing after the first week because I was like, if I have to clean this all the time and just have a scar later, then Im not interested. It looked really cute, though! I had friends come down from Montreal, and they were like, Youve been gone a week! Why do you look like that? Thats one of the only times I think I really tried to pull a fast one on people. I dont know if Ive reinvented myself, or feel that pressure to at all.

Did you feel that way when you were modeling?

No. Its so funny, Ive mentioned that, because its so embarrassing if you knew like, what that actually means in the context of my life. Its the most embarrassing photographs. Its not like, hot fashion modeling. I could barely get catalogues. I walked in like, Paris Fashion Week adjacent. I was the worst!

Off-off Paris Fashion Week.

Yeah, it was off-off week. I was always like, God, Im too much myself to do this, and everyone can see it.



This is a bit of a swerve, but can I ask you about The Martian? I was curious how your role came about.

Are you talking about the whitewashing thing? I totally feel that complaint. I had no idea. So I auditioned for the movie. I worked with an actress called Megan Park, and maybe it was because I knew her name that I thought it was a white name. [Editors note: The character Davis plays in the movie is named Mindy Park.]

It can be an ambiguous last name.

I was just having this conversation with people this morning about how people see their own races as neutral, and how thats a problem because with all the scripts I read, I only delineate race when it says a character isnt white, and how loud that signal is that everybody writing scripts is white, or the scripts that come across me and the person I was talking tos desk. I got the part and I had no idea, but when the movie was coming out I started hearing things about how she was supposed to be Korean, which was confusing to me because I had read the book  Chiwetel [Ejiofor]s character was Indian, but I dont remember reading the other part at all. [Editors note: Even though author Andy Weir has stated that he meant for Mindy Park to be Korean-American, her ethnicity is not explicitly specified in the book.] I remember asking Andy at Toronto, Was Mindy supposed to be Korean? and he said, Yes. That was the first I ever heard of it.

Did you have a conversation with him then? What did he say?

It was long ago now, so Id have a hard time giving a satisfying answer  and I dont mean to absolve myself of any complicity because I didnt know. But I thought a lot about it because it took me by surprise. I feel very affected by it. I want to be as non-complicit as I have control over, and there have been other parts I have not auditioned for because they were written as a Latino woman or a black woman and theyd go, Oh, well just see you, but I feel that theres no way to change that dynamic unless people take it upon themselves to not participate in that. But then theres also a woman question, and a dearth of opportunity. I have thought about this before and never talked to anyone about it, and my answer is, none of the excuses that came before other than I didnt know, but when I found out, I felt really bad. It sucks, and if I knew 

There have been parts I have not auditioned for because they were written as a Latino woman or a black woman and theyd go, Oh, well just see you.

If you knew, would your actions have been different?

I dont know. Its hard to say. Im thinking about how this will look in print right now and thinking, Oh, you should definitely say yes. But I was 26, and I remember putting it on tape for one of my favorite directors, and it wasnt a part of the conversation at the time. All I knew was that I was so unbelievably excited, and it was an opportunity so far beyond anything that had happened in my life so far, and felt so daunting to me. I know that Ive made other decisions since that point in line with my personal beliefs, but at that point, its hard to go back and give a hypothetical, because I was also not as far along in my career. Empathy and awareness and social activism, as far as your own actions, reflect your beliefs and your commitment to what you believe in. Its hard. I feel embarrassed Im not just saying yes with no caveat at all.

I think thats honest.

Yes. With more experience and with more minute powers I have accumulated, just in having worked longer, Ive been able to make decisions that are in line with my personal politics, and Id like to think that no matter what amount of power I occupied in the world, I would make the same decisions that were purely in line with my personal politics. But I dont know. Im three years older now. Its hard to say what I would have done.

And theres a sense of scarcity, Id assume.

Yes, and the feeling of, Oh, Ridley Scotts making a movie! It was just so much bigger than anything. It felt like a fairy tale. I dont know. There are some things I can go back and know what I would have done, but I feel like Im in a very different place now.

How have you changed since you started Halt and Catch Fire?

So much! It was one of my very first jobs. I was so nervous and just such a good girl and so enthusiastic the whole first season  didnt want to get fired, and way overdid how much work I was doing. I was so type-A about it all, and I really just wanted to earn this huge thing that had happened. I learned how I liked to work with directors and other actors. When I started this job, I remembered looking up how actors prepare for parts because I just didnt know! The only way you hear about it is from people mythologizing themselves on Inside the Actors Studio or some shit like that, so I didnt really know what my way of working was. My whole first year, I was figuring that out and copying things I heard other actors did. It was really daunting for me, and I felt young. I feel really childish in this world, and I learned how to work and be a professional. I am still not the best at standing on my mark, but my own personal taste and point of view has been so shaped and cultivated by this experience that yeah, I feel really indebted to it.

Well its interesting watching you, because Cameron has this almost intense 

Rabid?

[Laughs.] When you were building the character, did you start from that physical place?

Yeah. Her physicality was the only thing that didnt scare me. I knew that she had a hunch. I think its really cool to have a tall body because it can be so many things. I remember in theater school, my voice-speech teacher was like, You will always play princesses! You will always play royalty! Because you are very tall and elegant, which is so not true. I was like, I feel like Im an ape with these limbs, and Im very clumsy and I dont have a great sense of spatial awareness. A tall body with long limbs can be really elegant, but it can also just look like somebody whos still a kid and doesnt know their way around her body. I felt that Cameron would think that shes imposing, but also have this weird turtle shell around her.

Can we talk about the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror? Have you taken a beat to think back on the impact of the episode?

Well, linking it to our Martian conversation, its another thing where I like, did a job. To me, the job was very simple and not symbolic. I didnt know any context about the bury your gays trope that had been going on in TV, and theres been a lot of discussion about it. I did a very straightforward job and I loved the story and didnt think about how it would resonate in the outside world. Then after it came out, it became this whole other beast for me, and I learned so much about a whole community and culture I didnt know about. I think its the coolest part about this thing: I dont really do it thinking about how it will be received, but thats the other half of the conversation. This is just the speaker; the interlocutor is how people receive it and talk about it. The whole thing becomes those two sides: Its not just the text itself, its how people read it. Its been so lovely and educating.

I think a lot of actors and creators can feel overwhelmed, or unfairly put upon by the dialogue afterwards. But it sounds like you think that conversation is important.

I do. I mean, how else does it exist? Art doesnt exist in a vacuum. You cant be like, Oh, I made this beautiful thing and everybody hates it and it really hurts, but it doesnt matter because its still beautiful. No, youre making it to show people, and if people see it and tell you something about it, that information can be valuable. With The Martian, I had no idea about it until I started hearing how people were reading this thing, and all I can be like is, Fuck yeah, Ill hear you. Ill read things closer next time. But without that talk back, and without that other half of the art thing itself, then its just a circle jerk. Whats the point? If you dont like telling stories and you dont like having empathy for people, then why are you doing this? The whole thing is like, Tell me about your life and let me try and represent it in some way. If I dont do a good job at it, tell me why.

Just about The Martian thing, too 

Yeah, whats your perspective?

I think these problems are systemic. In general, people want to pin blame on one person, but there are many gaps, from agents to producers to directors 

Yeah. Things can look more nefarious in retrospect than the steps to getting to a place that disenfranchises somebody or took an opportunity away from somebody. Sometimes the way things pan out isnt quite as preconceived as it seems in the watching of a thing.

Thats the banality of it.

It ties to whiteness being neutral. Its a problem, and I do think its actors responsibilities, the same way I think its actors responsibilities to make a concerted effort to work with women directors. If you have power, you should be championing the things you feel are without power, but need more recognition. I think thats a really important part of anybody whos clawed their way to some position of power in the world. You can talk about this with the election as well  with privilege and with power comes more comfort in your ability to act politically against your own selfish interests, and I feel that in my own career. You can see that in macro and micro levels all over the place, and would that we all acted in the most honorable, difficult way that we could, no matter what our station was in our life.

Do you feel like you are in a position where you can advocate in that way?

I think I can in interviews, and I think I can in smaller indie movies. I dont offer any real value in the stock market of actors sense. The way that I can change the tides is micro, the decisions that I personally make, but I wouldnt be able to get a director hired or fired. I would just be able to not do that movie and not work with this person I think is a bad person, and not be a complicit party to absolving somebody of a guilt that I think they should be saddled with.

Have you made those decisions?

Mm-hm.

Can you tell me about that?

Oh no. Theres all sorts of things in any field that people ignore for the sake of ease or for conventional wisdom, like, Oh, hes a great actor.

Do you think we take too much stock in celebrity over the creative value of something?

Yeah. Its crazy. Theres a movie Im a part of that were trying to cast right now, and the conversations that go on. It is a stock market. It is just playing with potential value, current value, value lost. Its humans being traded as stocks that people are investing in and betting upon. I think its fucked up, I dont really know what the solve is for it. Theres such a lovely career you can have without being a huge movie star. When I saw Under the Skin, it really opened my eyes in a huge way, where I was like, Thats why youre a movie star. Because that movie wouldnt have gotten seen and it wouldnt have gotten made, and I think its one of the best movies of the last ten years. It moved me so deeply, and if Scarlett Johansson wasnt the Black Widow, then who wouldve seen this movie, or who wouldve made this movie? Thats a value I understand.

When I started this job, I remembered looking up how actors prepare for parts because I just didnt know.

I was curious about the conversation around equal pay on Halt and Catch Fire.

It all works on a quote basis, and when I started, I didnt have a quote, so I earned the minimal quote, and I earned a lot less than everybody else on the show, and it made total sense. Season two, I still earned the same amount, and then sometime around season three, I was like, man, I work a lot more than some of the guys  and they were so supportive of me as well, there was no contention between us  but they were like, yeah, we should all be getting paid the same. It was also hard to have a lot of leverage because who knows if we were ever coming back, but before this season, it was really important to me, just on a personal level of being like, I dont need to get paid more than anybody, I dont want to, I just want to be paid the same. Carrie and I deserve to get paid the same as the boys. [AMC] almost interrupted our request and gave us a much nicer bonus than I was expecting and stepped up to the plate and totally, without any negotiation or anything, knew what the right thing to do was. It is valuable to know that people recognize your work and your labor without you having to fight or convince them, that they will come to you with that knowledge, that they see you. I really think AMC is so great about that.

Did you talk to Kerry and negotiate together?

Not really. I know our agents were in conversation, but it was really one of those things that was brought up and it was almost a nonstarter. It just had already been taken care of. It was so weird. They were like, Oh, no, were gonna do that. I just got uncomfortable talking about money, I was like, Stop talking about this. I think we went in with a certain expectation, and before we could even get the request out of our mouth, they went above and beyond that, and they were like, We already wanted to do that for the final season. I really think so highly of everybody there for that.

Sorry if Im making you uncomfortable!

No, Im not uncomfortable! Its just, whenever you have a conversation about race, they can be taken out of context so easily, by maybe not you, but by other people. And then the conversation ceases to be a conversation and becomes some other thing entirely. Thats my only discomfort. Ive actually wanted somebody to ask me about this because Ive had this conversation privately about turning down other parts. When you actually have the conversation and are like, oh, its going to be on record, and I cant get in there and explain what I mean exactly, I hope that Im communicating how I feel about the thing and not trying to absolve myself of any complicity, even though I genuinely didnt know until after. And thats a hard thing to have those two things coexist, like  I want to take responsibility, I didnt know, but by saying I didnt know, its like, oh, so I guess youre not evolved.

No one likes talking about race or money. Do you feel like actors are cagey about talking to each other about money?

Im so rude about it. Im always like, whatd you make? How much did you make? How much are you making for that? I think its interesting. Were all making more money than we should, probably.

Peers often dont know how much each other are making. I think its a way for management to control 

And make it taboo. And convince people that theyre getting off rich when theyre being paid far less than the people around them.

Do you read criticism of your work?

Yeah, to a degree. Theres always a thing that happens when youre so excited when a thing first comes out and so you want to see how its received. Whether the first few reviews are good, or theyre middling, or bad, theres a point where it can feel almost compulsive, and its then that I try to exercise a bit of self-control. Its a bit of an exercise in narcissism. I feel theres a value in criticism insofar as being the other half of a conversation, and Im curious about how things are received because I dont think art has to live in a time capsule that were not allowed to look at or touch. But I also think theres a danger because it starts to feel very personal, and you dont want to be in the middle of a scene and be thinking about a person who said something about you that you now think of as your Achilles heel.

Is there something that sticks out to you?

Oh my god! It was in season one, and someone was writing a middling review, saying, This persons great, this persons great. They wrote, Mackenzie Davis, bless her heart, isnt very good. I feel its so much more insulting than if theyre just mean. It was like, the sadness that they expressed that, try as I might, I couldnt cut it, that hurt my feelings so much! Its so funny. Id be in scenes the next day and theyd go, Bless her heart, she isnt very good! So I try to keep a lid on exploratory internet searches because of that.
Photo: Andrew Toth/Getty Images

Oh, yeah, well say it: What a Scandal. Netflix announced Sunday evening that Shonda Rhimes, her producing partner Betsy Beers, and her production company Shondaland have signed a multi-year deal to produce new series and other projects with Netflix. Rhimes made herself a household name creating appointment TV for ABC, including Greys Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, shows that she assures fans and/or panicking executives will continue to thrive on the network. In Netflixs announcement, Rhimes praises the platforms chief content officer Ted Sarandos. Says Rhimes, Ted provides a clear, fearless space for creators at Netflix. He understood what I was looking for  the opportunity to build a vibrant new storytelling home for writers with the unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach provided by Netflixs singular sense of innovation. The future of Shondaland at Netflix has limitless possibilities. Maybe Rhimes will even create a series about how Netflix was able to snag her, featuring a magic machine that prints money, an unlimited wardrobe of perfectly tailored pantsuits, and 1000 percent more slapping than the real-life version.
Sandra Oh and Princess Diaries sequels! Photo: Getty Images/Buena Vista Pictures

If you could build anything you wanted in Shondaland, what would you want to see? Thats probably the question Netflix asked Shonda Rhimes, whos heading to the streaming service with her producing partner Betsy Beers and their production company Shondaland after years of producing shows for ABC. Despite our best efforts to fiercely enunciate and wear nice pantsuits, we ourselves are not Shonda Rhimes and thus cant predict exactly what shell do with the seemingly endless amounts of freedom and money that Netflix provides. We do have a wish list, however, of shows we hope Rhimes might produce. Just send us some popcorn and wine as a thank you.

Smash Season 3

By the time Smash left the air in 2013, it had become so terrible you couldnt look away. In the hands of someone different, with oodles of Netflix cash and an all-star cast, could it become so good that you cant look away? This is our goal. We reunite the core cast  Megan Hilty, Debra Messing, scarves  cut a few extraneous characters (sorry, Karen, have fun on season four of Scorpion), and fill in some new musical theater talent: Denee Benton as an ingenue; Leslie Odom Jr. as his Smash character, but now hes famous; Norm Lewis as himself, but evil; Youre the Worsts Desmin Borges as a fictionalized version of his face-twin Lin-Manuel Miranda. Now, the producers are trying to create their own musical adaptation of Scandal  cross-promotion, baby! Just wait till you hear Nikki James belt Twice As Good (and Half As Much). Jackson McHenry

Coffee Prince

A Korean drama would make a perfect adaptation for the world of Shondaland: theres romance, longing looks, and sometimes, a whole gender-confusion situation going on. A personal favorite of mine has always been The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, where a young woman, Go Eun-chan, is mistaken for a really beautiful young man by a proprietor of a coffee shop where the whole concept is really hot guys serving you coffee. (Also, honestly a great idea for a coffee shop.) She needs the money, so she starts working at the coffee shop while pretending to be a man, only to fall in love with the owner (played in the original by Gong Yoo, try not to swoon). The American Shondaland adaptation could go in a lot of different directions, including one where the main character is a trans man going through transition. Our only wish is to cast John Cho as the coffee-shop owner, because he is the rom-com leading man we deserve. E. Alex Jung

Shonda Rhymes

We all know Shonda can write delicious drama and run a show-business empire, but can she act?! We are about to find out, as Shonda Rhimes will play Shonda Rhymes in a multi-camera family sitcom about a modern female showrunner saying yes to trying to have it all. Oh, and shes married to Busta Rhymes. Thats why her name is spelled like that. Its a play on words. I should say, in the reality of the show, Busta Rhymes is his given name. I should also say LeAnn Rimes plays their wacky neighbor, and for some reason everyone refers to each other by their last name. Hijinx ensue, but, at the end of the episode/day, the whole family (and neighbor  LeAnn Rimes) learns a lesson about love and, I dont know, lets say, teamwork. Aww. So, thats this show  Shonda Rhymes. Sounds pretty good. Jesse David Fox

Something  Anything  With Sandra Oh

Greys Anatomys strongest seasons were the ones that focused on the Meredith-Cristina friendship, when Cristina had to be cut out of her wedding gown or lectured Mere about being self-reliant. Yang was Rhimess favorite and fiercest character, and she credited Oh for realizing her perfectly. Sandra Oh is returning to TV for a BBC drama, but shouldnt she put that on the shelf to return to Shondaland, where her work was rewarded with a Golden Globe? With Yangs chapter closed, Oh could move on to being a prickly, emotionally unavailable therapist, an editor, a power publicist  literally anything, just as long as these two collaborators are working together again, crafting a new woman everyone wants to be. Hunter Harris

Connie Britton, Yall

We said it once and well say it again: Shondaland and Connie Britton deserve each other. Tara Abell

The Princess Diaries 3

Its been rumored for years, and everyone seems to be game, so now theres only one question left to seal the deal: Is there a better woman to lure Anne Hathaway to Netflix than Shonda Rhimes, writer of The Princess Diaries 2, underrated modern Disney classic? Chris Pines already headed for TV  may he and Anne follow their true hearts (and all those dollar signs) and live happily ever after with Shonda at Netflix. Dee Lockett
Shonda Rhimes. Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

For networks and their affiliated studios, finding a way to hold on to top-tier talent used to be a relatively simple proposition. Big producer threatening to jump to another company? Back up a Brinks truck. And if money alone wasnt the only concern, offer the talent more creative freedom, usually by guaranteeing a certain number of straight-to-series projects so her ideas wont have to go through the usual (and often demoralizing) pilot process.

As important as both those factors remain in talent negotiations, Shonda Rhimess just-announced decision to sign with Netflix and leave ABC/Disney points to a bleak new reality for old-school broadcasters trying to hold on to big names. For some Hollywood creatives, particularly those at the peak of their careers, offers of big bucks and promises of creative autonomy arent enough to overcome the view that network television is now the least attractive medium in which to work. Rhimes didnt leave just leave ABC. She left network TV.

As financially lucrative as broadcast remains, the trade-offs seem increasingly not worth it for showrunners such as Rhimes, who chafe at its many downsides. Instead of making anywhere from 8 to 13 episodes per year, broadcast producers often have to churn out two dozen episodes each season. Content restrictions mandated by advertisers and the government give creators less storytelling freedom. Shorter and shorter episodic lengths, the result of networks trying to squeeze in even more commercials, mean stories often need to be rushed. Talking to The Wall Street Journal about her decision, Rhimes strongly hinted that these fundamental differences between making a show for a broadcaster and for a streamer such as Netflix drove her to depart. Im thrilled by the idea of a world where Im not caught in the necessary grind of network television, she told the newspaper.

Keep in mind, Rhimes already had about as much creative freedom as any producer currently working in linear TV today enjoys. She had basically stopped taking most (if not all) notes from her bosses at the network and studio. Even after her drama The Catch had clearly failed to connect with audiences, ABC ordered a second season of the show and gave Rhimes time to overhaul the premise. (It still didnt work.) Still, even if her superstar status understandably forced ABC to give Rhimes more room to make shows the way she wanted to, she was still mostly making shows by network TV rules.

By contrast, streaming networks in general offer producers a completely different creative playground. Netflix lets Masters of Nones Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang imagine a comedy in which every episode feels like a new, miniindependent film. Amazon gives Jill Soloway the freedom to tell a story like that at the heart of Transparent, an idea that wouldnt make it past the pitch stage at a broadcaster. And the all-episodes-at-once model pioneered by Netflix gives creators the opportunity to engage audiences in immersive viewing experiences designed to be digested over the course of a few days rather than via the relatively glacial pace of a weekly release. Linear networks such as HBO and FX obviously offer some of the same freedoms as a Netflix, and even broadcasters have pushed their own boundaries to allow for creative innovation (think ABCs own American Crime). A streamer like Netflix, however, offers all of these innovations, in addition to a global reach unmatched by linear networks and a deep, deep pocketbook with which to fund creators visions.

For a few years now, the stark differences between the network and Netflix models of television have made it more difficult for broadcasters to attract top names. Networks struggle like never before to find interesting and well-known actors in their shows each pilot season because so many stars now want to work on streaming shows. As one exec told Vulture last year, The talent wants to go to the fancy-schmancy new kids on the block. (And if a streaming series isnt an option, a premium or basic cable show often comes before broadcast these days.) The Rhimes deal shows how streaming fever may now be spreading beyond younger, fresher talent to creators who are already successful veterans in the network world.

While this is clearly a problem for broadcasters, particularly a struggling network such as ABC, its also important to not assume it spells doom for linear TV. There are still plenty of talented producers willing  even eager  to work in a medium where even the least successful series reaches far more viewers than most cable shows and the likely audience for streaming shows. Plus, networks have proven time and again theyre able to adapt to new threats. Basic cable was supposed to spell the end for broadcast; it didnt. HBOs late-1990s golden age (Sex and the City, The Sopranos) was seen by some as a sign great writers would never again work for one of the Big Four, but then some relative unknowns named J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Marc Cherry, and, yes, Shonda Rhimes created Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Greys Anatomy, all of which premiered in the same 200405 season.

Things are far tougher for broadcasters than they were even ten years ago, of course. Younger viewers in particular have nearly given up watching scripted shows via linear television. Advertisers are moving their money elsewhere. But plenty of folks still do have a nightly TV habit, and like the Big Three automakers whove managed to (mostly) stay afloat despite decades of foreign threats, broadcasters have proven themselves exceedingly resourceful over the years. Pundits have predicted the death of network TV forever, but so far, network TV has always found a way to survive.
MATTOON -- It has only been a few months since the fidget spinner and other fidget toys really made it onto the scene, at least in the classroom.

This simple toy where a few blades spin around a ball bearing originally hit the market as a way to calm those with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder or anxiety and soon morphed to become a popular commodity for seemingly everyone, especially young people in school.

It hit us like a tidal wave, said Laura Blackerby-Smith, a sixth-grade teacher at Mattoon Middle School. One day maybe two students had them and within a week hundreds of our student had them.

But local educators are already expecting to not to see these fidget spinners and others of its kind make it far beyond summer break.

Jeremie Smith, Mattoon Middle School principal, said he would be surprised if he continued to see a number of spinners he saw in spring return. It will be forgotten by Christmas time like other toys that gain popularity, he said.

I don't think we will see near the percentage of kids with them, Smith said. Summer does a great job of keeping kids busy in a lot of different ways. The longer those types of things sit on their desks or sit on their night stand and go unused, they have moved on to other things to keep their interest.

He said summer has a great way of wiping the slate clean for the next big thing.

Without question, at some point in time this year, there will be something else, Smith said. There will be another new thing that kids will have their parents driving all over central Illinois looking for.

Students at different grade levels say the spinners' future is a mixed bag.

Rayden Bailey, a fourth-grader at Riddle Elementary School, said he and his friends are still into fidget spinners and continue to compete over who has the most spinners. He thinks for those in his group of friends, it will likely still have a following.

On the other hand, Bella Smith, eighth-grader at Mattoon Middle School, said she expects something new to come in that will grab her and her friends attention.

I kind of got over it after a few weeks, she said.

This will come as a relief for some teachers like Yvonne Larson.

Larson, a first-grade teacher at Carl Sandburg Elementary School in Charleston, said spinners started popping up in her classroom later than that of older classes. When they did, she said they very quickly became a distraction for her students.

Larson noted that the toy designed to help people focus did the opposite for her students. Outside of the squeaking sounds that come off of cheaper spinners, the novelty of the toy distracted students who didn't have it. Larson said kids often were laser focused on the spinner and not the lesson at hand.

Blackerby-Smith saw these distractions pop up every once in awhile with kids using them to annoy or hurt others, but it was never a big issue in her classroom. She said it normally was a case-by-case scenario when fidget spinners were involved and not a class-wide distraction.

It never became a large issue for schools in the area though, at least not enough of an issue to warrant school-wide or district-wide policies on the toy. Any policy implemented is at the classroom level for these schools, education leaders said.

Larson and Blackerby-Smith said they put restrictions on the spinners at specific times or in specific cases to lessen the distraction. It depended on the situation, Blackerby-Smith said.

Larson said she brought in tangle toys, which serve a similar purpose but are less loud and flashy.

Blackerby-Smith said she often tries to incorporate things like these in the classroom.

You have to embrace what is popular with kids, she said. You have to embrace what kids are excited about.

In spring, Blackerby-Smith infused fidget spinners into a lesson. She said the class had a discussion on the science of why some spinners are slower, faster, longer or shorter.

I don't challenge those things, Blackerby Smith said. I teach teenagers and when a teenager know something drives you nuts and something drives you crazy, they do it more.

Tim Keefe, Charleston Middle School principal, said he has seen teachers embrace the craze as well, like using them as timers in the classroom.

Notably, one place where spinners are not seen as often is in the special education programs. Armstrong Program Principal Lisa Jaco said there has been some interest in fidget spinners but not a lot.

Spinners are not the go-to therapeutic tool in the classroom for those students with specific needs, she said. Their classrooms already had fidgets and widgets that serve as therapeutic tools, Jaco noted.

Keefe said it is likely that the fidget spinners time has come and gone.
Omaha, Immanuel, Nebraska's leader in senior living, is pleased to welcome Jennifer Knecht as vice president of marketing and communications. In her role, Knecht will lead Immanuel's overarching marketing and communication efforts spanning a two-state area including Omaha, Lincoln, Des Moines and Council Bluffs. Knecht comes to Immanuel with extensive marketing experience with a senior services and healthcare background. Knecht's expertise brings a mix of traditional marketing and innovative emerging tools.
Lincoln Industries is pleased to announce the selection of Todd Backer as general manager at their Minnesota location. Backer will be responsible for working with customers to understand their growth strategy, end applications, challenges and future opportunities to develop and grow partnerships. Prior to joining Lincoln Industries, Backer served as vice president of innovation and engineering at Rice Lake Weighing Systems, at Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

A native of the Twin Cities, Backer earned two undergraduate degrees, one in chemical engineering, and a second in metallurgy. In 1987, he received his master's in material science at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Todd is an extraordinary leader who brings a wealth of manufacturing and engineering experience," said Lincoln Industries President Bill Ellerbee. "He is the right person to lead our Minnesota facility in our next phase of growth, and we are pleased he is a part of our team."

With over 65 years of experience, Lincoln Industries is the largest and most diverse privately held metal finishing company in North America and one of the state's largest manufacturers. Using expertise in finishing, manufacturing, customer relations, quality, supply chain management, and innovation Lincoln Industries makes great brands such as Harley-Davidson, Peterbilt, Kenworth, John Deere, Polaris, Navistar, Mercury Marine, Khrome Werks, and Lincoln Chrome better.
Waco Independent School District is having a Summer Food Service Program that provides a free breakfast and lunch to any child, ages 1 to 18, on weekdays through Monday.

For locations, meal times and dates of operation, visit http://bit.ly/2sjYooJ.

For more information, call 752-5522 or email CNS@wacoisd.org.

Baylor Singing Seniors

The Baylor Singing Seniors will hold fall semester registration and its first fall rehearsal Monday.

Registration is at 8:15 a.m. outside the choir suite at First Baptist Church of Woodway. Rehearsal starts at 9 a.m. The semester fee is $65.

Membership is open to all senior adults, age 55 and up. It is not necessary to be a Baylor graduate. For more information, call 210-887-5370.

Flores breakfast

The McGregor Chamber of Commerce will host Congressman Bill Flores, R-Bryan, in a meeting with McGregor and Central Texas constituents to discuss changes in Washington, D.C., and how they affect Central Texans.

The $15 breakfast event will be 8 to 9 a.m. Monday at McGregor High School Commons, 903 Bluebonnet Parkway.

For more information, call 840-2292.

Genealogy meeting

The Central Texas Genealogical Society and West Waco Genealogy Center will host a brown bag lunch Monday at the West Waco Library meeting room, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

The meeting starts at noon and will focus on census records. For more information, call 750-5945.

Keeling Lecture

Waco Friends of Peace/Climate will present a recording of the 2017 Keeling Lecture on the state of climate science at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Poppa Rollos Pizza.

The lecturer is Rosina Bierbaum, a natural resources and environment professor at the University of Michigan.

The lecture and dinner are free. For more information, visit www.friendsofpeace.org.
New principal chosen for Harmony Science Academy ahead of Waco expansion As Wacos Harmony Science Academy prepares to split in half and expand into a new campus by 

Wacos second Harmony public charter school is about a week away from opening, and the campus is already bursting at the seams in terms of student enrollment, Harmony School of Innovation officials said.

Classes start Monday, and teachers and staff started moving in last week to set up classrooms in the former H-E-B grocery store building at the corner of Valley Mills Drive and Dutton Avenue. Campus officials have held a student orientation, allowing families to explore the new school for the first time.

The campus will accommodate 504 seventh- through 12th-grade students in its first year, Principal Samuel Beyhan said. Thats an increase of more than 100 students from when the grades were housed at the Harmony Science Academy campus last year, along with kindergarten through sixth-grade students, he said.

Opening a new campus is very exciting, said Beyhan, who previously served as principal of Harmony Science Academy. Sometimes there have been some long days and long weekends trying to make it through to orientation for our students.

Harmony Public School officials bought the 47,000-square-foot building last August and broke ground on the campus March 30. Mazanec Construction workers have spent the last few months adding hallways, classrooms, offices and a gymnasium to the vacant store. The only area not renovated is a set of H-E-B restrooms toward the front of the building, local Harmony spokesman Noey Meza said.

It is the 49th Harmony Public School campus in Texas.

We were just overwhelmed and flattered we got this project and honored to be able to turn this old building into a great educational facility, you know? construction project supervisor Jimmy Clark said. Its 110 percent different. Im excited for the staff and students to be satisfied with what weve done to the building, and it meets all their needs.

Assistant Principal Cheryl Irwin grew up just down the road from the new campus and remembers going to the grocery store in years past, she said. Now she finds it fascinating how her career has led her back to a familiar place with new meaning, she said.

My favorite part is our outside patio area of the cafeteria, Irwin said of the area that once served as an unloading dock for trucks. They can go eat lunch outside, and eventually (Beyhan) wants to get it covered. Hopefully, the first day will be as smooth as we can make it.

The campus has about 28 classrooms, she said.

This is my 10th year with Harmony (in Waco), and Ive watched it go from two hallways to now two buildings, said Nicolas Ocampo, the schools social studies department chair. This will be good for both campuses, because you have such unique needs for both groups. We can really cater to what the student population really needs.

Depending on how quickly enrollment grows, school officials want to eventually move the gym into a separate building, Irwin said.

For now, though, employees are focused on settling in and helping students familiarize themselves with the campus. School officials will also host a meet-the-teacher night Friday ahead of classes starting Monday, Beyhan said.
According to reports, Special Counsel Robert Mueller impaneled a grand jury weeks ago as part of the investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election and potential connections with the Trump-Pence campaign.

Such grand jury proceedings are secret, helping explain the delayed revelation of this critical news. Entirely apart from the substance of these proceedings, however, the existence of a grand jury in this case should come as no surprise. As no less than New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former prosecutor and Trump backer, said this month, this is a normal step taken by a careful prosecutor who is doing a thorough investigation.

Grand juries are older than Americas Constitution and their existence is a right that Americans revere to this day as a bulwark between the people and their government in Washington (as well as many state governments). Guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, these assemblies of usually 23 everyday people protect their fellow citizens against abuses of power.

As we have seen time and again, grand juries serve as a check by We the People against malfeasance and self-dealing by our nations elected officials  up to and including the president of the United States. As one of the architects of our Constitution, Pennsylvania attorney and Declaration of Independence signatory James Wilson, once said: The grand jury are a great channel of communication, between those who make and administer the laws, and those for whom the laws are made and administered. [T]hey may expose to publick inspection, or to publick punishment, publick bad men, and publick bad measures.

There have been suggestions that President Trump has been looking for unsavory ways to get out from under the Mueller investigation, though Trump attorney Jay Sekulow recently answered one of these suggestions, saying, The president is not thinking about firing Bob Mueller. We should probably take Sekulows denial with a grain of salt, given his checkered record of accurately accounting for Trumps actions related to the Russia investigation.

If President Trump is, in fact, thinking about canning Special Counsel Mueller, he should think very hard. Trump should consider Americas founding wisdom before firing Mueller or in any way attempting to undermine or circumvent the grand jurys work, lest Trump immediately reveal himself  for all to see  as one of Wilsons publick bad men.

If Trump has nothing to hide, then  contrary to the claims of Newt Gingrich  he has nothing to fear from fellow Americans serving on the Mueller grand jury. If Trump or his team have committed no crime or any other publick bad measures, then no indictment or report critical of him will issue.

By the same token, however, if Trump or his team are found likely to have committed a crime or crimes, or other bad acts, then the grand jury will issue one or more indictments or a critical report. In that case, the American people will have the Founding Fathers to thank for vesting regular, ordinary citizens in our system of government with a strong and resilient mechanism to hold even the most powerful person in our country to account to our laws and the Constitution.






Walls of separation

Holly Hollmans Aug. 6 column on church-state doctrine not only misses the point of Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer but also is philosophically confused and historically misinformed. Sometimes those such as Hollman who undertake to speak with the most authority on this multi-faceted subject succeed only in demonstrating their ignorance of it.

In Trinity Lutheran, the Supreme Court decided that it is a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment for a day-care center, which is operated by a church, to be denied a secular and otherwise generally accessible benefit by the state. Specifically, the day-care center sought, by participating in Missouris Scrap Tire Program, to replace the pea-gravel surface of its playground with a soft rubber-coated surface. The program offered reimbursement grants to nonprofit organizations that purchase playground surfaces made from used tires. Missouris Department of Natural Resources denied Trinity Lutherans request to participate in the program since its day-care center was religiously owned and operated. Judge Ken Starr in his column is correct: The Supreme Courts reversal of this decision is a victory for religious liberty.

I would ask Hollman, who espouses a strict separationist doctrine of church and state, how far she is willing to go in denying secular and neutral benefits to church-related facilities. Would she consider it a violation of the Establishment Clause for the state to provide fire and police protection to a church day-care center? How about providing the center with electricity and water? These examples are almost too ludicrous to contemplate, yet they do make the point.

Also, Roger Williams wall of separation was about protecting religious conscience, not about secularizing the state, such that there can be no cooperation or interplay between the two. Furthermore, John Leland preached to Thomas Jefferson and others in the House of Representatives. That does not sound to me like separationism, or at least the brand of it advocated by Hollman.

L. Scott Smith, McGregor

Making a pass

The passing lanes recently completed on increasingly busy State Highway 6 between Valley Mills and Waco were needed. Now some entity needs to educate drivers on the use of these lanes. Quite obviously the signs that say Slower Traffic Keep Right are not working. The Texas Department of Transportation needs to change the signs to say All Traffic Keep Right Except to Pass. Then give tickets to those who dont obey.

This morning I followed a pickup from Valley Mills to Waco and the driver never moved from the left passing lane. This prevents oncoming cars from having the opportunity to pass when they can legally do so.

So heres the word, spread it far and wide: All traffic keep right except to pass!

Alta Powers, Valley Mills
Evidence that Logic is one of today's breakout rappers came hours before Sir Robert Bryson Hall II hit the Pinewood Bowl stage Sunday.

The Maryland rapper drew an impressive 4,100 to the first hip-hip show at the Pioneers Park Park amphitheater. He likely would have sold out the place if not for the Kendrick Lamar concert set for Pinnacle Bank Arena Friday.

Most of the 4,100 in attendance crammed themselves into the area between the stage and the soundboard, spreading to the edges of the bowl to get as close as possible to Logic and his four-piece band.

And they connected immediately on the first number, "Hallelujah," then screamed back the response to Logic's proclamation "I represent one thing" -- "Peace, love and positivity."

The good vibes, however, came to a halt a couple songs later when Logic stopped the show and sent security into the audience in front of the stage to give the boot to a miscreant.

Then it was on with the show, catching a cool R&B groove on "Like Whoa," cranking up a dance-off with the musicians, fast rapping over the opening riff from "Billie Jean," throwing the crowd into a mixmaster on a cover of "Jump Around" and bringing back opener Big Lenbo for the 90s-style "Young Jesus."

Lenbo is part of the RattPack, Frank Sinatra-loving Logic's version of the Rat Pack.

While Logic doesn't sound at all like Sinatra, he's drawn to him as an entertainer and vocalist, and his full, confident control of the music and performance.

That was certainly the case Sunday. Logic is a very good rapper and, while some call it corny, has fun goofing around on stage and relates one-on-one with fans, even asking those at the stage their names and ages -- all teenagers.

Logic saved his biggest hit -- and most important message for late in the 22-song show, getting the crowd to sing with him

On "1-800-273-8255," a suicide prevention song.

Logic raps about his biracial identity on "Everybody" and the hook-filled "Black SpiderMan," and disses Donald Trump and "make America great again" on his track "America." But he said nothing about the disturbing confrontation in Charlottesville, Va. Saturday.

Primary opener Joey Bada$$ (or Badass) was more direct, starting his 30-minute set with "Land of the Free" -- key lyric "Three K's, Two A's in AmeriKKKa," taking a shot at white supremacy in "AmeriKKKan Idol" and contemplating then rejecting racial violence in "No. 99."

That message of protest was largely carried lyrically as he worked at pumping up the crowd right through his uplifting closer "Devastated."

Logic's production made good use of the stage with large video panels hanging in back, projecting among other things the old video games during "Super Mario World."

The sound was clean if loud and the closeness of the crowd made things feel intimate as Pinewood Bowl proved to be as good a venue for hip-hop as it is for rock, pop and country.
Malcolm Turnbull is all at sea on same-sex marriage. Illustration: Matt Davidson It's not about what you want for yourself. It's about letting other people have proper recognition of their relationships. Tony Abbott's been wrapping his tongue around the word honour quite a bit lately. It's embarrassing. He seems to think it's a word that if used enough will bestow the quality of honour on the user. It doesn't work that way. 'Already fallen into the deplorables trap': Bill Shorten goads the Prime Minister in parliament about the same-sex marriage plebiscite. Credit:Lukas Coch If, after you lost the confidence of your colleagues and they chose a new leader, you promised not to snipe and undermine, that might be an indication of an intent to behave as an honourable person. It only becomes a reality if you live up to that promise.

Abbott has trashed that commitment. There's no honour in that. When as leader you ride roughshod over cabinet with captain's picks, when you indulge yourself by making announcements that leave your party with the choice of all-out war with you or letting you get away with it (again), there's no honour in that either. Putting yourself ahead of the team is not honourable. Former prime minister Tony Abbott in 2013 promised 1 million new jobs in five years. Credit:Andrew Meares It's just an opinion but it is my view that Abbott has done more than any other politician to trash the standing of politics and politicians. He's had a really good education and been given every opportunity by his party. We expected more. We got less. Remember, this is the guy who, as a politician, ran the argument "Don't trust the politicians" in the republic referendum debate. People on all sides were amazed at such a blatant undermining of the institution of parliament. When you undermine parliament, you undermine democracy. What kind of mind enters parliament and then trashes it for the sake of one debate? It's almost unbelievable to hear him speak as though he has some insight into why people are turned off politics at the moment. If he did have that insight, he wouldn't behave the way he does. If he had a quick look in the mirror he'd see what it is that aggravates people about politics today. He'd see someone who is behaving as though what's important is his importance.

The people don't get a look-in. His first priority is to advance his own position, to make life hard for Malcolm Turnbull. In Abbott's eyes, Turnbull took his job. The truth is the party room took his job because he wasn't doing it well. He'd see someone who is great on the bif-bif and short on sensible policy. He'd see someone who has real trouble finding common ground with others. He wants the whole ground to himself. Worse, he'd see someone who thinks he's better than all his colleagues. I've met some fairly self-centred people in my life but he truly takes the cake. Take as an example the story of him having apparently fathered a child in his younger days. This story was common knowledge amongst parliamentarians. In a perfectly honourable fashion, nobody raised it. Why should they? Your private life is your private life. That whole saga played out into the public domain because Abbott liked it there. I don't know if it was a calculated exercise to clear a skeleton out of the closet in preparation for future leadership tilts, or a genuine case of remorse for not having played a role in the life of a child he thought he'd fathered. What is relevant to me is that it was all so public. Bad luck for the mother and the thought-to-be son, they were dragged into the Abbott media vortex. For what? Well, it's always been about Tony. But back to gay marriage. I don't know what he fears. If you're comfortable in your own sexuality, you should be comfortable with others in theirs. As Tony's sister says  if you believe in mutual respect, vote yes. If you believe in equality, vote yes and if you believe in free speech, vote yes. He could learn a lot from her. About being true to yourself. About being for the greater good not your own good. And yes, about behaving honourably.
An 88-year-old Perth man accused of fatally stabbing his wife of 56 years has had a murder charge dismissed but will spend the rest of his life in a secure nursing home for people suffering dementia.

The Supreme Court of WA heard during a fitness to plead hearing on Monday there was a strong circumstantial case against John Huggins, who is believed to be responsible for the death of his 75-year-old wife and carer at their Piara Waters home in March.

The man had the charge against him dismissed. Credit:Louie Douvis

Defence lawyer Seamus Rafferty said the couple had had a seemingly happy marriage and there was no obvious reason for the attack, although Mrs Huggins had been looking up holidays and respite care on the internet, and that had previously caused an "incident".

The next door neighbour tried to help her after speaking with Huggins and becoming concerned by his behaviour.
Sen. John McCollister of Omaha, an independent-minded Republican who has carved out a moderate record in the nonpartisan Legislature, announced his candidacy for re-election Monday with a call for coalition-building.

"We need state senators now more than ever that mix common sense with broad coalitions to solve the problems facing our community," he said.

"I remain committed to bringing people together around fiscally responsible solutions while prioritizing our small businesses, public schools and middle-class families," McCollister said.

McCollister's re-election bid will be one of the most widely-watched legislative races in 2018 with the strong possibility that he may be targeted by Gov. Pete Ricketts, who played a key role in ousting three incumbent senators in 2016 who were fellow Republicans after they opposed him on key legislative issues.

Ricketts has not yet signaled whether he will be involved by encouraging or supporting a challenger, but robocalls not tied to the governor began undermining McCollister in his district in May, framing the opposition arguments against his re-election.

McCollister voted to override gubernatorial vetoes of legislation to repeal the death penalty, increase the state gas tax and allow young immigrants who have legal presence in the United States as so-called DACA youths to acquire Nebraska driver's licenses and earn professional and commercial licenses to work in the state.

In the 2017 legislative session, McCollister did not provide a vote to attempt to free the big package of income tax cuts and property tax reductions that the governor championed from the grips of a filibuster.

The governor's involvement in 2016 legislative contests that targeted incumbent Republicans included endorsements and campaign finance support.

McCollister, the son of former Republican Congressman John Y. McCollister, represents the economically and politically diverse 20th District that stretches from 72nd to 144th streets in central Omaha.

Earlier, Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg, another Republican who has established an independent record in the Legislature, announced his candidacy for a second term representing the 36th District.

"When I first ran for the Legislature, I pledged to improve Nebraska's rural economy, control government spending, attract good-paying jobs and advocate for our schools and our farms," he said.

"I'm proud of our many accomplishments, but there is more that must be done."

Williams, a Gothenburg banker, opposed the governor on veto showdown votes over the death penalty, the gas tax, DACA driver's licenses and DACA professional and commercial licenses.

But he cast a vote earlier this year to attempt to free the governor's tax package from a filibuster.
An Omaha man already doing time in state prison on burglary and theft charges for break-ins to steal ATMs, got 6 years in federal prison Friday for the conspiracy.

Larry D. Gordon Jr.'s time is concurrent with the 17-18 years he's serving at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on the Douglas County cases.

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard also sentenced Gordon, 59, to three years of post-release supervision. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank larceny.

He was one of 10 people indicted in January for a string of more than 60 break-ins resulting in more than a million dollars in damage done to vehicles, buildings and ATMs in Nebraska.

The burglaries occurred in Lincoln, Omaha, Ashland, Waverly and Sarpy County. Police believe they also were involved in ATM-related burglaries in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa and South Dakota.
Hundreds of people held a candlelight vigil at Tower Square in Lincoln Sunday in the wake of Saturday's violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia that left one counter-protester dead and at least 19 injured.

Demonstrators holding signs and candles circled around the tower at 13th and P streets, taking part in an open dialogue and voicing concerns about Saturday's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The vigil comes a day after white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr., 20, rammed his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-demonstrators at the "Unite the Right" rally Saturday, killing protester Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring at least 19 people.

Demonstrator Nate Johnson, 23, followed Saturday's events on social media and wanted to show solidarity with the victims.

"(White nationalism) is definitely a concern and we need to take it more seriously," Johnson said. "Hate does not belong in America."

Heidi Emanuel came to the vigil to take a personal stand against Saturday's events, calling the violence "appalling" and blaming the current administration for facilitating white supremacists.

"There is an ugly underbelly that exists in America. It always has," Emanuel said. "But it has been given a voice in the current administration and it has been tolerated."

Vigils like the one at Tower Square were held across the country, including Washington D.C., where demonstrators gathered outside the White House.

In a statement Sunday, NU President Hank Bounds said he was "sickened" by the "senseless violence and by the racist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs on display" in Charlottesville.

The University of Nebraska stands with our colleagues at the University of Virginia who are working to keep their community safe ... We are similarly committed to tolerance and inclusion, open and respectful dialogue and the safety and well-being of every member or our community."
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By Tim Brockwell

Aug. 14, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By Tim Brockwell Aug. 14, 2017 | 06:07 PM | PADUCAH, KY

In response to concerns from local residents about a planned fireworks show during next Monday's total solar eclipse, Traders Mall in Paducah has decided to delay the pyrotechnics until after totality.



At a press conference Monday afternoon in the Traders Mall parking lot, Co-owner Richard Gray announced that instead of shooting the one minute fireworks show during totality, organizers will wait 15 minutes before setting it off. Gray agreed to the delay after McCracken County Commissioner Bill Bartleman approached him to work out a compromise. The agreement was reached in response to several nearby residents and others who voiced opposition to the fireworks on social media, saying that shooting fireworks during totality would disrupt their enjoyment of the rare celestial event.



"Mr. Gray was cooperative and wanted to be a good neighbor, but he also wanted to fulfill his commitment for a fireworks display," Bartleman said. "It still may not please everyone, but I think this is a good compromise."



Gray said that despite all of the uproar online over the past weeks about the fireworks, Bartleman was the only person to actually come to him in person to try and work out a compromise. "Bill was the only one, and I appreciate him coming and talking to us versus doing it on social media." He said.



"I think it shows that when you communicate about something face to face, and when two people can talk in a reasonable way, you come up with a compromise, and that's what happened here." Bartleman said.



The plan, according to Gray is to shoot the consumer-grade fireworks off in the rear parking lot of the mall, so they are not in direct line with the sun. He says this should help eliminate the possibility that spectators will remove their solar eclipse protective glasses to watch the fireworks and accidentally look at the sun.



Ilah Ryan, who lives nearby says she never had a problem with the planned fireworks display.



"I don't see that the fireworks would have interfered with me looking at the sun. Now, maybe I don't know about looking at the sun, but I just didn't complain about it. I didn't see any reason to complain." Ryan said. She added that she will be attending the event, and is looking forward to the festivities.



In addition to the fireworks, Gray says there will be free hot dogs and beverages at the event. There is no charge for admission. Traders Mall is located at 6900 Benton Road in Paducah.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 14, 2017 | 11:13 AM | DRAFFENVILLE, KY

A Calvert City woman faces methamphetamine charges following her arrest on Friday.

The Marshall County Sheriff's Office says deputies were dispatched to a restaurant in Draffenville in reference to a female customer acting strangely. When deputies arrived, the woman was in her vehicle preparing to leave.

As a result of the ensuing investigation, deputies arrested 34-year-old Brandie Bailey for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs with aggravating circumstances, operating on a suspended or revoked operator's license, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Bailey was lodged in the Marshall County Detention Center.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 14, 2017 | 11:04 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY

Two people were arrested on methamphetamine and other charges Saturday in Marshall County after police tried to serve a warrant.

According to the Marshall County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the 5000 block of US 62 to serve a warrant. The deputies didn't find who they were looking for, but two others at the scene were arrested.

Thirty-nine-year-old Dale Dixon of Paducah was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, giving an officer false identifying information and carrying a concealed weapon by a prior deadly weapon felony offender. He was also served a warrant from Livingston County for parole violation.

Also arrested was 42-year-old Tammy Rachele Whittington of Calvert City. She's charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and hindering prosecution or apprehension.

Both were lodged in the Marshall County Detention Center.
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By The Associated Press

Aug. 13, 2017 | WASHINGTON, DC

By The Associated Press Aug. 13, 2017 | 09:09 PM | WASHINGTON, DC

Vice President Mike Pence is responding to the violence during a march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying "these dangerous fringe groups" have no place in American public life.



Pence was asked about the violent clashes this weekend in the Virginia college town as he spoke Sunday during a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia.



Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump's initial remarks about the violence in Charlottesville. Trump did not single out any group but blamed "many sides" for the violence.



On Sunday, Pence said, "We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK."



Following his remarks about such fringe groups, Pence added, "We condemn them in the strongest possible terms."
The 28th Nebraska Paraeducator Conference will be held in Kearney on Oct. 10,with 350 paraeducators from across Nebraska are expected to attend. The theme for 2017 is Paraeducators are Difference Makers.

The conference will open with a keynote, Wonder Woman, Superman, Paraeducators, and Other Super Heroes: The Hero in All of You, presented by Michalla Schartz, Lincoln Public Schools, Lux Middle School special education teacher. Conference participants will select from 32 breakout sessions designed to expand their knowledge to better meet student needs.

During the luncheon, the Nebraska Paraeducator of the Year Award will be presented to four honorees.

Two new features are included in this years conference schedule. A panel comprised of the 2016 Paraeducator of the Year award winners will offer advice based on their experience. Senator Kate Bolz, Legislative District 29, will facilitate a focus group to gather comments from paraeducators about current employment practices and conditions.

Registration and conference information can be found at:

Additional information: Carol McClain, 402-202-0745, neparaconf@gmail.com
There is strength to be found in a populations diversity, and few people are more aware of that than Bruno Borsari.

With an extensive background in biology and other life sciences, Borsaris research has shown that an ecosystem is more resilient when it is host to a variety of different life forms.

Now, as Winona States interim inclusion and diversity director, he hopes to apply his knowledge of the natural world toward the social challenges of modern society.

From the outside, this country is the living, successful experiment of bringing people together from all these different cultures, Borsari said. Although once you live from within, you realize how much work we still need to do.

Originally from Cesena, a city in the northeast region of Italy, Borsari knows what it is like to enter the United States as a foreigner. He earned his doctorate in agricultural sciences from the University of of Bologna in Italy in 1986, then earned a PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of New Orleans in 2001.

Borsari holds a deep passion for learning, recognizing education as empowerment. With his new role, Borsari looks to expand cultural competency in order to share knowledge with staff and students alike.

When the previous inclusion and diversity director, Alexander Hines, left the position, Denise McDowell, the vice president for student life and development, was surprised when she was informed that someone internal had stepped up to apply for the position.

When I learned who it was, I was delighted, McDowell said, adding. He knows what its like to be on the fringe, and students already see him as a very familiar presence.

McDowell also believes that his heart of gold, and genuine interest in the students, made him a good fit for the title.

While teaching courses in biology, Borsari began volunteering his time at the KEAP center, holding open office hours for anyone that needed a good listener in a safe space.

KEAP stands for knowledge, empowerment, advocacy and pluralism. It is a resource center that partners with the inclusion and diversity office to overcome intolerance on the basis of race, gender, religion, gender identity, and other aspects of identity.

As a teacher, Borsari is used to dealing with people in a wide variety of capacities. However, he is no stranger to being in a position of leadership.

In the mid 1980s, he worked in Sierra Leone, West Africa, as a volunteer teacher for the non government organization Cooperazione Internazionale for two years.

Borsari served as the primary liaison between local authorities and the Italian embassy.

It was here that he met an American woman working for the Peace Corps named Julie  a woman who would later take Borsari across the Atlantic and become his wife. They have two grown sons together, Michele and Giovanni.

After arriving in the United States, Borsari worked at a university in Pennsylvania for five years before getting the opportunity to work for Winona States biology department, where he has been for the past 12 years.

Though his cup of tea lies in data on soil, plants, food security and climate change, Borsari says his area of expertise is less removed from issues of diversity and inclusion than one might think. In order to extrapolate this narrative, he said, one must embrace equality, equity [and] social justice to develop a quality of life that is just and equitable for all.

By joining the lessons of sustainability in the natural sciences with the pursuit of social justice, Borsari plans to make meaningful and lasting connections.

Its easy to point fingers to express frustration or disappointment, but it is imperative to roll up our sleeves and work together at the community level to make the best we can of community in the context in which we live, Borsari said.

Its easy to point fingers to express frustration or disappointment, but it is imperative to roll up our sleeves and work together at the community level to make the best we can of community in the context in which we live. Bruno Borsari, interim diversity and inclusion director
Winona

Friday

1:14 p.m.  Walmart reported a set of earbuds had been taken, but the person shoplifting had ran out the door and wasnt caught.

10:24 p.m.  Charges of third-degree drunken driving were referred against Randy John Abnet, 59, Winona, after being stopped near Hwy. 61 and Hwy. 43 after reports of a drunk driver. His blood-alcohol content was 0.18.

Saturday

1:27 a.m.  Charges of fourth-degree drunken driving were referred against Wyatt Sean Hamernik, 21, Winona, after being stopped for speeding near Fifth and Market streets with a preliminary blood-alcohol content of 0.14.

1:41 a.m.  Charges of third-degree drunken driving were referred against Jonas Robert Nagle, 21, Winona, after he hit a parked car on the 100 block of Sarnia Street and fled and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16.

8:56 a.m.  Fleet Farm reported a counterfeit $100 found.

10:22 a.m.  A woman reported her cell phone missing on the 50 block of Laird Street, tracked to the softball fields near the lakes.

5:38 p.m.  A 40-year-old Winona woman reported being assaulted by a 39-year-old man after attempting to kick him out of her residence on the 600 block of east Belleview Street and was strangled and punched unconscious. Police are looking for the suspect.

7:29 p.m.  A woman reported being assaulted by Michael Scott Jonsgaard, 35, Rochester, who was arrested Sunday and charged with fifth-degree domestic assault causing fear and harm.

Sunday

12:49 a.m.  Charges of third-degree drunken driving were referred against Jesse Robert Zaharris, 25, Winona, after being stopped for expired registration and having a blood-alcohol content of 0.29 near the intersection of Sarnia and Main streets.

1:29 a.m.  Charges of fourth-degree drunken driving, third-degree test refusal and fourth-degree assault were referred against Dana Marie Lorenz, 28, Winona, after being stopped for speeding near Third and Kansas streets. Her blood-alcohol content was registered as 0.15, and she became combative and spit on an officer.

10:41 a.m.  A man reported being robbed Saturday night around 10:30 p.m. near Seventh and Liberty streets, who punched him in the face, knocking him unconscious and took his phone and wallet. He found the wallet and phone the next day in the park near there, but missing $600 to $700 in cash.

11:34 a.m.  A woman at the Fairway Woods apartments reported an solvent chemical of some type poured on her car.

12:28 p.m.  Amber Jo Holter, 28, Mindoro, Wis., was cited for theft by shoplifting at Fleet Farm.

10:30 p.m.  A man reported that in the past week someone poured sugar in the gas tank of his vehicle on the 600 block of East Second Street.

Monday

1:11 a.m.  A man reported that a bike was missing from outside the Hei & Low.

4:32 a.m.  Jaquann Oshay Hughes, 23, Chicago, was cited for trespassing at the Kwik Trip at Broadway and Mankato Avenue.

Winona County

Friday

10:24 p.m.  One of two home burglaries in which items are missing was reported by a man on Pleasant Ridge Road. It is suspected to be connected to a second reported later at 12:03 a.m. Saturday from a residence on County Road 15.

Saturday

1:47 p.m.  A man reported a rear license plate missing on North Broadway Street in Stockton.

11:16 p.m.  Joseph Robert Neumann, 56, Winona, was cited for open container while riding as a passenger in a vehicle which was stopped near Jefferson Street and Old Homer Road.

Sunday

3:09 a.m.  Charges of fourth-degree drunken driving were referred against Jose Herraro, 28, Winona, after being stopped near Huff Street and Lake Park Drive with a blood-alcohol content of 0.09.

Monday

1:13 a.m.  Deputies assisted Minnesota State Patrol with a semitrailer rollover on I-90 between mile markers 267 and 268.
Members of the Ridgeway, Money Creek, La Crescent and Dakota United Methodist Churches would like to thank everyone who donated their time, talents, money and food to make the cancer benefit for Pastor Jim Strom a huge success.

A special thank you to the La Crescent UMC for donating the use of their beautiful church and grounds to host the event. A huge thank you to all the people and places of business who donated items for both the live and the silent auctions.

Thank you to Freddie Frickson for auctioning the live auction and Mark Frickson and Scott Buege for helping. Thanks to everyone who served on the committees, helped make the food and served the dinner. The meal was fabulous. It was great to see so many people work together in support of Pastor Jim. Also, a special thank you to Seth Coyle and Bob Mordon for hosting the petting farm. It was enjoyed by many.

We are all very thankful to God for helping Pastor Jim through his surgeries, chemo and radiation treatment to make such a miraculous recovery. On Sunday, July 30, Jim returned to the pulpit to praise God for a miracle. This week he retured to work at Kwip Trip, full time. Praise God.

Prayers do work.

Kay Vanderzee, Ridgeway
25 years ago

this week (1992)

A residence at 715 Seventh St. in Prairie du Sac was seized Aug. 13 by law enforcement agencies, including the Sauk Drug Enforcement Task Force, as the result of a drug conviction involving the cultivation and manufacture of marijuana at that residence. On Aug. 19, 1991, during the investigation of a theft offense, officers of the Sauk Prairie Police Department observed cultivated and growing marijuana plants on the property. Upon conclusion of this investigation, the Sauk Prairie Police Department and the Sauk Drug Enforcement Task Force requested that Kevin C. Potter, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, file a civil action in federal court for the forfeiture of the property which was used or intended to be used in the manner to facilitate the commission of this crime, including the residence.

50 years ago

this week (1967)

James McBrair, 27, Plainfield, charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his estranged wife, her stepfather, a stepsister and babysitter, will be tried in Baraboo starting Sept. 11. Circuit Judge Robert Gollmar granted the change of venue Tuesday over the objections of District Attorney Howard Dutcher, who said the people of Waushara County should have the opportunity to give McBrair a fair trial. Jon Wilcox, McBrairs court-appointed attorney, sought the venue change. He said the countys small population, in addition to the mass media news coverage of the slayings, would prevent a fair trial in Wautoma.

The Mid-Continent Railroad Museum at North Freedom was officially dedicated Saturday evening with over 100 people in attendance. A room in the depot was dedicated to the late Arthur Waite, who was a railroad man for 52 years in this area. A plaque was placed in this room by his widow, Mrs. Alma Waite, and another by the museum. Preceding the dedication, those present, including guests from Baraboo and the surrounding area, enjoyed a train ride which goes 4 1/2 miles from North Freedom to the quarry beyond LaRue and back.

75 years ago

this week (1942)

Five bodies were dug out of tons of broken beer bottles, brick and steel reinforced concrete today as District Attorney Herbert Steffes opened a preliminary inquiry into the collapse of a brewery warehouse in which 12 workmen were trapped yesterday. Leo Buelow, 43, one of the men missing in the building collapse, formerly resided in Reedsburg and Baraboo. Buelow was a war veteran having been a member of the old Company A of Reedsburg. The Joseph Schlitz Brewery Company recently acquired use of the structure to store empty bottles retired from use because of federal restrictions on metal to make bottle caps.

If the making of surgical dressings for the Red Cross is to start in Baraboo about the first of September as planned, it is necessary to secure quarters in which to do the work. It is estimated that manufacturers are making only about 10 percent of the dressings that are needed, so there is immediate need of getting as many Red Cross stations as possible into operation.

100 years ago

this week (1917)

On Thursday afternoon there was considerable excitement at the Reedsburg fair as the result of a young man taking poison. Soon after taking the dose he was hurried in an automobile to a hospital, where his stomach was pumped out, thus no doubt saving his life. According to a telephone message from Reedsburg his name was Clarence Schultz and his home is in Chicago. He came to the fair with two other young men and two young ladies. It is said he was jealous of one of the young ladies and suddenly swallowed the poison. The dose he took was a preparation he was using to cure sores on his lips. As he was taken from the grounds he appeared to be unconscious. Prompt medical attention was given.

A few nights ago Madison officers followed an automobile thief to Merrimac, where he was arrested. It is said he had taken a car with a New York tag, the machine being a Packard. The report reached Baraboo that shots were exchanged, but our correspondent at Merrimac was not able to verify the statement. The report was also current that the thief ran the car to the ferry at Merrimac and just as the ferry was about to leave the south bank of the Wisconsin River the officers arrived in another car. Their car was run upon the boat and while crossing the stream they discovered the stolen car and thief on the craft with them, the shooting then took place. The News correspondent reports the proprietor of the ferry says no shots were fired on the boat.
As lawmakers continue to struggle over how to fund the states transportation budget, drivers are contending with bridges that have deteriorated to their worst condition since 2003, according to Federal Highway Administration data.

While the majority of Wisconsins bridges are still in perfectly acceptable shape, the average condition of the states bridges have declined over the past decade, as have the number of bridges earning the governments top ratings, a trend highway officials and legislators attribute to stagnant funding thats failing to keep up with aging infrastructure.

It all boils down to the fact that we need to look at how transportation is funded, how our infrastructure is funded, and figure out a way that we can eventually broaden that base of revenue so we can keep up with maintenance, said Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna.

Overall, Wisconsins bridges have improved significantly since 1992. Then, almost 25 percent of bridges in the state were deemed structurally deficient, a designation that indicates a bridge has one or more structural defects that require attention. That number has dropped significantly over time, ranging from 8 percent to 10 percent over the past decade. In 2016, 1,228 of the 14,230 bridges in the state, or 8.6 percent, were found to be structurally deficient.

But while the number of structurally deficient bridges has held relatively steady over the past decade, the average structural fitness of the states bridges has been declining since 2008. The National Bridge Inventory rates the structural fitness of a bridge from 0 to 9, with 0 indicating the bridge is closed and 9 indicating its status is superior to desirable criteria.

Since 1992, about a quarter of Wisconsin bridges were rated an 8 or 9, the best two designations on the evaluation scale, peaking at around 27 percent from 2006 to 2008. By 2016, that number had fallen to 19 percent, the lowest in the span of the data.

The percentage of bridges that are basically intolerable meanwhile increased slightly from 2.5 percent in 2008 to 3 percent in 2015 and 2016. That slight increase on the low end only accounts for about 100 of the states 14,230 bridges. But combined with a general slide in ratings, the average bridge rating has decreased from a high of 6.5 in 2008 to 6.3 in 2016, the lowest since 2003.

For the most part, Wisconsins bridges are converging in the middle range, creating the potential to significantly swell the number of bridges in poor condition in coming years, requiring more of them to close or impose weight limits.

I think its the trajectory that youre talking about that should be the most concerning even more than the status that were at, said Wisconsin Transportation Development Association Executive Director Craig Thompson.

The main concern with the deteriorating condition of bridges isnt safety  its commerce. Bridges are inspected regularly, and those in very poor condition are posted with weight limits or closed as needed. Those closures and weight limits can have a significant impact on agriculture, timber and other commerce that involves transporting heavy loads.

It can add a lot of cost to a shipper, a business thats trucking, or an ag operation if they have to add 20 miles or more to a circuitous route, said Jason Culotta, Senior Director of Government Relations at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

The number of bridges posted with weight limits has already more than doubled since the mid-2000s, hitting a high of 875, or 6 percent of bridges, in 2015 and 2016. County Highway Administration Executive Director Dan Fedderly said thats both due to declining bridge conditions and recent increases in the amount of weight trucks are allowed to carry. Some bridges end up posted simply because they werent designed to carry that much weight.

Why the decline?

Legislators and highway officials mainly attribute the decline in the states bridges to stagnant state and federal funding that has failed to keep up with aging infrastructure and increased construction costs.

While gross transportation fund revenue has increased an average of 2.4 percent each year over the past decade, officials say it has failed to keep up with rising construction costs. Whereas Fedderly said he used to have 10 to 12 bridge projects going at once when he was a highway commissioner a couple decades ago, its now common for counties to only have one or two.

One key element leading to low revenue growth was the decision to do away with gas tax indexing in 2006. Indexing provided automatic annual adjustments in the tax rate from its inception in 1985 until it was repealed two decades later. Since the final 2006 adjustment, the Legislature hasnt made any changes to the 30.9 cents per gallon rate. Automobile vehicle registration fees have meanwhile held at $75 since 2008.

Basically none of that has changed in a decade. It doesnt take a mathematician to figure out that youre going to fall behind, said Thompson, whose organization is pushing to increase the gas tax.

Instead of increasing transportation revenue, the state has continued to take on transportation projects by borrowing more, setting the stage for this years budget battle. The state budget is more than a month overdue and Republicans controlling both houses have yet to come to an agreement about how to fund the transportation budget. Assembly Republicans have opposed new borrowing and are pushing for increasing revenue, while Senate Republicans have opposed new revenue, in line with Gov. Scott Walkers statement that he would veto a gas tax increase.

Republicans have been in control of the Legislature for six years and Republicans have not made it a priority to have a long-term sustainable funding situation, said Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse. In the past few budgets, weve limped through by borrowing more money.

Problem not going away

Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Pyritz said the current budget under consideration will allow the state to continue addressing the most critical needs and adapt to the needs of the aging bridge population.

Walkers proposed 2017-19 budget does include increasing aid for local bridge improvements by $6 million over two years, a 35.6 percent increase in state contributions to the program, which receives most of its funding from federal dollars.

Culotta called the funding helpful but said a bigger number probably would make sense. And some legislators, like Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, dont believe the budget will end up doing enough to address the issue without raising revenue.

Obviously, its not going away, Nygren said.

You cant close your eyes and wish it to go away. It will still be there two years from now when we have our budget conversation again, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in a statement that he and the Republican caucus are working to develop long-term policy solutions from revenue sources like open road tolling to an overhaul of our transportation industry guided by the findings of the legislative audit of our state highway program.

That January audit found the Department of Transportation significantly underestimated cost estimates for major highway projects and hasnt done all it could to streamline processes and use its funds more efficiently.

But Assembly Republicans emphasize that improving efficiencies at the DOT alone is not enough to address the issue.

I think were all kidding ourselves if we dont realize that long term, even after we enact all the reforms that we can, that were going to have to make investments into our infrastructure to kind of catch up from the years when we werent able to do enough, Steineke said.
We are at war. Well, were not actually at war yet, but clearly at the brink of war, maybe even nuclear war, thanks to the bellicose rhetoric of two hotheads, neither of whom can be trusted to act like grown-ups.

Incendiary rhetoric is nothing new from the leaders of North Korea. However, in the past thats been counterbalanced by the firm but steady response of American Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Today its just the opposite, with North Korean and American leaders only interested in outshouting each other.

After the United Nations Security Council approved a U.S.-backed resolution condemning North Koreas latest ICBM test and applying new sanctions, Kim Jong Un puffed he would launch thousands-fold revenge against the United Nations. Donald Trump couldnt resist one-upping North Koreas leader with his own boast: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. To which Kim Jong Un responded by threatening to strike Guam.

The problem is, in many ways, Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump are the same person. Theyre both insecure. They both have monumental egos, easily bruised. They both have bad hair. Neither one would be where he is today but for their daddy. And, like unruly children on the playground, they both pride themselves on hurling insults and making outrageous statements. It would be funny, if it were not so deadly serious.

To be fair, Donald Trump did not create the tension with North Korea. Its bedeviled every American president since the Korean War, at the end of which no peace treaty was signed. So, technically, North and South Korea are still at war and have been ever since  with the United States propping up South Korea, and China the lifeline for the North. North Korea correctly believes it got the raw end of the deal in 1953, so it continues to pursue its goal of reunification of the peninsula, using nuclear weapons as its driving force.

The situation with North Korea is more critical than ever before, especially with Donald Trump, who seems incapable of giving it more than 30 seconds thought before shooting off his mouth or, God forbid, pulling the trigger. But there is a way out of this mess, if we all could accept just three facts.

North Korea is now a nuclear state. Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama said that never would happen on their watch. It did. President Trump said theyd never develop a missile capable of reaching the United States on his watch. They have. Not only that, North Korea knows what happened to Libyas Muammar Qaddafi when he gave up his nuclear program. Theyve arrived, and theyre never going back. Thats a reality we have to deal with.

Nobody disputes the fact that the United States has the military might to turn North Korea into a parking lot. Its so one-sided its not even a contest. Yet even the Pentagon admits that any pre-emptive military strike against North Korea would be a bloodbath. North Korea would respond by unleashing its estimated 8,000 artillery guns and rockets aimed at the greater metropolitan area of Seoul, the most densely populated region in the world with a population of 25 million people, just 30 miles from the Demilitarized Zone. Military planners project 60,000 to 300,000 civilians would be killed in the first day, with 30,000 American troops caught in the crossfire. A second round of strikes would be aimed against heavily-populated areas of Japan. Yes, the United States eventually wins that contest, but at what cost?

Diplomacy, not war, is the only one viable solution, in the form of serious talks with all the players in the region: North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. True, North Korea reneged on its promise made in the last round of talks to abandon its nuclear weapons program. But that just means, now that North Korea is a nuclear power, talks have all the more urgency in order to convince North Korea to restrain its nuclear program in exchange for the economic assistance it needs and international recognition it craves.

At least one person in the administration, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, recognizes that reality. We would like to sit down and have a dialogue with them, he said last week. The smartest thing Donald Trump could do would be to send Tillerson to Pyongyang tomorrow.
Gov. Scott Walker and President Donald Trump are making headlines with the Foxconn proposal to move to Wisconsin. Is this deal good for Wisconsin or a foxy con by this company?

First, the company has a reputation for making promises that it fails to keep. Just ask the folks in Pennsylvania and India. Second, according to Ball State University economics professor Michael Ball, Wisconsin is promising to pay Foxconn the equivalent of $66,600 per employee, based on having 3,000 workers in the plant, for each of the next 15 years, while Foxconn is promising pay of less than $54,000 a year. Foxconn bears no meaningful risk in this deal.

Third, for this plant to be productive and profitable it will have to be highly automated, requiring skilled workers. High school graduates need not apply. Fourth, they are in a field that is constantly changing. If they fail to keep up with this changing technology, their business will falter. Fifth, the state will have more debt obligations for infrastructure work, including construction on Interstate 94 and cleaning up the environmental damage that the plant will create. This could be the biggest con in our states history.

Hiroshi Kanno, Wisconsin Dells
Things could go well for the Democrats in next year's midterm elections  if they don't Bern out.

President Trump is woefully unpopular, feuding with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans. The GOP can't manage to repeal Obamacare or do much of anything. Voters say they'd like Democrats to run Congress.

But here come the Bernie Bros and sisters to the Republicans' rescue: They're sowing division in the Democratic Party and attempting to enact a purge of the ideologically impure  just the sort of thing that made the Republican Party the ungovernable mess it is today.

Bernie Sanders's advisers are promoting a "litmus test" under which Democrats who don't swear to implement single-payer health care would be booted from the party in primaries. Sanders pollster Ben Tulchin penned an op-ed with a colleague under the headline "Universal health care is the new litmus test for Democrats." Nina Turner, head of the Sanders group Our Revolution, told Politico this last week that "there's something wrong with" Democrats who won't "unequivocally" embrace "Medicare-for-all."

That notion  not just taking a stand but excommunicating all who disagree  is what Republicans have done to themselves with guns and taxes, and it would seriously diminish Democrats' hopes of retaking the House next year.

At the same time, Our Revolution has stepped up its attack on the Democratic Party. Turner this week sent an email to supporters complaining that she and others attempted to deliver a petition to Democratic National Committee headquarters but "were shut out." In a follow-up interview with BuzzFeed, Turner expressed particular outrage that the DNC offered her ... donuts. "They tried to seduce us with donuts," she said, calling the gesture "pompous" and "arrogant" and "insulting."

It's not just about breakfast confections. The Bernie crowd has begun accusing freshman Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), a rising Democratic star, of being beholden to corporate money. Also in California, Kimberly Ellis, who ran for state Democratic chairman with the support of Sanders and lost in a close race to a former Hillary Clinton delegate, is refusing to concede and threatening to sue. Ellis told the New York Times that the "Democratic Party is in many ways right now where the Republican Party was when the tea party took over."

And that's a good thing? Republican fratricide, instigated by tea-party purity police, made Trump possible and left the GOP unable to govern. This is what Sanders' people would emulate.

Fortunately, Sanders seems to have lost clout. Candidates backed by Our Revolution have lost 31 races in 2017 and won 16, and the wins include "Portland Community College Director, Zone 5" and "South Fulton (Ga.) City Council 6."

Candidates endorsed by Sanders have struggled in high-profile races. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) lost the DNC chairman race (he was appointed deputy chairman). Sanders-backed Tom Perriello lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia, and a Sanders campaign official was blown out in a California congressional primary. Neither did the Sanders magic get the job done for Democrats in special congressional elections in Kansas, Georgia or Montana, and his candidate lost the Omaha mayoral race.

Yet the attempt by the Sanders movement to impose a health-care litmus test on Democratic candidates shows their destructive potential within the party. Support for single-payer health coverage has been growing, and it would become a real possibility if Republicans sabotage Obamacare but don't help the tens of millions who would lose insurance.

But to force Democrats to take some kind of single-payer purity oath would set back the cause. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take control of the House, yet there are only 23 Republicans in districts won by Clinton  and only eight of those were won by President Barack Obama in 2012. There are a dozen Democrats in districts Trump won. In such swing districts, it would be suicidal to pledge support for something Republicans will brand as socialism.

A Pew Research Center poll in June found that while a majority of Democrats (52 percent) favor single-payer health care, only 33 percent of the public does overall. A Kaiser Health Tracking poll in June had better results: 53 percent of the public favored single-payer coverage. But Kaiser found that opinions were "malleable."

If recent trends continue, and particularly if Republicans undermine Obamacare without an adequate replacement, the time for single-payer will come, and soon. But the litmus test distracts Democrats from protecting Obamacare, diminishes their chances of retaking the House and chops up the party over something that has zero chance of becoming law under Trump.

That Berns.
An Assembly committee Monday gave the green light to a package of incentives designed to convince Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn to build its first U.S. plant in Wisconsin.

The Republican-controlled Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy voted 8-5 along party lines to advance Gov. Scott Walkers bill that provides Foxconn with nearly $3 billion in tax credits, exempts the company from a number of environmental regulations and spends $20 million in state funds on job training to ensure the states workforce is prepared to fill the 13,000 jobs the company has promised to create.

The full Assembly is scheduled to vote on the package Thursday.

Republicans rejected nearly two dozen Democratic amendments, including ensuring 70 percent of the proposed Foxconn plants workers would be Wisconsin residents and that Wisconsin contractors would work on building the proposed manufacturing campus.

Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, who represents the area near where Foxconn is looking to build, voted against the bill. Ohnstad said he had too many unanswered questions Monday, but hoped he could review more information by Thursday.

Ive certainly had a lot of constituents that have expressed concerns about the environmental clauses, that express concerns about the price tag and express concerns that this might not be the best thing for Kenosha and Racine, Ohnstad said after the vote. But once again, I want to express that people are very, very excited about the possibility of thousands of jobs.

Republicans said amendments to Walkers bill that the committee adopted Monday have added some of the protections Democrats want. They included asking state officials negotiating the final contract with Foxconn to add a goal of hiring Wisconsin-based workers and making sure enough workers in the state are available to be hired and at a livable wage.

The amendments also call for providing $20 million to the Department of Workforce Development after 2019 for job training, requiring the states jobs agency to provide tax credits only for jobs that have a salary of at least $30,000 per year and allowing tax incremental financing funds to be used for fire, police and other government services.

The lawmakers also want state officials negotiating a final contract with Foxconn to emphasize that workers living in Wisconsin should be given preference for hiring. But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has acknowledged that requiring that preference could be illegal.

If Foxconn fills a wetland during its construction process, Assembly lawmakers also want to require the creation of two wetlands in its place in the same watershed, if possible.

This is an investment that makes sense and we cannot look the other way and let this go by, Rep. Bob Kulp, R-Stratford, said before voting for the package.

Senate leader: Assembly action irrelevant

Meanwhile, a leader of the state Senate said Monday the Assemblys action this week is largely irrelevant because the legislation must go through the Legislatures budget-writing committee, and that changes recently made to the bill by Assembly Republicans may not have support from Walker or Senate Republicans.

Senate President Roger Roth, R-Appleton, told WTAQ on Monday that the speed at which the Assembly has pushed the Foxconn bill has the Senate on the outside looking in.

Theyve had their hearing prior to receiving the whole fiscal analysis, theyre going to pass amendments out which Im not even sure have the support of the administration let alone the Senate today, theyre going to vote on the bill on Thursday and the Senates totally sidelined in that process, Roth said. Whatever the Assembly does this week is largely irrelevant because when they pass their bill on Thursday its going to come to my office and Im going to send it to the Joint Finance Committee.

That committee is made up of lawmakers from both the Assembly and the Senate.

Roth also said there is a great deal of support for the Foxconn bill and predicted the package would pass the Senate.

He indicated more changes could be made to the bill after it is taken up by the budget-writing committee, which also hasnt finished its work on the 2017-19 state budget.

This is a complicated bill, and thats not to say that its not going to pass or that it shouldnt pass, but its something that cannot and should not be rushed, Roth told the radio station.

A spokesman for Walker did not say whether Walker supported the changes.

Governor Walker is working closely with the Legislature to advance this bill and he looks forward to signing it into law in the coming weeks, spokesman Tom Evenson said.

But Vos told reporters on Friday that the changes made to the bill were made with officials from Walkers administration and that he had asked Senate Republicans to hold joint hearings on the Foxconn legislation but was rejected, prompting him to go it alone.

New jobs analysis

Walker proposed the legislation after Foxconn said they wanted to build a $10 billion, 20 million-square-foot campus in southeastern Wisconsin that would employ thousands of workers to create LCD panels.

An analysis commissioned last month by Foxconn of the impact to the states economy showed the number of jobs created through the construction process and through suppliers could reach 35,000. But a new analysis commissioned by state officials and released Monday showed the ripple effect could be between 4,000 and 10,000 fewer jobs.

Lawmakers are more than a month late in passing a new state spending plan. Roth said he hopes the Foxconn bill will provide the momentum necessary to get a consensus from Republicans in the Senate and the Assembly who have been at odds for months over transportation funding.
Food insecurity is a term that, in farm country, might seem like an oxymoron. But its not.

Even people who live surrounded by some of the most fertile soil and some of the most productive farm operations in the world may not get enough to eat  and some of them might be farmers, or farm families.

Dan Stein, president and chief executive officer of Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin, is traveling throughout the 16 southern Wisconsin counties that are in the Madison-based nonprofits service area  including Columbia, Dodge, Juneau and Sauk counties  to tell people that food insecurity exists, and its likely to get worse if proposed federal legislation should become law.

Here are some questions and answers from a recent conversation with Stein and Kris Tazelaar, communications manager for Second Harvest.

What is food insecurity?

Feeding America, a hunger organization, defines it this way: a households inability to provide enough food for every person to live an active, healthy life.

Usually, Stein said, food insecurity stems from lack of sufficient income to buy foods that are high in nutrition.

Its a very real public health threat, Stein said.

Food insecurity can result in schoolchildren being less able to learn because theyre hungry. It can result in older people choosing between buying food or buying prescription medication. Lack of adequate food can result in psychological upheavals like anger and anxiety.

And, ironically, lack of food can result in obesity and all the health risks that come with it. Many of the most affordable foods  things like boxed macaroni and cheese or white bread  contain mainly empty calories that fatten a person without providing much nourishment.

So, if people cant afford food, why dont they get jobs?

Most of the households participating in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly referred to as food stamps; the preferred term now is FoodShare) have at least one member who is working at least 30 hours per week.

But even though Wisconsins unemployment rate has dropped from about 10 percent in 2008 to about 4 percent now, many working adults are not making enough money to live on.

The jobs being created pay $8, $10 or $12 a hour, Stein said. You cant raise a family on that.

And, Stein noted, about two-thirds of the people receiving SNAP benefits are older adults, children and people with disabilities, for whom employment may not be a feasible option.

But arent there people for whom food aid has become a way of life?

Stein has heard all the stereotypes, over and over again: Theyre lazy. Theyre cheats. Theyre taking advantage of the system.

But those stereotypes diverge from the facts in two key ways.

First, Stein said, most people who use FoodShare are on the program temporarily, for less than a year.

Second, Tazelaar said, FoodShare benefits amount to $4 per day per person in the household. I dont think anybody can live high off the hog for $4 a day, he said.

Despite all the anecdotes about people selling their FoodShare cards for cash, Stein said, fraud is actually rare to non-existent.

What is being proposed in Congress regarding FoodShare?

The Trump Administration has proposed a 25 percent decrease over the next decade in funding for FoodShare. This would result, if the measure is passed as proposed, in lowering the household income levels for qualification for the program. Also, more of the costs of administering the program would be shifted to the states.

So why cant local food pantries, or organizations like Second Harvest, make up the difference?

They already do, Stein said.

But if the cuts go through as proposed, the demand for food from organizations like Second Harvest would double, he said.

The 32-year-old organization distributes about 14.3 million meals annually. To increase that demand to 28 million or so would add burdens to the contributors and sponsors  including not only individuals, churches and service organizations, but mainly the corporations and industries that provide the lions share of the food and funding for Second Harvest.

Would federal cuts to FoodShare hurt just the people who receive aid?

No, said Stein. It also would hurt the economy, locally and statewide.

The federal FoodShare program infuses about $1 billion into Wisconsins economy, he said.

If fewer people are receiving benefits, or if recipients receive lower benefits, then businesses such as grocery stores would need fewer employees, resulting in job losses. This also would affect food producers (farmers) and people who are employed in the transportation and distribution of food products.

This would have a ripple effect on communities, Stein said. Its not just the approximately 7,500 people in Dodge County or 5,000 people in Columbia County who are affected  two-thirds of whom are children, disabled, seniors or blind.

How can I learn more about food aid?

Theres a toll-free number, 877-366-3635, that connects people with the FoodShare Helpline. The people answering this line cant sign people up for FoodShare, but they can walk anybody through their household income or circumstances to assess eligibility.

Sauk, Juneau, Dodge and Columbia counties are all part of the Capital Consortium for overseeing enrollment and case management of FoodShare. The other counties in the consortium are Dane (the lead agency), Adams, Richland and Sheboygan.

To connect with the Capital Consortium, call this toll-free number, 888-794-5556. FoodShare applicants and participants may call to complete their FoodShare interviews without a scheduled appointment from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Thursday.

People can also connect directly with their county agency. Contact information:

Columbia County: 2652 Murphy Road, Portage, phone 608-742-9227. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, but early morning and evening appointments can be accommodated.

Dodge County: 199 Dodge County Highway DF, Juneau, phone 920-386-3760. Hours are 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Evening appointments are available on request.

Juneau County: 220 E. La Crosse St., room 23, Mauston, phone 608-847-2400. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and requests for evening appointments can be accommodated.

Sauk County: 505 Broadway, Baraboo, phone 608-355-4200. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but evening appointments are available on request.
Jacob Crosetto cant believe its been a year since he moved from Illinois to Reedsburg.

The new clerk-treasurer says its been a whirlwind between falls presidential election and its resulting audit and recounts, tax season, budget work and state reports.

Its been quite an adjustment from his background in nonprofits and state responsibilities. Some of his experience related to finances and grant applications carried over but other moments, such as elections, were brand new.

Clerk personnel and other city staff have been helpful, he said. Crosetto said they provided excellent guidance during the fall presidential election. The election ended up being the highest on record for Sauk County, with 72 percent turnout of eligible voters.

After the election, Reedsburg was selected at random for auditing, so Crosetto had to compile all election materials and take them to the county seat in Baraboo.

Money

State reports have proven to be the most surprising part of the job. Crosetto said its critical to file the right paperwork to make sure Reedsburg receives state funding. It only happens once a year but it kind of sneaks up on you, he said.

Crosetto said hes also in the midst of a project to modernize accounting, such as using Excel sheets to generate formulas. The city has also started using a check scanner to reduce trips to the bank.

As for the community, its willing to open its wallet for the right reasons. Crosetto said he was pleasantly shocked at how much people will spend in a short time frame if they value a cause.

He pointed to the Reedsburg Boys and Girls Club, which was only an idea last spring yet is set to open this fall. As of December 2016 donors had given more than $80,000 for the projectnot including an additional $75,000 from the Carrig Family Foundation.

Crosetto also followed the annual Reedsburg Area United Fund Radio Auction in January and couldnt believe some of the bids.

People pay $150 for a cheesecake because its going to support children, he said.

Future projects

City codes and ordinances will be more accessible online under Crosettos plan. He said information is available on the citys website but its not the most user friendly. He hopes to make it searchable by as both a Word document or PDF.

Learning the job will probably take the next two to three years, Compton said. Crosetto comes from a strong financial background but theres more to the clerk-treasurer than money.

Compton said Crosetto is still learning Wisconsin rules and regulations but hes undergoing training and has access to mentors.

Ive put a lot of needs on Jacob and so far hes been receptive to them, Compton said.
Residents in the neighborhood of the former Spruce Street School are seeing a lot of action on the Sauk City property. Following the removal of asbestos, demolition of the building has begun.

During its Aug. 8 meeting, the Sauk City Village Board approved a payment of $148,713 to Robinson Brothers Environmental for asbestos removal.

The property belonged to the Sauk Prairie School District for many years before officials deciding to close and sell the school. The village of Sauk City purchased the property for $175,000 in January. Due to the amount of work associated with rehabilitating the old school structure leaders sought options for redevelopment.

In conjunction with the Spruce Street School project, in August 2015, the village created Tax Increment Finance District nine with the intention of adding more tax base for the village. The village did not receive taxes on the property when the school owned it.

Village engineer Chuck Bongard said only one proposal came in from Smith Bowden Inc., in which Roger Bowden proposed the village deed the property to him and provide the company with financial incentives to redevelop it.

The village bought it from the school district and effectively I proposed they sell it to me with some assistance to cover the cost of the demolition of the school, Bowden said. The village decided rather than going that route they wanted to keep control of the land because it would be cheaper to have me manage it instead of develop it.

The village determined it would have incurred more costs by selling the property than just owning it outright.

Ive done similar projects like this in the past, Bowden said. My impression of Sauk City is that it is an emerging town; lots of things are going on in Sauk County, a lot of recreational and other developments are happening.

Bowden agreed to redevelop the property with marketing rights while the village remained the property owner. It will bid out contracts for streets and water and sewer, Bongard said.

The property is expected to have 20-25 homes on it when the development is completed, with anywhere from three to five completed each year.

In the past, residents in that neighborhood spoke up about plans for the street layout, many concerned with the amount of traffic a street going through the neighborhood would bring. During a Plan Commission meeting Aug. 8, a modified version of the street layout was presented, showing the main street not going through the entire neighborhood.

I feel this new layout where the street does not go all the way through will lessen the amount of traffic cutting through there, Bongard said. They will see more traffic though because more homes will be back there.

Bongard said for many years Sauk City hasnt had much available property to build on, which is why Prairie du Sac has grown more rapidly.

The Spruce Street School property is a redevelopment; it is considered blighted because it wasnt suitable in any other form and it costs a lot of money to renovate it, Bongard said.

The next step is to bring forward a preliminary plat to the Plan Commission and Village Board. If approved, it will solidify street and sewer layout for the redevelopment.

With the asbestos removed, Robinson Brothers has begun demolition.

They will have a crusher on site and the intent is to recycle and use it as gravel on the new streets, Bongard said.

Over the next three weeks the building will be razed, crushed and leveled.

The board also approved a payment of $170,094 for the 2017 street reconstruction of Church and Madison streets. Bongard said the work included repaving the streets and four segments of alleyways.

This project was a little different because we didnt tear out all the curb and gutter, Bongard said. We repaired, pulverized and did spot replacements of curb and gutters and sidewalks.

Bongard said the project came in $18,000 over the bid amount, largely due to sidewalk repair. He said those funds could be taken from the villages sidewalk repair fund. Breunig said the village allocates $10,000 in its annual budget for sidewalk repairs.

Phase three of the Cardinal Estates Subdivision also will move forward following a board vote in favor of the preliminary plat. However, the vote was conditional on the final engineering plan and developers agreement.
Nebraskans value an honest days work. When compared with other states, we have higher than average rates of adult employment, and many Nebraskans hold multiple jobs.

In spite of this, perhaps as many as 12 percent of Nebraska families are food insecure. SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, helps struggling families put food on the table during challenging times.

With the improving economy SNAP participation has declined, but, in 2017, almost 175,000 Nebraskans in more than 78,000 households relied on SNAP to help feed their families. We are tied with North Dakota for the fourth-highest percentage of working SNAP recipients.

Last year, more than 1,200 Nebraska food retailers redeemed $246.8 million in SNAP benefits. SNAP is a federal program, so the cost to the state is modest.

This assistance is critical, but it should also be temporary. The goal of programs like SNAP should be to transition families to a place where they no longer need this assistance to make ends meet.

This is why I was gratified to learn that Gov. Pete Ricketts announced the expansion of a pilot project to help SNAP participants obtain higher paying jobs in Grand Island. This effort is commendable, but, unfortunately, it will reach only a very small fraction of SNAP participants in Nebraska.

Additional challenges prevent SNAP participants from transitioning successfully to a better job. The current program structure forces many Nebraska families to choose between taking a raise or a better-paying job and being able to put food on the table.

This is what is known as the cliff effect, where a small raise or working extra hours triggers the loss of SNAP benefits before improved household income is enough to pay all the bills without it. This leads some Nebraska families to turn down opportunities for advancement in order to continue being able to feed their family.

An expanded pilot program for work with a graduated reduction in SNAP benefits will help food insecure Nebraskans and ultimately create more stable taxpayer households.

The good news is that we can fix this. My bill, LB 358, would have allowed hardworking Nebraskans to accept small raises or promotions and still qualify for nutrition assistance through SNAP by considering other significant expenses such as rent and health care costs.

The bill would have set a more realistic expectation for how much Nebraska families are currently paying for rent and health care and allowed more of them to successfully transition off SNAP while still being able to put food on the table. Sadly, the bill failed by just one vote earlier this year.

In a state like Nebraska where we value self-help and hard work, it is unacceptable that families who earn a raise or promotion would have to turn down a positive opportunity in order to feed their family. This is one of the reasons why the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce supported LB 358 to address cliff effects for Nebraska families.

Its time for Nebraska to join the 29 other states that have adopted changes similar to LB 358. I look forward to the opportunity to work with Gov. Ricketts and my fellow senators on new legislation next session to address the cliff effect in SNAP and help more Nebraska families get ahead.
Are SA's opposition-led coalition metros flexing their muscles?

City governments around the world are increasingly challenging nation states when it comes to development, human rights and governance.

In the US, for instance, cities are asserting themselves against federal or state governments on controversial issues like environmental standards.

Most cities are pledging to meet Paris agreement targets, even though President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the accord. On immigration, some US and UK cities are declaring themselves to be sanctuary cities. They are refusing to cooperate with national authorities when it comes to handing over illegal immigrants.

National governments often squash cities attempts to assert themselves. This happens especially when cities dont have much constitutional scope to govern themselves. It also typically occurs when cities mostly depend on national government for their resources.

In South Africa, local governments enjoy significant constitutional autonomy. They have the right to run local government affairs on their own initiative. They also have executive and even some legislative powers to administer a whole range of functional areas. National and provincial governments may not compromise municipalities right to exercise these powers.

South Africas metropolitan governments further raise large portions of their revenue themselves. This makes them remarkably financially independent by international standards.

This means that South African municipalities could easily flex their muscles against the national and provincial tiers of government.

The surprise takeover of three metropolitan municipalities by coalitions, led by the main opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA), after local government elections last year, therefore opened up interesting possibilities.

The DA had controlled the City of Cape Town since 2011 after governing there by coalition since 2006. But all other metropolitan municipal councils in South Africa were comfortably controlled by the African National Congress (ANC), until the 2016 elections.

The ANC lost its majority in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape, as well as in two metropolitan councils in Gauteng: the national capital, Tshwane, and Johannesburg, the countrys economic hub.

Coalition metros one year on

Ongoing research Im doing looks at whats emerged in the first year of these three new non-ANC city governments. Unlike Cape Town, these three cities dont have the benefit of a politically sympathetic provincial government. Their loss was also a major political humiliation for the ANC.

So some intergovernmental conflict, such as that seen in the US and elsewhere, seemed inevitable.

But my preliminary conclusion is that the coalitions arent showing signs of rebelliousness, at least not yet. Apart from some moves against Nelson Mandela Bays mayor Athol Trollip, there also hasnt really been much push back from the ANC.

Certainly, post-election victory speeches hinted that some muscle-flexing might be on the cards. All three mayors vowed to squash corruption, increase the financial health of their cities and redirect spending to infrastructure upgrades and basic service delivery.

The mayors of Johannesburg and Tshwane also seemed to send a message that national and provincial ANC governments had to stand back.

Solly Msimanga, the mayor of Tshwane, announced that he would ban blue light brigades through the streets of Tshwane. He also visited Taipei on official city business, seemingly ignoring national governments diplomatic agreements with mainland China, and thereby causing it embarrassment.

Herman Mashaba, the mayor of Johannesburg, threatened to withdraw Johannesburg from the South African Local Government Association. He also instructed metro police officers not to assist in enforcing the extremely unpopular e-tolls levied by the provincial government on Gauteng highway users.

But the mayors have since mostly backtracked from all this big talk. This is perhaps because most of their high profile threats involved areas of governance that fell outside of the mayors legal competence.

E-tolls were never within the enforcement mandate of the metro police anyway. Also, only a few blue light authorisations fell within municipal jurisdiction. And, withdrawing from the local government association would require a resolution of the entire metropolitan council, and would lead to a loss of national political influence.

This is not to say that the Metros have done nothing.

Achievements so far

Municipal economic development projects, which do fall within their powers, were significantly overhauled. For example, Mashaba squashed initiatives that were driven by the ousted ANC in Johannesburg, such as mushroom farms, solar bakeries and the Jozi at Work job-creation initiative.

All three cities further insisted that provincial governments pay up overdue rates and service charges. All purged old-regime staff implicated in corruption investigations, and all rejigged housing and service delivery structures. Johannesburg even pledged to reintegrate all municipal service delivery entities into the city.

When it finally came round to passing budgets and development plans of their own, the coalition Metros were all rather prudent. All three committed to refocused, developmental, service-focused governance free from vanity projects. They also promised more responsive, transparent and open governance. And all three put their money where their mouths were.

But all three also committed to constructive intergovernmental relations. Their development plans were further mostly aligned to national and provincial priorities, just like those of their predecessors.

For the moment, then, the Constitutions commitment to cooperative government seems to be winning over political ambitions to chart a radically different governance path. Given the many storms brewing at national level, this local prudence is welcome, and certainly wise.

Marius Pieterse, Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
NPAs stolen #GuptaLeaks claim wont stand in SA law

Stolen or not, Associate Professor James Grant says SA courts have discretion whether to admit evidence.

Speaking on TalkRadio 702's morning show, Breakfast with Xolani Gwala, Grant says the fruits of a poisoned tree doctrine used by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the #GuptaLeaks case isnt valid in South African law.

City Press reported on Sunday that prosecutors investigating state capture believe the #GuptaLeaks emails do not constitute evidence against President Jacob Zumas friends, the Guptas or any other minister or individuals. Senior prosecutors, who spoke to City Press, also do not think the emails will be admitted into evidence because prosecutors and investigators believe they were stolen.

But Grant says in South Africa a court can make that decision even if evidence was unlawfully obtained.

This article was originally published on www.702.co.za.
Wealth tax: More than just raising revenue in an unequal society

It needs to be a socio-economic policy tool to effect a substantive change in wealth distribution.

The call by the Davis Tax Committee for public comment on the proposed wealth tax should have generated strident debate on the merits and practicalities, or otherwise, of implementing a wealth tax in SA. But the response, at least in the public domain, from civil society, business, academia and the general public has been rather muted.

In the coming months, the committee will have a lot to consider before it finalises its proposals on wealth taxes. It is important that, during this time, the public debate on wealth taxes continues. In brief, the committee proposed three additional wealth taxes for consideration and public debate. These are a land tax, a property tax (over and above municipal rates) and an annual wealth tax. What little debate we have seen has been rather muddled, often conflating what is just with what is practicable.

Here, we share some thoughts on both aspects. In this regard, it is important to address two questions: is the wealth tax required from a social justice perspective; and, if it is, can it be implemented?

The idea of a wealth tax, while not new, was recently brought to public light by French economist and author, Thomas Piketty. One of the key things Piketty has highlighted is how, under capitalism, wealth has become increasingly concentrated as it passes down from one generation to another  the so-called inter-generational transfers. We do not, unfortunately, understand inter-generational dynamics very well at all in SA. Much more work is required.

We do know, however, that inequality is worsening. The World Bank found that 58% of the income in the country accrues to the richest 10% of the population. But research by Anna Orthofer from Stellenbosch University has shown that inequality of wealth (as opposed to income) is far worse than income inequality. The newly available data suggest that 90% to 95% of all assets are owned by the richest 10% of South Africans, while the poorest 50% own no measurable wealth at all.

Piketty has found that, in developed countries, there have been sustained and substantial increases in wealth among the worlds richest individuals, and this has driven rapid growth in wealth inequality. Indeed, new data from the US shows the share of pre-tax national income for the bottom 50% of earners decreased from 19.9% in 1980 to 12.5% by 2014. In contrast, the share for the top 1% has almost doubled, from 10.7% in 1980 to 20.2% by 2014.

Furthermore, the share of national income from capital has risen from 6% in 1980 to 11% by 2014, while that for labour has only risen to 9.2%, from 4.7% in 1980 (New York Times, 2016).

SA is unlikely to be an exception to this trend, so these are good reasons for us to consider the issue of wealth and wealth taxes.

It seems trite to make the argument for why inequality is bad, but it seems necessary to do so. Much of the debate about the wealth tax is premised on the (often unstated) acceptance that inequality is a nuisance at worst, rather than, first, a socio-economic disaster in and of itself, and second, the cause of a much wider range of problems.

Indeed, in their recent, seminal work, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, Richard G Wilkinson and Kate Pickett describe unequal societies as "dysfunctional". There is a mass of evidence that suggests unequal societies are more violent, slower growing and less content than their more equal counterparts. A wealth tax, if implemented to reduce inequality, could therefore be used as a growth-enhancing strategy.

Given that inequality is likely the single largest socio-economic problem facing SA, the question we must ask is: can wealth tax be an effective tool in addressing inequality? And in this regard, it is important to clarify the intention of the proposed tax.

Taxes can be used to effect redistribution of wealth and income, effect and change consumer and economic behaviour (think sin and excise taxes, and import duties on goods), and to raise revenue for government spending. Much of the commentary about the Davis proposal assumes that the intention of the proposed tax is to raise revenue. While the main objective should be to raise revenue, tax policy can also be used to achieve other economic and social goals.

In our view, the merits of a wealth tax do not lie only in its use for revenue raising, but as a socio-economic policy tool to effect a substantive change in SAs highly skewed wealth distribution. And, lets be honest: if we dont start doing something about our high levels of inequality, we are heading down a path of more conflict and uncertainty.

The perceived problems with a wealth tax have been addressed, to some extent, in the press, and we will not re-state them here, except to address one conceptual point: arguments against a wealth tax do not offer an analysis of the counter factual  how does a society perform where additional social services are provided and where there is greater equality? What are the growth prospects of an SA where wealth is more evenly distributed, and there is greater equality in access to productive capital?

Furthermore, there is the persistent problem that income which can be transferred into wealth often escapes the current tax net, and this is a compelling argument for including wealth in the tax system, certainly from a tax equity basis.

The Davis Tax Committee will also have to consider some other aspects of tax policies in coming to a view on wealth taxes. Unfortunately, issues of equality and tax equity are not the only necessary condition for the implementation of a new tax.

A tax should also be efficient: that is, it should, at the very least, cost less to implement than it should raise in revenue. The problem we have is that wealth is so unequally distributed that a wealth tax is likely to impact on a very small part of the population. It is thus not at all clear that the likely revenue from wealth taxes will be sufficiently large to outweigh the costs of collecting them. Indeed, given the extremely high levels of inequality and the small numbers of potential payers of a wealth tax, we would have to demonstrate that it is worth having wealth taxes on strictly revenue-raising considerations. Once we are clearer on what taxes we want, these calculations will have to be done.

One way of solving the tax efficiency problem is to tax the wealthy at very high rates  to increase the revenue. But this generates all sorts of other issues. Taxes cause what economists call "behavioural effects"  people change their behaviour in response to a tax policy change. So, more complexities to think about.

The wealthy have numerous options for disguising or transferring their wealth to avoid taxes, and this can exponentially increase the cost of administering a wealth tax. On the other hand, taxes also need to pass the tax morality test: the public needs to believe the tax is fair and the revenue will be spent in a way that benefits society. Here one has to say that the shenanigans at the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and the "state capture" issues are not making the Davis committees tasks any easier.

There are a number of less ambitious solutions that could also be explored. For example, SA already has a property tax in the form of property rates leveled on all private property. This tax forms the fiscal backbone of local government, funding local infrastructure and services. One of the simplest ways to more fairly tax wealth is to ensure that the property valuation roll, on the basis of which local property taxes are levied, accurately reflects property values, which is far from the case at present, especially in areas re-zoned for commercial purposes.

A second option is inheritance tax reform. Inheritance taxes avoid many of the distortions of other wealth taxes because they are effected at the time of wealth transfer. Given that inequality is largely an inter-generational phenomenon, addressing inter-generational wealth dynamics is important, and here tax policy can play a significant role.

The committee has set out several key changes to estate duty, some of which are designed to enhance equity and tax progressiveness. The committee proposes increasing the primary abatement to R15m while increasing the estate duty rate from 20% to 25% on estates with a dutiable value exceeding R30m. It also proposes removing the inter-spouse abatements and allowances. And there are proposed changes to the treatment of donations tax and estates, to prevent the diminution of estates in anticipation of death.

We can also do a lot more to undertake additional research on these issues. We need, as Piketty and others did, to get more data to enable us to make informed, evidence-based decisions on wealth taxes.

Recent collaborations between SARS and academia are starting to show the exciting possibilities such data can provide. But in the same way that Piketty used data from the global north to bolster his theory of capital accumulation, we need similar analysis in SA.

Wits University is establishing the Southern Centre for the Study of Inequality, which will host a multi-year research project into inequality in SA and the global south. One of the projects vital areas of study is a detailed examination of the dynamics of inter-generational wealth transfer and accumulation. Once we have a base of evidence on wealth dynamics in SA, policy makers will be in a far better position to assess the merits, and dangers, of tax policy reform.

Imraan Valodia is the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, and David Francis is a Researcher in Economics at Wits University. This article was originally published on https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/.
In his letter, GOP County Chair J.P. Sabby ("Pipeline foes mislead on science," Aug. 6) distorts what Dr. David Corbin wrote (Pipeline doesnt benefit Nebraska, Aug. 2)

Mr. Sabby accuses Dr. Corbin of using sly, ludicrous and silly arguments. None of that is true. When we read the original, we find that Dr. Corbin is asking questions in a straightforward way.

Has TransCanada committed itself to an enforceable agreement that prohibits them from changing what it puts through the pipeline? No, they have not.

To make it sound absurd, Mr. Sabby refers to sending water to the refineries. Perhaps he hasnt heard that Trans Canada is having trouble getting enough customers to ship tar sands through the KXL pipeline. His words are not just silly; they demean political discourse by twisting the meaning of the opponents message.

This is what disgusts so many people who have given up on political activism. Talking trash skillfully and wielding sarcasm has become acceptable instead of having an argument on the merits of different positions. Dirty tricks have become an acceptable substitute for working for the benefit of the people.

If we want to invigorate our political life and encourage participation by more people, political activists and leaders need to clean up their act. Politicians should be moving away from trash talk and scoring debate points and towards more useful forms of discourse that educate the electorate.

Jane Egan, Lincoln

Chair, Lancaster County Democrats
TOWN OF PARIS  Three Illinois men were shot and killed Sunday night at Great Lakes Dragaway, 18411 1st St., Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said.

The first calls for service to the track, located off of Highway KR, came in just after 7 p.m. Sunday. There is no suspect in custody, although law enforcement are seeking a black male in his mid-20s wearing jean shorts and a black hoodie, and he may have left the scene in a black vehicle, Beth said at a 9:30 p.m. news conference.

Beth said, after speaking with friends of the victims: They have no idea what happened, what caused this.

Two of the victims died at the scene, while a third died on the way to the hospital, according to Beth. Two of the victims were possibly from Aurora, Ill., Beth said.

The victims approached a food vendor moments before they were shot, according to Beth.

The race track, which contains a quarter-mile drag strip, was hosting an event called Larrys Funfest on Sunday, according to reports. The event attracts a lot of attendees from Milwaukee and had some issues, last year, according to law enforcement.

Ambulances were still entering into the facility as of 9 p.m.

According to scanner reports, a suspicious person matching the description of the suspect wanted in connection to the shooting was located on foot at a BP gas station, 20015 93rd St., Bristol, about an hour after the shooting. Employees said the man appeared to be agitated, had a dead cellphone and wanted to know the address of the gas station.

Deputies from the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department responded and were seen escorting the man by ambulance to St. Catherines Medical Center in Pleasant Prairie, where his condition and injuries are unknown.

Steve Prince of Milwaukee was at the races with his grandmother Sunday and said he saw three people on the ground near police tape on his way out. Emergency crews were attending to one of the people, Prince said, but the other two were on the ground, lying unattended.

While Prince didnt hear any shots, he heard people talking about the shooting and decided to leave. He said it took close to two hours to leave the track.
Campus living at William & Mary gets a new leader

A new leader is at the helm of William & Marys campus living efforts.

Maggie Burkhart Evans, who previously served as executive assistant to the president of James Madison University, started as W&Ms associate vice president for campus living and director of residence life Aug. 14.

The position was last held by Deb Boykin, who retired this summer after 38 years at the university.

We are delighted that Maggie Evans has come to W&M and joined the senior leadership team in Student Affairs, said Ginger Ambler, vice president for student affairs. Not only does she bring a depth of professional experience in the areas of residential living and first year experience, but she also has developed rich, institution-level perspectives from her years of service on the presidents cabinet at James Madison University. We are fortunate, indeed.

In her new role at W&M, Evans will lead the Campus Living area of the Division of Student Affairs, which includes the offices of Residence Life and First Year Experience. She will work with the 22 staff members  and 400 student employees  within those areas to plan and execute student and community development programs, manage the residence life budget of more than $33 million and oversee the residential program for about 5,000 students and more than 70 facilities. Among her other responsibilities, Evans will serve on multiple committees, including the universitys Emergency Management Team and the Committee on Education and Prevention of Violence.

I have long admired my colleagues at William & Mary, and many have had significant influence on my career to date, said Evans. I am honored to be included in the Tribe family, and eager to begin this new adventure.

Evans holds a bachelors degree in communications and graphic design from Bowling Green State University and a masters in educational policy and leadership from Ohio State. She worked at JMU for 27 years, with most of that time spent in the Office of Residence Life. She started as a residence hall director in 1986 and progressed through a series of positions before becoming director of residence life in 1996  the same year that she served as the director of the Olympic Village housing for the Olympic Games in Atlanta.

During her seven-year tenure leading JMUs residence life office, Evans was responsible for every aspect of the department, including its business operations, residential education programs, housing assignment services, first- and sophomore-year programs and Greek housing as well as study-abroad programs in London; Antwerp, Belgium; and Florence, Italy.

In 2013, she became executive assistant to the president of JMU, serving as his chief of staff and a member of his senior leadership cabinet. Evans held that position until coming to W&M this summer.

Since my first visit to William & Mary in 1992, I have been of the mind that it is one of the few places I could envision living with my family, said Evans. We are anxious to begin the process of calling Williamsburg home.




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RACINE  Balloons, T-shirts and inscriptions on the wall near where Dashaun Jordan was fatally shot all bore the same message Sunday night: Long Live 2-3.

More than 100 family, friends and community members gathered in an alley south of 16th Street between Phillips and Murray avenues Sunday to remember Jordan, 20, who was killed in the early morning hours of August 7. Police have charged 17-year-old Rytrell Earl with Jordans homicide and have alleged that Earl shot Jordan, who had no gang affiliations, thinking he was a rival gang member.

Many of the group wore T-shirts with the message I know youre watching me from that blue sky, RIP Dashaun on the front and #LongLive23, on the back. According to several of his friends, the nickname is an homage to another Jordan, Chicago Bulls legend Michael, who wore 23 in his playing days.

Two of Jordans close friends, Jermaine Tripp and one of Jordans music partners J Munna, offered up stories during Sundays vigil.

He reminded me of me without my glasses, Tripp said. We would just look at each other and we would start smirking, laughing.

J Munna said that Jordan motivated him to pursue his music career. He also came up with the nickname 2-3.

His last name was Jordan and he didnt have a nickname, it was just Dashaun, J Munna said. Im like Nah, Im gonna call him 2-3. 

Bryan Wright, an assistant director at Racine Unified School District, shared the story of helping Jordan get his graduation certificate from Park High School through a program with the Racine Alternative Education School.

I want to make sure that we all know that Dashaun graduated from high school, Wright said.

Pastor Prentiss Robbins Jr., the leader of New Beginnings of Faith Church of God in Christ, 2711 19th St., led the group in an animated Our Father to close out the vigil. He offered the group a challenge following the prayer.

This is real love right here, but weve got to do it every day, Robbins said.

After many of those in attendance, including Alderman John Tate II and mayoral candidates Melvin Hargrove and Cory Mason, had dispersed, many of Jordans friends gathered closely as a car backed into the alley and played one of Jordans songs on its stereo. After the song was over, Jordans friends released balloons into the air.

As the balloons drifted into the sky, Jordans friends yelled 2-3 in unison.

I feel like I lost a part of me, Tripp said. I dont think that hes gone. I dont feel it.
Canadian, US nuclear regulators enhance cooperation

14 August 2017

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The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are to expand their existing cooperation. Under a recently-signed memorandum of understanding, they will enhance their exchange of technical information and cooperation in nuclear safety matters.

The MOU was signed on August 7, 2017, by NRC chairman Kristine Svinicki and on August 9, 2017, by CNSC president Michael Binder.

The CNSC said the new MOU recognizes and builds on previous arrangements for the exchange of technical information and cooperation in nuclear safety matters.

"Once in place, each participant may request unclassified safety-related information from the other participant on any matter related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy within the other participant's jurisdiction including, but not limited to, information on nuclear power plant designs, legislation, regulations, technical reports, and more," the CNSC said. "In addition, the MOU describes how information and intellectual property rights may be used."

The USA and Canada signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in July 1955 and the NRC and CNSC signed an MOU in March 2007 for technical cooperation and exchange of information. This MOU - which concerns areas such as standards for health safety, security, safeguards, and the protection of the environment with respect to nuclear facilities and fissionable and radioactive substances - was amended in April 2012.

In June 2009, the two organisations signed a technical arrangement for the exchange of classified information and last October they signed an MOU for cooperation and exchange of information in nuclear security, safeguards and non-proliferation matters.

The CNSC maintains similar MOUs with nuclear regulators in many other countries, including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, France, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Romania, Russia, South Africa and the UK.

According to the CNSC, these arrangements provide a framework for bilateral cooperation, and provide parties with assurances regarding the security of information exchanged, as well as enhanced clarity about responsibilities regarding visits and costs related to cooperation initiatives, among other benefits. While these arrangements are not legally binding, they nonetheless represent serious political commitments, it said.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
French is Gabon's official language, but Fang is the most popular language spoken in the country. French is mostly used in the capital and among those who have completed secondary or university education. French further serves as Gabon's medium of instruction in schools. Gabon's indigenous languages are classified in the Bantu family. These languages reached Gabon approximately 2,000 years ago, and subsequently branched out into nearly 40 languages. The languages are mostly spoken rather than written, and are passed down through family and clans. Beginning in the 1970s, the Gabonese government began to research the various Bantu languages.

Official Language of Gabon

French

Before World War II, very few Gabon natives had adopted French, and those who did were engaged in business or government administration. France called for universal primary education in the country after the war, and 47% of Gabon's population over the age of 14 communicated in French according to the 1960-61 census. A further 13% were identified as literate in French. The literacy rate had shot up to 60% by the 1990s, and it is currently estimated that 80% of the Gabonese population can speak the language. One-third of the inhabitants of Libreville, which is Gabon's capital, are indigenous French speakers. Over 10,000 French people reside in Gabon, and France maintains dominance in the nation's foreign commercial and cultural spheres.

National Language of Gabon

Fang

Fang is regarded as Gabon's national language. It is linked to the Ewondo and Bulu languages used in southern Cameroon. Fang falls under the Niger-Congo family, and 32% of the Gabonese people use Fang as their mother tongue. The Fang community is one of the most significant ethnic groups in Gabon, as well as neighboring Equatorial Guinea. Fang is particularly popular in northern Gabon, and it is recognized as a southern Bantu language.

Indigenous Languages Spoken in Gabon

All of Gabon's indigenous languages fall within the Bantu family. There are about 40 different native languages used in various regions of Gabon. Missionaries from France, as well as the US, came up with transcriptions for some of the languages that were based on the Latin alphabet beginning in the 1840s. The missionaries went further and translated the Bible into certain Gabonese languages. French colonial policy, however, encouraged the study of French at the expense of African languages. The African languages mainly survived through families and clans. Apart from Fang, Eshira and Mbere also have significant groups of speakers. Other native Gabonese languages include Sake, Duma, Tsogo, Simba, Vumbu, Fufu, Barama, Bekwel, and Benga.

Francophone African Sign Language

Early mission work in the West African deaf communities, including Gabon, used American Sign Language. Andrew Foster is recognized for promoting deaf education in the country. The sign language in Gabon and several other Francophone nations is influenced by French to some extent. As an African deviation of American Sign Language, Gabon's sign language includes local conventions and taboos. These inclusions are particularly noted in taboo topics, such as sex.

Future Trends

The Gabonese president, Ali Bongo, has been vocal about the promotion of English in the country. This announcement is seen as a growing development among the Francophone nations situated in West Africa. The same move was made by Rwanda in 2009, a country which is making significant strides towards national prosperity.
Ammonia tank in Haifa Bay. Photo: Ilan Malester

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: Haifa Chemicals Ltd said that it was shutting down its ammonia plants in north and south of Israel and firing its 800 employees after failing to find a reasonable alternative to a large ammonia tank it needs to function which was ordered to be shut down earlier this year.

An Israeli court in February ordered the company to shut down the country's largest ammonia tank, which has been a point of contention for years, with residents and environmental groups warning it is a major health hazard.

"Haifa Chemicals management decided to close the company and is forced to fire all its employees," it said in a statement.

The colossal, circular vat is located in the northern port of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, and can hold 12,000 tons of ammonia, which is used in products such as fertilizer and explosives.

The government, looking to remove hazardous materials from the heavily populated area, has for more than a decade been looking for alternatives to the Haifa plant, including building a new one in the middle of the desert. It has made little progress.

Haifa Chemicals is owned by a US holding company Trance Resource Inc (TRI), which is controlled by Florida-based Trump Group.

 Reuters News
Jo Robinson before and after

By: Alexis Bell WorldWideWeirdNews.com

A woman who is known for fire-breathing while dancing on a pole or standing on her partner, suffered horrific burns while showing off her skills to her friends.

38-year-old Jo Robinson traveled to the United States from Ballyclare, Ireland, to judge a pole dancing competition.

The mother of three children was in Chicago, Illinois, where the competition took place.

After the competition, Robinsons friends asked her to teach them how to fire breathe.

Robinson agreed, but her impromptu performance backfired. Robinson said that she took a mouthful of camping oil instead paraffin, which ignited on her body.

The entertainer suffered severe burns to her face, chest, hands, lungs and throat.

So far, she racked up medical bills for about A18,500. Robinson had travel insurance for the trip, but fire-breathing is not covered.
RACINE COUNTY  Its a mild August day on Oak Hollow Acres and the animals are in their glory.

Turkeys and ducks waddle about; black, feather-footed chickens scratch at the ground; peacocks  one green and one white  strut around; and in a grassy, sun-dappled enclosure, about two dozen humans stand with their arms stretched over head, their fingers pointing to the sky.

We are going to step forward into our tree pose, (also known as) vrksasana, yoga instructor Megan MacCarthy tells the class, encouraging her pupils to feel their earth and find their balance.

The stillness is broken not by a sigh or a faltering balance, but with a snort of laughter. A tiny goat has attempted to climb up the legs of one of the human participants, looking for corn. Soon a few more goats join her and what once was a single expedition becomes a group activity.

The goats may not be kidding around, but the yogis participating in the class cant seem to keep from breaking into giggles and wide grins.

At this yoga class  nestled amidst the quack of ducks, crow of roosters and laugh-like bleating of Nigerian dwarf goats  such distractions are encouraged, mainly for their ability to spread joy and keep participants out of their head and in the moment.

They remind you to ground (yourself) through your feet every time they step on your toes, MacCarthy says of the wandering four-legged friends.

Classes

Goat yoga reportedly started in August 2016 in Oregon, when a hobby farmer who raises goats as pets decided the curious and friendly creatures might make the perfect therapeutic addition to the typical yoga practice.

The idea quickly spread to small farms across the country.

Abby Lippmann, the owner of Oak Hollow Acres, 2208 Springwood Lane, Rochester, began teaming up MacCarthy to offer goat yoga in this spring.

Lippmann, who had done goat yoga before, reached out to MacCarthy about teaching classes at the farm, thinking it might be a great way for people interested in the goats to spend time with the animals.

We have people that want to come out to the farm all the time and spend time with the goats. But were still working, so it gets hard for people to just trickle in, she explained, Goat yoga is really relaxing, so we thought it would be a really good thing to add to the farm.

So far, Lippmann and MacCarthy have held several classes, with plans to offer more in the coming weeks. Theres the goat yoga classes for adults, as well as family classes for yogis looking to introduce their children to the experience. This fall, Lippmann and MacCarthy hope to offer a Halloween goat yoga class, during which people can wear costumes.

The classes are open to yogis of all skills levels, from regular practitioners to newcomers.

Kidding around

On Wednesday, participants ran the gamut, from certified yoga instructors to those just looking to get introduced to the practice and spend some time with the adorable goats.

As they moved through their poses, MacCarthy encouraged the students to drink in their surroundings  the grass and the canopy of leaves overhead  and use their free arms, or petting arms, to pet the goats as they passed by, nosing around for corn.

Jody Jaeck, 66, of the Yorkville, said she found the class after looking for a goat yoga class for her goat-loving best-friend, Chris Griesheimeier.

The longtime pals spent much of the class giggling as goats frequently found their way to them and their stash of corn.

We love the goats. Its all about the goats, said Griesheimeier, 67, a retired teacher.

Meghan Ek, who came to the class with her mom, Kathy Ek, and three girlfriends, said she just couldnt resist the idea of goat yoga.

You get to do two of the most amazing things  do yoga and play with goats, said the 34-year-old Milwaukee resident, whos been doing yoga for 10 years.

Near the end of Wednesdays class, MacCarthy remarked on the unexpected elements the goats bring to the practice.

Youve got to have a playful side, she said at one point, after a goat scattered its pebble-like droppings near someones mat.
New flying medic service to provide innovative and faster emergency treatment for patients across North Wales

This article is old - Published: Monday, Aug 14th, 2017

Specialist consultants and critical care practitioners who help take the emergency room to the patients are to join Wales Air Ambulance crews in north Wales from today.

The Caernarfon based Flying Medics team known as EMRTS Cymru, Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service will now give the Air Ambulance service the ability to conduct blood transfusions, administer anaesthetics, offer strong painkillers, and conduct a range of medical procedures  all at the scene of an incident.

In 2015, a unique Third Sector-Public Sector partnership was created between the WAA, Welsh Government and NHS Wales, resulting in the creation of EMRTS Cymru.

The service, which effectively takes the emergency room to the patients, is made up of Welsh Government-funded NHS consultants and critical care practitioners who are able to deliver innovative emergency treatments usually not available outside the hospital environment.

Before the Welsh Flying Medics service was introduced, all WAA helicopters, which are funded by 6.5 million of charitable donations each year were staffed by paramedics.

Over the past two years, the Flying Medics have become operational on the WAA helicopters based in Dafen and in Welshpool. The next phase, which launches today, will see also see the service start working from the charitys base in Caernafon.

The new service will see, on any given day, a consultant based at either Welshpool and Caernarfon bases.

As well as the introduction of the medics, the charity has also unveiled a newer, more advanced aircraft for North Wales.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: I welcome this initiative that will enhance the existing service from Caernarfon and bring it in line with the rest of the EMRTS cover enjoyed elsewhere.

It will bring access to critical care and emergency medicine much closer for people living in North Wales and ensure that they can get the best care more quickly.

The new helicopter and rapid response vehicle available at the airbase will protect the existing WAA service and make the area more attractive to the very best clinicians and critical care practitioners. It will play a vital role in the provision of high quality unscheduled care across North Wales.

Angela Hughes, Wales Air Ambulance Charity Chief Executive, added: The innovative equipment and treatments that we have introduced have attracted international attention, with many Helimed services across the world looking to adopt the Welsh model.

Our heartfelt thanks go to the people of Wales for raising the 6.5m each year needed to keep the four helicopters flying. We are serving Wales and saving lives.

Results indicate that:

 By taking the emergency room to the patient, the Service has shortened the time it takes for somebody who is critically ill to receive consultant-led treatment

 More people in Wales, in rural and urban areas, now have equal access to timely consultant-led treatment during an emergency incident, and can be immediately transported to specialist care at healthcare facilities across Wales and beyond

 The Service has relieved some pressure on frontline NHS emergency services. It has improved the time it takes for certain patients to be taken for a CT scan or emergency surgery. In addition, the Service has reduced timely and costly transfers between hospitals by taking patients directly to the appropriate specialist care

 The Service has supported the development of skills and knowledge in critical and emergency care for NHS Wales employees, both during emergency incidents and by organising regular training opportunities.
Police arrest man after midnight visit from Facebook internet justice group

This article is old - Published: Monday, Aug 14th, 2017

Keeping Kids Safe, a self proclaimed internet justice organisation Facebook live streamed their overnight visit to Wrexham at the weekend  a trip that resulted in the arrest of a local man.

Several live streamed videos were publicly broadcast of the attempted confrontation, the first being viewed over 44,000 times by Monday. The video broadcasts started around midnight and carried on through the early hours of Saturday morning.

Keeping Kids Safe stated: It was a 3 hour operation as he refused to answer the door to us and the police and forced entry was required.

DS Tony Underhill of North Wales Polices Paedophile Online Investigation Team said: Officers attended an address in Monger Road Wrexham in the early hours of Saturday August 12 where a man was arrested on suspicion of arranging or facilitating a child related sexual offence.

He has been released under investigation while enquiries continue.

So-called paedophile hunter groups often create fake online profiles as decoys to interact with specific people. Such profiles are often based around the concept of adults interacting with children, unbeknownst to them the children are not real.

Recently a test case had been heard to decide if such groups should be regulated, as two people caught via use of evidence gathered by such operations argued such methods diminished the integrity of the court process. The court decided that there was no legal requirement for the activities to be regulated.

Previously the Association of Chief Police Officers have commented on such groups: While these groups may often operate with the best of intentions, we do not encourage action of this kind, which can compromise ongoing investigations into paedophile networks, and could spark an abuser to further harm a child if they feel threatened.

One of our worst fears as a police service is that groups such as these are infiltrated by the very people they are trying to identify and as they have no formal vetting or security processes they simply cant guard against it.

As well as this, police often use covert methods  which for obvious reasons cannot be disclosed  to identify paedophiles, and vigilante operations by members of the public could unwittingly disrupt these investigations.

A Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) spokesperson has also commented on similar activities: While we understand the publics desire to protect their children from online abuse, we do not encourage vigilante investigations of this nature as they can compromise ongoing investigations into paedophile networks, and could spark an abuser to harm a child if they feel threatened.

Identifying alleged paedophiles is best left to the police and suspected incidents of online grooming can be reported to CEOP.

Anyone concerned about a childs safety should contact the police, the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000, CEOP on 0870 000 3344 or visit at www.ceop.police.uk
RACINE  House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is scheduled to host a town hall meeting in Racine next week, one which will have a live audience.

The town hall, scheduled to take place at 8 p.m. Aug. 21 at the Racine Theatre Guild, 2519 Northwestern Ave., is to be televised on CNN and anchored by CNNs Jake Tapper. According to a release from Ryans office, the speaker will take questions from his constituents and the release specifically highlighted the need for transformational tax reform as being a key topic for the event.

Im always looking for new opportunities to hear from with the people I work for here in the 1st District, said Ryan. Their priorities and concerns inform the work I do in Washington, and Im excited to continue the dialogue at this event.

According to the release, the town hall will air on CNN, CNN en Espanol, CNN International, and will be carried by CNNs SiriusXM Channel 116 and the Westwood One Radio Network. CNN will be in charge of attendance for the event and is inviting people of Wisconsins 1st Congressional District to fill the audience, although no specifics were released on how to RSVP for the event.

The Theatre Guilds website says its facility has 378 permanent seats with 14 spaces for wheelchairs or portable seating.

Ryan has been criticized by some for not holding live meetings with constituents. Among those being critical has been U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., who represents the Madison area. Pocan presided as a stand-in at a town hall meeting in Kenosha on July 8 organized by local Democrats.

Ryans Republican colleague, U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who represents parts of suburban Milwaukee, has held several live-audience meetings, sometimes enduring catcalls in the process.

Ryan, whose district includes all of Racine County, has held call-in town hall meetings. Ryans staff has cited security concerns as a reason for discontuining live town hall meetings.

As House speaker, he is second in line to the presidency after the vice president.
Venezuelas top military commanders claimed Sunday that the countrys armed forces had crushed an abortive coup staged by terrorists and mercenaries linked to the countrys right-wing opposition and foreign governments.

The reported coup attempt apparently involved little more than two dozen armed men who attempted to take over the strategic Paramacay military base of the 41st Armored Brigade in the central Venezuelan city of Valencia.

The alleged coup came a day after the newly convened constituent assembly voted to fire the countrys attorney general, Luisa Ortega, a long-time supporter of the ruling party who had publicly challenged the legitimacy of the election for the assembly held last Sunday.

Ortega had earlier prosecuted members of the security forces for acts of repression carried out during anti-government demonstrations organized by the right-wing opposition. Four months of protests have left over 100 dead, nearly 2,000 wounded and more than 500 detained. A significant number of those killed have been members of the security forces, as elements of the extreme right have employed increasingly violent methods.

After the constituent assembly voted for Ortegas removal, armed members of the national guard surrounded her offices in downtown Caracas, blocking her when she tried to enter the building.

Ortega has charged that the real reason for her firing was that she was pursuing cases against members of President Nicolas Maduros ruling PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) for illicit links to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. The company has admitted to paying $98 million worth of bribes to secure contracts in Venezuela, and Ortega had indicted the wife and mother of a former government minister last month in connection with these schemes.

In the same session in which the assembly voted for Ortegas ouster, Diosdado Cabello, a powerful member of the PSUVs leadership and former military officer, announced that the body would remain in session for two years. A constituent assembly called into session through a referendum convened by Maduros late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, had a life span of only four months.

The leader of the alleged coup attempt in Valencia was identified as Juan Carlos Caguaripano, a former captain in the national guard who was cashiered in 2014 after making public declarations against the government. He subsequently appeared on CNNs Spanish language network denouncing Maduro and reportedly went into exile in the US.

Appearing Sunday in a YouTube video with about a dozen men in camouflage uniforms, some armed with automatic weapons, Caguaripano declared: This is not a coup detat. This is a civic and military action to re-establish constitutional order. But more than that, it is to save the country from total destruction.

Conflicting accounts of the military action included claims that elements within the armored brigade supported the action before it was put down by forces loyal to the government. The government claimed that the armed group was immediately suppressed by the troops.

According to a communique released by the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the captured gunmen admitted to having been recruited by elements of the Venezuelan extreme right acting in conjunction with foreign governments.

There were also reports of a small number of civilian demonstrators coming out into the streets near the military base to support the uprising before they were driven off by security forces using tear gas and rubber bullets.

Others in Valencia, however, were quoted by the local media as expressing the opinion that the entire affair had been staged by the government to divert growing popular anger.

Similar reactions were expressed in late June when a former police captain and part-time movie actor seized a helicopter and dropped grenades on the Venezuela supreme court building.

Whatever the case, the Maduro government is extremely sensitive to the threat of unrest within the military, which has served as its principal pillar since Chavez, a former paratrooper colonel who led an unsuccessful coup, was first elected to power in 1999. Current and former officers fill roughly a third of the governments cabinet posts and comprise nearly half of the countrys governors.

The latest developments unfolded as the White House is reportedly considering the imposition of more sweeping sanctions against the government of Maduro, whom members of the Trump cabinet have branded as a dictator. The US government has imposed sanctions against Maduro personally, making him only the fifth sitting head of state to receive such treatment. The other four include Iraqs Saddam Hussein and Libyas Muammar Gaddafiboth assassinatedand Syrias Bashar al-Assad and North Koreas Kim Jong Unboth targeted for war and regime change.

While more sweeping economic sanctions had been proposed, the crisis and shake-up in the Trump White House have delayed the measures. White House chief of staff John Kelly, a recently retired Marine general and former head of the US Southern Command, which oversees US military operations in Latin America, reportedly wants to personally direct the escalation of US aggression against Venezuela.

The other issue is that the imposition of sanctions against Venezuelan oil, the main economic lever at hand for US imperialism, would be a two-edged sword. Last year, the US imported some $10 billion worth of Venezuela crude oil to feed American refineries. While a cutoff of these imports would likely force Venezuelas state-owned oil company PDVSA into default and further sink the countrys already plummeting economy, it would also spell higher gasoline prices in the US itself.

The imposition of US economic sanctions would mean a further deterioration in the living standards of the Venezuelan working class. Lack of oil revenues would mean even less ability to import basic necessities like food and medicine. Seventy-five percent of Venezuelans reported losing an average of 19 pounds in 2016 due to widespread food scarcity, and the countrys infant and maternal mortality rates soared during the same year, by 30 and 65 percent respectively.

In the last year, the countrys currency, the bolivar, has lost 94 percent of its value on the exchange market, drastically reducing the real wages of Venezuelan workers, even as the so-called boliburguesia, the capitalist layer that, together with the military, forms the principal base of support for the Maduro government, has enriched itself off of currency speculation and manipulation.
A recent study published by JAMA Psychiatry found large increases in diagnosed alcohol use disorders and abuse, with one in eight Americans suffering from alcohol abuse. According to the researchers, substantial increases in alcohol use, high-risk drinking, and DSM-IV alcohol use disorder constitute a public health crisis and portend increases in chronic disease in the United States, especially among women, older adults, racial/ethnic minorities, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

The study compares data gathered between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, showing 12-month alcohol use increasing from 65.4 percent to 72.7 percent of Americans. High-risk drinkingdefined as more than an average of four drinks a day, at least once a week for a yearincreased from 9.7 percent to 12.6 percent. The data suggests that nearly 30 million Americans suffer from some form of alcohol abuse.

The sharp increases in alcohol abuse among particular segments of the population found by the JAMA study paint an even more grim picture. While the rise in alcohol abuse in women (84 percent) and African-Americans (92.8 percent) causes alarm, the rise in alcohol abuse by individuals over 65 (106.7 percent) paints a clearer portrayal of the situation. These are individuals who have lived long enough to experience the gradual decline of living standards in the United States. The workers who remember times of relative prosperity are most affected by the crisis of American society.

The most compelling explanations for the rise in alcohol consumption point to the fall in alcohol prices coupled with a decline in access to addiction treatment services. A 2016 Surgeon General report stated that only 10 percent of people suffering from drug abuse receive specialty treatment, a statistic obviously correlated with the lack of access to health care.

A 2013 study published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimated that one drink per day of the cheapest brand of spirits cost the typical person 4.46 percent of their disposable income in 1950, but just 0.29 percent in 2011. This trend is similar among beer and wine.

Coupled with the ongoing opioid crisis, the latest research on alcohol abuse exposes the diseased nature of American society.

Medical professionals argue that the increase in deaths of despair (alcohol-related deaths, drug overdoses, and suicides) reflect deep issues in American society. Essentially, Americans are increasingly turning to drugs and alcohol, and in some cases suicide, to self-medicate.

According to reports from the National Center of Health Statistics, more than 500,000 Americans died from drug overdose between 2000 and 2015. In the same timeframe deaths involving direct health complications from alcohol rose from about 20,000 per year to over 33,000. Furthermore, an analysis of 2006-2010 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that alcohol is linked to approximately 88,000 deaths a year.

The staggering number of deaths is a result of the catastrophic decline in living standards and the loss of decent paying jobs for millions of Americans. Studies earlier this year revealed that the real wages of workers have been on the decline for the last four decades.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis the Obama administration oversaw the implementation of austerity measures wherein billions of dollars were redirected into Wall Street, at the expense of social programs. While President Donald Trump and economists hail an official unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, the real unemployment rate is 8.6 percent and the labor force participation rate remains at historic lows.

What is the American ruling class solution to this public health crisis? It was not until late last week that President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency, stating that the opioid crisis is an emergency, and I am saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. Its a national emergency were going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had.

If a significant amount of funding is actually allocated in attempts to combat the crisis, one can expect it go towards funding police forces and escalating the war on drugs. Last week Trump proposed that the best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place.

It was only a few years ago that President Barack Obama and the Democrats were portraying the implementation of the Affordable Care Act as a progressive measure that would improve the quality and access to health care for millions of Americans.

However, these studies reveal the reactionary character of the legislation popularly known as Obamacare. Access to health care has not improved for the working class, and 28.5 million Americans are still without health insurance.

A study issued on July 31 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that uninsured people were twice as likely as those with health insurance to report prescription opioid misuse and also had higher rates of use disorders. Proposed cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, and other social programs will only exacerbate the issue.

The refusal and inability of the American ruling class to seriously address the social crisis spells further trouble for the working class. Both big business parties are committed to attacking democratic rights and clawing back the gains won by the working class over decades of bitter struggle.

While the Democrats are adamantly pursuing neo-McCarthyite allegations that Trump is in cahoots with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to reorient foreign policy towards war with Russia, they are ignoring the health crisis ravaging the American population and begging the Republicans to let them assist in fixing Obamacare.
After three weeks of struggle between the security staff at Barcelonas El Prat airport and the private contractor Eulen, and ahead of an indefinite strike slated to begin today, the Popular Party (PP) government has sent the Guardia Civil paramilitary police to break the strike.

Yesterday, the security workers voted to reject demands from the regional Generalitat government to end the strike and decided to continue the walkout despite the threat from the Guardia Civil.

Last Thursday, the Spanish government said it would take all necessary measures to guarantee security and public order at El Prat. On Friday, Public Works Minister Inigo de la Serna announced that the government would be sending the Guardia Civil to El Prat to man the security scanners. The minister reproached the workers for being inflexible, saying they had shown zero willingness to reach an agreement. De la Serna added that it was necessary to deploy the Guardia Civil because Spain was on terror alert level four (on an ascending scale of one to five).

After the announcement of the vote to continue the strike, de la Serna said he would immediately send the strike to binding arbitration. A law of dubious constitutionality passed in 1977, the final year of the fascist regime established by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, allows the government to take all necessary measures to crush any strike action that continues in opposition to the results of arbitration.

After the vote, workers stressed that they had a right to strike, as guaranteed under the 1978 Constitution. Purificacion Infante, a member of the strike committee, said, I see now that they are working very hard to crush a strike, which is a constitutional right we have.

Spains PP government, like its European counterparts, is using laws passed under the pretext of preventing terror attacks to suppress workers struggles, setting the stage for wider attacks on democratic rights. This is only the latest incidence of armed units being deployed against strikes and protests in Europe, the most prominent being the massive mobilization of French riot police last year against youth and workers protesting the Socialist Party governments unpopular labor law.

The 350 Eulen security guards in Barcelona, who operate scanners, control queues and search passengers, are striking against poverty-level wages and poor working conditions.

They blame AENA, the 51 percent state-owned airport management firm, for awarding a 23 million airport security contract a year ago to Eulen, the lowest bidder for the contract. Last year, Eulen had profits of 14 million, 65 percent higher than the year before. The families of Nunez Feijoo, the current premier of the region of Galicia, and former Interior Minister Mayor Oreja, both of the PP, are controlling shareholders in Eulen, which has contract awards at 27 airports.

Under the previous contractor in Barcelona, Prosegur, employees earned some 1,300 a month. With Eulen, workers transferred from Prosegur make 1,100, while new workers earn only 800 or 900. Employees are forced to work overtime for 8 an hour to make up the difference, sometimes working up to 16 hours straight.

In addition to demanding better wages, workers are calling for a further 50 security staff to be hired.

Last week, workers rejected Eulens offer to hire at most 21 new employees and increase wages by 155 a month. They also rejected the Catalan regional governments arbitration proposal of an increase of 200 a month, voting instead by a large majority to support their own proposal of 250.

If the unpopular minority PP government sends in the Guardia Civil, it will be because it has been emboldened by the role of the unions, Catalan separatists and pseudo-left forces. The unions are isolating and wearing down strikes in the sector, under conditions where strike calls are spreading to other airports, including Madrid and Galicia.

The CCOO (Workers Commissions), UGT (General Union of Workers) and USO (Union of Workers Syndicates) have sent a letter to AENA threatening to call strikes if they dont receive a response to their demands. However, to make sure that this does not affect the profitability of the airports and the tourism sector, they have called for strike action at the beginning of the low tourist season and on different days. According to their strike notice, their intention is call strike action on September 15, 17, 22, 24 and September 29; October 1, 6, 11, 15, 27, 30 and 31; November 3 and 5; and December 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30.

The Catalan nationalists claim that an independent Catalonia would increase living standards in the region. They aim to hold a referendum on independence on October 1, which the PP has sworn to stop by any means. They joined Madrid in attacking the striking workers.

The regional government has offered the national government use of the Catalan regional police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to help the Guardia Civil break the strike.

Jordi Turull, the regional governments spokesperson, said that the Guardia Civil surely will do more work at the airport, at the service of citizens, than looking for or chasing ballot boxesa reference to Madrids threat to use the Guardia Civil to stop the secessionist referendum. Turull also attacked workers for not compromising, threatening that if you want everything, you end up losing everything.

Gabriel Rufian, the spokesman in the Spanish parliament for the separatist ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), tweeted: It is bad luck that the security company of the sister of Nunez Feijoo works at 27 airports and goes on strike only in Barcelona, suggesting that the PP is using the strike as an attack on Catalonia.

Barcelonas Podemos-backed mayor, Ada Colau, has come out in defence of Guarda Civil strike-breaking on the grounds that they are not substituting workers, and right now what we need is to guarantee security above anything else.

Colaus reactionary role in the strike exposes Podemos anti-working class character and the bankruptcy of all those who claimed that Podemos represented an alternative to the Spanish Socialist Party and who assisted in the rise of Podemos and Colau. The mayor illustrates what workers in Spain would face should a left government involving Podemos come to power.

In last years metro strike, Colau called on the unions to withdraw the strike threat as a precondition for talks, insisting a strike was not in the general public interest and that budgetary constraints meant the city could not make a better offer. The so-called mayor of change also used city police to target for dispersal, arrest and deportation migrant workers who earn a living by street vending.

Workers and youth must defend the Barcelona security workers, oppose strike-breaking by the armed forces, and prepare to mobilize in a broader political struggle against the Catalan authorities and the PP government in Madrid.
Rescue Under Fire, originally released in Spanish in March as Zona Hostil (Hostile Zone), is a defence of Spanish militarism. It whitewashes Madrids participation in the Afghan war and glorifies the armed forces.

Rescue Under Fire is directed by Adolfo Martinez Perez, who has worked on The Jungle Book, Alien Resurrection, Terminator Salvation and Oblivion. Martinez Perez has done for Spanish imperialism what some of his US counterparts have accomplished with such jingoistic works as Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and American Sniper (2014).

Rescue Under Fire has received the full support of the Spanish armed forces, which provided military equipment, advisors, training and locations. The storyline is inspired by an article in the military magazine Ejercito (Army). Without embarrassment, the director declared, This film could not have been made without their collaboration.

The films premiere received ecstatic reviews. El Espanol wrote, Spain does not have a tradition of war films, much less so of military cinema. But the display made by this film  transforms Spanish soldiers into heroes. It is a film that praises the patriotic spirit and the work of its military in war missions, it gushed.

Novelist and former RTVE war correspondent Arturo Perez-Reverte welcomed the film, saying how something so normally recounted in Rescue Under Fire is so rare in Spanish cinema  it is sad and absurd to go to the cinema and see and envy what the Americans and British explain. It is comforting to see the Spanish flags carried so naturally, Perez-Reverte added.

Rescue Under Fire is based on the rescue in Afghanistan in August 2012 of the crew of a medical helicopter, which broke down while helping US/United Nations troops under Spanish command. It focuses on the effort of Commander Ledesma (Antonio Garrido) to retrieve the helicopter.

The film never tries to explain the background to the invasion of Afghanistan: the attempt of the US and its allies to transform the country into a permanent base of operations to extend its hegemony over the adjacent energy-rich region of Central Asia. In the words of Martinez Perez, This is a story not about politicians who declare war, but about soldiers who fight and can die in these battles. I have not done a political analysis. Just a human portrait.

As elsewhere, the mantra of no politics is a justification for defending the status quo and whitewashing its crimes.

Martinez Perezs attempt at giving us a human portrait, in any event, is very poor. The characters are stereotypes. Even one of Spains best actors, Ariadna Gil, is incapable of injecting much life into her empty characterthe medic Captain Varela.

Lieutenant Conte (Raul Merida), who leads the squad to rescue the helicopter, is the son of a general. Yes, youve guessed ithe is struggling to live up to his fathers legacy. There theres Sergeant Aguilar (Jacobo Dicenta), Spains answer to Rambo: headscarf, toothpick in his mouth and a big rifle. He constantly questions Contes orders, demanding he be more ruthless. At one point he tells Conte to kill an unarmed teenagerGive me the order lieutenant, make my day! Of course, the boy is later revealed to be working with the Taliban. Rambo was right all along.

To complete the stereotypes we have the rookie, accident-prone medic Sanchez (Ingrid Garcia) on her first mission, who inevitably hardens up in the end, and the Afghan translator who finds safety in exile (in Barcelona, naturally) after the wicked Taliban kill his family.

There is nothing resembling real human emotion. At no point do the soldiers question why they are at war or why the insurgents are resisting them. There is not a hint of fear as they are surrounded and attacked by forces which vastly outnumber them.

Without any fanfare, Conte recites to his men on radio the Spanish Foreign Legions Hymn to Death: To die in combat is the greatest honour, you dont die more than once, death comes without pain and death isnt as terrible as it sounds. The worst thing is living like a coward.

This is the song written by the legions fascist psychopathic founder, Jose Millan-Astray (1879-1954), described as the person who institutionalized and evangelized the brutal and brutalizing values which [dictator Francisco] Franco fought for and won in the Spanish Civil War (Paul Preston, Las Tres Espanas del 36, Barcelona: Plaza & Janes, 1998).

Rescue Under Fire ends with a dedication to the members of the armed forces who died in international missions.

The glorification of the military is a response to the growing inter-imperialist tensions and the drive to war, which have been intensified by the installation of an aggressively nationalist and protectionist administration in the US.

Spains ruling elite has sought to protect its national interests by promoting a culture of defence. The 2015 National Security Law states that the government will promote the culture of defence that favours the active involvement of society in its preservation and guarantee To this end, the Government will implement actions and plans aimed at increasing the knowledge and awareness of society about the requirements of National Security, the risks and threats likely to jeopardize it.

Rescue Under Fire is an attempt to promote the culture of defence among a population long hostile to the army for the crimes it perpetrated during the Civil War and Franco dictatorship. More recently, in 2004, Popular Party Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, was forced from office largely as a result of his support for the Iraq War and his Socialist Party successor Jose Luis Zapatero was forced to withdraw Spains troops.

The ruling class sought to counter this sentiment and clean up the militarys image in the 1980s and 1990s, while integrating Spain in the main structures of post-war European capitalism: the European Union and NATO. It ended unpopular conscription, banned the military from making public political statements and allowed women to serve.

One of the leading actors in Rescue Under Fire, Ismael Martinez, revealed the impact of this clean-up operation on layers of the petty-bourgeoisie. He said that though he once belonged to the anti-conscription Insumiso movement, today, I realized that the work of the military is totally worthy of respect. There is a great separation between the military and the civilians, and we forget that the Army is there to support and defend us.

Key to consolidating the culture of defence has been branding military intervention as humanitarianin Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya and Syriaby the Stalinists and pseudo-left groups. The United Left worked for decades to disarm the traditional opposition of the working class to militarism by promoting such humanitarian wars. Podemos has followed suit, so that former Chief of Staff Jose Rodriguez, who commanded Spanish forces in NATO as it destroyed Libya in 2011, is now Podemos shadow Minister of Defence.

Despite such efforts, there is a broad consensus that the army should not participate in wars and defence expenditure must be slashed. Only 16.3 percent would fight voluntarily for their country, a figure that has been decreasing year after year.

For the ruling elite, such sentiments have become intolerable. As one academic close to the military, Jose Jimenez, concludes, Spanish governments have to make an effort to communicate the importance of our action abroad in areas such as defense and security, and the risks that are assumed...

Foreign missions are not exclusively of peace and humanitarian aid in neutral scenarios. In terms of economic interests, there might be occasions when sending military contingents to scenarios where one of the components is the control, direct or indirect, of resources in the Middle East. (Jose L. Rodriguez Jimenez, Las misiones en el exterior de las Fuerzas Armadas de Espana, Alianza Editorial, 2010, p. 410.)

By excluding any reference to such considerations, Martinez Perez becomes an apologist and propagandist for nationalism, militarism and war.
One day after the Nazi rampage in Charlottesville, Virginiawhich left one dead and 19 injuredthousands of people participated in protests and vigils throughout the US to oppose fascist violence. Similar demonstrations are planned this week.

In Seattle, Washington, protests were held in opposition to a far-right demonstration that was scheduled to take place in Westlake Park. Joey Gibsonwho is associated with the Oregon-based group Patriot Prayerorganized the so-called Freedom Rally. In the past, Gibson, a Trump supporter, has compared Islam with the Ku Klux Klan. He also organized two protests in Seattle earlier this year that resulted in fighting between anti-fascist groups and Patriot Prayer members.

While the counter-protest yesterday was predominantly peaceful, Seattle police took advantage of minor skirmishes to retaliate against left-wing protesters. This included police in full SWAT body armor using tear gas against protesters.

Police also tweeted pictures of alleged weapons used by left-wing protesters and carried out several arrests. As of Sunday night, police had not disclosed how many people were arrested.

The counter-protest in Seattle, with about 1,000 people, was roughly five times the size of the right-wing demonstration.

The protests elsewhere in the US were mostly called by Democratic Party-affiliated organizations, but attracted a broader layer. Those attending expressed their solidarity with the victims in Charlottesville and voiced their opposition to the Trump administration.

Many expressed hostility to the entire political establishment.

Rick, who attended a vigil in Ferndale, Michigan, said, They have to have an enemy, and rather than having an enemy thats wealthy and powerful, they pit us against each other.

In the '70s they had social unrest and so there was democratization. The youth went out and said we need voting rights and want to oppose the war. Events since have eroded those gains, and we havent had a mass movement to claw things back from the rich and powerful. Maybe Trumps actions will create that movement.

Andrew attended the protest in New York. The events in Charlottesville are a really sad thing to see, he said. I was also surprised to see this in Virginia. That is where many of the Founding Fathers were from, and you would hope that it would uphold that democracy is for everyone.

The rhetoric in the last election clearly empowered these people to say what they would not normally let them say. The president has made them feel like they can do this now.

Eliza, a production assistant in New York, said, I felt the need to have my voice heard, and so I came out here. Im really terrified at how separated the country has become. I really believe that there should be equality and freedom for everyone, and anything against freedom is the antithesis of America.

In this the two sides just dont have equal weight for their arguments. I was glad to see a lot of Republican Congressman speaking out against the attack, but I wasnt surprised by Trumps response.

Following some discussion about the mass dissatisfaction with the entire political system, she added, Ive always been a politically active person, but I see that a lot of people arent. There is a lot of corruption in politics and many areas of this country have been abandoned. We need politicians that are acknowledging the problems.

Abei, who attended a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said, I am firm believer in equality. I have only been in the US for a week but Im interested in this because similar things are happening everywhere. I come from India and have lived in Australia, and you see attacks on immigrants and racism there as well. Far-right parties too.

After some discussion with a WSWS reporter, he added, I suppose I support the Democrats, but only because there is no other choice really. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, other places, and even under the Obama regime. It just seems like even with all that, there is no way out of this, between those two war crime parties.
MOUNT PLEASANT  The Mount Pleasant Police Department and the House of Harley Davidson-Racine have teamed up for the inaugural Cruizin for the COPS House motorcycle ride this weekend.

Starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, motorcyclists will meet at the popular bike shop, 1155 Oakes Road, Mount Pleasant, and begin a police-guided tour route throughout Racine County starting at 10 a.m.

Participants will be given a gift bag with treats along the route. The riders are scheduled to make two stops prior to arriving at about 2:30 p.m. at the final destination, the Route 20 Outhouse, 14001 Washington Ave., Yorkville. Thats where organizers are planning additional activities, including a buffet, live music and raffles for the riders and the public.

Those who would like to participate in the motorcycle ride can preregister online at www.houseofharley.com, or stop in at the House of Harley Davidson-Racine or House of Harley Davidson-Milwaukee, 6221 West Layton Ave., Greenfield.

Prices are $30 for a rider and $40 for a rider with a passenger. This price includes a goody bag and tickets for the dinner buffet.

For those who want only a ticket for the buffet, the cost is $10.

About the COP house

All proceeds from the ride will go toward supporting the Mount Pleasant Police Departments Lakeside COP (community oriented policing) house, 2237 Mead St., and the programs run there.

The purpose of the COP house is to allow assigned officers to work closely with the Lakeside neighborhood, south of 21st Street and north of the former Case plant site, to address concerns of residents. Through interaction with the residents, officers gain information on crime trends, quality of life concerns and the needs of the community allowing for program development to help the neighborhood.

The COP house was completed and opened its doors in early 2015, thanks to funding from SC Johnson and the Racine Community Foundation. Two officers are currently staffed at the house throughout the week at varying times.

Those who would like to speak to the assigned officers can contact them at 262-664-7946. Residents can also follow the progress of the COP house and events on the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mppdmeadcop.
STATESVILLE, NC (WBTV) - A Statesville family is taking issue with the way Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center handled their deceased daughter's personal items.

Relatives say on April 30th, Leslie Rogers was rushed to the hospital in Winston Salem with a gunshot wound to the head. She died later that day.

"I was there the whole day," Leslie's mother, Michele Rogers says. "I specifically asked  did she have anything? and they said she had not come in with nothing. Of course we knew they would throw those clothes away. They were cut off of her."

Last week - three months after their daughter's death - the Rogers family received a phone call from a hospital worker who wanted to know if the family wanted their daughter's belongings.

"I asked them what they were," says Leslie's father, Mark Rogers. "They replied they don't know. They asked me for an address that they can ship them to so I gave them my address. We received a box."

Mr. Rogers says he was at work when the package arrived and his wife opened it.

"I opened it. The smell floored me," Mrs Rogers said. "Ive never smelled nothing like that."

She says she immediately took the box outside, went back inside to get gloves before opening the box.

Her daughter's clothes - stained with blood and tissue from the bullet wound - were inside a regular plastic bag - not a biomedical bag. They say some other small items such as keys were also inside.

"I dont understand. It was like a prank had been pulled," Mrs Rogers told WBTV. "Why would somebody send that to a parent so long after losing their child?"

"My wife calls me and starts crying," he said. "They shipped me the bloody clothes from my daughter that they cut off of in the emergency room."

Mr. Rogers says he doesn't understand why hospital staff did that. He wants to know if it's standard procedure.

"Im angry because no parent should ever receive their kids bloody clothes that they died in," he said. "Were still grieving over our child and it was a surprise to get a box that had her bloody clothes cut off her body."

"I just want to know if this is normal to ship a grieving family the clothes that their daughter got killed in," Mr Rogers told WBTV. "I think it was untasteful and wrong."

The parents say they contacted the hospital but have yet to get an answer.

"If anything policy should be changed, something should be done to where they know what theyre sending people, that they can make aware whats been sent and the manner that theyre sending it in," Mrs Rogers said. "Nobody should have to go through that. No one."

WBTV contacted Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. A spokesperson said the hospital will get back to us.

Copyright 2017 WBTV. All rights reserved.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Virginia State Trooper who died in a helicopter crash on Saturday has ties to the Capital City.

Berke Bates started his career at FHP in August of 1998 at the training academy in Tallahassee.

He worked out of the FHP Tallahassee office for a year, but spent the majority of his service in Palm Beach County.

He left FHP in January 2004 before transferring to Virginia.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Bates and pilot Lieutenant Jay Cullen were killed when their helicopter crashed into a wooded area while monitoring civil unrest occurring in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a large protest.

The helicopter had taken off to monitor the Virginia governor's motorcade after he arrived in the area. The helicopter then experienced some sort of issue before crashing into the trees, becoming engulfed in flames.

Today, President Donald Trump directly targeted those who preach and support racism and bigotry.

Trump added anyone who acted criminally in this past weekend's violence in Charlottesville will be held "fully accountable".
GEORGETOWN, OH (FOX19) - Some teachers and staff members will be armed when Georgetown Exempted Village students return to class next week,

The school district adopted a resolution to allow certified teachers and staff members to carry concealed guns.

The resolution says armed personnel would discretely carry weapons while on duty at school and provide a stronger level of security without disrupting students and staff.

Superintendent Christopher Burrows said there's overwhelming support for the program among the Georgetown community. The board unanimously voted in favor of the resolution in April.

Teachers and staff who are authorized to carry weapons must maintain a concealed carry license issued by the State of Ohio and undergo training with the Georgetown Police department.

A grant covers the cost of training and the district will pay $1,500 for practice ammunition.

The armed employees are volunteers whose identities will not be disclosed, the board said.

Georgetown Exempted Village Schools are located in Brown County. About 1,100 students are enrolled in the elementary school and junior and senior high schools.

Copyright 2017 WXIX. All rights reserved.
FLORIDA (WMBB/ABC) - As the summer winds down and the water temperature rises, rip currents grow stronger and become more of a hazard for swimmers.

Around 1:45 Friday afternoon, double red flags went up on Panama City Beach signaling that no one is allowed in the water. The Bay County Sheriff's Office alone responded to 22 calls of swimmers in distress, and the Panama City Beach Police Department responded to 23.

Bay County Sheriff's Office Major Ricky Ramie said the best way to keep yourself safe is to follow the flags.

"Pay attention to the flag system. As soon as we can let our swimmers in the water, that is our goal... to go back to a single red and hopefully yellow eventually but for the next 24 to 48 hours we're gonna have low pressure in the gulf which is stirring it up," said Major Ricky Ramie.

If you are trapped in a rip current it is best to swim parallel to the shore and try to not swim against it.
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Two people are dead after a car crash in Valdosta.

It happened just before 5:00 p.m. Saturday on U.S. 41 near Twin Lakes Road. According to Georgia State Patrol, 19-year-old Cody Browning was driving his truck east when he failed to yield for an SUV driving north.

Troopers say the other driver, 26-year-old Kasey Wright, was hit by Browning's truck. Wright then hit the median and overturned, ejecting both Wright and passenger Lee Neesmith. Troopers say neither one was wearing a seat belt.

Wright was pronounced dead at the scene and Neesmith was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Troopers say Browning and his two passengers were not injured in the crash. Troopers do not suspect alcohol or drugs to be a factor, but a toxicology report is pending.
TOWN OF PARIS  The three Illinois men assassinated in a triple homicide Sunday night at Great Lakes Dragaway were all members of a gang, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said during a Monday afternoon press conference at the drag strip just outside Union Grove.

The three victims were identified as David L. Watson, 30, of Oswego, Ill.; Khalid R. Howard, 30, of Aurora, Ill.; and Derek K. Edwards, 26, of North Aurora, Ill. They were shot at about 7 p.m. Sunday outside a vendors booth at the drag strip, 18411 First St. (Highway KR).

While it is not confirmed if the killings were gang-related, evidence available thus far strongly indicates that it was, Beth said.

The fact that all three belonged to a gang, Beth explained, and they all seem to be quite well-known by gang officers in other locations where they come from leads me to believe this was gang-related.

According to Beth, the shooter approached the three victims while they were going up to a food vendor and shot them at point-blank range.

He had enough time and enough arrogance to actually go back up and make sure they were dead, Beth said. The suspect ran through the crowd extremely fast.

Edwards and Howard died on the scene, and Watson died while being transported to the hospital.

Simeon Handy, Watsons longtime friend and former teammate on the high school basketball team at West Aurora High School, took issue with the sheriffs comments about gang affiliation. Handy said Watson didnt live the life of a gang member.

He was a devoted father. His parents were pastors. He grew up in a church, Handy said. He was a co-owner of a landscaping business.

Handy said Watson went to the Dragaway that day to see a race.

His best friend was one of the participants, Handy said. Im still searching for clarity. Its devastating.

Asked if the he was disparaging the victim of the shooting by pointing out his gang affiliation without hard evidence that it is a gang-related shooting, Beth said I have no issue with that.

Family members of the victims were not cooperative at all with the entire investigation, Beth said.

Suspected shooter

The suspect is believed to be a black man in his mid-20s wearing either a black hoodie or white T-shirt, with hair shaved on the sides of his head and grown out at the top. He was reportedly seen fleeing on foot through a crowd and may have left the Dragaway in a black vehicle, Beth said.

The murder weapon has not been located.

The shooting scene was processed until 4 a.m. Monday. It took hours to clear the scene of an estimated 15,000 patrons who were attending the Larrys Funfest event on Sunday, Beth said, adding that he was unsure why the gunman chose Great Lakes Dragaway for the shooting.

I dont know if this is retaliation, I dont know if this is a family trouble  I really dont know, Beth said. The only thing Im positive of is the three people that are dead were involved with a gang in Illinois.

Neighbors react

Some Yorkville residents who live near the Dragaway along Highway KR, the border between Yorkville and Paris, called on the track owners to bring Larrys Funfest to an end.

Besides that one event, we dont have a problem, Yorkville resident Chris Thomack said. This one event draws the riffraff crowd of troublemakers. We knew it was going to bad, (but) not this bad.

His neighbor, Jamie Lindemann, agrees and wants the event shut down.

Its unsettling, Lindeman said. With that particular event there is more garbage thrown in the street. Im concerned more gang members are coming here for this particular event.

Organizers of Larrys Funfest and management from Great Lakes Dragaway could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Anyone with information or video of the incident is asked to contact the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department at 262-605-5100.
A year ago, economic forecasters at home and abroad bet on the sharp depreciation of the renminbi, or the yuan, in 2017 due to a flagging economy and U.S. rate hikes. But the Chinese currency roaring back in past months has proven them wrong.
Outspoken WSU researcher says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
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A major public outcry broke out last week after Palestinian Authority security forces detained five journalists working for Hamas-affiliated media outlets, including Al-Quds TV, while several other journalists were detained for questioning and asked about their recent social media posts.

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The journalists were arrested under a new law according to which sites that criticize the Palestinian Authority, its ruling party Fatah or the PA President Mahmoud Abbas will be closed.

Demonstration demanding the release of journalists who were arrested in the West Bank

The new law was passed after about two months ago rumors began circulate that Abbas has died. The rumors quickly spread and forced Abbas to go out to the streets of Ramallah with a camera crew to document him talking to the surprised residents to prove that he is alive and in good health.

An investigation by the security services revealed that the source of the rumor was people that wanted to create disinformation and confusionthrough social mediaabout the situation of the 82-year-old chairman .The name of his rival, Mohammed Dahlan , also emerged as one of those responsible for disseminating the false information.

As a result, the Palestinian Authority decided to take a drastic step and pass a law against electronic crimes with the sole purpose of closing sites that criticize the PA, Fatah and Abbas.

The Palestinian attorney general denied that the move was intended to suppress protests and claimed that he was closing legal loopholes that had previously allowed criminals in the virtual space to evade punishment, but reality proved otherwise. Within a month, dozens of Palestinian sites were closed, most of them identified with Abbas' two main rivalsHamas and Dahlan.

"This law is one of the worst ones written since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994," said Amar Dweik, head of Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights. "This is a significant step back for freedoms in the West Bank."

Journalists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have for years complained of abuse by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza, who they claim infringe on freedom of the press. Abbas' office is careful not to respond to these accusations and has put that responsibility on the enforcement authorities and the Justice Ministry.

Above: Israeli reporters seen being friendly with Abbas, below: the jailed Palestinian journalists

On Saturday, the Palestinian security services announced that they were extending the detention of the aforementioned journalists because of the actions they carried out and their damage to the general security in the West Bank. The security forces linked the same acts to the connection of those journalists with Hamas.

However, arrests were also made against citizens who wrote articles criticizing Abbas, such as that of Emad al-Masri, a mid-level manager in the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Al-Masri used to criticize the sanctions imposed by Abbas on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and was subsequently arrested and sentenced to two years in prison, which were reduced to three months' imprisonment or a fine. "I think they intended to threaten and frighten me," said al-Masri after he was forced to pay a fine of $ 130.

Demand for free press in the Palestinian Authority

In Ramallah, demonstrations are held from time to time, calling for the release of imprisoned journalists. On social media, the hashtag "The press is not a crime" became viral.

Meanwhile, Israeli reporters who cover events in the Palestinian territories became scapegoats for the Palestinian journalists' union and the activists. The images of Israeli journalists are distributed on social networks as being protected by the Palestinian Authority, as opposed to Palestinian journalists who are currently suffering from abuse.
North Korea still does not appear to have mastered missile re-entry technology and will take at least one or two more years to do so, although its ability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead is advancing quickly, South Korea's vice defence minister said.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tensions in recent months. US President Donald Trump warned at the weekend that the US military was "locked and loaded" if North Korea acted unwisely, although top US officials said there was no imminent risk of a nuclear war.

"Both the United States and South Korea do not believe North Korea has yet completely gained re-entry technology in material engineering terms," Vice Defence Minister Suh Choo-suk said in remarks televised on Sunday for a Korea Broadcasting System show. "We don't feel they've reached that point yet but it's true they are approaching it. We can't pinpoint the exact timing, but it will take at least one to two more years," he said, adding that North Korea was likely to continue provocations, including nuclear tests, but he did not see a big risk of the North engaging in actual military conflict.
Israel Police arrested billionaire Beny Steinmetz, Bezeq telecommunications company Chairman David Granot and three other suspects on Monday, on suspicions of bribery, money laundering, forging and falsifying corporate documents, fraud, breach of trust and disruption of court proceedings. The FBI and Swiss police are also involved in the investigation.

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Following Granot's arrest, Bezeq reported to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and the Israel Securities Authority on Monday.

Bezeq's statement said that "from what the company (ie Bezeqed) has been informed, the investigation is not related to the company, nor is it related to the subjects under investigation by the Securities Authority regarding, which the company reported on on June 20th, 2017 and in subsequent reports."

Granot (Photo: Ofer Chen)

Bezeq's statement emphasized that the investigation concerning Granot is separate and unrelated to a previous investigation from June 20th known as "Case 4,000." This investigation, which is still ongoing, is looking into a possible conflict of interests between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tenure as communications minister, and his close ties with major Bezeq shaareholder, Shaul Elovitch.

The police reported it is investigating several suspects, who have allegedly worked with the main suspect in order to produce and present fictitious contracts and transactions, including real estate deals in a foreign country, for the purpose of money transfers and money laundering.

Steinmetz (Photo: Shirley Gabbai-Iluz)

Steinmetz, a Geneva-based diamond-mining magnate with an estimated worth of just over $1 billion according to Forbes, was arrested by Israeli authorities in December over allegations of bribing officials in the African country of Guinea to promote business interests there. He spent two weeks under house arrest at that time.

According to the suspicions, each of the parties involved is suspected of several different counts. Searches were conducted in their homes and in offices on Monday morning.

The current affair is seemingly relted to a previous affair in which Steinmetz was also involved. In the course of the investigation of the previous case, the police received information about the method in which the five suspects reported their fictitious transactions for the purpose of carrying out illegal money transfers.
You have the right to your day in court, as the saying goes. When it comes to civil matters, the Seventh Amendment declares it a constitutional right: In Suits at common law  the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.

Theres no circumstance under which you should obligated to waive your right to go to court to seek justice. Certainly not when that circumstance is the effort to get a loved one admitted to a nursing home. For that reason, were dismayed at President Donald Trumps administrations plan to do away with a rule, enacted by President Barack Obamas administration, that ensured nursing home clients right to litigate.

The Obama administration mandated that nursing homes which receive Medicaid or Medicare dollars were prohibited from including language in resident contracts requiring that disputes be settled by a third party rather than a court, TheHill.com reported Aug. 6. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced plans in June to do with that rule.

More than 75 consumer, health and advocacy groups have come together to form the Fair Arbitration Now Coalition to stop CMS from reversing what they claim is a critical protection for the elderly.

Remington Gregg, counsel for civil justice and consumer rights at Public Citizen, said the rule change is not only unnecessary, but shameful.

Gregg said the provisions, known to lawyers as pre-dispute arbitration agreements, create an unequal balance of power between the nursing home and its elderly patients or the family members caring for them.

When you are trying to get someone in a nursing home, often time its stressful or an emotional time. Often times loved ones cant take care of themselves, so for a nursing home to say in order to get in you have to waive your right is shameful, he said.

Were talking about everything you may have a problem with  abuse, neglect, sexual assault, a wide variety of things  they are now saying you are waiving your right to full justice.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing the rule change. The nations leading business group fought against the original rule, claiming that restricting arbitration would raise the cost of nursing home care and make it harder, and more costly, for residents to resolve disputes.

For many individual disputes, litigation in court is simply impractical. Litigation in court is procedurally complex, which means that non-lawyers need legal representation to have any hope of successfully navigating the system, the chamber said in 2015 comments to the agency it provided The Hill.

We find the Chambers view of individual disputes rather patronizing. While litigation, yes, may require legal representation and could become costly, the decision to enter into litigation lies with the individual patient and his or her family members. Adult Americans are free to avail themselves of the legal system any time, anywhere.

If your loved one were to have been abused or neglected, would you want him or her to have forfeited their rights as an American citizen before your their first day in the home?

We would hope that nursing homes and their clients could settle their disputes without litigation, that both parties could act reasonably in such situations.

But no one should have to waive the right to a day in court in the interest of long-term care. There is no statute of limitations on constitutional rights.
The Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Mohammed Abu Khadir, Abbas Salhi and Amro Ma'atuk, residents of east Jerusalem, who are accused of planning a shooting attack, assaulting policemen and stone throwing.

According to the indictment, in 2017, the defendants planned to carry out a shooting attack against Israeli vehicles traveling on the Nablus bypass road and placing explosive devices on it.

In addition, on several occasions, the defendants participated in riots and stone throwing at Israeli military forces.

The prosecution is requesting to detain the defendants until the end of legal proceedings against them.
Haim Aharon Yosefi, a leading ultra-Orthodox businessman and a member of the Lithuanian faction Degel HaTorah, was caught by a Yedioth Ahronoth journalist on Sunday. This after already being exposed Sunday in an investigation into his trafficking in newborn babies.

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This is not the first time Yosefi was detained over suspicions that he provided psychiatric exemptions from IDF service: six months ago, he was arrested and interrogated on suspicion of helping to exempt young Haredi men from military service for a fee.

Haim Aharon Yosefi

During his meetings with "Devorah Leah," the undercover investigator who presented herself as a young pregnant Haredi woman, Yosefi revealed a great deal of his work in the field. He described his method, spoke about his clients, and boasted that the police had not been able to obtain enough evidence to indict him.

"My father, like any normal ultra-Orthodox father, wanted me to get an exemption even though I had not been in the yeshiva since I was 16, so I was obligated to enlist," said Shlomi (not his real name, who spoke on condition of anonymity). "My father arranged a meeting with Yosefi and told me, 'I came to an agreement with him over NIS 15,000. If you do not go to him, so help me!'

"I waited in his office at Lev Shomea, and a few more men were waiting for him ahead of me. He explained to me how to play it crazy, and I told him, 'I'm not proud but I have some self-respect, I am not going to do anything like that.'

"Yosefi replied to me, 'If you want your prick to be used once (meaning to get marrieded), you have to do what I say.' He then continued to scold me, 'I did not ask you to go and cover yourself with pee. There are guys who do that to get an exemption.'

"He told me he would send me to a psychiatrist to build a story that would sound credible. He assured me that I had nothing to worry about, 'I will send you to the right people at the right times, and I will arrange everything for you.'

"I severed contacts with him eventually, but from my friends' stories I know for a fact that he has connections within the army."

'Everyone comes to me'

Doron Benamo, who was the Jerusalem District Police chief superintendent at the time, spoke the investigation against Yosefi, which was launched last February.

"There was a suspicion involving documents forgery and use. Some machers in the ultra-Orthodox sector would find recruits, take them to a psychiatrist, and for NIS 500-800 they would issue permits that they are not fit to serve in military because of a mental problem."

The police claimed that more than NIS 100,000 was found while seraching Yosefi's home, arranged in packages marked with names and other personal details. The investigation seemed to uncover that each client received a document attesting to various mental issues from which he allegedly suffered, and which he would submit in the course of his enlistment in the army.

The investigation included the testimony of several psychiatrists. The remands of Yosefi and another suspect were extended several times, and at the end of the interrogation they were released under restrictive conditions.

We won't cooperate with the army (Photo: Ido Erez)

"I'll tell you a secret," Yosefi said to Devorah Leah. "The biggest idiot sits in front of you. I had NIS 70,000. For six months year it was where only God and I knew where it was. (Thened) for six days it lay on the table in my living room. They searched the house, eight detectives, and found the money. I had explanations: I said that NIS 30,000 belonged to Itzik. I thought it was a given that they would turn to Itzik. But they did not do that.

"I said I was doing a lot of charity work. They asked, 'When your wife needs money, does she take it from the envelopes?' I understood what they were going for. I said that no way, it's for charity. If she needs any, she asks me for it. Because if it's for charity, how could I take from it.

"They tried to say, 'Oh, you did not report income.' I said, sorry, you're right, but I have not reported any expenses, either. They also found all sorts of papers, of psychiatrists. Thank God, it's over. "

What do you actually do? Tell them how to act crazy?

"I guide them on how to do it because I know how. I'm Familiar with all the details of the law. In all modesty, I am considered number one in the country in that respect. Then they suspected me of falsifying documents in order to exempt yeshiva students."

And they all really come to you?

"Everyone comes to me."

Then what?

"I help them see ... Today I am the number one professor in the world in dealing with these matters."

What do you mean 'in the world'? Does this not happen only in Israel?

"No, if for example the (Chabad) emissary in Katmandu or in Cyprus or in Russia comes to me. His son is an Israeli. I helped a rabbi in Russia who had trouble with his two children."

What do you do in most cases, arrange psychiatrists?

"Yes."

And they caught you?

"They suspected me."

What do you mean 'they suspect?' You say you did it.

"Look, you need proof. If, for example, someone killed someone, everyone knows that there is a living person here and a dead person there. Now the suspicion is that there is a connection between the murderer and the murdered. Then there is doubt whether I deliberately murdered, whether it was accidental, deliberate, coerced."

In short, they failed to prove a connection.

"I've been out of this nightmare for seven months now. They found a few documents, I spent 25 hours in interrogation, eight days in detention and another week under house arrest, and I had my version of the story. I told them that I'm just a consultant."

So that's it, it's over?

"I didn't hear from them for seven months now. Someone told me that the law says that if you do not interrogate me within 180 days, even if you want to file an indictment, there needs to be a hearing beforehand.

"Look, however it ends, it brought me closer to God. I sat for eight days (in detention). It was very hard for me. I sat in interrogations like Aryeh (Deri), but when I finished the interrogations I was crushed, confused, broken. Not from the conditions, but from the confusion of what they know and what they do not know. I was worried about that."

You lucked out.

"I hope I really did. They did not put any restrictions on me, I continue to do everything (I did before)."

'I am the state champion in deals'

Yossi (not his name, who also spoke on condition of anonymity), tried another Haredi businessman before reaching Yosefi.

He presented us with a serious psychiatric diagnosis given to him by a psychiatrist through the same anonymous businessman. However, the diagnosis did not help, and so Yossi eventually turned to Yosefi, who asked that he pay him NIS 7,000 in cash.

According to Yossi, when Yosefi took the money, he stressed that it was "for the needs of the family," a term repeated in other testimonies heard by Ynet.

"I came to the office as a normal guy," said Yossi, "the mental health officer told me that I was fit to enlist. Later, in a meeting with Yosefi, he inquired about which mental health officer spoke to me and arranged another meeting with her.

"A week later, she said I was fit for service. I met with her again and this time she she said I was not fit to serve, and that's how I was exempted."

Yosefi sits in his office at Lev Shomea, an arm of Lev L'Achima large organization of Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox Jewry, connected to the most prominent rabbis and politicians in the sector.

During the many hours the Yedioth Ahronoth investigator spent with him, Yosefi held talks with young people and their parents who approached him to help them avoid the draftboys or girls from the ultra-Orthodox, religious or secular sectors.

At some point, an interesting conversation took place. It deals with a well-known story, which even reached the courts, about a girl who sought to evade the mandatory draft by declaring herself to be religious, even though the IDF proved that she was not.

In the coming days, it turns out, she is supposed to receive her punishment, and her relatives have turned to Yosefi again to try and help. "Listen," he tells the person on the other end of the line, "she's going to sit (in jail) for 14 days, but even if she sits for 20 days, it's worth it."

When the long conversation ends, he sums up the story to Devorah Leah.

"I'll tell you, it's sad," he added. "A very beautiful girl whose mother is crazy. She came to me because I am familiar with the laws, said that her daughter is newly religious and does not want to enlist. I told her a hundred timethey're looking at her Facebook account and to be careful.

"I met her at Crown Plaza. A girl comes in with pants, from a secular school. Doesn't look like a classic ultra-Orthodox or a classic religious girl. You see by her appearance that she is on the fence (about religion)."

And what happened with that?

"Even though the mother is a lawyer, I drafted her letters. But then it turned out that in her meeting with the IDF, they revealed two pictures to her daughter: One in which she embraces a guy, and in the other one she is seen on a Friday night at a club or in a non-kosher restaurant."

Yosefi then calls back to the relative he was speaking with, and they try to find a solution. Yosefi is pessimistic this time, does not believe it's possible, and blames the mother for the mess. "There is nothing to do," he said to the person on the phone.

"I am the state champion in deals, but you do not understand how much they want her to go down for this. She managed to irritate everyone in the system. Forget it, we'll invest in this and the mother will say that we said her daughter's crazy. I'm not going anywhere near that mother."

Minutes passed, and a secular couple whose son was arrested by the IDF as a deserter entered the office.

Yosefi gives them a demonstration, explains the procedures to them and shows them all the tricks. "I offered to arrange a confirmation letter for them as if he is repeating ... the 12th grade," he said. "It's impossible to recruit someone who is in high school. So yes, he already finished high school and has to be drafted, but if he needs to repeat the 12th grade, he cannot be recruited. Maybe in a year. And in another year he will suddenly say (he has become religious). They are not going to know that the approval for repeating the grade is for a religious school."

And so it went on at each of his meetings. Telephone calls, brief visits. From time to time he switched from his cell phone to the landline at his office, a lesson from the investigation that is still being conducted against him. He prefers to be careful, even though he reveals it all to Devorah Leah, including personal details that were left out of the article for legal reasons or at the police's request.

At the end of their second meeting , almost as an afterthought, Devorah Leah told him as if by chance that her cousin is supposed to be drafted into the IDF because he left the yeshiva and therefore cannot be exempted for religious reasons. "He can come to me," Yosefi suggests. "We may have to pull some strings for him."

Our correspondent Yishai Porat spoke with Yosefi on Sunday, who said: "I refuse to give any response. I think the article is completely false. That's the last thing I'm going to say to you."
Tova Tzimuki, Yedioth Ahronoth's legal correspondent, taught me a fascinating fact about the process that researchers in the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are undergoing. At some point, she explained, the attorney in charge of the case reaches a point of no return. He must move forward with the case.

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Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit may have reached this point in dealing with Netanyahu and his wife.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and his former chieff of staff Ari Harow (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

I'll try to expand on this. When I look back, at Olmert's investigations, into the past cases of Aryeh Deri, Avigdor Lieberman, and perhaps even Moshe Katsav, I notice the same phenomenon. There is a stage in which the interrogator stops seeing the suspect as a legitimate public figure and begins to see him as a criminal.

A criminal is liable to stand trial and be punished. Any other result would be considered a terrible failure, a devastating blow to the rule of law.

Think of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and State Prosecutor Moshe Lador and the decisions they made in Olmert's cases. They would not have dared to bring Morris Talansky to a preliminary testimony, one which ended up being filled with dubious arguments, had they not been convinced that Olmert was a criminal. He no longer enjoyed the presumption of innocencenot by them.

I think I can clearly identify this point of no return: The moment when the attorney general agrees to the signing of a state witness deal.

Photo: Alex Kolomoisky

A state witness is a criminal whose offenses can be provenotherwise he would not agree to admit to them and inform on others. In chess terms, the state is willing to sacrifice a knight for a king. The question, though, of who is the knight in this game and who is the king, is open to debate; it is easier to decide when it comes to crime families; it's harder when it comes to public figures.

Ari Harow got involved in criminal offenses. No matter what his associates sayhe agreed to the deal he signed and admitted to committing crimes. The question is whether what he brings with his testimony is more severe than what he himself did. If not, it is doubtful whether the police are justified in exempting him from a prison sentence.

As soon as Mandelblit decided to sign the deal with Harow, he entered what Ariel Sharon used to call the "corrals"a cattle barn that is constructed wide and narrows as you approach its end, which is the slaughterhouse. The more you progress within the corrals, the less likely you are to get out, until your chances become zero. If Mandelblit closes Netanyahu's cases, he will be asked why he exempted Harow from punishment. He now must go all the way.

Netanyahu at his speach, Wednesday Aug. 9 (AFP)

Such affairs take place simultaneously on three different planes, at different paces.

The first of which, the investigation, proceeds slowly. Every suspect adds information that requires the summoning of additional people for interrogation, or the re-summoning of those who have already been interrogated.

The State Prosecutor's Office knows that it is dealing with a very strong opponent, surrounded by lawyers and money. You cannot simply arrest him, and it's very hard to dictate his schedule. They want to play it safeleave no stone unturned, interrogate everyone they possibly can. And so, months turn into years.

The second plane is politics, which has its own rhythm. The political system is full of activity; There are those who are afraid of elections those who pushing for it. Meanwhile, the prime minister's status weakens. He works under pressure. His ability to function properly is damaged.

There have been two recent examples of this: Netanyahu's decision to distribute pictures of him embracing the security guard who shot and killed two people in Jordan, and the hasty decision to erect metal detectors at the gates of the Temple Mount, a decision that the withdrawal from which costed Netanyahu voters on the right. Netanyahu should have known better.

Netanyahu hugs Ziv Moyal, the security guard who shot and killed two people in near the embassy in Jordan (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

A prime minister can mobilize against the investigations the political system and his supporters. That is what Netanyahu is attempting to do now.

In his speech on Wednesday , he slammed the media and the left, but in fact spoke, between the lines, at the officers at Lahav 433, at the prosecutors vying for his indictment and at future interrogees. He made it clear to them that they would become enemies of the people.

The third plane is the media. The pace on this plane is dizzying. The headlines are noisy and confusing. They talk about suspicions, but give the impression that guilt has already been proven, while the road to conviction is still a long one.

There is no way to synchronize the three planes, and the result can be burdensome: endless investigations, media channels that fill the news space with tantalizing headlines, and a prime minister who has trouble functioning.

As Churchill once said on another subject, "this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
The top US military officer told his counterparts in South Korea on Monday that the United States is ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities to defend itself and its allies from any North Korean provocation.

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting South Korea, Japan and China after a week in which President Donald Trump traded threats with North Korea. Trump declared the US military "locked and loaded" and said he was ready to unleash "fire and fury" if North Korea continued to threaten the United States.
Iraq's Shiite militias say they will participate in the next major battle against the Islamic State group after the Iraqi forces' victory in Mosul last month.

The Shite militias did not fight in the urban part of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, but were key in clearing far-flung villages of IS and capturing supply lines in the desert west of Mosul toward Iraq's border with Syria.

The spokesman for the government-sanctioned umbrellaknown as the Popular Mobilization Forces, and mostly made up of Shiite militiassays the participation of the militiamen is "essential" in the upcoming fight for the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

Ahmed al-Asadi spoke to reporters in Baghdad on Monday.

The militias have been accused of sectarian killings and other abuses against Sunni civilians.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Korea's president said resolving Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and key US officials played down the risk of an imminent war with North Korea.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tensions in recent months.

"There must be no more war on the Korean peninsula. Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear situation must be resolved peacefully," South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a regular meeting with senior aides and advisers.

"I am certain the United States will respond to the current situation calmly and responsibly in a stance that is equal to ours," he said.

While backing Trump's tough talk, US officials including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster played down the risk on Sunday of the rhetoric escalating into conflict.

"I think we're not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," McMaster told ABC News' "This Week".

US Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might well conduct another missile test but talk of being on the cusp of a nuclear war was overstating the risk.

"I've seen no intelligence that would indicate that we're in that place today," Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday".
Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions more across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh.

Officials said Monday that they were still trying to determine the scale of the disaster, as weather forecasters predicted more rain for some areas and casualties were reported in multiple locations across the Himalayan foothills of South Asia.

Nepalese police were searching Monday for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to police spokesman Pushkar Karki.

"The death toll may go up further as reports come in from remote areas," Karki said.

Many of those killed had drowned or been caught in collapsed houses or under toppled trees.
Jordan's Information Minister and government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said Sunday the kingdom opposes the presence of Shi'ite militias supported by Iran on its border.

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The Syrian army has recently managed to regain control of some 30 kilometers of its border with Jordan, previously held by rebel organizations, according to reports by the Syrian army and two rebel groups. It did so with the help of Iranian-backed Shiite organizations.

Assad army raising Syrian flag after victory near Jordanian border (Photo: AFOP)

"This is unacceptable," al-Momani said. "We view this presence as a strategic threat and will take the necessary steps to ensure there is security and stability on our border."

Syrian army at border with Jordan

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"There are regional countries that see this issue more severely than Jordan. The international community and world powers regard the matter with the same severity that Jordan does," Al-Momani added.

On the recent achievements of the Syrian army on the border with Jordan, the Jordanian minister said that "it is early to judge these reports. We have not received information confirming them."

Mohammad al-Momani (Photo: AFP)

A spokesman for another rebel organization said the Assad regime's achievements were made possible by the sudden retreat of a Jordanian-backed rebel organization responsible for patrols along the border.

It was also reported the border crossings the Assad army took over were the main crossings through which the rebel groups transferred weapons to their operatives from Jordan into Syria.

Assad army at As-Suwayda district (Photo: AFP)

The London-based Syrian Center for Human Rights confirmed the reports of the Assad regime's achievements on the Jordanian border and explained the regime had used the cease-fire in the nearby Daraa district to launch a strenuous offensive in the nearby As-Suwayda district.

"The regime's forces launched an offensive on both sides of the eastern part of the province, and most of it is now in its hands," said Said Seif, an official with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army Shahid Ahmed Abdo rebel group. "The army advanced toward the border and re-took control of positions it abandoned in the early years of the civil war. They are now on the Jordanian border."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to transfer the authority to declare war from the government to the narrower Security Cabinet, Channel 2 reported Monday.

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The report said that the Justice Ministry has been instructed to begin drafting an amendment to the Basic Law: Government, to be introduced to the Knesset as soon as the summer recess is over.

Sources said the goal of the move is to prevent leaks.





Netanyahu (Photo: Reuters)

Reactions to the proposal were mixed and did not fall along the usual opposition-government divide. Netanyahus challenger Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid called it correct and professional, while his coalition ally Education Minister Naftali Bennett said the report was a non-story.

Lapid

On the other hand, Meretz leader Zehava Galon noted on Twitter that every commission of inquiry in Israels history has pointed to the making of decisions without debate in the cabinet as a central cause of failures and added that after the state comptroller laid out that Operation Protective Edge was carried out with zero serious deliberation in the Security Cabinet, Netanyahus conclusion is to do away with the Cabinet altogether?





Bennett (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Galon then added a dig at Netanyahus ongoing legal troubles, writing that perhaps the next thing (Netanyahu will ask for) is the right to spend billions of shekels on submarines without the approval of the defense minister?

Galon (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The report follows on the heels of the 2016 Amidror Commission, appointed by Netanyahu at the behest of Bennett. Bennett was sharply critical of the Security Cabinets decision-making during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, criticism that was echoed earlier this year in the state comptrollers report into the incursion. The investigative body was instructed to recommend ways to improve intelligence-sharing amongst members of the Security Cabinet and was headed by former National Security Council head Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror.

Channel 2 said the amendment likely has its origins in a 2010 move by Prime Minister Netanyahu and then-defense minister Ehud Barak, who had reportedly drawn up plans to attack Iran but were said to have been blocked by then-Mossad director Meir Dagan and then-IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi, who refused to carry out the plans because the request was illegal without Cabinet approval.
Portuguese officials say 112 people have been evacuated from their homes in the central town of Vila de Rei as more than 3,700 firefighters continue to battle dozens of wildfires across the country.

Civil Protection Agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said Monday that 45 people were slightly injured in the fires over the past two days.

She said firefighters were hoping to make the most of a slight drop in temperatures to make progress in extinguishing some 210 fires still active.

Gaspar said the number of fires had dropped slightly but that the situation was still worrying, especially in 10 areas, including Castelo and Coimbra.

Spain and Morocco have sent firefighting units to help Portugal.

Portugal has been especially hard hit by wildfires, including one that killed 64 people in June.
265 houses submerged in Susta of Nawalparasi

Around 265 houses in Susta of Nawalparasi district have been inundated after the flooded Narayani River gushed into the human settlements.
Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 22, the cousin of the 16-year-old boy of the same name who was murdered in 2014 by Jewish extremists, and two other residents of the Shuafat neighborhood in east Jerusalem were charged Monday with planning attacks against Israeli security forces.

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The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office filed an indictment against Abu Khdeir and his two accomplices, Abbas Salahi and Amro Maatouk, for multiple security offenses, including active membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is desginated as a terror organization by Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union.

Photo: Shutterstock

The three were indicted for conspiring to commit murder, attempting to illegally purchase weapons, possession of arms, shooting in residential areas, attempting to attack policemen, rioting and other offenses.

According to the indictment, the three met on several occasions between March 2017 and their arrest in July 2017 and conspired to carry out attacks against Israeli citizens.

Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, who was murdered by Jewish settlers (Photo: Reuters)

Among other things, the defendants planned to carry out a shooting attack against Israeli vehicles traveling on the Nablus bypass and plant explosives on it. In addition, on several occasions, the defendants participated in riots and stone throwing at Israeli military forces.

Abu Khdeir has three previous convictions for rioting, attempting to attack police officers, vandalizing a vehicle and endangering human life. He already spent time in prison, and in 2015 he was sentenced to probation, which he is set to serve should he be found guilty of any of the aforementioned crimes.
Turkey's state news agency says that Turkish authorities have arrested and charged a suspected Islamic State group member with killing two Syrian journalists in Turkey in 2015.

Anadolu Agency said Monday that a Turkish court charged Muaz El Ahsin with murder for allegedly slitting the throats of Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir and Fares Hamadi. Both were journalists for the "Raqqa is being slaughtered silently" collective, a group publicizing atrocities in the Syrian city under IS rule.

Police detained Ahsin on Aug. 11 while he was trying to cross into Turkey illegally, according to Anadolu. A court later ordered him officially arrested on murder charges.

Anadolu said that Ahsin fled to Syria after the killings on Oct. 29, 2015. Anadolu said that police were still searching for other suspects.
Billionaire diamond-magnate Benny Steinmetz and his business consultant Tal Zilbersteintwo suspects arrested in an international money laundering scheme had their remand extended until August 17 in a hearing in Rishon Lezion Magistrate Court Monday afternoon.

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Police had originally requested an eight-day remand extension in order to avoid any disruptions to the investigation.

This current affair is related to a previous case in which the National Fraud Investigations Unit conducted an inquiry into Steinmetz for bribing a foreign public official and money laundering.

Tal Zilberstein (L) and Benny Steinmetz (R) (Photo: Yair Sagi)

The investigation found that Steinmetz, through his company BSGR, provided millions of dollars in bribes to the former president of Guinea and his wife in exchange for mining concessions from 2006-2012.

Presently, Steinmetz, Zilberstein and several other suspects are suspected of systematically laundering millions of euro by way of fraud and document forgery through a variety of nations, including Romania.

During the remand hearing, representatives of the National Fraud Investigations Unit requested that Steinmetz's brother-in-law and his daughter's partner be removed from the courtroom as they are currently both under investigation.

According to Superintendant Avshalom Ahrak, there were significant and dramatic developments that were presented to the judge. "There is new evidenceincluding witnesses and documentsthat implicates Steinmetz."

While Zilberstein has not yet been charged with bribery or obstruction of justice, he is suspected of general involvement, after authorizing two dubious invoices in 2011, each in the amount of $1 million.

David Granor (Photo: Ofer Chen)

Steinmetz, Zilberstein, Bezeq Chairman David Granot and two additional suspects were arrested earlier Monday in connection with bribery, money laundering, document forgery, false registration of corporate documents, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice.

The FBI and Swiss Police were also involved in the case.

Police are investigating the possibility that all the suspects worked in concert to systematically produce fictitious contracts and transactionseven involving real estate in several foreign countriesin order to transfer and launder millions in several different currencies.

During the stormy hearing on Monday, Steinmetz lashed out at the government of Israel, accusing it of behaving like a "totalitarian state" and a "dictatorship." Steinmetz also slammed Hungarian billionaire George Soros, accusing him of being behind the whole affair.

"There is someone here who targeted me. This is political. George Soros targeted me. We haven't done anything. There is nothing here, but there was nothing," he said.

Steinmetz has blamed Soros in the past, accusing him of plotting to oust him from an iron mine in Guinea. In 2014, Steinmetz sued Soros after the rights to the iron mine were denied.
A German court has found a Syrian refugee guilty of attempting to defraud ISIS, a court spokeswoman said on Monday, granting legal protection to a group viewed as terrorists by the European Union.

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A judge in the district court in the southwestern city of Saarbruecken sentenced the 39-year old hairdresser from Damascus to two years in prison for trying to get ISIS operatives to transfer him up to 180,000 euro ($212,400.00).

ISIS file photo (Photo: AP)

The judge ruled that the man used the false pretence that he would carry out attacks in Germany for ISIS using explosives. The money was never transferred to the man.

The court rejected the prosecution's argument that the man was guilty of the more serious crime of planning to carry out attacks on behalf of the militant organization.

Both parties have appealed the ruling to the Federal Supreme Court, the court spokeswoman said.

The Syrian refugee was named only as Hasan A. due to German privacy laws.
A leading neo-Nazi website is losing its internet domain host after its publisher posted an article mocking the woman who was killed in a deadly attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia

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GoDaddy tweeted late Sunday night that it has given The Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider because the site has violated the Scottsdale-based company's terms of service.

Attack at the Virginia rally

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GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race said the move was prompted by a post on the site about Heather Heyer, who was killed Saturday when a man plowed his car into a group of demonstrators in Charlottesville . The post called her "fat" and "childless" and said "most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness."

"Given their latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service," Race said in an emailed statement.

Shortly after GoDaddy tweeted its decision, the site posted an article claiming it had been hacked and would be shut down. It wasn't immediately clear if hackers had truly taken over The Daily Stormer or if that was just a prank post from a website known for its trolling tactics.

Andrew Anglin, the website's publisher and author of Sunday's post about Heyer, said he couldn't immediately comment Monday on GoDaddy's move.

"I don't have time to talk, we're trying to regain control of the site," he said in an email to The Associated Press.

GoDaddy isn't The Daily Stormer's host, which means the site's content isn't on the company's servers, according to Race. "Only the domain is with GoDaddy," Race added.

Anglin's site takes its name from Der Sturmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda. The site includes sections called "Jewish Problem" and "Race War."

The Daily Stormer is infamous for orchestrating internet harassment campaigns carried out by its "Troll Army" of readers. Its targets have included prominent journalists, a Jewish woman who was running for a California congressional seat and Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist whom Anglin derided as a "Zionist Millionaire."

In April, a Montana woman sued Anglin after her family became the target of another Daily Stormer trolling campaign. Tanya Gersh's suit claims anonymous internet trolls bombarded Gersh's family with hateful and threatening messages after Anglin published their personal information in a post accusing her and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, of engaging in an "extortion racket" against the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer.

The Daily Stormer used a crowdfunding website, WeSearchr, to raise more than $152,000 in donations from nearly 2,000 contributors to help pay for Anglin's legal expenses.

Other internet services have taken similar action against The Daily Stormer since Anglin founded it in 2013. In 2015, Anglin said PayPal had permanently banned him from using the service. And he complained in January that a Ukrainian advertising company had banned them, leaving an Australian electrician as the site's only advertiser.
Why am I not surprised by the anti-Jewish protest held last week in the town of Helsingborg in southern Sweden? I wrote "anti-Jewish" and not "anti-Israel" because the main slogans that were shouted theresuch as "the Jews are offspring of apes and pigs"have nothing to do with the Middle East. This is blatant anti-Semitism of the ugliest kind.

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So why am I not surprised? Because in this Scandinavian country, with a prime minister like Stefan Lofven, and a foreign minister like Margot Wallstrom, anti-Semitic displays, all the more so anti-Israel, are not supposed to "knock us off our feet."

Sweden was the first country to recognize "Palestine," it contributes great sums of money to the Palestinian Authority, and its government is hostile towards Israel . Wallstrom herself makes no effort to hide the fact she loathes us. Two small reminders: In November 2015 she tied the ISIS terror attacks in Paris to "Palestinian desperation," and shortly after thatat the height of the wave of terrorismshe called for an investigation into allegations Israel carries out "extrajudicial killings" of Palestinians.

Anti-Semitic demonstration in Helsingborg

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Even though one should not generalizeobviously, not all Swedes are anti-Semites or Israel hatersthere is another reason why I'm not surprised by the anti-Semitic displays in Sweden.

During World War II, for a long time, the "neutral" Sweden refused to take in some 7,700 Jews from Denmark, which had been conquered by Hitler's forces, and save them from being sent to extermination camps. It was only after great efforts by influential figures that Sweden finally agreed, near the end of 1943, to take in Denmark's Jews.

Denmark was the only conquered country in which almost all of its citizens, including King Christian and the royal family, sought to aid Jews and hide them. After receiving the okay from Sweden, they smuggled some 7,200 Jews and some 700 of their non-Jewish relatives to the neighboring country in an organized operation that lasted for three weeks in ships, motorboats, and smaller boats. Some 500 Jews who were unable to escapemostly the elderly and invalidwere caught and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Anti-Israel protest in Malmo

Sweden may have eventually agreed to take in the Jews of Denmark, but it's worth mentioning that it supported Hitler's Third Reich, providing it with iron for its war industry, among other things. Many of the citizens of the "neutral" Sweden also wanted to see Germany win the war. So is it any wonder some of their descendants remained unequivocal anti-Semites?

Another factor that undoubtedly affects the level of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments in Sweden is the massive, ever-growing Muslim population in the country, whose positions on Jews in general and Israel in particular are no secret.

It's enough to mention that Gothenburg, the second largest city in the country, has been used for years as one of ISIS' largest recruitment centers in Europe, while in Malmo, the third largest city, some 40 percent of the population is Muslim, and they essentially "control" the city.

I've visited Sweden many times. Several years ago, locals I've spoken to told me they were worried about the "invasion" of their country. "We have no idea how we're going to overcome this problem," they told me. And, indeed, they have yet to overcome it.
Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin officially assumed command of the Israel Air Force (IAF) in a ceremony held at Tel Nof Airbase on Monday evenin.

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The ceremony was attended by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and US Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. David Goldfein.

Norkin is replacing Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, who is retiring from the IDF after 40 years of service.

Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot (L), Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin (C) and former IAF commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel (R) (Photo: Shaul Golan)

During Eshel's tenure, two major operations were conducted in the Gaza Stripthe 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense and the 2014 Operation Protective Edgealong with hundreds of sorties and covert operations beyond Israel's borders, including strikes against Hamas and Hezbollah.

IAF change of command ceremony (:  )

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"The Middle East is changing before our eyes. The global transformation in the balance of forces and the changing battlefield continue to expand the responsibility and mission of the Air Force. It also requires us to continue developing our capabilities to deal with the challenges of the future," said Norkin.

"The Air Force will continue to acquire new and advanced technologies. The Air Force of the future will continue to strengthen its ties with other air forces and strengthen Israel's standing in the region and in the world. I take this command with confidence in our people and our capabilities," Norkin concluded.

In his remarks, Eshel said, "The skills of the IAF in offense and defense have been tested in recent years in thousands of operations across five arenas; both in close range and thousands of kilometers from home. Threats were thwarted, rockets were destroyed and aircraft were intercepted in the Middle East and beyond its borders.

"The Israeli Air Force gives the IDF unprecedented strength. Our enemies cannot imagine its quality and scope. If we are forced to fight, they will be very surprised. Our personnel are extremely professional, determined and humble."

Photo: Shaul Golan

Lt. Gen. Eisenkot echoed the confidence in the IAF of both men, saying, "The Air Force is the strategic arm that is the guarantor of the security of the State of Israel. The map of threats is expanding and changing at a rapid pace, which obligates us to adapt our capabilities to the modern battlefield.

"At our borders terrorist organizations are organizing and growing stronger. The IDF needs a very high level of preparedness against any threat."
BEIRUT -- The Syrian army and its allies advanced in the central Syrian desert on Monday and could soon encircle an Islamic State pocket, part of a multi-pronged thrust into eastern areas held by the jihadist group.

A Syrian military source said the Syrian army and its allies had taken a number of villages around the town of al-Koum in northeastern Homs province.

This leaves a gap held by Islamic State of around only 25 km (15 miles) between al-Koum and the town of al-Sukhna to its south, which was taken by the Syrian government on Saturday.

If the army, supported by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, closes this gap they will encircle Islamic State fighters to their west in an area of land around 8,000 km square, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Russian customs officials arrested a 58-year-old Israeli citizen on suspicion of trying to smuggle diamonds worth some NIS 850,000 ($237,190) out of the country.

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The man was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow attempting to board a flight to Israel.

The seized diamonds (Photo: Russian customs)

He was stopped at customs for an inspection when officials discovered a plastic bag in his suitcase containing several diamonds of various cuts and weights, ranging from 1.1-3.1 carats.

During questioning, the man initially claimed the stones were gifts for family members. He claimed to have purchased them over the last year at various pawn shops around Russia.

Photo: Russian customs

Russian officials raided the man's Moscow apartment and discovered $350,000 in cash.

In Russia, diamonds are designated as strategic goods that are prohibited from export without a special permit, and the maximum punishment for diamond smuggling is a one million rubles ($16,710) fine and up to seven years in prison.

Cash seized at the suspect's apartment (Photo: Russian customs)

This is not the first time Russian officials have stopped Israeli diamond smugglers, and some of them are on Interpol's wanted list.

About a month and a half ago, a 66-year-old Israeli woman who flew from Tel Aviv to Moscow was arrested on suspicion of smuggling a pair of diamond earrings worth $500,000. She had to declare the earrings and pay a tax of about $110,000.

The woman claimed she did not think she had to report them as the earrings belonged to her and that she was in Moscow to attend an event.
Twenty-six Israelis have contracted the measles virus over the past four months, with nine soldiers diagnosed just last week, raising concerns of an outbreak.

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For the sake of comparison, only eight cases of measles were recorded in 2016, according to the Health Ministry.

One of the soldiers is believed to have contracted the virus while visiting relatives in Ukraine. Upon his return to Israel, he went to a civilian clinic, where he exposed eight other soldiers who were waiting for the doctor to the virus.

The soldiers don't know each other and do not serve in the same unit. All of them are currently only displaying minor symptoms.

Photo: Shutterstock

The IDF said the soldiers are under medical supervision, while those who came in contact with them received preventative treatment.

"The IDF, together with the Health Ministry, investigated the cases and identified the source of the infection. It is important to emphasize the source of the infection is not in the clinic itself, but rather proximity to the patient," the IDF said in a statement.

While officials in the Health Ministry said Saturday it was too early to declare this as an outbreak, epidemiologists from different hospitals across Israel believe this to nevertheless be a significant number of cases.

Last June, the Health and Foreign ministries recommended that those traveling to Europe get vaccinated against the measles virus in light of an increase in reported cases on the continent. According to recent reports, some 6,000 cases of the measles were reported in the last year, mostly in Romania, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium and Ukraine.

The Health Ministry said the vaccination coverage in Israel is among the highest in Western states, with 97 percent coverage for the first and second doses for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. Ministry officials also stated there were enough measles vaccines in stock to stop any likely outbreak.

The measles is caused by the measles virus. It is transmitted directly from one person to another in close proximity. Measles is highly contagiousa person who hasn't been vaccinated and is exposed to a patient has a 90 percent chance of becoming infected.

Measles can cause serious respiratory and nervous system complications. About a third of patients develop complications such as ear infections, diarrhea and corneal inflammation. Rare complications include pneumonia and encephalitis. The risk of complications is higher in children under five years of age and adults over 20, as well as patients suffering from suppressed immune systems.

In response to the cases, the Health Ministry said, "Due to the long-standing activity by the Health Ministry, Israel is one of the countries in Europe that is on track to eradicate measles. Despite this, even a country in the process of eradicating the measles could have cases imported from abroad, which infect a small circle of people around the patient."
Bridge over Babai River caves in

A bridge over the Babai River has collapsed on Monday.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot has been named the top research institution in the world outside the United States, and the sixth-best overall in an international ranking.

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Weizmann President Professor Daniel Zajfman credited the schools approach to research for the ranking, saying We recruit scientists who are among the best in the world and let them follow their curiosity.

That is what leads, in the end, to innovative and surprising new applications that shape the future, Zajfman said.

Weizmann Institute of Science (Photo: Courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science)

The Institute was the only overseas body to make it into the top 15 of the 2017 Nature Index, published by nature.com, beating out American West Coast powerhouses Caltech and Stanford University.

Scripps Research Institute in San Diego topped the list, while Rockefeller University in New York came in second and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston third.

The Index ranked the worlds top 200 research institutions according to the impact each institutions academic research has had on innovation by examining how research articles are cited in third party patents.

"By looking at patents owned by third partiesinformed by and citing academic workrather than those held by the academic institutions themselves, the influence of research on the development of products and services is exposed, the site said.

David Swinbanks, founder of the Nature Index, said the academic players featured in the index may well shape tomorrows inventions, at a time when the transfer of scientific knowledge into industry and the economy is a growing priority for governments and research-funding agencies alike.

The need to demonstrate that publicly-funded science is being used for societys benefit is paramount, Swinbanks said.
Some 150 children who are either hurt or lost loved ones in terror attacks arrived at the Ben Shemen Forest in central Israel on Sunday for a special summer camp.

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Among the campers were three of the children of Elad Salomon , 35, who was murdered along with his father Yosef, 70, and sister Haya, 46, by a terrorist who infiltrated the family home in the settlement of Halamish last month.

"This summer, because of the attack, we haven't done any activities," said Elad's widow Michal, who brought their three elder children to the campAvinoam, 10.5, Reut, 9, and Amitai, 5. "I'm glad this activity gave us the opportunity to break away from everyday routine."

Michal Salomon, right, with her children (l-r) Amitai, Avinoam and Reut.

"It's a miracle we're alive," she added. "It's thanks to my late husband, who fought the terrorist with all of his strength, and I admire him for that."

While the children enjoyed the drum circles and jeep tours led by the Jeep Unit of ZAKA Israel, they did miss their father dearly.

"It's a shame dad wasn't with us, because he would have enjoyed it a lot," said nine-year-old Reut. "We think about him all the time. During today's activity, we were able to forget about the attack for a little bit and managed to have some fun."

Other campers include the children of the Shabo family from Itamar, which lost five of its members in 2002 when two Palestinian terrorists broke into their home, and Ayala Shapira, who suffered serious burns when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the car she was traveling in.

Elad Salomon's children with their cousins

Apart from the Salomon family, the rest of the campers headed at the end of the day to Eilat for three days.

"Families who experienced disasters, such as serious terror attacks, don't forget the sights and feelings for the rest of their lives," explained ZAKA CEO Israel Hezi Shavaks. "That is why we view it as very important to allow them to have experiences that could help them forget the difficult times, if only a little bit."
WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday that if North Korea was to fire a missile at the United States, the situation could escalate into war.

"If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly," Mattis told reporters.

Mattis said the United States would know the trajectory of a North Korean missile "within moments" and if a missile is assessed to be hitting Guam, "we will take it out."
YORK  Jacob C. Johnson, 26, of York, is facing the possibility of prison after being convicted of operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest and willful recklessly driving.

Johnson pleaded no contest this week as part of a plea agreement.

In return for his plea, three other counts were dismissed.

Judge James Stecker explained to Johnson that upon his change of plea, he is now facing the possibility of two years in prison and a two-year loss of drivers license, as this is a conviction for a Class 4 felony.

During the factual basis proceedings provided by acting York County Attorney Benjamin Dennis, officers with the York Police Department were dispatched to a business in York, pertaining to an ex-boyfriend of an employee who was at the business breaking items. Dennis said the man was identified as Johnson.

Dennis said Johnson was being aggressive with police officers and refused to comply, he got in his vehicle, backed out and nearly hit a police cruiser. He took off at a high rate of speed, in city limits.

Dennis said officers followed Johnson, and his flight showed disregard for community safety. He was later stopped by a sheriffs deputy at the Polk/York county line and he was arrested.

A restitution analysis will be necessary, Dennis said, to determine how much if any restitution should be paid for damages resulting from the incident.

Sentencing has been set for Oct. 10.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

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Chinese vice-premier arrives today

Nepal and China will sign some deals related to reconstruction and investment on infrastructure, among others, during the visit of Wang Yang, vice-premier of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China. Wang is arriving in Kathmandu on an official visit on Monday evening.
Washington: US President Donald Trump`s re-election campaign has released an ad attacking his "enemies", the media reported.

The ad on Sunday slammed the Democrats, media and career politicians for what it said were attacks on and obstruction of Trump`s efforts while touting the President`s record so far of overseeing low levels of unemployment, record-high stock prices and what the ad called "the strongest military in decades", reports CNN.

"The President`s enemies don`t want him to succeed, but Americans are saying, `Let President Trump do his job`," the ad said.

Trump declared his intention to run for re-election at the very beginning of his presidency and has taken part in several campaign events, including holding a $35,000-per-seat fundraiser in June.

The release of the Trump campaign`s new ad comes as the President continues to receive criticism for his statements on Saturday in response to the violence that gripped Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

White nationalists gathered in the city and clashed with counter-protesters on Saturday, CNN reported.

One person was killed after a car mowed down a group of protesters in the city of Charlottesville on Saturday while the two other victims, Virginia State Police Department officers, died when a helicopter crashed nearby.

The protests were against a decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Trump gave a statement condemning the violence and bigotry "on many sides" and touted his own record, including low levels of unemployment and announcements by companies such as Foxconn, an electronic components manufacturer headquartered in Taiwan, which plans to increase production in the US.

But in his remarks, Trump did not single out white supremacists as responsible for the violence, drawing criticism from some congressional leaders within his own party.

On Sunday, the White House offered a statement on background claiming the President`s remarks included a condemnation of white supremacy and "all extremist groups".
Sydney: Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce`s political future was in doubt Monday after it emerged he may be a dual citizen, placing the conservative government`s slim Parliamentary majority at risk.

Australia does not allow dual citizens to sit in Parliament, meaning Joyce`s revelation that he possibly holds New Zealand citizenship has major implications for the government.

The obscure rule was little known until recently but several lawmakers have fallen victim to it in recent months, leaving Parliamentarians scrambling to clarify their ancestral ties.

"Needless to say, I was shocked to receive this information," Joyce told Parliament about the news he may be a dual citizen.

"I`ve always been an Australian citizen born in (regional city) Tamworth. Neither me or my parents had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country."

The dual citizenship crisis kicked off in July when the minor Greens party`s co-deputy leader Scott Ludlam resigned after revealing he had dual Australian-New Zealand citizenship.

The crisis soon claimed other victims, including Canadian-born Greens senator Larissa Waters and Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who left cabinet after finding his mother signed him up to Italian citizenship in his 20s.

Joyce said Monday he might have New Zealand citizenship, by descent, but did not quit cabinet or Parliament and instead referred his election to the High Court.

"The New Zealand High Commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from the department of internal affairs... considered that I could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent," he said.

While Joyce  the leader of the Nationals party  is born in Australia, he told parliament his father was born in neighbouring New Zealand and moved to Australia in 1947.

The revelations could spark a crisis for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull`s Liberal-National coalition government, which won national elections last year with 76 seats in the House of Representatives  a narrow one-seat majority.

Turnbull on Monday wrote to Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten to ask if his party wanted to refer any MPs over their citizenship status to the High Court so all the cases could be considered as a bloc, The Australian newspaper reported.

Canavan and minor party One Nation`s Indian-born Malcolm Roberts have already had their elections referred to the court, with the judicial body to decide if they had taken reasonable steps to renounce their foreign allegiances.

Almost half of Australia`s 24-million-strong population is made up of people born overseas or who had at least one parent born overseas, last year`s census revealed. Indigenous people account for about three per cent of the population.
Bengaluru: In a bid to bolster support for his party, BJP national president Amit Shah on Sunday visited a top seer of the dominant Vokkaliga community in Karnataka during his three-day visit to the Congress-ruled southern state.

Shah's visit to the state is aimed mobilising support for the party and its state president and chief minister nominee BS Yeddyurappa, who is opposed by many over his autocratic style of functioning.

Importantly, Shah is visiting Karnataka at a time when the ruling Congress has shown inclination towards Lingayats, who are seeking independent religion status.

Attempting to reach out to the Vokkaliga community, Amit Shah met Sri Nirmalanandanath Swami, seer of the influential Sri Adichunchangiri Mutt, located in the JD(S) stronghold, and sought his blessings.

It was a great honour to release a book The Story of a GuruThe Biography on HH Jagadguru Sri Sri Sri Dr. Balagangadharanatha Mahaswamiji. pic.twitter.com/mTEPmfKYcs  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 13, 2017

Historically, the Vokkaliga community has always been loyal to the Janata Dal (S) led by former PM HD Deve Gowda.

Shah paid tribute at the resting place of Sri Balagangadharanath Swami, who took the mutt to greater heights and also released his biography 'A Story of a Guru' and interacted with select students from BGS Medical College.

If reports are to be believed, the BJP top brass had earlier decided to take Shah to the Lingayat-based Siddaganga Mutt to visit Shivakumar Swami, known as the `walking God'.

But, the proposal was later shelved as PM Modi had met the seer a couple of months ago, and Shah's meeting with the 'godman' would have signalled that the saffron party was focusing only on Lingayats.

The BJP leadership will now recommend the 110-year-old pontiff's name for the 'Bharat Ratna'.

During his visit to the mutt located in the Gowda or Vokkaliga heartland of Mandya in south Karnataka, Shah also invoked memories of one of the founding fathers of the city of Bengaluru, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, who is also highly regarded by the Vokkaligas.

I will fail in my duty if I dont remember Nadaprabhu Kempegowda who was a follower of the Adichunchanagiri Mutt, Shah said.

In his address, the BJP chief highlighted how mutts and religious institutions have played a key supporting role to governments across the country.

It is only in India that mutts and religious institutions work along with the government and even more than the government for the welfare of society, he said.

Attacking the ruling Congress here, Shah said, ''Who told you that Lingayats want separate religious tag. It's Congress whose ministers are trying to create a division for there selfishness.''

Aware of the likely consequences of Amit Shah's visit, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on August 13 sought to counter BJP's allegations that the Congress government in the state is one of the most corrupt.

Speaking at a public event in north Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said the BJP would not be able to divide society in the state on communal lines since the spirit of secularism is deep rooted.

As a result, he said, the BJP at the Centre would try to use central agencies to attack the Congress.

Amit Shah arrived in Karnataka on 12 August. During his visit, Shah is scheduled to meet religious leaders, state functionaries, legislators, MPs and leaders of scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs), among others.

With the state headed for elections next year, analysts believe that Karnataka can become the entry point for the BJP in the south, where it has little or no representation at all.

While the party is already seen close to the Lingayats, it fears it may have upset the Vokkaligas with the income tax (I-T) raids on state energy minister DK Shivakumar.

The Lingayats - believed to account for around 17% of the states population - are closer to the BJP as its chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa is from the community.
New Delhi: Siddharth Roy Kapur is thankful to the court for passing a fair judgment on the ongoing strike of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees.

The ongoing strike by the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), also known as the film industry workers' union which was against the Film and Television Producers Guild of India had impeded the production work of the same.

The Film and Television Producers Guild of India had decided to seek help from the High Court for the problems they were facing.

The court passed a fair judgment in favour of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India and declared that the members of Federation of Western India Cine Employees must refrain from threatening member or non- member of its association from voluntarily working with the producers.

The Film and Television Producers Guild of India had procured an interim order from the court which prevents the FWICE, and its members, from threatening member or non- member of its association from voluntarily working with the producers.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, president of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India shared, "We are pleased with this fair verdict. It is unfortunate, but unavoidable, that we have had to exercise our legal options to ensure the safety and security of those film and television workers who are gladly willing to continue working with us, despite the arbitrary strike call given by the FWICE."

The workers' union had decided to protest against the producers' association by calling for an indefinite strike on August 9; citing that the IFTPC had backtracked on its previous promise of a wage hike.

Siddharth Roy Kapur further added the decision of some members of the Federation of Western India Cine Employee should not stop those who are willing to work with producers, he said, "There should be complete freedom between producers and workers to decide on commercial terms, one that suits both parties. We should focus on facilitating a healthy and safe environment for our employees rather than impose arbitrary decisions which hamper the well being of the industry, and ultimately impact the workers that we are supposed to protect."

The decision has come as a relief for both, the IFTPC and those workers, who are employed on the set on daily wages.
New Delhi: The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,204.98 million at the end of May 2017 to 1,210.84 million at the end of June, showing a monthly growth rate of 0.49 per cent.

The urban subscription increased from 697.06 million at the end of May 2017 to 700.96 million at the end of June 2017, and the rural subscription also increased from 507.92 million to 509.88 million during the same period, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday.

The monthly growth rates of urban and rural subscription were 0.56 per cent and 0.39 per cent, respectively, during the month of June.

The overall tele-density in India increased from 93.61 at the end of May to 93.98 at the end of June.

The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and LTE) increased from 1,180.82 million at the end of May to 1,186.84 million at the end of June, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.51 per cent, the data showed.

Wireline subscribers declined from 24.16 million at the end of May to 24 million at the end of June.

During the month of June, a total of 5.88 million requests were received for mobile number portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 283.09 million at the end of May to 288.97 million at the end of June, since the implementation of MNP.
Mumbai: India turns 71 on August 15, 2017. As a nation, we celebrate 70 glorious years of independence and step onto the new one with gusto and fervour. Sporting shades of the tricolour in their attire, citizens across the country can be heard singing the national anthem and patiently listened to the Prime Ministers address to the nation after our beautiful flag was hoisted at the majestic Red Fort in the capital.

It is a moment of great pride and joy for every Indian indeed. And as we celebrate our I-Day, let us wish each other with messages that ignite patriotism.

Check out these Whatsapp/Text messages:

1) This Independence Day, let us recall our glorious past, remember all those who laid down their lives in the freedom struggle and helped us in getting a sovereign identity. Jai Hind.

2) As our nation turns 70, let us all unite to make India the most beautiful nation in this world. Jai Hind.

3) This Independence Day, let us pledge to keep our neighbourhood clean and tidy. This would, in turn, keep diseases at bay and make India prettier and healthier. Jai Hind.

4) Independence Day is not just about flaunting our patriotic zest or a one-day celebration. We shall understand the true meaning of Independence only if we acknowledge the selfless sacrifices of freedom fighters, the thankless services of our defence forces and the infinite contributions of our farmers. Ignite the undying spirit of nationalism within. Jai Hind.

5) We can contribute a lot towards nation-building by:

- paying our taxes on time

- taking care of public property

- taking an active part in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

- preserving national monuments and heritage sites

- celebrating the diverse cultures and traditions of our country

And last but not the least, respecting the law of the land. Jai Hind.

6) As she turns 70, let us pledge to walk towards the path of development and bring glory to Mother India. And before we celebrate her 75th birth anniversary, let us promise to make her a superpower. Saare Jahan Se Achha, Hindustan Humara indeed. Jai Hind.

7) Paint me saffron, Paint me white, Paint me green. This Independence Day, Dear Mother India, paint me with the joyful colours that define the diverse beauties of our multi-cultural nation. Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

8) Our great epics, philosophy, discoveries, education and spirituality have inspired mankind across the globe. I take pride in being a part of a nation that has spread the ethos of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam. And as Mother India turns 70, heres wishing one and all a very Happy Independence Day.

9)    

Janani Janma-bhoomi-scha Swargadapi Gariyasi

Today as Maa Bharati turns 70, let us evoke Lord Ramas words that mean mother and motherland are greater than heaven.

Theres none as beautiful and compassionate like you, Dear Mother India. Salute to you.

10) Only by preserving our culture, tradition, ideology and values shall we be able to uphold the dignity of individuality of our country. So there is a need into instiling pride among todays generation by reviving our native languages, food, music, dance, arts and attire. Go the desi way! Take pride in being an Indian.

A very Happy Independence day to everyone.
Devotees throng Shiva temples on last Shrawan Sombar

Devotees, especially women, of different ages thronged to Pashupatinath among other Shiva temples across the country from early morning, the last Monday of Shrawan, the fourth month of Nepali calendar.
New Delhi [India], August 14 (ANI): The Delhi Metro on Monday made it clear for the commuters that the train services will run as usual across the Metro Network on 15 August, Independence Day.

However, stations like Lal Quila, Jama Masjid, Delhi Gate and ITO will be facilitated entry/exit of passengers from limited gates during the ceremony time owing to security considerations.

Train services between Indraprastha and Mandi House section of Line-3 will be briefly put on hold during the time when convoy passes through Tilak/BSZ Marg.

To facilitate people at Lal Quila station on Independence Day, additional ticket counters will be opened at Lal Quila, Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk metro stations along with the deployment of additional staff for guiding the additional rush after the ceremony.

Two extra trains will also be run between Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat section of Line-6 from start of services till 1 p.m. to make it easy for the passengers, covering interchanges at Central Secretariat, Kashmere Gate and Mandi House stations.

The nation is set to celebrate 71st Independence Day tomorrow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from Red Fort.
New Delhi: Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani`s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Peer Saifullah on Monday were produced before Delhi`s Patiala House Court in connection with the terror funding case, allegedly involving Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

The National Investigation agency (NIA) on August 8 questioned Geelani`s sons Nayeem and Naseem in the similar matter.

Nayeem is being tipped as the natural successor to lead the Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist conglomerate comprising pro-Pakistan hardline groups, after his father.

The NIA registered the case on 30 May, accusing separatist and secessionist leaders of being involved with terrorist groups.

The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The case also included causing disruption in the Valley by pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

The NIA had conducted searches in several places in the state besides Haryana and the national capital.Electronic devices and valuables worth crores of rupees were seized.
Washington: Tom Cruise, who has a history of doing his own stunts, has been left injured while performing a stunt for the newest addition to the 'Mission Impossible' franchise in London.

In video obtained by TMZ, the 55-year-old is attached to a harness while making the leap.

However, he landed short and crashed hard into the side of the building. He is able to hoist himself up, but walks with a visible limp before collapsing next to crew members, reports People Magazine.

Over the years, he has taken part in many dramatic scenes, including submerging himself in water for six minutes to film an underwater scene of him breaking into a vault for 'Mission Impossible: Rogue National', being flung around an airplane cabin in zero-gravity for 'The Mummy' and many high-speed car chases.

'Mission: Impossible 6' also stars 'Life' actress Rebecca Ferguson and 'Man of Steel' star Henry Cavill. The movie is slated to hit theaters next year.
Chandigarh: Jat leader Yashpal Malik, who spearheaded an agitation for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions, was slapped on Monday in a Haryana village, leading to a free-for-all in which nearly 20 persons were injured.

Malik, along with other Jat leaders, had gone to address a community rally at Samain village near Tohana in Fatehabad district, around 170 km from here. There a person slapped him.

The attacker was overpowered by supporters of Malik even as a clash ensued between his supporters and the rival group. Nearly 20 persons were injured in the fracas.

Police used force to disperse the rival groups.

Malik claimed an "attempt on his life" and blamed a senior Jat leader in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Haryana for the incident.

Tension prevailed in the area. Police reinforcements were rushed to control the situation.

"We are keeping a close watch. Investigation is on to know those behind the attack," a Haryana Police officer said here.

Malik is President of All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), which had spearheaded the agitation in support of the reservation demand in January 2016, which continued for over 50 days.

The AIJASS had threatened to lay a seige to Delhi and hold a protest outside Parliament on March 20 over Jat reservation issue but called off the protest at the last minute following an agreement with the BJP government in Haryana.

Their demands included reservation for Jats, jobs to the next of kin of those killed in violence in the 2016 Jat agitation, compensation to those injured, withdrawal of cases against them and action against the officers who ordered action against the Jats among others.

At least 30 persons were killed, over 200 injured and government and private property worth crores of rupees damaged during the violence in February 2016.
Kabul: Amid reports of delay in the newly-launched Afghanistan-India air corridor initiative, Afghanistan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has instructed the relevant authority to take immediate step to execute more flights as part of the initiative.

Deputy Chief of the chamber of commerce and industries Khan Jan Alokozay has briefed the meeting, chaired by the Afghan President regarding the issues being faced to execute more flights.

Following the meeting, according to the Khaama Press, Ghani has instructed the authorities to negotiate Kam Air for fixing flight schedules for exports.

The Afghan President further instructed to make proper arrangements to prepare 80 to 100 tons of fresh fruits on time for export.As per reports, he also instructed the Ministry of Finance and Customs House officials to provide necessary facilities for the entire process as part of the air corridor initiative.The decision to establish an Air Freight Corridor between Afghanistan and India was taken in the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ghani in September 2016 during the latter`s visit to India.During his visit to India in September 2016, President Ghani had urged Indian and Afghan businessmen to achieve a target of USD 10 billion in trade over the next five years.

Earlier, in January 2015, India had announced its decision to allow Afghan Trucks to enter the Indian Territory through Atari land check post for offloading and loading goods from and to Afghanistan. India is also cooperating with Afghanistan and Iran for development of the Chabahar Port.

Later on in May 2016, a trilateral transport and transit agreement based on sea access through Chabahar was signed in the presence of the leaders of the three countries in Tehran.Major imports from Afghanistan to India are fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, raisins, vegetables, oil seeds, precious and semi-precious stones, etc.
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday rejected as "entirely false, baseless and fabrication" a report that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be named the party's working president.



Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the report was a "mischievous instance of fake news and unnecessary speculation".

Surjewala also tweeted:

Instead of false & baseless fake news & unnecessary speculation, pl see the challenges before Nation pointed by CWC. https://t.co/6gpvLoxJyO  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) August 14, 2017

On the other hand, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the news report was "laughable" and "planted".



"This is laughable that the media takes planted news seriously. This is mischievous and a fabrication. We reject it but let me caution the media, don't walk into a trap of planted news. This is to distract attention and focus from what is happening - from the failures of this government, non-performance, non-deliverance, rising terror attacks and killings of soldiers and jawans," as per IANS.



Sharma added, "They don't want to discuss these issues and also what has happened in Gorakhpur."

On August 08, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had said that the party must defend liberty and freedom of individuals and institutions and had accused the BJP government of encouraging those who flouted the law and unleashed oppression.

Speaking at a special CWC meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, she had also expressed concerns over the rise in cases of "self vigilantism" and had said that not a day passed when the liberty of individuals was trampled upon.

"The Congress party must always remain on the frontline in defence of liberty and numerous values associated with liberty, and the institutions that go with it. We must never bow before those who assault the liberty of the individual and of society," she had said.

Hitting out at the BJP and the RSS, she had said that as the Congress saluted the patriots who struggled, "we must not forget that there were organisations and individuals who opposed the 1942 movement and actually collaborated with the colonial government. Their political descendants are the very people who today hold high office and have arrogated to themselves the role of torch bearers of our freedom," as per PTI.

The CWC had passed two resolutions on the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement and had rededicated itself to uphold and defend the idea of India as envisioned by the leaders of the freedom movement.

It had also resolved to fight back and defeat the forces which sought to destroy the country's heritage.

Party vice president Rahul Gandhi had skipped the meeting as he was down with a viral infection and Sonia had chaired it.

A number of top Congress leaders including AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Karan Singh, Digivijay Singh and Anand Sharma had attended it.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The defence experts on Monday said that the continuous ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) by the Pakistani troops shows their extreme frustration as their sponsored militants are being killed by the India Army and they are not being able to push fresh terrorist in the Indian Territory.

Defence Expert Major General (Retd.) PK Sehgal told ANI that with every inch closer to India`s Independence Day, the ceasefire violation will increase in both magnitude and intensity from Pakistan.

"Pakistan is extremely worried and frustrated that Pakistani sponsored militants are being killed and they are not being able to push fresh terrorist. For these reasons, the ceasefire violation is increasing. However the response from our side is extremely punitive," he said.

Resonating similar views, another defence expert Qamar Agha said the attempts to infiltrate are increasing because the Pakistani Army is under terrible pressure as large number of militants has been killed in the last three months."It has become quite frequent in past three four months.

They are finding it more difficult to infiltrate. The Pakistani Army is also under terrible pressure because large number of militants has been killed in the last three months. So, the number of militants has decreased. So there attempt is to how to overcome and how to send more terrorist. There is need to take more pro-active step," he added.

The Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire four times along the LoC in Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.

At least three Army jawans were injured after Pakistan violated the ceasefire in the Bazz area of Uri Sector in Jammu and Kashmir`s Baramulla district on Sunday.

The Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire and invoked heavy mortar shelling and firing of small arms yesterday, in the Naushera sector of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir.Earlier, five army jawans were injured and two others seriously hurt in an encounter with terrorists in the Shopian district on late Saturday night.
Janakpur: At least 175 people have died and thousands have fled their homes as monsoon floods swept across Nepal, India and Bangladesh, officials said Monday, warning the toll could rise as the extent of the damage becomes clear.

Three days of relentless downpours sparked flash floods and landslides that have killed at least 80 people in Nepal, 73 across northern and eastern India and 22 in Bangladesh.

Around 200,000 people are living in emergency camps in Assam in northeast India, which suffers frequent flooding during the annual monsoon rains.

Another 15,000 have had to leave their homes in the eastern state of Bihar, which borders Nepal and where one official said seven rivers were at danger levels.

Large parts of the state were submerged in 2008 when a river burst its banks across the border in Nepal, with the two countries trading blame for the disaster.

All trains to the northeast have been suspended until Wednesday, with sections of the track completely submerged in water, Indian railway spokesman Anil Saxena told AFP.

In Nepal, ariel photos taken by an AFP photographer showed huge swathes of land in the southeast still underwater Monday afternoon.

Police said over 48,000 homes have been totally submerged by the floods across Nepal`s southern planes.

As emergency workers struggled to reach far-flung areas, the country`s home ministry said another 36 people were missing, presumed dead, revising down an earlier count after more bodies were found.

The Nepal Red Cross warned that shortages of safe drinking water and food could create a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Himalayan country.

"In many parts of the country there is a scarcity of safe drinking water creating a high risk of health hazards," spokesman Dibya Raj Poudel told AFP.

"Several villages and settlements are unreachable. Telecommunications, mobile phones are still not working so it is difficult to give a full assessment."

A local volunteer in Saptari district -- one of the worst affected areas -- said the water level was receding but many people were still stranded on higher ground.

"Water level has decreased a little bit but families still cannot return home. They are taking shelter in sheds. What people need now is clean drinking water and food," volunteer Dipak Kumar Yadav told AFP.

On the outskirts of Janakpur, in southeastern Nepal, local residents were sheltering in a local temple after the flood waters had totally destroyed their basic mud homes, though the water had mostly receded.

In India, emergency workers were scouring the area hit by a massive landslide that swept two passenger buses into a deep gorge on Sunday, killing at least 46 people in the mountainous northern state of Himachal Pradesh.

In the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand -- which also borders Nepal -- three people were killed in a landslide late Sunday triggered by heavy rains, local police official Ajay Joshi told AFP.

Bangladesh deployed troops to shore up embankments in the north of the country, where flooding has killed 22 people.

Local government administrator Kazi Hasan Ahmed told AFP up to 700,000 people had been marooned by flood waters after rivers burst their banks following days of heavy rain.

"We`ve not seen such severe floods in Dinajpur since 1988," he said, referring to the worst-hit district.

"The town protection embankment was washed away by flood water, submerging most of the main town."

The government`s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre warned that water levels in some major rivers would continue to rise over the next 72 hours, raising fears the flooding could spread.

In Nepal, the worst of the flooding was in the southern lowlands known as the Terai, the country`s most fertile region and home to much of its agriculture.

"We are getting reports that about 70 percent of agriculture area in the Tarai is inundated," said Shankar Sapkota, senior agricultural economist with the government.

"Paddy fields, vegetable plantation and fish farms have been affected but right now we cannot confirm the extent of damage."

Nearly 150 people have been killed in Nepal since the beginning of the rainy season in late June.

The rains are now expected to shift westwards and authorities in Nepal have begun evacuating 74,000 people from a vulnerable western district.

Hundreds have died in torrential rain, floods and landslides in neighbouring India during the monsoon, which hits the country`s southern tip in early June and sweeps across the nation, lasting into September.
New Delhi: The flood situation has taken a critical turn in Assam and parts of Bihar after incessant rains lash the states.

The second wave of deluge on Sunday claimed lives of 10 more people and affected nearly 22.5 lakh people in 21 districts of the north eastern state. Assam State Disaster Management Authority today said,"With today's deaths, the toll in this year's flood-related incidents has gone up to 99. The situation is likely to worsen as waters of the Brahmaputra and 10 other rivers were flowing above the danger mark at 15 places."Reports state that most of the forest areas in Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Lawkhua wildlife sanctuary were submerged under water. Nagaon Deputy Commissioner Shamsher Singh said the waters of the Brahmaputra river breached a crucial dyke at Hatimura inundating vast areas of the district.

Dhubri was reportedly the worst-affected with 3.98 lakh people affected, followed by Morigaon with 3.14 lakh people. Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway Pranav Jyoti Sharma said 22 trains have been cancelled while 14 others were stranded at various places as the tracks are flooded at places across the northeast.

Following the havoc in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who toured various flood-affected areas in Dibrugarh district, an official release claimed. "The prime minister expressed concern and assured all possible help and support to the state government in handling the situation," the release further said.

On the other hand, heavy rainfall in Trai regions of Nepal and Seemanchal since yesterday have deteriorated the situation in Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria and Katihar districts of Bihar. Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul, East and West Champaran are the other affected districts. If reports are to be believed, railway stations in Kishanganj, Katihar and Jogbani in Araria were flooded by water, leaving scores of passengers stranded.

As per the officials, 10 persons, including women and children, have been killed in the floods so far and nearly two million people have been affected by the floods. Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes. Crops worth crores were damaged and road link to several places had been snapped.

Taking stock of the situation, PM Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Bihar CM and assured all support to the state government.

"My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely. Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of NDRF are in Bihar for rescue and relief work," the PMO quoted Modi as saying.

PM @narendramodi has spoken to Bihar CM @NitishKumar regarding the flood situation in parts of the state.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

My thoughts are with all those affected by floods in parts of Bihar. The situation is being monitored closely: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

Centre assures all support to Bihar government to mitigate the flood situation. Teams of @NDRFHQ are in Bihar for rescue and relief work: PM  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 14, 2017

Earlier on Sunday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sought Army and the Indian Air Force's help in relief and rescue of affected people. He had urged Prime Minister Narender Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to provide all possible aid.

Reports claimed that the flood situation in Bihar will continue to be grim following rising water levels in rivers and incessant rains. Major rivers in the state including the Koshi, Mahananda, Gandak, Bagmati and Ganga are in spate, officials said.

(With inputs from agencies)
Disastrous disaster preparedness

Nepal is one of the very few countries in the world that has failed to learn any lessons from her history of disaster and her unpreparedness for them, thanks primarily due to the absence of institutional memory in this nation. Natural disasters in Nepalearthquakes, floods, landslides and fires in particularoccur largely in predictable cycles.
Delhi: Like it always does to mark important occasions, Google on Monday celebrated India's Independence Day with a special doodle.

A Google Doodle is a temporary alteration of the logo on the homepage to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people.

Also, it wrote a special message, which is as follows:

On August 15th, 1947, the front page of The Times of India jubilantly proclaimed Nation Wakes to New Life! Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the Dominion of India, raised the national flag above the Red Forts Lahori Gate as a declaration of the countrys newly won independence.

The 90-year independence movement was a campaign marked by both peaceful endurance and unwavering patriotism, shaping a strong sense of national identity for the people of India that lives on today.

To honor the anniversary, Mumbai-based artist Sabeena Karnik used a unique paper-cut art style to create a Doodle fit for the bold and colorful celebration of todays events. The Parliament House depicted in her work commemorates this day, this movement, and this triumph of independence.

Happy Independence Day to the Republic of India!
New Delhi: The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has criticised Union Minister Faggan Singh Kulaste`s statement wherein he smelled a "conspiracy" in deaths of infants in a Gorakhpur hospital.

JD (U) spokesperson K.C. Tyagi termed this statement as unacceptable, and said, "This is a time to provide relief to the affected people.Such statements weren`t required and I strongly condemn his statement."

JD-U rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari also condemned Kulaste`s statement and demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the incident that has shook the nation.

Anwar said that the opposition is completely justified in asking for the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"Demanding CM`s resignation is the very least that the opposition is doing. The Prime Minister should sack him if he doesn`t resign." he added.

On Sunday, Union Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste on Sunday hinted that there could be a conspiracy behind this tragedy."There may be a conspiracy behind this incident.

It can be clearly observed from the comparison of the figures of children`s death before 9th and after that.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed a probe into this matter and it is his responsibility on Monday.

The reason behind the Gorakhpur incident needs to be studied vividly. It will take time to improve the condition of the healthcare sector in Uttar Pradesh," he told ANI.According to data procured from Gorakhpur`s Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, in five days  from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 children died in the hospital allegedly due to the unavailability of liquid oxygen cylinders.

The Uttar Pradesh government, however, has denied that the children died due to shortage of oxygen cylinders.
Delhi: CRPF commandants Chetan Kumar Cheetah and Pramod Kumar, along with three others, have been awarded the Kirti Chakra, the second highest gallantry award in peace time.

Kumar has been decorated with the medal posthumously.

Major David Manlun and Havildar Giris Gurung have also been awarded the medal posthumously.

The fifth Kirti Chakra has been given to Major Preetam Singh Kunwar.

Also, a total of 990 personnel have been awarded Police Medals on the 71st Independence Day, with Chhattisgarh's elite Special Task Force Platoon Commander Shankar Rao posthumously named for the President's Police Medal for Gallantry.



Of the 990 personnel, 190 get the Police Medal for Gallantry, 93 will receive President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service and 706 the Police Medal for Meritorious Service.

Following are some important facts about the Kirti Chakra awardees:

Cheetah was wounded during a joint operation in the Hajin area of Bandipora district in North Kashmir on February 14 this year. He survived after nine bullet injuries and staying comatose for over a month.

Cheetah was admitted to the AIIMS trauma centre. The 45-year-old suffered injuries to his head, upper limbs, waist, and pelvic region, hands and right eye. He had also suffered a maxillofacial injury, as per doctors.

Cheetah was commanding the 45th Battalion of the force in the Kashmir valley.

CRPF Commandant Pramod Kumar was killed in an encounter soon after unfurling the flag at CRPF Srinagar office on August 15th last year. He was in-charge of the CRPFs 49th battalion.

Earlier, he was given DGs commendation disc in 2015 and then commendation certificate in 2014.

He is survived by his wife, a 6-year-old daughter and 63-year-old father, who live in West Bengal.

Major Manlun belonged to the 164 Brigade of the Territorial Army. He was killed during an encounter at remote Lappa, close to the Myanmar border. Manlun was an alumnus of St Anthony's School and College, Shillong.

He used used to command an NCC unit and grew up in the Happy Valley-Madanrting area of the city and had cleared the combined Defence Service examination. He added that Major David completed his training from the Officers' Training Academy in Chennai.



David was commissioned in the year 2010 and his first unit was the Naga Regiment. His funeral will be held at the Assam Regimental Centre cemetery here on Wednesday. On the other hand, people were seen lined up on the streets as the Army carried the cortege of the martyr to his home in the city.



Havildar Giris Gurung was martyred during a counter infiltration operation along the LoC in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir on May 20. He along with others had fought a group of armed militants in a two-day operation, which lasted nearly 48 hours. Four militants were killed in the operation.

Gurung was 38 and hailed from Kaski in Nepal. He served the Army for 19 years and is survived by his wife Panch Maya Gurung and two children.

He was cremated with full military honours at Subathu in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh.

Major Preetam Singh Kunwar, 35, is of the fourth battalion of the Garhwal Rifle. He has been awarded for fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Garhwal Rifles is one of the most decorated infantry regiments of the Indian Army and was originally raised in 1887 as the 39th (Garhwal) Regiment of the Bengal Army. Later it had became part of the British Indian Army. It was incorporated into the Indian Army after Independence.

#IndianArmy honours its heroes by awarding Kirti Chakra #BraveSonsOfIndia pic.twitter.com/lclqitfbNy  ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) August 14, 2017
Mumbai: In what can be called as a good news for commuters, travelling on the Western line, authorities have decided to open the cost-effective 'one rupee clinic' at the 10 railway stations by the end of August 2017.

If everything goes according to the plan, the officials will cover all 24 railway station on Western Railway later.

Talking about the click, Dr Rahul Ghule told Zee Media, "We have been in talks with the Western line railway authority for few months. Our objective is to give affordable health service to the commuters. Due to our success in running cost effective medical services at various railway stations on the Central and Harbour line, we will be happy to help commuters travelling on the Western line as well."

'One rupee clinic' has been successfully operating on the Central line railway stations for more than three months. The first clinic was opened at Ghatkopar railway station on May 10, 2017. Officials claim that the move is benefitting passengers during their hour of need.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has assured of granting visa to a Pakistani woman for her treatment in India.

The Pakistani woman, Faiza Tanveer, is suffering from cancer. Requesting Swaraj to grant her medical visa, she said India should help her out on to celebrate its 70th Independence Day.

Taking to Twitter, Tanveer had posted,"Ma'am you are mother for me. Please grant me visa as India is about to celebrate its 70th Independence Day. Please help me thankyou."

@SushmaSwaraj mam qp mery lie maa he hain plz mam mujhu medical visa dy dain es 70win azadi k sall ki khushi main meri maddad kr dain dhnywd pic.twitter.com/SMBhfo2cOT  Faiza Tanveer (@FaizaTanveer8) August 13, 2017

Swaraj, informing about her medical visa and tweeted on Sunday, "Thanks for your greetings on India's Independence day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India."

Thanks for your greetings on India's Independence day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India. https://t.co/jThT2KayoZ  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 13, 2017

Faiza is reportedly suffering from Ameloblastoma, an oral tumour which is aggressive in nature, and wanted to treat her condition in India.
New Delhi: In a first, President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday ended his maiden address as the first citizen to the nation on the eve of the 71st Independence Day with "Vande Mataram", preceded by "Jai Hind".



Kovind's two immediate predecessors -- Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Devisingh Patil -- would conclude their Independence Day eve addresses with "Jai Hind".



In another first, the President spoke against a dynamic backdrop that kept changing as he delivered his televised address.



For example, when he spoke about freedom fighters, there was a black-and-white picture of a freedom march in the background. Similarly, when he spoke of Mahatma Gandhi, a picture of the Father of the Nation appeared in the backdrop.



The backdrop changed to a modern bridge as the President spoke of infrastructure and development. Similarly, farmers' visuals were seen as he spoke about agriculture.



Also, soldiers and schoolchildren formed the backdrop when he spoke about them.
New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind will honour 112 heroes of India's armed forces with gallantry awards, including five Kirti Chakras, given for extreme valour and self-sacrifice, on the occasion of 71st Independence Day on Tuesday.

The five Kirti Chakra recipients are Major Preetam Singh Kunwar (Garhwal Rifles), Havildar Giris Gurung (Posthumous, Gorkha Rifles), Major David Manlun (Naga Regiment), CRPF commandant Pramod Kumar (Posthumous) and CRPF commandant Chetan Kumar Cheeta.

The supreme commander of the armed forces will also give away 17 Shaurya Chakras, 85 Sena Medals, three Nao Sena Medals and two Vayu Sena Medals.

The president has also awarded Mention-in-Despatches to 40 army and air personnel for their significant contributions in military operations.

These awards include two for Operation Meghdoot, 32 for Operation Rakshak, four for Operation Orchid and one each for Army Headquarters and Air Force, the government said on the eve of I-Day.

Earlier, addressing the nation on the eve of 71st Independence Day, President Kovind said it is time the citizens take inspiration from those who gave their lives for the nation and move forward.

Acknowledging the hardships faced by the country's security forces in the line of duty, the president said, "Our soldiers who guard our borders are not just doing their duty; they are displaying an extra degree of selflessness."

CRPF commandant Pramod Kumar was killed in an encounter immediately after unfurling the flag at CRPF Srinagar office on August 15th last year.

Another Kirti Chakra nominee Chetan Kumar Cheeta was wounded during a joint operation in the Hajin area of North Kashmir's Bandipora district on February 14 this year. He survived nine bullet injuries.

Havildar Giris Gurung, also a Kirti Chakra recipient, was martyred during a counter-infiltration operation along the LoC in Kashmir's Kupwara on May 20.

The Kirti Chakra is the second highest military award given in peacetime for bravery and sacrifice, while the Shaurya Chakra is the third highest decoration in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards. Sena, Nao Sena and Vayu Sena medals are given for exceptional devotion to duty or courage.

'Mention in dispatches' is given for meritorious services and gallantry which are not of a sufficiently high order to warrant the grant of gallantry awards.

On Monday, the president also approved Police Medals to 990 personnel, with Chhattisgarh's elite Special Task Force Platoon Commander Shankar Rao posthumously named for the President's Police Medal for Gallantry.

Rao, called Fighter Rao' by his colleagues, showed exemplary courage during a Maoist ambush in Sukma district on April 11, 2015, in which his six other colleagues were also killed and 10 injured.
New Delhi: A change of leadership could soon to be on the cards for the Indian National Congress party. Recently, party president Sonia Gandhi hinted at making Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the new working president.

On August 8, towards the end of Congress Working Committee (CWC) that discussed the issue of 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, Mrs Gandhi quietly broached the subject of the change of guard with some senior leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  wondering aloud if Priyanka Gandhi should be made Working President of the party, reported the DNA.

A final decision on the future of the party is expected to be taken in the next one month or so.

"It wasn't a casual question. She clearly had something on her mind. There is lot of merit in this move, if it happens," observed a CWC member.

Mrs Gandhi's suggestion has received strong support from senior leadership.

Priyanka Gandhi's spokesperson, however, refuted the rumours.

Complete fabrication. No such discussion took place whatsoever: Priyanka Gandhi's PA P Sahay to ANI on reports of her being Cong working Pres  ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2017

Over the last few years, there has been a strong demand within the party that Priyanka be given a formal role. The Gandhi family has repeatedly sidestepped the issue. On her part, Priyanka has restricted herself, politically that is, to the Gandhi family bastions of Amethi and Rae Barelli.

Sources present in the meeting shared with Zee Media that Sonia told the select few that if the party wants to put up a credible show in the next Lok Sabha elections, a young face would have to assume control and manage the affairs of the party, including strategising with senior leaders.

Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi  who many consider to be the next Congress president did not attend the meeting since he's suffering from viral fever.

While Rahul's elevation as party president has been the subject of intense speculation in the party folds, many consider Priyanka being the face of the party to the run up to the 2019 general elections could rejuvenate the struggling.

"Whether we want to admit it or not, the truth is that the Gandhi family is the glue that binds this party. Even when a member of the family wasn't at the forefront, like when PV Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister or when Sitaram Kesari was party president, the shadow of the family always loomed large. Despite attempts to malign the name of the family, there is little doubt that the Gandhis have a connect with voters in large parts of the country," observed a senior Congress MP and a former minister.

Since 2014, when Narendra Modi led the BJP to a spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has witnessed a steady departure of several prominent state-level leaders.

Many in the party also suggest that the reason for the absence of an effective game-plan to counter the Modi juggernaut is the sharp divide between the thought process of Team Rahul and the Old Guard represented by the likes of Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and many state satraps.

While some who don't enjoy much support within the party or even among common voters have talked of looking beyond the Nehru-Gandhi family to revive the party, this line of thinking hasn't found any traction within the Congress.
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Monday night called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi to greet him on Independence Day.

Tweeting about it PM Modi wrote: "Appreciate the warm felicitations from @POTUS, who called this evening to convey Independence Day greetings. Thank you @realDonaldTrump."

Appreciate the warm felicitations from @POTUS, who called this evening to convey Independence Day greetings. Thank you @realDonaldTrump.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 14, 2017

PM Modi will address the nation tomorrow from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

The unfurling of the tri-colour will synchronize with the 21 Gun Salute fired by the valiant gunners of the elite 2281 Field Regiment (Ceremonial).

The Army Band will play the National Anthem when the National Guard presents the `Rashtriya Salute` while unfurling the National Flag by the Prime Minister.

Security has been tightened in Delhi with areas in the Lutyens zone and those surrounding the iconic Red Fort being turned into a fortress to ward off any security threats.

More than ten thousand Police personnel have been deployed in and around the Red Fort and surrounding areas along with snipers, Army and National Security Guard -NSG commandos to make the area attack-proof.

Bus terminals, Railway Stations and the Airport are on high alert as per inputs by the intelligence agencies.

(With ANI inputs)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said a five-judge Constitution Bench would hear if the Constitutional provision barring a J&K woman from property rights and other privileges in the state on marrying a person from outside, if it decides this was violative of the Constitution's "basic structure".



A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said "if we really feel that challenge (to the validity of the Constitutional provisions) is accepted, it would be heard by a five-judge Constitution Bench on two aspects -- whether it is violative of basic structure doctrine and whether it is procedurally ultra vires".



The bench said this while tagging, with an already pending matter, a petition by Dr Charu Wali Khanna challenging Article 35 A of the Constitution and Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution which dealt with "permanent residents" of of Jammu and Kashmir, providing them special rights and privileges.



The provision under challenge not only deprives the native woman of Jammu & Kashmir of her right to acquire or possess any property and other privileges in the hill State but it extends even to her children from such a marriage.



Pointing to the inherent gender bias in the provision, counsel Bimal Jad appearing for the petitioner told the bench that former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah married a foreigner but his son Omar Abdullah continues to enjoy all rights and privileges in the state.



Omar Abdullah in turn marries outside the state and his children continue to enjoy same rights and privileges but same was not the case with his sister Sara Abdullah who too had married outside the state, he added, this was not only discriminatory on the grounds of gender bias but also violative of right to equality under the Constitution's Article 14.



Earlier, the bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar had on July 17 referred to the three-judge bench the challenge to Article 35A dealing with special rights and privileges to the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir.


Flood leaves tourists stranded in Sauraha

Tourism in Sauraha, a popular tourist destination has seen a sharp decline in business after the area was inundated by incessant rainfall that triggered massive flood.
Jammu: A group of unidentified terrorists on Monday hurled grenades on the security forces in Kanihama area in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district.

According to ANI, four security personnel have been seriously injured in the attack.

The grenade attack comes days after the Indian Army killed Hizbul Mujahideen's operational commander Yasin Itoo and two of his cohorts in a fierce encounter in Kashmir's Shopian district.

Yasin Itoo alias 'Ghaznavi' had succeeded Zakir Musa in the Hizbul Mujahideen ranks after the latter was expelled by outfit chief Syed Salahuddin for his allegiance to al Qaeda.

Musa had succeeded Burhan Wani after his encounter killing in July 2016. After Musa's "expulsion", Sabzar Bhatt briefly led the Hizbul pack until his killing, after which Yasin became the operational commander.

Riyaz Naikoo is believed to be the other top Hizb commander which the Indian Army is now looking at.
New Delhi: The Kerala government is gearing up to release a textbook to teach Malayalam to migrant labourers.

This initiative of the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority is likely to facilitate nearly 25 lakh workers who relocated from states like Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Titled as 'Hamari Malayalam', the book will be launched by state education minister C Raveendranath, reported the Hindustan Times.

The book release event will be held at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, a town which reportedly has the largest number of migrant labour population. Following the launch, the initiative aill further be extended to other districts across the state.

According to the Literacy Mission director PS Sreekala, the book will help the migrant labourers to freely interact with the locals.

"Our core objective is to make migrant labourers competent in reading and writing Malayalam. Many of them can already speak broken Malayalam," Sreekala told PTI.

Even though the migrant workers are playing crucial roles in various sectors, they are left neglected, she added.

She further said, "By teaching them Malayalam, we are aiming to end this social exclusion."

Reportedly, the book 'Hamari Malayalam' consists of 25 chapters that covers topics ranging from hygiene, health and technology to rights of workers and ethical values, said Sreekala.

Our target is not just make them teach Malayalam but to inculcate among them the basic lessons of sanitation, health and values in a simplified manner. Majority of them are even illiterate in their own mother tongue, she said.

The venture targets individual above 15 years. The classes will be held in respective colonies, libraries, local schools and other state-run institutions.

We are planning to identify the panchayats in other districts where most number of migrant labourers are living and extend the programme there also in the coming days, she added.
New Delhi: Making use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture or startup is called crowdffunding.

The investment platform invites both investors and fund seekers together through social media and crowdfunding websites.

How it works?

Using this model, any entrepreneur with a robust business model can raise money from the ones interested in making investment.

Crowdfunding provides a forum to anyone with an idea to pitch it in front of waiting investors. Crowdfunding sites generate revenue from a percentage of the funds raised.

Crowdfunding has been used to fund a wide range for-profit entrepreneurial ventures such as artistic and creative projects, medical expenses, travel, or community-oriented social entrepreneurship projects

Two primary types of crowdfunding:

1) Rewards crowdfunding

The entrepreneurs presell a product or service to launch a business concept without incurring debt or sacrificing equity or shares.

2) Equity crowdfunding

The backer receives shares of a company, usually in its early stages, in exchange for the money pledged.

Benefit for Investors

Many crowdfunding projects are rewards-based; investors may get to participate in the launch of a new product or receive a gift for their investment. For instance, the maker of a new soap made out of bacon fat sent a free bar to each of its investors.




New Delhi: Finally, time has arrived! Bookings for free Jio Phone have started. Although the official booking will start on August 24 (both offline and online), certain retailers have already begun taking pre-orders. You can be one of those lucky few who can stand ahead of millions in this race only if you have a near-by retailer taking pre-orders.

Reportedly, security deposit of Rs 1,500 only needs to be paid at hour of picking up the Jio Phone. There is no requirement of paying the entire amount at the booking time.

How to book Jio Phone offline?

Visit the authorized Jio retailer (either an authorized store or a Reliance Jio outlet).



By using Aadhaar, one person will be allowed to get only one unit across the country (one Jio Phone per Aadhaar number).



After providing your Aadhaar details, your information will be uploaded into the centralized software which will assign you a token number.



This number will be required at the time of phone delivery.

How to book Free Jio Phone online?

For beta testing, this handset will be available from August 15. Currently, Jio Phone is under testing phase and official bookings will start from August 24. The handset will be delivered from September onwards for the customers.

Note:

Launch date: 15 August, 2017

Online pre-registration commencement: 24 August, 2017

Delivery: September 2017

Steps:

Visit official website of the phone jio.com or jiofreephone.org.



As the online registration starts, Image/Button will be displayed on homepage.



Click on to JIO Free Mobile Phone Registration/ Pre Booking Button.



Fill up your credentials and other required information such as contact number, address and others.



Enter the shipping address for delivery.



Pay the security deposit of Rs 1,500 via debit/credit card or opt for net banking.



The Jio Phone will be booked. The delivery will be made on 'First Come First Serve' basis.

Other details

The Jio Phone was announced at 40th AGM meeting of Reliance Industries on July 21. You will not be required to pay security amount at the time of submission of the Aadhaar number. The payment will have to be made only when you will receive the unit from the offline retailer. As mentioned earlier, the amount is refundable after 36 months of using the handset.

The online booking from August 24 can be made via MyJio app.
Washington: Scientists are developing an inflatable speedboat that absorbs the energy of waves to provide a smooth ride when travelling through choppy waters.

Researchers at Utah State University (USU) in the US have for the first time demonstrated the unique differences in water impact behaviour of rigid and elastic bodies.

"Rigid and elastic materials interact with the water surface quite differently," said Randy Hurd, a PhD candidate at USU and lead author of the study published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

"When an elastic body impacts the surface, the material deforms and oscillates significantly which changes the water- impact physics compared to a rigid body," Hurd said.

Researchers used high-speed cameras to record elastomeric spheres dropping into a tank of water.

At 2,000 frames per second, the footage revealed the unique splash curtains and air-filled cavities that form after impact.

The group used the images to track the position and deformation of the elastic spheres to understand how energy transfers from the water to the material.

By analysing the results, researchers said that they can accurately predict the water interaction behaviour based on the type of soft material and its speed.

"Being able to predict water interaction from a materials perspective is an important first step in understanding which material types would be best for developing an inflatable watercraft capable of providing a smoother ride over a choppy surface," said Hurd.
Miami: SpaceX is poised to launch an unmanned cargo ship toward the International Space Station Monday, including a super-computer that could direct astronauts on future deep-space missions.



The liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon cargo ship, is planned for 12:31 pm (1631 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida.



The weather forecast is 70 percent favorable for launch.



The mission is the 12th official trip for SpaceX, which has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to supply the astronauts living in orbit over 20 such back-and-forth journeys.



About 10 minutes after launch, the rocket will attempt to make a controlled landing back on solid ground at Cape Canaveral, as part of SpaceX's ongoing effort to re-use rocket components after each take-off.



If Monday's launch is delayed for any reason, the next attempt would have to wait until next week, due to a spacewalk planned for Thursday by Russian cosmonauts, who will deploy a series of satellites from the orbiting outpost.

Complicated cargo

The Dragon is packed with 6,400 pounds (2,900 kilograms) of supplies, including a sophisticated super-computer made by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), called The Spaceborne Computer.



The goal is to test the computer for one year to see if it can operate in the harsh conditions of space, about the same amount of time as it would take for astronauts to arrive at Mars.



As astronauts travel millions of miles away, communications will become increasingly delayed. Messages from Mars to Earth would be delayed from between four minutes to 24 minutes one-way, depending on the distance between the planets, according to the European Space Agency.



"Such a long communication lag would make any on-the-ground exploration challenging and potentially dangerous if astronauts are met with any mission critical scenarios that they're not able to solve themselves," said HPE senior vice president Alain Andreoli in a statement.



The new super-computer aims to provide "sophisticated onboard computing resources that are capable of extended periods of uptime," he added, describing the year-long effort as "the first step in that direction."



Another experiment on board is designed to help scientists study Parkinson's disease in greater detail in the hopes of finding better treatments for this degenerative disease.



Un-impeded by gravity, protein crystals can grow larger in space, and scientists hope to use this environment to help them understand an important protein in Parkinson's disease, known as Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2).



Until now, this protein has been difficult to study in Earth, according to researchers at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which developed the research project.



Other experiments on board include a stem cell investigation for growing new lung tissue, and equipment for growing vegetables in space.
New Delhi: Google on Monday launched voice search support for eight additional languages spoken in India, allowing people to use their voice to dictate queries both in Gboard on Android and in Search through the Google App.



The languages are Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.



In order to perform a voice-based search, users will need to set their language in the "Voice" settings menu in Google app, the company said in a statement.



The new language support will also enhance voice typing on Gboard, helping users to respond to emails on the go and send texts within messaging apps.



To enable "Voice Typing", users can install Gboard from the Play Store and choose their language from the "Settings". Then all it takes is tapping the microphone to start speaking.



Voice search in these new languages will be available in Google Search on iOS as well.



These new languages will also be made available in the "Cloud Speech API" and will soon be extended to other Google apps and products, including the "Translate" app.



Earlier this year, Google had launched a set of new products and features to help create more language content and better serve the needs of new users coming online.



Google`s speech recognition now supports 119 languages in Gboard on Android, Voice Search and more.
Mumbai: Actress Parineeta Borthakur, who had earlier said she was reluctant to play a mother on a show again, has been replaced by actress Dolly Sohi on "Meri Durga".



But her reason of leaving the show is something else.



"I had to rush to my family due to some emergency and I won't be able to shoot for the next one week. I understand that they have to telecast so, we mutually agreed on the replacement," Parineeta said in a statement.



The actress, best known for playing a mother on the show "Swaragini - Jodein Rishton Ke Sur", had earlier said: "Initially, I didn't want to do it. I spoke to them three to four times because I was reluctant to play a mother to grown-up actors, but the role is interesting; so I went ahead."



She was supposed to play an "aristocratic character".



Dolly, on the other hand, is excited to be a part of the show.



"It has grey shades. I accepted the role as it was challenging," she said.
Floods claim 57 lives across country

Massive floods following incessant rains in the past few days have claimed 57 lives while thousands have been displaced across the country.
Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday rejected the demand of resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the wake of death of over 60 children at at Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) Medical College Hospital since August 7.

The children reportedly died for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.



Shah also said that after investigation ordered by Adityanath gets complete and the report is submitted, action will be taken against the culprits.



"Seeking resignation is Congress's work. In such a big country, many accidents happen. This has not happened for the first time. Such accidents happened during even Congress governments," Shah told reporters.



He was responding to a query that responsibilities can't be with the doctors and government officials only and should be fixed for politicians also for the deaths of children in Gorakhpur.



Responding to another query, Shah said that the BJP does not fix anyone like Congress does without conducting proper enquiry.

"The matter is being probed and Yogiji has ordered a time bound probe. The report will be made public after it is submitted," he said describing the deaths of children as an accident. "It was a mistake... it might have happened at any stage," he said, as per IANS.



The BJP chief also justified Yogi's directions for preparations for a "grand Krishna Janmashtami celebration" at a time when the state is mourning the death of over 60 infants.



"Everyone is saddened by the deaths of children but Yogiji has not ordered celebration of Janmashtami in reference to the deaths. Janmashtami has its own place and is being celebrated every where in the country," Shah said adding that the Janmashtami is not a government festival.



"If some one celebrates Janmashtami in his house what can the government do," he said.

SC refuses to take cognisance of UP hospital tragedy:

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today refused to take cognisance of the deaths of children in Gorakhpur.

The bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances.

The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the BRD hospital, as per PTI.

The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned.

The state government had on August 12 ordered an official inquiry by the chief secretary and suspended the principal of the Medical College Hospital Rajiv Mishra.

(With Agency inputs)
Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the deaths of over 65 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur over the past few days.

Blaming the deaths on negligence of doctors, the administration and the state BJP government, the former Urban Development Minister said that this was a case of murder and that guilty should be brought to book.

He also extended his condolences and sympathies to the families who lost their children in the tragedy.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and SP President Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to be in Gorakhpur later on Monday where he will visit the BRD Medical College and meet the bereaved families.
Gorakhpur: Hitting out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Congress party has demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe into the tragic death of over 70 children at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's Hospital due to alleged disruption of liquid oxygen supply.

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Tom Vadakkan said it is a complete administrative failure at their end and if MoS Health Faggan Singh Kulaste thinks that there is a conspiracy then a Supreme Court-monitored enquiry would be ideal.

This comes even as the UP government removed Dr Kafeel Khan as the Nodal Officer for the Department of Pediatrics of the BRD hospital.

Dr Bhupendra Sharma has now been given the charge of the nodal officer of Pediatric Department, while Dr PK Singh, Principal of Rajkiya Medical College, Ambedkar Nagar, has been given additional charge of BRD Medical College.

In a related development, the Supreme Court today refused to take 'suo moto' cognizance of incidents of child deaths in Gorakhpur hospital.

Rejecting the plea which sought a SIT probe in matter, the apex court asked the petitioner to approach High Court in this regard.

Meanwhile, the NHRC today issued a notice to the UP government over the tragedy and sought a detailed report in 4 weeks.

Speaking on the issue, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on August 13 that he is tremendously affected by the death of over 70 children while reiterating that a probe will be instigated and the guilty will be severely punished.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deeply concerned and has offered complete support, Adityanath said that nobody can be more sensitive than him in the regard.

"Nobody can be more sensitive towards those children than me. Prime Minister is very concerned and he assured complete assistance from the Centre. Prime Minister has also sent Union Health Minister JP Nadda to take cognizance of the situation," Adityanath said.

Tragedy continued to descend upon Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital as another child succumbed to encephalitis today, taking the death toll over 70 on August 13.

11 children died on August 12 and, until Friday, the death toll stood at 60.

According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths were reported at the hospital.

With ANI inputs
Lucknow: Politics over the death of 63 children in Gorakhpurs government hospital continues unabated. In the latest salvo, the Shiv Sena termed the tragedy as mass murder in its mouthpiece, the Saamana.

The party, which shares an uneasy alliance with the BJP in Maharashtra took pot shots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, The sufferings of the poor don't move our politicians. And that is the failure of our Independence. This suffering and pain is the 'Mann Ki Baat' of the poor Thankfully, the government has at least admitted that there are so many deaths in Gorakhpur. Otherwise, they would have said that these children have only stopped breathing, and will start breathing again once they hear the independence speech delivered from Red Fort.



Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray added, ''If children really do die in August each year, how come children of politicians and local strongmen are spared? Death doesn't visit their homes? This is mass murder of children.''



Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today refused to intervene in the issue, saying the matter was being handled by the Uttar Pradesh government and any grievances about it should be raised before the Allahabad High Court.





Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his visit to the hospital yesterday promised exemplary punishment for the guilty. Union Minister JP Nadda, who had accompanied the Chief Minister, has ruled out a separate investigation by the Centre.



Oxygen shortage has been blamed for the deaths - a claim the hospital authorities have denied. The state government has already taken action, removing the doctor in charge Dr Kafeel Khan and suspending the hospital chief, Dr Rajeev Mishra, for negligence.

The oxygen supply had been stopped by the vendor after the hospital defaulted on payment. Last Thursday, the hospital had been functioning without any oxygen cylinders for two hours. The Uttar Pradesh government says it had cleared the payment for the vendor on August 7 but the funds were not released by hospital authorities till August 11.



Chief Minister Adityanath, on his visit yesterday, said that just a day before oxygen supply was disrupted he was in the region but no one informed him that there was a crisis. Yogi Adityanath has represented Gorakhpur in Lok Sabha for almost 20 years.



Police say no case has been registered so far in the absence of a formal complaint.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has always been opposing the Centre`s policies and initiatives, adding it is high time to stop politics over patriotism.

"Mamata Banerjee has been opposing the Centre`s policies and initiatives even when they ought to have been complimented and welcomed. It is high time to stop politics over patriotism," BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao told ANI.

He further said that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) circular is encouraging schools to celebrate the Independence moment and remember those who sacrificed their lives for the country.

"There is no need for any State Government to do politics over it. But Mamata Banerjee has been indulging in such politics and people of Bengal will not forgive her. West Bengal has given the best of the freedom fighters during freedom movement," Rao added.

Another BJP leader Sudesh Verma said that just because secularism has come to Central Government it should not become an excuse for any State Government to oppose this.

"This is a format that has been evolved over the period of time. For any function of national significance there is a proper format, a proper procedure that needs to be followed. It has been devised because it inculcates patriotism and it brings a kind of uniformity. Nobody should oppose for the sake of opposing it," he added.

Verma further said that this is happening just because the BJP Government is in centre.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Government has instructed its schools not to follow the Centre`s circular on building "mass fervour" around Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s `New India Mission` and administering a `Sankalp se Siddhi` pledge to all students.It has also rejected a suggested format for celebrations to mark Independence Day this year.

Earlier on Sunday, promoting the `Sankalp se Siddhi` campaign to be launched by the BJP, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said Sunday that this initiative will help in bringing forth a corruption-free India.

While talking to ANI about the initiative, he said, "Prime Minister Modi has given a clarion call to observe `Sankalp se Siddhi` from 2017 to 2022 to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Quit India Movement to the 75th anniversary of Independence.

"He said that the programme will help in achieving the goal of a corruption-free India.In addition to bolster the programme, BJP has arranged a number of competitions for students across all age groups.

Speaking about the West Bengal government`s refusal to follow the initiative, he said that the party wouldn`t want to comment on it through media.Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the `Sankalp se Siddhi` programme while addressing the parliament on August 9, the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement.
Kolkata: Accusing a section of media houses in the country of "misrepresenting facts" about the impending Independence Day celebrations in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said every person in Bengal has the full freedom to celebrate the occasion.



"Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts. Don't mislead. In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom," Banerjee said on Twitter.



She also said all the schools in Bengal would be celebrating the 70th year of India's independence on Tuesday in "their own special way".



"All schools in Bengal are celebrating Independence Day as per their choice. In their own special way," she clarified.



Controversy erupted last week after the West Bengal government issued an "urgent" directive to all District Project Officers in-charge of the Sarva Shikha Mission in the state on August 11, instructing all schools and other educational institutions to "stop all preparations" for celebrating Independence Day 2017 in a format prescribed by the Union HRD Ministry.



Criticising the centre and BJP for trying to enforce their thinking on others, the state government said they do not need lessons on patriotism from the BJP and would celebrate the Independence Day "in their own way".



The Human Resource Development Ministry had earlier, issued a circular on July 25 to all state Education Secretaries specifying "additional activities" to be undertaken by schools under the Sarva Shiksha Mission to celebrate Independence Day in a "befitting m
Beijing: China has appointed a new special envoy for the North Korean issue, Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, its foreign ministry said on Monday, after his predecessor, Wu Dawei, reached retirement age.

Kong, 58, is an ethnic Korean from the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, who has overall responsibility for Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, according to his resume.

He has held senior positions at the Chinese embassy in Japan and from 2011 to 2014 he was China`s ambassador to Vietnam, two countries with which China has often troubled relations.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Kong had taken over from Wu, but that there was no connection between the appointment and the current situation on the Korean peninsula, where tensions have been rising in recent days.

There would be no change in China`s policy towards the Korean peninsula because of the new appointment, she added.

A Beijing-based foreign diplomat who is familiar with the matter said that Wu, who turns 71 in December, had reached retirement age.

Asked whether Kong had any immediate plans to visit Pyongyang, spokeswoman Hua said she had no information about that.

Tension on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Korea`s President said resolving the North`s nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and key US officials played down the risk of an imminent war with North Korea.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tension in recent months.

China is North Korea`s closest ally, but it has been infuriated by its repeated missile and nuclear tests and has signed up for increasingly tough UN sanctions on the isolated nation.

However, China says sanctions are not the final way to resolve the issue, and has repeatedly called for a return to diplomacy and the restart of a six-party talks process with North Korea, which includes China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan, and which collapsed in 2008.
Beijing: The Chinese Commerce Ministry on Monday announced a complete ban on coal, iron, lead and seafood imports from North Korea.



The ban, to come into force on Tuesday and in accordance with the sanctions approved by the UN Security Council on August 5, excludes imports authorized before that date and which will be allowed to enter Chinese territory until September 5.



It also excludes imports originating in third countries but supplied via North Korea's port of Rason with approval from the UN Security Council.



China, a permanent member of the Council with the power of veto, voted in favour of Resolution 2371, which imposes sanctions against North Korea.



On Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping had asked his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to exercise restraint to prevent a further escalation of tensions in the Korean peninsula after the recent flurry of threats between Washington and Pyongyang.


Govt offers to buy Manmohan College

The ruling Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) on Sunday proposed purchasing the Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences after fasting surgeon Dr Govinda KC remained firm on his demand for barring the establishment of new medical schools in Kathmandu Valley for the next 10 years.
Abidjan: The "terrorist" attack on a restaurant in Burkina Faso killed at least 18 people including eight foreigners and seven locals, the country`s foreign minister Alpha Barry said Monday.

The foreigners killed in Sunday`s attack included one Frenchman; one Canadian woman; male victims from Senegal, Niger, Lebanon and Turkey; and two Kuwaiti women, while three victims remain unidentified, he said.
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Islamabad wants positive and constructive relations with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality.

"Pakistan desires positive and constructive relations with all the countries of the world, especially with its neighbours on the basis of sovereign equality," Abbasi said in his address to the nation on the occasion of Pakistan`s 70th Independence Day.

"The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last fifty years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably, the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress," he added.

Abbasi`s remarks holds importance as tensions between India and Pakistan are running high amid spree of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration from Islamabad`s side.

Relations between India and Pakistan worsened after several terror attacks including one on an Indian military base in Uri and also on an Indian air force base in Pathankot.

The situation between both nations further deteriorated after a Pakistan military court announced a death sentence to former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Relations between the two nations have been particularly worsened after the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan based terrorists.
Jerusalem: A rabbi and lawmaker from Israel`s ruling party held office hours Monday outside a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to protest a government ban on visits by MPs and ministers.

Yehuda Glick, who was shot in 2014 over his campaign for Jewish prayer rights at the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, said it was a one-day action.

"I`m here to protest the fact that the prime minister won`t enable police to allow us to enter the Temple Mount," Glick told AFP.

"I suffer every day I can`t enter the Temple Mount," he said, as he held court at one of the gates to the compound alongside a number of bodyguards.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in October 2015 imposed the ban on visits by MPs and ministers to the flashpoint religious site in an effort to restore calm after an outbreak of violence.

The unrest was fuelled in part by fears among Palestinians that Israel was planning to assert further control over the compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

The site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, and it is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Glick had in March petitioned the supreme court against Netanyahu`s ban.

The government decided in response to allow lawmakers to visit the compound for a "pilot number of days" in July, but an outbreak of violence there put off the plan.Glick, a US-born rabbi, survived a 2014 assassination attempt by a Palestinian over his campaign for Jewish prayer rights at the site before he joined parliament as a member of Netanyahu`s Likud party.

Violence erupted in and around the site after three Arab Israelis shot dead two Israeli policemen on July 14.

Israel responded by installing metal detectors at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, used as a staging point for the attack.

For nearly two weeks, worshippers refused to submit to the checks and staged mass prayers in surrounding streets.

Ensuing protests and clashes left seven Palestinians dead, while three Israelis were stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant.

The crisis abated when Israel removed the detectors.

Jews are allowed to visit the compound but not pray there, and the site has been the scene of regular confrontation when they try to flout the rule.

Glick described the site as "the essence of my life."

"There`s no reason in the world to think that my entering the Temple Mount will stir trouble," he said.

"The Jewish god is inclusive... he wants to see the prayer of Muslims and Jews and Christians and Indonesians and Mexicans," Glick said.

"We don`t want to harm the Muslims, on the contrary... when I see a Muslim praying at the Temple Mount it fills my heart with great joy. It shows me the fulfullment of the prophecies of our prophets."
Seoul/Beijing: Tension on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Korea`s president said resolving North Korea`s nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and US officials played down the risk of an imminent war.

Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tension in recent months.

US President Donald Trump warned at the weekend that the US military was "locked and loaded" if North Korea acted unwisely after threatening last week to land missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam.

"There must be no more war on the Korean peninsula. Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear situation must be resolved peacefully," South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a regular meeting with senior aides and advisers.

"I am certain the United States will respond to the current situation calmly and responsibly in a stance that is equal to ours," he said.

While backing Trump`s tough talk, US officials including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster played down the risk on Sunday of the rhetoric escalating into conflict.

"I think we`re not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," McMaster told ABC News` "This Week".

US Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might conduct another missile test but talk of being on the cusp of a nuclear war was overstating the risk.

"I`ve seen no intelligence that would indicate that we`re in that place today," Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday".

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal the United States was adopting a policy of "strategic accountability" towards North Korea, and was applying diplomatic and economic pressure "to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a dismantling of the regimes ballistic-missile programs".

"While diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Koreas course of action, it is backed by military options," they said.

World stocks rallied as investors took heart from the less bellicose rhetoric.

However, North Korea reiterated its threats, with its official KCNA news agency saying "war cannot be blocked by any power if sparks fly due to a small, random incident that was unintentional".

"Any second Korean War would have no choice but to spread into a nuclear war," it said in a commentary.

South Korean Vice Defence Minister Suh Choo-suk agreed North Korea was likely to continue provocations, including nuclear tests, but did not see a big risk of the North engaging in actual military conflict.

Suh again highlighted doubts about North Korea`s claims about its military capability.

"Both the United States and South Korea do not believe North Korea has yet completely gained re-entry technology in material engineering terms," Suh said in remarks televised on Sunday for a Korea Broadcasting System show.

The United States and South Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July, tests it often conducts to coincide with important national dates.

Tuesday marks the anniversary of Japan`s expulsion from the Korean peninsula, a rare holiday celebrated by both the North and the South. Moon and Kim, who has not been seen publicly for several days, are both expected to make addresses on their respective sides of the heavily militarised border.

Trump has urged China, the North`s main ally and trading partner, to do more to rein in its neighbour, often linking Beijing`s efforts to comments around US-China trade. China strenuously rejects linking the two issues.

Trump will issue an order later on Monday to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force US firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property, senior administration officials said on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing has said many times the essence of China-U.S. trade and business ties is mutual benefit and that there is no future in any trade war between China and the United States.

"The (Korean) peninsula issue and trade and business issues are in a different category from each other," Hua added. "On these two issues, China and the United States should respect each other and increase cooperation. Using one issue as a tool for exerting pressure on another is clearly inappropriate."

China`s Commerce Ministry issued an order on Monday banning imports of coal, iron ore, lead concentrates and ore, lead and sea food from North Korea, effective from Tuesday.

The move followed the announcement of U.N. sanctions against North Korea this month which have to be enforced within 30 days by member-states.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford told South Korea`s Moon in a meeting on Monday that US military options being prepared against North Korea would be for when diplomatic and economic sanctions failed, according to Moon`s office.
Kuala Lumpur: Leaders of Malaysia`s ruling party have condemned violence that erupted at a forum where former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was speaking, as political tension rises ahead of a general election that could be called in coming months.

One opposition leader accused Prime Minister Najib Razak of "gangsterism" to keep Mahathir quiet after some people at the Sunday meeting threw shoes, chairs and flares at Mahathir, who has made it his mission to unseat Najib over his handling of the a multi-billion dollar scandal involving a state fund.

Mahathir, 92, was not hurt, his aide said.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said differences of opinion did not give anyone license to act violently.

"As a country that practices democracy, such an incident should not have happened," Ahmad Zahid was quoted as saying in the Star daily newspaper on Monday.

Mahathir, who served as prime minister for 22 years until he stepped down in 2003, chairs a fractured opposition alliance hoping to unseat the long-ruling government coalition in election due by next year.

Mahathir has offered to head a government again if the opposition wins.

Some opposition leaders allied with Mahathir accused Najib of orchestrating the violence. A deputy president of the People`s Justice Party, Azmin Ali, said in a statement the Prime Minister had resorted to "gangsterism".

A senior member of Najib`s United Malay National Organisation, who is also a government minister, Salleh Said Keruak, said such accusations were "unhealthy" for politics.

"Remember that gangster politics is not part of our political culture," Salleh said in a statement.

Another government minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, condemned the violence in a Twitter message saying it "cannot be tolerated".

Media reported that police had detained two people.

Mahathir has been a prominent critics of his former protege Najib over the scandal-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib denies wrongdoing.

1MDB is the subject of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries. The US Justice Department alleged in civil lawsuits that about $4.5 billion of funds were misappropriated from the fund.

The US Justice Department said in its latest court filing on Thursday it was conducting a criminal investigation of 1MDB and asked for a stay on civil lawsuits it had filed to seize assets allegedly bought with money stolen from the fund.

Najib denied taking money from 1MDB after it was reported that investigators traced nearly $700 million to his bank accounts. Authorities cleared him of any wrongdoing, saying the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia.
Brussels: The number of African migrants arriving in Italy after crossing the Mediterranean from Libya dropped by more than half in July from June, the European Union`s border agency Frontex said on Monday.

But the number of migrants on a secondary, western Mediterranean route to Spain rose sharply last month, it said.

Frontex said 10,160 migrants arrived from Northern Africa on Italy`s southern shores in July, 57 percent fewer than in June and the lowest level of arrivals in July since 2014.

Bad weather and clashes in the region of Libya from where many migrants depart on smugglers` boats contributed to the decline, the agency said.

"In addition, increased presence of the Libyan Coast Guard also discouraged the people smugglers from sending out boats with migrants," Frontex said.

Italy has been the main gateway to Europe since a 2016 deal with Ankara shut off the route from Turkey to EU member Greece, which had mostly been used by Syrian refugees.

Frontex said 2,300 migrants made it to Spain in July, more than four times as many as a year earlier. Arrivals in Spain in the first seven months were "around 11,000, already exceeding the number for all of 2016," it said.

Both the western route leading to Spain and the central Mediterranean one to Italy carry African nationals. The EU considers most of them to be labour migrants - rather than refugees - and does not want to take them in.

Immigration is dominating Italy`s political agenda before elections early next year, with public opinion increasingly hostile to migrants. Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years.

The EU has been increasingly engaging in Libya to prevent departures, despite heavy criticism from rights groups that the policy fails to help those in need as required by international law.
Washington: US administration believes that the threat from North Korea cannot be contained like Pakistan.

Responding to a question, the CIA Director Mike Pompeo told CBS News, "This regime is different. I heard -- Susan Rice said, we just need to learn to live with this. President Trump finds that unacceptable. This is not a leader for whom containment is a policy that makes sense for American national security.".

Senior US security officials have said that an attack from North Korea is not imminent but also cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago.

Pompeo said the Trump Administration has done a fine job of not drawing red lines that it is "not prepared to" enforce.

"An attack from North Korea is not something that is imminent. The American people should know that this administration is doing everything with its power.

The President has enabled the intelligence community and the Department of Defence, to be sure, that we're protecting America from this threat," Pompeo said.

Responding to a series of questions on North Korea, the CIA Director said the Trump Administration has done a fine job of not drawing red lines that it is "not prepared to" enforce.

"I think what the President was doing there was very effective. He was communicating to many audiences, certainly the rogue leader in North Korea, communicating to him that the strategic patience of the past decades is no longer -- we're just too close to him having this capacity to hold America at risk," he said.

Pompeo was asked about the warning given by the US President Donald Trump to North Korea if they attacked Guam, an American territory in the Pacific.

"He was communicating to the world, to China and to others who can influence the outcome there. We had a great success. We have the whole world voting to sanction North Korea, something that hasn't happened for an awfully long time," he said.

"This is real progress as a direct result of what President Trump has done and the way we have communicated the threat, not only to America and to Japan and South Korea, but to the entire world, from this rogue leader," the CIA Chief said adding that Trump has made it pretty clear that he would not allow North Korea to have nuclear weapons.

"He's made very clear that the United States finds it unacceptable for a rogue leader like Kim Jong-un to have the capacity of a ballistic missile with a warhead that is integrated and fully deliverable to the United States and hold America and the world at risk," he said.

"He finds that unacceptable. He's simply not going to permit it to happen," Pompeo added.

The former US Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, expressed his concern over the increasing tension between US and North Korea.

"I'm really concerned because I don't know where this goes in terms of a peaceful resolution. It's an incredibly difficult, complex problem. And we have very strong rhetoric coming from both North Korea as well as from the United States," Mullen told NBC News in an interview.

"That rhetoric, it seems to me, has taken away options or it's reduced manoeuvre space, if you will, for leaders to make decisions. So I'm extremely concerned.

"And I have heard from family and I have heard from friends about what's going on, who are extremely concerned with where we are and what the outlook is.

It seems to be one of forming critical mass. And if this results in a military strike, the unintended consequences of that, the possibility that there are disproportional responses, miscalculations, it can really get out of control fast," he warned.

Mullen said China has a big role to play in resolving the crisis.

"I think it's got to be resolved politically, diplomatically, through negotiations to ensure that we don't have a military conflict that could get out of control," he said.

Responding to a question, he said that the United States should not accept North Korea as a nuclear power.

"I recognise that as an option or an outcome, and certainly there is one option is to accept that and then contain him.

"Obviously, the concern you would have with that is somehow he has this weapon. And he is still somewhat of an unknown to us, and unpredictable," Mullen said.

Appearing on CBS News, the former US Defense Secretary and CIA Director, Leon Panetta, said Trump's use of rhetoric, particularly with regards to North Korea, fire and fury, and lock and load, has frankly created even greater tensions in that part of the world.

"His failure to address what really happened in Charlottesville, and the role of white supremacists, I think also sends a message that he is not recognising the real causes of crisis even within our own country," he rued.

Meanwhile, General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Osan, South Korea to hold talks with his counterparts.

"The trip highlights our ironclad commitment to the defence of the Republic of Korea in the face of North Korea's provocations and threats.

During the visit, Gen. Dunford will meet with senior US and Republic of Korea military and civilian leaders," a defence department statement said.
Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has threatened that he would lead the country's largest-ever protest movement if Article 62 of the Constitution was amended.

"There is a conspiracy in progress aimed to scrap Article 62, which makes it mandatory for the elected representatives to be Sadiq (truthful) and Ameen (honest). PTI will thwart any such efforts and thousands of people will protest in Islamabad against such move," Dawn quoted Khan as saying while addressing a public gathering in Liaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi on Sunday.

Khan's remarks came after former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said in Lahore that there was a need to amend the Constitution.

Criticising Sharif's recent public statements and his GT Road rally, Khan said it was a last-ditch effort on behalf of the PML-N to pressurise the National Accountability Bureau, which is investigating Sharif family members following the apex court's judgment in the Panamagate case.

Dismissing Sharif's claim that the Judiciary had stolen the people's mandate by disqualifying him, Khan said the people of Pakistan never gave him the mandate to steal public money and indulge in money laundering.

He said Sharif had failed to fulfil the promise against which people had bestowed him their mandate.

Khan said Sharif's recent statements seem to suggest that he is busy targeting the army and the judiciary.

Khan challenged Sharif that he will gather 10 times more people in support of the judiciary and the army than the crowds he attracted during his GT Road rally.

He further said that Sharif cannot fool all people every time.

While giving the blueprint of his vision about his new Pakistan, Khan said, "A system of taxation supporting the poor will be established, while reforms will be introduced in the health and education sectors, and government-owned facilities would provide state-of-the-art education and health to the poor."

The PTI chief said that accountability would be ensured at every level in the new Pakistan as there can be no good governance without it.
Seoul: South Korea`s President Moon Jae-in on Monday declared there must be no war on the Korean peninsula and called on the North to halt its threatening behaviour as tensions between Pyongyang and Washington heighten with both hinting at military action.

"There must be no more war on the Korean Peninsula. Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear sitaution must be resolved peacefully," said Moon in opening remarks at a regular meeting with senior aides and advisers. The remarks were provided by the Presidential Blue House.

"I am certain the United States will respond to the current situation calmly and responsibly in a stance that is equal to ours."
Govt says no food shortage in disaster-hit areas

The government on Sunday directed state-owned companies that supply essential commodities, such as food and petroleum products, to stay on their toes and ensure areas affected by floods and landslides do not experience shortage of those products.
Ankara: A suspected Islamic State militant stabbed a Turkish police officer to death while being taken to the Istanbul police headquarters, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

The man, suspected of preparing a bomb attack, had been detained in an operation by anti-terrorism police. The wounded officer succumbed to his stab wounds after being taken to hospital, Anadolu said in a report late on Sunday.

Following the attack, police detained another 12 suspected Islamic State militants, of Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian origin, Andalou said.

Police detained 22 people suspected of links to the jihadist group on Friday.

Turkey has detained more than 5,000 Islamic State suspects and deported some 3,290 foreign militants from 95 different countries in recent years, according to officials. It has refused entry to at least 38,269 people.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. On August 14, as of 06:30, firefighting works resumed in the Khosrov Forest State Reserve, the ministry of emergency situations told Armenpress.

69 rescuers and the response group of the national crisis management center are involved in firefighting works.

At 06:00, the defense ministry aviations 1 helicopter has been involved in the works.

On August 12, at 12:30, the ministry was reported that an area covered with plants in the Khosrov Forest State Reserve was burning. According to preliminary reports, 200-250 hectares of forested area is on fire.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan had a private meeting with Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov within the frames of his working visit to Kazakhstan, press service of the government told Armenpress.

The two PMs discussed the agenda of the Armenian-Belarusian economic ties and the further development prospects. A number of issues relating to mutual partnership within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) were touched upon.

The Armenian PM has arrived in Kazakhstan to take part in the Eurasian Intergovernmental Councils session.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev hosted the heads of government of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) who arrived in Astana to participate in the Eurasian Intergovernmental Councils session on August 14, TASS reports.

Before the session Nazarbayev welcomed the PMs and invited them to visit the EXPO-2017.

The Kazakh President said there are many economic issues in the Councils session agenda and wished productive work to session participants.

The session will be attended by Prime Ministers of Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, as well as Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan.

According to the foreign ministry of Kazakhstan, the session will focus on key issues of the Eurasian Economic Unions digital agenda, the free trade zone deal with Iran and the draft agreements on pension provision of employees of the EAEU member states.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of emergency situations Davit Tonoyan applied to Russian minister for civil defense, emergencies and elimination of consequences of natural disasters Vladimir Puchkov to provide firefighting jet as an assistance to extinguish the fire that broke out in the Khosrov Forest state reserve, the ministry told Armenpress.

At the moment preparation works are being carried out to bring the jet to Armenia.

On August 12, at 12:30, the ministry was reported that an area covered with plants in the Khosrov Forest state reserve was burning. According to preliminary reports, 200-250 hectares of forested area are on fire. On August 14, as of 06:30, firefighting works resumed in the Khosrov Forest state reserve. 69 rescuers and the response group of the national crisis management center are involved in firefighting works. At 06:00, the defense ministry aviations 1 helicopter has been involved in the works.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Criminal case has been launched over the fire that broke out in the area of the Khosrov Forest state reserve, the Investigative Committee told Armenpress.

On August 12, at 12:10, it was reported that fire broke out in the area called Zimni and adjacent areas of the Khosrov Forest state reserve. According to preliminary reports, 200-250 hectares of forested area are on fire.

The necessary investigative measures are being taken to clarify the causes of the fire.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan met with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev in Astana, press service of the government told Armenpress.

The Kazakh PM said the current level of inter-state relations, the existing high level political dialogue between the two countries serve as good base for deepening the economic mutual partnership.

Bakytzhan Sagintayev highlighted that the high level mutual visits will greatly contribute to further developing and deepening the Armenian-Kazakh ties.

PM Karapetyan in his turn thanked for the warm reception and said he is happy to meet with his counterpart on the eve of the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between Armenia and Kazakhstan. The PM stated that there are growth trends in the bilateral commercial ties and there is a potential to further develop the economic mutual partnership. The Armenian premier added that there are many prospective programs in the two countries that can be implemented jointly and based on mutually beneficial terms.

The officials also discussed a number of issues of bilateral agenda, as well as outlined several directions for mutual partnership.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Israels defense ministry probes allegation according to which Azerbaijan asked Aeronautics Defense Systems to demonstrate drone on Armenian military positions, Haaretz reports.

The defense ministry recently received a complaint alleging that after a team from Aeronautics Defense Systems came to Azerbaijan seeking to finalize a contract for the sale of company's Orbiter 1K unmanned aircraft, they were asked to deploy the aircraft, armed with explosives, on a military position of the Armenian army.

The existence of the complaint was reported on August 13 by the Israeli daily paper Maariv.

The company, however, denies the allegation that its staff conducted such a mission, stating that the company never carries out demonstrations on live targets, and that was true in this case as well.

Aeronautics markets its products to customers in about 50 different countries,[and] only in accordance with approval from the Defense Export Controls Agency. The operational action was carried out by the purchaser alone [Azerbaijan] on its responsibility. Aeronautics has never carried out demonstrations on live targets, and that was true in this case as well, the company said.

According to Maariv, the two Israeli operators of the craft refused to hit the Armenian position, and after remaining firm in their refusal even after the Azerbaijani threats directed against them, senior representatives of the company armed and operated the unmanned aircraft themselves. Ultimately the drones are said to have missed their targets, and no damage was caused, but according to the complaint, one of them struck at a distance of about 100 meters (330 feet) from the position.

The Israeli defense ministry said on this matter: As a rule, the defense ministry does not make it a practice to comment on issues involving military exports. The claim is being examined by the relevant parties at the ministry.

The Orbiter 1k in is capable of carrying a special 1 to 2 kilogram (2.2 to 4.4 pound) special explosive payload.

Haaretz reminds that previously Azerbaijan also applied Israeli drones: in particular, in April, 2016 it was reported that an aircraft of Harop model produced by Israel Aerospace Industries hit a bus of Armenian volunteers as a result of which seven were killed.

Haaretz also mentioned Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who said his country has purchased over 5 billion USD worth of military equipment from Israel, and during the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahus visit to Baku Aliyev highlighted the long-term military cooperation. According to foreign reports, Azerbaijan purchased radar and unmanned aircraft systems, as well as Israeli Tavor rifles from Israel.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. At least 18 people were killed after a number of assailants attacked a restaurant in Burkina Faso, CNN reports.

The attack took place in Ouagadougou, the capital of the West African nation.

It's not known how many attackers were involved, although a press release from the government reported two were killed. So far,no claim of responsibility has been made.

Earlier Burkina Fasos communications minister Remis Dandjinou said there were 17 killed and 8 wounded. The minister informed that the victims were from different countries.

According to Reuters, there was a Turkish citizen among the victims.

The Prosecutor's Office is investigating the incident.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. More than 600 residents of Ararat province joined the firefighting works in the Khosrov Forest state reserve.

In addition to firefighter-rescue brigades, police officers, Ararat governor Aramayis Grigoryan and police chief of Ararat province, police colonel Sevan Kocharyan, the heads of all communities of the province are at the scene.

Ashot Vardanyan, deputy governor, told Armenpress that wind hinders the firefighting works. At the moment there is a strong wind, and there are problems with fire spreading. We dont face a problem of labor force, everyone waits for respective order. There is mainly a problem of special equipment, but the ministry of emergency situations is engaged on finding respective equipment, he said.

According to him, there are still no reports on preliminary damages, the ministry of nature protection deals with this issue.

On August 12 fire broke out in the area covered with plant in the Khosrov Forest state reserve.
Hindu devotees observe Krishna Janmastami

Sri Krishna Janmastami, the birthday of Hindu God incarnation Krishna, was celebrated with devotion by the Hindus throughout the country on Monday
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Armenian Premier Karen Karapetyan on the occasion of his birthday during their private meeting in Astana, Armenpress reports citing the Russian governments website.

Dear Karen Karapetyan, I once again congratulate you on your birthday. I wish you success in your work, Medvedev said.

The Russian PM said at the meeting they have a chance to discuss several issues of mutual partnership between the governments. In general, the situation is not bad since there is an increase in supply of goods from Armenia to Russia, and a general increase in trade turnover between our countries. We continue coordinating our stances on joint investment programs, a number of directions of economic cooperation that emerged recently. Therefore, in general, everything is good, however, it doesnt mean that there is nothing to talk about. Lets discuss the current situation, Medvedev said.

The Armenian PM thanked his Russian counterpart for congratulation and stated: In fact we have quite a broad agenda. I also want to highlight the positive economic figures. And I want to discuss with you a number of issues, including the dates of your visit to Armenia, Karen Karapetyan said.

The two PMs are taking part in the Eurasian Intergovernmental Councils session in Astana.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. The next session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council will be held in Yerevan in October, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov said during the Councils August 14 extended format session in Astana, adding that the session will be held on October 30, TASS reports.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev proposed to hold the next session on October 24-25 since October 30-31 is out of schedule. When we were discussing at the narrow format, we were agreed on another date. I drew the attention of my colleagues on the fact that the schedule of our visits at different directions is very loaded. Therefore, I would ask to consider October 24-25, Medvedev said.

The dates of the next session will be clarified a bit later.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. On August 14, at 11:00, Defense Army soldier Arman S. Movsisyan, 1998, received fatal gunshot wound by the Azerbaijani fire in one of the military units located in the north-eastern direction of Artsakhs Defense Army, Armenpress was informed from the Defense Armys official website.

Investigation is underway to clarify the details of the incident.

The Defense Ministry of Artsakh Republic shares the grief of the loss and extends condolences to the family, relatives and co-servicemen of the fallen soldier.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. The Russian Il-76 aircraft will arrive in Armenia at 16:00 to take part in firefighting works in the Khosrov Forest state reserve, minister of emergency situations Davit Tonoyan said, reports Armenpress.

One aircraft will arrive in Armenia which will be enough to organize the firefighting works, the minister said.

Works are being carried out to bring the aircraft to Armenia and provide it with proper water supply. The aircraft crew is prepared to work in difficult situations and has great experience in extinguishing forest fires.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. The situation in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact is under control, Davit Babayan  spokesman of the President of Artsakh, told Armenpress, adding that a Defense Army soldier was killed as a result of Azerbaijans terrorist, criminal actions.

We all share the pain since loss of life of any young man is irreversible, especially for our people. We deal with such an abnormal country, neighbor, he said, adding this is nothing more than a terrorist act.

On August 14, at 11:00, Defense Army soldier Arman S. Movsisyan, 1998, received fatal gunshot wound by the Azerbaijani fire in one of the military units located in the north-eastern direction of Artsakhs Defense Army. According to the decree of the President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan soldier Arman Movsisyan was posthumously awarded with For Service in Battle medal for bravery shown during the defense of the Artsakh state border.
YEREVAN, 14 AUGUST, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 14 August, USD exchange rate down by 0.25 drams to 478.27 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 1.67 drams to 564.31 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.05 drams to 8.00 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.35 drams to 620.56 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 15.82 drams to 19776.02 drams. Silver price up by 0.02 drams to 262.79 drams. Platinum price up by 22.86 drams to 15130.71 drams.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Immediately after returning from holiday President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia Davit Tonoyan who briefed on the firefighting activities by the ministry and other state bodies, as well as the support of private organizations and companies at Khosrov Forest State Reserve that broke out on August 12 and another forest fire in Vayots dzor Province.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office, Minister Tonoyan also briefed on the existing problems and difficulties that emerged during the firefighting activities, the measures taken to solve them based on the operative instructions issued by the President days ago, including the issue of asking a special airplane from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations to help in the firefighting operations.

The President scheduled a consultation on August 15 to discuss the works done and future works, as well as opportunities to eliminate the environmental consequences that have emerged as a result of the fire.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia Davit Tonoyan denies the information spread by the media that allegedly thousands of hectares of forests have burned as a result of the fire that broke down at Khosrov Forest State Reserve on August 12, Armenpress reports the Minister told the reporters.

This kind of information does not correspond to reality, Tonoyan said.

The Minister also denied the information that allegedly the wild animals of the forest have fled to the nearby villages as a result of the fire.

Davit Tonoyan also added that the Russian airplane that arrived in Yerevan today will participate in the firefighting activities on August 15.
Hondas Africa Twin makes waves in Nepal

Honda has finally brought the iconic and legendary 1000 cc motorcycle, Africa Twin to Nepal.
BUCHAREST, RomaniaRecently the performers of Studio 20, which bills itself as the first cam studio franchise the world, addressed the question of whether welcoming is cheating.

The models discuss the nuances of that questions, talking about whether the idea of cheating applies to only those who pay the performers and enjoy their services, or those who performer in front of the camera as well. Their responses to the issue are as follows:

Ok, so I admit, this is an awkward situation because it's a fine line between these thingsbut probably one you don't want to cross if you're in a relationship. But let's check it out what truly happens when you must cope with this kind of situation. You're in love with your boyfriend/girlfriend, but you met someone online that changed the way of seeing things. What's the next step? You can always confront your beloved one and tell the truth & you can go on with your little game and make sure that nobody will find out.

First of all, there are a lot of very obvious things that count as cheating: having sex with someone else than your currently partner, making out, being active on Tinder, even sexting. But what about everything that gray areas in between? I'm talking about watching porn, of course. Or going to a strip club, or paying to watch a camgirl.

For those who think virtual reality is only for the rich, think again.

What happens when you are engaged in an exclusive relationship and you can't stop this addictive thing: paying a camgirl in order to have fun with when your girlfriend isn't around? It depends what your girlfriend considers cheating. Different people have different boundaries.

In fact, there is one study that claims that 22 percent of women do actually consider watching porn the same thing as cheating. Of course, when they aren't involved in this action. The explanation is simple to them: because porn can become excessive for some guys. They tend to act different after watching porn, and the relationship is affected. And if a camgirl can make you hornier that your girlfriend and wife does, Houston, we have a problem! If she catches you watching porn, it can bruise her ego, since she might not feel like she can satisfy you on her own, or that sex isn't enough. But if she catches you watching a private camgirl? That might feel a lot more like straight up cheating. Thats because camgirls are a bit different than a random video youd find online. Some people are very judgmental with the adult entertainers, stigmatizing the girls that work as camgirls.

However, the biggest difference is the level of intimacy.

If youre paying for a private performance, many women might question how thats different from going to a strip club without her knowing, or meeting up with a girl without telling her.

This type of interaction either via chatting, dual camming, you sending her pics, etc... where you become an active participant, is a sign of you cheating her. And thats where it becomes a very grey area.

Cybersex is not merely a conversation about sex, but a form of sexual encounter involves experiences typical of other encounters, such as sexual arousal, masturbation, orgasm, and satisfaction. Did you know that 60% of people having cybersex affairs do not consider it to be infidelity?

But how exactly are you supposed to know if shes cool with it? Well, you can be smart about that from the begining of your relationship: both of you need to establish some boundaries.

First, get to know all the things that are counted as cheating - for both of us. Then, maybe start with her thoughts on porn and see how she feels about you watching it. If shes not cool with that, then its not likely in a million years shell be cool with camgirls, lol. You must be firm and let her know your intentions.

Furthermore, if you consider that you won't be able to watch a private show because of her boundaries and that bothers you, it might be time to reconsider whether or not youre ready for a commitment in the first place.

More than that, if her idea is this: porn is one thing, but watching it live and having the ability to interact with the person on screen IS DEFINITELY considered as cheating, you can't really fight for your right of managing your time spent online.

In the end, she will end up saying that just because there's no physical contact doesn't make it okay.

In my opinion is super important to get things clear: first, it depends of how personal the relationship is. Then, if you and that specific camgirl have a connection (it's hard to say that camgirls want to be a part of your life, tho), this counts as cheating and you're being kicked out from your real life relationship.

My advice for you is to have a friendly debate about the many forms virtual infidelity could take nowadays. For example, some married couples still keep Tinder on their phones.

For example, I will try to recreate a husband - wife situation and some clear boundaries: No live porn interaction, unless together and agreed upon. No secret video, swiping, or chatting flirtations that would constitute emotional infidelity. And no following a particular performer where interaction (financial or otherwise) is possible.

When setting such ground rules, its a good idea to know your partners likes and dislikes. This helps set boundaries, while also allowing them to still get their kicks.

If you think that you can't spice up your relationship/sex life, please, reconsider this. You don't need a camgirl to be your darkest secret and you don't HAVE TO lie about your wishes.

As for us, camgirls, there is a saying: you get used to this life and it becomes part of who you are. So no men in this world can take that from us. We are open minded and FREE, so if this is our path, it's fine for our potential partners, too. We can talk about our day without giving so many details about members or about what they fantasize. As a camgirl, you don't meet these people, there's no connection whatsoever beside the one that you allow, on screen. No addresses, phone numbers or email addresses.

Being a cam performer is just a profession, you just have steamy dates in front of the camera. When you got home, your boyfriend is there and you can snuggle and be his lady on and on. Excepting the time spent in your bedsheets, haha.
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.
By their very nature, the drugs that were responsible for more than 1,100 North Carolinian deaths in 2015, and thousands more across the nation, are perilous. The use of illegal opioids, such as heroin and some forms of fentanyl, have caused unspeakable heartache to parents, spouses, and children of users. North Carolina has seen an 800 percent increase in opioid related deaths since 1999. Some researchers, such as Raleigh-based RTI International researcher, Dr. Alex Kral, believe supervised injection sites are a beneficial way to address this alarming trend.A recent article by the Raleigh News & Observer provided insight into the character of this issue, when it broached the idea of supervised injection sites for recreational drug users. Supervised injection sites, primarily found in Switzerland, Germany, and Canada, are purportedly established to prevent opioid overdoses. These sites are one of numerous proposed solutions to the growing drug problem. In the world of drug prevention, they fall under the umbrella of what is called harm reduction The city of Seattle is the first community in the United States to push for such a site. However, it is facing resistance from surrounding cities, such as Bellevue and Federal Way, both of which have barred injection sites from taking up residence in their communities.Advocates for providing a site where drug abusers could "safely" shoot heroin or fentanyl believe it would prevent overdosing. If the individual mistakenly overdoses, a site employee can immediately administer Naloxone, a medication designed to prevent overdose from its natural lethal consequences.RTI International has released a commentary lauding the success of these supervised drug injection sites. Dr. Alex Kral states,To the extent that these sites have reduced the risks of HIV and Hepatitis in countries that allow them, we should be grateful.The rationale behind the increasing push for safe injection sites undoubtedly comes from a place of good intentions. It springs from a desire to prevent needless deaths among those struggling with drug abuse. However, is it the right approach? This is an important question we must grapple with. How we decide will have long-term effects.Take the historically hot button issue of abortion, as an example. One of the purported aims of Roe v. Wade was to prevent maternal deaths from illegal abortions. However, the legalization of this practice dramatically increased the abortion rate. Instead of abortions becoming rarer, they became more common and socially acceptable. One end was achieved: lower maternal death rates. Yet, a consequence of this court ruling was the endangerment of millions more children, especially those in minority and poor communities.Governor Roy Cooper spoke to attendees of the Opioid Misuse and Overdose Prevention Summit in June on a plan to battle opioid abuse. The Governor said The plan Gov. Cooper was referring to is known as North Carolina's Opioid Action Plan , and it spans the next four years. This government initiative includes the 2016 Syringe Exchange Program, as well as education on the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy's standing order on issuing on the overdose preventing medication Naloxone.Whether or not North Carolina, or any other state, should support supervised injection sites is up for debate. There is no doubt that when lives are saved from potential overdoses, we should celebrate. Nevertheless, the unavoidable truth is that what we tolerate, both in the public and private sectors, teaches young children and teens what we believe about right and wrong. The law is a teacher.There is a concern that these drug injection sites wouldn't send the message we want young people to have. In fact, they may simply serve to normalize an extremely harmful lifestyle.Undoubtedly there is much to be said about helping those battling drug addiction move past the encumbering societal alienation they feel, so that they can receive the substance abuse treatment they need. However, it is equally - if not more - important to send the correct message to young people, which is that recreational drug use is harmful and unacceptable. Can we accomplish both goals? Hopefully. Are injection sites a means to do that? While they may have benefits, such programs fail when we consider the long-term impact they will have on society.The more our public policies facilitate drug use, even if it stems from the good intention of ending the opioid epidemic, the more likely we are to see a surge in its normalization. If you doubt this claim, look once again to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The Supreme Court's attempt to minimize illegal abortion procedures only served to standardize the practice, so much so that at its peak in the 80s and 90s, 1 in 4 children were being aborted.The opioid crisis in North Carolina is a real problem that cries out for a solution. Supervised injection sites may still be years down the road for North Carolinians. However, it would behoove us to begin considering their many short-term and long-term implications now.
5 Causes of Nursing Home Resident Anxiety Unfortunately, for many reasons anxiety happens more often by long-term care residents than by those who live in
Individuals, NGOs barred from flood relief distribution

Minister for Home Affairs Janardan Sharma has said that relief materials will be dolled-out in the flood-affected areas only by the government agencies, barring any individuals and the non-governmental organisations from distributing.
Several seemingly unrelated current policy debates, such as college admission policies, diversity in the workplace, income inequality, and tax reform, are aspects of the same underlying issue. Because we do not fully understand the issues involved, we often get policies wrong.

In the public debate, these issues are framed in terms of fairness or equity or equality. This is because the natural human way of considering these questions is in terms of zero-sum thinking. We tend to think that, since the number of freshmen at Harvard or the number of engineers at Google is fixed and constant, then the only policy question is, who will get these admission letters, or job offers.

Similarly, if the CEO earns more money, then zero-sum thinking leads us to believe that workers must get less. The same kind of thinking will pervade discussion of tax policies when Congress takes up this issue.

Zero-sum thinking is natural to humans. This may be because our minds evolved in a largely zero-sum world, with little economic growth or technological evolution. It may also be because for most day to day decisions, a zero-sum description is adequate: There really are only so many freshmen at Harvard, and Google really does hire only a certain number of engineers in each year.

Think of an analogy to flat-earth theory. For most decisions (unless you are an international airplane pilot) flat earth thinking is adequate. Similarly, zero-sum does describe many short run decisions.

But it really does matter who gets into Harvard, because in the long term the world is not zero-sum. If Harvard has an admissions policy based on pure merit (as does CalTech) then the human capital created by a Harvard education is going to be maximized. That is, if the students admitted to Harvard are those who can best use the education, then the value of the education will be as large as possible, and the graduates will be as productive as possible.

Since more productive people create more social value, everyone benefits if the right people are admitted. Of course, Harvard is a private school and should be able to do what it wants, but it should not get away with fallacious assertions about the benefits of its policies.

Similarly, if Google hires the best engineers, then its products will be as good as they can be, and we will all benefit. If the company hires less productive engineers in the interests of some sort of diversity, then the products and services will not be as good. Even the now-famous memo by James Damore, the recently-fired engineer at Google, did not discuss the productivity aspect of diversity.

How about income inequality? Economic theory tells us that people are paid based on their contribution  their marginal product. Some people will earn more because they have larger marginal products than others (perhaps by several orders of magnitude). The money available for incomes is not a fixed pool to be divided up; it depends on the total productivity of the economy. Large earnings differences mean that more productive people are being allocated to those activities where their productivity is greatest, and this creates the largest pie for us to share.

Similar issues will pervade the coming debate on tax policy. Policy alternatives will be framed as fairness  do the rich pay their fair share. But this is zero-sum thinking. Different tax schemes have different implications for the size of the pie, and the goal of tax policy should be to raise government revenue with the minimum effect on the size of incomes. If we lose sight of this goal in seeking fairness, then we will all be poorer.

In general, zero-sum thinking, a result of folk economics (the economic beliefs of untrained people), is probably the source of most errors in economic understanding, such as a preference for tariffs or immigration restrictions. If we economists could teach people that the world is not zero sum, we would perform a great service.

Paul H. Rubin, a former Reagan administration official, is Dobbs Professor of Economics at Emory University.

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Blas Jaime is the only known speaker left of an indigenous language believed to have died out a cenutry ago: Chana. He learned it from his mother, who was taught by her mother, who was taught by her mother as part of a secret oral tradition dating back centuries to when the indigenous group was forcibly evangelized by Spanish colonizers on the banks of the Uruguay River in Argentina.

Blas Jaime, on the banks of the Uruguay River.

Native names were banned, explains Jaime in a new documentary, Lantec chana by Argentinean director Marina Zeising. And they would cut off the tip of the tongues of girls who spoke Chana.

Blas Jaime.

This 71-year-old former Mormon preacher didnt pass the language on to his daughter and for many years did not speak it. His life changed when he revealed he spoke Chana and researcher Pedro Viegas Barros found out.

The Chanas do not exist, was Viegass first response. Although skeptical, he traveled from Buenos Aires to Parana in the south of Argentina to see Jaime. There he found that the language Jaime had retained from nights spent learning with his mother matched the only written testimony of the language of the Chana. Damaso Larranaga wrote the document in 1823 based on interviews with elders from the tribe, which for millennia lived as fishermen, subsisting only with what the river gave them.

The indigenous language was believed to have died out more than 100 years ago

Timu says the Chana to the son. Ata is water, ata ma means river, and vanati ata ma is the children of the river and streams.

Beada - Jaimes favorite word - means mother and beada a means Earth. Vanati beada, means the tree is the son of the Earth, while its branches are called pala.

The first Chana-Spanish dictionary was published in 2014



Viegas heard Jaime speak those words for the first time in 2005. From that moment on, they embarked on a journey to reconstruct the language and culture of the Chana to ensure that it does not disappear. In 2010, the language was added to UNESCOs Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. In 2014, the pair published the first Chana-Spanish dictionary. Zeisings film is the latest effort to recover the past of one of the many indigenous groups that inhabited the far south of South America before the Spanish arrived.

When my daughter, Evangelina, decides to take charge of passing on Chana, I will return to the Church, says Jaime after seeing the documentary. He narrows his dark eyes, rests on his cane and quietly regrets not having taught his daughter the language when she was a child. When he tried to do so later, his daughter refused.

The Chana were a matriarchy

She told me she didnt want to be an indian, said Jaime, and that people were going to abuse and insult her. This is a common sentiment among descendants of indigenous groups in Argentina, a country that didnt recognize the rights of its native peoples until 1994. Evangelina changed her mind once she became a mother. She began to study Chana and now helps her father teach students who want to learn the language.

In addition to knowing Chana, Jaime would like Argentineans to also adopt some his ancestors values. The main thing would be respect for women, said Jaime, recalling that the Chana people were a matriarchy where women were responsible for imparting justice and passing down the culture from mothers to daughters. We also respect children and Mother Nature. The Chana believe that the Earth is a living thing and that its blood flows through the rivers and streams, says Jaime.

English version by Debora Almeida.
Lines at Barcelona's El Prat airport. Massimiliano Minocri

The situation at Barcelonas El Prat airport on Monday morning was calm despite fears passengers would face lengthy lines after security staff at the facility on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected a new deal offered by the regional government of Catalonia and called an indefinite strike.

In response to the ongoing crisis and news of the strike beginning Monday, Public Works Minister Inigo de la Serna on Sunday announced the government would take the extraordinary measure of launching compulsory arbitration proceedings, the outcome of which all parties involved in the strike would be required to adhere to.

The minister had earlier announced that the government would be sending the Civil Guard to El Prat airport in order to man the security scanners, with the central governments delegation in Catalonia saying that 90% staffing levels would be guaranteed.

Mondays strike by security workers comes after earlier rolling stoppages on the part of workers with Eulen who patrol the entrances of Barcelonas El Prat airport and supervise checked baggage. Workers have repeatedly complained of low wages and poor conditions.

Those strikes had caused headaches for travelers using the airport in recent weeks.

English version by George Mills.
Barcelona has placed a moratorium on new hotels in the city center and has come up with a roadmap for reducing tourism in saturated areas, while the Balearic Islands has introduced a law cutting the number of beds available to tourists to 623,624 with a view to gradually settling on a maximum of half a million at any given time.

The scene at Barcelona's Barceloneta beach on Sunday. Joan Sanchez

With residents in some parts of Barcelona and the Balearics resentful toward visitors they accuse of pricing them out of the rental market, the measures taken by the Balearic government could become a model for other regions in Spain struggling to cope with increasing numbers of tourists.

But is this an accurate picture of Spains tourism sector? Are the more than 80 million foreign visitors estimated for 2017 really too many for the country to cope with?

The answer is not easy, but the view of many experts is that tourists need to be more evenly spread out over the year and in terms of destination.

The tourism sector itself is keen to curb the number of tourists converging on some cities and resorts. In certain areas, we have to either restrict the accommodations available or substantially raise prices, says Jose Luis Zoreda, vice president and spokesman for Exceltur, Spains tourism lobby. We think the measures introduced in the Balearic Islands are a step in the right direction.

Either limit capacity or put up prices, says the tourism lobby

The main goal, says Zoreda, is two-fold: to sustain the growth of a sector generating more than 2.5 million jobs and 11% of GDP, while ensuring that growth doesnt adversely affect the local population.

The cap on beds in the Balearic Islands is nothing new. A similar measure was introduced in 1999 but was undermined by the arrival of online platforms advertising properties that managed to bypass the system.

Now, a year-long embargo has been imposed on Airbnb, HomeAway and other digital platforms: property owners who ignore the ban face hefty fines of around 400,000.

We cant take more tourists during the summer season, says Gabriel Barcelo, vice president of Barcelo, one of Spains leading hotel groups, and who is also a tourism advisor to the Balearic government. The limits have been exceeded. The balance has to be redressed.

The policy has been driven by the eco-nationalist party Mes, which is determined to refocus the industry toward lower numbers and higher quality. To this end, the Balearic Islands were compared to the Canary Islands, both of which received around 15 million visitors last year, and significant differences were noted.

The Canary Islands are bigger and there are more of them, says Barcelo. And the visitors are more evenly spread out over the year.

A cap on beds was attempted in the Balearic Islands during the 1990s

Both the eco-nationalists and the sector agree that greater diversity is needed. It doesnt make sense to talk about a national quota, says Zoreda. In Teruel, tourism isnt a problem and probably never will be. But in Barcelona and Palma, it is.

Barcelona and Palma have seen mounting anti-tourist sentiments. According to a survey carried out by City Hall in June, for the first time, Barcelona residents flagged up tourism as the citys main problem.

Experts such as Juan Ignacio Pulido, professor of Applied Economics at the University of Jaen, believes that while capping the number of beds in places such as the Balearic Islands may help, its only part of the solution. The problem in Magaluf isnt supply, its the demand, he says. Measures need to be taken to promote responsible tourism and keep the hooligans out. You cant tar all resorts with the same brush.

While hotel owners in the Balearic Islands have welcomed the initial restriction on numbers, they have been less keen on further reductions in the future. Meanwhile, Fernando Encinar, the head of idealista.com, a leading property site, says he is in shock over the measures. Within a year, well be seeing people using obscure digital platforms to rent properties and that will be even harder to control. We will see fraud and the abuse of a law that wont solve anything, he says.

A more responsible model is being sought to keep out the hooligan element

Airbnb and other digital platforms are largely responsible for Spains tourism boom and the rise in the number of beds from 800,000 to 3.3 million in the past 20 years.

According to Exceltur, tourist apartments exceeded the number of hotel rooms across 22 cities for the first time in 2016. In their defense, these digital platforms argue that they are redistributing the profits from tourism among the general population, which is of course partly true. But it is also true that many property owners have turned themselves into small businesses. The growth has been uncontrolled and quotas are needed, says tourism expert Antonio Bernabe . Suddenly, tens of thousands of people descend on Barcelona, but it doesnt have the infrastructure to cope with them.

Companies benefitting from tourism have spent years rubbing their hands with glee as record upon record has been broken. Now 2017 promises to exceed all expectations, not just because of digital platforms, but because Spain is attracting tourists who might otherwise have gone to other destinations such as Turkey and Tunisia. When these tensions subside, however, Spain will undoubtedly experience a return to more manageable numbers, which is one reason tourism operator TUI is against hiking prices as a deterrent.

Meanwhile, the sector needs to perform a delicate balancing act, involving cutting numbers in specific areas, promoting alternative attractions, avoiding anti-tourist feelings and keeping the German, British and Scandinavian tourists coming.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

I was deeply saddened by heavy casualties caused by a collision involving two passenger trains near the city of Alexandria, Ilham Aliyev said in his condolence letter.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died, and wish those injured the soonest possible recovery. May Allah rest the souls of the dead in peace!
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for renovation of the Gakh-Zagatala section of the Goragan-Gakh-Zagatala highway.

Under the presidential order, 23.3 million manats are allocated from the state budget for renovation of the 29.8-km road connecting 22 residential areas with a total population of 37,300 people.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

On August 15, Azerbaijans Khizi district will be hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for a greenhouse complex, to be jointly built by Azerbaijani CTC Holding and Hungarian companies, the Embassy of Hungary in Baku said on Aug. 14.

The greenhouse complex worth 17.2 million euros will be located on the territory of 210,000 square meters. The project will be financed by the Hungarian Export-Import Bank.

Currently, this is the largest joint Azerbaijani-Hungarian agricultural project, said the Embassy.

Kesz International Kft. will be a contractor for the project of the greenhouse complex construction.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Hungary amounted to about $20 million in January-July 2017, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.
Baku, Azerbaijan, August 11

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

It is not so obvious that United States will become a preferred gas supplier over the current suppliers, Sam Barden, Director of SBI Markets, an international commodity trading and advisory company, told Trend.

He pointed out that overall gas consumption is likely to increase globally as countries move away from coal. Also as the use of renewables continues to grow, gas will become important as a peak generating tool, and therefore underpin demands for gas, added the expert.

"On the supply side, Russia, Iran, Qatar are the big three suppliers, plus Australia; however, it is unconventional gas which is changing the balance of markets. Unless the US can supply cheaper than Russia, it will not impact European markets. Russian and Iranian gas into Europe will be more economical than US gas," Barden believes.

He noted that gas will increasingly be priced against local benchmarks, not a single global price.

"In the short term, it could keep pressure to the downside for gas, however the reality of how much US could reliably supply is unknown, so it may be that customers prefer reliable suppliers from existing producers and be prepared to pay a fair price for this," added the expert.

US is expected to export more natural gas than it imports in 2017, according to the August Short-Term Energy Outlook of the Energy Information Administration (EIA).



The US status as a net exporter is expected to continue past 2018, because of growing US natural gas exports to Mexico, declining pipeline imports from Canada, and increasing exports of LNG, said the report.

EIA expects exports of LNG from the country to increase.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and Russias LUKOIL PJSC are discussing the possibility of joint acquisition of new assets in the fuel market of Turkey, Anadolu Agency quoted Vadim Vorobiev, LUKOILs senior Vice President for sales and supplies.

According to him, Turkish retail fuel market remains attractive for LUKOIL, which actively promotes its interests in this sector of the Turkish economy.

Russian company has already allocated up to $1 billion for this purpose, Vorobiev told a group of Turkish journalists in Moscow.

Turkeys petroleum products market is of strategic importance to LUKOIL, noted the senior Vice President.

Our company is studying opportunities to expand its share in the Turkish market. We discussed with SOCAR representatives the issue of acquiring the assets of third companies in the Turkish market. A concrete decision on this issue hasnt been made yet, he added.

Vorobiev said that today the company operates in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors of the economies of 40 countries and has recently started to show interest in the field of energy supply.

He went on to say that LUKOIL occupies five to six percent of the Turkish retail fuel market.

In 2000-2010, it was more profitable to work in the Turkish market than in Europe. Later on profits decreased due to the changes made in local legislation, noted LUKOIL official.

Vorobiev also drew attention to the crisis on the world energy market.

We dont plan to expand activities in Turkey in the next 3-4 years due the crisis. Nonetheless, we are ready to cooperate with other companies operating on the Turkish market on the issue of distributors network, he added.

LUKOIL owns a 10-percent stake in the consortium for the development of the giant Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev held a telephone conversation Aug. 14, according to the information published on the Russian Presidents official website.

The topical issues of bilateral cooperation were discussed in the context of implementing the agreements reached during the state visit of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic to Russia, June 19-24.

In addition, Atambayev spoke about the results of the international forum Altai civilization and related peoples of the Altai language family held in Kyrgyzstan on July 20-23, 2017. The event was also attended by Russian representatives.

Following Atambayev's visit of to Moscow in late June, a set of documents, including a protocol to the 2012 intergovernmental agreement on writing off Kyrgyz debts to Russia, was signed.
Kantipur Foundation sets up emergency relief fund

Kantipur Foundation, the non-profit philanthropic organisation of Kantipur Media Group (KMG), has established a fund, Kantipur Badhi-Pahiro Rahat Kosh, to offer emergency relief to the communities affected by floods and landslides across the country.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Aug. 14

By Demir Azizov Trend:

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the decree approving the execution of seven investment projects worth $40 million in the Sirdaryo branch of the Jizzakh free economic zone.

Chinas Wenzhou Jinsheng Trading Co. will participate in the projects, reads the Uzbek presidents decree published on his official website.

It is planned to launch enterprises for the production of footwear, leather goods, brass and copper connectors for pipe fittings, locks and other products in 2017-2019 on the branch premises.

The largest project is for the production of leather goods, with the designed capacity of 60,000 square meters and the cost of $9 million.

Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine will act as the Uzbek partner in four projects.

Sirdaryo branch of the Jizzakh free economic zone was established in 2009.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Russia purchased more than 6,220 Ravon cars from the Uzbek-American joint venture GM Uzbekistan (formerly UzDaewooAuto) in January-July 2017.

This was stated in the information published on the website of the Automobile Manufacturers Committee of the Association of European Businesses (AEB).

As many as 1,275 cars were exported to Russia in July 2017 compared to 237 cars in July 2016, the Committee reported.

Share of GM Uzbekistan in the Russian market stood at the level of 0.7 percent in the first seven months of 2017.

GM Uzbekistan took the 21st place in terms of car sales in Russia in January-July 2017.

Russia remains the main export market for GM Uzbekistan.

UzDaewooAuto JSC was established in 1996 by the Uzbek government and South Koreas Daewoo Motors.

Uzbekistan acquired Daewoos shares in UzDaewooAuto in 2005. Uzavtoprom (Uzbek Association of Automotive Industry Enterprises) and the US-based General Motors signed an agreement to establish GM Uzbekistan with an authorized capital of $266.7 million in 2007. GM Uzbekistan has been operating since March 2008.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Aug. 14

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

Uzbekistans Justice Ministry has started organizational preparations for the fifth meeting of the justice ministers of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tashkent, the Uzbek ministrys press service said in a message, Aug. 14.

Message says that during the preliminary experts meeting, Uzbek side presented information on preparations for the meeting to be held in Tashkent in October.

Upcoming meetings draft agenda and a joint statement on its results, as well as other issues were discussed at the experts meeting.

Moreover, parties have decided to continue work on implementation of agreements reached earlier, on ensuring broad access for citizens, business entities and interested organizations to the information bases of legislation of the SCO member states.

SCO was established in 2001. On June 9, heads of SCO member states approved applications of India and Pakistan for full SCO membership at the organizations summit. China, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are fulltime members of SCO. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are current SCO observer countries, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka are the dialogue partners.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Uzbek city of Namangan hosted latest round of ongoing negotiations between the working groups of the joint Uzbek-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Commission on the delimitation and demarcation of the state border.

Talks have lasted for nine days and ended August 13, according to the information published on the website of Uzbekistans Foreign Ministry.

During the meeting, the sides continued their joint work on the demarcation of certain sections of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz borderline.

Field surveys, as well as topographic and geodetic work on some sections of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz state border were also conducted.

Following the negotiations, which were held in traditionally friendly and constructive atmosphere, relevant Protocol was signed.

Total length of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border is 1378.44 kilometers. Nearly 50 sections of the borderline, totaling at about 300 kilometers havent been delimitated yet.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 13

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Tehran apparently refuses to view US President Donald Trump as an opportunity and Iranian parliaments recent motion in response to the new US sanctions would yield no positive results, a US-based expert told Trend.

Iran's lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a motion on Sunday in response to recent US sanctions, voting to boost spending on Tehran's missile program and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' defense mechanism, local media outlets reported.

"If I was Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, I would have not accused President Trump of planning to kill the JCPOA. Such accusations are simply not helpful and are indeed counterproductive. Instead, I would have sent a message, even indirectly, to President Trump urging him to stay with the deal and offer to hear his concerns. Tehran must understand that Trump is both a threat and an opportunity. To view him as a threat only could lead to a disastrous situation between the two nations," President American Iranian Council Hooshang Amirahmadi said.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he did not believe that Iran was living up to the spirit of the 2015 deal to curtail its nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported.

Reacting to remarks by Trump Irans Zarif on Friday accused the US President of planning to kill the nuclear accord.



Commenting on a possible decision by Trump to kill the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal), Hooshang Amirahmadi said If the US decides to withdraw from the JCPOA, the deal will collapse as Europeans are not able to continue with the deal without the US.

"This is not a deal that each of the countries involved has made with Iran. It is a deal that their collective has made and that collective without the US will not stand. In my opinion, though, the US is not about to withdraw from the deal. Instead, it is trying its best to make Iran exit first by tightening the sanctions grip around Tehran again," he added.

"The ultimate act in this direction will be for Mr. Trump to accuse Iran of violating the terms of the JCPOA and use that as a pretext to refuse certifying that Iran is implementing the deal. In that case, the US' Secondary Sanctions, which were lifted as part of the deal, would be snapped back as stipulated in the JCPOA. Even under such a harsh circumstance, the Rouhani Government will try to stay with the deal and take the issue to the UN Security Council," said the expert.

"However, in my opinion, Iran will get nowhere by protesting the US, and the Rouhani Government will be forced by the revolutionaries and a segment of the general public to either walk out of the JCPOA or perhaps withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Such an act will of course create a horrible situation, returning the nuclear crisis to square one, and dangerously worsening US-Iran relations. The relationship is already worse than it was before the JCPOA," Amirahmadi suggested.

"Unfortunately, indications from Tehran suggest that Iran is not ready to view Trump as an opportunity. In response to the latest US sanctions on Iran, the country has just prepared a proposal that aims to counter American adventurism in the region," he said.

"This document will have no positive result for Iran, only negative, even if the system may think that it can help with public consumption," Amirahmadi concluded.
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 14

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed new members into the observatory body of Expediency Council, months after its former chief Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed away and the previous term of the council came to an end.

According to Khameneis decree, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, a conservative, will head the council for the five-year term ahead, the Iranian Supreme Leaders official website reported August 14.

The surprising point about the new Expediency Council, however, is that Khamenei has once again counted former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a member.

Ahmadinejad radically distanced himself from Khamenei toward the end of his tenure in 2013. Nevertheless, this year he disregarded Ayatollah Khameneis word that he should not run for president, for which he was harshly criticized and excommunicated by those faithful to the leadership.

The Expediency Council is an administrative assembly appointed by the Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 6, 1988. It was originally set up to resolve differences or conflicts between the Parliament and the Guardian Council.

The councils former head Rafsanjani died January 8, 2017, leaving the body without a chief except for the recently acting head, Ali Movahedi Kermani. Rafsanjani had been the only head to the council since his predecessor Khamenei left the body for the role of leadership in June 1989.

The previous term of the council ended in March.
President Hassan Rouhani stressed on promoting strategic relations with the neighboring countries, especially Russia, IRNA reported.

President Rouhani made the remarks Monday in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

He emphasized the fact that Iran's principled policy is to develop all-out ties with Russia.

President Rouhani pointed to good relations between two countries, and urged active investors and private sectors of Russia to participate in Iran's infrastructural projects in industry and energy field.

He pointed to complexities in the region and also the bad situation in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

President Rouhani also underscored the need for Iran-Russia consultations in solving these problems and in fighting terrorism as well.

He referred to Iran's nuclear deal known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as a multilateral accord, saying Iran has always been committed.

He went on to say that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also approves Iran's commitment.

Iranian president urged Russia to play positive role in reinforcing JCPOA.

Meanwhile, President Putin congratulated Rouhani on commencing the 12th government.

He also emphasized Russian investors and economic activists' eagerness in participating in Iran's infrastructural projects.

Fortunately, Iran-Russia efforts have brought about good achievements in stabilizing the situation in the region, President Putin said.

The Russian president went on to say that both countries will be able to send humanitarian aids to Yemen by promoting cooperation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

The contextual and structural factors surrounding US-Russian relations today are more complex than ever before; moreover they are paramount in surmising whether the Tillerson-Lavrov meeting would deescalate tension between US and Russia, Ruchi Anand, Professor of International Relations at the American Graduate School in Paris, told Trend.

Historically, US and USSR were in a cold war that defined the landscape of a bipolar international relations. At the time, US foreign policy was unified, despite internal differences and divisions of power, she said.

Expert noted that today situation is different as internally, US policy towards Russia is fractured between the Trump administration and the rest of the US policy-making establishment, more specifically the Congress.

This dangerous confrontation makes Kremlin view the former as a potential partner, with the capacity of ushering in improved US-Russia relations, while the latter as deemed opponents, according to Anand.

She recalled that US President Trump recently, and grudgingly, signed into the law what he considers a flawed bill, which imposes sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 Presidential elections.

This bill cannot be unilaterally lifted by the President who views it as limiting the executive flexibility to strike good deals with other countries. The way the players on this chessboard are placed presents more chances of mutual disappointment and a possible escalation of the US (Trump-Congress)-Russia drama, she said.

The hypothetical scenario of improved US-Russian relations is interesting to speculate on, but is quite far from reality, according to the expert.

Unless the Trump administration and Congress see eye-to-eye on the definition of national interest for the United States, their in-house disagreements on crucial players like Russia, as well as amelioration of the critical situations in the Middle East is at best, an illusion, at worst a quagmire, she said.

In case relations are improved between US and Russia, which is still in my opinion in the realm of the unachievable, the two powers could work together to exert their collective power and common agendas to lend greater stability to the manner in which the politics are played out, Anand noted.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a meeting in Manila on Aug. 6. It was the first meeting between the officials, since US imposed a new set of sanctions against Russia on Aug. 2. Both sides vowed for continuation of dialogue in order to improve ties between the two countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.14

By Dalga Khatinoglu  Trend:

Iran has prioritized seven major oil fields for development - in West Karoon Block and South Pars gas fields oil layer.

During the first seven months of 2017, Iran launched Azar field and South Pars oil layer, while the statistics, prepared by Irans Oil Ministry and seen by Trend, indicate, that the other five fields, placed in West Kroob Block were also in development.

Currently, Iran produces 20-25 thousand barrels per day from the oil layer of South Pars, while the production level at Azar field reached 15,000 b/d. Iran plans to double the oil output of South Pars and increase the Azars output to 65,000 b/d.

Azar field, whith 2.5 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves, and 16 percent recovery rate has been completed by 69.92 percent in July, compared to 68.52 percent in June.

One of the major projects in Irans upstream oil sector includes the first phase of five fields (West Karoon Block) in Iranian western regions with 66.7 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves, joint with Iraq, sharing 9.5 percent of the countrys total in-situ oil and gas condensate reserves.

Iran says the production capacity of these fields, including the Azar field, has reached 320,000 b/d, compared to 280,000 b/d in January 2017. However, the actual output is half of this volume, because Iran has allowed an increase in its output by only 90,000 b/d to 3.79 mb/d, compared to October 2016, according to OPECs oil cut deal.

According to a document, prepared by Irans Oil Ministry and seen by Trend, the actual output of all these fields, including the Azar field in 1H17, reached around 200,000 b/d in July, less than June.

Iran has signed buy-back agreements with Chinese and domestic companies to develop these fields, but it is preparing to sign further deals with foreign companies based on the newly-designed agreement, called the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), to complete the development of these fields, especially to increase the recovery rate, which stands at below 10 percent on the average.

Yadavaran

Iran has signed a buy-back contract with Chinas Sinopec to develop the first phase of Yadavaran field, which contains 34 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves. The project has been divided into 3 phases.

With completion of the first phase the output would reach 85,000 b/d, and in second and third phases the output would reach 180,000 b/d and 300,000 b/d, respectively.

According to the mentioned official document, the first phase of Yadavaran was developed by 0.19 percent to 99.34 percent, but the production level decreased by 6,000 b/d to 101, 174 in July month-to-month. The first phase of the field is semi-operational since 2012.

North Azadegan

Iran has a buy-back contract with Chinas CNPCI to develop the North Azadegan field. The first phase of the project was developed by 99.95 percent in July, about 0.94 percent more than June and its output stood at 73,160 b/d in July, about 2,169 b/d less than June.

North Azadegan contains 5.6 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves. In the second phase of this project, the output level would double to hit 150,000 b/d.

South Azadegan

Iran also had an agreement with CNPCI to develop South Azadegan, but the country cancelled the deal with the Chinese company in 2014 because of long-delayed development process.

According to the official document, the projects first phase was developed by 38.92 percent in July, about 0.93 percent more than June. The first phase is aimed to produce 320,000 b/d of oil. The second phase would add 280,000 b/d to this volume.

The field contains 25.34 billion barrels of in-situ oil and its recovery rate is very low at 6.6 percent. Currently five foreign companies, including Frances Total and Japans Inpex are studying the Azadegan field and the ways of increasing the recovery rate, based on confidentiality agreements.

North Yaran

Iran is developing the North Yaran field with local companies  led by Persia Oil and Gas Industry Company  which have 73 percent share based on a buy-back contracts. The rest of shares belong to foreign companies.

North Yaran has been developed by 95.08 percent in July, about 0.07 percent more than June.

Iran produced 16,786 b/d in July, about 12,056 b/d less than June. The final capacity of the project is 30,000 b/d.

South Yaran

Like North Yaran, the South Yaran field is also being developed by local companies to produce 50,000 b/d of oil by July 2017. However the project has been developed by 81.82 percent, 0.28 percent more than June and 1.78 percent more than January 2017.

Overall reserves of North and South Yaran are estimated at about 1 billion barrels.

After completion of all the phases of the mentioned oil fields, their production capacity would reach 1.04 million b/d by 2021. Iran needs more than $15 billion to complete West Karoon projects.

---

Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agencys Iran news service, follow him on Twitter: @dalgakhatinoglu
It has come very close to the potential use of force on the Korean Peninsula and it will be a "real catastrophe" if the situation goes that way, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sunday, Xinhua reported.

The United States fails to understand the serious consequences of an armed conflict, Zakharova was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.

"Representatives of the U.S. establishment and Congressmen are reassuring people that it will not kill people in the United States but in other countries. I think they not only imply the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) but also South Korea," she said.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the risk of a military conflict between the United States and the DPRK is very high, and Russia hopes common sense will prevail.

These warnings came after Pyongyang and Washington exchanged threats to use force against each other earlier this week.

The DPRK threatened Thursday that it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike the U.S. territory of Guam with intermediate missiles.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded."
KU schools at Hattiban inundated

Properties worth around Rs30 million have been damaged in the Kathmandu University School of Arts (SoA) and School of Education (SoE) when the floods triggered by incessant rainfall on Saturday afternoon entered the university premises in Hattiban, Lalitpur.
06:06 (GMT+4) Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant late Sunday in the capital of Burkina Faso, killing at least 17 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years, AP reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses.

Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded, according to a provisional toll. The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. Among the dead was at least one French national.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.

04:58 (GMT+4) Gunmen attacked a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou on Sunday and gunfire could be heard as security forces deployed to the scene, a Reuters witness said.

The Reuters witness saw customers running out of the Aziz Istanbul restaurant as police surrounded.
One person was killed and dozen injured after a driver struck a group of patrons outside a cafe in a region east of Paris Monday evening, Sputnik reported.

An eight-year-old girl was killed in the BMW attack, and 12 were injured, four seriously, according to France's Interior Ministry. The attack took place at a pizzeria in Sept-Sorts, about an hour from Paris, French media outlets report.

The assailant has been detained by French police. While officials at first were reluctant to characterize the even as intentional, a French news station reports that police are now calling this a "deliberate" attack. They have not, however, dubbed it a "terrorist" attack.

The Guardian reports that a witness to the event said the driver attempted to reverse, but was stopped.

"A car drove into the terrace and crashed into the bar," the witness explained. "The driver tried to reverse but someone stopped them. The gendarmes arrived quickly. There were around 20 people in the restaurant."

Because the attack is not at this point being called an act of terrorism, the Paris prosecutor's office has not been involved.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkeys ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will celebrate the 16th anniversary of its founding today, Turkish media reported.

Events will be held throughout the country in this regard. Turkeys former President Abdullah Gul and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will take part in the events.

The Justice and Development Party was established August 14, 2001.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Development of Turkish economy is the main merit of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Kenan Yasan, Turkish journalist, columnist of several newspapers, told Trend.

He said that prior to AKPs accession to power, Turkeys economy was in a deplorable state.

In 16 years, AKP managed to raise Turkeys economy to the world level, Yasan said.

The expert believes that since AKPs accession to power, significant changes for the benefit of the countrys citizens were made in the social sphere of Turkey.

Another merit of AKP is in the fact that after its accession to power, indicators of democracy and human rights have significantly increased, Yasan said.

He noted that a certain group of citizens, including the conservatives, had serious problems prior to AKPs accession to power in Turkey.

One of these problems was related to the fact that women in Turkey, wearing Muslim head scarves, couldnt receive education, which led to serious polarization in the country, he said.

Today, AKP is celebrating the 16th anniversary of its foundation in Turkey.

AKP was established August 14, 2001.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 13, 2017 - 21:41 | All, World

North Korea began Sunday a series of events to sing the praises of its ruling Kim family, at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.

Five days of "international" political and cultural programs to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Kim Jong Un becoming the nation's leader will take place in Pyongyang and Mt. Paektu, with some 200 foreigners with friendly ties to North Korea among those attending, according to organizers.

The celebrations are being held as this year also marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of its late founder, Kim Il Sung, and 75th anniversary of the birth of his son Kim Jong Il, the previous leader who died of heart failure in 2011.

On the first day of the events, participants visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where the embalmed bodies of the two past leaders lie in state, and other key sites in the North Korean capital.

On Monday there will be an event at Mt. Paektu, a volcanic mountain on the border with China long regarded as the mythological birthplace of the Korean people.

North Korea's official version of history says Kim Jong Il was born in a log cabin on the slopes of the mountain, from where his father led an anti-Japanese partisan group.

A highlight is to be the event held Tuesday in Pyongyang, which is to be open to foreign media.

North Korea first announced plans to hold such events last October. But they will now be held as North Korea and U.S. President Donald Trump exchange increasingly fiery rhetoric.

Angered by new sanctions imposed this month by the U.N. Security Council, North Korea has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan to land in waters near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

North Korea has said it will develop a plan by mid-August to launch four missiles near the island, home to about 7,000 U.S. troops and 160,000 people.

That prompted Trump to tweet that America is ready for war. "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely."
KYODO NEWS - Aug 14, 2017 - 07:00 | All, World

The government is arranging to have U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres visit Japan by the end of this year, a diplomatic source said Sunday.

If realized, it would be the first visit to Japan by Guterres since he took the helm of the United Nations in January. The U.N. chief will likely meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Japanese officials, the source said.

Taking the opportunity of the U.N. head's visit, Tokyo hopes to boost momentum for reforms to the U.N. Security Council. Japan currently holds non-permanent membership of the council until the end of this year.

The government is considering inviting Guterres on the occasion of either an international symposium on women's empowerment this autumn or an international conference on health and medicine in December, the source added.

Japan is also planning to ask the U.N. chief to increase the number of Japanese staff at the United Nations. As of June 30 last year, 78 Japanese nationals accounted for 2.62 percent of total U.N. regular staff -- this despite the fact that Tokyo's financial contribution makes up 9.68 percent of the U.N. budget for a three-year period from 2016, the second largest after the United States.

According to the source, Guterres showed willingness to visit Japan when then Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida put the idea to him when he visited U.N. headquarters in New York in July.

Japan has called for expanding the number of permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council. Currently, five nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- are permanent, veto-wielding members of the council.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 14, 2017 - 14:45 | Feature, All

A search and rescue dog born in a village affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has been appointed as an ambassador to promote the village for which an evacuation order was mostly lifted in March.

At an appointment ceremony Monday in Iitate in Fukushima Prefecture, Jagaimo (potato), a 6-year-old mixed breed, received a certificate and an ambassador's plate to hang on his collar from Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno.

The dog was born in June 2011 and transferred to the central Japan city of Gifu in August that year where he was trained.

After the ceremony, Jagaimo demonstrated his ability in a mock rescue operation as he successfully located a trapped casualty, receiving applause from the audience.
Lalitpur worst hit in Valley by monsoon

Three members of a family, who were buried in a landslide at Ekudole in Lalitpur, were rescued by a Nepal Army (NA) team and airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment on Sunday.
From John Isaacson: How would you value a company that lost $666.6 million in the first half of 2017  burns $2.0 billion in cash a year  and just sold $1.5 billion in junk bonds to fund operations?

If youre the stock market, youd give that company  Tesla (TSLA)  a pass. Year-to-date, the shares are up by more than 70%. Talk about a disconnect!

The fact is right now the fear of missing out on the next big thing  in a world of excess liquidity  shifts focus away from fundamentals. And pumps up companies that may normally be left behind.

Plus, it underscores a real danger: how complacent the market has become in pricing risk and valuing assets.

I spoke about this in my intermediate forecast in June.

After all, world central banks bought nearly $11 trillion in assets over the last nine years. And that rising tide lifts assets and distorts fundamentals.

Unfortunately, the musics about to stop. And thats because economic conditions are finally at a place where central banks are slowly tightening ultra-loose monetary policy.

A pullback in the money-flow spigot poses a significant risk to inflated asset prices that have become dependent on easy money. Even the slightest disruption in those flows puts overvalued assets in a vulnerable position.

And that could blow up in everyones faces.

Thats why its no surprise why the Feds judiciously telegraphing their plans and warning investors that change is coming  to prevent another 2013 taper tantrum episode.

But this time, market dynamics are much different  and could be much worse. Consider 

The S&P 500 Index trading at 21 times trailing 12-month earnings (TTM)

Nasdaq-100 trading at 25.4 times TTM

Google trading at 34 times TTM

Amazon trading at 249.2 times TTM

And with the second-quarter earnings season winding down, shares now look toward favorable tax and regulatory policies coming out of Washington, D.C., for more upside.

Story continues

Good luck with that in the foreseeable future!

Unfortunately, it gets worse.

The probability of sudden and sharp market sell-offs is exacerbated by the recent trend of passive investing. Investors are moving their nest eggs away from active managers in favor of ETFs in droves. And thats contributed to blistering gains in the major averages.

Reason: These ETFs are buying the same group of stocks that could be terribly overpriced, such as FANG shares (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google).

These ETFs dont hold cash. And theyre forced to sell their share basket when the investors wake up to the nose-bleed valuations and hit the sell button. This selling pressure exacerbates market declines when everyone heads for the door at the same time.

Frightening, indeed.

And a bearish technical backdrop is also calling for a larger corrective setback ahead.



The S&P 500 traded inside of a tight trading range from late July into this week. In fact, closing prices over that period fell inside of an extremely narrow 8-point range.

Like a coiling spring, the index is now making its move.

First, there was a false upside breakout into record high territory. But it failed miserably. And sharp downside in the major indices throughout the week confirm the bearish bias.

Second, the negative outlook is also confirmed by our E-Wave cycle forecast that calls for a decline into early October. The decline is followed by a brief corrective bounce, before a sharp selloff into mid-January.

Whats an investor to do?

First and foremost: Manage risk. A prudent move is to take some profits at these lofty levels. This also frees up cash for deployment in the coming months at more-advantageous prices.

More aggressive investors might consider purchasing January SPDR S&P 500 put options or buying inverse ETFs like ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 (SDS) or ProShares UltraShort QQQ (QID) on rallies.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) closed at $244.12 on Friday, up $0.36 (+0.15%). Year-to-date, SPY has gained 10.22%.

SPY currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 118 ETFs in the Large Cap Blend ETFs category.

This article is brought to you courtesy of The Edelson Institute.

You are viewing an abbreviated republication of ETF Daily News content. You can find full ETF Daily News articles on (www.etfdailynews.com)
Bitcoin boom: Cryptocurrency marks new record above $4K, boosted by Japan and safe-haven buying

The digital currency bitcoin vaulted to a new record high above $4000 on Saturday, boosted by strong Japanese demand on its way to multiplying its value fourfold this year.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of$4,225.40 early Sunday before slightly paring those gains to trade near $4,000, according toCoinDesk.

The digital currency has now quadrupled in 2017, and is up about 40 percent in August alone. Bitcoin's market value is now around $64 billion, up about $10 billion in the last week.

Bitcoin trade in Japanese yen accounted for nearly 46 percent of global trade volume, up from about a third a day ago, according to CryptoCompare. US-dollar bitcoin trade accounted for about 25 percent, according to CryptoCompare. Bitcoin trade in Chinese yuan and South Korean won accounted for about 12 percent each.

The surge picked up speed in the last week, mirroring gold's climb amid a global selloff in stocks and bonds . Rising worries about North Korea's nuclear threat have sent investors flocking to perceived safe-havens and alternative assets.

"Bitcoin is benefitting from geopolitical tensions - trading in Japan and Korea has increased significantly over the last few months," Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and head of BKCM, which runs an digital asset strategy, said in an email. He also attributed price gains to investors buying back bitcoin after the Aug. 1 split and greater attention from the Russian government.

Analysts have also noted increased investor interest, especially from institutional investors, after bitcoin successfully survived an Aug. 1 split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

This week, Fidelity launched a feature allowing customers to also view their Coinbase bitcoin holdings. The currency also got a boost from Goldman Sachs, which in a report released this week said it is harder for institutional investors to ignore cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

That said, bitcoin's future is still uncertain. The digital currency could potentially split again in November, when the second phase of an upgrade proposal called Segregated Witness is implemented.

Story continues

Chris Burniske, author of the upcoming book, "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond," also noted a sharp pullback in price would not be surprising, given bitcoin's rapid surge.

He noted on Twitter that upticks in the bitcoin price and Google searches have historically led to price corrections.

Bitcoin's offshoot, bitcoin cash, traded little changed near $323, according to CoinMarketCap.

Another digital currency, ethereum, traded nearly 5 percent higher near $315.

WATCH: Here's what sets Ethereum apart from its rival Bitcoin





More From CNBC


Chinas President Xi Jinping moved to calm growing tensions over North Korea, telling U.S. leader Donald Trump in a phone call that all sides should maintain restraint and avoid inflammatory comments.

Xis comments, reported by Chinas CCTV, came shortly after Trump added to his recent aggressive tweets by saying that U.S. military options were locked and loaded if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un acted unwisely. China is North Koreas main benefactor, providing most of its food and fuel.

The White House said that Trump and Xi agreed that North Korea must stop provocative behavior, reiterating their mutual commitment to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. It also said that Trump looked forward to visiting China later this year, calling the relationship between the two leaders extremely close.

The warm words exchanged Friday night in the U.S. masked underlying tensions between Beijing and Washington over how to deal with the errant regime in Pyongyang. Trump has often used sharp words to argue that China isnt doing enough to rein in North Korea, and has threatened punitive measures on trade if Xi fails to act.

China, on the other hand, is reluctant to put so much pressure on the regime that it risks collapse. While North Korea is testing the patience of its longtime benefactor, such a scenario could lead to a unified Korea and push U.S. troops right up to its border.

Chinas dilemma was on display in an editorial published on Friday by the Communist Party-affiliated Global Times. The newspaper said that Beijing should stay neutral if North Korea provoked the Trump into war with a missile attack. At the same time, it said that China would intervene if the U.S. and South Korea sought to attack North Korea and topple his regime.

China agreed to harsh United Nations sanctions earlier this month even while calling on all sides to take a step back and negotiate a solution. Formal talks on North Koreas nuclear program collapsed in 2009, and Kim has accelerated his efforts to obtain the ability to strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon.

Story continues

The Trump-Xi phone call came as Japan set up a missile-defense system in western areas of the country, following a threat by North Korea to fire missiles over Japan toward the U.S. territory of Guam. The deployment of four Patriot interceptors was expected to be completed Saturday, a spokesman for Japans Ministry of Defense said by phone. He asked not to be named.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told local media earlier on Saturday that he would do his best to protect the lives and property of his fellow citizens.

New Phase?

South Korea hopes the talks between Trump and Xi will be an opportunity to ease the high tensions and shift the situation into a new phase, South Koreas presidential Blue House was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.

The European Unions Political and Security Committee will meet Monday in an extraordinary session called by foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to discuss possible next steps on North Korea, according to an emailed statement.

Trump has stepped warnings that Kims regime would face a devastating military strike if it continued threatening the U.S. On Friday, he said that if Kim makes any overt threat or strike at a U.S. territory or ally he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast. Trump also said the U.S. was considering tighter sanctions against North Korea.

Hopefully it will all work out, he told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump.

Brink of War

North Koreas state-run Korean Central News Agency accused Trump earlier of moving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war. The U.S. hasnt taken any public steps to prepare for hostilities such as evacuating Americans from Seoul, which is within range of North Korean artillery, or moving ships, aircraft or troops into position for an imminent response.

After a week of tumult, financial markets began to stabilize on Friday. The S&P 500 Index rebounded from its steepest drop since May, and the CBOE Volatility Index dropped 3.3 percent, after Thursdays 44 percent spike.

Terence Roehrig, a national security affairs professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, said Trumps posture suggested he was trying to dissuade Kim from further provocations rather than setting the stage for a U.S. military strike.

The presidents rhetoric could be aimed at China, but largely it is aimed at North Korea, trying to deter, Roehrig said. North Koreans are not suicidal. They may continue launching missile tests but they dont want a war, and the U.S. doesnt want military action either. 




jake tapper tom bossert

CNN's Jake Tapper grilled a top White House adviser over President Donald Trump's refusal to explicitly condemn white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and members of the alt-right who converged Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

In a statement after the deadly rally, the president responded to the violence that erupted in Virginia as a group of white supremacists clashed with counter-protesters, decrying the "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

In an interview on Sunday, White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert dismissed criticism that the president refused to adequately condemn white supremacists.

Bossert praised the president's statement, saying that Trump appropriately called-out an event that "turned into an unacceptable level of violence at all levels."

"This isn't about President Trump  this is about a level of violence and hatred that could not be tolerated in this country," Bossert said. "I was with the president yesterday, and I'm proud of the fact that he stood up and calmly looked into the camera and condemned this violence and bigotry in all its forms. This racial intolerance and racial bigotry cannot be condoned."

Tapper then read Bossert a quote from a white nationalist website that said Trump's statement was "really, really good" for calling out violence "on many sides."

"Mr. Bossert, that's a neo-Nazi website celebrating how equivocal and vague the president of the United States was," Tapper said. "Are you at least willing to concede that the president was not clear enough in condemning white supremacy?"

"The words of the ignorant bear little with me and should bear less with you in the media," Bossert replied, saying the president "didn't dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue."

Story continues

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

Bossert repeatedly attempted to blame Tapper and the media for scrutinizing Trump's refusal to explicitly condemn white supremacy, saying "what you say and do think does pervade what you say on air and the things you cover."

"Jake, what you need to focus on is the rest of his statement," he added. "I guess you're going to continue to press on the words he didn't say, but I'd like you to focus on the statement that he did say."

The two continue to spar for several minutes  Tapper asked Bossert how many white supremacists were killed by counter-protesters on Saturday, which prompted the homeland security adviser to reply that he wouldn't let Tapper make him a "apologist for somebody who is now a charged murderer."

The CNN anchor also pointed out that Trump officials like adviser Sebastian Gorka have said that white supremacists are not "the problem," and that many Republican officials criticized Trump for not taking a strong enough stance against white supremacists.

"When you just condemn groups, as opposed to specifically white supremacists, Nazis, Klan members  it creates this vagueness," Tapper said. "And you, on this show today, have said that you condemn groups, and condemn actions and condemn bigotry. But I haven't heard you say 'I condemn white supremacists, I condemn nazis, I condemn the alt-right.' And I think a lot of people are upset, a lot of Republican officials, that they didn't hear that from President Trump. But I don't want to belabor the point."

"I think you've belabored it so let me say I condemn white supremacists, and nazis, and groups that favor this type of exclusion," Bossert said. "I can't be clearer."

Despite his unequivocal language on a variety of issues, Trump has repeatedly bungled attempts to condemn white supremacy.

During the 2016 campaign, the then-Republican candidate for months ignored opportunities during interviews to distance hiimself from former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke, who praised Trump.

"I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists," Trump said in an interview on CNN. "Did he endorse me, or what's going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke, I know nothing about white supremacists."

Watch the clips via CNN:



"I condemn white supremacists and racists and white Nazi groups," says WH Homeland Security Adviser #CNNSOTUhttps://t.co/PAvgnyDL6t  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 13, 2017



WH Homeland Security Adviser: "This racial intolerance and racial bigotry cannot be condoned" #CNNSOTUhttps://t.co/mVgKMrqnIg  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 13, 2017

NOW WATCH: The 9 best memes from Trump's first 200 days in office





More From Business Insider
james fields

Violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia took a deadly turn on Saturday when a driver plowed his vehicle through the crowd, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring several others.

The police on Saturday evening identified the suspected driver of the car as 20-year-old James Fields. The police told media they were holding him on suspicion of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one hit-and-run count.

Judge Robert Downer denied bond for Fields on Monday morning and told him he would appoint Charles Weber, a local lawyer, to represent him.

Downer said the public defender's office would not represent Fields because the relative of someone who works in the office was hurt during Saturday's riots, according to The Associated Press.

The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25.

Fields grew up in Kentucky and recently moved to Ohio, his mother, Samantha Bloom, told AP. She knew he was attending the "Unite The Right" rally this weekend and that he supported President Donald Trump, but said she didn't know it was a white nationalist rally.

"I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist," Bloom told AP reporters. She added that she didn't "get involved" with her son's political views.

His aunt, Pam Fields, told The New York Times on Sunday that James Fields' father died before he was born, and she described her nephew as "a very quiet little boy."

Bloom's neighbor similarly said Fields was a quiet teenager who kept to himself and had trouble making friends.

Caitlin Robinson, one of Fields' middle school classmates, described him as an "outcast" and told the Times that his extremist views took root years ago.

"On many occasions there were times he would scream obscenities, whether it be about Hitler or racial slurs," Robinson said. "He wasn't afraid to make you feel unsafe."

Story continues

Derek Weimer, a history teacher who taught Fields during his junior and senior year at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky, told the Washington Post that Fields was infatuated with Nazism as a teenager.

It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler, Weimer said. He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff.

School officials noticed Fields had "deeply-held, radical" beliefs on Nazism and race, Weimer told the Associated Press. He added that Fields supported Trump because of Trump's perceived views on race. His proposal to build a wall along the US' southern border was "particularly appealing" to Fields, Weimer said.

Fields is a registered Republican and voted in the November election, according to BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed also reviewed a now-deleted Facebook page that reportedly belonged to Fields, finding several photos that reflect alt-right views, in addition to a baby photograph of Adolf Hitler and a meme of Pepe the Frog, which was adopted as an alt-right symbol during the 2016 election.

Several posts on Fields' apparent Facebook page contained clear references to Nazism and the concept of "racial purity." There were multiple photos that showed Fields' support for Trump as well, including a "Make America Great Again" banner and an illustration of Trump sitting atop a throne.

On Saturday, the Anti-Defamation League shared a picture of Fields holding a black shield belonging to the white supremacist group, Vanguard America.

James Alex Fields was w/ the Vanguard America folks in #Charlottesville. Learn more about the group > https://t.co/HNloF8Btnf @ADL_National pic.twitter.com/TmJLi0kfZo  Oren Segal (@orensegal) August 13, 2017

But Vanguard America denied any connection to Fields and said he was not a member of the organization.

An official statement regarding today's incidents and the individual in question. pic.twitter.com/wBaERomHEZ  Vanguard America (@VanguardAm) August 13, 2017

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement late Saturday night that the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia and the FBI's Richmond field office were conducting a civil rights investigation into the crash death.

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Russian Soldiers

The New York Times reported in late July that 60,000 to 100,000 Russian troops would be sent to Belarus and western Russia for the Zapad military exercises that will be held Sept. 14-20. And in May, the Washington Post cited US military estimates of 70,000 to 100,000 as taking part in the exercises.

The Economist even cited NATO estimates in August of more than 100,000, and many US generals and western politicians, including Estonia's defense minister, have also expressed concern that Russian troops might permanently stay in Belarus.

"People are worried this is a Trojan horse," US Army Gen. Ben Hodges told Reuters in July. "They say, 'We're just doing an exercise,' and then all of a sudden they've moved all these people and capabilities somewhere."

But Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist at CNA, wrote in The National Interest that these reports were "panicked accounts." Olga Oliker, a senior adviser and director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Center for Strategic and International Studies, also told Business Insider that she agreed with Gorenburg's take.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

In reality, the Zapad exercises, which were also held in 2009 and 2013, take place every 4 years. For the 2013 exercises, western officials estimated that 70,000 Russians participated.

Part of the reason for these disparities in estimations, Gorenburg said, is because Moscow claims the number of troops will be less than 13,000 in 2017, but there is disagreement over whether to count civilian officials and security agents as part of the overall number.

Russia may also conduct smaller exercises in the area that are not technically part of Zapad.

There's also a tendency for the west to count full units as having participated in the exercises when in fact only parts of units were there, Gorenburg said.

Story continues

Either way, that "100,000 figure is pretty off the wall," Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague, told Business Insider in an email.

These "panicked accounts" all stemmed from reports about Russia using 4,000 train cars to transport troops back and forth from the exercises, which could indicate those large western estimates.

Russian Victory Day Soldiers

But Sim Tack, a Stratfor analyst, told Business Insider that estimates of 100,000 or more Russian troops were taken from a Ukrainian blog, informnapalm.org, which is run by amateur journalists. Gorenburg also told Business Insider that these concerns from western officials came largely from the Ukrainian blog.

"A lot of people have just copied that [Ukrainian blog]," Tack said, which Estonia's Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna first started spreading.

"I don't know [the Ukrainian blog's] exact calculations, they just threw out the 100,000 number," Tack said, adding that they basically figured Moscow would pack each rail cars to the brim with 72 soldiers, and that they multiplied the final number by 1.5 times on the assumption that the Kremlin was keeping the real number of rail cars secret.

Gorenburg also said that, while the famed Russian 1st Guard Tank Army was reported to be participating in 2017, Russian officials have yet to confirm it. Tack said that the tank army would partake in the exercises, but it would only be a small contingent of the corps-sized force.

In any event, "it's hard to know how many troops will be in the [2017 Zapad exercises]" because of the disagreement over who should be counted, Galeotti said.

"What we do know is that the total number of Russian troops on Belarusian territory is not expected to exceed 3,000 personnel," Gorenburg wrote, and "the likelihood of this exercise serving as cover for some larger nefarious aim, whether it is an attack on Ukraine or Lithuania or a stealth occupation of Belarus, is practically zero."

It's "highly unlikely the Russians would park troops in Belarus uninvited," Galeotti said. "Minsk has already made it clear that it would not welcome this," and Moscow doesn't have the budget to maintain troops there.

NOW WATCH: Watch US Navy sailors airlift stranded Texans during intense flooding from Hurricane Harvey





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By David Nelson, CFA

On the heels of an excellent earnings season, strategists from Merrill Lynch to Goldman are discussing the disappointing price performance of stocks that beat expectations. A sell-the-news mentality has been the driving force as traders and algo-driven machines exited positions, stepping aside and hoping for a better entry point.

S&P 500 falls to support. (Source: Bloomberg)

The weakness coincides with a geopolitical backdrop that has many making comparisons to the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s. Every President since Reagan bears some responsibility failing to understand North Koreas end game. As I pointed out to CNBC anchors Brian Sullivan and Melissa Lee, any military option would have to be massive, wiping out at least half of the Korean Peninsula. Even if successful, North Koreas conventional weapons on the border sit just 30 miles north of Seoul.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

If markets start to slide again, North Koreas Kim Jong Un and President Trump will certainly be the scapegoats. However, maybe something is going on thats even more frightening for investors than a potentially suicidal dictator or a President who many fear wont listen to his military commanders urging a diplomatic solution.

Stocks are a discounting mechanism always looking forward, but sometimes we fail to look far enough. Right now, the look forward shows much of the same, with consensus for S&P 500 earnings sitting at $131 for 2017 and $145 for 2018. This translates into 12% and 11% growth respectively.

S&P 500 Growth 2017 & 2018

(Source: Bloomberg)

Some, like Goldmans David Kostin, arent so sure. He has cut his numbers, implying that the better-than-expected earnings season isnt being reflected in 2018 numbers. In fact, according to Bloomberg, estimates have actually come up slightly for the last four weeks. Its still too soon, but multiple expansion will come to a halt if the second derivative of growth turns south.

S&P 500 estimate revisions not reflecting the good news

(Source: Bloomberg)

Coming into the year after the presidential election, investors believed the administration would be able to push through pro-business fiscal reforms. As health care faded, tax reform became the rallying cry as it enjoys some measure of bipartisan support. Sweeping tax reform like we saw under President Reagan that could deal with a monstrous 77,000 page tax code is all but a dream. The best we can hope for is a corporate tax cutand if were really lucky, repatriation of some portion of the $2 trillion in corporate cash held captive overseas.

Story continues

Given the congressional calendar and the need to pass a budget (as well as extend the debt limit), any progress on the above is likely to be pushed out well into 2018. Earnings and revenue growth are the life blood of stock performance. If youre looking for a road map as to which way the market is headed, start with the numbers. Reacting to the latest news cycle is hardly a strategy. Sure, it might take you out of the market before it all hits the fan, but what will be the trigger to get back in? The all-clear signal never rings at the bottom, only the top.

-

Please contact your Belpointe investment advisor representative if there are any changes in your financial situation or investment objectives.

Investment advice is offered through Belpointe Asset Management, LLC. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Insurance products are offered through Belpointe Insurance, LLC and Belpointe Specialty Insurance, LLC. It is important to read our email disclosures available at this link: http://belpointe.com/disclosures.
Merck CEO and chair Kenneth C. Frazier resigned from President Donald Trumps American Manufacturing Council following the Presidents delayed condemnation of the neo-Nazi and white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This weekends rally turned deadly when a Nazi sympathizer drove a car into a crowd, killing a woman. In the following police response, a police helicopter crashed, killing two officers.

I am resigning from the Presidents American Manufacturing Council, Frazier wrote in a statement released by Merck. Our countrys strength stems from its diversity and the contributions made by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs.

Here is a list of who is currently on the manufacturing council.

In response 54 minutes later, Trump tweeted: Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from Presidents Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Following the rally, Republicans and Democrats alike largely condemned the neo-Nazi rallies that included prominent figures such as white nationalist Richard Spencer and former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke.

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier and U.S. President Donald Trump meet along with representatives from PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America in the White House on January 31, 2017. (Photo by Ron Sachs/Getty Images)

Trump, however, blamed many sides, a line that was condemned itself across the political spectrum for making an equivalency between neo-Nazis and anti-fascist counter-protesters. Some analysts explained this hesitation by noting that these far-right hate groups are part of Trumps base.

Americas leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal, wrote Frazier. As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Fraziers departure is one of the first responses by the business community to Trumps latest misstep, but previous members of various White House councils have left after a Trump move. Following the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, Disneys Bob Iger and Teslas Elon Musk resigned. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned from the White House business advisory council after the administration implemented its controversial travel ban.


Lawmakers shouldnt serve on parliamentary committees if theres conflict of interest

Dr Govinda KC, currently on his 12th fast-unto-death, is protesting against amendments to a health reform Bill that would essentially weaken one of the main recommendations of the report published by the Mathema Committee; to ban the establishment of more medical colleges inside Kathmandu Valley.




charlie dent

Congress has a lot on its plate.

Before the end of September, the legislature will have to deal with the debt ceiling, a government-funding bill to avoid a shutdown, and a slew of agency reauthorizations.

That's a massive amount of work in a month when both chambers are in session for only 12 working days.

One potential solution gaining steam among some Republican members would attempt to tackle all of the issues at once.

Rep. Charlie Dent, of Pennsylvania, a cochair of the moderate Tuesday Group caucus, told Business Insider he was advocating a plan that would increase the debt ceiling and pass a long-term budget and could address other issues like funding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"I've been telling leadership that for budgetary stability and for market stability we should bring together a plan that would fund the government for two years and increase the debt ceiling," Dent said.

Dent said he had brought the idea to GOP leadership. He was initially rebuffed because the Senate was focused on healthcare legislation, but he is now mounting another push.

"I've discussed this idea with the leadership  I've raised it with Democrats," Dent said. "We think this could be something that gets broad, bipartisan support."

Dent said that if a broader agreement was not reached, he would favor a clean increase of the debt ceiling to avoid a possibly devastating default on the US debt.

[Money Basics: The history of the minimum wage]

One GOP aide told Business Insider that an idea similar to Dent's was under consideration. That plan, the aide said, would feature a continuing resolution to fund the government for six months instead a longer-term, two-year budget plan. The aide also said conservative members were unlikely to get on board and there was active opposition to the idea.

"We're pushing our leadership against that approach," the aide said. "I think that's coming more from the Hill than from the White House. We think that's just not a way to get conservative priorities included."

Story continues

It's unclear what kind of support a proposal like Dent's would garner more broadly in the House. Conservatives, especially in the House, are unlikely to support such a plan. To pass, it would most likely need significant input from Democrats, who could ask for concessions for their priorities.

Representatives for both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said only that discussion regarding the issues was ongoing.

"House Republicans are discussing with the Senate and the administration, and we will act before the deadline," AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, told Business Insider.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

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Donald Trump Xi Jingping On Monday, President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure that will initiate an investigation into IP violations against American companies by Chinese firms.

The investigation will be seen as an act of aggression because it is based on a law that fell into obsolescence with the formation of the World Trade Organization.

This will not help US efforts to deescalate tensions with China's ally, North Korea.

On Monday afternoon President Trump is expected to to sign a memo that will initiate an investigation into intellectual property violations of American companies coming from China.

There is a wrong way and a right way to do this, and Trump plans on doing it the wrong way  by dredging up an outdated trade measure from 1974.

It is a measure that will anger China's leadership at a delicate time, a time when the US is trying to cool tensions with North Korea. China is the isolated nation's most powerful ally and economic benefactor.



De-escalating tensions with North Korea while ratcheting them up with China probably won't work.

The law Trump plans to use is Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974. Basically it allows him to put a tariff on another country without Congressional approval.

"The law hasn't been used in 50 years and there's a good reason for that," economist Chad Brown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics told Business Insider on a phone call. "We built a brand new trading system so we didn't have to use this law."

That trading system is called the World Trade Organization  the body formed in 1995 which handles trade disputes between member nations. Nationalist, protectionist elements of Trump's cabinet  like National Trade Council head Peter Navarro and adviser Steve Bannon  have shown disdain for the body. To them, it's a symbol of globalization, and China's entrance into it in the 1990s led to the decline of American manufacturing.

Story continues

But to the rest of the world  as it used to be to the United States  the WTO helps to support the foundation of a peaceful world order. And if the Trump administration casts it aside, it will alarm not only countries the US has an antagonistic relationship with, but also our allies.

Wrongs and rights

donald trump north korea

Now, none of this is to say that Chinese IP violations aren't an issue, they are to both US and Eurozone companies. The problem is that solving the problem would be a lot easier if the US and EU worked on it together.

"Actually our lives would be a whole lot easier if we were acting in a way that is collegial," Brown explained.

Issues like this are about balancing the complicated interests of US and EU companies that want to tap into China's markets. It requires a coordinated effort from countries that want to see IP theft stopped, the WTO's rules which make their grievances legitimate, and Chinese authorities who must adhere to the rules of the body.

Instead, Trump plans to use section 301, which has only been used once since 2001. The measure was most commonly used during the Reagan administration, during which current US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer served as deputy trade minister.

The US stopped using Section 301 after allies started getting mad about what they considered the US's "aggressively unilateral" trade policy. That, combined with the dispute settlement mechanisms the US built into the WTO, eventually made the law obsolete.

Making a list, checking it twice

US CHINA trade growth

That is, of course, until the Trump administration pledge to buck not only its own party, but also potentially the world order the US built, with its protectionist trade policy.

So far, measures as extreme as Section 301 haven't been taken, but our allies are watching. The EU has been outspoken about proposed steel tariffs that could hurt its steelmakers.

Cecilia Malmstrom, EU trade commissioner, said that she feels that as a friend of the US, the EU is being "unfairly targeted" and that "if it hits us like it could, we will of course retaliate."

That retaliation will likely hit Trump's base. The Europeans plan on targeting bourbon from Kentucky and dairy products from Wisconsin.

They've chosen industries that are "vulnerable in the US and may be able to influence Trump. All countries I'm sure have a strategy  have a process that works like that," Brown explained to Business Insider. "We turn allies into enemies."

China, a target of Trump's bellicose language about trade throughout his presidential campaign, has been making preparations to retaliate against the US in the event of aggressive action for some time.

china imports from US

Back in January China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang spoke in a rare, wide-ranging interview in which he warned the Trump administration against using hot button issues to push its trade agenda. In that case, he mentioned the One China Policy  the US's agreement not to publicly recognize Taiwan as a separate country.

It could very well be that North Korea is another issue China would prefer not to have turn into a bargaining chip.

Or perhaps it does. As it stands now, Trump "has no carrot to offer" if he uses this Section 301, according to Brown. Beijing is holding the cards. It can pressure North Korea, and it can retaliate against any tariffs the US puts on its goods. Once the Trump administration leaves the world of WTO rules, it has to remember that its on its own.

And that means Beijing doesn't have to play by the rules either.

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The United States says a local leader of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group and several of the group's commanders have been killed in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan.

The attack on August 10 killed Abdul Rahman, identified by the U.S. military as the Kunar Provine emir for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan (ISIS-K), according to a statement from the command in Kabul.

Three other senior ISIS-K members were also among those killed in the strike in Pech Valley in eastern Kunar Province, the U.S. military said in the statement issued on August 13.

"The death of Abdul Rahman deals yet another blow to the senior leadership of ISIS-K," General John Nicholson, the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in the statement.

The statement said that Rahman was a primary candidate to become IS's leader after its former leader, Abu Sayed, was killed in a U.S. air strike in July.

"He found out just like those before him that there are no safe havens in Afghanistan. We will hunt them down until they are no longer a threat to the Afghan people and the region," Nicholson added.

The U.S. military denied reports on August 11 that an air strike in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar killed as many as 16 civilians, saying the operation killed only militant fighters.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
Two weeks after his ouster, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has shown he is still one of the most popular political leaders in the country.

But what remains uncertain is how he plans to realize his avowed objective of establishing civilian supremacy in a country reeling from decades of military dictatorships where the military still dominates key policymaking.

Democracy is another name for respecting the will of the people, Sharif told journalists on August 14. Today, on the 70th anniversary of Pakistans independence, I want to note that if we had respected the sanctity of votes [and the will of the people] we would not have faced setbacks.

While not naming those within Pakistans powerful security establishment responsible for his ouster, Sharif raised uncomfortable questions for the forces bent on bankrolling representative rule in the country.

Can any court [in Pakistan] punish dictators who have violated the constitution? he asked tens of thousands of supporters of his Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party on August 12. All prime ministers [in Pakistans history] have been removed. Were all of them corrupt?

Sharif was keen to point out he was sent packing for merely not declaring a salary he never received from his sons company in the United Arab Emirates. In his fiery speeches, he subtly equated his July 28 ouster from office by the countrys apex court with an assault on democracy.

The average for a democratically elected prime minister in Pakistan is a year and a half [in office], he noted. Dictators typically rule the country for a decade, but a prime minister cannot even complete his tenure. Why?

Sharif, a three-time prime minister, was short on the specifics of how he plans to achieve civilian supremacy. He vaguely hinted at constitutional changes to do away with democracy-limiting clauses and said he backed an initiative of dialogue between key state institutions.

We will back the recommendation of Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani to strengthen the parliament by inviting the prime minister, senior army officers, bureaucrats and the Supreme Court chief justice and hold a dialogue between these institutions, Sharif said.

Former lawmaker Afrasiab Khattak says Sharifs ability to mobilize his support base in Punjab is crucial. As the most populous province among Pakistans four provinces, Punjab has a majority of seats in the National Assembly, or lower house of the bicameral parliament, where the majority party forms the government.

Home to an estimated 100 million people, the region also claims a lions share of national resources and dominates national institutions including the military, where almost all senior generals and most soldiers are recruited from the province awash with industry and agriculture. All of this enables Punjab to maintain an informal domination over other provinces and regions.

Mobilization of the people in Punjab is crucial for establishing civilian supremacy, as unlike the voices from the periphery [regions] the voice of the core of the state [in Punjab] cant be ignored, he wrote, referring to Punjabs crucial role in deciding the future of Pakistans democracy. The most important question is who will rule Pakistan -- the elected representatives of the people or the security establishment?

Khattak and other politicians from minority provinces in Pakistan often criticize Punjabs domineering role. But Sharifs apparent change of heart has not convinced many. Days after his protest, there are signs of strong opposition to his likely pushback against the military from within Pakistans often-quarreling politicians.

The PML-N must answer why it talks about democracy but follows a monarchy, opposition leader Imran Khan said in an apparent reference to Sharifs monopoly over his partys leadership. Khans Tehreek-e Insaf, or movement for justice, party was behind the court cases that ultimately led to Sharifs removal from office.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the young leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, is also keen on questioning Sharifs motives.

Whenever there is a threat to democracy, I will come forward to defend it, he told reporters on August 11. But now there is no threat to the democratic political system. Only Nawaz Sharif is personally under threat.

The two parties are unlikely to lend a helping hand to Sharifs PML-N to change the constitution. PML-N currently lacks a two-third majority in both houses of parliament, which is required for changing the supreme law.

In a good omen for Sharif, Pakistans powerful military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is attempting to stay above the fray. Unlike his predecessor, General Raheel Sharif, Bajwa has shown no visible attempts to undermine the civilian government after he was picked by Sharif in November.

During our past journey, we made some mistakes and have learned from them, he said on August 14. Today Pakistan is moving forward on the right path, which is that of the constitution and the [rule of law].

It is, however, not clear whether his views are shared and followed by other powerful generals under his command.
FARMINGDALE, N.Y., Aug. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minuteman Press International, the world's largest and #1 rated design, marketing, and printing franchise, has been listed by cost information website HowMuch.net as the #1 franchise headquartered in New York State. The criteria for HowMuch.net's rankings of each franchise included company size, financial strength, startup costs (initial investment), brand reputation, and franchise growth potential.

With Minuteman Press, there are financing options available for qualified buyers that may put the initial investment in the $30,000 to $50,000 range. Minuteman Press International provides full training, onsite setup of the business, and ongoing local support to its franchisees. The Company also offers a unique royalty incentive program that caps royalties above a monthly sales level for eligible owners.

"We are thrilled to be recognized as the #1 franchise headquartered in New York State by HowMuch.net," says Bob Titus, Minuteman Press International President and CEO. He adds, "With over 44 years of experience in franchising and as leaders in our industry, we are really proud of our track record and to continually support our franchise owners  they are the life of our business. It is especially gratifying that we currently have over 100 second-generation owners in our franchise system, meaning these businesses were passed down to family members who have continued to build on their parents' legacies."

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To learn about Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and access over 80 testimonials and Minuteman Press franchise reviews, visit www.minutemanpressfranchise.com or call 1-800-645-3006 for more information.
tejal777 wrote:

As well as heat and light, the Sun is the source of a continuous stream of atomic particles known as the solar wind.





(A) As well as heat and light, the Sun is the source of a continuous stream



(B) Besides heat and light, also the Sun is the source of a continuous stream



(C) Besides heat and light, the Sun is also the source of a continuous streaming



(D) The Sun is the source not only of heat and light, but also of a continuous stream



(E) The Sun is the source of not only heat and light but, as well, of a continuous streaming

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A:

B:

C:

D:

Correct.

E:

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

Dear Friends,Here is a detailed explanation to this question-Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the sentence is that the Sun is the source of heat, light, and also a continuous stream of atomic particles known as the solar wind. In a phrase + comma + noun construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction. not only A but also B is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B.This answer choice incorrectly uses the phrase "As well as heat and light" to modify "the Sun", illogically implying that heat, light, and the Sun are all the source of the solar wind; the intended meaning is that the Sun is the source of heat, light, and the solar wind; remember, in a phrase + comma + noun construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.This answer choice incorrectly uses the phrase "Besides heat and light" to modify "the Sun", illogically implying that heat, light, and the Sun are all the source of the solar wind; the intended meaning is that the Sun is the source of heat, light, and the solar wind; remember, in a phrase + comma + noun construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase "also the Sun", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; this usage is redundant because "also" can be deleted without a loss of clarity.This answer choice incorrectly uses the phrase "Besides heat and light" to modify "the Sun", illogically implying that heat, light, and the Sun are all the source of the solar wind; the intended meaning is that the Sun is the source of heat, light, and the solar wind; remember, in a phrase + comma + noun construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option C uses the needlessly indirect phrase "a continuous streaming", leading to awkwardness.This answer choice avoids the modifier error seen in Options A, B, and C, as it does not utilize the "phrase + comma" construction; rather, it uses the phrase "not only of heat and light, but also of a continuous stream" to modify "the source", conveying the intended meaning - that the Sun is the source of heat, light, and the solar wind. Further, Option D correctly uses the idiomatic construction "not only A but also B" and maintains parallelism between A ("of heat and light") and B ("of a continuous streaming"). Additionally, Option D is free of any awkwardness and redundancy.This answer choice uses the unidiomatic construction "not only A but as well B" and fails to maintain parallelism between A ("heat and light") and B ("of a continuous streaming"); remember, not only A but also B is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B. Further, Option E uses the needlessly indirect phrase "a continuous streaming", leading to awkwardness.To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):All the best!Team_________________
No dry land to bury (Photo story)

A photo story by photographer Narendra Shrestha for the European Press Photo Agency has caught the eye and broken the hearts of many where a person lets go of his deceased 8-year-old nephew at the flooded Koshi River as there was no dry land to bury him.
A Nigerian couple has welcomed beautiful quadruplets baby girls in Illela area of Sokoto state.

The couple identified as Malam Lawali and his wife Saadatu welcomed their baby girls on Monday, August 7.

Legit.ng gathered that the naming ceremony of the four beautiful girls would hold this Monday, August 14.

In photos shared on social media, the husband and wife were seen cradling their beautiful baby girls in their arms.

READ ALSO: Nigerian pastor and his wife welcome twins after 16 years of marriage (photos)

Nigerian couple welcomes quadruplet girls in Sokoto state

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

The babies were wrapped in blue ankara wraps while rocking blue baby clothes in the arms of their smiling parents.

It was gathered that both the mother and her four newborn daughters are in good health.

Watch President Buhari on Legit.ng TV carrying a baby born by one of the rescued Chibok girls.

Source: Legit.ng
Two Imo state Polytechnic students, 26-year-old Johnson Ashiegbu and 34-year-old, Chinonso Ewurum, have been arrested by operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad for allegedly stealing two vehicles.

The suspects were reported to have sold the vehicle to one Nnamdi Ejinkeonye for N300,000 in Onitsha. The other vehicle which is a Toyota Camry, was stolen by the suspects in the Imo Housing Estate axis of Owerri, where it was parked.

The Toyota Camry which was valued at N3.9 million was sold at N350,000. One of the suspects disclosed that he used the money to sort out some school results and the rest to take care of his girlfriend.

Student steals N19m car to take care of his girlfriend. Source: Punch

READ ALSO: I stopped going to church because my testimonies were not rich enough - Lady reveals (photos)

He said: My desire to sort out my results in school led me into crime. After arranging my results in school, I used the remaining money to live a good life and to take care of my girlfriend.

It was further revealed that he first got N30,000 from the sale of the Hilux van owned by the government and the N285,000 from the Toyota Camry. He said that his younger brother was paid N15,000 for bringing Ejinkeonye, who bought the vehicle.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

However, a police officer disclosed that the identity card of the undergraduate and the master key used in stealing vehicles were recovered as exhibits.

Watch Legit.ng video below:

Source: Legit.ng
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
'No further threat from Koshi in Sunsari and Saptari'

Sunsari and Saptari's government officials on Monday inspected the Koshi Barrage and spurs.
NRNA sets up fund for flood victims

The Non-Resident Nepali Association has decided to establish a relief fund for flood victims.
A court in Moscow is preparing to hear arguments from the family of Raoul Wallenberg in a case against Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB.

The former Swedish diplomat has been credited with saving thousands of Jews during World War II.

A lawyer for his family says the court will hear the arguments on August 17. The family is asking the FSB to provide documentation that could help prove what happened to Wallenberg at the end of the war.

We feared we will encounter resistance from the court in the adoption of the claim given that in recent decades, Russian state agencies have invented reasons not to provide information on this case, lawyer Ivan Pavlov said on August 10.

Raoul Wallenberg served as a diplomat in German-occupied Hungary during World War II. He led an effort that saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews.

The Soviet Union took control of Hungary from German forces as the war came to a close. Soviet forces captured Wallenberg in 1945. He later died in prison, although details of his death are unclear.

Russia has only said that Wallenberg died in 1947 in Moscow's Lubyanka prison. At the time, the prison was operating under the KGB, the main security agency for the Soviet Union.

The FSB replaced the KGB after the break-up of the country in 1991.

Soviet officials, and later Russia, claimed the then-35-year-old Swede died of a heart attack. Wallenbergs family, Swedish officials, and others have disputed that claim.

Marie Dupuy, Wallenbergs niece, said on July 26 that she had asked the Russian legal organization Team 29 to bring the case to court. "Numerous requests to Russian authorities over many years, publicly and privately, by myself, by expert historians, and Swedish officials, have failed to yield any results," she said.

Dupuy claimed Russian records contained documents with direct relevance to Wallenberg's condition. But she said his family and independent experts have not been permitted to examine the documents.

"As soon as [August 17], we will clarify the position of the FSB, which has not commented on this case in any way, and we will find out what we are going to face in court," Pavlov said.

Im John Russell.

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty reported this story. George Grow adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

adoption  n. the process of giving official approval of something

decade  n. a period of 10 years

niece  n. a daughter of ones brother or sister

relevance  n. relation to the issue under consideration

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
President Donald Trump spoke Monday about the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. He strongly criticized white supremacists and other hate groups.

A 32-year-old woman was killed Saturday and 19 people were injured when a man drove his car into a crowd of activists. They were protesting a white supremacist demonstration. Another 15 people were injured in fights between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators.

Later Saturday, Trump said many sides were responsible for the violence. But Monday, after criticism of that statement, Trump spoke again.

"Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK (Ku Klux Klan), neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

White nationalists, the KKK and others had gone to Charlottesville to protest the citys decision to take down a monument. It was a statue of Robert E. Lee, an important Civil War general who fought for the southern states. The southern states were seeking to separate from the United States. Many find such monuments offensive because of the Souths support for slavery.

Man charged with using car to kill woman

James Alex Fields Jr. was charged with murder and other crimes in connection with the automobile incident. Police said he acted to kill and wound people with his car. The Associated Press and other news groups reported that Fields admired Adolph Hitler. Reports also said his social media presence suggested support for white nationalism.

Trump, a Republican, was not the only Trump administration official to criticize the violence in Charlottesville. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday that the car attack in Charlottesville meets the definition of domestic terrorism.

Some criticized Trump for not immediately criticizing white supremacists in his first statements.

Nancy Pelosi is the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. She said Trumps 2016 presidential campaign had the support of the, in her words, forces of bigotry and discrimination.

It should not take two days for the president to criticize murder and violence by Nazis and white supremacists, Pelosi said.

Emotional battle over statues

There is hot debate about efforts to remove statues representing Confederate leaders. Such action is not only taking place in Charlottesville, but also in New Orleans, Louisiana and Lexington, Kentucky.

Some argue that taking down Civil War statues is denying history.

Pierre McGraw led a group in New Orleans that tried unsuccessfully to stop the removal of four Confederate statues from the city.

People across Louisiana should be concerned over what will disappear next, he said.

The citys mayor, Mitch Landrieu, gave a speech defending the citys action. He said, Statues that honor slavery should not be permitted in a nation that long ago rejected slavery as the worst kind of hate.

In Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia, officials are hoping to move past the weekends violence.

Frank Conner III is a top University of Virginia official.

He said, The actions of those who visited evil upon us are nothing short of white nationalist and white supremacist terrorism intended to intimidate our community. They will not succeed. We will not surrender.

Larry Sabato is a political science professor at the University of Virginia with a home on campus. Several hundred marchers carried burning sticks and shouted racist and pro-Nazi statements there on Friday night.

My father fought in World War II against the Nazis, all the way to Berlin, Sabato said. I'm glad he's not here decades later to see that hundreds of neo-Nazi thugs can march their way up the University of Virginia Lawn, past his son's home, spouting racist and anti-Semitic slogans.

Sabato said he believes white nationalists felt supported by the presidents first statement because he did not directly criticize them for the violence.

Nghana Lewis teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans and has followed the battle over the citys Confederate monuments.

She was asked what people outside the United States should know about these fights.

Lewis said while there is much to admire about our country, U.S. history is complex. She said America is still a very young nation and still early in the process of undoing its history of slavery and racial discrimination."

Battle with drug company head

The leader of Americas third largest drug company resigned from a federal advisory group Monday in connection with Trumps first response to Charlottesville. Kenneth Frazier said Americas leaders must reject those who say that one racial group is better than another.

Trump later criticized Frazier in a Twitter post.

I'm Caty Weaver.

And I'm Bruce Alpert

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for Learning English based on reports by Reuters, The Associated Press and other sources. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

white supremacist  n. person who believes whites are better than blacks and other races

evil - adj. morally bad

thug - n. a violent criminal

repugnant - adj. causing a strong feeling of dislike or disgust

admire - v. to think of highly of someone

intentional - adj. done in a way that is planned

intimidate - v. threaten someone

spouting - v. to say something

slogan - n. a word or phrase that is used by a group to attract attention
As Americas nuclear power industry continues to suffer major economic difficulties, some are questioning whether it can - or should - survive.

The latest setback came July 31, when state power companies in South Carolina halted construction of two reactors. After spending about $9 billion, the companies decided that increasing costs and repeated building delays did not make the project worth finishing.

U.S. energy company Westinghouse Electric had been building the nuclear plant, which it started in 2012. In March, Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy, due in part to huge losses related to the South Carolina project, as well as others.

Industry groups had hoped the South Carolina reactors would mark a new beginning for U.S. nuclear power and show the benefits of the latest technology.

The United States remains the worlds top producer of nuclear power, according to the British-based World Nuclear Association. The countrys 100 reactors provide nearly 20 percent of total U.S. electrical output.

However, only two new nuclear reactors are currently being built in the United States  both of them in Georgia. The reactors were the first large nuclear plants to be started in the United States in more than 30 years. And the future of those reactors is uncertain.

The project - currently about half-finished - has also suffered major cost overruns and delays. For now, the companys parent, Japan-based Toshiba, has promised to provide at least $3.7 billion to finish the project.

Challenges for nuclear power industry

One of the main factors causing the industrys economic problems is the countrys large, cheap supply of natural gas. The supply became available due to widespread fracking operations.

There is also much lower demand in the U.S. for electricity than ever before. This came about after many improvements in energy efficiency and success with conservation efforts.

President Donald Trump has called for a complete review of U.S. nuclear energy policy in an effort to revitalize the industry. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has also said he sees nuclear power as a very important part of future U.S. energy policy. There has also been support from both major parties in Congress.

David Fedor is a researcher with the Hoover Institutions Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy. He says states and the federal government can take steps to help energize the U.S. nuclear industry, mainly by providing financial assistance.

Congress could increase the subsidies to nuclear to the level that they give to other power generation technologies - like wind and solar - that have similarly desirable attributes, basically no pollution and essentially no carbon emissions.

Fedor said another action could be putting a carbon tax on plants fueled by coal, oil or natural gas. The idea is that this could indirectly benefit the nuclear industry by making costs higher for companies producing environment-harming emissions.

He also said the industry needs to be more efficient, reduce costs and sell the public on why nuclear is still a good energy option.

When you talk about these newer technologies that are sort of walk-away safe, then people shift in their perspective and say, ok, this is something new. This is not the same old thing that we've been talking about for the past 20 or 30 years. And so there's some excitement there.

But some opponents say theyve been hearing the same arguments in support of nuclear power for decades.

Paul Gunter is a longtime anti-nuclear activist. He co-founded the Clamshell Alliance in 1976. The group was formed to oppose the Seabrook Station nuclear plant in New Hampshire. He and hundreds of other protesters were arrested during non-violent demonstrations against the project. Gunter says his main opposition was that the licensing approval process was corrupt.

For example, you couldn't raise the issue of, what are you going to do with all the nuclear waste from Seabrook? And that question was not allowed in the licensing proceeding.

Seabrook Station was eventually completed at a cost of about $7 billion and began operations in 1990. The Clamshell Alliance helped shape Americas anti-nuclear movement for many years to come.

Another defining moment came after the Three Mile Island plant accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 - the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history. A series of mechanical and human mistakes sent one of the reactors into a partial meltdown, sending large amounts of radiation into the surrounding area.

Gunter says even before that accident, there were clear signs the nuclear industry would not be economically sustainable. Today, he says neither state utility providers nor large energy companies are willing to put up money for risky nuclear projects.

So the only way that you can revive nuclear power is going to be through socializing its financing through the rate payer and the taxpayer. But at this point, we're seeing the rate payer become the irate payer - when you waste billions and billions of dollars and decades on a predictable outcome.

Could this be the answer?

Some energy experts have suggested that one way to revive U.S. nuclear power is to completely scale down the way reactors are currently designed and built. They say this approach could improve efficiency and safety of plants while cutting costs.

Jacopo Buongiorno is a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He says one option is to build small modular reactors. These reactors work much the same way as large plants, but would greatly reduce building time and total costs.

They're small. They could be, in principle, built in factories and then delivered to the site in larger pieces. So you are shifting work from an environment which is intrinsically expensive and low productivity  a construction site - to an environment which is intrinsically high productivity, and less expensive.

He added that these power generators could be built in 3-4 years, compared to 7-10 years or more for larger reactors. Buongiorno is also studying the possibility of small nuclear plants that would float in the sea. These could improve safety by being far away from population centers in case of accident. The ocean water could also help the reactors necessary cooling process.

Despite the U.S. downturn, some parts of the world are expanding their nuclear power capability. Asia currently has the most nuclear plants under construction, according to the World Nuclear Association.

At the end of 2016, 20 of the worlds 61 nuclear power projects were in China, the organization reported. Another 15 were being built in India, Pakistan and Russia.

In Europe, France operates by far the most reactors, 58. But new French energy policy aims to reduce the countrys share of nuclear energy from 75 percent today, to 50 percent by 2025.

Im Bryan Lynn.

And I'm Alice Bryant.

Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

Do you think countries should expand nuclear power or invest in other energy sources? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

bankruptcy  n. financial failure caused by not having enough money to pay debts

fracking  n. method used for getting oil and gas from underground rocks by injecting liquid into the rocks

efficiency  n. the quality or degree of being efficient

conservation  n. the protection of animals, plants and natural resources

revitalize  v. make something more active or lively

subsidy  n. money given by a government to help pay costs

emission  n. gas or energy that is sent into the air

partial  adj. not complete

sustainable  adj. able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed

irate  adj. very angry

principle  n. basic truth or theory

intrinsically  adv. occurring as a natural part of something
(from left): Professor Dr. Rene Hurlemann, Dr. Holger Gerhardt, Nina Marsh and Dr. Dirk Scheele. Credit: Rolf Muller/UKBONN

How can xenophobia be reduced and altruism strengthened? Researchers at University Hospital Bonn have shown in a new study that the bonding hormone oxytocin together with social norms significantly increases the willingness to donate money to refugees in need, even in people who tend to have a skeptical attitude towards migrants. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We tend to be more altruistic to our own family and friends than to perfect strangers. The recent migration of Middle Eastern refugees into European societies has further magnified the issue, with a large divide in society between people who do and do not support the refugees. "This is partly due to evolution: Only through solidarity and cooperation within one's own group was it possible to raise children and survive when competing against unknown and rivaling groups for scarce resources in pre-civilized times," explains Prof. Rene Hurlemann from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn Medical Center. However, this is diametrically opposed to the parable of the Good Samaritan, which serves as an example of selfless altruism by describing a Samaritan who incurs personal costs to help a stranger in need. "From a neurobiological perspective, the basis of xenophobia and altruism is not yet precisely understood," says Hurlemann.

Under the psychiatrist's supervision, a team of researchers at the University of Bonn, the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa (USA), and the University of Lubeck conducted three experiments in which they tested a total of 183 subjects, who were all German natives. In the Laboratory for Experimental Economics (BonnEconLab) at the University of Bonn, they completed a donation task on a computer. The donation task included 50 authentic case vignettes describing the personal needs of poor people, 25 of which were portrayed as local people in need, while the other 25 people were portrayed as refugees.

With an endowment of 50 euros, the participants could decide for each individual case whether they wanted to donate a sum between zero and one euro. The test subjects were allowed to keep any money that was not donated. "We were surprised that the participants in the first experiment donated around 20 percent more to refugees than to local people in need," says Nina Marsh from Prof. Hurlemann's team.

Questionnaire on attitude towards migrants

In another independent experiment involving over 100 participants, the subjects' personal attitudes towards refugees were assessed in a questionnaire. Then half of the group received the bonding hormone oxytocin via a nasal spray, while the other half of the group received a placebo before they were exposed to the donation task established in the first experiment: again the participants decided how much of their 50 euros they wanted to donate to locals or refugees.

Under the influence of oxytocin, the individuals who tended to show a positive attitude towards refugees doubled their donations to both the locals and the refugees. However, oxytocin had no effect in individuals who expressed a rather defensive attitude towards migrants: In those participants, the tendency to donate was very low to locals and refugees alike. "Oxytocin clearly increases generosity towards those in need, however, if this altruistic fundamental attitude is missing, the hormone alone cannot create it," says Hurlemann.

Oxytocin in combination with social norms decreases xenophobia

How can people who tend to have a xenophobic attitude be motivated to be more altruistic? The researchers assumed that the addition of social norms could be a starting point. In a third experiment, they thus presented the participants with the average donation their peers made in the first experiment under each case vignette. Half of the participants once again received oxytocin. The result was astounding. "Now, even people with negative attitudes towards migrants donated up to 74 percent more to refugees than in the previous round," reports Nina Marsh. Through the combined administration of oxytocin with a social norm, the donations for refugees in those skeptical towards migrants nearly reached half of the sums donated by the group, which showed a positive attitude towards refugees.

What conclusions can be drawn from these results? It appears that pairing oxytocin with a social norm can help counter the effects of xenophobia by enhancing altruistic behavior toward refugees. "The combined enhancement of oxytocin and peer influence could diminish selfish motives," says Hurlemann. If people whom we trust, such as supervisors, neighbors or friends, act as a role model by making public their positive attitude towards refugees, more people would probably feel motivated to help. In such a prosocial context, oxytocin could increase trust and minimize anxiety - experience shows that the oxytocin level in the blood increases during social interaction and shared activities. "Given the right circumstances, oxytocin may help promote the acceptance and integration of migrants into Western cultures," says Hurlemann.

More information: Nina Marsh, Dirk Scheele, Justin Feinstein, Holger Gerhardt, Sabrina Strang, Wolfgang Maier, Rene Hurlemann: Oxytocin-enforced norm compliance reduces xenophobic outgroup rejection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), DOI: doi/10.1073/pnas.1705853114 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nina Marsh, Dirk Scheele, Justin Feinstein, Holger Gerhardt, Sabrina Strang, Wolfgang Maier, Rene Hurlemann: Oxytocin-enforced norm compliance reduces xenophobic outgroup rejection,), DOI: doi/10.1073/pnas.1705853114
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Hospitals are not off limits to tragic shooting events, and with these incidents on the rise in public places, more than half of the general public expects that physicians and nurses will protect them from harm if an active shooter event erupts while they're in the hospital. Likewise, more than half of health care professionals believe they have a special duty to protect patients under these circumstances. But the two groups differ about the inherent safety of hospitals, with most people viewing them as safe havens, while health care professionals are more likely to view the hospital as a potentially risky setting for an active shooter event. These beliefs are among key findings from a national survey conducted in March 2017 by the Hartford Consensus. The results are published online as an "article in press" on the website of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons in advance of print.

The FBI defines an active shooter event as one in which one or more persons actively engages in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.1 The number of active shooter events across the U.S. has grownrising from 6.4 events per year from 2000 to 2006to 16.4 events per year from 2007 to 2013. Within that 13-year period, four (2.5 percent) of the shooting events occurred in a health care setting, according to a 2014 analysis by Texas State University and the FBI.2 A further examination of shooting events from 2000 to 2011, including those not meeting the FBI's active shooter definition, shows 154 shooting incidents on hospital premises, with at least one injured person per incident.

"A hospital is even more precarious than other public places because patients are so vulnerable. Some are unable to flee, or may be impaired by medical conditions or treatments that render them unable to understand commands that can lead them to safety, " said lead author Lenworth M. Jacobs, Jr., MD, FACS, Chairman of the Hartford ConsensusTM, and professor surgery and vice-president of academic affairs at Hartford (Conn.) Hospital.

The standard directive to "run, hide, fight" in active shooter situations has a different connotation in hospitals because health care professionals are responsible for patient care. However, as the authors point out "how health care professionals should respond is an intensely personal decision." With hospital-based shootings on the rise, the Hartford Consensus wondered about the willingness of hospital staff to place themselves at risk to protect patients if an active shooter was on site.

This concern is an obvious outgrowth of the work of the Hartford Consensus, which advocates that "no one should die from uncontrolled bleeding." Preventing a severe bleeding death in victims who have a survivable injury has been the focus of work of the Joint Committee to Create a National Policy to Enhance Survivability from Intentional Mass Casualty and Active Shooters Events, convened by the American College of Surgeons. The committee's deliberations are known as the "Hartford Consensus" because the group's inaugural meeting occurred in Hartford, Conn.

To learn about the public's perceptions of active shooter events in hospitals, Dr. Jacobs secured the services of Langer Research Associates (New York City) on behalf of the Hartford Consensus to conduct a national telephone survey. A second part of the research consisted of an online survey of health care professionals, mostly physicians, who were members of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma; ACS Board of Governors and Board of Regents; and members of the Hartford Consensus.

The researchers designed questions for the public and health care professionals to capture their answers for five key issues of belief: the risk level for an event happening in the hospital; hospital preparedness to respond; obligations of doctors and nurses to patients during an event; level of personal risk medical professionals should accept for protecting patients; and whether professionals should be required to save patient lives at the risk of their own.

Interviews were conducted nationally by telephone with 1,017 adults: 607 interviews via cell phone and 410 via landline. Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS) of Media, Penn., preformed sampling, data collection and tabulation for the phone survey.

Next, a complementary online survey of health care professionals was programmed and administered by SSRS. Authors reported that questions about active shooter events in hospitals were recast for the online survey to ask professionals "what level of risk doctors and nurses should accept to try to protect patients in an OR, an ICU, or on a floor where patients are ambulatory."

Online responses were collected from 684 health care professionals, of which 92 percent were physicians. Within that group 95 percent worked in a hospital, with 94 percent providing direct patient care.

The authors noted these key findings from responses of both groups:

More health care professionals (33 percent) believe the risk of an active shooter event to be "high" or "very high" in a hospital than do members of the general public (18 percent).

More members of the public (72 percent) believe that hospitals are "somewhat" or "very prepared" for an active shooter event than health care professionals do (55 percent).

Regarding physician/nurse obligations to patients during active shooter events, the response rates were almost equal: 61 percent of the public and 62 percent of health care professionals responded that professionals have a special duty to protect patients, similar to the way police and firefighters protect the general public.

These strong beliefs dropped however, when it came to the issue of personal risk, with 39 percent of the public and 27 percent of professionals believing that doctors/nurses should accept a "high" or "very high" degree of personal risk to help patients in harm's way.

However, in settings where patients are more vulnerable, such as the operating room or the intensive care unit, more professionals believe they should assume a "high" or "very high" level of risk in these settings to get patients out of harm's way (45 percent and 36 percent respectively) as opposed to a location where patients may be less vulnerable, such as a floor with ambulatory patients (22 percent).

The public's belief that hospitals are not risky areas for an active shooter event are similar to findings from the 2014 Texas University/FBI study. 2 "The public's belief of hospitals being at lower risk may be grounded in the perception of hospitals as sanctuaries of caring and healing," the authors wrote.

"Our findings also show that the public tends to view the hospital as a safe haven, certainly safer than other public places like shopping malls or airports," Dr. Jacobs said. "But we've also learned that health care professionals are realistically more aware of the potential danger."

As a next step, Dr. Jacobs recommends that hospitals take steps now to ensure their entire staff is hard-wired to deal with an active shooter event. "Ten years ago an active shooter event was a non-concept for hospitals, but clearly things have changed. Hospitals need to build resilience against such attacks as called for by Barack Obama's Presidential Policy Directive 8, promoting a fully integrated preparedness system to strengthen the nation's resilience to deal with natural and manmade disasters. That directive means hospitals need to think about their vulnerability for an active shooter event, then develop a response plan, and practice it," he concluded.

More information: Lenworth M. Jacobs et al. The Hartford Consensus: Survey of the Public and Healthcare Professionals on Active Shooter Events in Hospitals, Journal of the American College of Surgeons (2017). Journal information: Journal of the American College of Surgeons Lenworth M. Jacobs et al. The Hartford Consensus: Survey of the Public and Healthcare Professionals on Active Shooter Events in Hospitals,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2017.06.009
(HealthDay)There is considerable variation in nonparticipation in diabetes self-management classes, according to a study published online Aug. 3 in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Preventing Chronic Disease.

Melissa L. Santorelli, Ph.D., from the New Jersey Department of Health in Trenton, and colleagues used data from the 2013 to 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine variation in participation in a diabetes self-management class in New Jersey.

The researchers observed significant variation in nonparticipation by race/ethnicity (P < 0.001), education (P < 0.001), health care coverage (P = 0.04), county (P < 0.001), years since diagnosis (P < 0.001), and visit to a diabetes provider in the past year (P = 0.002).

"Attention is warranted in identifying participation barriers among patients who live in certain counties, have less education, are without health care coverage, have been diagnosed with diabetes more recently, visit a provider less often, or belong to certain racial/ethnic minority group," the authors write.

Copyright  2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Parties ask cadres to go help victims

Ruling and opposition parties have urged their leaders and cadres to reach out to the flood victims and offer help in their respective constituencies.
Local Airbnb competitor Afristay has received millions in funding from South African and international investors.

Afristay, formerly known as Accommodation Direct, was started in 2006 by local entrepreneurs Oliver Bryant and Ric Meulemans.

Afristay CEO Rupert Bryant told MyBroadband that while Accommodation Direct was a good name, it was generic.

We decided that we wanted a name that better represented who we are: Easy online bookings combined with friendly customer service in Africa, said Bryant.

The name change is only the start of exciting upcoming developments at the company, said Bryant.

To improve its current offerings and accelerate growth, Afristay raised R7 million earlier this year. The funding was raised privately, from three local investors (Rupert Bryant, Oliver Bryant, and Ric Meulemans), and two international investors.

Taking on Airbnb

Bryant said their success to date shows that they can beat Airbnb in South Africa.

We can typically offer the better price on accommodation since we have no guest booking fees (Airbnb charges around 7%), said Bryant.

He said their customer service is excellent and users can pick up the phone anytime, call us, and we answer.

We make a big effort to take good care of our guests and property managers and ensure their experience is superb, from start to finish.

To ensure service levels remain high, Afristay has over 35 consultants who are experts in travel in sub-Saharan Africa.

As a result of taking care of our guests, our repeat bookings and word of mouth referrals are quickly growing, and we dont have to sink loads of cash into online marketing.

This growth is not slowing, and the company now employs 50 full-time staff and has quadrupled in size over the past year.

We now process R4 million in bookings per month, and are doubling in size every six months, said Bryant.

Afristay is hoping to process over R50 million in bookings in 2017.

Now read: The South African company taking on Airbnb
Rubin has made significant progress over the past few years developing an AIP system for submarines. First a technology demonstrator and then a shore-based test facility were built. The tests on it have been completely completed, and the Russian Navys requirements have been met. Preparations are underway for the next stage of tests. Details of the program are not disclosed for reasons of security. At the same time, the developers of the domestic AIP openly state that their installation has a number of significant advantages over its Western counterparts. "The operating principle of our AIP has been recognized the most appropriate across the world, since both our German and French colleagues switched to this type, but our design bureau started this work much earlier. We have an edge here, which will be embodied in an advanced project for the Indian Navy with the help and participation of Indian enterprises," the Rubin CEO said.



The victory in India is very important for bringing the new product to the world market. Foreign contracts, added to State Defense Order, will make it possible to quickly pay back the costs incurred for research and development work, increase the size of the production series and reduce the cost per unit. Many importing countries are interested in AIP submarines, but they want to get a ready-made, proven system. If Rosoboronexport succeeds in persuading our partners in military and technical cooperation in the advantages of domestic shipbuilders products, then Rubin, Admiralty Shipyard and its subcontractors can count on numerous contracts. This will allow them to remain in the market and continue developing the national school of underwater shipbuilding.



The Indian military are closely following all the latest achievements of Russian sailors and shipbuilders. They are especially interested in St. Petersburg, as this ship is proposed as a prototype in the tender for Project 75i. Igor Molchanov, Chief Designer of non-nuclear submarines at Rubin, explains: "We say that the Project 677 diesel-electric submarine is a prototype for the Amur 1650. I confirm that all the main tests of the lead ship have been completed. There remained only a small scope of inspections related to the sonar system."

As is known, St. Petersburg is equipped with a prototype of the Lira sonar system developed by the Elektropribor Central Research Institute. In terms of performance, it is far superior to the series-built MGK-400 Rubicon-family sonar systems used in SSKs of previous Projects 636 and 877.



"Since a really unique sonar system is installed aboard St. Petersburg, all efforts are focused today on carrying out its comprehensive testing in completely different conditions," continues Molchanov. "The system is operable and has substantiated all its claimed characteristics. However, since hydrology is complex and changing, a large scope of work is done for a variety of hydrological conditions that may be encountered in the Oceans of the World. I emphasize that its not about functional demonstration of the sonar - because there is no longer any doubt about it. Its about a set of certain statistics that will allow using this sonar system with a given effectiveness under completely different conditions."



It is the Lira, together with the small dimensions of the ship and extremely low-noise SED-1 main permanent-magnet motor (such a motor was used for the first time on the Russian submarine), that makes the Project 677 boat a "hunter" for foreign submarines. The 533mm torpedo tubes are adapted for firing the Kalibr strike cruise missiles as well. St. Petersburg conducted its first missile launches in the fall of 2016.



The submarine is capable of firing a salvo from all six tubes, while a quick loader enables the whole available weapon load (18 units) to be fired at the enemy in a matter of minutes. This makes the boat formidable for any enemy, including an aircraft carrier strike group. Among the missile versions, there are also the 3M-14 land-attack missiles, which were already used by the Project 636.3 SSK Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar to destroy IS ground targets in Syria. Although the tests of the lead boat took a long time, their completion suggests that our Navy has got a lethal combatant unit, fully prepared for batch production, the Zvezda TV channel writes.



 Copyright 2017 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Slovenia holds second round of presidential elections

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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
PM Deuba in Sunsari to assess damage caused by floods

A team under the leadership of Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba arrived in Sunsari on Monday afternoon to take stock of the situation in the flood affected areas.
The initiative of street struggle of the Heritage Party will not be a success both from strategic and tactical viewpoints, political technologist Armen Badalyan told Armenian News  NEWS.am Monday.

In his words, when Heritage announces about launching negotiations with the parliamentary and non-parliamentary forces, as well as taking to the streets, it should first of all considered how each force sees the power change and the future of Armenian afterwards.

One should take into account what the negotiations are based on. If they are based merely on the struggle against the executive authorities for power change, they will yield no results, since each force has its goal and ideas about the struggle against the authorities. It should also be understood how Armenia should develop after the power change: whether it will deepen the relations with the western authorities or the Russian side. It should first be decided how each force sees the further development of Armenia and accordingly hold negotiations with the force, which is of the same opinion with them, and only then move towards power change. This is the first reason why the partys initiative will not be a success in terms of abstract union, he said.

According to the political technologist, it is also important that the union of Heritage and other forces be accompanied by actions. When you want to get united, that union should not be only declarative but also be accompanied by actions with the western or Russian integration system. That is, the western institutions or Russian ones should support. Apparently, the western institutions wont support that movement, since they dont know its future. The same is true for the Russian ones.

Armen Badalyan also noted that the struggle is important also in terms of tactics: one should consider the opportunity of starting a street struggle, which it is hard to imagine in Armenia in these conditions.

One should forget about the street struggle in Armenia for a long time, since nobody is left in Armenia to take to the streets: many people have emigrated, while another part is going to emigrate, it being hard to take people to the streets at the moment. The part of the society, which is more pro-western, wont take to the streets with pro-Russian ones. They dont know what will happen after the power change.
YEREVAN.  The reports of Israeli daily Maariv are a serious blow to Azerbaijan's image , Armenian military analyst Arkadi Grigoryan told Armenian News  NEWS.am.

His comment came in response to the recent Israeli media publications saying Israeli company was asked by Azerbaijan to test the drones on Armenian positions.

According to the analyst, the aim of this leak was probably to soften Armenia's criticism over Israels role in supplying arms to Azerbaijan: If they believe that we will slam them less, they are mistaken. We will still scold them. There will be people in their country who will criticize their government, too.

Arkadi Grigoryan considers that there is also the second point which we don't see under the influence of emotions: Perhaps, some circles of Israel aren't really happy with military cooperation with Azerbaijan. This is an interesting message addressed to Azerbaijan.

At the same time, the analyst emphasized that the operator of the UAV must get special permission of the Ministry of Defence, but not be guided by morality.

This also shows the low level of training of Azerbaijani specialists. In fact, they have been working with the Israeli side for 10 years, but they still need help to operate the equipment. There were rumors that during the April war Israeli drones were operated by Israeli experts. This report confirms the speculations could have been right, Arkady Grigoryan noted.

At the same time, he believes Azerbaijans behavior is a blow to the authority of Israel as reliable military partner and supplier of arms.

In fact, Baku tried to force the Israeli experts to take an illegal step.
Rhino, deer swept by Narayani River found dead

A rhinoceros swept away by flooded Narayani River at Nandapur in Nawalparasi district was found dead near Triveni on Monday.
President of the Russian-Armenian Lawyers Association ARMROSS Ruben Kirakosyan on Monday denied the categorical claims of Russian political scientist Oleg Kuznetsov and his attorney about the possibility of refusing him to launch a criminal case.

Referring to the aforementioned claims upon the request of Armenian News  NEWS.am, Ruben Kirakosyan noted that currently the pre-investigation check is underway, which is an ordinary procedure that may take up to two months.

The book itself is not available and has not been put to sale. The check will reveal the entire picture. If the experts find that the expressions in it contain national and racial hatred, this will be considered as a crime. Otherwise, decision will be taken to refuce the launching of a criminal case, Kirakosyan said.

The situation is worsened by the fact that already in the course of the standard procedure great hysteria is noticed from the side of my opponent. He constantly gives an interview to the Azerbaijani press, making conclusions that the launching of the case will be refused. His attorney also says the same. This cannot but raise concerns since during the procedure we repeatedly face the situation, when the opponent has information, which he actually cannot have, that being an investigative secret. We have certain ideas on how the investigation is conducted. We collect information and will hand it to the next instance should anything happen. This check is initiated upon the personal order of Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Mr Bastrykin, and is under his personal control, the attorney stressed.

Kirakosyan also noted that he has no idea about which expert institution conducts the investigation. That information is not provided to us. We are trying to find out by legal means what expert institution it is. This is especially important, since in 2015 this book was already studied by experts and order was issued on the refusal to launch a criminal case due to the absence of crime components. We want to get familiarized with the previous expert examination and see what issues were set before the experts, where the expert examination was conducted and how they got such a result.

I dont insist on the guilt or innocence of a person; I simply ask to give an assessment. This is an ordinary routine practice, emotions being misplaced here. I neither make conclusions nor accuse [anyone]. I simply want to figure out. I am neither a linguist nor a historian. But I think the book includes statements, which allow arriving at corresponding conclusions, since the author gives a subjective assessment to history and makes conclusions for the Russian reader unaware of history, this not corresponding to the laws and the Resolution of the State Duma on the Recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which is per se a violation.

The author claims that these are concoctions and that nothing of that kind happened, as well as that Armenians cannot live with anyone, are strangers to all nations and peoples and have psychological anomalies. A very funny book! I think this book poses a threat to interethnic relations, Kirakosyan said.

I have many Azerbaijani friends and do not suffer from nationalism. I simply think that any scientific work should be subjected to expert examinations, if it is scientific research, he added.
e.l.f. Beauty Inc. (ELF) - Get Free Report is productive, innovative and focused on its goals, and that's because its work force is comprised primarily of diverse, millennial women.

At least that's what Tarang Amin, e.l.f. chairman and CEO, told TheStreet in an interview recently after the cosmetics company reported a massive second-quarter earnings beat of 12 cents a share, compared to estimates for earnings of a scant 3 cents a share.

Why Google's Swift Firing of the Diversity Memo Writer Could Make Things Even Worse

e.l.f. Beauty's Stunning Earnings Report Failed to Dazzle Wall Street in After-Market Trading

Amin's statement comes after an Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOGL) - Get Free Report Google engineer's manifesto against the tech giant's diversity efforts went viral. The main argument presented by the employee, who has since been fired, was that women are less suited to be engineers than men -- an argument that Google CEO Sundar Pichai swiftly denounced.

Alphabet is a holdings in Jim Cramer'sAction Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells GOOGL? Learn more now.

e.l.f. reported revenue of $55.9 million for the three months ended June 30, higher than the $55.7 million Wall Street expected. The company reiterated its full-year guidance of a 24% to 28% net sales growth.

Here's a condensed and edited version of TheStreet's interview with Amin.

Question: What led to your decision to reaffirm guidance?

Answer: It's our approach. We go into each year providing really strong guidance and execute against it. We feel 24% to 28% sales growth is quite strong relative to anything else out in the market place.

Q: Seeing as you are always coming out with new products, what goes behind a new launch?

A: This last quarter we had 25 launches, 10 of which were First to Matte, items that didn't exist in the market place or only existed in prestige that we made more accessible to consumers. So, the Mad for Matte eyeshadow palette (launched August 8) was an extension on something that we had that has been really successful. In fact, if you go on [our website], you'll see two to three launches every week. It goes back to our target, our consumer, who's a makeup enthusiast. Our ability to bring it to her fast and in great volume allows us to fuel our growth.

Q: How do you get products out so fast?

A: It's an advantage we've honed over the last 15 years. We have an incredible team. Everyone in the company is passionate about innovation. It's about our culture of speed. We make big decisions really quickly and one of the big enablers of that is a company full of makeup enthusiasts; 85% of our company is women, over 75% are Millennials, over 60% are diverse. Our company is made up of the same core consumer that we're targeting.

Q: How big is e-commerce for e.l.f. and how big do you want it to be?

A: Last year, our sales were roughly 80% from national retailers and about 20% from our direct-to-consumer business which is a combination of our e-commerce business as well as our own stores. We have about 19 stores. We're a true multichannel brand and we think that's the right proportion. We plan to grow all three channels - through retail partners, e-commerce and our own stores.

Q: How open is e.l.f. to being acquired?

A: There's an old quippy line that goes, "We're a public company so we are on sale every day in a way." But, our primary focus is on the tremendous opportunity in front of us in terms of making luxurious beauty accessible. It's an organic growth story here. We have so much white space when I look at our existing customers, new doors we can be in. That is our focus.

Q: Are you concerned by the growing promotional environment in department stores?

A: No. We've been around for 15 years, and we've grown every single year regardless of the economic cycle or where the category was. We have these high-quality products at an extraordinary retail value. Consumers love our incredible value proposition so we haven't seen any external factors impact us.

Q: In terms of new products, what's hot this summer?

A: The Beauty Shield Skin Care Collection, which is a lightweight formula with SPF 50 sunscreen. More and more consumers recognize that you need great skin to have great makeup coverage. So, our ability to have both skincare and color cosmetics really tapped into that core insight.

More of What's Trending on TheStreet:
Sunsari flood death toll climbs to 11, five missing

As the floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall wreak havoc across the southern plains, the death toll from floods has reached 11 in Sunsari district while five others have gone missing.
MSHA Implements Medical Action Plan for Some Employees

MSHA inspectors and technical personnel are required to have periodic medical examinations and meet U.S. Office of Personnel Management-approved medical standards. MSHA determined approximately 15 to 20 percent of MSHA inspectors and technical personnel do not currently meet the agency's medical standard.

MSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor announced the mine safety agency has implemented an action plan to help its employees who do not meet the agency's medical standards.

"Some employees have not met medical standards for several years," they explained. "MSHA inspectors and technical personnel are required to have periodic medical examinations and meet U.S. Office of Personnel Management-approved medical standards as a condition of employment. Medical examinations, including tests for vision and hearing, are required. MSHA reviewed examination results and determined that approximately 15 to 20 percent of MSHA inspectors and technical personnel do not currently meet the Agency's medical standards and that the problem had been growing over the past several years."

Their announcement said DOL "is taking immediate action to develop an effective, consistent, and equitable plan to resolve the issue. In response, MSHA will implement an individualized assessment process for employees who do not meet medical standards. The process will incorporate requirements for reasonable accommodation, resolve issues efficiently and effectively, and be conducted in a consistent and fair manner.

"MSHA will be transparent throughout this process, while being mindful of employees' privacy concerns. MSHA will work with stakeholders, including the employees' union, and keep them informed."
Two Hearings This Week on Washington's Sick Leave Rules

"We know paid sick leave is a big change for employers and workers," said Annette Taylor, deputy assistant director of L&I's Fraud Prevention & Labor Standards. "We're doing everything we can to make sure people know what the proposed rules are and have an opportunity to provide input before this significant change happens in January."

Washington state's Department of Labor & Industries is hosting a total of four public meetings -- two are this week, on Aug. 16 and 17 -- as it develops the rules for implementing the state's new mandatory paid sick leave law. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2018, after voters approved Initiative 1433 last fall. L&I says the state rules process is an opportunity for people to have input into the details of how the new law will be carried out.

"We know paid sick leave is a big change for employers and workers," said Annette Taylor, deputy assistant director of L&I's Fraud Prevention & Labor Standards. "We're doing everything we can to make sure people know what the proposed rules are and have an opportunity to provide input before this significant change happens in January."

The new rules will include procedures for using sick leave, employee notification, reporting requirements, and protecting employees from retaliation for the lawful use of paid sick leave. This is just the first rounds of hearings for the rules. The first meeting took place Aug. 8 and the others are:

Spokane Valley, Aug. 16, 10 a.m., Spokane CenterPlace Auditorium

Pasco, Aug. 17, 10 a.m., Columbia Basin Community College

Everett, Aug. 29, 10 a.m., Edward D. Hansen Conference Center

Initiative 1433 tasked L&I with implementing several changes, including mandatory paid sick leave, increasing the minimum wage annually over a four-year period, and ensuring tips and service charges are given to the appropriate staff. Washington will be the seventh state to require employers to provide paid sick leave -- the others are California, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Arizona. Washington, D.C., also requires it.
Its been nearly four decades since a total solar eclipse has darkened the daytime sky in these contiguous United States.

That one took place in 1979 and just skirted a few states on the northwestern corner of the country:



(PHOTO: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC)

The last time one was visible all across the country, from coast to coast, was in 1918. This was its path:



(PHOTO: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC)

But on Monday, Aug. 21, totality will totally return, at least in 14 states from Oregon southeast toward South Carolina.



(PHOTO: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC)

Where will you be?

Some Brew City folks are headed to places as close as southern Illinois, St. Louis and Kentucky, while others will trek to the Outer Banks, and other locations in the direct path of the eclipse. A list of NASAs official viewing sites is here.

But others will either choose, or be compelled by work or other obligations, to stay here in Milwaukee.

Though folks in Brew City wont see actual totality  only 83.3 percent of the sun will be obscured by the moon, beginning at 11:53 a.m. and ending at 2:40 p.m. Milwaukee time, with the maximum at 1:18 p.m.  there is an upside. Hopkinsville, Kentucky will get the maximum totality in the U.S., but it will last for just two minutes and 40 seconds. Thats a full six and a half seconds less than what youll see here in Milwaukee.

One of the best places to watch around here will be the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay (pictured above), where youll have astrophysicists who can explain it all. (Though even Yerkes own eclipse web site says, "We strongly encourage everyone to travel to where you can see totality!")

Visit Lake Geneva has some details on the program here.

Closer to home, the Milwaukee Public Library has an eclipse viewing event, too, on Aug. 21. Details are in a PDF you can find here.

While every media outlet around (including this one, as you can see) is talking, writing and posting about this momentous event the best place to get complete details on the 2017 solar eclipse is at the special website built by NASA.

Remember to view the eclipse with proper protection so you dont damage your eyesight. For information about photographing the eclipse, click here.

If you miss the eclipse (because of clouds or for any other reason), we won't have to wait too long for the next one, which is expected April 8, 2024. It is predicted to follow this path:



(PHOTO: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC)
Pittsburgh-based developer Linden Street Partners  which also has offices in Santa Ana, California  will break ground on The Quin Apartments, its first Milwaukee project, on Tuesday, Aug. 29, on the northeast corner of South 2nd and West Florida Streets.

The five-story, $12 million building was designed by Milwaukee's Rinka Chung Architecture and will be constructed by Altius Building Company, with financing via Tri City National Bank.

The Quin will have 70 one- and two-bedroom apartments with, what Linden Street calls luxury finishes. There will also be a fitness center, enclosed parking, a deck and, on the ground floor, 1,200 square feet of retail space.

The project is expected to be complete by late summer 2018.

According to a press release, Linden Street Partners has already hatched plans for further developments in Milwaukee.

"We are looking at a couple of potential sites in the Walker's Point neighborhood," Linden Street co-founder and managing partner Scott Richardson told me today, but he declined to offer specifics.

Here are six views of the The Quin, which will break ground at 10 a.m. on Aug. 29. My favorites are the ones that show what look like commuter rail trains passing by on the trestle.
The American workplace is physically and emotionally taxing, with workers frequently facing unstable work schedules, unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions, and an often hostile social environment, according to a new study that probes working conditions in the United States.

The findings stem from research conducted by investigators at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, Harvard Medical School and UCLA, and are from the American Working Conditions Surveyone of the most in-depth surveys ever done to examine conditions in the American workplace.

More than one-in-four American workers say they have too little time to do their job, with the complaint being most common among white-collar workers. In addition, workers say the intensity of work frequently spills over into their personal lives, with about one-half of people reporting that they perform some work in their free time in order to meet workplace demands.

Despite these challenges, American workers appear to have a certain degree of autonomy on the job, most feel confident about their skill set and many do report that they receive social support while on the job.

"I was surprised how taxing the workplace appears to be, both for less-educated and for more-educated workers," said lead author Nicole Maestas, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct economist at RAND. "Work is taxing at the office and it's taxing when it spills out of the workplace into people's family lives."

Researchers say that while 8 in 10 American workers report having steady and predictable work throughout the year, just 54 percent report working the same number of hours on a day-to-day basis. One in three workers say they have no control over their schedule. Despite much public attention focused on the growth of telecommuting, 78 percent of workers report they must be present at their workplace during regular business hours.

Nearly three-fourths of American workers report either intense or repetitive physical exertion on the job at least a quarter of the time. While workers without a college education report greater physical demands, many college-educated and older workers are affected as well.

Strikingly, more than half of Americans report exposure to unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions. Nearly one in five workersa "disturbingly high" fractionsay they face a hostile or threatening social environment at work. Younger and prime-aged women are the workers most likely to experience unwanted sexual attention, while younger men are more likely to experience verbal abuse.

The findings are from a survey of 3,066 adults who participate in the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative, computer-based sample of people from across the United States. The workplace survey was fielded in 2015 to collect detailed information across a broad range of working conditions in the American workplace, as well as details about workers and job characteristics.

Despite the importance of the workplace to most Americans, researchers say there is relatively little publicly available information about the characteristics of American jobs today. The American Working Conditions survey is designed to be harmonious with the European Working Conditions Survey, which has been conducted periodically over the last 25 years among workers from a broad range of European nations.

The American Working Conditions Survey found that while many American workers adjust their personal lives to accommodate work matters, about one-third of workers say they are unable to adjust their work schedules to accommodate personal matters. In general, women are more likely than men to report difficulty arranging for time off during work hours to take care of personal or family matters.

Jobs interfere with family and social commitments outside of work, particuarly for younger workers who don't have a college degree. More than one in four reports a poor fit between their work hours and their social and family commitments.

The report also provides insights about how preferences change among workers as they become older.

Older workers are more likely to value the ability to control how they do their work and setting the pace of their work, as well as less physically demanding jobs. Older workers are also generally less likely than younger workers to have some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions.

The survey also confirms that retirement is often a fluid concept. Many older workers say they have previously retired before rejoining the workforce, and many people aged 50 and older who are not employed say they would consider rejoining the workforce if conditions were right.

Other highlights from the report include:

The intensity of work such as pace, deadlines and time constraints differ across occupation groups, with white-collar workers experiencing greater work intensity than blue-collar workers.

Jobs in the U.S. feature a mix of monotonous tasks and autonomous problem solving. While 62 percent of workers say they face monotonous tasks, more than 80 percent report that their jobs involve "solving unforeseen problems" and "applying own ideas."

The workplace is an important source of professional and social support, with more than one half of American workers describing their boss as supportive and that they have very good friends at work.

Only 38 percent of workers say their job offers good prospects for advancement. All workersregardless of educationbecome less optimistic about career advancement as they become older.

Four out of five American workers report that their job provides "meaning" always or most of the time. Older college-educated men were those most likely to report at least one dimension of meaningful work.

Nearly two-thirds of workers experience some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions, with the number rising to nearly three-quarters when job benefits are taken into account. Nearly half of workers report working more than their preferred number of hours per week, while some 20 percent report working fewer than their preferred number of hours.

Future reports will explore how conditions of the American workplace compare to those in Europe and in other parts of the world and selected findings from follow-up surveys using the same panel of participants. The data tables from the American Working Conditions Survey are being made available to other researchers to allow secondary use of the results.

More information: The report, "Working Conditions in the United States: A Report on the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey," is available at www.rand.org
Fingerprints left at a crime scene -- so-called latent prints -- are often partial, distorted and smudged. Credit: Chugh et al., Hancek/NIST

The first big case involving fingerprint evidence in the United States was the murder trial of Thomas Jennings in Chicago in 1911. Jennings had broken into a home in the middle of the night and, when discovered by the homeowner, shot the man dead. He was convicted based on fingerprints left at the crime scene, and for most of the next century, fingerprints were considered, both in the courts and in the public imagination, to be all but infallible as a method of identification.

More recently, however, research has shown that fingerprint examination can produce erroneous results. For instance, a 2009 report from the National Academy of Sciences found that results, "are not necessarily repeatable from examiner to examiner," and that even experienced examiners might disagree with their own past conclusions when they re-examine the same prints at a later date. These situations can lead to innocent people being wrongly accused and criminals remaining free to commit more crimes.

But scientists have been working to reduce the opportunities for human error. This week, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Michigan State University report that they have developed an algorithm that automates a key step in the fingerprint analysis process. Their research has been published in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security.

"We know that when humans analyze a crime scene fingerprint, the process is inherently subjective," said Elham Tabassi, a computer engineer at NIST and a co-author of the study. "By reducing the human subjectivity, we can make fingerprint analysis more reliable and more efficient."

A Key Decision Point

If all fingerprints were high-quality, matching them would be a breeze. For instance, computers can easily match two sets of rolled printsthose that are collected under controlled conditions, as when you roll all 10 fingers onto a fingerprint card or scanner.

"But at a crime scene, there's no one directing the perpetrator on how to leave good prints," said Anil Jain, a computer scientist at Michigan State University and a co-author of the study. As a result, fingerprints left at a crime sceneso-called latent printsare often partial, distorted and smudged. Also, if the print is left on something with a confusing background pattern such as a twenty-dollar bill, it may be difficult to separate the print from the background.

That's why, when an examiner receives latent prints from a crime scene, their first step is to judge how much useful information they contain.

"This first step is standard practice in the forensic community," said Jain. "This is the step we automated."

Following that step, if the print contains sufficient usable information, it can be submitted to an Automated Fingerprint Identification System. The AFIS (pronounced AY-fiss) then searches its database and returns a list of potential matches, which the examiner evaluates to look for a conclusive match.

But the initial decision on fingerprint quality is critical.

Automatically extracted features of a latent fingerprint: (a) Input latent with manually marked region of interest, (b) ridge flow overlaid on the cropped latent, (c) ridge quality map, and (d) features that can be used as points of comparison, including minutiae (white circles) and core points (green circles). Credit: Chugh et al.

"If you submit a print to AFIS that does not have sufficient information, you're more likely to get erroneous matches," Tabassi said. On the other hand, "If you don't submit a print that actually does have sufficient information, the perpetrator gets off the hook."

Currently, the process of judging print quality is subjective, and different examiners come to different conclusions. Automating that step makes the results consistent. "That means we will be able to study the errors and find ways to fix them over time," Tabassi said.

Automating this step also will allow fingerprint examiners to process evidence more efficiently. That will allow them to reduce backlogs, solve crimes more quickly, and spend more time on challenging prints that require more work.

Training the Algorithm

The researchers used machine learning to build their algorithm. Unlike traditional programming in which you write out explicit instructions for a computer to follow, in machine learning, you train the computer to recognize patterns by showing it examples.

To get training examples, the researchers had 31 fingerprint experts analyze 100 latent prints each, scoring the quality of each on a scale of 1 to 5. Those prints and their scores were used to train the algorithm to determine how much information a latent print contains.

After training was complete, researchers tested the performance of the algorithm by having it score a new series of latent prints. They then submitted those scored prints to AFIS software connected to a database of over 250,000 rolled prints. All the latent prints had a match in that database, and they asked AFIS to find it.

This testing scenario was different from real casework, because in this test, the researchers knew the correct match for each latent print. If the scoring algorithm worked correctly, then the ability of AFIS to find that correct match should correlate with the quality score. In other words, prints scored as low-quality should be more likely to produce erroneous resultsthat's why it's so important to not inadvertently submit low- quality prints to AFIS in real caseworkand prints scored as high-quality should be more likely to produce the correct match.

Based on this metric, the scoring algorithm performed slightly better than the average of the human examiners involved in the study.

What made this breakthrough possible, beside recent advances in machine learning and computer vision, was the availability of a large dataset of latent prints. Machine learning algorithms need large datasets for training and testing, and until now, large datasets of latent fingerprints have not been available to researchers, largely due to privacy concerns. In this case, the Michigan State Police provided the researchers with the testing dataset, after having first stripped the data of all identifying information.

The next step for the researchers is to use an even larger dataset. This will allow them to improve the algorithm's performance and more accurately measure its error rate.

"We've run our algorithm against a database of 250,000 prints, but we need to run it against millions," Tabassi said. "An algorithm like this has to be extremely reliable, because lives and liberty are at stake."

More information: Tarang Chugh et al, Latent Fingerprint Value Prediction: Crowd-based Learning, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (2017). DOI: 10.1109/TIFS.2017.2721099
Celebrity cows: Southern Girl and Iceberg enjoy a hay cocktail at the Commodore Hotel in New York. Credit: Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center

Domestic animals are rarely associated with Antarctica. However, before non-native species (bar humans) were excluded from the continent in the 1990s, many travelled to the far south. These animals included not only the obvious sledge dogs, but also ponies, sheep, pigs, hamsters, hedgehogs and a goat. Perhaps the most curious case occurred in 1933, when US Admiral Richard E. Byrd's second Antarctic expedition took with it three Guernsey cows.

The cows, named Klondike Gay Nira, Deerfoot Guernsey Maid and Foremost Southern Girl, plus a bull calf born en route, spent over a year in a working dairy on the Ross Ice Shelf. They returned home to the US in 1935 to considerable celebrity.

Keeping the animals healthy in Antarctica took a lot of doing  not least, hauling the materials for a barn, a huge amount of feed and a milking machine across the ocean and then the ice. What could have possessed Byrd to take cows to the icy south?

The answer we suggest in our recently published paper is multi-layered and ultimately points to Antarctica's complex geopolitical history.

Solving the "milk problem"

The cows' ostensible purpose was to solve the expedition's so-called "milk problem". By the 1930s, fresh milk had become such an icon of health and vigour that it was easy to claim it was needed for the expeditioners' well-being. Just as important, however, were the symbolic associations of fresh milk with purity, wholesomeness and US national identity.

Powdered or malted milk could have achieved the same nutritional results. Previous expeditions, including those of Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen, had survived just fine with such products. What's more, William Horlick of Horlick's Malted Milk sponsored Byrd's second Antarctic expedition; the seaplane Byrd used was named for this benefactor.

Klondike the Guernsey cow waits on the dock in Norfolk, Virginia, alongside the alfafa, beet pulp and dairy feed that would keep them alive in the far south. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society

So if fresh milk was not actually a health requirement, and other forms were readily available, why go to the trouble of lugging three cows and their accoutrements across the ice?

Maximising publicity

The cows represented a first, and Byrd well knew that "firsts" in the polar regions translated into media coverage. The expedition was privately funded, and Byrd was adept at attracting media attention and hence sponsorship. His backers expected a return, whether in the form of photographs of their product on the ice or mentions in the regular radio updates by the expedition.

The novelty value that the cows brought to the expedition was a valuable asset in its own right, but Byrd hedged his bets by including a pregnant cow  Klondike was due to give birth just as the expedition ship sailed across the Antarctic Circle. The calf, named "Iceberg", was a media darling and became better known than the expeditioners themselves.

The celebrity attached to the cows helped the expedition remain in the headlines throughout its time in Antarctica, and they received an enthusiastic welcome upon its return. Although the unfortunate Klondike, suffering from frostbite, had to be put down mid-expedition, her companions made it home in good condition. They were feted on their return, meeting politicians in Washington, enjoying "hay cocktails" at fancy hotels, and making the front page of The New York Times.

Crates of Horlicks Malted Milk destined for Byrds second expedition. With its carefully placed sledge, husky and sign, the shot seems posed for publicity purposes. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society

It would be easy, then, to conclude that the real reason Byrd took cows south was for the publicity he knew they would generate, but his interest in the animals may also have had a more politically motivated layer.

Further reading: The winners and losers of Antarctica's great thaw

Eyeing a territorial claim

A third reason for taking cows to Antarctica relates to the geopolitics of the period and the resonances the cows had with colonial settlement. By the 1930s several nations had claimed sectors of Antarctica. Byrd wanted the US to make its own claim, but this was not as straightforward as just planting a flag on the ice.

According to the Hughes Doctrine, a claim had to be based on settlement, not just discovery. But how do you show settlement of a continent covered in ice? In this context, symbolic gestures such as running a post office  or farming livestock  are useful.

The Antarctic dairy. Credit: Guernsey Breeders Journal, November 1 1935

Domestic animals have long been used as colonial agents, and cattle in particular were a key component of settler colonialism in frontier America. The image of the explorer-hero Byrd, descended from one of the First Families of Virginia, bringing cows to a new land and successfully farming them evoked this history.

The cows' presence in Antarctica helped symbolically to turn the expedition base  not coincidentally named "Little America"  into a frontier town. While the US did not end up making a claim to any sector of Antarctica, the polar dairy represented a novel way of demonstrating national interest in the frozen continent.

The Antarctic cows are not just a quirky story from the depths of history. As well as producing milk, they had promotional and geopolitical functions. On an ice continent, settlement is performed rather than enacted, and even Guernsey cows can be more than they first seem.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
ORNL's Bruce Warmack (left) and Nance Ericson display an early prototype of the DC Hot Stick. Credit: Carlos Jones, ORNL/Dept. of Energy

With more volts than ever before in electric vehicles (EVs) and on solar-paneled rooftops, first responder and electrical worker safety is a growing concern. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are addressing the challenge with the development of a probe to accurately detect direct-current (DC) energy.

The DC "Hot Stick" probe designed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, not only detects DC voltage, but also ensures that the probe is properly tapped into the electrical lines being tested. The latter is essential because false negatives may be obtained if a meter is not making proper contact, noted ORNL lead scientist Bruce Warmack of the Electrical and Electronics Systems Research Division.

Exposure to these high voltages is increasingly commonplace as technologies such as hybrid cars, EVs and solar panel arrays, all of which contain large amounts of DC power, are adopted by a growing number of consumers. EVs, for instance, may carry as much as 400-600 volts, Warmack said. Battery packs are typically situated in the rear of EVs, with electrical cables running to the controller up front and to other devices.

"If you can imagine in an accident, a vehicle may be splayed open, and first responders need to know whether the car is carrying a charge before they can even touch it, much less cut through cables and extract a victim," Warmack said. "That much voltage is potentially lethal and can cause arc flash hazards or trigger explosions."

Similarly, installers and other technicians working on solar panel arrays need protection as well. Those installations can carry several hundred volts, Warmack noted.

Nance Ericson and Bruce Warmack test the DC Hot Stick on a hybrid electric vehicle. Credit: Carlos Jones, ORNL/Dept. of Energy

The patent-pending probe that Warmack and his colleagues at ORNL created is designed to penetrate cable insulation and make proven contact with a conductor. The probe then indicates whether a cable is fully discharged of energy.

Making that contact is important. In preliminary work on the project, ORNL researcher Roger Kisner suggested a probe tip verification system that would ensure direct, galvanic contact was made.

One of the challenges for the project was dealing with DC voltage, which is more difficult than AC to work with, Warmack said. "In certain cases you can get electrical fields from DC, but it is easily interfered with by plastics and other kinds of materials. It's more or less a science experiment to find DC unless you make direct contact with the conductor using a voltmeter," he added.

The scientists created a device similar in appearance to most existing AC probes and familiar to first responders. In fact, the DC probe can be designed to slip onto the end of an AC probe, and its functionality is quite simple. A green light indicates proper contact, and if voltage is detected, a red light is illuminated.

The prototype is already being tested on a first responder vehicle in Frederick County, Maryland, Warmack noted. The Fire Administration has provided positive feedback so far, he said.

The DC Hot Stick voltage probe can accurately detect the presence of DC voltages within a hybrid electric vehicle. Credit: Carlos Jones, ORNL/Dept. of Energy

"The probe would give a firefighter or other first responder assurance very quickly that the conductor is either not charged or needs to be handled with care," Warmack said. "Our probe makes sure that an emergency worker or electrician has made contact and isn't just hitting air or a piece of plastic. There's really no tool that does this as effectively. This technology can save lives."

ORNL engineer Nance Ericson, who designed the circuits for the probe, noted that while the system was designed for electric vehicles and solar panels, it could also be used to make measurements in a variety of settings. The circuit he developed can detect the presence of both AC and DC energyor can ensure that there is no stored energy presenta feature not available in existing electrical instruments.

"We see this technology extending well beyond the first responder community and improving the safety of electrical measurements in a wide variety of applications ranging from industrial power to home appliance repair," Ericson said.

Going forward, Warmack and his colleagues envision the development of more probes to test across the country, as well as versions to check for DC voltage on smaller gauge wires found in other electrical systems. Future work could also see the addition of a microcontroller to the probe to give a digital readout, and to capture and process data.
Yoda screen. Credit: Natural Resources Institute Finland

In order to maintain forests' diversity while their resources are put to maximum use, forest owners and planners need to make informed decisions and weigh all possible options. Luke's digital planning tools make this task a whole lot easier.

It's a tough job but someone has to do it. In the years and decades to come, Finnish forest planners and owners face new challenges as the National Forest Strategy 2050 and the Finnish Bioeconomy Strategy aim to, among others, increase logging by over ten million cubic meters in the next ten years.

How to maintain the integrity and diversity of Finnish forests while getting as much out of them as possible? One source of help is digitalisation. Digital tools bring additional value into handling large amounts of information and customizing them according to the case at hand, says Tuula Packalen, professor and forest planning researcher at Luke.

"If you need to produce information that covers not just individual forest areas but whole municipalities and even countries, the sheer amount of data is impossible to manage without digital aid."

Luke has been working on digital tools for forest-related tasks and processes for a while now, Packalen says. Now Luke's researchers develop several digital tools that help plan forest use and provide valuable information on forest resources and ecosystems to base important decisions on. Two prime examples are the forest indicator and the aptly named Yoda.

Yoda helps to make balanced decisions

Your Own Decision Aid or Yoda in short, is Luke's web-based tool for evaluating different planning projects one at a time. It's a versatile and participatory tool, says one of Yoda's developers, researcher Mikko Kurttila.

"Yoda has a visual user interface and is suitable for various different uses. That means people from different fields of work, not only forestry, can use it."

Luke's experts gather and put together data in Yoda for a certain use, for example evaluating which peatlands in a certain area should be restored, explains Anne Tolvanen, Luke's professor and researcher of ecology and multiple use of forests.

A peat producer, for example, might use Yoda in assessing which peatlands would benefit them the most. First they define the area they're interested in. Each peatland appears as a dot on a map. The user gets information on how much peat a certain peatland could generate, how much energy the peat contains or how diverse the peatland is.

"Yoda can be used in many different situations from forest planning to peatland assessment. Luke's experts can insert whatever data they have into this tool and it will help the user move forward with their plans," Tolvanen says.

In addition to providing exact and relevant forest resource data Yoda is also a tool for visualisation. Using different colours and symbols, it helps the user perceive the big picture quickly. Without visual aids the amount of information might not be as easy to grasp.

In 2017, Yoda is in development under the EU funded LIFEPeatLandUse project led by Anne Tolvanen. In the future, however, for example Luke's clients can use it according to their needs.

"Yoda will be a helpful tool for decision-makers from the grassroots level to executive seats in the European Union", Tolvanen says.

Forest indicator visualizes the big picture

Another significant digital tool for visualising the use of forests is called the Forest Indicator. Developed by Luke and several collaborators, such as universities, it's a web-based tool that takes into account how the use of forests affects not just trees, but also other ecosystem services Finnish forests have to offer including berries and mushrooms.

"The Forest Indicator opens its user's eyes to see the impact forest use can have on the diversity of our forests", Anne Tolvanen says.

The final version of the Forest Indicator will be the end result of a three-year research project that focuses on finding out how to get new products out of forests. Tolvanen acts as the lead researcher in it.

The Forest Indicator is meant for those interested in forest planning, individual forest owners, forest planners, officials and decision-makers. In 2017, the indicator is still in the making, but here's how it will work once it's finished.

The user enters the forest indicator web portal and selects a region they want to examine. The programme provides a list of indicators for the user to choose from based on Luke's forestry scenario models (MELA). It helps to answer questions like how to maximize the amount of berries the forest can yield or to maintain the area's diversity as well as possible.

"The indicator has several options and colors for visualizing data. The user can choose for example whether they want to see the indicators as a bar graph or a clock face, where the hand shows how far a forest's diversity is from the maximum," Tolvanen says.

Although small pieces in the large puzzle of forest planning, Yoda and the Forest Indicator can bring a big amount of support to forest planners', owners' and decision-makers' work. When it seems you can't see the forest for the trees, all you need to do is open your laptop and the help is there.

Provided by Natural Resources Institute Finland
Troubled waters

Extreme rainfall over much of Nepal has caused significant damage and suffering these past few days. According to the Home Ministry, at least 32 people have been killed in floods and landslides this past month, and scores are missing.
Improving the efficiency of materials will help to further advancements in designing and optimizing perovskite solar cells. Credit: KAUST

Improving the efficiency of solar cells requires materials free from impurities and structural defects. Scientists across many disciplines at KAUST have shown that 2-D organic-inorganic hybrid materials feature far fewer defects than thicker 3-D versions.

Modern-day electronics rely on technologies that can develop almost perfect crystals of silicon; flawless to the atomic level. This is crucial because defects and impurities scatter electrons as they flow, which adversely affects the material's electronic properties.

But hybrid perovskites, an exciting class of electronic material, cannot be constructed using the epitaxial or layer methods developed for silicon. Instead, they are produced using solution-based processes. While this makes them cheaper than silicon, it also makes purity much harder to achieve as defect population and species are sensitive to the processing conditions.

Osman Bakr from the KAUST Solar Center together with colleagues from multiple divisions across KAUST and the University of Toronto, demonstrate that two-dimensional layers of perovskite material can achieve levels of purity much higher than is possible than in their 3-D counterpart. "Two-dimensional hybrid perovskites are a subgroup of the big hybrid perovskite family," explains Wei Peng, lead author and doctoral degree recipient from Bakr's lab. "They can be derived by inserting large organic cations in three-dimensional perovskite structures."

Hybrid perovskites are made up of lead and halide (such as iodine) atoms and an organic component. This class of materials in solar cells has already shown ground-breaking potential for energy conversion efficiency while having low production costs and the possibility for being integrated in flexible devices. This combination of qualities makes hybrid perovskites an exciting material for optoelectronic applications.

Peng, Bakr and coworkers created a 2-D material made of periodic layers of hybrid perovskites with an organic component of either phenethylammonium or methylammonium. Using a solution-based fabrication method, the layers were placed on a gold electrode so the team could measure the electrical conductivity.

Their measurements indicate that the 2-D materials contained three orders of magnitude fewer defects than bulk hybrid perovskites. The team proposes that this reduction is because the large organic cations in the phenethylammonium suppress defect formation during crystallization.

Next, the team demonstrated the potential for their materials for optoelectronic applications by constructing photoconductors with high light detectivity. These results bode well for further advancements in designing and optimizing perovskite solar cells. "A future in-depth study on how the defect formation is suppressed will help our understanding and benefit device performance-targeted materials engineering," says Peng.

More information: Wei Peng et al. Ultralow Self-Doping in Two-dimensional Hybrid Perovskite Single Crystals, Nano Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b01475 Journal information: Nano Letters
A University of Michigan dentistry professor drew upon his expertise in oral health in developing a new theory to help explain the deaths of the famed Franklin naval expedition crew, a mystery that has captivated historians for more than 150 years.

There were no survivors in the 129-person exploration, which set out for the Northwest Passage in the 1840s, said Russell Taichman, the Major Ash Collegiate Professor of Periodontics and Oral Medicine.

Taichman, who's held a lifelong love of the Arctic, said that historians and researchers for decades have speculated on several generally accepted causes of death: exposure, scurvy, lead poisoning, botulism, tuberculosis and starvation.

But Taichman and colleagues now believe that tuberculosis resulting in adrenal insufficiency, or Addison's disease, also contributed to the demise of the crew. Their findings were published in the journal Arctic earlier this year.

The Franklin story is legendary in Arctic lore. In 1845, Sir John Franklin led two British Royal Navy ships, the Erebus and the Terror, in an attempt to navigate portions of the Northwest Passage. The ships became trapped in the ice pack in 1846 near King William Island, which is above the Arctic Circle in what is now northern Canada.

Well-stocked with canned food, the crew spent two years on and around the remote island waiting in harsh conditions for the ice to melt and free their ships.

Among the few clues left behind, Taichman said, are Inuit accounts of emaciated crew members with "hard, dry and black" mouths. With this in mind, Taichman, a cancer researcher, decided to look more closely at the various cause-of-death theories and how each condition impacts the oral cavity.

Taichman and Mark MacEachern, a librarian at U-M's Taubman Health Sciences Library, cross-referenced the crew's physical symptoms with known diseases and analyzed 1,718 medical citations. Taichman was surprised when Addison'swhich wasn't one of the generally accepted causes of deathkept popping up during the analysis.

"In the old days, the most common reason for Addison's in this country was TB," Taichman said. "In this country now, it's immune suppression that leads to Addison's."

Scurvy among the crew falls in line with the fact that sailors of that era often had the disease, but that alone doesn't explain the deaths. A stronger clue is that evidence of tuberculosis was discovered during autopsies of three sailors who died and were buried on a nearby island before the ships were marooned. Lead poisoning, confirmed to a degree by analysis of recovered bones, could have come from lead solder used for the primitive food cans and from lead pipes that distilled water for the crew.

Many factors contributed to the deaths of the crew, Taichman said, and the Addison's disease diagnosis is a refinement that fits well with much of the forensic and anecdotal evidence already gathered.

People with Addison's disease have trouble regulating sodium and can become dehydrated, and they can't maintain their weight even when food is availabletwo symptoms that would help explain the wasting condition of the crew as observed by the Inuit.

"Scurvy and lead exposure may have contributed to the pathogenesis of Addison'sdisease, but the hypothesis is not wholly dependent on these conditions," Taichman said. "The tuberculosis-Addison's hypothesis results in a deeper understanding of one of the greatest mysteries of Arctic exploration."

Taichman's fascination with the Arctic began as a child in his native Toronto, when his father told stories about the early explorers. Among his 16 visits to the Arctic, Taichman has led hiking trips for the Sierra Club, kayaked among the icebergs and proposed to his wife.

Over the last few years he has become a contributing member of a small but fervent network of Franklin experts around the world. They review historical documents at places like the Smithsonian Institution, share information and hold conferences as they continue to hunt for answers connected to the expedition.

Taichman has written a second paper about the Franklin expedition, which has been provisionally accepted by a different Arctic-focused journal. That research consolidates Franklin stories from various documents and sources.

More information: Russell S. Taichman et al. A Critical Assessment of the Oral Condition of the Crew of the Franklin Expedition + Supplementary Appendix 1, ARCTIC (2017). DOI: 10.14430/arctic4629
Four people have been arrested in India for leaking an episode from HBO's "Game of Thrones" television series before it was aired in the country, police said Monday.

Already the most pirated show in TV history, the popular fantasy dramawhich tells the story of noble families vying for the Iron Thronehas been plagued by leaks in recent weeks following the premiere of the seventh season.

After receiving a complaint for a company "we investigated the case and have arrested four individuals for unauthorised publication of the fourth episode from season seven," Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told AFP.

He said the fouraccused of criminal breach of trust and computer-related offenceswould be detained until August 21 amid an investigation.

The case was filed by a Mumbai-based company responsible for storing and processing the TV episodes for an app, local media said.

The four arrested were company employees who possessed official credentials giving them access to the episodes, the reports added.

Game of Thrones has more Emmy Awards than any narrative show in history and airs in 170 countries, with viewership figures shattering records across the world.

As well as being a hit globally, it has a massive fan base in South Asia.

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss last year announced the shortened run of seven and six episodes for the final two seasons and confirmed the summer return for season seven, a departure from the usual April premieres.

The show has been teasing winter's arrival since its pilot episode in 2011, and in the latest episode preview "Death Is The Enemy" has finally moved closer to showcasing a battle between a horde of undead "White Walkers" from the frozen North and a troop of warriors led by hero Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

 2017 AFP
Credit: Patrick Baum

Right now, the European Union doesn't have enough animal feed of its own to nourish livestock, forcing it to bring in supplies from beyond the bloc's borders. To face this unsustainable dependency, researchers are looking for alternative protein sources

More than the 70 percent of the protein sources required by animals bred in the European Union are imported from non-EU countries. Soybean dominates the protein supply for animal feed. This dependency is costly, subjected to market fluctuations and price rises. The European Parliament adopted a resolution stating the urgency in replacing at least part of the imported feeding stuff with alternative sources, of EU origin.

One of the exit-strategies investigated by researchers is reusing food waste to feed animals, with the help of low energy consumption technologies. Considering the huge amount of food waste generated in Europe, estimated to be 88 million tons each year, the project NOSHAN identified functional feeding ingredients derived from food waste that can be adapted to the needs of animals. A free food waste database has been created, which includes the molecular characterisation performed on 42 different waste streams.

Among nutritional additives successfully tested on animals were oligopectins from sugar beet pulp, peptides from rapeseed press cake and olive pomace extract, the by-product of olive pressing. Moreover, a novel process for the extraction of functional fibres from food waste was tested: direct hydrolysis of waste proteins turns them into functional ones, which are enriched in active peptides and ideal for targeting animal requirements.

Taking a glance at other studies in Europe, the Slovenian start-up Eko Gea has developed a method to extract the nutrients present in the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum, to obtain a prebiotic food. Algae worldwide are listed among the so called superfoods, nutritionally dense and particularly rich in nutrients.

Bugs are in the same "super" list and they have become another target for research in animal feeding. The European project PROteINSECT focused on housefly larvae (Musca domestica), which are rich source of highly digestible proteins (between 40 and 60 percent).

In July, the European Union gave the green light for processed proteins derived from insects to be used in aquaculture feed, opening a sustainable development of this kind of breeding. But there are still barriers to overcome in the development and commercialisation of insects as animal feed on a wider scale. Above all it's a matter of safety: more research is needed to be sure that the selected bugs are good for animals. Moreover, the required production effort is not negligible. For example, you need 200,000 housefly larvae to get just one kilogram of food. Are companies ready to sustain intensive insect farming?
Earthworms may be threatening maple trees. Credit: Michigan Technological University

A new study suggests that non-native worms are eating up the forest floor, causing sugar maples to die back and perhaps harming other forest dwellers.

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, and corpses aren't the only casualties. A Michigan Technological University scientist has fingered non-native earthworms as a primary culprit in the decline of an iconic American tree.

An industry at risk

Sugar maples are prized as much for their valuable lumber as for their sugary sap and dazzling fall colors. In Michigan alone, they are the basis of a multi-million-dollar industry. But several years ago, foresters began noticing that the crowns of the big trees appeared unhealthy, with bare limbs and little new growth.

"They were losing trees before they could harvest them," said Tara Bal, a research assistant professor of forest resources and environmental science. "We wondered what was causing it." Her findings were published July 26, 2017, in the journal Biological Invasions.

Drought was a suspectthe traditionally damp northern Great Lakes region was in the midst of a dry spell. Other potential causes were forest management practices, soil types, climate change and the mix of species in the area.

From 2009 to 2012, Bal made annual visits to more than 100 sites in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. She found one factor that stood out: the condition of the forest floor. And nothing affects a forest floor quite like earthworms.

While they may seem as American as maple syrup, no earthwormsincluding the nightcrawlerare native to the Upper Midwest. If there ever were any, the last ice age wiped them out over 11,000 years ago. "All the earthworm species here are from Europe or Asia, brought in when humans transplanted plants," Bal said. Now, they and their egg cases hitch rides on tires and muddy boots and spread when anglers dump bait in woods and waterways. "It's the same way invasive plants get around," she said.

Voracious invaders

Before worms invade, the soil in a typical northern forest is blanketed by a thick layer of leaf litter and other organic material. When worms arrive, they quickly gobble it up and expose bare dirt. "And earthworms really like sugar maple leaves," Ball said. "They are sugary, soft, and have fewer tannins than other trees, like oaks."

Sugar maples have a particular characteristic that makes them even more vulnerable to earthworms. Ninety percent of their roots are in the top few inches of soil, so the trees rely on the litter to keep the soil from drying out. With the litter gone, maples can slowly die of thirst.

Tara Bal examines the forest floor for signs of earthworm damage. Credit: Michigan Technological University

While the condition of the forest floor appears to be driving the maples' dieback, there could be other factors as well, Bal said. "At this point, we don't really know if earthworms are causing damage directly or making the soil and litter conditions so poor that drought and other things are getting to the trees."

Collateral damage: birds, bugs and more

Maples aren't the only victims of these wriggly invaders. Many other forest creatures depend on forest litter for their survival. "I was just looking at the health of the trees, but earthworms are really affecting the whole forest," Bal said. "You lose wildflowers, young seedlings and many ferns." The worms can reduce ground-nesting birds, insects, amphibians and fungi whose lives are intertwined with the forest litter. "I've never seen a salamander on the Michigan Tech Trails, but I've seen a lot of nightcrawlers," she noted.

People can slow their spread by throwing bait in the trash and washing mud off vehicles and boots before traveling into the woods. "If you are a forest manager, you should power-wash your equipment when you go from one place to another and use local road fill as much as possible," Bal said. "That's a good practice for stopping the spread of all exotic species, not just worms."

It's highly unlikely that the earthworms will go away, however. "Predictions are that within 100 years, 95 percent of our sugar maple forests will be invaded by earthworms, and there's no worm-icide."

Fewer maples, more diversity

"This means change for the forest," said Bal. "Forest managers will have to start thinking outside the box to keep forests and trees healthy and regenerating."

That could mean a return to diversity; sugar maples did not always dominate northern hardwood forests. "We have pure maple stands because it's a valuable wood," she said. "If some of the sugar maple dies back, you could have the return of other species, like basswood, birches and ironwood.

"That could make the forest more resilient," she suggested. "The way things stand now, if something that loves sugar maple, like the Asian longhorn beetle, ever got here, we could lose our hardwood timber industry."

The study was conducted in the Hiawatha, Ottawa, Superior and Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests; Baraga State Forest; and commercial forestland owned by the Boston-based investment firm GMO.

The article on the study, "Evidence of Damage from Exotic Invasive Earthworm Activity Was Highly Correlated to Sugar Maple Dieback in the Upper Great Lakes Region," was published July 26, 2017, in the journal Biological Invasions.

More information: Tara L. Bal et al. Evidence of damage from exotic invasive earthworm activity was highly correlated to sugar maple dieback in the Upper Great Lakes region, Biological Invasions (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s10530-017-1523-0 Journal information: Biological Invasions
Despite a strict ban on ivory trafficking in NY, these pieces were found for sale in 2016. Credit: Columbia University

Two weeks ago, Kevin Uno was on a field expedition in Kenya when he got a message he'd been hoping for: the NY Department of Environmental Conservation had officially approved his request to sample some ivory that had been confiscated from retail stores in the U.S. The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory geochemist and his colleague, University of Washington research professor Samuel Wasser, use radiocarbon dating and DNA testing to determine when and where an elephant was killed; sampling this recently seized ivory would be an opportunity for them to find out whether it was recently harvested, and help law enforcement target the poachers responsible.

The catch? Sampling had to be done before August 3, the following week, when the ivory2 tons of it, valued at approximately $8 millionwould be publicly destroyed at an Ivory Crush in New York's Central Park.

On August 1, Uno, Wasser, and Wild Tomorrow Fund's John Steward and Wendy Hapgood visited the DEC warehouse, bringing a selection of the confiscated ivory to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. This is the first time that the team has been given permission to sample and test illegally trafficked ivory seized from vendors in the United States; Uno and Wasser have previously sampled ivory seized while in transit from Africa to Asia.

"Most of the shipments being seen at ports in Asia are coming from Africa," Hapgood explains. "They haven't made any major seizures coming into the U.S., so something that will be interesting in this study will be to see if any of it is new, because that will prove that it's getting in somehow."

Uno developed his radiocarbon dating technique for tusks in a 2013 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Due to nuclear weapons testing in the 1950's and 1960's, the earth's atmosphere saw a spike in radiocarbon. By isolating the collagen in a tusk sample, then freeze-drying it and running it through an accelerator mass spectrometer, he is able to measure the amount of radiocarbon in the tusk to determine when an elephant was killed, post-1950. Results from a tusk harvested prior to 1950, Wasser clarifies, "are going to look a lot like 1796," because they lack that spike from weapons testing.

Kevin Uno marks carved tusks for sampling. Credit: Columbia University

Wasser's focus is on DNA; his lab at the University of Washington developed methods for extracting DNA from feces, and later from the tusks themselves. The density of DNA in tusks is low, so typically he needs to take several extracts from a processed sample and pool them together before running them through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) for analysis. From this, he can figure out where an elephant was killed; "often," he told the New York Times in 2016, "to the very park or reserve."

Both Uno and Wasser take their samples from the base of the tusks; while an elephant is still alive, there is a large piece of soft tissue there that delivers nutrients and houses the odontoblastthe cell that creates dentin. The most recently created layers of ivory will be in that area, Uno explains: "This is the ivory that was forming on the day that the elephant died. This is the end of its life."

Once their results come in, the team will know exactly when and where that was, then law enforcement can link the tusks to poachers and try to prevent the next crime.

The majority of ivory brought back to Lamont for sampling was seized from Manhattan antique shops. Credit: Columbia University

The fight against the illegal ivory trade is multi-faceted. Bans on trade exist by international treatyCITES, effective as of 1975and at the country, state and local levels; as of this writing, seven U.S. states have enacted their own bans that tighten national restrictions: New York, New Jersey, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. Along with these efforts to reduce demand, governments in Africa work to cut off the supply by cracking down on poachers on the ground. But demand persists, and the criminal networks trafficking in ivory are advanced.

Speaking at Ivory Crush last week, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Basil Seggos was adamant, saying, "These are terrorists and gangs that that deploy in a combat fashion, gun down animals with automatic weapons, use chainsaws to remove ivory from the elephants themselves. Then the traffickers in the world market are moving this material, moving it in different ways, and moving it into places like New York City, right here, right under our noses, into fine art dealerships on 5th Avenue."

Forensic science is a relatively new addition to the effort to stop these networks, and advocates are arguing for more expanded use of it, from training rangers in crime scene analysis to encouraging the expansion of techniques like Uno's and Wasser's. In its 2016 Report on the Elephant Trade Information System (PDF), CITES concludes that more work like theirs is needed to address these crimes, writing that "scaled-up forensic examination to source ivory is needed as most large seizures are not being examined in a timely manner."

With the opportunity to sample and test more items, more quickly, Uno and Wasser hope to be able to more effectively prevent poaching crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable.

Wasser cuts samples from a carved tusk. Credit: Columbia University

Carved tusks, marked for sampling. Credit: Columbia University

This tusk was confiscated during an attempted Craigslist sale. Some experts are concerned that as retail busts become more frequent, online sales will increase. Credit: Columbia University
Marcus Hutchins (R), the British cyber security expert accused of creating and selling malware that steals banking passwords, appeared at a court hearing Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his lawyers Marcia Homann and Brian Klein

A lawyer for a 23-year-old British computer security researcher accused of creating malware to attack the banking system on Monday called him a "hero" and predicted he would be "fully vindicated."

The lawyer's remarks came after Marcus Hutchinswho three months ago found a "kill switch" to stem the spread of the devastating WannaCry ransomware outbreakpleaded not guilty to US charges of creating and distributing malicious software.

Hutchins was arrested earlier this month in Las Vegas after attending the Def Con gathering of computer hackers.

The case stunned the computer security community and drew fire from critics who argued that researchers often work with computer code which can be deployed for malicious purposes.

"Marcus Hutchins is a brilliant young man and a hero," said Marcia Hofmann, an attorney affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, who represented Hutchins at the hearing.

"He is going to vigorously defend himself against these charges. And when the evidence comes to light, we are confident he will be fully vindicated."

Hours after the hearing, Hutchins resumed activity on Twitter.

"I'm still on trial, still not allowed to go home, still on house arrest; but now i am allowed online," he wrote.

He also joked about the experience with a sarcastic "to do" list from his US visit: "Things to do during defcon: Attend parties. Visit red rock canyon. Go shooting. Be indicted by the FBI. Rent supercars."

A federal indictment accuses Hutchins and another individual of making and distributing the Kronos "banking Trojan," a reference to malicious software designed to steal user names and passwords used at online banking sites.

The indictment set the time of the activity by Hutchins as being from July 2014 to July 2015.

A trial date was set for the case for October 23, according to participants at the hearing, who added that a federal magistrate agreed to allow Hutchins to reside in California while the case is pending.

Hutchins, who lives in Britain and remains free on $30,000 bail, works for a California-based computer security firm. A court official said his bail terms were modified allowing Hutchins to travel within the United States and to access the internet.

"We are very pleased that the court modified the terms (of bail) allowing him to return to his important work," said Brian Klein, the second attorney for Hutchins.

His arrest has sparked criticism from some researchers who argue that the case could dissuade "white hat hackers" those who find security flaws to help fix themfrom cooperating with authorities.

Hutchins, known by the alias "Malwaretech," was charged in an indictment that was dated July 12 and unsealed in early August by federal authorities in Wisconsin.

According to the indictment, Hutchins was part of a conspiracy to distribute the hacking tool on so-called dark markets.

 2017 AFP
Artist's concept of a bimodal nuclear rocket making the journey to the moon, Mars, and other destinations in the solar system. Credit: NASA

In its pursuit of missions that will take us back to the moon, to Mars, and beyond, NASA has been exploring a number of next-generation propulsion concepts. Whereas existing concepts have their advantages  chemical rockets have high energy density and ion engines are very fuel-efficient  our hopes for the future hinge on us finding alternatives that combine efficiency and power.

To this end, researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center are once again looking to develop nuclear rockets. As part of NASA's Game Changing Development Program, the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) project would see the creation of high-efficiency spacecraft that would be capable of using less fuel to deliver heavy payloads to distant planets, and in a relatively short amount of time.

As Sonny Mitchell, the project of the NTP project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said in a recent NASA press statement:

"As we push out into the solar system, nuclear propulsion may offer the only truly viable technology option to extend human reach to the surface of Mars and to worlds beyond. We're excited to be working on technologies that could open up deep space for human exploration."

To see this through, NASA has entered into a partnership with BWX Technologies (BWXT), a Virginia-based energy and technology company that is a leading supplier of nuclear components and fuel to the U.S. government. To assist NASA in developing the necessary reactors that would support possible future crewed missions to Mars, the company's subsidiary (BWXT Nuclear Energy, Inc.) was awarded a three-year contract worth $18.8 million.

During this three years in which they will be working with NASA, BWXT will provide the technical and programmatic data needed to implement NTP technology. This will consist of them manufacturing and testing prototype fuel elements and helping NASA to resolve any nuclear licensing and regulatory requirements. BWXT will also aid NASA planners in addressing the issues of feasibility and affordably with their NTP program.

Artists concept of a Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket in low earth orbit. Credit: NASA

As Rex D. Geveden, BWXT's President and Chief Executive Officer, said of the agreement:

"BWXT is extremely pleased to be working with NASA on this exciting nuclear space program in support of the Mars mission. We are uniquely qualified to design, develop and manufacture the reactor and fuel for a nuclear-powered spacecraft. This is an opportune time to pivot our capabilities into the space market where we see long-term growth opportunities in nuclear propulsion and nuclear surface power."

In an NTP rocket, uranium or deuterium reactions are used to heat liquid hydrogen inside a reactor, turning it into ionized hydrogen gas (plasma), which is then channeled through a rocket nozzle to generate thrust. A second possible method, known as Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEC), involves the same basic reactor converted its heat and energy into electrical energy which then powers an electrical engine.

In both cases, the rocket relies on nuclear fission to generates propulsion rather than chemical propellants, which has been the mainstay of NASA and all other space agencies to date. Compared to this traditional form of propulsion, both types of nuclear engines offers a number of advantages. The first and most obvious is the virtually unlimited energy density it offers compared to rocket fuel.

This would cut the total amount of propellant needed, thus cutting launch weight and the cost of individual missions. A more powerful nuclear engine would mean reduced trip times. Already, NASA has estimated that an NTP system could make the voyage to Mars to four months instead of six, which would reduce the amount of radiation the astronauts would be exposed to in the course of their journey.

To be fair, the concept of using nuclear rockets to explore the Universe is not new. In fact, NASA has explored the possibility of nuclear propulsion extensively under the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office. In fact, between 1959 and 1972, the SNPO conducted 23 reactor tests at the Nuclear Rocket Development Station at AEC's Nevada Test Site, in Jackass Flats, Nevada.

Artists concept of a bimodal nuclear rocket slowing down to establish orbit around Mars. Credit: NASA

In 1963, the SNPO also created the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) program to develop nuclear-thermal propulsion for long-range crewed mission to the moon and interplanetary space. This led to the creation of the NRX/XE, a nuclear-thermal engine which the SNPO certified as having met the requirements for a crewed mission to Mars.

The Soviet Union conducted similar studies during the 1960s, hoping to use them on the upper stages of of their N-1 rocket. Despite these efforts, no nuclear rockets ever entered service, owing to a combination of budget cuts, loss of public interest, and a general winding down of the Space Race after the Apollo program was complete.

But given the current interest in space exploration, and ambitious mission proposed to Mars and beyond, it seems that nuclear rockets may finally see service. One popular idea that is being considered is a multistage rocket that would rely on both a nuclear engine and conventional thrusters  a concept known as a "bimodal spacecraft". A major proponent of this idea is Dr. Michael G. Houts of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

In 2014, Dr. Houts conducted a presentation outlining how bimodal rockets (and other nuclear concepts) represented "game-changing technologies for space exploration". As an example, he explained how the Space Launch System (SLS)  a key technology in NASA's proposed crewed mission to Mars  could be equipped with chemical rocket in the lower stage and a nuclear-thermal engine on the upper stage.

In this setup, the nuclear engine would remain "cold" until the rocket had achieved orbit, at which point the upper stage would be deployed and the reactor would be activated to generate thrust. Other examples cited in the report include long-range satellites that could explore the outer solar system and Kuiper Belt and fast, efficient transportation for manned missions throughout the solar system.

The company's new contract is expected to run through Sept. 30th, 2019. At that time, the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion project will determine the feasibility of using low-enriched uranium fuel. After that, the project then will spend a year testing and refining its ability to manufacture the necessary fuel elements. If all goes well, we can expect that NASA's "Journey to Mars" might just incorporate some nuclear engines.
Misfit plates in the Pacific led Rice University scientists to the discovery of the Malpelo Plate between the Galapagos Islands and the South American coast. Click on the image for a larger version. Credit: Tuo Zhang

A microplate discovered off the west coast of Ecuador adds another piece to Earth's tectonic puzzle, according to Rice University scientists.

Researchers led by Rice geophysicist Richard Gordon discovered the microplate, which they have named "Malpelo," while analyzing the junction of three other plates in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Malpelo Plate, named for an island and an underwater ridge it contains, is the 57th plate to be discovered and the first in nearly a decade, they said. They are sure there are more to be found.

The research by Gordon, lead author Tuo Zhang and co-authors Jay Mishra and Chengzu Wang, all of Rice, appears in Geophysical Research Letters.

How do geologists discover a plate? In this case, they carefully studied the movements of other plates and their evolving relationships to one another as the plates move at a rate of millimeters to centimeters per year.

The Pacific lithospheric plate that roughly defines the volcanic Ring of Fire is one of about 10 major rigid tectonic plates that float and move atop Earth's mantle, which behaves like a fluid over geologic time. Interactions at the edges of the moving plates account for most earthquakes experienced on the planet. There are many small plates that fill the gaps between the big ones, and the Pacific Plate meets two of those smaller plates, the Cocos and Nazca, west of the Galapagos Islands.

One way to judge how plates move is to study plate-motion circuits, which quantify how the rotation speed of each object in a group (its angular velocity) affects all the others. Rates of seafloor spreading determined from marine magnetic anomalies combined with the angles at which the plates slide by each other over time tells scientists how fast the plates are turning.

"When you add up the angular velocities of these three plates, they ought to sum to zero," Gordon said. "In this case, the velocity doesn't sum to zero at all. It sums to 15 millimeters a year, which is huge."

That made the Pacific-Cocos-Nazca circuit a misfit, which meant at least one other plate in the vicinity had to make up the difference. Misfits are a cause for concern  and a clue.

Knowing the numbers were amiss, the researchers drew upon a Columbia University database of extensive multibeam sonar soundings west of Ecuador and Colombia to identify a previously unknown plate boundary between the Galapagos Islands and the coast.

Previous researchers had assumed most of the region east of the known Panama transform fault was part of the Nazca plate, but the Rice researchers determined it moves independently. "If this is moving in a different direction, then this is not the Nazca plate," Gordon said. "We realized this is a different plate and it's moving relative to the Nazca."

Evidence for the Malpelo plate came with the researchers' identification of a diffuse plate boundary that runs from the Panama Transform Fault eastward to where the diffuse plate boundary intersects a deep oceanic trench just offshore of Ecuador and Colombia.

"A diffuse boundary is best described as a series of many small, hard-to-spot faults rather than a ridge or transform fault that sharply defines the boundary of two plates," Gordon said. "Because earthquakes along diffuse boundaries tend to be small and less frequent than along transform faults, there was little information in the seismic record to indicate this one's presence."

"With the Malpelo accounted for, the new circuit still doesn't close to zero and the shrinking Pacific Plate isn't enough to account for the difference either," Zhang said. "The nonclosure around this triple junction goes downnot to zero, but only to 10 or 11 millimeters a year.

"Since we're trying to understand global deformation, we need to understand where the rest of that velocity is going," he said. "So we think there's another plate we're missing."

Plate 58, where are you?

More information: Tuo Zhang et al. The Malpelo Plate Hypothesis and Implications for Non-closure of the Cocos-Nazca-Pacific Plate Motion Circuit, Geophysical Research Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1002/2017GL073704 Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters
Social media posts, such as this image uploaded to Flickr, can be repurposed for reef health monitoring. Credit: Sarah Ackerman/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram could be a rich source of free information for scientists tasked with monitoring the health of coral reefs and other environmental assets, our new research suggests.

Ecosystems are under pressure all over the world, and monitoring their health is crucial. But scientific monitoring is very expensive, requiring a great deal of expertise, sophisticated instruments, and detailed analysis, often in specialised laboratories.

This expense  and the need to educate and engage the public  have helped to fuel the rise of citizen science, in which non-specialist members of the public help to make observations and compile data.

Our research suggests that the wealth of information posted on social media could be tapped in a similar way. Think of it as citizen science by people who don't even realise they're citizen scientists.

Smartphones and mobile internet connections have made it much easier for citizens to help gather scientific information. Examples of environmental monitoring apps include WilddogScan, Marine Debris Tracker, OakMapper and Journey North, which monitors the movements of Monarch butterflies.

Meanwhile, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr host vast amounts of information. While not posted explicitly for environmental monitoring, social media posts from a place like the Great Barrier Reef can contain useful information about the health (or otherwise) of the environment there.

Picture of health? You can learn a lot from holiday snaps posted online. Credit: Paul Holloway/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Twitter is a good resource for this type of "human sensing", because data are freely available and the short posts are relatively easy to process. This approach could be particularly promising for popular places that are visited by many people.

In our research project, we downloaded almost 300,000 tweets posted from the Great Barrier Reef between July 1, 2016 and March 17, 2017.

After filtering for relevant keywords such as "fish", "coral", "turtle" or "bleach", we cut this down to 13,344 potentially useful tweets. Some 61% of these tweets had geographic coordinates that allow spatial analysis. The heat map below shows the distribution of our tweets across the region.

Twitter is known as place for sharing instantaneous opinions, perceptions and experiences. It is therefore reasonable to assume that if someone posts a tweet about the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns they are talking about a nearby part of the reef, so we can use the tweet's geocoordinates as indicators of the broad geographic area to which the post is referring. Images associated with such tweets would help to verify this assumption.

Our analysis provides several interesting insights. First, keyword frequencies highlight what aspects of the Great Barrier Reef are most talked about, including activities such as diving (876 mentions of "dive" or "diving", and 300 of "scuba"), features such as "beaches" (2,909 times), and favoured species such as "coral" (434) and "turtles" (378).

The tweets also reveal what is not talked about. For example, the word "bleach" appeared in only 94 of our sampled tweets. Furthermore, our results highlighted what aspects of the Great Barrier Reef people are most happy with, for example sailing and snorkelling, and which elements had negative connotations (such as the number of tweets expressing concern about dugong populations).

Tweet heat map for the Great Barrier Reef. Author provided

Casting the net wider

Clearly, this pool of data was large enough to undertake some interesting analysis. But generally speaking, the findings are more reflective of people's experiences than of specific aspects of the environment's health.

The quality of tweet information with regard to relevant incidents or changes could, however, be improved over time, for example with the help of a designated hashtag system that invites people to post their specific observations.

Similar alert systems and hashtags have been developed for extreme events and emergency situations, for example by the New South Wales Fire Service.

Tweets also often contain photographs  as do Instagram and Flickr posts  which can carry useful information. An image-based system, particularly in cases where photos carry time and location stamps, would help to address the lack of expertise of the person posting the image, because scientists can analyse and interpret the raw images themselves.

The Great Barrier Reef is, of course, already extensively monitored. But social media monitoring could be particularly beneficial in countries where more professional monitoring is unaffordable. Popular destinations in the Pacific or Southeast Asia, for example, could tap into social media to establish systems that simultaneously track visitors' experiences as well as the health of the environment.

While it is early days and more proof-of-concept research is needed, the technological possibilities of Big Data, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence will almost certainly make socially shared content a useful data source for a wide range of environmental monitoring in the future.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Two arrested with 8kg gold

Police has arrested two men with 8kg of contraband gold smuggled from China via the Rasuwagadhi border.
From European beginnings, Spotify looks set to take the crown of the #1 music streaming service in the US later this year. Credit: dougliz/flickr, CC BY-SA

While competition online starts the same way as that in offline markets, my research shows it often settles very differently online.

Both have seen lots of competitors emerge in a new area underpinned by new technologies. But online, consolidation ends in a high-stakes winner-takes-most "title fight" between the two strongest players.

In search this was AltaVista vs Google, in social media it was MySpace vs Facebook and in business networking Spoke vs LinkedIn. The result is that the victor at this critical juncture goes on to dominate their corner of the market and becomes almost unassailable in that space.

The evidence is mounting that Swedish music streaming company Spotify is on the verge of seizing the crown in music.

Pandora has been for some time the dominant real-time streaming service in the United States. Three years ago it had a clear lead but competition from Spotify appears to be stronger than ever. Pandora was a mass market pioneer in the online "radio" style streaming format where users pick stations and the music is compiled for them, whereas Spotify adopted an on-demand model which has prevailed.

Spotify has created many features that has made it popular with users like the ability to create and swap playlists.

Spotify overtakes Pandora as a Tech Talent Destination of Choice. Credit: Paysa

In the United States, Pandora has more monthly active users than Spotify, Shazam, Soundcloud and Amazon Music, according to App Annie. While Pandora has dominated in the United States its success in other markets has not been so strong. In Australia and New Zealand, for example, it recently closed its service and Jane Huxley, former managing director of Pandora Australia and New Zealand who resigned in March was just announced in the same role at Spotify.

Spotify also has a massive global subscriber base - many of whom are paying higher per user fees than Pandora. It now looks likely to take the global lead for three reasons:

Explosive new user growth

Growing investor valuations

Attraction of technology talent

Explosive new user growth

While the category of streaming music still is in its infancy, new users are critical to success. And this is where Spotify is killing it. In the context of Apps, new users are all about downloads and for the best part of 2017, Spotify has taken the crown of #1 most downloaded music app in the United States on iOS. So while Pandora is still currently ahead in monthly active users, at this rate it won't be long before Spotify takes the lead overall.

Birth of the car spawned intense competition and hundreds of new startups.

Growing investor valuations

Investors always have a forward looking view. Companies are valued not on what they are doing today but what investors expect from them in terms of future growth and performance. While still private, and with rumours of a stock market listing later this year, Spotify is now valued by investors at more than US$13 billion - over five times the current value of publicly listed Pandora which is currently US$2.3 billion.

Attraction of technology talent

The success of all online ventures is fuelled by technology talent. And many of the people in the tech sector have their antennae tuned to who is hot and who is not.

You can now use data to examine which companies are the most desirable destinations for software developers and tech talent by looking not at what people say, but where they go. When people leave one company to go work for another that creates a data point, and when you have lots of these that's a trend.

Online Gravity and three phases of industry evolution: Offline vs Online.

Using the technology talent movement metrics we can see also Spotify took the lead from Pandora in the United States in September last year.

How competition evolves

Initially new segments of the digital economy emerge in the same way as new segments of the traditional economywith a vibrant explosion of new life and competition. Consider the car industry where there have been more than 3,000 car companies formed in the US alone over the last century.

Under the influence of competition, these thousands of companies have now winnowed down to ten major global companies, each with sales of more than US$100 billion.

The way competition evolves online is akin to how the force of gravity has formed our solar system from lots of smaller rocks over time into clear planets with moons or satellites but, notably with no dual or triple planets. I refer to this phenomena as "Online Gravity".

Telsas market value overtook that of Ford in March and GM in May. Credit: Y Charts and Online Gravity

Consider web search where the now-dominant Google launched in 1998. It was about the 16th search engine launchedafter Infoseek, Alta Vista, WebCrawler and at least a dozen others.

Where are today's title fights?

We can see competition impacts clearly with the benefit of hindsight, but what about "title fights" that are currently underway?

Has Uber gone to point of market dominance beyond competition, or is it a MySpace awaiting Facebook, perhaps Lyft or another yet to enter entrant to steal its crown? Who will win the title belt for outsourced online labour? Will it be Freelancer.com or UpWork?

The prize for understanding who is going to win is large, and explains the premiums venture capitalists and public market investors alike put on companies that are favoured title fight winners.

Long before Tesla overtook GM in market value it won the hearts and minds of US software developers. Credit: Paysa

Could Tesla become the Google of electric vehicles? Many people think so or that its battery technology advances could lead it to dominate in broader distributed energy industries of the future.

Much has been made in the media of the market value of Tesla now overtaking both GM and Ford, making it the most valuable US car maker. This is despite the fact Tesla sold less than 100,000 cars vs 10 million at GM and that its revenue is less that 5 percent of GM and Ford's. And it's still losing money.

Could Tesla's rise in market valuation have been predicted? One interesting new data source that may shed light on this is technology talent.

Salary monitoring service Paysa also charts the movement of technology talent. It ranks the desirability of companies as employers, using data on technology talent migration it gets from LinkedIn and other sources.

Here we can see that Tesla overtook GM in terms of desirability as a destination for tech talent some four years ago and has remained ahead ever since. This coincides with Tesla's subsequent rapid rise in enterprise value as reflected by the stockmarket.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, constantly observes the outer regions of the Sun's corona. During the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse, scientists will observe the lower regions of the sun's corona to better understand the source of solar explosions called coronal mass ejections, as well as the unexpectedly high temperatures in the corona. Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO

A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. But because Earth's surface is mostly ocean, most eclipses are visible over land for only a short time, if at all. The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, is different - its path stretches over land for nearly 90 minutes, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to make scientific measurements from the ground.

When the Moon moves in front of the Sun on Aug. 21, it will completely obscure the Sun's bright face. This happens because of a celestial coincidence - though the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, the Moon on Aug. 21 will be about 400 times closer to us, making their apparent size in the sky almost equal. In fact, the Moon will appear slightly larger than the Sun to us, allowing it to totally obscure the Sun for more than two and a half minutes in some locations. If they had the exact same apparent size, the total eclipse would only last for an instant.

The eclipse will reveal the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona, which is otherwise too dim to see next to the bright Sun. Though we study the corona from space with instruments called coronagraphs - which create artificial eclipses by using a metal disk to block out the Sun's face - there are still some lower regions of the Sun's atmosphere that are only visible during total solar eclipses. Because of a property of light called diffraction, the disk of a coronagraph must block out both the Sun's surface and a large part of the corona in order to get crisp pictures. But because the Moon is so far away from Earth - about 230,000 miles away during the eclipse - diffraction isn't an issue, and scientists are able to measure the lower corona in fine detail.

NASA is taking advantage of the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse by funding 11 ground-based science investigations across the United States. Six of these focus on the Sun's corona.

The source of space weather

Our Sun is an active star that constantly releases a flow of charged particles and magnetic fields known as the solar wind. This solar wind, along with discrete burps of solar material known as coronal mass ejections, can influence Earth's magnetic field, send particles raining down into our atmosphere, and - when intense - impact satellites. Though we're able to track these solar eruptions when they leave the Sun, the key to predicting when they'll happen could lie in studying their origins in the magnetic energy stored in the lower corona.

A team led by Philip Judge of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, will use new instruments to study the magnetic field structure of the corona by imaging this atmospheric layer during the eclipse. The instruments will image the corona to see fingerprints left by the magnetic field in visible and near-infrared wavelengths from a mountaintop near Casper, Wyoming. One instrument, POLARCAM, uses new technology based on the eyes of the mantis shrimp to obtain novel polarization measurements, and will serve as a proof-of-concept for use in future space missions. The research will enhance our understanding of how the Sun generates space weather.

A total solar eclipse gives scientists a rare opportunity to study the lower regions of the Sun's corona. These observations can help us understand solar activity, as well as the unexpectedly high temperatures in the corona. Credit: S. Habbal, M. Druckmuller and P. Aniol

"We want to compare between the infrared data we're capturing and the ultraviolet data recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and JAXA/NASA's Hinode satellite," said Judge. "This work will confirm or refute our understanding of how light across the entire spectrum forms in the corona, perhaps helping to resolve some nagging disagreements."

The results from the camera will complement data from an airborne study imaging the corona in the infrared, as well as another ground-based infrared study led by Paul Bryans at the High Altitude Observatory. Bryans and his team will sit inside a trailer atop Casper Mountain in Wyoming, and point a specialized instrument at the eclipse. The instrument is a spectrometer, which collects light from the Sun and separates each wavelength of light, measuring their intensity. This particular spectrometer, called the NCAR Airborne Interferometer, will, for the first time, survey infrared light emitted by the solar corona.

"These studies are complementary. We will have the spectral information, which reveals the component wavelengths of light," said Bryans. "And Philip Judge's team will have the spatial resolution to tell where certain features are coming from."

This novel data will help scientists characterize the corona's complex magnetic fieldcrucial information for understanding and eventually helping to forecast space weather events. The scientists will augment their study by analyzing their results alongside corresponding space-based observations from other instruments aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the joint NASA/JAXA Hinode.

In Madras, Oregon, a team of NASA scientists led by Nat Gopalswamy at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will point a new, specialized polarization camera at the Sun's faint outer atmosphere, the corona, taking several-second exposures at four selected wavelengths in just over two minutes. Their images will capture data on the temperature and speed of solar material in the corona. Currently these measurements can only be obtained from Earth-based observations during a total solar eclipse.

To study the corona at times and locations outside a total eclipse, scientists use coronagraphs, which mimic eclipses by using solid disks to block the Sun's face much the way the Moon's shadow does. Typical coronagraphs use a polarizer filter in a mechanism that turns through three angles, one after the other, for each wavelength filter. The new camera is designed to eliminate this clunky, time-consuming process, by incorporating thousands of tiny polarization filters to read light polarized in different directions simultaneously. Testing this instrument is a crucial step toward improving coronagraphs and ultimately, our understanding of the coronathe very root of the solar radiation that fills up Earth's space environment.

Unexplained coronal heating

The answer to another mystery also lies in the lower corona: It is thought to hold the secrets to a longstanding question of how the solar atmosphere reaches such unexpectedly high temperatures. The Sun's corona is much hotter than its surface, which is counterintuitive, as the Sun's energy is generated by nuclear fusion at its core. Usually temperatures go down consistently as you move away from that heat source, the same way that it gets cooler as you move away from a fire - but not so in the case of the Sun's atmosphere. Scientists suspect that detailed measurements of the way particles move in the lower corona could help them uncover the mechanism that produces this enormous heating.

Padma Yanamandra-Fisher of the Space Science Institute will lead an experiment to take images of the lower corona in polarized light. Polarized light is when all the light waves are oriented the same way, and it is produced when ordinary, unpolarized light passes through a medium - in this case, the electrons of the inner solar corona.

"By measuring the polarized brightness of the inner solar corona and using numerical modeling, we can extract the number of electrons along the line of sight," said Yanamandra-Fisher. "Essentially, we're mapping the distribution of free electrons in the inner solar corona."

Mapping the inner corona in polarized light to reveal the density of elections is a critical factor in modeling coronal waves, one possible source of coronal heating. Along with unpolarized light images collected by the NASA-funded citizen science project called Citizen CATE, which will gather eclipse imagery from across the country, these polarized light measurements could help scientists address the question of the solar corona's unusually high temperatures.

Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu will lead a team of scientists to image the Sun during the total solar eclipse. The eclipse's long path over land allows the team to image the Sun from five sites across four different states, about 600 miles apart, allowing them to track short-term changes in the corona and increasing the odds of good weather.

They will use spectrometers, which analyze the light emitted from different ionized elements in the corona. The scientists will also use unique filters to selectively image the corona in certain colors, which allows them to directly probe into the physics of the Sun's outer atmosphere.

With this data, they can explore the composition and temperature of the corona, and measure the speed of particles flowing out from the Sun. Different colors correspond to different elementsnickel, iron and argonthat have lost electrons, or been ionized, in the corona's extreme heat, and each element ionizes at a specific temperature. By analyzing such information together, the scientists hope to better understand the processes that heat the corona.

Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA's WB-57F research jets take observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes. They will capture the clearest images of the Sun's outer atmospherethe coronato date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the
Credit: Journal of Arachnology (2017). DOI: 10.1636/JoA-17-011.1

A trio of researchers from Switzerland and the U.S. has found documented evidence of tiny regal jumping spiders killing and eating much larger frogs and lizards. In their paper published in Journal of Arachnology, Martin Nyffeler, with the University of Basel, G. B. Edwards with Florida State Collection of Arthropods and Kenneth Krysko with the University of Florida, describe their findings.

Scientists and everyday people have seen multiple examples of frogs, lizards and other creatures dining on small spiders, but more rare is when the reverse happens. In this new effort, the researchers report on evidence they have uncovered of the tiny, one-inch-long regal jumping spider killing and eating frogs and lizards that are much larger than they are. Notably, despite its tiny size, the regal is actually one of the largest of the jumping spiders.

The study began as the researchers exchanged anecdotal evidence of tiny spiders feasting on various vertebrate. Intrigued, they began conducting queries using several Google tools: Search, Books, Scholar and Pictures. They also did searches on the Scopus database and Thomson Reuters. These searches resulted in the discovery of six reports (and pictures) of tiny regal jumping spiders killing and consuming frogs and lizards. The pictures showed the one-inch spiders dining on Cuban frogs that were one to 1.5 times their own size, and lizards such as the Carolina anole that were 1.5 to 2.5 times their own size. The tiny spiders do not have to engage in battles with their prey; instead, they simply inject them with venom and then wait for them to die. The paper offers the first documented case of jumping spiders killing and eating vertebrates.

The researchers note that regal jumping spiders, which live in Florida, belong to a group known as generalist predators. They do not have a primary food source. Instead, they are opportunists, killing whatever happens to cross their path. Prior research has already shown that the spiders have excellent eyesight, allowing them to spot prey and assess the chances of being able to kill and eat it before they take action.

More information: Martin Nyffeler et al. A vertebrate-eating jumping spider (Araneae: Salticidae) from Florida, USA, Journal of Arachnology (2017). DOI: 10.1636/JoA-17-011.1

 2017 Phys.org
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Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. operates as a seaborne shipping and logistics company in North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, South America, and internationally. It focuses on the transportation and transshipment of dry bulk commodities, including iron ores, coal, and grains. The company operates in two segments, Dry Bulk Vessel Operations and Logistics Business. The Dry Bulk Vessel Operations segment engages in the transportation and handling of bulk cargoes through the ownership, operation, and trading of vessels and freight. This segment charters its vessels to trading houses, producers, and government-owned entities. The Logistics Business segment operates ports and transfer station terminals, as well as upriver transport facilities in the Hidrovia region; and handles vessels, barges, push boats, and cabotage business. This segment provides its integrated transportation, storage, and related services through its port facilities, cargo barges, and product tankers to mineral and grain commodity providers, as well as to users of refined petroleum products. As of December 31, 2021, the company's fleet consisted of 36 vessels totaling 3.9 million deadweight tons. Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 1954 and is headquartered in Grand Cayman, the Cayman Islands.
Global Payments Inc. provides payment technology and software solutions for card, electronic, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Merchant Solutions, Issuer Solutions, and Business and Consumer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization services, settlement and funding services, customer support and help-desk functions, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security services, consolidated billing and statements, and on-line reporting services. This segment also provides an array of enterprise software solutions that streamline business operations of its customers in various vertical markets; and value-added services, such as point-of-sale solutions, and analytic and engagement tools, as well as payroll and human capital management services. The Issuer Solutions segment offers solutions that enable financial institutions and retailers to manage their card portfolios through a platform; and commercial payments and ePayables solutions for businesses and governments. The Business and Consumer Solutions segment provides general-purpose reloadable prepaid debit and payroll cards, demand deposit accounts, and other financial service solutions to the underbanked and other consumers, and businesses under the Netspend brand. It markets its products and services through direct sales force, trade associations, agent and enterprise software providers, referral arrangements with value-added resellers, and independent sales organizations. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, Products Pipelines, Terminals, and CO2. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment owns and operates interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline, and underground storage systems; natural gas gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities; natural gas liquids fractionation facilities and transportation systems; and liquefied natural gas liquefaction and storage facilities. The Products Pipelines segment owns and operates refined petroleum products, and crude oil and condensate pipelines; and associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix facilities. The Terminals segment owns and/or operates liquids and bulk terminals that stores and handles various commodities, including gasoline, diesel fuel, chemicals, ethanol, metals, and petroleum coke; and owns tankers. The CO2 segment produces, transports, and markets CO2 to recovery and production crude oil from mature oil fields; owns interests in/or operates oil fields and gasoline processing plants; and operates a crude oil pipeline system in West Texas, as well as owns and operates RNG and LNG facilities. It owns and operates approximately 83,000 miles of pipelines and 143 terminals. The company was formerly known as Kinder Morgan Holdco LLC and changed its name to Kinder Morgan, Inc. in February 2011. Kinder Morgan, Inc. was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United states and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers' compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers' liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.
Deutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
Eighteen people, including at least eight foreigners were shot dead in a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso, according to a provisional toll Monday, in the latest attack in West Africa to target a spot popular with expatriates. There has been no claim of responsibility for Sunday night's attack at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, which was often packed with foreign nationals who went there to watch football. Two attackers were killed by security forces in a counter-assault that left the streets echoing with gunfire until morning. Five members of the security forces were among 22 people wounded, prosecutor Maiza Sereme said. Foreign Minister Alpha Barry told AFP the "terrorist" attack in the capital Ouagadougou killed seven locals and at least eight foreigners including a Frenchman, a Canadian woman, two Kuwaiti women and male victims from Senegal, Niger, Lebanon and Turkey. Three others have yet to be identified, Sereme said. Separately, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said two Canadians were among the casualties. "They started shooting on the terrace. We climbed up the stairs and lay on the ground. The attackers came and pointed their guns at us," said one survivor, interviewed in hospital on national television. "I didn't understand their language, it might have been Arabic." The restaurant is just 200 metres (yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Sereme said the dead attackers were "very young". "They arrived at the scene of the crime on a motorbike," she told a press conference. "Each of the terrorists was armed with an AK47. We found many cartridge clips at the scene, some of them empty and some of them still full." Forty people were freed in the counter-assault by security forces, she said. At nightfall on Monday, a crowd of about a hundred gathered behind barricades about 300 metres from the restaurant, whose windows were smashed and whose ochre two-storey front showed signs of a gunfight. "I feel deeply moved, it's something that goes right to the heart," said Yacouba Rabo, a 28-year-old physical education student. "These are human beings who have been mown down." Jean Bosco Bossou, a 23-year-old student, said, "The forces of evil have struck. Our people are above this -- we will always meet the challenge." - 'Despicable' - President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned the shooting as "a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning". The attack is the latest in the region targeting spots popular with foreigners and locals alike. Last year's assault on the Splendid hotel and Cappuccino restaurant, down the road from the Aziz Istanbul, came after jihadists claimed an attack on a hotel in the capital of neighbouring Mali that killed 20 people. And in March last year 19 people were killed when gunmen stormed the Ivory Coast beach resort of Grand-Bassam, an attack also claimed by AQIM. In Burkina Faso, a dozen soldiers were killed in December in an assault on a base in the north of the country. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in Burkina Faso in 2015, are still being held hostage by Qaeda-affiliated Islamists. Sean Smith, senior Africa analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, said the restaurant attack "illustrates that the threat of terrorism now looms over most of the Sahel region". "While most attacks in Burkina Faso remain confined to the remote northern regions that border Mali, this incident reiterates that Islamists also have the ability to strike at will in the capital." - Calls to back anti-terror force - French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Kabore, his office said, condemning the "terrorist attack" in the former French colony and stressing the "urgent need" to speed up the launch of a five-country anti-jihadist force in the Sahel. France has its own Barkhane anti-jihadist operation in the region and has been pushing efforts to set up the 5,000-member force, manned by Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, by October. African Union chief Alpha Conde said the attack "shows the importance of bringing the force into operation" and called on the European Union to find the estimated 400 million euros ($471 million) of extra funding needed. burs-kjl/ri/mt
Gunmen attacked a UN base in central Mali on Monday, killing a UN peacekeeper and a Malian soldier, the United Nations said, denouncing a "revolting terrorist attack". The soldiers were killed during an attack in Douentza, in the Mopti region, according to a statement from the UN mission in the country, known by the acronym MINUSMA. Another peacekeeper was wounded but not seriously, the statement said. A group of attackers "fired at a MINUSMA camp from an adjacent hill," with the Malian armed forces returning fire, according to the statement. A second group of attackers shot at peacekeepers in a neighbouring camp, who also returned fire, killing two of the assailants. The UN mission called it a "terrorist attack" and said it would not stop its "support of Mali and its people in order to contribute to the achievement of lasting peace and stability." A Malian military source, confirming the attack, said reinforcements had been sent to bolster security in the town, he added. Last week, UN peacekeepers accused former rebel fighters and a rival pro-government militia in the north of the country of having used child soldiers in recent clashes. On Friday, nine child soldiers aged 15 to 17 were handed over to UN peacekeepers in the northern city of Kidal. In 2012, key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising. Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.
At least 175 people have died and thousands have fled their homes as monsoon floods swept across Nepal, India and Bangladesh, officials said Monday, warning the toll could rise as the extent of the damage becomes clear. Three days of relentless downpours sparked flash floods and landslides that have killed at least 80 people in Nepal, 73 across northern and eastern India and 22 in Bangladesh. Around 200,000 people are living in emergency camps in Assam in northeast India, which suffers frequent flooding during the annual monsoon rains. Another 15,000 have had to leave their homes in the eastern state of Bihar, which borders Nepal and where one official said seven rivers were at danger levels. Huge swathes of the state were submerged in 2008 when a river burst its banks across the border in Nepal, with the two countries trading blame for the disaster. All trains to the northeast have been suspended until Wednesday, with sections of the track completely submerged in water, Indian railway spokesman Anil Saxena told AFP. In Nepal, police said over 48,000 homes have been totally submerged by the floods. As emergency workers struggled to reach far-flung areas, the country's home ministry said another 36 people were missing, presumed dead, revising down an earlier count after more bodies were found. The Nepal Red Cross warned that shortages of safe drinking water and food could create a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Himalayan country. "In many parts of the country there is a scarcity of safe drinking water creating a high risk of health hazards," spokesman Dibya Raj Poudel told AFP. "Several villages and settlements are unreachable. Telecommunications, mobile phones are still not working so it is difficult to give a full assessment." A local volunteer in Saptari district -- one of the worst affected areas -- said the water level was receding but most residents were still stranded on higher ground. "Water level has decreased a little bit but families still cannot return home. They are taking shelter in sheds. What people need now is clean drinking water and food," volunteer Dipak Kumar Yadav told AFP. In India, emergency workers were scouring the area hit by a massive landslide that swept two passenger buses into a deep gorge on Sunday, killing at least 46 people in the mountainous northern state of Himachal Pradesh. In the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand -- which also borders Nepal -- three people were killed in a landslide late Sunday triggered by heavy rains, local police official Ajay Joshi told AFP. - Bangladesh deploys troops - Bangladesh deployed troops to shore up embankments in the north of the country, where flooding has killed 22 people. Local government administrator Kazi Hasan Ahmed told AFP up to 700,000 people had been marooned by flood waters after rivers burst their banks following days of heavy rain. "We've not seen such severe floods in Dinajpur since 1988," he said, referring to the worst-hit district. "The town protection embankment was washed away by flood water, submerging most of the main town." The government's Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre warned that water levels in some major rivers would continue to rise over the next 72 hours, raising fears the flooding could spread. In Nepal, the worst of the flooding was in the southern lowlands known as the Terai, the country's most fertile region and home to much of its agriculture. "We are getting reports that about 70 percent of agriculture area in the Tarai is inundated," said Shankar Sapkota, senior agricultural economist with the government. "Paddy fields, vegetable plantation and fish farms have been affected but right now we cannot confirm the extent of damage." Nearly 150 people have been killed in Nepal since the beginning of the rainy season in late June. The rains are now expected to shift westwards and authorities in Nepal have begun evacuating 74,000 people from a vulnerable western district. Hundreds have died in torrential rain, floods and landslides in neighbouring India during the monsoon, which hits the country's southern tip in early June and sweeps across the nation, lasting into September. burs-cc/np/iw
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Leaders of Malaysia's ruling party have condemned violence that erupted at a forum where former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was speaking, as political tension rises ahead of a general election that could be called in coming months. One opposition leader accused Prime Minister Najib Razak of "gangsterism" to keep Mahathir quiet after some people at the Sunday meeting threw shoes, chairs and flares at Mahathir, who has made it his mission to unseat Najib over his handling of the a multi-billion dollar scandal involving a state fund. Mahathir, 92, was not hurt, his aide said. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said differences of opinion did not give anyone license to act violently. "As a country that practices democracy, such an incident should not have happened," Ahmad Zahid was quoted as saying in the Star daily newspaper on Monday. Mahathir, who served as prime minister for 22 years until he stepped down in 2003, chairs a fractured opposition alliance hoping to unseat the long-ruling government coalition in election due by next year. Mahathir has offered to head a government again if the opposition wins. Some opposition leaders allied with Mahathir accused Najib of orchestrating the violence. A deputy president of the People's Justice Party, Azmin Ali, said in a statement the prime minister had resorted to "gangsterism". A senior member of Najib's United Malay National Organisation, who is also a government minister, Salleh Said Keruak, said such accusations were "unhealthy" for politics. "Remember that gangster politics is not part of our political culture," Salleh said in a statement. Another government minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, condemned the violence in a Twitter message saying it "cannot be tolerated". Media reported that police had detained two people. Mahathir has been a prominent critics of his former protege Najib over the scandal-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib denies wrongdoing. 1MDB is the subject of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries. The U.S. Justice Department alleged in civil lawsuits that about $4.5 billion of funds were misappropriated from the fund. The U.S. Justice Department said in its latest court filing on Thursday it was conducting a criminal investigation of 1MDB and asked for a stay on civil lawsuits it had filed to seize assets allegedly bought with money stolen from the fund. Najib denied taking money from 1MDB after it was reported that investigators traced nearly $700 million to his bank accounts. Authorities cleared him of any wrongdoing, saying the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia. (Reporting by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Robert Birsel)
A screenshot of the Geylang River from Google Street View.

The body of a man was found floating in the Geylang River near 74 Dakota Crescent on Monday morning (14 Aug).

The Singapore Civil Defence Force told Yahoo News Singapore they were alerted to the incident at 7.45am and dispatched a fire engine, a Red Rhino and an ambulance to the scene.

SCDF officers manually retrieved the body of the man from the river. The man was said to be in his thirties.

The man was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.

Police have classified this as a case of unnatural death and investigations are ongoing.



More Singapore stories
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a possible successor to 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, is recovering in a South African hospital after he fell ill and was airlifted from Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa, 74, was absent from celebrations on Monday to mark Heroes Day in the capital Harare. "He is not back yet from hospital in Johannesburg," Mugabe said during his speech at the national Heroes Acre, announcing that Mnangagwa was unwell. He did not give details. Health Minister David Parirenyatwa told reporters after the speech that Mnangagwa was feeling "much better". Asked whether Mnangagwa would be discharged soon, he said "yes, he is well, I spoke to him this morning." Mnangagwa and Pelekezela Mphoko are Mugabe's vice presidents in the ruling ZANU-PF party and government but the former is seen as the likely successor following elevation to the post in 2014. The issue of who will succeed Mugabe has deeply divided the ruling party into two factions -- one supporting Mnangagwa, the other Mugabe's wife Grace. Parirenyatwa said Mnangagwa had severe vomiting and diarrhoea and several tests had been conducted in Zimbabwe before he was airlifted to South Africa, which has better medical facilities. "He preferred to go there for his doctors. Some of his doctors are in South Africa, so we sent him there," he said. Local private media reported that Mnangagwa had suffered suspected food poisoning. Nicknamed "Crocodile" in the Shona language, Mnangagwa was appointed after the sacking of Joice Mujuru, who had held the position for 10 years. Mujuru has since formed a party that is part of a coalition to challenge Mugabe. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia and Alister Doyle)
Globe Europe celebrated the launch of their newest Eagle SG shoe for Charles Collet and Fries Taillieu with a weeks tour of France, Holland and Belgium. Premiering the video part with numerous shops across the three countries, they somehow managed to squeeze in some skateboarding as well.

With Paul Hart in tow, everything from street transitions to handrails to what looks like the plexiglass roof of a shopping centre gets sessioned.
Regional capitals finance measures to fight climate changes from their own budgets.

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Extremely hot weather caused a total of 240 premature deaths in the first half of August 2015. So far, it had been the deadliest hot period in Slovakia since 1996, according to the latest study to which climatologists from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU) contributed.

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Predictions for forthcoming years are not better as meteorologists say the heat will be more extreme, last longer and be more frequent.

The occurrence of heat with a serious impact on the mortality of people will also increase in the future, the climatologists wrote.

Several cities across Slovakia are adopting measures to help their inhabitants survive the extreme heat waves by installing water tanks, watering the streets or planting more trees.

Moreover, the Agriculture Ministry is offering money from EU funds to implement measures aimed at decreasing the temperature in towns and the adjacent areas.

Not enough vegetation

Though in the early 1960s extreme summer heat waves were rather rare and impacted only 1 percent of the land, they are now more regular and affect a larger area. Meteorologists expect that by 2020, extreme heat waves will strike about 10 percent of the land area, and by 2040 up to 20 percent, SHMU stated on its website.

As for towns and cities, the higher temperatures create worse living conditions as people suffer from worse breathing and sleep. A towns temperature is impacted mostly by its location, number of inhabitants and surroundings (i.e. whether there are trees or water areas), according to Pavel Stastny, climatologist of SMHU.

Big artificial surfaces in towns and cities, less vegetation and water areas result in so-called urban islands of heat that have a negative impact, especially during hot summer days, Stastny told The Slovak Spectator.

One way to solve these problems is by planting trees, but the map of green vegetation in Slovakias regional capitals, published in 2015, showed that the situation is not very good. The greenest city at the time was Banska Bystrica, where vegetation occupied more than 50 percent of its cadastral area. The least amount of vegetation was in Trnava, where it represented only 2 percent of the total area.

Cooling down the streets

Several regional capitals addressed by The Slovak Spectator say they have already adopted measures to fight climate change.

The city of Bratislava, for example, has implemented several projects to increase the share of vegetation by planting new trees and revitalising several squares. It also constructed a park in the Old Town and a green roof at a house for seniors in Kramare, as well as reconstructed two ponds at Zelezna Studienka, at the forest park, said Veronika Safarikova from the citys press department.

Trnava is also applying measures to make its streets greener by planting trees and climbing plants.

We hope this will have a long-term effect and will decrease the amplitude of extremes in the city in the long term, Tomas Gunis, head of Trnavas department of territorial development and concepts, told The Slovak Spectator.

As for the immediate measures applied when the SHMU issues heat warnings, many cities are installing water tanks and drinking fountains on the streets. They are also humidifying the air by watering the streets and installing water vapour sprayers. People can also cool down near the city fountains.

There are also some special measures. In Bratislava, for example, some swimming pools extended their opening hours and decreased the entrance fees for the afternoon hours, while in Banska Bystrica people can skate at the local winter stadium.

Ministry lends helping hand

Decreasing the temperature in towns and cities is demanding, says Stastny.

It would require big interventions into their structure, from the point of using appropriate construction materials, and also greening them by increasing the number and size of grass areas, parks, trees, and also artificial water areas, he added.

This is the reason why Slovak municipalities have adopted only partial measures, focusing on the most vulnerable groups.

The regional capitals addressed by The Slovak Spectator admit that they finance the measures mostly from their own budgets.

This may change for some as the Agriculture Ministry in March announced a call for projects to help decrease the temperature in municipalities, allocating altogether 33 million within the Integrated Regional Operational Programme.

A total of 70 projects worth 21.2 million were submitted in the first round that ended in late June.

The most questions we received pertained to cooling and refreshing elements in the urbanised environment, i.e. water vapour sprayers in towns and cities, Marek Mitosinka of the ministry said.
Peter Kolesar sees all the shortcomings of the current situation in Slovakia, but he remains optimistic about the innovation potential of the country and its future development.

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For most of his professional career, Peter Kolesar, CEO of Neulogy and a member of the AmCham Board of Directors, has been involved in helping Slovak startups and innovative ideas make it to the big stage. Although his extensive experience from abroad enables him to see all the shortcomings of the current situation in Slovakia, he remains optimistic about the innovation potential of the country and its future development.

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How would you define the innovation potential of a country and what determines it?

The easiest way to determine it is to look at the quality of universities, availability of business and technical talent, the number and size of R&D-heavy companies and technology startups and whether or not innovation is among the key priorities of the government. So the most important indicators to measure the innovation potential of a country include factors such as the amount of R&D funding  both private and public, the number of patents filed or the venture capital activity.

Potential means having the capacity to develop into something in the future. Slovakia is currently considered by the European Innovation Scoreboard to be a moderate innovator, significantly lagging behind the EU average when it comes to innovation performance. But I believe we have the potential to be among innovation leaders. I see no reason why Slovakia could not become a country where disruptive products, new and better services and processes are being created.



What are the key elements of a society which values and actively promotes innovation? Is it more about the existing culture or about creating the right environment through policy regulations?

A society actively promoting innovation is entrepreneurial, values education, private initiative and accepts failure. Of course, it takes time for any society to evolve and change. Both private sector initiatives as well as government policies have an important role to play  as we can see in all successful innovation ecosystems  from Silicon Valley to Israel. The aim of public intervention is to support education and finance primary research, lower risks for the private sector in potentially disruptive ventures and trigger private investment.

Slovakia is the world leader in per capita car production. To what extent is this an advantage that can help attract innovative ideas in the automotive and related sectors and to what extent does it present a potential danger for the economy?

Israel barely produces any cars in the country, but the country is a global automotive powerhouse. And thats thanks to the excellent R&D base and a plethora of startups whose technologies are relevant for the automotive sector. Israeli startup in autonomous driving Mobileye was recently acquired by Intel for 15 billion USD. Large OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) have their innovation labs either in their home countries or in high-tech hotbeds such as Silicon Valley or Tel Aviv. So car production is certainly no prerequisite for bringing automotive R&D into the country. It can help attract the attention of decision-makers at the headquarters of the car manufacturers but a lot of work is still ahead  the government needs to be investing heavily into the research base and the entire tech ecosystem in the long term.

Slovakia has the highest risk of job loss due to automation from all OECD countries  so if we dont manage to transform the education system and adapt to the coming changes, our economy will be in trouble.



In a recent article, The Financial Times describe the ongoing transformation of the Slovak economy dubbing Bratislava and other Central European cities The Danube Valley. What is your take on this optimistic perspective?

We have no other choice but to work together with neighboring regions which share a similar legacy, geographical proximity and a rapid growth of our startup scenes. Together, we are more relevant globally  we are a much bigger market and we have a stronger pipeline of amazing technology companies. I am an optimist; I believe this region has the potential to become the hottest place for startups in Europe, provided that we work together and connect our ecosystems.

From your experience at the Embassy of Slovakia in Washington, D.C., how are Slovak companies perceived in the United States? What kind of image does Slovakia, or the Central European region have?

Some of our companies such as ESET are well-known in the United States as well as some of our athletes, but Slovakia is way too small to have an image in the U.S. Several years ago, when I was still with the Embassy, we started an initiative called We4startups in Silicon Valley together with the International Visegrad Fund. The idea was to present the Visegrad region and the best startups all four countries had to offer. The impact was much bigger than any initiative of an individual V4 country before. So I believe that together we can build a positive image of CEE countries in the U.S. on the basis of innovation and new technologies, something that the Nordic countries have been very successful at. The Nordic countries opened their joint Nordic Innovation House in Palo Alto years ago. I think joint V4 or Danube Valley activities in Silicon Valley and elsewhere make a lot of sense.

What are the biggest obstacles Slovak companies face when entering the US market?

The first obstacle is psychological  many Slovak companies with great products are just too concerned about the size and competitive nature of the U.S. market. The second is regulatory  depending on the product the company is selling it can face a lot of regulatory hurdles in terms of approval processes, licensing, localization, etc. There were obviously big hopes in TTIP, which was supposed to eliminate a lot of these entry barriers, but this is all on hold, to put it optimistically. And the third important obstacle is the lack of business development capacity. Companies just dont invest enough resources in finding the right partners to help develop their business in the US. And there are Slovaks doing amazing things all around the United States, who are just one phone call away and ready to help, many times pro bono. Also, the Slovak American Foundation has a great program called US Connections, helping Slovak startups expand on the U.S. market.

You have also served as a Commercial Counselor at the Slovak Embassy in Tel Aviv. Israel is a country with a population size comparable to that of Slovakia. The country is globally recognized for its thriving startup ecosystem and it also happens to be the leading country in research and development investment. What lessons from the Israeli experience could be potentially applied in Slovakia?

The thriving startup ecosystem and the high quality of research and development are very much interconnected. Strong R&D has a direct impact on the number of tech startups established on and off universities. So this is the first lesson  invest into science and research, it will pay back. The second lesson is a strong involvement of the government  the idea of government support is to take on risks where they are too big for the private sector, but not the upside if a venture succeeds. Government intervention in Israel always takes place in conjunction with the private sector  the government should not do parallel activities to the private sector, but always in partnership. The third lesson is a political consensus that innovation is critical for the countrys future. This is translated into a strong institution with a strong mandate in innovation called the Innovation Authority (formerly the Office of the Chief Scientist).

If you could implement three nudges to help foster innovation in Slovakia, what would these be?

These are slightly more than nudges: the important role of the military in the innovation ecosystem in Israel is something we cannot quite replicate in Slovakia. But we could certainly have programs that motivate the defense establishment to cooperate with the tech community  for the benefit of both. The second one would be communication  regular informal discussions between the heads of relevant business and innovation agencies and the tech community would help both sides understand the motivations and limits of the other. And I am sure it would increase the impact and effectiveness of policies and programs. And the third one  lets capitalize on the biggest asset Slovakia has abroad  our diaspora. We need to bring the excellent scientists from abroad back home or motivate them to work on joint projects with Slovak labs from where they are. And we need to start using the networks and business acumen of successful Slovak entrepreneurs and managers abroad to help Slovak companies grow and expand.

As the CEO of Neulogy, you are also involved in organizing StartupAwards.SK, the most recognized competition for innovative companies in Slovakia. What can we look forward to in this years edition?

StartupAwards has been at the very core of the Slovak startup ecosystem for the past seven years. We have witnessed a massive growth of the technology scene in Slovakia and the event is also trying to reflect that.

Last year, StartupAwards was expanded to include a full-day tech conference. We were also responding to the fact that there was no technology-focused conference with top quality content in Slovakia or the Czech Republic. This year, we have decided to launch a separate brand for the conference part  FutureNow. The conference will not only be about startups and for startups. Well also host founders of billion dollar companies, innovators and top executives of large European corporations.



What topics will FutureNow address?

The conference will look at the technological transformation of todays world. Well look at the short to medium-term outlook: what technology changes will drive business, entrepreneurship and policies within the next 5-10 years?

Future mobility, internet of the future and future of government  these are the topics that will significantly impact the economies and societies of Central and Eastern Europe. Mobility and transportation are about to be disrupted in major ways and this will change the future of infrastructure and shift industry value chains and labor markets. Changes in the internet  from shared protocols and thin applications to blockchain and decentralized web  are creating opportunities for businesses from CEE. And looking at how technology is changing government can help our countries leapfrog Western Europe in specific areas  from startup support policies to e-government. So these are the major topics that well be discussing at FutureNow this year.

Peter Kolesar is CEO of Neulogy and a member of the AmCham Board of Directors

Originally published in Connection, the magazine published by AmCham Slovakia
Prime Minister Robert Fico, who one day earlier held a public talk, cited health issues as the reason for skipping the planned August 11 coalition council meeting.

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The coalition council was set to deal with the crisis in the ruling coalition caused by the termination of the coalition agreement by one of the parties, the Slovak National Party-SNS and its chairman Andrej Danko. This was while also withdrawing from the coalition agreement, the Sme daily wrote one day later.

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Ultimately, the coalition did not meet, as Prime Minister Robert Fico was allegedly ill with fever.

The leaders of the ruling coalition parties will meet on August 15 at 17:00 19:00, the SITA newswire wrote.

One day before the scrapped coalition council talks, however, Fico seemed fit and held a public speech, alongside Defence Minister Peter Gajdos (SNS nominee) on European solutions for purchasing military equipment, according to Sme.

Coalition agrement to be changed, addendum supplemented

SNS first vice-chairman Jaroslav Paska wished Fico a fast recovery so that hell be in good enough shape to carry on, as cited by TASR newswire. He also added that the parties have until September 1 to discuss an addendum to the coalition agreement. Well wait, he said. The addendum is intended to amend the coalitions inner workings, he explained, adding that SNS holds firm to its demands.

Read also:

Read also: SNS leader Danko unexpectedly withdraws from coalition agreement Read more

SNS is facing a backlash over the controversial allocations of EU-funds towards research by the Education Ministry, headed by its nominee Peter Plavcan. The party has said that the coalitions predicament stems from Smers failure to abide by the coalition agreement, however. To add insult to injury, SNS believes that Smer has co-opted the opposition OLaNO-NOVA party and that the two are working in close liaison in an effort to blacken SNS. Ficos advisor Erik Tomas, singled out by SNS as responsible for efforts to harm the party, has shaken off the allegations, calling them absurd, according to TASR.

Coalition parties' heads have health problems

Also the chairman of another coalition party, Bela Bugar, seems to have a health issue  he is suffering from inter-vertebral disc pain. Danko has been caught visiting a medical facility, too: he has pain in his arm, for which he gets radiation treatment, the Plus Jeden Den daily wrote on August 12.

Read also:

Read also: 5 things you need to know about the coalition crisis Read more

Political analyst Tomas Koziak opined, as quoted by the Novy Cas daily, that Dankos ego and ambitions are bigger than his real political power and abilities, and it may break him in the end. He joined a high-risk game he doesnt have cards good enough to play, Koziak says, and he is bluffing ill-advisedly. Novy Cas also wrote that ultimately, Danko may be forced to sacrifice

Minister Plavcan, involved in the recent scandal.

Unofficial talks may take place in the coalition until the next meeting.
After past similar events in other regions, now western Slovakia, mostly the Bratislava and Trnava regions, were hit by a storm and whirlwind amounting to a cyclone on the evening of August 10.

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For example: the high winds reaching a speed of 100 kilometres per hour at Bratislava airport. They caused innumerable damage, including fires (e.g. in the Trnava brewery), fallen trees, broken electricity wires, transport chaos and even torn roofs.

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Fire-fighters were sent to the affected areas and it took them a long time to clear up the damage caused by the sudden storms, Zuzana Farkasova of the Fire and Rescue Corps (HaZZ) presidium told TASR newswire. They mainly removed fallen trees from roads, cars and buildings as well as dealt with damaged roofs and electricity pylons. On August 11, they also helped bring certain roads back to normal after traffic halted due to the storms. The violent storms and wind required more than 100 callouts in the Bratislava region and in Trnava regions each, and dozens more in the Trencin, Nitra and Zilina regions.

Power blackouts, production halts, a lot of damage....

Several villages around Bratislava as well as its boroughs and the Zahorie area have reported power blackouts due to the storms.

A tree fell on the Lisztovo Square city traffic stop near the Main Station, causing the electricity wiring for trolley-buses to break. Other damage includes a roof torn off an apartment block (a mere two years old) in the town of Malacky, the Novy Cas daily wrote, adding that fortunately, no life was lost. Also, insulation was ripped off a house in the Trencin region, and fallen trees and branches damaged several cars, blocked rails for trams in Bratislava and partially damaged roofs on family villas, the Slovak media stated.

Even the Volkswagen Slovakia plant located in the Devinska Nova Ves borough of Bratislava had to suspend its car production for a few hours on the night of August 11, due to blackout in the supply companies in Lozorno, the website etrend.sk wrote.

On August 12, the West Slovak Distribution Company (ZSD) electricity utility reported that around 6,000 customers were still without electricity as of noon, mainly in Bratislava and its vicinity, as further damage was also caused by storms affecting the same locations the night of August 11. On its Facebook profile West Slovak Energy (ZSE) profile reported that its staff was dealing mainly with damage on high voltage lines throughout Friday, as wires on many locations had been torn by fallen trees.

More windstorms to be expected

Meteorologists say that in some places, e.g. in Maly Javornik, the wind amounted to the force of a hurricane (with 130 km/H). Criticised for not having warned citizens, they explain that the storm was expected on that day, but not at this power and magnitude. Also, once its force was evident, they had to primarily warn police, fire-fighters and rescue service.

We should learn to live with such climatic phenomena, meteorologists warn, as cited by the Novy Cas daily, since these phenomena will occur more frequently.
Kimco Realty Corp. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on open-air mall-style properties in the US and is among the largest mall REITs on the market. The firm has been in business since the post-war boom of the 1966 and trading on the public markets since 1991. The name is a blend of the founders names, Martin Kimmel and Milton Cooper, who merged their assets in order to form the larger company.

The stock was added to the S&P 500 in 2006 and has held its position ever since. Kimco is also know for being the first vertically integrated REIT meaning it is internally managed and advised, and provides its own asset and property management. The firm raised $120 million with its IPO and was worth $11.4 billion in October 2022.

As of October 2022, the company laid claim to more than 530 properties enclosing 92 million square feet of retail space. The properties are primarily located within grocery-anchored shopping centers and mixed-use assets in suburban areas. The tenant-focus is on a diverse blend of essential and/or necessity-based goods or services that drive multiple consumer trips per week and provide stable income.

Kimco Realty is headquartered in Jerico, N.Y., but does not limit its investments by geography. The companys properties are located in 1st-ring suburbs surrounding major metropolitan areas from coast to coast. One area of focus is high-barrier-to-entry coastal properties in population-dense vacation zones while another is the rapidly expanding Sun Belt.

The firm offers a variety of services and features apart from property rentals that include curbside pickup zones and many others that enhance the tenant and consumer experience. Other features include digital maintenance requests, Click Pay, and a Discount Program. Some of the markets served by Kimco Realty include New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, and Atlanta.
The following companies are subsidiares of HSBC: Assetfinance December (F) Limited, Assetfinance December (H) Limited, Assetfinance December (M) Limited, Assetfinance December (P) Limited, Assetfinance December (R) Limited, Assetfinance June (A) Limited, Assetfinance June (D) Limited, Assetfinance Limited, Assetfinance March (B) Limited, Assetfinance March (D) Limited, Assetfinance March (F) Limited, Assetfinance September (F) Limited, Assetfinance September (G) Limited, B&Q Financial Services Limited, Banco Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Banco Nominees 2 (Guernsey) Limited, Banco Nominees Limited, Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) Limited, Beau Soleil Limited Partnership, Beijing Miyun HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Billingsgate Nominees Limited, CC&H Holdings LLC, CCF & Partners Asset Management Limited, COIF Nominees Limited, Canada Crescent Nominees (UK) Limited, Canada Square Nominees (UK) Limited, Capco/Cove Inc., Card-Flo #1 Inc., Card-Flo #3 Inc., Charterhouse Administrators (D.T.) Limited, Charterhouse Management Services Limited, Charterhouse Pensions Limited, Chongqing Dazu HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Chongqing Fengdu HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Chongqing Rongchang HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Cordico Management AG, Corhold Limited, Corsair IV Financial Services Capital Partners, Dalian Pulandian HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Decision One Mortgage Company LLC, Dem 5, Dem 9, Dempar 1, Dempar 4, Elysees Immo Invest, Eton Corporate Services Limited, Fdm 5 SAS, Finanpar 2, Finanpar 7, Flandres Contentieux S.A., Fonciere Elysees, Fujian Yongan HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Fulcher Enterprises Company Limited, Fundacion HSBC A.C., GPIF Co-Investment LLC, Giller Ltd., Global Payments Technology Mexico S.A. De C.V., Griffin International Limited, Grundstuecksgesellschaft Trinkausstrasse Kommanditgesellschaft, Grupo Financiero HSBC S.A. de C.V., Guangdong Enping HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, HITG Administration GmbH, HRMG Nominees Limited, HSBC (BGF) Investments Limited, HSBC (General Partner) Limited, HSBC (Guernsey) GP PCC Limited, HSBC (Kuala Lumpur) Nominees Sdn Bhd, HSBC (Malaysia) Trustee Berhad, HSBC (Singapore) Nominees Pte Ltd, HSBC Administradora de Inversiones S.A., HSBC Agency (India) Private Limited, HSBC Alternative Investments Limited, HSBC Amanah Malaysia Berhad, HSBC Americas Corporation (Delaware), HSBC Argentina Holdings S.A., HSBC Asia Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Asia Holdings B.V., HSBC Asia Holdings Limited, HSBC Asia Pacific Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Asset Finance (UK) Limited, HSBC Asset Finance M.O.G. Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Asset Management (India) Private Limited, HSBC Assurances Vie (France), HSBC Australia Holdings Pty Limited, HSBC Bank (Chile), HSBC Bank (China) Company Limited, HSBC Bank (General Partner) Limited, HSBC Bank (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Bank (RR) (Limited Liability Company), HSBC Bank (Singapore) Limited, HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Limited, HSBC Bank (Uruguay) S.A., HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd., HSBC Bank A.S., HSBC Bank Argentina S.A., HSBC Bank Armenia cjsc, HSBC Bank Australia Limited, HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited, HSBC Bank Canada, HSBC Bank Capital Funding (Sterling, HSBC Bank Capital Funding (Sterling 2) LP, HSBC Bank Egypt S.A.E, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c., HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, HSBC Bank Nominee (Jersey) Limited, HSBC Bank Oman S.A.O.G., HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited, HSBC Bank Polska S.A., HSBC Bank USA National Association, HSBC Bank plc, HSBC Branch Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Brasil Holding S.A., HSBC Brasil S.A. Banco De Investimento, HSBC Broking Forex (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Broking Securities (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Broking Services (Asia) Limited, HSBC Canadian Covered Bond (Legislative) GP Inc, HSBC Canadian Covered Bond (Legislative) Guarantor Limited Partnership, HSBC Capital (USA) Inc., HSBC Capital Funding (Dollar 1) L.P., HSBC Capital Limited, HSBC Card Services Inc., HSBC Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V., HSBC Cayman Services Limited, HSBC City Funding Holdings, HSBC Client Holdings Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Client Share Offer Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Columbia Funding LLC, HSBC Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Corporate Finance (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Corporate Trustee Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited, HSBC Custody Services (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Daisy Investments (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Diversified Loan Fund General Partner Sarl, HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Guangdong) Limited, HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Philippines) Inc., HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Private Limited, HSBC Electronic Data Processing Lanka (Private) Limited, HSBC Electronic Data Service Delivery (Egypt) S.A.E., HSBC Enterprise Investment Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Epargne Entreprise (France), HSBC Equipment Finance (UK) Limited, HSBC Equity (UK) Limited, HSBC Europe B.V., HSBC Executor & Trustee Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Factoring (France), HSBC Finance (Brunei) Berhad, HSBC Finance (Netherlands), HSBC Finance Corporation, HSBC Finance Limited, HSBC Finance Mortgages Inc., HSBC Finance Transformation (UK) Limited, HSBC Financial Services (Lebanon) s.a.l., HSBC France, HSBC Fund Services (Korea) Limited, HSBC Germany Holdings GmbH, HSBC Global Asset Management (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Canada) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland) GmbH, HSBC Global Asset Management (France), HSBC Global Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Japan) K. K., HSBC Global Asset Management (Malta) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., HSBC Global Asset Management (Oesterreich) GmbH, HSBC Global Asset Management (Singapore) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Switzerland) AG, HSBC Global Asset Management (Taiwan) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) Inc., HSBC Global Asset Management Holdings (Bahamas) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management Limited, HSBC Global Custody Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Custody Proprietary Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Services (Canada) Limited, HSBC Global Services (China) Holdings Limited, HSBC Global Services (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Global Services (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Services Limited, HSBC Group Management Services Limited, HSBC Group Nominees UK Limited, HSBC Holdings B.V., HSBC IM Pension Trust Limited, HSBC INKA Investment-AG TGV, HSBC Infrastructure Limited, HSBC Inmobiliaria (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Asia) Limited, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited, HSBC Insurance (Asia) Limited, HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Holdings Limited, HSBC Insurance (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Limited, HSBC Insurance Agency (USA) Inc., HSBC Insurance Brokers (Philippines) Inc, HSBC Insurance Holdings Limited, HSBC Insurance Services Holdings Limited, HSBC International Finance Corporation, HSBC International Trustee (BVI) Limited, HSBC International Trustee (Holdings) Pte. Limited, HSBC International Trustee Limited, HSBC Inversiones S.A., HSBC InvestDirect (India) Limited, HSBC InvestDirect Financial Services (India) Limited, HSBC InvestDirect Sales & Marketing (India) Limited, HSBC InvestDirect Securities (India) Private Limited, HSBC Investment Bank Holdings B.V., HSBC Investment Bank Holdings Limited, HSBC Investment Funds (Canada) Inc., HSBC Investment Funds (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Investment Funds (Luxembourg) SA, HSBC Invoice Finance (UK) Limited, HSBC Issuer Services Common Depositary Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Issuer Services Depositary Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC LU Nominees Limited, HSBC Latin America B.V., HSBC Latin America Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Leasing (Asia) Limited, HSBC Leasing (France), HSBC Life (International) Limited, HSBC Life (Property) Limited, HSBC Life (UK) Limited, HSBC Life Assurance (Malta) Limited, HSBC Life Insurance Company Limited, HSBC Management (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Markets (USA) Inc., HSBC Marking Name Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Mexico S.A., HSBC Middle East Finance Company Limited, HSBC Middle East Holdings B.V., HSBC Middle East Leasing Partnership, HSBC Mortgage Corporation (Canada), HSBC Mortgage Corporation (USA), HSBC Nominees (Asing) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Nominees (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited, HSBC Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn Bhd, HSBC North America Holdings Inc., HSBC Odeme Sistemleri Bilgisayar Teknolojileri Basin Yayin Ve Musteri Hizmetleri, HSBC Operational Services GmbH, HSBC Overseas Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Overseas Investments Corporation (New York), HSBC Overseas Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC PB Corporate Services, HSBC PB Services (Suisse) SA, HSBC PI Holdings (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Participaciones (Argentina) S.A., HSBC Pension Trust (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Pensiones S.A., HSBC Portfoy Yonetimi A.S., HSBC Preferential LP (UK), HSBC Private Bank (C.I.) Limited, HSBC Private Bank (Luxembourg) S.A., HSBC Private Bank (Monaco) SA, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, HSBC Private Bank (UK) Limited, HSBC Private Bank International, HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA, HSBC Private Banking Nominee 3 (Jersey) Limited, HSBC Private Equity Advisors LLC, HSBC Private Equity Investments (UK) Limited, HSBC Private Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Private Wealth Services (Canada) Inc., HSBC Professional Services (India) Private Limited, HSBC Property (UK) Limited, HSBC Property Funds (Holding) Limited, HSBC Provident Fund Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Qianhai Securities Limited, HSBC REIM (France), HSBC Real Estate Leasing (France), HSBC Realty Credit Corporation (USA), HSBC Representative Office (Nigeria) Limited, HSBC Retirement Benefits Trustee (UK) Limited, HSBC Retirement Services Limited, HSBC SFH (France), HSBC Savings Bank (Philippines) Inc., HSBC Securities (Asia) Limited, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., HSBC Securities (Egypt) S.A.E., HSBC Securities (Japan) Limited, HSBC Securities (Philippines) Inc., HSBC Securities (Singapore) Pte Limited, HSBC Securities (South Africa) (Pty) Limited, HSBC Securities (Taiwan) Corporation Limited, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., HSBC Securities Asia International Nominees Limited, HSBC Securities Asia Nominees Limited, HSBC Securities Brokers (Asia) Limited, HSBC Securities Investments (Asia) Limited, HSBC Securities Services (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Securities Services (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Securities Services (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Securities Services (Luxembourg) S.A., HSBC Securities Services Holding Limited, HSBC Securities Services Holdings (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, HSBC Seguros S.A de C.V., HSBC Seguros de Retiro (Argentina) S.A., HSBC Seguros de Vida (Argentina) S.A., HSBC Service Delivery (Polska) Sp. z o.o., HSBC Services (France), HSBC Services Japan Limited, HSBC Services USA Inc., HSBC Servicios Financieros S.A., HSBC Servicios S.A de C.V., HSBC Software Development (Canada) Inc, HSBC Software Development (Guangdong) Limited, HSBC Software Development (India) Private Limited, HSBC Software Development (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Specialist Investments Limited, HSBC Stockbrokers Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Technology & Services (China) Limited, HSBC Technology & Services (USA) Inc., HSBC Transaction Services GmbH, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt (International) S.A., HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt Gesellschaft fur Bankbeteiligungen mbH, HSBC Trinkaus Europa Immobilien-Fonds Nr. 5 GmbH, HSBC Trinkaus Family Office GmbH, HSBC Trinkaus Immobilien Beteiligungs KG, HSBC Trinkaus Real Estate GmbH, HSBC Trust Company (Canada), HSBC Trust Company (Delaware) National Association, HSBC Trust Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Trust Company AG, HSBC Trustee (C.I.) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Cayman) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Singapore) Limited, HSBC UK Bank plc, HSBC UK Client Nominee Limited, HSBC UK Holdings Limited, HSBC USA Inc., HSBC Violet Investments (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Wealth Client Nominee Limited, HSBC Yatirim Menkul Degerler A.S., HSI Asset Securitization Corporation, HSI International Limited, HSIL Investments Limited, Hang Seng (Nominee) Limited, Hang Seng Bank (China) Limited, Hang Seng Bank (Trustee) Limited, Hang Seng Bank Limited, Hang Seng Bullion Company Limited, Hang Seng Credit Limited, Hang Seng Data Services Limited, Hang Seng Finance Limited, Hang Seng Financial Information Limited, Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, Hang Seng Insurance Company Limited, Hang Seng Investment Management Limited, Hang Seng Investment Services Limited, Hang Seng Life Limited, Hang Seng Qianhai Fund Management Company Limited, Hang Seng Real Estate Management Limited, Hang Seng Securities Limited, Hang Seng Security Management Limited, Haseba Investment Company Limited, Hg Janus A Co-Invest L.P., High Time Investments Limited, Honey Green Enterprises Ltd., Hongkong International Trade Finance, Household Capital Markets LLC, Household Finance Corporation III, Household Pooling Corporation, Hubei Macheng HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Hubei Suizhou Cengdu HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Hubei Tianmen HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Hunan Pingjiang HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, INKA Internationale Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH, Imenson Limited, InfraRed NF China Real Estate Investments LP, Inmobiliaria Banci S.A. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Bisa S.A. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Grufin S.A. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Guatusi S.A. de C.V., James Capel & Co. Limited, James Capel (Nominees) Limited, James Capel (Taiwan) Nominees Limited, Jasmine22 Limited, John Lewis Financial Services Limited, Keyser Ullmann Limited, Lion Corporate Services Limited, Lion International Corporate Services Limited, Lion International Management Limited, Lion Management (Hong Kong) Limited, Lyndholme Limited, MIL (Cayman) Limited, MIL (Jersey) Limited, MW Gestion SA, Marks and Spencer Financial Services plc, Marks and Spencer Savings and Investments Limited, Marks and Spencer Unit Trust Management Limited, Mercantile Company Limited, Mexicana de Fomento S.A. de C.V., Midcorp Limited, Midland Bank (Branch Nominees) Limited, Midland Nominees Limited, PT Bank HSBC Indonesia, PT HSBC Sekuritas Indonesia, Promocion en Bienes Raices S.A. de C.V., Prudential Client HSBC GIS Nominee (UK) Limited, R/CLIP Corp., RLUKREF Nominees (UK) One Limited, RLUKREF Nominees (UK) Two Limited, Real Estate Collateral Management Company, Republic Nominees Limited, Republic Overseas Capital Corporation, S.A.P.C. - Ufipro Recouvrement, SAS Bosquet - Audrain, SAS Cyatheas Pasteur, SAS Orona, SCI HSBC Assurances Immo, SFM, SFSS Nominees (Pty) Limited, SNC Dorique, SNC Kerouan, SNC Les Mercuriales, SNC Les Oliviers D'Antibes, SNC Makala, SNC Nuku-Hiva Bail, SNCB/M6-2007 A, SNCB/M6-2007 B, SNCB/M6-2008 A, Saf Baiyun, Saf Chang Jiang, Saf Guangzhou, Saf Zhu Jiang, Saf Zhu Jiang Jiu, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Ba, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Er, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Jiu, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Liu, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Qi, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Wu, Shandong Rongcheng HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Sico Limited, Societe Francaise et Suisse, Somers Dublin DAC, Somers Nominees (Far East) Limited, Sopingest, South Yorkshire Light Rail Limited, St Cross Trustees Limited, Sun Hung Kai Development (Lujiazui III) Limited, Swan National Leasing (Commercials) Limited, Swan National Limited, Thasosfin, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, The Venture Catalysts Limited, Timberlink Settlement Services (USA) Inc., Tooley Street View Limited, Tower Investment Management, Trinkaus Australien Immobilien Fonds Nr. 1 Brisbane GmbH & Co. KG, Trinkaus Australien Immobilien-Fonds Nr. 1 Treuhand-GmbH, Trinkaus Europa Immobilien-Fonds Nr.3 Objekt Utrecht Verwaltungs-GmbH, Trinkaus Immobilien-Fonds Geschaeftsfuehrungs-GmbH, Trinkaus Immobilien-Fonds Verwaltungs-GmbH, Trinkaus Private Equity Verwaltungs GmbH, Tropical Nominees Limited, Turnsonic (Nominees) Limited, Valeurs Mobilieres Elysees, Wardley Limited, Wayfoong Nominees Limited, Wayhong (Bahamas) Limited, Westminster House LLC, Woodex Limited, and Yan Nin Development Company Limited.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III Scots L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Aoba Life Insurance Company Ltd., Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI Ireland L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI US L.P., Dale/P Minerals Limited Partnership, Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Horizon GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sprint GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Harvest Asset Management LLC, Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd. Kabushiki Kaisha Kyouei Nenkin Home, LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., Lotus Reinsurance Company Ltd., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Marble Canyon LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Montana Capital Partners, Morenci LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, National Family Assurance Group LLC, New Savanna, Northbound Emerging Manager Fund A LP, Northbound Emerging Manager Fund II - A LP, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bay Farm LLC, PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Belvidere Farms LLC, PAI Big Cypress Farm LLC, PAI Corcoran 640 Ranch LLC, PAI DeKalb Farm LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Desert Falcon Farms Manager LLC, PAI Flicker Orchard LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Hawk Creek Ranch LLC, PAI Hills Valley Ranches LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Jackson Bayou Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PAI River Bend Ranches LLC, PAI Wallula Gap Vineyard LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PFI EM-Tech Fund I LLC, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PG Friendly Partners Co. Ltd., PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGI Co. Ltd, PGIM AC Co-Invest GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Advisory Shanghai Co. Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Australia Pty Ltd, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Feeder VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM Custom Harvest LLC, PGIM DC Co-Invest GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM DC JV GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM DC Solutions LLC, PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM Holdings Limited, PGIM Hong Kong Ltd., PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM IRELAND LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments Ireland Limited, PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF Berlin GP S.a r.l., PGIM LTIF Berlin MLP S.ar.l., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM Loan Originator Manager Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management Shanghai Company Ltd, PGIM Private Capital Ireland Limited, PGIM Private Capital Limited, PGIM Private Placement Investors Inc., PGIM Private Placement Investors L.P., PGIM QUANTITATIVE SOLUTIONS LLC, PGIM REF EUROPE SCSp, PGIM REF Europe GP S.a r.l., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Capital VII GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate Debt GmbH, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Global Master Fund GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles II S de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Italy S.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Japan Ltd., PGIM Real Estate Loan Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. CORE Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate UK Limited, PGIM Scots Limited, PGIM Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management (Feeder) I LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management Fund I L.P., PGIM Shanghai Company Ltd., PGIM Singapore Pte. Ltd., PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM Taronga Investor GP LLC, PGIM U.S. Agriculture Fund LP, PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Wadhwani LLP, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIIC Limited, PIISC Holdings UK Limited, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PLAI Limited, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP SCOTS FEEDER LLP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Pooled Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF Debt Fund Manager LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT PFI Mega Life Insurance, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Platinum GP Limited, Platinum II L.P., Platinum L.P., Pramerica Business Consulting Shanghai Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Hong Kong Holdings Limited, Pramerica Insurance Agency China Company Ltd., Pramerica Luxembourg CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate Scots LP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP Scots Feeder LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I Scotland Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Scots Feeder LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V Netherlands GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Scots CP GP LLP, Preco III Scotland Limited Partnership, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, PruVen Capital Partners Fund I L.P., Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Inc., Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. Ltd. Prudential Gibraltar Agency Kabushiki Kaisha, Prudential Global Funding LLC, Prudential Holdings of Japan Inc., Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates LLC, Prudential IBH Holdco Inc., Prudential Impact Investments Mortgage Loans LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Debt LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Equity LLC, Prudential Insurance Agency LLC, Prudential International Insurance Holdings Ltd., Prudential International Insurance Service Company L.L.C., Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC, Prudential International Investments Company LLC, Prudential International Investments LLC, Prudential Investment Management Services LLC, Prudential Japan Holdings LLC, Prudential Legacy Insurance Company of New Jersey, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 1 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 2 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Capital Asset Holding Company LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Funding LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC, Prudential Multifamily Mortgage LLC, Prudential Mutual Fund Services LLC, Prudential Newark Realty LLC, Prudential QOZ Investment Fund 1 LLC, Prudential Realty Securities Inc., Prudential Retirement Financial Services Holding LLC, Prudential Retirement Holdings LLC, Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, Prudential Securities Secured Financing Corporation, Prudential Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., Prudential Seguros S.A., Prudential Select Strategies LLC, Prudential Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Prudential Structured Settlement Company, Prudential Systems Japan Limited, Prudential Tax Services LLC, Prudential Term Reinsurance Company, Prudential Trust Co. Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., QMA JP EM All Cap Equity Partners LLC, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service, Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TF Proveedora S.C., TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy US Fund GP LLC, The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., VIP Australia Holding Company LLC, VIP Australia Trustee Pty Ltd, Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Wadhwani Capital Limited, Waveland Avenue Holdings I LLC, Waveland Avenue Partners I Ireland L.P., Waveland Avenue Partners I US L.P., Wellness Services Ecossistema De Bem Estar Ltda., Wellness Services SRL, Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC.

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A. O. Smith Corporation manufactures and markets residential and commercial gas, heat pump and electric water heaters, boilers, tanks, and water treatment products in North America, China, Europe, and India. It operates through two segments, North America and Rest of World. The company offers water heaters for residences, restaurants, hotels and motels, office buildings, laundries, car washes, and small businesses; commercial boilers for hospitals, schools, hotels, and other large commercial buildings, as well as residential boilers for homes, apartments, and condominiums; and water treatment products comprising point-of-entry water softeners, well water solutions, and whole-home water filtration products, on-the-go filtration bottles, point-of-use carbon, and reverse osmosis products for residences, restaurants, hotels, and offices. It also provides food and beverage filtration products; expansion tanks, commercial solar water heating systems, swimming pool and spa heaters, and related products and parts; and heat pumps, electric wall-hung, gas tankless, combi-boiler, heat pump and solar water heaters. The company offers its products primarily under the A. O. Smith, State, Lochinvar, and water softener brands. It distributes its products through independent wholesale plumbing distributors, as well as through retail channels consisting of hardware and home center chains, and manufacturer representative firms; and offers Aquasana branded products directly to consumers through e-commerce, as well as other online retailers. A. O. Smith Corporation was founded in 1874 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Learning Resources

Google Updates Classroom and Forms for Back-to-School

In time for back-to-school season, Google has rolled out 10 updates to Classroom and Forms that are designed to help teachers save time and stay organized.

Notably, Classroom now has a student view feature that enables teachers (as well as students) to see the status of assigned work. Teachers can take advantage of the student view to support personalized learning practices for individual students, according to a Google blog post.

To help with organization, Classroom now lets teachers order classes according to their schedules easily with drag-and-drop class cards. They can also seamlessly transfer ownership of a class Drive folder to other teachers.

Furthermore, Google has expanded its list of external applications that work with Google Classroom, adding integrations to Quzizz, Edcite and Kami. Google noted in the post that an integration to Code.org would be coming soon to Classroom.

To view the complete list of updates, visit the Google blog post.
Ameriprise Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services to individual and institutional clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice; brokerage products and services for retail and institutional clients; discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts; mutual funds; insurance and annuities products; cash management and banking products; and face-amount certificates. The Asset Management segment offers investment management and advice, and investment products to retail, high net worth, and institutional clients through unaffiliated third-party financial institutions and institutional sales force. This segment products also include U.S. mutual funds and their non-U.S. equivalents, exchange-traded funds, variable product funds underlying insurance, and annuity separate accounts; and institutional asset management products, such as traditional asset classes, separately managed accounts, individually managed accounts, collateralized loan obligations, hedge funds, collective funds, and property and infrastructure funds. The Retirement & Protection Solutions segment provides variable annuity products to individual clients, as well as life and DI insurance products to retail clients. The company was formerly known as American Express Financial Corporation and changed its name to Ameriprise Financial, Inc. in September 2005. Ameriprise Financial, Inc. was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. produces and distributes specialty plant nutrients, iodine and its derivatives, lithium and its derivatives, potassium chloride and sulfate, industrial chemicals, and other products and services. The company offers specialty plant nutrients, including potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, sodium potassium nitrate, specialty blends, and other specialty fertilizers. It also provides iodine and its derivatives for use in medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial applications comprising x-ray contrast media, polarizing films for LCD and LED, antiseptics, biocides and disinfectants, pharmaceutical synthesis, electronics, pigments, and dye components. In addition, the company offers lithium carbonates for various applications that include electrochemical materials for batteries, frits for the ceramic and enamel industries, heat-resistant glass, air conditioning chemicals, continuous casting powder for steel extrusion, primary aluminum smelting process, pharmaceuticals, and lithium derivatives, as well as ingredient in manufacturing of gunpowder. Further, it supplies lithium hydroxide for the lubricating greases industry, as well as cathodes for batteries. Additionally, it offers potassium chloride and potassium sulfate for various crops, including corn, rice, sugar, soybean, and wheat; industrial chemicals, including sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium chloride, and solar salts; and other fertilizers and blends. The company operates in Chile, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North America, Asia, and internationally. Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
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.
Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops and provides a portfolio of healthcare products worldwide. The company offers peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis, and additional dialysis therapies and services; intravenous therapies, infusion pumps, administration sets, and drug reconstitution devices; remixed and oncology drug platforms, inhaled anesthesia and critical care products and pharmacy compounding services; parenteral nutrition therapies and related products; biological products and medical devices used in surgical procedures for hemostasis, tissue sealing and adhesion prevention; and continuous renal replacement therapies and other organ support therapies focused in the intensive care unit. It also provides connected care solutions, including devices, software, communications, and integration technologies; integrated patient monitoring and diagnostic technologies to help diagnose, treat, and manage a various illness and diseases, including respiratory therapy, cardiology, vision screening, and physical assessment; surgical video technologies, tables, lights, pendants, precision positioning devices and other accessories. In addition, the company offers contracted services to various pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Its products are used in hospitals, kidney dialysis centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctors' offices, and patients at home under physician supervision. The company sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through independent distributors, drug wholesalers, and specialty pharmacy or other alternate site providers in approximately 100 countries. It has an agreement with Celerity Pharmaceutical, LLC to develop acute care generic injectable premix and oncolytic molecules. Baxter International Inc. was incorporated in 1931 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
The following companies are subsidiares of Pfizer: AH Robins LLC, AHP Holdings B.V., AHP Manufacturing B.V., Agouron Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alacer, Alpharma Holdings LLC, Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alpharma Specialty Pharma LLC, Alpharma USHP LLC, American Food Industries LLC, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Angiosyn, Array BioPharma, Ayerst-Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, BIND Therapeutics Inc., BINESA 2002 S.L., Bamboo Therapeutics, Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., Baxter International - Marketed Vaccines, BioRexis, Bioren, Bioren LLC, Blue Whale Re Ltd., C.E. Commercial Holdings C.V., C.E. Commercial Investments C.V., C.P. Pharmaceuticals International C.V., CICL Corporation, COC I Corporation, Catapult Genetics, Coley Pharmaceutical GmbH, Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., Continental Pharma Inc., Covx, Covx Technologies Ireland Limited, Cyanamid Inter-American Corporation, Cyanamid de Argentina S.A., Cyanamid de Colombia S.A., Distribuidora Mercantil Centro Americana S.A., Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., Esperion LUV Development Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals Inc., Farminova Produtos Farmaceuticos de Inovacao Lda., Farmogene Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Ferrosan A/S, Ferrosan International A/S, Ferrosan S.R.L., FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Foldrx Pharmaceuticals, Fort Dodge Manufatura Ltda., G. D. Searle & Co. Limited, G. D. Searle International Capital LLC, G. D. Searle LLC, GI Europe Inc., GI Japan Inc., GenTrac Inc., Genetics Institute LLC, Greenstone LLC, Haptogen Limited, Hospira, Hospira (China) Enterprise Management Co. Ltd., Hospira Adelaide Pty Ltd, Hospira Aseptic Services Limited, Hospira Australia Pty Ltd, Hospira Benelux BVBA, Hospira Chile Limitada, Hospira Deutschland GmbH, Hospira Enterprises B.V., Hospira France SAS, Hospira Healthcare B.V., Hospira Healthcare Corporation, Hospira Healthcare India Private Limited, Hospira Holdings (S.A.) Pty Ltd, Hospira Inc., Hospira Invicta S.A., Hospira Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, Hospira Ireland Sales Limited, Hospira Japan G.K., Hospira Limited, Hospira Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hospira NZ Limited, Hospira Nordic AB, Hospira Philippines Inc., Hospira Portugal LDA, Hospira Produtos Hospitalares Ltda., Hospira Pte. Ltd., Hospira Pty Limited, Hospira Puerto Rico LLC, Hospira Singapore Pte Ltd, Hospira UK Limited, Hospira Worldwide LLC, Hospira Zagreb d.o.o., ICAgen, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Santa Agape S.A., InnoPharma, InnoPharma Inc., International Affiliated Corporation LLC, JMI-Daniels Pharmaceuticals Inc., John Wyeth & Brother Limited, Kiinteisto oy Espoon Pellavaniementie 14, King Pharmaceuticals Holdings LLC, King Pharmaceuticals LLC, King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development LLC, Korea Pharma Holding Company Limited, Laboratoires Pfizer S.A., Laboratorios Parke Davis S.L., Laboratorios Pfizer Ltda., Laboratorios Wyeth LLC, Laboratorios Wyeth S.A., Laboratorios Pfizer Lda., MTG Divestitures LLC, Mayne Pharma IP Holdings (Euro) Pty Ltd, Medivation, Medivation Field Solutions LLC, Medivation LLC, Medivation Neurology LLC, Medivation Prostate Therapeutics LLC, Medivation Services LLC, Medivation Technologies LLC, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Limited, Monarch Pharmaceuticals LLC, Neusentis Limited, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, P-D Co. LLC, PAH USA IN8 LLC, PF Americas Holding C.V., PF Asia Manufacturing B.V., PF PR Holdings C.V., PF PRISM C.V., PF PRISM Holdings S.a.r.l., PF Prism S.a.r.l., PFE Holdings G.K., PFE PHAC Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Pfizer Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Wyeth Holdings LLC, PFE Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) LLC, PHILCO Holdings S.a r.l., PHIVCO Corp., PHIVCO Holdco S.a r.l., PHIVCO Luxembourg S.a r.l., PN Mexico LLC, PT. Pfizer Parke Davis, Parke Davis & Company LLC, Parke Davis Limited, Parke Davis Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Parke-Davis Manufacturing Corp., Parkedale Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peak Enterprises LLC, Pfizer, Pfizer (China) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Pfizer (Perth) Pty Limited, Pfizer (Thailand) Limited, Pfizer (Wuhan) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer AB, Pfizer AG, Pfizer AS, Pfizer Africa & Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Veterinarian Products & Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer Anti-Infectives AB, Pfizer ApS, Pfizer Asia Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., Pfizer Atlantic Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Australia Holdings B.V., Pfizer Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pfizer Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., Pfizer Australia Pty Limited, Pfizer B.V., Pfizer BH D.o.o., Pfizer Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer Biofarmaceutica Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Pfizer Biologics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Pfizer Biologics Ireland Holdings Limited, Pfizer Biotech Corporation, Pfizer Bolivia S.A., Pfizer Canada Inc., Pfizer CentreSource Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Chile S.A., Pfizer Cia. Ltda., Pfizer Colombia Spinco I LLC, Pfizer Commercial Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Commercial Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Commercial TRAE Trading Kft., Pfizer Consumer Healthcare AB, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare GmbH, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd., Pfizer Consumer Manufacturing Italy S.r.l., Pfizer Corporation, Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Pfizer Croatia d.o.o., Pfizer Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Development LP, Pfizer Development Services (UK) Limited, Pfizer Domestic Ventures Limited, Pfizer Dominicana S.R.L, Pfizer ESP Pty Ltd, Pfizer East India B.V., Pfizer Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer Egypt S.A.E., Pfizer Enterprise Holdings B.V., Pfizer Enterprises LLC, Pfizer Enterprises SARL, Pfizer Europe Finance B.V., Pfizer Export B.V., Pfizer Export Company, Pfizer Export Holding Company B.V, Pfizer Finance Share Service (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Financial Services N.V./S.A., Pfizer France International Investments, Pfizer Free Zone Panama S. de R.L., Pfizer GEP S.L., Pfizer Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer Global Supply Japan Inc., Pfizer Global Trading, Pfizer Group Luxembourg Sarl, Pfizer Gulf FZ-LLC, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, Pfizer HK Service Company Limited, Pfizer Health AB, Pfizer Health Solutions Inc., Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Pfizer Hellas A.E., Pfizer Himalaya Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Holding France, Pfizer Holding Ventures, Pfizer Holdings Corporation, Pfizer Holdings Europe Unlimited Company, Pfizer Holdings G.K., Pfizer Holdings International Corporation, Pfizer Holdings International Luxembourg (PHIL) Sarl, Pfizer Holdings North America SARL, Pfizer Hungary Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Inc., Pfizer Innovations AB, Pfizer Innovations LLC, Pfizer Innovative Supply Point International BVBA, Pfizer International LLC, Pfizer International Markets Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer International Operations, Pfizer International S. de R.L., Pfizer International Trading (Shanghai) Limited, Pfizer Investment Capital Unlimited Company, Pfizer Investment Co. Ltd., Pfizer Investment Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Ireland Investments Limited, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 1 LLC, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 2 LLC, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Ventures Unlimited Company, Pfizer Italia S.r.l., Pfizer Italy Group Holding S.r.l., Pfizer Japan Inc., Pfizer LLC, Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Limited, Pfizer Laboratories Limited, Pfizer Laboratories PFE (Pty) Ltd, Pfizer Leasing Ireland Limited, Pfizer Leasing UK Limited, Pfizer Limitada, Pfizer Limited, Pfizer Luxco Holdings SARL, Pfizer Luxembourg Global Holdings S.a r.l., Pfizer Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer MAP Holding Inc., Pfizer Manufacturing Austria G.m.b.H., Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizer Manufacturing Holdings LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Manufacturing LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Services, Pfizer Medical Technology Group (Belgium) N.V., Pfizer Medicamentos Genericos e Participacoes Ltda., Pfizer Mexico Luxco SARL, Pfizer Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pfizer Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Animal Health and Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer New Zealand Limited, Pfizer Norge AS, Pfizer North American Holdings Inc., Pfizer OTC B.V., Pfizer Overseas LLC, Pfizer Oy, Pfizer PFE ApS, Pfizer PFE AsiaPac Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Pty Ltd, Pfizer PFE B.V., Pfizer PFE Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Belgium SPRL, Pfizer PFE Brazil Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE CIA. Ltda., Pfizer PFE Chile Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Colombia Holding Corp., Pfizer PFE Colombia S.A.S, Pfizer PFE Commercial Holdings LLC, Pfizer PFE Croatia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer PFE Finland Oy, Pfizer PFE France, Pfizer PFE Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Ireland Pharmaceuticals Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco 2 S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Pfizer PFE Limited, Pfizer PFE Luxembourg S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Mexico Holding 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE Netherlands Holding 1 C.V., Pfizer PFE New Zealand, Pfizer PFE New Zealand Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Norway Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE PILSA Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Peru Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Peru S.R.L., Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer PFE Private Limited, Pfizer PFE S.R.L, Pfizer PFE Service Company Holding Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer PFE Singapore Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pfizer PFE Spain B.V., Pfizer PFE Spain Holding S.L., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding 2 S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Switzerland GmbH, Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 2 B.V., Pfizer PFE UK Holding 4 LP, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 1 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 2 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 4 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 5 LLC, Pfizer PFE spol. s r.o., Pfizer PFE Ilaclar Anonim Sirketi, Pfizer Pakistan Limited, Pfizer Parke Davis (Thailand) Ltd., Pfizer Parke Davis Inc., Pfizer Parke Davis Sdn. Bhd., Pfizer Pharm Algerie, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceutical Trading Limited Liability Company (a/k/a Pfizer Kft. or Pfizer LLC), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Global B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea Limited, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pfizer Pigments Inc., Pfizer Polska Sp. z.o.o., Pfizer Private Limited, Pfizer Production LLC, Pfizer Products Inc., Pfizer Products India Private Limited, Pfizer Research (NC) Inc., Pfizer Romania SRL, Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A. (Belgium), Pfizer S.A. de C.V., Pfizer S.A.S., Pfizer S.G.P.S. Lda., Pfizer S.L., Pfizer S.R.L., Pfizer SRB d.o.o., Pfizer Saidal Manufacturing, Pfizer Sante Familiale, Pfizer Saudi Limited, Pfizer Seiyaku K.K., Pfizer Service Company BVBA, Pfizer Service Company Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Services 1, Pfizer Services LLC, Pfizer Shared Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Shareholdings Intermediate SARL, Pfizer Singapore Holding Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Singapore Trading Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Spain Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Specialties Limited, Pfizer Strategic Investment Holdings LLC, Pfizer Sweden Partnership KB, Pfizer TRAE Holdings Kft., Pfizer Trading Polska sp.z.o.o., Pfizer Transactions Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Transactions LLC, Pfizer Transactions Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer Transport LLC, Pfizer Ukraine LLC, Pfizer Vaccines LLC, Pfizer Venezuela S.A., Pfizer Venture Investments LLC, Pfizer Ventures LLC, Pfizer Worldwide Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Zona Franca S.A., Pfizer spol. s r.o., Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn S.A. de C.V., Pharmacia Brasil Ltda., Pharmacia Hepar LLC, Pharmacia Holding AB, Pharmacia Inter-American LLC, Pharmacia International B.V., Pharmacia LLC, Pharmacia Limited, Pharmacia Nostrum S.A., Pharmacia South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PowderJect Research Limited, PowderMed, Purepac Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, Redvax, Renrall LLC, Rinat Neuroscience, Rinat Neuroscience Corp., Roerig Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Roerig S.A., Sao Cristovao Participacoes Ltda., Searle Laboratorios Lda., Serenex, Servicios P&U S. de R.L. de C.V., Shiley LLC, Sinergis Farma-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Site Realty Inc., Solinor LLC, Sugen LLC, Tabor LLC, The Pfizer Incubator LLC, Therachon, Thiakis Limited, Treerly Health Co. Ltd, US Oral Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, Upjohn Laboratorios Lda., Vesteralens Naturprodukter A/S, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AB, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AS, Vesteralens Naturprodukter OY, Vicuron Holdings LLC, Vinci Farma S.A., W-L LLC, Warner Lambert, Warner Lambert Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Warner Lambert del Uruguay S.A., Warner-Lambert (Thailand) Limited, Warner-Lambert Company AG, Warner-Lambert Company LLC, Warner-Lambert Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Warner-Lambert S.A., Whitehall International Inc., Whitehall Laboratories Inc., Wyeth (Thailand) Ltd., Wyeth AB, Wyeth Australia Pty. Limited, Wyeth Ayerst Inc., Wyeth Ayerst S.a r.l., Wyeth Biopharma, Wyeth Canada ULC, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare LLC, Wyeth Europa Limited, Wyeth Farma S.A., Wyeth Holdings LLC, Wyeth Industria Farmaceutica Ltda., Wyeth KFT., Wyeth LLC, Wyeth Lederle S.r.l., Wyeth Lederle Vaccines S.A., Wyeth Pakistan Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals FZ-LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth Puerto Rico Inc., Wyeth S.A.S, Wyeth Subsidiary Illinois Corporation, Wyeth Whitehall Export GmbH, Wyeth Whitehall SARL, Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) Limited, Wyeth-Ayerst International LLC, and Wyeth-Ayerst Promotions Limited.

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Hilltop Holdings Inc. provides business and consumer banking, and financial products and services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, equipment loans and leases, agricultural and commercial real estate loans, and other loans; and commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance. This segment also provides treasury management, wealth management, asset management, check cards, safe deposit boxes, online banking, bill pay, trust, and overdraft services; and estate planning, management and administration, investment portfolio management, employee benefit accounts, and individual retirement accounts, as well as automated teller machines. The Broker-Dealer segment offers public finance services that assist public entities in originating, syndicating, and distributing securities of municipalities and political subdivisions; specialized advisory and investment banking services; advice and guidance to arbitrage rebate compliance, portfolio management, and local government investment pool administration; structured finance services, which include advisory services for derivatives and commodities; sells, trades in, and underwrites U.S. government and government agency bonds, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds, as well as mortgage-backed, asset-backed, and commercial mortgage-backed securities and structured products. This segment also provides asset and liability management advisory, clearing, retail, and securities lending services. The Mortgage Origination segment offers mortgage, jumbo, Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs, and United States Department of Agriculture loans. Hilltop Holdings Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Autohome Inc. operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People's Republic of China. The company delivers interactive content and tools to automobile consumers through its three websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com, and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile applications, and mini apps. It provides media services, including automaker advertising services and regional marketing campaigns; and leads generation services comprising dealer subscription services, advertising services for individual dealers, and used automobile listing and other platform-based services. The company also offers Autohome Mall, an online transaction platform for users to review automotive-related information, purchase coupons offered by automakers for discounts, and make purchases to complete the transaction; data products; and online bidding platform for used automobiles, as well as collects commissions for facilitating transactions of auto-financing and insurance products on its platform. The company was formerly known as Sequel Limited and changed its name to Autohome Inc. in October 2011. Autohome Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.
Intu owns and manages some of the best shopping centres, in some of the strongest locations, in the UK and Spain. Our UK portfolio is made up of 17 centres, including eight of the top-20, and in Spain we own three of the country's top-10 centres, with advanced plans to build a fourth. We are passionate about creating compelling experiences, in centre and online, that make our customers smile and help our retailers flourish. We attract around 400 million customer visits and 26 million website visits a year offering a multichannel approach that truly supports retail strategies. Our strategic focus on prime, high-footfall flagship destinations, combined with the strength and popularity of our brand, means that intu offers enhanced footfall, dwell time and loyalty. This helps our tenants flourish, driving occupancy and income growth. We are committed to our local communities, with our centres supporting nearly 130,000 jobs (representing about 3 per cent of the total UK retail workforce), and to operating with environmental responsibility. We have already met or exceeded a significant number of our 2020 environmental targets.
Leggett & Platt, Incorporated designs, manufactures, and markets engineered components and products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Bedding Products; Specialized Products; and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products. The company offers steel rods, drawn wires, foam chemicals and additives, innersprings, specialty foams, private label finished mattresses, mattress foundations, wire forms for mattress foundations, adjustable beds, industrial sewing and quilting machines, and mattress packaging and glue drying equipment, as well as machines to produce innersprings for industrial users of steel rods and wires, manufacturers of finished bedding, big box and e-commerce retailers, bedding brands and mattress retailers, department stores, and home improvement centers. It also provides mechanical and pneumatic lumbar support and massage systems for automotive seating; seat suspension systems, motors and actuators, and cables; titanium, nickel, and stainless-steel tubing, formed tubes, tube assemblies, and flexible joint components for fluid conveyance systems; and engineered hydraulic cylinders to automobile OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, aerospace OEMs and suppliers, and mobile equipment OEMs. In addition, the company offers steel mechanisms and motion hardware for reclining chairs, sofas, sleeper sofas and lift chairs; springs and seat suspensions; components and private label finished goods for soft seating; and bases, columns, back rests, casters, and frames, as well as control devices for chairs. Further, it offers carpet cushion and hard surface flooring underlayment, structural fabrics, and geo components to manufacturers of upholstered and office furniture, flooring retailers and distributors, contractors, landscapers, road construction companies, retailers, government agencies, and mattress and furniture producers, as well as manufacturers of packaging, filtration, and draperies. The company was founded in 1883 and is based in Carthage, Missouri.
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.
Chubb Limited provides insurance and reinsurance products worldwide. The company's North America Commercial P&C Insurance segment offers commercial property, casualty, workers' compensation, package policies, risk management, financial lines, marine, construction, environmental, medical, cyber risk, surety, and excess casualty; and group accident and health insurance to large, middle market, and small commercial businesses. Its North America Personal P&C Insurance segment provides affluent and high net worth individuals and families with homeowners, automobile and collector cars, valuable articles, personal and excess liability, travel insurance, and recreational marine insurance and services. The company's North America Agricultural Insurance segment offers multiple peril crop and crop-hail insurance; and coverage for farm and ranch property, and commercial agriculture products. Its Overseas General Insurance segment provides coverage for traditional commercial property and casualty; specialty categories, such as financial lines, marine, energy, aviation, political risk, and construction risk; and group accident and health, and traditional and specialty personal lines for corporations, middle markets, and small customers through retail brokers, agents, and other channels. The company's Global Reinsurance segment offers traditional and specialty reinsurance under the Chubb Tempest Re brand to property and casualty companies. Its Life Insurance segment provides protection and savings products comprising whole life, endowment plans, individual term life, group term life, medical and health, personal accident, credit life, universal life, and unit linked contracts. The company markets its products primarily through insurance and reinsurance brokers. The company was formerly known as ACE Limited and changed its name to Chubb Limited in January 2016. Chubb Limited was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.
Healthcare Trust of America, Inc. (NYSE: HTA) is the largest dedicated owner and operator of MOBs in the United States, comprising approximately 25.1 million square feet of GLA, with $7.4 billion invested primarily in MOBs. HTA provides real estate infrastructure for the integrated delivery of healthcare services in highly-desirable locations. Investments are targeted to build critical mass in 20 to 25 leading gateway markets that generally have leading university and medical institutions, which translates to superior demographics, high-quality graduates, intellectual talent and job growth. The strategic markets HTA invests in support a strong, long-term demand for quality medical office space. HTA utilizes an integrated asset management platform consisting of on-site leasing, property management, engineering and building services, and development capabilities to create complete, state of the art facilities in each market. This drives efficiencies, strong tenant and health system relationships, and strategic partnerships that result in high levels of tenant retention, rental growth and long-term value creation. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, HTA has developed a national brand with dedicated relationships at the local level. Founded in 2006 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, HTA has produced attractive returns for its stockholders that have outperformed the US REIT index.
Marijuana plants are seen in an indoor marijuana plantation of a marijuana's smokers club in the outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay July 16, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Stapff

Thomson Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Three Britons were jailed on Friday for running a huge cannabis farm inside a former Cold War nuclear bunker in an isolated area of southwest England.

The gang used the bunker, built in the 1980s to house local government officials in the event of a nuclear attack, to cultivate more than 4,000 cannabis plants capable of producing 2 million pounds ($2.6 million) worth of drugs a year.

The bunker, located in Chilmark near Salisbury, was no longer owned by the Ministry of Defence but was still intact with its nuclear blast doors in place which made it almost impenetrable, police said.

The men, who were arrested in a midnight raid in February but only after they had left the site, also locked workers inside so they could tend to the plants 24 hours a day.

The farm was thought to have been running since 2013. To keep it operating, the gang bypassed the main supply and instead siphoned power from a pylon outside, illegally using about 650,000 pounds worth of electricity.

"This was without doubt the largest cannabis factory we have seen here in the county, with almost all of the 20 rooms inside the bunker converted for the wholesale production of cannabis," said Detective Inspector Simon Pope of Wiltshire Police in a statement outside the court in Salisbury.

The men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce class B drugs and conspiracy to abstract electricity.

Martin Fillery, 45, was jailed for eight years and his accomplices Ross Winter, 30, and Plamen Nguyen, 27, for five years each.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Richard Balmforth)

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MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -Brentford striker Ivan Toney struck twice to give his side a shock 2-1 victory at champions Manchester City on Saturday in their final Premier League game before the World Cup break. Toney, left out of England's squad for Qatar, made the most of a bright start by Brentford, breaking the deadlock in the 16th minute when Ben Mee headed back across the box and Toney sent a looping header over Ederson and into the net. City had a strong shout for a penalty turned down for a handball before they equalised on the stroke of halftime when Kevin De Bruyne's corner was flicked on and Phil Foden drilled home a superb half-volley for his eighth league goal of the season.
By Joachim Dagenborg ARENDAL, Norway (Reuters) - Norway cast doubt on Monday that Britain could easily join it in a half way house trading group after Brexit. Prime Minister Erna Solberg told Reuters it would be challenging and costly for Britain to rejoin, even temporarily, the European Free Trade Association, or EFTA, because it would bring with it some of the obligations that Britain objects to in its dealings with the European Union. Membership of EFTA, which London helped found in 1960 but later left, is one option being discussed to allow Britain to remain in the EU's common market -- the European Economic Area. "There would be a cost they would have to share, and an authority outside their border that could impose binding decisions on them, which is not entirely in line with what they've said they want," Solberg said on the sidelines of a news conference. She added that Norway was nonetheless "prepared for various scenarios". It is far from clear whether London would want to rejoin EFTA, although there are various ideas being floated to stop a "cliff edge" Brexit in 2019 in which British business is left hanging. Oslo, which has chosen to remain out of the EU but follows many of its rules, is closely following divorce talks between Brussels and London. EU negotiator Michel Barnier visited Norway earlier this year to reassure Norwegians they would be kept in the loop about the talks. Norway is concerned, among other things, about the fate of Norwegians living in Britain after Brexit; fisheries policy; what kind of terms would be given to Britain after Brexit and whether Britain would get preferential treatment over Norway. Within EFTA, all member countries have to approve new members, giving each a theoretical veto. Current members are Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Alongside being members of EFTA, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein also have free movement of goods, services and people with the 28-nation EU. Switzerland is outside that deal. (Writing by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche, editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
The paedophile was hung from a crane after he was shot in the back (Rex/stock photo)

A convicted paedophile was shot dead and hung from a crane in front of a crowd of people for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Hussein al-Saket, 22, was surrounded by crowds in Yemen who were there to witness the shocking public execution.

Judge Rajeh Ezzedine, who witnessed the execution, told AFP that Saket had been found guilty of abducting, raping and murdering the child.

The execution took place in Tahrir Square, Sanaa in Yemen (Wikipedia/stock photo)

Her uncle, Ali Ayedh, said Saket took part in the search for the girl before being unmasked during the police investigation.

He said Sakets public execution would act as a deterrent for criminals.

Saket was placed face down on Tahrir square in Sanaa, before he was shot five times in the back by a policeman.

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His lifeless body was then strung up on the end of a crane and put on display to the watching crowds.

It was the second such public execution in weeks after another man was executed in the same square for raping and murdering a three-year-old girl.
A scientist has said Britons should start eating jellyfish to control their population.

Jellyfish numbers have risen steadily in the Mediterranean and one breed is also being spotted more frequently around the UK.

Italian marine biologist Professor Silvio Greco wants us to start thinking of jellyfish as food.

Jellyfish remind me of oysters, he told the BBC.

When you eat them you experience an explosion of the sea on your tongue. They are, after all, 90% seawater.

He said that jellyfish quickly move into the seas empty spaces to muscle their way into marine food chains.

Now man must be the new predator of jellyfish, he said.

MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK:

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He promoted the idea of eating jellyfish at the Slow Fish festival in Genoa, which takes place every two years.

Professor Greco said jellyfish are rich in protein and are fat-free and low in calories.

He has been deep frying jellyfish and serving it tempura style.

Could we soon be picking out our jellyfish before eating it? (Picture: Rex)

One breed, the mauve stinger, which can cause severe pain and skin rashes with its sting, is becoming more common in British waters.

The number of jellyfish in the Mediterranean has risen by 400% in the past 13 years  marine experts blame the rise on pollution and climate change.
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's foreign minister and a top ally of President Aleksandar Vucic has suggested a compromise to end a conflict over Kosovo, the newest independent European state, that is blocking Serbia's hopes of European Union membership. Serbia, where many regard Kosovo as the cradle of their nation and Orthodox Christian faith, refuses to recognise the independence of its former Southern province and has been blocking its membership in organisations including Interpol and UNESCO. But normalisation of relations with Pristina is a key condition for Serbia to come closer to membership in the European Union, which the government has set as its priority. In an op-ed piece published by the Vecernje Novosti daily on Monday, Ivica Dacic suggested that delimitation between Serbs and Albanians, the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, would be a way out of what he described as Serbia's centennial problem. "Everyone needs a lasting solution of the Serbian-Albanian conflict which can be reached only through an agreement ... where everyone will win something and lose something," wrote Dacic, who is also First Deputy Prime Minister. Dacic said Serbia should seek autonomy for Serb enclaves in Kosovo, a protected status for Orthodox monasteries and financial compensation for what Serbia claims as its property including industrial and energy facilities. There was no immediate reaction from Pristina. Most Kosovo Albanians oppose greater autonomy for Serb-dominated municipalities, saying that would allow Belgrade to exert greater influence. Dacic's comments echoed a call for a nationwide dialogue over Kosovo suggested by Vucic, who is leading the Serbian team in EU-led talks to resolve differences between the two countries. Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO intervened with air strikes to drive out Serbian forces and halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians during a two-year counter-insurgency war. Currently there are around 120,000 Serbs in Kosovo and most of them, mainly in the north, oppose the Pristina authorities. Serbia has so far avoided formal proposals for the carve-up of Kosovo as the move would mean abandoning its title to the whole territory, which it insists on under its constitution. Kosovo has been recognised by 115 countries, including 23 out of 28 EU members, but its UN membership is being blocked by Serbia's allies Russia and China. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alister Doyle)
Can theater exercises help with communication? Theater professor Patty Raun says they can.

I have taught acting at Virginia Tech to people outside of the theatre for decades, said Raun, who is also the director of the Center for Communicating Science, which is housed in the Institute of Society, Culture, and Environment. Ive seen theater exercises and improvisation develop empathy, spontaneity, and connection with others across differences in many, many other people.



Raun and Carrie Kroehler, associate director for the Center for Communicating Science and instructor, teach a graduate-level course called Communicating Science.



We use theater improv exercises and writing exercises and all sorts of fun games to help people learn to communicate and connect better, Kroehler said.



The graduate course debuted in the spring of 2012 and has become the inspiration for the German Fulbright Summer Institute. Organized by the Cranwell International Center, the summer institute was held at Virginia Tech from July 23-Aug. 11. Titled Communicating Science: Communication, Collaboration, and Connection Across Differences and Disciplines, the program engaged 24 German undergraduate students in academic courses, co-curricular site visits, and extracurricular activities.


The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services. The Investor Services segment provides retail brokerage, investment advisory, banking and trust, retirement plan, and other corporate brokerage services; equity compensation plan sponsors full-service recordkeeping for stock plans, stock options, restricted stock, performance shares, and stock appreciation rights; and retail investor and mutual fund clearing services, as well as compliance solutions. The Advisor Services segment offers custodial, trading, banking, and support services; and retirement business and corporate brokerage retirement services. This segment provides brokerage accounts with equity and fixed income, margin lending, options, and futures and forex trading; cash management capabilities comprising third-party certificates of deposit; third-party and proprietary mutual funds; plus mutual fund trading and clearing services; and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including proprietary and third-party ETFs. It also offers advice solutions, such as managed portfolios of proprietary and third-party mutual funds and ETFs, separately managed accounts, customized personal advice for tailored portfolios, and specialized planning and portfolio management. In addition, this segment provides banking products and services, including checking and savings accounts, first lien residential real estate mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, and pledged asset lines; and trust services comprising trust custody services, personal trust reporting services, and administrative trustee services. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had approximately 400 domestic branch offices in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as locations in Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The Charles Schwab Corporation was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.
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.
Service Corporation International provides deathcare products and services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Funeral and Cemetery segments. Its funeral service and cemetery operations comprise funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other businesses. The company also provides professional services related to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles; arranging and directing services; and removal, preparation, embalming, cremation, memorialization, and travel protection, as well as catering services. In addition, it offers funeral merchandise, including burial caskets and related accessories, urns and other cremation receptacles, outer burial containers, flowers, online and video tributes, stationery products, casket and cremation memorialization products, and other ancillary merchandise. Further, the company's cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, such as developed lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, niches, and other cremation memorialization and interment options; and sells cemetery merchandise and services, including memorial markers and bases, outer burial containers, flowers and floral placements, graveside services, merchandise installations, and interments, as well as offers preneed cemetery merchandise and services. Service Corporation International offers its products and services under the Dignity Memorial, Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories, Neptune Society, and Trident Society brands. As of December 31, 2021, it owned and operated 1,471 funeral service locations; and 488 cemeteries, including 299 funeral service/cemetery combination locations covering 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The company was incorporated in 1962 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
For the second year in a row, artists from Zuni Pueblo will be showing their work at a companion show to the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Located in the Scottish Rite Temple, the Aug. 19-20 show will feature nearly 125 artists, seven dance groups and archival films from the Smithsonian Institution.

The whole point is to promote Zuni art and artists the best way we can, said Bronwyn Fox, co-owner of Santa Fes Keshi: The Zuni Connection. The show is being sponsored by the businesss nonprofit Keshi Foundation. The artists will receive 100 percent of the proceeds from their sales.

We noticed theres just a lack of Zuni representation at all the markets, Fox said. One year, an artist who won first place at the Heard (Museum show) didnt make it into Indian Market.

Last years inaugural event drew 105 artists and six dance groups. Crowd counters tallied 500 people entering the show within the first 45 minutes, Fox said. The artists took home more than $250,000 total.

Many of the artists sold out, she said.

Fox is a former Indian Market judge.

People come to meet the artists; thats the point, she said. We never saw it as a threat to Indian Market.

Zuni Pueblo, a tiny village in western New Mexico, is home to some of the best indigenous jewelers and carvers in the country, with the community especially known for its fine, intricate inlay jewelry and tiny carvings. The carvings, referred to as Zuni fetishes, often take the shapes of animals that bear cultural significance for the tribe.

The Zuni people and their ancestors have lived in the American Southwest for thousands of years. Zuni is the largest pueblo in both population and geographic size. The Zunis cultural and religious traditions are rooted in their ties to the mountains, rivers, forests and deserts, evolving to an agricultural lifestyle; they express these traditions through their art.
The Washington Post recently published transcripts it obtained of a telephone conversation that President Donald Trump had with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto after his inauguration in January.

The conversation covers trade, illegal drug smuggling, and Trumps initiative to build a border wall between the two countries. It also reveals some key points about Trumps view of U.S.-Mexican relations.

My first impression after reading the transcript with Pena Nieto was how difficult it was to follow Trumps banter, as free association seems to creep into his thoughts, and he jumps from subject to subject. Trumps rambling makes Pena Nieto look like a polished diplomat, even though the Mexican president has a long list of public snafus, and his popularity ratings have suffered throughout his term. At face value, it seems that the two presidents have a good rapport and they are extremely civil to each other.

Trump brings up the illegal drug trade with Pena Nieto by saying, You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with, and we are willing to help you with that big-league. But they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job of knocking them out. He also refers to New Hampshire as a drug infested den, which later got him criticized by politicians from that state. In this passage, Trump seems to imply that Mexico needs to step aside and let the U.S. battle the drug elements, indicating that the U.S. alone can end illegal drug trafficking. Pena Nieto tells Trump that In terms of security, Mr. President, it is clear that organized crime is just as much our enemy as it is the enemy of your administration.

On trade, Trump says that We put on a border tariff so that products coming in from Mexico to the United States would be taxed at a rate to be determined. This is a curious statement given that fact that his administration has not enacted a tax on products imported from Mexico. He goes on to contradict himself by referring to a potential tax, But you know, it could be 10 percent or 15 percent or it could be 35 percent for some products that, for example, are jobs ripped from their foundation and moved to Mexico. Most would be in the 10 to 15 percent range. That would make us very even with Mexico and it would make a lot of sense. Trump later acknowledges that this tactic may result in a tariff war, Now, Mexico may in turn try to do something like that to us. Since we have such a deficit, it gives us the advantage. In addition, I was going to very strongly say this to Mexico and other countries  that everything is reciprocal. So, if Mexico adds a tax, we will add a tax.

Perhaps the most revealing portion of the conversation deals with Trumps proposed border wall, which he used as a political tool on the campaign trail to arouse his supporters. Trump states, The only thing I will ask you though is on the wall, you and I both have a political problem. So, what I would like to recommend is  if we are going to have continued dialogue  we will work out the wall. They are going to say, Who is going to pay for the wall, Mr. President? to both of us, and we should both say, We will work it out. It will work out in the formula somehow. As opposed to you saying, We will not pay and me saying, We will not pay. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about. But in terms of dollars  or pesos  it is the least important thing. I know how to build very inexpensively, so it will be much lower than these numbers I am being presented with, and it will be a better wall and it will look nice. And it will do the job.

Pena Nieto responds in no uncertain terms, You have a very big mark on our back, Mr. President, regarding who pays for the wall. This is what I suggest, Mr. President  let us stop talking about the wall. I have recognized the right of any government to protect its borders as it deems necessary and convenient. But my position has been and will continue to be very firm saying that Mexico cannot pay for that wall. To this statement Trump concedes, Okay, Enrique, that is fine and I think it is fair. I do not bring up the wall but when the press brings up the wall, I will say, Let us see how it is going  let us see how it is working out with Mexico.'

In Trumps response, it is clear that in his mind the wall is a purely political issue which he needs to maintain his facade with the public. He is clearly asking the Mexican president to be complicit in this tactic.

In closing the call, Pena Nieto says, I know that we want to build a friendship between both of us and to work for the betterment of our societies. So, let us move on that position and let us look twice at what is obstructing us and move forward on a path to build together. Trump closes by saying, Well, it is my honor and we will have a great success. So, after some meandering and difficult discussion, the leaders of the North American neighbors end in a warm and cordial goodbye, which given the rhetoric from Washington, D.C., is encouraging. The transcript can be found on The Washington Posts website: washingtonpost.com.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.
Gary Peterson, owner of One Community Auto, is living his dream.

As a boy, I dreamed of owning a junkyard, he says with a laugh.

And though he may not actually own a junkyard, he does bring in vehicles that might have ended up in one.

One Community Auto takes in donated vehicles, refurbishes them, sells them and then donates 60 percent of the proceeds to charity. The process provides much more for charity than a simple auction would, Peterson says.

Peterson served in the Air Force for 23 years, including three tours in Iraq, before retiring as a major in 2013. Today, he lives with his husband and two cats and his days are full of working on cars and giving to charity.

Can you tell me a little about the Air Force?

I did a lot of deployments when I was enlisted. We were in a mobile unit, so we traveled all over the world. But when I became an officer, I really started deploying.  After 9/11, I did three tours in Iraq and I did a tour supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Then I spent a year in South Korea. And then I spent a good amount of time here at Kirtland (Air Force Base.)

What was it like to live in South Korea?

It was probably the most rewarding time in my career, actually. During that period, the North Koreans had sunk a South Korean ship off the coast, so it was a (time of) heightened awareness. But it was the closest I had really come to performing my mission and my set of job skills that I had ever done in the Air Force.

But the South Koreans were such gracious hosts. I really enjoyed the food. And I came from New Mexico, so I like the chile, but after Korea, you know they use a lot of the really hot red chile over there. And so I came back, and I have to really increase the red and green chile. I have to get it hot enough.

Are you willing to share a little about your experience in Iraq?

Sure. I went to Iraq three times  2003 was my first tour, so it was sort of the initial stages of that conflict. So it was kind of like the wild, wild West in a sense. I was there when they captured Saddam. It was my first tour, and I was a lieutenant, so I was still learning things.

Then (when) I went back for my next tour (in 2005), it was kind of more stabilized. We actually went over there, we were going to start closing bases down. But then they did the surge. And so we actually started building up forces instead of drawing them down. At that time, I was running probably the largest junkyard in Iraq. We were doing all of the redistribution. We would take all of the battle-damaged vehicles and equipment, and as forces were moving out, we would take their equipment and hold it for the next unit.

Then my last tour, I was serving in Tikrit, and so that was unique as well. We did a lot of airlift in and out. That was 2007.

What was growing up in Roswell like?

Growing up was great. I basically grew up around my grandparents and my uncles. My grandfather was a World War II veteran, and so I was kind of with him most of my time. So I have a lot of influence (from him). He taught me hard work and community and family and discipline. So that kind of carried me through life.

Where did you and your husband meet?

We met actually when I was stationed in New Jersey back in 1999. We got married last year. Unfortunately, I served in the service when it was under Dont ask, dont tell, so I kind of had to keep that all a secret. You know, I would have been married in 1999, if I couldve.

How did Randy feel about you being in Iraq?

It was actually a very trying time. The military families really take the brunt of the deployment, I feel. It was a stressful time for everybody.

Did other guys stationed with you know you had a boyfriend?

No. It was too risky.

Is Randy involved in the business?

Yeah, we actually call him our backbone. Hes our mechanic. Then my brother Mike does all the detailing. My sister does the front office. Then my niece works here part time as a mechanic. Then Mom helps and my other sister helps. Its a small group, but we are getting it done. Its a family-centered business, and that is so important to us.

How did One Community Auto begin?

I spent 23 years in the Air Force. So after I retired, I was kind of in a transition. I didnt have an exact mission in life, you know. And so my focus was to get back into the community. I had been working around cars my whole life. In the Air Force, I was in logistics and transportation, so I was always around that.

I had an experience with New Mexico Veterans Integration Center, and they needed someone to help them fix a van. The van was shot. But they had this old Camaro sitting in the back. So I took (the Camaro) home, got it running, got it sold, and a couple weeks later I took them a check for $4,000. So I felt really good about being able to help them and the community.

So we came up with that business idea. Basically, to help charities. (They) bring in their donated vehicles, (we) refurbish them and sell them here at the lot. We started with one charity in 2013 and right now we have 21.

How big is your lot?

About 45 cars, but we probably have about 10 cars for charity. So depending on the flow of donated vehicles, we also operate as a traditional used car dealership. We sell our own vehicles.

I do some government work, as well. We found an outlet for some of these junk vehicles. We can buy those vehicles and provide them to some of the government contracts that I work, such as White Sands Missile Range. They use them for target practice.

THE BASICS: Gary Peterson was born in Roswell on May 5, 1972. He has two older brothers and two younger sisters.

After graduating from Roswell High School, he joined the Air Force in 1990. He served for 23 years and retired as a major in 2013.

While in the Air Force, Peterson got a bachelors degree in workforce education from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

POSITION: Owner of One Community Auto.

DID YOU KNOW?

 His favorite movie is Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

 He loves 1970s luxury cars.

 He loves disco and old country music.

 He has seen Ronnie Milsap in concert six times.
WASHINGTON  Extracting more money from evil, exploitative capitalists has become a rallying cry for much of the grass-roots left. In the meantime, though, its largely ignoring other important policies for lifting Americans out of poverty.

In a recent column I urged progressives to more seriously grapple with the cumulative effects of policies that make workers more expensive to hire. More than doubling the federal minimum wage to $15, for example, would risk pricing a lot of people out of work. Especially in low-cost-of-living areas such as Mississippi, where half of all jobs pay less than $14.22.

In other words, well-intended, feel-good policies can sometimes backfire, hurting the people youre trying to help.

This humble suggestion generated a lot  like, a lot  of hate mail, along with a good follow-up question: What, then, should progressives who want to help the working poor devote their energy to?

Regarding the minimum wage, there are useful tools available to help set pay according to local costs of living. MITs Living Wage Calculator is used by some public officials and companies to determine reasonable wage floors. The average living wage for a single person in Mississippi, for instance, is $10.30.

More important, lots of the other anti-poverty tools deserve more love from the left  in particular what might be called post-tax policies.

Pre-tax policies  such as the minimum wage, overtime and fringe-benefit requirements  help raise workers paychecks, with employers, and sometimes workers themselves, generally footing the bill.

Post-tax policies, by contrast, involve redistribution of income and wealth through the tax code and social safety net. Think: the earned-income tax credit, food stamps, housing vouchers, health insurance subsidies. They are about boosting living standards on the back-end, with the taxpayers paying.

Relative to other rich countries, the United States relies very little on these post-tax tools.

If you look at Americas income inequality before taxes and transfers, its not great  but its still about on par with France, Germany and Finland. If you look at income distribution after taking into account tax and transfer payments, we suddenly become the second-most-unequal developed economy in the world, behind Mexico.

In other words, high inequality in the United States says more about our taxing and spending choices than our paychecks.

There have been quiet efforts to expand some of these post-tax anti-poverty policies. This year alone, earned-income tax credits have been added or expanded in six states, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But all these changes were done legislatively, rather than through well-advertised ballot initiatives. They get much less press coverage and popular organizing relative to, say, the Fight for 15.

At a conference last fall, I asked Jason Furman, then chair of President Barack Obamas Council of Economic Advisers, about the countrys reliance on pre-tax vs. post-tax measures to help boost economic security. He said he favored using both kinds of tools, as do I. But he also noted a remarkable disparity in progressive enthusiasm for the two approaches, especially relative to payoffs.

During Obamas tenure, the White House oversaw an expansion of overtime protections that was expected to put an extra $1.2 billion into workers pockets. It also helped pass tax-code changes that put an additional $28 billion in the pockets of low- and moderate-income families. Guess which inspired more attaboys?

The amount of the incoming we got on the overtime rule in the White House was I would say about 10,000 times as much as the amount of incoming we got on the earned-income tax credit and refundability of the child tax credit, Furman said.

Maybe boosting paychecks is just inherently easier to understand than complicated tax-code changes.

Or maybe extracting more money from Big Business has greater political appeal to an increasingly anti-corporate base than does extracting it from taxpayers.

Whatever the reason, the dearth of excitement for these post-tax policies is a strategic mistake. Programs such as the earned-income tax credit and food stamps, if well-designed, complement the minimum wage. They can do things that the minimum wage cant, such as grow more generous for larger families. Critically, they also dont raise the cost of employees, which means the well-heeled business lobby is less likely to fight them.

Post-tax policies can distort labor markets too, of course  especially if they result in benefit cliffs that discourage people from working more. Thats where smart design comes into play.

But every policy has limitations, which is why those on the left would do well to consider every tool at their disposal. Bleeding hearts are often helped by hard heads.
SAN DIEGO  California is facing off with the Trump administration over a total fantasy that has survived this long only because both political parties have an interest in keeping it alive.

Democrats and Republicans alike insist that the Golden State offers sanctuary for illegal immigrants by creating safe spaces that are somehow beyond the reach of federal immigration agents. Politicians also promote the idea that police and sheriffs departments often refuse those agents access to local jails and fail to alert immigration officials when a suspected illegal immigrant is released from custody  even when asked to do so.

This is a stew of lies and half-truths. Symbolism and political hyperventilating aside, there is no city, town or county in America where federal immigration law doesnt apply and where agents cant enforce those statutes.

Also, aside from the state of Texas  which recently passed a law to force inter-jurisdictional cooperation  local and state law enforcement officials are under no obligation to help their federal brethren do their jobs, especially if it destroys the community trust that is needed to do their own.

Besides, if immigration officials really want someone who is in the local jail, they can get that person by obtaining a warrant. Oftentimes, they wont go to the trouble, which tells local officials that they really dont want the detainee that badly.

Still, the sanctuary lie is advanced because it helps sustain existing political narratives. Liberals can challenge the Trump administration while fooling Latinos and other immigrant advocates into thinking that theyre in their corner. And conservatives can point at these sanctuaries as evidence of how lenient the left is toward lawbreakers and proof that only they can be trusted to keep the country safe.

In California, Democratic lawmakers are poised to double down on their deception by passing a law that would declare the entire state a sanctuary. Senate Bill 54 would specifically prohibit cooperation with federal immigration officials. It would also bar state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources to help federal agents detect, detain and deport the undocumented.

The Justice Department has a problem with this blatant act of defiance, so its threatening to withhold as much as $18 million in federal law enforcement funds that would otherwise be on its way to the nations most populous state.

Such an odd card for the administration to play. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has already shown himself to be inconsistent on the issue of local control; he trumpets the autonomy of local police departments when releasing them from federal civil rights oversight, but tramples that same autonomy when condemning sanctuary cities. Now Sessions shows himself to be illogical, as well; he believes that any locale that offers sanctuary to illegal immigrants puts society at risk, but he cant see how denying cops government funds to buy bullet-proof vests and other safety equipment would have the same effect.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra  who served in Congress for more than 20 years and would no doubt like to be governor or U.S. senator  has announced that, if Sessions pulls the funding, California will sue the federal government. As Becerra sees it, holding state funds hostage to force compliance with the administrations policies would violate the U.S. Constitution.

Meanwhile, this whole issue could be moot. During a recent appearance on NBCs Meet The Press, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signaled that he might not sign the sanctuary bill because of concerns about the language.

Dont fall for it. The real reason has more to do with politics, which has been Browns stock and trade since 1969, when he was elected to the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. Brown, who is now 79 years old, has lived through the eras when his party was depicted as soft toward communism, defense and crime.

He probably has no desire to add illegal immigration to the list. And so hes understandably leery of SB 54, the whole point of which seems to be needling the administration.

Yet Brown also seems to want to keep faith with liberalism. He has said he wants to help undocumented immigrants who have  through blood, sweat and tears  given much to the Golden State.

Brown will likely try to strike a balance. But my hunch is that the governor will veto the bill to force the changes hed like to see.

Out in California, when we talk about so-called sanctuary cities, the protection may be fake, but the politics are real.

Email: ruben@rubennavarrette.com. Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group.
The day after a counter-protester was killed at a Virginia white nationalist rally, a southern New Mexico politician wrote on social media that violent, leftist protesters were getting exactly what they asked for.

Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Dona Ana Republican Party Chairman Roman Jimenez said the Facebook post was taken completely out of context. He would not answer additional questions and said he would send a written statement, which the Journal had not received by Sunday evening.

Their own racism, hate and violence has created the divide amongst those that refuse to be bullied on anymore, Jimenez wrote in the post. Theyre getting exactly what they asked for. A segregated society of groups that theyve created and even labeled themselves.

The Dona Ana Republican Party commented on the Facebook post to clarify that the original message has nothing to do with the Charlotte [sic] riots. Im speaking about leftist violence across the country. Murder by Anyone is inexcusable.

The Dona Ana Republican Party commented on the Facebook post to clarify that the original message has nothing to do with the Charlotte [sic] riots. Im speaking about leftist violence across the country. Murder by Anyone is inexcusable.

The party also commented: Of course I condemn white supremacists and any associated violence. Just like the left to get all riled up and violent over something taken completely out of context. The left wants segregation and separation. Just read the posts here.

Jimenez retired as a captain from New Mexico State Police, and he now works for the private security firm International Protective Service, Inc., according to that companys website. He says in his biography on the site that he served as the commander of Governor Susana Martinezs security detail. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, he unsuccessfully ran for Dona Ana county commissioner in 2016.

The post has since been deleted, but not before it sparked outrage on social media and several calls for resignation.

State party Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi said the Republican Party of New Mexico fully repudiates the statement made by Roman Jimenez, which does not reflect the views of the Republican Party of New Mexico or the Republican Party of Dona Ana County.

And in a separate statement, Cangiolosi said the party was deeply saddened by the horrific and tragic events in Charlottesville.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

With 141 schools, 13 million square feet of instructional space and a geographic area of roughly 1,200 square miles, Albuquerque Public Schools is a large, urban district with diverse needs.

Now, APS administrators are launching a new effort to offer a more personalized experience.

The APS Learning Zone plan divides the district into quadrants made up of 35 to 40 schools enrolling 20,000 to 22,000 students.

Each zone will function almost like a minidistrict, with an associate superintendent at its head.

Superintendent Raquel Reedy said the zones offer the responsiveness of a smaller community, while maintaining economies of scale that support programs such as special education.

Its the best of both worlds, Reedy told the Journal. If you are closer to the problem, you are closer to the solution.

The model creates a K-12 pathway to graduation  elementary, middle and high schools within the zones will collaborate to help students transition through each grade. Previously, the elementary, middle and high levels operated relatively independently.

Troy Hughes, associate superintendent for Zone 4, said the new system is more efficient for parents.

For instance, a mother with children in third, eighth and 11th grades can contact the zone associate superintendent with questions, rather than going through three different administrators.

Each zone will also form a kind of community made up of neighboring high schools, as well as the middle and elementary schools that feed into them.

The zones consist of:

 Zone 1, led by associate superintendent Gabriella Blakey, covers the southeast, including Albuquerque, Highland and Manzano high schools.

 Zone 2, led by associate superintendent Antonio Gonzales, covers the southwest, including Atrisco Heritage, Rio Grande and West Mesa high schools.

 Zone 3, led by associate superintendent Yvonne Garcia, covers the northwest, including Cibola, Valley and Volcano Vista high schools.

 Zone 4, led by Hughes, covers the northeast, including Eldorado, Del Norte, La Cueva and Sandia high schools.

Three of the zone associate superintendents had previously served as deputy superintendents, who oversaw elementary, middle and high school education.

These roles were changed into zone leaders. Gonzales had been head of human resources.

Blakey said she is thrilled to lead her zone, because she grew up in the area.

Zone 1 has been using Route 66 as a symbol, she said. We have some of our older schools there with a lot of tradition and a lot opportunity, a lot of assets in the community.

As administrators analyze each zone, they will consider what makes a good school, including results from assessments like the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, Reedy said.

One zone may need to improve math scores, while another could request more support to teach English language learners.

APS will also look beyond test results to internship opportunities and fine arts courses.

We have focused so much on testing and assessments  and everybody is sweating bullets on this, so I think we have lost the real art of teaching  the joy of teaching and the joy of learning, Reedy said.

The New Mexico Public Education Department has criticized APS for not putting enough focus on data-driven instruction.

Last month, Acting Secretary of Education Christopher Ruszkowski argued that the district could improve its PARCC scores if it placed student learning and academics and college and career readiness front and center.

Reedy said PARCC and other assessments are important, but they do not provide a complete picture of each students unique background.

What we have started to lose is the idea of looking at our students as individuals, Reedy said. We need to be able to work with our parents and make sure the children have the support they need to come to school ready to learn.

The new Learning Zones will strive to provide that support, she said.

Gonzales, associate superintendent for Zone 2, said administrators, principals and teachers are excited about the approach.

I think its being understood and there is buy-in, he said.

APS had a similar model focused on high school clusters roughly 15 years ago, but Reedy felt it had some drawbacks.

The area offices were housed in a separate building from central office, and they became isolated silos, Reedy said.

Under the new Learning Zone system, the associate superintendents will work down the hall from one another in APS Central Office.

There is going to be constant back and forth and dialogue, brainstorming, planning, organizing, Reedy said. Were not perfect, and we would be the first to tell you, but I really feel that we are turning the corner. Weve got a path, and we are doing some things we feel are really going to make a difference.
MEXICO CITY  In a story Aug. 14 about corruption allegations against the former head of Mexicos state-run oil company Pemex, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Mexicos Attorney Generals Office said the Brazilian companies Odebrecht and Braskem were involved in paying bribes in Mexico. The Attorney Generals Office said only that Odebrecht had admitted paying bribes in Mexico.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Ex-head of Mexicos state oil company denies taking bribes

The former head of Mexicos state-owned oil company is denying accusations that he took bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht

MEXICO CITY  The former head of Mexicos state-owned oil company, a key campaign adviser to President Enrique Pena Nieto, has denied accusations that he took bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Emilio Lozoya said Sunday via Twitter that he was never corrupt and suggested the allegations were made by executives seeking to reduce their own sentences in Brazil.

His lawyer Javier Coello Trejo said on Radio Formula on Monday that we will prove that Emilio Lozoya did not receive a single cent of those supposed $10 million that they paid as a bribe.

The Brazilian newspaper O Globo said Sunday it had obtained statements made by former Odebrechts director in Mexico Luis Alberto de Meneses Weyll to investigators. De Meneses Weyll said that from 2012 to 2014, Odebrecht paid Lozoya $10 million to win a contract for work on a refinery in central Mexico. Lozoya left Pemex last year.

Mexican investigative media collaborative Quinto Elemento Lab and anti-corruption nonprofit Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity also reported they have prosecution documents detailing payments to offshore accounts allegedly linked to Lozoya. The authenticity of the documents could not be immediately confirmed.

Mexicos Attorney Generals Office said in a statement that it did not have all of the information from Brazilian investigators, but would pursue the case to its ultimate consequences.

It noted that Odebrecht and another company, Braskem, had pleaded guilty in federal court in New York in December 2016 to paying bribes in a number of countries. The Mexican Attorney Generals Office said that Odebrecht acknowledged paying $10,500,000 to Pemex officials.

The Attorney Generals Office said it had already taken statements from a number of Pemex executives as part of its own investigation. Coello, Lozoyas lawyer, said that his client had offered to give a statement, but the agency had still not scheduled him to come in.

When the alleged payments began in 2012, Lozoya was an adviser to Pena Nietos campaign and a leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Authorities say three men charged with murder in connection with a fatal shooting five months ago in Grand Junction were upper-level members of a national motorcycle gang.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2w3GxHh ) Grand Junction Police Detective Julie Stogsdill says Richard Byrd, Rufus Billups, and Gregory Clark are all members of one-percenter motorcycle gang, Sin City Deciples.

The three men are charged in the March 15 slaying of Dion Nixon.

Police believe Nixon was shot to death on the front porch of his trailer after a confrontation with several local members of the Sin City Deciples.

The FBIs 2015 National Gang Report describes the group as a primarily black gang with male-only membership.

None of the three defendants has entered a plea.
Valles Caldera National Preserve will celebrate the Aug. 21 solar eclipse with free entry, and there will be activity stations for visitors to create their own pinhole viewer and to view the sun through a telescope equipped with a solar filter.

The duration of the eclipse  only a partial one in New Mexico  will be from approximately 10:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m., with maximum obscuration of the sun at 11:45 a.m.

If skies are clear, visitors can expect to experience a partial solar eclipse of around 75 percent obscuration. Near the preserves Valle Grande Entrance Station off N.M. 4, rangers and volunteers will give short talks about lore, history and science related to eclipses.

We invite visitors to join us to safely enjoy the eclipse from the open meadows of the Valle Grande, said Superintendent Jorge Silva-Banuelos in a news release.

Glasses with special-purpose solar filters are available for purchase while supplies last from the preserves bookstore operated by Los Amigos de Valles Caldera.
Although detectives are still investigating the death of a 38-year-old man in his northeast Albuquerque home Saturday, they arrested another man living in the house on unrelated charges.

Officer Simon Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said police were called to the house on the 7200 block of Constitution NE, east of Louisiana NE, Saturday night by a caller reporting a roommate had shot himself.

However, when they arrived they thought the death appeared to be suspicious. APDs bomb squad was called in and cleared the scene after police learned the home might have been booby trapped.

Thats when police spotted Jared Petersen, 35, and realized he was wanted on other charges.

Petersen is charged with aggravated assault on a household member and was booked into the county jail. His name is also spelled Jared Peterson in online jail records.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, last week his girlfriend told police he had threatened her with a battle ax because he was worried she was going to leave him.

Drobik said he didnt know if Petersen had been the one to call police about the death. He said police are not ready to release the dead mans name and the Office of the Medical Investigator will determine how he died.
Anil Mathews, former Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, YES Bank, has launched a Brand and PR Consulting firm, Mathewson Brand & PR Consultants. Anil has been in the PR Industry for over 17 years, having worked with some of the top PR companies in the country.

Mathewson will offer its services to corporates and business houses in the area of Brand Strategy and Planning, Image Management consulting through Sustainable PR Campaigns and Programs, Market Intelligence and Crisis Management solutions. It will also provide the most modern communication tools and systems to evaluate and measure the progress of the services. The company will have the best in class strategic advice, industry mapping and solutions towards clients brand and business journey.

Talking to Adgully, Anil Mathews, Founder & Director, Mathewson Brand & PR Consultants, said, We have derived in to this business after conducting a lot of research and study on the evolving requirements of clients in their day to day business operations. 

It is very difficult to retain a brands reputation and position in such a volatile and unpredictable market. It is our responsibility to guide and position our clients to remain competitive and create a conducive business environment. Mathewson would help these companies with the best strategic solutions, competition mapping, market intelligence, campaign ideas and roll-out plans at various levels. 

The company would also have a focused approach and decisive mechanism towards start-ups. Its consulting business model would provide solutions to companies at various business levels including, corporate, leadership, brands, SBUs, products and services, HR and CSR. A well diversified business approach and communication tools would surely help its clients gain an edge over competition and remain competitive within the industry.
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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There cant be a better occasion than Independence Day to witness India in its purest diversity and rejoice in its uniqueness. This time India will celebrate its 70 years of Independence with same grace and charm. Since this Independence Day is in the air, our TV actors tell us ways to make India the best country in the world and had also talk about their favourite freedom fighter as well as their favourite patriotic number.

Aniruddh Dave  Why do we need to remember our country only on these two days? I celebrate Diwali and Childrens Day with fauji families every year. We are free, but humanity is missing in this country. Irrespective how literate you are, people behave like illiterates. This needs to change. I dont have a favourite freedom fighter as I feel that all of them fought in their own way. I really like Sabse aage honge Hindustani, more than patriotic, it is optimistic.

Hrishikeh Pandey  I come from an Army background, where I have seen everyone working hard to protect the country. For me, the soldiers are the real fighters, who give up everything for the country. Every Indian should keep their sacrifices in their mind. We should not forget that these soldiers have fought and died for our country. We, as the citizens of this country, can also do something from our end. We should follow all the rules and regulations that have been laid out for us. That will be the stepping stone towards making India a better place to stay. There are so many freedom fighters that we have read about. The ones which have an impact on me are Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. They were so young when they participated in the freedom struggle and they died for our country. In todays age, everyone has become individualistic. One of my favourite patriotic songs is Mera Rang De Basanti Chola and the other is Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon, both songs give me goosebumps.

Adaa Khan  I love my country and days like Republic Day and Independence Day give me opportunities to show this love. I am aware that India is not perfect, but then no country is. Rather than looking at all that is wrong with our country and the government, let us concentrate on what is right here. We have such a diverse culture with different languages and different cuisines. This is something that we can appreciate about India. We have such a rich history too. I remember I used to love studying about the freedom struggle and Subhash Chandra Bose was my favourite freedom fighter. My favourite patriotic song is Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon.

Karan Oberoi  India beats in the heart of every Indian. We dont need a reminder on special days to love our country. These days are just a reminder and a celebration of the rich legacy of our country. It reminds us of the sacrifices made by our freedom fighters who fought for the country. India is so diverse, beautiful and rich in its cultural ethos. It is the best country in the world. All we have to do to make it greater is to celebrate our diversity and not bicker about our differences. Its so wonderful that with every few miles, the topography, food habits, religious practices, languages, everything changes, yet we celebrate our unity. And thats the ethos we need to preserve. The person who left the most impact on me as a leader, and as a freedom fighter was Neta ji Subhash Chandra Bose. Every time I read about his thoughts on what India meant to him and his vision of taking it forward, I feel inspired. He was a dynamic and charismatic leader, who inspired millions of Indians to dream of a free country. My favourite patriotic song is Bharat Hum Ko Jaan Se Pyaara Hai from the film Roja. Its such a haunting melody and with powerfully apt lyrics. I love the song and sing it every time I am asked to sing an inspiring song.

Manish Wadhwa  It is sad that people show their desh bhakti only on these two days. But more importantly, I feel there is need for the feeling of equality among the Indians now. Instead of thinking about the religion, caste, and the state that you belong to, you should feel that you belong to India. You are an Indian. Instead of asking what the country has done for you, you should ask yourself what you have done for the country. When it comes to the freedom struggle, everyones contribution is equal. I salute them all. This one song Jaan bhi denge, Aye watan Tere liye is what comes to my mind when I think of patriotism.
This Independence Day, iD Fresh Foods has come up with a digital campaign that aims at creating awareness about the plight of the families of our army martyrs, as well as encouraging the public to pledge their support to the well-being of these families. The Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV) and iD have joined hands to take this initiative forward.

Our Army makes the supreme sacrifice to keep us and our borders safe. However, we often tend to overlook the struggle the martyr's families face as they attempt to pick up the strands of their life and move forward. The focus of the digital campaign is to encourage contributions that will be used towards helping the education of the children of our martyrs. The idea was conceptualized by People Communication & Design.

Taking the initiative forward, their digital agency- Langoor has created a video that highlights the not-so-evident sacrifices that are made and the hardships that the martyr's families undergo. Langoor's intention was to bring to light these sacrifices and struggles and thereby ensure these families get the support they so deservedly need. The video tells the story of one such child, spirited and good-hearted, whose education and dreams face a daunting roadblock, due to an acute lack of funds.DIAV is an organisation that works tirelessly to help such children realise their hopes and dreams and was set up for the redressal of issues faced by wards and widows/widowers of martyrs and veterans.

So let's make an iD pledge today with iD Foods to secure the future of the children of our army martyrs.

Credits:

Client: iD FreshFood

Ad agency: People Communication & Design

Digital Agency: Langoor
Dollar Industries Limited on 11 August 2017 announced a Joint Venture with a leading international fashion brand Pepe Jeans Europe BV with a 50  50 stake of both the JV partners. The Joint Venture Company is to manufacture and market premium range of fashion Innerwear, Loungewear, Gymwear, Sleepwear & Track Suits for Adults & Kids, in India under the brand name Pepe Jeans London. These products will also be made available in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan & Bangladesh.

Both the JV partners i.e. Dollar Industries and Pepe Jeans will hold 50% stake in the JV Company. This tie up will help both the companies to work towards creating a premium innerwear brand in the Country to offer an exciting and innovative range of aspirational products to the customers.

This venture would also bring in foreign direct investment for the textile sector in India. While a joint venture would mean a win-win situation for both the Indian company and the investor.

Pepe Jeans expansion into newer categories is a strategic progression of the brand. Our objective was to partner with a great Indian brand with a strong distribution and production set up. This is a strategic investment for the brand. We are funding the JV as per a strong scalable business plan. We believe that at present there is a gap in the market, and therefore immense potential for a strong innovative premium innerwear brand to grow. Together with Dollar Industries Limited we are looking to spearhead growth and innovation in this category. With our strong brand name and Dollar Industries industry expertise will take both the brands to greater heights, said Mr. Kavindra Mishra, MD, Pepe Jeans India Limited.

The innerwear category is a high growth category in the apparel market. With higher discretionary spending and growing fashion consciousness, this segment is poised to grow exponentially. The JV with Pepe Jeans will give a boost to Dollar Industries and help Dollar increase their market share and penetrate the premium Innerwear segment. This association will also help us in consolidating our market share. Pepe Jeans and Dollar both believes in Innovation and creativity which is the heart of their activities. This JV will also combine fashion and functionality and offer products to the Consumers, said Mr. Vinod Kumar Gupta, Managing Director, Dollar Industries Ltd.

Dollar Industries began its journey with the signature brand Dollar. Later, the brand Dollar Bigboss was launched, which achieved popularity among consumers. Bollywood celebrity actor, Mr. Akshay Kumar is the Brand Ambassador of Dollar Bigboss and he has contributed significantly in the success of the brand over the last six years. The company also has introduced Kids wear range Champion, womens wear under the brand name Missy and casual wear range called Force. Dollar Industries was the first Indian Innerwear manufacturing company to introduced Micro Modal fabrics in inners.

The overall range of products at Dollar Industries includes vests, briefs, trunks with latest cuts and fits. In apparel category, there is basic and fashion denims, t-shirts, gym-vests, bermuda and track pants. For winter, the company has premium thermals for men, women and children. While the womens range includes camisoles, panties and leggings.

Pepe Jeans London remains at the front of the fashion pack with a winning formula based on its ability to deliver the strongest denim-led fashion. Today, the company is among the top two leading premium denims brands in the country. In 2015, Pepe Jeans launched kidswear in India. The category continues to be a key growth driver for the brand nationally. In 2016, Pepe Jeans launched eyewear in key stores. The company is now set to take the brand to newer heights with the launch of innerwear and footwear in 2018.

Pepe Jeans London continues to set new benchmarks in the Indian market with its growth story. The company is adding exciting new categories to their portfolio and increasing their presence in tier II and Tier III markets. Overall the company is looking to double their business in the Indian market within the next 3 years with the sole objective of establishing Pepe Jeans as a one stop shop for the casual wear needs of adults & kids.
Turner India kick-starts its most-anticipated annual Cartoon Network and POGO School Contact Program (SCP), where it will be reaching out to close to 1 million kids, across the country. Having received an overwhelming response for more than a decade, this years edition promises students with a sneak peek into brand new shows on Cartoon Network and Pogo, character meet and greets, interactive & high-energy games, trivia, prizes and much more. With engaging themes, the highlight of both the SCPs will be the value of friendship through interesting team building exercises.

The POGO School Contact Program theme, Dosti Ki Dream Team, will celebrate the magic of friendship and teamwork that popular characters such as Super Bheem and his gang of friends - Chutki, Raju, Jaggu, Kalia and Dholu-Bholu - bank on to fight mighty fiends. On the other hand, Cartoon Networks Masti Ke Funday theme will engage the students with fun games and an exciting meet-and-greet with Asli Oggy, set to return with the troublesome Cockroaches, in all-new seasons starting 14th August 2017 every Monday to Friday @ 6 PM.

This year, Pogos SCP will also give a sneak peek into the brand-new show, Tik Tak Tail scheduled to launch in September 2017. Kids will get a chance to experience the show through a fun-filled and fascinating game of one-upmanship and take away cool merchandise capturing the essence of chase between the characters  Tik Tak and Tail from the show.

Turner Indias School Contact Program will collectively reach out to close to 1 million students (between standards 1 to 8) across 1,100 schools. Starting in the first week of August, the Cartoon Network and POGO School Contact Programs will be conducted in Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, Surat, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. The five-week long engagement with kids will conclude by mid-September.

Kids can also watch their favourite cartoon characters give Dosti ki Dream team tips on Pogo and Masti Ke Funday tips on Cartoon Network.
The Advertising Club (TAC) India hosted the inaugural edition of its Marquee Awards in Mumbai on Friday, August 11, 2017. Presented by News18 India, powered by Colors and MTV and partnered by One India, the Marquee Awards saw the entire marketing fraternity come together to recognise brands for their excellence in marketing, building sustainable and path breaking brands.

Hindustan Unilever won the coveted Green Marketer Award, which honours brands that have strived and conquered, by keeping a close focus on environment sustainability. The Special Award for Conquering an impregnable fortress was won by Bira 91. Pro Kabaddi League was recognised as the brand that Traversed unchartered waters, while Paytm was recognised for Riding on an emerging wave. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter was awarded for Breathing new life into a category, Indian Accent was recognised for Creating a Global Impact, while Oppo was recognised for Carving out a Niche for themselves in a highly competitive category.

Winners Speak

Banking  HDFC Bank

Ravi Santhanam, Chief Marketing Officer, HDFC Bank Ltd: Its a proud moment for all of us at HDFC Bank for this win at the inaugural edition of Marquees 2017. It reinforces our commitment to be more customers focused and do everything right for the customer.

Homecare  Vim (Hindustan Unilever)

Ishtpreet Singh, Marketing Head, Household Cleaning, India at HUL: Its a great honour winning this Award at Marquees 2017 and for a brand like Vim, which is a category creator to have been recognised is a big honour for the brand and the team behind.

Food  Wai Wai Noodles (CG Global)

Varun Chaudhary, Executive Director, CG Corp Global: Its a prestigious honour to be felicitated with the remarkable recognition at Marquees 2017 under Food Category for the brand as well as for the team.

Breathing New Life Into a Category  Honda Motorcycle & Scooter

Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President - Sales & Marketing at Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd: This is a special award given for Breathing New Life Into a Category. Since, its a special recognition it ultimately gives you pleasure to have this award. For Honda, when we entered in 2001, the scooter market was going down and most of the auto pundits had declared that scooters would die, but today after 16 years, the largest selling two-wheelers in the country are scooters. We are very proud and thank all our customers who have repost their trust and faith in the brand Honda.

Telecom Handset  Xiaomi

Sushant Sreeram, India Marketing Head at Xiaomi: It feels awesome holding this remarkable award, but more than anything else, I am just accepting this award on the behalf of my entire team and fans across the country.

Also read:

Inaugural Marquee Awards India Celebrates 2017 Winners
Amy Cheslock, formerly with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, to lead Privia Medical Group - Georgia, a key part of one of the nations fastest growing multi-specialty medical groups and population health tech companies

Privia Health, LLC (Privia), announced today that Amy Cheslock, former Vice President of Provider Alignment Solutions for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, has joined Privia Health as the organizations Market President for Georgia. Cheslock with her extensive experience in payment innovation and value-based care, will be responsible for furthering Privias innovative strategies within their value-based platform, oversee the full spectrum of payer relationships in the Georgia Market, recruit new physicians to the Group and advance their population health strategy to the next level.

Amys dedication to innovative, value-based care is a great asset to the Privia team as we advance our vision to change the delivery of healthcare in Georgia, said Dave Rothenberg, President of Privia Health. Privia will benefit from Amys deep experience in commercial, Medicare and Medicaid value-based models; but most importantly, Amys values and mission align perfectly with that of our team and physicians. We look forward to working with Amy to advance the quadruple aim of improved patient experience, better clinical outcomes, lower costs, and enhanced provider satisfaction.

A highly-regarded healthcare executive, Cheslock most recently led the development and execution of Anthems payment innovation and provider collaboration programs nationwide including their flagship value-based program focused on primary care. Prior to Anthem, Cheslock worked in contracting and network management with UnitedHealthcare in New England. Cheslock attended the University of Rochester, where she received a B.A. in Healthcare Administration.

Privia has the right mission and vision, as well as a proven track record of enabling physicians to successfully deliver personalized care to their patients. In an era marked by uncertainty, the arrival of such a simple, patient-centered and physician-driven platform couldnt be more timely, said Cheslock. Im thrilled to be in a position to drive the transition to valued-based care in Georgia, in addition to helping recruit high performing physicians. Privia exists to help physicians provide high quality, affordable care to their patients, and to help physicians thrive in  not just survive through  a value-driven healthcare world. This is a mission I look forward to building upon.

As Market President, Cheslock will collaborate closely with the physicians of Privia Medical Group - Georgia, one of the fastest growing multispecialty medical groups in the country. Privia Medical Group - Georgia doctors have a shared vision of improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of care delivered to their patients. This vision is made possible by using sophisticated technology, a team-based approach, and unique population health management programs.

Doctors interested in learning more about Privia Medical Group - Georgia can email georgiadoctors@priviahealth.com. Patients interested in joining a Privia Medical Group practice can visit www.priviamedicalgroup.com to find a Privia doctor and book an appointment.

About Privia Health

Privia Health LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is a national physician practice management and population health technology company that partners with leading doctors to keep people healthy, better manage disease, and to reward providers for delivering high value care. Through its high-performance physician group (Privia Medical Group), accountable care organization (Privia Quality Network), and population health management programs, Privia works in close partnership with forward-thinking health plans and national payers to better align reimbursements to quality and outcomes. Privias proprietary cloud-based technology platform, combined with an innovative approach to patient engagement and physician-driven wellness, focuses on building a better healthcare delivery system and creating a healthier patient population. For more information: www.priviahealth.com.

About Privia Medical Group

Privia Medical Group, a national, high-performance medical practice, combines technology, team-based care, and unique wellness programs to help leading doctors better manage the health of their populations. Privia Medical Group is a multispecialty practice, with a large number of primary care physicians and medical specialists that manage high cost chronic disease. Our medical group enjoys close partnerships with many leading national payers, with reimbursement programs that reward our doctors for improving outcomes and delivering high value care. For more information, please visit: www.priviamedicalgroup.com.

About Privia Quality Network

Privia Quality Network, a national clinically integrated network and ACO, is emerging as one of the leading independent physician networks in the country. Privia Quality Network brings together independent physician practices to focus on sharing data, improving care coordination, and collaborating on initiatives to improve outcomes and deliver high value care. Doctors practicing in Privia Quality Network get access to innovative reimbursement programs that are only available to large, sophisticated physician networks that have the technologies and resources needed to manage population health.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170814005600/en/

Privia Health, LLC

Kate Slonaker, 571-210-1737

priviapress@priviahealth.com


Google will pay up to $3 billion to Apple this year for the privilege of being the default Internet search engine on the companys iOS platform, according to a market analysis that was recently conducted by one Toni Sacconaghi of investment firm Bernstein. While the two companies traditionally dont disclose the sums Google pays on an annual basis in order for its search engine to remain the default choice on iOS, one trial from 2014 revealed that the Alphabet-owned company gave $1 billion to Apple for that benefit in 2014, and some industry analysts  Mr. Sacconaghi included  believe that number grew significantly in the next three years.

Such a turn of events would also explain why the Cupertino, California-based original equipment manufacturer has recently been increasing the attention it draws to its operations related to general software Services during its conference calls with analysts and investors. According to previous reports, licensing-related revenue is among the two largest contributors to the massive growth in this segment which Apple has been experiencing in recent years, which consequently led Mr. Sacconaghi to conclude that the iPhone maker is set to receive as much as $3 billion from Google this year. Provided that estimate is somewhat accurate, Google may be directly responsible for a quarter of Apples recent operating profit growth and five percentage points of its total operating profit in 2017.

The analyst also predicted that the Mountain View, California-based Internet giant will be paying increasingly larger sums to Apple for the same privilege in the coming years as the iPhone and iPad user base continues growing, adding how Apple may use that deal as a model for additional revenue growth in the future, offering companies the opportunity to pay for having their apps set as default iOS services. Being Googles flagship product that accounts for the vast majority of its revenue, the company continues committing significant resources to reinforcing the already strong market position of Google Search, and its deal with Apple is just one example of these efforts. With this year marking the 10th anniversary of Apples smartphone lineup, the iPhone 8 series is expected to record strong performance in many parts of the world and Google will hence be required to pay a premium for remaining the default Internet search engine on such a popular product family, Mr. Sacconaghi suggested.
The Huawei P10 Plus in Bright Black has just been launched in China where the latest color variant of the smartphone is already available for purchase and can be bought from online stores affiliated with Huawei, including Vmall, JD.com, Suning.com, and Tmall. The handset is retailing for 4,888 Yuan ($734), identical to the other variants of the Huawei P10 Plus. While the Chinese electronics manufacturer already introduced a black version of the device in the form of Graphite Black, the Bright Black is slightly different as it comes with a glossy finish, whereas the original one had a matte texture. The Chinese firm will likely make the phone available in other Asian markets in the coming months as it has a huge presence in the region and rarely releases China-exclusive color variants.

While the Bright Black Huawei P10 Plus is a new color offering, the internals of the device remains identical to other variants. Its specs include a 5.5-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1440 by 2560 pixels, Huaweis own HiSilicon Kirin 960 octa-core chipset equipped with the Mali-G71 GP, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage which is expandable by up to 256GB via a microSD card slot. For optics, the Huawei P10 Plus comes with a dual camera setup on its rear panel entailing a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12-megapixel RGB module, both of which were manufactured by Leica and are assisted by a dual-LED (dual tone) flash. Selfies are handled by an 8-megapixel shooter, also from Leicas workshop. The Huawei P10 Plus is equipped with a 3,750mAh battery which supports fast charging and isnt removable.

Software-wise, the Huawei P10 Plus comes with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, along with EMUI 5.1 on top of it. EMUI 5.1 is the latest version of Huaweis very own mobile user interface which the company has been maintaining for years now. The physical Home button housed by the bottom bezel of the smartphone doubles as a fingerprint sensor, and up until now, the P10 Plus was available in eight colors: Graphite Black, Dazzling Gold, Moonlight Silver, Rose Gold, Prestige Gold, Greenery, Dazzling Blue, and Arctic White.
Weve exclusively shared the Meizu M6 Notes teaser poster earlier today, a poster which has been set up at Meizus headquarters in China, and now one of Meizus execs added some more info regarding the upcoming device. The companys Head of Marketing, Ard Boudeling, said that the Meizu M6 Note will debut really exciting changes for the M-Series of devices on August 23, while he also mentioned that those changes will be camera and SoC-related.

Now, considering that the Meizu M6 Note with a dual camera setup leaked earlier today, Mr. Boudeling is probably hinting at a dual camera setup for the M6 Note. Whats the SoC fuss all about, will the M6 Note not sport one of MediaTeks SoC? Well, its possible that it will ship with one of Qualcomms Snapdragon SoCs instead, as Meizu did sign a global licensing agreement with Qualcomm at the end of last year. These are just educated guesses, though, well just have to wait and see what happens, its still possible that a MediaTek processor will fuel the Meizu M6 Note, as its predecessor was fueled by MediaTeks Helio P10, not to mention that the Meizu PRO 7 and Meizu PRO 7 Plus flagship devices are both fueled by MediaTeks chips. Having said that, the Meizu M5 Note was announced back in December last year, and it arrived with a 5.5-inch fullHD display, metal body, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, and two different RAM and storage variants.

If a recent leak is to be believed, the Meizu M6 Note will sport a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) IPS LCD display, just like its predecessor, and the device is expected to pack in 4GB of RAM. The Meizu M6 Note will probably offer 64GB of internal storage, and having this new info from Meizus Head of Marketing in mind, were in the dark as far as the phones SoC is concerned. Chances are that the Meizu M6 Note will ship with two 12-megapixel or 13-megapixel shooters on the back, while the phone will come with Android Nougat out of the box, along with Meizus Flyme 6 OS which will be included on top of Googles OS.
Mass production of the HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC (System-on-Chip) has begun, according to a new report out of Taiwan. Leaks about the new Huawei-made flagship chipset have been emerging for months now, and one recent rumor suggested that it would launch at some point in Q3 this year, ahead of the Huawei Mate 10 flagship smartphone that will reportedly be the first to use it. Therefore, the latest report citing sources close to Taiwans industrial chain and stating that its heading for a commercial debut is timely, as its rumored that the Mate 10 could be unveiled at IFA Berlin 2017 in September before hitting the market in October.

Previous leaks have suggested that the HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC is being developed on the 10nm process node, and will be clocked at between 2.8GHz and 3GHz. Some speculation has also pointed to the Kirin 970 supporting an enhanced GPU (graphics processing unit) and Cat. 12 LTE baseband. While previous rumors tipped an octa-core CPU entailing four ARM Cortex-A53 cores and four Cortex A-73 ones, there have also been later leaks suggesting that Cortex A-75 cores might be utilized by the upcoming SoC. While Huawei hasnt provided too much in the way of confirmed details, the company has indicated that its next-generation chipset will be the first in the world featuring some kind of artificial intelligence technology.

The Mate 8 was the first smartphone to use the Kirin 950 SoC two years ago and the Mate 9 was the first with the Kirin 960 last year, so it certainly makes sense that the Huawei Mate 10 will be the first to pack the Kirin 970. Previous leaks have suggested that the upcoming smartphone from the Shenzhen-based OEM will have a bezel-less design and feature a dual camera setup at both its front and back, a 5.8-inch display panel with QHD resolution, memory configurations ranging between 6GB RAM and 8GB of RAM, an iris scanner, and a fingerprint recognition sensor embedded into its screen. Its anticipated that the Mate 10 will be running Android 8.0 with Huaweis proprietary user interface on top, although the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer has yet to officially confirm any of its specifications.
A couple of days ago, a report surfaced claiming that the Android O update for the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL had been delayed, and now @evleaks sheds more light on the Android Os release in general. As most of you know, Google had released the very last Android O Developer Preview (version 4) recently, and the final build is due to launch soon. Well, if @evleaks is to be believed, the release of Android O is scheduled for the week of 8/21, most likely on the 21st itself. So, chances are that the company will drop Android O on August 21.

Now, were not sure whether the update will start rolling out to the Google Pixel devices on August 21, but it is possible. One thing is for sure, though, the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 will be the first devices that will ship with Android O out of the box. Those two phones will be announced in October or November this year, at least if Google intends to stick to its release cycle. Android O will bring a ton of new features to the Android platform, but this update does not bring a significant redesign of Android, or anything of the sort. Android O will polish out the OS, though, it will bring some optimizations and features, and by doing that, improve upon Android 7.X Nougat. It is still unknown what will this new iteration of Android be called, rumors are saying were in for Android 8.0 Oreo or Android 8.0 Oatmeal naming, but well just have to wait until Google officially announces it before we can say anything for sure, as Google likes to keep up guessing.

So, whats new in Android O? Well, lets just mention a couple of new features / changes, shall we. A notification shade will get some new options, which will increase your productivity, not to mention that battery optimizations are coming as well. A Picture-in-Picture mode is coming as well, and it will essentially allow you to watch a YouTube video while using your phone normally, without the need to activate the Split Screen feature. A YouTube video (or any other app that is supported) will appear in a small window which youll be able to control, and youll be able to place it wherever you want, whether its the upper right, lower right or any other part of the display. Thats more or less it, August 21 is only a week away at this point, so lets wait and see how accurate is this report.
As of August 13th, Samsung Electronics has revealed the opening of a new Samsung Smart School in Cusco, Peru. For those that may not know, Samsungs Smart Schools are part of an initiative by the company aimed at servicing children who may not otherwise have access to the technologies the company provides. Samsung has been running Samsung Smart Schools for several years already, as it started back in 2013 and the children involved in the program tend to fall within the fourth grade age range. This latest addition to Samsungs list was opened in the countries oldest national school of science and arts  serving an estimated 2,300 students  and brings the total number of Samsung Smart Schools in the world to around 140. That includes availability to students who are residents of 18 different countries.

As part of this latest initiative, children attending the Peruvian school are given access to electronic blackboards, PCs, tablets, and other bleeding edge technologies with a specific focus on giving those students more opportunities to better their circumstances through self-development. The program teaches the benefits of those technologies, as well as providing a platform for students to discover the rest of the world in an educational manner. One student at the school has reportedly described the program as playing an important supporting role in helping students to learn about the world and has expressed hopes that the program will help develop both the region and students.

Samsung is hardly the only company taking part in advancing technological learning for the underserved or disadvantaged, but the companys efforts may be unique in how it also drives interaction between students coming from vastly different cultures. For example, another recent opening occurred in 2016 in the companys home country of South Korea which provided access to telecommunications technologies, VR cameras, tablets, and translation tools in order to connect the students in Asian to students at the companys very first Smart School in Portugal. Efforts from Samsung with its Smart Schools initiative been largely successful, as Samsung continues to show year-over-year enrollment increases and a relatively consistent string of new openings. It also serves as a great platform for Samsung to advertise its more humanitarian nature and the way its electronics can lift people up and improve the world, which shines in stark contrast to the controversies currently circulating around the company at its core.
With it being back to school season right now, Speck has announced a slew of new backpacks that are available in different sizes with different use-cases. Speck has sent over the Ruck backpack, which is described as a Stylish laptop backpack with 9 organizational pockets. Now this backpack is somewhat small compared to the one I normally use for traveling to events and such, but it does still have enough room to fit everything. Weve been using it for a few weeks now, and lets talk about how good, or perhaps how bad it is.

The Ruck comes in two colors. Theres Khaki and then Charcoal Gray. The model that we have here in our hands is the Charcoal Gray color, which looks really nice actually. The shoulder straps are quite wide, but something I was a bit worried about was how thin they were. When you have a lot of stuff in your backpack, having thicker straps is definitely good as it gives your shoulders a bit more cushion. But it was comfortable to carry around when traveling.

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Inside the Ruck there are really just two big sections. The first big section is where youll put your laptop, tablet and other bigger electronics. There is a laptop or tablet pocket in the back, which has quite a bit of padding, so itll keep your laptop or tablet protected when youre traveling. Theres also some extra space in that pocket for you to add other things, perhaps a charger or a camera and such. The outer pocket is where youll find a ton of other pockets to stash things. Theres a zipper pocket that can be used to stash some cables, perhaps some USB-C cables or even micro USB and headphones. There are also some slots for hiding some pens. While most people dont use these anymore, its still good to have one or two available. And then there is some open space there for putting other things. Maybe some clothes or books.

Finally, around the front, there is a small, but deep pocket that you can use for putting some stuff in there, maybe a notebook for class. And then a smaller pocket towards the top, that would likely be good for a pair of earbuds, but not a full-sized headphone. This backpack has plenty of spaces to keep your tech without worrying about it getting damaged, as it does have plenty of cushion for protecting it. Which makes it a great backpack for not only those that are in school  may be heading off to college  but also those that do a lot of traveling. Now one thing we did not talk about is how long this will last you. My current backpack  before using the Ruck  was a Swissgear backpack that lasted me nearly 10 years, and its still in pretty good shape actually. Which is pretty impressive, but it is also twice to three times the price of the Speck Ruck here. Now its basically impossible to test how well this backpack would hold up after everyday use for around a year or two. But it does look like it should hold up quite well.

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Now lets talk about price real quick. Backpacks can start as low as around $20, but they can also go all the way up to around $200 (not to mention that speaker backpack that was closer to $1300). This backpack from Ruck is right around $49.99 (Specks website has it for 25% off for its back to school sale right now, for a limited time). That is actually a pretty good price for what youre getting here. Which is a pretty good looking backpack that screams quality, and also has plenty of room for all of your necessities. Speck does offer a 3-year warranty on this backpack, which is quite good, and also about what youd get from other companies like Timbuk2 and Swissgear.
American wireless carrier, Sprint, is rolling out a new update to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus that will enable its Calling PLUS feature. Calling PLUS is a term coined by the company that encompasses Sprints Wi-Fi calling and Voice-over-LTE service. Wi-Fi calling is a VoIP service that routes calls through an available wireless internet connection. VoLTE, on the other hand, allows the carriers customers to make calls and send texts on its network without the phone connecting to much slower 3G or even 2G networks. Before the update was released, the only smartphones that are capable of Sprints offering are the Samsung Galaxy J7 Perx and LG Stylo 3. Once the update is installed, owners of Samsungs flagship devices may go the device settings and select Calling PLUS to check whether the feature is already activated.

Aside from the new carrier-branded offering, the software package will also upgrade the devices security patch. The companys community manager only mentioned that the security of the handsets will be improved, but it did not mention the actual version of the patch. It is important to point out that the firm just rolled out the June security patch late last month for the two smartphones. Samsungs Enhanced Messaging will also be improved with the new upgrade, although no specific details were given. The Enhanced Messaging refers to a service developed by the South Korean tech giant that allows its users to exchange text, images, and video to specific individuals or groups of people. In addition, there were other unspecified performance improvements and bug fixes that Sprint included in the upgrades release notes.

The two new versions of the operating system can be identified as G950USQU1AQGL for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and G955USQU1AQGL for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. Updates may be installed automatically via the Over-the-Air method or through a proprietary software tool provided by the smartphone manufacturer. Before the installation process begins, it is important that users backup the contents of their smartphones to prevent loss of important data. In addition, the smartphones should have enough storage to temporarily keep the file and sufficient battery charge to last the entire installation process.
The largest law firms in Australia are in their most optimistic mood in years, the latest Legal Market Pulse survey from Commonwealth Bank has revealed.Business confidence among the top 50 law firms in the country jumped 44 points over the last year, to 20% from -24% in 2016. According to CommBank, this is the first positive result of the survey since it started in 2013.A rise in economic activity like mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings lifted the confidence of both top-tier and mid-tier firms on the countrys performance over the next 12 months. The well-received federal budget has also boosted optimism, the bank said.Overall, 30% of law firm leaders said they had positive expectations for the economy over the next 12 months, easily outnumbering the 5% who expressed a negative view, CommBank said.Top-tier firms are more confident, where three out of eight expecting better economic conditions in the year ahead. Mid-tier firms were more moderate, with 22 out of 32 having a neutral outlook, although that is an increase from 18 in September 2016.Current business conditions in Australia are positive, said 38% of the respondents, up from 11% a year ago, with 18% saying conditions are negative, which yielded a 20% net confidence rating.Nonetheless, firms are cautious about conditions further down the road.Yet, at the same time, the outlook for business conditions has flattened significantly, with firms no longer confident that the future will bring better times. Perceptions of conditions in 24 months time have fallen from a net reading of 47% in 2016, to 15% in 2017, with 28% expecting conditions to become negative, CommBank said.Participating firms also identified their top three business challenges. The biggest challenge, identified by 70% of respondents, is negotiating price with clients. However, this is down six percentage points from last year.Among respondents, 63% said winning new business was difficult and 43% said competing with other firms was a challenge. Nonetheless, firms ability to compete improved, with 52% saying that competing with other firms had become manageable, up by 10 percentage points from 2016.The yearly CommBank study is based on a survey of chief executives, managing partners, and other senior leaders of the top 50 law firms in Australia.
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HP

A week ago, they revealed some bits and pieces for the 5 Series sedan, and they now followed it up with even more for the G31 5 Series Touring model. What was already a sporty looking family hauler has been dialed up even further. The overall look is not unlike an Alpina, but not to the point where it would confuse.Many interior and exterior mods have been made, but the really obvious parts are concentrated on the flat part of the bodywork. The chin spoiler makes the M Sport body kit look even lower with just a few simple lines. There's also a matching set of side skirts like we've come to expect from Schnitzer.At the back, the diffuser is the same, but while the sedan has a subtle lip spoiler, we see a bigger wing on the wagon. The Abu Dhabi people like a bit of carbon, and so we see that material is used for the custom mirror caps.In the engine department, Ac Schnitzer has only finished two packages, namely the ones for the 540i and the 530d, both of which are really popular. The powerhouse that is the BMW inline-six turbo can be boosted from 340to 400 HP in the case of the gasoline models and from 265 to 315 HP for the diesel.However, the company promises to have a look at the M550i , 530i and base 520d model shortly.Why does it look like an M5 from the back? Because custom four-tipped mufflers have already been developed and make the new 5 Series look extra special. As per your desires, the tips can be finished in stainless, chrome or black.A revised set of springs lower the front of the 5 Series by 25mm while the rear goes down just 50mm. The obligatory 5-spoke alloy wheels complete the look.
From Automotive News : Representatives of a well-known Chinese automaker made at least one offer this month to buy Fiat Chrysler Automobiles at a small premium over its market value. The deal was shot down by the higher-ups, with the publication learning that the offer just wasnt attractive enough.Sources independently identified by Automotive News claim that at least four Chinese automakers are interested in buying Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. These are FCAs joint venture partner Guangzhou Automobile Group , Dongfeng Motor Corp., Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and Great Wall. As per the cited report, Chinese representatives have been seen last week in Auburn Hills. More interestingly, Fiat Chrysler executives have recently traveled to China.Regardless of the outcome, theres no denying FCA would be better off in other hands provided that the Chinese owner would pump money into new platforms and products. Think Geely and Volvo. Theres also the problem posed by Sergio Marchionne s imminent step down from the head honcho seat. Sergio is to retire in 2018 after announcing a new five-year plan.After two sales waiting patiently for a wholehearted offer, there are many ifs and buts still enveloped in mystery. Heres a question for you: what will happen to the synergies between Dodge, Jeep, and Ram Truck ? According to the report, any sale is likely to exclude Maserati and Alfa Romeo, who are prime candidates to be spun off by the Agnelli familys Exor holding company.All in all, buying Fiat Chrysler is any Chinese automakers dream of making it big in the United States, as well as Latin America and Europe.
Let's take the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, for instance. The supercar spotted who captured the footage believes that one of the two blondes that show up at the Pagani dealership in a Bentley is Paris Hilton. The vlogger also asks himself whether Paris has gotten her hands on the first Huayra Roadster in the U.S.We're not celebrity experts, but it doesn't seem like Paris is actually in this clip - you can jump to the 26:48 point of the video for the said action. So yes, you should take this story with a massive grain of salt.Nevertheless, it wouldn't surprise us to see Paris' garage accommodating the $2.4 million Italian exotic. And that's because she's known for the uber-exclusive rides - her past contraptions include multiple Conti GTs, a Ferrari California, a Lexus LFA and, of course, a Rolls-Royce Ghost.This is a brilliant occasion to remind you that the San Cesario sul Panaro facility is only set to bring 100 units of the Huayra Roadster to life. So, if the said expectations turn out to be true, this will be Paris' most exclusive ride to date.Heck, with such a machine, one doesn't even have to worry about the weather. And that's because the 764 hp monster packs not one, but two roofs. The first is a carbon hard top that includes a hefty glass section. As for the second, this is a folding canvas top that's stored on board and basically acts as the car's personal emergency umbrella.
The State of Connecticut has stepped into the simmering controversy over who was actually the first to take a controlled, powered flight by honoring a native son who some believe beat the Wright brothers by two years. Gustave Whitehead will be honored by state officials in Bridgeport Aug. 14 on the 116th anniversary of what some believe was a half-mile flight at 50 feet in nearby Fairfield. The honor is likely to reignite the debate over Whiteheads alleged flight, which had a lot of witnesses but no photographic proof, only an artists rendering in a local newspaper.

The governments of North Carolina and Ohio are also likely to have something to say about the Bridgeport ceremony. Both consider themselves the crucible of aviation, North Carolina because of the Kitty Hawk flight, Ohio because its where the Wrights did all the construction and development work. In 2013 Paul Jackson, the editor of Janes All the Worlds Aircraft, wrote a column supporting the notion that Whitehead beat the Wrights but the publication itself has distanced itself from that opinion.
British authorities are proposing to regulate the sale of laser pointers to curb attacks on aircraft. The U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial has issued a call for evidence into possibly licensing the sale of small lasers. Used irresponsibly or maliciously, these products can and do wreak havoc and harm others, with potentially catastrophic consequences, said Business Minister Margot James. Thats why we want to hear from business groups, retailers and consumers about the best way to protect the public from this kind of dangerous behaviour and improve safety.

The U.K. recorded 1,258 incidents of lasers being pointed at aircraft and despite the obvious danger the highest penalty is a $3,200 fine. The new regulations would include jail sentences and stiffer fines for deliberately pointing lasers at aircraft. The issue is also a public health concern in that 150 people, mostly children, have suffered eye damage from laser exposure in the last three years. Public Health England spokesman John OHagan said he would favor steps to curb injuries from cheap novelty products bought innocently on holiday [which] can put consumers, and particularly children, at risk of eye injuries.
Think how boring life would be without the starry-eyed dreamers, the unshakeable optimists and the grand visionaries who are utterly incapable of allowing even the slightest harsh reality to tarnish that bright future just over the hill.

That would pretty much describe the people ushering in the next big thing in aviation: the on-demand urban air taxi. Specifically, Ubers ambitious plan to launch Uber Elevate. See our news story on the rollout of this idea at a Dallas conference last April.

What Uber Elevate has in mind is a sizeable fleet of pure-electric VTOL aircraftnot necessarily multi-rotors, by the wayshuttling passengers around urban areas through a node-based system with launch facilities they call Vertiports. (New word for you.) They expect to have demonstration vehicles flying by 2020 and actual operation at low-scale by 2023. You can hear more details on this in a podcast I recorded with Uber Elevates Nikhil Goel and Wyatt Smith. You can then decide if you think any of this is remotely possible or likely. As they explain, the vehicles will eventually be autonomous.

Personally, I place myself in the its-possible-but-highly-unlikely camp. Just to be clear, Ubers concept isnt rooted in the totally daft idea of flying cars which, despite my personal crusade to render the idea ridiculous beyond all rational thought, continues to gain yet more coverage in the daily press. One reason for that is that tech billionaires are getting interested in it and those guys didnt get those billions by embracing stupid ideas, right? Right?

What Uber has in mind is dedicated aircraft propelled by distributed electric powerbasically motors attached wherever thrust is deemed to be needed. This offers genuine technical advantages, not the least of which is that it can be employed in tilt-rotor designs for fixed wing aircraft that would be more efficient than helicopters. So far, so good. On paper, its at least plausible, if not entirely realistic.

Uber shrewdly organized the high-profile conference in Dallas last spring and recruited some heavy hitters to at least endorse it, thus allowing the on-the-fence-doubters to think, hey, this thing is real. Its here or soon will be. Whether it achieved that goal or not, it did get a lot of press so the promotional mission was at least accomplished. They name checked a few companies: Embraer, Bell, Mooney, Aurora, Pipistrel.

Uber described these as partners but its more accurate to think of them as interested parties in the way that a chicken is involved with a bacon and egg breakfast. The chicken is involved, the pig is committed. (Pipistrel has its own demonstrated electric aircraft program, but uptake is proving slow.) Worth noting is that Airbus said it would, by 2020, certify a four-place hybrid electric aircraft for the U.S. market. It has since withdrawn that plan, although it has an aspirational electric aircraft program on simmer.

But for Uber, no sale for this customer. I could list a lot of niggly reasons for skepticism, but two stand out: a delusional view of certification and a business plan, if there is one, thats too dependent on scales not likely to be achieved. In other words, instead of a stand-up double, Uber is swinging for the fences.

As soon as I heard Uber Elevates Nikhil Goel say the Part 23 revision is a path paved with gold bricks making certification of electric airplanes a lead-pipe cinch, I knew I was listening to someone whose skin hasnt been scabbed over by actually completing a cert project. No, no, I occasionally hear, this time the FAA is really sincere about efficient certification. Im not buying it. Show me an example or two and Ill relent. We are, after all, not talking about just another new airplane, but an entire class of new commercial aircraft with no certification history, no operational experience and no risk model. Quick and easy to certify? Im gonna go with no. Certifiable eventually, for sure. Just not quickly.

Second, scale. Uber Elevate says its pricing models are based on a level of aircraft manufacturing we havent seen since World War II. What might that be? As late as 1978, the general aviation industry was producing nearly 18,000 airframes a year. So Uber is talking about volume even greater than that.

Business plansespecially aviation business plansthat do-or-die on high volume have a high likelihood of failure because theres a high likelihood that those millions of customers you were sure would heave baskets of cash at you wont share your vision. This is exactly what happened to the very light jet concept. We used to throw around VLJ like periods and commas, but now its as forgotten as SST, AAS and a million other acronyms. (Can we only hope the ADS-B will soon share the same fate?)

Twenty years ago, then NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told an Oshkosh audience that a revolution in design, materials and manufacturing efficiency would result in a new golden (sorry) age of GA, with 20,000 airframes a year spilling out of the factories, dominated by the now-banished VLJ. The manufacturing revolution happened, the airplanes didnt. Its too simplistic to say that demand never materialized because the prices werent as low as promised, but its denial to say that wasnt a big reason.

People coming new into aviation bring fresh eyes, new ideas and innovation. All good. We need a dose of new thinking to offset the hidebounded cynicism of people like me. What they lack is knowledge of the basic laws: gravity, weight, schedules, the grinding pace of certification and an understanding of the Aviation Dollar. The Aviation Dollar, depending on the exchange rate, is equivalent to between five and 100 regular dollars. Even aviation-experienced innovators sometimes lose sight of this.

Thats probably a good thing, though. If they didnt, theyd hole up in their windowless offices writing the next big social media app and thank the baby Jesus, we sure need that.
Look for President Trump to say more today about this weekend's racist pageant in Charlottesville, which resulted in three deaths but drew oddly measured condemnation from him.

Top Republicans, including some who have been trying to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, fear the damage may be done to the party, and to the president.

Yesterday's deafening presidential silence was underscored when Vice President Mike Pence told reporters in Cartagena, Colombia:

"We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK. These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms."

Trump, in New Jersey but on vacation in name only, returns to the construction-zone White House today for 8 hours. He'll meet the cameras of the press pool at 3 p.m. in the Diplomatic Reception Room to sign a memo jabbing China on trade. We expect he'll amplify his "many sides" remark from Saturday.

He's on the defensive, when he could be soaring:

N.Y. Times' Glenn Thrush and Rebecca Ruiz: "As the gravity of the events on Saturday became clearer, the pressure on Mr. Trump to make a stronger statement came from his innermost circle of advisers and family."

"As the gravity of the events on Saturday became clearer, the pressure on Mr. Trump to make a stronger statement came from his innermost circle of advisers and family." "Trump consulted a broad range of advisers before speaking on Saturday, most of whom told him to sharply criticize the white nationalist protesters. ... Trump listened attentively ... but repeatedly steered the conversation to the breakdown of 'law and order,' and the responsibility of local officials to stem the violence."

a broad range of advisers before speaking on Saturday, most of whom told him to sharply criticize the white nationalist protesters. ... Trump listened attentively ... but repeatedly steered the conversation to the breakdown of 'law and order,' and the responsibility of local officials to stem the violence." NBC's Chuck Todd, on "Meet the Press": "It was almost as if the Republican Party was waiting to see what he would do. And then, it was a rush to say, 'Whoa.' He's on an island right now, I think, in his party."

on "Meet the Press": "It was almost as if the Republican Party was waiting to see what he would do. And then, it was a rush to say, 'Whoa.' right now, I think, in his party." Rich Lowry, National Review editor and proud U.Va. grad, to Chuck: "[T]his was a moment ... where the president could've elevated himself. Instead, he came up small. And that's one of the reasons ... you've seen such a premium on the statements from other Republicans on moral clarity, given the president's ambiguity."

National Review editor and proud U.Va. grad, to Chuck: "[T]his was a moment ... where the president could've elevated himself. Instead, And that's one of the reasons ... you've seen such a premium on the statements from other Republicans on moral clarity, given the president's ambiguity." CNN: "IS THIS A DEFINING MOMENT FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?"

"IS THIS A DEFINING MOMENT FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?" Front page of today's N.Y. Times: "A White House Statement on Virginia Is Also Found Wanting." And WashPost: "White House seeks to quell backlash over Trump remarks." And L.A. Times: "Criticism of Trump intensifies." And Boston Globe: "Division in the United States: Trump draws criticism for reaction to violence." And Guardian: "Trump under fire from all sides."

of today's N.Y. Times: "A White House Statement on Virginia Is Also Found Wanting." And WashPost: "White House seeks to quell backlash over Trump remarks." And L.A. Times: "Criticism of Trump intensifies." And Boston Globe: "Division in the United States: Trump draws criticism for reaction to violence." And Guardian: "Trump under fire from all sides." And the paper he'll see this morning, the N.Y. Post: "TRUMP SLAMMED FROM 'MANY SIDES.'"

Be smart: The truism that you only have one chance to make a first impression has been leavened by today's short attention spans. I've told you before that the biggest surprise of the Trump presidency is that he's done so little to reach out to the 54% of people who didn't vote for him.

Today's his chance to do that in a big way, on a subject that matters vitally to a fractured, fractious country. Trump's challenge is to lead the more extreme elements of his own coalition, and also resonate with America's great middle.
The bare-knuckle campaign to remove National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster from the White House is about to get much uglier.

Outside forces opposed to McMaster are going to allege he has a drinking problem, according to sources outside the Trump administration familiar with the anti-McMaster campaign. The controversial nationalist Mike Cernovich, who has an inside track on the anti-McMaster campaign, teased the alcohol attack in an Internet video with Alex Jones of the website Infowars. Anti-McMaster forces believe this attack will harm his standing with the president, who is a teetotaler.

To be clear: I have never heard anything to support the allegation from anyone inside the Trump administration or from anyone who's socialized with McMaster. We are covering it to highlight the extremes to which McMaster's opponents are prepared to take their war against the National Security Adviser.

A White House official told me "McMaster has been made aware that the attack is likely coming, and prefers to focus on his work."

Another official told me the majority of senior staff "have rallied around McMaster and believe that all of the attacks against him are divorced from reality."

Chief of Staff John Kelly finds the attacks dishonorable and disgusting, according to a source close to Kelly. President Trump is also off-put by the campaign against McMaster  even though his relationship with his National Security Adviser has at times been strained.

Why this matters: For the nationalists making them, these attacks could backfire. Most top White House officials find the attacks loathsome, and blame Steve Bannon for them. So instead of hurting McMaster, they may damage Bannon  who is already in a perilous position, as we reported yesterday.

It's unclear how long Bannon and McMaster, who are ideological foes, can both work in the same White House. The most startling clip from today's Sunday shows was on NBC's "Meet the Press," when host Chuck Todd pressed McMaster on whether he and Bannon could keep working under the same roof. McMaster refused to say that he could, refused to say Bannon was advancing the president's agenda, and refused even to say Bannon's name out loud.
Jason Kessler organized the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, yesterday to gather those who oppose the city's decision to remove the statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park. Thousands marched on the University of Virginia campus late Friday night wielding torches and chanting things like "Jews will not replace us."

Things took a turn on Saturday, when counter protesters showed up to demonstrate against the white nationalists filling Charlottesville's streets. Here's all that went down during the "Unite the Right" rally and what comes next:

Who was there

Kessler, a freelance journalist who has written for various conservative-leaning websites and president of a conservative political advocacy group, organized the whole thing.

Former KKK Leader and Trump supporter David Duke was there. He called the rally "a turning point" and said that white nationalists will "fulfill" Trump's agenda.

Richard Spencer, one of the most prominent white supremacists and president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank. He was arrested after acting unlawfully with local police.

Anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter activists among other anti-fascist and anti-racist groups held counter protests during the rally.

What it was like on the ground

Hawes Spencer, a friend of Axios' Mike Allen, covered Friday night's protest for the N.Y. Times and Richmond public radio station WCVE. Mike asked him what it was like:

"The entirety of Downtown Charlottesville looked like a war zone. Protesters maced each other, threw water bottles and urine balloons  some of which hit reporters  and generally beat the crap out of each other with flagpoles."

looked like a war zone. Protesters maced each other, threw water bottles and urine balloons  some of which hit reporters  and generally beat the crap out of each other with flagpoles." "With many armed militia present, we thought bullets might be a problem. But as it turned out, it was just like European terrorism: a car aimed at pedestrians.

we thought bullets might be a problem. But as it turned out, it was "Some of the photographers were braver than I and just dove right in to the middle of these constant melees. A month ago, my two oldest teens showed up for the KKK rally out of curiosity. Thankfully, they took a hike up a mountain today!"

When things turned violent

As Hawes Spencer described above, protesters and counter-protesters fought throughout the day.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency after these violent clashes continued, allowing local officials to call in additional resources to regain control of the situation.

A 20-year-old man drove his car, estimated at 40 m.p.h., directly through a crowd of counter-protesters. He killed a 32-year-old woman and injured at least 19 others. Watch the video of the incident here. He has since been charged with second-degree murder.

Bipartisan reactions

FLOTUS Melania Trump: "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville"

"Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville" President Trump tweeted: "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!" He added: "Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!"

"We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!" He added: "Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!" House Speaker Paul Ryan: "The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry."

"The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry." VP Mike Pence: "I stand with @POTUS against hate & violence. U.S is greatest when we join together & oppose those seeking to divide us. #Charlottesville"

"I stand with @POTUS against hate & violence. U.S is greatest when we join together & oppose those seeking to divide us. #Charlottesville" Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner: "Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism."

"Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism." Hillary Clinton: "The incitement of hatred that got us here is as real and condemnable as the white supremacists in our streets. ... Now is the time for leaders to be strong in their words & deliberate in their actions."

"The incitement of hatred that got us here is as real and condemnable as the white supremacists in our streets. ... Now is the time for leaders to be strong in their words & deliberate in their actions." S en. Orrin Hatch: " We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH"

We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH" Ivanka Trump: "There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis."

"There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis." Sen. John McCain: "White supremacists and neo-Nazis are, by definition, opposed to American patriotism and the ideals that define us as a people and make our nation special. As we mourn the tragedy that has occurred in Charlottesville, American patriots of all colors and creeds must come together to defy those who raise the flag of hatred and bigotry."

"White supremacists and neo-Nazis are, by definition, opposed to American patriotism and the ideals that define us as a people and make our nation special. As we mourn the tragedy that has occurred in Charlottesville, American patriots of all colors and creeds must come together to defy those who raise the flag of hatred and bigotry." Sen. Mitch McConnell: "The hate and bigotry witnessed in #Charlottesville does not reflect American values. I wholeheartedly oppose their actions."

Barack Obama, quoting Nelson Mandela: "'No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. ... People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. ... For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

"'No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. ... People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. ... For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." Sen. Nancy Pelosi: "Our nation is defined by the march of progress. Our strength lies in our diversity. We must reject hate."

"Our nation is defined by the march of progress. Our strength lies in our diversity. We must reject hate." Joe Biden: "No. Not in America. We must be stronger, more determined and more united than ever. Racism and hate have no place here."

Speaking from Bedminster, NJ, Trump said: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides."

Why it matters: By addressing the "many sides" of this protest (which was organized by white nationalists upset with the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue), Trump failed to distinguish between those demonstrating in support of white supremacy and those who showed up in opposition to it.

By addressing the "many sides" of this protest (which was organized by white nationalists upset with the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue), Trump failed to distinguish between those demonstrating in support of white supremacy and those who showed up in opposition to it. Former KKK leader and Trump supporter David Duke said the protest was "a turning point" and that white supremacists will "fulfill the promises of Donald Trump." Denouncing white supremacy in his remarks, or simply not blaming "all sides," would have allowed him to address this issue and set the record straight.

David Duke said the protest was "a turning point" and that white supremacists will "fulfill the promises of Donald Trump." Denouncing white supremacy in his remarks, or simply not blaming "all sides," would have allowed him to address this issue and set the record straight. When asked by various reporters what Trump meant by on many sides, the White House responded: "The president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. There was violence between protesters and counter protestors."

by on many sides, the White House responded: "The president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. There was violence between protesters and counter protestors." Be smart, courtesy of Mike Allen: Being a leader is taking your people where they don't want to go, or don't know they want to go. Being president is about rising to the occasion, not shrinking to your base. Large swaths of Trump's base don't think like this. The vast majority of conservative Americans aren't racists. Trump does them a disservice by creating that impression, and by coddling or fearing the few who resist loving one another.

What's next
Most Republicans in Washington refuse to publicly acknowledge a problem nearly all other political leaders on this planet realize is real: climate change caused by human activity.

Why it matters: Unlike other policy areas, like health care and tax reform, where politicians from both parties agree the government needs to do something, there is not even that basic agreement when it comes to climate change. Washington's GOP leaders refuse to address it at all, while some Democratic leaders say it's the greatest threat to humanity. So it's worth a look at what is driving each side into the positions they hold. Next week I'll tackle this same question about Democrats.

Most Republicans currently in Congress and those in the Trump administration who refuse to acknowledge climate change generally fall into three categories. Most are in the middle (#2), with the rest on either side.

True skeptics: Genuinely question the science and don't think anything could solve it anyways. This includes lawmakers like Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), and many people in the Trump administration like EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Passive watchers: Privately acknowledge climate change is a problem, are concerned but skeptical of the alarmism surrounding it, worried about political blowback. Most of the GOP are ultimately focused on other things their constituents care about more. Quiet backers: Publicly acknowledge the scientific consensus, think something should be done but aren't supporting policies shaped by Democrats and environmental groups. Republicans in a House climate caucus fit into this category, and a few Trump officials like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Let's tackle each of those separately.

True skeptics

This category of Republicans will probably never change their minds but are the loudest and most influential politicians helping shape Washington's polarizing debate on climate. They often raise questions that are impossible to answer, or answer questions with more questions.

Pruitt, for example, says things like this: "Measuring with precision, from my perspective, the degree of human contribution is very challenging, but it still begs the question: what do we do about it? Does it pose an existential threat as some say?" Science can't ever be measured with perfect precision. Pruitt is asking the scientific equivalence of catching a horizon: it is by definition impossible.

Beyond the basic consensus that human activities are "extremely likely" to be the main driver of climate change in the last century, according to the United Nations' scientific panel, there is a lot of uncertainty that gets glossed over in politics. Republicans like Pruitt seize on alarmist messages from advocates and others, which perpetuates this black and white political debate that doesn't exist in the scientific realm.

"Where we've made mistakes in the past is arguing that humans are causing it, full stop," said Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA administrator under President George W. Bush. "It's not that we're the only cause. We're exacerbating a natural phenomenon."

Passive watchers

Climate change is not a high priority for most Americans, especially Republicans.

Furthermore, the biggest experience Republicans have with voting on climate change is bad: Some House Republicans were voted out of office in 2010 after voting yes on a sweeping climate bill conservative groups called a tax.

Why would a Republican stick their neck out on an issue his constituents don't care about that could cost him his job? Such a question may seem harsh to those who think a global problem like climate should transcend politics, but it doesn't.

Joseph Majkut, director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank that backs a tax on carbon emissions, says in his conversations with congressional Republicans that many privately acknowledge climate change is a problem, but they go on to say: " 'no solution thus far is acceptable to me, so therefore, I'm just not going to talk about the problem.' "

Quiet backers

Of the 26 Republican members of a bipartisan climate caucus in the House created last year, all but six have joined this year. That's an impressive increase, especially considering Trump is working to repeal all U.S. climate policy.

But the caucus represents a baby step after inaction from within the GOP since at least 2010. The members are opposed to regulations and don't support market-based systems, like a tax on carbon emissions, to cut emissions. Some members are pushing smaller legislation, like measures extending clean-energy tax credits.

There isn't any obvious negotiation going on with Democrats, in part because Washington is focused on myriad other things voters care about more. But also, some of the rhetoric coming out of the Democratic party and environmentalists about how the world must wean itself off fossil fuels entirely turns off Republicans who want to take action.

"There are concerns that the environmental groups are just so closely tied to Democrats that it would be hard to find support for doing the right thing on climate," Majkut said.

Next week: What Democrats are getting wrong with climate change
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev welcomed a continuing double-digit growth of Russias trade with Armenia when he met with his Armenian counterpart Karen Karapetian on Monday.

The two men held talks on the sidelines of a meeting in Kazakhstans capital Astana of the prime ministers of Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states.

On the whole, the situation is not bad because there is an increase in both deliveries of goods from Armenia to Russia and overall commercial exchange between our countries, Medvedev said in his opening remarks at the meeting. We are continuing to coordinate our positions on joint investment projects, on a number of areas of economic cooperation which have emerged of late.

So on the whole, things are going well, but this doesnt mean that we have nothing to discuss, he added.

I also want to discuss a number of issues, including dates for your visit to Armenia, replied Karapetian.

Official Armenian statistics show that Russian-Armenian trade increased by over 23.7 percent to $737.5 million in the first half of this year. By comparison, Armenias trade with the European Union amounted to $677 million in the same period. It was up by 18 percent in absolute terms.

Russia surpassed the EU as Armenias leading trading partner after a similar rise in bilateral trade recorded last year. Armenian exports to Russia alone jumped by 51 percent in 2016. Officials in Yerevan attributed that to Armenias membership in the EEU, a Russian-led trade bloc comprising five ex-Soviet states.

Analysts believe that a stabilization and certain strengthening of the Russian ruble in 2016 was also a key factor. The Russian currency weakened sharply against the U.S. dollar in 2014 and 2015 due to the collapse of oil prices and Western economic sanctions imposed on Moscow. As a result, Russian-Armenian trade plummeted in 2015.
14 August 2017 18:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

A group of servicemen of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry attended a ceremony of the 40th deathday of two-year Azerbaijani civilian Zahra and her grandmother killed by the Armenian Armed Forces.

On July 4, the Armenian armed forces using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers shelled the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijans Fuzuli region. As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sahiba Guliyeva, 50, and Zahra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Salminaz Guliyeva, 52, who got wounded, was taken to a hospital and was operated on.

The servicemen, addressing the ceremony, once again offered condolences to the family members of the victims of the Armenian vandalism. They noted that the blood of innocent people will be avenged and the enemy will receive a decent rebuff, Azertac reported on August 14.

The officers added that despite this tragedy, the Azerbaijani side never opens fire on Armenian civilians.

The participants of the ceremony later heard "Innocent Zahra" elegy written by honored art worker Abdulla Gurbani. He also spoke about the new projects of the Defense Ministry  the book " Victims of the Armenian aggression: innocent babies" dedicated to the memory of little Zahra, and a short documentary film "Innocent Zahra."

The family members of Zahra and her grandmother, the region elders and representatives of the public, in turn, noted with appreciation that Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov arrived at the scene immediately after the tragedy and met with relatives of the victims. They hailed the support provided to them in those difficult days, and thanked for the attention and care.

Armenia constantly resorts to vile military provocations with the aim to kill Azerbaijani citizens who live their quiet life in frontline settlements. However, the international community turns a blind eye to these terrible crimes, as Armenia still remains unpunished for them.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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14 August 2017 11:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Some Ukrainian enterprises are interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan Export and Investments Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) informed Azertac that Zorya-Mashproekt, a research and production complex that specializes in a gas turbine construction, is eager to cooperate with Azerbaijan in the field of oil and gas production.

The Sumy Machine-Building Plant is interested in participating in such promising projects in Azerbaijan as the Garadag underground gas storage facility, Kalmaz underground gas storage facility, supply of technological equipment for the TANAP project, supply of equipment for the White City project and, in general, supply of a compressor for the oil and gas complex.

The Motor Sich, one of the largest engine manufacturers for airplanes and helicopters worldwide and the only enterprise in Ukraine manufacturing engines for airplanes and helicopters, is ready to offer Azerbaijan supply of gas turbine power plants with a capacity of 2,500 to 12,000 megawatt.

Moreover, the company is ready to offer 6,000 gas turbines of gas pumping units with the power of 300 kilowatts, for gas and oil producing stations, gas turbine transmitters with a capacity of 6.3 out of 6 megawatts, design and supply of energy complexes for low-calorie fuel, modernization of existing equipment, training of the specialists of repair and maintenance organizations, as well as the supply of spare parts and units for equipment.

Diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Azerbaijan were established on February 6, 1992.

Main goods imported from Ukraine to Azerbaijan remains as mainly metallurgy products, machine building products, agro-industrial products, and chemical industry products. While main goods exported from Azerbaijan to Ukraine are generally products of fuel energy industry, chemical industry products, and agro-industrial products.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Ukraine amounted to $334.18 million in 2016, $44.4 million of which accounted for the export from Ukraine, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

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14 August 2017 12:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The total volume of all transactions through all financial instruments of the Baku Stock Exchange (BSE) amounted to 5,338 billion manats ($3.138 billion) in January-July 2017. The figure is more by 2.4 times compared to the indicator of the same period of 2016.

The volume of the state securities market amounted to 1.610 billion manats ($946.669 million) during the reporting period, Azertac reported.

Some 387.2 million manats ($227.7 million) from the total amount of the securities were bonds of the Finance Ministry, and 1.223 billion manats ($719.115 million)-notes of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).

Over the past year, the market share totaled to 667.6 million manats ($392.5 million), the debt market volume-470.5 million manats ($276.6 million). The volume of the market for derivative financial instruments amounted to 2.578 billion manats ($1.515 billion).

During the first 7 months of this year, the volume of REPO operations amounted to 11.6 million manats ($6.8 million).

A repurchase agreement (REPO) is a form of short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities. The dealer sells the government securities to investors, usually on an overnight basis, and buys them back the following day.

BSE is the main stock exchange in Azerbaijan. BSE trades short-term treasury bonds, common stocks (primarily from former state-owned enterprises that have been privatized, including food and beverage, construction and banking companies), and foreign currency futures.

The mission of BSE is to establish and develop market infrastructure that will provide the trading of securities and efficient execution of transactions.

BSE began its operations on February 15, 2000 with the support of the State Committee for Securities of Azerbaijan. The first trading operation at the stock exchange was carried out on September 1, 2000.

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14 August 2017 12:57 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan exported 597,698 kilowatt per hour (kWh) of electricity during the first 7 months of 2017, which shows three-fold rise compared to the indicator of the same period of 2016.

The cost of the exported electricity in January-July amounted to $25,915 million.

Azerbaijan, which strives to develop its non-oil sector and diversify economy, can be proud of its power sector. Today, the country is able to fully meet its own energy needs, and seeks to supply power to the European market.

Currently, the countrys energy system is based on the capacity of 14 thermal and over 10 hydro power plants. Over the past 10 years, the power grid of the country increased by 40 percent, which allows not only cover domestic needs, but also forms export potential of the country.

Azerenergy JSC, which is the largest electrical power producer in Azerbaijan, produced 22.6 billion kWh of electricity in 2016, as compared to about 22.5 billion kWh produced in 2015.

Power generation helps Azerbaijan to create an annual export potential of several billion kWh. To export surplus electricity, Azerbaijan eyes several major projects, including the Energy Bridge Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, which will allow Azerbaijan to export to Europe about 700 MW of electricity a year.

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14 August 2017 16:32 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan has recorded a significant rise in the car import  the figure doubled in the first seven months of 2017.

The data for January-July from the State Customs Committee show that the country imported 4,468 units of vehicles compared to 2,879 units in 2016.

Some 3,791 out of the total number of vehicles imported during the seven months of this year are motor vehicles, while the figure was 2, 475 in the same period of last year.

Experts note an increase in the domestic car market. So, if in 2005 the number of cars did not exceed 50,000, then today their number exceeds 1.3 million. The State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan stated that in January-May of 2017, the car import increased by 18.99 percent against a fall of 4.66 times in 2016.

However, still Azerbaijan lags behind not only Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, but also neighboring Georgia in terms of the number of cars per capita.

Over the past three years, the car import to Azerbaijan decreased. The figure dropped from 104,000 cars in 2013 to 5,600 in 2016, what is according to experts is due to the requirement on introduction of environmental standards and toughening the issuance of car loans from banks.

The shift to Euro-4 in 2014 influenced taxes on imported cars. Prices for cars meeting Euro-4 standards are higher than prices for Euro-2 standard cars. Depending on the size of the engine, the amount of taxes on cars imported into the country varies.

Currently, the renewal of the car park occurs at the expense of economy class cars. In the primary market, the largest number of cars is bought from manufacturers from Asia. The four bestsellers are Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and KIA, which account for 40 percent of the total market. More than 30 percent of sales on the car market of Azerbaijan falls on Mercedes brand, the remaining 67-68 percent of the automotive market shares 50 other brands, according to Sputnik Azerbaijan.

Last year, there was a noticeable increase in car prices, in particular, prices in the primary market increased by more than 50 percent following the devaluation of the national currency.

In the secondary market, the price increase depends on the car's output period. For example, from the end of the 1990s to the early 2000s, prices rose by 10-15 percent, from 2002 to 2008 by 15-20 percent and in 2009-2016 by 20-30 percent.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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14 August 2017 18:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Kazakhstan, Central Asias major natural gas and oil producer, is interested in increasing the import of goods from Azerbaijan.

The county is mainly interested in purchasing various agricultural products, including potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, nuts, apples, pears, quinces, apricots, cherries, cherries and others, according to materials provided by the National Economy Ministry of Kazakhstan to the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO)

The list also includes chocolate, sugar, tobacco raw materials, wine, sunflower oil, tea, animal and vegetable fats and acyclic alcohol. Kazakhstan is also interested in importing various construction materials from Azerbaijan such as cement, steel structures from ferrous metals, pipes and packaging bags.

Azerbaijan can meet demand of the Kazakh market and almost completely replace potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and gherkins, animal and vegetable fats and edible oils imported from other countries, according to the Kazakh Ministry.

Kazakhstan imports potatoes on an average of $10.6 million per year, while imports of potatoes from Azerbaijan can reach $ 8.3 million.

Kazakhstan imports tomatoes for $56.6 million. Azerbaijan can meet the country's needs in this product by 87.5 percent. For cucumbers and gherkins, these figures will be $10.4 million and 78.8 percent respectively, and for animal and vegetable fats and edible oils $5.9 million and 76.1 percent, accordingly.

Today, the volume of supplies from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan for each of these goods is about $100,000, according to the Ministry's data.

The trade turnover with Kazakhstan in January-June of 2017 amounted to $74.5 million, of which $ 60.7 million accounted for imports from Kazakhstan.

Azerbaijan is keen to diversify the national economy and reduce its dependence on petrodollars. This is seen at the safest way to minimize the impact of the global crisis to the nation.

The most important component of the government strategy on diversification of the Azerbaijani economy is designated to optimizing the structure of non-oil exports, in particular, by increasing the volume and range of agricultural products, and improving its competitiveness on foreign markets.

Azerbaijan's agricultural sector plays an important role in providing the 9.8-million population's food security in a best way and increasing the country's export potential.

In 2017, the share of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijans GDP will grow 2.5 percent and amount to 67.9 percent, according to official forecasts. The share of the non-oil exports in Azerbaijans GDP is projected to grow 8.4 percent.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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14 August 2017 18:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The State Committee on Property Issues of Azerbaijan will hold next auction on privatization of state property on September 12.

The auction will exhibit 139 state properties, of which 20 are joint-stock companies, 35 are small state enterprises and 84 are non-residential areas.

Majority of the small state enterprises are put up for auction together with land plot. Both, the land plot and the object are estimated separately. The small state enterprises are located in Baku, Ganja, Astara, Zardab, Beylagan, Shirvan, and other cities and regions of the country.

About 69 non-residential areas to be put up for the auction are located in the capital city, the rest-in other regions of the city.

The joint-stock companies, put up for the auction, include enterprises specializing in construction, industry, agriculture, transport and others.

In order to buy property at auction two procedures must be passed: Firstly, must be made an order through the website of the State Committee (www.e-emdk.gov.az) and secondly, 10 percent of the lot value must be paid.

The State Committee on Property Issues held the first electronic auction on July 4.

The "electronic auction" service, which is available on the website privatization.az, combines the privatization procedure of vehicles and equipment. In the future, it will be possible to privatize small state enterprises and facilities, joint-stock companies through electronic auction. Now, the corresponding work in programming is being implemented.

The portal for privatization  privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process. The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country.

The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as develop the business environment of Azerbaijan.

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14 August 2017 13:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

A photo exhibition dedicated to the World Scout Movement was opened at the Fountain Square in Baku on August 13.

The exhibition was organized within the framework of the World Scout Conference, which will be held in Baku on August 14-18. Twenty photos from different countries reflected various aspects of scouting, Azertac reported.

The organizers of the exhibition informed that, it is a good tradition to conduct a photo-display on the eve of the conference, in order to popularize the idea of scouting among residents and visitors of the host city.

Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan Intigam Babayev, who spoke at the opening of the photo exhibition, stressed that the idea of scouting is extremely close to Azerbaijani people.

"Educating patriotic citizens, protecting the environment, helping people, self-improvement, truthfulness, ensuring physical, moral and intellectual development are one of the main goals of Azerbaijan's youth policy. I am convinced that there are suitable conditions for further development of Scout Movement in Azerbaijan", he said.

The guest of honor at the opening of the exhibition was the former president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, who once also headed the National Scout Association in his country.

In his speech, Mr. Kikwete said that scouting is a good educational base, which develops in the representatives of the young generation the opportunity to be responsible citizens of their country and responsible leaders.

"Tanzania has a very strong tradition of scouting, it involves many youth representatives. A lot of scouts then become military, including generals, and occupy other leading positions. I am sure that the scouts of Azerbaijan are extremely encouraged by the international events taking place in the country, so important for the Scout Movement. I hope that we will witness a phenomenal increase in the number of participants in the scout movement in Azerbaijan ", he said.

The former president of Tanzania admitted that he was subdued by the beauty of Baku.

" Baku is a very beautiful city, you are so lucky! The city has a very good, well-organized layout. In it everything is thought out, right up to the colors and styles of buildings, which perfectly harmonize with each other. The city is buried in greenery, which gives it even more charm. I can talk endlessly about the beauty of the capital of Azerbaijan, although I am here for the first time, but firmly decided to return again for a longer time", he added.

The exhibition of dedicated to the Scout Movement will last until August 20.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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14 August 2017 14:47 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

A flag-raising ceremony was held in the Pakistani Embassy in Baku on August 14 in connection with the 70th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan.

Pakistani Ambassador to Azerbaijan Saeed Khan Mohmand, addressing the ceremony, said that relations between the peoples of Azerbaijan and Pakistan are developing day by day, APA reports.

This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. Our relationship has always been strong, it is developing day by day, the ambassador said.

He noted that these strong, brotherly and warm relations are based on political relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan.

Our relations, which are developing in all spheres, are more than a strategic partnership, Mohmand added.

Pakistan became the second country after Turkey which recognized the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991. The diplomatic relations between two countries were established on June 9, 1992.

The military cooperation takes a special place in Azerbaijan-Pakistan relations. Back in November 2016, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry and Pakistans Joint Staff Headquarters signed a plan of bilateral military cooperation in Islamabad. The sides agreed to continue cooperation in carrying out joint military exercises and discussed detailed cooperation in defense sector and joint military production.

Saeed Khan Mohmand also thanked Azerbaijan for the country's position on the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan, in its turn, takes a principled position on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. We support Azerbaijan at all forums, he noted.

Pakistan backed Azerbaijan during and after the Nagorno-Karabakh War and it is the only country that does not recognize Armenia. Pakistan also adopted a resolution strongly condemning the genocide against the civilian population of Khojaly, which was committed by Armenian armed forces.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

I was deeply saddened by heavy casualties caused by a collision involving two passenger trains near the city of Alexandria, Ilham Aliyev said in his condolence letter.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died, and wish those injured the soonest possible recovery. May Allah rest the souls of the dead in peace!

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14 August 2017 17:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

An unexploded shell was found in the Arayatli village of Azerbaijans Fuzuli region.

Azerbaijans National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) received information about the discovery of unexploded ordnance in the Arayatli village on August 14, Report informs.

The Agency immediately sent a special rapid response team to the scene. ANAMA experts inspected the territory and discovered an anti-tank projectile of 125-millimeter caliber (OF-26). The special team transported the shell to the central territory of the Agency for destruction of dangerous objects and devices.

ANAMA also conducted ground inspection of an area of 900 square meters, but no other dangerous objects or devices were found.

ANAMA was established in 1998 for planning and coordination, management and monitoring of mine action related activities all over the country. The problem of unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan can be divided into the areas that are still under the occupation of Armenian forces and other areas of the country. Most of the unexploded ordinances are the result of Armenian aggression.

Since the creation of ANAMA, its staff cleared more than 40,000 hectares of Azerbaijans territory, discovering and defusing over 760,000 mines and unexploded ordnance.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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14 August 2017 14:54 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Oil prices dipped on August 14 as a slowdown in Chinese refining activity casts doubts over its crude demand outlook, while rising U.S. shale output suggested supplies would likely remain high.

Brent crude futures are at $51.92 per barrel and down 0.4 percent, from their last close, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures are at $48.70 a barrel, down 0.3 percent, Reuters reported.

The oil processing volumes in China slowed the growth rate in July. The National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China reported that Chinese plants increased oil refining in July by 0.4 percent in annual terms - to 45.5 million tons, or 10.71 million barrels per day.

Daily processing volumes were the lowest since September 2016, which, according to analysts, suggests a slowdown in the growth in oil demand, despite the IEA data.

"Runs were slightly below our expectations, as fuel demand growth remained tepid and stocks were brimming," said Harry Liu, a downstream consultant with IHS Markit.

Furthermore, the production of shale oil in the U.S. since December 2016 amounted to 300,000 barrels per day.

Last week, the number of oil drills in the U.S. increased by 3 units and reached 768, according to the report of the industrial service company Baker Hughes.

OPEC and other major oil producers such as Russia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Sudan, and South Sudan reached an agreement in December 2016 to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the market.



OPEC has decided to extend its production cuts till March 2018, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

Next meeting of the OPEC Technical Committee will be held on August 21 in Vienna.

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14 August 2017 17:02 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR will additionally extract almost 5,100 tons of oil annually thanks to the commissioning of a new well on the offshore field Oil Rocks.

The company reported that oil with a flow rate of 14 tons per day is extracted in the range of 1,219-12,11 meters.

The Oil Rocks was discovered in 1949. An industrial settlement 100 miles off the coast of Baku, the Oil Rocks is a complete town on the sea. The first oil platform in Azerbaijan, the Oil Rocks was also the first operating offshore oil platform in the world.

By the end of 2016 almost 1 million tons of oil was extracted from the field.

The forecast for oil production in the country in 2017 stands at 39.797 million, while the figure is 3.7 percent lower than the index of 2016.

SOCAR produced 7.52 million tons of oil in 2016 against 8.16 million tons produced in 2015.

In total, the volume of oil production amounted to 41.03 million tons in 2016 against 41.58 million tons produced in 2015.

The company is 100 percent owned by the government of Azerbaijan. SOCAR participates in joint ventures (including ventures in Georgia and Turkey), consortia, and operating companies established with SOCARs participation.

The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerkimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.

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14 August 2017 09:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Iranian lawmakers amended a law on death sentence for drugs smugglers, introducing a less exacting legislature, the Parliaments website majlestv.ir reported August 13.

According to the new legislature, capital punishment for those convicted of drugs trafficking will be replaced with life imprisonment and fine.

Nevertheless, a previous law on life imprisonment sentence was replaced by one that allows imprisonment sentence (without the life clause) and fine.

The amendment does not apply to armed smugglers, ringleaders and misusers of -18-olds, or convicts with a history of death or +15 years imprisonment sentence.

The bill must still be approved by the conservative-dominated Guardian Council but gained parliamentary approval after months of debate.

According to Amnesty International, Iran was one of the top five executioners in the world in 2016, with most of its hangings related to illicit drugs.

The amendment will apply retroactively, thus commuting the sentences for many of the 5,300 inmates currently on death row for drug trafficking.

Iran bears the brunt of world fight on drugs as it is situated next to the opium wellspring Afghanistan.

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14 August 2017 12:07 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkeys ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will celebrate the 16th anniversary of its founding today, Turkish media reported.

Events will be held throughout the country in this regard. Turkeys former President Abdullah Gul and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will take part in the events.

The Justice and Development Party was established August 14, 2001.

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14 August 2017 17:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Ali Mustafayev

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a telephone conversation with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev to mull bilateral and global issues, as well as the schedule of future meetings.

"There was an exchange of views on issues concerning bilateral cooperation, including the schedule of the further meetings at various levels, as well as on global issues," the Kremlin press service said in a statement on August14.

Previously, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently on a visit to Kazakhstans capital of Astana to participate in a session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, held a meeting with Nazarbayev.

The parties discussed the current state of trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as the prospects for boosting bilateral relations.



We are glad for the success of friendly Kazakhstan in organizing the EXPO - 2017. It is a big event for you and generally for our Union. Today, we discuss current economic issues within EIC. I want to thank you for the excellent working facilities and express hope that our bilateral relations will develop as good and progressively as it was in recent years, Medvedev said.

Kazakhstan and Russia are both founding members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and are additionally part of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Both also founded the Eurasian Economic Union with Belarus.

Kazakhstan sells petroleum and natural gas to its northern neighbor, allows heavy investment from Russian businesses, and concluded an agreement over the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Russia is one of the main trade partners of Kazakhstan, according to data from the Kazakh Statistics Committee.

In January-February 2017, as much as 22 percent of Kazakhstans foreign trade fell on Russia, 38.6 percent  on the EU, and 12 percent  on China. The trade volume between Kazakhstan and Russia hit almost $2.425 billion, including $671.55 million of Kazakhstans exports and $1.754 billion of Kazakhstans imports.

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14 August 2017 15:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Ali Mustafayev

The Parliament of Iran approved a bill on allocation of funds for the development of its missile program in response to the sanctions imposed by the U.S.

The bill mandates the government to allocate an additional $260 million for the "development of the missile programme" and the same amount to the Revolutionary Guards's foreign operations wing, the Quds Force, IRNA said.

The bill was supported by 240 of 247 parliamentarians. Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani, addressing the session on August 13, said that the document seeks to counter the terrorist and adventurous actions of the U.S. in the region, RIA Novosti reports.

The Americans must know that this was our first action, said Larijani after announcing the overwhelming majority vote for the package on Sunday.

The vote came after new US sanctions in July against Iran, targeting Tehran's missile programme. The U.S. state department said 18 entities or individuals would be affected by the new measures.

"The United States remains deeply concerned about Iran's malign activities across the Middle East, which undermine regional stability, security and prosperity," the sanctions document added.

Irans Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the bill is backed by the foreign ministry and the government and is part of measures by the JCPOA supervision committee to confront the recent US Congress law.

The U.S. government states that the nuclear potential of Iran is still not clear, and the Comprehensive Plan of Action accepted in Vienna in 2015 just delays Irans coming into being a nuclear power, and Tehrans nuclear ambitions may be potentially dangerous for the universal peace and security.

Iran refuses accusations and argues that there is no danger in its missile testing and that each country has rights to improve its defense system.

The parliamentarians of Iran agreed, during the meeting, that peace can be sustainable only on principles of the equality of governments rights, with respect of sovereignty and non-interference in other countries policy.

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14 August 2017 15:57 (UTC+04:00)

By Ali Mustafayev

China has announced a ban on import of key products from North Korea to empower the latest UN sanctions on the nuclear program of Pyongyang. The ban will cover coal, iron and seafood imports.

A full ban on imports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore, seafood from North Korea is introduced," the Chinese Commerce Ministry stated on Monday, RIA Novosti reports.

The ban will take effect from August 15, the Ministry announced. The goods that arrive to the checkpoints before the order enters into force would be allowed to enter the country on the previous conditions.

But at the same time, Beijing warned the Trump administration not to split the international coalition over North Korea by provoking a trade war between China and the United States.

Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Beijing to exert economic pressure on North Korea as China remains the biggest trade partner of Pyongyang.

China accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade but moved earlier in February to suspend North Koreas coal imports until the end of the year. In July, China announced that imports from North Korea fell to $880 million in the six months that ended in June, down 13 percent from a year earlier.

However, a 29-percent growth was recorded in Chinese exports to North Korea  North Korea bought $1.67 billion worth of Chinese products in the first six months of the year

In April, the Chinese General Administration of Customs stated that trading turnover between the two countries in the first quarter of 2017 increased to 37.4 percent, even despite the UN sanctions.

The situation around North Korea became tense recently and has escalated further after the trade war declared on Pyongyang by the U.S. and the EU after its ballistic missile tests.

Last week, the UN Security Council adopted sanctions against the North Korea, reducing the Korean export of coal, iron and lead ores and seafood, which will reduce the countrys foreign-exchange income up to two thirds.

Later, President Trump threatened to unleash fire and fury against North Korea if it endangered the United States.

North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States, Mr. Trump told reporters They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

In response to Donald Trump, North Korea warned that it was considering a strike that would create an enveloping fire around Guam, the western Pacific island where the United States operates a critical Air Force base.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
14 August 2017 11:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan, the hot spot for many travelers from around the world, has ranked the first in the world for the easiest and fastest visa issuing process.

The British magazine Wanderlust included Azerbaijan in Top 5 countries with the easiest visa procedure.

Until recently, Azerbaijan was a stalwart on the 'Hardest visa to get' list. Getting a visa to visit the country was a long and torturous process with no guarantee of success, the magazine reports.

Recently, the whole process of getting a visa to Azerbaijan was hugely simplified. After introduction of an electronic visa [ASAN Visa], this decision has become a real gift to the citizens of foreign countries who wish to visit Azerbaijan in different purposes.

In 2016, the country applied electronic visa, making the process of obtaining correct entry documents cheaper and quicker. And now, it gets easier  foreigners will get e-visas just in three days.

Everything is done online and the visa is issued after only 2-4 days. The fees are significantly lower too. These days it costs a measly $20.

Today, citizens of 93 countries take advantage of ASAN Visa system. Electronic visa is a document for one entry, which determines the period of stay in the country up to 30 days.

Azerbaijan, situated on the Great Silk Road, and divided partially between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, blended the best from both cultures, forming its own unique rich culture, thats why its people are neither totally Eastern, nor totally Western.

Mountains, forests, farmlands, coastal areas, rich natural resources and nine out of a possible eleven distinct climate zones from subtropical to alpine climates provide Azerbaijan with a broad range of natural environments that can be used to develop a range of tourism activities and to attract a diverse group of tourists.

But beyond its nature, which is key reason for the tourism, the people of Azerbaijan are wonderfully welcoming and hospitable.

The second place went to Cambodia after the transition to an electronic system of issuing visas, according to the British magazine.

Third place was taken by Sri Lanka, where the process of obtaining a visa takes no more than 24 hours and does not require an interview.

Sri Lanka is followed by Tajikistan, where an electronic visa application form was introduced last year. Now only a copy of the passport is required for obtaining permission to enter Tajikistan.

The last place in the TOP 5 countries with a simplified visa procedure takes Vietnam. The process of obtaining a visa to this country takes a maximum of three days and everything is done through an online system.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz




First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It was announced today that luxury British cocoa grower and chocolatier, Hotel Chocolat, has chosen Dundrum Town Centre to open its first cafe store in Ireland.



Hotel Chocolat was founded in 2003 to make exciting chocolate with three guiding principles  authenticity, originality and ethics. With its Rabot Estate cocoa plantation and Boucan Hotel & Restaurant in Saint Lucia, a chocolate-manufacturing facility in Cambridgeshire and stores and cocoa cafes across the UK and internationally, Hotel Chocolat aims to link all aspects of chocolate from the tree to the consumer.



The new cafe store at Dundrum will offer the centres shoppers its full range of exclusive chocolates as well as the brands own cafe, which will feature innovative new cocoa-based drinks including their signature Hot Chocolat and Coffee Chocolat Lattes. Due to open in October of this year, the new Hotel Chocolat store will trade next to Zara and Hugo Boss.



Co-Founder of Hotel Chocolat, Peter Harris said, "We are hugely excited to be expanding into Ireland. It took us a while to find the perfect location for our first cafe here but we feel confident that we have found it in Dundrum. We want our new cafe and store to offer a real sense of escapism the moment you step inside."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
The Centre has declared that there will be temporary exemption for the state of Tamil Nadu from National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET) for one year, if the sate passed an ordiance.

The Union minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the ordinance which is to be passed must specify that the move for the exemption is to help the rural students to get admissions into government colleges.

She further stated that this was unique to the state and canceled out any chances of exemptions in the future.

Sitharaman also said "There are 4,000 seats for which children are still waiting for clarity on admission process. The Tamil Nadu government can request for exemption in government colleges."

The medical college admission in India is conducted based on the National Entrance and Eligibility Test scores. The ruling party in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK and the DMK have been against the examination.

Supreme Court asks for Common Question Papers for NEET

The state had done off with entrance examinations almost a decade ago and medical seats are provided on the bases of the marks from class 12 board examinations.

The chief minister of the state Edappadi K. Palaniswami had met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and spoke about the exemption of the state in the NEET exams and the allotment of colleges based on the same.

The entrance examination was announced to be illegal and unconstitutional by the apex court of India on the year 2013. In the month of April 2016, a five judge bench restored the entrance examination and allowed the Center and the medical council of India to conduct the test.

After the states like Tamil Nadu made requests, a law was formed which granted the exemption for the prerequisite examination only for the government college for a year.

Also Read: Urdu to be Included in NEET from 2018


Saudi Arabia volumes down 19% in 7M17

14 August 2017

Saudi Arabias cement sales volumes have dropped by 19 per cent YoY to 28.3Mt during the first seven months of 2017, a report from Al Rajhi Capital reveals.



The Saudi Cement sector report added that inventories stood at 33.6t. However, it pointed out that when looking at capacities, inventories and potential demand for each region, the northern region remains the weakest as current inventories represent 118 per cent of regional producers dispatches in the last 12 months.



For the western and southern regions, recent capacity additions have added to existing oversupply, the report added. For the central region, 2Q selling prices were lower than in the western region as it was more accessible to producers despite favourable locations and low inventories compared to other regions.



In the eastern region, producers were impacted after implementing export fees on Bahrain exports. However, these exports are likely to restart after a 50 per cent discount on fees.



Going forward, volatility and stiff competition on selling prices are likely to continue in the sector, given the slowdown in construction activities and limited demand from megaprojects. (Source: ME Construction News)





Published under
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.
Catholics now largest faith group in England and Wales prisons

For the first time in British history Catholicism is the largest religious denomination of prisoners in England and Wales, a position previously held by the Anglican Church.

Roman Catholics are now the largest faith group among the incarcerated, following a steady rise in the prison population and a simultaneous decline in the number of Anglicans, according to official figures revealed by The Times.

The number of prisoners who identify as Anglican has fallen from 21,600 in 1993 to 14,691 at the end of June, while Catholic numbers have risen from 7,766 to 14,961 in the same period. Muslims follow the Anglican Church closely, with their numbers having risen from 2,106 to 13,100. However, those with 'no religion' are the largest group among those in prison, at 26,443.

The Church of England, as the established state church, has traditionally played a dominant role in the prison service, particularly in the provision of pastoral care by prison chaplains.

The Prison Act 1952 requires that every British jail has a governor, doctor and chaplain, and that said chaplain, and their assistants, must be clergymen in the Church of England. Alongside this, chaplains of other faith groups are allowed. The prison service's chaplain general has historically been an Anglican clergyman.

However, shifting demographics and affiliations mean that while Anglicans once made up half of prisoners in England in Wales nearly twenty-five years ago, they made up just 17 per cent this year.

Subsequently, some have previously called for the CofE to lose its dominance in the prison chaplaincy service, making more space for other faiths.

The Right Reverend James Langstaff, the Bishop of Rochester and Bishop to Prisons, said: 'There is clearly a changing pattern of faith which is seen in a higher proportion of Muslims and other faiths in the system.'

He said the English law regarding the CofE's role was an 'anomaly in a way', but added that: 'I think most of the faith traditions would wish to preserve the position of a chaplaincy of some kind and believe it is required to serve prisoners.'
Franklin Graham calls 'shame' on Trump critics over Charlottesville violence, says 'Satan is behind it all'

Franklin Graham has defended Donald Trump over criticism of the President's response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. The evangelist called 'shame' on Trump's detractors and said that 'Satan is behind it all'.

'Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in #Charlottesville, VA. That's absurd,' Graham, the president of Samartians Purse and an estabished Trump ally, wrote on his Facebook page last night. He pointed to other potential causes for the violence surrounding neo-Nazi and white-supremacist protests that led to one person being killed.

He asked: 'What about the politicians such as the city council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924, regardless of the possible repercussions? How about the city politicians who issued the permit for the lawful demonstration to defend the statue? And why didn't the mayor or the governor see that a powder keg was about to explode and stop it before it got started?

'Instead they want to blame President Donald J. Trump for everything. Really, this boils down to evil in people's hearts. Satan is behind it all. He wants division, he wants unrest, he wants violence and hatred. He's the enemy of peace and unity.'

He added that he denounced 'bigotry and racism of every form, be it black, white or any other'.

Trump faced widespread condemnation after he neglected to explicitly condemn white nationalism, saying instead that he condemned 'hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides...on many sides'.

Graham's post faced criticism from some Christian leaders on Twitter. Responding to Graham's post, leading Jesuit and ally of Pope Francis James Martin, SJ tweeted: 'The president's courting of the alt right, his egging on of violence and his failure to swiftly condemn white supremacists is the real shame.'

The so-called Alt-Right white supremacist ideologies are anti-Christ and satanic to the core. We should say so. #SBC17  Russell Moore (@drmoore) June 14, 2017

Christian activist Shane Claiborne quoted Graham's Tweet, writing: 'Did you miss all the "Make America Great Again" hats or David Duke saying this was the "fulfillment of all the promises of Trump"?'

Other evangelicals like leading Southern Baptist Russell Moore were clear in their condemnation of the white-supremacist marches. Moore tweeted: 'The so-called Alt-Right white supremacist ideologies are anti-Christ and satanic to the core. We should say so.'
In Uganda, a helping hand is better than a hand-out

It's hard to know what to do about the problem of poverty in the developing world. We who have been blessed with advantages in the UK can't simply solve it by giving away our possessions to the world's poor  that would not be sustainable. But what is sustainable is helping people to help themselves. That is what one Christian charity is doing in a small town in Uganda  and the impact they are seeing is wonderful. Which is all the more encouraging because of the obstacles ordinary Ugandans face every day.

Just read the words of some of the people who have now been helped, about where they've come from:

'I had no hope. I was just there.'

'I had no money to help my family.'

'I wasn't doing anything.'

Learning a new skill has transformed the lives of people who felt hopeless in Kasese Town, in western Uganda. Young men and women, young mums and dads  people who had never had a chance in life and had no money, hope or motivation  have found ways to provide for themselves and their families. They have found a future.

Meet Sarah, one of Kasese's new tailors, in this short video.

Christian charity BMS World Mission set up the Kasese Baptist Skills Training Centre, in partnership with local churches and the Kasese Association of Baptist Churches' Development Committee (KBAC-DC), to help people like Sarah break themselves out of poverty.

The skills centre is in one of the poorest areas of Kasese Town, where many people are unemployed and struggle to get by day-to-day. Before the centre opened in 2012, BMS workers and partners noticed a general sense of despair amongst young men in the area, who felt they had no way out of their poverty. Single mums were having to leave their young children alone to go and look for work. People had no options. No choice. No power.

For the last five years, the BMS-supported skills centre has been offering training in skills such as tailoring, carpentry, mechanics and hairdressing, as well as advice on practical elements of running a business, such as budgeting. The centre also runs a day-care for preschool children, so that parents can come and learn a profitable skill, knowing their children are being safely cared for.

Pastor Alfonse, who is head of KBAC-DC and helped to set up the centre, believes that this project is bringing people independence and hope.

'The most important thing I have seen in the people who have come is that they have been given hope,' he says. 'They were hopeless, but now they can stand on their own.'

Kisupeho Zoneat is a 25-year-old mother of two from Kasese Town. She became a mum when she was just 17 years old and, until now, has never had the opportunity to learn a skill to help her provide for her struggling family. Learning to sew has given her ambition and a way to improve her life.

'This tailoring is going to help me,' she says. 'After this training, I'm going to manage to support my family, I'm going to manage to rent my house, I'm going to manage everything.'

Aziz Muhind is 24 years old and now runs a small carpentry business in Kasese Town, thanks to the training he received at the BMS-supported centre. 'I am making some tables and cupboards  a lot of furniture,' says Aziz. 'I am okay now. I can look after myself. I am seeing a future.'

Thanks to the BMS-supported training, Aziz, Kisupeho, Sarah and many, many more Ugandans have discovered that they have gifts and talents. They have been given the opportunity to pave their own futures and lift themselves out of poverty.

'Now I tell others to come and learn to have skills,' says Kisupeho. Having a skill really can change your life. And giving our money for a helping hand, rather than a hand-out, can change so many.

If you would like to support work like this donate now to BMS World Mission. BMS World Mission is a Christian mission organisation working in around 35 countries across the world. Follow @BMSWorldMission
Pope bans Catholic clinics in Belgium from offering euthanasia

Pope Francis has intervened to prevent Belgian clinics run by Roman Catholic institutions from offering euthanasia to psychiatric patients.

Specifically, the order from the Pope refers to the Belgian Brothers of Charity, which runs 15 psychiatric institutions.

Euthanasia was legalized in Belgium in 2002, in spite of the country's strongly Catholic heritage and protests from the Church. The charity said in a statement that euthanasia would only be performed if there were 'no reasonable treatment alternatives and that such requests would be considered with 'the greatest caution'.

Until June this year, the Brothers of Charity had refused to allow patients to consider euthanasia. Then, it is reported that a change of policy was implemented. That has worried the Vatican to such an extent that brothers who work for the organization are now being required to sign a letter saying they will uphold Church teaching on the sanctity of life.

If they refuse to sign the letter, they will face action under Church law.

Although the case is being handled by Vatican bodies rather than directly by the Pope, he is aware of the ongoing dispute. 'The Holy Father was formally informed about it and was also informed about the steps to be taken,' a spokesperson told the Catholic Herald.

Euthanasia in Belgium is not only available for the terminally ill, making the country a common talking point for advocates and opponents of assisted suicide in the US and UK.

There was an outcry in 2016 when, under a newly liberalized part of the law, the first terminally ill child was euthanized.
Scottish missionary 'hero' who died in Auschwitz to be honoured in Budapest

An 'incredible' Scottish missionary who died helping protect Jewish schoolgirls in Nazi Germany is to be honoured in her adopted city of Budapest.

Jane Haining was a matron at the Scottish Mission School during the Second World War and will be the focus of a new exhibition the Holocaust Memorial Centre in the Hungarian capital.

Her story had been 'neglected' by the city, spokesman Zoltan Toth-Heinmann said of the Church of Scotland missionary, describing her as a 'unique and important' figure.

Haining was ordered to return by Church of Scotland officials but refused, saying: 'If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?'

She was arrested in 1944, charged with working with Jews and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she died aged 47.

The missionary grew up in Dunscore, near Dumfries, and Toth-Heinmann visited Queen's Park Church in Glasgow, where she worshipped before moving to Budapest in 1932.

'Jane Haining's story is an important part of the Holocaust history in Budapest, and sometimes, for the general public, it might be neglected,' he said.

'She was unique because all the other players - rescuers, victims and perpetrators - were local people.

'She was the only one who had the chance to choose if she would stay there and risk her life to save children or just leave and return to Scotland.'

He added he wanted as many people as possible to know of her story and hoped the exhibition would 'illustrate her heroism to visitors'.

He said: 'The primary objective will be the education of young people so they can learn that sometimes it is important to make a sacrifice.

'We have various items relating to her life - artefacts, photographs and documents - which will, along with testimonies from some of her former pupils, bring her story closer to visitors.'

Rev Ian Alexander, secretary of the Church of Scotland world mission council, said: 'Jane Haining's story is heart-breaking, but also truly inspirational.'
Why did the city of Charlottesville, and the state of Virginia, suspend the First Amendment for Saturdays calamitous Unite the Right rally? And would the outcome have been differentone protester dead in a deliberate car-ramming, two state troopers killed in a demonstration-related helicopter accident, and a nations confidence in its institutions severely shaken once againhad the authorities vigorously defended all parties constitutional right to free expression?

True enough, there scarcely is a more shocking image in America than a swastika being lifted high at a white-power political rally. Thats more appalling than a kill the pigs sign at a Black Lives Matter demonstration, if only for its relative singularity, though the symbols have this in common: they are meant to inflame and provoke, and they invariably succeed. In the process, they severely stress a fundamental principle of American democracy: the individuals right to free expression and the concurrent obligation of government to protect that right.

Well, there was plenty of expressing going on at Charlottesville over the weekend, but precious little protecting. Details remain thin. It is not clear, for example, how many alt-right demonstrators were there, though many reports indicate that they were substantially outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, largely drawn from the same crowd that has been rioting at the drop of Donald Trumps name since November 9.

So, obviously, this was a fraught moment. But what would have been the outcome had the police and the Virginia National Guardboth on hand in strong numbersdone their duty, enforced properly obtained demonstration permits, and preserved the right of the warring parties to make their respective points without being physically attacked, one by the other and vice versa? Its worth remembering that Charlottesville did everything it could to prevent the demonstrations, issuing permits only after being sued by the ACLU. And when push came to shoveliterallyon Saturday, police and National Guardsmen were to be found only on the periphery of the brawling. Indeed, the Virginia ACLU reported that police were refusing to intervene unless specifically ordered to do so.

There was no police presence, Brittany Caine-Conley, a minister-in-training at Charlottesvilles Sojourners United Church of Christ, told the New York Times. We were watching people punch each other; people were bleeding all the while police were inside of barricades at the park, watching. It was essentially just brawling on the street and community members trying to protect each other.

Almost at first contact, Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer and Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and cancelled the demonstrators permits, whereupon police began funneling the alt-right protestors away from the designated demonstration siteand, some reports have it, toward the counter-protestors. The carnage followed in short order. Whether the breakdown in police protection was purposefulthat is, intended to quash a constitutionally protected demonstration and provoke a violent confrontationis a question unlikely to be pursued in Virginias present political environment. As partisan eye-gougers go, Governor McAuliffe, a Democrat, is near the top of the list; Mayor Signer, also a Democrat, seems to be cut from the same cloth.

But deliberate or not, the effect was the same: when the sun went down over Charlottesville Saturday, the First Amendment was lying in the dust, and the civic ties meant to bind all Americans were just that much weaker.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Aid charity Muslim Aid has appointed an entirely new board of trustees in an effort to improve its governance, the charity announced last week.

The charity was placed under interim management by the Charity Commission in October last year, as a result of failures in governance. The interim manager, Michael King of law firm Stone King, took over control of the charity to the exclusion of trustees.

The interim manager has now appointed a new board, which will be announced shortly.

Muslim Aid announced the information in response to a Civil Society News story which said the charity had filed its 2015 accounts more than seven months late. The charity has said it may also file its next accounts late as a result of its restructure.

Muslim Aid confirms and regrets that, as the Civil Society article states, our organisation submitted the 2015 Accounts late, the charity said. This was due to failings in the former governance and administration of the organisation which has taken time to rectify.

Muslim Aid management is working to strengthen our compliance and to improve our governance. We have made considerable progress, building the capacity of senior staff and working alongside the interim manager, who has appointed an entirely new board of trustees which we will announce in the near future. When the new trustees take over the governance of the Muslim Aid, the interim manager will be discharged.

Michael King said: "Since my appointment as interim manager, Muslim Aid has worked tirelessly in building capacity and strengthening its compliance whilst continuing its important efforts for people in need in the UK and throughout the world. I am satisfied that significant progress has been made and that we are close to the end of interim management.
Our weekly summary of the latest movers in the charity sector.

Chief executive

The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust has appointed Gail Scott-Spicer as its new chief executive.

Scott-Spicer will take up her new role on 4 September and will replace current interim chief executive Tracey Fletcher, who was appointed in June.

She was previously chief executive of Carers Trust, which she left earlier this year. She has also previously held senior leadership positions with The Scout Association and Catch 22. Scott-Spicer has also held non-executive positions with the Money Advice Trust and Charity Bank.

VisionFund International, the microfinance arm of World Vision, has announced the appointment of Michael Mithika as its chief executive and president.

Mithika, who has been a non-executive director of VisionFund since 2011, will be moving to London from Nairobi to take up his new role which starts in October this year.

Registered charity Gloucestershire Rural Community Council (GRCC) has appointed Janice Banks as its new chief executive.

Banks has previously been interim chief executive at two other rural community councils and was also the chief executive of Action with Communities in Rural England, the national umbrella body for rural community councils.

Alongside her experience working with RCCs, Banks has also worked in the private sector in the past with a number of building societies and housing associations, including Nationwide and Sovereign Housing.

Civil Society Media is hosting its Charity People & Culture Conference on 20 September 2017. For more information, and to book, click here
In the age of social mediawhen cowardly trolls and bigoted bots tend to hurl insults from the safety of anonymous online profilesthe white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and racist demonstrators in Charlottesville did not bother to hide their identities.

They crossed the University of Virginia campus to demand attention with their heads held high, a horde of men whose faces were lit by the torches they carrieda scene intended to evoke and glorify the cruelties of fire-wielding lynch mobs and cross-burners of the Ku Klux Klan.

Yet many of these marchers might bristle at being called Klansmen, per se, counting themselves among some differently-named herd of hateful racists. In recent years, American racists have taken pains to come up with new terminology to self-identify withsuch as the so-called alt-right, a phrase credited to avowed racist Richard Spencer, who famously celebrated Trumps victory with Nazi salutes.

TRENDING: Photographer behind graphic Charlottesville image recounts near-death experience

The media should have had the same reaction to alt-right as we did to Kellyanne Conways insistence on alternative factsutter disbelief and amusement at the idea that we couldnt see a lie for a lie.

But the term didnt die on the fringes of society, instead finding its way into our mainstream. In news coverage, the phrase alt-right shows up, often used as shorthand in headlines or a catch-all term for the many types of hate groups that traveled to Charlottesville from different parts of the country. The weekends events were called Unite the Right because while these groups share many basic tenets, Americas hatemongers are splintered into more than 900 groups now.

Trump  again  fails to condemn alt-righthttps://t.co/hKKczrvB9b Sign up for CJR 's daily email  Karen (@kyungkarenmend1) August 14, 2017

A list of all the ways Trump and his advisers have supported the white supremacist alt-right: https://t.co/eYT3WvHs3j pic.twitter.com/HSKPZPkX35  Slate (@Slate) August 14, 2017

How did such a basic bigot as Spencerdubbed a kind of professional racist in khakis by advocatesredefine overt racism and white supremacy as if they were new? Until this weekend, many Americans and media makers dismissed them as a small group in a dark corner of the internet. But with three dead and more than a dozen others wounded in Charlottesville, white supremacists have unapologetically brought their beliefs and desired violence into the lightwe all see it more clearly now. Its time for media to reframe coverage to clearly relate this fresh outburst of hatred to Americas long history of racial violence.

In the Associated Press Stylebook, the term alt-right is defined as a name currently embraced by some white supremacists and white nationalistswhich, in itself, paints the term as a trendy thing to call an age-old American problem. Somehow, they were allowed to rework their public personas with a term that makes them sound a little edgy, like an alt-weekly or alt-rock.

In the already outdated 2017 edition, the AP style guide offers a warning to avoid using alt-right without defining it, or using a broad brush because it is not well-known. Its time for APand newsrooms coast to coastto stop using such a vague term.

Notably, the AP adds: the term may exist primarily as a public relations device to make its supporters actual beliefs less clear and more acceptable to a broader audience. What an odd suspicion to note, all while allowing the phrase to be used. Journalists should ask: Does our continued use of the phrase alt-right amount to allowing ourselves to be spun by bigots? Cant we just call a racist a racist?

Ive thumbed the Stylebook for many years, and Ive never seen a phrase described quite like this, or a group so nascent as to be not well-known and yet allowed to define itself in a manner that distances itself from typical bigots.

One initial reason for the distinction, that most so-called alt-right groups operate primarily online and through memes, no longer exists. The alt-right is on the streets and hiding in plain sight with a new nickname.

Pundits, please stop dignifying racists, fascists & white supremacists by calling them what they want to be called  "alt-right."  Michael McFaul (@McFaul) August 13, 2017

Please stop calling them alt-right. That's their euphemism. If they chant "blood and soil" they're neo-nazis and/or white supremacists. https://t.co/q072ip8AaD  Joseph Brown (@Joseph_M_Brown) August 12, 2017

I really wish y'all would stop calling them Nazis and alt-right, and call them white supremacists. Hell, call them Confederates.  Cocky McSwagsalot (@MoreAndAgain) August 12, 2017

As journalists, is it better to be able to properly define what specific type of bigotry our interview subjects support? In theory, yes. But we must put truth ahead of rebranding of the same old hatreds. We know spin when we see it. We already had words for white men who believed their rights were more important than anyone elses. We have to be brave enough to use them.

The rebranding of white supremacy knows no bounds. Consider this statement from one of the white supremacists whose picture was circulated on social media this weekend: Im not the angry racist they see in that photo, Peter Cvjetanovic, 20, told a local news station in his home state of Nevada.

In said photo, Cvjetanovic is illuminated by torchlight, wearing a white nationalist symbol on his shirt, and he is visibly giving full-throated support during a march where Nazi slogans and white supremacist chants were being hollered by hordes of white men.

Like the others, he didnt wear a Klansmans hood or hide his identity in any way.

Peter Cvjetanovic tells KTVN "Im not the angry racist they see in that photo." Kid, you're the Hazel Bryan of 2017. https://t.co/v2QYtMcwpt pic.twitter.com/0g2Wic4a7u  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 13, 2017

Even in a clear image of an angry racist, the subject implores viewers to ignore undeniable proof. Despite his attempt to spin, every thinking adult knows what it means to take up torches to march through the South in service of white power.

After watching the chaotic violence this weekend, its clear: It doesnt matter if perpetrators call themselves neo-Nazi, or white separatist, or European Identitarian (as the symbol on Cvjetanovics shirt indicates he is). It matters that we call racism and white supremacy by the terms best understood by our readers and our history. These groups may take up different names and pretend that they are new, novel, or specialbut they all unapologetically stoke racial violence and promote white supremacy.

Reminder to journalists: white nationalism is bad. Trying to pull "both sides" on this subject IS an editorial stanceand not a good one.  Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) August 12, 2017



Journalists cant afford to assign blame equally or pretend a bigots motive is anything short of horror.

ICYMI: If youre telling me his secrets, youre probably telling him mine. Now I know never to trust you.

The bigoted displays and casualties witnessed this weekend in Charlottesville should sound the alarm in newsrooms across the country. The caution that often guides coverage choices dealing with hate groups is that news organizations cannot ignore violence or mayhem, but if no injury or damage is recorded the tendency is to ignore the actions of white terrorists. This is a dangerous backseat to take. As NPRs David Folkenflik said this week on Reliable Sources, its important to frame coverage carefully so as not to overblow political influence. I think theres an obligation to cover this butits not a binary choice, folks. We have to make subtle distinctions and smart choices in the way we do this, Folkenflik said.

About to join CNN's @ReliableSources to talk about #Charolettesville coverage and then legal troubles at Fox News & other news orgs  David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) August 13, 2017

Journalists cannot ignore that the larger picture is growing very grim. We may be telling the story of the modern demise of American tolerance. Violence has visited America repeatedly in the age of Trump, and unlike any of his predecessors, he is not interested in acting like a healer.

In the wake of blatantly racist violence, the American president initially blamed many sides.

The president of the United States has just failed to condemn white supremacy and neo-Nazi ideology.  Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) August 12, 2017

Reporter asks Trump if he wants support of white nationalist, Trump walked off without answering.  Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 12, 2017



At a certain point, we must all pause to ask: How is it that the only time our mouthy, straight-shooting, politically incorrect president seems to bite his tongue is when he is called upon to denounce white supremacists?

Does it have much to do with the fact that he lines the senior ranks of his administration with outspoken white supremacists, including Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart? And why is the administration so interested in curbing civil rights investigations and stopping funding for counter-white nationalism efforts?

These questions should trouble every American, and therefore be on the tip of the tongue of every journalist.

Until we get real answers, its time to stop calling the presidents favored political zealots by their favored self-identifying term. Journalists cant allow agents of hatred to set how they are defined. Their rebrand is little more than a cover-up for white supremacists to continue to commit foul acts of disrespect, intimidation, and violence.

ICYMI: How the alt-right checkmated the media

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Shaya Tayefe Mohajer teaches journalism at the University of Southern California and works as a freelance journalist in Los Angeles. Previously, she was the news editor for TakePart.com and a reporter for The Associated Press. She is a graduate of New York University's masters program in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @Shaya_in_LA.
Almost every American is a nationalist of one kind or another. So is almost every Russian, Chinese, or North Korean.

Dont get mad. We are not accusing you of any sort of bias, racism, or other unpleasant views. We are merely trying to emphasize, again, how overly simplistic some labels can be.

Demonstrations over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in violence and death were described in news reports in different ways. Some called one group of demonstrators white nationalists. Others call that same group white supremacists. Some used both terms in the same article.

Those terms mean two different things, though they are in the same family.

A supremacist believes a particular race (or sex, or other genetic or cultural characteristic) is naturally superior to others. Because you must know what the characteristic is that is believed to be supreme, an adjective has to be attached. Thus there are white supremacists, Muslim supremacists, male supremacists (also sometimes known as misogynists), etc. Racial and cultural groups can also have their own internal divisions, as in Sunnis who believe themselves supreme in relation to Shiites, and vice versa.

ICYMI: It is time to stop using the term alt right

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

A nationalist, though, is at heart merely someone who strongly believes in the interest of ones own nation, however nation might be defined. President Trump is a nationalist, as are most liberals, populists, and everyone to the right and left.

But adding an adjective to indicate what their nation is can turn nationalism into a polarizing term. A white nationalist generally wants a nation of white people. Whether that means creating a separate nation of just white people or pushing those who are not white out of their current nation depends on which branch of white nationalism is talking.

While many white nationalists are also white supremacists because they believe white people are inherently superior to other races, the terms are really not interchangeable.

As Merriam-Webster explains, white nationalist is defined as one of a group of militant whites who espouse white supremacy and advocate enforced racial segregation, while white supremacist is a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races.

M-W says white supremacy first showed up in an 1882 report of an election, though it is clear from the context that at least one candidate had been using white supremacy longer.

White nationalists first appeared around 1925, M-W says, though there were certainly nationalist movements focusing on whites long before them, including national policies restricting immigration as well as voting and other nationalist activities.

Nationalism shows up frequently in politics and ideology. Nationalist China was a common nickname for China before Mao, and later for Taiwan*, and many nations have nationalist policies. They all look to focus on specific policies or traits, and so are by their nature restrictive, but not all are seeking to restrict individuals based on racial or other characteristics.

Words and labels are often thrown about in emotional situations, but journalists need to take the high road and not fuel the rhetoric. Its easy to resort to labels, but that can play into the polemics at work.

What, then, should we call the people who demonstrated against removing the statue of Robert E. Lee? Or the people who demonstrated against them? Dont give them a label. Just say what they believe, or what they want. If they want to call themselves white nationalists or white separatists, you can explain to your audience what that means.

TRENDING: Photographer behind graphic Charlottesville image recounts near-death experience

*Correction: An earlier version of this article did not present a time frame for this nickname, and did not include Taiwan. It has since been updated.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.
When 14-year-old app developer Saroush Ghodsi cold-called famed Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman on a Friday night in January, he had no idea that he and his friend Stefan Stokic, then 16, would go on to become the youngest founders in Y Combinator history. At the time, Ghodsi and Stokic were just high school sophomores in Waterloo, Canada, and Jackson, Mississippi, respectively. They had become friends online and in 2016 decided to partner up on building a startup called Slik. More from Mic:

A 16-year-old invented an app to help diagnose her grandfather's eye condition

Gmail inbox full? Here's how to delete old messages and clear up space in under a minute

How to use your phone at night without ruining your sleep Slik is an enterprise software system that allows salespeople to more effectively generate leads. The product began as a simple browser extension to collect email addresses, but when Ghodsi and Stokic realized how valuable their tool was to salespeople, they decided to build the product into what they hope will become a full-fledged Salesforce competitor.

The call that started it all

When Ghodsi and Stokic first began working on Slik, they were doing it all after school and on weekends. But after several months of work, the two realized that in order to scale, they'd need to garner a round of venture capital investment or enter an accelerator program.

President of Y Combinator, Sam Altman. Brian Ach | Getty Images

Ghodsi and Stokic were already somewhat connected in the industry. Months before collaborating on the browser extension, Stokic messaged Chris Sacca on Twitter with a link to a job board he had created for Sacca's venture capital firm, Lowercase. Sacca offered Stokic an internship at Lowercase in winter of 2016, and Stokic was soon hobnobbing online with other elite VCs, such as Homebrew's Hunter Walk and Haystack's Semil Shah. TWEET In order to drum up interest, the two teens put together a list of top VCs and entrepreneurs to cold-call and ask for a meeting. "I was in Canada and Stefan was in Mississippi," Ghodsi said. "So we didn't talk about it much ahead of time. We were both just finding a bunch of people's numbers and calling as many as we could to try to set up meetings." Ghodsi did some digging and found Sam Altman's personal cell phone number. Altman, a Silicon Valley "kingmaker" and President of Y Combinator, an elite Silicon Valley startup incubator, is an icon in Silicon Valley; many startup founders might be reluctant to cold-call him lest they start out on the wrong foot. Ghodsi, however, decided to give him a ring. Altman was in the middle of dinner, but he answered the phone. Ghodsi spent over a full minute apologizing and explaining that he was just a kid, he said, before pitching Altman on Slik. To Ghodsi's surprise, Altman said he'd fly Ghodsi and Stokic out to San Francisco to tell him more about their product. "I think people overestimate the downside risk of doing something like that," Ghodsi said. "The worst is that they're mad. Like, 'I'm spending time with my family! Stop bothering me.' That has happened to me, but you can't let it stop you from trying."

"I think it's easier for investors or people to hear from a 14-year-old calling you than a grown man," said Stokic. "People are more open to that and you can tell." Not long after the meeting in San Francisco, the two were accepted to Y Combinator's summer class; in May they moved out of their parents' houses and into a shared San Francisco home to begin work.

Life as a teen startup founder

Though Ghodsi and Stokic have the type of freedom most teens can only dream of, life as a teen startup founder in San Francisco is anything but glamorous. Just to get there, Ghodsi needed six pages of legal papers to cross the border from Canada, and they both needed full permission from their parents and schools. Because they're so young, Ghodsi and Stokic also can't sign certain documents or establish contracts. They don't have their own debit cards or credit history yet, so they pay for everything in cash. But since they've gotten settled, Ghodsi and Stokic live pretty low-key lives. Their combined four parents rotate visits, and the two boys rarely leave the house. "We all live upstairs, then we go into the basement every day to work," Stokic said. And their work schedule is punishing. "On a typical day, we wake up, get dressed, do email (my morning ritual is to get to inbox zero), answer work requests, eat, work, then go to bed," Ghodsi said. "Sometimes we might have dinner with someone or go to a YC event, but we're not in San Francisco to socialize. We want to take advantage of this time to focus everything on the business. We don't have a personal life." The pair have made friends  mostly other YC founders 10 to 20 years their senior. They both said that there's a lot of camaraderie within their class and that it's helpful to talk to others who can relate to the stress of building a business, no matter what age they are. Ghodsi said being so young has given them somewhat of a competitive edge.

"A lot of younger people reach out to us and want to work with us," Ghodsi said. "We have a whole network of young devs and designers [who] want to work with us and will do it for much cheaper than grown-ups doing that job. We had someone do our site that cost a 20th of what it would cost normally, for instance, because the guy was only 14 years old. A lot of teens feel like they're not being taken seriously, so when they see what we're doing they want to be part of it."

The college question
Four of this year's five best-performing large ETFs have something in common.

Among all the U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds with more than $2 billion in market value, the top dog is the iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI ), which is up 34 percent through Friday's close.

Following closely behind is the iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan ETF (AAXJ ), which has risen 26 percent year to date. The third-best performer is the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI ), but the top five finish off with the iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (EWY ) and the iShares MSCI India ETF (INDA ).

Some strategists believe the run could continue for these names in the Asian-market exposed space.

Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global, said that although she thinks North Korea-related tensions will likely be short-lived, the impact could spill over into China.

"You have over $400 billion that have been on the sidelines waiting for the A shares market to open up. MSCI, including it in the MSCI index, all of a sudden has just opened up a flood of capital, and that's probably here to stay," she said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

In the view of Max Wolff, chief economist at Disruptive Technology Advisers, the run is set to continue.

"As U.S. trade and diplomatic leadership has stalled and is running in reverse, we have and we will see an acceleration in the rotation of faith and dollars to regions seen as more promising," Wolff wrote to CNBC on Friday. "That means Asia in the significant part."

"We expect more outperformance from Asia and underperformance from the U.S.," Wolff added.
The judges on ABC'S " " have a lot going on. In addition to the filming the show, the entrepreneurs are juggling countless companies, investments and spending time with their families. To stay on top of it all, the Sharks have become experts at managing their time. Here are five Sharks' favorite ways to get things done.

Mark Cuban: Do everything you can via email

Mark Cuban Tyler Golden | ABC | Getty Images

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says he takes care of as many interactions as possible , instead of wasting time in long meetings or on drawn out phone calls. The method allows him to be more productive. "Love it. Live on it. Saves me hours and hours every day. No meetings. No phone calls. All because of email. I set my schedule," he says in an interview with Thrive Global. "No meetings or phone calls unless I'm picking up a check. Everything is email."

Robert Herjavec: Plan your calendar a year in advance

Robert Herjavec David A. Grogan | CNBC

For Herjavec Group founder and CEO Robert Herjavec, his calendar is key. He tries to plan his entire year in advance and then stick to it. Herjavec tells Entrepreneur that when his kids were younger, he would meet with their school counselors at the beginning of the year and add every event he could to his schedule. "Because of that, I never missed a swim meet. I never missed a school play. I never missed anything," he says. He suggests that everyone use their calendars more rigorously. "Set aside time to do a full calendar review six months or a year out to make sure you are on track with your yearly goals as well," he tells Fortune.

Kevin O'Leary: Prioritize with Post-it notes

Business investor and television personality Kevin O'Leary Amanda Edwards | WireImage | Getty Images

On top of managing his companies O'Leary Financial Group and O'Shares Investments, Kevin O'Leary even found time to in Canada. So how does he get it all done? Writing on Post-its every day. A "sticky note, you know, just a yellow piece of paper," says O'Leary in a recent Facebook live. He recommends writing down three time-consuming things you need to get done on a Post-it at the end of each day, and not starting any new tasks until the three items are taken care of. "It makes you immensely productive. Try it. It's a fantastic trick. You don't need any technology for that. You just write it down on a piece of paper," he says.

Barbara Corcoran: Live by to-do lists

Barbara Corcoran Source: ABC

Although Barbara Corcoran sold her real estate empire in 2001, she is busy building new authority as an entrepreneur, investor and author. To manage her time wisely, Corcoran relies She rates things on the list in order of importance: A, B and C. The things that go under A are her top priorities, and are to-do's that will make money for her businesses, she explains in Inc. "It helps me avoid feeling like a jackrabbit jumping from one task to another and not completing the important things first," she tells the publication.

And the lists are on paper. She has tried digital and wasn't a fan. "The 'delete' button never gives me the satisfaction that I get from crossing off an item on paper," she says.

Daymond John: Remind yourself of your goals

Daymond John David A. Grogan | CNBC

Five days a week, Daymond John before he goes to bed at night and again in the morning when he wakes up, according to Business Insider. He says setting goals helped him build his first company, FUBU, into a multi-billion dollar business.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said on Monday he may not be eligible for

parliament after being told he may be a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand, potentially posing a threat to the conservative government's hold on power.

Australian politicians are not eligible to be elected to parliament if they hold dual or plural

citizenship, a rule that has forced the resignation of two senators in recent weeks.

Joyce is the leader of the rural-based National party, the junior partner in the centre-right Liberal-National coalition government that has just a single seat majority in parliament.

The government's majority would be eliminated if Joyce was forced from office, likely triggering an election, political analysts said.

Joyce, who was born in Australia, said he was told by New Zealand officials last week that he may be a citizen by descent.

His mother was Australian and his father was born in New Zealand and came to Australia in 1947 as a British subject.

"Neither I nor my parents have ever had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country," he said.
watch now

Ninety years ago, President Donald Trump's father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan march in New York City. Forty-four years ago, the Trump family's real estate company was accused by a Republican-run U.S. Justice Department of discriminating against blacks. The company settled. Twenty-eight years ago, Trump publicly called for capital punishment after five black youths were charged with a crime of which they were later cleared. "Maybe hate is what we need if we're going to get something done," he told a television interviewer. Six years ago, Trump sought to discredit the legitimacy of America's first black president. He spread the fabricated suggestion that President Barack Obama was born abroad and not, in fact, American. Two years ago, Trump opened his own campaign for the White House by denouncing Mexican immigrants. "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists," he said. Last year, Trump equivocated about the endorsement of a former KKK leader, saying "I know nothing about David Duke" or white supremacists. He said a federal judge couldn't fairly oversee claims against him because "he's Mexican." He selected a champion of the "alt-right"  a term for white nationalist extremists  as his campaign's chief executive.

'Least racist person ... you've ever seen'

Americans can draw their own conclusions about whether those represent discrete events, to be considered individually, or a pattern of beliefs and behavior. Trump calls himself "the least racist person ... the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life." But in 2016, white Americans with racial and religious grievances heard a signal. A post-election Democracy Fund study identified Trump's most important group of supporters as voters with a strong sense of identity as white Christians and negative feelings toward immigration, blacks and Muslims. With words and actions, Trump has gratified them as president. He made Stephen Bannon, who called the Breitbart news site he ran a "platform for the alt-right," his chief White House strategist. He has sought to ban travel to the U.S. by residents of certain majority-Muslim countries, to toughen apprehension of illegal immigrants and to reduce legal immigration. His attorney general, Jeff Sessions  once rejected for a federal judgeship by a Republican-controlled Senate over accusations of racial insensitivity  has halted federal efforts to adjust local law enforcement practices in response to complaints of excessive force against minorities. The president himself, in a speech featuring lurid descriptions of violence by immigrant gang members, suggested that police deliberately rough up criminal suspects. None of that made Republican politicians abandon him in large numbers. The president's policies, on issues from health care to tax cuts to business deregulation, have overlapped sufficiently with the goals of mainstream conservatism as to shield him from criticism.

watch now

'Disgust for Trump within the Senate'

But the shield has grown thinner. The causes include revelations from multiple investigations involving Trump and Russia, chaos and incompetence in the White House, and public attacks on Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "The personal disgust for Trump within the Senate is really remarkable," a top GOP strategist told me last week. Now the president's refusal to condemn the "Unite the Right" gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, which included the former Klan leader Duke, has begun pulling private disdain into the open. The more obscure the president's actions, the likelier Republican leaders have been to remain quiet for fear of antagonizing his core supporters. But on Saturday, a Dodge Charger plowed into a group of people who were counter-protesting at that gathering of hundreds of white nationalists. One person died and more than a dozen were injured. The president's response blamed "many sides." The graphic, deadly events this weekend, and the president's response to them, threaten his party with the broader electorate that grows more diverse and more tolerant with every passing year. In addressing the attack, Trump cast white supremacists and neo-Nazis carrying torches onto the University of Virginia campus as morally equivalent to counter-protesters advocating racial equality. His stance  a purposeful choice by a president who relishes singling out so many others for criticism  places him at odds with the values of the nation he was elected to serve. That raises risks for elected officials who stand with Trump at a moment of legal, as well as political, jeopardy. It further complicates prospects for the Republican agenda on tax cuts, health care and other issues. It increases the possibility that Trump's presidency itself will be cut short.

Watch: Trump's comments on Charlottesville attack did not go far enough: National Urban League's Marc Morial
China reported industrial output for the month of July rose 6.4 percent on-year, missing expectations.

Market watchers are keeping their eyes on the health of the the world's second-largest economy ahead of a key Communist Party Congress in the fall where a leadership reshuffle is expected.

Analysts were expecting a rise of 7.2 percent against a 7.6 percent expansion in June for the country's value-added industrial output.

July retail sales rose 10.4 percent from a year ago, also missing a 10.8 percent forecast from analysts polled by Reuters.

January to July fixed asset investment meanwhile rose 8.3 percent from a year ago, against Reuters' poll forecast of 8.6 percent.

Despite the slowdown in growth, Complete Intelligence's Chief Economist Tony Nash said the Chinese numbers were "not terrible," even though the house thinks the actual numbers were likely "a bit slower" than what was released.

China, Nash told CNBC's "Street Signs," is likely growing at 5.5 to 6 percent.

The country is targeting a growth rate around 6.5 percent for 2017. It has been reporting solid growth in the first half of the year, but analysts say this may slow in the second half due to tightening policies in the property market and the government's deleveraging campaign.

Despite concerns about the fallout from risks in the financial system, analysts say stability is the word of the day ahead of the once-every-five-years party congress.

Nomura analysts said in a note after the release of the data that that the house is maintaining its view of a gradual slowdown for the rest of 2017 due to the cooling property marketing and escalating U.S.-China trade tensions.
It is a fair bet to suppose that President Donald Trump had no idea of how much the U.S. car manufacturers were discriminated against when he extracted a commitment from the Ford Motor Company to build Lincolns in Kentucky instead of Mexico.

And it is also quite plausible to assume that Ford did not throw the problem back at the president by pointing out rampant trade, non-trade and technical barriers to market entry  such as the ones illustrated by this simple case in East Asia  that Washington should remove with a crowbar, if necessary.

Yes Mr. President, I'll quote your campaign trail statements that "we are being ripped off" as a result of "a bunch of ignorant kids" in Washington. But that time is over. You won. Those are now your "kids" and, above all, the "kids" following your policies.

And, yes, we know that the "free-traders" in Asia and Europe, mightily profiting from America's misguided trade policies, will be out screaming that Washington is destroying the world's trading system, leading to ruinous trade wars and wrecking the global economy.

Pay no attention to that nonsense. There are rules of multilateral trade relations that are worth preserving, but no such rule is designed to authorize and protect discriminatory trade practices. Countries also use wide-ranging "opt-outs" in multilateral trade agreements to protect important sectors of their economies.

Need some examples? Talk to the Japanese about selling them some rice or automobiles. Take a look at virtually any sector of the Chinese economy to see how closely it is monitored and protected. And try to sell some farm products, steel or car tires to the EU, or to penetrate their service sector markets.
A Chinese freight ship transports cargo to a dock along the North Korean side of the border on Yalu River, on October 11, 2016.

Sino-North Korean trade was worth US$2.6 billion in the first half of this year, according to Chinese customs figures, with trade in oil and coal being key components.

In July, Van Hollen sponsored a bill that would impose secondary sanctions targeting banks that did business with North Korean entities.

Senator Chris Van Hollen told US cable news network MSNBC on Thursday: "We say to China , 'You have a choice whether you do business with North Korea, or you do business with the US', but you can't do both."

Some of these voices in the United States have suggested that so-called secondary sanctions should be imposed on Chinese banks that hold money for companies that do business with the DPRK .

Chinese banks will be closely watching the ongoing slanging match between Washington Pyongyang over sanctions by the US on North Korea, as they could be hard hit should hawkish voices prevail and economic measures on the DPRK become tighter.

A UN report from earlier this year alleged that North Korean banks and firms have maintained access to international financial markets through a network of Chinese-based front companies.

Coal exports from North Korea have since been stopped under UN sanctions, and the UN Security Council (including China) unanimously agreed further sanctions last Saturday.

The most recent agreement seems to have protected the Chinese banks in the short term.

"The decision by the Chinese to sign up to UN sanctions on Saturday was a trade off to prevent secondary sanctions being imposed by the US on large Chinese corporates or banks," said Andrew Gilhom, director of analysis greater China and North Asia, at Control Risks.

However, with the rhetoric coming out of the White House growing increasingly intense, the United States may return to the topic of secondary sanctions if it feels the Chinese authorities are not providing the help the US believe it needs.

"If secondary sanctions were brought in against Chinese banks, they may have little choice but to comply," said Jessica Bartlett, a senior associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer based in Hong Kong.

"US regulators have the ultimate weapon of forbidding a bank from clearing US dollars, and since the vast amount of trade is conducted in dollars that would make it near impossible for many Chinese banks to do business," she said.

"As such, any bank that relies on doing business in US dollars who breaches US sanctions would have no choice but to pay the penalty in fines."

More from the South China Morning Post:

Trump cuts Chinese banks a break after Beijing supports new UN sanctions against North Korea

US blacklists Chinese bank, company and two nationals to pressure Beijing to rein in Pyongyang

Chinese industry may be reaping benefits from Xi's reforms

These could be vast. In 2015, BNP Paribas was fined US$8.9 billion for breaching US sanctions on Iran, and they could be even larger in any case involving North Korea.

"The areas on which the regulators choose to focus, the pace with which they move and the amount of fines they levy are affected by the US political climate," said Bartlett.

At present, it would not be to the benefit of a Chinese bank deemed to be supportive of North Korea's nuclear programme, even if geopolitical concerns have protected Chinese banks thus far.

"Sanctioning Chinese companies for doing business with North Korea is a tool the US has to influence Chinese policy makers  but so far they have only taken action against smaller players.

"The political ramifications of cutting off a large bank from the US financial system would be very large," said Gilholm.

Only one Chinese bank, so far, has fallen foul of US regulators when it comes to sanctions on North Korea, when in June the Trump administration announced new sanctions against the Bank of Dandong in China, which sits across the border from North Korea.

Treasury officials and FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) alleged that "Bank of Dandong had acted as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity and was a foreign bank of primary money laundering concern".
Elon Musk has sounded the alarm over the risks of machine learning and artificial intelligence for some time now. The billionaire said in July that developments in robotics would "certainly" result in disruption in the job market. Musk warned that transport-related jobs would be the first to go as a result of vehicles going autonomous.

More recently, the Tesla CEO warned that AI posed a larger risk to the world than rising geopolitical tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

While some believe a substantial number of jobs face the prospect of being replaced by automation in the near future, others  such as Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt  think there remains plenty that humans do that computers cannot.
Check out which companies are making headlines after the bell:

Shares of Pandora shot up nearly 4 percent in extended trading after the company announced a new CEO at the closing bell. Roger Lynch, former head of online TV provider Sling, will take over for Pandora's founder, Tim Westergren, who became CEO of the company for the second time just last year.

Synchrony Financial 's shares jumped more than 4 percent in after hours trading. Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway revealed a stake of 17.46 million shares in the Connecticut-based company in a financial disclosure after the bell.

Shares of Arconic fell more than 2 percent in extended trading. The lightweight metals manufacturer posted gains in day trading on Monday for the first time since Aug. 7.

Shares of General Electric slipped slightly on relatively strong volume after Berkshire Hathaway said it had shed its stake in the conglomerate.
Benchmark has repeatedly threatened to block any potential investment deal in Uber unless the board is capped at 8 people, reversing a June 2016 move by then-CEO Travis Kalanick to increase it to 11, sources tell CNBC.

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Uber's board has been approached by three potential investment proposals from Softbank, Dragoneer Investment Group and a consortium led by Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital.

CNBC is told that the potential investments have been discussed at multiple board meetings, and Benchmark has explicitly said they would try to block any investment unless the three extra board seats are eliminated.

Right now, Uber has nine board members. Kalanick appointed himself to one of the vacant seats when he stepped down as CEO, vacating the seat that had been reserved for the chief executive. Two of the three added board seats remain vacant. Kalanick has been actively involved in trying to find people to fill those last two spots.

Last week, Benchmark filed suit against Kalanick seeking to eliminate those seats and remove him from the board. In the filing, Benchmark alleged that Kalanick had attempted to conceal certain facts from the board, including allegations of widespread sexual harassment within the company and a possible legal conflict with Alphabet subsidiary Waymo over self-driving car technology.
A venture capital firm that's feuding with other Uber shareholders has a message for Uber employees: The board, alongside former CEO Travis Kalanick, are not doing enough to turn the company around.

Benchmark said in an open letter on Monday that Kalanick has remained involved in the day-to-day operations of Uber, undermining the CEO search. Further, the company is without a chief financial officer, and has yet to fully implement the recommendations of an internal workplace culture investigation, the venture capital firm said in the letter, released on Twitter.

The letter comes as Benchmark has entered a high-profile legal battle with Uber's former CEO. Benchmark filed a legal complaint against Kalanick last week, alleging that Kalanick made "material misstatements" and hid crucial information about company problems.

Uber has suffered one bad headline after the other over the course of the year, amid a sexism and harassment investigation, the departure of top executives and a high-profile lawsuit from Google. The company is without a CEO since the resignation of Kalanick, who remains on the board.

Then on Friday a shareholder group  including investors Shervin Pishevar, Ron Burkle and Adam Leber  demanded venture capital firm Benchmark divest some of its shares and step down from the board of the troubled start-up.

Kalanick said he's "disappointed and baffled" by Benchmark's lawsuit, saying in a statement that building Uber into a great company has been his "passion and obsession."

Here's the full letter:

"To the Uber Employees:



Uber is the most important and promising company of our generation. We have tremendous respect for the incredible work you do to provide this vital service in cities all around the world and to create work opportunities for millions of people globally.



We know that many of you are asking why Benchmark filed a lawsuit against Travis last week. Perhaps the better question is why we didn't act sooner. As you know, Travis resigned in June at the request of a large group of shareholders which included Benchmark. It was a rare and extremely difficult step for us. But we acted out of a deep conviction that it would be better for Uber, its employees, and investors to have a fresh start. We believed then, as we believe now, that failing to act would have meant endorsing behavior that was utterly unacceptable in any company, let alone a company of Uber's size and importance.



It's easy to reduce this situation to a battle of personalities. But this isn't about Benchmark versus Travis. It's about ensuring that Uber can reach its full potential as a company. And that will only happen if we get rid of the roadblocks and distractions that have plagued Uber, and its board, for far too long. We need to focus on the work ahead  on building a company that everyone is proud to be associated with: employees, riders, drivers, and the cities you serve. You deserve that. You have always deserved that. We are sorry that it has taken us so long to do the right thing.



We hope to address three key issues with this action.



CEO Search: Nothing is more important than finding the right new leader for Uber. The best CEO candidates will only want to join if they believe that the board is truly independent, without any agenda other than the long-term success of the business. The search for a new CEO started over 50 days ago. It was at the same time that Travis agreed in writing to modify the company's voting agreement to ensure that the board was composed of independent, diverse, and well qualified directors. Despite agreeing in writing to sign these amendments, he has still not done so.

Travis's failure to make good on this promise, as well as his continued involvement in the day- to-day running of the company, has created uncertainty for everyone, undermining the success of the CEO search. Indeed, it has appeared at times as if the search was being manipulated to deter candidates and create a power vacuum in which Travis could return.



A number of people have asked why we took legal action before giving Travis the chance to sign these amendments. The fact is that we did give him that chance. Over a month ago we told him and other members of the board that we were prepared to resort to litigation to force him to honor his commitments. We were asked to postpone any filing and assured that efforts would be made to get these changes made without a lawsuit.



We waited and waited, watching as things deteriorated even further. Eventually we felt that we could wait no longer and took action. It is our hope that this lawsuit will break the past, persistent patterns of dysfunctional behavior  making it possible to create a truly independent board and hire a truly great CEO.

Holder (Covington) Report: While most of you have not had the opportunity to read the full 'Holder Report' written by Tammy Albarran and Eric Holder at Covington, Benchmark's representatives on Uber's board have. To describe it as hard-hitting would be an understatement. It's why the board agreed to adopt Covington's recommendations in full. That was well over two months ago, and while Uber's excellent executive leadership team is making commendable progress on these changes, many of the most important issues agreed to by the board remain unaddressed. These include reformulating Uber's cultural values (something many employees have said is essential to improving Uber's culture), enabling a new "tone at the top," and appointing an independent chairperson. We hope that our action will help expedite the implementation of Tammy Albarran and Eric Holder's recommendations in full.



Chief Financial Officer: Talk to any great CEO and she or he will tell you that having a strong, business-friendly CFO is essential to any company's success. Yet Uber has operated without one for over two years now. This cannot be justified, given the scale and complexity of the business, and is symptomatic of the broader problems with past management practices. We hope that our lawsuit will help expedite the CFO search.



We know that the last six months have been incredibly hard for you all, and that this lawsuit may create more uncertainty short-term. We hope you understand that our decision was motivated by a deep desire to do what is best for Uber, and for the thousands of employees working so hard every day. Benchmark's approach is to be quiet and understated and to work behind the scenes.



We pride ourselves on being incredibly supportive of the many amazing founders we have been fortunate enough to back over the last 20+ years. But these are unusual circumstances which required unusual action.



Finally, let us end by reiterating what we said at the beginning. We have tremendous respect for what you have achieved. You are a truly amazing team. And we deeply believe that Uber's best days are ahead.



- Benchmark"
That workplace culture investigation was summarized in a publicly released document in June. The report made 47 recommendations , including creating a board oversight committee, rewriting Uber's cultural values, reducing alcohol use at work events, and prohibiting intimate relationships between employees and their bosses.

One of Uber's earliest investors, Benchmark, is suing former CEO Travis Kalanick, alleging Kalanick hid crucial information about the company's problems, which include a sexual harassment investigation. (Kalanick said he's baffled by the suit).

There may be more scandals under wraps at Uber, according to a letter documenting the fight between Uber shareholders and a top investor.

But in an open letter to Uber employees on Monday, Benchmark suggested that there's more to the scandals at Uber than is revealed in the summary: "While most of you have not had the opportunity to read the full 'Holder Report' written by Tammy Albarran and Eric Holder at Covington, Benchmark's representatives on Uber's board have. To describe it as hard-hitting would be an understatement."

Uber has publicly faced several scandals in 2017: The company investigated 215 claims of workplace culture violations: 54 of discrimination, 47 of sexual harassment, 45 of unprofessional behavior, 33 of bullying, 19 of other harassment, 13 of retaliation, 3 of physical security and 1 wrongful termination claim, after a former employee's blog about sexual harassment went viral.

One of the most vicious accusations levied against Uber is that executive Eric Alexander, who has since left the company, obtained the medical records of 26-year-old woman who was allegedly raped by her Uber driver in 2014. According to Recode, executives had trouble believing she was telling the truth, speculating that instead the reported rape was an attempt by a competitor to sabotage Uber.

Uber is also fighting Alphabet, Google's parent company, in court over the alleged actions of a former employee of both companies. Alphabet's self-driving car unit, Waymo, has sued Uber, claiming that the ride-hailing start-up is using a key part of Waymo's self-driving technology.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Uber's evasion of authorities, according to Reuters. The investigation will focus on a software, "greyball," that Uber used to stay under the radar of transportation authorities, according to The New York Times. Separately, Recode reported that the Federal Trade Commission is inquiring into the way Uber handles its data.

Uber is planning to close out or sell its car-leasing businesses in the U.S. by the end of this year, a source told CNBC last week. Uber's Singapore business has also been in trouble. When some of Uber's Honda Vezel cars were recalled in April 2016 for a part that could overheat, Uber continued to buy the Vezel cars with the faulty part for eight more months, and one caught fire.

But Benchmark seems to imply that there's more that Uber employees have not been told. CNBC has reached out to both companies for comment.

It all comes as Uber's future is uncertain, as the company is without a CEO, chief financial officer, and several top executives. Kalanick deputy, Emil Michael, has left the company, and Ryan Graves  one of the company's first employees, the first full-time CEO, and one of its biggest shareholders  said he will transition out of his operating role and remain on the board.
watch now

hit a fresh record high on Monday, continuing the rally from the weekend thanks to strong Japanese demand. The price of bitcoin hit $4,348.23, setting a fresh all-time high and surpassing the record $4,225.40 hit on Sunday, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. Bitcoin traded about 4 percent higher near $4,282 as of 4:10 p.m., ET. In the last week alone, bitcoin has added over $15 billion in market capitalization. And year-to-date, bitcoin is up over 320 percent. Bitcoin three-month performance Source: CoinDesk There are four major drivers of the current rally.

Japan demand

Japanese yen accounts for over 42 percent of bitcoin buying, according to industry website CryptoCompare. Regulators in Japan have been very favorable towards bitcoin. Earlier this year, Japan began accepting bitcoin as legal currency with major retailers backing the new law. Department store chain Marui, for example, is testing bitcoin payments in one of its locations.

Bitcoin upgrade

After fighting within the bitcoin community over the future of the technology, the issue about upgrading the bitcoin network was finally resolved. The agreement was to increase the transaction size capable on the blockchain, which is the technology that underpins bitcoin. An upgrade known as SegWit2X is being introduced into the blockchain and this should be implemented in the next few days. "Segwit2X has undoubtedly been the initial catalyst for this rally removing the uncertainty of how bitcoin is meant to scale," Charlie Hayter, CEO of CryptoCompare, told CNBC by email.

Institutional interest

As regulators begin to take a keener interest in bitcoin, institutional investors are also keeping their eyes and trying to find a way to get involved. This week, Fidelity launched a feature allowing customers to also view their Coinbase bitcoin holdings. The currency also got a boost from Goldman Sachs, which in a report released this week said it is harder for institutional investors to ignore cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

Safe haven bid

At times over the past few years, bitcoin appears to have received support during times of geopolitical tension. Experts say that some of the bitcoin rally is due to the current tensions between North Korea and the U.S. "At Wirex, we have seen a surge of interest from South Korean customers as they seek bitcoin as a safe haven asset as they anticipate the 'Trump effect' to damage their economy," Pavel Matveev, CEO of cryptocurrency personal finance app Wirex, told CNBC by email. - Additional reporting by CNBC's Evelyn Cheng.

WATCH: 3 reasons why bitcoin is soaring to record highs: Trader
President Donald Trump should have done his homework on Merck Chairman and CEO Ken Frazier before spouting off on Twitter and implying Frazier and the drugmaker are behind "ripoff drug prices," CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Monday.

No matter what you think about the reason Frazier gave for leaving a key White House business advisory group, the president should get his facts right, Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "Mr. Frazier has not been at the forefront of raising prices for the sake of raising prices."

On Monday morning, Merck tweeted out a statement from Frazier, which read in part: "I am resigning from the President's American Manufacturing Council.  America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy.  As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

FRAZIER TWEET

Not even an hour later, Trump blasted Frazier on Twitter.

Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Trump's response to Frazier's message came after the president's weekend comments about the deadly violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Saturday, Trump said: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides."

Critics took issue with Trump's statement, saying that by adding "on many sides" and not specifically condemning the white nationalist groups by name, he was tacitly supporting the racist and anti-Semitic messages from the groups behind the rally.

"For those that think it's absolutely right that Trump called [Frazier] out because he called Trump out, all I can say is  do homework. Homework is key because I know companies. I know companies," Cramer said.

"In the industry, Mr. Frazier is not known as someone who has done ripoff pricing," Cramer argued. "There are some companies that have continually ripped off the American people. But Merck has not been one. If you hate him or like him for what he said, can we at least get the facts straight on Mr. Frazier."

On a personal note, Cramer said he respects Frazier for not making broad claims about Merck's cancer drug Keytruda.

"Mr. Frazier has so kept down his sales by not promising about what Keytruda does because he does not want to give people false hope," Cramer said. "Anyone who's lost anyone to cancer  I lost my mom to cancer  [that's] the last you want to hear."
Cartons of strawberry yogurt pass along a conveyor belt before packaging at the Group Danone in Russia dairy production plant

Danone's U.S.-listed shares rose nearly 7 percent percent on a report that Corvex Management now owns a stake of about $400 million and rumors surfaced of a possible takeover.

Bloomberg reported that Keith Meister's activist hedge fund has grown its stake in Danone because it thinks the company is greatly undervalued. The fund also reportedly thinks the company can rebound with improvements to operations, Bloomberg reported, though it does not currently plan to publicly advocate for management changes or launch a proxy battle.

Before Monday's gains, Danone's American shares had fallen 1.41 percent over the last year. The company is known for its yogurt products but also produces water, baby food and nutritional solutions.

Over the weekend, the New York Post published story that said several companies might be interested in buying Danone. An anonymous source told the Post that Danone "could be bought by a Kraft or a Coke, and the French government would allow it."

Stifel analyst Mark Swartzberg addressed the New York Post story Monday in a note to investors. He said Kraft Heinz could be a possible buyer but he rebuffed the idea that Coca-Cola would be interested in Danone . A more likely suitor, Stifel said, would be PepsiCo .

"Not only because it evidently explored a purchase in 2005 until perceived resistance from France's government became an obstacle, but also because (Coca-Cola) is squarely focused on beverages, while (PepsiCo) is a major in food, including the cold section of retail (e.g., Tropicana), and, in our opinion, recent (PepsiCo) manager comments and fundamentals make a transformative transaction more possible," Swartzberg said.

Kraft Heinz failed a takeover of Unilever earlier this year. Wall Street is awaiting another bid from the company. Stifel said it still thinks Unilever is the "most likely preferred target," though Mondelez , General Mills , Kellogg and Campbell Soup could also be of interest.

Last year, Danone bought WhiteWave Foods for $12.5 billion. The purchase included perceived health and wellness brands like Soy, maker of nut-based milks, and Horizon, an organic milk brand.

CNBC reached out to Danone and PepsiCo for comment but a spokesperson wasn't immediately available. Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola declined to comment.
For those of us who lived through the dot-com era, this feels reminiscent. You have some of the same speculative excess and random enrichment. But you can also feel that something revolutionary is happening. Money is being made programmable. That's a fundamental change with implications we can still barely see.

The big development since the emergence of bitcoin itself is that the underlying enabling technology, the blockchain, has been turned into a developer platform. The leading platform is called ethereum. It's a platform for creating new kinds of decentralized apps and cryptocurrencies (or "tokens" or "coins"). It's also created a new funding source for this innovation in the form of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). So we have all the ingredients necessary for a whole new wave of innovation.

Sacks: It feels like we are witnessing the birth of a new kind of web. Some people have called it the decentralized web or the internet of money.

Jackson: You recently tweeted that you thought cryptocurrencies have the chance to be Web 3.0. What did you mean by that?

But cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are now fulfilling that original vision. They are doing it in a decentralized way (with a decentralized database called the blockchain) whereas PayPal tried to do it in a centralized way.

We added features like interest and debit cards so you'd never have to withdraw funds to the legacy banking system. When we got acquired by eBay, that project kind of stopped.

A payment is just a credit to one account and a debit to another. That's a database entry. We believed that, if we could get enough people to participate, money would never need to leave the system. PayPal could become the database of money.

David Sacks: After PayPal I never thought I would get interested in payments again. But bitcoin is fulfilling PayPal's original vision to create "the new world currency." We actually had T-shirts printed in 1999 with that mission statement.

Eric Jackson: As someone involved with PayPal at the beginning, what intrigues you most about the rise of these digital assets?

With bitcoin prices hitting new highs , I wanted to talk to him about how he views the rise of cryptocurrencies this year and what he thought of Howard Marks' recent comments in his investor letter that these digital assets "aren't real."

Sacks started Yammer in 2008 and later sold it to Microsoft for $1.2 billion, and he was an early investor in Facebook, Palantir, Uber, SpaceX and Airbnb. Most recently, he served as CEO of HR software start-up Zenefits, and steered that company through some legal and financial pitfalls after replacing founding CEO Parker Conrad.

David Sacks is one of the best-known entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. He was the COO of PayPal more than 15 years ago, which made him a charter member of the so-called PayPal Mafia, a group of influential Silicon Valley investors and execs that also includes LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel .

"For those of us who lived through the dot-com era, this feels reminiscent."

Jackson: That brings to mind the recent investor letter which Oaktree's Howard Marks sent out in which he said that Bitcoin and other digital assets aren't real. What do you say to that?

Sacks: Marks isn't wrong to raise an alarm bell about speculation, but he's wrong in saying it's not "real." That's like saying software isn't real. Of course it's real.

Did the U.S. dollar become less real when it stopped being backed by gold? Cryptocurrency is the next step in that same evolution  to make currency more virtual.

In its purest form, currency is confidence. It's a network effect around an agreed-upon medium of exchange that has some promise of scarcity. Bitcoin enforces its scarcity through a combination of cryptography and economic incentives ("cryptoeconomics"). A lot of people find that more comforting than relying on the good faith of a government. In math we trust.

People in the U.S.  and especially longtime participants in the U.S. financial system  have tended to underestimate bitcoin because we have long enjoyed relatively stable political and financial systems. People in parts of the world with less trusted systems have gotten it sooner because almost anything would be preferable to having their life's work trapped in a fiat currency that could collapse or be confiscated at any moment.

Jackson: If the current moment with cryptocurrencies is like the dot-com era, does that make it a bubble, and if so are we in 1995 or 1999?

Sacks: The technology is probably 1995 and the pricing is either 1999 or getting close. It's a combination of something real with a lot of speculation.

What I've been trying to figure out is: Who are the good teams and interesting projects in the space? Also I've been trying to understand the future regulatory environment and invest only in companies that have structured correctly and are likely to survive the inevitable crackdown.

I think the trigger for a big correction is more likely to be regulatory than technical. The SEC provided some important guidance in its DAO report a couple of weeks ago, but we will learn a lot more if there's an enforcement action. That's going to be much more important to the future of this movement than the dreaded bitcoin fork that occurred a couple weeks ago and turned out to be a Y2K-like non-event.

Jackson: So is there going to be a similar three-year nuclear winter when the bubble bursts like what happened after the dot-com boom?

Sacks: Hopefully it will be a soft landing rather than a nuclear winter. It could be a positive thing if all the scammers and pumpers get washed out of the space.

There's going to be a correction though. Many of these ICOs are still just slideware but are getting a Series D type of valuation. They don't deserve that type of valuation at this stage of development. That will rationalize at some point.

Jackson: How are ICOs and future SEC regulation going to mesh?

Sacks: Hopefully the SEC distinguishes between "protocol coins" (which have an actual use in a software ecosystem and should not be viewed as securities) and "asset coins" (which are securities). The public policy think tank CoinCenter has done some excellent work in laying out the legal frameworks and policy rationales for this.

Until now, most of the action in ICOs has been in protocol coins. The better projects have worked hard to structure their tokens so they are not securities.

However, I believe we will soon see the emergence of asset coins (aka traditional asset tokens). These will be securities. It must be done correctly, but it's going to be an exciting area.

Jackson: What securities could tokenize?

Sacks: Almost any illiquid asset today lends itself well to moving onto the blockchain and becoming tokenized. It will create a deeper market with improved price discovery and should increase the value of those assets.

In the long run, even liquid assets like stocks could move onto a blockchain because of the benefits of this platform.

Ultimately this is a technology for maximizing the efficiency of every asset, means of ownership, fluidity of markets, and mechanism of payments. The goal is the optimization and maximization of the world economy. That may make it the biggest revolution of all.

Jackson: Are digital assets and tokenization a long-term threat to traditional venture capital?

Sacks: Yes  in two ways.

First, a lot of start-ups that would have sought venture capital can now raise money through an ICO. I've called this "crypto capitalism" in contradistinction to venture capitalism.

The terms of crypto capital are more favorable to entrepreneurs than venture capital. So any start-up that can ICO will ICO. Whether a start-up can ICO will depend on technical and regulatory suitability, but it could ultimately be a very large category of start-ups.

If so, that will certainly challenge VC. Larger VCs who would typically invest after the ICO will have to compete with hedge funds, which is not a great place to be. VCs who want to invest before the ICO will have to compete with angels to offer a real value-add.

Second, at the level of the VC's own investors, I think LP interests are likely to be tokenized, along with most other illiquid assets. The prestige VC firms will resist this, but there are already a few new VC firms at the margins that are tokenizing. Soon, a few more will do it. Then a few more. Eventually, illiquidity will be a competitive disadvantage in fundraising that only the top firms will be able to justify.

All of this being said, the SEC's rulings in this area will have a huge impact on how this plays out. If those rulings support innovation, that will lead to a more competitive world for VCs, whose world is already quite competitive. But that world will also be more frictionless and efficient.

Sacks posted a tweet storm about this idea:

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896499616799014912

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896499782373433345

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896499875507912704

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896499969942626304

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896500040524484609

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896500109927632896

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896500226759958528

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/896500308209094657

Jackson: What are the biggest challenges that still lie ahead for cryptocurrencies?

Sacks: I see three big areas for concern: scalability, slideware and regulatory.

First, the number of transactions per second that either bitcoin or ethereum can handle is still orders of magnitude less than what PayPal or the Visa network can do. It's been estimated that ethereum, which is the main developer platform for decentralized apps, would need a 250x improvement to run a 10 million user app and 25,000x improvement to run a billion-user app like Facebook. That improvement requires real work and involves some risk. There's a product roadmap, but it's going to take years.

Second, most of the ideas out there today for ICOs are still just white papers, or what we used to call "slideware." There is a lot of execution risk in turning these ideas into usable software that actually gets adopted. One fortunate effect of the crypto boom is that it has been helpful in attracting talent to the space. We will need that migration of talent to continue in order to realize the potential.

Third, as we've discussed, will be the extent and nature of regulatory acceptance. The eventual rules governing the application of securities laws to tokens will have a major impact on adoption and innovation in the space, at least in the United States. There is some risk that if the wrong regulatory regime gets adopted in the U.S., then the center of innovation could move to other countries. If blockchains are the next internet, that would be a very unfortunate development for the U.S.

Jackson: We have bitcoin and ethereum plus a number of smaller, lesser-known currencies out there  including the new Filecoin ICO. What lesser-known currencies intrigue you most?

Sacks: I prefer to think in terms of use cases, rather than recommending specific currencies. The most promising use cases to date are: store of value, payments, crowdfunding, file storage, identity management and authentication, prediction markets, escrow, title chains, notary chains, provenance, and supply chains. There are 1,500 ICOs already launched or announced, plus many other blockchain companies, so there's a lot more to come. This is an extremely exciting and fast-moving space.

That said, one admonition I would make to your readers is that most probably shouldn't be investing in ICOs directly. We are seeing white papers for technology that doesn't truly belong on the blockchain or, worse, could be pump-and-dump schemes. Many of the scams originate outside of the United States, so they will be harder to regulate. Just like a lot of retail investors lost money in the dot-com era, the ICO era has the potential to do the same unless people really take the time to understand what they are investing in. A number of professionally managed crypto funds, with real technical expertise to evaluate ICOs, are starting to emerge and may be a safer way to participate than investing directly.

So I would just urge everyone to temper their excitement with sound business judgment. Or does that sound too much like Howard Marks?

Sign up for Eric's monthly Tech & Media Email. You can follow Eric on Twitter @ericjackson .
President Donald Trump's attack on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the "single dumbest thing Donald Trump's done in office," Sara Fagen, a former senior aide to President George W. Bush told CNBC on Monday.

Last week, Trump slammed McConnell for the lack of progress on the Republican agenda.

"Mitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing," Trump wrote Thursday on Twitter.

Fagen, also a CNBC contributor, believes that was a tactical error.

"He needs the Senate majority leader to get his tax reform package through," the former political director for Bush said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

In fact, she said McConnell is the "single most important person" in passing Trump's agenda.

After the taunts, Republican senators rallied around McConnell.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican, on Friday said, "No one is more qualified" to head the Senate in the "team effort" to pass Trump's agenda.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.
SPD leader Martin Schulz (L) and Chancellor Angela Merkel Michele Tantussi | Getty Images

German Chancellor Angela Merkel launched her re-election campaign with a scathing attack on German auto bosses on Saturday yet the electorate is unlikely to have been inspired by the criticism, according to ING Germany's chief economist. Merkel, campaigning to secure a fourth term in office, accused auto industry chiefs of "destroying trust" in the sector after the emissions scandal. Meanwhile, Merkel's political rival at next month's general election, socialist Martin Schulz, also targeted auto executives during his first official campaign speech. He suggested they had been putting the industry at risk by failing to prepare for the future. Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany, said Merkel and Schulz were both failing to generate support with their comments criticizing the auto industry. Instead, he argued they were simply "ticking the box of a spin doctor's manual." "It's a bit like 'Trump-bashing' these days. You have to do it because the electorate likes it but it will hardly move votes from one party to the other. The problem is that the voters know about the interaction and ties between the automotive industry and politicos. This makes it hard for Schulz or Merkel to really distance themselves," Brzeski added.

'Sleepy, uninteresting and very dull'

The fate of the auto sector has emerged as a prominent and fiercely contested election issue with less than six weeks to go until the vote. The industry is Germany's biggest exporter and directly employs around 800,000 people. The scandal over emissions surfaced nearly two years ago when Volkswagen  the world's second largest automaker  confessed to cheating U.S. emissions tests. The admittance immediately prompted concerns regarding a major source of pollution and has since emboldened those calling for a decisive switch to alternative fuels. Guntram Wolff, director of the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank, described the relationship between German politicians and auto executives as "very ambiguous." "Most people in Germany think that politics is too close to the auto sector I mean roughly 80 percent of people polled say this is the case. German politics is far too closely connected to business and ultimately this will be very harmful to the economy," he told CNBC in a phone interview on Monday. Wolff added that it was difficult to predict whether Merkel's and Schulz's criticism of the auto industry would translate into votes for their respective parties, especially given the "sleepy, uninteresting and very dull" nature of the campaign to date.

'Don't expect electric car quotas before the election'
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein invoked Abraham Lincoln in a social media post Monday morning that joins corporate America's growing backlash to the Trump administration.

Blankfein didn't mention the president by name in his tweet, but invoked Lincoln's words from an 1858 speech, "a house divided against itself cannot stand." In his own words, Blankfein added, "Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together."

TWEET

The tweet comes the same morning Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier resigned from President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council in protest of Trump's response to the weekend's white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In his own tweet on Monday, Frazier wrote, "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

Members of both political parties as well as corporate America are taking to social media to condemn Trump's tepid response to the violence that led to three deaths over the weekend in Virginia.

Blankfein has publicly criticized actions by the administration before, posting his very first tweet in June that the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate-change accord was "a setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s leadership in the world." Other CEOs quit White House advisory councils in June after that decision, including Tesla 's Elon Musk and Disney 's Robert Iger.

The criticism of the administration's leadership potentially sets up an awkward dynamic. Several of Trump's top advisors are former Goldman executives, including Gary Cohn, Blankfein's former second-in-command who is now President Trump's top economic advisor as director of the National Economic Council.

Blankfein has a history of donating to both Democrats and Republicans, according to records by Open Secrets, including Hillary Clinton in 2007 and, more recently, GOP Sens. Roy Blunt and Richard Shelby. But last fall, the bank told high-ranking executives they couldn't donate to certain political campaigns in a policy that prevented support for the Trump-Pence ticket. (The policy banned giving to state officials who were seeking federal office, and Vice President Pence was Indiana's sitting governor. Clinton wasn't in office and her running mate was a senator from Virginia.)
David Tepper's Appaloosa Management and three other hedge funds took new stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in the second quarter, according to the latest quarterly filings.

Appaloosa disclosed a 3.7 million stake in shares of Alibaba, according to a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dan Loeb's Third Point bought 4.5 million shares, according to a Friday filing.
President Trump hasn't been shy to voice his complaints with the European Union.

Since taking office, the American president has chastised NATO allies for not paying their fair share, accused the EU of being "very protectionist" and announced the U.S.' withdrawal from the globally-endorsed Paris climate agreement.

But Trump's bullying could turn out to be exactly what a fractured European Union (EU) needed in order to band closer together. His attacks on the European Union's shared policies  like climate change, free trade and defense  have forced EU countries to jointly defend their goals and strengthen ties with other global allies.

"He has indirectly vindicated the entire European approach," Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics told CNBC via phone earlier this month.

Kirkegaard said last month's G20 meetings in Hamburg exhibited how countries can more effectively solve real-world economic problems when they join together, which is the fundamental ideology behind the EU. Trump's "America first" philosophy was on full display at the summit when 19 countries endorsed the Paris climate accord  leaving the U.S. behind on the world stage.

"What it shows is that no country is independently able to, shall we say, change or undermine the global economic and financial system," Kirkegaard said.

European leaders feared President Trump's election and the U.K.'s vote to leave the EU would spur a wave of nationalist victories across the continent. But voters rejected populist candidates who aligned themselves with the American president in elections in Austria, the Netherlands and France. France's Emmanuel Macron rode a huge victory over his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen on a pro-EU message.
Less than a week ago, the world seemed to be on the edge of a nuclear confrontation or at least a bloody military conflict in East Asia.

What a difference a few days make.

After a weekend filled with a series of conciliatory statements from China, some of them downright surprising, the situation with North Korea seems to be less tense right now, which could be construed as a major win for the Trump team.

To be specific, the big move came Monday as China agreed to ban imports of North Korean iron, lead, and coal as part of new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang. That's hitting Kim Jon Un's regime where it hurts.

But there was also the statement in the Chinese-run state newspaper Global Times on Friday that said that if North Korea attacks the U.S., China should remain neutral. In other words, they'd be on their own.

And there was even calming talk from this side of the Pacific. In a jointly-written editorial in Monday's Wall Street Journal, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis both insisted the Trump administration is not seeking regime change in North Korea and wants a diplomatic resolution to this dispute.

While these developments do not fully constitute a real solution to the potential threats North Korea's nuclear and missile programs pose to the region and the world, everyone's nervous meter seems to have gone down several notches.

Even the stock market is staging a recovery rally based on the developments. Sure, most of this relief is based on words. But wasn't it just President Donald Trump's words about how North Korea faced "fire and fury" from the U.S. that caused all the jitters and Thursday's big market selloff in the first place?

Now if these sanctions hold and North Korea simply halts its ICBM launch tests, what many saw as some kind of massive fumble by the Trump team could easily turn into the administration's biggest triumph of the year.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called the attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend a disturbing display of bigotry and violence.

One person was killed and 19 others injured when a white supremacist allegedly rammed a car into counterprotesters on Saturday.

In a message to U.S. employees, Dimon said such violence is unacceptable in America.

"The racist behavior on display by these perpetrators of hate should be condemned and has no place in a country that draws strength from our diversity and humanity," wrote Dimon, who is also chairman of Business Roundtable.

In a separate statement co-authored by Dimon, Business Roundtable said that its CEOs "will never accept such intolerance and hate" as demonstrated in Charlottesville over the weekend.

"Racism has no place in our businesses, our communities or our country," the group said in a statement.
Artificial intelligence has no shortage of critics  from visionaries like Elon Musk, who once compared A.I. to "summoning the demon" in a horror film, to everyday workers who fear being replaced by machines.

But A.I. and other new technologies could take off in countries with a shortage of young workers, according to Rob Subbaraman, chief economist for Asia ex-Japan at Nomura. Those include Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan.

"If you don't embrace these new artificial intelligence, robotics and ways to make up for shortages of youth labor, you're going to have a slowdown of potential growth," he told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Monday.

A country's growth potential is driven by labor, capital and productivity. Slowdown in a country's labor force growth means it has to rely a lot more on productivity in order to maintain its growth.

That's where machines can help, since they can process information faster and carry out tasks more quickly than humans.
North Korea's episodes of nuclear aggression are typically interpreted as demonstrations of force, but they may actually be generating funds for its cash-strapped economy.

"For Pyongyang, it pays to provoke," Sung-Yoon Lee, Korean Studies professor, The Fletcher School at Tufts University, told CNBC on Monday. "Whereas good behavior buys only indifference from its richer neighbors, being a bad apple buys leverage and billions in aid."

The same countries admonishing North Korea leader Kim Jong Un for nuclear belligerence still shell out large sums of diplomatic aid under the motive of "damage-control diplomacy, i.e. getting the North to back off and stay out of the headlines for a while," Lee said. "Exporting insecurity is [Pyongyang's] time-tested means to reaping concessions."

Over the past quarter-century, the pariah state has amassed $20 billion worth of cash, food, fuel, and medicine from the U.S., Japan, China and South Korea. That's come from "repeated lies of denuclearization," according to Lee, who has testified as an expert witness at U.S. government hearings on North Korea policy.

Pyongyang has often promised to get rid of its nuclear weapons  in 2007, the communist state agreed to disable all nuclear facilities in return for fuel oil or economic aid. Evidently, disarmament never materialized.

More recently, Kim's regime said it was willing to freeze nuclear and missile testing if Washington halts joint military exercises with Seoul.

North Korea has been engaged in a "crafty" cycle in which it commits hostile acts that are typically followed by negotiations and concessions from the international community, explained Lee, who added that he expects "that tired old tale to continue for the foreseeable future."
"In Dow there is no room for hatred, racism, or bigotry," Liveris said. "Dow will continue to work to strengthen the social and economic fabric of the communities where it operates  including supporting policies that help create employment opportunities in manufacturing and rebuild the American workforce."

Immelt recently stepped down as chief executive of GE, but he is expected to remain the company's chairman until the end of the year.

" GE has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or racism, and we strongly condemn the violent extremism in Charlottesville over the weekend," the company said in a statement. "With more than 100,000 employees in the United States, it is important for GE to participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and productivity in the U.S., therefore, Jeff Immelt will remain on the Presidential Committee on American Manufacturing while he is the Chairman of GE."

CNBC.com reached out to every executive listed on the White House's press release from late January, when the members of the council were announced, and only seven had issued comments on either the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia , or Frazier's resignation by Monday afternoon. Many of those comments came hours after Frazier issued his statement at 8 a.m. ET.

While the president responded quickly via Twitter to the decision by Frazier, the move by the Merck CEO was met by silence from many other executives on the council.

The chief executives of Merck , Under Armour and Intel all resigned in quick order from President Donald Trump 's American Manufacturing Council on Monday, with Merck's Kenneth Frazier citing his "responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

Dow Chemical will remain on the council as will Whirlpool .

The appliance manufacturer said it wants to continue to work on the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, and "to provide input and advice on ways to create jobs and strengthen U.S. manufacturing competitiveness." But added that it supports an "open and inclusive culture that respects people of all races and backgrounds."

John Ferriola, CEO of Nucor , said the company condemns the violence over the weekend and he will continue to serve on the council, saying in a statement, "We believe a strong manufacturing sector is the backbone of a strong economy."

International Paper spokesperson Tom Ryan echoed the response from Ferriola condemning the violence over the weekend and adding the company "fosters an inclusive workforce."

Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison will remain on the council to "have a voice and provide input" on matters concerning the company, Campbell Soup said in a statement.

Dell also indicated no change in engagement with the administration for its CEO, Michael Dell.

Several executives have already left the president's advisory groups for other reasons, including former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who resigned in February over the administration's immigration policies, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Disney's Bob Iger, who both left in June after Trump said he would withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

In addition, several executives were no longer part of the council as they were no longer CEOs. They include: Mark Fields of Ford , Klaus Kleinfeld of Arconic , and Mario Longhi of U.S. Steel.

Times like these can be "a real test of leadership character" for executives, said management expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Monday. "There's no blueprint here and we can see which CEOs are passing the exam on this one and which ones are failing," he said.

Several other CEOs who weren't part of the manufacturing council did comment on Frazier's resignation.

Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO, said she supported Frazier's decision.

"I'm thankful we have business leaders such as Ken to remind America of its better angels," Whitman continued.

@MegWhitman: "I support Ken Frazier's decision. I'm thankful we have business leaders such as Ken to remind America of its better angels."

Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever , also supported the decision, saying it showed "strong leadership."

@PaulPolman: Thanks @Merck Ken Frazier for strong leadership to stand up for the moral values that made this country what it is

At PepsiCo, CEO Indra Nooyi said she was "heartbroken" by the violence from the weekend, but she did not make any reference to Frazier's resignation.

@IndraNooyi: Heartbroken by the violence in #Charlottesville. Hate and intolerance are a betrayal of what we stand for as Americans.

Meanwhile, former Merck CEO Roy Vagelos said in a statement he supports his protege's decision.

"He is always smart, always ethical and repeatedly makes the right decisions," Vagelos said in the statement. "I applaud his decision to step down from the Council this morning. Ken is driven by a strong sense of morality in everything he does and he continues to make me proud," the statement read.

Frazier "is truly the American dream," said Sonnenfeld, noting his rise from poverty to C-suite executive and his leadership on combating abuses in drug pricing. "How could you pick on a worse target to fire back on than the president picking on Ken Frazier?"

Sonnenfeld was referring to the response Trump gave Monday morning, that said Frazier's resignation would give him more time to focus on lowering "ripoff" drug prices.

@realDonaldTrump: Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Despite the harshness of the comments, which recalled Trump statements earlier this year that he planned to work to lower drug prices, Merck shares were mostly flat to higher in Monday trading and closed up modestly at $62.67.

That's a much different response from the early days of the administration, when the president's negative tweets about companies usually sent shares tumbling and inspired pieces like FTI's "If POTUS Tweets @ Your Company: Six Steps."

The list included advice like consider laying low, addressing misinformation and being proactive on social media. FTI also advised engaging with Trump offline, in person, to allow for a more substantive response.

Reflecting on the discussion, former McDonald's CEO, Ed Rensi, told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Monday that Trump needs to watch out.

"He'll become irrelevant if he doesn't' change his behavior," Rensi said.

The president was roundly criticized Saturday for suggesting "many sides" were to blame for the deadly violence at the rally in Charlottesville. Members of both parties lambasted Trump, saying his comments failed to single out white nationalists.

On Monday, speaking at the White House, Trump was more specific, saying, "Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

While Sonnenfeld said many executives had contacted him privately bemoaning the situation, he urged them take their comments public.

"Is...[former Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz sipping on his cappuccino and thinking of more clever things to write on coffee cups? Why not get out there and say something?" Sonnenfeld said.
The average Joe investor jumping into this bull market using exchange-traded funds and borrowed money may end up leading to its undoing, one prominent Wall Street firm said.



"US retail investors represent the main vulnerability for equity markets if geopolitical tensions escalate from here," JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note to clients Friday. "Over the past year, they have invested in equity markets not only via ETFs but also via buying individual US equities in leveraged form."



The strategist cited how the equity allocation of US household assets rose to 34.9 percent at the end of the first quarter, which is higher than the previous peak of 34.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according to JPMorgan analysis.

In addition, he noted the NYSE net debit balance of margin accounts, which is a measure of how much leverage individual investors are using for their stock investments, has been "rising over the past year and the current reading is very close to the record highs seen in mid-2015 or in early 2000."
Gallup found this spring that the share of Americans who feel they pay too much in federal taxes had dropped to 51 percent in April, down from 57 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, a growing number  42 percent, up from 37 percent  felt their tax bill was about right. And the share who felt they should pay more inched up 1 point, to 4 percent.

"It must be remembered that taxpayers may dislike the current tax system but not be convinced that Congress and the Trump administration will make it any better  change could be worse," a recent Gallup blog post said . "Without a strong push from the American people, Trump's tax reform might not materialize."

Where there is frustration, the surveys found that it is rooted in the belief that businesses aren't paying their fair share. That doesn't bode well for the White House's plan to slash the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, with one poll showing voters overwhelmingly rejecting it.

Recent polling data show many households don't appear convinced that there's a problem with the current system. About half actually feel their tax bill is fair  or even too low.

Republicans are facing a tough sell as they try to make the case for a sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax code to the American public this month.

Conservative groups are spending millions of dollars this month to argue otherwise, launching ads and holding rallies to convince Americans that the tax code is unfair and broken. The Trump administration and House Speaker Paul Ryan have vowed to pass legislation by the end of the year in hopes of generating urgency as Republicans face the prospect of heading into the 2018 midterm elections with no major legislative wins.

The party is aiming to frame tax reform as way to bolster the middle class. A Gallup poll in March found that's a message that Americans from both parties support, with 61 percent favoring significant reductions in taxes for middle-income families.

Independent analysis of the tax reform proposals from President Donald Trump's campaign and Republican leadership show that they would lower the bill for working class households. But they also showed those benefits would be dwarfed by massive tax cuts for the wealthy and for businesses.

Under the tax plan released during Trump's campaign, the top 0.1 percent would get an average tax cut of $1.1 million, the Tax Policy Center found, representing about 14 percent of their after-tax income. Lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent would save businesses an estimated $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

The White House has said those numbers do not reflect its plans to close loopholes for wealthy households and businesses. However, the administration has not specified which ones it will eliminate. The Tax Policy Center did not analyze the cost of a framework for reform that the White House released in April because it lacked key details.

But a Quinnipiac University poll taken shortly after that plan was released showed 52 percent of voters disapproved of the proposal. Nearly three-quarters of voters said they would oppose it if it adds to the deficit. There was also little support for reducing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, with 55 percent of voters calling it "a bad idea."

The results echo the findings a survey by the Pew Research Center earlier this year. Almost 80 percent of Americans said they were bothered by the idea that some corporations don't pay their fair share. About three-quarters said they were frustrated by the complexity of the tax system, but their personal tax bills upset just over half of them.

Republicans argue that lowering rates for businesses and simplifying the tax code will help boost economic growth  and that will ultimately translate into more jobs for the middle class. A $2.5 million advertising campaign launched last week by the center-right advocacy group American Action Network featured the story of a former Ohio metal worker named Albert.

"I was middle class, and it meant a better life for my daughter," the ad says. "But with more foreign competition  I got laid off. America's tax code is so complicated  we can't be as competitive."

The White House and Republican leadership are slated to tout tax reform in speeches and events during the next few weeks. House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, who heads the committee responsible for writing the tax bill, will deliver remarks on Wednesday in California. Trump is also expected to address the issue this week. The administration has said it hopes to see a bill introduced in September, though even some Republican lawmakers have signaled that timeline is overly aggressive.
The visit comes on the heels of nuclear-armed North Korea's warning last Wednesday that it is "carefully examining" a plan to test-fire a missile into the waters off the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam with missiles. The dynastic regime led by the 33-year-old Kim also detailed how the missile would travel over Japan.

Dunford added, "What I would like to see is Kim Jong Un to commit to ceasing the development of nuclear weapons and ceasing the testing of ballistic missiles."

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, the alliance commander in Korea, spoke to reporters after meeting in Seoul with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top South Korean military officials.

The nation's top military officer vowed Monday during a visit to Seoul that the U.S.- South Korean alliance is ready to defend against the threat from North Korea .

Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the U.S. Forces Korea commander, at a news briefing in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 14, 2017.

"We listen very carefully to Kim Jong Un's rhetoric, and we can't afford to be complacent," said Dunford. "We have to take it seriously in regards to our defensive measures, and with regard to the development of military options in the event we are called upon to do that."

The North Korean threat followed President Donald Trump's warning last Tuesday that the hermit regime faces "fire and fury" if it makes more threats against the U.S. The president followed it up Thursday with a comment that maybe his earlier warning to the North wasn't tough enough.

Guam is home to more than 6,000 U.S. troops, and there are about 28,500 American service members stationed in South Korea and about 50,000 U.S. forces in Japan.

Brooks, the alliance commander, said troops from both South Korea and the U.S. "tell me that they want to be ready. They want to make sure they can do all they can to be prepared. They want to know if they have reason to be concerned, and in the meantime we tell them to continue their mission, and they do it very, very well every single day."

Brooks also confirmed the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian joint military exercises will go forward as planned next week. The joint U.S.-South Korean annual military exercises usually last about two weeks.

Some suggest the joint military drills could risk inflaming tensions, as Pyongyang has viewed them as a provocation. However, Brooks said despite condemnation from the North there were compelling reasons to go forward with the annual joint military exercises.

"We have to have a credible deterrent," the Army general said. "This is why we have military capability that undergirds our diplomatic activities. These threats are serious to us, and thus we have to be prepared."

The war game exercises last year involved about 25,000 U.S. service members on the Korean peninsula and about 50,000 South Korean troops, as well as a contingent of soldiers from several other U.S. allies.

As for Guam, Dunford was asked what would happen if North Korea were to follow through with its threat to launch missiles against the U.S. territory.

"What we would do in the event of an attack on Guam  or missiles being launched toward Guam  is a decision that will  be made by the president of the United States, and he will make that in the context of our alliance," said Dunford.

"Our job  General Brooks and I  is to make sure our leadership has options available to them to properly respond," he said.

Even so, Dunford said he held out hope there might be a change in the tone from Pyongyang. "We are seeking peaceful resolution to the crisis right now," the general said.

Last month, North Korea test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile, with some Western experts estimating the July 28 launch of the Hwasong-14 long-range missile revealed that the ICBM could reach half, if not most, of the continental U.S.

Also, The Washington Post was the first to report last week that North Korea was able to produce a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles and said the Kim regime may have "up to 60 nuclear weapons" in its arsenal, citing a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment.

After his meetings in South Korea, Dunford then traveled to China for his first visit there as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In a statement Monday, Dunford said his primary objective for the Chinese trip is to "continue to develop our military-to-military relationships, to mitigate the risk of miscalculation in the region and to have cooperation where those opportunities exist."

Dunford's office also quoted U.S. defense officials as saying the Chinese visit "is in support of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's diplomatic and economic campaign to deter North Korea." They added, "Success in that campaign would be a North American commitment to denuclearization and a halt of missile tests."

Dunford also is scheduled on the trip to stop in Japan for discussions with top government and military officials.

Earlier this month, the 15-member United Nations Security Council passed stricter economic sanctions against North Korea, which could cut the regime's export revenues by a third.

China and Russia were among the Security Council's members voting for the new North Korean sanctions. Reuters reported Monday that China's Commerce Ministry had issued the banning order for the sanctions.

Still, China state media on Monday reiterated Beijing's strong opposition to the THAAD missile shield in South Korea. China contends the system's powerful radar gives the U.S. and South Korea capability not only to spot missiles fired from the North but to potentially look deep into China to monitor military activities.

"THAAD deployment will not help to ease the ROK's security concerns, and will do even less to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry as telling reporters Monday. ROK, or Republic of Korea, is the formal name of South Korea.

Meanwhile, Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday that the administration is "replacing the failed policy of 'strategic patience,' which expedited the North American threat, with a new policy of strategic accountability. The object of our peaceful pressure campaign is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

But the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, blasted the op-ed Monday in a series of tweets and said if it was "actually this administration's policy on North Korea...then the game is over. North Korea will be a full-fledged nuclear weapons state in very short order. Iran will follow.

Bolton added "We should not continue 25 years of failed policies under a different slogan. Leave that to President Hillary Clinton."
President Donald Trump is alienating his fellow Republicans after his reaction to the deadly violence during a white nationalist rally, GOP strategist Joe Watkins told CNBC on Monday.

"They don't want to be stained by a tepid response, by a too slow response to an overt act of racism like the one that took place last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia," the former White House aide to President George H.W. Bush said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

One person was killed and 19 injured after a car rammed into counterprotesters during a white nationalist rally on Saturday. Police have arrested and charged an Ohio man.

On Saturday, Trump condemned hatred and violence "on many sides" and did not specifically denounce white supremacist groups. After mounting pressure, Trump on Monday explicitly condemned white supremacists and "racist" violence.

"The statement that President Trump made today should have come last Saturday and it should have come with heart, in the same strong terms that he talks about North Korea or the strong terms that he's used against Sen. Mitch McConnell and other people with whom he's angry," Watkins said.

Republican Ron Christie also doesn't think Trump's latest statement went far enough.

With midterm elections on tap next year, he thinks some Republicans are going to want to distance themselves from Trump, particularly those in suburban Philadelphia, New York City and upstate New York.

"His response was not quick enough, was not swift enough, was not strong enough, was not heartfelt. I think there are a lot of people who are losing heart by the actions and deeds this president has been undertaking in the last couple weeks," Christie told "Power Lunch."

Sarah Fagen said while some members of Congress will still benefit from being aligned with Trump, some will not.

"Some of those independents in suburban America have started to write the president off in part because of the way he handled this latest situation in Charlottesville and health care and everything else," she said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

Watch: Trump: Responding to hate with love
President Donald Trump on Monday signed a memorandum that could lead to a trade investigation of alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property.

The measure directs U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to look into options to protect U.S. intellectual property. It does not take any specific action against China at this point.

"We will safeguard the copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property that is so vital to our security and to our prosperity," Trump said.

He added, "This is just the beginning."

The move comes as Trump aims to leverage China  North Korea's only major ally  to apply more economic pressure on Pyongyang to deter its nuclear and missile programs. However, an administration official told The Associated Press the move is unrelated to the isolated regime.

The Trump administration wants to look into practices forcing American companies to share intellectual property in order to access the Chinese market. Washington says the tactic can hurt economic growth.

The U.S. could potentially take action independently or with the World Trade Organization.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report
The panel of 25 Trump voters from 19 states is drawn from respondents in the USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll taken in December, just after the election. The group of 18 men and seven women, ranging in age from 31 to 88, agreed to weigh in occasionally for a look at how Trump is faring with his supporters.

Now that number has slipped to 19  still favorable territory, but with signs of some erosion. Four predict he'll be seen as a "fair" president. Two didn't respond.

There's also bit less confidence these days about how history will judge Trump. In January, 21 members of the panel predicted he ultimately would be seen as a "great" or "good" president. In February, there was even more unanimity: 23 gave that positive assessment.

"I'd have to approve, but with some laughter in the background," said Duane Gray, 63, a truck driver from Boise, Idaho. Asked if Trump was doing better or worse than he expected as president, he said: "I don't know what I expected. I just didn't want Hillary in there."

"I approve, but not 100%," Monty Chandler, 46, a disabled veteran from Church Point, La., said of the president.

But now some couch their approval of the president with a hedge that wasn't there in three previous rounds of interviews with this group. And their disdain for congressional Republicans and the GOP establishment is rising, a troubling development for the party as it heads into the 2018 midterm elections.

None of the 25 voters on the USA TODAY panel express regret for casting a ballot last November for Trump instead of Democrat Hillary Clinton or someone else. They generally trust him to handle the crisis with North Korea, although there is concern about his bellicose rhetoric.

That said, the spiderweb of concern among his supporters in these interviews is an anecdotal finding consistent with the results of recent nationwide polls. A CNN survey at the six-month mark of Trump's presidency last week showed his approval rating among Republicans at a healthy 83%, but the percentage of Republicans who "strongly approve" had dropped by double-digits, to 59% from 73% in February.

The loyalty of the president's base  voters who tend to be older, socially conservative and mostly white  has been a critical source of his political strength. Trump continues to hammer messages that appeal to them on such issues as limiting immigration and reversing Pentagon policy on transgender troops.

"The caveat or the pause there is, he's got to figure out a way to get more done collaboratively with Capitol Hill," Barney Carter of St. Marys, Ga., said. "The Hill to me has the most to blame for it, but he's got to figure out a way to solve that problem."

"All the bickering, fighting and firings take time away from solving all of our problems," worried Joe Canino, 62, of Hebron, Ct.

While they still approve of the job President Trump is doing, the collapse of the GOP's promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act has rattled some of his loyalists. So have chaos in the White House staff and the public humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions .

The voters who backed Donald Trump still like the disruption but are looking for more function from the outsider they helped put in the White House, members of the USA TODAY Network Trump Voter Panel say.

The GOP's failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act has enraged some of these voters.

"Killing Obamacare was a key component of the Republican platform, and I believe all Republican senators campaigned on that very issue," Daniel Kohn, of Corpus Christi, Tex., said. "The inability to move forward is embarrassing and disgusting."

For Ken Cornacchione, a 65-year-old financial consultant from Venice, Fla., the issue is personal. "My premiums have doubled and my deductible has increased nearly three times under Obamacare with no claims by either my wife or me," he said.

Asked whom they blame for the failure, not one singled out Trump, although several volunteered that everyone involved owned some responsibility. Only a handful cited congressional Democrats or the news media, frequent targets of Trump.

Instead, a solid majority placed the responsibility squarely on congressional Republicans.

"There's some blame to go around with everybody, but I continue to be the most disappointed in Congress," said Carter, 50, who works for a medical device firm. "We could have had a plan for this long before Trump was elected, and you would have just had to go to the bookshelf and pull the binder off."

"Seven years: Think about it," railed JoAnne Musial, 65, of Canadenis, Penn. "Who are they kidding, too? This whole baloney with all of them any more makes me sick to my stomach."

That sentiment helps explain Trump's Twitter blasts last week at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The attacks may complicate White House efforts down the road to work with the Kentucky Republican on raising the debt ceiling, funding the government and passing a tax bill.

At the moment, though, they reinforce the sentiment that Republican senators, not the president, are to blame for the stunning setback on health care.

"They've been talking about this for seven years, show-boating for seven years passing resolutions they knew (President Barack) Obama would veto," said Rick Dammer, 45, a an IT project manager from Zephyrhills, Fla. "When the rubber needed to hit the road, they chickened out."

"I like that Trump said that," Chandler said of the president's comments welcoming Obamacare's demise. "He's not going to sugarcoat it. You made your bed, now lie in it."

North Korea showdown

On North Korea, Trump voters  like policymakers and experts and nearly everyone else around the globe  see no easy answers and worry about what's ahead. They are inclined to trust Trump to handle it, albeit not without some nervousness.

"I'm in agreement with how Trump's approached it, kind of," said Francis Smazal, 54, a registered nurse from Marshfield, Wis. "If this guy (in North Korea) is left unchecked, I believe conflict is inevitable."

Several said they hope Trump tries to build an international coalition through the United Nations, or with China and Russia. "I think we need to go through China," said Patricia Shomion, 67, of Mount Gilead, Ohio. She blames Beijing, North Korea's neighbor and ally, for not doing more to block its nuclear program. "That's our solution, because all of those nukes and missiles have 'China' written all over them, 'Made in China.'"

But Pat Jolliff, 60, of Rochester, Ind., worried that Trump's threat of "fire and fury" risked making a bad situation worse. "I think his words, once again, are some of his worst enemies," she said. "He comes across as a bully, a tyrant, somebody who always has to have his way."

The belief that Trump isn't just another politician, that he has a combative style and is comfortable breaking old norms, is his fundamental appeal for many of his supporters. "Everyone's having a hissy (fit) because a politician isn't the president," scoffed Musial. "Cut and dried: He's not a politician and doesn't fit in (your) little clique here, so they're trying to cause a ruckus for him."

"Trump is a different kind of person; he's not a politician," Shomion agreed. "They're not used to that. They don't know what to do with him."

But the continuing soap-opera drama on the White House staff is worrisome to some: Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, out. Press secretary Sean Spicer, out. ("A sweetheart," Musial said affectionately.) Communications director Anthony Scaramucci: In, then out after 11 days. ("He was horrible," Jolliff said.)

"I am somewhat concerned with all the tension," said Wayne Moore, 60, a procurement manager from Henderson, Ky. "It looks like there are more chiefs than Indians."

Several volunteered dismay over Trump's public humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"I was very disappointed in the way he ripped up Jeff Sessions, who was basically the first one to sign up" to support Trump's candidacy, Carter said. "He's a long-tenured, respected lawmaker, and it just didn't make sense to me."

David McDonough, 55, a plumber from Brownsburg, Ind., predicted things eventually would settle down. "It's like taking over a new business and some employees don't like the way you run things," he said. "In time, once the kinks are worked out and the leakers are found, I believe the White House will run smooth."

Then there are those tweets.

Some supporters say the president's thoughts in 140-character bursts make them wince. "He comes out looking like a damn fool 60% of the time," Gray said.

But by more than 2-1, his loyalists say he should continue posting on Twitter  and acknowledge that he's not likely to stop, no matter what they think.

"I don't necessarily agree on what he's saying, but if Twitter is the only way to get the truth out and the truth only comes from him, then that's OK," Steven Spence, 70, of Mesa, Arizona, said. "He either lives or dies by the sword, and we'll find out four years from now how the American public rates him."
President Donald Trump on Monday will order his top trade adviser to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property, senior administration officials said on Saturday.

The move, which could eventually lead to steep tariffs on Chinese goods, comes at a time when Trump has asked China to do more to crack down on North Korea's nuclear missile program as he threatens possible military action against Pyongyang.

Trump has said he would be more amenable to going easy on Beijing if it were more aggressive in reining in North Korea.

An administration official, however, insisted diplomacy over North Korea and the potential trade probe were "totally unrelated," saying the trade action was not a pressure tactic.

"These are two different things," the official said, speaking to reporters on a conference call.

Trump will direct U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine if an investigation is warranted of "any of China's laws, policies, practices or actions that may be unreasonable or discriminatory, and that may be harming American intellectual property, innovation and technology," the official said.

"China's unfair trade practices and industrial policies, including forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, harm the U.S. economy and workers," a second official said. "The action being taken on Monday is a reflection of the president's firm commitment to addressing this problem in a firm way."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer took issue with that assessment.

"President Trump's pattern continues: Tough talk on China, but weaker action than anyone could ever imagine," he said in a statement. "To make an announcement that they're going to decide whether to have an investigation on China's well-documented theft of our intellectual property is another signal to China that it is O.K. to keep stealing."

Any investigation that may be launched could take as long as a year to conclude, a third official said. He said it would be premature to speculate on actions that could eventually be taken against China, and added that the issue could be resolved through "negotiated agreement."

Trump, who will interrupt a 17-day working vacation to make a day trip to Washington for the trade announcement, had been expected to seek a so-called Section 301 investigation earlier this month, but an announcement was postponed as the White House pressed for China's cooperation on North Korea.

While China joined in a unanimous U.N. Security Council decision to tighten economic sanctions on Pyongyang, Trump has kept up pressure on Beijing to do more.

"We lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade with China. They know how I feel," he told reporters on Thursday. "If China helps us, I feel a lot different toward trade."

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Friday and reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, the White House said in a statement. It was unclear whether the issue of trade came up.

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a popular trade tool in the 1980s that has been rarely used in the past decade, allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect U.S. industries from "unfair trade practices" of foreign countries.

The process can bypass World Trade Organization procedures for adjudicating grievances. Though widely used worldwide, the WTO process is viewed unfavorably by the Trump administration.

"We're at the beginning of this process and no firm decisions have been made as to how that is going to work in terms of whether we would pursue WTO action or action outside the WTO," the first administration official said.

In addition to the United States, the European Union, Japan, Germany, and Canada have all expressed concern about Chinese theft of intellectual property. The technology sector has been especially hard-hit in intellectual property disputes.
President Donald Trump did not go far enough in condemning white nationalists after deadly violence during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the head of the National Urban League said Monday.

The president needs to call out far-right groups by name and "speak loudly and clearly" against hate speech, Marc Morial told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday.

Trump said on Saturday, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

The "on many sides" part of the remarks drew the ire of critics who said the president should have put the blame squarely on the groups behind the far-right rally, which was believed to be the largest gathering of white supremacists in a decade.

In a statement later, the White House defended Trump's use of "many sides," saying, "[he] was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. There was violence between protesters and counter protesters."

Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend accused the news media of being more concerned with attacking Trump's response than condemning the violence itself.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House leader, tweeted criticism of Trump.

"Repeat after me, @realDonaldTrump: white supremacy is an affront to American values."

Morial on Monday echoed sentiments similar to Pelosi, saying, neo-Nazis are connected to and worship Adolf Hitler" and they cannot be allowed to spread their ideology in the modern world.

Morial said the U.S. should protect the freedom of speech, but "not hate speech."

Anti-supremacist demonstrator Heather Heyer, 32, was killed on Saturday in Charlottesville when a car plowed into a crowd.

The suspected driver was found moments after fleeing the scene. Police arrested and charged 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio.

Nineteen others were injured at the Charlottesville rally, while a pilot and a trooper-pilot died when the helicopter they were in nearby crashed.

 Reuters, AP, and NBC News contributed to this report.
China should sue the U.S. for trade protectionism if President Donald Trump orders an investigation into China's intellectual property practices, Chinese state media said in an unsigned editorial on Sunday.

Trump is expected to issue the so-called Section 301 investigation under the 1974 Trade Act later on Monday to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property, multiple outlets reported.

China will retaliate in such a case, said the Communist Party-linked Global Times, which is known for its nationalist slant.

"The Trump administration should have second thoughts about putting pressure on China on trade and avoid a full-blown trade war," said the newspaper, adding that the Beijing "should make use of the WTO mechanism to sue the U.S. for trade protectionism."

"The trade policies of the Trump administration have been widely criticized. Although filing a lawsuit with the WTO is time-consuming, it is highly likely that China would win," it said.

The latest news about a U.S. probe into Chinese trade practices could lead to steep tariffs and comes as Trump is pressing for China's cooperation in reining in North Korea's nuclear program.

"The U.S. now is walking softly and carrying a huge stick in regards to what it wants. Here, this is tactically nothing more than 'We need your support with North Korea,' part and parcel, that's it. The symbolism of this is just politics and game play," Frank Troise, managing director at SoHo Capital, told CNBC's "The Rundown."

Nomura analysts said in a note on Sunday that the U.S.-China trade deficit rose to $171 billion in the first half of 2017 from $161 billion in the same period last year, which "all else equal, should pressure Trump to be more aggressive with China."

However, the two economic giants still have a number of joint strategic issues, including North Korea.

"How aggressively the Trump administration pursues the IP investigation will no doubt be weighed against how the administration perceives China is assisting in achieving strategic goals of the U.S.," the Nomura analysts wrote.

China has repeatedly said the two issues  trade and North Korea  were not related, with the Global Times calling the link "illogical" in its Sunday night editorial.

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying underscored the point at a scheduled press conference, reiterating the point that the issues of U.S. trade and North Korea are not connected and that there is no future in a trade war between the world's two largest economies, Reuters reported.

Still, China's Commerce Ministry issued an order banning imports of various commodities from North Korea on Monday, Reuters reported separately. The order takes effect from Tuesday, as Beijing moved to implement United Nations sanctions announced earlier in August.

Commentaries in state media normally provide insight into government thinking beyond typically thin official statements.

Reuters contributed to this article.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro celebrates the results of a referendum on a constitutional assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 31, 2017.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday ordered the armed forces of the country to have military exercises later this month, coming on the heels of President Donald Trump warning of possible military action.

"Venezuela will not be threatened," Maduro was quoted as saying, according to the Venezuelan newspaper Panorama.

The paper said Maduro added that Trump "should know that threatening Venezuela is like threatening Latin America."

At the same time, Venezuela's defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, warned Monday that the U.S. was looking to steal Venezuela's oil reserves, according to a report from Reuters.

Venezuela's nationwide military drills are scheduled to take place August 26 to 27 and will include the air force, navy and national militia, according to Panorama.
A Walmart gun display prodding customers to "Own the school year like a hero," was a prank, the company confirmed Saturday.

Walmart spokesman Charles Crowson told USA TODAY the company is "certain" the incident was a ruse, but offered no other details.

Walmart started its own investigation of the incident Wednesday, after a photo of the display spread across Twitter. The photo showed a glass gun case in a Walmart store with a sign on top reading, "Own the school year like a hero," the store's back-to-school slogan.

More from USA Today:

Trump voters like the president's actions but not his tweets

Great expectations: These Trump voters expect him to deliver for them

10 best places to see this summer's solar eclipse

The photo drew quick condemnation from people online and the company itself. Over a 24-hour period, the company tweeted out dozens of apologies to individual tweeters, calling the display "terrible," "definitely NOT okay" and a "regrettable situation."

Crowson didn't specify what aspect of the incident was a prank, including whether someone doctored the photo or tampered with the display.

He said the company had "several people" working on the investigation, which concluded Friday evening.

"I really don't think any retailer is immune from things like this popping up through social media," he said. "When we're faced with it, we do take the claim seriously."

@OMGItsBirdman: Explain this @Walmart
The U.S. and NATO alliance are getting mixed signals from Turkey at a time when Russia is increasingly warming to Ankara.

Turkey's relationship with the U.S. is considered the worst it's been in more than a decade. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin both share a general suspicion and mistrust of the U.S., and the two leaders have discussed Moscow selling its S-400 air defense system to Ankara.

Yet another concern is whether Turkey can be trusted since it's scheduled next year to get some of the most advanced U.S. military hardware: Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jet.

"Is Turkey, a large and important NATO ally, moving away from NATO and more into the sphere of Russia?" asks Roman Schweizer, a defense analyst at Cowen. "Is that a country that we want to be selling F-35s to? Somebody could ask that question at some point."

To policy analysts, given Turkey would consider the Russian-made S-400 system raises the question whether it can be counted on longer term by the U.S. and NATO alliance. They also suggest the situation highlights the differences over perceived strategic threats by Turkey and NATO as well as the anti-West sentiment after the failed coup a year ago.

"Since the coup attempt, the destabilization is such that you can hardly find a direction that makes sense  at least from a European standpoint," said Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Europe think tank and a former European Union ambassador to Turkey. "It goes in all directions at the same time, and this is what is so deeply troubling."

Last week, Russia's new ambassador to Turkey, Alexei Yerkhov, said ties between the two countries are "promising" and closer coordination on Syria "is bringing about very good relations."

There's been a thaw in relations and increased trade that has resulted in Russian wheat now shipping again to Turkey. The Kremlin also plans to launch a joint investment fund with Turkey and to remove trade restrictions.

Later this week, Russia is scheduled to discuss lifting a ban on agricultural imports from Turkey, according to the Tass Russian news agency. Some of the trade restrictions went into effect following Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane near the Turkey-Syria border in 2015.



At the same time, Yerkhov, the Russian ambassador, kept alive reports the Kremlin was preparing to still sell the S-400 air defense system to Turkey and appeared to relish how it's generated concern from the Pentagon and NATO.



"There is a very big murmur both in Washington and in Brussels on this issue," Yerkhov said last week in his first meeting with Turkish media.



The Pentagon and NATO are taking a dim view of the Russian defense system, though, and also worried longer term about ties with Turkey given its home to U.S. warplanes and nuclear gravity bombs at Incirlik Air Base.



"Turkey is a key NATO ally, and we are committed to our strong defense partnership," Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael told CNBC.



However, the Pentagon official added, "We have relayed our concerns to Turkish officials regarding the potential purchase of the S-400. A NATO interoperable missile defense system remains the best option to defend Turkey from the full range of threats in its region."



Similarly, Turkey in 2015 looked set to be buying China's export version of the FD-2000 long-range air defense missile system for $3.4 billion but backed out after pressure from NATO. Also, the Chinese reportedly refused to budge on all of Turkey's technology transfer demands.

"It could be the case that Turkey is playing what it thinks is kind of a clever game to get the U.S. hardware," said Simon Waldman, co-author of "The New Turkey and Its Discontents."

Added Waldman, "Turkey is still a NATO ally and will continue to be so. But Turkey is increasingly investing in its own kind of military hardware and it wants to be quite independent."



It's still unclear if Moscow and Ankara can agree on price and terms for the S-400, including the transfer of technology and a coproduction arrangement. Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, reportedly sees the technology transfer as a national priority to grow its indigenous defense industry, and U.S. missile defense makers maybe less willing to part with valuable intellectual property.

As for the F-35 stealth fighter jet, Turkey is part of an international consortium that is helping to produce the aircraft, and with that arrangement it will get access to the fifth-generation fighter's technology. Under the current F-35 program, about 10 Turkish companies get to work on the aircraft, ranging from frame structure to production landing gear components. Turkey is scheduled to get 100 F-35 planes.

In July, a group of House members proposed a measure to stop the F-35 sale to Ankara. They cited the May 17 brawl outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington, where Erdogan's Turkish security guards were accused of attacking protesters.

"There is reason to be concerned about the tenor of politics in Turkey," said Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank. "There certainly is reason to question whether Turkey is an ally. Maybe it's an ally, but not a partner. And I think American policymakers need to keep that in mind."



According to Cook, there is an element within Turkey's nationalists who "very much dislike the West (and the United States). There's believed to be a faction within the security services that are interested in developing relations with the Russians."

A major rift in the U.S.-Turkey relationship is Washington's refusal so far to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the Ankara government accuses of masterminding last year's coup. Similarly, Germany has refused to extradite Turks the Erdogan government accuses of involvement in the coup.

Also, Turkey is particularly angry the U.S. is arming YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces to defeat ISIS. The Kurdish YPG militia (or People's Protection Units) are a branch of the outlawed terrorist group Kurdistan Workers' Party (or PKK).

Violence from the Turkey-PKK conflict has claimed an estimated 45,000 lives since the 1980s.

"I think what we are seeing now is a destabilized leadership in Turkey trying to prove to the rest of the world they have options," said Pierini, the former EU ambassador to Turkey. "They are displeased with the U.S. administration because of its support to YPG."

Experts point out that the U.S.-Turkey relationship may be further challenged in October when the trial is scheduled to start for Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman accused of money laundering and bucking sanctions on Iran. There's been speculation Zarrab could testify that some prominent Turkish officials knew of the alleged scheme, including Erdogan or persons in his inner circle.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a security briefing on August 10, 2017, at his Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey. Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

In the past 72 hours, President Trump has threatened North Korea with a nuclear attack, suggested that threat may not have been "tough enough" and then, on Friday morning, boasted that the U.S. military is "locked and loaded" in preparation for an attack on the Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang. At no time in recent history has an American president been so free with threats of nuclear war. The flurry of bellicosity has, even more than usual over the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency, led to critics of the president loudly questioning his sanity. That may be exactly what Trump wants. In 1969, another American president in his first term in the Oval Office faced an intractable problem in Asia -- one that he had repeatedly promised to solve while on the campaign trail just a few months before. Having made no progress by his first summer in the White House, he decided to dramatically raise the stakes. The president was Richard Nixon, and the problem frustrating him was the war in Vietnam. In the summer after taking office, despite the serious reservations of U.S. military leaders, he ordered the armed forces to high alert and sent nuclear-armed bombers to skirt the eastern border of the Soviet Union on three consecutive says.

watch now

Nixon was attempting a complex foreign policy bank shot that he hoped would lead to an end of the war in Vietnam. The idea was not to actually attack anybody, but to convince Russia that Nixon was unstable enough that he would risk a "first use" of nuclear weapons to finally decide the conflict, potentially plunging the world into nuclear war in the process. If it succeeded, Nixon hoped, Russia would pressure the North Vietnamese to come to the bargaining table and end the war. Nixon's former chief of staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman wrote in his book The Ends of Power that Nixon had explicitly outlined a version of the strategy the previous summer: "I call it the madman theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe that I've reached the point that I might do anything to stop the war. We'll just slip the word to them that, 'for God's sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about communism. We can't restrain him when he is angry  and he has his hand on the nuclear button'  and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace." More from the Fiscal Times:

Why the Escalating Threats Between Trump and Kim Won't End in War

Here's Why North Korea Put Guam in Its Crosshairs

White House Advisers Insist that Trump Opposes Nazis Nixon would later deny ever using the phrase "madman theory" and, in the end, the ploy didn't work particularly well, as the war dragged on until 1975. But the phrase became a common shorthand for a particular strategy observed in the larger academic literature of game theory -- the study of strategic decision-making in situations of human competition. "It's an argument that there's a kind of method in the madness -- that there's a rationality to appearing to be mad to force another player to back down in a confrontational situation," said Steven Brams, a professor in the Department of Politics at New York University who has studied game theory and international relations. The idea, he said, is to convince your opponent that either intentionally or by accident, you might do something disastrous for both parties -- like starting a nuclear war -- even if doing so is ultimately against your own interests. If successful, the strategy shifts the ultimate goal of the opponent from winning the competition to placating the crazy person sitting across the table.

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KAR Auction Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides used vehicle auctions and related vehicle remarketing services for the automotive industry in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The company operates through two segments, ADESA Auctions and AFC. The ADESA Auctions segment offers whole car auctions and related services to the vehicle remarketing industry through online auctions and auction facilities. It also provides value-added services, such as auction related, transportation, reconditioning, inspection, title and repossession administration and remarketing, vehicle research, and analytical services, as well as data as a service. This segment sells its products and services through vehicle manufacturers, fleet companies, rental car companies, finance companies, and others. As of December 31, 2021, this segment had a network of approximately 70 vehicle logistics center locations in North America. The AFC segment offers floorplan financing, a short-term inventory-secured financing to independent used vehicle dealers; and sells vehicle service contracts. The company provides wheel repair and hail catastrophe response services. It serves vehicle manufacturers, vehicle rental companies, financial institutions, commercial fleets and fleet management companies, and dealer customers. The company was formerly known as KAR Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to KAR Auction Services, Inc. in November 2009. KAR Auction Services, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.
The Government has published a plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations. Councils will be provided with 255 million to implement measures to address the matter.

The Government says:

Due to the highly localised nature of the problem local knowledge will be crucial in solving pollution problems in these hotspots. The government will require councils to produce local air quality plans which reduce nitrogen dioxide levels in the fastest possible time.

Local authorities will be able to bid for money from a new Clean Air Fund to support improvements which will reduce the need for restrictions on polluting vehicles. This could include changing road layouts, removing traffic lights and speed humps, or upgrading bus fleets.

I hope it succeeds.

For years I have argued that there should be far fewer traffic lights. It would also help if where they are retained, consideration is given to turning them off at night.

With regard to humps, the evidence of their failure is also long-standing. Many studies have indicated the substantial extra pollution they cause  which common sense already makes pretty obvious. Imperial College found that a petrol drive car produced 64 per cent more Nitrogen Dioxide in a street with humps. Last year the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence called for councils to remove humps to encourage smooth driving and thus cleaner air.

The principle of allowing local authorities flexibility in how they improve air quality is attractive and in line with localist principles. They need to solve the problem, but some innovation is allowed as to how they do so. The nudge also includes the 255 million.

My concern is that it wont be enough. Highways engineers are addicted to interventionism. Asking them to renounce traffic lights and humps is to repudiate their entire careers. Those who have spent decades coming up with schemes for ever greater meddling will not find it easy to accept their work did more harm than good. Council leaders are too polite to say anything.

Michael Gove should have learnt his lesson when at the Department of Education where he tried to persuade social workers to discard their deeply help ideological opposition to adoption. I doubt he will do any better with the transport planners.

Money is not the problem. The London Assembly Conservatives proposal to turn off 80 per cent of traffic lights between midnight and 6am would save 40 million. Similarly, if humps are not replaced during routine road resurfacing that saves money. So I dont quite see how councils will be entitled to the 255 million if the measures they were taking cost less. The incentives are already there but being ignored.

Some might conclude that this shows the ineffectiveness of localism. However a better solution is to apply the policy in a more radical form. Often councils think localism means giving them more power. Sometimes it does. But at other times it means devolution to the people and local institutions. Allowing schools to run their own affairs rather than being beholden to the town hall is localism. So is the right to buy your council home rather than have the state as your landlord. Local neighbourhood plans have meant a shift from planning officers to the community in the type of new homes to be built. Council Tax referendums have given residents a powerful veto on extravagant spending.

So in this spirit lets allow residents in a local area (say a ward or even a polling district) to be able to trigger a local referendum on removing traffic lights. Humps could be an even more local decision. When a street with humps is being resurfaced let the residents of the street decide if they want the humps replaced. Councils should be required to inform them of the air quality data and the concerns of the emergency services. I would be surprised if given the choice, many humps would remain.

In some ways this approach would be controversial and naturally there is concern about votes in the House of Commons being tight. But would Labour and Lib Dem MPs really wish to oppose greater local democracy? I was pleased to see that Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dems bright fresh new leader, backs turning off traffic lights. Would Lib Dem MPs?

Let the people decide.
Nicky Morgan is Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, a former Education Secretary, and MP for Loughborough.

The silly season is clearly in overdrive this August, with speculation about the time having arrived for a new UK political party to be formed. This would be a very bad idea for many reasons. Just aks those who were involved in the SDP: are any of them saying that a new centrist party is a good idea? Or look at UKIP, now floundering after their platform has been taken away from them.

Brexit is a huge and shifting tectonic plate in the UK political landscape. It is undoubtedly challenging long-held allegiances and party relationships like nothing else Ive known in my 28 years as a Conservative Party member. But a new party formed solely to deal with the Brexit fallout and then, supposedly, tying together moderates and centrists from existing parties would be a party which would quickly collapse under its own contradictions.

If one-nation liberal Conservatives listen to these siren voices, what would it say about the Tory Party we now have? To accept the argument for creating a new party would be to accept that the Conservative Party can no longer appeal to the British political centre ground. I refuse to accept that proposition. Because without that centre ground we can never hope to be a majority government again.

As someone who has had to fight, win and hold a marginal seat in the Midlands I know what it takes to win over those who have supported other parties and to build a broad coalition of local support. The same principles apply at a national level.

The Conservative Party is, and always has been, a broad church. There now appear to be some, both inside and outside the Party, who want it to become a narrow ideological shrine, appealing only to a narrow and ageing group of supporters. This does nothing to win over the average voter who doesnt think about politics much but, when they do come to elect a Government, want a party standing on a platform of a sound economy, good public services, an effective and fair welfare safety net, a global outlook and committed to a strong defence capability.

If liberal Conservative MPs allow ourselves to be drummed out of the Conservative Party, whether by heeding the calls for a new Party or by accepting that our views no longer have a place within our Party, then that would send a terrible signal, not only to the electorate but also to the tens of thousands of Tory members, councillors, donors and supporters who share our views and want us to lead the charge in putting forward a mainstream agenda which appeals to the centre-ground of British politics and, in particular, to younger and future voters. And that number of activists and supporters is growing: just look at the surge in membership of organisations such as the long-established Tory Reform Group.

We have many One Nation Conservatives at the top of Government. They deserve our support as they undertake an incredibly difficult task  namely, to leave the EU whilst not fatally undermining our standing in the world and the economic gains which we have worked so hard for since 2010. Those of us who want these Ministers to succeed need to support them. We will push back internally when the ideologues call for those sensible and responsible Ministers to be sacked because they are trying to act in the national interest.

There will be disagreements about what acting in the national interest means  particularly when we are working our way through something as huge as Brexit. But our history as a party is much, much bigger than Brexit and Europe, and our appeal must be much broader if we are to win a majority at the next election. The national interest now demands that we stop indulging in political and ideological fantasies about new parties and start focusing on how we shape the rest of the 21st century in which the Conservative Party should want to be in Government with a broad base of support in the country.
ConservativeHome reported last week that allies of Philip Hammond were dismayed by the battering he took in our latest Cabinet League Table. We suggested that 

if raising his standing among activists is important to him, he could try two things during the run-up to Party Conference. First, ensure that the Treasury co-operates fully with Downing Streets coming drive to publicise good news about Brexit more forcefully. And, second, make it clear that he is neither trying to stop Brexit  which is all but impossible in any event, given how the Article 50 process works  nor to turn any implementation period into a permanent EEA-style arrangement. In doing both, he would be preparing the ground for something much more important than our surveys  namely, restoring his political support within the Party before his Autumn budget, or trying to.

It seems from todays Sun that the Chancellor has no intention of waiting that long. Under the headline, Panicky Treasury chiefs tried to slow Brexit down to a decade-long process, but were ignored by Philip Hammond, it says that 

Insiders claim mandarins pushed for a transitional deal with the EU that could have had the UK staying in the Single Market and Customs Union for a decade, but were ignored by Philip Hammond. Instead the Chancellor has demanded a period of at the most three years. He told the BBC last month there was a broad consensus that this process has to be completed by the time the scheduled time of the next general election which is in June 2022. But sources tell The Sun some Treasury beancounters wanted the transition to be much longer, with one saying they all think Brexit is a crime against the Holy Ghost. And one Whitehall official last night branded the Treasury Remain Central.

The Chancellor wont suddenly stop defending the interests of business and the City as he believes them to be. But it rather looks as though Operation Brexitise Hammond is under way.

His co-authored article with Liam Fox in yesterdays Sunday Telegraph was another sign of it  though perhaps less so than of the Damian Green/Gavin Williamson/Gavin Barwell/Robbie Gibb axis that now runs Number 10 getting the Governments act together.

For the weekend papers also told us that the Prime Minister is to make a major Brexit speech soonish, and that David Davis is to unleash a torrent of negotiation position papers, in an attempt to make the talks about more than just money.

The Hammond/Fox article largely told us what we already knew but the Chancellor has under-stressed: namely, that any transition or implementation period after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019 will be temporary.

It didnt set a date but, as the Sun points out, Hammond has already said that a broad consensus that this process has to be completed by the scheduled time of the next general election which is in June 2022. He appears to have given ground over the customs union.

He could reasonably be expected to back an implementation period which runs until May 2022, the maximum period consistent with those words, as championed recently on this site by Nick Boles.

Fox shows no sign of wanting to wait for that long, but Mays coming Brexit speech will presumably clear the matter up, and agree a position behind which the Cabinet will be expected to rally.

Treasury civil servants wont be thrilled to read their boss dissing them in the tabloids but, hey, thats politics. Now Hammond must ensure that his department gets behind Downing Streets coming push to publicise Brexit upsides more aggressively.
Acapulco has announced an increase in the number of cruise calls for 2017. The citys port is now expected to see 32 ships before years end, up from the previously announced 28, and compared 18 for 2016.

The four additional calls are by the Norwegian Pearl, Oceanias Sirena and Regatta.

In total, the callers this year include Norwegian, Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, Oceania, Crystal, Saga, Hapag Lloyd and Phoenix Reisen.

Acapulco said it will continue to promote and supervise its ports operations to attract more ships, in collaboration with cruise lines.

Acapulco is experiencing a comeback with 14 more ships arriving this year over 2016, said Ernesto Rodriguez Escalona, secretary of tourism of the State of Guerrero. This increase is a testament to our commitment to growth supported by new projects and investments from both the public and private sectors.

Earlier this year, a delegation headed by the Acapulco Tourism Board, including representatives of the port and the Acapulco Destination Marketing Office and several tour operators met with cruise lines. Acapulco said it also distributes a monthly report on its port operations to cruise lines.

Additionally, Acapulco recently announced that it will be homeport for the 1,400-passenger Magellan of Cruise and Maritime Voyages, starting in the winter of 2018 - 2019. The roundtrip cruises will make stops in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. Details are expected to be worked out in a meeting between cruise line executives and city officials before the end of the month, according to a spokesperson for the tourism board.

Cruise operations in Acapulco are assisted by the Center for Tourist Attention and Protection (CAPTA), an organization recognized for tourism assistance and safety implemented for the first time in Mexico. The federal, state and municipal authorities have reiterated their commitment to the successful operation of the cruise ships in Acapulco and will continue collaborating with the cruise lines, working to resolve their concerns.
Norwegian Cruise Line today revealed new Norwegian Bliss details, including the largest competitive race track at sea and an open-air laser tag course.

Many of the ships amenities were announced today by Andy Stuart, Norwegian Cruise Line president and chief executive officer, at an exclusive event at Virtuoso Travel Week at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, where media and travel partners were able to Imagine Bliss through interactive 3D virtual reality experiences of the ships race track,

Norwegian Bliss will no doubt be our most incredible ship to date, said Stuart. We have elevated Norwegian Blisss onboard experience to new heights, bringing the best features from across our fleet plus exciting new first-at-sea activities like the largest race track and new dining concepts to create the ultimate cruising experience.

At approximately 167,800 gross tons and accommodating 4,000 guests, the Norwegian Bliss debuts into the Alaska market next summer. Full News Release.

Video
The Department of Defense informed NAFCU in a letter that, at this time, it would not delay its Oct. 3 implementation date for credit card compliance under the Military Lending Act rule.

The letter was signed by Virginia Penrod, chief of staff in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense. She notes in the letter that she has been delegated the authority to act on behalf of the DoD; to date, there are no political appointees named to this office.

She was responding to a letter sent to the DoD in March from NAFCU Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt. The MLA rule took effect last October, but it included a one-year limited exemption for credit cards. In her letter, Hunt pointed to a need for more clarity in the rule and urged an immediate extension of the credit card account compliance deadline.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions in the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Digital Student Solutions. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com. It also offers First Day and First Day Complete access programs; BNC OER+, a turnkey solution for colleges and universities, that offers digital content, such as videos, activities, and auto-graded practice assessments; and general merchandise, including collegiate and athletic apparel, school spirit products, lifestyle products, technology products, supplies, graduation products, and convenience items. In addition, the company sources, sells, and distributes new and used textbooks; and sells hardware and a software suite of applications that provides inventory management and point-of-sale solutions to approximately 350 college bookstores. Further, it offers direct-to-student subscription-based writing services; and bartleby, a direct-to-student subscription-based offering that includes textbook solutions, expert questions and answers, and writing and tutoring services. The company operates 805 physical college and university bookstores; 622 virtual bookstores; 8 True Spirit e-commerce websites; pop-up retail locations; 73 customized cafes and 11 stand-alone convenience stores; and a media channel for brands targeting the college demographic. Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
WestRock Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates through two segments, Corrugated Packaging and Consumer Packaging. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers. It also provides structural and graphic design, engineering services and custom, and proprietary and standard automated packaging machines, as well as turn-key installation, automation, line integration, and packaging solutions; distributes corrugated packaging materials and other specialty packaging products, including stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes; operates recycling facilities that collect, sort, grade, and bale recovered paper; and provides lithographic laminated packaging products, as well as contract packing services. The Consumer Packaging segment manufactures and sells folding cartons that are used to package food, paper, beverages, dairy products, tobacco, confectionery, health and beauty, other household consumer, and commercial and industrial products; and express mail packages for the overnight courier industry. It also offers inserts and labels, as well as rigid packaging and other printed packaging products, such as transaction cards, brochures, product literature, marketing materials, and grower tags and plant stakes for the horticultural market; and secondary packages and paperboard packaging for over-the-counter and prescription drugs. In addition, this segment manufactures and sells solid fiber and corrugated partitions, and die-cut paperboard components principally to glass container manufacturers and the automotive industry, as well as producers of beer, food, wine, spirits, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. WestRock Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
North Korea came under further international pressure on Monday after China moved to implement recently approved UN trade sanctions against the regime.

The sanctions approved by the UN Security Council earlier this month included a ban on imports of coal, iron ore, iron and lead from the country.

China's ministry of commerce issued the order implementing the sanctions after tensions between Pyongyang and Washington rose to dangerous levels last week.

The ban was set to take effect from Tuesday.

However, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying simultaneously decried US president Donald Trump's intention to sign an executive momerandum on Monday launching an investigation into Beijing's violation of intellectual property laws.

Hua said: "It is obviously improper to use one thing as a tool to imposing pressure on another thing. There will be no winner from a trade war, it will be lose-lose."

On a similar note, in an editorial piece, state-owned China Daily said: "By trying to incriminate Beijing as an accomplice in the DPRK's nuclear adventure and blame it for a failure that is essentially a failure of all stakeholders, Trump risks making the serious mistake of splitting up the international coalition that is the means to resolve the issue peacefully."
South Korean President Moon Jae told his American allies there must be a diplomatic solution to the crisis with North Korea.

Moon reportedly also tried to ease tensions by telling advisers at a meeting: "Our top priority is the national interest of [South Korea] and our national interest lies in peace.

"I am confident that the US will respond to the current situation in a calm and responsible manner in line with our policy direction."

That followed a warning by North Korea's news agency, KCNA, on Monday that any war could "only be turned into a nuclear war".

According to the BBC, Dunford stressed that America's priority was diplomacy, although military options were available should sanctions against the North fail.

Sanctions against the North were approved by the UN Security Council on 5 August in response to its recent wave of missile tests and increased military rhetoric.

On Monday, China said it was moving to implement a ban on imports of North Korean iron ore, iron, lead and seafood effective from the next day.

Nevertheless, the BBC's Beijing correspondent, John Sudworth mused aloud about how in the past China had signed-up to sanctions only to later be seen dragging its feet.
The White Houses decision to order a probe into Chinese trading practices will 'poison' relations between the two countries at a critical time, state-run newspaper China Daily has warned.

Donald Trump was widely expected to order the launch of an investigation into alleged intellectual property theft, tasking US trade representative Robert Lighthizer with the job of overseeing the probe.

The move from Washington could lead to tariffs being imposed on Chinese exports to the US, something Trump had promised during his election campaign.

The newspaper insisted that China-US relations would be put under strain if the administration followed through with the investigation.

"Instead of advancing the United States' interests, politicising trade will only exacerbate the countrys economic woes, and poison the overall China-US relationship," the publication said.

Increasing tension between the US and North Korea has pushed the two superpowers' relationship further into the spotlight, with Trump and his team calling on Xi Jinping's government to take a hard line with Pyongyang.

"Given Trumps transactional approach to foreign affairs, it is impossible to look at the matter without taking into account his increasing disappointment at what he deems as Chinas failure to bring into line Korea."

The total trade relationship between the US and China is valued at over $600bn a year, with the US estimated to be running a trade deficit of around $300bn with the Asian giant.
Vassilis Costopoulos has been appointed CEO of Greek public service broadcaster ERT.

Costopoulos is a veteran attorney-at-law and acted as Director of the Legal Department at ERT from 1988 until 2013.

While at ERT he served as a member of the Permanent Legal Committee and the Specialized Legal Committee on European Affairs at the EBU and was Deputy Member of the Administrative Council for a number of years.

Over the course of his career, Costopoulos has closely monitored electronic media related issues at a national and international level, with a focus on those relating to community, telecommunication and information technology.

He holds a PhD in Private International Law from the Law School of Paris and has taught at the Law School of Thrace in Greece, the Greek National School of Public Administration and at Alicante University.

Greek Minister of Digital Policy Nikos Pappas stressed that Costopoulos was chosen from a field of 32 candidates because of his long experience at ERT. Costopoulos plans to develop a new strategic plan to develop ERT, both in the fields of technological equipment and the exploitation of its property.
Transcript of the video:



Mike Papantonio: Monsanto is wreaking havoc once again with one of their herbicides, Dicamba. Hundreds of farmers in Arkansas have filed complaints about Dicamba, while states like Missouri were forced to temporarily ban its use, with Tennessee also banning it shortly thereafter. Joining me now is attorney Bev Randles.

Bev, what is Dicamba and why exactly was it being used in the first place? It almost sounds like the Ben Lake story to me when I think back on that disaster. I think it was DuPont was the manufacturer of that. But what is your take on this overall?

17 States Investigate #Dicamba Damage Complaints Spanning 2.5 Million Acres https://t.co/TuIAuAMSiD "Let's stop the standard denial routine" pic.twitter.com/ShsBFpagxu  GMWatch (@GMWatch) August 3, 2017

Bev Randles: Well, Dicamba is a herbicide. Its been around, actually in use since about the last 1960s but it was used in very, very small amounts on not very much of the acreage nationally anyway, but Monsanto decided about ten years ago that they wanted to make their herbicide sort of the premier, this Dicamba herbicide. So they marketed. They produced and marketed what are called the Extend System. Its called the Extend System and what it is is a seed and then the corresponding herbicide to be used with it is Dicamba.

But the problem with Dicamba is that its extremely volatile, which means it is very difficult for it to stay on target. So when farmers spray it on their crops, their Dicamba resistant crops, it then goes off target and harms other peoples vegetation, everything from their crops to trees, ornamentals and everything. Its really wreaking havoc as you said.

Papantonio: Whats your involvement with this situation? What kind of damages are farmers complaining about? Where do you see this damage going? I mean because obviously its not just limited to Missouri and Arkansas and Tennessee. I think were going to find a lot of these cases along the Gulf Coast. So what is your take on the damages here?

Randles: Well, we have filed two lawsuits. We were actually the first law firm to get involved in this litigation. We filed the first law suit last November on behalf of Bader Farms. Bader Farms is the largest peach producer in Missouri and they had been damaged by Dicamba drift and volatility in 2015 and 2016 and then also the farm is being damaged this year as well.

We also filed a class action lawsuit in January because we were being contacted by smaller operations, people who didnt have the sorts of damage that Bader Farms has experienced but still they were being damaged and they wanted to see redress. So we filed that lawsuit in January and at the time it was targeting ten states, just because those were the 10 affected states as we call them. We intend to make that though a national class action and others have since then, beginning in June of this year, others have filed lawsuits as well.

What were hearing from farmers is that their soybeans, their produce, everything you can think of really is being damaged by this stuff if their product is not Dicamba resistant and very few crops, in fact, right now are Dicamba resistant. Mostly theyre not.

Papantonio: Isnt the better approach here, I mean you know, the American public has every reason to be concerned about class actions. I mean there is a difference. Just so people understand. There is a difference between what we call a mass tort case and a class action case. When we look at Ben Lake, the better way to handle Ben Lake was case by case.

As a matter of fact, some friends of mine down in South Florida handled that project and it started off as a class. The class really never addressed kind of that small grower as youre talking about and it really took the small grower going to trial one by one by putting together a national group of lawyers who were able to do that across the country, I kind of, when I read this story about the class action on this I had the same concern, that I dont know that class action actually solves problems for the people who really need specific address to their specific problem. What is your take on that? Ive been doing this 35 years and thats just my take after looking at the way this is developing.

Randles: Well, you know, I think were going to have to see how it plays out. We obviously feel like a class is appropriate under this set of circumstances. Class looks at things, as you know, like numerosity and typicality and there are certain aspects of this that are just across the board no matter who you talk to, no matter what kind of crops, but yes, there are things that are going to have to be fleshed out, like for instance the process for determining what folks damages are. Because there are some people who maybe have 50 acres and theyre being impacted.

There is another farmer that we, our lawyers spoke with recently, and that farmer is talking about tens of thousands of acres. So people have different options about how they want to proceed and there are going to be a lot of lawyers involved in this. I mean there already are and I do think that as it continues to play out, were going to have to determine the best way to seek redress for each individual person because at the end of the day its about the farmers that are being damaged, not the lawyers, not the companies. Its about the farmers.

Papantonio: After Arkansas initially banned Dicambas use in its state, Monsanto made a statement as if to, as if they wanted to comply. Is this a sign that they plan to go along with the demands of this state? Weve seen this. Look, Monsanto is notorious about saying one thing or doing another. Weve seen it with Roundup. Weve seen it time and time again with GMO. Its just their MO to try to put everybody at ease. Gee whiz. Were going to solve the problems, just work with us. And then nothing is really solved. Dont you already see that happening in here I think the documents in this case are going to be overwhelming where the company has known about these problems for quite a while. Whats your take?

Randles: I believe you are exactly right. The documents are going to be key and in fact, we just had a scheduling conference with the Court yesterday in the Bader case. So that case is, weve got a scheduling order for that now. Weve got a trial date for that. Thats going to be April 19 of 2019. So when discovery starts, we are going to start seeing I believe exactly what you just said. Were going to start seeing that they knew about this and in fact, we know that they knew the problems with the volatility and the drift of this product because there were university scientists studying it for years.

However, Monsanto wouldnt allow any university researchers to study their particular product. Why would that be the case? They have always allowed university researchers to 

Papantonio: The same thing theyve done with Roundup if you think about it.

Randles: Test these things.

Papantonio: I think the same thing is going to develop here with your case. But anyway, look, stay out there. Stay with the fight. This is a company that absolutely rarely plays by the rules. Thanks for joining me.

Randles: Thank you for having me, Mike.

Reposted with permission from our media associate The Ring of Fire.
New Delhi: In the Panama Papers case, the names of many big stars came out, including Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. The Income Tax Department is working with a lot of aggressiveness on this matter. The department has also sent a senior officer to the British Virgin Islands to gather more information in the matter.

The British Virgin Islands located in the Caribbean Islands are among the many tax haven countries. The Income Tax Department has filed a case for 33 names which appeared in Panama Papers and investigations are going on against the rest.

On condition of anonymity, an official told the Emit Post There is no laxity in the investigation. We are quickly collecting information from other countries. Since the removal of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from his post in the Panama Paper case, the Indian tax agency has been facing criticism such as pulling the issue long.

When the officer was asked whether allegations against Amitabh Bachchan were being investigated. On this, the official said, Mr. Bachchan says that he does not have any access to any firm that comes out of the documents. So we can not start a direct inquiry. We have to gather more information. 

The official said, We have sent CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) officer to the British Virgin Islands to collect more information. We are also seeking information from many other countries. After this, we will assess the information and find out whether any law has been violated. 

The so-called Panama-Papers brought names of many big film stars, politicians, and businessmen. Amitabh Bachchan denied any wrong doing. Amitabh had said that he sent money abroad only under Indian rules. He also denied having any connection with the companies that came in front of Panama Papers.

The official said, Some of the accounts revealed are real and they have also come in front of giving details of the names. The process of collecting information is quite long. 

The documents of Panama Papers were leaked by a law firm based in Panama-Mossack Fonseca. This firm has offices in 35 countries. The Panama Papers contains names of 140 politicians from 50 countries who are allegedly falsified accounts. It includes 12 existing and former heads of state. Apart from this, the names of 29 billionaires included in the list of players, administrators, and Forbes are also in these papers.

India is part of the Global Task Force for the investigation of Panama Papers. This Force will share information and investigate each others case.
BEER-SHEVA, Israel...August 14, 2017 - A smiley face emoji and similar emoticons included in work-related e-mails may not create a positive impression and could even undermine information sharing, according to a new study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

"Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence," explained Dr. Ella Glikson, a post-doctorate fellow at the BGU Department of Management, Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management. "In formal business e-mails, a smiley is not a smile."

According to a new paper, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers from BGU, University of Haifa and Amsterdam University conducted a series of experiments with a total of 549 participants from 29 different countries.

In one experiment, the participants were asked to read a work-related e-mail from an unknown person and then evaluate both the competence and warmth of that person. The participants all received similar messages. Some included smileys while others did not. The results demonstrated that in contrast to face-to-face smiles, which increase both competence and warmth, the smileys in an e-mail had no effect on the perception of warmth, and in fact had a negative effect on the perception of competence.

"The study also found that when the participants were asked to respond to e-mails on formal matters, their answers were more detailed and they included more content-related information when the e-mail did not include a smiley," says Dr. Glikson. "We found that the perceptions of low competence if a smiley is included in turn undermined information sharing,"

In another experiment, the use of a smiley was compared to a smiling or neutral photograph. The findings show that in case of a photograph, a smiling sender was perceived as more competent and friendly than a neutral one. However, when e-mail on formal work-related matters included a smiley, the sender was perceived as less competent. The smiley did not influence the evaluation of the sender's friendliness.

Contributing to the ongoing discussion regarding the role of gender in use and interpretation of emoticons, this study found that when the gender of the e-mail writer was unknown, recipients were more likely to assume that the e-mail was sent by a woman if it included a smiley. However, this attribution did not influence the evaluation of competence or friendliness.

"People tend to assume that a smiley is a virtual smile, but the findings of this study show that in the case of the workplace, at least as far as initial 'encounters' are concerned, this is incorrect," Dr. Glikson says. "For now, at least, a smiley can only replace a smile when you already know the other person. In initial interactions, it is better to avoid using smileys, regardless of age or gender."

Dr. Cheshin of the Department of Human Services at the University of Haifa, and Prof. Gerben van Kleef of Amsterdam University also participated in the study. The study was funded by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

###

About American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision: creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. As Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) looks ahead to turning 50 in 2020, AABGU imagines a future that goes beyond the walls of academia. It is a future where BGU invents a new world and inspires a vision for a stronger Israel and its next generation of leaders. Together with supporters, AABGU will help the University foster excellence in teaching, research and outreach to the communities of the Negev for the next 50 years and beyond. Visit vision.aabgu.org to learn more.

AABGU, which is headquartered in Manhattan, has nine regional offices throughout the United States. For more information, visit http://www.aabgu.org.
DARIEN, IL - Aug. 14, 2017 - A new study is the first to link binge-watching in young adults with poorer sleep quality, more fatigue, and increased insomnia. The findings suggest that the mechanism explaining this relationship is increased cognitive alertness resulting from binge-watching.

Results show that more than 80 percent of young adults identified themselves as a binge-watcher, with 20.2 percent of them binge-watching at least a few times a week in the previous month. Those who identified as a binge-watcher reported more fatigue, more symptoms of insomnia, poorer sleep quality and greater alertness prior to going to sleep. Further analysis found that binge-watchers had a 98 percent higher likelihood of having poor sleep quality compared with those who did not consider themselves to be a binge-watcher.

"We found that the more often young people binge-watch, the higher their cognitive pre-sleep arousal," said principal investigator and lead author Liese Exelmans, a doctoral candidate in the School for Mass Communication Research at the University of Leuven in Belgium. "That in turn negatively affected sleep quality, fatigue and insomnia."

Study results are published in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

The study involved 423 young adults who were 18 to 25 years old, with an average age of 22 years. Sixty-two percent of participants were women, and 74 percent were students. They completed an online survey assessing regular television viewing, binge-watching, sleep quality, fatigue, insomnia, and pre-sleep alertness. Binge-watching was defined as "watching multiple consecutive episodes of the same television show in one sitting on a screen, be it a television, laptop, computer or tablet." An average binge-watching session lasted 3 hours and 8 minutes, with 52 percent of binge-watchers viewing three to four episodes in one sitting.

"Bingeable shows often have a complex narrative structure that makes viewers become completely immersed into the story," said co-author Jan Van den Bulck, PhD, professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "This intense engagement with television content could require a longer period to 'cool down' before going to sleep, thus affecting sleep overall."

According to Exelmans and Van den Bulck, interventions and treatments to reduce alertness before sleep, such as relaxation techniques and mindfulness, could be valuable approaches to target sleep problems associated with binge-watching. Because binge-watching often occurs unintentionally, it also has been suggested that streaming services such as Netflix should enable viewers to pre-select their maximum viewing duration before beginning each viewing session.

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In May the American Academy of Sleep Medicine released tips to help viewers get healthy sleep by binge-watching responsibly. A new public awareness campaign from the AASM, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other partners in the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project emphasizes that it is important for children, teens and adults to "Make Time 2 Sleep".

For a copy of the study, "Binge Viewing, Sleep, and the Role of Pre-Sleep Arousal," or to arrange an interview with the study author or an AASM spokesperson, please contact AASM Communications Coordinator Corinne Lederhouse at 630-737-9700, ext. 9366, or clederhouse@aasmnet.org.

The monthly, peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is the official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional membership society that improves sleep health and promotes high quality, patient-centered care through advocacy, education, strategic research, and practice standards. The AASM encourages patients to talk to their doctor about sleep problems and visit http://www.sleepeducation.org for more information about sleep, including a searchable directory of AASM-accredited sleep centers.
Washington (August 14, 2017)--At a recent meeting of their Board of Regents, the American College of Physicians (ACP) adopted a new policy statement recognizing hate crimes as a public health issue.

"It is imperative that physicians, and all people, speak out against hate and hate crimes and against those who foster or perpetrate it, as was seen in the tragic events that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia," said Jack Ende, MD, MACP, president, ACP. "In particular for physicians, they must educate the public that hate crimes are a public health issue, exacting a toll on the health of those directly victimized and on the health of the entire community. We must seek policies of inclusion and non-discrimination, as called for in our recent policy statement."

The new policy reads in full:

1. ACP opposes prejudice, discrimination, harassment and violence against individuals based on their race, ethnic origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity, nationality, primary language, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, cultural background, age, disability, or religion. 2. Hate crimes directed against individuals based on their race, ethnic origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity, nationality, primary language, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, cultural background, age, disability, or religion are a public health issue. 3. ACP opposes all legislation with discriminatory intent upon individuals based on their race, ethnic origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity, nationality, primary language, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, cultural background, age, disability, or religion. 4. ACP supports the development and implementation of anti- discrimination and hate crime laws. 5. ACP supports the collection and publication of statistics on hate crimes. More research is needed on the impact of hate crimes on public health, understanding and preventing hate crimes, and interventions that address the needs of hate crime survivors and their communities.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Heather Heyer, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates," continued Dr. Ende. "We hope for the recovery of those injured and are grateful to the first-responders, physicians, nurses and hospital staff who are treating them."

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Hartford Consensus survey results also show health care professionals believe they have a duty to protect if an active shooter event erupts in the hospital

CHICAGO (Aug. 14, 2017): Hospitals are not off limits to tragic shooting events, and with these incidents on the rise in public places, more than half of the general public expects that physicians and nurses will protect them from harm if an active shooter event erupts while they're in the hospital. Likewise, more than half of health care professionals believe they have a special duty to protect patients under these circumstances. But the two groups differ about the inherent safety of hospitals, with most people viewing them as safe havens, while health care professionals are more likely to view the hospital as a potentially risky setting for an active shooter event. These beliefs are among key findings from a national survey conducted in March 2017 by the Hartford Consensus. The results are published online as an "article in press" on the website of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons in advance of print.

The FBI defines an active shooter event as one in which one or more persons actively engages in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.1 The number of active shooter events across the U.S. has grown--rising from 6.4 events per year from 2000 to 2006--to 16.4 events per year from 2007 to 2013. Within that 13-year period, four (2.5 percent) of the shooting events occurred in a health care setting, according to a 2014 analysis by Texas State University and the FBI.2 A further examination of shooting events from 2000 to 2011, including those not meeting the FBI's active shooter definition, shows 154 shooting incidents on hospital premises, with at least one injured person per incident.3

"A hospital is even more precarious than other public places because patients are so vulnerable. Some are unable to flee, or may be impaired by medical conditions or treatments that render them unable to understand commands that can lead them to safety, " said lead author Lenworth M. Jacobs, Jr., MD, FACS, Chairman of the Hartford ConsensusTM, and professor surgery and vice-president of academic affairs at Hartford (Conn.) Hospital.

The standard directive to "run, hide, fight" in active shooter situations has a different connotation in hospitals because health care professionals are responsible for patient care. However, as the authors point out "how health care professionals should respond is an intensely personal decision." With hospital-based shootings on the rise, the Hartford Consensus wondered about the willingness of hospital staff to place themselves at risk to protect patients if an active shooter was on site.

This concern is an obvious outgrowth of the work of the Hartford Consensus, which advocates that "no one should die from uncontrolled bleeding." Preventing a severe bleeding death in victims who have a survivable injury has been the focus of work of the Joint Committee to Create a National Policy to Enhance Survivability from Intentional Mass Casualty and Active Shooters Events, convened by the American College of Surgeons. The committee's deliberations are known as the "Hartford Consensus" because the group's inaugural meeting occurred in Hartford, Conn.

To learn about the public's perceptions of active shooter events in hospitals, Dr. Jacobs secured the services of Langer Research Associates (New York City) on behalf of the Hartford Consensus to conduct a national telephone survey. A second part of the research consisted of an online survey of health care professionals, mostly physicians, who were members of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma; ACS Board of Governors and Board of Regents; and members of the Hartford Consensus.

The researchers designed questions for the public and health care professionals to capture their answers for five key issues of belief: the risk level for an event happening in the hospital; hospital preparedness to respond; obligations of doctors and nurses to patients during an event; level of personal risk medical professionals should accept for protecting patients; and whether professionals should be required to save patient lives at the risk of their own.

Interviews were conducted nationally by telephone with 1,017 adults: 607 interviews via cell phone and 410 via landline. Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS) of Media, Penn., preformed sampling, data collection and tabulation for the phone survey.

Next, a complementary online survey of health care professionals was programmed and administered by SSRS. Authors reported that questions about active shooter events in hospitals were recast for the online survey to ask professionals "what level of risk doctors and nurses should accept to try to protect patients in an OR, an ICU, or on a floor where patients are ambulatory."

Online responses were collected from 684 health care professionals, of which 92 percent were physicians. Within that group 95 percent worked in a hospital, with 94 percent providing direct patient care.

The authors noted these key findings from responses of both groups:

More health care professionals (33 percent) believe the risk of an active shooter event to be "high" or "very high" in a hospital than do members of the general public (18 percent).

More members of the public (72 percent) believe that hospitals are "somewhat" or "very prepared" for an active shooter event than health care professionals do (55 percent).

Regarding physician/nurse obligations to patients during active shooter events, the response rates were almost equal: 61 percent of the public and 62 percent of health care professionals responded that professionals have a special duty to protect patients, similar to the way police and firefighters protect the general public.

These strong beliefs dropped however, when it came to the issue of personal risk, with 39 percent of the public and 27 percent of professionals believing that doctors/nurses should accept a "high" or "very high" degree of personal risk to help patients in harm's way.

However, in settings where patients are more vulnerable, such as the operating room or the intensive care unit, more professionals believe they should assume a "high" or "very high" level of risk in these settings to get patients out of harm's way (45 percent and 36 percent respectively) as opposed to a location where patients may be less vulnerable, such as a floor with ambulatory patients (22 percent).

The public's belief that hospitals are not risky areas for an active shooter event are similar to findings from the 2014 Texas University/FBI study. 2 "The public's belief of hospitals being at lower risk may be grounded in the perception of hospitals as sanctuaries of caring and healing," the authors wrote.

"Our findings also show that the public tends to view the hospital as a safe haven, certainly safer than other public places like shopping malls or airports," Dr. Jacobs said. "But we've also learned that health care professionals are realistically more aware of the potential danger."

As a next step, Dr. Jacobs recommends that hospitals take steps now to ensure their entire staff is hard-wired to deal with an active shooter event. "Ten years ago an active shooter event was a non-concept for hospitals, but clearly things have changed. Hospitals need to build resilience against such attacks as called for by Barack Obama's Presidential Policy Directive 8, promoting a fully integrated preparedness system to strengthen the nation's resilience to deal with natural and manmade disasters. That directive means hospitals need to think about their vulnerability for an active shooter event, then develop a response plan, and practice it," he concluded.

###

Dr. Jacobs' study coauthor is Karyl J Burns, RN, PhD, department of surgery, Hartford Hospital.

Langer Research Associates was paid to conduct this survey.

Citation: The Hartford Consensus: Survey of the Public and Healthcare Professionals Regarding Active Shooter Events in Hospitals. Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Available at: http://www.journalacs.org/article/S1072-7515(17)30591-4/fulltext

1 Federal Bureau of Investigation. Active shooter resources. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/about/partnerships/office-of-partner-engagement/active -shooter-resources. Accessed August 10, 2017.

2 Blair JP, Schweit KW. A study of active shooter incidents, 2000-2013.Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC, 2014. Available at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-study-2000-2013-1.pdf. Accessed August 11, 2017.

3 Kelen GD, Catlett CL, Kubit JG, Hsieh YH. Hospital-based shootings in the United States: 2000 to 2011.2012;60(6):790-798.

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org.
One of the most striking findings in psychology is that almost all cognitive abilities are positively related - on average, people who are better at a skill like reasoning are generally also better at a skill like vocabulary. This fact allows scientists and educational practitioners to summarize people's skills on a wide range of domains as one factor - often called 'g', for 'general intelligence'. Despite this, the mechanisms underlying 'g' and its development remain somewhat mysterious.

"What this so-called 'g-factor' means is still very much up for debate," explains researcher Rogier Kievit of the Cognition and Brain Science Unit at the University of Cambridge. "Is it a causal factor, an artefact of the way we create cognitive tests, the result of our educational environment, a consequence of genetics, an emergent phenomenon of a dynamic system or perhaps all of these things to varying degrees?"

In a new study, scientists from Cambridge, London, and Berlin led by Kievit directly compared different proposed explanations for the phenomenon of 'g' and how it develops over time. Data was used from a Wellcome-funded longitudinal cohort (NSPN), where 785 late adolescents, ages 14 to 24, were tested on two occasions approximately 1.5 years apart. They focused two subtests reflecting key domains of 'g', namely fluid reasoning (solving abstract puzzles) and vocabulary (knowing the definitions of words). Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The team observed that the best explanation for the improvement in skills over time was the so-called 'mutualism' model. This model proposes that cognitive abilities help each other during development: In other words, better reasoning skills allow individuals to improve their vocabulary more quickly, and better vocabularies are associated with faster improvement in reasoning ability.

These findings are crucial to our understanding of cognitive abilities, as they suggest that small differences early on in childhood may lead to larger differences later on, and help partially explain how 'g' arises.

The work has implications for important outcomes in adolescence.

"Our findings may be relevant for early detection of developmental challenges," says Kievit. "Often screening tests for difficulties focus only on individual outcomes (i.e., 'Is a child achieving the desired level on some test?'), but studying the dynamics between cognitive domains is likely to paint a richer, more accurate picture of the expected trajectory of development."

And the findings may also shed light on more long-term life outcomes.

"General cognitive ability is strikingly predictive of various important life outcomes ranging from academic and professional success, to mental and physical health and even longevity - to understand why this is so, we must better understand what this g-factor really is," Kievit explains.

The researchers note that their observations regarding links between cognitive abilities are exciting, but they do not address whether the relationships are directly causal in nature.

"We hope to further tease apart the underlying mechanisms in future work," Kievit concludes.

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Co-authors on the research include: Ulman Lindenberger (Max Planck Institute for Human Development); Ian Goodyer, Peter B. Jones, and Ed T. Bullmore (University of Cambridge); Peter Fonagy (University College London); the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network; and Raymond J. Dolan (Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research).

The Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network is supported by a strategic award from the Wellcome Trust to the University of Cambridge and University College London (095844/Z/11/Z). R. A. Kievit is supported by the Wellcome Trust (Grant No. 107392/Z/15/Z) and the UK Medical Research Council (MCA060-5PR61). P. Fonagy is funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator Award (NF-SI- 0514-10157). P. Fonagy was in part supported by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) North Thames at Barts Health National Health Service (NHS) Trust. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the UK Department of Health.

Data and code have been made publicly available via the Open Science Framework. The complete Open Practices Disclosure for this article is available online. This article has received the badge for Open Data.

For more information about this study, please contact: Rogier Kievit at rogier.kievit@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.

The research article is available online at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797617710785

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Mutualistic Coupling Between Vocabulary and Reasoning Supports Cognitive Development During Late Adolescence and Early Adulthood" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Montreal Protocol, the international treaty adopted to restore Earth's protective ozone layer in 1989, has significantly reduced emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals from the United States. In a twist, a new study shows the 30-year old treaty has had a major side benefit of reducing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S.

That's because the ozone-depleting substances controlled by the treaty are also potent greenhouse gases, with heat-trapping abilities up to 10,000 times greater than carbon dioxide over 100 years.

The new study is the first to quantify the impact of the Montreal Protocol on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions with atmospheric observations. The study's results show that reducing the use of ozone-depleting substances from 2008 to 2014 eliminated the equivalent of 170 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. That's roughly the equivalent of 50 percent of the reductions achieved by the U.S. for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the same period. The study was published today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

"We were surprised by the size of the decline, especially compared with other greenhouse gases," said Lei Hu, a researcher with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) working at NOAA and lead author of the new study.

Hu added that the benefits of the Montreal Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions would likely grow in the future. By 2025, she projects that the effect of the Montreal Protocol will be to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 500 million tons of carbon dioxide per year compared with 2005 levels. This reduction would be equivalent to about 10 percent of the current U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the Montreal Protocol has been more effective at curtailing global greenhouse gas emissions than any other international effort - even though climate change was not a consideration during the initial treaty negotiations in the late 1980s.

The new analysis, based on data collected by NOAA's atmospheric monitoring network, confirms that the Montreal Protocol has been highly successful in the U.S. in its primary goal - reducing emissions of manufactured chlorine-based chemicals that, in addition to depleting ozone world-wide, create a hole the size of the continental U.S. in the Earth's protective ozone layer over the Antarctic each September and October.

Those chemicals--chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and their substitutes, the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)--have been widely used as refrigerants, foam blowing agents, aerosol propellants, fire retardants, and solvents. Chlorine from CFCs was first identified as capable of destroying stratospheric ozone in 1974. The Montreal Protocol has controlled the production and consumption of these chemicals since the late 1980s.

Implementation of the Montreal Protocol in the United States, largely through the Clean Air Act, led to a near complete phase-out of U.S. production and consumption of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) beginning in 1996 and a 95 percent decline of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) production since 1998.

As a result, total emissions of CFCs in the U.S. have decreased by two-thirds from 2008 to 2014, while emissions of HCFCs declined by about half, the study authors said.

Another indication of the treaty's impact is increasing U.S. emissions of ozone-friendly chemicals, such as hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs. However, some HFCs are also potent greenhouse gases, and their increased use is offsetting some of the climate benefit of the Montreal Protocol, said Stephen Montzka, a researcher at NOAA and co-author of the new study.

Countries adhering to the Protocol, including the U.S., agreed to limit future production and consumption of HFCs in 2016.

"This shows what can be achieved by concerted and thoughtful international effort," said Scott Lehman of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author of the new study. "Hopefully, the Protocol can serve as a model of the international cooperation that we need to tackle the real problem - carbon dioxide."

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The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing 60,000 members in 137 countries. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our other social media channels.

Notes for Journalists

This research article is open access for 30 days. A PDF copy of the article can be downloaded at the following link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074388/pdf.

Journalists and PIOs may also order a copy of the final paper by emailing a request to Lauren Lipuma at llipuma@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number.

Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Title: "Considerable Contribution of the Montreal Protocol to Declining Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the United States"

Authors: Lei Hu, Colm Sweeney, Debra J. Mondeel, David Nance: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder and NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.;

Stephen A. Montzka, Arlyn E. Andrews, Kirk Thoning, John B. Miller, James W. Elkins, Bradley D. Hall, Pieter P. Tans: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.;

Scott J. Lehman: Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.;

David S. Godwin: Stratospheric Protection Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.A.;

Benjamin R. Miller: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.;

Caroline Siso: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. and Stratospheric Protection Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.A.;

Thomas Nehrkorn, Marikate Mountain: Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Lexington, Massaschusetts, U.S.A.;

Marc L. Fischer: Environmental Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.;

Sebastien C. Biraud: Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.;

Huilin Chen: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. and Centre for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

Contact information for the authors: Lei Hu: +1 (303) 497-5238, lei.hu@noaa.gov

AGU Press Contact:

Lauren Lipuma

+1 (202) 777-7396

llipuma@agu.org

NOAA Press Contact:

Theo Stein

+1 (303) 497-6288

theo.stein@noaa.gov
DALLAS, Aug. 14, 2017 -- Exposure to high levels of air pollution increased stress hormone levels and negative metabolic changes in otherwise healthy, young adults in a recent study conducted in China. Air purifiers appeared to lessen the negative effects, according to new research published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

Researchers focused on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) -- a component of air pollution emitted from vehicles, factories, power plants, fires and smoking -- because many studies have suggested this type of major air pollutant might lead to cardiovascular and metabolic health consequences, according to Haidong Kan, M.D., Ph.D., study author and professor of environmental health sciences at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

However, the biological mechanisms linking air pollution to cardiovascular risk are unclear. In this study, the first of its kind, researchers used "metabolomics" -- a method that could reflect how glucose, amino acids, fatty acids and lipids are metabolized -- to get a snapshot of the chemical processes by which cells produce the substances and energy needed to sustain life.

Researchers recruited 55 healthy, young college students, who received alternate treatments of real and sham air purification in random orders in their dormitory rooms.

Researchers measured indoor and outdoor fine particulate matter levels during the study, and at certain points did health tests and collected blood serum and urine samples to analyze the students' metabolites, inflammation and oxidative stress biomarkers. They looked for differences in blood serum metabolites, biomarkers and blood pressures with increasing exposure to fine particulate matter.

Researchers found:

Notable changes in 97 blood serum metabolites after fine particulate matter exposure.

An average 82 percent lower level of indoor fine particulate matter with air purifiers versus sham purifiers.

Short-term reductions in stress hormone levels after air purifiers were used.

After 24-hours with real air purifiers in use, exposure levels for fine particulate matter were in the safe range per World Health Organization.

Higher fine particulate matter exposure was also associated with increases in stress hormone levels, which are believed to induce high blood pressure, inflammatory and metabolic effects in the body, Kan said.

Fine particulate matter exposure impacted metabolism of glucose, amino acids, fatty acids and lipids. These changes, along with the significantly higher blood pressure, insulin resistance and biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress found among people exposed to higher levels, could be partly responsible for the adverse cardiovascular effects caused by air pollution exposure, researchers said.

"Levels of stress hormones, systolic blood pressure and biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation were significantly lower when using real air purifiers," Kan said. "Although we found significant health benefits with air purifiers, the actual health protection people could get from air purifiers in real living conditions is still not well-determined."

This was also a small study and whether the results translate to other countries remains to be seen, because air pollution levels are much higher in urban China than in the United States or Europe. Nevertheless, the study highlights air pollution's potential impact on human health in more ways than we currently know, Kan said.

"Future studies should examine whether the health benefits from short-term air purification can improve long-term health, and whether these findings are also found in people who live in low pollution areas," Kan said. The current study only focused on one particulate matter size found in pollution.

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Co-authors are Huichu Li, M.S.; Jing Cai, Ph.D.; Renjie Chen, Ph.D.; Zhuohui Zhao, Ph.D.; Zhekang Ying, Ph.D.; Lin Wang, Ph.D.; Jianmin Chen, Ph.D.; Ke Hao, Sc.D.; Patrick L. Kinney, Sc.D. and Honglei Chen, M.D. Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China, Public Welfare Research Program of National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, Shanghai 3-Year Public Health Action Plan, Cyrus Tang Foundation and China Medical Board Collaborating Program funded the study.

Additional Resources:

Photos available on the right column of the release link: http://newsroom.heart.org/news/air-pollution-linked-to-cardiovascular-disease-air-purifiers-may-lessen-impact?preview=144970683add5a3d33ad9577a6ac9fbf

After Aug. 14, view the study manuscript and editorial online.

Clean air archives

"Bad" air may impact "good" cholesterol increasing heart disease risk

Air pollution linked to blood vessel damage in healthy young adults

AHA Scientific Statement: Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease

Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews

For updates and new science from the Circulation journal follow @CircAHA

Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association's policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke -- the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Researchers in the Netherlands have designed a different approach to the liquid biopsy. Rather than looking for evidence of cancer DNA or other biomarkers in the blood, their test (called thromboSeq) could diagnose non-small cell lung cancer with close to 90% accuracy by detecting tumor RNA absorbed by circulating platelets, also known as thrombocytes. Non-small cell lung cancers make up the majority of lung cancer cases. The research appears August 14 in the journal Cancer Cell.

"Ultimately, the aim of liquid biopsy-based cancer detection is to detect all cancers at once in an early stage; an all-in-one test," says first author Myron Best, a researcher at the department of Neurosurgery of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam and the Cancer Center Amsterdam. "ThromboSeq might not only provide lung cancer diagnostics, but potentially any other tumor type as well, and may enable tumor-type stratification."

Platelets are short-lived blood cells known to form blood clots in response to injury. However, platelets also respond to a range of inflammatory events and cancer. Because platelet cells don't have a nucleus of their own, all RNA found in platelets either comes from megakaryocytes (the cells that form platelets in bone marrow) or from RNA the platelets absorbed while circulating in blood. Platelets in a cancer-free person will contain a different compilation of RNA than platelets that interacted with a tumor, known as tumor-educated platelets.

The researchers studied blood samples of more than 700 people, which included people diagnosed with late-stage non-small cell lung cancer, a smaller group with early stage cancer, and a control group with no known cancer. People with diseases such as multiple sclerosis, chronic pancreatitis, and coronary artery disease were included in the control group to make sure the algorithm was screening for cancer-specific RNA, and not RNA platelets generally encounter in inflammation or disease.

As it ran, the thromboSeq algorithm scanned the approximately 5,000 different RNA molecules found in platelets, continuously optimizing its panel of RNA genes, arriving at the few that indicate a cancerous tumor. Then, the researchers ran screening tests of the blood samples to see how accurately they could diagnose cancer.

The analysis was inspired by swarming behavior in nature. Birds, insects, and fish all swarm to optimize their numbers for a purpose--either in defense against predators or to search for food. "Birds continuously adjust their location in the swarm relative to each other, thereby increasing the flock's coverage and, thus, the efficiency of the food-searching process," Best says. "We applied this natural phenomenon to our algorithms, which make use of the complex RNA repertoire present in platelets."

The thromboSeq test could diagnose early-stage cancer with 81% accuracy and late-stage cancer with 88% accuracy. In a validation control group matched for age, smoking status, and blood storage time, the algorithm yielded an accuracy up to 91%. Best believes the technology is robust enough to begin clinical trials.

"Although the tumor-educated platelets blood test does not, so far, provide perfect predictions, it may complement alternative liquid biopsy bio-sources such as cell-free DNA, extracellular vesicles, circulating proteins, and circulating tumor cells as well as imaging modalities such as CT scans," Best says.

Best and colleagues plan to further optimize their algorithm with more samples and tests in people who are suspected to have lung cancer but are not yet diagnosed. "We also aim to further understand the biological mechanism responsible for platelet education in the presence of cancer," he says.

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This work was supported by the by European Research Council, the Dutch Organization of Scientific Research, the Dutch Cancer Society, BMS IION, Stichting STOPhersentumoren.nl, the KNAW Van Walree stichting, the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, CFF Norrland, and the Swedish Research Council.

Cancer Cell, Best et al.: "Swarm intelligence-enhanced detection of non-small cell lung cancer using tumor-educated platelets." http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(17)30296-9

Cancer Cell (@Cancer_Cell), published by Cell Press, is a monthly journal that provides a high-profile forum to promote major advances in cancer research and oncology. The journal covers topics related to molecular and cellular mechanisms of cancer, mechanisms for the sensitivity and the resistance to cancer therapies, development of better cancer therapies, and clinical investigations. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
The Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the CII-ArboViroPlex rRT-PCR Test, the first multiplex assay that simultaneously tests for the presence of Zika virus, all serotypes of dengue virus, chikungunya virus, and West Nile virus, as well as a host gene that ensures the accuracy of results. Available for immediate use in clinical and research settings, the test was developed by CII scientists and an EUA application was submitted to FDA at the request of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for use in its multi-country Zika in Infants and Pregnancy (ZIP) study.

"The ArboViroPlex Test provides an easy and efficient means to simultaneously detect Zika and three other mosquito-borne viral infections that may present with similar clinical features," says Nischay Mishra, the lead project scientist and associate research scientist at CII.

"The FDA decision to issue the EUA gives clinicians and researchers a powerful tool to diagnose and prevent the spread of Zika," adds W. Ian Lipkin, director of CII and the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health.

Lipkin, Mishra, and CII colleagues Thomas Briese and Rafal Tokarz are named on a pending international patent application for the technology.

ABOUT THE CII-ARBOVIROPLEX RRT-PCR TEST

The CII-ArboViroPlex rRT-PCR Test is an assay that detects viral RNA matching Zika virus (ZIKV), dengue virus types 1-4 (DENV), chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and West Nile virus (WNV) with a human housekeeping gene, viral RNA controls, and extraction controls that ensure the integrity of the test from nucleic extraction to the final result. Named for the four arboviruses it targets and the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) technique it employs, the test can simultaneously detect ZIKV, DENV, CHIKV, and WNV in up to 88 samples of blood in less than two hours and ZIKV in urine (collected alongside a patient-matched serum specimen). Under the EUA, testing is authorized for patients meeting CDC Zika virus clinical criteria (e.g., signs and symptoms associated with ZIKV infection) and/or CDC Zika virus epidemiological criteria (e.g., history of residence in or travel to a geographic region with active ZIKV transmission at the time of travel, or other epidemiologic criteria for which ZIKV testing may be indicated) to aid in the diagnosis of ZIKV infection. The test, the manufacture of which will be overseen by CII, is authorized to be performed with the NucliSENS easyMag automated extraction platform (bioMerieux), the RNA UltraSense One-Step Quantitative RT-PCR System (Thermo Fisher), and CFX96 Real-Time PCR Detection System (Bio-Rad).

ABOUT EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION STATUS

The CII-ArboViroPlex rRT-PCR Test has not been FDA cleared or approved. It has been authorized by the FDA under an EUA for use by laboratories certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), 42 U.S.C.  263a, to perform high complexity tests, or by similarly qualified non-U.S. laboratories. The test has been authorized only for the detection of RNA from ZIKV, DENV, CHIKV, and WNV, and diagnosis of corresponding infections, not for any other viruses or pathogens. It is only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of the emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for detection of Zika virus under section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C.  360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.

ABOUT ZIKA

Several Zika virus outbreaks have occurred in the past few years including the current outbreak ongoing in Brazil and a number of other Central and South American countries. In 2015, the number of suspected Zika virus cases in Brazil was estimated to be between 440,000 and 1.3 million. By February 2017, locally-transmitted cases had been reported from 50 countries and territories in the Americas, including U.S. and U.S. territories, 10 countries and territories in Asia, Oceania, and Pacific islands, and 1 country in Africa. Due to the increasing evidence of a correlation between Zika virus infection and (1) the incidence of Guillain-Barre syndrome and (2) poor pregnancy outcomes, including the development of microcephaly in the fetus or infant, the importance of diagnosing a Zika virus infection is rapidly increasing. Zika virus is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes (including Aedes aegypti). In addition, mother-to-fetus and sexually transmitted infections have been documented. Most cases of Zika virus infection are asymptomatic; however, when symptoms occur they are generally mild and flu-like. Laboratories in the United States are in need of diagnostic tools for use in the acute phase for rapid diagnosis of Zika virus infection. A public health emergency has been declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on February 26, 2016, justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostic tests for detection of Zika virus and/or diagnosis of Zika virus infection.

ABOUT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Founded in 1922, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its over 450 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change & health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with over 1,300 graduate students from more than 40 nations pursuing a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit http://www.mailman.columbia.edu.

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Philadelphia, PA, August 14, 2017 - Stanford University scientists have described a new type of test that can detect genetic mutations in minute amounts of DNA released from cancer cells into the blood. The test, which is called single color digital PCR, requires only a fraction of a tube of blood and can detect as few as three mutation-bearing molecules in a single reaction. According to the report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, this highly sensitive test has the potential to be personalized to recognize mutations unique to any individual cancer.

"For monitoring patient tumors, only a handful of blood tests are available which are limited to only several types of cancers. Nearly all cancer patients require monitoring by whole body imaging, which can be costly, complex, and time-consuming. In contrast, molecular tests like the one we have developed will enable patients to be monitored at every visit, and thus have the potential for quickly tracking cancer growth and spread. Moreover, the test's rapid turnaround and relatively low cost, especially compared to next-generation DNA sequencing, provide a potential opportunity for universal monitoring of more patients than is currently done," explained lead investigator Hanlee P. Ji, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University and Senior Associate Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center.

The report describes the use of the test to analyze samples from six patients. Five patients were previously diagnosed with colorectal cancer and one with cholangiocarcinoma.

After generation of customized mutation detection assays, the researchers were able to identify tumor-derived circulating DNA from three out of six patients. In one patient, the assay was able to show the presence of three different mutations. The three patients, whose samples did not show elevated cancer DNA, were undergoing active treatment at the time of collection.

The single-color digital PCR test offers several advantages over other methods of circulating tumor DNA analysis, compared to next-generation targeted sequencing and fluorescent probe-based digital PCR assays. The main advantage is that the new technique does not rely on pre-amplification, which can introduce errors and biases.

"This test is simple enough to set up and analyze without extensive training, and therefore, it can be implemented by anyone, making it highly accessible to any laboratory. It has been truly motivating to work with a technology that will help transform the way that we monitor and treat individuals with cancer. I am excited to share our findings with the cancer research community," noted lead author and researcher Christina Wood Bouwens, of the Stanford Genome Technology Center and the Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.

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According to the current doctrine, cancer cells develop due to mutations in genomic DNA. But could it be also caused also by faulty RNA molecules? A number of clues are pointing to this surprising hypothesis. Rolf Marschalek from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology at Goethe University Frankfurt will receive 1.25 million Euro from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to follow up these cues. Through its Reinhart Koselleck projects the DFG funds exceptionally innovative and - and in a positive sense - high-risk research.

For many years Rolf Marschalek has been investigating gene mutations that cause different kinds of leukemia. One particularly common mutation is a chromosomal translocation. It occurs when bits of two different chromosomes break off at the same time and the cell's repair programme makes a mistake and fuses wrong chromosome pieces. This results usually in the formation of so-called "fusion genes" that are transcribed into fusion mRNAs. As a result of such a chromosomal translocation the encoded fusion proteins are causing cancer.

It is striking however, that certain translocations occur frequently although on a purely statistical level a much wider range of chromosome breaks would be possible. An example is the Philadelphia chromosome, a shortened chromosome 22, and the associated fusion protein BCR-ABL. This is the most common cause of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Surprisingly, BCR-ABL transcripts are also present in healthy people who do not have the Philadelphia chromosome.

A possible explanation for this observation is a new finding about transspliced fusion RNA molecules that might affect the outcome of DNA repair processes. Most of the time DNA is safely and compactly packaged within chromatin and cannot be copied. So it could be more economical for cells to use RNA copies for the repair of DNA double strand breaks, as the RNA copies can be produced in larger numbers during the short phase when genes are available for copying.

Indeed, RNAs not coding for proteins occur in cells in great numbers, and errors that occur during the process of transcription may lead to rare RNAs molecules carrying different types of mutations. Rolf Marschalek suspects that these faulty RNAs arise in the following way: Usually chromatin loops with active transcribable genes are located on the outside of chromosomes. Loops from different chromosomes are jointly transcribed by the transcription factories of the cell. Interestingly genes are transcribed together that have been identified in cancer cells as partner genes in chromosomal translocations." It remains unclear why this is the case, but they have identified in healthy cells all types of fusion RNA transcripts that are know from chromosomal translocations. "Faulty transcripts are always preceeding the chromosomal translocations in the genomic DNA", he says.

Over the next five years, thanks to his Koselleck project funding, Rolf Marschalek will be able to test his hypothesis that RNA has also the function to serve as blueprint for the repair of DNA errors and that this is a vicious pathway to cancer. The CRISPR/Cas technology, which has made it much easier to alter genes experimentally, will play an important role in this work.

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Inflammatory processes in the liver lead to elevated cholesterol levels in people with diabetes, thus promoting subsequent vascular diseases. This is the result of a study by scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) and the Collaborative Research Center SFB 1118 at Heidelberg University Hospital. The paper, which has now been published in the journal Cell Reports, presents a previously unknown mechanism.

Vascular diseases play a key role among the long-term complications in people with diabetes. Cardiovascular diseases are the most common reason for all hospitalizations, accounting for 75 percent, and these diseases are responsible for fifty percent of all deaths. An important risk factor for atherosclerosis, circulatory disorders and vascular complications is elevated cholesterol.*

"Even if blood glucose levels are well controlled, some people with diabetes have a higher risk of long-term complications. We wanted to understand the underlying cause for this," said metabolism researcher Dr. Mauricio Berriel Diaz, deputy director of the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC) at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. He conducted the study together with Professor Stephan Herzig, director of the IDC and chair of Molecular Metabolic Control at TUM. Herzig is also the co-spokesman of the DFG Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1118, which is studying the influence of disturbed metabolic processes on long-term diabetes complications at Heidelberg University Hospital.

In their study, the researchers focused on inflammatory processes that are known to occur in many metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes and obesity and contribute significantly to long-term complications. Specifically, they concentrated on the inflammatory cytokine TNF- (tumor necrosis factor ), which is known to induce the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS)** in the liver. The scientists demonstrated that these ROS inactivate the transcription factor complex GAbp (GA-binding protein). In experimental models, this loss in turn inhibited the protein AMPK, an energy sensor of the cell. As a result, excess cholesterol was produced, and typical atherosclerosis symptoms developed.

Key Role in the Maintenance of Hepatic and Systemic Lipid Homeostasis

"Our data suggest that the liver plays a key role in the development of common diabetic vascular diseases," said first author Dr. Katharina Niopek, researcher at the IDC. "GAbp appears to be a molecular regulator at the interface between inflammation, cholesterol homeostasis and atherosclerosis. Without its protective effect, this leads to hypercholesterolemia *** and increased lipid deposition in the arteries."

"Since initial patient data supported our findings, the new signaling pathway -regardless of how well the blood glucose levels of the patient are controlled - may be a key component in the development of long-term diabetes complications which could be utilized therapeutically," said Herzig, who led the study.

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Further Information

* Source: Diabetes Information Service "Diabetes und Gefasse" (Diabetes and the Vascular System).

** Reactive oxygen species are oxygen compounds that can cause oxidative stress in cells. These include, for example, oxygen radicals. In the organism, they are produced both in the mitochondria within the framework of cellular respiration, but also through inflammatory processes.

*** Hypercholesterolemia is a lipid metabolism disorder (dyslipidemia) characterized by an elevated cholesterol level in the blood.

Background:

Stephan Herzig is co-director of the Joint Heidelberg IDC Translational Diabetes Program, in which he collaborates with colleagues at Heidelberg University Hospital, from where he moved to Munich in 2015. The collaboration took place in the framework of the DFG Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1118: http://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/Willkommen.132204.0.html

Original Publication:

Niopek, K. et al. (2017): A Hepatic GAbp-AMPK Axis Links Inflammatory Signaling to Systemic Vascular Damage. Cell Reports, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.07.023

Researchers Discover New Regulator in Glucose Metabolism https://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/press-media/press-releases/all-press-releases/press-release/article/36458/index.html

How fasting helps fight fatty liver disease https://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/press-media/press-releases/all-press-releases/press-release/article/34525/index.html

Extensive Funding for Research on Chromatin, Adrenal Gland, and Cancer Therapy https://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/press-media/press-releases/all-press-releases/press-release/article/40738/index.html

The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Research Center for Environmental Health, pursues the goal of developing personalized medical approaches for the prevention and therapy of major common diseases such as diabetes and lung diseases. To achieve this, it investigates the interaction of genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle. The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen is headquartered in Neuherberg in the north of Munich and has about 2,300 staff members. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, a community of 18 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centers with a total of about 37,000 staff members. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en

The Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC) is a member of the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and a partner in the joint Heidelberg-IDC Translational Diabetes Program. The Institute for Diabetes and Cancer is tightly integrated into the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and into the special research area "Reactive Metabolites and Diabetic Complications" at the Heidelberg University Medical School. The IDC conducts research on the molecular basis of severe metabolic disorders, including metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, as well as their roles in tumor initiation and progression. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/idc

Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe's leading research universities, with more than 500 professors, around 10,000 academic and non-academic staff, and 40,000 students. Its focus areas are the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, reinforced by schools of management and education. TUM acts as an entrepreneurial university that promotes talents and creates value for society. In that it profits from having strong partners in science and industry. It is represented worldwide with a campus in Singapore as well as offices in Beijing, Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo. Nobel Prize winners and inventors such as Rudolf Diesel, Carl von Linde, and Rudolf Mobauer have done research at TUM. In 2006 and 2012 it won recognition as a German "Excellence University." In international rankings, TUM regularly places among the best universities in Germany. http://www.tum.de/en/homepage

Heidelberg University Hospital is one of the largest and most prestigious medical centers in Germany. The Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University belongs to the internationally most renowned biomedical research institutions in Europe. Both institutions have the common goal of developing new therapies and implementing them rapidly for patients. With about 12,600 employees, training and qualification is an important issue. Every year, around 66,000 patients are treated on an inpatient basis and around 1.000.000 cases on an outpatient basis in more than 50 clinics and departments with 1,900 beds. Currently, about 3,500 future physicians are studying in Heidelberg; the reform Heidelberg Curriculum Medicinale (HeiCuMed) is one of the top medical training programs in Germany. http://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de

Contact for the media:

Department of Communication, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187 2238 - Fax: +49 89 3187 3324 - E-mail: presse@helmholtz-muenchen.de

Scientific Contact at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen:

Prof. Dr. Stephan Herzig, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute for Diabetes and Cancer, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187 1045, E-mail: stephan.herzig@helmholtz-muenchen.de
New Orleans, LA - The Exscien Corporation of Louisville, KY, in conjunction with LSU Health New Orleans Cardiovascular Center of Excellence, has been awarded an SBIR Fast-Track grant in the amount of $3.7 million over three years by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The funding will be used to study the company's first in a new class of drugs that repairs DNA damage to reduce cardiac tissue injury and improve outcomes in cardiovascular diseases.

The grant will directly fund $1,441,643 to LSU Health New Orleans to study the potential efficacy of Exscien1-III, a patented three-part fusion protein designed to harness the body's own mechanisms to control and repair disease pathways. The drug has demonstrated significant cardioprotective actions in rodent models of acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack, and the newly funded research will investigate its effectiveness in a model of heart failure. A goal of this research is to move this promising new drug toward human clinical trials.

Exscien CEO Dr. Ker Ferguson and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Glenn Wilson, and LSU Health New Orleans Cardiovascular Center of Excellence Director David J. Lefer, PhD, are the grant's principal investigators. They will work alongside LSU Health New Orleans Cardiovascular Center Translational Core Laboratory Director Traci Goodchild, PhD, to develop a pathway for Exscien1-III to restore fundamental cellular metabolic function and disrupt a root pathway for cardiac disease progression and heart failure.

While at an early stage of overall development, Exscien's proprietary protein leads the way to finding a means to mitigate and repair the underlying tissue damage suffered from these devastating diseases.

"Exscien is able to deliver microscopic repair enzymes directly to the root of the damage and thus goes beyond the current standard of care of simply treating downstream symptoms," says Dr. Ker Ferguson, Exscien CEO. "The therapy offers substantial commercial potential and has attracted large 'pharma' interest to date."

"This approach could potentially effect more than 20 million people worldwide with progressive heart failure," notes Dr. David Lefer, Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine.

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LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.

Exscien Corp is a biotechnology firm focused on providing therapeutics to repair oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA to help restore normal cellular metabolism. Mitochondrial DNA damage is a root cause and forms the pathway for many debilitating conditions. The company is currently examining applications for the gastro-intestinal, neurological and cardiovascular systems. The pre-clinical testing and development of its proprietary protein will yield first-in-class class drugs to combat many widespread afflictions, ranging from insulin resistance to heart failure.
New Rochelle, NY, August 14, 2017--A new study describes how NS1, a protein produced by influenza A viruses, suppresses the body's immune responses to viral infection. Researchers present the potential to develop a live attenuated vaccine based on an engineered influenza A virus lacking NS1 and to design antiviral drugs that target NS1. The study is published in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR) from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the JICR website until September 14, 2017.

In the article entitled "Interactions Between NS1 of Influenza A Viruses and Interferon-/: Determinants for Vaccine Development," coauthors Ben Wang and Eleanor Fish, University Health Network and University of Toronto, Canada, examine the body's first line of defense against infectious agents such as viruses--the interferon (IFN)-/ response. The researchers describe the effects of IFN-/ on influenza A virus replication, how NS-1 inhibits IFN-/ production, and the potential for using IFN-/ or blocking NS-1 activity as a treatment for influenza A virus infection.

"Influenza viruses remain a major cause of human morbidity and mortality. This article suggests potential new approaches to combat these viruses," says Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research Co-Editor-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH.

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About the Journal

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with open access options and in print that covers all aspects of interferons and cytokines from basic science to clinical applications. Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research is an official journal of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the JICR website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Viral Immunology, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a new cause of treatment resistance in prostate cancer. Their discovery also suggests ways to improve prostate cancer therapy. The findings appear in Nature Medicine. In the publication, the authors explain the role of mutations within the SPOP gene on the development of resistance to one class of drugs. SPOP mutations are the most frequent genetic changes seen in primary prostate cancer. These mutations play a central role in the development of resistance to drugs called BET-inhibitors.

BET, bromodomain and extra-terminal domain, inhibitors are drugs that prevent the action of BET proteins. These proteins help guide the abnormal growth of cancer cells.

As a therapy, BET-inhibitors are promising, but drug resistance often develops, says Haojie Huang, Ph.D., senior author and a molecular biologist within Mayo Clinic's Center for Biomedical Discovery. Prostate cancer is among the most diagnosed malignancies in the United States. It is also the third leading cause of cancer death in American men, according to the American Cancer Society. Because of this, says Dr. Huang, improving treatments for prostate cancer is an important public health goal.

In the publication, the authors report SPOP mutations stabilize BET proteins against the action of BET-inhibitors. By this action, the mutations also promote cancer cell proliferation, invasion and survival.

"These findings have important implications for prostate cancer treatment, because SPOP mutation or elevated BET protein expression can now be used as biomarkers to improve outcome of BET inhibitor-oriented therapy of prostate cancer with SPOP mutation or BET protein overexpression," says Dr. Huang. Mutations in the SPOP gene can then be used to guide administration of anti-cancer drugs in patients with prostate cancer: The Nature Medicine publication presents four major discoveries:

BET proteins (BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4) are true degradation substrates of SPOP.

SPOP mutations cause elevation of BET proteins in prostate cancer patient specimens.

Expression of SPOP mutants leads to BET-inhibitor resistance and activation the AKT-mTORC1 pathway that promotes cancerous cell growth and survival.

Co-administration of AKT inhibitors overcomes BET inhibitor resistance in SPOP-mutated prostate cancer. Mayo Clinic Ventures, the technology commercialization arm of Mayo Clinic, has a patent application in place for this promising prostate cancer biomarker and therapeutic technology.

###

In addition to Dr. Huang, other authors from Mayo Clinic are:

Dejie Wang, Ph.D.

Yu Zhao, Ph.D.

Zhenqing Ye, Ph.D.

Yuqian Yan, Ph.D.

Yinhui Yang, M.D.

Di Wu, Ph.D.

Yundong He, Ph.D.

Jun Zhang, M.D.

Liguo Wang, Ph.D.

Authors from Fudan University, Nanchang University, Xinhua Hospital at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School, and Second Military Medical University in China are listed in the publication.

The authors report no conflicts of interest. Funding for this work was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Key Research and Development Plan of China -- Precision Medicine Project.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. For more information, visit mayoclinic.org/about-mayo-clinic or newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Seemingly indestructible Varroa mites have decimated honeybee populations and are a primary cause of colony collapse disorder, or CCD.

Michigan State University scientists have found genetic holes in the pests' armor that could potentially reduce or eliminate the marauding invaders. The team's results, published in the current issue of Insect Science, have identified four genes critical for survival and two that directly affect reproduction.

"The Varroa mite is the worst threat to honeybee health worldwide," said Zachary Huang, MSU entomologist. "They have developed resistance to many pesticides, so it's urgent that we explore and target these genes to develop better control methods."

The mite sucks the blood of honeybees and transmits deadly viruses. Its lifecycle consists of two phases: one where they feed on adult bees, called the phoretic phase, and a reproductive phase that takes place within a sealed honeycomb cell, where the mites lay eggs on a developing bee larva.

Having the double-whammy of eating bees and spreading disease makes Varroa mites the number-one suspect of honeybee population declines worldwide.

Controlling pests like Varroa mites succeeds by either eliminating them or reducing their ability to reproduce. The team used RNA interference to identify the key genes, which could achieve these outcomes. They injected the mites with double-stranded RNA, or dsRNA.

Interfering reduces transcription of a specific gene, the first step of making a gene, a piece of DNA, into a protein. This process, also known as "gene knockdown," has been successful in reducing the mating success and the number of eggs produced by cattle ticks, which threaten cows and other livestock around the world.

Using this approach, the team identified two genes that caused high mortality in Varroa mites - Da and Pros26S. In fact, Da killed more than 96 percent of mites. They also identified four genes - RpL8, RpL11, RpP0 and RpS13 - that control reproduction.

Earlier research has shown that a combination of dsRNAs can be fed to bees at the colony level. Varroa mites absorb the "genetic cocktail" via bee blood and their population was reduced. Future research will explore whether a single-gene approach can be scaled up and achieve the same effect at a colony-wide setting. Using a single gene with a known mechanism will be more cost effective and safe to the honeybees.

The results may have applications beyond honeybees, too.

"It's worth noting that Da reduced reproduction in species of mosquitoes and Drosophila," Huang said. "Future research could help not only protect honeybees, but also reduce disease-carrying mosquitoes or crop-damaging pests."

###

Additional MSU researchers contributing to this study include Guowu Bian and Zhiyong Xi. Xianbing Xie, with Nanchang University (China), also was part of this paper.

This study was supported by the Almond Board of California, the Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, the National Honey Board, MSU's Project GREEEN, Michigan Beekeepers Association, National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Project of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education and a fellowship from the China Scholarship Council.

Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.
A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. But because Earth's surface is mostly ocean, most eclipses are visible over land for only a short time, if at all. The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, is different - its path stretches over land for nearly 90 minutes, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to make scientific measurements from the ground.

When the Moon moves in front of the Sun on Aug. 21, it will completely obscure the Sun's bright face. This happens because of a celestial coincidence - though the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, the Moon on Aug. 21 will be about 400 times closer to us, making their apparent size in the sky almost equal. In fact, the Moon will appear slightly larger than the Sun to us, allowing it to totally obscure the Sun for more than two and a half minutes in some locations. If they had the exact same apparent size, the total eclipse would only last for an instant.

The eclipse will reveal the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona, which is otherwise too dim to see next to the bright Sun. Though we study the corona from space with instruments called coronagraphs - which create artificial eclipses by using a metal disk to block out the Sun's face - there are still some lower regions of the Sun's atmosphere that are only visible during total solar eclipses. Because of a property of light called diffraction, the disk of a coronagraph must block out both the Sun's surface and a large part of the corona in order to get crisp pictures. But because the Moon is so far away from Earth - about 230,000 miles away during the eclipse - diffraction isn't an issue, and scientists are able to measure the lower corona in fine detail.

NASA is taking advantage of the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse by funding 11 ground-based science investigations across the United States. Six of these focus on the Sun's corona.

The source of space weather

Our Sun is an active star that constantly releases a flow of charged particles and magnetic fields known as the solar wind. This solar wind, along with discrete burps of solar material known as coronal mass ejections, can influence Earth's magnetic field, send particles raining down into our atmosphere, and - when intense - impact satellites. Though we're able to track these solar eruptions when they leave the Sun, the key to predicting when they'll happen could lie in studying their origins in the magnetic energy stored in the lower corona.

A team led by Philip Judge of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, will use new instruments to study the magnetic field structure of the corona by imaging this atmospheric layer during the eclipse. The instruments will image the corona to see fingerprints left by the magnetic field in visible and near-infrared wavelengths from a mountaintop near Casper, Wyoming. One instrument, POLARCAM, uses new technology based on the eyes of the mantis shrimp to obtain novel polarization measurements, and will serve as a proof-of-concept for use in future space missions. The research will enhance our understanding of how the Sun generates space weather.

"We want to compare between the infrared data we're capturing and the ultraviolet data recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and JAXA/NASA's Hinode satellite," said Judge. "This work will confirm or refute our understanding of how light across the entire spectrum forms in the corona, perhaps helping to resolve some nagging disagreements."

The results from the camera will complement data from an airborne study imaging the corona in the infrared, as well as another ground-based infrared study led by Paul Bryans at the High Altitude Observatory. Bryans and his team will sit inside a trailer atop Casper Mountain in Wyoming, and point a specialized instrument at the eclipse. The instrument is a spectrometer, which collects light from the Sun and separates each wavelength of light, measuring their intensity. This particular spectrometer, called the NCAR Airborne Interferometer, will, for the first time, survey infrared light emitted by the solar corona.

"These studies are complementary. We will have the spectral information, which reveals the component wavelengths of light," said Bryans. "And Philip Judge's team will have the spatial resolution to tell where certain features are coming from."

This novel data will help scientists characterize the corona's complex magnetic field -- crucial information for understanding and eventually helping to forecast space weather events. The scientists will augment their study by analyzing their results alongside corresponding space-based observations from other instruments aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the joint NASA/JAXA Hinode.

In Madras, Oregon, a team of NASA scientists led by Nat Gopalswamy at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will point a new, specialized polarization camera at the Sun's faint outer atmosphere, the corona, taking several-second exposures at four selected wavelengths in just over two minutes. Their images will capture data on the temperature and speed of solar material in the corona. Currently these measurements can only be obtained from Earth-based observations during a total solar eclipse.

To study the corona at times and locations outside a total eclipse, scientists use coronagraphs, which mimic eclipses by using solid disks to block the Sun's face much the way the Moon's shadow does. Typical coronagraphs use a polarizer filter in a mechanism that turns through three angles, one after the other, for each wavelength filter. The new camera is designed to eliminate this clunky, time-consuming process, by incorporating thousands of tiny polarization filters to read light polarized in different directions simultaneously. Testing this instrument is a crucial step toward improving coronagraphs and ultimately, our understanding of the corona -- the very root of the solar radiation that fills up Earth's space environment.

Unexplained coronal heating

The answer to another mystery also lies in the lower corona: It is thought to hold the secrets to a longstanding question of how the solar atmosphere reaches such unexpectedly high temperatures. The Sun's corona is much hotter than its surface, which is counterintuitive, as the Sun's energy is generated by nuclear fusion at its core. Usually temperatures go down consistently as you move away from that heat source, the same way that it gets cooler as you move away from a fire - but not so in the case of the Sun's atmosphere. Scientists suspect that detailed measurements of the way particles move in the lower corona could help them uncover the mechanism that produces this enormous heating.

Padma Yanamandra-Fisher of the Space Science Institute will lead an experiment to take images of the lower corona in polarized light. Polarized light is when all the light waves are oriented the same way, and it is produced when ordinary, unpolarized light passes through a medium - in this case, the electrons of the inner solar corona.

"By measuring the polarized brightness of the inner solar corona and using numerical modeling, we can extract the number of electrons along the line of sight," said Yanamandra-Fisher. "Essentially, we're mapping the distribution of free electrons in the inner solar corona."

Mapping the inner corona in polarized light to reveal the density of elections is a critical factor in modeling coronal waves, one possible source of coronal heating. Along with unpolarized light images collected by the NASA-funded citizen science project called Citizen CATE, which will gather eclipse imagery from across the country, these polarized light measurements could help scientists address the question of the solar corona's unusually high temperatures.

Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu will lead a team of scientists to image the Sun during the total solar eclipse. The eclipse's long path over land allows the team to image the Sun from five sites across four different states, about 600 miles apart, allowing them to track short-term changes in the corona and increasing the odds of good weather.

They will use spectrometers, which analyze the light emitted from different ionized elements in the corona. The scientists will also use unique filters to selectively image the corona in certain colors, which allows them to directly probe into the physics of the Sun's outer atmosphere.

With this data, they can explore the composition and temperature of the corona, and measure the speed of particles flowing out from the Sun. Different colors correspond to different elements -- nickel, iron and argon -- that have lost electrons, or been ionized, in the corona's extreme heat, and each element ionizes at a specific temperature. By analyzing such information together, the scientists hope to better understand the processes that heat the corona.

Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA's WB-57F research jets take observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes. They will capture the clearest images of the Sun's outer atmosphere -- the corona -- to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the

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An Oregon Research Institute study shows rates of e-cigarette use among Oregon 8th & 9th graders is higher than national samples, and that e-cigarette use is closely linked with marijuana & other tobacco use

A study at Oregon Research Institute (ORI) shows that rates of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use among Oregon 8th and 9th graders is higher than seen in national samples, and that e-cigarette use is closely linked with use of marijuana and other tobacco products. Led by ORI scientist Erika Westling, Ph.D., study investigators examined e-cigarette prevalence rates in 8th graders and tracked early usage patterns from 8th grade through 9th grade, the first year of high school. Westling and her team also examined gender, ethnicity, and the use of other substances. Study results were recently published in the June 2017 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The study showed that adolescents are using e-cigarettes at high rates, and many are using e-cigarettes before trying regular cigarettes or chewing tobacco. In addition, e-cigarette users were more likely to have used and be using other substances, with marijuana being the most common. At the beginning of the study, 27.7% of 8th grade students reported some use of e-cigarettes and 16.8% were current users. By the spring of 9th grade, 31.4% of students had used e-cigarettes and 17.4% were current users.

"We found that e-cigarettes were being used at much higher rates than conventional cigarettes," noted Westling, "and about 5% of students were using e-cigarettes daily in the 9th grade, which suggests addiction to nicotine via e-cigarettes in these young adolescents."

The research team surveyed 1100 Oregon students from seven school districts once at the end of 8th grade and three times across 9th grade. Results indicated there were no significant gender or ethnicity differences in prevalence of use in 8th grade or in accelerated usage rates through 9th grade. Males, females, Hispanics, and non-Hispanics were at equal risk for trying and escalating use of e-cigarettes over time. This reveals the broad appeal, access, and popularity of e-cigarettes to this population, and indicates that anti-e-cigarette marketing strategies should target all of these groups.

"Our data was collected prior to regulation of e-cigarettes by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are currently no limits on advertising, flavorings, or e-liquid content, and e-cigarettes are being heavily marketed to youth," said Westling. "Given the high rates of use and previous marketing efforts, youth access to and willingness to use c-cigarettes may not be easily changed."

The FDA finalized the "deeming" rule effective August 8, 2016 to regulate new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, which will likely result in product standards and prevent misleading claims about the relative risk of tobacco products in the future. However, these regulations will not be in effect for several more years. Currently, the majority of adolescents perceive e-cigarettes as having minimal risks to health or addiction. Only a quarter of high school students know that e-cigarettes typically contain nicotine. Young adolescents are especially vulnerable to nicotine addiction, and symptoms of addiction in adolescence predict regular smoking in emerging adulthood. A recent Surgeon General's report on e-cigarettes and youth notes that there are significant known deleterious health effects resulting from nicotine exposure in adolescence, including changes to the developing brain.

###

This research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant # R01-DA034062).

Oregon Research Institute is a non-profit, independent behavioral research center with headquarters in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1960, it also has offices in Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Physicians trained at the United States' lowest-ranked medical schools write more opioid prescriptions than physicians trained at the highest-ranked schools, according to a study by Princeton University. The study suggests that better training for physicians, and for general practitioners in particular, could help curb the nation's opioid epidemic.

From 2006 to 2014, "If all general practitioners had prescribed like those from the top-ranked school [Harvard], we would have had 56.5% fewer opioid prescriptions and 8.5% fewer overdose deaths," said Janet M. Currie, the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Currie conducted the study with Molly Schnell, a Princeton Ph.D. candidate in economics.

Since 2000, the number of opioid overdose deaths in the United States has doubled, and many of those deaths were caused by drugs legally prescribed by a physician. Currie and Schnell wondered whether they could find a relationship between physicians' training and their propensity to prescribe opioids.

Using a variety of public and proprietary databases, they were able to match all 2 billion opioid prescriptions written in the United States from 2006 to 2014 against a key piece of information about prescribing doctors: U.S. News & World Report rankings of medical schools where they received their initial training. U.S. News publishes annual rankings for 92 medical schools. Currie and Schnell also considered unranked medical schools in the U.S. and abroad as separate categories.

The researchers wanted to know whether each physician wrote any opioid prescriptions at all in the course of a year, and if so, how many. They ran two analyses: one for all physicians, and one only for general practitioners, who write about half of the nation's opioid prescriptions. Geographic data let them identify where the physicians practiced.

The results were striking. Compared to doctors trained at the highest-ranked schools, graduates of the lowest-ranked schools were considerably more likely to write any opioid prescriptions at all in a given year. And among the opioid prescribers, graduates of the lowest-ranked school wrote more prescriptions. These differences were most pronounced among general practitioners. "General practitioners trained at Harvard write an average of 180.2 opioid prescriptions per year, those from the second- to fifth-ranked schools write 233 per year, and GPs from the seven lowest-ranked medical schools write nearly 550," Currie said. Across all the ranked schools, the average number of opioid prescriptions rose as the rankings declined.

So far, Currie and Schnell had only found a correlation between doctors' training and opioid prescriptions. Something else besides training could explain the differences they were seeing. In particular, doctors who went to lower-ranked schools might disproportionately see patients with a greater need for opioids, or personal characteristics of the people most likely to get into high-ranked schools might lead them to prescribe fewer opioids once they become doctors.

But the researchers found four pieces of evidence to support the idea that doctors' training is behind the differences.

First, when Currie and Schnell compared physicians in the same specialty who practiced in the same hospital or clinic, they still saw differences in opioid prescriptions based on the rank of the doctors' medical schools -- and it's unlikely that these physicians see vastly different types of patients.

Second, they found that among doctors who receive the most training in pain management after medical school -- specialists in pain medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and anesthesiology -- differences in opioid-prescribing practices were much smaller. That finding suggests that training rather than the doctors' personal characteristics was the key factor behind their propensity to prescribe opioids.

Third, among foreign-trained doctors, prescribing practices varied with the region where they received their training. Doctors trained in the Caribbean and in Canada were more likely to prescribe opioids than doctors trained in other parts of the world.

Fourth, differences in opioid-prescribing practices were least pronounced among the most recent medical school graduates. Yet the highest-ranked schools grew even more selective during the study period. If the personal characteristics of people who get into high-ranked schools were driving the differences Currie and Schnell found, disparities in opioid prescriptions should have increased rather than fallen. The researchers speculated that instead, the best ideas in pain management training may be filtering down from higher- to lower-ranked medical schools.

"A distinguishing feature of the opioid epidemic is that many overdoses and deaths can be attributed to legal opioids that were prescribed by a physician," Currie said. "Training aimed at reducing prescribing rates among the most liberal prescribers, who disproportionately come from the lowest-ranked medical schools, could have large public health benefits."

The study, "Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: Is There a Role for Physician Education?," appeared on the NBER's website in August 2017. As a working paper, it was not peer-reviewed or subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

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The American workplace is physically and emotionally taxing, with workers frequently facing unstable work schedules, unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions, and an often hostile social environment, according to a new study that probes working conditions in the United States.

The findings stem from research conducted by investigators at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, Harvard Medical School and UCLA, and are from the American Working Conditions Survey -- one of the most in-depth surveys ever done to examine conditions in the American workplace.

More than one-in-four American workers say they have too little time to do their job, with the complaint being most common among white-collar workers. In addition, workers say the intensity of work frequently spills over into their personal lives, with about one-half of people reporting that they perform some work in their free time in order to meet workplace demands.

Despite these challenges, American workers appear to have a certain degree of autonomy on the job, most feel confident about their skill set and many do report that they receive social support while on the job.

"I was surprised how taxing the workplace appears to be, both for less-educated and for more-educated workers," said lead author Nicole Maestas, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct economist at RAND. "Work is taxing at the office and it's taxing when it spills out of the workplace into people's family lives."

Researchers say that while 8 in 10 American workers report having steady and predictable work throughout the year, just 54 percent report working the same number of hours on a day-to-day basis. One in three workers say they have no control over their schedule. Despite much public attention focused on the growth of telecommuting, 78 percent of workers report they must be present at their workplace during regular business hours.

Nearly three-fourths of American workers report either intense or repetitive physical exertion on the job at least a quarter of the time. While workers without a college education report greater physical demands, many college-educated and older workers are affected as well.

Strikingly, more than half of Americans report exposure to unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions. Nearly one in five workers -- a "disturbingly high" fraction -- say they face a hostile or threatening social environment at work. Younger and prime-aged women are the workers most likely to experience unwanted sexual attention, while younger men are more likely to experience verbal abuse.

The findings are from a survey of 3,066 adults who participate in the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative, computer-based sample of people from across the United States. The workplace survey was fielded in 2015 to collect detailed information across a broad range of working conditions in the American workplace, as well as details about workers and job characteristics.

Despite the importance of the workplace to most Americans, researchers say there is relatively little publicly available information about the characteristics of American jobs today. The American Working Conditions survey is designed to be harmonious with the European Working Conditions Survey, which has been conducted periodically over the last 25 years among workers from a broad range of European nations.

The American Working Conditions Survey found that while many American workers adjust their personal lives to accommodate work matters, about one-third of workers say they are unable to adjust their work schedules to accommodate personal matters. In general, women are more likely than men to report difficulty arranging for time off during work hours to take care of personal or family matters.

Jobs interfere with family and social commitments outside of work, particuarly for younger workers who don't have a college degree. More than one in four reports a poor fit between their work hours and their social and family commitments.

The report also provides insights about how preferences change among workers as they become older.

Older workers are more likely to value the ability to control how they do their work and setting the pace of their work, as well as less physically demanding jobs. Older workers are also generally less likely than younger workers to have some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions.

The survey also confirms that retirement is often a fluid concept. Many older workers say they have previously retired before rejoining the workforce, and many people aged 50 and older who are not employed say they would consider rejoining the workforce if conditions were right.

Other highlights from the report include:

The intensity of work such as pace, deadlines and time constraints differ across occupation groups, with white-collar workers experiencing greater work intensity than blue-collar workers.

Jobs in the U.S. feature a mix of monotonous tasks and autonomous problem solving. While 62 percent of workers say they face monotonous tasks, more than 80 percent report that their jobs involve "solving unforeseen problems" and "applying own ideas."

The workplace is an important source of professional and social support, with more than one half of American workers describing their boss as supportive and that they have very good friends at work.

Only 38 percent of workers say their job offers good prospects for advancement. All workers -- regardless of education -- become less optimistic about career advancement as they become older.

Four out of five American workers report that their job provides "meaning" always or most of the time. Older college-educated men were those most likely to report at least one dimension of meaningful work.

Nearly two-thirds of workers experience some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions, with the number rising to nearly three-quarters when job benefits are taken into account. Nearly half of workers report working more than their preferred number of hours per week, while some 20 percent report working fewer than their preferred number of hours.

Future reports will explore how conditions of the American workplace compare to those in Europe and in other parts of the world and selected findings from follow-up surveys using the same panel of participants. The data tables from the American Working Conditions Survey are being made available to other researchers to allow secondary use of the results.

###

Support for the project was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Social Security Administration through the Michigan Retirement Research Center.

The report, "Working Conditions in the United States: A Report on the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey," is available at http://www.rand.org. Other authors of the study are Kathleen J. Mullen, David Powell and Jeffrey B. Wenger, all of RAND, and Till von Wachter of UCLA.

The RAND Labor and Population program examines issues involving U.S. labor markets, the demographics of families and children, policies to improve socio-economic wellbeing, the social and economic functioning of the elderly, and economic and social change in developing countries.
HOUSTON - (Aug. 14, 2017) - A microplate discovered off the west coast of Ecuador adds another piece to Earth's tectonic puzzle, according to Rice University scientists.

Researchers led by Rice geophysicist Richard Gordon discovered the microplate, which they have named "Malpelo," while analyzing the junction of three other plates in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Malpelo Plate, named for an island and an underwater ridge it contains, is the 57th plate to be discovered and the first in nearly a decade, they said. They are sure there are more to be found.

The research by Gordon, lead author Tuo Zhang and co-authors Jay Mishra and Chengzu Wang, all of Rice, appears in Geophysical Research Letters.

How do geologists discover a plate? In this case, they carefully studied the movements of other plates and their evolving relationships to one another as the plates move at a rate of millimeters to centimeters per year.

The Pacific lithospheric plate that roughly defines the volcanic Ring of Fire is one of about 10 major rigid tectonic plates that float and move atop Earth's mantle, which behaves like a fluid over geologic time. Interactions at the edges of the moving plates account for most earthquakes experienced on the planet. There are many small plates that fill the gaps between the big ones, and the Pacific Plate meets two of those smaller plates, the Cocos and Nazca, west of the Galapagos Islands.

One way to judge how plates move is to study plate-motion circuits, which quantify how the rotation speed of each object in a group (its angular velocity) affects all the others. Rates of seafloor spreading determined from marine magnetic anomalies combined with the angles at which the plates slide by each other over time tells scientists how fast the plates are turning.

"When you add up the angular velocities of these three plates, they ought to sum to zero," Gordon said. "In this case, the velocity doesn't sum to zero at all. It sums to 15 millimeters a year, which is huge."

That made the Pacific-Cocos-Nazca circuit a misfit, which meant at least one other plate in the vicinity had to make up the difference. Misfits are a cause for concern - and a clue.

Knowing the numbers were amiss, the researchers drew upon a Columbia University database of extensive multibeam sonar soundings west of Ecuador and Colombia to identify a previously unknown plate boundary between the Galapagos Islands and the coast.

Previous researchers had assumed most of the region east of the known Panama transform fault was part of the Nazca plate, but the Rice researchers determined it moves independently. "If this is moving in a different direction, then this is not the Nazca plate," Gordon said. "We realized this is a different plate and it's moving relative to the Nazca."

Evidence for the Malpelo plate came with the researchers' identification of a diffuse plate boundary that runs from the Panama Transform Fault eastward to where the diffuse plate boundary intersects a deep oceanic trench just offshore of Ecuador and Colombia.

"A diffuse boundary is best described as a series of many small, hard-to-spot faults rather than a ridge or transform fault that sharply defines the boundary of two plates," Gordon said. "Because earthquakes along diffuse boundaries tend to be small and less frequent than along transform faults, there was little information in the seismic record to indicate this one's presence."

"With the Malpelo accounted for, the new circuit still doesn't close to zero and the shrinking Pacific Plate isn't enough to account for the difference either," Zhang said. "The nonclosure around this triple junction goes down -- not to zero, but only to 10 or 11 millimeters a year.

"Since we're trying to understand global deformation, we need to understand where the rest of that velocity is going," he said. "So we think there's another plate we're missing."

Plate 58, where are you?

Gordon is the W.M. Keck Professor of Geophysics. Zhang and Wang are Rice graduate students and Mishra is a Rice alumnus.

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

###



Jeff Falk

713-348-6775 jfalk@rice.edu

Mike Williams

713-348-6728

mikewilliams@rice.edu

Read the abstract at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL073704/full

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2017/08/13/new-plate-adds-plot-twist-to-ancient-tectonic-tale/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related materials:

Rice University Global Tectonics (Gordon group): http://tectonics.rice.edu

Richard Gordon bio: https://earthscience.rice.edu/directory/user/7/

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://natsci.rice.edu

GeoMapApp: http://www.geomapapp.org

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/08/0814_PLATE-1-WEB-1zsbuta.jpg

Misfit plates in the Pacific led Rice University scientists to the discovery of the Malpelo Plate between the Galapagos Islands and the South American coast. (Credit: Illustration by Tuo Zhang/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/08/0814_PLATE-2-WEB-1szenwl.jpg

Rice University researchers have discovered a microplate off the coast of South America. From left, Tuo Zhang, Richard Gordon and Chengzu Wang. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
New experiments described in The Journal of Neuroscience support distinct roles for two brain pathways in processing information related to an object, with one carrying a largely invariant representation of an object and the other a flexible one depending on what we do with an object.

Visual information is thought to be processed in two different routes in the brain: A ventral pathway carries information about "what" an object is while a dorsal pathway represents "where" an object is in space. Recent studies have challenged this distinction by demonstrating robust object "what" information in the dorsal pathway. This leaves open the questions of how object processing differs between the two pathways and whether a two-pathway distinction is still valid.

Maryam Vaziri-Pashkam and Yaoda Xu addressed these questions by having seven healthy adults focus on the color or shape in photographs of common objects spanning eight categories including faces, cats and chairs. Participants pressed a button when either the same object or same color appeared back to back. The authors found that the dorsal pathway sees objects according to what they are and what we do with them, grouping objects in the same task setting together. The ventral pathway, on the other hand, sees objects as they always are regardless of the task. This distinction captures two seemingly conflicting aspects of visual information processing: To truthfully represent an object and at the same time represent that information flexibly according to goals and desires. The finding helps to clarify the roles of each pathway in visual processing.

###

Article: Goal-directed visual processing differentially impacts human ventral and dorsal visual representations

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3392-16.2017

Corresponding author: Maryam Vaziri-Pashkam (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA), mvaziri@fas.harvard.edu

About JNeurosci

The Journal of Neuroscience (JNeurosci) is the flagship journal of the Society for Neuroscience. JNeurosci publishes papers on a broad range of topics in neuroscience in a print edition each Wednesday and recently began publishing early-release PDFs of studies online shortly after acceptance.

About The Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.
For the first time, astronomers have observed a cosmic event in great detail that they only had glimpses of before: a supernova and its explosive ejecta slamming into a nearby companion star. The discovery was made possible by a specialized survey taking advantage of recent advances in linking telescopes across the globe into a robotic network.

David Sand, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, discovered the supernova on March 10, 2017, in the galaxy NGC 5643. At 55 million light-years, it was one of the closest supernovae discovered in recent years. Designated SN 2017cbv, it was found by the DLT40 survey, which stands for "Distance Less Than 40 Megaparsecs" or 120 million light-years. The survey uses the PROMPT telescope in Chile, which monitors roughly 500 galaxies nightly.

"This was one of the earliest catches ever -- within a day, perhaps even hours, of its explosion," said Sand, who created the DLT40 survey together with Stefano Valenti, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis. Both were previously postdoctoral researchers at Las Cumbres Observatory, or LCO.

Dead Stars Go Thermonuclear

Within minutes of discovery, Sand activated observations with LCO's global network of 18 robotic telescopes. They are spaced around the globe so that there is always one on the night side of the Earth, ready to conduct astronomical observations. This allowed the team to take immediate and near-continuous observations.

SN 2017cbv is a thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernova, the kind astronomers use to measure the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Type Ia supernovae are known to be the explosions of white dwarfs, the dead cores of what used to be normal stars.

Across the cosmic abyss, a supernova tells of its existence by appearing like a star that wasn't there before. Its brightness peaks within a matter of days to weeks and then slowly fades over weeks or months.

"To turn into a Type Ia supernova, a white dwarf can't be by itself," explained Sand, the principal investigator of the DLT40 survey. "It has to have some kind of companion, and we are trying to figure out what that companion is."

The identity of this companion has been hotly debated for more than 50 years.

The prevailing theory over the last few years is that the supernovae happen when two white dwarfs spiral in toward each other and merge in a cataclysmic explosion. The other scenario involves a normal star that is not a white dwarf.

Key to the observations reported in this study is a small bump in the light curve emitted by SN 2017cbv within the first three to four days, a feature that would have been missed were it not for the almost instantaneous reaction times that are the hallmark of the DLT40 survey: a fleeting blue glow from the interaction at an unprecedented level of detail, revealing the surprising identity of the mysterious companion star.

"We think what happened here was likely scenario number two," Sand said. "The bump in the light curve could be caused by material from the exploding white dwarf as it slams into the companion star."

This study infers that the white dwarf was stealing matter from a much larger companion star, approximately 20 times the radius of the sun. This caused the white dwarf to explode, and the collision of the supernova with the companion star shocked the supernova material, heating it to a blue glow that was heavy in ultraviolet light. Such a shock could not have been produced if the companion were another white dwarf star, the study's authors say.

"We've been looking for this effect -- a supernova crashing into its companion star -- since it was predicted in 2010," said Griffin Hosseinzadeh, a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who led the study, which is soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "Hints have been seen before, but this time the evidence is overwhelming. The data are beautiful!

"With Las Cumbres Observatory's ability to monitor the supernova every few hours, we were able to see the full extent of the rise and fall of the blue glow for the first time," he added. "Conventional telescopes would have had only a data point or two and missed it."

Eighteen telescopes, spread over eight sites around the world, form the heart of the Las Cumbres Observatory. At any given moment, it is nighttime somewhere in the network, which ensures that a supernova can be observed without interruption.

Cosmology's '60-Watt Lightbulb'

Because of their uniform brightness, Type Ia supernovae are akin to a "standard 60-watt lightbulb for cosmology," and scientists use them as yard sticks to measure distances across the universe.

On average, only one supernova goes off over the course of a century in a galaxy like our Milky Way, according to Sand. Add to that their fleeting nature, and it becomes clear why a targeted observational campaign such as the DLT40 survey and an automated network of observatories such as the LCO are critical to their discovery and study. Funded by the National Science Foundation, The DLT40 survey started in October 2016 and is scheduled to continue over the next three years.

"The secret sauce to this are the connected telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory," Sand said, adding that the survey is not about quantity. "We rather focus on a precious few than hundreds of them."

It is likely that Type Ia supernovae come from both types of progenitor systems - two white dwarfs or one white dwarf and a "normal" interacting star - and the goal of these studies is to figure out which of the two processes is more common, Sand explained.

"Observing supernovae such as SN 2017cbv is an important step in this direction," he said. "If we get them really young, we can get a better idea of these processes, which hold implications for our understanding of the cosmos, including dark energy."

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In the 2009 film "Star Trek," a supernova hurtles through space and obliterates a planet unfortunate enough to be in its path. Fiction, of course, but it turns out the notion is not so farfetched.

Using the nearby Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), astrophysicists from UC Santa Barbara have observed something similar: an exploding star slamming into a nearby companion star. What's more, they detected the fleeting blue glow from the interaction at an unprecedented level of detail. Their observations revealed surprising information about the mysterious companion star, a feat made possible by recent advances in linking telescopes into a robotic network. The team's findings appear in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The identity of this particular companion has been hotly debated for more than 50 years. Prevailing theory over the last few years has held that the supernovae happen when two white dwarfs spiral together and merge. This new study demonstrates that the supernova collided with the companion star that was not a white dwarf. White dwarf stars are the dead cores of what used to be normal stars like the sun.

"We've been looking for this effect -- a supernova crashing into its companion star -- since it was predicted in 2010," said lead author Griffin Hosseinzadeh, a UCSB graduate student. "Hints have been seen before, but this time the evidence is overwhelming."

The supernova in question is SN 2017cbv, a thermonuclear Type Ia, which astronomers use to measure the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. This kind of supernova is known to be the explosion of a white dwarf star, though it requires additional mass from a companion star to explode.

The UCSB-led research implies that the white dwarf was stealing matter from a much larger companion star -- approximately 20 times the radius of the sun -- which caused the white dwarf to explode. The collision of the supernova and the companion star shocked the supernova material, heating it to a blue glow heavy in ultraviolet light. Such a shock could not have been produced if the companion were another white dwarf star.

"The universe is crazier than science fiction authors have dared to imagine," said Andy Howell, a staff scientist at LCO and Hosseinzadeh's Ph.D. adviser. "Supernovae can wreck nearby stars, too, releasing unbelievable amounts of energy in the process."

Co-author David Sand, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, discovered the supernova on March 10, 2017, in the galaxy NGC 5643. Only 55 million lightyears away, SN 2017cbv was one of the closest supernovae discovered in recent years, found by the DLT40 survey using the Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescope (PROMPT) in Chile, which monitors galaxies nightly at distances less than 40 megaparsecs (120 million light-years). This was one of the earliest catches ever -- within a day, perhaps even hours, of its explosion. The DLT40 survey was created by Sand and study co-author Stefano Valenti, an assistant professor at UC Davis; both were previously postdoctoral researchers at LCO.

Within minutes of discovery, Sand activated observations with LCO's global network of 18 robotic telescopes, spaced around the Earth so that one is always on the night side. This allowed the team to take immediate and near-continuous observations.

"With LCO's ability to monitor the supernova every few hours, we were able to see the full extent of the rise and fall of the blue glow for the first time," Hosseinzadeh said. "Conventional telescopes would have had only a data point or two and missed it."

Howell likened the event to gaining astronomical superpowers that give astronomers the ability to see the universe in new ways. "These capabilities were just a dream a few years ago," he said. "But now we're living the dream and unlocking the origins of supernovae in the process."

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Irvine, Calif., Aug. 14, 2017 -- University of California, Irvine researchers received more than $378 million in grants and contract funding for fiscal 2016-17, the second-highest total in campus history.

From federal and state agencies, leading foundations and companies, this funding -- which follows a record year in 2015-16, when the university garnered $395 million -- represents continued support for UCI's top-ranked faculty, first-rate facilities, diverse and talented student body, and community-based programs.

"Innovation and discovery thrive with robust research grant funding," said Pramod Khargonekar, vice chancellor for research. "Research is a central mission for the UCI faculty, students and staff, and these strong results indicate that UCI's world-class research enterprise will continue to make important, productive contributions to the state, the nation and the world."

The slightly lower total is due to decreased federal funding; nonfederal support increased this year. Khargonekar explained that a possible reason for the drop is that federal agencies did not receive their 2017 budgets until May 2017, eight months after the start of the fiscal year.

Although research funding touches every corner of campus, the greatest investment was in the area of health. The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center brought in more than $24 million, and the School of Medicine logged $147.5 million in support, 39 percent of UCI's 2016-17 total.

Other noteworthy funding sources and recipients:

Support from charitable foundations increased by 9 percent from the 2015-16 fiscal year, to $67 million. One highlight was a $2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Anthony James, UCI's Donald Bren Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, to generate sustainable, genetics-based approaches to controlling malaria parasite transmission in Africa by the vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae.

The UCI Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit received another $5 million from the National Science Foundation in 2016 to continue its groundbreaking work in pushing the limits of interrogating chemistry on ultrafast and ultrasmall scales. CaSTL is one of eight NSF-funded "Centers for Chemical Innovation" that are designed to tackle grand challenges in the field.

The California Energy Commission awarded UCI's Institute of Transportation Studies $11.2 million to develop and administer a natural-gas vehicle incentive program.

Building upon its strengths and reputation in critical theory and Korean studies, UCI launched the Center for Critical Korean Studies, which is funded by a 1 billion-won grant (about $850,000) from the Academy of Korean Studies. Its emphasis is on Korea-specific critical theory related to race, borders, ecology and current pop culture.

Adding to his $16 million in National Institutes of Health grants over the past 15 years, UCI cognitive sciences professor Gregory Hickok recently received just over $500,000 from the NIH supporting his research on how neural abnormalities affect speech and language in an area of the brain tied to stroke-induced aphasia.

Dr. Baruch Kuppermann, professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering, is using $10 million from jCyte to lead a phase 2b trial of the company's retinitis pigmentosa therapy, jCell. Founded by UCI researchers Dr. Henry Klassen and Dr. Jing Yang, jCyte evolved from research conducted at the UCI School of Medicine and has been working to advance its RP treatment since 2012.

###

Additional data on UCI's 2016-17 research funding:

816 new awards were received during the fiscal year.

456 UCI researchers received new awards.

47.3 percent of support came from nonfederal sources.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which encompasses the National Institutes of Health, provided $110 million, making it the largest single source of research funding at UCI.

$71 million in grant and corporate support was received for clinical trials.

For more information, see the Office of Research's annual report at http://research.uci.edu/annualreport.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
For humans, our sense of touch is relayed to the brain via small electrical pulses. Now, University of Colorado Boulder scientists have found that individual bacteria, too, can feel their external environment in a similar way.

In a new study, CU Boulder researchers have demonstrated that E. coli bacteria cells get excited when poked, sending out voltage induced calcium ion signals -- the same way a vertebrate's sensory nervous system works. The results are believed to be the first documented observation of electrical excitability in individual bacteria cells.

The findings, which could advance fundamental bacteria research and may eventually aid drug development for infectious diseases, was published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"People typically think that [bacteria] are these little things, that all they are doing is trying to divide and create more energy," said Giancarlo Bruni, a doctoral candidate in CU Boulder's Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and the lead author of the new research. "[But] we're not all that different."

Scientists have long known that bacteria respond to certain chemical cues. Feed them sugar, and their populations explode. Douse them in antibiotics and their cell walls rip apart. More recently, though, scientists have noticed that physical signals, too, seem to activate these microbes. For example, Salmonella become more efficient at infecting human cells when placed on a stiff surface as opposed to a soft one.

"What we think could be happening is that they're using these electrical signals to modify their lifestyle," said Joel Kralj, the senior author of the study and an assistant professor in MCDB and the BioFrontiers Institute.

To study how bacteria feel their surroundings, the team inserted special genes into E. coli bacteria that glow when calcium ions or electricity pulse through them. The cells were placed in a sticky substrate under a microscope. Left alone, the cells remained dim. But when the scientists pushed a pad against them, the bacteria lit up. The sparks of light indicated that proteins, ions and electricity were moving around in the bacteria.

The results indicate that bacteria and other creatures share a common tool for sensing their environment -- an electrical pathway with the same functionality as human sensory neurons. From an evolutionary perspective, this signaling trait could be billions of years old and used by some of the oldest organisms on Earth.

The study also sheds new light on bacterial activity with regard to infection. For example, when exposed to antibiotics, a few bacteria cells with unique electric signals usually survive. These survivors then go on to reproduce and share their drug-resistant capabilities with other bacteria, eventually rendering the antibiotic useless.

The CU Boulder researchers now plan to study how bacteria's electric pulses are used to sense when to infect human cells. In the future, they hope to test for small, masking molecules that can dull these signals when introduced. Such molecules could eventually translate into drugs that help treat bacterial infections and overcome antibiotic resistance.

"If we can block bacterial electrical activity, they may be less likely to infect, because now they don't know that they have landed on your soft delicious gut cell," said Kralj. "We could cut their hands off so they can no longer feel."

###

Additional co-authors of the new study include Andrew Weekley and Benjamin Dodd of MCDB and BioFrontiers. The National Institutes of Health and the Searle Scholars Program provided funding for the research.
Vet experts are delivering a 5.5 million initiative to improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in sub-Saharan Africa.

The scheme aims to boost the livelihoods of livestock farmers by delivering evidence-based technologies that offer sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.

The Supporting Evidence Based Interventions initiative (SEBI) has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Three programmes have been established to help address different challenges.

The first programme aims to identify evidence-based interventions to cut death rates and reproductive losses in dairy cattle in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Sub-grants will be provided to enable research groups to investigate the causes of these losses. The first of the grants has been awarded to University of Glasgow to build a disease surveillance platform in Tanzania.

A second programme will facilitate data gathering and the development of analytical tools to better track livestock performance.

Researchers are setting up an international network of practitioners - the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community - to standardise systems of data management across borders.

The third strand of the initiative will fund researchers to evaluate innovative veterinary interventions for their use in developing countries.

SEBI has already awarded 125,000 to the University of Guelph to fund field trials of a hand held device that can detect animal diseases. The portable sensor allows dairy farmers to rapidly diagnose specific diseases in cows from a small volume of blood or milk.

A team of eight has been recruited to drive forward the SEBI initiative, which is based at the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

Researchers are working with a range of partners to meet their targets, including Scotland's Rural College, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya.

Project lead Professor Andy Peters said: "SEBI is a pilot project but we anticipate that, if we are successful, it will expand to become the 'go to' organisation for the evaluation of novel veterinary technologies and livestock improvement interventions in Africa."

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Oyster stocks in a Cornish fishery are sustained thanks to "inefficient" traditional fishing methods, new research suggests.

The Fal oyster fishery is home to the only sail-driven commercial fishing fleet in Europe, and the oysters are caught using hand-hauled dredges.

The "inherent inefficiency" of these methods is the "crucial feature" in preventing overfishing and ensuring the fishery's long-term survival, according to scientists from the University of Exeter.

Motorising the fleet would - at a "conservative" estimate - result in a nine-fold increase in the amount of fishing done there, the researchers said.

"The Fal fishery sailing fleet isn't just pretty for tourists - it maintains a fishery that could be exhausted if it were mechanised with engines and hauling gear," said Professor Richard ffrench-Constant, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"This is one of only three oyster fisheries left in England, and the other two (in the Solent and the Thames Estuary) have experienced temporary closures to protect dwindling stocks."

Oyster stocks have fallen in the Fal fishery over recent decades, but the researchers say disease and the introduction of motorised fishing are the biggest threats to its existence.

"In this study, we wanted to find out whether the longevity of the Fal oyster fishery was linked to traditional methods that have been used for centuries," Professor ffrench-Constant said.

"The fishery has gone through periods of over-exploitation, but the key to its long-term survival appears to be linked to the traditional - and inefficient - methods used."

Oysters used to be seen as food for the poor, but are now regarded as "one of the world's ultimate luxury foods".

The native European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) is now a threatened native species due to pollution, overfishing and non-native Pacific oysters.

The Exeter researchers used GPS tracking and on-board observers to demonstrate that dredging under sail is inefficient compared to more modern mechanically powered methods.

"The trend in commercial fisheries over the last hundred years has been for mechanisation, bigger boats and more advanced gear," said lead author Stephen Long, of the Zoological Society of London and University College London.

"Bucking this trend, the Fal is a unique fishery where we can examine the efficacy of traditional practices and compare them with modern industrial fishing.

"This rare opportunity has enabled us to gain important scientific and fishery management insights."

Dr Matthew Witt, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter, added: "People are becoming increasingly interested in where their food comes from and how it is sourced.

"This can be used to promote more sustainable methods, and the Fal oyster fishery is a promising example of this."

###

The study, published in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Journal, is entitled: "Have centuries of inefficient fishing sustained a wild oyster fishery: a case study."
West Antarctica's vast ice sheet conceals what may be the largest volcanic region on earth, research has revealed.

The continent's ice covers almost 100 newly discovered volcanoes, the largest of which is as tall as the Eiger in Switzerland, a study has found.

Geologists and ice experts say the range has many similarities to East Africa's volcanic ridge, which is currently acknowledged to be the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh remotely surveyed the underside of the ice sheet for hidden peaks of basalt rock, like those of other volcanoes in the region whose tips push above the ice.

They analysed the shape of the land beneath the ice using measurements from ice-penetrating radar, and compared the findings with satellite and database records, as well as geological information from aerial surveys.

Scientists found 91 previously unknown volcanoes, ranging in height from 100 to 3850 metres. The peaks are concentrated in a region known as the West Antarctic Rift System, spanning 3,500 kilometres from Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Results from the study, which is the first of its kind, will help scientists understand how volcanoes can influence long-term fluctuations in the ice sheet. They could also help improve understanding of how the continent has changed during past climates.

Their results do not indicate whether the volcanoes are active, but should inform ongoing research into seismic monitoring in the area. Volcanic activity may increase if Antarctica's ice thins, which is likely in a warming climate, scientists say.

Previous studies and the concentration of volcanoes found in the region together suggest that activity may have occurred in previous warmer periods.

The study, published in the Geological Society Special Publications series, was proposed by a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Robert Bingham, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, said: "It is fascinating to uncover an extensive range of volcanoes in this relatively unexplored continent. Better understanding of volcanic activity could shed light on their impact on Antarctica's ice in the past, present and future, and on other rift systems around the world."

Max Van Wyk de Vries, a student at the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who conceived the study, said: "Antarctica remains among the least studied areas of the globe, and as a young scientist I was excited to learn about something new and not well understood. After examining existing data on West Antarctica, I began discovering traces of volcanism. Naturally I looked into it further, which led to this discovery of almost 100 volcanoes under the ice sheet."

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An exhaustive global analysis of rainfall and rivers shows signs of a radical shift in streamflow patterns, with more intense flooding in cities and smaller catchments coupled with a drier countryside

An exhaustive global analysis of rainfall and rivers shows signs of a radical shift in streamflow patterns, with more intense flooding in cities and smaller catchments coupled with a drier countryside.

Drier soils and reduced water flow in rural areas - but more intense rainfall that overwhelms infrastructure and causes flooding and stormwater overflow in urban centres. That's the finding of an exhaustive study of the world's river systems, based on data collected from more than 43,000 rainfall stations and 5,300 river monitoring sites across 160 countries.

The study, by engineers at University of New South Wales in Sydney and which appears in the latest issue of the journal Scientific Reports, explored how rising local temperatures due to climate change might be affecting river flows.

As expected, it found warmer temperatures lead to more intense storms, which makes sense: a warming atmosphere means warmer air, and warmer air can store more moisture. So when the rains do come, there is a lot more water in the air to fall, and hence, rainfall is more intense.

But there's been a growing puzzle: why is flooding not increasing at the same rate as the higher rainfall?

The answer turned out to be the other facet of rising temperatures: more evaporation from moist soils is causing them to become drier before any new rain occurs - moist soils that are needed in rural areas to sustain vegetation and livestock. Meanwhile, small catchments and urban areas, where there are limited expanses of soil to capture and retain moisture, the same intense downpours become equally intense floods, overwhelming stormwater infrastructure and disrupting life.

"Once we sorted through the masses of data, this pattern was very clear," said Ashish Sharma, a professor of hydrology at UNSW's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "The fact that we relied on observed flow and rainfall data from across the world, instead of uncertain model simulations, means we are seeing a real-world effect - one that was not at all apparent before."

"It's a double whammy," said Conrad Wasko, lead author of the paper and postdoctoral fellow at UNSW's Water Research Centre. "People are increasingly migrating to cities, where flooding is getting worse. At the same time, we need adequate flows in rural areas to sustain the agriculture to supply these burgeoning urban populations".

Global flood damage cost more than US$50 billion in 2013; this is expected to more than double in the next 20 years as extreme storms and rainfall intensify and growing numbers of people move into urban centres. Meanwhile, global population over the next 20 years is forecast to rise another 23% from today's 7.3 billion to 9 billion - requiring added productivity and hence greater water security. The reduction in flows noted by this study makes this an even bigger challenge than before.

"We need to adapt to this emerging reality," said Sharma. "We may need to do what was done to make previously uninhabitable places liveable: engineer catchments to ensure stable and controlled access to water. Places such as California, or much of the Netherlands, thrive due to extensive civil engineering. Perhaps a similar effort is needed to deal with the consequences of a changing climate as we enter an era where water availability is not as reliable as before."

"Climate change keeps delivering us unpleasant surprises," said Mark Hoffman, UNSW's Dean of Engineering. "Nevertheless, as engineers, our role is to identify the problem and develop solutions. Knowing the problem is often half the battle, and this study has definitely identified a major one."

Rainfall data used in the study was collected from the Global Historical Climatology Network, which contains records from over 100,000 weather stations in 180 countries and is managed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. River flow data came from the Global Runoff Database, run by Germany's Federal Institute of Hydrology, which relies on river discharge information collected daily or monthly from more than 9,300 stations in 160 countries.

###

IMAGES AND BACKGROUND AVAILABLE

Photos: Prof Ashish Sharma and Dr Conrad Wasko at UNSW, in their lab in UNSW's Water Research Centre, and the California State Water Project.

Scientific paper: Original paper published in Scientific Reports.

BACKGROUND ON UNSW'S FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

UNSW's Faculty of Engineering is the powerhouse of engineering research in Australia, comprising of nine schools, 32 research centres and participating or leading 10 Cooperative Research Centres. It is ranked in the world's top 50 engineering faculties, 11th in the world in civil engineering and 6th in the world in water resources. The faculty is home to Australia's largest cohort of engineering undergraduate, postgraduate, domestic and international students. UNSW is ranked #1 in Australia for producing millionaires (#33 globally) and ranked #1 in Australia for graduates who create technology start-ups.
New biomaterial developed by U of T Engineering researchers could be delivered through minimally invasive surgery

A team of U of T Engineering researchers is mending broken hearts with an expanding tissue bandage a little smaller than a postage stamp.

Repairing heart tissue destroyed by a heart attack or medical condition with regenerative cells or tissues usually requires invasive open-heart surgery. But now biomedical engineering Professor Milica Radisic and her colleagues have developed a technique that lets them use a small needle to inject a repair patch, without the need to open up the chest cavity.

Radisic's team are experts in using polymer scaffolds to grow realistic 3D slices of human tissue in the lab. One of their creations, AngioChip, is a tiny patch of heart tissue with its own blood vessels -- the heart cells even beat with a regular rhythm. Another one of their innovations snaps together like sheets of Velcro.

Such lab-grown tissues are already being used to test potential drug candidates for side effects, but the long-term goal is to implant them back into the body to repair damage.

"If an implant requires open-heart surgery, it's not going to be widely available to patients," says Radisic. She says that after a myocardial infarction -- a heart attack -- the heart's function is reduced so much that invasive procedures like open-heart surgery usually pose more risks than potential benefits. "It's just too dangerous," she says.

Miles Montgomery, a PhD candidate in Radisic's lab, has spent nearly three years developing a patch that could be injected, rather than implanted.

"At the beginning it was a real challenge; there was no template to base my design on and nothing I tried was working," says Montgomery. "But I took these failures as an indication that I was working on a problem worth solving."

After dozens of attempts, Montgomery found a design that matched the mechanical properties of the target tissue, and had the required shape-memory behaviour: as it emerges from the needle, the patch unfolds itself into a bandage-like shape.

"The shape-memory effect is based on physical properties, not chemical ones," says Radisic. This means that the unfolding process doesn't require additional injections, and won't be affected by the local conditions within the body.

The next step was to seed the patch with real heart cells. After letting them grow for a few days, they injected the patch into rats and pigs. Not only does the injected patch unfold to nearly the same size as a patch implanted by more invasive methods, the heart cells survive the procedure well.

"When we saw that the lab-grown cardiac tissue was functional and not affected by the injection process, that was very exciting," says Montgomery. "Heart cells are extremely sensitive, so if we can do it with them, we can likely do it with other tissues as well."

The scaffold is built out of the same biocompatible, biodegradable polymer used in the team's previous creations. Over time, the scaffold will naturally break down, leaving behind the new tissue.

The team also showed that injecting the patch into rat hearts can improve cardiac function after a heart attack: damaged ventricles pumped more blood than they did without the patch.

"It can't restore the heart back to full health, but if it could be done in a human, we think it would significantly improve quality of life," says Radisic.

There is still a long way to go before the material is ready for clinical trials. Radisic and her team are collaborating with researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children to assess the long-term stability of the patches, as well as whether the improved cardiac function can be maintained.

They have also applied for patents on the invention and are exploring the use of the patch in other organs, such as the liver.

"You could customize this platform, adding growth factors or other drugs that would encourage tissue regeneration," says Radisic. "I think this is one of the coolest things we've done."

###

The research is published today in Nature Materials. The project was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Ontario Research Fund.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd and ITS Russia have signed a partnership agreement concerning the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS). The objective of Project CAVLANE is to develop new services, products and standards for border crossings in particular. Businesses from all over Europe are hoped to join the partnership.

CAVLANE is linked to an initiative of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to create a roadmap for transport solutions that support automated driving as well as to the Autonet-2 scientific and technical initiative. "The goal is to promote automated driving and therefore to prepare for the advent of robotic cars with varying degrees of autonomy. VTT has a long history of developing the reliability and safety of autonomous cars", says Executive Vice President, Erja Turunen from VTT.

New intelligent services increase road safety, improve logistics, boost businesses' competitiveness and create markets for new innovations.

The project involves, for example, testing ITS services for drivers before and after border crossings, such as queue cautions that are hoped to make traffic flow more smoothly at the Nuijamaa border crossing point and standardised EU V2V warning messages. New partnerships and business opportunities

Project CAVLANE has already helped to network a host of Finnish organisations and businesses. VTT is in charge of coordinating the national business consortium, which currently consists of Indagon, Nokia, Vediafi, Dynniq and Infotripla. "We are looking for Finnish businesses in particular to join the partnership, but we also welcome ITS expert from other countries", says Project Manager Lasse Nykanen from VTT. There is also a similar business consortium in Russia, which is coordinated by ITS Russia.

The Finnish Transport Safety Agency's TrafficLab and the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications launched a project aimed at enabling new transport services for cross-border transport in May. "The starting point is to promote cross-border cooperation with Russia or other Nordic countries. The aim is to begin testing new transport services through a business-led approach", explains Director General of Data and Knowledge Juha Kenraali from the Finnish Transport Safety Agency. VTT is also in charge of a project launched by TrafficLab in May, which involves testing digital transport services in arctic conditions and offering seed money to businesses.

"Automated driving, which will become a reality at the beginning of the next decade, has turned smart mobility solutions and services into a growth industry. Our role in the project is to test new intelligent, accurate and reliable online driver assistance systems, as the business around these kinds of devices is growing at a rate of more than six per cent per year globally", explains CEO Matti Lankinen from Indagon Ltd. Finland as an ITS gateway to China

The aim is to link CAVLANE to an ITS route sponsored by the Russian Government, which would begin from the biggest cities in Finland and run via Helsinki to Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and China.

"Building an ITS and logistics route from Finland via Russia to the Far East is extremely important both economically and in terms of transport, and we want to promote its implementation together with businesses and various stakeholders. At its best, the route can act as a platform for collaboration that benefits everyone involved in the global transport and logistics revolution", says Senior Adviser Seppo Oorni from the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications.

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Photo: Vladimir V Kryuchkov, CEO of ITS Russia, and Erja Turunen, EVP, Smart Industry and Energy Systems from VTT, signed the partnership agreement in Espoo in June. Further information VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd

Veli-Matti Lahti, Key Account Manager

+358 40 664 5206, veli-matti.lahti@vtt.fi

Lasse Nykanen, Research Scientist

+358 50 303 1268, lasse.nykanen@vtt.fi, Twitter @NykanenL

Erja Turunen, Executive Vice President, Smart Industry and Energy Systems

Tel. +358 50 380 9671, erja.turunen@vtt.fi, Twitter @Turunen_Erja ITS Russia

Vladimir Kryuchkov, CEO

+7 495 543 13 46, vladimir.kruchkov@its-russia.ru

Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications

Seppo Oorni, Senior Adviser

+358 29 534 2545, Seppo.Oorni@mintc.fi, Twitter @SeppoOorni Finnish Transport Safety Agency

Juha Kenraali, Director General of Data and Knowledge

+358 29 534 7162, juha.kenraali@trafi.fi, Twitter @JuhaKenraali Indagon Ltd



Matti Lankinen, CEO +358 50 557 1152, matti.lankinen@indagon.com, Twitter @matti_lankinen More information about VTT:

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Older cancer patients and their caregivers often differ in their assessment of the patient's physical abilities, with caregivers generally rating the patient's physical function as poorer, according to a new study published in The Oncologist. The study also found that differences in assessment of physical abilities between patients and caregivers were associated with greater caregiver burden.

For as long as possible, older cancer patients are generally cared for in their own homes by family or friends, with spouses being the most common caregivers. This care can include everything from ensuring patients take their medication to transporting them to hospital appointments to bathing and dressing them, and can impose emotional, financial and physical burdens on caregivers.

"Caregivers are such an important part of our healthcare system, particularly for older adults with cancer," says corresponding author Arti Hurria at City of Hope National Medical Center, CA. "We wanted to further understand the factors that are associated with caregiver burden."

Based on their experiences treating older cancer patients, one factor Hurria and her colleagues at City of Hope thought might be important is differences in assessments of patient health and physical abilities between patients and their caregivers. "In daily practice we sometimes see a disconnect between what the patient perceives their general health and abilities to be in comparison to what the caregiver thinks. We wanted to see whether this disconnect impacted caregiver burden."

To do this, Hurria and her colleagues questioned 100 older cancer patients being treated at City of Hope, together with their caregivers, about the patient's general health and physical function, meaning their ability to perform everyday activities. They then compared the answers given by the patients and their respective caregivers. They also assessed the level of caregiver burden experienced by the caregivers, defined as a subjective feeling of stress caused by being overwhelmed by the demands of caring, by conducting a standard questionnaire on topics such as sleep disturbance, physical effort and patient behavior.

The 100 cancer patients, aged from 65 to 91, were suffering from a variety of different types of cancer, with the most common being lymphoma, breast cancer and gastrointestinal cancers. The ages of the caregivers ranged from 28 to 85 and the majority were female (73%), mainly either the spouse of the patient (68%) or an adult child (18%).

Hurria and her colleagues found that caregivers consistently rated patients as having poorer physical function and mental health and requiring more social support than the patients themselves did. However, only the disparity in the assessment of physical function was associated with greater caregiver burden. What is still unclear is the cause of this disparity.

"I think there are two possible explanations," says first author Tina Hsu. "One is that older adults with cancer either don't appreciate how much help they require or, more likely, they are able preserve their sense of independence and dignity through a perception that they feel they can do more than they really can. Alternatively, it is possible that caregivers who are more stressed out perceive their loved one to require more help than they actually do need. Most likely, the truth of how much help the patient actually needs lies somewhere between what patients and caregivers report."

Based on their findings, Hsu, Hurria and their colleagues advise that clinicians should consider assessing caregiver burden in those caregivers who report the patient as being more dependent than the patient does themselves.

"Caregivers play an essential role in supporting older adults with cancer," says Hsu. "We plan to further explore factors associated with caregiver burden in this population, particularly in those who are frailer and thus require even more hands-on support. We also hope to explore what resources caregivers of older adults with cancer feel they need to better help them with their role."

Bruce A. Chabner, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The Oncologist, commented, "This report emphasizes the importance of direct communication between the health care team and the patient. Among older patients, the reports of local caregivers may not accurately reflect the patient's sense of well-being and symptoms. The message is: talk to the patient first!"

###

Additional Information

Full citation: "Are Disagreements in Caregiver and Patient Assessment of Patient Health Associated with Increased Caregiver Burden in Caregivers of Older Adults with Cancer?" Tina Hsu, Matthew Loscalzo, Rupal Ramani, Stephen Forman, Leslie Popplewell, Karen Clark, Vani Katheria, Rex Strowbridge, Redmond Rinehart, Dan Smith, Keith Matthews, Jeff Dillehunt, Tao Feng, David Smith, Canlan Sun, Arti Hurria. The Oncologist. Published Online: August 14, 2017; DOI: 10.1634/theoncologist.2017-0085.

URL Upon Publication: http://dx.doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2017-0085

Author Contact: To arrange an interview with Arti Hurria, please contact Denise Heady at City of Hope Media Relations (dheady@coh.org; +1 626-218-8803).

About The Oncologist

Now celebrating its 22nd edition, this internationally peer-reviewed journal focuses on clear and concise interpretation addressing the multimodality diagnosis, treatment and quality of life of the cancer patient. Each issue is meant to impact the practice of oncology and to facilitate significant communication in the introduction of new medical treatments and technologies. The Oncologist is the official journal of the Society for Translational Oncology (STO).

About AlphaMed Press

Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press, which has offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, is the publisher of three internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals. The Oncologist, which is entering its 20th year, is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. STEM CELLS, celebrating its 35th year, is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, currently in its sixth year, is dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology.

About Wiley

Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions, help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
A Yale-led team of researchers has identified specific gene combinations that can cause deadly brain cancer glioblastoma, using new technology that can also pinpoint triggers of other types cancers, they report Aug. 14 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Scientists have been adept at identifying mutations present in a variety of cancers in patients, but it is still challenging for researchers to identify the genes or combinations of genes that are directly causing the progression of the disease. For instance, more than 223 individual genes have been linked to glioblastoma, a difficult-to-treat brain cancer with a median survival rate of only 1 to 1.5 years. Since thousands of combinations of those genes could act in concert to cause the disease in an individual patient, it has been challenging to determine which mutations are the most relevant for the growth of a given cancer.

"The human cancer genome is now mapped and thousands of new mutations were associated with cancer, but it has been difficult to prove which ones or their combinations actually cause cancer," said Sidi Chen, assistant professor of genetics and at Yale's Systems Biology Institute, and a co-corresponding author of the paper. "We can also use this information to determine which existing drugs are most likely to have therapeutic value for individual patients, a step towards personalized cancer therapy.''

Chen, a member of the Yale Cancer Center, and colleagues developed an improved application of CRISPR gene editing and screening technology to search for primary drivers of glioblastoma in living mice. They assessed the impact of mutations in more than 1500 genetic combinations and found multiple combinations that could cause the cancer. They also found two mutations that could make tumors resistant to chemotherapy -- information that could help doctors tailor existing treatments for individual patients, said the researchers.

The new technology could also provide researchers with ways to find specific targets for new drugs, Chen said.

###

Randall J. Platt at ETH Zurich is a co-corresponding author. Yale's Ryan D Chow, Christopher D Guzman, Guangchuan Wang and ETH's Florian Schmidt are co-first authors of the paper

Primary funding for the research was provided by Yale System Biology Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
Youre completely committed to supporting others with your giving, and youre doing everything possible to ensure that every penny of your charitable assets is going directly to the nonprofits that need it. Thats how you ensure the most effective use of your philanthropy, right?

Wrong.

Squeezing every penny into the philanthropic pipeline isnt the same thing as ensuring effectiveness. In fact, penny-pinching during the philanthropic process may do more harm than good to those you wish to serve. Many individuals and foundations think theyre being good and prudent stewards of charitable assets when in fact they are withholding investments that could open the doors to greater productivity and more access to additional philanthropic capital. I call this operating with a poverty mentality.

Consider the case of a foundation that strictly adheres to the minimum 5% annual payout to preserve its corpus so that it can continue to invest in the various nonprofits it is honored to support. In addition, this foundation requires all employees to maintain nine-to-five office hours to ensure that they are accessible to grantees and are indeed earning the salaries they are paid. And finally, the foundation only upgrades its technology every 5 years and maintains a bare-bones, static website to avoid costly bells and whistles. These all sound like prudent policies, except for the fact that they are costing the foundation untold sums in lost effectiveness.

Because of its poverty mentality, this foundation is unable to expand beyond its typical payout of 5% when an investment of 5.5% might provide an important tipping point for a key grantee or a set of grantees. Because it is more concerned with justifying salaries than enhancing productivity, it refuses to broaden its infrastructure enough to accommodate remote working for its employees, thereby creating unnecessary burdens and barriers to their individual ability to be more flexible and effective in getting their jobs done. Because it is more concerned about the expenses than the benefits of technology, its slow and clunky systems and poor website add hours of time each month to the tasks of its staff and the interactions with its grantees.

And speaking of grantees, a poverty mentality on the part of a funder can have a negative impact on nonprofits as well. In the example above, a slightly expanded payout could make the difference between building a new state-of-the-art health center or one that is outdated before it ever opens. The office-only policy could mean that a grantee must take two hours out of a busy day to attend a meeting with the funders staff, even though the coffee shop thats right around the corner from the nonprofit offices is also a 10-minute walk from that staffers home. And the clunky technology and website mean that the grantees application takes longer to complete, upload and approve.

Whats more, funders with a poverty mentality often dont want to fund things like training, technology, communications or fund development activities for nonprofits, because they want their investments to go to direct service to those in need. While the sentiment is well and good, the fact is that a nonprofit with strong staff development, technology, communications and fund-raising functions in place is much more likely to provide service to many, many more people  and to do so in more cost-effective ways.

Successful businesses constantly weigh the benefits of investing in themselves against the expense of doing so. Its how they grow and become more effective at what they do. So the next time youre considering whether to make an investment in your own philanthropic operations or infrastructure  or in that of a grantee  ask yourself: Are we withholding an investment now that could greatly increase our effectiveness, or our grantees effectiveness, down the road?

This article was originally written for and published by Forbes.com .

 2017 Kris Putnam-Walkerly. All rights reserved. Permission granted to excerpt or reprint with attribution.

______________________________________________________________________

Kris Putnam-Walkerly, MSW, has helped to transform the impact of top global philanthropies for over 18 years. A member of the Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame and named one of Americas Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers . Author of the award-winning book Confident Giving: Sage Advice for Funders , which was named one of The 10 Best Corporate Social Responsibility Books. For more ways to improve your giving, visit Putnam Consulting Group .

______________________________________________________________________

Trusted Philanthropic Advisor

Kris Putnam-Walkerly serves as a trusted advisor to foundation leaders and high-wealth donors across the globe. As an advisor, Kris transfers learning to leaders and their teams so they have the ability to build their own internal capacity to be successful in their work. Kriss clients report immediate and dramatic improvement in both personal performance and philanthropic impact.

Whether you are the CEO of a larger foundation, the sole staff member charged with decision-making, or a high-net worth donor, the questions Kris can address cover a broad spectrum of professional and personal issues. As an advising client, youll have unlimited access to Kris during regular business hours by phone, Skype, email and, when desired, face to face. With over 18 years of experience working with top global philanthropies, Kris understands how to build an impactful organization that integrates your philanthropic passions and the challenges that must be overcome to get there.

Learn more about this and other services offered or contact Kris today to begin a trusted advisor relationship.

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Latest figures released today (14 August) reveal that despite a 4% drop last year, the cost of rural theft has risen sharply in the first half of 2017.

According to NFU Mutuals Rural Crime Report, early theft claims statistics for the first half of this year show a sharp rise of over 20% raising concerns that a new wave of rural crime is hitting the countryside.

The insurance company said the 'countryside under siege' as new wave of brazen thieves target farms.

Being staked out is the biggest worry for country people, followed closely by longer police response times in rural areas, according to the leading rural insurer.

Criminals continue to target Land Rovers, quad bikes, tractors, tools and livestock despite increased security on farms.

The report reveals that the cost of rural crime to the UK economy fell by 4% to 39.2m in 2016 as farmers turned their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from increasingly brazen attacks from rural thieves.

Successful joint initiatives involving police forces, NFU Mutual and other organisations also contributed to the fall.

'Sharp rise'

While the fall in rural theft in 2016 is welcome news, the sharp rise in the first half of 2017 is deeply worrying, said Tim Price, NFU Mutual Rural Affairs Specialist.

Countryside criminals are becoming more brazen and farmers are now having to continually increase security and adopt new ways of protecting their equipment.

In some parts of the country, farmers are having to turn their farmyards into fortresses to protect themselves from repeated thieves who are targeting quads, tractors and power tools.

They are using tracking devices on tractors, video and infra-red surveillance in their farmyards and even DNA markers to protect sheep from rustlers.

The threat of becoming a victim of rural crime, and regular reports of suspicious characters watching farms is causing high levels of anxiety amongst farmers who know their rural location makes them vulnerable to attacks.

As the main insurer of the countryside, NFU Mutual has responded to its members concerns and has invested over 1m to tackle the menace. The results of initiatives we support show clearly that when police, farmers and other rural organisations tackle rural crime in an organised way these schemes can be extremely effective.

Rural theft

The North East, South West and the East of England were the regions to see a rise in the cost of rural theft in 2016 of 8.7%, 5.6% and 3.7% respectively.

In Scotland, where NFU Mutual and Police Scotland have joined forces to form the SPARC (Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime) initiative, the cost of rural theft fell by over 32% last year.

There was a similar good result in Northern Ireland  where a Rural Crime Partnership including NFU Mutual, PSNI (Police Service Northern Ireland), MOJ (Ministry of Justice) and other organisations has been set up  with the cost of rural theft down by 14.9%.

Sarah Lee, Head of Policy at the Countryside Alliance said: These figures are extremely concerning but will not come as a surprise to the many rural businesses and communities who are at the sharp end of these statistics.

Crime is a key issue for rural communities and there are specific challenges to policing isolated areas for under-resourced constabularies.

The gap in funding for urban and rural constabularies should be closed and not allowed to increase as it has in previous years.

Quads and ATVS

 Quads and ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) are disappearing from farms in large numbers  thanks to being easy to transport and lack of registration plates

 The cost of Quad and ATV theft claims to NFU Mutual rose to 2m, an increase of 11% from 2015 to 2016

 CESAR marking and tracking devices are the most effective security measures  once basic measures of keeping vehicles out of sight in a building with the machine secured to have been addressed

Land Rover Defenders

 Since Land Rovers iconic Defender rolled off the production line in January last year it has become an even bigger target for thieves

 Costs for theft of Defender vehicle claims to NFU Mutual rose to 2.1 million in 2016, an increase of 17% since 2015

 The region with the highest cost of Land Rover Defender thefts last year was the North East, followed by the South East, the Midlands and the South West

Tractors

 Thieves are increasingly cloning the identity of tractors to make detection more difficult

 Eastern counties are being targeted most

 Thieves are stealing small, older tractors for export to third world countries as well as expensive large models

Livestock

 The estimated cost of livestock theft fell from 2.9m in 2015 to 2.2m in 2016. All UK regions experienced a fall - apart from Wales where the cost rose by 100,000

 Thefts of large numbers of lambs are raising concerns that stock is being stolen for slaughter and processing outside regulated abattoirs before illegally entering the food chain

 Technology - including DNA testing and electronic chips in boluses now offer robust evidence to help bring rustlers to justice
Welsh Governments NVZ proposals could see an extension of the current NVZ designation zones from 2.4% to 8% of Wales, or even an all-Wales designation.

Farming union NFU Cymru has 'strongly opposed' government proposals to designate further areas of Wales as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ).

A survey has found that around one in eight (13%) Welsh farmers would consider leaving the industry if the NVZ proposals are introduced.

An NVZ is a conservation designation of the Environment Agency for areas of land that drain into nitrate polluted waters, or waters which could become polluted by nitrates.

NVZs were introduced by the UK government in response to the EU mandate that all EU countries must reduce the nitrate in drinking water to a maximum of 50 mg/l.

#EnvironmentalSuccess

The proposals have prompted farmers across Wales to tweet examples of the vast array of work that they carry out to protect the environment.

The Twitter hashtag #EnvironmentalSuccess has been used to drive to raise the profile of the work that farmers carry out on farms across the UK to enhance their environment.

Farmers have been tweeting examples of work that they are carrying out on farm with a view to shedding light on work that often goes unnoticed by the public and policy makers.

While the uncertainty over the NVZ proposals lingers on, NFU Cymru is stressing that policy makers should take account of the good work that is taking place and reconsider whether an extension to Wales current NVZs is in the interests of Wales farming industry or, indeed, the environment.

Extremely unsettling

NFU Cymru Pembrokeshire County Chairman Jeff Evans, said: The Welsh Governments Review of the Designated Areas and Action Programme to Tackle Nitrate Pollution in Wales consultation closed just before Christmas and yet we are still waiting to hear the outcome.

Its an extremely unsettling time for all of us running farm businesses that are likely to be affected by these proposals  farming is a long term business and it is difficult for us to plan for the future with this axe swinging above our heads.

NFU Cymru said that it remains unconvinced that, on the basis of the evidence that was presented by Natural Resources Wales as part of this consultation, further NVZ designations are necessary in Wales.

Mr Evans continued: We are strong advocates of appropriate interventions where poor practices are responsible and it is our view that approaches to address water quality must consider the full range of issues and sectors influencing water quality, be evidence-based, provide local solutions to local problems working in partnership with industry.

This is not about farmers shirking their responsibilities when it comes to water quality  we are committed to working with Welsh Government and other partners to explore opportunities to develop alternative approaches to tackle this complex issue that will deliver better outcomes.

Wide-reaching ramifications

The union said it will continue to lobby Welsh Government to urge them to look at the wide-reaching ramifications an extension to NVZ territories could have on the farming industry in Wales.

He continued: Welsh Government have not yet published the Regulatory Impact Assessment but we know that these proposals would be felt acutely here in Pembrokeshire in terms of the impact on individual farm businesses, the countys productive capacity and the economy of Pembrokeshire as a whole.

In light of these concerns Im extremely pleased that so many of our members have taken to Twitter to play their part in the #EnvironmentalSuccess campaign highlighting the key role farmers play in managing and enhancing their local environment.
A group of UK livestock industry representatives has called on the Government to start acting now to help secure new export outlets for the industry.

The UK Livestock Brexit Group said Brexit 'presents a tremendous opportunity for the UK livestock sector'.

It highlighted progress made by the livestock sector, alongside its levy bodies and Government departments, as well as the poultry sector, in commencing the important process of finding new markets since the referendum.

But group chairman Chris Dodds, of the Livestock Auctioneers Association, said the UK and devolved Governments have a 'necessary and critical role in helping to support and accelerate the long hard work required'.

Only effective action by Government can open some doors for new markets overseas, with the rules set by other countries, he said.

The group is urging Government to engage now with livestock farming sector organisations to put in place a strategic framework for the future of the industry with high standards at home and energetic promotion abroad.

High quality producer

The UK is a high-quality producer of premium meat products, with traceability, good health and welfare and food safety among the key attributes of the UK livestock supply chain. We need to champion Great British produce and make sure that trade deals enable our producers to maintain high standards, said Mr Dodds.

The UK Livestock Brexit Group believes the Government should emphasise the provenance of UK produce and its existing high standards in trade promotion to help ensure high UK standards see a premium price.

That will help to replace imports at home, as work progresses to ensure standards are not undermined through those imports that do enter the market, it said.

Mr Dodds added: While the group's view is that maintaining access to the EU market should remain the priority, we have also opened up export markets that many British consumers may not even realise exist.

Products such as chicken feet and pigs trotters have limited demand from the UK consumer, but there is good demand for these, along with prime meat products, in new Asian markets, adding value for UK producers.

Export with China

A new export deal with China will bring a 200 million boost to the UK food industry and support 1,500 jobs, farming minister George Eustice has announced last week.

Taking advantage of the growing demand for British food and drink in China, seven new businesses in England and Northern Ireland have secured access to export pork.

This includes three producers who, in a first for the UK, will export pig trotters.

Mr Dodds continued: This is the ethos of successful trade relationships, but it is best done in close alliance with Government, since winning these markets takes hard, sustained work, involving Government.

We know it takes time and commitment. Livestock production and trade is a long-term, complicated and technical subject. We are pleased that ministers have now been talking about transition periods, giving the time needed for the work to be done.

Countries dont take short cuts with food; why would they? But it means this takes time, and to be ready with markets after Brexit we need to be working hard now, continues Mr Dodds.

As a group of independent dedicated livestock organisations, we offer unrivalled knowledge, understanding and representation of the entire UK livestock industry. We want to work with Government to assist in the development of a dynamic industry for future generations and the UK economy.

The UK Livestock Brexit Group was formed in August 2016 and now includes representation from 21 of the leading bodies with livestock interests across England, Scotland and Wales.
The government has been urged to ban pesticides by an environmental group as new research released today (14 August) suggests that neonicotinoid pesticides are a risk to bumblebee extinction.

The research, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, showed that queen bees exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides were 26% less likely to be able to start a new colony.

Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Guelph have found that exposure to thiamethoxam, a common pesticide, reduced the chances of a bumblebee queen starting a new colony by more than a quarter.

Building on field studies, the researchers used mathematical models of bumblebee populations which showed that thiamethoxam exposure significantly increases the likelihood that wild bee populations could become extinct.

Friends of the Earth has urged the government to back moves in the EU to permanently extend current neonicotinoid restrictions to all crops, and commit to keeping any ban post-Brexit.

Responding to the research, Sandra Bell Friends of the Earth nature campaigner, said: This new study comes hot on the heels of the largest field trials of neonicotinoids showing harm to honey bees and wild bees.

It is clear that use of these chemicals on any crop poses a risk to bees and other wildlife. The Government has repeatedly said it will follow the science  how much more science does it need before it acts to protect our precious bees?

'Irrevocable impact'

However, farmers across the UK and Europe have repeatedly warned of the 'irrevocable impact' on crop production without the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments.

And according to the agricultural science institute Rothamsted Research, production of UK crops is at risk if neonicotinoids are more widely restricted or banned completely.

If groups of chemistries are limited by legislation, the remaining groups will be more widely used, resulting in an increased risk of pests developing resistance to them, the statement from Rothamsted Research says.

It will be very difficult, if not impossible, to maintain production of many crops if neonicotinoids are more widely restricted or banned completely. For example, in sugar beet, the control of aphids and the virus diseases they spread, is totally reliant on neonicotinoid seed treatments because the aphids are resistant to other control chemistries.

A previous study has found that the full cost to UK farmers of the neonicotinoid ban in 2016 was 18.4 million and resulted in almost 28,800ha of lost crop.
Brexit could provide sectors of Australian agriculture with an 'unprecedented opportunity' to enhance trading relationships between the two countries and lift export earnings.

An inquiry compiled by the Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) on behalf of the Australian red meat sector said prior to the UK joining the EU, the UK was one of Australia's largest export destinations for red meat.

"Incorporation of the UK into the highly restrictive EU import regime in 1973, however, severely curtailed Australia's red meat trade volumes via restrictive arrangements.

"Australia's market share represents just 5% (or 15,897 tonnes in 2016) of the UK's total red meat imports (including EU and non-EU)," the report said.

The same was said of Australian rice exports, with exporters SunRice welcoming the 2016 referendum vote as a 'potential opportunity.'

"Australian milled rice exports to the UK are restricted because of the broader EU's application of Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ) and the prohibitively high tariffs on imported volumes above the TRQ levels," an inquiry said.

"The UK's exit from the EU, and the possible negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Australian and the UK, represents a significant opportunity for Australian rice exports into a market where there is demonstrable and increasing demand for high quality Australian rice."

Free trade

The Australian red meat sector said capitalising on import reform opportunities will help position the industry for 'more competitive access' and set up an 'advantageous trading regime.'

National Farmers' Federation CEO Tony Mahar told the Sydney Morning Herald that Australian agriculture wanted a UK free trade agreement.

"Overwhelmingly, whether it's our beef guys, our fish guys, NFF, Minerals Council etc. very much want a UK free trade agreement as soon as possible post-Brexit, and do see significant opportunities, not just for ag but obviously financial services and the like," she said.

The Australian rice industry said it had 'not benefitted' from recent free trade agreements with Japan, China or South Korea due to cultural and political sensitivities.

"But they are unlikely to influence any future FTA negotiations with the UK," it said.

"The Australian rice industry is well positioned to benefit from a future FTA with the UK."

Fears

A number of farming leaders in the UK have expressed their fears about a prospect of unrestricted imports of cheaper foreign food.

Phil Stocker, National Sheep Association chief executive said a trade agreement with Australia or New Zealand would send a large amount of sheep meat to the UK when the market was 'already suffering.'

"NSA understands Australia has been pushing to increase its EU quota for many years now, so there is no doubt it would send larger amounts of sheep meat to Europe and the UK given the opportunity," Mr Stocker said.

"The UK sheep sector is already suffering unacceptably high levels of imports of New Zealand lamb, much of which is sourced by retailers at times of the year when UK product is in plentiful supply."

But in an address to the WTO last year, Dr Liam Fox said international trade is the 'lifeblood' of the British economy, the 'driver of prosperity', and that commerce is part of the 'UK's national DNA.'

Dr Fox told trade envoys during a meeting in Geneva in 2016: "The UK will work towards the reduction and ultimate elimination of trade barriers wherever they are found."

He said: "Britain is open for business as never before. It is our ambition to be the beating heart of global trade; the worlds natural business partner."

'Time will tell'

The NSA said the UK needed to be keen to see an outcome to Brexit whereby tighter controls on New Zealand lamb were put in place.

They said a situation allowing new Australian products to be imported into UK retailers would make matters worse.

"Recent figures from Meat and Livestock Australia show the country produced 516,366 tonnes of lamb and 196,040 tonnes of mutton in 2015/16, exporting 56% of total lamb production (worth $1.78 billion) and 91% of mutton production ($700 million). The main destinations were the Middle East, USA and China."

Beef + Lamb New Zealand Eastern North Island farmer director George Tatham said $2 billion of red meat and wool exports were sent to the EU, which represents half of its global sheep meat exports.

"There are a lot of talented people working on our behalf to retain market access," he said.

"Access into the EU and UK cannot be eroded as a result of Brexit. But only time will tell how this will play out."
Its likely that an insidious infectious disease was a significant cause of barrenness or abortion in ewes last year, according to an analysis of the latest diagnostic results.

Blood samples from UK sheep farms were tested during 2016 when MSD Animal Health diagnostic service was made available to vets between March and July last year.

According to the data, 79 percent of the flocks tested showed evidence of exposure to the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis.

The data also show that 76 percent of flocks had been exposed to Chlamydophila abortus bacteria, the organism causing enzootic abortion (EAE); 60 percent of flocks had been exposed to both organisms.

A preliminary analysis of 2017 data to date shows a similar overall disease picture, albeit with a slightly higher figure (81%) for exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, says MSD Animal Health livestock veterinary adviser Stephanie Small.

Damaging diseases

Ms Small says this data highlights the continuing widespread prevalence of these financially damaging diseases in the national flock and is urging all sheep producers to discuss their individual farm situation with their vet, well in advance of the upcoming autumn tupping season.

Toxoplasmosis, in particular, remains a key cause of barrenness and abortion in UK sheep flocks. It also causes reabsorptions, mummified foetuses, stillbirths and weakly lambs, and as a result of the range of different disease pictures that can manifest, its effects on flock profits are often vastly underestimated.

Toxoplasmosis is so widespread that the industry focus should be on preventing infection in breeding ewes and the best way to do that is to vaccinate replacements well before they go to the ram. The clear industry advice is to ensure every ewe is vaccinated before it breeds.

Sheep pick up the infection from the environment and so normal biosecurity measures are not enough to control the disease. Infected cats shed toxoplasma eggs in their faeces and sheep become infected when they ingest these eggs from contaminated pasture, feed and water, Ms Small says.

Lamb losses

Another underlying disease problem that often manifests itself as significant early lamb losses is enzootic abortion (EAE).

EAE is caused by Chlamydophila abortus bacteria. The disease can cause devastating abortion storms affecting approximately 25 percent of ewes.

Once a flock has the disease it is likely it will never disappear due to its persistence in carrier sheep. The disease often arrives on farm through bought-in replacements and is passed on from ewe to ewe at lambing time.

If an unvaccinated ewe is infected she will more than likely abort in the next pregnancy.

Ms Small urges any sheep producers who recorded a flock barren rate greater than two percent last season to talk to their vet for advice well before tupping this year, even if diagnostic blood samples have not been taken.

Ask for help too if any ewes aborted lambs during lambing, she says.
Farm businesses across the UK are set to benefit from over 300,000 of grants in the latest round of funding that has been awarded by The Princes Countryside Fund to nine vital new projects.

The fund, established in 2010 by Prince Charles, has announced that it will be supporting 19 new projects overall throughout the UK through its grant giving programme.

The aim of the fund is to improve the prospects of family farm businesses and the quality of rural life, and has donated over 8.5 million to farms and rural communities in the past seven years.

Funding has been awarded to The Farmer Network in Cumbria and the Yorkshire Dales, Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services, and Farm Cornwall, all of which provide practical assistance and support a valuable network for farming communities.

Grants have also been given to support the future generation of farmers and farm managers, with funding going to Myerscough College and Bishop Burton College, and to the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs to deliver succession planning workshops.

'Generous support'

Rhonda Thompson, Business Development Manager at Bishop Burton College said: The Farm Management Development Programme, now in its third year, thanks to the generous support of The Princes Countryside Fund, offers young people working in the agricultural industry a chance to learn the vital management skills needed to run a profitable farming business.

Designed by farmers and delivered with industry experts, the course provides a platform not only to up-skill tomorrows managers, but also a way to inspire young people, and highlight that they are key in shaping the future of farming.

Cosmic, a social enterprise and IT company has been given a grant to support digital skills in upland areas of Dartmoor and Exmoor.

Kate Doodson, joint CEO of Cosmic said: We are delighted to be providing digital support and mentoring for farmers in our most rural locations of Dartmoor and Exmoor. Through our awarded grant, we will be able to transform farmers lives, enabling them to better understand the benefits of digital.

Funding has also been awarded to research the sustainability and resilience of farmer farms, with grants being awarded to the National Sheep Association and the Uplands Alliance.

'Wide diversity'

Phil Stocker, Chief Executive of the National Sheep Association said: The grant from The Princes Countryside Fund will enable progress of an important industry initiative to promote the wide diversity of sheep meat in the UK."

"The work should also help in the survival of four of our most valuable farming assets  the genepool of our 60 or so native sheep breeds, as well as the traditional farming systems, landscapes and communities which produce them.

Announcing the grant recipients, Claire Saunders, Director of The Princes Countryside Fund said: We are thrilled to be able to support so many farming initiatives in this round of funding, alongside the support we offer to rural community based projects."

"Our recent report, Whod be a farmer today?, highlighted the disconnect that the general public has with farmers and the UKs rural areas, and our grant programme is providing essential support during what is an uncertain time for people living and working in the countryside.

New grants awarded to projects to support farming communities:

UK wide: National Sheep Association 14,700

England: Uplands Alliance 13,800

North East of England: Myerscough College 49,520; Bishop Burton College 24,000; The Farmer Network 43,241

North West of England: Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services 30,000

Scotland: Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs 29,850

South West of England: FarmCornwall 49,235; Cosmic 48,312
A group of 100 farm vets and staff from Merial Animal Health have walked over 26,000 miles, which is more than twice the length of the Great Wall of China, in a steps challenge that raises money for charity Farm Africa.

The challenge is part of Merials #CALFMATTERS calf pneumonia vaccination awareness campaign.

In total, the group aims to walk over 70,500 miles and raise 15,000 for Farm Africa, a charity which helps farmers and communities in developing countries by giving the advice and products they need to lift themselves out of poverty.

So far the challengers have covered one fifth of their total target, and completed the equivalent of several iconic distances including the Appalachian Trail, Lands End to John OGroats, and virtually crossed entire countries including Australia, China and Japan.

The participants have committed to the challenge by upping their physical activity. Merial has provided them with Fitbit fitness trackers to record their daily steps, which count towards the virtual teams total progress. The goal is 141 million steps in 20 weeks.

'Highest steppers'

Robert Smith of Farm First Vets is one of the highest steppers of the group.

He recently scaled Ysgyryd Fawr (The Big Skirrid), one of the Black Mountains in Wales Brecon Beacons, for the challenge and says: I used to think of myself as a coiled spring ready for action, but the steps challenge has forced me to realise there is plenty of scope to increase my activity levels significantly. Hopefully when it is all over I will see the benefits and feel physically fitter for it.

Robert has taken the challenge one step further by encouraging his wife, two daughters, and Farm First Vets practice staff to join him in the challenge, with an added incentive.

Between now and the BCVA Congress on 19th October, Farm First Vets will donate 50 to Farm Africa for every member of Roberts team who completes the #CALFMATTERS challenge.

Send a cow

Additionally, for every member of staff that achieves an average of 10,000 or more steps per day, the practice will donate 50 to XL Vets and BCVA 50th Anniversary charity, Send a Cow.

Vets involved in the challenge say the #CALFMATTERS campaign and the steps challenge has given them the opportunity to raise awareness of calf health and antimicrobial use with farmers.

Tim Potter of Westpoint Farm Vets says: With the current pressure on the industry to reduce antimicrobial levels we have been doing a lot of work to benchmark on farm usage and look at ways of reducing the need for treatment.

Vaccination is one way we can hopefully reduce antimicrobial usage on farm and the #CalfMatters steps challenge has been a good way for us to engage with clients on the topic.
A company behind plans to build five pig units in Co Londonderry has defended the proposals amid letters and petitions against it.

Causeway Coast and Glens Council are currently considering the application for Glenhead Road, Limavady.

Around 3,000 letters of objection and petitions with 14,000 signatures have been posted to the council.

A video of local farmer Vincent Lubsy was released where he shows support to the petition.

Mr Lubsy said the plans are a 'major threat' to his family farm.

"It has been very stressful. If we lose or when we lose, what options have we got?" he said.

'High welfare site'

The company behind the project said it would be a 'high welfare site.'

PCM Group spokesman Hugh McReynolds said UK supermarkets are increasingly committing to buying British pro and there was a market for the meat.

Mr McReynolds said the pigs would be raised to a certain stage before being moved to other farms.

He said this would improve herd health and cut antibiotic and vaccine use in the animals - an important consumer concern.

The site has the capacity to produce around 58,000 pigs a year.

The council's next planning meeting is set to take place on August 23.
Producers see losses increase to 26-28 per pig, estimates show
Here's What It Was Reported..

Earlier it was report by Mumbai Mirror, "Kaif has been meeting various filmmakers in a bid to revive her career post her break-up with Ranbir Kapoor, and, among others, Shetty has been keen to cast her."

Ranveer Will Ensure Kat's Career Graph Stays Upwards

"If Kaif is signed on, her teaming with Ranveer will be a first. After her already underway films with Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh will ensure her career graph only stays upwards."

Rohit Shetty Clears The Air

However, Rohit Shetty has refuted the rumours of approaching Katrina opposite and said to Pinkvilla, "I am shooting in Hyderabad, I don't know where this story has started coming from. Nobody has been approached for the role as of now."

Deepika-Katrina's Past

On a related note, Katrina-Deepika's much-hyped cat-fight started when Ranbir Kapoor had ditched Deepika Padukone for Katrina Kaif.

Maintaining Distance Since Forever

Ever since, Katrina & Deepika have never been on good terms. Be it an award night or party, the duo have always maintained a safe distance from each other.

Katrina's Work Front

Coming back to Katrina's work front, she was last seen in Jagga Jasoos, opposite her ex-boyfriend, Ranbir Kapoor. But sadly, their film didn't create much buzz like their break-up.

Katrina's Next With The Khans

She is currently shooting with Salman Khan for Tiger Zinda Hai and have also shot few sequences for Aamir Khan's Thugs Of Hindostan. After a while, she will also kick-start the shoot of Aanand L Rai's next that stars Shahrukh Khan in the lead role.

Deepika, On The Other Side

On the other side, Deepika Padukone will be next seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati, opposite Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor. After she finishes the shoot of Padmavati, she will start focusing on another project, Sapna Didi.
By Catherine Ageno

The African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (AfCHPR) is looking to deepen public awareness about its operations and activities through a sensitization visit to The Republic of Guinea Bisau.

According to a statement from the Arusha-based Court, the two-day program opens today August 14-15.

The President of the Court, Hon.Justice Sylvain Ore says during the visit, the mission led by three Judges and Registry Staff will hold discussions with various stakeholders with a view to promoting the Court.

It is within this framework that since 2010, the Court has embarked on a sensitization programme, which has enabled it to carry out outreach visits, seminars and conferences at national, regional and continental levels, Justice Ore said.

These activities are aimed at enabling the Court to interact with different actors in order to afford them the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Courts mission and possibilities that it offers in terms of human rights protection, he adds.

Justice Ore adds that in order for the Court to achieve its objectives, there is a need for more countries to ratify the Protocol and deposit the Declaration that allows access to the Court by Non-Governmental Organizations and individuals.

So far, 30 out of 55 AU Member States have ratified the Protocol, and only 8 countries have made a declaration under Article 34(6) that allows access to the Court by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)and individuals.

The African Court undertook similar sensitizations to the Arab Republic of Egypt and Republic of Tunisia in April this year which resulted in Tunisia depositing a declaration allowing NGOs and individuals to access the Court, whereas Egypt expressed its willingness to work towards the ratification of the Protocol establishing the Court.

Guinea Bissau signed the Protocol establishing the Court in June 1998 but is yet to ratify it and make a Declaration.
Women Are Blamed For Everything In Our Country

"In our country, women are eternally blamed. They are accused when a girl child is born; they are accused even when they are raped. So, somewhere I knew that I will also have to face a lot of heat.''

I Have Done Shoots Like This When I Was A Model

''After all, it's easiest for some faceless and redundant people to pull a celebrity down at the first opportunity. I've done shoots like this one when I was a model.''

I Have Gone Topless & Naked Too

I've gone topless and naked, too. No one ever asked me about that. And who are these people who have issues' with my pictures?''

It's My Body

''It's my body and it's been shot aesthetically. There's a thin line, which if you cross, you look vulgar. ''

My Pictures Are Not Vulgar

''No one can say my pictures are vulgar. I got more love than hate, but it's better to be hated than to be forgotten. And right now, I'm in my best shape. Although we knew where this could lead, we thought, If not now, then when?"

Men Tend To Have A Problem If A Woman Goes Bold

"Men tend to have a problem if a woman goes bold. Their manhood is challenged.''

Men Must Have Saved These Pictures On their Phone

''They are prudes, they must have even saved these pictures on their phone. And here we are in the country of Ajanta and Ellora, and Kamasutra, objecting to a woman's photo-shoot which she has done on her own will. So, my attitude is, S***w them' and that's the point I wanted to make.''

I Didn't Want To Hold Back These Pictures

''The pictures turned out so beautiful that I didn't want to hold them back. The thing is that I've been comfortable and confident about my body all along."

My Family Doesn't Pay Much Attention

"I'm blessed with the nicest family. Initially, they were taken aback with the way this place functions and how everything from an engagement to a break-up becomes news. But today , they don't pay much attention.''

I Am Not A Girl From The Woods

''As a law graduate, I know what I'm doing. I've survived this industry on my terms and that's not changing. I'm not a girl from the woods who has, made it here.''

Did Bollywood React After Seeing Her Bold Pictures?

''And for those ready to give me lessons on behaving Indian, I'm, more Indian they can be.My father has served the nation and I represented it proudly on an international platform (Miss India and Miss Universe)."

"Yes. Some of them did. Like Milan Luthria (her Baadshaho director) told me, You're killing it with these photos. I'll be there for you if need arises.' I'm relieved and happy (hearing this)."
Too Cute To Handle

In the picture, Fardeen is seen holding his three day old baby in his arms. He captioned it as, "Thank you for the congratulatory messages and wishes. Our best to all of you as well. Diani, Natasha & FK."

Recommended Video Fardeen Khan and Wife Natasha BLESSED with a Baby BOY | FilmiBeat

Baby Azarius

Earlier, the actor had shared the news of Azarius' birth on Twitter and posted, "We are overjoyed to announce the birth of our son Azarius Fardeen Khan who was born on the 11th of August 2017."

His Daughter Diani

Fardeen and his wife Natasha also has a daughter named Diani Isabella Khan. Earlier while talking about his daughter, Fardeen has said, "Why this name? Well, Diani means divinity' in Portuguese. It's also a beach town near Mombassa where Natasha had conceived. My mom suggested we call the baby Diani. As for Isabella it's been my favourite name for a long time. It exudes such beauty and delicacy. So, Diani Isabella Khan is my bundle of joy."

Fardeen's Filmography

Fardeen made his Bollywood debut in 1998 in Prem Aggan. He later went on to star in films like Jungle (2000), Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega (2001), Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Janasheen (2005), No Entry (2005), Heyy Babyy (2007) and All the Best: Fun Begins (2009). He was last seen in Dulha Mil Gaya.

When He Got Trolled On Social Media

Earlier this year in May, Fardeen had to face the wrath of trolls on social media for gaining weight.

However, the actor gave it back by posting, "The actor said he isn't 'ashamed, depressed or blind.' "I believe the right to laugh at another is earned by having the courage to laugh at yourself. Currently living the happiest chapter thus far with lbs (pounds) to show for it."
Pehredaar Piya Ki Makers Shashi & Sumeet Mittal

Initially, when Shashi Mittal was asked regarding the petition, she refused to comment. But, at the recently held press conference the makers Shashi & Sumeet Mittal have finally broken their silence and clarified their stance.

Regarding The Notice

When asked if they received any notice from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Sakshi was quoted by a leading daily as saying, "No, we haven't received any notice from the authority."

Dont Judge The Show Without Watching It!

She added that if they get any notice, they are ready to give their explanation as they know that they haven't shown anything wrong in the story. Shashi requested people to not to judge the show without watching it.

Will The Makers Change The Plot If They Receive Any Notice From BCCC?

Sumeet said, "No, we will rather request them to know the content before making any decision. So far, we have no plan to change the plot of the show." The makers feel that people are commenting on the show without watching it.

Karan Wahis Comment

Karan Wahi commented against the show, and later deleted it as well. Regarding this Sumeet said, "I think it was irresponsible of him to say that."

The Makers To Send A Letter To Karan Wahi 

"I will ask my office to send a letter to Karan Wahi, requesting and asking him why he gave a statement like that. If he has something to say, he would also have a reason for it. And If I get an answer from him, I will definitely share it with the media."

Regarding Honeymoon Scene

In the press conference, the makers also clarified that they are not promoting the child marriage. Regarding honeymoon scene, the makers added that there is no such scene on the show.
Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A 2.49%) (BRK.B 2.15%) second-quarter earnings report revealed that the company's cash stockpile has grown to nearly $100 billion, virtually all of which is located in the United States and would be relatively easy to put to work. Unfortunately, Warren Buffett and the rest of his team seem to be having extreme difficulty figuring out what to do with it.

Here's why Berkshire's massive stockpile of cash is a problem for Buffett and his shareholders -- and what the company might choose to do about it.

Why a $100 billion stockpile of cash is a problem

Berkshire Hathaway recently released its second-quarter 2017 earnings report, and its balance sheet showed that the company's cash hoard had swollen to a new all-time high -- just shy of $100 billion. Between all of its business segments, there's a total of $99.7 billion in cash, equivalents, and short-term investments in U.S. Treasury bills, which can be treated as cash for liquidity purposes.

This may sound like a good thing, but the problem is that this is $100 billion that isn't generating any substantial returns for Berkshire or its investors. Buffett likes to keep at least $20 billion in readily available cash at all times, and after the quarter ended, Berkshire announced its intention to spend $9 billion on an acquisition, but this still leaves more than $70 billion sitting on the sidelines. And unless Buffett and his team can figure out how to put this money to work, this stockpile of cash could continue to grow.

This is certainly a good problem to have, but it's still a problem.

Attractive investment opportunities have been difficult to find

As I mentioned, Berkshire has a pending $9 billion acquisition of Texas-based utility Oncor, but the last major acquisition the company completed was its $32 billion purchase of Precision Castparts. In reference to this purchase, Berkshire's Vice Chairman Charlie Munger said that "this is no screaming bargain like the old days," meaning that it's difficult to find compelling bargains in the current environment and with the current amount of money Berkshire has to spend.

Buffett agreed, pointing out that compelling bargains are tough to find now. In addition, as Berkshire has grown, it is even tougher, as even if a compelling bargain is found, it would need to be rather large to make a significant dent in the cash hoard and add meaningful value to Berkshire's earnings potential.

At the company's shareholder meeting in May, Buffett said that the question with the cash stockpile is "Are we going to be able to deploy it?" Buffett would prefer if an attractive acquisition opportunity came along, or if some of his favorite stocks went on sale, but there are a couple other ways to spend its cash that Berkshire may consider if it can't find anything to buy.

The buyback threshold could be raised

Although Berkshire doesn't buy back its own shares regularly or often, Buffett is actually a big fan of share buybacks -- when they make good financial sense.

In his 2016 letter to shareholders, Buffett said that for long-term investors, share repurchases only make sense if the shares are bought at a price below intrinsic value. "What is smart at one price is stupid at another," Buffett says.

To be clear, it's impossible to accurately pinpoint Berkshire's intrinsic value. If I were to ask five analysts to each compute how much a share of Berkshire Hathaway is truly worth, I wouldn't be surprised to get five different answers.

Buffett openly acknowledges that there's no way to precisely calculate intrinsic value, so Berkshire's current buyback authorization is set at a limit of 120% of book value (it's currently trading for about 146% of book value). Buffett and his team feel that, at this price, shares would be trading at a significant discount to intrinsic value. However, Buffett has recently said that if Berkshire continues to generate more cash than it can effectively use, the company may need to revisit its buyback policy, perhaps raising the threshold.

Could Berkshire actually start paying a dividend?

In the more than 50 years since Buffett took over Berkshire, the company has paid a single $0.10 dividend in 1967, and nothing since. Simply put, Buffett has always been able to produce more value for his shareholders by reinvesting Berkshire's earnings in ways that increase the company's earning power. Looking at the company's track record of generating more than twice the S&P 500's annualized returns over the past half-century, it's tough to make the case that this was a bad policy.

However, at the most recent annual meeting, many shareholders were surprised to hear Buffett mention a dividend as a realistic near-term possibility. Buffett said that dividends could be paid "reasonably soon, even while I am around."

Dividends are likely to be the last thing Buffett wants to do with Berkshire's cash, and would probably be a realistic possibility if and only if there were no attractive acquisition or investment opportunities, and Berkshire's stock price was significantly higher than the company's (not publicly known) estimate of its own intrinsic value.

Investors are hoping Berkshire finds bargains

Don't get me wrong -- buybacks and dividends are great ways to return capital to shareholders, when they make sense. They're almost always better choices than simply accumulating cash that isn't earning any returns.

However, Berkshire has an amazing track record of being able to add more value through acquiring companies and investing in stocks than it could through buybacks or dividends, and the company would love to continue doing so. And to be clear, Buffett has said that he wants to make a big acquisition or make a big investment, if a compelling opportunity were to present itself.

I think it's fair to say that many Berkshire shareholders, myself included, are hoping that the Oracle of Omaha and his team find some compelling ways to put the cash to work, before the stockpile gets too much bigger.
By Ssebuliba Samuel:

Days after Kenyas electoral body declared Uhuru Kenyatta winner of last Tuesdays presidential election, business at the Uganda- Kenya border is yet to normalize.

Incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta won the vote with 54.27% against his main rival Raila Odinga who got 44.74%.

Speaking to Kfm, the Bukedi region police spokesperson Soweli Kamulya said that business at the border is yet to pick up.

In the run up to the election, there were fears of full scale violence, which was further exacerbated by pronouncements made by Raila Odingas camp that they would reject outright the outcome of the election.

Kamulya says the volume of traffic entering and leaving Uganda is still low, with a few buses and private vehicles crossing the border.

He has however said that security remains tight on the Ugandan side.
Google working to fix issues with Android Assistant on Android Wear News oi -Rohit Many Android Wear users have reported that they are facing issues with Google Assistant on their wearables. Google says that the issues have been identified and a fix will follow soon

Google Assistant is giving a tough time to Android Wear users. It was reported that some users are facing multiple issues with the company's virtual assistant on their smart wearables. As per reports, after a recent update to the OS, Google Assistant is no longer able to perform some basic tasks such as setting a timer, sending text messages, management of smart home devices, etc.

Some users also posted on Google forums that the voice recognition has stopped working on their smartwatches.

Software version of LG V30 revealed: Expect more customization options

Google quickly came to rescue after a series of bugs were reported. One of Google's community managers posted, "We identified some issues in Google Assistant for Android Wear that we are working to fix. We will be gathering bug reports from an email that you will receive, let us know."

It was just yesterday that Google confirmed that several of the above mentioned issues with Android Assistant have been addressed. Google again posted an update on the forum that reads, "We have made a server-side change which should resolve several issues with Wear voice actions. If you are still seeing such issues, please update the "Google" app to version 7.8.

Here are the steps:



Press the power button and choose Play Store from the launcher.

Swipe down from the top of the screen and tap the My Apps icon (grid icon at left).

An update should be available for the "Google" app; tap to install.

If this doesn't resolve your issue, please list voice commands that are still failing and send us a bug report from your watch."

Users can also check their e-mail box for the above mentioned instructions.

However, it seems that the issues are still persistent. Google has now confirmed in a post that the issues aren't fixed yet. The team has identified some issues that are preventing to have the issue fixed. Google says that the team will inform users via e-mail once the issues are fully fixed for everyone.

Let us know if you are facing some issues with Google Assistant on your Android Wear products. Besides, you can also visit Google Forums for constant updates from the Google Team. Stay tuned on GIZBOT for more on Android Wear.

Best Mobiles in India

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Best Indian 4G Volte Android Nougat Smartphones Features oi -Harish Kumar

The ever growing smartphone and gadget industry has not only motivated developers to innovate better and ever evolving technology but it has also offered millions of employments throughout the globe.

Smartphone manufacturers in India unlike western manufacturers do not rely on Chinese manufacturing plants for their shipments rather they setup plants.

One might argue that Indian smartphone manufacturers are far behind in technological innovation however they are gradually catching up with international standards. Several country made smartphones and their respective brands have a hug liking in the country such as Micromax, LYF and Intex.

SEE ALSO: Flipkart and Amazon Freedom Sale: Upto 40% off on smartphones

Indian smartphones are cost-efficient and try to offer as may features as possible to consumers. Intex has a vast product line up in the country and all of its smartphones retailing as of now are in sub 10K price segment.

Similarly, YU which is a Micromax undertaking tries to proffer smartphones to Indian consumers that match up to international standards and are yet priced humbly. Recently we have seen several smartphones even in the Sub 10k category that offer Android Nougat and 4G VoLTE connectivity.

We have compiled a list of few of the most popular and providing 4G smartphones from the national niche that support 4G and you might consider spending your money on if you are need of one.

Best Mobiles in India
Google's voice search feature now supports 8 more Indian languages News oi -Samden Sherpa Google now supports voice search for 119 languages.

In order to help users search for content online by simply speaking into their Android phones,

Tech giant Google has now added voice search capability for eight additional Indian languages.

Currently, in India, the voice search feature in Google is available in English and Hindi only. However, the search feature will now get other languages like Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil as well.

"Globally, we now support voice search for 119 languages. We are introducing support for 30 new languages today, of which eight are Indian languages," Google Technical Program, Manager Daan van Esch told the press. "Starting today, speakers of these languages will be able to use their voice to dictate queries -- both in Gboard on Android as well as in Search through the Google App."

In order to perform a voice-based search, users will need to set their language in the voice settings menu in the Google app. Users can just tap the microphone icon (usually on the home screen of Android smartphones) to start a voice search.

Lately, Google has been ramping support for Indian languages across its various products like Maps and Search. This might particularly be due to a large number of the new users coming online are Indic language users.

Esch described that Google has worked with native speakers to collect speech samples. Further according to him machine learning models were trained to understand the various sounds and words, thus translating words from sound to text in the process. "Voice input for each of these languages is expected to get better over time, as more and more native speakers use the product," he added.

Earlier this year, Google announced the launch of new products and features to help create more language content and address the needs of new users coming online. So this move basically comes as many users prefer to use voice to dictate a message as it is convenient and also faster than typing.

Meanwhile, a report by Google-KPMG states that an estimated 536 million Indians are expected to use regional languages while remaining online by 2021 as compared to about 199 million users who are expected to access the web in English. This growth will be driven by increasing affordability of devices and data charges as well as the availability of more local content, the report noted.

Interestingly, the report has also pointed that apart from Hindi, Marathi and Bengali users are expected to drive volume growth, while Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu users are expected to be among the most digitally engaged through 2016 to 2021.

"Voice search in these new languages will be available in Google Search on iOS as well. These will soon be extended to other Google apps and products, including the Translate app," the company said.

Best Mobiles in India

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 could go on sale from August 24 News oi -Chandrika The upcoming flagship phablet is said to be launched with a Snapdragon 835 SoC or an in-house Exynos 8895 SoC depending on the region.

Most of us are eagerly waiting for the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung has already sent out media invites for its next Unpacked event, which is to take place on August 23.

As usual with launch invites, the invite from Samsung does not mention the words Galaxy Note 8. It shows a blue silhouette resembling the Samsung S Pen tipping that the Note 7 successor will be launched on the aforementioned date. Now, we have come across some interesting information. According to a Reddit post made by a Best Buy employee, the Galaxy Note 8 will be released in the US on August 24.

If the information turns out to be legit, US residents will be able to purchase the device just after a day of its launch. Well, it is quite surprising since Samsung takes a few weeks to release a flagship after the official announcement.

As far the latest rumor is concerned, a Reddit moderator has verified that the source is indeed a Best Buy employee. That being said, it doesn't mean the rumor has to be true. So until we get some kind of official confirmation, you better take the information with a pinch of salt.

You should also know this rumor is only applicable in the US. So in India, we might have to wait for a month or so to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

From the existing rumors, the Galaxy Note 8 is speculated to adorn a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display. It is likely to use an Infinity Display as seen on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ featuring an aspect ratio of 18.5:9.

The upcoming flagship phablet is said to be launched with a Snapdragon 835 SoC or an in-house Exynos 8895 SoC depending on the region. This processor is said to be coupled with 6GB RAM and a 3300mAh battery.

There are claims that the Galaxy Note 8 will arrive with an updated S Pen stylus. Remember that the Galaxy Note 7 came with an advanced S Pen that could do numerous capabilities. The handset is believed to be the first one from Samsung to feature a dual camera setup at its rear.

Going by the recent reports, the Samsung flagship phablet might feature a fingerprint sensor at its rear as on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and an iris scanner at the front along with the selfie camera. However, there seems to be a major difference in the positioning of the fingerprint sensor. It is said to be positioned next to the dual camera setup making it difficult to reach.

Best Mobiles in India

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Teaser poster for Meizu M6 Note spotted; launch on August 23 News oi -Chandrika The device is tipped to come in two memory variants.

Last week, Meizu started sending out press invites for a launch event slated for August 23. The launch event will take place at the Beijing Performing Arts Center at 11 AM.

It was pretty evident from the invite that the Meizu M6 Note will be launched at the event. The press invite reads "Stay True". Now, the company has apparently put up a large teaser poster for the upcoming smartphone. The picture has obtained by Android Headlines. The poster contains the letter '6' and it is hung at Meizu's headquarters in China. The Chinese brand has even confirmed it to be the teaser for the M6 Note.

Truth to be told, we don't have much information on the smartphone. Going by the existing rumors, the Meizu M6 Note will launch with a MediaTek Helio P25 processor paired with Mali-T880 GPU on top. The device is tipped to come in two memory variants.

The basic version with 3GB RAM and 32GB of default storage space, and another one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt storage capacity. Powering the device will be a large 4,000mAh battery unit.

The Meizu M6 Note is also expected to feature a 5.5-inch IPS LCD Full HD display and rear dual cameras. Just like the Xiaomi Redmi Pro, the dual camera setup on the Meizu phone should include a Sony IMX 258 sensor. According to the leak, it will probably sport a metal unibody.

Looking at the specifications, we can say that Meizu M6 Note will be a lower mid-range Android handset and will fight the likes of Xiaomi, Lenovo and Motorola's sub Rs. 15k smartphones in the Indian market.

Best Mobiles in India

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Haiti - FLASH : Changes in credit card transactions





On Friday, the Bank of the Republic of Haiti issued a circular (101-3) to the banks and credit card companies, which determines the methods of invoicing credit card transactions to be applied as from 1 December 2017. Although addressed to financial institutions, this circular includes many changes that will affect all credit card users in Haiti and abroad.



1. Definitions applicable to this Circular :

a) Credit card: A payment card issued by a financial institution referred to in section 2 of the Bank Act and other financial institutions and enabling its holder to make payment transactions.



b) Affiliated traders and professionals: all suppliers of goods and services accepting the card as a means of payment.



c) Payment transactions: withdrawals, payments, advances or transfers of funds from electronic payment terminals.



d) Electronic payment terminal (EPT): An electronic device capable of reading data from a card. Record an operation, and communicate with a remote authentication server.



e) Holder: a natural person or legal entity in whose name a financial institution has issued a credit card.



2. Operations carried out both in the territory of the Republic of Haiti and abroad :

2.1 EPT display

Credit cards issued in Haiti must be paid for exclusively in gourde, regardless of where the transaction took place. In other words, whether the operation was carried out in Haiti or abroad, the regulation must be worded in gourde. At the time the cardholder makes a payment transaction using its credit card, the amount must be displayed in gourde at the TPE.



2.2 Statement of Account

As of December 1, 2017, the invoicing of transactions carried out in Haiti and abroad by a card issued in Haiti is exclusively in gourde.



Banks and credit card companies are required to ensure that merchants and affiliated professionals comply strictly with the provisions of this Circular. For the edification and consumer protection, banks and credit card companies are required to display day rates visibly at least two points of each of their branches.



3. Sanctions :

Failure to comply with this circular will result in the following penalties:



For any other violation, the BRH will demand the immediate cessation of the offending practice, take administrative sanctions, in particular a letter of reprimand against the wrongful institution and may apply a fine of 100,000 gourdes (HTG 100,000.00) for each violation found.



In addition, as a result of documented complaints from a customer and judged to be justified by the BRH, the latter may recommend the return of the indus paid by the customer, without prejudice to the remedies available to the customer.



Any fine will be deducted from the balance of one of the accounts of the bank at fault with the BRH. However, the payment of any fine by a credit card company will be made by management check payable to the Bank of the Republic of Haiti, no later than three (3) working days after receipt of the notice requiring payment. In case of non-payment within the deadline, penalties for delay will be applied additionally, ie two thousand five hundred gourdes (HTG 2,500.00) per late day.



4. Transitional Provisions :

The foreign currency balance of the credit cards issued in Haiti on the customer's statement of account must be converted into gourde at 31 March 2018 at the latest at the BRH reference rate.



5. Repeal and coming into force

This circular repeals Circular No. 101-2 and enter into force on 1 December 2017



HL/ HaitiLibre


















By Bill Oketch

Lira Municipality Member of Parliament Jimmy Akena Obote has today been booed and heckled at Uganda Technical College, Lira Town, as Lango Parliamentary Group sought views of the people on the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017.

The government has introduced a proposal to amend Article 26 of the 1995 Constitution to facilitate faster land acquisition for public infrastructure.

The Amendment seeks to among other things provide for compulsory acquisition of private land by government without prior compensation of the owner.

The former LC5 councilor of Otuke District, Dina Bua, was overheard ordering that the microphone which Akena was using should be grabbed.

Ajuri County MP Denis Hamson Obua, however, enjoyed strong support from the audience throughout his two-hour presentation.

Obua received loud cheers and prolonged applause but the youth, politicians, religious and cultural leaders turned on Mr Akena, when he failed to defend the bill being marketed by his wife, Betty Amongi, the minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.




Haiti - Agriculture : FAO trains 32 agricultural processors





As part of the implementation of the EU-funded project "Improving Food Security in the Northeast", the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), carried out a training workshop in the commune of Ouanaminthe for 32 members of Champs Ecoles Paysan (CEP) (from the communes of Ouanaminthe, Fort Liberte, Ferrier and Capotille, in the department of North East of Haiti), specializing in the processing and marketing of agricultural products.



This training enabled the participants to discover different ways of making their agricultural processing and marketing activities more profitable in order to better orient the choice of valorization of these products. Participants learned, for example, how to use sesame, groundnut, coconut, herring and garlic in the manufacture of cassava products, thereby not only increasing the margin benefit from their activities, but also improve the nutritional quality of cassava.



Paul Juvena, CEP Facilitator "Men anpil, chay pa lou", specializing in manioc processing, expressed his satisfaction after having participated in this three-day training in management and organizational strengthening. "This training has helped me make better calculations of expenses and revenues to increase my profit margins."



Abundant in the same direction Gisele Adrien, a member of the CEP "Fanm Vanyan" of the locality of Cana, said "With this training, we feel better equipped to make a better management and marketing of our agricultural products processing. Now we are able to calculate production costs, revenue as well as profit margin generated. We will use this knowledge to maximize our profits and make better choices."



This training was also aimed at helping the members of the Champs Ecoles Paysan to organize themselves in order to better value dairy products, "maraichers" and those derived from cassava and groundnuts. Participants gained knowledge that will enable them to better manage and take into account the monetary value of the workforce involved in the manufacturing and marketing of derivatives.



Download the document "L'approche Champ Ecole Paysan en Haiti" : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/a-au457f.pdf



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16292-haiti-agriculture-fao-extend-by-one-year-its-program-farmer-field-school.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-14763-icihaiti-agriculture-farmers-field-schools.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





New day of demonstration in Petit-Goave

"Monday, August 14, will be another day of tensions and blockages of all the communication route of Petit-Goave" announced on Sunday evening around 10:30 of militants of the PHTK and allies of Petit-Goave, on the Radio Preference FM "Since the Primature lied to us, we will occupy the macadam very early on Monday. The Government must respect its promises to us, or it integrates us in government or we will continue to consistently manifest. Monday we will show what we are capable of : National road #2 will be blocked" threatened the militants. HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave)



Consul of Atlanta closed

The Consulate General of Haiti in Atlanta informs the public in general and the Haitian community of Georgia in particular that the Consulate will be closed on Tuesday, August 15, 2017, due to the Feast of Our Lady of the Assumption. The office hours will normally resume on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 from 9:00 AM.



Traffic accident in Ouanaminthe

The Directorate of Civil Protection (DPC) informs us that a traffic accident occurred Saturday at the entrance of Ouanaminthe. Results: 3 injured, quickly transported to the hospital.



Words of Laurent Lamothe

"There is no progress without the will to progress without the participation of all the people in the development of the country," said Laurent Lamothe former Prime Minister of Haiti.



Petit-Goave : Hospital fully operational

On the occasion of the patronal feast, the Notre Dame Hospital of Petit-Goave confirms that its services are ready to meet the healthcare needs of the population, stressing that the emergency room is equipped with materials and medicines to ensure that quality care is provided to the injured. Dr. Charleus Ernso, Director of the Notre Dame Hospital, thanked Health Minister Marie Greta Roy Clement, the Presidency, the Prime Minister and Dr. Martial Beneche, Director of the West Sanitary Directorate (DSO) for their help.



Vote of the bill on labor in 3X8

President Moise welcomed the Senate's vote of bill on the organization and regulation of work in 3X8 (different from that proposed by the Executive and approved by the Council of Ministers). This bill must now be sent to the Lower House to be ratified in the same terms before being submitted to the Executive for publication in the official newspaper "Le Moniteur".



HL/ HaitiLibre


















When we think of depression we often imagine someone sad and lethargic, hunched over, with no energy to
A hidden gem on Floridas Nature Coast, the Plantation on Crystal River recently named Jack Spiess as executive chef of the 196-room resort. Chef Spiess will direct daily culinary operations at the resorts signature West 82 Bar & Grill and outlets, and oversee food and beverage offerings for the Plantations 12,000 square feet of function space for meetings, corporate parties, local catering events and special occasions. Speiss has worked as the sous chef of the Plantation on Crystal River since 2016. Prior to joining the Plantation, Speiss worked as executive chef of the iconic Le Pichet in Seattles Pike Place Market. Speiss also worked for seven years for the James Beard award-winning Tom Douglas Restaurant Group, also in Seattle. Chef Speiss also honed his craft at Murasaki in Michigan and Handkes Cuisine ad Spagio, both in Ohio. A native of Michigan, Speiss now resides in Crystal River, Fla.
NASHVILLE  Travel and hospitality experts presented on micro trends and the democratization of travel on the final day of the sold-out 2017 Hotel Data Conference.

Co-hosted by STR and Hotel News Now at the Omni Nashville Hotel, the Hotel Data Conference sold out for the fourth consecutive year with 626 attendees.

During the morning general session, Elizabeth Winkle, STR's chief strategy officer, andAdam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, discussed the demographics surrounding the travel industry.

Sacks noted that there are two separate trajectories of travel propensity: business and leisure. Business trips per employee have been declining, while leisure trips per employee have been increasing.

Several key data points about the travel industry were cited:

Within household age groups, there has been a remarkable shift in spending on lodging: ages 25 to 34 (+20%), ages 65 to 74 (+23%) and ages 75+ (+24%).

Seniors represented a greater share of households (42%) and lodging spending (45%) in 2015.

Travel continues to take a larger share in consumer spending. Growth from 2011 to January 2017: lodging (+41.8%), F&B (+31.2%) and air (+21.5%).

International tourist arrivals to the U.S. are growing between 3% and 4% year over year with 1.24 billion global tourist arrivals in 2016.

International exposure ranks differently across top U.S. markets: Miami (46%), San Francisco (45%), New York (44%) and Los Angeles (39%).

This year's keynote speaker, Frits van Paasschen, focused his talk on themes of disruption and innovation.

"Disruption is when you wake up and you realize you're in trouble and you either didn't see the change coming or you saw the change coming and didn't do enough about it," van Paasschen said.

Panelists from different areas of expertise closed out the conference with data surrounding the industry. Speakers included Lucas Cobb, vice president, integrated planning of MMGY Global; Peter Coles, head economist of Airbnb; and Susan Spinney Corlett, senior director, market management of Expedia, Inc.

Data points cited included:

During the next 12 months, 13.9 million more vacations will be taken domestically, where 32% of people plan to take more business trips and 12% of people plan to take fewer in the next 12 months Lucas Cobb

In 2017, 8% of all US trips were taken by families, and families represented 14% of all Airbnb guests (Airbnb uses the term "guest arrivals.") Places most visited by families included Kissimmee, Florida; Los Angeles, California; and San Diego, California Peter Coles

Roughly 50% of travellers used an OTA for planning their last trip. 45% of Expedia's traffic came via mobile Susan

Overall, the 2017 Hotel Data Conference comprised more than 100 speakers in four general sessions, 16 breakout sessions, 18 breakout "data dash" sessions and ten advanced-level "data dive" discussions. All told, the conference featured approximately 970 minutes of hotel industry data.

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.

Jeff Higley (STR)

VP, Digital Media & Communications

+1 (615) 824-8664 ext. 3318

STR
Aflac Kicks Off 2017 Duckprints Tour at Cottage Children's Medical Center in Santa Barbara by Honoring Heroes Who Have Made a Meaningful Difference in the Lives of Children with Cancer

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 08-14-2017 3:07 am

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Aflac, the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite in the U.S. and a committed corporate ally in making a difference in the lives of children with cancer, today proudly presented a group of heroes with Duckprints Awards for making an impact and leaving a footprint in the lives of children and families with cancer."At Aflac, we believe that everyone has the power to do good," Aflac Foundation President Kathelen Amos said. "Aflac adopted the charge more than 20 years ago to further childhood cancer research and treatment and to support families, and we haven't looked back since. We are excited to kick off our 2017 Duckprints celebrations at Cottage Children's Medical Center and to honor three inspiring, selfless individuals who truly embody what it means to do good."The 2017 Duckprints Awardees are:Faith DeBrum After being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma on her 11th birthday and completing four rounds of chemotherapy, Faith has been instrumental in Chi...

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By Benjamin Jumbe:

The Uganda Peoples Defense Force has denied deploying in neighboring Kenya.

This followed media reports yesterday indicating that the Ugandan military had deployed last week after the elections and was on standby to support Security operations in Kenya

In a press statement, the army denounced the allegations describing them as totally false, alarmist and misleading.

The army spokesperson Brig Richard Karemire said there are absolutely no such preparations and no team of officers has been sent out to Kenya in preparation for such adding that Uganda government and UPDF have neither received such a request on deployment nor is there a situation that warrants it.

He says the Republic of Kenya is a sovereign country and as such, its security and that of its people are exclusively within their domain.

He however, reiterates commitment to work with all neighboring countries within the existing frameworks such as the East Africa Community (EAC), and the East African Standby Force (EASF) among others
Employee Engagement Isn't Just for "For-Profits" Anymore - Nonprofits Must Hone This Capability If They Wish to Thrive and Survive

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 08-14-2017 5:12 am

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New eBook Explains Criticality of Employee Engagement for Nonprofits and Current Roadblocks, as well as Offers Immediately Actionable Advice for Success  StaffConnect, provider of the world's leading enterprise mobile employee engagement platform, today announced the availability of a new eBook entitled, "How to Solve the Employee Engagement Crisis for Not-for-Profit Organizations." The new eBook explains why employee engagement is critical for today's nonprofit organizations and what issues stand in its way. It goes on to offer immediately actionable advice for how today's nonprofit can inspire the highest levels of employee and volunteer engagement. In doing so, a nonprofit can reach its full potential, including raising increased funding and donations, and attracting the ideal new employees and volunteers, while retaining and improving the productivity and results of its current workforce. Key to enabling this shift for nonprofits, the eBook explains, is technology. T...

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OutMatch Executives to Speak on Predictive Analytics at Talent Management Alliance Conferences

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Chief Analytics Officer Carol Jenkins to present at Healthcare Recruiting Summit, Chief Marketing Officer Jason Ferrara at Talent Acquisition Summit OutMatch, a leader in helping organizations match the right people with the right jobs, announced today that Chief Analytics Officer Carol Jenkins, Ph.D. and Chief Marketing Officer Jason Ferrara will deliver presentations focused on predictive analytics at a pair of leading industry conferences hosted by the Talent Management Alliance next week in Philadelphia, PA.On August 15, Ferrara will present The Data Difference: Using Analytics to Build a Better Workforce, as part of TMAs 2017 Talent Acquisition Summit. He will discuss the importance of predictive analytics in enabling managers to make better hiring decisions, provide insight on measuring the impact of a new hire, and outline how to use data-driven assessments to improve the overall hiring process.On August 16, Jenkins will deliver a presentation entitled Predictive Hiring Anal...

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We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
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When Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission met Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban in Riga in May 2015, he greeted him by saying hello dictator.

Junckers words were perhaps an ironic response to Orbans earlier statement that he wants to build an illiberal state based on national foundations, citing Russia and China as examples. He might also have been referring to the way Orban has been gradually amending Hungarys constitution to give his government more power. His efforts to date have left his Fidesz party with significant control over the judiciary, media and banks.

Whatever Junckers motivation back at that meeting in 2015, the scathing greeting now doesnt look all that misplaced. (A year earlier US senator John McCain had labelled Orban a neo-fascist dictator.)

Orban has long been a nationalist but his rhetoric of late has whipped up xenophobia. His government has cracked down on the media and non-governmental organisations that are considered disloyal to the nation. All this seems to be part of a general shift away from Hungary as a liberal democracy.

Orban is a staunch critic of Western European multiculturalism and immigration. When the migration crisis hit in 2015, his country quickly became notorious for the brutal way it was treating the refugees arriving at its borders. Orban himself referred to the refugees as poison and erected razor-wire fences on Hungarys southern borders to keep them out.

State acquisitions

Orban presents himself as the defender of the Hungarian nation. His nationalist rhetoric is laced with references to the the Treaty of Trianon, signed by the allies and Hungary to mark the end of World War I. The treaty deprived Hungary of two-thirds of its territory  and Orban takes every opportunity to remind people of that.

The strategy seems to be to redress what Orban sees as a historical injustice by stoking ethnic nationalism. He regularly clashes with the EU over anything that could be construed as an attack on the identity and integrity of the nation state. The EUs efforts to deal with the migration crisis through a quota system were a particular point of contention. He even took the matter to the European Court of Justice, so opposed had he become to Brussels asking him to take in a certain number of refugees.

Dont let Soros have the last laugh: a poster targeting the US-based billionaire

Orbans government has been acquiring various print, broadcast and online media outlets. According to the latest report by US think tank Freedom House, Hungary has the lowest democratic score in the Central European region: 3.54 out of 7. The report raises concerns about corruption networks and the use of public power and resources to reward friendly oligarchs.

Slovakia-based NGO Globsec also recently warned that the Hungarian government has a firmly pro-Russian view and that its national media is weakened by a vast concentration of ownership by pro-government oligarchs who are completely biased on issues of the EU, Nato and Russia.

This pro-Kremlin stance was particularly interesting to witness while Hungary benefited from a 10bn loan from Russia for the development of its nuclear power.

The EU looks on

Yet the EU only began to officially debate Hungarys drift to illiberal democracy in April. Thats when the Hungarian parliament adopted a higher education law that threatens the survival of the prestigious Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.

The university was founded by the Jewish Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros to promote liberal democracy and open society in post-communist Eastern Europe. The law places restrictions on the CEU that many argue will make it impossible for it to operate freely, if at all.

Orban and his government did not stop at the legislation but continued with a sustained attack on Soros in a thinly disguised anti-Semitic campaign, casting him as manipulative and powerful. Posters have appeared showing a grinning Soros above a caption reading, Dont let Soros have the last laugh!.

Speaking to students in July, Orban claimed that a Soros plan was under way, aiming to bring hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Muslim world into the territory of the EU. This agenda, he argued, lies behind Brussels continuous withdrawal of powers from the nation states.

Similar attacks on liberal values can be heard from populist politicians the world over and Orbans is a particularly worrying case. His intensifying rhetoric and growing indifference to democracy, combined with his governments slow but systematic dismantling of democratic institutions are evidence that he is making steady progress towards establishing the illiberal state he so openly envisages.

This is not to say that Hungary will leave the EU, but Orban is playing a dangerous game. He is exploiting nationalism at home and attacking the EU, all the while taking its cash for short-term political gain.

Erika Harris is a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool. This article was originally published on The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)
New Delhi, Aug 14 (IBNS): Be it a post office, not in some remote area but in big cities of Mumbai and Delhi, or a public sector bank, state-owned MTNL, BSNL or several other government owned and run organisations, the ease of doing business, especially for a small entrepreneur is missing despite a well-meaning digital drive of the government, an ASSOCHAM paper has noted with concern.



Experience of hundreds of small entrepreneurs trying to open a current account with a public sector bank throws a discouraging picture. For opening a current account even for a service oriented activity of say, accounting, content writing or giving advisory like cookery, the branch manager in several banks would still insist on registration with some state government department, even when the person does not want any incentive, favour, or even loan from any lending institution. There are bizarre cases where the branch manager would tell the person seeking current account to get a registration from the directorate of industries, when there is no intention to open any industry, the paper found sharing experience of hundreds of budding entrepreneurs.



It said, the concept of Start-Ups should not confine itself to the IIT or IIM pass outs with venture capitalists funding the ventures and making headlines in the media.



There are lakhs and lakhs of literate and semi-literate individuals wanting to get into the financial system, but are denied the entry. Despite so much stress on the financial inclusion programme of the government, opening a current account in a public sector bank is a nightmare for those who are beginners in the business. Despite all the core banking and digital solutions, the voluminous paper work remains intact.



The experience of dealing with transport authorities in different states by those seeking commercial driving licences for starting up an Uber or Ola service is equally bitter while the official cost itself is on the higher side. "The skill development needs support and a friendly hand holding".



The scenario is similar in institutions like post offices. The post offices in most of the metro cities have implemented the core banking solution which enables faster and efficient service tools. But the mindset of the staff posted in these post offices remains that of a file pusher.  For every other transaction, they want a photo copy of some ID, even though the KYC formalities have been done; now this is no ease of doing business. 



The ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said, the well-intentioned programme of the government can trickle down only when the staff manning the counters and their immediate supervisors are given new kind of orientation. For a RuPay card PIN, the post office staff would tell you to come after 10 days, 15 days and offer no online help,. In some of the private sector banks, the PIN can be generated automatically within minutes.



The MTNL/BSNL experience is equally bad with the consumers. Want to get any changes done in the plan or say from post paid to pre-paid or address change. For each of the procedures, they would insist on separate verification on a toll free number where , the staff picking up the phone is difficult to get. For each of these activities, the staff at the Sanchar Haat would insist on a separate set of Aadhar Card /PAN card, with no inhouse facility for the customers. Fortunately, there are more than adequate number of alternatives available, resulting in a loss of market for the state-owned telecom operators.



The ASSOCHAM feeback at the ground level suggests that both the Centre and the states are investing heavily into technology build up; but the staff needs to be given a fresh approach.



Ideally, youngsters with a strong technology bent of mind should be hired and deployed in the public interface desks while the older staff finding it hard to get adapted to technology solutions can be shuffled within or outside different departments.




New Delhi, Aug 14 (IBNS): While rescue teams continued with their search operations on Monday at the site of the landslide in Himachal Pradesh, two areas in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand were also affected by landslides, according to media reports.

A cloud burst resulted in landslides in Malpa and Mangri in Uttarakhand on Monday and several people have been reported missing, local media said.

Three people died and five others  including four Army personnel  were feared killed, reported Hindustan Times.

There have been reports of landslide in Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, which left two people dead.

Meanwhile, rescue teams of army, NDRF and state police continued with their search operations on Monday in the Kotrupi area of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, according to media reports.

A massive landslide triggered on Saturday night washed away two buses and several smaller vehicles, local reports said.

President Kovind expressed his sorrow over the incident and said, "Heartfelt condolences on loss of lives due to landslide in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh."
Srinagar, Aug 14 (IBNS): Day before Independence celebrations, suspected militants of LeT on Monday hurled grenades on security forces in Kanihama area in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district.

According to reports, four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and a policeman were seriously wounded in the attack.

All injured were shifted to nearby hospital for advanced treatment.

The attack comes days after the when Indian Army killed Hizbul Mujahideen's operational commander Yasin Itoo, along with his two associates, in a fierce encounter in Kashmir's Shopian district.

Meanwhile, Pakistan based outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility for a grenade attack.

Congratulated the attackers for carrying out the attack despite stringent security arrangements and warned of similar attacks in future on forces across valley, said Spokesman of outfit Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri,Image: download-wallpaper.net)
Srinagar, Aug 14 (IBNS): A security blanket has been thrown around vital installations and checking has been intensified across Kashmir Valley ahead of Independence Day to thwart any attempt by militants to disrupt the celebrations.

Kashmir valley witnessed major encounters in the last six moths.

120 militants were killed during encounters with security forces at different places in South Kashmir.



Recent incidents of infiltration and ceasefire violations along the border also led to additional deployment of police and paramilitary forces on the Line of Control (Loc) and International Border

Security has been strengthened particularly around Bakshi Stadium in the Kashmir Valley where the main function of the Independence Day will be held.

Police sources said three-tier security arrangements have been made around the main venue, where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will unfurl the tricolor.

A police official told India Blooms that necessary security arrangements have been put in place around the Bakshi Stadium.

"There is a three -tier security ring placed. Closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) have been installed and anti-sabotage mechanism is in place to ensure peaceful function," he said, adding that general public can enter through gates of Bakshi stadium.

Sources further said that all the buildings around the Bakshi Stadium have been occupied by sharp shooters of the police and the CRPF to prevent any untoward incident.

Vehicles are being stopped for frisking of the occupants and frequent searches of pedestrians are also being undertaken to ensure that the militants do not succeed in disrupting the functions, they said.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in other parts of the Valley and the venues of I-day functions at the district headquarters have also been handed over to the police and other security agencies.

Recent militant attacks and firing on borders, security agencies have been put on high alert across Jammu region ahead of Independence Day celebrations.

Three tier security grill with the assistance of Police, Army and paramilitary forces have been put in place to keep check on suspicious movement in the region, particularly in border areas. Senior police official told India Blooms in Jammu.

The united separatists of Kashmir had called for shutdown and boycott of the celebrations on August 15.

Full dress rehearsal was held on Sunday at Bakshi Stadium here. Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Khan took salute at the march past in which contingents of various security forces and school children took part.

4 security personnel injured in Kashmir grenade attack

4 security personnel injured in Kashmir grenade attack

India Blooms News Service

#Kashmir, #GrenadeAttack, #GrenadeAttackKashmir

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Srinagar, Aug 14 (IBNS): Day before Independence celebrations, suspected militants of LeT on Monday hurled grenades on security forces in Kanihama area in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district.



According to reports, four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and a policeman were seriously wounded in the attack.

All injured were shifted to nearby hospital for advanced treatment.

The attack comes days after the when Indian Army killed Hizbul Mujahideen's operational commander Yasin Itoo, along with his two associates, in a fierce encounter in Kashmir's Shopian district.

Meanwhile, Pakistan based outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility for a grenade attack.

Congratulated the attackers for carrying out the attack despite stringent security arrangements and warned of similar attacks in future on forces across valley, said Spokesman of outfit Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri,Image: download-wallpaper.net)
New Delhi, Aug 14 (IBNS): Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu has greeted the people of our country on the joyous occasion of Independence Day.

In a message, he said: "We salute our valiant freedom fighters whose sacrifices brought freedom to our country from oppressive colonial rule."



Let us resolve this Independence Day to strive towards building a New India by eliminating poverty, illiteracy and corruption, he added.

Following is the text of Vice Presidents message:

I extend my warm greetings and good wishes to the people of our country on the joyous occasion of our Independence Day.

On this auspicious occasion, let us take pride in the remarkable progress achieved by our nation in various fields and salute our valiant freedom fighters whose sacrifices brought freedom to our country from oppressive colonial rule.

Let us resolve this Independence Day to strive towards building a New India by eliminating poverty, illiteracy and corruption and realizing the dreams of the Father of the Nation and other valiant freedom fighters by achieving the cherished goals of prosperity, equality and dignity for every citizen of India.

As India marches ahead as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, every citizen should work towards upholding the countrys civilizational values and strengthening its unity and integrity.
Patna, Aug 14 (IBNS): The Janata Dal (United) on Monday suspended 21 of its members for anti-party activities after they supported rebel leader Sharad Yadav.

The suspension came couple of days after Sharad Yadav was sacked as the Rajya Sabha leader by the JD(U) after he spoke against party chief Nitish Kumar for stitching an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The dispute in the JD(U) was evident after Nitish Kumar went on to forge an alliance with the BJP late last month, hours after breaking the grand alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress.

Yadav was often seen on television camera to disapprove Nitish's decision of forming an alliance with the BJP.

He even went on to say that the breaking up with the RJD and joining the BJP were decisions taken solely by the party chief.

In 2015, the grand alliance formed by JD(U), RJD and Congress shattered the BJP's dream of coming to power in Bihar.

Though the RJD was the single largest party in the state after the 2015 poll, the JD(U) had no problem to form the government with the BJP as both the parties together had the required number of seats.

Nitish broke the grand alliance over the alleged corruption cases against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav. Tejashwi was also the second man in Nitish's cabinet in the then Bihar government.

The dispute in Nitish's party was more evident in recently concluded Gujarat Rajya Sabha election as JD(U) MLA Chotubhai Vasava said he has cast his vote in favour of Congress' Ahmed Patel.

The sacking of Sharad Yadav and suspension of 21 leaders has once again raised the political debates over the possible rift in the JD(U).
Srinagar, Aug 14 (IBNS): Jammu and Kashmir Governor N. N. Vohra on Monday said people must pay homage to great leaders who made enormous sacrifices to carry out a prolonged struggle for liberating the country from the foreign rulers.

Addressing the people on the eve of 70th Independence Day, the Governor said in the past seventy years India has achieved notable development on many fronts and, today, 'we are the fastest growing among the large economies in the world'.

However, for the past many years now, Jammu and Kashmir's growth and progress has been retarded by the continuing programmes of protestations and agitations, calls for which are given by the separatist elements, said the Governor.

Besides the sad loss of lives, the recurring disturbances have adversely impacted tourism and all trade, business and economic activities in the state shut-downs and hartals have also resulted in disrupting the functioning of the governmental machinery and the public delivery systems, he said.

The governor said: "Other states are forging ahead on the path of growth and development and J&K must not continue to lag behind. I would yet again appeal to the leaders of all the mainstream political parties in the State to shed their differences and urgently join hands, forge an agreed approach and commence meaningful discussions with the leaders of all groups."

"The educational system has suffered irreparable damage on account of the recurring agitations. The repeated interruptions in the teaching and examination schedules of educational institutions have adversely affected the career prospects of our youth," he said.

"I have held many meetings with teachers and educational administrators and repeatedly appealed that all possible steps must be taken to see that arising problems are not allowed to affect the education of our children. It is unfortunate that parents, teachers and the civil society have not so far gathered the courage for protecting the educational system and saving our youth from getting embroiled in the agendas of the disruptive elements," he said.

He said, "If our State is to achieve peace and normalcy and embark on the path of progress and prosperity, the leaders of all political, social, cultural and religious organisations, the civil society and all other stakeholders in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions, must lose no more time in closing ranks and working together for restoring a positive environment in the State."



India will celebrate Independence Day on Tuesday.

Image: Santabanta.com
New Delhi, Aug 14 (IBNS): Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched the live twitter wall for promoting Bharat Ke Veer portal here on Monday on the eve of Independence Day 2017.

On this occasion, Rajnath Singh and Ministers of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Kiren Rijiju contributed their one month salary for Bharat Ke Veer.

Rajnath Singh said that the Security Forces have made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and the people need to stand by their families to support them.

This social media awareness campaign will display all tweets with hashtag Bharat Ke Veer (#BharatKeVeer), at Connaught Place, CGO complex and Khan Market in New Delhi where huge LED display screens have been installed. Emoji has also been created for this hashtag.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, OSD Shri Rajiv Gauba and Senior Officers of MHA were present on this occasion.

Bharat Ke Veer portal was launched by the Union Home Minister and actor Akshay Kumar on Apr 9, 2017.

This portal facilitates online donation directly to the families of CAPF Martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the country in line of duty from January 1, 2016.


Ottawa, Aug 14 (IBNS): One of the recent trends in Canada widely visible is none other than going cashless.

Global News has tracked down how the society in Canada is going cashless with time.

The report by the Global News has shown how businesses are carrying out non-cash transactions.

Mad Radish, a business run by David Segal, is fully cashless. When Segal decided to start his business, one thing he rejected was the cash drawer.

Mad Radish provides healthy meals and salads.

Segal was quoted as saying: "I dont think you have to anymore. Theres very few people who dont have a debit or credit card, or both, in their wallets."

He stated there are very less number of people who feel hesitated to go cashless.

"Yes theres the occasional person who doesnt like it but the response has been overwhelmingly positive" Segal added.

Report said, according to Bank of Canada, only 23% of people used cash for transactions in 2013. However, many suggested the percentage of cash transactions is expected to come down by next 10 odd years.

An associate professor at Ryerson Universitys Ted Rogers School of Retail Management, Norman Shaw, felt the electronic mode of payment will certainly become dominant with time, though he believes the cash transactions will not disappear immediately.

Shaw told Global News: Its the convenience and the speed. The banks and the payment companies have done a very good job of putting tap-and-pay terminals everywhere, and consequently, its very easy to go with your credit card and just tap and pay."

Gary Tymoschuk, vice-president of operations for the Credit Counselling Society, highlighted the opposite side of the prism.

He said the use of electronic modes of payment may indulge people to spend more money because of its convenience. Tymoschuk believes if one does not have a proper budget plan, might lose track of where the money has been spent.



(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)

Image: Creative Commons.
Ottawa, Aug 15 (IBNS): As the sale of recreational marijuana is getting legalised by next July, several strict restrictions will be imposed on it, media reports said.

Reports said the Canadian Mental Health Associations Ontario branch stated stricter rules will be imposed on the sale of Marijuana than other weeds like tobacco.

In April, keeping the campaign promise, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau legalised the use of recreational marijuana.

Those selling marijuana in the stores will require special training.

Camille Quenneville, chief executive officer of CMHAs Ontario branch told the Star: "We have an opportunity to start fresh with this."

Apart from legalising, the federal government has also decided to make an age of majority to use recreational marijuana and also to decide on the retail network of stores where the marijuana could be sold.

However, youth in possession of cannabis will not be criminalised from henceforth.

Uppala Chandrasekera, director of public policy for the mental health association was quoted as saying: "A lot of young people are being charged with possession."

But any car driver or passenger will not be allowed to consume cannabis. In order to curb the practice, strict bans will be enforced.

The association told the Star: "A zero-tolerance policy would include both the driver of the motorized vehicle, as well as any passengers in the car. It is important that a clear message be sent to the public."



Image: Creative Commons.
Toronto, Aug 15 (IBNS): As a counter to the rally organised by the white supremacists two days ago in Charlottesville in USA, Torontonians came out in numbers to hold a protest on Monday morning, media reports said.

On Saturday, white supremacists held a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in USA, triggering violence in which a 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 people were injured after a driver ploughed a car into a crowd of counter-protesters. Two state troopers were killed when their police helicopter on surveillance crashed.

which prompted the Torontonians to protest here before the U.S. consulate.

Toronto people hosted the rally as a counter to "Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville which was organised on Saturday.

However, the police shifted the rally from the west of the consulate to the eastern corner. The officers cited more space in the east side of the consulate as the reason behind the displacement of the rally which also facilitated the unblocking of the sidewalks.

Messages were written on the walls of the consulate against the white supremacy and against US President Donald Trump.

One of the demonstrators on Monday, Lynn Campbell, said her two years old child Sophie started to ask questions after seeing the pictures of the Charlottesville rally on Sunday night.

Campbell was quoted by the Star as saying: "Its kind of hard to explain to a two-year-old that not everyone has the same freedoms as we do and can walk down the street feeling safe."

One uniformed officer, Jim Brown, told the Star: "Were here to facilitate to make sure its safe for everyone."

Brown referred to the people as "passionate" and said "they should be".

Donna Gabaccia, a co-organizer and professor at the University of Torontos Scarborough campus, told the Star that she was in anger after witnessing the public display of "fascist language and symbolism" which came out from Charlottesville.



Image: Official Twitter handle of Alyshah Hasham (https://twitter.com/alysanmati).
Silicon Valley Pride Parade

Date:

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Time:

8:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Event Type:

Critical Mass

Organizer/Author:

Rise Up for Justice

Email:

Location Details:

Assemble at the southwest corner of St. James Park

St. John Street and First Street

San Jose, CA 95110

Join the Rise Up Contingent #9 in the Silicon Valley Pride Parade !



Bring positive messages for equality, diversity, justice, health care for all, housing for all, access for all, immigrants and refugees welcome, build bridges, peace, and save the planet!



Join our Dance of Peace Troupe with music and rainbow flags!



Sponsored by Rise Up for Justice, Green Party of Santa Clara County, and Peace and Freedom Party of Santa Clara County, our developing world, and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center. All progressive community partners welcome!
Business No Easy Way to Improve Myanmars Economy, Experts Say

The three-day Forum on Myanmar's Democratic Transition kicked off in Naypyitaw on Friday. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  The National League for Democracy (NLD)s economic advisor U Myo Myint blamed a legacy of inept bureaucracy, deep-rooted corruption, military control, and a lack of cooperation among ministries for his partys poor economic performance.

The lack of cooperation is a big challenge. As there is no cooperation between the government departments, [the NLD] has not been able to adopt comprehensive plans, said the economic advisor while discussing the challenges of a shift from a centralized economy to a market economy during the three-day Myanmar Democratic Transition Forum in Naypyitaw on Saturday.

He described the military-drafted 2008 Constitution as the first obstacle in revamping the countrys economy.

U Myo Myint listed the reasons behind Myanmars stagnant economy: Armed clashes, drug abuse and trade, declining export values, low productivity in the workforce and low utilization of farmland.

The first challenge [to improve] the stagnant economy is the constitution and its limitationsthe Tatmadaw takes 25 percent of seats in the parliament and three ministries are under the control of the military, he added.

Myanmar Army representative to the forum Col Aung Myint Oo said the role of the military could be reduced when there was stability and good economic performance in the country.

He said the countrys economy was an urgent issue for the NLD-led government.

Peoples anger builds up with economic hardship, the explosion of anger is followed by revolution. So, [the government] needs to urgently provide secure livelihoods for people, said Col Aung Myint Oo.

Only after that, the government should work to adopt a strategy in cooperation with experts, military and other members of society, he added.

Another NLD economic advisor U Lay Nyunt admitted the government had not fulfilled the expectations of farmers.

There is a need for immediate reforms in the agricultural sector. I hate to ask farmers to wait until the agricultural development strategy is adopted. We should not ask them to wait anymore in poverty.

He suggested amending the 2012 Farmland Law, as well as policies regarding provision of agricultural loans and investment, and taxation.

I think it is time we made bold changes no matter what the obstacles are, he said.

He also pointed out the countrys failure to produce animal feed at home.

We have 26 animal feed processing plants in our country, but only six of them are operating and are not even running at full capacity. This is a big loss for our country, he criticized.

Most of the experts attending the discussion agreed that the economy remains largely centralized and in need of policies that have a grass-roots impact.

Economist U Thein Swe who served as an executive director in the World Bank said: We should have a timeframe and plans in place now, we should have plans and goals for the next three years, the next five years.
Burma More Than 1,000 New IDPs Reported in Kachin State

An IDP family in the KIA-controlled area of Laiza. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  More than 1,000 locals abandoned their homes and have sought refuge at Baptist and Catholic churches in Namti, Kachin State, due to fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/A).

The displacement followed clashes near Kasung village with KIA Battalion 11 on Thursday and a reported raid by the Myanmar Army on the area the next day.

Kasung is located about 15 miles from Namti town in Mogaung Township, Kachin State.

La Mai Seng Awng, a religious leader from the Kachin Baptist Church told The Irrawaddy that 593 internally displaced people (IDPs) had come to the church seeking food and shelter.

The IDPs arrived in Namti first, he said. They witnessed skirmishes between the military and the KIO that happened in the village.

According to a statement made by a coalition of humanitarian groups in Kachin State known as the Joint Strategy Team for Humanitarian Response (JST), about 700 people arrived Namti village by Friday. Later, more than 300 villagers were assisted in escaping from Kasung and Zup Mai Yang villages by a team involving Baptist and Catholic Church leaders, the Peace Creation Group, Myanmar Red Cross Society, and Myanmar Rescue Myitkyina on Sunday, August 13.

The JST has raised concern for the safety and security of the IDPs and civilians in conflict-affected areas and school-aged childrens education.

The danger of a flu outbreak, and [other] health concerns remains high among IDPs, especially for children and many elderly, and those with chronic diseases, the coalition said in its statement. It is also important to ensure that the displaced school children are provided with psychosocial support and are able to continue schooling while in Namti before they are able to return.

On Sunday, government leaders including the minister of Kachin States Department of Social Welfare visited IDPs in the churches and met with the community leaders.

The Roman Catholic Church leader Lagyi La Ja told The Irrawaddy that the government had promised to arrange for the schooling of displaced children in Namti until they were able to return home.

The Roman Catholic Church in Namti is serving as a host site to more than 400 refugees.

JST secretary Gum Sha Awng told The Irrawaddy that locals safety should remain the first priority for all stakeholders in the crisis.

We already have over 100,000 IDPs who havent gotten a chance to return to their original places. Their future is extremely vulnerable, he said of those who have been displaced since a long-term ceasefire between the KIA and Myanmar Army broke down in 2011.

Church members, the JST, international NGOs, UN agencies and the government have provided emergency assistance including food, hygiene materials and blankets to the displaced.

In June, around 1,000 villagers were displaced in Kachin States Tanai Township, and have, as of yet, been unable to return home.
Burma Army Orders Villagers to Stay Out of Rakhines Mayu Mountains

Myanmar Army troops arrive in Sittwe on Thursday. / Myanmar Pressphoto Agency

YANGON  The Myanmar Army gave verbal orders to villagers in northern Rakhine State to avoid entering the Mayu mountain range as they conduct clearance operations in Maungdaw Township, a border police major told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he said that the order was to prevent fatalities. Security forces have been carrying out such operations for months, searching for suspected Muslim militants in the region. Efforts appear to have intensified, with hundreds of soldiers arriving in two military aircrafts at Sittwe airport on Thursday and continuing on to Maungdaw the following day. Over the weekend, the authorities extended a curfew that was already in place in the township.

Reports of the most recent verbal order for locals to avoid the highlands came after a meeting between military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and a seven-member delegation from the Arakan National Party (ANP) in Naypyitaw last week.

The nationalist party representatives demanded further troop deployment around ethnic Arakanese villages in Maungdaw Township as eight people from Kai Gyee village were found dead on Aug. 3 with gunshot and machete wounds, suspected to have been killed by militants.

The police major could not provide The Irrawaddy with an estimated timeframe for the current military operation as he said the mission is directly supervised by army officers. The Irrawaddy repeatedly phoned Maungdaw district administrative officials on Monday for details, but there was no answer at their headquarters.

Head of the police station in neighboring Buthidaung Township Lt Kyaw Khine briefly acknowledged that the verbal order by army was made days ago but that it has not been officially announced within the region.

As far as I know, army units have been assigned to ethnic villages which are situated near the Mayu mountains, he said, referring to Buddhist Arakanese communities.

Ko Maung Soe Win, an Arakanese resident of Zay Di Pyin village in northern Rakhine States Rathedaung Township, told The Irrawaddy that both Muslim and Buddhist residents were told by army officials not to set foot in the Mayu mountains, where they typically gather edible plants. He added that villagers are also afraid to go their paddy fields, which are situated near Muslim villages, noting that levels of mistrust between the communities are particularly high.

A Muslim resident of Zay Di Pyin, Al-Haj Zawhie Thra, said that authorities officially announced a curfew banning people from going out in the evenings and gatherings of five or more in public. He added that around five army infantry units had deployed near the Mayu highlands.

Carrying out law enforcement in an unstable situation is a good idea, but the authorities should also consider the challenges of villagers daily life, he told The Irrawaddy.

Zawhie Thra said that after hundreds of Muslim residents in Outt Nan village confronted security forces last week as they attempted to arrest six men, the authorities created a barbed-wire fence between Muslim and Buddhist quarters in nearby Zay Di Pyin village and blocked all road entrances, effectively segregating the community.

The market, he explained, is located in the Buddhist Arakanese quarter and Muslims have not been allowed to either shop there or sell their goods since last week.

Some poor people are now facing a great dilemma, Zawhie Thra said.

Meanwhile, farmers from Kai Gyee in Maungdaw are asking that the entire community be evacuated to another neighboring Arakanese village after their rice is harvested in the forthcoming cool season, said U Khin Maung Than, head of the Maungdaw chapter of the ANP. According to local Arakanese publication Narinjara, state authorities visited Kai Gyee on Monday, reportedly asking the villagers not to leave and promising them protection, a new school and road, and solar panels.

Currently, farmers from Kai Gyee village are cultivating their paddies under the protection of security guards, U Khin Maung Than said.
Burma Govt Security Adviser Defends Rakhine Troop Deployment

Additional Myanmar Army security forces were sent to Rakhine State on Thursday. / Myanmar Press Photo Agency

NAYPYITAW  The Tatmadaw is responsible for security in Rakhine States Maungdaw, which faces insurgent violence, said U Thaung Tun, national security adviser for the Myanmar government, in light of recent troop deployment to the area.

While concerns of renewed clearance operations were raised with the arrival of two planes of Tatmadaw [Myanmar Army] troops in Sittwe on Thursday morning, U Thaung Tun said the deployment was meant only to provide security. The militarys past clearance operations in the area drew widespread accusations of human rights abuses.

Responsibility falls on the Tatmadaw when Rakhine State faces danger. It has taken on the responsibility for security after discovering [militant] camps in the Mayu mountain range, he told the press after the first day of the Forum on Democratic Transition in Naypyitaw on Friday.

The dispatch follows the Arakan National Party (ANP)s request to Myanmar armed forces commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing to boost security in the area on Wednesday.

Security forces need to solve the Rakhine issue with foresight. While there is still no understanding and trust between two communities, security operations will only quash the militancy for a while, and it will return once the troops are removed. And if there are more tragic cases then and tensions are transmitted to the younger generation, it will become more difficult to solve, political analyst U Tin Maung Than told The Irrawaddy.

He said he supported the suppression of militants, but suggested the Myanmar Army should employ effective intelligence collection rather than use the local Muslim administrators as informants.

According to government statistics, militants have killed around 20 Muslims who cooperated with authorities in their operations in the area, where tensions have been high since militants attacked police outposts last October in Maungdaw.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Hundreds Protest Aid Agencies in Rakhine

Local ethnic Rakhine call on the government to improve security on Sunday. / San Paw / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Hundreds of Buddhists took to the streets in Rakhine State on Sunday to protest against aid organizations they accuse of giving support to Muslim Rohingya militants, police and a protest leader said.

Buddhist monks and members of the Rakhine ethnic group held demonstrations in 15 towns, including the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, demanding that aid agencies leave the western state immediately, Htay Aung, a self-described leader of the protests, told Reuters by phone.

We will protest again and again until we get our demands. If the government fails to act, that is their responsibility, he said.

Tensions have risen once again in Rakhine since seven Buddhists were found hacked to death in the mountains in the north of the state in July.

The government said it had discovered forest encampments that proved Muslim extremists were responsible for the killings, and the military sent additional forces to the area this week.

At one suspected militant camp last month, biscuits originating from the United Nations World Food Programme were discovered. Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists have long accused U.N. and other aid organisations of favouring the Rohingya with aid.

Crackdown

The state was plunged into violence in October, when Rohingya insurgents killed nine border police, sparking a crackdown in which government security forces were accused of raping, killing and torturing Rohingya civilians.

About 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in Rakhine, but are denied citizenship and face restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. About 120,000 remain in camps set up after deadly violence swept the state in 2012, where they rely on aid agencies for basic provisions.

Pictures shared online of Sundays protests showed saffron-robed monks holdings signs reading, We dont need terrorist supporter group, and calling for the U.N. and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) to get out.

Htay Aung said the protesters demanded that the government rid the state of Muslim militants, quickly verify the citizenship credentials of Muslims and allow Rakhine Buddhists to form armed militias.

Police Major Cho Lwin estimated that about 600 people protested in Sittwe.

The protest went ahead today peacefully, he said, adding that police had stepped up security and blocked roads leading to aid offices.

Reuters obtained the text of note sent by the UN on Wednesday to the 300 or so UN staff in Rakhine, as well as INGOs, warning of rising hostility to international agencies in the state.
Burma Impossible to Remove Tatmadaw from Politics: Army Colonel

Col. Aung Myint Oo of the National defense College. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  The Tatmadaw cannot be removed from the countrys politics, according to an official from the militarys National Defense College (NDC) at a panel discussion on civilian-military relations during the Forum on Myanmars Democratic Transition in Naypyitaw on Friday.

Considering the reality, it is impossible to remove the military from politics, said Col Aung Myint Oo, head of internal and external relations at NDC.

For a government to be strong, it needs to solve security problems in its territory. For Myanmar to do so, it has to make use of the Tatmadaw as one of its institutions.

Civilian-military relations has been a hot topic following the arrest and prosecution of three journalists by the military under the Unlawful Associations Act, and Yangon Region chief minister U Phyo Mins statement in July that the militarys commander-in-chief was on the same level as a director-general according to state protocol in a democracy.

Myanmars 2008 Constitution guarantees defense services participation in national political leadership roles. The military is assured 25 percent of parliamentary seatsenough to vetoand control of the home, defense, and border affairs ministries.

At the forum, representatives from the civilian side of the government suggested putting the military under civilian control while military representatives encouraged cooperation.

Shan State minister for planning and economy U Soe Nyunt Lwin told The Irrawaddy that many of the problems facing the country could be solved by putting the military under civilian control.

He said the military was under civilian control in periods under British and Japanese rule, and following the 1947 Constitution.

If the military is willing to be under civilian control, many problems including land rights for farmers and internal peace could be solved, said U Soe Nyunt Lwin.

In Indonesia, the military took the lead role in implementing transition. So is the case in Myanmar. But, in Indonesia, the military didnt intervene in politics, he told The Irrawaddy.

Col Aung Myint Oo argued that defense forces are exploited for political motives.

He questioned the theory that armed forces should be under civilian control, saying that it amounts to building mutual trust and cooperation.

Taking a look at the foreign policies of some countries, you can see that the armed forces are necessary, said the colonel.

He suggested the government should be able to solve the problems itself if it wants to remove the military from politics: Unless it can do so, it will have to make use of the army, said the colonel.

Though the National League for Democracy (NLD) takes a restrained approach toward the Tatmadaw according to its policy on national reconciliation, the Tatmadaw stands on its own policy, and there is an imbalance in the national reconciliation process, said political analyst U Than Soe Naing.

According to the very essence of the 2008 Constitution, it is the Tatmadaw which will decide the fate of Myanmars politics. Myanmar will get peace only when they display magnanimity, he told The Irrawaddy.

Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo, a civil-military relations expert, said during the forum that Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) is not about the removal of the military from politics, but putting defense ministry policies under civilian guidance.

It is about the cooperation between military and political leaders with the civilian side taking the leading role. It is not about the civilian government commanding military strategies. The military strategies will be designed by military leaders with accountability and responsibility, she said.

Additional reporting by Htun Htun. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Myanmar Army Questions NMSP After it Defies Military Parade Ban

NMSP troops organize a gun salute on Mon Revolution Day. / Hintharnee / The Irrawaddy

MAWLAMYINE, Mon State  The South Eastern Command of the Myanmar Army questioned the New Mon State Party (NMSP) on Saturday about a military parade and gun salute it held during the celebration of Mon Revolution Day.

There was a 21-gun salute in honor of our fallen martyrs and soldiers. They had asked if we could avoid doing so because they held Martyrs Day without a gun salute, Nai Win Hla, who is in charge of the NMSPs internal affairs, told the press.

Three members of the NMSP met the commander of South Eastern Command Maj-Gen Myo Win, Col Tin Htut and Lt-Col Ye Htut on Saturday, said Nai Win Hla, who was also present at the meeting.

The South Eastern Command on August 5 told the NMSP not to hold military parades in uniform at locations other than the partys headquarters to mark the 70th Anniversary of Mon Revolution Day, which fell on August 7.

However, the NMSP held parades in uniform and a gun salute at locations other than the partys headquarters, as it had in the past on Mon Revolution Day.

Following this, Light Infantry Battalion No. 284 based in Kyainseikgyi Township dispatched around 100 troops into the villages surrounding Kwe Kaw village where the NMSPs Mawlamyine base is headquartered, according to local villagers.

When asked by villagers, the soldiers said they were there to provide medical services. But locals think they are here because of the military parades on Mon Revolution Day and they are concerned that clashes might occur. They are staying at the monastery, and rarely go outside, said a villager of Taung Pauk village, who asked not to be named.

The Myanmar Army also barred the NMSP from organizing military parades on Mon National Day in February. The NMSP also defied that order and later was forced to give up two gates under its control to the military.

Nai Win Hla said the NMSP would send a delegation to meet government authorities in Mawlamyine District soon.

The NMSP signed a ceasefire with the then ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1995, but the truce broke in 2010. It then signed state- and Union-level ceasefire agreements with former President U Thein Seins government in February 2012, but has opted out of signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

It has told the media that it agreed to the NCA path, however, it has not clarified a date to sign the agreement.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Naga Faction Signing NCA Hinges on Cross-border Agreement

An NSCN-K peace delegation and Union Peace Commission delegates held talks on Sept. 16, 2015. / U Nyo Ohn Myint

YANGON  Without reaching an agreement that covers the ethnic Naga people in both Myanmar and India, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) will not sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), according to peace negotiator U Kyaw Wan Sein of the NSCN-K.

We are not yet ready to sign the NCA, and are still discussing it. Naga people live both in Myanmar and India. And we cant sign the NCA for only Naga people in Myanmar. It should cover Naga people in both countries, otherwise there is no way we can sign it, U Kyaw Wan Sein told The Irrawaddy.

The NSCN-K, formed in 1988, demands the independence of Nagaland. Prior to that, ethnic Naga fought for independenceboth in Myanmar and Indiaunder the National Socialist Council of Nagaland formed in 1980. But eight years later, the council split into two factions: the NSCN-K and another fraction, known as the NSCN-IM, mostly fighting against the Indian government, was led by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah.

Little is currently known about the movement of the NSCN-K in the northwest of Myanmar, except that the NSCN-K signed a ceasefire agreement with U Thein Seins government on April 9, 2012, but has rarely been seen in ongoing peace talks, only taking part as observers. The NSCN-K participated as an observer to the NCA-drafting process, but stated it was not interested in signing it. It has instead proposed that a tripartite dialogue involving Myanmar, India and the Naga be used to reach a solution.

The current National League for Democracy governments peace negotiators, led by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, invited the NSCN-K to attend the latest 21st Century Panglong peace conferences in August 2016 and May 2017, but it did not attend.

U Hla Maung Shwe of the government peace commission told The Irrawaddy: There was no fighting with the [NSCN-K] and the Tatmadaw [Myanmar Army] after 2000. We have smooth relations with them. But, it will take time to talk them into signing NCA.

The NSCN-K reportedly operates in the areas of Lahe, Leshi, Hkamti and Namyun townships in Sagaing Region. The ethnic Naga in Burma were given a self-administrative zone in Leshi, Lahe and Namyun townships under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution. The NSCN-IM faction mainly operates in northeastern India across the border.

There are around 400,000 Naga people living in Myanmar.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Guest Column Does China Want Peace in Myanmar?

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they meet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on May 16, 2017. / Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Chinas recent involvement in Myanmars peace process has caused people to question whether the countrys path towards peace is being shaped by its northern neighbors close participation. China historically maintained a non-interference policy in its foreign relations, yet they have appointed a Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Sun Guoxiang, to assist in facilitating discussions between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups.

After China stepped in to mediate between the Myanmar Army and the Northern Alliance in the second session of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference held on May 23, 2017, people have asked what its intentions actually were.

China became closely involved in the Myanmar peace process after 2013 when the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) attempted to invite representatives from foreign countries, particularly the US, to the talks.

On November 19, 2013, Kachin Independence Army (KIA) Maj-Gen Gun Maw visited the US Embassy in Yangon and met Ambassador Derek Mitchell, reportedly seeking an avenue for American involvement in peace talks.

In April 2014, Sumlut Gun Maw visited the US and met senior state department officials and officials from the United Nations.

China perceived the US governments attempt at facilitating peace talks as an effort to undermine Chinas long-held influence in the region; China continues to reject the involvement of other foreign powers, particularly the US, in Myanmars peace process.

Since then, China has geared up its own involvement through the appointment of special envoys, and invitations for Myanmar leaders to come to China.

In March 2013, China appointed Wang Yingfan as the first Special Envoy for Asian Affairs to focus on Myanmars peace process. Three years later, in April 2016, Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, was the first foreign guest received by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In July of that year, Minister of State Security Geng Huichang followed.

Just weeks later, on July 27, 2016, Sun Guoxiang, Chinas current Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, attended the Mai Ja Yang summit for ethnic nationality groups, hosted by the KIO.

Song Tao, the chief of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Myanmar the following month and met with a diverse group of Myanmar political and military leaders. Sun Guoxiang also visited the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS) to ensure the two groups participation in the first session of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference initiated by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

China recently sent Song Tao to visit Myanmar on August 2 this year. He met Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders.

In doing so, China seems to position itself as a key player, committed to supporting the Myanmar peace process, inviting Myanmar leaders on regular state visits and making deals in economic, political and military cooperation.

In June 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi visited China and met President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. In August 2016, she again paid an official visit after her party, the National League for Demoracy (NLD), swept to power.

Military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing visited China in Nov. 2016 and met Guo Sheng Kun, the Minister of Public Security in China and General Wei Liang, the Political Officer of the Southern Command, as well as other officers.

In April 2017, President U Htin Kyaw paid an official visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.

As China appears to be accelerating the frequency of meetings with Myanmars leadership, there will inevitably be an impact various developments throughout the country. But, Chinas interest in Myanmars peace process seems to be limited to issues concerning the groups located along the Sino-Myanmar border. Much less attention has been paid to the ethnic groups in southeastern or western Myanmar, such as the Karen, the Mon, or the Chin. Chinas priority, in fact, is to maintain peace and stability around its periphery, not throughout the whole of Myanmar. In addition, China also prioritizes stability alongside its gas pipelines and other areas in which their huge development projects have been vested.

It is quite conspicuous that China turns away from conflicts which do not directly affect its interests. For example, when the Myanmar Army carried out major offensives against the KIO and took control of several geostrategic areassuch as Hka Ya Bum, Bum Tawng, Hpun-pyen Bum, Gideon and Lai Hpawng outposts, and the No. 6 battalion in Hpakant and the No. 8 Brigade in IndawgyiChina kept silent. Notwithstanding the latest attack that occurred in the gold- and amber-rich Tanai area in June and displaced thousands, China again kept quiet, demonstrating that the conflict lay beyond their immediate interests.

China primarily concerns itself with conflict in Myanmar when it directly affects its borders. For example, when artillery fire and airstrikes reached within its territory as the result of the fighting between the ethnic Kokang army and the Myanmar Army in 2015, China urgently summoned the Myanmar ambassador to China to condemn the bombings, which caused casualties of Chinese civilians.

Unlike other neighboring countries, China has frequently denied basic refuge to displaced people fleeing conflict in Myanmar, apparent as recently as January of this year, when 4,000 ethnic Kachin were forced back across the border by Chinese police.

Many observers speculate that China supports some ethnic armed groups, particularly the United Wa State Army and the Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army. Of course, China may use these groups as a stick against Myanmar if its military turns away from China and cannot secure its investments.

But, conventional wisdom is that a person or a country always seeks to ally with those who can offer better and larger incentives and benefits. In this scenario, the Myanmar Army provides larger incentives to Beijing than ethnic armed groups: China can gain greater benefits from their ties with the Tatmadaw than from those with ethnic armies.

Beijing paradoxically does not want to topple the Myanmar Army, leading China to apply the same policy toward Myanmar as they practice toward the North Korean regime. Beijing will continuously support them to remain in power as long as they continue to benefit from their major investments.

It is obvious that China and the Myanmar Army provide mutual benefits to one another: through its seat on the UN Security Council, China protects the Burmese military from international punishment and drives potential supporters of ethnic armed groups out from China. Conversely, China benefits from a range of lucrative investments in Myanmar.

To secure these mutual interests, both China and the Myanmar Army strongly reject international involvement by other actors in Myanmars peace process.

Therefore, domestic and international peacemakers should remain vigilant and aware of Chinas involvement in affairs concerning peace in Myanmar. Placing too much trust in the momentum of a peace process mediated by China may, in turn, be misleading.

Joe Kumbun is the pseudonym of a Kachin State-based analyst.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has issued a reminder that Carrier Service Providers in the telecommunications sector have until the beginning of September to lodge statements of compliance with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code.

The regulator says CSPs must lodge a statement  known as Compliance Attestation  addressing matters relating to code compliance by 1 September.

Statements of compliance have to be lodged with Communications Compliance (CommCom), an independent compliance monitoring body established under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code to oversee the conduct of the Code Compliance Framework.

And in addition to providing a compliance attestation to CommCom, suppliers are bound by the TCP Code to register with Communications Alliance, the peak industry body representing the communications industry.

To find out more about lodging a Compliance Attestation go to the ACMA website
Parking business Smart Parking has secured a new contract valued at approximately $800,000 with Hobart City Council in Tasmania.

Under the contract, Smart Parking will partner with Australian Parking and Revenue Control in Hobart and provide 2100 sensors that give motorists real-time data on available parking spaces. Hobarts meters will be the first in the country to accept payment by ApplePay.

Signing of the Hobart contract coincides with Smart Parkings announcement of its continued expansion in New Zealand with a contract extension at Hamilton City Council.

Recently Smart Parking New Zealand announced it had won the contract with Hamilton City Council to install 945 sensors in the city and since commencing the installation the council has expanded the project by a further 400 sensors.

We are proud to announce the new contract with Hobart City Council. The continued uptake of our systems in Australia and beyond further cements our position as a world leader in the design, development and management of parking technology, Smart Parking chief executive Paul Gillespie said.

We are also pleased to be working with APARC, which distributes machines made by Parkeon, a major player in parking management solutions.

Smart Parking provides ground sensors to detect and electronically fine motorists for overstaying parking limits.

The complete smart parking solution for Hobart comprises Parkeon 7 colour screen parking meters, integrated enforcement, sensors, a mobile phone parking app, and real-time credit card processing.

The Parkeon colour screen meters offer a splash-screen so the council can provide information onwhat's going in downtown Hobart, advertise, and even display missing person notices or law enforcement messages.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev will bid goodbye to the organisation by the end of June 2018 in the wake of the allegations of violating money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws levelled by AUSTRAC.

CBA chairman Catherine Livingston said the exact timing of Narev's departure would depend on when a replacement was found.

After AUSTRAC announced that it was filing a civil case in the Federal Court, Narev had said he should be the one to sort out the mess as it happened under his watch.

The board, which last week pledged that he had its full support, has apparently done a U-turn and decided that the third scandal under Narev will be his last.

AUSTRAC had levelled charges that more than $77 million had been laundered through the bank, with the relevant law being contravened more than 53,700 times.

Speculation has been rife ever since the AUSTRAC announcement that Narev had finally come to the end of his tenure.

He had ridden out two earlier scandals - one involving the bank's financial services arm and a second involving the banks life insurance section.

The bank had blamed coding errors in a software update for its Intelligent Deposit Machines for its allegedly falling foul of the law.

It claimed that when the IDMs were rolled out in May 2012, they were working as they should.

CBA added that a software update later that year led to the machines not providing the correct Threshold Transaction Reports which had to be sent to AUSTRAC. Any transfer of more than $10,000 has to be reported within 10 days.
Cyber security company Forcepoint has inked a deal with Sydney IT security distributor Orca Tech to support the efforts of both companies in catering to Australian clients.

A statement said Orca Tech would now have access to all Forcepoints security solutions, including DLP, insider threat, Web security, email security and next-generational firewall technologies.

It will become a key distribution partner for Forcepoint in the country focusing on both business and government customers.

Forcepoints partnership with Orca Tech will help our customers protect their employees, critical business data and intellectual property by detecting and eliminating risky cyber behaviours, said Guy Eilon, country manager of Forcepoint ANZ.

Orca Tech has a proven track record in delivering value to their partner network and an exceptional reputation in the security market.

Jelena Milosevic, Orca Techs ANZ marketing manager, said companies needed to focus less on protecting infrastructure and more on human points of interaction with systems and data.

Our customers face a rapidly evolving threat landscape," she said.

"While many solutions on the market today focus on defending the perimeter, this partnership with Forcepoint enables us to offer our customers a new opportunity to implement a system of solutions that work together to eliminate cyber security blind spots everywhere."
Billed as providing a complete range of tools and services including cyber liability insurance, technology tools, and access to a crisis response team, Cyber Plus sounds like a great addition.

Everyone knows that a cyber attack on your business, infrastructure and customers is always a giant minus, so the pitch to add some Cyber Plus protection and insurance sounds like an Australian first that has been a long time coming.

Clearly, you may well have your own IT people to help protect your business, or you may not, but it never hurts to have a force multiplier on hand, with Cyber Plus wanting to be that positive force you turn to when calculating how to have the best proactive and reactive defences.

After all, with Australian small businesses now rating cyber-crime as one of their five biggest threats, it should come as no surprise to see an overwhelming 95% being reported as wanting tools to help protect them.

In response, Cyber Plus has come to the rescue, promoting the imminent introduction of a bundle of cyber tools tailored to protect small business from cyber-attacks  which the company bills as the first of its kind in Australia.

Paul Waite, co-founder of Cyber Plus, said: Global cybercrime is predicted to grow from US$3 trillion in 2015 to US$6 trillion by 2021, and points to these stats to back up his claim.

Waite waits not, stating: That looks like a good enough reason to ditch computers altogether and go back to paper and pen, but obviously thats not going to happen. We need to tackle this issue head-on with all of the tools we have at our disposal.

Mike Newbigin, clearly no newbie as a Cyber Plus director, said: All businesses, no matter their size, need to have the cyber security basics, adding, most businesses are critically dependent on digital networks and may not be fully aware of how a cyber attack could be fatal to their operations".

So, what is within the Cyber Plus Small Business Bundle?

Were told that it consists of three cyber basics:

Preparation for the possibility of a cyber attack, including risk advisory services; cyber response planning; email and web filtering software; antivirus; firewall; backup; encryption; user access control; and cyber awareness training;

Protection from the effects of a cyber attack with cyber insurance; and

Responding to a cyber attack with: forensic investigation; legal assistance; public relations; identity monitoring services; and credit monitoring services.

Speaking about Cyber Plus latest offering, Small Business Minister Michael McCormack said: SMEs are no strangers to cyber crime. As threats continue to evolve and grow, we are seeing more cyber criminals shift their focus to small businesses. Small businesses make up the backbone of the Australian economy, and we need to do all we can to ensure the industry has the tools, skills and resources to build the cyber resilience necessary to withstand attacks.

Waite added: Before becoming a victim of a cyber attack, 80% of small businesses feel confident they can respond, despite not having the expertise and resources.

Not unsurprisingly, this falls to 20% (see page 11 of this report for the stat source) after a small business becomes a victim of cyber crime. This to be expected as small business owners need to believe they can keep their business running in the face of many challenges.

Newbigin said: As the Council of Small Business Australia (COSBOA) recently noted, one in five small businesses experienced an extortion attack last year.

But small businesses are also increasingly targeted by criminals using highly sophisticated cyber attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS), botnets, worms, spear phishing and drive-by exploits. Its an increasing threat and one where the criminals seldom get caught.

One key element of small businesses arsenal against cyber crime is cyber insurance. Its increasingly a must have for small business.

A small business relies heavily on its reputation and this can be irreversibly damaged by a data breach. Its at this time small businesses need the expert advice, yet without a cyber insurance policy, they may not have the resources.

The company further explains that it includes the flexibility to cater for differing risk profiles, and says its comprehensive suite of insurance products addresses various first and third-party liability issues that can arise from a serious cyber attack or data breach".

Then theres the assurance that Cyber Pluss Small Business Bundle clients also have immediate access to a crisis response team, which includes a panel of forensic IT experts who will work with them to manage a cyber incident".

Keen to show its cyber cred, the company notes it has partnered with global consultants Deloitte Risk Services, BDO, Ernst & Young and leading credit and identity monitoring supplier Equifax plus law firms Minter Ellison, King & Wood Mallesons and Madgwicks to provide this market-leading level of advisory support".

Leon Fouche, a partner at BDO, said: We are thrilled to be working closely with Cyber Plus to offer this solution to the SME market. The increasing prevalence of external hacks and internal security breaches are not just for large corporates but businesses of all sizes across all sectors. They need to have a strategy to protect their assets and their reputation  and this needs to be in place before any attacks are perpetrated.

With our expertise in cyber incident response, we are working with Cyber Plus to offer something very valuable to the Australian SME market, Fouche added.

Cyber Plus also notes its technologies within the bundle protect computers, file servers and mail servers from viruses, threats and phishing attacks".

Phil Cuff, chief executive of TokenOne, didnt speak off-the-cuff when he said: Protecting our assets, people and identity are key when it comes to tackling cyber attacks. By partnering with Cyber Plus, were empowering small to medium businesses to take action with a complete bundled solution to a hugely complex problem.

Newbigin continued: Reputation is an intangible asset, yet it is a decisive factor in a businesss future success. Irreversible damage can be done to a brands reputation if they do not have risk management and mitigation strategies in place to combat a data breach.

Moreover, the digital age has increased vulnerability, with the potential for reputational harm via social media that can carry information across the globe instantly, ended Newbigin.

So, what does the aforementioned imminent availability mean?

Cyber Plus said its cyber bundle will be for sale from September 2017".

No prices are mentioned, but as per usual, they will be available at relevant prices to relevant parties, and you can no doubt find out more by contacting the company.

Stay safe out there!
No matter the protections you have in place, the last defence for cyber security rests with the end user. How do you educate in a respectful, engaging way? I tried out Phriendly Phishing, built on this very premise, finding it reduced my risk and exposure to phishing and that my users enjoyed the process.

IT departments  like my very own  try to stop phishing emails reaching end users through a variety of technologies, but it is a never-ending battle to fight determined scammers and criminals who are constantly refining and improving their techniques.

At the end of the day, the last defence is always the end user's own astuteness and vigilance. This is why education is so vitally important.

I've been thinking on this problem for some time. What's the best way to train staff about phishing? Should it be in the company induction process? Is a single slide as I've seen companies do really achieving anything? How do you refresh the memory of long-standing staff?

Surveying the market yields a range of phishing tests; these will slam your users with fake phishing emails  harmless if clicked on, but reporting to you just how many people fell for the bait and thus have the potential to expose your network to harm. Coincidentally, even while writing this very story I received an ad from a large Australian telco offering their $5000 product to do this very thing.

I'd considered making my own phishing test; after all, why pay $5000 when I could send off my own barrage of tricky emails? Slap on a few logos, make a call to action: "Warning! This bad thing will happen unless you click here right now!" and send it off.

Yet, what does this really achieve? It helps measure how many people you can trick with an email deliberately crafted to trick, but it doesn't really teach those people how they were supposed to know better and as a result cannot ultimately lead to a decrease in risk because there is no education.

Phriendly Phishing says it's different, and I was keen to understand why. Before I tested the product I spoke to Damian Grace, and he was passionate about making a change in security awareness training.

Phriendly Phishing emerged, Grace said, when he lamented the lack of an effective training solution to help regular folk understand phishing attacks.

Grace was head of Ethical Hacking at Shearwater Solutions, an Australian security consulting firm, who used to perform standard phishing consulting just like I described above. They'd create the cleverest possible phishing email and send it to as many people within the target organisation as possible.

Yet, Grace reflected, he and the team at Shearwater were unsatisfied with these results. "People don't like being tricked," he told iTWire. "It can have a negative effect on the company."

Instead, he explained, he had a vision for phishing awareness training where people would want to be involved, where they'd be empowered to recognise phishing attempts and deal with them appropriately, both in their business and personal life.

"People aren't getting the education they require," Grace said. He looked at how awareness training was being performed. Some customers said they run an annual awareness campaign about phishing and expected better results, but yet these results never came: staff still kept falling for phishing emails.

I can relate from my own experience; I've seen phishing training which is just dull, and lifeless, and ultimately simply an academic paragraph on a slide during an induction  merely words to be glossed over, for the new staff member to say "Ok" to, neither the trainer nor staff member really understanding what the slide says.

During this review, Grace noted key points he felt would make an effective training system and went to market seeking a solution that met these criteria. Yet, no suitable education system existed which would give the user some way to really enjoy the experience and understand it, and provide solid anti-phishing skills. Instead, the option followed the same path of trick the user and put them offside.

Knowing there was a better way, and finding no existing option, Shearwater built it. Thus Phriendly Phishing was born.

A core principle from the start was to treat people with respect. There's often a perception that IT thinks of users as simply "dumb users" while in reality many security leaders Grace spoke to were passionate about making positive changes that benefited the organisation and staff alike and were seeking a product to help with this.

They wanted a product that took users on a journey of growing and learning, rather than simply tricking them with a one-off phishing email. This mindset, Grace says, is key to Phriendly Phishing's philosophy and approach.

It's not difficult to see why phishing works. It offers a big return to scammers, to criminals, for little investment. Many emails are purely opportunistic and work simply on massive volumes. Like sales calls, scams are a numbers game. Send a scam to a million people. Even if 90% are filtered out that's still 100,000 people who see it. Of those, the scammers bet there's a certain number who will click the link. Phishing isn't going away. It's easy, and it's profitable  and that's why it is essential any business invest in phishing education for its staff.

Among products I looked at, Phriendly Phishing stood out with these claims of respecting staff and helping them truly understand, through their own personal journey, how phishing risks an organisation's health, as well as arming people with real skills to identify and act on phishing emails.

The platform further seeks to measure how successful the training was, and to confirm to stakeholders' risk has been reduced.

I engaged Phriendly Phishing to see it myself on my business, a national publicly-listed company with 70 locations and almost 1000 staff. With a compressed two-week timeframe in mind, we ran this across 50 staff, which included the chief executive, senior managers, receptionists and a mixture of others.

Phriendly Phishing does its work in three phases. The first sets a baseline, informing the organisational risk to phishing as it stands, before any training. By necessity this is the send a simulated phishing message to all users approach to see who clicks, yet with two differences to the traditional approach by every other vendor.

For one, the results are anonymised. You'll know how many people clicked, even how many times people clicked, but not who. Secondly, if someone does click they are simply taken to a benign Google search page, leading them to believe the email failed, not that they did anything wrong. It's non-intrusive and isn't there to embarrass the user, but purely to gather a baseline.

For the administrator it's a different story; the baseline is vital and even sobering. Remember, it informs the risk to your organisation if a malicious phishing attack occurred right at that very second.

In my case, of the 50 staff, nine people clicked the link. One person clicked twice  I had 10 clicks from nine people out of 50 messages. Thats a risk of 18%. If this was a real phishing attack, Id have an outbreak on my hands. Imagine nine people in different locations executing a malicious payload at the same time.

The second phase follows on, and this is the education delivery which is a major distinctive of the product. Administrators can see who is yet to take training, along with individual progress and other metrics. I'll come back to the training momentarily.

Lastly, phase three sends periodic real-life phishing assessments to test your users remain alert after the training and that they absorbed its message. These assessments are graded in difficulty, from difficulty one which would be a fairly obvious and unsophisticated phishing scam, to difficulty ten which is very sophisticated and delivers phishing emails from registered domains that appear to be reputable domains. This time around the results are not anonymised and you will know who needs their training reinforced.

During this phase, not one staff member clicked any links during my test. My risk plummeted from nine people out of 50, or 18%, to zero out of 50 or 0%. That's impressive, though results will understandably vary. My test was in a compressed timeframe so the phishing assessments followed very closely from the training. While 0% would be wonderful for anyone to see, the important measure is the value ultimately trends downwards, even if it may rise and fall along the way.

At any point during the three phases, admins can monitor dashboards and run reports to keep abreast of progress and effectiveness. Each staff member is on their own journey.

The training component is so vitally important. Your staff cannot make a difference to your organisation's risk if they do not actually understand how to identify a phishing email or what to do about it.

Phishing training cant be technical; it must serve a wide audience, targeted to non-technical people in a way that supports learning.

I really liked Phriendly Phishing's training, with its acronym S.C.A.M.  users come to learn this means check the Sender, check the Content, check the Action, and Manage the email appropriately. S.C.A.M. also conveniently references the names of four cutesy characters who will help along the journey such as a slimy sender, a con man, an English teacher and a straight-by-the-book character. Its entertaining, its gamified with achievements, and importantly, its memorable. You get tested after each module with a short multiple choice quiz, and receive an award for passing.

The training was superb and my users absolutely loved it too. I was especially pleased the training impresses these concepts dont simply apply to the business, but also to home life. The bad guys will send phishing scams and ransomware to individual folk just as they will big business. I think understanding this helps get people more personally invested.

I asked my users for genuine feedback. They had these things to say:

I enjoyed completing this training. Even with some knowledge around Phishing and what to look out for I certainly learnt some new things. Definitely a useful tool for keeping it front of mind. I would recommend for the entire management team if it hasnt already been offered to them.

Ive just completed the training and learnt a couple of things I wasnt aware of before  I think it would be very useful for anyone who accesses emails at work (or at home).

I gave it a go, it was very easy to use and covered off well the fundamentals of avoiding a phishing scam.

I think this would be a great program to offer as reception training  specifically to those bigger locations who employ staff that are solely on reception and responsible for incoming emails. And, of course, managers.

Ongoing assessments follow training to ensure the lessons were understood and to gently assist staff who need more help or practice. The fake phishing attempts become more sophisticated as staff learn, and importantly, as staff demonstrate their abilities to recognise the hallmarks of fake emails, like hovering over a link to show the address it goes to and what may indicate an untrustworthy link.

During my time with Phriendly Phishing I found it's most certainly not a one-off trick your users and report on it test like the industry norm. Instead, it sets a higher standard, measuring ongoing organisational risk to phishing, while leading individuals on their own journey of phishing awareness.

In the admin console, I could group users in zones, I could report on who had started or finished the training, I could import users, I could do a great many things,

There's more to come with plans to add further innovations. A just-released product is the S.C.A.M Reporter Outlook Add-in, to allow you and your staff the capability of reporting a spam email in one click.

Phriendly Phishing is available as an annual subscription in units of 100 users, with no setup fees. User counts can be reassigned over time as staff come and go, and campaigns can be suspended as needed such as Christmas breaks.

During my time with Phriendly Phishing the benefits of running it as an ongoing training and assessment programme for existing staff and new starters were evident.

Phishing is a real risk, and phishing education and assessment is something that cannot be neglected. Phriendly Phishing is a product you could realistically embed into your company on-boarding or induction process, defending your assets in a way which delights your users.
New Zealands competition regulator The Commerce Commission has warned four telecommunications companies, including the countrys largest telco Spark, that they have engaged in conduct which breaches the Fair Trading Act.

The warnings come in letters The Commission has sent to the telcos  MyRepublic, Two Degrees New Zealand, Spark New Zealand and Vodafone New Zealand.

The action by the Commission follows its announcement last month that retail telecommunications will be an organisation-wide priority for the Commission in 2017-18  and that there are a number of areas across all industries that it will always regard as a priority due to the potential significant impact on consumers, business or markets in New Zealand.

The complexity and range of goods and services offered by the industry means consumers can be easily confused about product offerings. Almost every New Zealander uses a mobile or fixed-line phone and broadband, so the telecommunications sector has the potential to have a significant impact on consumers, said Commissioner Anna Rawlings.

As we noted when announcing our 2017-18 priorities, the telco sector continues to generate a high volume of consumer complaints, despite previous compliance and enforcement work by the Commission.

The Commission said in a statement issued on Monday that it is continuing to investigate further potential issues in the sector, including incorrect billing, failures to identify the subscription nature of mobile add-ons, incorrect calculation of broadband usage, unfair contract terms and representations concerning the nature and availability of internet services.

The Commission says the four companies which have been warned are likely to have breached the Fair Trading Act by engaging in the following conduct:

MyRepublic

Promoting its 1 Gigabit per second service up to 2 months before it was actually available.

Representing that customers on its GAMER broadband service would not experience lag or latency when they could experience lag or latency caused by third-party servers.

Incorrect representations that consumers rights of cancellation under the uninvited direct sales provisions of the Fair Trading Act ceased to apply once MyRepublic had commenced the service.

Two Degrees

Making misleading representations about the price of its unlimited broadband plan, by not identifying or inadequately disclosing the additional cost of a modem and its delivery.

Spark

Making representations that Vodafones 2G network was imminently closing, in the marketing of Sparks Skinny Mobile service.

Vodafone

Making misleading representations in the promotion of 12-month broadband plans bundled with free goods or services when, in order to receive the free goods or services, the consumer was required to pay additional fees or to take additional services.

On some occasions, a monthly headline price was advertised, but that price did not include the additional fees to be paid in order to receive free goods or services.

The Commission has taken a number of prosecutions or actions against telecommunication companies in recent years, including two involving Vodafone.

In September 2016, Vodafone was fined NZ$165,000 for false price representations on invoices for its "Red Essentials" mobile plan and in January 2014 Vodafone reached a NZ$268,000 with the Commission over the promotion of its "Broadband Lite" service.

The largest fine  NZ$390,000  was imposed on Trustpower in September 2016 for misleading consumers over the price and terms of its bundled electricity and unlimited data broadband offer.

And in December 2013 Call Plus Services Limited, trading as Slingshot, was fined NZ$250,000 over the telemarketing of its services.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Steve Bannon ran, and is still likely pulling the strings at, Breitbart, the Stormfront in a business suit with a skinny tie. Bannon once characterized it as enabling what he called the alt right, by which he meant a slightly more presentable version of the skinheads, KKK, bikers, Neo-Nazis and other far right fringe supremacist groups that might appeal to todays youth, including the educated.

Breitbart has been wildly successful, since conspiracy theories, race resentment, Islamophobia, misogyny and other base emotions have a visceral appeal.

I would argue that the success of the Neo-Neo-Nazis calling themselves alt- lies in an unconscious class dilemma that they displace onto race.

That is, not only must Trump dump Bannon, but so should the youth protesters who have been misled by Breitbart fake news. They should turn instead to a different challenger of the status quo, Bernie Sanders

Since the Reagan restructuring of the tax code in the 1980s and following on further such changes under Clinton and Bush, the United States is becoming. more and more unequal society. The top 1% owned 25 percent of the privately held wealth in the US in the 1950s. How much they own now is controversial but it is between 36% and 42%. The trend line is not in doubt. They take home 20% of the countrys income annually now, up from 10% in the 1960s.

These inequalities build up year after year. If 1% gets 20% this year and next year and the year after, after a while they will have it all.

This increasing economic inequality is bad for workers, lower middle class and middle class people but very good for the upper middle class and the wealthy.

The rich and government institutions in the US have for decades conspired to knock any realistic sense of class out of the American public. Workers making $21,000 a year, middle class families pulling down $40,000, and businessmen making a million dollars a year are all typically rolled up into the middle class in American political discourse. But the fact is that the top 10% or the top 1% or most importantly the top 0.1 percent benefit from a different set of policies than do working and middle class Americans.

Businessmen like few regulations and not having to pay fringe benefits, and very low taxes on business earnings and capital gains, so that even though they use the national infrastructure most intensively, the working and middle classes are made to pay for it.

If you want to understand why the Republican Party often sounds like it is on Mars, denying Climate Change, arguing that all problems can be solved by lower taxes, not wanting universal health insurance, etc., you have to understand that it represents the 1%, not the 99%. It lies to the 99% about standing up for the little guy, as Trump did. But look at their actual legislation to see whom they help and whom they hurt.

The move to greater income and wealth inequality destroys opportunity for upward mobility among working and middle class youth. Europe now has more opportunities for upward mobility than the United States!

So the angry young people protesting about being replaced or being made redundant arent wrong. They are victims of class oppression, and especially of Neoliberal policies that privatize public services like education and even water delivery and deregulate in favor of businesses and against consumers. They are wrong that this is being done to them by Jews or globalism or Mexicans. Most Jews are suffering from these policies along with everyone else, and the most articulate critic of inequality in our time is not Trump or Bannon but Bernie Sanders.

Bannon, a multi-millionaire, tells these young people that they should idolize wealthy businessmen like Donald Trump, and that the reason they are having trouble getting a job is not increasing inequality and concentration of wealth in a few hands, but because immigrants or Latinos or African Americans are taking their jobs and pushing them to the bottom of the pile. And Muslim terrorists are lording it over them.

In fact, studies show that immigrants dont have good enough English to take jobs away from most white workers, and that they fill different niches in the economy. Immigrants actually expand the economy and would be helping white workers and middle classes do better except for one thing. The top 1% is capturing 20% of the annual income of the country, so the expansion of GDP made possible by the immigrants isnt going proportionally to white workers.

Bannon and Breitbart are the purveyors of the ultimate false consciousness, the illusion of race oppression to hide from their dupes the reality, of class oppression. Of course, dividing people by race and national origin and religion is extremely convenient for the Rupert Murdochs and Koch Brothers and Scaifes and others. Why do you think respectable WASPs who yearn to be invited to white tie PBS donor parties fund an Islamophobia network to the tune of tens of millions of dollars? To give people some other target to hate than their increasing share of the national wealth.

Nobody needs to hate anyone. All we have to do is go back to the tax code as it existed under Republican president Dwight Eisenhower and make sure there are opportunities for energetic young people to move up.

Trump and Bannon are taking us in the other direction. The tax code they are cooking up with the GOP Congress will be like a firehose spewing money at the wealthiest and depriving everyone else. Trumps Scott Pruitt is destroying the EPA so that corporations can poison us at will for a profit without facing any backlash.

So the corporations and the 1% benefit from Charlottesville. Who cares about some old Confederate general? Whether a statue to him stands somewhere wont put money in anyones pocket. And if young white people want to be proud of something, they can be proud of Americas role in defeating Nazism or our Catholic president Jack Kennedys successful moonlanding project, or American science triumphs and Nobel prizes, often won by Jews and members of other minorities. Hanging your self-worth on the Confederacy having been glorious is a fools errand.

So if they were smart, and really wanted to take back their country, these young people would turn to Bernie Sanders and not a hot duplicitous mess like Bannon. They would join unions and support a substantial raise in the minimum wage and get behind a single payer health insurance program. These things would all benefit them in a way that the dust of Jefferson Davis cannot. It is true that they will also benefit African-Americans and Latinos and women. Thats called synergy, when something is bigger than the sum of its parts.

It wont help Bannon, though. It will raise his taxes and it will drain the hatred that fuels his support base.

These youth are being trained like circus animals, to hate the Left, which is the only political force that can actually rescue them. They are being trained to hate Jews and African-Americans and Latinos and Muslim-Americans, when it is only by joining forces with them that they have a prayer of outwitting the billionaires on public policy. They are being taught to reach back to rickety nineteenth century plantations for their social ideal, when the future is Elon Musk and Tesla and the gigafactory enterprises that they can take part in if they get the right training.

Of course Trump needs to fire Bannon, whose propaganda for the Far Right in the past decade led directly to the Vanilla ISIS car-killing in Charlottesville. But more importantly, the people with genuine grievances about lack of jobs and lack of opportunity and lack of dignity need to be taught how to get those things in a positive way.



Related video:

The Young Turks: Steve Bannon Called Fired Jeff Lord In Racist Solidarity
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TeleSur |  

The bill would allocate over US$260 million each to Irans ballistic missile program and the Quds Force.

Irans parliament has approved the first step of a bill to boost Tehrans missile program spending on the heels of new U.S. sanctions against the country.

Lawmakers gave the go ahead for the crafting of the bill which is aimed at countering Americas terrorist and adventurist actions, according to the state broadcaster IRIB, in a session in which members of parliament chanted Death to America.

The bill would allocate over US$260 million each to Irans ballistic missile program and the Quds Force  the external arm of the Revolutionary Guard.

State-run IRNA news agency reported that 247 lawmakers attended the voting session, with 240 approving the spending plan and one lawmaker abstaining.

The government will also bolster the elite Revolutionary Guards  a direct response to new sanctions recently imposed by the United States.

Iran denies violating a U.N. resolution which endorsed Tehrans 2015 nuclear deal, preventing them from conducting activities related to ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.

Tehran says it does not design such missiles.

Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister and senior nuclear negotiator on hand for the vote, said the moderate President Hassan Rouhani government would support the bill.

He reminded members of parliament that the government backed the bill, which he said was designed wisely so that it does not violate the (nuclear deal) and provide excuses for opposing sides, IRNA reported.

The bill will next head to a second vote before being submitted to a clerical body for final approval and passage into law.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Wochit News: Iran Retaliates New US Legislation W/ Missile Related Bill
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - August 14, 2017) - Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM) announced today the release of its unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. All financial figures contained herein are expressed in U.S. dollars ("USD") unless otherwise noted.

Lombardo Paredes Arenas, Chief Executive Officer of Gran Colombia, commenting on the Company's results for the first half of 2017, said, "As we reach the midpoint of 2017, we are pleased to report that our operating and financial results have been tracking to our guidance for the year. Our exploration effort in 2016 has paid off with a four-year extension of the expected mine life at our Segovia Operations to 2026 and we are now 40% of the way through our 2017 drilling program. We believe that our investment and social programs in Segovia over the last seven years have positively impacted the local community, respecting the role that responsible mining plays in the local culture and economy. The recent civil disruption is not an issue caused by Gran Colombia. It is the response by illegal miners to the Colombian government's recent regulations aimed at illegal mining in the country, including restrictions on the use of mercury. While we hope that the Colombian government will soon be able to restore order in the community so that our people and their families can safely go about their daily lives and we can return to normal operations, we are continuing our negotiations to formalize illegal mining within our title."

Second Quarter and First Half 2017 Highlights

Gran Colombia has updated the life-of-mine ("LOM") plan for its Segovia Operations to incorporate the Mineral Resource estimate announced on April 19, 2017, extending the expected mine life at Segovia by four years to 2026 . Measured and Indicated Resources at the Segovia Operations increased to 2.9 million tonnes at a grade of 12.0 g/t totalling 1.1 million ounces of gold, up 174% compared to the Mineral Resource estimate as of December 31, 2016. Gran Colombia also added 0.4 million ounces of gold to the Inferred category at Segovia bringing total Inferred Mineral Resources to 3.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 9.9 g/t representing 1.0 million ounces of gold. Gran Colombia is continuing its exploration campaign at Segovia in 2017 with approximately 40% of the planned 20,000 meters drilling program completed in the first half of the year. The mine life extension, coupled with an increase in the expected long-term gold price to $1,250 per ounce, resulted in a $35.5 million after-tax reversal of impairment related to the Segovia Operations in the second quarter of 2017.

. Measured and Indicated Resources at the Segovia Operations increased to 2.9 million tonnes at a grade of 12.0 g/t totalling 1.1 million ounces of gold, up 174% compared to the Mineral Resource estimate as of December 31, 2016. Gran Colombia also added 0.4 million ounces of gold to the Inferred category at Segovia bringing total Inferred Mineral Resources to 3.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 9.9 g/t representing 1.0 million ounces of gold. Gran Colombia is continuing its exploration campaign at Segovia in 2017 with approximately 40% of the planned 20,000 meters drilling program completed in the first half of the year. The mine life extension, coupled with an increase in the expected long-term gold price to $1,250 per ounce, resulted in a $35.5 million after-tax related to the Segovia Operations in the second quarter of 2017. On May 31, 2017, Gran Colombia extended the maturity date for $47.0 million of its Senior Secured Convertible Debentures due 2020 (the "2020 Debentures") to 2024 .

(the "2020 Debentures") . Gran Colombia's adjusted EBITDA of $21.3 million in the second quarter of 2017 represented a 16% increase over the second quarter last year. This brings the trailing 12-months' adjusted EBITDA to $71.0 million, up 8% from the end of 2016. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure.

of $21.3 million in the second quarter of 2017 represented a 16% increase over the second quarter last year. This brings the trailing 12-months' adjusted EBITDA to $71.0 million, up 8% from the end of 2016. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure. Gran Colombia generated $3.2 million of Excess Cash Flow (see the Company's MD&A for the computation) in the second quarter of 2017, bringing the total for the first half of 2017 to $5.5 million, as expected.

(see the Company's MD&A for the computation) in the second quarter of 2017, bringing the total for the first half of 2017 to $5.5 million, as expected. Gran Colombia has continued to execute its strategy to aggressively reduce its Senior Debentures with its Excess Cash Flow, repurchasing and cancelling $1.7 million of 2020 Debentures under its Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB") in the second quarter of 2017. Subsequent to June 30, 2017, the Company repurchased and cancelled an additional $0.7 million of 2020 Debentures and completed a $3.0 million partial redemption at par of the 2020 Debentures on July 31, 2017. Collectively, these actions reduced the potential dilution from conversion of the 2020 Debentures by approximately 2.8 million shares, equivalent to approximately 3% of total shares on a fully diluted basis (excluding stock options and warrants), and saves future interest costs of about $0.8 million. Gran Colombia intends to continue using the sinking fund balance to repurchase 2020 Debentures in the open market under the NCIB, when available, or to make further partial redemptions.

with its Excess Cash Flow, repurchasing and cancelling $1.7 million of 2020 Debentures under its Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB") in the second quarter of 2017. Subsequent to June 30, 2017, the Company repurchased and cancelled an additional $0.7 million of 2020 Debentures and completed a $3.0 million partial redemption at par of the 2020 Debentures on July 31, 2017. Collectively, these actions reduced the potential dilution from conversion of the 2020 Debentures by approximately 2.8 million shares, equivalent to approximately 3% of total shares on a fully diluted basis (excluding stock options and warrants), and saves future interest costs of about $0.8 million. Gran Colombia intends to continue using the sinking fund balance to repurchase 2020 Debentures in the open market under the NCIB, when available, or to make further partial redemptions. Gold production in the second quarter of 2017 totalled 46,075 ounces, up 21% from the second quarter last year led by continuing strong performance at its Segovia Operations. For the first half of 2017, gold production increased by 22% over the first half last year to a total of 85,083 ounces. The trailing 12-months' total gold production as of the end of June 2017 stands at 165,073 ounces, up 10% over 2016's annual gold production and above the Company's production guidance for the 2017 calendar year of a total of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces. Gold production in July 2017 totalled 14,980 ounces. However, production in the first half of August 2017 has been adversely impacted by a civil disruption in Segovia and Remedios convened by illegal miners commencing in late July, preventing many of the Company's personnel from safely reporting to work. The Company has implemented its contingency plans during this civil disruption, including ensuring sufficient cash is set aside to meet the interest payments on the Senior Debentures at the end of August. Certain capital projects have been suspended until the civil disruption subsides and Gran Colombia is currently able to conduct some mining, processing and maintenance activities until order is restored by the Colombian government. Negotiations between Gran Colombia and representatives of the Cogote and San Nicolas mines operating in the Company's mining title at Segovia are continuing at this time.

in the second quarter of 2017 totalled 46,075 ounces, up 21% from the second quarter last year led by continuing strong performance at its Segovia Operations. For the first half of 2017, gold production increased by 22% over the first half last year to a total of 85,083 ounces. The trailing 12-months' total gold production as of the end of June 2017 stands at 165,073 ounces, up 10% over 2016's annual gold production and above the Company's production guidance for the 2017 calendar year of a total of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces. Gold production in July 2017 totalled 14,980 ounces. However, production in the first half of August 2017 has been adversely impacted by a civil disruption in Segovia and Remedios convened by illegal miners commencing in late July, preventing many of the Company's personnel from safely reporting to work. The Company has implemented its contingency plans during this civil disruption, including ensuring sufficient cash is set aside to meet the interest payments on the Senior Debentures at the end of August. Certain capital projects have been suspended until the civil disruption subsides and Gran Colombia is currently able to conduct some mining, processing and maintenance activities until order is restored by the Colombian government. Negotiations between Gran Colombia and representatives of the Cogote and San Nicolas mines operating in the Company's mining title at Segovia are continuing at this time. Revenue has been positively impacted in 2017 by the increased level of gold production compared with last year, up 17% in the second quarter of 2017 to $56.0 million and up 23% in the first half of 2017 to $101.7 million.

has been positively impacted in 2017 by the increased level of gold production compared with last year, up 17% in the second quarter of 2017 to $56.0 million and up 23% in the first half of 2017 to $101.7 million. Gran Colombia's total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs ("AISC") were also positively impacted in the second quarter of 2017 by the increased level of production, averaging $676 per ounce and $884 per ounce, respectively, bringing the averages for the first half of 2017 to $709 per ounce and $910 per ounce, respectively. The Company continues to expect that its total cash cost and AISC averages for the full year should remain below $720 and $900 per ounce sold according to its guidance for 2017, provided there is no prolonged adverse impact on production from the civil disruption. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of these non-IFRS measures.

and were also positively impacted in the second quarter of 2017 by the increased level of production, averaging $676 per ounce and $884 per ounce, respectively, bringing the averages for the first half of 2017 to $709 per ounce and $910 per ounce, respectively. The Company continues to expect that its total cash cost and AISC averages for the full year should remain below $720 and $900 per ounce sold according to its guidance for 2017, provided there is no prolonged adverse impact on production from the civil disruption. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of these non-IFRS measures. Net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $36.2 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $0.1 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter last year. For the first half of 2017, net income was $35.4 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $10.9 million, or $1.40 per share, in the first half last year. Net income for the second quarter and first half of 2017 includes a $35.5 million after-tax reversal ($1.73 per share) of impairment related to the Segovia Operations. Net income in the first half of 2016 included a $14.5 million after-tax gain on financial instruments.

for the second quarter of 2017 was $36.2 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $0.1 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter last year. For the first half of 2017, net income was $35.4 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $10.9 million, or $1.40 per share, in the first half last year. Net income for the second quarter and first half of 2017 includes a $35.5 million after-tax reversal ($1.73 per share) of impairment related to the Segovia Operations. Net income in the first half of 2016 included a $14.5 million after-tax gain on financial instruments. Adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $4.1 million, or $0.20 per share, compared with $3.9 million, or $0.42 per share, in the second quarter last year. For the first half of 2017, adjusted net income increased to $7.2 million, or $0.36 per share, compared with $4.1 million, or $0.53 per share, in the first half last year. See the reconciliation in the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure. The increase in adjusted EBITDA combined with reductions in finance costs and wealth tax, net of an increase in adjusted income taxes, in 2017 were the primary drivers behind the improvement in adjusted net income in the first half of 2017.

Financial and Operating Summary

A summary of the financial and operating results for the second quarter and first half of 2017 and 2016 follows:

Second Quarter First Half 2017 2016 2017 2016 Operating data: Gold produced (ounces) 46,075 38,229 85,083 69,718 Gold sold (ounces) 45,179 38,902 83,613 68,588 Average realized gold price ($/oz sold) $ 1,225 $ 1,216 $ 1,201 $ 1,185 Total cash costs ($/oz sold) (1) 676 680 709 682 All-in sustaining costs ($/oz sold) (1) 884 811 910 802 Financial data ($000's, except per share amounts): Revenue $ 55,973 $ 48,014 $ 101,690 $ 82,484 Adjusted EBITDA (1) 21,263 18,299 34,854 29,885 Reversal of impairment charges, net of tax 35,460 - 35,460 - Net income 36,172 65 35,388 10,891 Basic and diluted (loss) income per share (2) 1.77 0.01 1.77 1.40 Adjusted net income (1) 4,123 3,857 7,207 4,108 Basic and diluted adjusted income per share (1)(2) 0.20 0.42 0.36 0.53 Excess Cash Flow (1) 3,228 2,276 5,504 2,299

(1) Refer to "Additional Financial Measures" on pages 21-24 of the Company's MD&A. (2) Per share information has been adjusted to reflect the 1:15 consolidation completed on April 25, 2017.

June 30, December 31, 2017 2016 Balance sheet ($000's): Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,008 $ 2,783 Cash in trust for Senior Debentures (3) 4,627 537 Senior debt (4) 90,609 84,602 Other debt, including current portion 879 1,652

(3) Represents amounts deposited into sinking funds for the Senior Debentures, net of cash used for the NCIBs. (4) Represents carrying amounts, which are at a discount to principal amounts, for the Senior Debentures. At June 30, 2017, the aggregate principal amounts of the 2018 Debentures, 2020 Debentures and 2024 Debentures issued and outstanding were $46.0 million, $52.5 million and $47.0 million, respectively (December 31, 2016 - $49.7 million, $101.2 million and Nil, respectively).

Segovia Operations

In light of the updated Mineral Resource estimate for the Segovia Operations announced in April 2017, the Company collaborated with SRK Consulting (USA) Inc. ("SRK") to update its internal LOM plan for Segovia. The updated LOM plan foresees a total of 4.1 million tonnes of material with an average head grade of 8.8 g/t being processed over an extended mine life through the end of 2026, four years longer than the previous LOM plans. Over this mine life, the updated LOM plan expects a total of 1.0 million ounces of gold to be produced at an average LOM total cash cost of $697 per ounce and an AISC (excluding corporate G&A) of $896 per ounce. At an expected long-term gold price of $1,250 per ounce, total LOM undiscounted after-tax free cash flow from mining operations amounts to $210 million. SRK is completing a NI 43-101 independent report that includes an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Segovia Operations based on this updated LOM plan that is expected to be filed on the Company's website and SEDAR profile within the next 45 days.

In the second quarter of 2017, tonnes processed at the Segovia Operations averaged 842 tpd, a 9% increase over the second quarter last year. In addition, head grades in the Company-operated mining areas improved to an average of 11.3 g/t in the second quarter of 2017, up from an average of 4.4 g/t in the second quarter last year, as a result of mining higher grade stopes in the Providencia mine this year. This brought the overall head grade for the Segovia Operations to an average of 15.9 g/t in the second quarter of 2017 compared with 13.8 g/t in the second quarter last year. Segovia's gold production of 40,228 ounces in the second quarter of 2017 brought the total for the first half of 2017 to 72,996 ounces, up 26% over the same period last year. The trailing 12 months' total gold production as of the end of June 2017 at Segovia was 141,374 ounces, up 12% over 2016's annual gold production and above the Company's production guidance range for the 2017 calendar year at Segovia of 126,000 to 134,000 ounces. Gold production in July 2017 was 12,651 ounces. However, production in the first half of August 2017 has been adversely impacted by the civil disruption and the impact of the civil disruption on 2017's full year production guidance cannot be assessed at this time.

Segovia's total cash costs were $620 per ounce in the second quarter of 2017, down from $690 in the first quarter of 2017 reflecting the favorable impact on fixed costs on a per ounce basis of the 23% increase in quarterly gold production at the Segovia Operations. Segovia's second quarter 2017 total cash cost of $620 per ounce was slightly better than the $627 per ounce total cash cost reported for the second quarter of last year as the benefit of this year's production increase was partially offset by the year-over-year appreciation of the Colombian peso ("COP") against the U.S. dollar.

The Company's AISC for the first half of 2017 included $12.6 million of sustaining capital expenditures, equivalent to $150 per ounce sold and $76 per ounce higher than the first half of 2016 due to the increased level of exploration, development and capital investment in the Segovia Operations this year. Sustaining capital expenditures in the first half of 2017 of $11.9 million at the Segovia Operations, equivalent to $142 per ounce sold, included (i) $4.8 million for exploration and mine development, (ii) $3.6 million for the mines including completion of a ventilation shaft at the Providencia mine, commencement of ventilation improvements at the El Silencio mine, installation of mine refuge stations, mine equipment and other infrastructure upgrades, (iii) $1.8 million for further upgrades of equipment in the Maria Dama plant and initiation of the project to expand the tailings storage facility, and (iv) $1.1 million to commence installation of a water treatment plant at the Maria Dama plant site to reduce the environmental discharge fees being incurred by the Company.

Marmato Operations

At the Marmato Operations, gold production continued to be steady with 5,847 ounces produced in the second quarter of 2017, bringing the total for the first half of 2017 to 12,087 ounces, up 2% over the same period last year. This brings Marmato's trailing 12 months' gold production at the end of June 2017 to 23,699 ounces, up 1% over its 2016 annual production. July's production amounted to 2,329 ounces and the Company continues to expect Marmato's annual gold production for 2017 will range between 24,000 and 26,000 ounces.

Total cash costs at the Marmato Operations were also steady in the second quarter of 2017 at $1,062 per ounce, but were $129 per ounce over its total cash cost in the second quarter last year as a result of the year-over-year COP appreciation and the impact on total cash costs on a per ounce basis of the impact on gold production of the lower head grades in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the second quarter last year.

Outlook

The Company produced a total of 100,063 ounces of gold production through the end of July 2017, keeping it on track to produce a total of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces of gold for the full year compared with the 149,708 ounces produced in 2016. However, the recent civil disruption in Segovia and Remedios has adversely impacted mining and plant operations at Segovia in the first half of August. Although the Company is able to conduct some operations at Segovia at this time, there can be no assurance regarding the duration of the current disruption or the extent of the impact that it will continue to have on production and cash flow during the balance of 2017.

The Company's total cash cost and AISC averaged $709 and $910 per ounce sold, respectively, in the first half of 2017. These results were in line with the Company's expectations and the Company continues to expect, provided there is no prolonged adverse impact on production through the balance of the year, that its total cash cost and AISC averages for the full year 2017 will remain below $720 and $900 per ounce sold, respectively.

The Company has deposited a total of $5.5 million representing its Excess Cash Flow for the first half of 2017 into the sinking funds for the Senior Debentures. In 2017, provided gold prices remain at least at the current levels and there is no prolonged adverse impact on operations from the civil disruption in Segovia, the Company expects to generate Excess Cash Flow for the full year in the order of $16 million and, to the extent possible, will use the cash in the sinking fund to make open market repurchases of the 2020 Debentures for cancellation. The Company also completed a $3.0 million partial redemption at par of the 2020 Debentures on July 31, 2017 and will continue to consider, as appropriate, additional partial redemptions going forward as a means to reduce its 2020 Debentures ahead of maturity.

Webcast

As a reminder, the Company will host a conference call and webcast on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the results.

Webcast and call-in details are as follows:

Live Event link: http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/urfvuni7

International: 1 (514) 841-2157

North America Toll Free: 1 (866) 215-5508

Colombia Toll Free: 01 800 9 156 924

Conference ID: 45399427

A replay of the webcast will be available at www.grancolombiagold.com from Tuesday, August 15, 2017 until Thursday, September 14, 2017.

About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based gold and silver exploration, development and production company with its primary focus in Colombia. Gran Colombia is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with several underground mines in operation at its Segovia and Marmato Operations. Gran Colombia is continuing its expansion and modernization activities at its high-grade Segovia Operations.

Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Nubian Resources Ltd. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: NBR) is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a binding letter of intent ("LOI") to acquire the 800 hectare Rio Pampas Copper Gold Project located in the Pacobamba Chungui District of the Andahuaylas Province of Peru (the "Project").

Highlights:

Binding LOI to acquire up to 100% ownership of 800 ha Cu Au project.

Located 80 km northeast of Andahualas in mining friendly southern Peru .

. Situated on the edge of the Eocene-Miocene aged Andahuaylas to Yauri Porphyry Copper Batholith.

Surface mineralization on the Project shows a strong foot print of sulphide and oxide Cu mineralisation stretching across an area that appears to extend over 800 meters in a northwest direction and over a width of 300 metres. The mineralization is consistent with that of Cu Au Porphyry, Quartz stockwork, mineralized breccias and poly-metallic skarn systems that exhibit low sulphidation epithermal mineralised quartz veins and disseminated sulphides within the surrounding rock.

The Rio Pampas Cu Au porphyry system sits on the northeastern edge of the Eocene-Miocene aged Andahuaylas to Yauri Porphyry Copper Batholith that stretches across southern Peru. This belt of rocks hosts some of Peru's large Cu Au porphyry deposits such as the Southern Peru Copper's Los Chancas Project as well as the operating Tintaya and Las Bambas Copper Mines.

Under the terms of the LOI, Nubian has paid a US$50,000 deposit and has agreed to pay an additional US$50,000 annually from the signing of the definitive agreement for a period of 10 years to the Vendors. Nubian has also agreed to invest US$500,000 in development work in the first 12 months to earn a 51% of the Project. To earn an additional 9%, for a 60% interest, Nubian has agreed to invest an additional US$1 million in the first five years. An additional US$2 million in exploration expenditures plus the payment of US$2 million to the Vendors between the 5th and 10th year anniversary will increase the Company's ownership to 80%. Nubian can achieve 100% ownership of the Project by paying the balance of US$9 million to the Vendors in the final two years of the option agreement. It has been agreed that definitive documentation outlining the terms of the option agreement will be completed within 90 days.

Martin Walter, Chief Executive Officer of Nubian stated, "We are extremely excited with this acquisition securing Nubian an entry into one of South America's most promising Copper Gold districts."
VANCOUVER, Aug. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Salazar Resources Limited (TSX.V: SRL; FRANKFURT: CCG.F) ("Salazar" or the "Company") is pleased to report results from an additional ten holes (2,791metres) of the phase V diamond drill, program that is in progress on the Company's 100-per-cent owned (21,500 ha) Curipamba volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project in Ecuador. These holes represent new exploratory and development drilling and were not included in the latest El Domo resource estimate which was released on January 16th, 2015.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Hole CURI-234

6.87 metres (6.45 m true) averaging 1.47 g/t gold, 10.9 g/t silver, 7.42% copper, 1.01% zinc.

Hole CURI-231

3.09 metres (3.08 m true) averaging 0.60 g/t gold, 9.40 g/t silver, 6.43% copper, 0.18% zinc.

PROGRAM RESULTS:

The latest ten holes (2,791 metres) (Table 1) were drilled as part of the planned 40-hole (10,000 metres) drill program that is being completed with the purpose of expanding the El Domo volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") deposit and exploring its margins, as well as testing geophysical anomalies and surface showings (Figure 1). It is anticipated that the drill program will be complete by the end of August of this year.

Figure 1. El Domo Deposit - Pierce Point Map





Hole CURI-231 intersected 3.09 metres (3.08 m true) averaging 0.60 g/t gold, 9.40 g/t silver, 6.43% copper & 0.18% zinc in a massive sulfide of pyrite and chalcopyrite. This intersection is located in the northeastern sector of the El Domo deposit, approximately 50 metres south from the CURI-224 which cut 16.60 metres (15.60 metres true width) of massive and semi-massive chalcopyrite-sphalerite-pyrite grading 3.66 g/t gold, 117.40 g/t silver, 4.88% copper, 5.36% zinc (News Release of May 15, 2017). This new intersection extends the previously interpreted mineralization trend identified by CURI-224 and CURI-198 an additional 50 metres to the south.

Hole CURI-234 was collared in the west-central sector of the El Domo deposit. It was drilled with a southerly azimuth to test a 100 meter gap that had no resource assigned to it, between the CURI-176 and CURI-201. It intersected 6.87 metres (6.45 m true) averaging 1.47 g/t gold, 10.9 g/t silver, 7.42% copper, 1.01% zinc in a massive and semi-massive sulfide of chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite and 0.82 metres grading 0.74 g/t Au, 22.3 g/t Ag, 0.68% Cu and 1.93% Zn. These intersections are located approximately 50m north of CURI-201, drilled in March of 2011, which intersected 1.50 metres grading 0.977 g/t Au, 80.82 g/t Ag, 1.52% Cu and 2.5% Zn. Approximately 80 metres to the north-east, hole CURI-218 intersected 14.43 metres (13.07m true) averaging 2.65 g/t gold, 10.58 g/t silver, 1.32% copper, 6.63% zinc (News Release of March 23, 2017).

Fredy Salazar, President and CEO, commented: "We are moving forward with the intended exploration towards the east of El Domo.The mineralization intersected in CURI-231 and CURI-234 has shed new light on mineralization trends, and lithological and structural settings, on the eastern flankthus, helping us understand better the local and regional potential of this VMS body."

OTHER RESULTS:

Holes CURI-225 and CURI-227 were drilled from the same platform approximately 250 metres east of the El Domo deposit and approximately 70 metres east of the collar of hole CURI-218 (News Release of March 23, 2017). Both holes were drilled with a southerly azimuth to test the south-eastern sector of the El Domo mineralization and to further test the intercept in hole CURI-155 (3.61 metres grading 0.77 g/t gold, 37.54 g/t silver, 0.15% copper and 1.68% zinc (News Release of January 26, 2012). CURI-225 and 227 intersected the underlying dacitic unit which is weakly mineralized. However, this southeastern area still needs more exploration given that there are several structural features that could have acted as depositional and mineralization boundaries.

Hole CURI-226 was drilled close to the northern edge of El Domo. It was collared 70 metres east of hole CURI-198 (7.40 metres grading 2.498 g/t Au, 74.61 g/t Ag, 3.45 % Cu, and 5.07% Zn). CURI-226 did not encounter massive sulphide mineralization but it did intersect a short interval of the underlying dacite with a moderate hydrothermal breccia. This hole was aborted earlier than expected due to the mechanical problems.

Holes CURI-228 and CURI-229 were also drilled near the northern edge of the El Domo minealization. Both holes intersected the CURI-198 mineralization (see above) to the south-west and west, respectively. While holes CURI-228 and CURI-229 did not intersect massive sulfide mineralization, CURI-228 intersected two intervals of interest in the underlying mineralized dacitic unit: 3.65 metres grading 1.17 g/t Au and 21.42 g/t Ag; and 7.6 metres grading 1.07 g/t Au and 2.59 g/t Ag.

Hole CURI-230 was collared on the southwest sector of the El Domo mineralization. It was drilled with a southerly azimuth to test for extensions of the mineralization in CURI-218 to the south. This hole intersected the underlying mineralized dacitic unit approximately 80 metres higher than in the surrounding holes suggesting an upthrown block fault in this area. The intense fracturing and alteration of the rock caused the hole to collapse and the hole was abandoned without testing its original target depth. Even so, there are two mineralized intervals of interest in the dacitic unit found on this upthown block (Table 2). CURI-218 also intersected a similar upthrown block with mineralized dacite that could be correlated to the one found in the CURI-230.

Hole CURI-232 collared from the same platform than the CURI-231 and tested for an extension to the east of the mineralization in CURI-231. CURI-232 did not encounter massive sulphide mineralization but it did intersect a mineralized zone in the underlying dacitic unit (Table 2).

Hole CURI-233 was collared 150 metres east of CURI-232 and drilled easterly to explore the north-eastern limits of the El Domo mineralization. The hole intersected mineralization in the underlying mineralized dacitic unit (Table 2) at 160 metres from the El Domo resource. The presence of moderate to strong hydrothermal activity this far east from the main body suggests that the VMS mineralization could have been deposited and destroyed through an erosional period. This opens the possibility of finding VMS mineralization as far north-east as the CURI-24 (80 metres distance) which also intersected the dacitic unit with a moderate hydrothermal breccia on a large upthrown block. There is also a large un-drilled area to the south towards CURI-223, 225 and 227. Salazar will drill test this area as part of the current program.

TABLE 1

HOLE ID EAST NORTH ELEV (M) AZIMUTH DIP DEPTH (M) ACCUMULATED DEPTH CURI-225 695640.25 9855196.14 1081.00 180 -60 348.00 348.00 CURI-226 695432.20 9855592.93 978.16 90 -80 113.77 461.77 CURI-227 695640.25 9855196.14 1081.00 180 -75 369.70 831.47 CURI-228 695400.00 9855550.00 1050.00 270 -78 269.65 1101.12 CURI-229 695294.00 9855600.00 980.00 90 -70 251.70 1352.82 CURI-230 695451.00 9855222.00 1082.00 180 -75 242.80 1595.62 CURI-231 695443.00 9855490.00 1044.00 270 -85 278.80 1874.42 CURI-232 695443.00 9855490.00 1044.00 90 -75 317.75 2192.17 CURI-233 695592.00 9855493.00 1040.00 355 -90 263.70 2455.87 CURI-234 695356.00 9855239.00 1066.00 180 -70 335.70 2791.57

*PSAD_1956_UTM_Zone_17S

TABLE 2

SIGNIFICANT INTERSECTIONS

HOLE ID FROM

(m) TO

(m) WIDTH

(m) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) Cu

(%) Pb

(%) Zn

(%) CURI-225 No significant mineralization encountered in this hole, located 250 m east from El Domo resource. CURI-226 No significant mineralization encountered in this hole, located 30 m east of CURI-198. Hole aborted due to mechanical problems. CURI-227 No significant mineralization encountered in this hole, located 250 m east of the El Domo deposit and 120 m southwest of CURI-155. CURI-228 201.23 204.88 3.65 1.17 21.42 - - - 211.78 219.38 7.60 1.07 2.59 - - - CURI-229 No significant mineralization encountered in this hole, located 100 m west from CURI-198. CURI-230 213.29 214.15 0.86 - - 0.21 - 1.58 231.84 233.07 1.23 0.77 19.5 0.21 0.82 2.98 Located 40 m south of CURI-218. Hole abandoned due to poor ground conditions. CURI-231 213.85 216.94 3.09 0.60 9.40 6.43 - 0.18 225.74 233.66 7.92 0.31 3.71 - - 1.19 CURI-232 231.25 238.26 7.01 0.63 17.90 - - 1.01 CURI-233 236.15 238.2 2.05 0.85 19.70 0.39 0.37 2.23 CURI-234 282.85 289.72 6.87 1.47 10.90 7.42 - 1.01 302.7 303.52 0.82 0.74 22.30 0.68 - 1.93

Widths presented in Table 2 are downhole core lengths. Where possible, true width estimates are noted in the text.

A rigorous chain-of-custody and quality assurance/quality control program that included the insertion of certified standard control samples and blanks, and re-analysis of samples with high levels (overlimit) of gold, copper and zinc, was applied to the NQ-diameter, rock-sawn half-core samples. All samples were analyzed by Inspectorate Services Peru S.A.C. (Bureau Veritas), a certified ISO 17025 and ISO 9001:2000 laboratory.

As part of the program's sample quality assurance, twin quarter core samples were taken on all wells as described below. The samples were part of a Brecciated Dacite and gave the following results (Table 3):

TABLE 3

HOLE SAMPLE FROM

(m) TO

(m) LENGTH

(m) Au

(ppm) Ag

(ppm) Cu

(ppm) Pb

(ppm) Zn

(ppm) CURI-225 170432 329.7 330.67 0.97 0.103 2.7 20 133 403 170433 329.7 330.67 0.97 0.092 3.1 21 135 442 CURI-226 170442 107.85 109.36 1.51 0.18 0.8 20 26 68 170443 107.85 109.36 1.51 0.15 1.4 22 26 75 CURI-227 170484 323.1 324.25 1.15 <0.005 0.2 2 8 42 170485 323.1 324.25 1.15 <0.005 <0.2 3 9 38 CURI-228 170473 227.55 229.05 1.5 0.011 0.5 301 94 1809 170474 227.55 229.05 1.5 0.008 0.5 312 91 2255 CURI-229 170493 241.09 242.58 1.49 0.019 0.3 47 25 396 170494 241.09 242.58 1.49 0.019 0.3 53 26 392 CURI-230 170522 233.07 234.1 1.03 0.011 0.5 40 28 417 170523 233.07 234.1 1.03 <0.005 0.2 9 15 118 CURI-231 170511 248.45 249.56 1.11 0.027 0.4 87 439 1235 170512 248.45 249.56 1.11 0.025 0.4 83 422 1512 CURI-232 170539 290.5 292.2 1.7 0.296 2.8 292 178 8542 170541 290.5 292.2 1.7 0.202 2.4 201 291 3526 CURI-233 170547 248.9 250.4 1.5 0.013 <0.2 14 25 135 170548 248.9 250.4 1.5 0.01 <0.2 6 15 46 CURI-234 170591 324.95 326.48 1.53 0.012 <0.2 3 5 42 170592 324.95 326.48 1.53 0.011 <0.2 5 <5 48

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo. a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug. 14, 2017) - First Cobalt Corp. (TSX VENTURE:FCC) (OTC:FTSSF) (the "Company") has today released a letter to shareholders from the Company's President and CEO, Trent Mell, to provide an update on the Company's transactions and business activities to date. This letter is available on our website at www.firstcobalt.com.

Dear Investor:

I am pleased to provide you with an update on recent business activities as well as the status of the two mergers we announced on June 26th with Cobalt One Limited and CobalTech Mining. Management has been extremely busy over the summer months and we are very excited about our accomplishments.

Over the last few months, we have been busy with road shows, taking us all over the world to New York, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, and Australia where we have experienced significant institutional demand for First Cobalt. It has become very clear that many in the institutional world view the mergers as one of the best ways to get exposure to a rapidly growing cobalt space. This has served to enhance our confidence that once the mergers are complete the new First Cobalt will offer investors exposure to:

One of the Largest Cobalt Companies in the World As one of the largest pure-play cobalt companies in the world, the new First Cobalt will benefit from increased liquidity, better access to capital and institutional investor interest, which in turn will allow us to accelerate our consolidation, exploration and development plans for the Camp.

A Consolidated Cobalt-Rich Mining Camp First Cobalt will control a significant portion of the prospective properties in the Cobalt, Ontario mining district upon completion of the transactions. This Camp been under-explored for its cobalt potential and has never before seen the meaningful land consolidation achieved with these mergers, which will facilitate regional exploration for open pit potential.

Consummation of the transactions is progressing as planned. Here is a brief update:

Trading of First Cobalt stock has been halted while Canadian regulators review the transaction. We understand trading could resume in a matter of days. We will inform the market as soon as we have a date.

Canaccord Genuity, our financial advisors, arranged institutional investor meetings around the world. The reception has been very positive and I look forward to having some as First Cobalt shareholders.

First Cobalt's Management and Board of Directors met with board nominees Paul Matysek, Bob Cross, and Jason Bontempo to discuss corporate strategy for the new First Cobalt. The group has good alignment of vision and we anticipate an increase in exploration activities upon closing the transactions.

Due diligence and legal documentation are advanced and we appear to be on track to close both transactions later in the fall of 2017.

Meanwhile, Dr. Frank Santaguida, P.Geo. and Peter Campbell, P.Eng. have been advancing works on our current projects:

Drilling at Keeley-Frontier commenced August 8 th and will continue for at least 10 weeks (click here for press release) .

and will continue for at least 10 weeks . We have hired a full-time senior geologist to work in Cobalt with Frank to oversee the day-to-day activities of our exploration team.

Peter is working with consultants to assess near-term cash flow potential using the CobalTech mill, the Cobalt One refinery site, and the stockpiles of unprocessed mineralized material discarded by historic mining operators.

Post-merger integration plans are underway, including an expansion of exploration and drilling activities directed by First Cobalt, without increasing corporate staffing levels.

Management hosted a site visit in August for some sell side analysts and is planning buy side visits for September and October.

The current 2017 exploration program is intended to provide a better understanding of the distribution and extent of cobalt mineralization within the historic Keeley-Frontier Mine and explore other silver-cobalt prospects on the property. Initial assays from the drill campaign are anticipated in September. Exploration work completed to date includes structural mapping of Keeley-Frontier, outcrop mapping and sampling, multi-element geochemical data interpretation, downhole televiewer surveys and a review of acquired airborne magnetic data. All data are being integrated within a 3D geological model that is based on about 50 years of data on our Greater Cobalt Project area, which will contribute to the development of a geological model for the Camp.

With very few prospective cobalt exploration programs outside the DRC, we are uniquely positioned to benefit from the strong cobalt market. Our Greater Cobalt Project is arguably the only camp-scale exploration program focused on discovering cobalt resources in the world.

Moving forward, it is my goal to make First Cobalt the "go to" name for exposure to the cobalt space. I believe we offer everything that sophisticated institutional investors are looking for:

Industry Leading Team

District Scale Cobalt Development Camp

Pathway to Cobalt Production

On behalf of First Cobalt's management team and Board of Directors, I would like to thank you for your support. I truly believe that our best days are ahead of us and I will continue to work tirelessly for your interests.

Regards,

Trent Mell, President & CEO
The new 67-room Gundersen Hotel & Suites is scheduled to open Tuesday next to the Gundersen Health System campus on La Crosses South Side, boosting the neighborhoods vitality and the convenience for patients, family members and friends.

But anyone is welcome to stay at the hotel at 1520 Clinic Court, said Spencer Schram, managing partner of Premier Hotel Properties, the Minnesota-based hotel management company that runs the new hotel.

In an interview last week, Schram said he also is interested in constructing a building that would house a restaurant, most likely between the hotel and Gundersens Founders Building, in the next few years.

Schram also stressed that the new hotel  which he said was a $9 million to $10 million project  is not owned or operated by Gundersen. Its owned by Select La Crosse LLC, which is affiliated with Premier. Another Premier affiliate owns the Holiday Inn Express hotel (which Premier runs) in Onalaska.

Schram said his group is using the Gundersen Hotel & Suites name for the new hotel through a licensing agreement with Gundersen Health System.

Premier is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minn., which is where one of its three principals, Scott Timmington, lives. The two other principals are Schram, of Otter Tail, Minn., and Paul Williams of Kirksville, Mo.

Including the new La Crosse location, Premier operates five hotels in Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois. Its sixth location will open in October in Kirksville.

People likely to stay at the new Gundersen Hotel & Suites include patients, their loved ones, visiting medical professionals and families of Gundersen employees, Schram said.

But it also will attract others, such as business people and vacationers who are visiting the city. South La Crosse has been underserved with modern hotels, Schram said. Theres a lot of people and a lot of businesses on the citys South Side.

Premier and Gundersen officials also are interested in bringing a restaurant to the neighborhood.

Schram said he hopes to talk with potential restaurant operators sometime in 2018, after some questions about parking are answered. Premier probably would own the building and lease the restaurant space to a restaurant operator, he said.

One possibility is erecting a multistory building between the hotel and Gundersens Founders Building, Schram said. The building might house a restaurant, offices and additional hotel rooms, he said.

The new hotel will be a benefit to the citys South Side as well as Gundersen patients and their families and friends, said Michael Richards, Gundersen executive director of external affairs.

Its a nice gateway into our campus and our neighborhood, and a nice amenity along South Avenue, Richards said.

Gundersen remains interested in drawing a restaurant to the neighborhood, he said.

Ground for the new four-story hotel was broken last August.

Its 67 guest rooms include 16 one-bedroom suites that have full kitchens. Rooms have a microwave oven, refrigerator, Keurig coffeemaker, charging stations, and free high-speed Internet and cable television.

Some of the hotels other features include an indoor swimming pool, fitness center, a fourth-floor Riverview Terrace Room for gatherings and relaxing, and an executive board room for meetings and small social events.

There also are two charging stations for electric vehicles. An underground tunnel connects the hotel to the Founders Building.

The hotel serves Caribou coffee and tea, 10 flavors of Pepsi fountain drinks and a complimentary hot breakfast that includes bakery items from Fayzes restaurant. Theres also a business center with computer and printer access, and a grab-and-go market with fresh on-the-go meals, snacks, beverages and sundries.

Gundersen Hotel & Suites has about 15 employees, said Gretchen Henchen, its general manager.

Henchen, who previously was a concierge at Gundersen, said she is pleased with the quality of the hotels staff. It was important to pick the right employees because many of the hotels guests will be hospital patients or their family members and friends and may be feeling stressed, she said.

Our standards of service will be right up there with those of Gundersen, Henchen said.
The Indian national flag flies next to the Chinese national emblem outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The two nations could be on the brink of war.



Chinese military primed for battle, military sources say; Indian troops prepared for any eventuality'



By Minnie Chan





Chinese and Indian troops are readying themselves for a possible armed conflict in the event they fail in their efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to their border dispute on the Doklam plateau in the Himalayas, observers said.

On Friday, India's defence minister Arun Jaitley told parliament that the country's armed forces are "prepared to take on any eventuality" of the stand-off, Indian Express reported the same day.

Sources close to the Chinese military, meanwhile, said that the People's Liberation Army is increasingly aware of the possibility of war, but will aim to limit any conflict to the level of skirmishes, such as those contested by India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

"The PLA will not seek to fight a ground war with Indian troops early on. Instead it will deploy aircraft and strategic missiles to paralyse Indian mountain divisions stationed in the Himalayas on the border with China," a military insider told the South China Morning Post on condition of anonymity, adding that he believes Indian troops will probably hold out for "no more than a week".

Another military source said that officers and troops from the Western Theatre Command have already been told to prepare for war with India over the Doklam crisis.

"There is a voice within the army telling it to fight because it was Indian troops that intruded into Chinese territory in Donglang [Doklam]," the second source said. "Such a voice is supported by the public."

Both sources said that China's military believes any conflict will be controlled, and not spill over into other disputed areas, of which there are currently three along the 2,000km border between the two Asian giants.

However, Indian defence experts warned that once the first shot is fired, the conflict may escalate into full-scale war. That in turn could result in New Delhi blockading China's maritime lifeline in the Indian Ocean.

"Any Chinese military adventurism will get a fitting reply from the Indian military," Dr Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, a research associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, told the Post.

"Certainly, it will be detrimental for both, but if Beijing escalates [the conflict], it will not be limited. Perhaps, it may extend to the maritime domain as well," he said.

"If China engages in a military offensive against India, New Delhi will take all necessary measures ... [and will] respond to Chinese actions in its own way. Why only a border war? It could escalate to a full-scale India-China war," he said.

Rajeswari Rajagopalan, a defence analyst from the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi, said that "in the event of a full-scale war, definitely India's navy will prevent the Chinese navy from moving into the Bay of Bengal or the Indian Ocean."

China is heavily reliant on imported fuel and, according to figures published by state media, more than 80 per cent of its oil imports travel via the Indian Ocean or Strait of Malacca.

Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said that India in 2010 established a naval base in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, close to the Strait of Malacca, where the narrowest sea channel is just 1.7km wide.

"Since 2010, India has also upgraded two airstrips on the islands to serve fighters and reconnaissance aircraft," he said.

"All these moves pave the way for India to be able to blockade Chinese military and commercial ships from entering the Indian Ocean in the event of a naval conflict between the two countries."

In July, India, the United States and Japan completed their 10-day Malabar 2017 naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal, while around the same time the US approved the US$365-million sale of military transport aircraft to India and a US$2-billion deal for surveillance drones.

As a result, the Indian navy now has eight Boeing P-8A Poseidon submarine hunters patrolling in the Indian Ocean.

Chinese and Indian troops fought a war in 1962 after a series of skirmishes heightened tensions on the border. That conflict ended largely in a stalemate, despite China's large military advantage.

However, Chaturvedy said that India has learnt lessons from its past mistakes and is now better prepared to defend itself against China.

Macau-based military expert Antony Wong Dong said that both sides have underestimated each other.

"If the border conflict expands to the sea, it will be very difficult for the PLA to defeat the Indian navy, whose capabilities are much stronger after the purchase of the P-8A Poseidon submarine hunters," he said.
HOLMEN  Brenda E. (Cronk) Stuhr, 54, of Holmen ran into the arms of her waiting Savior Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017, at Gundersen Health Center, surrounded by the prayers of her loving family, just as she wished. She will be missed dearly but we are comforted she will be forever praising and singing with the angels.

Brendas family was most important in her life. She enjoyed every moment and opportunity to spend time with her children and grandchildren. She loved to sing and did it often, whether it was worship songs or songs she made up for her grandchildren. She also loved the beach, especially the warm, teal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which she was able to visit earlier this year in May. She spent each evening on the beach watching the sun disappear on the horizon, of which she took many pictures and videos. She also loved the warm sun on her face and sand between her toes.

She was born May 28, 1963, to Tom and Barb (McIntire) Cronk in La Crosse. She was the first of five children born to young parents, which ended up being very similar to how her own family would start. She graduated from Logan High School in 1981. She was very active in high school with cheerleading, choir, and track.

She had the opportunity recently to re-establish a relationship with a few wonderful women who were a tremendous support to her though her fight with cancer. One special relationship that developed through her show choir days was being partnered up with her eventual husband, Kevin. They were married Aug. 14, 1982, and started their family just a short year later. Four years and four months later, their family was complete. She was able to watch each of her children grow into wonderful, strong, young adults and marry beautiful soul mates, and give her seven amazing grandchildren. She worked for Gundersen Health System for 20-plus years, starting out in the Onalaska vision center, insurance cashier office, as a float patient liaison and finally landing in the family medicine department. She transferred to the Galesville clinic in March 2016. She developed many work friendships and enjoyed talking with patients as they came in for appointments.

Brenda is survived by her husband, Kevin; and their children, Nathan and his fiance, Hailey Chism of La Crosse; Mandy (Chris) Becker of Holmen and their children, Allison, Lindsey, Brynna, and Chasen; Kristin (Curtis) Radde of La Crosse and their daughter, Eliza; Caryn (Shawn) Regenauer of Rockland and their sons, Ethan and Wesley; her parents, Tom and Barb Cronk of La Crosse; brothers, Jeff (Shelly) Cronk of Onalaska, Dan (Chris) Cronk of West Salem; sisters, Donna (Howard) Swyers of Bloomington, Ind., and Sara (Seth) Camp of Onalaska.

There will be a time of visitation from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 19, at Schumacher Kish funeral and Cremation Services, 200 West Ave. S., La Crosse. A celebration of life service will start at noon. A private family burial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to Steppin Out In Pink, The Gundersen Foundation, or the charity of donors choice, in her name. Online condolences at www.schumacher-kish.com.

Her wish in her last journal entry was that we all have a true relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Give us ears to understand and hearts that follow.
American West

(Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)

Theodore Roosevelt once wrote of the American West that "nowhere, not even at sea, does a man feel more lonely than when riding over the far-reaching, seemingly never-ending plains." These desert lands of faraway horizons dotted with the spectacular mountain ranges often look desolate, but in truth, they teem with many unique species of plants and animals.

Awesome animal

(Image credit: BLM)

One such amazing critter of the American West is the desert tortoise. These large, herbivorous reptiles can be found slowly plodding across the dry desert landscapes of the West. Their most preferred plant community in which to live is that of the creosote bush, Larrea tridentata, regions but they can also thrive in succulent scrub, microphyll woodland, saltbush and semi-desert grassland areas. There are two species of desert tortoises found in the West: the Mojave Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii and the Sonoran Desert Tortoise, Gopherus morafkai.

Across the west

(Image credit: NPS)

The range of the desert tortoise is located across the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts in the states of Utah, Nevada, California and Arizona, as well as within the Sonoran Desert region of western Mexico, They can live at elevations ranging from below sea level (like Death Valley) to high dry desert regions upwards of 7,300 feet (2,225 meters). They seems to prosper best at elevations that range from 1,000 feet (305 m) to 3,000 feet (914 m).

Built-in camo

(Image credit: NPS)

The high-domed carapace of the desert tortoise can reach a length of 8 to 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) and a height of 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm). The color of the shell tends to be greenish-tan to dark brown in color, perfect for blending into the predominately brown desert landscape. A mature adult tortoise will weigh between 8 and 20 pounds (3.6 to 9 kilograms). A desert tortoise can live upwards of 60 to 80 years.

Built for the desert

(Image credit: NPS)

The desert tortoise is equipped with powerful legs and thick, flattened claws ideal for digging. The front legs are covered with a thick layer of protective, tough scales. The hind legs are more stumpy and elephantine in appearance. The feet of the desert tortoise are also web-less. The desert tortoise is a member of the Family Testudinidae, a family consisting of only 5 species in all of North America.

Survival skills

(Image credit: NPS)

Desert tortoises survive well in the hot desert environments in which they live. Their powerful front legs can easily dig underground burrows 3 to 6 feet (0.9-1.8 m) in length, from which the tortoise can escape ground temperatures that can soar to more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit. (60 degrees Celsius). Desert tortoises are said to be ectothermic, meaning they control their body temperature by using an underground burrow. The burrow protects the tortoise from both the summer heat and winter cold found in the American deserts.

Homebody

(Image credit: NPS)

The desert tortoise spends upward of 98 percent of its time in its underground burrow, making it one of the most elusive creatures of the desert. During a normal year of temperatures, it will spend from November to February in a torpid, or hibernation, state while in its underground burrow. The home range of a desert tortoise is thus limited to a desert area where these life-saving burrows can be dug into the rocky desert soil.

Out and about

(Image credit: NPS)

By early March, the warmth of the mild desert spring returns and the desert tortoise emerges from hibernation. The desert tortoise is most active during the spring and early summer, foraging on the many wildflowers and tender plants that now cover the desert floor. A desert tortoise requires 15 to 20 years to become sexually mature. Mating season arrives in early summer with aggressive male-to-male combat. A dominant male may win the chance to mate, but it appears that a female does have some choice in the matter.

Baby time

(Image credit: NPS)

A fertile female will lay a clutch of 3 to 12 eggs in a nest in or near her burrow's entrance. The eggs go unattended and will begin to hatch at the end of the rainy season in September and early October, after an incubation period of 90 to 120 days. The 2- to 3-inch-long (5 to 7 cm) hatchlings now have a soft shell and are very susceptible to predators, such as ravens, hawks coyotes, foxes and bobcats. Scientists estimate that only about 2 percent of desert tortoise hatchlings survive to become adults.

Snack time

(Image credit: NPS)

The summer monsoon season across these dry desert lands result in a burst of vegetation growth and is the prime feeding season for the desert tortoise, when it will eat most of its yearly supply of food. They will eat leaves, stems, flowers and fruits of many species of desert plants. Because of a special type of bacteria that lives in its digestive system, the desert tortoise can digest many species of plants that are not edible for other desert wildlife.

Unique skills

(Image credit: NPS)

An adaptation to desert life that the desert tortoise has successfully made is the unique ability to extract from the plants that they eat almost all the water they require in order to survive. If free-standing water is available, such as after a monsoon shower, the tortoise will drink it but can survive many months from the moisture it acquires from its food. They will also store water in their bladder, reabsorbing the water back into its systems during periods of extended drought.
The rock art depicting a solar eclipse, possibly from A.D. 1097, looked "more celebratory than frightening," said a University of Colorado archaeoastronomer.

Millions of people will gaze at the Great American Eclipse on Aug. 21, shooting photographs and taking selfies. A thousand years ago, early Pueblo people, called Chacoans, captured their experiences of a total solar eclipse by carving it into a rock  a circle with looping streamers that resemble the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona.

Not only does this rock art, or petroglyph, depict a solar eclipse with a gigantic eruption of plasma called a coronal mass ejection (CME), its looping lines may have evoked a wondrous, inspirational experience, said solar astronomer J. McKim Malville, a University of Colorado Boulder professor emeritus, who is an expert in archaeoastronomy.

"The petroglyph looks more celebratory than frightening," Malville told Live Science. "If our interpretation is correct, they tried to depict the extraordinary sight of the corona, like nothing seen before  associated [it] with a deity that was even more mysterious and powerful than they imagined." [See Photos of the Petroglyph of the Solar Eclipse]

Malville discovered the petroglyph in 1992, while on a scientific excursion into Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, with W. James Judge, then a professor of anthropology at Fort Lewis College in Colorado. They found the petroglyph among others pecked into a large boulder called Piedra del Sol, near the ruins of a cultural hub for the Chacoans, who thrived there between A.D. 900 and 1150.

A petroglyph found in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico depicts a solar eclipse with a huge coronal mass ejection (an eruption of plasma from the sun). (Image credit: J Mckim Malville/University of Colorado)

When he saw it, Malville immediately recognized something familiar.

"Some people might see it as a bug or a tick or a spider," he said. "But it struck me as very similar to photographs of coronal mass ejections that I'd seen, and drawings."

In 2014, Malville and professor Jose Vaquero of the University of Extremadura in Caceres, Spain, published a study in the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry describing the discovery. They knew that an eclipse had occurred in the region on July 11, 1097, and that the sun's corona and even CMEs are visible to the naked eye during totality (when the moon's shadow completely blocks the sun's light from reaching Earth). But they needed evidence that the sun was in a period of heightened activity, known as solar maximum, when such ejections are most common. It occurs about every 11 years or so, with some variation in the intensity, Malville said.

He and his colleague consulted several sources to determine the level of activity around the time of the eclipse. They looked at data from ancient tree rings, which store traces of atmospheric carbon from photosynthesis and also provide a natural calendar of annual growth. During periods of high solar activity, the sun's more intense magnetic fields deflect cosmic rays from reaching Earth, reducing the amount of radioactive carbon, found as isotope carbon-14, in tree rings. For the period around 1097, the carbon-14 isotopes were low.

Naked-eye observations of sunspots recorded in ancient Chinese texts also indicated higher solar activity, as did historical data from northern Europeans on the annual number of so-called "auroral nights." The evidence pointed to high levels of activity on the sun during the 1097 eclipse. [The 8 Most Famous Solar Eclipses in History]

"It turns out, the sun was in a period of very high solar activity at that time, consistent with an active corona and CMEs," Malville said in news statement.

The depiction itself, a circle with looping streamers radiating from the edge, struck Malville as something jubilant, not frightening.

There are cultures that consider eclipses as dangerous and fearsome omens during the moments when the day turns into "night," Malville said.

But not all.

He recalled viewing the June 30, 1972, eclipse in Kenya, camped at the eastern edge of Lake Turkana among Turkana, Samburu and El Molo tribes. During the eclipse, the El Molo went into their huts, as they do every evening, remaining there until light returned; they didn't seem influenced at all by the event, he said. But the other tribes came to the campsite to view the eclipse.

This particular event lasted 7 minutes, an unusually long time, and the people there had a chance to see the beauty of the corona during totality.

"The brightness of the corona is about the brightness of the full moon, so it's easily seen with the naked eye," Malville said. (REMEMBER, never look directly at the sun or a solar eclipse without special protective viewers, though you can look at the eclipse without glasses ONLY during the couple of minutes of totality.)

Afterward, the people performed dances to celebrate the eclipse and thank the astronomers for the chance to see it.

Malville thinks that the 1097 eclipse in Chaco Canyon may have stirred a similar sense of wonder in the early Pueblo people. After 1100, the people built 10 large houses, called the Great Houses in Chaco, all of which are in areas that provide dramatic views of the rising or setting sun at the winter or summer solstices, he said.

"There is the possibility that the glory of that experience for the people living in Chaco in 1097 was transformed to an increased reverence for or an increased appreciation of the sun," Malville said.

He has a theory about why some modern people might claim that ancient civilizations were terrified by eclipses.

"They have never seen the full glory of an eclipse themselves," he said.

Originally published on Live Science.
A chalkstone quarry and workshop that was used to make food and storage vessels that were considered "pure" during the time of Jesus has been unearthed in Galilee, Israel.

The chalkstone quarry is one of only a handful discovered from ancient Israel and the first ever discovered in Galilee, which was a Roman backwater about 2,000 years ago, when the site was used.

"Until today, only two other similar sites have been excavated, however both of these were in the area of Jerusalem. Our excavations are highlighting the pivotal role of ritual purity observance not only in Jerusalem but in far-off Galilee as well," Yonatan Adler, senior lecturer at Ariel University and director of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement. [See Images of Christian Images and Artifacts]

Ritual purity

While most people at the time used pots and storage jars made of clay, Jewish people observing the laws of ritual purity, or kashrut, may also have used stone. Jewish law dictated that any contact with something that is "ritually impure" required an object to be purified. (Things that could make something ritually impure included contact with certain types of animal corpses, genital discharges and skin diseases. Using the wrong dishes for foods that should not be mixed, such as meat and milk, can also render certain food dishes un-kosher, or impure, as well.)

In Roman times, pottery, because it is porous, was thought to be easily contaminated; objects that touched something impure had to be destroyed. Stone, meanwhile, was thought to be impervious to impurity and therefore did not require any kind of purification.

Man-made cave

The quarry and vessel workshop was located inside a man-made cave, where researchers unearthed chalkstone cores that are used to make vessels on a lathe, chisel marks on the walls and other types of production waste for making stoneware.

Here, chalkstone cores that were unearthed in a man-made cave in Galilee. The cores would have been worked on a lathe to make ritually pure storage vessels roughly 2,000 years ago. (Image credit: Samuel Magal/Israel Antiquities Authority)

"The production waste indicates that this workshop produced mainly handled mugs and bowls of various sizes. The finished products were marketed throughout the region here in Galilee, and our finds provide striking evidence that Jews here were scrupulous regarding the purity laws," Adler said.

The finds also show that ritual purity laws were significant to Jewish people not just in the spiritual heart of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, but also in relatively out-of-the-way locales like Galilee.

"The fact that Jews at this time used stone vessels for religious reasons is well attested [to] in the Talmudic sources and in the New Testament as well," Yardenna Alexandre, an archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority who specializes in the study of Roman Era Galilee, said in a statement.

In fact, one of the most iconic scenes in the New Testament, the Wedding at Cana, describes Jesus turning water into wine in six stone jars:

"Now there were six stone water jars set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each." (John 2:6).

Originally published on Live Science.
Billboard is a print institution; the music-focused brand will be 123 this November.

John Amato, the 30-something president of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, has led the company for just a fraction of its history. Yet during his four-year reign, the publication has seen revenue double.

His dream is to morph Billboard from the biggest b2b publication for music to the biggest music media company.

To achieve that goal, Billboard took several key steps. It acquired Spin, Vibe and Stereogum from SpinMedia to consolidate the music media business and introduced a digital video series. Amato also landed a partnership with Instagram to provide exclusive access to content from the Grammy Awards and oversaw an initiative with Spotify to create the streaming services first music charts.

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Those moves, coupled with strategic brand extensions, put Billboard on a trajectory to reach Amatos goals.

But its resurgence as a power player wasnt easy. From 2000 to 2013, the music industry suffered a 50% drop in sales of recorded music. It was the biggest decline in the history of modern music, he said.

And it hit Billboards staff and bottom line. Amato, previously chairman and CEO of Backstage and co-founder of Show Media, a transit-based OOH company, won't cite stats before his tenure, but said Billboards business was negatively affected by monetary declines in the broader music business.

But by 2017, the brand, which he calls the only remaining big publisher to cover music and music only, had recovered.

How did Amato keep Billboard on track?

He put Billboard into the brand business. The companys music festivals and awards shows, such as Billboard Hot 100 Music Festival and Billboard Music Awards, became licensing opportunities for ad revenue.

In fall 2016, Billboard also launched its first daily video series, called Billboard News. The show releases four 60- to 90-second episodes every day across 10 platforms, including Billboard.com, Facebook and the new "Billboard News" YouTube Channel.

The multi-pronged strategy clicked and revenues rose.

Thats especially true for the magazines digital advertising, which has grown more than 380% over the last four years, according to Amato. Video and licensing also witnessed strong growth.

Billboards rise was aided by its access to a distinct, influential and affluent audience in the music industry that cares about its chart rankings.

Billboards proprietary charts, like the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top songs in the U.S. every week, gave it access to music titans that vied for the No. 1 spot. They don't mind paying the $200 subscription price tag. And they engage with huge fan bases, especially on social media, where they share their ranking with millions of followers, extending brand awareness.

These influencers, such as record producer Jimmy Iovine, check Billboards charts. Iovine reaches rapper Dr. Dre, who then reaches the world.

This is why our print product is thriving, Amato said. Because we were a business-to-business publication, we didnt have a huge circulation, but a really strong brand. (Billboards paid circulation has grown by 16% since 2013. The Alliance for Audited Media says Billboard had a total circulation of around 20,000 at the end of 2016.) Other businesses are built differently, he explained. They try to reach the world by putting Dr. Dre on the cover, then attracting advertisers.

Amato also points to several online successes.

Billboard has raked in 1 billion video views in 2017, already surpassing all views in 2016. Its social following, which includes Spin, Vibe and Stereogum, is around 25 million. By June, Billboards site was bigger than MTV and Rolling Stone.

The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group attracts 29 million monthly uniques, according to comScore, with Billboard accounting for about half that number. In addition, it was the No. 1 Twitter handle for engagements in the first quarter of 2016. At times, its account is second only to The New York Times.

Now Billboard is big enough, he said, to compete for audience, engagement and views with publishers native to those digital, social and video platforms. Not just in music but across categories.

Yet Billboards turnaround is thanks, in part, to the revival of the music industry. The magazine reported U.S. recorded music sales were up 11.4% in 2016. The industry brought in $7.65 billion in revenue, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), up from $6.87 million in 2015."

When asked about the challenges publishers face, Amato cited reliance on other entities for distributing content and problems of programmatic advertising, such as fake news, spammy articles and unsafe content, which threaten the media industry.

On the one hand, it validates our existence. But it also undermines what we do, he said. Being a premium publisher, it creates an opportunity. When YouTube has problems with content safety and Facebook has problems with fake news, it makes what we do more meaningful.

Next on his list is launching an edition of Billboard in Europe before the fall, a complement to the magazine's licensing agreements in Asia and South America. He also dreams of creating the Billboard Global 100, ranking the top 100 songs in the world each week.

Amato said his motivation to build on Billboards success is his kids. One day, when its career day and it matters at school, they can say: This is what my dad does. Thats important to me. If I just make money for a living and I didnt love what I was doing, I wouldnt be a complete person.
by Tanya Gazdik , August 13, 2017

Insurance company SafeAuto is poking fun at AI devices like Amazons Alexa.

The Columbus, Ohio-based brand is introducing Farnhaan, the confidently wrong AI device everyone just seems to accept in a campaign from Greatest Common Factory.

The new creative builds on the company's Terrible Quotes campaign that increased SafeAuto sales by 77% by juxtaposing nonsensical statements with the idea that SafeAuto will give you a good quote in three minutes  a play on the companys ability to make easier a process that most consumers find uncomfortable.

Dozens of TV, digital and social media ads introduce Farnhaan, a lightbulb atop a wooden box that confidently gives wrong answers in a faux German accent, to dramatize the fact that things dont always make sense in a world of AI and fake news. By contrast, getting a car insurance quote can be simple, easy and rewarding.

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In Tokyo, a woman asks Farnhaan what time it is in Tokyo, then takes it in stride when the device answers It is 4:30 PM, June 20th, 1983. In Baklava, a man asks Farnhaan whats in Baklava, and says hmm, minty when the answer includes toothpaste. In each spot an announcer interrupts, saying that doesnt sound right, invites viewers to check out SafeAuto, and closes with, at least someones making sense.

Farnhaans backstory includes a fictional scientist, Dr. Greta von Blunk, who is the subject of a teaser campaign introducing the device. Five Greta spots  where she explains her creation  started airing last week on local news stations and social media and a Farnhaan website launched. Farnhaan has its own Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

More than a dozen commercials begin airing today (Aug. 14) on national cable and state broadcast with connected TV, Hulu and Spotify in the 18 states where SafeAuto is available. It will run through early 2018.

Meanwhile, a widening range of storylines will play out on social media  based on how Farnhaan might interact and comment on each platform. Because Farnhaan and Greta are personifications people can relate to, they can be extended naturally in social media.

The big challenge in marketing today is content creation moving slower than types of media now available, said Charlie Kordes, customer demand & experience leader at SafeAuto, in a release.

We still have the same budgets to create assets, but now they have to work across 700 channels instead of seven, Kordes says. 

Farnhaan is a visual mnemonic we can easily translate to social media, streaming, and in-app/inline content, without a lot of incremental costs, he adds.

We cant afford to make 700 original pieces of content, but we can easily have the device say 700 different things, Kordes says. And were co-opting all the marketing and awareness behind AI to increase our relevance as we highlight our simple value proposition.
by Tanya Gazdik , August 13, 2017

Zappos charitable arm is sponsoring pet adoption fees nationwide as part of a partnership with North Shore Animal League America.

Through Nov. 24, Zappos for Good will sponsor adoptions for dogs and cats at shelters across 15 states and 36 cities every Friday, announcing new cities every week. Prospective pet parents can vote for their city to be included by visiting Zappos.com/Pets. The brand created a 51-second video to promote the effort.

The initiative started Aug. 11 with three South California shelters: the Burbank Animal Shelter, Baldwin Park Animal Care Center and Agoura Animal Care and Control.

Friends On Us Fridays is an extension of Zappos annual Home for the Pawlidayz campaign in which adoption fees at shelters across the country are sponsored by Zappos from Black Friday through the holiday weekend. This campaign continues to grow each year and has led to more than 18,000 pet adoptions to-date.

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At our core, Zappos.com is a service company, said Steven Bautista, karma kommando at zappos.com, in a release. [This initaitive] is a way for us to extend our special brand of service to customers in a different way by rescuing both pets and humans by uniting them as BFFs. Our goal with Pawlidayz, and now Friends On Us Fridays, is bringing happiness to our customers in a heartfelt way.

On Aug. 18, the effort moves to Illinois with the Animal Welfare League in Chicago, the Illinois Humane in Springfield and the South Suburban Humane Society in Chicago Heights. On Aug. 25, the offer will stand at three New York shelters: the Port Washington NSALA, Muddy Paws Rescue in Manhattan and Sean Casey Animal Rescue in Brooklyn.

North Shore Animal League America is one of the world's largest no-kill rescue and adoption organization, which has saved the lives of over 1 million dogs, cats, puppies and kittens at risk of euthanasia.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, August 14, 2017

It's estimated that Google will pay Apple $3 billion in 2017 to remain the default search engine on iOS devices.

A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi Jr., a Wall Street analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a research note published Monday to investors that the $3 billion licensing fee Apple will likely incur this year is up from the $1 billion the company paid in 2014.

Apples products account for about half of Googles mobile search revenue, per Sacconaghi, CNBC reports.

The analyst firm believes Google's licensing fees for search make up a large part of Apple's services business.

Google is not the only engine powering search for Apple. Microsoft Bing also powers Siri and Spotlight for Apple, which has been working to build up its own support for search.

In fact, Apple has about 459 open jobs related to "search," from Search Ads platform specialist in marketing to Search Engineers in its software engineering department in Santa Clara Valley.

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These openings either have the keyword "search" in the job title, in the description or as a key qualification to apply for the position. The latter makes the positions even more interesting. For example, most of the required qualifications that are typically listed for this Senior Data Scientist position include strength in Machine Learning, Statistical Modeling, Data Mining, Pattern Recognition, Information Retrieval, and Natural Language Processing. Or, per the job post, the position calls for someone with strength in Search Ranking.

There are about a dozen open positions for data scientists working with Siri, and at least two that will focus on crunching numbers in real-time in Spotlight Suggestions, which shows suggestions from the Internet, iTunes, and the App Store, movie showtimes, and nearby locations, among other locations.
Jim Kirk, editor and publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, is leaving to join TroncX, the digital division of what was formerly Tribune Publishing. Tronc is the parent company of Sun-Times' rival, the Chicago Tribune.

Kirks official title will be SVP, strategic initiatives. He will work on digital growth and monetization strategies across Troncs nine newspaper websites, which includes the Los Angeles Times. It is a newly created role.

We are focused on the launch of our new content management solution, which will allow us to grow and engage our audiences across the country. Jim will be instrumental in helping us achieve this goal," stated Tim Knight, president of TroncX.

Kirk will report to Knight; he worked with Knight when he was CEO of Sun-Times parent company Wrapports LLC. Kirk also once reported to Tronc chairman Michael Ferro when the Chicago businessman owned Wrapports. Ferro sold his shares last year to acquire a controlling stake in Tronc.

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The Sun-Times was bought in July by an investment group led by former Chicago alderman Edwin Eisendrath and a group of labor unions under the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Tronc lost a bid to acquire the Sun-Times when The Justice Department's antitrust division, which is responsible for investigating newspaper mergers, intervened in the sale. The Justice Department saw Troncs potential ownership of the top two newspapers in Chicago as a threat to competition in the city, which is one of the few remaining two-newspaper towns.

Kirk has served as editor-in-chief of the Sun-Times since April 2012 and was named publisher in 2013, marking the first time the two roles were held by one person.

Kirk had previously worked at Adweek, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg News, the Chicago News Cooperative and Crains Chicago Business.

At the Sun-Times, managing editor Chris Fusco will serve as interim editor.
by Sara Guaglione , August 14, 2017

American Media Inc. is folding print subscriptions to Men's Fitness into its other male-focused brand, Mens Journal, thereby increasing the latter's print circulation.

Starting with the November issue, AMI will increase Men's Journal's circulation to 1.25 million, a 66% increase. Current readers of Men's Fitness will receive Men's Journal print issues.

Mens Fitness will shift to an all-digital title. The site reaches more than 10 million monthly unique visitors.

Mens Journal will also increase its frequency to 12 print issues a year and feature about 50 additional pages of editorial content. The additional content will focus on adventure, travel and gear, as well as fitness content from the Mens Fitness brand.

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Mens Journal reduced its frequency to 10 issues in 2015, according to Adweek. It is likely AMI saw an overlap in content and audiences between Men's Fitness and Men's Journal, which it acquired in June from Wenner Media.

MensJournal.com will introduce proprietary ad technologies in the coming months, AMI stated, as well as an OTT experience in 2018.

More changes many come if AMI buys male-focused title Mens Health from magazine publisher Rodale Inc., which is looking to attract suitors. David J. Pecker, CEO of AMI, previously told The New York Times he intends to pursue that magazine very aggressively.

AMI owns two other men-focused magazines: Flex and Muscle & Fitness.

Separately, AMI has joined Facebook Watch, the social platform's new original video network . It premiered a video series from itsbrand, called "Inside My Kitchen," featuring 5-to-10 minute episodes showcasing the kitchens of celebrities.
Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

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OCTOBER 1917

Patrick Mercer uses the first-hand account of a renowned junior officer to report on a grim regimental battle fought in the mud of Broodseinde a century ago.

Along with Mons and the Somme, Passchendaele is one of the best-known battles of the First World War. The images of mud, blood, and gore are especially poignant in this centenary year, being commemorated by so many of the old regiments that fought there  foremost among them, the Royal Warwickshires.

Three of the most famous heroes of the Warwickshires were also there: Bernard Montgomery, Bill Slim, and Bruce Bairnsfathers cartoon character, Ol Bill, the archetypal, long-suffering private soldier, an image that  while typifying the British Tommy at war  did so much to raise morale.

A fourth hero was the prolific author Charles Carrington, whose gallant service with the 1/5 Battalion of the Warwicks left a proud scar on the rest of his life. Many of the words below are his.

Regulars and Territorials

At first, the numbering of battalions  1/5, 1/6, and so on  can seem confusing. Having most of the Birmingham conurbation on which to draw for manpower, the Warwicks had four Territorial Force (TF) battalions before the war, numbered 5, 6, 7, and 8, and these were very quickly doubled in strength once hostilities began.

A soldier who enlisted into the TF rather than the Regular Army or the hastily raised Kitchener units joined under different terms of service. So the TF was justly proud of its distinct numbers, and these were styled 1/5 in relation to the first tranche of battalions, then 2/5 as new Territorial battalions were raised in the same area.

When 48th (South Midlands) Division (TF) deployed to France in March 1915, its senior brigade was styled Warwickshire and consisted of all four of the regiments pre-war Territorial battalions. Soon, the Somme killed and injured many of the longer serving men, while Pozieres thinned them further; by the summer of 1917, Charles Carrington, currently second-in-command of B Company, 1/5 Royal Warwicks, noted:

in the company it always seemed to be the newcomers who were killed. The old hands, now mostly sergeants and corporals, survived everything.

And he had this to say about the new draft coming forward to make up the numbers:

The skinny, sallow, shambling, frightened victims of our industrial system, suffering from the effect of wartime shortages, who were given into our hands, were unrecognisable after six months of good, fresh air and physical training. They looked twice the size and, as we weighed and measured them, I am able to say that they put on an average of one inch in height and one stone in weight during their time with us.

One boys mother wrote to me complaining that her Johnny was half-starved in the Army and what was I going to do about it. I was able to convince her that Johnny had put on two stone of weight and two inches of height, and had never had so good an appetite before.

Beyond statistical measurement was their change in character, to ruddy, handsome, clear-eyed young men with square shoulders who stood up straight and were afraid of no one, not even the sergeant-major.

Soon redesignated 143rd (Warwickshire) Brigade, they were plunged into what is popularly known as the Battle of Passchendaele, in which all four battalions saw serious fighting. However, the little village of Passchendaele, a few miles north-east of Ypres, was only the focus of the last phases of what should properly be known as the Third Battle of Ypres.

Third Ypres

All Britains wartime plans were designed for cooperation with her French allies. The year before, Verdun had inflicted dreadful casualties on both the French and German forces, while losses at the Battle of the Somme had required that the British Army on the Western Front be rebuilt.

By Christmas 1916, Russia was buckling under German pressure, so it was decided that Frances planned Nivelle Offensive (as it came to be called) should be supported by a complementary British effort. So, in May 1917, Haig gave orders for another offensive in Flanders.

On 7 June, a preliminary attack was made on the Messines Ridge  just as Russia was launching her Kerensky Offensive on the Eastern Front. Though the Nivelle Offensive had collapsed after three days, the blowback had been a crippling military mutiny that paralysed the French Army and left large sectors of the line wide open. Haig was under tremendous pressure both to support the Russian effort in the east and to divert attention from the French sector in the west.

Accordingly, at first light on 31 July, the main Passchendaele Offensive began, with an attack on Pilckem Ridge and then on Westhoek, Hill 70, and Langemarck.

But in shocking weather conditions and against carefully deployed German artillery and reserves, the first phase of the operation had stalled with heavy casualties by the end of August.

Bite and hold

Haig nonetheless launched a second phase in September. The aim was no longer rapid advances to break the line, but the slower bite and hold tactics favoured by General Plumer, whose 2nd Army now played a far larger role in the battle alongside Goughs 5th.

These limited advances were meticulously planned and used overwhelming artillery fire to seize key positions and wear the enemy down, but without any immediate expectation of a breakthrough. Supported by reconnaissance planes and forward-observation officers who were right up with the front-line infantry, the artillery was usually decisive. The British took the Menin Road Ridge, held a German counterattack on 25 September, and made real gains at Polygon Wood.

But it was in the October attack on Broodseinde that 143rd (Warwickshire) Brigade was to be tested to the full. Carrington describes the preparations:

When I returned to camp to find the men in marching order on parade, an orderly thrust into my hand an intelligence report saying that the Germans had doubled their front-line posts. Two German companies were holding the front I was to attack with one Men going into action support themselves with a sort of hysterical cheerfulness, but no one could be cheerful in the Third Battle of Ypres.

It was now about 20 minutes before zero, which was to be six oclock. As the shells came faster and faster, crashing into the waste of mud and hedge-stumps which hid our assembled brigade, I could not disguise from myself that the Boches had forestalled us with a full-dress bombardment of our jumping-off line. I began to wonder if a Boche attack was coming, ignorant of ours; or whether (and this frightened me the more) they had learned our plans and would shatter our huddled group.

The non-commissioned officers made sure that all the men were ready and as steady as possible under the bellowing artillery. Then the moment arrived. Carrington continues:

It was zero hour and our barrage had fallen, blotting out the German bombardment with a drumfire 40 times as great; there was no more thought or feeling, no more fear or doubt; only an endless blast of sound; a flicker of flame in the sky, a roaring and howling of shells over our heads, and a smoky pall of shrapnel.

We must follow hard on the barrage and be on the enemy before they had recovered from the shock of it. I jumped out of the trench, shouting to my little group, and together we stumbled forwards towards the enemy.

There looms up in front a bank undercut by a row of dugouts, familiar enough from the map. I draw my revolver, but they are smashed and empty. Over and on, behind the thunder and lightning of the barrage (like cannon balls rolling down sheets of iron over our heads). One is thankful for a steel helmet.

Through the tumult I isolate a distinct noise, a spitting, a crackling, like childrens fireworks. Rifle bullets! Small arms, indeed! We look about vaguely. It seems already to have grown a little lighter, so that lumps loom up irregularly in front about 30 yards away, half left. Heads!

Three or four Boches in a shell-hole shooting at us! We see them together. Stanley shouts and brandishes his bayonet. Then I see Campbell lying curled up and grey-faced at my feet. Why, hes dead! And, by God, theyve hit Tiny Greenwood. He is staggering about and bellowing, his hand on his chest.

Stanley catches and lowers him to the ground behind the stunted ruins of a hedgerow which gives a little cover. Crack, crack, crack come the bullets at 30 yards range, aimed more distinctly every moment as the light grows and the barrage lifts ahead. The enemy are even near enough to throw a bomb.

Stanley rises and shouts, Come on, sir, lets go for the swine.

No, I say, get down in this shell-hole, and Im right. There is no chance for three men to charge three over the mud and pitfalls. Stanley plucks me by the sleeve and says, Aw, come on, sir, whilst Walker and I get down in the hole and begin to shoot, though Stanley stands and calls us once more.

Come down, you fool, I order him. Then he comes down, slithering on the edge of the shell-hole, dropping his rifle with a clatter. A bullet has hit him in the eye, smashing his left brow and cheek bone into a ghastly hole.

I sit stupidly in the half light, not looking at my servants body, and then imitated Walker, who was firing at the Boches when they showed their heads. I must have emptied my revolver before this time and now picked up Stanleys rifle, coated with mud from fixed bayonet to stock.

With difficulty, I fired a round or two, wrenching at the clogged mechanism after each shot. Walker gave a cry of joy as he got one Boche through the head, but one or two more ran up from neighbouring shell-holes and made the odds still heavier against us.

Still our own guns thundered overhead and now the German guns began to reassert themselves, dropping a few shells experimentally into their own lines, which they guessed had fallen into our hands.

Plumers plan

Carrington continued his duel with the enemy, at first quite convinced that his was the only part of the advance that had not been driven back. Despite the dazed confusion of an officer right at the point of the fighting, Carrington was in the middle of a most effective bite and hold operation.

Finally, a reserve platoon arrived, its Lewis guns raking at the enemys flank and causing a great gang of field-greys to come running towards him, their hands raised in surrender.

Worried that the rolling barrage had moved on too far beyond his company, Carrington gathered up what was left of his men, took a mixture of other troops, including some New Zealanders from his flank, seized an abandoned German position, and then dug in. Whether he knew it or not, he was conforming exactly to Plumers tactical plan.

Carrington summed up:

the battle had really been proceeding according to plan. Still like a man in a dream, I had been commanding and manoeuvring considerable bodies of men the advance was orderly and regular

The popular memory of Passchendaele is of muddle, vainglory, and slaughter. Despite being dazed by the brutality of battle, Carrington shows how victory was won here by good generalship, careful planning, and great bravery from well-led men.

In 1785, the 6th Regiment of Foot had bought for the officers mess a handsome silver snuff-box upon which was emblazoned, Seek Glory!. After Orthez in 1814, Wellington had scratched, Huzza for the 6th Regiment  Now Keep Glory. Amid the shells and mire of Third Ypres, the Royal Warwicks did just that.

This article featured in issue 80 of Military History Monthly.

To find out more about the Royal Warwicks, click here.
The old 6th Regiment of Foot began life in 1674 as a unit of emigre English troops in Dutch service. During the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, they came to Britain and fought under James II before being brought onto William IIIs establishment and fighting at the Boyne in 1690 and bloody Aughrim in 1691.

In the 18th century, the regiment saw hard service under Marlborough, helped to defeat the Jacobites in 1745, and was given the precedence and number 6 in 1782 after operations in the Americas, with the title 1st Warwickshire.

With the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, the 6th took part in the invasion of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Saint Lucia in 1794, before returning to garrison in Ireland, where they helped to thwart the French expedition during Wolf Tones rebellion in 1798.

After Rolica, Vimiero, and Corunna at the start of the Peninsular War, the 6th were sent to Walcheren in 1809, before returning to Iberia for the great, closing battles of Wellingtons campaign. During the assault on Echalar in August 1813 Wellington marvelled at the regiments attack against 6,000 Frenchmen, describing it as the most gallant and the finest thing he had ever witnessed.

Colonial actions followed in the 19th century, culminating in Omdurman in 1898 and extensive operations in South Africa. It was the First World War, though, that saw the Royal Warwickshires come into their own. From 1914 to 1918, they raised 16 new battalions and won all six of their Victoria Crosses, including that of Private Arthur Hutt at Broodseinde.

Nicknames:

For many years, the 6th were referred to as The Dutch Guards to reflect their origins.

One of the six Old Corps, the badge of the antelope was always worn, although its origins are still a matter of debate.

Read on:

This text appeared as part of the article about the Royal Warwickshire regiment at Passchendaele, featured in issue 80 of Military History Monthly. To read the article in full, click here.
The Black Tourist (TBT) is a new web series that brings you the adventures and thrills of travel enthusiasts in the black community all over the world.

Join our first tourist, Ayo Elizabeth of Ayo Van Elmar in this season 1 premiere on her vacation trip to Las Vegas. It is her first time there and she definitely has got some experiences to share with the world.

THE BLACK TOURIST is a global community of people that share a similar passion for exploring the natural and man-made beauties that exist all over the world. We are proud of the black community and we love to showcase our fun-filled experiences. There are amazing people and breath-taking places, monuments, buildings and destinations everywhere and we will not stop exploring all that the world has to offer.

So, are you adventurous? Are you curious? Do you love travelling? Do you love to share your travel experiences with the world? And do you identify with the black community? Then join us... you are The Black Tourist!

Instagram: @theblacktourist

Twitter: @theblacktourist

Facebook: The Black Tourist

www.theblacktourist.com
The leader and founder of Glorious Wave Church International, Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi has stated that some Gospel musicians in the country are ungrateful and thus the reason for they not making the impact as expected of them.

According to him, these Gospel musicians show respect to their managers and spiritual mentors when not famous but immediately they come into limelight, the act of arrogance and ungratefulness is seen in all what they do.

He continue by stating that he has personally helped some Gospel musicians in the country into fame and sometimes find it so surprising and worrying when they refuse to acknowledge such helps.

Prophet Badu Kobi who is also known for his philanthropic gestures especially to some Gospel musicians, admonished them to be grateful to all those who have played pivotal roles towards their success and stardom.

He concluded stating that his love for Gospel music is unparalleled and do not see why some Gospel musicians refuse to see this ministry as a calling from God and live accordingly.

He made this statement on Sunday, 13th August, 2017 during a church service at his residence Church in Accra.
Cairo (AFP) - The head of Egypt's railway authority resigned Sunday after 41 people were killed in a train crash, the prime minister's office said.

A statement said that Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat had accepted the resignation of Medhat Shousha.

Arafat "affirmed the investigations are ongoing to reveal the causes of the trains' collision," according to the statement.

Egypt's latest train disaster saw two trains collide on the Cairo-Alexandria mainline on Friday, leading to the deaths of 41 people and injuring scores more.

It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a train ploughed into a bus carrying schoolchildren in November 2012, killing 47 people.

Also on Sunday, prosecutors ordered the detention of four people, including the drivers of the two trains, according to a statement.

Prosecutors also called in 10 other officials for questioning over the crash.
Ouagadougou (AFP) - Soldiers launched an operation against suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso on Sunday after gunmen attacked a cafe in the capital Ouagadougou, an AFP journalist said.

At least two people including one foreigner were wounded in the attack, the journalist said.

Witnesses said that three armed men arrived in a 4x4 at around 9:30 pm and opened fire on customers seated outside the cafe.

Police and army arrived at the scene and sporadic gunfire could be heard into the night, the journalist said.

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

By far the worst was an assault on a hotel and nearby cafe in central Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people including several foreigners.
Lusaka (AFP) - Zambia's detained opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema is due to appear in court Monday on treason charges, four months after he was arrested and as political tensions rise in the country.

Hichilema, who narrowly lost last year's presidential elections, has been in custody since April over an incident when he allegedly failed to give way to President Edgar Lungu's motorcade.

A lawyer from his United Party for National Development (UPND) told AFP that the party expected the charges to be dropped and for Hichilema to walk free.

"They don't have a case against him. We are certain that he will come out tomorrow," the party lawyer, who declined to be named, told AFP on Sunday.

Lungu invoked emergency powers in July, increasing police powers of arrest and detention after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks.

The president has denied allegations of growing authoritarianism and has accused his rivals of trying to overturn the election result.

Hichilema, 55, says the election was rigged and has refused to recognise the president.

Relative stability

Zambia has enjoyed relative stability since its first multi-party election in 1991.

But last year's election was marked by clashes between supporters of Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF) party and the UPND.

President Lungu invoked emergency powers in July, after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks

Parliament has suspended 48 UPND lawmakers after they boycotted an address by Lungu in March.

Police on Thursday released the leader of a smaller opposition party who is a fierce critic of the president after one week in detention.

Savior Chishimba, leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), was detained by plain-clothed police, triggering further accusations of a crackdown on dissent.

Hichilema has been held in custody after allegedly putting Lungu's life in danger when his convoy failed to make way for the presidential motorcade in a high-speed road drama caught on video camera.

The two men were both travelling to Western province for a traditional ceremony.

Days later, more than 100 armed police surrounded Hichilema's house outside Lusaka, firing tear gas before detaining him.

Businessman-turned-politician Hichilema has claimed that he was assaulted by police during his arrest and has suffered mistreatment in detention.

Treason is a non-bailable offence in Zambia, with a minimum jail term of 15 years and a maximum sentence of death.

Lungu did not mince his words during the election campaign, warning political rivals and activists that "if they push me against the wall, I will sacrifice democracy for peace."
Ouagadougou (AFP) - Seventeen people have been killed and a dozen injured in a "terrorist attack" on a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital, the government said Monday.

Witnesses said three gunmen arrived at a Turkish restaurant in a pickup truck on Sunday evening and opened fire on customers seated outside.

The government then launched a counter-assault, with gunfire heard into the night.

"A terrorist attack at Istanbul restaurant on Ouagadougou's Kwame Nkrumah Avenue claimed 17 victims, their nationalities are yet to be confirmed," a government statement said, adding that 12 people had been injured.

Communication minister Remis Dandjinou said it was not clear how many assailants were involved.

"They are confined to one part of the building they attacked. Security and elite forces are conducting an operation," he said on television.

A paramedic told AFP that one of the victims was a Turkish national.

Map of Ouagadougou, Bukina Faso

"We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at hospital," the paramedic said, declining to be named.

Police evacuated civilians from the area before launching the counter-assault, with the heavy exchange of fire becoming more sporadic as the operation went on.

One soldier had said there were hostages on the first and second floor of the two-storey building housing the Turkish restaurant.

The mayor of Ouagadougou and government ministers were at the scene, he added.

Video footage posted on Twitter shows people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.

An AFP journalist at the scene said the gunfire stopped at around 3:00 am (0300 GMT).

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

In December 2016 a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

The worst recent attack was an assault on a hotel and cafe in central Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people including several foreigners.

Gunmen from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners, sparking a protracted standoff with security forces.

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people.

There have also been kidnappings -- of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
To protect the remainder of Ghana's natural heritage from the illegal activities of the gold mining sector's small-scale miners, the government must ban the use of excavators and other heavy equipment by that category of miners.

Clearly, there is nothing small-scale about the destruction wrought by these machines. Using excavators is mining on an industrial scale.

Period.

It is now obvious that after the initial disarray in their ranks - because of the widespread support across the nation for President Akufo-Addo's war against illegal gold mining - players in the small-scale mining sector are now regrouping and fighting back: to preserve the lucrative and mostly-criminal businesses they run.

I describe their businesses as mostly-criminal enterprises, because unlike most Ghanaian journalists today, I happen to have battled with that perfidious lot, since the late 90s.

As a result of the invasion of part of my family's freehold 14-square mile Atewa Range upland evergreen rainforest property at Akyem Juaso, by illegal loggers, illegal gold miners and hunters over that timespan, I have gained intimate knowledge of an industry in which the use of intimidation, bribery and fraudulent documentation to obtain 'mining concessions' is widespread.

In light of that personal experience, my humble advice to the leaderships of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Ghana Police Service (GhPS) - if they do not want the all-important task assigned to them to fall into disrepute from the half-truths, propaganda and fake news spread by agents of small-scale gold miners - is to embed seasoned media professionals in all the mixed military and police teams carrying out Operation Vanguard operations on Ghanaian society's behalf.

We must not allow the very people whose activities pose a threat to our nation's future - at a time when global climate change is negatively impacting the Ghanaian countryside - to demoralise those soldiers and policemen risking their lives daily carrying out Operation Vanguard anti-galamsey raids: by the use of fake news and half-truths spread on media platforms by their paid lackeys.

Although regretable if true, I have no doubt that if the paper work that enabled the Akyem Kwabeng small-scale gold miner - whose two excavators were allegedly burnt by an Operation Vanguard team apparently out of frustration with the hide-and-seek games that company was playing with the said Operation Vanguard team - to obtain his concession are examined closely by the national security ministry, its fraudulent nature will immediately become apparent to the whole nation.

And doubtless the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) document covering its operational area will make interesting reading. Pure fiction.

Definitely.

Furtheremore, it has also been widely reported by the Ghanaian media that Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) verbally-aggressive chairperson in the Ashanti Region, has asked all the small-scale miners whose excavators have been partially burnt by sundry Operation Vanguard teams, to take the government to court in a class action suit. Interesting.

Perhaps it escapes the very clever Bernard Antwi-Boasiako that there are discerning Ghanaians who might conclude that he hopes a verdict in favour of those small-scale gold miners awarding them compensatory damages - against the state - will set a precedent that will enable him to finally publicly demand same too for his Hansol mining company's excavators without it generating outrage across the country?

Genius.

The question is: Does the latest amendment to the Mining Act not prescribe seizure of those excavators by the state - implying automatic transfer of ownership to the Republic of Ghana? So what if agents of the new owners of those self-same excavators (apparently out of frustration) choose to burn them: unfortunate and undesirable though that is?

To buttress our point about the fruadulent way most small-scale miners 'obtain' their 'concessions' we have culled and posted a Citifmonline.com news story that is a classic example of the criminal nature of most of the operations of small-scale gold miners in Ghana.

What the government ought to do to halt the apocalyptic destruction of the natural environment that threatens the very existence - and quality of life - of present and future generations of our people is to simply ban the use of excavators and other heavy equipment by small-scale miners in Ghana. Simple. Full stop.

If Thailand earned U.S.$72 billion from the 31 million visitors it hosted last year (2016) let us preserve what is left of our nation's priceless natural heritage and anchor a revitalised tourism industry on it to generate wealth that stays in Ghana and jobs galore for millions of young people nationwide. Haaba.

The aforementioned culled Citifmonline.com story follows below.

Please read on:

"Amewu grills Minerals Commission boss over mining licenses

Monday, April 24, 2017 7:29 am

Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Dr. Tony Aubynn

Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Dr. Tony Aubynn

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Lands and Natural Resources Minister, John Peter Amewu could not come to terms with the explanation provided by the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Dr. Tony Aubyn over a prospecting license given to Okobeng Mining, a small scale mining company operating in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region.

Okobeng Mining, despite the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry directive to halt all small scale mining activities across the country, was seen mining for gold few meters away from the Ankobra River, with a prospecting license at Dwira Dominase in Nzema East Municipal.

Related Stories

Amewu stops 'recalcitrant' mining company from operating

Move excavators from mining sites within 30 days  Lands Minister

Review laws on small scale mining in Ghana - Tony Aubynn

Visibly worried, Mr. Amewu, who was leading a high powered government delegation on a two-day visit to some mining sites in the Western Region, questioned the Minerals Commissions boss Dr. Aubyn about the companys permit.

Mr. Amewu was shocked to have realized that, the company was mining for gold reserves with a prospecting license.

He bemoaned that this company has finished mining already and are doing an alleged reclamation with a license that does not allow them to even mine.

He asked Mr. Aubyn who gave these people given their prospecting license to operate last two months without my notice? I have been the minister for the past five months, this license was issued last two months, how did it happen without my knowledge?

Mr. Aubyn suggested that the matter be addressed when the team returns to Accra because, whichever way it is, it must have been signed by a minster. It could have been signed by the former sector minister.

But Mr. Amewu insisted he gets to the bottom of the issue by inquiring from the representatives of Okobeng Mining who were present at the site. amewu-at-mining-site-4

Mr. Amewu during the tour

He asked one of the site managers, when did you start working? After the site manager answered saying, they started mining at the area three months ago, Mr. Amewu asked Dr. Aubyn again of who gave the company the prospecting license to the company.

After he was dissatisfied with his submissions, Mr Amewu directed that every operation ongoing on the site be seized. He also directed that executives of the company be summoned to Accra to answer questions.

The violation Mr. Amewu expected the Minerals Commission boss to have prevented was the fact that the company had already finished mining at an area where his working permits allowed him to only prospect for gold.

He also questioned the commission on why mining had taken place at the companys site in less than 30 meters to the main Ankobra River.

He thus ordered the demolition of a security post mounted by 2 ex-service men.



By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo & Kojo Agyemang/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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End of culled webpage containing Citi FM news story by Obrempong Yaw Ampofo and Kojo Agyemang of Citifmonline.com/Ghana.

That story speaks volumes about the perfidy of most small-scale miners - and illustrates perfectly why Ghanaians must not sympathise with those selfish and super-greedy individuals who don't care one jot about the effects of their destructive activities on the natural environment and on their fellow humans.

Ghanaian society frowns on armed robbery - regarded as lucrative work by some - for good reason. Let us end the nonsense about small-scale gold miners creating jobs too. They are only creating health problems for thousands of desperately poor and vulnerable people who will eventually end up with various cancers.

We must treat illegal gold miners and small-scale gold miners deploying excavators with the same disdain reserved for armed robbers in Ghana and elsewhere in the world. The government must ban the use of excavators and other heavy equipment by small-scale gold miners in Ghana. Enough is enough.
A Security Expert, Emmanuel Sowatey has urged the government to stop using the military for police duties in the country.

Rather, Mr. Sowatey said, the police must be equipped to be strong, so that the military would not be brought into any civic duties.

Speaking to Space FM in Sunyani, he said we use the military too quickly for simple policing duties because the country has not equipped the police, train and retrain them to increase their capabilities of handling some civic problems

He said the military has not been trained for simple police work, and that is why at the least provocations, they make a lot of mistakes which sometimes result into causalities.

The Security Expert said the way the police would handle civic duty would be different from the way the military would handle the same issue.

Mr. Sowatey said because human rights are very important, and to avoid some the problems the military create when they are performing civic duties, there should be training for the police to always handle civic duties.

At a public lecture at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Navrongo in the Upper East Region, Mr. Walanyo Kwadjo Siabi, Chief Executive Officer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, called on government to establish a special security to protect the natural resources.

He said many fresh water bodies including the Black Volta, Pra, Densu and Ankrobra were being heavily polluted beyond the natural self-cleansing abilities.

He attributed the problem to inability of the country to implement policies and enforce laws relating to integrated water management.

Reacting to the call, Mr. Sowatey said the police should rather recruit more people into in its fold, train, and equip them to work effectively.
14.08.2017 LISTEN

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has given GCB Bank Ltd the green light to acquire two local banks UT and Capital bank.

A statement from the central bank copied to Citi Business New said The Bank of Ghana has approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd.

According to the central bank it has also revoked the Licences of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd. This action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital.

The latest development is part of moves by government through the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to restructure the banking industry.

Citi Business News has gathered the remaining assets and liabilities of the two banks will be realised and settled respectively through a receivership process to be undertaken by Messers Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

According to the central bank the main offices and branches of UT Bank and Capital Bank will be under the control of GCB bank and will be opened at 1pm today for normal business transactions.

The takeover of two banks at the same time will be the first and biggest in the history of the banking industry in Ghana.

The move is to rescue the two from further challenges as both balance sheets are currently in the red.

GCB was selected amongst 3 others on the basis of purchase price, cost of funding, branches to be retained, staff to be employed and impact on the acquiring bank's capital adequacy ratio



By: Vivian Kai Lokko/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
14.08.2017 LISTEN

On Friday, July 21, 2017, H.E. Dr. Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, Ghanas nineteenth ambassador to the United States met and presented his credentials to President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington DC.

NPP-USA joins with the larger Ghanaian community to congratulate Dr. Barfuor Adjei- Barwuah on his appointment and successful assumption of office. We warmly welcome you to the United States and into the Ghanaian community.

Dr. Adjei-Barwuah is an experienced diplomat. He brings years of embassy experience as President Kufuors ambassador to Japan, to expertly serve Ghanas interest here in the United States. There is, therefore, every confidence that Ghanas mission rests in a very skilled and stable hands.

We in the NPP-USA are hopeful, and especially happy about Dr. Barwuahs appointment because we see his wealth of experience as a critical factor for cultural and service reforms in the embassy system which currently fall far below the expectations of Ghanaians and general embassy clientele.

Given the enormity of the task, the membership of NPP-USA pledges its support and call on all Ghanaians to work with Dr. Adjei-Barwuah to advance Ghanas mission here in the United States.

Akwaaba!

Issued by:

NPP-USA Public Relations Team
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga was weighing his next move Monday to contest an election he claims was rigged after defying pressure at home and from abroad to take his complaints to the courts.

The 72-year-old insists he was the rightful winner of a "stolen" election last week and has urged his supporters to stay away from work Monday to mourn the deaths of those killed in angry protests against the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

However, after nearly a week in limbo in which businesses remained shut and workers stayed home, Nairobi largely came back to life on Monday with many unable to afford any more time away from their livelihoods.

Fruit vendor Alex Kilonzo returned to his stand on a busy street corner, even though many nearby had not reopened. "If I had money I could strike," he told AFP.

"Life has to move on," said IT worker Kenneth Kiruja as he headed into the office for the first time since Tuesday's election, adding the opposition should take their grievances to court.

Odinga, a veteran opposition leader in Kenya, lost his fourth shot at the presidency, according to official results, and has repeated claims he made in 2007 and 2013 that the vote was rigged against him..

His loss sparked angry protests on Friday night and Saturday in his strongholds in the west of the country and in Nairobi slums, leaving 16 people dead according to an AFP tally. This includes a nine-year-old girl hit by a stray bullet.

Police have denied that innocent protesters have been killed, saying those shot dead had been armed and attacked officers, many while carrying out criminal acts such as rape and looting.

Ethnic grievances

The dispute has plunged Kenya into its worst political crisis since Odinga lost a 2007 election that many observers agreed was riddled with irregularities.

That election exposed decades-old political and ethnic grievances over access to power and land that sparked two months of violence in which 1,100 were killed and 600,000 displaced.

Three of Kenya's four presidents have been Kikuyu and the other Kalenjin, leaving Luos and other major ethnic groups feeling excluded from power and marginalised for over half a century.

While there have been efforts to dilute the winner-takes-all nature of Kenyan politics, notably by devolving power to the counties, critics argue the underlying fault lines have merely been papered over.

Raila Odinga's ethnic Luo supporters clash with those from President Uhuru Kenyatta's Kikuyu group in a Nairobi slum

As a grim reminder of this, members of Odinga's Luo ethnic group and those from Kenyatta's Kikuyu group clashed violently in Nairobi's Mathare slum late Sunday with sticks, rocks, bows and arrows.

Mobs set on a Luo man, and then later in revenge a Kikuyu man, leaving them bloodied and motionless, as captured by two AFP photographers.

Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome denied the incident.

"We don't have attacks in Mathare," he told journalists.

'No turning back'

Despite this isolated incident, protests in Odinga's strongholds appeared to largely have fizzled out, as his supporters await his next move.

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga who has protested the election results has told supporters not to give up, but it is unclear what his next move will be.

"We are not done yet. We will not give up. Wait for the next course of action which I will announce the day after tomorrow (Tuesday)," Odinga told a crowd of thousands in Nairobi's Kibera slum on Sunday.

Later on Twitter he wrote: "There is no turning back".

The United Nations, Britain, France and the European Union have beseeched Odinga to use legal means to address his concerns. Kofi Annan, who mediated the 2007/08 crisis, has warned Kenya's political leaders to "be careful with their rhetoric and actions."

Odinga and his National Super Alliance (NASA) claim the results from Tuesday's election which came in via an electronic tallying system were hacked and manipulated.

Documents he has provided as evidence so far have been dismissed by the electoral commission, and it is unclear what Odinga will do next.

He lost a court dispute in 2013 when he alleged an election was rigged, and this time NASA has said court is not an option.

Odinga has until Friday to lodge a court complaint.
Paris (AFP) - The attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital on Sunday was the latest in a series of assaults in Africa targeting spots popular with foreigners and locals alike.

Here is an overview of the worst such attacks in recent years, most of which have been claimed by jihadist groups:

2017

- August 13: Three gunmen open fire at a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens.

Map showing Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where suspected jihadists attacked a cafe

- June 18: At least two people are killed when suspected jihadists stormed the Kangaba tourist resort popular with foreigners on the edge of Mali's capital Bamako. More than 30 hostages are freed.

- June 14: At least six people are killed when a suicide car bomber targets the popular Posh Treats restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab claims responsibility.

2016

- March 13: Fourteen civilians, including foreigners, and two special forces troops are killed when gunmen storm the Ivorian beach resort of Grand-Bassam. Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claims responsibility.

- January 15: Thirty people are killed, including many foreigners, in an attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel and a nearby restaurant in Ouagadougou. AQIM claims the assault, saying the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

2015

- November 20: Gunmen take guests and staff hostage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in a siege that leaves at least 20 dead, including 14 foreigners. The attack is claimed by AQIM, which says it was a joint operation with the Al-Murabitoun group. Another jihadist group from central Mali, the Macina Liberation Front, also claims responsibility.

- October 31: A Russian passenger jet is downed en route from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 on board. The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group claims responsibility. Russia confirms the crash was caused by a bomb.

- August 8: Malian armed forces storm the Byblos hotel in the centre of the country, ending a hostage-taking by gunmen that leaves at least 12 people dead including four UN foreign contractors.

- June 26: Thirty Britons are among 38 foreign holidaymakers killed in a gun and grenade attack on a beach resort near the Tunisian city of Sousse. The attack is claimed by the Islamic State group.

- March 18: Gunmen kill 21 tourists and a policeman at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in another attack claimed by IS.

- March 7: A grenade and gun attack on the popular La Terrasse nightclub in Bamako kills five people -- three Malians, a Belgian and a Frenchman. The attack is claimed by Al-Murabitoun.

burs-boc/txw
14.08.2017 LISTEN

About eight flights are expected to airlift Hajj pilgrims from the Kotoka International Airport to Saudi Arabia over the next few days.

This follows the airlifting of over 1,000 pilgrims from the Tamale airport, after the initial challenges.

According to the Public Relations Officer of the Hajj Board, Abdulai Rahman Alhassan Gomda, all necessary preparations have been made to airlift the remaining pilgrims in Accra to Mecca for this year's Hajj.

We earlier on announced six flights from Tamale but upon checking the numbers, we realized we could do with five flights, especially now that we have jumbo jets joining, he said to Citi News.

The first batch of pilgrims, numbering 435, for the 2017 Hajj pilgrimage left the Tamale Airport for Saudi Arabia on the evening of August 11.

The arrangements were not without hitches as the originally scheduled flight to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, August 10 was postponed.

The Hajj Board, at the time, came out to say the affected plans were as a result of hitches on the air carriers end.

It was a hitch on the part of the airline. It wasn't deliberate on their part because the aircraft, according to the Vice President, 45 minutes into its trip to Tamale, developed a technical hitch as a result of which it had to return for the replacement of the aircraft, which rather took too long. That was the cause of the hitch, Alhassan Gomda explained.



By: Farida Shaibu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
14.08.2017 LISTEN

Last weekend as I lied on my bed in the night with my heart aglow and my windows ajar so that I can hear the sound of the showers from the sky, I pondered over the country I belong to and dearly wish well. Just like one other night when the sky was blowy and the structures around made all kinds of noise. Just like another night when the moon was gloomy and the barks of the dogs in neighbouring homes turned cacophonic.

Further a bit, just like another night when the sky was as bright as the day that I could not resist the beauty to sit out and steadily watch the natures beauties. These are the times for reflections. These are times that nature peeps into and reexamines occurrences of hours before and arranges events for the next. And they were times I enjoyed praying for my motherland and her leadership. These are times to watch history, not from the screen of the television, but from the cerebral-box of ones earthly composition. These are also times that I censored myself to improve or to let go.

At such times in those nights, I got joy from things, I wept in admiration of many things and I was shocked by many other things about Nigeria. I also wept silently for many things that should naturally be good but turned upside down in my country. I thought about politics, about religion, about culture, about development and about Nigerians themselves. I was definitely confused by some thoughts. I groped, sometimes in the darkness, trying to grasp what of memories that could console me. I flipped the pages of history and recounted our gains and losses, most times not by our own making but by nature on one hand and the evils that man creates on the other hand.

I saw Nigerians full of hope and love for their country, some devoting precious times seeking divine intervention to rescue their motherland and some fighting aimlessly to undo the nation. I saw our leaders from one page to the other; from Tafa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obefemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello down to Muhammadu Buhari. A history of woes and sober reflections for the country! A history that has never recorded a 365 crisis free nation; crisis in policy making, in human (mis)management, in national building, in education, in production of primary human requirements, in proper utilization of God-given endowments prevalent in all parts of Nigeria and in security and safety of the people, particularly the common citizens.

How Nigeria has been ruled by the military, the prisoners and the sick is a playbook. The military is understandable for what they are. And the non-kaki leaders have been either prisoners or sick  terribly sick. Clearly, some are people who have been to prison before becoming national leaders. May God save Nigeria from repeating such experiences even as Nnamdi Kalu is strongly pushing that one day he becomes a national leader. We are all casualties to this experience. On the other hand, the leaders are also sick. Mental sickness, methinks, is worse than physical sickness. Nearly all our leaders, with respect to just few, have proved beyond doubt of intoxicated and complicated mental disorder and of kleptomaniac sophism.

All the past leaders tried their best, assuredly. Come to the present leader Nigeria has. What wrong has Buhari done that he is targeted for elimination? Why should Buhari not be allowed to do the unusual things that will develop Nigeria? A man who has proved honesty in the service of his fatherland; a man whose disposition towards governance is that of selflessness and resilience; a man whose intention for Nigeria is unstained and uncompromising and a man whose primary aim and objective in venturing into the murky political waves of Nigeria is to right the wrong, at least to the best of human ability. Why, for Gods sake, will the few powerful Nigerians not allow him to rewrite our history and set this nation on the path of truth, progress and unity? Why have Nigerians seemingly accepted that Nigeria cannot grow like those nations that started the race to development behind Nigeria?

Regional quagmires here and there! Boko Haram, thought to be dead, resurfaces like a cat with nine lives. Nnamdi Kalu and the agitation for secession have put the nation in suspension, despite the bail conditions attached to his release. The Northern youth threat to the Igbo in the north thickens as the deadline draws nearer and peace parleys make no headway. The Yoruba, the middle belt, the Niger Delta people, every ethno-religious group in Nigeria is carving a niche for itself, seeking equity and national recognition. And overwhelmingly, hate speeches are like mere conversations going on freely on the streets across Nigeria.

That is why there is the need for Nigerians to produce accountable and God-fearing leaders for Nigeria, not occultic and devilishly corrupt ones. Although this has been a song sung by every average Nigerian, a song that has merely been in the air across Nigeria, a song that has been performed by super artists with beautiful intonations but it is never enforced on Nigerians by the privileged Nigerians. Many patriots have had their swansongs forgotten overnight. When the country gained its independence from UK, Nigeria was praised. Nigeria, we hail thee, was written by Lillian Jean Williams and Nigerians sang the hymn till 1978 without, methinks, understanding or implementing its laudable request. Look at the two last lines of the second stanza and the four lines of the last stanza: To hand on to our children; A banner without stain; O Lord of all creation; Grant this our one request; Help us to build a nation; Where no man is oppressed. Nay, they asked God what they had power to achieve by allowed human wickedness to kill.

After then, Nigerians began to sing another beautiful song full of wisdom and inspiration which should have been a source of power, national integration and success. Pa Benedict Odiase composed this inspirational song: Arise, O Compatriotwith the lyrics and music from John A. Ilechukwu, Dr. Sota Omoigui, Eme Etim Akpan, B. A. Ogunnaike and P. O. Aderibigbe. Again, methinks, Nigerians sing the body of this song without its soul. But alas! How possible can it be that Nigerians do not allow questionable characters to rule Nigeria again?

And finally a heave of relief and hope came to me recently. I had hoped and prayed for that to be sooner before this nation collapses by the hard work of rented non-patriotic elements. Yes, a relief came. I read on the pages of some national dailies of the strong stand by the department of state services (DSS) after their two day seminar on national unity and stability with the theme: unity in diversity: security and national development. Few positions in the resolutions caught my admiration.

Timely as no time is more demanding than now, there is the urgent need for Nigeria to muster the political will to manage threats to national unity, cohesion and integration; the need for good governance and visionary leadership in order to reduce citizen frustration, create sense of belonging and improve patriotism and contentment and the need for government at all levels to engage with all agitators in their areas by providing the platform for mutual interactions and understanding and build broad consensus and agreements for resolving challenges.

It has to be impressed in the minds of the citizenry that the freedom to express grievances and agitate for diverse causes cannot be absolute and should, therefore, not be allowed to degenerate into widespread of hate speeches and intimidation that breed insecurity in the nation. The ideology of unity in diversity is surely based on the broad consensus of Nigerians for nation building and progress, hence Nigeria should be stronger as a united nation with her greater potentials and possibilities. Furthermore, the current threats to national unity and stability have been diagnosed and ascertained as partly founded on false perceptions and narratives of marginalization, while such claims and calls for restructuring are being driven by selfish parochial interests, posturing for cheap popularity, outcomes of poor governance, the scramble for favourable political ambiances and overwhelming unpatriotic agenda.

The apt reviewal of moral character, ethics, attitudes and democratic tenets in the Nigerian political class, elite and wider society and the need for the country to institutionalize them can be nothing less than cogent proposals. There is the unanimity that the current security challenges in the country require comprehensive overhauling of national security architecture to include security sector reform, coordination, communication and a centralized databank.

From another dimension and to streamline equity and fairness, there should be strict adherence to merit, competence and integrity in personnel appointment into leadership positions at all levels of governance and rewarding production and focus on revenue generation rather than sharing. Involvement of states and local governments in resource mobilization as well as proper utilization of allocated resources are also the bane of security stability and national integration.

Therefore, it behooves on all security agencies not to compromise their national duties on ethnic, religious or political lines. Instead, they must discharge their obligations to the nation strictly in accordance with the provision of the constitution which is primarily assurance of the safety of lives and properties of the citizenry. The citizens must, on their own part, be responsive, proactive and cooperative with national security apparatuses and also fearlessly hold the elite to account.

This is a topical issue that should be discussed at the highest levels of all security agencies of Nigeria immediately and without delay. The way the rented elements are threatening the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria and freely going about their heinous activities is becoming alarming and must be stopped. We cannot ignore the fact that the younger Nigerians are watching. It is dangerous to allow them believe that freedom is total and that lawlessness has no limit in Nigeria. Whatever must be done to carry all parts of Nigeria along in governance in a well-designed template that must ensure equity, fairness and transparency for all is the panacea, a very urgent one that must be pursued and implemented. The dominance of nepotism and sectionalism in governance has caused Nigeria more losses and harm.

All these are my heart worries and I have always hoped that the time was ripe for Nigerians to think differently from the usual way. We have to pray collectively but we have to act decisively. I feel that the time has come for Mallam Aminu Kanos wise words to manifest. Nigeria has tested so many therapeutic indices prepared and forced on her by the same circle of Nigerians. But if the Mallams dearest wish for Nigeria is yet to happen, let the present direction to which the nation has been positioned be followed for some years before any fair judgment can be widely acceptable.

Muhammad Ajah is an advocate of humanity, peace and good governance in Abuja. E-mail [email protected]
La Crosse police shot and killed a carjacker Sunday evening at Eighth and Johnson streets.

At about 5 p.m., Kneshay Fair was in the passenger seat of her Chevy Trailblazer, parked in La Crosses Houska Park with her two young daughters asleep in the back, when a gunman approached.

He put the gun through the drivers side window and told me to get out, she said.

Fair, 23, grabbed her 3-year-old daughter while her husband, who was fishing nearby, fought with the gunman. She was trying to remove her 1-year-old daughter from the car when the man climbed into the drivers seat and sped off with the toddler inside.

It all happened so fast, Fair said.

Police found the car minutes later and were pursuing north on Eighth Street when it drove through a construction site at Johnson Street, went airborne and crashed into a parked car about 5:10 p.m., said Duane Vetsch Jr., who witnessed the crash.

Two officers shot and killed the driver when he refused to comply with orders and they noticed a firearm inside the vehicle, police Capt. Jason Melby said. His name was not released.

The child was unharmed. No officers were injured.

Fair, who moved to La Crosse from Mississippi last year, did not know her child was unharmed until police transported her from Houska Park to Eighth Street, she said.

Thank God she was safe, she said. But a lot was taken from me today.

The state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting. Its the La Crosse Police Departments first officer-involved shooting where a suspect was killed since 1935.

The two officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave per department policy.
Ouagadougou (AFP) - At least 18 people including foreigners were killed and a dozen others wounded in a "terrorist attack" by suspected jihadists on a Turkish restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital, the government said Monday.

Two assailants were also killed by security forces who launched a counter-assault following Sunday night's attack on the restaurant popular with foreigners, Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said. It was not clear how many gunmen were involved.

The security operation "has ended" but searches are continuing in buildings in the Ouagadougou neighbourhood around the restaurant, Dandjinou told a press briefing early Monday carried on social media.

The Istanbul restaurant is just 200 metres (yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group.

A government statement described the latest deadly shooting as a "terrorist attack", while President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned it as "a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning."

"The fight against terrorism is a long-term struggle," he said in a Twitter message.

A police officer who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity cited witnesses as saying at least two assailants arrived on a motorcycle around 9:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Sunday armed with Kalashnikovs, and opened fire on the Istanbul restaurant.

A waiter also said he saw "three men arrive on a 4X4 vehicle around 9:30 pm, get off the vehicle and open fire on customers seated on the terrace".

Dandjinou had earlier said that "some people were held" by the assailants and that "some were released", but gave no further details.

He said the 18 victims were of different nationalities, both Burkinabes and foreigners.

Turkey said one of its citizens was among the dead, while Paris prosecutors said at least one French national died in the shooting, which French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as a "terrorist attack."

Security forces launched a counter-assault against the assailants who were hiding in the building

Security forces launched a counter-assault at around 10:15 pm against the assailants who were hiding in the building, the police officer said.

The shooting was intense at first and then sporadic, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.

Video footage posted on Twitter showed people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed officers in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.

The gunfire ended around 5:00 am Monday, according to an AFP journalist who was near the restaurant.

'Overwhelmed'

The wounded were taken to Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.

"We are overwhelmed," one surgeon told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We have received about a dozen wounded, including three who have died. The condition of the other wounded is critical. Three of them are currently being operated on."

Map showing Ouagadougou, where gunmen have attacked a restaurant

Burkina Faso, a poor landlocked nation bordering Mali and Niger, has seen a string of attacks claimed by jihadist groups in recent years.

In December 2016, a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on their base in the north of the country. And in October that year there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.

In the January 2016 assault, AQIM gunmen attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite, both popular with Westerners.

AQIM named the three gunmen responsible and published photos of them, dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons.

The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people.

There have also been kidnappings -- of Burkinabes as well as foreigners. An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) was very active in the past three days. The party found in the unfortunate delay in airlifting a little over 500 prospective pilgrims to Saudi Arabia an appropriate subject to play pure mischief with.

Having mastered the art of political chicanery over the years, the party sought to make a monster out of a situation which should have elicited a soothing support rather than aggravating the pain of distressed prospective pilgrims waiting for an aircraft which had suffered a long delay in touching down.

We all shared in the pain and inconveniences suffered by especially the elderly among the stranded pilgrims, as did Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and the National Chief Imam  both of who as it were, kept vigil in Tamale until the aircraft landed to the relief of all.

The heated reaction of the NDC persons, including we have learnt, a near press conference  their specialty  came at the heels of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia questioning the whereabouts of the monies paid by some 452 persons to perform the pilgrimage but were not airlifted, under the NDC regime.

Much as we acknowledge the inconveniences of the stranded pilgrims, we can bet that these did not come near the ordeal suffered by the 452 who paid but failed to make it to Saudi Arabia  the monies they paid missing in the black hole of NDC thievery. Such open hypocrisy is nauseating, especially coming from this group of unprincipled politicians.

The money paid by the 452 failed pilgrims is a subject the NDC has not sufficiently addressed to date. The loud-mouthed persons in the party have sought to answer many questions posed about their stewardship in various subjects, but this. Like the late President Mills' autopsy report, they would continue to avoid it.

Perhaps the only thing that would compel them to respond to it is when the relevant state agency drags them before it.

We would be surprised if that does not happen because curious as it is, the matter has not received the kind of attention we expected it to receive.

We are aware of the interventions and facilitations to enable  out of compassionate grounds  the paid-up prospective pilgrims to go for the pilgrimage, albeit after topping up with GH2900. Those who grieved more than the stranded pilgrims have ignored this reality sadly. Such selective show of sympathy is silly and should be disregarded with all the contempt it deserves because it is unreal.

We are tempted to think that the missing monies were used to oil the campaign machinery of the party last year when it especially became obvious that the party was losing power. Money had to be combed from all corners, including those under review.

At this time when the subject is still at the backburner, they can hop from radio station to another castigating the current managers of the Hajj and the government.
Details are emerging that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, demanded GH1 million to renovate a bungalow before she could occupy it as her official residence.

Sources say the building, located behind the El Wak Stadium, closer to the Cantonments Post Office and the Lands Commission in Accra, does not appear to be dilapidated but the current EC boss allegedly wants the taxpayer to spend a whopping GH1 million for its renovation alone.

The architectural designs are showing that the building, which was used by former EC Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, might have to be pulled down and reconstructed to meet the taste of the new chairperson.

The unnamed staff of the commission who want Ms. Osei impeached, have claimed that the chairperson brought a bill of over GH1 million as the cost for the renovation.

The chairperson has submitted an estimate of over GH1 million for the renovation of the official bungalow without recourse to the commission or appropriate staff in the commission, they said in the petition to President Akufo-Addo, which has since been forwarded to the Chief Justice (CJ) for the necessary action.

Currently, Mrs. Osei is said to be occupying the bungalow reserved for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE)  where she previously worked as head  and does not appear to be moving out anytime soon, if the renovation at the EC facility is not done.

Already, the Deputy Chairperson in-charge of Corporate Service, Georgina Opoku-Amankwaa, whom Ms. Osei has accused together with Amadu Sulley  the Deputy in-charge of Operations  of sabotage, has claimed in her defence that her boss said the building was not fit for her status.

She chose to live in the accommodation provided by the NCCE claiming that the official residence her predecessor used is not fit for her status, Ms Opoku-Amankwaa said in her response.

It was recently that she requested for a total refurbishment of the official bungalow. I was later informed by my director of finance that she submitted a bill and architectural drawings which indicated demolition and rebuilding the entire structure, the Deputy Chairperson added.

Rebuttal

The EC chairperson has always maintained that she was never given an office to operate from as the head of the commission, but her claim has been rebutted by Mrs Opoku-Amankwaa.

The claim by the chairperson that she was never given an office is false. An allegation like this gives the impression that the commission was created after the chairperson was appointed. Since 1992, the commission had been chaired by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan for over two decades, the deputy said.

Mrs. Charlotte Osei was appointed after a successful retirement of the then chairman. Upon assumption of office, she was given the office of her predecessor. This office is situated in the same premises of the two deputies. Strangely, she refused to take up the office, claiming that she had a security audit conducted by a security detail from the Office of the President and indicated that the office was not fit and safe for her occupation, the Deputy Commissioner averred.

Human Resource Directorate

She continued, Rather, she disorganized the whole Human Resource Directorate by choosing the directorate's office as a place of her preference. Since this office is just next to her former office as NCCE chair, she found it convenient for use. She accordingly instructed the then Director of Human Resource who was occupying that office, to vacate the office for her use.

She claimed that the chairperson, after taking over the HR Department, allegedly contracted her own artisans to do a complete makeover fitting with shower cubicle fittings and furniture in the office. A bill covering the works done was submitted for reimbursement but was subsequently withdrawn after it was vehemently opposed for non-compliance of the procurement process.

She continued, I wish to state emphatically and unequivocally that I was not privy to any of these arrangements, although this lies within my realm of responsibility. She (chairperson) preferred to deal with the directors.

Chairperson's Response

Mrs. Osei has parried the allegations and said in her preliminary statement that The estimate for renovation of a house indicates the level of work required to be done in the house.

It is not a contract and there is no breach of the law occasioned by submitting an estimate. It is in fact, the Deputy Chair, Operations (Amadu Sulley), that is in breach of the process reflected in his actions in 2015 when without recourse to the chairperson, the Deputy Chair (Operations) verbally authorized a director to undertake repairs to the chairman's official residence for the use of the said director.

Upon submission of the estimate of works done, it would have been expected that the Deputy Chair CS, (Mrs. Opoku-Amankwaa), who oversees administration, would have started a proper procurement process for the renovation of the chairperson's residence, she explained. She added, To date, no work has been initiated and the chairperson is still unable to move into the official residence, two years after appointment.

In the same vein, the chairperson was never provided with an office three months after joining the commission. She had to initiate the moves herself to get suitable office premises and furnish it personally.

Probe

Last week, the Chief Justice reportedly wrote officially to the embattled EC chairperson to respond to the allegations that could lead to her impeachment.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the letter from the Office of the Chief Justice was delivered on Friday, August 4, and the two other commissioners  Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku-Amankwa  have equally been written to, to react to the petitions against them, seeking their removal from office as well.

Legal Impediment

However, before the formal preliminary investigation commences, a private citizen, Ayamga Yakubu Akoglo, has filed a writ at the Supreme Court, seeking to prevent the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, from going ahead to investigate the EC boss.

The plaintiff wants the suit, which also cites the Attorney General, to declare the action being initiated against the EC boss by the Judicial Council as unconstitutional, void and of no effect.

He is claiming that the issues raised in the petition against Mrs Charlotte Osei had nothing to do with her core functions as prescribed under Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution and as a result, did not warrant her removal per Article 46 (1) of the Constitution, describing the petition as 'defective.'

Legal experts say that if a prima facie case is established against any of the commissioners during the preliminary investigation, the Chief Justice, per the rules, will then set up a committee to fully investigate the issues and a report submitted to the president.

A litany of allegations have been leveled against Mrs. Osei, including spending GH3.9 million to partition an office, receipt of a Toyota Land Cruiser from the previous government, spending about $14 million when the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had authorized her to use only $7.5 million, as well as attending Cabinet meetings under President John Mahama's administration, among other things.

The said $14 million contract was allegedly awarded to her crony without the PPA's approval.

By William Yaw Owusu




Bodies of the galamseyers

14.08.2017 LISTEN

Four persons suspected to be small-scale miners at Kwabeng, the Atiwa District capital in the Eastern Region, have been found dead in a galamsey (illegal mining) pit.

The bodies were retrieved from an abandoned mining pit Sunday morning with bruises and marks of assault on them, suggesting that they were beaten to death by unknown persons.

The 'Operation Vanguard' taskforce  comprising military and police personnel that has been charged to check illegal mining activities in the country  has denied knowledge of the crime.

The Commanding Officer of 'Operation Vanguard,' Colonel William Agyapong, claimed, I don't know where the story is coming from.

Only last week there was another story that 'Operation Vanguard' had killed somebody at Juaboso District. If it's propaganda it will fail because the good people of Ghana will see through it. I have crosschecked with the patrol team that went to Akukuso yesterday and they had no activity there; it is falsehood, it has nothing to do with our operation, he insisted.

Initial reports suggested that the joint military-police taskforce deployed to the area to stem illegal mining, allegedly shot the four at the galamsey site.

When contacted by DAILY GUIDE on Sunday, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bismark Achab, who is the team leader of 'Operation Vanguard' in the area, denied the claim that the military men gunned down the four.

He insisted via a telephone conversation, We are not responsible for the death incident. We don't know anything about it; our men don't work in the night. We were instructed not to work in the night. Our operations are done in broad daylight and not in the night. We didn't go there that night for any operations.

He added, I am stating emphatically that we have no knowledge about the deaths.

A DAILY GUIDE source, who confirmed the incident, said the four persons were sent to a small-scale mining site at about 8:30 pm on Saturday to dispatch some equipment.

According to the source, when the four workers were going to the site, they called the site owner and reported that another vehicle was following them.

The site owner then asked them to stop where they were and that he was going to follow them. The site owner, after some few minutes, could not connect with their phones.

The source said the site owner then raised an alarm, but the four were not found in the night until Sunday when they were found dead in the pitch.

DAILY GUIDE's further checks indicated that the police attempted to convey the bodies to the Kibi Government Hospital but faced resistance from some incensed illegal miners at Anyinam and Kwabeng, who went to the police station demanding the bodies for burial.

When the news broke, some of the angry miners and youth of the area also mounted road blocks from Kwabeng to Anyinam, attacking the police over the bodies of their departed colleagues.

The unfolding incident, which created fear and panic in the area, took the intervention of the Member of Parliament for the area, Kwasi Amoako Atta  who is also the Minister of Roads and Highway  to hold talks with the youth on Sunday.

Conflicting Reports

A Unit Committee member of the area, Benjamin Morvey, told Citi Fm that they had so far received conflicting reports on the death of the four.

Some are saying that it is the vanguard operators who killed them and some are saying they need answers from the excavator owner so that they will know what transpired. We are receiving all sorts of conflicting reports, he said.

Mr. Morvey added that despite the ban on small-scale mining in the country, mining has been going on in this area; some people have been mining in the night.

Police Report

The Kwabeng District police, in their preliminary report, said their attention was drawn to the incident on Sunday by one Isaac Annor.

One Yaw with three others was in-charge of a pay loader vehicle which was carting an excavator machine to Extra Gold Mining concession at Akukuso, near Kwabeng. That on reaching a section of the roadthey were reported to have encountered personnel of the 'Operation Vanguard' taskforce, so the operator and other occupants all abandoned the vehicle with the engine running; but found no one on board and still could not be traced. Police proceeded to the scene of the incident, combed the area and found an abandoned mining pit filled with water.

From Daniel Bampoe, Kwabeng


The first project under the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration's 'One District, One Factory' flagship programme is taking off at Ekumfi in the Central Region  believed to be the hometown of the late President John Evans Atta Mills.

The National Coordinator of the programme, Gifty Ohene-Konadu, revealed that plans were advanced with an entrepreneur in the area to establish a pineapple factory at Ekumfi.

She noted that Ekumfiman will be the first town to benefit from the 'One District, One Factory' initiative. This forms part of President Nana Akufo-Addo's government's strategy to develop the area to honour the late president.

According to Gifty Ohene-Konadu, former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, the project is expected to employ over 5,000 workers.

With the little investigations we have done so far, the initiative will provide 5,000 direct jobs to the farmers, besides the formal jobs that the factory will offer, she hinted, adding that land had been allocated for the construction of houses to accommodate the workers.

Ms Ohene-Konadu said funds had been secured for the factory. As part of the project, government will give subsidies to cushion farmers to increase their produce. She therefore encouraged farmers, especially those in the area, to grow more pineapples for the factory.

Sometimes you dont have buyers to buy your pineapples but when we establish this factory, you will get a ready market for your producethe interesting part is that the Chinese can use the pineapple crown to sew wedding dresses, she stated.

Ms Ohene-Konadu said these at a durbar organised in honour of President Akufo-Addo at Ekumfi Essakyir in the Ekumfi District.

She maintained that soon, Nana Akufo-Addo would cut the sod for the construction of the factory.

The Acting President of the Ekumfi Traditional Area, Nana Idun, pledged his support for the president's initiative. He added that natural resources, including land, are available for any developmental project that the government wants to embark on in the area.
Following GCB Banks takeover of UT Bank, customers have scurried to branches of the bank in an attempt to secure their assets.

The Bank of Ghana confirmed the takeover of UT Bank and Capital Bank by GCB Bank in a statement on Monday morning, announcing that it had approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd

Some customers of the former Savings and Loans institution told Citi News Gifty Tracy Aminu that they had rushed to the bank to confirm the news after it broke on radio.

Others had arrived at the Bank hoping to withdraw some funds only to find the building closed.

One customer, Ebenezer Adawada said: [Ive been a client of UT Bank] for about five years now. I was in a car, on my way to work when I heard the news that the GCB Bank had taken over UT Bank. When I came, the place was locked.

When asked whether he would remain with the Bank following the takeover he added: No problem, if only it will help us, my company opened an account here so I had to come and prepare my forms. My problem is that why should I now have to wait till 9:00 for my forms to be prepared?

Another person said that he had gone to the Kantamanto Branch of the bank to withdraw some money and rushed to the branch at Adabraka when he saw that it was closed.

I dont understand it. I came to town early this morning to buy materials for my workers. When I got to the Kantamanto Branch, I was told they were not open. I got a motorbike to bring me to the Adabraka branch but found that it was the same story. There was no message from the bank, I have been told nothing. I got here but no ones here, he said.

Im frustrated and dont know whats happening. I have to send materials to my workers. I dont get it. I dont know [if Ill continue with the Bank], Ill have to think about it.

Licenses revoked, off Stock Exchange

The Bank of Ghana revealed that it had also 'revoked the Licences of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd. This action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital'.

Citi Business News has gathered the remaining assets and liabilities of the two banks will be realised and settled respectively through a receivership process to be undertaken by Messers Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

According to the central bank the main offices and branches of UT Bank and Capital Bank will be under the control of GCB bank and will be opened at 1pm today for normal business transactions.

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has also suspended the listing status of UT Bank following its collapse and subsequent takeover by GCB.

The GSE noted that the suspension had become necessary due to the revocation of UT Bank's licence by the BoG.

The GSE also indicated that UT Bank has failed to publish its financial results since the end of its financial year December 31, 2015.



By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The rebranding of one of the two collapsed Ghanaian-owned banks, UT Bank, which has been taken over by GCB Bank, has started barely hours after the Bank of Ghanas announcement.

Citi News' Anita Arthur reported from the headquarters of UT bank at Spintex that the bank's logo on the building has been replaced with that of GCB bank.

She also added that UT bank flag hoisted at the premises of the head office has also been replaced with that of GCB bank.

The workers of the UT bank were earlier in the morning of Monday prevented from accessing the facility but were later given the chance into the building.

UT, Capital Bank collapse; GCB to the rescue

BoG on Monday gave GCB Bank Ltd the green light to acquire UT and Capital banks .

A statement from the central bank and copied to Citi Business News said, 'The Bank of Ghana has approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd'.

BoG also revoked the licenses of the two bank saying this action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital.

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has suspended the listing status of UT Bank following its collapse and subsequent takeover by Ghana Commercial Bank.

The latest development is said to be part of moves by government through the BoG to restructure the banking industry.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) was left with no choice but to revoke the licence of UT Bank and Capital Bank, which were deeply insolvent.

The two bank's liabilities overwhelmed their assets and the BoG deemed a Purchase and Assumption transaction as the least costly method of dealing with the collapses.

The collapsed banks were unable to develop an acceptable plan, according to the BoG, which indicated in a statement that it made efforts to help UT Bank and Capital Bank recover via private alternatives.

The Central Bank said there were repeated agreements between the Bank of Ghana and UT Bank and Capital Bank to implement an action plan to address these significant shortfalls.

However, the owners and managers of UT Bank and Capital Bank were unable to increase the capital of the banks to address the insolvency.

Purchase and Assumption agreement allows GCB Bank to take over all deposit liabilities and selected assets of both UT Bank and Capital Bank, per section 123 of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) Act, 2016 (Act 930).

The BoG in its statement said the GCB Bank took over UT Bank and Capital Bank as part of efforts to extend their reach and grow their balance sheet to position them to support large transactions in a fast growing economy.

GCB will take over all the depositors' funds and will continue to provide normal banking services to customers and depositors of the two collapsed banks will now become customers of GCB Bank.

However, on Monday morning when Citi News visited UT Banks headquarters at Airport and the workers of UT bank were locked out of their offices at the bank's headquarters at Airport.

Some Police officers were also deployed to the branch to prevent any chaotic situation.

Citi News also visited the headquarters of Capital Bank on the Spintex road, where there was an ongoing crunch meeting between the management of Capital Bank and GCB Bank. Banking operations were on hold till later on Monday.

The BoG gave some assurances that the takeover process would ensure that the impact on employment of staff of UT Bank and Capital Bank are minimized.

The BoG expects GCB Bank to retain some of UT Bank and Capital Bank staff and the Receiver (PwC) will also retain some of the staff.



By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
Lusaka (AFP) - Zambia's detained opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema pleaded not guilty to treason Monday, ahead of a trial set to fuel political tension in a country previously known for its relative stability.

Hichilema, leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), has been in custody since April over an incident when he allegedly failed to give way to President Edgar Lungu's motorcade.

Lungu, who narrowly beat Hichilema in last year's presidential election, has dismissed allegations of growing authoritarianism and has accused his rivals of trying to overturn the election result.

Hichilema and five aides "denied the charge of treason and the state has decided to take the matter to Wednesday for trial," UPND spokesman Charles Kakoma told foreign journalists outside the court.

Police officers in riot gear sealed off the court precinct as scores of UPND supporters waited outside.

Kakoma added that Hichilema, who remained in custody, appeared in good health at the brief hearing.

A UPND lawyer, who declined to be named, had said on Sunday that the party expected the charges to be dropped and for Hichilema to walk free at the hearing.

President Lungu invoked emergency powers in July, increasing police powers of arrest and detention after he blamed opposition parties for a string of arson attacks.

Lawmakers suspended

Zambia has enjoyed relative stability since its first multi-party election in 1991.

But last year's election was marked by clashes between supporters of Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF) party and the UPND.

Hichilema, 55, says the vote was rigged and has refused to recognise Lungu as the president.

Parliament has suspended 48 UPND lawmakers after they boycotted an address by Lungu in March.

Police last week released the leader of a smaller opposition party who is a fierce critic of the president after one week in detention.

Savior Chishimba, leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), was detained by plain-clothed police, triggering further accusations of a crackdown on dissent.

The government has also increased pressure on media outlets that support the opposition, eroding Zambia's reputation as a stable democracy.

Hichilema was arrested after allegedly putting Lungu's life in danger when his convoy failed to make way for the presidential motorcade in a high-speed road drama caught on video camera.

The two men were both travelling to Western province for a traditional ceremony.

Days later, more than 100 armed police surrounded Hichilema's house outside Lusaka, firing tear gas before detaining him and his aides.

Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been charged over an incident when he allegedly failed to give way to President Edgar Lungu's motorcade

Businessman-turned-politician Hichilema has claimed that he was assaulted by police during his arrest and has suffered mistreatment in detention.

Treason is a non-bailable offence in Zambia, with a minimum jail term of 15 years and a maximum sentence of death.

When he was arrested, Amnesty International said that Hichilema and the five other accused were "victims of longstanding persecution" by the authorities, and faced charges that are designed to "harass and intimidate".

Lungu did not mince his words during the election campaign, warning political rivals and activists that "if they push me against the wall, I will sacrifice democracy for peace."
A National Democratic Congress (NDC) Group, Action Movement, believes former President John Mahama is pulling the strings that fuelled former deputy Chief of Staff Valerie Sawyerrs recent article attacking the NDCs founder, Jerry John Rawlings.

The group condemned Valerie Sawyerrs comments as reckless and called on the NDC leadership to call her to order or expel her from the party for her treachery.

Valerie Sawyerr, in her article which has been castigated by some NDC personalities, slammed Mr. Rawlings for his criticism of the NDC and accused him of turning a blind eye to perceived failings under the governing New Patriotic Party, including the BOST saga and the fallout from AMERI deal investigation.

This level of inept wanton folly by Valerie Sawyer beats our imagination and we want to state categorically that, John Mahama and his close associates are behind this ridicule to discredit agenda against Mr. Rawlings, the group exclaimed in a statement.

We find Valerie Sawyers belligerence, and utterances on our party founder, to be very reckless and we are convinced that such unprovoked attack on the former president could only be part of that grand scheme orchestrated by the Mahama bloc to once again ridicule the party founder.

We are by this statement sending a signal to all those clowns around Mahama who constantly spew a bunch of wheat due to ignorance in an attempt to make us believe that Mahama is the best thing that has ever happened to the NDC to be wary of the repercussions of their unguarded attacks on JJ Rawlings, the group warned.

Find below the full statement

Sack Valerie Sawyer now- Action Movement tells NDC

The Action Movement of the NDC wishes to register our indignation at Madam Valerie Sawyer, a discredited and tainted Mahama loyalist who launched scathing attacks on the NDC founder- Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings in an article she released to the media last Tuesday.

In the said article, Valerie Sawyer, a former policy advisor to President Mahama cast aspersions at the personality of former President Rawlings describing him as an agitated mosquito and other cat-calls.

This level of inept wanton folly by Valerie Sawyer beats our imagination and we want to state categorically that, John Mahama and his close associates are behind this ridicule to discredit agenda against Mr Rawlings.

We find Valerie Sawyers belligerence, and utterances on our party founder, to be very reckless and we are convinced that such unprovoked attack on the former president could only be part of that grand scheme orchestrated by the Mahama bloc to once again ridicule the party founder.

We are by this statement sending a signal to all those clowns around Mahama who constantly spew a bunch of wheat due to ignorance in an attempt to make us believe that Mahama is the best thing that has ever happened to the NDC to be wary of the repercussions of their unguarded attacks on JJ Rawlings.

We were fooled to believe the claim that Rawlings has outlived his usefulness. It cost us the 2016 elections. Yet Mahama and his ilks have not learnt any lessons. They are obsessed with the Rawlings and their sense of criticism is only limited to tearing the NDC founder apart.

The NDC cannot afford the cost of any human folly that has the potential of keeping the Party in perpetual opposition. Even after such a humiliating electoral defeat and the aftermath of Kwesi Botchwey fact finding committee report, Mahama loyalists are still living in the past.

Valerie Sawyer is just one of the many wretched comedians and among a bunch of noisy ducklings who have lost touch with reality and will do anything to protect the Mahama status quo and their long pockets.

Valerie Sawyer is anti-NDC. She hates to see the NDC succeed. This is the same woman who is alleged to have actively campaigned for an independent candidate against the NDCs candidate in the last elections at the Klottey Korley constituency. We are calling on the party hierarchy to call Valerie Sawyer to order, or better still sack her from the party for her treachery.

Long Live Founder

Long Live the NDC

SIGNED

Kodzo Hamenya Keglo (0244608497)

NDC Action Movement.



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana


The Minister for Aviation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has inaugurated a nine-member reconstituted Board of Directors of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

The members of the board, which is expected to work closely with management of GCAA to ensure safety and security in the Accra Flight Information Region (FIR), are Air Commodore RGM Acquah (Rtd), former Defence Attache in Cote D'Ivoire, Chairman and Group Captain Eric Agyen-Frempong.

The rest are Kwasi Owusu Ansah, Building Technologist, Simon Allotey, Director-General, GCAA, Ella Hugh-Tamakloe, Chief Planning Officer, Ministry of Aviation, Capt P. D. Spencer, Aviation Consultant, Dr. Sulemana Abdulai, Development Consultant, Ernestina S. Eshun, Civil Engineer and Joyce Opoku-Boateng, private legal practitioner.

Addressing the new board members, senior staff of the ministry and guests at the ministry's conference room in Accra on Tuesday, Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah indicated that GCAA was established under the PNDC Law 151 and the GCAA Law (Act 678, 2004) as a regulator of the aviation sector.

The GCAA, which provides air navigation services in the Accra FIR, has also been mandated to advise government through the sector Ministry on aviation matters.

The Minister mentioned that GCAA was responsible for Licensing and Certification of Air Transport Operations, Licensing and Certification of Aerodromes and construction, operation, maintenance and management of air navigation sites.

The aforementioned functions, as stipulated in the GCAA Act 2004, Act 678, puts an enormous responsibility on you to give direction and express advice to the management of the GCAA in the performance of their work, she stated.

In this regard, the President of the Republic expects you to approach your work with diligence and seriousness in order to fulfill the government's agenda of making the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) an aviation hub in the sub-region for international and regional airlines.

Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah stressed the need to always partner the private sector.

Speaking on the vision of the Ministry to make KIA the aviation hub in the sub-region and position Ghana as a preferred destination of choice of travelers, she stated that the ministry has positioned itself to ensure the growth and development of Ghana's aviation sector through a number of policies.

To this effect, GCAA has embarked on a number of programmes and projects to enhance performance in the aviation sector and further inject efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of services, she mentioned.

By Solomon Ofori


The Chief Operations Officer of SIC Life Company Limited, Vera Kate Haizel-Cobbina, has appealed to head porters (Kayayei) to prioritise the education of their children by subscribing to the SIC Sika Plan, an insurance policy with savings scheme.

It is important for you to inculcate the habit of savings, she said at a meeting with a group of head porters at the Kejetia Kayayei Center in Kumasi.

She told the girls that the future of their children can only be guaranteed if they invest in their education.

Ms Haizel-Cobbina further stated that the most valuable asset parents can give their wards is to invest in their education.

You would be surprised to know the amount of money that you can save when you deposit a minimum of GH2 a day, Mrs Haizel-Cobbina emphasised.

She told the head porters that the insurance policy could open opportunities for them to engage in other business ventures, which can empower them financially to put their wards through school and also meet other financial obligations.

Ms Haizel-Cobbina advised the girls to be careful and shun men, who would want to take advantage of their situation, but focus on their work and make regular payment of their insurance premium a part of their life style.

The Overseer of the Pamela Bridgewater Kayayei Center, Madam Kubura, thanked SIC Life for their visit and for considering the head porters in their plans.

She assured the team from SIC Life of the willingness of the head porters present at the meeting to promote and encourage their colleagues to adopt the habit of savings since it would eventually inure to their benefit.

A Business Desk Report


Lucas Yirezeme, Assists Naab Sylvester Balagumeyetime, Chief of Baare, Christopher Boabil and Dr. Kofi Issah to cut the tape to open the facility

Staff of uniBank, through their charitable Initiative, the 'One Ghana Project,' recently handed over a newly-constructed contemporary bath-house facility to the management of Talensi District Hospital in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region.

The facility, the first of its kind, is to serve the needs of patients and patrons of the hospital, who hitherto, took regular baths outside the compound of the hospital.

The hospital serves 96 communities with a total population estimated at 81,194.

At a well-attended ceremony to hand over the facility, the Regional Health Director, Dr. Kofi Issah, applauded uniBank for providing the community with such an amazing edifice.

He advised the staff of the hospital and the community as a whole to ensure that the facility is well maintained to ensure its longevity.

Hospital Administrator, Prosper Asandem, said, Patients on admission previously had to go home each time they needed to take a shower and return to the hospital to continue treatment.

Also, he commended uniBank for the great job and indicated that this has been a long outstanding project they have been looking forward to.

Thanks to uniBank's One Ghana Initiative, patients need not go through this hassle any longer.

Lucas Yerizeme, Manager of the uniBank Bolgatanga Branch, told journalists that as a caring bank, healthcare was one of uniBanks Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) pillars, adding that the project formed part of the banks obligation to supporting health care in the country.

He also indicated that the initiative, which drew on staff contributions and efforts, was reflective of the bank's agile CSR undertaking, which is anchored on its mission statement to be socially responsive to our communities.

In his address, District Chief Executive (DCE), Christopher Boabil, expressed his excitement about the commissioning of this project.

He congratulated uniBank for a phenomenal work done and requested that staff of the hospital patronize products of the bank to enhance a good relationship.

He called on the bank to support them in future by way of setting up a structure to accommodate teachers, who are posted to Talensi to teach.

The event was graced by the Chief of Baare, who also represented the Paramount Chief of Tongo Traditional Area.

A Business Desk Report
On board the Aquarius (AFP) - On board the Aquarius, one of the last NGO ships still operating off the coast of Libya, rescuers are worried they are not seeing any more boatloads of migrants at sea.

Libya's navy last week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe, a measure aimed at nongovernmental organisations it accuses of facilitating traffickers in illegal migration.

One by one the NGOs halted operations, except the Aquarius. The 68-metre orange boat, formerly used by the German coastguard, sailed alone off the Libyan coast on Sunday.

"For the moment, we are continuing our patrol operation in international waters," said Nicola Stall, search and rescue coordinator for the Aquarius, which is operated by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

And so the Aquarius team of rescuers keeps up its two-hour rotation, day and night, to watch for migrants floating on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

MSF workers meanwhile check their stocks of medications, while other volunteers give the bridge a fresh coat of paint.

As they wait, they are concerned about the calm sea and the favourable winds of the past few days. Despite such weather conditions, they haven't seen a migrant boat for a week now.

"It's very hard to know what is going on in Libya," says Marcella Kraay, the MSF chief on board. Even during the bad weather in winter, they have never gone more than three weeks without rescuing hundreds of migrants.

"What we're seeing at sea is that it seems fewer small boats are leaving Libya, and those that do leave are intercepted by the Libyan coastguards," she says, adding that they were trying to get Libya to clarify the zone that foreign ships are barred from.

The Aquarius may be joined by vessels from the Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms, which was expected to resume operations on Monday.

Warning shots

Last week Libyan coastguards frightened off most NGO rescue ships when they fired shots in the air opposite one vessel, warning that they would target it directly the next time.

The Aquarius has an emergency plan so everyone on board can lock themselves in should the ship be boarded.

A migrant child is rescued by members of the Aquarius rescue ship, operated by about a dozen volunteers from Europe, the United States and Australia

There are about a dozen people from the two NGOs, from several European countries as well as the United States and Australia.

Sailors volunteer their time to SOS Mediterranee while the MSF team includes doctors as well as logistical and technical people, veterans of humanitarian crises such as the Ebola epidemic and the Iraqi battle at Mosul.

The ship's captain hails from Belarus and the roughly 10 crew members are mostly Slavs, hired with the boat but having chosen to take part in this rescue mission, which has been going on since last year.

At night the Aquarius keeps about 30 miles from the Libyan coast, mainly to avoid fishermen's nets. During the day it moves closer so the coastline is visible, but stays about 24 miles away unless the Italian coastguard calls on them to help with rescues nearer shore.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

'Grave concern'

The Aquarius rescue ship run by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) prepares to load a body bag of a migrant who died at sea

Italy, which has borne the brunt of the migrant influx from north Africa, has welcomed Libya's decision to bar NGO ships and invest more in its coastguard.

The number of migrants reaching Italy is down compared with last year. So far in August authorities say there have been 1,700 arrivals, far from the 21,300 recorded for the entire month in 2016.

But for humanitarian groups, what happens to migrants returned to or kept in camps in Libya is even more worrying.

"Fewer ships in the area will mean more people will drown at sea. And those taken back by the Libyan coastguards will be kept in captivity, and again exposed to violence, abuse, maltreatment, exortion," says MSF's Kraay. "This is really a grave concern."
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday appealed to the opposition to hold legal demonstrations, not street protests, and allow Kenyans to get back to normal life after last week's disputed vote.

"To our friends who have yet to accept the outcome, we continue to appeal to them, and we have extended our arm and a hand of peace, and a hand of friendship, and for them to use whatever legal mechanisms that have been created via our wonderful constitution to express their dissatisfaction," Kenyatta said.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga's rejection of the results of Tuesday's election -- in which Kenyatta won 54 percent of the vote -- has led to sometimes violent clashes between his supporters and police that have killed at least 16 people since Friday.

Odinga has said he will announce "the next course of action" on Tuesday, leaving Kenya on tenterhooks.

Kenyatta said Odinga should follow legal avenues to protest the election, and repeated a call for peace.

"At the end of the day we are all Kenyans, we don't need to fight one another, we don't need to destroy each other's property, we don't need to take life," he said.

"There is not a single Kenyan anywhere who wants to continue to see violence, looting and demonstrations that end up destroying properties," he said, striking the same conciliatory tone he used when accepting victory on Friday.

"Kenyans have said that the election is behind them, the majority have returned to work," he said, as the capital Nairobi returned to a level of busyness not seen since polling day, despite Odinga's call for people to stay away from work to mourn those killed in protests.

Kenyatta also thanked police -- who human rights groups have criticised for their violent crackdown on protests -- and urged them "to use restraint".
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has served notice it will punish any individual or persons whose actions may have led to the collapse of UT Bank and Capital Bank.

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison explains that the move is to sanitise the banking sector and make it more robust.

The Central Bank today, Monday, granted GCB Bank the permission to take over the assets of UT Bank and Capital Bank over the two bank's inability to sustain their operations due to low insolvency.

The last phase of the BoG's action would involve a thorough investigation of operations of UT Bank and Capital Bank and appropriate action will be taken against shareholders, Directors, and key a Management personnel who are found to be culpable, Governor Ernest Addison stated.

UT Bank and Capital Bank were requested to submit restructuring and capital restoration plans. However, plans submitted were found to be unacceptable. A pro-forma balance sheet of liabilities to be taken and assets to be purchased were prepared and a pool of bidders was asked to express interest. GCB Bank was then selected among three others on the basis of purchase price, cost of funding, branches to be retained, staff to be employed, and impacting the acquiring bank's capital adequacy ratio, he added.

Meanwhile the Governor is confident of the outlook of the banking sector with the mechanisms put in place by the respective banks to consolidate their financial base.

After the AQR exercise, a number of banks were not compliant with the capital adequacy ratio. I am happy to report that most of these banks have put in place credible action plans to restore the capital deficiency, and majority of these banks are already compliant as at today, and the overall banking system remains solid and well-capitalized.

In addition, Dr. Addison assured that the customers will be protected.

The Purchase and Assumption transaction has distinct benefits as customers will suffer no loss, the acquiring bank can increase its market share, and productive financial assets are maintained.

The first point of emphasis is that, no depositor will lose his or her funds and all depositors can continue to do normal banking business with GCB Bank.

The Governor further stressed,Under the Purchase and Assumption (P&A) transaction, GCB Bank will acquire all deposits and some selected assets of UT Bank and Capital Bank. The premises of UT Bank and Capital Bank will now be rebranded as branches of GCB Bank. All customers can continue normal banking business at these branches. All debtors should continue making their loan repayments as legally scheduled.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
14.08.2017 LISTEN

Atiwa Youth Association has called on the police to undertake thorough investigation to fish out the cause of death of four men found in a galamsey pit in Akukuso, a suburb of Kwabeng in the Atiwa West District of the Eastern Region.

A member of the Association, Kudjo Okyere, who spoke on Onua FMs morning show Yen Nsem Pa, explained that publications circulating in both main stream and social media may have been twisted to give bad name to the taskforce commissioned by government to weed out illegal miners.

He said although they as an association cannot independently confirm those who were behind the killings, it is only advisable the police hierarchy looks into the matter and brings it to logical conclusion. We are entreating the general public to ignore the claim that the death was caused by the anti-galamsey taskforce. When the mortal remains of the alleged galamseyers were found, there was no sign of gunshot on their bodies.

They expressed these sentiments in a statement on Monday. Find it below: STOP MISLEADING THE PUBLIC ON THE DEATH OF THE 4 GALAMSEYERS IN ATIWA  Atiwa Youth Association The attention of the Atiwa Youth Association has been drawn to publications circulating in the media (electronic and social media) concerning the death of four (4) galamseyers at Akukuso  a suburb of Kwabeng.

Atiwa Youth Association is calling on the police to undertake a thorough investigation to fish out what killed them and who is behind their death. Publications circulating in the media have been given a twist of the issue by attributing their death to the Vanguard (anti-galamsey taskforce).

This allegation by the media is whimsical and was orchestrated by the opposition to government in other to win a political point. The anti-galamsey taskforce operated in the Atiwa district about a week ago so, the perpetuators thought of doing that for Ghanaians to attribute it to the Vanguards.

Fortunately, the taskforce have not operated in the district since three days The Atiwa Divisional Police Command has cleared the vanguard of knowing nothing about it.

We are entreating the general public to ignore the claim that the death was caused by the anti-galamsey taskforce. When the mortal remains of the alleged galamseyers were found, there was no sign of gunshot on their bodies.

Simple logic will tell us that, under no circumstances will an armed military officer lay down his ammunition to fight someone he deem a treat by hands. The quest by the government to halt galamsey must be deemed a national task.

We need to protect the environment for generations to come just as our forefathers did for us. Atiwa Youth Association is calling on the Police Service to do all it can to unearth the hidden truth of the incident. We share our condolences to the bereaved family.

Meanwhile, District Chief Executive of Atiwa West Kwabena Nkansah Panyin has told host of Onua FMs morning show Bright Kwesi Asempa that there will be DISEC meeting Monday to see the way forward.
The second meeting of the First Session of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana came to an end on Wednesday, August 2, 2017. However, the second meeting, which began on a cordial note, hit the rock at the tail-end of the session.

The seeming conflict, which was between the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs), and the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Prof. Michael Aaron Ocquaye, over what the minority caucus described as his bias towards them, and his relentless attempt to gag them on Monday, July 31, 2017 reached its crescendo, when the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, officially lodged a complaint against the conduct of the speaker to the Council of State when the latter paid a courtesy call on the leadership of the House.

Before they officially lodged the complaint, the minority staged a walkout during one of its sittings, but their action came under heavy attacks from some members of the public including former Attorney-General, Mr. Martin A.B. Amidu, who has become a thorn in the flesh of the opposition NDC.

According to the minority, since the inception of the 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic, the Speaker has shown open bias towards them, cataloguing a number of critical moments where Rt. Hon. Prof. Ocquaye denied them the opportunity to either voice out their displeasure or question ministers of state who appeared before the legislature to answer issues relating to their respective ministries.

The minority, however, vowed to resist any attempt by the Speaker or anybody to silence them in the House. They further threatened to initiate processes towards the impeachment of the Speaker if he continues to do same. This stand by the minority and the Speakers unwavering position is something lovers of democracy should be concerned about, if we want our democracy to be rooted firmly.

It is not for nothing that framers of the 1992 Constitution and other statutory regulations allow representations from the various parts of the country to converge at one place to deliberate on national issues and as well make laws for us.

Per this arrangement, each and every member of the House must have his/her say concerning issues of national interest. Thus, the minority side of the House should be given the opportunity to have their say at any given time likewise the majority. The legislature arm of government has often come under serious criticism for being soft on the executive, especially the majority side, which party often finds itself in government. For this and many reasons, we need a strong, vocal and responsible minority to watch the back of the government of the day.

It is a fact that most of the reforms were championed by the opposition. Thus the role of the minority in the scheme of affairs of our democratic governance can never be underestimated.

If we only need to counter balance and check possible excesses and abuse of the exercise of the state authority effectively, then it is the role of a political minority. And it is not for nothing that every country has a government but it is only democracies that have opposition so the opposition minority in Parliament has a role to play in deepening good governance and making room for the counter balancing act of checking excesses in the exercise of state power and or authority.

It is for this reason that the right of the minority to have its say should not be compromised at any given time. It is an open secret that the Speakers of the House are brought in to push government businesses. So, some of the antics used in the past by various speakers to get their government businesses through cannot be faulted.

However, the minority should be allowed to have their say, after all the minority can have their say but cannot have their way. This saying known practice should be jealously protected to strengthen our young democracy. In every parliamentary democracy, the minoritys right to have its say is a respected norm. Im saying this because in the public interest and in the interest of democratic stability, the rights of the minority to have its say must be safeguarded.

I believe in our twenty-five years of democratic practice, we need to develop a more tolerant culture as we build our democracy. As long as we expect the minority to have their say, we ask that things are said mindful of the time in the circumstances, and the place when you are saying a particular thing.

So, I was extremely glad when the minority leader in an interview assured the nation that his side will continue to be responsible, stressing that they will not be cowed into submission.

We are a responsible minority, we need to counter balance and check possible excesses and abuses of the exercise of state authority, therefore the opposition has a role to play, we know our responsibility but the right of the minority to have its say should not, and would not, and cannot be compromised at any given time. We know as the minority, we cannot have our way but we can have our say and that jealously must be guarded, he intimated.

I equally pray that the Speaker will also not be cowed into submission by the current happenings, but be fair and firm in his decisions when the House resumes. It is worthy to note that when the leadership of the House met the Legal Committee of Council of State, the Speaker re-affirmed his commitment to run an open-door policy.

These were the words of the Speaker: It is very unfortunate what happened on the floor of the House few days ago, but if I had the opportunity to rule on any issue whether it is coming from the minority or majority, I will not hesitate to do.

As a people, no matter where we come from or the colour of our political affiliations, we should all work hand-in-hand to solidify our notable status as one of Africas most stable democracies. And at all times, we should be able to agree to disagree.
14.08.2017 LISTEN

Celebrated Ghanaian literary personality, Ama Ata Aidoo has expressed her incredulity at extra and vacation classes organised for students in many of Ghanas schools.

She described them as a symbol of the countrys broken educational system and an indication that the schools were not competent enough to perform their core duties.

Those extra and vacation classes which are run off school premises are bad enough. When they are organized by the schools themselves, they become almost evil: a confession of the schools inadequacy at handling their core mandate, Ama Ata Aidoo said in a Facebook post.

According to her, the schools take advantage of the parents eagerness to see their children perform well by putting these classes in place and setting increasingly exorbitant fees.

Ama Ata Aidoo, who served as Education Minister in the Rawlings administration, added that the huge costs incurred by parents who have to pay for these classes in and out of school did not match the output of the students.

The damage [extra and vacation classes] do to the young people whose parents cant afford them is so big that it is frightening.Sometimes, with excursions and other recreational activities thrown in, on-campus vacation classes are a thinly-veiled blackmail. To get anxious parents to pay huge sums to have their youngsters return to school to play with their friends!

Rise in Extra classes worrying

In 2015, then Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, expressed concerns about the rise in the number of extra classes organised for pupils by teachers and head teachers in the country, saying the pupils did not need those classes.

She noted that the time table for each term had been structured to cover the entire academic calendar and as such the pupils did not need the extra classes

Below is Ama Ata Aidoos full post

SUMMER CLASSES & SUMMER CAMPS?

The Ministry of Education (MINED) & Ghana Education Service (GES), SUMMER classes? Whose summer? Where is Ghana on the map? Please, stop the confusion creeping into the Ghana education system. Already, the system as it is currently run provides little real education & too much miseducation anyway. Ghanas children deserve better.

Besides some of us are convinced that the emergence of the extra and vacation classes phenomenon is a symbol of a broken education system. The damage they do to the young people whose parents cant afford them is so big that it is frightening. Those extra and vacation classes which are run off school premises are bad enough. When they are organized by the schools themselves, they become almost evil: a confession of the schools inadequacy at handling their core mandate. Sometimes, with excursions and other recreational activities thrown in, on-campus vacation classes are a thinly-veiled blackmail. To get anxious parents to pay huge sums to have their youngsters return to school to play with their friends!

Then recently, we learned of a SUMMER camp at Wesley Girls High School, to which they invited the Chief Justice to speak?! I fear this is beyond comment.



By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Bamako (AFP) - Gunmen attacked a UN base in central Mali on Monday, wounding a UN peacekeeper and a Malian soldier, local officials and soldiers said.

"The suspected jihadists fired on the UN mission at Douentza from a hill," a local elected official told AFP.

Malian troops repulsed the attackers, who lost two of their own men in the raid, he added.

"The terrorists targeted the peacekeepers of MINUSMA," said another local official, using the acronym for the UN force in Mali.

A Malian military source, confirming the attack, said reinforcements had been sent to bolster security in the town, he added.

Last week, UN peacekeepers accused former rebel fighters and a rival pro-government militia in the north of the country of having used child soldiers in recent clashes.

On Friday, nine child soldiers aged 15 to 17 were handed over to UN peacekeepers in the northern city of Kidal.

In 2012, key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

The armed groups accused of abuses by the UN operate in areas where Mali's army is absent or has a very limited presence. Allegations of collusion between the former rebels and jihadists continue to circulate.
ST. PAUL, Minn.  The grand opening of the Minnesota capitol drew citizens from all over the state to tour the restoration of the century-old building.

The effort focused on updating the building to 21st century standards while restoring pieces of the past to their former glory. After three years and $310 million spent, the end result is open for the public to enjoy.

Finished in 1905, it is the third capitol building that the state of Minnesota constructed. Cass Gilbert, the architect of the capitol, built it to be a peoples palace that would serve the needs of all participating citizens.

Winona House Representative Gene Pelowski said, The only capitol that compares to this is the nations capital.

The capitol was a series of firsts, serving as a public art museum as well as being the first sizable public building in the state to have electricity. Prior to restoration, much of the old circuitry was still in use, making the need for modernization even more apparent. The heating and ventilation system was also overhauled to increase efficiency and functionality. Other improvements, such as complete handicap accessibility, a total of three elevators and bathrooms on every floor, were welcome accommodations to visitors and legislators alike.

The grand opening held outdoor festivities such as a stage for music and dance performances.

Inside, visitors were amazed by the massive structure that opened up before them.

Valerie Schmidt, a visitor to the building, found herself immersed in the information and craftsmanship of the restored capitol.

Im enthralled, Schmidt said. Its almost too big to walk through in a day.

Throughout the building, detailed statues commemorated the people who established the state over a century ago.

One sculpture, The Spirit of Government in the House of Representatives chamber, shows a divine figure that represents the newly established North Star State. The woman is flanked by Native Americans on one side and Union pioneers on the other, with an underlying caption that reads, The trail of the pioneer bore the footprints of liberty.

Winonas contribution to the restoration efforts lies in the basement. Beforehand, the area was inaccessible to everyone but maintenance personnel; renovation has opened the area to building visitors. The basement walls were constructed with limestone sourced from Winona Countys slice of the Driftless Region. Pictures of the workers who made it happen were hung on the walls, making the state capitol resemble a museum even more.

Aside from the internal repairs needed, the elements outside had taken their toll: 40 percent of the marble on the exterior needed to be replaced. The years of Minnesota winters and city pollution had made its original appearance unrecognizable.

This wasnt just an issue of aesthetics, but a threat to the historically valued items inside. The ceiling riddled with leaks that damaged the interior as well as the artwork resting on the walls. The rotted rooftop has now been replaced with copper, tin and tile that will effectively keep outside elements out.

Pelowski said, If we hadnt done it, some things would have been lost forever.

Civil War paintings, a source of controversy between Minnesotans, hung in the Governors reception room, or the living room of Minnesota, as the tour guide referred to it. Some argued the paintings should be removed in order to represent Minnesota as it is today; others claimed that the restoration effort was supposed to show the room as it was originally.

The 1st Minnesota Volunteer regiment were the first troops of the Union to be raised at the beginning Civil War. It suffered more than 80 percent casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg alone.

The pictures depicted four major battles with graphic imagery conveying the chaos of the conflict. They included the battle of Nashville, Missionary Ridge, the second day of Gettysburg and the battle of Vicksburg.

The decision for the paintings to remain was based on the commitment to restore the capitol to its authentic state over a century ago. Some paintings were moved to different areas of the capitol after surviving family members said that their ancestors in the paintings had been misrepresented.
Accra, Aug. 14, GNA - Canada's exports to Ghana last year amounted to$252 3 million, while Ghana's exports to Canada was $67.2 million.

The record is an improvement for both sides over the 2015 performance, which was $215.5 million for Canada and $49.8 for Ghana.

Canada's imports from Ghana primarily cover cocoa, wood, and vegetable products, while Ghana mainly imports vehicles and parts, machinery, cereals and miscellaneous textiles from Canada.

The Canadian Minister of Migration, Refugees and Citizenship, Mr Ahmed D. Hussen, however, told the Ghana News Agency that his side was working with the Ghanaian key stakeholders to increase trade and investment for bilateral prosperity.

In 2015-2016, the Government of Canada, contributed $135 million in official development assistance to Ghana.

Mr Hussen said Canada was committed to assisting Ghana to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals for the wellbeing of citizens, especially in ensuring quality education, an inclusive society and the empoweringof girls and women to maximize their potentials.

'The bond between our countries dates back to more than 60 years ago and we have been strong allies on the bilateral level and also on the multilateral stage because of our shared values,' he stated.

'There's still a lot of work to be done to make things better, and trade is very high on the agenda; that's why during my visit I have engaged government officials, business people and civil society representatives to find common grounds of cooperation in a win-win situation.

'I attended an event of the Ghana-Canada Chamber of Commerce on the exciting times ahead in our relationship and I know that their counterparts in Canada are also working very hard to bring investments to Ghana.'

Mr Hussen said the shared values of championing Good Governance, Inclusiveness, Respect for Human rights, Gender Equality and a Peaceful world made Ghana and Canada natural allies on the global front.

'We'll always be there for Ghana, whether in fighting diseases and promoting health; improving food security and nutrition; or promoting climate-smart agriculture,' he said.

Canada, has this year, pledged to commit$120 million to supporting the Government's major agricultural initiative, dubbed 'Planting for Food and Jobs'.

Mr Hussen, who was on a two-day official visit to also engage Ghana on forgingbroad partnerships on the UN Global Compact on Migration, has since left Accra.

The Compact to be adopted at the UN Conference in New York, in September 2018, seeks to promote Safe, Regular and Orderly migration around the world.

Canada is a champion of the world adoptinga comprehensive approach to developsystems that would make migration well-planned and well managed in the interest of migrants and their source and host countries.

GNA
Customers of UT Bank at Koforidua in the Eastern Region have besieged the banks premises following the takeover by GCB Bank.

Over 60 customers of the Bank gathered outside the building, demanding access into the banking hall.

According to them, they had arrived at the Bank, which should have been open for business at 1 pm, per a directive from the Bank of Ghana, only to find it closed.

The situation frustrated some of the customers who expressed their discontent to Citi News Eastern Regional Correspondent Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku.

He reported that several police men were at the scene to ensure the situation didnt escalate.

One customer stated that he would cancel his account with the Bank as he did not like GCB Bank who had taken over the Bank.

I wanted to cash money from their ATMs recently, I tried about three of them but none of them worked. When I heard the news this morning, I marvelled because I knew UT Bank was always sitting on a time-bomb. I came to withdraw money to pay my workers but its not open. Im very frustrated. Im not going to put in any more cheques here. I dont like GCB Bank, thats why I left so Im going to close my account, one customer said.

Other customers who spoke to Citi News stated that despite the banks challenges, they had no intention to stop saving there.

I saw the news on Social Media. Its nothing bad, its normal. This is not a bank closing down, its being taken over by another bank. The media needs to educate the people. People are creating unnecessary panic, a customer of the bank said.

I was embarrassed when I heard the news. Im here to withdraw money because I need it but no, Im not closing my account with the bank, another customer added.

Sunyani customers stranded

Citi News Duke Mensah Opoku also reported similar scenes in the Brong Ahafo regional capital Sunyani.

According to him, several customers at the bank had gathered outside the building since morning but had been denied entry.



By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Bamako (AFP) - Gunmen attacked a UN base in central Mali on Monday, killing a UN peacekeeper and a Malian soldier, the United Nations said, denouncing a "revolting terrorist attack".

The soldiers were killed during an attack in Douentza, in the Mopti region, according to a statement from the UN mission in the country, known by the acronym MINUSMA.

Another peacekeeper was wounded but not seriously, the statement said.

A group of attackers "fired at a MINUSMA camp from an adjacent hill," with the Malian armed forces returning fire, according to the statement.

A second group of attackers shot at peacekeepers in a neighbouring camp, who also returned fire, killing two of the assailants.

The UN mission called it a "terrorist attack" and said it would not stop its "support of Mali and its people in order to contribute to the achievement of lasting peace and stability."

A Malian military source, confirming the attack, said reinforcements had been sent to bolster security in the town, he added.

Last week, UN peacekeepers accused former rebel fighters and a rival pro-government militia in the north of the country of having used child soldiers in recent clashes.

On Friday, nine child soldiers aged 15 to 17 were handed over to UN peacekeepers in the northern city of Kidal.

In 2012, key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.
Accra, August 14--The Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST), University of Ghana, has launched the Economic Inclusion and Poverty Eradication Project (EIPEP) workshop to discuss, plan and implement strategies to achieve a total poverty free country. The opening ceremony of the workshop held on 14th August, 2017 was attended by dignitaries, Ministers of state, traditional leaders, small scale farmers, business people, investors, academia and researchers.

Chairing the occasion, Dr. Emmanuel Kwaku Asiedu, CEO of Gratis Foundation noted that Ghana is full of resources and has enough fertile land for growing food crops. The poverty gap in Ghana is a technological gap, he commented. He further entreated Ghanaians topromote indigenous technology to improve agriculture and be part of the solution to the poverty canker.

Executive Chairman, McDan Group of Companies, Daniel Mckorley advocated that attitudinal change is key to achieving the goal of a poverty free country. Also speaking at the event, Prof. Moses Foh-Amoaning hinted that poverty is a security problem. He stated that practical education was necessary to eradicate poverty. Like wise the service industry will be keen to provide services to push Ghanas development.

Hon. Gifty Twum, Deputy Minister for Gender requested that in addressing poverty, technological equipment be device to aid the physically challenged in society as they constitute a higher percentage of the poor in the country. She appealed to Ghanaians to patronize locally made products to promote the industry.

In his statement, Hon. Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Sadique, Minister for Inner City and Zongo Development, asserted that development in Ghana has been discriminatory, however the President through the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry will develop a fair equitable and an all-inclusive society.

He stated that helping the Zongos will integrate old societies and create a sustainable society. Development of Zongo and Inner city will be a manifestation of success of programs such as this, he added.

The EIPEP workshop is an exclusive Ghanaian Solution designed to engage stakeholders in the general economic development of Ghana through the adoption of practical solutions and innovative technologies. It seeks to eradicate poverty in the long term.

It is a cooperation between Bulaiza PLC, Federated Co-operative Multi-Purposed Society Ltd., and the IAST (University of Ghana). The workshop which seeks to be a very useful resource and aid to policy makers and general government agenda for poverty reduction continues till Friday 18th August, 2017.
14.08.2017 LISTEN

1492 the Portuguese were landing on the shores of todays Ghana territory, colonized the people, took their natural resources, left the place for the Danish and subsequently to the British before getting its Independence on 06.03.1957.

For thousands of years Africa was in culture and sciences far ahead of the White Man in Europe and Asia which can still be researched today in the most beautiful archives of Mali with dusted sciences books and in the master pieces of golden items of the Ashanti Kingdom on display in the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, no longer crafted today in Ghana as the Republic of Ghana ships out Gold and gets back golden wedding rings from Dubai and Asia.

While the tribes in Ghana were in opposition to the Asantehene (today the Golden Stool is occupied by Otumfo Osei Tutu II), the most powerful King in the region of the Ashanti Kingdom covering vast parts of West-Africa beyond todays borders of the Republic of Ghana, hiding increasingly minded gold from him, Gold trade came to an all-time low. The Asantehenes were in need for high income to protect their power and turned to slave trade selling their fellow countryman to the White Man waiting at the coast line to buy them in their numbers (the rest is truly sad history).

While papyrus in Egypt, written words and sophisticated languages, besides law systems (Babylon  todays Iraq - 800 years B.C. had the oldest known law book crafted into a black stone still in existence) and advanced political structures were beautiful and state of the art, Europe and Asia had seen people jumping from tree to tree hiding in caves at nights. Malis doctors were called to the Pharaohs of Egypt to heal them as they did not trust their own simple doctors. Ethiopia has one of the oldest Christian congregations with a vast, beautiful history of great civilization outstanding to anything ever visible in Europe at the same time.

The Portuguese and other Europeans in 1000 A.C. and thereafter sitting in their corners looking over the ocean around them asked themselves: Beyond what we can see, the waters, possibly we will find other countries, people and cultures we can do business with, take natural resources for ourselves and expand our powers in this world against our Spanish enemies. For that we need strong ships, not like for fishing vessels on our lakes; and as certainly these civilizations would be hostile against us, we have to advance our weapons and technology to be victorious in battles against them. This idea triggered a centurys long process of invention, hard work to progress. The White Man in those days did not know anything about the Black Man, the Yellow Man (Chinese) or the Red Man (Native Americans). Those days had seen a plane playing field for White Man and Black Man alike.

The question arises, while the White Man got ready to embark on dangerous and uncertain journeys around the world landing half way to Asia on African shores (at the same time also South Americas taking Gold from the Mayas and Incas), why did the Black Man not even come to the same idea, even before the White Man, and set sail to come to him in the first place and capture him as slaves taking his resources, killing him in their numbers and dominating his countries with sophisticated weapons and battle strategies as no outside force had every tried to stop any of such ideas; in those days in particular?

Natural Rubber grows in Africa (also South America and Asia) but not in USA. It was Charles Goodyear (USA) that invented the rubber boots and rubber tires we need for bicycles and carsguess what, in USA rubber trees do not grow for a fact! In Switzerland Lindt (Lindt & Spruengli) invented the Conche method to make chocolate taste so smooth in the mouthcocoa beans do not grow in Switzerland, but the best come from Ghana, West-Africa!

Joseph got imprisoned in Egypt by his brothers evilness and false rape allegations, yet in the power of the Pharaoh imposed on him in his dark cell no hardship ever endured was able to bring his mind away from GOD and his glorious, victorious future making him over time the Prime Minister of Egypt to save Millions of people from starvation. No military force, no torcher can stop the mind from thinking the way a human wants to think about himself, others and the future ahead of him. The world we live in is first and foremost the world in us that projects itself to the outside world and is empowered by that process to improve on a mans capacity and capability to increase his greatness (unlike Karl Marxs believe in his book of Communism The Capital).

When the mind is set for thinking poverty, egoism and greediness, progress is made over him by people that have the progressive mindset and the ability and insight about the power that is invested in him to dominate others and the world. Human beings, in their very nature, are egoistic, either in a negative or positive fashion, but we all are. In Africa egoism is seen in the leadership of the countries and as the leaders are fellow African citizen, a reflection of the mindset of most of Africans. The egoism of the White Man is driven by the insight once he makes others happy (to solve his fellow citizens problems), it will reflect positively back to him, the driving force behind inventions in politics, culture and the economy.

History of mankind has demonstrated again and again that in fact the Black Man is supposed to be dominating the White Man and GOD had given him all necessary natural resources to do so, yet the youngest history has catapulted the White Man above the Black Man, financially, politically and culturally. This world is unstoppable as the human mindset cannot be imprisoned by any forces except ones own.

As GOD, and for that reason history, has mandated the Black Man to rule the world, he still has to struggle to overcome his misery created for himself for many more generations to come, yet the dramatic increase in population will not only be a possible tragedy for him and the rest of the world, but when understood and seen rightly, a historic chance to push back the White Man into his rightful place in a fair manner to have a very positive human to human working relationship.

Africa: it is now your chance, GOD is opening doors for you but he is unlike the devil that works daily- working with time. When you miss it, he will once again put someone in charge over you to make this world run well for him and your victory will be delayed.

PS: Why does a White Man have to tell you this?

Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono, Tema West, Ghana, phone +233(0)265078287, [email protected] , 12.08.2017
Ghanaian students benefiting from a Hungarian government scholarship have been compelled to call on the government for support to cater for their basic needs because their stipends are inadequate.

These students, numbering over 40, are beneficiaries of the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship for 2016/2017.

The beneficiaries currently receive monthly stipends of 40,460 HUF (Hungarian Forint) for Undergraduate and Masters students and 140,000 HUF for doctorate students from the Hungarian government.

But in a letter sighted by Citi News from the students to the Scholarship Secretariat, the students decried this amount as insufficient given the high cost of living in Hungary.

It is sad that our situation keeps worsening day by day and we are therefore pleading with you, to use your high office to call on our government to come to our aid, the students implored the Scholarship Secretariat.

It is undoubtedly highly difficult to put a 3-square meal on our tables, not to talk of other expenses such as transportation, books and clothing. To mention a few, an average meal cost 1,500 HUF, a proper winter cloth sells between 20,000-30,000 HUF, a pair of shoes 20,000-35,000 HUF and a t-shirt averagely 4,000 HUF.

Our health insurance only covers consultation fees and excluding medications. Currently, a majority of us are forced to use part of the stipends to supplement our accommodation allowance to hire apartments since there are limited hostel facilities on most of the various campuses.

As it stands now, the students also fear they will not be able to afford return tickets back home to Ghana.

Their situation is seemingly made harder to swallow by the fact fellow students from around the globe on the same scholarship get adequate support from their governments and can focus on their studies.

The students say colleagues from other countries benefitting from the scholarship are given support from their governments. Nigerian students, for instance, are supported with $500 dollars a month from their government.

We are faced with a very tough reality of competing with our colleague students from across the globe, who unlike us have sound minds to concentrate on their studies because they receive additional support from their respective governments.



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
It is rather too early for popular Yoruba actor, Mustapha Ololade sholagbade, who got married to his American based lover in a wedding that saw important personalities in attendance.

The actor is already blessed with two kids from two babymamas but rather than enjoy his new home, he is already thinking of the curse laid on him by a lady by the name, Titi Alayo, whom he jilted.

Titi took her time to give him the breakdown of the kind of life he has lived right from school till this level as she went on to expose all his dirty acts along with the attitude of his mother who is also after money.

Hnnn. May the tears of all the girls you caused pains, tears and heartbreak hunt you for the rest of your life. Right from Laspotech, Odunfa, Ebute Meta as a whole. You are a play boy, gigolo, you sleep with girls and date them because of money. You take them home to your mum and she accepts them simply because she loves money than her life and later dump them because you feel they are not up to your taste and level.

Mustapha Ololade sholagbade let God judge me if only I am telling lies. You think you can ruin people's life just to have peace and be happy. Its a lie, what goes around comes around. Everybody knows why you married your new American based lover. She made you have a court wedding because she knows You will still look for a fault in her after months of marriage. How old are you with 2 baby mamas. You will reap everything on earth by the special Grace of God. I know you would deny this but let your conscience judge you and remember the day you will be alone in your Grave, she wrote.
In todays Money Morningthreats and childish insults on the international stageinvesting in fear as the sabres rattlea new way to trade fearand more

Theyre at it again. The madmen and halfwits with their fingers on the nuclear triggers spent the early part of this week exchanging threats across the Pacific Ocean.

Gold has seen a better than 2% increase this week. The VIX (volatility index), a good proxy for fear in markets, rose above 15% for the first time since June.

Its unlikely North Korea really has the capability to land a nuclear strike against the mainland United States. Australia may be in range of the newest missiles North Korea has recently tested. But were unlikely to be at the top of Kims hit-list.

For our allies in South Korea and Japan, Kim Jong-uns threats are much more realistic. North Koreas nuclear capabilities may be exaggerations or fiction. But it will be cold comfort for the residents of Seoul, if the artillery of the worlds largest conventional army comes down on their heads.

This is a nightmare scenario. But weve been brought to the brink of this particular nightmare many times before. Each time, the North Korean government eventually backs down. While being careful to portray itself, to its own people, as having done nothing of the sort.

Sometimes it wins some concessions in terms of trade, sanctions, or international travel and financial freedoms for members of its governing class. Other times, it doesnt. As far as international markets are concerned, its all the same.

Its been 64 years since the Korean War ground to a halt in a military and diplomatic stalemate. This awkward, unhappy compromise has stood, despite the Norths regular provocations. And despite several international incidents. Some of those incidents have been bloodier, and brought us much closer to the brink, than todays war of words.

It would be wrong to assume that, just because things have gone a certain way for decades, they wont ever change. But you cant uproot your entire portfolio every time North Korea makes a new threat, or Trump tweets something ill-considered late at night.

Your own risk levels will depend on your own needs and circumstances. As well as your own belief about how real the potential threats to the market are. A war in the Pacific is an extreme outcome  unlikely, but potentially catastrophic if it does happen. If youre hedging against the possibility  or even just trying to profit from the markets reaction to the possibility  you have a few choices.

If youre feeling courageous, you could try shorting the market, especially stocks exposed to international trade. That strategy can get very expensive very quickly if youre wrong. Or even if youre right, but too early.

Gold weve already mentioned. For centuries, gold has been the go-to when escaping economic chaos and government instability.

You could consider stocks that have the potential to profit from the worst possible outcome: War. Or even from the threat of war. Jason Stevenson of Resource Speculator has recommended several resource companies that could see massive gains if that sort of terrible outcome did happen. You can find out more about Resource Speculator here.

But the modern world throws up a fourth possibility: Cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin offer a form of digital gold. A place you can put your wealth, out of reach of governments and central banks. And in times of chaos and instability, cryptos should stand apart. Or even benefit, as investors flee fiat money.

2017 has seen ever-increasing attention on cryptocurrencies from the mainstream media. They can no longer ignore this new asset class. And now, as tensions rise in the Pacific, we may see the first major bitcoin fear trade.

While bitcoin and other cryptos may benefit from the fear trade, I think the digital gold label is a mistake. Note that I dont call crypto a store of wealth, like many do for gold.

Thats because nothing so volatile as cryptocurrencies have been could be considered a place to store your wealth away. So far, the extreme volatility is shaking out in favour of cryptos like bitcoin and ether. Both have seen incredible gains. As have many other cryptos that our resident cryptocurrency experts, Ryan and Sam, look at in Secret Crypto Network.

Sam and Ryan argue that, in the future, cryptocurrencies will be used mainly to buy and sell goods, like any currency. Not as an investment, or a store of wealth. But during these chaotic early years, were seeing incredible up and down moves in value. And the fear trade could be a trigger for more of those incredible gains.

If the exchange of threats and insults between the US and North Korean leaders amounts to anything worse, some cryptos will likely explode upward. When it comes to knowing which, you need someone in your corner who understands cryptocurrency. To get someone like that on your side, click here.

This week in Money Morning

Mondays Money Morning looked at three seemingly unconnected events, which could all be indicators of something larger. Could the Aussie resources market finally be staging a definitive turnaround? It may seem unlikely. But then again, the greatest investment gains are often made when most investors have given up on a sector. In fact, thats one of the reasons to reconsider the resources sector. To read how, you can find Mondays Money Morning here.

Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, arent suffering from any lack of interest. In fact, theres been a sharp rise in interest. And in the number of friends and family wanting to pick Ryan Dinses brain on the topic. As Ryan wrote on Tuesday, hes been getting a lot of emails from people who used to have no time for cryptos.

Thats partially due to the mainstream media finally clueing in to what the likes of Sam Volkering and Ryan have been saying all along. That cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are here to stay. And the changes theyve already made to global finance are just the tip of the iceberg. But is the sudden influx of crypto headlines a danger sign? If the masses are finally rushing to take part, is it too late to get in? Are we headed towards hysterical highs and an almighty crash?

Ryan argues that we arent at that stage of the boom yet. Well get there. But crypto is still too hard and too mysterious for most investorswhich gives you an advantage. To find out why, click here.

As international tensions ratcheted upward, Ryan looked at the reasons why this could, surprisingly, be good for Australia.

If we dont all die in nuclear fire, that is.

But, as discussed above, that outcome is very unlikely. And if it does happen, you wont be worried about your investment portfolio anyway. So in the meantime, click here to read how increasing sanctions on North Korea could benefit Australias economy.

Thursdays Money Morning looks at an object lesson from the Aussie stock market this week. A perfect example, which we can use to learn some crucial points about small-cap investing.

Of course, if you happen to own shares in the company, it may have been an expensive lesson. All the more reason to make sure you learn everything you can from it. And if you were fortunate enough not to be caught up in this sad story, then check out this Money Morning article to make sure you wont be caught in the next one.

On Friday Ryan, looked at two trades that harness the primal emotions in the market: Fear and hope  or fear and greed, if you prefer.

You may not give much credence to North Koreas continued sabre-rattling, but you cant deny the effects it has had on markets this week. Especially when Trump seems so ready to take the bait. And Ryan has a trade in Fridays Money Morning that typically profits from fear and instability. But if youre convinced that it will all amount to little, as it has so often before, Ryan also has a trade for the flipside. You can check out both here.

However these tensions are resolved, well be here next week to discuss how its driving markets. Until then, enjoy your weekend!

Regards,

Tyler Jefferson,

Editor, Money Weekend
In todays Money Morningrisk and opportunity in a new industryhow to invest when the big brands come for marijuanathe type of stock that ignores downturnsand more

I came across a statistic that surprised me over the weekend.

According to Live Science

Marijuanas popularity among American adults is on the rise  and use of the recreational drug is expected to continue to increase, according to several surveys. Forty-five percent of adults in the U.S. have used marijuana at least once in their lives, according to a Gallup poll released in mid-July  the all-time highest percentage in the 48-year history of Gallup asking Americans this question.

Consider the fact that only 1 in 5 Americans smoke cigarettes.

This is big news for anyone considering an investment in the hyped-up marijuana industry.

It shows theres some substance behind it all (no pun intended).

Ill be honest, I was a bit sceptical about this industry earlier in the year. But recently Ive delved a bit deeper into the investment opportunity.

And Im starting to like what I see.

The initial boom in marijuana stocks has faded from the March highs earlier this year. And investors now have a second chance to get into some compelling stocks at lower levels.

If the story plays out as I expect, these could look like bargain prices a year from now.

Lets look at some trends I expect to see drive valuations in this growing industry (OK that one was intended).

Recreational legalisation

Recreational marijuana use is currently illegal in most countries around the world. Though the law varies according to factors such as personal use and quantities in possession.

In fact, Uruguay is the only country I could find where it was completely legal to grow, sell and use marijuana, without any restrictions.

However this could be set to change

Canada is leading the way. Its set to legalise recreational marijuana use early next year. This will open up an estimated C$5b per annum market.

In the US, marijuana is illegal under federal law, but 30 states and the District of Columbia have legalised it for medical or recreational purposes.

The trend of support in western countries is increasing. And each new announcement acts as a catalyst for marijuana stock price growth.

Brand emergence

As the industry becomes more legit, I expect to see the emergence of popular brands.

If you look at the cigarette and alcohol industries for example, you see the effect of marketing in turning a general commodity into a distinct and valuable brand.

And marijuana has many features that savvy marketers will use to stand out from the crowd.

So dont think of these stocks as investments in farmers. Think of them as investments in companies with the potential to be a Phillip Morris, or British American Tobacco.

Big brands, with big value.

Industry consolidation

As deep-pocketed investors enter the legal pot landscape and competition grows, smaller operations are more likely to merge or fold into larger companies.

Again, the cigarette industry provides the template for how this industry will probably develop.

Big tobacco is a phrase often used to describe the five biggest tobacco industry companies, which together make up around 60% of the world market.

The economics of the marijuana industry will reward the biggest and fastest growing firms.

Investors benefit greatly in times of industry consolidation as company valuations are bid up by eager buyers.

What should investors do?

No doubt this is a good opportunity. But there are still risks.

For example, pot prices could fall rapidly as more growers come in to satisfy demand.

There will be winners and losers, and it will pay to spread any marijuana investment around the most promising names, to reduce risk.

Do your research, as not all marijuana stocks are created equal. Some are just copycats, riding on the coattails of the hype.

Lastly, if youre a bit worried about the economic future, this is one industry that will be unaffected by a recession.

Its one of those all-weather industries, like McDonalds, that thrives in downturns as well as normal times. That makes it a particularly good investment in todays volatile times.

Good investing,

Ryan Dinse,

Editor, Money Morning
La Crosses Bob Burg Auto has been sold after more than half a century as a family business.

Morries Automotive Group plans to take over and expand the Volkswagen and Audi dealerships in La Crosse in September, marking the Minnetonka-based companys first presence in the area since 2009.

Marketing director Ben Robertaccio said the company plans to increase sales of both makes as well as used vehicles and to expand the current service department. Morries will retain the 19 current employees and add more to handle the growth, Robertaccio said.

For now Morries will operate both dealerships from the current Monitor Street location, but Robertaccio said the company plans to build new facilities for both brands in the next several years.

Robertaccio said Morries, whose current lineup includes Ford, Mazda and Hyundai as well as luxury brands Aston Martin and Bentley, has been looking to add Volkswagen and Audi.

Morries operated a La Crosse Mazda dealership from 2007 to 2009, when it was purchased by Dahl Automotive. The company currently has a dealership in Chippewa Falls and plans to add a Honda dealership in West Bend next year.

Founded in 1966 by R.A. Burg, Bob Burg Auto has been operated for the past 29 years by his son, Bob Burg, and has sold VW and Audi since 1990. Burg previously had Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Isuzu dealerships.

Bob Burg said Morries, with multiple dealerships and nearly 1,000 employees, will be able to provide better support for the business.

Its been a family asset for a long, long time, Burg said. Its a great fit for my employees and my customers.
'The big truck is still on ...
President Donald Trump View Photos

President Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

In the past seven months, weve made enormous gains in getting Americans back to work. The stock market is at record highs. Unemployment is at a 16-year low. And manufacturers have never expressed more optimism about the future. The optimism has been truly incredible.

Recently, Foxconn announced that its going to invest $10 billion to build a new factory in Wisconsin. We want to make sure that every job that comes back to our shores is filled with American workers. We have a lot of companies moving back to our country. Youre probably seeing that. Two major automobile companies just announced theyre moving back to the United States, and theyre going to build major plants. Theyre looking for the site. Theyre putting it out to seven or eight different states, and theyre going to be very happy building in the United States. Its going to work out very well for them.

Thats why, in June, we began a historic initiative to expand apprenticeship and workforce training programs in all industries. Were expanding pathways to success. So important. And apprenticeships are one of the many avenues that lead to the great jobs, completely debt-free. And who knows more about the word apprentice than Donald Trump?

In fact, under the apprenticeship, you earn while you learn. So important and so great. And you love getting up in the morning and going to work, and a lot of great things involved here.

Were also here today to discuss additional steps we will be taking to expand apprenticeship programs, especially for women and minorities in STEM fields where women have been truly under-representative  really, I guess you could say, under-represented for many, many decades.

Technology has become a part of nearly every industry, from manufacturing to retailing. And we want all of our citizens, every single citizen  including women and minorities  to have access to high-paying tech jobs and other STEM-related jobs. American workers are the best there is anywhere in the world, and were finding work for them. They built the skyscrapers of our cities, the roads and bridges across our land  and well be building plenty of new roads and bridges, by the way  the technology that has revolutionized the globe, and so much more, as youre well aware.

Their skills, talent, and grit have always put America on top. And were going to remain on top at a much higher level than we are right now. And speaking of now, it is our job to make sure that they have the training, immediately, to lead us into the future. We have great, great hope. We have a great, great future in this country. Theres never been more optimism. And again, unemployment at a 16-year low.

So were honored to have all of you. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. Betsy, thank you very much. We appreciate it. And, Ivanka, congratulations on working so hard. We really do appreciate it. Thank you.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Counter Protest In Virginia Sunday Evening View Photos

California lawmakers are responding to the attack and deaths that happened over the weekend at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein says, Violent acts of hate and bigotry have no place in Americaviolence like this will solve nothing and will only begot more violence and sow more division. Senator Kamala Harris adds, Every single day we must choose hope over despair and love over hatred. We are a stronger nation because of our diversity. Congressman Tom McClintock notes, The bigotry that came to Charlottesville is a rejection of the very principles on which our nation was founded.

The Ohio suspect, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., described as a Nazi-sympathizer, accused of plowing his car into counter protestors, is scheduled to make his first court appearance today. He is charged with second degree murder, and other counts, for his alleged role in killing one woman and injuring 19 others.

The Associated Press reports that a past high school teacher noted that Fields was fascinated with Nazism and had been signaled out in 9th grade for deeply held, radical convictions on race.

Two state troopers, Pilot Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates also died on Saturday when their helicopter crashed while responding to the violence.

You can read more of the Associated Press coverage in the myMotherLode.com US News section by clicking here.
Do you know anything about the history of feminism in Nigeria? How did African women fight for their rights? Only the most interesting facts!

The feminist movement has been around for over a century. Women seem to have achieved a lot during this period. For example, the right to vote in elections or wear short skirts (not everywhere). However, even in 2017, the word "feminist" is often used as an insult. A vast number of problems are still unsolved.

Feminism is a movement for the rights of women against gender discrimination. It means that women should not have less political, economic, and civil rights merely because they are women. The essence of feminism is well reflected in the famous quotation of the publicist Mary Shire: "Feminism is a radical view that a woman is a person."

There are, of course, biological differences between men and women. But it does not mean that men and women should have different rights and freedoms. The presence or absence of some organs or physical abilities does not make someone better. It doesnt give their owners automatically more privileges and does not mean, for example, that they must make decisions in the family or receive more money despite having the same professional qualifications.

Women want to have rights completely equal with men. This comes in form of women in power (that is, traditionally "male"): the right of women to occupy top government posts on an equal basis with men.

However, the participation of women in the political life of the country was once considered non-negotiable like, for example, military service (now women can serve in 38 countries). So we have to admit that our ideas about "male" and "female" are due to the course of history and gender stereotypes, and not by some unshakable order of things.

Feminism has no task of imposing anything on women. On the contrary, one of its goals is to enable them to make their own life choices and have the conditions for its implementation. For example, that society does not dictate how a woman should or should not behave. Also, it is quite possible to be a housewife, wife, mother, and a feminist.

The main thing to note is that this is a personal and conscious choice of a woman (here, however, the question arises whether such a choice under current conditions can be free, especially if the family and society are saying that the main events in a woman's life are marriage and childbirth).

It is not so easy to choose the path of equality, when you have not only cultural but also financial conditions for independence. Women find it more difficult to make a career in certain areas, and they receive significantly less wages than men in the whole world.

After all, many women do not want to call themselves feminists, although they share the ideas of equality. Feminism in Nigeria and other African countries is often considered as something marginal, and feminists - untidy, aggressive or unhappy in their personal lives.

The problem is still relevant today. In 2016, researchers collected data on 217 countries and found that cleaning, cooking, caring for children and elderly parents can take up to 23 years of most women's life. But men are mostly spared from it. According to recent data, women do twice more housework than men do.

Gender stereotypes also limit women's professional activities. A lot of companies still prefer to consider particular (including leadership) positions only for men. Its harder for women to achieve recognition in science, and, of course, there is a gender imbalance in pay.

Feminism in Nigeria

In Nigeria, since the 19th century, women's struggle against discrimination and gender-based violence has been mentioned. During the fight for national independence and improving the quality of life, women's movements began to take shape. Feminism attracted attention in Nigeria, as a result of various attempts by women to ensure both equal rights and opportunities for women as well as for men.

Historically, women in Nigeria, as well as in all of Africa, had faced a lot of problems in relation to gender. The culture of patriarchy, male chauvinism, and anarchy undermined the rights of women. The result of this attitude to women in society is their exploitation and marginalization both in private and in public spheres.

When discussing feminist history in Nigeria, it is important to talk about womens status in society at all stages of the country's development.

Queen Mother and attandants, Benin, Nigeria

History of feminism in Nigeria

Pre-colonial era

In the pre-colonial period, Nigerian women actively participated in public life and had independent access to resources. But we cant say the same about women from Hausa-Fulani in the North. Their commercial activities were limited by Islam.

Women with a high position by birth also had more rights regarding their decisions and their funds. The example is Queen Amina of Zazzau. In 1576, she became the famous ruler of Zazzau in Northern Nigeria. The Igala Kingdom, located in Northern Nigeria, was also founded by a woman Ebele Ejaunu.

The picture of Queen Amina, Zazzau

Among Igbo and Ibibio, women controlled their affairs and had a certain political influence through their collective strength. In Ijaw, Kalabari, Efik, Edo, and Itsekiri, some women with high status had specific political power. They managed affairs through the mother queen's office (Benin) or their relationships with the male leaders.

However, in the communities of Yoruba and the Riverine Igbo, not only individual women with high status but also women as a collective had social and political influence through their organizations and their representatives, such as Yoruba Iyalode.

In the pre-colonial era, African women rather complemented the man and did not submit him.

READ ALSO: Why We Must Not Be Feminists

Colonial Era

The women of Yoruba and Igbo in the south of Nigeria played influential political roles in both women's and men's societies. Women gathered in communities, for example, Women of the market to assert their rights.

The colonialists introduced certain rules and weakened the social, economic, and political women rights implementation.

Women's representation in the public sphere was deficient, although women received the voting right in the 1950s (the South) and in 1980s (the North).

In 1929 Women's War (also known as "Aba Women's Riots") took place. Igbo market women protested against British taxation. Based on their role as mothers and family suppliers, women collectively defended their new sphere of authority.

Protests of women in Abeokuta happened in 1948 and almost two decades passed after the riots in Aba. Women again rebelled against colonial taxes. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was the principal at a school in Abeokuta. She organized the Abeokuta Women's Union (AWU). "Elite" women of Abeokuta joined the solidarity with the market women of the Egba land. They worked together to find a way of stopping the practice of excessive tax collection..

The women's group, coordinated by Mrs. Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, fought against authoritarian decision-making by the colonial government. Later, these protests became an integral part of the independence movement.

The anti-colonial resistance led to the National Women's Union (NWU) formation. It was the first national women's organization with a general representation covering all ethnic, religious, and class segments founded in 1947.

Margaret Ekpo, Nigeria

The Union had prominent women leaders such as Margaret Ekpo and Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.

In the 1950s, they fought for women's rights and country's independence along with Nigerian founding fathers. Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti became a leader of the women's wing of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the Western Africa.

Margaret Ekpo was also a fierce advocate for women's rights and supported the equality with men. In the North of the country, such strong figures as Gambo Sawaba and many others played outstanding roles in the fight for women's place in society.

The active womens role led to the formation of the elite women who focused on charity but could not resist the mens supremacy and anarchy in society. In 1959 the National Council of Women's Societies (NCWS) was established to patronize women's organizations in Nigeria.

Post-colonial era

The feminist movement in Nigeria was widely spread throughout the country. In 1953 the Federation of Nigeria Women's Societies (FNWS) was organized. It had a political component already. With the help of FNWS women could have political participation and full representation in all legislative chambers.

From the beginning of the post-colonial era, women's movements in Nigeria formed many protests but only in the major cities such as Lagos. Women's organizations have developed their activities in focal areas related to women's interests.

For example, in the Niger-Delta region, women fought against discrimination, dehumanization, and injustice in this field. They opposed Multinational Oil Companies and the Nigerian Military occupation of their lands with the Federation of Ogoni Women Association. Women suffered because of violence, burning, beating, and torture during the three-year campaign of the then Nigerian military government in 1993.

A few words about feminism and political participation in Nigeria. Today women are represented in political parties, business and public life in Nigeria. But in percentage terms with men, their quantity is not numerous.

Demonstration for women's rights in Nigeria

Feminism achieved the suffrage, higher education, the right to work and own real estate. Also, women can be engaged in politics and held managerial positions.

At the same time, feminism has a lot of tasks. In Nigeria domestic violence remains a significant problem. The torturer is often not blamed, but only the victim. There are patriarchal practices such as forced marriages, honor killings or female circumcision, the various kinds of women exploitation and so on. Now you know more from the history of feminism in Nigeria and its main personalities.

READ ALSO: Agencies responsible for the protection of women's rights in Nigeria

Source: Legit.ng
- A 20-year-old robber has been arrested in Lagos state

- The young man has been on a wanted list since April, when he stole two tricycles and two motorcycles.

- He started robbing at the age of 16 after he ran away from home in Ibadan, Oyo state

A 20-year-old robber identified as Lateef Ahmed has been arrested by the Rapid Response Squad (RSS) in Lagos state.

According to RSS, the young man was caught after he went to Abeokuta, Ogun state with his gang to rob a motorcycle park.

It was gathered that Ahmed and his gang were sighted in Oshodi on their way back from Abeokuta.

Meet 20-year-old Lateef Wonderboy who was recently arrested by the Nigerian police Photo Source: RSS Facebook

READ ALSO: I duped her off N6m because she was looking for what she did not keep - Herbalist

In his confession, the young man explained that they stole a Bajaj from the motorcycle park in Lafenwa, Abeokuta.

He aslo named some members of his gang as Esu-Erazor, Noah, Segun, Lekan, Ishan  Idi, Rilwan, Shile, Ikechukwu, Enu  Ose, Ege, Jandor and Koko, Bembella.

Ahmed ran away from home when he was 16-years-old and joined a group of thieves on the streets of Ibadan before he came to live in Oshodi, Lagos.

The Rapid Response Squad stated that the young man had been on a wanted list of the Lagos police command since April, when he stole two tricycles and two motorcycles in Ejigbo.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

Legit.ng gathered that three members of his gang and two buyers of their stolen goods have been arrested.

Three members of his gang and two buyers of their stolen goods have been arrested Photo Source: RSS Facebook

READ full statement below:

Meanwhile, the Nigerian police saved alleged kidnapper from angry mob who tried to lynch him.

Source: Legit.ng
- Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed that he head-hunted Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank, appointing her as Nigerias minister of finance, in order to help secure debt relief for the country

- The former presidents plan with the appointment was that Okonjo-Iweala would follow up on the quest for debt relief for Nigeria on a lower level

- Obasanjo disclosed that Nigeria was eventually able to negotiate debt relief from other creditors with the help of the Paris Club debt relief, which he described as a breakthrough

Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria, has disclosed why he head-hunted Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and made her minister of finance during his administration, Premium Times reports.

The former President made his comments in his new book, Making Africa Work, which was also co-authored by Greg Mills, director of Brenthurst Foundation; Jeffrey Herbst, president of Newseum and Dickie Davis, a retired major general.

READ ALSO: Osinbajo is a mere figurehead - PDP attacks Acting President

Legit.ng gathers that Obasanjos appointment of Iweala was linked to his quest for debt relief for the country.

He stated: In my first term, from 1999 to 2003, I visited many countries and world leaders, some more than once, to campaign for debt relief.

There I got apparently sympathetic hearings, but not much action from political leaders.

After my first term, I realized that my talks at the highest political levels needed follow-up at the levels below.

So, I head-hunted Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank, appointing her as Nigerias Minister of Finance.

My plan was that she would manage the follow-up at a lower level.

"Even then, the fact that Nigeria was the sixth largest oil-producing country in the world was regularly used as the reason to deny debt relief.

I would then explain that Nigerias population of almost 150 million at the time and its stage of development should justify such relief.

Obasanjo disclosed that Nigeria was eventually able to negotiate debt relief from other creditors with the help of the Paris Club debt relief, which he described as a breakthrough.

In his words: In the end, Nigeria obtained debt relief of about $18 billion and paid up about $12 billion to rid itself of this burden.

It was a great breakthrough and the consequent savings were channeled to the Millennium Development Goals, one of the promises made to the creditors.

With debt relief having been agreed by the Paris Club, Nigeria was in a strong position to negotiate debt relief from other creditors too.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported former president Olusegun Obasanjo, revealed that the former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, changed under the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, who served under President Obasanjo as minister of finance was accused of encouraging corruption under the regime of Mr. Jonathan.

She was also accused of approving funds not budgeted for; and rather than strengthen the Nigerian economy, she worked against the growth of the economy.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Obasanjo explaining why Nigeria must be treated with love:

Source: Legit.ng
- Academic Staff Union of Universities has announced an indefinite strike action

- ASUU which tasked its local branches to conduct referendum among members on whether or not to proceed on an indefinite strike has adopted the overwhelming position of the branches

- Poor funding of universities, part-payment of salaries of lecturers and the kidnap of two lecturers of the University of Maiduguri by the Boko Haram are among major reasons for the strike action

Nigerian students are set for a lengthy stay at home as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has embarked on an indefinite strike action.

The lecturers decided to go on strike after an estensive deliberation at its meeting held at the University of Abuja from Friday.

Consequently, the union has directed all members against going to teach or involving themselves in any academic activity, Premium Times reports.

According to a statement signed by Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president, the union explored all means of negotiation before the decision to embark on an indefinite strike action was reached.

READ ALSO: Anambra election has nothing to do with Biafra actualization - MASSOB, BIM

The statement is expected to be made public at a press conference in Abuja on Monday morning, the news-outlet revealed.

The national executive council (NEC) of ASUU met at the university of Abuja main campus, Giri, on the 12th of August 2017 to consider the results of a referendum from all branches in a bid to ascertain ways of convincing government to implement outstanding aspects of the 2009 agreement and MoU of 2013, it read.

The result of the referendum showed that an overwhelming majority of the branches of our union voted for the strike.

In the light of the foregoing, and having exhausted all avenues to get government to fully implement the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement and the 2013 MoU as well as related demands, resolved to embark on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike action commencing Sunday, 13th August 2017, the ASUU president said.

Reports also have it that ASUU had earlier tasked its branches to conduct referendum among members on whether or not an indefinite strike should be called.

The position of the local branches on whether to proceed on a strike action was reviewed in the Abuja meeting which ended in the early hours of today, Monday August 14.

The overwhelming position of the local branches was consequently adopted.

Poor funding of universities, part-payment of salaries of lecturers and the kidnap of two lecturers of the University of Maiduguri by the Boko Haram are among major reasons for the strike action.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the federal government had been unable to honour its part of agreement signed with Academic Union of University (ASUU) in 2009. As a result of this, the union had started the process that may lead to a nationwide strike.

Legit.ng also reported that ASUU had started collation of signatures of members through referendum which would determine the type of strike in terms of time to embark on it.

Watch this Legit.ng video on the salary of teachers in Nigeria below.

Source: Legit.ng
- Some religious fanatic are predicting the end of the world

- They claimed some of the plagues mentioned in the bible have started to come to pass

- Their position was also supported by Great Pyramid researchers and experts

David Meade who is a Christian numerologist has predicted that the world will end on September 23 and his prediction has matched that of stargazers who claim to have decoded the Egyptian pyramids.

The Punch reports that the stargazers said the Great Pyramid was a date marker of when the apocalypse would set in.

READ ALSO: Osinbajo is a mere figurehead - PDP attacks acting president

In a report by Daily Star, Meade used bible verses to match the position of heavenly bodies and said a giant planet called Nibiru or Planet X will crash into Earth and the world will end.

In his book titled Planet X  The 2017 Arrival, the numerologist analysed and predicted that Nibiru will first appear in the sky on September 23 and crash into earth in October.

Some Christian fanatics claim a total solar eclipse will occour in the US on August 21 and insist it will herald the coming of the prophesied 10 Biblical plagues.

Incidentally, Daily Star Online reported that the so-called Great American Total Solar Eclipse would also occur on September 23 which it said meant the beginning of Armageddon.

Some experts also claim the Great Pyramid also points to the same date.

Mr. Meade said: It is very strange indeed that both the Great Sign of Revelation 12 and the Great Pyramid of Giza both point us to one precise moment in time  September 20 to 23, 2017.

Is this the end of the Church Age and the transition to the Day of the Lord?

There couldnt be two greater witnesses.

Significantly, astronomers from the California Institute of Technology confirmed the discovery of a real planet up to 10 times the mass of Earth located in the outer reaches of the Solar System.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

Reverend Donna Larson and Robert Binnion also agree with the prediction that the world will end in 2017.

They all agreed that the 10 plagues mentioned in the bible has started pointing to the report of unusual swarms of insects.

Legit.ng had reported that the emergence of Donald Trump as President of the United States, heightened the fear that the world may indeed be on the verge of another great war.

Recent polls suggest that since Trump took charge of enough nuclear firepower, many are afraid he might seek to blast humanity off the face of this planet.

However, thats not the only threat the world facing at the moment, according to Oxford Universitys Future of Humanity Institute  in fact, humanity is facing three existential threats right now. Metro UK reports that the three biggest risks humanity face are Pandemics, Extreme Climate Change and Pandemics, Extreme Climate Change and Nuclear War  and there is a dire need for world leaders to act.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of Nigerians talking about whether they will abandon their religion if offered $5 million.

Source: Legit.ng
Editors note: Joshua Oyenigbehin, the Legit.ng partner blogger, in this article reveals why Nigerias unity may continue to be a mirage

Joshua could be contacted via: https://stationofthought.wordpress.com/ or joshuaoyenigbehin@gmail.com

More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest bloggers.

If Nigeria needs anything urgently to circumvent the present challenges she is grappling with, it will be a national adhesive call unity.

The siege of insurrection, succession threats and clamours, eviction notices, calls for self-determination, resource control, and the scourge of corruption is no doubt overwhelming the sense of brotherhood that has bounded the country together.

The numerous and solution-defying problems of the country have been, time without number, attributed to the loss of the resolve by Nigerians to put away their differences.

READ ALSO: Atiku begins plans for 2019 as he awaits Buhari's return

The diversities of interest by different interest groups in Nigeria have made unity in Nigeria an illusion. Different groups with conflicting interests have opposed one another covertly or overtly, to the extent of declaring war on one another.

A typical case is the recent quit notice issued to the Igbo people living in the northern part of the country by some Arewa Youths and the subsequent quit notice by the Middle Belt Youth against Fulani herdsmen.

Nigeria is undeniably falling apart. The country is no longer a state with citizens who have shared interests and goals, but a country of many nations with diverse aspirations, values and ambitions

Nigeria is indubitably the most populous black nation in the world and also a profoundly pluralistic society that is falling apart. To get the country back to sharp, the different and numerous, conflicting component units of the society need to be harnessed and recoupled to give the country a sense of direction and consequently an headway.

The quest to unify the country would be fruitless if the reality of the diversities in Nigeria is not taken cognizance of. These realities, which invariably make the country seems like a marriage experiencing a tempest, have made unity and solidarity in the country unachievable.

The following realities must be discussed and understood in order for us to be able to understand these differences and find a common ground for all to form a sense of belonging on.

1. Ethnic and tribal affiliations

Tribe and Ethnicity is an important feature of the Nigerian society. This cultural reality makes the socio-cultural landscape of the country fascinating and unique. Nigeria has always prided herself as a country with about 250 tribes and other numerous sub-tribes.

It is however, unfortunate that the Nigerian society has not benefited from this cultural endowment, other than the division this feature has brought on her. Most of the interactions Nigerians have with themselves are usually influenced by the tribe they belong to.

Nigerians are more ready to render help to people they share ethnicity with, making them guilty of nepotism and tribalism.

Until the country and all her citizenry purge themselves of all ethnic sentiments and grudge, unifying the country would continue to be a mirage. There is the need to judge everybody based on the intent of their character and merit.

2. Language barrier

I remember wanting to communicate with a Hausa fellow who just came down to Lagos, unfortunately, he didnt understand English language, apart from his native Hausa language and invariably Arabic language.

Then and there, I realized that the country has difficulties coming to a compromise because we hardly understand ourselves. Although, English language and Pidgin English have done a bit in bridging the language gap among Nigerians, the fact remains that since we dont share a common local language, there will always be a sense of departure in the different quarters.

3. Political divides

The division in the country is rending the country into bits. The irony of the matter is that, politics which should, in fact, be a binding force through which the citizenry can initiate the changes that they want to see, is a chopping knife that keeps frustrating the urge for One Nigeria.

The diverse political parties and their numerous interests are not helping matters. The quest and thirst for political powers by different groups and individuals have made politics a battle ground where the rule and divide tactic is deployed at will by power seeking politicians.

This is why we need to review how power is acquired and shared in the country in other for all interest group be put into perspectives.

4. Religious bigotry

Nigeria is a notorious and obstinately religious country. This could be a feature that the country can boast about if religious bias does not have a hand in the divided state of the country. The Holier than Thou mentality of most religious adherents have put religion in a compromising situation.

Attacks and conflicts which have religious undertones have been experienced in time past, this has made trust among religious adherents in the country as flimsy as paper.

In a country known to be a secular nation, without an official religion according to the constitution, some leaders have continued to favour one religion over the other, like the introduction of Sharia law in some Northern states without considering non-Muslims in the state.

The truth remains that, trust and unity in full view of a multi-religious society like Nigeria can only be achieved when religion remains a private matter and not a states affairs.

5. Economic inequality

The leader of the Muslim Right Concern, Professor Akintola, recently stated that: 1 per cent of the Nigerian people consume 85 percent of the Nigerian Wealth this is the pointer to the contrast of extreme wealth in the midst of massive and widespread poverty.

The gap between the rich at the top of the Nigerian economic hierarchy and those at the rock bottom is huge and it will take decades to bridge this gap. Crime and criminality are on the increase because the poor are disgruntled that their lot is worsening, as they see the rich becoming richer.

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The country cannot make headways if the poor in the society are not pulled out of their poverty to be partakers of the wealth inherent in the country.

6. Regional disparity

There have been series of clashes between Nigerians in the north and those in the south. While those in the south thinks the North is full of arrogant people who think that leadership in the country is their birthright, the north, also are of the view that southerners are a bunch of over-entitled kids who have no values other than the oil money that emanate form the region.

When the Minister of Education recently stated that Nigerian children account for half of children out of school in the world, southerners are quick to say that it is the problem of the north.

7. Historical mishap

There have been diverse views in different quarters of the country as regards the historical experience of the country. While some group blame others and their leaders for their past and present misfortune, other mock other groups for their misfortune.

This historical grudge would continue to be an impediment to the peaceful co-existent of the country if something is not urgently done.

There is an urgent need for History to be made core of the educational sector, for the countrys history be taught objectively to ensure that young people would not only appreciate the efforts of our past heroes, but for them to also see the need to believe in the unity of the country.

The unity of the country is quite important. However, for us as Nigeria to come to a compromise despite our differences, there is the need to understand our differences and to appreciate them as we take conscious effort to make the country work.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that unemployment in Nigeria is a very crucial issue.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Legit.ng.

Legit.ng welcomes writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of noise makers to become a part of our Bloggers network. If you are a seasoned writer or a complete newbie  apply and become Nigerias next star blogger.

Send us some info about your career, interests and expertise and why youd like to contribute to the Blogger Network at blogger@corp.legit.ng Also, please send us the link to your blog and three examples of your work.

More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest bloggers.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of Osinbajo speaking about the importance of Nigeria's unity:

Source: Legit.ng
- The British Broadcasting Cooperation BBC has slammed Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders who have habitual medical trip overseas

- BBC noted that the presidents of Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe, Benin and Algeria all have something in common

- Buhari has spent more than four months in London this year getting treatment for an undisclosed illness, causing considerable disquiet at home

The British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of ''an apparent lack of faith in the health systems at home''.

According to BBC, Buhari was on the list of five African presidents who frequently and without proper consideration of the consequences travel abroad for medical treatment.

Among others were Presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola) and Patrice Talon (Benin), Vanguard reports.

READ ALSO: Atiku begins plans for 2019 as he awaits Buhari's return

Legit.ng gathered that Buhari was described as the ''first among equals'' in terms of time spent abroad getting medical help.

In the report, BBC quoted Naziru Mikailu, its Abuja editor, as saying the public health system in Nigeria is terrible because of poor funding. Earlier in the year, Buhari spent 49 days in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Buhari has spent more than four months in London this year getting treatment for an undisclosed illness, causing considerable disquiet at home.

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He returned to the London on May 7 and has been there since. Buhari received his media team at the Abuja House on Saturday, August 12.

Femi Adesina, Buharis spokesman, quoted him as saying ''I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. Ive now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed.

''Ive learnt to obey my doctors orders, rather than be the one issuing the orders. Here, the doctor is absolutely in charge''.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Buhari sent his greetings to Nigerians informing them that he would soon be home from London.

The president said this when he received a delegation from his government led by Lai Mohammed, the information and culture minister.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of some reports that President Muhammadu Buhari may be back to the country on Sunday, June 11:

Source: Legit.ng
- Nigerian university lecturer proposes to girlfriend during students dinner

- The lecturer who was once married lost his wife years ago

A lecturer at the Ambrose Alli University has given students and fellow lecturers a night to remember after he proposed to his girlfriend at a school dinner.

The lecturer identified as Ernest Nwoke is the Head of Department (HOD) of Physiology in the prestigious school.

Legit.ng gathered that the lecturer was once married but he lost his wife years ago.

AAU's Physiology HOD proposes to his girlfriend during his students' dinner

READ ALSO: Beautiful pre-wedding photos of a soldier and his lover (photos)

He found love again in the young lady who he proposed to on the night of a school dinner for his students.

It was gathered that Nwoke surprised his girlfriends by getting down on one the knee to propose in the midst of other lecturers and students in attendance.

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The couple embraced each other after the lady accepted Nwokes romantic proposal.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng TV went to the street to ask people what men want from women:

Source: Legit.ng
- Former spokesperson to immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri has lambasted Lai Muhammed

- He also lashed out at Buharis aide on new media, Lauretta Onochie

- Omokri also added both Muhammed and Onochie are minus to Buharis government

Former spokesperson to immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri has again lambasted President Muhammadu Buharis media aides, describing them as liar and drunkard.

Legit.ng gathered that while Omokri in his Facebook post, alleged that Buharis government lack coherence and direction because he made both the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed and Lauretta Onochie his spokespersons.

READ ALSO: Atiku begins plans for 2019 as he awaits Buhari's return

According to him, How can you make such a public drunkard your spokesman and expect your administration to be taken seriously President Muhammadu Buhari! look at your spokespersons. A confirmed liar and a confirmed drinker! No wonder there is no coherence in your government!

Compare President Muhammadu Buhari's spokeswoman with President Donald J. Trump's spokeswoman and you will understand why Trump added 1074,000 to America in 6 months and Buhari lost 4.58 million jobs from Nigeria in 1 year.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Reno Omokri described the current president as a mistake.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Nigerians assessing the GEJ presidency:

Source: Legit.ng
- Professor Yemi Osinbajo was received earlier in the day by Niger state officials as he arrived the state to open the Economic Summit which starts today, August 14, 2017

- Osinbajo has now been joined by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who is also participating at the summit

- Sokoto state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Minister of Agriculture Audu Ogbeh, and the Sultan of Sokoto have also touched down in Niger to participate in the summit

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has also arrived in Niger state today Monday August 14, to join Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for the Niger Investment Summit, 2017.

The Acting President had touched down in the state earlier in the day, to declare open the economic summit.

The announcement was made public via the twitter account of Inside Arewa News, @Insidearewa.

READ ALSO: Niger Delta: Edwin Clark is only seeking to remain politically relevant - MEND

Also arriving the state for the opening of the summit, was the Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal.

The tweet read: Niger state Government Officials welcomes Ag. Pres @ProfOsinbajo, Sokoto state Governor @AWTambuwal among others to Niger Economic Summit.

The following pictures were also attached:

Yemi Osinbajo greets Niger state officials as he arrives for the Economic Summit (Photo credit: Twitter: @Insidearewa)

The Acting President is greeted by a little child as he arrives Niger state for the Economic Summit (Photo credit: Twitter: @Insidearewa)

Niger state officials stand at attention as they await the arrival of the Acting President (Photo credit: Twitter: @Insidearewa)

See more photos:

Former President Obasanjo and Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh stand alongside the Acting President at the Economic Summit (Photo credit: Twitter: @MrAbuSidiq)

Former President Obasanjo listens in during the Niger Economic Summit (Photo credit: Twitter: @MrAbuSidiq)

The Sultan of Sokoto is also pictured at the Economic Summit (Photo credit: Twitter: @MrAbuSidiq)

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari was once again urged to diversifying the economy in order to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.

Former governor of Niger state, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, made this call in Abuja during an interview.

He stated: For many years we have been talking about the diversification of our economy but we kept on relying on oil.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video asking if Osinbajo is a better President than Buhari:

Source: Legit.ng
Nigerian students are set for a lengthy stay at home as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has embarked on an indefinite strike action.

The lecturers decided to go on strike after an extensive deliberation at its meeting held at the University of Abuja from Friday, August 11.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the union has directed all members against going to teach or involving themselves in any academic activity.

Since the announcement, Nigerians especially students affected have criticized the Nigerian government for failing to forestall the industrial action.

Below are some reactions:

READ ALSO: ASUU threatens indefinite strike over members in Boko Haram captivity

READ ALSO: Nationwide ASUU strike looms as union goes toe to toe with FG

Before the strike kicked off, Legit.ng reported that the Nigerian federal government has been unable to honor its part of agreement signed with ASUU in 2009.

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Therefore, the union began the process that led to this nationwide strike. ASUU began collation of signatures of members through referenda to determine the type of strike in terms of time to embark on.

Watch this Legit.ng video of a protest led against the Buhari administration:

Source: Legit.ng
- All eyes are on Anambra state as the preparations for the forthcoming governorship election are in top gear

- Political activities in the state are gaining momentum

- Rumours have also been flying around in the state, especially as a ploy to weaken strong candidates like Senator Andy Uba

Senator Andy Uba has openly debunked rumours making the rounds that he was locked out and barred from undergoing the All Progressive Congress (APC) guber aspirants screening exercise in Abuja.

Addressing a crowd of APC ward coordinators at Uga, Aguata local government area of Anambra state, Uba made it clear that he was only asked to take a bow before the screening committee which he said is a privilege as a serving senator.

The senator also reacted to rumours that he changed the names of APC delegates, describing it as a mischievous antics to distract the people.

Senator Andy Uba said the antics are antics to distract the Anambra people. Photo credit: Joseph Itazi

His words: I did not at any point in time change the names of APC delegates, rather I have been making serious efforts to eliminate all irregularities to make sure that there is harmonization of names.

I think those behind the rumours are the ones responsible for such acts. All I have been fighting for, is the interest of my people.

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While advocating for truth and honesty in our democratic practice, the senator urged his state ward coordinators to pay no attention to such ridiculous rumours as they are mere distractions.

Speaking on the governorship race, Senator Uba stressed that he is in the race for the general interest and betterment of Anambra state.

This is not my race alone, it is a sincere race for the good of Anambra state and if APC wins this election, it is victory for the people and the beginning of freedom from poor health system, persistent suffering, hunger, unemployment and also, the end of socio-political marginalization in Anambra state.

For me, this is a partnership with the people towards a better Anambra state and I believe that together, we can make it work, the senator told his audience.

While urging the ward coordinators and other party faithfuls not to rest on their oars until victory is secured, the senator promised that no one is going to be short changed in his government as he would run an all inclusive government if elected.

Senator Andy Uba with APC chieftains at the event. Photo credit: Joseph Itazi

Meanwhile, in his usual character of interacting with the populace and show of benevolence, Legit.ng gathered that the senator fed thousands of people on Thursday, July 20 at Umuoru- Uga in Aguata local government area of the state.

The senator who represents Anambra South Senatorial District told journalists present that he loves being around his people and sharing in their experiences.

His words: I believe in helping my people and you cannot help a man if you do not know what his problems are and how he feels, that is why from time to time I come down to my people to take care of their well being.

Secondly, there is so much hunger in the country, people are suffering. No money! No food! It gives me joy to feed these thousands of people here today, it is my way of showing that I care and if given the mandate to be their governor, my government will be a government that is based on the people.

READ ALSO: Anger as APC national legal adviser shuns disciplinary panel

Watch the video report of the historic occasion on Legit.ng TV below:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Conscience of the Niger said Ibe Kachikwu remains a technocrat who is not interested in politics

- TCN described those carrying out the campaign as mischief makers planning to tarnish Kachikwu's image

- It warned those claiming Kachikwu would contest to desist from it or face God's wrath

The Conscience of the Niger (TCN) has revealed that Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria's petroleum minister, is not interested in contesting for the 2019 governorship election.

TCN said claims that Kachikwu was eyeing becoming a governor in the next election is being championed by mischievous people to embarrass the minister.

According to the group, Kachikwu had severally denied any ambition.

TCN therefore warned those peddling the claim to desist or incur the wrath of God and man.

READ ALSO: PDP decries attack on delegation to national convention

In a statement made available to Legit.ng, the group's leader, Mitai Okeroghene, said: Dr Kachikwu is not stupid. He is a technocrat and not a politician and has not in any form or shape shown indications of wanting to contest election, and so, it stands to reason that those behind his posters flooding Abuja have a sinister plot to achieve and their message is also clearly directed at their target audience, hence, the choice of Abuja as their location for the posters.

For the sake of argument, let us admit that Dr Kachikwu has an interest in the governorship of Delta state, is Abuja the place to start pasting posters?

"What is the correlation between Abuja and Delta governorship? But, of course, they want to insinuate that he was seeking the Abuja blessing, which of course invalidates the whole idea.

This is why we have come out to state for emphasis and for the umpteenth time that Dr Kachikwu is not interested in the governorship of Delta or any other elective political office as he currently has a more challenging and critical national assignment, which he has been able to discharge creditably well in the last over a year in spite of the attendant challenges in that office.

Okeroghene added: Nothing can explain the attack on Dr Kachikwu because as far as we are concerned, this is an attack on the career of a man, who is focused and determined to make a change in the best way possible and as permitted within the limitations of his office.

"He deserves support and commendation and not to make him appear unduly ambitious or losing sight of his current brief.

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But if this is targeted at influencing the rumoured imminent cabinet reshuffle by those who find his ongoing reforms in the system discomforting or a move by those who want to mount pressure on him run for Delta governorship, it is dead on arrival, because Dr Kachikwu is not oblivious of the weight of the assignment on his hands and is leaving nothing to chance in making sure that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari succeeds.

Is it a crime for a man to be adept at his work?

"It is surprising that after stabilising the sector and still cleansing it of its corrupt past, this is all that Kachikwu gets.

"But whatever creepy plans they are hatching, he is one man, who will leave government unblemished and very successful."

Legit.ng recently reported that Ibe Kachikwu is the reputable minister of state for petroleum resources of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The report said he was appointed by the President Muhammadu Buhari to represent Ibe Kachikwu state of origin in the President's cabinet to manage the main reforms in the gas and oil sector.

Watch this video of how Governor Ganduje of Kano is recreating the state:

Source: Legit.ng
- In a statement issued by President Buhari's official spokesman, Garba Shehu, former president Jonathan has been criticized

- The long statement served to remind the ex-president of the negative state he reportedly left the economy

- Among other things, the statement also listed what Buhari is currently doing

In a recent statement credited to former President Goodluck Jonathan, he reportedly said he left a robust economy behind for the APC government.

President Buhari has reacted to the statement through Garba Shehu his spokesman. The statement opened thus:

"Your Excellency Jonathan, this is the economy you left behind, in case you have forgotten: With due respects to the former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, these are the facts about the economy you left behind, in case you have forgotten.

"I hope this will help to erase the wrong statement credited to you at your party, the PDP Convention at the Eagle Square last weekend that you handed to President Buhari a robustly healthy economy."

READ ALSO: Jonathan should be ashamed of himself - APC blasts former president

Apparently, Senator Ahmed Makarfi toed the same line with Jonathan, as the statement also mentioned him saying:

"To the same extent, this should also help to erase yet another false statement by Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, the Caretaker Chairman of the party, to the effect that under the previous administration there was money but now things are very hard."

The statement also described Jonathan's rule as a tragedy:

"It is understandable that Dr Jonathan kept his comments short, because a cursory look at any sector clearly indicated that he and his Government presided over the most monumental and tragic economic mismanagement recorded in our national history."

The statement also said:

"The oil sector boomed under his tenure, with oil prices as high as US$ 120 and peace in the Nigeria Delta. Nigeria earned unprecedented dollar revenues.

"Sadly, that is where the story turns sour. There is nothing to show for the revenues earned, no major capital project was completed, neither power generation, road development, rail or agriculture benefitted from the windfall earnings.

"Rather the administration presided over the diversion of oil revenues on a such a massive scale, that even without the protection now accorded to Whistle blowers, the then Central Bank Governor blew not only a whistle but a trumpet. He was hurriedly shown the door."

READ ALSO: Abubakar Shekau mocks Buhari, Jonathan and Buratai in new video

Accusing the Jonathan government of corruption, it also said:

"Meanwhile, the acquisition by public officers and their cohorts of private jets, luxury yachts and the accumulation of expensive property portfolios world-wide continued unabated. Indeed the President once celebrated having the largest number of private jets, whilst our youth languished without jobs, our fields stood idle and our factories began the lay off of workers."

Speaking of the work of the Buhari administration, it said:

"At the inception of the Buhari administration, 21 States were unable to meet their salary bills and the specter of workers arrears had commenced.

"The PDP solution was to raid the Ecological Fund and selectively grant N2Bn each to the PDP States. It was only aggressive borrowing by the Ministry of Finance that prevented Federal Government from also owing salaries.

"In summary Nigeria earned a lot of money when oil prices were high but there is nothing to show for it. Now oil prices have fallen we are suffering. What could they have done differently?

"They could have begun doing the very things that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is doing so painfully now:

1. Fight corruption.

2. Sanitize the huge salary bill by eliminating payroll fraud.

3. Reduce wasteful expenses like First Class Travel and Private jets.

4. Encourage State Governments to reform their spending and build savings or investments.

5. Increase spending on capital projects especially on infrastructure needed to make Nigerian businesses competitive and create jobs.

6. Block the leakages that allowed government revenues to be siphoned into private hands.

7. Focus on key sectors ( apart from oil) that can create jobs and or generate revenue such as Agriculture, Solid Minerals, and Manufacturing."

In conclusion it said: "President Muhammdu Buhari has a positive and prosperous vision for Nigeria.

"A nation in which the natural talent and hard work of the people is being supported by an enabling environment for infrastructural development and policy reforms that will develop a firm future for our nation.

"Nigerians are looking forward and the PDPs lurking in the economic rear view mirror only underscores the resolve of Nigerians, that as far as the economy is concerned it is 'never again."

Meanwhile, former President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the verbal tirade against him by VON DG, Mr Osita Okechukwu.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

In a statement posted on his Facebook page by his aide, Reno Omokri, on Sunday, August 13, Jonathan advised Okechukwu to stick to facts.

Legit.ng had reported that Okechukwu said, rather than plug the loopholes that allowed for corruption, Jonathan opened them up further.

Watch this Legit.ng video as Nigerians speak on past presidents:

Source: Legit.ng
A UW-Madison professor is headed to Washington to write a secret history of the nations war against terrorism for the Pentagon.

Military history professor John Hall will begin work this month on the project as a historian in the History Office of the Joint Staff, an agency of the Defense Department serving the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, Hall is being placed on active-duty status to review classified documents, sit in on top-secret discussions among four-star generals and write the militarys official history of counter-terrorism.

Im a little bit apprehensive, Hall said in an interview Thursday. Im going to work every day in a building where lieutenant colonels are a dime a dozen.

He may be in Washington for several years, but hell continue to collaborate with a UW-Madison colleague on at least one teaching project.

Since World War II, the military has compiled accounts of its operations as they unfolded so commanders have access to authoritative information.

The history Hall writes will be intended primarily for the eyes of top military planners, but he hopes eventually to reach a wider audience.

Invariably the first draft of what I write will be classified as top-secret with certain restrictions beyond top-secret, Hall said. The ideal is that they would allow me to write a redacted version of that for a broader audience. In academia, we like people to read what we write.

At the very least, Hall expects to gain valuable insights that will inform his research and teaching when he returns to Madison.

As part of his job, hell review classified documents such as combat zone situation reports and decide which ones to preserve as part of his project.

Hall said he has top-secret clearance and is qualified for access to sensitive compartmentalized information, but its unlikely hell see the militarys most sensitive documents, the ones that disclose intelligence sources and methods.

Hall recently completed a three-year active-duty stint as historian for the U.S. European Command, working mostly from Madison and continuing to teach military history classes.

But for his counter-terrorism assignment hell be in the Pentagon, and sometimes traveling to other locations he said he cant specify.

The funding for his position comes from the Pentagon appropriation for Overseas Contingency Operation  the official name for what once was called the Global War on Terror.

Its essentially wartime funding, not baseline Department of Defense funding, Hall said. The fact that this is being funded with money earmarked for (Overseas Contingency Operation) kind of suggests the expectation that my endeavors are going to be immediately useful and not in an insignificant way.

Hell be picking up where another historian left off before retiring. His predecessor had amassed documents and interview transcripts.

Hall grew up in southeastern Wisconsin, attended West Point military academy, earned both a masters degree and Ph.D. in history at the University of North Carolina, then returned to teach at West Point.

Hall spent 15 years as an active-duty infantry officer with duties involving strategic planning before he joined the UW-Madison faculty in 2009. The military history classes he has taught have included advanced courses on the American military experience going back to the early 1900s, along with Native American and early American history.

For most members of the military, it is an occasion to personally encounter even a one-star officer, and they are treated with great deference, Hall said.

Spending time in the presence of a four-star general or admiral is rare indeed, and Hall said he is still getting used to the idea of listening to such high-ranking officers form strategy as he gathers information for his history.

In a literal sense I will be covering meetings with a number of colonels and one-star generals and two-star generals, but the principals are going to be four-stars, Hall said. Its the kind of situation where the one-star and I might decide whos going to go out and get coffee for everybody.

Im a little bit apprehensive. Im going to work every day in a building where lieutenant colonels are a dime a dozen. John Hall, military history professor, UW-Madison
- Femi Adesina was in London recently to see his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari

- Adesina said he does not know who handles the medical bills of the president

- He explained that the rating of President Buhari will be more positive before his tenure ends in 2019

The special adviser to Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, has said revealed what he saw of the ailing president when he joined a delegation to London recently.

Adesina confirmed that President Buhari was, indeed, smart and showed that he was truly ready to make his six-hour trip back to Nigeria.

Speaking during a programme on Channels Television late Monday, August, 14, Adesina also said those asking the president to return with his doctors rather than remain in London are only expressing their opinions.

READ ALSO: Abubakar Shekau mocks Buhari, Jonathan and Buratai in new video

The president I saw was sharp, he was smart, he was lucid. The president I saw was like his old self, almost completely mended.

But then, like we said in the statement we issued which is what he said to us in the first place, he would come when his doctors say its time to go, Adesina said during the programme monitored by Legit.ng.

He said the president told them he had followed events since leaving the country on May 7.

According to him, Buhari also spoke about the current protest by a group asking him to resign.

He said the president thinks the protest is just part of democracy and that the participants are exercising their rights.

Asked if Buhari is not troubled that he is outside Nigeria treating himself instead of being in his country, Adesina said: The fact that he is in London and is taking treatment there for a while shows his belief that you procure treatment from wherever you can get it.

It is a man who is alive that continues to lead his family, lead his church, lead his mosque or lead a nation.

He also stated that he really does not know who is responsible for Buharis treatment in London.

I do not know who is paying (for his treatment), but as a president, he has a right to be treated by the country, he said.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Concerning the alleged low rating of the Buhari administration currently, Adesina said such would change positively before the end of the tenure in 2019.

He noted that things had gone very bad in the country before Buhari emerged as president adding that two years was not enough to redeem a country brought to shambles by a 16-year rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Legit.ng reported recently that President Muhammadu Buhari sent his greetings to Nigerians informing them that he would soon be home from London.

The report quoted the president as saying so when received a delegation from his government led by Lai Mohammed, the information and culture minister. The others on the delegation include Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu, Lauretta Onochie and Abike Dabiri.

Watch this video and hear what people want President Buhari to do once he returns:

Source: Legit.ng
Anyone who has been in the business of selling high end (or even not so high end) wares knows that creating the perception that what you have on offer is desired by other can make the sale. And Uber seems to have done a great job of spinning a tale that there is keen investor interest via a New York Times story titled, Uber Board Considers 3 Investment Offers to Buy Companys Shares by Mike Issac and Kate Benninger. If the story werent so patently one-sided, it might even seem plausible.

Well get to the details in due course, but lets make the most important observation firt. There is no evidence that there is an offer to buy Uber shares, let alone three offers. The normal process would be a non-binding letter of intent, specifying a price or price range. If that outline is acceptable to the seller, then they proceed to due diligence and negotiation of more definitive terms.

The article tries to convey the idea that a process like that is underway by saying the board has authorized due diligence. But in its last round of fundraising, Uber refused to include basic information such as revenues and net income. JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank decided to risk alienating Uber in an IPO by refusing to flog this document to their high net worth clients. That means that the supposed due diligence may consist of providing basic financial information, as opposed to what most people would understand due diligence to consist of (e.g., reading board minutes, access to a data room).

Uber is strongly motivated to make it appear that investors are interested in the companys shares. In the midst of a stunning reversal, the ride-sharing company has gone from being perceived as a predestined winner to reeling from scandal to scandal. Among its many tsuris, it has suffered a mass exodus of senior talent and is now in the midst of a cage match between the investors that ousted CEO Travis Kalanick, and Kalanicks allies on the board. The venture capital community, and Corporate America generally, has never seen a fight this ugly carried out in public.

So the strategy of the Kalanick allies is to make it appear that they have the upper hand, when the last actual win was scored by the Benchmark side in getting Kalanick booted. And Benchmark also seems to have checked Kalanicks effort to return though their lawsuit filed last Thursday accusing him of fraud.

Kalanick backers, led by Shervin Pishevar, have claimed they can buy Benchmark out. The comical bit is that the tone of a letter signed by Pishevar and two other Uber shareholders released on Friday is they can force Benchmark to sell. If they can actually come up with a price that Benchmark would accept, from Benchmarks perspective, it would be like throwing Brer Rabbit in the briar patch.

As those who have been following the Uber slugfest know, Benchmarks beef with Kalanick was he wanted to put off a liquidity event as long as possible. Aside from the general tendency of venture capitalists to want their money back sooner rather than later, Benchmark may have understood by virtue of not having imbibed the Kalanick Kool-Aid that Uber was never going to be profitable, and once word got out, its sky-high valuation would become a thing of the past.

So in theory this isnt nuts, except there is no reason to believe the Kalanick side can pull this off, as in deliver a price high enough that Benchmark will accept for enough shares (which is apparently 75% of Benchmarks stake) to get Benchmark off the board. Even though Benchmark got in at a bargain basement price, and may understand that Ubers valuation is on a slippery downhill slope with little prospect of recovery, they may still suffer from the cognitive bias of anchoring, and thus may not buy the premise that getting out at what would look like a ginormous discount would look like like a brilliant trade 18 months down the road.

Shorter: theres no sign in the press so far that Benchmark is on board with the plan that the Kalanick faction has cooked up. That could just be simple show me the money, keeping a poker face, or anticipating that even if Pishevar and his allies manage to find some chumps interested parties, it will fall vastly short of what is needed to buy Benchmark out.

But the Kalanick faction has every reason to take any and every thin shred of interest and try to paint it as proof that their scheme is moving forward. The fact that Pishevar & Co. leaked their letter to the Benchmark side on Friday and then planted a story that is running in the Monday edition of the New York Times smacks of an over-eager effort to create the perception of momentum.

Our Uber expert, Hubert Horan, dissects the New York Times report in more detail. In short form, the story again flogs the idea that SoftBank might be interested and also claims that Pishevar and his buddies really do have investors who want to make a bid rich enough to take Benchmark out. That claim that didnt seem credible last Friday and nothing has been offered to make that seem more credible now.

Here is the one new bit of new news on the investor interest front:

More recently, an investor coalition led by Dragoneer, which includes the private equity firm General Atlantic and others, has emerged with a deal that would protect Ubers valuation. The proposal incudes a small purchase of new shares at the current valuation, but the bulk of the investment would come through buying out existing shareholders at a discount via a so-called Dutch auction  an auction that begins with a high price that declines until a buyer says yes.

Folks, aside from Dragoneer says it willing to buy an itty bitty stake at Ubers current valuation in order to kick the tires, this is not an offer. There is no way the shareholders would agree to a classic Dutch auction, where the sellers agree to tender a certain number of shares and the Dutch auction determines the price. Any offers to sell by Uber shareholders would be subject to a reserve price. Theres no guarantee that there would be any overlap between the Dragoneer bids and any shareholder offers. And even that offer to buy a smidge at the current valuation is probably contingent on hitting a minimum level of investment in the Dutch auction. So the Dragonner scheme is just another way to explore price.

And as important from the Kalanick side, even if the Dragoneer scheme were to move forward, there is no reason to think anywhere enough of Benchmark shares would be tendered and sold to get Benchmark off the board. A Dutch auction process means that everyone who tenders shares at a certain price gets bought out pro-rata. For instance, if Benchmark tendered say a 0.5% interest at x price and other investors collectively tendered another 0.5%, and the offers to sell were 2x what the investors were willing to buy at that price, the sellers would get only 50% of their offers purchased.

On top of that, each round of investment had different terms, so its even harder to imagine how anyone could construct a Dutch auction when you are not dealing with fungible common shares, but a dogs breakfast of different classes of equity securities.

We will now turn the mike over to Hubert Horan:

The article fails to make it clear that none of the proposals will do anything to strengthen the finances of the company. In the case of the two of the proposals had been widely reported before (Benchmarks potential sale of its shares to Masayoshi Son of SoftBank and the Shervin Pishevar-led demand that Benchmark sell at least 75% of its shares) the article fails to explain whether either has been converted from informal discussions into a formal offer. The only news that hadnt been previously reported in the press was the interest of Dragoneer Investment Group in buying existing shares, but there was no indication of whether this was comparable in magnitude to the Softbank/Pishevar ideas (where perhaps 10% of all shares would change hands) or something much smaller. Issacs story fails to address any of the obvious issues with each proposal. All reports about Softbank had come from Benchmark, who was anxious to liquidate its position and was highly motivated to both create the appearance of outside interest. SoftBanks interest in taking a 10% Uber shareholding made little sense given its shareholdings in major Uber competitors in Asia and the process described was highly inconsistent with traditional Japanese M&A practices. There is still no evidence there is anything to Pishevars proposal beyond the two page memo released on Friday, no evidence he has access to the $6-$$7 billion to buy Uber shares at full price seems too ludicrous to take seriously. While Issac notes that the individual parties were all motivated by self-interest, he fails to explain those interests in the context of the open battle for control of Ubers currently dysfunctional Board and senior management. Benchmarks private outreach to SoftBank, and the suit it filed against Travis Kalanick were designed to force two possible outcomes favorable to Benchmarklocking in staggering profits ($8.4 billion on a $27 million investment if its position was completely liquidated), or a second-best but more feasible situation where Kalanick and his major allies were ousted, and early investors established Board control and could appoint a CEO empowered to make major changes to move rapidly towards an IPO. Pishevars interests were the exact opposite of Benchmarks (ensure Board control and the CEO decision remained in the hands of Kalanick allies). Issacs story implies that Ubers Board has begun to seriously evaluate these proposals but ignores the fact that moving forward on any of them requires resolving the ugly disagreements about Board control, strategic direction, and the type of new CEO/CFO/COO that should be selected. Nor does Issac ever explain how a Board wracked by factional fighting and lawsuits could ever come to agreement about any of these proposals. Any Softbank/Pishevar type deal that gives Benchmark massive profits would likely trigger a strong reaction from later investors, who bought shares at much less favorable terms. It isnt shocking that new sets of outsiders such as Dragoneer might suddenly emerge to see if there might be a way to profit from Ubers turmoil and desperation but Issacs story gives no indication whether Dragoneer is aligned with one of the Board factions or is merely a financial opportunist. While theres never been any problem with Issacs pure factual reporting, and he broke a couple important stories as Ubers problems mounted earlier this year, the underlying problem here (and in much of his past reporting) is the total disconnect between the events reported and the underlying economics of the company. Issac tells NYT readers that all of these parties are interested in buying Uber shares because of its strong fundamentals. Uber remains an attractive investment because it is the worlds biggest ride-hailing service and is growing fast. While it may be buried late in the story, reporters at other outlets following Uber closely (Bloomberg, WSJ, Recode) duly note that it is extremely unprofitable. Issacs reporting never mentions that Uber lost $2 billion in 2015 and $3 billion in 2016, has none of the scale/network economies that could rapidly cut losses, and has never produced any other plan that could credibly produce sustainable profits. As a result, Issacs readers cant see that Ubers dreadful financial results, and concerns about eventually producing returns to investors may have contributed to Board turmoil, the desire to dump shares, and to outsiders poking around to see if shares can be picked up at bargain prices. Issacs story is also willfully misleading about critical Uber valuation issues where the story seems to cross the line between weak/incomplete reporting to actively pushing a PR narrative on behalf of the company. Uber has a venture capital valuation of $68 billion. Theres a lot of PR and wishful thinking in any VC valuation, but any new funding event requires a revaluation, and any of these three proposals would trigger that, unless the new player (Softbank, Pishevar, Dragoneer) anted up cash per share consistent with the current $68 billion share price. Previous reporting about Softbank suggested they might buy Benchmarks share at a 40% discount and Issacs story suggests Dragoneer is interested in a Dutch auction that could lead to an even bigger discount. The story here would seem to be new transactions being seriously reviewed by the Uber Board suggests all reports of company value for many years have been massively overstated. Instead Issac tells his readers that Ubers $68 billion valuation wont be threatened  even if new investors buy most shares at massive discounts, the valuation wont change as long as they buy a few shares at the old price. Issac fails to explain how these accounting games would work, and fails to tell his readers why they should believe any future Uber claims that it might be still worth anything like $68 billion. All of the various factions of Uber insiders have a huge interest in getting outsiders to ignore its terrible competitive economics and financial results and preserving the fiction that the companys future prospects justify its staggering valuation. Those Uber insiders benefit from the perception that multiple parties are seriously interested in buying lots of Uber shares at high prices. None of the facts presented in Issacs story (or other sources) clearly support the claim that multiple outsiders are interested in putting sizable amounts of cash into stock purchases at anything other than huge discounts. All of the evidence at hand suggests Ubers current valuation is wildly higher than what relevant investors actually think the company might be worth. But for some reason, Issac wants his readers to believe the companys huge value/lots of investor interest/Board moving to a decision about the best proposal narrative and ignore the ample evidence of a massive need for revaluation and the internal dysfunction blocking most paths forward.

And aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
The heart doesnt work in isolation, and supplementing with ingredients targeted only at the heart will have effects elsewhere. And the opposite is true; nutrients for other body systems, such as the gut, will affect the heart. In this podcast, Blake Ebersole, president, NaturPro Scientific, and Sandy Almendarez, editor in chief, INSIDER, discuss ingredients that affect the heart, and how supplement brands should be viewing their effects in other parts of the body. They cover:

The connection between the heart and the microbiome

How heart health ingredients promote cognitive health and more

The next step for hearth health ingredient research

Learn more from Ebersole at the Supplyside West Workshop, Nutrition for Heart Health on Friday, September 29 at 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The underwriters for this session are Nicholas Hall and Companies, Japan Bio Sciences Lab and Natac. Visit supplysideshow.com for more information and to get registered.
A new study has shown that goldfish and similar crucian carps can live up to five months in icy lakes with extremely low or no oxygen. Evolution of the fish has enabled them to develop a set of enzymes that can help the fish convert their carbohydrates into alcohol.

Image Credit: Mirek Kijewski / Shutterstock

This alcohol is then released through the gills of the fish and helps them survive. In almost all other animals carbohydrates if broken down without the help of oxygen, toxic lactic acid builds up in the body.

Lack of oxygen is fatal for humans and all other animals but clearly the crucian carps have found a way around this. That these carps can survive cold winters and frozen lakes, has been known and studied since 1980s. This is the first study to look at how they are doing it.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports last Friday.

Crucian carps live in ponds and lakes in northern Europe and Asia which are frozen during winters. The waterbodies are frozen solid for months before they melt in springs. During this time the fish have to survive without oxygen.

During this time the researchers have found, that the carps and their relatives the goldfish can breakdown carbohydrates without oxygen and instead of toxic lactic acids they produce alcohol.

This alcohol is easier to get rid of or excrete from the bodies compared to lactic acid that tends to accumulate. The fish consequently lose the alcohol via their gills.

Michael Berenbrink from the University of Liverpool in the UK who was part of the team led by Cathrine Fagernes at the University of Oslo, Norway explained how rare this adaptation is among the animals.

The team looked at the carps biology to find out how they have achieved this evolutionary miracle.

The study describes how the fish have their special alcohol-production system using the complex and modified enzymes.

These enzymes stimulate the mitochondria within the cells. Mitochondria are rightly called the batteries of the cell as they are the power houses from where the cell obtains ready energy.

The second set of enzymes that these fish have is modified so that they can channelize the carbohydrate breakdown into alcohol much like brewers yeast and is called pyruvate decarboxylase.

Fagernes explained that other species of animals would die long before the oxygen lack becomes a problem for this unique species of fish.

This study is an in depth and firsthand knowledge of how certain animals can survive anoxia or lack of oxygen say experts in the field.

According to the researchers of the team, this adaptation of the animals has evolved 8 million years ago in the common ancestor of carp and goldfish.

The process adapted by these fish is called whole genome duplication. Now the fish had two sets of the genes that can help them make a set of parallel enzymes to combat extreme situations.

This adaptation has allowe these carps survive situations where other fishes fail. This means they can best predators as well as competitors.

The fish during the adaptation periods end up with blood alcohol levels of roughly 55 milligrams per 100 millilitres. Berenbrink notes that this is far exceeding the drink-driving limit in some northern European countries. This probably slows down the fish a bit noted Fagernes.

Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-07385-4
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
Under a new FCC proposal, any area able to obtain wireless speeds of at least 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps would be deemed good enough for American consumers. Under the previous FCC, wireless was deemed important, but not yet anywhere near a suitable replacement for fixed-line broadband, especially in more remote areas where cellular connectivity will likely remain spotty for decades to come.

The move directly caters to AT&T and Verizon, who have largely given up on rural and second and third-tier city fixed-line broadband deployment, arguing that existing, expensive wireless connectivity is good enough.

In Broadband the US ranks at world number 9 with 70 MBps download but most people in the US do not see that download speed.

The US is ranked at 46th in wireless download speed at 23 Mbps. If US wireless companies were permitted and chose to drop to 10 MBps and still be classified as broadband then the US would drop to a world ranking of 101 which is the level of Nigeria.

A 2011 report, conducted jointly by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology, in 33 OECD countries, quantifies the isolated impact of broadband speed, showing that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3%. A 0.3 percent GDP growth in the OECD region is equivalent to USD 126 billion. This corresponds to more than one seventh of the average annual OECD growth rate in the last decade.

The study also shows that additional doublings of speed can yield growth in excess of 0.3 percent (e.g. quadrupling of speed equals 0.6 percent GDP growth stimulus) Both broadband availability and speed are strong drivers in an economy. Last year Ericsson and Arthur D. Little concluded that for every 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration GDP increases by 1 percent.

Dropping from 25 Mbps to 10 Mbps would be about a 0.4% drop in GDP growth.

This would be the opposite of making the US economy future ready.

On the other hand it will make the choice to switch to Elon Musk and Googles gigabit internet satellite network when it arrives easy.

Verizon and AT&T will not have any customer loyalty. This will be like the recent Netflix passing the total subscribers of all US cable companies.
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.
This shoe appears in Edouard Manets Mademoiselle V  in the Costume of an Espada.

The painting hangs in Gallery 810 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ive been looking at it for years.

Manet is my artistic lodestar, the man who reminds me that great works of art always seduce both the mind and the eye at once.

And in this painting, as in all of his mature works, even the smallest details affirm that art is ultimately about whats right in front of your face.

Completed in 1862, when Manet was only 30, the painting depicts a young woman dressed up as an espada: the bullfighting participant who slays the beast after the matador is done. But its caressed brushstrokes and bold passages of slablike color hint that this painting aims to be something other than a faithful depiction of a real Spanish corrida.

Take first those shoes,

which float oddly, as if the figure were untethered from the ground.

Manet had trained in the studio of the academic painter Thomas Couture, and learned like every student how to scale figures and model shadows to create an illusion of space between foreground and background.

That is to say, he knew how make those feet stand on the ground.

But he didnt.

Her trousers are strangely flat too, blocky against the deeper background of the corrida:

And though it may be tough to perceive in a jpeg (digital images tend to dull the texture), theres a stark contrast between the hard, unmodeled black of the figures bolero and the brushy, wet-on-wet strokes of the yellow kerchief:

But placing these discordant elements side by side, without transition, is part of what made Manet modern.

The womans fellow bullfighters appear in a wholly different realm of depiction to the principal portrait. (He borrowed the arrangement from a print by Goya.) A matador in blue is jumping into the stands for safety; other toreros gather in the shadows  but theyre barely sketched in:

Look again, and her whole figure, against the background of the corrida, looks flat and unconvincing. She appears like a cutout, or as if shes standing in front of a theatrical backdrop:

Here are the first steps toward a new kind of painting: one that ceases to pretend the canvas is a window on the world, and instead presents itself as something more like what it is  paint on a two-dimensional surface.

Manets paintings of the early 1860s helped set the stage for Impressionists like his younger friend Claude Monet,

who would elevate the capriciously brushy color Manet at times employed into one of the new fundamentals of modern painting.

Have a look at the pink cape shes holding: cloudier and daintier than the stiff ones used in the bullring. You can see some of the similarities in Monets Water Lilies, which hangs in a room nearby, painted nearly 60 years after Mademoiselle V.

In the mid-20th century, American critics looked at the matter-of-factness of a painting like Mademoiselle V as the first steps in some inevitable progression toward abstract art. If you follow the party line, the flatness of our bullfighter here leads directly to the Cubism of Pablo Picasso and the all-over abstraction of Jackson Pollock.

Compare with this Picasso from 1913-1914, also in the Mets collection, which translates a woman in an armchair into a simplified, collage-like arrangement of flat planes.

Easy to see now. But back in the 1860s, many critics took Manets flatness as proof of unsophistication. Mademoiselle V was rejected from the official Salon of 1863 and shown instead in a new parallel exhibition, the Salon des Refuses.

Only a few of Manets contemporaries, above all Emile Zola and Charles Baudelaire, could see that the flatness expressed something essential about the modern, alienated Paris, where real lives get confused with appearances.

That too was in the shoes,

which are brown, not black, and far too dainty for tangling with 1,500-pound bovines.

Why such unconvincing footwear? By kitting his model out in shoes so inapt for bullfighting, Manet went out of his way to advertise that the paintings subject is herself an artificial creation. This is not a painting of a Spanish bullfighter. This is a painting of a French woman posing as an espada, and Manet doesnt want you to forget it.

Manet kept a box of costumes in his studio, and several of his Spanish portraits repeat the same hats, shirts and boleros. In fact, the exact same tassled trousers appear in the painting hung across the room:

The Mademoiselle V of the title is 18-year-old Victorine Meurent, Manets favorite model and later a painter herself, though none of her own works survive. Shes the one picnicking in the nude in Manets masterpiece of the same year, Le Dejeuner sur lHerbe.

Three years later, in 1865, she appears in Olympia,

where she play-acts the goddess of love as a common prostitute.

In Mademoiselle V, Victorine appears fully clothed, but she is essentially lampooning a traditional portrait, in which the sitters interior life is revealed. Her chalky red-heads skin, big black eyes and poker-faced expression

are both particular and unyielding. They grant no insight into a true self, but seem only to affirm that no amount of close-looking will unlock her secrets.

And this is the genius of Manet, an accomplishment so staggering I still struggle to reconcile it: he saw that dressing up a woman like a bullfighter and flattening out the picture of her were part of the same project.

Both illusions  the illusion of three dimensions and the illusion of truly authentic persons  get scrapped at once.

Welcome to the modern world, harsh but exhilarating, where a bullfighter is really just a model, and that model is really just paint.

Is that the studio floor?

Or is it the corrida?

Or is it just color on a piece of fabric?
Just leave me on the A train, said my father. Itll take at least three days for somebody to realize Im not just some old guy asleep in a corner seat.

Some folks delight in choreographing the future ceremonies marking their deaths the way a director of community theater might enjoy choreographing his or her version of Mamma Mia! They create multiple invitation lists and play lists with equal enthusiasm. (I insist that both Bette and Bettina attend; I dont care if they hate each other. And I want Send in the Clowns to be played every 20 minutes on a loop.) They get a kick out of imagining how memories will be shared and how both tears and laughter will sustain the mourners.

My father was, to put it mildly, not one of those people. He hated funerals, loathed what he regarded at the theatrics of enforced mourning, and thought cemeteries were a waste of good real estate. Despite his protestations, my brother and I did not leave my father on the A train nor on any other branch of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

My brother forced my dad to make a decision about where he wanted his ashes placed and what, if anything, he wanted us to do. So we played Tony Bennetts version of The Best Is Yet To Come and afterward we ate lasagna that Id cooked the day before.

Im like my father; Im not a funeral person. Im a wedding person, a birthday person and an anniversary party person. But some of my friends are funeral aficionados: Some people seem to major in funerals the way you might major in say, political science, showing up regularly, keeping an eye out for notices and taking notes. These folks would test well on the final final, if you know what I mean.

Thats not me. I dont want a funeral or a memorial service. When I told my husband this, his first response was to make sure I announced my wish to everyone Ive ever met. Ill get blamed for not giving you a big party or maybe a barbecue, and thatll be the last thing I need, Michael said. He might be right, so heres my declaration: If were going to celebrate life, lets do it now. I dont want to wait until after I cant be there for the pictures.

Of course, I come from families just poor enough to have photographs of the ancient dead: Both the Italian side and the Quebecois side took black-and-white photos of the prettily deceased, peaceful in their best clothes, surrounded by satin (or a facsimile), with the tops of the coffins propped open like the hoods of cars. You had to make sure everybody could get a good last look at what was inside.

On the Italian side, there was always drama. Uncles as well as aunts flung themselves onto the coffins and, a few hours later, attempted to fling themselves into open graves crying, Take me with you! They meant what they said. It was ritualistic but not contrived. Those funerals served a purpose.

But times have changes. Funerals are now like baby showers: Nobody really wants to go, and it would be far kinder for everyone involved simply to send money. Seriously, just tell us how much we have to pay not to have to show up. Whats the cost of turning down an invitation? I have my checkbook right here.

Even before there were registries for baby showers, werent there, essentially, gift registries for death? Isnt the whole in lieu of flowers business a way to direct money where the family wants it rather than where the giver wants to give? In lieu of flowers has the same premise as a registry at Bed, Bath & Beyond, only without the bed and bath parts. Youre basically directed to provide a serving platter to The Beyond.

I sincerely hope that, in the afterlife, hors doeuvres will be plentiful and served on that platter. But I also hope we will honor those we love while we  and they  are alive and kicking.

Dont wait for better time or the next A train before you say what needs saying; you never know whats on the schedule.
Pragmatic Play Joins Forces with Vera & John Casino to Go Live in Denmark

Published August 14, 2017 by Ivan P

The deal with Vera & John Casino and the approval by the gaming regulator will allow Pragmatic Play to make their games readily available to Danish players.

Pragmatic Play, a company that's been quickly climbing the ranks in the world of casino game suppliers, even earning the Software Rising Star award at the EGR B2B Awards, will be entering the Danish market thanks to the latest deal with popular Vera & John Casino. After two companies had arranged all the details, the Danish gaming regulator gave the final approval, clearing the path for Pragmatic Play to make their games available to players from Denmark.

Long & Successful Cooperation

Vera & John and Pragmatic Play have been partners for some time now, with the casino making Pragmatic games available to their players from other jurisdictions. The latest deal is an extension of this partnership, allowing the supplier to enter yet another regulated market and Vera & John to expand its portfolio of games available to Danish players.

Vera & John Head of Gaming Victor Olinger made it clear he had no doubts that new titles will be equally well received in Denmark as they have been in other jurisdictions where the casino operates. As for Pragmatic Play, the company is delighted they were able to meet harsh criteria imposed by the Danish regulator and they hope the partnership with Vera & John will set an example for other operators in the country to follow.

Imaginative & Exciting Titles

Pragmatic Play has now added the Danish license to the long list of supplier licenses they already have, including the ones for the UK, Romania, and Italy. Thanks to high-quality gaming titles, the company has been making a constant progress, penetrating an impressive number of regulated markets across Europe.

Their titles, which will now become available at Vera & John as well, include games such as 7 Monkeys, Hot Safari, 8 Dragons, Queen of Gold, and Jurassic Giant. Featuring high-quality graphics and exciting in-game features, Pragmatic Play games are developed in Flash and HTML5, making them readily available for all mobile and desktop platforms.


antifa

(Image by gregorfischer.photography) Details DMCA



The antifa and alt-left labels are bogus frames based on the same approach corporate media use to create false dichotomies on issues where there really are not two sides.

One strategy that dishonest media, the people they enable and trolls use is to create false equivalencies.

There's an actual alt-right, comprised of white supremacists, neo-nazis and a collection of haters and bigots. They are real. The groups have names and websites.

So, right wingers and neoliberal Democrats have created their false equivalency frame, attacking the 90% of Americans who oppose fascism, calling them Antifa. I am not saying that Antifa does not exist. It does exist in Europe. But I don't believe there is a real Antifa presence in the USA.

If there are violent anti-police or anti-alt-right actors, I believe they come from the same places as the people who became violent at Occupy Wall Street locales-- Black Bloc anarchists and undercover operatives/ agents provocateur working for police or other DHS operations or, right wingers operating as agents provocateur, like Patrick Howley. OEN writer Charlie Grapski described in his article, Anatomy of a Deception: How a Conservative Magazine Attempted to Discredit the Occupy Movement, how Howley attempted to discredit Occupy protesters by precipitating a response from the guards at the National Air and Space Museum.

The centrist Dems who gave the world Donald Trump by voting for Hillary in the Democratic primary, who continue to hate and vilify Bernie Sanders supporters, rather than smelling the coffee and seeing that the future of the Democratic party is progressive, have created a disparaging label, the "alt-left." Pretty soon they'll be creating antisla for anti-slavery, antipol for anti-pollution and who knows what else. These establishment people are a part of the problem.

The 2016 election made it clear that the Democrats have a huge problem. The question is who. Are the people, mostly young people, who participated in a massive populist uprising supporting Bernie Sanders the problem? Or are the primary voters who were deluded to believe that Hillary Clinton was a highly qualified candidate, without seeing that she had huge problems with being untrusted and disliked, the problem?

The reality is, progressives and their media are under a massive assault, both from the far right and the near right, which includes establishment Democrats and their limp liberal supporters. If you are still calling yourself a liberal, when you have progressive values, wake up. Read Chris Hedges book, Death of the Liberal Class. Understand that we have Donald Trump because liberals accepted Hillary's can't-do-ism and her history of incompetence and failure.

Some will say to let go of what happened in 2016. But the truth is, many centrist Democrats and their supporters are ratcheting up their attacks on progressives, on Sanders supporters, on Medicare for all supporters. We need to fight back and make it clear that these faux progressives are frauds and shills for the system that is killing the middle class.

So, when people attack progressives with "alt-left" framing, don't take it. Call them on their bullsh*t. When people, almost entirely right wingers, accuse protesters of being antifa, as though that's a bad thing, be aware of what they are doing. And don't let them frame who you are what progressives do as anything other that healthy exercise of Democratic rights.

There's a movement to recruit Bernie Sanders or someone else to run as a third party candidate, since it is becoming clear the Democrats are gearing up to shove neoliberal corporatist Kamala Harris down America's throat-- another fake progressive. Expect Harris's backers, i.e., establishment Democrats, to ramp up their attacks on progressives and our values and issues using the antifa and alt-left labels and, since the media is licking them up, more of the same.
From Paul Craig Roberts Website



Image created from image crediting

(Image by Paul Craig Roberts) Details DMCA



UPDATE:

Readers at home and abroad have brought to my attention that Thomas Goodrich is not the only historian to report crimes committed against the German people and German POWs after Germany had surrendered. For some of the sources brought to my attention, see: here, here, here, here and here

Wartime propaganda is not concerned with truth. It is concerned with painting the enemy in the worst possible terms. The victors write the histories, and after enduring a war victor populations don't want to read that their side's behavior was no different, and possibly worse, than the cruel and inhuman behavior of the vanquished.

Obviously, this puts limits on what historians can write if they want readers and university careers. It is only many years later that truth can begin to make its appearance.

Some readers reacted to my review of David Irving's book about the Nuremberg show trial of Germans during 1945-46 with the comment that Irving understates allied criminality. Several sent me links to a documentary made recently by Americans, based on midwestern American Thomas Goodrich's history, Hellstorm: The Death of Nazi Germany, 1944-47.

There are 147 customer reviews of the book on amazon.com and 75% of the reviews are five-star. Evidently, not even Zionist trolls were able to bury the book.

Not much of this documentary has to be true in order to reach the conclusion that what the Americans, British, and above all the Soviets did to Germans during the war and in the war's final days and, worse, after the war, dwarfs in its inhumanity and illegality everything the Nazis did. More Germans died during the two years after the war than died in fighting the Americans and British during the war. Mass exterminations of Germans and systematic rape of German females as young as eight years old were going on during the Nuremberg trials. What happened to Germans fit the program for the genocide of Germany advocated by the Jewish US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau.

Nazi Germany is the most demonized entity in modern history, and the demonization continues. To whom did the killer b*tch compare the Russian President in order to demonize him but to Hitler. Seventy-two years after the end of WW 2, Hollywood still produces movies that vilify Germany. Consequently, few historians have dared to write about what was done to Germans. But Thomas Goodrich did, and Kyle Hunt made a documentary from the book. Judging from the screen credits, many Americans were involved in producing the documentary. Little doubt but they have all been labeled "white supremacists." (White supremacist is a curious term. Obama is partly black, but he declared the white supremacy doctrine of the neoconservatives when he said that Americans were the exceptional people and America was the indispensable country.")

I watched it, and I can tell you that you will need to be emotionally and mentally strong to watch this documentary, not only because it will affront your belief in the goodness of your country but also because it forces you to confront unspeakable evil that cannot be blamed on Nazis.

Of course, the book and the documentary can be a hoax. The problem we face today is that although we know that the print and TV media and NPR are propaganda organs, so can be documentaries and information available on the Internet. I know a lot, but WW 2 was not a subject I studied closely even though I grew up in its aftermath. What do people born decades later know of it? Nothing but what they saw in movies in which Nazis are the ultimate evil.

In my lifetime I have watched truth diminish. By and large, scientists serve the government's military programs and cannot speak out when the government lies without ending their careers. Economists serve Wall Street, the big banks, and the global corporations. Psychologists and anthropologists help Washington subdue its victim populations. Journalism serves the government's lies. Medical doctors prescribe according to the pharmaceutical companies. Wherever you look, you see professionalism serving a material interest.

The question I ask myself is what material interest does the book and documentary serve? Nazi Germany has been dead and buried for 72 years. Indeed, Germany has not been an independent country for 72 years and has no prospects of becoming one. Marine Le Pen is branded right-wing because she is for French sovereignty, but as some Europeans have said, the CIA would assassinate her before they would allow her to become president of France. Indeed, the former deputy director of the FBI recently said that the CIA was going to assassinate President Trump.

Making peace with Russia is a massive threat to the military/security complex's vast budget and power, and they are not going to allow it. Neither are they going to allow Marine Le Pen and the French voters to break up NATO and the EU in the name of French sovereignty, thereby threatening Washington's power over Europe.

What powerful interest is served by Goodrich's book and Hunt's documentary?

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Bringing Rob Kall in as a consultant on making my business and its website more bottom-up was incredibly valuable. Rob's out-of-the-box member registration system suggestions led to a multi-leveled engagement process designed to maximally connect clients with the company, which took the company and the website to the next level. Rob's coaching in bottom-up thinking played a strong role in enabling me to sell my company for over a million dollars."



Don Brown, Founder, the International Wireless Industry Consortium (IWPC)
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It has been a week of barking out military options, a week of 'everything is on the table', a week of threats no longer veiled. Not an example of 'cool as a cucumber', rather a red face turning to purple with the intensity of the phrasing.



What brought on this apoplexy, the 'fire and fury' to be unleashed not just at North Korea, up to its usual blustering, but also on poor Venezuela. Why Venezuela? Because it held an election to find some kind of solution to a recalcitrant right-wing opposition (unable to come to terms with election losses), which has mounted an unceasing campaign of disruption causing economic havoc.



What of North Korea? They claim to be readying plans to attack Guam. Doesn't take much readying to send a missile, which will be just the excuse the U.S. needs to flatten Pyongyang. Or are they readying plans to send an armada? Really? Of course all the warmongering has given Mr. Trump a boost in his poll ratings with his supporters viewing him more favorably again. And, it's a welcome distraction from the Russia story.



The good news is that a back channel to the North Koreans is back in operation. They had closed it after sanctions by the Obama administration. At the UN, Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea, has been doing the groundwork with North Korea's Park Song Il, a senior diplomat with the country's UN mission. A reasonable foundation can form the basis for future serious discussions.

If Mr. Yun is offering carrots, then it would make sense for Mr. Trump to wield a stick, and it would be perfectly natural for him to brandish the biggest imaginable.



Economic carrots and a military stick brought the North Koreans to heel during the Clinton administration when it sought closure of a plutonium plant. Estimates vary but it's not impossible for it to have produced enough fissile material for fifty bombs, were it still in operation.



At the time, the U.S. wielded the stick and South Korea offered the economic carrot. President Kim Dae Jung announced his 'sunshine policy' leading to a meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Il. Within a few years the Kaesong Industrial Region was established. South Korean companies installed factories taking advantage of cheaper North Korean labor, and inter-country trade grew to make South Korea the North's biggest trading partner.

So matters stood despite President George W. Bush and his inclusion of North Korea in the notorious Axis of Evil in 2002. In 2007, Presidents Roh Moo Hyun and Kim Jong Il signed a peace declaration with the intent of following up with an eventual formal peace treaty.

Sadly for peace, a religious-conservative wind rose in the form of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and blew the plans away. He abandoned the policy in early 2010. The North responded quickly, sinking a South Korean navy ship the Cheonan with a torpedo. The feud continued, and we now have a nuclear missile-armed North Korea.

If there is a silver lining, it is the new South Korean President Moon Jae In, a protege of Roh Moo Hyun. President Moon is a proponent of the 'sunshine policy' and will be happy to supply the necessary economic carrots.
See original here

By teacherken

It is a signed editorial. Signed by the editorial board. Meaning all of the board.

It begins as bluntly as any Times editorial I can remember:

"Let's discard the fiction that President Trump wasn't placating white supremacists by responding so weakly to the neo-Nazi violence that killed Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old counter demonstrator in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. The neo-Nazis heard his message loud and clear."

They then quote the response in The Daily Stormer to Trump's weak response to what happened. They quote it. I will not.

They make sure we know that Trump's advisers wanted him to make a more forceful statement, and that he did. They set the stage for their final pronouncements with this paragraph:

"Mr. Trump is alone in modern presidential history in his willingness to summon demons of bigotry and intolerance in service to himself. He began his political career on a lie about President Barack Obama's citizenship and has failed to firmly condemn the words and deeds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan leaders and other bigots who rallied behind him. A number of these people, including David Duke, the former Klan imperial wizard, and Richard Spencer, self-styled theorist of the alt-right, were part of the amen chorus of bigots in Charlottesville."

There is more to the editorial, including the multiple weak statements emanating from the White House. The editorial then provides a contrast from another Republican voice, and then concludes.

Here are the final two paragraphs:

"Meanwhile a handful of congressional Republicans have condemned the hate on display in Charlottesville, and in our politics. Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said of white supremacists, 'We don't want them in our base, they shouldn't be in a base, we shouldn't call them part of a base.' "But Mr. Trump does, and in his desperation to rescue his failing presidency, he again clung to them."

his failing presidency -- his desperation

Yeah, I know that Trump probably does not care what the "failing New York Times has to say about him, but a lot of people will."
1. Let's start with the obvious. Charlottesville, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, are actually two completely different places in the world. The flood of concern and good wishes for those of us here in Charlottesville is wonderful and much appreciated. That people can watch TV news about Charlottesville, remember that I live in Charlottesville, and send me their kind greetings addressed to the people of Charlotte is an indication of how common the confusion is. It's not badly taken; I have nothing against Charlotte. It's just a different place, seventeen times the size. Charlottesville is a small town with the University of Virginia, a pedestrian downtown street, and very few monuments. The three located right downtown are for Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the Confederacy. Neither Lee nor Jackson had anything to do with Charlottesville, and their statues were put up in whites-only parks in the 1920s.

2. The racists who have begun coming to Charlottesville to campaign for governor, garner attention, threaten violence, engage in violence, and commit murder are almost all from outside Charlottesville, and extremely unwelcome here. Charlottesville is a slightly left-of-center, Democratic Party area. Most people don't rally for good causes or against bad ones. Most people don't want the Lee statue taken down. (Or at least they didn't until it became a gathering point for neo-Confederates.) Most people want other memorials added to public space to diversify. And most people don't want white supremacists coming to town with their hatred and their violence.

3. Armed attacks are not covered by the First Amendment. I can and have argued at length for the strategic -- never mind legal -- need to respect odious free speech, and -- more importantly -- to respect and build bridges of understanding to the troubled people preaching hatred. But the human right to free speech is not found in a gun or a torch or a can of pepper spray any more than in corporate advertising. When we hold peace rallies in U.S. cities we are sometimes forbidden to bring posters on wooden poles. We have to use hollow cardboard tubes to hold up our signs, because -- you know -- advocates of nonviolence can be so violent. Yet racist, nationalist, white supremacist agitators are allowed to bring an arsenal with which to attack the general public and counter-demonstrators! Whatever that is, it is not free speech. I'd be willing to say it's closer to enabling terrorism. All media habits of "balance" and "even handedness" become lies when respect for rights, and blame for deaths and injuries, are based on the notion that premeditated violence and threats of violence and the carrying of weapons are not worth noticing.

4. Charlottesville's mayor voted against taking down the Lee statue, even if he now sounds on NBC News as if it had been his idea. Seen from a certain angle, that's progress. I want people to get on board with the idea of taking down all racist monuments and all war monuments, and this one is both. But it is a misconception to imagine that the decision to take down General Lee came from the top or that it came without extensive public input. It's true that City Council member Kristin Szakos publicly proposed the dominance of our public space by Confederate statues as a problem, and that City Council member Wes Bellamy pushed for that. But it was the national movement of Black Lives Matter, and local activism, that created the demand in the first place, as well as making Bellamy a member of City Council. The City held very lengthy and public and extensive hearings and gathering of facts and views. A Blue Ribbon Commission produced a report. And when the City Council voted to take down Lee (but leave up Jackson) it did so because City Council Member Bob Fenwick joined Szakos and Bellamy in a 3-2 vote, in which Mayor Mike Signer was on the losing and cowardly side. Because that is typical of him, we should be wary of fale perceptions of him as a leader, until he really becomes one. It's possible that had he shown the leadership of the Mayor of New Orleans in taking down statues and explaining why, we wouldn't be in this mess.

5. The military and militarized police are not here to protect you. An armed force on the streets and in the air of Charlottesville crashed a helicopter, tragically killing two people. But what else did it accomplish? It heightened tensions. It reduced turnout by those opposed to violence and racism. Its aggression toward anti-racists following the KKK rally in July contributed to fears of what it would do this time. The Charlottesville police do not need the mine-resistant vehicle they keep in their garage, because we do not have land mines. We do not need our skies filled -- including on the Friday before the rally -- with military helicopters. We do not need tanks on our streets for godsake. We need to disarm those seeking to exercise their First Amendment Rights, not arm someone else. The helicopter never should have crashed because it never should have flown. And every individual who assaulted and threatened people with pepper spray, torches, sticks, fists, or an automobile, should have been welcomed to nonviolently, without guns or other weaponry, speak their mind -- and to meet and converse with those opposing their views.

6. The events in Charlottesville, like foreign and domestic emoluments, additional forms of financial corruption, Muslim bans, illegal wars, threats to North Korea, voter intimidation, environmental destruction, and sexual assault, make up yet another article of impeachment for Donald Trump awaiting only the awakening of a House of Representatives. Incitement of acts of violence is a crime, and it is certainly a high-crime-and-misdemeanor, the Constitutional phrase refering to an abuse of power that may or may not be criminal. Donald Trump went out of his way to persuade racists that they were free to engage in their racism openly. Numerous racists, including some of those who have been active in Charlottesville, have openly communicated their understanding of that presidential permission. Those sitting silently by in this moment are condoning racism. So are those not advocating for impeachment and removal. Yes I am aware of the general horror of Mike Pence, but a country that impeached and removed presidents would be a very different country in which the next president would have to behave or face impeachment in turn. Fear of the next person will look ever weaker as grounds for allowing the current person to destroy things as he proceeds with his destruction. I'm further aware that the D.C. Democratic leadership makes Mayor Signer's cynicism look like child's play, and that Nancy Pelosi wants Trump around more than the Republicans do, so that the Democrats can "oppose" him. But I'm not asking you to believe he's going to be impeached without your doing anything. I'm asking you to compel his impeachment.

7. The answer to racist violence is not anti-racist violence or passivism, and the idea that those are the only two choices is ridiculous. Charlottesville's and the United States' resistance to racism would be far stronger with disciplined nonviolence. The behavior of a few anti-racists in July allowed the corporate media to depict the KKK as victims. There is nothing the alt-right crowd longs for more in this moment than some act of violence against them that would permit pundits to start trumpeting the need for liberals to be more tolerant of racists, and to proclaim that the real problem is those reckless radicals who want to tear down statues. We need nonviolent activism, and we need a thousand times more of it. We need to initiate the next rally in Charlottesville ourselves.

8. Tearing down statues is not opposing history. Charlottesville has three Confederate war statues, two (pro) genocide of the Native Americans statues, one World War I statue, one Vietnam War memorial, one statue of Thomas Jefferson (whose words and deeds, I'm sorry to say, agreed almost entirely with the latest racists), and one statue of Homer (poet of war). And that's it. We have no memorials, whether monumental statuary or otherwise, to a single educator, artist, musician, athlete, author, or activst, nothing for Native American history, slavery, civil rights, women's rights, or ANYTHING ELSE. Almost all of our history is missing. Putting up a giant statue for racism and war is not a step for history. Taking it down is not a blow to history. It could be a step forward, in fact. Even the renaming of Lee Park as Emancipation Park is educational. Creating a memorial to emancipation, and one to civil rights, and one to school integration, and one to peace would be more so.

9. The Lee statue is still there, not because racists rally around it, but because legislators glorify war. While neither side has any interest in opposing or even particularly in promoting war, and while the national and local media have gone through endless contortions to avoid mentioning it, the court case holding up the removal of Robert E. Lee and the horse he never rode in on is about war glorification. A state law that may or may not apply to this statue forbids taking down war memorials in Virginia. For fair and balanced free-speech advocates I should note that no similar law forbids taking down peace monuments. Also there really aren't any to take down if you wanted to. This is a symptom of a culture that has come to accept endless war and the militarization of local police, and to report on rallies of "white nationalists" without ever considering that there may be a problem with both of those words.

10. As I've written in recent months, many sympathizers with the racist cause are understandable. This is a quite different thing from being acceptable or praise worthy. To say that someone is understandable is to say that you can understand them. They're not monsters acting on inexplicable subhuman impulses any more than do the people they hate or the people against whom the United States wages wars typically behave that way. These racists live in one of the most unequal societies ever known, and they don't live at the top of it. They hear about endless efforts to alleviate injustice toward all sorts of wronged groups that don't include them. They notice the cultural acceptability in comedy shows and elsewhere of mocking white people. They seek a group identity. They seek others to blame. They seek others to place beneath themselves. And they hear hardly a peep out of Washington D.C. about creating universal rights and supports for everyone, as in Scandinavia. Instead they hear that hatred and violence and racism come with the Presidential seal of approval.
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald is right to question when the Foxconn jobs will actually come to Wisconsin.

I urge our representatives in Madison and others to carefully do their research on the many aspects of this project.

Were told it will create jobs once the project is complete, but what about jobs and other concerns during the construction of the Foxconn plant?

Will they use American construction companies and workers or possibly bring in foreign workers who have built Foxconn plants in other places? Theyll need mega-gallons of water. Where will they get the water from and will it be properly treated before discharge when environmental regulations are being waived? Where will the building materials come from? If they are eligible for lower utility bills, will this be reflected in our utility billing?

We are told there are jobs that cant be filled due to unskilled people. Also, there are employers looking to fill jobs, but workers cant pass the drug test. Work ethic is also a major problem. You need to show up on time and take interest in doing your best for the employer.

What will be the situation be 25 years from now when this project is to have recouped the money provided in tax credits?

Phyllis Branson, La Crosse
Patriotic Professionals Integrated Ghana (PPI Ghana) has reached out to the inmates of the Wa central prisons and has called on the prisons service to take steps to immediately decongest the prisons.



The patriotism advocacy group visited the Prisons as part of its nationwide campaign to reignite patriotism in Ghanaians.



The group organized health screening for the inmates and provided free medical drugs, free legal advice and counseling.



In an interview with Peacefmonline.com, the Public Affairs Director of PPI Ghana, Ibrahim Yussif Bangsua explained their visit was to preach patriotism to the inmates.



Ibrahim Yussif Bangsua lamented that the very nature of the prisons is enough to make the inmates unpatriotic when freed, he explained that the inhuman conditions of the prisons is a good condition for hardening the inmates against society. He therefore called on the prisons service of Ghana to critically look at overhauling the prisons.



The President of PPI Ghana, Eric Nartey Yeboah addressing the inmates shortly before the program started informed the inmates that the fact that they were in prison did not mean society had rejected them. In that regard he indicated PPI Ghana's resolve to support them all the time.



He advised the inmates to view the prisons as a reformation center and their service term must also be seen as a period of reflection, since that will help them to lead a better life. He called on them to make patriotism their focus when released.



On his part lawyer Ubaibu Sadique informed the inmates the preparedness of PPI Ghana to help any of them if they needed free legal advice. He admonished them to lead a good life while serving their prison terms and added that as prisoners even though their rights have been curtailed in many respects they still had some other rights.



PPI Ghana promised to provide ceiling fans in the prisons and also renovate their washrooms at an undisclosed amount.



PPI Ghana is a Patriotism advocacy NGO made up of professionals with the intension of instilling patriotisms through humanitarian activities and public advocacy.



So far the NGO has organised health screening in over 35 constituencies;they have also provided skill training to over 5000 women in deprived communities and provided them start up capital.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Family members of a Ghanaian migrant reportedly being held in a prison in Libya have appealed to the Government of Ghana to help him to return home.



Abdul Bashiru Ibrahim, a 35-year-old former resident of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, was said to have been accosted at a police barrier when he was traveling from Derna to Benghazi after close of work.



Shafaru Ibrahim, brother of the said detainee, told DAILY GUIDE, My brother managed to get a phone to call home from the prison that he had been detained in Benghazi and so we should help him out because he might be killed.



He appealed to the government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to help his brother return to Ghana safely.



Frank Asante Adjei, a friend of Abdul Bashiru Ibrahim who was among those recently repatriated from Libya, recounted that those repatriated were fortunate as there are a lot more people in various private prisons in that country.



According to him, the arrested Ghanaians, mostly from the ages of 20 to 45 years, who left the country in search of greener pastures, are being held for no specific crimes.



They hate blacks so much, so they treat us like animals. I can tell you that there are many Ghanaians in Libyan prisons and the condition in the prisons is very terrible. I have been a victim and I saw more than 100 Ghanaians in Kufra Maximum Prisons where I was held. Some of them are killed by diseases, hunger and torture every day, he stated.



The victim stressed further, There is no good water to drink in the prison, and we are served with small loaf of bread to survive on daily.



In the last few months, over 80 Ghanaians deported from Libya recounted the hostilities some of the citizens and officials of their host country mete out to blacks.

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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Turn 220 Into a Share of 100,000 Every Week in the DTD200

August 14, 2017 Matthew Pitt Editor

Dusk Till Dawn gives poker tournament players the opportunity to turn 220 into a share of a guaranteed 100,000 every week via its DTD200 tournament.

Run in conjunction with partypoker, the DTD200 tournament is played both online and in the live arena, a format that has proven to be popular with players as it allows them to grind Day 1s online from the comfort of their homes before making the journey to the Nottingham-based club to complete the event in a traditional manner.

Every night, Sunday through to Thursday, at 9:00 p.m. BST, there is a DTD200 Online Day 1 at partypoker. These Online Day 1s cost $275 to buy into, see players take to the virtual felt with 100,000 chips and play a total of 12 x 15-minute levels. Anyone who has chips in front of them at the end of the 12th level takes this stack through with them to the Live Day 2 at Dusk Till Dawn.

Players can play as many online or live Day 1s as they wish, but it is only possible to take their largest stack through with them to Day 2, all other stacks are forfeited. In a welcomed twist, players who progress to Day 2 from an online Day 1 can choose to put their stack in play in any Day 2 over the next three weeks.

Those players who prefer to play live poker have a choice of three starting flights. These cost 220 to buy into, award 100,000 starting chips and play lasts the same 12 levels, except the clock is set to 30-minutes to account for the slower speed of the live game.

DTD200 Schedule

Day Time (BST) Tournament Chips Clock Buy-in Sunday-Thursday 9 p.m. DTD 200 Online Day 1a-1e 100K 15-mins $275 Friday 7 p.m. DTD 200 Live Day 1a 100K 30-mins 220 Saturday 2 p.m. DTD 200 Live Day 1b 100K 30-mins 220 2 p.m. DTD 200 Live Satellite 20 Seats Gtd 50K 15-mins 35 7 p.m. DTD 200 Live Day 1c 100K 30-mins 220 Sunday 12 p.m. DTD 200 Live Day 2 (Final Day)

The final 10 players in each DTD200 tournament will win a 1,100 DTD1000 seat in addition to their cash prizes. The DTD1000 is the bigger brother of the DTD200 and boasts of a 500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

There are satellites and feeders running every day at partypoker that eventually award 220 seats to the 100,000 guaranteed DTD200. These satellites start as low as $2.20, so everyone of all bankrolls can try and win their way into a DTD200 event.

Players from the United Kingdom and Ireland are urged to log into their partypoker account every day to see if they have been randomly selected for the Click and Collect promotion. If so, players can click a virtual scratch card where DTD200 tickets ranging from $2.20 up to a 220 seat are awarded.

If you dont already have a partypoker account, download partypoker via PokerNews, enter the bonus code PNCOM when making your first deposit and partypoker will match your initial deposit 100 percent up to $500.
World Series of Poker International Circuit Heads to Rotterdam

August 14, 2017 Matthew Pitt Editor

The Holland Casino Rotterdam is to host a World Series of Poker International Circuit event later this month, giving players from the Netherlands and around Europe a chance to win coveted WSOP rings.

The WSOP International Circuit Series takes place at 14 locations across the globe and now the recently renovated Holland Casino Rotterdam is being added to the list. Running from Aug. 25 through to Sep. 2, the casino will host 12 ring events with several different buy-in and poker variants.

Although all of the events are sure to get poker players excited, much of the attention is focused on the 1,650 Main Event and the 3,500 High Roller tournament, both of which are to be covered by the industry-leading PokerNews Live Reporting team.

WSOP International Circuit Series Rotterdam Schedule

Date Time (CET) Tournament Buy-in Mon 14 Aug 8:00 p.m. WSOP Main Event Satellite 1,100 Wed 16 Aug 8:00 p.m. WSOP Progressive Super KO Satellite 60 Thu 17 Aug 8:00 p.m. WSOP Main Event Satellite 110 Mon 21 Aug 8:00 p.m. WSOP Progressive Super KO Satellite 60 8:00 p.m. WSOP Main Event Satellite 110 Wed 23 Aug 8:00 p.m. WSOP 6-Max Satellite 110 Thu 24 Aug 7:00 p.m. WSOP Main Event Super Satellite 110 Fri 25 Aug 2:00 p.m. #1 WSOP NLH Starter Event Freezeout Day 1 440 7:00 p.m. #2 WSOP NLH Turbo Freezeout 330 Sat 26 Aug 2:00 p.m. #3 WSOP NLH 6-Max Re-Entry Day 1 1,100 4:00 p.m. #1 WSOP NLH Starter Event Final Day 440 Sun 27 Aug 2:00 p.m. #4 WSOP NLH PSKO Re-Entry Day 1 440 4:00 p.m. #3 WSOP NLH 6-Max Final Day 1,100 8:00 p.m. #5 WSOP NLH Satellite High Roller 220 Mon 28 Aug 2:00 p.m. #7 WSOP NLH Deepstack Single Re-Entry Day 1 550 3:00 p.m. #4 WSOP NLH PSKO Final Day 440 4:00 p.m. #6 WSOP NLH High Roller Re-Entry Day 1 3,500 Tue 29 Aug 2:00 p.m. #8 WSOP NLH Main Event Re-Entry Day 1a 1,650 3:00 p.m. #7 WSOP NLH Deepstack Final 550 4:00 p.m. #6 WSOP NLH High Roller Final Day 3,500 Wed 30 Aug 2:00 p.m. #8 WSOP NLH Main Event Single Re-Entry Day 1b 1,650 6:00 p.m. #9 WSOP PLO 8-Max Single Re-Entry 770 Thu 31 Aug 2:00 p.m. #8 WSOP NLH Main Event Day 2 1,650 Fri 1 Sep 2:00 p.m. #8 WSOP Main Event Day 3 1,650 2:00 p.m. #11 WSOP NLH PSKO 8-Max Freezeout 880 8:00 p.m. #12 WSOP NLH Hyper Turbo 550 Sat 2 Sep 2:00 p.m. #8 WSOP Main Event Final Day 1,650 2:00 p.m. #13 WSOP NLH Turbo Freeze out 330 4:00 p.m. #11 WSOP NLH PSKO 8-Max Freezeout Final 880

Erwin van Lambaart, the CEO of Holland Casino, said about the upcoming WSOP festival: We are proud of the collaboration between Holland Casino and the largest poker brand in the world. The WSOP is a wonderful addition to our already broad range of poker, and it has national and international allure.

The Director of Events for WSOP, Gregory Chochon, was equally as excited as van Lambaart, saying: As a European, I know Holland Casino to be a party that is capable of organising large and prestigious poker events, such as the historic Master Classics of Poker.We are very proud that the WSOP can work together with such an iconic casino chain and we are looking forward to seeing more Dutch players take part in the WSOP in Vegas.
The 2017 Cash Game Festival Bulgaria at Platinum Casino was a huge success both on and off the poker tables. Players came from around Europe for five days of nonstop cash game poker action from Aug. 9-13.

As has been the case in previous festivals, each day during the festival, Brandon Allen hosted two televised feature tables. A variety of co-hosts were in and out of the booth. The only time Allen wasn't in the booth was when he was on the feature table himself. Unlike Cash Game Festival Malta in June when he appeared on the feature table and ran up a huge profit, he was unable to repeat his success and eventually lost his stack on after all-in preflop betting and left the table when his ace-jack was unable to hold against ace-four.

Cash Game Festival Co-Founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk was the star of the show on the poker tables this festival. He arrived a day late in a Slowball car from Finland to Bulgaria with a few other people. Franke is also the founder of Slowball, which is an art on wheels festival. Old cars are purchased and repaired before artists transform the cars into pieces of art. Then for a few days, the cars are traveled around. During this festival, Slowballers started in Tallinn, Estonia before traveling through Sweden and Finland.

On Day 4, Franke was the big winner on one of the televised feature tables after notching a profit of around 700. While this wasn't the biggest win on a feature table during a feature table, which honor belongs to Bulgarian Miroslav Georgiev, who won over 2,500 on Day 1, mostly from the pockets of well-known Bulgarian poker pro Fahredin "FeriBo" Mustafov.

Franke's success continued later in the day. Betsafe Ambassador Monika "HeyMonia" Zukovicz and Franke were friendly arguing about who was the better poker player and agreed to a heads-up prop bet. If HeyMonia won the prop bet, Franke would have had to work as a supermarket cashier for a month in Tallinn. If he got fired, he would have had to transfer 7.48 a day as a manual bank transfer.

HeyMonia's punishment if she lost was that she had to take the Slowball car that was already in Sunny Beach to Faro, Portugal to pick up an extra spicy chicken piri piri and then drive all the way to Tallinn, Estonia to deliver it to Franke. The entire journey is approximately 8,500 kilometers. In a normal car driving straight through, it would take over three days to complete the journey. In a Slowball car and frequent stops, it will likely take a couple of weeks.

While HeyMonia agreed to play in three different best of three matches, Franke was able to have a team of players. He chose to play last in case there was a rubber match to be played.

On Day 4, HeyMonia was battling it out against Pawel Wakuluk and was broadcasted live on PokerNews' Facebook page. Both players have known each other for awhile and have together co-hosted the Polish EPT stream for PokerStars.

The first match was a nail-biter with Wakuluk winning. HeyMonia was less than thrilled about losing but seemed to be in better spirits after she won the second match. She was able to win the second match quickly and looked poised to take the third as well after an early chip lead. She then was able to get it in with ace-king against ace-queen. However, her hand was unable to hold giving her opponent the lead and he eventually won the match.

After that the VIP party began and players agreed to suspend play until Day 5 of the festival. The next opponent for HeyMonia was Cash Game Festival project manager Andro Loos. HeyMonia was able to take the first match, which was also broadcasted live on PokerNews' Facebook page.

Franke, who was not in the casino for the first match showed up and it seemed to give Loos some fresh energy. Loos took the second match and eventually the third one was well when his ace-king held against HeyMonia's ace-jack.

Shortly after the match was over, Franke claimed to PokerNews, "I was never nervous."

He also handed the keys to the Slowball car over to HeyMonia who will begin her journey shortly.

In addition to the amazing poker and the epic prop bet, players enjoyed many activities away from the poker tables. The weather was perfect with no clouds in the sky the entire five days. With the casino located right on the beach, this left no shortage of activities for players. This doesn't mean the casino was empty as there was almost always 10-13 cash game tables running.

Players with the hospitality package also were able to enjoy group activities including welcome drinks, wine tasting, a go kart competition, a group dinner, VIP party where Miss Sunny Beach was busy being crowned, a guided tour and snorkeling.

This concludes the PokerNews coverage of the 2017 Cash Game Festival Bulgaria. Next up is the return to East London, with the 2017 Cash Game Festival London taking place at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City from Sept. 20-24. Head to the Cash Game Festival website for more information about the festival and to register for the TV and side tables.
His presence was the first felt in public since news of his divorce.

The internet has been mourning since Chris Pratt and Anna Farris announced their divorce on August 7th. Long celebrated as Hollywood's happiest and sweetest couple, it came as a total shock that the two have decided to call it quits after eight years of marriage.





Though it was rather shocking, divorce rates in Hollywood aren't exactly low. There are a ton of factors and complications that come into play in Hollywood relationships. The traveling, the long hours on set, the steamy co-stars, the differences in career trajectories, and more. Of course nothing is impossible, but as Anna and Chris, "we still love each other and will always cherish our time together." Sometimes that's all we get with the people we love, moments.

Anna Farris and Chris Pratt first met on the set of Take Me Home Tonight in 2007. The two were on screen love interests and coincidentally fell for each other though Farris was still with her ex-husband. Pratt didn't make a move until Farris' divorce was made official that April, but their love story unfolded quickly after. Since then, their careers have flourished and they have had an adorable son, Jack, who is now four. Fans speculated that something was going on between Chris and Passengers co-star Jennifer Lawrence, but those rumors were quickly silenced by all parties and are just proof that we have a ways to go in placing certain assumptions on women in Hollywood.

Vanity Fair

Pratt made his first appearance since announcing their divorce this past Sunday, first coming from church with his son Jack and later at the Teen Choice Awards where he was celebrated with receiving the Teen Choice Award for Sci-Fi Actor in Guardians of The Galaxy 2 at The Galen Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Pratt and Guardians of The Galaxy co-star Zoe Saldana presented a Teen Choice Awards and later in the evening he received his. Pratt was dressed casually (pictured above) and was noticeably not wearing his wedding ring when he accepted his award. It was reported that Pratt attended the premiere of Ingrid Goes West for Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza two weeks before announcing his divorce and was not wearing his wedding ring then and seemed to be in great spirits throughout the event.





LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 13: Chris Pratt accepts Teen Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor for 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Pratt's acceptance speech was short and sweet and humor-filled of course, in typical Chris Pratt fashion. The speech started with Pratt joking about how he had to tell a lot of lies to get into Hollywood and ended promptly with him thanking his higher power. He said, "I would not be here with the ease and grace I have in my heart without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Check out his full speech here.

We will definitely miss Chris Pratt and Anna Farris gracing the red carpet with their constant cuteness, but we will always love them for what incredible artists they are individually and what great parents they are to their sweet son Jack who according to Vanity Fair has taken an interest in acting and theatre like his parents.

Follow Chris Pratt on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
As the threat of North Korean missile attacks toward Guam loomed closer toward the stated Aug. 15 date, Gov. Eddie Calvo emphasized Guam's preparedness to handle natural disasters.

The governor spent much of yesterday's media briefing touting Guam's track record of preparedness for a catastrophe.

He repeatedly mentioned that most homes in Guam are built with steel-reinforced concrete and that islanders have for years gone through the motions of disaster preparedness because of typhoons.

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"Because Guam has always had typhoons, because of 9/11, because of the (North Korean missile) threat in 2013, there's been more of a honing those skill sets in those agencies and those processes to ensure that we are all ... on the same page, we all understand where we're at, and we're all able to do our jobs to the best of our abilities in terms of keeping the safety of the people of Guam," the governor said, adding he is very confident that the information he received from federal agencies and military representatives is accurate.

Diplomacy first

Defense Secretary James Mattis told Pentagon reporters on Friday the U.S. military's "robust" defenses would be ready.

When a reporter asked, "Should folks in Guam be worried in response to North Korea's threat?"

Mattis' response was a brief "No."

He said diplomacy is still the first option, but the United States has military options to deal with North Korea.

"And I'm not going to go into the military options themselves, but of course there's a military option. We want to use diplomacy," Mattis said. "That's where we've been, that's where we are right now and that's where we hope to remain. But at the same time, our defenses ... are robust."

Missile interceptor 'ready to fire'

Guam Homeland Security Advisor George Charfauros said Guam's decision-makers are using the best information available to coordinate safety efforts and inform the community.

"Our economy is driven by two things: One, we sell paradise; two, we sell (Guam's) strategic location. So we have to manage that very carefully," Charfauros said.

"My job is to make sure the balance is maintained. I am very confident in our military partners, our federal partners, our law enforcement partners," Charfauros said. "The information that we gather and is provided to me and turned to the governor is very, very accurate."

Charfauros reiterated his confidence in the nation's missile defense system to respond in the 14 short minutes it would take for a North Korea-launched missile to reach Guam.

"With the various levels of defense between the U.S. military and our allies, the chances of any missile going through in my calculation is 0.000001 percent," Charfauros said. "We are safe."

He made reference to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile interceptor system that the Pentagon permanently stationed on Andersen Air Force Base in 2014, following previous threats from North Korea.

"The Guam THAAD anti-ballistic system based up north is ready to fire," Charfauros said.

On Friday, President Donald Trump responded strongly to North Korean threats to launch missiles toward, or in waters near, Guam on Aug. 15. Trump called Calvo on Saturday to reassure that the island will be protected, and to not worry.

The Office of Civil Defense/Guam Homeland Security issued fact sheets for residents last week with tips on how to prepare for an imminent missile threat. The agencies advised the public to stay indoors, have enough provisions for at least 72 hours, and not to look at flashes of light, among other readiness tips.

Prepared as any American community can be

"It's important to advise residents of all contingencies, but we don't want to panic anybody," the governor said yesterday.

Calvo expressed confidence in the military's capabilities and said any sort of attack from North Korea would be "catastrophic," not just for Guam and the Marianas, but for South Korea and Japan.

"We are prepared as any American community can be," Calvo said.

Cabinet officials said residents should always be ready for any sort of an emergency, but the focus this week is getting 30,000 of the island's schoolchildren into classes on Thursday.

"Kids are going to school, people are going to work. Our island is protected and safe and we have confidence in our soldiers and sailors," Lt. Gov. Ray Tenorio said.

Guam Visitors Bureau President Jon "Nate" Denight and the governor's liaison for education Vince Leon Guerrero also attended the briefing.

As the opening of the school year approaches, Leon Guerrero said parents have not raised high levels of concern with the Guam Department of Education regarding the safety of students.

He added the type of readiness Guam parents are carrying out is to help students prepare for the new school year.

"The focus on families preparing for this week is, 'Do I have everything that I need for my child to start on Thursday?'" Leon Guerrero said, citing GDOE.

GVB expects 1.6M arrivals at year's end

In the tourism industry, Denight said August is Guam's busiest month for tourist arrivals and there have been no major cancellations of trips from Asia and Eastern Russia.

Guam is on track to hit 1.6 million tourist arrivals for 2017, according to Denight.

During Trump's call to Calvo on Saturday, he talked to the governor about the publicity Guam's tourism and the governor would get from the global attention the island received because of the recent threats.

"Eddie, let me tell you, you have become extremely famous. All over the world they're talking about Guam, and they're talking about you and I can say this: Your tourism; you're gonna go up like tenfold," Trump said. Commenting about international news coverage of Guam over the last few days, Trump said, "It just looks like such a beautiful place. So beautiful."

The governor responded, "It's paradise."

"We get 95 percent (hotel room) occupancy, and after all this stuff calms down, we're gonna have 110 percent occupancy," Calvo said, laughing.

Trump replied, "You just went to 110 right there."
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Alchemist Mining Incorporated--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, BC (FSCWire) - Alchemist Mining Incorporated (CSE:AMS). has issued a press release with the following headline:Alchemist to Acquire 100% Stake in BC Genetics CorporationTo 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 Alchemist Mining Incorporated, 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/Alchemist Mining IncorporatedSource: Alchemist Mining Incorporated (CSE: AMS)Date: August 14, 2017Time: 8:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Alchemist Mining Incorporated 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.)
Aviation Biofuel Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 08:03:07

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Green Development is the first priority for large scale industries around the world, with the purpose of reducing their carbon footprint. The aviation industry contributes 2% in the emission of greenhouse gases, which may rise to 3% in coming future. Air transport, being a fast growing transport medium that carries around two billion people and employs 30 million people, plays a crucial role in accounting for carbon emission. It is thus important for the aviation industry to incline towards green development and switch to biofuels.The aviation biofuel market offers second generation sustainable biofuel as first generation biofuel could not meet cost expectations. The aviation biofuel market offers an alternative for current traditional jet fuel, and it is produced from natural feedstock and plant material, such as algae, jatropha and halophytes without acquiring agricultural land or fresh water resources. Thus, the aviation biofuel market is expected to dominate the aviation market throughout the forecast period, owing to its stability in operational cost and the reduced carbon emission advantage.Initiatives taken by the European Commission and by aviation industries involved in aviation biofuel production have introduced advancement in aviation biofuel in the European region, in order to achieve consumption of 2 million tonnes of biofuel in the European Civil Aviation sector over the forecast period. With the availability of sustainable raw materials at low prices, it is expected that the supply of aviation biofuel will be accessible across the Europe and on an international platform by 2030. Thus, aviation biofuel is projected to gain remarkable opportunities over the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3768 Aviation Biofuel Market: Drivers and RestraintsIn the aviation sector, traditional jet fuel is used, which is extracted from the kerosene fraction of crude oil under stringent regulations. Air transportation accounts for more than 10% in energy consumption on a global level. Among gaseous biofuels, electrification, and liquid biofuels, the most advanced substitute for the aviation sector is liquid biofuel, owing to its high specific energy content. With the objective of reduction in CO2 gas emission, the aviation biofuel market is expected to witness robust growth over the forecast period. The rising demand for bio jet fuel, with increasing international trade are expected to drive the aviation market globally, where hydrogenated esters and fatty acids (HEFA) is expected to become a promising alternative to supple ample amount of biofuel in the aviation biofuel market.European airlines, such as British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa, in co-ordination with Airbus and European aviation biofuel producers have initiated the endorsement of aviation biofuel in Europe. Also, the U.S. Federal government is evolving as an active promoter and buyer of aviation biofuel. An interagency biofuel partnership has been made between the Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy in order to avail biofuel for the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy.However, strict regulations to maintain standard specifications in producing aviation biofuel may affect growth of the aviation biofuel market. This challenge can be overcome with innovative technologies over the forecast period.Aviation Biofuel Market: SegmentationThe aviation biofuel market can be segmented based on the certified production technology:Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO)Fischer-Tropsch (FT)The aviation biofuel market can be segmented based on the feedstock:SugarcaneCassavaGrassesIndustrial and Municipal WasteJatrophaAlgaeSweet SorghumAviation Biofuel Market: Region-Wise OutlookBased on geography, the aviation biofuel market is expected to remain predominant in the U.S. over the forecast period. Being a fast growing region in the aviation market, the U.S. civil aviation sector is estimated to account for a significant value share in the aviation biofuel market over the forecast period. The strategic expansion of aviation biofuel producing industries, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are expected to increase the consumption of biofuel by 1 Bn gal/Yr of sustainable aviation biofuel by 2018. Followed by the U.S., European nations are expected to witness robust growth in the aviation biofuel market in the coming decade.Oslo city, Norway has become worlds first airport to deliver jet biofuel, offering it on-tap to all airlines. Such a trend, of swapping into bioport to supply aviation biofuel is anticipated to boost the aviation biofuel market in this region over the forecast period. Other countries, such as Australia are taking initiatives to study the novel concept of bioport. Developing nations in Asia-Pacific region, such as India and China are expected to gain significant opportunities in the supply chain for providing feedstock to produce aviation biofuel in near future. Also, the target of attaining 7.5 billion gallons per year of aviation biofuel promoted by China is expected to offer significant opportunities for the aviation biofuel market in the coming future.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3768 Aviation Biofuel Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the aviation biofuel market are listed below:Honeywell International Inc.Red Rock BiofuelsTargray Technology International Inc.Vega BiofuelsArgent EnergyGEVOKFS Biodiesel GmbH & Co. KGPetroSun, Inc.Shirke EnergyArcher Daniels Midland Company
More than 570 Reserve Citizen airmen are meeting at Fort McCoy to participate in Exercise Patriot Warrior 2017, which is ocurring in various phases from Aug. 7-24.

The Air Force Reserve Command-owned annual exercise, formally known as Exercise Global Medic, puts reservists in training scenarios to prepare them to operate in deployed environments similar to the ones Citizen Airmen overseas can face daily. Patriot Warrior also gives participants the opportunity to work side-by-side with more than 10,000 international and joint partners in standing up a fully-operational base with mobile hospitals that can accept injured patients flown in on aircraft.

Reservists from many career fields  including security forces, aeromedical evacuation, aviation, medical, maintenance, comptroller, civil engineering, explosive ordnance disposal and logistics  are honing their combat-readiness and agility.

Reservists must meet the same standards as their active-duty counterparts while demonstrating unmatched skillsets and innovative thinking.

The exercise features training on command and control operations, land navigation, air drops, aeromedical evacuation, patient care, small arms, EOD tactical operations, security patrols and cargo processing.

Mobility and aeromedical evacuation assets such as the C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III, C-130 Hercules, KC-135 Stratotanker and C-40 Clipper are deployed to bring a level of realism to the exercise and, for the first time, aircraft are assigned specifically to the exercise. The 403rd Wing from Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, and the 908th Airlift Wing from Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, are both providing a C-130.
Floor Grinding Machine Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 08:09:57

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Grinding is the way toward removing metal by the utilization of abrasives which are bonded to form a rotating wheel. At the point when the moving rough particles contact the workpiece, they act as tiny cutting tools. The floor grinding machine is utilized for roughing and finishing flat, cylindrical, and cone shaped surfaces; completing inward cylinders or bores; framing and sharpening tools, catching or expelling rough projections from castings and stampings; cleaning, polishing and buffing surfaces. Floor grinding is used for the removal of adhesives, imperfections, rain damage, coatings. Machines that granulate concrete floors are made to deal with a much more anxiety and will have more power to drive the unit as concrete has a substantially higher sliding friction than marble or granite which is likewise worked wet, along these lines with less friction. Some sorts of marble will spark when it is ground dry, making profound damage to the marble surface. Concrete grinding and polishing have recently become famous in industrial settings, because of the quantity of favorable circumstances and benefits that it brings. Floor grinding machine smoothens the down rough concrete surfaces to uncover a smooth and shiny surface. Essentially, an overwhelming obligation granulating machine is utilized on the surface of the concrete slab, to polish it and make it look significantly more attractive. The floor grinding machines are made in a simple and robust but yet stylish and functional design.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3850 Global Floor Grinding Machine: Market Dynamics:Mainly industrial purpose drives the global demand of floor grinding machine market. The floor looks attractive, increases the durability of the floor, environment-friendly and saving a lot of money are the factors that further leads to a rising in demand of floor grinding machine. Simple design, robust construction, single speed, high quality, functional and price competitive are the factors that also propel the growth of floor grinding machine market. Rising industry in Asia-Pacific regions leads to a growth of floor grinding machine market. Owing to the wide range of its application in industry fuel the demand for floor grinding machine market. Floor grinding machine act as an essential device to organizations dynamic over the value chain and to the new entrants by empowering them to underwrite the opportunities and create business procedures.Global Floor Grinding Machine: Segmentation:Based on applications, the global floor grinding machine market is segmented into:Grinding and PolishingConcreteMarblesLimestoneCement plateWood-parquet floor coatingsRemovalGreaseMachine OilPaintingsCleaningFloor coatingsRemoval of mudTreacle and other loose dirtBuffing and strippingBased on floor type, the global floor grinding machine market is segmented into:MarbleConcreteGraniteLimestoneOthersBased on end-use, the global floor grinding machine market is segmented into:IndustrialCommercialBased on the regions, the global floor grinding machine market is segmented into:North AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeJapanAsia-Pacific excluding JapanThe Middle East and AfricaGlobal Floor Grinding Machine: Regional Outlook:The global floor grinding machine market is segmented into seven geographic key regions includes North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Japan, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan and The Middle East and Africa. The developing economies such as Asia-Pacific region lead to a growth of floor grinding machine near future owing to the development of industries is followed by North America, Japan. The demand for global floor grinding machine is expected to rise in the near future.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3850 Global Floor Grinding Machine: Key Players:The few prominent key players of global floor grinding machine are:Husqvarna ABHTC GroupBlastracKlindexShanghai TuomeiXingyi PolishingScanmaskin Sverige ABSuperabrasiveLinaxTerrcoASL MachinesSubstrate TechnologyShanghai QingRoll GmbhBartell GlobalWeijie Environmental
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for GreenBank Capital Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE:GBC). has issued a press release with the following headline:GreenBank to Acquire 15% of Veterans Financial GroupTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on GreenBank Capital Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/GreenBank Capital Inc.Source: GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE: GBC, WKN: A1W8UJ, ISIN: CA3935762029)Date: August 14, 2017Time: 8:50 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of GreenBank Capital Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 16:47:01

Launching of KidzMondo Village, a Smaller Scale of KidzMondo City

Kidz Holding S.A.L.

Samer Kahil, Chief Financial and Investments Officer

Tel: +9611998866 Ext: 500

samer.k@kidzholding.com

Kidz Holding S.A.L. organized a press conference on May 10, 2017 at KidzMondo city, Beirut Waterfront to announce the launching of KidzMondo Village, a smaller scale of KidzMondo city, adapting the same edutainment concept, constitution, currency and targeting kids between the ages of 2 to 10.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201708140056

Ali Kazma, Chairman of Kidz Holding S.A.L. (Photo: AETOS Wire)

A number of members of the press attended the conference which was commemorated by a souvenir photo that included Mr. Ali Kazma, Chairman of Kidz Holding S.A.L. and the man behind the innovative KidzMondo concepts. Series of pictures and videos were displayed showcasing KidzMondo Village concept and design announcing the 5 first branches to open in Saudi Arabia in 2018.

Children between the ages of 2 to 10 years will take over the village management themselves in order for them to be introduced to the world of adults in all its aspects, including the different professions and the value of money, under conditions quite similar to those of our daily lives, all under the supervision of highly qualified educators. The city possesses its own private economy and currency, the "Kidlar, which is the only currency in circulation.

Ali Kazma, Chairman of Kidz Holding and Founder of KidzMondo Concepts, spoke about the importance of KidzMondo Village concept, framing it as part of a plan for future expansion around the globe. KidzMondo Village will be established in small cities with small volume of population enabling all communities to enjoy the KidzMondo concept. Mr. Kazma added: In cooperation with a team of experts, we have developed a comprehensive concept that seeks to prepare the next generation for the future. Now after the success of KidzMondo City concept and its expansion, we have designed KidzMondo Village to cater to smaller communities giving every child the chance to experience the edutainment concept. KidzMondo Village will contribute in enhancing the physical growth and mental development of children, as well as to cultivate their self-esteem and confidence."

*Source: AETOS Wire

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201708140056
Leadscrew Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 08:05:51

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616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531

Leadscrew is also known as power screw which used as a linkage in a machine to convert turning motion into linear motion. Leadscrew is mainly used to carry high power, and sometimes with a split nut which enables nut to disengage from the threads and move axially. Additionally, leadscrew is also utilized in a data storage systems that help in reducing tolerance stack up, part count and minimize overall product cost. To reduce friction between the nut and screw it is used as sliding instead of rolling, and have a large load carrying capabilities. Leadscrew is compact, simple to design, smooth, easy to maintain, easily modified nut designs, minimal parts, and have self-locking features. The growing popularity of smaller packaged applications mainly involves lower load capacity coupled with high precisions. Moreover, miniaturization of technology in various markets has created a diverse opportunity for leadscrew to power applications namely photonics, insulin pumps, auto-focusing optics, automotive equipment, and more.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3851 Leadscrew Market:Drivers and RestraintsExpanding trend of miniaturization, innovative product development with nanotechnology, developing the need for automated systems, rising demand for customized design, advanced taper-lock technology, product precision, and an alternative to driving belts owing to its low production cost are the primary factor driving the growth of global leadscrew market. Moreover, Advanced features such as high efficiency, adaptability, precision, increase torque density, reduce power consumption, and enhance functioning battery life are some of the prominent factors fueling the growth of leadscrew market over the forecast period. However, leadscrew has a high friction on the threads, and cannot be used in continuous electricity transmission applications coupled with substitute products such as ball screws, fluid power, and piezoelectric actuation, and growing higher standards for medical device reliability may limiting the growth of the leadscrew market during the forecast period.Leadscrew Market:SegmentationThe leadscrewmarket has been classified by product type, material type, application and end use.Based on product type, the leadscrewmarket is segmented into the following:Acme threadSquare threadButtress threadBased on the material type, the leadscrewmarket is segmented into the following:Stainless SteelAluminumPolymerPlasticOthersBased on application, the leadscrewmarket is segmented into the following:Linear actuatorsMachine ToolsPressesJacksVisesOthersBased on end use, the leadscrew market is segmented into the following:Engraving EquipmentSemi-conductor Manufacturing EquipmentMedical EquipmentLaboratory EquipmentOthersBased on end user industry, the leadscrewmarket is segmented into the following:Medical & Diagnostics IndustryAutomotive IndustryManufacturing IndustryAerospace & Defense IndustryOthersLeadscrew Market:OverviewLeadscrew market revenue is expected to grow at a rapid growth rate, over the forecast period. The market is anticipated to perform well soon owing to a perfect substitute for hydraulic, and pneumatic cylinders, advancements in linear to rotary conversion, and aids in reducing noise. Additionally, leadscrew has a unique design that enables low-friction acceleration along with free positioning, operates without any secondary forces, and innovative technology which decouples lead screw from stepper motor are the factors that can propel the market revenue growth of leadscrew in the near future. Based on end user industry, medical and diagnostics industry segment is projected to lead the global leadscrew market over the forecast period attributed to rising demand for miniature precision leadscrews for lightweight medical devices that deliver faster speed along with close tolerance positioning.Leadscrew Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on the geographic region, leadscrew market is classified into seven key regions: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to be the leading markets in the global leadscrew market followed by Europe, and Japan is owing to the high demand of leadscrew in the complex military, medical, and semiconductor applications which provide precise positional accuracy. The market in Asia-Pacific is projected to have the fastest growth due to the emergence of novel leadscrew technology, rising demand for precision linear motion products, and expanding the need for advanced medical devices. Also, the surge in demand for miniaturization of mechatronic systems is some of the factors which are anticipated to rise the growth of leadscrew market throughout the forecast period.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3851 Leadscrew Market:Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the leadscrewmarket are Nook Industries Inc., Roton Products, Inc., Moore International Ltd, Thomson Industries, Inc., Helix Co., Ltd., Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions, Inc., THK Co., Ltd., Barnes Industries, Inc., MISUMI Group Inc., Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument Company, Dynatect Manufacturing, Inc., Beaver Aerospace & Defense, Inc., Thread-Craft Inc., Joyce/Dayton Corporation, and others.
Meat Speciation Testing Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 08:46:34

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Meat speciation testing can be defined as identification of animal species which is performed for a range of reasons  ethnic, economic, and safety.There is a wide range of products by which meat speciation testing is done, such as qualitative PCR analysis techniques, ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) and others, these methods are used to identify the animal species in cooked & raw products across various food products & feed matrices. As the number of consumers consuming meat is rising globally, the scandals of mislabeling of meat products are rising which is anticipated to boost the Meat Speciation Testing market in future. Meat speciation testing is executed for cooked and raw meat products. Meat speciation testing systems verify the product labels and confirm the meat & meat products authenticity, which ensures the product safety to consumers.Global Meat Speciation Testing Market: SegmentationMeat Speciation testing market can be segmented on the basis of species, technology, form, and regions. Based on the species, the meat speciation market is segmented into a cow (Bos taurus), swine (Sus scrofa), chicken (Gallus gallus), horse (Equus caballus), sheep (Ovis aries) and others. Others include rabbit, goat, and turkey. The Pig (swine) segment is projected to grow during the forecast period among all the segments among species in meat speciation market as the increase in a number of adulteration of swine meat with chicken meat and horse meat has controlled to a desire for increased quality control for meat products. The detection of species in pig (swine) meat products is necessary to protect the consumers from fraud and to respect the consumers religious beliefs & cultural preferences. According to the technology, the meat speciation testing market is segmented in PCR, ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) and others molecular diagnostic test (LC-MS/MS). Among the technology, PCR segment covers the largest market share in 2015 and is anticipated to rise at the highest CAGR over the forecast period as it provides quick results and helps the decision-making process for product recalls related to stakeholders. There is a significant growth in ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3843 On the basis of form, Meat Speciation Testing market is segmented into raw, cooked and processed. Among the forms, the raw form covers the maximum share of the market and is the fastest growing segment in the future due to domestic consumption of meat in raw form is very high.Global Meat Speciation Testing Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of the geographical market segment, the meat speciation testing market 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, Europe is presently the market leader in terms of revenue in the global meat speciation testing market. As increasing of stringent food laws, consumer awareness, and an upsurge in meat trade are the reasons which are driving the meat speciation testing market in Europe. Asia Pacific region is expected to hold market dominance over the forecast period in meat speciation market as the GDP of the region is stable and increasing health awareness consumers and numerous laws is implemented by countries in the region. Food safety standards are getting rigorous year-on-year as to certify safer quantity of food to persons in foreign & local countries.Global Meat Speciation Testing Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe global Meat Speciation Testing market is expected to witness sustained growth over the forecast period. The growth of Meat Speciation Testing market is driven by its growing in a number of food fraud cases and increasing infection among consumers, compliance with labeling laws, religious beliefs and strict rules & regulations and buyer demand for certified foodstuffs.Lack of technology & infrastructure, lack of food control systems and resources in developing countries are the major restraint for the Meat Speciation Testing is market are affecting the profit margins of Meat Speciation Testing market.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3843 Global Meat Speciation Testing Market: Key PlayersSome of the players operating in the global Meat Speciation Testing market include Scientific Analysis Laboratories, Eurofins Scientific SE, ALS Limited, VWR International LLC, Neogen Corporation, Geneius Laboratories Ltd., LGC Science Group Ltd, International Laboratory Services Ltd., Genetic ID NA, Inc, AB Sciex LLC and few other regional players of meat speciation testing market.
Neuromodulation Devices Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 08:53:45

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Neuromodulation is technology that is used for the alteration or modulation of the nerve activity by using chemical agents or electrical stimulation to the specific neurological sites in the body. Most of the neuromodulation devices work through electrical stimulation.Neuromodulation devices are used by the application of electrodes to the brain, peripheral nerves or the spinal cord. The electrode leads in neuromodulation devices are connected through an extension cable to a power source and pulse generator, which generates required electrical impulses. A low-voltage electrical signal passes from the impulse generator to the nerves, and work by either stimulating the neural impulses where they were not present previously or inhibiting the pain signals. Neuromodulation devices are used to treat or enhance the quality of life of people suffering from the conditions such as, chronic pain, urinary and fecal incontinence, essential tremor, epilepsy, Parkinsons disease, dystonia and psychological disorders. The conditions which are being treated with neuromodulation devices are mostly permanent in nature so it requires a long term use of neuromodulation devices.Neuromodulation Devices Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global market for neuromodulation devices is primarily driven by the increase in geriatric population in developed countries such as, the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Increasing incidence of neurological disorders is another factor responsible for the growth of neuromodulation devices market. Other growth factors for neuromodulation devices market are miniaturization of devices, new neuromodulation devices approval by regulatory bodies and increasing awareness among people.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3361 Neuromodulation Devices Market: SegmentationThe global neuromodulation market has been segmented on the basis of product type, end users and geography.Based on product type, the global neuromodulation devices market is divided into:Internal NeuromodulationDeep brain stimulationSacral nerve stimulationVagus nerve stimulationSpinal cord stimulationGastric Electrical StimulationExternal NeuromodulationTranscutaneous electrical nerve stimulationRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulationBased on end users, the global neuromodulation devices market is segmented as:HospitalsClinicsHome healthcareNeuromodulation Devices Market: OverviewNeuromodulation devices market is expected to witness significant growth due to the technological advancement of neuromodulation devices. Spinal cord stimulation is the largest segment of the neuromodulation devices market as this therapy is mostly used for the treatment of chronic pain. Deep brain stimulation is expected to be the fastest growing segment of neuromodulation devices market due to increasing prevalence of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinsons disease & dystonia and also due to lack of existing treatments. In case of the end users home healthcare is expected to be fastest growing due to miniaturization of neuromodulation devices and ease of use.Neuromodulation Devices Market: Region-wise OutlookNeuromodulation devices market is segmented into seven regions, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America is the most attractive market due to increase in the end use of devices, awareness among people and high prevalence of disease conditions such as Parkinsons disease, chronic pain, epilepsy. Followed by which is Western Europe. Asia-Pacific region is expected to be fastest growing due to increasing population, change in lifestyle, and government initiative to aware the people regarding the neurological disorders and their treatments. Japan is also an attractive market for neuromodulation devices due to ageing population and increase in the approval rate of neuromodulation devices by Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3361 Neuromodulation Devices Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the market participants in the global neuromodulation devices market are Medtronic, Accellent, BioControl Medical, Boston Scientific Corporation, DynaMD, Nevro Corp, NeuroSigma, Inc., NeuroPace, Inc., St. Jude Medical, Inc. Soterix Medical, Inc. and Synapse Biomedical, Inc.,. These companies are focusing on miniaturizationof the neuromodulation devices and advancement of the technology.
Optical Power Meter Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 08:01:48

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Optical power measurement is the most common task in optic calibration, and measurements such as optical amplifier output power, laser power, and receiver sensitivity. The optical power meter is a type of fiber optics test equipment used to measure the electricity in optical networks. The optical power meter is consist of calibrated sensor, display, and measuring amplifier. It serves as a convenient tool for manufacture, research & development, and maintenance of equipment incorporated with laser light sources. There are two groups optical power meters namely thermal receivers, and photodetectors. Thermal receivers have a wide wavelength range coupled with flat response. On the other hand, photodetectors can measure power levels as low as 1pW, has stronger wavelength dependence, no self-calibration is required, and high sensitivity. Optical power meter has an excellent linearity, homogeneity, full power range, profound reflections, low polarization dependence, and compatibility with different types of fiber.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3852 Optical Power Meter Market:Drivers and RestraintsExpanding demand for higher capacity in telecommunication industry has a surge of the request for the highly precise optical power meter, improved connectivity, innovative technology, and growing need for real-time analysis are the primary factor driving the growth of global optical power meter market. Moreover, device accuracy for proper detection and inspection of flaws, increasing safety along with environmental requirements, and increased automation application are some of the prominent factors fueling the growth of optical power meter market over the forecast period. However, difficult to maintain dynamic range, lack of awareness along with technical knowledge, and the high cost of testers may limit the growth of the optical power meter market during the forecast the period.Optical Power Meter Market:SegmentationThe optical power metermarket has been classified by product type, detector type, power range, application, and end user industry.Based on product type, the optical power metermarket is segmented into the following:Benchtop MetersPortable MetersVirtual MetersBased on detector type, the optical power metermarket is segmented into the following:InGaAs (Indium Gallium Arsenide)GermaniumSiliconOthersBased on power range, the optical power metermarket is segmented into the following:High RangeMedium RangeLow RangeBased on application, the optical power metermarket is segmented into the following:Installation & MaintenanceManufacturingResearch & DevelopmentOthersBased on the end user industry, the optical power metermarket is segmented into the following:Telecommunication IndustryElectrical & Electronics IndustryAutomotive & Industrial IndustryMilitary and Aerospace IndustryEnergy & Utilities IndustryOthersOptical Power Meter Market:OverviewOptical power meter market revenue is expected to grow at a rapid growth rate, over the forecast period. The market is anticipated to perform well soon owing to the fact that it helps in overcome the failure rate of the device, reduce the overall maintenance cost, and provide a precise measurement of the electricity loss, and attenuation loss. Additionally, unique features such as anti-electromagnetic interference, smaller diameter, light weight, resistance to nuclear radiation are the factors that can propel the market revenue growth of optical power meter in the near future. Based on end user industry, telecommunication industry segment is projected to lead the global optical power meter market over the forecast period attributed to the use of fiber optics systems to transmit telephone signals, Internet communication as well as television signals. Optical power meter has advanced features such as auto-test function, calibrated at multiple wavelengths, alphanumeric LCD display, backlit, and low battery consumption.Optical Power Meter Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on the geographic region, optical power meter market is classified into seven key regions: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading markets in the global optical power meter market followed by Europe, and Japan is owing to growing telecommunication industry, digitalization, rising power grid problems, rapid industrialization, and increase in adoption of optical test equipment in these regions. The market in Asia-Pacific is projected to have the fastest growth due to growing demand for research and development activities, and expanding need for high bandwidth communication are some of the factors which are anticipated to rise the increase of optical power meter market throughout the forecast period.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3852 Optical Power Meter Market:Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the optical power metermarket are Thorlabs, Inc., Kingfisher International Pty Ltd., Viavi Solutions Inc., GAO Tek, Inc., Newport Corporation, EXFO Inc., AFL, Edmund Optics Inc., Fluke Corporation, CableOrganizer.com , Inc., INFOS, Inc., Techwin(China) Industry Co., Ltd., Bioptic Co., Ltd., Kn Communication Limited, Dicon fiberoptics Inc., Changzhou Bell Data Communication Equipment Co., Ltd., others.
Paper Drying Systems

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 07:58:30

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Despite the continuous focus on digitalization, there is a surge in demand for paper which is expected to grow in the near future owing to a sustainable increase in the number of school going children in developing countries, and increasing use of papers for packaging material. Practically, all the writing and printing is done on paper. Thus, the uses and applications for paper and pulp products are limitless. Various companies are a focus on improving paper quality and enhance production capacity with less energy consumption. The paper manufacturing process is significantly an enormous dewatering process, where a dilute solution of pulp is used. In the paper production, water is removed from the stock with the help of various consecutive processes until the finished product is obtained. The paper manufacturing machine consists of three sections namely forming section, press section, and a dryer section. Drying process in the paper manufacturing serves two primary functions it removes the remaining water in the web which cannot be removed by pressing or vacuum, and makes fiber to bond together by hydrogen bonding. The paper drying systems deliver steam to each and every dryer in the machine with the precise pressure required and ensure an efficient clearance of condensation from the dryers. Paper drying systems help in attaining the desired dryer surface temperature along with least steam consumption, and minimum energy load on the machine.Paper Drying Systems Market:Drivers and RestraintsGrowing paper and pulp manufacturing industry which has surged in demand for smoother and glossy paper material and development of innovative infrared dryers technology for quick coating immobilization are the primary factor driving the growth of global paper drying systems market. Moreover, expanding consumerism, rising literacy rate, and growing environmental concern are some of the prominent factors increasing the demand for papers, which is further fuelling the demand for paper drying systems to improve the paper quality. However, increasing quality standards, government policies, regulations, and the high cost of dryer systems may limit the growth of the paper drying systems market during the forecast the period.Paper Drying Systems Market:SegmentationThe paper drying systems market has been classified by system type, dryer type, drying method, and paper type.Based on the system type, the paper drying systems market is segmented into the following:Blow Through SystemsThermocompressor BasedCascade TypeTrap Based SystemBased on the dryer type, the paper drying systemsmarket is segmented into the following:Rolling Bed DryersAir DryersFluidized Bed DryersRotary DryersFlash DryersFreeze DryersConvection DryersConduction DryersOthersBased on the drying method, the paper drying systemsmarket is segmented into the following:Steam Heated CylindersMulti-cylinder DryersSingle-Tier DryersFlakt DryersBased on the paper type, the paper drying systemsmarket is segmented into the following:Copy PaperNewsprintCardboardMagazines PaperPackaging & Wrapping PaperTissue PaperCurrency PaperOthersPaper Drying Systems Market:OverviewPaper drying systems market revenue is expected to grow at a rapid growth rate, over the forecast period. The market is anticipated to perform well soon owing to the use of electromagnetic radiating energy in infrared drying technique, and expanding the use of papers as packaging material. Additionally, rising demand for energy saving technologies, and enhance productivity are the factors that can propel the market revenue growth of Paper Drying Systems in the near future. Based on drying method, multi-cylinder dryers segment is projected to lead the global paper drying systems market over the forecast period attributed to the fact that minimize heat loss from the outer surface, reduce resistance to vapor from the web.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3853 Paper Drying Systems Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on the geographic region, Paper Drying Systems market is classified into seven key regions: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading markets in the global paper drying systems market followed by Europe, and Japan is owing to high awareness among manufacturers, advanced paper making process technology, and high demand for custom designed and engineered systems such as pocket ventilation systems to optimize the drying process. The market in Asia-Pacific is projected to have the fastest growth due to expanding paper and pulp industry, increasing paper usage as wrapping and packaging material, and growing demand for environmentally friendly products are the factors which are expected to witness a rise in revenue share of Paper Drying Systems during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3853 Paper Drying Systems Market:Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the paper drying systemsmarket are Forbes Marshall Ltd.,Kadant Inc., Voith GmbH, R-V Industries, Inc., Ircon Drying Systems AB, ABK Groupe, A.Celli Paper S.p.A., Alfa Laval AB, Allimand,S.A., Andritz AG, Basque Paper Consortium, A.I.E., BHS Corrugated Company, Marsden, Inc., and others.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 16:05:18

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for PPX Mining Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - PPX Mining Corp. (TSX Venture:PPX). has issued a press release with the following headline:PPX Operational Results for Mina Callanquitas for July 2017To 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 PPX Mining Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/PPX Mining Corp.Source: PPX Mining Corp. (TSX Venture: PPX, WKN: A2APYX, ISIN: CA69354U1003)Date: August 14, 2017Time: 10:05 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of PPX Mining Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials may be in Monroe County County this week to assess damages from recent floods.

Gov. Scott Walker requested the officials begin looking at public infrastructure impacted by the flood in Monroe and 10 other counties.

Along with Vernon, counties in which FEMA will assess are Buffalo, Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Jackson, La Crosse, Lafayette, Richland, Trempealeau and Vernon.

Storms moved across western Wisconsin from July 19-22, causing flash floods. Damage to public infrastructure, emergency protective measures and debris removal costs are estimated to be more than $12 million in the 11 impacted counties, according to the governors office.

In Monroe County, most of the damage was south and west of Tomah. There was no significant damage reported in the city of Tomah even though the Public Works Department was forced to release a significant amount of water from the Lake Tomah dam.

The released caused a couple of bridges downstream on the Lemonweir River to briefly close but didnt result in structural damage.
Pure Steam Generators Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-14 07:55:07

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Pure steam is water that has been heated above 100 degree Celsius and evaporated in such a way that prevents water source entrainment. The pure steam generator is a water treatment system designed for the manufacture of sterile, and pyrogenic free pure steam. It is used for in-situ sterilization of equipment components such as piping distribution systems, vessels, steam sterilizers, and for humidification of sterile places. Pure steam generator constructed following the basic principle of distillation by thin film evaporation which consists of tube heat exchangers and shell. Various precautions need to be taken before the pure steam generator is designed to avoid the crevices which stimulate bacterial growth. The components used in pure steam generators are developed from corrosion resistance of stainless steel. The pure steam generator has advanced features such as high capacity range, easy to maintain, external evaporator, unique optimized separation technique, and degasser option to minimize non-condensable gasses.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3854 Pure Steam Generators Market:Drivers and RestraintsExpanding pharmaceutical industry, advanced steam control and heat transfer technology, demand for highly energy efficiency systems, and an alternative to filtered plant stream are the primary factor driving the growth of global Pure Steam Generators market. Moreover, it prevents the contamination by organics, bacteria, and endotoxin genic load at low steam rates which is hard to remove in the case of plant steam, and provide maximum production reliability are some of the prominent factors fueling the growth of pure steam generators market over the forecast period. However, stringent international pharmacopeias, Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) regulations for drug applications. Also, increasing pure steam quality tests standards, and rigorous packaged drinking water regulations may limit the growth of the pure steam generators market during the forecast the period.Pure Steam Generators Market:SegmentationThe pure steam generatorsmarket has been classified by generator type, material type, process type, and end user.Based on generator type, the pure steam generatorsmarket is segmented into the following:Re-boiler GeneratorThermosyphon Generator/ External Rising Film EvaporatorFalling Film EvaporatorBased on the material type, the pure steam generatorsmarket is segmented into the following:MartensiticFerriticAusteniticOthersBased on process type, the pure steam generatorsmarket is segmented into the following:Micro-filtrationUltra-filtrationsReverse OsmosisPeriodic Heat SanitizationUltraviolet LightBased on the end user, the pure steam generatorsmarket is segmented into the following:Pharmaceutical IndustryBiotechnologyOthersPure Steam Generators Market:OverviewPure steam generators market revenue is expected to grow at a rapid growth rate, over the forecast period. The market is anticipated to perform well soon owing to its use in the production of dry, saturated steam, water purification, and highly suitable for pharmaceutical manufacturing plants. Additionally, expanding production capacity, and rise in demand for fully automatic systems are the factors that can propel the market revenue growth of pure steam generators in the near future. By material type, austenitic stainless steel is a very commonly used material in the pharmaceutical industry with preference to nominal bore piping. Based on end user, pharmaceutical industry segment is projected to lead the global pure steam generators market over the forecast period attributed to the use of pure steam generator equipment for sterilization, water for injection generation, and clean room humidification.Pure Steam Generators Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on the geographic region, pure steam generators market is classified into seven key regions: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading markets in the global pure steam generators market followed by Europe, and Japan is owing to the latest technology, developed research and development infrastructure, expanding pharmaceutical production unit, and the presence of prominent players in these regions. The market in Asia-Pacific is projected to have the fastest growth due to increasing engineering and manufacturing practices, and growing demand for distilled water. Moreover, growing demand for sterilizer products along with packaged drinking water, and surge in the application for sterilization of process line coupled with pharmaceutical equipment are some of the factors which are anticipated to rise the increase of pure steam generators market throughout the forecast period.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3854 Pure Steam Generators Market:Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the pure steam generatorsmarket are BRAM-COR S.p.A., Robert Bosch GmbH, Pharmalab India Pvt. Ltd., Spirax Sarco, Inc., Pharmatec GmbH, Gerlach Industries, Inc., Spirax UltraPure, LLC, Aqua-Nova AB, Veit Gmbh, Azbil Telstar, S.L., SteriTech Ltd., and others.
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Stans Energy Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Stans Energy Corp. (TSX Venture:HRE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Stans Energy Closes $120,000 Non-Brokered 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 Stans Energy Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Stans Energy Corp.Source: Stans Energy Corp. (TSX Venture: HRE, OTCQB: HREEF, WKN: A0RD0N, ISIN: CA8547221058)Date: August 14, 2017Time: 10:11 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Stans Energy Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Tribute Resources Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---London, Ontario (FSCWire) - Tribute Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:TRB). has issued a press release with the following headline:Tribute Announces Conversion of Convertible Debentures to EquityTo 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 Tribute Resources Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Tribute Resources Inc.Source: Tribute Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: TRB)Date: August 14, 2017Time: 10:45 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Tribute Resources Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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.




A second person has died and five others were injured Saturday when a 32-foot boat slammed into a navigational marker on the Mississippi River, in the main navigation channel, in the town of Bergen, Vernon County, south of Brownsville, Minnesota.

The 10-passenger pleasure craft was traveling south about 6 p.m. when it struck the day marker across from Wildcat Campground and boat landing. Authorities reported the boats stern was submerged and the bow went vertical.

A number of other boaters were nearby and immediately began attempts to retrieve and rescue the victims  none of whom were wearing personal-flotation devices, authorities said.

Diana Lynn Klankowski, 56, of Spring Grove, Minnesota, was transported to shore by a private craft and pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. Saturday, according to a joint release by Sheriff John B. Spears of Vernon County, and Sheriff Mark Inglett of Houston County, Minnesota.

Five others were pulled out of the water immediately after the accident, but a seventh person  Kevin Lee Hanson, 47, of Mabel  could not be found.

After nearly a day of search efforts, Hansons body was recovered at 4:27 p.m. Sunday. He was pronounced dead by the Vernon County coroners office. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday (today) in Madison.

Authorities identified the injured as:

Robert Alf Klankowski, 52, of Spring Grove was taken to Gundersen.

Gerald Wayne Ladsten, 57, Spring Grove was taken to Gundersen and released.

Tracy Lynn Peterson, 40, of Spring Grove was taken to Gundersen.

Two others were not yet identified Sunday evening  a woman who was transported to the nearest helicopter landing zone by Caledonia Ambulance and flown to Gundersen Health System by Med-Link Air, and a man who was taken to Gundersen by Sparta Ambulance.

Authorities said the required number of personal-flotation devices were on board at the time of the accident, but none was being used.

More than two dozen local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies took part in the recovery and investigation.

The crash remains under investigation by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Vernon County Sheriffs Office and the Vernon County Coroners Office.

Authorities said the required number of personal-flotation devices were on board at the time of the accident, but none was being used.

Update: The Vernon County Sheriff's Office released the names of the two remaining passengers. Sonya Ann Burnikel, 47, Spring Grove, Minnesota; as of Aug. 16, Burnikel remains at Gundersen Health System. Wynn Dean Ristau, 41, Preston, Minnesota; Restau was treated and released from Gundersen Health System.










Vienna House is opening a new 164-room hotel in Warsaws Mokotow business district in the summer of 2018. The new hotel, Vienna House Mokotow Warsaw, is being positioned as a casual 4-star superior business hotel. Opening a hotel in Warsaw was a natural step for us. We have been managing

Photos: Vienna House



[]
Bill Browder, the co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, has made a number of headlines of late as the Congressional investigation into potential ties between Russia and the campaign of President Donald Trump has heated up. Browder, who spent years doing business in Russia, is responsible for pushing the passing of Magnitsky Act, a law intending to punish human rights violators in Russia by holding Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky, a friend and former business associate of Browder's. Browder, now actively working as a humanitarian, published the story of his run-ins with Russia's criminal state in the book Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Mans Fight for Justice (S&S), which received a PW starred review, in 2015. PW spoke with Browder about his experience with Russia, the ongoing investigations, how his book keeps him busy, and more.

Did you foresee anything like the Russia scandal while writing Red Notice?

The big insight that I have, not so much from writing Red Notice but from living as the main character of Red Notice, is that Russia was and is a criminal state unlike any other sovereign country. The things theyre willing to do to further their crimes are so far outside the box of what we consider acceptable behavior that almost everything they do doesnt surprise me. It doesnt surprise me that they cheated entirely in the Sochi Olympics with performance enhancement drugs, or that they manipulated the U.S. elections and other elections around the world. And most worryingly, it wouldnt surprise me if Putin ends up starting a major military conflict with the West at some point in the future to save his own skin as head of state in Russia.

Red Notice came about in part because of a big change in your purpose in life after you escaped a terrible fate at the hands of the Russian government. Have your political or foreign policy views evolved since you published it?

The main thing that Ive learned since writing Red Notice is not so much about Russia but about how many very legitimate people in the West have sold their souls to the Russians to help them in their terrible goals outside of the country. Ive discovered the crimes of the Western enablers. Theres many different types of people in the West that are helping Putin and Russia achieve their critical aims. Theres whole teams of lawyers and PR executives and investigators on the Russian payroll, unashamedly working for the Russians, who are often people who come from the highest reaches of society in the U.S. and Britain and Europe. And in some ways, these people are even more contemptuous than Putin and his regime because they should know better. Putin is a cold-blooded killer who doesnt deserve any sympathy whatsoever, but if youre brought up in a completely amoral criminal country where every incentive is against you, you need to be caged as a wild animal. But people who were brought up in civilized countries, who were brought up with the same values that we are, who are supporting criminals in Russia and knowingly are jettisoning those values for money in order to further the crimes of the Putin regimethose people deserve even more contempt.

My whole mindset when I got there was that it was crazy, it was criminal, but the way that I was going to operate in this system was to make money off of exposing the criminality. And for a long time, it was more profitable than I thought. The big problem was that Putin won his war with the oligarchs and decided to become the biggest oligarch himself.

Do you think Donald Trump and his administration are simply ignorant of the system and how it works? Or do you think there is more at work here, with regards to the allegations that Trump or his allies may have wittingly worked with Russia?

I know many businesspeople in Russia who have knowingly signed up to effectively compromise their values for their own profit motive to become part of this criminal apparatus in Russia. Ive seen it many times, where cynical Westerners decide that to make more money theyll become part of a criminal organization in Russia. It doesnt necessarily happen in one big go. It happens in small compromises leading into much bigger compromises. And what the Russians look for is an opportunity to create a small compromise for somebody. They dont do it in a negative waythey offer great incentives for someone to compromise themselves. Putin is a KGB operative, and he operates on bribery and blackmail. And what they usually do with people they identify as being compromisable is they offer a small bribe to induce them into their web, and then they offer bigger bribes, and then they use the bribes as blackmail. And those people who get stuck in their web can never get out.

As a nonfiction writer turned talking head, do you find that your TV work has helped to promote your book? Have you seen any sales spikes?

I have three prongs to my campaign for justice for [murdered Russian lawyer] Sergei Magnitsky. The first is a political prong, the second is a criminal justice prong, and a third is what I call a communications prong. On the communications prong we have this book, I have TV interviews, and Im working on the screenplay for this book. And all of those things sort of ricochet off each other. As a campaigner, the book and the TV appearances are all sort of mutual reinforcement in getting the knowledge of what happened to Sergei out into the public domain. And the other two prongs ricochet off of each other as wellthe more press there is about the story in the book, the more politicians and law enforcement officials are interested, and so on.
The recent North Korean missile tests and other provocations have sent shock waves through the global national security community and have predictably heightened tensions throughout the region. The tests have also made North Korea one of a small number of nations with an intercontinental ballistic missile capability and ominously gives it the potential to reach the United States. Much of the recent debate has centered on the important questions of deterring further North Korean tests and potential response options.

Yet another important topic that urgently needs to be investigated surrounds how North Korea's missile capabilities have increased so dramatically in such a short period of time. Such an examination should be aimed at identifying and closing the proliferation pathways North Korea used in developing its program. Understanding how North Korea has arrived at this point could help to stem further proliferation and prevent a potential arms race. The infusion of technology from external sources, internally developed adaptations of older technology and testing have contributed to North Korea's missile program.

Kim Jong Un's interest in developing missile technology has far exceeded that of the previous two regimes. Estimates are 84 of the 115 tests conducted since testing began in 1984or 73 percenthave occurred since he took over as supreme leader in 2011. Just since February of this year, North Korea has fired 18 missiles in 12 tests. The tests have included different missile systems from land-based missiles to submarine-launched systems, a variety of different missile classes from short- and medium-range to intercontinental missile systems, and even multiple missiles launched simultaneously.

With each test, North Korea continues to perfect the technology and inch closer to full operational capability of a delivery system and payload. The recent nuclear and missile tests demonstrate some mastery of the individual systems. North Korea reportedly is close to achieving the next step, the miniaturization and mating of the warhead and missile into an operational system with the desired range and accuracy.

Evidence suggests that much of the missile technology development has been indigenous, with heavy reliance on reverse engineering for initial rocket designs. Several of the designs incorporated in the North Korean program came from old Soviet systems. In other cases, North Korea procured entire rocket systems, for example from Egypt in the 1970s. It is likely that additional technical support from the Soviet Union and then Russia occurred in the 1980-90s ( PDF ).

Reliance on external sources for technology is also clear. A 2013 U.N. panel established to monitor the implementation of sanctions found serious incidents of noncompliance including import of fine-grain graphite, classified documents, and machine tools for missile technology development.

Following one launch, recovered rocket debris had modern components sourced from China, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S., as well as 'cannibalized' Scud components and other 1980s vintage Soviet parts, as one report put it. All of these nations except China are member nations of the Missile Technology Control Regime that limits the export of missile technology.

Whether nations knowingly provided the technology or North Korea covertly obtained the material should be examined. Nations have a legal obligation under the 2004 U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540 to control exports to prevent the proliferation of dangerous missile, nuclear, and military technologies.

While U.N. sanctions, international treaties and laws, and national export control efforts have slowed the flow of technology and increased the time for development, it is clear they have not stopped the proliferation of these dangerous technologies.

Increasing trade with China and a porous northern border certainly contribute to the potential for continued external help and support the North Korean economy, which fuels arms development. Efforts to sever this proliferation pathway should be undertaken. China could be further pressured to take center stage in policing its physical border with North Korea and limiting further flows of illicit goods.

The economic penalties approved unanimously by the U.N., including by China and Russia, are also important. Continued support from China and Russia on this measure could be key. Half-hearted efforts, tepid support, or even nonsupport will only serve to fuel North Korea's hubris.

Should examination of the proliferation pathways indicate deliberate collaboration and support for the Kim regime's missile technology development, those violators should be held to account. Compliance with international laws and enforcing national export laws is not optional. Regional and global efforts will likely be essential to any productive steps to halt further proliferation.

Daniel M. Gerstein works at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and is an adjunct professor at American University. He was the undersecretary (acting) and deputy undersecretary in the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security from 2011-2014.

This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on August 10, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
In a move that has already upset greatly many of the services members, Amazon has decided to shutter LOVEFiLM By Post and migrate subscribers over to its Prime Video offer.





LOVEFiLM launched in 2002 and was particularly well-received due to the fact that its wide range of film titles, covering a whole host of genres, could be accessed by those in the UK ill-serviced by the high-throughput broadband networks required to support leading VOD and OTT products.The service was purchased by Amazon in 2011when it had grown to 1.4 million subscribers. However, Amazon has now informed UK users that over the last few years it had observed seen a decreasing demand for DVD and Blu-ray rental as customers increasingly moved to streaming such as Prime Video . Due to this reason, it has notified users that it will be closing the LOVEFiLM By Post service on 31 October 2017.The current LOVEFiLM catalogue covers more than 80,000 titles. A spokesman for Amazon told the BBC it planned to donate these discs to charity partners.
Russian authorities say the leader of an armed criminal group has been killed in the volatile North Caucasus region of Daghestan.

The National Antiterrorism Committee said on August 14 that the leader of the group, known as the Khunzakh gang, was "liquidated" during a security operation in the western village of Orota on August 13.

The man was identified as Khadzhimurad Gadzhiyev, who had been on Russias most-wanted list for years.

There was no way to immediately verify the Russian statement.

Officials have accused Gadzhiyev's group of killing a Muslim cleric in 2014 and of extorting large amounts of money from businesses in Daghestan.

Daghestan has become the epicenter of violence linked to an insurgency fueled by two post-Soviet separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya.

The region is also plagued by organized crime, political disputes, clan rivalry, and persistent poverty.

Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS


MINSK -- The leader of an independent labor union in Belarus says he has been charged with tax evasion.

Henadz Fyadynich, chairman of a union that represents workers in the industry that makes radios and other electronic products, told RFE/RL on August 14 that he had been formally charged and ordered not to leave Minsk.

Belarusian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Yulia Hancharova confirmed to RFE/RL that Fyadynich was charged.

She said the union's bookkeeper, Ihor Komlik, had also been charged with tax evasion.

On August 2, police searched the union's offices and confiscated office equipment and financial documents.

Komlik was arrested and put in pretrial detention at the time.

Fyadynich has said that the case against him, his assistants, and his organization is politically motivated.

He says the case is connected to the union's role in organizing protests in February and March against an unpopular labor law imposing a tax on the unemployed.
SIMFEROPOL -- Five Crimean Tatar activists have been detained while protesting the jailing of Server Karametov, a 76-year-old man who has Parkinson's disease, by the Russian-imposed authorities.

The activists picketed the buildings of the Russia-controlled Supreme Court, Interior Ministry, parliament, and government in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, on August 14.

Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov told RFE/RL that his colleague, Edem Semedlyayev, was with four of the activists who were being questioned at a police station.

The fifth activist was detained separately earlier in the day, local rights activists told RFE/RL.

Karametov was detained on August 8 while demonstrating in Simferopol in support of Crimean Tatars who have been prosecuted by Russia since it seized the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

He was found guilty of disobeying police, jailed for 10 days, and fined 10,000 rubles ($165).

Amnesty International has urged Russia to release Karametov immediately, calling him "a prisoner of conscience, with Parkinsons disease."

Russia has been sharply criticized by international rights groups and Western governments for its treatment of members of the indigenous Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historic homeland.
There's more than one way to intimidate your neighbor.

Last week, for example, Moscow announced that it was temporarily closing the Kerch Strait to all maritime traffic except for Russian naval vessels -- effectively cutting off southeastern Ukraine's access to the Black Sea.

This time, the closure lasted just for a day. The stated reason was to facilitate construction work on a controversial bridge across the strait linking the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russia.

But according to Russian media reports, there are plans to close the strait for more than three weeks in August and September.

And if this happens, the strategically important port cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk would be cut off from international trade, heavily damaging the Ukrainian economy.

Russia's closure of the Kerch Strait is essentially a double violation of international law.

It would violate a 2003 agreement between Moscow and Kyiv giving vessels from both countries free access to the strait.

And the only reason Russia has the ability to unilaterally close the strait, the only reason Moscow controls both sides of the passage, is, of course, the illegal occupation and annexation of Crimea.

Russia's closure of the Kerch Strait is yet another way for Moscow to send the same message to Kyiv that it has been sending for years: We can -- and will -- make your life miserable in oh so many ways.

It's yet another message that the Kremlin views Ukraine's sovereignty as limited and conditional.

Moscow is telling Kyiv that what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine.

And this goes for Ukraine's territory, as well as its territorial waters.

There are, indeed, many ways to intimidate a neighbor.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
TBILISI -- Georgia's president and prime minister have issued separate statements voicing hope for reconciliation on the 25th anniversary of the outbreak of war over the breakaway Abkhazia region.

In his statement on August 14, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili called the start of the military conflict in 1992 "a huge mistake" and said it was "a tragic day."

He expressed confidence that Georgia will be able "to return the hearts of our Abkhaz brothers and continue our coexistence with centuries-old love and mutual respect behind us."

"The history of our coexistence is exemplary and we have no right to live in such a reality -- an external force should not stand between us," Kvirikashvili stressed, referring to Russia and the presence of Russian troops in Abkhazia.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili took a more accusatory tone toward Moscow, saying "Russian state policy nurtured by Soviet imperialism played an important role in the fratricidal war."

Referring to Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, Margvelashvili said that the only way to restore Georgia's territorial integrity was through "steadfast observance of peace, as well as the principled international and neighborhood policy, restoration of trust and cooperation with [Abkhaz and South Ossetian] compatriots, and the overall development of the country."

The 1992-93 war in Abkhazia ended with withdrawal of Georgian forces from the region. More than 12,000 people died during the 13-month conflict, and about 300,000 remain displaced.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states following a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008, but almost all other countries in the world consider them part of Georgia.

Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions, and Georgian authorities have accused Moscow and the separatists of taking control of additional territory in recent months.

With reporting by Civil.ge
TBILISI -- Georgia's opposition United National Movement (ENM) party has called for an independent forensic testing of an audio recording in which the Ukrainian and Georgian interior ministers are apparently discussing the possible extradition of Mikheil Saakashvili, a former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region.

Nika Melia, leader of Saakashvili's ENM party, said on August 14 that the party would conduct its own testing if Georgian authorities failed to commission an independent testing from a foreign organization.

Russian prankster Aleksei Stolyarov, known as Lexus, said on August 13 that he tricked Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Mgebrishvili, introducing himself by phone as his Ukrainian counterpart, Arsen Avakov, and recorded the talk.

In the audio recording, which appeared on August 12 on the Ukrainian news portal Strana.ua, a man with a voice similar to Mgebrishvili's says that Tbilisi does not want Saakashvili back in Georgia.

He adds that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Georgian authorities had discussed Saakashvili's possible extradition before.

Georgia's Interior Ministry said on August 13 that the recoding was fake.

The reformist, pro-Western president of Georgia from 2004-2013, Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in late July while in the United States. He condemned the move by Poroshenko, calling it politically motivated and coordinated with Georgian authorities.

He lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 after he took Ukrainian citizenship in order to become governor of the Odesa region.

Saakashvili resigned from the post in November 2016, complaining of official obstruction of anticorruption efforts, accusing Poroshenko of dishonesty, and charging that the government in Kyiv was sabotaging crucial reforms.
Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali is notorious as Iran's "hanging judge," having ruthlessly ordered hundreds of summary executions after trials that sometimes lasted just minutes in the months following Iran's 1979 revolution.

His daughter, however, remembers him differently.

"My father's outside image is very violent," Fatemeh Sadeghi says in an interview published this month in the Iranian magazine Andisheye Pouya. "But that's not the image of him that I had at home. He was very strict at home, but he would never beat me."

Sadeghi said her father never discussed his dark past with her.



"He didn't want to talk about it," she said. "It was clear that he had [some issues], but he wasn't remorseful."

Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini selected Khalkhali to head the newly created Revolutionary Courts shortly after taking power. Before Khalkhali was forced to step down and sidelined in December 1980, he sent hundreds of people to their deaths, including many affiliated with the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.



In his 2000 autobiography, Khalkhali wrote that he indeed felt no remorse.

"I killed over 500 criminals close to the royal family, hundreds of rebels in the Kurdistan, Gonabad, and Khuzestan regions, and many drug smugglers,'' Khalkhali wrote, according to a translation by The New York Times.



''I feel no regret or guilt over the executions. Yet I think I killed little. There were many more who deserved to be killed, but I could not get my hands on them," he added.

Khalkhali died in 2003 at the age of 77.



The Andisheye Pouya interview this month marks the first time that Sadeghi, a respected women's rights activist who has criticized the compulsory hijab in the past, has spoken publicly about her father.

He presented himself as a revolutionary and believed that he had to accept some bad notoriety for the revolution."

While she says she doesn't intend to justify her father or defend his actions, she asserts that, at that moment in her country's history, those in charge had to demonstrate "revolutionary decisiveness."



"The atmosphere then was very ideological," Sadeghi said. "I don't want to say that my father was kind -- not at all. But that ideological atmosphere required revolutionary decisiveness."



"At that time, they all wanted to present themselves as revolutionaries to scare the enemy. This is how I see things," she added.



She says she never felt she had to defend Khalkhali, who is believed to have acted with Khomeini's blessing, because "my father always insisted that his political face -- good or bad -- was his business."



"He presented himself as a revolutionary and believed that he had to accept some bad notoriety for the revolution," she said. "[My father] would always say: 'We made the revolution and we have to stand by it.' I can still hear him."



People often criticize her father, but Sadeghi says she doesn't react. She merely takes note so she can later tell relatives what she heard.



"People have the right to make judgments about political figures, so whatever I hear is not strange to me," she says.

Why didn't Fatemeh Sadeghi say: 'Although Khalkhali was my father and I love him, he did bad things to people -- many bad things.'"

Sadeghi then recounts a particular episode that has stuck in her mind.



She was riding in a long-distance taxi from Tehran to Karaj, about 30 kilometers west of the Iranian capital, when she heard one of the passengers attacking her father.



"[That person] started saying very bad insults about my father," she recalled. "He said that [my father] was once detained in France with two sacks of gold, adding that his wife was also with him.



"Those moments were hard on me. But I wanted to laugh at the image of my mother carrying a sack of gold," Sadeghi said. "[My father] wasn't a thief. He didnt have any hidden wealth.



"My father ordered the [execution] of [former Prime Minister Amir Abbas] Hoveyda. He went to Kurdistan (where Khalkhali ordered the execution of many Kurds)," Sadehi said. "All of this happened, but he didn't steal."



Khalkhali presided over the brief trial of Hoveyda, who served as prime minister under the shah for more than a decade. Moments after being sentenced to death, Hoveyda was taken outside and shot in the back of the head. Khalkhali then returned to the courtroom and announced that the sentence had been carried out.



The New Haven-based Iran Human Rights Documents Center reports that Khalkhali was proud to have been present at Hoveyda's execution and had kept the pistol as a memento.

She said that Khalkhali, who had become a supporter of the reformist movement, convinced her in 1997 to vote for reformist presidential candidate Mohammad Khatami, who won the election and served as Iran's fifth president from 1997 until 2005.

The interviewer, who says she is a friend of Sadeghi, rarely challenges her. At one point, she asks Sadeghi if she misses her father.

"It's a tough question. Is there anyone who doesn't love his or her parents?" Sadeghi asks.

Sadeghi's interview has been criticized by some as a dubious effort to humanize a monster.

"I wish Fatemeh Sadeghi had continued her silence regarding her father," wrote exiled Iranian journalist Arash Bahmani on Twitter.

The Iranian blogger who goes by the name Zeitoun commented on Facebook: "Why didn't Fatemeh Sadeghi say: 'Although Khalkhali was my father and I love him, he did bad things to people -- many bad things.' Why didn't she say that?"
ALMATY -- A Kazakh journalist known for his criticism of the government has gone on trial for alleged money laundering, a charge he and his supporters say is fabricated.

The trial of Zhanbolat Mamai, acting chief editor of the independent Sayasi Qalam-Tribuna (The Political Pen-Tribune) newspaper, opened in Almaty on August 14.

Investigators say Mamai was involved in laundering money allegedly stolen by fugitive Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Mamai denies any connection with Ablyazov and says the case against him is politically motivated.

Ablyazov, a former head of Kazakhstan's BTA bank, who is currently living abroad, is a major opponent of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

He is wanted by Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine on suspicion of embezzling some $5 billion. Ablyazov denies the accusations, saying they are politically motivated.
Lawmakers in Kosovo's new parliament have failed again to vote on a speaker to move forward with the formation of a new government, continuing a two-month-long political crisis sparked by inconclusive elections.



The Kosovo Assembly failed to establish a quorum of 61 deputies in the hall on August 14, prompting interim speaker Adem Mikullovci to end the session. He said he would notify parties in the legislature in writing of the next scheduled meeting of the house.



The failure for a fifth time to vote on a speaker, the first crucial step toward forming a new government, has raised worries that Kosovo could be headed for a political crisis and fresh elections.



A coalition headed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which includes the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), won 35 percent of the vote on June 11.



President Hashim Thaci has said that he would give Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the AAK, a formal mandate to try to form a government -- despite speculation that Haradinaj may not be able to find enough partners to get the 61 deputies needed in the 120-seat legislature needed to approve the speaker.



The president only issues the mandate once a speaker and his deputies are approved.



The PDK-led coalition, which has accused Mikullovci of bias toward his own Self-Determination Movement (VV), once again boycotted the parliamentary session.



The leftist political movement VV notched a surprising second-place finish with 27 percent -- more than double its showing in the last elections in 2014 -- making it the largest single party in the next parliament.



Officials from the European Union and other Western institutions have expressed concerns that the inconclusive June election results could plunge the country into the same constitutional crisis it faced after a 2014 vote failed to produce a clear winner, delaying the formation of a government for nine months.



The failure to move forward on creating a government prompted Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States to issue a statement on August 13 that said it was "the responsibility of Kosovo's leaders" to end the deadlock.



"We are concerned by the ongoing political situation in Kosovo," said a joint statement released by the countries' embassies in the capital, Pristina.
BISHKEK -- The high-profile bribery trial of Kyrgyz opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev has been adjourned until August 15.

At the August 14 hearing in Bishkek, Tekebaev spoke to the court about his contribution to Kyrgyzstan's economy and stability while serving as parliament speaker and deputy prime minister.

His statement lasted until late in the evening and the judge had to adjourn the hearing until the next day.

Tekebaev is the leader of the opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party, which says the trial is a politically motivated effort to keep him out of a presidential vote this autumn.

Tekebaev and his co-defendant, former Emergency Situations Minister Duishonkul Chotonov, are charged with receiving a $1 million bribe from a Russian businessman in 2010, when Tekebaev was deputy prime minister.

Both deny any wrongdoing.

On August 10, the prosecutor at the trial asked the judge to sentence Tekebaev to 10 years and Chotonov to eight years in prison if they were convicted.

Ata-Meken has alleged that the government launched the case in an effort to stifle dissent ahead of the October 15 presidential election in the Central Asian country and keep Tekebaev off the ballot.

Tekebaev was arrested in late February. On March 5, Ata-Meken named him as its candidate for the presidential election.
Moldovan President Igor Dodon says he discovered nothing "dubious" during an inspection of a Moldovan Army training base that a Russian media report claimed would house U.S.-funded "military facilities."

Dodon, who has courted Russia and is at odds with his country's pro-European Union government, spoke after an August 14 visit to the Bulboaca training base in southeastern Moldova.

A report published on state-backed Russian channel RT's website on August 7 said that the U.S. Navy would fund work on eight military facilities at Bulboaca, which is located some 30 kilometers from Tiraspol, capital of the breakaway Transdniester region. The Moldovan Defense Ministry dismissed the article as disinformation.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who was declared persona non grata by Moldova's government earlier this month following controversial statements about the country, subsequently shared the RT article on Facebook and wrote that "the Americans are beginning to train saboteurs and special forces of the Republic of Moldova in the event of a new armed conflict with Transdniester."

Following the RT article and Rogozin's statement, Dodon announced last week that he would go to Bulboaca himself to make sure no Moldovan soldiers would become "part or pieces in the mechanism of a military bloc, be it Eastern or Western."

But after his visit to Bulboaca, Dodon said at a news conference and later on his Facebook page that all activities at the training ground were following a normal schedule.

"Repair work is under way to fix some barracks and some infrastructure on the shooting range," Dodon said.

"I did not detect any dubious military works that could lead to the destabilization of the situation in the security zone [between Transdniester and the rest of Moldova] or to the involvement of foreign militaries in the area, as has been speculated in the media in the past several days," Dodon said.

Dodon said that he planned to inspect all of Moldova's military installations by the end of August, and to convene the country's Supreme Security Council to discuss the state of the those installations. His goal, he said, was to ensure that Moldova's neutrality is respected and Moldova won't be dragged into any regional conflict.

Since 2012, Moldova has been benefiting from a $1.6 million grant to modernize the Bulboaca base as a partner within the U.S.-funded Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) -- part of a broader action plan adopted in 2004 by what was then the Group of Eight leading industrialized countries to improve international and regional peacekeeping operations.

The Defense Ministry has clarified that the funds from the GPOI were used to improve the training of a Moldovan peacekeeping battalion involved in UN peacekeeping missions that do not affect Moldova's neutrality.

U.S. Ambassador to Moldova James Pettit visited Bulboaca on August 10 to check how GPOI funds are being used. The U.S. Embassy in Chisinau says the United States has invested $1.1 million to improve training areas and roads at Bulboaca, and anticipates investing a further $1.2 million to train Moldovan peacekeepers.

But Pettit on August 10 clarified that a separate type of U.S. military aid under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program was on a temporary "break."

Pettit's statement came after former Moldovan Defense Minister Anatol Salaru said Washington had suspended $12.7 million in military aid because Dodon blocked Moldova's participation in international military exercises.

In February, Dodon refused to sign a decree allowing Moldovan troops to attend the Platinum Eagle 2017 exercise in Romania together with several NATO and non-NATO states.

He argued at the time that there was no clear motivation for Moldova to attend.

With reporting by Diana Raileanu of RFE/RL's Moldovan Service
Pakistan is celebrating 70 years of statehood and independence, with President Mamnoon Hussain appealing to Pakistani citizens to "rise above" their party and group interests and "protect the future of the nation."

Hussain was addressing an August 14 ceremony in Islamabad attended by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

The Pakistani Air Force later put on a spectacular airshow above the capital, with planes from allies Saudi Arabia and Turkey also taking part.

At the Wagah eastern border crossing with India, Pakistan's army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, said the country was making progress and promised to "go after each and every terrorist in Pakistan."

In the seven decades since Pakistan's independence, Washington and Islamabad have "worked closely together to advance our mutual interests of democracy, stability, security, and economic development in Pakistan and across the region," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.

"Today, the United States joins the people of Pakistan in celebrating this anniversary and our 70-year relationship, as we continue to work together in the years ahead."

Pakistan gained independence when the British left India and split the subcontinent in 1947, sparking one of the most violent upheavals of the 20th century.

India, the historic rival of Pakistan, marks its independence one day later, on August 15.

The two nuclear-armed states share a tense relationship, primarily over the disputed territory of Kashmir, which has sparked two wars between them.

For the Pakistanis, the anniversary comes amid political turmoil that has characterized successive civilian governments of the country, which has been dominated by military rule through much of its history.

Last month, the Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office on July 28 over undisclosed wealth. Sharif stepped down, but decried the court's ruling as an injustice.

Security was on high alert across Pakistan after a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a military truck in the southwestern city of Quetta on August 13, killing 15 people, including soldiers and civilians. The was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Quetta is the capital of resource-rich Balochistan Province, which has been plagued by sectarian violence, Islamist militant attacks, and a separatist insurgency that has led to thousands of casualties since 2004.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and the BBC
Kosovar Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj flatly rejected a compromise proposed by his Serbian counterpart on August 14 aimed at resolving their long-standing territorial dispute and furthering both countries' plans to join the European Union.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, a strong ally of President Aleksandar Vucic, proposed the redrawing of boundaries between Serb and Albanian enclaves in Kosovo and providing autonomy for the Serbian enclave within Kosovo.

In return, Dacic wrote in an opinion article published on August 14 in the daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti that Serbia would give up its claim to all of Kosovo.

But Hoxhaj flatly rejected the idea, which would turn about one-fifth of its territory into an autonomous Serbian region that almost certainly would be hostile to Pristina.

Hoxhaj wrote on Twitter late on August 14 that his country is "a multiethnic democracy with internationally recognized borders" and will stay that way.

Serbia's renewed ideas 4 border change are dangerous & unacceptable," Hoxhaj said.

Kosovo, a country of 1.8 million people, declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognized by 115 countries but not by Belgrade. Currently there are around 120,000 Serbs in Kosovo and most of them, mainly in the north, oppose the Pristina authorities.

Kosovar Albanians, who are the ethnic majority in the small Balkan nation, oppose greater autonomy for Serb-dominated municipalities, saying that would give Belgrade more influence.

Dacic, who is also first deputy prime minister of Serbia, had argued that "everyone needs a lasting solution of the Serbian-Albanian conflict, which can be reached only through an agreement...where everyone will win something and lose something."

He said that under his proposal, besides seeking autonomy for Serbian enclaves in Kosovo, Serbia would seek a protected status for Orthodox monasteries, and financial compensation for what Belgrade claims as its property, including industrial and energy facilities.

In the long-standing feud between the countries, Kosovo is supported by the West. Serbia is a traditional ally of Russia, but Vucic has attempted to balance relations between Moscow, the European Union, and the United States.

Kosovo and Serbia have both expressed hopes of joining the EU and have agreed to talks sponsored by the bloc on normalizing ties. However, many Serbian nationalists oppose EU membership and are pushing for closer ties to Russia and do not want to recognize Kosovo as independent.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, and B92
ON MY MIND

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a proposal to reduce tensions with North Korea.

Under what Lavrov billed as a Chinese-Russian proposal, North Korea would freeze missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises.

As we discuss on this week's Power Vertical Briefing, the plan isn't very different from Moscow's rhetoric every time North Korea acts up.

After every missile test, Moscow oh so mildly criticizes Pyongyang -- but the criticism always comes with a twist, a hedge, and a yeah-but.

After a North Korean missile launch back in May, for example, Vladimir Putin said we need to "stop intimidating" Kim Jong Un's regime and find "peaceful ways of resolving these issues."

A little context here is useful, because the Kremlin is far from an honest broker regarding North Korea. In fact, Moscow has been quite busy courting Pyongyang for some time now.

Shortly after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin wrote off most of North Korea's $11 billion debt to Russia.

Moreover, about 50,000 North Koreans are working on construction projects in the Russian Far East.

And a new ferry route was recently opened between Vladivostok and the North Korean port of Rason.

If Russia chose to, it could use its leverage to curb North Korea's dangerous behavior. But, instead, it appears to be more interested in courting and protecting a client.

IN THE NEWS

Five Crimean Tatar activists have been detained while protesting the jailing of Server Karametov, a 76-year-old man who has Parkinson's disease, by the Russian-imposed authorities.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said Syrian government troops backed by Russian forces have recaptured huge swathes of territory from opposition forces in the previous two months.

Russias government has nominated Germany's former chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, to join the board of the Russian state-owned energy giant Rosneft.

Residents of St. Petersburg have paid homage to sailors from the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea exactly 17 years earlier.

Former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov is briefly coming out of retirement after 12 years.

Snapchat's parent company says the U.S. messaging app has been registered with Russia's media regulator without its knowledge.

NEW POWER VERTICAL BRIEFING

On this week's Power Vertical Briefing, we look at a Russian-Chinese proposal to de-escalate tensions with North Korea.

WHAT I'M READING

Russia's Hi-Tech Tool Kit

Wired looks at what it calls "Russia's high-tech toolbox" for subverting Western democracy.

Hacking Skeptics

In his column for Bloomberg, political commentator Leonid Bershidsky looks at why some U.S. intelligence officials remain skeptical of the allegations of Russian hacking.



Five Years Of Foreign Agents

In OpenDemocracy, Daria Skibo looks at Russia's "foreign agent" law five years after its passage.

Eighteen Years Of Putin

Vladimir Putin was unexpectedly named prime minister 18 years ago this week. In Republic.ru, Giorgi Golosov, a professor at the European University of St. Petersburg, looks at the meaning of Putin's long rule.

A Leftist Walks Free

In his column for Republic.ru, Oleg Kashin looks at what we can expect from leftist opposition figure Sergei Udaltsov following his release from prison.

Ukraine And North Korea's Missiles

The New York Times has a piece by William Broad and David Sanger linking North Korea's missile success to possible black market purchases from a Ukrainian plant with long-standing ties to Russia's defense industry.

Slouching Toward A Systemic Crisis?

Philip Zelikow, a history professor at the University of Virginia and a former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, has a piece in The Atlantic asking: Is The World Slouching Toward A Grave Systemic Crisis? The piece is based on the text of Zelikow's keynote address at the annual meeting of the Aspen Strategy Group.
North Korea put its army on alert on August 15 but said it would hold off firing any missiles at U.S. territory after the U.S. Pentagon chief warned that such a move could "very quickly" escalate into a war.

In a statement carried by Pyongyang's official news agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his army to always be prepared to launch a missile strike but said he will watch what the United States does for a while longer before making any decision to launch them.

"The United States, which was the first to bring numerous strategic nuclear equipment near us, should first make the right decision and show through actions if they wish to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and prevent a dangerous military clash," Kim was cited as saying by his KCNA news agency.

Kim's latest rhetorical volley at the United States came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters in Washington on August 14 that the United States is prepared to "take out" any missile fired at its territory in what he views as an act of war.

"If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly," he said. "Yes, that's called war, if they shoot at us."

Mattis said U.S. missile detection and tracking systems can determine quickly whether a missile launched from North Korea is headed for U.S. soil. North Korea said last week it is considering launching four missiles to land just short of the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam.

If a missile is judged to be headed for Guam, Mattis said: "We'll take it out."

If the Pentagon determines the missile would fall into the sea short of Guam, he said "it becomes an issue we take up however the president chooses."

Mattis stressed that he doesn't want to escalate the war of words with Pyongyang and believes the two nations should settle their dispute over North Korea's development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons peacefully.

Mattis noted that he joined U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in authoring an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on August 13 that repeated Tillerson's previous assurances to Kim that America has "no interest" in regime change in Pyongyang or an accelerated reunification of the two Koreas.

The two officials said in the article that "while diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Koreas course of action, it is backed by military options."

"We were thinking it would be wise to put out something that shows how the State Department and the Defense Department work together. It's not one or the other; it's the two working together," Mattis said.

The exchange between Mattis and Kim came after the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff told South Korea's president in a visit to Seoul on August 14 that the United States is prepared to use all the military capabilities it possesses to defend against North Korea, according to a spokesman.

General Joseph Dunford told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that "North Korea's ballistic-missile and nuclear weapons programs threaten the entire global community," U.S. military spokesman Captain Darryn James said.

He said that Dunford "conveyed America's readiness to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the U.S. homeland."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Moon told reporters that Dunford said the U.S. military options being prepared against North Korea would be for when diplomatic and economic sanctions failed.

Dunford is also to visit China and Japan this week, amid tension over an exchange of fiery warnings between North Korea and the United States.

He told reporters on August 13 that during his Asia trip he would discuss military options in the event that the "diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign" fails.

"We're all looking to get out of this situation without a war," Dunford said.

Moon called on August 14 for calm in the standoff with the North, saying there should never be another war on the peninsula.

"We cannot have a war on the Korean Peninsula ever again," Moon said. The 1950-53 conflict cost more than 1 million lives and perpetuated the division of the peninsula.

Tensions have increased since U.S. President Donald Trump, responding to the North's latest missile tests, warned that the United States would respond to further threats with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

The North, in turn, threatened to fire missiles toward Guam, and Trump subsequently said that a U.S. military response was "locked and loaded" -- meaning ready to be put in place at any time.

The war of words has sparked global alarm, with world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping urging calm on both sides. China is the North's most important ally and trade partner.

However, Beijing is increasingly frustrated with Pyongyang and joined in approving UN Security Council sanctions on August 5 over the North's nuclear program.

In line with the new sanctions, China on August 14 announced it will stop importing North Korean iron ore, coal, fish, and other goods in three weeks.

With tension high, two leading U.S. national security officials suggested on August 13 that a military confrontation with North Korea is not imminent but that the possibility of war still looms.

"We're not closer to war than a week ago, but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago," H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, told ABC televisions This Week program.

McMaster said the United States continues to pursue "a very determined diplomatic effort," led by Tillerson, along with new financial sanctions, to discourage North Korea from making further provocative moves.

Speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said that there's nothing imminent today" but that it was important to make clear to North Korea that U.S. patience has worn out.

Pompeo said that the United States wants North Korea to understand "that America is no longer going to have the strategic patience that it's had that has permitted him to continue to develop his weapons program. It's that straightforward."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
The Pentagon says the two U.S. service members who were recently killed in Iraq died in an artillery "mishap."

"An army artillery section was conducting a counterfire mission against an ISIS mortar site when a mishap occurred, injuring seven soldiers," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said on August 14, using an acronym for the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

Two of the troops later died.

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the IS militants said on August 13 that initial reports indicated the casualties did not occur as a result of contact with the enemy, although it did not elaborate.

The Amaq news agency, which is linked to IS, claimed rockets fired by the group resulted in several casualties among U.S. troops in northern Iraq.

The agency said the attack targeted a village east of the IS-held town of Tal Afar.

IS fighters have been driven from much of the territory they captured in 2014 from government forces, including the major northern city of Mosul.

But they still control some areas, including Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

The iCasualties.org website, which lists coalition casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports that 11 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq in 2017.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, dpa, and AFP
U.S. President Donald Trump strongly condemned racism on August 14 amid continuing protests prompted by the death of a woman demonstrating against white supremacists in the U.S. state of Virginia.



"Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs," Trump told reporters on August 14.



He said that the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists were "repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."



Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 others were hurt when a car rammed into people protesting against a far-right march in Charlottesville on August 12.



Trump had come under fire for not specifically denouncing extremists in his initial comments on the violence over the weekend.

While Trump on August 14 sought to put to rest such criticism, his remarks did little to calm tensions across the country, with protests against right-wing groups continuing and intensifying in several U.S. cities.

Trump himself was dogged by protesters as he made his first return visit to his home in Manhattan since assuming the presidency in January. Thousands of protesters lined the route to Trump Tower carrying signs saying "Impeach," "Stop the hate, stop the lies," and chanting "Shame, shame, shame."

In the state of North Carolina, antidiscrimination protesters toppled a nearly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier symbolizing those who fought to preserve slavery in the South during the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s.

Plans to remove a similar Confederate statue in Charlottesville is what sparked the confrontation between white supremacists and antidiscrimination protesters in that southern city.

Spurred on by the example of Charlottesville, governors and mayors in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and elsewhere came out in favor of removing Confederate statues still standing in their public places.

While protests continued against symbols of racism around the country, right-wing groups vowed to keep speaking out and holding rallies -- gatherings that are considered legal and protected by the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech, unless they turn violent or threaten public safety.

The University of Florida said white provocateur Richard Spencer was seeking permission to speak there next month.

But Texas A&M University announced that it has canceled a planned rally dubbed "White Lives Matter" next month that was supposed to feature Spencer as a speaker. The prestigious Texas university cited safety concerns following the deadly violence in Charlottesville.

Earlier on August 14, the man accused of driving his car into the crowd in Charlottesville was formally charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count related to leaving the scene of an accident.



James Alex Fields, 20, was also denied bail during his appearance in court via video from jail.



Federal investigators said they had opened a civil-rights investigation into the incident.



Hundreds of white nationalists had convened in Charlottesville to protest against the city's decision to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate military leader during the American Civil War.



They were challenged by antifascists and counterprotesters and the rally erupted into violent clashes.



Shortly after, Heyer and other demonstrators were struck by a car.



Video footage of the incident shows a car being driven at high speed, striking and injuring many people, before it slams into the backs of two other cars and then speeds away in reverse.



Fields was pictured at the rally earlier in the day with a white-supremacist group. A former high-school teacher of Fields said the 20-year-old was fascinated with Nazism and had been singled out by school officials when he was in the ninth grade for his "deeply held, radical" views on race.



Police officials said the deaths of two Virginia state troopers in a helicopter crash during the clashes were also connected to the protests. Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia state police, said the pilot and a passenger were killed in the helicopter crash.



The man who organized the right-wing rally attempted to hold a news conference on August 14, but he was booed by several hundred people who eventually forced him away from a lectern.



Jason Kessler, a blogger based in Charlottesville, was preparing to speak in front of reporters and news cameras when people chanted and made noises with drums and other instruments.



A video shows a man pushing Kessler, who asked police officers for help. The officers eventually escorted him away.



Immediately after the violence broke out, Trump urged people to unite and expressed condolences for the victims of the violence, but many Democrats and Republicans attacked the president for waiting too long to address the violence, and for saying "many sides" were involved rather than explicitly condemning white-supremacist marchers widely seen as sparking the melee.



The head of the U.S. pharmaceutical firm Merck said on August 14 that he was quitting a White House business council, saying that "America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal."



"As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism," said Kenneth Frazier, who is African-American.

Frazier was joined in quitting Trump's American Manufacturing Council later on August 14 by the chief executives of two other major American corporations -- Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Under Armour CEO Kavin Plank.

With reporting by AP, AFP, CNN, and Reuters
This is the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years. Communication Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists that at least 17 people were dead and eight others wounded. The victims came from several different nationalities. Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles and killed three jihadists but no arrests were made. Its not even known how many attackers were involved. Attackers barricaded themselves. The Prosecutors Office has opened an investigation.



Armored vehicle at the scene of attack

All roads leading up to the Ouagadougou International Airport were closed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Burkina Faso, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, has long battled Islamic extremists. Many attacks have been along the countrys remote northern border region with Mali, a country that has endured attacks by Islamist militants for more than a decade. Thirty people were killed when gunmen attacked a restaurant and hotel in Ouagadougou in January 2016 in an incident claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Made In Space personnel work on the 3D printer for the companys Archinaut robotic manufacturing and assembly system.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.  Made In Space just took another step toward its goal of building telescopes and other large structures off Earth.

A 3D printer built by the California-based company churned out multiple polymer-alloy objects  the largest of which was a 33.5-inch-long (85 centimeters) beam  during a 24-day test inside a thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC) here in Silicon Valley at NASA's Ames Research Center in June.

The milestone marks the first time a 3D printer has created "extended structures" in a space-like environment, Made In Space representatives said here Thursday (Aug. 10) during a press event announcing the success of the June test. (The TVAC imposed the temperatures and vacuum of space, though standard Earth gravity remained.) [3D Printing in Space: A Photo Gallery]

Archinauts 3D printer in the thermal vacuum chamber at NASAs Ames Research Center in Californias Silicon Valley. The printer created numerous objects under space-like conditions during the June 2017 test, Made In Space representatives said. (Image credit: Made In Space)

"This is an important milestone, because it means that we can now adaptively and on demand manufacture things in space," said Made In Space CEO Andrew Rush. "We have significantly de-risked that technology."

Made In Space has already demonstrated zero-G printing; the company built the two 3D printers aboard the International Space Station. (NASA owns one of the machines, and Made In Space owns the other, operating it as a commercial facility.) But both of the ISS printers are kept inside the station, so they don't experience the vacuum or extreme temperature fluctuations of space.

The printer that aced the June test is a component of Archinaut, a robotic system that Made In Space is developing under a NASA "tipping point technologies" contract. Archinaut will also feature robotic arms, which will work with the 3D printer to build and assemble structures in the final frontier. (At Thursday's event, Made In Space gave a demonstration of one such robotic arm autonomously grabbing a small beam and inserting it in its proper slot. Photos were not allowed, or you'd be seeing some in this story.)

Such technology will allow for the design and manufacture of much larger and more ambitious spacecraft, since they won't need to fit inside a rocket's nose cone and survive the rigors of launch, NASA officials said.

"We do believe that in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly is going to revolutionize the way we design and deploy and operate systems in space," Steve Jurczyk, the head of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said at Thursday's event.

Archinaut "could enable a wide range of in-space manufacturing and assembly capabilities," he added.

One such potential capability is the construction of much larger space telescopes. Jurczyk pointed to the example of NASA's much-anticipated $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which has a primary mirror 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) wide.

JWST will be so compacted for its November 2018 launch that it will take more than 80 separate deployment operations after liftoff to get the scope ready to observe the heavens, Jurczyk said. Such a strategy could work for a space telescope with a mirror up to 26 feet (8 m) or so wide, he added. But NASA wants to build even bigger scopes, ones at least 39 feet (12 m) wide, to hunt for signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres and perform other ambitious observations.

"That mission is just not doable right now, given the current launch vehicles and trying to fold things up and fit them in a launch vehicle shroud, in a single launch," Jurczyk told Space.com. "It would take multiple launches of partially assembled systems, which would be expensive."

Archinaut would make things much easier and cheaper, he added: Mission managers would just have to launch feedstock material to the three-armed spacecraft, which would build the telescope in orbit.

But Archinaut isn't just about building new things: It will also be able to repair and augment existing satellites, Rush said.

The next big technological step for Made In Space is working to integrate Archinaut's printer and robotic-arm operations, Rush said. After that step is complete, the company would like to fly a demonstration mission in Earth orbit.

Next will come full-on commercial operations. Based on what he's seen, Jurczyk estimated that Archinaut could be up and running by the mid-2020s.

Rush didn't disagree.

"I think operational systems in that time frame are very achievable," he told Space.com.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
The total solar eclipse is only one week away: Here are some last-minute tips for eclipse viewing and traveling.

The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21 will be visible along a narrow "path of totality" that runs from Oregon to South Carolina. Tens of millions of people are expected to travel into the path to view the event. Outside of that path in North America, people will still have a view of the partial solar eclipse.

As the big day draws near, we've been getting lots of questions from readers about the eclipse. To answer those queries, we asked Angela Speck, co-chair of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force and the director of astronomy at the University of Missouri, for some last-minute advice. [Solar Eclipse Glasses: Where to Buy the Best, High-Quality Eyewear]

"We've only just got to the point where people are starting to believe [the eclipse] is going to be as big as it is," Speck said. "I've been telling people for three years that it's going to be ludicrously busy. And a lot of people [were] like, 'Oh, you're exaggerating!' And now they're just getting to the point where they're like, 'Oh [shoot], we're not ready for this!' And so my job is to reassure them that there's still time for them to figure stuff out."

On Aug. 21, 2017 a total solar eclipse will cross 14 U.S. states from Oregon to South Carolina. See the eclipse path in this NASA map. (Image credit: NASA)

Conditions inside the path of totality may resemble a zombie apocalypse. What should I do to prepare?

Tens of millions of people will be traveling into the path, overwhelming local businesses, roads and cellphone networks. At Space.com, we've gathered the best solar eclipse maps for your use.

If you live inside the path of totality, Speck recommended you prepare as if there were a major storm headed your way  fill up your gas tank, do your grocery shopping a few days early, have some emergency supplies on hand (like bottled water and batteries), and try not to travel if you don't have to.

For people driving into the path, Speck said it may take three to four times longer to travel certain distances, so make sure you budget extra travel time. Fill up on gas when you can; carry supplies in your car like water, food and other necessities; and pack things to entertain everyone during the long trip. You might even want to pack a few blankets and pillows in case you're forced to sleep in your vehicle, Speck said.

Bring paper maps or copies of directions to your destination, because cellphone networks may be overwhelmed and you might not be able to use your GPS.

Finally, Speck said people should remain calm and stay flexible; traffic and other travel problems might mean you're forced to view the eclipse from a different location than the one you originally planned; that's OK, as long as you get to see the show.

This sounds very stressful! Why should I put myself through that ordeal?

"I want people to realize it is going to be busy, but it's going to be totally worth it," Speck said. "Even though it's going to take a long time and you have to drive in traffic and all of that, it will be worth it."

A total solar eclipse is considered one of the most amazing sights that the sky has to offer. Some eclipse enthusiasts argue that it is more awe-inspiring than the auroras.

"Once you're in totality  it's going to go dark really fast," Speck said. "It goes from an early twilight color to almost full-moon dark really quickly, like in a second.

"There's going to be what looks like a hole in the sky where the moon is," she continued. "Around that, you're going to see these streamers of white light. That's the corona, or atmosphere of the sun. And that's always there. We just don't get to see it, except when sun is eclipsed. You're also going to get to see stars, planets  there'll be Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter. There's a whole bunch of things to see up there."

And the eclipse isn't just visual, Speck said. Observers will also notice a drop in temperature, a sudden breeze and changes in animal behavior, such as birds going silent or nocturnal insects beginning to chirp.

"You experience it with multiple senses," she said.

I live in a place where 99 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon; that's good enough, right?

No!

"Ninety-nine percent of an eclipse is not ninety-nine percent of the experience," Speck said. "That's the message that I want to get across: If you have a 99 percent eclipse, you don't get darkness, you don't get to see the corona, you don't get to see stars in the middle of the day."

I can't get to the path of the totality for the eclipse; is there anything for me to see on eclipse day?

Yes!

Speck acknowledges that not everyone will be able to get to the path of totality. But people in North America who are outside the path will still see a partial solar eclipse, which is also worth observing. People outside the path can still watch live streams of totality or try photographing the partial eclipse (with the right equipment).

Her advice: "If you can, get to the path of totality. If you can't, make sure you either have eclipse glasses or a pinhole camera  some way to view it safely  and look at it at the peak time."

What if I can't get eclipse glasses for the total or partial eclipse?

Many online suppliers are already running out of eclipse glasses, and Speck said it is very likely that not everyone who wants a pair will be able to get one. (It is extremely important to buy eclipse glasses from trusted manufacturers and vendors. Using counterfeit or noncertified glasses can cause serious eye damage. Check out our guide to find out where to buy safe glasses and how to test your glasses for safety.)

"I think it is true that there will not be enough [eclipse glasses]," she said. "Remember that the entire nation gets a partial eclipse, so we're talking about 300 million people that will be able to watch something. And for the partial eclipse you absolutely have to have [solar viewing] glasses."

But don't fear! Speck assured skywatchers it's not the end of the world if you can't get a pair of eclipse glasses or a solar viewing card.

If you don't have your own pair of glasses, remember you can share with a friend. Observers need to use solar viewers when looking at the partially eclipsed sun, but in the path of totality, partiality will last for about 90 minutes. There is plenty of time to have a look at the sun and then let someone else use your glasses. You can also get solar-viewing binoculars or solar filters for telescopes and cameras.

If you really can't get a solar viewer, you can always make a pinhole camera that will project an image of the sun and show you the progress of the moon through the sky. (A pinhole camera is not used to look directly at the sun.) You can build a pinhole camera at home, or even use found objects like a straw hat to make projections of the sun on the ground. [How to View a Solar Eclipse Without Damaging Your Eyes]

(Editor's Note: Here are some of the best places to turn your eclipse trip into an outdoor adventure, according to our sister-site, Active Junky. Most campgrounds are booked, but here are great eclipse-viewing spots that are off the grid.)

Can I use welder's goggles to view the eclipse?

Technically, yes.

According to the American Astronomical Society, "the only [welding filters] that are safe for direct viewing of the sun with your eyes are those of shade 12 or higher. These are much darker than the filters used for most kinds of welding.

"If you have an old welder's helmet around the house and are thinking of using it to view the sun, make sure you know the filter's shade number," the AAS website said. "If it's less than 12 (and it probably is), don't even think about using it to look at the sun. Many people find the sun too bright even in a shade 12 filter, and some find the sun too dim in a shade 14 filter  but shade 13 filters are uncommon and can be hard to find.

"In any case, welding filters generally give a sickly green image of the sun, whereas special-purpose solar viewers give a white, yellow or orange image, which is much more pleasing and natural," the website said. "Our Reputable Vendors of Solar Filters & Viewers page doesn't list any suppliers of welder's filters, only suppliers of filters made exclusively for viewing the sun."

If you can't find shade 13 welding filters, can you combine two dimmer filters? Rick Feinberg, press officer for AAS, told Space.com that that a shade 5 and shade 10 filter together would technically give the eye protection of a shade 14 (not a shade 15), which would protect your eyes, but the view would "probably be terrible!"

I heard it's unsafe to look at the totally eclipsed sun. Is that true?

Quite the opposite.

It is safe to look at the eclipse when the disk of the sun is completely covered by the moon. When even a sliver of the sun is visible, use proper eye protection.

I heard that looking at the partially eclipsed sun is worse than looking at the non-eclipsed sun or can damage my eyes faster than the non-eclipsed sun. Is that true?

Whether the moon is covering part of the sun's disk or is nowhere near the sun in the sky, looking directly at the sun can permanently damage your eyes. Looking at a partially eclipsed sun is no more dangerous than looking at a non-eclipsed sun. Even a sliver of the sun's disk is bright enough to cause eye damage, so wear proper eye protection except during totality.

I want to photograph the total eclipse/I want to view the total solar eclipse through binoculars or a telescope. What do I need to know?

If this is your first time seeing a total solar eclipse, most experts say you should just enjoy totality. Don't try to take pictures, and don't spend too much time fiddling with binoculars or a telescope. Even seasoned eclipse observers say that they sometimes forget to use their equipment during totality, because they are literally awestruck.

If you do decide to use observing or photography equipment, take a look at the photography tips here, and find information about how to make solar filters here.

Whatever you do, make sure that during the partial phase of the eclipse (when any part of the sun's disk is visible), you have a solar filter in front of any lens or piece of equipment you use, Speck said.

For example, if you look through a telescope at the partially eclipsed sun, there must be a solar filter over the telescope lens. Do not look at the sun through an unfiltered telescope,even if you are wearing eclipse glasses. Sunlight that passes through a telescope lens is magnified, so it is even more intense than looking directly at the sun unaided. (You may recall that when sunlight passes through a magnifying glass, it is focused into a small space and is intense enough to start fires.) The magnified light can damage your eyes even if you are wearing solar viewing glasses, because those glasses were not made to block such high levels of radiation. Solar filters must also be used on camera lenses and binoculars.

Speck said people should also take care when trying to photograph the sun on smartphones or tablets. Sunlight can damage the camera or screen on your phone or tablet. You can avoid that type of damage by covering the camera with one half of a pair of solar viewing glasses. (And take care not to look at the sun with your naked eye while you are trying to take a picture.)

To improve the quality of your image, first take the phone or tablet out of the case before taping the filter over it to improve the clarity of the image. And make sure you have a tripod or a stable way to position whatever camera you use, Speck said, otherwise the minute vibrations of your hand will make the image blurry. Through a solar filter, the sun is about as bright as the full moon, so try going outside at night when the moon is up and practice your camera work ahead of the eclipse.

How do most people react to a total solar eclipse?

"As far as I can tell, anybody who sees one of these things gets excited, and actually pretty emotional," she said. "You don't have to be into science. This is something that can appeal to everybody."

Speck said people should also expect to hear "a lot of cursing" when watching the eclipse with a large group. "There's a lot of people for whom, that's how they express that level of emotion. It's a gut feeling," she said.

If you can, take Speck's advice and get to the path of totality on eclipse day!

Editor's note: Space.com has teamed up with Simulation Curriculum to offer this awesome Eclipse Safari app to help you enjoy your eclipse experience. The free app is available for Apple (opens in new tab) and Android, and you can view it on the web. If you take an amazing photo of the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, let us know! Send photos and comments to: spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship stand atop Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the CRS-11 mission in June 2017. SpaceX will launch a new Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station on the CRS-12 cargo mission for NASA on Aug. 14, 2017.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the last brand-new Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) Monday (Aug. 14), and you can watch all the action live online.

The Falcon 9 is slated to blast off from at 12:31 p.m. ET (1631 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About 10 minutes later, the rocket's first stage will separate and head back to Earth to stick an upright landing. You can watch the launch live on Space.com here, courtesy of NASA TV's livestream. You can also watch SpaceX's own webcast here.

Monday's launch marks the 12th cargo resupply mission SpaceX has launched to the space station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract the company signed with NASA in 2008. Originally the contract called for only 12 launches, but SpaceX has since extended that agreement to include 20 cargo missions. While this won't be the last cargo launch for SpaceX, it will be the last time the company launches a brand-new Dragon spacecraft. From now on, only reused Dragon spacecraft will fly to the International Space Station, SpaceX representatives said Sunday (Aug. 13). [Gallery: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spacecraft]

The Dragon will deliver more than 6,400 lbs. (2,900 kg) of science experiments, hardware and supplies for the Expeditions 52 and 53 crewmembers after a two-day trek through low-Earth orbit. On Wednesday (Aug. 16) at about 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), NASA astronaut Jack Fischer will use the space station's robotic arm to grapple the spacecraft from inside the Cupola window. Canadarm2 will then install the Dragon on the bottom of the space station's Harmony module, where it will stay for about a month.

Opening of the hatch and unloading of the cargo isn't on the crew's schedule until Thursday, but the crew may try to get a head start to get their hands on some particularly delicious frozen cargo  ice cream. "I think the crew is aware that there are some frozen treats on this particular mission, so I wouldn't be surprised if they work long in the day and try to open the hatch and enjoy some," said Dan Hartman, deputy ISS Program manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston, at a briefing on Sunday (Aug. 13).

Science on board

Supplies for the crew only make up a small portion (less than 8 percent) of the cargo packed inside the Dragon spacecraft. Nearly 75 percent of the cargo weight consists of science experiments that other equipment that will support dozens of research investigations conducted by the crews of Expeditions 52 and 53.

One notable biology experiment will research new treatments for Parkinson's disease by studying a key protein, LRRK2, in a microgravity environment. Another experiment will test strategies for growing lung tissue from stem cells, a bioengineering technique that could one day repair damaged organs and reduce organ rejection. Also aboard the Dragon will be 20 live mice, which will help scientists understand the physiological effects of long-duration spaceflight.

One investigation by the private company NanoRacks and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense aims to validate the concept of using microsatellites with imaging systems to support critical military operations. And outside the space station, an astrophysics observatory known as Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) will measure the charges of cosmic rays with a balloon-borne experiment.

Some young, aspiring scientists with Boy Scout Troop 209, based in Chicago, will also send an experiment into space on this Dragon launch. They will study how bacteria exposed to cancer-causing agents mutate in microgravity and on Earth. Their findings could have implications for future cancer research.

'One attempt'

Because the ISS crew has a busy week ahead, SpaceX only has one shot to launch this Dragon. If Monday's launch is scrubbed, the next launch window will open no earlier than Saturday (Aug. 19), Hartman said, calling Monday's launch "a one-attempt."

Rescheduling the launch for Tuesday (Aug. 15) would put the Dragons arrival date at the same time as a Russian spacewalk on Aug. 17. Then on Aug. 18, NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite will launch from Kennedy Space Center as well.

As of Sunday evening, the weather forecast is 70 percent favorable for launch. "Primary weather concerns will be cumulus clouds and flight through precipitation, although the early afternoon launch time is promising," NASA officials said.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
SpaceX has pulled off another one-two spaceflight punch.

One of the company's Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida today (Aug. 14) at 12:31 p.m. EDT (1631 GMT), sending a robotic Dragon cargo capsule on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.

Then, about 8 minutes after launch, the first stage of the two-stage Falcon 9 came back to Earth, touching down at SpaceX's "Landing Zone 1" at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which sits next door to KSC. [Inside SpaceX's Dragon Cargo Capsule (Infographic)]

SpaceX now has 14 such rocket landings under its belt, and the company has reflown two landed boosters to date. Such activities are part of SpaceX's effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable systems, which company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said could cut the cost of spaceflight dramatically.

Two different views of a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage coming in for a landing on Aug. 14, 2017. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Indeed, the company has also launched a pre-flown Dragon capsule on one occasion  the company's previous ISS cargo mission, which lifted off on June 3. (The Dragon that left Earth today is brand-new, but SpaceX plans to employ used capsules for the rest of its resupply flights, company representatives have said.)

If all goes according to plan, Dragon will chase the orbiting lab for two days, finally catching up to the station around 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT) on Wednesday (Aug. 16).

At that point, astronauts will grapple Dragon using the station's huge robotic arm, securing the freighter. When the hatches between the two vehicles open, ISS crewmembers will begin offloading the capsule's cargo, which consists of more than 6,400 lbs. (2,900 kilograms) of food, supplies and scientific hardware. (A lot of research gear is flying up on the Dragon, including seeded plant "pillows" for growth experiments and mice whose experience in microgravity should help researchers better understand the physiological impacts of long-duration spaceflight.)

The capsule is also carrying up some ice cream for the astronauts, NASA officials said.

"I think the crew is aware that there are some frozen treats on this particular mission, so I wouldn't be surprised if they work long in the day and try to open the hatch and enjoy some," Dan Hartman, deputy ISS Program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, at a pre-launch briefing yesterday (Aug. 13).

Dragon will spend about a month attached to the orbiting lab before heading back down to Earth for an ocean splashdown. SpaceX personnel will then retrieve the craft by boat.

Today's launch kicked off SpaceX's 12thcontracted resupply mission to the station for NASA. All of these flights have been successful except one; on June 28, 2015, a Falcon 9 broke apart less than 3 minutes after liftoff, scuttling a Dragon flight.

NASA also holds an ISS resupply contract with another American spaceflight company, Orbital ATK. The space agency has also contracted with SpaceX and Boeing to fly astronauts to and from the orbiting lab. These crewed missions  which will employ a crewed version of Dragon, as well as Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule  are currently scheduled to begin next year.

NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry the agency's astronauts to and from the ISS since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the country's largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including his recent "The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind (opens in new tab)" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). You can follow him on Facebook. Lincoln contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

For as long as we have kept records, humanity has marveled at the night sky. We have looked at the heavens to determine the will of the gods and to wonder about the meaning of it all. The mere 5,000 stars we can see with the unaided eye have been humanitys companions for millennia.

Modern astronomical facilities have shown us that the universe doesn't consist of just thousands of stars  it consists of hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone, with trillions of galaxies. Observatories have taught us about the birth and evolution of the universe. And, on Aug. 3, a new facility made its first substantive announcement and added to our understanding of the cosmos. It allows us to see the unseeable, and it showed that the distribution of matter in the universe differed a bit from expectations.

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a collaboration of about 400 scientists who have embarked on a five-year mission to study distant galaxies to answer questions about the history of the universe. It uses the Dark Energy Camera (DEC) attached to the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatoryin the Chilean Andes. DEC was assembled in the U.S. at Fermilab near Batavia, Illinois, and is a 570-megapixel camera able to image galaxies so far away that their light is a millionth as bright as the dimmest visible stars.

Dark energy and dark matter

DES is hunting for dark energy, which is a proposed energy field in the universe that is a repulsive form of gravity. While gravity exerts an irresistible attraction, dark energy pushes the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. Its effect was first observed in 1998, and we still have many questions about its nature.

However, by measuring the location and distance of 300 million galaxies in the southern night sky, the survey will be able to make important statements about another astronomical mystery, called dark matter. Dark matter is thought to be five times more prevalent in the universe than ordinary matter. Yet it doesnt interact with light, radio waves or any form of electromagnetic energy. And it doesnt appear to congregate to form large bodies like planets and stars.

Map of dark matter made from gravitational lensing measurements of 26 million galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey. (Image credit: Chihway Chang of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and the DES collaboration)

There is no way to directly see dark matter (hence the name). However, its effects can be seen indirectly by analyzing how fast galaxies rotate. If you calculate the rotational speeds supported by the galaxies visible mass, you will discover that they rotate more quickly than they should. By all rights, these galaxies should be torn apart. After decades of research, astronomers have concluded that each galaxy contains dark matter, which generates the additional gravity that holds the galaxies together. [6 Weird Facts About Gravity]

Dark matter in the universe

However, on the much larger scale of the universe, studying individual galaxies is not sufficient. Another approach is needed. For that, astronomers must employ a technique called gravitational lensing.

Gravitational lensing was predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein and was first observed by Sir Arthur Eddington in 1919. Einsteins theory of general relativity says that the gravity that we experience is really caused by the curvature of space-time. Since light travels in a straight line through space, if space-time is curved, it will look to an observer as if light were travelling a curved path through space. [8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life]

This phenomenon can be harnessed to study the amount and distribution of dark matter in the universe. Scientists who peer at a distant galaxy (called the lensing galaxy), which has another galaxy even farther away behind it (called the observed galaxy), can see a distorted image of the observed galaxy. The distortion is related to the mass of the lensing galaxy. Because the mass of the lensing galaxy is a combination of visible matter and dark matter, gravitational lensing allows scientists to directly observe the existence and distribution of dark matter on scales as large as the universe itself. This technique also works when a large cluster of foreground galaxies distorts the images of clusters of even more distant galaxies, which is the technique employed for this measurement.

Lumpy or not?

The DES collaboration recently released an analysis using exactly this technique. The team looked at a sample of 26 million galaxies at four different distances from Earth. The closer galaxies lensed ones that were farther away. By using this technique and looking carefully at the distortion of the images of all of the galaxies, they were able to map out the distribution of invisible dark matter and how it moved and clumped over the past 7 billion years, or half the lifespan of the universe.

As expected, they found that the dark matter of the universe was "lumpy." However, there was a surprise  it was a little less lumpy than previous measurements had predicted.

One of these contradictory measurements comes from the remnant radio signal from the earliest time after the Big Bang, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The CMB contains within it the distribution of energy in the cosmos when it was 380,000 years old. In 1998, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) collaboration announced that the CMB was not perfectly uniform, but rather had hot and cold spots that differed from uniform by 1 part in 100,000. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck satellites confirmed and refined the COBE measurements.

Over the 7 billion years between when the CMB was emitted and the time period studied by DES, those hotter regions of the universe seeded the formation of structure of the cosmos. Nonuniform energy distribution captured in the CMB, combined with the amplifying force of gravity, caused some spots in the universe to become denser and others less so. The result is the universe we see around us.

The CMB predicts the distribution of dark matter for a simple reason: The distribution of matter in our universe in the present depends on its distribution in the past. After all, if there were a clump of matter in the past, that matter would attract nearby matter and the clump would grow. Similarly, if we were to project into the distant future, the distribution of matter today would affect tomorrow's for the same reason.

So, scientists have used measurements of the CMB at 380,000 years after the Big Bang to calculate what the universe should look like 7 billion years later. When they compared the predictions to the measurements from DES, they found that the DES measurements were a little less lumpy than the predictions.

Incomplete picture

Is that a big deal? Maybe. The uncertainty, or error, in the two measurements is big enough that it means they dont disagree in a statistically significant way. What that simply means is that no one can be sure that the two measurements really disagree. It could be that the discrepancies arise by chance from statistical fluctuations in the data or small instrumental effects that were not considered.

Even the studys authors would suggest caution here. The DES measurements have not yet been peer-reviewed. The papers were submitted for publication and the results were presented at conferences, but firm conclusions should wait until the referee reports come in.

So, what is the future? DES has a five-year mission, of which four years of data have been recorded. The recently announced result uses only the first years worth of data. More recent data is still being analyzed. Further, the full data set will cover 5,000 square degrees of the sky, while the recent result only covers 1,500 square degrees and peers only half of the way back in time. Thus, the story is clearly not complete. An analysis of the full data set wont be expected until perhaps 2020.

Yet, the data taken today already could mean that there is a possible tension in our understanding of the evolution of the universe. And, even if that tension disappears as more data is analyzed, the DES collaboration is continuing to make other measurements. Remember that the letters "DE" in the name stand for dark energy. This group will eventually be able to tell us something about the behavior of dark energy in the past and what we can expect to see in the future. This recent measurement is just the very beginning of what is expected to be a scientifically fascinating time.

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at COSI science center. Sutter leads science-themed tours around the world at AstroTouring.com. Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

I suppose there is a small chance you'll miss the upcoming total solar eclipse as it crosses the United States on Aug. 21. Maybe you didn't hear about it. Maybe you forgot. Maybe you couldn't figure out how to travel to the line of totality. Maybe you couldn't be bothered to look outside. I won't judge  it's not the first solar eclipse in history, and it won't be the last.

We would ideally get solar eclipses every month during the new moon, when the Earth, moon and sun form a nice, straight line. Unfortunately, however, the orbit of the moon is tilted with respect to the Earth-sun line, so we get these fantastic natural shows only every few years or so.

The next corona show to grace the United States isn't that far off, coming April 8, 2024. That one will come up from Mexico via Texas, track along the Ohio River, and exit via Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Some folks are already dubbing that one the "Great North American Eclipse." If you live in New England, while you may have one of the worst spots for the 2017 eclipse, you have to wait only seven years for a decent view. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely)]

After that, we'll wait until mid-century for another cluster of eclipses, with one in 2044 barely grazing Montana and one on Aug. 12, 2045, following a similar cross-country trek as 2017's. That one will give the southern half of the U.S. a better show, however.

We then have to wait a few more decades until anything substantial occurs. The southeast will get a double dose in 2052 and 2078, and the northeast will get clipped again in 2079. Alaska gets a couple eclipses to enjoy by itself in 2033 and 2097.

The last eclipse of the century, on Sept. 14, 2099, will be a half-hearted cross-country tour, entering through North Dakota, traveling just south of the Great Lakes and exiting via the mid-Atlantic.

Here's the lesson: While there will be plenty of chances to catch a total solar eclipse in your own backyard in the coming century, a century is a very long time  at least in human terms. This year will be one of the best chances for the entire country to enjoy the show, with a large fraction of Americans within a day's drive of totality.

Don't wait!

Follow Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Bir Lehlu (SADR Liberated Territories), August 08, 2017 (SPS) - The member of the POLISARIO National Secretariat and SADR Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Salem ULD Salek, conveyed his congratulations to his Ecuadorian counterpart, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Maria Fernanda Espinosa on the occasion of the Proclamation of the First Cry of Independence of the Republic of Ecuador.

It is an honor for me to address you to express my cordial greeting and the pleasure of sending you my most cordial congratulations and that of the Saharawi Government on the occasion of the anniversary of the Proclamation of the First Cry of Independence of the Republic of Ecuador. Says Mohamed Salem ULD Salek in his letter to his Ecuadorian counterpart

The head of the Saharwi diplomacy gas also expressed the will and determination of SADR Government to strengthen and further develop the excellent ties and relations of friendship and cooperation existing between our two brother countries.SPS

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Boumerdes (Algeria), August 11, 2017 (SPS) - Several Algerian political parties and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Algeria expressed their support and solidarity with the Saharawi cause, at the opening ceremony of the Summer University of the SADR Executives, which started Thursday in the Algerian town of Boumerdes.

In this context, the Venezuelan ambassador to Algeria affirmed the solidarity of his country with the just struggle of the Saharawi people and added that "Venezuela will continue to support all peoples fighting for their freedom and self-determination, as is the case of the Saharawi people".

The spokesman of the Algerian political party, the National Democratic Assembly, expressed the commitment to the Saharawi cause. "We share the position of the Algerian state that is inspired by the principles of the Revolution of the First of November," said Shihab Sedik.

For his part, President of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Saleh Mohamed, praised the struggle being waged by the Saharawi people, who "are leading the way in continuous victories, thanks to their forms of peaceful struggle, such as the Intifada in the Occupied Zones of Western Sahara (SPS)

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Boumerdes (Algeria) August 12, 2017 (SPS) - The participants in Summer University of the Executives of the Polisario Front and the SADR organized today, Saturday, a solidarity sit-in with Sahrawi Father Deida Ould Al-Yazid and his family, who were assaulted by the Moroccan forces in front of their home in the occupied city of El-Aaiun.

During the solidarity sit-in, participants expressed their solidarity with the Sheikh of the Intifada, Deida Ould Al-Yazid. They also called on the international community to exert pressure on the Moroccan state to respect the legitimate demands of the Saharawi people.

It should be recalled that the Moroccan security forces had prevented a group of Sahrawi activists from visiting Deida Ould Al-Yazid and his family and supporting them at their protest in front of their house in the occupied city of El-Aaiun. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




A s Standard Life and Aberdeen skip into the sunset like Gretna Green lovebirds, who else will tie the knot in the troubled world of active fund management?

Theres little doubt the logic behind the Scottish coupling is just as pressing for others. All but the niche boutiques need to team up or die.

As profit margins get squeezed and cheap tracker funds attract ever more customers, active fund managers must invest massively if they want to be around in 20 years time. They need to spend millions more on tech to get the edge over rivals investment strategies, and fund big digital upgrades to provide the service Amazon-generation customers expect.

Only by bulking up through mergers can they make the savings which free up such funding.

But theres more to it than that: fund managers need mergers which create the most cross-selling prospects.

US behemoths such as Vanguard and BlackRock reign supreme because they offer a huge range of products globally. So, of BlackRocks top 500 clients, 49% have three or more of its products. Even after Aberdeen and Standard Lifes merger today, fewer than 20% of their clients have the same.

The hope is the different products now on offer  Asian equities from Aberdeen, say, or absolute return funds from Standard Life  will eventually prove attractive to each others clients.

So who will be next to walk down the aisle? Henderson and Janus have taken the plunge already (rivals call the tie-up Heinous). But although their deal brings each other into new countries, the products which each side offers are similar. Heinous will need to do more mergers or partnerships to widen its product ranges.

Its not alone: most mid-sized groups could benefit from tying up with experts in other areas. Partners Group, with $66 billion (51 billion) in private equity and infrastructure, must expect a knock on the door. Likewise Apollo, the vulture debt fund.

Of the mainstream brands, Jupiter looks ripe for a takeover, likewise the Bank of Montreals London-based BMO Global. Any number of US funds seeking millions of UK customers could be interested. Franklin Templeton is one name being mentioned.

Then theres the Pru. Last weeks plan to merge its M&G arm with the Prus UK and European business will pretty it up for an eventual sale.

It will take a while  the Pru wants to pluck the low-hanging integration and technology savings for itself first. But once thats done, it should fetch a decent price, leaving the Pru to focus on fast-growing Asia.

The wedding season is well underway. Fee-hungry M&A bankers rejoice.
D eliveries group John Menzies on Monday scrapped plans to sell its distribution division to DX Group after chaos engulfed the struggling buyer.

The two sides inked a complex cash-and-shares deal in March but a DX profit warning and a shake-up of its top team, plus a short-lived police investigation into DX, prompted Menzies to call time on it.

It said the tie-up was not in the interests of shareholders.

The deal, unveiled in March, had already shown signs of strain in June when DX cut the cash payment to Menzies from 60 million to 40 million amid investors fears it was overpaying. A share offer giving Menzies 80% of shares in DX was also cut to 65%.

Further talks to change the terms again following DXs troubles hit the buffers, prompting Menzies to pull the plug on the deal. However, the board said it was still planning to hive off its distribution business to focus on its primary aviation division.

DX has suffered a litany of woes since agreeing to buy the unit, last month warning annual earnings would be flat due to an exceptionally challenging year.

The City of London Police also opened a criminal investigation, which it later closed, into one of DXs delivery units, triggering questions over the stewardship of the firm.

A management overhaul has seen chief executive Petar Cvetkovic and finance chief Daljit Basi leave, while chairman Bob Holt also announced his retirement today.
S hares in G4S have been safe as houses this year, but the turnaround job under Ashley Almanza was looking less secure today.

Morgan Stanley expressed concerns about difficult market conditions and increasing competition over the next 12 months for the security giant.

Though organic growth has been greater than 6% over the past 18 months, the outlook for the next 12 months is more challenging because of difficult end markets, analyst Andrew Farnell said.

He cut his rating from Overweight to Equal-Weight and trimmed the target price by 15p to 315p, dragging the share price down 3.7p, or 1.3%, to 295.7p and putting G4S among the blue-chip losers.

Its share price started to lose this years gains after last weeks first-half results, amid concerns about trading in emerging markets.

After last weeks losses, UK stocks were back on the front foot. The FTSE 100 rose 40.81 points to 7350.77, with the prospect of a nuclear war appearing more distant.

Donald Trumps nuclear war of words with North Korea was pushed to the side by a more domestic US crisis over the weekend, allowing the markets a chance to catch their breath this Monday, said Connor Campbell, an analyst at Spreadex.

A broker upgrade for TUI, up 53.11p, or 4.3%, at 1284p, lifted the travel group to the top of the Footsie. Credit Suisse upgraded to Neutral from Underperform, arguing that the near-term risks had subsided.

The rollercoaster ride at Carillion continued after last months major profit warning as the shares drifted down 2.18p, or 3.8%, to 54.59p.

On AIM, EVR Holdings, whose technology shows gigs in virtual reality, hit the right note. It signed a licensing deal with ARESA whose copyright catalogue includes artists such as Bruno Mars, David Bowie and Adele, whom the Standard revealed as an EVR investor last week. Shares rose 0.27p to 7.9p.
L ondon's junior stock market faced renewed criticism today after AIM-listed Israeli tech firm Telit parted ways with chief Oozi Cats, who had hidden his past as a fugitive from US justice.

A probe commissioned by Telit confirmed Cats was indeed the same Uzi Katz who had been indicted in the early Nineties with his wife Ruth for a property fraud scheme in Boston.

The company, which specialises in the internet of things  whereby machines are interconnected wirelessly  added that the charge, which did not appear in the float documents, was knowingly withheld from advisers.

It is a source of considerable anger to the board that the historical indictment against Oozi Cats was never disclosed to them, Telit said.

Investor group ShareSocs Cliff Weight said: Due diligence of AIM has yet again failed the market and shareholders.

Reports of the charges emerged online days after a profit warning caused shares to tumble 42%.

Yosi Fait, Telits finance director, became interim boss last week when Cats took a leave of absence amid the probe and Fait will continue to run the business.

Telit said it would appoint a chairman and two other directors, who are expected to be based in the UK. The shares rose 13% to 140.3p.

Seymour Pierce, whose broking business was bought out of administration in 2013 by Cantor Fitzgerald, was the nominated adviser when the company floated in 2005.

Canaccord Genuity quit last week as Telits nominated adviser, in charge of regulating its stock market announcements. FinnCap took over the role with joint broker Berenberg.

Nominated advisers guide firms as they go public. Last year Cenkos was fined over 500,000 for its role in promoting Quindell as a candidate for a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange, which also owns AIM.

Andrew Monk, chief executive of VSA Capital, said small-cap brokers are under increasing financial pressure, which could be hindering their ability to regulate the market.

The broking industry has undergone massive change and every broker is desperate to get deals away as its the only way to survive because of the total collapse of the secondary [market]. Everyone has to do primary deals [floats] to survive and so the ability to say no becomes very difficult.

Monk added: AIM has become very much a box ticking game (with a lot of boxes to tick) and what this loses is the old fashioned sniff test, the gut feeling, the experienced eye that used to be able to say that something doesnt feel quite right.

There will always be people who try and take advantage of capital markets whatever rules are in place. But no one makes money telling people to sell or not do a deal  so no one will stop it.
W eWork, the shared offices giant known for its free beer and hipster start-up tenants, has started legal action in a trademark battle with Chinese rival UrWork.

WeWork, which has been aggressively expanding in London, has accused the Chinese company of infringing its trademarks. Using law firm Mishcon de Reya, it has filed a claim with the High Court of Justices Chancery division.

The New York-headquartered firm said it has invested substantial time and money building a globally recognisable brand. It added: Our name is distinctive and well known. It is a valuable asset, is a source of pride to the company, and represents an important lifestyle choice for our members. That is why we have taken action in the UK.

UrWork could not be reached for comment, but Bloomberg reported that the Chinese company denied suggestions it was infringing on WeWorks rights.

The legal action sets up a clash between two shared-offices behemoths which are looking to grow globally.

WeWork was founded in 2010 and has more than 130,000 members in 15 countries, with Shaftesbury Avenue and Moorgate among its London sites.

Two-year-old UrWork is looking to open in Singapore, Los Angeles, New York and London.
T he owner of an acclaimed west London restaurant that found its chef through an advert on the Gumtree website is hoping to repeat the trick with his new opening.

The former financier turned restaurateur Luca Longobardi advertised for his venue 108 Garage with a plea for a chef ready to sail on a new adventure in Notting Hill.

His appointment, the previously unknown Chris Denney, has turned the brick-walled dining room in Golborne Road into one of Londons hottest culinary destinations with one critic describing him as the kind of chef who comes along only once or twice in a decade.

Now Mr Longobardi, dubbed The Mafias Banker when he was imprisoned during a brush with the authorities in Brazil from which he was entirely exonerated, is planning to launch his second venture round the corner in Southam Street. He has once again turned to the website normally associated with searches for flatmates or cars rather than award-winning kitchen maestros, to find his next chef  as well as 25 other members of staff.

The advert describes the new opening as a new urban flame and raw bar,

and there will also be a tequila bar split across three floors.

It will be housed in a former Victorian pub on Southam Street, a once notorious slum address best known for appearing on the cover of Colin MacInness 1959 novel Absolute Beginners. It is due to open in September and will feature a Japanese robata grill and a Big Green Egg smoker.
D espite having spent a great deal of time in Scotland, I dont think Ive ever stopped to think about the significance of its most famous drink, its influence around the world, why we never cook with it, and what it means to all the people who drink it.

Until last week, Id certainly never realised that the whisky industry is Scotlands third biggest industry after oil and technology, that there are 118 working distilleries, that its exports earn 125 every second and that it directly employs over 10,000 people. Take a brand like Johnnie Walker, for example, which some might take for granted in this country but which sells 225 million 750cl bottles every year globally, and which originated in a town called Kilmarnock in the lowlands of Scotland.

Before now, my idea of whisky related to a few choice memories: the distinct grainy whiff that wed smell during holidays visiting my grandmother in Aberdeenshire, home to over a dozen whisky distilleries; its the grimy shots of it we did as teenagers one summer when wed run out of Smirnoff Ices and had to raid someones dads drinks cabinet in search of an alternative; more recently, it was finding out that enjoying whisky also meant sharing it with friends, and chatting long into the night over several glasses.

Glaswegian food writer and Radio 4s Kitchen Cabinet panellist Rachel McCormack, also a Catalan food expert, on the other hand, spent two years researching this very subject. Heading off to see if she could work out why whisky has never really been using in cooking before, and how people drink it, she travelled around her own country visiting production areas and talking to a host of characters.

The result is her cracker of a book, Chasing The Dram: Finding the Spirit of Whisky, which begins with the announcement: I want to go and see what is happening with whisky and I want to put it in food. Whisky in Scotland is like heat in Australia - its everywhere. While its a highly informative read - a useful way of learning about how the spirit is made, with ideas on how to add it into porridge, risottos, stews, curries and puddings - theres none of the pomp that comes with food or drink books written by experts on the subject. Its basically a snortingly funny exploit about people - her friends, family, and the characters she meets along the way.

To understand what it was that prompted McCormack to write the book, and to hear what conclusions she drew, I had a chat with her.

What made you want to write the book?

I realised very quickly living in Spain that if you want to know the people, you want to know their food, and that what they do in one village is different to what they do in another and that its a very fundamental part of a culture. But if you look at Scotland, food isnt really a fundamental part of our culture, and its not really anywhere in the British Isles, no matter what anyone says. Its not how we identify ourselves, or what hospitality means and the more I looked at the [idea of the] book, the more I realised that in Spain I was looking at food to learn about people, while in Scotland I was looking at whisky to learn about people. Almost all of the modern writing about whisky is about the process and the taste of the whisky, as opposed to what the people are like, and what the stories are and what it might mean.

Living the Dram: 9 rare whiskies from the old distilleries 1 /12 Living the Dram: 9 rare whiskies from the old distilleries The Dalmore Quintessence A new release this month, the Quintessence is a unique and complex expression from one of Scotlands most sought-after distilleries.



Famed for innovation in single malts, their Master Distiller travelled to California to personally select five red wine casks for the final phase of maturation. The five-year five wine cask finish, in Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon casks, is a first for the industry.



The Dalmore has a unique new make spirit and maturation conditions. This inspires me to push the art of the possible with The Dalmore", said Paterson at the release. "The Dalmore Quintessence has been a long-term project which I am delighted to share with the world. It is a combination of two of my great passions, The Dalmore distillery and exceptional red wine.



The Whisky Shop, 1,000, Buy it now Lagavulin 8-Year The great Islay-based distillery reached its bicentenary this year and to mark the milestone, they released the Lagavulin 8-Year Old. In this expression, Lagavulin aimed to recreate the taste of their early whiskies, as enjoyed by historian Alfred Bernard when he visited Lagavulin on Islay in 1887.



There, he famously described an 8-Year-Old variation as exceptionally fine, and it is this taste they are replicating here. Matured in American and English oak casks and available for around 56.00, the 8-Year-Old is peaty, smokey, rich and dry. Its a limited edition run, making a bottle of the 8-Year-Old a collectors item.



The Whisky Exchange, 52.65, Buy it now Ardbeg Twenty One Today Ardbeg is a thriving global whisky brand, with loyal followers in all corners of the globe and an expanding product range. But back in the mid-90s, when this batch was distilled, the firm had fallen on hard times. This rare whisky has been created in recognition of Ardbegs darkest hours, before the turnaround that revived the 200-year-old distillery.



At the time of its release, earlier this year, Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks at Ardbeg, said: I selected the casks for this sumptuous, golden whisky as they combine the distinctive, peppery smokiness of Ardbegs award-winning malt with soothing, buttery qualities. You have to be a member of Ardbegs 120,000-strong Ardbeg committee to be allowed to buy this whisky, which is priced at 310. The Balvenie 50-Year-Old Cask No.4567 This is a very rare whisky, and that is reflected in the price. Balvenie from this batch sells for more than 25,000 per bottle. But for that you will also get a very decent case, specially crafted for your bottle by furniture designer Sam Chinnery, and making use of 49 layers of wood and a layer of brass.



Cask 4567 produced just 131 bottles of this rich, spicy whisky. Its incredible deep red hue comes from the darker colour of the wood it was matured in, specifically a European oak hogshead cask. David Stewart MBE, Malt Master at The Balvenie, described the 4567 as "among the most complex, sophisticated and fine whiskies ever to be released from Warehouse 24 (at The Balvenie), the home of our oldest and rarest whiskies".



The Whisky Exchange, 26,500, Buy it now Bowmore Devil's Casks III A special release from the oldest of the Islay distilleries, Bowmores Devils Cask III is a sweet, chocolatey dram. Priced around 190, Bowmore says the devil in the cask comes from the use of Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.



Bottled at 56.7% volume, the third and final Devil in Bowmores series is called Double the Devil for a reason.



Master of Malt, 190.00, Buy it now The Dalmore 25-Year-Old The Dalmore has produced some of the best-performing collectable whiskies, in terms of value. This whisky follows in the distillerys tradition of extensive innovation and maturing their whisky in a variety of different casks.



The 25-Year-Old is put through American white oak, followed by 25 year old Palomino Fino sherry butts, 1980s first-fill bourbon casks and Tawny Port casks. Only 3000 bottles of their 25-Year-Old are produced each year and a bottle is likely to set you back around 600.



The Whisky Shop, 725.00, Buy it now Highland Park - Dark Origins According to Highland Park, Dark Origins is inspired by the cunning spirit and courageous personality of the distillerys infamous founder Magnus Eunson.



Part of Highland Parks core expressions range, bottles of Dark Origins use twice the volume of whisky from sherry casks as their regular 12-Year-Old and is priced around 65.00.



Master of Malt, 63.95, Buy it now Glenmorangie Signet Making use of their oldest whisky, distilled over thirty years ago, this is the richest Glenmorangie currently available. Glenmorangie say it is also the most unusual single malt in Scotland.



Whisky Bible author Jim Murray describes it as An entirely different direction for this malt thick oak, intensity unique not just to the distillery but any other Highland malt I can think of, believe me, you are in for one hell of a show.



The Whisky Exchange, 130.00, Buy it now Old Pulteney 35-Year-Old Perhaps youre in search of the perfect present for a 35-year-old friend of yours? It will have to be a very good friend as this whisky is likely to set you back more than 500.



Malcolm Waring, Old Pulteneys distillery manager, made use of ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks for this expression, which Master of Malt describes as a stunningly well-aged single malt.



The Whisky Shop, 515.00, Buy it now

Is that what led to you to begin cooking with whisky?

That started to happen because I wondered why we didnt have a tradition of cooking with whisky, in the way that the Spanish do cook with brandy, or Normans put calvados in everything, even a tiny bit. Looking at things I found that you occasionally get a bit of whisky in a sauce in a restaurant, but at home noone puts whisky in food at all - and I thought they should be. Then I thought that to know a country, you kind of have to go round it because if you wanted to do a book on Spanish food youd have to go round it and look at Spain. So I decided to go around Scotland and learn about Scotland and whisky and what it means to Scotland, because it is so much more than a drink. There is no other country in the world that is so closely associated with one drink!

So can you define the spirit of whisky and is it possible to compare it with, say, sherry in Spain?

No, Id say whisky to Scotland is what food is to the Mediterranean, because sherry in Spain is a part of one area, but not fundamental to the whole country - and theyve also got wine, beer, and brandy. People in Scotland wouldnt get offended with you doing something fancy with a cullen skink, but they do get upset about what you put in whisky, or that [other countries like] Japan are making a lot of whisky. It also means hospitality, which I properly learned through reading a book called Whisky Galore, and how when the Islanders in The Hebrides didnt have any whisky, it was much more than not having anything to drink, it was that they also werent able to offer people hospitality.

Does it mean hospitality to Scots across the board?

I think it still does, especially if you get people who are actual visitors, or foreign visitors to the country, and then I think its very much the thing to bring out your whisky when youve got people around. A friend of mine was buying a whisky round for the two of us in Glasgow, and I suggested that I try a Kilchoman, and she get something else. And she said: no, lets get the same one and we can share it together. And I dont think she was even conscious of what she was saying. Shed never have said that about a gin or a wine, or food - it was that thing of us having the same whisky to spend an evening together sharing it.

How did you start cooking with whisky?

Theres nothing with whisky in old Scottish cooking. It might have been used in restaurants in the Fifties or Seventies but there really isnt anything else. Theyll have cooked with sherry or brandy - but not whisky. There are some books but theyre very modern and tend to be written by chefs. But if you want to create a food tradition, it needs to be something people are doing at home.

You say you now use whisky regularly in your cooking - what are your favourites?

Id not used it at all, and now I use it quite a lot. I now always have a blend in the cupboard that I used for stews or bases, and Ill use that instead of different herbs and spices. Often someone will say to me: whats different about this dish? What have you put in here? And they dont know what it is, and think its a spice, when all it is is a particular whisky. I would say its a bit like olive oil if I was cooking something for a long time, I would use a blend. But if I was going to just put a spoonful of something in right at the very end, in a stew or a soup or in a cream, something that was really going to show off the whisky, Id use something different. A lot of the time it depends on what [the people Im cooking for] like, than what I like. [see box at the end on how to cook with whisky].

Can you describe a whisky person?

Theres quite a difference between being a Scottish whisky person and being a proper whisky geek. Proper whisky obsessives are from all over the world and they know really geeky stuff, like how long the fermentation takes in 15 different distilleries, and so on. Scottish people that I know that are drinkers of whisky just kind of know what they like, and if theyre from a specific area theyll just drink the one made up the road because thats what they had when they were growing up.

Do you think people realise the importance and influence of whisky?

I think people forget, and people in Scotland do take it for granted and dont realise that its the third biggest industry, or how much money it brings into Scotland. And I dont think I had either - I was just like everybody else. I just took it for granted because its always been there you dont really notice.

Chocolate Tiffin and Whisky

Where do you think Scottish whisky has had the most influence outside Scotland?

It depends. The Japanese learnt to make whisky in Scotland from a guy who came over here, but one of the biggest market for whiskies is in India where its almost like Johnnie Walker is the unofficial national drink of India. Id say its also such a prestigious drink all over the world, which is one of the things that British people dont really realise. In some places, if you cant afford a Rolex or a Mercedes, but you can afford a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label, then youve arrived. In the Mediterranean countries, [people are very much aware of the prestige of their food] because food is really important to them. But I dont think Scottish people understand whiskys prestige elsewhere. Whats interesting too about whisky in Scotland is that there isnt really a class barrier the way there would be with wine - its just that if youve got more money youll buy better whisky.

Finally, do you get excited about getting people into whisky?

Its kind of like clubbing. If you get into it, its really fun. I took somebody to a pub in Glasgow for a whisky and her face was so excited when she realised there was a drink she could buy now - she hadnt realised shed liked it. And its a fun thing that people can always join in with.

How to cook with whisky: tips from Rachel McCormack

Caledonia Cream

1. Cook with stuff that you like drinking - if you dont like it to begin with, youre not going to like it in food.

2. Have it with cheese, as it goes really well. A lot of cheese is really personal so buy three or four different whiskies and some cheese and have an evening with some friends at home. That way youll work out what you like.

3. Try out chocolate with whisky, and then make some Caledonia Cream. Some people will prefer drinking one whisky in a Caledonia Cream rather than on its own, and vice versa. It often surprises people, and its very individual. Theres really a whole world to explore. There isnt any alcoholic drink that has the variety that Scotch whisky has.

4. Dont bother putting it in ketchup to have with your chips - have a whisky on the side instead. It doesnt work.

Rachel McCormacks book, Chasing the Dram: Finding the Spirit of Whisky, is out now (Simon & Schuster, 16.99). Follow Rachel on Twitter @rachelmccormack

Follow Victoria on Twitter and Instagram
A BMW salesman who helped to steal cars worth more than 200,000 broke down in tears as he was jailed for more than five years.

Michael Daniels, 40, gave accomplice Alex Tingle, 28, the spare keys to the new luxury cars his dealership had just sold.

He then used his role as head of sales at BMW Berry, in Chiswick, to access customer addresses on a database and passed them on to Tingle.

Tingle, from Ealing, and a third man then stole the cars, getting away with vehicles worth 210,000 between December 2015 and February last year.

Isleworth crown court heard one victim, Robert Mitchell, missed the birth of his daughter because his car had been stolen and he could not get to the hospital on Christmas Eve. Another victim, Nouman Hashmi, said the sale of his house fell through after the buyers found out about the car theft on a crime database.

Jailing a tearful Daniels for five years and three months on Friday, Judge Simon Davis said he was guilty of a horrendous breach of trust.

Daniels, from Ashford, Surrey, was found guilty earlier this month of conspiracy to steal motor vehicles.
D etectives today said they were following up a number of new leads in the hunt for a jogger who shoved a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge.

Scotland Yard today revealed that there were a number of leads officers were following up although indicated a new arrest was not imminent.

A spokesman said: The investigation continues and we are following up a number of leads.

It comes after the police announced over the weekend that a financier arrested over the incident had been eliminated from inquiries.

Eric Bellquist, 41, was quizzed by police in connection with the incident which was captured on CCTV.

Jogger crashes into woman on Putney bridge

His lawyers revealed the financier, who works for Mayfair firm Hutton Collins, had irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident.

Police announced that Mr Bellquist had been ruled out as a suspect.

A statement from Mr Bellquists solicitors Duncan Lewis said he was very upset to be implicated in an abhorrent crime and now wanted privacy.

The woman's head narrowly misses being crushed under the bus

It said: Our client is pleased to have had his name cleared by the Metropolitan Police but obviously very upset to have been implicated at all in this abhorrent crime.

We ask that the media and public now respect Mr Bellquist and his familys privacy.

The man makes a beeline for the female pedestrian

Mr Bellquist, who was arrested on Thursday, was quick to offer evidence that he was out of the country at the time of the assault, according to police.

He was detained following inquiries at a residential address but on Saturday police officially cleared him.

Footage from the incident on May 8 appears to show the jogger shove his 33 year old victim into the oncoming path of a bus. The driver of the Go Ahead service swerved to avoid her and has been hailed as a hero by colleagues.

Police say the jogger crossed the bridge on his return journey 15 minutes later and that the woman confronted him but was ignored.

The jogger, who was caught on camera by a bus is described as a white man in his early to mid 30s with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was wearing a light grey T-shirt and dark blue shorts.

Information can also be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online.
L ondon's firearms officers are to be kitted out with head-mounted cameras, the Met Police has said.

The cameras are being issued to officers from the Met's Firearms Command, and will be fitted to their baseball caps and ballistic helmets.

The move follows a warning by the police watchdog that the body-mounted cameras given to thousands of the capital's police were unfit for use by police marksmen since whenever they raised a rifle to their shoulder, the camera's view was obscured.

About 1,000 Avon Flex 2s will be issued as part of the Met's wider project to fit London police with body-mounted video technology, in which 17,500 cameras have already been handed out.

Body-mounted video tech has already been given to frontline officers in 30 of the capital's 32 boroughs in the Roads and Transport Policing Command, the Territorial Support Group and the Dog Support Unit.

Police in the remaining boroughs will be fitted out by the end of August.

Commander Matt Twist, in charge of the Firearms Command, said firearms officers welcome the cameras.

"It provides a documented and accurate account of the threats officers face and the split second decisions they make," he said.

"The cameras also offer greater transparency for those in front of the camera as well as those behind it."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the technology will allow greater trust to be built between Londoners and their police force.

"This technology is helping to drive down complaints against officers across London and will make a real difference to those carrying firearms, increasing accountability and helping to gather better evidence for swifter justice," he said.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission found that shoulder-mounted cameras were "unfit for purpose" by firearms officers when it was revealed that footage taken from two incidents was useless since the gun itself blocked the view.

Body-worn video is intended to restore confidence in policing after the controversy following the shooting of Mark Duggan in August 2011.
J eremy Corbyn has attacked the Governments misguided housing policy as he continues his campaign on marginal parliamentary seats.

The Labour leader is campaigning to unseat Tory MPs with slim majorities as he tries to keep his party on an election footing.

Hundreds turned out to watch Mr Corbyn at a rally in Milton Keynes, which following a visit to Reading on Monday.

Addressing the crowds, Mr Corbyn said the election campaign had been "a dry run, a dress rehearsal" and his party was "putting this Tory Government on notice".

He added: "The election campaign ended on June 8 and the campaign to elect a Labour Government started on June 9."

It comes after Labour used a number of campaign visits to heap pressure on Theresa May over her record on the NHS.

Corbyn rally: The Labour leader addresses supporters in Milton Keynes / PA

Mr Corbyn told the rally: "There's a housing problem. If the whole housing strategy is so misguided as to ignore the role of local authorities and councils in building housing, to ignore the crying need for regulation of the private rented sector and to give councils the planning powers to make sure that new big private developments have at least half of them as genuinely affordable for people to move into a local level.

"We are developing our housing policy which will include building 500,000 council houses across the whole country and will include proper regulation of the private rented sector."

He vowed to fight housing insecurity, which he said was "unnecessary, unfortunate and wrong".

Mr Corbyn also condemned the Tories for failing to lift the 1 per cent pay cap for public sector workers amid "crocodile tears" for the bravery of emergency workers after terror attacks in London and Manchester, and the Grenfell Tower fire.

He said: "This Government doesn't understand the needs of people across this country.

"It doesn't want to understand and it is not prepared to tax where it could be taxed in order to pay where it's necessary to pay to improve our public services."

Mr Corbyn also put education at the heart of his address by taking aim at the "scandal" of student fees and the loss of EMA, which provide barriers to education.

He said: "If a young person can't achieve what they want to in college, in university, can't achieve the skill that they want to achieve, they lose and we lose because we've lost that skilled person.

"It is well worth raising corporation tax, raising a tax on the very wealthiest 5% of the population to make sure that everybody can go to college, can go to university, can develop the very best in their lives.

"Other countries do it and so should we."

He said his party was ready to take over whenever the Conservatives "give up the ghost".

Labour will continue its campaign in marginal seats over the coming days, with plans to head north and to Scotland.

The Conservatives held Reading West with a majority of 2,876 and Milton Keynes North with 1,915 votes.
J eremy Hunt has denied reports that the new Department of Health building will include a 44,000 bathroom suite for his own use.

The private bathroom with a designer toilet, power shower and sensor-activated lights has been commissioned for the Health Secretary in the departments new offices in Victoria, south London, according to the Sun.

The Department of Health, currently based in Whitehall, was unable to give details about plans for a suite, and did not confirm how much it would cost, who it would be for or where it would be located.

Mr Hunt tweeted: Todays TheSun story totally false. TRUE I requested shower for long dist cyclists in new Dept Health offices (as in current office).

FALSE it was for my own use. My cycle 2work only 10 mins so no need 2 freshen up as story elegantly says. But lets encourage cyclists!.

It comes at a time of increased pressure and looming cuts to the NHS, which has been told to make 22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: The Health Secretary has not approved any costs relating to the departments new building, but has requested facilities for all cyclists and runners in line with those the department currently has.
A Labour MPs birthday tribute to late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has been blasted by the Tories as further evidence of the partys obsession with corrupt regimes.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnells parliamentary private secretary (PPS) Karen Lee tweeted happy birthday Fidel when she shared a message from the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

One constituent said she was absolutely disgusted that her MP would commemorate Castro on Twitter while account Electable Labour wrote she should not be an apologist for authoritarian communists.

The Jeremy Corbyn-supporting MPs Tweet comes just a week after the Labour leader came under fire from the Conservatives and some in his own party for not condemning violence in Venezuela under socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Paul Scully, Conservative MP for Sutton said: Labour are clearly obsessed with celebrating corrupt regimes. John McDonnells right-hand woman would do better to focus on things closer to home like Labours own dismal economic plans than leaders that deny the democratic rights and freedoms of their citizens.

Ms Lee, a former nurse who won her Lincoln seat from Tory Karl McCartney in June, shared a message from the solidarity campaign praising the Cuban revolution for its achievements in health, education, womens rights and social justice. Castro, who would have turned 91 yesterday, has been scorned for extensive human rights abuses and state persecution of gay people.

As Mr McDonnells PPS, Ms Lee is a trusted member of the shadow Treasury team. Mr Corbyn previously praised the late Cuban leaders record on health and education. Labour said they would not comment.
T heresa May will not fly back into the UK until later this week despite fresh Brexit tensions as Britain prepares for the next round of EU negotiations.

The Prime Minister, who is holidaying in Switzerland, will only return to her desk in Downing Street on Thursday, pushing her summer break into an unusual fourth week.

Her time away risks proving controversial given concerns over Britains preparation for Brexit. Position papers on future customs arrangements and the border with Ireland are expected to be released during her absence, so her first day back will be in the midst of debate among senior politicians.

Mrs May headed to Italy with husband Philip at the end of July, then attended the Passchendaele commemorations in Belgium and spent a day working from No 10. Following that, she left for a two-week walking holiday in Switzerland. A spokesman said she has had 15 working days off.

Theresa May and her husband Philip visit Desenzano del Garda, near Lake Garda, Italy, last month / PA

Ian Lavery, Labour Party chair, said: With her Cabinet squabbling over the Governments position on issue after issue, it seems like shes given up on governing.

Today a leading Conservative Remain campaigner warned against siren voices calling for a new party to be set up to fight against Brexit.

Former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said liberal Tory MPs should not be drummed out of the party by being lured into joining a new one or forced out by hardline Brexiteers.

Brexit Secretary David Daviss former chief of staff, who is campaigning to launch a new anti-Brexit party, revealed last week that two members of Theresa Mays Cabinet had been in contact with him.

James Chapman said the two senior Tories believed there was an enormous gap in the centre of British politics, though he added that neither had suggested defecting. Ms Morgan, who campaigned for Remain last year and chairs the influential Commons Treasury committee, warned against Conservatives resigning to join a new party, which she believes would swiftly collapse under its own contradictions.

If one-nation liberal Conservatives listen to these siren voices, what would it say about the Tory Party we now have? she added on the ConservativeHome website. To accept the argument for creating a new party would be to accept that the Conservative Party can no longer appeal to the British political centre ground.

She said the Tories must stay a broad church not become a narrow ideological shrine, appealing only to a narrow and ageing group of supporters.

Mrs May will return to a Tory Party still rumbling with talk of a leadership challenge. Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has even been mooted as a possible successor. However, fellow backbencher Heidi Allen said she would quit the party if he took the helm.

I couldnt be in the Conservative Party if he was my leader, she told BBC radios The Westminster Hour. She described him as incredibly charming and very generous but added: Hes not the modern face of the Tory party that we are desperate  or I am, certainly  and colleagues are desperate to prove is out there.

The Prime Minister will seek to gain some control over the political agenda by publishing the Brexit position papers. However, there are concerns among senior Whitehall officials that some documents are being rushed through without proper analysis.

At the weekend, Chancellor Philip Hammond, who favours a soft pro-business Brexit, and International Development Secretary Liam Fox, a leading Brexiteer, issued a joint statement that there would have to be a transition period after Britain leaves the EU. But they stressed it would be time-limited and Britain would quit the EU single market and customs union.

In a sign of the fraught negotiations ahead, New Zealand warned against a proposal that would limit the amount of its lamb which could be sold in Britain after Brexit.
A leading Conservative Remain campaigner today warned against siren voices calling for a new party to be set up to fight against Brexit.

Former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said liberal Tory MPs should not be drummed out of the party by being lured into joining a new one or forced out by hardline Brexiteers.

Brexit Secretary David Daviss former chief of staff, who is campaigning to launch a new anti-Brexit party, revealed last week that two members of Theresa Mays Cabinet had been in contact with him.

James Chapman said the two senior Tories believed there was an enormous gap in the centre of British politics, though he added that neither had suggested defecting.

Ms Morgan, who campaigned for Remain last year and now chairs the influential Commons Treasury committee, warned against Conservatives resigning to join a new party, which she believes would swiftly collapse under its own contradictions.

If one-nation liberal Conservatives listen to these siren voices, what would it say about the Tory Party we now have? she added on ConservativeHome website.

To accept the argument for creating a new party would be to accept that the Conservative Party can no longer appeal to the British political centre ground.

She emphasised that the Tories must remain a broad church rather than becoming a narrow ideological shrine, appealing only to a narrow and ageing group of supporters. This week Mrs May will return from holidaying in Switzerland to a party still rumbling with talk of a leadership challenge. Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has even been mooted as a possible successor.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg played down suggestions that he is considering a leadership bid / PA

However, fellow backbencher Heidi Allen said she would quit the party if he took over the helm. I couldnt be in the Conservative Party if he was my leader, she told BBC radios The Westminster Hour.

She described him as incredibly charming and very generous but added: Hes not the modern face of the Tory party that we are desperate  or I am, certainly  and colleagues are desperate to prove is out there.

MP Heidi Allen said she would quit the Tories if Jacob Rees-Mogg, below / PA

The Prime Minister will seek to gain some control over the political agenda by publishing a series of position papers on Brexit in coming weeks, including on future customs arrangements and the border with Ireland. However, there are concerns among senior Whitehall officials that some documents are being rushed through without proper analysis.

At the weekend, Chancellor Philip Hammond, who favours a soft pro-business Brexit, and the International Development Secretary Liam Fox, a leading Brexiteer, issued a joint statement that there would have to be a transition period after Britain leaves the EU. But they stressed it would be time-limited and Britain would quit the EU single market and customs union when it exits in March 2019.

Following the row over whether US chlorinated chicken would be allowed to be imported into the UK after Brexit, another sign of the fraught negotiations ahead emerged, with New Zealand warning against a proposal that would limit the amount of its lamb which could be sold in Britain following its departure from the EU.
F ood-lovers were left outraged after revellers faced 90 minute queues at a popular dairy festival during which visitors complained there was hardly any cheese.

Organisers of the Brighton Cheese Fest were met with fury on social media after visitors faced huge queues on Saturday, with some complaining that stalls ran out of popular products.

Visitors, who paid up to 6 in advance fees to visit the festival, complained the event was a rip off and queues lasted about 90 minutes.

Renowned TV food critic Jay Rayner was among those to slam the festival, branding it a disaster.

Cheese-lovers wait in queues at the festival in Brighton on Saturday / Kate Harrison

Organisers have since apologised for the queues.

Kate Harrison posted on Twitter: Shockingly bad 6 for endless queues, overpriced food and grumpy door staff though one stall was free of queues.

A Facebook group, called Brighton Cheese Fest Sucks, was even set up as angry food lovers flooded social media with complaints.

Shelley Sullivan posted: Nothing like advertised. No baked Camembert. No cheese fondue with nachos. No proper hard cheeses to purchase to take home. Badly organised. How can you not anticipate the volume of cheese needed?

Jay Rayner tweeted: Want to see a food festival disaster in real time? Go look at #cheesefest Ouch and so on.

A spokesman for Cheese Fest UK said: We would like to take the time to apologise for the queues on the Saturday of the event, which were as a result of our dedication to selling hot and fresh food to order.

There were over 20 traders on site for the 1000 attendees on site at any time to enjoy.

Although we are extremely sorry for those who were hoping for a traditional farmers style market of cheese, we stand behind the event as being marketed as a contemporary festival of modern cheese and street food such as mac and cheese waffles, halloumi fries, raclette and more."
T he UK's largest ever warship will arrive back in the UK this week after completing the latest round of sea trials, the Royal Navy has confirmed.

The 3 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth is expected to arrive in Portsmouth on Wednesday, a day earlier than previously expected, after weather conditions had formerly prevented the exact date from being set.

The 65,000-tonne carrier, the largest warship ever to be built in Britain, is expected to be the Navy's flagship craft for at least 50 years.

The 280-metre vessel was previously forecast to reach its Hampshire base between August 17-22, after setting out from Scotland's Rosyth dockyard in June.

HMS Queen Elizabeth squeezing out of the dock for its maiden voyage / EPA

More than 60 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines took part in a training exercise aboard the American USS George HW Bush earlier this month, in preparation for the ship's entry into service.

The carrier will remain without aircraft until flying trials are conducted in the United States next year, with 10 F-35 Lightning II jets and 120 aircrew expected to take part.

Huge kitchen: The ship's galley cater for almost 1,000 people / PA

Preparations for the ship's arrival, along with its 700 staff, saw more than 3.2 million cubic metres of sediment removed from Portsmouth harbour to enable her to reach her future docking at Portsmouth Naval Base.

In a statement on August 7, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon heralded the HMS Queen Elizabeth's impending arrival, and declared that it would be deployed "across the seven seas, using her strike power to deter our enemies".

Sir Michael visited the craft for the first time in July, when he hailed the return of "big decks and fast jets", and described the large-scale engineering project as "great for British industry".

The warship is expected to arrive in Portsmouth shortly after 7am on Wednesday, where it will become the latest in a long line of prestigious ships to be docked in the port.
A London-born model broke down in tears as she relived the terror of her alleged kidnapping in a live TV interview today.

Chloe Ayling was allegedly snatched by a group of masked men who call themselves Black Death while she was in Milan last month and held captive for six days.

She was eventually handed over to the British Consulate in the Italian city, with her captors having tried to auction her online as a sex slave.

The 20-year-old model, from Coulsden, appeared on ITVs This Morning and appeared to fight back tears as she spoke of her hurt over accusations she made the story up.

Model Chloe Ayling was allegedly kidnapped in Italy by a sex slave gang / Instagram

Ms Ayling said on This Morning: It is really hurtful to see people doubt my story.

Like when I went shoe shopping apparently, which was to the camping shop to get shoes for the consulate, people were saying why didn't I run?

It's easy for them to say that but when you're in my situation it's not that easy. I was with an assassin that's always armed, I'd been shown knives, so I couldn't just try and put my life in the hands of a random Italian woman.

If I couldn't communicate with her, or she didn't care, then I'd risk my life - and it's not just about him.

The model appeared to break down in tears as she revealed she was hoping for a painless death when she was first captured.

She is believed to have been drugged and transported in a bag to an isolated village near Turin.

But some viewers were not convinced by Ms Aylings emotional retelling of her ordeal, with one Twitter user accusing her of crying with no tears.

Marie posted on Twitter: Chloe Ayling story doesn't add up, if she is that traumatized by her so-called kidnapping ordeal why is she on national TV?

Hope posted: Not sure if shes lying or telling the truth. Her little cry looked fake though.

But many people jumped to the defence of Ms Ayling after watching seeing the models emotional testimony.

One Twitter user, known only as V Simps, said: This is so sad she's young, beautiful and has been through something awful, it's disgusting she's being called a liar.
T he number of passengers arrested for being drunk and disorderly on flights or at UK airports soared by 50 per cent in the last year.

A BBC investigation revealed more than half of cabin crew staff had dealt with disruptive drunk passengers; with some saying they had been groped by customers who had been drinking.

The results of the investigation have sparked calls for the Government to introduce tougher rules on the sales of alcohol.

Eighteen UK police forces with a major airport on their patch revealed that, in the last year, 387 passengers were arrested for drunken behaviour - up from 255 the previous year.

Ally Murphy, a former Virgin Airlines cabin crew manager, told Panorama: "People just see us as barmaids in the sky.

"I was pulled into an upper-class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky I guess. They would touch your breasts, or they'd touch your bum or your legs, or I mean I've had hands going up my skirt before.

"It's rage inducing, and you shouldn't have to deal with that.

"I guess I never reported it to the police because sadly, and this is completely wrong and only really occurring to me now, you kind of just accept it as part of the job. And it shouldn't be."

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Another cabin crew member, who was unnamed in the programme, said airline workers had found "countless" litre bottles of vodka and they felt that Alicante, Ibiza, Palma were among the worst routes.

Alexandra Wilms, of the Balearic Ministry of Tourism, called for "high fines" to try and deal with the problem and accused "these kinds of people" of not being able to "understand any other thing than really getting punished by paying a lot of money".

But Airport Operators' Association chief executive Karen Dee rejected suggestions airports are irresponsibly selling alcohol.

Ms Dee said: "The sale of alcohol per se is not a problem. It's the misuse of it and drinking to excess and then behaving badly."

The UK aviation industry brought in a voluntary code a year ago which recommends that airports and airlines should work together to limit disruptive behaviour and sell alcohol responsibly.

Airlines can already limit the amount of alcohol sold to passengers on board flights but Airlines UK, which represents major UK carriers, wants the government to make it illegal for passenger's to consume their own alcohol on-board.

Earlier this year, a House of Lords committee called for tougher rules on the sale of alcohol at airports and the Home Office told the BBC it was considering recommendations "and will respond in due course".
R yanair has called for a two-drink limit after an investigation revealed the number of passengers arrested for drunken behaviour has risen by 50 per cent in one year.

Europes largest short-haul airlines proposals come after it banned customers from drinking duty-free alcohol on flights and stopped passengers from bringing it on board altogether at some airports.

The company is now urging airports to ban alcohol sales before 10am and to crackdown on the number of drinks holidaymakers are allowed per boarding pass to a maximum of two.

It comes after figures obtained by BBC Panorama from 18 out of 20 police forces with major UK airports on their patches revealed a surge in arrests for drunken behaviour on flights or at airports.

Ryanairs marketing director Kenny Jacobs said: This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed."

There was a total of 387 arrests in the year to February 2017, up from 255 in the period from February 2015 to 2016, according to the data.

Ally Murphy, a former Virgin Airlines cabin crew manager, told Panorama: "People just see us as barmaids in the sky.

"I was pulled into an upper-class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky I guess.

"They would touch your breasts, or they'd touch your bum or your legs, or I mean I've had hands going up my skirt before.

"It's rage inducing, and you shouldn't have to deal with that.

"I guess I never reported it to the police because sadly, and this is completely wrong and only really occurring to me now, you kind of just accept it as part of the job. And it shouldn't be."

Another cabin crew member, who was unnamed in the programme, said airline workers had found "countless" litre bottles of vodka and they felt that Alicante, Ibiza and Palma were among the worst routes.

Alexandra Wilms, of the Balearic Ministry of Tourism, called for "high fines" to try and deal with the problem as "these kinds of people don't understand any other thing than really getting punished by paying a lot of money" while Airport Operators' Association chief executive Karen Dee rejected suggestions airports are irresponsibly selling alcohol.

Ms Dee said: "The sale of alcohol per se is not a problem. It's the misuse of it and drinking to excess and then behaving badly."

Panorama also points out that the UK aviation industry brought in a voluntary code that recommends airports and airlines should work together to responsibly sell alcohol a year ago.

Most of the big airlines and airports have signed up to this.
N eo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer has allegedly been taken over by hackers after it published vile abusive posts about a young anti-fascist protester killed in Charlottesville.

A new post to the site was titled: "End of hate: Anonymous now in control of Daily Stormer."

The post said the Daily Stormer was now under the control of global hacker network Anonymous, although that claim has been disputed by affiliates of the group.

The Daily Stormer, which has sections called "Jewish problem" and "Race war", is a white supremacist portal founded and run by Andrew Anglin, an American-born supporter of Donald Trump.

Mr Anglin published an article to the website on Sunday headlined: Heather Heyer: woman killed in road rage incident was a fat, childless 32-year-old sl**.

Ms Heyer, a 32-year-old legal assistant, died when a vehicle ploughed into a group of activists who were staging a counter-protest to a far-right rally.

She was a long-time champion for civil rights issues on social media and her Facebook page read: If youre not outraged, youre not paying attention.

Heather Heyer, 32, was a longtime civil rights campaigner

The message posted to the Daily Stormer, signed off in the name of Anonymous hackers, read: "We have taken this site in the name of Heather Heyer a victim of white supremacist terrorism.

"For too long the Daily Stormer and Andrew Anglin have spewed their putrid hate on this site.

"That will not be happening any more."

It said it had harvested data from the site's servers, to be released "when we feel the time is right", and claimed hackers had found Mr Anglin's location, said to be in Lagos, Nigeria, and would pay him a visit "in person".

"This evil cannot be allowed to stand ... We want you Nazis to know your time is short.

"We will allow the site to remain online for 24 hours so the world can witness the hate.

"Then we will shut it down permanently."

It concluded: "Hackers of the world have united in defense of the Jewish people.

"You should have expected us."

The Twitter account Your Anon News, one of the largest thought to be affiliated with Anonymous, however wrote: "We have no confirmation that 'Anonymous' is involved yet," and suggested the post could be a stunt by Daily Stormer itself.

The Daily Stormer has published several articles about the incident in Charlottesville in which Ms Heyer was mowed down and killed as she stood protesting against a far-right rally.

Although the person charged with her murder, 20-year-old James Field from Ohio, was seen on Saturday with a group of neo-Nazis and holding a shield bearing a far-right emblem, the Daily Stormer's posts claimed Mr Fields was not connected with the far-right group Vanguard.

In a series of offensive comments, it also called Ms Heyer "a drain on society" and praised her alleged killer Mr Fields as "a hardcore player" with a "cool demeanour" who was simply overcome by road rage.

Domain provider GoDaddy, which hosts the Daily Stormer, has already said in a tweet it has told the white supremacist site to find a new home.

"We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service," it said.

Anonymous is a loosely associated worldwide group of vigilante-style hacktivists that evolved from posts on the forum 4Chan.

It is thought to have been behind cyber-attacks on ISIS sites, child pornographers and Westboro Baptist Church as well as corporations such as PayPal and Sony.
A t least 18 people have been killed and a number of others injured after masked gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso in a suspected terror attack.

Three attackers reportedly on motorcycles opened fire on customers dining at a Turkish restaurant in the centre of Ouagadougou.

Security forces killed two of the men and faced a seige with other attackers believed to be barricaded in the building with hostages. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began.

Police captain Guy Ye said the gunmen had arrived on motorcycles and began firing at diners at random.

The area around the restaurant was evacuated before police launched a counter-offensive with machine guns, assault rifles and heavy vehicles.

A wounded restaurant customer sits on the ground following an attack by gunmen on a restaurant in Ouagadougou / REUTERS

Residents said they heard gunfire and saw armoured trucks driving through the city centre.

One told the BBC: I saw there were multiple trucks or jeeps driving through my street, with local army and police officers with AK47s, deploying in front of my house.

I heard a lot of shootings and then I was scared as hell and I went inside.

Ive been hearing quite a bit of shooting.

The government was today refusing to confirm the nationalities of the dead but one is believed to be French and another Turkish.

Soldiers have been deployed following the attack by gunmen on a restaurant / REUTERS

Government communications minister Remi Dandjinou declared it a terrorist attack and warned the death toll may rise.

In addition to those killed, eight others were injured, he said, with two of the attackers also killed.

One woman told reporters she was inside the Aziz Istanbul Restaurant celebrating her brothers birthday.

She said: I just ran but my brother was left inside.

The west African nation is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

In January last year more than 170 people were taken hostage by the Al-Qaeda linked militants Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) at the Splendid Hotel and Cappuccino restaurant.

It was just 200m away from the scene of last nights attack.

In March two people were kidnapped and a school was torched after jihadists targeted educational sites.

The same month three people died when two police checkpoints were targeted.
A n alleged white nationalist was fired from his job today after being outed on social media for his involvement in a Far Right rally in America that left one anti-fascist demonstrator dead and more than 20 injured.

Cole White was one of a number of marchers named and shamed on Twitter. As a result, he was fired from the Top Dog restaurant in Berkeley, California, where he worked.

White was one of thousands who gathered for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

The event, which was openly attended by neo-Nazis and other hate groups, was ostensibly intended to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee from the newly renamed Emancipation Park.

Anti-fascist demonstrator Heather Heyer was killed when a car rammed into a crowd protesting against the rally.

US Protests 1 /18 US Protests Flowers are laid on a memorial to Heather Heyer that was chalked on the pavement during a demonstration in Chicago, Illinois Getty Images Protesters march against white nationalism in New York City, the day after the attack on counter-protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia Reuters People gather in front of the White House in Washington, DC for a vigil in response to the death of a counter-protestor in the August 12th "Unite the Right" rally the turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia AFP/Getty Images People rally on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House to demonstrate against the violence that took place this weekend at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia EPA People hold flowers at a vigil in Chicago, Illinois for the victims in the previous day's violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia AFP/Getty Images Brenda Diaz-Castro, holds a sign during a candlelight vigil in Harrisonburg AP Hundreds of people gather at an informal memorial on the spot where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia Getty Images Flowers and a photo of car ramming victim Heather Heyer lie at a makeshift memoriall in Charlottesville, Virginia Reuters Demonstrators protest against hate, white supremacy groups and US President Donald Trump in Chicago, Illinois AFP/Getty Images A protester holds a sign reading "Racism is not Patriotism" at a march against white nationalism in New York City Reuters A demonstrator carries a sign remembering Heather Heyer during a protest in Chicago, Illinois Getty Images A protestor, who was marching on 5th Avenue against white supremacy and racism, is arrested by New York City Police (NYPD) officers Getty Images Protesters climb and spray-paint a Confederate monument at Piedmont Park in Atlanta AP Marcus Martin (C), who was injured when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacist Unite the Right rally, and his wife Marissa Blair and friends visit the memorial built at the place where he was injured and where where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed in the same attack in Charlottesville, Virginia Getty Images

Another of those identified as an angry-looking torch bearer, 20-year-old student Peter Cvjetanovic, said: I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that Im not the angry racist they see in that photo.

The Yes, Youre Racist Twitter page has been naming the Unite the Right marchers to its 180,000 followers online since the hate-fuelled rallies on Friday and Saturday.

One of the alleged alt-right protesters, using the name @FearsWilliam, retweeted an image that the page posted of him throwing up a Hitler salute, saying lol.

The man describes himself as being the charismatic leader of a white breeding cult in his profile.

The Yes, Youre Racist page also posted photos of James Fields, the Nazi-loving 20-year-old who allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters on Saturday, killing 32-year-old paralegal Ms Heyer. Fields has been charged with second-degree murder.

His former history teacher told the Washington Post that he idolised Adolf Hitler. It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler, Derek Weimer said.

Heather Heyer died when a car ploughed into anti-facist protesters in Charlottesville

Thousands of people gathered in cities across the US last night to protest against the violence in Virginia.

Trouble broke out as anti-fascist marchers clashed with riot police in Seattle. There were also peaceful gatherings in New York, Florida and Cleveland.

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The political reverberations were still being felt today, with both Vice President Mike Pence and the White House seeking to play down Donald Trumps failure to condemn white supremacists who sparked the bloodshed in Virginia, forcing the state governor Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency.

Soon after the rally President Trump blamed the trouble on many sides. Later he ignored reporters who asked him whether he condemned white nationalist groups or considered the murder of a woman in Charlottesville a terrorist attack.

Today a White House spokesperson suggested that the president condemned white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups, even though he failed to mention any of them.

The president said very strongly that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and, of course, that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups, the official said.

Speaking in Cartagena, Colombia, Mr Pence said Mr Trump clearly and unambiguously condemned the bigotry and hatred.

We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-Nazis or the KKK, he added.
O ne of the USs most high-profile African American CEOs has quit Donald Trumps business advisory panel following the Presidents response to the Charlottesville protests.

Kenneth Frazier, chief executive officer of pharmaceutical giant Merck, announced his resignation on Monday as Trump faced mounting criticism over his response to the fatal events in Virginia.

In statement, Mr Frazier said: Americas leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.

The US President had faced criticism for not immediately condemning the actions of the far right group when the neo-Nazis sparked violence during the protest.

Heather Heyer, 32, died after she was mown down as she attended an anti-fascism event where the far right group struck. Nineteen people were injured.

Mr Frazier added: Our countrys strength stems from its diversity and the contributions made by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs.

Minutes after the high-profile CEOs announcement, Trump attacked him on Twitter. He wrote: Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

The White House has since issued a statement, which said the president "condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups."

Mr Frazier is the third business leader to quit the US leader's panel. Disney chairman Bob Iger and Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, both resigned in June after Trump announced he would withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement.
R ising star Naomi Ackie has told of how she freaked out when she first auditioned for Idris Elbas directorial debut as it was a such surreal experience.

The London-born actress, 26, landed a role in Elbas first feature film, Yardie, after impressing him during a series of auditions earlier this year.

I sent tape for the first audition and then for my second audition I met him face-to-face and I just tried not to freak out, she told the Standard.

It was really weird, he was just sat on a sofa being normal and I just thought, How can you just sit there being normal, youre Idris Elba.

First time filmmaker: Idris Elba has directed the forthcoming Yardie / Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

I definitely freaked out a lot actually, but not in front of his face, that would be embarrassing.

Ackie plays one of the lead roles in Elbas first foray into filmmaking, alongside fellow Brits Aml Ameen and Mark Rhino Smith.

Filmed on location in London and Jamaica, the gritty crime thriller is based on Victor Headleys cult 1993 novel of the same name.

An open casting call for the film, posted on Elbas Facebook page, caused mayhem in East London back in May, with police called to shut it down after hundreds of people descended on a Hackney community centre

Florence Pugh discusses nude scenes in new film Lady Macbeth

I finished filming about a month ago and it was great, it was great experience, said Ackie.

I was shooting for full days and I just never expected to meet Idris Elba, let alone be in a film hes made. Youd go on set and he was just there, hanging out.

Ackie was put forward for the role by the same casting agent who picked her to play repressed housemaid Anna in this years breakout British film, Lady Macbeth.

William Oldroyds dark period drama won rave reviews across the board when it hit cinemas in April, with leads Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis and Ackie praised for their performances.

Ackie said shes been overwhelmed by the response to the film considering we started with just a script, a small crew and such a small cast.

We weren't looking that far ahead when we made it, she said. It was just a really good script and we wanted to make the best film we possibly could. But then to come away like two years later and for it be so well received and blown up everywhere its quite overwhelming, its crazy.

Playing a downtrodden, mostly-mute 19th-century housemaid had an effect on Ackies own life as the character made her frustrated at times.

I would get frustrated sometimes because I have got a big mouth and I speak my opinion all the time, I feel like thats my right as a woman and as a human being, she said.

To play someone who is in essence the opposite of that was bit of a struggle sometimes, but at the same time it almost felt good to represent someone like that because I feel that, even nowadays, there are women like that all around, all over the world.

Ackie said the combination of getting older, and jumping into the unsettling role has changed her as a person.

When I was young I was more like Anna, kept myself to myself, was quite passive, quite passive aggressive.

I dont know if its the film or if Im getting older but now its very difficult for me to pretend or to keep to myself when I see something that isnt right.

Lady Macbeth available on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday 21st August.


I t may only be three weeks since Love Island wrapped, but the stars of the 2017 series have certainly been busy.

From break-ups to brand partnerships, we find out which of the ITV2 dating shows top couples are still together, and what theyve been up to since leaving the Majorcan villa.

Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies - still together

This years winners are still going strong. Amber has reportedly all but moved in to the house Kem shares with his parents in Romford, and barely a day goes by that they dont share a couples selfie on their various social media platforms.

ITV

Theyve shut down any split rumours and landed themselves some lucrative promotional gigs.

Kem has also found time to become the face of boohooMAN alongside fellow islanders Alex Beattie and Marcel Somerville, all while conducting a pretty extensive PA tour.

Meanwhile, Welsh lass Amber has bagged deals said to be worth six-figure sums with fashion brand Motel Rocks and pyjama and lingerie label Boux Avenue.

Montana Brown and Alex Beattie - split

ITV2

While this pair famously were one of the friskiest on the show, much to Montanas mums disappointment, their romance proved to be lust rather than love and has fizzled out after just a few weeks.

After rumours circulated that the pair had split, with Montana leaving the reunion show wrap party accompanied by former flame Simon Searles, both she and Alex confirmed things had ended on social media last week.

Love Island Series 3 - in pictures 1 /46 Love Island Series 3 - in pictures ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV

While Alex is now working for boohooMAN, Montana has been up to Manchester to visit fashion brand Pretty Little Things headquarters and kicked off a career in presenting by leading a fashion feature on This Morning.

Jessica Shears and Dom Lever - still together

Despite being dogged by rumours of Jesss wild night with Muggy Mike following the pairs dumping from the villa, she and original beau Dom are still sticking it out.

The pair recently even got inked with each others initials, but any hint that it was a romantic gesture was scotched when Instagram users realised they were promoting a tattoo aftercare brand.

ITV2

Theyve certainly been making the most of their new-found fame, with #spon popping up all over their social accounts, much to the annoyance of fans.

As to brands theyve been linked to, there are simply too many to list.

Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes - still together

Pete Summers/Rex

Olivia and Chris have had almost as turbulent a time since leaving the villa as they did while on the show. Everything seemed to be going well  Olivia visited the farm and they were posting pics of them cuddling up with their fake baby Cash Hughes daily  then disaster struck.

The Motorsport Grid Girl was pictured looking very cosy with her ex-boyfriend Bradley Dack at Faces nightclub before apparently heading home with him.

The next day Chris captioned an Instagram post of him smiling with the cryptic line Whatever makes you feel bad, leave it. Whatever makes you happy, keep it which did little to quell the rumours.

He later edited the post to read: Whatever makes you happy, keep it while Olivia headed to Twitter to shut down rumours that shed spent the night with her ex.

Chris also took time out of his busy PA schedule and Topman partnership, showing up on the set of Olivias shoot with In The Style to support his girlfriend.

Love Island 2017 Contestants return to UK - in pictures 1 /16 Love Island 2017 Contestants return to UK - in pictures Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt Rex Features Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies Rex Features Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood Rex Features Chris Hughes, Olivia Attwood, Kem Cetinay, Amber Davies, Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt Rex Features Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville Rex Features Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies Rex Features Kem Cetinay surrounded by friends and family at Stanstead Airport Rex Features Rex Features Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes returning home Rex Features Chloe Crowhurst Rex Features Gabrielle Allen at Stanstead Airport Rex Features Gabrielle Allen and Ethan Allen Rex Features

As the duo has seemed happily loved up ever since, it seems the rumours were just that.

Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt - still together

Eschewing social media promotion for something a little more meaningful, Jamie and Camilla have stayed true to their word by heading out to Greece to volunteer at a refugee camp.

They kept their followers up to date with snaps of them preparing meals for the children at the centre, Jamie teaching them how to play guitar and Camilla showing off her sporty side.

ITV

Romance-wise the pair are rather less keen on gushing social media declarations of affection, but to all appearances seem to still be going strong.

Unsurprisingly neither has been linked to any brands, and have only been encouraging their followers to buy a charity T-shirt to support the refugee camp they visited.

Sam Gowland and Georgia Harrison - split

ITV

These two only had a few days in the villa to get to know each other before they were dumped from the show which may have contributed to the demise of their short-lived love affair.

After days without being seen together and several photos of Sam looking cosy with other ladies on nights out, Georgia confirmed on Twitter that the pair were no longer together.

Her post hinted that Sam just might have been unfaithful - she wrote: "Would like to confirm that myself and Sam are no longer together. Unfortunately for some men one girl isn't always enough," but later denied that the Geordie lad had cheated on her.

Love Island contestant Gabby Allen responds to racial abuse

Georgia has been linked to MissPap and Missguided, while Sam has been linked to boohooMan and teeth-whitening brand WhiteWash Labs.

Marcel Somerville and Gabby Allen - still together

Rex Features

Although Gabby was accused of faking her feelings for ex-Blazin Squad member Marcel while on the show, the pair has had a much smoother time of things since leaving the house.

Theyre one of few couples to be untroubled by split rumours, but Gabby has sadly been forced to speak out against racial abuse she's received over the past few weeks.

Marcels has been keeping himself busy with a packed PA appearance schedule, gigs with Blazin Squad and brand new single Someone.

Thats not to say Gabby has been twiddling her thumbs, the Scouse lass has been working with fashion brands AX Paris and Missbardo, and announced a collection with Quiz Clothing.
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In the east the battle for the city of Raqqa is now into its tenth week with American supported SDF forces doing nearly all the fighting. At this point the SDF has taken nearly two-thirds of the city. For the last month SDF has had to slow down the advance because the fighting is now in the heavily built downtown area and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) resistance is more organized and determined, especially in the Old City. Fighting is street by street, block by block because of the many bombs and landmines ISIL has placed in the way. These explosive devices cause 80 percent of the casualties the SDF suffers in the city fighting. ISIL is prepared to make a last stand in the city center where it has built sniper positions and explosive traps (including remotely detonated bombs). This is also where there are more historical sites that are still intact and ISIL knows the attackers will be eager to preserve. SDF leaders warn that the fighting in Raqqa and surrounding areas may last until the end of 2017 because many ISIL men have nowhere to flee and will, like many have done in Iraq, turn into bandits and guerillas to try and survive in the eastern Syria. ISIL has been in the Raqqa area for over three years and established all manner of links with local smugglers and anti-Assad groups.

American Special Forces confirm that SDF has the remaining ISIL forces surrounded and these Kurdish led rebels continue to advance on all sides. The U.S. Special Forces, who have operated with Kurds in Iraq for 25 years and the Syrian Kurds for over five years, also report that the ISIL fighters still in Raqqa are more frequently using civilians (or even wives and children ISIL men) as human shields. This makes it more difficult to call in air strikes when you are trying to avoid civilian casualties. At this point most of the fighting in Syria is taking place in Raqqa and a few other hot spots (Idlib province, Homs and outside Aleppo, the Lebanese border and near the Israeli border.)

The rapid advances against ISIL, especially towards Raqqa are mainly the result of three changes the U.S. made early in 2017. First, local American commanders were given more autonomy to act on their own (in line with objectives agreed on with the U.S. government) and not constantly refer back to political leaders in the U.S. before making many decisions or moves. Next there was a change in the highly restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement) and the effectiveness of ISIL using human shields against American aircraft. Until early 2017 Russian air attacks since October 2015 have killed more than twice as many civilians as the U.S. led coalition has since August 2014 and that is largely due to a less restrictive ROE. Russia is apparently not deliberately attacking civilians like the Assad aircraft and artillery continue to do. The new American ROE left it up to the local commander or pilot to decide on how to handle human shields. As a result ISIL found the human shields didnt work very well anymore and began using them less. The local civilians, sometimes families of ISIL fighters, forced to serve as human shields were less frequently seen, often under guard, around key ISIL locations (especially ammo or vehicle storage areas) and hardly ever in the combat zone. The third change was to put a priority on preventing ISIL fighters, especially those from the West, to escape. The new order was surround them if possible and kill them all except for those who surrender.

These changes made the most difference with the SDF, the Kurdish majority rebel group that had been slowly pushing back ISIL forces since early 2016. With the new American strategy the SDF was suddenly getting more equipment (especially armored vehicles), weapons and air support. This came as a shock to the ISIL forces they were fighting because a lot of ISIL tactics didnt work anymore and the SDF was increasingly effective at overcoming ISIL defenses with little loss to themselves. Just as well because the SDF was the main force fighting ISIL and the only one threatening the ISIL capital in Raqqa city. Now SDF forces are about to drive ISIL out of Raqqa leaving the Assad forces (and their Russian and Iranian allies) the only opposition. Well, there are also the Turks, and Iranian mercenaries.

The rapid advances in the Syrian fighting this year have forced over 800,000 civilians from their homes so far in 2017. Many of these refugees are from Raqqa but most are from areas where the Assad forces are advancing. It is unclear how many civilians are left in Raqqa but it is believed fewer than 10,000 are still in areas controlled by ISIL. More than that are in, or returning to, parts of the city ISIL has recently lost to the SDF rebels.

Turkey Versus Everyone

In the northwest (the Turkish border, north of Aleppo) Turkish troops and YPG Kurds have been massing additional forces to deal with a situation near the town of Afrin. The Turkish troops in Syria, and their FSA allies, have been trying to force Kurdish fighters out of Afrin for over a year but have so far failed. This area has been frequently fought over since 2013. Those battles involved al Nusra and ISIL forces as well as the Syrian Army and FSA (secular) and U.S. supported SDF rebels. Now the Turks are involved and have become a major supporters of the FSA rebels in the area. This has led to some clashes between FSA and SDF forces. There have been clashes between the YPG (the Kurdish separatist component of SDF) and FSA rebels in the past, even though both groups have long been supported by the Americans. These hostilities were basically the outgrowth of personal disputes between leaders of some YPG and FSA groups. The U.S. sees the Turkish attitude here (that all armed Kurds must disband and disarm) of being more about domestic Turkish politics (where an unpopular pro-Islamic government is trying to create an external threat to distract Turks from the dislike for their own government). As a result of the recent incidents the Americans announced they would not require Syrian Kurds, especially the YPG, to return American weapons once ISIL was defeated. The U.S. had earlier said it would get the weapons, as a gesture to the Turks. But now the Americans see Turkish hostility towards the Syrian Kurds as having nothing to do with reality and actually hurting the campaign against ISIL (which Turkey wants destroyed) and the Assads (which the Turks are less hostile towards). To further complicate matters the Russians have moved forces to the vicinity of Afrin in support of the SDF.

Assad Forces Move East

Much of central and eastern Syria is thinly populated and controlled by whoever rules the few roads. In west central Syria (Homs province) Assad forces have captured most of the province but are having problems eliminating the few remaining ISIL strongholds. East of Homs in Deir Ezzor province Assad forces have made regular progress to reach the provincial capital (also called Deir Ezzor) that is southeast of Raqqa. ISIL continues to surround the city of Deir Ezzor (also called al Zour), which has been under siege by the Islamic terrorists since 2014. Syrian forces were largely absent from Deir Ezzor province until March 2016 when Syrian troops retook Palmyra, held by ISIL since May 2015. Palmyra was a major ISIL victory but since early 2016 Russian air and ground forces have worked with Syrian troops to methodically fight their way back to Palmyra and Deir Ezzor province in general. At that time ISIL controlled most of Deir Ezzor province, including Palmyra, which is astride the main road from Deir Ezzor to Damascus (the national capital and Assad stronghold). Supporting government forces in Deir Ezzor became more difficult with the loss of Palmyra in mid-2015 and the Russian troops arrived just in time. Syrian troops have been fighting ISIL in Deir Ezzor province ever since in preparation for an advance on the ISIL capital of Raqqa (227 kilometers to the northwest). The city of Deir Ezzor is halfway between the ISIL capital Raqqa and ISIL controlled (until recently) areas of Iraq. The Assad forces seem in no hurry to drive ISIL away from the city of Deir Ezzor. The Assads are confident that their Russian and Iranian allies will forced the SDF to turn Raqqa over to the legitimate government of Syria (the Assads) once ISIL has been cleared out. There is some truth to that but the SDF expects some concessions from the Assads (like recognition of an autonomous Kurd region in the northeast).

The Triad Of Confusion

Russia, Iran and Turkey want to keep the Assads in power and develop better relations with the each other. Evidence of this strategy can be seen in the Russian monitored neutral zone in southern Syria, along the Jordanian and Israeli borders. Since established on July 7th this zone is apparently working and was initially monitored by 400 Russian military police. Russia has since moved in more (now four) battalions of military police, many of them within sight of people on both sides of the Syrian border with Israel and Jordan. The problem is Iran and most Islamic terrorists, especially al Qaeda and ISIL have not agreed to observe the neutral zone. That results in some violence, mostly from ISIL. The other Islamic terror groups are willing to unofficially observe the ceasefire.

To deal with the remaining ISIL threat (and any new Iranian ones) Israel made it clear that it was not bound by the neutral zone rules either. Yet since this neutral zone was declared Iran has behaved. This has something to do with Russian refusal to act against the increasingly loud and frequent Israeli reminders that their air force will attack any Iranian attempt to set up operations near the Israeli border. This is just the beginning of a long-term struggle for who will control what in Syria. Meanwhile further west in Lebanon Iranian controlled Hezbollah is more active on the Israeli border, even if some of these moves violate the UN agreement that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Once ISIL is gone as a major threat, perhaps by the end of 2017, the only thing left to fight over is how much of Syria will a post-war Syrian government control. Turkey wants to control most of the northern border, as least the parts that border Turkey. The control is currently disputed by the Syrian Kurds, who want to control northeastern Syria (their ancestral homeland) and at least have access to the rest of the northern border, if not control of smaller border areas that were traditionally mostly Kurdish. Iran wants free access to southern Syria, especially the main roads from Iraq to southern Lebanon and areas along the Israeli border. Russia has a lease on a naval base on the Syrian coast and wants to hold onto that. Some of these demands contradict others.

Israel is openly hostile to a permanent Iranian presence in Syria and Turkey quietly agrees with that. Russia agrees more openly and Israel keeps trying to improve relations with the unstable Turkish Islamic government. The only thing that makes Russia, Iran and Turkey allies is their desire for the Assads to stay in power and keep Syria free of Islamic terrorists and Kurdish separatists. Turkey, Iran and Russia back the Assads directly (with personnel and weapons) and coordinate their military operations to help the Assads survive. The Sunni Arab states want the Assads gone and are more open in opposing Iranian plans for post-war Syria. Despite opposition from Israel, the Arabs, the Americans and even Iranian allies Iran is determined to have a land route from Iran to Lebanon and military installations in post-war Syria. Israel has made it clear that it will, and can, make sure that does not happen. Turkey and Russia recognize that Israel is not only the stronger military power here but also has the most at stake. For decades Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and that does not sit well with Turkey and Russia because both nations have had clashes with aggressive Iranian ambitions over the past few centuries.

So far Iran seems to be replacing ISIL as the major disruptive force in Syria and major source of Islamic terror violence. What makes Iran particularly scary is their proven ability to mobilize effective and loyal forces wherever they establish a presence. They even have a branch of their military, the Quds Force, dedicated to that. The best example is the Hezbollah Shia Arab militia in Lebanon. Now here are similar militias in Iraq and even one largely composed of Afghans operating only in Syria (so far). Back in Afghanistan politicians are complaining about the number of Afghans hired by Iran to fight in Syria and, it is feared, eventually other parts of the world.

Since 2012 Iran has offered Afghan Shia refugees in Iran the opportunity to join an Iranian sponsored mercenary force in Syria. Iran was trying to keep the Syrian government in power against an uprising by the majority of Syrians (who are Sunni). The Shia minority has ruled Syria for over 40 years and since the 1980s done so with the financial and material support of Iran. After 2012 that support included more and more foreign Shia fighters recruited, trained (usually in only a few weeks), paid and led by Iranians. The key benefit for Afghan volunteers from Iran was that successful service (especially if killed or disabled) provided the volunteer and his family with permanent residency in Iran. Some 20,000 Afghans from Iran have volunteered so far and some 20 percent have been killed or wounded. Despite the losses, Afghans kept volunteering because the payoff was relatively large and real.

The Iranians kept their end of the bargain. But some of the Afghan volunteers did desert and provided foreign journalists and intel analysts with details of how the system worked. For one thing Iranian recruiters stressed the religious angle and the need to protect fellow Shia in Syria. The reality was that Iran needed tough and fearless fighters to deal with Sunni Islamic terrorist groups (mostly al Qaeda and ISIL) who comprised most of the opposition. These Sunni fanatics were responsible for numerous (and ongoing) attacks on Afghan Shia back in Iran. Afghanistan and Pakistan and that was sufficient motivation for most of the Afghan volunteers who come from a warrior culture. In addition to keeping their end of the deal Iran has recently (since late 2016) been providing the Afghan volunteers more public praise in the Iranian media. Most of the Afghans killed in Syria are flown home for burial in Iran and photos or video of the funerals often show up in the media. The families of the martyrs are praised as well and often shown receiving their residency papers and other benefits as well (access to better housing, medical care and so on). All this angers many Afghans who see it as another Iranian scheme to exploit Afghanistan. It is, but the Afghan refugees keep volunteering.

August 13, 2017: Outside Damascus rebels used explosives in a tunnel to kill at least twenty soldiers.

August 12, 2017: In the east the SDF now control half the city of Raqqa and the SDF forces advancing from the east and the west have linked up and largely surrounded ISIL held areas.

In the central Syria (Homs province) the Assad forces took advantage of their air power (mostly Russian) and the fact that most of Homs is thinly populated desert to raid an isolated ISIL position. The raid involved air strikes quickly followed by Syrian troops landing by helicopter. At least 31 died (25 Islamic terrorists and six soldiers). Many more ISIL men were captured (often because they were wounded). This raid was apparently for the purpose of taking prisoners and capture documents. It also boosts morale among the Assad forces and further demoralizes the rebels in general and ISIL in particular.

Over the last month Hezbollah forces fighting on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanon border killed or chased away several hundred Syrian al Qaeda rebels and destroyed the camps and fortifications these Syrian rebels had used since 2012. In the end many of the remaining al Qaeda gunmen agreed to voluntarily leave with their families. This was part of an effort to force nearly 10,000 Islamic terrorists (both ISIL and al Qaeda) from illegal camps they and their families have established on the Lebanese side of the border. So far about 80 percent of these illegals have been forced or persuaded to leave Lebanon.

August 11, 2017: In the south, on the Jordan border, an ISIL suicide bomber attacked a camp used by Jaish al Islam, a rival rebel group backed by Saudi Arabia. This attacked killed 23 rebels and wounded more than 30 and was part of an effort to gain control of the Nasib border crossing.

August 10, 2017: In the south Syrian army and Iranian mercenaries (Hezbollah) forces seized control of 30 kilometers of the Jordan border. This gives the Assads control of the entire Jordan border of Sweida province (one of the four that border Jordan). Sweida province was not included in the ceasefire zone the U.S. and Russia agreed on in early July.

August 9, 2017: In eastern Syria an Iranian Quds force advisor, captured near the Iraqi border two days ago, was beheaded by ISIL and video of the event put on the Internet. Iran vowed revenge.

August 5, 2017: In the central Syria (Homs province) the army captured Al Sukhna, the last large town controlled by ISIL in the province. This came after a two week battle in the town itself. The fighting has been slow as Al Sukhna is only 50 kilometers southeast of Palmyra which ISIL lost in March.

August 3, 2017: In Turkey the government has replaced the senior leadership of the army, navy and air force. Since mid-2016 the government has fired or forced to retire more than half the generals and admirals. The government feared that many of these officers would not follow orders. That is still a risk because the Turkish leaders want their armed forces to prepare for an attack on the Syrian SDF forces. That would include the hundreds of American troops who advise and operate with the SDF. This could cause fighting with the United States, a fellow NATO member. The SDF is considering an alliance with the Assads should it come to war with the Turks. Stranger things have happened in this part of the world because if there is one thing the Syrian Kurds and Syrian Arabs can agree on is that Turks in Syria are definitely not welcome. Several centuries of Turkish rule led to that attitude.

Meanwhile the U.S. is openly criticizing the Turkish attitude and denying Turkish accusations that the Americans are aiding the SDF even though everyone (at least the current Turk government) knows SDF contains a large contingent of Kurdish separatists who want to attack Turkey.

August 2, 2017: In the south four mortar shells were fired at the Russian embassy compound in Damascus. Two shells fell within the embassy compound and exploded causing some material damage. The other two shells landed outside the compound. No one was injured. These embassy attacks have happened regularly, sometimes monthly, since 2011. At this time there are still some rebels within mortar range of this part of Damascus and that apparently accounts for the continued attacks.

July 30, 2017: In Kurdish controlled areas of northern Syria the Kurds announced January elections for local governments. The Turks oppose this sort of thing.

July 26, 2017: Satellite photos show Russia has replaced a dozen of the older warplanes at its Hmeymin airbase, Most of the 20 or so aircraft there are now Su-34, Su-35 and Su-30SM, which are built to mainly deliver smart bombs and guided missiles. For over a year Russia was using older warplanes that could only deliver unguided bombs because Russia had quickly exhausted its supply of smart bombs by early 2016. The more modern warplanes are also more effective at air-to-air combat. Hmeymin is outside the port city of Latakia and defended by Russias most modern air defense system (the S-400). Russia recently signed a 49 year lease with the Assads for the use of Hmeymin airbase. The lease can be extended for 25 years at a time after the initial 49 years. Russia is also upgrading its military port facilities in the Syrian port of Tartus to that of a permanent naval base.

July 25, 2017: In the northeast (Hasakah province) Turkish forces discovered another tunnel built under the border by smugglers. This has become common since the Turks increased security along the Syrian border. The Turks blame the Kurds for the tunnels but in Hasakah the smugglers have to make deals with the Kurds who control most of the province. Naturally the Kurds use the tunnel to move people or equipment (like weapons) they cannot get past Turkish border security. The tunnels tend to be deep (6-10 meters) and long (300 0r more meters) and thus expensive to build and maintain. But like such tunnels everywhere the tunnel owners have to take that into account when putting up the cash to build and maintain a tunnel and charge customers accordingly. Tunnel owners try to make friends (local gangs or officials who can be bribed) on both sides but at this time Turkish politics is in turmoil and it is difficult to know who you can trust. At the moment the Turks have a real concern about PKK using the tunnels to move people and explosives needed for terror attacks inside Turkey.
2017 Genesis G90 RWD 3.3T Premium - Review by Carey Russ +VIDEO

DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD WITH CAREY RUSS

 SEE ALSO: Genesis Research and Buyers Guide

This weeks test car is a new Genesis G90. But whats a Genesis? Shouldnt that be Hyundai Genesis?

No longer. Until model year 2017, there was a Hyundai Genesis sedan and coupe, and the Hyundai Equus luxury sedan. Look in the current Hyundai catalog, and theyre missing  because Genesis has been spun off as Hyundais upmarket brand, in the same manner that Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti were created a few decades ago. The former Hyundai Genesis sedan is now the Genesis G80. The coupe has disappeared, for now at least. The next-generation Equus, with major revision inside and out, is now the Genesis G90.

And the G90 is meant to compete with premium luxury sedans from around the world, from established manufacturers like Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Jaguar, and Cadillac. That could be challenging  but the G90 is capable. Offered with two engines  a 365-horsepower 3.3-liter twin-turbo V6 or a 5.0-liter, 420-hp V8  in rear- or all-wheel drive form, it has all of the current luxury-level comfort, convenience, and safety features expected, standard. There are no confusing lists of packaged and standalone options, only two interior color choices, and five exterior color choices. What you see is what you get

Materials and build quality are to class standards. Previous top-level Hyundais were close, but I found seemingly small details like type fonts on switchgear shared with lesser models to be negatives. Picky? Perhaps, but when youre spending in the $70,000 range, perfection is required. Even in oft-overlooked places like the footwells, the rear seat area, and the trunk. There is nothing in the G90s cabin that looks to be from the more pedestrian lineup, and nothing that looks out of place.

Genesiss theme for its G90 is Human-Centered Luxury, meaning a focus on the needs and desires of the driver and passengers. Design is paramount, not for its own sake or for the designers ego, but for passenger comfort and safety. To that end, interior design is conservatively simple, with all of the expected quality materials and first-rate fit and finish  and the interface to the myriad electronic systems and features is refreshingly simple and intuitive. All current semi-autonomous safety systems are standard.

My test car had the 3.3-liter turbo engine. With maximum torque  376 lb-ft available from 1300 through 4500 rpm, where the engine will usually be operating, merging in traffic, even from a too-short onramp, was never an issue. Multiple drive modes allow for personalization of power and suspension response, and the cabin was commendably quiet even on poor surfaces. Fuel economy, at 20 mpg for the week, was also good, especially for a 4,600-pound, 365-horsepower luxury car with all the trimmings. Genesis is the new entry in the premium luxury class and so faces a tough battle. I suspect it will be just as successful as its parent.

APPEARANCE: The smaller G80 has existed as the Hyundai Genesis Sedan since model year 2009. The second generation debuted for 2015, with very different, much more assertive styling. It continues as the G80, and the G90 is very much from the same mold, if larger and with more formal proportions befitting its status. The G90 sits on a six-inch longer wheelbase, and is about six inches longer. Its more of a three-(rounded) box design. Grilles are similar, but not identical, ditto for the headlights. Both feature a strong, well-defined shoulder line. The major difference is at the rear, where the G90s more formal roof-line and C-pillars, curving 3-D LED taillights, and trunk shape contrast with the sportier look of its smaller sibling. Yes, a jaded eye (that would be mine) can see plenty of influences, but here they work cohesively, for easy recognition.

COMFORT: Walk up to the G90, and the mirrors fold out, LEDs in the door handle pockets light, and the Genesis logo is projected on the ground from the undersides of the mirrors. Inside, the G90 is all space and grace. Design is global contemporary premium, conservative but not old. Materials are as expected, perforated leather seating, leather for the steering wheel rim, shift knob, and door panels, wood trim with aluminum accents, and aluminum switches in the center stack. The instrument panel is an electronic display, bright and easily visible in any light. Useful information is displayed between the tach and speedometer, and a bright but non-distracting head-up display shows speed, speed limit, and blind-spot data. If it can be power-adjustable, it is, with memory for both front seats. Comfort and support there is very good, and the cushions can be both heated and cooled. Outboard rear passengers have to make do with only heat, but get power sunshades, floor, B-pillar, and end of console vents, and plenty of room. And their own audio controls in the fold-down center console. The trunk is quite large, with a stainless steel scuff plate, cargo net, and first-aid kit. A space-saver spare is under its floor.

Cabin electronics  audio (AM, FM, SXM radio, with USB and jack in a console compartment with a Qi wireless charger), navigation, phone, apps, and BlueLink telematics  are controlled by the rotary knob on the console or marked buttons under the center climate vents and analog clock in the center stack. Climate control is by means of buttons below that, no need for sub-sub-submenus. The steering wheel has controls for audio, information, phone, and cruise systems.

SAFETY: In addition to its unibody structure strengthened for increased rigidity and better dispersion of crash energy, the Genesis G90 has nine airbags and pre-active safety belts that automatically tighten under acceleration, braking, or quick maneuvers. Its expected to receive five-star NHTSA and Top Safety Pick+ IIHS ratings. Standard electronic systems include everything  Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, Driver Attention Alert, Smart Blind Spot Detection, Lane Keep Assist, Smart Cruise Control with Stop/Start, front and rear parking sensors as well as a color heads-up display, high-beam assist, and haptic steering wheel.

RIDE AND HANDLING: The G90s structural rigidity helps its road manners in addition to passive safety, and the accident you can avoid is one you dont have. Its fully-independent multilink suspension was designed to minimize camber and toe-in changes, for predictable response. The Adaptive Control Suspension, from Sachs/ZF, gives independent control of compression and rebound damping for improved roll and yaw control. That is integrated with the Dynamic Stability Control system. Steering is electrically-assisted, with variable assist. Brakes are vented discs all around, with four-piston calipers in front and twin-piston calipers in the rear. Steering, stability control, and damping rates are controlled by the Intelligent Drive Mode switch, with Eco (maximize fuel economy), Smart (adaptive), Sport, and Individual (customized) modes. Smart works very well and was what I mostly used. Sport is a bit firmer, but more luxury sport-touring with an appropriate emphasis on comfort.

PERFORMANCE: Its only a V6 and, at 3.3 liters / 204 cubic inches, not an especially large one. But with lightweight aluminum alloy construction, four-valve per cylinder heads, continuously-variable cam phasing and variable-length intake, and twin intercooled turbos and direct fuel injection, its a V6 that makes 365 horsepower at 6000 rpm, and more importantly for everyday driving, 376 lb-ft of torque between 1300 and 4500 rpm. Turbo lag is a non-issue, any delay in immediate acceleration is more likely from the transmission downshifting. That transmission is Hyundai/Genesiss own, an eight-speed multimode automatic with manual shifting ability via paddles behind the steering wheel.

Intelligent Drive Mode works here, too, changing throttle response and transmission shift mapping. Smart mode learns the drivers desires. Eco decreases throttle sensitivity and increases shift points to improve fuel economy. Sport increases throttle sensitivity and suspension damping while decreasing steering assist. Differences are not immense, but are noticeable. Despite only momentarily using Eco, I still got an honest 20 mpg for the week.

CONCLUSIONS: Hyundai goes after the luxury car heavyweights with its new Genesis divisions flagship G90.

SPECIFICATIONS

2017 Genesis G90 RWD 3.3T Premium

Base Price $ 68,100

Price As Tested $ 69,050

Engine Type aluminum alloy DOHC 24-valve turbocharged and intercooled V6 with continuously-variable cam phasing, variable intake, and direct fuel injection

Engine Size 3.3 liters / 204 cu. in.

Horsepower 365 @ 6000 rpm

Torque (lb-ft) 376 @ 1300-4500 rpm

Transmission 8-speed multi-mode automatic

Wheelbase / Length 124.4 in. / 204.9 in.

Curb Weight 4630 lbs.

Pounds Per Horsepower 12.7

Fuel Capacity 21.9 gal.

Fuel Requirement 91 octane unleaded premium for best performance Tires 245/45R19 101W F, 275/40 R19 101W R Conti Pro Contact

Brakes, front/rear vented disc all around ABS, EBD standard

Suspension, front/rear independent multi-link front and rear

Drivetrain Front engine, rear-wheel drive

PERFORMANCE

EPA Fuel Economy - miles per gallon city / highway / observed 17 / 24 / 20

0 to 60 mph 5.5 sec

OPTIONS AND CHARGES

Destination Charge $ 950
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI and AUGSBURG, Germany, Aug. 14, 2017 - Days ago, KUKA Toledo Production Operations (KTPO) celebrated the completion of its two millionth Jeep Wrangler body-in-white, the latest milestone in a stellar history that has seen this unique plant rank consistently among the quality and productivity leaders in the North American automotive industry.

Since beginning operations in 2006, this wholly owned subsidiary of KUKA Systems North America LLC, has built the body-in-white of all Wranglers sold worldwide  both two-door and four-door models. It took seven years for KTPO to build the first million, but only four to make the second million, as it expanded output to keep up with growing global demand for the iconic Wrangler.

"KTPO has been a tremendous story for KUKA, a study in technical excellence and ambition, complemented by a strong commitment to the venture's continued success by all involved, especially our Toledo staff," says Larry A Drake, CEO of KUKA Systems Group. "It's a platform for implementing KUKA innovation and best practices that attracts visitors from around the world to understand how this works so well on multiple levels."

With a fleet of 259 robots, KTPO produces the unpainted vehicle body  828 per day, or one every 77 seconds, over three daily shifts  in the 330,000- sq. ft. body shop. Following a trip through the paint shop, the KTPO bodies are then mated to the chassis frame during final assembly at the Toledo Assembly Complex.

Assembling the body-in-white involves welding the underbody, windshield and closures together, which enables KUKA Systems to showcase its best-in-class, automated metal joining technologies used in automotive assembly plants worldwide. The plant's robotic fleet and 60,000 other inputs are linked to a powerful back-end digital monitoring system and a master data management system. This networking of production processes has evolved into an intelligent lifecycle management platform designed to Industry 4.0 principles. The fully digitized solution controls and monitors the entire value chain in real time, from receipt of materials to the actual production processes and goods dispatch. It also identifies bottlenecks and optimizes capacity utilization.

KUKA Aktiengesellschaft

KUKA is a global automation corporation with sales of around 3 billion euro and around 13,200 employees. As leading global supplier of intelligent automation solutions KUKA offers its customers in the automotive, electronics, consumer goods, metalworking, logistics/e-commerce, healthcare and service robotics industries everything they need from a single source: from components and cells to fully automated systems. The KUKA Group is headquartered in Augsburg.

KUKA Systems is part of the KUKA Group and the reliable specialist for innovative joining and forming processes for a wide range of materials as well as one of the world's leading suppliers of automated production and assembly solutions for sustainable industrial manufacturing. The international system integrator stands out in systems, tool & die and special-machine engineering thanks to customer focus, technological leadership and superior solutions.
Snap-on Incorporated manufactures and markets tools, equipment, diagnostics, and repair information and systems solutions for professional users worldwide. It operates through Commercial & Industrial Group, Snap-on Tools Group, Repair Systems & Information Group, and Financial Services segments. The company offers hand tools, including wrenches, sockets, ratchet wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, punches and chisels, saws and cutting tools, pruning tools, torque measuring instruments, and other products; power tools, such as cordless, pneumatic, hydraulic, and corded tools; and tool storage products comprising tool chests, roll cabinets, and other products. It also provides handheld and computer-based diagnostic products, service and repair information products, diagnostic software solutions, electronic parts catalogs, business management systems and services, point-of-sale systems, integrated systems for vehicle service shops, original equipment manufacturer purchasing facilitation services, and warranty management systems and analytics. In addition, the company offers solutions for the service of vehicles and industrial equipment that include wheel alignment equipment, wheel balancers, tire changers, vehicle lifts, test lane equipment, collision repair equipment, vehicle air conditioning service equipment, brake service equipment, fluid exchange equipment, transmission troubleshooting equipment, safety testing equipment, battery chargers, and hoists, as well as after-sales support services and training programs. Further, it provides financing programs to facilitate the sales of its products and support its franchise business. The company serves the aviation and aerospace, agriculture, construction, government and military, mining, natural resources, power generation, and technical education industries, as well as vehicle dealerships and repair centers. Snap-on Incorporated was founded in 1920 and is based in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Steelcase Inc. provides a portfolio of furniture and architectural products in the United States and internationally. It operates through Americas, EMEA, and Other segments. The company's furniture portfolio includes furniture systems, seating, storage, fixed and height-adjustable desks, benches, and tables, as well as complementary products, such as work accessories, lighting, and mobile power and screens. Its seating products comprise task chairs; seating for collaborative environments and casual settings; and specialty seating for specific vertical markets, including education and healthcare. The company's interior architectural products comprise full and partial height walls and architectural pods. It also provides textiles, wall coverings, and surface imaging solutions for architects and designers; and workplace strategy consulting, lease origination, and furniture and asset management services. The company markets and sells its products to corporate, government, healthcare, education, and retail customers under the Steelcase, Designtex, Coalesse, AMQ, Smith System, Orangebox, and Viccarbe brands. It distributes its products and services through a network of independent and company-owned dealers, as well as directly to end-use customers. The company was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The following companies are subsidiares of Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS B.V., EPS Shanghai Trading Co. Ltd., Geocel Holdings, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Piton Paints Limited, Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Ronseal Ireland Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO  Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade Intelectual Ltda, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Australia Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel Unitary Enterprise, Sherwin-Williams Belize Limited, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Caribbean N.V., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Ireland Limited, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Nantong Coatings Technology Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams Nantong Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Shanghai Limited, Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams Thailand Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams UK Coatings Limited, Sherwin-Williams UK Limited, Sherwin-Williams Vietnam Limited, Sherwin-Williams West Indies Limited, Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Southland Paint Company, Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Specialty Polymers Inc., Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar Asia Corporation Limited, The Valspar Australia Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, The Valspar Finland Corporation Oy, The Valspar France Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar France Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar Malaysia Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar Nantes Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar Singapore Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar South Africa Corporation Pty Ltd, The Valspar Switzerland Corporation AG, The Valspar Thailand Corporation Ltd., The Valspar UK Corporation Limited, The Valspar Vietnam Corporation Ltd., UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar Automotive UK Corporation Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings Guangdong Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings Shanghai Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings Tianjin Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar India Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar Industries Ireland Ltd., Valspar Industries Italy S.r.l., Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited Japan, Valspar Shanghai Management Co. Ltd., Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, Valspar Uruguay Corporation S.A., Valspar WPC Pty Ltd, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams.

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Harley-Davidson, Inc. manufactures and sells motorcycles. The company operates in two segments, Motorcycles and Related Products and Financial Services. The Motorcycles and Related Products segment designs, manufactures, and sells Harley-Davidson motorcycles, including cruiser, touring, standard, sportbike, and dual models, as well as motorcycle parts, accessories, apparel, and related services. This segment sells its products to retail customers through a network of independent dealers, as well as e-commerce channels in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The Financial Services segment provides wholesale financing services, such as floorplan and open account financing of motorcycles, and parts and accessories; and retail financing services, including installment lending for the purchase of new and used Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as well as point-of-sale protection products comprising motorcycle insurance, extended service contracts, and motorcycle maintenance protection. This segment also licenses third-party financial institutions that issue credit cards bearing the Harley-Davidson brand. Harley-Davidson, Inc. was founded in 1903 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On Monday, CEO at Merck & Co. Kenneth Frazier has resigned from his seat on the American Manufacturing Council established by United States President Donald Trump. Frazier said he resigned due to extremism and intolerance.

Over the weekend, a gathering in Virginia of hundreds of white supremacists became deadly Saturday when a car drove into a number of counter protestors nearby killing one person and injuring nearly 20 others.

Get

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alerts:

After the incident, Trump said that many sides had been involved which immediately drew fire from across the entire political spectrum for not denouncing in specific terms the far right.

Frazier in a tweet that announced he had resigned from the council said that leaders in America need to honor the fundamental views by making a clear rejection of expression of bigotry, hatred and group supremacy, which he said runs counter to the our ideal that all people are created equal.

President Trump wasted little time by releasing his own tweet that said Frazier from Merck Pharma had resigned his seat from the Presidents Manufacturing Council, so he should have more time to reduce the ripoff drug prices.

Several corporate executives from top companies in the U.S. have resigned from many of the different presidential advisory councils in protest of the policies established by Trumps administration.

Robert Iger the CEO at Walt Disney and Elon Musk the CEO at Tesla left the Strategy and Policy Forum established by Trump. The forum is an advisory group. The two resignations from the business advisory group come after the president said he was withdrawing from the climate accord of Paris. Musk left the manufacturing council as well.

Former CEO at Uber Technologies Travis Kalanick quit an advisory council during February amidst pressure from employees and activists who opposed the immigration policies of the administration.

Earlier this summer, Trump spoke about presidential action he might take on the pricing of drugs to address the high costs of prescriptions drugs that have increased over the past few years.

Trump announced at the time that todays drug makers were getting away with murder. His comments came in January during one of his news conferences.

No word has been released if other CEOs of private businesses that sit on one of the presidents councils have decided to resign in protest of his comments made Saturday.
Genpact Limited provides business process outsourcing and information technology (IT) services in India, rest of Asia, North and Latin America, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance; Consumer Goods, Retail, Life Sciences and Healthcare; and High Tech, Manufacturing and Services. The company offers CFO advisory services; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) services, such as data management, carbon accounting, human rights assessment, sustainability diligence, and ESG reporting. It also provides finance and accounting services, which include accounts payable, such as document management, invoice processing, approval and resolution management, and travel and expense processing; invoice-to-cash services, including customer master data management, credit and contract management, fulfillment, billing, collections, and dispute management services; record to report services comprising accounting, treasury, tax, product cost accounting, and closing and reporting services; financial planning and analysis consisting of budgeting, forecasting, and business performance reporting; and enterprise risk and compliance services, including operational risks and controls. In addition, the company provides supply chain advisory services, and after-sales services; sourcing and procurement services comprising direct and indirect strategic sourcing, category management, spend analytics, procurement operation, and master data management; and sales and commercial services, including campaign, order, and dispute management, lead generation, pricing, and promotion optimization. Further, it offers IT services, which comprise end-user computing support, infrastructure management, application production support, and database management services; and transformation services that include digital solutions, consulting services, and analytics services and solutions. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Walmart Inc. is the worlds biggest company by revenue and its largest employer with over 2.2 million globally. It is a general merchandise discount retailer founded in 1962 by Sam Walton and remains a very tightly-held family-owned company to this day. At last look, the Walton family and its heirs owned more than 50% of the company through the family-holding company Walton Enterprises and individual holdings. As of October 2022, the company operated nearly 10,600 stores in 24 countries under 46 different banners. For example, Walmart de Mexico is the Mexican branch while Flipkart Wholesale is the companys operations in India.

Sam Walton began his crusade to undercut retail competitors began in the early 1950s. He opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store in 1962 and was able to leverage the brand to great success. It became a publicly traded company in 1972 and was the US's most profitable retailer by 1988. The chain went nationwide in the early 1990s and expanded to international markets soon after that. While the company has seen some success outside the US, those remain limited, and the US is the primary market and produces well over 60% of the revenue and earnings.

Today, the company operates through three segments that include Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. The stores offer groceries, health, beauty, apparel, footwear, household, furniture, automotive, electronics and recreational products among others. In addition, the company offers a wide variety of ancillary services that include automotive repair, tire change, vision/eyeglass services and financial services that include gift cards, prepaid wireless, check cashing and money transfers. Sams Club, launched in 1989, is the companys membership club brand. It is the second-largest membership club in North America and about 12% of Walmarts total revenue.

Walmart is a Dividend Aristocrat with nearly 50 years of consecutive annual dividend increases to its credit. Based on the 2022 financial metrics, the company is capable of sustaining another several decades of increases at a low single-digit pace. Once a laggard in ESG, Walmart is now a leader in environmental, social, and governance issues. The companys efforts include increasing the efficiency of its truck and vehicle fleets to include the upgrade to electrification or hydrogen fuel cells. In terms of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alone, the company had upgraded more than 9,500 of its warehouse and facility service machines to fuel cells as of mid-2022 and was also working to electrify its vehicle fleets.
Aldi Inc. the grocery chain based in Germany announced Sunday that he will partner with Instacart Inc. for delivery of groceries in three cities in the United States, a move that arrives amidst much competition along with disruption across the industry.

Aldi is launching a pilot beginning the end of August in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles with the possibility of expanding to other cities sometime in the future.

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The retailer based in Germany does not have an option it offers customers to shop on its website at this time and the partnership is for the demand for online grocery sales, said the vice president of corporate buying of Aldis Scott Patton.

Shopping online for groceries is quite small in relation to the overall business, but it continues to grow, added Patton.

The report from Nielsen the market research company and Food Marketing Institute earlier this year estimated that grocery spending online during the decade of 2016 through 2025 would expand from a current 4.3% of the total sales of food and beverage in the U.S. to as high as 20% or over $100 billion. In 2016, sales for online groceries were approximately $20.5 billion.

Aldis decision comes during a time when supermarket chains across the U.S. are having a price war. Lidl a German rival is opening new stores in the U.S. and Amazon.com the online retailer said two months ago it would purchase Whole Foods Market.

Aldi, to position itself better, said during June it was going to invest over $3.4 billion to grow its store base in the U.S. from 1,600 to more than 2,500 by the end of 2022.

Aldi CEO Jason Hart said in May that the grocery chain was going to maintain the lowest prices while focusing on adding its in-house brands to entice customers who are price-sensitive.

Aldis new partnership agreed to with Instacart will give shoppers the opportunity to order their goods from Aldi locations using the website and app of Instacart.

Instacart, which charges a fee for delivery, does not have an inventory but passes by locations to pick the orders up and takes them to the home of the customers in less than an hour.

Other retailers in the U.S. who have signed agreements with Instacart include Whole Foods Market, Target, and Costco.
Monday, August 14, 2017

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence enhancer for a meth lab operator because of the proximity of the lab and a public park.

Nestled against the Ohio River, tucked away in rolling hills and limestone bluffs, lies picturesque Madison, Indiana. For that historic river town, Thursday, August 21, 2014, began as just your normal peaceful summer morning. Schools were in session. The sun was low. The temperature was warm, not yet blistering.

But something had been cooking on West Second Streetand it wasnt apple pie. Around 10:00 a.m., a team of police entered Corey McAlpins apartment and noticed a horrible odor, like that of 50 cats . . . with no litter box. They soon learned why: the apartment was an active methamphetamine lab. Police found an abundance of meth-making supplies, including two active hydrochloric acid gas generators, a reaction vessel, a mangled plastic bottle, plastic tubing, drain cleaner, an empty box of pseudoephedrine, petroleum fuel, a cold pack, a razor blade, scales, syringes, a glass pipe, meth residue, and a mutilated lithium battery. McAlpin was arrested on the spot.

Two blocks from this meth operation sits Bicentennial Park. Pictured below, this city park features a wide-open green space surrounded by a residential neighborhood. It also has an outdoor amphitheater, restrooms, convenient parking, and sidewalks wrapping around and cutting within. The park does not, however, have benches, playgrounds, or trees

[aerial photo]

The State used Bicentennial Parks proximity to McAlpins apartment to enhance his charges to Level 4 felony dealing in methamphetamine, Level 5 felony possession of precursors, and Level 5 felony possession of methamphetamine. To prove these drug-free-zone enhancements, the State needed to show that McAlpin committed the crimes within five hundred (500) feet of a public park . . . while a person under eighteen (18) years of age was reasonably expected to be present.

The enhancer evidence sufficed

Through aerial photos and testimony, the jury heard circumstantial evidence on the ordinary reasonable persons expectations. The jury knew that Bicentennial Park is not buried in an exclusively industrial or commercial district, where homes and families are sparse. Instead, the park is surrounded by residences. And appropriate for a neighborhood park, it offers an outdoor amphitheater, restrooms, parking, and sidewalks. It also boasts the areas largest wide-open green field. The jury could reasonably conclude that this field, especially on a pleasant summer morning, is an attractive place for minors to unwindto run, walk, crawl, throw a frisbee, fly a kite, play catch, play tag, play Red-Rover, and indulge in countless other youthful pastimes.

Again, this may have been a close call for the jury. Schools were in session. The park had no playground. It had no benches for resting, no shade trees to block the August sun. But the jury was freeindeed, instructedto weigh these facts using its common sense. See Halsema v. State, 823 N.E.2d 668, 673 (Ind. 2005). The jury could reason, for example, that not every child attends school or is school age, not every child needs a playground to have fun, and not every child needs shade at 10:00 a.m...

To protect Hoosier youth from methamphetamine, our General Assembly has enhanced the penalty for dealing the drug within 500 feet of a public park where a person under 18 was reasonably expected to be present. Here, after seeing and hearing the evidence, the jury found the reasonably expected element satisfied. Unable to second-guess that fact-sensitive decision, we affirm McAlpins enhanced conviction.

The court reversed a divided Court of Appeals. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/08/the-indiana-supreme-court-upheld-the-sentence-enhancer-for-a-meth-lab-operator-because-of-the-proximity-of-the-lab-and-a-publ.html
On Nov. 1, Linn Benton Food Shares warehouse in Tangent received two truckloads of food and household supplies arranged by the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.
Intel Corp.s Brian Krzanich and Under Armour Inc.s Kevin Plank became the latest chief executives to quit President Donald Trumps council of U.S. business leaders, as membership on the panel has become enmeshed in the countrys volatile politics after violent riots in Virginia over the weekend.

The moves come hours after Merck & Co.s Kenneth Frazier first stepped down from the business council. Planks departure is a particularly sharp rebuke to Trump, after the Under Armour executive earlier this year came under fire for commenting that the president was a real asset for the country.

I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing, Intels Krzanich said in a company blog post.

Read more:

Racism is evil: Trump finally condemns white supremacists amid fierce backlash over his first Charlottesville remarks

15 photos that show Charlottesvilles stunning descent into violence

What we know about James Alex Fields Jr., the man charged in the Charlottesville car killing

Plank said in a tweeted statement that Under Armour engages in innovation and sport, not politics, while Mercks Frazier said he quit as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Trump responded to Frazier with a couple jabs, tweeting late Monday that @Merck Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday there was "no place" in the United States for the kind of violence that broke out at a white nationalist rally in Virginia and appealed to Americans to "come together as one." (The Associated Press)

Over the weekend, one woman was killed and many others were injured after a man in a car rammed a group of counterdemonstrators during a daylong melee in Charlottesville, Virginia. White supremacists and other hate groups had massed in the city to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Trump was widely criticized by U.S. lawmakers and other officials for not denouncing white supremacists in a statement on Saturday in which he said many sides were at fault for the violence. The president has repeatedly drawn fire for his relations with white nationalist groups and his handling of issues related to minorities.

Speaking from the White House on Monday, Trump denounced white supremacists and declared racism evil.

To anyone who acted criminally in this weekends racist violence, you will be held accountable, Trump said, calling for unity in the wake of the tragedy.

The CEO departures show how corporate leaders are walking a narrow line in working with the Trump administration to help shape policy around taxes, immigration and other issues, while trying not to alienate customers in an increasingly tense political environment.

Planks position as a Trump supporter early this year sparked an uproar from shoppers and very public dissent among Under Armours athletes, including his most-valued sneaker pitchman, basketball star Stephen Curry. The CEO in a television interview had declared that Trump is pro-business and a real asset.

After a Wall Street analyst downgraded the company, Plank took out a full-page newspaper ad, saying his words praising Trump did not accurately reflect his intent. He said the company opposed the presidents executive order to ban refugees from certain countries.

The presidents council has included top executives from Boeing Co., Dow Chemical Co. and Johnson & Johnson. A handful of CEOs have stepped down from two White House business groups, which have met only sporadically, over political controversies.

The president hasnt been shy about calling out businesses for perceived missteps. After his 2016 election victory Trump took aim at defence contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. for what he called the high cost of some aircraft, and muscled United Technologies Corp. unit Carrier into keeping a plant in Indiana after the company said it would be closed and production shifted to Mexico.

Corporate Pushback

Trump created two CEO advisory groups early in his presidency. Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman leads one described as a strategy and policy forum, and Dow Chemicals Andrew Liveris organized a manufacturing initiative. After an initial burst of activity and press attention, the councils have fizzled with neither meeting since April.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. and Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger quit the strategy and policy panel after Trump said he would withdraw from the Paris climate pact. Former Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Travis Kalanick quit in February after Trumps executive order on immigration.

Trump and a range of corporations have previously been at odds on other fronts.

The administration drew criticism from a wide swath of companies over its executive order restricting immigration. More than 160 technology firms, including Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc., and Google corporate parent Alphabet Inc. joined a legal brief criticizing the order. Technology firms have also criticized the administrations efforts to restrict access to H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, and eliminate an Obama Administration program that would have provided visas for foreign entrepreneurs who received startup funding.

Other members of the Trump councils, including Lockheed Martin and PepsiCo Inc., declined to say whether they would follow the moves of the other executives in stepping down.

Mercks Prices

Merck has in the past taken stands on social issues. In 2012, the companys foundation ended funding for the Boy Scouts of America over the groups exclusion of gays from its leadership ranks. Frazier is a registered Democrat, according to Pennsylvania voter records.

Trump made U.S. drug prices an issue during the presidential campaign and after  at one point accusing drug companies of getting away with murder. While his rhetoric on the subject has cooled, the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to try and bring more competition to the market for some drugs, and speed more generic drugs to the market.

Frazier, in December, said his company has a restrained approach to price increases, calling aggressive price increases a foolhardy move by the industry. In a company report published this year, Merck said it has a long history of making our medicines and vaccines accessible and affordable through responsible pricing practices.

For 2016, the list price on its drugs rose by 9.6 per cent on average while the net price, which more closely reflects what is paid by consumers, rose 5.5 per cent, according to the report.

Merck shares were up 0.7 per cent to $62.79 at 12:02 p.m. in New York, roughly in line with a broader advance in the U.S. stock market.

Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, plans to remain on the strategy and policy group, said Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the health system. She said the group hasnt met since April, and there are no meetings scheduled.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein also took to Twitter Monday in response to the violence, citing former president Abraham Lincoln. A house divided against itself cannot stand, wrote Blankfein, whose inaugural tweet in June expressed disapproval over Trumps decision to ditch the Paris climate accord.

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Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan spent most of Thursday morning with a furrowed brow and an incredulous look on his face. But his demeanour was at first subdued as he heard the case of Ricardo Scotland, an immigration detainee with no criminal record who is arguing that his indefinite detention in a maximum security jail is a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

After the morning break, when the governments lawyers stood to argue why the court should not release the native of Barbados, Morgans apparent confusion with the case became too much to contain.

Why is this man in prison? he said bluntly, interrupting Bernard Assan, a lawyer representing the Department of Justice. Assan stammered. The judge continued.

Why is he incarcerated? He has no criminal record. He has no convictions of anything.

Read the Stars Caged by Canada series

Assan mentioned the fact that Scotland  who is in the midst of a refugee claim  had faced criminal charges in 2013 that were later stayed.

That means hes innocent, Morgan interjected. Hes innocent until proven guilty. Thats elementary.

Scotlands case is just the latest to put Canadas immigration detention system  by which the federal government jails non-citizens, often in maximum security institutions, for an indefinite length of time, typically while it tries to deport them  under increased scrutiny.

Scotland, a single parent to his 13-year-old daughter, has been held in maximum security jail for a total of 18 months in two stints over the past two years. He has been detained at the Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold, Ont., since October.

Scotlands case is unusual for several reasons  including the fact the government is actually arguing for the mans release in a separate court proceeding. The case highlights some of what more than a dozen immigration lawyers have previously told the Star are systemic problems with both the Canada Border Services Agency and the Immigration and Refugee Board. The CBSA has the power to arrest and detain non-citizens, while the board is the quasi-judicial tribunal that holds monthly detention reviews to determine whether someone should be released or have their detention continued for another 30 days.

In May, Scotlands lawyer, Subodh Bharati, and a representative of the government made a joint submission to the board that Scotland should be released. Board members almost always grant release in such circumstances. But in this case the presiding adjudicator rejected the joint submission and ordered Scotlands continued detention.

Thats when Bharati filed an application for habeas corpus  a legal principle that allows someone to argue their detention is unlawful  with Ontario Superior Court. Immigration detainees are turning more and more to habeas corpus to seek release, citing the inherent unfairness of the Immigration and Refugee Board, which lawyers argue is procedurally unfair and stacked against detainees.

Previously the court has granted release only in cases where detention has been unduly or exceptionally lengthy, and the government argues that the length of Scotlands detention falls below that standard so the court lacks jurisdiction.

They would prefer to maintain the status quo where Federal Court provides whats called judicial review  as opposed to a full-fledged appeal  of a decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

So even though the same government lawyers are currently arguing in Federal Court that Scotland should be released, they dont want the Ontario Superior Court to be the ones to do it, fearing it would set an unwanted precedent.

Bharati, meanwhile, argued that even a single day of Scotland's detention is unlawful because it stems from a procedurally unfair process.

Scotland, who is being held solely as a flight risk and is not considered a danger to the public, is under a conditional deportation order, which takes effect only if his and his daughters refugee claims are denied.

Its absurd that a person with no criminal convictions, a father to a girl who doesnt have a mom, is being held in a maximum-security prison, despite the fact that he has a refugee claim, Bharati said.

The girls mother is alive, but not involved as a parent in her upbringing.

The basis for Scotlands continued detention is also contentious. It stems from four alleged breaches of previous bail conditions, three of which were either withdrawn or found by a criminal court to be innocent mistakes. The fourth was a technical breach related to a miscommunication of a change in curfew. Immigration authorities view the alleged breaches differently than the court, however.

Morgan could not believe that one of the breaches was the fact Scotland had not reported a change of address to immigration officials after he was arrested. His new address was jail.

It sounds absurd, he said. How could you possibly hide your change of address if youve been arrested? Who are you hiding it from?

Another alleged breach was quashed by a criminal bail court judge that found Scotland was happily being a dad when he mixed up his reporting dates.

Morgan didnt mince his words as he challenged the governments position.

It seems like his one misdeed, as far as I can tell, is when he failed to report one time  and it was found to be an innocent failure. So why is he incarcerated? What has he done?

Assan began to explain the legal mechanisms by which Scotland is being detained.

Morgan interrupted him again.

Without a technical explanation can you tell me  what has he done?

Morgan will decide Monday morning whether Scotland should be released.

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OTTAWAForeign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday will make the case as to why a modernized trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico  containing enhanced protections for labour and the environment  is vital for Canadas continuing economic success.

Freeland will use two appearances  first in a speech at the University of Ottawa and later before a parliamentary committee  to sketch out the broad strokes of Canadas principles for the negotiations that begin later in the week for a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The Liberal government has been consulting with stakeholders ahead of the negotiations  consultations that will continue  but Freeland wants to prompt a larger discussion about the coming trade talks.

It doesnt mean that every Canadian will be paying attention (Monday) but we know that very shortly they will be, said a government official, who spoke on background.

The opportunity to modernize matters and shouldnt be lost on people, the official said.

Canada has kept its cards close to its chest with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying recently that hes not going to negotiate in public.

That strategy is not expected to change. But Freeland will speak to broad objectives and themes that Ottawa will be pushing to see included in a revised pact.

Those include provisions to strengthen protections for labour and the environment. Canada is also expected to push for language that sets out ambitions around gender equality, a priority for the Liberal government at home.

Freeland will speak to the vast changes in the digital economy, how that has changed trade and needs to be addressed in the new agreement in a substantive way, the official said.

Read more:

Trump wants a victory on NAFTA. These Trump voters disagree on what that should mean

Meet NAFTA negotiator Steve Verheul  the most important Canadian youve (probably) never heard of

Heres what to expect as crucial NAFTA talks between U.S., Canada and Mexico begin this week

She will also address to the protectionist tone in Washington and push back on why thats not a long-term viable solution for trade between the three countries. Thats the same argument that the Trudeau government has taken to the White House, Congressional leaders and state governors across the United State as part of an orchestrated campaign ahead of the negotiations.

The first round of talks kick off Wednesday when trade officials from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will meet at Washingtons Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

U.S. President Donald Trump rode to victory last November with a campaign that pushed a Buy America focus and that protectionist theme will hang over the bargaining table.

At various points, hes called NAFTA a catastrophe for the U.S., a total disaster, and one of the worst deals, ever.

Canada and Mexico have struck a more diplomatic tone. They say the negotiations are a chance to update a decades-old trade pact, address issues that werent a factor when it was first crafted, such as e-commerce and the digital economy, and for Mexico, freer access to energy and telecommunications.

NAFTA has proven that its very good. It has proven that its beneficial. It makes sense to take a look at how we can improve it, we can update it, modernize it, Dionisio Perez Jacome, Mexicos ambassador to Canada, said in an interview.

We do believe its possible to come with a win-win-win and we will work hard to achieve that.

Perez Jacome said his country is keen to negotiate a new deal but not one at any cost. The outcome has to be a win-win-win for the three countries . . . . We know very clearly what we want and what we dont want, he said.

Observers worry about the chaotic political climate in Washington and how that might influence negotiations. Trump is the wild card. An early morning tweet or an off-the-cuff comment could be enough to rock the negotiations, said Paul Frazer, a former Canadian diplomat who heads a government-relations firm in the U.S. capital.

I think what matters more is the political backdrop here, he said. Its the unpredictability of the president. He needs a win. Hes had a very unfavourable six months.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. trade office picks up on some of Trumps grievances in its outline of objectives for the NAFTA renegotiation.

The document, released last month, sketches out a broad range of areas the U.S. administration wants to bargain, including dispensing with dispute settlement mechanism.

Yet keeping some form of dispute resolution is important for both Canada and Mexico. Trudeau has said that a fair dispute resolution system is essential. Its critical for the Mexicans, too. This is very important to us, to have a strong, transparent and efficient dispute settlement mechanism, Perez Jacome said.

The written introduction to the U.S. trade objectives gives a telling sense of how the U.S. administration views the existing agreement. Since the deal took effect in 1994, the document says trade deficits have exploded, thousands of factories have closed, and millions of Americans have found themselves stranded.

But similar concerns are being heard north of the border as unions and other stakeholders complain that free trade has led to the loss of manufacturing jobs in Canada, notably in the auto sector.

These groups say the coming negotiations are a chance to improve on a trade deal they argue failed to deliver promised improvements in wages, productivity.

I agree that NAFTA has been a complete disaster, said Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, Canadas largest private sector, which counts more than 23,000 autoworkers among its members.

Over the life of NAFTA, he said assembly lines have closed in Canada and the U.S. while new plants have opened in Mexico.

There has to be a timetable for a transformation of some of the auto work from Mexico back to Canada and the United States, Dias said.

Similar sentiments are voiced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which thinks Canada could find common ground with the Trump administration in seeking measures to regain jobs that gone overseas or Mexico.

We share a hope with a lot of labour unions in Canada and the United States that we could remake NAFTA to make it more fair for workers in all three countries so that they are seeing more of the gains from trade, said the centres Stuart Trew.

Yet the fact that Canadas goals going into the talks have so far remained a mystery is unacceptable, says New Democrat MP and trade critic Tracey Ramsey.

Ramsey, a former 20-year autoworker, says the federal government should have formally laid out its objectives, just as the U.S. and Mexico have done.

Liberals made a lot of promises to Canadians about progressive trade and its time to define what that is and show Canadians what they mean, Ramsey said.

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OTTAWANo one can predict if Canada will end up a winner, a loser or a mere bystander in the Trump administrations drive to re-write cross-border trade rules to benefit American workers and industries.

But Larry Rosen, head of one of Canadas most successful retailers, will be watching warily as negotiators from Canada, Mexico and the United States launch formal talks Wednesday in Washington to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The CEO of Harry Rosen high-end mens clothing isnt afraid of the new e-commerce world. The Toronto retailer, with 18 stores, 1,000 employees and a flourishing in-store and online Canadian clientele, says business is good.

But Rosen does fear what he calls unfair competition and warns of what lies ahead for many of Canadas 45,000 storeowners if Ottawa caves to U.S. demands to allow up to $800 tax-free and duty-free online shoppingthe cap now is set at $20 before customs rates apply.

Rosen says what might sound appealing to consumers is unjust for Canadian storeowners who invest and hire in Canada and have to include duties and sales taxes in the prices charged here.

For sure its going to be way cheaper, so all that Canadian stores will become are try-on centres for people to go home and buy from U.S. retailers, Rosen says.

Read more:

Chrystia Freeland plans to sell Canadians on the need for a new trade deal with U.S., Mexico

Trump wants a victory on NAFTA. These Trump voters disagree on what that should mean

Meet NAFTA negotiator Steve Verheul  the most important Canadian youve (probably) never heard of

Its a key ask for the U.S. in the coming trade talks, one American corporate giants such as eBay, Amazon and others have long lobbied for.

A Canadian official, speaking on a background-only basis, said it underscores how big this negotiation is going to be and how much of Canada is going to be pulled in, in one way or the other, into NAFTA because pretty much everything is on the table  or the Americans are trying to put everything on the table.

The Trump administration says it wants to reduce trade deficits with its North American partners. In other words, the Americans want to sell more to Mexico and Canada than they buy from them.

President Donald Trump wants tougher rules on imports  everything from autos to textiles to machinery  and freer access for American exports to bring back lost U.S. jobs.

In Ottawa, the official line is Canada welcomes a chance to modernize the 23-year-old deal and seeks to advance progressive trade. But at the highest levels of the Trudeau government, the NAFTA talks are at the heart of a lot of brainstorming, strategizing and concern.

America buys $63 billion (U.S.) more in goods and services from Mexico than it sells to that country. With Canada, on the other hand, the United States holds a $12.5 billion (U.S.) trade surplus, when goods and services are combined. When the Americans talk about an $11 billion trade deficit with Canada, thats for goods alone, mostly due to energy exports. Trade with Canada supported 1.6 million U.S. jobs in 2015, according to U.S. figures. The Canadians argue 9 million American jobs depend on trade and investment with Canada.

So, even though the Liberals believe the bigger target of the Trump administration is Mexico, Ottawa is going in eyes wide open, said a senior Canadian government official. There is a lot in there (the U.S. trade negotiating document) that if taken as written would be quite bad for us.

The situation is, in the words of another Canadian official, volatile.

The federal Liberal strategy so far has been to mount a full-court wooing of allies in the U.S. and Mexico.

Canadian officials deny Canada could throw Mexico under the bus in the belief that the original Canada-U.S. free trade agreement or FTA would still stand even if NAFTA crashes. They say there is value in keeping this a trilateral negotiation in the words of one. But a clear U.S.-focused plan of defence has emerged.

Heres what lies ahead:

TIMELINE

Its expected there will be seven to nine rounds of talks, each happening roughly three weeks apart, alternating between the three countries.

Mexico would like negotiations completed early next year before its presidential elections. The U.S. has its own timeline pressures  the mid-term congressional elections in 2018.

Canada expects the talks could last months. Even if a deal is reached by the middle of next year, it could then take up to 12 months to ratify and that could see the trade debate carry into the run-up to the 2019 federal election.

WHATS IT ALL ABOUT

The original Free Trade Agreement, between Canada and the United States, was a hot button issue in the 1988 Canadian election won by Brian Mulroneys Progressive Conservatives. The 1989 agreement became the basis for the broader NAFTA deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico that came into force five years later. It set ground rules for tariff-free trade in goods and services and included rules about the origins of tariff-free goods, customs procedures, agriculture and sanitary measures, government procurement, investment, trade in services, protection of intellectual property rights and dispute settlement procedures.

CANADAS PRIORITIES

Ottawa has not set out a public list of formal objectives, and sources say it doesnt intend to do so, although Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will lay out the principles that will guide Canadian negotiators in a speech and a committee appearance Monday. Canada wants to:

Keep the state-to-state dispute resolution mechanism under chapter 19 of the deal that allows bi-national panels to decide trade disputes instead of domestic courts. Canada has repeatedly won when the U.S. has complained of unfair subsidies for Canadian softwood lumber.

Enshrine clear rules for digital commerce for the first time, such as tariff-free digital trade within the NAFTA zone and privacy protections for consumer data held in Canadian-located computer servers;

Protect sensitive sectors such as Canadian cultural industries and telecommunications;

Protect key agricultural industries such as dairy, poultry and egg farming where production and supplies are managed under quota systems. At the same time, a source says Canadian companies would like more access to U.S. dairy, sugar and peanut butter markets;

Ensure Canada is exempt from Buy American policies in federal and state procurement and infrastructure programs;

Protect the free movement of goods that allow integrated industries such as the automotive and manufacturing sectors to ship parts back and forth across borders;

Enhance labour and environmental protections in the NAFTA zone.

U.S. PRIORITIES

Stronger protection for U.S. intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademarks, a perennial demand of big pharmaceutical companies;

Tighter rules of origin that ensure goods and materials are sourced only from the United States and North America. The U.S. cites textiles, but this could apply to a wide range of goods;

Equivalent labour and environmental standards, a move that would raise the cost of doing business in Mexico and remove the incentive for manufacturers to move there;

Greater access for U.S. companies bidding on government procurement contracts in Canada and Mexico while protecting its ability to restrict procurement and infrastructure projects to American suppliers;

The removal of exemptions for NAFTA partners when the U.S. applies safeguard measures to protect American industries against dumping or unfair subsidies.

MEXICAN PRIORITIES

Greater access for agricultural products with clearer rules, expeditious procedures and the elimination of barriers to trade;

More labour mobility;

Improved border infrastructure to facilitate the flow of cross-border goods. (Mexico insists it will not pay for Trumps promised construction of a border wall.);

Updated energy provisions;

Greater access to U.S. and Canadian markets for Mexican financial service providers and investors;

Greater integration of the telecommunication markets of the three countries;

More effective protection of intellectual property and updated provisions to account for the digital economy and e-commerce.

WHAT STAKEHOLDERS ARE SAYING

Unifor, which counts more than 23,000 auto workers among its members, says NAFTA has driven the flight of manufacturing jobs out of Canada to Mexico and overseas. Theres no question the Mexicans have taken our lunch, especially on auto. The question is, what do we do about? How do we wrestle back some of the manufacturing? Unifor President Jerry Dias says.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says Canada should look for common ground with the U.S. on measures to reclaim manufacturing jobs. The centre wants an end to the investor-state dispute settlement provision, under Chapter 11. This allows corporations to sue a government over unfair laws or regulations. But the centre says foreign investors have used it to target government measures in the areas of environmental protection and management of natural resources. Overly broad powers have been used to frustrate the legitimate exercise of government authority, the centre claims.

The Business Council of Canada said renegotiating the trade pact is both a risk and an opportunity for Canada. While doing no harm is our first priority, achieving only this would be a missed opportunity, the submission said. It urges negotiators to modernize Canadas trade ties with the U.S. and Mexico in areas such as intellectual property, labour mobility, procurement, the environment and regulatory co-operation. The council fears the U.S. will rewrite NAFTAs rules of origin and push for wording that would allow the unilateral imposition of duties or other penalties without any form of dispute settlement.

The Conservative party, which is pro-free trade, says the NAFTA deal could be modernized to include digital commerce and to upgrade rules around new technologies. Conservative MP Randy Hoback, the partys critic for Canada-U.S. relations and vice-chair of the Commons trade committee, says a new deal should, for example, set out harmonization of regulation for how countries would treat novel developments such as driverless trucks and cars.

The New Democrats support a renegotiation to modernize NAFTA, protection of Canadas supply management system in agricultural sectors and retention of the state-to-state dispute settlement mechanism in the current deals Chapter 19, key to protecting Canadian softwood lumber and diafiltered milk against U.S. complaints. (Diafiltration is an additional step in milk processing sometimes done to achieve a higher protein concentration.)

But NDP trade critic Tracey Ramsey also takes aim at the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.

I believe Canada should insist that this is removed, said Ramsey. Were the most sued country in the world under these provisions, mostly for trying to protect our environment.

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OTTAWAJust weeks after Canada concluded the arduous, seven-year negotiation to ink a trade deal with the European Union, Steve Verheul boarded a plane for Washington, D.C.

Verheul had recently been lauded in the House of Commons for his leading role in landing that agreement. Conservative MP Gerry Ritz, a cabinet minister in the Harper government during much of the EU-Canada negotiation period, was especially effusive. He called him a soft-spoken, quiet gentleman and said: We cannot say enough good things about Steve . . . . Hes world class.

And so Verheul was off to Washington, destined to attend the first of many meetings to discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which the newly elected U.S. president  the leader of Canadas largest trading partner, a country with which $752 billion of business was done in 2016  had called the worst deal in history, and vowed to either fix it or nix it.

In the ensuing flurry of activity to ensure Canada doesnt lose out in the upcoming renegotiation of NAFTA, weve seen Justin Trudeau and his cabinet members scatter across the U.S. to woo public and private leaders with arguments that the trade deal is mutually beneficial. But unless youre ensconced in the chamber of political obsession that enfolds this countrys capital, you probably havent heard of Verheul.

That is likely to change. He may be one of the most important people in Canada right now.

As has been widely reported but as-yet unconfirmed by Ottawa, Verheul will reprise his role as chief negotiator when Canadian officials sit down to speak with American and Mexican counterparts for the first round of NAFTA talks next week.

Jason Langrish, executive director of the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business, co-ordinated private sector input on the agreement with the EU. Echoing the comments of many on Verheul, Langrish said Canada could have no better person leading its discussions on NAFTA.

Read more:

Heres what to expect as crucial NAFTA talks between U.S., Canada and Mexico begin this week

Trump wants a victory on NAFTA. These Trump voters disagree on what that should mean

Chrystia Freeland plans to sell Canadians on the need for a new trade deal with U.S., Mexico

(The U.S. and Mexico) may be able to put up somebody who is in his league, but they are not going to put up somebody who is better, Langrish said. I can guarantee that.

He is the prototype for the type of person you need to get a deal done.

Much of that reputation stems from Verheuls performance as chief negotiator on the deal with Europe. He took on that role at the get-go in 2009. But his experience runs much deeper than that, spanning almost three decades of experience as a bureaucrat in Ottawa.

Verheul did not respond to an interview request for this story.

Verheuls father, Piet, ran a dairy farm equipment company in southwestern Ontario for 40 years, according to his obituary. Steve Verheul graduated from Western University in 1984 with a masters of arts in political science.

He joined the public service a few years later and began two decades of work in Canadas agriculture department. Verheul participated in the discussions that led to NAFTA in 1994, as well as trade negotiations in Uruguay that led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization.

David Plunkett, who was Canadas ambassador to the EU from 2011 to 2015, said this experience with agricultural trade discussions, which includes complex and politically sensitive issues such as supply management, burnished Verheuls reputation as a sharp negotiator.

Anybody in the trade policy community who had dealt with Agriculture Canada knew him from way back and knew how skilful he was, said Plunkett.

Verheul will stare across the table during NAFTA talks and see John Melle representing the U.S. and Kenneth Smith Ramos for Mexico. Melle has been the U.S.s Assistant Trade Representative since 2011 and has worked for the countrys trade department since 1988, where he has overseen agreements with Canada and Mexico, Chile, Central America and the Caribbean.

Ramos also has a deep resume. He is currently Mexicos director of trade and NAFTA at the countrys embassy in Washington, having started his career as part of Mexicos original negotiating team on the agreement. He has held other positions in the government, too, including senior roles in the agriculture, international affairs and economic ministries.

Those who know Verheul say he stacks up well  and much of that has to do with his temperament. Both Plunkett and Langrish described Verheul as an even-keeled and respectful person. His aura during negotiations matches that character, they said; when it comes to emotions, Verheul plays it close to the chest.

You wouldnt want to play poker against Steve or with Steve. Hes pretty stone-faced, Plunkett said.

As Langrish pointed out, not all trade negotiators are cut from that cloth. Canadas point man for the 1987 trade deal with the United States, Simon Reisman, was renowned for his brash persona. Once, during the tense and closely watched talks on that agreement, Reisman lashed out at the Star. That damn thing is a very poor excuse for a newspaper, and I have no respect for it or for you, he bellowed at the papers Washington correspondent at the time, Bob Hepburn.

(As Hepburn wrote in a 2008 column marking Reismans death, the trade negotiator was frustrated by the Stars coverage of the issue and editorial stance against free trade.)

Verheul is a different breed. And for Langrish, his cool and measured vibe is just what Canada needs for this round of talks. He said Verheul has a deep knowledge of technical issues and consults widely, while also understanding the concerns of politicians and those of private businesses.

And when a Belgian province threatened to scupper the EU-Canada deal last year, Verheul was instrumental in soothing concerns and crafting a compromise, Langrish said.

Im not saying hes the most humorous, most entertaining guy . . . . He does it through perseverance and earning the respect (of others), he said.

The first round of talks on NAFTA are slated to begin in Washington on Aug. 16.

With files from Tonda MacCharles

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Once a relatively safe, profitable business for outlaw bikers and mobsters, organized crime is moving away from the marijuana market because legalization and home-grown pot are making any gain not worth the risk, experts say.

The market share in the pot business for organized criminals has already slid as pot-loving disorganized criminals perfected their horticultural skills. There wasnt much need to smuggle pot into the country when Canadian cannabis connoisseurs liked the homegrown stuff better, experts say.

The days when Hells Angels and mobsters enjoyed a strong hand in Canadas marijuana trade will be just a hazy memory by the time pot is to be legalized next year, according to some experts.

A pretty small part of the marijuana industry today is what I call organized crime, said criminologist Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University  a change from a few decades ago, when big-league criminals thrived in the pot trade.

Thats a major shift from the mid-2000s, when outlaw bikers worked with traditional Mafia groups to move into exporting Canadian marijuana, according to Kash Heed, former B.C. solicitor general, minister of public safety and West Vancouver Police chief. Most of that product was exported to the U.S., Heed said.

Rick Ciarniello, a Canadian spokesperson for the Hells Angels, politely brushed off questions about whether the worlds largest outlaw motorcycle club has a position on legalized marijuana.

Some are prone to believe all the police hype and propaganda, Ciarniello said. If that is to be believed, the Hells Angels must have such a position. The fact is; the hype and propaganda is wrong. As such, the short answer is no.

The efforts of organized crime to control the pot trade have been undermined for the past three decades by disorganized crime, according to Alan Young, an associate professor at the Osgoode Hall law school. Many of these are green-thumbed potheads growing marijuana for friends.

Others are in it for the money but dont resort to traditional organized crime hallmarks of corruption, collusion and violence, Boyd says: Theyre really just business people.

Legalization of marijuana in some American states has cut the demand to smuggle it south. In Colorado and Washington State, where marijuana was recently legalized, pot prices have dropped almost 50 per cent over the past year, Boyd says, and lower prices mean less incentive to break the law.

I suspect theres not going to be much money in cannabis at all, Boyd said. I think things are changing.

I think they (organized criminals) already have been withdrawing from the market.

A veteran says organized crime is entering a period of readjustment  and potential new opportunities  regarding marijuana in Canada. Theyre all trying to get into the legal side of it, says the officer. They have so much money they can manipulate the stock. Any criminal wants to legitimize his business.

Small-scale cultivation of pot would likely be allowed, much like its now legal to make limited amounts of beer or wine for personal use. Amateur enthusiasts should be allowed to grow four plants per household, according to the Final Report of The Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation.

Former Toronto police Chief Bill Blair is the Liberals point man in shaping marijuana legislation. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

In Toronto, police will continue to crack down on illegal marijuana dispensaries until the law is changed, spokesperson Mark Pugash said, adding that marijuana at some pop-ups has been found to contain pesticides, mould, rat feces and insecticide.

Experts agree it will be a mistake for the government to overtax pot and drive the price up, as this will create an opening for criminals.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau clearly supports the push to regulate illegal pot pop-ups. In a meeting with the Stars editorial board in December, Trudeau said: We havent legalized it yet. Yes, we got a clear mandate to do that. Weve said we will. Weve said were going to do it to protect our kids and to keep the money out of the pockets of criminals.

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A 22-year-old man is wanted for attempted murder after a shooting near Flemingdon Park on Saturday evening.

An unidentified man, also in his early 20s, was found by police with a gunshot wound near Linkwood Ln. and St Dennis Dr. shortly before 6:30 p.m. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and reported to be in serious condition.

Dion Jahil Wong is being sought by police in connection with the incident.

Police found 2.17 grams of cocaine, a shotgun with a folding stock, homemade ammunition, a bulletproof vest and paraphernalia used to produce illegal drugs in a search of Wongs home. He is wanted on 14 charges in addition to the attempted murder charge from the Flemingdon Park shooting.

Wong is described by police as black, 58 and 146 lbs. with short, curly black hair. He is known to drive a grey 2017 Dodge Charger with Ontario licence plates BRFK 061.

Police said he is considered armed, violent and extremely dangerous and should not be approached. Anyone with information can contact police or Crime Stoppers.

With files from Alanna Rizza

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The proportion of oral cancers caused by the human papillomavirus has risen significantly in Canada, say researchers, who suggest the infection is now behind an estimated three-quarters of all such malignancies.

In a cross-Canada study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the researchers found the incidence of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers increased by about 50 per cent between 2000 and 2012.

Its a snapshot of looking at the disease burden and the time trend to see how the speed of the increase of this disease (is changing), said co-author Sophie Huang, a research radiation therapist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.

Researchers looked at data from specialized cancer centres in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia to determine rates of HPV-related tumours among 3,643 patients 18 years and older who had been diagnosed with squamous cell oropharyngeal cancer between 2000 and 2012.

In 2000, the proportion of throat cancer caused by HPV was estimated at 47 per cent, said Huang. But in 2012, the proportion became 74 per cent ... about a 50 per cent increase.

Statistics from a Canadian Cancer Society report last fall showed 1,335 Canadians were diagnosed in 2012 with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer and 372 died from the disease.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Most people never develop symptoms and the infection resolves on its own within about two years. But in some people, the infection can persist, leading to cervical cancer in women, penile cancer in men and oropharyngeal cancer in both sexes.

Most cases of HPV-related oral cancer are linked to oral sex, said Huang, noting that about 85 per cent of the cases in the CMAJ study were men.

HPV-related tumours respond better to treatment and have a higher survival rate than those linked to tobacco and alcohol use, the other major cause of oral cancer, she said, adding that early identification of a tumours cause is important to ensure appropriate and effective treatment.

While some centres in Canada routinely test oral tumours to determine their HPV status, such testing is not consistent across the country, the researchers say.

In the past, physicians generally tended to reserve tumour testing for cases most likely to be caused by HPV  among them younger males with no history of smoking and with light alcohol consumption  to prevent an unnecessary burden on pathology labs.

Only as accumulating data have supported the clinical importance of HPV testing has routine testing been implemented in most (though not all) Canadian centres, the researchers write.

The study showed that the proportion of new HPV-related oral cancers rose as those caused by non-HPV-related tumours fell between 2000 and 2012  likely the result of steadily declining smoking rates.

Huang said males tend to have a weaker immune response to HPV than do females, which may in part explain the higher incidence of oral cancers linked to the virus in men.

HPV vaccines given to young people before they become sexually active can prevent infection  and the researchers say both boys and girls should be inoculated.

Currently, six provinces provide HPV immunization to Grade 6 boys as well as girls, with the other four provinces set to add males to vaccination programs this fall, said Huang.

So vaccinating boys is very important because, if you look at Canadian Cancer Society statistics (for 2012), HPV- related oropharyngeal cancer in total numbers has already surpassed cervical cancers, she said.

The increase of HPV-related cancer is real, and its striking that theres no sign of a slowdown.

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A woman sustained serious injuries after jumping from a moving vehicle near Dundas and Parliament Sts. on Sunday afternoon.

Paramedics said they transported a woman in her 30s to hospital around 11:30 a.m. She was in serious but non-life threatening condition.

Toronto police Const. David Hopkinson said the woman jumped from the top of a moving car and the vehicle subsequently crashed in the intersection. The vehicle was believed to be stolen and other occupants fled the scene. One man was placed in custody later in the afternoon.

Hopkinson said he did not know if police are seeking any other suspects.

At 1:30 p.m. Toronto police said that the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) would be handling the investigation and police could no longer comment on the incident. This was amended before 5 p.m. when police reported the SIU did not invoke their mandate to look into the incident.

The SIU looks into cases involving police where theres been death, sexual assault or serious injury.

Hopkinson explained the womans injuries, including broken bones, were serious enough to warrant an SIU investigation, but police were not on scene when she was injured.

With files from Alanna Rizza

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A method thats supposed to make beekeeping simpler for novices by providing honey on tap has drawn criticism from some experts, who say it may encourage casual beekeepers to set up an apiary but not put in the hard work needed to maintain it.

The FlowHive, created by Australian father-son duo Stuart and Cedar Anderson in 2015, earned nearly 40,000 backers and raised over $13 million (U.S.) becoming the top all-time campaign on crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

The product is renowned for skipping many steps in the usually multifaceted honey extraction process with the simple turn of a lever.

In a traditional hive, beekeepers have to sedate the bees, remove the wooden frames from the hive, decap the honey from the frames, process it in a centrifuge, and then filter it.

In the FlowHive, the bees do their work inside the hive, and a few cranks of a lever split the comb, allowing pure, ready-to-eat honey to travel through tubes and into a bottle.

Instead of taking several hours, the FlowHive can extract its honey in about 15 minutes in the ideal warm and dry conditions, said Ian Baird, owner of Terre Bleu, a lavender farm in Milton that also produces honey.

The FlowHive, which costs nearly $1,000  traditional hives cost $200 and less  could make urban beekeeping and small-scale operations more feasible, Baird said.

Buying stainless centrifuges and mechanical devices to harvest and extract and clean honey (in the traditional method) certainly is not economical when youve only got a couple of hives, he said.

Amid concern for a decreasing honeybee population in recent years, more people are pitching in part-time to keep the honey flowing. One in every three bites of food we eat also relies on bees for pollination, experts say.

But some beekeepers are concerned that adopting the FlowHive for small-scale beekeeping could do more harm than good for bees.

Many people have gotten into beekeeping because of the FlowHive, but dont know how to bee keep, said Peter Chorabik, a Toronto beekeeper who runs over 250 hives.

The FlowHive, said Chorabik, can make new beekeepers think that the process is much less involved that it actually is, which puts the bees at risk of being attacked by pests and contracting diseases.

You have to be responsible and know. . . what youre signing up for when you get your own bees, Chorabik said. If youre a farmer of cattle, and your cattle were sick and they all died in the winter, that wouldnt be acceptable. But when you have honey bees and they all die in the winter because you cant take care of them properly, its accepted.

Shawn Caza, a long-time Toronto beekeeper, said he knew of aspiring beekeepers who bought a FlowHive and bees, but planned a vacation during the time of the year when one would normally start a new colony.

The honey harvest is really the tip of the iceberg in terms of what a beekeeper needs to do maintain healthy hives, Caza said.

Stuart Anderson, the co-creator of the FlowHive, said his company educates new beekeepers.

We provide material on colony health and pests and diseases on our website and lots of educational videos and other content, Anderson said in an email statement. We actively encourage aspiring beekeepers to join a bee club and/or to connect with a mentor beekeeper.

Our stand is that beekeepers are responsible for the health of their bees and this requires knowledge, skill and care. . .(I) am very proud that the invention of the FlowHive has brought tens of thousands more people into beekeeping.

For all the speed and utility the FlowHive has to offer, professional beekeepers also have critiques of the product.

One concern is that the FlowHive produces a lower yield than a traditional hive, a pattern that Baird has noticed in his operation. Baird will stick with the traditional hives for the bulk of his honey-producing operation.

Sometimes, getting the honey from a FlowHive can be an issue, according to Caza.

Others had the honey spill out of the comb within the hive and subsequently leak out the bottom, he said. I also heard from people with the opposite problem, the honey came out through the intended path, but was extremely slow.

Fred Davis, a Toronto-based beekeeper, said a really hot summer is needed for the honey to flow well.

Last year, it was scorching hot, which helped, he said.

Davis also believes that bees do not like the plastic frames used in the FlowHive as much as the wood frames in traditional hives.

Would I use it again? Id probably say no, he said.

For all his criticisms, Davis said the FlowHive has no effect on the honeys flavour.

The taste is the same, honey is honey, he said.

Anderson stands by his product, saying that the FlowHive has been tested in Canada and its been found to work successfully in colder climates.

People in every region of the U.S.A. are harvesting successfully with the FlowHive, he said.

The beekeepers the Star talked to may disagree with Anderson, but they do see the FlowHive as a useful educational tool.

Our farm is an agritourism ecotourism farm and we thought it would be also very educational to show the public, Baird said.

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Drug charges against three men have been thrown out after a judge ruled that a Toronto police officer had been deliberately misleading in his testimony and notes in an attempt to strengthen the case against one of the accused.

Const. Bradley Trenouth falsely attributed a large piece of crack to Toronto man Jason Jaggernauth, Judge Katherine Corrick wrote in her Aug. 8 decision, staying the charges against Jaggernauth.

Because of Trenouths actions, Corrick excluded evidence gathered by him and other officers from the trial of Jaggernauths co-accused, leading the judge to find them not guilty in the same decision.

The false attribution of evidence to an accuseds possession, and false testimony by a police officer constitute precisely the type of state misconduct that undermines the integrity of the judicial process, Corrick wrote.

Jaggernauth, Jordan Davis and Jimal Nembrand-Walker were charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime in 2014, after police found them in a Scarborough apartment that contained multiple types of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Police officers found several grams of crack on Davis and crack, powdered cocaine and other drugs in Nembrand-Walkers pockets at the time of the arrest, Corrick wrote in her decision.

Police did not find any drugs on Jaggernauth, Corrick said.

Trenouth testified in a pretrial hearing that he saw a large piece of crack fall from Jaggernauth when officers got Jaggernauth to stand up from his chair  testimony that was backed up by the notes Trenouth said he took at the time of Jaggernauths arrest, according to the judges decision.

But at the trial several months later, Trenouth told the court that he did not see the crack fall from Jaggernauth, Corrick wrote. Instead, Trenouth testified that he found the piece of crack on the floor near Jaggernauth and assumed it had fallen from him.

Corrick noted other discrepancies between Trenouths pretrial and trial testimonies in her decision.

At the preliminary hearing, Trenouth said he picked the large ball of crack off the floor after forensic officers had taken photos of the scene. But the photos taken do not include images of that specific piece of crack, Corrick wrote.

Trenouth told the court that might be because the piece of crack had been moved or stepped on before the photos were taken.

The large piece of crack was also missing from evidence photos taken by police about three hours later, in Trenouths presence, the judge said.

Trenouths story changed at trial, where he said there were no photos of the piece of crack because he had already picked it up and put it in his pocket before the photos were taken, Corrick wrote.

Corrick ruled on Aug. 8 that Trenouth did not find the crack near Jaggernauth, as the police officer had claimed.

I have concluded that Officer Trenouth was deliberately misleading when he prepared his notes and testified at the preliminary hearing, in an effort to strengthen the case, Corrick wrote.

It is unlikely that Trenouth, who has eight years of police experience, would pick up unwrapped drugs and put them in his pocket at a crime scene, Corrick said.

And if Trenouth had merely been mistaken in his pretrial testimony, he should have informed the Crown before the case went to trial, the judge added.

An investigation should be immediately opened into Trenouths conduct in the case, Jaggernauths lawyer Chris OConnor said in an interview.

The bottom line is . . . an officer falsely attributed an exhibit to my client that never was on my client, OConnor said.

Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said she cant say whether (Trenouth) will face any discipline. All disciplinary matters are confidential until the officer in question has appeared before a police services tribunal, Gray added.

Generally speaking an investigation into allegations of an officer providing false evidence in court could lead to criminal charges (such as) perjury or (internal) discipline under the Police Services Act, Gray said.

Corrick was scathing in her decision about the effects of Trenouths false testimony.

It is difficult to imagine how public confidence can be maintained in the rule of law when police officers present false evidence against accused persons, Corrick wrote. Our justice system cannot function unless courts can rely on the willingness of witnesses to . . . tell the truth.

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Ordering the immediate release of immigration detainee Ricardo Scotland, who has spent the last 10 months in maximum-security jail despite not having any criminal charges or convictions, Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan was unequivocal in his condemnation of federal immigration authorities.

Although the government cannot provide a clear rationale for Mr. Scotlands initial or continued detention, the reason for this lack of clarity is itself clear to me, he said in court Monday. There is no rationale. Mr. Scotland is being held in prison for no real reason at all.

Morgans decision is the latest rebuke to Canadas immigration detention system, by which the federal government jails non-citizens, often in maximum-security institutions, for an indefinite length of time without trial.

Scotland, a 38-year-old refugee claimant from Barbados and single parent to his 13-year-old daughter, has spent a total of 18 months in a maximum-security jail in two stints over the last two years.

He has no criminal record, but he was detained by Canadas border police  the Canada Border Services Agency  as a flight risk while his refugee claim is being processed based on four alleged breaches of conditions related to criminal charges that were later stayed by the Crown.

Everything (Justice Morgan) said is true, Scotland said shortly after he was released. I did nothing wrong.

All of the alleged breaches were either withdrawn in criminal bail court, or found to be innocent mistakes. Yet the two government bodies that oversee the arrest and detention of non-citizens  the CBSA and the Immigration and Refugee Board  continued to treat the faux breaches, as the judge described them, as if they were legitimate transgressions.

As a result, Mr. Scotland cannot seem to get himself out of custody, Morgan said. He appears enmeshed in an endless circuit of mistakes, unproven accusations, and technicalities.

Morgan could not believe, for instance, that the first breach alleged by immigration authorities was the fact Scotland did not inform them of a change of address after he had been arrested.

What rational person would conceive of police custody prior to receiving bail as a change of address?

This imaginative interpretation of a breach of conditions, Morgan said, was itself based on a faulty factual premise because Scotland did, in fact, call the 1-888 number he had for the CBSA to inform them of his arrest, but they never picked up.

Similarly, immigration authorities used other alleged breaches as reasons to keep Scotland behind bars, even after the so-called breaches were disproved or withdrawn.

Mr. Scotland may have been exonerated for each and every one of the allegations against him but, paradoxically, the more immigration authorities make and then act on errors in his case, the more difficult it gets for him to prove to their satisfaction that his record is the product of a series of errors, Morgan said, concluding with a literary allusion: Thats some catch, that catch-22.

While Morgans decision focused on Scotlands baffling experience, it was also implicitly critical of Canadas immigration detention system as a whole and some of the systemic issues lawyers and detainee advocates have complained about for years.

Just six sentences into his 15-page decision Morgan was already turning to author Franz Kafka to describe the illogical legal web that had entrapped Scotland.

As with Kafkas protagonist, Joseph K., no one knows why he is detained, Morgan said.

He criticized the Immigration and Refugee Board  the quasi-judicial tribunal, which holds monthly hearings to decide whether an immigration detainee should be released or detained another 30 days  for showing undue deference to the CBSA and uncritically accepting their accusations with little or no evidence.

He chastised the board for letting the CBSA determine whether a breach of conditions had occurred, calling it a violation of one of the most essential principles of fundamental justice and a graphic illustration of improper self-judging.

He also said the boards misunderstanding of a previous court ruling had created a system where members are so reluctant to depart from a previous decision  even when those decisions are later proven to have been based on faulty information  that it is nearly impossible for a detainee to successfully argue for their release.

The detention review process becomes a closed circle of self-referential and circuitous logic from which there is no escape, Morgan said.

Finally, were being heard, Subodh Bharati, Scotlands lawyer, told the Star after the hearing. Activists, immigration lawyers, immigration detainees have been saying this for a while: this system is inherently procedurally unfair and violates the principles of fundamental justice.

Bharati said he hoped Morgans strongly worded decision would lead to broader changes in the system.

Justin Trudeau says this is 2017, look at all the changes. But this is whats really happening in 2017. This is what the government is doing to people.

Morgan refused to apply any conditions to Scotlands release, saying he was detained for no cogent reason in the first place.

I will simply say that Mr. Scotland is to keep the peace and to attend all immigration proceedings and to present himself to immigration authorities as and when required by law.

Speaking to the Star just moments after Morgan told him he was free to go, Scotland  whose refugee claim could be decided next month  said he was looking forward to seeing his daughter, Kalyssa, and getting her ready for the upcoming school year.

She wants to be a lawyer, he said, smiling.

Scotland admitted he still felt uneasy, fearing immigration authorities could arrest him again at any moment. But he said he was happy that Morgan affirmed what he has felt to be true all along.

I tried to do everything they asked me, Scotland said. I think (the judge) saw that everything was unjust.

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Every day when I read news from around the world, I have occasion to feel thankful to be in Canada.

Yet, I was surprised this weekend to hear many Canadians, revolted by the events unfolding in Charlottesville, Va., say: At least were not as bad. In reality, our history, too, involves slavery, indentured labour, brutal oppression and colonization. Our country, too, has thriving right-wing extremism.

Its not Canadian to be flashy and to shout out our deeds from the rooftops. The flip side of this modesty is, when history judges those actions to be misdeeds, we are able to dismiss them as trivial because they were not as glorified as they were down south.

The dismissal allows us to masks the past and ease our collective conscience.

Its precisely a recognition of those past misdeeds, their present consequences and a reckoning of current laws that a group of prominent Canadian NGOs are seeking in Geneva Monday, when they ask a UN body to hold Canadas feet to the fire for failing to keep its promises to end discrimination.

The Colour of Poverty  Colour of Change and its members are asking the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to recognize how Canada has failed to comply with its international human rights obligations . . . and domestic human rights laws.

Racism is a matter of life and death, for Indigenous peoples, their joint statement says, citing dismal socio-economic health indicators, suicides, murders and disappearances of thousands of people.

Both Indigenous and Black people are disproportionately poor and disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system.

This is not the first time we brought this concern to the CERD committee, and yet very little has changed in more than a decade of our submitting shadow reports, said Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI).

The NGOs are calling for a national action plan on racism for Canada that would commit to combating discrimination in hiring, and funding anti-racist organizations.

Chiefly, it is seeking the collection of disaggregated data across all government departments.

This kind of data collection that specifies identities such as race, gender or disability is the minimum Canada needs so it can measure the impact of its policies whether in health or housing or jobs.

How do you try to solve a problem when you cant quantify it?

For instance, says Avvy Yao-Yao Go, clinic director at the Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, Under the Federal Employment Equity Act, the federal government has data on the representation of women, visible minority, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities in the federal public service.

However, we do not know, for instance, of the visible minority categories, what are the percentages for people of African descent versus people of Chinese descent versus people of South Asian descent. Or under (the category of) women, how many are women of colour and from which communities.

Or, take Canadas immigration law that allows people detained for immigration purposes to be detained indefinitely. More than 6,000 people were held in 2016-17, the agencies say, although more than 90 per cent of them were not considered a security threat.

We recently participated in a case in federal court that sought to challenge indefinite detention, says Shalini Konanur, executive director of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario.

During that case we spoke with several detainees, and the vast majority were racialized. Currently, there is no race-based data being collected about detainees but we know anecdotally that racialized persons in Canada are disproportionately impacted by indefinite detention.

The NGOs also want the federal and provincial government to remove barriers to the recognition of international training, and to amend the Ontario Human Rights Code to stop discrimination based on police data.

They are drawing attention to domestic laws that discriminate against specific groups.

In addition to immigrant detainees affected by law, migrant farm workers and caregivers such as nannies  the majority of whom are people of colour  are also vulnerable.

Migrant agricultural workers do not have access to permanent resident status. As for caregivers, their once guaranteed pathway to permanent residence was revoked in 2014.

Both groups have their work permit tied to a specific employer leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

While migrant workers contribute to social entitlement programs in Canada, their temporary status largely precludes them from accessing these programs, said Amy Casipullai, an OCASI staffer.

The UN committee is expected to release its review on Aug. 25.

Shree Paradkar writes about discrimination and identity. You can follow her @shreeparadkar

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Toronto police are asking for the publics help in identifying a woman pulled out of Lake Ontario in Etobicoke last week.

Police say they responded to a call for an unknown trouble on Aug. 10 at 5:15 p.m. in the area of Humber Bay Shores Park.

Paramedics say the woman was without vital signs when she was extracted from the water. She was later pronounced dead on the scene.

Toronto police Const. Craig Brister said police are not considering her death suspicious.

The woman is described as white between the ages of 55 to 70 years old, 5 foot 4 to 5 foot 6, 135 to 150 lbs., short grey hair, and brown eyes.

Police say she was wearing a red tank top and navy blue pants.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-2200, Crime Stoppers.

Police are also investigating after a mans body was pulled from the water near the Argonaut Rowing Club on last Friday.

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Though a Toronto protest against the violence in Charlottesville was calm, demonstrator Julianna Hagen still held her two-year-old close.

If they lived in the U.S., Hagen said, she may not have felt safe having Mirabelle there. The toddler, meanwhile, was enamoured by a conversation with Toronto police Const. Sydney Evershed about how to respond if one person hurts another.

The demonstration took place outside the U.S. consulate on University Ave. around 8 a.m. Monday, and drew a crowd of around 100 people.

Two Toronto-area American history professors organized the event, which called for Canadians to register our dissent towards the rally of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right Americans that turned violent fighting the removal of a Confederate monument in Charlottesville.

Toronto demonstrator Lynn Campbell was troubled when her own toddler, Sophie, saw photos of the weekends violence and began to ask questions.

Its kind of hard to explain to a two-year-old that not everyone has the same freedoms as we do and can walk down the street feeling safe, Campbell said.

Yvette Blackburn, also a demonstrator, cautioned Torontonians that they arent exempt from same kinds of tensions that exist in Charlotteville.

We are not the great white north thats free from these issues, she said, pointing to an incident at Nathan Phillips Square in April when anti-racism demonstrators were met with counter-protest that turned violent.

Jim Brown, a uniformed officer that police on-site identified as their supervisor, said people at the event were passionate, and they should be.

Co-organizer and University of Toronto professor Donna Gabaccia said that  as a historian  she sees Charlottesville as part of a much longer history.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday there was "no place" in the United States for the kind of violence that broke out at a white nationalist rally in Virginia and appealed to Americans to "come together as one." (The Associated Press)

White people protecting their place in a racial hierarchy by killing people and terrorizing people, she said. We white people who disagree  to put it mildly  should come collect our people.

With files from Jaren Kerr

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A Toronto paralegal has been found guilty by the legal professions watchdog of defrauding clients of over $1 million and providing immigration services for which he was not licensed.

Victor Manuel Castillo Garcia, who was licensed as a paralegal by the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2010, worked with clients from around the world  including Taiwan, Cuba, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Peru  for their permanent residence and work permit applications.

The paralegal also failed to provide statements of account for money received from clients and instead, established a company, VIPA Financial, to receive payments and offer financing and credit to clients  an apparent conflict in interest, a law society disciplinary tribunal found.

Not only did the clients lose their money, they were unable to retrieve their original documents submitted to the paralegal for their applications, said the tribunal in its decision.

In one case, the paralegal partnered with an agent in Taiwan in 2013 to bring in 180 applicants for jobs in Canada at a price of $5,500 each.

More than $1.1 million was deposited into the mans account, which was not a trust account as required by the law society, according to the tribunal.

Immigration laws stipulate paralegals can only represent refugees for their asylum claims, and must register with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council to offer other immigration-related services. Garcia was not a member of the group.

The paralegal misappropriated over $1 million; relied on fraudulent documents; failed to serve his clients; practiced beyond the scope of his licence; acted in matters where there was, or was likely to be, a conflict of interests; and failed to co-operate with the (Law) Societys investigations, tribunal chair Lyle Kanee wrote in the tribunals 26-page decision.

The paralegal appears to be on the run from the law. His whereabouts have been unknown since the summer of 2014 ... Nonetheless, it is important to the publics confidence in the profession that we convey this tribunals condemnation for the paralegals reprehensible conduct by imposing the most severe sanction.

According to the regulator, some of the victims have filed complaints with Toronto police, who have been unable to locate Garcia. Police fraud investigators did not immediately respond to the Stars request for updates on the investigation.

In the Taiwanese case, the complainant, identified as Agent A by the tribunal, said she came to learn the employment contracts and approved labour market assessments provided by Garcia were fake when immigration officials rejected her clients en masse for misrepresentation and submitting bogus documentation.

Authorities also said their employment offers were fraudulent, and banned them from Canada for two years.

Complainant Client B paid Garcia $6,000 in 2013 to obtain a work permit for her fiance who lived in Cuba and an additional $5,000 for the final stages of the work permit application, said the tribunal.

The paralegal said he would meet with the fiance in Cuba for his medical checks and police clearance, but never showed up and his phone number was no longer in service. By the time the complainant attended the paralegals office on St. Clair Ave. W. in 2014, it had already been abandoned, said the tribunal.

The tribunal said there was no record of a work permit application being submitted to the Immigration Department for the womans fiance.

In 2013 another complainant, Client H, paid Garcia $5,500 for a permanent residence application and provided him all of his original documents: work permits, study permits, employment contracts, school transcripts, English language exam, pictures, birth certificates and pay stubs.

The complainant emailed the paralegal repeatedly for updates on the application, with no response.

Thank you so much for running away. Can I at least get my papers because I need my papers . . . the original documents, Client H wrote to Garcia on WhatsApp after filing a complaint with the law society and Toronto police.

In response, the paralegal said he had been sick and working from home but promised he would give the client an update later. Client H never got his documents back.

Toronto immigration lawyer Sergio Karas, who is not involved in the case, said he was not surprised by the complaints but was shocked by the hefty fees the paralegal charged.

The amount of fees he was charging was incredibly high, over and above what lawyers would charge for the same kind of work, Karas said.

This case really highlights the need for Ottawa to revisit the issue over who can practise immigration law in this country.

Earlier this year, a government committee completed a study of the immigration consulting industry and recommended Ottawa take over the policing of the profession. The report is under review by Parliament.

In Garcias absence, the tribunal revoked the paralegals licence and ordered him to repay the law society compensation fund $33,680 and to pay costs of $15,555.

With Garcia missing, the tribunal acknowledged its decision likely would have little impact on him.

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The Ritsona Kingdom Journal can be a heartbreaking read.

With images such as one depicting blood draining from the map of Syria and stories about refugees hunger for peace, the magazine created by youth at the Ritsona refugee camp in Greece is empowering to those living in limbo and at the mercy of the West.

What began as an outlet for the refugee youth to showcase the art work, photography and writing they created in workshops run by volunteers, has turned into an online production that sheds light on their world of confinement.

After delivering two editions of the magazines for the 750 camp residents since spring, the youth  who make up a fifth of the compounds population  decided to take it online and officially launch the journal Saturday, on International Youth Day.

The journal is an avenue for these youth to express themselves. They feel their stories and images should be read and seen by the world because the people in the camp already know the experience, said Daphne Morgen, a native of Prince George, B.C. who runs the youth engagement space at the camp for Lighthouse Relief, a Swedish aid group.

The magazine is a very intimate view into the thoughts, feelings and lives of the young people living in Ritsona . . . This magazine is a platform where they can have some control over the information being produced about them. In a world where they have very little control over their circumstances, this can be powerful.

The Ritsona camp  with residents mostly from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and the Palestinian territories  is one of dozens administered by the Greek government and international relief groups to accommodate some 62,000 refugees stranded in Greece en route to other European countries, including those waiting for asylum hearings and resettlement to join their families elsewhere. Ritsona is about 80 kilometres north of Athens.

There is nothing like the destruction that happened in Syria, especially in my hometown, Aleppo, the city that has been classified as the most destructed city worldwide after World War II and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Yazan, who only goes by his first name, wrote in his journal article, Smile Drawn On Our Faces, translated from Arabic into English.

Despite the cruelty of war, we know this is not the end. I insist on succeeding in a country I dont know, a country that is not mine.

The youth space at Ritsona  two mini metal cargo containers  was created last December after Lighthouse spotted the increasing programming needs for those between the ages of 15 and 25, who are too old to qualify for any education program and cant work.

I really love this space because when Im here, I get to do things that I never knew I was good at before, like drawing, and I connect with new people. It makes me feel good, said Malak Othman, one of the young people contributing to the magazine. The 18-year-old Aleppo native has been in Greece for 18 months.

With limited funding, volunteers run workshops in graffiti, jewelry design, charcoal portraits, mural painting, guitar, smartphone photography and science to keep the youth occupied and help them learn and develop new skills. Sometimes group therapy sessions are held by licensed psychologists.

What struck me most when I first saw the images, photos and writing by the youth, was how honest and uncensored they were in their art. Their photos captured their emotions, grief, loss, anger, trauma, resiliency, and humour, said Morgen.

They have voices that they want the world to hear. Their desire to share their insights is incredible, and they do so articulately and with such raw honesty. Despite the difficulties they have faced, they are some of the kindest and most conscientious youth Ive ever had the privilege of working with.

The youth space also serves as a drop-in centre where young residents can watch TV, play board games, read magazines and books, and use one of the six tablets despite the camps unreliable Wi-Fi connection.

This is a supportive and safe space that helps them forget about the problems and issues they are dealing with, and just let it go, said Morgen, who has a masters degree in human security and peacebuilding from Royal Roads University in Victoria.

Sometimes its difficult for them to keep their hope and spirit when their lives are in limbo and they dont know whats going to happen.

Musstafa Musstafa, one of the aspiring writers from the camp, recalled the first day when he and his family arrived there from Syria.

Even the trees were sad. The only thing that we could feel was the harsh cold, he wrote in the journal article, Somewhere In The World.

This place, Ritsona, has become our homeland for a part of our life. After one year, this place is full and has changed. It has become a happier place. The people who live in this place give it life. They have changed the trees from sad to smiling.

However, it is impossible to forget the pain and sorrows from the war, he said.

We have the new pain and sorrow of waiting for our future, said Musstafa, 23. The waiting has become like a knife that causes suffering and the pain is real. Here we are waiting for someone to say to us, Come and share our place with us. This world is not just for one person, it is for all people.

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OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASOBurkina Fasos leader of nearly three decades declared a state of emergency Thursday, hours after protesters who oppose his bid for another term stormed the parliament and set part of it on fire, marking the greatest threat to his rule since he himself seized power in a coup.

It was not immediately clear where President Blaise Compaore was following the announcement, which also called for an end to the demonstrations. At least one person was killed and several others were wounded earlier in the day, authorities said.

Army Gen. Honore Traore, the joint chief of staff, later announced that a curfew would be in effect from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. The government and parliament also have been dissolved, he said.

In a concession to the opposition, Compaore agreed Thursday to withdraw a bill from consideration in the parliament that would have allowed him to extend his 27-rule through a fifth term in office.

While demonstrators managed to block the highly controversial parliamentary vote, the violent opposition unleashed Thursday underscored the threat Compaore now faces as frustrations mount in one of the worlds poorest countries. In a sign of the growing unrest, crowds also attacked the homes of government ministers and looted shops in the countrys second-largest city, Bobo Dioulasso, witnesses said.

It is over for the regime! and We do not want him again! shouted demonstrators when they heard the vote on term limits had been stopped.

Flames enveloped the main building in the parliament complex, and many lawmakers fled to a nearby hotel.

It is difficult to say what happens next, but things are out of control because the demonstrators do not listen to anyone, said Ablasse Ouedraogo, an opposition lawmaker.

The images of cars on fire and plumes of black smoke in the capital of Ouagadougou prompted alarm from the international community. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the special representative of the UN secretary-general, said he deplores the deterioration of the security situation, according to a statement.

In a bid to restore calm, military leaders met Thursday afternoon with the influential traditional chief of the countrys largest ethnic group, the Mossi, according to Jonathan Yameogo, a spokesperson for the ruling party.

Burkina Faso has long been known for its relative stability in volatile West Africa, though tensions have been mounting over Compaores plans to extend his rule.

Since coming to power in a coup, Compaore, 63, has refashioned himself as an elder statesman who brokered electoral disputes and hostage releases throughout the region.

He made no secret of his support for Charles Taylor, the Liberian warlord turned president now serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone. The leader of Burkina Faso also has been accused of supporting rebel groups in Ivory Coast and Angola, though he later played the role as a peacemaker in Ivory Coast and elsewhere.

More recently, his government was involved in negotiating the release of several European hostages held by Al Qaeda-linked militants in northern Mali. He also hosted the talks between Malis government and separatist Tuareg rebels, leading to the agreement that made the July 2013 presidential election possible.

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OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASOAs Al Qaeda fighters attacked the cafe where he worked, Clement Djiguende was saved by chance: A jihadist who had been firing at patrons simply ran out of bullets.

The gun stuck for a moment. Then the militant, dressed in black and a turban, tried several times to reload. Thats when Djiguende and another server bolted toward the bathrooms not far from the bar where only moments earlier they had been serving cold drinks on just another Friday night.

About 20 other people were already crowding into the toilets in a bid to save their lives as the sound of gunfire resumed at the Cappuccino Cafe. Others tried to climb through the restaurants broken windows. Some managed to get to the roof where they waited for the carnage to stop.

On the cafes large outdoor terrace, wounded people were crying out in pain, the bartender recalled. The jihadists then started killing the wounded.

At least 10 of the 28 victims of the Ouagadougou attacks lost their lives at the cafe that night, including the Ukrainian wife and son of the restaurants owner, officials confirmed. An American missionary who ran an orphanage in Burkina Faso was also killed while meeting with a local pastor at the cafe.

An audio tape later released by the North Africa affiliate of Al Qaeda that claimed responsibility for the carnage was titled: A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts. The attackers arrived in a vehicle with licence plates from neighbouring Niger and spoke with an Arabic accent when screaming in French, witnesses said.

The cafe had long been a popular hangout in Ouagadougou, with a menu of Western dishes and a bakery that sold birthday cakes and pastries, among other items.

Witnesses said four attackers stormed the cafe around 7:30 p.m. Not only did they shoot at patrons, they also created another death trap by setting the cafe ablaze.

Soon it began filling with smoke, forcing Djiguende and the others in the restrooms to wet pieces of their clothing in the sink to cover their faces as they tried to escape by crouching close to the ground. Heat from the flames had broken the huge windows and people were trying to crawl out without getting cut by the glass.

Upon reaching the terrace, my hand touched a body, but oddly enough, I kept it together, he said. Then I crossed another and then a third body, where I laid and pretended for a while that I too was dead.

After getting out, Djiguende kept crawling for another six metres beyond the restaurant before springing to his feet and running into another nearby restaurant that had not been attacked.

By then, the jihadists had entered the neighbouring Splendid Hotel. Andre Bationo, a waiter at the hotel, said he was cleaning in the dining room when a girl selling handicrafts to guests burst in to say that jihadists were killing people outside.

He ran to an employee room by the kitchen but found the door locked. Panicking, he made his way into a bathroom. Bationo turned off all the lights, laid down on his stomach and waited.

I heard people crying and running in every direction in the hallways, but then the sound of gunfire became very loud, he said.

It was an Al Qaeda fighter, who flung open the door to the bathroom and tried to turn the light on.

I heard a little click-click, but the light wasnt coming on very quickly, Bationo said.

The fighter pulled out a flashlight and his cellphone, then made a call speaking loudly in a language that Bationo didnt understand. After a few minutes, the jihadi went back into the hotel and gunfire rang out for several minutes before he returned.

Bationo, who suffers from high blood pressure, was certain if the Al Qaeda militant didnt kill him, the stress of him coming in and out of the hiding spot several times surely would.

Each time I heard gunfire, I prayed to God. And each time the sound of weapons stopped, I kept hope that I would get out of here alive, he recalled. I stayed there lying on my stomach until 6 a.m., when the French soldiers came and forced me to leave.

French special forces and troops from Burkina Faso searched the hotel throughout the night, looking for the attackers and any explosives they may have left behind. Witnesses said the assailants had fled to another restaurant in the neighbourhood.

Ultimately, all four people believed responsible for the attack were killed. Three of the bodies were found at the Taxi Brousse restaurant.

On Sunday, guests who had fled for their lives returned to the hotel to collect their belongings. The nearby Cappuccino Cafe stood in ruins.

The attack destroyed not only the place where Djiguende worked, but also any sense of security he had far from the violence in neighbouring Mali.

Burkina Faso, he said, will never be the same again.

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The Brussels terrorist attacks are the most violent to hit Europe since the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people last November.

But this is not the first, or even the second, terrorist attack in that time. Since Nov. 13, there have been literally hundreds of terrorist attacks around the world. Even factoring out the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria dozens of attacks have happened over the past five months.

Some were well-reported, but many more flew under the radar. Here are some of the most significant terrorist attacks you may have missed in the past four months.

November 20, 2015  Mali

A group of Al Qaeda-linked militants take 170 people hostage, ultimately killing 20, during a mass shooting at a Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the capital of Mali in West Africa.

Malian commandos ultimately raid the hotel and free the hostages, killing the two assailants. Another seven people are wounded.

November 24, 2015  Tunisia

A bus loaded with Tunisian presidential guards is struck by a suicide bomber linked to Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

The lone bomber kills 13 people in what is the third significant attack attributed to Daesh in Tunisia in 2015.

January 12, 2016  Turkey

A suicide bombing in a popular central square in Istanbul, Turkeys largest city, leaves 13 people dead and 14 injured. All of the dead are foreigners.

The perpetrator is identified as Nabil Fadli, a Daesh follower from Syria.

January 14, 2016  Indonesia

A series of suicide bombings and shootings in Indonesias capital leaves eight people dead, including four assailants. Another 24 people are wounded.

Among the victims is Tahar Amer-Ouali, a Canadian health care worker from Laval, Quebec.

Daesh claims responsibility for the attack, which is conducted by an unknown number of assailants. Though four assailants are killed, as many as 10 others may have been involved.

January 15, 2016  Burkina Faso

A group of Al Qaeda backed militants attack the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. At least 30 people are killed, and another 56 are wounded.

Six Canadian humanitarian workers are killed in the attacks: a family of four and two friends, all from Quebec.

Government forces mount a raid and free more than 170 hostages. Four assailants are killed and another two or three escape.

February 17, 2016  Turkey

Kurdish freedom fighters attack a convoy of buses in Ankara, the capital, killing military personnel and civilians during evening rush hour. At least 29 people die and another 60 people are injured.

The attack, which is carried out by a car bomb, targets military forces, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons say. One perpetrator dies in the attacks.

February 26, 2016  Somalia

A group of militants linked to Al Shabbab kill at least 15 people and leave others wounded after a suicide bomber detonates a bomb at the gate of the SYL hotel in Mogadishu.

Four gunmen force their way past the first security barrier before they are killed in a shootout with guards manning the hotels last security line. More than a dozen people are wounded.

March 13, 2016  Ivory Coast

At least 18 people are killed and another 33 injured when an Al Qaeda-linked group attack the Etoile du Sud hotel, which is popular with expats in Ivory Coast. Among the deceased are 15 civilians and three special forces soldiers who are part of the response.

At least three assailants involved in the attack are killed and as many as three more escape.

March 13, 2016  Turkey

A second attack in Ankara this year sees the deaths of 37 people and another 127 injured. As with the first attack, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claims responsibility for the assault.

The perpetrator is killed in the attack, which targets a transportation hub. The Kurdish group says civilians werent its main target, but civilian casualties were inevitable.

More on thestar.com:

Belgium doctor says attack victims wounds were essentially war injuries

Belgian officials say Paris bombmaker was among attackers in Brussels

Brussels airport attack is second major bombing for Utah teen

Global stock markets are getting used to terror attacks

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Ousted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci criticized President Donald Trumps unwillingness to single out white nationalist and white supremacy groups in addressing the violence that erupted Saturday in Charlottesville.

I wouldnt have recommended that statement. I think he needed to be much harsher as it related to the white supremacists and the nature of that, Scaramucci told George Stephanopoulos, referring to his former bosss broad and vague condemnation of hatred and violence.

Scaramuccis appearance Sunday on ABCs This Week marked his first interview since his brief tenure as communications director ended abruptly about two weeks ago.

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Why wont Donald Trump condemn white supremacists?: Analysis

White House condemns white supremacists in email to reporters as backlash grows over Trumps many sides response to Charlottesville violence

Fired White House communications director Scaramucci to start media tour Sunday

Trump has been widely criticized, including by members of his own party, for not singling out white nationalists and white supremacists in his condemnation on Saturday after hundreds of neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members clashed with counter protesters in Charlottesville.

In a brief speech at his resort in Bedminster, N.J., Trump condemned hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. He did not mention whose hatred and bigotry he was condemning  even after a car plowed into counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19.

Arrested for second-degree murder and other charges was 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio. A photograph shows Fields standing among members of Vanguard America, a group associated with the white supremacy movement, although the organization has denied that hes a member.

During the ABC interview, Scaramucci said he disagrees with his former boss over the vague statement on Saturday.

He likes doing the opposite of what the media thinks hes going to do, Scaramucci said. I think hes also of the impression that theres hatred on all sides, but I disagree with it.

He also said that Trumps aides and advisers are probably reluctant to be truthful with him and suggested that the presidents eldest daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would be the ones who can do that.

I dont think youre going to change the president, Scaramucci said. The presidents going to do what he wants to do, how he wants to do it, but I think its important for the people around him to give them direct advice, to be blunt with him.

Scaramucci went on to criticize Trumps chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, saying the president has to move away from that sort of Bannon-bart nonsense.

Its not serving the presidents interests. Hes got to move more to the mainstream, Scaramucci said. Hes got to be more into where the moderates are and the independents are, George, that love the president.

Trump fired Scaramucci, a wealthy New York financier, on July 31, just days after naming him as communications director. The Washington Post reported that the move was at the request of new White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

Scaramuccis brief tenure had been marked by turmoil as he feuded publicly with then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Scaramuccis arrival at the White House prompted press secretary Sean Spicer to resign in protest, The Posts Abby Phillip and Damien Paletta wrote.

After he was named to the West Wing post, Scaramucci vowed to crack down on the stream of leaks coming from the White House, saying he was willing to fire everybody.

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Unidentified gunmen attacked the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu on Monday, killing seven people and injuring seven others in what the mission's chief called a "terrorist" attack.

Earlier Monday, gunmen attacked two neighbouring U.N. camps in Douentza in the Mopti region of central Mali, killing a Malian soldier and a U.N. peacekeeper and lightly wounding another peacekeeper. The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, also called that incident a terrorist attack.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali is the deadliest of the U.N.'s 16 global peacekeeping operations, and the death of the soldier in Douentza brought the number of U.N. peacekeepers killed in attacks this year to nine, according to the U.N. peacekeeping department. This was also one of the worst losses of mission employees.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and stressed that attacks targeting U.N. peacekeepers "may constitute war crimes under international law," U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. Guterres commends "the important efforts" that Mali and four neighbouring countries are making to combat terrorism and violent extremism and promote peace in the region, Haq added.

In the Timbuktu attack, the mission said five Malian security guards and a Malian contractor working for the mission were killed along with a member of the Malian gendarmerie. It said six U.N. peacekeepers were wounded, two seriously, along with one Malian security guard.

The mission, known as MINUSMA, said it dispatched a quick reaction force and attack helicopters to secure the Timbuktu headquarters. It said U.N. troops killed six assailants.

In Douentza, MINUSMA said a group of attackers fired on a U.N. camp from an adjacent hill and Malian troops returned fire. Another armed group shot at peacekeepers in a neighbouring camp who also returned fire, the mission said. The U.N. mission said two attackers were killed in the exchanges.

The U.N. is looking into whether there was any connection between the two attacks.

Annadif, the MINUSMA commander, called for those responsible for "these terrorist acts" to be brought to justice.

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Tu ne peux pas voir le blog de Lolita-Nocturne, il est configure pour que personne ne puisse le voir.
CARTAGENA, COLOMBIASeeking to highlight the growing plight in Venezuela, U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on Monday met with people whove fled the country to neighbouring Colombia.

Pence visited the Calvary Chapel in Cartagena, where met with faith leaders and Venezuelan families before planning to depart to Buenos Aires, Argentina. His wife, Karen Pence, helped to lead a prayer circle, where she prayed for comfort to the Venezuelan refugees.

The vice-president and his wife also spent time speaking with the migrants, listening to their emotional stories. Reporters were not able to hear their conversations, but watched the vice-president comfort several women, including at least one who was seen wiping away tears.

Read more: Vice-President Mike Pence says U.S. wants peaceable solution in Venezuela

He said he heard heartbreaking stories of their struggle for food.

President Trumps made it very clear we will not stand by while Venezuela collapses into dictatorship, Pence said, arguing that a failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of our entire hemispheres and the people of the United States.

Pence is trying to rally the region against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros attempts to consolidate power. Pence on Sunday denounced Maduros tactics and said the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles.

Venezuelan officials have been firing back in a series of statements, with Information Minister Ernest Villegas denouncing U.S. meddling in Venezuelas affairs as hypocritical on Twitter Monday.

The US and its satellite in Bogota are trying to give classes in democracy to Venezuela while it provides cover for neo-Nazis in its own territory, Villegas wrote, linking to photos of the recent deadly march in Charlottesville, Virginia involving far-right groups.

Asked whether the U.S. would commit additional financial aid for those migrating from Venezuela, Pence said only that the U.S. has a long and storied history of generosity with regard to refugees populations and its happening here in Colombia.

The Trump administration has pushed to reduce the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. as well as money spent on foreign aid.

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WASHINGTONLike Heather Heyer, the paralegal and protester killed in Charlottesville, Kate Steinle was 32 when she died.

Look at Kate. Beautiful Kate, Donald Trump said, his voice softening, in a campaign speech last year. Illegal immigrant, five times came across the border, and shot Kate.

Trump then lamented the murder of Jamiel Shaw, 17, by another man in the country illegally.

An unbelievable young boy, Trump said. Good student. Was going to go to college on a football scholarship. Maybe Stanford. And he was shot in the face three times by a guy that did it because he was just told to shoot somebody.

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

When he wants to be, this president is a vivid storyteller. Talking about crimes committed by Muslims and undocumented Hispanics, Trump has used evocative adjectives and anecdotes to emphasize the depravity of the offenders and the humanity of the victims.

An alleged white supremacist is accused of killing Heyer on Saturday. On Monday, Trump described her with just one generic word.

Young.

After two days of withering criticism from across the political spectrum, Trump finally condemned white supremacists. In a White House attempt at a do-over for his widely denounced first try on Saturday, Trump called racism evil and identified the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups as repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

But the rhetorical shift appeared to many observers as begrudging, a half-hearted attempt to quell the furor that erupted when he faulted bigotry and violence on many sides.

Its pretty clear he didnt want to do this, or he would have done it before today, Cody Keenan, who was chief presidential speech writer to Barack Obama, said in a message to the Star.

In a marked departure from post-tragedy convention, Trump began the five-minute speech with seven sentences of boasting about his economic record. He uttered just two sentences about Heyer, saying nothing about her life and lapsing into the passive voice in describing what happened to her.

Two days ago a young American woman, Heather Heyer, was tragically killed, he said. Her death fills us with grief, and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers and our love.

Keenan, who still works for Obama, said the former president tried in such addresses to find a way to pay tribute to someone and what they cared about. And two days, he said, is an eternity for a White House to take for a perfunctory statement like Trumps.

Obamas speech on the Sandy Hook school shooting, one of the most memorable addresses of his presidency, was written in two days, Keenan said.

I think a big difference is that Obama would likely have gone to Charlottesville today, Keenan said. I dont think Trump could have even if he wanted to.

Douglas Brinkley, the prominent presidential historian, said Trumps second attempt was very marred by his unusual introduction.

The lead for the presidents talk today needed to be about Charlottesville. This will be known to history as his Charlottesville address to the nation, round two. And by self-promoting himself right out of the gate, it did a disservice to the victims of Charlottesville, Brinkley told the Star. He couldnt let go of it being about Trump puffery out of the gate. And then the death became secondary.

Trump, he said, seemed to be attempting to not alienate a single person in his base while trying to calm the mainstream media and GOP senators down.

Trump did appear to satiate Republican legislators, but expressed frustration that he was still being criticized by others.

Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied...truly bad people! Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday evening.

After meeting with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump announced a civil rights investigation into what he called a deadly car attack. Unlike Sessions, he did not declare the attack an act of terrorism.

James Alex Fields, seen standing with white supremacists in Charlottesville, has been charged with second-degree murder. He was denied bail on Monday.

His mother repeatedly called police about him in 2010 and 2011 to accuse him of beating her, The Associated Press reported.

Trump, sticking to his prepared text, asked Americans to choose love and unity over hate and division. He said this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence has no place in America.

And as I have said many times before, no matter the colour of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God, he said.

But Trumps first act Monday once again called into question his sincerity. Before his speech, he tweeted a biting remark about Ken Frazier, the black chief executive of Merck and Co., who resigned from Trumps manufacturing council to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from Presidents Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES! Trump wrote. He added another shot at Merck six hours after the speech.

And in remarks to Fox News on Saturday, Trump said he was seriously considering issuing a pardon to former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court for ignoring an order to stop arresting people he merely suspected were illegal immigrants.

His musings on Arpaio were published less than an hour after his speech on Charlottesville.

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George Steiner, the distinguished literary critic and influential thinker, is well known in Canada since his 1974 CBC Massey Lectures Nostalgia for the Absolute. In an interview not long ago, reflecting on being a Jew, he suggested that there is a hatred of Jews wherever there are no longer any Jews; even where there have never been Jews.

Poland is a case in point. Before the Holocaust there were some 3.5 million Jews in the country, about 10 per cent of the population. Three million were exterminated and most of the survivors moved elsewhere. Today, there are only a few thousand left. Yet, in a recent survey, 80 per cent of Poles said that they wouldnt like to live next to a Jew.

Though there have been Jews in Canada for some two centuries, theyre a very small minority in the country. Even allowing for the growth of the Jewish population here after the Second World War, Jews constitute less than 1 per cent of the 36 million people who live here. Yet some 13 per cent of reported hate-motivated crimes in 2015  the last year for which there are statistics  had Jews as their target.

Muslims come second. But though there are three times as many Muslims in Canada as there are Jews, the number of hate crimes against them was 1 per cent less than against Jews. Though theres always enmity of the other whoever s/he may be, the Jew is still being targeted much more than any other member of a minority.

Canada is one of the most open and safe countries in the world, but seemingly not quite as safe for Jews as it is for others. Europe has witnessed many more and much more lethal incidents, even though in most European countries, as in Poland, the number of Jews who live there after the Holocaust is very small, even in comparison to Canadas 1 per cent.

Every age and every culture has its own excuses for persecuting Jews. Evidence isnt required. Thus when the Church dominated Europe, the Jews were declared Christ-killers, ignoring the fact that Jesus was a Jew. When nationalism was in fashion, the Jews were deemed to be subversive enemies of the people. When communism ruled the day, the Jews were rootless cosmopolitan stooges of capitalism. Nowadays, of course, Jews are often conveniently describes as the oppressors of hapless Palestinians.

The fact that today Muslims in Europe are almost as vulnerable as Jews doesnt stop Muslims from attacking Jews. Recent incidents in France are still fresh in our minds. Last June, days after the fire that killed some 80 residents in a low-income apartment complex in London, Muslims demonstrated in the streets of the British capital blaming the Zionists (read: the Jews) for the tragedy.

Though often they themselves are victims of prejudice, hatred and discrimination from the indigenous population in Britain, it didnt inhibit the many hundred Muslim marchers to make the accusation. Victimhood of Islamophobia doesnt seem to prevent victimization under the banner of anti-Semitism.

Canada has mercifully never been in the grip of an ideology that needed an enemy, but being different is enough to be vulnerable. Though Jews are by no means alone in this, they still seem to be targeted more often than others.

Over the years Ive written several times about the issue of anti-Semitism on this page as a reminder of the disease that refuses to be cured. As a Jew and subject to anti-Semitic taunts in Poland when I was a child, and in Sweden where I grew up, I know whereof I write. Dispassionate scholars may bring the evidence, but Jews are here to tell the tale.

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Torontos Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every fourth week.

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It's shaping up as a battle royale between Netflix (NFLX) - Get Free Report and Disney (DIS) - Get Free Report , after the streaming service poached one of ABC's top showrunners.

Netflix has signed a multi-year deal with Shonda Rhimes, the creator Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, the group said early Monday, after Disney last week said it won't pull its content from the service.

Shonda Rhimes will bring her ShondaLand production company to Netflix under a multi-year deal to produce new series and other projects. Rhimes's long time producing partner, Betsy Beers will also move to Netflix. Shondaland has been based at Disney's ABC Studios, which has agreed to release her from a pact almost a year early.

Shondaland has created and produced shows including How to Get Away With Murder and Private Practice. The shows will continue to air on ABC in the U.S.

Currently How to Get Away with Murder streams everywhere else in the world on Netflix, with Grey's Anatomy and Scandal available on Netflix in many regions as well.

The deal is a coup for Netflix as it battles it out to become a premiere content creator. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Shondaland's move to Netflix is the result of a shared plan [Netflix Chief Content Officer] Ted Sarandos and I built based on my vision for myself as a storyteller and for the evolution of my company," Rhimes said in a statement. "Ted provides a clear, fearless space for creators at Netflix. He understood what I was looking for -- the opportunity to build a vibrant new storytelling home for writers with the unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach provided by Netflix's singular sense of innovation. The future of Shondaland at Netflix has limitless possibilities."

The move comes a week after Disney said it would pull its content from Netflix in 2019, in a bid to create its own streaming service.

Netflix shares closed at $171.40 on Friday, after gaining 1.34%on the session. Shares lost 4.92% in the past five days after Disney's announcement.

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Crocs Inc (CROX) - Get Free Report lost a patent battle last week that could act as a catalyst for the beleaguered footwear brand's eventual demise, the New York Post reported.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the shoemaker's infringement argument, saying Crocs' design isn't original and that another company applied for a patent with similar design a year ahead of Crocs. Crocs told Footwear News it plans to appeal the decision.

This is a major hit for the company, which has spent years suing its rivals on claims they have infringed on Crocs' design. Most recently, Crocs launched a legal battle against USA Dawgs, which makes a lookalike shoe similar to Crocs' iconic colorful clog.

It's been a tough few years for Crocs outside the courtroom, too. The Colorado-based company has seen declining sales and announced it's shuttering 160 stores over the next two years. Revenue was down 3.3% in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2016.

Crocs stock traded up nearly 3.5% at Friday's close.

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Networking and communication devices player Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) - Get Free Report is set to report earnings on Wednesday after the market close. Wall Street analysts expect Cisco Systems to earn 61 cents per share on revenue of $12.06 billion.

This quarter is a tricky one to predict with any reliability for Cisco Systems, since the company is in the middle of a major transition from a hardware-centric player to a software and services company. Shares of CSCO are down around 6% over the last three months, and up around 6.7% year-to-date.

In a recent note to investors, Raymond James said, "Cisco continues to make progress on its evolution to a more software-centric company, and commentary from its recent analyst meeting is encouraging." With so much cash, there are also several M&A deals that could accelerate the company's current transition.

The current short interest as a percentage of the float for Cisco Systems isn't much at just 0.78%. That means that out of the 4.99 billion shares in the tradable float, 39 million shares are sold short by the bears. However, there is the possibility for some short covering, since the short interest ratio for CSCO stock is 2.2 days-to-cover. We could easily see a multi-day rally post-earnings if the numbers are good and the transition is playing out the way the bulls are looking for.

With this in mind, let's take a look at the chart for CSCO stock and see if it's flashing a buy or sell signal heading into its earnings report this Wednesday post-market.

If you take a look at the chart for CSCO stock, you'll notice that it gapped-down sharply in May from around $33.75 to $29.89 a share with heavy volume. That gap lower was due to a weak quarter, one in which the company blamed uncertainty around government spending due to the new administration.

Following that gap, shares of Cisco Systems have been stabilizing and recovering, with the stock moving from a low of $29.89 to its recent high of $32.25 a share. During that recover, shares have been consistently making higher lows, which demonstrates that -- at least for now -- bulls are actively buying the dips heading into the quarter.

Cisco is trending up 0.4% to $32.22 a share in morning trading on Wednesday, and the stock is starting to spike back above its 20-day moving average of $31.66 a share. This spike on Monday is now quickly pushing CSCO stock within range of triggering a big breakout trade post-earnings.

Tesla, Apple, Facebook and Other Tech Titans on Top 10 SELL List: Market Recon

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in Cisco Systems either before it reports earnings to anticipate, or after if this stock manages to break out above some key near-term overhead resistance levels at $32 to $32.25 a share with strong volume. Look for volume on that move that registers near or above its three-month average action of 21.60 million shares.

If that breakout fires off post-earnings, then this stock will set up to refill some of its previous gap-down-day zone from May that started near $33.75 a share. Some possible upside targets are its 52-week high of $34.60 to north of $35 a share. Traders can simply stop out or avoid this trade if shares of Cisco Systems drop back below key near-term support levels at $31 to $30.50 a share post-earnings with heavy volume.

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
VF Corp. (VFC) - Get Free Report just planted a big flag in the ground.

On Monday, VF, once known for its robust rate of acquiring companies, announced its first major purchase after taking a six-year hiatus from deal-making. The company plans to buy Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co., the maker of Dickies work apparel, for $820 million in cash.

"We're excited about this announcement today. The Williamson-Dickies company is a really interesting business and we see a great opportunity to build on it," Steven Rendle, VF chairman, president and CEO, said in an interview with TheStreet on Monday.

VF investors have been itching for the company to score a deal since its last blockbuster $2.3 billion purchase of boot-maker Timberland was made in 2011. In recent years, VF has been focused on integrating its existing brands rather than gaining new ones. But, it began shifting that approach earlier this year with a renewed commitment to M&A.

VF, headquartered in Greensboro, said Monday's deal, subject to approval, is expected to add $1 billion in revenue by 2021, allowing it to eventually reach $15 billion in sales. It will provide immediate accretion to 2017 earnings per share and free cash flow, too.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Williamson-Dickie designs, manufactures and sells its work apparel through a network of retail partners, owned stores, online sites and franchisees. Its brands include Dickies, Workrite, Kodiak, Terra and Duxbak. Williamson-Dickie was founded in 1922 by the family of Philip Williamson, the company's chairman and CEO.

TheStreet talked with Rendle, who was appointed to the CEO position on Jan. 1, over the phone on Monday. Here's a condensed and edited version of our conversation.

Question: Does this deal represent a big bet on the American worker?

Answer: We see an opportunity to take our deep understanding of the consumer and marry that to what we see is a change in trajectory in the work space. We're not just servicing the traditional, construction, oil and gas type businesses but Williamson-Dickie gives us access to the service sector and the medical sector where there's an even higher rate of growth. We have the ability, together, to access this consumer with our joint portfolio, combining our high-touch service and delivery capabilities to really move into this highly-fragmented marketplace with a consistent, focused strategic approach to servicing this consumer at a much higher degree.

Also, more than 35% of Dickies' business is international. It is an area where we do not have a deep penetration from a market standpoint. This is not just a big bet on the U.S. worker, but the global worker. We think we can really be a disruptive force with a very powerful message that puts us in the forefront of consumers' decisions.

Q: In your time spent studying who your consumers are, have you seen any demographic shifts in who your main consumers are now from who they were let's say 10 years ago?

A: I don't know that we've seen a change in the demographic makeup. What we do see is a consumer that values strong brands that bring good durability, high value but also can bring products that they appreciate and make up who they are as workers and that go beyond the environment that they work in everyday. We have, and will continue to have, a fairly high focus on the female consumer. We will be launching a campaign around helping women enter into the construction workplace. We'll make products specifically for females in terms of function, form and aesthetic.

Q: What attracted you to Williamson-Dickie?

A: In terms of seeing acquisitions, there's a strategic lens and a financial lens. The acquisition should access new consumer segments, bring in new capabilities, have synergies and also be a billion-dollar brand opportunity. Dickies touched every one of those boxes. But it's also a powerful brand with strong awareness, it carries about 90% awareness to its core consumer. That is a very unique brand.

Q: Did VF's renewed commitment to making acquisitions come from you and can we expect more in the near future?

A: I wouldn't say that it is just me. I get the benefit of being the CEO who gets to talk about it but we've always been acquisitive, which is the most productive use of our balance sheet. We took our time coming out of that Timberland acquisition in integrating that brand. It was the biggest acquisition we've ever done. But we did have a dry spell. We understood that our investment community viewed us as not acting on something we said was one of our core strengths and there was a question around management's credibility. We took that to heart.

We're committed to drive against this integrated strategy and be able to give proof points that we're activating strategy, methodically and consistently with the intention of delivering mid-teens total shareholder returns. This is just another proof point along this journey and we intend to give you many more in the coming months and years.

Q: In thinking about the current depressed state of the retail industry, what are your plans for growing Williamson-Dickie in terms of store openings?

A: When we talk about how we view the consumer marketplace, we use a visual example of an hour glass. We see the premium aspect of retail performing and the value end on the bottom of that hour glass performing. It's that middle section being most negatively impacted. Only about 6% to 7% of our revenue comes from the mid-tier department-store segment. Our strategy has been built to allow our enterprise to grow inside this hour glass. We use our deep understanding of our consumer to assemble a portfolio of brands, our B to C digital platform, for example, as an opportunity to speak directly to the consumer. But in also partnering with the strong retail partners that we have on both sides of the spectrum, we can drive growth.

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It was an honour to chair the CXA judging panel for the 2017 awards. And after gruelling hours of judging I want to acknowledge and thank the companies and individuals who put themselves out there to be considered for this prestigious award.

What is customer experience management?

I want to start with what is customer experience management as a subject area and maybe what it is not 

It is not a marketing campaign executed well

It is not a new innovative app

It is not agents giving great service on the phone

It is not an exceptional team handling and solving most of your complaints about your brand well.

It is an integrated, collaborative approach to ensuring the brand promise is delivered to the customer across any functional area of the organisation that he may interact with during any part of his journey with your brand. It is a focused approach to designing scalable, consistent experiences irrespective of where he enters your eco system or what questions he has.

Customer experience management demands the following focuses and development of these competencies as defined by Bruce Temkin:

Customer-Centric Culture

Voice of the Customer, Customer Insight, and Understanding

Organisational Adoption and Accountability

Customer Experience Strategy

Experience Design, Improvement, and Innovation

Metrics, Measurement, and ROI.

So, what does it take to be good at Customer Experience?

To be a great brand, you need to have a real authentic connection with your customers. This does not mean things will not go wrong at times, but it means that when things do go wrong, you are responsive and you will have banked enough love in the good times to be forgiven.

Consumers in South Africa are still very forgiving and dont demand the kind of service and experiences we see in other parts of the world. They just dont feel strong enough or often dont have the time or inclination to correct service that was suboptimal where a brand has broken its promise. This leads to brands being complacent and not really feeling enough pressure to up their game. Social media has given the consumer an easy, low-effort way to get attention. In South Africa. But many brands are still not listening and dont really pay attention to what is being said on social media. This gives consumers the idea that they just dont care.

So, what does it take to be great at designing and delivering purposeful and remarkable experiences?

As far as the entries are concerned, I would first like to comment on leadership as a theme. I saw very strong leaders emerge who refused to take no for an answer, and who were determined to achieve results and take their people along on the journey. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, they were in the arena, their faces marred by dust and sweat and blood.

Then there were the innovators who, despite budget constraints, regulatory constraints, and pain in the ass bosses, got the job done through sheer determination, using unrivalled resourcefulness.

Not all entries were equal, and although we strived to understand scale, complexity and budget it was very hard to level the playing field. However, I do want to acknowledge those entrants who worked with shoe-string budgets and really made magic by being resourceful.

In the entries I saw the dedication to get back and fix the basics, to pay respect to the customers of a brand, and, as a minimum, to give them what was promised. And I also saw a real passion to delight, to be remarkable.

Great customer experience is simple yet hard because it relies on us collaborating. It demands that you focus on the eco-system not the ego-system. It requires you as a leader and team member to be human, vulnerable and to see failure as that which is going to make your next idea better rather than kill your current brilliant idea.

It was truly an honour to be part of this judging journey for the first Customer Experience Africa Awards (CXA). My wish is that brands will seize the opportunity to enter next year, to showcase their hard work and really focus on exceeding the expectations of the people who keep them in business.
Chorus Aviation Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various aviation support services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Regional Aviation Services and Regional Aircraft Leasing. The Regional Aviation Services segment includes all three sectors of the regional aviation, such as contract flying, including ACMI and charter operations; aircraft leasing; and maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as part sales and technical services. The Regional Aircraft Leasing segment provides aircraft leasing to third-party air operators. As of December 31, 2021, this segment's portfolio of leased aircraft consisted of 62 aircraft of which 56 aircraft were on lease to airline customers, such as 23 Dash 8-400s, 18 ATR72-600s, four CRJ1000s, four E190s, two E195s and five A220-300s. The company was formerly known as Jazz Air Income Fund and changed its name to Chorus Aviation Inc. in January 2011. Chorus Aviation Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is based in Dartmouth, Canada.
Gannett Co., Inc. operates as a media and marketing solutions company in the United States. It operates through two segments, Publishing and Digital Marketing Solutions. The company's principal products include 230 daily print media with total paid circulation of approximately 1.9 million and Sunday circulation of 2.2 million; 249 weekly print media with total circulation of approximately 1.4 million; and 292 locally-focused websites. Its principal products also comprise 123 daily and weekly news media brands and approximately 80 magazines, and related digital platforms; sports network, as well as Reviewed.com, an affiliate marketing service; and USA TODAY NETWORK, a community events platform. The company also offers digital marketing solutions, such as online presence solutions, online advertising products, conversion software, and cloud-based software solutions. In addition, it produces niche publications that address specific local market interests, such as recreation, sports, healthcare, and real estate. Further, the company offers local market news and information, as well as advertising and subscriptions, and commercial printing and distribution services; and prints commercial materials, including flyers, business cards, and invitations. The company was formerly known as New Media Investment Group Inc. and changed its name to Gannett Co., Inc. in November 2019. Gannett Co., Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tenet Healthcare: 45th Street MOB LLC, 601 N 30th Street I L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street II L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street III Inc., AHM Acquisition Co. Inc., AIG Holdings LLC, AIGB Global LLC, AIGB Group Inc., AIGB Holdings Inc., AIGB Management Services LLC, AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #3 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #4 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #5 L.L.C., AMI Information Systems Group Inc., AMI/HTI Tarzana Encino Joint Venture, APN, ARC Worcester Center L.P., ASC Old Co. LP, ASC of New Jersey LLC, ASJH Joint Venture LLC, Abrazo Health Network EP Clinical Services LLC, Abrazo Surgical Outpatient Center LLC, Advanced Ambulatory Surgical Care L.P., Advanced Center for Surgery  Vero Beach LLC, Advanced Regional Surgery Center LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Bethesda LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Metairie LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Northern Louisiana LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Sarasota LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Tampa LLC, Advanced Surgical Care of Lutz LLC, Advanced Surgical Care of St Louis LLC, Advanced Surgical Concepts LLC, Advantage Health Care Management Company LLC, Advantage Health Network Inc., AdventHealth Surgery Center Celebration LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Mills Park LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Wellswood LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Winter Garden LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers Central Florida LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers West Florida LLC, Alabama Cardiovascular Associates L.L.C., Alabama Digestive Health Endoscopy Center L.L.C., Alabama Hand and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Alamo Heights Surgicare L.P., Alliance Surgery Birmingham LLC, Alliance Surgery Inc., Alvarado Hospital Medical Center Inc., Ambulatory Surgical Associates LLC, Ambulatory Surgical Center of Somerville LLC, American Institute of Gastric Banding Ltd., American Institute of Gastric Banding Phoenix Limited Partnership, American Medical Inc., Amisub Inc., Amisub Inc., Amisub of California Inc., Amisub of North Carolina Inc., Amisub of South Carolina Inc., Amisub of Texas Inc., Anaheim Hills Medical Imaging L.L.C., Anaheim MRI Holding Inc., Anesthesia Partners of Gallatin LLC, Arizona Care Network  Next L.L.C., Arizona Health Partners LLC, Arizona Spine and Joint Hospital LLC, Ascension Saint Thomas Lebanon Surgery Center LLC, Asia Outsourcing US Inc., Aspen Healthcare, Atlanta Medical Center Inc., Atlanta Medical Center Interventional Neurology Associates L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Neurosurgical & Spine Specialists L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Physician Group L.L.C., Atlantic Coast Surgical Suites LLC, Atlantic Health-USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Avita/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., BBH BMC LLC, BBH CBMC LLC, BBH DevelopmentCo LLC, BBH NP Clinicians Inc., BBH PBMC LLC, BBH SBMC LLC, BBH WBMC LLC, BCDC EmployeeCO LLC, BHC-Talladega Pediatrics LLC, BHS Accountable Care LLC, BHS Affinity LLC, BHS Integrated Physician Partners LLC, BHS Physician Performance Network LLC, BHS Physicians Alliance for ACE LLC, BHS Physicians Network Inc., BHS Specialty Network Inc., BT East Dallas JV LLP, BW Cardiology LLC, BW Cyberknife LLC, BW Hand Practice LLC, BW Office Buildings LLC, BW Parking Decks LLC, BW Physician Practices LLC, BW Retail Pharmacy LLC, BW Sports Practice LLC, Baptist Accountable Care LLC, Baptist Diagnostics LLC, Baptist Health Centers LLC, Baptist Physician Alliance ACO LLC, Baptist Physician Alliance LLC, Baptist Plaza Surgicare L.P., Baptist Surgery Center L.P., Baptist Womens Health Center LLC, Baptist/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Bartlett ASC LLC, Beaumont Surgical Affiliates Ltd., Berkshire Eye LLC, Bloomington ASC LLC, Blue Ridge/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Bluffton Okatie Primary Care L.L.C., Bluffton Okatie Surgery Center L.L.C., Braselton Endoscopy Center LLC, Briarcliff Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Bristol Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Broad River Primary Care L.L.C., Brookwood Ancillary Holdings Inc., Brookwood Baptist Health 1 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Health 2 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Health 3 LLC, Brookwood Baptist Imaging LLC, Brookwood Center Development Corporation, Brookwood Development Inc., Brookwood Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, Brookwood Garages L.L.C., Brookwood Health Services Inc., Brookwood Home Health LLC, Brookwood Occupational Health Clinic L.L.C., Brookwood Parking Associates Ltd., Brookwood Primary Care Cahaba Heights L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care Hoover L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care The Narrows L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Homewood L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Inverness L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Mountain Brook L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Oak Mountain L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Vestavia L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Network Care Inc., Brookwood Specialty Care  Endocrinology L.L.C., Brookwood Sports and Orthopedics L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Care L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Diagnostic Center LLC, Brookwood  Maternal Fetal Medicine L.L.C., Brownsville Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, C7 Technologies LLC, CGH GP Inc., CGH Hospital Ltd., CHIC/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CHN Holdings LLC, CHVI Tucson Holdings LLC, CML-Chicago Market Labs Inc., CRNAs of Michigan, CS/USP General Partner LLC, CS/USP Surgery Centers LP, Camp Creek Urgent Care L.L.C., Camp Lowell Surgery Center L.L.C., Cardiology Physicians Associates L.L.C., Cardiology Physicians Corporation L.L.C., Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Associates L.L.C., Cardiovascular Clinical Excellence at Sierra Providence LLC, CareSpot of Austin LLC, CareSpot of Memphis LLC, Carmel Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Castle Rock Surgery Center LLC, Catawba-Piedmont Cardiothoracic Surgery L.L.C., Cedar Hill Primary Care L.L.C., Cedar Park Surgery Center L.L.P., Center for Advanced Research Excellence L.L.C., Center for the Urban Child Inc., Central Carolina Physicians  Sandhills L.L.C., Central Carolina-IMA L.L.C., Central Jersey Surgery Center LLC, Central Texas Corridor Hospital Company LLC, Central Valley Quality Alliance LLC, Central Virginia Surgi-Center L.P., Centura Ventures Surgery Centers LLC, Centura/USP Colorado Springs Surgery Centers L.L.C., Chalon Living Inc., Chandler Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Endoscopic Surgery Center LLC, Chattanooga Pain Management Center LLC, Chesterfield Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Chico Surgery Center L.P., Clarksville Surgery Center LLC, Coast Healthcare Management LLC, Coast Surgery Center L.P., Coastal Carolina Medical Center, Coastal Carolina Medical Center Inc., Coastal Carolina Physician Practices LLC, Coastal Carolina Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Colorado GI Centers LLC, Commonwealth Continental Health Care Inc., Community Connection Health Plan Inc., Community Hospital of Los Gatos Inc., Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Asheville LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Odessa LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Raleigh LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of St. Petersburg LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Tampa LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Waco LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Winston-Salem LLC, Conifer Care Continuum Solutions LLC, Conifer Ethics and Compliance Inc., Conifer Global Business Center Inc., Conifer Global Holdings Inc., Conifer Health Solutions LLC, Conifer Holdings Inc., Conifer Patient Communications LLC, Conifer Physician Services Holdings Inc., Conifer Physician Services Inc., Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions LLC, Conifer Value-Based Care LLC, Conroe Surgery Center 2 LLC, Coral Ridge Outpatient Center LLC, Corpus Christi Surgicare Ltd., Covenant/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CreAtiv Management Company Inc., Creekwood Surgery Center L.P., Crown Point Surgery Center LLC, DH/USP SJOSC Investment Company L.L.C., DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Education & Research, DMC Harper University Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, DMC Imaging L.L.C., DeTar/USP Surgery Center LLC, Delray Beach ASC LLC, Delray Medical Center Inc., Delray Medical Physician Services L.L.C., Denville Surgery Center LLC, Des Peres Physician Network LLC, Desert Regional Medical Center Inc., Desert Ridge Outpatient Surgery LLC, Desoto Surgicare Partners Ltd., Destin Surgery Center LLC, Detroit Education & Research, DigitalMed Inc., Dignity/Abrazo Health Network LLC, Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers II LLC, Doctors Hospital of Manteca Inc., Doctors Medical Center Neurosciences Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center Orthopedics Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center of Modesto Inc., Doctors Outpatient Surgery Center of Jupiter L.L.C., EPHC Inc., EPIC ASC LLC, East Atlanta Endoscopy Centers LLC, East Cobb Urgent Care LLC, East Cooper Coastal Family Physicians L.L.C., East Cooper Community Hospital Inc., East Cooper Hyperbarics L.L.C., East Cooper OB/GYN L.L.C., East Cooper Physician Network LLC, East Cooper Primary Care Physicians L.L.C., East West Surgery Center L.P., Eastgate Building Center L.L.C., El Mirador Surgery Center L.L.C., El Paso Center for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy LLC, El Paso Day Surgery LLC, El Paso Urology Surgery Center Curie LLC, Emanate/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Emanuel Medical Center, Emerus BHS/SA NW Military LLC, Emerus BHS/SA Southside LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Hausman LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Kelly LLC, Emerus/BHS SA LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Overlook Parkway LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Schertz LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Thousand Oaks LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Westover Hills LLC, Encinitas Endoscopy Center LLC, Endoscopy Consultants LLC, Enterprise Research Solutions LLC, European Surgical Partners Ltd., Eye Center of Nashville UAP LLC, Eye Surgery Center of Nashville LLC, FMC Medical Inc., FMCC Network Contracting L.L.C., FREH Real Estate L.L.C., FRS Imaging Services L.L.C., First Choice Physician Partners, Flatirons Surgery Center LLC, Fort Bend Clinical Services Inc., Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate LP, Foundation Bariatric Hospital of San Antonio LLC, Foundation San Antonio Borrower Sub LLC, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Fountain Valley Surgery Center LLC, Franklin Endo UAP LLC, Franklin Endoscopy Center LLC, Frontenac Ambulatory Surgery & Spine Care Center L.P., Frye Regional Medical Center Inc., FryeCare Boone L.L.C., FryeCare Morganton L.L.C., FryeCare Physicians L.L.C., FryeCare Valdese L.L.C., FryeCare Watauga L.L.C., FryeCare Womens Services L.L.C., GAB Endoscopy Center LLC, GCSA Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, GIA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Gainesville Endoscopy ASC LLC, Gainesville Endoscopy Center LLC, Gamma Surgery Center LLC, Gardendale Surgical Associates LLC, Gastric Health Institute L.L.C., Georgia Endoscopy Center LLC, Georgia Gifts From Grace L.L.C., Georgia Musculoskeletal Network Inc., Georgia North Fulton Healthcare Associates L.L.C., Georgia Northside Ear Nose and Throat L.L.C., Georgia Physicians of Cardiology L.L.C., Georgia Spectrum Neurosurgical Specialists L.L.C., Glen Echo Surgery Center LLC, Golden Ridge ASC LLC, Good Samaritan Medical Center Inc., Good Samaritan Surgery L.L.C., Graystone Family Healthcare  Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Great Lakes Surgical Suites LLC, Greater Dallas Healthcare Enterprises, Greater Northwest Houston Enterprises, Greenville Physicians Surgery Center LLP, Greenwood ASC LLC, Greystone Internal Medicine  Brookwood L.L.C., Gulf Coast Community Hospital Inc., HC Hialeah Holdings Inc., HCH Tucson Holdings LLC, HCN EP Horizon City LLC, HCN EP Lee Trevino LLC, HCN EP Northeast LLC, HCN EP Sunland Park LLC, HCN Emerus El Paso LLC, HCN Emerus Management Sub LLC, HCN Emerus Texas LLC, HCN Laboratories Inc., HCN Physicians Inc., HCN Surgery Center Holdings Inc., HDMC Holdings L.L.C., HKRI Holdings LLC, HMHP/USP Surgery Centers LLC, HNMC Inc., HNW GP Inc., HNW LP Inc., HSRM International Inc., HSS Palm Beach Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, HSS/USP Surgery Center LLC, Hagerstown Surgery Center LLC, Harbor Heights Surgery Center LLC, Hardeeville Medical Group L.L.C., Hardeeville Primary Care L.L.C., Harlingen Physician Network Inc., Harper-Hutzel AHP Services Inc., Harvard Park Surgery Center LLC, Haymarket Surgery Center LLC, Health & Wellness Surgery Center L.P., Health Horizons of Kansas City Inc., Health Horizons of Murfreesboro Inc., Health Horizons/Piedmont Joint Venture LLC, Health Services CFMC Inc., Health Services HNMC Inc., Health Services Network Care Inc., Health Services Network Hospitals Inc., Health Services Network Texas Inc., HealthCorp Network Inc., Healthcare Compliance LLC, Healthcare Network Alabama Inc., Healthcare Network CFMC Inc., Healthcare Network DPH Inc., Healthcare Network Georgia Inc., Healthcare Network Holdings Inc., Healthcare Network Hospitals Inc., Healthcare Network Louisiana Inc., Healthcare Network Missouri Inc., Healthcare Network North Carolina Inc., Healthcare Network South Carolina Inc., Healthcare Network Tennessee Inc., Healthcare Network Texas Inc., Healthcare SMG I L.L.C., Healthcare SMG II L.L.C., Healthcare SMG IV L.L.C., Healthcare UC Holdings Inc., Healthmark Partners Inc., Healthpoint of North Carolina L.L.C., Heart and Vascular Institute of Michigan, Hialeah Real Properties Inc., Hickory Family Practice Associates - Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Hill Country ASC Partners LLC, Hill Country Surgery Center LLC, Hilton Head Health System L.P., Hilton Head Regional Healthcare L.L.C., Hilton Head Regional OB/GYN Partners L.L.C., Hilton Head Regional Physician Network LLC, Hilton Head Regional Physician Network  Georgia L.L.C., Hitchcock State Street Real Estate Inc., Holston Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Holy Cross Hospital Inc., Home Health Partners of San Antonio LLC, Hoover Doctors Group Inc., Hoover Land LLC, Hospital Development of West Phoenix Inc., Hospital RCM Services LLC, Houston Northwest Partners Ltd., Houston PSC L.P., Houston Specialty Hospital Inc., Houston Sunrise Investors Inc., Hyde Park Surgery Center LLC, Imaging Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., InforMed Insurance Services LLC, International Health and Wellness Inc., Intracoastal Surgery Center LLC, JFK Memorial Hospital Inc., Jacksonville Endoscopy Centers LLC, Journey Home Healthcare of San Antonio LLC, KHS Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, KHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Kingsport Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Laguna Medical Systems Inc., Lake Endoscopy Center LLC, Lake Health Care Facilities Inc., LakeFront Medical Associates LLC, Lakewood Regional Medical Center Inc., Lancaster Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Lebanon Endoscopy Center LLC, Legacy Warren Partners L.P., Leonardtown Surgery Center LLC, Lifemark Hospitals Inc., Lifemark Hospitals of Florida Inc., Lifemark Hospitals of Louisiana Inc., Longleaf Surgery Center LLC, Los Alamitos Medical Center Inc., Lubbock ASC Holding Co LLC, MASC Partners LLC, MH/USP Bay Area LLC, MH/USP Brazoria LLC, MH/USP Kingsland LLC, MH/USP Kingwood LLC, MH/USP Kirby LLC, MH/USP Main Street LLC, MH/USP North Freeway LLC, MH/USP North Houston LLC, MH/USP Richmond LLC, MH/USP Sugar Land LLC, MH/USP TMC Endoscopy LLC, MH/USP West Houston L.L.C., MH/USP Woodlands Parkway LLC, MSV Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, MVH/USP Surgery Centers LLC, MacNeal Management Services Inc., MacNeal Medical Records Inc., MacNeal Physicians Group LLC, Magnetic Resonance Imaging of San Luis Obispo Inc., Magnolia Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Manchester Ambulatory Surgery Center LP, Maple Lawn Surgery Center LLC, Marion Surgery Center LLC, Mason Ridge Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., McLaren ASC of Flint LLC, Meadowcrest Hospital LLC, Medical House Staffing LLC, Medplex Outpatient Medical Centers Inc., Medplex Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Memorial Hermann Bay Area Endoscopy Center LLC, Memorial Hermann Endoscopy & Surgery Center North Houston L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Endoscopy Center North Freeway LLC, Memorial Hermann Specialty Hospital Kingwood L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Surgical Hospital L.L.P., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Brazoria LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Cypress LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Kingsland L.L.C., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Kirby LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Main Street LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Pinecroft LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Preston Road Ltd., Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Richmond LLC, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center Woodlands Parkway LLC, Memorial Hermann Texas International Endoscopy Center LLC, Memorial Hermann West Houston Surgery Center LLC, Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers II L.P., Memorial Hermann/USP Surgery Centers IV LLP, Memorial Surgery Center LLC, Memphis Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., Memphis Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., Metro Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Metro Surgery Center LLC, MetroWest HomeCare & Hospice LLC, Metropolitan Medical Partners LLC, Miami Surgical Suites LLC, Michigan Pioneer ACO LLC, Michigan Regional Imaging LLC, Mid Rivers Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Mid State Endo UAP LLC, Mid-State Endoscopy Center LLC, Middle Tennessee Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Midland Memorial/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Midland Texas Surgical Center LLC, Midwest Digestive Health Center LLC, Midwest Pharmacies Inc., Midwest Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Millennium Surgical Center LLC, Minimally Invasive Surgicenter LLC, Minimally Invasive Surgicenter of Delray LLC, Mobile Imaging Management LLC, Mobile Technology Management LLC, Modesto Radiology Imaging Inc., Monocacy Surgery Center LLC, Mountain Empire Surgery Center L.P., Munster Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Murdock Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, NICH GP Holdings LLC, NKCH/USP Briarcliff GP LLC, NKCH/USP Liberty GP LLC, NKCH/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., NMC Lessor L.P., NMC Surgery Center L.P., NME Headquarters Inc., NME Properties Corp., NME Properties Inc., NME Property Holding Co. Inc., NME Psychiatric Hospitals Inc., NME Rehabilitation Properties Inc., NS Medical Billing Center L.L.C., NSCH GP Holdings LLC, NSCH/USP Desert Surgery Centers L.L.C., NSMC Holdings Inc., NSN Revenue Resources LLC, NUCH of Georgia L.L.C., NUCH of Massachusetts LLC, NUCH of Michigan Inc., Nacogdoches ASC-LP Inc., National ASC Inc., National Ancillary Inc., National Diagnostic Imaging Centers Inc., National HHC Inc., National Home Health Holdings Inc., National ICN Inc., National Imaging Center Holdings Inc., National Medical Services II Inc., National Outpatient Services Holdings Inc., National Surgery Center Holdings Inc., National Urgent Care Inc., Network Management Associates Inc., New Dimensions LLC, New England Physician Performance Network LLC, New H Acute Inc., New Horizons Surgery Center LLC, New Medical Horizons II Ltd., Newhope Imaging Center Inc., North Anaheim Surgery Center LLC, North Atlantic Surgical Suites LLC, North Campus Surgery Center LLC, North Carolina Community Family Medicine L.L.C., North Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, North Fulton Cardiovascular Medicine L.L.C., North Fulton Hospitalist Group L.L.C., North Fulton Medical Center Inc., North Fulton Primary Care - Willeo Rd. L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Windward Parkway L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Wylie Bridge L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care Associates L.L.C., North Fulton Pulmonary Specialists L.L.C., North Fulton Womens Consultants L.L.C., North Haven Surgery Center LLC, North Miami Medical Center Ltd., North Shore Same Day Surgery L.L.C., North Shore Surgical Suites LLC, NorthPointe Surgical Suites LLC, NorthShore/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Northridge Surgery Center L.P., Northwest Georgia Orthopaedic Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Regional ASC LLC, Northwest Regional Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Surgery Center Ltd., Novant Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Novant/UVA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Okatie Surgical Partners L.L.C., Old Tesson Surgery Center L.P., Olive Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Olive Branch Urgent Care #1 LLC, Ophthalmology Anesthesia Services LLC, Ophthalmology Surgery Center of Orlando LLC, Optimum Spine Center LLC, OrNda Healthcorp, OrNda Hospital Corporation, Orlando Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., OrthoArizona Surgery Center Gilbert LLC, OrthoLink ASC Corporation, OrthoLink Physicians Corporation, OrthoLink Radiology Services Corporation, OrthoLink/ Georgia ASC Inc., OrthoLink/New Mexico ASC Inc., Orthopedic Associates of the Lowcountry L.L.C., Oxford Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, PAHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, PDN L.L.C., PHPS Inc., PHPS-CHM Acquisition Inc., PM CyFair Land Partners LLC, PMC Physician Network L.L.C., PSS Patient Solution Services LLC, Pacific Endo-Surgical Center L.P., Pacific Endoscopy and Surgery Center LLC, Paley Institute Global LLC, Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital Inc., Palm Beach International Surgery Center LLC, Park Plaza Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., ParkCreek ASC LLC, Parkwest Surgery Center L.P., Patient Partners LLC, Peak Gastroenterology ASC LLC, Pediatric Surgery Center  Odessa LLC, Pediatric Surgery Centers LLC, Physician Performance Network L.L.C., Physician Performance Network of Arizona LLC, Physician Performance Network of South Carolina LLC, Physician Performance Network of Tucson LLC, Physicians Performance Network of Houston, Physicians Performance Network of North Texas, Physicians Surgery Center of Tempe LLC, Physicians Surgery Center of Chattanooga L.L.C., Physicians Surgery Center of Knoxville LLC, Piccard Surgery Center LLC, Piedmont ASC LLC, Piedmont Behavioral Medicine Associates LLC, Piedmont Cardiovascular Physicians L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina OB/GYN of York County L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina Vascular Surgery L.L.C., Piedmont East Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Piedmont Express Care at Sutton Road L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Rock Hill L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Tega Cay L.L.C., Piedmont General Surgery Associates L.L.C., Piedmont Internal Medicine at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Physician Network LLC, Piedmont Pulmonology L.L.C., Piedmont Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care and Industrial Health Centers Inc., Piedmont/Carolinas Radiation Therapy LLC, Placentia-Linda Hospital Inc., Pleasanton Diagnostic Imaging Inc., Point of Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Porter Musculoskeletal Surgery Center LLC, Potomac View Surgery Center LLC, Practice Partners Management L.P., Premier ACO Physicians Network LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Adult and Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Premier Endoscopy ASC LLC, Premier Health Plan Services Inc., Premier Medical Specialists L.L.C., Prince William Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Professional Anesthesia Services LLC, Pros Temporary Staffing Inc., Providence/UCLA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Providence/USP Santa Clarita GP LLC, Providence/USP South Bay Surgery Centers L.L.C., Providence/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Pueblo Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, R.H.S.C. El Paso Inc., RE Plano Med Inc., RHC Parkway Inc., RLC LLC, Reading Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Reading Endoscopy Center LLC, Reagan Street Surgery Center LLC, Red Cedar Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Surgery Center LLC, Republic Health Corporation of Rockwall County, Resolute Health Physicians Network Inc., Resolute Hospital Company LLC, Resurgens Surgery Center LLC, Rheumatology Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Rio Grande Valley Indigent Health Care Corporation, Riva Road Surgery Center LLC, River North Same Day Surgery L.L.C., Riverside Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Rock Bridge Surgical Institute L.L.C., Rock Hill Surgery Center LLC, Rockville Surgical Suites LLC, Rocky Mountain Endoscopy Centers LLC, Roswell Surgery Center L.L.C., SCNRE LLC, SFMP Inc., SFMPE - Crittenden L.L.C., SL-HLC Inc., SLH Physicians L.L.C., SLH Vista Inc., SLPA ACO LLC, SLUH Anesthesia Physicians L.L.C., SMSJ Imaging Company LLC, SMSJ Tucson Holdings LLC, SRRMC Management Inc., SSI Holdings Inc., Safety Harbor ASC Company LLC, Saint Francis Cardiology Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis Cardiovascular Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Center for Surgical Weight Loss L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Medicare ACO LLC, Saint Francis Hospital Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett Inc., Saint Francis Medical Partners East L.L.C., Saint Francis Medical Partners General Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis Quality Alliance LLC, Saint Francis Surgery Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Surgical Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis-Arkansas Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis-Bartlett Physician Network LLC, Saint Thomas Campus Surgicare L.P., Saint Thomas Surgery Center New Salem LLC, Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP  Baptist Plaza L.L.C., Saint Vincent Physician Services Inc., Salmon Surgery Center LLC, Same Day Management L.L.C., Same Day Surgery L.L.C., San Antonio Endoscopy L.P., San Fernando Valley Surgery Center L.P., San Gabriel Valley Surgical Center L.P., San Ramon ASC L. P., San Ramon Ambulatory Care LLC, San Ramon Network Joint Venture LLC, San Ramon Regional Medical Center LLC, Santa Barbara Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Santa Clarita Surgery Center L.P., Savannah Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Schertz Surgery Center LLC, Scottsdale Endoscopy ASC LLC, Scripps/USP Surgery Centers 2 LLC, Seaside Surgery Center LLC, Shelby Baptist Affinity LLC, Shelby Baptist Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Shore Outpatient Surgicenter L.L.C., Shoreline Real Estate Partnership LLP, Shoreline Surgery Center LLP, Sierra Providence Health Network Inc., Sierra Providence Healthcare Enterprises, Sierra Vista Hospital Inc., Sierra Vista Surgery Center LLC, Silver Cross Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Silver Cross/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Sinai-Grace Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, Solantic Development LLC, Solantic Holdings Corporation, South Carolina East Cooper Surgical Specialists L.L.C., South Carolina Health Services LLC, South Carolina SeWee Family Medicine L.L.C., South County Outpatient Endoscopy Services L.P., South Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, South Florida Ambulatory Surgical Center LLC, South Fulton Health Care Centers Inc., South Plains Endoscopy Associates LLC, SouthCare Physicians Group Neurology L.L.C., SouthCare Physicians Group Obstetrics & Gynecology L.L.C., Southeast Ohio Surgical Suites LLC, Southern Orthopedics and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Southern States Physician Operations Inc., Southwest Childrens Hospital LLC, Southwest Endoscopy LLC, Southwestern Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional OB/GYN L.L.C., Spalding Regional Physician Services L.L.C., Specialty Surgicenters Inc., Springfield Service Holding Corporation, St. Augustine Endoscopy Center LLC, St. Christophers Pediatric Urgent Care Center - Allentown L.L.C, St. Josephs Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Josephs Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, St. Louis Physician Alliance LLC, St. Louis Surgical Center LC, St. Louis Urology Center LLC, St. Lukes/USP Surgery Centers LLC, St. Marys Hospital Cardiovascular Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Levee Company LLC, St. Marys Medical Center Inc., St. Vincent Health/USP LLC, St. Vincent/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Suburban Endoscopy Center LLC, Summit View Surgery Center LLC, Sun View Imaging L.L.C., SurgCenter Camelback LLC, SurgCenter Clearwater LLC, SurgCenter Development, SurgCenter Northeast LLC, SurgCenter Pinellas LLC, SurgCenter Tucson LLC, SurgCenter at Paradise Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Deer Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Glen Burnie LLC, SurgCenter of Greater Dallas LLC, SurgCenter of Greater Jacksonville LLC, SurgCenter of Northern Baltimore LLC, SurgCenter of Palm Beach Gardens LLC, SurgCenter of Pine Ridge LLC, SurgCenter of Silver Spring LLC, SurgCenter of Southern Maryland LLC, SurgCenter of St. Lucie LLC, SurgCenter of White Marsh LLC, SurgCenter of the Potomac LLC, Surgery Affiliate of El Paso LLC, Surgery Center at Mount Pleasant LLC, Surgery Center at University Park LLC, Surgery Center of Columbia L.P., Surgery Center of Coral Gables LLC, Surgery Center of Okeechobee LLC, Surgery Center of Pembroke Pines L.L.C., Surgery Center of Peoria L.L.C., Surgery Center of Santa Barbara LLC, Surgery Center of Scottsdale LLC, Surgery Centers of America II L.L.C., Surgery Centre of SW Florida LLC, Surgical & Bariatric Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Surgical Center Development #3 LLC, Surgical Center Development #4 LLC, Surgical Clinical Excellence at Desert Regional LLC, Surgical Elite of Avondale L.L.C., Surgical Health Partners LLC, Surgical Institute Management LLC, Surgical Institute of Reading LLC, Surgicare of Miramar L.L.C., Surginet Inc., Surgis Inc., Surgis Management Services Inc., Surgis of Chico Inc., Surgis of Phoenix Inc., Surgis of Redding Inc., Surgis of Victoria Inc., Sutton Road Pediatrics L.L.C., Sylvan Grove Hospital Inc., T1 Security LLC, TENN SM LLC, TFPS IV L.L.C., TH Healthcare Ltd., TH International Services Florida LLC, TLC ASC LLC, TOPS Specialty Hospital Ltd., TOSCA ASC Holdings LLC, TPR Practice Management LLC, TPS VI of PA L.L.C., TSPE LLC, Tamarac Surgery Center LLC, Tampa Bay Joint and Spine LLC, Tempe New Day Surgery Center LP, Templeton Imaging Inc., Tenet Business Services Corporation, Tenet California Inc., Tenet Central Carolina Physicians Inc., Tenet EKG Inc., Tenet El Paso Ltd., Tenet Employment Inc., Tenet Finance Corp., Tenet Florida Inc., Tenet Florida Physician Services II L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services III L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services L.L.C., Tenet Fort Mill Inc., Tenet Global Business Center Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Bucks County L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Graduate L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Hahnemann L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Medical Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Nacogdoches ASC GP Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Philadelphia Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Roxborough LLC, Tenet HealthSystem St. Christophers Hospital for Children L.L.C., Tenet Hilton Head Heart L.L.C., Tenet Hospitals Limited, Tenet Network Management Inc., Tenet Patient Safety Organization LLC, Tenet Physician Resources LLC, Tenet Physician Services - Hilton Head Inc., Tenet Rehab Piedmont Inc., Tenet Relocation Services L.L.C., Tenet SC East Cooper Hospitalists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Gastrointestinal Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Island Medical L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Lowcountry OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Mt. Pleasant OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet Unifour Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Tenet Ventures Inc., TenetCare Frisco Inc., Terre Haute Surgical Center LLC, Teton Outpatient Services LLC, Texan Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center LLC, Texas Regional Medical in Sunnyvale, The 6300 West Roosevelt Partnership, The Healthcare Insurance Corporation, The Healthcare Underwriting Company a Risk Retention Group, The Huron Corporation, The Old Bridge Surgery Center LLC, The Outpatient Center LLC, The Southeastern Spine Institute Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., The Surgery Center at Jensen Beach LLC, The Tresanti Surgical Center LLC, Theda Oaks Gastroenterology & Endoscopy Center LLC, Three Springs ASC LLC, Timonium Surgery Center LLC, Titan Health Corporation, Titan Health of Chattanooga Inc., Titan Health of Hershey Inc., Titan Health of Mount Laurel LLC, Titan Health of North Haven Inc., Titan Health of Pittsburgh Inc., Titan Health of Pleasant Hills Inc., Titan Health of Princeton Inc., Titan Health of Sacramento Inc., Titan Health of Saginaw Inc., Titan Health of Titusville Inc., Titan Health of West Penn Inc., Titan Health of Westminster Inc., Titan Management Corporation, Titusville Center for Surgical Excellence LLC, Treasure Coast ASC LLC, Trinity Health of New England/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., True Medical Weight Loss L.P., True Medical Wellness LP, True Results Georgia Inc., True Results HoldCo LLC, True Results Missouri LLC, Tucson Digestive Institute LLC, Tucson Hospital Holdings Inc., Tucson Physician Group Holdings LLC, Turlock Imaging Services LLC, Turlock Land Company LLC, Twin Cities Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Twin Cities Community Hospital Inc., UAP Lebanon Endo LLC, UAP Nashville Endoscopy LLC, UAP Scopes LLC, UAP of Arizona Inc., UAP of California Inc., UAP of Missouri Inc., UAP of New Jersey Inc., UAP of Oklahoma Inc., UAP of Tennessee Inc., UAP of Texas Inc., UCC Tucson Holdings LLC, UMC Surgery Center Lubbock LLC, UMC-USP Surgery Centers LLC, USC/Norris Cancer Hospital, USP 12th Ave Real Estate Inc., USP Acquisition Corporation, USP Alexandria Inc., USP Assurance Company, USP Athens Inc., USP Atlanta Inc., USP Austin Inc., USP Bariatric LLC, USP Beaumont Inc., USP Bergen Inc., USP Bloomington Inc., USP Bridgeton Inc., USP Cedar Park Inc., USP Chesterfield Inc., USP Chicago Inc., USP Cincinnati Inc., USP Coast Inc., USP Columbia Inc., USP Connecticut Inc., USP Corpus Christi Inc., USP Creve Coeur Inc., USP Denver Inc., USP Des Peres Inc., USP Destin Inc., USP Domestic Holdings Inc., USP Effingham Inc., USP Encinitas Endoscopy Inc., USP Fenton Inc., USP Festus Inc., USP Florissant Inc., USP Fort Lauderdale Inc., USP Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate Inc., USP Fredericksburg Inc., USP Fresno Inc., USP Frontenac Inc., USP Gateway Inc., USP HMH Surgery Center at Shore LLC, USP Harbour View Inc., USP Houston Inc., USP Indiana Inc., USP International Holdings Inc., USP Jacksonville Inc., USP Jersey City Inc., USP Kansas City Inc., USP Knoxville Inc., USP Little Rock Inc., USP Long Island Inc., USP Louisiana Inc., USP Lubbock Inc., USP Maryland Inc., USP Mason Ridge Inc., USP Mattis Inc., USP Michigan Inc., USP Midland Inc., USP Midland Real Estate Inc., USP Midwest Inc., USP Mission Hills Inc., USP Montana Inc., USP Morris Inc., USP Mt. Vernon Inc., USP Nevada Holdings LLC, USP Nevada Inc., USP New Hampshire Inc., USP New Jersey Inc., USP Newport News Inc., USP North Carolina Inc., USP North Kansas City Inc., USP North Texas Inc., USP Northwest Arkansas Inc., USP OKC Inc., USP OKC Manager Inc., USP Office Parkway Inc., USP Ohio RE Inc., USP Oklahoma Inc., USP Olive Inc., USP Orlando Inc., USP Philadelphia Inc., USP Phoenix Inc., USP Portland Inc., USP Reading Inc., USP Richmond II Inc., USP Richmond Inc., USP Sacramento Inc., USP San Antonio Inc., USP Santa Barbara Surgery Centers Inc., USP Securities Corporation , USP Silver Cross Inc., USP Siouxland Inc., USP Somerset Inc., USP South Carolina Inc., USP Southlake RE Inc., USP St. Louis Inc., USP St. Louis Urology Inc., USP St. Peters Inc., USP Sunset Hills Inc., USP TJ STL Inc., USP Tennessee Inc., USP Texas Air L.L.C., USP Texas L.P., USP Torrance Inc., USP Tucson Inc., USP Turnersville Inc., USP Virginia Beach Inc., USP Washington Inc., USP Waxahachie Management L.L.C., USP Webster Groves Inc., USP West Covina Inc., USP Westwood Inc., USP Winter Park Inc., USP Wisconsin Inc., USP-HMH Surgery Center at Central Jersey LLC, USP/Carondelet Tucson Surgery Centers LLC, USP/SOS Joint Venture LLC, USPI Group Holdings Inc., USPI Holding Company Inc.1, USPI Holdings Inc., USPI Physician Strategy Group LLC, USPI San Diego Inc., USPI Stockton Inc., USPI Surgical Services Inc., Underwood Surgery Center LLC, United Anesthesia Partners Inc., United Real Estate Development Inc., United Real Estate Holdings Inc., United Surgical Partners Holdings Inc., United Surgical Partners International, United Surgical Partners International Inc., Universal Medical Care Center L.L.C., University Surgery Center Ltd., Upper Bay Surgery Center LLC, Utica/USP Tulsa L.L.C., VB Brownsville LTACH LLC, VBOA ASC GP LLC, VBOA ASC Partners L.L.C., VHM Services Inc., VHS Acquisition Corporation, VHS Acquisition Partnership Number 1 L.P, VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 1 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 11 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 12 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 3 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 4 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 5 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 6 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 7 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 8 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 9 Inc., VHS Arizona Heart Institute Inc., VHS Brownsville Hospital Company LLC, VHS Chicago Market Procurement LLC, VHS Childrens Hospital of Michigan Inc., VHS Detroit Businesses Inc., VHS Detroit Receiving Hospital Inc., VHS Detroit Ventures Inc., VHS Harlingen Hospital Company LLC, VHS Harper-Hutzel Hospital Inc., VHS Holding Company Inc., VHS Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Inc., VHS Imaging Centers Inc., VHS New England Holding Company I Inc., VHS Outpatient Clinics Inc., VHS Phoenix Health Plan Inc., VHS Physicians of Michigan, VHS Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Inc., VHS San Antonio Imaging Partners L.P., VHS San Antonio Partners LLC, VHS Sinai-Grace Hospital Inc., VHS University Laboratories Inc., VHS Valley Health System LLC, VHS Valley Holdings LLC, VHS Valley Management Company Inc., VHS West Suburban Medical Center Inc., VHS Westlake Hospital Inc., VHS of Anaheim Inc., VHS of Arrowhead Inc., VHS of Huntington Beach Inc., VHS of Illinois Inc., VHS of Michigan Inc., VHS of Michigan Staffing Inc., VHS of Orange County Inc., VHS of Phoenix Inc., VHS of South Phoenix Inc., Valley Baptist Lab Services LLC, Valley Baptist Physician Performance Network, Valley Baptist Realty Company LLC, Valley Baptist Surgery Center LLC, Valley Baptist Surgery Center Real Estate LLC, Valley Baptist Wellness Center LLC, Valley Health Care Network, Vanguard Health Financial Company LLC, Vanguard Health Holding Company I LLC, Vanguard Health Holding Company II LLC, Vanguard Health Management Inc., Vanguard Health Systems, Vanguard Health Systems Inc., Vanguard Holding Company I Inc., Vanguard Holding Company II Inc., Vanguard Medical Specialists LLC, Vanguard Physician Services LLC, Ventana Surgical Center LLC, Veroscan Inc., Victoria Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., WHASA L.C., Walker Baptist Affinity LLC, Walker Street Imaging Care Inc., Warner Park Surgery Center LLC, Watermark Physician Services Inc., Webster Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Wellington Endo LLC, Wellstar/USP Joint Venture I LLC, Wellstar/USP Joint Venture II LLC, West Boca Health Services L.L.C., West Boca Medical Center Inc., West Bozeman Surgery Center LLC, West Palm Healthcare Real Estate Inc., West Suburban Radiation Therapy Center LLC, Westgate Surgery Center LLC, Westlake Hospital LLC, Westlawn Surgery Center LLC, Westminster Surgery Center LLC, Westminster Surgery Centers LLC, White Fence Surgical Suites LLC, Wilmington Endoscopy Center LLC, Wilshire Rental Corp., Windsor Mill Surgery Center LLC, Winter Haven Ambulatory Surgical Center L.L.C., Wisconsin Specialty Surgery Center LLC, and Wymark Surgery Center LLC.

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Legendary Pokemon are finally in Pokemon Go, ready to be captured. They include the Legendary Birds Lugia, Articuno and Moltres, as well as the powerful Mewtwo.

After being unlocked at Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago, the two avifauna Articuno and Lugia can be found at gyms worldwide. Moltres appeared in the wild soon after. To capture them, you'll need to beat them in Raid Battles. You won't be strong enough on your own, so bring friends or meet other trainers.



Mewtwo is a little tougher. It's part of an "exclusive Raid Battle," which Niantic detailed here. Essentially, to be invited, you will have to have beat a public Raid Battle at a gym before, and you'll get an invitation with some advance warning if Mewtwo will happen to show up at that gym again. It's complicated, and will likely only attract die-hard fans.



The Legendary Raid Battles will be signified by special eggs sitting on top of gyms, indicating one of the two birds ready to hatch. Be sure to bring lots of Razz Berries to increase your chances: rumor has it that the successful capture rate sits at 2 percent.

Developer Niantic suggests that Zapdos and Moltres, the other two legendary birds from the original set of games, will be available soon. No word on Ho-Oh, which debuted with Lugia in Pokemon Gold and Silver, as well as the legendary dogs, Entei and Suicune, as well as Mew, which have been teased before.
Al Khafji Joint Operations has confirmed the safety of its facilities and that they are free from any oil spill after reports of an oil spill from an oil tanker in the northeast of the Arabian Gulf.

Al Khafji Joint Operations announced the activation of the crisis management plan and the conduct of an aerial survey of the submerged area to ensure the safety of installations and beaches, said a Saudi Press Agency report.
The 37th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government to be held in Pretoria, South Africa will deliberate on a wide range of issues including exploring ways of harnessing the public and the private sector to work together to promote sustainable economic development in the region.

The theme for the SADC Summit set for 9-20 August is Partnering with the private sector in developing industry and regional value-chains.

The theme continues the trajectory of the previous three summits, building towards the goal of industrialization and sustainable development.

The 2014 Summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe focused on economic transformation and sustainable development through beneficiation and value addition.

The 2015 Summit hosted by Botswana looked at harnessing industrialization through Transformation of Natural Endowment and Improved Human Capital, while the summit held in Ezulwini, the Kingdom of Swaziland in August 2016 paid special attention to promoting industrialization through Resource Mobilisation for Investment in Sustainable Energy Infrastructure.

The 37th SADC Summit will focus on how Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) can be harnessed to drive forward the industrialization agenda of southern Africa.

PPPs are regarded as a viable model for attracting investment for public projects by allowing governments to have more access to additional capital and off-balance sheet financing.

Summit is also expected to consider a report by the Secretariat on the development of an implementation plan and roadmap on the conclusions of the Strategic Ministerial Retreat on the SADC We Want that was held in Swaziland in March.

Among other things, the retreat directed the Secretariat to develop an effective mechanism for tracking progress in the implementation of regional programmes as well as compliance to protocols and legal instruments.

It also called on the SADC Secretariat to prioritise programmes by focusing on infrastructure development, industrialisation and market integration, with peace and security as a prerequisite for economic development.

In so doing, it recommended that the prioritization of regional programmes should observe the principles of subsidiarity and additionality. It was agreed that the Secretariat should focus on coordination of programmes while Member States should focus on implementation.

Summit is also expected to consider progress on the development of the SADC Resource Mobilisation Framework (Alternative Sources of Funding SADC Regional Programmes).

The framework is expected to explore alternative sources of funding to determine how fiscal space could be created to enable SADC Member States to finance regional programmes, projects and activities.

Agriculture and food security remains a top priority for the SADC region, and the summit is expected to focus on measures to improve food security in the region, in particular how to strengthen implementation of the Regional Agricultural Policy that aims to improve production, productivity, competitiveness and trade in the agricultural sector, natural resources and environment.

Generally, the 2017/18 food security situation across the region is expected to improve significantly as a result of better rainfall experienced during the 2016/17 growing season, except for the western and north eastern parts where there was below normal rainfall.

Preliminary estimates and projections indicate an increase of cereal production in most Member States during the 2016/17 farming season.

Another topical issue expected to be discussed by summit will be the proposed new structure of the SADC Secretariat.

Other key issues for discussion by the summit is the general political situation in the region.

The political and security situation in the region has remained peaceful and stable as Member States continued to adhere to democratic values and practices by holding regular national elections.

There have, however, been some challenges in the Kingdom of Lesotho and continued insecurity in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the summit, South African President Jacob Zuma will assume the rotating SADC chair from King Mswati III of Swaziland.

Prior to the SADC Summit, there will be meetings of senior officials, followed by the Council of Ministers and a Double Troika meeting on 18 August.
Profiled tweet, @jattamensah: In Addis on 9/8/17, @_AfricanUnion finance ministers agreed to meet financing targets set in 2015 by 2020

Finance Ministers of the AU Member States: communique (AU)

We have put forward a set of proposals that should inform the forthcoming revision of the Scale of Assessment in line with the principles of equitable burden sharing, ability to pay, solidarity, equity, ownership and sustainability. We proposed that a new and more robust sanctions and incentives regime be adopted by the forthcoming January 2018 AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government in order to encourage Member States to effectively comply and pay their contributions on time. We welcomed the F10s recommendation that after funding the budget of the African Union and the Peace Fund, any balance of the proceeds from the 0.2% levy on eligible imports be retained by Member States for their own development projects. We propose that the number of F10+ members, to be expanded to 15, and the AU Commission, through its Reform Implementation Unit, to take forward these outcomes and keep us regularly briefed on a bi-annual basis and this prior to Ordinary sessions of the AU Assembly. [Note: the statement is also available in French]

Dr Francis Mangeni: CFTA negotiations  the end game (tralac)

It is possible to have tariff schedules for the CFTA by December 2017, at least from a critical and sufficient number of countries, especially those that have embedded trade liberalisation and export strategies in their national development programs, if the tariff negotiations are done in plenary meetings in terms of every country presenting its tariff schedule for comment, requests for improvement, and finalisation as an initial package or outcome from this first round of negotiations, subject to subsequent regular rounds in future. However, if tariff negotiations are conducted on a bilateral basis, it will definitely be impossible to complete the tariff negotiations by December 2017 or even December 2018. The permutations or groups of bilateral negotiations to be conducted among close to 55 countries or customs territories will be multifarious and overwhelming.

Actual intra-Africa trade happens on only a few tariff lines. The idea here is to focus on these tariff lines and get a commercially meaningful CFTA. Less attention for the time being need be given to idle tariff lines, many of which due to geographical or cultural or economic conditions might never have products traded among African countries in the foreseeable future.

In addition, tariff lines with applied MFN rates currently at zero percent could be harvested fairly quickly if agreed upfront as a principle, on the understanding that applied tariff rates are the starting point for elimination and reduction in FTAs, according to some WTO rules. If in the next two or three rounds of negotiations, good progress is made in these three areas along the lines suggested above, then the CFTA can be launched this year 2017. The three areas are: the text for the Agreement including a regime on non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, and tariff schedules for opening Africas market. Then provision can be made for transition arrangements and a built-in agenda to take care of outstanding work. [The author is Director of Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs at COMESA]

SADC Summit updates:

SADC Finance Committee meets ahead of Council of Ministers meeting (15-16 August); 37th SADC Summit: Harnessing public-private partnerships

Briefing by Bentry Chaura (Acting Director of FANR): Mr Chaura announced the launch of the SADC Regional Aquatic Animal Health Strategy (2016-2026) and the SADC Regional Aquaculture Strategy and Action Plan (2016-2026) which aim to improve national and regional aquatic biosecurity and aquatic animal health, and facilitate aquatic development and promote increase in aquaculture production and investment.

Briefing by Dr Lomkhosi Mkhonta-Gama (Acting Director of Industrial Development and Trade) and Mr Sadwick Mtonakutha (Acting Director of Finance, Investment and Customs)

$4.8bn trade volume between Egypt and African markets (Daily News)

Commercial relations between Egypt and African countries witnessed a noticeable increase in 2016, the trade volume amounted to around $4.8bn against $4.5bn in 2015, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil on Saturday. Kabil added that the increase in Egyptian exports was the main catalyst for the increase in the volume of trade exchange. Egyptian exports to African countries in 2016 accounted for about $3.4bn, while the value of imports reached $1.3bn. Moreover, the upcoming African tour of President Al-Sisi to the countries of Tanzania, Rwanda, Chad, and Gabon will represent an important step toward the strengthening of strategic relations between Egypt and the African countries, on both political and economic levels, according to the press statement. [Egyptian president to visit Rwanda this week]

Namibia: Statement by Ministry of Finance in response to Moodys downgrade decision (pdf)

After having considered the statement the Namibian Government holds the strong view that a substantive rating change should have been preceded by an in depth assessment and engagement of the Namibian authorities instead of a desk review of developments in the corridors of international financial head quarters. This recent rating acting by Moodys relied merely on an exchange of emails on a single item, that of outstanding invoices and how Government is planning to settle them. This is highly regrettable. A thorough assessment taking all factors into consideration would have been the proper way in dealing with reviewing Namibias sovereign credit rating. Government would like to use this opportunity to put a number of key factors into proper perspective. [Namibia: Finance Ministry Strategic Plan 2017/18 - 2021/22, pdf]

Namibia: Trumps advisor keen to invest (New Era)

US President Donald Trumps Advisor on North Africa and the Sahel region, Christopher Chris Cox, visited President Hage Geingob yesterday at State House, where he expressed interest in bringing investors to Namibia in the areas of manufacturing, energy and agriculture. Cox, who was in Namibia for a one-day visit, said he came in his personal capacity and therefore had no message from Trump. Although Cox and Geingob had a closed-door meeting, the U.S. investor said he came to Namibia because of its stable political system and conducive environment for economic development.

Southern African countries receive support in testing products to facilitate market access (UNIDO)

The meeting (2 August, Pretoria) was organized by UNIDO, in cooperation with SADCs Regional Laboratory Association, with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Representatives of 11 Southern African National Laboratory Associations were in attendance. The participants worked on establishing a way forward for the efficient implementation of the project. Among others, two trainings will be held in the next eight months to help NLAs run their association in a sustainable manner and to bolster the capacity of food and water-testing laboratories in method validation and method uncertainty for both microbiological and chemical test methods  the latter being of particular relevance to the region as the main export is food.

AGOA Forum: Introductory remarks by Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, as African Co-Chair - Plenary 1

I am aware that there is wide scope for our exchange of views. We know that one size will never fit all. This is why, as Co-Chair, I would encourage frankness, openness and objectivity. This would be the best way to go about our exchange at this Panel. This said, several recurring points, preparatory to this 16th US/Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum, merit our frank exchange, as we work to strengthen US-Sub-Saharan Africa trade relationship on the strategic foundation of AGOA. Several of these points include, but are not limited to the following: (i) explicit AGOA support for the regional integration process in Africa, in the context of the on-going Negotiations for the CFTA in Africa, that Nigeria has the honour to lead; and is committed to an end-of-year conclusion; (ii) an explicit AGOA Module to support the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, which is critical to reduction of trade costs in Africa; (iii) how the value of US./Sub-Saharan African Trade, including under AGOA, which has been in decline, can and should be scaled-up, with targets, including through elimination of barriers in non-tariff forms;

AfDB policy briefs: from the How They Did It series

(i) Ethiopia: lessons from an experiment. In this chapter, we will review industrial policy in Ethiopia with the aim of extracting lessons from the comparative review of laborintensive export-oriented sectors, such as leather and leather products; capital-intensive, importsubstitution industries, such as the cement industry; and high productivity modern agriculture, such as floriculture. These three sectors have different industrial structures and can collectively illustrate the practice of industrial policy and uneven outcomes in Ethiopia. [The author: Arkebe Oqubay]

(ii) Financing industrial development in Korea and implications for Africa. It is not surprising that many countries in Africa at low-income stages have had trade deficits for many years. That is basically due to weak export capabilities, compared with ever-strong demand for imported goods in African economies. Korea also went through the three decades of trade deficits, until it recorded its first trade surplus in 1986; since then, it has maintained a trade surplus. Korea, in the early 1960s, had a 1 to 9 ratio of exports to imports, which is much worse than a typical country in Africa. Thus, Korea had a huge savings gap with the domestic savings only at 9% of GDP and gross investment at 15% of GDP, thus relying on foreign borrowing to fill the gap. This illustrates why exports are so important and are the critical binding constraints for growth for an economy at lower or middle-income stages. Given that getting out of a trade deficit may take several decades, a country at a lower-income stage may find it necessary to take transitory measures to manage the balance of payments. In looking for specific policy tools, the past experience in Korea could be useful. [The author: Keun Lee]

(iii) Building effective clusters and industrial parks. An essential element of the fiscal decentralization in China is that career competition between regional officials at the same level is based on fiscal performance, which effectively mitigates the problem of incentive misalignment. However, the incentive design used in China may not apply to other countries. Due to differences in institutions, the forms of incentive mechanisms are likely to vary across countries and over time. In a country with strong state capacity like China, it is not an issue to earmark a certain area as an industrial park and provide it with favorable policies and infrastructure. But in some democratic countries, it may not be legitimate to offer special treatment to certain locations. The industrial park concept does not necessarily transmit well to all developing countries. It is necessary to bear in mind the limitations that apply to using the creation of industrial parks as a policy instrument to foster industrial development. [The author: Xiaobo Zhang]

Indias lacklustre approach towards international trade is hurting its foreign and economic interests (The Wire)

A strategically crafted foreign policy can not only benefit from trade and other domestic policies but can also provide critical inputs for them. For instance, India has been trying to regain its diminishing space as a supporter of developing and least developed countries at the multilateral trading system, which is primarily based on our trade and investment relations with Africa. Currently, mineral fuels, pharmaceutical products, non-railway related vehicles, boilers and related products are our key exports to Africa, and collectively comprise close to half of our exports to this region. A decline of around 11% was registered in the last fiscal. An in-depth diagnostic of reasons with a clear action agenda for boosting exports is needed. Without significant trade interests, we might not be in a position to forge a strong partnership with African countries, denying us an opportunity to act assertively in multilateral negotiations. Therefore, the political establishment will need to realise that trade policy is not just about trade. It should recognise linkages between domestic policy, trade policy and foreign policy, and ensure that the policies reinforce other. [Pradeep S. Mehta is Secretary General, CUTS International; Bipul Chatterjee and Amol Kulkarni of CUTS also contributed to this article.] [Deepak Nayyar: A strong rupee hurts the Indian economy]

Asean: The next 50 years (Manila Times)

As the new anxiety over globalization and multilateralism takes hold, the impact on the region cant be ignored. Free trade will be curtailed, foreign investment will shrink, and most of Aseans traditional markets will look inwards and turn away from foreign imports. The region will have to rely on itself. This is why expanded regional economic integration with larger nearby economies is crucial to our success and survival. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with six trading partners: China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand must be concluded urgently. We are talking about turning existing bilateral trade agreements with these countries into one trading bloc. As protectionist tendencies grow in distant markets, it is only prudent to consolidate an economic community closer to home. There is no room for delay or procrastination, it is a matter of survival for the entire region. There is also an urgent need for solidarity in Aseans dealing with external partners. Whether in strategic and security matters, trade negotiations or global issues, Asean needs a common and solid front more than ever. [The auhor Surin Pitsuwan is a former Secretary-General of Asean]

Emeka Anyaoku: Re-establishing Nigerias leadership position in the world (ThisDay)

Nigeria should also endeavour to reclaim its place and influence in the West Africa sub-region. ECOWAS is critical to Nigeria for economic and security reasons, and also because it is the countrys primary sphere of influence. And Nigeria must work to ensure that ECOWAS dwells more actively on inter-state infrastructural development, especially in the areas of transport and power in order to promote greater cohesion and integration of the sub-region. So also should Nigeria similarly, for security and economic reasons, pay greater attention to promoting cooperation in its other sub-regional associations namely, the Gulf of Guinea Commission and the River Niger and Lake Chad Basin Commissions. [The author was Commonwealth Secretary-General, 1990-2000]

Intra-regional fish trade in Africa: AU-IBAR communique

The objective of the meeting (2-4 August, Abuja) was to present the research, development findings and outputs by studies under the Fisheries Governance and Fish Trade Projects and to identify policy entry points that will enhance intra-regional trade of fish and fish products for improved and significant contributions to the Malabo goals of tripling regional trade by 2025. The workshop achieved the following outcomes: (i) Lessons and best practices shared for strengthening inter and intra-regional fish trade in Africa; (ii) Priority actions identified for strengthening inter and intra-regional fish trade in the continent; (iii) Priority entry points for harmonization of intra-regional fish trade policies identified. Participants adopted the following recommendations:
If grapes have a rival for a food with the most historical importance to Western civilization, surely it is the olive.

Native to the Mediterranean basin, the olive tree and its fruit, which is technically a drupe, have held a special meaning for almost every culture and religion in the region. Ancient societies revered olives for much more than the tree's long life and its importance to their agriculture. Many ancient peoples considered it a gift from the gods.

Olives, olive oil and the olive branch have maintained their special, even sacred, symbolic meaning through the centuries. The leafy branch of the tree has been used as a sign of virginity and purity at weddings, a symbol of peace, a sign of power to crown victors of bloody wars and a sign of wisdom.

The symbolism is as important and present today as ever. Offering a hand of friendship to a foe is known as extending an olive branch. Even the United Nations flag features two stylized olive branches wrapped around a world map  a sign of peace for all people. And olive oil, long considered sacred, continues to be used in many religious ceremonies.

History of olives

The earliest fossil evidence of olives was found at Mongardino, Italy, in leaves that date to the 12th millennium B.C., according to a history compiled by the International Olive Council. Situated in Madrid, Spain, the IOC is the world's only international intergovernmental organization in the field of olive oil and table olives. Other early records of olives have been found in North African fossils from the Paleolithic Period, when humans first started using stone tools, and in parts of Bronze Age olive trees found in Spain.

Although some believe these locations indicate that the tree is indigenous to the entire Mediterranean basin, the IOC says the olive tree originated in the thick forests of Asia Minor. The only ancient civilizations in the area that were not familiar with the olive tree were the Assyrians and Babylonians.

"Olives have been cultivated in the Mediterranean since at least 2500 B.C.," said food historian and author Francine Segan of New York. Considerable progress in cultivation of the tree took place in Syria and Palestine, although accounts differ about how the tree reached these regions.

From there it moved to the island of Cyprus, to Egypt, to the Greek Isles in the 16th century B.C. courtesy of the Phoenicians and then, in the 6th century B.C., westward to Sicily and southern Italy. The Romans continued the expansion of the tree throughout the Mediterranean using it as a peaceful weapon to settle people and regions in their conquests.

Olives trees grow on rocky soil in Andalusia, Spain. Mark Hodson/flickr

Segan included a passage about a fondness Cato (234-149 B.C.), the Roman orator and statesman, had for olives in her book "Philosopher's Kitchen." Segan explained that Cato wrote a book about small farm management in which he detailed a recipe for chopped olives mixed with herbs and spices to be eaten at the start of a meal.

Here is Cato's original recipe, as offered by Segan:

Green, black or mixed olive relish to be made thus. Remove stones from green, black or mixed olives, then prepare as follows: Chop them and add oil, vinegar, coriander, cumin, fennel, rue, mint. Cover with oil in an earthen dish, and serve.

Olive farming spread to the New World in 1492 with the Christopher Columbus's first voyage to America. By 1560, olive groves were being cultivated in Mexico and South America. Today, olive trees are farmed in places as far removed from the Mediterranean as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China.

History of olive oil

Although there are different kinds of olives, humans learned long ago that they couldn't pick and eat the majority of them right from the tree as they would an apple. Olives are too bitter for that because they contain a compound called oleuropein. They are also low in sugar. To become palatable as table olives, the fruit typically has to undergo a series of processes to remove the oleuropein. In most cases, the few olives that are exceptions to this rule sweeten on the tree though fermentation.

Apparently it was the bitter taste of freshly picked olives that led early human civilizations to find another use for olives. That use was to press them (with devices like those at Capernaum, Israel, pictured at right), extract the oil and then use the oil for a variety of purposes. Originally, cooking wasn't one of those purposes. It was these many uses for the oil  lamp fuel, pharmaceutical ointment and as an anointment for religious leaders, royalty, warriors and others  that led the ancients to domesticate the olive tree.

The production of olive oil is believed to have occurred no earlier than 2500 B.C. Olive oil wasn't used for cooking until about 2,000 years later, in the fifth or fourth century B.C. Once again, the Romans were responsible for significantly increasing olive oil production, which occurred between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D.

Olives in mythology

The olive tree is revered in Greek mythology, which credits the goddess Athena, daughter of supreme god Zeus, for bringing it to the city of Athens.

According to legend  recounted in Segan's book  whichever god gave the people of Greece the most esteemed gift would earn the right to name their most important city. Poseidon, brother of Zeus and god of the seas but a seeker of earthly kingdoms, gave Attica a waterway through the city that provided fresh drinking water and easy access to the Mediterranean. Athena gave them olive trees.

Although the citizens were grateful to Poseidon, Segan wrote, they preferred Athena's gift. Not only were the olives long-lasting and delicious on their own, but they also produced a useful oil. In return for the gift of olives, Athena was granted the right to name the city after herself. The Parthenon, a temple that overlooks Athens, was built in Athena's honor.

Other mythological figures are associated with the olive tree. When Hercules was very young, for example, he killed a lion with a wooden stake from a wild olive tree, thus associating the tree with strength and resistance. He also used a club from an olive tree in one of his twelve labors.

Olives in religion

Some of the world's most widely followed religions place great significance on olives and olive trees. Even so, the use of olive oil in religious rituals has its origins in pagan ceremonies. Priests in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome used olive oil in their sacrifices and offering to the gods.

Olive oil  along with bread, wine and water  is one of the four most important symbols in Christianity. References to olive oil are almost as old as the religion itself, with God telling Moses that olive oil is a holy anointing oil (Exodus, 30:22-33). This tradition of anointing with oil has continued throughout history by leaders of churches and nations.

A mosaic depicts the prayer in the Garden of Olives at St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy. Wikimedia Commons

The olive tree also came to symbolize peace and God's reconciliation with man. A dove brought an olive branch back to Noah as a sign that the flood was over. Jesus was praying in the Garden of Olives, or Gethsemani, when he was taken prisoner. In Hebrew, "gethsemani" means "olive press." Early Christians decorated their tombs with olive branches as a sign of the victory of life over death.

The Quran and hadith mention the olive and the olive tree numerous times. Islam considers the olive a blessed fruit and a health food that is a good source of nutrition. A parable refers to Allah, olive oil and light (Surah al-Noor 24:35). Another reference speaks to olives and nutrition (Surah al-Anaam, 6:141). The hadith refers to the olive tree as "blessed" (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 1775).

Olive oil and health

Olive oil  along with all the other vegetable oils  is high in fat, which means it is high in calories. It's also considered to be a healthy food. This sounds like a contradiction, but it isn't.

That's because the main fat in olive oil is monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs. MUFAS have been found to lower total cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. As a result, MUFAs may decrease the risk of heart disease in some people. They may also normalize blood clotting. MUFAs may even benefit people with Type 2 diabetes because they affect insulin levels and blood sugar in healthful ways.

As with many good things, olive oil has a "but." In this case, it's that olive oil should be used in moderation because even healthful fats are high in calories. It's also a good idea to use MUFAs instead of, rather than in addition to, other fatty foods such as butter.

Production and consumption of olives

The world's top four producers of olives are Spain, Italy, Turkey and Greece, according to the IOC's executive secretariat. The four main producers of olive oil are Spain (1.27 million tons), Italy (408,100 tons), Greece (284,200 tons) and Turkey (178,800 tons). The four leading producers of table olives are Spain (533,700 tons), Egypt (407,800 tons), Turkey (399,700 tons) and Algeria (178,800 tons). These figures are an average of the past six crops, according the IOC.

One of the trends in olive consumption, the secretariat said, is the rise of olive popularity in the Persian Gulf countries of Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. That, it seems, is fitting. Just as olive farming has moved around the world, the consumption of one of the world's most important foods has come full circle, back to the part of the world where it originated so many millennia ago.
- Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has revealed why Raila Odinga is yet to concede defeat

- Mutahi claims Raila Odinga has refused to concede defeat because he is trying to save face

- The political pundit also insinuated that Raila could be hatching a plan to get power through backdoor means

Controversial Kenyan political activist Mutahi Ngunyi is back, this time taking issue with the National Super Alliance (NASA) flagbearer Raila Odinga.

Ngunyi has urged Raila Odinga to concede and let the country steer forward. Ngunyi,a revered political analyst also revealed why Raila Odinga is yet to concede defeat despite Uhuru Kenyatta being declared winner of the Presidential Election on Friday, August 11 2017.

According to Mutahi Ngunyi, the Opposition leader has not yet conceded defeat because he is suffering from a disease known as Samsonian blues.

Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi in an interview. Photo: CitizenTV

READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta issues tough warning in the wake of ongoing post-poll protests

In Mutahis own revelation,Samsonian blues is the time when the Biblical Samson was captured by the Philistines and to save face, he had to use his strength to bring down the temple with the aim of going down with everyone in the temple including himself.

Speaking in his weekly analysis on his YouTube channel, the Fifth Estate, Mutahi Ngunyi vehemently claimed Raila Odinga is in his lowest and suicidal moment and is ready to go down, but not alone, with Kenya.

READ ALSO: "We will protect you", govt tells NTV and Nation after NASA told its supporters to boycott them

Raila Odinga with Musalia Mudavadi at Bomas of Kenya. Photo: Nation

READ ALSO: British army soldier mysteriously dies in his girlfriend's house in Nanyuki

"I am fully aware that unsolicited advice is rude, but all the same I will give it. Number one, Raila has no option but to concede defeat. If he concedes defeat, he will save face locally and internationally. Similarly, if he regroups, he will maintain status quo and he will just be fine," Ngunyi says.

Ngunyi could not wrap up his analysis without revealing Railas probable plan. The political pundit insinuated that the Opposition leader may be hatching a secret plan to get power through backdoor means.

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"One of my biggest worries here is Raila's fascination with the military. In the past he has accused Uhuru Kenyatta of planning to install himself using the military. And the question we need to throw back to Raila is simple; Is he gone underground in search of a military solution to his defeat? And is the violence across the country part of this particular plan?'' he added.

Have something to add to this article? Send to news@tuko.co.ke

Waititu makes fun of NASA;

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Mutahi Ngunyi believes that Raila Odinga is destroying himself piece by piece following his refusal to concede defeat to Uhuru

- This comes a day after the political analyst also said the NASA leader wants to bring the whole country down with him

- He believes that the earlier Raila concedes defeat to Uhuru Kenyatta, the better for him

- Raila Odinga has stood his ground that he was rigged out by Uhuru, a move that has resulted in protests among his supporters

National Super Alliance (NASA) Presidential candidate Raila Odinga is on self destruction mission, analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has said as he commented on the current situation following announcement by IEBC that Uhuru Kenyatta had won a second term at State House.

Odinga is expected to make a major announcement on Tuesday, just two days after he held public rallies in Nairobi where he urged his supporters to boycott work on Monday eliciting sharp debate across the political divide.

This announcement, and Odinga's refusal to conceded defeat, given more weight by seasoned politician who is also Siaya Senator James Orengo, has elicited mixed reactions among Kenyans.

Odinga and his NASA brigade maintain that his victory was stolen. NASA has since published log sheets it claims are from the IEBC servers showing illegal but unsuccessful attempts by suspected hackers to gain access to it.

READ ALSO: Uhuru finally declared president, as Raila protests vote results

Raila Odinga shares a light moment with Uhuru Kenyatta in the past. Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi says Odinga is on a self destruction mission. Photo: Daily Nation

Odinga has pegged his argument on this, despite the IEBC dismissing the claims.

Odinga has lost in all his stabs at the Presidency and in all, he has claimed foul play sparking off violent protests. For instance, over 1,300 people were killed and thousands of others ejected from their homes after Odinga disputed the 2007 presidential results.

President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were among four others hauled to the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged with the violence. The cases against them collapsed.

And at the moment, tension continues to rise across the country, as Odinga maintains his victory was yet again stolen. Already, civil society organisations have reported that 24 people have been killed, by police, following the dispute.

READ ALSO: 10-year-old girl among those killed in Mathare shooting

Raila Odinga addressing his supporters in Mathare, Nairobi. Photo: Facebook/NASA

Police have however denied the claims explaining that only criminals have been neutralised.

Religious leaders and world leaders including UN chief have called on Odinga to conceded defeat, calm his supporters and end the raising tension in the country.

Mutahi Ngunyi also weighed in on the debate in his YouTube analysis 'The Fifth Estate' where he equated Odinga to the biblical Samason who pulled down the walls of a building killing all occupants and himself. Ngunyi opines that Odinga wants to go down with all Kenyans.

READ ALSO: Raila is exactly where Samson was and wants to go down with every Kenyan - Mutahi Ngunyi

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The Airports Authority has successfully carried out a simulation of a crash landing at Piarco.
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Investigators have found out that 366 soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed, 429 wounded and 300 captured during military operations near Ilovaisk in August 2014, according to a report by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

"The treacherous murder of 366 Ukrainian soldiers was carried out, 429 sustained various wounds, and 300 were captured. The Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered significant losses of weapons and military equipment worth almost UAH 300 million," the statement reads.

According to investigators, on August 29, 2014, Russian troops, following instructions from the command of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, opened fire with heavy weapons on the columns of Ukrainian servicemen, together with three captured Russian paratroopers.

According to the findings of the Security Service of Ukraine, intelligence agencies and the joint staff of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO), the critical ratio of Ukraine's military forces in the vicinity of Ilovaisk with the subunits of the Russian Armed Forces and representatives of the "DPR" and "LPR" terrorist organizations was: personnel - 1 to 18; tanks - 1 to 11; armored vehicles - 1 to 16; artillery - 1 to 15; Grad multiple rocket launchers - 1 to 24.

At the same time, the groups of the Russian Armed Forces along the eastern part of the state border of Ukraine included 35 battalion tactical groups, at least 45,100 servicemen, up to 160 tanks, 1,360 infantry fighting vehicles, 350 artillery units, 130 multiple rocket launchers, 192 combat aircraft, and 137 helicopters.

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Ukraine has always complied with all the assumed international obligations. Therefore, the enterprises of the Ukrainian defense and aerospace complex have never supplied weapons and military technologies to North Korea.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said this in his commentary, the press service of the National Security and Defense Council reports.

According to Turchynov, some foreign media started to spread false information about supplies of missile technologies designed at the Ukraines Yuzhmash machine-building plant to North Korea.

"This information has no grounds, it is provocative in content and has been most likely triggered by the Russian special services to cover their own crimes," Turchynov said.

He stressed that Ukraine considered the regime of North Korea to be "totalitarian, dangerous and unpredictable and supports all sanctions against this country." Turchynov added that "Ukraine has completely stopped to supply arms, military equipment and military technologies to Russia" since the beginning of Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2014.

"Ukraine has never supplied rocket engines or other missile technologies to North Korea. We believe that this anti-Ukrainian campaign was provoked by Russian special services to cover their participation in North Korean nuclear and missile programs," the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine summed up.

Earlier today, The New York Times reported that North Koreas success in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory Yuzhmash. The newspaper cited a study by Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and classified assessments by American intelligence agencies.

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The Republic of Macedonia is interested in importing grain, sunflower, sugar and oil from Kherson region.

Department of agro-industrial development of the Kherson Regional State Administration posted this on its Facebook page on Monday with reference to the information which Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Macedonia to Ukraine Stole Zmejkoski made public during his visit to Kherson region.

"Having met with the representatives of the Kherson Regional State Administration, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Macedonia to Ukraine Stole Zmejkoski held a meeting with representatives of business in the Kherson Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Mr. Zmejkoski said the Macedonian side is interested in importing grain, sugar, oil and sunflower from Ukraine, particularly from Kherson region," the department reports.

As noted, the ambassador identified during the meetings the possible areas of cooperation between Kherson region and Macedonia, including the development of mutually beneficial trade.

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Over the past six months Ukrainian producers have demonstrated a steady increase in their interest in trade with Canada.

The first secretary for economic affairs at the Ukrainian Embassy in Canada, Oleh Khavroniuk, stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"The interest of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in Canada has grown very rapidly over the last six months. In January this year alone, the number of applications from Ukrainian producers to the embassy exceeded their total number for the whole previous year," Khavroniuk said.

However, most queries are of a general nature, as Ukrainian businesses are only beginning to develop the Canadian market. "Most of the queries are of a general nature. [They want to know] how to find partners, what the Canadian market is, and so on. The first Ukrainian migrants arrived in Canada 125 years ago, and now Ukrainian entrepreneurs are opening this country to themselves in a new way," the diplomat said.

The free trade agreement between Ukraine and Canada officially came into force on August 1, 2017. According to the document, 98% of tariffs for Ukrainian goods sold to Canada were immediately canceled. For Canadian goods 72% of tariffs are immediately canceled, and duty-free exports will grow to 98% in the next seven years. The agreement also mutually opens the markets for public procurement. Certain sections of the document protect e-commerce and intellectual property.

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Trade in goods and services between Ukraine and Canada should grow by several times in the next few years.

The first secretary for economic affairs at the Ukrainian Embassy in Canada, Oleh Khavroniuk, stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"I'm confident that our trade should jump by at least two times in the next few years," he said.

In his opinion, the free trade agreement between the two countries, which has recently come into force, is intended not only to intensify trade in goods and services, but also to attract investments into Ukraine.

"The preliminary Canadian experience shows that mutual investments are doubling in the first year after the launch of free trade with other countries," the diplomat said.

He said that the free trade agreement "is not a single loan, but a possibility of long-term earnings for Ukrainian producers."

The free trade agreement between Ukraine and Canada officially came into force on August 1, 2017. According to the document, 98% of tariffs for Ukrainian goods sold to Canada were immediately canceled. For Canadian goods 72% of tariffs are immediately canceled, and duty-free exports will grow to 98% in the next seven years. The agreement also mutually opens the markets for public procurement. Certain sections of the document protect e-commerce and intellectual property.

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Militants launched 25 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.

The tensest situation was observed in Donetsk direction, where militants used mortars, grenade launchers and small arms to shell Ukrainian strongholds near the industrial area in Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk). ATO troops also came under enemy fire outside Verkhniotoretske (22km north-east of Donetsk), Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) and Nevelske (18km north-west of Donetsk).

In Luhansk direction, illegal armed formations fired at Ukrainian positions near Krymske (42.5km north-west of Luhansk), using 120mm mortars and grenade launchers.

In Mariupol direction, the enemy shelled Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk) and Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol). In addition, terrorists used mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to fire at residential districts of Marinka (35 km south-west of Donetsk). Fortunately, no civilians were injured.

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In response to Western sanctions, the Kremlin has continued to "play muscles," but this will not change the vector of Russia's movement to a total defeat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed that the State Duma (he introduced a respective bill) allow the use of air defense means on the borders of Belarus with the EU and Ukraine. All this looks like ratification of the protocol introducing amendments and additions to the agreement between Russia and Belarus on the joint protection of the external border of the Union State in the airspace sector and the creation of a unified regional air defense system of Russia and Belarus, dated February 3, 2009. The protocol was signed in Minsk on November 2, 2016.

The report, which is available on the Duma's website, does not help give a concrete assessment of the consequences of the step that can be made by Russian lawmakers. Maybe just this excerpt: "changes are made regarding the organizational and staff structure of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the order of the use of weapons and military equipment by those in charge of air defense while jointly performing combat duty tasks." Here we can see a hint of increasing the means of Russian air defense on the territory of Belarus and simplifying (that is, roughly speaking, without the consent of Belarus) the adoption of a decision on their application. And let's also note that the strengthening of Russian air defense in Belarus is simultaneous with preparations for large-scale Russian-Belarusian military exercises Zapad 2017. Perhaps it is an element of these exercises, an element that will not disappear after their completion.

However, it is enough for us to see an obvious thing: Russia is increasing its military presence on the territory of Belarus, near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. And let those "means of air defense" not deceive us. First, there is and there can be no clear division of weapons into defensive and offensive. If Russia's air defense missiles do not allow Ukrainian aircraft to take to the skies to attack an enemy that invaded from the territory of Belarus, then these missiles are no longer defensive. Secondly, the means of air defense are in need of ground-based protection, which means a reason (or cover) to deploy Russian ground forces on the Ukrainian-Russian border.

There is another obvious thing: Russia concentrates its troops in the very center of Europe - near the borders of Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania. And these are already the borders with NATO and the EU. And it does not matter under which "sauce" it is done (Zapad 2017 exercises). The aggressor always concentrates troops under the pretext of maneuvers. In addition, dozens of reports (with videos and photos) have recently been posted in social networks about the movement (mostly by rail) of Russian armored vehicles almost across the entire European territory of the Russian Federation.

How should the world and Ukraine react to all of this? We, of course, can once again recall the assurances of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, which he made in Kyiv at a meeting with our president less than a month ago, that "the territory of the Republic of Belarus, friendly to Ukraine, will never be used for aggressive actions against Ukraine, and the Ukrainian-Belorussian border will never be a border of war." Remember and sleep calmly. But this, of course, does not fit us. Mr. Lukashenko can be a sincere man, but, unfortunately, he does not decide whether there will be a war between Ukraine and Russia, and that the Ukrainian-Belarusian border was never the border of war depends not on the verbal assurances of anyone, be it the president of Belarus or Russia, but on the fact that there will be no Russian soldier at this border. And they are there, and tomorrow their number will be bigger.

We have no reason to suspect Ukraine's top ranking officials - political and military  of naivety, inability to see and take obvious things into account. And how they react to it is another topic, and we hope that it will be adequate.

For obvious reasons, NATO countries can feel much calmer than Ukraine. But they also prefer not to leave the "maneuvers" of Russian troops unanswered. NATO has already announced the intention to strengthen its military presence at the time of the Zapad 2017 exercises in the Baltic States, in particular by doubling (from four to eight) the number of fighter planes in Lithuania. And let's mention the announced plans of the United States for the deployment of its Patriot air defense systems in Estonia.

In general, the most important thing is that the concentration of Russian troops, in other words, Russia's "muscle game," is taking place against the background of anti-Russian sanctions tightened by the West. That is, through a demonstration of strength and intransigence Russia continues to respond to the whole world. However, nobody, by and large, is afraid of these demonstrations any longer. Yes, they beware, yes they do not want to bring the case to armed confrontation, but they will not fulfill the geopolitical interests of Russia and "forgive" its aggression. And any "maneuvers" can no longer break this downward trend for the Kremlin.

Yuriy Sandul. Kyiv
Ukraine has handed over to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) the information on the murder of Ukrainian military personnel near Ilovaisk in Donetsk region, according to a report published by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine following the investigation into the Ilovaisk tragedy.

"The main military prosecutor's office has submitted the information on collected evidence of war crimes (including the treacherous murder of Ukrainian military near Ilovaisk) to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to decide on the opening of criminal proceedings," the report says.

In addition, for use in the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, when supporting claims against Russia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine have received from the main military prosecutor's office the evidence of Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine and terrorist financing.

The Prosecutor General's Office noted that the long-term holding of judicial military expertise in investigating the Ilovaisk tragedy was caused by the objective need to examine an extremely large amount of secret documents on the reform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (2005-2014) and military documents on the anti-terrorist operation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as the need to establish and question a great number of witnesses and victims.

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The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will budget for the next year almost UAH 1.9 billion for the reform of school education.

Education and Science Minister of Ukraine Lilia Hrynevych said this in an interview with the Interfax news agency.

"The total sum, according to preliminary calculations, is UAH 1 billion 847 million 941,300. We submit this sum for consideration to the Finance Ministry. UAH 373 million 341,300 should be spent on textbooks, about UAH 600 million  on class equipment and materials for the work of students, approximately UAH 520 million  on retraining of teachers, UAH 54.6 million  on creation of the national electronic platform for the New Ukrainian School where the educational materials for schoolchildren and teachers will be stored. Another UAH 300 million is proposed to be used for expansion of a network of inclusive classes," Hrynevych said.

The Minister noted that funding for the introduction of a new standard of primary education was discussed with the Finance Ministry and did not depend on the adoption of a separate law in the parliament.

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Active chronic hepatitis is a syndrome in dogs that can have several different causes. The active chronic hepatitis consists of the inflammation of the liver tissues which in time become scar tissue (fibrosis), thus preventing the normal regeneration of the liver. There are some breeds of dogs which are more likely to develop active chronic hepatitis; females and middle-aged dogs are more at risk.

Symptoms of active chronic hepatitis in dogs

The parts of body affected by active chronic hepatitis are not only the liver and the bile but, progressively, the nervous system, the stomach and the intestines. Common symptoms of active chronic hepatitis in dogs include:

Lethargy

The dog loses his appetite, loses weight

Vomiting

Polydipsia (excessive drinking)

Polyuria (urinating in excess)

Diarrhea

The abdominal cavity becomes filled with fluid (ascites)

The dogs skin, gums and tongue get a yellow tinge (jaundice)

Tendency to bleed more

Causes of active chronic hepatitis in dogs

The primary causes of active chronic hepatitis are not known. The condition progresses because the immune system starts targeting the liver cells for reasons that can only be guessed and may include:

Heredity and breed, as some dog breeds are more prone to developing it than others.

Active chronic hepatitis is often associated with copper accumulation in the liver.

Drugs such as heartworm medication and anti-convulsants can also be a primary cause for active chronic hepatitis.

Less often, fungal, parasitic or bacterial infection are thought to be the triggers of this condition.

Treatment of active chronic hepatitis in dogs

The treatment of active chronic hepatitis in dogs aims to control the disease rather than cure it. The goals of medical treatment are eliminating the suspected causes, dealing with inflammation and other symptoms, and managing the possible complications (bleeding disorders, the accumulation of fluid in the abdomen, the ulcerating stomach or infections). Hospitalization will be necessary for more severe cases, until the patient is stabilized.

Fluid and electrolyte therapy is performed to fight dehydration due to vomiting.

Bile flow is helped with choleretics.

Anti-inflammatory treatment through corticosteroids is also given.

The water retention in the body is fought with diuretics.

To prevent formation of scar tissue (fibrotic tissue) in the liver, the dog can get cholchicine, a drug often used to treat human gout.

Protein and sodium restriction are imposed on the dogs diet, sometimes K vitamin supplements are recommended.

If an infection is suspected to have triggered the syndrome, antibiotics are prescribed.

Copper chelating drugs are prescribed if copper intoxication is suspected to be the cause.

Prognosis for active chronic hepatitis in dogs

If active chronic hepatitis has been caused by toxicity, the prognosis is fairly good. If the syndrome is immune-mediated, most dogs will have a maximum of 3 years left to live. Either way, the dog will most probably be on medication for the rest of his life, and you will need to take him for periodic examinations and tests. By Dr Ruan Du Toit Bester

Hope this info helps

Any questions please feel free to email us at info@rvcmacau.com

Till next week

Dr Ruan

Ask the Vet: Royal Veterinary Centre

Tel: +853 28501099, +853 28523678

Emergency: +853 62662268

Email: royalveterinary@gmail.com
The last of Crown Resorts Ltd. employees serving jail time in China for illegally promoting gambling was released, according to a statement from the company, closing the chapter on a saga that saw it retreat from international operations and halved its high-roller casino revenue.

Australian Jason OConnor, Crowns head of international high-roller operations, is the last of three Australian Crown employees to be freed after serving their sentences, the company said in a statement Saturday.

Were very pleased that our employees are being reunited with their families, John Alexander, executive chairman of Crown, said in a statement. Crown is deeply appreciative of the support provided by our legal counsel over the last few months and thanks the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Australian Government for their professionalism and assistance, he added.

In addition to OConnor, three Chinese nationals and a Malaysian national were sentenced to 10 months in prison, which took into account time they had already spent in detention since October. August 14 would be the 10-month mark since their detainment. Eleven others had been sentenced to nine months and were released last month. They could have faced a maximum of three years under Chinese law.

The arrests last October roiled the Melbourne-based company controlled by billionaire James Packer, and highlighted the fine line foreign casinos walk in courting customers from mainland China, where its illegal to gamble or promote gaming. The Chinese government wants to curtail hundreds of billions of dollars worth of outflow, some of which exit the mainland via betting operations.

This is the end of a long and arduous journey for Crown, said Sudhir Kale, the Gold Coast, Australia-based founder of GamePlan Consultants. The company has well and truly paid its dues by way of fines, huge legal costs, drop in market capitalization, and the emotional trauma experienced by its employees while in prison.

The impending release of Crown staff was first reported Friday by the Australian Financial Review, which did not cite a source.

Since the crackdown, the company has sold out of its Macau venture and closed most of its offices across Asia. Its VIP program-play turnover in the year ended June 30 slumped 49 percent to A$33.3 billion ($26 billion), dragging down revenue at its Melbourne and Perth resorts.

Packer, who quit as chairman in August 2015 and left the board the following December, returned this month as a director as Crown focuses on its domestic resorts, and the construction of a A$2 billion luxury hotel and casino in Sydney.

Other operators have learnt from Crowns example, and their marketing efforts in China will be a lot more sedate, said Kale.

Crowns shares fell 1.9 percent on Friday. After tumbling last year on news of the detentions in China, the stock recovered all its losses by June, only to slump again. Crown is now down 11 percent since mid-October. Bloomberg
Beside rows of rusting shipping containers, a decorative wrought iron fence surrounds Taqueria Mi Pueblo, one of the first family-run Mexican restaurants in southwest Detroit, Michigan.

Its owner, Jalisco-native Jose de Jesus Lopez, surveys the trees he planted and his ornamental roosters.

Everything was abandoned, a dump over there, he said, walking down Dix Street. When he first arrived as an undocumented immigrant in 1981, Lopez recalls a drug-addict-infested lot and overrun lawn.

Mexicantown, as the area is affectionately and marketably called today, is one of Metro Detroits most vibrant dining scenes for locals and tourists  and a model for other immigrant neighborhoods.

Landing destination

Like Lopez, many foreigners stumbled upon Detroit, viewing the city as an economically viable second landing destination  friendly to immigrants, but with cheaper housing and commercial space than traditional immigrant hubs like New York and San Francisco.

Through the 2008 recession and recovery, native-born residents fled. But immigrants kept coming, starting new businesses, hiring local residents and making their neighborhoods a safer place for children.

A June study by Global Detroit and New American Economy reveals that the citys immigrant population grew by 12.1 percent between 2010 and 2014, at a time when the citys overall population declined by 4.2 percent. Though the four-year increase in immigrants amounts to merely 4,137 individuals, the study claims the effects have been widely felt.

Watch: Beleaguered Detroit Relying on Immigrants to Revitalize City

Immigrants are leading in the citys recovery, said Steve Tobocman, director of Global Detroit, particularly in its neighborhoods like Mexicantown, in Banglatown, where new residents are moving in and helping to stabilize working-class communities by fixing up homes, opening up businesses, and creating more consumers.

Depopulation, Tobocman adds, remains Detroits biggest challenge moving forward, while immigrants are our best hope to rebuilding, especially on the neighborhood level.

No magic bullet

According to Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) and Fiscal Policy Institute, more than one-third of Detroit-area Main Street business owners were immigrants as of 2013.

But data measuring their economic contributions can be misleading, says Stanley Renshon, CUNY professor of political science.

Any economic activity is grabbed by economists as positive, Renshon told VOA. Yes, you increase the overall financial numbers of the country, but the people who benefit most from that are the immigrants themselves, and thats fine. We want them to prosper, but dont tell me that what youre doing is saving the country or the city or the town.

Detroits ongoing struggles, including a long history of political corruption and one of the highest murder rates in the country, cant be solved by new immigrants, he added.

Hurting American workers?

Last week, White House senior adviser for policy Stephen Miller announced the administrations support for an immigration bill that would cut legal immigration by half.

Their premise that less-skilled immigrants take away work opportunities from native-born Americans is an America first message intended to resonate with President Donald Trumps base in depressed rust belt towns like Detroit.

How is it fair, or right or proper that if, say, you open up a new business in Detroit, that the unemployed workers of Detroit are going to have to compete against an endless flow of unskilled workers for the exact same jobs? asked Miller during a White House press briefing Aug. 2.

Global Detroits Tobocman says Trumps proposed policies wont produce any new jobs and may cost the Michigan economy hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Trumps actions would choke] off a critical supply of talent, of investment, and of global connections that are critical to the future of Michigan, to us being a mobility capital for the world, Tobocman said.

Detroit suffered an unemployment rate of 28.4 percent during the great recession, but had rebounded to 7.8 percent in June.

Banglatown

Following the likes of Mexicantown, Metro Detroits second-most populous foreign-born community, from Bangladesh, hopes to follow suit and create a cultural tourist destination of its own: Banglatown.

You will hardly find any vacant spot right now, said Ehsan Taqbeem, founder of Bangladeshi-American Public Affairs Committee (BAPAC), driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee past South Asian restaurants, fabric and fish shops in Detroit and neighboring Hamtramck.

The value of the homes have gone up since [the recession], businesses have been thriving, and traffic has gone up tremendously, he said.

Unlike Mexicantown, Banglatown is a concept still in its early stages. There are no traditional rickshaws carrying tourists down Conant Avenue  at least not yet.

But Taqbeem, who runs an automotive retrofitting service, along with other local business owners, sees the benefit of being a branded community in a global-minded city.

Mahabub Chowdhury, part-owner of Aladdin Sweets & Cafe, found success in nourishing his neighborhood and patrons, a majority of whom are non-Bangladeshis. One regular customer, whom he describes as a nice American white person, calls him directly.

Sometimes his car is broken, and he calls us, Can you pick me up from my house? And we go to his house and bring him to our restaurant, Chowdhury said.

Believing in Detroit

In Mexicantown, Lopezs eyes well as he recalls his early days on a Jalisco ranch, before finding eventual success in Detroit.

My main dream was to be able to buy a truck for my dad, Lopez said. I worked all my life, and when I had the money, I didnt have my father anymore.

Now an American citizen, Lopez, a father of four, says he accomplished the American Dream by creating something that will outlive him and provide for the community long after he has passed.

What Detroit still needs, he said, is more people to call it home.

Thats happening little by little, Lopez said. The greatest changes wont happen overnight.

They happen slowly, and thats part of believing in oneself, believing in Detroit, he said.




Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday came to an agreement with his Laos counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith to withdraw troops from the border region in northern Stung Treng province where tensions have escalated in recent weeks.

On Friday Hun Sen issued an ultimatum to Laos to withdraw troops who were accused of encroaching on Stung Treng province's Siem Pang district.

In February, the Cambodian militarys construction of a road near the border sparked the dispute.

Now I ordered the relevant authorities to withdraw all the forces out of there and the latest will be tomorrow morning, Sisoulith told reporters after the meeting.

He added that the two leaders had a candid and friendly discussion.

Hun Sen, who had ordered troops deployed to the area as a countermeasure, welcomed the decision and responded by drawing the soldiers back.

I just ordered the military that mobilized yesterday to go back, he said, referring to the compromise as a huge victory for both sides.

On Friday, Hun Sen said he was out of patience with Laos, saying that Laos had failed to respond to a letter he sent on August 2 requesting the withdrawal of troops from Siem Pang.

At least 30 soldiers were thought to have trespassed on Cambodian territory since April and were allegedly there to stop Cambodian military engineers from building the road.

Chheang Vannarith, chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies, said the resolution of the dispute was a positive sign in reducing misunderstandings and unnecessary tensions.
U.N. human rights envoy Rhona Smith has met with the Cambodias justice minister, the governments human rights committee, and unionists during a routine fact-finding mission to the country.

According to justice spokesman Chin Malin, Smith expressed concerns to Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana over the use of pre-trial detention amid a wide-ranging anti-drugs campaign.

Malin said during talks with Vathana, Smith did not raise political issues for discussion.

What she was concerned about was the increase in pre-trial detention, meaning that temporary detention shouldnt happen in every case, so she wants to let convicts make bail to serve their punishment [in the community], he said.

Malin added that the government had decided to start a pilot community service project in Battambang province, adding that the project would be supported by the United Nations to avoid a negative backlash from the general public.

He added that the U.N. was also helping to improve the efficiency of court officials.

Smith, however, told reporters that she continued to have a lot of concerns about the progress of reforms in Cambodia.

Smith began her 10-day visit to Cambodia on Tuesday and is scheduled to meet with more government officials in the coming days.

Earlier during her visit, Smith met some 20 union leaders who expressed concerns over the labor rights situation in the country.

Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said the labor leaders had raised the controversial passage of the trade union law last year, which he said meant workers representatives no longer had the power to advocate for labor rights.

He also said that unionists were now routinely targeted in lawsuits for their work

Im facing seven lawsuits, he said. All the suits are related to my work assisting workers. In some cases, we didnt take part in protests or strikes, but we were accused of causing violence. Its very unjust.

A U.N. Spokesperson said: A number of areas of concern were raised, including issues relating to charges still pending against trade union leaders, new reporting obligations on the financial affairs of unions, and issues of ensuring representation of workers in disputes with companies.

Heng Sour, a labor spokesman, could not be reached for comment.

On the first day of her visit, Smith said she was concerned by the possibility of violence ahead of a general election scheduled for June after meeting with Keo Remy, head of the governments human rights committee.

In response to a question over threats of violence issued by senior officials, Smith said Remy had agreed that such threats were problematic and not helpful before elections.

However, Remy said that the most recent of such threats, when Vong Soth, social affairs minister, said opponents of the government could be hit with a bamboo stick, was not a threat, but rather a lesson in how the law works.
3 School children dressed as Hindu Lord Krishna, wait to perform during the celebrations ahead of the Janmashtami festival, which marks the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna in Ajmer, India.
Virginia Governor Terry McAulliffe held a moment of silence during a prayer vigil Sunday in Charlottesville for Heather Heyer - the woman killed when a man allegedly plowed his car into a crowd of counter protesters during violent clashes that erupted at a white nationalist rally.

A memorial of flowers, balloons, stuffed toys, and messages in chalk grew throughout the day in central Charlottesville.

Heyer was 32 years old and worked as a paralegal and a part-time waitress.

Alfred Wilson, a manager at the Miller Law Group where Heyer worked, said he would often find her sitting at her desk with her eyes filled with tears, crying over injustice and racism.

Heyer was a "very strong, very opinionated young woman," Wilson told interviewers, saying she "made it known to all that she was all about equality."

Heyer's job at the law office focused on helping financially-troubled people who were on the verge of being thrown out of their homes, having their cars taken away, or needed help with their medical bills.

Wilson spoke about how Heyer broke up with a boyfriend who was offended that she had black friends.

"Her life was not about hate," Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, said, adding that she was very proud of her daughter.

James Alex Fields, the 20-year-old Ohio man accused of killing Heyer and injuring 19 others, will make his first appearance in court Monday. He is facing charges of second degree murder among other counts.

Police say Fields could be spotted standing among a group of white supremacists moments before the deadly crash.

Fields' former high school history teacher, Derek Weimer, told various media outlets Sunday that Fields was a longtime Nazi sympathizer and an admirer of Adolf Hitler.

Weimer described a research paper Fields wrote as a "big lovefest for the German military and the Waffen-SS" and that he "really believed in that stuff."

Weimer said he tried to steer Fields away from this obsession with the Nazis, but admitted that he failed and said racism is "tearing up our country."

Fields' mother appeared to be in shock when she told a television interviewer that although she knew her son was going to Charlottesville, she did not think it had anything to do with white supremacy.

"I thought it had something to do with Trump," she said.

Virginia Governor McAuliffe also held a moment of silence for two Virginia state troopers who were on their way to Charlottesville to assist in quelling the clashes. They were killed when their helicopter crashed on Saturday.
The Dalai Lama says he is canceling his planned visit to Botswana due to exhaustion.

A statement on the website of the Tibetan spiritual leader says he has written to the president of the southern African nation expressing profound regret. The 82-year-old had been expected to visit tomorrow.

Chinas government, which has been known to pressure countries against hosting the Dalai Lama, had warned against the Botswana visit. The Dalai Lamas statement says he thanked Botswanas president and government for their unwavering principled stand to welcome him to their country, despite overwhelming pressure not to do so.

Neighboring South Africa in the past has denied the Dalai Lama a visa to visit.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, which he denies. He fled from Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

China doesnt recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile and hasnt held any dialogue with the representatives of the Dalai Lama since 2010.

The Tibetan leaders statement also says that during the past few weeks, His Holiness has found that carrying out his activities has left him unusually tired. It says doctors have warned against long journeys.

The Dalai Lama has made similar statements in recent years. AP
China announced Monday it is banning imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and other products from North Korea in line with new United Nations sanctions approved earlier this month.

Chinese leaders had pledged to fully enforce the sanctions, which China and the other members of the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted in response to North Korean ballistic missile tests.

The sanctions could block as much as $1 billion in North Korean exports.

China's Commerce Ministry said the new trade ban will be fully in place by September 5.

U.S. President Donald Trump and other members of his administration have urged China to use its position as North Korea's most important ally to pressure the country to give up its nuclear weapons program.

China has said it complies with U.N. resolutions, and on Monday the Chinese foreign ministry reiterated calls for restraint and the need to find a political resolution to the situation.
Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos says that no Latin America country would accept any form of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and that it should never even be considered.

Santos held a joint news conference Sunday in Cartagena with visiting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he will not rule out the possible use of the U.S. military to help restore democracy to Venezuela.

Recalling more than a century of U.S. military action throughout Latin America, Santos said no Latin leader wants "that phantom" to reappear.

He said a return to democracy in Venezuela must be peaceful, calling America a "continent of peace...let us preserve it as such."

Pence did not rule out using military force, but he did not directly talk about it, either.

The U.S. vice president said many options  including economic and diplomatic  were available to pressure the Maduro regime in Venezuela. He assured Santos and everyone that the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela "crumbles" and slides into dictatorship.

He said a failed state in Venezuela endangers the entire continent. He said Trump sent him to Latin America to marshal and consolidate regional support for the need to help the Venezuelan people.

Earlier Sunday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday" that Trump talked about the possibility of military action to "give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored." Venezuela called Trump's threat "reckless."

Colombia is the first stop on Pence's weeklong trip to to Latin America, which includes visits to Argentina, Chile, and Panama.

Pence and Santos also discussed cocaine and other drug trafficking and Colombia's so-far-successful peace agreement ending 50 years of war with FARC rebels.

In Chile, Pence will face questions over the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Chiles U.S. ambassador, Juan Gabriel Valdes, told the VOA Spanish service. "With or without the U.S., we will continue working in the Asia Pacific to push for an agreement that results in clear rules for everyone, Valdes said.

He added that his nation hopes the United States does not follow through on the threat to leave the Paris climate agreement because Chile believes that climate change is real.

U.S. trading partner Panama, home to the Panama Canal, established diplomatic ties with China in June, and Pences upcoming visit comes against the backdrop of a growing Chinese trade role in the region.
In a wood-paneled stateroom in the Philippine presidential palace, Rex Tillerson sat across from a leader who boasts of hunting down drug dealers to personally kill. Whether he'd confront his host for letting police kill thousands  and how forcefully - was being closely scrutinized for proof the Trump administration has any commitment to human rights.

When the secretary of state ultimately broached it last week with President Rodrigo Duterte, he backed into it, rattling off U.S. death tolls and addiction rates that tell the story of America's opioid crisis. Then he noted matter-of-factly that Americans have voiced concern about Duterte's approach to his country's drug war. He offered U.S. help, two of the meeting's participants said.

To Tillerson's critics, it was the latest underperformance by a secretary of state they see as abdicating traditional roles and aspirations of American diplomacy. To Tillerson, aides said, it was a concrete solution to a problem, rather than grandstanding for grandstanding's sake.

Since taking office in February, Tillerson has earned praise from President Donald Trump despite policy differences, top Cabinet members and even some Democrats, including those who take solace in the tempering role he plays in an otherwise frenetic and unpredictable administration.

Yet he's also stoked deep doubts about his leadership among many U.S. diplomats and the traditional foreign policy establishment, with a daily drumbeat of editorials like "Why Has Rex Tillerson Belly-Flopped as Secretary of State?" and "How Rex Tillerson is Wrecking the State Department."

And so difficult has Trump made Tillerson's job at times that it's sparked talk of a "Rexit," a potential early departure from the job. As with the histrionic headlines, Tillerson has brushed it all off, calmly telling reporters last month, "I'm not going anywhere."

This account of Tillerson's first six months draws on interviews with roughly two dozen State Department officials, foreign diplomats and other Tillerson associates. Some weren't authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In private conversations, Tillerson has taken issue with the approach of his predecessors, and especially John Kerry, whose high public profile, constant travel and impulse to plunge himself into every crisis became a running State Department joke.

Tillerson has told those in his orbit he can get more done if countries know they can negotiate in confidence without their positions being dissected in the press.

That argument hasn't caught on among the chorus of diplomats and foreign policy scholars who have piled on, claiming he's squandering the only real tool in his arsenal. After all, diplomats don't have weapons at their disposal, only words.

There are questions about why he took the job if he doesn't have a particular mark he hopes to leave on the world. In a Washington Post column entitled "Rex Tillerson is a Huge Disappointment," former Bush administration official Michael Gerson asked, "Who would want to be known as the secretary of state who retreated from the promotion of justice and democracy?"

Many past secretaries reached eagerly and early for Nobel Peace Prize-worthy achievements. Tillerson's most enthusiastic focus has been streamlining the State Department's inner workings, a project expected to extend the rest of the year or longer.

"I think he came to the job with a feeling that America was approaching foreign policy with too much of a missionary zeal. We were telling the world what they ought to do," said John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Tillerson served 11 years on the board. "He's not a missionary for grand causes. He's a pragmatist."

Two decades ago, as Tillerson was rising through Exxon's management, the oil company merged with Mobil to become the world's biggest, with revenues exceeding many countries' economies. Tillerson has told aides the State Department redesign is tougher than the merger ever was.

"This takes time," said R.C. Hammond, a senior Tillerson adviser. "We're not changing one light switch. We're rewiring an entire house."

On his first day as America's top diplomat, Tillerson spoke in the marbled lobby of the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building headquarters. He told assembled employees that he knew the election was "hotly contested" and that while all were entitled to their beliefs, it mustn't overwhelm "our ability to work as one team."

Much of the diplomatic corps was deeply suspicious of the new administration's worldview. An astonishing 900 signed a rare "dissent memo" - before Tillerson even arrived - objecting to Trump's initial travel ban on people from seven mainly Muslim countries.

Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO until just weeks earlier, represented to some the prospect of a sober, levelheaded "adult in the room" for Trump's national security decisions. As Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat, put it in Tillerson's confirmation hearing, "You don't strike me as someone likely to be naive."

Addressing State Department workers, Tillerson emphasized honesty, respect and accountability for all - themes borrowed from the Boy Scouts of America that he once led.

Then he started talking about efficiency. He predicted "changes to how things are traditionally done." The mood in the room changed.

"Change for the sake of change can be counterproductive, and that will never be my approach," Tillerson said. "But we cannot sustain ineffective traditions over optimal outcomes."

When, two months later, Tillerson embraced a 37-percent cut to foreign aid and diplomatic spending, lawmakers of both parties balked, accusing him of weakening diplomacy and U.S. influence. Trump's final proposed budget softened the cuts somewhat, but still calls for roughly one-third less money, fewer workers and consolidation of many offices.

Tillerson locked in his reputation as an under-the-radar secretary on his first trip abroad, when he told the one reporter allowed to travel with him he was "not a big media press access person" and said, "I personally don't need it."

In Texas, that approach paid off for Tillerson, and Exxon flourished. Corporations are rarely harmed by their CEOs avoiding the limelight.

But in Washington, the same approach has denied Tillerson the chance to define his own narrative  or to effectively calm the inevitable concerns when a workforce of 75,000 is told big cuts are coming.

"I will say this: It's very Rex," said Paul Tetreault, director of Washington's Ford's Theatre, where Tillerson was involved for a decade. "He is disciplined, he is methodical, he has a plan. You, me, we may not know what that plan is, but I think he does."

Still, the vacuum has been filled by a steady stream of rumors, leaks and reports about impending changes that, left largely unchallenged by Tillerson, have reached sky-is-falling proportions. Among them:

- That promotion of a just and democratic world may be removed from the State Department's mission statement. An early draft that relied on employee feedback didn't include it, but officials say the final version likely will.

- That Tillerson wants to move passports and visas to the Homeland Security Department. Outside consultants recommended it, but Tillerson and Deputy Secretary John Sullivan oppose the move.

- That a micromanaging Tillerson has taken back all authorities previously delegated to subordinates. In fact, Tillerson rescinded a few, left most in place and issued a dozen-plus other new ones.

"There are elements of truth in some of these stories," Sullivan, Tillerson's deputy, said. "But then they're twisted in a way that makes it sound as though the secretary is out of touch, mismanaging, whatever. I see him, when he's in town, three or four times a day. The guy is committed to the mission."

On one critique, even Tillerson agrees.

So slow has Trump's administration been to staff the State Department that nearly the entire upper echelon of assistant secretaries who oversee specific regions and functions is vacant. Foreign embassies, reluctant to publicly criticize Tillerson, privately complain they have no point person- or only an "acting" official with limited authority.

"No," Tillerson said last month when asked if he's satisfied with the pace of hiring. "I'd like it to go faster."

The empty offices are due in part to Trump, in part Tillerson. While political spats with the White House have stalled some of Tillerson's preferred picks, in some cases he's leaving positions vacant because they might be eliminated or combined with other posts in the overhaul.

Many "special envoys" and issue-specific offices are expected to be merged into related State Department bureaus. That's sparked concern among some lawmakers and special interest groups but also enjoys support from some diplomats who have long complained about a notoriously unwieldy bureaucracy.

No secretary before Tillerson has faced the unique challenge of working for a president like Trump. So often does Trump contradict or undermine him that foreign diplomats have struggled to determine when Tillerson truly speaks for his boss.

No sooner had Tillerson tried to calm the nation by downplaying prospects for a North Korea military conflict than Trump reaffirmed his "fire and fury" threat and boasted about U.S. nuclear weapons.

But Trump also defends Tillerson, saying Friday they were "totally on the same page." Tillerson often downplays signs of incongruity between their messages, and on North Korea, Tillerson says boss was merely "trying to support our efforts by ensuring that North Korea understands what the stakes are."

There have been similar divisions over Qatar, Iran and the Paris climate accord.

In the Cabinet, it's Tillerson who's made the most concerted effort to translate Trump's "America First" mantra into cohesive policy. In a May speech, Trump said alliances remain critical but that as the world changed economically and militarily over the last two decades, things grew "out of balance" and no longer serve U.S. interests as well.

What Tillerson said next fueled growing concerns that traditional values of human rights, democracy and global well-being were falling away under Tillerson and Trump. The secretary said America's values are not its policies, and that forcing values on others too heavily "really creates obstacles" for U.S. interests.

Tillerson's aides argue he's actually promoting those values more effectively than his predecessors, by using a "light touch" and offering specific solutions or help rather than issuing demands or self-righteous lectures. In each case, aides said, Tillerson emphasizes why doing the right thing advances another country's self-interests.

Six months in, Tillerson presides over a State Department deeply uneasy about its future, but still hopeful he'll lead American diplomacy more successfully than the panicked editorials predict.

Insigniam, a consulting firm Tillerson hired for the department's redesign, warned in a 110-page report that prolonged uncertainty would have negative repercussions. Tillerson says he's mindful of that but hopes the uncertainty will ebb as the redesign takes shape.

"It's to be expected that we will go through some morale issues early on," Tillerson said this month. But, he added, "I cannot change what we're doing from a policy standpoint, if that's what's behind people's unhappiness."
The former head of Mexico's state-owned oil company, a key campaign adviser to President Enrique Pena Nieto, has denied accusations that he took bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.



Emilio Lozoya said Sunday via Twitter that he was never corrupt and suggested the allegations were made by executives seeking to reduce their own sentences in Brazil.



His lawyer Javier Coello Trejo said on Radio Formula on Monday that "we will prove that Emilio Lozoya did not receive a single cent of those supposed $10 million that they paid as a bribe.''



The Brazilian newspaper O Globo said Sunday it had obtained statements made by former Odebrecht's director in Mexico Luis Alberto de Meneses Weyll to investigators. De Meneses Weyll said that from 2012 to 2014, Odebrecht paid Lozoya $10 million to win a contract for work on a refinery in central Mexico. Lozoya left Pemex last year.



Mexican investigative media collaborative Quinto Elemento Lab and anti-corruption nonprofit Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity also reported they have prosecution documents detailing payments to offshore accounts allegedly linked to Lozoya. The authenticity of the documents could not be immediately confirmed.



Mexico's Attorney General's Office said in a statement that it did not have all of the information from Brazilian investigators, but would pursue the case to its ultimate consequences.



It noted that Odebrecht and another company, Braskem, had pleaded guilty in federal court in New York in December 2016 to paying bribes in a number of countries, including $10,500,000 to Pemex officials.



The Attorney General's Office said it had already taken statements from a number of Pemex executives as part of its own investigation. Coello, Lozoya's lawyer, said that his client had offered to give a statement, but the agency had still not scheduled him to come in.



When the alleged payments began in 2012, Lozoya was an adviser to Pena Nieto's campaign and a leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Firefighters battled more than 90 forest fires across Greece on Monday, an outbreak fed by dry winds and hot weather that saw blazes burning near Athens, in the Peloponnese, and on the Ionian islands of Zakynthos and

Kefalonia.

The fire near Athens was burning unchecked for a second day, damaging dozens of homes. It had started in Kalamos, a coastal holiday spot some 45 km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, and spread overnight to three more towns. A state of emergency was declared in the area.

On Zakynthos, an island popular with foreign tourists, several fires continued to burn for a fourth day and authorities declared a state of emergency. One minister said those fires had been set deliberately.

"It's arson according to an organised plan," Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, who is the MP for Zakythnos, told state TV when asked to comment on the dozen fires burning on the island. "There is no doubt about it."

It is not clear what caused the fires, and no investigation has begun into possible arson. Late July and August often see a outbreaks of forest and brush fires in Greece, where high temperatures help create tinder-box conditions.

Near Athens, authorities ordered a precautionary evacuation of two summer camps and homes in the area and evacuated a monastery after flames reached its fence on Monday. Hundreds of Kalamos residents fled, heading to the beach to spend the night.

"It was a terrible mess, that's what it was. You could see homes on fire, people running, people desperate, it was chaos and the fire was very big," a resident told Reuters TV.

Andreas Theodorou, a local councillor, said the blaze had damaged "several dozens of homes."

"Help did not arrive fast enough, and if you don't stop a forest fire so large as soon as it breaks out, it's very hard to put it out," he said.

The fire brigade said rugged terrain dotted with small communities made the fire fighting difficult.

In the Peloponnese region of Ilia, the site of Greece's worst fires in 2007, which killed more than 70 people, blazes broke out in three areas on Monday, prompting the evacuation of a village.
The posters advertising this past Saturday's protest in Charlottesville, Virginia promised to Unite the Right. The slogan acknowledges that white nationalist groups who oppose the removal of the statue of Civil War General Robert E. Lee from a park in the college town have different agendas and priorities.

Here is a look at some of the terms used to describe those present at the deadly rally, why they were there, and what they advocate.

'Unite the Right'

White supremacist

A person who believes the white race is inherently superior to other races. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization, says white supremacy is a historically-based system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white people and nations of the European continent to maintain and defend a system of wealth, power and privilege.

Alt-right

Currently embraced by some white nationalists and white supremacists among others, the term describes ideologies emphasizing restricting immigration, strict law and order, limited government and the superiority of Western culture. Those described as alt-right do not necessarily agree with the basic democratic ideal that all members of society deserve equal rights.



KKK or the Knights Party

The Ku Klux Klan has a long history of violence and is considered by some groups to be the oldest of American hate groups. Historically black Americans have been the Klan's primary target, but the group has also attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics.

The third wave of KKK groups was founded by David Duke in 1975, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan with the idea to put a different kinder, gentler face on the Klan. The group still believes that non-whites must conduct themselves according to Christian principles. They also sought to recognize that race mixing is wrong. It will be a privilege to live under the authority of a compassionate white Christian government, according to its website. The Knights Party, as they call themselves, say in the years to come, they will be recognized by the American people as the white rights movement.

Neo-Nazis or American Nazi Party

This group wants the union of all Aryans in North America. On their website, it says the Aryan population should be free in America and there must be an all-White National Socialist America; an America in which our children and our grandchildren will play and go to school with other white children; an America in which they will date and marry other young people of our own race; an America in which all their offspring will be beautiful, healthy white babies. The American Nazi Party states there ought to be a United States where all aspects our society, whether cultural, social, business or political, should be free of alien, Jewish influence; an America in which White people are the sole masters of our own destiny.

Neo-Confederate

This term describes people who maintain the American Civil War never ended. They see themselves as members of a new Confederate Army still intent on separating the southern states from the union.

Traditional Workers Party

The Traditionalist Worker Party members believe in localism and secessionism. The group calls the United States far too large, diverse, and infested with lobbyists and oligarchs for realistic solutions to come from a centralized, top-down approach to solving political problems. The group wants transfer of power and resources from the corrupt and unaccountable federal government to community and regional leaders who stand for traditional values, strong families, and revived cultures.

Groups opposing the 'Unite the Right' demonstration

Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) guiding principle, according to its website, is based on working towards the validity of black life. The group was founded in 2012 after the shooting death of African American teen Trayvon Martin. The movement says it goes beyond the narrow nationalism and its fight for equality is not prevalent within black communities.

BLM says it affirms the lives of black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, black-undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all black lives along the gender spectrum.

Antifa

Antifa groups lack organization and are considered not widespread throughout the country. The Economist reported lack of coordination among groups, along with the endorsement of violence, does not make Antifa appealing to a larger audience.

These groups are usually against everything that portrays or defends homophobia, racism, sexism, and sometimes capitalism. But a defining characteristic of Antifa is that they aim to oppose fascism by any means necessary, The Economist reports, including the use of violence, which can end up in violent confrontations with right-wing extremists and law enforcement officers.
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah on Sunday dismissed the prospect of tougher U.S. sanctions against his group, which is backed by Iran, and said the U.S. administration had no way to harm it.

"The American administration, with all available and possible means, will not be able to damage the strength of the resistance," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address to mark the anniversary of the end of Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel.

Nasrallah said Lebanon was being subjected to intimidation and threats over Hezbollah - which is part of the Beirut government but classified as a terrorist group by Washington - and alleged that Lebanese officials had been told that Israel could launch a war.

European and American officials had warned them "during diplomatic meetings and international visits ... if you don't do this, Israel will launch a war on Lebanon, and if Hezbollah doesn't do this, Israel will launch a war on Lebanon", Nasrallah said. He did not spell out what had been asked of Lebanon or Hezbollah.

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a well-armed Shi'ite movement, have risen this year. Nasrallah has played down the prospect of a war while simultaneously warning Israel against a conflict.

Trump last month called Hezbollah a "menace" to the Lebanese people and to the entire region during a news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.

U.S. lawmakers last month introduced legislation seeking to increase sanctions on Hezbollah by further restricting its ability to raise money and recruit and by increasing pressure on banks that do business with it, though it was not clear when or if it would come to a vote.

Officials in Lebanon have raised concerns that any widening of the U.S. sanctions could damage their banking industry.
Iraq's Shi'ite militias announced on Monday they will participate in the next major battle against the Islamic State group after the Iraqi forces' victory in Mosul last month.



The Shi'ite militias did not fight in the urban part of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, but were key in clearing far-flung villages of IS and capturing supply lines in the desert west of Mosul toward Iraq's border with Syria.



The spokesman for the government-sanctioned umbrella  known as the Popular Mobilization Forces or PMF and mostly made up of Shi'ite militias  says the participation of the militiamen is "essential" in the upcoming fight for the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul. About 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Syrian border, Tal Afar was once home to both Shiites and Sunni ethnic Turkmen.



"Today we want to speak loud and clear that [the PMF] are actively involved in Tal Afar military operations and will participate in all areas where operations are taking place," Ahmed al-Asadi told reporters in Baghdad.



In past fights against IS in Iraq, including the battles for the cities of Tikrit and Fallujah, the Shi'ite militias were accused of sectarian killings and other abuses against minority Sunnis. They acknowledge some abuses may have occurred but say those responsible have been disciplined.



Monday's announcement may increase tensions between Iraq and neighboring Turkey.



Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has repeatedly warned that military operations in and around Mosul should not lead to any demographic changes on the ground, reflecting concerns that once territory is liberated from IS, Iraqi Kurdish or Shi'ite forces may push out Sunni Arabs or ethnic Turkmen.
Kenyas opposition leader called on people to stay home Monday to protest the results of last week's election. Some have heeded the call, but many others returned to work, despite uncertainty about what the opposition will do next.

After a week of mostly empty streets, Kenyas capital city is coming back to normal. Traffic is flowing, and people are going back to work.

That does not mean the dispute over the August 8th presidential election is over. The opposition says the election was rigged and has refused to concede defeat after incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner with 54 percent of the vote.

The announcement of the presidential results was followed by a protest in some parts of Nairobi and western regions that are strongholds of Kenyatta's main challenger, opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Slum areas in Nairobi like Mathare have witnessed much of the violence.

Some youth gather in groups to discuss the election and the future of the opposition.

Odinga visited the neighborhood on Sunday and called on his supporters to stay away from work in protest.

Kenyan Opposition: They want to steal our victory and again they come to kill our people

Thirty-five-year old John Mark has refused to open his welding business.

I want to know what he will tell us tomorrow, if Raila tells me to open my business I will do so, but also I would like him to tell me where my vote is and what he intends to do, he said.

Tense situation

Unlike Mark, Steven Odhiambo has opened his food kiosk in Mathare.

He says business has not been good since Uhuru was announced [the] winner and his customers are afraid to come. He adds there are those who come in, but will run again because of continuing battles between the police and demonstrators, and if they go out they are beaten by police.

The opposition says more than 100 protesters have been killed by the police across the country since the election. The security agencies have denied the accusations, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said 24 people had been killed.

President-elect Kenyatta said the election is over and the majority of Kenyans have returned to work. He called for his opponents to accept the outcome and for the aggrieved to pursue their cases in legal ways.
A group of legal scholars is urging President Donald Trump to keep a program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation and is outlining a legal argument to maintain it.

Around 100 law professors and immigration attorneys are scheduled Monday to send Trump an open letter arguing the president has the legal authority to preserve the Obama administration program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Michael Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center and Santa Fe, New Mexico, resident, told The Associated Press the letter details why the program, which has helped around 750,000 immigrants, is legal.

"It's a very successful program, and we layout the legality," said Olivas, one of the authors of the letter. "It is not unconstitutional as some have suggested."

Federal courts have ruled the president can use "prosecutorial discretion" to give certain immigrants, like these young migrants, temporary protective status, the scholars said.

The Trump administration has said it still has not decided the program's fate.

A group of Republican attorneys general has called on the Trump administration to phase out the program. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others have threated to amend a district court case to challenge the DACA program unless the Trump administration acts to phase it out.

Meanwhile, 20 Democratic attorneys general led by Xavier Becerra of California are asking Trump to keep the program.

Last month, then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told Hispanic lawmakers that the program is likely illegal, though he personally supports it.

The program gives work permits to young people brought to the U.S. as children.

Trump pledged as a candidate to immediately end the program. But as president, he has said those immigrants will not be targets for deportation.

He said his administration is more interested in deporting criminals.
Facebook anonymously launched a new photo-sharing app in China in a new effort to make inroads in the worlds most populous country.

Chinas ruling Communist Party controls internet traffic across the countrys borders and tries to keep the public from seeing thousands of websites including Facebook.

The app, called Colorful Balloons, was launched in China earlier this year and does not carry Facebooks name. Facebook confirmed Saturday that it launched the app.

The social media companys connection to the app was first reported Friday by The New York Times, which said it was released in China through a separate local company called Youge Internet Technology.

The launch of the app comes as China is cracking down on technology that allows web surfers to evade Beijings online censorship.

Last month, users of Facebooks WhatsApp messaging service, which normally operates freely in China, were no longer able to send images without using a virtual private network. That came amid official efforts to suppress mention of the death of Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate.

Chinas biggest internet service provider, China Telecom Ltd., sent a letter to corporate customers last month saying that VPNs, which create encrypted links between computers and can be used to see sites blocked by Beijings web filters, would be permitted only to connect to a companys headquarters abroad. The move could block access to news, social media or business services that are obscured by Chinas Great Firewall.

Chinese authorities have long blocked Facebook, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, arguing that foreign social media services operating beyond their control pose a threat to national security. Alexandra Olson, New York, AP
When Moina Shaiq realized even her friends were scared to ask her about her religion for fear of offending her or sounding uneducated, she put an advertisement in a California newspaper: "Questions and answers about being Muslim."

The ad offered ideas for questions: Are women oppressed in Islam? What is the Islamic view of terrorism? How does Islam view other religions?

She set up shop at a coffee house in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont, hoping for good attendance, but brought her laptop to do some work in case no one showed. To her surprise, about 100 people turned out that day last year, and her "Meet a Muslim" program was born.

"It was over overwhelming," said Shaiq, a mother of four and grandmother. "Fremont is so diverse, you will see women in hijab on the streets all the time. I didn't think people here would be interested or even need to know about Muslims."

Shaiq has since spoken about being Muslim and answered questions at dozens of libraries, pizza parlors and coffee shops in the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently expanded Meet a Muslim to churches, service clubs and private homes, and traveled to Arizona and Atlanta with the program.

She gives the talks once or twice a week on her own time and her own dime to break down stereotypes.

Similar programs emerged after 9/11, when many Muslims felt the need to engage with their fellow Americans to dispel negative perceptions of their faith. They've seen a resurgence with a recent uptick in anti-Muslim crimes.

Earlier this year, for instance, Muslim and former U.S. Marine Mansoor Shams traveled the country with a sign that read "I'm a Muslim and a U.S. Marine, Ask Me Anything." In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mona Haydar and her husband set up a booth outside a library in 2015 with coffee, doughnuts and a sign that stated "Ask a Muslim." Other such events have taken place on U.S. college campuses.

Shaiq said she started her program to educate people about her faith and culture while addressing people's misconceptions and stereotypes.

She explains the importance of the hijab (head scarf) or niqab (face covering), the differences between Sunnis and Shias (the two main sects of Islam), the rights of women in Islam, and what it's like to be an American Muslim today.

At a recent Rotary club meeting in Fremont, a man asked how she thinks people can combat Muslim extremism.

"This is where you start," Shaiq said. "You understand what the faith is."

Recent anti-Muslim incidents across the U.S. include arson attacks, vandalism, harassment and school bullying. In May, authorities in Portland, Oregon, say a man killed two men and wounded a third after they tried to stop his anti-Muslim tirade.

Shaiq herself has faced threats at her events. One man in Atlanta warned he would "slit her throat" if she said something he didn't like. He listened to the discussion, never asked a question and then left.

"That was scary," Shaiq said.

Muslim leaders consider the incidents part of a deeply alarming trend that came to the forefront in last year's presidential election with far-right activists portraying Islam - and all Muslims - as a threat.

They see echoes of these far-right views in President Donald Trump's efforts to ban entry into the U.S. from six Muslim-majority countries and in his claims of dangers posed by immigrants and Muslim refugees. Trump has said his policies are critical for protecting national security.

Initiatives like Meet a Muslim are important at "this time of heightened fear and xenophobia," said Zainab Arain, who works to monitor and combat Islamophobia with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Muslim advocacy group. "An effective way to push back against that, especially at a local level, is to gather people and have them get to know one another."

Some American Muslims, however, have struggled to see the benefit of these efforts when they see community members having the same conversations they had almost 16 years ago.

"It's just not a good use of time. The likelihood of changing a bigot's mind is so low," said Asha Noor, a racial justice activist based in Detroit.

Instead, Noor and other critics say the focus should be on policy change.

For Shaiq, her program is about sharing a message of love, compassion and peace.

Attendance at her talks spikes following news events that include Muslims, and the discussion often gets spirited, even tense and angry.

"I want to proactively educate my fellow Americans that Muslims are humans just like they are," Shaiq said. "They have the same needs as anyone else."
The chief executives of Intel Corp, Merck & Co Inc and Under Armour Inc. resigned from U.S. President Donald Trumps American Manufacturing Council on Monday, following Trumps initially tepid response to weekend violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

I resigned from the council to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues..., Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said in a blog post.

Kenneth Fraizer, the chief executive of drugmaker Merck and an African-American, said he left the advisory council because of the presidents reaction after the violence between white supremacists and counter protesters. Frazier cited the need to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

The AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions that represent12.5 million workers, said it was considering pulling its representative on the committee.

Violent weekend, tepid response

After the white nationalist rally turned deadly Saturday, Trump initially said that many sides were to blame. On Monday, in a statement, Trump denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan as criminals and thugs, bowing to mounting political pressure as critics assailed him for not singling out white supremacists.

The CEO of Under Armour, Kevin Plank, announced his resignation from the council in a Twitter posting.

We remain resolute in our potential and ability to improve American manufacturing, said Plank. However, Under Armour engages in innovation and sports, not politics.

Plank was criticized last winter by some of Under Armours biggest stars over his support of Trump, comments that basketball star Stephen Curry echoed.

The demonstration in Charlottesville by hundreds of white nationalists took a deadly turn Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counter protesters and killed one person.

Americas leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal, Frazier said in a statement announcing his resignation.

As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism, he said.

Trump responded shortly later in a tweet, saying, Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from Presidents Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Trump doubled down on his attack later in the day, tweeting that Merck is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back &LOWER PRICES!

Others execs left other panels

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents the pharmaceutical industry and lobbies on its behalf in Congress, declined to offer a statement of support for Frazier or to comment on Trumps reaction.

The industrys silence comes as Trump is finalizing an executive order on drug prices that would relax industry regulation and contains measures that, some say, would protect existing drug prices or even increase them.

Individually, at least one CEO, John Maraganore of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, tweeted his support, saying he was proud to stand with leaders like Ken Frazier.

Several executives from top U.S. companies have previously stepped down from a number of presidential advisory councils in protest to Trump policies.

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney Co CEO Robert Iger left the Presidents Strategic and Policy Forum, a business advisory group, in June, after Trump said he would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Musk also left the manufacturing council.

Former Uber Technologies Inc CEO Travis Kalanick quit the business advisory council in February amid pressure from activists and employees who opposed the administrations immigration policies.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence encountered resistance from Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Sunday over President Donald Trump's threat to use military action in Venezuela.



Speaking at a joint news conference with Santos in Cartagena, Pence did not rule out using military force, but he did not directly talk about it either.

Pence, however, told the Colombian president that the US would much prefer what he called a "peaceable" solution for Venezuela.

He said there are many options available to pressure the Maduro regime in Venezuela, including increasing economic and diplomatic pressure. Pence assured Santos that the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela "crumbles" and slides into dictatorship.

He said a failed state in Venezuela endangers the entire continent. Pence said Trump sent him to Latin America to marshal and consolidate regional support for the need to help the Venezuelan people.

Santos said no Latin America country would accept any form of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and that it should never even be considered. Recalling more than a century of U.S. military action throughout Latin America, Santos said no Latin leader wants "that phantom" to reappear.

He said an illegal constituent assembly is killing democratic institutions in Venezuela, it is the coup de grace we support all the measures adopted by the U.S. government, and we will support additional measures, adding that we always look for a negotiated solution and, above all, a peaceful solution.

Santos said America is a continent of peace. It is the land of peace. Let us preserve it as such.

Two days after U.S. administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela, Trump said Friday that a military option against Venezuela was on the table, describing the situation there as a "dangerous mess." Venezuela called Trump's threat "reckless."

Earlier Sunday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that Trump talked about the possibility of military action to "give the Venezuelan people hope and opportunity to create a situation where democracy can be restored.

Pence and Santos also discussed drug and cocaine trafficking and Colombia's so far successful peace agreement ending 50 years of war with FARC rebels.

Pence's week-long trip to Latin America, with the first stop in Colombia, includes visits to Argentina, Chile, and Panama.

In Chile, Pence will face questions over the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Chiles U.S. ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes told the VOA Spanish service. With or without the U.S., we will continue working in the Asia Pacific to push for an agreement that results in clear rules for everyone, Valdes said.

He added that his nation hopes the United States does not follow through on the threat to leave the Paris climate agreement because Chile believes that climate change is real.

U.S. trading partner Panama, home to the Panama Canal, established diplomatic ties with China in June, and Pences upcoming visit comes against the backdrop of a growing Chinese trade role in the region.
Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the country on Sunday, saying they felt compelled to counteract the white supremacist rally that spiraled into deadly violence in Virginia.

The gatherings spanned from a planned march to President Donald Trumps home in New York to a candlelight vigil in Florida. In Seattle, police made arrests and confiscated weapons as Trump supporters and counter-protesters converged downtown.

Some focused on showing support for the people whom white supremacists condemn. Other demonstrations were pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments, the issue that initially prompted white nationalists to gather in anger this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Still other gatherings aimed to denounce fascism and a presidential administration that organizers feel has let white supremacists feel empowered.

People need to wake up, recognize that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done, said Carl Dix, a leader of the Refuse Fascism group organizing demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and other cities. This cant be allowed to fester and to grow because weve seen what happened in the past when that was allowed.

It has to be confronted, said Dix, a New Yorker who spoke by phone from Charlottesville Sunday afternoon. Hed gone there to witness and deplore the white nationalist rally on a Saturday that spiraled into bloodshed.

In Seattle, hundreds of demonstrators and counter-protesters converged downtown. Police say they have made arrests and confiscated weapons. Police also ordered crowds at one downtown intersection to disperse.

Blocks away, a conservative pro-Trump group was rallying at Westlake Park in downtown. The rally organized by the conservative pro-Trump group known as Patriot Prayer  and a counter protest aimed at standing against hate  were previously planned for Sunday. Patriot Prayer has held similar events throughout the Pacific Northwest and they have been met by counter protests.

A barricade separated the groups of protesters as police officers stood by dressed in black riot gear. At one intersection, police ordered crowds to disperse.

The Seattle Times reported that officers used pepper spray on some marchers. It wasnt immediately clear how many people had been arrested.

In Denver, several hundred demonstrators gathered beneath a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in City Park and marched about two miles to the state Capitol. In Fort Collins, Colorado, marchers chanted Everyone is welcome here. No hate, no fear. One demonstrators sign said, Make racists ashamed again.

Other protests were planned later in the day in other places, including candlelight vigils in Winter Haven, Florida, and near the New Hampshire Statehouse. Other demonstrations centered on confederate statues on the state Capitol grounds in West Virginia and in Tampa, Florida; officials in Tampa have voted to relocate theirs.

The Florida chapter of the group Save Southern Heritage released a statement Sunday expressing horror and disbelief over the deaths in Charlottesville, Virginia, but also blaming news reports for renewed attacks on Floridas historical assets, including the Tampa Confederate war memorial.

Charlottesville descended into violence Saturday after neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered to take America back and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia college town, and hundreds of other people came to protest the rally. The groups clashed in street brawls, with hundreds of people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and beating each other with sticks and shields.

Eventually, a car rammed into a peaceful crowd of anti-white-nationalist protesters, killing a woman. A state police helicopter monitoring the events crashed into the woods, killing two troopers. In all, dozens of people were injured. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer, who attended the rally, denied all responsibility for the violence. He blamed the counter-protesters and police.

Trump condemned what he called an egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, a statement that Democrats and some of the presidents fellow Republicans saw as equivocating about who was to blame. The White House later added that the condemnation includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

Some of the white nationalists at Saturdays rally cited Trumps victory, after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric, as validation for their beliefs. Some of the people protesting Sunday also point to the president and his campaign, saying they gave license to racist hatred that built into what happened in Charlottesville.

For those who questioned whether oh, dont call it fascism ... this should resolve those issues, Reiko Redmonde, an organizer of a Refuse Fascism protest planned in San Francisco, said by phone. People need to get out in the streets to protest, in a determined way.
Radesh Singh's grandfather was just 11 years old when he left his village in India's Punjab province to move to Peshawar, in the far northwest of the country on the border with Afghanistan.

The year was 1901: The British ruled the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan wasn't even a glimmer in the eye of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Peshawar held the promise of work and adventure.

Singh's grandfather would never return to his village, not even in 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided into majority Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, generating one of the largest migrations in modern history and unleashing a brutality that left few untouched as mobs of Hindus and Muslims turned on each other.

Singh's family is neither Hindu nor Muslim but Sikh, a religious minority in both countries. In the 70 years since Partition they have waged a secessionist uprising in India demanding outright independence for India's Punjab state where they dominate. They have felt increasingly less at home on either side of the border, but particularly so in recent years in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan as they too have become victims of local Taliban violence.

Singh said poverty kept his grandfather in Peshawar, located at the foot of the famed Khyber Pass and dominated by fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen.

"It's not easy to start over at zero when you have very little," he said.

The hostility in the immediate aftermath of 1947 was brief in the northwest, said Singh. It was followed by decades of peace. The decision to stay in the new country now called Pakistan seemed like a good choice at the time. The Sikhs had lived peacefully for centuries alongside their Pashtun Muslim countrymen.

After all, said Singh, Sikhs had a glorious history in the northwest. For a time in the 18th century they oversaw a dynasty. Their capital was Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. It was a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, who rebuilt Peshawar's infamous Bala Hisar Fort, an imposing walled fortress that some historians say is as old as the city itself, which traces its origins back more than 2,000 years.

Today Sikhs are among Pakistan's smallest minorities. They are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colorful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh. The CIA Factbook estimates that 3.6 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people are non-Muslims, including Sikhs, Christians and Hindus.

Until 1984, Singh said, Pakistan's Hindus and Sikhs lived as one in northwest Pakistan. Their children married, they even worshipped together. But then India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

"They (Hindus) cut all relations with us. They said Pakistani Sikhs are like all Sikhs everywhere. No difference. They said, 'From now on, we will be separate from you,'" Singh recalled.

Today Sikhs are battling with the Pakistan government for ownership of dozens of Sikh temples that they call gurdwaras; while it is slow going they have managed to reclaim some of the buildings. Many were abandoned in 1947 and taken over by Muslims who arrived from India. The Pakistan government, which took over the buildings after 1947, allowed the squatters to remain.

In a congested neighborhood in Peshawar's old city, Singh stepped through large steel gates that opened on to a sweeping courtyard. It no longer resembled a house of worship, but Singh said it was once a vibrant gurdwara attended by hundreds of Sikhs. Now two families call it home.

Two clotheslines crowded with clothes drying in the blistering midday sun stretched from one end of the courtyard to the other. A child's plastic toy sat idle nearby.

Elsewhere in Peshawar, an armed guard, his rifle slung loosely by his side, stood guard at the city's largest Sikh temple, an ornate marble building that dates back 250 years. Inside a half dozen Sikh men sat on plastic chairs.

It is a short, bureaucratic-looking man, a Muslim, who has the final say about who enters the gurdwara. He works for the government body that oversees properties vacated by people who fled to India in 1947.

After phone calls made, names recorded, passports handed over and more phone calls made, the doors to the gurdwara were opened. revealing a cavernous carpeted room and ornate pillars decorated with hundreds of tiny mirrors. In a small room at the far end of the upper story, two students read the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy book.

Singh, who heads a council representing the Sikhs in Pakistan, said that since his homeland began to turn toward radical Islam, particularly in the Pashtun heartland, young Sikhs have been looking to leave.

"They want to go to another country, not to India or Pakistan," he said, but every country eyes them with suspicion. Even Indians, he said, see his Pakistani passport and question his intentions, suggesting he wants to agitate for Sikh secessionism, the battle that resulted in Indira Gandhi's death and a dream still held by many Sikhs on both sides of the border.

For Singh, Pakistan's slide into intolerance began in the late 1970s with the former Soviet Union's invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's military dictator Zia-ul Haq set the country on the course of Islamic radicalization as jihad became a rallying cry to defeat the communists in Afghanistan, he said.

Extremism worsened after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition, he said. The tribal regions were gradually overtaken by Taliban and in 2013 several Sikhs were killed, their limbs severed. The brutality of the killings and the threats sent thousands fleeing Pakistan, said Singh.

He said today Pakistan's intolerant use blasphemy - a crime that carries an automatic death penalty - as a weapon against minorities and fellow Muslims alike.

"That is why we have a fear in our hearts, that this law can be used against us," he said. The mere accusation of blasphemy can incite mobs to violence.

"In the last nearly 40 years we have been facing the boom, boom (mimicking the sound of explosions) in every city of Pakistan," said Singh. "In a long time we have not heard any sweet sounds in our Peshawar, but still we love our city."
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma wants the African National Congress to identify and punish party members who voted against him in a no-confidence motion in parliament last week.

Some 30 ANC lawmakers supported the opposition motion in a secret ballot on Aug. 8, not enough for it to pass but the defection exposed rifts within the ANC that could weaken Zuma's ability to influence the choice of next party leader at elections in December.

Addressing an ANC meeting late on Sunday, Zuma called the defectors "people who have double hearts, one for the ANC and one for other parties," and said they "must be taken to the (ANC) disciplinary committee," South African media reported.

"What our enemies (opposition members of parliament) were doing was to say: 'How can we destroy the ANC and weaken it, so that we can take control of the country?' ... We should never do it again," Zuma was quoted as saying.

It was unclear how the party would be able to determine who had voted against Zuma or what action could be taken against them. The president said he would discuss the issue of dissenters at a meeting of the ANC on Monday.

ANC communications officials were unavailable to comment.

Critics say Zuma's priority is to ensure he retains sufficient control over the party to ensure that his chosen candidate succeeds him as leader so he can avoid scrutiny over corruption allegations that have dogged his eight years in power. Zuma has denied wrongdoing.

The opposition sought to oust Zuma after he removed finance minister Pravin Gordhan in March, a move that hit the financial markets and prompted two credit ratings agencies to downgrade South Africa's debt rating to junk status.

Following the failure of the no-confidence motion, the main opposition Democratic Alliance party said it would bring a motion to dissolve parliament and call a general election. The ANC, which has a strong majority in the assembly, dismissed the DA's call as "dreams and hallucinations".
Hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians started leaving the Lebanon-Syria border area Monday after a deal was reached for their departure following days of delay, the media arm of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said.



In Beirut, meanwhile, the United State handed over to the Lebanese army eight Bradley Fighting Vehicles, part of a total of 32 that will be delivered over the coming months in U.S. support for the Lebanese military.



At the border, buses carrying members of the Levant People's Brigades rebel group started moving from the badlands of the Lebanese border town of Arsal in the direction of the Syrian village of Fleeta. More than 3,000 people were expected to leave by the end of the day.



The evacuation comes nearly two weeks after more than 7,000 Syrians, many of them al-Qaida-linked fighters and their families, left Arsal, following an offensive by Hezbollah.



The Levant People's Brigades whose members did not take part in last month's battles will be heading to the Syrian government-held town of Ruhaiba, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of the Syrian capital, Damascus, where they will return to normal life following an amnesty by the state, according to Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.



The only insurgents remaining on Lebanon's side of the border now are members of the Islamic State group  hundreds of IS fighters control a stretch of land that is almost equally split between Lebanon and Syria.



The Lebanese army has been preparing an attack on IS-held areas for weeks there, sending in reinforcements and pounding the area with artillery shells and rockets. The Syrian army and Hezbollah are also preparing for a simultaneous attack on IS on the Syrian side of the border.



At the Bradley handover ceremony at Beirut's port, U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard said the vehicles represent an investment of over $100 million that will "provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with new capabilities to protect Lebanon, to protect its borders and to fight terrorists."



The U.S. has supplied the Lebanese military with Cessna aircraft that discharge Hellfire missiles, helicopters, anti-tank missiles, artillery and radars, as well as training. The American Embassy says the U.S. has provided Lebanon with over $1.4 billion in security assistance since 2005.
U.S. President Donald Trump has denounced the white supremacists behind Saturdays deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying their racism is evil.

For the first time since the violence, Trump mentioned by name neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and white supremacists as criminals and thugs ... that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

Trump Declares 'Racism is Evil,' Citing 'White Supremacists,' Ku Klux Klan, Others

He vowed that anyone who committed racist violence in Charlottesville would be held accountable, and said what happened in the city was an egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.

Trumps comments followed intense criticism from across the political spectrum for failing for two days to explicitly use the words white supremacists and neo-Nazis in condemning the violence.

It should not take two days and a national tragedy for the president to take action and disavow white supremacists, said Kristen Clarke with the non-profit Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. When it comes to the safety and the security of our communities, too many of which now feel targeted by hate-fueled protestors, two days is too late.

Late Monday, Trump lashed out at the media for its coverage of the last two days.

Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the Fake News Media will never be satisfied ... truly bad people! the president wrote on Twitter.

World reaction

Images of the violence in Charlottesville and the fiery debate over racism also resonated around the world, particularly in European capitals where leaders are grappling with an upsurge of xenophobia.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said she condemns racism, hatred and violence as well as the far right.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also criticized what she called racist, right-wing violence, saying it must be dealt with forcefully.

At the United Nations, spokesman Farhan Haq said the world body condemns the violence in Charlottesville.

We believe that there must be no place in our societies for the violence racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and discrimination that we have seen in Charlottesville, Virginia, in recent days, he said.

In New York, Trump made a rare visit Monday to his home in Trump Tower, an area that drew some of his supporters but many more protesters who gathered to chant against the president and white supremacist groups.

Business leaders respond

Also Monday, three members of the American Manufacturing Council, the presidents advisory board of chief executive officers, resigned over the presidents reaction to the violence.

Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck Pharmaceuticals, said the president initially did not clearly reject expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.

Trump, in a Twitter response, said that since Frazier had quit the manufacturing council, he would now have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank tweeted that he is quitting the council because he would rather unite people and promote diversity through the power of sports, not politics.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said he was resigning to highlight the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues.

I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them, Krzanich said. We should honor  not attack  those who have stood up for equality and other cherished American values.

Speaking at the White House Monday, Trump paid tribute to the three people died Saturday, including Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal who had gone to the rally to protest against the white nationalists. She was killed when she was hit by a speeding car driven into a group of counterprotesters.

Victims mother speaks out

Heyers mother, Susan Bro, thanked Trump for denouncing violence and hatred, and vowed to continue her daughters activism against bigotry.

Thats what America is about, thats what made America great to begin with. We are a melting pot of everybody coming together and working as one, Bro said.

Two Virginia state police troopers who had been monitoring the protest from the air were also killed when their helicopter crashed.

Trump spoke after two of his top law enforcement officials, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, briefed him on the federal probe. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Saturdays violence.

Sessions told ABC News, You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said the far right groups broke their agreement with police and entered a city park from different directions instead of a single entry point.

The 20-year-old charged with driving the car that hit Heyer, James Alex Fields Jr., has been charged with murder along with other counts.

A Charlottesville judge refused to grant him bond during his first court appearance Monday.

The far-right groups held the rally to protest plans by Charlottesville to tear down a statue of General Robert E. Lee. Lee was the leader of the Confederate forces that fought against federal forces in the U.S. Civil War from 1861 until 1865.

The war was essentially about slavery in the U.S. South. Statues of Lee and other Confederate generals have become the center of demonstrations in several U.S. cities.

(VOA's William Gallo contributed to this report from the White House)
Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) is voicing alarm its leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu could face prosecution and jail in an ongoing crackdown in Turkey, which has seen more than a dozen parliament deputies jailed.

There is a big plot against the CHP, warned Bulent Tezcan in an interview Monday with Turkeys Cumhuriyet newspaper, Any steps taken against the main opposition party may open an era where the ruling party would not be able to have their way in peace, added Tezcan.

Tezcans comments follows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's suggestion Kilicadaroglu could be implicated in an ongoing espionage investigation into the publishing of a newspaper story linking Erdogans AKP government to arms shipments to Syrian rebels. Dont get surprised if Kilicdaroglus is linked to the issue, Erdogan said in a speech Sunday.

Kilicdaroglu's close ally and parliamentary deputy Enis Berberoglu was jailed June for 25 years for writing the arms story. The jailing of Berberoglu was the trigger for Kilicdaroglu launching his 25 day Justice March from the capital Ankara to Turkeys largest city Istanbul. The march drew tens of thousands of supporters culminating in a rally drawing over a million people.

Kilicdaroglu targeted

Erdogan who until recently dismissed Kilicdaroglu as a political no hoper, is now targeting the main opposition leader. Julys commemorations marking the defeat of last years coup attempt saw the president alleging Kilicdaroglus involvement with the coup plotters.

Erdogan is reacting to this [Kilicdaroglu] threat, as he perceives it. We are two years away from general elections and presidential elections and he sees that the playing field is not as smooth and as clear as he would like it, observes Semih Idiz political columnist of the Al Monitor website, So we can expect in the coming days that he [Erdogan] will ratchet up his rhetoric against the main opposition leader. But it is inconceivable he [Kilicdaroglu] would be put in prison. I think you would have a block uniting, that Erdogan would not want to uniting, Idiz added.

Under emergency rule introduced after the failed coup, HDP party co-leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas have been jailed on terrorism charges. Nine other deputes of Turkeys second-largest opposition party are also in jail, with further prosecutions looming.

When it comes to rhetoric, it is very seldom, he [Erdogan] really means what it says. So when it comes to Kilicdarolgu he may face prosecution, warns Political scientist Cengiz Aktar. By doing so, if it happens, President Erdogan shows how he is strong to his constituency. That he is even capable of putting in jail the president of the party, which is after all, is the party of Ataturk. Symbolically its very, very strong.

A potential heavy price



The founder of the Turkish Secular Mustafa Kemal Ataturk formed the CHP in 1919. But Erdogan could pay a heavy price if Kilicdarolgu is prosecuted. If you start persecuting that person, then his leadership qualities will increase in the eyes of many and diverse community in Turkey, points out columnist Idiz, noting that in Turkey the underdog invariably resonates with the electorate. Now whether the AKP wants to go in that direction, well it may try, but it will be hard one for it to swallow. Don't forget he [Erdogan] himself built a career on his unjust, and it was unjust, imprisonment.

During a crackdown inspired by Turkeys generals against Islamic groups, Erdogan was jailed for four months in 1999 for sedition, for reciting a poem at a political rally. Erdogan went on to lead his AKP three years later.

But political scientist Aktar suggests the Turkey of today is very different from 20 years ago,

"Six million voters have elected scores of HDP deputies, and the top management of the party and the MPs and the co- presidents of the party are in jail, and there is no reaction. So I think it will be the same for CHP, people will protest, but full stop. I mean they will let it go. I think everyone is trying to survive with this regime. said Aktar.

The president and his government insist any decision on the prosecution of Kilicdaroglu is strictly a matter for prosecutors and the courts. But with Erdogan showing no signs of easing up his rhetoric against Kilicdaroglu, all sides are likely to be weighing up the consequences of such a prosecution.
The United States is condemning the murders of seven Syrian White Helmet civil defense members in rebel-controlled Idlib province.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert calls the murders sad and horrifying.

"These cowardly acts of masked men took the lives of civilian volunteers who work tirelessly as first responders in order to save lives in incredibly dangerous environments," she said in a statement.

Nauert says the U.S. sends it condolences to the families of those she calls "heroes," and hopes they can find justice.

The White Helmets say unidentified gunmen shot the seven members dead during a raid on their base Saturday in the town of Sarmin, west of Idlib city. Two vans, some white headgear that identify the volunteers, and walkie-talkies were stolen.

No one has claimed responsibility. Idlib province is controlled by the Syrian rebel group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. It condemned what it calls an "ugly crime," vows to hunt down the killers and promises to protect the White Helmets.

The White Helmets are Syrian civil defense workers who volunteer to rush in with no hesitation to pull civilians out of bombed buildings in rebel-held areas.

A number have been killed in the line of duty. They received global renown after they were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Despite criticism they back the rebels against the Syrian government, the White Helmets insist they take no sides in the war.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modis government approved USD256 million to upgrade a section of a remote border road last month, few took notice.

Yet Indias decision to revive plans for the trilateral highway, part of an ambitious 1,360-kilometer crossing to link northeastern India with markets in Thailand and beyond, marks the next phase in the jostle between New Delhi and Beijing for economic and strategic influence in the region.

In the last two years alone, India has assigned more than $4.7 billion in contracts for the development of its border roads, according to government figures, including the highway which will run from Moreh in Manipur through Tamu in Myanmar to Mae-Sot in Thailand.

The construction has taken on new urgency as China pushes ahead with its own vast One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative, expected to involve investments worth more than half a trillion dollars across 62 nations. The intercontinental web of road, rail and trade links has raised concerns among strategic rivals India, Russia, the U.S. and Japan. Among the biggest showcases of the plan  an economic corridor that runs through the Pakistan-administered part of disputed Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim  has unsettled equations in the South Asian neighborhood, where border tensions often simmer.

With Chinas growing interest in the region, as its wealth grows, its influence is growing beyond its borders, said K. Yhome, New Delhi-based senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. So while China is pushing for a north-south economic corridor under the One Belt, One Road initiative, India is aiming to build links with its eastern neighbors, he said.

NEGLECTED

INFRASTRUCTURE

Under the Modi governments Act East policy, India is investing in road and rail links on its north-east borders, where it rubs shoulders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, and Myanmar.

But the plan for the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway is not a new one. Its been on the drawing board since 2001 when it was called the India-Myanmar Friendship Road, according to Vijay Chhibber, Indias former roads secretary.

New Delhi has now proposed to further extend the Myanmar-Thailand link to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, shortening travel from Mekong River to India using water transport, in its bid to bind it closer to the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, according to Chhibber.

The road link will be funded by the Asian Development Bank under the South Asian Subregional Economic Cooperation program. Involving India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the program doubled investments on infrastructure to $6 billion since 2011 compared to $3.5 billion in previous decade, said Ronald Antonio Q. Butiong, Manila-based director at ADBs Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division. The SASEC nations, not including Myanmar which joined only this February, plan to invest a further $4 billion on infrastructure projects over the next three years, Butiong said. New projects include the Kaladan multimodal transit transport project connecting Indias Mizoram state with ports in Kolkata and Myanmars Sittwe. India has financed the $120 million Sittwe port construction, according to SASEC.

Regional cooperation is a slow process and you have to have a lot of patience, said Butiong by phone from Manila. You couldnt imagine this happening a few years ago. But now it looks like its becoming a reality.

WEAK LINK

India chose not to attend President Xi Jinpings two-day One Belt One Road summit in May. Three months later, the two nuclear-armed powers are managing a tense military standoff over junction between Bhutan, Chinas Tibet and Indias Sikkim.

The Chinese government has repeatedly said its Belt and Road initiative aims to enhance regional connectivity, bringing economic benefits for Chinas neighbors. It urged New Delhi to shed misgivings and doubts about the project.

Roads, bridges and railways have been a weak link in Indias infrastructure in the north eastern states. In part, it was left underdeveloped as strategy to make the region inaccessible to Chinese troops if Beijing ever tried to repeat the four-week 1962 border war and encroach into the territory India sees as its own.

This has also meant poor access for Indian businesses to markets of south-east Asia. Modi fast-tracked decades-old infrastructure plans such as opening the nations longest bridge spanning 9.2 km across the Brahmaputra river to ensure the smooth movement of troops to the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, one of Indias most remote regions that is claimed in full by China.

For India to improve its influence, it needs to take some action otherwise it will be left behind, said Rajiv Biswas, Singapore-based chief economist at IHS Markit. If India wants to be part of growth dynamic of Asia it needs to develop infrastructure links and that is why this project is a very important first step.

SOVEREIGN ASSETS

In a brand new office in the heart of Indias capital New Delhi, Sanjay Jaju is meeting contractors responsible for building roads in the countrys north eastern states for the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corp.

The three-year-old state-owned company, where Jaju is finance director, is an unusual entity in the south Asian nations notoriously slow bureaucratic labyrinth. The highway through Myanmar and Thailand is among the $4.7-billion in contracts the company has assigned.

In the meantime, the corporation is busy acquiring land for its projects. Were creating sovereign assets, said Jaju. Our international projects will take off this year. Archana Chaudhary, Dhwani Pandya, Bloomberg
The top U.S. general says the United States and its South Korean allies are working through a number of technical issues before the United States Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system can be fully deployed on the Korean peninsula.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joe Dunford told reporters he and South Korea President Moon Jai-In did not talk about the specific timeline for THAADs full deployment during their meeting Monday in Seoul. The talks come amid worsening tensions on the peninsula following a series of missile tests and increasing military rhetoric by North Korea.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a joint op-ed published Monday in the Wall Street Journal, commended South Koreas new government for moving forward with the deployment of U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense.

THAAD can shoot down short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Two of the systems six launchers are fully operational, and President Moon ordered consultations on the possibility of deploying the final four launchers following North Koreas intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28.

The top U.S. general in Korea, General Vincent Brooks, says it would not take long for the final launchers to be up and integrated.

We already have defense in place, so we are adding four additional launchers to those two that are already in place, Brooks told reporters.

A U.S. Pacific Command senior official said the rest of the THAAD battery could be up in days once the deployment receives final approval.

THAADs ability to take out missile threats has proven 15 for 15 in tests conducted since 2005, when the system began operational testing.

The United States sees the system as a critical to protecting the 28,000 U.S. troops and 660,000 South Korean troops on the peninsula who would be called upon to fight should North Korea launch an attack on its southern neighbor.

On Monday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told reporters past administrations' policies of negotiations and patience with North Korea in achieving a denuclearized Korean peninsula have "utterly failed.

"President Trump made it clear early this year that the era of strategic patience is over," Pence said during a visit to Colombia. "Were marshalling the support of our allies, in the region as well as China, in unprecedented ways to isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically.

But political analyst Bong Young-shik with the Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies says during Monday's talks, South Korean officials likely clearly conveyed to Chairman Dunford the risk of a possible U.S. preemptive military action against North Korea.



It is a plain fact that if there be, god forbid, military conflict, a major one, between Washington and Pyongyang, South Korea will be the biggest victim. So entrapment into a military conflict between North Korea and the United States should be avoided by all means and [that] messaging is central to the nation," Bong said in Seoul.

Dunford next holds talks with military and political leaders in China, who have strongly opposed the deployment of THAAD to South Korea.

Chinas demand for the U.S. and South Korea not to deploy THAAD is unrealistic, Mattis and Tillerson wrote in Mondays op-ed. Technically astute Chinese military officers understand the system poses no danger to their homeland.
Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic's conflict.

The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, who's fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administration's growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in U.S.-Russian ties. The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorization to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plan. It's not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of U.S. weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers. Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict.

While Obama was still in office, Trump's campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform.

Now, however, it's under discussion by Trump's senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk about the matter publicly. While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as U.S. and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

"The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.

Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give "full visibility to all the parties that we're not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way."

Russia hawks in the U.S. and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATO's viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new U.S.-Russian partnership. At one point, two years after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would "go into Ukraine."

Volker has proposed a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Putin ally Vladislav Surkov, before the end of the month. Lavrov said after his talks with Tillerson that the meeting would be in Moscow. U.S. officials say no venue has been determined, with the neutral venues of Geneva or Vienna also in play.

Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who is known as a Russia hawk, supports arming Ukraine. Such action, he says, would boost the U.S. negotiating position in the east and offer Kiev the means to defend itself against any future aggression. Unsurprisingly, Russia opposes such assistance and warns of consequences.

"I hear these arguments that it's somehow provocative to Russia or that it's going to embolden Ukraine to attack. These are just flat out wrong," Volker told an interviewer last month as he visited Europe on his first trip in his new post. He argued that arming Ukraine would help rather than hurt efforts to stop Russia from threatening or interfering in its neighbor's territory.

All proposals in recent years have focused on arms that are deemed "defensive" in nature and none would appear to give Ukraine any strategic edge over Russia's vastly superior military forces.

"We have not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled out the option to do so," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Aug. 3. "That's an option that remains on the table."

A White House official would not comment on internal administration deliberations but noted that since the crisis began in 2014, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment for its forces and training and advice to further defense reforms.

Some U.S. officials say the idea is gaining currency because of Washington's impatience with Russia and its start-and-stop implementation of a 2015 agreement designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Minsk Accords were agreed to by Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia with the goal of enforcing a cease-fire in the east and introducing political reforms to give the area more political autonomy.

While the Obama administration allowed Europe to take the lead on the Minsk process, Volker has been empowered to make the U.S. a player in the effort.

The objective now is to change Russia's strategic thinking, one official said, and providing defensive weapons to Ukraine would be one way to do that.
Facing potentially deep budget cuts to U.S. foreign aid, new USAID administrator Mark Green says he needs to do more with less and prove to President Donald Trump that development assistance can further his "America First" agenda.

In a first meeting with Trump back in January, Green made his pitch to the then president-elect, drawing from his experience in Central America to explain how U.S.-funded programs there could help slow the number of immigrants trying to enter the United States illegally.

"I said 'Mr. President-elect, I believe our development tools can help us achieve just about every one of your strategic priorities,'" Green told Reuters in his first interview since starting last week as head of the U.S. Agency for International

Development.

Green had previously worked on U.S-supported projects with indigenous mayors in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to improve living conditions "so kids hopefully don't go 1,000 miles through the worst conditions imaginable and jump the border."

"It works and is a great way to use development," he said, sitting in a still bare office at USAID headquarters blocks from the White House.

Green brings a unique resume to the job: a former four-term Republican congressman from Wisconsin who served as U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania under President George W. Bush. In his last job as head of the International Republican Institute, he helped promote governance and democracy overseas.

His time on Capitol Hill will be key to his new job. In a sign of his good standing there, Green's nomination had support across the political spectrum, as well as among aid groups.

Trump staked out his position on foreign aid on the campaign trail, casting it as a waste of U.S. tax dollars. And now his administration has proposed slashing the budget for foreign aid by a third, which could gut programs across a range of issues including health, governance, gender and education.

But U.S. foreign assistance has traditionally garnered bipartisan support in Congress, which controls the aid purse strings. Green has stronger relations with lawmakers than his predecessors, who battled Congress on funding and objectives.

"What's very different for Mark Green is that his strongest allies are on the Hill," said Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington. "Where he faces headwinds are with both the White House and the State Department."

"There is a real potential for conflicts in basic philosophy about what USAID does," added Morris.

Green is nevertheless sanguine about prospects for a downsized, budget-constrained USAID.

"We can't do everything," he said. "The resources are limited, so we have to prioritize."

Green takes over an agency that has already been through waves of reform in the last decade, adapting to shifting global development patterns featuring deep-pocket philanthropic groups, more private-sector investment in emerging economies, and the rise of China as a financier in the developing world.

New demands have emerged with an unprecedented refugee crisis from wars in Syria and Iraq, along with famine in Africa, and growing violent extremism.

"USAID's humanitarian work is unrivaled, it is mobilization of American generosity, and it will continue," Green said, adding that U.S. assistance should both help in times of crisis and prevent crises from occurring.

He wants U.S. foreign assistance to focus on results to show Americans that their tax-dollars are being put to good use.

"I am going to ask every program to show me how it is moving us closer to the day when people can lead themselves," said Green. "If it is not helping, they're going to have to tell me why."
Zambias top opposition leader pleaded not guilty to treason charges in court Monday, disappointing those who had hoped the prosecution would drop the charges to make way for talks between Hakainde Hichilema and his arch-rival, President Edgar Lungu.

The case has intensified the African nations deepening political crisis and prompted international mediators to intervene.

Hichlemas lawyer was tight-lipped about what he plans to say when the opposition leader appears in court later this week.

They have pleaded not guilty to the charge, Keith Wemba told VOA from Lusaka, the capital. And the matter has been adjourned for trial Wednesday.

The long saga

The political impasse started when Hichilema cried foul after losing last years election to President Edgar Lungu, and has intensified since Hichilema's arrest.

Last month, Lungu asked parliament to declare a 90 day state of emergency, after a fire destroyed the capitals main market. He said the fire was an act of arson intended to destabilize the country.

Lungus spokesman said the state of emergency was not meant to stifle Zambians freedoms, as critics have claimed, but to keep citizens safe.

Hichilema was arrested after an April incident in which his convoy refused to yield to the presidents motorcade on a narrow country road.

Journalists were barred from the courtroom on Monday. The day before, several media outlets had reported Hichilemas charges were to be dropped and he was to be released.

Those rumors swirled around the court Monday as a triumphant, but visibly leaner Hichilema waved from outside.

But the charges were not dropped. Analyst Nicole Beardsworth says it's not known why prosecutors didnt enter a nolle prosequi, a Latin legal term that means unwilling to pursue.

Speculation is that the reason for this is that because of all the media coverage of the intention to enter a nolle, that actually, the UPND (Hichilema's party) was going to use it as sort of a photo opportunity, that that some prominent politicians from around the region were in the courtroom, and so the government, or the prosecutor, decided not to enter the nolle today, she told VOA.

So its very much on the cards of Wednesday, and we can expect that on Wednesday the nolle will be entered into the court papers and hopefully that Hichilema will be freed on Wednesday.

What next?

Neither the nations justice minister, information minister or ruling party spokesman answered numerous calls seeking comment.

But no one thinks the end of this trial will bring the political impasse to an end. Last week, the secretary-general of the Commonwealth group of former British colonies led a delegation to launch talks between Hichilema and Lungu.

Hichilema released a statement saying, We discussed a wide range of issues regarding the governance and economic development of our country, Zambia.

Analyst Ryan Cummings says the talks will be lengthy, I think its going to be quite a consultative process, first and foremost, and definitely something that will continuously play out over the coming months, weeks, months and possibly years as we move into the next election."

Zambia, he notes, has also suffered from a harsh drought and slumping prices of its main export, copper. He says these talks must also address how to rescue the ailing economy.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says one of his deputies is in a South African hospital, as local media reported he was poisoned at a political rally.

Mugabe did not address the poisoning claims Monday. He told thousands at a national ceremony to honor independence heroes that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is in a hospital in Johannesburg.



Health minister David Parirenyatwa told reporters at the ceremony that Mnangagwa was taken to a hospital Saturday because he had severe vomiting with diarrhea and became dehydrated. Mnangagwa is now much better, almost jovial, he said.

Mnangagwa is viewed as one of Mugabe's potential successors and is linked to a faction involved in a vicious succession battle. First lady Grace Mugabe is associated with the other faction.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday denounced the white supremacists who staged last weekend's deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that their racism is evil.

Trump said the neo-Nazi groups, the racist Ku Klux Klan, white nationalists and other hate groups are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

WATCH: 'Racism is evil,' Trump says



He vowed that anyone who committed racist violence in Charlottesville would be held accountable. Justice will be delivered, he said.



Trump said the hatred and bigotry on display in Charlottesville has no place in America and as I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag. And we are all made by the same, almighty God.

Trump's comments followed two days of intense criticism from across the U.S. political spectrum for his failure to explicitly condemn the white nationalists and other groups who organized Saturday's rally. Many critics praised the president Monday for directly criticizing the groups, but also lamented that it took days for him to call them out by name.



It should not take two days and a national tragedy for the president to take action and disavow white supremacists, said Kristen Clarke with the non-profit Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. When it comes to the safety and the security of our communities, too many of which now feel targeted by hate-fueled protestors, two days is too late.



During a televised statement at the White House Monday, Trump paid tribute to the three people who lost their lives, including Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal who had gone to the rally to protest against the white nationalists. She was killed when she was hit by a speeding car driven into a group of counter-protesters.

Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, on Monday thanked Trump for denouncing violence and hatred, and vowed to continue her daughter's activism against bigotry. That's what America is about, that's what made America great to begin with. We are a melting pot of everybody coming together and working as one, Bro said.

Two Virginia state police troopers who had been watching the protest from the air were also killed when their helicopter crashed.



Trump briefed by Sessions, Wray

Trump spoke after being briefed on the investigation of the rally by two of his top law enforcement officials, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Christopher Wray, newly installed as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country's top criminal investigative agency. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Saturday's violence, marked by hours of street fights between the white nationalists and counter-protesters.

Numerous U.S. political figures, both Republicans and Democrats, had assailed Trump for two days for not specifically denouncing the white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other groups that staged the Charlottesville rally to protest the city's planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee. Lee was the leader of the Confederate forces in the 19th century Civil War that was fought over the issue of slave ownership in the southern U.S. and statues of him, usually on horseback, have become a flashpoint for demonstrations in several U.S. cities.



The 20-year-old driver of the car that hit Heyer, James Alex Fields Jr., from the midwestern state of Ohio, was arrested and charged with murder and other offenses.



Fields, reported by U.S. news accounts to have voiced Nazi sympathies in recent years, made his first court appearance Monday, but a Charlottesville judge refused to grant him bond, keeping him jailed pending more legal proceedings later this month.

Initial reaction



On Saturday, as street fights between the white nationalists and counter-protesters escalated at the rally 160 kilometers southwest of Washington, Trump denounced in the strongest possible terms this degree of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides.



But at the time he declined to say whether he was rejecting political support from white supremacists, many of them Trump voters in last year's presidential election.

Trump's tepid initial response to the violence seemed to blame the unrest on both the white nationalists and counter-protesters.



On Sunday, the White House said the president condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, the racist Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.



But Trump, who frequently posts his thoughts on his Twitter account, had not offered any more commentary on the Charlottesville unrest until he spoke Monday.



Hours earlier, Sessions told ABC News, You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America.



In another interview, he told CBS News, We will not allow these extremist groups to obtain credibility.

Merck CEO resigns from Trump panel



Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, a major U.S. pharmaceutical company, quit Trump's advisory manufacturing council because of Trump at first not clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.



Trump, in a Twitter response within an hour, said that since Frazier had quit the manufacturing council, he would now have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!



On Sunday, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said says the deadly Charlottesville violence meets the definition of terrorism.



McMaster, in an interview on ABC News, described the car's ramming into a crowd of counter-protesters as a criminal act that may be motivated by this hatred and bigotry.

Vigils and protests



The victims were remembered at a vigil Sunday in Charlottesville, while people in multiple cities across the U.S. gathered to protest the violence and criticize Trump's initial response for not explicitly condemning far-right groups.



In New York, marchers gathered at Trump Tower to voice their displeasure, while hundreds of people rallied against white nationalist groups in Los Angeles. About 1,000 people gathered at another anti-hate rally in Denver.



A Seattle rally planned by a conservative pro-Trump group before the events in Charlottesville was met by counter-protesters, and police used pepper spray to break up crowds after fireworks were thrown at officers.
Zimbabwes vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was flown to South Africa in a serious condition, is reportedly recuperating well after undergoing various medical assessments in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Health Minister Dr. David Parirenyatwa told VOA Studio 7 that he has been talking to the vice president and has been informed that he is recovering after falling sick while President Robert Mugabe was addressing thousands of people in Gwanda, Matabeleland South province.

Parirenyatwa confirmed that Mnangagwa was vomiting when he was airlifted from Gwanda to Gweru, Midlands province. He could not reveal the source of the vice presidents sickness though some media outlets claim that it is related to food poisoning.

These allegations have not been independently confirmed.

President Mugabe said on Monday that Mnangagwa is receiving treatment in South Africa.

The vice president is locked in a bitter fight with a group calling itself Generation 40 over the succession of the 93 year old Zimbabwean leader.

Generation 40 is said to be led by First Lady Grace Mugabe, who was out of the country when the incident occurred and has been linked to the alleged beating up of a young lady found socializing with her children at a South African hotel.

President Mugabe is expected to contest the 2018 general elections at the age of 94.

Meanwhile, Masvingo Resident Minister Shuvai Mahofa died on Monday and efforts are being made by the local Zanu PF leadership to request the ruling party Politburo to declare her a national hero.

Mahofa has been sick for some time following claims she was poisoned while attending a party function.
As high-profile hacks continue to dominate the national conversation, a budding industry of former government intelligence specialists is finding success selling cybersecurity services to corporations.

Cybersecurity start-ups in the District, Maryland and Virginia cut 31 deals with venture capitalists in 2016  twice as many as in 2012  according to investment data analyzed by the National Venture Capital Association.

Almost all of them involved young companies in the suburban periphery, where the regions military and intelligence agencies are located. There were 17 deals in the first two quarters of this year, and the third quarter is off to a healthy start, with two additional local cybersecurity companies disclosing sizable funding rounds this month.

Bricata, of Columbia, Md., won an $8 million investment round led by Edison Partners, a New Jersey-based venture capital fund with an office in Baltimore. Another Maryland-based firm, Dragos, raised $9 million in a funding round led by Silicon Valley venture fund Allegis Capital.

The ascendancies of the D.C. metro areas cybersecurity industry is because of a combination of government cybersecurity talent and newfound interest from corporate America.

The boom is fueled by a steady stream of former spies, intelligence analysts and hackers coming out of the regions military and intelligence agencies. Suburban Marylands security companies draw upon the National Security Agencys campus at Fort Meade. Virginias start-up founders are more likely to filter out of the Defense Department or the Central Intelligence Agency.

Dragos draws heavily on that demographic. Chief executive Rob Lee was an Air Force intelligence officer who later worked for a three-letter intelligence agency (he wouldnt say which one), where he led a unit that focused on tracking foreign governments attempts to hack important industrial systems.

At Dragos, he has surrounded himself with former government technologists.

These are people who have all served their country, whether in the Air Force, the Navy or the NSA . . . people who have lived these problems and not just admired them, Lee said.

Lee said he himself had a brief stint on the offensive side of the U.S. governments cyber operations, referring to efforts to hack into rival systems.

His position gave him a deep insight into the security problems and risks faced by industry. But he says he left the intelligence community to actually solve those problems. After all, the power and water systems that are most critical to peoples daily lives are generally under private ownership.

You can look at threats all day long, but to actually move the needle you need to go to where they have the critical infrastructure and make changes, he said. So we all kind of left and joined Dragos.

Today his company sells security services to about a dozen organizations that manage the countrys critical infrastructure, including power and water companies, chemical processors and others.

Lees firm is making waves: It published a report this summer noting that hackers allied with the Russian government have apparently developed malware that could theoretically be used to hack the U.S. power grid.

[Russia has developed a cyberweapon that can disrupt power grids, according to new research]

The success of Dragos was made possible in large part by new seed-funding options that have just recently become easier to come by.

Lee got early funding and mentorship from DataTribe, a new Maryland incubator founded by Mike Janke, the former Navy SEAL who co-founded encryption company Silent Circle.

DataTribe has offices in Maryland and Silicon Valley. It has built its mission around connecting Silicon Valleys community of technology financiers with Marylands even-more opaque cyber community, handing teams of start-up founders investments of up to $1.5 million to get them on their way.

For Ellison Anne Williams, who spent more than a decade at the NSA after finishing her PhD in mathematics, that funding was critical to building a team around her. Her company EN|Veil was the first to officially sign up with the Datatribe incubator when it opened last year.

If you have more money you can bring more of your team out with you, she said. You can pay people respectable salaries.

Competing incubators around the region offer similar options. A Maryland organization called MasterPeace maintains a unique arrangement where founders are paid a salary while they work to develop their ideas, made possible by a government contract. Northern Virginias Mach37 incubator cuts much smaller, $50,000 checks in return for a slice of the company, and funding it with taxpayer dollars.

Bricata, one of the recently funded Maryland companies, got early help from Marylands state-funded TEDCO program.

There is also a now-thriving network of angel investors, who invest in companies in their earliest phases of development. One of the most active is Blu Venture Investors, a consortium of entrepreneurs who fund and mentor new companies.

Last year the firm started a program specific to cybersecurity investments, with a streamlined review process meant to rival Silicon Valleys quicker turnaround times.

These investors are hoping to convert all that classified talent into technology products for which corporations will pay top dollar. Corporations are continuing to spend more and more money to protect their systems and information, as costly corporate hacks never seem to leave the headlines.

When we see the impact on our last presidential election, its obvious that the demand [for cybersecurity products and services] is there, said Lenard Marcus, partner at Edison Partners.

Still, Marcus and others see one weakness in the D.C. areas cybersecurity industry. Even as resources continue to proliferate for the youngest start-ups, the average deal size appears to be getting smaller.

Although the number of cyber deals per year has roughly doubled since 2012, the total amount of venture capital has increased little. With the exception of a few megadeals, at the highest end of the spectrum, such as the $250 million funding round that went to Maryland-based Tenable Network Security, most of the deals are relatively small.
[This story has been optimized for offline reading on our apps. For a richer experience, you can find the full version of this story here. An Internet connection is required.]

Violence broke out in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12 as white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members clashed with counterprotesters. A day after the extremist groups had held a nighttime rally, a known Nazi sympathizer allegedly plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one. Additionally, two state police officers died when their helicopter crashed at the outskirts of town.

Numerous lawmakers criticized President Trump after he condemned the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, failing to specifically call out the involvement of white supremacists in the violence.

After a slew of critical statements  many from fellow Republicans  the White House later issued a statement clarifying, of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. Heres how Virginia politicians and national figures are responding to the protests and the presidents reaction to them:

Donald Trump

President of the United States

Aug. 12, 12:19 p.m.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

Later White House statement:

Morning of Aug. 13

Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.

Did not specifically condemn white supremacists

Many officials  notably including Trump  made statements against the situation and polarization in general but did not use specific terms like white nationalism or neo-Nazi.

Mitch McConnell (R)

Kentucky senator and Senate majority leader

Aug. 12, 2:03 p.m.

The hate and bigotry witnessed in #Charlottesville does not reflect American values. I wholeheartedly oppose their actions.

Mark R. Warner (D)

Virginia senator

Aug. 12, 5:26 p.m.

Virginians mourn the life taken in this mornings events and reject this hateful violence in Charlottesville. We condemn the intolerance behind it and those who would pass it off as a legitimate political movement.

Thomas Garrett (R)

Virginia representative, 5th congressional district (including Charlottesville)

Aug. 12, 1:49 p.m.

Today has been a tragic culmination of extremist polarization in our own backyard. We wholeheartedly condemn these acts, ideologies, and the sheer hatred that travelled into our home.

Joe Manchin (D)

West Virginia senator

Aug. 12, 2:47 p.m.

Im disheartened by the scenes at UVA. There is no place for hatred like this in our country. #Charlottesville

Larry Hogan (R)

Maryland governor

Aug. 12, 12:34 p.m.

Violence, hate, and bigotry all of kinds must be confronted and condemned. The disgusting and vile acts taking place in Charlottesville have absolutely no place in our society and must be stopped [...] American values have nothing to do with white supremacy and hate, and Maryland will continue to stand in strong opposition to those who use it for personal or political gain.

Corey Stewart (R)

Former Republican candidate for Virginia governor

Aug. 13, 1:20 p.m.

Theres no reason to apologize for some nutcases that show up in Charlottesville. We have nothing to do with them in the Republican Party. Theyre not conservatives. In fact, when you think about it, this is the far, far, far left. These are people, they believe the government should control people and stymie free speech.

Jill Vogel (R)

Nominee for lieutenant governor, Virginia state senator

Aug. 12, 3:15 p.m.

I am horrified by the hate being displayed in Charlottesville. It is not the Virginia that I know and love and I condemn this vile display of racism.

Justin Fairfax (D)

Nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, former federal prosecutor

Aug. 12, 1:05 p.m.

I am saddened by the scenes of violence and demonstrations of hatred in one of Virginias greatest cities.

Condemned Trumps original statement

A few officials directly criticized Trump for not condemning white supremacists in his original comments.

Mike Signer (D)

Charlottesville mayor

Aug. 13

What I did not hear in the presidents statement yesterday, as well-intentioned as it may have been, is I didnt hear the words white supremacy. And I think that its important to call this for what it is and to say, okay, this show has run its course, this shark has been jumped, lets move on.

Cory Gardner (R)

Colorado senator

Aug. 12, 3:44 p.m.

Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.

Marco Rubio (R)

Florida senator

Aug. 12, 4:30 p.m.

Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists

Chuck Schumer (D)

New York senator and Senate minority leader

Aug. 12, 12:47 p.m.

The march last night and the rally today in Charlottesville against everything the American flag stands for and what the founding fathers stood for. President Trump must condemn this in the strongest terms, immediately.

Nancy Pelosi (D)

House minority leader and California representative

Aug. 12, 7:37 p.m.

The vile beliefs of the perpetrators of this violence insult our fundamental American values and must be condemned in the strongest terms. The Presidents talk of violence on many sides ignores the shameful reality of white supremacism in our country today, and continues a disturbing pattern of complacency around such acts of hate.

Kamala Harris (D)

California senator

Aug. 13, 6:03 p.m.

As we all now know, this weekend in Charlottesville, hundreds of white supremacists gathered with torches, shouting racial, ethnic and religious epithets about Black and Jewish people, chanting Nazi slurs, waving the Confederate flag and banners emblazoned with giant swastikas. [...] And as the country grappled with this tragedy, we were told that many sides should be condemned. Many sides. [...] Many sides is what kept children in this country at separate schools and adults at separate lunch counters for decades.

Specifically condemned white supremacists (but not Trumps original statement)

Other officials didnt criticize Trumps statement but did use specific terms like white nationalism or neo-Nazi in their own statements.

Mike Pence (R)

Vice President of the United States

Aug. 13, 7:20 p.m.

We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-Nazis or the KKK.

Terry McAuliffe (D)

Virginia governor

Aug. 13, 11:37 a.m.

At every level, elected officials in America must denounce white supremacy, Nazism & any rhetoric that empowers those who seek to divide us.

Jeff Sessions (R)

Attorney General

Morning of Aug. 14

Rasicm, white supremacy is totally unacceptable. I think the president talked about the problems in America, in that first statement, have been going on a long time. He said before Donald Trump, before Barack Obama. A long time.

Ivanka Trump

Adviser to and daughter of President Trump

Aug. 13, 7:09 a.m.

1:2 There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.

Paul Ryan (R)

House Speaker and Wisconsin representative, 1st congressional district

Aug. 12, 6:13 PM

Our hearts are with todays victims. White supremacy is a scourge. This hate and its terrorism must be confronted and defeated.

Tim Kaine (D)

Virginia senator

Aug. 12, 6:06 p.m.

Its sickening to see the displays of violence and bigotry that were brought to Charlottesville by white nationalists over the last 24 hours, which tragically led to injuries and at least one death today. This is not who we are. Charlottesville is a vibrant community that recognizes the deep scars from our past and has rejected hatred in favor of inclusion.

Barbara Comstock (R)

Virginia representative, 10th congressional district

Aug. 12, 1:00 p.m.

The neo-Nazi march and the hate and racism on display in Charlottesville are vile, have no place in Virginia, and are denounced by Republicans and Democrats alike in our great Commonwealth. We thank and pray for our law enforcement who protect our Commonwealth and put themselves in harms way to protect our communities.

John McCain (R)

Arizona senator

Aug. 12, 7:26 p.m.

White supremacists and neo-Nazis are, by definition, opposed to American patriotism and the ideals that define us as a people and make our nation special. As we mourn the tragedy that has occurred in Charlottesville, American patriots of all colors and creeds must come together to defy those who raise the flag of hatred and bigotry.

Jeff Flake (R)

Arizona senator

Aug. 12, 1:54 p.m.

The #WhiteSupremacy in #Charlottesville does not reflect the values of the America I know. Hate and bigotry have no place in this country.

Ted Cruz (R)

Texas senator

Aug. 12, 8:27 p.m.

The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out against the lies, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred that they propagate. Having watched the horrifying video of the car deliberately crashing into a crowd of protesters, I urge the Department of Justice to immediately investigate and prosecute this grotesque act of domestic terrorism.

Tom Cotton (R)

Arkansas senator

Aug. 13, 9:17 a.m.

White supremacists who claim to take America back only betray their own ignorance of what makes America so special: our countrys founding recognition of the natural rights of all mankind and commitment to the defense of the rights of all Americans.

Orrin Hatch (R)

Utah senator

Aug. 12, 4:41 p.m.

We should call evil by its name. My brother didnt give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH

Ben Sasse (R)

Nebraska senator

Aug. 12, 3:25 p.m.

These people are utterly revolting--and have no understanding of America. This creedal nation explicitly rejects blood & soil nationalism.

Kirsten Gillibrand (D)

New York senator

Aug. 12, 9:01 p.m.

White supremacy and neo-Nazism have no place in America. Domestic terrorism like this cannot be tolerated.

Chuck Grassley (R)

Iowa senator

Aug. 12, 4:11 p.m.

What  WhiteNatjonalist are doing in Charlottesville is homegrown terrorism that cant be tolerated anymore that what Any extremist does

Rob Portman (R)

Ohio senator

Aug. 12, 5:35 p.m.

The tragedy in Charlottesville this afternoon was domestic terrorism. We must all condemn hatred and white nationalism.

Chris Christie (R)

New Jersey governor

Aug. 12, 6:01 p.m.

We reject the racism and violence of white nationalists like the ones acting out in Charlottesville. Everyone in leadership must speak out.

Hillary Clinton (D)

2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former New York senator

Aug. 12, 4:07 p.m.

But the incitement of hatred that got us here is as real and condemnable as the white supremacists in our streets. Every minute we allow this to persist through tacit encouragement or inaction is a disgrace, & corrosive to our values. Now is the time for leaders to be strong in their words & deliberate in their actions. We will not step backward. If this is not who we are as Americans, lets prove it.

Mitt Romney (R)

Former Massachusetts governor

Aug. 12, 10:29 p.m.

Racial prejudice, then hate, then repugnant speech, then a repulsive rally, then murder; not supremacy, barbarism.

Ralph Northam (D)

Virginia lieutenant governor, nominee for governor

Aug. 12, 8:39 a.m.

White supremacists have descended upon Charlottesville again to evoke a reaction as ugly and violent as their beliefs just as they did before, I am urging Virginians to deny them the satisfaction.

Ed Gillespie (R)

Nominee for Virginia governor, former Republican National Committee chairman

Aug. 12, 4:01 p.m.

Definitely tragic effect of vile neo Nazi and white supremacist actions.
Zai Lab Ltd., a Chinese drug developer working on cancer treatments, has picked banks to arrange a planned U.S. initial public offering that could raise about USD150 million, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company, started by former Pfizer Inc. senior scientist Samantha Du, is working with Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to the people. It is targeting a market capitalization of about $1 billion, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Zai Lab plans to start taking investor orders as soon as September, the people said.

Chinas pharmaceutical market has been given a boost by entrepreneurs like Du, known as hai gui or sea turtles, who returned to the country after stints working or studying overseas. Since starting Zai Lab in 2014, Du has attracted investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital China and Qiming Ventures.

Details of the Zai Lab offering havent been finalized, and its possible the timeline could change, the people said. Representatives for Zai Lab and Citigroup declined to comment, while a representative for JPMorgan didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zai Lab has established its own early-stage drug discovery team focused on immuno-oncology. The company has also licensed experimental medicines from big pharmaceutical companies to populate its immediate pipeline, including a potential treatment for lung cancer from Frances Sanofi and a liver drug candidate from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

China is speeding up the regulatory process for new medicines to enter the worlds second-largest pharmaceutical market. The reforms have put many innovative drugs from domestic developers and multinationals on the fast track for approvals, boosting the prospects of startups like Zai Lab.

The company said in June that it raised $30 million in Series C funding, following a $100-million Series B last January from a group of backers including Advantech Capital and OrbiMed Asia.

First-time share sales from Chinese health-care companies have raised $6.2 billion in the past 12 months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. BeiGene Ltd., a Chinese developer of immuno-oncology drugs, has more than tripled since it began trading in the U.S. last year and announced Thursday it plans to raise $125 million in a follow-on share sale.

BGI Genomics Co., a unit of the worlds biggest DNA-sequencing group, has surged more than sevenfold since its Shenzhen debut last month. Wuxi Biologics Cayman Inc. has risen 53 percent from the offer price in its June IPO, making it the best performer this year among Hong Kong new listings that raised more than $500 million, according to the Bloomberg-compiled data. Bloomberg


Crawfish Pie; see recipe link, below. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

The 50th-anniversary edition of Talk About Good' by the Junior League of Lafayette, La. (Junior League of Lafayette, La.)

It was always there. Woven into the fabric of almost every cooking memory, every kitchen, of my Louisiana childhood. There, along with the cast-iron pot, aluminum Magnalites and Chime-O-Matic rice cooker. Its mischievous plastic teeth underbiting the worn-out spiral binding, tattered yellow tabs frayed and curled, stamped with grease stains and reinforced with rubber bands. Four hundred fifty pages of green-inked recipes by the women whose footsteps paced the linoleum floors of the kitchens before us.

[Make the recipe: Crawfish Pie ]

Talk About Good! was originally published in the summer of 1967 by the Junior League of Lafayette, La., as a community fundraiser. Fifty years, 30 editions and almost 800,000 copies later, the books yellow-and-white-striped cover occupies kitchen shelves across the region known as Acadiana  and far beyond its borders.

The story of a community cookbook is the story of a community. Steeped in the tradition of hospitality and blessed with an abundance of natural culinary resources  Gulf seafood, long-grain rice and sugar cane, to name a few  this map dot known as Cajun country sustains one of the richest and most popular food cultures around. You may not be able to pronounce etoufee, but you probably know you want some.

Like the swirl of flour and oil that serves as the base for so many Cajun recipes, the roots of Talk About Good! are remarkably simple. Women in the organization culled their family and friends recipe boxes and each submitted a handful of handwritten recipes, which, as the oral history goes, were never tested and throughout all 30 printings have never been edited. (Not even the infamous one  none of the league members I talked to could remember which it is  that calls for a whole cup of salt.)



Talk About Good! has sold about 800,000 copies. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Along with three other Cajun cookbooks the group publishes, Talk About Good! has raised upward of $1.2 million for projects to promote the positive and healthy development of the families of the Lafayette community. The chapters unrelenting focus on community service fundraising is evident, even in the way its choosing to mark the cookbooks anniversary. Instead of fanfare, the Junior League of Lafayette has focused its efforts on offering an upgraded version of the book with a more durable concealed wire binding and commemorative $19.67 price tag.

If you look back, there were thousands of community cookbooks like this published, but there are only a few that have kept on and on, said Alison Kelly, a research specialist and culinary expert at the Library of Congress. Its pretty unique and confirms a lot of things we know about food traditions in Louisiana.

According to Laurie Dodge, director of marketing and development for the Association of Junior Leagues International, recipe books as fundraisers first became popular in the early 1940s. In the early days, in addition to raising funds for the community, it gave members an opportunity to run a business venture, Dodge said. Women who werent in the workforce could get marketing and business skills.

The organization originally relied on grass-roots marketing to promote the book. When people in the club would go on trips all over the world, we would say, Go into stores and ask if theyre interested in selling the book,  said former Junior League of Lafayette cookbook committee chairwoman Bootsie Arseneaux. We sent it to every little place that we could get a connection to.



Maque Choux; see recipe link, below. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Lisa Mann Breaux, an entrepreneurial-spirited former cookbook committee chairwoman, spearheaded the organizations first mass sales deal in the early 90s with Sams Club stores across the country. We had a giant map on our wall, recalled Breaux, who at the same time secured the books move to a hard cover. Wed add a little red pin of any new store that carried the book.

Breaux said there was always some friendly competition with the nearby Junior League of Baton Rouges River Road Recipes, which has sold 1 million copies and, according to a 2001 report by the Junior League, holds the record as the best-selling community cookbook of all time.

When you look at the towns with the top League cookbooks, its Baton Rouge, Charleston and us, Breaux added. Its that old small-town culture of tightknit families. When you get someones grandmothers best recipes, you know its going to be good.

Former Lafayette Junior League president Sarah Berthelot emphasized that even though the capital city of Baton Rouge is only an hour away, there are distinct cultural differences. The Lafayette area has a high concentration of descendants of the Acadian French people, she said, so you see that French influence in the recipes.

These were our early League members most cherished recipes, Berthelot said. Some of these recipes had been in their families for generations.



Stuffed Mirlitons; see recipe link, below. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

[Make the recipe: Stuffed Mirlitons ]

Even the name, Talk About Good!, is a Cajun phrase, which evolved as a literal translation of the Cajun French expression parles de bon. The book itself houses 1,200 authentic Cajun recipes  from court bouillon and crawfish pie to stuffed mirlitons and maque choux  some with a touch of late-60s flair. The sparse pen-and-ink illustrations, created by one of the original cookbook committee members Jane Flores, pay tribute to the regions unofficial icons: mossy live oaks, oil rigs, carnival masks and humble coffee pots.

I think its a wonderful way to honor our mothers and grandmothers and keep our heritage and tradition alive, said another former cookbook chairwoman, Carolyn Fontenot. It was such a staple for any new bride. When women passed away, the daughter would take the cookbook. They would never throw away the original.

Sheila Thomas, publisher of Favorite Recipes Press, which specializes in community cookbooks, has been working with Talk About Good! in some capacity for her entire 25 years in publishing. She said the book was already considered old when she started in the business. Its significant, not just for a Junior League cookbook, but for any cookbook to do that kind of print run, she said, referring to the 800,000 copies sold. Its amazing that a group of volunteers has run this cookbook business and continues to be successful.



Butter Dips; see recipe link, below. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

[Make the recipe: Butter Dips ]

My moms edition, still in heavy rotation, lost its cover, introduction and table of contents a long time ago. It begins abruptly  but festively  with the Mardi Gras section. Its the book she and my dad turned to for Sunday dinners of rice and gravy and special-occasion breakfasts of egg casseroles and flour-dusted biscuits. She recently told me that for the longest time, it was the only cookbook she owned and the one she turned to for the jambalaya she made the first time she had her parents over for dinner.

My own copy was given to me by my husbands grandmother and my mother-in-law (whose own mother-in-law happens to be the author of Congealed Asparagus Salad on page 95). Members of his family wrote cooking tips in the margins as a special wedding gift. His grandmother passed away this year, and the curve of her handwritten I love you next to each piece of advice takes on an even deeper meaning.

The binding is already broken, crushed from too many do-it-yourself moves across the country. I dont cook out of it as much as I aspire to, but it became my security blanket the decade I spent outside the arms of the South. Faced with blustery noreasters and Midwestern ice storms, I instinctively turned to the gumbo recipe on page 59, whispering the method like a prayer as the sweet incense of chopped onions, celery and bell peppers rose to the heavens. A heavy pot is a must to make a pretty roux. The heavier the pot, the easier your job will be . . . 

Oliver, a former Washington Post staff member, is a writer, editor and award-winning digital journalist based in New Orleans. She will join our Free Range chat with readers Wednesday at noon.
This city woke up early Sunday morning groggy and wondering, praying even, that the pitched battles in the streets, the full decibel race-based hate, the people crushed under cars and the helicopter that fell from the sky were all just mad scenes from an end-times nightmare.

But the truth was darker. The city had a body count. Heather Heyer, 32, was dead. She lived here and worked here. Virginia state troopers H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke M.M. Bates, who would have turned 41 Sunday, were dead. They served the people who live here.

The rally that almost no one in Charlottesville wanted and many here protested ended in death and sorrow and, for the time being at least, a fruitless search to make sense of it all for those who call it home.

[Charlottesville victim: She was there standing up for what was right]

How, they wondered, did their quiet and beautiful little city on the lap of the Blue Ridge Mountains become the focal point of so much anger and misery?

1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes during vigils for Charlottesville victims View Photos Crowds gathered to show support in D.C., Charlottesville and beyond. Caption Crowds gathered to show support in D.C., Charlottesville and beyond. Aug. 16, 2017 Hundreds of people march with lit candles across the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

At 7 a.m. Sunday, the groaning belch of a leaf blower sent plastic bottles and trash scattering down Market Street in front of Emancipation Park as cleanup crews worked to put Charlottesvilles face back on. They picked up the refuse of a rally turned riot responsible for bringing news crews here from around the country and the world.

[Virginia state troopers killed in helicopter crash monitoring Charlottesville clash]

On the corner, television reporters prepared for their first feeds of the day. Overnight, Charlottesville had become known for something for which it never wanted to be known. America struggles with race everywhere, but here the full fury of its most committed racial antagonists had been displayed. It no longer hid in the shadows or barked from anonymous Twitter handles. It marched with torches at night and with shields, clubs and guns in broad daylight. It shouted out Niggers! and Faggots! and Kikes! and it raised its arms straight out in Nazi salutes.

[Charlottesville suspect espoused Nazi ideals in high school, teacher says]

There was brave and reassuring talk by the local politicians, who at times like this are supposed to be brave and reassuring. There were strong words from the governor, who told the hatemongers they werent welcome in the commonwealth.

But from the residents there was fear, anger, despair and above all else a deep desire to not let Charlottesvilles story be shaped by the actions of others.

I dont think it will define the city, said Chad Freckmann, who has lived here for the past 22 years and first came to Charlottesville as a student at the University of Virginia in 1978. I think whats happened here is the result of the politics of the moment. These wackos are coming out from under the rocks because its now politically acceptable to spew hatred.

(Whitney Leaming,Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

[Virginia politicians of all stripes condemn white nationalists  except one]

Freckmann stood on the block where the day before 20-year-old white supremacist James Alex Fields allegedly roared his Dodge Challenger into a crowd, mowing down Heyer and injuring 19 others. A street sweeper scoured the asphalt, removing whatever hadnt been washed away by a heavy rain the night before.

Pamela Buckner is scared and angry. On Sunday morning she went to church worried, she said, about whether she would be attacked. Buckner, 54, has lived in Charlottesville for 27 years.

Everythings not okay, Buckner said. Everyone is on pins and needles in Charlottesville. Its a whole lot of these racists and Nazis and KKK, and it aint over yet. Theres going to be more tragedy and more death. I think its crazy as hell.

For many here, the desire is to put the last two days in the past and move forward. But they also know that the citys decision this year to change the name of Lee Park to Emancipation Park and to order the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the park has made it a lightning rod for white nationalists and extremists who see it as an attempt to erase white history.

Well get past it, but it isnt going to be easy, said Larry Sabato, who moved to Charlottesville in 1970 and is a professor at the University of Virginia and director of the universitys Center for Politics. That serpentine David Duke is right when he says, Well be back. Hes right.

Sabato watched the white supremacists parade by torchlight through the university grounds and across the campuss vaunted Lawn on Friday evening and tweeted: In my 47 years of association with @UVA this was the most nauseating thing Ive ever seen. We need an exorcism on the Lawn.

In an interview Sunday, Sabato talked about how the events of the past two days have been an effort by the extremists to mar the city.

I think of the beautiful name Charlottesville and how these people have now created a new image for Charlottesville and tried to turn it into this evil, horrible name, he said. People have to wake up to what theyre trying to do here.

The weather was perfect by Sunday afternoon. No suffocating August humidity. Sunny and breezy instead. Along the downtown mall, outdoor restaurants that had all been closed a day before reopened and filled with customers. Ice cream shops and used-book stores and cafes were all back in business. There was a hint of normalcy in the music of a guitar duo and the shrieks of babies and the shake of coins in the cup of a homeless man. The day before felt almost unimaginable.

Those of us who live here and love Charlottesville are just afraid that the rest of the world now sees Charlottesville as a hate-filled community, and were not, said Amy McLeskey. The things that happened yesterday are really not Charlottesville. Charlottesville is unity and love, and the people that came here are not from Charlottesville.

It wasnt ignorance of reality that residents here suggested for their city. They know they have problems here like every American city has. With racism. And gentrification. And poverty. And education. What they dont want is to allow a hate to come in and swallow everything.

Franklin Barbour, a 58-year-old landscaper who has lived in Charlottesville his whole life, watched his city come apart at the seams on CNN on Saturday. On Sunday, he came to Emancipation Park to take a look around and take stock.

We walk up and down these streets, and we dont interact with each other like we should, Barbour said. We need to be more together. We need to talk to each other. We need to love each other.

Zoeann Murphy contributed to this report.
Vernard Gray seethes with frustration every time he hears people talk about certain historic D.C. neighborhoods as up and coming, as if to completely overwrite the history of longtime residents who have called the places home for decades.

That is why Gray, 76, a D.C. native, artist, curator and longtime cultural activist in the local arts community, has just launched a website called Made East River that offers a comprehensive directory of people who make artistic products or offer creative services in Wards 7 and 8.

Weve got stuff of value east of the river, he said. Lets discover it. Lets explore it. Lets make something happen.

Gray has picked a pivotal time to start his project. In the face of rapidly encroaching gentrification in Southeast  and with it, the threat of massive change and displacement  he is hoping that Made East River will help the area take charge of its culture and history and preserve a narrative directed by African American residents.

Majority-black Southeast is too often treated like the backwater of the city, Gray said. Gentrification is happening. Theres no way of stopping it. But when they show up, theyll think, Okay, theres something happening here. And theyve got to honor that.

To promote his website, Gray has reached out to local artists, emailed community listservs and distributed fliers around Southeast. If the website doesnt take off, Gray has backup ideas, among them hosting workshops where local artists can share their knowledge with residents.

In his efforts to promote the historic African American culture of Southeast neighborhoods, Gray has company.

Go Anacostia lists neighborhood businesses, and DC Artists East features a directory of visual artists. The Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center and IBe Arts in Anacostia host workshops with local artists.

IBe Crawley, an artist and retired educator, founded the IBe Arts gallery and studio in 2016. A community without arts and culture is a community without soul, Crawley said. And with Anacostia on the brink of an explosion in development, we have to meet the creative and artistic needs of the community, she added.

Urban redevelopment is prompting similar grass-roots movements in a growing number of cities around the country, including Portland, Ore., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Brooklyn.

Gray points to the Districts Shaw-U Street neighborhood as a cautionary tale  a place where black residents did not manage to anchor and preserve their culture as gentrification swept in.

In recent years, new bars, cafes, restaurants, boutique stores and luxury residential buildings populated with affluent young professionals have transformed the racial makeup of the neighborhood, which was once 90 percent African American.

Not enough was done to exhibit black culture and to proclaim, This is us, he said. We, as in we black folk, didnt really claim the history of the place other than, Back in the day. . .  

Derek Hyra, a professor at American University and the author of Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City, has written extensively about the transformation of Shaw, and how the historically black neighborhood was branded, marketed and sold to white millennials by mostly white developers.

Some white newcomers, in turn, boast about the hip edginess of living in an inner-city neighborhood, describ[ing] neighborhood carjackings, shootings, and purse snatchings with laughter and jokes, writes Hyra, who also directs the Metropolitan Policy Center at American University.

It is a phenomenon that Hyra calls black branding, in which neighborhood-based organizations, real estate developers, restaurant owners and urban planners commodify and appropriate aspects of historically African American neighborhoods to promote tourism, homeownership, and community redevelopment, he writes in his book.

This kind of black branding is not unique to the District and sometimes includes less savory aspects of urban life.

In Brooklyns Crown Heights, a neighborhood that has been predominantly black since the late 1960s, a newly opened bar called Summerhill drew a firestorm of controversy when it advertised one of its cocktails next to a bullet hole-ridden wall  supposedly the remains of a rumored backroom illegal gun shop. The bullet holes turned out to be fake, and residents were outraged at the bars insensitivity.

Grays initiative pushes back against black branding and instead puts the work of branding in the hands of the neighborhoods residents.

But Gray insists that his project is less reactionary than it is proactive.

As opposed to against them, its for us, he said.

The goal, Gray added, isnt to push back against gentrification per se but rather to create a strong cultural identity for Southeast so that we honor who we are and can be.

Gray has for decades been a fixture in the citys arts community. He owned and directed Miya Gallery, an art space dedicated to showcasing black art and culture. He has served as commissioner for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. And he continues to regularly organize jazz performances as the curator of East River Jazz, which he founded in 2011.

Hyra thinks that Grays project, as one of several black-led branding initiatives, could potentially offer a way for local residents to manage the forces of development and gentrification.

But he also cautioned that there will always be multiple narratives within a single neighborhood and that those narratives will be bent and manipulated by different people  even local people.

Across the United States, black communities in different cities are exploring ways to mitigate the disruptive effects of gentrification.

In Portland, a group of black professionals has formed the Black Investment Corporation for Economic Progress, or Bicep, to reclaim their gentrifying neighborhood. The group created the Soul District, where it aims to promote black-owned businesses and push for a more socially responsible commercial development and revitalization.

In Grand Rapids, an entrepreneur founded Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses in 2013 to support black businesses and to empower neighborhoods to be sustainable.

And in New York, community groups such as the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network and the Queens Anti-Gentrification Project organize residents for the purpose of pushing back against gentrification.

Made East River is in its early days, and how it develops will depend on how many people sign up to list their work on Grays website. But in addition to hosting artist workshops, he is brimming with other ideas. They include hosting community cooking contests in churches and going to elderly centers to look for seniors who may have artistic skills to share with the younger generation.

East of the rivers ego needs to be stroked, somehow, he said.
D.C. regulators ordered the only full-service hospital in Southeast Washington to stop delivering babies last week because of dangerous mistakes the hospitals staff made with multiple pregnant women and newborns, a letter obtained by The Washington Post shows.

In one case, the hospitals staff members did not take critical steps to prevent the transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her newborn, such as delivering by Caesarean section or treating the infant shortly after birth with antiretroviral medication, according to the letter, written by D.C. Health Department Director LaQuandra Nesbitt to the hospitals chief executive.

In another, a morbidly obese woman who was about 35 weeks pregnant and had come to the hospital with trouble breathing was not properly monitored or treated, despite a history of potentially fatal blood-pressure problems.

The letter does not state what happened to either woman, or to the newborn or fetus, and does not identify them by name.

[Read the letter obtained by The Washington Post here]

The Aug. 7 letter provides the first official explanation  albeit an incomplete one  of why the Health Department took the dramatic step that day of closing the obstetrics ward at United Medical Center, a public hospital that serves the poor and predominantly African American residents of the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

Officials in Mayor Muriel E. Bowsers administration and Nesbitt, an appointed member of her Cabinet, have refused repeated requests from journalists and D.C. Council members to disclose the medical lapses that caused the closing of the hospitals delivery rooms and nursery. They have also declined to release the letter obtained by The Post.

In an interview Friday, Nesbitt repeatedly refused to say why her staff had shuttered the public hospitals obstetrics ward, asserting that to do so would violate the confidentiality of patients.

We found things that led us to decisions to restrict the hospitals license to not provide scheduled deliveries and the subsequent newborn nursery services that would occur, Nesbitt said, declining to specify what those issues were.

Pressed about public concern over medical lapses at the hospital, Nesbitt was firm.

Theres a difference between using the word conceal as a journalist and recognizing that a government has the legal right not to disclose certain information, she said, when asked why health officials were concealing the medical mistakes they discovered.

Hospital managers have also not publicly disclosed details surrounding the closure, saying in a statement last week it had been caused by three separate cases involving deficiencies in screening, clinical assessment and delivery protocols.

The statement said federal privacy laws preclude sharing specific details of these cases, however, UMC is taking immediate action to address these deficiencies.

Health policy experts said it was not unusual for government officials to be tight-lipped about reasons for shuttering or restricting hospital services, although inspection records are generally public. The federal Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, for example, posts inspection reports online for some hospitals.

Too often, however, patients privacy is used as a pretext for withholding information the public deserves to know, said Rosemary Gibson, a patient advocate and adviser at the Hastings Center research group.

The entire system is based on trust. Without being completely open and honest with the public, how can the public know if a place can be trusted? Gibson said. If there was a single patient or very small number of patients, patient privacy might come in to play. But most often, patient privacy becomes a cloak of secrecy to prevent the public from knowing risks that were allowed to fester.

D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), the councils health committee chairman, said in a statement Monday that the Health Departments refusal to disclose information to lawmakers or the public was unacceptable.

Nesbitts letter to hospital chief executive Luis A. Hernandez, written in highly technical medical language, does not answer key questions about lapses in the obstetrics ward  including what happened to the mothers and infants who were involved in those lapses.

The letter lays out two categories of violations: failure to comply with standards of good medical practice and failure to report a case of HIV infection.

In the case of a woman referred to only as Patient A, who was infected with HIV and had a high viral load at the time of delivery, the letter states that the hospital did not deliver her baby by Caesarean section, which reduces the likelihood the virus will be transmitted to the baby.

The hospital also did not conduct a common test for the presence of HIV in newborn or treat the infant with the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine between 48 and 72 hours after birth, as recommended. Nor did it report the mothers HIV infection to the Health Department, as required by law.

Hospital staff members did not properly monitor a second woman, Patient B, who was about 35 weeks pregnant and was in acute respiratory distress when she came for treatment. The woman had a history of pre-eclampsia, a blood-pressure condition that can be fatal for both mother and baby. In a third case, a newborn referred to as Infant A was not physically screened at the right time after birth.

Emma Brown contributed to this report.
Janice Hayes Willims leads a group visiting from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Florence, S.C., past the Maryland State House and a statue of Roger Brooke Taney, an opponent of freeing of slaves. (Don Wright/For The Washington Post)

Pressure is mounting on Maryland state leaders to remove a State House statue depicting one of the states foremost defenders of slavery, with a Democratic candidate for governor, the speaker of the Maryland House and a progressive group calling for its riddance Monday.

Benjamin Jealous, the former NAACP president who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2018, called on Hogan to scrap the statue of former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote an 1857 majority opinion that upheld slavery and said blacks born in the country were not U.S. citizens.

Jealous criticized Hogan for once describing efforts to eliminate such memorials as political correctness run amok, and he vowed to work for complete removal of Confederate monuments in Maryland if he wins the governorship.

He delivered his remarks in Baltimore, where Mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D) earlier that day announced plans to remove four Confederate statues in that city.

Also on Monday, House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said in a Facebook post that the time has come for Taney to come down.

Lynne Jackson, a descendant of Dred Scott, hugs Charles Taney III, a descendant of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney on the 160th anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, in front of the Maryland State House in March 2017. (Kenneth K. Lam/AP)

Alexandra Hughes, a spokeswoman for Busch, said the speakers decision was influenced by growing tension over the last year or so, including Saturdays deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville and the racially motivated 2015 mass shooting at an African American church in Charleston, S.C.

The fate of the statue is in the hands of the four-person State House Trust board that oversees the use of the capital complex. The board is chaired by Hogan and is made up of Busch, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and Charles L. Edson, chair of the Maryland Historical Trust Board of Trustees. A majority vote would be required to remove the Taney statue.

In a statement, Miller said he prefers educating the public about Taney rather than getting rid of the monument, but he added that he would not stand in the way if Hogan wanted to remove it.

Amelia Chasse, a spokeswoman for Hogan  who condemned the protest in Charlottesville as disgusting and vile  said Monday that the governor is willing to consider and discuss any proposed changes to monuments.

While we must be mindful not to scrub historical references that are difficult to confront, the use of these monuments as a rallying point for bigots and racists means that we must make the distinction between recognizing our history and glorifying dark chapters in our nations past, Chasse said.

On Sunday, the progressive group Our Maryland launched an online petition calling on Hogan to support the removal of the Taney statue. By Monday, the organization had gathered more than 500 signatures.

The state erected a statue of Taney on the State House lawn in 1872. Responding to criticism of the monument, the State House Trust added interpretive plaques explaining the controversy over his divisive opinion and its place in the evolution of the nations stance toward slavery.

The state has also placed a statue of Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African American U.S. Supreme Court justice and a native of Baltimore, on the opposite side of the capital building. Additionally, the trust agreed last year to erect statues honoring abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass in the State House.

Miller described the Marshall monument as a very public and purposeful compromise to give balance to the State House grounds, recognizing our State has its own history of which we have much to be proud but that is also flawed.

Similarly, Busch said he has always considered Marylands State House grounds to reflect the evolutionary arch of history . . . the movement of our State over time toward a more perfect union. But he added that we can find a better way to honor history while lighting a path towards progress, equality and understanding.

Our Maryland spokesman Pat Murray said the events in Charlottesville made it clear that the Taney statue needs to be removed from the State House. The politics of the matter changes when you see people wearing neo-Nazi helmets in the streets of Charlottesville, he said.

Jealous rejected the educational value of the Taney statue, saying the chief justice wrote the purest statement of a racist ideology ever written in Supreme Court history and that the events in Charlottesville brought into clear relief the danger in these times of being ambiguous, of allowing two messages to be sent.

He said the state should take down the Taney statue and use its metal to build one honoring Douglass, whom he described as a Marylander who stood for all of us.

The city of Frederick this year removed a bust of Taney in front of the Frederick City Hall after officials agreed the sculpture had to go.

Pugh said she has contacted companies about removing Confederate statues in Baltimore and placing them in Confederate cemeteries, but she noted that the city needs to seek permission from the Maryland Historical Trust and find money for the project. She did not announce a timeline for completing the plan.

Chasse said Hogan supports Pughs decision to move the statues in Baltimore City to a place where they can be displayed in their appropriate historical context. In 2015, the governor supported eliminating Sons of Confederate Veterans license plates in Maryland.
The Dalai Lama talks to the comedy writing and acting team of Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna in Irvine, Calif., in 1989. (AP)

Joe Bologna, an actor and writer who received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay of the 1970 comedy Lovers and Other Strangers and had a key supporting role as the egomaniacal variety show host in the 1982 hit comedy My Favorite Year, died Aug. 13 in Duarte, Calif. He was 82.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his manager, Matt Sherman.

Mr. Bologna was married to the actress Renee Taylor, with whom his career was indelibly entwined. They co-wrote and starred in the brief 1968 Broadway run of Lovers and Other Strangers, four short plays that found humor in generational, religious and ethnic differences amid a suburban wedding.

Anne Jackson and Gig Young starred in the well-received film version, which featured a supporting cast that included Anne Meara, Richard Castellano, Cloris Leachman and Diane Keaton. Mr. Bologna and Taylor shared an Oscar nomination for their adapted screenplay with David Zelag Goodman.

Mr. Bologna and Taylor went on to earn an Emmy Award for their TV special Acts of Love and Other Comedies (1973), and they also wrote and starred in the movie Made for Each Other (1971), a comedy about the coupling of two mismatched individuals who meet in group therapy. As with most of their work, the focus was on her Jewish background and his Italian heritage, her neurotic firecracker personality and his volatile hedonism.

They had two other short runs on Broadway, writing and starring in It Had to Be You (1981) and If You Ever Leave Me . . . Im Going With You! (2001), both again mining humor in their personal story of two opposites attracting. They also wrote and starred in the off-Broadway play Bermuda Avenue Triangle (1997) and in the 1996 film Love is All There Is.

Any time we have an argument, we know well get some fresh dialogue out of it, Mr. Bologna told the New York Times in 2001 about collaborating so frequently with his wife. Besides, working so close with each other is also very practical. I can have an affair with my director, writer and co-star at the same time. That saved a lot of wear and tear at my age.

In Hollywood, Mr. Bologna became a versatile character actor in comedy and drama and working both sides of the law. In 1973, he starred in the TV film Honor Thy Father as the crime family leader Salvatore Bill Bonanno and as a police officer who becomes a thief in the comedy Cops and Robbers. He played widower James Caans obnoxious brother in Chapter Two (1979), written by Neil Simon.

Mr. Bolognas most enduring screen part was in My Favorite Year, in the supporting role of King Kaiser, a 1950s TV host with manic tendencies and modeled on Sid Caesar of Your Show of Shows. The film starred Peter OToole as a swashbuckling but drunken and carousing movie star slated to appear on the show and Mark Linn-Baker as a mild-mannered writer on the show who becomes his minder.

Mr. Bologna played the smarmy best friend of Michael Caine in the limp sex farce Blame It on Rio (1984), a crazed scientist in Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) and the father of Adam Sandlers character in Big Daddy (1999). He was a voice actor in the 2006 animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Mr. Bologna, who appeared in a steady stream of made-for-TV films, starred with Matt LeBlanc in the flop TV sitcom Top of the Heap (1991), a spinoff from the Fox series Married With Children.

Joseph Bologna was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 30, 1934. He studied art history at Brown University, where he made his dramatic debut in a student production of the POW-camp play Stalag 17.

After Marine Corps service, he worked for a New York advertising agency and began directing TV commercials. On the side, he wrote jokes for comics and met a fellow aspiring writer, Renee Wexman, who adopted the professional surname of Taylor.

We spent most of our courting in Sardis, Mr. Bologna told the New York Daily News, referring to the restaurant in Manhattans theater district. I remember just living there and going upstairs to neck in a corner.

They married in 1965, and their reception was aired on The Merv Griffin Show, where Taylor had been a frequent guest. Besides Taylor, survivors include their son, Gabriel Bologna, an actor and director.
A strong earthquake struck yesterday off the coast of southern Sumatra in Indonesia, causing panicked residents to run from their homes but no major damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake yesterday morning had a magnitude of 6.4 and occurred at a depth of 35 kilometers.

It was centered 74 kilometers west of the coastal city of Bengkulu and also felt in Singapore, about 590 kilometers from the epicenter. It did not generate a tsunami.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the quake was felt for about 10 seconds in coastal cities and was strong enough to shake belongings from shelves and topple furniture.

Residents ran from their homes and there were power outages in some areas but no reports of casualties or structural damage to buildings, Nugroho said.

The intensity of the earthquake felt mild to moderate, he said.

Singapore broadcaster Channel NewsAsia said it received calls from residents in the city state who felt tremors.

Indonesia, the worlds largest archipelago, is prone to the seismic upheaval and tsunamis due to its location on major geological faults known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesias Aceh province in northern Sumatra. AP
An angry crowd beat a D.C. firefighter Sunday who authorities say may have been intoxicated or under the influence of drugs when he arrived at an emergency call for an injured child, according to police and fire officials.

A spokesman for the D.C. fire department said the 34-year-old firefighter, a 10-year veteran, is the subject of an internal investigation.

He is assigned to Engine 30, near the Marshall Heights neighborhood in Southeast Washington. The firefighter also is an emergency medical technician, and on Sunday, he had been assigned to Ambulance 30. Officials were not able say whether he had been driving.

No one was arrested. Two witnesses to the Sunday afternoon attack described a crowd surrounding the firefighter but could not give a lookout on the assailants, according to the police report.

The firefighter suffered a broken jaw and was in a hospital Monday. A department spokesman said surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. The firefighter could not be reached for comment.

The incident began with a call about 1 p.m. to an apartment in the 200 block of 37th Street SE, just north of Fort Dupont Park, to treat a 3-year-old child who had fallen inside an apartment and was injured.

According to a police report, the firefighter offered to treat the child but the parents refused because they felt [he] was inebriated.

The firefighter and his partner returned to the ambulance, where the attack occurred, police said.

The injured child was taken to a hospital in a different ambulance and was treated for what officials described as minor injuries. The childs mother declined to comment Monday.

The fire department issued a statement that said: At some point Sunday afternoon, while still on the scene, allegations were made that the member who was assaulted was possibly intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. The statement added that the firefighter is now the subject of a comprehensive internal review.
Years before a 20-year-old Ohio man allegedly rammed his car into a panicked crowd of activists in Charlottesville, it was his disabled mother who was terrified.

James Alex Fields Jr. was barely a teenager in 2010 when his mother  who uses a wheelchair  locked herself in a bathroom, called 911 and said her son had struck her head and put his hands over her mouth when she told him to stop playing a video game, according to police records. On another occasion, records show, he brandished a 12-inch knife. Once, he spit in her face.

Mom is scared he is going to become violent here, a dispatcher wrote in a log of the November 2011 call in which Fieldss mother, Samantha Bloom, requested police help in getting her son to a hospital for assessment.

The portrait of a violent teen emerged as Fields was denied bail Monday during his first court appearance in connection with the Charlottesville attack that killed one and injured 19 others when a Dodge Challenger plowed into a mass of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally Saturday. He is charged with second-degree murder, hit and run and three counts of malicious wounding.

Prosecutors did not detail the evidence against Fields, who appeared via a video link from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Fields came to Virginia to attend the rally, according to Bloom, who spoke to reporters over the weekend.

In an artists rendering of his bail hearing, James Alex Fields Jr. is seen via video link from jail as he appears before Judge Robert Downer in Charlottesville. (Stringer/Reuters)

Fields replied, No, sir, when asked in court whether he has any ties to the Charlottesville community.

[Fields was a Nazi sympathizer, former teacher says]

The college town, along with the nation, continued to grapple with the violence that took three lives, including two Virginia state troopers who were killed when their helicopter crashed in woods not far from Charlottesville. Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, was killed when Fields barreled toward her and other counterprotesters at a high rate of speed, police said.

A few hours after the court hearing, President Trump responded to growing criticism about his initial response to the violence by singling out the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists as criminals and thugs . . . that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

Earlier on Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in television appearances that the violence met the definition of domestic terrorism. Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said that his department responded to 250 calls on Saturday and that officers were still taking reports of assault from the weekend.

Thomas defended his departments handling of the explosive convergence of white nationalists from around the country and hundreds of counterprotesters. Both sides have criticized the failure of officers to keep the sides apart, but Thomas said officers coped as well as they could with protesters, who were determined to cause trouble despite agreements worked out in advance.

We worked out a plan to bring the groups in, Thomas said at a news conference. They changed the plan and entered the park in different directions.

1 of 52 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Tensions rise as white nationalists hold a rally in Charlottesville, Va. View Photos White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Caption White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville after torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus the night before. During the rally, a vehicle plowed into a crowd marching peacefully through downtown Charlottesville. Aug. 12, 2017 A white nationalist and a counterprotester face off. Evelyn Hockstein/for The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Richard Spencer, a leader of the alt-right, which calls for a form of American apartheid, told reporters Monday that his group would one hundred percent return to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. He also held his followers blameless in the Charlottesville melee.

Speaking in his Alexandria office after two Washington hotels canceled his reservations, Spencer said that blame for the deadly attack fell on authorities who he said failed to keep order.

Mayor Mike Signer and Governor Terry McAuliffe have blood on their hands, he said. Their job is to keep order. They kept chaos.

Spencer also refused to condemn Fields, claiming that he had seen video footage of Fieldss car being attacked by someone with a baseball bat.

Im not going to condemn this young man at this point, he said. This man could have lost control because he felt in danger and slammed on the accelerator and unintentionally killed someone.

Spencer also dismissed Trumps condemnation of white supremacists as hollow and vapid . . . kumbaya nonsense.

I dont think anyone takes it seriously, including the president, he said.

At his appearance before Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. in Charlottesville General District Court, Fields said he could not afford an attorney and was appointed one by the court.

Fields, who served a four-month stint in the Army in 2015, worked for about two years as a security guard in Ohio, earning $10.50 an hour and taking home about $650 every two weeks, according to income information filed with the court.

The judge informed Fields that he could not be defended by the Charlottesville public defenders office because a relative of someone who works for the office was involved in Saturdays incident. He did not specify whether that meant the protests or the crash.

Im going to make a decision that you could not have a bond until you see your attorney, the judge said in appointing Charles L. Weber Jr. to represent Fields.

Downer set Aug. 25, at 11 a.m., as the next court date to consider scheduling of a preliminary hearing.

The judge asked Fields whether he understood everything that had taken place, and Fields responded, Yes, sir.

The citys decision this year to change the name of Lee Park to Emancipation Park and to order the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the park has made it a lightning rod for white nationalists and extremists who see the moves as an attempt to erase white history.

Weber, Fieldss court-appointed attorney, is one of a dozen plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to stop the removal of the Lee statue.

The lawsuit, filed on March 20, describes Weber as a Vietnam fighter pilot with a special interest in the protection and preservation of war memorials and monuments located in the City, including those of Generals Lee and Jackson.

Those who wish to defend the statues had no recourse but to proceed in a court of law, he told The Washington Post when the suit was filed.

Weber did not return repeated calls on Monday.

[The crime that connects mass shooters and terror suspects: Domestic violence]

The 911 records indicating Fieldss teenage outbursts, first reported by the website TMZ, cover police calls made while Fields and his mother lived in Florence, Ky., about 20 minutes southwest of Cincinnati. In the past year, they moved near Toledo. The records seem to indicate that he was arrested and held in juvenile detention after the November 2011 call.

In the 2010 call, Bloom reported that her son had struck her in the head and threatened to beat her after she told him to stop playing video games. Bloom said her son was taking medication to control his temper and told authorities that she was locked in the bathroom.

In October of the following year, Bloom called 911 to say that her son was being very threatening toward her and that she didnt feel in control of the situation, according to a dispatchers notes.

And in November 2011, police were asked to come to the house because Bloom was said to want her son to be assessed at a hospital, according to the records. He had spat in her face, said the caller, whose connection to the family is not clear in the records.

The previous night, Fields had stood behind his mother with a 12-inch knife, the caller reported.

Scared mom to death not knowing if he was going to do something, the dispatchers report continued.

In Charlottesville on Monday, the late-summer rhythms of the college town began to reassert themselves. Parents helped students move into dorms and apartments ahead of the first day of classes at the University of Virginia next week. In places, it almost seemed as if the violence that shook the country had never happened.

Pedestrians made their way silently to one of two impromptu memorials for Heyer.

But at the center of it all, leaning against the controversial statue of the Confederate general, stood a reminder of all that had changed.

A hand-lettered sign read Heyer Memorial Park  an informal name change for a contested space.

Gillum, Miller and Hendrix reported from Washington. Joe Heim in Charlottesville, Justin Wm. Moyer in Washington and James Higdon in Florence, Ky., contributed to this report.
A man was fatally shot Monday afternoon in the Anacostia business district of Southeast Washington, according to D.C. police.

The shooting occurred about 12:30 p.m. in the 1900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

The shooting happened near the offices of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development and several businesses.

Police have not yet identified the victim.
A Maryland man has been charged in the fatal shooting of another man in Capitol Heights, Md., in July.

Martinez Ferrell, 39, of Landover was charged with murder in the killing of Kevin Hawkins, 29, according to Prince Georges County police.

Officers responding to a call for a welfare check found Hawkins, also of Landover, suffering from a gunshot wound on the side of the street about 11:30 a.m. July 29 in the 1400 block of Pine Grove Road, police said.

He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died Aug. 3, police said.

Detectives are trying to determine a motive in the case, police said, noting that Ferrell and Hawkins were acquaintances.
Three people have been charged in the gang-related disappearance of an 18-year-old from the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, police said.

Miguel Angel Ruiz Carrillo, of the 4200 block of Buckman Rd., remains missing and in danger. Police said he was last seen on the evening of Aug. 3 and was reported missing after falling to return home the next day.

Jose Vincent-Sosa, 20, of Alexandria, was one of three people arrested in the disappearance of 18-year-old Miguel Angel Ruiz Carrillo, the Fairfax County police said. (Fairfax County Police)

Jose Vincent-Sosa, 20, and Edwin Dinarte Moreno, 18, both of Alexandria, along with a female juvenile were arrested, police said. Each has been charged with abduction and gang participation.

Edwin Dinarte Moreno, 18, of Alexandria, was one of three people arrested in the disappearance of 18-year-old Miguel Angel Ruiz Carrillo, the Fairfax County police said. (Fairfax County Police)

Police said they have determined Carrillo was associated with gang activity, but have declined to say what gang they believe was involved in his disappearance.
White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville after torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus the night before. During the rally, a vehicle plowed into a crowd marching peacefully through downtown Charlottesville.

White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville after torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus the night before. During the rally, a vehicle plowed into a crowd marching peacefully through downtown Charlottesville.

White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville after torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus the night before. During the rally, a vehicle plowed into a crowd marching peacefully through downtown Charlottesville.

Of the harrowing images televised nationwide from Saturdays white nationalist demonstration in Charlottesville, one of the more chilling sights, amid hours of raging hatred and mayhem, was of camo-clad militiamen on the streets, girded for combat in tactical vests and toting military-style semiautomatic rifles.

Photos and video of the heavily armed cadre  a relatively small force commanded by a 45-year-old machinist and long-ago Navy veteran from western Pennsylvania  spread rapidly on social media, raising fears the clash of hundreds of neo-Nazis and counterprotesters might end in a bloodbath.

The show of strength was about allegiance . . . to the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, said Christian Yingling, leader of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia. He said he and his troops convoyed in to Charlottesville early Saturday to defend free speech by maintaining civic order so everyone present could voice an opinion, regardless of their views.

The fact that no shots were fired, Yingling said, was a testament to the discipline of the 32 brave souls serving under me during this particular operation. In a telephone interview Sunday, he sought to dispel the absurd idea in the publics mind that his group of patriots was allied with or sympathetic to the white nationalists.

Many militia units in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have mutual defense agreements, Yingling said. Because he has overseen several militia responses at contentious gatherings in recent months  helping keep the peace at right-wing public events in Boston; in Gettysburg and Harrisburg, Pa.; and at an April 29 rally in Harrisburg for President Trump  Yingling said the commander of a Virginia militia asked him to organize and take tactical command of the Charlottesville operation.

(Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)

He had never handled anything like this, Yingling said. And given the volatility of the event, it was not a good place to start.

When his group arrived in Charlottesville, we put our own beliefs off to the side, Yingling said. Not one of my people said a word. They were given specific orders to remain quiet the entire time we were there. . . . Our mission was to help people exercise their First Amendment rights without being physically assaulted.

He added: It was a resounding success until we were just so drastically outnumbered that we couldnt stop the craziness. It was nothing short of horrifying.

In the interview and in a Facebook Live monologue Sunday, Yingling detailed why the militia members participated, how he went about organizing their appearance, and how his group was received  which he said was not with much welcome.

Jacka---s, was how he described both sides, meaning the white nationalists, who billed the gathering as Unite the Right, and the counterprotesters, many marching under the banner of Antifa, for anti-fascist. Yingling also criticized police, saying that officers were poorly prepared for the violence and not assertive enough in combating it and that they should have enlisted the militiamen to help prevent the mayhem.

Instead, about five hours after Yingling and his platoon arrived at 7:30 a.m., they were ordered by police to leave the area, he said. By 1:42 p.m.  when a man reputed to be a neo-Nazi adherent allegedly drove his car intentionally through a crowded pedestrian mall and into a sedan, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others  the militiamen were far from Charlottesville, headed back to their encampment 50 miles northeast of the city, Yingling said.

He said several of his troops were battered and bloodied, having been attacked by people on both sides of the demonstration, yet they did not retaliate.

Christian Yingling, left, led a convoy of 32 militiamen to Charlottesville for the Unite the Right white nationalist rally Saturday. He said his forces attended to safeguard free speech. (Joe Heim/The Washington Post)

He said he does not know the suspect in the car killing, James Alex Fields, 20, of Ohio, or any of the white nationalists involved in Saturdays demonstration.

Virginias secretary of public safety, Brian Moran, rejected the assertion that police were ill-equipped to handle Saturdays unrest. To say we were unprepared or inexperienced is absolutely wrong, Moran declared Sunday, adding, We unequivocally acted at the right time and with the appropriate response.

He said: The fighting in the street was sporadic. But soon after it started, we began to have conversations about when to go in. The concern was that the fighting was in the middle of the crowd and that if we went in there, we would lose formation, lose contact. We would be putting the public and law enforcement in jeopardy.

Saturday marked the first time in 28 years the Virginia National Guard was used to help quell a civil disturbance. The militia showed up with long rifles, and we were concerned about that in the mix, Moran said. They seemed like they werent there to cause trouble, but it was a concern to have rifles of that kind in that environment.

Authorities also were worried that Yingling  who was carrying a Sig Sauer AR-556 semiautomatic weapon  and his troops would be mistaken for National Guard members by the public, Moran said.

Yingling called the weapons one hell of a visual deterrent to would-be attackers from either side. Although the weapons magazines were fully loaded, he said, the days standard procedure was that anyone who was carrying a long gun was not to have a round in the chamber. Now, our sidearms are generally chambered and ready to go.

The Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia is one of several Light Foot Militia outfits in states nationwide. In addition to having overall command of units in Pennsylvania, Yingling said, he is the leader of his home unit, the Light Foot Militia Laurel Highlands Ghost Company, based near his home in New Derry, Pa., about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. The Ghost Company has about a dozen members, he said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit watchdog group that monitors extremist organizations, classifies 276 militias in the country as antigovernment groups, meaning they generally define themselves as opposed to the New World Order, engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines.

The Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia is on the list, as are Light Foot Militia units in South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon. But the SPLC points out that inclusion on its list does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activity, or are racist.

Yingling said he abhors racism and that his company, which usually trains in the woods once or twice a month, is open to prospective members of all races and creeds, although its active roster is entirely white.

A Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm, Yingling said he was an aviation machinists mate for three years before leaving the service in 1993 as a petty officer third class, meaning he was four rungs up the enlisted ranks.

I joined the military to avoid the addictive lifestyle of my parents, he wrote in a Facebook post. I was raised in a VERY dysfunctional, abusive home. The military gave me the structure I needed. After his discharge, however, I quickly fell right into the lifestyle I had known all my life with my parents. I quit going to church, I started using drugs and alcohol, heavily becoming addicted to both. It started a . . . downward spiral which led to an eventual suicide attempt.

Then, in 2008, President Barack Obama was elected. Yingling said he was drawn then to right-wing, anti-government extremism.

I left my old addictive lifestyle behind and traded it for the lifestyle of a patriot, he wrote. I had found my calling as a militiaman. I founded The Westmoreland County Militia, Regulators 1st Battalion with two fellow patriots. He later left the unit and formed the Laurel Highlands Ghost Company.

No, I dont think the government, as a whole, is out to get us, he said in the interview, but a lot of people in society are self-absorbed. They dont get involved with the Constitution and defending the freedoms that it gives us. We need to defend those freedoms  for everyone, on all sides of the political debate  or eventually well lose them.

About a month ago, when he learned the Unite the Right event was being planned, Yingling said, I, like most militia commanders, did not want to touch it with a 10-foot pole for fear of being wrongly perceived as an ally of white supremacists. But after talking it over with a fellow Light Foot commander, in Upstate New York, he decided he had a duty to defend the right of free speech on the streets of Charlottesville.

Through Facebook and various militia chat rooms, he said, he recruited militia members from various East Coast units and organized a rendezvous Friday night at a farm in Unionville, Va. He said he was angered and embarrassed that only 32 people showed up. Many others, he said, were afraid of being publicly branded as racists.

We knew what we were walking into, he said on Facebook Live. We knew what the results were going to be. And yet we walked in anyway. We werent afraid. And we didnt give a good damn about our image or about what anybody thought about us. And I still dont.
Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II on Monday found himself trending on Twitter, and not in a good way, after telling CNN political commentator Symone Sanders to shut up on TV.

The remark came during a heated discussion about President Trumps response to deadly violence that erupted over the weekend at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

[White House confronts backlash over Trumps remarks on Charlottesville]

Sanders was critical of Trump for not calling out rally participants as white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Klansmen, blaming the omission on the influence of white supremacist sympathizers in the White House, including chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

(The Washington Post)

Cuccinelli, a Republican though hardly a Trump cheerleader, took issue with efforts to smear the administration.

Each talked over the other at times. And at one point, CNN host Chris Cuomo asked Cuccinelli to lay out his argument. Cuccinelli began. Sanders soon interrupted. And Cuccinelli lashed out.

Can I finish, Symone? he said. Will you just shut up for a minute and let me finish? God bless America!

Cuccinelli tried to go on with his argument, And so all these racists come in, all these neo-Nazis from all over the country. . . . 

But Sanders and Cuomo did not let that pass.

Pardon me, sir, she said. You dont get to tell me to shut up on national television. . . . Under no circumstances do you get to speak to me in that manner. You should exhibit some decorum.

Cuomo also scolded Cuccinelli. He then struggled to get both guests to pipe down long enough for him to give a longer lecture, sounding at times like a frazzled nursery schoolteacher threatening to put the kids in time out.

Ken, stay civil, Cuomo began. Both of you, stop for a second. Symone? Ken? Symone? Ken and Symone, hold on a second. You need a reset. You need a reset. Ken, you dont want to use language like that when youre talking to Symone. You can disagree, but you dont talk like that on this show. You know better than that, Ken.

Cuccinelli insisted he was in the right. I keep getting interrupted. I keep getting interrupted, he said. Eventually Ive got to stand up for myself.

Cuomo: Ken, you can stand up for yourself and still be civil.

Cuccinelli: Then how do you make them stop talking when they keep interrupting you?

That comment further enraged Sanders: Them? They? Im sitting right here.

Cuomo apologized to Sanders and twice prodded Cuccinelli to do the same.

Ken, I know you, Cuomo said. You dont talk to people like that. I know you dont mean to insult somebody like that on this show. Would you like to say that for yourself?

Well, not exactly.

Of course not, Cuccinelli said, but I just cant be walked over  over and over and over.

The discussion returned to the subject of Trump, with Cuomo asking Cuccinelli to help me understand why the president did not name the hate groups.

Well, look, this president defies understanding on my part, Cuccinelli said before going on to express confidence that as the week goes on, Trump will make stronger statements like the vice president did . . . especially as they learn more facts from the ground.

As the segment wound up, Cuomo once again invited Cuccinelli to apologize. And Cuccinelli kinda, sorta said he was sorry.

I apologize for shut up, and Ill accept her apology for interrupting me repeatedly and talking over me, Cuccinelli said.

Sanders shot back, I dont have an apology for you.

Lets leave it there, Cuomo concluded.

But Cuccinelli called Sanders after the show to apologize.

I called Symone and apologized for telling her to shut up, Cuccinelli later said in an interview with The Washington Post. As someone who would like more civil discussion, I need to make sure that I try to contribute to that effort.

He said Sanders seemed to welcome the call.

She said she appreciated me calling to apologize, he said. And she sounded very sincere to me, as I hope I sounded to her, because I was.

Cuccinelli said he had spoken out of frustration with both the substance and freewheeling style of the discussion.

I was laying back from a discussion standpoint for a fair bit, but felt like I couldnt get a word in edgewise, he said. Chris was just letting it fly. That just turns up the heat.

Cuccinelli said he had also been upset by the attempt that was going on there to take these awful people  the Nazi types, the Klansmen types  and to broad brush other people like the president and people who work for the president as if they all stand with them.

Im not a knee-jerk Trump defender, said Cuccinelli, who supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. But that just goes too far. It is not constructive and is, I think, just taking advantage of a very tragic occurrence to try and accomplish political goals.
A view of the cured and finished buds, as well as growing medical marijuana plants, at Josh Gender's medical marijuana growing operation in D.C. in 2016. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Medical marijuana regulators in Maryland on Monday authorized eight companies to grow the plant and four businesses to process it into medicine.

The decision at a meeting of the states medical cannabis commission comes one year after the panel chose 15 growers and 15 processors from a large pool of applicants. The winners in that preliminary round were given one year to pass inspections, background checks and financial vetting to get final licenses to start operating. The companies approved Monday have all gone successfully through the vetting process.

In May, the commission gave final approval to Marylands first legal marijuana grower, ForwardGro of Anne Arundel County, and suspended another firm, MaryMed, amid questions over legal troubles embroiling its parent company.

[Maryland just got its first licensed grower of medical marijuana]

The remaining cultivation and processing companies preapproved last year have until Aug. 28 to obtain licenses.

Patrick Jameson, the commissions executive director, says his agency continues to conduct inspections and might grant extensions if companies run into delays beyond their control, such as problems obtaining local approval.

Marylands medical marijuana program has been mired in controversy and litigation over the way companies were selected to launch the potentially lucrative industry.

If the commission denies licenses to any preapproved growers or processors, that will create opportunities for other businesses to enter the market.

State marijuana regulators also launched a probe of potential conflicts between companies and experts hired by the state to grade their applications, after a report in The Washington Post that revealed connections.

[Maryland House reprimands Democrat over medical marijuana business ties]

In one instance, Temescal Wellnesss successful processor application was evaluated by the wife of the listed general manager.

Temescal received a cultivation license on Monday but not a processor license. A representative of Temescal at the commission meeting declined to comment, but a lawyer for the firm previously said it was cooperating with the commissions request for information. Jameson, the commission executive director, says the company remains under investigation.
Corey A. Stewart, who is running for U.S. Senate and nearly won the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia on a pledge to preserve the states Confederate monuments, said white nationalists had been unfairly singled out for their role in the weekend chaos in Charlottesville that left three dead and dozens injured.

Stewarts remarks Sunday ran counter to sentiments expressed by most other Virginia politicians, from both parties.

[Alleged driver of car that plowed into Charlottesville crowd was a Nazi sympathizer, former teacher says]

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D)  who is running to succeed McAuliffe  and Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) denounced white supremacy during remarks at church services in Charlottesville on Sunday.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, who is running against Northam after barely beating Stewart for the nomination, took a low-key approach, sending out two statements, one of which lamented the loss of life and decried vile hate. Gillespie initially did not mention white nationalists. But later, he did so when responding to a message from a fellow Republican, former delegate David Ramadan, who prodded Gillespie on Twitter to call the attack terrorism.

Corey A. Stewart said white nationalists had been unfairly singled out for their role in the weekend chaos in Charlottesville. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

After Ramadan tweeted, Its a #terrorist attack Ed not just a loss of life. Time to call things as they are, Gillespie responded, Definitely tragic effect of vile neo Nazi and white supremacist actions. He also attended Catholic church services in Charlottesville, but not did alert the media ahead of time or speak. However, after Mass, he tweeted: Weve seen evil in white supremacist torches and howling neo Naziism. God in the quiet service & sacrifice of Lt. Cullen, Trooper Bates.

H. Jay Cullen and Berke M.M. Bates of the state police died when the helicopter in which they were monitoring the violence crashed.

[Trump didnt call out white supremacists. He was rebuked by members of his own party]

State Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, a Republican from Fauquier County who is running for lieutenant governor, called the events a vile display of racism, while GOP attorney general nominee John Adams described them as Nazi-ideology on display.

Democrat Justin Fairfax, who is running for lieutenant governor, and attempting to be the first African American elected statewide since L. Douglas Wilder served as governor, called for unity against those who want to divide communities.

This moment is also a reminder of the need to tone down political rhetoric and the negativity we often see in our current politics, Fairfax said.

But Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors, blamed half the violence on counterprotesters and criticized fellow Republicans who condemned the white nationalists.

[Video: White nationalist rally organizer chased away by protesters at news conference]

All the weak Republicans, they couldnt apologize fast enough, Stewart said in an interview with The Washington Post. They played right into the hands of the left wing. Those [Nazi] people have nothing to do with the Republican Party. There was no reason to apologize.

However, Stewart has made several joint appearances with Jason Kessler, organizer of the Unite the Right rally that sparked the unrest in Charlottesville.

Stewart met Kessler at an event earlier this year to protest the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park in Charlottesville. And at one point during the primary race, Stewart attended a Charlottesville news conference with Kessler and Isaac Smith, founders of Unity and Security for America (USA), a fledgling group that calls for defending Western Civilization.

[Charlottesville victim was there standing up for what was right]

Smith sometimes introduced Stewart at events and appeared at his side with alt-right symbols. Kessler and Smith also joined Stewart at a protest at the University of Virginia.

Stewart told The Post on Sunday that he has not had any recent interaction with Kessler.

He does his own thing, said Stewart, who plans to challenge incumbent Tim Kaine (D) for a Senate seat next year. Hes got to answer for himself.

Rep. Thomas Garrett, a Republican whose district includes Charlottesville, faced criticism after a months-old photo of him posing with Kessler circulated on Twitter.

A spokesman for Garrett told the Charlottesville Daily Progress in May that Garrett had met with Kessler to discuss a town hall and an unrelated terrorism bill.

Garrett tweeted Saturday to condemn what he called the despicable escalation of racist rhetoric in Charlottesville. Later, in an interview with Fox News, he said, The victims of this racist violence are my constituents. . . . It blows my mind that this many racist bigots actually exist in this country.

Stewart said he had no regrets about making Confederate symbols the rallying cry for his campaign and rejected the notion that highlighting the issue fanned the flames. But he worries that the violence will lead Republicans to give in to demands for the removal of statues of Confederates.

I am anticipating that the left will try to use the violence in Charlottesville as an impetus to removing that statue and all the others, he said. And theyre going to try to shame Republicans into agreeing to the removal of historical monuments.

The Lee statue in Charlottesville has created a conundrum for Gillespie, a longtime party operative and former lobbyist who needs support from some Stewart voters if he is to beat Northam in November. Gillespie has said that he does not support removal of the Lee statue, but that such decisions should be left to local jurisdictions.

At the Mount Zion First African Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Northam sat at the front of the church, as did McAuliffe and Herring, who is seeking reelection to a second term.

A low-key public speaker, Northam spoke quietly to reporters who pressed him for a comment on his way into the church. But he brought the congregation to its feet at times when his time came at the pulpit.

We come to you to reassure you that the commonwealth of Virginia, and all of us that are in this together, will not and do not condone white supremacy, Northam said, prompting the first ovation.

He condemned the groups that brought their hatred and bigotry to the commonwealth of Virginia. Thats not what were about. Im here as your lieutenant governor and also as a doctor to start the healing process.

The occasion brought new passion to a well-worn passage in Northams stump speech, which draws on his work as a pediatric neurologist.

I was pleased when I walked into your place of worship to see the children in the front of your church, he said. As a doctor and as a pediatrician, Ive looked into the eyes of a lot of babies. And when you look into a babys eyes, you dont see the hatred and the bigotry that we saw come to Charlottesville yesterday. And we have to ask, Where does it come from? Who taught theses people? 

He went on to talk about the need to promote inclusivity and equality, to teach that we are all Gods people.

Thats the way God would have it. To God be the glory, he concluded, once again bringing the congregation to its feet.
Hackers last week released an email from HBO in which the company expressed willingness to pay them USD250,000 as part of a negotiation over data swiped from HBOs servers.

The July 27 email was sent by John Beyler, an HBO executive who thanked the hackers for making us aware of previously unknown security vulnerabilities. The executive asked for a 1-week delay and said HBO was willing to make a good faith payment of $250,000, calling it a bug bounty reward for IT professionals rather than a ransom.

HBO declined to comment. A person close to the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the email, but said it was an attempt to buy time and assess the situation. The same hackers have subsequently released two dumps of HBO material and demanded a multi-million dollar ransom.

Whether or not HBO ever intended to follow through with its $250,000 offer, the email raised questions Friday among security professionals about the importance of the data and whether HBOs reaction might encourage future attacks.

Its interesting that theyre spinning it as a bug bounty program, said Pablo Garcia, CEO of FFRI North America, based in Aliso Viejo, California. Theyre being extorted. If it was a bug bounty, itd be on the up and up.

Beylers email to the hackers said the company was working very hard to review all the material they provided, and also trying to figure out a way to make a large transaction in bitcoin, the hackers preferred payment method.

You have the advantage of having surprised us, Beyler wrote. In the spirit of professional cooperation, we are asking you to extend your deadline for one week.

The first HBO hack became publicly known on July 31. Beylers email, sent several days earlier, might have been an attempt to make the problem go away without too much bad publicity for HBO, said Sanjay Goel, a professor at the University at Albany and chairman of its information technology management department.

Hackers are not in this game for $250,000; this probably took them a lot of time and effort, Goel said. Thats a very, very small amount in these kinds of negotiations.

Then, on Monday, hackers using the name Mr. Smith posted a fresh cache of stolen HBO files online, and demanded that the network pay a ransom of several million dollars to prevent further such releases.

The leaks included scripts from Game of Thrones episodes and a months worth of email from the account of HBOs vice president for film programming. There were also internal documents, including a report of legal claims against the network and job offer letters to top executives.

HBO has said that it is working with law enforcement and cybersecurity firms to investigate the attack, which is the latest to hit a Hollywood business. In April, a hacker claimed to have released episodes of Netflixs Orange is the New Black ahead of their official launch date.

The leaks so far have fallen well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony in 2014.

But paying ransoms to hackers can be dangerous because it shows that being a bad-guy hacker is a good business, said cybersecurity expert Oren Falkowitz, CEO of Redwood City, California- based Area 1 Security. Companies would be better off investing in preventing email spear-fishing attempts and other hacking techniques, he said. AP
A buildings primary purpose may be to keep the weather out, but most of them do such an effective job of this that they also inadvertently deprive us of contact with two key requirements for our well-being and effectiveness: nature and change.

In the 1950s, Donald Hebbs arousal theory established that people need a degree of changing sensory stimulation to remain fully attentive. And 30 years later, landmark research by health-care designer Roger Ulrich showed that hospital patients in rooms with views of nature had lower stress levels and recovered more quickly than patients whose rooms looked out at a brick wall.

Unfortunately, many buildings  especially in cities  are not blessed with green surroundings. I am part of a group of architects and psychologists at the University of Oregon that has been examining ways to overcome this problem using an aspect of nature available anywhere: the weather. Think of rippling sunlight reflecting from water onto the underside of a boat, or the dappled shadows from foliage swaying in a breeze. Other examples can be seen at vitalarchitecture.org.

When we brought these kinds of natural movements indoors, we found that they reduced heart rates and were less distracting than similar, artificially generated movement. Early results suggest that seeing live natural movement of this kind in an indoor space may be more beneficial than viewing outdoor nature through a window, and could not only help to keep us calm but also improve our attention.

These findings are consistent with the attention-restoration theory proposed by University of Michigan psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. Among other things, their work suggests that familiar natural movement patterns of this kind have the capacity to keep us alert without being distracting.

Beyond green buildings

Over the past two decades, architects and engineers have developed approaches to building design that greatly reduce the impact of buildings on the natural environment (green buildings) and their human occupants (healthy buildings). But these movements focus primarily on new buildings, which benefit only a relatively small number of people compared with the many who could be helped by making existing structures more habitable.

Moreover, most people  including many of those responsible for ordering the construction and remodeling of buildings  are not aware of these advances. Many key features of green buildings  such as energy and water conservation, for example  are not immediately noticeable, and as a result, these simple but important practices are significantly underused.

Several leading commentators on sustainable design, including Judith Heerwagen and the late Stephen Kellert, have suggested that to have any meaningful impact on the daunting environmental problems we face, green buildings can no longer simply do no harm. Rather, they argue that buildings need to actively demonstrate ways of living in harmony with nature. Our work suggests that bringing the movements of sunlight, wind and rain indoors could make passive energy-saving features in buildings more obvious to the people who order and occupy them, and so greatly increase their usage.

Calming effects

Light shelves, for example, are devices that are commonly retrofitted to the windows of buildings to reflect daylight deeper into an interior. Former University of Oregon masters degree student Aaron Weiss and I have shown that when a shallow layer of water is added to the top of a light shelf and is disturbed by the wind, the shelf reflects moving sunlight patterns onto the ceiling inside.

In controlled experiments using a windowless room, with a fan and powerful light to represent the wind and sun, we found that this kind of wind-animated light not only lowered occupants heart rates but was also less distracting than similar, artificially generated moving patterns. Importantly, adding wind movement did not reduce the amount of light the shelves transmitted. However, it did make the shelves much more visible to people using the space.

We found the same was true of a range of other key passive energy-saving techniques, including solar heating, shading and natural ventilation. Adding sun-, wind- or rain-generated movement did not reduce their environmental performance, and in many cases it revealed their operation to those using the building.

The calming effects of natural indoor animation could be particularly helpful in stressful locations, such as hospitals and doctors offices  especially in places where people experience the additional stress of waiting. Aquariums are often used in medical waiting rooms, for example, because they have been found to have a calming effect on patients. The stress reduction can be even greater, however, when indoor movement comes from uncontrolled nature such as the weather.

But how can we invite the movements of the elements indoors without undermining a buildings first task  sheltering us from the weather? There are three simple ways. We can enclose weather-generated movement in glass courtyards; use sunlight to project movement from outdoors onto interior surfaces; or project it onto the outside of translucent materials, such as obscured glass.

No substitute for live nature

There are many kinds of recorded natural phenomena available today. We can watch videos of gently rolling ocean waves or fall asleep to the recorded sounds of falling rain. There are even sophisticated software programs that can generate these effects digitally. So why go to the trouble of redesigning buildings to bring these effects indoors?

To answer this question, former University of Oregon graduate student Jeffrey Stattler and I projected a digital tree shadow onto the wall of a windowless room and tested whether there was any difference in peoples responses depending on whether the electronic tree moved with live changes in the wind outside or according to a computer program.

Most people could not tell whether the tree movements were generated by the wind or by computer. But when they believed the movement was wind-generated, their assessments of its beneficial effects were significantly higher in all categories.

In other words, indoor sensory change is likely to have a much greater beneficial effect on us when we think it is natural and live. So unless we are prepared to mislead people, there is no real substitute for using the real thing.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most people in the United States now spend more than 90 percent of their lives inside buildings. Features that make us more relaxed and productive in those indoor environments, then, could have significant positive effects on a great many lives.

Lighting, heating and cooling those buildings accounts for almost 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption. The same natural indoor animation effects could also help to reduce that figure by increasing public awareness of passive energy-saving in buildings.

In addition to its practical benefits for people and the environment, weather-generated indoor animation also shows us that, while separating us from its extremes, buildings can also reconnect us with nature.

Nute is a professor of architecture at the University of Oregon. This article was originally published on theconversation.com.

Read more

The health hazards of sitting

A machine that used to be considered punishment is now a $1.4 billion fitness industry

Climate change is keeping Americans awake at night. Literally.
SOUTH ASIA

At least 173 killed in days of flooding

Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed landslides and floods that have killed at least 173 people in recent days and displaced millions across northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh.

Police in Nepal were searching Monday for scores of people reported missing after rivers burst their banks and killed at least 80, according to a police spokesman.

Flooding swamped seven districts in the Indian state of Bihar and left more than half a million people homeless. Officials said two people died.

Twenty-seven people have been killed in Bangladesh, while 600,000 are marooned, authorities said Monday. About 368,000 people are said to have taken refuge in makeshift government shelters.

In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, floods have washed away thousands of homes. Officials said at least 2.5 million people have been affected and 18 killed.

In the state of Himachal Pradesh, soldiers recovered the bodies of 46 people who had been traveling in two buses that were buried Sunday in a landslide.

 Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

Tense encounter with Iran drone, U.S. says

An Iranian drone made several passes by the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, the second such incident in a week. The Navy described the action as unsafe, unprofessional and dangerous.

The unmanned aerial vehicle made the passes by the Nimitz while the carrier was in international waters, Navy Lt. Ian M. McConnaughey said Monday. The drone, an Iranian QOM-1, moved in despite the Navy making repeated radio calls to establish communications, he said, and it came within 1,000 feet of U.S. aircraft flying near the carrier.

The incident came five days after another QOM-1 drone came within 100 feet of a F/A-18E Super Hornet flying off the Nimitz. In that incident, the drone nearly collided with the Navy jet while it was in a holding pattern, the Pentagon said. The Super Hornet maneuvered out of the way.

McConnaughey said there have been 14 incidents between U.S. and Iranian naval forces this year in which the U.S. military labeled something the Iranians did as unsafe and unprofessional.

 Dan Lamothe

YEMEN

Coalition accused of strangling economy

Yemens Central Bank says the Saudi-led coalition is strangling the countrys economy by preventing planes from flying in newly minted cash, reflecting a struggle between the government and the United Arab Emirates, key members of the military alliance.

Both are at war with Shiite Houthi rebels, who control much of northern Yemen. But the UAE is believed to be at odds with Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi over his embrace of a local affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

In a statement Sunday, Central Bank Gov. Mansr al-Qaiti accused the coalition of banning 13 flights carrying money printed in Russia to the southern city of Aden, where the government is based, since April. He said the coalition was strangling the economy and denying it needed liquidity.

At the heart of the dispute is Hadis alliance with the Islah party, the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE and other Persian Gulf countries view as a threat.

Meanwhile, a bombing in the southern city of Qataba killed 13 people, security officials said. No one asserted responsibility, but al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are active in southern Yemen.

 Associated Press

2 killed in attacks on U.N. peacekeeping sites in Mali: The United Nations said gunmen attacked two U.N. peacekeeping sites in Mali, killing a Malian soldier and a U.N. peacekeeper. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the two gunmen were killed when peacekeepers fired back. The Mali operation is the deadliest of the U.N.s 16 global peacekeeping missions.

Russian says it foiled Islamic State plot: Russias top domestic security agency said it has thwarted suicide bombings in Moscow planned by the Islamic State group. Four people have been arrested, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said. One of them is a Russian national, the FSB said, and the others are from Central Asia.

 From news services
A makeshift memorial of flowers and a photograph of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville on Sunday. Heyer died when a car rammed into a group of people who were protesting the presence of white supremacists who gathered in the city on Saturday. (Steve Helber/Associated Press)

Regarding the Aug. 13 front-page article Charlottesville protest takes a deadly turn:

We are embarking on a slippery slope by tearing down Civil War statues that offend. I find the notion of slavery abhorrent and any tribute to it revolting. Equally disdainful to me are the concepts of Manifest Destiny, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the internment of U.S. citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II and many other dark times in our countrys past and present. I hold dear our nations tenets of liberty, equality, democracy, popular consent and religious freedom, but from our colonial beginnings to present day, our country has often fallen short of its noble decree.

If we remove monuments to every person who has offended, I am afraid we will have no monuments left. We need to put everything in context. Removing these statues would not obliterate the ignoble actions of the people they represent; more likely it would erase history itself. In the immortal words of George Santayana: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Lisa ODonnell, Springfield

I used to be a defender of the Confederate battle flag. Thats over now. It ended Saturday with the insanity in Charlottesville.

That flag has been stolen from our Southern heritage by the worst elements of American society: the racists, the haters, the ignorant and the fools. They have taken the flag that my ancestors died for and perverted it for immoral purpose. They have stained that flag beyond redemption. I will never forgive them for that.

Robert E. Lee is a personal hero of mine. He signed an honorable surrender at Appomattox Court House, went home and began doing all that he could to start rebuilding the country. He spent the rest of his days working to educate young leaders who would themselves work to rebuild the state and the nation into a more just society. The many statues and memorials honoring him remind Americans that honor, duty and the struggle for justice are worthy standards to live by.

The same people who have co-opted and disgraced the Confederate battle flag now shame and disgrace other memorials to our past, such as the statue of Lee in Charlottesville, and they do so without understanding that their words and actions dishonor Lee and that they disgrace the things Lee stood for.

Lee would weep if he could see what these people have done in his name. As a Virginian, I am weeping at the shame of it.

Take down those statues, hide those flags. They properly belong only to history now. Lee would be ashamed of the people we have become.

Curt Phillips, Abingdon, Va.

One thing I found underreported in The Posts coverage from Charlottesville was the men dressed in military fatigues and armed with assault rifles  members of self-described militias who were not in the military or police but were effectively posing as official security forces [Militiamen came to city to protect free speech, chief says, Violence in Virginia/news, Aug. 14].

As someone who lived for eight years in Colombia, a country with a long history of illegal armed groups in uniform patrolling areas where they have no official authority, I find this aspect of what happened in Charlottesville deeply disturbing. The photographs bring to mind images of right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas filling a void of government authority and imposing themselves upon civilians by force.

What these militias did is akin to posing as police officers. It creates confusion and undermines the governments authority. It leads down a scary path of chaos from which Colombia is still struggling to emerge and into which Venezuela today is quickly falling with its own groups of citizen militias.

It is important that the public be informed about this in order to judge the health of our democracy.

Greg Haugan, Alexandria
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs an Aug. 3 meeting near the village of Novobureisky, Russia, on implementing major investment projects in the countrys Far East. (Alexey Nikolsky / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool/European Pressphoto Agecny)

Several parts of the U.S.-Russia arms-control and nonproliferation architecture are cracking due to a combination of Russian misbehavior and American neglect. The question is whether the Trump team has the will and skill to repair those cracks before that structure comes crumbling down.

Complicating the effort is the fact that U.S.-Russia relations are at a historic low point, following Russian interference in our presidential election, the Russian intervention in Ukraine and an escalating cycle of sanctions and diplomatic retaliation. The arms-control community is urging the Trump administration to work with Russia to address big problems with our cooperation before its too late.

Some Republicans in Congress, however, are eager to confront Russia on arms control, ramp up U.S. retaliation and even push for withdrawal from these agreements. For President Trump, who views the agreements as bad deals struck by his predecessors, saving them is a hard sell. But he should carefully consider the benefits of these deals before throwing them away.

The ongoing tensions with Moscow have increased the risk that the nuclear and arms control architecture built up by Bush, Reagan and Obama will collapse, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. We have to be careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face because we are upset with Russia.

One such troubled agreement hit the newspapers last week when unarmed Russian air force jets flew over the Pentagon, CIA and other sensitive national security sites, alarming many Americans. Even in Washington, most are not familiar with the Treaty on Open Skies , which has allowed the United States, Russia and 32 other countries to fly over each others territory since 2002.

Russia has been violating the treaty for years, according to the State Department, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Senate. Russia doesnt allow flights over key parts of its territory and takes other steps to keep the United States and other countries from realizing their treaty rights.

Some in Congress want the U.S. government to place tit-for-tat restrictions on Russian flights. Some military leaders would prefer to see the treaty go away altogether, because of the information Russia is able to collect, given technological advances.

I would love to deny the Russians having that capability, Marine Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a House committee in March.

Trump administration officials are looking at the Open Skies Treaty as part of their overall interagency nonproliferation policy review. They should keep in mind that it provides transparency on Russia not just for the United States but for Americas allies as well.

Congress is also planning to soon confront Russia on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or the INF. Russia has been violating the INF for years, according to the U.S. government, by developing and deploying a new cruise missile that violates the treatys range limits, threatening Europe.

Both the Senate and House versions of the defense authorization bill would provide tens of millions of dollars for the United States to develop its own new cruise missile, potentially putting America in violation. Senate Democrats are planning to fight that provision when the bill hits the Senate floor next month.

In November, Barack Obamas State Department met with Russia on the INF treaty. The talks were fruitless, but now efforts to reestablish U.S.-Russia negotiations are underway. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov in Washington on July 18 and agreed to hold Strategic Stability Talks in the near future.

Thomas Countryman, the State Department official responsible for the issue until January, told me that if Congress put the United States in violation, or if Trump pulled out of the treaty, the country would lose out.

For the United States to terminate the treaty would do nothing to enhance our national security, he said. It would be a public relations victory for Moscow, and we should do everything possible to pursue a less radical solution.

Shannon and Ryabkov also pledged to continue consultations under the New START treaty, which limits deployed long-range nuclear weapons. That agreement, up for extension in 2021, is also at risk. Agreeing to extend it now would bolster long-term confidence in the treaty and help to stabilize the relationship, Countryman said.

In their first phone call after Trumps inauguration, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a New START extension but Trump refused and called it a bad deal, after he paused to ask his aides what it was.

Our current low point in relations was not caused by Russian misbehavior on arms control; it was caused by Russias interference in our democracy. But dealing with arms-control issues using tough diplomacy in conjunction with allies could provide Trump a way to achieve what he claims to want most  a path toward improving relations. In the process, he could also avoid another arms race.

Read more from Josh Rogins archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
When Al Gore became vice president, legendary scholar Richard Neustadt  one of Gores former professors  sent him a memo with advice. One sentence stuck with me: The White House staff lives in the present, the VPs staff in the future.

Other than presiding over the Senate and breaking its ties, the Constitution gives the vice president only one duty: wait. It would be inhuman to expect anyone ambitious enough to become vice president to undertake that duty passively. It would be irresponsible for any vice president not to devote some time to thinking about what if. But it has been taboo for the vice president to use his rectangular office in the West Wing for such future-oriented activities in a way that casts a shadow over the present activities in the oval-shaped one down the hall.

Thus, reports that Vice President Pence is going beyond mere active waiting, to making moves to position himself to run if President Trump does not seek reelection, have created controversy. Though the vice presidents office has denied that any conclusions should be drawn from his reported actions, it has not disputed many of the specifics, including a trip to Iowa, meetings with major donors and establishing a political action committee. In the ensuing hoopla, Pence has been portrayed as gauchely overeager, like a diner in a fancy restaurant leaning over and asking a stranger, Are you going to finish that?

As the only former chief of staff to two vice presidents, I think this reaction has been misguided in two critical respects.

First, what Pence is doing is not beyond the pale for an ambitious vice president. While the last two sitting vice presidents to run for president  George H.W. Bush and Al Gore  were a bit more discreet, they nonetheless began politicking with party insiders, donors and early-primary-state muckety-mucks from their earliest days in office. Even during Bill Clintons first term, it was hard to find an Iowa county chair, New Hampshire legislator or DNC finance committee member who had not gotten a birthday call from Gore. Bushs handwritten notes to political insiders were legendary and ubiquitous.

Moreover, there is a strong logic to undertaking such activity early in a presidents tenure. Vice-presidential stroking of party egos spares the president the need to do such pedestrian politicking himself. A vice president operating under the presidential mantle does build long-term relations and accumulates long-term chits for his own benefit, but also creates political capital that the administration can leverage in the here and now. Working to boost candidates in midterm elections likewise serves both present and future agendas. In this way, nothing Pence has been doing on the political front should give Trump any heartburn.

At the same time, however, it is likewise a mistake to assume any of this will do Pence any good if Trumps presidency collapses. In the 213 years since the 12th Amendment created our system of joint presidential-vice-presidential tickets, no vice president has been elected to the highest office after serving with a president who declined to seek, or was defeated in seeking, a second elected term. And as for coming to office via the presidents ouster, the only vice president to follow that path, Gerald Ford, lost when he campaigned to retain the office  and he had far less to do with President Richard M. Nixons scandals than Pence does with the mess around Trump.

This is the vice-presidential prisoners dilemma: There is no distance he can achieve, no political support he can muster, no congressional chits he can collect, no donor base he can assemble that can survive the fallout from a failed presidency. A vice president is either implicated as being in the loop or looks foolish if he insists that he was out of it. Theres too much video of any vice president praising, promoting and partnering with his boss to say, President who?

A vice presidents record behind the scenes in the administration is, by definition, obscure to voters. As a result, for better or worse, a vice president must run on the presidents record: If Trumps record is bad enough to prevent him from running in 2020, it will flatten Pence as well.

If Pence seeks the presidency in 2020 because Trump has been forced out of office, or pressured not to run for reelection due to unpopularity, he will suffer the same fate as Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Ford in 1976, Walter Mondale in 1984 and Dan Quayle in 2000: defeat. Nothing Pence is doing now will break him out of a political imprisonment of his own creation.
A persisting puzzle about the U.S. economy is how it can seem both strong and weak. On the one hand, it remains a citadel of innovation, producing new companies such as Uber. On the other, the economy is expanding at a snails pace of 2 percent annually since 2010. How could both be true? Why isnt innovation translating into faster growth? The answer  or part of the answer  is that American businesses are running on two separate tracks. Call them the youthful and middle-aged tracks.

You cant miss youthful capitalism. The Googles of the world dazzle with their rapid innovation. Their dynamism is reassuring. Meanwhile, many less visible but more numerous older firms are treading water. Theyre struggling to generate higher revenues and profits from mature markets, while facing new competitive threats. It is arguably the firms running on the second track  middle-aged capitalism  that have dominated the economy since the Great Recession.

To be sure, Americas business aristocracy has shifted. In 1995, the largest five firms by market capitalization (the value of a companys shares) were old-line businesses: Exxon, AT&T, Coca-Cola, General Electric and Merck. By 2015, only Exxon (now ExxonMobil) remained. The others were replaced by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. (Note: Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon.coms founder and chief executive, owns The Post.) Still, middle-aged capitalism has slowed the recovery.

Bolstering the case is a new study, published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives by Kathleen M. Kahle of the University of Arizona and Rene M. Stulz of Ohio State University. The scholars examined all U.S. public companies over a 40-year period, from 1975 to 2015, and found pervasive evidence of a two-tiered capitalism. Companies are sorting themselves into the strong and the weak.

(Recall: A public company has shares that are traded, typically on a stock exchange. Private firms, including most small and family businesses, are not publicly traded.)

Profits became more concentrated, especially among large tech firms. In 2015, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon had combined profits of $82 billion, fully 10 percent of all profits of publicly traded companies. In 1975, 109 firms accounted for half the profits; by 2015, 30 companies did. More disturbing, companies below the top 200 reported negative earnings as a whole; many of these firms had significant losses.

A similar story applies to corporate investment in buildings and machinery (computers, vehicles). From 1975 to 2015, this capital investment has dropped from 8 percent of corporate assets to 4 percent. Interestingly, this decline in investment was mostly offset by increases in corporate research and development (R&D)  reflecting the need to develop new digital products and programs, say Kahle and Stulz. But the R&D spending was heavily skewed toward bigger firms. Half of publicly traded firms showed no R&D.

Middle-aged capitalism prevails. Consider:

Companies have gotten older. In 1975, the average publicly traded business was 10.9 years old. In 2015, the average was 18 years. The implication is that surviving firms either are more efficient or have stronger market positions in their industries.

 One reason companies have gotten older is that the number of publicly traded companies has dropped sharply, from 7,002 in 1995 to 3,766 in 2015. The main cause, say Kahle and Stulz, is not bankruptcy but mergers. Small and medium-sized firms  many of them younger  prefer to sell out to larger corporations rather than compete as free-standing firms. The result is that fewer younger companies are becoming publicly traded firms.

 Companies are paying out record amounts to their shareholders, either as dividends or share buybacks. In 2015, nearly half of corporate profits (47 percent) were returned to shareholders, almost double the rate in 1975 (27 percent). This suggests that companies either lack attractive investment opportunities or are too risk-averse to take them.

All this is troublesome for President Trump or anyone wanting a stronger economy. If the primary forces holding it back are ill-considered government policies, then the remedy is obvious. Get rid of the policies. The economy will improve. This is the administrations position.

But what if the weaknesses go deeper? For example: Its hard to argue that cuts in corporate taxes would accelerate economic growth if many companies are already suffering losses  and dont benefit from tax cuts. Similarly, large, very profitable firms, with huge piles of cash but few appealing investment projects, wont suddenly find new projects if their taxes are cut.

Kahle and Stulz worry that the trends they outline may mean less investment, less growth, and less dynamism. Companies will remain highly cautious. Entrepreneurship will further weaken. These hazards are hardly hypothetical.

Read more from Robert Samuelsons archive.
President Trumps statement regarding the terrorist attacks by white supremacist groups in Charlottesville was weak, biased and ignorant. The alt-right is dangerously anti-American. These groups should be outlawed as the terrorist organizations they are. They use violence and hate speech to promote policies that fly in the face of the Constitution.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly incited such people and encouraged them to act out their racist, anti-American agenda. Now they have. The blame for alt-right lawlessness lies at Mr. Trumps feet.

As I watched television coverage of the Charlottesville riot, I saw violent racists push back repeatedly against peaceful counterdemonstrators and against state police officers as the officers tried to clear the crowd. Mr. Trump neglected to mention those actions in his tone-deaf comments. Mr. Trump, it seems, favors no-holds-barred, super-strict law enforcement only when the protesters are African Americans or non-Trump supporters. We heard no mention about law and order from Trump when his alt-right supporters were not properly arrested for resisting lawful orders from police officers.

People who were involved in peaceful protest against self-proclaimed Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other alt-right terrorists were mowed down by one terrorist driving into the crowd. And all Mr. Trump offered up is that many sides are wrong. Americans need to hear the president say that the violence and hatred expressed by these radical anti-American groups has no place in our country. We need to hear him say he does not support such groups, and we need to hear him call them by their proper name.

D.L. Sochurek, Culpeper

Donald Trump, as candidate and as president, has played an instrumental role in fostering the ramp-up of public displays of hatred, division, racism, bigotry and violence by the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads, white supremacists and the alt-right with his incendiary remarks at rallies, his proposed Muslim ban, his characterization of immigrants as rapists and thugs and his selection of close advisers. Now he pretends to condemn the results, such as the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday? Please. Mr. President, the people you have unleashed know you are still with them unless and until you get rid of their representatives in your own White House.

Duane Hybertson, Charlottesville

As a 1972 graduate of Washington and Lee University and a lifelong student of the Civil War, I am appalled by the right-wing protests over the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. First of all, I seriously doubt whether many members of those right-wing groups really know that much about Lee. When, in late August 1865, Lee assumed the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, he laid aside his sword and assumed the mantle of educator. He believed it was the duty of all  Northerners and Southerners alike  to reunite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony.

Well never know, of course, how he would have reacted to these recent controversies, but I would like to think that Lee would have disapproved not only of statues being erected in his honor, but also of the current unrest resulting from the removal of those statues, whether to him or any other leaders of the Confederacy. Lee, I believe, would have called for calm and peaceful discussion of our differences. We all would do well to follow Lees admonition  that we work toward the reestablishment of peace and harmony.

T. Jeff Driscoll, Hagerstown, Md.
Last weeks rejection of the rental control mechanism, which would have granted the Chief Executive the power to restrict rent hikes, is now garnering mixed reactions.

While lawmakers Gabriel Tong and Zheng Anting were among those who proposed the law, both abstained from voting this particular article of the law.

AL Chairman Ho Iat Seng said that all lawmakers are at liberty to make their own judgments and may reconsider their vote after listening to various opinions.

I think this is normal, said Ho.

Ho said that Macau can work towards better transport between Macau and Zhuhai, in order to make it more appealing for local people to live in mainland China.

Lawmaker Chan Chak Mo said that lawmakers rejection of the mechanism will have no negative impact. He also expressed that rent should be allowed to increase steadily in order to create a better commercial environment.

Chan also said that some of the recent bill amendments proposed by lawmakers were impractical and could have been better researched.

One of the amendments establishes that landlords will be banned from canceling rental contracts within three years.

Chan believes that the law could make landlords add the rental price corresponding to the third year when signing contracts with tenants.

Lawmaker Song Pek Kei expressed her disappointment about the rejected proposal. Some people changed their stance at the very last second. I believe they have their [own agendas].

While she was disappointed in the outcome, Song also expressed her surprise when most of the other proposals were passed.

Lawmaker Cheang Chi Keong nevertheless believes that it is possible for the rejected law to be established in the future, once all sectors of society reach an agreement. He said that it would be best if the control mechanism was passed after lawmakers had expended significant time and effort on it.

Regarding his opinion on the outcome, Cheang said that he found it quite good as many of the amendments were still passed.

The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, was questioned about the rejected bill but declined to comment.
Nelson W. Cunningham is president and co-founder of McLarty Associates, an international strategic advisory firm based in Washington. He was a trade and foreign policy adviser in the Clinton White House.

The NAFTA renegotiations  long promised by President Trump  are about to start. We have never renegotiated a trade agreement before, and this is our largest and most important by far.

There are reasons to be deeply worried about the outcome. Trumps history on trade and the administrations declared priorities in reworking the North American Free Trade Agreement create a bleak backdrop for the Aug. 16 launch of renegotiation talks.

The optimists playbook on the president has been, watch his actions, not his words. We now have had six months of actions  backed up by decades of words  and the verdict is in on Trump and trade: He is the most unorthodox and nationalist president of the modern era.

The presidents words on trade could not be more stark. NAFTA is the worst trade deal in the history of the world, right up there with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), another disaster done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our country.

Nor are his views recent or lightly held. Indeed, trade  along with his other signature issue, immigration  stand out as remarkably stable strands in his worldview. They are two steel rods in the shifting sands of his words and policies, visible through the decades and connecting strongly to Trumps base. In 1987, Trump spent nearly $100,000 to take out a full-page ad on trade in The Post and other major newspapers  and his words then match his words today.

Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trumps words are becoming actions. In the first week of his presidency, he withdrew from the TPP and announced his intent to renegotiate NAFTA. In April, he publicly toyed with pulling the United States out of NAFTA altogether. He has issued eight executive actions to protect us from trade.

And now we have the administrations long-awaited Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA Renegotiation. Our partners in Mexico and Canada hope for straightforward negotiations as the talks start this month, and even conclusion by years end.

Hope is natural, but the realities of the U.S. objectives cannot be overlooked. True, much of the document is straight out of the trade wonks script: borrowing from other recent negotiations, including the TPP (irony of ironies), and modernizing this 23-year-old agreement.

But what makes the NAFTA objectives  and the upcoming talks  so exceptional, even radical, is the very first objective: Improve the U.S. trade balance and reduce the trade deficit with the NAFTA countries. This is new and unique. As the accompanying news release puts it , for the first time USTR has included deficit reduction as a specific objective for the NAFTA negotiations.

Trumps single-minded focus on bilateral trade deficits puzzles mainstream economists, whose assessment is that they mean little on their own and instead reflect deeper issues such as savings and consumption rates rather than inherent unfairness. Nevertheless, deficit reduction surfaces over and over in the presidents thinking  back to 1987, remember  and it is now officially Objective No. 1, for NAFTA and no doubt all future Trump trade talks.

What impact will Objective No. 1 have on the negotiations? Well, our trade deficit with Mexico is approximately $60 billion. Although the objectives assert that the United States will seek to reduce that deficit by expanding U.S. exports, Mexicos economy is comparatively small and its citizens and businesses purchasing power comparatively limited. Can Mexico afford to buy $60 billion more from us rather than producing it themselves? Voluntarily? That equals 6 percent of its total gross domestic product. Doubtful.

There are only three sure ways to reduce a trade deficit as large as Mexicos, and they would do so by brute force: tariffs, quotas or managed trade, such as the voluntary restrictions on Japanese auto and semiconductor imports back in the 1980s. These blunt instruments are anathema to the much smaller economies of Canada and Mexico, and indeed to all of our trading partners. Add the issue of the wall, and the outlook can only be bleak.

If the NAFTA talks that begin this week are an arena where nations compete for advantage, as the presidents aides have described the presidents clear-eyed worldview, and the presidents unchanging and unyielding views on trade are now officially Objective No. 1  then no one should expect a normal negotiation, and no one should rule out collapse.

If the administration surprises and the talks go well, we would wind up with a modernized NAFTA well-suited to the 21st century. But if the talks fall apart, then our relations with our closest neighbors would be shattered, supply lines across our continent sundered, and our borders north and south thickened. North America would enter a new era riven with trade barriers, tariffs and mutual suspicion.

And the winner in all this would be China, no longer competing against a unified and efficient North American manufacturing platform and a gigantic internal market. So just as when Trump pulled us out of the TPP and the Paris climate change accord, the global benefactor may well be the very country against whom Trump directed so much of his campaign rhetoric.

Trump wants to put America First. Instead, he may be helping ensure a China Next.
Vice President Pence opened his week-long trip to South and Central America here Sunday with a stern message for neighboring Venezuelas autocratic government to end the tragedy of tyranny and to restore democracy.

Pence vowed to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Venezuela and work with Colombia and other regional democracies to isolate the government of President Nicolas Maduro. He also sought to reassure the region after President Trump warned last week of a possible military option in Venezuela, a comment that stoked anti-American sentiment by reviving dark memories of U.S. interventionism on the continent.

Venezuela is sliding into dictatorship, and as President Trump has said, the United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles, Pence said.

Noting that the United States reserves many options for Venezuela, Pence added, President Trump is a leader who says what he means and means what he says, but the president sent me here to continue to marshal the unprecedented support of countries across Latin America to achieve by peaceable means the restoration of democracy in Latin America, and we believe it is achievable by those means.

Pences comments came at a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday evening at the oceanfront presidential compound in Cartagena, where Santos later hosted Pence and his wife, Karen, for a casual dinner.

Colombia is one of the United States closest allies in the Western Hemisphere, yet, as he stood next to Pence, Santos denounced Trumps threat of military action, and told the visiting vice president that such a possibility shouldnt even be considered and would be unacceptable.

Every country in Latin America would not favor any form of military intervention, and that is why we are saying we are intent on looking into other measures, some of which are already underway and others to be implemented in the future, Santos said.

Pences six-day visit to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama is expected to be dominated by the turmoil in Venezuela, although he also is planning to highlight trade and security partnerships throughout the hemisphere.

Maduros autocratic government seized power last month and has cracked down on dissent, precipitating an economic collapse and drawing international condemnation.

Pence said he and Santos discussed during a private meeting additional economic sanctions and other measures to increase pressure on Venezuela.

Trumps bellicose threat, delivered Friday from his private golf course in New Jersey, generated banner news headlines across Latin America because it harked back to a generation of American imperialism.

It is one thing for the U.S. president or vice president to discuss sanctioning the regime and our support for the return of democracy, said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. It is something else to discuss U.S. intervention, which only strengthens Maduros hand and makes it harder for other regional countries to work with us.

Pence arrived in South America to add his voice to the coalition of nations trying to isolate Venezuela and pressure Maduro to change course. In a watershed development, 11 Latin American countries and Canada signed a hard-hitting resolution last week that calls the Venezuelan government illegitimate and demands a return to democracy.

Vice President Pence now needs to assure regional allies that the United States respects their diplomatic efforts and will not engage in unilateral measures that are guaranteed to be counterproductive, said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America and a Venezuela expert at Tulane University.

Pence plans to spend less than 24 hours in Colombia. He will fly midday Monday to Buenos Aires, where he will meet Tuesday with Argentinas president, Mauricio Macri, and give a speech about regional trade and security partnerships to representatives of the Argentine and Latin American business community.

Pence then will visit Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday, where he will meet with President Michelle Bachelet and deliver remarks that evening to representatives of the Latin and Central American business community.

On Thursday and Friday, Pence will visit Panama City, where he will meet with President Juan Carlos Varela and tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.

This is Pences first visit to South America, although he has previously talked with the four leaders, either in person, such as at the White House, or by phone. Karen Pence plans to meet with art therapists and observe art therapy sessions in some of the countries, as well as participate in cultural activities.

A senior administration official said the four countries the vice president will visit are key partners and friends of the United States  in marked contrast to Venezuela. Although the Venezuelan crisis is top of mind, Pence plans to highlight other issues as well.

For instance, Pence pressured Santos to curb the flow of drugs into the United States, including reducing the surging levels of coca production in Colombia, which he called our greatest concern about the country.

This worsening crisis requires swift action to protect the people of both our countries, Pence said, standing next to Santos. The drug trade is a wellspring of violence, crime and corruption victimizing the Colombian people. In the United States, illegal drugs coming from Colombia have poisoned our children, torn apart our families and devastated too many communities. Mr. President, this must end, and this must end soon.
The incident took only moments.

The journey through the Colorado legal process lasted years.

And then the Supreme Court took its own sweet time. Almost a year passed from the date the court was first asked to review a dispute between a gay couple and a baker who refused to make them a wedding cake and the justices announcement that they would do just that.

When the Supreme Court hears the case this fall, it has the potential to be a major decision worth the wait.

[Supreme Court to take case of baker who refused wedding cake to gay couple]

Scattered across the country, florists, bakers, photographers and others have claimed that being forced to offer their wedding services to same-sex couples violates their rights of religious liberty and free expression.

Courts have routinely turned down the business owners  as the Colorado Court of Appeals did to cake shop owner Jack C. Phillips in this case  saying that state anti-discrimination laws require businesses that are open to the public to treat all potential customers equally.

Phillips stopped making wedding cakes after the court decision, and the couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, are now celebrating anniversaries instead of nuptials.

When interviewed last summer, as Phillipss lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to get involved, the three men had already lived the case for years.

Four years is a long time for something that lasted less than two minutes, Mullins said. Every step of the way here in Colorado, the courts and commissions have found that Jack Phillips violated Colorado law. Wed like to end with that still being the case.

Said Phillips, As a creative professional and a businessman, I shouldnt have to give up my freedom  my religion  when I open a bakery.

Theres no dispute about what happened.

In 2012, when same-sex marriage was still prohibited in Colorado, Craig and Mullins decided to get married in Massachusetts, where it was legal. They would return to Denver for a reception, and those helping with the plans suggested they get a cake from Masterpiece Cakeshop, Phillipss business in the suburb of Lakewood.

The couple arrived with Craigs mother and a book of ideas, but Phillips cut short the meeting as soon as he learned the cake was to celebrate the couples marriage.

Phillips recalled: Our conversation was just about 20 seconds long. Sorry guys, I dont make cakes for same-sex weddings. 

Craig recalled: We were so stunned he would say something like that it actually took a little time to sink in. My mom is kind of a religious person, too, and she said, This doesnt make sense to me. 

The interaction bothered Mullins enough that he took to Facebook, describing in a public post what happened. If you feel like the treatment we received is wrong, please contact Masterpiece Cakeshop and let them know you feel their policy is discriminatory, Mullins said he wrote.

Pretty soon news organizations are calling and the snowball is screaming down the hill, Mullins added. It all happened very fast and we werent really prepared for it.

The couple then learned that Colorados public accommodations law specifically prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, and they filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

The commission ruled against Phillips, and the appeals court upheld the decision.

Masterpiece remains free to continue espousing its religious beliefs, including its opposition to same-sex marriage, Judge Daniel M. Taubman wrote. However, if it wishes to operate as a public accommodation and conduct business within the State of Colorado, [the law] prohibits it from picking and choosing customers based on their sexual orientation.

The ruling was similar to those in other states whose discrimination laws include sexual orientation. The Supreme Court several years ago decided not to review a case from New Mexico that involved a photographer who declined to serve a lesbian couple.

But Phillipss petition to the high court, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, lingered for months. It was relisted 14 times on the courts private conference schedule, where the justices consider whether to accept a case. Four of the nine justices must vote to accept a case, and when a case is listed so many times, it usually means that requirement has not been met, and some justice is working on a dissent.

But on the last day of the term in June, the justices accepted the case without comment and scheduled it for oral argument in the fall.

The why is open to speculation. Perhaps the addition of conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch provided the needed fourth vote. But Gorsuch had been on the court for 11 weeks before the court announced it had added the case.

Some liberals wonder  hope might be a better word  whether a liberal justice might have tipped the scale. If the proliferation of cases around the country means Supreme Court intervention is inevitable, this theory goes, better to take it while Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is on the court. Kennedy, who is thought to be considering retirement, has written all of the courts cases that expand protections for gay Americans.

Craig and Mullins, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, were disappointed. Were at the five-year point now, Mullins said the other day. Phillips, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, gets another chance.

They all say there is nothing personal here.

It has nothing to do with David and Charlie, it has everything to do with my faith in Jesus Christ and my following the teachings of the Bible, Phillips said.

This case isnt about Jack Phillips and it isnt about us, Mullins said. Its about the principle that gay people should be able to receive equal service at businesses open to the public.

For both sides, there is a question that is always asked.

For the couple, it is why not just go to a bakery that wants your business?

We did ultimately go to a different bakery, Mullins said. The point of this case is that with this law we have in Colorado it is illegal to discriminate against and provide unequal service to gays in public accommodations. The next couple that wanders into a business that perhaps does not approve of their gay lifestyle  perhaps they wont know that.

For Phillips, the question is whether his actions really reflect a Christian approach to life. He is asked, What would Jesus do?

Well, you know, in my opinion  Jesus was a carpenter. I dont think he would have made a bed for their wedding, Phillips said. He would have never condoned something that he was against. 
Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin.

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump, telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.

The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.

But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so.

The exchanges are among more than 20,000 pages of documents the Trump campaign turned over to congressional committees this month after review by White House and defense lawyers. The selection of Papadopouloss emails were read to The Post by a person with access to them. Two other people with access to the emails confirmed the general tone of the exchanges and some specific passages within them.

A 2016 tweet from Donald Trump shows George Papadopoulos, third from left. (Twitter)

[Heres what we know so far about Team Trumps ties to Russian interests]

Papadopoulos emerges from the sample of emails as a new and puzzling figure in the examination of the Trump campaigns contacts with Russian officials and their proxies during the 2016 election, now the subject of a special-counsel investigation.

Less than a decade out of college, Papadopoulos appeared to hold little sway within the campaign, and it is unclear whether he was acting as an intermediary for the Russian government, although he told campaign officials he was.

While the emails illustrate his eagerness to strengthen the campaigns connections to the Russian government, Papadopoulos does not spell out in them why it would be in Trumps interest to do so. His entreaties appear to have generated more concern than excitement within the campaign, which at the time was looking to seal the Republican nomination and take on a heavily favored Hillary Clinton in the general election.

But the internal resistance to Papadopouloss requests is at odds with other overtures Trump allies were making toward Russia at the time, mostly at a more senior level of the campaign.

Three months after Papadopoulos raised the possibility of a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the presidents son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with a delegation led by a Russian lawyer offering to provide damaging information on Clinton.

Manafort attended that Trump Tower session in June 2016, a meeting now under scrutiny in the special counsels collusion inquiry. But the new emails reveal that Manafort had rejected a request from Papadopoulos just the previous month to set up a meeting between Trump and Russian officials.

1 of 83 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from Trumps second six months in office View Photos A look at the second half, so far, of the presidents first year in the White House. Caption A look at the second half of the presidents first year in the White House. Jan. 24, 2018 President Trump speaks to a group of mayors in the East Room of the White House. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

In July 2016 and again two months later, Jeff Sessions, then a senator and senior foreign policy adviser to Trump, met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

And also in July, a few weeks after Papadopoulos asked his superiors whether other campaign advisers or aides could accept some of the Russians invitations, Carter Page, another foreign policy adviser, spoke at a Russian university in Moscow. Page said he made the trip independently of the campaign.

To experts in Russian intelligence gathering, the Papadopoulos chain offers further evidence that Russians were looking for entry points and playing upon connections with lower-level aides to penetrate the 2016 campaign.

Former CIA director John Brennan in May told the House Intelligence Committee that he had seen worrisome evidence of contacts and interactions between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, although he offered no specifics.

Steven L. Hall, who retired from the CIA in 2015 after 30 years of managing the agencys Russia operations, said when told by The Post about the emails: The bottom line is that theres no doubt in my mind that the Russian government was casting a wide net when they were looking at the American election. I think they were doing very basic intelligence work: Whos out there? Whos willing to play ball? And how can we use them?

Papadopoulos, a former intern and researcher at the conservative Hudson Institute, was on a list of campaign volunteers that Trump announced as his foreign policy advisory team during a meeting with The Posts editorial board in March 2016. Trump called Papadopoulos an excellent guy.

Almost immediately, Papadopoulos came under scrutiny for his lack of experience. He graduated from college in 2009, and his LinkedIn profile cited his participation in a Model U.N. program for students among his qualifications. Papadopoulos did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Page, who has been the subject of a foreign surveillance warrant over his connections to Russia, said the Papadopoulos email exchange was another sign that the Russia communications were inconsequential.

The entirely benign offer from a volunteer member of the Trump movement is infinitely less relevant than the real collusion in the 2016 election, said Page, who was copied on the first Papadopoulos email communication in March. Page said in an email exchange Saturday that the real scandal lies among Clinton and Obama associates who fed false evidence to investigators that he said formed the basis of the federal warrant concerning him.

[Special counsel Mueller can investigate any crimes he uncovers in Russia probe]

Papadopoulos made more than a half-dozen overtures on behalf of Russians or people with Russia contacts whom he claimed to know.

On March 24, Clovis, the campaign co-chairman who also served on the foreign policy team, reacted to one proposed Russia meeting by writing, We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO allies.

In the same email chain, Kubic, the retired admiral, reminded others about legal restrictions on meetings with certain Russian officials, adding, Just want to make sure that no one on the team outruns their headlights and embarrasses the campaign.

Undeterred, Papadopoulos alerted then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in an April email that he was receiving a lot of calls over the past month about arranging a Russia meeting.

Putin wants to host the Trump team when the time is right, he wrote on April 27.

On May 4, Papadopoulos forwarded Lewandowski and others a note he received from the program head for the government-funded Russian International Affairs Council. In it, Ivan Timofeev, a senior official in the organization, reached out to report that Russian foreign ministry officials were open to a Trump visit to Moscow and requested that the campaign and Russians write a formal letter outlining the meeting.

Clovis responded to the Timofeev invitation by noting: There are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen.

The email chain does not show a response from Lewandowski, who did not return calls seeking comment.

Several weeks later, Papadopoulos forwarded the same message from Timofeev to Manafort, the newly named campaign chairman.

Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss, the adviser told Manafort.

Manafort reacted coolly, forwarding the email to his associate Rick Gates, with a note: We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips.

Gates agreed and told Manafort he would ask the campaigns correspondence coordinator to handle it  the person responding to all mail of non-importance  to signify this did not need a senior official to respond.

[FBI conducted predawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Manaforts home]

A spokesman for Manafort, whose Virginia home was raided by FBI agents three weeks ago as part of an investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, said the email chain provides concrete evidence that the Russia collusion narrative is fake news.

Mr. Manaforts swift action reflects the attitude of the campaign  any invitation by Russia, directly or indirectly, would be rejected outright, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement.

In an email to The Post, Timofeev confirmed that his organization had discussed a meeting with the Trump campaign in the spring of 2016.

The Russian International Affairs Council was created in 2010 by a decree of then-President Dmitry Medvedev as a project of various Russian government agencies. It is led by former foreign minister Igor Ivanov. Its board includes Russias current foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, as well as top Russian scholars and business leaders, among them the chairman of Alfa-Bank and Sberbank, two of Russias largest banks.

We discussed the idea informally as one of the opportunities for . . . dialogue between Russia and the U.S., Timofeev said in the email. RIAC often hosts meetings with prominent political figures and experts from the US and many other countries.

He said the group would have been open to meeting with other campaigns.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said officials with the Democrats campaign have no recollections or record of having been contacted by the group. Similarly an adviser to Barack Obamas first presidential campaign, former Russian ambassador Michael McFaul, said he could not recall any similar invitation.

tom.hamburger@washpost.com

carol.leonnig@washpost.com

rosalind.helderman@washpost.com

Adam Entous, Alice Crites, Devlin Barrett, David Filipov, Philip Rucker and Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.

Read more:

As Mueller builds his Russia special-counsel team, every hire is under scrutiny

Fact-checking the Trump-Russia investigation


In this September 1947 photo, Muslim refugees clamber aboard an overcrowded train near New Delhi in an attempt to flee India. (Associated Press)

The massacres began soon after the British announced partition: Neighbors slaughtered neighbors; childhood friends became sworn enemies.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the partition of India, an event that triggered one of bloodiest upheavals in human history.

About 14 million people are thought to have abandoned their homes in the summer and fall of 1947, when colonial British administrators began dismantling the empire in southern Asia. Estimates of the number of people killed in those months range between 200,000 and 2 million.

Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan, a country that would be Muslim-controlled. Muslims in modern-day India fled in the opposite direction.

The legacy of that violent separation has endured, resulting in a bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan. When they partitioned, there were probably no two countries on Earth as alike as India and Pakistan, said Nisid Hajari, the author of Midnights Furies: The Deadly Legacy of Indias Partition. Leaders on both sides wanted the countries to be allies, like the U.S. and Canada are. Their economies were deeply intertwined, their cultures were very similar.

But after partition was announced, the subcontinent descended quickly into riots and bloodshed.



Indian soldiers walk through the debris of a building in Amritsar during unrest after the partition of India and Pakistan in August 1947. (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

Bungalows and mansions were burned and looted, women were raped, children were killed in front of their siblings. Trains carrying refugees between the two new nations arrived full of corpses; their passengers had been killed by mobs en route. These were called blood trains: All too often they crossed the border in funereal silence, blood seeping from under their carriage doors, Hajari wrote in his book.

Even the fruit on the trees tasted of blood, recalls Sudershana Kumari, who fled from her home town in Pakistan to India. When you broke a branch, red would come out, she said, painting an image of how much blood had soaked the soil in India.

[Opinion: How partition led to India and Pakistans permanent dysfunction]

Many who lived through those times describe madness taking hold. Some people say they had temporarily gone crazy, Hajari said.

Archives on both sides have collected video and oral testimonies of the horrors. A partition museum will open this week in the Indian city of Amritsar, containing items that were brought over from Pakistan by refugees.

But outside southern Asia, the brutalities of partition were not widely broadcast. Partly, Hajari says, that may be because of how the events were depicted by British sources. At the time, there was an impetus to portray the moment of independence as a triumph  that after 200 years of colonial rule, the British could part as friends. If you emphasize the death and violence, that tarnishes the achievement, he said.

And partly, he said, it may be because Indians and Pakistanis themselves still find it difficult to discuss those horrors openly and honestly. It is still hard to understand why those things happened. Why did that temporary insanity take over?

These are the stories of some of those who survived.

Sudershana Kumari, an 8-year-old Hindu girl who witnessed a massacre in her home town in Pakistan

Even as a girl, Sudershana Kumaris survival instincts were sharp enough to know that staying quiet is sometimes the best option.

Crying out would have given away her hiding place  a rooftop in her native town, Sheikhupura, where Kumari, her mother and dozens of others lay, watching the carnage on the streets below. We couldnt show our heads, she said. You show your head and youre dead.

(The Washington Post)

Kumaris family is Hindu; they were living in an area that would soon become Muslim-dominated Pakistan. Families like hers would have to flee.

So Kumari, now 78, did not make a sound. Not when she felt pangs in her stomach after three days without food. Not even when she heard her dog Tom barking for her.

From the holes in the roof, Kumari saw her uncle and his family being killed by men with spears in the street. Her uncle was a tax collector who had made the error of filling their suitcases with cash  unnecessary weight that had kept his family from running fast enough, Kumari said. My aunt was wearing white trousers, I remember, she says. She was crying, Dont kill my son, dont kill my son. Then they took her daughter from her. They took her, and they pierced the spear through her body. She died like that, a 1-year-old girl.

Kumaris family scattered. Her town had been reduced to ash and rubble. For days, she and her mother hid from rioters who were looking for Hindus to kill and loot.

When armed men eventually found them, they were hiding in an attic packed with about 300 others from the town.

The townspeople were ushered out to a playground, where the previous days captives had been doused with oil and burned alive. Corpses lay strewn across the streets. One dead body here, one dead body there. All people we know, Kumari said. Theres Khyaliram, theres Baleddiram.

Minutes before they were to be killed, a cease-fire was announced. Trucks rolled into the village from the cities, with Tara Singh, a famous political and religious leader known for his contributions to independence struggles, shouting at rioters through a megaphone. Not another drop of blood should be spilled, he was saying. They listened, because they respected him.

On the other side, they would become refugees  penniless, homeless strangers in a strange land.

Years later, Kumari had nothing left from those years besides a small box she stole from her burning town, thinking it could be used for her dolls to sleep in.

That and her memories. She fills notebooks with poems about those years. One of them reads:

Mind, dont dwell on things of the past

What do you get from it?

Your eyes will have to cry.

Your eyes will have to stay awake all night.

Your eyes will have to cry.

Hashim Zaidi, a Muslim whose family fled India for Pakistan, fearing repercussions after an uncle killed a Hindu man

Hashim Zaidis Muslim family had to flee India after his uncle, a police officer, killed a Hindu intruder in his home. Fearing retaliation, his family boarded a train to Pakistan. Zaidi was 10 or 11 at the time. (Nisar Mehdi/For The Washington Post)

If Hashim Zaidi and his family hadnt left his native town of Allahabad in India, the rioters would never have spared them.

His uncle, a Muslim police officer, had killed a Hindu rioter who was trying to enter his house, he said.

Violent acts of vengeance had become commonplace in 1947. Zaidis family was taking no chances. We had no choice but to leave India for Pakistan because of incessant attacks by rioters, he said.

Only 10 or 11 years old at the time, Zaidi was taken to Pakistan on a train. The carriages were marked to show which passengers were carrying money or other objects of value, and which ones werent.

They started it, and they murdered people to get their hands on money, he said. People who have made it to Pakistan have given money in exchange for their lives.

It was all about the loot and nothing to do with ideology, he said.

Sarjit Singh Chowdhary, a Sikh soldier who helped Muslim refugees reach safety in Pakistan

Sarjit Singh Chowdhary heard the news on the radio.

At the time, he was 2,000 miles away, serving as part of the British army in Iraq. News that partition was imminent and that his family may be in danger filled him with worry. He applied to be repatriated and was back on Indian soil by September 1947. When I had left, India was a peaceful country, he said. When I came back, it was bloodshed.

Killings had begun in March in his home town, Kahuta, in modern-day Pakistan. Later he would discover that his mother had been attacked. My mother was a brave woman and knew how to fire a gun, so she was able to defend herself. She managed to escape and bring my siblings over to India, he said.

As a 24-year-old soldier, Chowdhary was appointed to serve for the Punjab police and put in charge of law and order amid the unrelenting violence in the region. I saw the body of a dead man being thrown off a train, he recalled. Once, on my way from Delhi to Jalandhar, we stopped at Doraha Canal and saw that the water had become red with blood.

(Vidhi Doshi/The Washington Post)

The news reports from his home town disturbed him deeply. In a village just 12 kilometers from mine called Thoha Khalsa, women drowned themselves to save their honor. When the army found them, their bodies were swollen and had come up to the surface. That was the state at the time. Men were shooting their own wives and daughters because they feared what would happen if they were taken away by attackers, he said.

Twice, he accompanied Muslim refugees across the border. They had gathered in their villages, tied up all their things onto bullock carts. There were around 40 carts, a few hundred people, he said. They wanted to get to Pakistan. They must have been sad to leave, but tell me, if your life, your familys life is in constant danger, wouldnt you want to get out?

Mohammad Naeem, a Muslim boy who traveled to Pakistan on the notoriously dangerous blood trains

(Nisar Mehdi/The Washington Post)

Mohammad Naeem arrived in Lahore on a train from Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, where he was born.

When the riots started, his Muslim family no longer felt safe in Hindu-majority India.

It was a dangerous journey. Many who traveled along the same route had been killed; their bodies littered the tracks.

His father, who was separated from the family amid the riots, had to take a ship from Mumbai.

He bought a ticket, even though others at the time were riding free. When he disembarked in Karachi, people asked him why he had bothered wasting the fare money. He said: Im a cowardly man. I bought the ticket so they dont throw me overboard. 

Swati Gupta contributed from New Delhi to this report.

Read more:

The long, troubling consequences of partition

Untold stories of loss from partition

Indias survivors of partition break long silence

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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North Koreas announcement that it is finalizing a plan to launch four ballistic missiles over Japan toward the island of Guam has touched off a series of fiery threats from President Donald Trump and upped tensions between Pyongyang and Washington to a whole new level.

So are we all headed toward war? If past precedent is any guide, the answer is no. Though it has been mostly lost as the current round of tough talk keeps escalating, North Korea just a few months ago conducted a similar rehearsal strike on a U.S. military base in Japan. And that missile test led to nary a tweet from Trump.

For sure, if Pyongyang were to go through with its planned launch of missiles toward Guam, it would be an extremely provocative move. But it is also one that the U.S. military has been watching develop for years, with fairly well-defined steps that have led to an ever more complicated and potentially dangerous situation  but not the outbreak of a nuclear war.

A look at what Pyongyang is up to, and how we got here:

SETTING THE STAGE

In March, at around the time of the biggest annual maneuvers between the U.S. and South Korea, the North fired four extended-range Scud missiles into waters off the Japanese coast in what was intended to be a mock attack on Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni.

Iwakuni is one of the main U.S. bases in Japan and was the staging point for F-35 stealth fighters believed to be training for precision strikes on North Korea against Kim Jong Un and his top lieutenants.

The March missile launch was not as bold as the plan for Guam  the North didnt tell the world beforehand and deliberately sent the missiles much farther north than the base itself, an easy tweak. But the move sent a strong message that such an attack would be possible.

The public response from Trump then was muted. Nearly two weeks after the launch, he tweeted, without mentioning the missile test: North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been playing the United States for years. China has done little to help!

Pyongyang, possibly emboldened by that and its two successful intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July, appears to be hoping to send an even stronger message for Trump to back off with its Guam plan, or maybe consider direct talks rather than military action.

GIVING NOTICE

The biggest departure from North Koreas established pattern this time around was its decision to announce the details of the Guam plan.

Despite some frightened misinterpretations otherwise, it is not threatening to actually attack Guam. But if it does launch Hwasong-12 missiles to within 30-40 kilometers of the U.S. territorys shores, its stated goal, it would by any measure be an exceptionally provocative move.

That helps explain why it would decide to give prior notice. To keep the situation from getting too much out of control, it needed to explain itself on the record to defuse complaints from China and make sure Washington knew it wasnt the opening volley of a Korean War 2.0.

The concern over Chinas reaction is important. China is the Norths key trading partner and, although neither trusts the other very much, its biggest political buffer against pressure from Washington and its allies. Beijing, which is concerned about the implications for its own security that a nuclear North Korea poses, is almost certainly letting Pyongyang know of its concerns. Pointing to U.S. threats on Guam serves to rebut Chinese complaints, at least a bit.

But it could also use another familiar rationale. North Korea sees annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises as a prelude for an invasion. The next big ones are set to start, on schedule, on Aug. 21. North Korean state media reports suggest Kim Jong Un could potentially sign off on the plan at about that same time.

PULLING THE TRIGGER?

Pyongyang has explicitly and repeatedly stated its anger over U.S. B-1B bombers based in Guam conducting flyovers of the Korean Peninsula.

It could use the next one to justify sending its missiles toward Guam as something of a counter-display.

The B-1B bomber flights, though largely symbolic, are especially sensitive to Pyongyang because they represent a serious threat that North Koreas air defenses cant confidently protect against. Trump played that up on Friday by retweeting a U.S. Pacific Command tweet saying the bombers on Guam are ready to fulfill their Fight Tonight mission if called upon.

But there is also a lot of history here. The U.S. devastated most of North Koreas cities and infrastructure with a massive bombing campaign during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Joshua Pollack, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California, noted the link but cautioned that the North might want to conduct the launch with or without a B-1B flight to justify it.

If we do stop flying bombers at them for a while, they can declare victory and go home, and then decide whether to do it at some later date in response to whatever, he said. Whether they feel genuinely annoyed and threatened or simply see this as a way to justify more missile tests to the Chinese is a fair question.

It certainly does make a statement, Pollack added. Two can play at this game now. Eric Talmadge, Seoul, AP
Protesters shout anti-Nazi chants after chasing the organizer of the Unite the Right rally from a news conference on Sunday in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Much of the world looked on in horror and puzzlement as a demonstration by torch-wielding white nationalists in an American college town ended in violence and the arraignment of a 20-year-old man on charges of second-degree murder.

James Alex Fields Jr. is accused of ramming a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, leaving one dead and 19 injured. That the suspect was a Nazi sympathizer, according to a former teacher, made the weekends events particularly wrenching in Germany, a nation still seared by the darkest chapters of its past.

Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Monday that the violence that unfolded in Charlottesville was sickening. He described the symbols and slogans employed in the right-wing extremist march  including swastikas and chants of Blood and soil, a Nazi-era motto  as diametrically opposed to the political goals of the chancellor and the entire German government.

[At a site of Nazi terror, Muslim refugees reckon with Germanys past]

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said in a tweet, We know Canada isnt immune to racist violence & hate.

(Elyse Samuels,Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)

Nigel Farage, a former leader of the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party, observed on Twitter: Cannot believe we're seeing Nazi salutes in 21st century America.

In countries such as Germany and France that have adopted strict codes policing hateful speech, there were also questions about why people carrying guns were allowed to assemble and propagate a message targeting racial and religious minorities.

Most people in Germany have difficulty understanding that gatherings like in Charlottesville are possible in the U.S., because we have drawn a different lesson from history, said Matthias Jahn, chairman of criminal law at Goethe University in Frankfurt. Our German law centers on the strong belief that you should hinder this kind of speech in a society committed to principles of democratic coexistence and peace.

That sense of shock was reflected in the media coverage, much of which focused blame on the Trump administration.

President fails to blame white supremacists, observed the British newspaper the Guardian. Trump on Monday ultimately condemned neo-Nazis and other groups, saying, Racism is evil.

A front-page headline in the French daily Liberation blared, The White House, suggesting that the center of racial animus was the executive branch of the American government.

Chinese state media seldom misses a chance to train a harsh spotlight on American society and governance, and the China Daily newspaper opined of unrest in Virginia, Sickness in U.S. society will not be easy to cure. Russias state-run RIA Novosti news agency attributed the violence not to racism but to the growing gap between rich and poor, and blamed the American political and media elites for stoking the violence.

(The Washington Post)

In a mostly isolated show of solidarity with white-supremacist factions in Charlottesville, Greeces far-right group Golden Dawn praised the rally as a dynamic demonstration against illegal immigration by American patriots.

While Jewish leaders in the United States expressed shock at the events in Charlottesville and criticized President Trumps response to the violence as halfhearted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of Trumps, remained notably silent. Meanwhile, Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, warned in a statement, The anti-Jewish ideology of the Nazis was a precursor to the eventual murderous policy and extermination of six million Jews.

[Vile bigotry: U.S. politicians respond to violent protests in Charlottesville]

Even in denouncing the message of neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members, free-speech advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union defended groups right to stage the Unite the Right rally, at the site of a Confederate statue scheduled for removal.

Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy, tweeted former president Bill Clinton.

For some Western democracies, the tension is not as acute.

Germany curtails speech in an effort to keep Nazi ideology at bay. The German constitution, approved after World War II, codifies individual rights such as equality before the law and freedom of speech, but postwar changes to the penal code prohibit a range of expression linked to the Third Reich.

[An American tourist gave the Nazi salute in Germany  so a stranger beat him up, police say]

The statute that would have criminalized the far-right demonstration in Charlottesville, said Jahn, the criminal-law professor, is a prohibition on assembly that disturbs the public peace in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims by venerating Nazi rule. German hate-crime law, he said, was recently strengthened by a 2015 amendment requiring courts to consider racial motives as an aggravating circumstance.

Despite these statutes, crime motivated by right-wing ideology has surged in Germany, according to a report issued this year by the Interior Ministry.

Hajo Funke, a political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, said right-wing extremism crested last year  after months of anger over a seemingly limitless flow of asylum seekers into Germany  and has begun to abate in 2017.

One factor is Trump, and people looking at the U.S. and saying, This is not the right way,  Funke said. The other factor is that the euro crisis and the refugee crisis are to a degree under control.

Like Germany, France criminalizes certain types of speech, largely in an effort to combat Holocaust denial.

The 1990 Gayssot Act limits an individuals ability to question the size, scope or nature of crimes against humanity. While critics allege that the parameters of the legislation are too broad,  it also prohibits any discrimination founded on membership or non-membership of an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a religion  the measure has led to several high-profile convictions.

At the same time, French law has hardly done away with hate speech.

In 2013, in what would become one of the most high-profile cases in recent years, the Franco-Cameroonian comedian Dieudonne Mbala Mbala began encouraging a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute. Despite innumerable convictions and fines, he has continued with versions of these routines.

Another case is that of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 89-year-old co-founder of the far-right National Front. Since the late 1980s, the elder Le Pen has continually referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a detail of history. Under the Gayssot Act, Le Pen also has been convicted and fined on numerous occasions  but he has continued to repeat his remark. As recently as March, he told The Washington Post that he still did not regret the comment.

McAuley reported from Paris. Luisa Beck in Berlin, William Booth in London, Simon Denyer in Beijing, David Filipov in Moscow, Loveday Morris in Jerusalem and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more

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Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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China moved to tighten economic pressure on North Korea by implementing a new package of U.N. sanctions Monday, but it simultaneously had a warning for the Trump administration: Dont spoil our new-found unity by starting a trade war.

The Commerce Ministry announced a ban on imports of iron ore, iron, lead and coal from North Korea effective Tuesday  although China will continue to clear goods that have already arrived in port until Sept. 5.

At the same time, Beijing warned President Trump not to split the international coalition over North Korea by provoking a trade war between China and the United States.

(The Washington Post)

Trump signed an executive memorandum Monday afternoon instructing his top trade negotiator to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property violations, a move that could eventually result in severe trade penalties.

In China, these proposed measures were seen both as an attempt to pressure Beijing to act more strongly against North Korea and as an effort to shift the blame for the worlds failure to rein in Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs onto China alone.

It is obviously improper to use one thing as a tool to impose pressure on another thing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday at a routine news conference.

With the commercial relationship between the two countries becoming more intertwined by the day, she said, a trade war is not a good idea. There will be no winner, she said. It will be lose-lose.

In an editorial, the state-owned China Daily newspaper said Trump was asking too much of China regarding North Korea, also known as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or DPRK.

Trumps transactional approach to foreign affairs is unhelpful, it said, while politicizing trade will only exacerbate [the United States] economic woes, and poison the overall China-U.S. relationship.

President Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at the G-20 Summit in Germany on July 8: Trump is planning to sign an executive action investigating China for the theft of U.S. technology. (Saul Loeb/AP)

That wont bring results when it comes to North Korea, either, the editorial argued.

By trying to incriminate Beijing as an accomplice in the DPRKs nuclear adventure and blame it for a failure that is essentially a failure of all stakeholders, Trump risks making the serious mistake of splitting up the international coalition that is the means to resolve the issue peacefully, it said.

Hopefully Trump will find another path. Things will become even more difficult if Beijing and Washington are pitted against each other.

China accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade but moved in February to suspend North Koreas coal imports until the end of the year. Coal normally accounts for about half of North Koreas exports, but despite the coal ban, overall trade between the two countries has remained healthy.

Last month, China announced that imports from North Korea fell to $880 million in the six months that ended in June, down 13 percent from a year earlier. Notably, Chinas coal imports from North Korea dropped precipitously, with only 2.7 million tons being shipped in the first half of 2017, down 75 percent from 2016.

But iron ore imports grew sharply, reaching 1.34 million tons, worth an estimated $68 million, a 60 percent jump in the first half of the year.

A 29 percent spike in Chinese exports to North Korea  North Korea bought $1.67 billion worth of Chinese products in the first six months of the year  also helped push total trade between the two countries up 10 percent between January and June, compared with the same period last year.

The latest move to stem imports of iron, iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as seafood products, will put significantly more pressure on Pyongyang. But it is unlikely to be enough to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, which it sees as essential to its own survival, experts say.

China is very reluctant to do anything that might destabilize the regime, which is a long-standing ally. It blames American hostility toward Pyongyang for forcing the regime to develop its nuclear program, and is urging dialogue to reduce tensions.

The move against China over trade was also seen here as an attempt to distract attention from Trumps domestic problems.

Bashing China cannot solve U.S. economic problems, experts say, the state-run Xinhua news agency proclaimed.

The nationalist Global Times newspaper said a trade war with China could boomerang on Trump, because U.S. society and opinion could not withstand the losses that would result.

If a China-US trade war starts, many of those who now support a hardline stance toward China would turn against the Trump administration, it wrote in an editorial.

It even tried to link developments to violence and racial hatred that broke out in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

The source of global instability may not be North Koreas nuclear ambitions nor Europes refugee crisis, but the chaos in the US, it wrote in a separate opinion piece. The public is also concerned that Trump is using international disputes to divert public attention away from the domestic turmoil.

Shirley Feng, Yang Liu and Luna Lin contributed to this report.

Read more:

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So it has come to pass that the Keeper of the Great Clock announced Monday that Londons Big Ben hour bell will be silenced for four long years as desperately needed repairs are carried out on the 158-year-old timepiece, a masterwork of Victorian ingenuity and an enduring British icon.

Londoners were not happy to hear the news, and there was lament on Twitter, with many recalling how the hourly bongs of Big Ben serve as a kind of base note for their lives.

A silent Big Ben will be super eerie, tweeted Rob, a history student at Kings College. I could hear the chimes from my room in Euston, theyre the sound of London!

It will be very sad, but it needs to be done, said Kirsten Hurrell, 71, a news agent who runs a busy stall that faces the clock tower.

Hurrell said the gong of Big Ben might be one of those things in life you dont miss until it is gone. Quite honestly, we live with it and half the time we dont hear it, she said. But we will miss it when we will suddenly find its not there any more.

Scaffolding covers Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, in London as part of a four-year restoration project. (Will Oliver/European Pressphoto Agency)

Tourism officials were glum but hoping for the best.

A selfie with the Great Clock atop Elizabeth Tower along the Thames River is almost mandatory. The Palace of Westminster, home to the houses of Parliament, is one of the top five visited sites in London, and Big Ben is the star of the show.

The tower will soon be fully swaddled in metal scaffolding and three of the four clock dials covered. The last gongs of Big Ben, before its long rest, will ring out at noon Monday, Aug. 21. Large crowds are expected to witness the event. The repairs should be complete sometime in 2021, authorities promised.

Big Ben has marked the hour with almost unbroken service for the past 157 years, said Keeper of the Great Clock Steve Jaggs, noting that the complex renovation  budgeted at about $40 million  is designed to safeguard clock and tower for future generations.

Big Ben falling silent is a significant milestone in this crucial conservation project, the clock keeper said.

The actual bell is not the problem. It is the clock that rings the bell that needs repairs.

Cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the 13-ton hour bell was the largest of its day, its first performance celebrated by parliament in 1859.

In all these years, Big Ben bonged through good times and bad, including the Blitz, Germanys eight-month aerial bombardment of London during World War II.

The hour bell has been silenced for long periods a few times before. Just weeks into its service, Big Ben cracked. Apparently the striking hammer was too heavy. A lighter hammer was installed, the bell was turned, and Big Ben was back in service after three years. The experts say the crack gives the bell its unique but imperfect tone.

In more recent times, Big Ben stopped pealing for six weeks in 2007 and for repairs in 1983 and 1976. The bell was silent during the funerals of prime ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

The Keeper of the Great Clock explained that Big Ben must be silenced as the clock itself must be dismantled piece by piece with each cog examined and restored.

The four opal glass faces of the dials will also be cleaned and repaired, the rusting cast iron framework renewed, and the hour and minute hands refurbished. In addition, some modern conveniences  such as an elevator and washroom  will be built for the timekeepers.

Not only will Big Ben be quiet, but four quarter bells, which chime every 15 minutes, also will go silent.

While the refurbishment is ongoing, conservationists will allow one dial of the clocks four faces to be visible, so Londoners can still set their watches. A modern electric motor will turn the clock hands until the prince of timekeepers is repaired.

Some folks wonder why the bells cant keep ringing during the repairs. Or why an ersatz recording couldnt bang on. The answer is that a recording would be a feeble thing. More to the point, the clock tower will be crawling with artisans repairing a national treasure. They cant go holding their hands to their ears every 15 minutes.

The clock keeper announced that Big Ben would not be completely silenced during the repairs and would strike the hour for important national events, such as New Years Eve and Remembrance Sunday, Britains version of Veterans Day.

Yay! Ty Lopez said as Big Ben let out a bong Monday at precisely 1:15 p.m.

Lopez, a 36-year-old flight attendant from New York, and her friends were in London only for two days, but they made sure to take in the sights  and sounds  of Big Ben.

She reckoned that four years would pass by quickly.

Oliver Harris, 36, a flight attendant traveling with Lopez, said the silence could take some adjustment.

Its going to be different. Youre going to have to rely on looking at your watch, looking at your phone, instead of listening to the bongs. He said it would be akin to living next to a subway station that suddenly closed for renovations. It would be weird at first not to hear it going by your room.

Read more:

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Burkina Faso police and army forces patrol Sunday during an operation against suspected Islamist militants launched after gunmen attacked a cafe in the capital, Ouagadougou. (Ahmed Ouoba/AFP/Getty Images)

Gunmen riding motorcycles roared up to a Turkish restaurant in the capital of the West African nation of Burkina Faso and opened fire, killing at least 18 people and taking hostages before security forces ended a standoff early Monday.

The countrys communications minister, Remi Dandjinou, told reporters that security forces had killed both attackers. He said at least 20 other people were injured in the attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, a spot popular with foreigners in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Among those killed were two Canadians, two Kuwaitis and citizens of France, Senegal, Nigeria, Lebanon and Turkey, in addition to others from Burkina Faso, the countrys Foreign Ministry said.

This is a terrorist attack, Dandjinou told reporters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Burkina Faso has been hit by Islamist attackers before.

In January 2016, gunmen from the North Africa branch of al-Qaeda attacked a hotel and coffee shop on the same busy avenue in Ouagadougou, killing at least two dozen.

Al-Qaedas North African branch, in alliance with local extremist groups, has been aiming to spread its attacks beyond its base in the Sahara desert, with assaults on a beach resort in Ivory Coast in March 2016 and on the Radisson hotel in Malis capital in November 2015. The group is under heavy pressure from a French-led coalition of forces that have targeted the militants desert strongholds, killing a number of their commanders. The group has vowed to attack Frances allies in the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France would remain committed to working with the countries of the region in the fight against terrorist groups.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked, impoverished nation in West Africa, has largely been spared the terrorist attacks taking place elsewhere in the Sahel region.

Its president, Roch Marc Kabore, condemned the attack, expressed condolences to the families of the victims and praised security forces for their response. The fight against terrorism is a long term battle which is why I appeal for vigilance, solidarity and unity for the whole nation, he said in a tweet Monday.

The attack began around 9 p.m. local time Sunday when four gunmen arrived on motorcycles, pulled assault rifles out of their bags and opened fire on diners on the terrace outside the restaurant, according to Radio France Internationale. The restaurant was packed Sunday night with a birthday party, the radio report added. Security forces arrived in armored vehicles and surrounded the area, eventually cornering the gunmen in an upper floor of the restaurant where they took hostages, Dandjinou said.

Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

After deadly hotel attack, Burkina Faso contemplates a future with terrorism

Photos from the attack on luxury hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso

Five challenges facing Burkina Fasos new president

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to take a step back from the brink of nuclear war Tuesday, when state media reported that he would watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees.

But, as is often the case with North Korea, the message was mixed: Kim was inspecting the missile unit tasked with preparing to strike near Guam, and photos released by state media showed a large satellite image of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam on the screen beside the leader.

The U.S. should stop at once arrogant provocations against the DPRK and unilateral demands and not provoke it any longer, the North Korean leader told his missile unit, according to a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency published Tuesday.

If the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity, Kim continued, North Korea would make an important decision as it already declared, he said.

Kim was visiting the Strategic Force of the Korean Peoples Army, the elite missile unit that  according to state media  is finalizing preparations to launch ballistic missiles into the Pacific Ocean near the American territory of Guam. A decision was due this week, a week during which the Kim regime is celebrating the ruling family with huge propaganda displays in North Korea.

Kim praised the KPA Strategic Force for drawing up a close and careful plan . . . and examined the firing preparations for power demonstration, the report said.

He said that he wants to advise the U.S., which is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula into the touch-and-go situation, running helter-skelter, to take into full account gains and losses with clear head whether the prevailing situation is more unfavorable for any party, the report quoted Kim as saying.

This came just hours after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told South Korean leaders Monday that the United States was ready to use the full range of its military capabilities to deal with North Korea.

But Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., speaking in Seoul, just 30 miles south of the border with North Korea, stressed that diplomacy and sanctions were the first plan of attack.

The military dimension today is directly in support of that diplomatic and economic effort, Dunford told reporters after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul.

(Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

It would be a horrible thing were a war to be conducted here on the peninsula, and thats why were so focused on coming up with a peaceful way ahead, he said, according to Stars and Stripes.

Nobodys looking for war, the Marine general said, according to the newspaper. But he added that the militarys job was to provide viable military options in the event that deterrence fails.



Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday afternoon in Washington that it will be game on with North Korea if it hits the United States, including Guam, but he left it much more ambiguous what will happen if Pyongyang decides to shoot missiles near Guam, without attempting to hit the U.S. island territory.

That becomes an issue that we take up, and its however the president chooses, Mattis said. You cant make all of those kinds of decisions in advance. There is a host of things going on. There are allies we consult with, as the president made very clear last week when he talked about our allies repeatedly in his statement.

Mattis added that he needs a certain amount of ambiguity on this, because Im not going to tell [Kim] what Im going to do in each case. But he warned pointedly: You dont shoot at people in this world unless you want to bear the consequences.

Dunford was on the first stop of a trip that will also take him to Beijing on Tuesday and then to Tokyo, three capitals that do not want war to break out on their doorsteps.

China, meanwhile, signaled a potentially important break with North Korea as part of international sanctions. Beijing announced Monday that it would ban imports of iron ore, iron, lead and coal from North Korea, cutting an important economic lifeline for Pyongyang. The ban will take effect from Tuesday, Chinas Ministry of Commerce announced.

[China keeps in step with U.N. sanctions, but warns Washington on trade]

In the meetings with the South Korean president and other top officials Monday, Dunford appeared to offer a modified version of the threats that President Trump has issued over the past week.

Trump last week warned North Korea that it would face fire and fury if it tried to attack the United States or its allies. Then on Friday, after North Korea threatened to launch missiles toward Guam, Trump warned the regime that the U.S. military was locked and loaded.

But top administration officials appear focused on trying to play down the prospect of nuclear war. Appearing on Sunday-morning talk shows, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, An attack from North Korea is not something that is imminent. National security adviser H.R. McMaster said, Were not closer to war than a week ago.

[Who is Kim Jong Un and what will he decide to do? ]

The object of our peaceful pressure campaign is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote in a joint op-ed article published by the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone. We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang.

Officials in the South Korean government have voiced surprise and confusion at Trumps tough talk of the past week.

Moon, elected as South Koreas president in May on a pledge to adopt a more conciliatory approach to North Korea, urged the United States on Monday to give diplomacy a chance.

Peace will not come to the Korean Peninsula by force. Although peace and negotiation are painful and slow, we must pursue this path, Moon told his advisers ahead of his meeting with Dunford.



Calling the U.S.-South Korea military partnership an alliance for peace, Moon said he was confident that the U.S. will respond calmly and responsibly to the current situation. He even suggested that the gap between the allies was not large, as both are focused on peace.

Seoul, a vibrant metropolitan area of 25 million people, lies within range of North Koreas conventional artillery, stationed just across the border 30 miles to the north. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, including more than 28,000 U.S. troops, also live in South Korea.

After the meeting, Moons spokesman said the president had denounced North Korea for disturbing the peace in the region with its repeated missile launches.

The president noted the current security conditions on the Korean Peninsula constituted a more serious, real and urgent threat than ever created by the advancement in North Koreas nuclear and missile technologies, said spokesman Park Soo-hyun.

[How the world is reacting to the war of words between Trump and North Korea]

The U.S. and South Korean militaries next week are set to start their annual fall exercises, in which they practice responding to a North Korean invasion or the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang. North Korea always strongly objects to the drills, viewing them as a pretext for war.

Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said the exercises would go ahead as planned, starting Aug. 21. The exercises remain important to us, and well continue to move forward, he said, according to Stars and Stripes.



Lamothe reported from Washington. Simon Denyer in Beijing contributed to this report.

Read more:

China bans North Korea iron, lead, coal imports as part of U.N. sanctions

Are we on the brink of nuclear war with North Korea? Probably not.

Calls for diplomacy vie with fresh threats in North Korea crisis.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Chinas online watchdog has launched an investigation into reports of multiple violations at news services run by Tencent Holdings Ltd., Baidu Inc. and Weibo Corp., as the government continues to tighten scrutiny over internet content.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said Friday its instructed its Beijing and Guangdong branches to look into reports that some of the countrys largest online services are carrying user-generated content laden with violence, porn, rumors disruptive to social order. It didnt specify what actions may be taken. Tencent, Baidu and Weibo said in separate statements they will cooperate with the government on removing questionable content and rectifying any issues.

China has applied increasing pressure over internet media in the run-up to an important Communist Party congress later this year that is expected to consolidate President Xi Jinpings authority. Intent on muzzling potential sources of disruptive information, the government has shut livestreaming services and websites, tightened regulations governing internet access, and issued repeated warnings about the need to clean up content through various agencies. Observers say the enhanced scrutiny is also characteristic of Xis administration.

The latest probe centers on three of the countrys largest repositories of online musings, all with hundreds of millions of users: Tencents WeChat messaging service, Weibos Twitter-like blog and Baidus Tieba forums. Last month, Beijing scrubbed memorial photos of Liu Xiaobo from WeChat and Weibo, following the long-imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize-winning writers death in mid-July. Liu was an author of Charter 08, a document calling for democracy in China, and Beijing aimed to smother that intellectual legacy.

Tencents shares fell almost 5 percent, their biggest drop in a year and a half. But that stemmed in part from a continuation of an overnight tech-stock selloff in the U.S., and investors taking money off the table ahead of Tencents earnings report on Wednesday.

The government will conduct such checks every year and I dont see this having any impact on the long-term development of the company, said Yujie Li, an analyst with RHB Research Institute. People use WeChat and Weibo not for such illegal information, so I dont think this probe will affect the companies. Bloomberg
The FBI has arrested an Oklahoma man on charges that he tried to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb, acting out of a hatred for the U.S. government and an admiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, according to court papers.

Jerry Drake Varnell was arrested shortly after an attempt early Saturday morning to detonate a fake bomb packed into what he believed was a stolen cargo van outside a bank in Oklahoma City, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. He was charged with attempted destruction of a building by means of an explosive.

According to the complaint, over the course of a months-long undercover investigation by the FBI, Varnell made repeated statements about the extent of his hatred of the federal government.

[These photos show what its like inside an American militia]

In one conversation, he said he believed in the Three Percenter ideology  a form of anti-government activism that pledges resistance against the government on the belief that it has infringed on the Constitution, according to court papers. Those who subscribe to the ideology incorrectly believe that only 3 percent of the colonial population participated in the American Revolution, and they see themselves as their heirs.

The FBI arrested an Oklahoma man on charges that he tried to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Varnell, 23, allegedly discussed a number of potential targets, including the Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C., an IRS building in Maryland and a Bank of America data center in Texas. Eventually, he settled on a BancFirst building in Oklahoma City, the court papers say.

According to the complaint, Varnell expressed a desire to blow up buildings, but in a way that would minimize deaths or casualties, possibly by detonating the device at night when offices would be mostly empty.

On June 26, Varnell discussed the possibility that people could be killed and said, You got to break a couple of eggs to make an omelet, according to the complaint.

Thats why people dont do this s--- because, you know, you got to be able to overcome that little reality there, he said, according to the complaint.

As part of that conversation, as outlined in the court papers, Varnell said he wanted to do something that would somehow cripple the government. Something that sends a message that says, You are a target. 

Two weeks later, however, Varnell indicated that he wanted to detonate the bomb after work hours to prevent casualties, saying: Im down for whatever. Safety is number one.

Authorities said Varnell watched the construction of the fake bomb around 6:30 p.m. Friday. He then drove the vehicle containing the device to an alley adjacent to the bank building and parked it there, according to the FBI. After midnight, he twice attempted to detonate the bomb remotely, and shortly after those attempts he was arrested, according to the complaint.

A group called III% United Patriots said Varnell joined in November, but they dropped him from the membership rolls as soon as they heard of Mondays charges.

We dont want anything to do with him, said Dylan Hunter, a spokesman for the group. We condemn any acts of terrorism. We condemn Timothy McVeigh, we condemn what happened in Charlottesville. What we want to do is support the Constitution of the United States of America.

This story has been updated to include comment from the III% United Patriots group
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the dawn of North Americas automobile age, a Nebraskan by the name of Joe Saunders came up with a wild idea: Hed rent his Ford Model T to travelling salesmen.

Today, 101 years later, his figurative heirs  Saunders later sold out to a Chicagoan named Hertz  confront an existential question: can the car-rental business thrive in the era of Uber, Lyft and, one day, autonomous vehicles?

The answer, so far, isnt pretty. Losses at Hertz Global Holdings Inc. are piling up, and Avis Budget Group Inc. just dialled back its profit forecast. Investors have paid a heavy price. Problems with rental fleets are one reason. In recent years, Hertz bought more cars than it needs, and its been struggling to unload them at decent prices.

Perhaps more troubling, however, is that car-rental companies face the kind of threat that felled Blockbuster, which was undone by new technology in the form of digital video and Netflix.

There will always be a market for rental cars, but for a growing number of business customers, and even some casual consumers, they seem like a throwback. Why wait in lines, pick up keys, fill up and drop off, when you can tap an app instead?

The travails of the industry were driven home yet again last week when Hertz reported its third straight quarter of red ink. The 63 cents-per-share adjusted loss for the period that ended in June was worse than the lowest analyst projection in a Bloomberg survey. A day earlier, Avis cut its earnings projection for the full year.

The transportation business is evolving, said Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group, which does advisory work for the rental car industry. The companies that stand still are left in the dust.

To be sure, the industrys tough times may have more to do with mismanagement than Uber, Lyft or new mobility companies delivering a glancing blow. Hertz in particular built up a bloated fleet of too many cars to rent. To keep those vehicles generating revenue, the company had to drop rental rates.

The companies have had to slim down their fleets at the worst possible time. Millions of vehicles are coming back off leases from when the U.S. auto industry was on its years-long growth spurt.

That big supply is making it difficult to sell old rental cars in the used market. Hertzs moves to shed cars quickly have accelerated depreciation rates for the rental industry. Chief executive officer Kathryn Marinello took over in January with the task of fixing the company a matter of weeks after billionaire investor Carl Icahn boosted his stake.

Hertz management has hurt the industry the most, said Jim Tennant, principal of the Tennant Group, a consultant to the rental industry.

Marinello said the company is now done slimming its bloated fleet.

Of course, the hard work always comes before the payoff as reflected in our second-quarter results, she said in a statement announcing the results.

The progress the CEO described led to a day of respite Wednesday for investors who had watched Hertz shares plunge 72 per cent from their high point over the last year, reached last August. The stock surged the most intraday since 2009 and was up 15 per cent in New York.

As the companies struggle with managing the core business, Hertz and Avis also are going to have to navigate a hazy future. Whereas the harried business traveller has to schlep bags to a bus, ride that to a rental counter, wait in line, get the car, inspect it, sign the papers and then drive off, ride-hailing allows people to click an app and get picked up.

At this point, Uber and Lyft have only taken about three to four per cent of revenue from car-rental companies, mostly from business done at airport counters, estimates Hamzah Mazari, an analyst with Macquarie. Bearish investors think they can steal 25 per cent, Mazari said, though he expects more like a five to seven per cent cut.

In rough numbers, he estimates Hertz and Avis could each lose US$200 million in revenue. Each brings in about US$8.6 billion a year.

As it gains momentum outside big cities, it could have bigger impact, Mazari said of ride-hailing. It could get bigger especially if millennials are more comfortable with car-sharing.

In the near term, Avis CEO Larry De Shon said, falling used-car prices that have made the resale of out-of-service rental cars costly are starting to stabilize and rates for rental cars are picking back up. In the long run, he has a plan to stave off increasing competition from the likes of Uber and the looming threat from self-driving robotaxis.

Aviss Zipcar unit is leasing cars to Uber drivers through a pilot program in Boston. The company also has a partnership with Waymo, the autonomous-driving division of Googles parent company, Alphabet Inc., to manage its fleet of self-driving cars in Phoenix.

Apple, meanwhile, has cut a deal to lease Lexus RX450h sport utility vehicles from Hertzs Donlen fleet-management unit and test its autonomous-driving system on the vehicles. The day Bloomberg News reported the deal, Hertz shares rose more than 13 per cent as investors saw a way forward.

Theres a role for rental companies to play in the future, said Michael Millman, founder of Millman Research Associates. They have large lots in major cities, airports and tourist attractions, and staff to maintain them. Their only real competition, he said, will be other rental companies like closely held Enterprise Holdings Inc. and General Motors Co.s Maven unit.

I think they are going to benefit from this, Millman said. These pilots will grow into businesses and bring in new revenue.

That will require the rental companies to show they can transform a business that has been run the same way for decades  a major undertaking, Tennant said.

The car rental companies are not really good at change, he said.

 Bloomberg News
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The University of Winnipeg is hoping to duplicate the success of the citys first truly mixed residential complex  the 102-unit Downtown Commons  by building another one less than a block away.

The proposed new tower would be similar in size to the original 14-storey, $30-million tower and would be built on property the university recently acquired at the corner of St. Mary Avenue and Good Street.

The project is contingent upon the university acquiring financing. The plan is to have the new tower developed by a new non-profit entity  UWCRC 2.0  which the university created to be a sister organization to its University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Nick Bockstael (from left), Sherman Kreiner, George Cibinel and Tim Williams at the corner of St. Mary Avenue and Good Street, where theyre involved in a plan to build a followup to the nearby Downtown Common complex.

The renewal corporation developed the Downtown Commons and was involved in most of the more than $200 million in infrastructure projects the U of W has undertaken during the past 12 years.

Managing director Sherman Kreiner said until this year the focus has been on meeting the U of Ws infrastructure needs. Now that those needs have mostly been met, the university wants to take the skills and expertise it has gained and assist other organizations that have sustainable infrastructure projects they want to undertake, but do not have the expertise to do it on their own.

We thought, what do we do with what weve created here in terms of competency and experience? I think theres a value to it for the community and a value to it for the university, Kreiner said.

So we created another not-for-profit development organization (UWCRC 2.0) whose mandate is to do other value-driven, sustainable development, either on our own or with other partners.

The new entity would also provide a new stream of revenue for the university, he said.

Kreiner said the renewal corporation cut its teeth working with outside developers when it partnered with community groups to convert the former Merchants Hotel on Selkirk Avenue into a community learning hub and social enterprise cafe. The project included the construction of 30 units of subsidized student housing.

That (project) also led us to understand that these skills and experiences and competencies that we have could be valuable in the community, he said.

The new entitys first outside project involves partnering with Brandon University on a mixed-use and residential development in downtown Brandon. The development likely will include a residential component patterned after the U of Ws Downtown Commons.

The Downtown Commons building at 320 Colony St. includes 102 premium market, affordable and rent-geared-to-income suites. The units range in size from bachelor to three-bedroom suites, and the tenants include students, seniors, Indigenous families, immigrant families, Syrian refugee families and professionals.

Kreiner said the complex, which opened last year, is believed to be unique in Canada for offering high-quality, downtown rental housing for people from a variety of backgrounds and financial circumstances.

It was fully occupied within three months and we have a pretty significant waiting list, which is why we feel this could be a replicable model for the neighbourhood. We havent fully tapped the demand (for that type of housing).

Stefano Grande, CEO of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, said another complex like the Downtown Commons would be a welcome addition downtown.

There is definitely a need for good, affordable housing in our city, never mind downtown, Grande said, adding the fact the Downtown Commons was fully occupied within three months and has an extensive waiting list is proof of that.

He said its encouraging to see the U of W launching a new entity that can share its expertise in building sustainable communities.

I think theyve discovered that the private sector will not do not-for-profit housing because its such a challenge. The numbers dont work, he said. So there is demand, and its a very specialized skill. It seems the university developed their capability, and the fact that it is now bringing that into the community and helping (other organizations) is wonderful.

Kreiner said UWCRC 2.0 plans to work with other post-secondary organizations and community groups. Its already working with a number of First Nations groups in Winnipeg and on reserves. Its getting inquiries from out-of-province universities interested in copying the venture.

I think well have a series of announcements about this over the next six months or so he said.

Kreiner said once financing is secure, the plan is to demolish the one-storey building at 505 St. Mary Ave. and begin foundation work this winter. The hope is to have the tower ready for late summer or early fall 2019.

Kreiner and Jeremy Read, chief operating officer of the renewal corporation, said theyre exploring the possibility of including suites for artists in the tower. They said that would tie in nicely with the area, which includes the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the proposed Inuit Art Centre.

Kreiner said there were two commercial tenants in the building at 505 St. Mary Ave. Dessert Sinsations has moved out, but the Perths dry-cleaning outlet plans to remain until demolition begins.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
The European Union said Friday that it plans to hold an extraordinary meeting late next month over a growing tainted egg scandal as it revealed that products contaminated with an insecticide have now spread to 17 countries.

Millions of eggs have been destroyed or pulled from supermarket shelves since July 20, when it was made public that the pesticide Fipronil, which is dangerous to human health, was found mixed with another treatment sprayed on chickens for ticks, fleas and lice, known as Dega 16.

Almost all lab tests show that only very low levels of Fipronil  seven to 10 times lower than the maximum permitted  have been detected in eggs from the treated chickens, although one test in Belgium was above the European limit. Poisoning by small doses has few effects and requires little treatment. Heavy and prolonged exposure can damage the kidneys and liver or cause seizures.

The scandal has caused major political fallout, with neighbors Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany squabbling over who is to blame, and who knew what and when. Poultry farmers have been hardest hit, and are blaming the chemical industry for compromising their business and exposing consumers to danger.

The EUs executive Commission said Friday that contaminated eggs have been found at producers in four countries; Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Eggs or egg products from those producers have reached Austria, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden, as well as Switzerland and Hong Kong outside the EU.

The Commission announced that it is aiming to hold talks between EU ministers and food safety agencies concerned on Sept. 26.

The aim is to draw the relevant lessons and discuss the ways to continuously improve the effectiveness of the EU system to deal with food fraud, Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.

She said the EUs priority remains to manage the situation, to continue to coordinate and to reassure our citizens.

In France, Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that tests on imported eggs contaminated with pesticide show no risk to public health.

Travert said on RMC radio Friday that some 244,000 eggs imported from the Netherlands and Belgium and sold in France were affected.

He said test results received overnight from the French food safety agency on affected eggs and egg products showed the level of contamination does not present a risk for the consumer.

France has also confirmed one farm in the Nord-Pas de Calais region was found to have used Fipronil, and is now blocked from selling eggs.

The Agriculture Ministry says the French farm reported on July 28, as the scandal was coming to light, that Dega 16 had been used on the farm by a Belgian subcontractor, and the ministry claims no eggs concerned have been sold.

Danish food safety authorities say 20 tons of boiled and peeled eggs linked to the pesticide scandal were sold in recent months to a distributor in Denmark, which in turn sold them to canteens, cafes and catering companies in the country.

The agency said Thursday the Danish distributor, Danaeg Products, has been ordered to recall the eggs because the content is illegal but not dangerous.

German Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman Jennifer Reinhard said Friday the facts need to be swiftly and fully investigated.

She noted that there are rapid alert systems that should be used if consumers are at risk.

There must be no compromises when it comes to food safety, Reinhard said. Information needs to be shared between (EU) member states without delay.

In Poland, Jan Bondar, a spokesman for the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, said that an estimated 40,000 potentially contaminated eggs have been imported but were not sold to consumers. He said the eggs came from the Netherlands and were delivered by a German company. Contamination hasnt been confirmed but they came from farms where contaminated eggs were found. He said the eggs would either be destroyed or returned to the producer. Lorne Cook, AP
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON  Two new exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba are giving the public a glimpse into some of the artistic minds behind bars.

The two exhibits  Time Well Wasted by local artist and Brandon Correctional Centre inmate Edward Southwind, and Created with Dignity, a collection of 32 drawings submitted to this years annual inmate art contest sponsored by the Manitoba Multifaith Council and the John Howard Society  will be on display until Sept. 1 in the Community Gallery.

This exhibition with art from (the inmate art contest) has been going on for seven years now, AGSM executive director John Hampton said.

Supplied Edward Southwind's 'Untitled' will be on display in AGSM's Community Gallery as part of his exhibition 'Time Well Wasted.'

This is the only the second time its been exhibited, and the first time its been shown in an art gallery.

Ideas that dance throughout each work circle around personal growth, self-worth and moving forward, but the styles and themes change from piece to piece.

Last years contest saw a lot of tattoo type imagery, but this year theres a lot of images of family, and religious, spiritual and cultural themes  really reflects a lot of positivity and hope, Hampton said.

Edwards also shows a lot of cultural imagery and hope between the two (exhibitions) you can see these representations of traditional Indigenous teachings, as well as Christian iconography that appears quite a bit in both of them.

Theres also a heightened awareness of the creativity behind each work.

They have limited access to materials while incarcerated, so theres a real rawness to some of the work and ingenuity thats required to work with those limited supplies, Hampton said.

Our understanding and relationship to (inmates) is usually thinking of them through the actions that resulted in them being incarcerated. This has been a really interesting way to see these humans, these other fellow community members, in a very different way.

For Southwind, this has been a special experience  after a program officer, Tanis Wilkins, noticed his penchant for drawing, artist and art educator Chris Cooper began providing lessons for him, bringing supplies to BCC and helping him create his work.

Its pretty inspiring to hear  how meaningful an interaction and experience this was for him  to have a positive experience in a space where theres few opportunities for positivity and for someone to feel like they can contribute something of meaning to the world, Hampton said.

Supplied 'Blessings from My Dignitary,' a winner in this year's annual inmate art contest, will be among 32 drawings on display at AGSM's Community Gallery for the exhibition, 'Created with Dignity.'

I found that very emotional and touching.

As part of this exhibit, the AGSM, in partnership with the John Howard Society of Brandon, will be hosting a roundtable discussion, Restorative Justice and the John Howard Society on Aug. 25 at noon. The discussion is free and open to the public.

edebooy@brandonsun.com

 Brandon Sun
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In his struggles to come up with a regime to control the sale of recreational marijuana, Premier Brian Pallister may have found a powerful ally.

Shoppers Drug Mart.

Despite a looming July 1, 2018 deadline to have a system in place, the province has been very reluctant to talk about how it would like to handle the production, distribution and sales of recreational pot. Last month, Justice Minister Heather Stefanson issued an expression of interest to find potential partners and solutions to handle all aspects of legalized marijuana.

Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times Files The province has until July 1, 2018 to implement a system to control the sale of marijuana.

Although its too early to identify all those responding to the expression of interest, there is increasing evidence to suggest Shoppers Drug Mart is one of the interested parties.

Government sources say senior representatives of Loblaw Companies Ltd., the parent of the pharmacy chain, have already been in contact with Manitoba to express a burning desire to participate in the sale of both medical and recreational pot.

This is hardly a surprising development. For the past two years, Loblaw has been working diligently to build its profile as one of Canadas most 420-friendly corporate entities.

Loblaw has already applied to the federal government to dispense medical marijuana. The company has also donated $1 million to St. Thomas University in New Brunswick to help fund a new research chair on cannabis. And earlier this year, the company announced its employees health plan would cover up to $1,500 in medical marijuana to treat a limited list of conditions.

When you consider all those steps, it only seems to make sense that Loblaw would expand its interests to include the soon-to-be-legal recreational marijuana market. The company has certainly been dropping hints.

At Loblaws annual general meeting last spring, CEO Galen Weston strongly hinted recreational pot sales were also on the companys radar. You can never predict the future, Weston said at that time.

That same coyness was evident last week when the Free Press asked Loblaw Companies directly if it had been in contact with Manitoba over the retail sale of recreational pot.

We have had discussions with various governments primarily to share our view that pharmacists should play an important role in the safe and responsible distribution of medical cannabis, a Loblaw spokesman said. At the same time, it has been speculated that retailers will play a part in provincial frameworks, and we appreciate the opportunity to gather and share information in conversation with governments. In the absence of any confirmed frameworks, its premature to say what  if any  role we could play.

Of course, unless Pallister decides to move ahead with a made-in-Manitoba system for recreational pot sales, the lobbying efforts of Shoppers Drug Mart will be all for naught.

To date, the premier has put far more effort into trying to delay the July 2018 deadline than he has devising a safe and dependable system for the production, distribution and sale of cannabis products.

Pallisters effort to get Ottawa to delay legalization of recreational marijuana for an additional year  unveiled last month at the annual Council of Federation meeting  seems doomed to fail. Although the council did strike a working group to probe Ottawa for more details on what a legal pot marketplace would look like, most provinces are forging ahead with their own plans. For some provinces, like New Brunswick, the promise of additional tax revenue has dampened any appetite for a delay in implementation.

The pointlessness of Pallisters strategy became evident a few days after the Council of the Federation Meeting when Health Minister Jane Philpott, during a visit to Winnipeg, said bluntly there would be no deadline extension for any province. Philpott added there was still a tremendous amount of background work being done between federal and provincial officials.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Premier Brian Pallister has tried to get the federal government to delay its deadline for provincial marijuana rules.

Increasingly, Pallister is beginning to look like a leader who is looking for a way to completely avoid having to implement the legal sale of recreational pot in his province. Pallister has never said he is opposed to legalization, but he appears to have deliberately avoided doing anything meaningful to meet Ottawas July 2018 deadline.

Some of that is due to the fact Pallisters core support base is solidly in the constituency of Canadians opposed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus pledge to legalize recreational marijuana.

It doesnt matter that most Manitobans are somewhat or stridently supportive; decisions that disappoint the base tend to slow the flow of donations from party members.

Its also likely that Pallister is looking to avoid yet another battle with public sector unions, many of which are actively trying to discourage the province from partnering with private retailers or stand-alone dispensaries.

Last year, the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union released a poll that showed 65 per cent of Manitobans wanted cannabis sold and regulated the same way as alcohol. The MGEU has suggested the provinces existing network of government liquor marts would be easily able to handle cannabis sales.

Pallister may be predisposed to steer clear of the liquor mart option, which would involve doing something a public sector union actually wants. However, if he does decide to snub liquor marts, he will have some support from  of all sources  the federal government. A federal task force report released last December urged the provinces to avoid selling cannabis products in locations that also sold alcohol or tobacco.

Interestingly, Shoppers Drug Mart and most other pharmacy chains stopped selling tobacco years ago. Enough said about that.

Its pretty clear Pallister will have myriad options available to him well before the federal government makes recreational pot legal. Now, all he needs is the will to meet next summers deadline.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of south St. Boniface residents and business owners are critical of air-quality testing conducted by provincial staff at a scrap metal operation in their neighbourhood and want the government to redo the tests using an independent firm.

The South St. Boniface Residents Association is meeting with senior government officials this week, when they will push for new testing surrounding the controversial Industrial Metals operation.

The residents said two industry experts they consulted found the provincial testing conducted last year was inadequate and its conclusions misleading.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS South St. Boniface residents want an independent company to conduct a new air-quality test at Industrial Metals.

Were concerned about the air were breathing and we just want the tests done right  I dont think thats too much to ask, area resident Michelle Berger said. We dont know whats happening at the plant, and based on the tests the government has done, neither do they.

Industrial Metals is a scrap metal operation located on Rue Messier in Winnipegs Mission industrial park. In August 2015, the company installed an auto shredder  a massive device that physically pounds vehicles into component parts  and area residents and business owners have been complaining about noise, dust and a foul odour, which they say have been caused by the plant, and are concerned about the impacts on their health.

In response to the neighbourhood concerns, the province conducted air-quality testing surrounding the plant between March and August 2016. It said the results from the tests found nothing from the plant that poses a threat to the surrounding neighbourhood and dismissed the need for any further testing.

Based upon the results of this screening study, Manitoba Sustainable Development does not have any concerns about the air quality in the Dufresne area of St. Boniface at this time, said the conclusion from the study that was released in March. No further sampling is recommended based on a review of the results.

The study shocked residents and business owners and prompted the residents association to find its own experts to critique the provinces study.

Shirley Thompson, an associate professor in the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba, reviewed the provincial study and said it failed to test for factors that might pose a threat to human health. She said the conclusions that the plant didnt pose a threat and no further testing is warranted could not be supported by how the study was conducted and what it found.

When people are expressing concerns about their health, respiratory diseases, the tests should be looking for things that can get into their lungs, she said, adding the provincial study failed to do that.

Thats very problematic, said Thompson, who has a masters degree in environmental engineering and industrial hygiene and is considered an expert in industrial hygiene and eco-health. Thats basic, very basic information.

A second review conducted by Brian Zelt, a professional engineer from Alberta whos considered an expert in air dispersion modelling, found similar problems with the provincial tests. He concluded there are several short-comings of the (provincial) study.

Zelts report said the shortcomings he identified in the provincial testing discredit the air study from being a definitive statement about health or the industrial area emissions.

The ownership of Industrial Metals did not respond to a request for an interview.

A provincial government spokesman said no new evidence has come forward to warrant a second round of testing.

At this time, there has been no new evidence to indicate there is any risk to public health, but Sustainable Development will continue to monitor the facility and ensure it is in compliance with its environmental licence, he said.

Wes Rist, owner of Gateway Construction, said the odours coming the Industrial Metals plant are unbelievable on some days.

Its everywhere  its in the building, its outside it makes you sick, said Rist, whose business is located on Archibald Street, close to Industrial Metals. Rist said he supports the residents associations call for a second round of testing.

Someone should go right to the (shredder) and diagnose whats coming out of that and get it reduced  not stand three miles away and say, Can I smell something? Go to the source of the problem and check it out right there.

The residents association said almost 200 residents have filed formal complaints with the province about the plant since the shredder went into operation and it has a petition with more than 1,700 signatures demanding a new round of testing.

Berger said she recognizes the work done by Industrial Metals is necessary, but added the problems with the provincial testing identified by the experts undermine public confidence in the provinces ability to properly conduct environmental assessments and testing. She hopes it prompts the government to agree to the groups request for an independent study.

What were hearing from everyone in the area is that theyre not satisfied, Berger said. Why wouldnt you do proper testing?

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While Canada may have concluded a 12-year military commitment to the war in Afghanistan in the spring of 2014, few taxpayers realize we continue to spend more than $150 million annually in support of the Afghan Security Forces. That is definitely not chump change, and as such we should not only be concerned with how effectively that money is being spent, but also we should be following the internal happenings of the Afghan regime we are paying so much to protect.

In terms of return on investment, the most recent quarterly report from the U.S. Special Inspector General  Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) paints a pretty bleak picture. From Jan. 1 to May 8 this year, the Afghan Security Forces suffered a total of 2,531 soldiers killed and 4,238 wounded.

That amounts to roughly 45 Afghan Security Force casualties per day, every day, which is at least five times higher than at the peak of fighting when U.S. and NATO forces were handling the combat operations. Despite the billions of dollars spent on weapons, equipment and training, the Afghan Security Forces are getting chewed up on the battlefield at an unsustainable rate.

Rahmat Gul / The Associated Press Files Security forces stand next to a crater created by a massive explosion that killed more than 150 people in front of the German Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 31.

Even more alarming are the SIGAR statistics for that same four-month period, wherein they found at least 12,073 Ministry of Defence personnel were simply unaccounted for. This has been a long-running theme throughout the rampantly corrupt Afghan forces, which has become commonly known as Ghost Soldiers. It is common practice in most units to draw pay and rations for soldiers who were killed, deserted or simply never existed. Likewise, the clever Afghans continue to take fuel deliveries for vehicles that were long since disabled in order to sell the gasoline on the black market.

Even weapons and ammunition are sold, often to the very insurgents those troops are ostensibly being paid to fight. The Talibans primary source for weapons and ammo is the U.S.-supplied Afghan Security Force, and they have long since realized it is far easier to simply buy them from disgruntled Afghan government troops than try to capture them.

Canadas $150 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions spent annually by the U.S. to prop up this ragtag army, but nevertheless, it is a lot of money to be pumping into a failed system that ultimately benefits the insurgents we are hoping to thwart.

Then there is the bigger question of what we are hoping to protect with this fourth-rate security force. How corrupt and dysfunctional can the Afghan government really be? Well, lets take a look at the most recent developments involving the countrys vice-president. Just last month, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum attempted to return to Afghanistan from exile in Turkey, but his private plane was refused landing rights by the authority of the government of President Ashraf Ghani and Afghanistans chief executive officer Abdullah Abdullah.

Dostums alleged crime is the kidnapping and sexual assault of his political rival, Ahmed Eshchi, the governor of Jawzjan Province. What is even more crazy about this is that in 2010, when I interviewed Dostum in Kabul, he was under house arrest for kidnapping, beating and raping another of his political rivals. I also interviewed Dostums alleged victim in that case, Akbar Bey, a prominent leader of the Afghan Turkmen community. Bey could not believe Dostum was seemingly above all laws as the Kabul regime needed his continued loyalty and that of his devoted ethnic-Uzbek followers.

Dostum has been a notorious warlord dating back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In those days, he saw himself as a communist sympathizer, but when the Soviets withdrew he switched sides. Throughout his martial career Dostum has also been accused of numerous war crimes. However, immediately following the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, he telephoned then-U.S. secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld to say he would be Americas best ally in Afghanistan. Kidnapping, rape and mass-murder allegations aside, the U.S. repaid Dostums loyalty by making him vice-president in 2014.

Now Dostum is not just threatening to return to Kabul, but he has put together a coalition of other former warlords with which he intends to save Afghanistan from the corrupt regime of Ghani and Abdullah. Given this state of affairs, is it any wonder the Afghan Security Forces are demoralized? The political drama in Kabul makes the Trump White House look like a well-oiled machine.

Surely there are better things on which to spend Canadas $150-million annual stipend.

Scott Taylor is the founder and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. He is a bestselling author and award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Opinion

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This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Another high-profile sexual assault case ended in acquittal last week when three Toronto police officers were found not guilty of assaulting a female parking-enforcement officer.

In her 45-page ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy wrote she couldnt rely on the complainants testimony, adding that although the slogan Believe the victim has become popularized of late, it has no place in a criminal trial.

During the Jian Ghomeshi trial last year, the hashtag #IBelieveWomen began trending on social media. It was meant to challenge the most pervasive and damaging of all myths about sexual assault victims: women lie. The hashtag was a way to show solidarity with sexual assault victims, an overwhelming number of whom never report what happened to them.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Chef Rob Thomas was acquitted of sexual assault this week.

For many people, the concept of believing women, or believing the victim, sits diametrically opposed to the cornerstone of our justice system: innocent until proven guilty. Justice Molloy, like many legal minds, has concerns that believing a victim results in presumption of guilt for the accused.

But the #IBelieveWomen movement was hardly calling for automatic convictions of the accused. It was about listening to, and taking seriously, the complaints of victims, about not assuming that they were asking for it, looking for attention, out to ruin a mans life  take your pick. Those aghast at the acquittal of Ghomeshi in March 2016 had valid concerns about the ways in which Justice William Horkins resorted to victim-blaming in his decision and the chill effect it might have on women coming forward.

This, they said, is a big part of the problem. This, they said, is why women dont bother seeking justice.

Many advocates have called for wide systemic changes to how sexual assaults are dealt with in this country, from examining how bias and stereotypes are used in rulings to calling for a better understanding of trauma psychology and the ways in which memory works to beefing up victim services. From initial police questioning right through to trial, the system needs an overhaul. To flippantly dismiss the believe the victim movement as a trend is to dismiss these legitimate criticisms.

Encouragingly, there were a few glimmers of hope from the past week that suggest change is happening. Elsewhere in her report, in a section tellingly titled Irrelevant Evidence and Things I Have Not Taken Into Account, Justice Molloy handily smacked down a bunch of rape myths and stereotypes  including the relevance of what the complainant wore and how she behaved.

Here in Winnipeg, Court of Queens Bench Justice David Kroft this week found chef Rob Thomas not guilty of sexual assault, but was careful to make the distinction between the credibility of the complainant and the reliability of the complainants evidence. My doubt is not rooted in a finding that the complainant or any of the Crown witnesses were dishonest in their testimony, lacked sincerity or were evasive, he said. Again, that is not the source of my doubt. Instead, my doubt arises principally from concerns as to the reliability of the complainants evidence.

Hearing judges dismantle rape myths in nuanced rulings  even if they arent in favour of the victim  is powerful because it suggests victims can be heard and taken seriously. When people talk about believing a victim, this is what they mean: taking people seriously, and not relying on heavily debunked stereotypes to get an acquittal.

Believe the victim may not have a place in a criminal trial, but its encouraging to see justices recognize that rape myths have no place there, either. Whether this merits the hashtag #Ibelievethisisprogress will be an individual decision.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/08/2017 (1917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some of the most notable hallmarks of our ward are our picturesque trees.

In many ways, they define our neighbourhood. When Winnipeggers think about River Heights-Fort Garry, many of the things they love most about its historic streets are our tallest residents.

Protecting and adding to our green spaces, especially our trees, has been one of my main focuses as your city councillor over the years.

Sou'wester Trees are being planted all over the city, and River Heights, to replace those lost to the ravages of Dutch elm disease.

This spring, for example, we added 15 trees on Grant and Corydon Avenues medians to ensure trees are brought back to our thoroughfares. Look for more to be planted this fall and next year, made possible by a community grant, as we work to fill in all the gaps.

In Lindenwoods this summer we continue to remove and replace Schubert Chokecherry trees, which were infected with black knot fungus. In the past four years strides have been made to address this with hundreds of trees being replanted. This replanting is part of a 10-year replacement project throughout the city and will continue in our ward next summer.

As we know all too well, Dutch Elm Disease is a dire threat throughout Winnipeg.

Beginning in 2017, neighbourhoods in Wolseley, Wellington Crescent and Crescentwood with high densities of urban elm trees, including those on both public and private property, are part of a pilot project to develop the methodology to detect elm trees that contribute most to the spread of DED in our neighbourhoods.

Dr. Richard Westwood and students from the environmental studies and sciences and the biology programs at the University of Winnipeg will monitor infected trees during the summer. They will determine which trees are the best candidates for rapid removal to minimize the movement of disease carrying beetles to healthy elm trees. Brood trees will be identified by sampling for egg-laying galleries under the trees main stem bark. Each diseased elm in the pilot area will have a section of bark removed to count the number of galleries in each sampled tree.

With an overall loss of approximately 5,000 elm trees citywide due to DED, the City of Winnipeg has been proud to partner with Trees Winnipeg to support the Winnipeg ReLeaf Program. For two years now, the Winnipeg ReLeaf has provided homeowners like you with quality, affordable trees for your property. For just $55 each, participants receive the tree collection(s) of their choice, along with all the supplies needed to give the trees the best start.

While the annual deadline for sign up is in May, you can plan your order for next year at http://www.savetheelms.mb.ca/projects/reLeaf.php

Do you know of an area of our ward that would look and feel better with trees? Have you seen trees that need attention? Let me know at jorlikow@orlikow.ca or 204-986-5236.
Media reports indicate that both India and China have increased military deployments along their disputed border, increasing the danger that their eight-week-long standoff on the Doklam Plateaua ridge in the Himalayan foothills claimed by both China and Bhutancould cascade into war.

Beijing is said to have stationed 800 Peoples Liberation Army troops near to where 300 Chinese troops are deployed on the Doklam Plateau eyeball-to-eyeball from Indian forces. Some Indian sources are also claiming that China has sent Chengdu J-9 and J-10 fighter jets to Tibet and deployed surface-to-air missile batteries near its disputed border with the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Indian Army, meanwhile, has ordered troops from its 3rd and 4th Corps to move closer to the Line of Actual Control that separates Arunachal Pradesh from Chinese Tibet and placed them in high-alert, No War, No Peace mode.

The Indian Armys presence in Sikkim, the Indian state closest to the site of the standoff, was expanded earlier in the crisis. The units that were advanced toward the border with China at that time remain in forward-deployed positions.

On Thursday, News18 reported that residents of Nathang, a village in Sikkim situated some 35 kilometers from the Doklam Plateau, were leaving the area. Indian government and army officials have denied that an evacuation has been ordered. The report said that it was unclear if an (evacuation) order has been issued to accommodate thousands of soldiers of the 33 Corps who are reportedly moving from Sukna (West Bengal) towards Doklam or as a precautionary measure to avoid civilian casualties in case of a skirmish.

The Indian-based The Quint website has since confirmed that 33 Corps, which was mobilized nearly a month ago, has moved very close to the India-China border in Sikkim as part of the massive positioning of troops in the wake of the continuing standoff over the Doklam issue.

Since the standoff began on June 18, Beijing and New Delhi have each insisted that the other has taken unprecedentedly aggressive actionaction that requires a hardline response.

Beijing says it is unprecedented for Indian troops to confront Chinese forces on territory that India does not claim as its own, but rather considers to belong to a third country, Bhutan. New Delhi, which deployed its troops to prevent Chinese construction workers from expanding a road on the Plateau, said that the roadwork violated a standstill agreement Beijing has with Bhutan pending resolution of their border dispute and, moreover, that its core strategic interests are at stake, because Chinese control over the Doklam would increase the vulnerability of the Siliguri Corridora narrow slice of territory that links Indias seven northeastern states with the rest of the country.

Late last week Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj met with her Bhutanese counterpart, Damcho Dorji, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), a seven-state bloc India is using to try to expand its economic and strategic influence at Chinas expense.

Swaraj and Dorji provided no details at the conclusion of their talks, but the Bhutanese minister did tell waiting media persons, We hope the situation in Doklam will be resolved peacefully and amicably.

New Delhi claims to be supporting Bhutan against Chinese bullying, but India itself has long treated the Himalayan kingdom like a protectorate. Even sections of the Indian media have said that New Delhis claims about the threat to the Siliguri Corridor are exaggerated and that its real worry is that Bhutan, having been heavily courted by Beijing, could escape its unbridled domination.

Bhutan has protested the Chinese incursion on the Doklam, but it has not repeated New Delhis claims Indian troops interceded at its request.

Beijing has accused New Delhi of violating Bhutans sovereignty, as part of an aggressive pushback against India. For weeks, Chinese government officials and the state-owned press have been churning out belligerent statements. This has included frequent taunting references to the month-long 1962 Sino-Indian border war, in which Chinese troops routed Indian forces, and, more recently, blunt warnings that Beijings patience is rapidly running out.

Publicly China has explained its new, hardline stance as due to Indias unprecedented action of confronting Chinese troops on territory that it does not even claim as its own.

However, the real explanation for Beijings more aggressive stance against India is the latters ever-deeper integration into American imperialisms military-strategic offensive against China. Under the three-year rule of Narendra Modi and his Hindu supremacist BJP, India has been transformed into a veritable frontline state in Washingtons anti-China war drive. New Delhi has thrown open its military bases and ports to routine use by the Pentagon; parroted Washingtons provocative stance on the South China Sea; and expanded bilateral and trilateral strategic ties with Americas principal Asia-Pacific allies, Japan and Australia.

As the Doklam standoff began, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump were pledging at a White House meeting to further expand the Indo-US global strategic partnership.

Official Washington has said little about the border crisis in the Himalayas, but in recent days calls for a diplomatic solution have become more frequent. This is no doubt a sign of increasing concern that events could spin out of control, even as the US is ratcheting up tensions with North Korea and using the Washington-instigated crisis on the Korean Peninsula to bully China.

On Saturday Admiral Harry B. Harris, the head of the US Pacific Command, told the Press Trust of India that he encourages China and India to resolve their differences diplomatically, adding, I think that any time you have two great powers at odds across a common border, thats an area of concern. Of course, its potentially dangerous.

Harris statements are deeply cynical. He has been a major player in the push to harness India to the US offensive against China. He has publicly pressed for India to mount joint patrols with the US Navy across the Indian Pacific Oceans, including in the South China Sea. Last month, India, the US and Japan staged what the Trump administration boasted was the largest ever Indian Ocean war exercisesexercises that the press of all three countries characterized as a message to China.

Washington no doubt does not want things to boil over between India and China in the midst of a possible nuclear confrontation with North Korea. However, the aggressive US stance in northeast Asia may encourage New Delhi to calculate it can press a hard bargain on a threatened Beijing.

Moreover, there are concerns within Washington that the US needs to make clear that it stands with India, so as to bolster New Delhi and ensure that the gains of the Indo-US alliance are not undermined.

This was the significance of an August 9 article by Bruce Riedel, a longtime CIA hand, former Obama administration official, and Brookings Institute fellow. Titled JFK stopped a China-India War. Can Trump? The nuclear stakes are much higher now, the article argued that the Kennedy administration forced China to unilaterally withdraw its troops from India in 1962 by sending the US Air Force to India to resupply the Indians and a carrier battle group to the Bay of Bengal.

Noting that the current standoff has potentially enormous consequences for the world and that American imperialist interests are very much at stake, Riedel urged Washington to be prepared to intervene aggressively in the Indo-Chinese dispute. While he presents this largely in diplomatic terms, the implication is clear: if the Indo-Chinese border crisis continues to escalate, the Trump administration must be ready to come to New Delhis support militarily.
The Social Health Atlas, a new analysis of government health statistics, has revealed much lower life expectancy and far higher rates of avoidable deaths in working class suburbs when compared to wealthier suburbs in Australian cities.

In terms of average age of death, life expectancy between rich and poor areas of both Sydney and Melbourne differed by almost 20 years. One of Sydneys poorest western suburbs, Mt Druitt had the lowest median age of death, 68 years. The suburbs of Cherrybrook and West Pennant Hills, about 30 kilometres away in Sydneys wealthier northern areas, had a median age of 87.

A similar picture was shown in Melbourne, where the inner eastern suburb of Camberwell had the highest age of death at 88 years. This contrasted with Cranbourne North, 40 kilometres to the south, where the median was 69.

According to the 201415 taxation office records, Cherrybrook residents had an average annual taxable income of $70,774, compared to $46,274 for Mt Druitt. Likewise, Camberwells average was $79,065, while Cranbourne Norths was $50,526.

The 19-year gaps in life expectancy are nearly twice that between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. In 2016, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that gap was about 10 years.

Both results are damning. But the new analysis points to the underlying reality that it is class, not race, that determines the health and social inequality in capitalist society. Indigenous people are affected above all because they are likely to be poor and working class.

The Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) from Torrens University Australia produced the Social Health Atlas, an analysis of data gathered over the years 2010-14.

In Sydney, Australias most populous city, the 10 areas with the lowest avoidable deaths were relatively well-off suburbs in the citys north and east, including Castle Hill, St Ives, Mosman and Bondi. The 10 suburbs with the highest rates were poor suburbs in the west and south, such as Mt Druitt, Macquarie Fields and St Marys, with one exception. That was Redfern, an inner city area with a high Aboriginal population.

Deaths considered avoidable included those caused by infections, cancers that have established screening programs, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, suicides and accidents.

The findings showed the contrast more clearly in city suburbs, due to larger population sizes, but there were similar trends of poorer health outcomes in impoverished areas across the country.

The most disadvantaged 20 percent of the population had higher rates of premature death, which classified a death as premature if someone died before the age of 75. The pattern remained, whether the data was analysed by capital cities, entire states or the whole country.

PHIDU director John Glover noted in an article this month that the health gap is widening when measured as premature mortality. Yes, there have been substantial reductions in the rates of early death overall, with rates down by 50 percent in 2014 compared to 1987, he explained. However, the significant reduction was not shared by all.

The reduction in early deaths was lower in the most disadvantaged areas, Glover reported. In 1987 there were 42 percent more deaths in the most disadvantaged areas compared to the least disadvantaged areas, by 2013 rates were 76 percent higher among the most disadvantaged.

This study follows a similar analysis from the Health Tracker report, showing a higher prevalence of poor health indicators in poorer suburbs when compared to wealthy suburbs in Australian capital cities. Low-income areas had higher levels of both childhood and adult obesity, increased rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

These staggering differences in health quality and life expectancy are a direct effect of widening social inequality. They are bound up with the deteriorating conditions of life for millions of people in working class areas in terms of economic insecurity, health care, nutrition, exercise, workplace accidents and suicide.

The growing social divide has been magnified by cuts to essential services such as hospitals and clinics, and the growth of a two-tier health care system where the wealthy can afford private health insurance for more rapid access to care, avoiding long public hospital waiting times.

This is a global process. The Australian data is similar to that in other countries. Public Health England, an agency of the UK Department of Health, recently released a report revealing that people in Englands richest areas live on average 20 years longer than those in the poorest areas.

A study on life expectancy in the United States, published in the July edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine, found a similar 20-year gap. Some counties had up to 13 times greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease. The disparities had increased over 30 years. The authors pointed to a variety of causes, with socio-economic status being a key driver.

These trends are an indictment of the capitalist profit system. Millions of working class people are suffering or dying unnecessarily, despite immense advances being made in medical science and technology.
Three people were shot dead at the Great Lakes Dragaway in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, on Sunday after a gunman approached them and fired shots from a short distance, it was reported. While two of them died on the spot, one died on his way to the hospital. The incident took place at around 8 p.m. EDT.

According to a Fox6 Now report, the shooting took place at the Larry's Fun Fest event. The victims were from Aurora, Illinois, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said.

Speaking about the incident, Beth said a suspect approached the victims while they were standing near a food vendor and shot at point blank range.

Minutes after the incident, law enforcement agency received a number of calls asking for help. However, by the time they reached the spot, the three had been shot, WISN Channel 12 reported.

The suspect, believed to be in the 20s, has not been caught. It was unclear if he left the scene immediately after the attack or was hiding nearby.

"We don't know if he's still here," Beth said according to reports. The suspect was wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans shorts, reports said.

"There's no positive ID on the suspect right now, we don't know the motive, we're not aware of any altercations that happened earlier, at this point the detectives I've talked to are not aware of what caused this," Beth told a local news website.

While friends of the victims were in shock after the event, they had no idea what would have led to the incident, police said. According to some reports, the police were also looking into the possibility of a gang rivalry.

Kenosha County's Sheriff Sgt. Mark Malecki, in a press release, said the situation was "fluid."

"I'm thinking this was a mass exodus, though I can't say for sure. It didn't take us long to get everybody to leave," Malecki said. According to a local report, the police had not confirmed the type of weapon used in the attack.

Story continues

Around 5,000 people were present at Larrys Fun Fest at the time of the incident. The fest has attracted thousands of people from surrounding areas like Milwaukee and Chicago in the past.

"This is not indicative of this crowd. This is isolated and this is somebody who had a grudge with somebody and they came here and they really ruined a family event for people," Brian Mitchell, Great Lakes Dragaway volunteer told Fox6 Now.

Police said the investigation was ongoing and the area was evacuated soon after the incident. They have asked people to keep away from the area.

Gun violence has become a serious concern for the U.S. in the recent years. An analysis of firearm deaths in the U.S. revealed that on an average three children die of gunshot wounds in the country every day. The analysis also revealed that gunshots are the third leading cause of death among children aged 1 to 17 years.

Related Articles
A war of words between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spooked global investors last week.

On Tuesday, President Trump warned that the U.S. would unleash fire and fury on North Korea if it made further threats on the United States. Kim Jong-un responded by threatening to bomb the U.S. island of Guam.

On Friday morning, Trump doubled down, stating that the U.S. has prepared military solutions and are locked and loaded. Secretary of Defense Mattis has also voiced warnings to North Korea while many other prominent U.S. politicians and world leaders have asked that both the U.S. and North Korea deescalate the rhetoric.

Fears that a nuclear war could break out sparked investors to buy gold, an asset seen as a safe haven in times of trouble, pushing that market to a two-month high at $1,291 per ounce on Friday. Meanwhile, traders sold stocks, knocking the S&P 500 to a one-month low in a fierce collapse after that market made an all-time high on Tuesday morning.

Everyone will remain on edge as politicians, diplomats, and militaries posture in the coming weeks, making markets more prone to large swings.

Grains drop on rosy outlook

Corn, wheat, oats and soybeans collapsed on Thursday after a USDA forecast for larger-than-expected crops this year. Dry weather in the Midwest had many market watchers fearing significant crop losses, but the USDA projected bumper crops.

The USDA increased the size of the soybean crop to a record 4.381 billion bushels and forecast the corn crop size at 15.2 billion, a near record.

This news sent the grain markets in a downward spiral, with soybean and wheat prices reaching six-week lows. Meanwhile, the value of this falls corn crop collapsed to an 11-month low near $3.70 per bushel.

Many producers and investors are skeptical that the final harvests will match the USDAs current outlook, which could result in a rally in the coming months if the crops end up being smaller. For now, the price reflects a large surplus of grain and another tough year for farmers who didnt hedge during the past few months when prices were higher.
Former White House Communications Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired after just 10 full days on the job, said Sunday that President Donald Trump should have directly condemned white nationalism in his statement regarding the deadly protests promoting white supremacy and Nazism in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

In his first interview since his public ouster from the White House, Scaramucci told ABCs George Stephanopoulos that he would have advised Trump to make a more direct statement against white nationalism.

I wouldnt have recommended that statement, Scaramucci said. I think he needed to be much harsher as it related to white supremacists and the nature of that.

The former White House communications chief lauded Trumps national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who had told ABC the events in Charlottesville were a criminal act against fellow Americans, calling it terrorism.

I applaud General McMaster for calling it out for what it is: Its actually terrorism, Scaramucci said. Whether its domestic or international terrorism, with the moral authority of the presidency, you have to call that stuff out.

Trump came under fire Saturday when he condemned the hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides during the violent white supremacist rally. Earlier Saturday, white supremacists waved Confederate flags and ones with swastikas, and a number of counter-protesters gathered in opposition. The situation turned deadly when a man drove a car directly into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring at least 19 others.

A number of Republican and Democratic politicians have called on Trump to more directly condemn the white supremacists  some of whom wore his red Make America Great Again hats during the violent rally.

Scaramucci, a former hedge fund executive who joined Trumps administration in mid-July, was fired after less than two weeks after his appointment. Scaramucci slammed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon in a profanity-laced interview with the New Yorker in which he also said he would fire everyone.
32-year-old paralegal was killed when a car ploughed into protesters: Go Fund Me / Heather Heyer

The 32-year-old woman killed when a car drove into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, left a telling last post on Facebook which is now being shared on social media in her honour.

Heather Heyer's final message, written last year, read simply: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."

"Heather was about bringing an end to injustice," her mother told The Huffington Post. "I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion.

Ms Heyer's boss at the law firm where she worked said she wanted to send a clear message to the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan sympathisers who planned to stage one of the largest far-right rallies in recent US history that people abhor their views in the city where she was born.

A strong sense of social justice was a constant theme in Ms Heyer's personal and working life, said Alfred Wilson, bankruptcy division manager at the Miller Law Group.

There have been times that I've walked back to her office and she had tears in her eyes for various injustices she saw in the world, said Mr Wilson, citing one occasion when she had cried after reading anti-Muslim comments online.

Ms Heyer was a very strong, very opinionated young woman who made known that she was all about equality, he told Reuters.

The two had worked closely since Ms Heyer joined the firm about five years ago.

Purple was her favourite color, said Mr Wilson. She would wear purple a lot, and she would wear it every day if she could get away with it.

Ms Heyer, who lived in a duplex apartment in the town, also named her beloved pet Chihuahua Violet.

Born in Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia's main campus, Ms Heyer was raised in a nearby town and graduated from William Monroe High School in Stanardsville.

A big part of Ms Heyer's job was to help people who were trying to avoid being evicted from their homes or have their cars repossessed, or who needed help paying medical bills, he said.

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Ms Heyer was a supporter of Bernie Sanders, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination won by Hillary Clinton, Mr Wilson said.

As a white woman, she thought it unfair that she enjoyed liberties that Mr Wilson, as a black man, did not, he said.

You're college-educated, but if you walk into the store you may have people following you, and it's not fair, Mr Wilson quoted Ms Heyer as having said to him often.

Ms Heyer, he added, was strongly opposed to Donald Trump, and she also spoke out against Jason Kessler, the blogger who organised the Unite the Right rally that was broken up before it began on Saturday.

A big thing that bothered Heather was this whole past election, said Mr Wilson. She would literally sit in the office and cry at times because she was worried about what was going to happen to the country."
A black journalist has been singled out as an "enemy of the White House" in a new campaign video for Donald Trump only a day after a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virgina, turned violent.

The video released by Mr Trump's official campaign and his reelection committee aims to highlight some of the US President's achievements during his time in office.

But its release also coincides with a huge backlash over Mr Trump's response to the Charlottesville' protest in which he refused to single out and condemn the violence by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and members of the KKK who descended on the city on Saturday.

The video called "Let President Trump do his job" flashes small pictures of a dozen journalists hitting out at "the media attacking our President" and making references to "the President's enemies" who "don't want him to succeed".

This includes a picture of journalist April Ryan, a veteran White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Networks and a political analyst for CNN.

Ms Ryan, who is black, responded to the video in a tweet in which she slammed the "racial hate" promoted by the Trump campaign team and added she had been singled out as "an enemy of the White House".

She said: "Sad day I am singled out as an enemy of the White House as this racial hate is going on just for asking real questions and speaking truth."

Alexis Simendinger, the White House correspondent for Real Clear Politics also pointed to the racial tone of the video.

In a tweet, he said: "Trump campaign ad incl. images of African-Americans as "enemies". Journalist @AprilDRyan is included. STOP."

Sad day I am singled out as an enemy of the White House as this racial hate is going on just for asking real questions and speaking truth. https://t.co/lFem4bzDKQ  AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) August 13, 2017

This is not the first time Ms Ryan has been embroiled in a row with the White House, opening a debate over the Trump administration's attitude towards gender and race.

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In March, Ms Ryan, who is known for asking tough questions, squalled with then White House secretary Sean Spicer during the daily briefing.

Mr Spicer cut off her questions and chastised her for what he deemed an inappropriate shake of her head when she asked a question about the Russia investigation.

In February, Ms Ryan was also asked at a news conference whether she should arrange a meeting between Mr Trump and the Congressional Black Caucus, suggesting the group members were friend of the journalist because she was also black.

This latest campaign video was released as the White House insisted Mr Trump has been calling for "national unity and bringing all Americans together" and that he did not want to explicitly condemn white supremacists to avoid "dignifying" their politics.

President Trump condemned Saturday's "violence on all sides" rather than directly taking aim at the far-right protesters, some of who are his supporters.

The protest turned deadly when a car ploughed into a group of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The crash resulted in 19 people being injured and the state governor declaring a state of emergency.

Mr Trump's campaign video also attacks congressional Democrats, the media and "career politicians" for "standing in the way of success".

It goes on to claim that "President Trump's plan is working", adding that one million new jobs have been created, unemployment is shrinking, the stock market is high and the military has been strengthened.

However Mr Trump has had little success in the legislative chambers so far, despite the Republicans being in control of both chambers.

Last month, Mr Trump failed to secure enough support in the Senate to deliver on his campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Given the bravery parents display during dangerous situations, you have to give even more props when there's a deadly snake involved.

On Sunday, a snake-catching business in Queensland, Australia, posted a subtle-yet-terrifying picture from one of their latest jobs in a childs room.

According to the caption, a man had been vacuuming around the house when he spotted a snake next to his babys crib. He initially thought it was a brown snake, which are a highly venomous species of snakes found in Australia.

SEE ALSO: Commuting snake hitches a ride home on a Boston train

He called up Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers and carefully watched out for the snake as he waited for them to come.

The photo posted on the snake catchers' Facebook page shows the snake just before they were able to trap it.

In the photo, the hard-to-spot snake was hiding just to the left of the box of diapers. Luckily, as identified by the snake catchers, was actually a yellow-faced whip snake (which they say is mildly venomous) and not a brown snake.

One of the homeowners added an additional picture in the comments showing the snake catchers in action as they removed the snake from room.

It seems the homeowner managed to keep a sense of humor about the whole incident, given a comment she posted to Sunshine Coast Snake Catcher's profile.

Just another reason why Australians are more badass than the rest of us.
Son of bagel dynasty Joshua Cohen arrested on suspicion of murdering his mother and sister

A son suspected of stabbing to death his mother and sister at their 1.5m home had been cut out of the family's bagel baking fortune just weeks earlier.

The wealthy bakers were found murdered in the family's home in Golders Green at 8.50pm on Friday in what police have described as "a devastating attack".

Joshua Cohen, 27, was arrested in a park on Saturday after his mother Leah, 66, and sister Hannah, 33 were killed.

He was charged with murder on Sunday night, and has been remanded in custody until Monday, when he will appear before Hendon Magistrates Court.

Family tributes describe them both as "loving and wonderful" people.

Mr Cohen's late father Asher was one of the founders of the world renown Beigel Bake in Brick Lane, London, and just weeks ago probate was granted on his estate only naming Mr Cohen's two older brothers Nathan, 30, and Daniel, 34, as directors of the company.

Hannah Cohen, 33, was found stabbed to death with her mother in Golders Green, north London.

His father died last December at the age of 81.

Probate on his estate was granted on July 27 and on the same day the directorship of the Beigel Bake empire was altered to list two of Mr Cohen's brothers as directors.

All three brothers had worked in the family business.

On Sunday tributes were paid to his mother and sister.

The family run the Beigel Bake business in Brick Lane. Credit: Jenny Matthews / Alamy Stock Photo

Hannah, who had studied psychology at City University London, was a former pupil at the prestigious Carmel College, Wallingford, which has since closed.

Her former schoolfriend told the Telegraph it was a "tragedy".

She ran a cake business called Coco Cakes with her sister-in-law Deborah Cohen.

Hannah Cohen with her sister-in-law Deborah.

Mrs Cohen, who is married to Daniel, told the Mail: "She was a loving aunt to her niece and four nephews and the older ones loved nothing more than baking with her.

"She was absolutely selfless and did everything for everyone else.

"She was the greatest cook. We went over there every Sunday to eat together as a family and she made the most amazing food. My kids absolutely adored her."

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Yesterday a message on the company's Facebook page stated: "I'm very sad to say, there will be no more cakes by Coco Cakes."

Hannah's mother Leah was described by her family as "a loving, generous and a wonderful mother to her five children".

Police at the scene of the double murder of Hannah Cohen and her mother Leah in Golders Green. Credit: Paul Grover

Formal identification and post mortem examinations have yet to take place but police are confident they know the identify of the victims.

Their next-of-kin have been informed.

Staff at Beigel Bake were too upset to talk last night.

Mr Cohen senior, who died in December aged 81, arrived in the UK from Israel in the 1960s and worked at his brother's bakery next door initially before branching out and opening his bagel business.

Forensics the house in Golders Green Crescent at the scene of a double murder. Credit: Paul Grover

Beigel Bake was set up by Mr Cohen senior with his brother and another partner in 1974 and was first Britain's first bagel bakery.

It started out as a wholesale business and almost everything was made by hand in traditional Jewish style and is famed for its salt beef bagel.

It remains a 24 hour bakery and produces 7,000 bagels everyday.
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram gunmen have killed four people and torched homes in a nighttime raid on a village in restive northeastern Nigeria, local sources said Sunday.

The militants stormed Amarwa village, while lies about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and birthplace of Boko Haram.

According to a leader of a local militia fighting the jihadists, the gunmen shot indiscriminately at villagers and set fire to homes in the raid late Saturday.

"Two were shot dead and the other two choked to death in the fire the attackers set to houses," militia leader Ibrahim Liman said, adding that a number of people were also injured.

A local chief said the attack in the village in the Konduga district started around 11 pm (2200 GMT) and continued past midnight.

"We have so far recovered four bodies, two of them with bullet wounds," said the local chief, who did not want to be named.

"We lost our homes and food stocks in the fire."

Amarwa also came under attack in May, when Boko Haram gunmen on motorbikes killed six farmers outside the village as they prepared for the planting season.

Konduga is a known hotbed of Boko Haram activity despite government and military claims that the jihadists are a spent force, having been forced out of their Sambisa forest enclave.

About 20,000 people have been killed and about 2.6 million have fled their homes since Boko Haram launched the insurgency in 2009.
Donald Trump listens to Kenneth Frazier during an announcement in July - EPA

The chief executive of one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies has resigned from President Donald Trumps manufacturing council in protest at his failure to condemn a white supremacist rally.

Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, became just the latest business leader to resign in protest against the presidents policies, following announcements earlier this year that the heads of Uber, Disney and Tesla that they could no longer support Mr Trump's administration.

Mr Frazier said he was stepping down to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

White supremacists in Charlottesville on Saturday Credit: Getty Images

Mr Trump is yet to condemn the white supremacists who organised Saturdays rally in Charlotteville, in which a car ploughed into a group of protesters, killing Heather Heyer. Two police officers also died in a separate crash.

Instead of disassociating himself from the neo-Nazi organisers, Mr Trump said "many sides" were involved, drawing fire from across the political spectrum for not specifically denouncing the far right.

"America's leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal," said Mr Frazier, in a tweet announcing his resignation on Monday morning.

Shortly afterward, Mr Trump responded by saying that in light of the resignation, Frazier will have more time to "LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017

The manufacturing council was announced on January 27 as a way of brainstorming the best solutions to Americas manufacturing problems.

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Mr Frazier, the only African American on the council, appeared at the White House last month to promote an agreement between Merck, Pfizer and Corning to create 1,000 jobs.

At the group's first meeting in January, Mr Trump shook Mr Frazier's hand after the CEO talked up efforts to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US for a cancer drug.

"That's very good," said Mr Trump at the time.

Ken Frazier listens at the White House on a February 23 meeting of the manufacturing council Credit: AP

But business leaders have found themselves facing criticism from employees over any White House role.

The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, left the advisory council in protest at the Paris agreement, and Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber, dropped out after customers and employees complained about Mr Trumps travel ban.

Elon Musk, who quit at the same time as Mr Iger, initially resisted pressure to leave the White House Strategy and Policy Forum, saying he planned to express his objections to Mr Trumps immigration policy, but keep his seat at the table.

Donald Trump waves as prepares to board Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport on Monday Credit: AP

The Paris decision made him change his mind, however.

Mr Trump is expected to speak to the press later on Monday, at which he is likely to address the Charlottesville rally. He has come under pressure from all sides to issue a strong condemnation of white supremacists - following the lead of his daughter, Ivanka, and Mike Pence, the vice president.

Senior Republicans including Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham have all urged him to speak out.
Gregg Davis, a Missouri resident, shared a Facebook post asking people to identify demonstrators at the far-right rally: Facebook / Gregg Davis

Anti-fascist vigilantes are naming and shaming the white supremacists which converged on Charlottesville in the hope of causing them to lose their jobs.

The efforts to identify the far-right protesters who engaged in violent clashes with anti-fascists over the weekend have already been successful and one of the far-right protesters is believed to have been sacked by his employer.

Gregg Davis, a Missouri resident, shared a Facebook post asking people to identify demonstrators at the far-right rally. The viral post, which has now been shared more than 219 thousand times, included close up images from the torch march that culminated in violence.

Each photograph plainly asks: Do you know me? Are you my employer? I was at the Nazi Rally at Charlotte, VA.

A Twitter account dubbed Yes, Youre a racist, which has made a name for exposing white nationalists in the past, has also called for anyone who recognises the men in the photos to out them publicly on social media or send anonymous tips.

If you recognize any of the Nazis marching in #Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and I'll make them famous #GoodNightAltRightpic.twitter.com/2tA9xliFVU  Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017

If you recognise any of the Nazis marching in Charlottesville, send me their names/profiles and I'll make them famous, it asked.

Cole White, a protester pictured on the account, has since been sacked from his job at a restaurant in Berkeley, California.

"Effective Saturday 12th August, Cole White no longer works at Top Dog," currently reads a sign on the fast-food restaurant's door. "The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by Top Dog. We believe in individual freedom and voluntary association for everyone."

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The account has also named a number of the other torch-carrying far-right extremists, publishing their addresses, places of employment and universities.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

Clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascists engulfed Charlottesville over the weekend. Two policemen died in a helicopter crash while taking part in efforts to restore peace and a 32-year-old women named as Heather Heyer was killed after a car ploughed into a group of anti-fascist protesters in a separate incident.

Twenty-five people were injured in the attack. According to police, James Alex Fields, a 20-year-old from Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that resulted in a death.

The mother of Ms Heyer has spoken out in the wake of the violence, saying she wants her daughters death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality.

Born in Charlottesville, Ms Heyer dedicated her life to battling injustice and worked at a law firm where she helped people who were in danger of being evicted from their homes, having their cars repossessed or who needed help paying medical bills.

A GoFundMe campaign set up in Ms Heyers memory managed to raise $225,000 (173,000) over the weekend alone. The campaign, which has since been closed, included a statement from her mother, Susan Bro, that said: She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her.
The organizer of the White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville that descended into violence has claimed police were responsible for the clashes and that Nazis were victimized.

Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler said the clashes and chaos at the Saturday gathering, that left one person dead and others injured after a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters, was the fault of local police officers and government officials whom he claimed failed to provide adequate security.

In a statement released on Sunday, Kessler said the blame for the violence was primarily the result of the Charlottesville government officials and the law enforcement officers which failed to maintain law and order by protecting the First Amendment rights of the participants of the Unite the Right rally.

Violent Clashes Erupt at 'Unite The Right' Rally In Charlottesville

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

He added: We networked with law enforcement officials and safety arrangements were made months ago but despite this the Charlottesville Police Department not only failed to act per the plan but exacerbated the violence: they did not separate the demonstrators and counter demonstrators, they were poorly under-equipped for the situation, they stood idly by when violent counter-protesters attacked participants of our rally and then they forced our demonstrators out of Lee Park and into a melee with Antifa.

Despite having said in an interview with Time on Saturday that whoever drove their car into the group of counter-protesters did the wrong thing, Kessler also said he felt the white supremacists had been the victims.

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He claimed members of Unite the Right were victimized by pepper spray used by counter protesters, and added: due to the police not maintaining order, many people were hurt.

The media is not showing who instigated the violence, said Kessler, who delivered a press conference at 2 pm local time on Sunday and was met with crowds of demonstrators chanting "shame on you."

Organizer Jason Kessler run away by crowd of protesters. @fox5dc pic.twitter.com/DvCqghU75P  Evan Lambert (@EvanLambertTV) August 13, 2017

One man has been arrested and charged with murder over the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed after a car plowed into the group she was demonstrating with at high speed.

The man has been named as white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, who is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, as well as malicious wounding and failure to stop in an incident that resulted in death.

Related Articles
The mother of the woman who was killed while protesting a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. this weekend said her daughter was a passionate activist who wished to bring an end to injustice.

Heather Heyers mother, Susan Bro, said her daughters tragic death should be used as a rallying cry for justice.

Heather was not about hate, Heather was about stopping hatred, Bro said in an interview with the Huffington Post. Heather was about bringing an end to injustice. I dont want her death to be a focus for more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion.

Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed when a man drove his car directly into a group of counter-protesters. Police identified James Alex Fields Jr. as the alleged driver, and he is currently facing numerous charges including second-degree murder.

She always had a very strong sense of right and wrong, she always, even as a child, was very caught up in what she believed to be fair, Bro said in another interview with the Huffington Post. Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, is a focal point for change. Im proud that what she was doing was peaceful, she wasnt there fighting with people.

During a speech at a church in Charlottesville Sunday morning, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe honored Heyer in front of the congregation. He also posted a photo of her on Twitter, where he said she died standing up against hate & bigotry.

My heart goes out to Heather Heyer's family. She died standing up against hate & bigotry. Her bravery should inspire all to come together. pic.twitter.com/1Zbi2D2Vgq  Terry McAuliffe (@GovernorVA) August 13, 2017

Federal law enforcement are now conducting a civil rights investigation into the horrific incident, which has been called an act of domestic terrorism by a number of politicians and Charlottesville officials. The incident injured at least 19 others.

Two Virginia officers were also killed Saturday when their helicopter crashed as they assisted law enforcement efforts at the rally.
GALESVILLE, Wis.  A western Wisconsin farmer could be awarded up to $13.5 million after winning a five-year legal battle against an electric services company over stray voltage.

Paul Halderson told the La Crosse Tribune that his dairy farm herd of nearly 1,000 cows dealt with illness and decreased milk production for more than a decade because of Xcel Energy's improperly grounded power lines.

Current that leaks from neutral wires in the ground are referred to as stray voltage. Animals can receive small shocks when they come into contact with a grounded object, such as a watering trough. Research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found that it can cause cattle to avoid eating, become stressed and produce less milk.

The lawsuit said Northern States Power Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, found excessive voltage in one of Halderson's barns in 1996 but failed to report it. Halderson hired a consultant in 2011 and found that the high levels of electricity were coming from the utility's distribution system.

Xcel Energy installed equipment to reduce stray voltage in 2011.

"It's like night and day," Halderson 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."

The utility said it didn't detect harmful currents where the cows were located and that the farm's dairy production issues were a result of difficulties in the dairy industry such as bad feed, disease and inadequate veterinary care.

A Trempealeau County jury found the company was negligent and didn't follow state regulations, causing Halderson nearly $4 million in losses.

The jury awarded Halderson about $4.5 million, but the court may triple that amount because the company was found in willful, wanton or reckless violation of statutes.

Xcel Energy spokeswoman Christine Ouellette said the company is disappointed by the decision but looking into the next steps.
A Virginia paralegal has been identified as the woman killed in a car ramming incident at an alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

Heather Heyer, 32, a graduate of William Monroe High School in Stanardsville, Va., was a legal assistant at Miller Law Group in Charlottesville, where she focused on bankruptcy cases.

Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said Heyer was one of three people killed Saturday.

22978118_1502594420

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Virginia State Police Lt. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke Bates were killed in a helicopter crash after the protest.

"Our hearts are grieving right now.... Three people died who didn't need to die," Signer said.

In a Facebook posting the day before the protest, Heyer wrote, If youre not outraged, youre not paying attention, quoting an anti-Trump political slogan that became popular the week after the 2016 presidential election results.

Friends remembered Heyer as fun-loving, and an outspoken opponent of racism.

She always stands up for what she believes in and we had spoken about mixed race couples and families, Lauren Moon, who has been friends with Heyer since third grade, told USA Today.

Heather Heyer was murdered while protesting against hate, Heyers childhood friend Felicia Correa wrote on a page set up to raise funds for Heyers family.

She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her.

On Twitter, people paid tribute to Heyer, sharing her Facebook quote under the #HeatherHeyer hashtag. Her donations page has raised $80,000 at the time of publication.

Correa told New York Daily News that a candlelit vigil for Heyer was planned for 7pm Sunday in Charlottesvilles Emancipation Park, where alt-right protesters had gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue 24 hours earlier.

Heyer was among 20 people hit by the vehicle as it rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters at the rally.

Story continues

James Fields Jr., 20, is the man police say was behind the wheel. Hours earlier he protested alongside members of the Vanguard America white nationalist group, according to photographs distributed by the Anti-Defamation League.

Related Articles
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May condemns racism and hatred, her spokesman said on Monday when asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's response to violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, which killed one woman.

On Saturday, a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the rally, killing one person and prompting criticism of Trump's response when he condemned violence on "many sides".

Asked whether Trump's response had been robust enough, May's spokesman told reporters: "What the President says is a matter for him. We are very clear ... We condemn racism, hatred and violence," he said. "We condemn the far right."

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
By Adam Jourdan SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing may be running high but Corporate America is finding China to be a reliable source of profit growth this year. Whether they sell construction equipment, semiconductors or coffee, many major U.S. companies have reported stronger second-quarter earnings and revenue from their Chinese operations in recent weeks. They are benefiting from a Chinese economy that is growing at almost 7 percent, several times the rate of U.S. expansion, a Chinese housing boom, and a slide in the U.S. dollar, which makes American exports more competitive and increases dollar earnings once they are translated from foreign currencies. Chinese President Xi Jinpings ambitious plan to build a new Silk Road that will improve links between China and dozens of countries in Asia and Europe, and includes many billions of dollars of new roads, bridges, railways and power plants  is also helping American firms to sell heavy equipment and other products. Caterpillar Inc, a bellwether for industrial demand in China and beyond, reported its sales in Asia-Pacific rose 25 percent in the second quarter - thanks to China. Shipments of large excavators to Chinese customers more than doubled in the first half of the year. "We now expect demand in China to remain strong through the rest of the year," Brad Halverson, Caterpillar's group president and chief financial officer, told investors. Caterpillars Japanese rivals Komatsu and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co reported similar strength in demand for heavy machinery. Komatsu's China sales almost doubled in the firm's April-June quarter. China's grown pretty well relative to the U.S. over this period and the currency's relationship has changed in favor of the U.S. companies, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group in Minneapolis. DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS Chinese companies are also benefiting from the robust domestic economy. For example, Chinese auto manufacturer Geely Automobile Holdings announcing last week that its July sales climbed 89 percent from the year-earlier-month. Geely and many other major Chinese companies report their results in the next few weeks. American companies in China have been collectively reporting better prospects even as they complain that the Chinese authorities are not allowing them enough access to parts of the Chinese market and discriminating against them as they seek to compete against Chinese rivals. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been considering punitive tariffs against a range of Chinese goods but it has held off on taking action after Beijing backed tougher United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea earlier this month. However, senior U.S. officials said over the weekend that Trump on Monday will order his top trade adviser to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property. The move could eventually lead to steep tariffs on Chinese goods. And despite some negatives in the Sino-U.S. relationship, a July report by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai showed that 82 percent of U.S. companies in China expect revenues to increase this year, up from 76 percent a year ago. In general China is still a growth market for lots of US goods and services... the Chinese consumer is driving more and more the growth in China itself - that's a very positive shift in compositional growth for a lot of U.S. companies that do provide goods and services for consumers, as opposed to building skyscrapers, said Joe Quinlan, head of thematic investing at Bank of America, U.S. Trust. In the chip industry, Skywork Solutions
Jake Westley Anderson visits the spot where Heather Heyer died on Aug. 12.

Theres nothing quite like being on vacation halfway around the world and trying to explain American-style racism.

As an African American, the locals expect me to be an expert on these matters. The backstory of every nation features different players, but the narrative is essentially the same: one group contests the humanity of another group or groups to gain power and privilege.

Part of what makes it so hard to explain the American holocaust of slavery is that over a century later, people still dont want to tell the truth about it, which makes it impossible to honestly assess and own up to whats happening right now. My grandmother, Big Mama, born a sharecropper in Jim and Jane Crow Mississippi, used to always tell me, You cant start out wrong, and end up right.

In March of 1965, Viola Liuzzo, a housewife and mother of five from Michigan, traveled to Alabama to help Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference register Black voters. Not long after her arrival, she was killed by the Ku Klux Klan.

As soon as she arrived in Selma, Liuzzo joined the movements carpool system of driving around civil rights marchers. While she drove a 19-year-old black man named Leroy Moton in her car, Liuzzo was ambushed by a car full of Klansmen.

Liuzzo was the first white female protester to die in the civil rights movement, and when the nation saw live news coverage of her murder by the Klan, it changed the conversation about civil rights in the nation, and helped to speed up passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Fast forward over 50 years later, and another white woman protesting for freedom and justice is killed, this time at a rally protesting the Klan. Heather Heyer was a 32-year-old legal assistant who had repeatedly championed civil rights issues on social media and regularly drew attention to cases of police malpractice and racism.

The parallels are eerie, and yet the tragic loss of these two precious lives raises unsettling questions about whether Donald Trump is the only one who engages in false equivalency.

Story continues

Do you believe that the outrage in the nation would have been the same if the victim killed by that surging car had not been a young white woman, but rather a young black man, like the one seen being hurled through the air like a rag doll in that photo, now seen around the world?

Do you believe that the racist marchers can legitimately claim the right of victimhood just because they were met by peaceful counter-protestors? When did they turn free speech into a one way street?

Do you believe that guns would not have been drawn and discharged, had those protestors that we saw pummeling the police been black instead of white?

Im sick and tired of our situational, conditional and ephemeral moral outrage.

With all due respect to the president, hes a joke. But the joke is on us, unless and until we get serious about freedom and justice, equal opportunity and fundamental fairness for all.

Until then, Trump can cling to his law and order trope, all day, every day. But there is no peace without justice. Viola Liuzzo understood this, which is why she traveled to Selma. This is everybodys fight, she told her family.

Heather Heyer understood it as well. Her Facebook cover photo read, If youre not outraged, youre not paying attention.

Its time for us to start paying attention, and moreover, paying it forward. So, if youre one of the folk who hates the phrase Black Lives Matter, and prefer Blue Lives Matter or All Lives Matter, its your turn to step up.

Not nowright now.

White woman. Dead. Two white male Virginia state troopers. Dead.

In a real sense, what killed them is more important than who killed them. Are we ready yet to wrestle with that question? The only way for them to receive dignity in deathfor their lives to truly matter  is for all of us to come to terms with what killed them: American-style hate.
Clashes at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug.12, 2017. (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Leaders of at least two universities and the national college Republicans organization are moving to denounce white supremacist views after a member of at least one campus GOP chapter appeared to attend at a violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend.

I condemn in the strongest way possible the vile, racist and cowardly acts committed by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Chandler Thornton, chair of the College Republican National Committee, said in a statement Monday.

Thornton called on any leaders of the organizations with such views to resign immediately.

James Allsup, president of the Washington State University College Republicans group, attended the march and spoke briefly. Peter Cvjetanovic, a student at the University of Nevada-Reno, also appeared in a viral photo of march attendees holding torches.

Allsup, a former state chair of the national college Republican group, routinely receives hundreds of thousands of views on videos posted to his YouTube account, which include clips from alt-right events. Allsup didnt respond to a Yahoo News request for comment Monday, but he told Spokane CBS affiliate KREM that he was attending the event in a media capacity.

He also said an organizer surprised him by asking him to speak at the Unite the Right rally, which was attended by neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members. The event descended into violence Friday night going into Saturday, when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one.

But Allsup also defended aspects of the rally in an interview with the Daily Evergreen, the WSU student paper.

Allsup said most of the violence at the event was started by the counter protesters, who pepper sprayed a fellow alt-right media figure, Baked Alaska, the paper reported. He blames the police for the death and injuries caused by a car plowing into counter protesters, saying that they did not do a good enough job protecting the rally attendees and separating the two groups.

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In a series of tweets, Washington State president Kirk Schulz condemned racism and Nazism, but did not single out Allsup or his campus GOP group.

We strongly denounce racism & Nazism of any kind & condemn the violence which occurred in Charlottesville, Schulz said. Hate has no place at WSU  Universities are places where controversial voices must be heard  even those voices that many in our community disagree with, he continued.

Peter Cvjetanovic, right, along with neo Nazis, alt-rights and white supremacists, encircle and chant at counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after the group marched through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 11, 2017. (Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Other campuses are grappling with similar issues, including the University of Nevada-Reno, which Cvjetanovic attends.

Cvjetanovic later confirmed to the Reno Review-Journal that he attended the event. He didnt back down from his white nationalist views.

I went to honor the heritage of white culture here in the United States, he told the paper. I recognize the need to acknowledge both the good and bad of white history as it has made the nation we have now.

The campus Republican group condemned his views over the weekend, as did the university president, Marc Johnson.

We are working diligently with the community to address these allegations and would like to clarify that these dangerous beliefs will never have a place in the College Republicans or at the University of Nevada, UNR College Republicans chair Bethanie Cooper said in a statement posted on the clubs Facebook page.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., also distanced himself from Cvjetanovic after a picture of the two appeared to surface online.

I dont know this person & condemn the outrageous racism, hatred and violence. Its unacceptable & shameful. No room for it in this country. https://t.co/6yQqKZRowb  Dean Heller (@SenDeanHeller) August 13, 2017

Read more from Yahoo News:
The death toll from floods and landslides in Nepal has jumped to at least 40, officials said Sunday, with thousands forced to flee their homes amid days of heavy monsoon rain.

Torrential downpours have destroyed homes and infrastructure in more than a dozen districts since Friday morning, and forced families to climb into trees to escape the rapidly rising waters.

"Since Friday, at least 40 people have been killed in the floods and landslides," home ministry spokesman Deepak Kafle told AFP, upgrading the previous toll of 25.

"Our search and rescue teams are working continuously in affected areas. We are also providing relief to the victims."

The Red Cross said in a statement the death toll had reached at least 53, with dozens more missing and injured.

Footage aired on Nepali broadcasters showed villagers wading through waist-high water with their belongings and using boats to reach higher ground.

Families perched on trees with young children overnight as flood waters swept away homes in a village in southern district of Chitwan, local media reported.

In the popular jungle safari resort of Sauraha in Chitwan, hotels were forced to shift their guests to higher floors as waters rushed into the premises.

A hotel owner said they used elephants to transport tourists to the nearest open highway and airport to help them return to the capital Kathmandu.

"There isn't a house without water. Hundreds of families are taking shelter in local schools," said Raghu Ram Mehta, a resident of Sunsari district, which has suffered nine deaths, the highest of any district.

Biratnagar airport in eastern Morang district was closed after being submerged in a metre of water, said authorities at the international terminal.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed his condolences and urged people to remain.

"I have already instructed authorities concerned to rescue flood victims, move them to safer locations and immediately provide relief to them. All four security agencies have already swung into action," he said in a video recording Saturday.

Story continues

The latest casualties bring the death toll from this year's monsoon season to more than 100, government records show.

Nearly 100 people died last year in Nepal during the rainy season, which typically begins in late June and lasts until the end of August.

Last weekend in the central lowlands, four girls from the same family drowned when they fell into a flooded roadside ditch.

Nepal's weather department issued an alert Saturday warning that heavy rains were expected to continue for another day, and advised districts to close schools and residents to stay indoors.
(NAIROBI, Kenya)  Kenyas post-election violence worsened Saturday as police used tear gas on a convoy of opposition officials in the capital and a mortuary official said nine bodies with gunshot wounds were brought to a Nairobi morgue from a slum thats an opposition stronghold.

As rioting continued the day after President Uhuru Kenyatta won a second term in a vote the opposition claims had been rigged, an anguished father said his 9-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet while playing with friends.

Kenyan police shot and killed two people during riots by opposition supporters on the outskirts of Kisumu, a city where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support, according to Leonard Katana, a regional police commander. Another five people were injured by gunfire in Kisumu, Katana said.

The government should stop the random killing of our people, Odingss brother Oburu Odinga said. The government accused criminals of taking advantage of the tense election period to loot and destroy property.

In Nairobi slums loyal to Odinga, police opened fire to disperse protesters who blocked roads and set up burning barricades. Associated Press photographers saw police charging demonstrators and firing live rounds and tear gas in the Mathare area.

Wycliff Mokaya told The Associated Press his 9-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet while on their third-floor balcony in Mathare.

I was watching her play with her friends when she suddenly fell down, Mokaya said. She was my only hope.

A mortuary official said nine bodies with gunshot wounds were brought to the Nairobi morgue from Mathare. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Protesters, some with rocks or sticks, ran for cover as they came under fire in another Nairobi slum, Kibera. One person was shot and killed in Kibera overnight, said Sam Ochieng, a former chairman for Odingas party there.

An Associated Press photographer said police used tear gas on a large convoy of vehicles carrying opposition officials that tried to enter Kibera. Police also fired guns into the air.

Story continues

Most of the country of 45 million people remained calm the day after the election commission announced that Kenyatta, whose father was Kenyas first president after independence from British colonial rule, had won a second, five-year term.

In a victory speech, Kenyatta said he was extending a hand of friendship to the opposition, which alleged that the election commissions database had been hacked and results were manipulated against Odinga.

Kenyatta won with a decisive 54 percent of the vote to nearly 45 percent for Odinga, but the bitter dispute over the integrity of the election process tempered what many Kenyans had hoped would be a celebration of democracy in a regional power known for its economic promise and long-term stability.

The unrest also exposed divisions in a society where poverty and corruption at top levels of government have angered large numbers of Kenyans, including those who have been protesting in the slums and see Odinga as a voice for their grievances.

Adding to the rift is ethnic loyalty. Kenyatta is widely seen as the representative of the Kikuyu people, the countrys largest ethnic group, while Odinga is associated with the Luo group, which has never produced a head of state.

But reconciliation efforts, the introduction of a progressive constitution in 2010 and an intense security operation during the recent election period have helped to ward off the kind of ethnic violence after the 2007 election in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Odinga ran unsuccessfully in that election; he also lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and took allegations of vote-tampering to Kenyas highest court, which rejected his case.

Recalling its failed legal challenge in 2013, the opposition has said it will not go to court again. Its top leaders have, so far, refrained from publicly calling for mass protests.

Catholic leaders on Saturday appealed for calm and asked security forces to exercise caution during protests.

No life should be lost because of an election, said John Oballa Owaa, vice chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In separate statements, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also called on police to exercise restraint.
Donald Trump refused to directly condemn white supremacist groups: AP

Donald Trump did not explicitly condemn white supremacist groups after violence broke out in Charlottesville, because he did not want to dignify their politics, a White House spokesman has claimed.

Tom Bossert, the US Presidents Homeland Security Adviser, was responding to widespread criticism of Mr Trump for condemning violence on many sides but not directly mentioning far-right groups such as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK).

Mr Bossert claimed this was an attempt by the US President to address the fundamental issue.

The President not only condemned the violence, and stood up at a time and a moment when calm was necessary, and didnt dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue, he told CNNs State of the Union.

What you need to focus on is the rest of his statement.

Mr Trumps comments were a fundamental assault on the very nature of the hatred that were seeing here, he added.

Following violent clashes between far-right groups and counter-protesters, in which an anti-racism campaigner was killed, the US President said he condemned in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides".

He stopped short of naming or directly criticising far-right organisations, many of whom supported him in his bid to become President.

The White House was later forced to clarify that Mr Trumps remarks covered criticism of white supremacist groups.

The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, it said in a statement. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups."

Mr Trump had previously criticised Barack Obama, his predecessor, for refusing to use the phrase radical Islamic terrorism.

The clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, came as a planned Unite the Right march by white nationalist groups was met by anti-racism protestors.

Story continues

32-year-old Heather D Heyer was killed and 19 people injured when one of the white nationalist members drove a car into crowds of protestors.

A 20-year-old man, named as James Fields, has been arrested and charged with second degree murder.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., may have slyly outlined her 2020 presidential campaign platform Saturday at an Atlanta conference. During a speech, Warren pushed the Democratic party to move left and abandon Bill Clinton-era policies.

Warren spoke at the liberal activist annual gathering, Netroots Nation, to around 1,000 people according to the New York Times Sunday. The conference began in 2006 by the liberal news site the Daily Kos, and grew to incorporate a larger spectrum of progressives.

READ: Elizabeth Warren Talks Possible Donald Trump Impeachment, Supports Single-Payer Healthcare

Warren, long a prospective Democratic presidential candidate, took aim at some of the policies of her predecessors.

The Democratic Party isnt going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill, said Warren, condemning policies pursued by Clinton.

Warren touted the ascendance of a more liberal wing of the Democratic party. In the past, after losing presidential elections, the Democratic party has tended to shift more moderate.

We're not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice  Were not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected, said Warren. We don't have to tip-toe anymore. We don't have to hedge our bets.

Warren also advocated for Medicaid for all, tuition free college or technical school, $15 an hour minimum wage and universal preschool.

Warren also committed to accelerating women into positions of power.

We're going to fight to put more women in positions of power, from committee rooms to boardrooms to that really nice oval-shaped room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, said Warren.

The Bay State Senator has emerged as a leading voice of the more progressive-wing of the Democratic party. Democrats saw divisions during and after the 2016 presidential election, a proxy-war was fought between liberal and more moderate Democrats in presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

Story continues

Warren, like Sanders, has been critical of establishment politics and centrist influences on the Democratic party. Warren tried to quash a debate, during her speech, on who the party was trying to serve.

In the wake of the last election, I've heard people say we need to decide whether we're the party of the white working class or the party of Black Lives Matter," Warren said. I say we can care about a dad who's worried that his kid will have to move away from their factory town to find good work and we can care about a mom who's worried that her kid will get shot during a traffic stop.

READ: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren Issue Stern Rebukes To Trump Pulling Out Of The Paris Agreement

The way I see it, those two parents have something deep down in common: the system is rigged against both of them, and against their kids, said the senator.

The crowd cheered Warren 2020, at points during the speech, according to CNN Sunday. Warren hasnt officially declared one way or the other whether she will run for president.



Related Articles
Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday warned against an "escalation of tensions" over North Korea amid a growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

Macron also spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump with the aim of "getting North Korea to conform to its international obligations," his Elysee office said.

"The two presidents agreed to remain in contact over the coming days," it added.

In a statement, the 39-year-old voiced his "concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea", saying world leaders needed to work to get Pyongyang to "resume the path of dialogue without conditions".

Macron had joined a chorus of international voices urging restraint in the crisis, which has alarmed the global community as Trump has engaged in days of verbal sparring with Pyongyang.

France and other UN Security Council members want North Korea to "proceed with the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear and ballistic programmes," Macron said in the statement.

He also assured "France's allies and partners in the region of our solidarity in the current period".

Xi Jinping, the leader of North Korea's key ally China, urged Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions, after the US leader ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would "truly regret" taking hostile action against the United States.

Trump's warning came after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation and to exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.

Earlier this week, France had praised Trump's "determination" in standing up to Pyongyang.
A friend of the woman killed in Saturday's Charlottesville attack has raised a huge sum in her memory.

Felicia Correa's GoFundMe page for Heather Heyer is no longer taking donations after reaching an incredible $225,000 in support of Heyer's bereaved mother.

Read: Excuse Me, Mr. President? Trump Reportedly Calls White House 'a Real Dump'

Heyer, 32, was killed when a car rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters who were demonstrating against Saturday's Unite the Right rally.

"She was a sweet person and I just want to do my best to make sure her family doesn't have to worry about cost of anything. And you know I thank her. Because she wasn't just standing up for me she was standing up for my sons in there and you know all people of color," Heyer said Sunday, when her campaign had raised about $60,000.

By Monday morning, that amount would nearly quadruple.

"We were up to almost $25,000 after two hours," she said.

Correa and Heyer grew up together near Charlottesville, and Correa told reporters she felt compelled to help the family after hearing about her death.

The money will benefit Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, who told The Washington Post that her daughter died doing what she felt was right.

Im not really surprised my child died this way, because she would stand up for what she believed in, Bro, 60, said. "Heather has always stood for fairness and equal treatment of everybody."

Heyer, a paralegal, was a native of Greene County.

Multiple videos of the crash surfaced after the incident, showing a gray Dodge Charger driving straight into a crowd. Bystanders could be seen running and screaming.

Nineteen were injured in the attack, including Heyer's friend, Marcus Martin.

The chilling moment Martin was hit by the vehicle was caught by a photographer.

"I hear tires screech, then I look up and I see people getting thrown in the air and the only thing I could do is push my fiancee out of the way," Martin said.

Story continues

As Martin, whose leg was broken, prepares to undergo surgery, he says his heart goes out to Bro.

"Her mother can't talk to her daughter," he said. "She can't hug her. Her mother has to bury her daughter. Heather didn't deserve this. Heather died for standing in what she believed in."

James Alex Fields Jr, of Ohio, allegedly drove the vehicle into the counter-protesters, killing Heyer as she crossed the street.

Fields, who is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, is now charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of failing to stop,

Field's mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but didn't know it was a white supremacist rally.

I thought it had something to do with Trump," said Bloom. "Trump's not a white supremacist."

The federal government has opened a civil rights investigation into the horrific crash.

Read: One Dead, Several Injured After Car Plows Into Pedestrians at White Nationalist Rally: 'I Am Heartbroken'

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a statement Saturday night.

"The Richmond FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident that occurred earlier Saturday morning," Sessions said. The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence, and as this is an ongoing investigation we are not able to comment further at this time.

Watch: Trump's 'Fire and Fury' Remark About North Korea Was Improvised: Report

Related Articles:
Rome (AFP) - The Italian government on Sunday welcomed Libya's decision to bar foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast, as both countries struggle with a migrant crisis that has engulfed Europe in recent years.

The comments from Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano came as a second non-governmental organisation announced it was suspending operations in the area in response to the Libyan move.

The Libyan government "is ready to put in place a search and rescue zone in its waters, work with Europe and invest in its coastguards," Alfano told La Stampa daily on Sunday.

"This sends a signal that the balance is being restored in the Mediterranean."

Libya's navy last week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe, saying the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations it accuses of facilitating illegal migration.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats, and charities have dispatched ships to rescue them from drowning.

- 'Significant investment' -

Meanwhile, Libya and Italy -- where the vast majority of migrants land -- have worked together to stem the flow, with Italy also moving to rein in NGOs helping the multinational rescue operations by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

"We need a significant, I repeat a significant European economic investment in Libya and in Africa," Alfano said.

"Europe has to decide if the theme of migration flows is an absolute priority on the same scale as the economy. For us, it is".

The Libyan measure prompted the German aid group Sea Eye to announce on Sunday it is suspending its migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, citing security concerns.

Story continues

Sea Eye said in a statement that it was with "a heavy heart" that it made its decision, after the Libyan government's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

The move came one day after Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had said it was also halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting rescue operations.

Sea Eye said it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016, and cautioned Sunday that the retreat of aid groups from Libya's coast was putting lives at risk.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Buschheuer warned.

But Alfano said MSF's decision "is also within the framework of a balance readjustment".

The number of migrant arrivals in Italy in July was down dramatically on the same month last year, suggesting efforts to train up and better equip the North African country's coastguard could already be having an impact.

The interior ministry said 11,193 new arrivals had been registered in July, compared with 23,552 in July 2016.

Arrivals for the first seven months of this year were 95,214, up 0.78 percent on the same period last year.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014.
Hagatna (Guam) (AFP) - Guam's leader said Monday that "sometimes a bully can only be stopped with a punch in the nose", in a spirited defence of President Donald Trump's rhetoric against North Korea which has the island in its crosshairs.

While Trump's critics accuse him of inflaming tensions with Pyongyang, Guam governor Eddie Calvo said he was grateful the US leader was taking a strong stance against North Korean threats to his Pacific homeland.

"Everyone who grew up in the schoolyard in elementary school, we understand a bully," Calvo told AFP.

"(North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un is a bully with some very strong weapons... a bully has to be countered very strongly."

Calvo, a Republican, said Trump was being unfairly criticised over his handling of the North Korea crisis, which escalated when Pyongyang announced plans to launch missiles toward Guam in a "crucial warning".

He said North Korea had threatened Guam -- a US territory which hosts two large military bases and is home to more than 6,000 military personnel -- at least three times since 2013.

Trump has responded by threatening "fire and fury", warning last week that the US military was "locked and loaded" to respond to any aggression.

"President Trump is not your conventional elected leader, what he says and how he says it is a lot different from what was said by previous presidents," Calvo said.

But he pointed out previous presidents had also used strong words to warn off Pyongyang, including Barack Obama who said last year that "we could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals".

"One president (Obama) said it one way, cool and calmly with a period... the other said fire and fury with an exclamation point, but it still leads to the same message," Calvo said.

He rejected suggestions that Trump and the North Korean dictator were as bad as each other when it came to the sabre-rattling playing out in the western Pacific.

Story continues

"Well there's only one guy that has vaporised into a red mist his uncle or a general because he fell asleep in a meeting with an anti-aircraft gun, that's Kim Jong-Un," he said.

"There's only one guy that's killed his brother with one of the most toxic nerve agents ever created, that's Kim Jong-Un."

- 'Safe place to visit' -

Some regional players such as China have urged Trump to tone down his rhetoric but Calvo called on them to do more to contain Pyongyang, saying "no one wants to see a war".

"It's not only in the interests of America and its allies, but also China and Russia to see this fellow does not continue in his effort towards nuclearisation or longer-range missiles," he said.

"You're allowed to voice those opinions without going to prison, whether you're for the military or against it, unlike North Korea," he said. He acknowledged there were "varying opinions" among Guam's 160,000 residents about the huge US military presence on the island but insisted the majority of inhabitants backed it.

Calvo also dismissed criticism of the US-operated THAAD weapons system, which has been deployed in Guam and is capable of destroying intermediate-range missiles in the final phase of flight.

"It's meant not to shoot people, it's meant to shoot at missiles that kill people," he said.

Calvo said he did not expect the crisis would have a major impact on the island's tourism industry, which draws more than 1.5 million tourists a year.

"Guam's a safe place to go to. Even though all this stuff is going on in the airwaves there has been no added threat level," he said.

"I'm welcoming all the people of the world to come visit Guam, it's a beautiful place."
The Catholic faithful in Guam led prayers for peace Sunday in the shadow of North Korean missile threat, with the western Pacific island's archbishop appealing for "prudence" amid an escalating war of words between the US and Pyongyang.

The largely Catholic territory should pray for a "just resolution of differences, and prudence in both speech and action", said Archbishop Michael Byrnes, echoing a flurry of international calls for US President Donald Trump to show greater rhetorical restraint.

A "prayers for peace" lunchtime rally in the capital Hagatna drew around 100 people. But despite Guam having become the centre of a threatened showdown between the United States and nuclear-armed North Korea, many said they were unfazed.

"I am really not scared because if it's our time to die it is our time to die," added Sita Manjaras, 62, a retired teacher from Tamuning.

Father Mike Crisostomo said their response to the threat was to have faith and pray.

"This goes to show to the other worlds, to the other nations and the countries, that Guam maybe small, our faith and our trust is big," he said.

Dora Salazar, 82, who made the 14 kilometre (nine mile) journey from the village of Mangilao for the peace rally, said she was praying for the North's leader Kim Jong-Un.

"We pray that God will touch his heart," she said.

- 'Fire and fury' -

In response to Trump's threat of "fire and fury", North Korea has pledged to have plans ready in a matter of days to launch an "enveloping fire" of missiles towards Guam.

At the island's main church, the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, Father Paul Gofigan told the congregation to be prepared in case North Korea does launch its missiles.

"What would you do if you have only 14 minutes left? The thing to do is pray and reflect," he said

"Prioritise your life. This is a wake-up call, no matter what happens".

Story continues

Trump has been engaged all week in verbal sparring with the North over its weapons and missile programs, declaring Friday that the US military is "locked and loaded."

He has told Guam Governor Eddie Calvo that US military was prepared to "ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam."

While 85 percent of Guam's 162,000 residents are Catholic, with temperatures hovering around 31 degrees Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) many locals and tourists preferred to head to the beach rather than church.

"No one feels threatened. Should we? Definitely not," said Australian tourist Kirstie Bridgement.

"Guam is the most protected island. We feel safer than ever."

The island houses two large US military bases and is home to more than 6,000 US military personnel.

American tourist Bryan Sanchez said it was difficult to understand the threat "especially with the way culture is like with memes, anything is going to be turned into a joke.

"People just aren't, I guess, as aggressive or too worried about that kind of stuff in our day and age."

Meanwhile, two community groups opposed to the presence of the US military in Guam, Independent Guahan and Prutehi Litekyan, have organised a "People for Peace" rally in Hagatna on Monday.

"What's happening in Guam is a global issue, because if our island is attacked, it could be the catalyst for a global catastrophe," Kenneth Gofigan Kuper of the Independent Guahan movement said.

The rally organisers said in a statement that "Guam has been forced in the middle of other nations' conflicts, particularly as an unincorporated territory of the United States.

"As a result, many of Guam's people know the painful and horrific effects of war as World II survivors and as veterans.

"Thus, the members of Independent Guahan and Prutehi Litekyan, both organisations dedicated to the decolonisation and demilitarisation of Guam, feel it is imperative for the community to stand together in a call for peace."
Harvard Business School students cheer during their graduation ceremonies in Boston, Massachusetts following Harvard Universitys 358th Commencement June 4, 2009. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

This post originally appeared in Poets & Quants.

Estimating the actual cost of a Harvard Business School MBA is a lot harder than you might think. Its not unlike sitting down with your accountant in tax season and going over every possible deduction you can take.

Wherever you end up, its not cheapand the latest tuition numbers are bound to shock people, though there is some explanation for why annual base tuition at HBS jumped by 13.1% this year to $72,000 from $63,675 (see the rising blip in the chart below). The school reallocated all non-course and program materials costs to the tuition category as opposed to including them in the course and program materials fee category. So, the totals remain the same, but the allocation is different, explains a spokesperson for the school. A matter of accounting, if you will. The increase in tuition and course and program materials fee together is actually 4% and consistent with increases in past years.

For the year-earlier class, course and program fees were $7,960. For this years incoming class, those fees are $2,500. But that leads us to another critical issue in the cost of a Harvard MBA. Fees beyond the base tuition play a big role in the total costs of the education and then you have to double them to account for the two-year program.

So incoming MBA students in the fall of 2017 can expect to pay a total of $144,000 in tuition over the two years. But that is just the beginning. Theres another $5,000 in course fees and materials, $6,620 in health insurance, an estimated $26,388 for your room and utilities on campus, and finally another $29,668 for food, drinks and other incidentals.

So for a single student this year, the total comes to a mind-numbing $213,600. At least thats the official sticker price. Harvard has a strategy to price its MBA program at the mid-point of peer schools such as Stanford, Wharton, Northwestern Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, and MIT Sloan.

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Annual cost of a Harvard Business School MBA

With annual tuition now set at $72,000 for incoming students in the Class of 2019, an MBA from Harvard Business School isnt cheap. Add in the other costs, not including forgone wages, and the total comes to $106,800 per yearif you dont take those weekend trips to the Alps or those week-long immersions in Shanghai.

Fewer than half the MBA students at Harvard pay the sticker price

But if you get the average scholarship award of $37,000 a yearhalf of all HBS students are on scholarshipyou could reduce that number to just a shade under $140,000. Harvard parcels out more scholarship dough$34 million for MBA students last yearthan any other business school but does so only based on neednot merit. By the way, students may receive up to $30,000 over the two-year MBA program from an outside scholarship source before the school begins to reduce your HBS fellowship award. So lets assume you get lucky and win that extra $30K. Add in your internship pay, a median of $16,000 for two months of work, and you get the number down to under $100,000less than half the advertised sticker price..

And of course, whether you go to school or not, you still have to pay rent and board. So you could reasonably deduct that as well. Add all those deductions together and the orginal bill of $213,600 comes to something like $40,000.

But heres the rub: Most students find that estimates of their living expenses at business school are very conservative. Its hard not to go on those weekend ski trips in the Alps or a deep dive into an exotic locale led by a classmate who wants to show off his or her country. After all, you are in business school to also make life-long contacts and build your network. So you dont want to be cheap on these extra costs. Add at least 20% to the $29,668 in board and living expenses.

Total cost of a Harvard Business School MBA

Multiply the annual cost of an Harvard MBA by the full two years of the program and the total costs come to $213,600 for a single person, excluding scholarships, forgone wages or interest cost on a student loan.

Is it really worth it? Dont let the price scare you away

And then there is the salary you left behind to go to HBS. These days, Harvard students walk out of jobs paying annual average salaries of $85,000, not including bonuses or other perks. Multiply that by two (because youre going to want a few weeks at the front end of your first year and the back end after graduation) and thats an additional $170,000 in opportunity costs. With the 20% add-on for living expenses, that comes to another $176,000. And none of this includes the costs of a loan in origination fees and interest. But we wont even go there.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. Even beyond an experience that will likely be the most memorable of your life, having an MBA from Harvard on your resume is golden. Youll learn a ton, forge enduring friendships, get the job you really want, and almost always be thought of as the smartest guy or gal in the room throughout your career. Every return-on-investment analysis makes it a no-brainer.

And theres something else. For every MBA student Harvard enrolls and educate, it loses moneyon everyone. Tuition and fee revenues do not fully re-cover MBA operating expenses at HBS, much less the schools long-term investments in academic innovation. The shortfall is offset primarily with income from gifts given by alumni and friends. So one way to think about this is that HBS is subsidizing your education, meaning you are getting far more value out of the experience than the money you are putting in. Not a bad deal, anyway you look at it.

Rising annual MBA tuition at Harvard Business School

This years incoming class of MBA students at Harvard Business School will face an annual sticker price on the tuition of a whopping $72,000, more than double the rate of 15 years ago when annual tuition was just $30,050. But average scholarship grantsgiven to roughly half the studentshave kept pace. In 2002, the average grant was roughly a third of the tuition at $9,001. Today, its roughly half at an estimated $36,995 this year.
Barry Rosenstein, managing partner of Jana Partners. (REUTERS/Rick Wilking)

During the second quarter ended June 30, activist hedge fund Jana Partners snapped up 600,000 shares of meal kit delivery company Blue Apron (APRN), a position valued at $5.6 million at the time, according to a 13-F filing posted on Monday.

This is interesting because Jana is also the fund that had been pushing Whole Foods Market (WFM) to sell itself, which it eventually did to Amazon (AMZN) on June 16. Jana made a massive profit of about $260 million on the deal. But that deal also took momentum out of the fanfare building up to Blue Aprons June 29 IPO.

Furthermore, Amazon dealt a blow to Blue Apron investor later in July when it announced plans to launch its own meal-kit delivery service.

In the less than two months since Blue Apron has been public, the stock has gotten annihilated. It has fallen from $11 to as low as $5. Today, it trades at around $5.34 per share.

Its worth noting that Blue Apron is a very small position for Jana.

Shares of Blue Apron have collapsed since the meal-kit delivery service company went public.

In early April, Jana, which is led by Barry Rosenstein, disclosed a nearly 9% stake in Whole Foods. The company didnt exactly welcome the activist with open arms. Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, referred to them as greedy bastards in an interview with TexasMonthly.

We need to get better, and were doing that. But these guys just want to sell us, because they think they can make forty or fifty percent in a short period of time. Theyre greedy bastards, and theyre putting a bunch of propaganda out there, trying to destroy my reputation and the reputation of Whole Foods, because its in their self-interest to do so, Mackey told the publication in late April.

Jana sold all of its 26,074,830 shares of Whole Foods in late July.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
An Israel-based human rights group has shared video described as showing Israeli armed police raiding a hospital in East Jerusalem on July 21 and clashing with hospital staff as they attempted to seize a critically injured Palestinian man.

According to both BTSelem, the human rights group that released this hospital security camera footage on August 13, and Amnesty International, the Palestinian man had been critically injured in clashes in East Jerusalem in mid-July, and died during the scuffle between hospital staff and police.

BTSelem, the human rights group that released this hospital security camera footage, said the injured man was on his way to surgery when police tried to seize him. The footage the group shared shows a commotion in a hospital corridor. Police officers trying to grab hold of the mans bed appear to push and shove al-Makassed hospital staff protecting him.

Amnesty International in late July reported that armed Israeli police had carried out violent raids on the hospital on July 17 and July 21.

The conduct of Israeli forces who carried out violent raids on al-Makassed hospital harassing and intimidating staff and patients is utterly deplorable. There can be no justification for preventing medical workers from caring for a critically wounded patient, said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty Internationals Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Credit: YouTube/BTSelem
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State on Sunday claimed an attack on U.S. forces assisting Iraqi troops in the war on the jihadist militants in northern Iraq. Islamic State fighters fired Grad rockets on American troops east of Tal Afar, a town still under control of the militants west of Mosul, according to an online statement from the group. The American military had said earlier that two U.S. service members had been killed and five injured during combat operations in northern Iraq on Sunday. Islamic State's self-proclaimed "caliphate" effectively collapsed last month, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Mosul, the militants' capital in Iraq, after a nine-month campaign. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Rome (AFP) - The Italian government on Sunday welcomed Libya's decision to bar foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast, a move that has prompted almost all international charities to halt migrant search and rescue operations in the area.

The comments from Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano came as Save the Children and Sea Eye announced they were suspending operations in the area in response to the Libyan move.

Libya's navy last week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe, saying the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations it accuses of facilitating illegal migration.

The Libyan government "is ready to put in place a search and rescue zone in its waters, work with Europe and invest in its coastguards," Alfano told La Stampa daily on Sunday.

"This sends a signal that the balance is being restored in the Mediterranean."

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats, and charities have dispatched ships to rescue them from drowning.

But by Sunday the Aquarius, operated by the SOS Mediterranee, was the only humanitarian vessel conducting search and rescue work off Libya.

And only Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms has said it is willing to keep operations going from Monday. Its two vessels were docked in Malta on Sunday.

- 'Significant investment' -

Libya and Italy -- where the vast majority of migrants land -- have worked together to stem the flow, with Italy also moving to rein in NGOs helping the multinational rescue operations by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

"We need a significant, I repeat a significant European economic investment in Libya and in Africa," Alfano said.

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"Europe has to decide if the theme of migration flows is an absolute priority on the same scale as the economy. For us, it is".

The Libyan measure prompted Save the Children to suspend search and rescue work in the area and send its ship Vos Hestia to port in Malta, saying it could not resume without "vital safety and security assurances".

"We have a duty to ensure the safety of our team and the viability of the rescue mission. We need to have these assurances in place, before we can continue with the rescue mission as intended," Save the Children's Operation Director Rob MacGillivray said in a statement.

The announcement from Save the Children followed a similar move by German aid group Sea Eye, which also cited security concerns.

Sea Eye said in a statement that it was with "a heavy heart" that it made its decision, after the Libyan government's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

A day earlier, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting rescue operations.

Sea Eye said it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016, and cautioned Sunday that the retreat of aid groups from Libya's coast was putting lives at risk.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Buschheuer warned.

The number of migrant arrivals in Italy in July was down dramatically on the same month last year, suggesting efforts to train up and better equip Libya's coastguard could already be having an impact.

The interior ministry said 11,193 new arrivals had been registered in July, compared with 23,552 in July 2016.

Arrivals for the first seven months of this year were 95,214, up 0.78 percent on the same period last year.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014.

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Major U.S. cities are growing considerably faster than in the previous decade, and the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on 2017s Best Big Cities to Live in.

To take the guesswork out of finding the right city for urban dwellers, WalletHubs analysts evaluated the 62 largest U.S. cities in terms of 50 key metrics. The data set ranges from quality of public school system to job opportunities to median annual property taxes.

Best vs. Worst

Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the highest homeownership rate , 63.5 percent, which is two times higher than in Miami, the city with the lowest at 31.0 percent.

, 63.5 percent, which is two times higher than in Miami, the city with the lowest at 31.0 percent. Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the lowest share of residents living below poverty level , 8.3 percent, which is 4.9 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 40.3 percent.

, 8.3 percent, which is 4.9 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 40.3 percent. San Francisco has the lowest median debt rate (per median earnings) , 16.16 percent, which is 5.1 times lower than in Aurora, Colorado, the city with the highest at 82.04 percent.

, 16.16 percent, which is 5.1 times lower than in Aurora, Colorado, the city with the highest at 82.04 percent. Wichita, Kansas, has the shortest average commute time , 17.7 minutes, which is 2.3 times shorter than in New York, the city with the longest at 39.9 minutes.

, 17.7 minutes, which is 2.3 times shorter than in New York, the city with the longest at 39.9 minutes. Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 1.38, which is 13.2 times more than in St. Louis, the city with the most at 18.17.

Best Big Cities to Live in

Virginia Beach, VA Seattle, WA Pittsburgh, PA San Diego, CA Colorado Springs, CO Austin, TX Minneapolis, MN Las Vegas, NV Denver, CO San Jose, CA New York, NY Portland, OR Honolulu, HI Tampa, FL Omaha, NE San Francisco, CA Aurora, CO Chicago, IL Mesa, AZ Raleigh, NC

To view the full report and your citys rank, please visit:
Amman (AFP) - Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox patriarch has denounced an Israeli court ruling to allow a pro-settlement group to take control of church land in a mainly Palestinian area of occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.

On July 31, a Jerusalem court upheld controversial real estate deals involving Israeli pro-settlement organisation Ateret Cohanim and the church for two hotel properties near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City, Israeli media reported, finding no evidence of the deals resulting from fraud or bribery.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem on Saturday criticised what he called an "unjust" and "politically motivated" ruling and said the church would appeal to Israel's supreme court.

"This decade-long legal battle has resulted in an unjust decision which disregarded all of the patriarchate's clear and concrete legal evidence proving bad faith, bribery and conspiracy," Theophilos said.

"Such a decision in favour of the settler group Ateret Cohanim can only be interpreted as politically motivated."

In 2005, Israel's Maariv daily newspaper reported that foreign Jewish investors had paid millions of dollars to buy two large properties just inside Jaffa Gate through a secret deal with the Greek Orthodox church.

A source close to the Greek Orthodox patriarchy at the time told AFP that the church was unaware of the land sale, which triggered Palestinian anger and saw Theophilos's predecessor removed from office.

According to Israeli media, the agreements, which were initially signed in 2004, were for 99-year leases on hotel properties near Jaffa Gate.

The church went to court against Ateret Cohanim, claiming the deals were inked illegally and without its authorisation.

The Greek Orthodox Church is the biggest and wealthiest Christian Church in the Holy Land.

Its Jerusalem patriarchate commands massive wealth, largely in land portfolios in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan.
A tragic event

On Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, the host addressed Saturdays tragic events in Charlottesville, Va., where one person was killed and 19 injured when a car plowed into counterprotesters following a rally of white nationalists. President Donald Trump was widely criticized for his response, in which he condemned bigotry on many sides.

The many sides of Charlottesville

Oliver was quick to say, On many sides? This was a white nationalist rally. You have to call that out by name. There arent many instances in modern American politics where you can honestly think, That guy really should have mentioned the Nazis, but this is emphatically one of them.

White nationalism

Although Trump may not have mentioned white nationalists in his statement, they were more than happy to applaud their chosen leader at the rally. Nazi sympathizer David Duke said, Were going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. Thats what we believed in. Thats why we voted for Donald Trump. He said he is going to take our country back, and thats what we gotta do. Oliver quipped, Hey, David Duke and the Nazis really seem to like Donald Trump, which is weird because Nazis are a lot like cats: If they like you, its probably because youre feeding them.

Leadership?

Oliver went on to say there was no point waiting for leadership from President Trump because it was clearly not coming. When Trump was asked by a reporter if he wanted white nationalist support, he simply walked out of the room. His silence spoke volumes. Oliver pointed out the problem with that: A non-answer in a moment like this is an answer. If you asked me, Have you ever been aroused by the fairies in Zelda: The Ocarina of Time?, and I responded by slowly and silently walking away, you would know exactly what I was saying.

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.

Check out John Oliver shoot down Trumps plan to increase the U.S. Border Patrol:

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Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
By Katharine Houreld and Ed Cropley NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday called for a strike to support his claim to the presidency and accused the ruling party of "spilling the blood of innocent people", despite growing pressure on him to concede election defeat. The election commission on Friday declared incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the presidential poll by 1.4 million votes. International observers said Tuesday's election was largely fair but Odinga disputes the results, saying it was rigged. He has not provided documentary evidence. "Jubilee have spilt the blood of innocent people. Tomorrow there is no work," Odinga told a crowd of around 4,000 cheering supporters, referring to the ruling party. He promised to announce a new strategy on Tuesday. Senator James Orengo, one of Odinga's chief supporters, said the opposition would call for demonstrations. "When we people call you to action, peaceful action, don't stay behind," Orengo told the crowd in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum. He also called for a boycott of Nation television and newspapers, Kenya's largest independent media group, over their coverage of the disputed elections. The rally, Odinga's first public speech since Thursday, was a unequivocal message that he has no intention of renouncing his claim to be the winner of Tuesday's vote despite calls from the international community for him to concede. There have been deadly clashes between police and civilians in his stronghold areas. Presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu blamed the bloodshed on protesters. "The violent protests are unlawful," he said in a statement on Sunday. "The Police will not tolerate breaches of the peace; instead, they will protect the lives and property of Kenyans; and they will restore law and order." Reuters reporters have seen police repeatedly fire tear gas and bullets to disperse crowds of people in slums. Police have also detained and physically attacked journalists. DEATHS There have been at least 24 deaths in election-related unrest so far, a rights group said on Saturday, including that of a nine-year-old girl. The Kenya Red Cross said on Saturday it had treated 93 injured people. By Sunday the violence had largely abated, to the relief of Kenyans who feared a repeat of the carnage that followed 2007's disputed election. Around 1,200 people were killed then and 600,000 displaced after Odinga called for political protests that sparked ethnic violence. Regional trade was paralysed and Kenya's economy - the region's biggest - took years to recover. Some Odinga supporters are convinced that victory was stolen from them in the 2007 and 2013 polls, both marred by irregularities and problems. Odinga contested both, and lost, and his supporters say they will not back down this time. "We are sick and tired of these people stealing the country from us. We need to split this country in two," said David Orwa, 44, his words hinting at the ethnic divide that underlies Kenyan politics. Odinga is a Luo, an ethnic group from the west that has long felt neglected by central government and excluded from power. Kenyatta is a Kikuyu, a tribe that has provided three out of Kenya's four presidents since independence from Britain in 1963. Diplomats and regional leaders are urging Odinga, a former political prisoner, to concede. Their united stance leaves the 72-year-old opposition leader isolated if he chooses to maintain the allegations of election fraud and proclaim himself president. "I want to congratulate Uhuru Kenyatta," said a Sunday statement by Federica Mogherini, foreign minister for the European Union, which did over $3 billion worth of trade with Kenya last year. "In line with the African Union, the EU expects the opposition to respect the results and to use legal means available for appeals and complaints." NO POWER-SHARING DEALS A Western diplomat said allies were not interested in revisiting the type of power-sharing deals that ended the post-election violence a decade ago. That avenue was "not an option", he said. "If you have evidence that the election was rigged, produce it ... NASA has been changing its position in quite significant ways in the past week," he said, referring to Odinga's opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance. "Most of the stuff they are alleging is not accurate." Initially, the coalition alleged the electoral server had been hacked, and produced 50 pages of computer logs that security experts said were inconclusive at best. They later said a secret source within the electoral board had passed them the true election results. That two-page document was debunked by the election commission, who pointed out basic mathematical errors. Later, Odinga said paper forms from each polling station scanned and uploaded to the election commission website to support its electronic tally were fake. He has not produced alternative forms. Regional leaders have already congratulated Kenyatta, the 55-year-old son of the country's first president, on winning a second term. "Congratulations my brother @UKenyatta for a successful election and the trust Kenyans have placed in you!" tweeted Rwandan president Paul Kagame. Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda have also sent congratulations. (Additional reporting by Maggie Fick in Kisumu and George Obulutsa in Nairobi; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Andrew Roche)
James Alex Fields Jr. (Photo: Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail via AP)

The 20-year-old man accused of driving a car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally Saturday, James Alex Fields Jr., was denied bail in court Monday morning.

Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. said at a Monday morning hearing that he would appoint a lawyer for Fields, who faces charges of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident, after the deadly car attack in Charlottesville, Va. Fields did not enter a plea in his video appearance at a General District Court in Charlottesville.

As crowds began dispersing in the aftermath of a Unite the Right rally, Fields allegedly drove a gray Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counterprotesters. The Dodge rear-ended a sedan, which crashed into a minivan in front of it. A 32-year-old woman, Heather D. Heyer, died and at least 19 others were injured, according to authorities. The Dodge sped from the scene, but Charlottesville police later found and stopped the vehicle, and took Fields, who lives in Maumee, Ohio, into custody.

The incident marked the highest point of tension during Saturdays rally, which saw violent clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters. The rally had been planned in protest of the removal of a Confederate monument from a public park and attracted hundreds of white supremacists. President Trump, who condemned many sides for the violence, had been criticized for his failure to explicitly denounce white supremacists until Monday.

Fields court-appointed attorney, Charles Weber, did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News. The judge said that Fields was not assigned a public defender because a relative of an employee in the public defenders office was involved in Saturdays incident.

Born and raised in Kentucky, Fields caught the attention of his high school teachers for his fascination with Nazi Germany. Social studies teacher Derek Weimer, who taught Fields in three classes at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Ky., told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Fields had written an assignment that was much along the party lines of the neo-Nazi movement and so alarming that another teacher filed a report on it.

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It was quite clear he had some really extreme views and maybe a little bit of anger behind them, Weimer told CNN. Feeling, whats the word Im looking for, oppressed or persecuted. He really bought into this white supremacist thing. He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler.

Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015, but was released from active duty in December 2015 after he failed to meet training standards, a U.S. Army spokesperson told Yahoo News. As a result of his failure to meet training standards, Fields was never awarded a military occupational skill nor was he assigned to a unit outside of basic training.

About a year ago, Fields moved to Ohio from Kentucky with his mother, Samantha Bloom, who relocated for her job, according to the Toledo Blade. He told Bloom that he planned to attend a rally in Virginia but described it as an alt-right rally, according to the Toledo Blade.

I thought [the rally] had something to do with Trump. Trumps not a supremacist, Bloom told the Toledo Blade. [Fields] had an African-American friend, so 

I try to stay out of his political views. I dont get too involved, said Bloom, who appeared visibly upset in a Toledo Blade video when she learned of Fields alleged actions and incarceration. Fields lives on his own and had texted his mother Friday to tell her he had dropped off his cat at her apartment so he could attend the rally.

Bloom, a single mother who is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, raised Fields on her own after a drunk driver killed his father, an uncle told the Washington Post.

Records from 911 calls reveal that Bloom had called police at least twice to accuse her then-teenage son of assaulting her and wielding a knife. Records from the Florence Police Department in Kentucky show that Bloom told police in 2011 that Fields, a young teenager at the time, had stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife. During another 2010 incident, Bloom said that Fields had hit her head and locked her in the bathroom.

Bloom also told police Fields was taking medication to treat temper issues.

The uncle, who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity, last heard from an 18-year-old Fields when he asked for the money left to him by his father, which was kept in a trust by his uncle.

The uncle described Fields to the Post as not really friendly, more subdued. Fields aunt, Pam Fields, told the New York Times that she remembered him as a very quiet little boy.

On Saturday, a photographer captured a picture of a man who appears to be Fields marching with Vanguard America, a group that describes itself on Twitter as the face of American fascism. The group denied any affiliation with Fields, stating he is, in no way, a member of Vanguard America.

A Daily News photog spotted James Fields (center) clutching a shield with a hate groups insignia before the attack. https://t.co/VXGqyD2LWq pic.twitter.com/LORfeVPquz  Nicole Hensley (@nkhensley) August 13, 2017

All our members had been safely evacuated by the time of the incident, Vanguard America wrote. The shields seen do not denote membership, nor does the white shirt. The shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance. All our members are safe an [sic] accounted for, with no arrests or charges.

U.S. officials from the Justice Department and FBI have launched a civil rights investigation into the vehicular incident. Fields next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 25.

Update [8/14/17 at 3:28 p.m.]: This story has been updated to include information from records of 911 calls about Fields allegedly beating his mother.

Read more from Yahoo News:
(Reuters) - An Oklahoma man has been arrested by the FBI on charges that he tried to blow up an Oklahoma City bank building with a van he thought was packed with explosives, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, of Sayre, Oklahoma, on Saturday. According to a complaint, Varnell had initially planned to bomb the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., in a manner similar to the 1995 explosion at a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

"This arrest is the culmination of a long-term domestic terrorism investigation involving an undercover operation, during which Varnell had been monitored closely for months as the alleged bomb plot developed," federal prosecutors said in a statement. "The device was actually inert, and the public was not in danger."

Varnell made a brief appearance at a federal court in Oklahoma City on Monday and is scheduled to have a detention and preliminary hearing on Tuesday, said Scott Williams, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. Varnell will remain in custody until at least then.

Prosecutors were not immediately able to say if Varnell had a lawyer.

Prosecutors said that during the investigation an undercover agent had posed as a co-conspirator and agreed to help Varnell build what he believed was a 1,000-pound (454 kg) explosive.

Agents arrested him after he made a call on Saturday to a mobile phone he believed would detonate a device in a van parked beside a BancFirst Corp building in downtown Oklahoma City, the complaint said.

Varnell was charged with malicious attempted destruction of a building in interstate commerce and could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

According to the complaint Varnell told an FBI informant he was upset with the government and was seeking retaliation.

The complaint filed in the federal court in Oklahoma City said at the onset of the investigation, Varnell said he wanted to build a team to conduct a bombing.

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"I'm out for blood,'" the complaint quoted Varnell as saying.

The BancFirst building is a few blocks from where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building stood. A truck loaded with explosives was detonated in front of the Murrah building in 1995 in what was called an act of domestic terrorism.

U.S. prosecutors said Varnell had prepared a social media message to be posted after the explosion, and helped make and load a device into a stolen van.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Toni Reinhold)
Since Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Loera was extradited to the United States more than half a year ago, many have wondered why a man whom U.S. prosecutors call "the most notorious drug trafficker in the world" had opted for a team of public defenders.

It turns out hes had a plan to hire his own lawyers all along. Last week, Jeffrey Lichtman, a New York-based criminal defense attorney who has represented clients like the son of convicted mob kingpin John Gotti, announced that Guzman had retained his services. Guzman has also signed on Eduardo Balarezo, who has represented other drug traffickers, including Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a one-time ally of Guzman in Sinaloa, their home state in Mexico. Two other attorneys, one of whom helped Lichtman on the Gotti case, have been brought on as well. Hes agreed to hire us; theres a team in place, Lichtman told Newsweek by phone. Ive been retained but have not put in a notice of appearance. The attorneys still have to formally seek the courts permission to represent Guzman, which Lichtman says will likely occur on August 14.

Guzman is currently detained in a high-security prison in Manhattan that, in the past, has housed terrorists, white collar criminals, mobsters and weapons traffickers. Officially represented by a team of public defenders, he has spent hundreds of hours with Lichtman but they have not reached a payment agreement, the attorney said. The issue of payment could be crucial to Guzmans case and any subsequent penalties in terms of asset forfeiture: although some estimates of the drug traffickers worth range as high as $14 billion, prosecutors say they have not been able to locate a penny. Guzmans lawyers in Mexicohe reputedly has at least a handful on his payroll, and according to officials cited in the Mexican media some have been used to corrupt officials theredo not necessarily have license to represent him in the U.S. Because Guzman is on the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control list, private legal counsel is prohibited from taking even $10 from him unless they have a license.

Story continues

El Chapo

Henry Romero/Reuters

Guzmans extradition was conducted on January 19, and his Mexican lawyers werent aware he would be tried in the Eastern District of New York, according to his federal defenders. Guzman has indictments against him in seven U.S. jurisdictions, dating back to 1995. His federal defenders and Lichtman also say that Guzmanwho escaped twice from maximum security prisons in Mexicois not receiving fair treatment. Hes allowed one hour out of his cell a day, according to Lichtman, and has not seen another inmate or been allowed to communicate with relatives. Im not a bleeding heart defense lawyer, but theyre torturing this guy, Lichtman said. Hes wrapped up tighter than any defendant in the history of America. Neither he nor any of his defenders have been able to shake his hand; theyve only been able to speak through a plexiglass window, according to complaints raised before the judge.

Amnesty International sent a letter to federal prosecutors on May 30, expressing concern that the conditions imposed on Guzman were unnecessarily harsh and breach international standards for humane treatment. (Prosecutors have requested the court deny the request by Amnesty to visit Guzman.) In Mexico, its common for imprisoned drug traffickers to complain to human rights groups of cockroaches in cells or lack of basic services like clean water. Guzmans lawyers filed several complaints while he was awaiting extradition in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Although prosecutors requested in April that Guzman be allowed screened communication with his wife to explore his options for outside counsel, Balarezo said by phone that Guzman has yet to do so. Balarezo said that he and Guzman had spoken prior to his extradition. When Guzman was flown to the U.S., Balarezo was contacted by Guzmans wife, former Sinaloa beauty queen Emma Coronel, and a sister, who asked him to represent Guzman.

Lichtman said he was most likely recommended to Guzman by the public defenders, given his work on the case of John Junior Gotti, the son of the Teflon Don, whom prosecutors went after on charges including racketeering, murder and securities fraud. None of the charges stuck.

Chapos trial has been postponed until April 2018. Prosecutors say they have thousands of documents and hours of wiretaps to submit as evidence against Guzman, who faces charges of drug trafficking, unlawful use of firearms, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder.

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Current and former members of the administration may face questioning from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the ongoing probe into Russias alleged intervention in the U.S. election.

According to three people familiar with the topic, Mueller is seeking information from the White House about specific meetings and notes on such meetings, and wants to ask people about Trumps decision to fire former FBI director James Comey, the sources told The New York Times.

Among those likely to be questioned by Mueller is former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who may be able to answer questions from the special counsel about both the election campaign and meetings held in the White House since Trumps inauguration.

08_25_Mueller_02

Drew Angerer/Getty

Priebus was pushed out of the White House at the end of July, following months of rumors his head was on the chopping block, and has since been replaced by then secretary of homeland security John Kelly.

And despite advisers close to the president, including Ty Cobb, the presidents special counsel, telling The Times the White House would continue to fully cooperate with Muellers requests, the potential questioning of Priebus is said to be a matter for concern among some in Trumps circle.

The president was reportedly never convinced that Priebus would be loyal to him, confidantes of Trump told The Times, prompting fears about potential conversations the former chief of staff could have with Mueller.

Of particular interest to Mueller will be any information Priebus may have about the presidents relationship and dealings with ousted FBI director James Comey.

According to testimony from Comey, Priebus was aware of the conversation Trump and Comey had in which the president allegedly told Comey to go easy on General Mike Flynn, telling the then-FBI director I hope you can let this go, over the FBI investigation into Flynn, according to a memo from Comey.

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Sequestered in a back room at Leos Place in Idaho Falls, a dozen or so published and unpublished writers meet every month to share their work and offer encouragement.

But, taking advantage of the Great American Eclipses passage through Idaho Falls, members of the Blue Sage Writers group will step out of the shadows to sell their books at the Aug. 19 farmers market in Idaho Falls.

We thought that very few people really know about our group, said member Carol Stilz. And so we wanted to let people know we have a presence in Idaho Falls.

Stilz said though selling books is of course a reason the group has a booth, the main motivation is raising awareness of the group. Eight authors will be present with their publications, and they will sign their books at the booth, member Richard Rice said. Rice said he thinks most authors also will sell their books at discounted prices.

Stilz, a childrens book writer, said she is bringing an activity kit that can be purchased by itself or with her accompanying book Grandma Buffalo.

Its to engage kids, Stilz said. There are two activities that are specifically related to the eclipse.

Stilz said Rice, who writes science fiction, came up with the idea to sell books during the eclipse.

We think its a one-shot deal, Rice said.

He said if it goes well, however, they might try selling at the farmers market again in the future.

Karen Finnigan, one of the writing groups founding members, said it started as an affiliate of Romance Writers of America. She said she and other women in eastern Idaho met periodically for moral support and writing advice. Eventually the group members collectively decided to break away from Romance Writers of America and branch out. They wanted to try other kinds of writing and some local writers had been excluded by the specification of genre.

We liked getting fresh blood, Finnigan said. And to do that you had to really make it open to all types of writing.

Now, men and women alike bring mystery novels, science fiction, thrillers, childrens books and more to be critiqued by their peers.

The fun thing about it is you get to read stuff that you wouldnt normally read, Rice said.

Stilz said the group also keeps writers accountable for their goals. At their monthly meetings, each writer sets a goal to accomplish by the next meeting, and if they fail to do so they have to contribute a writing tool to the bucket, Stilz said.

For information or to join Blue Sage Writers, go to bluesagewriters.com.
Naked and Afraid traveled to the rainy Velebit mountains of Croatia. Survivalists Samantha and Adam attempted to last 21 days in the cool and damp mountain forests, but doing so almost proved to be deadly.

Samantha, who goes by Sam, developed hypothermia during a long rainstorm on a particularly cold night. Sam did not want to share a shelter or body warmth with her partner, Adam.

By the time the competitors asked for a medic to step in, Sam had developed stage two hypothermia. She could not feel her extremities, and the medic was worried her organs were shutting down.

With Adams help, Sam was carried to an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.

Fortunately, doctors treated her in time to avoid any permanent damage. After a few days in the hospital, the mother of four said, My kids will see, you know, Mom did it. My body couldnt handle the last part. I was really looking forward to high-fiving Adam and saying, We did it. I thank you for being there and watching out for me.

Naked and Afraid airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Discovery.

See what these survivalists make out of a maggot-filled deer carcass:





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A number of images have gone viral on Twitter following clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. But the images are actually from previous rallies and one is not even from Charlottesville.

SEE ALSO: Charlottesville really happened. Don't look away.

One photo shows a black officer guarding Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis and people brandishing the confederate flag:

Confederate flags, Nazi salutes, and Klansmen having their rights protected by a black police officer.



This picture hurts. pic.twitter.com/qr5nGkMUvH  Ubadah Sabbagh (@Neubadah) August 12, 2017

This tweet, which has over 100,000 retweets and 250,000 likes, is from Saturday and it claims to show the officer protecting white supremacists during that rally.

Among the people who shared it on Twitter is Tim Hogan, who worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016 and is now national press secretary at The Hub Project.

"A picture worth a thousand words," he said.

Hogan later took it down and said the picture was posted in July:

Tweeted this & became clear it's apparently from JULY in Cville. Taking it down. Attribution not clear. Some context https://t.co/ZFW3Z80S6G pic.twitter.com/puVujuUe33  Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) August 12, 2017

One of the first to upload it appears to be Keven Quillon, who claimed on Instagram that the officer is his niece's husband, Officer Darius Ricco Nash.

While Quillon doesn't specify which rally Nash was attending, he called him "one of our living heroes":

A KTVU reporter, Frank Somerville, said on Facebook that the officer was getting trolled after the image went viral:

Story continues

But the image of officer Nash is not the only one that circulated last weekend and was wrongly attributed to the most recent Charlottesville protest.

This image showing a black woman confronting a Klan member also made the rounds since it was posted on Twitter:

I hope this picture finds its way to the history books. #Charolettesville pic.twitter.com/Pb5cAVBE7U  Madison Wilcox (@mjdarling_11) August 13, 2017

#Charlottesville

And here we see a proud American standing up to masked terrorists. pic.twitter.com/CfkONfAoX5  Cromwell (@Cromwell606) August 13, 2017

The picture is actually from Tupelo, Mississippi and was shot by photojournalist Anthony S. Karen, who had spent eight years documenting Klan organisations in 14 states across the country.

Here's the full description of the pic:

More of his photos can be found in an eBook on iTunes called White Pride.
By Christine Kim and Heekyong Yang SEOUL (Reuters) - The escalating threat arising from nuclear-armed North Korea's recent series of missile tests is prompting South Korea to beef up its military muscle and experts warn it could spur an arms buildup elsewhere in Northeast Asia. South Korea and Japan are accustomed to the North's frequent threats to attack. But the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang has raised fears of a sudden clash along the world's most militarised border dividing the two Koreas, which might quickly escalate to all-out war. After North Korea's second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 28, South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered a speedy deployment of the controversial U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system, reversing his earlier decision to postpone it pending an environmental review. This week, the U.S. Defence Department said it was "actively" considering revising bilateral ballistic missile guidelines with South Korea to allow Seoul to build more powerful missiles -- at the South's request. Moon told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Monday South Korea also wants to build a nuclear-powered submarine, presidential officials said. "All of this could lead to further militarization of South Korea," said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defence and Security Forum. ATTACKING GUAM South Korea, which spends around a tenth of its annual budget on defense, is already home to some 625,000 local soldiers and more than 28,000 U.S. troops. The country, still technically at war with the North after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty, has deployed the U.S.-built Patriot missile defense system, as well as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system. Trump warned the North and its leader Kim Jong Un against attacking Guam or U.S. allies on Friday, a day after the isolated country said it was finalizing by mid-August a plan to launch four intermediate range missiles toward waters off the U.S. Pacific territory. "If North Korea actually launches Hwasong-12 missiles towards Guam, they're going to do it with all their other missiles, artillery and tanks ready for action," said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. "And we should be prepared too." Even before the latest spike in tensions, South Korea was seeking to enhance its missile-defense capabilities in the face of the unprecedented pace of North Korean missile tests. Japan, worried its ballistic missile defenses could be overwhelmed by swarm attacks or circumvented by warheads launched on lofted trajectories, is likely to acquire a ground-based version of the Aegis missile defense system. It is also mulling the acquisition of munitions that would allow it to strike North Korea missile sites. "The greatest threat to both states remains shorter range artillery, artillery rockets and stockpiles of short-to-medium range missiles. The focus will primarily remain upon bolstering defensive rather than offensive capabilities," said Reed Foster, a defense analyst for IHS Jane's. "I don't believe that there will be any significant altering of East Asian procurement strategies, despite the rhetoric emanating from North Korea, principally because for them the threat hasn't altered drastically," Reed added. SOUTH GOES NUCLEAR? Conservative lawmakers in Seoul in recent days have even called for a "nuclear balance" on the peninsula, saying Seoul should ask Washington to redeploy U.S. nuclear weapons if South Korea is unable to develop its own. The United States withdrew nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1992, when the two Koreas agreed to make the peninsula nuclear free. In violation of that agreement as well as U.N. Security Council resolutions, North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests. "Now is the right time to actively look at bringing back tactical nuclear weapons," Chung Woo-taik, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, told Reuters. "North Korea broke the denuclearisation agreement a long time ago." Reintroducing nuclear weapons remains an unlikely scenario, as that would undermine demands from Seoul and Washington for North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs. For now, officials are instead focused on changing the missile guidelines, which allow Seoul to have ballistic missiles with a flight range capped at 800 km (497 miles), topped with a maximum 500 kg (1,102 pounds) warhead. South Korea is less focused on increasing the flight range, as that could face opposition from neighbors including China, Russia and Japan, and the 800-km range limit covers all of North Korea in any case, senior government officials said. Rather, Seoul wants to double the maximum payload to 1,000 kg or greater, powerful enough to target underground bunkers or nuclear sites within the North, the officials said. That's still a fraction of the size of "the mother of all bombs", which the United States dropped on a suspected Islamic State target in Afghanistan in April. The 21,600-pound GBU-43 bomb is one of the largest non-nuclear devices used in combat. (Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Bill Tarrant)
A video of a police officer beating a 25-year-old man, Richard Hubbard III, in Euclid, Ohio, for not heeding his orders has gone viral. Filmed by one of the witnesses, Lashaunda Malone, the video was posted on Facebook on Saturday morning. It had garnered more than 1 million views and was shared more than 25,000 times at the time of publishing this story.

An altercation began after the officer pulled Hubbard over a traffic violation, and asked him to come out of the car so that he could be taken into custody but the driver ignored the commands, according to the police. Hubbard was later charged with driving under suspension and resisting arrest, police said.

Two police officers were involved in the incident that lasted for more than three minutes. The police officer, who engaged in violent behavior, is currently on paid administrative leave after the video of the violent arrest went viral.

The incident took place around 10:30 a.m. EDT, when the officer concerned took note of the traffic violation by Hubbard, according to an official statement by Euclid police. In the video, a woman, who was presumably Hubbard's friend, is also seen standing nearby. shouting at the officers.

Malone, who recorded the whole episode, was also heard saying, "What's going on?" Another voice of a young girl, probably Malone's daughter, can be heard as she asked, "Mommy, what's going on?"

After few minutes of punching, one of the police officers got Hubbard on his stomach and handcuffed him. Soon both the officers could be seen handcuffing the girl.

The identity of the arresting officer hasn't been released by the police, but in the statement, it was mentioned he was treated at a local hospital and was released soon after. The police are investigating the incident.

"It's the mission of the Euclid Police Department to provide professional and transparent service to the residents, business owners, and visitors to the City of Euclid. This entire incident will be reviewed, in detail, so that the public can have a full and open understanding of the series of events that eventually led to this violent encounter," the statement read.

Story continues

There have been several incidents in the past when a police officer made a violent arrest. In July, a video of a California woman, who was arrested in a similar manner went viral. Juanita Mendez-Medrano, 52, who worked as street side flower vendor, was arrested after she refused to cooperate with a police officer.

Police were patrolling the area due to a function in a nearby school, an official statement by Riverside County Sheriff's Department said. The video had sparked outrage among people.

In June, a video emerged where a driver could be seen getting dragged from his vehicle. He was punched several times and also kneed by a police officer over a traffic violation in Minnesota. The state unit of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) termed the incident a "disturbing and completely unnecessary example of excessive use of force, according to the Guardian. The officer was also said to have abused the driver.

I had no idea what was going on when I was approached and attacked by this officer, Anthony Promvongsa, the driver seen in the 2016 footage, told the ACLU.

In May, a cellphone video of a teenager's arrest in Texas showed a police officer beating the girl; however, the allegations were dismissed by the police department. The police and the teen's family had their own versions of the incident. While police said it was the girl who assaulted one of their officers, the family insisted the video showed it was the police and not the girl, who punched, CNN reported.

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New Delhi (AFP) - As India prepares to mark 70 years of independence from the British, and Pakistan the anniversary of its birth, we look at some of the numbers behind this defining event known as Partition.

190

The number of years the British ruled in India, first through the East India Company and then the Crown. The Company, however, had managed trading posts in India for more than a century before assuming more official control after 1757.

400 million

The population across British India -- including modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh -- at the time of Partition in 1947.

40

The number of days British judge Cyril Radcliffe was given to draw the new boundaries that would divide the subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

3,800

Miles (6,100 km) of new borders between India and Pakistan created by Partition. More than 1000 miles overland separated West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

0

The number of times British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Lord Louis Mountbatten, Britain's final Viceroy, uttered the word "Pakistan" when publicly announcing plans for the Partition of India on June 3, 1947.

48

Hours after India declared independence on August 15 before British troops began sailing for home. Their withdrawal was completed the following February.

1 million

The widely-held estimate of the number of people killed in the brutal violence that followed Partition. Some estimates put the toll at double this figure.

83,000

Women and girls raped or abducted by both sides during the violence of Partition.

15 million

The number who migrated, often by foot, during Partition -- Hindus and Sikhs to India, and Muslims to Pakistan.

400,000

The number of refugees walking in a single column from modern-day Pakistan to India.

200,000

The number of miles covered by "refugee specials" -- trains carrying evacuees between India and Pakistan -- on the north-western line alone in 1947.

3

The number of wars fought between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947.
For decades, Jogdas dreamed of moving to India to escape the persecution he suffered as a Hindu in Muslim Pakistan. But the reality of life over the border is a far cry from those dreams.

Seventy years after partition unleashed the largest mass migration in human history, Hindus are still moving from Pakistan to India, where tens of thousands languish in makeshift camps near the border with no legal right to work.

Many have no choice but to toil illegally in the stone quarries near where they live because their movements are strictly controlled by the authorities, suspicious of anyone from across the border.

It is not the welcome most of them expected in Hindu-majority India.

"No job, no house, no money, no food. There, we were working in the fields, we were farmers. But here people like us are forced to break rocks to earn a living," said 81-year-old Jogdas, who goes by just one name.

"For us the partition is still not over. Hindus are still trying to come back to their country. And when they come here, they have nothing," he told AFP from the camp on the outskirts of the western city of Jodhpur where he lives.

More than 15 million people were uprooted following India's independence from Britain in 1947, which triggered months of violence in which at least a million people were killed for their faith.

Amid the bloody chaos, Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly formed Pakistan, as Muslims moved in the opposite direction.

Despite the exodus, Hindus remain one of Pakistan's largest religious minorities. Estimates vary, but they are believed to account for around 1.6 percent of the population of roughly 200 million.

Many say they face discrimination and even risk abduction, rape and forced marriage.

"Soon after partition, the harassment started," said Jogdas, whose family had only moved to what is now Pakistan a few months before partition to escape a devastating drought.

"There was not even a single day when we could live in peace. I wanted to come back to live with my Hindu brothers."

Story continues

- 'We are alone' -

Most of the migrants to India come from Pakistan's Sindh province, taking a four-hour train journey through the Thar desert to Jodhpur in the arid western state of Rajasthan.

That they share the culture, food and language of Rajasthan should make it easy for them to assimilate in their adopted homeland.

In reality, they live in isolated camps, far from local communities and are treated with suspicion by authorities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said it wants to make it easier for persecuted adherents of the faith to find refuge in India.

Last year it changed the rules to allow immigrants to apply for citizenship in the state where they live, rather than having to go through the central government.

Hindus from Pakistan qualify for a fast track to citizenship after seven years in the country.

But bureaucratic delays have meant the process of getting it can take longer to complete.

Khanaramji, 64, became an Indian citizen in 2005 after fleeing Pakistan in 1997.

He said many others had given up and returned to Pakistan, disillusioned by life in India.

"There is no assistance from the government. We are just like cattle with no owners. We are just surviving on our own," he said.

- 'Life becomes hell' -

Worse even than the poverty is the suspicion from authorities.

"Those who do not have citizenship are harassed by (intelligence) agencies. They are always treated like suspects and agents of Pakistan," said Khanaramji, who goes by only one name.

"They spend most of what they earn on going to police stations and agency offices."

Hindu Singh Sodha, who runs a charity in Jodhpur for Pakistani Hindus seeking to settle in India, said they had high hopes of Modi when he came to office in 2014, but had been disappointed.

The migrants still come under increased scrutiny whenever tensions flare between India and Pakistan -- a frequent occurrence under the Modi government.

"Their life becomes hell," he said.

"Because everything is affected. Their shelter, healthcare, access to education, their livelihood."

But some feel even that is worth tolerating.

Horoji fled to India with his two adult sons two years ago after receiving death threats from the family's Muslim neighbours in Pakistan.

"To save our lives, we had to run to India," said 65-year-old Horoji, whose grandparents were originally from present-day India but found themselves on the wrong side of the border at partition.

"My grandfather had gone to the other side for work. But he had told us to move to India when the right time comes as he had sensed times would not be safe for Hindus in future."
A makeshift memorial of flowers and a photo of victim Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 13, 2017. Heyer was killed when a car rammed into a group of people protesting the presence of white supremacists who had gathered in the city for a rally. (Photo: Steve Helber/AP)

Critics are rightly castigating President Trump for issuing a series of vague, opaque statements in the wake of white supremacist-fueled violence that rocked Charlottesville, Va., this weekend. In response to the violence that claimed three lives and injured many, Trump said this: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, before repeating on many sides, as if to emphasize that it was really the many sides that were at fault.

Trump generated much support from the alt-right, including white nationalists, during last years presidential campaign. As a candidate and now as president, Trump has established a pattern of refusing to repudiate in clear moral terms the white supremacists who backed his White House run, and their hate-fueled ideology.

Trump, remember, was also the candidate who spent much of last year mocking President Barack Obama for failing to use the specific phrase radical Islamic terrorism in discussing attacks inspired by ISIS. But its worth taking a step back and considering how his silence on white supremacy stands in contrast to the moral clarity that past presidents have demonstrated under similarly terrible circumstances. Trumps critics are therefore drawing on a fairly rich recent history in which Democratic and Republican presidents have reacted to white supremacists, the ideology they espouse and the violence they commit, with swift and unequivocal condemnations infused with moral clarity and a higher vision of the national well-being. Even divisive presidents who experienced white supremacist-fueled violence on their watch have often risen to the occasion.

With Alabama Gov. George Wallace looking over his shoulder, President Lyndon Johnson, center, speaks to reporters outside the White House on March 13, 1965, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: AP)

Take President Lyndon Johnsons reaction to Alabama troopers beating nonviolent civil rights demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965. Eight days later, Johnson delivered an address before a joint session of Congress in which he urged the swift passage of voting rights legislation to defeat the evil of white supremacy with constitutionally inscribed virtues such as equality and justice. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation, Johnson declared. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. When he invoked the slogan from the civil rights movement  We shall overcome  he left no doubt about where he and the United States stood on the cause of racial equality, even as he recognized the political costs to Democrats that a full-throated embrace of civil rights exacted.

Thirty years later, President Bill Clinton gave what was probably the most potent address of his presidency. He spoke at a memorial service for the 168 people murdered by white nationalist Timothy McVeigh in a truck bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Even though Clinton was in a red state, he used his speech to offer a vision resting on moral truth and constitutional certainty that his numerous critics long claimed was absent from his record in public service. Clinton said the one thing we owe those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil, a rebuke of the white supremacy and militia movement from which McVeigh had come. They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life, he said, announcing that these forces had to be extirpated from American society.

One of the best moments of George W. Bushs oft-divisive presidency occurred six days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bush traveled the short distance from the White House to the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. In a time of rising anti-Muslim feeling in the U.S., he reminded the nation that America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country.  And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect  a clear warning to racists and anti-Muslim activists that violence and prejudice targeting any group, including Muslim Americans, would be countered with the full force of the United States.

President George W. Bush meets with Muslim religious leaders during his visit to the Islamic Center of Washington on Sept. 17, 2001, to try to put an end to rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (Photo: Doug Mills/AP)

President Barack Obama had one of his moments of moral clarity in the aftermath of a crazed Confederate-flag-waving white supremacist who hoped to start a race war when he entered a church in Charleston, S.C., and murdered nine African-American worshippers. The white supremacist surely sensed the meaning of his violent act, Obama announced in a eulogy from the pew of the church. It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs and arson and shots fired at churches  not random, but as a means of control, a way to terrorize and oppress. An act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination; violence and suspicion.  Oh, but God works in mysterious ways. God has different ideas.

Admirable as these statements were, with the exception of LBJs, they didnt require extraordinary political courage  white racists or nationalists werent part of anyones voting base until Trump came along. Clinton wasnt taking a big political risk by denouncing McVeigh.

Presidential candidates have at times failed to repudiate white nationalism or issued barely disguised appeals to racism. In 1980, GOP nominee Ronald Reagan delivered his infamous kickoff campaign speech by invoking states rights, code words for defending segregation, in Neshoba County, Miss., where three civil rights workers had been slain. In 1988, Republican presidential nominee George H.W. Bush ran the Willie Horton ad, which trafficked in racist stereotypes by portraying blacks as rapists and murderers. (The spot prompted a deathbed disavowal by Bushs campaign strategist, Lee Atwater.)

Nonetheless, there are few precedents for a president refusing to denounce acts of white nationalist violence in terms of moral outrage and as unambiguous violations of the American creed. Notwithstanding subsequent White House efforts to revise Trumps Charlottesville statements, his comments should be seen in their proper context and for what they actually are: a new low in the modern history of the American presidency.

President Trump speaks to members of the media regarding the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminister, N.J. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Matthew Dallek, associate professor at George Washingtons Graduate School of Political Management, is the author of Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security

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By Dmitry Solovyov MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the risks of a military conflict over North Korea's nuclear program are very high, and Moscow is deeply worried by the mutual threats being traded by Washington and Pyongyang. "Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is now starting to go over the top," Lavrov said. "We still hope and believe that common sense will prevail." Asked at a forum for Russian students about the risks of the stand-off escalating into armed conflict, he said: "The risks are very high, especially taking into account the rhetoric." "Direct threats of using force are heard... The talk (in Washington) is that there must be a preventive strike made on North Korea, while Pyongyang is threatening to carry out a missile strike on the U.S. base in Guam. These (threats) continue non-stop, and they worry us a lot." "I won't get into guessing what happens 'if'. We will do whatever we can to prevent this 'if'." "My personal opinion is that when you get close to the point of a fight breaking out, the side that is stronger and cleverer should take the first step away from the threshold of danger," said Lavrov, in remarks broadcast on state television. He encouraged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan, under which North Korea would freeze its missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises. "If this double freezing finally takes place, then we can sit down and start from the very beginning - to sign a paper which will stress respect for the sovereignty of all those parties involved, including North Korea," Lavrov said. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe)
If you youve never seen a solar eclipse before, you should make an effort to witness the breathtaking event on August 21. While only people in the US will be able to see the total eclipse  in which the moon completely blocks the light from the sun  those living in parts of South America, Africa and Europe should be able to see at least a partial solar eclipse.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun so that it blocks part or all of the sunlight as viewed from a particular location on our planet. Earth is the only planet in the solar system where this can happen in this way. This is because of the moons size and its relative distance from the sun  when viewed from the Earth, it can identically cover the bright solar disc to reveal the tenuous, wispy outer atmosphere of the star (called the solar corona).

An eclipse does not happen every time the moon travels around the Earth. This is because its orbit has a slight inclination (about five degrees) relative to our planets journey around the sun. However when aligned correctly, the result is an awesome, emotional experience. Once the eclipse has begun, the moon continues to eat its way across the blazing sun before darkness falls, the temperature drops and the sky is dominated by a radiant crown around the moon. It happens approximately every 18 months.

On August 21, the moons shadow will travel west to east, touching land at Lincoln Beach, Oregon at 09:05 Pacific Daylight Time before speeding across North America at up to 1km per second and finally exiting close to Charleston, South Carolina, at 16:09 Eastern Daylight Time. The longest total eclipse will occur close to the town of Carbondale, Illinois  lasting about two minutes and 40 seconds.

Anywhere within the 110km wide path of the eclipse, observers will be able to see the sun completely covered. Outside of that, sky-watchers will still see a partial eclipse with decreasing percentages of the suns surface covered as one moves away from this narrow corridor. It is estimated that over 12m Americans live in the path of the total eclipse itself and another 200m people within a days drive of it. This is science engagement on an unprecedented scale and is likely to be the most orchestrated eclipse viewing event ever undertaken.

Story continues

Digital deluge

Social media activity has been increasing for months now, building up the anticipation to be part of this rare event. Expect Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Flickr and Instagram to be swamped with eclipse pictures during and after the event. In fact, the eclipse should be one of the most digitally recorded events ever, which could be of use to scientists. The Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse) experiment aims to capture images of the inner solar corona using a network of more than 60 telescopes operated by citizen scientists, high school groups and universities.

Similarly, the Eclipse Mega-movie is asking observers to use their app to upload eclipse images along the path of totality to produce an expanded and continuous film of the total eclipse as it crosses the country. Both of these experiments will produce unique data-sets of the white light corona, a region that is usually impossible to observe because the exceptionally bright solar disc hides it from view. We will be able to examine like never before the detailed structure of the solar corona and how it is dragged out into space by the solar wind.

There is also a big focus on education. A top priority is making sure that people know how to safely view the eclipse. Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during that brief period of the total eclipse. It is vitally important that only special solar filters, such as certified eclipse glasses, are used. Unfiltered cameras, telescopes, binoculars or other optical devices concentrate the solar rays and are a definite no-go in regard to eye safety. If no filters are available, it is best to use a pinhole camera to project the eclipse indirectly.

It is also important to take advantage of the amazing opportunity to inform a huge population about the science behind the event. There are thousands of astronomy-oriented events, parties even, being hosted along the path of totality.

New science?

Scientists are equally excited. Eleven NASA and NOAA satellites, high-altitude balloons, hundreds of ground-based telescopes and even the International Space Station will all take advantage of this unique shadow-chase across the surface of the Earth. However, it is not just looking up at the moon and sun that is important. Total eclipses also provide us with an unprecedented opportunity to examine our own planet under quite unusual conditions.

NASA says that observers across several states will measure the radiant energy from the sun into the Earths atmosphere from the ground as well as from space. This should provide new insights into how the incident solar energy in our atmosphere changes when particles, clouds and in this case the moon, prevents sunlight from reaching the surface of the planet.

I will be fortunate enough to be part of a four-hour live online telecast of the eclipse from Carbondale via NASAs video podcast EDGE. This will include interviews with scientists and live panel questions, high-resolution sun images and a balloon launch. As a solar physicist who can only usually observe the solar corona from space by satellite instrumentation, it is special to be able to glimpse the corona with the (protected) naked eye for a brief time.

One interesting part to all this is the fact that the US gets another chance in seven years to maximize the opportunities that the eclipse brings.

It is said that one of the longlasting legacies of the Apollo missions to the moon is the number of American scientists today who were inspired to be engineers and scientists. Though this solar eclipse is science engagement in a different manner, the end goal is the same  bringing about not just a greater appreciation of the Earth, and solar or lunar research, but also sparking a desire in many young people to be the science leaders of the future.

Robert William Walsh, Professor of Solar Physics, University of Central Lancashire

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Photo: The Conversation

The Conversation

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TWIN FALLS  Even if you havent met Doug Maughan, chances are youve heard his voice.

The College of Southern Idahos public information officer is often an emcee at community events and the voice you hear on the radio promoting CSI. And years ago, he hosted radio shows and was a news anchor for KMVT.

After nearly 20 years at CSI, Maughan plans to retire Sept. 1.

Oh my gosh, its been a wonderful adventure, he said Tuesday. Ive enjoyed it so much.

Maughan is iconic at the college and his voice is recognized around town, said coworker Kimberlee LaPray, public information specialist at CSI. Hes someone whose shoes cant be filled.

She said Maughan has taught her the importance of meeting with people face-to-face and sending hand-written cards instead of just emailing. Hes taught me a lot about really connecting with people.

Shawn Barigar, president and chief executive officer of the Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, grew up watching Maughan on KMVT. Plus, one of Barigars uncles graduated from Buhl High School with Maughan.

Maughan also gave Barigar his first professional broadcasting job and they worked together for six years, becoming good friends.

Over the years, Maughan has been involved in promoting the good things about Twin Falls  including serving on a committee for the citys centennial  and has raised visibility for CSI, Barigar said. I think hes had a lot of positive influence in the community, always working in the public eye.

Barigar described Maughan as a genuine, kind person who has a great sense of humor and embraces life.

For CSI President Jeff Fox  whose father was a radio broadcaster  he recognized Maughan quickly as someone who has a classic radio broadcasting voice.

As a KMVT anchor, he was able to be a good newsperson on air because he felt trustworthy, Fox said.

Once at CSI, Maughan helped ramp up the colleges presence in the world, Fox said, and brought a recognition of the importance of public relations.

As public information officer, Maughan is measured and calm in his words, and understands the big picture, Fox said.

Maughan has been an integral part of the college, Fox said. Hes going to be hugely missed here.

It still takes me back

Maughans roots are right here in the Magic Valley, where he grew up. As a teenager, he got his first big break in radio as a student at Buhl High School.

As a member of the schools madrigal ensemble, he and his classmates performed at venues such as the Sun Valley Lodge at Christmastime. And they made regular appearances at a local pizza place.

During one performance at the restaurant, while we were there, I just announced a couple of songs, Maughan said.

The director of the KTFI radio station heard him speaking and asked if the 17-year-old would consider working for the station.

Maughan recalls thinking it would be the coolest job and it was an exhilarating feeling. Every weeknight, he drove from Buhl to Twin Falls to host a radio show from 7 p.m. to midnight.

After a couple of years with the station, a local radio development came along called FM, Maughan said. He was part of the original crew for K96 FM, now known as KOOL 96.5, when the station signed on in 1974.

He had his own weeknight show playing hits and requests. I hear music from the day and it still takes me back, he said.

The owner of another local radio station, KLIX, ended up buying K96. At the time, many people lost their jobs with the advent of automation, Maughan said, but he was offered a job in the stations news department.

Maughan discovered reporting news was a lot of fun. Plus, it kind of gave me a new skill set, he said. He was a news reporter for KLIX from 1979-81.

In 1981, Maughan was hired at KMVT as a television news anchor. He also took on news director responsibilities beginning in 1985.

One highlight for Maughan: broadcasting live during President Ronald Reagans 1986 visit to Twin Falls for a campaign rally for U.S. Sen. Steve Symms.

Its about the only news event I can recall we went live, Maughan said. I really felt like, Wow, Ive arrived. Im really in my element here.

But in later years, Maughan said he went home at night with a headache and stomachache, and felt he couldnt do much more in the Twin Falls television market.

After 17 years at KMVT, he said, something had to change.

A wonderful adventure

Maughan heard from a friend who worked at CSI as the colleges first public relations specialist. She was looking to retire and encouraged him to apply for the job.

After he applied, nothing happened for months.

Finally, Maughan received a phone call from then-CSI President Gerald Meyerhoeffer, who expressed interest in hiring him.

His first day at CSI was the Monday after Thanksgiving in 1998. The college had just stopped sending out press releases via the U.S. Postal Service, opting for faxing instead.

Eventually, after a request from the Times-News, gradually, we started emailing more and more of them, Maughan said.

One of Maughans career highlights was working with LaPray to plan to colleges 50th anniversary festivities in 2015.

Maughan said he also enjoys the whole concept of being a public information officer. Whether the college was dealing with good times or bad, he said he hopes he put the right words or face on it.

Sometimes, things come up in any organization you have to deal with, he said, that can be embarrassing, tragic or the organizations fault.

Maughan said his first rule on dealing with unfortunate circumstances is to fess up and then explain what the college is doing to address the situation. It doesnt do you any good to try to keep things from your public.

But beyond difficult events, Maughan said the majority of his time was spent telling the successes of students, employees and programs. Its the little things that become the fabric of the CSI story.

Once he retires, Maughan will still be on campus a few hours a week, helping to take new photos around CSI and archiving old ones.

It would be tough to just leave for good, Maughan said, and he doesnt want to do that. Hed miss the people and campus too much.

But he does plan to enjoy retirement. He and his wife, Darlene, are looking forward to traveling to places theyve never been, including the Grand Canyon.
Https%3a%2f%2fvdist.aws.mashable.com%2fcms%2f2017%2f8%2f6289ff1f cafc 8b57%2fthumb%2f00001

This isn't getting old yet.

The first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket built by Elon Musk's SpaceX came in for a dusty and impressive landing at the company's landing zone in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Monday. The landing occurred about 10 minutes after the rocket launched a Dragon cargo craft carrying supplies to the International Space Station.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's SpaceX starts off its week with an impressive rocket launch and landing

This marks the company's 14th successful landing and its 6th successful one on land, with the rest of them taking place on drone ships in the ocean.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has long said that he hopes this kind of feat can become routine, and the company is well on its way toward making that happen.

Quick video recap of Falcon 9 launch of Dragon for its twelfth @ISS resupply mission. A post shared by SpaceX (@spacex) on Aug 14, 2017 at 12:04pm PDT

The rocket landings are a critical component of SpaceX's business plan, which calls for lowering the cost of spaceflight through the reuse of rockets.

At this point it's a surprise when a landing doesn't work perfectly, not when it does.

The Dragon is now working its way to the Space Station, loaded down with thousands of pounds of supplies for the crew onboard. It should arrive at the orbiting lab in about two days.

This marks SpaceX's 12th official cargo run to the station for NASA.

Kicking up some dust during landing.

Image: spacex

In the future, the company is expected to start launching people to the station for NASA as part of the agency's commercial crew program, designed to end reliance on Russian rockets to get astronauts to outer space.
Theresa May has condemned the "racism and hatred" of white supremacists in Charlottesville after protests descended into violence that left one woman dead.

Donald Trump, the US President, has been criticised by senior Republicans after condemning the hate and bigotry "on many sides" rather than giving an unequivocal condemnation of the neo-nazis who organised the rally.

Our thoughts and prayers are with #Charlottesville. The UK stands with the US against racism, hatred and violence.  UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) August 13, 2017

In contrast Mrs May said on Twitter: "Our thoughts and prayers are with Charlottesville. The UK stands with the US against racism, hatred and violence."

On Saturday a car ploughed into anti-racist activists protesting against a rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Virginia, killing a woman pedestrian and leaving 19 people injured.

The attack in the town of Charlottesville followed violent clashes between the two sides earlier in the day, which had forced the states governor to declare a state of emergency and the mayor to tell protesters to go home.

Charlottesville far-right protest

A video on social media showed a car driving at speed into vehicles surrounding the drive, killing a 32-year-old woman. James Fields Jr, 20 from Ohio, was arrested and has been charged with murder.

The rally had been called over plans to remove a statue of the Civil War general Robert E Lee and quickly descended into violence, with extremists wielding clubs and shields and attacking counter-protesters.

Some critics of Mr Trump argue that his refusal to pin the blame on white supremacists are because he fears he could some of the voters who swept him into power.

I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists. https://t.co/Rkfs7O2Ykr  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) August 12, 2017

David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, said Mr Trump should remember it was white Americans who propelled him to power, not "radical leftists".

Story continues

But some of the most senior GOP members of the Senate made it clear they blamed white nationalists for the violence and terror which was inflicted on Charlottesville as they urged Mr Trump to be forthright in his condemnation.

Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 12, 2017

Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who fought a bruising campaign against Mr Trump for the Republican nomination, said it was important to hear the president to describe events in Charlottesville as a terror attack by supremacists.

Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. https://t.co/PaPNiPPAoW  Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) August 12, 2017

Cory Gardner, the Republican senator from Colorado, was equally unequivocal, urging Mr Trump to call evil by its name, describing events in Charlottesville as domestic terrorism.

We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH  Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 12, 2017

Orrin Hatch, the Republican senator from Utah, said his brother did not die fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged in the United States.

What " WhiteNatjonalist" are doing in Charlottesville is homegrown terrorism that can't be tolerated anymore that what Any extremist does  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) August 12, 2017

Iowa's senator, Chuck Grassley, said what white nationalists were doing in Charlottesville was terrorism which should not be tolerated.
Theresa May has condemned the violence in Virginia, saying 'the UK stands with the US': Getty

Theresa May has condemned the violence which erupted in Virginia between white-supremacist groups and counter-protesters, leaving three people dead.

In a tweet from the Prime Ministers official Twitter account, Ms May said: Our thoughts and prayers are with #Charlottesville. The UK stands with the US against racism, hatred and violence.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn echoed this sentiment, saying: My thoughts are with those killed and injured in #Charlottesvile standing up to racism and hatred.

Donald Trump belatedly condemned white supremacist groups that took part in violence scenes, but only following widespread criticism after he initially spoke out against hatred on many sides.

Our thoughts and prayers are with #Charlottesville. The UK stands with the US against racism, hatred and violence.  UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) August 13, 2017

My thoughts are with those killed and injured in #Charlottesville standing up to racism and hatred.  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 12, 2017

Press Conference - Following National Security Briefing in Bedminster, New Jersey. https://t.co/v5O8GglOIK pic.twitter.com/H1Zi5XRKEo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

A 'Unite the Right' demonstration over the removal of a Confederate statue in the usually quiet, liberal-leaning university town of Charlottesville attracted hundreds of members of neo-Nazi groups and several members of the Klu Klux Klan.

The white-supremacist groups clashed with counter protesters, with pepper spray reportedly used by both sides, fist fights breaking out and bottles thrown.

A car slammed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman named as Heather Hayer and injuring at least 25 others. James Fields, 20, from Ohio, has been charged with murder.

Another 15 people were injured in street fighting, according to local hospital reports.

A police helicopter monitoring events on the ground also crashed, killing the two officers on board.

Members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties criticised Mr Trump's first response, claiming his comments were muted and failed to place the blame with those responsible.

Mr President - we must call evil by its name, said Republican Senator Cory Gardner, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The founder of Daily Stormer, an American white-supremacist website which describes itself as alt right, welcomed the fact that Mr Trump outright refused to disavow the Unite the Right protest.

People saying he cucked are shills and kikes, said the site's editor Andrew Anglin.

He did the opposite of cuck. He refused to even mention anything to do with us. When reporters were screaming at him about White Nationalism he just walked out of the room.

Some Democrats suggested that Mr Trump was unwilling to alienate the racist portion of his voter base as he received the backing of many alt-right websites during his bitterly fought election campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was upset the white nationalists had descended on his town and blamed Mr Trump for inflaming racial prejudices during his presidential campaign last year.

I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the President, he said.

Following accusations the President, usually a prolific tweeter, had been slow to comment at all on the violence and had then been vague in his initial comments, the The White House said: The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups."
Yahoo Finance is tracking Merck and Netflix in intraday trading on Monday.

Merck CEO resigns from Trumps American Manufacturing Council

Merck (MRK) Chairman and CEO Kenneth C. Frazier is leaving President Donald Trumps American Manufacturing Council following Trumps response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. Trump has been under fire after blaming many sides for the rally by white nationalists, which turned deadly when a car plowed into counter protesters, leaving one person dead and 19 others injured.

Frazier tweeted from Mercks Twitter account; Americas leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal. As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Trump wasted no time and immediately fired back at Frazier via Twitter, saying the CEO will now have more time to focus on lowering RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!

Shonda Rhimes and ShondaLand ditch ABC for Netflix

Netflix (NFLX) has nabbed a big get in the television industry. Award-winning producer Shonda Rhimes is ditching Disney (DIS) owned ABC for the online-streaming giant. Netflix announced that Rhimes and her production company ShondaLand, who are behind the hit series Greys Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, will produce new series and other projects for the company.

In a statement released Sunday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos touted the firms new hire, saying, Shonda Rhimes is one of the greatest storytellers in the history of television Ive gotten the chance to know Shonda and shes a true Netflixer at heart  she loves TV and films, she cares passionately about her work, and she delivers for her audience. Were so excited to welcome her to Netflix.

For more on Mondays big stock movers, check out The Final Round, starting at 3:55 p.m. ET, right here on Yahoo Finance.
Mogadishu (AFP) - A one-time deputy leader and spokesman for Somalia's Shabaab insurgents defected to the country's government on Sunday, a local official said.

Muktar Robow was the subject of a $5 million bounty from the United States for his role with the Al-Qaeda linked Islamist militants.

But his split with former Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane four years ago led him to seek safety in his hometown in Somalia's southwest Bakool region, though he never formally renounced the insurgency.

"Muktar Robow defected from Shabaab and he is now in Hudur meeting with government officials," district commissioner Mohamed Moalim told reporters, referring to the Bakool district capital.

Godane was killed by a US air strike in 2014, but the bad blood between the militants and Robow appeared to have continued.

A security source told AFP Robow's surrender came after Islamist militants attacked him last week.

His name also no longer appears on the US's Rewards for Justice wanted list.

The defection is a blow to Shabaab, which remains deadly in Somalia despite the presence of a 22,000-strong African Union force dedicated to fighting it and supporting the internationally backed government based in Mogadishu.

Uganda's military last month said 12 of its soldiers had been killed in Somalia in an ambush claimed by the group.

Shabaab has also carried out attacks in Kenya and Uganda, both contributors to the AU force.
For those who love hitting the open road, editors at Lonely Planet have compiled the world's best road trips in a new book that includes both classic journeys and trips off the well-paved path.

"Epic Drives of the World" features 50 of the greatest road trips on earth, from the windswept Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland, to the Ho Chi Minh Road in Vietnam.

The otherworldly landscape of Iceland's Ring Road, Australia's Great Ocean Road and America's Historic Route 66 also get nods.

In recent years, Historic Route 66 has experienced renewed popularity, with foreigners and American alike lured by the lore of the legendary 4,000-km highway that takes travelers on a journey through Americana, from California to Illinois.

The highway was officially decommissioned in the 1980s with the construction of interstate freeways, shuttering the doors to greasy-spoon diners, cafes and motels along its path.

But thanks to appearances and nostalgic homages in pop culture and the rise of staycations, the Mother Road, as it's also known, has experienced a revival, particularly among foreigners from China, Brazil and Europe, drawn to the idea of eating apple pie in a roadside diner, and visiting roadside American attractions.

Meanwhile, along with itineraries, the guide book also features first-hand accounts from travel writers who have embarked on these open road journeys themselves, and 200 additional road-tripping ideas including desert drives, wine trails, coastal roads, and cultural cruises.

"Epic Drives of the World: Explore the Planet's Most Thrilling Road Trips" is on shelves now and retails for US$35.
Donald Trumps new campaign ad hits out at the opposition, the media and career politicians in footage released on Sunday.

The Donald J Trump For President Twitter account shared the video that also boasted about the strongest military in decades as well as the creation of 1 million jobs in America.

Democrats obstructing, media attacking our president, career politicians standing in the way of success. But President Trumps plan is working, the advert stated.

WATCH: DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT, INC. RELEASES NEW CAMPAIGN AD #MAGA pic.twitter.com/pV2G9u64be  Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) August 13, 2017

One million jobs created, more Americans working than ever before, unemployment: lowest since 2001, the stock market: all time record high, the strongest military in decades. The presidents enemies dont want him to succeed, but Americans are saying let president Trump do his job, the advert added.

The campaign advert, whose message was approved by President Trump, reiterated the message put out by the president, particularly in recent months, that he is being blocked by Democrats despite having a majority in the White House, the House and the Senate.

Following the collapse of the Senate health care bill, which attempted to fulfill Trumps cornerstone election pledge of repealing and replacing Obamacare, the president lashed out at the Democrats for blocking the bill, along with a number of GOP lawmakers who refused to back the bill.

Donald Trump

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

In addition to the campaign ad, Trumps team has stepped up the number of emails encouraging supporters to stand with the president. In one email sent on Saturday, Team Trump Pence outlined a number of issues in which they said the president was succeeding including being tough and decisive on North Korea, and breaking records on the stock market.

Story continues

The presidents team also sent out a survey asking American voters what they thought about the immigration bill, while another email encouraged people to buy Trump-branded goods described as special election gear.

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Photo credit: Getty

From Popular Mechanics

U.S. seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity said Friday it had offered to take the financial risk of a renewed search for the missing Malaysian airliner, as victims' families urged the Malaysian government to agree to a private sector hunt for Flight 370's wreckage.

Malaysia, Australia and China suspended a nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean in January after scouring 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of remote seabed and failing to find any trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Ocean Infinity, based in Houston, Texas, said it remained hopeful that Malaysia would accept its offer to continue the search using a team of advanced, fast-moving deep-sea drones fitted with sonar equipment.

"The terms of the offer are confidential, but I can ... confirm that Ocean Infinity have offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search," company spokesman Mark Antelme said in an email.

"We're in a constructive dialogue with the relevant authorities and are hopeful that the offer will be accepted," he added.

Voice370, a support group for families of the 239 people on board, said under the terms of the offer made in April, Ocean Infinity "would like to be paid a reward if and only if it finds the main debris field."

"Why hasn't Malaysia accepted this win-win offer?" Voice370 asked in a statement.

Malaysia did not immediately respond to the families' question Friday.

An international board of experts has concluded, based on analysis of Boeing 777 debris that drifted and washed up on western Indian Ocean beaches, the flight most likely crashed in a 25,000-square-kilometer (9,700-square-mile) area of ocean on the northern boundary of the last search zone, far southwest of Australia.

But Malaysia, Australia and China agree that the newly identified area is too big to justify resuming the publicly funded search, which has already cost $160 million.

Story continues

Australia has coordinated the search on Malaysia's behalf because Flight 370 crashed in Australia's zone of search and rescue responsibility on March 8, 2014, after flying far off course on a journey from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

Transport Minister Darren Chester declined to comment on the possibility of a private search.

"Malaysia, as the state of registry for the aircraft, retains overall authority for any future search and any questions regarding possible future search efforts should be directed there," his office said in a statement.

"Australia stands ready to assist the Malaysian government in any way it can," it added.

Ocean Infinity's website says the company uses the world's most advanced fleet of autonomous vehicles to make high-resolution seabed surveys of unmapped locations.

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Monday condemned violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in the southern U.S. college town of Charlottesville in Virginia.

"We're against all racism and bigotry," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.

"We believe that there must be no place in our societies for the violent racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and discrimination that we've seen in Charlottesville, Virginia that we've seen in recent days," he said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
In recent days tensions between the U.S. and nuclear-armed North Korea have reached crisis point, with Trump tweeting Friday in response to a North Korean threat to target the Pacific island of Guam that "military solutions" are "fully in place, locked and loaded."

North Korean leader Kim Kong-Un's threat to launch missiles towards the island, where a U.S. military base is located, prompted Trump to threaten fire and fury against the rogue state should it attack the U.S.

0810_kim_jong_un_north_korea

KCNA/via Reuters

Experts though say that U.S. attempts to curb North Korea require more than the threat of force.

A nuclear expert who declined to be named told Newsweek that recent history showed that, in deterring a determined state from acquiring nuclear weapons, a degree of cooperation was necessary.

North Korea has developed its nuclear weapons capacity in the face of repeated warnings from the U.S. Among the military options open to Trump is a military strike that would seek to take out North Koreas program to develop ICBMs and the nuclear warheads they carry.

The source said the U.S. had consistently over-estimated or underestimated North Koreas nuclear program over the last two decades, and deterrence through force required the capacity to exercise precision strikes on nuclear and other military sites that didnt result in mass civilian casualties.

However North Koreas weapons are likely better concealed and dispersed than in in 2010, when the Obama administration warned of a military response to North Korean aggression, or in 1994, when President Bill Clinton considered a strike on North Koreas nuclear reactor.

William Perry, who served as secretary of defense under Clinton, said a U.S. strike would lead to North Korean retaliation against U.S. allies in the region, resulting in mass casualties.

Story continues

We had to assume that North Korea would make a strike on South Korea in some way, and if they were to use their artillery to attack Seoul, they could kill tens of thousands before we could stop them, Perry told the New York Times. The price was very high then, but the price today would be very much higher.

The U.S. military is also concerned that strikes against North Korea would not completely eradicate its arsenal of nuclear weapons, leaving the possibility of a leaker or bleedera missile armed with a nuclear warhead, which could be launched as a revenge attack against the U.S. or its allies.

Writing in the Hill earlier in the week, William D. Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, urged a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

An attack on North Korea could prompt Pyongyang to launch a massive artillery attack on the South Korean capital, Seoul, potentially causing hundreds of thousands of casualties Hartung wrote. And even at that great cost, theres no guarantee that a U.S. strike on North Korea could successfully eliminate its nuclear capabilities.

He cited diplomatic talks by the Clinton administration, the 1994 framework agreement which stopped Pyongyangs plutonium production, and the abandoning of diplomatic efforts during George W. Bush's presidency.

He continued: In short, once we stopped talking and relied solely on sanctions and nuclear threats, North Koreas nuclear program accelerated. When we talked, and offered economic and strategic incentives, we were able to substantially curb Pyongyangs pursuit of the bomb.

World leaders and top diplomats also urged restraint.

Chinese President Xi Jinping asked President Trump not to escalate the situation in a telephone call Friday.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that Xi told Trump he "should avoid remarks and actions that could escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Xi also stressed that China shares common interests with the U.S. in "achieving denuclearization" and maintaining "peace and stability" in the region.

Amid the bluster, there is evidence that the U.S. has not abandoned a diplomatic solution to the crisis, with Associated Press reporting Friday that the administration was quietly engaged in back channel diplomacy with the North Korean government for months.

Related Articles
TWIN FALLS  Several airport-related items are on Mondays City Council agenda.

The Council is scheduled to vote on a grant funding transfer agreement with Boise Airport that will allow for the construction of a new taxi lane at Joslin Field, Magic Valley Regional Airport, and to pre-approve the use of a grant to buy a new fire truck for the airport, a procedural step to ensure the fire trucks cost will be covered by federal funds. The Council also plans to award a $3.56 million contract to the Twin Falls-based Idaho Materials and Construction to reconstruct a taxiway at the airport and build a new taxi lane.

The Council is also scheduled to hear updates on the progress of the Main Avenue reconstruction project and on the progress of the $4.4 million in road repairs the Council authorized this spring to repair damage caused by the harsh winter, as well as continue its work crafting the citys 2018 budget. And, it will hear the results of the latest Citizen Survey, an annual survey asking for resident feedback on Twin Falls quality of life.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. in the City Council chambers, 305 Third Ave. East. The agenda and related materials are available online via the citys website, tfid.org.
Caracas (AFP) - Stability across Latin America is in jeopardy from President Donald Trump's "reckless threat" to consider military action against Venezuela, Caracas said on Saturday, after its military vowed to stand up to the US leader's "craziness."

The warning from Trump on Friday that his administration was mulling many options, "including a possible military option if necessary," struck the government of Venezuela's beleaguered leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, like a thunderbolt.

The leadership of the crisis-wracked nation -- Latin America's biggest oil producer and an ally to Russia and Cuba -- suddenly found itself going from battling dissent, protests and growing international isolation to contemplating US military action last seen in the region in 1989, when American troops invaded Panama to topple its president, Manuel Noriega.

"The reckless threat by President Donald Trump aims to drag Latin America and the Caribbean into a conflict that would permanently alter stability, peace and security in our region," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told a news conference, reading a statement in Maduro's name.

The menace, however, also gave Maduro's regime an unexpected opportunity to substantiate its daily refrain that it is a victim of a Washington plot to grab control of its oil reserves, the biggest in the world.

The military, current and retired members of which control a third of the government, leapt on the threat to say it was the nation's only bulwark against the "imperialist aggression."

General Vladimir Padrino, Venezuela's defense minister and commander of its armed forces, on Friday called Trump's threat "an act of craziness."

"I am certain that we will all be in the first ranks defending the interests and sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela," he said.

- 'Vile threats' -

Trump had said the military option was among a range of scenarios he was considering to fix the "very dangerous mess" in Venezuela.

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He has already had his government impose sanctions on Maduro -- an extremely rare step against a head of state -- and two dozen of his officials.

They were for perceived moves towards a "dictatorship" in Venezuela, especially through Maduro's establishment this month of a new, all-powerful assembly filled with loyalists that has powers to override the country's legislature, controlled by the opposition.

The head of that new Constituent Assembly, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Twitter: "We reject the cowardly, insolent and vile threats against the sacred sovereignty of Venezuela."

The assembly was elected two weeks ago in a vote marred by allegations of fraud, an opposition boycott and violent protests and repression by security forces that brought the death toll in four months of unrest to more than 125.

Since starting work, the assembly -- ostensibly tasked with rewriting the constitution -- has fired Venezuela's attorney general who had become a major critic of Maduro, and stepped up measures to quash opposition politicians.

The supreme court, which has also shown itself consistently loyal to Maduro, stripped two opposition mayors of the right to public office and ordered them to jail, bringing to 23 the number targeted by legal action.

- Regional unease -

The developments have prompted major Latin American nations Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru to slam Maduro's government for "breaking democratic rule."

Peru on Friday ordered Venezuela's ambassador to leave, with Caracas reacting by ordering out Lima's envoy.

But not all of Latin America is ranged against Maduro. Venezuela can still count on support from leftist allies Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, as well as a handful of Caribbean nations that depend on it for cheap or free oil.

The prospect of US military action in a region that has very bitter memories of multiple such interventions last century has stirred unease even among countries opposed to Venezuela.

US Vice President Mike Pence will on Sunday begin a Latin American visit -- a trip seen as coordinating action between Washington and regional powers against Venezuela.

Brazil on Saturday said it and the other members of the South American trading bloc Mercosur -- from which Venezuela was suspended indefinitely days ago -- rejected the threat of force.

"The repudiation of violence and whatever option involving the use of force is resolute and constitutes a fundamental basis of democratic cohabitation, both in domestic contexts as well as in international relations," Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement.
This time last summer, as the presidential candidates locked down their respective nominations, before we woke up to Russian meddling in our electoral processes, fake news was a foreign phrase for most Americans.

Since then, as the extent of Russian influence became clear, certain sectors of government, the private sector, the media, and academia have made the right noises, founded the right initiatives, and thought Big Thoughts about the problem.

But the development of an anti-disinformation cottage industry and the complete lack of U.S. leadership on the issue mean we are no closer to solving the fake news crisis today than we were a year ago.

Ive spent my career working for organizations that were targets of fake news emanating from Russia, most recently on the front line of the information war, as a strategic communications adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ive watched Russias online influence campaign  and with it, the Wests alarm  swell from an issue affecting Europes periphery to one that threatens the bedrock of the transatlantic order.

As the industry fighting fake news has grown, however, we seem to have lost the forest for the trees, abandoning a common adversary for unproductive internal squabbles aided and abetted by an absent U.S. administration.

Recently, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan anti-disinformation initiative backed by an impressive list of former U.S. national security officials, launched Hamilton68, a real-time tracking tool that seeks to expose the effects of online influence networks and inform the public of themes and content being promoted to Americans by foreign powers.

By aggregating the tweets of 600 accounts that are known Kremlin influence agents, pro-Kremlin individuals, or others influenced  knowingly or unknowingly  by Kremlin disinformation, the dashboard provides an accessible, 40,000-foot view of what Russia is pushing on the English-language Internet at any given moment.

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Kremlin

Grigory Dukor/Reuters

Within 24 hours, experts began to pile on criticism of the platform for everything from not disclosing the 600 accounts it was tracking to stating what they viewed as obvious. What journalist needs a dashboard to know that the Russian Foreign Ministrys Twitter account belongs to Russian-sponsored information campaigns? asked Kevin Rothrock of Meduza . The Twitter brouhaha continued when a New York Times noted Hamilton68s analysis that the top hashtaglinked to Russian influence operations at one point on Thursday was #FireMcMaster, while a report by Atlantic Councils Digital Forensics Research Lab found the hashtag had its roots on alt-right social media. (The two analyses, in fact, did not contradict each other; DFRLabs report uncovered the genesis of the campaign, while Hamilton68 tracked its amplification by the Russian influence network.)

Constructive criticism is integral to doing impactful work, but its hard not to feel like we are navel-gazing and nitpicking when there are much larger issues at stake, particularly because the Hamilton68 dashboard is exactly the type of tool we need to advocate for policymaking progress on hostile foreign disinformation.

Not all Americans are experts on Russia and its influence operations. Not all Americans even view Russia as a major threat. To a small majority of us, highlighting the Russian Foreign Ministry as an agent of Russian influence and showing the effect it has on American political discourse is obvious. For many others it is eye-opening. Ive argued before that rather than fact-checking and preaching to an audience of the converted at near-weekly conferences on the issue, our focus in the fight against fake news needs to be on ordinary people; we should continue to develop accessible, digestible tools like Hamilton68 to reach them.

One of the challenges, of course, is that we lack a whole-of-government strategy that would dictate priorities like this. Last week, Politico reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is stonewalling $80 million in funding for his Departments Global Engagement Center, a joint Pentagon-State Department initiative to counter both Russian and Islamic State influence.

Through his inaction, Tillerson is not only sending the Kremlin a message that the U.S. does not care to combat Russian disinformation. To date, the European Union has also been absent in many of the policymaking discussions surrounding fake news in Europe, as Frederica Mogherini has refused to dedicate monetary or human resources to the EUs East Stratcom Task Force, leaving the continents efforts to fight disinformation disjointed and duplicative. The United States seems to be headed down a similar path. The Global Engagement Center could serve as the convener and agenda-setter for the response to disinformation both in Washington and among allies in Europe. By blocking its funding, Tillerson is once again abdicating U.S. leadership where it is needed most.

Since there is little chance that the Trump administration will take up arms the fight against Russian disinformation, this responsibility lies with the media, NGOs, and analysts. But we must refocus our energy outside of the expert community to reach those in the Kremlins crosshairs if we want to gain ground in this fight.

Nina Jankowicz is a George F. Kennan Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centers Kennan Institute in Washington, DC. The opinions presented here are her own.

Related Articles
White House officials say that the alt-right plans to increase its attacks on Donald Trumps National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in the wake of claims by blogger Mike Cernovich that the 55-year-old general is an alcoholic.

The alt-right is waging an ongoing campaign to unseat McMaster in retaliation for his purging of nationalists from the U.S. security council and targeting of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

In a video hosted on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones InfoWars YouTube channel early this month, Cernovich said: He has a major alcohol problem. With every meal, two martinis, full bottle of winesometimes two bottles of winehe really likes California red wine."

RTS17D2P

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Sources familiar with the anti-McMaster campaign told Axios Monday that those who oppose McMaster intend to step up their campaign against him using accusations of alcoholism.

McMaster has been made aware that the attack is likely coming, and prefers to focus on his work, a White House official said.

A source close to President Donald Trump's chief of staff John Kelly told Axios that he finds the attacks against McMaster dishonorable and disgusting.

If you want to cozy up to McMaster, who knows what kind of services you can get out of him if you bring him some California red, Cernovich said in the video.

Cernovich is a leading figure in the so-called alt-right nationalist movementa loose-knit group of racist white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and misogynists. The group gained attention over the weekend for a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which participants shouted Nazi slogans. The march left one counter-protester dead and dozens injured on all sides.

Early this month Cernovich and other alt-right figures embarked on a campaign against McMaster after he took a leading role in firing three members of the National Security Council (NSC) who were ideologically allied with the alt-right.

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Read more: Why is the alt-right attacking H.R. McMaster?

One, Rich Higgins, the NSCs former director for strategic planning, was let go after he wrote and circulated a memo stating Trumps agenda is being sabotaged by globalists and Islamists who are leading a Maoist insurgency that has led Islamists [to] ally with cultural Marxists in an effort to destroy America. The full memo was obtained by Foreign Policy.

The language and ideology expressed in the memo is similar to that used on the internet forum 4Chan, which is a breeding ground for alt-right ideas.

The alt-right now sees McMaster targeting White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, the former executive chair of the far-right news outlet Breitbart, who said during the 2016 election campaign that the outlet serves as a platform for the alt-right.

Throughout early August Breitbart has run a series of stories attacking McMaster for firing the NSC officials.

After a counter-protester was killed Saturday after police said she was rammed by a car driven by a member of the alt-right in Charlottesville, Cernovich tweeted that McMaster's media allies who he leaks to are trying to frame Bannon for #Charlottesville.

In an interview on Meet the Press Sunday McMaster would not say whether he could work with Bannon.

Trump defended McMaster when he began being attacked early this month. General McMaster and I are working very well together, Trump said in a statement emailed to The New York Times. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country."

Related Articles
Amazon says its giving customers refunds for solar viewing glasses and filters that arent covered by the American Astronomical Societys list of reputable vendors. Safety is among our highest priorities, Amazon explained in a statement provided to GeekWire. Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively reached out to customers and provided refunds for eclipse glasses that may not comply with industry standards. We want customers to buy with confidence anytime they make a purchase on Amazon.com, and eclipse glasses sold on Amazon.com are required to comply with the relevant ISO standard. Amazons action sent some of the affected sellers scrambling to Read More

Agena Astro says that its solar eclipse glasses were made by a vendor on the American Astronomical Societys list of reputable manufacturers, and that reports claiming theyre unsafe are completely untrue and incorrect. (Agena Astro Photo)

Amazon says its giving customers refunds for solar viewing glasses and filters that arent covered by the American Astronomical Societys list of reputable vendors.

Safety is among our highest priorities, Amazon explained in a statement provided to GeekWire. Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively reached out to customers and provided refunds for eclipse glasses that may not comply with industry standards. We want customers to buy with confidence anytime they make a purchase on Amazon.com, and eclipse glasses sold on Amazon.com are required to comply with the relevant ISO standard.

Amazons action sent some of the affected sellers scrambling to defend their products, with the Aug. 21 solar eclipse just a little more than a week away.

The brouhaha began a little less than two weeks ago, when the AAS reported that some vendors were selling eclipse glasses that didnt block enough of the suns potentially eye-damaging radiation, and were going so far as to print bogus certification labels on the glasses.

Experts have issued repeated warnings that observers shouldnt gaze for long at the partially eclipsed sun without proper eye protections, due to the risk of serious eye injury. (Looking at a total solar eclipse with the naked eye is perfectly safe, however. And if you dont plan to stare up at the sun at all, feel free to go out without special glasses.)

In response to the reports about bogus glasses, the AAS issued its list of reputable manufacturers and resellers, including well-known retailers such as 7-Eleven and Best Buy. NASA is pointing to the list in its safety guidance for eclipse watchers.

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Even before the list came out, Amazon customers were registering complaints about third-party vendors whose products seemed to come up short.

This weekend, Amazon sent out refund notices to purchasers of products that the company said were not confirmed as suitable for viewing the eclipse. Heres the message I received about a pair of binocular filters I purchased several weeks ago:

Were writing to provide you with important safety information about the eclipse products you purchased on Amazon.  To protect your eyes when viewing the sun or an eclipse, NASA and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) advise you to use solar eclipse glasses or other solar filters from recommended manufacturers. Viewing the sun or an eclipse using any other glasses or filters could result in loss of vision or permanent blindness. Amazon has not received confirmation from the supplier of your order that they sourced the item from a recommended manufacturer. We recommend that you DO NOT use this product to view the sun or the eclipse. Amazon is applying a balance for the purchase price to Your Account (please allow 7-10 days for this to appear on Your Account). There is no need for you to return the product.  For more information about safely viewing a solar eclipse please see the NASA and AAS websites. If you purchased this item for someone else, please pass along this information to the recipient.

Similar messages have been cited in reports from Portlands KGW-TV, The Verge and Techcrunch.

The products affected by Amazons refund notice no longer appear on the companys website.

One of the vendors hit by the notice, Manish Panjwan of Los Angeles-based Agena Astro, told KGW that he could lose out on the revenue from glasses that have already been sold. He also said he could find himself with thousands of unsellable eclipse glasses sitting in Amazons warehouses when the eclipse is over.

Panjwan told KGW that his glasses were provided by two of the manufacturers on the AAS list, Thousand Oaks Optical and Baader Planetarium. And indeed, the latest version of the list includes Agena Astro as well.

In a statement posted to its website, Agena Astro said Amazons claims about its glasses were completely untrue and incorrect.

Another affected vendor, Mascotking, told The Verge that it was submitting to NASA and Amazon and would issue refunds to dissatisfied customers.

When the AAS posted its list of reputable vendors, it emphasized that the list wasnt all-inclusive.

If we dont list a supplier, that doesnt mean their products are unsafe, AAS press officer Rick Fienberg said at the time. It just means that we have no knowledge of them or that we havent convinced ourselves theyre safe.

How do you know for sure if your eclipse glasses are safe? In its safety advisory, the AAS says the only things you should be able to see through a properly made solar filter are the sun itself and similarly bright objects, such as a bright halogen light bulb or an arc-welders torch.

For what its worth, my binocular solar filters meet that standard.

If you didnt receive a message about eclipse glasses purchased through Amazon, that would suggest the supplier confirmed with Amazon that the product was ISO-compliant. And if youre not happy with the glasses you bought through Amazon, you can reach out to customer service for a refund. That general advice goes for glasses purchased through other sales outlets as well.

For additional tips, check out the AAS general safety advisory or its more detailed advisory about certified solar filters.

More from GeekWire:
The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S., August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Google (GOOG, GOOGL) is cancelling the domain for the white supremacist site Daily Stormer due to a specific, immediate concern about inciting violence, a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.

The search-engine giant, which hosts website domains through its Google Domains service, made the decision to cut the cord to the hate site after GoDaddy (GDDY) told the Daily Stormer it had 24 hours to move to another domain hosting service.

GoDaddy, which has been criticized in the past for hosting such website domains, decided to cancel Daily Stormers domain following a post that was critical of a woman who was run down by a car at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

Daily Stormer immediately made headlines on Monday morning when it moved its domain to Google.

A Google spokesperson initially explained that the Daily Stormers domain was being cancelled for violating Googles terms of service. Theres no mention of inciting violence in the companys terms of service document, though, it does state that Google can reject a domains registration at its own discretion.

A websites domain is the name that tells your browser where to look in the vastness of the internet for the content youre seeking. Yahoos domain, for example, is Yahoo.com. Without domains we would have to type in the internet protocol address, a long string of numbers and decimals, to point our browser to specific sites.

Without Google to host its domain, the Daily Stormer will have to seek out another hosting service. Chances are it wont have much trouble doing so, though, as there are still plenty of domain registration services available.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which keeps track of hate groups, calls Daily Stormer the top hate site in America. Following the events in Charlottesville, self-identified members of the hacker collective Anonymous took aim at the Daily Stormer, posting that they had taken control of the site and indicating that they would shut it down completely in 24 hours.

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More from Dan:

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
The Google mobile phone icon on display in Philadelphia. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

Google stripped a neo-Nazi website of its domain the same day it was registered, after it was booted previously by another domain-name server.

The Daily Stormer, which describes itself as the Worlds Most Genocidal Republican Website, had registered with Google shortly after being ousted by GoDaddy.

We are canceling Daily Stormers registration with Google Domains for violating our terms of service, a spokesperson for Google told Yahoo News via email. As of Monday afternoon, the site was still live.

The Daily Stormer, which played a prominent role in organizing the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., had published an article mocking Heather Heyer, 32, on Sunday  a day after she died when a car drove into a crowd of counter-demonstrators protesting against the march.

Amy Suskind, the founder of the New Agenda, a womens advocacy group, tweeted a screenshot of the insulting headline, calling on GoDaddy to take down and ban the Daily Stormer.

We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service.  GoDaddy (@GoDaddy) August 14, 2017

GoDaddy did not respond to requests for comment from Yahoo News.

This raises the question: What responsibility do web-hosting platforms have to monitor and stop hate groups from using their services to spread propaganda and recruit?

Keegan Hankes, an analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Centers Intelligence Project, said companies need to spend serious time thinking about who is allowed to use their platforms, especially as it pertains to organized hate groups.

The organizing of these groups and events are taking place on sites that theyre hosting. They need to decide if theyre going to be party to this type of activity, Hankes told Yahoo News. They have the power to decide. They set their terms of service. No one does that for them.

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The logo for internet company GoDaddy is shown on a computer screen. (Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters)

The fact that GoDaddy cited its terms of service as grounds to unplug the Daily Stormer, he said, cuts to the heart of this entire issue. He said a recurring problem with tech companies is that they fail to enforce the terms of service clauses that are intended to ban harassment, racism and calls to violence.

Googles current user content and conduct policy has a section on hate speech. It says that Googles products are platforms for free expression but that the company does not condone content that promotes violence against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation or gender identity.

This can be a delicate balancing act, but if the primary purpose is to attack a protected group, the content crosses the line, Googles policy reads.

Google was still listed as the Daily Stormers registrar in online records on Monday afternoon.

Although the Daily Stormers domain name was registered with GoDaddy and Google, albeit briefly, its content is hosted by Cloudflare, a U.S. company that provides a content delivery network and internet security services.

The domain is no longer at GoDaddy & we dont host the site. We recommend contacting their hosting provider (Cloudflare) and law enforcement  GoDaddy (@GoDaddy) August 14, 2017

Cloudflare did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News.

Name servers create directories of simple domain names that can be easily translated into IP addresses so people dont need to memorize complex numbers to visit websites. Its difficult to quantify just how many name servers exist because of their sheer abundance. Some savvy computer wizzes even set up name servers for themselves.

According to the SPLC, the Daily Stormer is dedicated to promoting anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and white nationalism with hyperbole and epithet-laden stories dealing with alleged Jewish world control and black-on-white crime.

Hankes said the Daily Stormer is the preeminent site on the far right, succeeding Stormfront as the most read alt-right site online.

The Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi and white supremacist website known for its use of internet memes.

You can see that on display in Charlottesville. The Daily Stormer, numerous of its writers and leadership played a serious role in coordinating and recruiting people to Charlottesville, he said.

On Monday morning, the Daily Stormer published an article claiming that the activist hacker collective Anonymous had taken control of their website and would shut it down in 24 hours. But one of Anonymous largest Twitter accounts denied that the group had attacked Daily Stormer, saying the claim was most likely a hoax, since GoDaddy was booting the Daily Stormer in 24 hours anyway.

If goal of Daily Stormer was to get us to celebrate a BS claim, it backfired. Seriously, suck less.  Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017

Shortly after, the founder of the Daily Stormer, Andrew Anglin, published another article claiming to have taken control of the site back from Anonymous.

Although it has been in existence only since 2013, SPLC notes, Daily Stormer has generated a disproportionate amount of attention and is stylized after image-heavy internet forums like 4chan.

The so-called alt-right, which critics say is merely a rebranding of white supremacism and neo-Nazism, is not alone in using the internet to recruit disaffected young men. Jihadist groups like ISIS are noted for their use of social media.

Make no mistake, Andrew Anglin has called for genocide on the site before. His anti-Semitism and racism are not muted at all. They are central to his propaganda style, Hankes said. This is an individual who does not want to moderate the message at all. He would refer to that as content cucking. Its a version of shock tactics.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, was arrested and is being held in a Virginia jail. He is accused of driving into the crowd, killing Heyer and wounding at least 19 others, authorities said.
From Woman's Day

OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

1. WINNER SELECTION: Winners (individually and collectively, the "Winner") will be selected on or about 10/31/2017 in a random drawing from among all eligible entries received. Each sweepstakes is a different drawing that must be entered separately. All the sweepstakes in these Official Rules are individually and collectively the "Sweepstakes." In the event the Sponsor does not receive any eligible entries, the Sponsor has the right to cancel the Sweepstakes. Drawing will be conducted by Woman's Day, whose decisions are final. Odds of winning will depend upon the total number of eligible entries received for each sweepstakes. In the event Canadians are eligible to enter as specified in the Eligibility paragraph below, and if there is a Canadian Winner, the Winner will be required to correctly answer a mathematical skill testing question as a condition of receiving the prize. Important Notice: You may be charged for visiting the mobile website in accordance with the terms of your service agreement with your carrier. Please consult your wireless service provider regarding your pricing plan. You must use a Smartphone device to participate via your mobile phone. Not all mobile phone providers carry the necessary service to participate. Check your phone capabilities for specific Internet instructions. If your data usage exceeds what is allotted by your data plan, you could be subject to additional fees by your carrier. Please contact your mobile service provider with any questions regarding your bill.

2. WINNER NOTIFICATION: Winner will be notified within one (1) month of the last day of the Sweepstakes, via e-mail, and/or at Sponsor's discretion, via phone or postal mail. In the event the Winner doesn't respond to Sponsor's notification or does not accept the prize within five (5) business days of notification, the prize will be deemed forfeited and an alternate Winner will be selected. In the event that any one or more potential Winner(s) fails to respond as stated above, declines the prize or fails to provide signed affidavits or releases, such Winner(s) will be deemed to forfeit the prize and Sponsor will select an alternate Winner(s) from the remaining eligible entrants. If any alternate(s) similarly fails to respond or declines the prize, Sponsor will use a reasonable number of attempts, in its discretion, to award the prize(s) to another alternate(s) but if it is unable to do so, the prize(s) will be finally forfeited and Sponsor shall have no further liability in connection with said Sweepstakes. List of Winners: For the names of the Winners, send a separate self-addressed, stamped envelope to Woman's Day August Sweepstakes Winners' List, Hearst Communications, Inc., 300 West 57th Street NY, NY 10019 within two (2) months from the Winner notification date as specified above.

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Mirenesse Secret Weapon Supreme 24HR Mascara Sweepstakes: Beginning 8/14/17 at 12:01 AM (ET) through 10/14/17 at 11:59 PM (ET) (the "Entry Period"), go to womansday.com/giveaways on a computer or wireless device and complete and submit the entry form pursuant to the onscreen instructions. Prizes & Approximate Retail Value: Twenty (20) winners will each receive one (1) Mirenesse Secret Weapon Supreme 24HR Mascara. Approx. retail value of each prize: $37.46; total ARV of all prizes awarded: $749.20. Any difference between the stated ARV and the actual value of the prize will not be awarded in any form.

3. ENTRIES: Limit one (1) entry per person per day for Sweepstakes. Multiple entries from the same person per day will be disqualified. Entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. Proof of submission does not constitute proof of receipt. If applicable, illegible, inaccurate, lost, late, misdirected, incomplete, mutilated, postage due or mechanically reproduced entry forms or entry forms that have been tampered with will be disqualified. Online entrants must have valid email address and it is entrant's responsibility to update Sponsor of any change in email address. The mobile phone number and wireless service provider/carrier of mobile entrants (if applicable) will be automatically captured in the Sweepstakes database and all participation will be limited to that phone number unless entrant notifies Sponsor of a change. If there is a dispute as to the identity of an online or mobile entrant, the prize will be awarded to the authorized account holder of the email address or mobile phone. The "authorized account holder" is defined as the natural person to whom the email address or mobile phone is assigned by an internet service provider, online service provider, carrier, mobile phone provider or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning the email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address or responsible for assigning the mobile phone number.

4. ELIGIBILITY: Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, who are eighteen (18) years of age in their state or territory of residence at time of entry. Legal residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the aforementioned age in their province of residence at time of entry are also eligible to enter. Void in Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law. Employees of Sponsor, its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, independent judging organizations, and prize suppliers (and members of their immediate family and/or those living in the same of household of each such employee) are not eligible.

5. CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION: Expenses not specifically included in prize description and all taxes are the sole responsibility of the Winner. Each prize is awarded "as is" with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied outside of manufacturer's limited warranty. No transfer, assignment or substitution of a prize permitted, except Sponsor reserves the right to substitute prize for an item of equal or greater value in the event an advertised prize is unavailable. The Winner is required to comply with any and all applicable federal, state, provincial, if Canadians are eligible to enter, and local laws, rules and regulations. All federal, state and local taxes, and any other costs not specifically provided for in these Official Rules are solely the Winner's responsibility. If the actual retail value of any Winner's prize is $600 or more, the Winner must complete a W9 form and supply Sponsor with his/her social security number for tax purposes. An IRS Form 1099 will be issued in the name of the Winner for the actual value of the prizes received. Sponsor shall have no responsibility or obligation to the Winner or potential Winner who are unable or unavailable to accept or utilize prizes as described herein. Entrants agree to be bound by the terms of these Official Rules and by the decisions of Sponsor, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to this Sweepstakes. Winner may be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release and where legally permissible a Publicity Release within seven (7) days following the date of first attempted notification. Failure to comply with this deadline may result in forfeiture of the prize and selection of an alternate Winner. Return of any prize/prize notification as undeliverable may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate Winner. Winner hereby further agrees that it will sign any documents necessary to transfer copyright of his/her submitted entry, if applicable, to Sponsor within seven (7) days following the date of first attempted notification. By entering, Entrant grants permission for Sponsor, and any of its affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, and prize suppliers to use the entrant's submission (including an altered form of the entry), if any, for editorial, advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law. If images are being submitted to Sponsor as a requirement for entry, Entrants agree that they have all rights to use the images submitted and to allow Sponsor, any of its affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, and prize suppliers to reuse any of the images, without any liability, for editorial, advertising and promotional purposes. Additionally, acceptance of the prize by Winner constitutes permission for Sponsor and any affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, and prize suppliers to use Winner's name and/or likeness and biographical material for editorial, advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law. By accepting prize, Winner agrees to hold Sponsor, its advertising and promotion agencies and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, representative agents, successors, assigns, officers, directors, and employees harmless for any injury or damage caused or claimed to be caused by participation in the Sweepstakes or acceptance or use of the prize. Sponsor is not responsible for any printing, typographical, mechanical or other error in the printing of the offer, administration of the Sweepstakes or in the announcement of the prize.

6. INTERNET/MOBILE: Sponsor is not responsible for electronic transmission errors resulting in omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operations or transmission, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alterations of entry materials, or for technical, network, telephone equipment, electronic, computer, hardware or software malfunctions or limitations of any kind, or inaccurate transmissions of or failure to receive entry information by Sponsor or presenter on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, at any Web site, or via the mobile phone or any combination thereof. If for any reason the Internet or mobile phone portion of the program is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt of affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Sweepstakes, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Sweepstakes. Sponsor reserves the right to select winners from eligible entries received as of the termination date. Sponsor further reserves the right to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process. Sponsor may prohibit an entrant from participating in the Sweepstakes if it determines that said entrant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes by cheating, hacking, deception or other unfair playing practices or intending to abuse, threaten or harass other entrants. Caution: Any attempt by a participant to deliberately damage any Web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such participant to the fullest extent of the law.

7. DISPUTES/CHOICE OF LAW: Except where prohibited, each entrant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by state or federal courts situated in New York, NY, (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, but in no event attorneys' fees; and (3) no punitive, incidental, special, consequential or other damages, including without limitation lost profits may be awarded (collectively, "Special Damages"), and (4) entrant hereby waives all rights to claim Special Damages and all rights to have such damages multiplied or increased. New York State law, without reference to New York's choice of law rules, governs the Sweepstakes and all aspects related thereto.

8. SPONSOR: The Sponsor of these Sweepstakes is Hearst Communications, Inc., 300 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.

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SpaceX might have some seriously grand plans for the near future of its rocket program, but until the worlds most powerful rocket is ready to head skyward, its business as usual at the commercial spaceflight firm. Today, SpaceX will launch its Dragon cargo spacecraft on an unmanned supply run to the International Space Station, and you can watch the launch and recovery live right here, thanks to SpaceXs always fantastic live stream.

Don't Miss: Galaxy Note 8 might launch as soon as next week

The launch is scheduled to take place at 12:31 pm ET, and the SpaceX craft will be taking off from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once the first stage of the rocket separates, it will head back to Earth where, if everything goes according to plan, it will land upright and be recovered and refurbished for continued use.

One of the things that makes todays launch particularly special is that it will be the last time NASA sends a brand new Dragon cargo craft to the ISS. From now on, the company plans on only sending its flight proven hardware on those missions. SpaceX still has more resupply launches left in its contract with NASA, which was extended from 12 flights to 20 after the partnership proved successful.

Todays mission will provide some 6,400 pounds of supplies including scientific hardware to the crew of the ISS. The vast majority of the gear being delivered is needed for experiments and research being conducted on the craft, but the astronauts will also be getting a bit of ice cream to make their stay in space a tiny bit more enjoyable.

Trending right now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
A new complication has arisen recently: Let us assume for a moment that an Egyptian citizen, a businessman, an adventurer whose financial situation allows him, or a patient in urgent need of medical care, insists on traveling to Israel.

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This courageous person would have to take on the unpleasant confrontation at the Interior Ministry in Cairo, when he seeks a special travel permit (only) to Israel, and they try to talk him out of it.

The same brave person would also have to deal with the venomous criticism of his friends, family and colleagues when they learn he is traveling to the "Zionist entity."

Protest in Cairo in front of the Israeli embassy (Photo: AFP)

After clearing all the hurdles, this daring person would now have to face the bureaucratic barrier: For nine months now, the Israeli embassy in Cairo has been closed. In the absence of diplomats, there is no one to issue entry visas. What would our intrepid hero do?

Until last month, he would have had to fly to Jordan (an expense of a few hundred dollars), fill out forms, submit them, return home and wait. If his visa request was approved, he would've had to fly back to Jordan (a few hundred dollars more), get a stamp on his passport and continue to Ben-Gurion Airport. If not, the hardships he endured, which cost him almost a thousand dollars, were all in vain.

Here is another problem. After the hasty departure of the Israeli diplomats from Amman, dozensperhaps hundredsof passports remained stuck at the embassy. But no official complaints were made, because who is brave enough to reveal he planned to visit the "enemy state"?

In recent days, with the return of Israeli diplomats to Jordan appears increasingly unlikely, the owners of the stuck passports are working on getting new passports.

No one can tell them, neither on the Israeli side nor on the Jordanian side, when the embassy offices are going to reopen their doors and who will staff them. Meanwhile, there are whispers recommending the replacement of the entire staff at the Israeli embassy.

Jordan's king abdullah speaking with Dr. Hamarneh brother

What is certain is that Ziv Moyalthe security guard who shot dead two Jordanians at the embassy complex after one attacked himis not going back. The family of Dr. Hamarneh, the orthopedist who owned the apartment where the shooting incident took place, refuses to accept a condolence delegation and an apology from Israel.

True, there isn't exactly a flood of tourists or an onslaught of visitors from the two countries with whom we have signed peace agreements. But there is a constant trickle of those coming quietly, under the radar. Dozens of patients, businessmen who still plan to expand their export and import routes, and even dreamers whose feet are not firmly planted on the ground of reality. Those with the right connections in Jordan and Egypt are taken care of and get special entry visas, while the others are sent to Turkey or other European capitals to enter Israel through there.

In the opposite direction, Israelis can turn to the Egyptian consulate in Tel Aviv. Some will receive visas, other will get excuses. And, despite the quarrel, it is still possible to purchase a one-time entry visa to Jordan at the border terminals and at the airport in Amman.

All this clearly shows we have lost two diplomatic missions that had been gained with considerable effort.

One can argue all the day long about the real strength of the Israeli presence in these countries, the extent of its influence, and the level of accessibility Israeli diplomats have to government offices. One can also argue about what is more important, security coordination and strategic cooperation, or having an Israeli flag displayed in the ambassador's office under a photo of President Reuven Rivlin.

Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan (Photo: David Rubinger)

What is clear is that this situation, of a virtual embassy, is convenient for Egypt and Jordan. Things in general are also calmer. No one will organize demonstrations to expel the Israeli diplomats and cancel the peace agreements. Also, no one will urge us to reopen, because it's easier to manage without an embassy clearly bearing Israeli symbols.

But we must not give up and we must not neglect our diplomatic ties with Jordan and Egypt. We must send an emissary to the intelligence headquarters in Cairo to resolve the security issue that led to the closure of the embassy.

The situation in Jordan is a bit more complicated: King Abdullah has tied the reopening of the embassy to receiving the report from the Israeli investigation into the shooting incident and seeing the security guard brought to justice. We should also not forget that to this day, we have not heard a convincing Israeli version of what happened inside the apartment, which resulted in the death of the 17-year-old stabber and the doctor who was caught in the middle.
Parenting, coping support

Voices Against Violence is offering support groups at 212 Second Ave. W., No. 200, Twin Falls.

Parenting Group, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, to help improve parenting skills as well as learn rewards and consequences.

Mas alla de mi, Empoderando a las Mujeres domestic violence group in Spanish, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, for those who have been involved in an abusive or traumatic relationship, and also helps women develop a support system.

The Power to Change Group, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, provides information and support to women 18 and older, who have experienced difficulties in coping with past experiences.

Domestic Violence Support Group, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, provides information and community to individuals 18 and older, who have experienced domestic abuse or gender violence.

Information: 208-733-2558.

Breastfeeding

Free Breastfeeding 101 class, 7 p.m. Monday in Oak Room 4 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

The class is for new mothers and breastfeeding mothers wanting to review their skills. Babies and your support person are welcome.

Free; pre-registration is required, 208-814-0402.

CPR, infant safety

Infant safety and cardiopulmonary resuscitation class, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

New parents, grandparents and caregivers learn CPR and what to do if an infant chokes. The class isnt a certification course.

Free; no registration required. 208-814-0402.

Victims support

Support group for victims of domestic violence, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the Mini-Cassia Shelter Haven of Hope, 323 First St., Rupert.

Information: Rachel, 208-312-7021.

Alzheimers support

Alzheimers Association, Greater Idaho Chapters Caregiver Support Group meeting, 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W.

The group meets on the third Wednesday every month.

Information: Pattie Dennis, 208-734-4264 or 208-539-4290.

C-sections

Caesarean childbirth class, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in the Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

Topics: Caesarean delivery procedures, pain management, and non-conforming labors.

Free; pre-registration is required, 208-814-0402.

Grief support

Visions of Hope meeting, 5 p.m. every Thursday at Hospice Visions, 1770 Park View Drive, Twin Falls.

This grief support group is open to everyone in the community.

Information: 208-735-0121.

Mental health support

Mental Health Support Group will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays at 826 Eastland Drive in Twin Falls. The free support group is open to Magic Valley residents.

Information: 208-539-7492.

Asthma education

Free asthma education class for patients and caregivers to assess and manage asthma will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

The class is presented by St. Lukes Magic Valley and meets on the third Thursday of each month.

Pre-registration is required. To register and for location of the class: 208-814-8765.

Grief support

Griefshare meeting, 6:30 p.m. Thursdays at Lighthouse Church, 960 Eastland Drive, Twin Falls.

Anyone who has lost a loved one or friend is welcome to attend. A separate class for pre-teen and teens will meet at the same time. Participants can attend any session. Enter through the east doors at the rear of the building.

Information: 208-737-4667.
- Prince Kofi Amoabeng is the founder and chief executive officer of UT Bank

- The Bank of Ghana on Monday announced that it has approved the takeover of UT Bank by the GCB Bank Ltd

- Mr Amoabeng is a known disciplinarian and has also criticized the quality of students churn out by Ghana's educational system

Founder and CEO of UT Holdings, Kofi Amoabeng has questioned the authenticity of university graduates of this generation, insisting that holding a First Class certificate does not guarantee ones qualification for a job.

According to him, majority of Ghanas graduates, especially the beautiful ladies, move into the job market with unearned certificates, making it difficult for them to thrive in the corporate world.

Mr Prince Kofi Amoabeng. Credit: Graphiconline.com

READ ALSO: Over 3000 gov't workers to lose their salaries

Speaking in an interview with Accra FM, Mr. Amoabeng said majority of Ghanas graduates have questionable certificates and cannot be trusted to competently deliver when entrusted with positions.

He went on to state that it had become necessary to find a way to test whether the honours held by our graduates truly define their qualities in the job market, adding that he always suspects beautiful ladies who apply for a job with a First Class.

In his view you cannot trust the people that have come out from our universities anymore, disclosing that his companies take the pain to re-train their employees for two years in order to better equip them.

Get more YEN news here.

According to him those being churned out by the universities are normally not good enough, insisting the educational sector has a lot more to do to catch up.

Source: YEN.com.gh
I have featured on this blog several times in the past the curious case of elongated skulls, also described as deformed skulls, found in some Marinduque caves in the 1860's to 1880's. It was then believed that such deformation could be explained in terms of head binding or artificial cranial deformation.





Now, this artificial cranial deformation hypothesis is being challenged with evidence of the existence of fetuses with elongated skulls - evidence that has been known to the academic community for 163 years!





If so, who were they, our ancestors, our ancient origins then? Or were they of totally different origins? Were they something else?





"Like the skulls found in the island of Los Tres Reyes, (Marinduque), those of the cave of Pamin-Taan (also in Marinduque), were deformed... "- Marche, 1881





Prior to the French naturalist and explorer Antoine-Alfred Marche, it was the German-Russian naturalist Fedor Jagor who aroused public attention in the West in the 1860s with his discovery in Marinduque caves of deformed skulls. Up to that time nothing was known of such skulls in the oriental island world.





Thanks to Eugene Lorence Ramoran Logatoc for sharing above photos

from Musee du quai Branly.





NOW THIS!





GIANT Discovery in Bolivia: Elongated Skulls NOT Caused By Artificial Cranial Deformation  Its Genetic





A recent discovery in Bolivia sets the stage for uncovering the true history about the Giants. Elongated skulls are not just caused by Artificial Cranial Deformation, but rather its genetic.

The dark mysteries of ancient civilizations are covered up with the lies of the cabal, desperately grasping and attempting to cover up any findings that may deem the Bible to ring true. Their attempts at covering up the truth about the Giants referenced in the Bible will continue to fail.

Recently in Bolivia, a discovery was unearthed. A total of at least six bodies were uncovered; near a village called Patapatani in Bolivia. A Finnish research team found the remains in a Chullpa Aymara funerary tower, explicitly constructed for people of royal status.

Two of those bodies house extreme features; they display anomalous cranial deformation: freakishly large, elongated skulls. But, one of them has an elongated head that exceeds the proportions of an artificial cranial deformation. Their discovery means that the researchers could have discovered another subspecies of human beings. Or it could be an offspring of the giants.

To remove any doubt that this is just an isolated incident and in fact a genetic trait. Among the discoveries was a younger child who was no more than seven to nine months in development, she also had an elongated skull. According to Ken the radiologist on the team, he believes that the 10-13-year-old girl died during child birth.

Elongated skulls are not only discovered in the Americas but have been unearthed all over the globe. The elongated skulls are approximately 25% larger and up to 60% heavier than the heads of regular human beings. Until now, it has long been thought that the elongated skulls were only artificial cranial deformation. However, with this discovery, it brings a new light to the very reality that there were larger beings that walked the earth, and their descendants housed features that set them apart from man. Some with six fingers and toes, others with potentially elongated skulls.

According to the Bible, the Nephilim were larger than life; mankind looked as though they were grasshoppers compared to the giants. It is stated in the Genesis 6:4; the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. After years of mixing, those giants would have gotten smaller, but their features still would set them apart from men. Again, one of those features could be the elongated skull because it is larger and heavier than the average human head.

There are several races of giants mentioned in the Old Testament; Rephaim, Anakim, Emim, Zuzim, Zamzummims, and Zophim. Some still have descendants that are active today. As its stated in the Bible; As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man.

Read more on ChristianTruther

Also Read:

UPDATE

The DNA results are in for another uncovered tomb in Paracas; and the DNA results are mystifying. The standard story for how the Americas were populated is as follows; all of the ancestors of Native Americans, before the arrival of Columbus was via the Bering Strait. The following map is what academics use. The scholars believe that both sea and land routes were used for all migration.

The next map shows all of the genetic haplogroups which correlate with the above migration routes. More specifically, A,B,C,D,X. What is strange is that the DNA results from the Paracas skulls do not match any of the above haplogroups.
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
BUILDING THE LA RAZA 'The Race' WELFARE STATE ON MIDDLE AMERICAS' BACKS: Months ago, the Biden administration publicly defended their proposal to begin providing federal identification cards to border crossers and illegal aliens who they plan to release into American communities. The goal of the proposal is to make securing public benefits easier.
@alextdaugherty

In their first radio ad against Sen. Bill Nelson, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is attacking the Democrat up for reelection over his perceived softness towards Venezuela and Cuba.

The ad, titled "Accomplice," is the latest evidence that the ongoing crisis in Venezuela will become a political issue in South Florida, where Venezuelan voters are concentrated in parts of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. It will air on four Spanish-language radio stations in the Miami area.

"Our government in Washington has to stop (Nicolas) Maduro and his accomplices," the ad says. "What has our Senator Bill Nelson done? In the past, he has aligned himself with communists and dictators. Look at him with Cuba. He supported (Barack) Obama when he negotiated with the other terrorists, the Castro brothers. When Nelson supports the Castros, that only reinforces and encourages others, like it did with (Hugo) Chavez and now with Maduro."

Nelson is one of 10 Democratic Senators up for reelection next year in states won by Donald Trump in 2016. He figures to face a challenge from outgoing Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2018, though Scott has not announced a bid.

That hasn't stopped national Republicans from going after Nelson.

The ad also charges that Nelson visited Chavez in Venezuela in 2005 and that he went to Venezuela to "admire Chavez's revolution."

Politicians from both parties, including Nelson, have vocally opposed Maduro in recent months. Nelson, along with others from Florida, are urging the Trump administration to impose a ban on Venezuelan oil imports after Maduro moved forward with a constituent assembly stocked with Maduro loyalists that can rewrite the Venezuelan constitution.

Its time that we consider cutting the imports of Venezuelan oil, Nelson said on the Senate floor recently. We are now dealing with a Cuban-style dictator.

The ad isn't the first attack by the NRSC on Nelson this year. In July the group tasked with electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate ran an ad on Facebook saying that Nelson wants a single-payer health care system championed by liberals like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Politifact rated that claim "mostly false," as Nelson is on record saying that he doesn't support single-payer and instead wants to preserve and improve Obamacare.

Listen to the ad here:
Gov. Rick Scott called for an amendment to the state Constitution Monday to require that any future tax and fee increases in the Legislature must be approved by a "supermajority" vote.

Scott issued a five-paragraph press release that did not include a definition of a supermajority or a proposed wording of the amendment. That gave this roll-out -- leaked first to the Associated Press and to be followed by announcements Tuesday in Jacksonville and on Friday in Tampa -- the look of an unfinished work in progress.

"We will have more details to announce in the coming weeks," Scott spokesman John Tupps said. (More questions: Would a supermajority vote also apply to all committee votes on taxes and fees, or only to the full membership? Would a supermajority vote apply to the membership (40 senators and 120 House members) or only to those present and voting?

And in a matter of timing that clearly was no coincidence, House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, immediately endorsed the idea. (Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, did not issue a statement).

By waiting until now, in his next-to-last year in office, to propose the change, Scott ensures that it won't apply to him. The earliest is can appear on a general election ballot is November 2018, weeks before Scott will leave office. Scott is widely expected to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018. If it gets on the ballot, it would require the approval of 60 percent of voters.

The proposal also is the latest example of an alliance between Scott and his former foe Corcoran. It is expected to come before the Legislature in the session that begins in January and must pass by a three-fifths vote of both houses. That's much less likely in the Senate than in the House, where Corcoran can count on the required 72 votes on almost any issue.

Scott's statement said in part: "I am announcing today that I will fight during the upcoming legislative session to give voters the opportunity to amend the Florida Constitution to require a supermajority vote by future state legislatures to raise any taxes or fees. I am proud that by working with the Florida Legislature, we have cut more than $7 billion in taxes and I look forward to cutting even more taxes next year. While cutting taxes is important, we must prevent against unfair tax increases in the future so our progress is not undone. It is my goal to make it harder for politicians to raise taxes on Florida families and businesses - and that can be achieved with an amendment to our states constitution."

Corcoran's statement read in part: "For almost seven years, we've worked alongside our governor to bring common sense back to governing. We cut taxes. We cut regulations. We cut fees. Now we need to make sure the taxpayers' pocketbooks are protected. Requiring in the Constitution a super majority to raise any tax or fee will do this. It's pro-family, pro-future, pro-worker, and pro-taxpayer."
The Herald/Times' discovery of a Florida Highway Patrol ticket quota ordered by a major high-ranking official has rocked the agency and caused political problems with members of the Legislature.

"It's really, really, really unfortunate," said Terry Rhodes, executive director of the patrol's parent agency, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, who issued a memo last Thursday emphasizing that ticket quotas are illegal.

Rhodes said she and Col. Gene Spaulding, FHP's director, will talk about whether to take action against Maj. Mark Welch, who issued a July 28 order to troopers in an eight-county region in North Florida to write "two citations each hour" in part to justify a 5 percent pay raise from Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature. In an email, Welch said the troopers' average of 1.3 tickets per hour was not good enough.

"There should be some type of discipline," said FHP union leader William Smith, president of the patrol's chapter of the Florida PBA. "We will be watching to see what they do."

Not only do ticket quotas violate Florida law, but ticketed motorists could have a new legal defense if they challenge a ticket in court.

The state also is examining practices across the state in which officers are offered rewards for writing tickets. Troopers in Miami-Dade get weekends off based on "performance," and Rhodes says that practice is wrong and also must end. Miami-Dade patrolmen cite a memo they say was issued by a captain at FHP who praised the work of several troopers for the month of July.

Without using the word quota, the memo listed numbers for citations (tickets) and contacts (vehicles stopped) and wrote: "Sergeants, please get with these members and schedule their weekend pass."

"That practice has been stopped," Rhodes told the Times/Herald. "That would not be something the command staff or myself would support."

UPDATE: Rhodes' office objected to the term "extra" days off in this article, claiming that the "incentive" is misunderstood, and that troopers are allowed only to switch their regular days off from weekdays to weekends.

Kevin Brown, vice president of the union and an officer in Orlando, said officers across the state have long been expected to reach specific numerical targets for citations. "Everybody in the agency has been subject to it," Brown said. "I don't want our reputation to be that we're out for a quota system or just to punish people. That's not what we should be about." Brown, who spent Saturday in an FHP training session, said Welch's email was a much talked-about subject.

Highway safety chief Rhodes praised the work of FHP members and expressed concern that Welch's quota could reflect negatively on the agency's professionalism and on staff morale. FHP has long struggled with high turnover because the starting pay for troopers, which is set by state lawmakers, is far below what county sheriffs pay deputies. Nearly 1,000 troopers have quit the patrol since 2010.
... this ward has not taken the density of other areas of our town, said councilor Amber Sherrill. So saying Not In My Backyard is not gonna go with council."
The first clue something might be awry came in the morning email.

Our monitor went down after the 7 a.m. hour, likely due to being clogged by the particulate, Missoula County Air Quality Specialist Sarah Coefield wrote in her Aug. 3 air quality update. Based on losing touch with our monitor, its probably safe to say the air in Seeley Lake is crazy bad.

The monitors flashed 900  for a particulate reading of 900 micrograms per cubic meter of air  which was deemed so unlikely by state air quality programmers they used it as the error code.

The hourly average over the night of Aug. 3 topped out at 978. State programmers have since reworked the monitoring code.

Coefield and her fellow air specialist Ben Schmidt talked with U.S. Forest Service employees, the Seeley Lake Health Center director and others on what exactly to do, finally deciding to recommend that residents leave.

We dont have the right word or categories to describe the air in Seeley Lake right now, Coefield said. Looking at Seeley Lake, the hazardous message was no longer appropriate.

Its important for people to respect the harm that pollution does to their bodies.

Its Coefields job to send out air quality messages for the county. Every summer for the last six years her August, September and sometimes October, is spent writing twice-daily updates that are emailed to media and posted on the countys website.

She comes in around 7 a.m. and spends at least two hours culling weather, fire and smoke data from various points, including the network of air quality monitors around the county.

Then she writes.

Can you smell that? began one update, Theres a slight campfire edge to the air.

Visibility has dropped and this mornings sun is a casting a lovely filtered orange glow over the area, she wrote in another. The air may be bad, but now the kids can use #nofilter and still get nifty Instagrams. So theres that.

Another began, The combination of active fires, strong inversions and Canadian smoke means we all woke up to varying degrees of misery this morning.

Coefield said she wants people "to understand what Im seeing. Its my flow of thought. I look at things with mostly good humor 'cause its the only way to survive this kind of smoke.

She got into writing while getting her master's degree in zoology wildlife toxicology from Michigan State University. While doing research in the field, Coefield quickly realized there was a need for interpreting jargon and relaying it to a lay person.

Soon, she supplemented her research with another master's degree in environmental journalism and came to Missoula County, ready to share her deep scientific knowledge.

Environmental Health Director Shannon Therriault said Coefield was hired at a time when the health department was trying to specialize by hiring people with deeper knowledge in their specific fields.

With Coefields innate knowledge of the science behind her writing, Therriault said, she has room to joke or play with the ideas.

Its because shes such an expert at what she does, Therriault said.

The first few fire seasons Coefield worked werent the massive county-wide, resource-draining seasons like were seeing this year, Therriault said. But more and more people started seeing the air quality updates as the fires, the smoke and the air got worse.

When Coefield started writing more professional versions for the county website, Therriault asked her to use the originals instead.

The fact is, shes just a great writer, Therriault said. Every time I read it, I appreciate it.

It runs in the family too. Coefields father is John Coefield, a longtime meteorologist for the state department of environmental quality who developed the first air quality standards in Montana.

Sometimes shell call her father if hes outside the county monitoring range for a quick update.

He can just tell me, basically by looking at it because hes done it so long, Coefield said.

The worst air-quality year (aside from this one) was 2015, Coefield said, when smoke from Washington and Canadian fires poured into the valley and settled in under Missoulas ever-present inversions and an unhelpful high-pressure ridge, which deadbolt locks the smoky air in the valley.

She called that ridge the High-Pressure Ridge of Doom in her updates and counts it among Missoula air qualitys greatest hits.

Its early yet in the fire season and Coefield thought it was just a matter of time before some Washington fires broke out and sent the real smoke our way.

I know youve all been thinking that its not a real smoke party until Washington shows up, and the wait may finally be over, she wrote in a recent daily update.

And in another: When our smoke goes up, theres a good chance the Canadian smoke will come down. Then later this evening, our smoke will also come down and have a nice multinational smoke party in our breathing space.

But already, Coefields feeling the wear of the lengthening fire season.

Its going to get worse before it gets better, Coefield said. Thats the hardest thing to really digest.

But she keeps writing the updates, keeps harping on the air quality recommendations and keeps trying to come up with jokes.

In 2015, I was getting nervous cause I was running out of dumb smoke jokes, she said. That is a concern, 'cause this fire seasons going to be a long one.